spellbinders | here we go again...

You've got a point. [His fist slams into the nearest Uvi's temple with enough force to knock them out.] It's like they brought their whole city down here.

[Al steps back as the last of the group falls, brushing off his armor and surveying the damage. A good portion of putting Aimintas back together will be fixing the things he's personally done to the streets, but that's a worry for another time. Over his shoulder, he looks back at 9S.]

Still good?

[His sword flickers back into place suspended behind his back, and 9S surveys their surroundings. So far as his readings would indicate, they don't have any immediate threats in the vicinity that aren't either unconscious or bound in place by Alphonse's magic-science...whichever of the two it is.

The jury's still out on that one in 9S' mind]

No damage to report.

[He replies as he turns his focus back to Alphonse. The silence that settles around them isn't total by any means; the distant sounds of conflict can be heard pressing in around them. Even so, he doesn't rush off just yet...because he has a theory]

Are you controlling that armor remotely?

Huh?

[To Al it's such an off the wall thing to ask it honestly takes him a moment to get it.]

If I had a power like that, we'd be doing a lot better.

[An army of remotely controlled, essentially immortal suits of armor. Now there's a weird mental image.

After a few weeks of being around magic and others who aren't strictly human, he's not as uptight about the question as he was the first time they talked. There's no particular advantage to secrecy, especially not in the middle of an attack where knowing what he's capable of could potentially save lives. Still, old habits die hard.]

I really wasn't lying when I said there's nothing mechanical about me. This is just how I am now.

[He shrugs like that's explanation enough on its own and starts walking. He figures the invitation to come along is implicit.]

I'm going to keep looking for survivors.

[Even if he wasn't invited along, 9S is trotting after him all the same. He's got a curious mind and just about nothing in existence can deter him, and Alphonse here is a puzzle he's intent to try and solve. Granted there are only so many logical explanations he can glean from what he's observed, but...

While they're on the hunt for survivors, there's time to pursue the matter]

But it's hollow.

[To illustrate his point, he knocks on the side of Alphonse's suit. The sound alone is enough indication that he's correct. He'd already seen him get stabbed repeatedly in ways that would have been fatal even for an android, but he gets the impression mentioning this would lead to more evasion.

That seems to be Alphonse's chief tactic, in point of fact]

How're you controlling this armor, if not that?

[They'll certainly get more accomplished by working together, but any part of Al that's pleased 9S decided to join him diminishes significantly by getting knocked on. How rude!]

You're really hung up on this, aren't you?

[As if to compensate for the fact that he can't physically glare at him, he's going to be a brat instead.]

I'm a Scanner, after all.

[Said like it's simply to be expected of him...because it is. A natural predisposition toward curiosity and attention to detail are intrinsic to him. Perhaps more so than other models, 9S is rather keen on anything that catches his interest that he doesn't understand yet.

And so here he is, trying to figure out what is going on with Alphonse's armor]

And I've never encountered anything — or anyone — similar to you.

Edited 2017-09-06 05:11 (UTC)

This place is full of things no one's seen before.

[But that's a little too evasive, even for him. Al sighs as he carefully makes his way through the rubble, venturing further from the residential area. Talking about himself isn't exactly his first choice when it comes to finding something other than the death and destruction to focus on, but there's no point in not settling the matter while he can.]

I don't know how much sense this is going to make to someone from a world without alchemy, but... I did something stupid when I was a kid, and because of that I don't have a normal body anymore. My soul's attached to this armor.

[For all that he's surely the heavier of the two of them, 9S steps lightly over the rubble. Even when he has to climb, he keeps stride quite easily]

...So that's why it's hollow, huh...

[He turns that thought over for a moment, clambering his way up over a broken pillar. It's true enough that alchemy still looks like some kind of magic to him, but then, Mikleo thinks his level of technology resembles a magic of its own.

They sure are a mixed bunch]

That must be tough...YoRHa like me don't have much attachment to our bodies, since sometimes it's necessary to sacrifice them to complete a mission... But why armor?

It was the only thing around. My dad collected them for some reason, so I'm just lucky it was there.

[Instinctively, he looks down at one hand, curling up his fingers. Armor allows for a pretty human-like range of movement, all things considered. He'd rather not even think about the alternative.

He's not so lost in thought that he misses the part about androids and casual self-sacrifice, though, and he turns his attention back to 9S.]

If you do something like that, can you be rebuilt?

As long as my personal data exists, it can be transferred to another body.

[And 9S wonders, if Alphonse's world had technology similar to his, perhaps he would have had other options. He seems to handle the armor as though it were the same body he had always lived in, which bespeaks much time spent in it, he surmises.

But it must render him unable to do certain things even an android could. It seems...wrong, somehow]

If you found something you considered more suitable, would you be able to use it?

I've looked into a lot of things.

[With just a touch of weariness that probably makes it clear how extensive that search has been.]

It's possible to get my original body back, so that's what I'm going to do. Getting there is just... a really long road.

[Made longer still by Qri and Uvi and impromptu trips across the multiverse.]

Do you know the method you'll need then?

