lucetilogs | (no subject)

(no subject)

Who: Anyone who wants to come!
What: Autumn (Equinox) Celebration
When: Today, at 9PM to Midnight (and maybe even after)
Where: Around the Rec Center
Summary: Brigade party! There's food! There's lights! There's music! There's fireworks!
Rating: A for Abacus

There were lights! Autumn-appropriate decorations! There were tables of food (though very little of it is vegetarian friendly)! There was even a stage for music and entertainment! Still waiting was the fireworks to take place at midnight, but otherwise things were set up to more or less respectable Brigade standards. Maybe Haruhi hadn't done it herself, but it was done well enough, thanks to the efforts of being coordinated by Mikage.

The stage was left open for anyone to perform that wanted to. The karaoke machine had been dragged outside for people to sing along to, regardless of talent, or otherwise just to play music when no one was on stage. Naturally inside the Rec Center itself is a variety of pool tables, foosball, air hockey, and a TV with some video games. Just enough to keep things a little fun. If only there was a pool.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Okay, that cements it- I don't be trying that. [He'll be over here eating the cookies and being relieved that he's less adventurous about food. That squishy white stuff could be foamed milk or something horrifying like that.]

[Hiccup just puts the offending food on the corner of his plate and eats some potato chips instead. Which is still pretty adventurous for him.]

Sooo...um. Anything else new?

[Ohgod small talk HIS CURSE]

Uh... I'm out of the hospital, I guess that's new. [SHUFFLE SHUFFLE. Suddenly the cookie is very interesting.] And a few people showed up from my world, too, so it's gotten kind of busy around here.

[One the share, unfortunately.]

Oh, yeah? Friends of yours? Or...

[You know, bad guys.]

One is, yeah. Ling. The other... [Oh, right, different worlds. Hmm.] Do you have anything like a military where you're from?

[The word is familiar, if only from the context of the draft.]

Well--sort of, I think. All vikings are expected to be warriors, so I think there are some similarities.

Probably close enough. I'm in the military back in my world, and the guy who just arrived is my commanding officer.

So...he's kind of like your chief? I mean, in my tribe, the chief is the one who's in charge of all the warriors.

[Which would be his dad. Yup.]

Not exactly. There's different levels of authority in a military- everybody gets different ranks. My rank's supposed to be major, and his is colonel, which is above mine. But there's still ranks above his, like brigadier-general, major-general, lieutenant-general, and full general, right up to the leader of the country, the Fuhrer president.

[Who is secretly an immortal, ridiculously powerful homunculus, but that's another story.]

[Structure isn't something his culture saw a lot of, but Hiccup's gathered information about it during his time in Luceti.]

So--you're a major. Does that mean you're in charge of other people below you?

[BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE SUPER COOL and so not something Hiccup could do.]

I guess- technically, yeah. But I don't really get to order anybody around since I'm always on the road, and don't have any soldiers serving under me. I'm not really in the military for the power, though.

[That leaves a question begging to be asked. And Hiccup, curiosity getting the better of him, asks.]

Then...what are you in the military for?

[...Ahaha. There's an unintentionally loaded question.]

There's... certain things that I have to do, back home. I needed better resources to accomplish my goals, and in order to get access to them, I had to join up. So I agreed to be the military's dog.

[Certain things. Right. And Hiccup knows when to stop asking questions.]

So...there aren't many like you then, huh? With the whole alchemy thing.

[Ah! A chance to escape this sobering topic. And to boast, on top of that.]

Well, alchemy's popular with a lot of hobbyists, but I think there's only about 200 State Alchemists right now. Considering the country has fifty million people living in it, I'd say we're pretty rare.

...And actually, I'm the youngest State Alchemist ever to be instated.

[Hiccup's face lights up appropriately.]

Hey, that's great! So you must be pretty good, then. Compared with everyone else.

I guess. Most people said I was some kind of child prodigy- a genius.

[Though that's when the pride sort of deflates, and Edward glances off to the side.]

That's not really it, though.

[Should he ask? Or just let it drop?

...Yeah, he's going to go out on a limb and ask.]

So...what was it, then?

[....

....

....

Yeah, that was probably too much- not for a conversation in the middle of a party, anyway. Edward responds with a slightly disarming smile, shrugging his shoulders.]

I learned "the Truth". My teacher used to say that if I knew about it, I'd understand alchemy better. So that's kind of what happened.

The Truth? I'm guessing you don't mean just...you know, the difference between truth and lies.

[But he couldn't be sure! Other worlds are strange places.]

No. It's kind of hard to explain to someone who isn't an alchemist... uh...

[Headscratch. The truth... the truth in layman's terms... er...]

...It's like... the truth of everything. Every living thing, or substance, or material. It's the truth about life, and the world. Knowing that makes alchemy look easy to other people.

[...He's right, Hiccup doesn't quite catch on. Still, the concept sounds interesting, and something hard to grasp as well.]

So...it's not something every alchemist has to know?

Actually, it's better if they don't.

[Aaaaand since that just sounds bad after saying he's seen it, have a fun little derail-]

I only know of five who've seen the Truth in my whole country. And remember, that's out of 50 million.

[Six, if you count Colonel Mustang, but he apparently hasn't been through the Gate yet, so...]

[WELP. That's some pretty impressive numbers there, Ed. But Hiccup doesn't want to bother him with too many questions. Especially when it seems he's already said more than he wants to.]

...You know? You have a pretty interesting world. Seriously, I mean it.

That's not always a good thing, you know.

[He'll accept the compliment, though, because really, it is interesting, just... pretty terrible right now. And too small for him at the moment, seeing as he's only seen Amestris so far.]

I think all worlds have the potential to be interesting if you get the right description of them, anyway. Yours is no exception.