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[ Rushing headfirst into a conflict with only a minimal plan and hoping it works is truly the Elric way.

That is to say, following Wrath down to the ruins of the underground city was enough of a gamble. Wrath may have spent the past three years living in the woods outside of Risembool like an angry feral kitten, but he was still, you know, one of the homunculi. Though, Rose had told Alphonse that he had given them some vital help against Envy and Dante, so what little remains of Al's kiddish gullibility these days extended to thinking okay, I'll give him a chance, what do I have to lose at this point?

Uh. A lot, apparently. He was not expecting to have to deal with the 100 foot tall abomination that used to be Gluttony trying to eat them both, nor was he expecting Wrath to just...lay down and die. "You were willing to sacrifice yourself to get your brother back, right? I'm not going to let that happen again."

(Look. Look. It's not his fault that he and Ed have the kind of relationship where they'd jump in front of a train for each other, it's the sheer amount of bullshit they've been through. Which, a few years ago, included having to dig up their mom's grave and use one of her bones to kill the homunculus wearing her face, who they made, by the way, that was nice to find out. Not that Al remembers that at the moment, but he will momentarily. Truly, nothing nice ever happens in the 03 universe!!)

When Alphonse puts his hands down, he's not sure how this is going to work, or what's going to pop out of the other side--well, he's hoping to suddenly have Ed tumbling out, of course, but things never happen the easy way. For all he knows, it'll be Ed but catatonic, or it'll take half of the environment around him, or the worst of all--nothing. To have gotten this far and sacrificed this much and just have no result...it might break him a little.

Still, he's holding out hope. He may have become an unhinged little gremlin in the 3 years since Ed vanished, but he's still Al, which means he's still got his ever-present optimism! It's just...you know, less blind optimism, now.

Anyway. There are lots of hands. There's always so many weird, grabby little hands when the Gate is involved, and it skeeves him out, because he can remember the hands grabbing him that night when they were kids, pulling him away from the basement and out of Ed's grasp, past a doorway that no one was ever meant to cross more than once.

And yet.

And yet.

Here he is crossing it a third time.

The circle flashes again, and he's being subtly tugged past the threshold. His feet skid into the blackness beyond the doors, and he almost screams, but--he finds a hand inside that's solid, one that's attached to a real arm and not a spindly tendril. Putting all of his weight into tugging on the arm, he throws himself backward, back through the doorway, and lands on the concrete courtyard hard enough to knock the wind out of him.

He doesn't register the fact that he's still gripping Ed's arm with more force than is probably necessary, but uh, give him a minute. Three years worth of stuck-in-a-suit-of-armor memories just zoomed back into his noggin and he needs a moment--several moments, maybe a few months worth of moments for the entire thing with Sloth--to process it.

So, um. Welcome to the empty underground city ruins that Definitely Isn't Xerxes, Ed?? It was already in pretty bad shape, but Gluttony and Wrath wrecked the surrounding area even more, and there's a waterway nearby filled with red stones. Al is laying on his back kind of staring at the sky with a raptured look on his face, but he's breathing, at least. ]

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[ Sure is a dilapidated church! Hasn't been used in at least a century or so, possibly way, way longer, so watch your step with the rotten floorboards.

As for where, it looks like it's on the far outskirts of the city, in an abandoned neighborhood. No cars, no pedestrians, just a long block of empty buildings. Al jets over to one of the broken windows, himself, peering out at the sky. ]

...the earthquakes stopped.

Seems like it. Good. So, where to from here? You said something about leather for my boots? But then what?

[Resembool? Ed isn't sure how everyone here might take his presence. That Ed is here but not....their Edward? How Granny might take that, or Winry for that matter. He's not sure what the story is there, exactly. It makes him suddenly more anxious, more nervous, as they leave the stairs, that underground city below Central. He glances around, taking it in. Trying to figure the time, where they are roughly. At the least, it doesn't look immediately busy outside where he will get such sudden attention. People recognizing him.]

[ He spares one last look down the street before nodding and carefully stepping into the pulpit. Some rifling around in the mess nets Alphonse a pair of ancient prayer books, waterlogged and unreadable, but thick leather covers still mostly intact. He puts them on the floor between them--Ed knows his own shoe preferences better than Al, so he'll just let Ed do it. ]

I'm not sure. There were terrible earthquakes in Central city, so there's probably still evacuation procedures happening if you want to slip past it.

[ Hawkeye would IMMEDIATELY know something's up. They couldn't bluff themselves out of an explanation with her. ]

I guess it leaves anyone we could trust with this sort of thing. We could go back to Resembool, maybe...?

[It's quick enough for Ed to figure transmuting himself a boot. Leather was leather, after all. He claps his hands and slams them down to the ground to transmute the leather from the book cover, testing the size that it at least wasn't too small or not going to be too large that it would come off easily.]

I would say that sounds like a plan. I'm just figuring if we're in Central though. We'd probably end up running into the Colonel and his guys. I mean, I'm not sure what they might say or do, seeing me, but. If we can avoid it. That might be easier, yeah.

