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[cobbledtogetherenvy]

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

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[cobbledtogetherenvy]

Envy frowns, annoyed more out of habit than anything. He's never had and never wanted a real warden. Why'd the admiral decide to force one on him now? Maybe his pose of cooperation is convincing? But what an unwelcome side effect. "Well, I'm getting out of here, so good for you."

[thereisnothing]

"Yeah, it would be pretty fucking annoying if you weren't. Now it comes down to what exactly is the second part of your plan. After the soul removal bit."

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

He tolerates this warden fine (though that tolerance has slipped a few notches just because the admiral's butted in). But he doesn't exactly feel like admitting the weakness of uncertainty. He isn't sure if he's different now or just less. He doesn't know what step two is. "I'm experimenting." He does have an inkling of a plan. But he's not sure he trusts as far as that.

Maybe it'd be worth it to... ask?

"What are you going to stop me from doing?"

[thereisnothing]

Sanzo lights a cigarette.

"Why would I stop you from doing something?" He returns his lighter to his pocket, with a slight shrug. "The plan you laid out seems sensible, as far as it goes. If it involved murdering people or some stupid bullshit, I'd obviously have to stop you. But from what you've said I'm..." No, he's absolutely not going to say he's there to 'help', horrifying to even contemplate.

"I'm going to make sure that you can carry out the second part, so you can leave and I get what I want."

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

So no murder, he takes from that. "If nobody dies, are you going to whine if I'm not nice to people?" He doesn't think his current thinking would call down punishment, but it might mean those long fights on the network that irritating wardens sometimes like to have. Envy wouldn't enjoy being caught in one of those.

[thereisnothing]

"Ugh." He makes a face. "I don't give a shit. But I don't want to be dragged into people going on and on about 'feelings'." He sighs. "Alright. As long as you don't murder or torture anyone - or start something with someone you killed, I'll deal with any complaints. If you do, I'll find a way to land the endless complaints on your plate."

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

He can work with that. "There's a new inmate that has it in for things like me. He went after my last warden. If he knows something that'll actually have an effect I might be able to change more. But he's not going to give advice if he's got a vendetta." He doesn't have any murder planned! But he can sure be unpleasant enough to provoke a predisposed person to attempt to take him apart.

[thereisnothing]

"Oh, that idiot. It was a relief not to be stuck with him. I'm not sure he has a vendetta. I think he's stupid, careless and doesn't listen to people." So, pretty normal, but, unfortunately, with powers on his side. "I suspect he's the type happy to go on about what he can do. At length."

He sighs, thinking of Strange. "I can figure out if he would go after you on principle. If not, easier to talk to him. If he does," he shrugs. If you don't have enough control to stop yourself from getting provoked into an attack, that's your problem.

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

There are things Envy simply would not think to do, and asking for help from a potentially hostile target is one of them. Isn't that what malice and manipulation are for? "John thought he did." A few wardens have squeaked their way into Envy's acceptable column, but he's the only one who did it by the simple fact of his nature.

[thereisnothing]

"John was attacked, that can give you a false impression of your opponents facilities. It's a logical conclusion, but I've talked with Strange. You can't assume his motives fit any logical conclusion."

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

"Well, he is a human." Envy just says stuff like that sometimes, like a creaky door squealing on its hinges. "I have no idea what he can actually do. It's a possibility." And he has no choice but to be alive to those right now.

[thereisnothing]

"Yeah, and you leave yourself with more possibilities when you don't start on the more aggressive foot." You can just move there, very quickly. "What is it that you think he might be able to do."

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

"John and I don't work exactly the same way, and that human he's stuck to is important somehow. And it sounds like that link was what got attacked." Envy doesn't think it's really possible to remove himself from the stone. He is the stone. But there might be parts left to take out. "Knowing how to break what holds this all together could be handy."

[thereisnothing]

"There's a pretty big difference between you and Doe, in that respect." He nods. "A break, yeah. But you should have some idea of what to make, after that."

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

Envy's jaw tightens a little. He has an idea of what might work, but he can't bring himself to do it. That week he spent human--he doesn't dream, so he can't claim to have nightmares. It haunts him in its own way. "Most of us aren't just the stone. Sloth was like a chimera, as many animal parts as anything else, and Gluttony started as the False Gate of Truth. Lust, Greed, and Wrath all have human in them." Envy elides past that as fast as he can. No. Leaving aside the question of raw materials? Just no.

[thereisnothing]

"That not what I mean. You can break yourself into component parts, but what will you build out of them? Obviously, it's not like becoming a human or some sort of demon will help. Look at most of the Barge. So you'll still be some sort of Homunculus. But that's just a 'what'."

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

"Well, it's what I mean," Envy says testily. "I'm basing this on whatever I can, and there's not really precedent, but I've spent lots of time in the labs. Making chimeras, armor, even minor homunculi, it's all just alchemically combining what already is. Add a snake to a human, get a poisonous human, or one with a rib cage that compresses. If I'm going to add to myself and not just take away, I need some kind of starting point."

[thereisnothing]

That sounds so stupid. It's probably what's going on in Houtou Castle. "That's stupid. I assume the alchemists want a poisonous human or one who can compress through holes. If you don't have an end goal, it's just dropping things pointlessly in a pot."

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

Envy is willing to work with this guy if they can both move him along, but the second his new warden feels like a hindrance, he's walking. And he's starting to think about it. "Being poisonous could be pretty useful. But I'm trying to add things, too. A conscience, or something that'll let me change enough to grow one. And if I'm chopping out more of the parts that are Envy, something's gotta hold what's left together."

[thereisnothing]

Sanzo wouldn't want to assume Envy isn't already poisonous. He wouldn't want to test it out. "A conscience, right. It seems like you've spent a lifetime, or what could be called that, trying to chop out the bits that are envy. Just ignoring them, if not." He shakes his head.

"Yeah, I don't think you're graduation without there being limits on how likely you are to kill. But you know what I've seen in people who've graduated a lot more frequently than I've seen a conscience? A bit of fucking self-awareness. What animal would get you that one?"

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

Ugh, what happened to being reasonable?

(Is it possible that Envy defines being reasonable as agreeing with him?)

"Animals are for making military chimeras. It was an example. One of my brothers is made out of a door. I need something that'll work. That's all I care about."

[thereisnothing]

"It's a shitty example for what you've said you want. You want to get out. Believe me, I want that to. But you don't have the answer to 'how'."

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

"Because I'm figuring it out as I go! It's not my fault the admiral won't let me disappear. He chose something unsuitable for his whole program here, and it's up to me to find an escape that'll work. I'm reinventing things that are hundreds of years old." Which is not all that impressive as immortality goes, but shh.

[thereisnothing]

"The Admiral is the Admiral. I wouldn't make his choices. You might be unsuitable, but you're also avoiding dealing with what the Admiral might want by going around to an outside transformation."

He doesn't think that's a bad thing. It demonstrates a reasonable enough mind, which is something.

[cobbledtogetherenvy]

"And I don't know how yet, so I don't know what you want me to do besides research and try things." Envy wants out, but he's tried brute force and it got him nowhere.