Title: A Fangirl's Dream
Summary: Ivy is no stranger to the 'Isekai' trope; her best friend writes fanfic for it all the time. She just never expected to find herself in one, let alone for a series she's never even watched. But between the alchemy, automail and lack of plot knowledge, crushing on the protagonist's love interest is about the dumbest thing she's ever done.
Pen Name: FanfictionIsMySideHustle
"So your latest idea is what now?" Ivy Carter asks over a bite of her chicken sandwich.
It's too hot to be sitting at a crowded lunch table but the girl makes due as she waits for her best friend to respond to her question. It's practically a ritual, Ivy thinks. Ever since Akasha Maverick discovered the world of writing fanfiction, she goes running to Ivy to tell her every minute detail. It's been this way since middle school.
As such, when Ivy received a series of texts from Akasha during 2nd period, Ivy knew this was coming.
In 6th grade, it was W.I.T.C.H.
In 7th grade, it was Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Halfway through 8th grade to the present 10th, there has only been one series that got Akasha's creative juices flowing.
Akasha's green eyes flash with excitement as she adjusts herself in her seat. "Oh right, I forgot I mentioned that!" The brunette exclaims, lunch forgotten as she latches onto her weathered notebook. More like you were waiting for me to ask. Ivy hides her snicker behind taking another mouthful. "I've got a new fanfiction idea!" She was grinning widely and pointing at a page full of her chicken scratch.
Ivy nodded, "I recall." That much she was able to read before quickly tucking away her phone so Mr. Coppernick didn't spot it. "Lemme guess, Full-"
"Fullmetal Alchemist?" 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!"
"Alright, well shoot," Ivy gestures with one hand.
Ivy can't completely recall what got Akasha into Fullmetal Alchemist. She thinks it was an accidental viewing of an episode? Akasha was waiting to watch some show called Clorox or Fabuloso (it was named after some sort of cleaning product, at least) and caught an episode. The brunette has had Fullmetal Fever ever since.
Gone were the days of fervent discussions about the glorious storytelling of ATLA. All Akasha could ever talk about was a series that took place in offbrand Germany. Sorry to all the people who were reading those unfinished Zuko fics she had. Ivy had been one of them. The complete story to the saga of Zuko and Sora only exists in her imagination.
Zuko was old news though, as far as Akasha was concerned. It was a non-sparkling Edward that had her attention now.
"Okay, so I'm making a story where my OC ends up, drum roll please," dramatically, Akasha beats her hands against the table.
"Dork."
"Shut up- FMA!" Akasha announces, barely missing Edric Thompson's head as she raises her arms. He scowls at the two of them, but says nothing.
"Oh yeah?" Truly if Akasha had said Pokemon, Ivy would have been surprised.
"Yeah," Akasha's grin is reminiscent of her older twin brother's. From where they sit, however, Ivy can't spot Austin anywhere. "I think I told you before there's a lot of stuff on FFN where someone's OC ends up in Amestris but I think I have a good idea that hasn't been done before. Probably. Hopefully. Anyways-" Akasha thumbs through the pages with a shake of her head, disregarding her concerns. "Usually when an OC is in FMA, they like, automatically run into Ed and Al but I'm gonna have mine run into Roy. He's the guy with the fire powers."
Ivy recalls the man. Black hair and eyes equally as black and pretty damn fine. "The nigga who snaps, right?"
"Yep, that's him," Akasha confirms and Ivy nods upwards to prompt her friend to continue on with her idea reveal. "So like I said, she meets Roy and-" she finally lands on the page she desires and turns the notebook for Ivy to read it clearly. "And to cover up the truth behind her identity and where she comes from, he says she's his little sister that he just never talks about. But Riza and everyone else in his squad knows the truth, but it's all secret."
She pauses her rambles, letting Ivy get a good skim of the page.
Katelyn Sinclair
Age: 15
Appearance: brown hair, green eyes, light tan skin.
Ivy can't stop the quirk of her lips at that, "a brunette with green eyes, huh?"
Rosy pink dusts Akasha's cheeks and she makes sure her own green eyes are pointedly looking elsewhere. "Oh what do you know," she snorts.
