Call Ralph's Poke'Gear!

[rocketralph]

Hi there! Wanna thread but don't have time/want to set up a whole post for it?
Does your character just wanna call and shoot the breeze? LET'S DO IT.
Just use the CALL and MESSAGE threads below!

[Psst, if you need OOC contact, try here!]

Comments

[rocketralph]

_{[Ralph...is not sure where this is going. Naturally, his brows crease in sympathy. He swallows it easily since everyone is still game characters to him. Rough backstories were to be expected.]}

That's rough...I guess that explains a thing or two about 'em.

[a_sin_for_him]

That sort of thing is psychologically crippling enough to an adult, but to a child who's known quite literally nothing else...

[Lust sighs. This is going well so far, thought.]

Wrath is very damaged. He worships our old master like a god, he's still convinced she's going to come rescue him and kill the rest of us and if he doesn't 'behave' - act as she taught him to - he'll be punished.

Punishments were...unpleasant beyond description.

[rocketralph]

<sub>[That's not good.]

[That's not good at all.]</sub>

Geez...now I'm even more worried about 'em. I just thought he was raised by wolves or somethin' like that.

[a_sin_for_him]

He would have been better off.

But that's what I'm getting to.

[She sighs again and pinches the bridge of her nose. She may as well just tell him, she's set up the situation as best as she possibly can.]

He's with us. He needs help and we understand him and have been keeping an eye on him from afar, but... he needs time and dedicated help to be broken of his conditioning. And apparently no one realized he'd be missed. But he's fine, I promise you that. He has all the Pokemon he can play with and he's well fed and comfortable. I was just with him.

[rocketralph]

_{[Suddenly, Ralph's face hardens as Lust's words register.]}

What? You took him? If you understand him so well, how could you not know half the town would start lookin' for him?

[a_sin_for_him]

Let's be fair, I was on vacation.

[She stays calm.]

But I understand why it was decided this would be a good idea. I don't agree with how it was done, but I agree that with us is the best place for Wrath right now, if he's ever to have any chance of being healthy.

And obviously I don't think keeping it a secret is a good idea, that's why I'm telling you. I swear to you, Ralph, on my humanity, that he's fine. Here, I have photos and video...

[rocketralph]

<sub>[It's obvious Ralph is listening, but meanwhile he's been working himself into a proper rage. All this time! This WHOLE time he's been fretting and worrying and contacting the Poke'Presedent and getting flyers made, Wrath was in a house somewhere. And they TOOK him! they TOOK his WOLF BOY.]

[He starts making frustrated, wordless gestures and huffing, trying to properly put his feelings into words. Ralph has never been a words guy.]</sub>

[a_sin_for_him]

Everyone feels awful about how it's all turned out. I don't know what they were thinking, as soon as Wrath is beyond the point where he needs specific, positive interactions everyone's going to know anyway.

Really it's touching, how many people care about him. Not many people have ever cared about him at all.

I'm very sorry for all of this, Ralph.

[rocketralph]

_{[Ralph starts pacing, the gear's screen shaking slightly as he works off steam and works out everything Lust told him BEFORE she told him that they had him kidnapped.]}

Who all was in on this exactly? Envy too? I talked to him tw--three days ago maybe? We were on the circus grounds! He was showing me how the costume ideas for Halloween were commin' along right under my nose. I swear I'm gonna--

<sub>[SPECIFIC FIST CLENCHING GESTURE.]

[Slowly he deflates and pinches the bridge of his own nose.]</sub>

I'm not sore at you, Lust, I just...I guess I was kinda like you. I didn't realize how much I cared about the little goblin.

[a_sin_for_him]

Envy's terrified of you, Ralph. Even without all this Wrath mess.

He worms his way under your skin before you realize it. He and I have a very checkered past, but.... he's just a sad frightened child with no understanding of the world, really.

It doesn't matter who else was involved, I'm the one taking responsibility. And I won't keep you in the dark about his progress.

[rocketralph]

Yeah...almost like a fungus.

_{[He scratches his arm before letting his shoulders go slack again. His face is still red from getting worked up, but Lust's careful wording successfully keeps him from hulking out.]}

Just...let 'em know his pal Ralph's thinkin' about 'em? Should I call off the search or what? If I say I found 'em, folks are gonna ask questions.

[a_sin_for_him]

That's a good way of putting it. Did you know I've been mistaken for his mother?

I will. And I don't know what to do about that. I don't want anyone worried, but he's at a very delicate stage. He needs to be exposed to very certain positive reinforcements that address his unique history.

Covering up this sort of thing was so much easier when we controlled the government.

