(Untitled)

[bulletrained]

After two weeks on the Island, the information Riza had managed to gather was distressingly paltry. She had learned a good amount about the Island's geography and had a fair idea how the government and infrastructure worked. The people seemed to be kind and friendly and more or less content with their lives. But the answers she really needed --

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[realnicetrip]

Harry had been on the island long enough to know all its little nooks and passageways, and he found it quite convenient that if you swam through the waterfall you could get into the cave system and take a shortcut to the Compound. After a good hour or so spent diving off the cliffs and splashing around in the pool below, it was handy to know how to quickly get to the kitchen for a much-needed snack.

He was strolling through, leaving a trail of wet footprints on the stone, and hadn't expected to encounter anybody else on the way. Still, he wasn't particularly surprised when he saw someone in his path; he was hardly the only person who used this route.

"Afternoon," he said, briefly raising his hand in greeting.

[bulletrained]

Riza's first thought, strangely enough, was of Edward Elric. The man dripping water in front of her looked nothing like the Full Metal Alchemist, except he was short. Edward would be furious if he knew that, she thought, and it almost made her smile.

She inclined her head slightly. "Good afternoon." She made sure to keep the stone in her hand hidden as she sized him up. Small but fit -- possibly a soldier. Or simply a man who enjoyed exercise; she could not say for certain.

She kept up a friendly appearance, though, to be safe. It wouldn't do to needlessly antagonize anyone.

"Is there a place to swim nearby?"

[realnicetrip]

If it'd been anyone else, Harry would have probably have made a sarcastic remark about cave monsters having stolen his clothes, but he was getting the strangest feeling from this woman that she was looking at him and wondering if she'd be able to beat him in a fight.

"Yeah, the caves have another opening that comes out under the waterfall," he said, jerking his thumb back over his shoulder to indicate the direction in which he'd come. "It's a great little place to go swimming if you don't care for the sea, and if you take the path up to the ledge, it makes a good diving pool as well."

He took his own turn to size her up. She didn't look familiar, and she seemed uncertain about the geography of this place, which suggested she couldn't have been here for very long.

"You're new here, right?"

[bulletrained]

Riza grins wryly. "It's that obvious, is it?" she asked. It was like in war -- everyone could tell at a glance who was new and who was not, who had killed before and who was praying to get shot in the shoulder quickly and sent home. The natural result of sticking a large group of strangers in a high-pressure area.

"You seem pretty familiar with the area," she continued conversationally. "Have you been here long?"

[realnicetrip]

Harry chuckled. "You learn to read the signs," he said. Same as with any new arrival anywhere, even if they tried to look like they knew the place, there was always that tell-tale tenseness. This place took a lot of adjusting to, no matter where you came from.

"I've been here, oh, near to one and a half years now. Not the oldest of old hands, but I'm pretty familiar with it," he went on, and held out a hand. "Name's Harry Welsh. Lieutenant Welsh, if you want to be formal about it, but I'd rather not."

[bulletrained]

That put Riza in a bind. She couldn't shake his hand without revealing the rock that she kept hidden. The man was friendly, but he was also a soldier. She'd be a fool to let her guard down.

So instead she saluted, softening the formal gesture with a small smile. "Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye," she said. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Harry. A year and a half...that's quite some time."

[realnicetrip]

Harry grinned widely as he returned the salute. He should've guessed, really; her stance and her wary assessment of him gave away that she'd had military training. That, and the island had a real thing about tough blonde fighting broads. (Which he wasn't complaining about at all. Nice to know gals he could relate to on his own terms.)

"You're right, it is, though I know some people who've been here close on five years," he said. "Still a pain in the ass, though. My war was nearly over and then I get sent here. And don't get me wrong, this is a whole sight nicer than war, but I was kind of hoping to see my folks again some time within the next decade."

[bulletrained]

Riza's eyes widened slightly. Five years. That was an unsettling prospect.

"That must be hard," she said sympathetically. "I'm sure they're worried about you." Just as the Colonel and the others were surely worrying about her.

If only she knew alchemy! Perhaps she could open the door and find a way back. She filed that thought away for further consideration when she was alone.

