[There are certain things about Edward Elric that no amount of travesty or trauma could stamp out, core parts of his self and identiy that simply would not die out. That stubborn streak that always shone thorugh, though now somewhat tempered by age and wisdom. Not that it changed much; only that he paused a few moments to judge how fast he needed to run to break thorugh the barriers before him. It bolstered him, kept him from backing away when others would have given up or turned tail. Really, he'd say it would be the death of him if he hadn't died once before already.]
["Not around", huh? Something about the way Greed says that catches his attention, and he files it way in his mind. Whether a reference to a death, a capture...it could simply mean that he didn't know and had never been told, but he won't take that for granted. Occam's Razor is useful, but not always correct.] It's less rural, I'll grant that. Do you have any idea what happened to Roy? [There's a big difference between 'got on the bad side of the locals' and 'just fell off the face of the earth'. ...well, in theory. The first presumably leaves a body behind, at least.] How often to people go missing like that?
["Equivalent Exchange"...Edward laughs and grins, not turning but still keeping his eyes on Greed as he stalks around him. His posture stays easy, relaxed. Confident in himself not fearing the fire that licks behind Greed's words.] Yeah, I'd call that a fair trade. A story for a story, I'll accept that. [Funny, that he found himself again being plied for information in the Devil's Nest. For a moment he wonders if that meeting went as disastrously in the other world as it did in his.] If I was in the military, I assume I must have tried to bring my mother back and gotten Al stuck in that armor in your world as well.
[Ed ponders for a moment, taking another generous sip as he thinks over where to start his story. Greed likely wouldn't be interested in the years chasing false leads and being Roy's errand boy, and Nina's story isn't one he feels up to retelling...] I was fifteen when Roy clued me into where Marcoh had been holed up. He was one of the alchemists that created the incomplete Stones used in Ishbal to end the war, ran off with the research from Labratory Five after he saw the destruction he'd helped bring. The Colonel had been covering for him, but apparently something had leaked since Scar nearly beat me to finding him. There was a bit of a scuffle, obviously, [He nearly died, his arm destroyed and Al nearly blown apart,] but Marcoh was able to give us enough of a hint to find Labratory Five. The place was still running, and that was the first time we ran into any of the homunculii.
[He grimaces as he remembers that whole mess.] It was Envy, Lust, and Gluttony. They captured Al, tried to get me to make the Stone for them there. It...I couldn't do it, not once I knew they had living humans and not just material needing to be refined. The whole place started coming down around our ears--we got out, and I found out later you broke out Martel and the rest of your crew before the military came swarming in to clean up what was left.
no subject
["Not around", huh? Something about the way Greed says that catches his attention, and he files it way in his mind. Whether a reference to a death, a capture...it could simply mean that he didn't know and had never been told, but he won't take that for granted. Occam's Razor is useful, but not always correct.] It's less rural, I'll grant that. Do you have any idea what happened to Roy? [There's a big difference between 'got on the bad side of the locals' and 'just fell off the face of the earth'. ...well, in theory. The first presumably leaves a body behind, at least.] How often to people go missing like that?
["Equivalent Exchange"...Edward laughs and grins, not turning but still keeping his eyes on Greed as he stalks around him. His posture stays easy, relaxed. Confident in himself not fearing the fire that licks behind Greed's words.] Yeah, I'd call that a fair trade. A story for a story, I'll accept that. [Funny, that he found himself again being plied for information in the Devil's Nest. For a moment he wonders if that meeting went as disastrously in the other world as it did in his.] If I was in the military, I assume I must have tried to bring my mother back and gotten Al stuck in that armor in your world as well.
[Ed ponders for a moment, taking another generous sip as he thinks over where to start his story. Greed likely wouldn't be interested in the years chasing false leads and being Roy's errand boy, and Nina's story isn't one he feels up to retelling...] I was fifteen when Roy clued me into where Marcoh had been holed up. He was one of the alchemists that created the incomplete Stones used in Ishbal to end the war, ran off with the research from Labratory Five after he saw the destruction he'd helped bring. The Colonel had been covering for him, but apparently something had leaked since Scar nearly beat me to finding him. There was a bit of a scuffle, obviously, [He nearly died, his arm destroyed and Al nearly blown apart,] but Marcoh was able to give us enough of a hint to find Labratory Five. The place was still running, and that was the first time we ran into any of the homunculii.
[He grimaces as he remembers that whole mess.] It was Envy, Lust, and Gluttony. They captured Al, tried to get me to make the Stone for them there. It...I couldn't do it, not once I knew they had living humans and not just material needing to be refined. The whole place started coming down around our ears--we got out, and I found out later you broke out Martel and the rest of your crew before the military came swarming in to clean up what was left.