entrancelogs | [Complete] A Demon and A Homunculus

[Complete] A Demon and A Homunculus

Who: Etna

thejealousone
Where Outside in the garden
When: A short while after this conversation.
Rating: PG13 for possible swearing
Summary: Etna and Envy meet up so Envy can explain what a homunculus is.
the Story: Envy waited outside for Etna, amusing himself by looking over the scene of destruction where the garden used to be. He had to admit that for a place he couldn't leave, he was actually rather enjoying himself. There was no way Dante would have ever let him wreak havoc on her garden this way.

He sat down with his back against one of the mansion's walls, his eyes half closed but alert for anyone who might pass by. Envy wondered what Etna was like...she sounded like someone who shared his own particular sense of humour, which wasn't exactly something that happened often. He had no intention of telling her everything about being a homunculus of course, but sharing a bit of information might make him another ally with whom he could see things eye to eye.

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Ahh, the smell of flowers turned into smoldering heaps of ash. It was almost perfume, and it certainly gave Etna a strong reminder of home.

Her boots clicked against the cement walkway, admiring the dried-out stems of roses and the heaps of remains of plants that were no-doubt once very beautiful and colorful, all now the same charred black. “Good afternoon.” She said in a singsong voice. She was pleased that she had found the garden with relative ease, even if she hadn’t been there too long. Then again, she had always been drawn to sites of chaos.

She brushed a strand of red hair from her eyes as she looked all around her. "Wooow~. Someone really did a number on this place, hmhm~."

Envy looked up at the sound of footsteps and saw a pretty redhead walking towards him. "Etna" he said, nodding at her in acknowledgment. She seemed to fit the idea he had of her in his head, maybe a bit younger than she sounded over the journals, but Envy knew better than most that appearances didn't always count when someone wasn't human.

He got up from where he was seated, leaning against the wall. Looking around himself, he told her "Yes, we did, didn't we? Quite an improvement over all that cheerful green. Reminds me of a massacre back home, without all the bodies lying around of course. Fun times." He turned his face back towards her and smirked.

"Envy. Such a pleasure to meet you in person." A devious smile played on her lips, her fingers wandered to one seemingly-surviving bud of a flower on a near bush that crumbled into ash at her touch. "To be honest it reminds me a lot of home too. The Netherworld was always sort of laced with the scent of something burning, whether it was plants or..." A chuckle. "People. Almost makes me homesick."

Her red bat wings fluttered a bit as she walked forward. "I am always interested about learning about new people...so please, tell me about yourself." She thought back to all the monsters she had had the 'pleasure' of meeting back home. "We had succubi, fallen angels, demon overlords, zombies, ghosts, dragons...just about anything you could think of. But this is the first time I've heard of homunculi. So maybe..." Another smirk. "A demonstration of just what homunculi can do would do wonders to enlighten me."

"Same here." he answered Etna's greeting. He watched in amusement as a flower she touched disintegrated. "Lovely, isn't it? Makes you wonder why people complained so much while it was happening."

Envy listened as she listed off the different creatures she had met, his chin resting on his palm thoughtfully. "I've heard of many of those, usually they're mentioned in the old religions. But I've never met any. They probably don't exist in my world...but then again, if you asked most people from there, I don't exist either." he told her, shrugging.

"Homunculi are fake humans, created by alchemy. Usually some idiot is trying to bring someone back to life, but alchemy doesn't work that way. They end up with one of us." Envy's face turned scornful, remembering exactly how people tended to react when they saw what they had created.

"We regenerate instantly from being hurt, we don't need food or sleep. We're stronger and faster than humans. And each of us has a particular...ability." he continued. "So, what can a demon do?" he asked. Time to get some information in return.

"So I guess you're in a human-based world." She asked. "Back home, there was the human world, the Netherworld, and the Angel's world, Celestia. And basically humans are the same, blunt-headed creatures everywhere, I guess. Some things you can't fix no matter where you are." She said in a ho-hum tone.

"Fake humans...? My my...now I understand why there aren't any back home. It must be unique to your world." She noted his angry look. "Those are all very useful powers. It must be fun to raise hell with them. I wouldn't mind having the regenerating bit myself." She blinked. "A 'particular ability', huh?"

Etna put a finger to her lip in thought, repeating to herself, "What can demons do...?" She seemed to settle upon an answer in her mind. "There's a demon for everything. Some can set forests on fire with a flick of the wrist, others are incredibly powerful and can summon things like meteors for fun and wipe out towns in mere seconds. Basically; the concepts that one may hear about demons are true. Evil, sociopathic things that take pleasure in the pain of others. They abhore the 'right' path and favor looking out for themselves~" She smiled. "And treasure the wrong way like how humans and angels live by the book of morals." Etna was reminded strongly of many conversations where she had recieved an odd sort of praise for doing things like trying to murder the Prince.

She grinned. "It's hard to find many demons who will readily admit they even have a heart."

"Unfortunately yes," he replied. "Besides us and the humans, there are only the chimeras and there aren't all that many of them either. Ha, humans never learn."

