The Beginning of the End of the Beginning

[Guest]

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Tha-thump. Tha-thump. Tha-thump. Tha-thump...

Two sounds, one she was inherently aware of, the other.... outside. Not the men that spoke in her dream. So many of them there were! Telling her things, teaching her things. Training her even! It was... so awesome. She couldn't really find the right words for it. I mean, did everyone have such vivid dreams? The people seemed so real! She had even touched them! Yeah you sometimes touched people in dreams but... but somehow this was different. It was like she was awake. Lucid dream. Yes, that was the best word for it.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Louder now. What was that? Her head turned to the side as she shifted in her dream. The white landscape was gaining colors, swirling like pretty clouds from spray cans. A frenzy of art! Mmm, she should try to make something today. It felt like one of those days you know? No... No hold on. There was a weight pressing down upon her, pulling her down, down, downwards into some..place... Her body. Oh, but she was always in her body! Right? She was just sleeping. Unless there was something to that going places when you dream. Heehee, that seemed so unlikely and yet... part of her kind of wished it was true. There was alchemy in the world after all, who was to say that they couldn't astral project or share dreams or whatever it was?

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

OK OK ALREADY! Jesus Christ stop it already. What the hell? Light began to steadily filter in through her slowly opening eyes, everything all blurry. Her brows furrowed as she groaned, turning her head as she went to bring up her hands to cover her eyes from that glare. Stupid lights... There was a tugging sensation in her hand, and... was something down her throat?! Startling, she was now wide away, her dark eyes shooting open as she cast them wildly about. Beeping. Machine from a hospital. HOSPITAL?! What was going on?! WHERE WAS TOSS?! "Toss?" Why was it so weird to speak? It was like she hadn't moved around for ages. Like when you have a really long sleep and then you wake up and your voice is all gravely and ugly and stuff. "Toss?" She called louder, where WAS she?

A woman holding a folder was humming to herself as she walked into her room, glancing up lazily to the girl that was her charge. The woman did a double take, jumping in surprise as the file fell from her hand. "Oh goodness. Uh... L-let me get the doctor..." She spoke, leaving Hanna so very confused. Doctor? What had... Remember. With a gasp it all came back, the plane, the building, grasping her brothers hand. "No matter what..." OH MY ISHVALA. Toss! They had crashed! All those people... What had happened to her? Her body began to tremble and tears rolled up into her eyes. She was so scared, what had happened?! "TOSS! WHERE IS MY BROTHER?! TOSS!" She screamed, clawing at the IV in her hand.

A man came into view, startling at the state that she was in. Clearly she wasn't expected to wake up. Why else would they react in such a way? She wanted them to bow! SHE WANTED TOSS!! "Ah! Ms. Ivanova, please, it's alright. Toss is alright, calm down!" He rushed over to her side and reached for her hand, offering a warm smile to her. Her eyes were rather wild, locking onto his gaze like a dear in the headlights. Doctor... she should trust him sort of..right? Taking a few deep breaths, the tears still streamed down her face, the tension steadily leaving her body. Calm... She could do calm. The doctor smiled and gave her arm a gentle squeeze, "There's a girl.... Do you remember what happened last to you?" He asked carefully, pulling up a wheely stool thingy, a nurse coming into the room hesitantly. It was the woman from before.

"I... We... We crashed... We were in The Fallacy, and we crashed into a skyscraper. Where is my brother?" The tears welled up in her eyes and her lip trembled, TREMBLED. It didn't matter she was now technically 12, it didn't matter that she had been talking with people in her.... her.. dream... She had been a 9 year old girl when they... crashed... The doctor nodded slowly and reached a hand out without looking at the nurse, taking the file that she offered him. "Thats correct. He's alright, I promise you. I have no doubts he'll be around soon to visit, we'll page him right now." Ok... That was good... She could accept that.... But the doctor had more to say. You... Forgive me for being blunt but, you've been in a coma for 3 years. We weren't sure you'd wake up." He paused and watched her face, watching as her eyes widened and she sank back into the pillows she had been laying against. 3 years.... Holy Ishval.

