maskormenacelogs | (no subject)

...What's a stock market?

[ ...Oh. Mark hesitates, because...God, this has gone badly for him before. He rubs at his scalp, and clears his throat, and says: ]

Uh...You're not bothered by...me making money or anything, right? Before I explain all this. It's not going to piss you off.

[Ed pauses mid-chew, squinting at him in confusion.]

Why the hell would I be?

I don't know. [ A little nervously - ] I told that guy Six what I do, and he freaked out on me. Hates me now. But it's not like I'm hurting anyone with it.

I don't know what that guy's problem is, but as long as you aren't hurting anyone then I don't really care what you do. Making money sounds pretty good to me.

[ Mark relaxes a bit. And he starts to explain: ]

Right. Yeah, so - do you know what investing is?

Oh, yeah. A little bit.

[He'd never had to actually do any of it himself, but he knew enough from listening to Winry complain about finances now and then.]

The stock market is basically trading in investments. Selling pieces of companies that people own. And I'm really good at it.

It's how we afford everything.

Huh... Kinda like buying a horse and selling it to someone else for a higher price? But with companies.

Yeah, sort of. It's like - every investment means you own a slice of that company. A tiny piece. So you have that, and then if people take a look at the company and start thinking that it's going to make more money in the future, that slice gets worth more. Because if the company makes a million a year, but they think it'll start making two million, they're going to want to own that. Obviously. So more demand drives up the price, and you sell it for a profit.

That...really just sounds like people invented a new way to make money.

But I guess it's working out for us.

[ A nod. ]

Yeah. My power lets me know when businesses are about to succeed, so. It makes me really good. The only challenge is not making so much that the government starts to investigate.

[He frowns.]

It doesn't seem like it'd be fair for them to. It's their bullshit tech that gave you that power.

[ A shrug. ]

I doubt they meant for me to use it like this.

Then they're idiots who should've thought it through better!

At least you get some good use out of it even if you've got to be careful.

Edited 2016-08-16 06:11 (UTC)

I actually like it a bit better like this. It'd be less fun if it weren't a challenge.

Hm... Yeah, I can definitely understand that. I can't even imagine how bored I'd get if I didn't have some challenge to work on.

Yeah.

[ He smiles just a little, then asks: ]

What are you working on now?

Ah, well I'm never working on just one thing... [He trails off a little sheepishly.]

My primary research is figuring out how the porter works—or even getting close enough to be able to travel between worlds would be great... And figuring out how to keep us from forgetting when we leave here.

I'm also looking into some tissue regeneration and growth studies that scientists here have been working on. The results look pretty promising, and I want to see if I can build on that.

[ He leans back, interested. ]

What's that second one? Tell me more about it.

[The shift in attitude is immediate—one moment weary and a little too serious, the next a bright and tightly wound ball of excitement.]

The tissue studies? Oh man, they're amazing. Did you know they've had some promising experiments with regrowing actual limbs? They're still years out from even starting animal trials, but the fact that they're close enough to even be thinking about it— And the progress they've made with simpler structures! They can just grow skin in a lab to use for grafts! And I haven't even started looking into what they've been doing with other organs.

[ With interest - ]

Are you thinking about trying it for your arm?

Huh? Oh...no. [He frowns.] A little, maybe? But Mustang said I'll get my arm back at home, so that's not really why.

Miles said he was having some pain from an old injury that isn't healing well, so I thought looking into this could help.

[ Mark hesitates, wondering if he'd said the wrong thing. Is the stuff with his arm personal...? Not something he'd want to talk about? Well. Regardless. ]

That would actually be really good. How is it that you'd help?

It depends a little on exactly what's hurt... I think it's the bone, but Winry should probably check to make sure. For bone there's some interesting ideas about using carbon particles to make a sort of scaffold for bone to grow on. It should stimulate bone growth just having it there.