ext_292560 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
theenviousone.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
tampered2007-11-07 11:54 pm
theenviousone.livejournal.com) wrote in tampered2007-11-07 11:54 pm
Log; Complete
When; Afternoon of November 7th
Rating; R (for violence, torture, swearing)
Characters; X [![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
unknownandi] and Envy [theenviousone]
Summary; X decides to try a new way of killing Envy, but things don't go as planned.
Log;
The carousel fascinated X. Oh, it was certainly a good place to watch the city's inhabitants, there was that too. But the actual carousel itself, and the ominous ticking that he could hear if he listened very very carefully and ignored the noise around him... that was what X really felt in tune with. It was evil.
But this outing served another purpose as well. He'd posted cheerfully on the network that he was coming here, and Envy should have seen that. And the homunculus wanted revenge, didn't he? So he'd have to show up. And he'd be expecting a trap, when really, X's new idea was so much simpler. He just had to lure him back to another prepared area again.
Today, X was a tall, slim woman with long blonde curls, the shape of a famous singer from his world. Nobody seemed to recognize her here, though, just another bit of confirmation that, so far, he was alone in his origin. But he made sure that one thing was different, recognizably X. What better than a small, cheerful smile, the same one he'd had just before crushing Envy, to make the homunculus recall just who had done what to him.
After waiting around the carousel a sufficient amount of time, wasting an hour or so, X yawned, stretched in her long slinky white dress, and started walking down the road towards the nearest subway entrance.
------------------
Shortly after the pretty blonde moved away from the carousel, a small figure turned its head towards her. The expression of amusement on the boy’s face looked rather strange, but in this City, it wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary.
As soon as Envy had read X’s post, he’d taken this shape, a harmless looking boy, young but not young enough that anyone would try fussing over him. He’d joined a game some kids were having next to the carousel, running and yelling and blending in perfectly with the rest of them, but constantly observing his surroundings all the same. He wasn’t quite sure how he’d be able to pick X out of such a crowd of people, but if the other shape shifter made even the tiniest mistake, Envy would find him.
He’d noticed the smile straight away, how the hell could he not recognize that after what had happened the last time he’d seen it? Then it hit him…this was just a little bit too obvious. Posting about where he’d be, turning up looking rather noticeable, spending over an hour next to that damn carousel, almost as if waiting for someone to turn up. It took every bit of Envy’s self control not to lunge at him right there and then; the bastard was trying to trap him again!
Envy left the game and headed in a direction opposite to the one X had taken. Shortly after that, a small, white terrier could be seen running towards the Underground entrance.
------------------
Once in the Underground, X headed away from the subway, away from the circus nearby, through alleys and around corners until a nearly deserted portion of the city, bordering the dangerous tunnels that led further down into the bowels of the city. She stood out looking like this, but that was fine. She had no intention of changing in plain sight.
The quiet patter of footsteps behind her made her smile, too. Did Envy really think that changing into a dog would be enough to fool her?
Heels clicking on the stone, X entered the first of the winding tunnels. Nobody else was around right now. Good. It was only one turn until she reached the small alcove, carved out by someone or someTHING a long time ago. She picked up the six long, carefully sharpened steel poles from where they lay in the shadows, body making a strange, sickening noise as it began to transform, bones and flesh re-shaping at X's bidding.
------------------
In spite of being a few minutes away from X, Envy still clearly heard the tell-tale noise that accompanied X’s changing forms. Grinning to himself, he changed shape as well, turning into himself, he didn’t need anything else to take the bastard down, and took off in the direction of the noise at a sprint, running lightly enough that he hardly made a noise.
------------------
X, now with his preferred boyish appearance, kicked the heels he'd been wearing away, the dress now hanging off his smaller, leaner frame. But elsewhere, more dramatic changes happened: X's hands and forearms split to the elbow in a thin spatter of blood. Fingers halved, then multiplied. Toes twisted unnaturally, lengthening and grasping two of the spikes. Each of X's four hands held another, and when Envy came running past the last corner, X's monstrous shape was there to greet him with the thrust and stab of sharpened metal.
------------------
Envy wasn’t at all surprised to see what X had lying in wait for him. As he lunged at him with the wickedly sharpened spikes, Envy pushed off the ground, using the momentum he’d built up to jump and twist in the air, safely out of reach, landing behind X, already facing him.
