A Fangirl's Dream Chapter 1: Never Use a Shortcut, a fullmetal alchemist fanfic

Title: A Fangirl's Dream
Summary: With an anime loving best friend,Ivy has heard plenty about whatever show of the week they're into. But when she manages to cross the gate during an attempt to take a shortcut home, she finds herself in a frightening position. The main character in an Another World fanfiction trope; and with reluctance, she finds herself teaming up with the main characters to get back home.

[;';]

Author's Note: So here's another Fanfiction Reboot that no one asked for but I wanted to write anyway.

I sincerely doubt that anyone from that time period is still around but back in 2013, I mainly operated under the account name 'Sunshine Sketch' (it's still on here on FFN if you wanna check it out but, warning, I was in the highlight of my Weeb phase, plus it was 2013 so my writing was crap) and on there I wrote was going to be 2 Sister Fanfictions. How did that go? Well one is deleted and the other got deleted for a rewrite and only has 1 chapter written but I decided to rewrite those 2 stories actually since one of the genres I'll be writing in as a published author, once I get my current novel I'm actually working on finished, is YA so I thought going back and rewriting what was going to be a huge project for me would be great practice!

I'm going to be working on the work that was deleted first considering how the timeline of both stories were going to be and also because I am still under debate if the other story, Swept Away, will be written as a companion piece. There's a lot of revamping going along in this fic to really embody the feeling of being stuck in a show you're not familiar with as well as having small satire that pokes at the fandom craze back in the day. I don't really expect a lot of readers for this, let alone anyone who remembers the first incarnations of AFD, but I thought this would be great practice for finishing projects as well as writing something for an intended younger demographic as I want to write for kids and adults alike kinda like the way old Disney was never intended to solely market just for kids as the parents who took their kids to see these movies would find themselves enjoying it too and the cycle of nostalgia would continue that way.

Side note, Vallant isn't an actual city I just made up a city name in order to avoid being restricted by an actual city's geography.

"So your latest idea is what now?" Ivy Carter asks over a bite of her chicken sandwich.

Prior to the two sitting down at a crowded lunch table, Ivy had received a multitude of texts from Akasha about the subject of her 'idea'.

Akasha's green eyes flashed with excitement as she adjusted herself in her seat. "Oh yeah, I wanted to talk about that now!" The brunette exclaimed, putting her own sandwich down in exchange for her notebook. More like you were waiting for me to ask. Ivy snickered "I've got a new fanfiction idea!" She was grinning widely and pointing at a page full of her chicken scratch.

Ivy nodded, "I know that much." Akasha was an avid fan writer on the website , not that Ivy really read any of them- if she had to read some fanfiction, it was gonna be for ATLA- but she did like to listen to Akasha ramble on about her latest idea. "But what's it about? Is it F-"

"Fullmetal Alchemist-themed?" Akasha flutters her eyelashes, chest puffed out with a hand laid on her chest in an act of faux sophistication. "Why yes, yes it is!"

Of course. "Well shoot." Ivy gestures with one hand.

This wasn't the first time the two of them had spent their lunch listening to Akasha talk about her fanfiction ideas. If anything, Ivy would say a good 20 to 25% of their lunches have been used to talk about Akasha's fanfiction ideas. Probably even more, but Ivy was being nice. It had been like this since 9th grade, actually before that, 8th grade, right when Akasha got herself into this anime called Fullmetal Alchemist.

There went the extremely excited convos about Aang and the Gaang, in came the excited squeals about some guy named Edward who didn't sparkle and have a love rivalry with a werewolf.

"Okay, so I'm making a story where my OC ends up, drum roll please," Akasha cuts herself off, actually drumming her hands on the table.

"Pff, nerd."

"Shutup- FMA!" Akasha says at last.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. There's a bunch of FFN and I've finally read enough to know what I wanna do." Akasha says. "Basically, my OC ends up in FMA, like I said before, and when she does she ends up meeting Roy Mustang who let's her pretend to be his younger sister and he ends up sending her to travel off with the Elric brothers since they know more about taboo alchemy subjects and stuff, yknow?"

