Ed and Gihren

<Gulping> The old man is sitting in his command chair on the bridge, his attention flicking between a worn paperback book and his tablet.

<Sandwitches> Edward Elric steps onto the bridge and makes a beeline for the oldman.  "Hey.  You free?"

<Gulping> He looks up, and raises an eyebrow. "I was merely passing the time, so I suppose I am." He sighs, and puts the book down, the page already dog-eared as he closes it, revealing a striking orange cover, featureless save for the bombastic font used for the title 'Breakfast Of Champions.' "I suppose we got off on the wrong foot. For what it's worth, I apologize. I... reacted badly."

<Sandwitches> Ed scratches the back of his head.  "Can't say I really blame you.  I did make a mess of things."

<Gulping> "I didn't mean that. I associate with Boss and Tiff. They break things merely by existing near them for any period longer than one minute. No, I meant when you introduced yourself as an Alchemist."

<Sandwitches> "Oh..  Yeah, you're not the first person who's reacted that way.  People have a habit of seeing new things they can't explain, and jsut assuming "Oh Hey, its magic!"."

<Gulping> "Actually, I was more thinking 'what has been done to achieve this feat... And who had to suffer for it?' My initial assumption was that you were using a combination of Zero-Point fields and nanomachines to repair the window."

<Gulping> "Then you mentioned 'Alchemy' and all I heard was a cacaphony of people, rambling about Newtypes and magic and horrible experiments."

<Gulping> He sighs again, and taps his computer a few times, bringing up a schematic of something bulbous and tracked. "

<Gulping> "This is the MAN-08 Elmeth. The first true Newtype Mobile Armor design. There were some before it, the Braw Bro for example, but that thing worked, even though it was so expensive I made sure it never got past the prototype stage."

<Gulping> "This, however... This is something that truly and earnestly made me furious. Because it didn't rely on proven mechanics. It relied on MAGIC."

<Sandwitches> "...  Are you serious?"

<Gulping> "They told me it used remote-controlled drone weapons, manipulated by PSYCHIC POWERS."

<Gulping> "Remote weapons were not a new concept, but were obsoleted because Minovsky Radiation, a byproduct and necessary element of the only practical fusion reactor my universe ever discovered, blocks radio waves just like it keeps the reactor from melting everything in the vicinity. So they needed an alternative means of control."

<Sandwitches> "And so...  They used Psychic powers?  What?"

<Gulping> "Now, a while back, at the time this design was developed, a politician theorized that mankind was experiencing an accelerated evolution due to being in space, and that these 'Newtypes' would possess special powers that would make them superior to ordinary humans. Powers like precognition and telekinesis."

<Gulping> "This was pretty much all bunk, of course. The 'Newtype' label stuck around, because some people did demonstrate uncommonly good reaction time and spatial coordination, which are very valuable traits to have when living and working in space full-time. But there was no proof of anything beyond that. So when this came to my desk..."

<Gulping> "I was enthusiastic at first, because I didn't think it was what it was. I saw a deep-space exploration pod and a store of miniaturized sattelites. Then they corrected me, and told me it was a magic fucking space tank."

<Gulping> The contempt in the old man's voice is palpable, and seems to drip. "I almost spaced them. Almost. What I really did was take control of their organization and set them to work on projects that weren't completely retarded. You'd think that'd be the end of 'Newtype technology.'"

<Sandwitches> Ed lets him continue.

<Gulping> "You would be wrong. More proposals for weapons that 'exploited a Newtype's potential' came pouring in, since one of the idiots blabbed and word spread like a disease. Weaponizing Newtypes was something I was opposed to morally and practically, but still they came."

<Gulping> "More than a few researchers I turned down would end up going rogue after the war, joining or starting terrorist organizations to fuel their idiotic research. Guess how they tended to go about this?"

<Sandwitches> Ed's expression has darkened somewhat.  "Creating the weapons themselves and sending them after you...  and Causing pain and suffering to everyone around them in the process, including the people they forced into their research."

<Gulping> "They rarely got far enough to deploy anything special. They weren't subtle about gathering 'research material.'"

<Sandwitches> "Thats a relief at least..."

<Gulping> "Not for the families and communities. And what data they'd get was worthless, even if there weren't standing orders to torch anything that couldn't be used in court."