A surprising amount for someone who hasn't actually watched the show, Ivy wants to say. But she knows once she does, it will only lead into another fervent discussion as to why Ivy should watch it. Ivy knows the gist of the plot ー two brothers try to bring their mom back to life, lose some body parts and spend the majority of the show trying to get said body parts back. The rest of the information she accrued was through pure osmosis, occasionally catching a clip or two during Akasha's many rewatch binges. "Anyways, what's Katelyn's deal supposed to be for this one?"
Ivy has lost track of the OCs at this point.
There was Liza, Sora, some other OCs she is probably forgetting the names of. Katelyn is the most recent addition to the crew. Ivy can only hope the story gets finished this time.
Her blush fades as she falls back into talking about her story, Akasha leaning forward with interest. "I was thinking of having her do some sort of plant alchemy? Oh!" She perks up, suddenly turning her notebook in her direction once more as she scribbles a new note. "Maybe she can be someone who popped into Amestris really young so she's grown up there too? She can't remember her old life very well… Nah, I want her to struggle with knowing the plot and Roy wants to use her to change stuff like-" Akasha nods to herself, satisfied. "Honestly, I'm mostly mixed up on if I wanna do something set in the '03 anime or Brotherhood. Most of my early fics are all for '03 though so maybe Brotherhood again is good."
"Does it really matter picking between a reboot or not?" Ivy raises an eyebrow curiously. Brotherhood, the more recent of the adaptations, had a different artstyle but she doubts the plot changed that much between them.
"Brotherhood isn't really a reboot, though," Akasha tells her, eyebrows furrowed in her consideration. "The first anime came out before the manga was finished so the mangka 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. Why they bothered to make an anime out of a manga that wasn't done yet, she doesn't know. She doubts Akasha will have a reasonable answer for her either. "Go with whatever version you like the best?"
"I like them both so much though!"
"Nerd."
"Jerk."
Ivy giggled and gave Akasha a soft kick against her shoe. "So is your OC gonna stay in their world in the end or nah?" She asks, ignoring Akasha's offended gasp and returned flick.
"You're asking? Do you even know me at all?"
"Hey, I might have been surprised. You could have been going for some tragic, sad ending."
"I don't do sad endings," Akasha snorts, pointing her nose in the air proudly. "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!" She scribbles onto the pages once more. "She falls for Ed and they live happily ever after in Amestris. What would be so good about coming back here?"
"I dunno, maybe she has a really cool best friend who would miss her if she ever ended up in her dream world and never came back?" Ivy shrugs as if the idea is completely absurd.
"Her bestie can come to Amestris with her and they can each have their own Elric brother," Akasha concedes.
"I'm not into robots."
"For the last time he's not a- whatever," Akasha sighs, rolling her eyes.
"So is that Wendy girl gonna be Katie's rival or something?." Ivy tries recalling Wendy's looks from the few times she's seen the character. Blonde hair, blue eyes, pretty as all animated characters tend to be.
"It's Winry." Akasha corrects with a roll of her eyes. Thankfully, Ivy knows the annoyance isn't being directed to her specifically. No, the irritation is solely for the character she mentioned.
Got it, Winry, Winry, Winry. Ivy repeats the name a couple of times to help commit the name to memory. But seriously, Winry, Wendy, it's close enough.
"Winry Rockbell," Akasha says the character's full name not too long after. From the way her furrow has deepened and her lips are pursed as if she ate the most bitter lemon, Ivy knows the rant that is coming. "She's Ed's mechanic for his arm and leg 'cause she makes these prosthetics called automail. And," Ivy predicts the following sentence, nearly verbatim. "she's the most annoying character in the show!" There it goes. "She's basically useless! But Ed still ends up marrying her in the end, I don't know why. I just pretend that part of an otherwise perfect story doesn't exist."
"Okay but if she's his mechanic for his prosthetics, wouldn't that actually make her super useful?" Emerald eyes look at Ivy with utter betrayal. "Ay, I'm just repeating the shit you told me. It's like Katara and her healing and Sokka being the plan guy."
