caughtinanetwork | 02 ⊙ video/text | slightly forward dated to 7-8pm

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02 ⊙ video/text | slightly forward dated to 7-8pm

_{[At first all the screen shows is darkness until something sparks and pops somewhere presumably off-screen. For a split second, Kimblee actually looks surprised, but not for the reasons those who know him would think.]}

...Well, that was rude. I was starting to enjoy that film.

_{[There's some fumbling before he enables the backlight to the SFC and shines it around the living room, and the television. Whatever happened to it when the power went out, it sure doesn't look like it's going to work when it comes back on.

Especially since it seems to be... smoking?]}

Oh dear... That's not good now, is it? No, of course not. _{[He's mostly just talking to himself at the moment.

And then he starts tapping the SFC]}

Mustang, two things;

One, I believe we'll need a new television.
Two, I don't suppose we have any kerosene lanterns or some candles hidden somewhere in the house?

Right. Apologies, it slipped my mind. _{[Not really.]}

To everyone else in the city, is this one of those infamous curses I've heard about, or just a power shortage? I'm leaning towards the latter but one can't be too sure with how this world works.

Anyway. Roy, as I was saying, I think we'll need a new television.

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[There were benefits after all it seemed to being blind. One being the lack of power and thus lighting didn't actually affect him much beyond the fact the appliances were no longer working.

He had already moved to head for the living room when he got the message, so instead of replying via the SFC he just finished heading for the living room.]

That's one thing, what's the other? You said there was two things.

You're still using that device to read messages, hm?

_{[He spares the television a glance before he sits back onto the couch to flip through the network.]}

I was wondering if we had any lanterns or candles in the house.

Of course. It's not like I can read them without it.

[Resting a hand over the back of chair near the couch, he moved til he was standing in front of the chair and sat down in it, looking in the direction Kimblee's voice came from.]

I don't know actually. There might be candles in a drawer somewhere in either the dining room or kitchen. I've never looked for them before.

[He had no real need of the candles during the time he could see here in this city after all.]

What about Miss Haw--

_{[In the kitchen--Oh, hell, the icebox. As soon as he sits down, he's already getting back up to head into the kitchen with his SFC as guidance.]}

Hold that thought, Flame.

[Roy blinked at the sudden cut off of the words and the following sentence. He didn't hear anything out of the normal, except for what he'd already noticed with the lack of noise coming from the appliances that graced the house.]

All right.

_{[And he's coming back a few minutes later to reclaim the couch. He found candles, but they were more of the sort that one would stick into birthday cakes so he just retrieved the lighter stashed in one of the drawers. It was better than nothing, anyway.]}

I think some things in the icebox may need to be replaced if the power doesn't return within a few hours.

Let's hope it does. I don't fancy having to replace everything there.

Though couldn't one of you alchemists come up with a way to keep it all cool? [hi, don't mind Riza joining you. seemingly out of nowhere like a boss.]

[He's silent for a moment, thinking, one hand sliding over the other as the thoughts run through his mind.]

I could, but I couldn't control what I'm likely to come up with since I can't see to direct it or know how much I need to throttle it. None of it I believe should have cost us anything but time in the first place, so all it should cost us to replace it is that again. I imagine you'd rather deal with replacing the groceries, than thawing the kitchen out, in the attempt to save the time it'd take to replace everything.

And the last time I checked, my title was the Red Lotus Alchemist. While I recall the circles that MacDougal used in his alchemy, I don't know how the icebo--refrigerator works so it'd be a gamble as to what would happen.

_{[Not to mention he wasn't really looking forward to having the blame pinned on him if the thing blew up.]}

True enough, yet if this lasts more than a few hours.. It is something to be considered. [She bit her lip though. Roy was right. Without his sigh, t would be a risky thing indeed. And while Kimblee's title was the Red Lotus... he was still an alchemist.] We might not have to mess with the refrigerator. If we build something similar with hollow sides that are waterproof to keep water in... It would simply be a matter of keeping the water frozen or chilled.

