victory_road | Great googly moogly, it's all gone to [extremely loud incorrect buzzer]

"That's right, I can have us inside a protective anti-ghost-type guard at all times."

He's very pleased with himself about it.

"No ghosts'll get anywhere near you on my watch."

Henry doesn't have to be the one man ghost defense squad of the apartment anymore! He can just relax. His best friends, cult god and alchemy zombie, will take care of everything.

The microwave has long since dinged, but Heather's just leaving the pizza in there. It'll stay warm longer that way.

"We'll be a walking No-Ghost Zone. The Ghostbusters theme is just like, playing at all times within a fifty-meter radius of us."

After getting Scar set for his shower, Lust leaves him to it. There's no sense in hovering outside the door. And god knows she needs to sit and settle herself. It has been quite a tiring night, and it's beginning to catch up with her. The emotional upheaval, the mad dash from Ecruteak, reuniting with Scar...

She heads back downstairs, pulling her hair back into a haphazard ponytail so she can eat without it in her face. Food and a bit of special tea should certainly help. And of course she would like to greet Henry properly. His return had been...heavily overshadowed.

Attempting to make it very obvious she's coming back down, Lust steps heavily on the stairs to announce her descent. She has no doubts that she - and Scar - were a topic of discussion once they'd left the room. She seems mostly her usual self when she enters the room.

"Someone said something about pizza?"

A forcefield of Dark-types. No ghosts could get him. It feels so nice to have people behind him again.

"That's perfect--Lust!" Henry calls to her when he hears her footfalls. "The Tea is ready. And there's pizza in the microwave."

When Lust comes into view looking very normal, he gives her a smile. He's not gonna say anything about whatever all of That had been.

"It's so good to see you."

And here comes Lust!

Envy definitely caught the politely loud I'm-coming footsteps, and he doesn't blame her for thinking they might be discussing the Scene from earlier. If it weren't for Henry also having arrived home, they probably would have been. But luckily for her, she's safe from inter house gossip for now.

He does repay her politeness with his own of not bringing it up either. She's so normal and definitely wasn't crying on the floor.

"Welcome back, we were just talking about going to Lavender to get Henry's team back."

He can also let her know that they weren't gossiping! At least not right now.

INCREDIBLY, THEY WERE NOT TALKING ABOUT LUST!! ~~That's for later!!!!~~

Heather had honestly been relieved for the chance to focus on Henry, even if it was only for a little idle chatter. He seems happy, and relaxed. And coming fresh out of Silent Hill, that's the perfect best of the best-case scenarios.

"Yup, it's in the microwave. Should still be warm, but you can always nuke it for another ten seconds if it's not hot enough. ... So how is... uh..."

HOW IS YOUR TRAUMATIZED HIGH BOYFRIEND DOING, IS HE OK.

"It's good to see you, too." Lust does manage a friendly smile for Henry. She is quite fond of the man, they'd forged a friendship by the time he'd left. He's a part of this household and it's good to have him back.

""Scar's fine, he's taking a shower. And thank you." She retrieves her pizza and her cup of tea, grateful for both. "Lavender town sounds like a very good idea. It's getting to be a good time to travel, with summer on the way out soon."

And she imagines Henry is eager to reunite with his Pokemon. God knows she would be. Perhaps Scar would be interested in the trip as well. His Pokemon had been important to him.

She settles herself on the couch with her dinner and her tea, going for the latter first. Already she's resisting the urge to glance at the stairs, her mind refusing to focus on anything but the Ishbalan man in her shower.

Envy, thankfully, knows better than to make an inappropriate joke about the shower right this second. Especially after That had happened!

He grabs his own second mug of tea and another pizza slice to go join her. Isn't it nice to just easily go to sit in the living room without it being a whole wrangle!

"It's not too far from Saffron, so if we take the train it won't be a bad hike."

Ugh, hiking. But it could be worse, and he'll do it for Henry's sake. He has not considered the idea that Scar might also be hiking with them just yet. He sips his tea, very ready to settle back in to round two of not thinking a lot, less stress edition.

