ENVIOUS

@eyndill –

    Everyone–you, me, the unrelated people reading this, to put the briefest lean on the fourth wall (don’t worry, no-one has to tell anyone)–knew this was inevitable.

    Inevitable, yet Loki was still grinning as he might while cheating destiny out of her own game, for a single look and a single meeting of the eyes was all it would ever have took.

   Mutual understanding is a fickle thing. Every now and again it manifests in something verbal. Maybe still a shake of the hand, a patting on the back. Sometimes still, all of the above. For Loki, though? Nothing was spoken, not at first. No phalanges got mixed up anywhere. This was all that happened: they looked, they saw, they knew.

   And the rest of us? Hope that there’s no such thing as Ragnarok in Spirale.

   “You must be Envy,” Loki said after an indeterminate amount of time ranging anywhere from mere seconds to several minutes. “I heard about you through the grapevine. I’m Loki.” A thumb he didn’t realize was there rubbed on against his cheek.

   Oh, they’re gorgeous. He was nothing short of captivated.

   “Such a grapevine told me you’re a shape-changer, as am I. But I don’t think that’s the only line on the ledger of similarities, do you? Frankly, I’m almost enamored.” Loki is enamored. Extremely. “But then, we’re both cut of the same cloth, aren’t we?”

surely, their captured gaze must have spoken of something not-so-negative. envy is not so surprised to cross gazes with another, a knee-jerk scowl working into their brow as they make to turn away in full. what business did someone else have with them?

none. to answer the question frankly.

there is something in the god’s expression that begs for them to reconsider. they are hardly given the time the properly process why they linger on the other’s face before they are approached. uncomfortably so, earning the dark-haired stranger a scowl of warning.

“afraid you’ll have to elaborate on that, loki,” they growl, pointedly stepping away to maintain some sort of personal bubble.

if it weren’t that he knew their name, it would be how he seemed eager to dive right past pleasantries, as if they had been old friends. another shape-shifter is another reminder that their ability isn’t so uncommon in this strange realm, aggravating them with insecurity. birds of a feather may flock together, but envy never did settle for anything less than being ostentatiously unique.

     Meeting his gaze for anything longer than a second felt as though it were some impossibly daunting task. Why was she having so much trouble with something so trivial? Under her breath, a small curse is uttered - a condemnation of her own inadequacy when it came to interpersonal relationships. Had any of the others been there, would they have given her advice? 

Try as Naoto might to attribute the budding uneasiness she had felt to something - be it the jarring shift in location or the awkwardness of their reunion being in some dingy back-alley of a ruined city - in an attempt of placing rationality at the forefront of her thought process, something else entirely had long since settled in her gut. A feeling she recognized well due to how it had assisted her in the past but was baffled as to why it was manifesting at this moment.

“It doesn’t seem as though these are the ruins of that previous city… we might’ve been moved to an entirely different location.” She stalls, crossing her arms and glancing behind her as she frantically tries to decode the message her intuition was trying to send. “So many questions… How, and why? Was it just us, or everyone?”

There’s something about that smile that causes her gut to coil tightly as she catches it in her periphery. Why did he feel so distant?

“I’m… fine, Edward. Not a scratch on me, thankfully. And you?”

they certainly had missed something and the revelation catches like a moth in a spiderweb in the pit of their stomach.

in that instant, watching the young detective maneuver her own feelings with a critical eye under the guise of concern, brows bowing with slight concentration like they’d seen the alchemist do in the past, envy’s mind races. what could have possibly occurred in the last hours of the hive to cause this rift between fullmetal and shirogane? her perceived apprehension threatened what they wished to do here.

if worse came to worst and their time ran out, they could kill her. not that it would do much good aside from satisfying their agitation with her.

“i wish i could answer you, but i’ve got the same questions myself.” their gaze hardens, metal clinking beneath their sleeve as they raise a faux automail hand to brush their hair from their cheek. the blond strands are obnoxious at this length. “have you seen the edge of the city yet? the fog is so thick you can’t even see past it. one thing’s for certain: this place is a big cage like the old one.”

her question elicits a blinks of surprise from the homunculus as a part of their charade. they purse their lips, uneasy yet guarded in presentation.

