Sorry everybody for taking a long time to respond to these letters again. My life has been really hectic as of late. As usual, we're in yet another house, hiding yet again. I suppose that one could call it an exciting life, but it isn't very fun. Brother's developing circles under his eyes. Maybe I should break my habit of talking to him when he's trying to get some sleep.

Hello, Alphonse.

I've loved looking over your letters that you've responded to, and I thought
I would go for one as well. Let's see here...First off, I'm just going to warn
you that my own personality can be very much like Edward's, so sorry if I end
up rambling or something. (No offense to the pipsqueak, of course!)

It's very interesting what you and Edward have been going through in Germany.
I've been attempting to learn a little German, but all I've managed as of yet
is learning Stille Nacht and saying 'no' hehe. German is a very hard language
for me, English being my native tongue, but I feel sympathy for you because
they say English is one of the hardest languages to learn. I admire your
perseverance in learning two extra languages.

At our schools, we're required to learn a foreign language and to take two
years of it at least. I'm taking four years of Spanish (Spain is a European
country too, in case you've never heard of it) and that's hard enough
sometimes! The accents in German leave me confused a lot, hehe. But still, I'm
glad you were able to do it! How long did it take you and Ed to get used to
English and German? Of course, Edward had a head start in German, so I imagine
he helped you a bit.

I must say that it's a good thing that I'm answering this letter and not Brother, because he would have already started ranting at you for insulting him by assuming that he didn't even know what Spain was. We've looked at maps of the world. We know what the names of all the major countries are and where they're located, and we know the names of many of their native languages, but not all of them. It doesn't take as long to learn these things as one might think.

Actually, Brother knows a bit of Spanish. He'll learn whatever language a book he wants to read is written in, as that occupies his boredom and gives him something to do. Learning another language is time-consuming, so he loves the challenge. I think he's learned about seven new ones since he got here. I'm still trying to juggle the two new ones that I've picked up.

As to how long, with Brother helping me, it only took me a few months to be able to speak both languages reasonably well. When one is put in an environment where their only choices are to either learn to communicate or die, one generally learns to communicate rather fast. Fortunately, learning a third language is usually easier than learning a second language, so English wasn't as hard to learn as one would think. It made it a lot easier.

So you know Stille Nacht? That's my favorite Christmas carol, by the way. Christmas was barely existant in my world. Christianity existed in that world at some point, but more or less died out long ago, so that time of year didn't have a Christmas celebration, though the winter solstice was still celebrated, especially in the agricultural areas. We didn't so much give gifts as you do here during that time of year, but we would get together for various festivities of singing and dancing and generally finding ways of showing our gratitude to the universe, or however you choose to word it. It was kind of a carryover from the earth-based religions in our world. Coming here and finding out about Christmas was rather interesting to us. Brother wasn't overly pleased about the highly religious aspect of it, but I liked the music regardless, and got attached to that song Stille Nacht, so now even he will sing it from time to time, simply because I like it.

Also! Adding on something I forgot on my last comment...

Do you have any odd stories of things happening to you and Edward while you
were learning English? Like misunderstandings with other people and such.
English is my native tongue and I still misunderstand people sometimes hehe.
Goes to show how much of an airhead I can be sometimes, I guess!!

Alison
Soldier A

There have been plenty of misunderstandings while I was learning English, but I couldn't tell you about them in great detail because I'm really not sure what I said, or what they interpreted my words to mean, but I certainly noticed their reactions. I once approached a man to ask him a question about English currency, and he just glared at me with a funny expression on his face and then walked away without a word. I have no idea what it was that I actually had said to him.

Hey Al.

Thanks for answering my (fairly stupid)letter. And please tell Ed I'm sorry.
I just wanted to see if he grew up at all since the Shamballa incident. by
the way, the pun was NOT intended

Sorry if I made your headache worse...I was just curious. Um, okay. What was
your first reaction to the story Rose told you, after Ed got your body back
from the gate, but before the Shamballa thing? I think you might have had
something like this before, but I wanted to know your feeling when they told
you what happened in the four years you lost in the gate. Uh, that doesn't
make a lot of sense, does it? Oh, sorry, it's just that my head hurts now, and
I have a lot of algebra homework to finish. Well, I think I'll wrap this up by
saying this is really nice, writing back to all of your adoring fans.

Auf weidersehen!

Hmm, I have to agree with you, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's okay, I'll try to figure out what you meant regardless. Just don't catch my headaches. Those aren't supposed to be contagious, so I'm a little stingy when it comes to sharing them. Or rather, I just don't want other people to have to be in pain because they're pitying me. Now I'm not making sense. I think I caught something from you.