Ivy, surprisingly, did know.

She at least knew the basics about Fullmetal Alchemist considering how much Akasha loved to talk about it.

2 brothers try bringing their mom back to life lose some body parts and spend the majority of the show trying to get them back.

"Ye, I gotcha." Ivy replies and Akasha continues on.

"I really like the idea of her getting to be Roy's little sister 'cause I have a Mustang OC in another fic and-" she cuts her ramble off. "I'm really just trying to figure out what version of FMA I wanna write this for. The 2003 version or Brotherhood which came out 2009."

"What's the difference between a the original and the reboot?"

"Brotherhood isn't really a reboot, though. The first anime came out before the manga was finished so the mangka, author, told them to just do whatever basically but Brotherhood actually follows the manga instead. So there's characters that's not in the first anime and a bunch of other changes."

"Ah, I get you." Ivy nods, mostly to herself. It sounded complicated but, "go with whatever version you like the best?"

"I like them both so much though!"

"Nerd."

"Jerk."

Ivy giggled and gave Akasha a flick to the knee. "So is your OC gonna stay in their world in the end or nah?" She asks, ignoring Akasha's offended gasp and returned flick.

"She's staying, duh!" Akasha answers, like it's obvious. Which it was but Ivy might have been surprised. "It's a love story! Plus my OC is from our world so she's already a big fan of the show, so it's basically her dream. A Fangirl's Dream- OMG that's the perfect title!" Akasha says, whipping out her pen from her pocket to write the title down before it's forgotten. "She's gonna end up falling in love with Edward and I think there's gonna be an epilogue after the last chapter where it's a years later kind of thing where she and Ed are married and have a family and she thinks about her life before coming to FMA but she's happy ultimately and wouldn't change a thing."

"Nice to know that when you somehow magically find a way to go inside your fav books and tv shows that you're not gonna come back and marry the main character."

Akasha's face turns a tinge of pink and Ivy finds herself not thinking for the first time that she's glad her own skin is too brown for people to tell that she's blushing. "I-I wouldn't, this isn't about me this is about my OC!"

"That also is a brunette with green eyes?"

"I haven't decided what she looks like yet." Akasha grumbles, looking decidedly elsewhere as Ivy just rolls on laughing.

"Sure thing, sure thing." Ivy manages to get out. "So does this mean that that Wendy girl is gonna be your OC's love rival?" She tries recalling Wendy's looks from the one time she remembers seeing an episode back in 8th grade before letting Akasha know that she wasn't really into this anime she liked but Ivy would try watching another one with her. Blonde hair, blue eyes, pretty as all animated characters tend to be.

"It's Winry." Akasha correct with a roll of her eyes.

Okay Winry then. Ivy repeats the name a couple of times to help commit the name to memory- ha, Kingdom Hearts reference. But seriously, Winry, Wendy, it's close enough.

Akasha continues on. "Winry Rockbell. She's Ed's mechanic for his arm and leg cause she makes these prosthetics called automail." Akasha starts to frown and Ivy can already feel the rant approaching as she takes another bite of her sandwich, trying to savor the bite. "And she's the most annoying character in the show!" There it goes. The Rant. "She's basically useless! But Ed still ends up marrying her in the end. I just pretend that part of an otherwise perfect story doesn't exist."

"But I thought you said she keeps the main character walking though by making his prosthetics." Ivy raises an eyebrow. "Isn't that kinda useful? Like Katara having healing abilities or Sokka keeping the Gaang on track instead of having constant filler episodes?"

Akasha shakes her head vehemently. "That's completely different! She has no place in anything and is basically just shoved wherever, no fighting or alchemical abilities- oh and she has this opportunity to shoot Scar- he's this guy who can only destroy with alchemy and he wants to kill Ed and Al and all the other State Alchemists for this Civil War-"

"So Scar left the Pride Lands to kill alchemists?"

