concoursec | What's gone is mute, someone changed the truth (backdated)

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What's gone is mute, someone changed the truth (backdated)

Characters: Edward Elric, Maria Cyphert, anyone else!
Location: Three dreams, one after another.
Rating: PG-13 for angst, grimdark, probable language, Germans and angst.
Open/Closed/Finished: Open!
Summary: Time Compression laughs at reticence.

[Night 1]

Picturesque fields stretch as far as the eye can see, dyed a soft orange by the sun as it hangs lazily over the horizon. Nearby, a tree rustles in the crisp breeze, its shadow rippling across the dirt path beside it like light on water. There's no such thing as a perfect summer's evening, but by most people's standards, this would come close.

The two blond kids currently wandering down the path seem a little too preoccupied to bask in it, though.

"Water, 40 litres... um..."

Unnoticed, a red and black blur pelts after them, still a fair distance behind but rapidly gaining ground.

"Saltpetre?" prompts the other kid, without looking round; he's sticking his arm out to run his fingers over the top of the wall bordering the path as they walk, and it seems to have captured most of his attention.

"Saltpetre..." The first boy, whose hair is slightly darker and whose expression is considerably less focused, gives up after a few protracted seconds and hangs his head. "Sorry, brother."

His brother sighs. It's drawn-out and theatrical in a way that may or may not be familiar. "Come on, Al, can't you take this seriously?"

"I am taking it seriously!" Al says, sounding mildly aggrieved. "It's just hard to remember."

They continue to walk together, completely oblivious as the blur thunders right up to them, resolves itself into an uncannily similar-looking person, lunges viciously at the nearest kid's backpack -

- and meets thin air. Without fanfare or even the faintest suggestion of movement, neither of the younger boys are in front of him any more. They're quite a ways further along the path, their voices starting to fade out of earshot, and they've always been that far ahead.

Edward Elric is not most people. He is livid - audibly growling with frustration as he drags himself to his feet, in fact - but if anyone happens to have a decent view of his expression at this moment in time, that's not the only emotion they'll be able to see in it. Messed-up dream or not, like hell he's going to sit here and watch those two get away.

[Night 2]

On its own, there's nothing particularly suspicious about this villa. Sure, the opulence of the garden alone seems out of place compared to the atmosphere of the city visible just beyond its gates, never mind the architecture, but places like that exist everywhere. And the armed guards, well, they probably come with the package.

The young man crouching in the bushes, watching those guards so intently that he probably wouldn't hear anyone else approach him, let alone see? Not quite as fitting.

[Night 3]

Whoever designed this dream must have been running a little low on ideas by this stage. It's utterly empty - a vast, featureless expanse of yellowish-white in almost all directions.

There must be some form of solid ground here, though, because somebody's standing right in the middle of it, staring fixedly at nothing immediately obvious.

He's dressed almost entirely in black, which makes it difficult to tell from a distance exactly what the stain on the front of his shirt is. Something that's less difficult to discern is the fact that he really, really doesn't want to be here. It's written all over his face.

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She missed his expression. Mainly because she was picking herself up from her sudden awareness of the ground, blinking as if she'd come out of a deep sleep -- though she felt completely, unusually, awake.

"Where...?"

Already some way down the path by the time the sound registered with him, he nevertheless skidded to a halt the moment it did, whirling round to look behind him. There were a few voices he was prepared to hear, stuck in a dream like this (had to be prepared for, in all honesty), but that hadn't been one of them. Was she anyone he knew, for that matter? Kind of hard to recall right now, given the available distractions...

"Forget it," he said aloud, turning away. "It's a dream. She can't even see me." He felt a little bad, it was true - but he knew damn well what would make him feel worse if he let this chance, however miniscule, slip out of his grasp.

Reflexively her hand went over her shoulder, seeking -- and finding -- the grip of one of her gunblades. They were so integral to her self-perceptions that they accompanied her dream image, which might possibly be alarming.

"Doesn't that depend on whose dream it is?" she said, half-jumping, half-rolling to her feet.

He paused mid-stride again and glanced back at her, but if he was surprised at being proven wrong, it didn't show for more than a split second. "Well, it's not yours, I know that much. How -" Oh, but wait. Going by his surreal experience the other night, that was a pointless question. "Actually, no, scratch that. Doesn't make any difference to me. Either help or stay the hell out of the way, and we'll get along just great."

Ahead of them, the retreating backs of the two boys from earlier were already little more than dots.

