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( Winry taps on her tablet screen, waiting for some sign of feedback. When it plays, it shows her frowning, bandana in hair, apron on. That also appears to be the ceiling. )

No, send the message already, don't do whatever you're doing now --

( Ah, but the tapping pays off, the video feed ending and a text message posting to the network soon after. )

Imports -

I'm looking for some kind of foam molding to outfit a leg I'm working on now that my customers have all reappeared. I don't know if any of you have worked with prosthetic limbs before, but I've heard rumors of some kind of shape-retaining foam that used to be used for them? Has anyone seen some kind of material that would work similarly?

Let me know if you have, or if there's any good scrap metal or hardware stores you've run into off the main part of the city.

Thank you,
Winry Rockbell
Automail Mechanic and Prosthetics Consultant

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[The feed's on, but it's a few seconds before any sound can be heard - because how the hell do you phrase the question "hi, are you actually someone I know or just a parallel-world lookalike" without sounding crazy? On Earth, face to face, he'd never had to ask...]

Uh... Winry? [Another pause.] ...Listen, if you know who this is, call me back.

[Also, guess who hasn't yet figured out private messaging. Or conceptually untangled the way these recordings work from a regular phone call.]

( What.

What?

She knows that's Ed's voice, and it's enough to really shake her up -- Ed's here?

He's -- what took him so long? Not that she wanted him here, he was doing better things, more necessary things back home, but --

And what did he mean if she knew who -- )

Edward Elric, when were you planning on telling me you were here! What do you mean, if I know who this is? Don't ask such unnecessary, creepy things!

[Okay, she's annoyed. Must be a yes.]

Whaddya mean, when was I - how was I supposed to know you were here too? And doesn't this count as telling you, anyway? [There's a disgruntled huff, but after it, he sounds noticeably less aggrieved.] But it's good to hear from you again. I had to check, that's all.

[Wait, thinking back to the picture... did she look a little younger than the last time he saw her? It's a stretch, but he's heard a few things about time travel so far, and if it works one way...]

Just... tell me one more thing. What year was it back on that side before you wound up here?

[Somebody was in too much of a rush to reply to bother looking at the rest of the post.]

Edited 2012-11-04 11:43 (UTC)

( The why for him "having" to check, or the "back on that side" - Winry doesn't like the sound of things like this. )

You're not making any sense.

( She points out, almost tempted to reiterate the creepy and weird. Nonetheless, she rattles off the year. )

Why are you asking? You can't have gone that senile since the last time I saw you.

( But she knows why to ask. It makes her nervous, because on a scale of recent historical events, it either meant he and Al had succeeded, or they were waiting to head back to Central and stop what was going to happen. Whatever the full extent of that happening was going to be. -- what had already been happening. )

Yeah? And how long ago was that?

[He doesn't sound like he's genuinely asking, but he does sound a little tired. She thinks he's being weird? It's weird for him not to feel happy about being right!

But, okay, screw tiptoeing around.]

Let's put it this way: that's not the year it was last time I was there. Don't ask me to explain.

( Don't ask him to explain? Saying such cryptic things... They've never shared everything, but in cases like these, she'd like to think he'd share enough to make some version of sense.

Don't ask? Sure, she'll get right on the not asking - right that moment. )

Where are you right now?

[Dammit, he'd been doing so well on the wrench-injury-avoiding front lately.]

Found a library. Where else would I be?

In the middle of whatever's most dangerous and likely to ruin my masterpieces.

( Without pause, she picks up her tablet and heads for the door. Walking with an oversized phone was strange, but useful. )

Don't move. There's one library worth noting around here, and I know exactly where it is.

( He's saying cryptic, creepy things. Who knows what he's done to his automail that he hasn't mentioned so far, or if he might try and do something stupid like avoid her.

Oh no. No, if there was more bad news coming, she'd already been waiting for it by simply continuing to do her work around here. )

Edited 2012-11-04 17:35 (UTC)

Winry... [Sigh.] Okay. Not moving. Got it.

[By which he means she'd better be quick, because he's folding up that oversized phone, hastily trying to put the assorted notes he's made so far in some semblance of order and calculating in his head how fast he can run away from here while still looking nonchalant.]

( It's raining. It's almost always raining in this country, so it's not a surprise, but she's in enough of a hurry that Winry raced out with a socket-wrench still in hand, bandana holding her hair out of her face. She had grease on her forearm and hadn't noticed yet, concentrating on keeping her footing as she races for the Library.

He better still be there when she shows up. If she had to track him down -- huh.

Maybe she could check the housing registry.

... It was a thought. )

[Pretty much the moment she has that thought, someone hurries past in the opposite direction, hunched over under a thick brown coat that nevertheless doesn't seem to be keeping much of the rain off him, long blond hair whipping across his face in the biting wind - and, totally coincidentally, making it kind of hard for him to see where he's going. Or anyone who happens to be nearby.]