Akasha continues on as if she wasn't interrupted. "And Ed basically reveals by accident to Winry that Scar killed her parents so she picks up a gun and just spends the entire episode crying and doesn't even shoot! She should have just left if she wasn't gonna do anything! And her granny helped with the prosthetics so technically-"

Ivy raised a brown hand, "So basically you just salty that this Winry girl is the love interest of your fictional crush and you just drinking the Kool-Aid?" She puckers her lips and Akasha gasps in offense. "Girl you gotta take your Team Edward goggles off. Maybe this Winry girl isn't even that bad?"

"You just think that because you haven't watched the show!" Akasha crosses her arms. "You know what, you're watching it with me this weekend. No ifs, ands, or buts! We'll watch Brotherhood."

"Girl, I don't wanna your pint ass, not even actually made of full metal lookin' ass-"

"The first time you saw an episode it was from the first anime, but you'll like Brotherhood! Everyone likes Brotherhood."

Ivy sighs. Once Akasha got like this, good luck talking her out of it.

"You'll love Ed, Al- okay you'll love everyone, but if you start liking Winry- or May Chang- I'll have to fight you!"

"I will like them out of spite."

[;';]

"See you tomorrow!"

"Bye!"

"Later, nerds!"

Ivy walks out the gym feeling sluggish and gross as she scrolls through the most recent text messages in her phone. Practice was rough, especially with a coach as strict as Ms. Quimby, and especially as the team's setter, but she couldn't really find herself complaining. Especially not enough to make her want to quit the team and join any other sport.

When they first got to high school, Ivy was adamant in telling Akasha she refused to join the basketball team in order to avoid looking like a stereotype.

Now she actually liked volleyball.

According to Akasha, there was an actual anime about volleyball. Maybe I'll actually check that one out. Ivy skimmed through the log she and Akasha had accumulated over the months.

TeamEdwardELRIC

Okay so I got more ideas about AFD!

Like I said b4, Amber (OC) is gonna be called Amber Mustang and she's gonna be traveling with Ed and Al so I want her to actually learn alchemy so that's gonna be so cool! (i wish alchemy actually existed to I could transmute a way out of math class)

And I'll have it be in Brotherhood cause that's shorter, lowkey, and easier to work with!

She's gonna show up riiiight before the stuff with Scar

…

Ivy wiped herself down with the towel still wrapped around her shoulder with a chuff and eye roll. Leave it to Akasha to come up with a solid 10 texts about her story ideas. Which were pretty good, for the most part. Just weird without the full context of the show. But Ivy could understand why.

In their hometown of Vallant, a tiny city that didn't have the space for a convention center let alone an anime convention center, Ivy being Akasha's wall to pelt anime stuff at was a given.

Ivy looked out passed the campus, the afternoon heat starting to cool down and cars passing by familiar beige buildings and styrofoam cups in the grass. Vallant was in a weird place between tiny town and developing city smack in the middle of Southern and Northern California, close to a logging community and with literal farmers close by. A weird place to raise a family in Ivy's opinion, but her mom wanted a change of scenery apparently when Ivy was 4 and left the Bay Area of NorCal to raise Ivy here.

Oh shit, right. Mom. Ivy backed out of her thread with Akasha to head over to the one she shared with her mother.

Yo ma, Practice is over. Omw home

It didn't take long for her mom to reply.

Mom

Be safe!

Ivy started to walk despite the protest of her leg muscles and sighed heavily. 35 minutes of walking, here I come. Days that she had practice, getting home felt like it took forever.

Fuck it, I'll just make it an hour because I ain't walking faster than this. Ivy thought in protest, plugging her earbuds into her phone and going to her downloads and putting on something that could help the time ease by.

Nice idea stories, nerd

Just make sure to remember her hardcore wedding vows with Edboy

TeamEdwardELRIC

Oh I will!

