eidxiety | Sticks & Bones // IC Inbox

[Wolfwood has been awake for...a while. Not a full day- and certainly not long enough to eclipse the amount of time he spent back home- but he's here. Awake, back in the Grove, and trying to make sense of what all he's missed in his absence. Since speaking with Razlo (because Livio simply Was Not There), it's been made abundantly clear that he's the next to fall victim to the same thing that his Vash when they were stuck underwater, except for him he just passed out for a solid fucking month, he guesses. That alone is unnerving, because he doesn't like the idea of his autonomy just being wrest away from him like that. But it is what it is, he can't take it back, and...

Well. He's definitely missed a lot. Vash is still missing, that much hasn't changed, but there's one person Wolfwood's mind immediately snaps to, given that he's been asleep for as long as he has. The notes left behind by one Flamebringer have helped to give him enough context to connect the dots, but also enough to leave him supremely fucking concerned. He'll deal with that guy later, though.

Wolfwood sets out for the Inn as the sun begins to set, his limp far more pronounced given that he'd been used to walking around with his leg restored, but going as fast as he can regardless. If anyone is outside to see him (and probably they aren't, realistically) he ignores them as he makes his way, heading inside and navigating his way to Ain's room on autopilot. He's almost afraid of what he might find, or the lack thereof, but...

Well. Here goes.

The door is shut, and while he nearly raps on it first, he suddenly decides "fuck it" and just opens the door. Assuming it isn't locked, of course. That will affect his reaction here, but altogether won't stop him from calling out, his voice still a bit husky with disuse:]

Ain...?

[Ain has simply Not gone outside since he died. He has not. The only inklings as to what's been going on outside have all been given by Ezell, and even after the hide and seek game officially ended, Ain still hasn't felt good about going outside. He's been rotting in his room, but at least his inn room includes the living room and bedroom now. The first thing that Wolfwood will notice when he walks in — which, yes, he can easily come in, because the door is unlocked so Ezell can come in and out — is the fact that there are books literally fucking everywhere. Books on the couch, books stacked in neat piles on the floor (but out of the way, where they can't be stepped on), books on the coffee table and all over the bay window. Most of them, Ain has finished reading. Some of them still have ribbon bookmarks clearly sticking out.

The second thing is that Ain has a new pet, some kind of... chicken-hydra that's looped around what looks like a cat tree, playing with Zinnia and Dachie. The third...

The third thing is that Dachie whips around, spots Wolfwood, assumes the Wide Stance™, and starts howling. Fucking full-on husky-owl shrieking here, and Ain's newest pet is alarmed because who is this man? Literally who is this fucking man. All three heads start hissing while Zinnia just coos, it's a ruckus.

In the bedroom is Ain, who is barely sure what's going on because he's been in bed sewing and suddenly there was a voice and the animals are losing it, but Wolfwood will be able to pass harmlessly into the bedroom if he doesn't mind that Dachie is going to owldog scream at him for not picking him up immediately, as if Dachie is a lapdog and not a full Greyhound-sized creature with wings.

...

Ain is not sure what to think. At first, his gaze lights up bright and cheery, because Wolfwood is here and really, isn't that all he's wanted for almost a month now? But then it dawns on him that Wolfwood isn't dead, hadn't been dead, because if he had, Nene would've said something... and suddenly his gaze darkens. He gets out of bed, grabs one of his pillows, and full-stop hurls that thing as hard as he can directly at Wolfwood.

Sorry, this is not the warm, touching reunion you wanted.]

[Honestly? Wolfwood isn't sure what he's expecting when he walks through that door. Dachie losing his fucking mind is par the course- his own Dachsologie has been stapled to him literally as soon as he got it back in his hands, looking like it was going to burst into tears at any moment if he were to step away (baby Dachie is with Raz and Angelina right now, it's fine)- so the howling only startles him briefly before he remembers that oh, yeah, these creatures just Do That. Dachie screams his head off as Wolfwood picks his way through the book-covered living room, pausing only briefly to boggle at the chicken thing because what is that. Literally what is that fucking thing. It's hissing at him he doesn't know-

Those are all questions that can wait for later, though, as he makes it to Ain's bedroom...and there he is. As if he'd never left, he's there, his expression bright and cheerful and full of every bit of life Wolfwood remembers, and for the briefest of moments, he feels relief.

That, of course, all fizzles away pretty quickly when Ain snatches up a pillow and hauls-off and hurls it at his head. Normally his reflexes would be such that he could dodge it, but he is so out of it that he just

takes the pillow directly to the fucking face.]

Aughbgh-!