Anyway, yes, I do think I answered this question before. I was overwhelmed and confused. It was like there was a part of my mind that was just out of reach, and I couldn't seem to connect to it, no matter what I tried. It was sort of like those times when you have a thought "on the tip of your tongue" and just can't seem to say it, except it was worse. I wasn't able to rationalize backwards or forwards or anything else to get the memories to surface. They were simply blocked, and I couldn't access them, was kind of scared me.

The odd thing though is that some memories did surface, but only when I wasn't deliberately reaching for them. They would either hit me spontaneously, or I'd receive them in a dream. So, I knew that we had gone on a journey together, I knew that what Rose said was true, and I knew what Brother had looked like, which was why I'd tried to dress like him. It made me feel closer to him, especially since I couldn't retrieve the rest of my memories. The Gate must be a little bit sloppy about taking something away, either that or it likes to tease by giving back little pieces of the toll just to get you to try harder to get back the rest of it. Getting those memories back and being with Brother again was definitely worth the price of coming over here, though I still miss my old home and Winry from time to time.

(Another Video Message for Alphonse Elric. If it is a letter instead of a
video...I don't need to say it.)

(The screen flickers to life, and it shows a black cloaked man(me) looking
across a space station. The planet below is a huge city.)

Hello again. It seems you never took my last message seriously. Well. Too
bad.

(holds up remote control device)

If I am correct, that technologic device has, in Ed's sleep, administered a
serum to Ed. Which, I might add, it would get a lot of time to do. It
wouldn't have to go far to find a blood vessel either. Now, if I press this
button, Ed will do an action of my bidding...I think I'll make him drink milk
while wearing his shirt as pants, and his pants as a shirt, and with a hat
glued to his buttocks.

(Presses button after pressing other buttons on the device.)

There, that should-

(A wall on the statione explodes, revealing powerful soldiers.)

Excuse me, I have to deal with some rebels.

(I go and beat the rebels to a bloody pulp using complicated moves using high
technology beyond anything Ed and Al have ever seen.)

There. Now, where was I -

(Screen turns red, and big black letters show the words OUT OF MEMORY. ON
the back of the video device, a slot opens, and a note pops out, saying..)

From, Nitro.

Um, Brother does a lot of those things on his own when he's in a crazy mood and thinks that no one's looking, so how would I know that something was actually wrong with him? I suppose that if he drank milk I would question his sanity more than usual, but that's simply because I know that it gives him an upset stomach. Perhaps he would drink it if he wanted to throw up and then claim that he needed to be pampered because he was sick, but I've never seen him feign sickness to get attention before. Well, not since he was a child at least. I suppose that if he were to do something like that nowadays, he would probably be doing it because he was so depressed that he was trying to find a way to feel physical discomfort rather than have to pay attention to his mental discomfort, though removing his auto-mail and putting it back on would have a lot better effect. Either that or he could take some herb that would guarantee to make him throw up.

That kind of reminds me of that time that Teacher left us on that island. We were naive little kids, and didn't know what was good to eat and what wasn't, so when we saw these bright, shiny mushrooms, what would one expect of some hungry kids? Needless to say, we both threw it all up and were sick for a long time afterwards. Brother tried to lighten the mood by saying, "Do you think we'll get in trouble for leaving the island?" I was not in a laughing mood, and so I slapped him and groaned as I tried to wait it out. We survived, thankfully, but we both learned a very important lesson that one does not eat the pretty mushrooms by any means.

Hi, Nii-san (that means brother in japanese)! Yea, I do think you'd make a
cool big brother so I'm making you mine! I always do in my fanfics! Aren't I
weird? FYI, I'm Meiko! That's my fake name on the web!
Anyways, here are my questions:
Do you think of yourself more superior than your brother sometimes,
considering you're more mellow?

What did you do after searching for the bombs?

Did you ever like Psiren in Aquroya (agh, can't spell now, too lazy)? FYI,
shes in episode 10.

Have you ever had a girlfriend?

And that's all, Nii-san! FYI, a dude is a guy. Byes, Nii-san! Luv you! XD

Okay, that letter made barely any sense at all, so I'm just going to ignore the majority of it and skip to only what I did understand. No, I don't consider myself superior to my brother, I consider him to be superior to me, which is why I look up to him so much. I wouldn't do that if I considered myself superior. As to what we did after searching for the bomb, we did what we're doing now, running and hiding. That's what we began doing as soon as we ran out of leads. I thought Psiren was a nice person for the most part, but I never liked her in that way that I think you're implying. I have no idea what episode 10 is referring to, so I'll just pretend I didn't hear that. And no, I've never had a girlfriend.

Sorry for answering all that in one paragraph, but that letter really didn't make much sense to me. Remember that I'm in the early 20th century in this world, and wherever you're from, I don't have any idea what it is that you have grown up with, so you have to talk to me with early 20th century terms if you want me to understand.