Akasha shakes her head vehemently. "That's completely different!" The brunette looks offended Ivy even dared to put Winry on the same level as the aforementioned siblings. "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 raises a brown hand to halt the ramble she has heard one too many times before, "So basically you just salty that this Winry girl that Ed guy's future wife and you just drinking the Kool-Aid?" Ivy calls it as she sees it. Akasha simply has a case of the Mad Fangirl Disease. "Girl, you gotta take your Team Edward goggles off. Maybe this Winry chick ain'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're watching Brotherhood."
"Girl, I don't wanna watch 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."
It's inevitable.
Ivy can tell from the look in Akasha's eyes, this plan is inevitable. Come this Friday, Ivette Carter will be watching an anime series whether she wants to or not. "I watched Pokemon, didn't I?"
"Everyone watched Pokemon," Akasha disregards the final attempt at Ivy saving herself. She's grinning with too much satisfaction knowing the battle has been watched. "You'll love Ed, Al- okay you'll love everyone. Almost everyone. You'll see what I mean about Winry sucking. And Mei, you'll probably think she's annoying too."
"I'm gonna like them out of spite. How about that, Regina?"
"Fuck you, Janice."
"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 Coach Quimby, and especially as the team's setter. Still, she can't bring herself to complain.
Ivy loves volleyball.
The smell of new volleyball shoes.
The texture of the balls.
The sound of failed spikes hitting the flesh of the middle blockers.
It wasn't always like that, admittedly. The summer before 9th grade, Ivy told Akasha she wasn't joining anything that would make her look like a stereotype. That crossed basketball and track-and-field. Volleyball was simply the last ditch effort to avoid Coach Reese's attempts to add her onto the girl's basketball roster when the first day of school rolled around. That's the problem with these small towns. Everyone knows everyone and the middle and high schools were conveniently smooshed together on one campus.
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.
And yet, volleyball is something Ivy adores completely. Maybe I actually have to give that volleyball anime Akasha was telling me about a chance. Ivy Carter willingly watching anime? Apparently that's an achievable miracle.
Whipping out her phone, Ivy skimmed over her messages.
TeamEdwardELRIC
Okay so I got more ideas about AFD!
Like I said b4, Katelyn (OC) is gonna be called Katelyn Mustang and she's gonna be traveling with Ed and Al after a while and develop her own alchemical style (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
Wiping herself down with the towel still wrapped around her shoulders, Ivy can't help the chuckle. Hopefully she finishes this story this time. It doesn't matter if Ivy doesn't know 99% of the context behind everything Akasha talks about. As long as Akasha wants to keep talking about her fic ideas, Ivy'll listen.
In their hometown of Vallant, one takes what they can get. In Akasha's case, what she got was Ivy. Vallant doesn't come with many things, convention centers being one of them. So Ivy doesn't mind being the wall Akasha pelted anime stuff at. I guess I'll be more enthusiastic about the FMA thing.
Austin is into it himself but not nearly to the degree of his sister. The relationship between the Maverick twins changed after their parents' divorce. Austin turned to himself more and more and Akasha… Ivy decides to bury the memories of the messy event. She has Akasha's back and Akasha has hers, that's what matters here.
Ivy looked out past the campus. The afternoon heat has begun to taper off and the cars pass by familiar beige buildings and styrofoam cups in the grass.
Vallant is in a weird place between 'tiny town and developing city' smack in the middle of Northern and Southern California, close to a logging community. On the one hand there are apartment complexes and on the other, there are old farmsteads that have been passed down for generations. A weird place to raise a family in Ivy's opinion, but her mom wanted a change of scenery when Ivy was 4 and found Vallant a better place to raise her than the Bay Area.
Oh shit, right. Mom. Ivy backed out of her thread with Akasha to head over to the one she shared with her mother.
Me
Yo ma. Practice is over. Omw home
It doesn't take long for Mom to reply.
Mom
Be safe!
Muscles aching in protest, Ivy finally began her trek home. 35 minutes of walking, here I come. Rationally, the teen knew the walk itself wasn't a difficult one. Some days she even got home faster than she expected. But on days after practice and when she knows she needs to be home before the streetlights come on, Ivy feels like Atlas. Fuck it, I'll just make it an hour because I ain't walking faster than this.
Me
I like the ideas!
