[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

[fmalchemist160]

"Yes and no. Al was..." he pauses, frowning. "I'm... not really sure how to describe his state of mind. Scared, probably. Distraught that we'd failed. I told him not to look at..."—he shudders quietly—"...it. He did anyway. Even through all of the... fear and worry he must've been feeling, he still wanted to understand what had gone wrong on some level. And through it all, he was more worried about me than he was about being stuck in a suit of armor."

"You were bleeding out on the floor of your dad's laboratory," Kat points out.

"Well, yeah," Ed admits. "Anyway... I was kinda out of it for most of the rest of the night, but Al did his best to tie of my... well, my stumps, and he got me over to our friend Winry's place. Winry's grandma is an AutoMail engineer, and she was teaching Winry the trade. Convenient thing was, AutoMail engineers always need to have some medical training, in order to be able to install their handiwork in the first place. So Auntie Pinako—that's what we called Winry's grandma—got me properly patched up.

"This is all more or less second-hand, you understand; I was fading in and out of consciousness for several hours. Al filled me in about that part later. But I was awake for when Colonel Mustang came to visit. From what he said, he'd been in town looking for our dad, and he'd seen all the energy the transmutation had given off and the fact that Al and I were even still alive apparently impressed him. He offered to try and get us into the military as State Alchemists."

[slayers_desire]

"Did you destroy the creature?" It is not a word that April uses often, but she feels it would apply the best to what was created by Al and Ed.

Listening to the rest of the story, April nodded slightly. "Were you able to get on a different path then?"

[fmalchemist160]

Ed bites his lip. "Not until four years later. After I'd recovered enough to be able to go back to our house... it was gone. Somehow managed to crawl off."

"I took Mustang up on his offer, actually. I came up with this whole plan to get me and Al's bodies back to normal. Get my arm and leg back, and Al's body back. Becoming a State Alchemist was essential to it. We needed access to research material that only State Alchemists can use. But first I needed to have the use of both arms and legs, and Dad had left us some money. I told Aunt Pinako to take however much of it she needed to make me some AutoMail. After some time to recover from the surgery, get used to walking on a new leg, and make sure that I was up to my old combat abilities, Al and I burned down our old house and made our way to Central City."

[slayers_desire]

"It sounds like alchemy is a lot like magic... you have to be careful using it and you should be trained properly."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed grimaces a bit at the comparison. "Both are true, but Alchemy is still a science. We're bound by natural laws. We can't make things out of thin air, and the base materials have to be similar. You can't turn a radio into a tree, for example."

[slayers_desire]

It is the best comparison that April can make. She smiles softly at his grimace. "I know a few Wiccans who would be insulted that their abilities were not considered science. What is science anyway, but a want to seek knowledge."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed arches an eyebrow. "Really? Because as I understand it, magic tends not to obey things like conservation of mass and energy. Though... you are right about science being about seeking knowledge."

[slayers_desire]

"Magic does have its own guidelines. There are few things that come free, without a price."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed lifts a hand. "Wasn't saying that. What I meant was that... Gah, can't believe I'm even saying this... What I meant was that I've seen magic do things an Alchemist would never be able to accomplish, even with the Philosopher's Stone. During the past few days I saw magic-users make ice in the middle of a desert, make fire in a damp jungle—while it was raining—and conjure up lightning bolts where there was no static electricity and not a single thundercloud in sight. It flies in the face of chemistry and physics. The price is clearly paid elsewhere, not in the same way as Equivalency. Not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, it's just... not the same."

[slayers_desire]

April moves to go over to Ed, and gently touch his shoulder. "Both magic users and alchemists have their advantages. Your team is lucky to have both."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed smiles a bit. "No argument there." He sighs a bit and turns to look out the nearby window, which overlooks Kat's balcony and provides a pretty nice view of the cityscape. "Anyway, I eventually got Al back into his original body. At least, I think I did. The only problem is... we're separated now. He's back on my homeworld, and I'm here. So I have no way of knowing if what I did worked."

[slayers_desire]

"I could find out for you. If you want."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed blinks, letting his mouth hang open for a bit. "And... how would you do that?"

[slayers_desire]

"I could use my voices to try to tune to your brother, see how he is doing."