"I guess it must be, there seems to be some of everything in this place but no other homunculi. And yeah, those powers can be very useful." he said to Etna, while shifting his body quickly into a replica of hers. Most people were more impressed if the person you turned into was them, for some reason.

"Of course," he continued in Etna's voice, mimicking the singsong tones, "it depends on how well you know how to use those abilities." With a few flashes of light he changed into the bodies of some of the people in the mansion, before settling back into his own preferred form, raising an eyebrow at her. "Don't you think?"

He liked the sound of these demons...he wouldn't mind having that type of power himself. It sounded even better than alchemy. "I can see why people call us demons in that case. 'Evil, sociopathic things that take pleasure in the pain of others'? That's more or less a description of me and most of my siblings."

Envy let out a short laugh at her last sentence. "You're in good company then. Homunculi do not have hearts. We don't need them."

"They don't. Unless you beat it into their skulls once or twice with a massacre, they tend not to listen to what one would call rational thinking~."

"So far, I've met a man who claimed to be dead, and a couple uninteresting humans. I've heard of unpleasant gods though--" Her thoughts were cut off as her eyes grew slightly wide and she touched her fingers to her lips. The shock faded in a few seconds, as she took time to step forward and examined the replica, and sure enough, every detail was perfect.

"Of course~" She replied. "Shapeshifting would be useful for many things. Not only by messing with people's heads in certain forms, but gaining more abilities." She couldn't think of too many other demons that weren't bosses that could do such a thing. "That's not a common talent in the Netherworld either...I'm sure if even Laharl were here, you'd give him a run for his money."

She smiled wickedly again. "You would do well in the Netherworld. Lots of chaos and hardly too much law, in the sense of maim and torture. I'm sure you could work up to Overlord status in no time." She gave an odd little chuckle. "So, do you get along with your family, or do you clash a lot? Must be interesting growing up in a world of humans with a family like that."

"Neither do we. A certain fallen angel I know...she really grasps at the fact that demons love and have hearts and all that nonsense. It's amusing."

"Gods? Yes, someone mentioned those. And like I said to them, anyone with the power a god should have, would have been able to get themselves the fuck out of here by now." Envy told the red haired demon.

He was pleased by her reaction to his power, finally, someone who really appreciated what he could do. "It's extremely useful for screwing with people's heads." he agreed. "Chaos, maiming and torture? Sounds like a place I'd enjoy visiting. What in particular can you do?" he asked, realizing that she'd neglected to mention that.

At the word family Envy wasn't sure whether to look amused or pissed off. Family wasn't exactly what he'd call his little...family. Oh dammit.

"How do you think we get along? We never grew up, we're created the way we always are. Gluttony is a mindless idiot who'll eat anything and I mean anything, he'll do what you tell him at least, if he doesn't forget what you told him to do in the first place. Pride has a stick up his ass, Sloth's not much better, Wrath is a whiny brat who can't even control his powers properly and the less I say about Greed the better." His face twisted into a scowl at the mention of his younger 'brother' and his fists ached to punch something.

"He decided to abandon us and Dante didn't like that at all. So we trapped him, immobilised, for over a century. There isn't any worse punishment for the greedy than having nothing." He crossed him arms and leaned against the wall again...no sense in attacking a new ally just because the memory of that asshole was enough to tick him off.

Envy looked straight at Etna and added, "It was my idea to do that by the way. But he got out a while ago. Wasn't very happy with us. Anyway, besides him there's Lust. She's alright, I get on ok with her." If there was anyone else he'd want to turn up here, it was her. Then let these stupid humans see what homunculi could do.

"What about you? Any loving family to screw your life up?" he asked, tilting his head at the question. She didn't look like the type of person who'd stand for anything of the sort.

"Maybe they prefer this place to wherever the hell they came from." Etna put her hands behind her head. "Or maybe they're just really stupid and can't figure out how~."

"What can I do? Well...~" She had been saving that one for an opportunity to demonstrate. "I can do many things, but this little attack I picked up a long time ago. It's kind of simple; but...~" She pointed her hand at a tree that was barren from all the abuse the garden had suffered, concentrating her power. "Go!" Scattered bombs--burning mid-air so it was hard to distinguish their odd shape, rained down onto the tree, engulfing, swallowing it in flame, until it was nothing but smouldering rubble. She gave a heavy, dissatisfied sigh. "It would have been so much cooler if it had a moving target too." She blew smoke off of her finger tips. "But you get the idea of it, yeah?"

"Ahhh." Etna only looked a bit thoughtful at his bitter words. Natural demons would be the same way; even Laharl, when asked if he loved his only family member, responded that he hated him. If she had met Envy in any other situation, she would have guessed him to be a normal demon. "They sound like quite the maddening bunch..."

Her red-slitted eyes widened only slightly at the punishment. "Harsh..." She smirked. "And commendable. Torture must be a specialty of yours." She took in that last little detail. So Greed was greedy. They all reflect their names too, huh?

"I wouldn't mind meeting her. To be honest, You've really perked my interest. Homunculi sound like fun creatures to be around, for the most part. And here I thought I would be bored when I first got here...~" She giggled. "I hope more demons show up too. I think you would find a lot of them too be fun too."