Shifting his arm into a replica of three of the spikes X had intended to use on him, Envy stabbed them through X’s back, making sure the ends of the poles ran right through him. Raising his arm, with X struggling furiously to get himself free, he jabbed the sharp ends into the wall, effectively pinning X there. Then, with a grimace, he twisted his arm to break the spikes off, and stepped back to survey his handiwork while his arm regenerated.
Tsk, pity he wouldn’t be able to see X’s face as he tortured him, but at least immobilizing him straight away meant no more tricks.
------------------
X choked, sputtered as blood from a punctured lung made its way into his airway, awkwardly trying to free himself. Jammed up against a stone wall, spikes driven straight into the rock itself, it was a far from easy task, even with an extra set of arms to push against the wall. This was where Envy was supposed to be, not him!
He twisted his neck, trying to get a good look at Envy, as he coughed up a bit more blood. It was hard to heal, with the metal rods running right through his body.
------------------
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Envy told him, amused at X’s attempts to free himself. “Is that too uncomfortable? I wouldn’t want you to die on me too fast, you know.” As if X could get free faster than Envy could skewer him to the wall again.
He laughed at the sight of blood dribbling out of X’s mouth, the redness a stark contrast against pale skin which already seemed to be growing paler. “Didn’t hit anything too vital, I hope?” he continued. He was already shifting his hand into another shape, well out of X’s line of sight. Not that the other shapeshifter could see much from the position he was in.
------------------
Despite his stubbornness, X wasn't stupid. He did realize that too much struggling at this point might actually be worse: he'd dropped a couple of he spikes he'd held when Envy first pinned him, and Envy could just as easily pin down his hands and feet as easily as he could have done to the homunculus.
But his own mortality wasn't even in his mind yet. It was still a matter of wanting to kill Envy. He coughed again, to cover the faint sound of a leg joint popping and his knee twisting around, the elongated toes still grasping one of his own spikes. He'd just have to try to hit Envy again as soon as he came close and use that moment to jerk free. It was worth a shot.
------------------
Envy rolled his eyes as he noticed what X was trying to do. He’d have thought X would have at least done enough research about homunculi to realize just how enhanced their senses were. “Well, if you want to do things the hard way, that’s fine with me.”
Picking up one of the poles X had dropped - he was damned if he’d break off his arm again unless it was necessary - he stabbed it through the foot X was trying to shift, lodging it securely into the wall. He repeated it with X’s other leg, twisting the spike out of spite as it pinned the limb. X’s arms he left free…for now.
Raising the hand he’d previously morphed into a blade, a grin split his face. It felt like forever since he’d had a victim he’d be able to take his time with. “Let’s see what your insides look like, shall we~?”
------------------
X choked again the pain, jerking and banging his head against the wall when Envy twisted the second spike in. His own fingers clawed at the wall, gouging thin lines in the rock.
"This isn't fair," X spit, petulantly, like a spoiled child. "I'm supposed... to do this to you. I want to see your insides."
------------------
“Actually,” Envy replied, in a reasonable tone of voice, “this is fair. You had your fun, and now it’s my turn. Besides, what are you, ten? Oh wait, I forgot, you can’t remember.”
He took a minute to watch X writhe in pain. Too much pain at once and it would be pointless, he wanted to make sure X felt every excruciating moment of it. In the meantime, he had to decide where he was going to start. So many possibilities…
Hmm, the scratch marks on the wall gave him an idea. “You shouldn’t damage the wall that way you know. It’s not nice of you at all~.” He said in a singsong voice. Moving closer to the boy and grabbing him around the neck with one hand while pressing the sharp edge of the blade against his wrist, just enough that a thin stream of blood started to flow, he whispered to X “We can’t have that, can we?”
And then Envy pressed down with the blade, cutting through skin, muscle, and bone.
------------------
"I don't care... agh."
There was definitely something fishy about the way X tried to twist out of Envy's grip, and the way he only uttered a quick, sharp noise of pain when the blade first bit in. Whether it was a matter of rerouting the nerve signals or something else, he was clearly not feeling everything that Envy had probably hoped. Not as much blood as there could be, either, though there was certainly a decent amount.