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
Knowing Akasha, Ivy feels like there is probably going to be a moment where Akasha decides to fudge that personal rule. She can't entirely fault her. She's had plenty of daydreams in Chemistry about marrying Morris Chestnut or Ty Lee. And don't get me started on Sidon. Who is she to judge?
Me
Cool cool. Practice was tiring as hell.
Not looking forward to this walk
It's 17:30 and the sun won't be setting for another two hours. Enough time to make it home with a lectureless night to spare. Not that that bright side does anything for how tired she is.
Next time, I'm getting bus fare.
When Akasha's next text doesn't come immediately, Ivy tucks her phone back into her pocket. The bass beat of Soul For Real's 'Every Little Thing I Do' thrums softly through her earbuds as she walks past the baseball field and onto the cement. There goes the soft feeling of the grass.
No stopping for anything, Ivy tells herself.
Just keep on truckin' it so we get home faster, Ivy tells herself.
The moment she sees a bench with her tired ass name all over it, however, she plops right down with a huff.
Me
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?
Me
My lazy ass doesn't feel like walking lmao
She is pretty sure Akasha is laughing alongside her on the other side of the phone. They're soul sisters like that. Two sides of the same coin. Black and white, literally. Yin and Y- Ivy stops her philosophical ramblings as another text from Akasha got her attention.
TeamEdwardELRIC
Oh there's this shortcut Austin and I use in leif park!
Ivy can already hear her Mom's voice in her 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 finds herself not caring.
Imma use a shortcut just once and Mom doesn't even gotta know about it. Once. Maybe. Probably.
Me
Describe this, how you say, shortcut?
TeamEdwardELRIC
I'm changing your name in my phone 2 Saison Marguerite
But go pass that giant water fountain that's by the swings? It's right past that. Ya can't miss it
It's pretty short!
Ivy stands on her feet again, feeling revitalized. Leif Park is about ten minutes away from where she stands and Ivy knows crackhead determination can make it five.
Seven minutes later when Leif Park comes to view, Ivy considers it a close enough win. It has been a minute since I have been through here, she whistles in observation.
Considering the hour, the park is sparsely populated by families playing on the swing sets or sitting on the benches while their kids run around playing tag. Leif Park likely isn't anything special to those in cities worth talking about but Leif Park is a solid fixture in Ivy's memories.
It's where she climbed her first tree. She, Akasha and Austin 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 the rest of the climbing to the twins. Akasha managed to get the farthest before her father frantically demanded she come down.
It's nice seeing this place again, Ivy thinks as she passes the large fountain in the middle of the park. The crowned jewel of the place.
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 comes back again with a vengeance. 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 along with cupcakes with melted frosting.
Thoughts of frosting, trees and fishing competitions come to halt when Ivy finally sees it. This 'Can't Miss It' shortcut Akasha talked about a rather obvious stone structure Ivy doesn't recall seeing the last time she was at the park.
Me
Yo I'm at that shortcut
What's the directions?
She stares at it, head tilted to the side, as she waits for Akasha's next response. When the hell was this thing made? The best word Ivy has for the thing is 'gate', but not that cheap metal fencing kind of gate you see around schools. A stone gate is considerably fancy considering the rest of Leif Park.
Maybe the people wanted something nice to look at?
Looking at it carefully, it isn't her cup of tea. It's… interesting. That's for sure.
It has 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 is 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. Flowers and feathers border the structure in a distorted harmony. Written in these circles and ovals were words that were written in…. Geez, the fuck is that Latin? Yeah. Not really feeling this.
Ivy looks down at her phone.
Akasha still hasn't responded. I guess she really feeling her story right now. She texts a quick reminder deciding if Akasha doesn't respond in the next three minutes, she'll walk home the normal way.
Sure enough, Akasha responds in record timing.
TeamEdwardELRIC
Just walk straight. It's a linear path.
Ivy quirked an eyebrow. Periods at the end of sentences?
'Hey, dude you alright?' she begins to type before deleting and rewriting her sentence.
Me
Yo, I'll call when I get home if you wanna talk about it?
Ivy waits for the message to load but when her phone stalls on that simple task, she groans and gives up on it. She'll just call Akasha when she gets home. That's the problem with outdated phones, there are too many issues that come up. Tucking her phone into her pocket, Ivy yawns as she walks through the stone gate with little to no thought.
