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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[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.

_{[There's a darkness in her voice as she chuckles in response to the offer. It's far different in the waking world as opposed to the dreaming one-- more self-aware, and a little self-deprecating.]}

Thanks, but nah... if she ever comes here, I want her all to myself.

_{[But she gives Envy a smile that's equal parts murky and apologetic. The combination kind of just winds up looking tired.]}

I don't mind taking yours, too.

I guess I'm greedy like that.

_{[Messed-up indeed.]}

Anyway... I'm used to fighting dangerous things. Kinda my life's work.

_{[She pauses, then shoots him another grin that's a little brighter, with a laugh in her voice as she adds--]}

Can't exactly put that on a resume back home, but... it has its perks.

[Envy sees that darkness, and it's still a little unsettling to see on HER...but not nearly so much. He's got a much better idea of where it came from, and it's something he can understand VERY well.]

Okay then, she'll be all yours. I'm not about to take someone's revenge away.

[Her reassurance makes him feel a little better, but he's still uneasy about the idea. She probably hasn't fought anything like alchemy.]

[But...]

[She'd have a better shot than most. He's seen her fight monsters. He returns her grin with one of his own.]

I'll believe you on that. Hey...let's keep throwing junk for a little while longer.

[THEY COULD USE IT AFTER THIS CONVERSATION.]

... Yeah.

_{[THEY SURE COULD.]}

We got all night.

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65th Transformation [text | action for Shark House]

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