damned_institute | Night 68: M-B Block Hallway

Ed followed his brother out of his room and stopped short to avoid running into Al.

"Al, I can't see around you," he complained.

He swore he'd only taken his attention off of his surroundings for a moment, but apparently it had been long enough that he'd missed the approach of two other patients. He started in surprise, turning his head and lifting the flashlight, the map forgotten in his other hand. Two boys, probably not much younger than him, had apparently just emerged from one of the adjoining patient hallways.

"Hey," Lloyd offered tentatively. He didn't recognize either one, though that didn't necessarily mean anything. There were a lot of people he didn't know here. He hadn't been here that long.

"I'm right here, jeez!" Al belatedly flicked his flashlight back on, giving the other person a closer look. This was the first patient he'd seen to not be wearing the 'uniform' everyone had been wearing during the day, but he seemed friendly enough.

After a glance back to his brother, he stepped forward. "I'm Alphonse, Brother and I just woke up here this morning. Would you happen to be heading toward the greenhouse? We've been told it's best to travel in groups if possible."

"I know. I almost ran into you," Ed groused, as he moved to the side to see else was in the hall. "I'm inclined to visit the kitchen first, greenhouse second."

Ed also noted Lloyd being dressed differently from them, although he stayed quiet about it.

"The greenhouse?" Lloyd echoed, blinking in surprise. He hadn't really thought about the possibility that other people might be headed to there too. "Actually, yeah. I wanted to-"

His stomach grumbled, cutting him off. His cheeks heated with a sheepish flush.

"Sorry. I didn't get lot to eat." He paused, tilting his head with a curious hope at the idea he hadn't considered. "You're going to the kitchen?" He glanced at his map. It wasn't on the way. But... "Do you think I could go with you? I'm Lloyd, by the way," he added hastily, only remembering at the last moment that Alphonse had introduced himself.

Al couldn't help laughing when Lloyd's stomach growled, and he nodded with a wide grin. "Sure, the more the merrier, right? It's good to meet you, Lloyd." Al shoved his flashlight under his armpit to offer a handshake--he was going to need to make some sort of sheath and belt for his new blade, he realized.

"And I'm Edward," Ed added, looking at Lloyd's paper. "That a map?"

"Thanks." His own hands full, it took a moment of juggling for Lloyd to free a hand to accept the offered handshake, smiling back to match Al's grin. The other boy seemed nice enough, something about him just exuding a friendly warmth. Edward (his brother?) seemed a little brusquer, or at least more down to business, but given the circumstances, Lloyd couldn't really fault him for that. "It's nice to meet you, too."

At the question, Lloyd held the paper out, inviting Ed to take it or look at it more closely if he wanted. "Yeah," he said. "I copied it from some maps that someone else had. It's not complete, but..." But an incomplete map was still a lot better than nothing at all. It had most of the first floor on it, with stairs labeled to indicate the presence of other floors, but Lloyd didn't have any sketches of those. "You're welcome to look at it. We're in this block right here." He tapped the paper.

Al leans over to take a look at the map as well, holding up his flashlight to see. "Okay, so that's the path we'll be taking...oh, is that a library labeled there?"

Edited 2013-01-28 02:41 (UTC)

Ed also moved to look, and reached out his right hand, the metal glinting in the low light, to trace the path. "Yeah, that'll work."

Oh sure Al. Divert your brother's attention to the library. "They got anything worthwhile there?"

"I wouldn't know," Lloyd said, eyeing the brothers half-warily now, easily hearing the perked interest in their voices. Having been friends with Genis and being taught by Professor Raine, Genis's sister, for several years now, he knew all too well what it sounded like when people liked studying. They weren't going to ask to stop by the library, too, were they? "I haven't ever... been... there."

His voice trailed off, whatever fear he might have had of triggering any potential Ruin Mode-type mania forgotten when his eyes picked up that glint. Something was wrong with Edward's hand. It didn't look normal. All the fingers were there, but the color was-

Lloyd sucked in a breath. "What happened to your hand?!"

"Well, we can go check it out later. Getting to the kitchen and greenhouse take priority tonight," he says with a significant glance to his brother.

"Huh? It's just his automail," Al says with a faint frown. Sure, having automail did mean you'd suffered a traumatic injury to lose the limb, but usually people didn't react that badly to seeing it.

Ed wrinkled his nose at Al and opened his mouth to respond when Lloyd freaked out about his hand. "...Who doesn't know what automail is?"

"Auto... mail?" The alarm faltered at this explanation. Some kind of mail. That made sense. He flicked the beam of his flashlight onto Edward's mail-clad hand to get a better look. He was expecting to be reassured by the better lighting.

He wasn't. The joins clearly showed there wasn't any flesh being covered up. There were places he could swear he could almost see right through to the center. All the alarm welled back up.

"That's not just mail! That looks like it's part of your hand!"

"It is his hand," Al said. "It's a mechanical replacement for his arm. You don't have anything like that where you're from?"

At this point, Ed had folded his arms across his chest, hiding his hand, and glowered at Lloyd. He didn't really need the reminder why he wore gloves, although Lloyd's reaction was different from the usual gawking.

Lloyd shook his head, though he hesitated before answering. Still transfixed by Ed's now-hidden hand, his mind skipped back to a man he'd met months ago. A man with a hand that had a machine attached to it, an arm cannon that could blast him with mana. He'd always just thought Forcystus had his hand inside it like a glove, but what if his hand wasn't there at all? What if he'd lost it and replaced it with that cannon? Lloyd's stomach turned uneasily at the thought, despite the fact that the half-elf had been an enemy.

"So it's... some kind of magitechnology?"

Al shook his head--magitechnology? What did that even mean? "No, it's just regular mechanics, hooked up to the body's nerves so the wearer can move and control it. There's nothing magic to it."

He was getting a feeling that this sort of conversation was going to happen quite a lot. It was going to get old very fast--especially for Ed. Al may have attracted more odd looks when they went into towns, but the stares when Ed took off his coat and gloves weren't much better.

"Magitech--what even is that?" Ed asked crossly, still keeping his hand out of sight.

He also had a feeling there was going to be a lot of this and was pretty sure he was going to be snappier about explanations as time went on. At least he won't have to deal with Lust wanting to know what it was and he could console himself with that.

Lloyd cringed at the description. "It connects to your nerves? Doesn't that hurt?" He couldn't think how it couldn't, with metal buried in your flesh deep enough to make that kind of connection.

"Magitech is machines and mechanical stuff too, stuff that needs mana to run." He frowned, eyeing Ed's hand again. "I guess that's using your own mana to work instead of lightning mana or something." He didn't begin to understand all the details of how magitechnology worked, but that felt like a reasonable guess.

Al sighed and shrugged. "That's probably a close enough description. There's a battery in there that stores and converts metabolic energy from the body into power for the automail."

Ed shrugged. "Getting everything connected did, yeah. Anyway, that's why I want to check out the kitchen. I need more to eat than most people."

Hint hint, people.

Lloyd's mouth opened, a question of what a "battery" was on his lips, when Ed's pointed hint cut across his words, hammering an importance into their goal that Lloyd hadn't realized had been there before. "Oh!" Ed needed mana to make his arm work. Food helped people recover their mana; Lloyd knew that much. Of course it made sense that he'd need more food.

Taking a step toward the door leading to the next hall, he turned his head to keep talking to the other two. "Let's get going, then. We can keep talking on the way."

[To here.]

Edited 2013-01-28 20:21 (UTC)

Night 68: M-B Block Hallway

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