damned_institute | Day 36: Intercom, Evening

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Day 36: Intercom, Evening

The intercom's jingle rang out and the somewhat uninhibited movement that was going on between the main activity rooms halted as the Head Doctor made one of his usual announcements.

"Good evening everyone, and I'm very pleased to see so many of you in such high spirits after meeting with your loved ones! However, like with all good things, it can't last forever, so I ask now for nurses to escort our patients in the waiting rooms and in the main areas back to their rooms, where they will be treated with a special Sunday... steak! That's right: today, we'll be serving juicy, delicious steak with fries and cooked vegetables on the side – simple enough for everyone to like and good enough for everyone to thoroughly enjoy! (Our patients with specialized diets will receive their alternate meals, of course.) Our usual beverages are available, and for dessert, we'll be serving warm slices of apple pie.

"After all, patients, t's always wonderful to see all of you cooperating with the staff even when given so much freedom, so I'd like to personally thank and congratulate all of you for helping us, your family, and more importantly, yourselves. Hopefully, we can help you to a speedy recovery so that you can see your loved ones more often, but first... dinner! I hope to speak with you all again soon."

The intercom clicked off.

[ All room threads go in response to this post; please post your character's room number as the subject line of the initial post. Thank you!

On an added note, just wanted to clarify to players of characters who are canonly vegetarians and the like that you get to decide (within reasonable and realistic limits) what kind of diet your character gets from the staff. :3 ]

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Ed continued eating when the other boy entered the room, although he watched him from the corner of his eye. A toy car? What kind of person that age had a toy car and played with it like that? And he wasn't touching his food. It was good steak and it was going to go to waste. Ed glanced down at his own plate and the remaining bits of his meal and then over at the other boy's plate thoughtfully.

"If you aren't going to eat that, I'm still hungry," he said. "And yes, I'm an alchemist." He must have seen it on the bulletin or something. Ed didn't exactly make a secret of it. "It means I break things down into their constituent elements and then reform them however I wish," he said. That most basic explanations.

Near considered Ed's request for a moment, then gave him a small grin. "Would you rather have my steak or my juice?" Perhaps not the nicest of experiments, but the boy was curious to see just which Ed would pick, if given the choice of the two. Besides, Near knew he really should eat something. He hadn't eaten at brunch either, and he was undeniably hungry. Plus, if this night shift was like the last, he would be getting a work out. Near supposed there was no avoiding the effort, ultimately.

But he didn't stop playing with his car just yet. Edward had to answer the question still.

The question of alchemy was much more serious, and the answer intriguing. "How? And can you do this with any material?" Endless possibilities came into Near's mind then, though getting Edward to agree to any of them might prove more difficult. His roommate's stubborn streak was evident, as was the fact that he didn't care for Near. It meant that the teen would have to find a way to convince Edward, though at this point it was more easily said than done.

"Steak," was the almost immediate answer from Ed. He had juice, Hughes would be keeping his and he'd need all the energy that he could get to work tonight. He'd stuffed himself at brunch, and had been snacking throughout the day, but another good steak would be very good for him. Ed could quite easily justify taking someone else's food by reasoning that at least their limbs wouldn't just stop working completely if they didn't eat enough food to feed a small army every day. Two small armies if he needed to perform alchemy here, since it took so much more energy. They'd just get tired and have to wait until tomorrow for breakfast.

"Years of study and hard work," Ed replied smartly before shrugging. "You just rearrange the atoms in the material into the form that you need." Which was probably entirely unhelpful, but, well, that was how it worked! It made perfect sense to him. "And yeah, any material," he added. He could work with just about anything when he needed to, although earth elements had always been what he'd worked with the most, metal and rock and sand. Things that were common no matter where a person went to.