If Ivy were anyone else, she would claim not to understand why the twins dared go through this thing. However, she isn't anyone else and she knows the answer is simply that the two of them are a lot braver than her. The gate's structure is unnerving, like walking through a maze even though the only path forward is the one she is walking on. The only consolation she has from it is the fact she can clearly see the exit from where she is.
When Ivy finally reaches the exit and onto an open space of windblown grass, she finds herself with a new problem. The stench of manure.
I hate it here, Ivy's nose scrunches in disgust pure and true.
Me
Girl, you could have warned me that this shortcut passed through the farms!
She impatiently taps her foot and she huffs in annoyance when this message refuses to go through. Sure enough, her previous text had also been lost to the gulag and the zero bars in the top right of her phone served as the unsavory reminder.
She scrolls back to Akasha's most recent instructions.
'Just walk straight. It's a linear path.'
It better be.
The sky is looking a distinct coppery blues as the tinges of sunset appear on the horizon. This better be worth it, I swear. Hopefully Mom will be more forgiving for any mishaps if Ivy mentions she felt pretty tired after practice today. Stomaching the smell, Ivy presses forward to avoid wasting the daylight she has left. She can easily see a couple of farms not too far away and see the sheep.
5 minutes passed.
10 minutes.
15-
Again, Ivy checks the status of her phone's reception. Wednesday is a day stingy for miracles it seems.
This shortcut is fucking whack. Ivy grinds her teeth then purses her lips. If a 'shortcut' is longer than 10 minutes, it loses the right to be called a shortcut. If it weren't for the fact Akasha was clearly off earlier ー and the lack of reception ー Ivy would complain her ear off. She'll save it for tomorrow. Maybe it's Melanie-related. Melanie Maverick, Peter Maverick's new wife and the twins' stepmom.
In Ivy's eyes, Melanie is nice. She tries a bit too hard to get Akasha and Austin to like her but she's nice. Nice means nothing to Akasha who tersely told Ivy on many occasions she already has a mom.
We can think about Akasha's family issues later, alright? Ivy distracts herself from it again. She has more pressing matters at hand. The setting sun and the fact she her mother would kill her if she didn't call her soon to let her know she may be a bit later than usual.
Her mom usually would have texted her by now simply to check-in and make sure Ivy was fine.
Desperate times call for desperate measures it seems.
Ivy looks to her left at the house closest to her person, a farmhouse. Approachable enough if it weren't for the shed close by. Hard pass. Maybe she watched one too many horror movies but the farmer's shed always has tools for murder on hand. I trust no farmer unless they're at a farmer's market.
Squinting for any other options down the road, Ivy is relieved to see one that doesn't look like it belongs to Bubba. Life is finally handing out peaches instead of lemons. Quick call, in and out and back home.
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 isn't something her mom couldn't just google to validate whether or not it was true like a huge, walk-affecting traffic jam.
…
Why didn't I just look up this shortcut on the damn map app?
Groaning, Ivy tries to put the blunder behind her. It isn't like she can check now anyway, all things considered.
When the house is finally within reach, Ivy yawns for what feels like the millionth time. Home, shower, bed, sleep.
Quickly, she takes note of the house's appearance in better detail before she walks up the porch steps. The house is a medium-sized one ー a mix of yellow wood, faded brick, and green here and there. Not the color combination that Ivy would go for herself but she won't dwell on it.
No sheep or tool shed, just a sign that read 'Rockbell Automail'.
Rockbell? Automail?
Ivy pauses, trying to think of why the name felt familiar but when nothing comes to mind she decides it isn't important. Maybe this is some podunk delivery service for farmers.
Knocking rhythmically on the door, Ivy leans back hoping she looks as approachable and non-threatening as possible. Even if it's California, Ivy assumes nothing in a town where the minorities are especially apparent. Please don't be Hannibal. Please don't be Hannibal.
"Just a minute!" She hears a voice call from the other side, muffled. "Den shoo!" The barking becomes a whimper.