I already wanna start writing those parts but I'm typing chapter 1 rn instead

Gotta go in chapter order

But knowing Akasha, Ivy felt like there was probably gonna be a moment where Akasha decided to fudge that personal rule and start writing out of order for the dream romance she wanted.

TeamEdwardELRIC

How was practice?

It was chill

Tired as hell tho

Not looking forward to this walk

But Ivy was able to give the walk the benefit of the doubt that the sun was still up. It was 5pm and the sun was still graciously up in the sky and wouldn't be setting for a couple more hours. Would it take care of her tiredness walking home? No really, but it was a bright side.

Next time, I'm getting bus fare.

Akasha's next text didn't come immediately and Ivy chalked it up to her being caught up in whatever paragraph she was writing. The bass beat of Soul For Real's 'Every Little Thing I Do' thrummed softly in her ear as she walked passed the fence of her high school's baseball field and onto the cement. There went the soft feeling of the grass.

There was also the occasional sound of a car so loud she could hear it over her music.

But her stark determination to make it home without any stops stopped the moment she saw the nearest bus stop and she decided to sit on it anyway just to rest her feet for a minute or two. She'd just wave the next bus that came driving by thinking she wanted on.

You ever given up on life in under 2 minutes?

That got a text back from Akasha in record time.

TeamEdwardELRIC

Yeeeessss

What's up?

Ivy just smiled through the 'pain'.

My lazy ass doesn't feel like walking lmao

She was pretty sure Akasha was laughing alongside her own the other side of the phone. They were soul sisters like that. Two sides of a coin. Black and white, literally. Yin and Y- Ivy stopped her philosophical ramblings as another text from Akasha got her attention.

TeamEdwardELRIC

Oh there's this shortcut Austin and I use in trum park!

Ivy could already hear her mom's voice in head. "Don't you be using any shortcuts now, Ivy. Do you know how dangerous they are, Ivy? Just stay on the main street to get home. Just because the twins use a shortcut it doesn't mean you should use a shortcut."

But with her feet tired and lack of bus fare to keep herself optimistic, Ivy found herself uncaring.

Imma use a shortcut just once and Mom doesn't even gotta know about it. Once. Maybe. Probably.

Describe this, how you say, shortcut?

TeamEdwardELRIC

I'm changing your name in my phone 2 Saison Marguerite

But go passed that giant water fountain that's by the swings? It's right passed that

Ya can't miss it it's pretty short walk too!

Ivy stood up on her feet again, feeling a bit more revitalized. Trum Park was about ten minutes away from where she was, but she was pretty sure she could cut it to five if she walked fast enough.

It was more like seven minutes of a walk when she finally arrived to Trum Park's entrance and a wave of nostalgia passed over her. It had been a minute since she had actually been in this park and there were still families playing on the swing sets or sitting on the benches while their kids ran around playing tag. Trum Park was the place that Ivy climbed her first tree.

Trees in Trum Park were surprisingly thick with branches sturdy enough to hold even adults. She, Akasha, and Austin, Akasha's older twin brother, had made it their mission back in the summer of 6th grade to climb to the top of one. None of them really made it very far, Ivy especially. She climbed right back down once she got to the middle mark and left tre climbing to the twins.

Maybe I should give it a go again. Ivy thought as she saw the tree in the corner of her eye as she headed towards the park fountain. But the thought was negated as soon as she had it. Nah, knowing me Imma just end up falling off and breaking something or somethin'.

Walk barefoot in the little lake they had? Sure.

Climb a giant ass tree? Pass.

When Ivy got around the park fountain, the park population started getting sparse. But during the summer, the 'fountain' which was honestly more like a pond would always have trout placed in it for fishing competitions. The nostalgia wave came back again. She never really joined the competition or anything, but it was always fun listening to everyone shout and laugh and have a good time with the smell of barbecue in the air and cupcakes with leaning frosting from the heat of the sun.

Once she got passed the park fountain, that was when Ivy saw it.

