entrancelogs | Event Catch-All for Alphonse

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Event Catch-All for Alphonse

Who: Alphonse Elric (Class 2-2, age 16) and OPEN
Where: Some suggestions below, but wherever you like!
When: Over the whole event
Rating: PG-13 for safety
Summary: A lovable little bookworm that's always happy to help!
The Story:

1: If it's a time between classes, there's a good chance you can find Alphonse studying in the library. More often than not his nose is stuck in a science book of some sort, but that doesn't mean he'll neglect the other subjects. Care to say hi, or ask for help with a troublesome bit of homework?

2: Out behind the dorms in the evening you might find Al sitting calmly near a small plate of saved scraps of food, giving some of the stray cats around a safe, decent meal. Some of the brave ones even have taken a shine to him and let him get a little petting in.

3: During the culture festival, when he's not on duty with Carlos Al drifts between the classrooms to get a peek in at all the set-ups, though you'll have a hard time dragging him into the haunted house.

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Some time after dusk, Johnny arrives behind the dorms to smoke a cigarette. It hangs in his ear for the time being, but as he strolls up to Alphonse, he takes it down, lights it, and takes a puff.

"C'mon, man, why you feedin' the cats? They'll never go away now..." Not that Blake hadn't gone out and left scraps a few times himself. That's actually how he got to liking Al in the first place, because they'd both tried doing the same thing. He winks and meanders closer, but doesn't aim to disturb the operation.

"And how is that a bad thing?" Al asks with a grin, looking back at Johnny. A few of the cats freeze for a moment when he approaches, but quickly go back to their meal.

He wrinkles his nose when Johnny lights up, though. "Those things are going to ruin your health. Do you even know what all goes into them?" Seriously, Al can whip out a categorized list if you want.

Johnny takes another drag from the cigarette and then pulls it away from his mouth to inspect it. He can't even remember what it was that got him started on smoking in the first place, but there's something it enjoys about it and they've been easy enough to get by lining the pockets of certain teachers.

"Dunno. Tobacco an' shit, right? They don't teach us that kinda stuff in school, you kiddin'?" Johnny steps a little closer, crouching down to coax one of the cats closer to him. Seems they're not that interested in smokers either.

Al rolls his eyes, then starts counting off on his fingers. "Let's see, tar, acetone, ammonia, arsenic, butane, formaldehyde...they're required to put all that on the side of the box, aren't they?"

Al can't blame the ones that hate the smoke, but one of the cats cautiously makes it's way over to sniff at Johnny's hand.

"Are they? Shit, half the time I don't got the box long enough to bother," he says, but Johnny knows the truth. He's far from dumb and oddly world-wise for a kid stuck living in a place like this.

Petting gently at the kitten's soft coat, he can't help but smile. When it comes to pets, he'd take a cat over a dog any day. They're much cleaner and more discerning. Even if you see an alley cat, you don't usually consider it homeless on the streets, even if that's the reality of the situation. They make things look easy. They use everything to their advantage. Honestly, Johnny feels he resembles more of a cat-lover than a dog-lover specifically for that reason.

His gaze drifts back to the other boy and he puffs smoke as he speaks around his cigarette. "You gonna save the world, Al? One stray at a time?"

He rolls his eyes with another chuckle--it's an old argument between the two of them, and not one Al expects will sway Johnny anytime soon. It's his choice what to do, but that doesn't mean Al will stop pointing out the health hazards to him.

Al laughs weakly, stroking one of the cats as he does. "Hey, I can try, can't I?" He looks down at the cat with a fond smile. "...I think I would like to start a cat rescue once I'm out of school, though. Find homes for the younger strays, spay and neuter the ones that can't be homed, help educate people and provide care for pets."

"Like a pro-bono veterinarian or somethin' like that, yeah," Johnny agrees, having no trouble imagining Al doing just those things. Some people have more ambition, naturally apt to do something good with their time, and Alphonse is the epitome of that, as far as Blake's concerned.

He scoops the kitten into his arms and starts toward the other boy, cigarette smoke causing him to awkwardly close one eye. "That's pretty neat, man. Sounds like you've really got plans. What then? Expand?"

