Night 70: M1-M10 Hallway

[repelling]

After exchanging radio numbers, Uryuu picked at the salad in relative silence. Once sure he really couldn't be bothered with another bite, he set about arranging his things for the night. The sound of the intercom stirred his attention, and he looked up, waiting for the static. As ever, a nice addition to the atmosphere. He could still appreciate that, despite himself.

Grateful, indeed. Nook or cranny probably referred to the newly found passage in the library, which stirred Uryuu's curiosity further. Tomorrow, perhaps, unless Kratos-san did the unexpected and really did call. The very thought had his mouth curling with dry amusement, which failed to reach his eyes, narrowing with irritation. The doctor's spiel was the usual, and yet...

"Someday," he groused, "I'm going to put an arrow in that man's throat."

Uryuu said it, but did not swear -- not to his pride as a Quincy, not to anything. Not because he doubted he could, but because it wouldn't be practical in the moment. Much as he would aim to maim, not kill, to make speaking impossible, that would be a problem. They would want him to speak, after all.

As gratifying as imagining that future was, it only wasted time in the moment. The door unlocked, and almost simultaneously, Uryuu felt the pressure of the spirit particles filling the air. He reached, seeking Inoue-san, and felt nothing like. Pressing his teeth together, he nodded to Tsurugi-kun (expecting him off) and stood, to set about changing into the uniform. It was an obnoxious thing to have to choose, but unfortunately, better than the sweater and ill-fitting pants he'd be forced to wear during the day. Placing the toy radio in his pocket alongside the key ring and two pens, he lifted his pillowcase turned bag(with its two sweatshirts, journal, and his room radio) and slid it over his shoulder.

Wasteful as it was, he left the bat in the closet. Vantas-kun seemed to have disappeared as well, and it had never properly gotten to Inoue-san. Tonight it would just get in the way. Ready, he started into and down the hall, clutching his flashlight switched off.

[ to here ]

Comments

[fullmetalheart]

"Hmm. I take it that you think we should do the same?" Ed sees that look in your eye, baby brother.

[armoredsoul]

"It's only fair! I don't mean for us to exhaust ourselves every night making weapons, but you saw what Scar was using to protect himself. With all the monsters that prowl around at night, make-do weapons aren't going to cut it." Al frowned, glancing over at the materials they'd gathered the night before. "Even if we make just one weapon a night, it's going to make people that much safer."

[fullmetalheart]

He thought for a moment, torn. On the one hand, Al had some good points. On the other, they had their own shit to try to do.

He finally sighed. "One weapon a night. Are you going to organize things since you're the one having this idea?"

[armoredsoul]

Al nodded, grinning with relief that Ed wasn't going to fight him on it. "Yeah. I'll probably put up a note on the bulletin board tomorrow, once I figure out how to word it."

[fullmetalheart]

Ed scratched at the side of his head. "All right. I guess we should sort the stuff we got and then figure out what we're making first."

[armoredsoul]

Al nodded, turning to the assorted bottles. "I'd started sorting those out before you got here."

[fullmetalheart]

"All right. Show me what you've done so far, so I won't screw anything up while helping with this," Ed said as he moved in the direction of the desk, dropping his own lump of metal on Al's bed as he passed.

[gald_digger]

[from here]

M1... Boy, was this a blast from the past. Several weeks back, Anise was at this very room, delivering metal to alchemists. She really had to wonder if this was a coincidence, or if Landel had arranged things this way for some reason. Probably just to toy with them, if anything.

With her hands full between the delivery and her own equipment, Anise set the metal-filled pillowcase down, and moved up to the door to knock. She paused for a moment; she could hear voices inside. Maybe Alphonse's brother was there, like he mentioned. After a moment, she went ahead and knocked.

"Hello, it's Anise! Special delivery for Alphonse!" she sang at the door.

[armoredsoul]

Al looked up from where he was explaining how he'd organized things to his brother, then grinned and opened the door. "Anise, hi! This is my brother, Edward; Brother, this is the girl I was telling you I'd met today, that knew the Colonel before."

He turned back to Anise. "Thanks again for giving me the stuff you'd saved."

[fullmetalheart]

Ed turned to look at her and waved a bit. "Hi. He also told me about what the alchemists that were here before had been doing."