<Gulping> "Those that weren't shot on the spot were invariably convicted by a grand jury on crimes against humanity, and spaced."

<Gulping> "Offering incentives for people to study psychiatry with an emphasis on therapy was one of the smartest things I ever did as a ruler..."

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<Sandwitches> Ed doesn't respond, still listening though his expression has reverted back to non-emotional one.

<Gulping> He sighs again, deeper this time. "...but there were always more. Ultranationalist radicals, out-and-out racists attempting military coups or secession, the ever-present problem of piracy, greedy and foolish men propping up puppet ideologues to try and ferment revolt in the name of outmoded politics... And all of them seemed to have their pet mad scientists to cook up some kind of atrocious wonder-weapon."

<Gulping> "...I'm an old, old man, and I've lived a hard, hard life... So much responsibility, so many hard choices..."

<Sandwitches> "...  But it sounds like they might have been the right ones."

<Gulping> "...I tried my best. Even when it meant being a monster in my own right. I am not unblooded, and I overstepped my boundaries whenever I thought I had good reason to. And for the longest period in recorded history, mankind was not at War. The year UC 0080 marked the beginning of a time of peace that, when my universe was destroyed, had lasted for an entire eighty years."

<Gulping> "There was conflict. There was strife. But there was no War. No great mobilizations, no atrocities in the name of ideology, no ships filled with flag-draped coffins coming back home."

<Gulping> "Even the Zanscare were a terrorist organization, rather than a real nation. Fighting them was a police action. People were arrested, not gunned down. When their leaders fled for their miserable lives, we didn't run them down and destroy them. We should have, in retrospect... But that would have taken time and effort out of relieving the people who'd suffered beneath them."

<Sandwitches> "..."  Ed nods again.

<Gulping> "They'd gone beyond all existing colonies. All that was past Jovian orbit were old satellites and probes. They should have died out there, in the darkness. But they didn't. They found something. And they used it to tear everything apart."

<Gulping> Gihren sighs like a man who should be long dead.

<Sandwitches> "...  You're a lot like someone from back home, Mister Zabi."

<Gulping> "I doubt he was my age. Most people my age die."

<Gulping> "Well, most people doing the amount of work I did are dead long before they're as old as I am."

<Sandwitches> "It wasn't the age...  It was the choices.  That Will that you have."

<Gulping> "That all-consuming drive to do the Right Thing, regardless of all other factors?"

<Gulping> "...It's good to hear other people like that existed."

<Gulping> He smiles slightly, although given all the lines, a 'slight' smile is kind of hard to pick up.

<Sandwitches> "I'm not the kind of person who can make those kinds of choices.  I never have been.  Which is why I'm glad that those kind of people exist."  He takes a step forward and puts forth his right hand.

<Gulping> He extends his, and grasps it tightly. "Pardon me if my grip's a bit hard. Had some medical issues."

<Sandwitches> The teeniest bit of a smirk crosses his lips.  "It's no problem."

<Gulping> "Forty years of paperwork for a nation that covers millions of kilometers of territory tends to wear things down."

<Gulping> "They actually said it was the worst case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome ever recorded."

<Sandwitches> "Wish I could say mine was for a reason that constructive."

<Gulping> "Alchemy accident? At least you got a good replacement."

<Gulping> "It took a long time to get prosthetics and bionics to the level mine are... Sometimes I still wake up before everything can get running again..." He shudders.

<Sandwitches> "More or less.  I have a good mechanic though.  Best in my world.  Never had anything like that happen to me though."

<Gulping> "It never lasts long, not even a second. But it reminds me I'm still mortal, despite the efforts of the best minds my world had."

<Sandwitches> "Nothing wrong with being mortal."  Ed says, a tint of some type to his voice.

<Gulping> "Although I wouldn't rule out them putting my brain in a jar to keep me alive forever. I never really did name a successor."

<Sandwitches> "...  I wish I could say thats the wierdest form of immortality I've ever heard of."  He gives a nervous laigh.

<Gulping> "Honestly, if it meant that things wouldn't fall apart, I

<Gulping> 'd take it."

<Sandwitches> "Thats...  Dedication I guess."

<Gulping> "The story of my life in one word."