riverviewlogs | [open] try to tell the difference

Hey.

[Ed looks up from his research long enough to give Cisco a glance in greeting before golden eyes fall to the basket in one arm and then back to Cisco pointedly, as if he doesn't get it. He notices the way the poor guy falters with a slightly quirked brow, Cisco doesn't exactly have the best poker face on the moon, but he moves past it fast enough that Ed almost doesn't have time to question what might have caused the reaction.

It sinks in as he's explaining about olive branches that Ed hadn't thought to put a shirt on, and perhaps without any warning that might have caused the reaction - but considering Cisco breezed onto the next topic without so much as a questioning look or word of sympathy things seemed to be going smoothly enough on that front.]

Uh, yeah I've- heard of that one. Thanks.

[He's just going to smirk a little, mostly as a sign he's not mad over the whole ordeal - of course, if he was Cisco probably would have gotten a completely different reaction to his message - and move some stuff out of the way to allow him to set the basket down. Not really looking at Cisco as he speaks next.]

It was a nice thought, at least. Magnus said you did it because you thought he was lonely, you were just trying to be a good friend, I get that.

[ Cisco's eyes do return to the automail once or twice, but he's not staring, and he doesn't ask about it - at least, for the time being. Of course he's curious, but he didn't show up so he could interrogate Ed about something that's probably fairly private. After all it can't be a coincidence that when Ed is out and about he covers up that arm. Probably not something he likes talking about all that much. ]

Didn't know if you liked beer, but you can always give it away to your floormates if not. Or, you know, to whoever.

[ He'd been meaning to stop by and apologize for a while now, but something had happened recently to quicken the process. Cisco had been headed home from his workshop when he'd spotted Ed with a girl. Cisco almost hadn't recognized him at first, as distinctive as his looks are, because Ed had looked so... happy. Bubbly, laughing, delighted. It had occurred to him that maybe... well, who knows. That there might be something going on there.

A little awkwardly, he continues: ]

I, uh- realized after the fact I probably should've checked with you first to make sure you were still single, and all. And if you were, y'know, interested at all. That's my bad. I was so preoccupied with whether or not I could that I didn't stop to think if I should.

[That might make Cisco the most tactful person on the moon regarding this subject, next to Laura of all people. He wouldn't be surprised that Cisco had questions, but if he'd learned anything in all this multiverse stuff it was that something like automail could be fairly unremarkable to certain people, so there was no reaction that surprised him anymore. He just looks amused at the offer to give the beer away, considering he was already thinking Jay was probably the most likely to wind up with it out of Floor Six, but he wasn't about to tell Cisco his gift was going to get re-gifted, at least until he brought it up himself.]

Someone will make good use of it, trust me.

[When Cisco continues though his eyes widen at the prospect of not being single, glancing away as he felt his face heat up.]

Uh, yeah- I - Magnus is cool and all, but not really my type. Guess the feeling's mutual, so it worked out.

[Ed doesn't realize Cisco had seen him with Val and made his own conclusions there, so he focused on the 'interested' part of that statement more than anything. He flashes a quick disarming grin.]

Don't worry about it- dating's not really my thing anyway, and I've been so busy, getting an old friend settled that arrived last month. I wouldn't have time for it even if I wanted to.

[ There's no way Cisco could miss that reaction; Ed has the sort of complexion where a blush shows up fairly obviously, and the averted gaze and slight stammering for words all confirm it in Cisco's mind. Ed is probably with somebody, and it's almost certainly that girl Cisco had seen him walking with. Must be, right? ]

For what it's worth, I promise I'm never gonna try shit like that again. I learned my lesson.

[ But then Ed is saying dating's not for him, that he's been helping an old friend get settled in, and Cisco blinks a moment or two, surprised. Evidently he'd made the wrong assumption yet again. Or had he? ]

An old friend? Is that- I actually passed by you a couple days ago and you were walking with a girl, I kind of... thought she was maybe that friend from the place you were before here, that you told me about...?

Edited 2017-12-01 01:38 (UTC)

[Poor Cisco, doesn't realize how painfully easy it is to get Edward Elric to blush at the slightest thing. Still, he can't help the laugh, holding his arms up as if to indicate Cisco didn't have to explain or whatever to him.]