[realnicetrip]

"One and a half years? If time back there passes at the same speed it does here, they probably think I'm dead by now," Harry said, his tone far too casual given what he was saying. "I doubt that, though. People come here from all kinds of different time lines - for me, this is sixty-five years in the future. When you get sent back, I'd reckon you get sent back not too long after where you came from." Not that there was any way to prove conclusively what happened to people who went back, but like his faith in the afterlife, Harry chose to believe in the best possible option.

"I know, it sounds bad. When I first came here, I didn't like to think I could be stuck here for years either. I still don't, but I'm more used to it now. You don't have any choice, after all, so you kind of have to make the best of it."

[bulletrained]

How could the people here be so easily resigned? How could they just accept their presence here, accept the fact that they might never see their loved ones again? It frustrated Riza more than it should have to hear that over and over. Why weren't these people trying to fight their fates?

She had been the same way in Ishbal, a small part of her reflected. Before the Colonel had re-entered her life and given her a positive goal to work toward, she had resigned herself to being a dog to a corrupt government.

She put that thought aside to follow later.

"Have you ever tried to leave?" she asked.

[realnicetrip]

That made Harry feel almost wistful. He'd been all full of fighting spirit and determination to get out of here when he'd first arrived, too. That'd died on its ass pretty fast.

"Oh, yeah. In my first month here, me and another new guy tried to set up an escape committee, get a lot of smart people together to think it all out," he said, nodding. "Only one other person turned up. And only because he was the other guy's friend."

He shrugged. "If I thought I could leave, I would - heck, I was planning on getting married when the war was over. But this isn't my world and it isn't my timeline, so even if I got a boat and supplies and sailed away, I'd still be nowhere near actually getting home. And I'm no physicist or magician, so I certainly can't figure out any other way of getting out. If you think you can do it, then try, but don't get your hopes up."

[bulletrained]

Riza's eyes narrowed slightly in frustration. Mass apathy. It was the problem every time you tried to get a group to do something. Some people didn't care. Some just couldn't be bothered to put forth the effort. Others had simply given in to despair. And then there were those who would get involved, but only if other people were involved too. It became an self-perpetuating cycle of stagnation.

"So you've never met someone who's managed to leave."

[realnicetrip]

Harry shook his head.

"Nope, and I haven't met anyone who knows someone else who managed to leave," he said. "The only way anyone ever leaves is by suddenly vanishing, same as they got here." He was well aware he wasn't being very helpful here, and wished he could do better. She was the stubborn kind, he could tell - she'd probably figure out the futility of escape the same way he did, by trying and failing.

"Seriously, if you think you know a way we could get out of here, I'd love to hear it. Everybody else's ideas have been useless." He paused, and added, "Oh, but if it involves magic, forget it. The only magic that works here is the island's."

[bulletrained]

Riza was hesitant to share her thoughts, especially with a near-stranger. Inherent caution aside, she wasn't even sure it would work. Alchemy was a science, not a magic...but it could still be blocked. Even if it wasn't, there was no guarantee she would be able to use it. Growing up with her father, working so closely with the Colonel, she understood a fair amount about it, but she only knew the basic principles; she had never tried it herself.

So she shrugged. "I'm afraid I'm just as in the dark as the rest of you," she said easily. "Just trying to get some answers.

"You said the island has magic," she continued. "It obviously brought us here somehow. What else can it do?"

[realnicetrip]

"Anything it damn well wants," Harry said, with a sigh. "It brings people here, sends them away again, sometimes gives them items from home. Every Christmas it suddenly goes arctic, then becomes tropical again when New Year comes along. And then there's the games it plays. You'll go to bed one night feeling perfectly fine and then the next morning, totally without warning, you'll suddenly have someone else's body or your personality will be changed or you'll be a child again or something."

In a funny sort of way, Harry quite looked forward to the times when people got altered by the island in some way, as long as he himself wasn't messed up too badly. Valentine's Day had been hilarious. Having his personality reversed so he was mean and neurotic, less so, though the memory of Doc Roe as a foulmouthed party animal still kept him amused.

"When I first arrived here, somebody told me that the main thing you had to understand about the island is that it doesn't make any sense. Remembering that's never failed me yet."