[Video post, Ed found a new button!/Action post] So this is a virus...

[cyberelric]

[There's a bit of confused noise and it's dark except for a scrap of light. The hand that was covering the screen backs away and the room comes into focus.]

This doesn't make any sense.

[The camera pans around, there are two twin beds, a book shelf overflowing with books, discarded toys in the corner, and finally Edward faces the camera an odd,

Comments

[gonnabe1st]

[Something comes driving down the street near your house, something fast, black, and fairly loud. In fact, it's a motorcycle. Which stops, and go figure, the driver gets off the bike and takes off his helmet. For now he's mainly leaning against the bike and looking around, but you're free to approach him first if you'd like, or wait until he makes a move.]

:D congrats!

[gonnabe1st]

This place exists by the same rules all the other places out there exist, and neither logic nor timelines apply. The community makes this happen, even if by any rules at all it shouldn't be possible.

[He hesitates a bit before answering Ed's question.]
I.. talk to one of them, yes. But it's not possible for me to go to my own world at the moment, I'll probably stay away for good. At least the community provides interesting people to talk to.

[cyberelric]

[Ed concentrates on what he is doing for a moment and puts what he's done in the pot already.]

Neither logic nor timelines...then perhaps it might be okay to check out the other rooms. [He trails off and shakes his head a bit, smiling a little.] Anyhow that seems incredibly impossible, but there must be some rules and logic, even though we don't know it yet. Maybe when I'm done my quest I could tackle that.

[He goes back to chopping naturally, it's all so...domestic.]

I didn't know you weren't in your world. Where did you go? [He blinks, actually realizes Mello hesitated and shook his head.] Uhhh nevermind. You don't want to tell me right?

[Al would be proud he picked up on a social convention, he would.]

[gonnabe1st]

[Mello isn't quite this used to household chores, but he follows suit, dumping his chopped up vegetables in the pot. He wonders briefly what might have happened in the rooms he has yet to look at, but at what he figures he decides against asking.]

Hah, maybe. Maybe I'll seriously try now, too, but I'm not sure.

[Ironically, Mello doesn't mind the question like other people might.]
That's okay, actually. I'm currently camping out at a friend's place, though I'm planning to get my own eventually. There were a number of reasons I couldn't stay on my world, the most urgent one being a threat to my life.

[cyberelric]

[Ed smiles and as he finishes cutting things up and adds water, he moves the pot onto the stove for them, getting it started easily enough. He's impressed with himself as he still remembers how to do this.]

Well yeah, I mean there has to be. The world isn't completely illogical, we just don't understand everything.

[He tilts his head a little and nods.] Sounds kinda fun, hanging out with a friend. Although I guess that's better than running for your life. Even if my life was in danger I'd have to stay put, I have a promise to fulfil.

[Ed steps back from the stove and finds himself looking at Mello again.] How old are you anyway?

[It's sometimes hard for him to tell, being so short he knows people always get it wrong, he's not twelve anymore, thank you very much.]

[gonnabe1st]

[Mello sarcastically raises an eyebrow at Ed, even though he smiles, realizing that they haven't known each other for such a long time.]

Usually I would have stayed too, but in this case... well. [A slight shrug finishes his sentence for him, it's apparently a long story.]

I'm twenty, though I'm used to people getting that wrong.

[cyberelric]

[Edward doesn't ask, since Mello hadn't shared and it's not intricately important really.]

...Twenty? Really?

[He thought Mello looked younger then that, but he's not very good at this game anyway. He looks up at him.]

People get it wrong? Why? [He twitches a little.] People always get my age wrong too. [He grumbles, because when you look young enough to be mistaken for a child, it's really annoying. Maybe when he's Mello's age, people would think he was at least as old as he was now.]

I'd show you some really cool mechanical stuff around here if I had any, but this is my house and it's pretty...uh, not that advanced. The only thing I have like that is automail.

[gonnabe1st]

[He sighs.] Really.

The last time somebody guessed my age they thought I was sixteen, maybe seventeen. I don't know why.

[Have a smirk.] Well, I could probably out-do you in terms of cool mechanical stuff, but I've never seen alchemy at work. [In all honesty this was something he had been quite curious about.]

[cyberelric]

[He let out a desperate little moan.] The last guess I got was eleven! Eleven! [Ed sulked.]

Oh right! Well that's easy enough. [Ed goes into the cupboard and finds a stack of plates and helpfully drops them on the floor. He's about to fix them, but remembers he was trying to teach Mello and grabs a broom to sweep all the shards of china out of the way.]

[gonnabe1st]

Eleven? What the hell. [Mello really can't help but shake his head at that.]

[Now he'll be quietly watching as Ed more or less gathers up the mess he made dropping the plates, staying out of the way of the sweeping.]

[cyberelric]

[He huffs.] Short does not mean child. I'm fifteen, definitely not a kid.

[Ed sweeps the plates to the side, surveys the space a little and shoves the table out of the way rather carelessly. He pulls out a piece of chalk and gets on his hands and knees, beginning to sketch Al's array, the one he'd shown Mello before.] This part takes a ton of practice, I mean, knowing where everything goes with a precise angle just takes practice.

[gonnabe1st]

[Mello shrugs in response.] You're not all that short, either.

[He watches, moves around to watch Ed draw the array.] I don't doubt it. I'm good at memorizing things, but not so great at drawing perfect circles without any help. I guess that just takes practice too though.

[cyberelric]

[Ed looks at Mello like he's the best thing since Al came along.] That is the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me!

[Back to the task at hand.] I've drawn a million of these, at least. I can draw them with my hands tied behind my back, eyes closed if I have to.

[It doesn't take long to draw the intersecting lines, the triangles, creating a perfect array. Ed steps out of it, grabs the broom and sweeps the china into the centre, carefully.]

[gonnabe1st]

[He doesn't manage much besides a surprised 'aah...' sound, given that really, there were countries in his world where Ed would be about average height- but all this alchemy business seems a lot more interesting right now anyway.]

Well if you're that much into something that's no surprise. So what happens next?

[cyberelric]

Well the plates will stay in the middle for right now because the energy that I'm going to pour into the array will fix them, so they have to be at the centre. So I'm going to do that understanding, deconstruction and reconstruction thing. So I don't need to know much about the plates because all the pieces are here, which is pretty much the only time you can bypass the understanding thing is if it's this straightforward.

[He pauses, pointing.] These symbols will direct my energy and I will deconstruct the plates into nothing but particles and reconstruct them as plates, not even a scratch on them.

[He grins and puts the broom aside, kneeling on the ground.] Ready?

The thread on Ed's trauma-post kind of broke my heart.

[gonnabe1st]

As ready as ever. [Mello stands back and watches.]