[The pillow drops to the floor as Wolfwood just stands there, bewildered for a long moment, and then-]

W-why-?!

[Ain's anger is, quite obviously, very misplaced. He doesn't realise what actually happened to Wolfwood, and his paranoia-addled brain has swivelled right into "oh, he hates you actually" instead of rationality. He's been alone for an entire month, mostly by his own fault, but also because—]

I died! And you weren't there! What the fuck do you mean "why" when you've clearly been alive this whole time and couldn't show up to help me at all?!

[Ain picks the pillow up, lifts it high overhead... and starts whacking Wolfwood with it. Just smackin the shit out of him. It's, uh, not very hard or rough. It's pillowfighty, and it might've been playful if Ain weren't currently fuming and about to cry all over again.]

You weren't there! You didn't even say goodbye! I thought you died, or that you hated me, or that you disappeared like Mr. Sheep did! You couldn't leave a note?!

[He takes a deep, shuddering breath, then suddenly stops with the pillow-beating before he hurls it onto his bed, throws himself onto it facedown, and then just. Lies there. Pathetically.

He's so done with this month, man.]

[Wolfwood is, genuinely, about to get mad because he doesn't understand why Ain is attacking him suddenly. Sure, he knows he was gone for a long time and that probably scared him with good reason, but what happened to that elated expression? Isn't he happy to-

To...

.......]

......what?

[The way he says that single word is potent, laden with confused disbelief. And for just a moment, the image of Livio's torn apart body flashes in his mind's eye. In fact, a lot of bodies do, because he's witnessed so much fucking death in the last ~week of his own time. People, vaporized in an instant. As if they never existed.

And his stress-addled brain can't help but fill Ain into those blanks, and thinking about that makes him immediately feel ill.

Anyway, Wolfwood scarcely has a chance to react or say anything else before he's being beaten with a pillow, which prompts him to hold up an arm in a weak attempt to shield himself. He could easily grab Ain and stop him, but he doesn't. He just takes it as it comes, grimacing with each smack, until Ain suddenly turns and falls onto the bed on top of it. Just...flat, there.

He fights with himself over what to do. What to even say. It feels disingenuous to start with "I wasn't dead I was UNCONSCIOUS", but for once he isn't thinking first about himself, or making some sort of excuse.

Instead...he tentatively steps forward, metal leg clunking against the floor, until he carefully sinks into a sit on the edge of the bed.

Silence reigns for...a long time before he finds his voice.]

Hey...what happened?

[Ain curls up into a ball on the bed, facing away from Wolfwood because he thinks if he looks at the man, he's going to start biting or something. He's clearly in distress. He's been in distress, which is why he hasn't left his room for almost a month. He's been here with his books, reading the things Ezell brings him, sewing outside of his shop. There's joy in it, sure, but it's wholly unlike him not to be out tending to his plants and getting excited about the autumn leaves.

He sniffles, grabs that pillow, and drags it to his front in a koala-bear hold.]

What do you mean "what happened"? I got snagged by the monsters outside and glued to a tree and I died. No matter how hard I fought back, they were stronger than I was, and then one of the dragons grabbed me and shoved me into the tree, and it sapped all of my energy. I remember everything going black, and then...

[There's a sound, like he's trying not to cry. A whimper, and the shifting of blankets as Ain buries his face in the pillow more.]

...I lost my entire human form. I guess it's because of the tree sapping all of my energy. And I couldn't remember anything or anyone, not even my name, for a day afterwards. I still have the scars.

And you weren't there. People helped me, but not you. Not even after I remembered things again, you didn't come visit once.

[Wolfwood sits. He sits, and he listens. He is...struggling to comprehend what exactly happened in his absence, but it's clearly nothing good. Did the Forest attack again? Is that why there were just monsters loose everywhere? Why did it have to happen while he wasn't here, and why did Ain have to...

He feels a lump lodge itself in his throat, suddenly impossible to swallow past. His hands flex, clenching into tight fists before relaxing again, doing this a few times over as if to try to calm himself down. He wants...to hit something. He wants to curse, and scream, but none of that is going to fix the fact that another one of his boyfriends fucking died and he wasn't there.

He wasn't there to help him. He couldn't save him. Just like how he couldn't save all of those kids before him, snatched up by the Eye. He barely saved the orphanage, and even then he isn't sure he'd call it "saved" when it still hangs precariously in the balance, in the iron grip of a cult.

It's just like everything else. He's fucking powerless to do anything. He can't help, he can't save anyone, he can only watch as they get hurt over and over...more often than not by his own hand, or lack thereof.]

