|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 2:21 pm
((I should be dodging projectiles from Morgan and Allen about now, yes? *ducks for cover*))  There was something downright relaxing about practicing some of the more simple forms of alchemy. That is, reforming an existing object, like a rock, rather than transforming into something else entirely. Like this rather nondescript thing she'd found by the side of the path to the HQ, for instance. A moment ago it had been just a random, roundish rock. Now it looked like a puppy.
Would her mom like it? Maybe she could try to shape it like a phoenix, since that was her mom's totem of sorts. Not anything as good as Endless could do, sure, but he was a lot more artistic than she was. Or so she felt, though she supposed that could be a matter of practice as much as anything.
But either way it couldn't hurt to try, right? She set the now puppy-shaped rock to the side and carefully started drawing a new transmutation circle in front of her, eying it critically from time to time and making small changes where she needed to. You have to be careful with these things, after all...
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 5:52 pm
[Well, Allen doesn't tend to act violently toward those who call him short. Just agitated. ;P]  Ever since he arrived at this "Kitsusagi" world, he still had no luck finding those who he knew. Though, those newly acquainted ones some had special powers. None of them were like his power of Innocence though.
He slowly made his way toward the HQ, where many of these "Kitsu" seem to gather. That place was his best chance at finding any information about anyone, particularly information about his teammates. For a while now he would try to travel there daily in order to gather information. These past few months, though, he slacked off on due to other reasons.
From a distance, he noticed a small Kitsu staring at a puppy-shaped rock intensely. The Kitsu seemed to large to be a kit or teenager, but seemed rather...small for an adult. She was drawing something around the rock; a circle of some sort. Maybe she was trying to do something artistic, he figured.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 6:10 pm
((Usually Morgan just yells and fumes like Ed... though sometimes she'll try to give people a good smack for it. XD))
There. Morgan had settled the rock in the center of the circle, double checked everything, and she was pretty sure she was ready. She sat up and rubbed her forepaws together in anticipation before setting them down to activate the transmutation, and-
FLASH! She blinked a bit from the bright light and subsequent dimness, or seeming dimness, as her eyes tried to adjust and readjust in rapid succession. When she could focus again she peered at the rock to see how she'd done. The long tailfeathers were wrapped around the bird's feet to give the statue some support to stand, one foot raised and wings half spread while it peered at... something. It was small, and a bit rough looking, but all in all much better than she'd expected. Maybe she was better at this than she thought!
Maybe she should try painting it? ...Hmm, no, probably not. That sort of artwork she had no experience with at all, aside from watching Endless a few times. No, her gift would remain nondescript and gray at this point.
After a moment's thought she lifted the rock and examined it critically, making sure the overall integrity was all right. It wouldn't do for her to hand it to her mother and have it crack and crumble into pieces, after all... And so intent was she on her task that Allen's presence remained thus far unnoticed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 26, 2010 11:38 am
Morgan expected the sudden flash of light, which meant she probably closed her eyes in time. Allen, however, didn't know of this "alchemy" or how it made sudden flashes of light. There was no such thing in his world, and no real powers he knew that made sudden flashes of light...at least not THAT brightly.
By the time his eyes were able to see, his was still seeing those brightly colored spots from looking at sudden flashes. He was still able to see, but it was a little...distracting?
Though, he was curious about the small femme who made this "magic" happen. The small puppy-shaped rock took on a different shape after the sudden flash of light. From the distance he was at he couldn't really tell what it became, just that it was different.
As he approached, he tried not to sneak up on her. His paws pounded against the ground much more heavily, making it obvious someone was behind her. "Hey there," he yelled from a short distance. Hopefully she wouldn't find him intrusive. She huddled around the rock rather protectively in his eyes. Perhaps whatever the item was held a secret she didn't want others to see.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2010 5:21 pm
Morgan started slightly when the heavy footfalls starts and peered over her shoulder, ears flicking forward in curiosity when Allen called out. She hadn't realized anyone was there or she would have been a bit more discreet with her alchemy... though... he didn't seem particularly phased by it. But then, considering how he was dressed, maybe he was used to this sort of thing too.
