13. [Action] (backdated to a day or two after the battle, while checkups are happening)

[rewritethis]

[Somehow, Ed's footsteps lead him right back to the infirmary.

They'd run tests on him as well once everyone came back, but nothing that kept him for long. As far as most anyone else is concerned, and certainly as far as Ed was willing to admit, he could have been stabbed on the battlefield before anything weird(er than a freaking Lunar Cry) happened; junctioning and Cure spells can work wonders sometimes, and there's no trace of any lasting injury. From what he's heard and what he saw in there, he was lucky. It figures, doesn't it? The only good luck he ever gets is the kind he'd rather have done without.

It's interesting to listen to the ways other people are talking about it, in itself. "Spirit worlds", huh? If Ed's honest, he isn't even sure they're wrong.

He shouldn't hang around here, he tells himself as he meanders past the beds. Even ignoring the fact that he's nothing remotely close to a doctor and would arguably be more use keeping out of the way instead of bugging people for errands to run... it's a more welcome sight than a mass grave, almost anything is, but he can't shake the feeling that he doesn't have the right.

There's nowhere else he can think of to go, though. And it is an overwhelming relief to run into anyone he knows, bedridden or otherwise - hell, even people he's only ever seen from a distance, if he recognises their face.]

Hey. [His smile is too tired to be hiding any kind of guile, although that might be uncharacteristic enough to be uncanny all on its own.] Everything okay here?

Comments

[elementofloyalty]

[Rainbow is downright moping in bed, because it's sooooo boring in here. They have her hooked up to a couple of different machines to monitor her vitals, because apparently becoming an energy being for a bit is WEIRD and STRANGE or something.]

[Other people had had it worse, dang it!]

[So at the sight of Ed, she perks right up, going from mopey and grumbling to smiles.]

Hey!

[rewritethis]

[He grins back, and for a second the bags under his eyes aren't quite as dark.]

You're still in here?

[elementofloyalty]

Yeah, apparently when you completely lose your physical body, that freaks people out. Go figure.

[rewritethis]

[He laughs.] Pretty dumb, isn't it? When everyone knows it takes more than a body to make a person...

[It takes him a moment to snap back to the conversation at hand, which might also be slightly uncharacteristic.]

Anyway, you better convince them to hurry it up somehow. [His grin widens evilly.] 'Cause I was going through all of my stuff again, and... guess what I found in my room?

[elementofloyalty]

Another pony?

[She's clearly teasing him. She's happy to see him looking a little happier at least.]

[rewritethis]

Ha, well. [Jerk him around and he'll jerk back - albeit a bit more sleepily.] I suppose if you can't, you'll never need to know. Gotta keep that place tidy, after all. It'd only make things harder if it didn't look right.

[His expression softens.]

Say... They didn't find anything weird so far, right? I mean, you look fine.

[elementofloyalty]

I'm totally fine! This all is just dumb. [She gestures to the leads stuck to her... where, embarrassingly, they had to shave small patches of her fur to attack them.]

So what'd you find?

[rewritethis]

[His eyes stray over the leads, and his smile wavers for a second, but he gets over it.]

Hey, you can't blame them for it. Seems like nobody has any clue exactly what it is Time Compression does to a body under normal - well, "normal" circumstances. Something like this...

[He says it as if he's about to continue, but after hesitating for a few seconds he just deflates a little and rubs his eyes.]

...I'm glad you're okay, anyway. I'll get going. I didn't really finish, I just took a break. But if you get out of here soon, just come and find me. I'll give you the brush back then. [So much for cultivating an air of mystery.]

[elementofloyalty]

Hey, stay and talk with me for a bit! I'm going crazy here. The last time I got stuck in a hospital for this long I learned to love reading, I'm afraid of what I'm gonna end up doing for entertainment this time. I'll end up playing Go or something.

[She shudders in open disgust and fear.]

It's cool you found the brush, though!

[thatched]

[he glances up at the kid over the book he's reading. He's hooked up and loathing everything at the moment so don't mind the dry look you get]

Never better.

[rewritethis]

[Not a fan of infirmary beds, from the look of it. Ed can't exactly begrudge him that. He waves a hand airily.] Well... if I can get you anything, let me know.

[thatched]

[well since he was offering and they weren't giving him any]

Sneak in some booze and a hot nurse?