She swallowed with some difficulty, her mouth suddenly rather dry. Looking down at her body, she noticed how her legs didn't seem so weak, nor her arms. Didn't people normally atrophy? "Why aren't I..." The man before her perked up and chuckled, shrugging as he looked down at the file in his lap, shaking his head in wonderment. "See thats the thing... We don't know. Normally your muscles would indeed be atrophied, your brain would have suffered some "vegetation" for lack of a better term, and," he raised his eyes to her, "We just don't know. Its a blessing though, I'd take it for what its worth." Another chuckle. Heehee, this man wasn't so bad, was he? He doesn't understand. Understand what? Blinking, she looked over her hands again, brown eyes steadily gaining their inquisitiveness, grinning as her gaze fell upon him. "Oh I am! I wonder if its a genetic anomaly or if its due to some outside stimulation."

The doctor grew quiet as he observed this young girl before him. How did she seem to know so much after being asleep for so long? He would have no way to explain this case to anyone after this. He almost wondered if his superiors would request for her to be kept behind to run some tests. Honestly right now, she was healthy enough for them to release. "--How has he been?" The doctor looked up to the girl in front of him, her eyes sparkling with life. So soon she had awoken, and she was already so.... fine. "Oh! He's been more than fine." He proceeded to fill her in on how her brother had joined the Carraig Air Force, Hanna gaining the most giddy grin ever to the news. He had done it! Was he flying amongst the stars yet? How were their parents? What had been happening? She had missed so much!!

"Tell me everything thats happened! Have there been any wars? Any new inventions? Oo! What about--" Her voice was quick, glancing up towards the ceiling and all about as she touched a finger to her chin, rambling off without even really thinking about how the doctor at this point. He was overwhelmed, his eyes widening as he threw up his hands with a light laugh, "Woah there! Not so much! There has certainly been a lot that you've missed, and you will be filled in. But in due time. Besides, wouldn't you rather have Toss explain it all to you?" He offered, making a few notes in her file. Oh thats true.... She did so want to talk to her brother. "Does he have a cell phone? Do you know what it is so I can call him?" She asked with a small tilt of her head, blinking rapidly as she stared expectantly at the good doctor. "Oh! Uh... certainly. Let me just...I'll be right back." He held up a finger and rose up from the stool, leaving the room for a moment. And thus Hanna was left alone, glancing about the room she had apparently been in for so long. Where was her brother? What had he been doing? Where was he now? So many questions, and so few answers at this point in time. God, she just... she wanted to know so much!

[Toss Ivanova]

The day started off as any day would: with Savvy scraping at his cheek with his nails. GOD. Toss moaned, and tried to roll over, but such a task was a bit difficult with a heavy-ass bird standing on your face. Mmph! He lifted the Albatross off and unceremoniously threw him towards the end of the bed. Today, he didn't care. The effects of Vanity's poison and the still-closing hole in his center was enough to keep him in place and more than a little lazy. Creaking a blurry red eye open, he squinted down at himself, seeing rouge-stained sheets and bandages scattered all over his bare chest. He sighed heavily, painfully even and dragged himself up, stopping only to open the window for his bird to fly out. Already, his vision was rippling, head fizzing as the poison continuously pumped through his veins each beat at a time, numbing everything down to his very thoughts. The air spun through his lungs, leaving threads behind, clawing at his insides as a voice broke through the surface of his mind, whispering cold, callous nothings. Greed. Toss knew--he knew it so well that it was only a matter of time. Kissing Vanity...it wasn't something he would have ever done--ever thought of doing, even if it was for Gavin. A chill glided hastily down his spine, scraping razor tongues against each bone as it went. Who was he anymore? All he knew--all he wanted right now was to stay with Gavin in Carraig--was to go to space and keep flying. Just keep flying... His eyes glazed over and he waveringly reached for a glass of water. Hah, water. What will they think of next? He threw it back and stared blankly at the door.

