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Who: Edward Elric and YOU~
What: Ed's arrived to Vernos Bay and he's confused. He's also a bit frustrated. Please help him.
When: All day
Where: Out and about as he gets his bearings
Warnings: Well, it's a loud-mouthed alchemist tossed into where he's going to have to accept that gods exist. Mild swearing and yelling are inevitable. Will update if anything else develops.

The past couple of weeks had been pretty hard on Ed. First, he was stuck in Briggs, and wouldn't you know it, Kimbley finds a way to dangle Winry in front of his face as a hostage. When they finally find a way to get her out of that, he and Al are forced to separate and he ends up with a steel rod through his gut. Then he has to lay low while healing up and is forced into hiding. No matter where he goes he can't seem to find Alphonse, and when he does run into someone he knows and trusts, she greets him with a wrench to his face. Now, to top it all off, he's not even in Resembool anymore, despite being there a moment ago. Hell, with the architecture here, he was pretty sure he wasn't even in Amestris! Winry, Greed (Ling? GreedLing? Gring?), Gorilla and Lion man are no where to found. Frustrated, Ed does the only thing he can do. Walk around to try to get his bearings and try to find out what the hell just happened.

The locals don't seem to be very helpful. He tries to ask a few people where he is, but they seem strangely unable to answer his questions. Whether it's because he's speaking a language they don't understand or if they're just too xenophobic to respond, he's not entirely sure. At the same time, it's evident that the town has some kind of pollution problem as the air is chocked with smog. It seems to get thicker in areas where the breeze is more stagnant, but regardless of where he goes it's thick and difficult to breath. He walks with his hand over his mouth, covered int he sleeve of his shirt to help filter the air, but it doesn't help all that much.

Getting increasingly frustrated, Ed continues to try to find someone who will at least try to communicate with him. By this point though, his attitude alone might be pushing people away.

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"Alchemy is a science. It's based on strict scientific laws and principles." She wasn't the first person to make this mistake. Hell, people from Amestris tended to jump to the conclusion that it was all magic, and since she clearly believed in that mumbo-jumbo, he's not surprised at her confusion.

"As much as I wanna help, I've got to get back to Amestris and take care of some business." He turns to leave, but realizes that he has no idea how to get back. "You wouldn't know where to go to find out how to get back where we came from, do you?"

Ah, so that was it. The sciences were the rise, even in Arendelle, though her small kingdom was distant to the rest of the world. Elsa was only aware to a limited extent of the existence of the sciences. The idea of them opposing magic didn't really make sense to her, not exactly. "I imagine my powers obey certain laws and principles, though I am usually blind to them. I focus my will, and I can conjure certain effects, but there are limits and I must have a care or lose control."

The request, though, made her shake her head. "I tried when someone mentioned that you could not leave, before I came here. I had to be sure. If you walk along the roads, at a certain point, you will find yourself walking towards the city all over again. I do not know any way to leave." But, if he was a man of science, maybe he would prefer to see it for himself. "I can show you, if you wish."

Ed was half expecting Elsa to reject his explanation, or at least shrug it off. The fact that she considered her powers might follow some principles, scientific or not, helped him accept what was going on. He could relate to the problem of using a power you think you understand only to be shown how ignorant you really were about it. "Maybe you just need some help setting up some way to study it."

Ed's face morphed from skepticism to alarm. He was strongly reminded of when he, Ling, and Envy had gotten themselves swallowed by Gluttony. The place they had ended up in, while different in that it seemed to stretch on forever and not loop in on itself, felt too similar for Ed's liking. "Yeah. I need to see this."

Well, everything had to follow rules of some kind, didn't they? The trolls had certainly been clear that there were rules of a sort that related to these things, though she had never spent enough time with them. Not after that day long long ago when she had hurt Anna on accident. She was regretting that mistake right now. It might have helped her a lot to have their colorful sort of wisdom here. "I think that would be wise. I am likely to overdo it if I am not careful." It had happened before.

Rising from the throne, she started to walk down the hall and towards the entrance. It wasn't as if she needed to be in this building constantly, now was it? "Come with me then. I doubt you will like what you find." Her tone said she certainly hadn't.