( Long blond hair -- Winry finds herself turning and furrowing her brow. )

Ed? Edward Elric, just --

( If that was him, that -- that thick headed alchemy freak was leaving? If this wasn't outrageous enough by now, that'd be the clincher!

Winry spun herself around, planning to catch her escaping miscreant. What ends up happening has more to do with wet pavement and forward momentum, Winry losing balance and hurtling into his back, socket wrench going flying. )

-- where do you think you're going?!

( Pardon her rise in octave toward the crashing end there. )

[Uh oh.

He freezes for a moment, then pretty dramatically picks up the pace. Not dramatically enough for him to get out of the way, though. With Winry crashing into him, he loses his footing and manages to skid an impressive distance face-first across the pavement.

It takes a couple of seconds for him to muster the sheer indignation he needs to pull himself back up. Once he has, the first thing he does is twist round to glare behind him.] The hell was that for? You couldn't just say "hello"?!

[If he gets her onto this topic, maybe she won't ask about anything else...]

( She glares right back. )

You do understand there's a difference between leave and stay, don't you? This --

( Grand gesture to... the street )

-- does not count as staying! You better start explaining what's going on.

( Her eyes automatically slide toward the arm she knows as automail. )

How bad is the damage this time!?

( There is no other logical explanation for him trying to run away other than massively wrecking her precious automail. Really, there can't be. )

[He drags himself upright, trying and failing to give the impression that he's above all this rather than just sulking.]

What're you talking about? It's fine. And so's the leg. [It's actually true (okay, maybe he hasn't oiled them recently...), but he makes no effort to sound particularly believable - he's banking on distracting her from the fact that he can't explain anything.]

( She frowns, smoothing down her apron since she can't do anything for the added soaking spots or the fact she's getting soaked just standing here. His distraction is working -- sounding less than believable when it comes to these things works as an outward initial focus.

Easier to push the rest of the worry to the side to focus on something she knows she can help out with. )

Like I'll believe you just like that. Come on, we're heading inside.

( By inside she means back toward the apartments, and by we, she means she'll happily try dragging him back. )

[He feels obligated to put up a token amount of resistance, but not much more than that. At least indoors he'll be able to wring his coat out.]

Winry, come on. It's not like I've been here long enough to get into that much trouble. [Ignoring his past record. And the monster run-ins once or twice, which hardly count.]

( The look she throws his way shows some of her immense disbelief. Like it's ever taken him time to find trouble. )

Then you've still found trouble.

( The rain's relentless, and she realizes she's officially lost her socket wrench in the street. )

Exactly when did you show up?

[He shoots back a look that's at least as defiant as she is sceptical.] That's not what I said! I just got here... a few days ago, I guess. Been kind of busy.

[He didn't see her wrench in the first place, and so has no reason to look down at his feet when he stumbles over something on the ground.]

Looking for a way out, catching up on what's going on, and having run-ins with the monsters?

( If she gets three for three is there a prize? No? Drats.

She looks down when he stumbles, wanting to check if he was favoring one leg -- and ah! There's a flash of silver! )

My socket wrench! You found it.

( Is this supposed to make her smile? She doesn't let go while she dips down to nab it, but it's one thing going right and maybe it'll mark a shift from tracking down the running alchemist in this city and this imposed war. )

[Hey, the prize could be this increasingly irritated look on his face! Which she's getting whether she wants it or not.

He considers making a break for it as she ducks down, but can't quite decide before she picks the wrench back up.]

So you've been busy too, huh, Winry? Can't imagine you losing that thing if you weren't.

[Wait, did she just hear about those, or -]

...You didn't run into any monsters, did you?

None of the ones that broke through got anywhere close to where I was. I waited it out in the Hold.

( Said blandly. It's been a tiring last month and a half by now. )

I don't know if it was better or worse than when the island was bombed for three days straight. Have you heard about Russia?

( She wants them walking again, faster than she needs to be, and not out of a desire to escape the rain. She's not a front line fighter, and the Initiative keeps pushing the point of trying to turn them all into the kind of fighters that are going to serve their cause.

She refuses to, but it doesn't make it easy to be standing on the sidelines with a limited amount she can do for the people around her. And now Ed was here, which was -- both better and worse. )

[He relaxes a little when she answers, although he hadn't consciously tensed up.]

Russia? What about it?

( She shakes her head. )

How it was supposed to be the cause behind the monster attacks, that's all. It's... just where they sent all of us right before they started pulling people in again.

( Just destruction of people who had no real means of fighting off superior technology and the complete destruction of farming land.

Nothing special. )

What apartment did they give you?

[If he's overly willing to go with this subject change, he's not going to make a big deal of it.]

Uh, 808. With a couple of other people. [He reaches up with the hand she isn't currently tugging at to scratch the back of his head.] Not the greatest conversationalists ever, either of them. [Not that he's really tried, but she doesn't have to know that.]

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