Flush from her recent graduation, Maria felt as if she could take on the world in its entirety -- so she didn't spend too much time worrying about the situation, or exactly how it had come about. "Help? But -- it's a dream."

"Yeah, 'course it's a dream," he said, sounding disproportionately bitter. "Seems like everything is, these days."

Then he took off again, coattails flying, kicking up dust in his wake. Even if she hadn't quite been conscious enough to see his earlier attempt at tackling the kid, his intentions were probably crystal clear.

She ran after him -- what else could she do? This was his dream, as the world she never knew and the scenes she'd never seen made perfectly clear. Without a dreamer, the dream might vanish, and her with it.

Following him? Dammit, what part of "out of the way" was tough to understand?

He slowed his pace just enough to deliver an appropriately annoyed glare without any danger of tripping - which also meant, for the first time, he got a good look at her. Nope, definitely nobody he could put a name to, and nothing else particularly interesting... well, apart from the weapon strapped to her back. Probably worth making a note of that; he never knew when he was next going to piss someone off.

"What? What is it? Don't tell me you're really gonna help. I don't even know you."

"This is your dream, right. If I'm just a dream figment, what happens to me when you stop dreaming that I'm here?"

She set aside the whole issue of 'helping' -- it was a dream. What could be helped?

He shook his head impatiently. Couldn't she see that every second he killed talking to her was another second that idiot was getting away with? "If it was an ordinary dream, sure, maybe you'd have a point. But it's not, trust me. I'll -"

He hesitated mid-sentence and squinted up ahead. The sun seemed to have dipped pretty sharply while he wasn't paying attention, and the silhouettes of the two kids were almost indistinguishable from the shadows across the grass surrounding them. By now they'd veered off to the side of the path and were starting to make their way uphill.

An idle thought flitted through his head... but no, he was pretty sure that gunblades weren't actually projectile weapons. It wouldn't make this any easier.

"I'll... figure something out," he said, not glancing back at her this time, not letting her see his expression. "To get you out of here, I mean. Just hold on. Just until I stop him."

"If I'm here, I'm here for a reason," she said, gesturing him onwards. "Till we know what that reason is, I'm not gonna take chances."

Besides, she was curious what would happen. The dream seemed to be outracing him, and she didn't believe he'd be able to act in it.

"...Yeah."

Inwardly, Ed sighed. Under ordinary circumstances, he wouldn't even have thought about backing down this soon - not when he was right, dammit! But these circumstances weren't ordinary, and... he was on a time limit. Maybe he still wasn't sure why the messed-up dreams were happening or how they worked, but that was something he knew with preternatural certainty.

"Okay, you win. Just cover me."

An overblown choice of words for chasing after a defenseless ten-year-old? Sure, but he wasn't staying still long enough for her to point it out.

Soon - almost too soon, considering how far away they'd appeared to be from the dirt path - the voices of the boys up ahead faded back into earshot.

"...not like it's gonna be forever, Al," the blonder of the two was saying airily. "Just until we figure out how to do it for her, too. I mean, what if we let her get her hopes up first, and in the end, we couldn't do it? She'd never forget."

Al looked uncertain. "But, brother..."

And then, as seamlessly as before, reality reconfigured itself. Now a few yards away, the first kid just grinned, completely unaware of the gloved fist sailing through the empty space where his head had been moments ago. "Al, she'll come around. She always does. You'll see."

Meanwhile, again caught off balance, the present-day Ed fell to his knees.

Maria stepped forward to put her hand on his shoulder. "This is a dream of something that really happened, isn't it? Leading to something terrible."

Otherwise, why would be be trying so hard to beat up a child? In a dream? It made no logical sense unless stopping the dream before it reached that part was terribly important.

"Will stopping it really matter?"

She meant that question. It was only a dream; it couldn't change reality. But maybe it did matter a great deal even given that fact.

Kneeling in the grass, Ed gritted his teeth and said nothing. He didn't owe her any explanations, never mind a full psychoanalysis. He hadn't even wanted her here. Maybe punching kids in the head was his hobby. She could assume that if she wanted. It wouldn't make a scrap of difference.

But her question touched a nerve. "Why the hell wouldn't it matter?" he snarled, whipping round - only for his eyes to widen a little on noticing her hand. He hadn't felt it.

Less explosively, he pushed himself away from her and slumped back down, so that he was sitting rather than kneeling.

"...Didn't I already tell you?" He sounded like he'd calmed down, but it was clearly an effort. "This isn't a regular dream. If it was, I'd just have to stand by and watch. It wouldn't be real. Nobody can turn back time. But with this... maybe that isn't true any more. I don't know." He looked up. "And I know you don't either, so don't start with that.