Anyway, now I know a word in Japanese. I understood that much. Maybe I should try calling my brother that, and see how he reacts.

Hi, Al!

I have this question in mind... If , let's say, you and your brother were in
Amestris, and Ed dies from murder/illness/whatever, would you try to bring him
back, eventhough you know the consequences?

And if it so happens that you will, what will you do about Ed's homunculus?

Just asking. I'm kinda obsessed with the idea.

Um, no. We learned our lessons the first time, we would never make the same mistake again. Once one is dead, it's best if they are left dead and that the other moves on with their life. There is an existence after death, we just don't know what it is. We'll find out when we get there, and no sooner. I don't think it's polite to try and forcefully pull someone back from the realm of the dead. Even if it worked, that would be very jarring to their psyche. I wish I had thought that way last time, but one has to live and learn.

Please excuse me if I sound like an idiot or if I ramble. And if I don't use
the metric system. Okay, here we go:

My name is Angalee (ANN-juh-LEE). I'm a middle school student in America
(yes, most of us are from America; that might explain why everyone suggests
it. But really, that's what they teach us in history class, that America is
the Land of Opportunity!)

I applaud your indifference. If I just randomly started getting anonymous
letters about my personal life, I'd probably freak out. Though, I have to say
that's a little weird, I hope you were exaggerating about going "Mail for me?
Interesting."

It's a gift to know alchemy in this wonderful world of ours. I'd love to
learn alchemy, even if I couldn't use it. Just for sake of knowing it. In the
same way I'd love to learn German, though I certainly don't need to know it
survive in America.

Just a little 'fortune telling' for you: assuming you live in 1920, about 90
years from your time, our world still has no flying cars, time machines, and
our automail is very, very primative. We can write without ink or paper,
though, and our cars do go, on average, up to 120mph, I think. Why someone
would want to drive so fast, I'll never know. In fact, the highest you can go,
anywhere, is around 60mph.

No offense, but I hope you don't live to see the year 2000. It's gone downhill.
Very downhill. Really, it'd be better if you croaked(that's slang for 'died')
or got back to your world by then. I know Ed won't do either. (Haha, I'm the
doom-and-gloom merchant).

Now for the actual questions, which I'm sure you've been dreading!

1. Some people think that you and Winry were made for each other, in
everyway. Some draw pictures of you two (in varying degrees of innocence).
Some write stories about you two (likewise). What's your opinion of that?

2. How does Ed hoard books? Can't you simply read the ones he's done with? Or
does he, like, burn them when he's done?

3. I'm 11 (and a half) and my older sister's 17, we're about five years
apart. We're both 5 feet three inches (that's 160cm). I find a sick joy in
teasing her abuot her height(Unlike Ed, she never had and never will go on
about how she isn't short). This sparked an argument, and I was hoping you
would do the honors of settling it. I say that she's short, but she says I'm
just freakishly tall. Who's right and who's wrong?

Hoping you don't get caught,
Angalee

(P.S. I hope you find out how the letters get from us to you!)

You write very well for an 11-year-old. Most 11-year-olds don't come across that smart, but it does happen. My brother is a case in point.

Eh heh, no, I wasn't actually exaggerating about finding it interesting that people were randomly sending me letters. I suppose that that makes me naive, but I don't care. It's better than being Mr. Depressed-all-the-time like my brother. If I make a mistake due to my naivete that causes trouble for me, that's no worse than my brother making a mistake due to his depression, and I saved all that energy by not being depressed! I figure that while in this world, one might as well live in it.

Alchemy can be used in this world, it's just implemented in a different way, and me and my brother still haven't figured out how to adapt. My brother is the one that said, "That didn't work. I'll try rocketry instead." But I never just try something once and give up like he did, which is actually rather out of character for him. I think that our dad told him that alchemy didn't work in this world to keep him from getting into further trouble, but I don't believe it. If this world is on the other side of the Gate, could it simply be that the polarity is reversed? Or maybe it's difficult to do it in a world where there isn't universal acceptance of the idea? Whatever the cause, it can be done here. It HAS been done here. There are plenty of accounts to prove it, which I have been researching whenever I can get a book away from Brother. He prefers to read about his rocketry anyway, since he definitely believes that that can be done in this world.

It sounds like the time you live in is interesting, but it also sounds like I wouldn't want to live in it. The aftereffects of the Great War are bad enough. I hope there haven't been any other major wars since then, though Brother thinks that there will probably be another big one, because of that bomb.

I don't deny that I've always liked Winry, but I think that she's more compatible with Brother than with me, and were we able to get back to Amestris, I would encourage the two of them to get together. I'll find my own girl someday.

