someone left a cake in the rain

[rewritethis]

[BANG. BANG.]

Dash! Dash!! Open up!

[Doorknocking this violent isn't an uncommon occurrence around this particular dorm, especially accompanied by that voice. What might be a bit more notable is that the sound actually seems to be coming from somewhere close to the floor. Yes, closer than usual. In fact, knocking probably isn't the right word...]

Comments

[elementofloyalty]

[She ducks her head, rubs a hoof through her mane, then looks up at him again.] Tell me about it.

[rewritethis]

[He pauses halfway across the room with an armful of shirts, apparently thinking, but not for long.] Nah. Sounds like it'll be funnier leaving it to your imagination.

[Which is purely a jab at her, and not at all a circuitous way of saying he doesn't want to recall more of it than he has to. Duh.]

[elementofloyalty]

Oh ha ha. Well if you ever decide you want to talk about it and not be the Secret-Keeping Alchemist, I wanna hear.

[rewritethis]

[Hey now, that's someone else's title...]

Since when were you into that kind of thing? Did you pick up a medical textbook while I wasn't looking?

[elementofloyalty]

I don't care about the weird details! I just... I just want to know what it was like for you.

[rewritethis]

[He shrugs as dismissively as he can without dropping his clothes, as if to say yeah, sure she does.] Over quicker than the rehab. It had that going for it.

[elementofloyalty]

Well I wanna hear about that part too. I can't even imagine what it's like to learn to walk again, but I wouldn't be able to even TELL if I didn't know.

[rewritethis]

[He still looks a bit sceptical.] You're not that worried about losing a leg, are you? [It's his best guess at why she's suddenly interested...]

[elementofloyalty]

Please, are you kidding? I'm way too tough.

[She thumps a wall with a casual backhoof, just to make it rattle.]

[rewritethis]

Then you don't have any reason to care. [And, again, back to his laundry.]

[elementofloyalty]

[Rainbow blinks in surprise, then frowns.]

...the fact that you believe that says so much about you, Ed.

[rewritethis]

[For a minute, there's no further sound out of him except the rustle of folding clothes.

When he does respond, his tone is markedly matter-of-fact, almost clipped.] It hurt. [Another pause, heavy with the unspoken snippets of less concise descriptions he's pushing aside.] But you could've guessed that.

[elementofloyalty]

Yeah, it's funny -- healing always seems to hurt more than actually getting hurt to begin with.

[She has experience in this, after all.]

[rewritethis]

You'd call that healing? That implies anything like it would've happened naturally.

[He hasn't stopped shuffling around, putting his clothes away.]

I didn't even know if it was another mistake or not. I could've told them to stop. Wanted to, a few times. But each time I started thinking that, all I had to do was remind myself how little any of it meant. And that made it okay.

[elementofloyalty]

I'm trying to imagine how bad it must have been for stubborn you to have wanted to stop. I'm not sure my imagination is good enough.

[And having zinged him...] How little it meant? What do you mean?

[rewritethis]

I'm alive, aren't I? So when you look at it objectively, it wasn't that bad. That's something worth remembering in general.

[elementofloyalty]

[She opens her mouth, stops, thinks, closes it again, and thinks some more.]

...Yeah, that is a good point.

[rewritethis]

Just don't ask how it felt subjectively.

[He looks down.]

It was worth it, though. I could've sat through the whole operation twice over if I'd had to. It still would've been nothing.

[elementofloyalty]

Yeah, it must have been really worth it in the end, right? Being able to walk and use your arm again.

[rewritethis]

...You are thinking about what it'd be like for you to lose a leg, aren't you?

[He rubs the back of his neck and adds, in a less mock accusatory tone of voice:] It's not for everyone, automail. It's got nothing on a real limb, and... I didn't really do it for my sake. But having two feet to stand on after all of that sure was something, I gotta say.

[Then he eyes her.] Definitely not for you, if you had any crazy ideas. You'd never get off the ground again. [As if basic physics is doing such a great job with her right now.]

[elementofloyalty]

You're wrong there. Didn't I just prove I could lift two metal limbs?

[And the person they're attached to. But her cocky grin fades as she looks back over herself.]

They wouldn't work for wings, though. If I was gonna lose anything, that's what I'd hate. Not that I want to lose anything. And that wasn't what I was thinking about anyway!

[rewritethis]

So what were you thinking about? [More specifically, was it another jab at him?]

[elementofloyalty]

Just that -- you say it's not like a normal limb at all, but you really do move like they are.

Don't go getting a swelled head over this, but it's kinda impressive.

[rewritethis]

[She's seriously asking him not to get a swelled head over something?]

'Course I do. If I couldn't, there wouldn't be any point to them, right? That's what other prosthetics are for. And besides - [He claps, raises his right fist again (partly so it's pointing neither at her nor at the clothes draped over his other arm, but mostly to try and look cool) and, with no regard for weapon safety whatsoever, breaks out a short version of his armblade.] it's not all bad.

[...Actually, by his standards, that's nearly modest.]

[elementofloyalty]

Whoa!

[Congratulation, Ed, you have successfully impressed the rainbow-maned pony whose opinion you obviously don't care about, obviously.]

That was awesome!