The rock seemed sound enough and she uncurled from around it, setting it down gently before sitting up to give the fellow a proper greeting. "Hello! I'm Morgan Elric. I hope my alchemy practice didn't startle you. I was trying to make something for my mom..."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 7:02 pm
"Hello, Morgan," he said with a smile, "I'm Allen Walker. Nice to meet you."
Alchemy was something he never really knew of. The term may have been thrown around once or twice, but he never saw it. Innocence was the closest thing he experienced, and even with that it was different for every one of the carriers.
"Is that what you call it? Alchemy? I've never seen anything like it. How did you change that rock into such a beautiful shape?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:51 pm
"Allen Walker. That's a nice name." It was nice to meet another kitsu named in a similar fashion to her family that was just idly curious about something like alchemy rather than freaked out or awed by it. That could get awkward sometimes...
Morgan shifted a bit and peered down at the rock. Beautiful? "I guess it's all right... you should see the stuff my buddy Endless does, and he shapes it all by paw! Even paints it. I swear his sculptures look like they're gonna get up and walk off any minute." She grinned sheepishly.
"And alchemy, um, well, it's somewhere between "pure" science and magic. At least... well, where my dad is from, alchemy is science, and all of its principles are based on the same sort of scientific laws that more manual and mechanically based sciences seem to work off of. But a lot of people think it's just magic when they first see it, but it's not... er, I can do alchemy and some wizarding, so I know. Alchemy's more fun, I think, because you get to work with your paws. Wizarding is mostly swishing a wand at something and saying command words to make something happen..."
She paused, grinned sheepishly yet again, and cleared her throat. "Babbling, sorry. Anyway it works by drawing specific patterns that show the alchemic energy where to go and to a large degree what they're supposed to do. Unlike magic, alchemy relies on the formula to work properly more than strictly by the user's will." She pointed at the remains of the circle she'd drawn moments ago. "That one is for re-shaping a stone... the more complicated the shape, the more complicated the design gets. Some of the circles will actually separate the different elements in an item, and if you set it up to do so it will reshape those individual elements by themselves." She put a paw to her chin and tapped a toe thoughtfully. "You can do things like... fix a broken vase, by making the molecules reconnect, or take a bunch of iron filings and form a gear that's missing from an old clock. Or this." She motioned at the rock.
"You can't turn a chunk of iron into a block of wood, or anything like that, though. You have to have all the required atomic elements to change something into something else, and iron obviously doesn't have the carbon in it that goes into a piece of wood. The first law of alchemy is Equivalent Exchange. You can't get something for nothing, and you can't turn one thing into something it could never be otherwise."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 9:41 am
Allen listened carefully to each of her words. He mentally took down notes on this "alchemy" subject which to him, seemed very much like a type of Innocence. Though she described it as science, it certainly didn't seem like any type of science he was accustomed to. Certainly, all the scientists he has encountered have all done some pretty amazing things. Although most of that science seems to be devoted toward their seemingly never ending war with the Noahs and Akumas. Perhaps if the scientists back home can make use of this "alchemy" they could build even more spectacular gadgets to help their efforts in the war.
"It's alright. Don't worry about it. This 'alchemy' subject is pretty interesting. We don't have anything like this back in my world. The closest to it would be out gifts from God, which we like to call 'Innocence'." He placed a paw on his chin thoughtfully. What if anyone can learn this and I could take this knowledge back home--whenever I go home--and teach all the scientists like Komui-san about it?
He probed curiously about this alchemy subject, "Can anyone learn this? Or is it a gift you're born with and later realize? If I could learn this, I could bring this knowledge back home and help our scientists. You can make almost anything, right? As long as you apply this 'Equivalent Exchange' law? So could I make a robot out of some scrap metal and batteries?" The curious male paused a bit in his endless list of questions realizing flooding her with questions may not be the best, "Sorry, I got carried away. I didn't mean to flood you with questions." He chuckled nervously as he subconsciously scratched the back of his head lightly with a gloved paw.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 1:31 pm
Morgan sat up a bit straighter when Allen mentioned this Innocence thing, head tilting slightly to the side. "Gift from God?..." Well powers gifted from a deity weren't unheard of around her house! "I guess that's a sort of a rare thing then? What does "Innocence" do?"
