People can not gain anything without sacrificing something else.
In order to gain something, something of equal value is necessary.
That is what is known in alchemy as the principle of Equivalent Exchange.
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But Greed has a sugar momma so none of that applies to his Christmas shopping. )
Reaching over, Naoto pulled the laptop onto her lap, having enabled the safe search feature beforehand, just so that nothing "interesting" would pop up that would give the greedy Homunculus any ideas...
"All right, name everyone you're buying Christmas presents for. I want to keep a list so I can keep track of who is getting what."
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"There's the the kid's girlfriend, Envy's Hot Mom, and the zombie, but I got them taken care of already." His four held up fingers--wasn't that a miscount? Perhaps his thumb was just extended for sheer style?--curled back in, starting from scratch, for relevance. "That leaves the kid, Armor-kun, Touchdown, J.D., the monk, Prussia, Glasses Chick and Hot Shot."
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"You know, some of those nicknames aren't very descriptive at all. Some of them are obvious, but there are plenty of girls who wear glasses... Is there some reason why you abhor the use of proper names? And for that matter," Naoto quirked an eyebrow at the greedy Homunculus, "how come only Prussia doesn't get a clever nickname?"
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She began typing in something into the search engine and brought up the website for Amazon.com. "Do you have any idea what you're going to get for everyone? I have a few ideas for Issei... He loves gardening and poetry, so perhaps a book pertaining to those interests would be best..."
Already she's running a search on gardening books. The screen brings up a list of available items and she begins to scroll through them, reading the titles to herself.
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She continued to search for books on gardening. In fact, she found something on bromeliads that looked interesting! She clicked on the item and put it in the shopping cart to purchase for later.
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"If you want to get it for him, then you're going to have to pay for it yourself. I'm not going to purchase something I know he'll hate with my own money."?
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Besides, he's my monk. I know him better than you in some areas. He's secretly a pervert like this. And he's got a sense for history."
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Her lower lip juts out in a pout. Okay, so maybe he did have a point...
"I'd like to think I know Issei better than you do. I've known him longer, anyway...
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And, hitting search and two clicks later, Greed suddenly turns, holding the laptop out to her expectantly.
"They do make things like that, now! Haah! Leave it to the future! Oi! Make one of those!" He pointed to an image of a mirror with a reversed--or, more precisely, a non-reversed image. "It's gotta be full body sized. At least six feet tall--no, let's go with seven! He'll probably wanna get up real close with it."
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But the expression quickly changes to one of surprise as she stares at the screen before her.
"Erm... I'm afraid that I'm not well-suited to that sort of metal-working. I've only worked with silver in small amounts. To create a mirror would require a great deal of silver, plus special tools and equipment that I don't possess on hand. Plus, it's very time consuming. I'm not certain if I could finish it in time for Christmas, not with all my other projects in the works..."
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If he stared long enough, maybe it would become possible.
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She sighed, putting a hand to her head. "Look, do you even know how mirrors are created? You have to dissolve silver nitrate in distilled water, then add diluted ammonia until the mixture goes through distinct chemical changes. A second mixture is made using silver nitrate and Rochelle salts. This mixture must be boiled and filtered. By pouring these mixtures on to a very clean piece of glass sufficiently heated to the proper temperature, the silver will precipitate and form an even coating on the glass. After drying, one can coat the back of the silver with a solid paint to help prevent degradation of the silver. The result is a fully functional mirror."
She paused, expecting Greed's eyes to glaze over at any minute.
"For a mixture of this size," she said, reaching over to retrieve her laptop, "I'd need a few galleons of silver nitrate, which isn't exactly cheap, you know? Plus, I'd have to create two mirrors to achieve ( ... )
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Yes. He understod.
"So, it'll be a really good present... is what you're saying." He nodded, even more decisively. "I want one."
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