"Hey, Envy..." X said, panting a little, when the one hand was barely hanging from a thin strip of flesh. "Are you going to... tell me what you see inside?" Even now, there as still a hint of that maddening grin on his face.
------------------
Envy narrowed his eyes at the marked lack of response on X’s part…oh, he was in pain, that was for sure, but Envy had a lot of experience in hurting people and cutting off a hand usually resulted in much more screaming. Time to increase things a notch.
He held back for a second at X’s question – damn the bastard was obsessed with insides – and spat out “Maybe. Or maybe I’ll just pull your eyes out and hold them up so you can see for yourself!”
Alchemic sparks ran up the blade as the sharp edge changed itself, Envy morphing that hand into a serrated and rather dull blade instead. “So, one hand down and three to go?” he asked, the good humour back in his voice. A bit further up the arm from the wrist this time, Envy thought. It was actually rather nice of X to give him extra limbs to work with. He should remember to thank him, afterwards. If he was still conscious.
------------------
This time there was definitely more of a strangled cry from X as the blade bit in, sawing through the thin arm bones. He wasn't going to be able to take this kind of treatment for a long time, not after already changing his body so much. Panting again, he reached back as quickly as he could with the one free hand, and jerked the one spike that had been driven through his lung clean out of his body in another brief spray of blood.
Envy would probably pin that hand now, but if he could even breathe better.. there might be a way out of this mess. He'd never had anyone try to kill him seriously before, with the exception of being shot at. And bullets were next to nothing, now. It was almost funny. But it was time to figure out how to get away.
"Next time," he panted raggedly, blood on his lips, "I'm going to... kill you.... even more cruelly... more slowly... And I'm not going to stop... ever. I'll find a way." Maybe not the wisest words to say to someone in the middle of torturing you.
------------------
Envy wasn’t amused at X’s pathetic attempts at threatening him. “No, you won’t. And shut up, you’re annoying me. Right now, you’re the one who’s going to be killed over and over again.”
He sneered at the other shapeshifter, the idiot thought that he could talk his way out of this? Not. Happening. Grabbing the arm X had used to pull out the spike, he quickly twisted it backwards in its socket and wrenched the limb off him.
Taking a step back to survey his work, he tilted his head at X and grinned. “Stop trying to get loose, hmm?”
------------------
With his first clear breath since being pinned, X screamed as his arm was ripped off, still more blood gushing out to stain the tunnel floor red. The tension in his body seemed to drop out all at once as he sagged against the wall, trying his best to recover from such a dramatic shock to the system. The torn-off limb continued to drip, even as the spurting blood from X's shoulder fell to a trickle.
He couldn't reply, not right away, and just panted, resting his head against the stone wall. Am I really going to die? he wondered. It seemed like a weird thought to have, and yet there it was.
------------------
Oh good, the bastard had finally shut up. Maybe it had finally gotten through his thick skull that Envy meant business. X wasn’t going to survive this. X wasn’t going to survive this for a long time, as many times as Envy felt like waiting for him to come back to life and killing him over again.
The thought made him generous. “Any preferences on what to lose next? Guts, bones, skin?” Actually, it was more amusement at forcing him to speak than generosity. And it wasn’t like Envy would pay attention to what he chose, he already knew exactly what he was going to do to him next.
------------------
"...rather not lose anything," X mumbled, tilting his head back and turning to stare at Envy over what was left of his shoulder, with a strange, wide-eyed look. He wasn't smiling anymore, at least.
------------------
“I’m sure you wouldn’t.” Envy agreed, putting a hand on his shoulder. Which he then squeezed hard enough to shatter the bone.
He shrugged, smirk still on his face. “Wasn’t the answer I was looking for though. I guess a patch of skin, maybe? To make it easier to get to your insides.”
------------------
He did have a certain fascination with what was inside himself, it was true. But Envy didn't seem to really have any interest in his insides, X thought abstractly, gritting his teeth as the remains of the dress he'd been wearing was torn away and skin was scraped from his back, slowly and painfully.
He tilted his head back, and uttered a choked laugh, cut off as a retaliatory gouge into his skin added an extra level of pain. "You don't know... what... you're doing," he said, hanging limply from the wall as he killed a few more nerves to fuel his internal repairs, trying to lose as little blood as he could. "You don't know.. how to look...properly."
