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Entry tags:

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Who: Envy, Heather Mason, Henry Townshend
Where: Mahogany Town
When: 3/13/14
Summary: People keep vanishing, so it's clearly a good time to visit friends.
Rating: Anywhere between G and PG-13
Log:

He should have done this sooner. It's not like Mahogany is a very long flight from Ecruteak, and Heather and Henry have been there for a while now. Maybe it's because they've been there a while that he hasn't gone. But there's no motivator to go check in with people you haven't seen in a while like a brand new disappearance.

Flying is calming, and by the time he lands in the middle of the little town, Envy's in a much less foul mood than he was before setting out a few hours ago. And it definitely helps that he's going to be seeing his two friends in person soon. It has been a while.

Hopefully they're actually still here. He thinks they are. He sends a text out to both of them. There's a fear, in the far back of his mind, that the texts will just bounce back with an error.

hey you're still in mahogany right? because I just got here.

A true master of thinking ahead over here.

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hell yes where are you? im not in a box

_{[It's going to be one of those days, Envy.]}

i'm near the creepy medicine shop

and good i don't want to go looking underneath every box in town for you

ok ill be there

_{[Minutes rolled by and eventually here came Henry with Flower the Trubbish toddling along after him with clumps of grass clenched in her little hands. Once Henry drew near he did the Weird Henry Thing by throwing both arms in the air to see if his friend would respond in kind.]}

Envyyyy.

[Oh it's the Weird Henry Thing, Envy knows what to do this time!]

[Which is to raise his arms in the air in return.]

Henryyyy.

Envyyyyyy.

_{[This continued until he'd reached his friend and bumped into him slightly just for fun. He lowers his arms and lets Flower catch up to him.]}

Hey, man, it's been a while.

_{[Then he makes a face because the next words that come to mind are 'you aren't a dragon this time' but he isn't sure why. Envy's not a dragon! Luckily he doesn't cause any confusion by saying them out loud.]}

[When Henry bumps him, Envy bumps back, just a little. There's a grin on his face, but it doesn't look quite as enthusiastic as it normally would.]

Yeah, not since after the forest.

[Dragon weekends don't count because they're confusing to remember.]

But I was just over in Ecruteak, it's a short trip from there.

I finally stopped having nightmares about trees. Mostly. So what's new with you? Hey, while you're here, can I get a photo of Fruitloops and his mom together? I think it'd be kinda neat to have a family portrait.

Yeah, sure you can. I have to go get her out of the computer first, but there's time for that.

[Which...brings him to the other question.]

One of the people I was traveling with vanished, so France and I decided to move to another town. And since you guys are here, we thought we'd come here for a while.

_{[Henry's relaxed smile melts into a little concerned frown.]}

Oh, man...I'm sorry.

_{[Some people they knew had disappeared recently and it always made him a little worried.]}

We're not planning on going anywhere any time soon.

I'll be fine. She's come and gone a few times, wouldn't be surprised if she came back.

[This is what he's going to insist, anyway. Denial is the perfect coping mechanism right? He grins, not quite as widely as usual, and nudges Henry lightly with his elbow.]

And good. What have you been doing, besides hiding in boxes?

[SUBJECT CHANGE.]

That's got to be pretty confusing for her...

_{[They have a friend who has returned but Henry doesn't know anyone who's done it multiple times. It has to be nerve-wracking for Envy too. Poor friend. The photographer looks thoughtfully at his shoes for a long moment. Envy came all this way and everything.]

[. . . ! ]}

Hey, I have some snacks in my bag. Let's hang out by that tree this town pretends is a park.

Yeah. But she's always remembered, at least.

[He can be grateful for that much, he would not have wanted to start over with her that many times. He gives Henry a curious look at the suggestion, but nods, not at all minding having something to do.]

Yeah, okay. We'll do that.

[He has no idea what kind of snacks they are. He'd bet cereal.]

_{[AND AWAY THEY GO with Henry in the lead.]

[It's not long before they come to a...pretty pitiful excuse for a park and Henry flops down into a very well-worn spot on the grass roughly the same shape as his ass. This is his smoking tree but today he is not going to be smoking.]

[He shrugs his bag off and yanks out a plastic bag of Suspicious Berries and gives his friend a small grin.]}

No garbage trucks up here!

[Envy's giving those Suspicious Berries a Suspicious Look, even as he sits down next to Henry.]

Those aren't the kind that give you a fever, are they?

[First week in Johto, he went and ate the 24-hour superfever berries. Envy does not trust mysterious fruit anymore. But if Henry says they're okay...]

Wh--no. Hell, no.

_{[He'd learned to weed out the Terrible Dear God Please Make It Stop berries years ago. He plops a few Persim and Chesto berries into his friend's hand. Persim for the trip and Chesto to make you not give a fuck about the nausea.]}

These are good in cereal.

