open } choose your words and etch them on your soul make them heard when crowds drown out your call

[transmutate]

Who: Edward, Georgia, YOU
Where: Actual Hell
When: over the course of the event
Rating: PG-13, possibly verging into R
Summary: Ed's arm and leg and superpowers don't work, but that's not going to stop him. ....or yes, actually, it is. Meanwhile Georgia's going to interview the shit out of everything.
The Story:

Ed

[Edward wakes up and everything is definitely even more wrong than it's been ever since he arrived here. They're clearly somewhere... different, not somewhere he knows from home or from Wonderland. He starts to stand up, ready to try and figure out what's going on, but before he can get very far, he flops over as his automail arm doesn't react to his mental commands.]

What...?

[Ed tries to move it again, to know avail. He pushes himself up with his left arm, then tries to move his leg. It works, right up until he gets to the automail part. He tries to move his toes and they don't react at all. His leg may as well be a metal block for all the reactivity he's getting from it.]

No, no, this can't happen now!

[He claps his left hand against his limp right hand and touches it to the back of the limb, trying to at least straighten it into a more useful position. Nothing.]

What? No.

[He claps again and touches the ground, with no result.]

NO!

[Eventually, he forms a makeshift sling for his useless automail arm and finds a stick long enough to help him hobble around. But alchemy still isn't working, even when he draws a circle rather than clapping. It doesn't stop him from leaving the settlement area, but it does keep him from going very far. Because he literally can't. His leg and arm are never very light, but they're not doing anything but weighing him down like this. It's impossible, and he's weak and helpless and he hates it.]

Georgia

[There's an itch Georgia has that never goes away. She's had it ever since she took her first journalism class, maybe even since before that. The News is an addiction, one that generally leads to pain, frustration, and ratings that aren't as good as the people who put on a show rather than tell the truth, but it's one she can't kick. The truth is out there, and it will set you free.

Of course, there's a hell of a lot of monsters between her and the truth right now, and her gun and tape recorder both don't work. Not that it's going to stop her. She's never craved danger like Shaun does, but she's no coward. Sometimes getting to the truth involves a hell of a lot of taking risks.

So she's quick to wander out of the compound, armed with nothing but a notepad, a pen, and a heavy stick, ready to find out everything she can about this strange place.]

Comments

[choosetruth]

[Oh, she's Georgia now. He's really mad. But so is she.]

Better than my muscle memory for poking monsters with pointy sticks. It's not hard, Shaun. It's a blunt instrument, and you swing it.

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Yes, because she's being uncharacteristically reckless right now, and it's kind of pissing him off.

He rolls his eyes.]

Well, you could consider giving the guy who is kind of an expert at poking things with sticks a few minutes to sharpen one so I can play backup.

But sure if you want to run off half cocked and get yourself killed again, be my guest.

[choosetruth]

[Her scowl sharpens. She knows how badly her death affected him, and usually she's understanding if he's a little more careful and worried.

Usually he's not being this much of a dick to her. She shoves his shoulder with the base of her palm. Hard.]

Well that was a given, you asshole, but now I'm thinking I might do better without you hovering and treating me like I'm made of glass. I'm not dead now, you know.

[adaptiveimmunities]

[He rolls his shoulder with the shove, but doesn't actually step back.]

Wow, I hadn't noticed the fact that you're standing in front of me, so thanks for pointing that out.

[choosetruth]

Really? Cause you still talk to my ghost. [And right now she's too mad to pretend it doesn't bother her. She might understand, but she doesn't like it.]

[adaptiveimmunities]

I'm so sorry that my crazy offends you. [Sarcasm isn't a sharp enough word for his tone.]

[choosetruth]

[She scowls up at him, meeting his eyes as best she can through her sunglasses and shoves him again, with both hands this time. That wasn't really what she said, but arguing that isn't going to get them anywhere.]

And I'm so sorry that me being alive and here isn't enough for you. Are you just waiting for me to vanish?

[adaptiveimmunities]

[He stares at her for a second. If there's another George trying to talk to him right now, he can't hear her in his disbelief.]

Jesus, George, in what reality would you think you're not enough for me? Are you kidding? I'm ecstatic every day I wake up and you're still here.

[...But there's still the "but." But someday he's going to wake up at home and she won't be there, and he can't help bracing himself against that day because they have nothing in place to prevent it, and the thought of it haunts him every day, no matter how much he tries to ignore it.]

[choosetruth]

[She can hear the but in his voice. She wraps her arms around herself, still glaring. She knows that he's happy she's here, but that's not really the same as being enough. She also knows she's not being entirely fair, but he started it.

This should be the part where she lets the anger drain out her and they make up like they always do, and they will make up, but she's not ready to forgive him. She still feels like she's going to claw off her skin if she doesn't find something to write about. And he's still an asshole, and the part there he didn't say, the part where either one of them might vanish from here at any point and then he'll be alone and she'll be dead, is just driving her crazier since she can't do a damn thing to ease his worries. They're both powerless here.

She picks up the club and stalks past him.]

I'm going for a walk. You and your pointy sticks can catch up when you're ready.

[adaptiveimmunities]

[Shaun knows he has a temper, but even when he's directing it at George, he's usually a little more reasonable. He almost never gets pissed off irrationally. But this whole situation, starting with Wonderland and ending in Hell is completely FUBAR, and he's just as frustrated about their lack of control over anything as George is.

So instead of trying to be reasonable, he just snaps back.]

Let's just hope there's enough left of you to provide backup to when I get there.