------------------
“I think you’re missing the point, X.” Envy told him, ripping off a final strip of skin. There, that should be enough. It would have to be, there wasn’t really much left to remove. He shifted the blade back into his hand…using something with an edge for the next part would make it too easy on X.
He drove his hand into X’s back, breaking a rib as he did so. X started trashing about again, probably more from the pain than to try and get away, the idiot was making it worse for himself, doing that. Envy grabbed the back of the boy’s head and slammed it hard into the wall, holding him there as he pulled his other hand out of the gaping wound in his back. Gore covered Envy’s hand and X’s back, guts showing, pulled out of place.
“Let’s see…you don’t really need your spine, do you?” Envy asked, already imagining how satisfying it would be to rip it out.
------------------
X shuddered under Envy's hand, wondering what was going to happen after that. He was almost at his limit. Even though his cells had become more and more amenable to change over time, there was still a limit to how much he could do before he ran out of fuel and they started breaking down of their own accord.
But the wrench of his spine being ripped from his body never came. Instead, Envy's hand smashed his already-bloodied face into the wall, harder this time. X's body went limp again, his head already reeling from repeated impacts.
------------------
Goddammit not now, why now, why did she always have to spoil his fun?! Damn that bitch, she just had to have made him promise to keep on checking the network in case she had orders for him and now of all times she wanted to talk to him. He should have just ignored her…hell, he would have if she hadn’t hinted at what it was she was planning. When it came down to choosing between hurting someone he’d hated for centuries or a stupid brat who’d just got on his nerves, Envy knew which he’d choose.
He kept on slamming X’s head hard into the wall, both working out his frustration at having to leave a job half done and to try and knock him out enough that maybe, just maybe, he’d find him still there once he came back from being briefed about exactly what Dante was planning to do with Greed.
Finally letting go of X’s head, Envy drove the spikes securing X to the wall even further in. The other shapeshifter seemed to have passed out, hanging limply from the metal rods, but Envy didn’t quite believe that he wasn’t faking it. Still, it was the best he could do for now.
Even if X did get away, catching him again probably wouldn’t be that much of a problem.
Rating; R (for violence, torture, swearing)
Characters; X [
unknownandi] and Envy [theenviousone]Summary; X decides to try a new way of killing Envy, but things don't go as planned.
Log;
The carousel fascinated X. Oh, it was certainly a good place to watch the city's inhabitants, there was that too. But the actual carousel itself, and the ominous ticking that he could hear if he listened very very carefully and ignored the noise around him... that was what X really felt in tune with. It was evil.
But this outing served another purpose as well. He'd posted cheerfully on the network that he was coming here, and Envy should have seen that. And the homunculus wanted revenge, didn't he? So he'd have to show up. And he'd be expecting a trap, when really, X's new idea was so much simpler. He just had to lure him back to another prepared area again.
Today, X was a tall, slim woman with long blonde curls, the shape of a famous singer from his world. Nobody seemed to recognize her here, though, just another bit of confirmation that, so far, he was alone in his origin. But he made sure that one thing was different, recognizably X. What better than a small, cheerful smile, the same one he'd had just before crushing Envy, to make the homunculus recall just who had done what to him.
After waiting around the carousel a sufficient amount of time, wasting an hour or so, X yawned, stretched in her long slinky white dress, and started walking down the road towards the nearest subway entrance.
------------------
Shortly after the pretty blonde moved away from the carousel, a small figure turned its head towards her. The expression of amusement on the boy’s face looked rather strange, but in this City, it wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary.
As soon as Envy had read X’s post, he’d taken this shape, a harmless looking boy, young but not young enough that anyone would try fussing over him. He’d joined a game some kids were having next to the carousel, running and yelling and blending in perfectly with the rest of them, but constantly observing his surroundings all the same. He wasn’t quite sure how he’d be able to pick X out of such a crowd of people, but if the other shape shifter made even the tiniest mistake, Envy would find him.
