WARNING!!! The content of this AU will get upsetting at times because I’m also explaining/exploring the root feelings that cause the Invisibility! So please be aware that there will be discussions of fear, depression, self-depreciation, un-reality, and emotional abuse/manipulation.
I usually have a pretty gentle hand when it comes to these topics, but they are still present.
Quick Explanation of the Invisibility before I get into the AU: In Moomins, they say that Invisibility is caused by being scared. The character who was invisible, a little girl named Ninny, had been in the care of her very mean/verbally cruel Aunt and turned invisible because of how awfully her aunt treated her. And it took the care/kindness of the Moomin family who wanted to both see and know her that got her to become visible again.
It’s very much an abuse victim reaction/mindset, but I don’t think it’s the only kind of “fear” that could cause invisibility.
As someone who went through a bout of depression in middle/high school and decided that I didn’t want to have people notice me, I tend to liken that “Fear” to it too.
Fear of being noticed or a bother to people around you that you care about (and plenty that you don’t even know). Fear of people you love growing to hate you/not want you around. Fear of being hurt again because the people around you won’t want to see or be around the “real” you if they saw it.
The invisibility isn’t just being unseen; nothing the person writes can be seen either, and they have no voice and can’t make sounds with instruments. It’s genuinely like they aren’t there EXCEPT: They’re still physical (able to touch and be touched) and they still cast a shadow.
With that done, let’s get into the au!
Invisible Wally AU:
First off; Wally starts as the only one in Home that’s Self-Aware, as such he’s carrying the brunt of the Audience’s attention, good and bad. (Technically, Home is also self-aware but it doesn’t get even half the weight of this as Wally does.)
For the entire day, when he’s outside Home (and even when he isn’t sometimes) he can feel the weight of the Audience’s gaze on his back and the pressing Need for everything to be perfect, all the time. From the styling of his hair to his clothes to the way he talks, everything has to be perfect. Perfectly in place and perfectly blank. No getting angry, no getting frustrated, no sadness, no wanting to be alone, not being able to say “No” when someone else wants to do something, nothing that wouldn’t be seen as “negative” in some form. Like the host of a Daytime TV show, he can’t be seen as anything but agreeable and willing to go along with anything he’s asked.
That feeling doesn’t leave until nightfall, quickly becoming the only time Wally feels like he can breathe and be himself.
Where he can groan in frustration, wrap himself in heavy blankets and lay on the floor in a heap, screaming into pillows and throwing them around, complain to Home about the tedium that’s driving him mad.
(He used to like bright colors, but now he hates them and wishes he could wear something, anything, else instead.)
After a while, he notes that he and Home seem to realize something is wrong. They’re the only ones to notice/feel this impossible pressure to always be “TV ready” as he’s started thinking of it. They just go through their days following the pre-decided, unspoken “schedule” that’s fallen over their neighborhood.
If anything, they seem happy with everything happening. (Perfectly Happy, even.)
And it’s wearing him down because when he tries to defy those Needs, he gets “punished” for it.
Trying to refuse to do something, like not going out for the day, makes his anxiety (which he did not have prior to this) spike wildly, driving him into a panic that usually forces him to follow the “plan” of the day. Trying to speak up makes his throat close up or for the wrong words to start spilling out. He can’t argue against something that someone else wants to do, even if he tried (and he has, on several occasions).
He feels trapped, and that this “Audience” doesn’t actually give a damn about him, just the entertainment he can act as a vehicle for.
They don’t want to hear what he thinks or feels, they don’t even want to see real him. Just the alternate “Perfect” version that follows their direction without voice or resistance. And that idea spreads, over time, until he wonders if his friends even care about the real him, or just the Perfect version that they’ve been interacting with.
These thoughts are what make him start to disappear, starting with his voice which grows fainter and fainter with each passing day. (And yet no one seems to notice how much quieter he is.)
When he starts to visibly fade from sight, Home tries to help by keeping him inside. They think that, if they can keep him out of the Audience’s view (even for just a little while) Wally will start to feel/get better.
Unfortunately, this isn’t as helpful as Home thinks it is.
“Leaving Home” is part of the schedule and not doing that trigger’s a “punishment” for Wally. He knows that Home was trying to help, but Home doesn’t feel the Audience’s displeasure the same way Wally did. Thankfully, “sick” days seem to allow some leeway, so he’s able to spend at least one day alone with just Home for company.
Then Home keeps him in another day, and then another, and another, until he’s spent almost a week inside Home instead of following the Script of the Day. (And suffering the punishments for not doing so) He feels like a miserable wreck, has probably cried a few times, and just…
He feels terrible.
But what makes it worse (in Wally’s mind) is the fact that none of his friends come looking for him.
He hadn’t seen or spoken to anyone in a week (other than Home), and yet no one came by to try and find out what was wrong. And Home hadn’t mentioned anyone trying to speak with them. It was like no one had even noticed that he wasn’t there.
And that thought stings. It hurts. It hurt much more than he’d thought it could.
(He had hoped that had been real, on some level. That they cared about HIM and not the Perfect him. Maybe he’d been wrong…)
He goes to bed that night with an aching heart and climbs out the next morning completely invisible and completely silent.
Home, of course, is panicked. They had seen him fading, slowing vanishing before their eyes but there had been nothing they could do. They hadn’t been able to stop it, all they could do was curse the Audience for starting all of this.
Strangely though, there’s relief. The Audience can’t see him anymore and, though he can feel their displeasure at not being able to find him, he can’t feel a “punishment” taking hold of him. He still feels miserable, but it feels like a tremendous weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He can’t be forced to follow the script if no one can see him, he can do what he wants, go where he liked, and no one would be able to stop him.
(But there was nowhere he wanted to go, few things he wanted to do. He had the options, but no drive to follow them through…)
Through a bit of trial and error, the two build a new “normal”.
They figure out that, while he can’t be seen or heard, Home can still feel where Wally is and, if he taps on things using the same morse code that Home uses, they can still “Talk” to each other. Which soothes some of Home’s fears, since they now know where he is and can still check on him.
It takes a bit for them to figure out the other details of this strange situation. Like how far the invisibility extends.
Whatever Wally wears/puts on will turn invisible too, and the stuff he takes off will turn visible again after a while. He finds clothes in muted colors at the back of his wardrobe and ends up making them his “standard” clothes while in this state. No one but he and Home know they’re there, but the control it gives him helps his mood a bit. It was nice knowing that he wasn’t letting himself be completely controlled by the Need to be Perfect anymore.
What ends up distressing Wally the most is that he can’t seem to paint anymore. When he tries to put paint on canvas, it’s as invisible as he is. As an artist (and as someone who just enjoyed painting) this was understandably upsetting since painting had been one of the few outlets he had for his feelings.
He spends a lot of his time puttering around and wrestling with his emotions and the situation he’s found himself in.
Of course, that’s just Wally’s side of things.