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

For a second, Envy's mouth opens. Then closes. His eyes widen.

"What if it's the other one?"

Although as soon as the horrifying thought exits his mouth, he realizes that whatever had just happened could not possibly have happened with the other Lust he'd met.

"No...that doesn't make sense. Also he knew all of us. Maybe Henry did some weird...emotion giving social magic to him in the woods."

IT'S TRUE... And Henry had been so calm and confident around Scar, too.

But then, if anybody is aware of the unlikely-friendship-building power of traveling together in a magical technicolor world of fantasy creatures, it's the people in this house.

Sounding a little less mystified now, Heather rolls over onto her side to face Envy.

"Getting them both back on the same day is crazy, right? Like. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop."

He nods quickly, bringing one hand up to run back through his hair.

"It is crazy. I thought I'd forgotten what month it was or something, or like they'd disappear if we left the room or something."

Of all the two people who could have come back at the same time, Henry and Scar were probably the least likely. Henry had at least come back once already...but Envy hadn't thought they'd ever see Scar again.

"I can't believe they just showed up like. Oh we're great buddies now. I didn't know Scar could make friends."

And Henry had used to be terrified of the guy!

"YEAH, I thought if I fuckin' blinked, Henry would like... despawn!"

She's still whispering, but fervently.

"And that's besides worrying that Scar was going to like, shoot through the roof like a cannonball before Lust got home!"

HE DEFROSTED A TURKEY.

"Envy, I had like four aneurysms tonight."

"Me too! I didn't even think I was gonna get him off the floor in here until he actually stood up!"

His whispers are rising in pitch as he continues.

"I didn't have any idea what was gonna happen when she got here. She just hung up on me."

He exhales heavily.

"What if he'd run off into the woods after I called?"

Likewise, Heather is talking faster and faster. She even reaches out and grabs his shoulder for emphasis, unblinking.

"We would all be dead. She'd get home, see him NOT there, and then she'd go back out, buy a gun off the black market, come back, and shoot us execution-style."

She may or may not have experienced a complete Occurrence At Owl Creek-style mental vision of this as she sat on the floor with her Tea (tm) waiting for her friend and roomie to get home.

He reaches out to clasp her shoulder in return.

"It's not like we could've actually stopped him! She would have stabbed us though."

Whether or not the violence would have been truly happened, the method is non negotiable when it comes to Lust. But offhanded correction aside, he keeps going.

"I didn't think they were gonna start crying. I--"

Suddenly, he's interrupted by a painfully loud THUNK from the other room. It sounds exactly like a wooden headboard hitting the wall. He goes dead silent, slowly turning to face in that direction, brow furrowing.

Yeah she definitely would have stabbed them-- but the thought of Lust with a gun is just ludicrous enough that it fits into the series of wild events of this evening perfectly in Heather's mind.

She had been nodding furiously in agreement when the THUNK rings out, and she freezes instantly, eyes widening.

After a second or two of dead, stunned silence, she mouths:

WAS THAT FROM HER ROOM????????????

Envy raises a finger to his lips, even though Heather hadn't actually made any noise. Then he nods, very slowly.

The noise doesn't happen again....but....

He looks Heather right in the eyes, completely serious, and finally mouths back.

THAT WAS FROM. THE BED.

Her eyes, if it's even possible, get bigger.

After the panic, the anxiety, the DRUG TEA, the relief, the CRYING ON THE FLOOR, this possible new variable being added is potentially EARTH-SHATTERING and recovery MAY NOT BE POSSIBLE.

She maintains the silence for a moment, not even daring to breathe. Fortunately for her freaking sanity, she doesn't hear anything else, but she does mouth after a moment:

ARE YOU SURE?!

He just nods solemnly. So very, very unfortunately sure.

At least it doesn't seem to be continuing to happen, so who knew what exactly was going on in that room for real. Envy does not particularly want to think about it though! They were already so weird in the living room in front of literally everyone! He has no idea what he'd do if the thunking had just. Continued.

I REALLY DON'T GET THEM.

If the thunking had continued, Heather might have experienced a full-on mental break from reality.

One thunk, though, could totally just be them, like, getting into bed right? Scar's a big guy. He could totally produce a thunk from sitting down on a bed.

RIGHT?

I'M HAVING A PANIC ATTACK.

Envy squeezes her shoulder in solidarity as the silence stretches on...and then realizes that actually? If there's any more suspicious noises he doesn't want to hear them.

So it's back to actual hurried whispering!

"Okay look, full disclosure I saw Scar in Amestris one time for about 30 seconds. I had no idea anything was even going on between them until they were both here being weird at each other. I still don't know what the hell happened."

This is what happens when you don't ask questions! But oh boy he sure has questions now.

"Why'd he say he's known her for twenty years?"

Heather's stare is big and blank for a moment as she absorbs what Envy's saying.

She actually has very little technical knowledge of the intricate web that tied all these people together back in the world her Homunculus friends came from. It had never exactly been relevant.

BUT, what Envy's saying now does bump up in her head against the things she can remember Lust sharing.

So, slowly, her brow furrows.

"I thought they like, knew each other?? Lust said they did." Lust said she was obsessed with him. "You didn't know him?"

Envy shakes his head, "Noooo. I didn't know him and it's probably a good thing too."

He's pretty sure he knows exactly how he would have decided to solve that "problem" if he'd known it was any part of why Lust had been acting so fucking weird before the mess in Liore.

