Tenth Transmutation [Video]

[sonofgold]

Who: Alphonse Elric and YOU
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: The Vanquish if you wish
When: October 23rd

[Al smiles bashfully as he addresses the Fleet.]

Clay asked me to be the First Mate of the Vanquish, and I've accepted. It seems fitting that it happened so close to my first anniversary here, doesn't it? I'm honored, and I'll do my best to keep supporting my shipmates.

I'm glad to have been on such a great ship and met such great friends, and I wish all of you who are working on the shipwreck the best of luck. And if you're staying closer to the Fleet and are able to scavenge any usable ship parts, I'd be happy to fix them up with my alchemy.

Comments

[sonofgold]

Yeah, it was. Getting used to being in space was hard enough, let alone the communicators and stuff. Back home, the most advanced technology we had were radios and phones- no television, and just trains or cars or horses for transport.

[passingthrough]

That would do it too. Even if I hadn't been in one of these places before, space travel isn't exactly unheard of back home. Of course civilization had also collapsed in the last few years so it was a varied experience.

[sonofgold]

Mmhmm- humanity DID hope to travel the stars some day, but it probably wasn't going to happen in my lifetime. [A pause, then-] Wait... civilization collapse?

[passingthrough]

Mmhmm, it's something I like to bring up to keep conversations light and pithy. [She really needs to work on the oversharing. Except just giving a basic description of home doesn't sound like oversharing until you remember just how dark it is compared to almost everything.]

The point is the tech here is somewhat alien, [pause for laughs?] but not that surprising to me.

[sonofgold]

Well, there's something to be said for honesty, too. [Al smiled, but it looked a little troubled at that idea.]

It makes me wonder why they didn't pick a bunch of people who were already familiar with things, though. Maybe they enjoyed watching me try to figure it out?

[passingthrough]

Probably that. And really even those of us good with tech need the augment. Not that I wouldn't happily do without it.

[sonofgold]

[Al nodded.]

I feel like I'm smart enough to have figured things out even without the extra augment knowledge. But then again, the augments do seem to be how they control us. They definitely don't want us fiddling with them, at any rate.

[passingthrough]

We both have up close and personal experience with that, don't we? [Translation: They've both done very stupid things to take them out and people got hurt.]

[sonofgold]

Yeah. I haven't discounted the idea of trying to experiment with them, but... I don't want someone to get hurt again. And there's only so much I can do to myself.

[passingthrough]

Mmm... [She understands. If she had a plan that felt original and worth trying she'd do it again too as nasty as it came out the first time.] Don't go into it thinking you all survive. You have to be that sure.

[sonofgold]

Yeah. And since I can't guarantee that, I've been staying away from trying. I sometimes wish I could do more, but I figure that if people like Dr. Crusher and Dr. Keller still haven't figured out how to remove them safely, and they're actual doctors... it's not so bad that I haven't.

[passingthrough]

[Nods] There are definitely protections built into them. [She remembers how hard it was to make herself do it even to another person with a healing factor.]

[sonofgold]

Mmhmm. They're resistant to surgery, to my alchemy... whoever made these knew what they were doing. And to be able to attach them even to a living suit of armor and have it still implant knowledge... it's kinda scary to think about.

[passingthrough]

It does stretch the boundaries of imagination.

[She debates adding the next part. It's the kind of thought that can just drive a person crazy. Like her.] My last place was a virtual reality. That's how they made the impossible happen so often. [It could fit here too. In fact maybe she never left...]

[sonofgold]

Virtual reality... like... like it was all in a computer?

[passingthrough]

Essentially. Our bodies were stored in tanks that preserved us and our minds were all sharing the same interactive experience. We didn't know it was a virtual reality at first. It was almost a year before we figured it out. [Or six years. Time was weird.]

[sonofgold]

[Al sucked in a breath at that.]

And that could very well be the case here, couldn't it? It's not something I'd ever thought about before, but then again, I'm still trying to wrap my head around television and computers to begin with.

[passingthrough]

It could. [Softly.]

It could be more straight forward too. You could spend all your time looking for the twist that isn't there. [Almost reminding herself since that's a lot of what she does.]