paixaorpg | We're to have words [ACTIVE/CLOSED]

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We're to have words [ACTIVE/CLOSED]

Character(s): Edward, Pride, Zetsu, Sasori
Content: Continuing their conversation about alchemy and other things
Setting: ...They're wandering about; no telling where they'll end up.
Time: Half-past noon.
Warnings: The discussion may possibly take some turns towards unpleasant aspects of alchemy and ninja-ness, but as they're out and about in public, it shouldn't be anything too significant.

While Sasori wasn't hurrying, he still stepped lively; the irrational dislike of waiting (or causing others to wait) was still as strong as it had ever been, and it was always behind his pace. Looking carefully over the various blondes around the entrance, he resigned himself to wait, at least for a little while---picking out Edward or Pride could prove difficult. Any Akatsuki, in contrast, would be much easier to identify at a glance. (The other 'artist' would be an exception, if he were out of uniform, but as Deidara was absent it was a null point.)

He supposed Zetsu couldn't say the same, what with his eyes, and suspected he'd spot the others first.

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Fortunately for Zetsu, the two of them had more than enough time to fill him in on what he had missed the night before while on his errand. That Deidara was absent had come as a surprise--after all, he'd been with them until late enough that it had been early--but Zetsu had accepted it in stride, as he did with most things. If Deidara had run off, they would find him. If he had disappeared entirely.... well, there was no use worrying in that case, was there? Deidara could take care of himself.

In the meantime, he moved alongside Sasori like a shadow, matching his pace step for step. Swiftness suited him fine; different paces were needed for different endeavours, and while he could be a remarkably patient man, there was no sense in dawdling about when one was intending a meeting. Byakugan-enhanced vision sweeped the area as they walked, ignoring color--who needed to look for blonde hair when almost everyone had it, anyway?--in favor of chakra. It wasn't long before he picked out Pride's chakra signature--hell, he'd hardly even picked it out. It was such a strange one that it virtually leaped out and grabbed his eyes.

There he was, and Ed with him. "There they are." Zetsu touched Sasori's shoulder to get his attention, then moved off to join the other two, lifting a hand in greeting.

"Hey," Ed said as the two robed persons approached them. "Good morning. Or, noon, whatever." He shrugged as he came to walk next to Sasori. "I haven't seen really any of the city, I came straight here, so if there's anywhere you want to go, I'm pretty much just exploring," he said with a shrug. "I, um," he glanced towards Pride as he continued. "I'd like to keep the more upsetting topics to a bit of a minimum while Pride is around. The... resurrection processes is pretty traumatic." He offered an apologetic smile and a small shrug.

Pride wasn't far behind the other blonde, having taken up the cuff of Edward's coat so as not to lose him again. The sight of Sasori and Zetsu made the grip loosen slightly; it was easy to be found again, by them, and that made him feel more at ease.

To him, Zetsu was still interesting, and his fingers slipped fully from Edward's sleeve to allow him closer to the plant-man. He and Sasori had the same type of clothes, big and black and red, but his fingers still fell on the sleeve of Zetsu's robe and explored all the way around its edge, the homunculus' glance readily focused on it, at least for the moment.

"Thank you." The touch hardly registered, though it wasn't due to distraction---what he'd seen of Zetsu's posture shifting before the gesture had drawn his attention, as the touch hadn't had enough pressure behind it to be noticed on its own.

Sasori nodded to Ed and the alchemist's double as he stepped up to among the others. "Good morning. I've nowhere in particular I'd prefer to be within the city limits; we may as well wander, unless there's anywhere you'd wish to go?" This was directed to Zetsu, and Pride as well; the puppet master watched with some mild interest as the plant-nin was investigated.

