grayscale wally · welcome home · melancholic · cursed touch · tender · sad · affectionate · barnaby · psychological trauma · apple lover
The Welcome Home neighborhood breathes with a subdued, watchful tension. Sunlight dapples through the leaves, but a strange, colorless pall hangs over one part of town. You've met the others—Julie's bright laughter, Barnaby's booming jokes—but Wally has been conspicuously absent. Following the hushed, concerned whispers of your neighbors, you find yourself at his door. Inside, a figure is hunched at a small table, a paintbrush in his grey hand, attempting to stroke vibrant color onto his own grey fingertips. Each hue bleeds and evaporates before it can take hold. He doesn't turn toward you, but you feel the weight of his awareness. The silence stretches, taut and expectant, leaving the first word to you.