The answer was quick, leaving Near to wonder if perhaps Edward simply didn't like juice. It was possible, though it didn't seem very likely that he would ask for it if he didn't drink it. Regardless, Near had no trouble offering Edward part of his meal, since he seemed so keen on it, and Near likely wouldn't eat more than half anyway. So he cut each portion of food neatly into two equal portions. "Take whichever half you'd prefer." Near pushed his tray closer to Ed, but didn't actually move to transfer any of the meal himself.

"That sounds like a simple enough concept." Though it wasn't the how Near had been asking for. "But how do you rearrange the atoms? The technology for such a task doesn't exist in my world." Nor did it likely in Ed's; Near already suspected the process was supernatural in nature. It almost had to be to be accomplished here.

Then of course, the most important question, and really, one that Ed should have been expecting from nearly anyone in this place who asked about alchemy. "If I asked, would you make something for me?"

Ed grinned at the boy when he began to cut the meal into half, quickly scraping half of everything onto his own plate and moving bakc over to his own side to devour it quickly. Hey, it was better than the kid wasting it if he wasn't hungry enough to eat it all. And Ed was getting more energy to see him through the night. It was a winning situation for both of them, obviously! Shame there was only one dessert each really. And no ice cream. He really liked the ice cream. It was such a rare thing for him to be able to try that he kind of wanted them to serve it more. There was probably something wrong with him for wanting the Institute to do something for him, like he was getting too used to being there, but it had tasted good so did it matter? Didn't mean he wasn't going to punch Martin Landel if he was ever given the chance.

He wondered if the cooks turned into monsters at night too.

He shrugged in response to the question, wondering how he could explain it better. It had always been such an instinctive thing for him to do, even when he'd been little, that he didn't much think about the how anymore. He just did it. "You have an array which allows you to focus a large amount of energy onto the atoms in the base material." He wasn't much good at explaining this stuff really. "And it isn't technology. it's science, but not technology. It takes years of study to become proficient at it, and a certain measure of natural aptitude. It's more effort than is worth it for most people to learn." Otherwise everyone would be doing it.

Yes, Ed had expected this to be heading towards the inevitable question. At least now he had a genuine excuse for not being able to promise to make something there and then. He had responsibilities to Hughes and the Cooking Club now after all, and he wasn't going to just jump ahead and skip everyone on the list in favour of his roommate. "If you put your name down on the Cooking Club list," he said. "There are people waiting for weapons from me so there's a waiting list. What did you have in mind?"

Near was beginning to wonder just how much of an effect this alchemy had on Edwards metabolic system. He'd already devoured more than Near did on the average unless he had adequate prompting from Commander Rester, or the nurses, in their present situation. Certainly the fact that the boy was likely going through puberty (an assumption made on his apparent age and physical stature, though Near knew both could be deceiving) didn't help his situation, but regardless, this seemed almost to the point of excess. Ultimately, it didn't matter of course. Edward might not even be leaving the room that night.

Edward's explanation did help Near firmly grasp the concept of how it was performed. As suspected, there was a supernatural element to the process, described by Ed as "a certain measure of natural aptitude." This likely meant that the process couldn't be taught in Landel's, which was unfortunate, but not surprising. After all, in Near's his world, the closest anyone had come to doing such a thing required very expensive pieces of machinery, and even then, the whole process as described was still beyond the reach of even the most advanced scientists.

The news about a waiting list wasn't as welcome, but again, hardly shocking. Edward's talent certainly would be highly prized among the patients, so many of whom seemed to be fighters of one sort or another. "I'll consider it." Of course, the second question took a moment longer of thought, only because the possibilities at that time seemed endless. "There would be a few things. If the medicines in the pharmacy could be separated into their individual elemental components, that could be incredibly useful in terms of mixing them chemically." Of course, they would also need to be stored properly, something that was more difficult to achieve. Regardless, that was only one of the many options that seemed to be made available through alchemy. The concern that remained was of course the wait time. Considering that Edward apparently was one of (if not the only) alchemist working for a major club, the list was likely very long indeed.

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Day 36: Intercom, Evening

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