[rocketralph]

_{[Ralph just kind of wearily nods--until that last bit.]}

Wait, what now?

[a_sin_for_him]

That evil master again.

I'm not exaggerating the evil part. She was vileness made sickly flesh.

[rocketralph]

Okay, okay, I get the picture!

[October 5th, the dead of night]

[garbagechild]

<sub>[Wrath had not run so far and so long since before he had become a human.]

[But he can barely feel his lungs burning, or his muscles screaming.]

[They could not be further from his mind.]

[About as far as the suburbs he'd spent the last two months under is from the patch of downtown Goldenrod that the HQ lay in, actually.]

[Maybe Ralph is awake to hear the familiar-but-long-absent pitter-patter of tiny bare feet coming down the hall or maybe he's not, but either way his door will fly open five seconds later, its threshold filled with a small, wild-haired silhouette. Its chest is heaving.]</sub>

[rocketralph]

<sub>[Ralph is, in fact, asleep because he has one HELL of a day dealing with the wash room on top of getting ready for the circus. He's been trying to keep the fact that he's working for the circus as far out of his employers' thoughts as possible.]

[He does NOT want to do A Job while he's on The Job.]

[So when the door swings open, Ralph snorts awake and sits up blindly in the dark. Blanca lights up at the foot of his bed.]</sub>

Huwhwat--what?

[garbagechild]

<sub>[BEHOLD, RALPH! THE GHOST OF STENCHES PAST!]

[Except, mysteriously, Wrath doesn't smell like trash for once. HUH.]

[Still, the tiny figure in the doorway looks up at Ralph through a curtain of windswept hair, eyes wide and gleaming in the light of Blanca's tail.]</sub>

Ralph!

You-- you gotta help me.

[rocketralph]

<sub>[For a moment, Ralph isn't sure what he's seeing.]

[Is that...did somebody's Tangela get loose? BUT THEN THE BEAST SPEAKS.]</sub>

Kid!

_{[He throws the covers away and swings his feet off his bed onto the floor.]}

[garbagechild]

<sub>[Wrath takes a tottering step into the room-- he's wheezing slightly. The kid doesn't usually wind up out of breath, given his boundless energy and the impressive set of lungs hidden in that little ribcage of his, but he'd been running at breakneck speed.]

[That, and he just might be a LITTLE out of shape from spending weeks in one room.]</sub>

I g- ... I gotta... the quota...

[rocketralph]

_{[Ralph feels like he's seeing another person entirely. They've ran from scrapes before but this kid was several levels of Not Okay. Ralph makes his way over and catches Wrath by the shoulders so that he doesn't fall on his face.]}

Woah, woah, relax, kid. Micchy and I have been covering for you.

_{[Why is he so rough looking? Didn't Lust say he was being taken care of? This doesn't look taken care of! This looks terrified!]}

Y'wanna tell me what happened?

[garbagechild]

_{[That makes the words die out in Wrath's throat. For a moment, the kid just STARES up at Ralph, glassy-eyed, chest still puffing in and out.]}

... You... have?

<sub>[He... he had honestly not expected that. The thought of someone else covering for him NEVER occurred to him. Homunculi never did that for each other, not even when they were all on the same side.]

[He'd assumed that Team Rocket would be the same.]

[You had to look out for your own skin.]

[But... Ralph and Micchy...]</sub>

You did that? For me?

<sub>[He's too out of breath to get choked up, but the relief is spelled out plainly on his face. The tension drains out of his entire body and he sags a little in Ralph's grasp, looking like he'd just been given the best news of his entire life.]

[They'd been turning in Pokemon for him.]

[He wouldn't get in trouble.]

[EVERYTHING IS OKAY AND NOTHING HURTS.]</sub>

[rocketralph]

Wouldn't wantcha gettin' kicked off the team, would we?

_{[He's content to hold the kid up so that he doesn't have to worry about staying steady himself.]}

Hey, hey, no passin' out. You got a lot of explainin' to do.

[garbagechild]

I thought I was gonna... was gonna...

Never mind.

<sub>[He just found out he WASN'T going to be punished, he'd rather just banish the thought entirely from his head now and NEVER THINK OF IT AGAIN.]

[Because from now on, he's gonna be good.]

[He's gonna be the best.]

[Anything to avoid incurring the wrath of his superiors.]</sub>

Can I stay in here until morning?

[rocketralph]

_{[Wrath's silence is unnerving, but Ralph can't really be frustrated with him. He's too busy being relieved that he's here and in one piece.]}

Yeah...yeah, sure thing, kid.