He’d noticed the smile straight away, how the hell could he not recognize that after what had happened the last time he’d seen it? Then it hit him…this was just a little bit too obvious. Posting about where he’d be, turning up looking rather noticeable, spending over an hour next to that damn carousel, almost as if waiting for someone to turn up. It took every bit of Envy’s self control not to lunge at him right there and then; the bastard was trying to trap him again!
Envy left the game and headed in a direction opposite to the one X had taken. Shortly after that, a small, white terrier could be seen running towards the Underground entrance.
------------------
Once in the Underground, X headed away from the subway, away from the circus nearby, through alleys and around corners until a nearly deserted portion of the city, bordering the dangerous tunnels that led further down into the bowels of the city. She stood out looking like this, but that was fine. She had no intention of changing in plain sight.
The quiet patter of footsteps behind her made her smile, too. Did Envy really think that changing into a dog would be enough to fool her?
Heels clicking on the stone, X entered the first of the winding tunnels. Nobody else was around right now. Good. It was only one turn until she reached the small alcove, carved out by someone or someTHING a long time ago. She picked up the six long, carefully sharpened steel poles from where they lay in the shadows, body making a strange, sickening noise as it began to transform, bones and flesh re-shaping at X's bidding.
------------------
In spite of being a few minutes away from X, Envy still clearly heard the tell-tale noise that accompanied X’s changing forms. Grinning to himself, he changed shape as well, turning into himself, he didn’t need anything else to take the bastard down, and took off in the direction of the noise at a sprint, running lightly enough that he hardly made a noise.
------------------
X, now with his preferred boyish appearance, kicked the heels he'd been wearing away, the dress now hanging off his smaller, leaner frame. But elsewhere, more dramatic changes happened: X's hands and forearms split to the elbow in a thin spatter of blood. Fingers halved, then multiplied. Toes twisted unnaturally, lengthening and grasping two of the spikes. Each of X's four hands held another, and when Envy came running past the last corner, X's monstrous shape was there to greet him with the thrust and stab of sharpened metal.
------------------
Envy wasn’t at all surprised to see what X had lying in wait for him. As he lunged at him with the wickedly sharpened spikes, Envy pushed off the ground, using the momentum he’d built up to jump and twist in the air, safely out of reach, landing behind X, already facing him.
Shifting his arm into a replica of three of the spikes X had intended to use on him, Envy stabbed them through X’s back, making sure the ends of the poles ran right through him. Raising his arm, with X struggling furiously to get himself free, he jabbed the sharp ends into the wall, effectively pinning X there. Then, with a grimace, he twisted his arm to break the spikes off, and stepped back to survey his handiwork while his arm regenerated.
Tsk, pity he wouldn’t be able to see X’s face as he tortured him, but at least immobilizing him straight away meant no more tricks.
------------------
X choked, sputtered as blood from a punctured lung made its way into his airway, awkwardly trying to free himself. Jammed up against a stone wall, spikes driven straight into the rock itself, it was a far from easy task, even with an extra set of arms to push against the wall. This was where Envy was supposed to be, not him!
He twisted his neck, trying to get a good look at Envy, as he coughed up a bit more blood. It was hard to heal, with the metal rods running right through his body.
------------------
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Envy told him, amused at X’s attempts to free himself. “Is that too uncomfortable? I wouldn’t want you to die on me too fast, you know.” As if X could get free faster than Envy could skewer him to the wall again.
He laughed at the sight of blood dribbling out of X’s mouth, the redness a stark contrast against pale skin which already seemed to be growing paler. “Didn’t hit anything too vital, I hope?” he continued. He was already shifting his hand into another shape, well out of X’s line of sight. Not that the other shapeshifter could see much from the position he was in.
------------------
Despite his stubbornness, X wasn't stupid. He did realize that too much struggling at this point might actually be worse: he'd dropped a couple of he spikes he'd held when Envy first pinned him, and Envy could just as easily pin down his hands and feet as easily as he could have done to the homunculus.
But his own mortality wasn't even in his mind yet. It was still a matter of wanting to kill Envy. He coughed again, to cover the faint sound of a leg joint popping and his knee twisting around, the elongated toes still grasping one of his own spikes. He'd just have to try to hit Envy again as soon as he came close and use that moment to jerk free. It was worth a shot.