I guess one positive came out of all this.

[He's teasing, but then Cisco continues and his expression drops as those words conjure the mental image of Val, and then Taiga as he continues talking. Golden eyes widen and he lifts a hand to cover his mouth before laughing it off, as if it was all some big misunderstanding, but the hurried way he's dismissing the topic is almost suspicious, and if anything the color on his face is only growing darker.]

What- Val? No... No, we're just friends!

[He and Taiga had been just friends too, technically, by Ed's definition of things. He clears his throat to compose himself, waving a hand dismissively as if Cisco had clearly imagined the whole thing. His tone a little more serious now that's he had a moment to recover.]

I don't know how much I've told you, but I was on two other worlds before coming here. Taiga was on one... Val was on the other. She was my best friend, well- I guess she is my best friend now that she's back, right?

[That's all there is to it, as far as he's concerned. Yup, totally.]

[ Cisco has his own private suspicions - any time he's seen someone deny that forcefully that they are only friends with someone, usually they are covering something up. Hell, he'd been like that about Eddie, right up until the moment they'd started dating officially. Of course, it's possible that Ed's in the same situation that Iris had been in for so long about Barry: he might really believe the words that he's saying, be in total denial that there is anything else to it.

He might have been inclined to tease and push a little bit, if circumstances were different. But considering how drastically he'd tried to intervene in Ed's love life recently, he thinks it's best to stay out of it, and pretend he buys the whole thing. ]

And now you've got her back? That's really great, Ed.

[ There is genuine warmth in the way Cisco says that. He leans his hip against the table, crossing his arms comfortably, and making a mental note of the two names. Taiga, and Val. ]

Which world did you and Val meet in? How long's she been here?

[Nail on the head with that perception, Cisco. Ed has no idea, but he's still not even sure what to call the situation with Taiga and that's the closest thing he's ever had to a relationship.]

Yeah, it really is. This place is ... Really an improvement on where we were before.

[At the question he pauses as if to think it over before answering the last part first.]

Just before all those dreams, the memory stuff. That's when she got here. Val was in Purgatorium, the one no one aged... We were there for awhile together, kind of without anyone else. Stop me if none of that makes sense-

[He offers a grin, apologetic.]

It gets kind of hard to keep track of who knows what, sometimes.

Ah, yeah.

[ All the "dreams" and "memory stuff", as Ed put it, is one of the reasons Cisco hadn't had a lot of time to hang out with Ed for a while, before he'd thought to set him on a date with Magnus. All of that, plus the ghosts, had made Cisco into something of a hermit for about a month. Still it's a useful way to talk about how long she had been around. ]

I mean, it's all pretty unbelievable, but you haven't lost me yet.

[ Cisco's still a little fuzzy on the timeline for Ed's various moments of dimension-hopping, but he thinks he's got a handle on some of the basics. He at least remembers Ed mentioning a place where he didn't age, and which sounded pretty damn unpleasant. ]

You guys were on your own there? Together?

[Val had made Ed something of a hermit, coming straight from Purg didn't have her in top condition, which meant trying to keep her from overdoing it. The two had plenty of reasons not to be out and about, add not sleeping well thanks to weird dreams, other people's memories, reliving his own horrors- it made sense they hadn't seen each other since the soul mate talk.]

It gets more complicated. I went in for one of those memory updates to confirm some stuff I've been thinking about.

[He doesn't elaborate, he knows Cisco's pretty good with complicated, but now hardly seems like the time to get into how his timeline is even more messed up since they last spoke. Ed looks a little sheepish at the last question.]

For the most part. Purg was pretty small, so it was easy to tell exactly who was still around. There was only a handful of us there when I knew Val, and by the time we left...

[Yeah, he's just going to kind of look away because this subject is a little sore still.]

I don't actually have any memory of it, myself. She told me when she got here we were- the only ones still there. At all.

