[Lenalee eyes the video curiously, welcoming any distraction from what is rapidly becoming a very stressful day. Odd... it's not that he looks like Allen, really. Maybe a little, despite having none of the same features. But he does somehow remind her of him.]
[She glances away from her golem, flushing a bit uncomfortably. Maybe she's just thinking about Allen a bit too much. It has been one of those days. Shaking off the feeling, she smiles and responds.]
Hello. Everyone who was brought here can hear you, we all have a Hitomi. I'm afraid I've never heard of a place called Amestris or Dublith, you're probably from a different world.
[Her smile turns apologetic.]
As crazy as that sounds. I’m sorry, I haven't seen anyone wearing a suit of armor. Your brother... is probably still wherever you left him.
[She can certainly relate to that issue. Lenalee grimaces as her mind wanders to thoughts of Komui. No, enough problems to think about for one day. She tries to put on a reassuring smile.]
I don't think that they're 'gods,' but something brought us all here and demanded tribute. I would hardly call being trapped in another world a 'con.'
[Yes, she is bitter. Being stuck here is one thing, while thinking about it still makes her indignant it mostly makes her feel tired and homesick. But the whole idea of tribute still stings quite a bit.]
Yeah? What else would you call someone with power bringing you someplace that you can't leave, and then telling you to pay them tribute just to be able to live there? Sounds like a pretty textbook scam, if you ask me.
Talk to me about hell when you see a four-year-old girl get combined with her dog into a monster by her own father and later find her remains splashed against a wall in an alley, or when all the babies in a town start dying because a bastard introduced what's basically poison into the drinking supply of pregnant women.
Or when someone is so obsessed with the lover he thought he lost that he starts kidnapping innocent people to force their souls into dolls he carved in her image.
You can talk about hell when--
[He cuts himself off here. Even knowing his future, about Al getting his body back, that night is still something that only a select few people know about. He's silent for a few moments, breathing heavily through teeth gritted at the memory, before he looks down.]
[Lenalee is far beyond annoyed now. She had taken the boy to be about her age, but now he's coming off as a child throwing a temper tantrum. A boy who thinks he's seen all the wrongs the world has ever done.]
You think that you're the only person on earth who's seen horrible things? Grow up.
[She has seen enough that she doesn't feel the need to list examples. They aren't things to think about too much, anyway.]
Those horrible things are still happening out there in our worlds. And now we're here, instead of out there stopping them, with no chance of getting out apart from the whims of whatever force rules this place. So yes, I would call that a kind of hell.
And if that's the extent of your understanding of evil, then you haven't seen a thing.
[And usually she would be glad for that, because people shouldn't have to see those things. But she's just a little too upset with this situation to give sympathy to a brat who's trying to talk down to her.]
[This isn't like one of his posturing matches with the Colonel where he's not willing to give an inch, and he can admit when Lenalee has a point there. Actually, her answer calms him down quite a bit, and the most of the anger drains from his features, though he remains dead serious.
Ed had thought she'd been taking the term lightly when she'd used it, which pissed him off, but when she puts it to him in that light...he can definitely understand that.]
No. I never said that I was. I've known people who've seen a lot worse than me. [The Ishbalans, for example. And the soldiers that were responsible for that war-massacre.]
Even my own brother's had worse than me [Because of me.] Heh, if anyone would know about hell, it'd be him...
[The hell that you put him in, right, Edward? a voice at the back of his head jeers. Can you imagine going through life without touch, taste, smell? Spending every night alone while others sleep? Ed is silent for a moment.]
And for the record, that isn't the extent of anything. There are just some things
( ... )
[Lenalee calms a little as he does. She can at least realize that it's not really him she's mad at. It’s too easy to lash out at the easiest target, with things as they are. If he’s willing to be civil, she will be too.]
[It picks at her curiosity, but she doesn't ask him about his brother.]
I didn't intend to pry.
[“Everyone's got their secrets.” He's going to have a very rude realization that that really isn't true here, when he dreams. But Lenalee can at least appreciate the sentiment.]
I have to believe that there's a way out, but none of us have found it. And there are some people who have been here a very long time. [Though she isn't really sure that those people are even looking.]
[She tilts her head a little.]
Alchemy?
[That's something she knows very little about, though the word is vaguely familiar. Resurrecting the dead hits much closer to home, though, and her eyes immediately narrow in suspicion.]
[A slight frown at that as she considers.] I'm not sure. About a month, I think. Time is a little off here. [She can't think of a better way to put it. It's not something she notices while going about her day, but when she stops to think back on a previous day things seem... odd. Not in any describable way, but odd.]
[She's releaved to hear that he has no delusions of bringing the dead back to life. If it was believed that such a thing was possible through alchemy, surely the Earl would find a way to exploit that belief. She can see that something about the words pain him, but says nothing.]
[He's latching onto that as a subject change, trying to steer it entirely away from the last line of conversation. It's one of those things he doesn't like to talk about, even to the people who know about it.]
