Chapter Nineteen: Scarborough Fair Pt. 2
“And now we have a new issue, we need more red stones, but in order to get them, Gluttony has to be fed. Where exactly are we going to get the human corpses to feed Gluttony with?” Lust ran a hand through her hair as she knew this would be a problem if Gluttony isn’t fed immediately.
“That’s not a good situation…look once I regain my teleporting abilities, I could fetch some frozen corpses from Corpse Mountain back at home. They’ve been in permafrost for a long time, so the meat should be alright for Gluttony to eat I hope.” Dolly said, remembering the convenient store known as Corpse Mountain back home to feed Gluttony with.
“Seriously? You have a place called Corpse Mountain?” Lust gave Dolly a bit of a surprised look that there was such a location called that. “Well it’s actually called Mount Kaiser, but everyone back home has called it Corpse Mountain for a very long time.” Dolly somewhat explained to Lust as she made plans to make that grocery run to feed Gluttony once her ability was back to functionality.
“As much as I want to know that very interesting origin, I need to figure out an immediate solution to feed Gluttony with. Gluttony can get a little hangry if he isn’t fed right away.” Lust started to carefully go over some ideas on how to feed Gluttony until Dolly was able to get him some frozen corpses.
“Fair enough, though as much as I don’t want to suggest this, we should check the obituaries. That should promise some fresh corpses to feed Gluttony with.” Dolly pointed out reluctantly since she didn’t want to see a rampaging Gluttony on top of a rampaging Envy.
“That’s not a half bad idea, only problem is if we do it at night, we might run into Envy before any help would be given to them.” Lust hummed a little bit, debating if a daytime grave robbery would be more prudent at this point.
“Does Resembool have a morgue? I know that it’s a very rural town and I don’t know if they’re a community that holds funerals at home or if they have a hired service, but if there’s a morgue, then we would be able to shop there.” Dolly said, hoping like crazy that Resembool did in fact have a morgue to raid.
“...I’m going to have to ask the Elrics, that too is something to think about.” Lust, likewise, began to consider the hopeful possibility of a morgue being in Resembool.
“I think that would be a good idea, I’m not all too familiar with how Resembool works as a community.” Dolly admitted, nowadays most locations have a morgue, but there are some that still carried on the tradition of at home funerals.
“Neither am I, it's not a location I tend to be sent for missions often. I will say for sure though, if they’re still doing the home funerals here, I am not going to be attempting to climb out the window with a corpse.” Lust pinched the temple of her forehead as this wasn’t something that should’ve come up but did already.
“Might I suggest luring the police here? They’re an excellent source of protein.” A voice chimed, forcing both Dolly and Lust to look over.
Greed had returned back to the cabin after ‘helping’ the Elrics check on the Rockbells and bringing them over. Lust could only just shake her head since that was a very Greed suggestion right there. Greed just lazily leaned against the door frame of the designated recovery room, giving an appreciative whistle over how nice of a set up it was as Lust thought over the police suggestion. True, the police were horrible creatures that clearly would work well to give Gluttony something fresh to eat, but on the other hand, it was a well known fact that the police have no souls and would likely create subpar red stones to feed Envy. The other issue was where to lure the police into should that route be taken to avoid the Elrics freaking out. The snickering from Greed kept the silence at bay as Lust puzzled a bit on how to make the police option work as Dolly monitored what the course would possibly be.
“You could use my tavern as a feeding ground for Gluttony, they’ve been snooping around there lately much to my displeasure.” Greed offered, hoping Lust would accept this plan fully.
“Oh so that’s why you’re suggesting the police, I should’ve known from the start.” Lust was clearly not amused by Greed’s opportunistic approach to the matter.
“Hey now, that’s not the only reason, it’s also the fact they’re all bastards.” Greed gladly added in hopes this would be a convincing enough point.
“I don’t know Greed, they would feed Gluttony well, but do they even have souls to make the red stones with?” Lust pointed out, throwing Greed for a bit of a loop at that question. “Oh, that is a problem. I can see if I still have a stash of them back at the tavern, they come in handy with underground dealings.” Greed offered, hoping if he can give Lust some red stones, she would go for that feeding the cops to Gluttony.
“I didn’t even realize that the kibbles were that popular…” Dolly absentmindedly said, sort’ve surprised that the meat colored rocks were that popular in the criminal world even. “You’ve been calling them kibbles? Oh that is too funny! Yeah lady, they’re that much of a big deal asides being food for homunculi.” Greed let out a loud obnoxious laugh at the fact the red stones were being called kibbles this whole time.
“Let’s not get sidetracked with this, Greed, I need you to go fetch the red stones you have so we can finish up the recovery room for Envy.” Lust requested calmly, not wanting to explain why the stones were being called ‘kibbles’. “Sure Lust, but shouldn’t you also be working on getting Gluttony his meals?” Greed had started to wear that same rock eating grin that Envy wore before.
“Aren’t you in the shady business of crime? How about you pull some strings with some ghouls to get some fresh corpses for Gluttony?” Lust smirked a bit at Greed who was taken aback by that sudden little twist. “Damn it, I was hoping you wouldn’t have thought of that, then I could’ve gotten a lowered police presence here.” Greed lamented that his plan had been foiled for the time being.