Thankfully, the door doesn't open to Hannibal Lector and instead opens to a girl her own age. The girl is pretty with long blonde hair and blue eyes that look at her curiously. Thank the powers that 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 feels lighter. "Oh sorry to bother you guys, I didn't actually have any orders or anything like that."
The girl blinks, surprised. "Then what did you want," she asks bluntly but not unkindly. Straightforward and to the point, Ivy can appreciate that.
"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, blinks in a mixture of surprise and melancholy but her expression brightens too quickly for Ivy to be sure. "I'll ask my grandma. Just wait here!" Then the door closes and Ivy makes out the sound of the slap of sandals on hardwood floors and muffled conversation. Within seconds, Blondie returns. "Granny says it's okay!" She steps to the side, gesturing welcomingly.
Ivy sighs in relief this time. "Thank you so much! My mom can be a bit of a hardass so I just wanna call really fast and handle my business."
Blondie keeps smiling. "She sounds like she just cares about you a lot."
"That's what she tells me," Ivy mumbles with a humorless chuckle. Care Mom does but she is an undeniable helicopter parent at times. You'd think she'd chill out considering we live in the most boring place on the planet. Ivy looks around the house. It's 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 gives her 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 shrugs in a nonchalant manner more convincing than her horror film-laced thoughts. "No worries. My place gets messy too." Blondie seems relieved in her own right and beckons to what looked like it was leading to a kitchen.
"We keep the phone in the workshop most of the time, but we move it out to the kitchen sometimes."
"Cool," Ivy glances around the kitchen as well, unable to help how nosey she feels. She gasps softly when she sees the dog that must have been barking earlier. "Aww! Hey boy!"
The dog wags its tail excitedly as Blondie giggles, "Den's a girl."
"C'mere girl!" Being in a stranger's home is now the last thing on Ivy's mind as she kneels to pet the adorable creature.. The dog isblack and white, beautiful. The only thing off putting about it is the dark gray metal leg attached to it. "What happened, girl?" Ivy coos, petting the dog's head.
"When she was still a puppy she walked into a bear trap." Blondie answers, voice surprisingly light. "But now she's doing so good."
Ivy can hear the pride in Blondie's voice and feels pretty proud herself. She doesn't hear about it often but she loves stories about animals being able to walk again by being given prosthetics. "Who's my little badass?"
Blondie laughs again and Ivy finally forces 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 laughs heartily at that one and Ivy couldn't hold back her own snicker. Someone who finally appreciated her corny sense of humor. "I've never heard anyone talk about being a homewrecker in regards to stealing a dog."
"My humor is one of a kind."
Blondie shakes her head like the action will shake the laughter out of her. "Here's the phone." Ivy blinks, eyebrows raised in surprise when she sees that the home phone in question is a rotary phone.
"Is something wrong?"
"Not at all!" Insulting the kind strangers allowing her to use their phone is the last thing she wants to do. "Was just remembering my mom's number!" It's with that, Winry excuses herself from the kitchen, citing some other task she needs to take care of.
Hesitating, Ivy reaches out for the phone as if it's some sort of secret weapon. Weird roll motion by weird roll motion, she typed in each digit of Mom's number. How do these people live with this phone?
A second later, Mom picks u- "Hello, who are you trying to reach?"
Not Mom, actually.
There are still actual human phone operators? The only time she had ever even seen one of those people who would connect your call to the recipient was in a movie. All the power to the real life people who were keeping the dying business going.
"Hello?"
"Oh, sorry about that! I'm trying to call Rose Carter?"
There is a pause before the man says, "Sorry, ma'am. There's no one under that 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."
"You've gotta be joking."
The man sounds equally as annoyed, "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?"
There is a lengthy sigh on the other side of the line. "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." The man hangs up promptly.
Ivy blinks once, twice. Then she groans. Stupid, out-of-dated phone service. She set the phone back on the dial. I hope that asshole gets fired.
When Blondie reenters the kitchen it is clear she didn't hear a lick of Ivy's conversation. She's relaxed, lips quirked into a polite but open smile. Happiness is not a foreign emotion for her. "Is your mom okay?"
Ivy likes Blondie, she decides. Her kindness feels genuine even if being courteous is the bare minimum when hosting guests. "Eeeh the call didn't really go as planned."
