Chapter Text
Something was wrong. To be fair, there was almost always something wrong on the island. In fact, for something not to be wrong, would be a miracle. But it wasn't often it was this big of an issue.
See, Richarlyson was a child. It was an indisputable fact that has been true for a while now, and would be true for the foreseeable future. However, he didn't feel like a kid anymore, no matter how many times he was assured that he could be a kid. Maybe it had something to do with the way his life was constantly at risk, from code monsters to even the way a simple fall could mean the end of the road for him, something none of the adults had to live with. Or maybe it had something to do with how he was having to play parent for his baby brother when he wasn't even a teen yet.
Richarlyson was a child. But that did not mean he was blind. He was a child, yet apa Roier could not hide everything from him with a smile and a cheap lie. Not anymore, anyway. He was a child, yes, but that did not mean he wouldn't pick up on how his apa's behaviour had changed seemingly over night.
And he had a feeling he knew why.
Every night now, when Roier thought she was asleep, Richarlyson would hear him walking through the house in a direction that was not his bedroom. She'd followed him once. A few times actually. He would walk into the ritual room, look behind him, almost like when she was doing something she knew she shouldn't and looking out for a parent before she could be caught, before going into the blood room.
Of course, Richarlyson had been in the blood room before, everyone on the island had! Yet he failed to see anything in there that would need constant nurturing.
…So, logically, the best idea is to go explore the room himself after apa Roier had gone to bed. Which is why Richarlyson now finds himself standing on red brick, staring up at the demon on the throne. It wasn't like it needed to be fed or anything. Or- he didn't think so anyway. Did it? It hadn't needed to be in the past… he didn't think. Pai Cellbit hadn't been going down here to feed it every night… probably. Although, he was always up late, so maybe he just did it some time after he had fallen asleep? But that was stupid! What would they even feed it? Apa Roier never came down with anything… that he could see, anyway. Therefore he probably wasn't feeding the demon. So really Richarlyson didn't see any reas- oh.
Oh.
That was why apa Roier kept coming down here.
Curled into a corner was pai Cellbit and tia Baghera. They looked, quite frankly, like shit. Bloody, messy hair, torn clothes, the lot. They looked like they were still trapped in Purgatory, which, now that she thought about it, wasn't all that surprising, given the fact that they had just come home from Purgatory. Presumably, anyway. But, at the very least pai Cellbit hadn't looked this bad when Richarlyson saw him during Purgatory. She didn't think so anyway. She would've noticed if he had… right? Yeah. She would've.
She couldn't help herself. Without much other thought, Richarlyson ran towards Cellbit. Can you blame her? She missed him! It'd been months and the last time she saw him was through a glass barricade in a grumbling building! Her pai was never good with suddenly being touched… unless you were apa Roier, she guessed. But usually, when it was a child, he'd freeze up, look down to see who it was, and eventually relax.
That does not happen. Not in the slightest.
They barely blink and suddenly they're shoved away. It's not… a very strong push. Not really. It's barely enough to put any distance between them, actually. But it still hurts. Because sure, their pai and shoved them before, multiple times actually. But it was always lightly, always paired with some tease and a grin. This time, however, regardless of how weak the shove was, Richarlyson can feel the anger in it. Or- is anger the right word? Or was it closer to sadness?They didn't know. But they feel it, anyway. And it's directed at them.
"Pai?" He tries, yet is met with no response. Pai Cellbit doesn't even look at him. His eyes are trained to the wall in front of him, slightly narrowed like they usually were when he was trying to solve something.
"Tia Baghera?" He's met with the same result.
"C'mon, this isn't funny!" He huffs, moving to stand between them and the wall. They almost seem to look through him. It's like he's not even there. But he knows they know he's there because his pai wouldn't have shoved him otherwise. He waves his hand in their face and is met with nothing. He doesn't know what else he expected, to be honest. He sighs, clenching his fists and moving to stand directly in front of his pai, placing his hands on his shoulders. He gives one, firm, shake.
