Dreamscape -- Alphonse Elric
Characters: Alphonse Elric, OPEN
When: April 5th - 11th
Where: Inside Al's mind.
Rating: Hard R, likely.
Summary: Al's more messed up than you'd think. But why take my word for it? Come see for yourself. For mindfuck. And kittens.
-- Mark the night you come, 'kay?
( [Once a child went out to wander, caught a dragonfly inside a jar. Fearful when the sky was full of thunder, tearful at the falling of a star.] )
When: April 5th - 11th
Where: Inside Al's mind.
Rating: Hard R, likely.
Summary: Al's more messed up than you'd think. But why take my word for it? Come see for yourself. For mindfuck. And kittens.
-- Mark the night you come, 'kay?
( [Once a child went out to wander, caught a dragonfly inside a jar. Fearful when the sky was full of thunder, tearful at the falling of a star.] )
"Which one are you looking for?" Al askes, and the lights that make up his eyes regard Itachi soberly. "Something you're curious about?"
Rather than wait for Itachi to choose, the armor reached above his head, plucking a book from childhood memories. The cover is scratched and dark, and the gilded title -- though most of it is rubbed off -- is marked;
Fight with Edward
October 4th, 1905
"You wonder about the river," Al says gently, the light piercing into Itachi's eyes, enough to make him wonder just how much Al knew of his thoughts when they're both inside his mind.
He opens the book and holds it out to him.
"Brother?" he asks. "When is Dad coming back?"
Edward stares at him, anger and hurt squirming through his bright golden eyes, small white teeth gritted. His hair is short but his eyes are the same. He has both arms.
"Damn it Al," he mutters, reaching down to push his shoulder, making Al stumble and fall backwards in the grass. "Don't you realize he's never coming back, you stupid baby?!"
Tears well up in Al's eyes.
"But I thought-"
"You thought wrong, idiot!" Ed snarls, and clenches both fists. He's yelling now, hurting badly. "He didn't want us 'cause we're not good enough for him, all right?! He's a stupid idiot who never knew what the hell he had!"
"But brother-"
"I HOPE HE'S DEAD!!" Ed yells, and Al gasps. Before he can think, he's up, and his fist's connected to Ed's face. Ed's down, blood on his lips, and Al is staring at him in horror. He's never hit someone before. Especially not his brother. Ed's the one who gets into fights. Not him.
With a sob, Al turns and runs. He doesn't know where he's running, he just knows he can't face his brother right now, nor his mother. She's going to be so disappointed in him. He can't stand that look.
Maybe he can hide and never go home.
Afternoon turns to evening while he's wandering around, and sniffles, wiping his nose on his arm. It's getting cold. The sun's going down. He looks up, and realizes he's at the river. He can't help but smile. The river's the place dad used to take them. It's his only memory of the whole family together. All of them, playing and laughing in the river. The perfect family.
He has no other memories of all of them happy, all of them together and perfect.
Maybe he can stay here forever.
It gets darker and darker, and Al shivers, wrapping his arms around his knees. He's still mad, but it falls away over time, and he wonders if his brother will forgive him. If his mom will. What if they don't?
No! His brother was wrong to say what he did!
"Hey."
Ed's voice is low.
Al tenses up, then jumps to his feet, throwing out his fists. If his brother is coming to start the fight again, he's got another thing coming.
Instead of fighting, Ed just looks placidly at him, hands in his pockets. Al lowers his fists, confused.
"It's time for dinner, Al," he says. His voice sounds a little funny because of the bruise on his jaw, but he's not angry anymore. "Let's go home."
A smile lights up Al's face, and he nods, running up the hill. He's forgiven his brother. Ed reaches out and ruffles up his hair, and he knows he's been forgiven too.
They go home together.
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"Show me when you lost your body." He looks at the armor, watching, curious if it will comply or comment. Or give him something else to read.
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"Brother would always come and get me at the river," Al says quietly. "Even when we left, there were rivers everywhere. When I was upset, I'd always go to running water. Brother always knew where to find me. Always."
The armor is silent for a moment, and then wordlessly walks over to the locked section. In here, the books are smeared with blood, ripped, torn, burned. He removes a rusted key from the pouch tied to his leg, and opens the door with a creak.