------------------
Envy rolled his eyes as he noticed what X was trying to do. He’d have thought X would have at least done enough research about homunculi to realize just how enhanced their senses were. “Well, if you want to do things the hard way, that’s fine with me.”
Picking up one of the poles X had dropped - he was damned if he’d break off his arm again unless it was necessary - he stabbed it through the foot X was trying to shift, lodging it securely into the wall. He repeated it with X’s other leg, twisting the spike out of spite as it pinned the limb. X’s arms he left free…for now.
Raising the hand he’d previously morphed into a blade, a grin split his face. It felt like forever since he’d had a victim he’d be able to take his time with. “Let’s see what your insides look like, shall we~?”
------------------
X choked again the pain, jerking and banging his head against the wall when Envy twisted the second spike in. His own fingers clawed at the wall, gouging thin lines in the rock.
"This isn't fair," X spit, petulantly, like a spoiled child. "I'm supposed... to do this to you. I want to see your insides."
------------------
“Actually,” Envy replied, in a reasonable tone of voice, “this is fair. You had your fun, and now it’s my turn. Besides, what are you, ten? Oh wait, I forgot, you can’t remember.”
He took a minute to watch X writhe in pain. Too much pain at once and it would be pointless, he wanted to make sure X felt every excruciating moment of it. In the meantime, he had to decide where he was going to start. So many possibilities…
Hmm, the scratch marks on the wall gave him an idea. “You shouldn’t damage the wall that way you know. It’s not nice of you at all~.” He said in a singsong voice. Moving closer to the boy and grabbing him around the neck with one hand while pressing the sharp edge of the blade against his wrist, just enough that a thin stream of blood started to flow, he whispered to X “We can’t have that, can we?”
And then Envy pressed down with the blade, cutting through skin, muscle, and bone.
------------------
"I don't care... agh."
There was definitely something fishy about the way X tried to twist out of Envy's grip, and the way he only uttered a quick, sharp noise of pain when the blade first bit in. Whether it was a matter of rerouting the nerve signals or something else, he was clearly not feeling everything that Envy had probably hoped. Not as much blood as there could be, either, though there was certainly a decent amount.
"Hey, Envy..." X said, panting a little, when the one hand was barely hanging from a thin strip of flesh. "Are you going to... tell me what you see inside?" Even now, there as still a hint of that maddening grin on his face.
------------------
Envy narrowed his eyes at the marked lack of response on X’s part…oh, he was in pain, that was for sure, but Envy had a lot of experience in hurting people and cutting off a hand usually resulted in much more screaming. Time to increase things a notch.
He held back for a second at X’s question – damn the bastard was obsessed with insides – and spat out “Maybe. Or maybe I’ll just pull your eyes out and hold them up so you can see for yourself!”
Alchemic sparks ran up the blade as the sharp edge changed itself, Envy morphing that hand into a serrated and rather dull blade instead. “So, one hand down and three to go?” he asked, the good humour back in his voice. A bit further up the arm from the wrist this time, Envy thought. It was actually rather nice of X to give him extra limbs to work with. He should remember to thank him, afterwards. If he was still conscious.
------------------
This time there was definitely more of a strangled cry from X as the blade bit in, sawing through the thin arm bones. He wasn't going to be able to take this kind of treatment for a long time, not after already changing his body so much. Panting again, he reached back as quickly as he could with the one free hand, and jerked the one spike that had been driven through his lung clean out of his body in another brief spray of blood.
Envy would probably pin that hand now, but if he could even breathe better.. there might be a way out of this mess. He'd never had anyone try to kill him seriously before, with the exception of being shot at. And bullets were next to nothing, now. It was almost funny. But it was time to figure out how to get away.
"Next time," he panted raggedly, blood on his lips, "I'm going to... kill you.... even more cruelly... more slowly... And I'm not going to stop... ever. I'll find a way." Maybe not the wisest words to say to someone in the middle of torturing you.
------------------
Envy wasn’t amused at X’s pathetic attempts at threatening him. “No, you won’t. And shut up, you’re annoying me. Right now, you’re the one who’s going to be killed over and over again.”
He sneered at the other shapeshifter, the idiot thought that he could talk his way out of this? Not. Happening. Grabbing the arm X had used to pull out the spike, he quickly twisted it backwards in its socket and wrenched the limb off him.
