thewarningafter | IC inbox for Snowblind

[This will be the third doctor he's spoken to today, and one of his last chances. He'd rather not talk to a new person about this, but he has no choice. He really thinks this might be a viable option, and a part of him doesn't care about the risk any more.

He sounds tired, but he's trying to push the rest down so it's not too audible.]

Excuse me, Dr. Strange, it's Alphonse Elric. I'd like to talk to you about an experiment at the hospital, I know you're nearby, do you think you could come back?

[Stephen doesn't see the message until the end of another long day, and his heart immediately sinks at the suggestion of returning to the hospital for the second time in as many days. That and a general sense of foreboding at the words 'experiment' and 'hospital' in the same sentence makes him cautious. With House in the next room (and Stephen unwilling to give him any kind of order to make him avoid listening in), he opts for text.

Alphonse had been...not quite what he'd expected in person. It seems weird to him to insist on going around in armor in this place months in, and he hadn't expected the kid to be so tall.]

Possibly. What kind of experiment?

[Possibly is better than no, so this is already going better than his previous two conversations.]

Winter told me about a machine that might be in the hospital, or maybe one of the morgues, that can remove a person's nanomachines. But she said it would need a medical professional to operate it.

[What really gets Stephen, what makes his hands shake too hard to type for a minute, is that he can see the worth in the experiment Al's proposing. The nanomachines broadcast their perceptions to the network, making video records just as useless as whatever hallucinations they're directly experiencing. The idea that they could remove the damned things is exciting even as he immediately envisions the consequences of doing so.

There's only one answer he can give.]

No.

What I did before was wrong. I'm not going to assist any more suicides,.

[He is so beyond sick of hearing that today.]

It's not a suicide!

[He can't help that it's almost a shout.]

Why does everyone keep saying that? The nanomachines are what's hurting me, I'd survive better without them, I know what I'm doing.

[So much for keeping this conversation quiet and private.]

The nanomachines are treating our radiation poinsoning. Our otherwise fatal radiation poisoning.

I can't get radiation poisoning.

[It's frustrated, a sharp snap. His secrets aren't as important as this.]

How I am, how I should be, it's not possible. I'm the best choice to try this because if it works, if they're gone, then I won't be in danger from the radiation.

[Nonsense. The kid's speaking nonsense. But...]

How are you so sure of that? Explain it to me.

It's... complicated.

[He's gone this far in and he needs the medical help, so deeper he goes.]

I don't have an organic body, I'm made of metal, radiation can't get to me.

...Really.

[He keeps his voice soft, but that declaration is enough to get him out of text. Kid in armor --> kid is a robot. Thought process adjusted, though it's going to take a while for that to actually sink in despite the weird amount of sense it makes to him.]

But you do have nanomachines -- has to be similar to what they did to my cloak, adding capillaries where there weren't any.

Mm.

[He doesn't like this and the discomfort is plain in his voice, though it's hidden under a thick layer of grief and tension.]

I guess so, that would make sense since I can bleed here. I shouldn't be able to, I'm still hollow, but-- they changed me. If I got the nanomachines out, I think I'd be as I should be.

As in actual blood?

[Sorry, Al, if you wanted to convince Stephen you're inorganic and fine without nanomachines, you probably shouldn't have told him that you bleed.]

Yeah, but it doesn't make any sense, there's nothing there to bleed.

[His secrets are smashed anyway.]

I'm still hollow, I checked, there's nothing in me to produce blood.

[That declaration is met with a long, thoughtful silence. Theoretically a hollow metal person should operate fine without the nanomachines if he did so before coming here. From examining the cloak, though, Stephen's aware that whatever physical changes have been made to ensure compatibility must be systemic. If Al can bleed, that indicates that something in him is organic, possibly within his metal 'skin' itself.]

And...other effects? Have you been sick at all since you came here?

No, never.

[If that answer sounds a bit clipped with annoyance, it's because it is. He hates that he's never been sick and still Dr. Watson won't let him help.]

I've never had any symptoms of MN poisoning, I've never been sick, not even once.

[Hurt? Yes. Sick? No.]

[Point in Al's favor. But...he can bleed and he knows it. Why does he know he can bleed?]

How about injured?

[He's already quietly opening his census in another tab...and look who's died twice. Look who's capable of dying. He lets out a thoughtful little sound.]

Yeah.

[He sounds cautious, guarded. He doesn't want this to ruin his chances for help.]

But that should be impossible, and I don't think it would be possible without the nanomachines. I didn't even-- I didn't even know I could bleed until I got here.

[It's a chance that's already slipping away. Stephen doesn't give him another flat no even though that's what he means; he'll explain his reasoning here.]

Whatever system put the nanomachines in us is capable of putting capillaries in a piece of clothing. If you have blood, you have blood vessels, and we have to assume there's an organic component to your body now.

Even if that's true, taking the nanomachines out should give me back my alchemy and I can try and rectify that myself.

[He's by no means an expert at bio or medical alchemy, but he knows the basic principles.]

How? Explain the methods you're planning to use.

[He's not going to immediately discount it just because the kid called it alchemy, but he's not going to immediately assume it'll be fine, either.]

Someone I know was teaching me about the medicinal applications of alkahestry, which is the type of alchemy used in Xing, I should be able to do enough to close up any wounds. In addition, I've seen what my brother has done to transmute my body in the past, I should be able to do it myself enough to rectify and changes they did to it.

[Maybe. Probably.]

So you've seen it, but you've never practiced it.

We're not talking about closing up wounds, we're talking about counteracting a constant barrage of radiation.

I just told you that I could rectify the changes they've done to me, that means taking out the organic components.

[Theoretically.]

I can't -- I can't trust to that.

[Possible. Theoretically possible, based on a system of magic(?) about which Stephen knows nothing and of which Al is not an experienced practitioner.]

I can't do this. Not again.

...what do you mean 'again'?

[Stephen's lost him now, clearly this is connected to something else that's gone wrong along the way.]

IC inbox for Snowblind

@LELRIC; audio; afternoon day 200

early evening day 200 | text

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