[Closed]

[no_ufo_ending]

Who: Henry + sharkhouse
Where: Sharkhouse, Goldenrod
When: September (various)
Summary: Henry does not know about the goblin.
Rating: G
Log:



Ever since coming home from the Camping Trip Literally From Hell, Henry hasn't so much as stepped outside to take out the trash. He hates the outside and the outside hates him. The most common places to locate the Receiver of Wisdom are: on the sofa (face down), in his sleeping bag (zipped), and in The Ogre Hut (???).

Comments

[armoredsoul]

Alphonse comes into the house with his arms laden down with groceries, Beryl chirping and bounding along behind him excitedly. He has plans today. He's going to make biscuits! Biscuits for Pokemon! This is going to be fun and good and not at all going to end with flour everywhere in the kitchen.

He pauses on his way to the kitchen, though, and glances over to where Henry is sprawled out on the couch. After a moment, he goes to set down the begs, then walks back over and gently nudges his shoulder, in case he actually is sleeping and not just...Henrying.

"Hey, Henry, you wanna help me make cookies for the Pokemon?"

[no_ufo_ending]

Henry only heard the 'cookies' part. He slowly lifted his head, his hair plastered to one side of his face.

"Sure."

That sounded like a nice, normal, non-camping activity and he liked being around Alphonse enough.

[armoredsoul]

Al grins and offers Henry a hand up.

"Cool! I have a few recipes to try out, so we can experiment a little bit."

[no_ufo_ending]

Once he's sanding, Henry makes his way to the kitchen to move some of his sandwich making junk out of the way.

"I haven't had homemade cookies in a long time."

HOME. MADE. Not campfire made. Fuck camping.

"What are we going to try first?"

[armoredsoul]

Had? Al looks back at Henry curiously for a moment before shrugging and going back to unloading the ingredients from the bag. Well, the recipes hadn't SAID that humans couldn't eat them too...

"Well, I thought I'd start with a vegetable one. I found one that uses carrots and another with pumpkin. ...the store had a lot of pumpkin stuff, actually, it was kind of weird." He was around last fall, sure, but the Cult of Pumpkin had not gotten it's claws into him at the time.

[no_ufo_ending]

"Oh, that's something from our world. It's a seasonal flavor, a little like how there is lots of peppermint in winter."

With his things put away, he stands at attention, waiting for instruction.

[armoredsoul]

"Oh, that makes sense. Dunno why I didn't notice that last fall..."

Al grins and pulls out his recipe, looking it over before grabbing up the carton of eggs and one of the cans of pumpkin. "Okay, it says to mix the pumpkin and two eggs in a bowl, and add flour and dry milk after that. Can you do the mixing while I measure out the rest of it?"

[no_ufo_ending]

"Maybe you were busy."

He doesn't remember when Al showed up. He doesn't remember a lot of things. He accepts the mixing job with a nod and suddenly there are the pit pit pat of many feet as some of the house 'mons come to see what's cooking.

[armoredsoul]

Al hums and taps his chin, nodding. "Probably. There was a lot going on at the time."

He hands over the can and eggs with a thankful smile, and has started to open up the flour when the invasion of Pokemon catches his attention. "Oh! You guys showed up a little early, I don't have anything to give you yet!"

[no_ufo_ending]

Boo, Jaspurr, and Cheerios all sit down promptly on the kitchen floor. Jaspurr latches onto the cuff of Henry's jeans with one paw and shoves the other into his mouth.

"I can't move...Al, help."

[armoredsoul]

Alphonse laughs and grins down at Jaspurr before turning to go and get bowls and cups out for both of them.

"I'm not sure I could ever free your leg from such an expert trap!"

[no_ufo_ending]

Henry frowns down at the little glassy-eyed pokemon. "C'mon, little guy...you won't get to have cookies if you don't let me help make them."

Jaspur continues to ponder the taste of his own paw and stare into the deepest reaches of the cosmos.

Henry sighs. "Is there anything I can do from over here?"

[armoredsoul]

"Hmm..." Al sets down the bowls on the counter and ponders the problem for a moment. "Not a whole lot...let me try something."

He hunkers down by Henry's feet (giving Cherrios a pat on the head and Boo a nervous little wave) before turning his attention to Jaspurr. "Hey there, buddy. You wanna help us making something really tasty?"

[no_ufo_ending]

That's right, Al, fear the tiny candle baby. She'll suck your soul right outta your eyeballs.

Meanwhile, Jaspurr stared up at (or perhaps through) Al, but his little floppy ears twitched, a sign that he was listening. Henry catches on and leans down as far as he can.

"Yeah, Jaspurr. Al's got something for you."

[armoredsoul]

Could she please not? They put a lot of work getting his soul back into this body.

Al smiles encouragingly, holding out his hand to Jaspurr. "We're gonna make a whole bunch of treats for everyone to share, but I can't do it all on my own. You want to help us mix it all together to bake?"

[no_ufo_ending]

Jaspurr thinks good and hard about this proposal. Slowly he unclutches his paw and reaches for Al's hand. Which he takes in a vice grip.

Henry is free!

