victory_road | Fourth Wall!

Open - Various Prompts All Over

This is a particularly strange Strange Weekend.

Lust is back to being a homunculus, eerily pale and technically not alive in the biological sense. An annoyance to an unpleasantness, depending on her mood at any given moment. But it fades in the face of the eerie, metal buildings that she sometimes stumbles onto or the odd Pokemon that can be found around them. Or the things in the sky that sometimes zip overhead.

Sometimes she approaches to investigate, cautiously, curious but not trusting something so alien.

Other times she can be found bounding up the sides of Goldenrod's regular buildings, or Ecruteak's. If she's stuck like this for the weekend, she may as well use it for something she enjoys. She runs across rooftops and uses lampposts as stepping stones. Sometimes it's as though she's dropped right out of the sky, landing next to some passerby without warning...

And it wouldn't be a strange weekend without Lust having to chase after one of her Eevelutions. Watch out for the extremely quick Leafeon that's decided to explore all the strange new things the weekend has to offer, he has no qualms about running right over anyone in his way. Lust, at least, is a bit more polite in her pursuit.

A bit.

Closed to Scar

It's immediate. The realization hits as soon as waking does. Every fiber of herself feels different - but familiar. The absence of the usual little aches and stiffness that morning normally brings, of that heavy limbed feeling, of sticky sleep in her eyes. All of it gone, because dead things don't need to worry about any of that. Even things like the sensation of her bedding, normally so pleasant and comfortable, seems somehow dulled. But maybe that's just her imagination.

The second thing she realizes is that he is right beside her, soon to wake as he rises early, and he'll know immediately, too.

Unfortunate.

Things are different now. She is different now. Not out of any magical solution, but through years of slowly working on herself. This stark and impossible to ignore reminder of how things were is very poorly timed. It's all been going so well, them both discovering new and previously hidden sides of one another. Some corner had been turned but now...

There's nothing to do for it. Three days. It lasts three days.

She lays on her back in bed, staring at the ceiling. All will be madness outside anyhow, there's no great urge to get up and out of bed. Only a part of her that thinks maybe she should get up before him, not be here cold and lacking a spark of life to greet him first thing...

Closed to Envy

Lust isn't here with much enthusiasm. But Envy had urged and cajoled her into coming out with him. He hardly has anyone else he can ask, they're the only two of their kind in the world. Something she grows more and more tired of, each time it happens.

But he's her brother. And god knows she's subjected him to some things he'd rather not have to be exposed to in the past few months. The least she can do is leap around and extreme parkour with him for an afternoon. That part of it...well, it's not so bad. If nothing else, it will eat up some of the weekend.

"Alright, here I am." In all her homunculus glory. "What did you have in mind?"

A heavy arm slips across her waist as she contemplates whether it would be better to brood in bed or elsewhere. Even mostly unconscious, he isn't inclined to giving her the chance to creep out unacknowledged. The slim distance between them closes, his warmth curled in gentle opposition to her chill.

His nose, which should be cold from sleep, presses into the crook of her neck to find... very little heat at all. It's enough to draw him out of dozing, his eyes fluttering open.

His returning thoughts flounder under the lingering fog of awakening. He's handled too many bodies not to be immediately alarmed by such a still creature lying beside him, the beat of her heart faint and her skin sapping the heat from him like rocks in the rain. Scar's eyes flutter partially open. His entire body tenses, pushing only a tiny fraction upright.

It's a second, maybe two, before he realizes. Before he remembers that everyone had been chattering about how it would begin any day now.

Nothing is wrong. At least, nothing he can fix is.

He settles back down, collapses what little of himself he had been holding on his shoulders, and tucks himself even tighter against her. She may be stronger, now, but he's still larger, can still envelope this mostly-dead heat sponge he's all but fused himself to as he lingers in the half-aware state between sleeping and waking.

He's awake.

He doesn't stir much, but it's enough. She's slept beside him enough to know his sleep movements and his starting to wake movements. The little differences between them, the slight tension that comes and goes from him.

She waits, still, unblinking. Had she a need to breathe at the moment, it would have caught. There's no expectation, just a waiting for what he'll do.

Nothing much, it turns out. Simply resumes his position in bed and curls snug against her, as he so often does. Anticlimactic, really. She'd been expecting some sort of reaction or acknowledgement. She isn't sure how she feels about a lack of one.

After a few minutes, she finally speaks.

"We're in for one of those mad few days again."

He nods against the side of her head, and something twists in his stomach. The longer he lies here and the further sleep drifts away, the more he can tell that there's a stillness in her. That in spite of everything this place has given them both, some wrongs cannot be reversed.

"What do you need?"

"Nothing right now."

Not entirely true, but nothing that can be procured and given. It's just a wait till Monday, and dealing with whatever unique peculiarities the weekend throws at them. There's always something.