Blondie's face falls but she tries to look optimistic, "Sorry it didn't work out. Maybe it'll go better next time"
"It's fine, I'll figure it out." Ivy shrugs. She'll accept the verbal ass woman coming her way. "Thanks again. Let your granny know I said thanks for letting me use the phone too, er... "
The girl extends a hand, "It's Winry. Winry Rockbell."
…..
Wait a minute.
Ivy's smile sours as she soon as she remembers why 'Rockbell' sounded so familiar before. "Ain't automail those fullmetal prosthetic limbs?"
A little offput by the sudden change of topic, 'Winry' looks a bit confused but she falls right back into character. "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's look of concern returns to her face, "What?"
"Nothing. Thanks, 'Winry'." Ivy smears as she makws quotations around the girl's fake as hell name. She should have realized she was a cosplayer before.
"Winry is my name!"
"And mines is Brittany Matthews."
"You were in such a good mood before; what's wrong?"
Ivy storm past 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 storms past the Rockbell Automail sign and down the hill and passed the farms she had walked past earlier.
5 minutes passed.
Then 10.
Then 15.
Then-
Ivy squinted. Where the hell was the gate? She can't see it at all in the distance and she had to have been close by now.
She looks to her left then her right and sees a boy a little younger than her herding some sheep. "Um, excuse me!" Ivy calls. "Shepherd boy!"
The boy takes note of her, not recognizing her at all among the farms of Vallant. "What?!"
"How close am I to that gate?!"
The boy cocks his head. "What gate?!"
God is everyone in the universe trying to make me miserable today? "The fancy giant stone one with the circles and roots and stuff!"
The boy's face contorts into one of confusion, "There's no gate like that around here!"
Ivy doesn't know if she wants to cry or not. "Are you serious?!"
The boy turns away from her and starts yelling at what she is guessing is a tool shed. "Erial! Hey Erial!" When an older boy popped out of the toolshed, the boy continues 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!"
"There's no gate like that in Resembool," the boy tells her in spite of the fact she heard Erial confirm it a second prior.
What?
Ivy's blood freezes. "Don't you mean Vallant?!"
Erial and his younger brother look at her as if she's grown a second head. "The hell's a Vallant?!"
Author's Note
Well well well, guess what author finally crawled back to this story? That's right, y'all. Me. AFD getting update after damn near 3 years? Wow wow wow... wow. Well, definitely a unique update. I really didn't mean to take this long to get back to this series, life was lifing. But then by the time things were cooling down enough for me work on this story, I didn't necessarily fall out of love with writing it, but I certainly fell out of love with the quality of the story and it made it hard writing Chapter 31.
Then I would think things I wanted to go back and fix and add, there were changes to the ending that I made until... ultimately, I said "fuck it. I'm rewriting this. If I don't like what I have, then why not just start over and write it in a way I like?" I still have all my old drafts of the previous chapters as a base, so I'm not really starting from scratch from with this which honestly, that helps my ass out a lot. It gets chapters out quicker and gives me time to craft AFD into something I think represents the quality of writing I have at present.
I really love this story and the community we've all built around it. The people who commented every other chapter, those whose words were sparse but still shined through, those who lurked, those who didn't stick around but wished the story the best and any new reader that fell into AFD hell with the rest of us. I had fun writing this story with original version, I'm having fun rewriting it. I loved making those silly ass chapter titles that really served to help ME remember what happened in each specific chapter and I loved excitedly checking in constantly to see if a new comment dropped. I owe it to those people and to myself to finally see this story through to the end and have fun with this ride. We're keeping the silly ass titles and we're revving up the engines.
For anyone old who thought I'd never update this shit again, I hope this is a happy surprise for you.
For anyone who read this before but dropped it because of my writing quality or pacing issues and you decide to give AFD a second chance, I hope I stick the landing for you.
And for anyone new to the journey, I hope you enjoy the ride. Try to avoid looking at the comments though lol, those will contain some major ass spoilers.
Thanks everyone who has supported this story in the past, those who support it currently and those who will in the future. Let's rock this bitch.
Also for any clarification needed, Ivy is black and Akasha is white.
GFofGaara: This one's for you, dude!