"Just- Look at me!" She snaps, stomping her foot on the ground. With the force she puts into the motion, it hurts. A lot, actually. But even still, she can't bring herself to care. Because her pai kicks her off of him, causing her to fall onto the cold tile less than a moment later. His movements still don't hurt that much- they're too weak to cause any actual pain- but it's the fact that he's so clearly trying to push her away without even explaining why that hurts. She lets out a sound that can only be described as a mixture of anger, stress and sadness all clawing out of her at once in one sound. It doesn't sound human.
"Why won't you look at me?! What did I do pai?! I didn't even know you were back till, like ten minutes ago! What could I have possibly done wrong in that time when you barely seem to know I'm here?!" They push themself up, pacing the area in front of their pai and tia. There was nothing that they could've done! They've barely even spoken to their pai for fuck's sake! So why won't he look at them!?
"…Not.. my kid.."
The words are so quiet, he's almost certain he imagined them. But when he turns around to look at his pai, his eyes have finally managed to tear themselves away from the wall to actually look at Richarlyson. He doesn't quite look upset- not really. But the slight narrow of his eyes and the twitch of his lips are the most emotion he's shown since Richarlyson got down here. And all he can see in them is anger.
"…What?" When she speaks, her voice is almost breathless. Barely any noise comes out of her mouth, actually. But the wide, almost saucer like look of her eyes she can see reflected in her pai's goggles is enough for her to know that even if she didn't actually say it, her pai would know what she was thinking. She looks like she's seen a ghost. Maybe she had. Her pai wouldn't act like this.
She remains in a silent standoff with her pai for far too long, waiting for him to respond. To even just pretend that he hadn't said what he said. Because it would be far better than admitting to what he'd said. She breaks the silence first.
"Pai- what do you mean I'm not your kid? What the fuck are you talking about?!"
They're still met with silence. Their pai's eyes drift away from Richarlyson, focussing back on the wall behind them.
He's ignoring them. Like if he simply doesn't pay attention to them, they'll leave.
"..Pai? Pai please tell me you're joking." His voice shakes as he speaks, stepping forward into his pai's space again. Because if he completely blocks view of the wall behind him, his pai will have to pay attention to him, right? His hands come to rest on his pai's shoulders, squeezing them as well as he can. It's what he's seen Chayanne do to calm Lullah down before- or to at least to ground her. So he might as well try it now.
He knows that his Pai doesn't really need grounding. He doesn't have a single thought behind his eyes, seemingly, which is already worrying enough. But everything he says seems to go in one ear and out the other- if it even goes through his head! And he doesn't know what else he can do to help his pai.
He never seems to know how to help. All he ever does is follow what Chayanne does. And he hopes it's enough. It's not, usually.
She's about to try shaking her pai again when a low growl in the back of his throat distracts her. Her eyes flick back to him just in time to see him snapping his jaw about an inch away from her face. She jolts back, stumbling in her rush to get away and falling back.
"Pai?! Pai what the fuck?!"
They don't get a response. They don't expect one, actually. They're not sure they would've heard it anyway, not with the pounding of their heart so loud in their ears. Their hands shake as they push themself up, almost slipping and falling again.
They don't linger much longer.
It's only when she's curled up in front of her bed, wide eyed and gasping for breath that she even begins to comprehend what happened.
Her pai just tried to bite her.
Her pai had just tried to bite her fucking face off.
What the fuck.
What the fuck had happened to her pai?!
Was tia Baghera the same?
They knew purgatory was bad- they'd heard the horror stories of it from their tias and tios. Hell, they'd even heard pai Pac whispering to tio Fit late at night, long past when they should've been asleep. His voice was shaking when he spoke, and from what they could pick up from tio Fit's mumbled comments, he'd been digging his fingers into his skin with enough force to bruise.
Pai Pac whispered of his fears in the dead of night. Of how when he'd been sent back to purgatory, he'd seen Cellbit again.
Of how he wasn't the same.
Of how he was just like how he was in prison.
Pai Pac was scared of Cellbit again.
Richarlyson couldn't blame him.
She thought she was also scared of him now, too.
The sun had barely risen when she'd heard it. A few taps against her window- barely audible. Pomme already knows who to expect when she looks out the window.