[fmalchemist160]

At Ed's somewhat confused look, Yugi explains, "As I understand it, that's how her psychic powers tend to manifest themselves. It will work," he adds after a brief pause. "She was able to find Bakura for me when he ran away a year and a half ago, using only the familial link between him and his father. ...And, the first time around, his copy of Lord of the Rings. The fact that you're Al's brother should be enough for her to get a fix on him."

"Especially given how close you and Al are," Kat adds quietly. To April, she comments, "Never seen a pair of siblings closer to each other than those two are."

"Okay..." Ed looks over at April. "Uh... what... do you need me to do?" He looks a little uncomfortable, clearly a bit skeptical, but apparently not wanting to insult April. He can tell she's close to Yugi, and that both he and Kat trust her, and that's enough to make him reign in his tendency towards being... well, rude about the whole supernatural thing. That and the experiences he's had over the past few days.

((I'll PM you the info on what's going on with Al, and you can choose what April picks up. Work for you?))

[slayers_desire]

"Just think about your brother." April is trying hard not to be offended. But really... she had her mind open about Ed's unique abilities... why can't he have his mind open about hers.

She touches him, and jolts slightly as her voices give her a lot of information at once. Her first statement comes after a sharp gasp... "Your soul and his are so attached... that I have no problems seeing him. It is almost like your souls are bond together for eternity."

"He is returned to a human body. However, his body is younger than it should be. And his memories are not all there yet. There are pieces missing."

"He will seek out the teacher that you both had to learn. And upon that teacher's death, he will seek out you. You will see him again."

((yah for notes))

[fmalchemist160]

He's trying, April. He's still a bit shell-shocked from everything he saw the past few days.

Even with everything distracting him, it's easy for him to focus on Al. At first he pictures the suit of armor, but quickly corrects the mental image to that of Al at age 10, a boy with short blond hair a few shades darker than Ed's own and brown eyes.

At April's first remark, Ed blinks in confusion, while Kat smiles and replies, "That does not surprise me at all."

Ed breathes a small sigh of relief when he hears that Al's back in his own body, but then becomes somewhat alarmed when he hears the rest. "What? How... how much is gone? How much younger is he?"

He bites his lip when he hears about Izumi, eyes cast downward. "Teacher..." he mutters. Looking up at April, he says, "I've known for a little while now that she probably didn't have much time left... How long does she have, can you tell?"

He looks over at Kat and says, "I need to find a way to get in touch with him."

"We'll work on it," Kat assures him.

[slayers_desire]

"The passage of time is harder to determine..." April whispers. A little strained as she attempts to make sense of what her voices tell her.

"The same distance that is gone is the same distance that must past." That might not make any sense. It is a Dru-ism.

[fmalchemist160]

Ed now looks thoroughly confused. "Okay, now I'm lost..."

Kat, meanwhile, tilts her head to one side, trying to figure out what April means. "It... might mean that Al's lost four years of memories," she says thoughtfully. "The same amount of time that's passed since he lost his body in the first place. That's as near as I can figure, anyway."

Ed's expression turns somewhat pained. "I hope not..."

[slayers_desire]

"That is what I sense. His memories of being in that suit are gone."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed's responding sigh is more weary than it is upset. "Dammit... should've expected that. It makes sense, given the Law of Equivalency. Getting back what he lost meant losing what he'd experienced since then..." He looks back up at April. "It probably also means his body's back at ten years old. That's how old he was when we tried to bring Mom back."

[slayers_desire]

"But it also means that he is okay and you will see him again someday."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed exhales slowly, nodding a bit. "Yeah. There's that."

Kat lays a hand on Ed's shoulder. "Like I said, we'll make every effort to get in touch with him," she tells him. "The two of you should never have to stay separated for very long."

Ed gives her a small smile in reply. "Thanks." Looking back over to April. "When I find Al," he says, "you want me to introduce you to him?"

[slayers_desire]

"I always enjoy meeting new people."

[fmalchemist160]

Ed smiles and nods. "Right. I'll get in touch, then. ...As soon as I get a handle on all this new technology." After a short pause, he asks, "Now... what was that you said about a bond between me and Al?"