Alphonse Elric (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
armoured) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fossilised2015-08-28 12:21 am
armoured) wrote in fossilised2015-08-28 12:21 am
Snowblind Body Shenanigans
This is an open post for anyone set in Norfinbury. It's a random scenario where @Admin has (for mysterious meme reasons) decided to give Al his body back. This isn't game canon, obviously, I just wanted to play about with Al in his body as it will never happen in game. Action and network responses are welcome, as well as fudging the locations of characters.
---
[Al has become used to his periods of unconsciousness during the night now. He still can't think of them as sleep, not without dreams or his real body to rest in, but they're at least predictable. Usually he wakes quickly and without any grogginess that would come from real sleep, but today everything has changed.
He wakes up slowly that morning.
As soon as he wakes up, he knows everything is different. He can feel the wooden flooring under his back, rough and splintered, and hear the thud of his heart beating in his ears. He lifts one stick thin arm in amazement to stare at it, almost uncomprehending as he looks at his fingers splayed out in front of his eyes. This must be a dream. It has to be a dream, his first one in years, but... God, it feels so real.
He's in a state of shock as he pulls up to unsteady feet and scoops up his tablet automatically. He can barely keep hold of it, his fingers have none of his usual dexterity and his hands are trembling violently. It's this trembling that causes his fingers to slip and activate the video feed. The camera is at a strange angle, but it shows the upper half of a teenage boy in an extreme state of emaciation. His ribs are protruding and his stomach is concave. He has long blond hair that hangs down over one eye, the other one is wide and staring in surprise.
His legs seem ready to fold almost at once, but he forces himself to walk to the door and open it. The sunlight on the snow almost blinds him, and the wind causes goosebumps to raise on his skin immediately. He sets one bare foot in the snow and gasps, a delighted and amazed sound.]
Wow, it's so cold...
[He laughs softly, unable to stop the sheer wonder bubbling out of him. Is this real? Can it truly be so?]
---
[Al has become used to his periods of unconsciousness during the night now. He still can't think of them as sleep, not without dreams or his real body to rest in, but they're at least predictable. Usually he wakes quickly and without any grogginess that would come from real sleep, but today everything has changed.
He wakes up slowly that morning.
As soon as he wakes up, he knows everything is different. He can feel the wooden flooring under his back, rough and splintered, and hear the thud of his heart beating in his ears. He lifts one stick thin arm in amazement to stare at it, almost uncomprehending as he looks at his fingers splayed out in front of his eyes. This must be a dream. It has to be a dream, his first one in years, but... God, it feels so real.
He's in a state of shock as he pulls up to unsteady feet and scoops up his tablet automatically. He can barely keep hold of it, his fingers have none of his usual dexterity and his hands are trembling violently. It's this trembling that causes his fingers to slip and activate the video feed. The camera is at a strange angle, but it shows the upper half of a teenage boy in an extreme state of emaciation. His ribs are protruding and his stomach is concave. He has long blond hair that hangs down over one eye, the other one is wide and staring in surprise.
His legs seem ready to fold almost at once, but he forces himself to walk to the door and open it. The sunlight on the snow almost blinds him, and the wind causes goosebumps to raise on his skin immediately. He sets one bare foot in the snow and gasps, a delighted and amazed sound.]
Wow, it's so cold...
[He laughs softly, unable to stop the sheer wonder bubbling out of him. Is this real? Can it truly be so?]
new priority no. 1: make like three variations of this icon, i use it too much
It is; it's far too cold for you to be outside—Alphonse, what were you thinking?
[her head pops out from under the hem, strands of her pale hair standing out in a static-electricity halo. She looks at him in fresh, stunned awe and unease as she yanks her arms out of the sleeves, and sits next to him, pressing the sweater into his hands.]
Here; put this on, you'll... oh, Al, it's... it really is you, isn't it...?
Make all the icons, she's too adorable to resist
Warmth immediately starts to make his skin tingle, and he draws up his knees underneath too, having easily enough space for such thin appendages.]
Yeah.
[A smile blossoms on his face, incredulous and ecstatic.]
Yeah, it really is. I'm... I'm finally me again.
omfgg
But—but how? I don't understand...
[she's smiling fully now, but her eyes are still wide and full of worry. She reaches for his hand with both of her own, to take it gently and feel how real he is, to feel skin and not metal.]
Where's your armor gone?
no subject
[For the first time since he woke up, his brow is marred with a slight frown. The loss of his smile accentuates the hollow sunken look to his cheeks, but his eyes are still bright and lively.]
I just woke up this way, but... they must have done something to me.
[The why is the question he might not want to know the answer to. That, and the how. What if they used a philosopher's stone on him? What if--?!]
no subject
[so instead, she seizes on what she can help him with, and quickly turns away, moving from the couch and over to her backpack on the table.]
