video } crash sites keep me up at night impact division it splits in two

[transmutate]

[There's a teenage boy staring at the camera for just a fraction too long before he starts to speak. Ed's a smart kid, and while he doesn't have any kind of phone remotely like this back home, he figured out how to use it pretty quickly. Still, he's done a lot more listening and watching and reading than actually communicating with other people through it. He wants to make sure he understands it fully before he uses it.

But he's ready now. Once he's satisfied that it's recording, he nods, then sits back.]

Hi. I'm Edward Elric. I'm an Alchemist. But from what I've heard, that doesn't mean anything to most of you. But even if you don't have alchemy, you do have science, right? What do the scientists of your worlds study?

[There, question posed successfully. He's mastered this fascinating device. He turns it off, and waits for people to reply.]

Comments

[ Video ]

[luckynumberthree]

Taboo? [ Simon blinks at that, intrigued. ] I thought that was the entire point of it, wasn't it? Gold and immortality or something, right?

[ It might have caught his attention for that very reason when he's learned about it back in school. ]

[ Video ]

[transmutate]

Where did you get your information? Alchemy is about manipulating and altering matter.

[luckynumberthree]

History books, mostly. [ Simon shrugs, since it's been a long time since he was in school. ] My memory could be rusty though. It's been a long time since I read about it. And as far as I know, it's not really a thing in the time my world is from. Or if it is, they didn't call it alchemy, I guess?

[transmutate]

Seems like that's how it is for a lot of people here. That or they claim it's a form of magic. [He scoffs.]

[luckynumberthree]

We don't have magic where I come from, either. Not really anyway, although I know some people from different worlds here would probably consider it that. In my world, it probably all falls under the description of 'science'.

[transmutate]

That's how it is for us too. People seem amazed at alchemy, and it is amazing, but it's not magical. Not if you know what you're doing.

What is it you have they think is magic?

[luckynumberthree]

Depending on what age their world is stuck in? A lot of things. Television, cars, the internet. Space travel. Microwave lunches.

[ He ticks off a few of the random conversations he's had with people while here. ]

[transmutate]

Well that's ridiculous. Just because things don't exist yet in one world doesn't mean they're magic.

What's the internet? And microwave lunches?

[luckynumberthree]

It does if they're advanced to a point where what it is is thought to be impossible, I guess. Some things are harder to wrap your head around than others.

Uh, the internet is like.... [ How the hell do you describe the internet? ] Well, you know how we use these phones here to talk to everyone and share information with people even though we may not know them all? It's like that, except it spans the whole world. It's immense, there's knowledge and creativity and just about anything you can think of, all out there to access. People can keep in touch a world apart from each other or find out information on something new within moments.

Microwave lunches are simpler to explain at least. It's pretty much a meal you can cook in a microwave - which is kind of like a tiny, much more powerful oven - in a matter of minutes. Or less, even, depending on what it is. It comes all prepared so you just zap it and its ready to go.

[transmutate]

[Ed looks a little awestruck.]

I can see why more ignorant people would say that it's magic. It certainly sounds miraculous.

[But he's not surprised that science can pull off miracles. He's certainly seen it happen before.]