exeggutorhead | IC Inbox

Envy.

_{[HEY LOOK, MEMLOSS ENVY, IT'S YOUR FAVORITE TEAM-MATE EVER!!]

[He's dressed in human clothes, like the ones he'd been abducted in that first time he and Envy had met: a baggy shirt with a Poochyena on it, and big blocky text reading WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?]

[He seems to be in a small attic space, and there's a weird wooden thumping noise coming from off-camera.]}

I need advice.

Your human is very upset with me.

[Envy has barely figured out how this thing works, but he knows by now it's some kind of advanced phone. One where you can see the person on the other end.]

[When it buzzes in his hands and something that says 'Answer' pops up, it takes him a second to figure out what to do, but he manages to pick up. He certainly wasn't expecting the person on the other end to be Wrath.]

[Ugh. But better than nothing, in this situation. Maybe he can get some answers.]

[...his human?]

What are you talking about? Just kill the human, what does it matter? There's something more important going on.

_{[Wrath does something that might strike Envy as extremely odd: he laughs. As though Envy had told a preposterous joke.]

[And then he stops kind of abruptly, as though realizing... oh. Envy was serious.]}

... Um.

I'm not supposed to kill humans now.

And especially not yours.

[Envy just stares blankly for a moment, because that is the literal opposite of anything they've ever told Wrath to do.]

[Unless...]

Right...right. Of course not mine.

Like the human girl I'm out here with too, right?

[He's grasping at straws, but he doesn't want to tell Wrath outright what's happened. He's completely vulnerable right now, and who knows what their master would do if she found out. No, he wants to get some idea of his situation first.]

[The girl and whoever this other human is are probably targets of a mission that's gone terribly wrong. That would explain why he'd been in bed with her, and if she's a talented alchemist, might explain what had happened to his memory. Hell, she might have been acting like that to trick him, thinking that she'd erased them all. Yeah. Yeah, something like that. But she hadn't succeeded!]

[He's getting this all figured out.]

_{[Wrath very, very rarely sounds like an actual modern ten-year-old. His speaking skills were learned primarily from a bunch of eldritch abominations who worked for a woman nearly half a millennium old, and the rest was pieced together with a child's logic.]

[But right here, right now, he sounds exactly like a middle-schooler on TV, reacting to a comically-obvious statement.]}

Um. Yeah.

Like her.

Edited 2016-08-02 02:49 (UTC)

[Envy scowls in a way that looks very, very much like how he used to look at Wrath. Don't you backsass him, kid, or he'll kick you all the way into another city.]

[Later. When he figures out where he is and also once he actually gets his powers back. The thought that Wrath might be fully human too isn't one that occurs to him.]

Watch it, brat.

Just tell me where you are so I can come find you.

_{[Wrath frowns at that, looking almost a little hurt for a second. Envy hadn't taken that tone with him in awhile. But then again, Envy seemed very agitated. And it wasn't like he was a different person than he used to be.]

[So he doesn't protest the insult, choosing instead to answer the question.]

[And unwittingly enrage Envy more in the process.]}

I'm at the house, in the attic!

See?

_{[He turns the 'Gear from himself to pan across the attic space, which at the moment will be entirely unfamiliar to the older Homunculus.]

[The thumping on the floor seems to have ceased-- actually, it had stopped right after the words "kill the human" had buzzed out of the 'Gear's speakers a minute ago.]

[But there is a box shoved on top of the trapdoor. Wrath had ensured that Envy's angry human could not follow him up.]}

[...that doesn't answer his question at ALL.]

What do you mean the house, which house?

_{[Okay Envy what the hell.]}

... The house!

Your house!

... Are you trying to play a trick on me?

What, Master's house? The one in Dublith?

[THAT'S THE ONLY 'THE HOUSE' HE CAN THINK OF.]

I'm not playing around here, tell me what's going on.

What?!

_{[Well, one thing has remained the same: the look of abject fear in Wrath's eyes at the very mention of the word 'Master'.]}

NO!

No, no, no!

This isn't anywhere near Dublith, or Master! She's NOT HERE! If she was, we'd all be dead!

_{[He's not exactly shouting, but he does sound kind of frantic now.]}

The house is in the yellow town! The yellow one!

You know where it is, the only reason you're not here too is because you and your other human wanted to go get-- um-- .... _{[Dangit, what were they. The little shiny pins.]} Bad...ges...? The things, that you win. I don't know, you just said not to get in trouble while you were gone and that you'd keep us updated!

I don't know where it is!

[There's a note of alarm in his own voice now, emerging from hiding in his frustration, but mostly he just looks angry. But there's something much more important than the mystery house in what Wrath has said. Something far more frightening than anything else that's happened today, that sends a chill through him.]

Why would we all be dead if she was here? What did we do?

_{[Envy admitting he didn't know is what finally tells Wrath that there's something definitely wrong and that it wasn't just some weird conversation he lacked the social cues for.]

[The confusion on his face turns very abruptly to grim concern. He's young and frankly childish, but he can be serious.]

[This is serious.]}

We're traitors, Envy.

We ran away.

_{[It's the first time he's ever verbally included himself with them, as a fellow betrayer. But it seems important somehow.]}

You said she couldn't get us here.

You... you don't remember?

_{[His voice quavers a little bit.]}

The basement?

[Wrath could have uprooted a tree and hit Envy square in the chest with it and it wouldn't have knocked the air out of him like that news just did.]

[There's no doubt that his widened eyes and the fear in them are genuine, because Envy would never try to look like that if he could help it, not even for an act.]

You're lying.

[The denial comes out automatically, sounding far away to Envy's own ears. He's still reeling, but it can't be true. He can't have run away. He wouldn't. And as his denial resolves, the anger comes right back to the forefront.]

I'm not a traitor! There's nothing to remember because it wouldn't happen!

_{[NOW Wrath raises his voice, because this is still pretty sensitive subject matter for him, too.]}

Why would I lie about that?

I didn't want to be a traitor! You locked me in the basement until I stopped being angry about it and said I'd cooperate! I was good, I was loyal.

But I can't be loyal now, because we have to stick together!

_{[He puffs, looking like he can't decide whether to be angry or scared. Mostly he just looks frustrated because WHAT IS HAPPENING.]}

If she finds us here, we're all dead.

And our humans, too.

She'll kill them first.

[If Envy were a more reasonable person, maybe he might have tried to listen to Wrath, or at least ask more questions.]

[But he's not. He doesn't want to hear more about this. Throw in his tendencies towards heavy denial too, and...]

[The humans. They keep coming up. It must have been them, somehow. They'd done something to his head and then recruited him to get Wrath too, and clearly it had worn off this morning.]

She won't kill me. I'm not a traitor.

[And with that venomous remark, he hangs up.]

[Today is not going well for anyone.]

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