This 'Can't Miss It' shortcut Akasha talked about.

Yo I'm at that shortcut so gimme them directions

She stared at it, head tilted to the side, as she waited for Akasha's next response. When the hell was thing made? The best word Ivy had for the thing was a gate, but not that cheap metal fencing kind of gate you see in elementary and high schools. But a stone gate, one that was considerably fancy considering the rest of Trum Park.

Maybe the people wanted something nice to look at?

Looking at it carefully, Ivy had to just say it wasn't really her cup of tea. It's… interesting. That's for sure.

It had a large carving set into the stone starting with what she was guessing was a sun? Or was it a circle over some weird root worm things? Whatever the circle was over, the tree thing went all the way to the end of the doors symmetrically and feathering out with a bunch of other circles and ovals enwrapped in them. And written in these circles and ovals were words that were written in…. Geez, the heck is that? Latin?

It was written in something, that's for sure. Yeah. Not really feeling this.

Ivy looked down at her phone.

Akasha still hadn't text back yet. I guess she really feeling her story right now. Ivy decided, but she still texted a reminder she was still waiting for a response. If she doesn't write back, I'll just walk home the normal way. Talk about a waste though.

A few more minutes passed by before Akasha finally sent something back.

TeamEdwardELRIC

Just walk straight. It's a linear path.

Ivy quirked an eyebrow. Periods at the end of sentences?

She started up texting 'Since when do u say 'linear' then erased. it. Then shy tried typing 'Hey, dude you alright?' before deleting it completely. Just to see if Akasha would say something was bothering her or something. There was no response.

Yo, I'll call when I get home if you wanna talk about it?

Ivy waited for the message to load and send but she kept getting the blue loading circle thing and it felt like 20 years passed before she finally groaned and just put her phone back in her pocket. She'd just call when she got home and wait for Akasha to send something saying she got Ivy's text.

Then she walked through the gates 'opened just enough for someone to walk through' doors, probably courtesy of Akasha and Austin fucking with it for a shortcut discovery.

A weird shortcut discovery. It was like walking through a weird box with no top, walls built up high but not entirely blocking off the sun and afternoon blue sky. Thankfully, the exit could be scene clear as day on the other side, a blaring white cut of so Ivy laid any worries she had to waste and continued on until she got to the other side and found herself looking at an open space of windblown grass.

Then she got hit with the stench of what had to be manure and her nose wrinkled in disgust.

Freaking. Small. Ass. Towns.

She whipped out her phone immediately.

Girl, you could have warned me that this shortcut passed through the farms!

She impatiently tapped a foot and only felt her irritation rise when she saw she got nothing but a loading message. Her last message had yet to load too. Then she looked at bars and saw it at a stark zero and groaned. Of course her phone decided to fail on her right now.

She scrolled a little back to look at Akasha's last text.

'Just walk straight. It's a linear path.'

It better be.

The sun was looking that distinct blue but with an orange film-like filter that could only be produced when the sun was starting to set. And Ivy wasn't trying to show up late messing around with a shortcut Akasha recommended. But hey, maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. Besides, her mom might be more forgiving for any mishaps if Ivy mentions she felt pretty tired after practice today. And with that, Ivy walked forward trying to inhale as little of the stench as she could. She could easily see a couple of farms not too far away and see the sheep.

5 minutes passed.

10 minutes.

15-

Finally, Ivy stopped walking and looked at her phone to see if she had any bars now. She didn't.

This is a crap shortcut. Ivy ground her teeth then pursed her lips. If a 'shortcut' is longer than 10 minutes, it loses the right to be called a shortcut. She was definitely laying that in on Akasha tomorrow at school. Maybe not tonight when she was feeling off earlier. Maybe it's Melanie-related. Melanie was Akasha's stepmom. She always seemed nice to Ivy, but Akasha said she didn't need a mom replacement.

Ivy sighed. She wasn't going to be able to call anyone at this rate.