Wandering into the living room after Lust, Heather flops right down on the floor.

Now that the most stressful aspect of this unexpected reunion has passed, she no longer feels the need to be stoned-- the cold pizza is calling to her much more loudly than the tea.

"Yeah, n'I know the terrain around Saffron fairly well... spent the better part of a year there awhile back."

For one bittersweet moment, she wonders if the farm that Cooper and Carmen had spent so much time on is still there. That moment is enough for her to know, decisively, that she'd rather not know. Thankfully, the path to Lavender will be taking them west, not north.

"It's a neat city. I forget, have either of you guys been there?"

Henry follows the little procession with more pizza and tea. For a moment, he's torn. He could sit on the couch with the homunculi or he could sit on the floor with Heather. After a moment of obvious decision making, he sits on the floor with Heather so that things would be even.

Plus, there would be room for Scar when he got out of the shower!

Henry blows on his tea before taking a sip, savoring that bitter taste. He has a thought. Then he smiles and says,

"I want to see some Pokemon. Right now."

"I have been, but not in years. I barely remember it."

Lust sips her tea slowly, letting her dinner cool. The taste of it is soothing, even before the effects begin to hit her. Though she hopes they will soon.

Henry's comment reminds her.

"Oh!" She rarely keeps any of her Pokemon in their balls, but for this trip...well, it had been the quickest way. But she's home now and there's no sense keeping them confined any longer.

"Here we are." She retrieves the six balls and sets out her little family of psychic cats. Four Espurr and two Meowstic - one male and one female. They tumble out in a collection of giant eyes and soft purrs and meows.

"I've been too, but yeah it's been a while."

And then, suddenly, a pile of cats!

"I could whistle and wake up some of mine, but that might turn into a stampede pretty quick. You fine with that?"

Henry's just gotten back here from he and Heather's fucked up nightmare world so he's not so sure about mobbing him with too many large animals.

With half a slice of pizza literally crammed down her throat, Heather goes "MM!" and visibly perks up when Henry mentions 'Pokemon'.

Because YES!!! Now they can share Pokemon!!

Before Lust had come back downstairs, she'd been waiting for a good moment to let Cujo out to greet one of his missing favorite humans, but... well, there would be a lot of barking and jumping around and flying slobber. Henry might not appreciate that right this second, and Lust definitely wouldn't appreciate that right this second.

However, this is Pokemon-land. She has options.

"Henry," she says (a little thickly, after swallowing), "I know a bunch of my team is gonna be really happy to see you again, but first, there's someone I want you to meet. I will be right back."

AND THEN SHE SKITTERS OFF SOMEWHERE. Because while she does keep many of her Pokemon in balls simply because her life would be an unending sea of perpetual chaos if she didn't, she doesn't have any of them on her person when she's in her pajamas.

KITTIES!

"Oh--wow, there are a lot of you!" Henry raises his arms a little so that he doesn't get any Pokemon fur in his pizza. He can't help but smile. They're all so big-eyed and furry and they're cats, not dogs, which is a huge plus.

"I'm ready to see weird animals that don't actually want to kill me...did I ever tell you what the dogs were like, Envy?"

Henry reaches down to pet the other Henry's head--he doesn't recognize him right away.

He watches curiously as Heather scampers away. He can only imagine what she's going to come back with. He's been gone so long...there might be hundreds of new Pokemon discovered!

"They're a family," Lust explains. "Henry - the furred one - and May had eggs. That's Berlioz, Toulouse, Mehitabel, and Arlos Jean-Luc Pierre." The last name is accompanied by a nod at the smallest of the Espurr. His name had been crowd-sourced.

They're all wearing different colored bows and all regard the unfamiliar human cautiously.

Henry the Meowstic, however, regards Henry the Man with wide, happy eyes and a 'meow!' - he recognizes this trainer! From a long time ago!

"I've beaten a Gym with them. Only them. The locals still talk about it sometimes."

She's starting to feel the tea.

"I remember that!"

