damned_institute | Day 69: Sun Room (3rd Shift)

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Day 69: Sun Room (3rd Shift)

Tomatoes in both choices. Lloyd's face fell the moment he heard the announcement, and with a groan he let his forehead thunk against the table in the Sun Room. He couldn't even ask if he could have a sandwich made without tomatoes in it. The lunches were already made, his nurse holding one of each in her hands. Unhappily, he accepted the one that had meat. Maybe something could be salvaged from it.

Ignoring his nurse's cheerful parting words to enjoy his meal, the teen waited until she'd stepped away before he took his lunch out of the bag and started picking it apart - only to freeze, heart pounding unevenly. A deep, rattling breath had just- Lloyd didn't even finish the thought. Something was here! He whipped around, not even sure how he was going to defend himself. The only thing he had was one of those plastic spoon-forks, and if he was up against that same thing they'd run from last night-

There was nothing. Nothing but nurses and patients passing by. Not even any cats. No one else looked like they'd even heard anything. Lloyd's eyes darted around, but still nothing showed up.

Come on, I know I heard it...

[For Ed and Al!]

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"I've thrown up hair twice today," Al added with a grimace, also taking a seat. "I can't think of a better explanation."

"He thinks it's that thing from last night?!" Lloyd doesn't need to know who Scar is to trust that Ed wouldn't repeat it if he didn't think that Scar might be right. "Wait, it attacked you?! Both of you? Are you guys all right?"

Ed shrugged. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was more than a bit startled by having an invisible, really cold, hand grab my arm and dig in nails deep enough to make me bleed, but I'm fine."

"My throat feels raw and I don't think any food I eat today is staying down for long, but I'm doing okay." Al shrugged with a small frown. "What were you getting paranoid about when we spotted you?"

Lloyd's hand went to his throat, and for a moment he could almost feel the monster's fingers there again, digging in past the bandages that covered his own injuries. He shook his head abruptly, trying to shake the feeling off.

"I thought I heard it again. You know, that sound it made when it was creeping up. Dammit, if it's here during the day..." Daytime was frustrating, but it was a least supposed to be safe, which was good because they were even more helpless than at night, with no weapons and no access to their powers.

His eyes went to Al. Al had suffered the most from the monster last night. Now it looked like he was still suffering. That was bad, but... "I didn't realize you swallowed that much hair. At least it's a good thing you're getting it out... right?"

Ed's head thunked down on the table. "Great. So it's harassing all three of us," he grumbled.

"I wonder if we can even kill it to make it stop harassing us." Al sighed and decided to investigate his lunch bag, pulling out the juice and salad for now. The rest could go to Ed--at least then it wouldn't be wasted.

"I don't remember swallowing any, though," he said. "It sure didn't feel like I had anything in my stomach until I threw up."

At the thought of confronting that monster again, Lloyd swallowed, something turning queasily in his gut that had nothing to do with the tomatoes. "How do we even kill something like that? I threw everything I had at it and we barely escaped."

He shook his head at Al's denial. "If you didn't swallow it, how did it get its hair inside you?"

Ed continued sitting at the table with his head on it. "Dunno. Magic?"

No, he's not actually serious although it's as good an explanation as any.

"There's already ghosts, why not magic?" Al griped, then poked Ed's shoulder. "Brother, eat your food. You didn't get the extra food yesterday, so you can have the rest of my lunch."

That actually did sound like a reasonable explanation to Lloyd, and he even started to nod before he caught something off in the tone of their voices. He blink, casting an odd look at the brothers. Had that been... sarcasm?

"You guys don't believe in magic?"

Ed grumbled and sat up properly. Then he reached for his bag of food. "It doesn't exist back home, so why would we?"

Al pokes a bit at his salad, then takes a bite before replying. "Our world is governed by science, even if others have mystical...beings, I guess? Powers? Either way, there's nothing like spirits or magic in our world."