"Yeah, probably. It'll depend how much funding I can get for the whole thing, since it'll have to work mostly off of donations." Al smiles as the kitten in Johnny's arms mews and tries to climb up his shirt--obviously it's a daring little one.

Of course it's daring. Those are the types Johnny attracts, thank you very much. Then again, he's perfectly comfortable hanging with Al.

Tossing his half-finished cigarette away, he then cradles the kitten against his shoulder as he steps closer to the other boy. It's something else to see someone so young and so dedicated. "Get some corporate sponsorship or somethin'. People do that kinda shit all the time. Just gotta use their products." Johnny's full of work-arounds. It's kind of his thing.

"Or I can affiliate with an already-existing group. I'll find a way." The cat with Al meows and butts its head against his hand again, demanding more attention. "--ah, I know, I know! It's horrible I'm not paying you any attention, I know!" He looks back up at Johnny with a grin and shrug; cats, what can you do?

Fff, Elrics, what can you do? Johnny rolls his eyes, trying his hardest to convince himself this is zero percent endearing. Not Al, not the kittens, not the dedication to those ~~felines~~ less fortunate, none of it. Nope.

"Shit, they're gonna think you're their mom or somethin'," he finally says, taking on the task of removing the cat from his clothing. "How 'bout teachin' them some practical life skills like the rest of us?"

Al snickers and glances around at the gathered cats. "Well, I tried teaching them math once, but they got too hung up on the mice in the word problems."

"Ah, Christ, you don't use that joke on other people, do you?" Johnny winces dramatically and shakes his head at Al. Honestly, couldn't he come up with something a little better than that? Nevertheless, bad humor deserves bad humor. Blake shakes his head. "Naw, just kitten 'round. Wasn't purrrfest, but you get an A for effort."

Al snorts, and has to exert a powerful force of will to keep from doubling over in laughter--he doesn't want to scare the cats off! As it is one or two of the more skittish ones dash off into the darkness. "I guess the cat's out of the bag, jokes are my worst subject! Thanks for not hurting my felines about it, though!"

Even Johnny can't stop himself from laughing with that last bit, and he finds himself chuckling even as he watches his own adventurous kitten skittering away. "That's pretty good, man. Wouldn't've guessed you had it in you. Felines. That's great. Gonna have to remember that."

Al grins up at Johnny, an amused twinkle in his eye. "So you're collecting bad puns now?"

"Yeah, somethin' like that." He smiles and turns away to pretend to look around just to save himself the embarrassment of being too fond. Fuck, why does he always have to find something good in people that just makes him want to latch on.

When he turns back, he's pushing a hand through his hair. "Hey, next time you're by my dorm, you oughta come by. Got me a new video game system. It's pretty cool," he says, maybe a bit too proud of his recent acquisition of a completely not-new NES.

Al perks up at the thought of that--he's only got his old crappy Game Boy Color and maybe two or three games for it. Anything that isn't those will be a breath of fresh air. "Really? Cool, I'll try to head over tomorrow sometime! What sort of games do you have for it?"

Honestly, Johnny's not all that much of a gamer, but he likes to watch other people who are skilled at that sort of thing. It's especially nice if he can make it happen when he's high, but that's probably not something he'll do around Al.

"Shit, a bunch. Like the Marios an' some kinda racin' game. Boxin', too, I think. You'll just have to come see after classes, man. Bring some sodas or somethin', we'll make a night of it."

Al isn't exactly skilled, per say, but he is competent enough to be fairly entertaining to watch. He nods and grins back to Johnny. "Awesome, and will do! I'll try and grab some chips to snack on as well."

"Perfect," he says, cheerily. It's nice to make friends (when no one's around to judge him as anything less than the obvious badass he happens to be). He waves at Elric, leans down to scratch behind his adventurous kitten's ear, and then heads off to do whatever it is a deviant like him does in his spare time.

[When Integra had gone off to steal a quick drag before bed, she hadn't expected to find a boy feeding stray cats. The sight was heart warming to say the least and Integra was even more elated when she realized it was one of her own classmates.]

I see you've made some friends, Alphonse. [She kept her distance. She didn't want to scare the cats.]

