So Make A Wish On Heaven

[these_balls]

Who: Participants of the Dream Plot!
Where: In your dreams!
When: Anytime your character is asleep on April 17th!
Summary: As promised, this is a catch-all log where people can post a character's dream as a top-level comment and allow other holders of our Mysterious Feathers™ to come visit them! Remember that the content of your dream is entirely up to your discretion, but we ask that you only have one, and to please also warn for content as needed!
Rating: PG, and please warn for threads that may go higher!
Log:

[Under the light of the full moon, the Mysterious Feathers™ begin to glow.

In the hours that follow after they sprawl out to sleep, those who had the good fortune (or at least the insatiable curiosity) to pick up one of those feathers earlier in the week will come to discover that something very strange is happening across the regions of Johto and Kanto. There's a saying about what happens when you let your mind wander; this time, though, it's a little more than just one's mind that's going wandering, as dream after dream stretches out before you like a horizon just begging to be chased.

Don't worry about getting lost, dreamers; as real and vivid as they may seem, your surroundings are really only visions and illusions, and in the end the failsafe way to escape from them is to simply wake up. If and when you do, you might feel perfectly well-rested or as on-edge as if you'd just jolted awake from a nightmare; like the dreams themselves, there's really no telling how the experience will play out for you, being different and unique to everyone.

But for now, you've got the whole night ahead of you, filled with places to go and people to see. Might as well make the most of it while it lasts...]

Comments

[pipers_son]

Yeah, guess who was just about to board the "Get the hell out of here" Express?

Joker doesn't want to be here. He knows that down deep to his bones. Back home in England, he'd had enough of this sort of occult rubbish to last a lifetime- remembering rooms special made to order with daggers that didn't seem right and tables that weren't meant for eating, with people that just plain didn't move right and which gestured for flame to eat up everything and anything... He recognizes this sort of thing without even trying.

But then the Gate opens and his own eyes find that tiny but familiar little figure as if guided by a laser.

Aw hell flickers through his mind like a candle, but that doesn't stop him from striding forward almost promptly as he reaches up- with both hands, one flesh, one nothing more than bone- to undo the cape about his shoulders.

"Well, looks like you've found quite a bit a company, haven't ya?"

[garbagechild]

Unlike everyone ELSE who's shown up so far... Joker's voice is one that ISN'T unwelcome.

Or... well.

Perhaps it's more complicated than that.

Because he's not happy to hear it, either.

For different reasons than the rest, though.

Wrath looks up, eyes widening behind the filthy hair that obscures most of his face. They travel automatically to the bony prosthetic where the ringmaster's hand should be, and stay there, almost transfixed.

He speaks in a small croak.

"... Joker? ... You... you shouldn't be here. You should go."

[pipers_son]

"And leave my little brother here?"

It feels condemning and suffocating to be here, all those eyes staring at him, but Joker doesn't let that stop him from trying to drape his cape about the small boy once he's close enough.

"Nah, that ain't how family works."

[garbagechild]

Appropriately, the cape might as well be a circus tent on the kid's tiny, bony shoulders.

He doesn't shrug it off, but his tone (and expression) gets a little more pleading.

"No... no, you'll get stuck in here. It'll think you want something, and it'll take things away..."

[pipers_son]

Well. It's not a lie. He wants someone, the terrified boy in front of him. However, with so many strange things listening... Joker holds his tongue for now.

Instead, trying to keep his calm, he tries to put on his best cajoling voice. "What sorta things will they take away, then, eh?"

[garbagechild]

Wrath's expression becomes... more drawn, somehow.

And then, slowly, he shrugs the cape off of his shoulders and shifts position, sitting all the way up... and showing the stumps where his right arm and left leg-- Edward Elric's right arm and left leg-- used to be.

"Don't ask them for anything... even if it looks like you've talked with them already..."

He says this as his tired-looking eyes linger on Joker's skeletal prosthetic.

[pipers_son]

It takes him just a second for him to understand what Wrath is saying- what the boy thinks has happened- and Joker gives a small tired chuckle of his own. He raises the prosthetic, flexing out the pale false fingers with a small creak.