Lloyd leaned back in his chair, an almost stunned look on his face. The idea of a world without magic... "One of my best friends growing up was a sorcerer. He said mana was in everything, even rocks and trees, and if we didn't have it, or if it ran out... How does your world live without it?"

"Just fine," Ed said with a shrug as he unpacked his sandwich.

He paused as he spotted something along the edge. It wasn't... He opened the sandwich to inspect it and turned green at what he saw. Then he slowly closed it. "I'm not hungry," he said quietly.

Al shrugged. "Our world just works without whatever mana is, I guess. Probably the laws of nature governing our worlds just differ in that respect."

He blinked when Ed set his sandwich back down, frowning. "Not hungry? Ed, what's wrong with--" Al froze as he pulled up the bread and saw the bloody fingernails, dropping the bread back down and recoiling in disgust.

"Huh." Lloyd frowned, mulling that over for a moment, then finally shook his head and rubbed his neck, careful of the bandaging around it. "You have to have something, though. I mean, I saw what you did to that mon...ster..." He trailed off, glancing from one brother to the other, then to the sandwich they were both so intent on. Leaning forward, he tried to catch sight of what was wrong-

-and suddenly, what little appetite he'd still had was gone. He jerked back, wide-eyed and paling fast. "Ed, your sandwich-!"

Ed flapped his hands at Al. "I didn't need to see that again!"

He took a moment to drag his attention to what Lloyd had been saying, resolutely ignoring what he ended with. "The energy came from me, pretty much. I've seen some alchemists," not as good as him went unsaid, "be really wiped after particularly big transmutations."

Al took the sandwich and shoved it to the far side of the table, well away from all of them and ignoring the odd looks the nurses were giving them.

"Brother and I are out of the ordinary for our world. It's kind of like comparing an average soldier to an elite-trained specialist." He didn't usually boast like that, but it really was the truth.

Feeling sickened and paranoid now, Lloyd opened his sandwich again, pulling it apart even more carefully than before. He didn't discover anything worse than a couple tomato seeds, though.

...huh. Funny how those didn't seem quite as disgusting as they had before. Even so, he made a face and pushed his own sandwich away.

"If you did that in my world," he said to Ed, "I'd call that a mana technique, like the one I used. Either that, or magic." He eyed his pear. It looked whole and untouched. Would it be safe...? "So what makes the two of you different?"

Ed eyed his own pear in paranoia. "We get it from Dad. It sometimes runs in families. Not everybody can do it. Be it because they can't wrap their brains around the science, or they just don't have the talent."

Al used his fork to look through his salad, then checked his sandwich. Both seemed free of any contamination...so far as he could tell.

"It's a bit like how some people can train all they like in vocal practice, but just don't have the right voice to be a great singer, while other people have perfect pitch and sing well with barely any effort at all."

Edited 2013-02-28 03:02 (UTC)

Lloyd wrinkled his nose at the word "science." He couldn't imagine having to do science every time he wanted to use a technique. "So you guys are naturals, then." That concept was simple enough. There were natural fighters and natural geniuses. Maybe they were something of both. "You still have to work for it, though, right?"

Deciding to risk it, he took a bite of his pear. Thankfully, it seemed to be normal enough. "Yo' c'n haf my sa'wich if you wan'," he offered through a mouthful of fruit. He nudged the offending food forward, then swallowed. "I don't think anything's wrong with it. Just the tomatoes."

Ed nodded. "Pretty much, and yeah, we've had to work at it. It takes a lot of study and there's always new things to learn."

"You don't like tomatoes," he asked as he reached for Lloyd's sandwich. After a suspicious look inside for in case a surprise magically appeared in it, he started eating. "Thanks."

"We taught ourselves as much as we could with our father's books, but eventually you hit a point that you need to find help to go any further." Al grinned. "And besides that, there's plenty of specialties that we aren't too practiced in, like fire alchemy or botanical alchemy."

Al pushed his sandwich and pear over to Ed as well. "Why don't you like tomatoes? The texture, or taste?"

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