Ah yes, there's the tea feeling coming back. He's distracted by Henry's question, and he has to think about it a second.

"I don't know...I know about what Heather's dogs looked like. Hang on a sec."

He lets out that sharp whistle. Someone will show up! Back to the nightmare dogs.

"Hers were...two headed?"

Paws are skittering on the floor as the Pokemon of Envy's who can actually fit inside the house and sleep outside their balls start to appear around corners and from upstairs.

There's Guglhopf, oozing out from the laundry room and beelining for where Henry is very conveniently on the floor. And then there's also, maybe unfortunately, a little pack of three Poochyena being led by an oddly wispy looking little white Zorua. Henry hasn't met them but the puppy squad sure wants to sniff him. The Zorua hangs back, squinting at this Stranger.

"Oh wow...the last I remember, Henry was just an Espurr. When I get mine back, maybe they can play together."

Henry takes turns giving all the big-eyed cats their pets. They are ever so polite. He hears a familiar gallumphing that can only belong to the fat yellow ball that is Guglhopf! Henry leans back to grin at him as he hops his way down the little hall.

"Hey, snack-time buddy. Oh--"

Oh, there's puppies. Oh, they're sniffing him. Henry tenses up--especially around his jaw. He's very very still as the pack of wet noses check him out.

"It's...fine. It's fine." He says quietly, more to himself than to the others. Slowly he reaches out to let one of the Poochyena sniff a pinch of cheese from the pizza. "We're friends...we're friends..."

Envy's saying something. Henry has to really think to hear it.

"They didn't have eyes...or fur. They just had these long sharp tongues. Like mosquitos."

There's quite a few Pokemon in the living room, with more to come. Lust shifts and tucks her legs up under her on the couch. Her tea finished, she sets the cup aside and turns to her pizza.

Two of the Espurr puff up at the arrival of the canines, but there's nothing behind it. They're only posturing. The one in the purple bow hops up into Lust's lap.

"Maybe I'll do it again someday. And Henry, those sound grotesque."

She's only partially following the conversation. There's been a great deal going on and the tea's kicked in, her mind is tired. But it's nice, to sit in the living room and have it so full of life and sound.

Envy grimaces a little; it's been so long since Heather's had a Big Problem with dogs, and Henry hadn't seemed to as much before. He hadn't thought about which Pokemon might have shown up after having gotten the go-ahead.

"Yeah, they're real friendly. No mosquito tongues or anything." He shakes his head once, "What the fuck is up with all the messed up dogs. You guys have a lot of them."

The puppies are not nearly as rambunctious as other large orange dogs that could be mentioned, and they sniff at Henry's offered hand without any nipping. One does take the cheese.

Guglhopf sees them getting cheese and crawls fully onto Henry's lap, reaching his little paws up beseechingly. Snack buddy wants snack.

It is right around this time that Heather sidles back into the room, turned slightly so as to partially conceal something in her arms.

But while Twojo IS significantly smaller than Cujo, she's still a little bit too big to hide in this manner.

So Heather doesn't bother building up the suspense too much before turning to reveal the PERFECT BEING that is a Hisuian Growlithe, grinning broadly.

"This... is TWOJO."

Extra emphasis on the name, because it's still funny to her.

The puppy in her arms wiggles curiously at Henry, her little snub nose quivering. She is, fortunately, absolutely nothing like a Silent Hill dog, in appearance or temperament, so there's no wild desperate struggling to escape her trainer's hold to lick Henry's face or otherwise alarming motions on her part. She does, however, smell the cheese and lets out a beseeching little whine. OH PLEASE SIR CAN SHE HAVE SOME CHEESE TOO??

Assuming that Henry's dog tolerance threshold isn't pushed over the limit by Twojo's presence, Heather adds her own offhanded remark to the conversation topic that she'd just walked back in on-- "Oh yeah, we have so many fucked up dogs. The ones Dad saw had writhing masses of worms instead of heads."

