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 Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 8:51 pm
It was quite possibly the most dangerous, outrageous, and most insane idea he had ever come up with.
But it seemed absolutely foolproof.
Despite that, a huge seed of doubt remained in his mind. He'd done this before, but... it had come with consequences in the past.
“I know I can do this, but... should I?” He wondered to himself. “It's crazy, but... Oh! This only proves I'm related to you, brother - you would do something just as crazy like this as well!”
Alphonse Elric was seated on the top of a large bookshelf, an old alchemy book about forbidden alchemical practices between his gloved paws. He knew his knowledge on the array he had drawn and used to get here before was right, but he had just wanted to confirm that his thoughts were correct. This was one transmutation that he really did not want to mess up.
The youth glanced out the nearest window, noting that the sun was coming up – that meant that it was nearly time for him to move. He tore out the only page of the alchemy book that he needed, quietly muttering a few words of apology to General Mustang or to whomever owned the alchemy book, regretting damaging their property.
“It's needed, though...” Alphonse said aloud to himself, jumped down off the bookcase shortly after. The blonde-haired youth landed abruptly on the ground with a dull thud. “Ouff!” He promptly shook himself off again, stuffed the page into a pants pocket and headed off, deserting the Kitsusagi Realm HQ building, moving out into the wilderness.
He was tired, hungry, missing his warm red coat, deprived of sleep, but none of that seemed to matter. Right now he had a mission on his mind, and he was determined to carry it out.
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 8:59 pm
Endless was out prowling the woods, suffering from insomnia once again. He'd probably pass out sometime this afternoon... The starry male shook his head, and then his whole body, as though he were trying to shake off water. His coat sparkled and flashed in spite of the fact that the sun hadn't reached deep enough to penetrate the shadow below the trees where he stood. The one really remarkable thing about him was the glow of his eyes and his fur in the darkness. If only he could find his way out of it himself...
He snorted derisively at himself. Don't go thinking likt THAT again... it hasn't done you any good so far, so it's not going to do any good now. With a sigh he he continued on through the trees, somewhere out past were most other kitsu seemed to want to roam. He wouldn't have been opposed to company; but he wasn't going to go looking for it. If someone stumbled across him, though... sure. Why not?
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:22 pm
Alphonse continued to wander. He didn't really know what direction he was heading in, although right now he didn't particularly care too much. Just as long as he was far away from that house and out of sight.
The tranquility of the forest helped to calm him somewhat. Despite the fact that his mind was still a loud cacophony of thoughts, the Kitsusagi himself was rather silent, including his movements through the area. The day had begun to heat up now, which he was glad for - it made him feel less exposed to the cold.
When he saw the twinkling off to one side of his peripheral vision, he stopped, turning his head to check it out properly. Was that... magic? An alchemical reaction? No. It certainly hadn't looked like that. Perhaps something else?
He lowered his head, then moved off to investigate. Despite his thoughts and despite everything that had happened so far, Alphonse would be glad to see his brother again, that is, if he was indeed the caused of the light.
"Hello?" He called out as he approached the area. "Who's there?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:31 pm
Endless paused his treading and turned his head to look back over his shoulder. "Eh?" Oh. Crap. "Ed?!" But... no... there was no recognition in this kitsusagi's gaze, and there were a few subtle differences that only someone who knew Ed well, or an artist as End tended to hide being, might notice. "Uh... hi. ...I'm Endless."
He turned around and sat down, blinking his softly glowing eyes at the youth. "Ah... Who are you? And what are you doing way out here? ...I hope for your sake you're not an insomniac too. It... sucks." He tried to grin at his bad attempt at humor, but failed that as well. Ergh...
End didn't mention Ed... he didn't want to talk about Ed right now. He felt like he could handle seeing them together now... maybe... but it was still like rubbing salt on a wound to even think about it.
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:46 pm
As Alphonse approached, he was bright eyed and curious, attentive to the unfamiliar Kitsusagi's pelt, wondering why it sparkled in that manner. At least until the other Kitsusagi spoke, that was. At the mention of Edward, the younger Elric brother's ears pinned back, and he shook his head.
