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]

<sub>[There are a LOT of things Wrath doesn't know. He hadn't had time to glimpse even half of what most people took for granted.]

[The sky being blue had been a source of unending delight and wonder for a good number of WEEKS after Wrath's escape from the gate. WEEKS.]</sub>

Oh.

So winter just didn't happen while I was there?

It only happens sometimes?

_{[No Wrath you just LITERALLY WEREN'T ALIVE LONG ENOUGH TO SEE ONE.]}

[exeggutorhead]

Yeah, there's seasons of the year. Snow usually happens in winter, when it gets cold, but summer's supposed to be too hot for snow at all.

[...wait if he doesn't even know about snow he probably doesn't know about seasons.]

Do you know how the world goes around the sun?

[garbagechild]

<sub>[As Envy talks, Wrath shoves his cheese-covered fingers in his mouth and kind of sucks on them absent-mindedly, listening in silence.]

[When the other Homunculus posits his scientific question, Wrath just shakes his head wordlessly.]</sub>

[exeggutorhead]

Okay. Well...

[He stands and looks around for some of the ART SUPPLIES they've been leaving down here. This is now a science lesson. A non-evil one, even!]

[He finds a mostly intact piece of paper and a crayon that hasn't been eaten yet. It's lime green. He sketches out a rough drawing of the solar system, with circles for the orbits.]

[INSERT SCIENCE-Y EXPLANATION OF PLANETS AND ORBITS AND EARTH BEING TILTED HERE.]

[He's pretty sure Wrath will be able to keep up, he knows the kid's smart.]

Make sense?

[garbagechild]

<sub>[NOBODY HAS EVER TAUGHT WRATH ANY SCIENCE THAT WASN'T EVIL BEFORE!!]

[As the lime-green solar system spreads out across the paper, Wrath takes it all in. He's always been a sponge for information-- any information, true or false. It could be that this is one of the first true lessons Envy has ever given him.]

[Which occurs to him at the conclusion of the little lecture, and he furrows his brow, positing a question of his own instead of answering Envy's.]</sub>

Why are you telling me this?

[exeggutorhead]

[The question gives Envy pause. Really, it's not a bad question to ask, considering. And Envy DOES have the overall ulterior motive of convincing Wrath that they're not trying to hurt him...but that had only been in the back of his mind during this lesson.]

[Honestly, he'd been kind of enjoying just explaining something innocuous, something unimportant that wouldn't be responded to with furious denials.]

Because you didn't know.

[garbagechild]

_{[He's trying to piece together how the information he's just been given could POSSIBLY have hidden motives behind it. And he's not coming up with any terribly likely possibilities.]}

But it doesn't have anything to do with anything.

_{[And by 'anything', he means 'any of THIS', which is REALLY all they've talked about since his arrival.]}

[exeggutorhead]

No, it doesn't. It doesn't have to.

[He shrugs. But it's occurring to him too that this is the first actual discussion they've had that WASN'T about trying to get Wrath to turn traitor.]

It's just something I figured you ought to know about.

[garbagechild]

But it's not any more likely to make me believe you about anything else!

That doesn't make sense.

_{[Wrath is clearly having some trouble imagining Envy WITHOUT some kind of ulterior motive inserting double meanings in everything he says.]}

[exeggutorhead]

[HONESTLY, NOBODY WOULD BLAME HIM FOR THAT ASSUMPTION. ESPECIALLY NOT ENVY.]

It's not about you believing me about anything else.

But we're not gonna keep you down here forever. You need to know what seasons are, and nobody else told you yet.

[garbagechild]

<sub>[!]

[A very important piece of information-- even more important than how seasons and planetary rotations work-- has just been dispensed, and Wrath looks appropriately shocked.]</sub>

You're not?

[exeggutorhead]

[It actually hadn't occurred to Envy that Wrath would think they were just going to keep him down here forever. So he blinks at Wrath with surprise of his own.]

What? No, of course we're not.

[WHAT ELSE DOES HE EVEN SAY?]

[garbagechild]

<sub>[ENVY YOUR MASTER ONCE IMPRISONED GREED FOR A HUNDRED YEARS.]

[Wrath puffs, his face reddening. On one hand, it's a relief to know that they don't plan on keeping him down here FOREVER, but on the other... that doesn't make any sense either!]</sub>

Then why am I down here at ALL?

