duskofthegods_logs | (no subject)

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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"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?"