[Otherwise both of you will be coming shopping with her of all the food spoils.]

Build it out of what though? You might as well make whatever way you can to a store which has those portable iceboxes I vaguely remember seeing in my first exploration of the city. Pull water from the pool out back, fill the icebox up a small amount and freeze the water, then lay the food on top of the ice. It'd be a simple matter of making certain the ice remained frozen then. If you insist on saving it anyway.

[He should be capable of turning a small amount of water into ice at least, so that he and Kimblee could possibly take turns at such a task if the two decided to pursue it.]

Edited 2012-07-31 08:32 (UTC)

It's a shame Vanitas was killed recently or I'd ask him to lend a hand. The boy has a natural talent for spells--in fact, he and I worked together recently on disarming one of the bombs that a young lady set up around the city.

_{[He was almost envious of the kid. Almost.]}

But another matter; wouldn't putting ice in both sections work just as well? It'd be easier to remove in the event power does return, and we'd just have to replace it every now and then.

Edited 2012-07-31 09:01 (UTC)

[Hayner was trapped in the elevator between bubble and Island. Thankfully it came with a view of the sea you traveled through, but he still probably won't be helping himself to small spaces any time soon. Another thing to add to the list of what Vatheon made him wary of. He was sitting down in a corner kind of drumming against his lap. A towel was laid across his shoulders.]

I now know how it feels like to be a sardine. Maaaaaan does this blow. [He turned the SFC so it'll show the fish instead.] Was on my way to the Island for an evening swim when it hit. Some luck, huh?

It could be worse!

Yeeeah. I guess I could be stuck in a normal elevator in complete darkness instead. [Doesn't sound all that enthusiastic.]

Or the brakes could fail and the cables could snap.

_{[He pauses to let it sink in, and then--]}

I'm just kidding.

[asdjlkdajlskdj

Yes. Give the kid nightmares.]

I think I would be more concerned about the air running out first. [Huff as he totally is trying not to look at the fish. Maaaan all of that water. What was really keeping it out?]

_{[It's a safe bet that his Favorite Jailor back home has been having nightmares about him for years. It was pretty fun to mess with his head sometimes.]}

I'm sure you'll be fine.

Only because you aren't the one trapped in an elevator. [Sorry, he gets a touch bitchy at times.]

You should scope out the rest of your electronics to make sure that was the only casualty.

Perhaps not, but I know the feeling.

As for the electronics, I'm afraid I'm still figuring out how things work. In the words of someone I spoke to, I come from a 'culture so backwards that they don't even have computers.'

but what could have caused this kind of power shortage?

If we were situated on the island it could very well have been a number of things. Wires breaking, a storm... But I don't know very much about how this city's power works. I thought maybe it had to do with the recent deaths, but someone told me that people die here often.

It must have been something powerful, to do this. But I'm not sure if anyone knows how this city really works. Could it have been intentional?

Don't the locals refer to the coral as a god? It's still strange to think of something like that as an all-powerful being, but do you think it could've cut the power?

Is a power shortage a normal thing around here, either?

I'm not sure. To be honest, I've only been here for a month.

Oh, okay. I've been here even less time, so I understand. Or I don't, as the case may be. :)

It's alright! There's still things I don't understand myself, but if someone from--as someone else put it, 'a backwards culture' like mine, then anyone can.

Thanks. But why did they say you have a backwards culture? It's a rather rude thing to say.

The year is 1915 in the world I came from. From what I've gathered here, most people are several decades ahead of that.

I see. That is a long time ago for me, I'm from 2010, assuming I guess that our calendars work the same way. But I wouldn't say it makes you backwards or primitive or anything... Just different.

I've always been a little different, so I think that suits me just fine. I have to wonder though, what's it like being from the future?

Probably just the opposite of what it's like to be from the past -- it feels normal to me. ^^

If the future is anything like this, I wouldn't really mind visiting one of those worlds. It's pretty fascinating!

