Envious One

[The feed comes on to show Envy's face, and he looks like he's in a remarkably good mood today. He also looks like he's standing about thirty feet up in a tree and attached to a climbing harness. All around him are other trees with rope bridges and platforms and fun stuff like that.]

I didn't know there was some sort of tree-climbing adventure park out here, it sure wasn't here the last time I came to Azalea.

[You know where else doesn't have tree-climbing adventure parks or ziplines? Amestris. So now ziplining is going under "surprisingly good ideas modern humans have", right up there with paintball. Not even it being pretty chilly could stop him once he found out it was here; he's just wearing layers and a jacket. And earmuffs. He doesn't like being cold, okay? But there's another reason for this video. He reaches down into his pocket and pulls out a Hive Badge, showing it off to the camera.]

Got this this morning, though. It was an easy win, but now I've got all eight of the Johto badges. Now maybe when I fight the ones in Kanto they'll let me have battles that are actually challenging.

[Offscreen and down below on the ground, there's a faint shout for him to put his 'Gear away while on the ropes course. He frowns and looks like he's about to make some sarcastic comment back, but then the person shouts again that if he doesn't comply with the rules he'll be removed from the park. So he sighs, shrugs, and shuts off the feed for now. He'll just have to respond to any replies when there's nobody watching.]

[The feed opens on a view of one of Goldenrod's parks, and is aimed at a small pack of Pokemon. In the middle of the pack is a Houndoom wearing sunglasses, and he's surrounded by four wild Houndour. The Houndoom has his chin up in the air proudly, looking charismatic as hell. Then he throws back his head and howls, and the Houndour all howl with him. He scrambles to his feet, barks a few times, and takes off to chase a nearby flock of Pidove, leading his little army of yapping followers behind him.]

[Envy turns the camera around to show himself. He's leaning against the side of his Tyranitar, and the dark circles under his eyes suggest that he had trouble sleeping last night. He looks incredulous.]

That only took one hour. One hour, and my dog formed a damn gang out of wild Pokemon.

[He shakes his head.]

And you know, I remember saying after my first anniversary that I'd only be impressed if Johto kept me here ten years. I didn't think that whatever brought us all here was going to take me up on that.

But today makes three years. So happy anniversary to me, I guess.

[It's early morning when this feed comes on, the camera focused on an Aerodactyl--which, while already the size of a large dog, still looks young--curled up on the sidewalk beside a sleeping Vaporeon. Said Aerodactyl is decidedly not asleep, and is looking intently at something off-camera. The stillness doesn't last long. His head lowers slightly, back hunching, before exploding into motion. The camera follows him as he…strangely doesn't take flight, but rushes with a hopping gait along the ground using its wings in place of forelimbs. Straight into a flock of Pidove.]

[Fortunately for the birds, they all manage to take to the sky in time to escape, leaving the Aerodactyl hopping in frustrated circles and snapping up at the air. But still he makes no move to fly after them. A few moments later, the Vaporeon that had been sleeping before walks back into sight of the camera, tail waving in irritation as she scolds the Aerodactyl. The dinosaur calms almost immediately, tucking his head down contritely before following her back towards the camera like a duckling. But the camera doesn't linger on this, instead swinging back around to show Envy, who's frowning.]

It's been more than a week since he hatched, and he still won't fly. He should be able to, he was born with the move.

[He sighs frustratedly, leaning back against the bench he's sitting on and gesturing with one hand.]

Like I'd know how to teach something how to fly. What am I supposed to do, throw him out a window and see what happens?

[…which no he's not really going to, he doesn't think it would actually work. There's a reason why he was happy to let his Vaporeon take over the baby dinosaur parenting duties, and that's because Envy does not know how to deal with baby anything, but he still doesn't want it to get terribly injured.]

( Locked text to France, Tulio, and Miguel )

[Envy's feed opens to show him sitting on a bench in front of the Poke Center. There's a Zoroark's head in the bottom half of the frame, and she's looking very happy with the ear-scratches Envy's absently giving her. He's looking pretty pleased with himself too, and takes a break from giving his Pokemon attention to hold his new badge up to the camera with a grin.]



Easy enough to win this one. I heard that if I can get the rest of the badges from Johto then the teams here will actually be a challenge, so I guess there's a reason to after all.

[Doing things in order? Psshh, who needs order. But in the background of the video, completely unnoticed by Envy, there seems to be a bucket floating in midair and coming closer and closer.]

[And by the time the bucket is almost above Envy's head, it is far too late to notice anything. The only warning is a loud, gleeful cry of 'Haaaaaunt!' before the bucket is upended, drenching both him and his Zoroark. Lilith leaps to her feet with a sound as close to an indignant screech as she can make and gives chase to the now cackling Haunter. Envy doesn't move at first, although what can be seen of his expression through his plastered-down hair morphs from shock to anger to 'I am going to pretend that didn't just happen while internally counting to ten so I don't flip this bench over right now while I am still on camera'. Yeah, this definitely isn't the first time since he got this particular Haunter that he's been pranked.]