[Since Henry clearly knows what Envy meant by the terrible feverberries, and he's had these kinds of berries and is saying they're fine...]

[He goes ahead and pops one of each kind of the berries into his mouth. Lucky the bitter and the sweet balance each other out. When he doesn't immediately feel awful, he relaxes.]

Had a feeling you'd mention...

[He trails off, looking confused as nope wait he's starting to feel strange after all.]

[Drugs don't do anything to homunculi. This is going to be a brand new experience for him.]

_{[Henry doesn't respond for some time. He leans back against the tree and watches the people and Pokemon passing in the distance. He stops worrying about having to kill God and he stops worrying if Eileen was okay and he stops worrying about the supposed cat in his refrigerator back home.]

[Arceus bless these berries.]}

Feel the grass, man. The Earth is the back of a radical beast and we're riding it into the future.

[Bless these berries indeed.]

[Envy has no idea what's happening to him right now, nor can he really bring himself to care. Everything is so colorful. He's completely relaxed, feeling the tree bark on his back. Everyone's always saying he looks like a tree. Maybe he could just be a tree from now on.]

[When Henry speaks up, Envy turns to him, staring with wide eyes.]

What kind of future are we riding it to?

A future without garbage trucks.

_{[He forms a tight little frown that's aimed at the low shapes in town. They weren't actually vehicles, not really, but now that the berries were starting to kick in (he'd started to develop a bit of a tolerance for the things) they looked like cattle.]}

Those cows are dumb.

_{[He uproots a fistful of grass and throws it in the direction of town. Naturally the blades just blow back in his face.]}

[Envy nods. Yes. A future without garbage trucks, it makes perfect sense.]

[He's trying to peer forward at where these supposed dumb cows are, and some of the grass blows onto his face too, some of them getting caught in his hair. And so his decided metamorphosis into a plant continues.]

Then you shouldn't give them grass, that's just what they would want.

[He pauses to think for a long moment.]

Maybe they'll fight the garbage trucks, and neither would be left afterwards.

If cows were that useful.

_{[He slides further down the tree until he's all but flat on the ground peering sourly over his chest at the world.]}

They'd all stick together a big...big...mecha cow. Like Voltron or some shit.

_{[Suddenly his mood changes as his eyes flicker to something on his shirt. It's bits of dirt and grass.]}

Oh...little tiny people...sup, little people?

_{[Heather's message comes a little bit later than Henry's.]}

yep we're here

wanna get something to eat

sure

where are you?

just stopping by the pokemon center for a quick heal-up

there's a nice noodle place a few blocks from the hotel, wanna meet there

yeah I'm not far from there. I'll see you there

[He really wasn't very far away; Mahogany isn't big, and he mostly remembers what noodle shop she's talking about. If she's not there when he gets there, he'll wait outside, leaning against the front of the shop. He's a little more subdued than usual, but aside from that he's acting normal.]

_{[He gets there a minute or two before she does, but she's not far behind.]}

Hey.

_{[She heads towards him from the street, weaving between all the empty outdoor tables, unoccupied thanks to the chilly early-spring weather.]}

[He gives her a grin when she walks up, taking a few steps forward to meet her halfway and giving her a light clap on the shoulder. He's getting better at this whole friendly affection thing.]

Hey. How've you been?

[It's really good to see her, especially after this morning.]

Pretty good.

_{[He is super great at the friendly affection thing! Gold star for him. Unfortunately, Heather's gonna move straight past the shoulder-clap and lean in to wrap her arms around his middle in a hug.]

[A hug that's a little too tight for someone who's 'pretty good'.]}

[Envy never knows what to do with hugs that don't come from France. So he does startle and tense for a moment, unsure what to do with his arms. But it's Heather, and he really doesn't mind getting one from her, so the tension fades away quickly.]

[And once it has, he does notice that the hug is tighter than he would have expected. He'll ask her about that later.]

[But for now, he'll loosely put an arm around her in return. Yes, hugs can be a thing.]

It's been a while, huh?

Yeah.

_{[The word is slightly muffled.]

[She pulls away after a moment or two-- no need to make it too weird.]}

Let's go in, I'm starving and it's cold.

[Envy nods, pushing open the door to the shop. It's thankfully not crowded, so there's plenty of tables open. Once they've sat down and gotten their menus, Envy's staring at his with all the intensity of someone who's just realized how hungry they actually are.]

[Which given that Henry was getting him high as a kite earlier, isn't much of a surprise.]

Hey, this does look really good.

Yeah, we get takeout from here sometimes.

Tastes good heated up the next day, too.

_{[This is an important thing in the trainer lifestyle if you want to avoid paying out the butt to eat out every single day.]}

Especially those noodle bowls. I've never been a soup fan but that stuff'll warm you right up on a cold night.

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