exeggutorhead | 65th Transformation [text

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65th Transformation [text | action for Shark House]

[There's just a short text from Envy's number today:]

Hypothetically, if you have to use a fire extinguisher on an oven, the oven would still work afterwards right?

[Any of Envy's housemates who came to investigate the mix of angry and then panicked shouting that happened shortly before that text went out will be able to find him sitting on the edge of the couch, with flecks of foam all over his front and in his hair, staring at the door to the kitchen like he'd like to murder it. There's a thick, acrid smoke spilling out of the doorway. It smells a little like oranges. But mostly just nasty burnt food.]

[Looking inside the kitchen will reveal batter covered dishes, a frying pan filled to the edges with a smoldering black thing which may have been a pancake, and a pot that's the source of most of the smoke. It's also clearly what the fire extinguisher was aimed at. No, that wasn't a hypothetical question at all.]

[Envy, in the midst of the frustration, is hoping that he's not going to have to buy Greed a new oven.]

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Ah...yeah, the babies are from the same place homunculi come from, it's an alchemy...thing. But that's not what I'm trying to--

[He gestures for a few moments, trying to figure out just what he is trying to ask, and how to say it. Then he sighs, his arms folding almost defensively; there's no use dodging around it.]

I meant do you remember what happened with my mast--my mother.

You were acting like...like how I'd act to my father, almost.

Heather, how much do you actually KNOW about what she did? Did Lust or Greed tell you anything?

[One last straw to grasp for an easy explanation, because for all he knows either of them could have told her a lot more than he did.]

_{[Her grin fades when he doesn't return it, and she cocks her head to the side, raising a brow.]}

... Uh... no?

I mean... not really. I was just goin' off of what you said.

_{[In her mind, what he'd said was plenty! The bitch made him call her Master, for crying out loud.]}

I haven't told you very much, though. Hardly anything.

When I say you looked like how I would for someone I've wanted to kill for a long time, I'm not saying it lightly.

[REVENGE MODE ENVY IS NOT A PERSON YOU WANT TO LOOK LIKE EVER.]

I mean, you dragged her out in chains and threw her off a cliff. You throwing that scooter just now is what reminded me.

[And gave him a bit of a panic attack in the process, which...he knows she's not normally one to do.]

It's...more than just what I said, isn't it?

_{[She started out looking kind of baffled, but as he elaborates... she actually seems to get a little edgy.]

[Mouth tugging into a frown, she folds her arms.]}

Well, sure, you haven't told me any gory details... but I know this kinda shit when I see it. She had you callin' her 'Master' and doin' dirtywork for her. And she had a bunch of OTHER people under her thumb, too.

_{[And she hurt you enough that you flinch sometimes when people take a certain tone with your name.]}

Isn't that enough?

_{[We'll take AVOIDING THE QUESTION for five hundred, Alex!]}

Edited 2015-08-15 05:06 (UTC)

[He notices her getting edgy, which probably means he's on the right track. He doesn't want to push her until she completely shuts this down, but...]

[He needs to know.]

It's enough to be angry. It's enough to want to hurt her.

[He himself knows just as little about her mother, and yet he'd want to kill Dahlia or hurt her if he ever saw her. But that's also HIM and he knows he is in no way normal.]

And you aren't wrong about her. But I've seen you pissed off on other people's behalf before. I've NEVER seen you look like you did with her.

[He shifts in place a little, a poorly-hidden uncomfortable expression crossing his face. It looks a lot like the one he'd worn in the dream.]

_{[He's DEFINITELY on the right track.]

[She's not sure she LIKES him being on the right track.]

[But while she can already feel defensive bafflement boiling up (why is he being so weird about this? She was doing it for HIM!), the fact that he looks... uncomfortable rather than angry is enough to make the bafflement overpower the defensiveness.]}

... Well-- I just feel really fuckin' strongly about moms who treat their kids like shit, okay? Is that a problem?

I mean-- I thought we talked about this.

_{[They HAVE, but not ENOUGH. This is what happens when you aggressively delve into other peoples' family issues while pointedly not giving anything but the bare bones of your own, Heather. EVENTUALLY, QUESTIONS START GETTING ASKED.]}

Yeah, we did. About my shit.

[And some of hers too yes, but yeah. Not enough.]

And part of that was that I don't--I can't hurt her, remember?

[He doesn't look happy, saying it, but it's relevant enough that he has to. She certainly hadn't remembered in the dream, in spite of the understanding she'd showed about it before. Which was a big tipoff that something was up.]

I don't know, it was...you didn't seem like you were doing all that just against my mother. It was more personal than that.

[Something where he knows what it looks like. He sighs, crossing his own arms.]

I just want to know what was going on, there.

_{[She'd gotten a LITTLE carried away in the dream. Just a little. ... Okay, a lot.]

[She definitely looks uncomfortable now. Of all the things she'd have expected Envy (or ANY of her friends, really) to call her out on... this was not it.]