It's not that he doesn't let me have his books when he's done. I sometimes do get to read the ones he's finished with, but we usually have to move again by the time he's finished with some that I can read, so I don't get to read as much as I'd like. There are always the hours when he's sleeping though, as long as I don't lose his place, or he would probably kill me.

Um, pardon my bluntness, but that argument doesn't sound very intelligent when you are both the exact same height. How can one be right and one be wrong when one calls the other short and the other calls the one tall, and yet they're both the same height? If it's fun to argue about it, go ahead and argue, but don't expect anyone to resolve it for you, because it is completely pointless.

Oh thats okay. I forgot about the other you well there is more than one but
yous sounds stupid. Anyway thank you for replying. I am close to my siblings
too. Though they are much older than me and moved out when I was very young.

So Ed has grown up a lot huh? Did that take some getting used to?

One last thing! I am surprised that in your letters you came across another
viola player! I play viola too but I don't play too well this is only my second
year playing anyway so I need to get used to it. I'm doing better than last
year though.

Say hi to Ed for me even though he doesn't know who I am.

I like Eds Add ins. Sorry Ed but encouraging is fun.

I suppose it took a little time to get used to Brother having grown up, but I don't remember exactly how long. He does look like an adult now, rather than a child as I remember him best, but he still looks like Brother, regardless. I still look down on him though, either way. Ed: I am so tempted to scratch out that unnecessary little comment.

Heh, yet another viola player? Are stringed instruments popular in your time? I never met that many other violin players, either here or in the other world, but that could just be me. What exactly is the difference between a violin and a viola? Aren't violas smaller or something? Sorry, I've never bothered to study anything but my chosen instrument, so I'm not very knowledgeable about such things.

And I said hi to Brother for you. He said 'whatever'. I hope that that was the answer you were expecting from him. It's probably the best one he would give.

Dear Alphonse
Hajimemashite!
I react the same way as Ed does to milk! It makes me nauseous if I drink it
strait. Tell him that it helps to have it with food (unfortunately not always)
Also, never freeze it! Ed doesn't have to answer and I know he most likely
will not listen to the suggestion but it's worth a try.
Forget about America! Come to Canada. It isn't always freezing like people
say! Sometimes the summer can get up to 110/43.3. Seriously though. Stay
wherever you are comfortable. "Comfortable" being a relative term
considering your situation.
Oh yea! My question! I nearly forgot. If you were to fall in love and get
married then found a way home but she refused to leave and Ed would never
leave you behind but you knew he would be miserable knowing it was that close.
What would you do?
And we are proud of you Al! You don't have to learn metaphors, etc, for
that! You're smart and kind and have made it through so much. If I have kids
I want them to be like you.
You draw too! What do you draw? Have you ever drawn Edward? I've drawn the
two of you before. Hm. That sounds creepy doesn't it? You're fun to draw
though. I know what you look like from the manga and anime. As a note, mangas
are written right to left because that is how they write in Japan. They are
translated from Japanese to English but retain this quality.
You don't have to respond if you are too swamped with letters already. You
have to respond to enough craziness as it is.
Sincerely, Illyalil
PS: Don't tell your brother to shut up Ed. It isn't nice.

Canada, huh? That had never even entered my mind, actually, though I honestly can't say why I would want to move to any other country. We wouldn't feel any more at home there than we would here, and we already speak the language fairly well here in Germany, though I'm assuming you speak English since you're writing to me in that language.

As far as who I would choose over who in that situation, I would have to wait until that situation actually happened to decide. There is no way I could plan ahead for a situation like that, and I hope it never does.

Well, thanks for thinking I'm smart. I'm not exactly sure that I am, since Brother is the genius of the family and I just make sure to always be nearby, so I probably end up looking smart too, even though he's the real smart one. I appreciate the compliment though. It's sweet of you.

Yes, I draw. As far as what, I'll draw just about anything I can think of. Naturally I have drawn my brother sometimes, or my mother, or all three of us, or whatever comes to mind. I enjoy drawing people a lot, or I'll draw something that expresses my emotions even if it doesn't make a lot of sense, though I try to bring some sort of stability into the drawing somehow. I much prefer people to look at it and say, "That's a really good drawing," rather than "What is that?"

Ed: And of course it's nice to tell my brother to shut up. He loves it when I do that.

Al: Shut up, Brother.

Ed: Wait, what? Al, since when have you been responding to my comments?

Al: Since I decided to go back and check on what you've responded to and respond back before I sent this out.

Ed: This letter will probably take a long time to get sent out then.