Oh yeah. [through slightly gritted teeth, while the Haunter leads Lilith on a merry and very noisy chase in circles in the background.] Anybody know a good way of dealing with Haunters?

[Said ghost passes close to Envy again, and to add insult to injury, slams the empty bucket upside-down over Envy's head. Which is exactly when Envy decides fuck self-control. He jumps to his feet, making a noise that can only be described as a wordless keysmash of rage, and manages to switch the feed off just as he joins his Zoroark in the chase.]

[It's early morning when the feed opens on a Gym battle already in progress; and it's being filmed by something standing next to Envy's legs. He doesn't actually know this is being filmed. In the arena, there's a Skarmory engulfed in fire from a Flamethrower attack coming from Envy's Houndoom. It goes down in one hit, unsurprisingly. Looks like someone's finally taking on Jasmine.]

( [Video] Gym battle )

[A short while later, Envy turns the video on himself, as he's standing outside the gym holding up his prize. He's actually looking fairly pleased now, in contrast to how he sounded before.]



And that's five of these things.

[He'll be hanging around outside the gym for a little while longer before heading back to the inn. He didn't actually tell anyone in his group that he was going, aside from a scrawled note saying he was at the gym and would be back. Even he recognizes that vanishing when nobody's awake right now would be bad. But early morning restlessness equals 'time to fight the gym right this second' apparently.]

[ooc: Badge is mod-approved!]

[The 'Gear feed comes on to show a Poke-center bed. A bed with what appears to be just a large pile of blankets in the middle, along with the odd edge of pillow…and a foot. And some long strands of green hair poking out the other end of the pile.]

Ursa!

[The 'Gear bounces up onto the bed, clearly being held by a Pokemon that was sitting on the nightstand, and moves around to where that hair is. Oh look, a face to go with it! Well, a face that's pressed into the blankets still, but it clearly belongs to Envy.]

Little Bear, if you have the 'Gear I'll turn you into a damn hat.

[This threat is lost on Little Bear. Envy lifts his head up to look at the screen, eyes narrowing blearily. His face is flushed and utterly miserable, and he's very clearly sick. This is actually Day Two of 'Envy has the flu for the first time in his life'. One arm shoots out of the blanket nest in an attempt to snatch the 'Gear back, but Little Bear is having none of that and flees back to the nightstand, laughing and turning the camera back on his trainer once he's out of reaching distance. And Envy is just too weak and sluggish to do much else about it. With a heavy, frustrated sigh, Envy rolls over to glare at the ceiling instead, still partially curled up and wrapped in blanket. And for a long moment, it seems like nothing else is going to happen, what with him refusing to play any more chase…at least, until his eyes go wide, staring up at something that isn't there.]

Teddi?

[There's no response, no indication that Envy even heard his Pokemon. And then, abruptly, he comes back to himself, scowling as he jerks up into a half sitting position and puts a hand up to grip the side of his head. What comes next is a very under-his-breath mutter.]

--out of my head!

[…yeah, he may have just forgotten that he's being filmed. He shoves the rest of the blankets off and stumbles out of bed and out of the room as quickly as he can manage to. He's wearing shorts and a loose shirt, but observant people might catch sight of part of the red ouroboros mark on his leg as he's leaving. Little Bear, now more confused and concerned than anything, turns off the feed to go follow.]

[Action for Pokemon Center]

[Envy doesn't get too far once he's left the room, and has sunk down to the floor, with his back against the wall and his knees up. He's looking both even more ill-tempered than he has been for the past couple days, and also disturbed by something. Either way, he should really not be out of bed in the hall and is probably in the way.]


[ooc: Video responses will come after he's been dragged/convinced back into the bed!]

[This 'Gear feet is a video, but it's so dark you wouldn't be able to tell. It's clearly an accident, so maybe it's just that the device is in Envy's coat pocket. Or it could just be that dark where he is. Either way, viewers will be able to hear the sounds of scuffling and Envy exclaiming quietly.]

--quit stepping on my feet!

Oh, that was you. Sorry, I thought it was some rope! [This voice is low and seems genuinely apologetic, and some might recognize it as belonging to Miguel.]

[Someone else speaks up now, voice hissing. This one is easily recognizable as Tulio.] Be quiet!

What're you so worried about, nobody's going to hear us.

Well they will if you keep up with all that-- that cacaphony.

Sshh sshh sshh! I hear something!

[All three of them go quiet now, so anyone listening to this feed will now be able to hear the sound of…waves? It sounds like these three are on a boat. There's also the sound of creaking footsteps walking by wherever they are, and it's not until a minute or two after the footsteps passed by that they finally exhale.]

I hate boats.

[There's a few moment's pause.]

…how long will this trip be?

…a few days, I think.

Oh, great.

We have to hide in here for days?

At least it's not a month…

[There's some more sounds of shifting before the 'Gear feed gets knocked off again.]

[ooc: Green for Envy, red for Miguel, and blue for Tulio! As this is a joint post, all three of them will be replying to tags.]