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

[garbagechild]

<sub>[Wrath is perfectly content to dangle from Ralph's neck, but the poke successfully gets him to make a protesting squeak and clamber over the strongman's shoulder, where he proceeds to cling to the back of Ralph's pajamas instead.]

[Like a horrible deformed baby possum.]</sub>

You did?

_{[His voice is a little muffled.]}

[rocketralph]

Egh! Hay!

<sub>[He reaches back but his arms are so beefy that hey can't quite bend them far enough to pick off the big hairy tick he's gained. Finally he gives up and tromps along until the cafeteria shows itself. It doesn't take him long to locate the pudding cups from the kitchen storage bins.]

[He wrinkles his nose. Ugh. Ralph didn't care much for pudding on a good day but it was COLD pudding when he did. He'll never get this kid.]</sub>

I'll give you this but you gotta come down.

_{[He fetches up a spoon before sitting down at one of the long benches. It tips upward slightly.]}

[garbagechild]

<sub>[SORRY RALPH IT IS TOO LATE. Congratulations on your new weird hairy back lump.]

[His response to Ralph laying down the law is to let out a tiny whine.]</sub>

... Do I gotta?

[rocketralph]

Yeah, you gotta. I've seen you eat.

[garbagechild]

<sub>[Wrath sadly crawls down from his perch and sits crosslegged on the table, holding his ankles.]

[8( CAN HE HAVE THE PUDDING NOW]</sub>

[rocketralph]

_{[Once Wrath had himself situated, Ralph hands over the snacks and leans an elbow on the table. He suddenly remembers how tired he is and rubs his face. It's gonna be a long night.]}

Y'wanna begin at the beginning?

[garbagechild]

<sub>[Wrath shows no hesitation in just... smashing his face right into the tiny plastic cup. It wasn't that he hadn't been fed well at the house-- he had. They'd taken care to bring food down at LEAST three times a day. Especially Al, who was a little more familiar with how often kids needed to eat than most.]

[But THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME and room-temperature Johto Foods-brand generic chocolate pudding is superior to any and all treats he possibly could have had while away from HQ.]

[He looks up, though, a smudge of pudding on his chin.]</sub>

The beginning of what?

_{[WRATH, YOU KNOW WHAT.]}

[rocketralph]

_{[Ralph gives the little wild child a look. Other people might be able to be thrown off by the innocent act, but not him.]}

[garbagechild]

<sub>[DARN.]

[Wrath puffs out his cheeks in a tiny huff of a sigh.]

[THERE'S NO GETTIN NOTHIN PAST YOU, RALPH.]</sub>

My old team decided they wanted me back.

So they got me.

[rocketralph]

Your old team...?

_{[He guesses that means Lust and Co. He guessed he should have guessed they were a team. What with their names. But that is not the most important thing here.]}

They got you?

[garbagechild]

They got me.

_{[Having inhaled the pudding cup in the space of about five seconds, he puts it down in a surprising display of self-control. He'll lick it clean once he's done satisfying Ralph's curiosity.]}

Do you remember that time we were coming back from a heist and we saw a bunch of people in the market trying to catch a Rattata that stole a whole cake? They had nets and there was lots of shouting.

It was like that.

Except I didn't have any cake.

[rocketralph]

_{[The wrecker's brick brows slowly come together. He remembers that day. He remembers the nets.]}

Go on...

[garbagechild]

When they got me, they took me to their house, and I lived under it for awhile.

Like five days.

_{[WRATH YOU WERE GONE FOR TWO MONTHS]}

[rocketralph]

Under the house? What, like a storm cellar? A basement?

_{[Surely they didn't just shove him into a crawlspace! Lust wouldn't do that!]}

I think it was a little longer than five days, kid.

[garbagechild]

I think it was called a basement.

There were stairs.

And it was at least five days.

_{[He quickly amends that.]}

[rocketralph]

_{[They kept him in a BASEMENT! Ralph had to work hard to keep his face from twisting into a pretzel of rage. It might spook the kid into clamming up.]}

Did they hurt you?

[garbagechild]

_{[Wrath slowly shakes his head.]}

N... o....

I don't think so.

My shoulders got pretty purple after awhile, but that was because I kept trying to knock the door down.

And I guess my hair got pulled a little when they were trying to catch me.

But nobody hurt me on purpose.

_{[He pauses, rubbing his chin, expression thoughtful.]}

They're not like they used to be.

[rocketralph]

_{[A frown sets itself deeply into Ralph's face as Wrath continues.]}

They feed you?

_{[Wrath was a pretty happy eater but that pudding cup CEASED EXISTING.]}

[garbagechild]

Ahuh.

At first I made sure not to eat anything they gave me, in case it was poisoned.

But then they started making sure all the snakes were dead.

And I was pretty hungry.

So I ate after that.

_{[To most people, that would sound like total nonsense. But Ralph is bound to have a near-encyclopedic knowledge of Wrathisms at this point, so he can probably put together that the Shark House Gang had somehow found a way to convince Wrath that bread was safe to eat.]}

[rocketralph]

_{[That finally gets a change of expression out of the wrecker. Killed the wh--oh. Oh, that. He thinks back to Lust again, wanting to trust his friend. He heaves a huge sigh and rubs the soft spots under his eyes.]}

Gotta kill those snakes. Did they let you go or did you escape?

[garbagechild]

They let me go.

Cuz I told 'em I'd get in trouble real bad. If you break the rules, you get punished.

I don't like getting punished.

Neither do they.

So that's probably why.

[rocketralph]

<sub>[That raises another question.]

[A question that, if answered, might change Ralph's whole outlook on Wrath and his Other Team. He's an old game and he's set in his ways and isn't sure he wants to carry that kind of responsibility. The backstories of these other game characters are so, so important to them.]</sub>

Punished, huh...?

[garbagechild]

Ahuh.

_{[He doesn't seem to catch Ralph's curiosity-- or not quite, anyway. The truth is that he has no idea that 'punishment' needs explaining at all. That everybody doesn't just know exactly what he means when he says it. Although...]}

Envy said that punishments are different here, but I mean, he does lie.

Either way, I didn't wanna take chances.

_{[You might have to ask him directly, Ralph. WILL YOU TAKE ON THAT LOAD?]}

[rocketralph]

_{[HE ISN'T SURE.]}

Well...if the team thought you'd deserted 'em they might have outed your name and then the law would look for you for a while...least that's what I hear. Or maybe they'd cut your pay and put you on cleaning duty.

[garbagechild]

<sub>[Wrath FROWNS!]

[On one hand, Ralph is unknowingly backing Envy's claims that punishment worked differently here. Which should be reassuring! But it's also frustrating.]</sub>

That's what Envy said, but-- but none of those things are punishments!

It doesn't make sense.