...Clothes. You need more clothes.
[she unzips it and starts digging through her stuff, pulling things out and piling them haphazardly on the table: a battered-looking fantasy novel, a jar of peanut butter, a box of plastic spoons, and then finally her shawl and a pair of scavenged trousers she'd been meaning to tailor to fit better.]
no subject
Freya...
[He gulps, the worry forming lines on his forehead.]
Ed-- He doesn't, I don't know what he'll think or do when he sees me.
no subject
He... we don't have to wake him yet.
[she comes back and sinks onto the couch next to Al, her hands still bundled in the trousers. He looks so impossibly small, all curled up in that sweater. Alphonse shouldn't be this small. She's still so confused, and a little frightened, but those worry lines on his face make her put on a reassuring voice.]
He'll be... he'll be overjoyed, won't he? This—having your real body back, this is what you've both been working towards for years, isn't it?
no subject
[He understands that she's trying to reassure him, but this is too huge of a thing for platitudes. He could hope that Ed would only see the culmination of their efforts finally bearing fruit, but he knows his brother too well. Ed will ask why, and he will blame himself if the answers aren't what they like.]
But I don't know how it happened, what if-- what if they used a philosopher's stone on me? Brother and I swore that we would never do that, no matter what happened.
no subject
And you didn't, Al. And neither did your brother. You haven't broken that promise. If they—the admin, or, or whoever—used one of those, that isn't your fault.
[of course, she's got no idea what a philosopher's stone is, but she can guess that it's nothing good. She cant ask him about that mystery if he freezes to death first, though, so she holds up the trousers, already feeling guilty about hole she'd cut in the back for her tail.]
Here—put these on.
no subject
He doesn't reply again, he only ducks his head and worries his lower lip with his teeth. Long golden bangs cover his face pretty effectively, but he's not exactly subtle at hiding his discomfort after years of not having to worry about his expressions giving him away.]
Mm, thanks.
[He doesn't even make comment on the hole yet, just slipping his trembling stick legs into the legs.]
Are you sure you don't need them?
no subject
I'm sure. Consider them yours. You can't go around half-dressed, and I've got clothes already—and fur, too. This new body of yours doesn't even have that.
[his new body doesn't have much of anything, honestly. He's so thin that he almost vanishes inside his borrowed clothes, and she regards him anxiously.]
no subject
[He lifts one thin arm up to his eye level, looking at his hand just as anxiously. It's so pale, he can almost see his veins through the paper like quality of his skin.]
...I've never even Brother this, but I turned away from my body just before we were taken here. I had the chance to get it back and I said no.
[Wouldn't he have made the same choice here?]
no subject
[feeling mean for even thinking such a thing, and unsettled by what he's just said, she looks at him with fresh concern.]
What...? Didn't your body vanish? [she's fuzzy on the details from when he told her what happened. Something about human transmutation being totally great? She wrinkles her muzzle at a really awful thought:] ...Was your body being stored somewhere?
no subject
Yeah, it was-- It was growing without me, waiting for me to come and claim it. But when I had the chance, it-- there was... everyone was fighting and I needed to be able to fight too. I didn't want to be useless.
[And now he will be. This isn't a situation where this body is any use either, he will just be a burden on everyone when the situation is already so dire.]
tags this super late because I thirst for al
Not useless. You aren't. There's so much more to you than just that old armor, Al—it might be gone, but we've still got the most important part of you right here.
[she gently closes her hand around his.]
huhuhu
I can barely stand.
[It hurts to be candid about it, but it's the truth.]
How can I be of any help here? What if we come across one of those shadows? And even if we don't, I'll slow you all up moving just between houses.
no subject
Besides, you'll... you'll get your strength back, eventually. We'll call Clayton; he's a doctor. He can help you, too, better than we can.
no subject
R-Right.
[He forces himself to try and smile. This isn't her problem, he won't let it become her problem.]
Maybe a few days rest and I'll be as good as new. You can all go on ahead of me and I'll catch up later...
no subject
Al, you know I'm not that easily fooled. It'll take a lot longer than a few days to get your strength, but we'll help you do it. We're certainly not leaving you behind to... [she bites back "die"] ...to lie here all alone.
[she closes her other hand over his, too, hiding his thin, pale hand almost completely. She squeezes it gently, not wanting to hurt his brittle bones.]
...And if you refuse to come with us, I'll pick you up and carry you anyway. You can't stop me.
no subject
M-Mm.
[He looks down at their entwined hands, hair falling in front of his face to obscure his expression.]
It wouldn't be for long, and it would probably help me get better faster to stay behind in one place instead of going out in the snow. I promise I'll catch up to you soon.