paixaorpg | The search party gathers!

Entry tags:

The search party gathers!

Character(s): Edward Elric, Alexander, Pride, NiGHTS (is anyone else in this search-party?)
Content: The search party... well, searches, i guess.
Setting: F3
Time:
Warnings: Ed will probably swear a lot...

Ed ran full-tilt, or as close to it as he could with kind-of-crappy automail, dragging Pride by the wrist as his head whipped around left and right, trying to spot white fur. "ALEXANDER!" he shouted, hoping maybe the dog would find him, or at least bark.

As he rounded a corner, stumbling slightly but still running, he saw the large, white dog standing amid the milling locals, looking frantic. "ALEXANDER!" he shouted again, skidding, and nearly falling as he tried to avoid colliding violently with the sheepdog.

He dropped Pride's wrist now that they'd arrived and dropped to his knees in front of Alexander, grabbing at his ruff. "Oh fuck, I'm sorry! I should have been here!" he knew that getting hysterical wouldn't help anything, but he couldn't seem to stop his rapid, agitated breathing or the pointless apologies to a dog from spilling out of his mouth.

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Alexander nuzzled Ed's face as the boy lowered to his level, licking his face despite the pain he was in. This was just who he was looking for; surely Ed would be able to fix things, Ed who Nina had so much trust in.

And he seemed to know what was going on, so surely he was going to fix things soon. He barked uneasily, and the constant, pained shivering could easily be seen when one was close to him.

Being away from Nina was painful, even if he had no idea how to voice it, or even to understand exactly why it was the way it was.

It was confusing, being shunted through the crowds and pulled this way and that when he didn't know where they were going, and why, if he could be lost...

And then they stopped, and Edward stopped yelling for 'Alexander,' who Pride remembered. A dog, who looked... scared, his mind supplied. And something else, but that, he had no answer for.

Edward was sorry again. Sorry meant hurt, and maybe that was what Alexander was feeling. The homunculus watched the dog carefully. Shaking. Hurt. Yes, that was what it was.

He hunkered down as well, curious and wondering, and reached out a hand to run along the dog's thick fur.

Ed stopped and pressed his good hand against Alexander's neck, feeling the trembling in his large frame. "... You're hurt," he said quietly, more to himself than anything and started running his hand through Alexander's fur, down his legs, over his spine, trying to find a tender spot. Blood would have shown up clearly in the white fur. If it was some kind of internal pain...

Nina had talked as though she could understand Alexander before, he hadn't thought twice about it at the time, but what if it was some byproduct of the interrupted transmutation? And if Alexander was suffering some mysterious pain without any obvious cause...

Ed stood up, keeping a hand on Alexander's head and rubbing it reassuringly. "We're going to find her," he said firmly.

Alexander jerked a bit at Pride's touch, sniffing at the boy uncertainly. But as Ed wasn't worried about him, Alexander would focus on other things. He whined at Ed's first statement, sensing the concern if not understanding the meaning of the words. At the examination, however, he didn't move as Ed felt his frame for injuries. The ache wasn't one the dog was used to; it was like he had lost a limb. And at the second statement, he wagged his tail a bit--a small gesture of hope from the dog.

NiGHTS had been making sue that Reala was okay (despite their rivalry, she did still care about him, in her own quirky way), and so did not manage to find the group until she spotted Alexander. The nightmaren chuckled to herself and flew downward, hovering not far in front of the group and giving them all a cheerful wave.

"Hello, there!" she greeted. "Sorry I'm late." She offered neither excuses nor explanations, however, and merely floated, mouth set in a smile despite how grim the situation was.

Ed jumped slightly when the... thing... suddenly dropped out of the sky. And then he stared for a long moment, his brain desperately trying to process an explanation within the laws of physics for the strange... being's levitation. It took a while to even process that it had spoken to him and he blinked and shook his head.

"Who are you?" he asked. 'What' was what he really wanted to ask, but had the potential to be greatly offensive. Maybe he'd bring it up later; it wasn't a good conversation starter, in any event.

There was another, now, but Alexander recognized him, and so wagged his tail slightly. More people would help find Nina, and that was good. The more here to help, the faster they could find her.

That he couldn't sense her location was still troubling, however. But she had to still be alive. He whined, hoping they would get moving soon.

Something, and Edward knew that Alexander was hurt, but then there was a new person with color and not walking but in the air and smiling and so strange that Pride stood without the care he normally had, and nearly toppled over.