“I know, it was a very nice try though. So, will you order up a bakers’ dozen bodies for Gluttony?” Lust felt a bit victorious for a change ever since Greed had taken possession of the hearse.
“Fine, I’ll pull some strings and get some fresh corpses for the goober.” Greed relented as his dreams of getting rid of the local police force was postponed for now.
“Now that would be wonderful, thank you Greed.” Lust put on a faux smile just to rub things into Greed as he left to deal with some red stones and corpses smuggling.
With a bit of a huff, Greed went about doing chores for Lust, not thrilled that he was outsmarted out of red stones and now had to use criminal connections to feed Gluttony. He’ll have to feed Gluttony some police another day as he leaves the cabin, leaving the Elrics to hear the debrief on what the revised plan was on how to recover Envy. It wasn’t that Greed didn’t care, he did care about Envy even though they were the one to convince Dante to imprison him beforehand, it was more of the fact that he didn’t want to hear the arguing. The Elrics were already on edge about the death toll from the night before and how many more would follow, it wasn’t a no brainer that the brothers would be fighting to locate Envy right now rather than wait. Greed rolled down the window of the hearse to breathe in some of the fresh country air as he pulled up to the tavern. There was, however, an unexpected visitor waiting for him by the steps, a rather annoyed Sloth holding a letter in her hand. Greed winced upon seeing the robotic harbinger as he pulled up and got out to ‘chat’ with the nightmare homunculus.
“I really need to start picking out different names, huh?” Greed grunted as he went up to the dreadful beast known as Sloth. “Yes, you should, but that isn’t why I’m here.” Sloth casually side as she stood up to interact with Greed, robotic movement included. “Right, you’re here for Dolly and the really rude stone.” Greed narrowed his eyes, watching for any sudden movement of a possible attack.
“Not even that too, though I wished Dante had used her brain and let me collect the girl here instead. No, I’m here to deliver a ransom note instead.” Sloth almost sounded disappointed with the directions that were given as she formally held the letter out for Greed to accept.
“Damn the old hag has definitely seen better days, huh?” Greed accepted the letter, confused by Sloth being so formal when yesterday she was sounding like an enraged animal on illicit substances. “Oh you could say that, she’s already testing my patiences at this point.” Sloth admitted as she started to make the long walk back to the possibly war damaged cottage villa.
“If you’re so unhappy with being there with Dante, then why don’t you join us to fight her off?” Greed reasoned, surprised that this homunculus wouldn’t even consider something so simple.
“I rather not, everyone tends to crawl into my skin like ants. No, I have some of my own ideas, just I need the right moment to execute it.” Sloth narrowed her eyes slightly as she stopped in her tracks.
“You’ve seen what happened to Envy when they pulled that, what makes you think you’re going to pull off the one thing Envy couldn’t even do?” Greed argued, sure he didn’t like this Sloth all too much, but even she doesn’t deserve whatever horrors Dante may have instored. “Well that’s very simple to be honest, I’m not an idiot like Envy was. Envy showed their cards all too soon and got themself into this well earned mess. I have my game plan, I’m hiding my hand, and when the right time comes, it’ll be all worth it.” Sloth said in a matter so casual, it was almost as though this was the only logical way things should go in her world.
“Okay, I’ve changed my opinion, Pride isn’t the scariest homunculus, you are. You’ve earned the scariest title by far.” Greed started to give Sloth some space, her planning skills unnerving Greed to a pretty grave degree.
“You’re all just too simple really. Well, I’m done wasting my time. I have to make sure Dante hasn’t inhaled the toxic fumes from the destruction going on.” Sloth turned her nose up slightly and left before any more words could be exchanged, leaving Greed with the letter and a new fear of disgruntled workers.
Greed stood there for a moment, his brain registering what exactly he was confronted with before shaking it off and going into the tavern to carry out the task. Get the red stones and order up some corpses to feed Gluttony via shady connections. The red stones had been an easy enough task, there had been plenty of raids before in the labs Dante ran to collect red stones from to barter with for cash in the blackmarket. Greed made a face as he loaded up the precious, valuable item to be fed to Envy no less into a sack. It was about a good seven pounds worth of the red stones as Greed went about the harder task, acquiring corpses from a dealer to be delivered on the same day. That had Greed cringing from just how difficult that part would be and how to transport them back to the cabin was another issue. The phone rang for a moment as Greed tapped his fingers against the wooden counter as he mulled over how to get the corpses delivered when an idea popped into mind. That weirdo who had slaughtered people a few years back had the right idea to cut the bodies up like meat cuts. It was simple and brilliant, not to mention easier to store into the freezer for safe keeping. Greed relaxed a bit now that the plan had been realized as the line picked up to one of Greed’s favorite proprietors. It took some convincing on Greed’s part for the fresh corpse order as well as the butcher cut method, but it ultimately worked once Greed promised some squeaky fresh red stones in exchange for the task. With the tasks done, Greed, picking up the massive bag of red stones with the ransom letter, made his way to the hearse and drove back to the cabin.