Hi Al

You know when you were talking about visiting your brother in your sleep,
that's called astral projection. When you do that you send your soul out of
your body and it is kept connected by a thin thread. If you want to control
it, maybe you should learn to meditate. That way you can use it better. Well,
I should ask a question instead of babbling all day, sorry about that. Is
there any other animal you like besides cats? I personaly like any animal in
the feline family, such as tigers or bobcats. And if you're wondering, I am
writing from America and from the future as well. Todays date for me is
October 24, 2007. On a different note, when is your birthday Al? My birthday
is January 26 and I'm not looking foreward to it because something bad always
happens around my birthday. Last year was a bad ice storm that knocked out the
power for a week. That's why this year I'm investing in a hard hat or some
armor. You can't be too careful ya know. Anyway I got to go for now, so I'll
talk to you later. Bye Al.

So what I do at night has a name? Interesting. Thanks for the information. I'll see if I can find anything on astral projection.

I like just about any animal, but cats have always been my favorite. I'm an animal lover in general, unless the animal happens to be a chimera that is just about to rip you to pieces. I tend to draw the line there. (Hey, I got another saying there! I used it right, right?)

2007? That's a long time in the future. I wonder how your letters are getting back here. It's kind of spooky, but it entertains me too, so I don't worry about it too much, even if I logically should. I just figure that I don't understand nearly everything about existence, so if two times seem to overlap, I'll just shrug and accept it. Maybe I'll understand later.

Anyway, my birthday is September 29.

Be careful on your birthday. I would hate for something to happen. Take care, and stay safe, okay?

Hey, how are ya?
Okay, my name's Amanda.Sadly...
Yeah, well I'm pretty damn sure you get a lot of questions about Ed, but I
hope you don't mind me asking yet another one. How does he put up with being
called a genius? Or to be grammatically correct, how DID he put up with
it? People have called me a freaking genius for about eight years now and it PISSES
ME OFF. Sheesh. I'm not smart. They're just stupid.
And now, a question from my friend Leeta, who thinks you're the best thing
since the invention of the wheel-when exactly is your birthday? We know Ed's
(Feb 3) but no one ever mentioned yours...

In answer to the first question, Brother has never really cared if someone called him a genius. It kind of gave him an ego boost, so he kind of enjoyed it actually. I have to sometimes tactfully bring him back down once he's been praised a lot by someone, because he sometimes gets careless while on one of his ego trips. Ed: What the ---- is an ego trip, Al? Is it the kind of trip where you trip someone and they fall, or is it a trip like in, "I'm going to take an ego trip to Spain?"

Al: Brother, I really don't understand you anymore.

Anyway, in answer to your second question, which oddly, someone already had asked this session (questions always seem to come in groups), my birthday is on September 29. September 29, 1900 in my world. Considering the time differential, I think that that would be 1906 here. You keep your calendar different from us, so it's off by a few years.

Always read a book from the end to the beginning, the the ending is always
happy! Tell Ed that the height thing is not just him...I have friends who are
shorter than myself and yet they choose to mock my height. And that guitar is
always needed, we keep the rhythm and we can play the melody! Look into Bach
and Beethoven. To you, I commend your attempts at amusement. Reading is hard
when there are no books, learning foreign languages is difficult, especially
english considering one could keep learning until their death and still not
learn all of the English words, plus, the more you play an instrument, the
more creative you are and the more it alows you to learn more. This isn't full
of questions, but why not chat?

Yes, I certainly can chat, but I'm not exactly sure what to chat about. Something about the way you talk makes me want to tease you about something or other, but I'm not sure what I want to tease you about, nor am I sure how you'd take the teasing. I normally only tease my brother, and I'm sure you know how he takes it. (Not very well, but better than with other people teasing him.)

I suppose that I could always talk about things that the two of us have done for amusement, though Brother really doesn't want me talking about them, but I know he won't tear up the paper if I've already written them down, because paper is hard to come by.

There was this one time when, just because he was bored, he decided to see how many gummy bears he could stuff into his mouth and still sing a tune while playing his guitar. He did pretty well, he got up to 48 before he started to choke and had to spit them out. They were all disgusting after that too, because they had partially melted and stuck together in one disgusting, multi-colored stick ball. I'm still waiting for him to achieve 50. Ed: I did achieve 50, you just weren't counting right!

Then there was this other time when I discovered that I could get an immediate adrenaline rush by putting my hands behind my back and falling face forward onto my bed. Brother thinks this is stupid and refuses to try it, but I find it fun. He once caught me doing it over and over during the course of a few minutes, and he avoided me the rest of the day as a result. Ed: I just wasn't sure if what he had was catching.