She was a little bit caught off guard by Allen's rapid bombardment of questions about alchemy following her explanation. Usually she was the one getting explanations on things! It had been a while since she'd had a conversation with anyone who didn't already know about alchemy, much less someone who seemed so enthusiastic.
"Um. Ok, let me see if I can get those one at a time." She paused, going back over his questions in her head. "It doesn't seem like something anyone from here can learn... though no one I know of who's from or related to someone who's from a different world originally seems to be unable to. Just the ones who are just from here seem to be unable to get it to work at all. At least... among friends and family that we've tried it out with. So if you wanted to learn it, and you manage to get back, and it all still works properly when you get there, then you could probably pass it on."
Another pause before she moved onto the next part. "You can make anything that's not living. You can combine ingredients for bread, and things like that, but if you tried to alter or combine living beings... that's when things usually start going badly. My dad's told us stories of people he used to know who abused alchemy like that... the Chimeras they made died in the process more often than not, and the ones that survived suffered horribly..." She trailed off for a moment, looking pained by the thought. "But, er, robots and things? As long as you have all the metals you'd need, and you know how it's supposed to be put together, yeah you could. It's a little easier to just fix something that was already whole once, you just sort of "remind" it to be whole again. Making something else out of it requires a bit more know-how on your part."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 3:40 pm
It wasn't surprising Morgan wasn't aware of what Innocence was. Some of the people who lived in his world didn't know either, so it was natural to assume those who didn't come from his world wouldn't know about it.
"The simplest way I can explain it is a 'Gift from God'. It's a specific power, with varying types that can hurt or rather, release the souls trapped within Akumas. You see, when a person is overcome by grief, this bad person known as the Earl of Millennium will change them into these monsters or demons we call 'Akuma'. Once they become an Akuma, their souls are trapped within that demonic body until we use Innocence to release them. The most common type is the equipment type, I think. Like using a sword or a hammer." A demonstration might be easier for her to visualize, but his Innocence was a parasitic type which was somewhat different from the equipment type he just briefly explained.
Alchemy seemed much more tricky than he initially thought. For one thing, it didn't even work here unless it was either in the blood or learned from the original world. So even if he learned it, there was no way to know if he was doing everything properly. Essentially, his efforts would be fruitless.
Still, it wouldn't hurt to try. Anything to help out the scientists, really. He was sure if he could teach them it would make things much easier for them and consequently easier for everyone involved with the Black Order.
"Morgan, would you mind teaching me alchemy? I'm interested to learn it even if it won't work here. At the least it'll pass some time. I'll do my best, though!" He asked enthusiastically. He would study hard and try to be a good student. Though he wasn't really sure how well his studying ability would be considering he never went to school.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 9:27 am
Morgan tilted her head curiously. "Well... it sounds interesting! Maybe I'll get to see it sometime." She paused for a moment. "Akumas... that actually sounds kind of familiar. My uncle-in-law, that happened to people a lot where he was from. There was a lot of war and death and suffering. I don't think there was any Earl guy, there, though. Just... too much death, I guess. Not all of the demons there, though, were bad. Him, for instance. He wasn't really the same sort as the ones that ate people and souls and stuff though. They all just kind of got lumped together under the word "demon" whether they were the "demonic" kind or just like guardian forest spirits or storm elementals or what have you. He fought a lot of the bad ones." She paused for a long moment. "I never really thought about it much before but his world was complicated!"
She opened up her magic bag and carefully slipped the stone inside while Allen was mulling things over, having just shut it when he finally spoke again. And asked her to teach him. She blinked at him and stared for a long moment before slapping a paw over her face. "Er, sorry. No one's ever asked me to teach them before, I'm so used to the idea of being the student, that caught me off guard." And... well, why not? There wasn't a whole lot more her father could actually teach her, at least not that she couldn't read about or something on her own, and she knew enough already to figure some things out for herself. And there were those books she thought were still at the HQ, and they were already here, so maybe she could hunt them down and find a couple of the beginner ones for him to borrow?
