foolishwren | 81. [Video/Action for Ecruteak]

Hey, 'Zilla, you got the 'Gear?

This stuff NEEDS to be documented.

_{[That's the first thing that can be heard over the feed. When the camera first comes on, a pair of large, familiar reptilian red eyes are blinking down at it. Is it recording...? Oh, okay, recording! Good.]

[Then it zooms out a little, enough to show-- HEY! That's not the Totodile that last hijacked the 'Gear!]

[With newly black-rimmed eyes, a proud red crest, and a new ultra-manly thickened jaw, it would seem that the bratty little Totodile who'd last been seen moping on the network over whether or not he was a good Pokemon... had finally evolved, after a whole year of wanting to stay 'the baby' of the gang. What prompted his choice to finally start growing up?]

[Well, that's a story that'll have to wait till later, because he lets out a satisfied snort at the sight of the red recording light, and then turns it away from himself-- only for the screen to IMMEDIATELY be filled with a grotesquely-detailed rubber Mightyena mask, snarling and sporting a wild mane of black hair over the top!]}

RAAAARRLLGGHHBLAAARG!

_{[... Oh wait. The black hair is just Heather.]

[She yanks the mask off, grinning widely.]}

I can't even handle all these epically cheesy costumes, man. Some things really ARE universal.

_{[The camera shifts a little-- it's from a much higher vantage-point than normal now, considering all the previous times the camera-croc's been the one filming, it's been from a vantage point on the FLOOR unless he was able to persuade Honey the Butterfree to carry him-- and it becomes apparent that they're in a costume store. There's rack after rack of jumbled costumes everywhere-- looks like it's already been pretty thoroughly ransacked by local kids, but there's still plenty of stuff left. It's just... everywhere.]

[Hanging the mask back up, Heather bends down to start picking through the other odds and ends, which range from cheesy and cheap-looking to actually fairly interesting.]}

Maybe this time around, we'll actually get to ENJOY the holiday instead of spend the whole time running away from rips in the fabric of space and time...

_{[OOC: Action for anybody in Ecruteak, obviously! Feel free to assume your character is already in the shop, Heather will gladly harass them to try on stupid costume crap with her. Also feel free to address the camera-croc.]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Envy is snickering at that display with the mask.]

How terrifying.

So is it everyone that puts on costumes for this Halloween thing?

[Envy's been considering it. Both for thieving purposes because nobody would be able to tell who he was, and also just because he really likes disguising himself and hasn't gotten much of a chance to in Johto.]

Yep. It's tradition!

I think the idea was that if you dressed up as monsters and shit, it'd scare evil spirits away so you could walk at night safely.

'Least that's what I heard once.

Yeah? Too bad that probably wouldn't have worked last year, or that whole mess would've been a lot easier to deal with.

What kinds of monsters are there to dress up as? Besides rabid wolves, I mean. [Envy doesn't really recognize most of the costumes he's seen besides the Pokemon ones.]

I dunno... there's a little of everything.

All the animal-based ones are Pokemon, of course...

[He nods, thinking about this. He'll figure something out.]

[...But for now he smirks at the camera.] I see your hair isn't looking like you dipped it in a paint bucket anymore.

Har de har.

Yeah, I hacked off the last blond bits once it was long enough.

Whatcha think?

_{[She reaches up to run a finger through the ebony rat's nest on top of her head.]}

[He grins and gives her hair a considering glance.]

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't biased, but it looks good on you.

[Shrug and a teasing smirk.] A hairbrush wouldn't exactly hurt, though.

Pfft.

I'm too manly for hairbrushes.

_{[She runs her fingers through her hair flippantly, but then looks back at the screen, expression curious.]}

Biased, huh? Towards what? The black, orrr...?

[Snerk.] I'm in awe of your manliness.

[It's actually a sign of how comfortable Envy's gotten talking with her that he's cool with just answering that question and not immediately making something up, even if it is pretty minor.]

Yeah, the black. It's what all homunculi are born with. [He shrugs, an unconcerned 'what can you do' expression on his face.] So, wound up with a bias for it.

Huh... well, it was my birth-color too.

Guess we got that in common!

... What... IS a homunculi, anyway?

_{[Go figure. Give her an answer and she winds up with more questions.]}

Yeah, guess we do.

[There is a definite moment of hesitation after she asks that question. It's one of those odd things about Envy, that the more attached he becomes to anyone, the more secretive he gets about some things, especially things that he knows scare people. He'd told her a little of it, almost a year ago...but he'd decidedly dodged around the actual nature of what a homunculus is then, and it hadn't really come up since.]

[So it figures it comes up in the Halloween store. Well, he'd told others, and they hadn't freaked out. And after what he'd seen in that dream of hers, he doesn't think she will either.]

It's homunculus, for just one. [Thank you, Mr. Latin Autocorrect.] I think I told you some of it last December. Artificial humans with superpowers. But that's...really just a small part of it. I'll tell you the rest, if you want to know.

_{[She falls silent, listening.]

[He's right-- it won't freak her out. Very little, it turns out, could truly freak Heather out after the things she's done and seen.]

[So she looks down at the screen with an open expression as she continues to rummage through the hangers.]}

Why not? I've got the time.

[He pauses again, but this time it's more to think how he's going to put this than hesitance.] We're what happens when some alchemist [his voice darkens on that word, he can't help it when he's talking about this] decides that they can play god and tries to bring a dead human back to life.

Alchemy's main law is equivalent exchange; you can't get something without giving something of equal value up in return. And there's nothing equivalent to a human life, so they're given one of us instead. [He shrugs lightly.] I only know of one person who's ever created a homunculus intentionally.

_{[... Whoa. That's.. spooky.]}

So... you're what happens when somebody tries to bring a dead person back to life?

... Does that make you kinda like a zombie?

Right. We wind up looking like that person too, once we've put ourselves together, but I'm lucky enough to be able to change my form.

[He sounds a bit proud of himself about that. And then just looks confused at her next question. Somehow nobody has ever mentioned this to him.]

...Maybe? Depends on what a zombie is.

A... y'know. A reanimated corpse.

_{[... Not that Envy looks like one or ACTS like one, but...]}

Oh.

[He doesn't look insulted by the comparison so much as considering.]

Not really, we're not usually made out of the human's remains. Heh, besides, if we were corpses we'd probably rot. [...like his master does.]

... Oh yeah. The rotting.

_{[FORGOT ABOUT THAT LOL]}

I'm glad I'm not one of those. I'd be ugly and smell terrible. And I'm kind of fond of my limbs not just falling right off.

Yeah, but to be fair, I couldn'tve known.

People pop back to life in this place. You might've been rotting and falling apart back home.

81. [Video/Action for Ecruteak]

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[video] just realized that he probably locked this a few comments ago

[video] LOL YEAH

[video | locked] NOT WANTING TO SHARE WITH THE WHOLE COSTUME STORE KTHX

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