[Her knuckles crack audibly as she flexes her fingers-- not out of anger, but more... nervous energy.]}

Well-- okay, yeah, it's kinda personal. She reminds me of MY mom, and I'd kill that bitch over and OVER if I could. And after the shit yours SAID about you in that dream? I just-- I-I don't get why this is a thing.

Why does it matter if it was personal or not?

[Well, that confirms his suspicions at least.]

[It's tempting to just leave it at that. They're both nervous and uncomfortable talking about this. But...]

[Still, he hesitates before continuing. His voice is strained; like her, it isn't with anger. He doesn't want to admit that he'd been scared, but he doesn't see how he can get around that.]

Because if it's going to get you to drag her out and make me...confront her like that, I at least want to know why.

[He hadn't been prepared for it, at all. They have very different ways of coping with their mothers.]

_{[As he goes on, the flustered, defensive irritation fades from her face. It's replaced with alarmed realization and the sensation of a bucket of ice cascading into her stomach.]

[Because oh.]

[Oh shit.]

[That had been an incredibly stupid thing to do.]}

.... I'm sorry. I shouldn'tve done that.

_{[She mumbles it hastily, and the contriteness in her voice and face are genuine.]

[... But she's still not answering the question.]}

[A look of near-relief flits across his face, and is replaced by an expression of...not exactly a smile, it's still strained, but it's the closest thing to one since this conversation started.]

It's...I'm not mad at you. I was actually more, I dunno, worried.

[Acting like him is never a good thing. He sighs, and then takes a few steps closer so that he's not talking to her from across the junk heap anymore.]

Look, I wouldn't be asking you all this if it didn't help me whenever you started pushing me to answer shit whenever I'm freaking out.

Even if it's been a while since it happened, that's all still there, isn't it? That's not the kind of thing that just pops up from nowhere and then goes away. You got like that back before the last weekend, too, when I thought she might show up.

_{[The fact that he's come far enough to realize that is downright impressive, and as uncomfortable as this whole conversation has become, Heather can't help but feel a little... touched that he's quite literally trying to do the same thing for her that she's been doing for him.]

[... And it's good to hear that it's helped, too.]}

I... well, yeah.

Yeah, I've got issues.

And I can't... say that I wouldn't treat her the exact same way if she showed her face in real life. Maybe I wouldn't be as... crazy in the process, but...

_{[She scuffs her shoe on an old rubber mat that's poking out of the top of the pile.]}

... She talked about you like you weren't even a person. Like you were just a tool.

I don't-- I'm sick of people I care about being treated like that by someone who's supposed to LOVE them. Someone who they're supposed to be able to trust. I just-- I hate the fact that ANYONE is still going through what I did.

Especially you guys. All of you.

[He can't lie, he's kind of--okay, a LOT--alarmed at the idea of Heather trying to go up to the real thing and drag her around on a chain or throw her over a cliff. He doesn't think it'd turn out well for Heather. But he can get back to that later.]

[He also doesn't have to ask about what the dream Dante might have said about him; he's got a pretty good idea. It was all in his own head, after all.]

...I know. We were never people to her, only useful things. She never made a secret of it.

[And she made sure they believed it too.]

[He swallows hard, fists clenching for a moment while he wrestles for control over his expression; it means a lot to him, what she's saying. He also doesn't miss the implications of it.]

Heather...

Yours...she used you as a tool, too?

[He's gotten that impression before, but never really confirmed it.]

_{[At that, she snorts. Never made a secret indeed.]}

Yeah, I could tell.

_{[There's a little of that smoldering undertone in her voice... but nowhere near the intensity it had in the dream.]

[Still, she clings to it-- it's easier to be angry about Dante than it is to deal with the yawning abyss of sickening dread that is the topic of Dahlia Gillespie.]

[Not knowing what else to do, she folds her arms.]}

Yeah.

I was the means to an end.

She wanted you to use your powers for her, right?

[Honestly, a person like Dahlia or Dante would have found a way to use, powers or no, but...]

[Having something stronger than normal just adds one more thing onto it.]

[And he may not know much about her nature as a god, but he knows that power like that is something that Dante would have had a field day over being able to control for herself, even if she got it by controlling someone else.]

[She'd sure been excited centuries back, with each new strength she'd discovered her newly created servant-son had possessed.]

... Yeah.

_{[It's not a lie. That's what it had started out as, after all.]

[Her hands find their way down to her pockets, and she turns away from Envy slightly, looking back out across the scrapyard of ruined and abandoned appliances.]}

I could make things happen, just by thinking about it.

I could make problems 'go away'.

Especially if those problems were people she didn't like.

_{[Silent Hill had always had a history of mysterious disappearances. It just so happened that a few of those disappearances, circa 1980 or so, had been the result of little Alessa Gillespie wanting very much to make her Mommy happy.]}

[Envy lets out a breath. Murder might not really bother him, but she seems to mind what her mother had gotten her to do. He can hate Dahlia that much more.]

