Chapter Text
Riza was pretty familiar with the boys’ schedule, for all they had stayed in different places in the hospital. Al would have another check-in scheduled with his doctor only a little while after the two of them had headed outside, so she wasn’t surprised when they didn’t return to her room until about an hour before lunch. General Mustang had already left by the time they arrived, citing (truthfully) his new duties as a general, but he left the journal behind, in Riza’s care.
Riza herself was busy making her own way through sheafs of papers that would have reached nearly three feet tall if they were all stacked together. At her right lay a smaller collection, but it was steadily growing as she worked. Already she had needed to move the first pile over to make room for a second. Despite her busyness, she took a moment to glance up at the boys as they walked in. Or, well. Wheeled in, in Al’s case. Hospital rules.
“Did you find what you were looking for out there?” She asked.
Ed smiled sheepishly. “I guess so. Sorry for running out on you like that. I just…”
“You needed some time to think everything over for yourself. There’s nothing wrong with that. We understand.”
“We?”
”I’m including the General in that statement.”
”Oh. Right. Well… thanks.”
Riza looked through a few more papers, signed the ones that needed signatures, and placed them off to the right. “So, what’s the verdict?”
Edward spun around to face her and settled against the windowsill with a grin. “Science! And acceptable risks based on probability.”
Riza blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
Al rolled his eyes. “He means he’s going to stop worrying about it and just see what happens if he does what the invisible billboard thing tells him to do. For the sake of scientific curiosity. And on good faith that his Gate isn’t inherently good or evil, and therefore isn’t likely to be the direct cause of any problems so long as he doesn’t cause them himself.”
“How was that any different from what I just said?”
“Almost everything about it was different from what you said!”
Ed smirked. “But mine was more concise.”
“More confusing, maybe. For anyone who isn’t used to interpreting your idea of ‘concise’ terminology.”
Riza wasn’t entirely sure what this gate was, exactly, but she knew it was an alchemy thing and that it was involved when Ed brought Alphonse back. But it didn’t really matter either way.
“You think it’s a risk worth taking, then?” She cut in.
The boys nodded. “It might not be safe exactly,” said Ed, “because nothing about the Gate has ever been safe. But it’s not anything to be afraid of either, long as you understand it. If I just ignore this and try to leave it alone, then sure it might not hurt me, but I won’t gain anything from it either, and I’ll lose the opportunity to learn to use and understand it. And there may come a time where I’ll need whatever this thing is giving me. If I don’t learn how to use it, then I’ll probably cause more harm than good when the time comes to try.”
“It sounds like you’ve given it some thought. I’m glad to see that General Mustang’s advice didn’t go to waste.”
Al looked around. “Where is he, anyway?”
Riza smiled into her papers. “He went back to the office.”
Ed snorted. “You chased him out, you mean.”
“Well someone has to do it.”
She ignored the way the two of them glanced at each other at that, as if they thought they knew something she didn’t.
(They didn’t. There were certain things that she and the General were perfectly aware of, thank you very much. They just weren’t doing anything about it.)
The boys probably thought they were being subtle. (They weren’t.)
She had no plans to disabuse them of the notion. Instead, she redirected the topic back to Edward. “So what is this going to look like? Did you intend to let the countdown run its course, or were you planning on getting it over with as soon as possible?”
Ed frowned. “Hadn’t really thought that far yet. If I wait, then I’ll have until tomorrow to prepare for the idea. But if I push the button now, then I can get started on figuring this thing out right away.”
He reached into the air, presumably to look at the floating billboard signs or whatever it was he saw, studying the air in front of him intently. Riza made a mental note to remind the General to tease him about it sometime. Wouldn’t do for people to think Ed was some sort of lunatic just because he could see things they couldn’t.
After a couple minutes of contemplation (during which both Riza and Alphonse could easily have told the final outcome), Edward set his shoulders and nodded to himself. “Alright. Now it is, then,” He said quietly.
Without any further hesitation, he reached up, pressed against something in front of him-presumably the button reading “(NOW)”-and braced himself.
Well, thought Riza. That’s that.
[Start Game?]
/ \
(NOW) (LATER)
[Warning: Game will commence automatically in: (20) hours and (26) minutes]
Edward reached forward and touched his right hand to the button on the left. It pressed inward with a click, turning red.
To no one’s surprise, a notification popped up. (Not that anyone else could see it)
[Loading Game…]
It felt somewhat anticlimactic at first. The only new thing about it was a little rectangle just underneath the notification box that was slowly filling itself in with color.
Ed sighed. He’d already gone through so many notes today that one more didn’t seem much different. He idly reached for the journal and wrote the words to the new notification, wondering whether he was about to receive a new onslaught of information, or whether the “game starting” meant he was supposed to figure it all out on his own.
In the end, it turned out to be a combination of both. Just as he was setting the notebook back on the table, a couple dozen different boxes of light blinked into existence, startling Edward enough that he let out a yelp of surprise, stumbling backwards and dropping the book on the floor.
Good god that was a lot of new stuff. A lot of new stuff. So much stuff he wasn’t sure where to begin.
He was just about ready to panic about figuring out how to get everything out of his face so he could try to sort through it all, when the entire gamut went blurry, and a single, very large sign with text appeared at the forefront.
[Welcome, New Player! We’re excited to have you join us!
Since the world this Player lives in has not yet developed interactive video technology, the Player System is running under the assumption that the Player has little to no experience with games of the type run by the Player System.
To assist the Player with making this transition more smoothly, the Player System has developed the featu|
His eyes went wide at the sheer size of the thing. The message was so long, it didn’t even fit within the confines of the box. Taking a deep breath, he raked a hand back through his hair and cleared his throat. “Um. Al?”
“Yes, Brother?” answered Al, who had been watching him with a combination of intrigue and concern.
“There’s a lot of…stuff in the way, and I can’t really see past it. Could you…maybe…pick up my notebook that I just dropped? I, uh. I think I’m gonna need it.”
“Oh. Sure.”
“Thanks.” Clutching journal and pen in hand, Edward braced himself for the task of writing out this monstrosity of a welcome message, along with whatever else happened to pop up afterwards.
This…was going to take a while.