"We have some textbooks... there used to be some in the HQ building here, I'm not sure if they're still here, but if they are it would probably help if you read some of them. If they're not here I could probably get a copy from home. And, hm, I guess we could set up a time every day or couple of days or whatever works for a... class?" She was obviously a bit bemused with the idea of teaching a class. Her of all people! Not that she didn't think she could, and if she had too much trouble she could ask her dad for help. It's just... well it wasn't that she hadn't been an avid studier in her own way, but she'd just been so eager to get her paws on anything to actually be doing what she was learning rather than just sitting still and reading and listening. This was probably going to be a rather interesting exercise for everyone involved.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 6:45 pm
"Really?!" The excitment was written all over his face. Learning it wouldn't have immediate effects since she claimed no one unless born with the power or came with the power can display effects in this world. But even so, Allen was determined to learn this and help his fellow friends and co-workers. Plus it would pass the time a lot faster. Maybe there'd even be a way for him to go back to his world applying the knowledge he learns from it.
Glancing briefly at HQ then back at the small female, he wondered, "Are there any books for beginners you could recommend to me? I don't want to accidentally pick up the advanced user copy and get confused," he chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head a little.
"But I promise to be a good student. I'll try not to bother you too much with trivial questions." He smiled briefly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:47 pm
Morgan grinned. "Well I planned on finding the right book for you to start on. It's confusing enough when you first get started without tripping into the advanced stuff." She got up and padded toward the building. "Come on, if the books are still here they're in one of two places."
It wasn't technically that you had to be born with the power; but it seemed it worked better for those who were from another world or blood kin to one, for some reason. They hadn't done a lot of testing on the "natural" residents of the Kitsusagi world, mostly just with Endless, and with Aldiina and her family. Just because they had little or no luck with it didn't exactly made the matter a comprehensive study, but Morgan hadn't really known enough others like them that she felt comfortable asking about it to do further testing.
She wasn't actually sure which room had been the one her father lived in before he moved in with their mother, he tended to avoid it because Roy Mustang might find him there. So she went peeking into the unlocked rooms as they went down a side hall, figuring she'd know it when she saw it. Alchemy books were kind of hard to mistake to one familiar with them. "There's some exercises in it toward the back that you should be able to practice on your own, though you're free to wait til I'm around if you'd rather. And no question is trivial, really, if you need clarification on something. Better to be safe, especially when you do get to the more advanced stuff. I've had stuff blow up on me before... literally." Cough.
Finally she opened a door with a bookshelf directly on the opposite wall that had some rather familiar looking book covers on it. She glanced inside to see if anyone was home, but they weren't. She'd not really met Roy, that she could remember at the very least, and she didn't know how he'd feel about seeing her. Ed simply didn't talk a lot about Roy, so she wasn't precisely sure what their problem was... but it seemed a deep wound indeed. Still she got the impression that she wouldn't exactly have been unwelcome to the Flame Alchemist, but probably very unexpected. "Just bring the book back here when you're done or if you want to take a peek at the others... a guy named Roy Mustang lives here, at least occasionally, he's an alchemist too. He and my dad don't get on real well, but Daddy doesn't really talk about him, much less what their issue is... Anyway if you bump into him just tell him what you're doing here, I'm gonna leave him a note about borrowing the books. If you want a copy to keep I can probably make one at home, too, but this will do to get started." Having said that she pulled a piece of paper and a pencil out of her bag and scribbled out said note to put on a nearby table.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 6:35 pm
Allen wasn't really used to the idea of learning from books. He never really had a normal childhood so he was never exposed to reading and writing. Granted, after being the General's apprentice he started to get the hang of things and could read fairly well considering his back ground. Maybe in return for her teachings, he'll teach her a thing or two about playing cards. Though on second thought, it probably wasn't a good idea to teach someone to gamble let alone cheat. Her family probably wouldn't approve of him corrupting her.
"Thanks." He followed after her listening to her description of this Roy Mustang. "Oh, it's fine. I don't think I'll be keeping any copies. I'll just remember and take notes on what I read." Softly, he smiled at her and thanked her for her helpfulness. "Thanks for all your help. If I need any help with these I'll ask either you or Mr. Roy."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