Her mom usually would have text her at this point, asking how close she was to being home.

She looked to her left which was the nearest farm next to her but shook her head, a dark feeling in her stomach. Hard pass. No using a farmer's phone to call home. She remembered seeing some farmer-based horror movies she wasn't actually supposed to watch behind her mom's back. Never trusted another farmer unless she was just passing by the farmer's market.

Never trust a farmer's tool shed.

She squinted down the dirt road she was on hoping to see any house that wasn't farm-esque so she could ask to use their phone for a minute. There was one at the top of this hill, so there was that. Life finally handing out peaches instead of lemons. She'd make her quick call then turn back around back out the gate she crossed and just be home a little late than normal. She'd just have to really haul ass to get there without incurring the wrath of her mom.

Just say there's a traffic jam? Right, how do you get in a traffic jam when you're just walking? Alright just say that Akasha- she knows Akasha doesn't really stick around when I got practice. Okay okay, I'll just say that when I was about to head out Coach said she that someone else bailed on helping put up the gym equipment so I stayed behind to help and she got me pizza? That's so brilliant I almost hurt myself.

It was something her mom couldn't just google to validate whether or not it was true like a huge, walk-affecting traffic jam.

When the house she was heading to was closer, Ivy sighed for what felt like her millionth time that day. She just wanted to get home and crash her face into her pillow and sleep. She'd do her math homework in the morning, it was 6th period anyway. So she could realistically procrastinate on it all day.

She got a good look at the house and its surroundings. The house was medium-sized and a mix of yellow wood, faded brick, and green here and there. Not the color combination that Ivy would go for herself in a house but she wasn't one to judge.

No sheep or tool shed, just a sign that read 'Rockbell Automail'.

Rockbell?

Ivy paused, trying to think of why the name felt familiar but when nothing came to mind she resigned that her brain was so fried it didn't really wanna think about anything right now.

Maybe it was because it was kind of mailing service that went to town and some painter messed up the spacing of the sign. Well, the sign wasn't really the largest so it could be that the words had to be forced toge- Okay, Ivy, time to stop thinking and start knocking so you can hurry up and go home.

Ivy hopped her way up the porch steps and knocked three times and jumped slightly when she heard barking. Please someone not weird open the door. Please someone not weird open the door.

"Just a minute!" She heard a voice call from the other side, muffled thanks to the door and barking. "Den shoo!" The barking became a whimper.

Feeling a little anxious hearing the steps come closer to the door. Just don't be someone weird.

The door opened to a green bandanna, long blonde hair, and blue eyes on a girl that had to be Ivy's age in a beige jumpsuit, though it was slight unzipped to reveal a black undershirt. She had to be 15 like Ivy at the oldest, 14 at the youngest. Thank the powers that apparently be. "Hi, I'm sorry but we're actually closed right now but we can take any orders you need tomorrow."

Okay so they are a delivery business. Ivy's chest felt lighter. "Oh sorry to bother you guys, I didn't actually have any orders or anything like that."

The girl blinked, surprised. "Then what did you want?"

"I'm kinda having a rough time calling my mom. I was just wondering if you could let me use your phone for, like, 2 seconds so I could call her?"

The girl, Blondie, blinked in surprise and there was something else. Sadness? But she quickly smiled so Ivy couldn't be too sure. "I'll ask my grandma to see if we can let you, okay? Just wait here!" Then the door closed and Ivy could make out the sound of the slap of sandals on hardwood floors and muffled conversation. Then within seconds, Blondie was back. "Granny says it's okay!" She stepped to the side, gesturing welcomingly.

Ivy sighed in relief this time. "Thank you so much! My mom can be a bit of a hard ass so I just wanna call really fast and handle my business."

Blondie kept smiling. "She sounds like she just cares about you a lot."

"That's what she tells me." Ivy chuckled, looking around the house. It was kinda cozy looking, an old rug on the floor and orange leather couch among other things like a china cabinet and some strewn around boxes that surprisingly had prosthetic limbs in them.

