"Some of us, for better or worse, develop very stable, consistent,

and largely predictable machineries of self. But in others, the

self machinery is more flexible and more open to unexpected turns."

- Antonio Damasio

Amelia Seymore was by no means an average child. This doesn't mean she had any special talents or anything of the sort. No, in that respect, she was pretty ordinary. She wasn't average because her family had millions of dollars in savings for personal use. This was because her family invested their money into a now international chain of hotels over 50 years ago. As the company grew, so did their stocks. Her family still invests, and has plenty of money lying around for everyone to use as they please. Her family had never been to any of their hotels, though.

She had many people who loved to come over, as her parents were frequent party throwers. She knew many of them by name, but she didn't consider any of them to be her friends. She didn't consider friendship to be a valid form of relationships among adults. She thought it was something that was taken advantage of, so people could move higher in the world. Her parents did it all the time, with big business CEOs and local celebrities. As they formed those ties, they moved up higher in the world, but Amelia was certain her parents couldn't have cared less about them. Her mother had dreamed of fame since before she was born. When she became pregnant, her mother used her connections to get an interview with a local journalist, so they could write about her baby. After Amelia was born, the article hit the papers, and her mother had her fifteen minutes of fame. She adored the attention she got when Amelia was an infant. But once she got older, and the "new baby" hype had passed, things were as calm as they were before. After that Amelia was put into the care of a nanny.

Amelia never attended preschool, or any school for that matter. Many educational institutions wanted the tuition from her rich parents. Her mother loved having the school representatives come by every year, trying to bribe her with gifts for Amelia, and for herself, so she would attend their schools. Her mother refused, though. She only hired private tutors for her, saying that home was a much better environment to learn than a cold school building. Eventually the representatives stopped coming, and her mother went back to her own means of gaining fame. Amelia had private tutors, many in her home, and some among groups of others her age. Some tried to make friends with her, but she refused to let them. She didn't want to have people stepping over her to get to her parents, just as her parents had done to those they sought out so they could get to a higher target. She found the best way to do this was to ignore someone. She would often hear people call her "snob" for snubbing them off, but she didn't care. She had too much self-respect to let someone move over her to get to their goals. She wouldn't be someone's stepping stone, she would be their roadblock.

The only person who would persist in speaking to her was a piano student named Kate that she shared a class with at a small private institution, and Amelia was certain that she would stop at some point. After all, who wants a snob for a friend?

"It looks a little complicated."

"Yeah, but don't you think it looks good?"

"Well, yeah, but…Wait… this isn't another Japanese song, is it?"

"Um… maybe?"

"Oh, Kate, for God's sake…" Amelia sighed as she looked at the sheet music. "I should have known from the title…"

Amelia Seymore and her "friend" Kate were walking down the street, leaving behind the building that housed their shared piano teacher. Their relationship had grown through that class, with Amelia giving Kate some help with her work. Kate had a great love of Japan and everything involved with it, or so she said. Amelia was pretty sure Kate only said that to sound more sophisticated instead of saying the truth – which was that she was a huge otaku nerd. Ever since she mentioned that she had glanced at the anime series Sailor Moon when she was younger Kate hadn't stopped talking about anime. Amelia never really got into it, mostly because she was more interested in her studies than what was on TV. Every now and then, Kate would give her some sheet music for a song she wanted her to try out, and some of the songs were really good, but she wished she could understand whatever lyrics went along with it.

"I'll have you know Rolling Girl is a big hit on the internet!" Kate said quickly.

"I'm sure it is." Amelia replied uninterestedly, handing the sheet music back to her, "But I don't want to play this for the recital." To show everyone their progress in their piano classes, their teacher managed to plan a recital for the public audience. Everyone was allowed to pick their three favorite songs to play, as long as they managed to learn them in time. As a favor to her friend, Amelia had picked one of the songs from an anime movie they had both watched but that was all she planned to do.

"Aw, why not?" Kate whined, doing nothing to take back the sheets of paper.

"Because I'm already playing that merry-go-round song that you gave me for it. I think that's enough."

"It's called Merry-go-Round of Life , remember? And I think this one would really jazz up your performance!"

"If I wanted to jazz up my performance, I'd get jazz music, not this." She blatantly waved the papers in front of her friend's face and she sighed as Kate took them back. "Besides, I think I'm pretty much set. If you want people to hear that song so badly, then you can perform it."

"But you're so much better than me!" Kate whined again.

Amelia sighed again, wondering just how it was this person got to be so annoying. She was also wondering where all this sighing was coming from. "You'd be on the same level as me if you just focused more on the piano and not TV shows. In fact, you're supposed to be on the same level as me, but you're not."

"My animes are not the reason for that." Kate said, "I have language classes that I'm focusing on, too, you know!"

"Specifically Japanese language classes."

"What? I think it's an interesting language!"

"You just want to watch your stuff without subtitles."

"So? Is there anything wrong with that?"