Now that was a question Grimm was beginning to tire of. His eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly as the charm vanished, his claws still outstretched expectantly. Retrieving it would be as simple as summoning the child while it was in the thing’s hands, but Grimm decided that, for now, patience might be a virtue.

“Hm. Hello to you as well,” he responded evenly, with the tilt of his head. “I am many things: performer, troupe master… ah, but that is not what you’re looking for, is it? I’m simple bug, if you must know… though I find Grimm to be more succinct.” 

At this, Grimm gave a small bow, quickly rotating the outstretched set of claws with unnecessary grace– and subtly gesturing for Envy to return his child.

“What of you, small one?” he added after a moment’s thought. Something told him that it wouldn’t be so easy to coax the charm out of this one. “Have you a name? You are a… hu-man… I presume, yes?”

Though… he had yet to see a human dress quite like that.

“i’d apologize for my manners - but i’m not a human.”

the snap comes across perhaps more virulent than they would have preferred. they are nothing short of enraptured by the appearance of this bug. the unearthly glow that emanates so subtly from grimm’s eyes is in no way short of alluring. if it were not for the troupe master being a bug, envy might have called him abnormal based on his eyes alone.

fingers curled around the charm behind their back, they move the pad of their thumb over the cool surface of the metal, feeling the lines where the design was etched into it. whatever it is - and wherever this bug came from - envy found themself instantly intrigued.

“envy,” they finally answer, removing their hands from behind their back, dispelling the appearance of a child hiding something they should not have from a parent. violet gaze looking over the charm at their leisure, they finally relinquish it to its own once again.

pressing the charm into grimm’s palm, they smirk.

“Oh apologies for not being a bundle of roses,” she snapped right back, rolling her eyes. “Don’t feel like being kind at my age.”

Before she could push further into asking what the other was however, they started to shift forms, something that gained a raised brow from her. Interesting, so they were a shapeshifter were they? That would be more than interesting to look into—

Oh but she truly despised what they decided to take form as.

Expression slowly morphed from intrigue, to surprise, and finally, to anger. There was something like bile in the back of her throat. The other could change into seemingly anyone or anything from what this display showed her, and out of anything, they decided on her.

“Switch back right fucking now,” she hissed out at them, grabbing them by the collar of the shirt. She knew how much Sombra valued her anonymity, and having someone walk around masquerading as her would ruin that. And unfortunately for her, she cared a little too much about how the other woman felt.

“Don’t you dare use her likeness again.”

well, they could not easily say that they had expected this reaction.

surprise, perhaps disgust or fear, would have been par for the course. people didn’t particularly like the implication that anyone could be not who they say they are. an understandable concept to be unnerved by - something to hate, as people did not like to admit that they did not know everything all the time. envy is about to snicker.

yet they are grabbed, a flash of genuine shock crossing their borrowed expression as the geneticist blazes with an anger that tells far more than she may be comfortable with. envy blinks at her, struck silent as they observe her outburst, a hand raising to curl fingers around her thin wrist.

wrenching out of the redhead’s grasp, envy snorts softly, finally easing into a smirk as they try to put distance between themself and the woman.

“you know her?” they chime, the voice sounding from them as if it were their very own. “good on me! i just like her sense of fashion.”

pivoting on the balls of their toes, envy laughs as they cock a hip enough to make the pinched skirt of the jacket sombra wore swish out with a near-sultry flare. they wink over their shoulder at the scientist.

he is not naive enough to begin to relax in the presence of this being – yet he finds them to be an interesting conversational partner, enough so that the opportunity to flee is made known to him yet deferred. he would remain on his guard even so, trusting not that his impromptu companion had lain out every one of their cards.