Eyes wide with intrigue, he stepped closer and peered around the new person. No one could do anything like that, whom he'd seen before, and such strange, strange...

"Hello," he parroted, the same inflection NiGHTS had given full in his normally-flat voice.

NiGHTS looked at the blond boys, noting how... empty the one with golden eyes were. She drew closer, looking at the boy, circling him. A nod to herself, and on a whim, she swept the boy up into a hug and spun him around.

"Me?" she responded, looking into the brown-eyed boy's face and setting the other down so she could inspect him. "My name is NiGHTS!"

Alexander's whine reminded Ed of the matter at hand. Damnit, no matter how weird this... person was, how could he get distracted from finding Nina? But then he was again distracted by the person scooping Pride up into the air. He started to protest, but Alexander seemed to know the creature so he stopped himself. Nina. That was what was important right now. Had to find Nina.

"You're here to help find Nina?" he asked. "Timon made it sound like there were more people besides just me. Do you know anything? I..." he paused and bit his lip for a moment, feeling useless and ashamed, "I don't even know where to start..."

Alexander began sniffing around. If they wanted to look, then he was going to help by finding her scent. He would know it anywhere, after all. But still, it was strange not to just know where she was. But he found Ed, and he could find Nina. He had to find Nina.

He moved in small circles, smelling for the girl's scent, waiting for the group to start looking and trying to focus despite the pain.

Pride was still confused. He made no effort to clear the expression (albeit a mild one) from his face, as he didn't even know he was making it.

The girl with braids, Edward's friend, was gone, taken? Lost? Lost like Pride had lost Edward... NiGHTS was like Sasori, then. Different, different, but still the same, finding lost things and bringing them back.

NiGHTS was good, just like Sasori, and just like Edward. NiGHTS would be there and come back, and Nina would be found. Pride liked NiGHTS.

Still, though, all this thought of being lost, and remembering when he was pulled Pride away from the nightmaren, his fingers finding purchase in one of Edward's sleeves and holding tight.

NiGHTS laughed at the look at Pride's face. She couldn't help it; people who weren't used to the nightmaren's freewheeling eccentricity were funny. Her amusement faded, however, at the mention of Nina, but NiGHTS still kept a happy expression on her face. "I sure am," she giggled, "but I'm afraid I don't really know anything. I found Alexander before, but he just led me to where Nina was staying before."

And then she had spoken to Jackle, and then she had flown into Reala, and things grew more complicated. NiGHTS had found herself looking after her almost-sibling until his strange, unexplained injuries had faded.

No time for that. NiGHTS swept into her usual theatric bow in lieu of shaking hands. "And who are all of you?"

Ed almost paused again just to be confused by the strange creature, but recovered and made up his mind, giving Alexander's ruff a little tug to let him know they were moving, he started walking towards the train station.

"I'm Edward Elric," he replied to the jester. "I'm the one who's supposed to be responsible for Nina... Fine job I'm doing of it..." He laced his hand with Pride's as he walked, to reassure the homunculus and keep better track of his location and introduced him as well, since he doubted that Pride would do it himself. "This is Pride."

"Timon said that an Organization guy called 'Demyx' took Nina, he said brusquely, taking tally of their situation. "The Organization members travel by some sort of space-warping portals, so he wouldn't have left a physical trail, that's why Alexander couldn't follow him. Other people have been kidnapped by the Organization. It seems to be a pattern, so there must be some central area where they hold people. We should look for government owned buildings with no obvious purpose or the purpose they're listed as is stupid." He pulled out his journal, bringing up the map. "... Of course there's no fucking government buildings listed on this fucking map!"

Alexander lifted his head when Ed touched him, and began following loyally after the boy, occasionally dipping his head to try and catch Nina's scent. It didn't make sense to the dog that she wouldn't leave one; after all, all humans did.

Except for that human who had taken her. If he even was a human. Maybe his not-scene had covered hers up? Was that even possible? His ears pricked as Ed raised his voice, but then he went back to his scent search.

Sad again, then noise and angry, and Edward was all the time everywhere hard to keep up. Pride stayed silent simple easy and like he always was, his only connection to the conversation his vicinity and his hand in Edward's, and some mention of a girl he only knew by one face on a little box.

