exeggutorhead | IC Inbox

[For the moment, Envy has wound down from his latest cycle of screeching death threats and gone right into the sullen, suspicious glaring stage.]

[The more the adrenaline of the fight and subsequent capture had ebbed away, the more it had been replaced by the awful throbbing in his sprained wrist. Not a terrible one, all things considered, even as red and swollen as it looks. But for someone who isn't used to feeling pain for more than a minute or two at most? The way this pain is lingering makes it impossible to ignore.]

[But worse than pain would be accepting help from the humans who are definitely enemies. So he just sneers at her, eyes narrowed.]

I don't have to do anything.

Besides, I don't see why you'd ask when you could just call the other two back and tackle me to the ground again.

_[GOD.]

Nobody would've had to tackle you in the first place if you hadn't gone straight to Alphonse like a freaking heat-seeking missile and picked a fight with him.

_{[UNLIKE WRATH, she's not going to bring up the deal they'd made. She knows there's no point if he can't remember it.]}

You really wanna just sit there in pain indefinitely?

_{[The swelling is very visible, she knows it hurts.]}

[His lip curls, baring his teeth a little. It hurts. It hurts a lot, but...]

Ha! You'd just make it worse.

I don't want your help.

_[SIGH.]

How would I even benefit from making it worse? It's not like I'm trying to-- ... god, I don't even know. Get information from you or something.

[GLARE.]

I don't know, how did you benefit from erasing my memories? Or turning me human?!

[Welcome to conspiracy theory hour with Envy, who has been piecing this together all morning from the scraps of information he'd gotten and stewing on it.]

_{[... Wait, what?]

[....???]

[............??????????????????????????????????]}

What?

[IT'S A HECK OF A RABBIT HOLE SHE'S JUST ENTERED. NO GOING BACK.]

It MUST have been you! You were there when I woke up, and Wrath was calling you and some other guy my humans so you must be some kind of alchemist!

_{[SHE CAN'T BELIEVE ENVY'S A FUCKING CONSPIRACY THEORIST.]

[Actually, she kind of can, but it still sort of blindsided her.]}

--an alchemist?

Are you serious?

_{[SHE DID PRETTY WELL IN CHEMISTRY BUT SHE'S NO ALCHEMIST. And besides...]}

How the hell could... fancy magic chemistry turn something into a human?

Well why else would I have been sent after you?

[He scoffs. Scoffs. He is in fact a next level conspiracy theorist and his theories that he came up with in the span of a morning are truth.]

It shouldn't, but it must have been a human transmutation. Don't act like you don't know what that is.

_{[Sent after me?]}

Of course I know what that is, you're the one who told me what it was, and exactly why no one should do it.

Jesus, do you really not remember anything?

_{[The outburst there is... more than a little frustrated, but she catches herself, pressing her thumb and forefinger to her temple and taking in a deep breath.]

[Maybe they should have taken him to the Center and had one of the Joys deal with his injuries. They have to deal with rowdy, panicking Pokemon constantly, so one tiny dude with ridiculous hair should be manageable, right? But too late for that...]}

--Look, whether you believe me or not doesn't matter.

Point is, you're a human right now and something needs to be done about your wrist. You're not freaking losing anything by getting it fixed up. Got it?

No, I don't remember anything! I thought we'd already established that part!

[He's sounding more than a little frustrated too, and he jerks against his bonds again on impulse, wincing and hissing in pain as that jostles his wrist further.]

Why do you keep asking, like I have a choice about it?

I'm tied to a chair. If you want to screw around with my wrist there's nothing I can do to stop you.

_{[She winces, visibly, when he jostles his wrist and makes a sound of pain.]}

... Well, for one thing, I need to know that you're not going to bite me when I try to get close.

For another, the more you thrash around, the worse it's gonna get, and even if you've somehow arrived at the conclusion that I'm a kidnapping mastermind, I don't want you to be hurt.

So I'm, yeah, asking.

[He's still glaring at her, wary, and there's no trust whatsoever in that gaze.]

[It hurts though, and he noticed her own wince. He doesn't believe her exactly, but he's wondering if maybe she thinks she cares. If maybe whatever act he'd put on had really, really fooled her.]

[His shoulders hunch as he relents, at least a little.]

What would you even do to fix it?

_{[The glare honestly does hurt, a little, but... well, knowing that it's a temporary thing helps. And it's not like she didn't know that Envy was like this before, to some degree. One of the first conversations they'd ever had was about why he shouldn't be kicking his starter around like a soccer ball.]}

... First, compress it with a bandage and put ice on it, to reduce the swelling.

Then you could take some anti-inflammatories to bring it down even more and dull the pain.

Fortunately, it's a sprain and not a broken bone. So that's mostly all you need to do.

[HMMM]

[That...sounds legitimate, as much as he hates to admit it.]