That one caught her slightly offguard, as it wasn't something she spoke of often. "Me? I don't have much natural family to speak of, but I do have someone whose kind of like a younger brother. I told you about Laharl, didn't I? He's the current overlord." With an angry frown, she added, "He's strong enough for the job, but he's got a temper as short as he is and he's a real brat." Her tail flicked sharply at the memory of the fight they got in shortly before arriving. "He's hardly 1300 years old, and that's pret-ty young for an Overlord. But power is all that demons value, in any case."

Now that was impressive. Hell, why couldn't he be able to throw fire? Everyone else seemed to these days. "That's a useful thing to be able to do." he told Etna. "We could have used your help with the fire. Maybe next time?"

He laughed at her comment about moving targets. "There are probably at least a hundred humans in this place. Take your pick. And make sure to let me know so I can watch."

"Maddening doesn't begin to cover it. Especially when you're the oldest and you're supposed to keep them in line." Envy snorted at the idea. As long as they didn't bother him, he really didn't care how badly they messed up.

Ah, someone who enjoyed the finer points of hurting someone. How nice. "It passes the time," he acknowledged, "and I've had time to practice. But nowhere near 1300 years." he added.

"Well, if Lust does end up here, I'll introduce you. The more of us there are, the less boring this place will be." he said, actually meaning it. It wasn't every day someone called homunculi 'fun'.

"Of course, I'll be happy to help whenever a little...'bonfire' is needed. I've got more attacks that could come in handy some day as well~." Now she really wished she had the prinnies here. They'd be lovely little servants...and if not servants, good little bombs.

She nodded her head. "Of course! There's always one person who's worth bothering the hell out of. It'll be fun to take my pick out of so many."

"The oldest~?" Her eyebrows raised in interest, in truth she had imagined him to be the oldest, after all, he looked so young~. But he did mention something along the lines of not growing up. "I can't imagine being responsible for so many brothers and sisters like that. I can hardly stand keeping my own friends in line."

"It's amazing what one can learn in a few hundred years down in the Netherworld. I myself am over 1400 years old. But most demons age--and mature--at a much different rate from humans. The only difference is for humans who get turned into demons...poor fools."

She nodded. "Thank you~ I'd appreciate it. Tell you what--I'll introduce you to some demons if they ever arrive. You'd get a kick out of some, for sure. I think you'd even find the prinnies amusing."

"Hmm," Envy said, considering whether to take a risk and include her in his plans so soon after meeting her. It couldn't hurt, he decided, it's not like he knew so many other people. "Actually, I've already got something planned. There's going to be a party in a couple of week, an 'unbirthday party', whatever that is. Everyone's invited. And guess who's helping with the planning?" he asked, lookling smugly satisfied with himself.

"Not that it's me they think is helping them, they think it's this jerk," he quickly shifted into Matt to illustrate, "who's actually still recovering from the results of pissing me off." He changed into the wounded version of Matt for a second, arm crushed and chest bleeding, before shifting back into his usual shape.

"So," he asked her, "do you feel like creating some mayhem?"

Envy used to think being 400 was a lot. "Yes, I'm the oldest, but like I said, we don't age, or mature, or change at all." Something she said made him pause. "How the hell do humans manage to get themselves changed into demons?"

Oh, good, it seems he really had made himself an ally. "Sounds like a plan to me. I'll let you know if any of my siblings turn up. Though knowing them, they won't need me to make an announcement to get themselves noticed."

"Oh ho ho?" Etna replied coyly at that. "So you wounded one of their friends horribly, took his shape, tricked them into letting you 'in' on the party, and now you're gonna absolutely destroy it?" She clicked her tongue and smirked in a very approving manner. "Nice job of tricking them into it. Who would suspect? Clearly these people are very...unaccustomed to things such as sabotauge."

She tapped her boots. "But annnnyway, I'd absolutely love to help make some mayhem amongst them. Sounds like good timing too~." She whistled. "But what do you want me to do? Do you have something in mind~?"

"Well, they can't necessarily do it themselves, but certain Overlords, if they're strong enough, can change humans into demons. It's actually a painful process. They end up killing their friends and family out of instinct even though they know who they are--Overlord Zenon did that to everyone in Veldime. Nasty, nasty mess that was, or rather, still is."

"A loud bunch? Should be interesting. The demons back home really need no introduction either. If you hear a kid with funky blue hair laughing his head off like a maniac, you'll have found one of them, at least."

"More or less," he answered her. "I'm not sure what to do yet, but I'll definitely let you know." A party wouldn't be a proper party if nothing went wrong.

Envy raised an eyebrow at her descriptions. "Sounds like you really do lead an interesting life." he said. "Well, shall I contact you over the journals in the case of any fun? You can do the same of course."

"I will, I will, thank you for your time~" Etna chimed after him. "And with this, I must be going; bein' a busy girl and all, I've got some things to take care of for me to settle in ~just~ right...~ See you later, Envy~." She said in a coy tone.

And with that, her red wings lifted her up, and a small wave, she flew up and dissapeared over the side of the mansion."

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[Complete] A Demon and A Homunculus

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