onegreeneye | OPEN RP POST (wip)

The door is indeed unlocked, and rather notably of the European variety with a swinging hinge. The walls and door have that same odd flaking, and if Ginko cares to look there doesn't seem to be a single nail holding the structure together.

Of course, what is inside might be a little more alarming. The living space is small enough, a slightly elevated bit of wood planks towards the back clearly being used as a sleeping area while the rest of the floor is exposed dirt. Stacks of rough-made paper are strewn about, scribbles of a language Ginko wouldn't recognize written all over them with odd, geometric diagrams interspersed throughout. And on the walls there are more diagrams, but rather than ink those are all very clearly drawn with blood, with strange runes and designs that almost seem to evoke wings if one squinted just right.

A ways back on the trail Ginko had just come up is a young man plodding his way along, a shoddy kimono wrapped hapzaardly around him. Missing an arm and leg, he hobbles along with the help of a walking stick and peg leg, though it's slow going. Edward had just finished checking around the area for the day, trying to find the source of the strange pulsing power he had felt since coming into this valley. He knew he could tap into it, already had, but he needed to study it further, and theory wasn't going to do him any good at this point.

Edited 2015-09-03 19:06 (UTC)

He takes it in a bit at a time as he wanders into the shack, noting with some confusion the door, the flaking walls, the strange writing... then his eye settles on the wall, and he stops where he is.

He had already known that this was all a little strange. That goes far beyond "a little strange", and looks like it might just be a little outside his area of expertise. NO THANKS.

Ginko grits his teeth and tears his gaze away from the wall, turning back to the door without much of a thought beyond getting the hell out of there and alerting the village to this.

Unfortunately for Ginko, he's not clear of this pile of trouble by a long shot. Edward spots him before he gets barely a few yards away from the shack and scowls, picking up his pace in that pathetic hopping sway that one might imagine an irate old pirate take. "Hey! The hell are you doing, get away from my house!"

(Ed, you moron, THAT'S WHAT HE IS DOING.)

And Ginko is in for another shock once he gets a look at the young man. While his golden hair and eyes are perfectly natural, if somewhat uncommon where he's from, the all too familiar streams of golden light flowing out of the young alchemist's shoulder most certainly are not. Edward seems completely oblivious to the light vein seeping out of his body, of course.

Ginko jolts a little at the voice, spinning toward the source with wariness written all over his face, ready to run if necessary. He does not want to get stabbed again, and from what he saw in that room that seems like a very real possibility here.

When he actually sees Ed, though, he pauses, his brow furrowing for a moment - then his eyes widen in alarm. It's not the odd hair and eye color that catch his attention, or even the missing limbs. If Ed can tell where he's looking, it might seem a little odd for the man to be staring at a point just slightly to the side of his shoulder, but in the next moment Ginko takes a tentative step toward him, speaking up with a distinct mix of sternness and concern.

"What have you been doing with the light vein?"

He can tell that Ginko's gaze is at least in the area of his shoulder, and rolls his eyes. Goddamnit, every fucking time. You'd think people hadn't seen a freaking amputee before! He opens his mouth to snap back something about taking a picture, but he stops short at the seeming non-sequitur.

"...what the hell are you on about?"

Edited (i can icons really) 2015-09-06 03:45 (UTC)

"The light vein, you've clearly been exposed to it... do you not know what that is?"

He takes a couple steps forward, eyeing Ed warily. He still doesn't know whether to assume this guy could be dangerous... but he can't ignore the issue of his obvious infection.

His eyes narrow and Ed starts past Ginko with a scowl, already writing him off as some loon. He keeps a tight grip on his walking stick, just in case he has to wallop the asshole to get him on his way.

"Never heard of it. Now if you're done gawking, get offa my property."

He's not giving up on this yet. Ginko stands his ground, frowning. He clearly can't see the light vein, but he must have been interacting with it...

After a couple moments of thought, he speaks up again. "Have you felt strange lately? Like you may be sick, or overly energetic - or both."

Ed stops short for a moment, surprise crossing his features. Right on the money, but he's not about to admit to that. He looks at Ginko a little more closely now, noticing the somewhat more familiar clothes and the man's odd complexion. He's clearly a local, but not of the typical stock. A small part of Ed hopes that maybe this man will hold the lead he's looking for, but that remains well under wraps of bitter skepticism.

Besides, when had anyone around here given half a shit about an outsider like him? "...what would you care about it?"

Edited 2015-09-07 06:47 (UTC)

The answer comes easily, as matter-of-fact as it could be. "Because dealing with things like this is my job. I was out here investigating some strange events in this area."

He nods to the surrounding woods - the odd structures, the strange house. At this point, he has little doubt that he's found the source.

Edward's eyes flick to follow Ginko's gaze, and he shrugs with a huff of breath. So the village had gone running for a priest of some sort after they'd been scared off, huh? "There's no mystery to it, it's just a bit of alchemy. Didn't want any hunters coming through here while I did my work, so I animated a few statues to scare the piss out of 'em."

Ed watches the mushishi carefully for his reaction. He's calmer than Edward would expect of the people of this world on seeing such strange things, even acts like he sees things of a similar nature every day. There's a chance he might know something useful...and though Ed won't admit it to himself, he's lonely out in these woods. It's been two years since he spoke with anyone that didn't regard him with outright suspicion, and he's craved human company more than he realizes.

"Alchemy...?" He examines Ed with a mix of doubt and curiosity. Since when could alchemy do that?

He gives a quiet sigh after a moment, grabbing the strap of his box to readjust it on his back. "Alright, well, whatever those are, you'll have time to explain. I'm going to need to take a look at that shoulder - and you're going to need to tell me what you've been doing with the light vein."