So where are all these bandages and ice and anti-inflammatories, then?

Do those really dull pain, if they're for inflammation?

[He doesn't keep up with medicines. He also sounds a little more eager than he'd have liked about whether the pain-dulling was true.]

In the first-aid kit I have in my suitcase.

Well, not the ice. I'll have to get that downstairs, probably.

_{[She stands up, the mattress creaking.]}

And yeah, they do. Don't ask me how it works, that's ironically much more complicated chemistry than I ever learned in school.

_{[... That gives her an idea, though. Heading over to her suitcase, she digs around a moment before emerging with both a hefty ace bandage and a small bottle of Psyduccol. Back in front of the chair, she holds it up, turning it so that he can read the list of ingredients if he wants. And also see the cartoony diagram of a Psyduck holding its head in apparent pain in the first panel, then seeming happy and alert in the next one.]}

I know you know your periodic table, so maybe the chemicals in these things'll make more sense to you than me.

[This is the worst day. Now he's accepting help from his enemies...when he gets back to his master, he can't let her find out about this part. He'll be in trouble for enough already. Envy watches her as she digs around, and while he's still making a point not to look like he's given up, he at least doesn't look like he's about to lunge and bite her.]

[He reads through the list of ingredients carefully, and the instructions for use above that to make sure she gives it to him right, with a frown set on his face. Although his eyes do flick frequently up to her, as though he doesn't want to take them off her for too long.]

...fine. I guess that looks like it would work.

Assuming you aren't trying to just poison me.

[It's a much less emphatic jab than he's been snapping out previously, at least. He'll take the medicine.]

_{[OH ENVY HEATHER HAS SOME CHOICE WORDS ABOUT YOUR 'MASTER' JUST WAITING TO BE UNLEASHED.]

[But fortunately for everybody, she's not about to bring that up. This is difficult enough as it is.]

[She does, however, roll her eyes a little bit.]}

Honestly, if I was gonna kill a tied-up person, whacking them on the head would be a lot simpler than crafting a fake medicine bottle and tricking them into eating poison. So until you see me dragging a giant caveman club out of the closet, I wouldn't worry about that.

_{[Opening the bottle, she shakes a couple of the tablets into her hand. They're colorful children-style chewables, because that was what the last Mart they'd stopped at had.]}

[PROBABLY FOR THE BEST THAT SHE DOESN'T.]

[The fact that the medicine is so...weirdly colorful is bizarre, and if it wasn't for the fact that she'd just called him on the poison, he might have balked again.]

[Instead, he just sniffs and decides not to acknowledge the point she made.]

Whatever. So are you just going to stick those in my mouth?

I can't really reach anything with my hands.

[UUGGGHHH THIS IS SO UNDIGNIFIED HE HATES IT.]

Well, yeah. But only if you promise not to bite me.

_{[BECAUSE SHE KNOWS HE WOULD. SHE KNOWS.]}

[SHE'S RIGHT, HE ABSOLUTELY WOULD.]

[His frown deepens, but he nods. He really wants that medicine.]

Fine. I promise, just give them to me.

[He opens his mouth just wide enough for her to put the tablets in.]

_{[This is uncomfortable for both of them.]

[She prods the tablets in between his teeth and then withdraws. He doesn't need help with the chewing, after all. Enjoy that bubblegum flavor, Envy!]}

... Now while that sets in, I'm gonna untie your wrist and try to put a bandage on it. And the promise extends to all hand-related acts of violence, too. Got it?

_{[This time she doesn't wait for confirmation-- she's pretty confident that he's not stupid enough to try and punch her in the face while his three other limbs are still tied.]}

[Envy, true to his word (for once), doesn't bite her when she sticks the medicine in his mouth, and he makes a startled face when he actually does start chewing because what the hell kind of taste is that?]

[And then it goes away while he tries to keep looking sullen at her, but for that brief moment he'd almost looked like normal.]

[He definitely also weighed his options for doing anything about his wrist being untied and came to the same conclusion as she did: Not Worth It. So the only move he makes is to wince a little again as she unties him. Even if she's being careful, any amount of movement isn't pleasant.]

Sure, got it. How fast is this going to start working?

It might take awhile.

I can try and get you something stronger later when the others get back.

_{[Because like hell is she gonna run any extended errands while Envy is literally immobile and helpless, no matter how much of a pain in the ass he is right now.]

[And then she stops talking because binding that wrist is gonna HURT and she needs to concentrate.]}

[He grits his teeth hard and curls the fingers of his other hand into a white-knuckled fist when she starts binding the wrist, because like hell is he going to show any more weakness than he already has to this girl.]

[It's probably a good thing that he's tied down, too, because while he can take a lot of pain when it happens all at once, it's less easy when he's already been in pain and it's just stacking on top of that.]

You sure this is helping it?

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