"But that - that's why I gotta try. I'll get you out of here too, I promise. You'll see." Copying that kid's intonation wasn't intentional, but by the time he realised it, it was a little late to stop. Well, whatever - not like anyone else would notice. "Just... not yet, okay? Not while there's still a chance."

She nodded. "All right. What level of force are you willing to see used?"

Maria had her gunblades in this dream, after all, and she was prepared to take his statements at total face value. This was his dream and he knew the significance. If he said it mattered, then she would accept that and help.

He looked up, a little nonplussed despite himself. He hadn't expected her to take him up on that.

A few thoughts he'd been burying up until now flashed by in an instant. Would it make any difference if by some miracle this was a real second chance, and he didn't stop her from going overboard? There'd be a paradox either way, he thought, his right hand semi-voluntarily curling into another fist. And - even though he felt a little sick to his stomach just contemplating it, it wasn't necessarily untrue - he couldn't be completely sure he was alive, could he? But...

But his past wasn't the only one on trial here.

He shifted, and started to pull himself to his feet.

"Don't kill him," he said, uncharacteristically quiet. "Get his attention. Make him listen. I'll take over from there. But don't kill him." A vague memory of something from Garden flitted through his head. "Al doesn't deserve that."

She nodded again. Good. Dream or not, she had no desire to kill a child.

As he rose, she reached out to grab his hand and pull him to his feet with casual strength. "Let's go then," she said, beckoning him to lead the way.

Leading, kind of, but he wasn't waiting for her to follow. He yanked himself away from her and broke into another sprint. The kid wasn't too far away just yet. Maybe they could catch him before -

- the sky flickered for an instant, its deep orange dimmed into the foreboding grey of oncoming clouds, the grass thickened under their feet and the temperature of the air around them plummeted. If either of the younger boys was perturbed by the sudden changes, it was impossible to tell; both of them had vanished without a trace.

In the low light, the silhouette of the house up at the top of the hill suddenly seemed a lot less friendly - but that was nothing compared to how it looked a few seconds later when, without warning, its previously darkened doors and windows blazed brilliantly, vibrantly gold.

Oh jeez. Whatever happened, Maria had no illusions that it was good. Maria hustled behind him, hands opening and closing as she resisted the urge to grab her gunblades and start destroying problems.

Rapunzel was unsure what to make of it, as she watched the two boys running. What was saltpetre, and why did that boy look so much like-- Edward. From the Garden. But this was not the Garden, at least, any area of it she knew. And she did not recognize the other younger boy with him either.

"What...where is this?"

"Nowhere. It's a dream." That familiar voice didn't come from either of the two children, to whom Rapunzel might as well have been as insubstantial as the warm evening air - its source was standing a few yards behind Rapunzel, hands in his pockets. He sounded bitter even by his usual standards.

"How did you get in here?"

"A dream....your dream? I don't know how I got here, Ed." A dream. If that were true, this felt rather private and intrusive to be seeing all of this. Rapunzel knew Ed seemed like the more private type, not too likely to talk about such matters, but she is unable to do anything, to leave somehow. She bit her lip and one arm reached across her stomach to hold at her other elbow.

"I--I'm sorry, Ed. I guess if I just stick with you? Maybe I can help?" At the very least, chances were this might help her get to know him better. She watched the boys for a moment, figuring one of them must be the younger brother Ed has mentioned.

"You mean you didn't get stuck in one of these already? Lucky." He was frowning. It figured he'd be the only person to wind up in more than one of them.

He didn't immediately respond to her offer of help. What could she possibly help with? He knew what he wanted to do, but... he'd just tried it. Several times. If he couldn't manage to properly beat himself, even with all the practice he'd had, who would?

Ahead of them, the younger boys ambled along, rattling off chemical names and measurements as they went, both of them clearly bubbling with an enthusiasm that seemed a little out of place in the setting.

Ed watched them with narrowed eyes.

"You're wondering about them," he said eventually. It wasn't phrased as a question.

Rapunzel only had a vague recognition of some of the things the boys were mentioning. She knew measurements, and knew some of the..ingredients they seemed to be listing aloud, but she had yet to click and realize just what they were intending to do, what those ingredients made up as a whole.

"Well, I'm kind of curious. It seems like they are listing ingredients for something?" She wasn't entirely sure what, exactly, but she had a little idea on alchemy from what Ed taught her and what she had tried to read herself at the library, at least. "That's....you, right? And your younger brother."