While Ed wasn't sure if Elsa was speaking from experience or not, he knew very well the dangers of 'overdoing' something or going too far.

He was pretty sure that he wasn't going to like it if what she said was true. So far she had proven that she wasn't exaggerating or lying, so Ed was already trying to mentally prepare himself for whatever they would find. Granted, he had been in a worse situation before. This place wasn't a vast void of darkness with a sea of blood, so there's that. He follows Elsa out of the temple.

"You mentioned something about thrones before. Do you know anything else about them?"

Oh yes, they both likely knew plenty about overdoing it. Her sister had almost paid the ultimate price for that, as had her people.

She pointed to one of the buildings in the distance when they walked out of the temple, though she didn't turn in the direction of it. "That one over there is one of them. The girl inside did not speak my language, so I had trouble understanding what it was. But it seems that there are several around the city. Each is supposed to control something different."

Her pace was not as fast as she would have liked as she walked. This filthy air didn't make for a brisk jog, after all. "I know that there are thrones for each season, and most likely the elements and some of society, but I could not tell you all of them." She had only barely arrived. Her claiming this throne had only been because she was who and what she was.

As Ed followed, his brows were furrowed as he listened to Elsa explain how things seemed to work. When she mentioned that she had bumped into someone who didn't speak their language, Ed felt a little foolish. Before he had run into Elsa, he had been trying to get the locals to talk to him. Maybe they didn't answer because they couldn't understand him? Still, they could have opened their mouths and let him know. But then again, hadn't Elsa mentioned that they couldn't speak for some reason?

Even after he had seen Elsa's display of power, he still couldn't help but roll his eyes behind Elsa's back as she listed off the thrones she knew about. It sounded stupid. It was stupid. But regardless of how accurate it was, it was still a lead to follow. Something was up with these thrones. Got it. "So what was your throne then? Winter? Ice?"

Meanwhile, Ed did his best to keep track of their surroundings, keeping track of certain buildings or other features so he would notice if they started to repeat.

"Winter," she said in a tone that was completely devoid of emotion. "My power has always been over winter, the cold and its winds and snows. Ending up inside of that temple was as much it calling to me as any intention on my part." She didn't really sound happy as she said it.

While they walked, she was making similar notes. She had only been here for a little while, so she wanted to know more about this place. Elsa didn't plan to stay forever, or even very long if she could help it and find someone to serve as a successor, but it served to know what was supposed to be here. Of course, not knowing the language did not help at all, especially as it was so hard to translate or decipher.

"If you would be so kind, could you explain alchemy to me? Your understanding is different than mine."

Ed wasn't always the most perceptive of people, but he still picked up on the tone of her voice when she explained her role here. Was it reluctance? Regret? "It doesn't sound like you like it very much."

So far, and it seemed like any ordinary town. They had only just started walking though.

"Alchemy is the analysis, deconstruction, and reconstruction of matter," he started. "The two biggest concepts are the conservation of matter and the laws of natural providence." He looked over to Elsa. This wasn't the first time he tried to explain alchemy to someone, though he had confused people sometimes when he did. How did Al put it that one time? "So, say you want to make something into steel. First, you need something similar to steel, like another metal or rock, and you'll need as much of that metal or rock as you want steel. It's equivalent exchange."

Reluctance, regret, lingering self-loathing, all of the above. She sighed as they walked and looked back at him over her shoulder. "My power has caused my family and people nothing but pain until recently. To feel as if I was brought here to sit on a throne because of it is not a pleasant thought." Her pace picked up just a fraction as they walked. She had made peace with herself, found a relief in her sister's love and was getting control over her powers now but that did not mean the wounds were any less fresh than they were.

She did, though, listen to his explanation of alchemy. The majority of it went straight over her head, as she had little in the way of study in the sciences. She was no chemist, much less an alchemist, so it made very little sense to her until the last words. "Equivalency can take many forms," she said, almost woodenly. "Is it always physical quantities, or is it sometimes more than simply two plus two equals four?" Because in her life? She couldn't have said where she acquired the water that created the ice she formed, and yet she was pretty sure that there was a real price to her abilities.