[So far as 9S knows, losing an organic body means it's gone for good. But alchemy is so much like magic that he can't be certain that the same rules apply.

It's all new territory to him, just like this world and everything about their presence here]

Sort of.

[He pauses to pry open a broken door to what was once some kind of general store and takes a cautious step inside. Plenty of blood but no bodies; knowing the Uvi's methods, that's not an uplifting sign. It's the right idea to keep talking.]

My real body wasn't destroyed--it was taken to pay a toll. To get it back I have to find some way around that.

[9S glances around. It's more than a simple look; as a Scanner, he has other detection methods at his disposal. After a few moments of silence, he returns his attention to Alphonse]

...So it's sort of like our situation now. We're missing something, right?

[He and 2B had both lost their pods, and now they're repaired. He's not sure how he feels about that exchange, when Pod 153 was always there]

Anything you can do while we're in a place like this?

Exactly.

[Al gives him a nod as they step back out. It's a good comparison; Qri seems to operate on her own strange version of equivalent exchange.]

There are all kinds of resources here I'd never have access to back in my world. If I could learn more about magic and how it's powered, there might be a way.

[He should probably stop right there, and even Al's not sure why he doesn't. Maybe it's the stress of the situation or the overall persuasiveness of 9S' inquisitive nature, but somehow he finds himself rambling about personal matters in a way he hasn't done since he's been here.]

But to be honest, it's not really my priority right now. I left home at a bad time, so nothing's more important than getting back there.

You're not the first person to mention bad timing...

[And 9S can sympathize with that, even if he's a case of what should simply be impossible timing. If he had unfinished business to attend to, or if he'd been dragged here when 2B needed him, he knows where his own priorities would be too]

Well...I'm made for information-gathering. We'll figure something out.

[He pats Alphonse's arm lightly before ducking under some fallen support beams that leave only a small opening in the doorway ahead. At least his compact size is useful during occasions like this]

[Al's size, meanwhile, is anything but useful for checking out this one. He could transmute a way in, but he's not too keen on messing with the structure of damaged buildings until he's sure there's no one inside. He'll hang back and let 9S investigate solo for the moment. And probably try to convince himself that last bit wasn't the casual offer of help it sounded like.]

What about you? [He steps closer to the doorway, his tone as conversational as he can manage, given the circumstances.] Is there anything you're in a hurry to get back to?

2B's here, so this is where I should be.

[It's the easiest answer for 9S to give, though it's far more complicated than that. By the end, he was convinced of a bleak reality, and that nothing remained to him. Here, mankind exists. Here, 2B exists.

A life that felt so ruthlessly drained of purpose suddenly has more than he could hope for. He doesn't like being here under dubious circumstances for more reasons than one, but he can't claim he's got unfinished business]

...Looks like this place is cleared out. No blood this far back, at least.

I hope that means they got away.

[He's trying not to be too disappointed. The longer this drags on, the harder it's getting to find Palai who've managed to hide themselves. Still, Al thinks he's better suited to hunting down stragglers than taking on the endless onslaught of Uvi. He fights them when he has to, but from a numbers standpoint it feels pretty futile to keep it up.]

I've seen 2B around. You guys were close back home?

[Of all the people from someone's world who could possibly show up, that's really lucky.]

Chances aren't bad...there's no sign of struggle back here...

[Not to mention the Uvi would be hard-pressed to get through that opening. The Palai being smaller, they could squeeze through this space at least. So hopefully any locals that were here managed to avoid detection.

He ducks back through the doorway, dusting his coat off once he emerges]

We're partners, her and me. When we were deployed together, I acted as her support.

[There's a crash in the distance, close enough to be heard over the din of combat. Whether it's actually someone or just another faulty building is hard to say, but it seems like the most promising route to investigate.]

So YoRHa are basically military?

[There's familiarity in the language, at least.]

That's right, we're soldiers.

[Because there's nothing absurd about somebody so easily dwarfed in size next to Alphonse saying such a thing with some small measure of pride in his tone.

But for all that he knows, and all that he's seen and done, he does still take pride in his service. That's a part of himself that he isn't letting go]

[The ease with which he can believe it is probably the most disturbing part. Al's closest point of comparison is the State Alchemist program, and from the things he's picked up on so far it's easy to imagine androids being sent out to be used as living weapons. There's something inherently sad about the idea, despite 9S' obvious pride. Not that he's going to say that now.]

You know, you don't look much older than me.

[9S shoots Alphonse an assessing glance, for all that he has far from forgotten his outward appearance and apparent size. He knows that armor isn't going to give one an idea of someone's age, but he's still trying to gauge based on their interactions so far.

Of course as a unit who'd been rolled out four years ago, he doesn't have the best conception of age]

How old are you then?

[Despite the circumstances, he manages to sound the tiniest bit amused.]

I guess it's impossible to tell in both our cases. I'm fourteen.

[9S looks about the same; older is a careful word choice born from years of operating around height sensitivity.

The question is: do androids age or is 9S' appearance completely by design?]

How about you?

here we go again...

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)