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Of course, of course, of course.

There wasn’t any way around this thorn in his side when it came to having to leave the archive to go to the University to drop off research materials. Even if it had only been three years since he had left the establishment, he despised it all the same. That one buzzing light in his office had given him more migraines than he could count, but this time, the student needed someone to both bring over microfilm rolls and fix the machine again.

With the canisters tucked into his satchel with extra padding and protection, he threw on his coat and scarf before leaving his office and triple-checking that it was, in fact, locked. The private collection he worked for gave him more than enough privacy, but he still liked to make sure nobody was snooping while he wasn’t around.

Adding another problem to his already, in his opinion, ruined evening, the weather decided that winter was going to start and bring snow with it before the holidays even settled in. Grumbling more as he trekked through the snow, the only upside of all of this was the fact that DCU was only a few blocks from this branch of the archives. So he only had a light dusting of snow as he trudged over the sidewalk and towards the entrance closest to the history department.

At least that was the plan until he found the door locked. Taking a deep breath, he rubbed at his temples while walking back towards his own office. This back and forth was obnoxious. If they needed something, wouldn’t it make sense to leave the door unlocked or have someone wait to meet him?

That was the thought he kept turning over in his mind as something approached, something he was completely oblivious to, as he was more focused on how nothing was organized unless he was in charge of it.

Looking down at the quickly accumulating snow, Albrecht grumbled more and pulled his scarf a bit tighter to block out some more of the cold. He never liked the cold, not really, even when his parents would go on trips to the Alps and bring him along. If he had a choice in the matter, he would have preferred to stay home or go to the library and hole himself up until it all melted in spring. But that was then, and this was now.

Hearing what sounded like someone running, he had half a mind to berate them for making him wait so long to let him into the building. But as he turned to look back, there was something shadowy standing between him and someone who looked exponentially more prepared for the weather.

The woman, or who he thought was a woman, maybe, didn’t look like anyone in the history department that he remembered, but there were always new faces. Time marched on, even if he preferred to stick to his little time capsule of an office and archive.

Looking between the shadow, which now was too close for his liking, and the woman, he took some steps back just in case. “What… what’s this thing?” It didn’t look like anything he recognized, unless maybe it was supposed to be some sort of hologram magic trick thing that came with the new AI craze he’d been hearing about. The fact that it now snapped at him crossed that idea off, though.

“Hey…Hey! Stop that!” Pulling his foot back, he felt himself step on something, sending him falling back onto his a** in the snow. A clear cube sat in front of him, between him and the thing. At least he could throw it at the thing, right? So he reached for it, surprised that it wasn’t cold to the touch like something left out in the snow might feel.

Not really thinking more on that, he lobbed it at the shadowy whatever it was as he pushed back and away, confused as he realized he didn’t feel his satchel or scarf anymore.

Moving back more as the woman leapt and slammed a shield into the ground, he yelped slightly at the sound of it making contact with the pavement. Getting off the ground wasn’t terribly easy as he scrambled and tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

“What the?!” Getting a closer look at their get-up, and then down at what his clothing had changed into, he finally managed to look towards the cube thing he’d tried to throw. It looked just like a glass paperweight, but with something in it.

“What is that?” And the fact they were beaming at him had him looking around to see if she was intending to do that at someone else.

At least until the shadowy thing decided to try moving towards him again, prompting him to try and hit the thing with the cube once again, this time with him feeling like he was swinging through muck. Nothing quite solid nor gaseous and very much not something normal, leaving him dropping the cube again and stepping back.

“Youma?” he repeated, though with less pep in his voice than hers. Seeing that forcefield, he flinched as it passed through the youma and did nothing of much use from what he could tell.

His opinion of all this dropped even more as they tried to explain it like some sort of bad guy situation. This wasn’t 40k, even if maybe the thing looked like a tyranid if he really really squinted.

Following her nod, he looked down at the cube and pointed at it for half a second before picking it back up. Maybe he’d really just fallen asleep in the archives again, after all, with the space heater under his desk, it could get comfortable enough for him to snooze.

The sound of running seemed like a good idea, though, especially as the thing snapped at him and caught the edge of his coat. “Alright, running it is, you lead.” Already moving, he shook his head at the mention of the cube being a weapon. How could a glorified paperweight be anything really useful?

“Sure…” he deadpanned. Monsters were just folk tales, at least outside of the just usual shitty people he saw playing the game of politics in the archive and auctions his employer had him attend.

Bracing himself to run, he nodded and sprung forward to try and keep up with the woman. Sure he might be taller but he really hadn’t had to run so fast in a long time. That coupled with the realization he wasn’t even remotely used to whatever get up he was in now.

“Please tell me you at least have a badge, they cut my clearance after the head of that department decided he didn’t like my methods anymore.” The complaint came out as he huffed and caught up mostly within earshot of her. It wasn’t someone he recognized but then again he could maybe only remember about 8 people from all 11 years he’d spent dealing with the University.

It made sense that some things were locked after hours but he still didn’t like it. It just made the glow of the university all the more frustrating as he tried to keep up without slipping in the slush on the ground.

“Wait, what?!” Looking up, he panicked for a second and tried to do the same with much less ease. His foot caught the edge, and he found himself scrambling to climb over it to make it onto his back on the rooftop. How the hell had that happened? This had to be a dream?

Stretching his arms out above him, he looked himself over and just felt even more confused. “What is going on? How did I make it up there? I failed vaulting in P.E.” Only now, just grunting as he tried to sit up and found his foot stinging from kicking the bricks.

Looking behind himself, he saw the thing circle for a bit, then shake and head off. Maybe it couldn’t jump, but that wasn’t his priority right now.

Nice jump? What? He just stared for a second as if what they’d both done was normal when obviously it wasn’t. That, and he didn’t see his bag on him as he looked around. More of whatever he was wearing came into view as he took the time to look down at himself.

“Power up?” It was crazy, but… was that what the cube was? Picking the thing up, Albrecht turned it over in his hand and looked at the encased disc. It looked old, or maybe futuristic; it was hard to tell with the distortion of the clear resin or whatever it was.

His attention was back up at the woman, Ekstrom, apparently of mercury, before he offered his hand back as he felt something on the tip of his tongue. “I’m… Hohe… Hohenheim?” And now that he was getting a closer look at her outfit, he saw that the symbols on his clothing matched hers.

“I think of Mercury…” With that, he pitched over slightly to push himself up off the ground, hissing slightly at how cold the rooftop was beneath his hands. Dusting what he could off, he didn’t quite like the feel of the fabric under his hands; it was too different from what he was used to wearing.

“What did you mean by weapon? This thing?” Holding the cube up, he looked at it doubtfully.

The energy rolling off the woman made him tired, but it wasn’t the first time he’d been around someone so excited. Though this was about a topic he had no real input on, and as she continued explaining the options of how things went, he found himself looking at the cube with a bit more skepticism.

“So Mercury… isn’t it cold there?” Another thing to dampen his mood, but whatever was going on, the sooner he figured a way out of the conversation, the sooner he could get back to his archive and turn the small heater on beneath his desk. If there were only a few of whatever Mercury thing this was, then that would mean either they didn’t care or something else. Either way, he could tell Ekstrom was over the moon at all this.

He’d seen the forcefield mentioned, something right out of one of his tabletop games, but still, that was a lot to think on. “So. This Mercury Knight thing, does it mean those whatever they were, youma, will be after me more now? Or can I just go back to my work?” Trying, and failing, to hide his general displeasure over all this, he looked between his own weird attire and hers. Whatever fantasy this was felt like too much on top of his workload.