installing | ♨ 1 Apple Pie + Nineteen Apples and Cinnamon

[Today Winry has a busy day! Despite things in her neck of the woods slowly turning normal(ish), she has a lot to do. Feel free to bump into her at any time/place!

[Late Morning: The Library]
With Ed in the tunnels Winry has been running books back and forth. Sokka has done this too, but she's taking this chance to also pick something up herself. A romance novel with a monochrome book cover catches her eye. She'll flip through the first couple chapters in the library before taking off.

The book reads:
I scowl with frustration at myself in the mirror. Damn my hair – it just won’t behave, and damn Katherine Kavanagh for being ill and subjecting me to this ordeal. I should be studying for my final exams, which are next week, yet here I am trying to brush my hair into submission. I must not sleep with it wet. I must not sleep with it wet. Reciting this mantra several times, I attempt, once more, to bring it under control with the brush.

[Early Afternoon: The Smithy]
Work as usual - not. Off and on Winry tends to small chores and cleaning up prototypes, but nothing extremely productive. She might end up slacking off and reading again on the couch.

The book reads:
Portland disappears in front of us as we head into US Airspace, though my stomach remains firmly in Oregon. Whoa! All the bright all the bright lights shrink until they are twinkling sweetly below us. It's like looking from inside a fishbowl.

[Late afternoon: The Square]
Winry sits herself on a bench. The book she checked out was very boring so far. The writing wasn't even that good. She reads much further, but at some point she frowns. The mechanic's expression looks like one of disgust as her calloused hands slam the smooth book shut. Quickly Winry sets aside the book to open up her journal:]

Hey, would you trust anybody that made you sign a contract if you were going to keep being with them?

[She glares at the book beside her. Should she finish it? Honestly it's making her very uncomfortable. Maybe she should have picked up a medical text instead.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Because... because...

Friendship is hard.]

I don't know. [She just feels that you should.]

I don't care if he gets mad. At least he'll be showing some kind of human emotion.

[Since he's lacking compassion.]

Being mean is a human emotion too.

[Isn't it?]

He's better at it now than he used to be.

What I meant is that he's lost all compassion. And that's unacceptable.

[Not to Winry, but certainly audible enough, Raven thinks aloud:] Where did it go...?

...Maybe the Malnosso took it?

But I don't remember him being kidnapped recently.

Why would they do something like that?

For fun? I don't know.

It's making everyone hate him.

[They were kind of nasty sometimes but the Malnosso couldn't possibly decide to ruin one individual's life like that, could they?]

[She sighs.]

It won't be long before he ends up truly alone because of this.

Being alone like that is hard. He has...too many friends to try it.

[They will try to keep him grounded and the same, if in fact being alone is some kind of choice for him now.]

He's going to lose all those friends if he keeps this up.

[An area in which Raven has more than a little experience.]

Maybe he's trying to.

[Maybe he's just better at putting up the front than she was, in the beginning.]

Trying to lose all his friends?

[After a long moment of silence, Raven nods.

This isn't going to be easy to explain. Winry doesn't seem the type to consider this line of action.]

So he would hurt less if something happened. [Or so they would.]

That's dumb. Doing something like that only makes everything harder, not easier.

[Swallowing hard, Raven looks down at the counter and makes a noncommittal sound. It might've been agreement, but it might've just been noise.

Dumb, was it?

Maybe that was why Winry couldn't understand. Not that Sokka was for sure doing that kind of thing, but. If he was.]

You won't stop until you talk to him.

No, because if he's actually doing that he doesn't realize that this kind of thing hurts your friends worse than whatever else might be the problem. You have to talk about these sort of things!

[Winry folds her arms angrily across her chest. The more she talks about this the more frustrated she gets.]

I don't know if he is. [Her tone has turned gruff, to match the way she doesn't face Winry anymore.] Sometimes talking won't work.

He's only allowed to use that excuse if he actually tried talking and it didn't work.

It's hard to explain it. Maybe he doesn't know how.

[Raven. Why are you defending him? She looks back up at Winry and sighs.]

Never mind.

Either way he's gone too far.

Do what you think you have to.

[Raven won't necessarily support it in light of what she's thinking now, but she isn't against it either.]

♨ 1 Apple Pie + Nineteen Apples and Cinnamon | Action/Voice ♨

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