[LOCKED: April, DBFS Journals] Vortex Traps Aftermath

[twinpharaohs]

((OOC: The following journals are likely to turn up at some point: twinviziers, fmalchemist160/Edward Elric, stonebluesorrow/Zelgadis Graywords, toreador_saviour, lionheartedgangrel/Harry Potter, and any of the DBFS NPC journals (all begin with "dbfs_").))

When Yugi turns up in the Nexus to meet April, he looks considerably more battered than he ever has before, bandages wound around one arm and several cuts on his face held shut with those little white medical strips they use for small cuts. One of his legs bounces nervously, and he's rubbing at his bandaged arm. He's twirling what appears to be a Tarot card—or at least, something superficially similar to a Tarot card—between two fingers. Yami is nowhere in sight—for now.

Comments

no probs

[slayers_desire]

"Clark threw a crystal into the frozen tundra of the Arctic, and the Fortress sprung to life. Kryptonian science... I don't get it..." April smiles apologetically.

April frowned slightly at Kat's question. "It was Clark's message. To him from his parents. They made it moments before their world was destroyed... so I don't think I should share it without his permission."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed sits there with his jaw hanging slack for a moment, then shakes his head and mutters to himself, "Things just keep getting weirder and weirder..." He sighs and shrugs. "I don't get it either, but then, I'm kinda new to all this anyway."

"You'll get used to it," Kat tells him evenly. She turns back to April and smiles a bit to let her know she doesn't mind. "That's okay. I totally get it. Maybe I'll ask Clark, if I ever get a chance to meet him."

[slayers_desire]

"To know me, is to accept my weirdness. and the weirdness of my husband. Neither of us are human. Neither of us regret the abilities we have, or the paths that we have taken." April smiles softly.

[fmalchemist160]

"No, Kat's right," Ed sighs, "I'll get used to it eventually. It's just... It's been a long few days."

"Hear, hear," Kat and Yugi chorus.

Ed snorts in amusement and adds, after a hesitant pause, "I regret the path I took. All the damned time... At the same time, I know there's nothing I can do to change the past."

[slayers_desire]

"The trick is to accept the past, and how it has made you the person you are today."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed laughs a bit, though there's a touch of sadness to the noise. "You know, a old war veteran I met said almost the exact same thing to me. He lost his leg in the Ishbalan war, and that was more or less the reason he didn't want to get an automail prosthetic for his leg."

He's quiet for several long moments. "I could tell you the story. What happened to me. The only thing is that, if I do, I want you to tell me something from your past too. Alchemy is about equivalency, that you can't get something for nothing, and that Law is also a personal philosophy of mine."

[slayers_desire]

April is quiet for a moment too. Then she smiles softly. "I have no problems talking about my past. But I do want to warn you, that there are parts of my past that might be difficult for you to accept."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed takes in a deep breath and smiles back uncertainly. "I'll... try to keep an open mind. Do you want to start, or should I?"

[slayers_desire]

"I can start. You already know that I am a vampire. I was an unique birth... born to two vampires. My mother gave me up at birth, to a Demon. And I was raised in a darker, alternate dimension."

"About the age of puberty, I first received my gifts. My voices. I am psychic. And in a flash... I knew those Demons meant ill towards me. I escaped the Demon who had taken me as a child and lived as a rogue. Hunting for food when I could. Sleeping when I could. And fighting those who tried to use my powers against me. Those who believed that a psychic would ensure the war was won by them."

"For six long years I was constantly on the run. Living one day to the next. Until finally, I found a way to escape that dimension."

"Returning to my home world, I was consumed with anger and revenge towards my mother. I found her in a mental hospital. And... killed her."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed sits there in stunned silence for a moment, then shakes his head. "I... can't say I wouldn't have been angry too, if I'd been in your situation."

[slayers_desire]

"I went after my father next. But fortunately, a mental breakdown and a vision stopped me from harming him."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed blinks. "A vision?"

"Like the kind Bakura gets," Kat says. "I mean, I assume," she adds to April. "Don't know if you get the splitting migraines or not."

"Bakura's tend to be vague, too," Yugi adds. "He describes them like a series of seemingly-random video clips strung together coupled with the worst migraine you've ever had and a little bit of whispered, relevant information. Usually not much."

"Riiight..." Ed replies. He clears his throat. "So what did the... vision say?"

[slayers_desire]

"My visions come as voices. Soft whispers that describe the future in confusing clues and imagines at times. I don't get a migraine... but I still space out most of the time."

"The vision told me I was needed in Rome. I had to help fight against Seven Sins and Three Witches."

[fmalchemist160]

"Seven Sins?" Ed frowns in thought, vaguely recognizing the term, and then remembers where he's heard it before. "Right! Christian mythology. Seven Deadly Sins, right? Gluttony, Lust, Wrath, Pride, Greed, Sloth, and Envy."

Yugi arches an eyebrow at him. "Thought you were atheist."

"My first apprentice in alchemy was an anthropologist," Ed sighs. "He's the one who told me about the idea."

[slayers_desire]

"They were more than an idea. Each sin was attached to a Demon, and we had to defeat them."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed arches both eyebrows, then grimaces. "Tough fight, I imagine. Since you're still around I'll assume you won."

[slayers_desire]

"We did win against them. Yes."

[fmalchemist160]

"You stay mad at your dad after that?" he asks quietly. He knows a little something about being pissed off at one's father.

[slayers_desire]

"My relationship with my dad is still strained. But we are trying..."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed lets out a wry snort. "Yeah, my relationship with my dad isn't that great either... The reasons are peripherally related to my own story."

[slayers_desire]

"I did already tell my story..." April smiled softly, encouraging Ed to tell his.

[fmalchemist160]

Ed smiles a bit too. "Guess it's my turn, then." He sighs, his eyes going a bit distant. "Well, my brother and I were born in a small farming village called Resembool. First couple of years of our lives, it was me, Al, and Mom and Dad. Then when I was two, Dad ran off somewhere, so it was just me, Al, and Mom. And for awhile it was fine. Our dad was an alchemist, and Al and I started going through his old books and teaching ourselves Alchemy. I was... six, maybe? Al was five.

"Then, one day, our mom collapsed while she was working on the farm. The doctor said..." he swallows a bit. "...He said she'd probably been sick for years, but never told anyone, and it was only a matter of time until she... she passed away. I was nine. Al and I... we didn't think we could make it without her. So... after the funeral, I made a really, really stupid decision."

[slayers_desire]

"What was that decision?"

[fmalchemist160]

Ed grimaces. "We... I decided we were gonna bring mom back to life."

"There's something you gotta understand about alchemy: even though we can do pretty much anything we want as long as we obey the Law of Equivalent Exchange—conservation of mass and all that—there are some things we just don't do. Transmuting human beings is one of those, and there's a good reason for it: most people who try don't survive. So it's taboo.

"And we knew that. Every time it came up in one of Dad's books, there was always something about how very, very bad it was. Illegal, even. I barreled ahead anyway."

[slayers_desire]

April nodded in understanding. In her own world, Willow had used magic to bring Buffy back to life, with dire circumstances. She can imagine that it would not be much different for Alchemy.