Something is happening out there. Toss suddenly felt sick, bile searing at his throat as he sped to the bathroom and clutched the toilet bowl. Everything he hadn't eaten clenched at his ribs, strangling his insides until nothing yet still remained. Eyes still clenched closed, he wiped his chin with a towel and went straight into the shower, relishing in how hard it was to shampoo hair while the world was spinning so fast. Where did the spinning come from? Why...why was it spinning that occurred, he wondered. Was it the awareness of the Earth also churning, albeit slowly? When he was done, his skin was reddened from the heat, jagged bits of light fermenting on the scabs where he continued to heal from the previous night. ...Amestris, eh? He brushed his teeth, after finding it surprisingly difficult to choose which tooth brush he wanted to use. It was equally as difficult to pick which cellphone he wanted to take with him... Choosing the orange one, he stuffed it in the pocket of his black cotton pants, proceeding to wrap bandages around himself to hide the less-than-gaping hole that had made progress while he slept. It seemed Vanity's poison was slowing that down... He didn't want to go and work on ships. The Fallacy was gone...so what was the point? He wanted to mourn. ...He wanted to cry. Hand on the doorknob, his clammy touch left condensation, eyes glued to the wooden door. He could call out. Gavin would understand. He felt sick just standing there. He felt sick and yet...

Something is about to happen. ...What? The phone rang. On the wall, a shrill yell beamed through the still space of the Ishvallan's apartment. He let go of the door and turned, placing the receiver to his ear. Why did he answer? He was about to go to work... No, why didn't he check the caller ID? FML.

"Hello this is Toss."

"Toss!" The woman on the other side jeered in Amestrian.

He stepped backwards, a white eyebrow raised while sopping, wet hair dripped down his neck and seeped into his plain, black muscle shirt. "What? Who is this?"

"This is Doctor Hayven. It's a mirac--"

"Hanna?"

"Yes! It's a miracle she woke up!! ... Hello? Toss? Hello??"

The wooden door slammed shut behind him, unlocked. His footfall echoed down the long hallway accented by long windows and blue sky. As he ran, his breath came out slowly in short, painful pants. The second he reached the lower level, he burst through into the garage and hijacked the first ship that entered his sight. It didn't matter whose it was; nothing mattered accept getting there.

In a ship, it took all of and hour and three minutes at full-speed for Toss to reach the parking lot of the Amestrian hospital. He threw the hunk of metal into twelve car-sized spots and leaped out of the cockpit, stopping only briefly as the shock of ground shot up his caffs. Then, he ran again, down the halls, up the stairs, past the desk that yelled at him to sign in, into the elevator, to he floor, down the hall way again. He stopped. Just at her door he stopped. Not to think, no, but to breathe. On the verge of passing out, he clutched the door and took deep breaths, focusing and refocusing his faulty gaze. Only when he was certain that he was stable did he burst in, break the distance, and drag Hanna into something that Toss had never initiated before in his life: a hug. ...Fuck. His head buzzed, getting louder and louder. His eyes shut. Her smell encompassed him. Her voice... Those beautiful eyes. She was awake. She's awake. This wasn't a dream. She's awake. After three years... May 20th. May 20th. What month was it now? February... He felt moisture gather under his eyelashes and finally pulled away to actually look at her...to maybe say something. What was there to say? I'm sorry? I'm...I'm just so sorry...

It was half the stone you gave her. Toss clutched his head and listed to the side, knocking over a stand with instruments on it. They clambered to the ground in the company of just the two of them, alone--yet not alone for long. The attending doctor, Doctor Hayven's associate, burst in, and seeing that it was Toss and not Hanna, froze. The homunculus held up a hand behind him, panting, signaling that he was okay before he came up with a suitable excuse. "Ran here," he whispered, vision going out again before he shifted his weight from the stand and straight to the bed. He sat down next to his sister, blinking furiously to focus on her. The doctor left hurriedly to leave them be, although felt some reluctance to the strange symptoms her brother was showing. Had he had a crash recently? The doctor shook his head and shut the door behind him. ...When was the last time Toss had smiled? Looking at his sister and her beautiful smile--how okay she was. It hurt... His cheeks hurt, not from Savvy, but from smiling. Oh god, Hanna was awake. "What do you remember? I..."


[So technically >.> Shove/Hanna would be 12 now since Toss is 23 and was 20 when they crashed. It’s been three years. If it was 11, Toss would be 31 O_O;]

Spoiler:

[Guest]

[Ok, so I editted my previous post to match the correct age and stuff. Though mentally she'll still be like... 20 or something. Maybe? Does that work for you? If someone pulls her profile out, I can edit her age and stuff too.]