[rewritethis]

[Ed, who was just turning away, stops and gives him a long look.]

Sorry. Guess you'll have to make do with all the kids in cadet uniforms.

[thatched]

Well you asked. [but ah. He waves a hand] Sorry, kid. I'm just yanking your chain. I'm tired of all-- [he gestures to the tubes] this.

[It wasn't as if anything bad had happened much]

[rewritethis]

[He frowns a little deeper at the word "kid", just on principle. Still... every person who made it out of there unhurt is a person he doesn't have to make it up to, more or less. That's the only important thing.]

Yeah, I figured. I'm not a fan of these places either. [Even though he's quite visibly been picking his way around the beds for some time.] But do me a favour and take it easy until they let you go. You can't exactly blame them for not knowing what happened in there.

[thatched]

Bah. I've been worse off before, laddio. And since I'm not turning into anything strange anymore, I don't really see the point. [but as he has nowhere else to go at the moment. And he's been here long enough to see the kid wandering around]

But take your own advice and get some rest yourself.It'll turn out alright.

[rewritethis]

You say that like it happens all the time. [It's meant to sound casual, but the scientist in him can't help fishing - just the same as the rest of him can't help ignoring any suggestions that he should take it easy, of course.]

[tiamat_shot]

[The moogle has been stuck longer than usual. Part of this is because Touma's records of his vital signs were only half-complete, and part of it was because he has had a noticable change in demeanor since the Compression... though he's tried to explain time and again it had nothing to do with his changes, the doctors won't hear anything of it.

He's using the time to get caught up on reading - his bed is pretty much walled in with books, mostly of Estharian history, sorceresses, and various types of magical and para-magical theory. In fact, he only looks up when he hears the alchemist's chirping.]

...you know I wouldn't be any more interested in you breaking me out than the other way around, right, kupo? The medics need to do their job, too.

[rewritethis]

[Ed waves his hands in front of him hastily.] Hey, I know. I wasn't offering. Is it a crime just to want to check up on people? [And check whether Emias was actually alive somewhere in the middle of that fortress of books, specifically. He's encountered problems like that before.]

[tiamat_shot]

No, but it makes me wonder if they brushed you off too quickly for the same reason they're keeping me around, kupo.

[And with that, his nose is back in the book, though he at least lets the conversation linger.]

So why the concern for some jerk you hardly know?

[rewritethis]

Pretty sure I just said something about it not being a crime.

[He eyes a few of the nearest textbooks.]

They let me out early because apparently I missed the worst of it. If they couldn't say the same of you, it's too bad, but maybe that was just a matter of luck. Nobody I talked to seems to have a better answer.

[He gestures at the pile.]

I'm... guessing you're not happy with that answer either, huh? Or is this something else?

[tiamat_shot]

I didn't have any physical harm, kupo, but I wasn't human to begin with, so they're panicking anyway.

[Never mind that he's been even more of an isolated jerk since the incident anyway and obviously is in no rush to get back to his classes.]

Eh, several things on my mind. Mostly about this whole mess. What if the guy had the right idea, but was just a total idiot in executing it, kupo? What if our ticket to fixing things is in actually finding a way to work Time Compression? I mean, it's just magic. Everything magic has its own set of rules, kupo, the trick is to learn them. What if we've been swimming upstream this whole time by trying to stop the Compression?

[rewritethis]

[Ed frowns.] You figure a Lunar Cry is the kind of thing somebody could pull off on accident?

[tiamat_shot]

[Emias looks up again, and headshakes.]

No, no. That's the part he was retarded about, kupo.

Why get the Lunar Cry or Lunatic Pandora involved in the first place? You're introducing too many factors into an already chaotic situation, kupo, basically begging for something to go wrong. What I mean, is if you could actually harvest the real power of that Compression... couldn't you reverse it? Turn the Time Compression inside out, basically?

It's all theory. I know. But we can't just sit here and live the rest of our lives in someone else's world when nobody wants to think of any ideas on their own, kupo. Some of us have family and friends to go back to.

[Or, in his case, a lover. But hey, it doesn't matter WHY a person motivates you to go back home, right?]

[rewritethis]

Uh huh.

[Still, he looks uncomfortable, and he's loath to say why.]

Did you get a look at that guy's papers while he was here?