Sometimes people leave you, halfway through the wood.

[garbagechild]

Who: Alphonse Elric, Envy, Greed, and Wrath.
Where: An ill-fated bakery. All around Goldenrod. The freakin' basement.
When: August 11th onwards! This is a catch-all.
Summary: The world has been pretty good to the various monsters and serial killers hailing from Amestris, but one particular villainous wild child has yet to be rehabilitated.
Rating: PG-13 for talk of abuse, manipulation, brainwashing, all that good stuff.
Log:

Continued from here.

Comments

[garbagechild]

The ex-homunculus' eyes glint viciously.

"Why not?! Wouldn't that be easier? I'm gonna wind up dead anyway for this!"

Like Dante would allow him to live after falling into the hands of his traitorous 'siblings'.

[armoredsoul]

"No."

Alphonse's tone is hard and firm, with an edge of cold steel it so rarely ever gains.

"I will die before I ever let her hurt you again. That bitch will not get anywhere near you." And he means it, too. He doesn't care how many times he has to kill Dante to make the point clear, she will never touch his family again.

[garbagechild]

Bristling, Wrath barks back the most hurtful emotion-driven response he can.

"Don't call her that!! She's the only human who accepted us for what we are and let us be useful! Even YOU were just pretending, now that I'm a human! If I get destroyed for this, it'll be all YOUR faults!"

[armoredsoul]

And it does hurt, making Alphonse wince again and suck in a small breath. But he won't be deterred, and snaps right on back.

"No, I'm not! I know Brother and I were horrible to you before, but that was--that was before I let myself know you! You've been my best friend, just about my only one for the past two years! Dante never accepted you, she just used you! Giving you food and a place to stay doesn't give her the right to turn you into a pincushion for a stupid mistake!"

[garbagechild]

At that, the boy stiffens, eyes growing wide.

How did Alphonse know about that?

Truthfully, that was barely scraping the surface of all the creative things Dante could do to her servants... but hearing it out loud is still an unpleasant shock.

When Wrath finds his voice again, he uses it only to scream.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UUUUUP!"

[armoredsoul]

Alphonse grimaces, but he doesn't raise his voice again. Instead, when he speaks again it's with a soft tone, one that could almost be missed in the middle of Wrath's shouting.

"She has no power here, Wrath. None of us will let her get to you, whether you consider us your friends or not. You deserve to be safe and happy, and I know you never felt that way under her thumb."

[garbagechild]

"NO! NO NO NO!"

As much as he'd LIKE to block Al's heartfelt words out, and is trying to, he still hears them. And he hates it.

"You can't stop her! You won't stop her! She'll come, and-- and you'll all be SORRY!"

Deny deny deny deny deny.

[armoredsoul]

"She's the one that will be sorry." Al could say more, but all it would do right now is upset Wrath. He's more interested in getting food into him.

Al sets the plate and glass down on the ground, then steps back away to sit down and give Wrath a safe space for Wrath to come and take the food. "I'm sorry, Wrath. I didn't want it to come to something like this, but you need to understand. We want to keep you safe."

[garbagechild]

Wrath leaps upright, balling his fists and practically exploding.

"Safe?! NO ONE is safe! Nobody! None of you! You're all DEAD and SO AM I! I don't want to go down with you! I won't I won't I won't!"

[armoredsoul]

Though Al's back does jolt ramrod straight, he doesn't get to his feet just yet. "No one is going down with anyone! Even if she were to show up today, she doesn't have any power over anyone! This isn't like home!"

[garbagechild]

"Shut up!!" Wrath screams shrilly, stomping his bare foot.

Back home, he might have made a dent in the floor, but here, there's only the comically-small pap of flesh on concrete.

"You've never even SEEN what she can do! You don't know! YOU DON'T KNOW!"

[armoredsoul]

Al blinks for a moment, actually surprised that there isn't a dent. He's been here for a year, but sometimes like this he still gets tripped up.

"You told me plenty! I know what she's like, I was captured by her after I became the Stone! I never suffered by her the way you did, but I know!"

[garbagechild]

"NO I DIDN'T! I DIDN'T TELL YOU ANYTHING! I NEVER TOLD YOU ANYTHING!! YOU'VE MADE ALL THIS UP, BECAUSE YOU'RE A LYING LIAR WHO LIES!!"

Yeah now he's just... screaming. He's just screaming.

[armoredsoul]

Al groans and sighs, rubbing his temple. They went over this, come on, Wrath.

"I'm not lying. But if you won't listen right now, then I'll go, okay?"

He pushes himself to his feet, and heads back up the stairs with a sigh. "Make sure you eat, you need to keep up your strength."

[garbagechild]

Poor Al.

It was a losing battle right from the start.

But then, it is only the first night...

Wrath scrambles out from his spot, standing at the bottom of the stairs and yelling up after the older boy.

"I'LL NEVER LISTEN! NEVER, EVER, EVER! GO AWAY AND DON'T COME BACK!"

[armoredsoul]

Al pauses at the top of the stairs, looking down at Wrath with a sad, hurt look on his face.

He really may have lost his best friend with this.

"I'm not leaving you alone. I promised that."

He doesn't wait for a response this time, and quickly slips through the door before Wrath can charge up after him.