"I ain't talked ta anyone. Never had my arm ta begin with." He extends it further, an offer. "what if I don't ask them for anythin', but ask you?"

[garbagechild]

Still wearing that quiet frown, Wrath tilts his head.

"Ask me....?"

He doesn't understand.

What could he possibly have to offer?

He doesn't even have his human limbs anymore, the ones that allowed him to perform the one thing that no other Homunculus could.

[pipers_son]

"That's right."

This time, it's his good hand that he holds out to the boy.

"I'm askin' ya ta come back home. Ya don't deserve ta be here."

[garbagechild]

Wrath looks down at the hand, brows creased. Like he's never seen anything like it before.

"... I've never had a home. This was supposed to be my home."

Until he ran away from it.

"Where... is home?"

[pipers_son]

"Home's with family."

Unperturbed, Joker keeps his hand extended in open invitation. For as long as he needs to, he'll keep it open.

"And I don't care what all this is about. I'm still yer big brother."

[garbagechild]

He continues to stare at the proffered hand, and for the first time, a glimmer of fear darts through his expression. Not at Joker or the offer being extended to him-- but at something else. Something that's occurred to him.

A small croak makes its way out of his throat while he searches for the words, and when they come out, they're timid and apologetic, like a dog that's been caught chewing up the furniture. Because it's something he's always been aware of in the back of his head but never been brave enough to say to the man who had offered to be his family within five minutes of meeting him, warmly and genuinely.

"... Things like me... we can make believe about having family, but we can't actually. Master explained it all to me when they found me. We're not people, so... so we can't."

He says this with an air of absolute shame, like this information is something he's been hiding from Joker deliberately, and that the jig is finally up. And his voice chokes up a little at what he says next, as he averts his eyes to the shadowy, shifting floor that they're sitting on.

"M'sorry... m'sorry I lied... I just really wanted a big brother..."

[pipers_son]

It's not a pleasant feeling, murderous. Like being sick, almost, but instead of crumpling to the ground, the feeling of nausea and the way his heart clenches instead ignites something deep in him that spreads fire through his veins- makes his fists want to clench and something pound behind his eyes.

Who told this child he wasn't a person, that he couldn't have others to share his life with?

(Joker doesn't need that question answered. He knows. He's been there, seen young girls with bruises along their arms and splits on their lips and eyes all hard as they asked if they could join that Ark of theirs. Seen the kids with no legs ask if there was anything they could do, just to have somewhere to sleep at night. A young man with scales spread along his skin stuck in a cage, treated more animal than human.)

(Faintly, he recalls a manor all darkness and broken dolls, and words like a chain around his throat.)

It takes work to swallow the rage and pain, to force that lump in his throat to go back into the darkness where it belongs, and Joker does the only thing he can think to do. He leans in, wrapping his arms around the tiny frame that looks all the tinier in this suffocating darkness and too many watching eyes.

"Ssshhh, lad. Sshhh. Ain't a reason ta apologize. I don't care if yer Master says yer not a person." Pulling back a little, he cups Wrath's cheek with his good hand- the one of flesh and blood. It wouldn't feel right to touch him with the other one, not with the dark story it holds.

"I care for ya as much as any other family a mine. Do ya care for me?"

[garbagechild]

He doesn't quake or tremble when Joker leans in to hug him-- even in the fear now filling him up, there's just something listless and leaden in his remaining limbs, keeping him slouched and still.

But his chest does hitch, and when the Ringmaster leans back to cradle his face and look him in the eye, his mouth is a wobbly line and his eyes are filling up with tears. And here in the Gate, where he's been reverted back to something closer to what he should be, something very different from the little human boy he'd become upon his arrival to Johto, those eyes are deep purple and slit-pupiled.

Monster's eyes.

"Of-- of course I care for you! I care a lot!" he cries, voice cracking audibly. "T-that's why-- that's why I'm telling you, 'cuz... 'cuz if... when she comes, and you get in the way, she'll-- she'll..."

And that's when he loses it completely, as the full weight of everything he'd been too carefree to confront until now comes settling down. The unshakable knowledge that he's allowed too many people too close, and that no amount of punishment rained down upon him would spare them from the inevitable.