The same sort of little box that Edward had now, and his eyes followed it as if it held meaning, so perhaps it did, which caught Pride's interest and led identical, glassy eyes to follow the same.

NiGHTS looked at Edward closely, drifting above the group and flying around in circles, keeping an eye out for any signs of Nina. She didn't catch anything and frowned a bit, looking down at the group, noticing that Pride hadn't introduced himself like Ed had, and that he seemed to echo others quite a bit.

Her attention was drawn again to Ed at the mention of... an Organization? That's right, she had heard of it from Timon. "Demyx, hmm?" She wondered just how much members of that group would like being paralooped, but now wasn't exactly the time.

"Fine. Fine. We head for the center of the city and we check the buildings out in size-order. Anything that isn't a public center or a private residence we check first." Ed continued clicking away at his journal, awkwardly typing out a message with one thumb as he continued to pull Pride along with his automail hand.

Alexander was oblivious to the conversation, as going through Nina to understand even the smallest snatches of the more complex issues was exhausting, especially when their bond was stretched so.

So he kept walking, trying to scent a trail, waiting to see what Ed would do.

Pride had little choice but to follow, not that he didn't want to in the first place. But all this activity was a little overwhelming, and even though he knew they were looking for Nina, he didn't have the slightest clue where to start, nor did he even spare a thought as to why she would go away in the first place.

It wasn't fun having lost someone.

Certainly it wasn't; unfortunately, the group was about to experience another loss.

It hadn't been difficult to follow the events of the group, especially with the panicking and public threating that most (if not all) had done over the journals. Luxord had been watching the group for a short while, figuring his best plan of action would be to disrupt theirs. It seemed as though this was his opportunity.

Freezing the time in the area, he strolled into the street as if nothing were out of the ordinary, taking ahold of the hand clamped on his target and prying the fingers open with little success. Taking a different tactic, he felt along the wrist for the pressure point that would loosen the fingers-

Well. This certainly was not what he had expected. Pulling up the sleeve and prodding at the arm confirmed what he'd thought - the arm was fake. Luxord, not averse to dismemberment should the situation call for it, was not about to be stopped by a fake limb. He hadn't expected a sharp tug to do the trick, and of course it didn't. The next step was a bit more drastic.

Feeling around the shoulder, he found the joint where the arm connected and something over it. Straps, possibly, or a sling. No matter - a few swift slices removed harness, shirtsleeve, and arm from the boy. Nothing to it.

That accomplished, Luxord opened a portal and lifted his target, carrying him effortlessly through. The time freeze would dissipate the moment the portal closed. For now, however, Luxord had duties to perform.

NiGHTS stopped in midair, frozen with the others. When time returned to normal, she drifted along as though nothing had happened (and indeed, to her, that's what it seemed like). "Are there any leads at all?" she wondered aloud, arms crossed behind her head as she turned to her companions.

... Pride was gone. Come to think of it, so was Ed's arm. The Nightmaren stared, then zipped up above the rooftops, flying around the area for any sign of Pride. "He's gone!"

Though Edward had not felt the tug Luxord had given his arm during the time-freeze, he did find himself thrown off balance by it once time resumed for him. He made a startled sound as he suddenly pitched to the side, pulled by something that wasn't even there anymore. He nearly fell back the other way as he naturally leaned to his left, compensating for the weight of his arm as he normally would. Once he regained his footing, he looked around, surprise having completely overtaken is features and pushed out the angry frustration that was previously there.

It only lasted for a moment before he paled slightly and his face took on a faintly hysterical look. "Pride...?" he mumbled in a too-quiet voice and then his eyes scanned down to his shoulder. He just stared at the sliced fabric and bare steal visible there, his mind going rather numb. This was all just too much. He'd woken up that morning thinking that he rather liked this place. He'd woken up thinking that it was a sort of miracle town, where Nina was all right and there was plenty of food for everyone and nice hotel rooms with hot water right in the tap... And in the course of a few hours, it had rapidly developed into his own, personal hell.

The journal fell out of his remaining hand, clattering to the ground as his knees seemed to give out and drop him down next to it. His hand came shakily to his face as his breath started to come more quickly and with a slight whimpering keen to it. He looked up slowly, hoping that he would just wake up and be home. Or Munich. Or anywhere else. What he saw made his breath stop entirely for several seconds.

"... Mom...?" he breathed, barely audible.