“No,” He said abruptly, and it had come out angry, something he hadn't really intended. “I'm not Edward, I'm his brother. I'm just, er..." He came to a halt, pondering. How would he explain that he was out wandering, planning a way to do something extremely dangerous and get out of here? No, he shouldn't.
"I'm not really doing anything." He lied. "Just taking a walk. I'm not an insomniac, but right now I can't sleep. You're just taking a stroll too, huh?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 10:59 pm
Ed's brother... little brother... that was bigger than him. Haha... "I'm... glad you're not Ed, kid. I'm glad. Don't... really wanna see him right now." He trailed off and shook himself again. "What's your name? 'Hey you' only gets you so far in life." He actually managed a bit of a grin at that one.
"Ah... nothing. I've been doing a lot of that lately. Don't really have anything to do." He blinked tiredly and actually smiled, very briefly. "Just a stroll. Good, good. Insomnia sucks, like I said. I wouldn't recommend it. I'm out... trying to make myself sleepy. Failing, of course."
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Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2007 11:06 pm
"No, I'm not Ed. I don't know if I really want to see him right now, either." His attention was on the ground as he spoke, wings lowered, unhappy. It made him feel even worse to be talking like his brother like this, but right now, he had it in his mind that it was for the best.
“Oh, uh... I'm Alphonse. Alphonse Elric.” He replied, raising his head to give the other Kitsusagi a slight grin. “If you want to make yourself sleepy, why not eat a really big meal, or a filling stew or something? That used to always work for me. It won't right now, though. I have too much to do and get started on to be sleeping.”
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Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 11:49 am
Endless wondered briefly why Alphonse wouldn't want to see Edward right now; and decided it really wasn't any of his business. He didn't particularly like it when people pried into HIS personal life, he wasn't going to go around paying that particular disfavor on someone he'd just met.
"Stomach's upset. If I ate that much it would probably make things worse." He grin/grimaced a bit lopsidedly. "So I thought maybe a walk might tire me out. Of course I conveniently forgot all the traveling I used to do and that walking doesn't really phase me anymore. I'm contemplating knocking myself over the head with something instead." Was he joking, or serious? It was very hard to tell.
He gave Al a quizzical look, one ear up and one ear down, head slightly atilt. "...If you have a lot to do and get started on, and you can't sleep because of it... doesn't it sort of defeat the purpose to be walking around doing nothing?" Oh, he was suspicious now, of course. But he knew nothing about what was going on, and next to nothing about alchemy aside from the fact that Ed could do it and Atae had taken an interest in it. Therefore... he had no idea what was going on and wouldn't have much more of an idea even if he was told.
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Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 7:05 am
 "Oh your stomach's upset?" Alphonse glanced skyward, pondering for a moment. If Endless had been joking, the youth certainly hadn't picked up on it. "When my stomach hurt, my mother always said you should just lie down and rest until it goes away. But if you're not really tired, that's not useful advice then, is it?"
"Oh, um..." He lowered his head, looking sheepish. "It's true, I have a lot to work on, and I don't really know where to begin. I know how to do it, if that makes sense. But I have to copy something out and make plans around that."
"I was just walking around and thinking." He grinned finally. "I can think anywhere, really. The walking part was to get more distance between myself and the house I came from. See, I kind of escaped from it in the middle of the night. And if they're out looking for me..." His grin faded. "...I don't really want to be found. Right now I would only be in the way."
His ears flicked quickly as a crazy thought came to mind. It had come completely out of the blue, but it was perfect.
"Say, do you know where I can find a rug? A dark one, a light one, doesn't matter. It just needs to be a solid colour and suitable for drawing on with chalk, or charcoal."
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Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2007 8:13 pm
"Not really useful. Well... maybe if I pick up a new book to read. I can lay around for a while then, maybe it'll go away?" He was still pondering on that when Alphonse gave his sheepish look, worried about what he was saying not making sense. "...You'd be suprised how much sense that makes. To someone like me, anyway. I... well, I like to make sculptures... so... I have to do stuff like that from time to time." How it was HIS turn to grin sheepishly.
