walkersystem | 1 ✶ action/audio

Entry tags:

1 ✶ action/audio

Action:

[No no no no no no. No. That's not her mom. That's not her mom, and this isn't the airport, and it's another nightmare, it has to be. What else could it be? It's a dream and it's not her dream and that means she's trapped.]

[Anybody in New Bark will likely catch the sight of a little girl slowly backing away from the house she'd woken up in with wide eyes before breaking into a run and coming to a stop next to some trees to dig through her backpack. Except it's not her own backpack. And the things inside aren't what she wants or needs them to be.]

[Which is a big stressor to a kid who has no idea what to do.]

Audio, later:

Hello? Mr- Parkman? I didn't do anything, I promise.

[Spoken with the urgency of children who want to prove themselves innocent everywhere.]

Please let me out.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, I can do alchemy, but on my body.

So I can turn pieces of me into stuff that I touch. Like rocks or leaves!

I could even turn myself into part of somebody else if I wanted, the same way you put animals together to make a chimera!

It's science.

_{[Oh but NOW it makes sense!]}

But then that's your ability.

That doesn't mean anybody else can do it. Right?

--Well, I mean...

_{[Wrath sounds a little uncertain. It's true that he's unique on account of being a Homunculus, and normal alchemists aren't supposed to be able to transmute their own bodies... but that still doesn't make alchemy itself rare.]}

I'm kind of special, but lots of people do alchemy.

It's just part of how the world works.

Yeah, but most people don't have powers.

And you can't make fake powers. You just have them.

_{[right? She's moved on from an authoritative/stubborn tone to a more searching one.]}

_{[She can't see it, but Wrath is sort of scrunching his face in confusion.]}

Alchemy isn't a power. Not really. It's just a THING.

_{[For HIM it's a power-- Homunculi aren't supposed to be able to perform alchemy. Not in the traditional sense. And his ability makes him an anomaly-- humans can't perform alchemy on their own bodies and Homunculi can manipulate their bodies almost however they want, so Wrath is a living manifestation of RULES BEING BROKEN.]

[But alchemy in GENERAL... so many people have it!]}

Tons of people where I come from can do it.

_{[Meanwhile, to Molly, this sounds like genetics. And some people have variations in their DNA that gives them different skills. Her power is genetic, so it's scientific, so it sounds like it SHOULD be similar enough to what this kid is talking about ...]

[Except yeah, they're talking past each other.]

[To her, powers are the anomaly period. But her and others like her are the next step. It's just who they are, it's nothing nobody did to them or they did to themselves.]}

I know some people who can do things. But it's really rare.

_{[Wrath just... still has not really grasped that people are from so many different worlds. It's tough for such a little kid to really wrap his mind around people having no idea what he's talking about when he mentions things that are commonplace enough in Amestris that even he knows about them!]}

I'm special. I can do things that nobody else can.

But humans can make chimeras and do all kinds of things even just with alchemy.

Are you from a place where people aren't allowed to do it?

You mean science?

_{[The way he keeps using a different word is throwing her off a little.]}

People use science and science can do things, but it's not like ... abilities. It's not the same.

_{[she pauses for a moment, then says with a little more hesitation,]} I'm special too. But there's more of us, who can do things. It's just rare. And the others don't really know about it, cause it's a secret.

Alchemy is science! It's equivalent exchange. You can't make something out of nothing, but if you have the materials... _{[LIKE ANIMALS...]} you can combine them. Or change them to something else!

_{[But what she says next grabs his attention. She's the first person here who's referred to having any kind of special power, or being different. Different in a secret way, no less!]

[His eyes get big, and he lowers his voice.]}

... Are you a Homunculus too?

_{[She pauses for a moment, cause that ... does sound sort of like science, but what is alchemy}??]

[Not that she gets an opportunity to comment back on that - now she's busy pondering that strange word he just used about her. And himself.]

... I don't know ... I don't think we have a name for it.

But I don't think I can do what you can do.

I can find people. Anywhere in the world. _{[Dropping her eyes, it's very clear this troubles her:]} But it doesn't work right now.

Every Homunculus can do something different. One of us can change to look like anybody! And another one can turn into water!

_{[He sounds excited. Maybe she's one of them and she doesn't know it! Heck, he didn't know it until Envy showed up and gave him drugs explained it to him.]}

_{[... that does sound like what she's seen! And the recognition of that, even though he's still said some stuff she doesn't get, makes her excited enough to pitch in.]}

I know someone who can read minds!

_{[They can be excited together!]}

I know someone who can eat ANYTHING, even metal and bricks!

He's not too smart, though.

_{[That's putting it kindly, really. Poor Gluttony.]}

_{[She laughs,]} that's so weird!

_{[LIKE what is that ability even good for.]}

How many people do you know that can do things?

_{[YOU'D BE SURPRISED. For one thing, Gluttony is fantastic at getting rid of evidence.]}

Um, there's five others.

There used to be six but one was a traitor so he died.

So now there's just five.

_{[... way to sound casual about someone's death, there. it makes Molly halt a little because she's not sure how to respond to that.]}

... did someone kill him?

_{[By human standards, Wrath is EXTREMELY MORBID.]}

Yes.

_{[Then he shrugs.]}

I didn't see it.

I never met him.

The others just told me about him.

He deserved it, though. He was bad.

You mean he was a bad guy?

_{[Like, please don't be casual about killing someone who was just bad at his job or something, okay]}

Well, of course he was.

_{[Wrath says this as though baffled that this would even be in question.]}

He was a traitor.

Yeah, but ...

before that.

Oh.

I don't know.

Like I said, I never met him.

_{[He doesn't sound terribly concerned about this. Despite the fact that his former allies' opinions have seemingly turned on their heads, he still is apparently putting his faith in what they USED to say to him.]

[And Greed had been held up as a very convenient example to the new kid as what happens to naughty Homunculi who don't do what they're told.]}

... okay.

_{[Sorry Wrath she has absolutely no idea what to say to this, honestly. She's a little thrown. You're like EIGHT and you're just ... what ...]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

1 ✶ action/audio

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]

[Audio]