riverview | [VIDEO .001 | username edward.elric]

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[VIDEO .001 | username edward.elric]

[There are a few things Ed is quick to concern himself with upon arrival, and even though they certainly relate to "how the hell do I get back where I came from?" he's seen this play out enough times to know that asking that question directly is never likely to get results. At least not the ones he wants. He's well aware that this change of scenery isn't just some new challenge, because if it was there certainly wouldn't be any point to the mark outright disappearing, but it was gone. Which likely meant one thing, they were telling the truth - at least about one aspect of all this, and he was not in Muir anymore.]

Does anyone have any idea what's really going on here? Has anyone been doing any research on this place? Or been here long enough to know whether or not it is what they claim?

[Ed's skeptical about this whole situation, but cynicism wasn't enough to go on that something just wasn't right here. He had a hard time taking everything in that little introduction at face value.]

If we can just ask to be sent home given enough time, has anyone actually pulled it off?

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[Military is military. Good soldiers point and shoot without questioning the brass too much or stirring the pot. In the end, it's those in power and all of the red tape that should keep civilians safe. From the sounds of it, this particular reality's force seem more geared toward SELF instead of SERVICE.

Kind of ticks Garrus off.]

Hopefully you paid that officer in kind. With a bullet between the eyes.

[He would've. Without hesitation. Killing innocents just means your life is forfeit. Otherwise, Garrus gets it. Seems like this guy has been through enough and there's no real point in going "poor baby." He had known what he was getting into, it sounds like.]

I suppose the real question is how much good can you do without that collar and leash tightening.

[He doesn't respond right away, but when he does he's clearly keeping whatever emotion he had in response to that in check as best he could.]

We were just kids when it happened, by the time we found out... He was the one protecting us. Your friend, you mentioned earlier, the one that was trying to change things. Things were kind of like that back home.

[Ed doesn't specify that officer is the one trying to change things and make the country a better place, but he figures Garrus can read between the lines.

After another pause.]

Do you mean have I got any skills?

[There's a small laugh, mirthless.]

Alchemists be thou for the people, that's the motto. Without the leash, I can do whatever I want, I can use my powers to help people. Just like the naive dream we had as kids.

[If Garrus had known the whole "foot in mouth" idiom, he might have thought of it for this situation. However, there is no statue of limitations on vengeance. It's not his business, really, if the guy has chosen to trust the person that killed his best friend parents. All it means really is that the world is small indeed.

Also, people make mistakes. Trying to rectify them... He supposes that's just as good as avenging someone in the end. Maybe. Jury's still out on Sidonis.]

Here's hoping that things do change, then.

[Moving on before he digs himself a deeper hole.]

Actually, I was thinking that maybe the good would outweigh the bad in the end. If you got in at twelve, then I'd naturally assume you're talented.

I heard things changed, but I wasn't there to see it happen. People from my world showed up where I was and told me about it, at least.

[At the last part, Garrus could probably hear the grin.]

I did make a name for myself, even on that leash. Places like this sometimes those skills can be put to better use.

How long has it been since you've seen your home?

[Garrus doesn't ask to bring the guy down. Just curious about the time frame here.]

These skills... You said it was alchemy, but I get the feeling that you don't mean mixing various items together to get something new.

Honestly, it can be hard to keep track. No one aged where I was originally and part of that world had no sun... It was a few years, at least.

Long enough that when I showed up in that other world, I looked like this instead of a kid, still.

[Roughly four years, and Ed didn't even have the luxury of growing up. It just happened one day. Not that he seems too impressed by the concept.]

Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. It's one of the more basic definitions, but as long as you have the materials you can create something of equal mass with it.

[He sounds... almost amused.]

Let me guess, alchemy's some joke where you're from, I get that a lot.

No sun? How can a world exist with out a sun to support it?

[This place just keeps sounding weirder and weirder. No one aging? Then skipping straight through adolescent years to adulthood? Ouch.]

I wouldn't say it's a joke, just a science that's dismissed after several different branches of science took off from it. It's more of a springboard for more advanced practices.

[Not being video gives Ed the luxury of not flailing too obviously in his backtracking. At least that Garrus could see.]

There was a sun... It's- just that we arrived in a sort of ... Plated underground. You had to stay there for a month before you could earn moving above ground. There were... reasons to move back down, like helping new arrivals get acquainted from your home world. Meaning, I don't really know how much time I spent down there. Some of us didn't really keep track at all.

It's harder when you don't age, anyway... and not aging was part of the whole pretending it was the afterlife theme they had going on.

[Ed listens, honestly surprised by that response. It's probably the most sincere one he's gotten.]