Where was he? How was he? What was going on in the world? How long was that doctor going to take?! Hanna was growing impatient as she sat there in her bed, legs itching to stretch and move. Too long had she been confined to this bed, and she wanted to MOVE. She wanted to run around! She wanted to skip and dance! But most of all? She wanted her brother! Her fingers softly tapped against the top of her bedsheets, dark eyes scanning the room for any sort of point of interest while she tried to wait as patiently as possible for some kind of sign that her brother had been reached. Her precious brother, her darling older brother... He had finally achieved the dream he had always wanted.

And she hadn't been there.

It was a sudden, sobering thought that struck her so, casting off the smile that had remained upon her lips while her body bounced. She fell still. Toss had tossed himself high into the sky and she hadn't been able to share it with him. Flame and smoke flared up in her nostrils, the memory as vivid as if it had happened yesterday, which, to her, felt like it had. "Hello? Toss? Hello?" Hanna could hear the doctor talking out in the hall, turning her head slightly in curiosity. So he had been reached? Had he had he? She had to know! She needed to know. This was her brother they were talking about here, and he was the world to her! There were ripples of voices, familiar voices in their ever shifting pattern that whispered in her ears, offering words of comfort to her nervous heart. Already she had moved on from her guilt of being asleep (which she concluded was ridiculous at this point), and was back onto the excitement of getting to see her family again! Or would she? So to distract herself, she stared down at her hands, staring at the back of them. Pale skin, smooth and soft, strong. They were the same as they had been before, just a little older. An age was now tied to them that was unfamiliar to her.

Three years.... She was 12 now. 12! She was almost a pre-teen! So why didn't she feel like one? Why did she feel so disoriented? Don't fear little one. It'll be explained soon. Now what was that? Oh yes! She knew that voice, yes she did. Heehee, ok. She could be patient! Right? Ok, maybe not. Man, where was-

"TOSS!!" The word leaped out of her mouth as he came bursting through the door, time seeming to slow as those familiar arms wrapped around her. Brother.. Her big brother... He was here! He was here now! Her small arms were wrapped tightly about his body, her face buried within his shoulder as her tears bled into his shirt. Words wanted to be spoken, wanted to be heard by him and yet they wouldn't come. They didn't want to come out! Why wouldn't they come out?! So she nuzzled further into his body as if she could somehow meld into his skin, choking back a sob. No! She shouldn't cry! She was a big girl now, and big girls didn't cry! Its ok to cry little one. Was it? Was it really? The odd thing was as soon as that voice said that, the urge to cry was subsiding to quiet tears that rolled down her cheeks, sensing as her brother began to move. He was pulling away, but he wasn't leaving away. No no, just pulling away. The siblings stared at each other, their appearance so different from each other now. Her eyes used to be red, now they were black. Her hair used to be white, but now it was black or brown. Yet you could still see by the contours of their faces, the structure beneath the flesh that these two were related.

But he was tilting. The world was tilting, her world was tilting! "Toss?!" She reached for him as his body leaned further and further into nothingness, the tray making a resounding clang as it scattered its contents across the linolium floor. Her hands only reached his one wrist, clutching with a surprising strength while her bed shook. She could have totally caught him! She totally could have.... Doctor? No, nurse. A foreigner in the room. They were not related to them. But that person knew medicine, more medicine than she knew. Yet before she could speak her words of fear, Toss spoke, "Ran here,"[/i] Obviously he had, but Hanna knew. She knew the truth. There was something very wrong with her brother right now, and it terrified her. She was trembling again, the ripples rolling throughout her body as he seemed like a limp noodle trying to remember how to stand, flopping down onto the bed with glassy eyes. Could he not focus? Her brows were furrowed as her ebony gaze never left him, only shifting to the different parts of his body as he moved before finally remaining upon his face. That face that she knew so well.

"What do you remember? I..." He was still again, and he was focusing on her. Oh Toss.... What had been happening with him? How could she not smile to have him there with her? To see him smiling so brightly? "I told you we'd be ok." She said softly, her hands moving to clasp at his as if to be the stone that would hold him still. "I hope the Fallacy wasn't too damaged from the crash. Oh! Congratulations on flying with Carraig! The doctor filled me in on a little bit of what has happened, but a lot was left out. Or I thought so." She brightened and relaxed, rose and fell, shifting with the youthful energy that befit someone of her age. So why did she feel so much older than she was?

