IC CONTACT

[waxwings]

[action/audio/text/video/voicemail]

username: ICARUS

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"This is Ed. Leave a message."

[He absolutely has vocally advertised his services repairing/creating things for people. Drop him an inquiry.]

Comments

[waxwings]

How'd you prove that?

[He's not trying to dodge the question, the idea that this kid proved something impossible that wasn't about his world was just too much for him to ignore. He'll come back around to the kid's question after.]

[milkisgross]

[He'd better start explaining after this. Edward sounds annoyed.]

I dug up the remains of the thing Al and I transmuted. I'm not sure why but it didn't have any of the physical qualities mom had. Teacher had the same result with her attempt. The characteristics of what she transmuted wouldn't have matched any child she could have had.

Now answer my question.

[waxwings]

What part of 'where I'm from' don't you get?

[If the teen thinks he's an annoyed, imagine how the adult must feel.]

I never dug anything up, there was nothing to dig up, because she survived and vanished somehow! A homunculus is born when someone tries to bring back the dead. That's it, end of story. I don't know what the hell happens where you're from but don't you think it sounds even weirder that your attempt didn't even look like her?

[milkisgross]

Why would the laws of alchemy be any different just because you're from a different universe?! What the hell did you do to make a homunculus that survived and was able to vanish?!

[Edward's going to ignore that last question because fuck you dude.]

[waxwings]

[Oh, is that how we're playing this? Fucking people that don't understand multiverse theory. Here goes.]

Because every universe is different! The same thing as everyone else on my world. It's called 'human transmutation' like I said, pretty sure you've heard of it.

[He pauses before adding the last part, tiredly.]

Trust me, kid. You're asking questions you don't want the answers to.

[milkisgross]

You expect me to-?!

[He wasn't expecting the shouting match to suddenly stop like that. There's a moment of silence before Ed speaks again. He's lowered his voice too.]

I get it. Things turned out differently for us. I don't know if it's because Al and I failed or what, but I gotta know. What happened to her? To the homunculus you created?

[Little naive Edward, thinking that there had to be something good about their success.]

[waxwings]

Homunculi are supposed to be artificial life created by an alchemist but that's not how things work.

[Not in his universe anyway, and he knows the homunculi were created by that Father guy in the other world, he just doesn't know why he's the only one doing it or even who he is.

He doesn't answer the question right away and the kid might think he's not going to.]

You really don't listen do you?

[When he speaks again the question is flat, no anger or accusation behind it. He warned you kid.]

She... She tried to kill us.

[milkisgross]

[Edward's sharp intake of air is clearly audible.]

WHY?!

[waxwings]

For creating her.

[Are you satisfied yet? Can this conversation move on?]

[milkisgross]

But-

[His quickened breathing is audible, though it suddenly becomes much quieter as he lowers the phone. His head is spinning. Neither he nor Al, probably no one who's attempted human transmutation ever considered that the homunculus they tried to create, the person they tried to bring back to life, would resent that! It didn't make any sense! Why would she want to kill the people who brought her life?! Did that mean Teacher's child-

Goddamnit! His double was right. He didn't want those answers at all. He ended the call and threw the device across the room.]

[text | un: icarus]

[waxwings]

[Ed waits. He doesn't see or hear from the kid for a while and it hasn't exactly escaped him that what he'd said had struck a little too close to home. He had warned him. So, he waits. A couple of hours at least, to give him some time to deal with it. The thing was, being Edward Elric, it didn't take all that long for the guilt to start eating at him. He could be as flippant and abrasive about it as he wanted, this really wasn't the kid's problem but he couldn't deny that it made sense for him to be upset about it. For a number of complicated reasons.]

You okay?

[Texting feels safer, he figures it's less personal and if the teen wants to he can just ignore it. That's fine with him. At least he tried.]

[Text -> Voice]

[milkisgross]

[It takes a little while before Edward replies. First, he had to find the damned phone because he didn't see where it had landed. Second, the fact that he got any message at all from his double was completely unexpected and the fact that he was showing concern made it...weird. He doesn't know how to respond, but he eventually makes up his mind.

He started trying to type, but he was slow about it, not having much practice typing on anything. Fuck it. He called back.]

What do you want?

[waxwings]

[Flatly.]

I thought I'd see if you wanted to get a drink at the bar.

[Ed sighs, a fairly long and deliberate attempt at schooling his emotions because this kid annoyed the shit out of him.]

Seemed clear enough to me. Checking to make sure you're not permanently scarred.

[You know. From the tiny glimpse that you got of how much worse his life is than yours. It's fine.]

[milkisgross]

[He didn't respond to the 'invite' to the bar. He thought it was a stupid attempt at being funny.]

You're about ten years too late on that.

[He knew his double was talking about the conversation earlier, but he really didn't want to think about that right now.]

[waxwings]

[Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Mostly just trying to point out how dumb he thought that question was.]

Ten-?

[Hold on, doing some quick mental math. Something didn't add up.]

How old are you?

[milkisgross]

Sixteen. Why?

[waxwings]

[Okay, hypocrite the kid's world isn't the same so this information shouldn't short circuit the brain quite like it has but here we are.]

How...

[Wait.]

Back up. What happened ten years ago?

[Smooth.]

[milkisgross]

[Hypocrite indeed.]

Mom died.

[Uh, duh? There was an inflection in his voice showing clear confusion on why his double didn't put that together himself. How the hell could that detail be different if they both attempted to resurrect her?]

Actually, it was more like eleven years ago. I don't get it. You obviously went through the whole thing of bringing her back.

[waxwings]

Yeah.

[That's all he gets out. Yeah, he definitely went through the whole thing of bringing her back but there's a whole five or so years missing unaccounted for here that's making it really hard for him to make sense of things. They didn't really discuss when they'd tried bringing her back but now he's under the impression that everything was a whole five years earlier than it was, possibly including trying to bring her back.

The more he thinks about it the harder it is to reconcile with the thought this kid went through any of that so much younger than him. His breathing is so shallow his double probably couldn't make that out to confirm he was still there.

There's nothing, just silence on the other end of the line, maybe for a minute before it goes dead.]

[milkisgross]

[Ed pulls the phone away when he realizes his double just hung up on him.]

What the hell?

[He must have said something but he had no idea what triggered the man. He called him straight back.]

[waxwings]

What?

[He might sound a little annoyed and out of breath. Don't ask.]

[milkisgross]

What do you mean "what?" Why'd you hang up?

[Seriously. It bothers him that he doesn't know how he offended him.]

[waxwings]

[The temptation to just hang up again is overwhelming. He doesn't owe the kid an explanation. He doesn't answer right away, exhaling deeply.]

Does it matter?

[milkisgross]

[It's the teenager's turn to get annoyed.]

Yeah! I don't know what I said to make you freak out! It's obviously bothering you.

[waxwings]

Why do you care what bothers me!?

[Fuck off kid.]