And then of course, there was that time when we were both so strapped for cash that we dressed up as a couple girls and went out begging for money. He'll probably murder me for mentioning this, but it did work. We had to make sure to leave the neighborhood after that act though, just in case we got caught. I don't know about your time, but they don't take kindly to men who pretend to be women in our time. Hopefully we'll never do that again. I don't know why we did it in the first place, but we were in a very strange mood that day. Maybe it was in something we ate. I think that Brother at least had been drinking before that antic, but I'm not sure what my excuse was. Maybe I don't have one. Ed: Al, I've told you a thousand times, I was drunk then, so I don't remember that, therefore, it didn't happen.

Dear Al,

I wanted to know if you ever tried to play a prank on Ed and also is he SHORT
tempered hahahahahaha!

Yes, I've played lots of pranks on him. We're brothers, aren't we? There was a time just recently where I rigged up a system while Brother was sleeping where I tied one end of a rope to Brother's ankle, and the other end to a bucket of water. As soon as he moved his ankle, his bed got very wet. What was even more cruel about that particular prank was that it was the middle of winter when I did it, so he was freezing afterwards and had to start a fire just to warm up. He didn't talk to me for the rest of the day, so I almost wonder if that prank was worth it, but it was certainly my most well thought out one.

There was another time when I had tried to bake a pie, but it didn't turn out to be edible, so I decided to put it to a good use in pranking my brother. I set it up on the front door so that it would fall on his head as soon as he stepped in the door. Before long, I heard something smack onto the floor, so I came running into the room to see the results of my prank, only to find out that my victim was not my brother, but Officer Hughes. I had not expected him to walk in without knocking. I think that he always remembers to knock before entering people's houses now. Plus Gracia has taught me how to make pie since then.

Dear Alphonse,

Wow, never in my wildest dreams did I expect such a response! That was
wonderful, Alphonse; I was smiling the whole way through. I would give you a
hug, but considering that this is a letter and I can't talk to you
physically… Sigh. Give yourself a hug from me, okay? That's my thanks for
making my day so much better.

Yeah, today wasn't really the best of days until I got your letter. You
see, I had to take this long test called a PSAT, which takes hours to finish.
If I do well on it, I have the chance to go to a good college for less money,
but if I don't do well on it, my chances of a good college accepting me go
down. Luckily, I studied for it, and I think the hard work paid off just like
when you and Ed took the written part of the State Alchemist exam. Fortunately
I don't have the chance of a physical test coming up for college. That'd
be mortifying!

So anyway, it made my day a whole lot better to see Alphonse Elric write that
it was a rare privilege to get a letter like mine and that if pesky little
thing called time didn't separate us, he would actually consider being my
friend. So, Danke sehr schon Alphonse.

Ach, ich liebe Folk Musik auch! Classical is nice and all, but it's so much
harder for me to play in that style. Our orchestra at school is putting on a
concert tomorrow, and we have both a Vivaldi piece and a song called "Folk
Dance." I love Folk Dance so much more than Vivaldi! (But the Vivaldi is
pretty, don't get me wrong) Every time we play Folk Dance I want to put on a
huge skirt and dance my heart out! It also reminds me of the song "Kelas"
that Noa and her friends sang. Ed should remember it, but you weren't in
Germany at that point. Ask Noa to sing it for you, it's very pretty. I would
sing it right now, but once again… letter.

And Ed plays guitar? That was a rather interesting fact. I would have
expected him to be more of a winds or percussion person. My friends and I were
talking about this once. We had some trouble with Ed, but we decided instantly
that Roy would play the trumpet. I think we actually guessed viola for you,
but only because we were all viola players and didn't want you joining the
ranks of violins. I think we ended up deciding that Ed would be best on
trombone, though we did mention piccolo as a joke because it's the smallest
instrument in the orchestra.

But it's cool that you two are close enough in skill to play with each
other. My little brothers play clarinet and saxophone, but neither of them are
quite up to the level where they could play a duet with me. I wish they could.
That would be so fun.

My German is actually improving now. (Either that or I'm just getting more
confident in my language skills) My German class at school was getting too
small to be an actual class, so they combined us with kids a year higher than
us. This also seems to have motivated our class into actually learning rather
than goofing around. Did you ever have classes with combined grades as a kid?
They're a pain in the neck sometimes, but I'm actually enjoying it at the
same time. Und was ist purpurrot auf Englisch? Purple? Ich weisst das Wort
nicht.