Where I'm from it's one of the most advanced sciences around. There's still a lot we can't do with it, but I'm sure that's only a matter of time.

Earn moving above ground?

[What even... What kind of system forces people to earn the right to live above ground? Isn't getting some kind of sunlight crucial for basic metabolic functions?]

Who was responsible for all of this?

[Cerberus had been able to bring Shepard back, sure. That had been cutting edge tech at the time. But to stop aging altogether? Something like that is worth knowing about, in a way.]

[Yeah, he was pretty used to that reaction by now so Ed just sort of .... breezes past it.]

They called themselves gods.

[He sounds dubious, but spending plenty of time there was certainly enough to make him second guess his own views of reality.]

Edited 2017-06-30 22:41 (UTC)

[Yeah okay...]

Gods. Please tell me you're reasonable enough not to buy into that.

Usually.

[He sounds amused, teasing, mocking himself honestly - because before Purg he wouldn't have bought that for a second, and now he's learning about all sorts of powers people had who didn't run around calling themselves gods because of it.]

Gods don't exist where I'm from, but neither does anything that powerful.

They don't exist in mine either. I just know of a race or two that think of themselves as such.

[And they ARE that powerful. There's no denying that. The Leviathan that they found clearly had worshipers at some point.]

Do they go around kidnapping people to other worlds and changing their anatomy for fun?

[He doesn't sound bitter, no not at all.]

In a word? Yes. Or around the galaxy, at least. It might not have been for fun, but they did do it to serve their own purposes.

There are only so many times you can wake up a kid, or a girl, or whatever- before it gets old.

I guess I wouldn't be complaining about something so trivial if it came after everything else, though.

[Being female? Piece of cake next to nearly starving to death because food stopped working completely.]

Hold on a minute.

What.

Yeah, you know... anatomy changes. You wake up one day and your body is completely different. They did that sort of stuff a lot.

[Okay, probably not a lot, but it sure as hell felt like it to him so that's the story you're getting. Here, have some irony while he's still talking.]

The other place I was in made it so that you couldn't get warm by conventional means, and food wouldn't satisfy your hunger. They weren't quite as boastful about their control over us, though.

Okay... Okay, no. I've never seen that happen before. Not overnight in any case.

[Sort of freaky to think about. Enraging too, to think that someone would use people as test subjects. MANY people as test subjects. That irritation bleeds into his subvocals. Ed probably won't be able to hear it - humans tend to not be able to - but it's there all the same.]

So what? Am I to think that every place that yanks you out of your respective universe or timeline is planning on making you some sort of labrat? How are you so calm about it?

That seems to be my experience, but this place claims otherwise.

[He sounds thoughtful, not exactly skeptical but definitely reserved about his opinions regarding whatever Riverview intended for them.]

The last place I was- they said they needed our help, they were hoping to get it willingly, but... using- incentives was an option.

[At the last question there's a pause, as if Ed doesn't intend to answer it. For a long moment he doesn't say anything at all.]

Honestly..? ... After enough time there, you learn to accept it as part of life. That's all.

Edited 2017-07-03 04:25 (UTC)

Incentives. What sort of incentives?

And did no one thing to try to stop the guys in charge? Or escape - well maybe that wasn't really an option. Forget I asked that last question.

Incentives like trying to make us uncomfortable enough to do what they want, if we resisted. Other than that, we lived in luxury...

[That was putting it lightly. Technically he went blind for awhile, but that was after the hostile take over so maybe not entirely relevant to this conversation.

At the rest though, Ed stills completely. Garrus would hear a sharp intake of breath and nothing following that for a long while save quiet shaky breathing as if he completely forgot someone else was even on the other end of the line.]

[Garrus knows that silence. It isn't something he has experienced himself, but he knows it when he sees it. In this case, when he hears it.]

Look, I'm sorry I asked. My temper got the better of me and it's none of my business. Sorry.

[Because no one should be stuck reliving awful memories just because of something he's saying, doing, or asking.]

Changing the subject completely.

[After a moment there's a deep breath, as if sighed in an attempt to regain control of his breathing.

It wasn't even the worst thing to happen, they'd threatened to turn Nina back into that chimera just to spite him - but it hadn't actually happened. In the end she went home after all, except home for her was simply no longer existing. There were many worse experiences in Purg, but few that hit quite so close to home. That was really all it came down to.

After a moment he responded, quietly as if unable to come up with anything else.]

Sorry...

No, don't apologize. This one's on me. I shouldn't have pried so much.

[VIDEO .001 | username edward.elric]

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