[network] @ADMIN; Arrival [open]

[snowblindmods]

Welcome to Norfinbury. The time is E̛̬̞͖͖̫R҉͖̯̬R̼̻͉̰͎̳̙O̩͓͔̫͇͈̯R and the date is E̛̬̞͖͖̫R҉͖̯̬R̼̻͉̰͎̳̙O̩͓͔̫͇͈̯R. This network has been provided for your use. Please interact politely with everyone else on this network.

Comments

@LELRIC; text

[armoured]

[After CLarke's absence it became clear to Al that her usual help offered to the newcomers would be absent, so he has taken the survival guide in hand and updated it accordingly.

This a helpful information link is sent out in general to everyone.]

@CaptSteveRogers; text

[starsandtights]

Hey, Alphonse. It's good to see someone's keeping that resource updated.

Feel free to put me down on the contact list. I can help with "combat", although I'd prefer to think of it as self-defense. Survival skills, in general and cold weather specifically. I've got some basic field first aid training. I'm decent enough with sewing, or repair jobs anyway, it wouldn't be pretty but it would hold strong. Knife maintenance, firestarting. And "general help", I guess.

I'm sure if you made an announcement you could get a few more people on that list. Or maybe reached out to a few people specifically. Shepard and Steph come to mind. Maybe the soldier guys from Gaia, Kain and Zack? They seem decent enough, and they'd have useful skills. And even if he is obnoxious, Dr. Hot Stud? Greg? He's a doctor, right? Wouldn't hurt to see if he wouldn't mind going on the contact list.

Anyway, keep up the good work, kid.

[armoured]

[The last person he wants to work with is Dr. Hot Stud, not now or ever, and he sure as hell wouldn't want to inflict him upon newcomers. But if he is a genuine doctor (something Al is sceptical about), then maybe it would be necessary.]

Yeah.

I only just finished editing the information that was already there to make sure it was up to date, I'm hoping to put the word out for more people to add themselves in to help.

But thanks for the advice, and I'll add you to the list now.

@dissect; text

[circumsutus]

You can list me as another emergency physician.

[Maybe he'd seem more trustworthy if he used his name, but that's not going to happen.]

@LELRIC; audio

[armoured]

[That's actually quite a comforting message to get, and the username doesn't put him off either.]

Right, but what's your name?

[Or should it just be dissect?]

And forgive me for asking, but were you originally a mortician?

[The name reminds him of something Dr. Knox might call himself, and he turned out to be a wonderful medic.]

[circumsutus]

You can just put the username. Hotstud has started calling me Dr. Stitches, if you want to rely on his naming skills.

[Stein's managed to completely avoid saying his name even once since he's been here (it was caution at first, now it's just for amusement), and look, he's even keeping House's secret name thing going.]

Battlefield surgery, mainly pediatric. I'm also a biologist.

[armoured]

[He does NOT want to rely on House's skills for anything, but he will casually pass that by.]

A paediatric battlefield surgeon? Were-- Do a lot of children go to war where you're from?

[circumsutus]

[What a bizarre question. But completely different worlds mean that there's going to be some confusion.]

I'd be out of a job if they didn't.

[armoured]

[He knows he and Ed are young, and that his brother is military, but it's hardly ordinary enough to need a specialised surgeon for kids.]

Are you at war?

[His voice is sympathetic, surely there could be no other reason for a large amount of kids to be fighting.]

[circumsutus]

It takes a lot of effort to destroy an entire group of people.

Research and experimentation are my passions. So I take people apart and I put people back together.

[armoured]

[Wow, that... really isn't what he wanted to hear. He gets a horrifying flashback to chimera creation, to people the fifth laboratory and the experiments there, and--]

Why would you do that? Why would you try to destroy anyone?!

[circumsutus]

A clash of ideologies so strong that both sides become convinced that their only hope of continued survival lies in the destruction of the opposition. That's what a war is.

[armoured]

I know what a war is, but what you're describing is an extermination.

[It sounds too eerily similar to what happened in Ishval.]

Countries at war usually don't want to completely destroy the other people.

[circumsutus]

Total elimination isn't a requirement, but in this case it's the only option.

Pacifism isn't a trait I expected to see in someone who refuses to take off his armor.

[Stein might not have read every reply to every post on the network, but he has gone through and seen every post.]

[armoured]

[There's a beat or two of silence following that. He hadn't expected newcomers to go and find the rare instances he appeared visually on the network, and it's a little disconcerting.]

I'm not a pacifist, I know that sometimes fighting is the right thing to do. But complete extermination? How can you possibly say that's the only option?

[circumsutus]

It's very simple when both sides have the same goal.

[armoured]

But why? What could have led to such extreme goals on both sides?

[circumsutus]

What do you think?

[armoured]

I don't know, that's why I'm asking you.

[Even the one sided extermination of the Ishvalans had been hard enough to understand, even once he knew who was behind it, but both sides?]

[circumsutus]

Use your imagination. Is there anything in your world that would lead to two groups trying to exterminate the other?

[armoured]

Why won't you just tell me, what are trying to hide?

[He doesn't want to imagine what would lead to two countries trying to exterminate the other, far beyond a normal war. He just wants the truth.]

[circumsutus]

I'm not hiding anything. I'm establishing a frame of reference.

If there's nothing you could imagine that would upset the balance enough to lead to a war of extermination, then I would need to go into a more detailed explanation.

[armoured]

[His reply takes a second or two to come while he contains his discomfort.]

I know what could lead to one country deciding to exterminate the other, but not both sides declaring such a horrible thing.

[circumsutus]

[That seems personal. He wonders which side Alphonse's homeland was on.]

What was the reasoning in your world?

[armoured]

[An insane homunculus orchestrated mass death on the path to Godhood... Yeah, he can't say that.]

I was still a kid at the time and I wasn't anywhere near the direct conflict zone.

[It's the truth, but also an evasion, and he hopes it makes it sound as if he had no idea of the reasons.]