Perhaps a hot bath later. But for now, she has no intention of getting out of this bed. At least she can feel him breathing against her, feel all the life and heat in him. There's some comfort in that.

"It's just an annoyance to be dealt with. Things right themselves in a few days."

Just an annoyance. It's a bit more than that, but he doesn't need her to spell it out. He can intuit the gist of it, and she isn't prone to verbalizing feelings. He breathes a subtle sigh as he shifts under the blankets and onto his back, gently pulling her along to lie on his chest, if she wants.

"I will make soup tonight."

If she even wants to eat. He isn't sure that she will, but if the annoyance must be dealt with, he will be here to deal with it. He supposes he'll need to make a trip to the store-- not just for soup, but to make sure they're stocked up on various other warm luxuries.

She lets him pull her, resting her cheek against his chest. At least she's still in her pajama shirt - technically his, but she's grown very used to sleeping in his shirts. His presence hasn't put a stop to that.

"That's fine. Be careful if you go out, they've gotten stranger as the years go by."

More, in a sense, perilous.

"Once we all woke up as...something else."

Not very informative, but she isn't sure how else to phrase it. She hadn't been a homunculus, but she hadn't been human, either. That one had been particularly odd and disorienting.

At least this is familiar and something she understands.

"Better or worse than a vaguely humanoid Espurr chimera?"

Because that fiasco is still fresh in his mind. He was finding lavender fur in surprise places for weeks.

Also her eyes. Good God, her dinner plate eyes...

The recent feeling of the now old memory pricks at the scab of lost time, again. He doesn't think that will ever stop.

She makes a groaning noise and buries her face in his chest.

"Don't remind me." For her, it's a much more distant memory. A nightmare weekend she'd prefer to forget. God, trying to walk on those ridiculous tiny feet. The fur...

No, she'd rather not think about that. Never again. Please, never again.

"Anyway, at least that part of it seems normal enough. So far." Considering it's only been a half an hour or so, she can't make any promises. God knew what the world was like outside right now.

He contains about 80% of a smirk.

"Normal."

A subjective operative word. His fingers stroke along her scalp, eyes staring at nothing in particular on the ceiling. She had brushed it off before, but he can't quiet the urge to be sure. Even if it will only be these three days, he's fairly certain the things that 'don't matter' are exactly what he's supposed to fuss over. So, a touch quieter,

"You'll manage?"

"I will."

She doesn't have to elaborate. She does manage, every time. It happens at least twice a year, as far as she's been able to tell. This time won't be any different, no matter what it throws at her.

Anyone else, and she wouldn't bother to say more. But he's not anyone else.

"It's fine. It passes and the memories fade or grow fuzzy and it's a long time until it happens again. The experience isn't upsetting, just unwanted. Oh, and the Eeveelutions like to take off. I'll probably spend half the weekend chasing them. You're just going to have to deal with that and a cold bed for tonight and the next."

And a cold her.

"A cold bed is better than no bed." Not that it's the bed he's referring to, but he's certain she can pick out his real meaning. He would have her here, in this half-living state, over her being someplace else. Even without the easy luxuries of blankets and hot water bottles and electric kettles for tea, he would have her here.

That's an... odd note, though--

"Your Pokemon leave?"

Here, the implication is simply Why?

"Just some of the evolved Eevees. I think they like to explore all the new things. Or they just find it fun to make me run after them through all the madness."

Who knew what went on in their minds? She's never tried to figure it out herself, she just deals with it.

"They're always back when it's over, whether I find them or not. Just be aware, if you open the door they may run right over you."

She'd rather talk about this than her current state of being. It's meaningless and shallow, a silly problem that isn't truly a problem. A distraction. Though...since it's been brought up.

"When you get up, would you mind running me a bath?"

She could do it herself, but he seems to like doing those sorts of things for her. She likes it, too.

He concedes silently that the mind of a Pokemon might find amusement in stirring her, of all people, to chase them down. It's difficult to imagine her running after much of anything.

"I've been run down by worse," he rumbles, going along with this small, meaningless point of conversation for her sake, "They are welcome to try to knock me over."

At her request for a bath, he only nods, his head brushing against hers with the gesture.

"They'll just climb right over you, you're like a mountain to them."

She can't imagine any of them knocking him down. Maybe if all of them worked together and he was very tired...

"Thank you. We will have to get up at some point."

He certainly will. She supposes she could lie here the whole day if she so pleased, but it would be miserably boring. But perhaps she could take it easier this time. There isn't much reason to go out. A quick excursion, maybe, to check on those that often need checking on these weekends. But why not stay in? Why not fill the altered days with hot soaks and daytime television and hot chocolate?

She wouldn't be alone, the main reason she doesn't just hide away every time. He's here, and he's made his feelings about it all quite clear in his way. He'll weather it with her.