She was dead sure of it.

Ed met Elsa's gaze as she glanced back at him. He could hear the pain in her voice and he didn't need to know the details to sympathize with her.

Elsa's question was a bit difficult to answer, perhaps more than she realized. Had it been a year ago, Ed would have confidently given her a straight answer, but after all of his experiences regarding the Philosopher's Stones and the homunculi, it had gotten more complicated. After tossing it around in his head a bit, he figured keeping it simple was probably the best thing. "For the most part, it's basically just a balanced equation. If you have a pound of lead, you can make a pound of gold from it, but no more and no less. You can't make something out of nothing."

Perhaps a demonstration would help? He stopped walking and pushed the cloak Elsa had lent him back a little before clapping his hands together and touching the ground. Without any gloves, Elsa would clearly see the automail up close. There was a bright light and tendrils of blue energy surrounded him a bit before fading to reveal a tiny suit of armor that could fit in the palm of your hand. The ground where Ed transmuted now had a small round hole where it had been flat and even with the rest of the pavement.

"See the ground where I transmuted? That mass was used to make this." He handed the little statuette to Elsa.

She watched the demonstration with curiosity, eyes widening in amazement at the display of alchemical power. However small it was, it was nevertheless impressive to someone who had never seen this kind of power at work. "Amazing. So, you are capable of transmuting one substance into another, so long as there is enough of both?"

Certainly that was what it seemed like he had just done. "Are there any limits to the kind of power that you use, other than this one rule that you cannot create something from nothing?" Oddly enough, if only she knew about philosopher stones, she might have suggested that the thrones might very well have been similar. Items of power that enabled a specific application of power.

Of course, that probably wasn't entirely good.

"You only need enough of one substance to turn it into another. Granted, the substances have to have similar chemical structures to begin with. Like I said before," He pointed to the river. "No matter how hard you try, you're not going to be able to transmute steel out of water. They're too different."

He frowned before continuing. "There's also limits on what kinds of things you can work with." He'd better tell her now before she got any ideas. "Don't even think about trying alchemy on humans. You'll only end up with a rebound." He waved his automail hand at her. "I know from experience."

She looked at the metallic, robotic arm with curiosity and concern. "I would not think of using such a power, and besides. I can only control the weather as I said. Anything else is far beyond me." But, now that she could see it clearly, a thought occurred to her.

"Wait, do you mean that there is something wrong with your arm? I had thought it a fanciful gauntlet of some sort."

Oh, right. Considering Elsa had never heard of Amestris before, Ed isn't surprised that automail is foreign to her.

"It's called automail. It's a common prosthetic in Amestris." He sighed. His point about the dangers of human transmutation being dulled by the fact that he assumed Elsa knew of something she had no reason to. "My brother and I tried it once. It didn't end well." It was usually Al who filled in the blanks. Neither he nor Ed were too shy about what they had done, so long as it wasn't around any military personnel who could court martial Ed for it. They'd rather people know of the consequences then be pushed to believe that it was something they could pull off.

Automail she didn't understand, but prosthetic she figured out quickly enough. The context of their talk gave her an icy chill in her stomach as she looked at his arm with widened eyes and more than a little bit of alarm. "That has replaced your arm?" she said, almost breathlessly. "I am shocked that metal could work that well as a replacement. There are old legends from far away lands of a man with a silver hand, but it was not like that I imagine."

She shook her head. "This happened because you attempted something you should not have? It seems all powers like these come with a grave risk to the unwise."

"Yup." He said it as if it was nothing. In a sense, it wasn't a very big deal to him. He's had automail for about four years now, and it was something that was fairly common throughout Amestris. "I don't know all the details about how it works. I'm not a mechanic." If she wanted the details, he was not the person to go to. Of course, if Winry was here she could gush about it until Elsa's ears bled.

Ed nodded. Her reaction was the one he had hoped she would have. "That's it in a nutshell. Alchemy is pretty useful if you use it correctly and for the right things."

Now it was time for him to ask questions again. "What's that legend about the man with the silver hand?"

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