It is, in my world, anyway. But what do you think are the most different things about yours?

Hmm... mostly the technology. The lack of alchemy could be another one, but from what I've gathered it seems to be absent from quite a number of worlds--at least the sort I'm accustomed to.

Oh. There's no alchemy in my world either. Is there here?

My money would be on a power shortage.

Curses tend to be far stranger than a loss of electricity.

Edited 2012-08-02 00:59 (UTC)

I've only been here for about a month, so it didn't hurt to ask. Honestly, I'm a bit eager to see those curses in action!

Don't be. They are not at all pleasant--as the term 'curse' implies.

I'd think that would depend on your perspective. What one person might find unpleasant, another may enjoy. I heard about what they can do but it still hasn't quite put a damper on my curiosity as both a human being and an alchemist.

You should find your curiosity well and truly satisfied soon enough, then. We are due for another. They tend to happen on a fairly regular schedule.

An alchemist, you say? How interesting.

I hope I won't be disappointed, then!

I've been practising it since I was a child, so it's practically second nature.

I can only hope that the next will be less troublesome than ones past.

I see. You will have to forgive me my curiosity, then. I cannot say that I have ever met an alchemist. I know of them only vaguely, from histories a century or more gone. I suppose you must do more than turn iron to gold.

Of course! If we were limited to simply transmuting metals into gold (which is illegal in order to keep our economy out of chaos), I doubt the military would employ us.

Our abilities range from practical use to, as I mentioned, something the military can use to their advantage. Say you broke a radio into multiple pieces. Most people would probably replace it, whereas an alchemist could repair it within seconds. It's really quite handy.

Quite handy indeed. I've heard of no alchemist who could preform such impressive feats. It seems to me that most so-called historical 'alchemists' where I come from were simply men who knew a bit more chemistry than others of their time.

Are all alchemists employed by the military, then? I imagine some must still prefer to use their skills for breaking the law, rather than keeping it.

My, I have to wonder what they'd think if they came across the kind of alchemists from my world...

Being a State Alchemist is completely optional, so no. In order to be selected, anyone who applies has to go through a very extensive examination process. When I was taking mine, I noticed quite a few people give up right in the middle of the written portion of the test. It can be a difficult process but it's worth it all in the end.

As for breaking the law, I wouldn't really recommend it. Whether it's breaking the laws of the state or alchemy itself, the consequences can be dire. Since alchemy itself is a science, it's subject to its own laws and limits which fall under the Law of Equivalent Exchange. That law states that "in order to obtain or create something, something of equal value must be lost or destroyed." This law is then separated into the Law of Conservation of Mass in which energy and matter can neither be destroyed to the point of nonexistence or crafted from nothing. If you wanted to create an object that weighed ten pounds, at least ten pounds of materials would be required and destroying something that weighed ten pounds would reduce it to ten pounds of material. The second part is the Law of Natural Providence which means that an object made of particular elements or substance can only be created into something else with the same makeup of the initial material.

If someone were to try bypassing that--which I've done a handful of times purely by mistake in my youth, it can result in a rebound. This only happens when someone tries to create too much out of too little. In order to stabalize itself, the forces behind alchemy can take or give more than what was intended and it can be unpredictable to the point where it's possible to injure yourself. That's only with non-living matter, as well. More serious ones occur when people attempt to bring the dead back to life.

I would daresay that the Law of Equivalent Exchange, as you put it, is universal. To gain something, you must always lose something--whether it is physical or not. Everything is a trade, whether you realize it or not. As you've explained it, your alchemy seems a very practical, common-sense sort of science.

And I cannot say that I am surprised. Humanity's attempts to meddle with death never yield positive results. One would think that eventually, we would learn that it is simply not possible--but I do not think that we ever will. It has been proven time and again that when it comes to humans, sentiment most often trumps reason.

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02 ⊙ video/text | slightly forward dated to 7-8pm

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/slides in like a boss

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