[And it's another similarity on the pile, at any rate.]

...that bitch.

[He glances to his feet, and sees a busted up old stereo. He picks it up and holds it out to her.]

Here--throw this.

[Talking about this stuff is hard. And while he didn't ask another question out loud, he's still clearly willing to listen to more.]

_{[He's right, she definitely minds. More now than she had back then, when she'd been too young to really know any better. And it wasn't as though the people she was 'taking care of' had necessarily been innocent... given the types Dahlia associated with, the targets of her careful malice could be up-and-coming rivals for power within the cult itself just as easily as well-meaning outsiders who were too close to digging up the truth. There had been plenty of both, and Alessa had been so much more practical to use than physical methods that could be tracked back to the Order.]

[No police officer would take rampant schoolyard rumors of the Gillespie girl being a witch as credible evidence, and that was the only evidence there was.]

[Throat tight, she looks back at Envy and his offering, surprised-- and then a strained but genuine smile tugs at the corners of her mouth.]}

... Thanks.

_{[She'll take it, hold it appraisingly for a moment, and then drop-kick it as hard as she can off of the junk-pile.]}

It's why we came up here, isn't it? To let off steam?

[This time, Envy returns that strained little smile, watching with her as the piece of junk bounces a few times and finally shatters against the ground.]

...you can keep talking, if you want.

[But he's gotten the answer he'd been looking for, or at least enough to make it make more sense, and he doesn't want to full on interrogate her about her past. It's up to her, now.]

[And like she'd said before, it's not like he's told her the gory details of what happened to him, either.]

_{[Puffing slightly, she nods. It's true, after all.]

[It's a moment before she answers his gentle prompt, though. DOES she want to keep talking? Not really... She NEVER wants to talk about Dahlia. But at the same time, she can't help but be... incredibly touched just at the fact that he cares. That he had every right to just be pissed off at her and instead chose to be concerned.]

[Maybe a few more details couldn't hurt. The harmless ones that don't make her feel quite as sick to talk about, the ones that Envy can maybe relate to.]}

She made sure that the best days I ever had were the ones where I did something like that for her. She'd tell me how happy Mommy was that I'd been good. Maybe give me some shiny quarters to buy ice pops at the corner store with, or just talk in a sweet tone of voice instead of screaming.

Stupid, meaningless shit like that.

But it meant everything to me back then. I thought it was proof that if I was good enough, maybe it could be like that all the time.

_{[She pauses, hands curled into tight fists.]}

But the truth was that there wasn't a single day I didn't go to school with a cut or a bruise on me, hoping that she'd have someone for me to make go away when I went home so that I could pretend I had a mom who loved me for a few hours.

[Oh, Envy can relate to this. He can relate to this a lot more than he'd like to, and the more she talks the tighter his fists clench and the more his teeth grind and eyes narrow.]

[Maybe it's hypocritical of him considering how this conversation began, but he'd throw Dahlia off a cliff in chains if he ever got half a chance. He'd do worse.]

[He rocks forward slightly, one arm moving as though he was going to lift it, maybe to hug her or put it on her shoulder, but he hesitates and holds back before it gets anywhere.]

Our mothers would get along great, wouldn't they?

[Jokes always come easiest when he doesn't know what to say, but his voice is strained with a mix of anger and sympathy and struck nerves, and the tiny laugh coloring it doesn't sound humored at all.]

...sorry.

_{[He doesn't need to apologize for making jokes about it.]

[Unlike... most people Heather knows, he's in the extremely exclusive, limited-entry club of Ones Who Understand. He has a monster of his own, and she's personally witnessed how it still has his barbs in him.]

[So although she'd remained a little stony-faced and far-off, when he apologizes, it reminds her to smile. And she does, even if it's a strained one. To show that she doesn't mind.]}

Get along?

Heh.

They'd eat each other alive.

[He's relieved when she smiles, and his own turns a little less bitter for it.]

[It's a good thing, to have someone who understands. It's a big part of why he listens to her so much, why she's able to calm him down when very few other people would be able to.]

Hah, they probably would. Mine never did like competition.

It'd save us some trouble, I guess.

Mine either.

I guess it would be a fitting end.

_{[Not as fitting as the one Dahlia ultimately received, but Heather doesn't feel like going into that. There's little satisfaction in thinking about her death.]

[Death hadn't stopped the old hag from reaching into the future and continuing to ruin the lives of those she abused in life.]}

It would be.

[Nor as fitting as Dante's, although Envy doesn't actually know what happened there. He still doesn't really believe Al that she died and didn't just slink off to lick her wounds and gather strength and servants again. He lets out a long breath.]

I'd help you with yours, if she came here.

And I don't...really mind if you kill my mother, if she shows up. So long as you don't expect me to join in.

[He's actually grateful that she keeps offering, honestly, as messed up as it is. They're messed up people.]

...but if she did, she'd be a LOT more dangerous than she was in that dream.

65th Transformation [text | action for Shark House]

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