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

At There you are, Scar forgets, for a moment, to be awkward. Lust's voice and smile echo in his empty head until Henry and Envy pull him back to the present. His brow furrows as he spins together the mental image of a mermaid, holding onto it long enough to decide that it's...

"That's absurd."

More words!! Just! Coming out of him!!

Unfortunately for Poochyena³, while Scar is a weapons grade sucker, he doesn't have anything to hand out other than pats. Which he does. For all three of them.

Lust scoots over, and Scar's incessant internal refrain of give her space fails yet again. He settles beside her gingerly, eyes still flicking between her, Espurr 1, Espurr 2, Espurr 3...

Don't worry, Envy, he's leaving plenty of room for Ishbala. The resident Diet Coke is being extremely careful about the resident Mentos.

As her master chugs down that glass of water like her life depends on it, Twojo politely ambles over to Scar once he's seated and waits to receive her own pats, her fluffy bobble of a tail wiggling in patient excitement.

TWO new friends, and she got a piece of cheese. Everything's coming up Twojo tonight. :)

Henry is abandoned--except for his good pal Guglhopf who he continues to pet. Now that his audience is narrowed down to one, he takes a bite of of his pizza slice before holding it down for the rotund mouse to bite directly off of.

Because fuck it.

"If you think that's absurd you should hear about centaurs."

She hadn't been sure if he'd sit down or not, and she feels a silly little flutter when he does. It's impossible to miss where he's looking, and at least one of the little lavender cats stares up at him with giant eyes. Lust picks that one up - Jean Luc, by the red ribbon around his neck - and plops him down in Scar's lap. The other two are curled up on her own, while one is nestled on her shoulder.

He'd always been fond of cats.

"I suppose it is, but it's still popular for summer. I do not have a centaur costume." In case that question was to follow. That would be truly absurd. And likely require engineering skills she simply doesn't have.

"I've just been having dinner. You've eaten, yes?"

She wants to be sure. It's been quite a night, and god knew what state he'd been in before she arrived.

Guglhopf may never leave Henry's lap again. A whole bite of pizza all to himself! A fitting reward for the last remaining cheese believer.

Envy's honestly surprised when Scar comes over and just. Sits on the couch semi-casually. Something about him is definitely different, than it was seven years ago. And even earlier that very night, getting him to even come into the living room with everyone had been a struggle. He hadn't even sat down then!

He's had way too much tea to try and mentally dissect this...whatever it was. But he's paying attention.

"...I think there would need to be another person for a centaur costume. For the back legs."

He's also had too much tea to not start musing to himself about costuming.

"Yes."

He can sort through whatever nonsense they're talking about with chimera costumes later. Or not at all. Because, you see,

"Your Amestrian friends drugged me."

It was a WHOLE THING he had to defrost a turkey he was so scared she would turn up while he was still doing hot girl shit in the kitchen :(

Scar's flat statement is juxtaposed by how gently he rests a hand on Jean Luc Espurr's tiny, purple head. God help him, they're even color coded... Having an Espurr to focus on is making it easier to ignore the quietly crackling space between them.

Jane Austen Rising Action Stank can be redirected into Really Loving Cats.

Heather has finished her glass of water.

But she keeps drinking ("drinking"), because she does NOT want to make eye contact with Lust after Scar says the words 'your Amestrian friends drugged me'. She doesn't even remember what Amestrian means in the heat of the moment. She feels bad. She is experiencing White Girl Guilt (tm), even though none of them expected Scar to swallow an entire teacup of the stuff in five seconds, or rubbed two brain cells together long enough to realize that he might not know that Henry's tea was drugs.

There is no more water in her glass but by god she is thirsty.

Meanwhile, Twojo lets out a very soft whine at Scar's feet. Um, excuse her, but she did wait her turn like a very good girl but it looks like you are petting a cat instead??? Even though Twojo was here first??? :( Maybe he didn't see her down there.

A small rust-colored paw appears on his knee.

Henry winces when Scar spills the beans and he hunches his shoulders. He forgets he's holding his pizza down for his lap buddy. He's never going to finish that slice.

"It's my fault...I was only thinking about myself. I'm sorry, Scar."

It may have been the first time he'd said his name since learning it on Route 29. Friend was nicer sounding to HIM but that was him thinking about himself again.

SNITCHED ON! Envy also makes himself busy by joining Heather in sipping at the cup in his hands--his is, at least, not quite empty yet. He'd been sort of hoping that maybe the snitching had already happened while they were upstairs because he doesn't know if Lust is gonna scold them or not.

He knows what Amestrian means in this particular context. So he's not going to correct Scar about Heather and Henry's actual nation of origin. Although oh no Henry actually clearly does feel very bad about it.