[Toss Ivanova]

"I told you we'd be ok." She had; he remembered--no--he remembered too well: that voice. It was the voice he had last heard from her--a mask slapped over the situation that nearly killed her. He wanted to take back her own words so many times despite how much the irony in them seemed to comfort him. 'Hanna thought they'd be okay...so maybe they would be', that was what Toss kept in his heart. In the air--flying, that was what he treasured most of all. And when he almost died again himself... He became a monster to live for her--to live until the day she woke up. It was the stone. Yeah, it was. It was... Toss: Greed, the merciless hoarder still capable of tearing out half himself by force and thrusting it into his baby sister so that she may lead a more endearing life than he. He did it. Now...now she was awake. He couldn't believe it. That phone call. Hanna!! She...that was Hanna! She...looked so weird with dark features, but it was her through and through. What was it, he wondered, that had spurred that change? It was the stone. Maybe... "I hope the Fallacy wasn't too damaged from the crash. Oh! Congratulations on flying with Carraig! The doctor filled me in on a little bit of what has happened, but a lot was left out. Or I thought so." The Fallacy...three years ago? Damaged!? They crashed through a building, right into an office. He watched the people scatter for their lives. He didn't even know if any of them died. No, because after he lost consciousness... Before Carraig he...

"Three years is a long time," he laughed, ruffling the white hair on the back of his head. The messy locks were even more disheveled when he was done, hand returning to poke at Hanna's cheek. Who knew, Star Wars was popular so it was only a matter of time before holograms were invented. His smile faltered slightly when another wave of nausea hit him, forcing a deep sigh to take the place of a gag. "The Fallacy was beyond repair after that day, but Cayden took it for me to Carraig. Then, I didn't know him. But he fixed it up for me with King Gavin's help and installed the G36 boosters along with the new (at that time) FM3.6 digital interface and--" Ah, he could talk about his ship all day. "But..." Toss closed his eyes so she wouldn't see the horror reflected there. He didn't want her to...have any idea what he went though, yet at the same time, she had to know. It wasn't fair to keep it from it. It just wasn't. "Projekt Erzengel. ...That was the name of the organization that I woke up to. I became a guinea pig for their bird > human experiments." Without hesitation, Toss yanked off his muscle shirt and turned slightly so she could see the scars marring his skin--scars that wouldn't ever go away even with Father's sin and a Philosopher's Stone. "I used to have wings," Toss laughed bitterly, blatantly ignoring explanation for the bandages strung around himself and the red glow jutting out through the fabric. "They scavenge accidents and I was 'chosen'. That's where I spent the first year you slept through. Lazy if you ask me." He laughed at his sad excuse for a joke.
"Tore the wings off, Cayden saved me and took me to Carraig where I started as dirt and climbed my way up from a test pilot. I was shot at in Amestrian skies and went down. I died that day." Toss smiled, red eyes still averted with concentration, however, he turned and looked at her then. See--see it there. Ready to be overwhelmed?

...

We're not human. "We're not human." Sharp, jagged inhale burned his lungs. He turned away from her, fiddling with his hands. How would she take it? He was ready to be slapped. Yeah, he was totally ready to be slapped. Or she'd laugh and tell him that she was being serious. No, he had the scar to prove the wings...but inhuman? Yeah... Right now, they were half human, half devil--sin incarnate, Father's pawns, monsters. Was that acceptable? To wake her up on a whim, was that being selfish? What would she think--what would she say? He was sorry. I'm so sorry, Hanna. He stopped calling her Shove. She was always Shove to him, but now...now she was Hanna. After everything--after so much suffering, he didn't deserve to call her Shove anymore. He was...Toss was--A murderer. Ugh. That word was so strong, but it was only just a word. Yeah, that's who he was now, but to drag his little sister into it? She was only 12. TWELVE. He watched her grow laying on a bed. He also knew after he gave her the stone that it would only be a matter of time. Her condition had been worsening...three years in a comatose state tended to feast on a person's life energy and start going into the negative. That was why. He couldn't lose her. Their parents were getting older and they were starting to ask questions--starting to wonder why their son hardly came home and only sent money... NO. It wasn't like that. He just-- He just couldn't because... White Devil. That's what he was. And he had come to terms with it long ago. Gavin himself now knew and had come to terms with it, but... But would the one person in the world he cared about accept who he was now and what he made her into in order to save her?