“that is true,” he accepts, not deigning the rather jaded prod at his definition of monstrosity. “then might you have a name? to complement this normal appearance?”

siblings. so they were not alone. yet he could only wonder if they were alone here – or if this city, this place was their natural setting.

“i am an elezen,” he corrects, “though i have indeed been called such by strangers in this place.” he does not respond to the question of his height with an answer more substantial than a single raised eyebrow.

a wide, sinister arrogance cracks their face, teeth bared in a show of aggressive amusement. to be asked their name never ceases to bring them glee - especially when the one who asks is wary of whatever it is that they’re dealing with. the homunculus tucks their chin down toward their collarbone for a moment before tilting their head lazily, as if answering is casual for them, belying their expression.

“envy, if you must know.”

the humor doesn’t dim in their crinkled, heliotrope gaze. they regard the slight annoyance the elezen embodies, chuckling lowly when that thin brow of his disappears under his fringe.

While the other did that, Miriam scuffed her feet across the asphalt, watching how her shoes kicked up little pieces of gravel. It all that exciting, though the natural progression of things offered a bit of comfort. Fingers lacing together, she stares at them for awhile, as if judging the way her skin stretches over her knuckles. 

“Wondering, eh?” With nothing else to say for a moment, she takes a moment to get one good breath in and out, quirking a brow at the other. 

“If you’re wondering, you can ask. But ah, if I can ask.” Biting on her lips, she kicks her legs straight out. “If you’re happy in this form, how much does it matter? If you want to talk about what you consider the real you, I’m happy to listen. But eh, if we’re happy how we are now, more power to us.”

She’s not sure what she means by that. It doesn’t totally make sense, but she likes to think that it’s something understandable.

a grimace flashes briefly over the homunculus’ visage. happy? in this form? they hadn’t ever considered such a thing. it’s merely a form, they want to tell themself. something to wear, something that isn’t as ugly as regular humans. something a little unnerving, yet that appeals to their taste and embodies what a homunculus should look like.

envy scoffs, gaze averted from miriam.

“i’d say this form is just practical. my kind are made in the image of humans, but only two of my siblings have forms other than the normal human.” they snort softly. “well, technically only myself and my older brother.”

the timbre of this conversation doesn’t suit the normal atmosphere that embodies the two of them when they’re together. it settles incorrectly in their core, as if discussing such things without the purpose of talking down on another is unnatural. in a way, it is. for them, at least.

happiness, however. that sticks with them. they sneer momentarily before bouncing to their feet.

She pumped the gas, finding a nice little pocket and just slipping in there. She adjusted the mirror so she could get a better look at her guest, her eyes darting back and forth between them and the road rapidly. 

“Sorry bud, but I MIGHT be doing 80 in a 65 highway and if I try to decelerate or pull over it MIGHT get ugly. If you want out you’ll have to jump out!!” If they wanted to test their luck with jumping out of the car, that was their business. Several cars were honking at her, and she promptly shot her left hand out to flip the bird. God, when was there gonna be a lull in the traffic, there had to be hundreds of cars out here….

“You can get out when I get pulled over!”

humans are absolutely batshit. envy had decided so over a century ago - perhaps it’d been a sentiment ingrained into them upon conception - but this predicament they found themself in at current only solidified their opinion.

“jump out?!”

“you’ve GOT to be joking, lady - ”

the blaring of a car horn drowns out their voice just momentarily as the blonde speeds through the dense traffic. how she had managed to get this far without at least clipping another vehicle is beyond the homunculus. if they were to open a door to bail, it would honestly make that a reality. they could always climb out of a window, but with how close the car comes to side-swiping another, they shrink back into the cushions, crossing their arms with a huff.

“Have you ever brushed your hair before? Gross…”

“I’m going to pin you down and shove a gummy worm up your nose.” 

“You’re the one whos hair looks like worms”

“It’s chocolate pudding and gummy worms you absolute fucking animal.”

“Thanks. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for seeing you’re still alive.”

wyrms? what about them?

“Eating nothing but worms in dirt all day. It’s a fuckin’ party and my blood sugar is everywhere.”