"Not necessarily, but I think your Japan obsession goes a bit far sometimes."

"Does not."

"Does so. Last week you tried to get everyone in those weird blue uniforms for the recital! They looked like military uniforms."

"They were cosplay uniforms from FMA!"

Amelia gave her friend a dry look, "You realize I have no idea what that means, right?"

"It stands for Fullmetal Alchemist! It's a really good show!" Kate said, smiling brightly at the mention of the show.

"I'm sure it is." Amelia said with yet another sigh. As her friend started to get into the greater details of the show, she started to tune her out as she started reaching for some more sheet music from her backpack. She pulled out a few pages, reading the different notes and playing the music in her head, her fingers barely tapping on the back of the paper as she instinctively mimicked the keys to play. She continued to do this until she reached the turn where she and Kate had to part ways.

"Amelia, are you even listening to me?" Kate asked with a pout.

"Mm-hmm." Amelia mumbled, keeping her eyes on her sheet music. After having known Kate for more than a few months, she had become an expert at tuning her out, as well as making her think she was listening.

"So, will you at least consider playing it at the recital?" Kate asked.

"Mm-hmm."

"Great!" Kate folded up the sheet music for Rolling Girl and slipped it into her friend's jacket pocket, "I'll be over later, okay?"

"Okay." Amelia heard the last of her words and she looked up from the sheet music, "Wait, what?"

"We're gonna hang out later." Kate said.

"We are?"

"But you just said I could come over…" Kate frowned in confusion.

"Oh. O-Oh, right." Amelia could feel her face flushing as she lied. She must have agreed to it when she had tuned herself out. "Yeah, sorry. I thought you were talking about next time."

"There's going to be a next time?!" Kate asked excitedly.

"Um… Yeah." Amelia nodded, trying to cover her tracks.

"Amy, you are such a great friend!" Kate suddenly pulled her into a tight hug and Amelia's eyes widened at the sudden gesture. It wasn't something she was unfamiliar with when it came to Kate, because she was a big hugger, but to have her suddenly do it out of nowhere was incredibly surprising. She reached up, awkwardly patting her arm until she let go. "I'll be sure to bring the book, too!"

"Okay." Amelia had no idea what she was talking about, but it probably wasn't anything that needed to be worried about. The two girls went their separate ways until they were to meet again later that evening.

It was a little after seven when someone came to Amelia's room, announcing Kate's arrival. Once they stepped aside, the little brunette burst into the room with a giddy smile, holding up a book that Amelia had never seen before.

"Look, I found it!" She squealed, holding up the book.

Amelia glanced at the book with indifference before she waved her hand, signaling that the one who had escorted Kate could leave. "Remind me what it's for, again?" Amelia said, turning her attention back to her computer.

"So we can discuss the practicality of alchemy!" Kate nearly squealed as she came over to her desk, happily plopping herself on it right next to Amelia's laptop, her feet dangling over the side. Amelia looked up at the book she held, which was a surprisingly large tome covered in brown leather, with a picture of an eight-pointed star inside a circle, and a shepherd's hook curling into the middle. "I had to dig through my unpacked book box to get to it." She opened it up on her lap, starting to flip through the pages eagerly.

"Why do you have an unpacked book box?" Amelia asked, her focus still on her computer.

"I just never bothered to put the books away when we moved to town." Kate replied.

Amelia paused, "When did you move in?"

Kate took a moment to think, her fingers fiddling with the corner of the page, "Let's see… I'm fifteen now, and when we moved I was… nine? Yeah, nine."

"You have a box that you haven't unpacked in the last six years?" Amelia asked in surprise.

"Yep." Kate smiled brightly, "Kinda funny, huh?"

"If you want to call it that…" Amelia muttered, returning her attention to her computer.

Kate rocked back and forth on the desk, "Come on! I wanna try one of the transmutation circles!" The desk creaked each time she rocked back.

"Okay, could you not?" Amelia held out her hand to stop her from moving, "And I'm a little busy right now. You can just do that yourself."

"But you're gonna miss out." Kate made a pouty face. Amelia was amazed this girl had so much energy to be so peppy. Her expression remained blank, with the exception of a dryly raised eyebrow. Kate sighed, "Okay, I'll just do it in front of you." She hopped off the desk, "Let me see… What kind of desk is that?"

"Mahogany." Amelia didn't look, but she could hear the pages of the book as she eagerly flipped through them. After a minute, she came around to the opposite side of the desk, placing the book down and producing a piece of paper from a pocket. Amelia looked up from her work to see Kate drawing a little circle image onto it, and then placing it on the desk. "I hope that stuff doesn't bleed through."