Al looks back when he hears Integra and laughs softly, waving at her. The cats seems to be more focused on the food than her, though a few look up to make sure she isn't a threat. "Uh-huh! I couldn't let the poor things go without a decent meal, you know?"

"Very generous of you." She didn't move forward still not wanting to make the cats looking at her feel threatened. She never had pets, how do you even cat?

"It's not like there isn't plenty of food to spare. I won't go hungry from sharing a little." He smiles. "If you sit and wait, they'll probably come and say hi."

"Are you sure?" She'll try it out moving closer to him and taking a seat. They seem to be hesitant but he's right. The cats figure she has some sort of food just like the other and therefore they start making their way towards her.

"I've never had pets. I guess this is the closest thing I'll get. Right?"

Al nods encouragingly, watching as one particularly brave cat creeps forward to sniff at Integra's hand. "See? Let them sniff you first, then try a little scratching under their chin."

He frowns in confusion. "Who says you can't get a pet in the future?"

"I'm not good at these sorts of things."

Though here she is staying very still before moving forward and scratching the chin as directed. To her surprise the cat purred though it was probably still looking for food. She hadn't brought anything.

"You can learn, though! It's not like animals hate you on sight, you just need to learn how to understand them is all."

Al smiles as he watches her, and a cat bumps it's head against his hand to demand it's own pettings.

"I thought animals preferred people who gave off passive vibes." She doesn't consider herself a very calm human being but hey, she'd give anything a shot.

"That can help, but knowing their body language and what makes them comfortable helps a lot, too."

He carefully pulls out a small bit of jerky from his pocket to hand to Integra. "Here, you can give this to him."

It's not often that Wash goes out for walks as the day begins to turn into night, but sometimes it's just sort of relaxing. It's nice to get out of the school, be outside in the cool, fresh evening air, and not have to worry about running into anyone.

Well, usually there's no reason to worry about that. But this evening, as he's making his way back to his dorm, he spots someone in the distance, along with a number of cats. Immediately curious, mostly because of the cats, yes, he makes his slow, awkward approach. The closer he gets, the more familiar he realizes the kid is--not someone he's spent a lot of time with, but he's pretty sure it's Alphonse, who's a year younger than him.

"Uh, hi." Wash greets, raising a hand in a weak little wave, his gaze resting on Al for a moment, before lowering to the cats. "Making some friends?"

Al looks up when the cats react to Wash's approach, a few of the more shy ones dashing for cover as the others hunch down over their food. While he hasn't spoken often with Wash, he has liked him from their few interactions.

He smiles and waves, nodding to the question. "Yeah. I had some food left over, so I decided to share."

Wash's eyes follow the cats that skitter away, feeling a little bad for being the one to scare them away from their free food. But maybe they'll sneak back after a while, he tells himself as his gaze returns to the cats that have stayed, and the boy feeding them.

"That's nice of you." He smiles as he speaks, because...well, it's nice to talk to someone else who loves cats. And the fact that Al seems to have taken to feeding the strays around school is pretty sweet of him. "Do you do this often? Seems like this is sort of a routine."

They certainly will; it's only Wash's unfamiliar presence that's driven them away. Already the braver cats have gone back to eating their meal, though their attention is clearly still on the boy.

Alphonse chuckles and scratches his neck shyly. "Um, sort of? I see them hanging around all the time, and...well, I couldn't just not give them something, you know?"

"Definitely." Smile widening, a little bit in amusement, Wash nods knowingly. Noticing some of the cats making their way back, he watches them, and to avoid scaring them away again he tries to stand as still as he can.

"I've seen them around too, and I always feel kind of bad for them." Eyes remain on the cats as he speaks, but they find their way back to Al after a few moments. "I figured the school wouldn't be happy with me if I started feeding them, though. I did that with strays at home years ago and my parents got so mad when we suddenly had twenty cats hanging around our porch all the time."

He shrugs cheerfully. "Well, no one's told me off for it yet, so I don't see a problem with it. It probably helps that I only feed them here and at night; it's not like there's a whole lot going on back here."

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Event Catch-All for Alphonse

2!

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2. BECAUSE KITTIES (They're in the same class btw)

kitties make everything better!

They do!!

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also 2, plus super late tag-in!

Everyone wants dem kitties!

of course!

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