Regardless of what had drawn Sasori's attention, it was gotten; he was the one who had arranged for their meeting to be continued, after all. "Good morning." He nodded at the caveat; it only made sense, after all. Such trauma probably wasn't easy to hear discussed with so little involvement by people who had never been involved in such things. "We understand. Though we would like to learn more about the basic tenets and processes, if you would be willing to teach. If you had any similar questions for us, we might be able to offer explanations as well." After all, it hardly hurt their positions to teach potential allies the most basic of genin skills, right? Learning about the fundamentals of chakra, or how to create--or just use, even--storage scrolls, or something like that.... That was information which hardly registered as a threat, even if it was useful to trade with.

"We have no preference at the moment, though we could probably direct you, if you wanted to find anything in particular while you explored; we've been here for quite some time." He had, after all, probably been around the city far more thoroughly than any of his companions. At least there was one benefit to being stuck here for so long....

"Hello, Pride." The honorific was left off; however its absence was interpreted, it just seemed as though Pride wasn't the sort to need it. Very few gave one to animals, after all.... And while Pride wasn't quite human, animal, or puppet, he seemed close enough to a melding of all three to warrant the more familiar treatment. So Zetsu allowed his sleeve to be explored without further comment, moving his ringed, stark black hand to stroke the back of Pride's in return.

Ed shrugged, resting his hands in the pockets of his coat as he moved towards the exit. "Mainly I just want to get an idea of where things are and what's available. I assume there are all the basic kinds of stores for food, clothing, et cetera, and I'd like to find out what the local mechanical technology is like, if there's anything comparable to automail here or if I should put up a request on the message board or something." He caught the door and held it for his companions to exit before following. "The main problem is that while it's easy enough to find artisans who can make a prosthetic that's jointed like a real limb, the last world I was in didn't have the kind of medical technology to tie it in to the nervous system so that I could move it properly."

He was rambling, but Sasori didn't seem to mind that sort of thing, and so he didn't bother to stop himself. "The ports tie into the nerves that were left when I lost the limbs. The human brain still tries to send signals to severed limbs, generally resulting in phantom limb pains, but doctors in my world developed a way to read the signals and interpret them mechanically so that they can be read by the prosthetic." He lifted his right arm in front of him, back in its artificial 'skin' and flexed the fingers into a fist. "My brain body doesn't really know the difference. My brain just sends out the same muscle signals it ever did when I had a real arm and the automail does what it's supposed to. Most of the time, anyway... This set is pretty... sub-par." He stuck his hand back in his pocket with a slightly lop-sided shrug. "My dad made them. He's not a professional and he wasn't working with ideal parts."

Ed glanced at the buildings around him as they passed, reading the signs, taking note of useful looking things. "You should probably tell me what you want to know about alchemy specifically, it's a pretty broad subject and it's all interesting to me..." he said with a shrug. A more directed ramble might be better.

Presented with something new- Zetsu's hand was different, just like Edward's- Pride seemed completely content to explore it. He took the hand in both of his own and turned it over and around, quite the concentrated look on his normally blank features. Underneath the different skin, though, it seemed the same as Edward's not-automail. It wasn't hard, not rubbery, but made of skin and bones. Hm.

Then Zetsu said his name, and he looked up, something of a pleasure making him stand a little straighter. It felt good to be spoken to in those sorts of tones.

And then he heard Edward begin to speak. Most of what he said was lost on Pride, of course, but that, didn't stop him from listening, intrigued all the same. As they began to walk again, he was able to watch the other blonde, too, his grip on Zetsu's robe having become his new leash.

He liked the automail. It made him wonder if he could have one, too.

Sasori considered Zetsu's offer and shrugged. "I'm interested in seeing the stock of some pharmacy, but it isn't pressing; I would take some time and there's no need for the rest to wait when we met to talk."

He had no reason to be bothered by Ed's rambling, instead accustomed to some level of noise---and usually, noise significantly louder. "I'd like to see some automail with all its proper parts; I imagine there are very impressive pieces, what with the time and effort the craftsmen would have to put into its construction." The method of function was interesting as well, and especially so in comparison to his own artificial additions. "As for alchemy, what I'd like to ask about isn't appropriate for all company present."

