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[cobbledtogetherenvy]

[No recording. Envy doesn't want to talk to any stupid humans.]

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[choosetoforget]

"No," he tells him. "I don't mean to be rude. But sometimes you talk about humans and - and it gets tedious."

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

"You brought up being above the animals that you keep around on purpose," Envy points out, a bit testy. He doesn't care about the news from the admiral, but he's not really above being affected by the general mood, and some patterns are getting to him. "It was more justified than usual, honestly."

[choosetoforget]

"Perhaps. I'm - I don't like being here like this," he says softly. "Just because you want to end your life with blackness and darkness doesn't mean that it's easy for me to accept that. Xie Lian said that it's a possibility and - and I don't want that." He knows that Envy is the last person he should go to when he wants comfort, but his presence is that way anyway. Even if he spends most of his time being grumpy.

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

Envy has, reluctantly, been giving this subject actual thought lately. "That's because you're a human. And don't get snotty about it. I have a point. You have limited time and a big fuss when you come into existence and another one when you go, and all that growing in between. Of course you're sentimental. I'm a tool. I was built exactly as I am. We get used until we break, and if we can't take it anymore, we break ourselves."

[choosetoforget]

He doesn't get snotty with him. He just nods in agreement.

"You were - an experiment, right? Gluttony, too?"

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

Envy's snide remove is abruptly replaced with something entirely else. The black of his eyes shifts red before he can do anything about it. He doesn't show any other sign of agitation, which is itself quite foreign to his demonstrative (if repetitive) habits. "Where'd you hear that?"

[choosetoforget]

He is completely taken aback by that, sitting up a bit straighter and holding his own cup close.

"Greed said it."

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

Of course he did. Envy's unnatural calm persists, less out of any concern for Daniel than because he doesn't really know what to do with his current state. Shrieking and lashing out have relieved his feelings historically, as has tearing out his stone in what was supposed to be a final refusal of the whole situation. But he doesn't really want to do either to Daniel. "Gluttony is what's left of an attempt to create an artificial Door of Truth. If he ever turns up, don't let him eat you. It's unpleasant. Well. The mouth that's in the human spot is only as unpleasant as it would be in any event. Father used humans as the framework for the rest."

[choosetoforget]

Daniel's starting to realize that Greed might have mentioned more important information than Daniel originally thought. But there's no way to tiptoe around it now.

"And what - what about you?"

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

He doesn't actually know. But now that the initial shock is wearing away, he's pretty sure he can weather this. Daniel knows experiment. If he had more specific information, wouldn't he have led with that?

"My stone's put together differently. It stores more energy than anybody's but maybe Pride." Energy here meaning screaming ghosts. "I don't know if it was so I could shapeshift or if I can shapeshift because Father needed to store some excess." All true. All mostly meaningless.

[choosetoforget]

"Is - that why he said you were more Father's mess than the others?" he wonders. If Envy is going to be calmer about it, then Daniel isn't going to worry about how his questions come across.

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

"That just sounds like Greed." Also true. Also meaningless. The hollow flatness remains in the words, but he's starting to put things together in a way that suits him.

[choosetoforget]

Daniel watches him a moment. "Was I - not supposed to know that?" Envy so rarely gives him information that he's suspicious now.

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

"If you were, I'd have told you, not that reject." Annoyance flickers again, which at least makes him look more like himself and not an Envy robot, idling.

[choosetoforget]

"Why?" he wonders, standing up to put away his cup. And when he sits down, it's closer to Envy than he had been.

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

Like Envy has reasons for doing things. "Why would you have a reason to know?" Belatedly, he thinks of another angle, and just stacks the protests without much regard for whether they cohere. "You act ridiculous any time you learn anything about me. You launched a whole interrogation over me killing humans like it was new information."

[choosetoforget]

Daniel rolls his eyes. "Don't be a brat," he groans. "It certainly was not an interrogation. But I was concerned about it."

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

"Well, stop." Envy means it to sound like his usual cavalier dismissal of dumb human stuff. He does not succeed.

[choosetoforget]

"I can't. You're - well, you matter."

He stands up and pushes Zhenzhen to the side. The whole point of Envy being here was because Daniel was afraid and didn't want to be alone that night. And now he's stayed up far too late asking too many questions.

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

He's come to accept that this is just a thing Daniel gets stuck on sometimes, but he's still irritated. "You were concerned about me hunting humans. That's not concern about me. That's not liking what you signed up for. I get it." Belatedly, he assumes a cavalier, more obviously false than usual cheer. "Usually we leave a few layers there, let the humans pretend we're not monsters. But I don't have the resources of a country at the moment. You just have to live with it."

[choosetoforget]

Daniel goes quiet for a moment, pulling bare feet up into his bed. "It's not that," he tells him. "I was concerned with you hunting humans for - other reasons."

He wraps his arms around his legs. "And you're a monster but - not the sort of monster I'm afraid of."

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

Unimpressed, Envy tilts his head. It's a distinctly canine motion. He's worn a lot of dog shapes over the years. Sometimes they stick. If you're going to be cryptic, then you can explain. He's not going to chase the answers.

[choosetoforget]

He rests his chin on his knees, curling up as small as he can. "You're a monster like I am a monster. The monsters I am afraid of are - actual ones. Ones that hunted me in the castle. That hurt me and dragged me and killed each other. Made of parts of what were once human flesh."

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

Another moment of uncontrolled expression, though this one's even harder to make sense of, on account of Envy has less idea what he's actually feeling than usual. "So, the difference that matters is... being made of dead humans?"

[choosetoforget]

"No," he amends quickly, though it's with a gentle laugh. "Mindless creatures whose only purpose is to tear apart and follow orders. You may have been - made by your Father - but you make choices."