Actually, as an outsider looking in at your life, I've always kind of
thought that you would be a wonderful elementary school teacher. If you're
into the whole art thing though, you could certainly be an art teacher if you
wanted. Of course, this is just my personal suggestion, you certainly don't
have to follow it. I just always thought you had the right kind of patience
and social skills needed to be a teacher, and you always seem to enjoy playing
with kids. I'm actually considering being a teacher myself, either that or
some kind of engineer, I think. Or an interior designer. (I'm not sure if
there's really demand enough for this job to be invented in your time yet,
but if it's not around yet, it's someone who gets paid to make the insides
of building look artistic and nice)

But I realized that I was being really silly the whole time I was looking for
my passion, when my passion was in front of my nose the whole time. In fact,
I'm doing it right now! Yep, that's right, writing. I realized that all
this time I was just ignoring it as a "hobby" when this is truly what I
love to do. In fact, looking back at my life, I realize that I've always
loved writing, it's just that some teachers made it seem less important to
me when it really wasn't. A girl in a moving picture from my time (well, a
little before my time, actually…) once said, "I should never go looking
for my heart's desire outside my backyard again. Because if it wasn't
there to begin with, then I never truly lost it." The phrasing may be a
little off, but that's pretty much what she said.

Yeah, I also used to read a lot as a child. But my two younger brothers and I
also used to do a lot of games where we would end up making this whole
intricate story. We have this beautiful little… I'm not quite sure what to
call it, so I'll just cal it a glen… by the side of our house. My
grandparents actually built our house up from scratch and my grandma decided
that it would be much prettier to have a fence of trees rather than a normal
fence. So over by the side of the house there's a small group of trees that
form a sort of clubhouse, and sometimes when it rains there's a small
stream, making it an ideal place for fantasy games. My brothers have their own
"weapons shop," which is really just a collection of sticks that look like
swords and such, and we used pinecones as currency, since a large percentage
of the trees around our house are evergreens.

I actually didn't play so many dress-up/house games, but I did like to play
store. We would run around the house getting all the coolest toys and then
setting them up to look like a store. Then one person would be the owner while
the others went in and bought the toys they wanted.

Oh, and tell Ed that I said to stop making mountains out of molehills. I
would suggest yoga or something like that to help calm him down, but I think I
have an idea of how that would end up.

I was wondering if you had some sort of comforting line or something that you
repeated to yourself all those years your were in armor. I've tried putting
myself in your shoes and thought about how "We'll get the Philosopher's
Stone someday," just doesn't seem to cut it, at least not for me. I would
just like something comforting to be able to repeat to myself during stressful
times so that I don't get too hyped up, like I usually do. Lately my life
has been kind of stressful.

I suppose you wouldn't really know since you've never actually had a
girlfriend, but breaking up with a boyfriend is really hard. I just started
this relationship rather recently, but it moved really fast (not to the point
where I had to reject him because of my abstinence promise, thank goodness)
and I soon realized that I wasn't as ready for a relationship as I once
thought. But now I'm left with the problem of how to end a relationship with
a guy who seems to actually like me for who I am. I still haven't done it
because I'm so worried about hurting him. He's going through a rough time
and I really don't want to add to the pain, you know?

But to every cloud lies a silver lining, and because of all the stressful
things going on in my life, I have fallen in love with flannel. It's so soft
and wonderfully comforting! I seriously sleep in this stuff now. I can't
believe I once thought it was geeky. Well, it may be a little geeky, but who
cares when it's so soft?!

Anyway, wish me luck on my orchestra concert tomorrow, even if it really is
years into the future for you. I'm actually the third chair in the
orchestra. I bet I could do better if I actually practiced as much as I'm
supposed to. I guess I'm too busy writing.

Oh, and the whole thing with "Please come to America?" True, those girls
might not be able to meet you because of because of time barriers, but I bet
they would kill to meet any distant relatives, or – heaven forbid – your
grandson. Some of these girls really need to grow up.

Anyway, keep safe and healthy. Be careful not to get any nasty flu bugs while
journeying around the country. You can never be too sure about what's in the
air around you. Putzen deine hande taglich!

Sincerely,
Petra

Hi, Petra! It's nice to see you again. I've been looking forward to responding to you ever since I started responding to all the rest of these letters, which is precisely why your letter is last. I usually just arrange these in the order I receive them, but yours stands out, and I preferred to give it the best place, the one where I could focus all the attention I wanted on it without thinking about how many more letters I had to do after this.

I'm glad that I was able to make your day a little bit better. It makes me feel good to make someone else feel good, so Sie sind willkommen. Anytime.

Folk music is great. It's peppy, simple, and one can usually dance to it. Classical is nice too, but that's Brother preferred genre of music, not mine. He does get into it when I start playing some lively piece on my violin, though I don't know who wouldn't. I'm not saying that I'm that good of a violin player, I'm just referring to the fact that Folk music does that to a person. It's almost like it grabs your feet and forces them to move, so you just shrug and give in to it.