What gave him away? The obnoxiousness or the height?

"Ha. Yeah, it's something all right. And not what he's expecting, that's for sure." He glared fixedly over at his younger self, who seemed to be sticking his tongue out in response to whatever his brother had just said. "Looks like they can't see you, either. That's too bad. Although if you want to give it a try..."

"So...it's going to go wrong? But they seem so excited about it...." Rapunzel couldn't help being a little disappointed for them in their stead and ignorance of what was apparently to come. "If I want to give what a try?" If she wanted to try tell them this was a bad idea? That things would not go as they were planning and hoping it would, whatever they were trying to do?

Daring has plenty of experience sneaking around; it came with her many numerous adventures in tomb raiding and exploration. With a place looking so normal and seeing the one person making the overall setting feel less natural, she couldn't help but wonder what exactly was going on. A part of her wanted to stay out of it, but her innate curiosity won once again. As much as she wanted to know the details, she knew better than to blow someone else's cover. Treat others how you'd like to be treated and all that.

It probably helps that she's in the brush as well, so a few light hoof steps is all it takes to get close enough to him.

"There something about this place I should know about?"

"Keep the noise down!" Ed hisses, then - still without glancing round - does a rather impressive double take. That voice definitely wasn't speaking German just then. And more pressingly, it's a voice he associates with a pony. (...although, did he associate it with a pony five seconds ago?)

Now he does look to his side, and his suspicions are confirmed. Hooves, wings, the whole works... in the middle of a garden in Munich. This doesn't improve his composure. It's a good thing those guards are currently too far away to notice the slight rustling of the bush as he catches himself from falling over in surprise.

"You - you're from..." That's a place he wasn't expecting to think about ever again. Actually, right now, he's a little hazy on the details of how he left... but he must have done it, right? He's here. And has been for two whole years. There's absolutely no doubt about that.

He looks down for a second, pinches the bridge of his nose and tries again. "What're you doing here? Because I know you didn't come to bail me out." He sounds considerably more resigned than accusatory.

"I'm trying to figure that out myself. Something's going on and I'm not sure what." This time, her voice is at a whisper. Just to keep things safe and not get any further negative reactions. Again, she can respect being stealthy.

Wherever this place is, it certainly isn't Garden and it sure as hell isn't Equestria. It's not exactly easy for a pony to stay hidden in a world full of humans, so if she had to stay hidden, it wouldn't be easy. Not that she hasn't been in similar situations, but that doesn't make them any less dangerous.

"So what, is this your world or something? It sure as hay isn't mine."

"Well... not exactly." He settles back down in the brush, turning his attention back to the guards. "But close enough, I guess. It's called Earth. Maybe you've heard of it."

The guards might not be the only reason he doesn't feel like making eye contact with her.

"I'd offer to help you out, but if I knew how to do that, I wouldn't be here." Although it sounds pretty general, his small half-shrug as he says it seems to indicate that it's true in the specific, too. "Nothing personal."

"I've heard of it a few times. Plenty of humans are from there."

She shrugs. If there isn't much he can do about it, then she'll have to find it on her own. Not that she minds; Daring is very much a solo adventurer. Something about this place doesn't sit right with her, though...

"It's alright; I'm used to working on my own...unless you need an extra pair of hooves or anything like that."

He surprises himself by considering this for a moment. Actually, the single biggest reason he'd rather she stick around has nothing to do with her, as such - it's just that if the secret of this villa might involve access to other worlds somehow (and that sounds oddly plausible to him, given the suspicions that led him here in the first place...), he definitely wants to hang onto any clue he can get.

Still, that's not a great reason to force anyone to stick around, so it's his turn to shrug. "I just need to get inside," he says, jerking his head towards the building. She might notice that one of the many ground-floor windows in that direction appears to have been smashed, with a hole in the centre not quite wide enough for at least a human to squeeze through. "If you want to tag along, I'm fine with that. If not, more power to you. But... I'll be honest with you; the guys with the guns over there probably wouldn't agree."

"It'll take a lot more than some guys with guns to scare me off; I'll tell you that now."

She tips her hat as a smirk makes itself evident on her face. This is practically run of the mill for her. Looking over at the building, she notices the hole in the window. Daring wonders if he tried to force his way through prior to her arrival. She figured things wouldn't be as quiet if he did, but hey, that's probably what the guards are for.

"Besides, getting into places that want to keep everyone out is what I do best. We got a plan or we just making it up as we go along?"

