When are we now?

It's not exactly like that. What alchemists do is break something down to its material components and rearrange that into something else that's similar in construction and mass. We can't make more than what we have, and changing one element into another is something only a highly skilled alchemist could do. And making gold is against the law in my country, to protect the economy or something.

The Philosopher's Stone... nobody's even sure if it really exists.

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Interesting! So, it's sort of breaking down any material to the point where it can't be divided any more, am I correct? Because in my world, the smallest unit of matter is called an atom, and atoms comprise everything in the world.

Of course, sticking to the atom theory, the reason why you can't change another element into another is because of the atoms- each atom has it's own number of electrons. So technically, gold can never be turned into silver, for example.
But...then how would you change iron into gold, then?

The Philosopher's Stone doesn't exist in my world and probably never will. However, that doesn't stop anyone from writing stories about it.

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The more something is broken down, the more energy it takes, so we usually only go down to the molecular level, or even higher than that. My brother and I specialize in transmuting plants, and the lowest level we need to manipulate for that is the structure of the cells.

I'm not sure how changing one element into another works. It might involve splitting apart the nuclei, but if that's how it works then from what I've read there must be a major difference between the laws of physics in my world and in this world... I can ask somebody when we all go home, but I don't know if there would be a way to transmit that information to another universe.

The stories I've heard about the Philosopher's Stone say that it's able to help alchemists bypass the laws of equivalent exchange and conservation of matter. I've heard that there have been imitations made that helped to that end, but they were never as strong as the real thing was said to be.

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Huh. So you can willingly change the structure of the molecular levels...

Splitting the nuclei of an atom is rather catastrophic- although there are known smaller entities within the nuclei itself, harnessing all the power within that nucleus is rather impossible.

We've even used the power of the atom in bombs- they can blow up entire cities, and even the ones who survive that are pelted with the worst radiation.

It is possible, though, that the laws of physics differ in different worlds...there may be even a world where there is no gravity.

Hmmm...so that Philosopher's stone is like a substance that doesn't quite follow the rules of alchemy? I wonder what such a stone would be made of.

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The basic theory of turning lead into gold requires a third party introduced into the equation. I can't tell you much more than that. I can make anything look like gold, but creating 24 kt gold is something else entirely.

Don't talk too loud about those bombs too close to the ears of our military. They already have alchemists on the payroll as human weapons, they don't need to get someone to split the atom on the battlefield.

A world with no gravity wouldn't exist. At least, according to some things we've read here.

You and every alchemist in the history of our world has asked that question. Who knows when we'll find the answer?

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Well hello there. I can see I'm no longer talking to Fletcher anymore. My name is Daniel Faraday.

Well, we can also make artificial gold. But it doesn't really have anything to do with alchemy; we just make a metal and color it gold, and sell it.

Human weapons? Dear me, scientists as human weapons? That must have been a sad day indeed when your country decided to do that.

True, our laws of physics state that such a world wouldn't exist. But who knows? I've been surprised to find many things that have challenged my perception of other worlds since I've gotten here.

Me, an alchemist? Well, I'm more of a scientist. But, in your world's case, I am an alchemist, I guess. And yes, there are too many mysteries in the world that we will probaby never find out.

Such is the futility of mankind...

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I'm Russel. Fletcher's my little brother.

For example, the most famous one from the last war is Col. Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist. He has special gloves with a transmutation circle on the back. He snaps with them, creating a spark. The circle isolates the oxygen in the air to create explosions. It has to require an immense amount of concentration to do that to the molecules. No one has been able to replicate it.

No, you're a physicist. I should mention that our asylums have a rather high population of them.

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Well, nice to meet you Russell.

Colonel? So these scientists are part of the military? We have scientists part of our military but they don't actually go out and fight in battle.

...I'm not crazy. I only have memory loss...

Why are physicists in the asylum on your world? Is physics not believed in or something?

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Yeah, in exchange for research funds and instant prestige.

Not all of them. There's sane ones, but not a lot of people put any faith in this talk of going into space, traveling at the speed of light, and all of that. It's ridiculous.

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That's not a very good system of military at all...I don't like it.

But, on my world, we've already gone into spce! We've seen all the planets of the solar system, and we've even landed on our moon!

The speed of light thing still needs to be worked out though...but I did hear that an airplane flying at the speed of light was planned to be built in a few years...

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It's not just them. There's regular soldiers too. They keep their certification for as long as their work is relevant to the military's interests.

That's nice, but it's still insane. If you want to climb in a tin can going thousands of miles an hour, be my guest.

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Hmmm...so it seems your world is ruled more by military than government...

I'm not planning to get into a spaceship anytime soon, but they do exist. And airplanes are not tin cans...

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It looks like my brother is spying on me...

I'm not sure about whether there could be a world without gravity. According to the hypothesis that says it's a bending of space-time, such a universe would have to have no mass. But that could be wrong, considering that what I've read says that hypothesis doesn't work with quantum mechanics (I don't get any of the stuff I've read about quantum mechanics, though).

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Your brother? Oh, I see.

Well, if I do remember from a book I've read, if life existed in two dimensions, it would have no mass. But such a world doesn't exist, at least not yet...

I'm a little fuzzy on quantum mechanics, so I have no idea if that hypothesis works ith it or not.

But, I just have to believe that the only law of physics the worlds share in common is the law of gravity.

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It's thanks to him that I know as much as I do. He helped me every time I got stuck in my alchemy studies, and he's a lot smarter than me.

It'd be nice if we could visit other worlds... On our own, without people kidnapping us, I mean. It'd be really interesting to see how they're all different...

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Yes, I would love to see all these other worlds if I could. But it would be rather hard to persuade the other scientists on my world that these worlds even exist...

So , you think we were kidnapped by someone? Like who?

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Maybe there's something you can take back as evidence. Is this world different from your own somehow?

Well... I don't know. But someone had to bring us here, it couldn't have happened on its own. And I don't know enough about this world to know who could have done it.

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Well, this world is very similar to mine. It also has a Manhattan, but my Manhattan doesn't have a big monster running around in it.

....Or, maybe it does, and this is the future of my world.

As for evidence, the only evidence I would have is to bring one of you back with me, since scientists are so stubborn in my world that they won't believe it until they see it.

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That might work as evidence... if you brought back a magician or an alchemist, they'd have to accept that it was true.

Scientists are the same where I'm from... I didn't believe that magic was really real until I saw people using it.

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Yes, scientists are naturally stubborn. I think it's a part of the species.

Not saying I'm stubborn- but it will take a lot for me to believe something until I witness it.

There's magic? Really? And magic was the stuff of stories back on my world.

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Yes, sir. I don't understand how it works, in fact by the rules of my world it shouldn't, but it does!

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Quite strange...

So, on your world, magic is like that unexplainable phenomenon that plays an integral part of your science, am I correct?

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Well, everything in science can be explained. If something looks like magic, what it really is is just something we can't explain yet.

There are people even in my world who think of alchemy as being like magic, though. I guess the definition is different for everyone.

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Not quite though, since in my world, there are still stuff that has yet to be explained.

Like the presence of dark matter for example, or how large the universe is.

Even some people would call that magic, I think, if they haven't even heard of dark matter before.

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