People don't always know what exactly would be brother's ideal instrument simply because they only know certain sides of his personality, basically the sides that he shows in public. When you're around him all the time though, you know how he can be in his more relaxed moments. He's a lot more mellow than one would guess judging by his public persona, so the guitar actually suits him rather well. I really love it when he plays it by picking at individual strings rather than strumming it. It makes that instrument so beautiful in my opinion. Of course, he has odd ideas of what entertainment is when he gets drunk, so don't ever ask him to play the guitar if he's been drinking too much, because he thinks that loud and obnoxious is funny.

That's good that your German is improving. That usually is because one becomes more confident in their language skills, and so they become more receptive to it, so it's probably a bit of both explanations, actually. And yes, I did have combined classes as a child. Me and my brother were in the same class back in Reisenburgh, but we weren't in the same grade. It was a one room schoolhouse. I was actually surprised to find later that there were some places big enough to have the grades separated. I don't honestly know which way is easier. I haven't experienced both ways, so I wouldn't know.

And in answer to your question, purpurrot is indeed purple. I like the color purple.

I've had other people tell me that I should be a teacher before as well. I guess that I just sound like a teacher when I talk. I suppose that that's not a bad thing, though I'm not sure if my patience would last all year with a bunch of rambunctious kids that don't want to listen from one day to the next. Even my patience runs out eventually. An older group might be okay though, as long as they're only coming to my class specifically to learn, and aren't being forced into it. And yes, interior designers are heard about in this time, but they're pretty much only employed by rich people. One can still make a living out of it though. Some rich people have a tendency to change their minds a lot and keep calling the same designer back to change things for them, though many of them are satisfied with the original design and never call the designer again. I don't know, I'll decide sooner or later I guess. I'm glad that you figured out that you like writing so much. That should make one thing easier for you when you are ready to start your career.

Those games you played as a child sound fun. Me and my brother played things like that from time to time, if we were imaginative enough to come up with something to do besides reading. Our games were usually fairly normal for that reason, or we would incorporate alchemy, which I suppose wasn't exactly normal, but it was fun for us. We always had little competitions as to who could make the best object, whatever the agreed upon object was. Brother always won.

The day that Brother stops making mountains out of molehills is the day that he stops being Ed, but I suppose he should learn to tone himself down somewhat, to use a figure of speech. Is yoga that eastern practice of exercise and meditation? I've come across the word from time to time, but haven't really bothered to find out the details of it. We both know a few martial arts and we spar occasionally, so I had kind of always figured that that was enough. It certainly gets his frustrations out and he always smiles after a good sparring match, even if he loses. He does try hard though. He's almost won a couple times since I got this body back, but I'm not about to let him actually win.

Hmmm...I didn't have a set line that I would say over and over while I was in the armor. I more had a thought that I would think over and over, which was something along the lines of, "My brother loves me, that is why I'm still alive, and that is why he's trying so hard to fix the problem." I didn't particularly care whether he actually succeeded or not, though I pretended to. What I really cared about what that he express his love to me in some way, and the fact that he was constantly trying to get my body back verified it for me. Of course, when that idiot suggested that Brother didn't really love me, I for some reason started to believe him because he had attacked me where it hurt most. That thought was the one that was keeping me from falling apart, so it was also my weakest point, and if one attacked me there, I couldn't handle anything. I'm actually amazed that I pulled through that at all, considering the painful doubts that had run through my head at the time, but there's no doubt about my brother's love now, so I don't have to worry about it.

I wish I could give you advice on your boyfriend problems, but I'm probably not the best person to ask, considering that I've never actually been involved in a relationship. I'm sure that you'll find a way to work it out somehow though. If not, feel free to ask your mother or your father, whoever is most available to you, as they have certainly been in a relationship before, or you wouldn't have been born! If that doesn't work, a church leader if you're religious, a teacher, or even a councellor if your school is big enough to have one might help too. My school wasn't big enough to have one, so I didn't get that advantage as a child, but my mother was always willing to answer my questions, so it was fine.

I took a long time to answer this, so I'm not sure if it will get back to you before your concert, but if not, I hope you did well. I'm sure you did though. You play an instrument similar to mine, so I'm sure you played well. I know that that doesn't actually guarantee success, but I guess I think I'm funny? Anyway, good luck on your writing too.

And yes, that might explain why those crazy girls want us to come to America. They simply want to make American citizens out of our bloodline. Are all the girls from your time this odd, or is it just them? You seem to be the only really sane one who has written to me out of all of them, particularly noting that one that sends the video messages, though they claim to be a guy...I'm not so sure.

Anyway! Thanks, we'll do our best to keep safe and healthy and not get sick. You do the same.

Putzen deine Hände täglich? Würde nicht zu blitzen sein angebrachter das tägliche Lächeln?

Thanks so much for writing, I enjoyed it. I hope to hear from you again soon. Thank you.

Take care,

Alphonse Elric