[gald_digger]

Anise picked up the pillowcase again and lugged it inside, giving both the brothers a bright smile, her gaze lingering a bit on the brother she hadn't met until now.

So this boy's name was Edward... Wait, hadn't she seen him somewhere before? Like, in this very room, about half a month ago? But from her conversation with Alphonse, it sounded like they'd both just arrived recently. Anise knew what that probably meant.

Maybe it was best not to say anything. Those two had enough to worry about at the moment, especially with Edward already filled in about the Colonel. Besides, it wouldn't really change anything.

"No problem! I knew I was right to keep it around." She set the pillowcase down on the floor in the center of the room. It sank with a heavy clang of pots, pans, and cooking utensils settling against each other. That was all the business she really had here, but there was something else Anise was curious about. "Say, did either of you get one of those radios at the toy store?"

[armoredsoul]

Al couldn't help a grin at the clamor the pans made in the pillowcase. They should be able to make good use of all of that!

He nodded to Anise, going to fetch his. "Yeah, we both did! We were gonna try and test them tonight, see if they work at any decent distance."

[fullmetalheart]

This is when Ed looks torn between sheepish and like crawling into a hole.

"I, uh, forgot to bring mine with me from my room," he confessed. "We're going to both be staying in here and not going anywhere tonight, anyway."

[gald_digger]

So they had them. Good!

"Ooh, perfect! Then... would you mind telling me the number on yours?" Anise asked Alphonse, since he seemed to have one nearby. "Mine is 646 - the same as my birthday! Neat coincidence, huh?" It was definitely a coincidence, right? It wasn't like the lady at the toy store could have known.

In any case, getting a radio number from another patient would let Anise test the device herself. And not just to see if it worked... but to see if where she was going tonight would be too far to contact anyone back in the institute. If they could keep a line of communication going, that would be perfect!

[armoredsoul]

Al stared at his brother and was about to gripe at him when Anise interrupted. "How does 646 turn into a date? Unless you're leaving the day out or something? And mine is 047." Same as the periodic number for silver, now that he thought about it--that would make it easier to remember.

[fullmetalheart]

Awesome, saved by Al getting distracted. Ed's just gonna be quiet and get back to organizing shit on Al's desk. Best plan, yes.

[gald_digger]

Anise wasn't sure what was so confusing about it. "Huh? I mean, obviously, it's the 46th of the Shadow Decan..." She trailed off, wondering how that could be unclear, when it started to click. "Oh! Maybe it's different here?" It would make sense, when she stopped to think about how people determined the lengths of months and years in the first place.

"Well, whatever! That's not really important. 047, right? If I get a chance, I'll try and call you!" With everything settled, Anise made her way back to the hall, giving the brothers another bright smile before making her exit. "Good luck with the alchemy stuff!"

[to here]

[armoredsoul]

Al didn't have much chance to respond before Anise took herself off, smiling and shaking his head as he closed the door behind her. "I should write down her radio number before I forget. It'll be good to have a list of everyone's numbers to reference."

[fullmetalheart]

"Yeah, go ahead and do that," Ed said, as he finished organizing things. He's waiting to get yelled at, but he would also like it if Al took his time about getting around to doing so.

[armoredsoul]

Al takes his journal from the desk and jots down a note, then looks over to Ed. "And why did you forget the radio? We had talked about testing them tonight!"

[fullmetalheart]

Ed groaned and thunked his forehead down on the desk. "Because I got distracted!"

[armoredsoul]

He shook his head and set the journal back down. "Well, no point in going back to get it now. What did you want to try making with this stuff first?"

[fullmetalheart]

"Um. Stink bombs?" Ed said, raising his head again.

[armoredsoul]

Al snorted, grinning and picking up one of the bottles. "We'll need sulfur compounds, then."

The boys worked for decent amount of time on their little grenades, winding up with ten each of stink bombs and a weak sort of flash-bang grenade, each chemical contained in a small sealed bottle. Al yawned, feeling worn out from the drain of using so much alchemy. "This place sucks. We should have been able to do more than this."

[fullmetalheart]

Ed also yawned. "Yeah. I wanna get out of here."

Then his mind wandered off on the subject of getting out and he frowned a bit. Given that problems he's caused for the both of them, there was a part of him that wondered if maybe he deserved this.