"I didn't think you were gonna drink it all at once immediately."

However he will not deny the allegations because welp. They did in fact drug Scar.

Whatever Lust was going to say on the subject of complicated centaur costumes and the likelihood of it being enjoyed by her audience is forgotten immediately.

Your Amestrian friends drugged me.

She manages to mostly choke back the immediate laugh that threatens. She will not laugh. This is not a laughing matter. Even if it's hilarious at the moment. She isn't even sure what's funnier, that Scar had partaken or that he'd called Henry and Heather 'Amestrian'. She knows what he means.

She also knows Envy and Heather very well. She knows full well neither of them would deliberately give Scar drugs without his knowledge. And certainly Henry meant no harm. It's easy enough to see what had happened. Henry had simply made tea for the household, and no one gave it a second thought. Scar hadn't known to ask and had drank a cup of tea. It was nothing but a simple misunderstanding.

That had led to - she assumes - a somewhat stoned Scar. Honestly she's rather sorry she missed it.

Now Envy's warning makes a bit more sense.

"I'm sure no one intended to 'drug' you." Said as much for everyone else's benefit as Scar's. "Are you alright?"

Scar shoots a brief conciliatory glance in Henry's direction.

Envy, however.

Envy gets a sideways glare from right over the top of Lust's head.

"Clearly," is all he says to her question. He's sober now, so there are no black marks on anyone's permanent record. Just a sour expression. The next part comes out partially under his breath: "God knows why I would want to be intoxicated right now..."

The haze of Woman and Cats finally clears enough for Scar to notice Twojo, ever-so-politely waiting at his ankles, a single paw on his knee. Scar has two hands. One for kitty, one for Dog.

After a certain point, it would look literally insane to continue drinking from the definitely-empty glass, so Heather puts it back down on the table, coughing sheepishly.

"It usually doesn't kick in that hard..."

But of course, in hindsight, Scar's shock made a lot more sense than their mistaken assumption that he'd just automatically know what was up.

This had just been a really weird night, okay?

Meanwhile, Twojo is MORE than happy to share the attention, and immediately breaks into a big doggy smile, instantly forgiving Scar for temporarily overlooking her and pushing her shaggy head into his palm. She is much more polite than Cujo, who probably would have been trying to climb into his lap ON TOP OF the Espurr by this point.

Henry doesn't say anything else about it. He's apologized and it's all he can do. Scar didn't have some horrible allergic reaction so really it was the best case scenario.

He takes another sip of his tea and looks to Envy.

"It's been a while...have you caught Fat Stanley yet?"

Envy can tell that Lust is amused, which, along with her defense of it being an accident, is the best case scenario here! He doesn't mind at all that he's getting glared at by Scar because it's not like that's anything new.

Heather still sounds like she feels kind of bad though, so he will add one more thing, "We were just trying to all get calmed down from you two busting into our room. Someone would've probably warned you but we didn't exactly have time before it was too late."

Henry's question distracts him, and he opens his mouth. Closes it again. He hasn't thought about Fat Stanley in years.

"I sure haven't. I don't know when I last saw him around. So if some ten year old hasn't got him yet, he's probably still out there. Lurking."

"You'll get him one of these days," Lust says, voice muzzy with the peak of the tea. As far as she's concerned, that's all that's needed to say about Scar's accidental drug ingestion. It was a simple misunderstanding, Scar seems fine, that's that.

She finishes her pizza and sets her plate aside. Tomorrow will be time to catch up, and properly reunite with Henry. For now she imagines Scar would rather not be in the living room while old friends share stories and reacquaint. Besides, they have their own reacquainting to do. Things that can't be said in front of audience, regardless of their earlier display.

"And now I think it's time for me, at least, to head to bed. It's been quite an...exciting and hectic evening. Henry, again, welcome home. We'll talk tomorrow."

She stands, setting aside Espurr as she does, assuming Scar will do the same.

For all that Scar has been internally grumbling about being trapped here by nebulous social contract, it dawns on him, as Lust announces her retirement for the evening, that the alternative is!! So so much worse!!

Scar's eyes track Lust rounding the couch and heading for the stairs like he's a haunted painting. There is no DEFROST TURKEY button for this. The guests are showing up and he hasn't even pulled it out of the damn freezer, yet. He looks down at the tiny Pokemon in his hands.

The Espurr stares back.

Scar finds no answers in the void of its enormous eyes.

So, he stands, the tiny lavender creature still gently clutched in his enormous hands. He follows Lust toward the stairs, pausing in the frame of the door and turning to face the room once again.

"Thank you for feeding me," delivered like it could very well be his last meal.

Exit: Melodramatics

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

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