"I've seen hot water bottles shaped like Pokemon at the corner mart. They have Spheal, if I remember correctly."

He can do a little shopping trip today to gather the essentials for a warm weekend in.

"Am I correct in assuming work does not happen on weekends such as this?"

"The club doesn't even open on these weekends. Geography and everything else is too unreliable, no one comes in."

She does not comment either way on the idea of a Spheal shaped hot water bottle. But a lack of negative comment says all that's needed.

"I honestly don't do much when these days hit. I check on a friend, usually, and wander about. The wandering is inevitable, not by design." God forbid he conjure up some image of her just aimlessly taking to the streets of Johto. But one can step out the door and be in Blackthorn, then turn around and be on one of the islands. It's madness.

"Sometimes Envy and I go out. Not as much, anymore."

Yes, that settles it, she's getting a Pokemon water bottle.

"It deposited the two of us in a cave, once," he recalls, thinking back on the pitch darkness and the sole company of Envy of all people. He's only just starting to get used to the idea of being in the other homunculus' immediate proximity. Even now, he isn't sure how to behave when the both of them are in the room at the same time.

She makes a comment about not going out with her brother so much, and he weighs his options for a moment before asking, quietly,

"How come?"

She's quiet a few moments, just listening to his heart and feeling the rise of his breath.

"It isn't always as enjoyable as it used to be. Sometimes my mood disinclines me towards vaulting up buildings and sawing lampposts in half. Other times it's a pleasant distraction."

It's complicated. Her relationship with this facet of herself is complicated. Too much 'baggage', as they call it. Engaging in all those things she can only engage in like this can bring it all to the surface and make it feel too close. As she said, it depends on her state of mind.

Even she can't predict that with any great accuracy.

"I suppose I'm still reconciling the pieces of myself."

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A Leafeon using his back as a springboard wasn't something Keith had been expecting. Having a lady drop down suddenly next to him as she seemingly played an impromptu game of tag with said Leafeon was also not something Keith had been expecting.

Then again, most of this weekend of full of things Keith had not been expecting.

Yet, here they were, as the woman took off chasing her Leafeon while Keith regained his footing. Having his Galra side's agility and instincts back helped, at least, and he didn't wind up flat on his face... a small consolation.

"Hey! Watch it!" he shouted after them. The Torracat at his side spit out an annoyed Ember, but only as a warning shot, not something to actually hurt the Leafeon... or the person...

Oh damn it!

"Julep!"

Lust calls ineffectively after the disappearing Pokemon and throws her hands up. Without fail, at least one of them runs off. Fine. He'll be back when the weekend's over. Now she's left to make amends for him.

"I do apologize for that," she says as she turns to the collateral damage in this little chase. She could probably catch up, but it would be rude to just run off. Julep had jumped on someone for god's sake.

"Every time this happens, one or more of them get it into their head to take off and explore things."

"Heh..." Keith took a deep breath, stretching his back a bit. Welp. "Sounds like a typical pet." Back home, Kosmo liked to push buttons when he could, too. Keith had discovered his counterpart, the shiny Lycanroc, did the same things, as did Red, his Torracat.

At least the woman seemed to be apologetic, and it wasn't like she was training her Pokémon to run people down in the streets.

"Do they at least find interesting things when they do?"

Envy's well aware that Lust isn't nearly as enthused about spending a few days as a homunculus as he is, especially as the years have gone on. It makes sense--after all, wanting to be human was her whole thing, back in Amestris.

Maybe that's why he's particularly insistent on it this time, after Scar's arrival. After realizing that he still really doesn't know much about how she'd fallen apart after Liore, and, yes, witnessing a whole lot of Unbearable Intimacy (tm) the past couple months.

They can still be weird parkour goths, right??

"And here I am! How hard do you think it'd be to set up a trapeze between two of the really tall buildings in Saffron?"

Lust tips her head, contemplating the question. It's a rather good one, actually. And it's certainly been a while since they did any trapeze work.

"I suppose that depends on if we have trapeze equipment on hand. And plentiful rope...."

The question in her words is obvious. But assuming they can easily access what they need, she doesn't think it would be that difficult.

"But I think that's all that we'd need. Rope for securing, swings for the actual trapeze. If nothing else, we can try." It doesn't exactly have to be up to safety standard codes for the pair of them.

He can't help sounding more excited when she actually seems interested in the idea. But ah yes, the supplies. Hmmm.

"I think we could probably get hold of plenty of escape rope if we hit up the Pokemart...or we could always steal some power cables or something. It's not like they wouldn't go right back where they were at the end of the weekend. As for the actual swings part...if we can manage to make a detour out to where me and Heather were getting our gym built, there's some swings out there we could borrow."

Because how could they leave those out of a circus themed place?

Lust | FMA 03 | Open and Closed Prompts

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Goldenrod

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