[Because, yeah. With Hawkeye or Izumi? No way either of the boys wouldn't cave under their stare or questioning.]

That's exactly why I suggested we could slip past it, of course...I don't think I could look the Lieutenant in the eye and tell her a fake story. She'd crack us, brother...

[ He loves and respects Riza but that all comes with a hefty dose of finding her extremely terrifying. So, basically the same as Izumi, yeah. ]

The Colonel isn't around, actually. He took some kind of leave of absence.

Well, if he's away that might make it a little easier. For us to get to the train station. Back to Resembool. Hopefully without running into her.

[She was likely perceptive enough to easily pick up that Ed was different. That he wasn't the same Edward she would have known. She would probably be able to tell, maybe even just by looking at him, his appearance, that he isn't the same. So Ed can't deny that he also doesn't think he would last long if they encountered her, without her finding out.]

Let's at least get out of here.

[ Weirdly, Al looks sort of chipper about this. It's not a concrete plan, of course, but it feels nice to have a tangible objective for once. Slip onto a train to Resembool unnoticed.

He nods.

And hops out of the window, actually, the front door is kind of a hazard at this point. It's a ground floor church, luckily. ]

If we go down this street, it'll take us back to one of the alleys on Third Street, and...

[ He lays out some directions, streets and shops he remembers. It's a solid route to the station. ]

Lead the way. I'm sure eventually I'll have a better idea on where we are at to know the way.

[Ed listens as the other gives directions. He's certain eventually he will pick up on where they were amid Central. Assuming of course that the city layout was generally the same as back home that he is familiar with. He lets Al head out the window, following easily enough through it. Not like he isn't used to sneaking around and going through entrances or exits besides the door. He just doesn't want to make this such a habit the way Ling does. He will follow along with Al, glancing around once outside and trying to ensure there weren't any military about that they might accidentally bump into Hawkeye.]

[ For simplicity let's say it's the same layout, sure. Except maybe some small things changed, like there's a bakery where there used to be a shoe shop. Just enough to be weird.

Al chats lightly while he navigates, mostly inconsequential things that he's wanted to share, but in his solo travels didn't have another pair of ears to share them with. He wouldn't say he made a list of things he wanted to tell Ed about when he surely definitely undoubtedly found him again, but he does go through a rehearsed-sounding roll of news. So-and-so from Resembool got married. Elicia started first grade and Gracia wrote to him about it. They finally fixed up that old barn out by so-and-so street.

Oh, and he tried some new foods. That one he seems happiest to share.

Whether or not Ed remembers any of the things Al chatters about (your choice, it's just background fluff lol), he's noticeably less gloomy than he was underground. Part of it was the atmosphere, but it's also just...kind of a return to normalcy, honestly? Which is saying something when their 'normal' was living out of a single suitcase, squatting in abandoned buildings, and going on a wild goose chase for a miracle stone they weren't completely sure actually existed.

The closer they get to Central City, the more they run into the visible aftermath of those earthquakes. The ground is torn to shit, and some buildings have even collapsed. Yikes. ]

[Ed tries to remember the news, the updates, the little things Al shares. He isn't sure he would remember any of this once he does get back to his Amestris. But at the least, it's some normalcy. Chatting together, banter and teasing and little updates from letters and the like. That's familiar. And so is the city, for all that he can tell from Al, that this isn't really home, it's pretty much the same, more or less.

Ed notes as they continue how there's more definite ruins and damage from the earthquakes that Al had mentioned.]

I wonder if we could help. Wait, what time is it? And what time's the next train back to Resembool?

Helping with the evacuation, you mean? We can take a detour. We might get caught up with the military patrols, though, so we're going to have to be sneaky.

[ Al pulls up his sleeve and takes a look at his wristwatch. ]

It's about 3:00 in the afternoon. I don't know the trains offhand, so I was hoping we could catch one at the station.

Edited 2023-11-02 21:35 (UTC)

Helping make sure everyone is okay, fixing what we can. Or should we focus on getting to the station before the military show up?

[Ed isn't sure. On how much he should really interact with things when this isn't his home. As much as his instinct is to help, but he is also mindful of their goal to get back to Resembool to figure what to do from here and hopefully avoid the military for the time being before they find out Ed is here. Before they start asking questions and he doesn't want to get Al in trouble.]

We don't want to get back too late, to Resembool though.

[ ~~Dusting this off eons later~~

He considers it for a moment. ]

That's up to you. You were listed as missing in action, so they'll probably want some answers if someone recognizes you. But, they're likely pretty busy with the evacuation, so it could go either way. It depends on if you want to risk it.

Missing in action, huh? Alright. Yeah, probably we don't really have time to risk being questioned right now. Best to get to Resembool and figure things from there. Maybe from there we can let some others know and see if they can help or something.

[He's winging this, but really. He has been this whole time ever since they started on the journey to regain their bodies. To get Al back. So this was hardly a new thing. Ed's just trying to seem like he has something of a plan. As the older brother that is supposed to be responsible for this stuff. In theory at least. Sort of.]

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