I want my Pokemon.

I wanna go home, to my NEW team!

Why do I have to stay?!

You don't even like me anymore!

[exeggutorhead]

[HE'S BEEN IN HAPPY POKEMON LAND FOR WAY TOO LONG.]

[Envy grits his teeth, but not in anger. Wrath's words are just causing another hideously uncomfortable stab of guilt. That's one emotion he wishes he didn't have to have discovered along with the others.]

Because we're trying to help you.

[As for not liking Wrath anymore...he just doesn't know what to say to that.]

[garbagechild]

_{[Wrath's voice croops up, even as his brow wrinkles in total bafflement.]}

Why?

_{[He's not even angry at this point-- he burned himself out days ago. Now he's just so confused.]}

I did what you TOLD me!

I found a new team-- and I left you all alone! I didn't even try to spy on you like Master would've wanted me to! I don't understand.

You said you wouldn't help me!

Why do you keep changing your mind??

[exeggutorhead]

I was angry when I told you all that.

[Angry for Lust, and at the time especially desperate to establish himself as free from Dante's influence. He can't say he didn't mean it. He HAD meant it, at the time. One of his hands clenches, a reflexively defensive response.]

[Emotions are hard. Admitting that he screwed up is even harder.]

And I realized that I shouldn't have, okay? That's why.

[garbagechild]

But you say a LOT when you're angry! Are they all lies? When do you tell the truth?

<sub>[Oh no, now the tears are welling up.]

[Wrath's just so frustrated and baffled, and trying to make sense of everything is so hard.]</sub>

How am I supposed to do what anyone tells me to when they all keep changing their minds?

[exeggutorhead]

[Envy doesn't even know how to answer that. He's a liar. He lies, he lies so well that he says things that even he thinks are true until they turn out not to be true at all.]

I know, I know I do. But I'm telling the truth now.

[He sighs and runs a hand roughly back through his hair.]

I can't make you believe me, Wrath. You don't even have a reason to.

You have to decide for yourself.

[garbagechild]

<sub>[It's the first time anything remotely resembling encouragement for independent thinking has ever left Envy's mouth in Wrath's presence, and for a moment, the boy just looks lost.]

[As much as he's been raging AGAINST them telling him what to do, the truth is... no one's ever NOT told him what to do.]

[For such a free spirit, Wrath is at a total loss when it comes to the concept of being able to decide things for himself. The big things, anyway. The prospect is... scary, honestly. Dante's firm hand casts a heavy shadow that Wrath learned very quickly to live in fear of, but at least he knows what to expect with it.]</sub>

... That's not what Master says.

_{[... is what he finally decides to say, wrapping his arms around himself. Even if the statement itself is born of stubbornness, he sounds unsure and worried.]}

[exeggutorhead]

That's because she was lying to you.

She didn't want us to think we could decide what to believe. She knew that if she did, we might not.

[He's really not so sure about including himself in that, but he's going to go ahead and say 'we' anyway. He feels like he should.]

[But he can also SEE that Wrath's not sure about all of this. And he knows how frightening it is to have to change. To have to start deciding what to believe instead of being told.]

[He slowly reaches back into his pocket and pulls out the other thing he'd brought down here in case Wrath accepted the sandwich. It's a little bar of chocolate. He unwraps it before holding it out to Wrath.]

Here. Try this, I brought it too. It's good.

[garbagechild]

<sub>[If he'd started the conversation by offering that, Wrath might not have taken it.]

[But the sandwich had been really good.]

[So although still wary, Wrath cautiously (VERY cautiously) scoots forward to reach out for the mysterious treat.]</sub>

... What is it?

[exeggutorhead]

[Envy doesn't move when Wrath reaches for it, just keeps holding it out for him to take. He doesn't want to spook him anymore than he already has been.]

It's chocolate, it's like a candy.

[And it is definitely not made of people.]

[garbagechild]

<sub>[Chocolate? He's heard that word before... but he's never EATEN it.]

[Very tentatively, he takes the bar and brings it up to his mouth to give it a wary lick.]





[And then his eyes get REAL BIG.]</sub>

[exeggutorhead]

[YEP. CHOCOLATE IS THE BEST, ISN'T IT?]

It's good, right?

[garbagechild]

_{[Wrath responds by stuffing the entire bar directly into his mouth, which is... basically the same thing as an answer to that question.]}