[A small shrug.] Sorry, it's hard to explain. I guess it just feels like time passes... fluidly, here. Like it's not always the same, and sometimes it's hard to think straight about when things that happened.
[He's not sure what to make of that, so he decides to file that away as something he'll have to experience for himself. Assuming he stays long enough to actually notice. Which he doesn't plan on doing.]
[She glances away from her golem, flushing a bit uncomfortably. Maybe she's just thinking about Allen a bit too much. It has been one of those days. Shaking off the feeling, she smiles and responds.]
Hello. Everyone who was brought here can hear you, we all have a Hitomi. I'm afraid I've never heard of a place called Amestris or Dublith, you're probably from a different world.
[Her smile turns apologetic.]
As crazy as that sounds. I’m sorry, I haven't seen anyone wearing a suit of armor. Your brother... is probably still wherever you left him.
[She can certainly relate to that issue. Lenalee grimaces as her mind wanders to thoughts of Komui. No, enough problems to think about for one day. She tries to put on a reassuring smile.]
I'm sure that he's fine.
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It does sound crazy, and frankly this whole thing seems like a con to me. Especially since these 'gods' are asking for tribute.
[...He softens a bit at that last part, though.]
Yeah. He can take care of himself.
[He looks, and sounds, a little distant as he says it though.]
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I don't think that they're 'gods,' but something brought us all here and demanded tribute. I would hardly call being trapped in another world a 'con.'
[Yes, she is bitter. Being stuck here is one thing, while thinking about it still makes her indignant it mostly makes her feel tired and homesick. But the whole idea of tribute still stings quite a bit.]
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[She glares at him.]
I'd call that hell.
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[Glares right back]
You wanna talk about hell?
Talk to me about hell when you see a four-year-old girl get combined with her dog into a monster by her own father and later find her remains splashed against a wall in an alley, or when all the babies in a town start dying because a bastard introduced what's basically poison into the drinking supply of pregnant women.
Or when someone is so obsessed with the lover he thought he lost that he starts kidnapping innocent people to force their souls into dolls he carved in her image.
You can talk about hell when--
[He cuts himself off here. Even knowing his future, about Al getting his body back, that night is still something that only a select few people know about. He's silent for a few moments, breathing heavily through teeth gritted at the memory, before he looks down.]
...This isn't hell. Not even close.
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You think that you're the only person on earth who's seen horrible things? Grow up.
[She has seen enough that she doesn't feel the need to list examples. They aren't things to think about too much, anyway.]
Those horrible things are still happening out there in our worlds. And now we're here, instead of out there stopping them, with no chance of getting out apart from the whims of whatever force rules this place. So yes, I would call that a kind of hell.
And if that's the extent of your understanding of evil, then you haven't seen a thing.
[And usually she would be glad for that, because people shouldn't have to see those things. But she's just a little too upset with this situation to give sympathy to a brat who's trying to talk down to her.]
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Ed had thought she'd been taking the term lightly when she'd used it, which pissed him off, but when she puts it to him in that light...he can definitely understand that.]
No. I never said that I was. I've known people who've seen a lot worse than me. [The Ishbalans, for example. And the soldiers that were responsible for that war-massacre.]
Even my own brother's had worse than me [Because of me.] Heh, if anyone would know about hell, it'd be him...
[The hell that you put him in, right, Edward? a voice at the back of his head jeers. Can you imagine going through life without touch, taste, smell? Spending every night alone while others sleep? Ed is silent for a moment.]
And for the record, that isn't the extent of anything. There are just some things ( ... )
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[It picks at her curiosity, but she doesn't ask him about his brother.]
I didn't intend to pry.
[“Everyone's got their secrets.” He's going to have a very rude realization that that really isn't true here, when he dreams. But Lenalee can at least appreciate the sentiment.]
I have to believe that there's a way out, but none of us have found it. And there are some people who have been here a very long time. [Though she isn't really sure that those people are even looking.]
[She tilts her head a little.]
Alchemy?
[That's something she knows very little about, though the word is vaguely familiar. Resurrecting the dead hits much closer to home, though, and her eyes immediately narrow in suspicion.]
You can use that to bring people back to life?
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A long time? How long are we talking, here? [Specifics are always important. Frames of reference. Parameters.]
[The next question though, that one hits home, and hard. For a moment there's just silence, before finally he answers.]
No. You can't.
[His tone is heavy when he speaks, weighted with something much more than an expression of simple fact.]
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[She's releaved to hear that he has no delusions of bringing the dead back to life. If it was believed that such a thing was possible through alchemy, surely the Earl would find a way to exploit that belief. She can see that something about the words pain him, but says nothing.]
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[He's latching onto that as a subject change, trying to steer it entirely away from the last line of conversation. It's one of those things he doesn't like to talk about, even to the people who know about it.]
Didn't get your name, by the way. I'm Ed.
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Oh, I'm Lenalee Lee.
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Good to meet you, Lenalee.
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You too, Ed.
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