She was looking at him from a short distance away, standing next to a shop, just looking back at him with an unreadable expression. Ed staggered back to his feet and started running, watching as she moved away from the front wall of the building and toward the alley beside it. "MOM!" he yelled, watching her disappear around the corner.

And when he reached that corner, there was nothing. Yep. Personal hell.

Alexander had no idea what was going on. One moment everything was, if not normal, at least somewhat stable. And then the one who smelled like Ed was gone, along with Ed's arm, and the purple one was flying around and Ed was running and Alexander didn't know what to do but bark.

So he did. Running after Ed desperately, he barked out his confusion and wariness to the world, causing some of the citizens to give the huge dog a wide berth.

He wanted Nina back, and he wanted Ed to be normal, and he wanted to go home and back to normal. Was that too much for a dog to ask?

NiGHTS couldn't quite understand. How could this happen? But NiGHTS came from a realm where (almost literally) anything was possible, so she gave a small nod to herself and floated back down, satisfied that she apparently hadn't missed anything.

She stared at Ed as he ran and flew quickly after him, dropping down in front of him as he stopped. "Hey," she began cautiously, "Pride's nowhere around here. He just disappeared."

And then she spotted something further along. A gargantuan, godlike being, in fact who seemed to be staring straight at her. She stopped dead, her jaw dropping as her eyes widened. She tried to find her voice, but no matter how she tried, no sound would come out.

Wizeman. How could he be here?

Ed stared through NiGHTS for several long seconds after the creature had dropped in front of him, obscuring his view of absolutely nothing. "I... I saw..." he whispered softly before closing his eyes tight and shaking his head. Trying to collect himself. "Shit... I'm going crazy..."

He brought up his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose. "No. No. They're trying to slow us down. They want us to panic and get all turned around. Which means we're on the right track. We need to keep going. They'll have Pride in the same place they took Nina." Perhaps if he said the words with enough confidence, he could fool himself.

As Ed slowed down, and calmed down somewhat--though Alexander could still feel the tension--Alexander calmed down as well, his barking slowing and finally stopping altogether.

He sat beside Ed, licking his pant leg and whining.

NiGHTS had been about to shout out to Wizeman when he... vanished. The creator of Nightmare had simply flickered out, and NiGHTS wasn't sure whether to try and chase after the image (despite her initial interest in Pride, he didn't really matter to her) or not. Her creator (she had never truly thought of him as her father) and sometimes enemy was gone as if he had never been.

Her brow furrowed; perhaps this was part of the Night Dimension after all. But NiGHTS couldn't dream; she never could, being what she was. "Just what is going on here?" she murmured, brilliant eyes still fixed where Wizeman had been.

"Okay. So we go to the train station. We take it to the middle of the city. We go to the Mayor's office. We'll try just walking in but if we have to turn the place upside-down, then we'll do that," Ed listed off what constituted a plan and turned back towards the street before pausing to look back at NiGHTS. "Are you okay?" he asked, the creature looked shaken but Ed thought that was probably a pretty normal reaction to people disappearing at random.

Alexander wagged his tail halfheartedly as Ed spoke, simply glad that he seemed to be deciding what to do more than having any idea as to what he was doing. The pain was still coursing through his body, along with prickling fear that made him much warier than he would have been normally.

He was starting at every out of place person or object--and in Paixao, that was a lot.

NiGHTS shook herself out of her thoughts and looked at Ed. "Yeah, I'm okay," she replied. "I'll go fly over the city and see if I can find anything." It might be less safe for those remaining, but she didn't care about that, or even about Pride - for her, this was about getting Nina back and getting revenge on whoever was stupid enough to harm someone she considered a friend.

"I'll let you know if I find anything." And with that, the Maren rose into the sky and gave a wink, setting out over the city in hopes of finding some sort of clue. They would theoretically get more done if they split up, anyway.

"How do I contact you?" Ed shouted after the creature. "What's your journal?"

He sank his hand into Alexander's ruff again and started walking quickly again, heading straight for the train station. At the station, he made sure to steal a pen before boarding the train.

Alexander followed Ed at a brisk pace, glad to be moving again, hopefully toward Nina. At the train station Alexander hesitated only a moment before boarding; he remembered getting on one of the trains with Nina and the silver-haired boy who smelled like darkness--though he really didn't seem that bad. But sniffing around revealed nothing new.

Once onboard, he lay at Ed's feet patiently.

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The search party gathers!

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