People couldn't be allowed to go free after having become friends with one of Master's servants behind her back.

Finally forcing his muscles to move, Wrath leans forward, throwing his arm around Joker's neck and letting out an anguished sob.

"I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE!!"

[pipers_son]

For all he's missing his limbs, Wrath is a tiny ball of pure weight and Joker falls backwards from the force of him and his desperation. Immediately, his arms wrap around the boy and he presses his face down.

"Hey- hey now, it'll be alright." A hurried murmur, one hand gently cradling the back of Wrath's head. "I promise, I won't die, alright? I won't."

Because he's already used up his one chance, already knows how it feels to lay weak and useless against the ground while the life bleeds out from him and the feel of flames licking at his body ends up becoming more distant by the second. But he can't tell him that. Absolutely not, not when he's so panicked and scared at the idea of it.

[garbagechild]

The tears are flowing in earnest now, and Wrath just squeezes like Joker could be taken away from him any minute.

"You don't understand," he whimpers, face still crushed against Joker's collar. "You've been too nice to me. She'll make you go away. She'll hurt you."

[pipers_son]

Ha. She'll hurt him. For just a split second, he can't fight the bitter little grin that crosses his face and is glad that Wrath can't see it in the moment.

"If it's hurtin' she'll do, then ya don't have ta worry about that," he murmurs as he curls his fingers reassuringly through Wrath's tangled mess of hair. "I've gotten hurt plenty a times before. I'll stand a bit more. But there ain't no force in heaven or hell that'll take me away from ya, Wrath."

[garbagechild]

Poor Wrath has no idea the extent to which Joker has been maimed and tortured-- he's so happy and cheerful, so kind and warm... Wrath doesn't imagine anyone can stay that way after being hurt bad enough. Isn't that why he changed the way he did?

He clings all the more desperately.

"Not like what she does... things like me don't die. But she knows how to kill us. That's how much she can hurt people. Please, you gotta believe me!"

[pipers_son]

"Hush, husha now..." Gently, he strokes Wrath's hair. "I know. I believe ya. But even with that... I still think of ya as my brother. Yer one a my own now, human or not, Master or not."

Pulling back slightly, he smiles down as soft as he can down to him. It's not an expression without pain. "I make promises, I keep 'em."

[garbagechild]

Finally, Wrath falls silent, but whether it's because he's actually comforted or has just run out of arguments to make in the face of Joker's determination is hard to tell.

It's probably the latter.

He can see the pain in Joker's smile.

His grip tightens and he buries his face back into the man's chest, shoulders quaking.

[pipers_son]

Joker lets him, his embrace only tightening. Come hell or high water, he's determined not to let go.

He's already failed his family once. He's not going to fail this kid by letting go.

"C'mon. I can carry ya back ta the circus- ta home."

[garbagechild]

He can't say no.

Not to Joker.

So, sniffling, he nods.

"... 'kay..."

[pipers_son]

"That's a lad." Soft and quiet, best he can be.

With a huff of air, he hefts the boy into his arms and pushes himself up. There's a wary glare towards the many eyes still watching them, and then he turns on his heel...

And makes for the area outside the Gate.

[garbagechild]

Wrath isn't terribly difficult to lift, small as he is. He wraps his arms around Joker's neck, somewhat more feebly than before, and otherwise hangs limply in the man's arms. Like a ragdoll that's been left in the fridge for awhile.

The eyes watch them unblinkingly from the darkness, rustling and whispering... but perhaps surprisingly, they make no move to stop Joker from leaving with his pint-sized prize.

Could it be that he doesn't owe the Gate anything?

Who knows.

But the sheer whiteness of the outside is probably welcoming after the equally-sheer darkness within it.

[pipers_son]

Damned welcome if just for the fact that all those gazes are on his back now instead of enveloping him. Even for a natural performer such as himself... Joker's never been more glad to get out of the metaphorical spotlight.

A shame that now he's left puzzling where to go, and he purses his lips. Gently, he pats Wrath's head.

"See? Left, and still fine as ever."