Ain, I wasn't...

[His voice breaks, turns thin, and disappears. He takes a moment after that to try to wrangle it back into his control, gripping at the bedsheets.]

I wasn't here. I mean I...I was, but...I was back home. I fell asleep, or fuckin'...somethin', and I was back home. I didn't mean to-

[...]

...what do you mean you were asleep?

[If there's one thing that'll snap Ain briefly out of his anxious, depressed state, it's hearing that Wolfwood apparently... slept... through it? How the fuck did you sleep through that.

He rolls over to face the man now, still holding that pillow. Part of Ain wants to reach out for Wolfwood and hold onto him, but he's not sure if that's allowed right now. He feels small. Vulnerable. Like something could ruin this at any time.]

What do you mean "back home"?

[Ah. Now suddenly he has the floor, and he doesn't even know where to begin. He's not even sure Ain will believe him, because he still hardly believes it himself. But he knows he was there. It was real, he lived it.

And yeah. Part of Wolfwood wants to reach out and hold Ain too, but he isn't going to assume it's allowed either. Instead he just stays put where he is, his fingers worrying at the bedsheets as he tries to figure out how to even put it.]

I mean...I went back. To my planet. I don't even remember fallin' asleep, but I was there. On No Man's. It was a week or two...dunno if it was a full month even, like it apparently was here.

[He grits his teeth, looking down at his knuckles. He can still see the scars on his palms and fingers from where he stopped the Sand Steamer.]

You don't...really think that if I could've, I wouldn't have done everythin' in my power to save you?

[Ain looks very confused by all of this. Wolfwood was here, but he wasn't here. But there are scars on him...? Ain knows how his hands look. He's memorized them a million times over. Those, though, are new, and finally he reaches out to take one of them and look them over.

Those are burn scars alright.]

...how were you asleep here, but back home at the same time...? I thought we couldn't leave?

[Listen, Wolfwood, it's not that he doesn't believe you, it's that this place makes no sense and Ain gets less and less confident about his time here every day. The last question gives him pause, though.]

I guess it's not about being saved. If I couldn't save me, I don't think anyone can. [He is, after all, obnoxiously powerful.] It's more about the lack of comfort. But... it's not your fault.

Sorry. For getting mad at you.

I...don't get it either. But it happened to Liv, and Vash. They both disappeared, I think, but I...s'like my mind was there, and somehow I lived time there, but my body was left behind.

[It's an extremely freaky thing to think about, and he doesn't like it at all. He doesn't like knowing this sort of thing could just happen to him at random at almost any time, either.

He lets Ain take his hand, still calloused like he remembers, but now sporting the usual sheen of burn scars from placing his hands on scalding hot metal. The serum saved him from permanent damage, but it can't recover everything.

Anyway, when Ain apologizes, Wolfwood's gaze flickers back up to him, looking at him seriously.]

No. S'...you don't gotta apologize. I don't blame you for bein' pissed, even if there was a reason for it. You...

[He was alone. He was alone when he died. And that's something Wolfwood can't forgive himself for.

His sentence trails off, because he can't think of anything to say to make this right. His mind is churning and his stomach feels like it's been filled with rocks, his expression shifting between angry on Ain's behalf, frustrated, and resigned.]

I should've been here. The Creature wanted payback against us for the month and all that shit before, all of us.

[It should have been him. Not Ain.]

The Creature's mad at all of us. It's always going to be mad, I think. I only just got here, so I don't know what "I" did, but maybe it doesn't matter. ...I'm not the only person who died. Mr. Snow Leopard died too. Mr. Crane's been bombing the woods ever since.

[Ain hears the explosions go off. Apparently Ezell helped with the bombs at one point, so he gets the gossip trickled down.]

You might've died if you were here, just like us two. I dunno.

You're kiddin'.

[Christ. Well. Wolfwood's going to be paying Gnosis a visit soon, then...

He lifts his free hand, rubbing the side of his face with it.]

I'm harder t'kill. I at least could've...done somethin'. I dunno.

[He doesn't say that he has his vials again. He knows people are probably going to be Unhappy to hear he bought more, but...what is he supposed to do, exactly? Just roll over and let the Creature keep getting licks on him?

No. No way. He fell into that depression well after he died the first time, and has since slid back up it into "I am going to commit a felony" territory.

...but as Ain sits there, looking at him with his Big eyes, Wolfwood feels his anger fizzling. Then, tentatively, he offers him his hand.]

M'just. ...I'm sorry. For everythin'. But I wanna be here for you now.

Sticks & Bones // IC Inbox

9/27 - Evening

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