This doesn't answer Envy's question, but it is a fun fact that they can all appreciate! :)

Things seem to be going okay so far. The little dogs aren't jumping. And a very fat Pikachu was in his lap begging for bites. It was okay. For a moment, Henry feared he'd bitten off more than he could chew, but he's safe here. This is Johto.

When Heather returns, Henry looks up and sees the familiar orange and white and for a moment isn't sure what he's seeing. Did Cujo shrink? Then Heather reveals the brilliant name as the Growlithe wiggles and whines for cheese.

"Twojo...oh my God, Heather." Henry shakes his head, his nose wrinkling. Heather's just the same! With the fantastic names. "Okay, okay, everyone gets a bite. But just one..

He was gonna give them more than one. Especially Guglhopf, he's Henry's favorite.

"I don't know why anything was messed up the way it was. Well. I have kind of an idea. Let me tell you about the giant two-headed babies sometime."

As the room fills with more Pokemon, the Espurr scramble up onto the couch to join their trainer.

"The more I hear about your world, the worse it sounds. I thought where we come from had some monstrosities..." She shakes her head. Well, it's no wonder Henry and Heather enjoy it here. It may be odd, and of course there's crises sometimes, but it's overall quite benign.

Something it had taken years to adjust to.

She reaches for her cup of tea and finds it empty. Hmm. Staring down into it, she wonders. Would a second cup be a good or a bad idea right now? She can't quite tell.

Envy hums thoughtfully, mind drifting in the tea zone.

"We have some fucked up dogs. Those lab chimera that were part snake, you remember."

Hm. More thinking about what's been mentioned.

"Lots of fucked up stuff with heads, too. You guys' monsters have..." He searches for a word. "Themes."

Guglhopf and the terrible three (although they are being very polite for the new person who might give them a snack! Big ol' puppy eyes and all) are all much too focused on Henry's cheese treats to pay Heather and Twojo much mind. Margrave the Zorua, though, gives Twojo a little yip--ever since coming to the future, he's always been much more willing to be nice to his fellow time-traveler than he is to...most. However, he also sidles a little closer to the cheese bearer. Not that he'd lower himself to looking interested. Just. Y'know. A little closer.

While everyone's mainly focused on all the little creatures, though, Envy's noticed Lust looking down at her cup. He still has no idea what to think about what happened (especially not two cups of tea in himself), but, while nobody's going to be really watching...

He does awkwardly reach to pat her shoulder a few times in sympathy for the Feelings. Yes. Very normal.

Henry's groan is met with a giant grin and a self-congratulatory snicker-- Heather might be several years older than the last time he saw her, but she is clearly still the little sibling here. Then again, he's the one who named one of his Pokemon "Alien Baby".

She sets the little Growlithe down, knowing that Twojo's manners are better than her namesake's-- sure enough, the pup wiggles up between the Poochyena trio and her pal Margrave but doesn't otherwise jump up on or crowd Henry. She will wait politely for her portion of the cheese!

"To be fair, the monstrosities aren't normal. They're just the world's sweet and sexy little secret prize for lucky people like Henry and me."

With the worst of the awkwardness past, she's apparently feeling at-ease enough to talk about That Stuff. Flopping back down next to Henry, she waffles over the pizza boxes for a moment before settling on a slice of Alolan-- which she waves airly as she speaks.

"Envy's seen a few of mine. Remember when you got stuck in that closet in my dream? We weren't even super good friends yet back then."

Henry passes out little bites of cheese with the reverence of a priest giving communion. Of course he doesn't stop at just one, they all have such cute begging faces. And he's stoned and he wants everyone to feel good. Cheese for everybody!

When Twojo joins in, Henry reaches out to gently pet her between the ears. "Don't tell Cujo, but I think I like you a little more."

He tips his head to the side when Envy makes his statement. They...did kind of have themes didn't they. "I guess...the ghosts weren't really themed. They were just the spirits of Walter's victims...but maybe. Oh, maybe, the babies were. And that...worm..." He squints. "It wouldn't die. I unloaded an entire clip into it and it just kept...eating or whatever it was doing."

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