Idealist Meets Realist [Alphonse]

[ashur grey]

Ashur sat within the small apartment he had rented for the month. The place was clean, had good heat and was dry, so Ashur could not really complain. It however was somewhat small for his tastes, but then again he had been staying in military barracks lately which were also fairly small. Just to be alone was a step up from that, besides the landlady was rather nice and even offered to cook meals for him if he wished.


Ashur had politely declined of course, he did not want to have even the possibility of making any ties with the old lady. Who knew what might happen if someone was angry enough at him, it was why he had distanced himself from his family as well. Not to mention, he preferred his own cooking to that of others. . . and so he sat within the small apartment, at his desk working on alchemy notes while he waited for his meal to finish.


He was making a pot of Halushki, stuffed cabbage. It was not a truly popular dish in Amestris, but his mother had made it for years at the cafe and it had quickly become one of his favorites. He was making a batch of twelve, far more than he could eat, but he figured he would give some to the landlady and have some for breakfast in the morning as well.


Standing, he moved to the oven and checked on the meal nodding with slight satisfaction they they were nearly done. Moving he set out a plate, glass and silverware and poured a glass of red wine for himself. He was not normally one to drink, but he was in the mood for wine for some odd reason. With everything ready he moved to take the Halushki out of the oven just as there was a knock at the door.


Stopping dead Ashur looked towards the door and immediately looked to a blue vase in the room and through seeing it's color used alchemy to make the towel in his hand into a small dagger of blue luxin. Moving towards the door he looked out the peephole, seeing a young boy on the other side. More specifically a young boy who had become rather famous in the past few years. Slowly, Ashur undid the locks on the door and cracked it open looking through the small opening, speaking to the young man.


"Good evening. . . What is it I can do for you Alphonse Elric. . ."


While he spoke he made sure to keep the blue luxin blade hidden behind his back, but out of sight. He was not sure what the Elric brother was doing here, but Ashur was not one to take many chances. . . For all Ashur knew the boy was here to settle some score he believed him responsible for.

[azzale]

Alphonse had been poking around all day. He had recently been studying alchemy at the central library, when he read a report about an alchemist specializing in light alchemy. Perturbed, he attempted to look more into it, but couldn't access many detailed files. The most he could find was that he could turn light into some substance called 'luxin'.

He had decided to see if he could find any rumours about this alchemist. It mentioned in the files he read that this alchemist, 'Ashur Grey', was a state alchemist, that should make it easier to find something out. He wandered around the library and asked a few people in the library before deciding to walk around central to see if he could find any people who knew anything.

He had finally found some information from an old lady. She turned out to be Ashur's landlady. She prattled on about him while Al listened with half an ear. At his request she directed him to Ashur's door, where he promptly knocked on the door.

After Ashur opened the door and posed a question to him, Al smiled. "Good evening. Sorry to bother you, but by any chance are you Ashur Grey? If so, would it be alright if i ask you some questions?" Al kept smiling. He hoped Ashur would agree to talk, he was very intrigued by his unusual alchemy.

[ashur grey]

Ashur listened as the boy apologized before asking him if he was in fact Ashur Grey. When he asked if it would be okay to ask some questions, Ashur was put at east a little. After all he had gotten use to people wanting to question him about many things in his life, although normally they were questions about things others considered vile such as the early incident in his military career.


Ashur nodded slightly stepping back and turning from the door, leaving it ajar. After he had turned he quickly hid the blue luxin blade within his right shirt sleeve so as not to alarm the boy. He would have dissolved it back into it's base elements, but the flash of alchemy would have alerted the boy he was up to something and in all honesty Ashur always felt more comfortable around people asking questions when he had a weapon on himself.


"I was about to sit down for a meal, join me."


While it was not presented as a question, Ashur did not mean to be rude, quite the opposite in fact. After all this boy helped to uncover and crush the conspiracy that had Amestris on the verge of destruction. The least he could do was offer the boy a hot meal and answer some of his questions if possible.


I wonder what it is he wants to talk to me about. Could be something about the Furher, maybe he wants to know about someone in the military?


"What can I get you to drink Alphonse? I would get you the same as me, but I fear you are a little too young for wine, at least in the state's eyes."


There were far too many possibilities for Ashur to truly speculate. For the mean time he simple had to wait for the questions to come out and proceed with readying the meal for them. While Ashur listened for a response to what he would like to drink he proceeded to get a small towel hanging near the oven and proceeded to pull the metal pan, complete with lid, moving to the table and setting it on top of a small block of wood, so as not to mar the actual tabletop. After the meal itself was set out he proceeded to set another place at the table.

[azzale]

Al smiled and stepped through the open door. It wasn't often he got invited into someones home. He was quite well known now, for what he had done, but he usually only got nods and waves from people, or the occasional conversation. He followed Ashur into the kitchen and waited as he brought out the food and set another place at the table.

"Just water, please." Al told him, with a hint of a laugh in his voice. He supposed he was still too young to drink. It had been a long time since someone had done anything to treat him as his actual age. He was barely ever treated his age in his armour. He sat at the table where Ashur had set him a place. He waited for Ashur to join him.

Al cleared his throat. "I was in the central library today, doing some research, and I saw a file that mentioned you. It caught my interest so I looked a bit more into it. I couldn't find much, but what I did find piqued my interest. Your alchemy is very interesting. I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about it? Like what is luxin?"

[ashur grey]

Ashur went to the cupboard, grabbing a small glass and filling it with water from the tap. Moving back to the table he set the glass before his guest and sat across from him, listening as the young man began to speak. So it was his alchemy the boy was interested in. It was definitely a relief to Ashur, here he had been expecting something much more important or possibly a grudge. A question about alchemy had not been among what he expected.


He was curious as to why young Alphonse had not been able to find out more about luxin from the library, but before he could even pursue the thought he realized why. All the books he had given to the library on luxin had most likely been burned in the fire a few years beforehand. For a few moments Ashur considered how best to show the boy, but soon enough he decided to just give him an example. With that quick decision Ashur let the knife he had earlier concealed in the right sleeve of his uniform slide down and into his hand. Setting it in front of Alphonse, Ashur set about to serving some food onto his own plate while speaking.


"That is luxin. Well, it is a type of luxin. There are seven different types, four of which are solid and three that are not. Luxin is natural material transmuted with the radiation of different colors of light."


Ashur pointed at the blade before Alphonse, it looking like blue glass or even a lightly colored sapphire. It looked beautiful to most, but to Ashur's eyes the true beauty lied in how useful it was. The edge was the width of an atom, meaning that it was as sharp as something could ever be. The only thing that sharp in nature was obsidian that was properly split. On top of that it was as hard as diamond which was obviously useful in a blade.


It was difficult for Ashur to explain luxin, he was never a great teacher. . . Which was why, if only partially his luxin was not used by others. The other reason being that only people who were superchromats, people who could distinguish the smallest difference in shades of color could utilize it correctly. Even if one could see such shades they still had to be talented enough in alchemy to transmute small parts of matter in the air, combine it with the radiation at the correct levels and get it to solidify properly. No. . . definitely not something that was easy.