[Guest]

They were back together again... She had never been alone during that long time she had been asleep, but they had still been separated by that line of consciousness. Stupid consciousness being a butthead. Though... She knew. She knew he had come whenever he could, he had stayed by her side to watch her heal without ever knowing... Oh Toss... How had he managed? She had to bite her lower lip against the overwhelming sensations that were boiling within her to see her brother again. She couldn't quite say alive and well, though he was certainly alive much to her relief. Seriously, what was wrong with her big brother? Why did he seem so weak right now? Was he drunk? No... No she had seen people drunk before, and he didn't seem like them. He wasn't slurring his speech though... He was stumbling around, and he was having trouble focusing....She had no idea what to think right now, so she would focus on the simple fact that they were together again. "Three years is a long time," Hanna giggled and nodded twice, her hands sliding away from his to rest in her lap as her legs crossed beneath the blankets. "It is, it is! Yet it felt like so much longer than that... I wonder why that is..." Her voice grew distant as she pondered those workings of the world, a finger coming to touch the tip of her chin. You had to be freed from the long dark. And then, you began to learn. Mew? Was that how things worked? Shrugging lightly to herself, her dark gaze refocused upon her siblings features, letting out a light, shrieking giggle of surprise at the poke to her cheek. Oh he was so silly!

"The Fallacy was beyond repair after that day, but Cayden took it for me to Carraig. Then, I didn't know him. But he fixed it up for me with King Gavin's help and installed the G36 boosters along with the new (at that time) FM3.6 digital interface and--" Aaaaand jargonjargonjargon~ Buuuuut what she did understand was that they had taken serious damage. It couldn't have been too terrible though considering he had been flying it fine after that though, right? Blinking with the look of one who was smiling and nodding when they didn't understand, Hanna had to smile as he caught himself rambling on. "But..." Now hold on, why was he closing his eyes? Was he tired? Did he need her bed? "...But?" It was such a small word hardly befitting the context but there it was anyways. Had.. had something happened to her brother? No! She'd- "Projekt Erzengel. ...That was the name of the organization that I woke up to. I became a guinea pig for their bird > human experiments." Hanna froze there in her bed, staring at the brother she loved so dearly incredulously. He... He had been experimented upon? "Who..." The thought wasn't finished as the physical proof was displayed to her right there on his back. With a hesitant hand she reached forward to touch those telltale scars, "I used to have wings." Her hand stopped inches from his skin, lowering to the bed as the rest of his current state was revealed. He was injured! Heavily injured! But... why was part of it glowing? "I... " Where in the world were her words?! She couldn't even form some kind of sentence to comfort him! Though knowing her brother, he would hardly want her pity much less anyone elses. That was just how he was.

But the horrors were hardly over yet. "They scavenge accidents and I was 'chosen'. That's where I spent the first year you slept through. Lazy if you ask me." His laugh did nothing to put her at ease, she only began to shake her head slowly at first before it grew into something fervent. No! No, no, no! She hated that expression he was wearing, she hated the people who did this to him, and she hated... that she hadn't been able to do anything. Why couldn't she have woken up sooner? She would have cut those men to pieces! It wasn't time. You were still trapped in the long dark. That is no excuse! Your abilities at the time would have proven insufficient. Her lower lip began to tremble as tears formed in her eyes, now scared to touch him lest she brush an injury and cause him pain. This was becoming a lot for her to handle on the first day she had woken up, and yet... She understood she had to know. She had asked to know this. "Tore the wings off, Cayden saved me and took me to Carraig where I started as dirt and climbed my way up from a test pilot. I was shot at in Amestrian skies and went down. I died that day."

He... died?