"Don't touch anything," he reminds Itachi.
He removes a particularly battered book. It smells of sulphur. He flips carefully, through it, then holds it out to Itachi.
"Water, 35 liters. Carbon, 20 kilograms. Ammonia, 4 liters. Lime, 1.5 kilograms. Phosphorus, 800 grams. Salt, 250 grams. Saltpeter, 100 grams. Sulfur, 80 grams. Fluorine, 7.5 grams. Iron, 5 grams. Silicon, 3 grams, and trace amounts of fifteen other elements..."
"We have it all?"
"We have it all."
Al feels uneasy as they pour the ingredients into the center of the huge, amazingly complex array. The boys are barely nine and ten. Still small children. Just the complexity of the array should be far beyond what they are capable of conceiving, but the boys are geniuses.
It's their birthright.
"I can't wait to see Mom again," Ed says softly, and Al smiles at him. "Okay. One last ingredient."
He pulls out a knife, the same knife they had on the island. Both of their faces go grim. Ed hands it to Al first, and he pricks his finger, flinching, making a hissing noise between teeth and lip.
He swipes a cut onto his skin as well, and they both hold their hands out, letting the blood dribble onto the ingredients. Carefully, they back up. The tension in the room is palpable.
Both boys get on their knees, and they look over at each other.
No going back now.
Again, that niggling feeling that there's something not quite right. Something they missed something wrong.
But they want it so much.
They nod, sealing the pact that has been coming from the day their mother was buried. And they slap their hands to the array.
Bright yellow light bursts forth, throwing rays to the far edges of the basement, lighting up a suit of armor in the corner. They both grin, elated, gasping for breath.
And then suddenly, something goes wrong. The light of the array somehow... changes. And the reaction starts to warp.
"Brother, I think the-"
Al feels his arm itch and looks down.
And screams.
His body is turning to ash and falling apart. He's screaming for his brother now. It's painful, more painful than anything else he could have imagined. Nothing compared to this. Nothing. Darkness beat black wings at the edges of his vision, and Ed reached for him, jerking back at the last minute.
He was falling apart too.
A Gate slammed open, a gigantic black door, so black it seemed to suck in the very light of the room, pulling them in. It slammed open and thousands of long black things reached for Alphonse. Their touch was ice cold, and somehow, they hurt more. He was beyond pain at this point, struggling and reaching, vocal cords rupturing as the panic took him.
His brother reached for him.
And then he didn't have hands anymore.
The door slammed shut, and the laughter started. The high, inhuman laughter of a thousand voices.
Welcome home.
Everything went dark.
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He stares at his hands, stares past them, following the trail of blood on the floor.
Edward is staring at him, hunched over, clutching at where his right arm used to be, tears streaking down his face through the blood, but he is bright, angry, determined. A little bit to the left, Al sees where he brother violently emptied his stomach, adding to the mess on the floor.
"I was going to lose you," he said softly. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, Al... but all I could get for this arm was your soul."
"Brother...!"
His voice sounds tinny, scared, even more childish than he remembered. He sounds like he's going to cry.
But he can't.
"But what about the transmutation, what about...?"
"That thing wasn't mom." Ed's voice is dark and grating. Al follows the trail of blood on the floor, the wet sucking sounds, and lays eyes on something that doesn't yet make sense. The horror of it is so absolute, his mind fails to comprehend it.
So it shuts down.
The person on the floor is inside out. Bones and organs, pulsing organs, are all in disarray. The face -- the face of something that isn't human, stares at him, watches him, and it's no wonder his brother was sick.
Ed passes out against him, and he can't feel it.
Instead, he kicks into gear and staggers to his feet. The only thing left in his mind and heart is to save the only person he has left.
His brother is everything. His brother is all he has.
It's raining outside. He can hear someone shrieking and a dog barking. He walks down the road, watching the bruises he's making on Ed's insensate body because he's pressing too hard.
He stumbles at the door. Falls. Manages not to crush Ed. Barely.
He pounds on the door.
Two astonished faces meet him, and he chokes.
He doesn't have a throat to choke with, but he does anyway.
"Please... help us."
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