Zetsu nodded at Ed's assumptions. "There is very little you could need that you couldn't find here, in the way of basic necessities--but we are doubtful of you finding much advanced technology beyond what other visitors can offer. The best they have seems to be the journals and trains." Both of which, admittedly, were more advanced than he was used to; Ed was used to operating at a far higher level of expertise with that sort of thing than he was. That much was obvious as Ed started to talk about his automail; Zetsu listened, though he was aware that his understanding of the discussion was rudimentary at best. What else was he to do, save let Sasori handle it? And help the puppetmaster along, of course.... "A pharmacy is easy enough. We could get you into hospital store rooms, if you needed."

"We're interested in its foundations and beginning knowledge, personally. Our own area of interest proves exceedingly difficult to pursue in a city without real plant life." He left the rest unsaid, as it didn't seem necessary to elaborate; Ed could decide what he did with plants on his own. And why wouldn't someone, forced from what they knew best, want to pick up a new discipline to compensate for that loss? He wanted to learn.

Zetsu allowed Pride to satisfy his curiosity as they walked, surrendering his hand to the homonculus; it was quite a normal appendage, save for its dark complexion and polished nails, with palms that were callused from long years of training despite still-sensitive fingers. The ring probably wasn't of much interest at all, in comparison to the rest of the explorations. He offered Pride a small smile as he looked up, pleased by the unusual show of concentration and responsiveness; Pride was a good boy, however odd he might be. He let his hand curl over the homonculus' wrist as they went, a reassuring gesture tinted with the beginnings of fondness.

Ed's lips curled up slightly at Sasori's observations about what limited information Ed had provided him on automail. "I've never been especially interested in it," he said with a slight shrug. "Alchemy, chemistry and micro-physics are my forte, not mechanics, but my best friend growing up could talk your ear off about it. I know I can't properly appreciate it, but I did get the impression that she made a lot of inivations and she fabricated a lot of her own parts."

He nodded to Sasori's comment about what alchemy was of interest to him, smile fading, but Zetsu's request was somewhat easier. "There's a lot of different philosophies on alchemy, really, the big division would be Western alchemy versus the rentanjutsu used in Xing," he explained easily. "My teacher studied some of both and I think I owe a lot of proficiency to that. Western alchemy is focused more on the mathematics and specific elements, while renkinjutsu is centered more around the energy used to preform transmutations. Western alchemy uses pretty much exclusively the energy one can channel through their own core and with a forceful approach, while renkinjutsu teaches the alchemist to channel the natural flow of energy in the earth and to be a bit more targeted with it so that one uses less energy to achieve similar transmutations and doesn't exhaust themselves.

"My teacher believed that physical fitness and a knowledge of one's own body and it's abilities and limits was the foundation to achieving a high skill level in alchemy, and so she trained my brother and I pretty hard in martial arts." A bit of a smile came back to Ed's face at the memory. "We'd studied alchemy on our own before meeting her and hadn't bothered to train our physical bodies at all, thinking it was unrelated, but even before she started teaching us new techniques in alchemy, I did find that transmutations became easier after I'd gained a better awareness of my physical self." The smile rose a little higher. "She tried to teach us meditation, but I was nine at the time so it didn't work very well since I couldn't hold still long enough... I should try learning it again now."

There was something of a smile at the offer; the artist was tempted, at that. "We'll look into a hospital on our own time; I suspect we've varied priorities." As much as he disliked waiting, he disliked leaving others to wait, and it was common sense that on any such....excursion, company would be an inconvenience.

"It's a shame I haven't a chance to speak with her; mechanisms aren't the most important part of my art, but they are still important---and an interest...as you know." Sasori laced his hands together, listening. Doubtless, renkinjutsu would appeal to Zetsu's inclinations, and it had his attention, as well---although it was unlikely to see any application. (He had always relied on his own force and focus as isolated energy, and alternatives weren't as open as they once were.)

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We're to have words [ACTIVE/CLOSED]

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