Almost as soon as she unlatches the window, there's what seems to be a blur of brown curls tumbling in, landing in a breathless heap in the middle of her rug. A single look at him tells her he's not here for a spontaneous visit. His hair is messy, even more so than usual. She doesn't know how to describe it, really. The best she comes up with is that Richas' usual hair was messy in the way a lion's mane was. Yes, it was a mess but it was tamed. His current hair is more like what you'd expect a cat to look like if it got struck by lightning, sticking up weirdly and looking all over the place. He's also still in his sleep clothes. They're not really pyjamas- it's one of his pai's old shirts, (she's willing to bet Roier's given the Spider-Man print on them), but they're what he wears to sleep and, really, who is she to judge what anyone wears when they're sleeping of all things?
But, regardless, he looks like a mess, and not in the 'I'm going to/have just commit/ed more chaos than you could imagine' way he usually does. More so in the 'I haven't slept at all and I need someone to know what's bothering me' way she was all too familiar with.
“Pomme, encontrei nossos pais. Sei onde eles estão. Eles nos odeiam, Pomme! Meu pai me odeia e tenho certeza de que sua mãe também me odeia e vai odiar você também!”
She doesn't have her translator with her, it's probably somewhere downstairs, all things considered, so she doesn't know what they're saying. She can pick out a few words though, most notably 'dad' and 'mum'. It's not enough to pick out exactly what they're trying to say, but if they're this worked up about it she has a few guesses as to who they're talking about.
"Richas! Calm down, I don't know what you're saying!" She says in a hushed tone, mindful of her probably still sleeping papa Etoiles downstairs. She hopes Richas wasn't loud enough to wake him. She doubts he could wake Etoiles to be fair, as when he actually sleeps he is impossible to wake up until he wants to be woken up, but still.
She rests her hand over where his heart would be, hoping the pressure will help him calm down. Pomme makes sure to exaggerate her breathing as well, giving Richas something to follow. It's what Chayanne would do. She can only hope it's the right move here as well.
He does calm down, after a while. Yet even when his breathing is back to a semi-regular pace, his eyes don't quite seem to return to normal from their 'I just saw a ghost' level of wide. It probably felt like he saw a ghost, if her guess of who he was talking about is correct.
"Pomme, I saw them," They say breathlessly. "I saw our parents,"
Richas is unnaturally still, though she distantly remembers that after panic attacks, Richas tended to freeze up, lock in place, almost. Like he physically couldn't move.
"Richas, what do you mean you saw our parents? Tio Cellbit and maman Baghera? Where?" One of his hands moves up to tangle in his hair, tugging at the strands like it physically hurts to remember. His other hand follows not long after.
"No- Pomme you don't understand. They were all- all bloody, and- and they looked like shit, Pomme!"
The description isn't nearly as shocking to Pomme as it seemed to be to Richas. She'd asked her papa Etoiles if what she'd heard was true, if her maman really was still in Purgatory. He'd been hesitant to answer, but eventually ended up telling her they yes he maman was there but she was an absolute mess. Barely reminiscent of who she was before Purgatory. He couldn't seem to understand why. She didn't either, considering no one else had seemed to be nearly as affected as she and tio Cellbit had been based off of what people had been saying.
"But they're alive, aren't they, Richas? We can still help them!"
There's an uncomfortable stretch of silence, and Pomme almost regrets saying anything. Richas' head turns away from her, and it's enough of an answer.
"…They're alive, right?"
…More silence. Pomme always liked silence, it made it easier to listen for threats- but she can't help but hate it now. It's unnatural with Richas, the kid who almost never seems to be quiet.
"…Yeah," They agree after a moment, and she can't help but feel it's not the whole truth. He elaborates not long after, luckily. "Pomme they're- they're alive, yeah, but they don't… they don't look alive."
..What?
"…What do you mean they don't look alive?"
Richas' hands move to hide their face, choking back a sob as they go to speak again.
