Chapter Text
They say puppets are the pinnacle of children’s entertainment.
Sesame Street has outlasted many shows gravitating towards young kids for many generations.
The Muppets were nothing more than a proud franchise, you were pretty sure you’d seen their rendition of the Christmas Carol almost every Christmas since your son was eight years old and it continued the moment your oldest grandchild was born.
Though, even with these shows and the fantastic work of both the puppeteering and the puppets themselves, you were only reminded of a brilliant show that you always found replaying with probably the last known recordings of its time on VHS.
Welcome Home was nothing more than what Sesame Street inspired to be, where the latter started production a mere year after the former started.
However, despite its colourful backgrounds and its famous use of unique puppetry and various mediums, it only lasted a measly four years before it cut short, leaving an unfinished fifth season and scrubbing all known episodes off the air.
Very few people that you met around your son's age would even know the name of the lovely main character, Wally Darling, but would definitely try and list off every main puppet in the popular mainstream puppet show known as Sesame Street.
Of course, while it often rubbed you the wrong way, you had made sure to let your son grow up with Wally Darling, and his neighbors in Home to be his mentor in what they were learning themselves in that ever happy, colourful neighbourhood.
You even remembered when he started to talk that he started to list each character off by heart, with him always saying Home, the ever titular character known to house the ever monotonous Wally Darling, at the end of the list.
Though, that had changed when you managed to get the unfinished VHS tape of the fifth season from an old friend, when he started to announce (Y/N) within part of the cast.
You remember him being so utterly confused the day he watched that first episode of that season.
The utter wide eyed stare when he would simply stare back at you before back at the tv of this new, seemingly familiar character, now on the tv.
A character who looked oddly like his parent.
Someone who apparently didn't fit in but also did at the same time
He would've never known it as a child, being only born a few years after Welcome Home's sudden plummet from stardom, but your career in acting in children's media was a prominent part of both his and your life before your retirement.
You may only starred as a life action human character in Welcome Home for a short five episodes in that unfinished season but it had quite an impact on the start of your career.
Though, despite how prominent you were in many children's media, you were always falling towards the start that no one couldn't seem to remember you were present in.
One of those small children who were present at the time of the airing of the last episodes of Welcome Home would've been the only witnesses of the start of such a significant career in many generations where you became a household name.
You had many merchandise of the old show, some that were sold at auctions and antique shows and some that you managed to snag off somebody for a quick buck.
You always told yourself that it was so to keep its existence preserved.
But being cooped up in an old office space, carefully taken care of that dust and moths don't ruin its original paper and fabric, you were starting to wonder if really, you were doing this for yourself than for what memory it indeed have within the public itself.
It was selfish to think that you spent your years wanting to keep this media alive where no one other than your immediate family and close friends and old colleagues were aware about it.
Your grandson even explained to you how it would be considered "lost media" on the internet.
You believe you wanted to see them again.
The inspiring fallen star Sally Starlet, the bubbly Julie Joyful, the ever clumsy Eddie Dear.
They all had a place in your heart, and you had treasured what moments you indeed had with interacting on set and off recording with each puppet, both in and out of character.
Maybe you became infatuated with them from that short yet ever so sweet time you had on set that you want to experience it again.
Watching yourself on the old TV wasn't entirey enough but it had to do at this point. You doubt you'll find even one of the 8 main puppets, even stored correctly in a trunk or a storage unit.
They'll most likely be lost to time.
"Way of life," you supposed, as you placed the first season of Welcome Home into the VHS player as your youngest grandchild, a tot with a lot to say usually, stared into the tv with wonder at the opening intro.
"At least, they are still remembered."
~~~~~~
That sign had been up for months, years maybe?
It never seemed to be touched, only with slight water damage from what rain that occurred every so often here in Home.
A single butterfly had landed on one of its corners, closely monitored by a puppet as he both studied the species of the butterfly but also the face that was on the sign itself.
It was strange looking at that face.
It wasn't as colourful or as expressive as the other residents were in Home.
In fact, one could say that they were one of the more plainer neighbours the neighbourhood had.
(Y/N) (L/N).
Even their name wasn't as Frank even remembered them as.
It never meant that they never liked them.
As short as their stay was, it felt as though they had always been here.
Always helping out.
Always by one's side.
They were never one to hide away from anyone within their home.
Frank wasn't even sure that they ever even entered their home at any point before they disappeared.
If it was indeed theirs, it also disappeared as well, leaving only a plot of land full of wildflowers that butterflies and other critter often find themselves connected to.
The morning (Y/N) disappeared, after an eventful day the day before, they never suspected them to just disappear into thin air.
He even remembered it just as Eddie was telling him; the moment he tried to place (Y/N)'s letter into their letter box, it immediately landed in the grass of a empty plot.
It was as though they never existed but their impact was still there at least.
That small bookmark covered in butterfly doodles gifted from them was Frank's go to when reading.
Sally had a costume that only fitted them that was meant for a show she wanted (Y/N) to star in with her before they disappeared.
Poppy had occasionally made a batch of their favourite baked good, just getting out of the oven when she realised time and time again that she had no one to bring them to.
Howdy even finds himself looking at the door as though waiting for (Y/N) to walk in for their daily errand at a specific time of day.
Frank blinked when the butterfly flew away, now leaving him looking at the sign with their old neighbor, their old friend.
He couldn't help but walk away as he read the message over (Y/N)'s picture, unable to freely look at it anymore.
They were indeed missing.
And they all missed them.