The next part he understood too. All too well. And for pretty much the same reason Alphonse was feeling that way, too. It was why he hadn't gone to see Ed and Lily since they got back, really. He'd deal with his own pain... but he wasn't sure he could stand seeing them together and feeling like a third wheel. Bad enough what already happened... to feel useless, out of place, unwanted in their presence even more than he felt on his own? He couldn't take that... not right now. "I... get that one, too, kid. Well, not like it's my place to hold you here anyway, if you don't wanna be there. Don't worry about it." If only he knew what was really at stake...
End's ears perked up at the mention of the rug. "A... rug? To draw on? Hrm." DID he know where a rug like that was? Ah... he might have something like that at his hideout. He didn't feel like going back to the Place any more than Al wanted to go back to Trel's right now. "I think I know where one is, follow me."
He led Al even FARTHER from the HQ, through some rather twisting game trails, to a spot where a couple of ancient looking trees had grown together, the dirt immediately below the gnarled roots at their bases excavated to make a little shelter. He'd nailed up a tarp and stuck on some heavey-duty plastic to keep the weater out, or most of it at least, since the door was tied-up tent flap style. He rummaged around for a minute and brought out a rather plain, utilitarian, faded brown rug. "Never thought about doing a charcoal drawing on a rug, myself. Well... maybe if you made it to be a wall hanging... if it was still a rug I'd think people walking on it might ruin it after a while..."
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Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 4:46 pm
Alphonse nodded his head silently in thanks and took off after Endless, following a short distance behind him. He didn't seem to mind as the path twisted and turned, but became more than a little bit worred as they moved into the area with the dark creepy looking old trees.
"Oh, I don't mind - I'm not worried. If you were trying to hold me somewhere against my will, I'd just get out of it somehow. You can't keep a skilled alchemist anywhere against their will for long." He grinned. "All I'd need is the floor or a wall to transmute. They're pretty common, huh?" A soft amused chuckle escaped him. "When there's not a door, make one."
He stood on his hinds as he reached out to take the rug, formally bowing his head in thanks as he did so. "Thanks very much." He said happily. "It's not really going to be walked on though. It's um.... kind of hard to explain." The rug was heavy and would be a mild hassle to carry, but Alphonse would bear it. He had to.
The younger Elric brother wiggled his paw fingers for a moment, before grinning broadly again at the star-pelted Kitsusagi.
"Okay," He nodded in determination. "Since you gave me this rug, I'm going to give you something. Equivalent exchange, right?" A quick wag of his dirty blonde tails. "So what would you like? A statue? Molding material for a statue? Or something else?"
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Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 7:41 pm
Endless shrugged at the door bit, wishing briefly he'd had the option to just make a door and leave at several points in his life. Or get his mother out, one of the two. But the past was the past, and he was who he was. And he wasn't really as unhappy with who he was as he used to be...
Well at least the rug seemed up to snuff. That made the starry male happy, at least a bit. Though he was a bit suprised when Al mentioned equivalent exchange, and furrowed his brow a bit. Finally End shook his head and gave a slightly pained sounding chuckle. "What do I want?... The only other things I want, aren't things, and I don't have any right to take them anyway." He considered his own pain a small price to pay to see the people he loved happy. And there was so much he'd gotten back... "I'm afraid I can't really think of anything, kid. If you're really that determined you can suprise me, if you want."
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Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 5:08 pm
The younger Elric brother just blinked as he pondered Endless's statement. What did he possibly mean by it? After a few moments of silence, he began to realize. He wanted things himself, but they were not tangible things... they were situations. Just like Endless, he didn't have any right to change them either.
"I..." He began, opening his mouth as he thought of what to say. He quickly closed it again, pinning his ears back. "I think I know what you mean. Alchemy can give us a number of things we want through transmutation of elements. But no matter how hard you try, there are just some things beyond it's capabilities."
He lowered his head, hauling the rug onto his back.
"Good luck. I hope you find what you're looking for." He said, grinning at the Kitsusagi before heading off into the wilderness. He still had a lot to do.
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