Abilities and Skills: Fletcher is an alchemist. In his world, alchemy isn't anything mystical; it's the scientific process of understanding matter, breaking it down into its constituent pieces, and reassembling it into a new form. The first hurdle, of course, is understanding; if an alchemist doesn't know what something is made of, it can't be transmuted.
Since alchemy is essentially the rearrangement of mass, something can't be transmuted into something much larger than itself; if the end result is smaller than the start, there will be matter left over. Matter can't be created or destroyed, only shifted around. In addition, what's started out with and what's ended up with have to be basically the same kind of matter. A tree can't be transmuted into an iron spear, for example. This law is what's known as "Equivalent Exchange".
Fletcher's specialty when it comes to alchemy is the transmutation of plant-based materials. He can enhance the growth of plants, speed up their life cycle or make them die faster, and even temporarily return a sufficient mass of deceased plant matter to a state resembling life, though the latter ability is transient. Once something's dead in his world, it's dead, period.
Unknown to all but a small handful of alchemists, the energy source for alchemy is what's called the Gate. The Gate isn't any specific place, but more of an extradimensional doorway leading from the world of Fullmetal Alchemist to another world, one that suspiciously resembles our own. According to Dante, the villain of the series, the Gate exists within everyone, and an alchemist is a person who is able to harness the energy that comes through the Gate -- the energy provided by all of the people who have ever died on the other side -- to power alchemic reactions.
Thanks to his alchemic studies, Fletcher is also well-versed in knowledge of chemistry and botany, on maybe a university student's level. He knows more than even some adults in his universe. He's also pretty good at math, since that goes hand in hand with that sort of thing, but he'd only have an advanced knowledge of things like algebra and geometry, nothing as difficult as calculus. Sample:
Apparently, the onset of the podache had been quick. Fletcher barely remembered a thing; one moment he'd been prodding at a food brick in the cafeteria, and then it was all a blur; the next thing he knew, he'd been waking up again in a cryo-sleep pod, the situation explained by whoever it was that had brought him to. So it was a bit disquieting, but at least he was all right, and now he was awake again. He would be able to go back to helping the resistance... well, resist.
It was less than a day after his re-awakening when he heard that classes were being offered for the younger residents of the space station. The instant he heard that, he started feeling a bit less apprehensive of the place. Any place that offered schooling was a place he wouldn't mind being. Sure, he would still have to help a bunch of transdimensional misfits wage a secret war against an empire that was vaster than his tiny mind could comprehend, but school.
Now if only his brother could be here to share in his excitement.
Fletcher Tringham | Fullmetal Alchemist | 2/2
Since alchemy is essentially the rearrangement of mass, something can't be transmuted into something much larger than itself; if the end result is smaller than the start, there will be matter left over. Matter can't be created or destroyed, only shifted around. In addition, what's started out with and what's ended up with have to be basically the same kind of matter. A tree can't be transmuted into an iron spear, for example. This law is what's known as "Equivalent Exchange".
Fletcher's specialty when it comes to alchemy is the transmutation of plant-based materials. He can enhance the growth of plants, speed up their life cycle or make them die faster, and even temporarily return a sufficient mass of deceased plant matter to a state resembling life, though the latter ability is transient. Once something's dead in his world, it's dead, period.
Unknown to all but a small handful of alchemists, the energy source for alchemy is what's called the Gate. The Gate isn't any specific place, but more of an extradimensional doorway leading from the world of Fullmetal Alchemist to another world, one that suspiciously resembles our own. According to Dante, the villain of the series, the Gate exists within everyone, and an alchemist is a person who is able to harness the energy that comes through the Gate -- the energy provided by all of the people who have ever died on the other side -- to power alchemic reactions.
Thanks to his alchemic studies, Fletcher is also well-versed in knowledge of chemistry and botany, on maybe a university student's level. He knows more than even some adults in his universe. He's also pretty good at math, since that goes hand in hand with that sort of thing, but he'd only have an advanced knowledge of things like algebra and geometry, nothing as difficult as calculus.
Sample:
Apparently, the onset of the podache had been quick. Fletcher barely remembered a thing; one moment he'd been prodding at a food brick in the cafeteria, and then it was all a blur; the next thing he knew, he'd been waking up again in a cryo-sleep pod, the situation explained by whoever it was that had brought him to. So it was a bit disquieting, but at least he was all right, and now he was awake again. He would be able to go back to helping the resistance... well, resist.
It was less than a day after his re-awakening when he heard that classes were being offered for the younger residents of the space station. The instant he heard that, he started feeling a bit less apprehensive of the place. Any place that offered schooling was a place he wouldn't mind being. Sure, he would still have to help a bunch of transdimensional misfits wage a secret war against an empire that was vaster than his tiny mind could comprehend, but school.
Now if only his brother could be here to share in his excitement.