"Wh..what?" That was impossible. He was right here with her, he couldn't have... Listen. A nervous half-smile had creapt it's way to her features as she stared there in utter disbelief at him, slowly shaking her head. "Th-This is just one of your jokes right brother? I mean you couldn't have-" "We're not human." The words echoed in her ears for a moment, her dark eyes gazing blankly ahead as if his statement hadn't quite sunk in yet. And it hadn't. They weren't.. human? You already knew this. Have you looked at yourself in the mirror? How would you know the things you do? How would you hear me? Blinking a few times, Hanna seemed to pull out of the trance that she had been in so she could look over her hands once more. Her arms, her torso, her legs.... She hadn't been atrophied. She retained, and gained, knowledge while in a coma. But her appearance? Casting her eyes about, she could only see a mirror that hung on the wall in the tiny little bathroom, there were no others about. So she swung her legs to the side of the bed and slid off the edge, staggering a little as she stood on her own two feet. There was some disorientation between her brain and her muscles as she moved towards that mirror, her hands reaching outward in preparation to catch herself.

She gripped the doorframe as she stepped inside slowly, the floor cold to her bare feet. She had to gulp down the stone that had grown in her throat so she could take those few steps forward, preparing to see.... Herself. But she was not herself. Gasping softly, her hands raised upwards to her face, touching her cheeks, then her hair, then just below her eyes. She was... different. Where were her crimson eyes? Her white hair? Why had she.... changed.... She wasn't human. You aren't human. She wasn't anymore. Oddly enough, the concept was something she was alright with. Standing up straighter, she turned away from that enlightening mirror in order to return to her bed, walking with little to no difficulty to the white bed in the white ward. "So if we aren't human, what are we then?" She asked him as she clambered back underneath the covers, gasping in excitement as a thought struck her. "Are we aliens now? Were we abducted?" But her enthusiasm wasn't shared by her brother. He seemed extremely troubled actually. Why was that? "Toss... Whats wrong? Was it those bad men? Are they still bothering you? I'll kick their asses!" She punched forward while making sure not to hit him, making a face to go with the motion before smiling softly to him. She didn't want him upset or sad, not at all!

[Toss Ivanova]

Of course she was a girl; it made sense for her to beeline for a mirror. Toss didn't move, bracing himself for the scream, waiting listlessly for her to fall onto the ground and stop sobbing--waiting for her to blame him for turning her into a monster. Details would come later, but for now she was stuck like that--for now, she was alive. Was that okay--was that right? Toss had to stop asking himself those questions. This was the only way. He creaked his eyes open, and--and she didn't scream. Oh, thank god. He massaged his temples and stood up, catching her elbow as she started to walk back with no problem at all. His sister was walking. This was no dream. She slipped back under the covers for a reason much beyond Toss's imagination and then--then began the question. Alright. Let's do this. He cracked his knuckled and sat back down, looking more than a little worse for wear. Speaking of wearing... He yanked his muscle shirt back over his head and situated it over the glowing bandages. Alright, alright bring 'em on!!!

"Are we aliens now? Were we abducted?" ......................................................the fuck was he supposed to say to that!?

"Uhh..." he answered intelligently, fiddling with one of the sheet corners. Aliens? Really? ALIENS? Yeah, I came here in a U.F.O.; we actually own Mars. JESUS. He needed a drink. He pulled awkwardly at a piece of white hair and stared at his left hand where the oroboros was. "We're homunculi. Well, you have a great deal of it at least save for this." He flipped his hand over and pointed at the symbol that was permanently etched to his skin. "We're Greed. There are eight sins of Father...that's really all I know." Toss glanced around nervously, not really knowing why, but feeling nervous and more than a little like he was going to die. DAMN YOU WOMAN. Vanity saved his life and he paid his dues, but coming to Fort Briggs to bring him with her, instead of respecting his decision to stay neutral with King Gavin was just... UGH. His eyebrow twitched.

"Toss... Whats wrong? Was it those bad men? Are they still bothering you? I'll kick their asses!"

"Ehh..." he answered with the intelligence of Einstein himself, letting the sheet drop from his other hand. "I have a dose of lethal poison running through me right now. It's fine. Don't worry; it just annoying and it's making me heal slower so yeah. But really, can we get out of here? Hospitals make me nervous. So I um...I live in Carraig. For now, we're just going to go there. And after some things have settled down, we can take you to the parentals. Sound good? Good because, at this point, there isn't really a choice. Things are a bit crazy right now. It's better to take you somewhere that I know is safe. Like Carraig since I'm pretty much the best pilot they have there and I know King Gavin personally. You'll like him...he'll want to meet you eventually. So let's start there?" If brains could explode, Toss was sure he was about to.

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