"It won't." Kate promised. She smiled when she had finished the circle and placed it down on the desk. She stood back, her arms held up high, and she made her voice deeper as she said, "Behold! The magnificent art of alchemy that has been passed down the Armstrong line for generations!" and she slammed her hands down on the desk. Amelia stared blankly at the sheet of paper, then looked up at Kate, who seemed genuinely disappointed. She slammed her hands down again, and again, and then she whined and sort of… crumpled next to the desk. She was on her knees and her chin was resting on the surface, her arms hanging limply by her side, "It didn't work…"

"Well, what did you expect?" Amelia asked dryly, going back to her computer, typing in a few extra things onto her word document program, "Alchemy isn't real. It was just a half-assed form of science that ended up being the starting point for chemistry. It's an interesting concept for a story or a TV show or whatever, but it's not really practical."

"But if it was—!"

"But nothing. Don't discuss the practicality of things that don't exist."

Kate pouted, looking down at the piece of paper. "I don't understand what went wrong… according to the book it should have worked."

"It's not real!" Amelia snapped, growing irritated, "You can't believe everything you see on TV. Especially not some Japanese cartoon."

"Okay, okay…" Kate sighed as she stood up, taking the book off the desk. "You're probably right."

"I'm definitely right." Amelia replied.

There was a few moments of silence between the girls, one of them seemed to be waiting for the other to say something. When Amelia realized that Kate didn't have anything else planned, she sighed and closed her laptop. Before she could ask her to leave, Kate spoke up.

"Hey, you wanna go get some ice cream?"

"What?" Amelia was thrown off by the sudden question.

"I just feel like getting some ice cream. You have some down stairs, right?" Kate smiled brightly.

"Mom and Dad just had an ice cream social. We're fresh out."

"Then you wanna go and get some? I know there's a Baskin Robbins just outside your neighborhood."

Amelia thought for a moment. "I could go for some ice cream." A little soft-serve was probably worth dealing with Kate for twenty minutes more.

"Cool! We can take my car!" Kate said, and she hurried out the door. Amelia debated just shutting the door and locking her out, but she knew Kate would find her way back inside, somehow. She got up from her seat and followed the girl out. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Amelia passed by the living room, where her father was currently reading a book, and her mother was looking over all her updates on her mobile phone. Normally, a child would let their parents know that they were leaving with a friend, but Amelia decided against it. They probably wouldn't notice if she had left for a half hour.

When they reached the garage, Kate opened up her book again, frowning as she looked over some of the circles on the pages, "I was so positive that it would work. Do you think I did something wrong?"

"Alchemy is wrong in general, it's impossible to do it right." Amelia said, walking past her to where Kate's car was parked on the driveway. She didn't pay any attention to Kate's mumblings as she looked over the pages, thinking hard. Then she gasped, struck with a sudden epiphany, and she knelt down on the garage floor, taking the marker she had used before out of her pocket and drawing on the cement flooring. When Amelia noticed she wasn't following, and instead drawing on the floor, she let out a groan, "Are you seriously tagging my garage? I thought you wanted ice cream."

"I'm not tagging it, I think I know what to do this time!" Kate said excitedly as she drew in the details, "The reason it didn't work before was because the circle was on a piece of paper, it wasn't connected to the actual object of transmutation."

"Oh my God…" Amelia moaned to herself as she put on the finishing touches, "Kate, be realistic. Alchemy isn't real!"

"Just let me try!" Kate insisted, and she pressed her hands to the circle. Amelia's brow furrowed, growing increasingly irritated with Kate's fruitless efforts.

"This is getting ridiculous." She clapped her hands to show her impatience, "Come on, let's go!"

"Oh! I forgot to clap!" Kate said, and she clapped her hands and pressed them to the circle. Before Amelia could tell her off for being so ridiculous, the circle started to glow, and a bright light filled up the garage, blinding her.

Amelia slowly came to, coughing as the dust around her started to fall away. "God damn it, Kate… When I get my hands on you, I swear to God…" She pushed herself up, rubbing the dirt out of her eyes.

And then she heard the cocking of a gun.

She looked up, her wide eyes meeting the barrel of a rifle gun, and not just one, but several. She looked around, seeing she was surrounded by men in blue uniforms, all of them had their guns trained on her. She also realized she wasn't in her garage anymore, but outside, in the middle of some kind of courtyard, in the middle of the day, rather than the evening.

"Show me your hands." One of the men commanded, and Amelia did as he asked, her hands moving up, showing she was unarmed, "Now stand up." She did as he said, carefully moving to stand. When she was up, the one giving the orders nodded to another and he came over, taking her hands and putting them behind her back, locking them with handcuffs. "You're under arrest for trespassing on military property."

"What?!" Amelia immediately started to resist, and the man cuffing her held her shoulders, "Wait, there's been some kind of mistake!"

"You have the right to remain silent," The man continued, ignoring her, "Anything you say can and will be used against you in the Fuehrer's court. You have a right to representation under the consent of the Fuehrer and his council, and you have the right to represent yourself."

"This is insane!" The men started moving her somewhere, she guessed it was the prison. The entire time the man was reading off some version of Miranda rights that she had never heard of before. As they pushed her on, she kept seeing people in the same blue uniform, but one thing stuck out to her more than anything.

Where the hell is Kate?