trans_9 | Relax I'm A Doctor [Open]

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Relax I'm A Doctor [Open]

Ed had been surprisingly absent from the rest of the ship since his practices with other people. Without his arm, he was relegated to reading and working out his normal limbs, keeping fit.

But the library had been a source of entertainment for the last few days, and he was reading book after book, sketching out circles and going over books on human anatomy and the advanced medical science.

During the fight, something made Ed really take a good look at what he could do. Combat alchemy only took one so far, and while he was no specialist in medicine, he was also a scientist. And greatly interested in Rentanjutsu.

So, after a week of solid research, he was ready for an acid test.

Sketching out a circle, he placed small pointed knives he stole from the bus into a five-point circle and scampered back a little to allow his leg to rest in the middle of it. The next part Winry would probably MAIM him for, but he reached over and scarred a tiny little cut into his leg, just enough for it to bleed. It hurt, but Ed knew better than to try with a grievous wound.

"Ow. Okay, here goes."

Placing his hand on the circle, light crackled and Ed felt the unfamiliar sensation travel up his leg. It was like water, despite the throwing light everywhere. Finally, after a minute or so, he let go, panting softly. "That... felt different..."

Reaching over, he licked his finger and wiped the blood from his leg. Smooth skin. Carefully, he stamped his foot and then grinned. "It... worked...? IT WORKED!"

Ed threw up his arm laughing manically as he disturbed the sword on his side -- which fell down and with a thump, cut into his leg, gashing it open.

"... GAH!" exclaimed Ed as he grit his teeth. "Damnit that really hurt! Stupid sword!" And he punted it across the room before slapping his good arm to the circle.

Light flared and Ed groaned as the medical alchemy began to do it's thing. Not his most shining moment EVER.

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"Study," replied Ed as the glowing water hit his leg. Brr, cold. "Basically it's a science of energy, motion, construction and deconstruction. I can teach the basics and arrays, but to really study into a field, you gotta hit the books."

"What you're doing is pretty cool too. It's not Alkahestry, is it? Medical Alchemy I mean."

"I see," Katara said. "In my world, we have some knowledge of science, but a lot of what we do, our bending, is something that happens at birth. We learn we have the gift, but to get anywhere with it we have to study, have discipline, see how much farther we can get with what we can do. It helps to not have a closed mind: when you limit what you can do, you can't really go farther with it."

She slowed the water. "I'm a healer: it comes with the bending, but it isn;t common. Only a few have the ability."

"So it's water movement. Pretty handy." he frowned a little. "Can you move it into the three states? Gas, Liquid and Solid?"

He wanted to check. Call it morbid curiosity and all, but his inner scientist wanted to see if there was any logic sense to it and all.

"It is," Katara said, glad that Ed was getting what her art was about, and happily, not calling it magic. "And as for those three states: I can make water ice, solid, liquid always, and then vapor, so that counts as gas, doesn't it? But like I said Ed, its a craft you have to perfect, like anything anyone studies."

She grinned, calming the water and smiling. "Feeling better?"

Ed nodded, flexing his foot. "Yeah, it's great. That's a nice healing ability you have there."

So she could. Huh, if she could do all that, then the applications would be nothing more than frightening. He had fought a Alchemist known as the Freezing Alchemist before arriving in Liore, and the man's skill was legendary.

He even used his own blood as a weapon and got Ed good in the shoulder. He still had the scar from that.

Katara nodded. "It came on handy during the Ohm attack: there were many people wounded. The EMH didn't think much of people who were healers, but it definitely helped lighten his load."

She grinned, finishing up her healing. "So what are you looking up in the library?"

"I spent most of the week here looking up Alkahestry, the Eastern Alchemy from Xing, a country to the east of Amestris." said Ed. "There's a girl called May who uses it, saying that it draws power from the circulation of energy in the earth. I figured I could do it on Stacy, so I gave it a shot. Sure enough, I was able to pull energy from the world around me and heal my wounds. The rest of the stuff that I was studying was human anatomy, biology and physiology."