"Oh."

Blondie gave a sheepish smile, "Sorry it gets pretty messy and we're trying to keep things back in order."

Okay Ivy, calm it down. Maybe she has a relative who needs prosthetics. Like her grandma. Or maybe even her grandpa! Ivy shrugged. "No worries. My place gets messy too." Blondie seemed relieved in her own right and beckoned to what looked like it was leading to a kitchen.

"We keep the phone in the workshop most of the time, but we move out to the kitchen sometimes." Workshop where y'all get your mail taken care of.

"Cool." Ivy looked around the kitchen. It was about the size of the one she had at her house. She skimmed around more, not able to help how nosy she felt. Sometimes, you just wanna look around someone else's house. She gasped softly when she finally saw the dog that must have been barking earlier. "Aww! Hey boy!"

The dog wagged it's tail excitedly as Blondie giggled. "Den's a girl."

"C'mere girl!" Ivy didn't even care if she was in a stranger's house, she kneeled down anyway to beckon them forward. The dog was black and white, beautiful. The only thing off putting about it was the dark gray metal leg attached to it. "What happened, girl?" Ivy cooed, petting the dog's head.

"When she was still a puppy she walked into a bear trap." Blondie said, voice surprisingly light. "But now she's doing so good."

Ivy could hear the pride in Blondie's voice and felt pretty proud herself. She didn't hear about it often, but she loved stories about animals being able to walk again by being given prosthetics. "Who's my little badass?"

Blondie laughed again and Ivy finally forced herself to stand up. "Okay, let me call my mom before I run out the house with your dog."

"As if we'd let you take our baby away."

"You're lucky I ain't trying to be a homewrecker."

Blondie laughed heartily at that one and Ivy couldn't hold back her own snicker. Someone who finally appreciated her humor. "I've never heard anyone talk about being a homewrecker in regards to stealing a dog."

"My humor is one of a kind." Ivy replied.

Blondie shook her head like it would shake the laughter out of her. "Here's the phone." She said finally and Ivy felt herself be taken in for a loop when she saw it. It seriously looked like one of those phones from a black-and-white movie her grandma owned.

"Is something wrong?"

"Not at all!" Ivy said, not wanting to accidentally insult the one who convinced her granny to let a stranger in their house in use their phone. "Was just remembering my mom's number!" Maybe they just couldn't afford a regular landline phone and who was she to judge for that.

Ivy felt a small hesitance looking at the phone, but she took a deep breath and picked it off the dial and pressed in number by number. Weird roll motion by weird roll motion. How did they live with this phone?

She waited for the ringing to start and there was for a half second before a pick up on the other side. "Hello, who are you trying to reach?"

Ivy couldn't stop herself from outright gawking. There were still people at there that did this?! The only time she had ever even seen one of those people who would connect your call to the recipient was in a movie. Or, like, the automated voice messages you'd get trying to call your local large retailer chain and they'd say to press 1 or 0 to get to a certain phone-line.

All the power to the real life people who were keeping the dying business going, Ivy guessed.

"Hello?"

"Oh sorry about that! I'm trying to call Rose Carter?"

There was a pause. Then the man said, "Sorry, ma'am. There's no one under than name here."

"Excuse me?"

"There's no Rose Carter, in our registry."

"You can't be serious?"

"What's the number you're trying to dial?"

"(555) 316-1927." Ivy crossed one of her arms tightly to her chest. She just wanted to hurry this up. "She lives at 5551 Hawthorn Berry Lane in Vallant?"

"... Yeaaah, there's no one like that. There isn't even a town called Vallant."

Now Ivy was calling bull. "You've got to be joking."

The man sounded irritated now too. "The number sounds botched too. It's too short."

"What do you mean it's 'too short'?"

"Look kid, it isn't my fault you don't have her number memorized and the basics of Amestrian phone numbers. 3 digit area code, 8 digit number."