"A plan? Kind of. You see that?" Well, she's seen it now - he's pointing at the cracked window across the lawn. "Looks a little painful, but it's the best option I can think of. I mean, I can't exactly waltz in through the door, can't tunnel, can't see anywhere I could climb to get to the roof. Only problem there is reaching the window. Don't know if you noticed, but security's pretty tight."

He lowers his head, and his voice drops even further.

"If you really want to know, I was gonna wait till nightfall. Figured at least their visibility would be worse then. No idea if it'll make enough of a difference. Just some old professor's house, my ass..."

Nope, there is definitely no way other than through the window that either of them are getting inside. None at all.

"Well if you really want in through the roof, I could give you a ride up there..." Daring flexes her wings a bit. "...but either way, nighttime's the better way to do it."

Daring casts another look at the window. She's not really a fan of crawling through broken glass to get somewhere, but it's vaguely something she's done before. Maybe not exactly glass, but close enough.

"Let me guess: you want me to squeeze through that open it for you once I'm through?"

He's about to raise some appropriately sarcastic objection and point out that he has significantly less surface area to slice up... but then does another double-take. Oh yeah - against all common sense, flying ponies can fly, can't they? How'd he manage to forget?

"No, wait a minute," he says slowly. "Say you were carrying someone. Just... hypothetically. How fast do you think you could get up there? ...Without dropping them?"

It's too bad they are on Earth - he figures being able to make a decoy would come in really handy round about now. Then again, the guards' shadows across the lawn are lengthening, and the sky above them is already beginning to tint purple; they won't have much longer to wait.

It'd be pretty hard to keep peoples' attention away from a flying pony, but it's probably a feasible thing. Even then, at least she's not as loud as her rainbow colored counterpart.

"From here to there? A few seconds if that someone holds on tight enough." She winks. Daring might not be as fast as Rainbow Dash, but she has more control (i.e. not nearly as many crash landings). Either way, she catches on to his line of thinking pretty quickly. "You're not too heavy, are you?"

Ed spends a protracted moment or two internally debating whether or not that was a roundabout crack at his height, but pulls himself together. It's not like retribution can't wait until they're safely inside.

"Guess you'll find out when we try it," he says instead, and squints across the lawn again. "A few seconds, huh? So... if these jerks don't suddenly switch up the way they're patrolling, they'll pass behind that hedge over there. And in this light, or a little less..." Despite the tension of the situation, he can't help but grin a bit. "Bingo. What do you think? Sound like more of a plan?"

It's clear from the size of the hedge he's motioning his head towards that he might be using a slightly generous definition of "few"...

Thankfully, Daring didn't intend that as some sort of joke about his height. After all, her height may not be too different from his, given the fact that she's a pony. It's almost tragic that their heights are never given comparison to human heights, but it's not much to worry about in this case; she can certainly carry him up there.

She nods. "Sounds good. It won't be long before they're in position, so once that window opens up, we fly right on through it. Might wanna hop on now."

Daring readies herself for Ed to get on her back. If there's one thing the mare has a talent for, it's her reflexes. The aforementioned hedge wouldn't obstruct the guards' vision for long, but it'll be long enough for Daring to make it across without being spotted. Most likely. She's just watching them closely, waiting for her time to move...

"Right." Ed hesitates for a second. Still, talking or winged or otherwise, a horse is a horse, isn't it? So this can't be that weird, he tells himself several times as he awkwardly slings a leg over her back. And nobody's ever going to know. ...Unless a certain someone decides to raid his memory for it, but he's trying not to think about that.

Anyway, fortunately, he has something more important to concentrate on as the guards continue to patrol and the shadows across the lawn lengthen.

The moment they set foot behind the hedge, he leans down and hisses, "Now!"

Even a pair of wings won't change the fact that Daring Do is a horse. Pony, if you really want to be technical, but details can be ~~hoof~~handwaved for now, given the gravity of everything in the area that wasn't a colorful talking animal.

Her reflexes are honed and the instant they set off behind the hedge, Daring springs forward with her wings outstretched and forcing down the air beneath them. Even with Ed on her back, she can still zoom through the air quick enough to briefly leave behind that grayscale rainbow she does when moving so quickly.

It fades quickly and before the guards can notice its existence. The instant they walk past that hedge and catch sight of Daring's and Ed's original location, the pegasus has already parked herself on the roof.

"Heh...there's no rush like a close call, am I right?"

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What's gone is mute, someone changed the truth (backdated)

Night 1

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Night one

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Night 2

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