"So you've been studying too," Katara said, grinning. "Like me, you're trying to continue your teaching. Unfortunately, I can't really do that with just studying: my art has always been intensive, and I've always found that my strengths lay in martial arts and understanding my body and its movements. It's funny, people think that my power is magic but it really isn't: some of it is being born with the ability, the rest is lots of studying and having a teacher. I'm actually really impressed by your alchemy, but I can see where it has its application in science."

"I don't really believe in magic, but I can always study it myself," said Ed. "Like you, I usually chalk it up to some kind of science since coming here I noticed some people's powers function on a set of rules and laws, just like Alchemy and Alkahestry. It's pretty good actually."

He grinned. "I can teach you basic transmutation, wood and brick and plant mostly. If you want."

"Oh, I believe in magic all right, I've seen it happen!" She grinned. "In fact, one of my first friends on this ship I made is a witch. But I've actually met three different people who practice magic, and although the methods are different, none of them have the power without study and discipline. The way I figure, that makes it more akin to what you and I do then, say, a mutant or superhero born with the power, and even then they have to practice."

Katara clapped her hands together. "That'd be great! I'll admit, all of those things are actually my roommates' specialty since she's an earthbender, but I could try too! What do I need to do?"

"Huh, so that means there's laws governing them, and thus by adding in a willpower focus without an array..." Ed trailed off as his grin turned fiendish. "I think I found a new thing to study!"

Then he nodded, his expression calming a little. "Well the basics start with the simplest of arrays, and the base structure of the most normal things; rocks, wood, water. Understanding what's in them will allow you to transmute them to a similar material. I know it's kind of weird and totally illegal in my own world, but I can teach you how to transmute rocks and pieces of stuff into gold."

"Well I don't know about that," Katara said. "It depends on who you talk to. In my friend Luna's world, you were born with the powers, but to get good at them, you had to actually go to school. With Negi though, I think its more of a learning things. I mean, he's ten, he's probably a prodigy about this stuff."

She brightened heating this: not because of the gold thing (although it was a little cool) but because but was possible to learn yet another useful thing on the ship! Katara was very interested in the kind of things you could actually teach someone not from your world.

"That would be great, I really did like seeing you use alchemy! What would I have to learn?"

"So different styles, different worlds. I guess the trick here is to find a system I can learn, understand and bring home for all intents and purposes," said Ed.

"Base physical structure. Molecules and similar material styles. Like take the sword I have for example."

He looked over his shoulder to make sure that Nanashi wasn't lurking there as he laid it out in the middle of a newly sketched circle. "Now, it has wood, rope and metal. The metal as you see here, can be reshaped into a harder substance. It has various metals involved but the basic is steel, a hybrid of iron and light coal and carbons."

He slammed his hand on the floor and the weapon decomposed into three piles of material. "Now the wood here is tricky, as it can be counted as organic life. But at the same time, it can be reshaped, like so."

Another flare of light and it was a toy duck. "Matter can be transmuted into different things of similar items, but the big rule is the law of conservation of mass, which means you can't make it larger, or smaller, only into something of the same size."

And his sword was reformed as he sheathed it awkwardly.

Once again, Katara was amazed at Ed's ability...and made all too aware of her lack of understanding things in scientific terms. That was something that Sokka would have understood better than she did. She actually had no idea what carbons were, although she understood most of what he was talking about. Thankfully, she'd had enough of an education of the material the Firenation used. But things like conservation of mass, transmutation, she had no idea what any of that meant.

"Um," Katara said, "You wouldn't happen to know a few books you could recommend, just so I don;t look like a total idiot when I ask you questions do you?"

"Not a problem," said Ed as he started to scribble a list of books that he had found existed there and highly recommended on his omnicom, including a few beginner textbooks even he could understand at a young age.

"Everyone starts somewhere, especially in alchemy. While I'm making a list, anything what I said last already confusing you or do you know a little bit of it?"

Katara was happy to grab that list and was already starting to recall where she'd find them when Ed asked his question.

"Yes. I don't know much about molecules, and transmutation is only a word I heard you say. I know that sounds really dumb, but understand that my world is nowhere near as advanced as this place."

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Relax I'm A Doctor [Open]

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