Some small part of him still instinctively wonders if that might have saved her from what he'd seen happen in that warehouse.

The larger part knows by know that that's not really true.

"Did she say she knew him? I remember he caused her some annoying problems a few times but that was all she told me. And then some...or well, a lot of stuff happened? But our master had sent me somewhere else, so I wasn't around for it. It's. REALLY complicated to explain."

He really doesn't want to explain the entire plot behind what they did to Liore to his normal good person girlfriend!

On some level, this new twist in the already-twisty topic is a blessing. Because Heather is no longer fearfully waiting for another thunk to occur.

"Yeah, she said she like..."

Her whisper trails off for a minute as she tries to recall. It's been... a long time since any of her conversations with Lust had crept into that kind of territory.

"She said she like, followed him around and watched him. Which I guess isn't the same thing as 'knowing', necessarily, but like. They BOTH say they knew each other, so they must have, right? They weren't strangers."

If they'd been strangers, there is absolutely no way that Lust would have been so emotionally entangled. Lust doesn't get that way about strangers.

There had been very little reason to discuss Scar or Liore in...a very long time. It just hadn't had a reason to come up.

Which of course means there's still an enormous hole in what exactly Envy knows about what happened in that city, or in the immediate aftermath.

"...all I know is she was acting different before she went to the city where this all happened, but she wasn't assigned to follow him or anything, it was about a totally different mission. I don't remember we even really knew where Scar was for a long time. Maybe he knew her while she was alive? I know he didn't bring her back."

MAYBE HE SHOULD ASK LUST SOME QUESTIONS. PERHAPS. He drags a hand back through his hair, groaning. Having a billion questions is Lust's job! Not his!

"I don't know. I don't know how...that all happened in a couple weeks."

Edited 2023-10-24 18:48 (UTC)

The possibility that Envy mentions so offhandedly clicks in Heather's head in that way it only can for someone who is so removed from the situation and has so few details that the truth just presents itself using Occam's Razor as a silver platter.

"Well he must have, right? If they both say they've known each other longer than what makes sense?"

Like, duh, Envy? That would explain EVERYTHING?

Envy opens his mouth, thinks a second, closes his mouth. Somehow it still feels much more complicated than that.

"I guess? He's the only one who said he knew her for twenty years though. But homunculi are missing just about all of the human's memories when we're born, unless we get hit with something big..."

He goes quiet again, brows furrowed. Actually maybe he should keep the rest of what he knows about the details of Lust's memory struggles to himself if she hasn't already told Heather on her own. That topic is very personal for homunculi.

"What else did she tell you about, anything?"

"About Scar, specifically? Not much."

... Not much that was relevant to right now, anyway.

~~Even if some of it was KIND OF REALLY FUNNY in hindsight. WHAT IF THERE WAS ONLY ONE THUNK BECAUSE SHE'S CUTTING HIS HAIR AGAIN??????????????~~

"About memories, nothing like... detailed, but she did say she had 'em. Which, honestly, like... tracks."

Even in whispers, her tone softens a little with that last bit. She's never really pried too much from EITHER of them, but Heather has at least kind of gleaned over time that Lust and Envy have somewhat different outlooks on whatever remnants of their past selves still remained.

Lust's description of how the memories hit, though?

That had been nearly spot on with Heather's own experience. Particularly in the pain department.

"I did know that hers were starting to come back, back home. I'd...well I guess I'd been kind of jealous that she seemed like it wasn't happening to her for a long time before that. But she wanted to know more."

He never really got why. He'd have given anything to forget his own.

"They're from the same city, but I don't know anything about who Scar could've been. Just that he didn't make her. And that he didn't trigger anything for her just from seeing him."

Envy might catch the BRIEFEST of tender looks from Heather as he mentions his namesake. Because while Lust's visceral flashbacks had pinged her own experiences a little bit more, Envy's the one she can relate to more when it comes to whether or not the memories are wanted.

Although he admittedly had been running from his for a lot longer than she'd been from hers.

"Well, sometimes just seeing someone isn't enough. So that doesn't necessarily mean they didn't know each other before. I didn't start remembering stuff right away when I first ran into Claudia, the memories started trickling in later."

He does catch the look, and as always, it's a warm reminder of why he's willing to admit to these things to her in the first place. She's not his master to push that envy towards bitter fury and she's not an alchemist to demand he be as he was or die and she's not a homunculus exactly but she knows. Of all the things she could do, she'll look at him like that.

"I...yeah, maybe. I think I'll have to ask her either way, and see what she wants to tell me."

Not for the first time, he wishes he'd been capable of thinking to ask her about these things back then. But at least they have the opportunity now. He sighs and shakes his head, then thinks of something that makes him let out a little half snicker.

"Because somehow, I really doubt Scar would want to explain his life story to me."

Edited 2023-11-15 00:15 (UTC)

Better late than never, Envy.

She smiles, taking a brief respite from the AWKWARD BUBBLE this whole night has been encased in to reach out and affectionately brush some of Envy's hair over his shoulder.

"Yeah, I think he'd just look at you like a fly in his cereal. Lust would at least tell you to buzz off if she didn't feel like answering."

Yeah, the bit of affection is definitely appreciated after everything. Envy leans his head to the side to bump lightly into her hand before she pulls it away, then snickers at her colorful description.

"After all the questions she used to hound me with, I feel like I've earned at least a couple."

Edited 2023-11-19 06:23 (UTC)

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

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