9. [PM] + [Action] (forward-dated to the 24th)

[rewritethis]

[PM to everyone who so much as spoke to his AU, if he knows their name] [ooc: this can be handwaved or backtagged!]

If you remember the guy asking after me a couple of weeks back: I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.

- Edward Elric

[Action]

[After those slightly cryptic PMs go out, Ed is absent from his usual hangouts for the rest of the morning. It's pretty difficult to miss him if you venture into the training centre, though - he's standing around a small clearing fairly close to the entrance, although after a little while a more accurate description would be miniature wasteland. Fallen grats lie here and there in the torn-up earth surrounding him; a couple are wounded in a way that suggests he impaled them somehow, but most just look like they've been rather viscerally beaten.

Presently, he settles down at the base of a nearby tree, on top of his untidily folded coat. He pulls at the hem so he can start polishing his right arm, but then stops and hangs his head. There's clearly something on his mind.

Not too far in the distance, a large animal roars.]

Comments

[seethelanterns]

I suppose, it did cause some confusion this time, some of us having different memories and all.

[rewritethis]

Confusing is one way to describe THOSE memories, sure. I just wanted to check they didn't hurt anyone more than that.

[seethelanterns]

I'm sure people understand, Ed. I'm still a little confused myself by what I remembered then. I guess it shows how different things might have turned out though.

[rewritethis]

I wouldn't read so much into every little thing this Time Compression crap decides to pull. It was just another way of screwing with us, that's all. Honestly, I'd rather just forget about it.

[seethelanterns]

You think so? I guess. If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to. But if you do, you know your friends are here if you need to.

[rewritethis]

Yeah, that's true. For now.

[seethelanterns]

You're worried about your friends going back home?

[rewritethis]

Maybe. Although if it's so easy to just swap people out like that, I have to wonder what'll happen next.

[seethelanterns]

I guess, this Time Compression is pretty powerful to even do things to our memories.

[rewritethis]

I'd say altering memories isn't as impressive as people, but sure.

[seethelanterns]

I guess. It's not too different from bringing us in from different times than other friends here that osme of us remember more or less. But that time it physically changed some of us.

[rewritethis]

No, it WAS different. It did more than that.

[seethelanterns]

How?

[rewritethis]

I don't know how. All I know is, the guy who replaced me wasn't just an altered version of me. He wasn't any version of me. He was someone else.

[seethelanterns]

Someone else entirely? That really is rather strange. I'm not sure how it all worked to know how that happened. But I guess it would explain why you--or him, I guess, got so mad when I mentioned your name.

[rewritethis]

More or less. The guy had issues.

I'm sorry you had to deal with him. I mentioned that, right?

[seethelanterns]

Everyone has their own issues though.

And yes, you did. It's okay, it's not like any of us had any control over that then.

[rewritethis]

I wonder. But no, it's not important any more.