Entering the Hegemony Compound, Ribeirao Preto, Sunday

[whenshewasnice]

In the end, a week in Los Angeles had turned into about a month and a half. And not by choice, apart from the first extra week or so, but rather by Portalocity fuckery because honestly, what else? Caused by 'universes shifting like they sometimes do', they'd told her. Which probably explained how she'd also ended up losing her multiversal cell service for a chunk of it, too.

The customer service reps should've been glad she'd traveled the multiverse enough to know that no amount of yelling or threats would fix anything. Although she'd still been tempted to try.

She'd been stubbornly staying in LA for most of the portal blackout, taking advantage of the opportunities that came from a shitty situation: filmed a couple of cameos for on-brand indie production companies, struck up a weird not-quite-friendship (hangout-ship?) with Winifred Hailey, worked on new songs that her new vaguely oppressive environment inspired in her... But for the last week, she'd been in Montreal. Spending Christmas with her parents had been another opportunity to seize, and so she had.

But today, today her daily habit of calling Portalocity had yielded the result she'd been wanting for over a month: the portals were back. The direct connection was yet to be established, but she'd told them she didn't care, she just wanted to go home. So she'd got all her crap together - a couple more bags' worth than when she'd left in early November - and she'd set on her way.

And now, several portal layovers later... She'd finally made it to the compound, where her first order of business was to get someone from the gate crew to help with her bags.

The second order of business was to call Peter. Ring ring, Peter.

[ooc: NFB, primarily for the guy.]

Comments

[lockestheway]

"Envy!"

... Congratulations, Envy. You were probably the only person alive to hear Peter utter a word quite that frantic.

[whenshewasnice]

Yeah. Envy figured as much.

She exhaled before she spoke. Guess she'd been half holding her breath? "I'm at the gate."

[lockestheway]

"Where have you been?!" Peter asked, grabbing his coat on his way out of his office.

[whenshewasnice]

"Los Angeles --" Well, he probably knew about that one, but still. "-- then Montreal for the past week." Her voice got a whole lot more dry. "Then a lot of different Portalocity lounges over the past half a day."

At least someone had found a kind of a cart thing to load her bags onto, by now.

[lockestheway]

"Your phone was disconnected," Peter retorted, walking down the hallway at high speed.

[whenshewasnice]

"Yeah, apparently universes were shifting or something," Envy repliedas the trek towards the residential building started. "Fun."

[lockestheway]

"Is that even legal?" Peter growled. "It's not going to be."

[whenshewasnice]

Was it wrong to find that tone from him a slight turn-on?

... You know what, Envy didn't care. She'd had a long month, she could take pleasure whatever she damn well pleased.

"A little outside your jurisdiction, Wiggin. But I appreciate the thought."

[lockestheway]

"What's the point of being Hegemon if I can't order someone to go to Portalocity and nail our portals down with actual nails if they have to?" Peter asked. He shoved the doors open and strode outside, phone still in hand.

Nobody paid him any particular attention but the bodyguards. Drama was kind of where Peter lived.

[whenshewasnice]

It made him easy to spot, if nothing else.

"I see you."

Still relatively far away, but still. She figured she stood out of the landscape, too, at least by virtue of her faux leopard coat - and also the guard and the bag cart.

[lockestheway]

"I don't see y-- there you are," Peter said, stomping into the general direction of leopard print. "Someone else help her helper with the bag cart, what are you waiting for?!"

[whenshewasnice]

"Peter, it's fine," Envy told him, still over the phone but thankfully not for long. "He's got it."

But of course someone else had already snapped to action to come help.

[lockestheway]

"Nothing is fine, Portalocity decided to kidnap you for a month and a half," Peter said, and then he clicked off the phone - because again, drama queen - and slid it into his coat pocket as he approached. Not far now.

[whenshewasnice]

Honestly, the divas she'd met on her extended stay in LA had nothing on him. Peter Wiggin remained the most dramatic of drama queens she'd ever met.

But she wouldn't say she didn't appreciate the sight of him striding towards her. Her own phone ended up in her pocket. Underneath the fake leopard, she was dressed far more casually than she tended to: sweats and a hoodie. 'Christmas in Montreal' mode Envy was perhaps a touch closer to the Natalie of old.

"Hello, Mr. Hegemon," she said once he was within speaking distance. "Hanging up on me was rude."

[lockestheway]

"You can make me pay for it later," Peter said.

Congratulations, Envy. You were getting a very rare hug, whether you liked it or not.

[whenshewasnice]

She didn't mind. Fancy that. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him very willingly.

"Hi," she said. By his ear, her greeting sounded a lot more private than the previous one.

[lockestheway]

"You scared me," Peter said, very quietly. He didn't want anyone else to hear.

[whenshewasnice]

It was zero percent anyone else's business.

"Yeah," Envy murmured. "Wasn't great from my side, either."

She'd been more frustrated than worried, because it was easier to be the one who'd actually gone away. But there was a definite unease about such a complete loss of contact.

Especially extended.

[lockestheway]

"Do you have anywhere you need to be for the next 48 hours?" Peter asked softly.

[whenshewasnice]

"No," she said. "Hopefully you don't either." She paused, then went for a quip. "Except maybe indoors instead of out in the open like this."

[lockestheway]

Peter snorted softly. He pulled away from her, eyeing one of his bodyguards. "Tell my assistant to clear my schedule for the next two days," he said. "It's almost NYE, we've already recorded my message, everyone can behave."

[whenshewasnice]

Envy smiled. It was on the tired side, but still sharp. "That's a good a boy." She kept that comment pretty quiet, but raised her voice when she continued. "Now can we please get all this crap in my apartment?"

[lockestheway]

The bodyguard who had decided to deal with Envy's luggage muttered an affirmative, moving swiftly along with the helper Envy had already acquired. Together, they dragged her cart towards her building at some speed.

Peter stuck his hands in his pockets. "At least we've finally got some decent staff."

[whenshewasnice]

"They do alright, I guess."

No, she was very thankful she didn't have to lug all that stuff around herself. She'd done enough of it on some of the portal layovers at smaller hubs.

She was also walking pretty briskly, herself. "How was Christmas?"

[lockestheway]

"We had people all over the compound, they kept getting in the way," Peter said. "I had some gifts sent over for Bean's kids. Otherwise, SSDD."