[ Cisco might not understand all the particulars, especially since Ed has been relatively vague about them. But one thing he can read easily enough? Ed's body language. There's something different about the way he's averting his gaze, now. It's not embarrassment, but something sadder. When they'd talked about this Purg place before, Ed had said enough to make it clear that it was pretty awful, that he'd grown close to people in part because of that, and felt bad leaving them behind. ]

That's messed up. But she's here now, right? And you probably thought you weren't gonna see her again, so... that's awesome.

[ He thinks about the way he'd seen Ed smiling and laughing with her, how he'd looked happier than Cisco had pretty much ever seen him. Better to focus on that than the rather horrifying thought of a world with only two people left in it. ]

You said you were helping her get settled - how's that going? It must be a pretty big change.

[There's a slight grimace at Cisco's words as he stifles the wince. It's true, he never expected to see anyone from Purg again and having that outright said to him in plain black and white hurt, but Cisco was trying to look on the bright side so Ed smiles weakly.]

It is pretty awesome.

[He doesn't sound like it's awesome, but Cisco seems capable of reading between the lines enough to figure out the emotion in his voice might have some other meaning to it. It's not that he didn't want Val there, it was more that there were so many other people he also missed. Ed wasn't foolish enough to think that portal was going to start pulling more people in from Purgatorium just because one happened to show up. Even if that one happened to be Val, of all of the possibilities.]

Some people have suggested there's a reason people get pulled here, more than just the reason they give us about being displaced. Like the portal detects the displaced who already have a connection here.

[But Cisco's asking a question, so he waves a hand almost nervously in response.]

Oh, you know- it's a big shock, but she's adjusting. Running water and electricity can be a little interesting to take for granted again, but... She's still skeptical. Like we're going to wake up one day and this place isn't going to be any different, I guess it kind of gets hard wired into us after a few years. You learn to be ready for anything.

[He hadn't forgotten their conversation about possible suspicious activity in the Guard or government here. Nothing Ed had detected, just that he was incapable of really turning off the need to stay alert for it, just in case. Val was worse, and it was sort of insightful for him, to see how he must come off to others around here. And Cisco's right about one thing, even though Ed definitely looks a touch paler than he used to, and like he's not been sleeping well, he definitely seems happier than he had in September.]

[ No, there's no real mistaking that for anything but a grimace, and Cisco feels a brief pang of guilt for being so blunt. He might not know the particular causes for it, but he'd clearly put his foot in his mouth, and Ed's trying to be polite about it. That happens, sometimes. Cisco has a hard time occasionally knowing how much honesty is too much.

The idea that the portal brings in people who are feeling out of place, but also who have connections with others here, is an interesting one. Anecdotally, it seems true; what's the likelihood otherwise of Cisco and Eddie both ending up in this place? ]

Yeah.

[ Cisco's particular circumstances may be very different (no running water? yikes) but he gets the paranoia thing. There had been a while there, when his powers first appeared, when he'd really thought he was losing his mind, trying to tell what was real and what was a vision and what was a nightmare. And he understands how trust can be impossible, sometimes. But that doesn't stop him from wanting to help. ]

Do you think- I mean... is there anything I can do, or like... build? To help it feel real for her?

[His expression brightens at the offer, but if he's being honest he's not entirely sure what Cisco might be able to do to help.]

You know, I could ask her. If there's anything that might help, that's a really good idea, actually.

[And a generous offer, as far as Ed's concerned.]

Thanks... I mean it, that's- probably bigger than you realize, just having the offer.

[ Cisco doesn't really know, either. But he knows that if he can help, he wants to. And he's an optimistic enough person that he believes there ought to be some way. Not to fix things entirely. Maybe not even close. But a little bit was more than nothing. He frowns for a moment or two, lapsing into silence as he considers what is possible. ]

There's, um. I have these goggles. I could make another pair. They help you to do lucid dreaming, which is, um, supposed to be good for nightmares, and PTSD, and stuff.

[ He's not sure if that will be terminology that Ed is familiar with, or if, perhaps, that might be the sort of difficulty that Val is having. There's also a bit of a confession, there, in the fact that he admits he would need to be building a second pair. ]

And, uh, I don't know if it's the kinda help you mean, but, I know the name of a couple good therapists in town.

[open] try to tell the difference

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