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[truthget]

That's right... the code...

Hey, anybody listening out there- [It goes quiet abruptly as Edward examines the journal to make sure it's working.] ...hm. My name is Edward Elric, and I'm an alchemist. Where I'm from, alchemists follow a certain code: "Alchemists live for the public." It means that our abilities are meant to be used for ordinary

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[truthhides]

[ that feeling is back. the same sort of emptiness that he'd felt when he'd come to once they'd pulled marta from his body... something hollow, a faint feeling of failure - but he knows that this time, it's no fault of his own that this had happened. the malnosso just...

they're cruel to take them here, away from their families, goals and friends... and crueler send people back to a fate like that. ]

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[truthget]

[It's mostly quiet on the way home, each brother left lost in their own thoughts, though they're probably thinking about much the same thing. And Edward can't help but let his thoughts drift to Alphonse- of what could happen if one of them was sent back without the other, of how it would affect them to be separated for as long as Winry had been separated from them. It's too cruel.

After a while, though, Edward lifts a hand to bonk it lightly against the armor, lips pursing.]

If we follow him, we'll go together.

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[truthhides]

[ it's ironic that had al been taken even a day after they'd brought him here he'd be faced with that thought. there'd be that uncertainty, a quiet voice questioning whether or not he'd ever see his brother again. there's no way he could know this, but the thoughts are much the same... if they were separated, it couldn't last long. neither brother wanted to be parted from the other for long, so they wouldn't be. and everything told him that in the end, it all worked out...

how had the alphonse who was here before dealt with being without ed? or winry? how had he coped with never knowing for sure if he would go home and see the people he cared about... how had he formed so many bonds with people who were so fleeting, and how had he stomached knowing that some of them were only alive while they were in this strange place? life and death is such a delicate thing... not everyone was as lucky as he - as they were.

the bonk catches his attention and the words do ring true. ] Right. [ he sounds far more cheerful than he actually feels. but

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[truthget]

[It's a terrifying existence, that much is for sure. And he hates the very idea of it, the thought of being separated from Al again. After all those months since Briggs, he'd been missing the reliable presence of his little brother, and to finally be reunited with him... splitting them up again, for even longer - for anything like Winry's time here - would be a nightmare. Beyond a nightmare.

No... it's together, or not at all. That's how it has to be for them.]

We'll have to keep working on it. Find a better way. Maybe if we tried harder to research alkahestry, we'd find a way. The planet has to have that dragon's pulse thing, right? So maybe it can cross worlds, too.

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[truthhides]

I've been reading a little more into the theory, but I don't think I can do it... [ like this. it doesn't mean that he won't try, but a few lines in the text books stick out firmly in his mind. ones that deal with the flow of life. in a body made of metal, he's cut off from the living world in more ways than one. ] They say that mountains are important. Everything flows down from them.

Maybe we should have a trip, for old times sake.

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[truthget]

[He feels a twinge of guilt at that- it would be unlucky if Al couldn't feel that dragon's pulse thing because he's a suit of armor. And who's fault is that again? He doesn't mention it though, because he's pretty sure he knows what Al would say to that.]

I'm surprised it's taken us so long to get out of here.

[Though he knows why- there's been plenty of books in the library to read, even without an alchemy section, and for Winry's sake, because they'd been separated for so long... well, he'd just felt bad about bailing right away when there was still something to keep him occupied in town.]

Don't feel bad about not feeling it, I probably won't have any luck either. But we should do it this week anyway! Once I finish up a few things and get my notes all together, we can get going.