you're the fairy bomberman

The whole show had relocated to Toronto. Envy's debut was creeping closer and closer, and with it, so was the opening of the Toronto edition of Gideon's Chaos Theatre. So, here they were. It was weird to be back here, in what had once been her university town, but Envy was working with it.

Even took a night of to go to a party thrown by a friend-of-a-friend. (An acquaintance-of-an-acquaintance. Whichever.) Figured she could try feeling like the old days, if only for a moment.

( It didn't work. )

[ooc: NFB, but can be open for emails/calls/texts/whathaveyou. Taken and tweaked from Scott Pilgrim volume six!]

It was Saturday, 1 PM. (Yes, only a day had passed. Time was messed up these days.) It was raining in Toronto, which was why Envy was sharing an umbrella with Todd.

Well, Todd was holding it. But it was her umbrella.

( Honest Ed's! )

[ooc: NFB, NFI, but open to OOC. Once again taken/edited from Scott Pilgrim volume three!]

A lot of things had happened. An album, write-ups in some prominent music magazines, the skyrocketing popularity of Envy's blog, a gig at Gideon Graves' club in New York...

And now, it was time to head back to Toronto. The Clash at Demonhead had a couple of shows lined up, and Todd had... business to attend to in the city, too. And the thing was, Envy had some business to take care of beforehand.

Which was to make a phone call.

( Hi, Scott. )

[ooc: NFB, NFI, OOC-okay, the canon catch-up train rides again! Conversation lifted from Scott Pilgrim volume two.]

There'd been a lot of portaling back and forth between Toronto and Brazil, lately. Kid Chameleon was getting pretty large. Physically. Stephanie Nordegraf had joined up some time ago to play bass, but now Envy had recruited a guy called Cole to take over the drums because he was actually good (and, shut up Stephen, he was actually an okay guy, too), so she'd shifted Scott to bass because Stephanie was taking up bongos and viola.

It was most efficient that way. She wanted the band to really get known. And she wasn't sure why Scott seemed to have a problem with that.

She wasn't sure about a lot of things to do with Scott, these days.

And there was the thing where she wasn't sure whether Jim was alive or not.

So, her mood had not been the best for a while. The piano probably been had been kind of a related impulse buy. To soothe her brain. Something she felt like she deserved. Like she'd earned it by now. (There was a pack of cigarettes on top of it. Those were... yeah. Not exactly a reward.) She was sitting at the piano now, playing some melody or other. Trying to get herself out of her head.

[ooc: NFB, but open!]

Toronto, two weeks ago (or, Thursday):

She was in her dorm room. Scott came to visit.

"Whoa, what happened to all your crap, I mean stuff?"

"I'm trying to pare down a little."

Or a lot. Really, a lot. Her dorm room looked much more bare than it had until very recently.

"All your toys and anime and stuff?"

Things she'd ported over from her dorm room at Fandom? They'd been nice, but she wasn't going to miss them very much. There were still a few select pieces of fannish paraphernalia back at home. That was enough. "It was weird, they magically turned into cash," she quipped. "I got some new music and these wicked boots." In striking pink, and up to her knee. High heels. Like a brighter version of the ones Jim had gotten her way back when. "They cost $240."

It was reasonable, when you couldn't keep an image change just to a simple haircut.

Toronto, one week ago (or, Friday):

She was in bed with Scott. Things were heating up. In that fumbly, college dorm room kind of way. Shirtless makeouts.

"Mmm. Nat..."

Stop.

That had been striking the wrong cord for a while, now. It had been going round and round in her head for... months, probably, now. It was so hard to keep track of time sometimes.

"Um... Can you – can you start calling me Envy?"

Her voice came out softer, more tentative than she would have liked.

Ribeirão Preto, now:

She was back. She'd been back perhaps half an hour. Long enough to hang up some new clothes in the closet. Long enough to settle down and log on to the Hegemony networks to begin changing her name to from Natalie V. Adams to simply N.V. Adams everywhere she could.

It was a pretty simple change, and not too conspicuous considering that was how she'd signed all her correspondence for a long time. But it still felt so good. And she wasn't quite sure why.

[ooc: WE HAVE AN ENVY. NFB, but open for the usual. Dialogue lifted from Scott Pilgrim volume three.]

A plus side of the multiversal time difference between Canada and Brazil: lots and lots of time to work on work things. It gave her ample extra time to cross-reference existing documents as she worked on Peter's draft. Even if it meant doing so on what felt like ancient technology compared to hom–– the Compound, and in a tiny, cramped dorm room.

While her roommate prattled at her about the guy that was always hanging around her. And who was also currently seated on... actually, Natalie's bed. They didn't have many chairs, and Natalie couldn't bring herself to care much about whether anyone sat on her bed or not.

"I know he seems totally irresistible, Nat, but watch out." Natalie didn't exactly like Julie calling her Nat, but, whatever. She had bigger things to worry about. "Scott's a jerk. He's a total ladykiller wannabe jerky jerk."

"That's garbage! That is completely untrue!"

"That time after psych in the ladies' room with Monique?"

"Misunderstanding!!!"

"That time with Sandra in the ladies' room at Burwash?"

"Not what it looked like!!"

And so on and so forth.

And another thing Toronto was good for? Sometimes, you could just take a walk. No security detail to be seen. The Toronto normal. Some days later, Natalie found herself walking back to the dorms with Scott. She'd found him looking confused outside of the library. He said he'd gotten lost, which she found weird because the library seemed to her like one of the easiest landmarks around. Which led to a comment, as they were walking.

"I think Julie's full of it."

"Really?"

"You're much too dopey to be a ladykiller."

He didn't seem to know how he should take that. But that was okay. Natalie wasn't sure what she'd meant by it, either.

And yet some more days, or maybe closer to a week later, Natalie was back in her office at the Hegemony Compound. Time seemed to shift back into its normal pace. She had a note on her desk from a couple of weeks ago – though the note had only been there for a day or so – which brought her back up to speed regarding what she should expect here soon. Travel and meetings.

The Ribeirao Preto normal.

[ooc: NFB, but can be open, sure sure. WE HAVE HIT ACTUAL CANON YAY. Specifically, Scott Pilgrim volume three.]