"... Are you sure?"

The man sounded like he was sighing. "I'm definitely sure that this name and town aren't in the registry. Try calling again when you're not trying to prank the service." Then the man hung up.

Ivy looked at the phone in surprise.

Then she groaned. Stupid, out-of-dated phone service. She set the phone back on the dial. I hope that asshole gets fired.

When she turned around, Blondie was nowhere to be seen which she was thankful about. She didn't want her failure of a conversation being heard by anybody else. She exited the kitchen and that's when Blondie reappeared, a smile on her face. "Is your mom okay?" She asked.

Somehow, that got the corners of Ivy's lips to turn a little. "Eeeh the call didn't really go as planned."

Blondie's face fell but she tried to look optimistic. "Sorry it didn't work out."

"It's fine, I'll figure it out." Ivy replied. "Thanks again. Let your granny know I said thanks for letting me use the phone too, er... "

The girl extended a hand with a smile, "It's Winry. Winry Rockbell."

…..

Wait a minute.

Ivy could feel her expression souring as she finally remembered why 'Rockbell' sounded so familiar before. "Ain't automail those fullmetal prosthetic limbs?"

'Winry' seemed a little put off by the sudden topic change but she nodded nonetheless. "Yeah! My granny and I build them for a living. I know it might be weird seeing an engineer as young as myself but I-"

"Alright. Jokes on me for listening to Akasha."

Winry looked concerned. "What?"

"Nothing. Thanks, 'Winry'." Ivy said, making quotations around the girls fake as hell name. She should have realized she was a cosplayer before.

Winry looked indignant. "Winry is my name!"

"And mines is Jamie Lee Curtis."

"You were in such a good mood before; what's wrong?"

Ivy just stormed passed her though, ignoring Winry's concerned exclamations. This is the last damn time- Akasha is crazy if she thinks I'm watching Fullmetal Alchemist with her ass this weekend. I don't even wanna listen to her fanfiction ideas! I'm out here trying to get home and she sets up some dumb prank with some cosplayer buddy.

Ivy stormed passed the Rockbell Automail sign and down the hill and passed the farms she had walked passed earlier.

5 minutes passed.

Then 10.

Then 15.

Then-

Ivy squinted. Where the hell was the gate? She couldn't see it at all in the distance and she had to have been close by now.

She looked to her left then her right and could see a boy a little younger than her herding some sheep and she bit her lip, not really wanting to ask but she started walking in his direction anyway. "Um, excuse me!" She called. "Shepherd boy!"

The boy finally noticed her. "What?!"

"How close am I to that gate?!"

The boy cocked his head. "What gate?!"

God is everyone in the universe trying to make her world miserable today? "The fancy giant stone one with the circles and roots and stuff!" She exclaimed.

The boy looked even more confused. "There's no gate like that around here!"

Ivy didn't know if she wanted to cry or not. "Are you serious?!"

The boy turned away from her and started yelling at what she was guessing was a tool shed. "Erial! Hey Erial!" When an older boy popped out of the tool shed, the boy continued on. "Is there any fancy gate around here with a bunch of circles and roots and stuff?!"

Erial made a face as he shook his head. "No!"

The boy turned back to Ivy. "There's no gate like that in Resembool!"

Resembool? Is that what this place was called then? That sounded fake but alright. "Thanks!" For nothing. Ivy continued on walking straight the way she originally started. She would just have to run into the gate organically. Maybe she felt like she was supposed to run into it by now because of how she was feeling super impatient and annoyed right now and the sun was setting even more now so it made her feel pressured to get to the gate faster.

But no matter how far she walked, the gate never showed up.

Now Ivy was ready to crying in frustration.

Where the hell is it?!

The sky was an orange-y purple now, the sun almost completely out the sky and Ivy had been walking for what had to have been an hour and the gate still hadn't shown reappeared. She had to have run into it by now. It was that far out from that cosplayer's house.

So where the hell was it?