Well, certainly a promising response, if he isn't writing Ed off right away. Ed decides to be charitable and not scribble out a circle to transmits right there, though he doesn't stop himself giving Ginko a flat look and rapping his right shoulder with the stick.

"I think I know what the hell is wrong with it already." Still, he walks past the mushishi and gestures for him to follow. "And I haven't done anything with anyone's veins. I'm just trying to find something out here."

Edited 2015-09-09 18:54 (UTC)

Ginko frowns, but follows after Ed for the time being.

"I don't mean the amputation. There's more to it than that." He won't push that for now, though, not if Edward isn't going to listen to him anyway. Might as well take this slow. "What are you trying to find?"

"There's a powerful catalyst somewhere in this forest, powerful enough that I can feel its energy without being near it. I've been looking all over, but I can't track it down." Ed grumbles, hobbling his way over to the shack. "I need to study it if I want to use it properly."

Ginko stays a few steps behind him, listening in silence and trying not to let his face betray his reaction too much. A powerful catalyst that he can't find, huh. Wonder what that might be.

"What do you intend to use it for?"

"To get home." ...because that totally makes sense, Edward. Yeah.

He pushes open the door and goes over to his bench-bed, sitting down heavily and picking up a slender stick to start scratching at the dirt floor, etching out a simpler version of those diagrams all over his walls.

...That's an answer he wasn't expecting. And something to be filed under 'things to ask about later'. Either this guy is incredibly delusional, or there's quite a lot more going on here than Ginko knows so far.

He stands by and watches uncertainly as Ed scratches out the pattern on the floor, glancing between it and ones on the wall. "What are those, anyway? And, uh... why are they drawn in blood, exactly?"

Ed doesn't strike him as particularly dangerous at this point, but, well... he's been wrong about that before.

It's a little bit of both, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

Ed grins a bit, and a little bit of life that hadn't quite been in his expression sparks in his eyes. "Alchemical arrays. They're what direct my transmutations and put the energy into that I want done. If I were home, I wouldn't need the blood, but..."

Here he pauses and bites on the pad of his thumb, pushing up a few beads of blood tot he surface before splaying his hand onto the array on the ground. Almost immediately blue-white lightning flashes across the ground, and just to the left of Ginko rises up a...flattering mimicry of himself.

Unable to resist flashing a bratty grin, Ed pushes himself back upright. "Only way to get it to work on this side, apparently."

Ginko jumps a little at the lightning - and then again at the actual transmutation. Once he's gotten a chance to calm down, though, he examines it again, raising an eyebrow at Ed's choice of demonstrations. All the same, he can't deny that that's impressive, if a little alarming.

"So that's what you mean when you're talking about alchemy, then... would this happen to have anything to do with your plans to find that... ah, catalyst, and go home?"

Ed snickers and pushes a little more blood to the surface to transmute the earth back to the way it was before, though the ground rests in the shape of those flakes on the walls.

"Yup. I doubt you'll find anyone else in this world that can do this. I wound up here by accident, and the toll it's gonna take to get back is...very heavy."

Edited 2015-09-10 03:19 (UTC)

There are still bits and pieces that Ginko doesn't understand here - all this talk of other worlds, alchemy and catalysts and tolls, is pretty clearly delving into territory that he isn't quite familiar with. But he's gradually getting some idea of what Ed is talking about.

He gives a small nod, and, for a moment, his gaze settles again on the stream of golden light flowing from Ed's shoulder.

"...So that's what you intend to use it for." His gaze flicks back to Ed's face, the surprise and curiosity from a moment ago settling back into his usual look of matter-of-fact neutrality. "Tell me, then. Do you have any theories as to what this 'catalyst' actually is?"

Edward frowns and raises an eyebrow, considering Ginko seriously for the first time since he'd seen the man. They've been dancing around the subject, but Ed is fairly sure this strange, white-haired man knows something about what he's looking for. There's not much other reason that he would sound so...protective of whatever this catalyst is. It's not a big part of him, but Ed's starting to realize he may have stumbled into something stranger than he realizes.

For a moment, Ed's mind goes back to that time in the Fifth Lab, when the containers holding the incomplete Stone had shattered and he'd been caught in the rush of energy that had flowed from his fingertips. When he'd tried to tap into that catalyst from a distance...it hadn't been a dissimilar experience. "...there's one thing that it feels similar to, but I don't see how they could possibly be the same thing. Not in a place like this." And like hell he's about to admit outright to this man just what that 'something' is.

Ginko gives a quiet hum, sliding his hands into his pockets. "Can't be sure about that 'something'. But I think I know what you've sensed here.

"I mentioned the light vein earlier - you didn't listen then, but I would really suggest you do now." He crouches down, one finger tapping at the ground below him. "The light vein is an underground river of sorts; it can't be reached merely by digging, but it is there. It isn't made up of water, either.

"The substance flowing through it is known as kouki - it's the essence of life itself, in the form of a liquid. Areas with a strong light flow will flourish, though, if it's too strong, it may become overwhelming to humans. If the flow is too weak or far away, life will wither and die on the surface.

"There is a strong light vein in this area; I believe that may be the catalyst you've sensed. And your attempts to access it are disrupting both your body and the vein itself."

Thankfully he does listen this time, frowning thoughtfully while Ginko explains. It sounds like utter bullshit, but it would explain why he can't find a trace of the thing anywhere he looks, and those odd dreams he sometimes has of that gold river.

And then things hit a little too close to home, and Ed sucks in a sharp breath. Life in the form of a liquid--no wonder it feels so much like the Stone. "But I only ever tried to use it once, and even that backfired! That's why I've been trying to find the source, to figure out a way to use it safely!"

and suddenly cult horror stories

/nopes right out

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