"Pomme- You should've seen them! They don't- they don't look at anything! They stare blankly at a wall, barely blinking! They don't speak at all, hell, it barely looks like they're breathing!" He gasps out, and she can see tears slipping through his fingers. They fall to the floor, leaving dark droplets on her rug. "Pomme, he- he said he hated me. That I'm not his kid anymore,"
…What? Tio Cellbit wouldn't… he wouldn't actually say that, would he? He would do anything to protect Richas, hell, he'd put his life on the line to save them. There was no way he could say that and actually mean that, right?
"Tio wouldn't say that, would he? I- he wouldn't mean it if he said it, anyway."
Richas shook his head frantically, far too panicked for actual words now. He didn't seem like he would be leaving anytime soon, if his current status was anything to say about it. It was fine. Papa Etoiles wouldn't wake up for a few hours yet, so he could stay here until then.
She settles next to him, pulling him into her side. She doesn't say anything. There isn't really anything you can say, is there? Not when you've just been told your father, the person you love the most, doesn't love you anymore. Nothing she could say would comfort him.
So she'd let him get the tears out. Because she knew they wouldn't let them fall anywhere else.
Pepito hadn't met his apa Cellbit. He's heard a lot about him though! He's even seen photos of him. That's more than what he could say for most of his parents! His apa was strong, according to his apa Roier. Really smart too! Apparently, he was the island's best investigator!
His brother Richarlyson, always seemed to look up to him too! Sure, whenever he spoke about him there would be a bit of bitterness in his voice, and sure, he always seemed to have something to complain about. But! When he'd snuck a glance in one of his apa's photo albums, he'd seen so many pictures of him and apa Cellbit together! And they looked happy in every one, so he can't be that upset at him, right? Of course not!
"…Richas? Why do you hate apa Cellbit so much? You used to look so happy with him!"
He can hear shuffling from Richas' bed, presumably from his brother rolling over. But his movements stop entirely when Pepito asks his question.
"..What? What do you mean Pepito? How did you…I don't hate pai."
But that doesn't make sense! You don't speak badly about people you like, that's silly! So why did Richas speak so badly about apa Cellbit all the time? Well, he liked to tease Pepito sometimes, but that was different! Every time he poked fun at Pepito, they were already having fun, and he would be grinning! Maybe he also spoke badly of apa Cellbit because he liked him? But… he never sounded happy when he spoke about apa Cellbit. So, what gives!?
"But if you like apa Cellbit, why do you speak badly about him all the time? You make him sound like the worst person ever, and I don't think that's true!"
There's a sigh from the bed next to him, and it's hint enough that Richas doesn't actually want to talk to him about this. But that was stupid! Why couldn't he just give him a proper answer? It's not that hard to say he hates someone or that he doesn't… oh. Wait. Richas had said he didn't hate apa Cellbit, hadn't he? But… if he didn't hate him, why did he always talk so badly about him?! People were weird.
"…Go to bed Pepe,"
"But-"
"I'll get tia Jaiden,"
Oh yeah. They weren't at home, were they? No, of course not. At home their beds were no where near this close and their room was no where near this small. Instead, they were at their tia Jaiden's tonight. Something about apa Roier needing sometime alone. Pepito didn't understand that, after all, he spent most of his time locked in his room! Why does he need more alone time? But Richas seemed happy enough to go and that was enough for Pepito.
They don't talk more that night. Pepito could hear Richas rolling over in his bed and he took it as prompt that he didn't want to be annoyed anymore. So Pepito left his wonders to himself and tried to figure out some answers himself before falling asleep.
…Richas cries that night. It's not very loud, barely audible due to the fabric of the pillow Pepito is sure he's buried his face in. But he still cries. He almost wants to go get tia Jaiden, but Richas had always gotten upset in the past when he'd gone to go get apa Roier when he was upset. So he doesn't.
In the morning, they would wake up and Richas would act fine. Pretend he hadn't cried last night. He would grin as they met up with Awelo Foolish and tease him about small things. He would pretend not to be upset when they had to go back to apa Roier's at the end of the day and that would be that.
Pepito wouldn't tell anyone that Richas was upset. After all, it was just like playing pretend, wasn't it? Richas would pretend he wasn't upset and Pepito would pretend not to know.
It was all just pretend.