The taller man all but springs back and shuffles over to the work station so that he can actually be helpful.

"There you go, Jaspurr."

Time to get cooking!

[armoredsoul]

Victory! Al smiles and carefully gathers Jaspurr up to perch the little cat on his shoulder, then stands up to go and start getting the dry ingredients ready.

But when he tries to use his right hand, he notices how...uh. Tight. That grip is. "Uh..."

Tug. Tug tug.

"...okay, then!" Guess he'll just have to do this one-handed. Can't be that hard, right?

[no_ufo_ending]

Henry just pretends not to notice what is happening and picks up the recipe where Al left off. It really isn't hard, but he's glad he has Al there to supervise.

"How many should this make?"

Translation: how much of it can I eat while its raw.

[armoredsoul]

Henry, that's rude.

It's slower going with only one hand free, but Alphonse manages to get his side of things sorted well enough. "The recipe says it should make about 20, but if this batch turns out well I have ingredients to make more."

[no_ufo_ending]

"That sounds great."

FOR HIM.

"It's kind of strange," he said after a while. "I never imagined living in a house this full and being okay with it."

[armoredsoul]

Al looks up from his mixing with a curious expression. "Really? Did you used to live on your own for a long time?"

[no_ufo_ending]

"Once I moved out, yeah. I had a big family. It was loud."

Just like Sharkhouse.

[armoredsoul]

Al smiles a bit and nods. "So this is both familiar and a bit overwhelming, huh? ...It's been a long time since I lived with a lot of people, too. I'd been on the road for years before showing up here."

[no_ufo_ending]

He nods and looks up at the ceiling where there were often footfalls and the occasional shout. Or suplex.

"It's a good kind of overwhelming...I'm glad we live here. I'm not really a travel guy."

[armoredsoul]

Al glances up when a particularly loud thump shakes the ceiling, pausing for a moment before going back to his work.

"It was real bad luck you all got stuck out in that blizzard. Anyone would be put off from a road trip by that!" Pausing a moment to offer a tidbit to Jaspurr, Alphonse smiles a bit. "Did you stop in Goldenrod when you first got here, or have you gone around the routes before already?"

[no_ufo_ending]

"I lived in the forest for some time. Heather and Mr. Mason found me after I let slip that I knew something about the cult. Then they bodily dragged me back to civilization."

As you do.

[armoredsoul]

...well that's not worrying or anything.

"Cult? Is that something that happened where you're from?"

[no_ufo_ending]

He nods slowly.

"It--it did a lot of things. They worshiped some god or devil, I could never be sure. The writings I found contradicted each other. Either way, they were working hard to bring about the end of this world so they could open some kind of paradise."

Henry heaved a sigh and started fumbling with a set of measuring spoons.

"They ruined Heather's life and nearly ended mine."

[armoredsoul]

"Oh, jeez! That must have been horrible..." His expression is one of honest sympathy--he and Edward never ran into anything quite that deranged back home, but Al knows very well how religion can drive people to insane actions. "Was it something they would have actually been able to achieve?"

[no_ufo_ending]

For a long while, Henry didn't answer. He just played with the spoons, fitting them into one another and then splaying them apart again like a fan.

"As it stands, back home, they've almost done it."

And it was up to him to make sure the final piece never fell into place. Because he was it.

[exeggutorhead]

As happy as Envy is to have his friend back in the house...he also doesn't want him to find out about their child kidnapping and locking in the basement adventure.

So he's been trying to act like everything is EXTRA NORMAL.

But today he's actually got something normal to talk to Henry about. The Haunted House needs MORE PEOPLE. So he goes over to the couch (no Henry), to his sleeping bag (empty and Henry-less), and finally to THE OGRE HUT.

"Henry? You in there?"

HE'D KNOCK, BUT PLASTIC TENT FABRIC ISN'T KNOCK-ABLE.

[no_ufo_ending]

"No."

Although happy to be home, Henry hasn't exactly been the most social. He's been a little like a cat after it's come home from the vet: MISTRUSTS EVERYONE but still comes out to eat.

[exeggutorhead]

"Hm, too bad. If you were in there, I'd ask you if you wanted to wanted to work at the haunted house this October."

Envy's not sure how much of a longshot this is with Henry's current...state. But he can still try.

Getting to jump out and scare people all day is probably the best therapy there is, right?

[no_ufo_ending]

The tent flap doesn't even flutter.

"Envy...I came from a haunted house."

[exeggutorhead]

"This is different. This time, you'd get to be the haunting."

Envy is nothing if not persistent.

[no_ufo_ending]

There was a long silence from within the hut.

"Keep talking."

[exeggutorhead]

"Nobody'd be scaring you, you'd be doing all of the scaring. We could even set a room up for you where none of the Ghost types would come in."

And then he has an idea. An even better idea, and he's pretty sure it'd go over well with Joker and Jimmy.

"And y'know...I bet people would like photos of them in the house. You could be near the end, jump out and snap a picture of them screaming or something."

[no_ufo_ending]

An eye appeared at the Ogre Hut entrance.

"I would need to use a disposable camera in case one of the guests got violent."