Taking a step back to survey his work, he tilted his head at X and grinned. “Stop trying to get loose, hmm?”
------------------
With his first clear breath since being pinned, X screamed as his arm was ripped off, still more blood gushing out to stain the tunnel floor red. The tension in his body seemed to drop out all at once as he sagged against the wall, trying his best to recover from such a dramatic shock to the system. The torn-off limb continued to drip, even as the spurting blood from X's shoulder fell to a trickle.
He couldn't reply, not right away, and just panted, resting his head against the stone wall. Am I really going to die? he wondered. It seemed like a weird thought to have, and yet there it was.
------------------
Oh good, the bastard had finally shut up. Maybe it had finally gotten through his thick skull that Envy meant business. X wasn’t going to survive this. X wasn’t going to survive this for a long time, as many times as Envy felt like waiting for him to come back to life and killing him over again.
The thought made him generous. “Any preferences on what to lose next? Guts, bones, skin?” Actually, it was more amusement at forcing him to speak than generosity. And it wasn’t like Envy would pay attention to what he chose, he already knew exactly what he was going to do to him next.
------------------
"...rather not lose anything," X mumbled, tilting his head back and turning to stare at Envy over what was left of his shoulder, with a strange, wide-eyed look. He wasn't smiling anymore, at least.
------------------
“I’m sure you wouldn’t.” Envy agreed, putting a hand on his shoulder. Which he then squeezed hard enough to shatter the bone.
He shrugged, smirk still on his face. “Wasn’t the answer I was looking for though. I guess a patch of skin, maybe? To make it easier to get to your insides.”
------------------
He did have a certain fascination with what was inside himself, it was true. But Envy didn't seem to really have any interest in his insides, X thought abstractly, gritting his teeth as the remains of the dress he'd been wearing was torn away and skin was scraped from his back, slowly and painfully.
He tilted his head back, and uttered a choked laugh, cut off as a retaliatory gouge into his skin added an extra level of pain. "You don't know... what... you're doing," he said, hanging limply from the wall as he killed a few more nerves to fuel his internal repairs, trying to lose as little blood as he could. "You don't know.. how to look...properly."
------------------
“I think you’re missing the point, X.” Envy told him, ripping off a final strip of skin. There, that should be enough. It would have to be, there wasn’t really much left to remove. He shifted the blade back into his hand…using something with an edge for the next part would make it too easy on X.
He drove his hand into X’s back, breaking a rib as he did so. X started trashing about again, probably more from the pain than to try and get away, the idiot was making it worse for himself, doing that. Envy grabbed the back of the boy’s head and slammed it hard into the wall, holding him there as he pulled his other hand out of the gaping wound in his back. Gore covered Envy’s hand and X’s back, guts showing, pulled out of place.
“Let’s see…you don’t really need your spine, do you?” Envy asked, already imagining how satisfying it would be to rip it out.
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X shuddered under Envy's hand, wondering what was going to happen after that. He was almost at his limit. Even though his cells had become more and more amenable to change over time, there was still a limit to how much he could do before he ran out of fuel and they started breaking down of their own accord.
But the wrench of his spine being ripped from his body never came. Instead, Envy's hand smashed his already-bloodied face into the wall, harder this time. X's body went limp again, his head already reeling from repeated impacts.
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Goddammit not now, why now, why did she always have to spoil his fun?! Damn that bitch, she just had to have made him promise to keep on checking the network in case she had orders for him and now of all times she wanted to talk to him. He should have just ignored her…hell, he would have if she hadn’t hinted at what it was she was planning. When it came down to choosing between hurting someone he’d hated for centuries or a stupid brat who’d just got on his nerves, Envy knew which he’d choose.
He kept on slamming X’s head hard into the wall, both working out his frustration at having to leave a job half done and to try and knock him out enough that maybe, just maybe, he’d find him still there once he came back from being briefed about exactly what Dante was planning to do with Greed.
Finally letting go of X’s head, Envy drove the spikes securing X to the wall even further in. The other shapeshifter seemed to have passed out, hanging limply from the metal rods, but Envy didn’t quite believe that he wasn’t faking it. Still, it was the best he could do for now.
Even if X did get away, catching him again probably wouldn’t be that much of a problem.