#AND THEN I FUCKING REMEMBERED PRIDE FROM FMAB

[llumimoon]

Doodler Homunculus AU!

Post-season 2 after they defeat the Doodler, Normal and the teens adopt the Doodler as their little friend buddy!! They have a hard time going around in public at first, until Hero comes up with the idea of making the Doodler a body to hide in while in public (She got the idea by watching FMAB lol).

Usually Normal is the one carrying around the Doodler at first, because he has the ability to understand what they’re saying the best and clearest

Hero and Lark call Doodle’s body the “flesh suit” sometimes. Sparrow hates the nickname

Unlike a normal homunculus body, the Doodler can go in and out of the body as much as he pleases, and likes to wear it when they go out in public or wants to feel like a ‘normal’ kid

When in the body the Doodler goes by Doodle or Dot, for short! (he/she/they/it or any pronouns)

It takes Lark and Sparrow a bit to warm up to Dot, Lark especially, but eventually it happens

Physically, Dot looks like she could pass as a third Oak sibling. They intentionally asked for it to be this way when Norm and Hero were making it’s body

[shima-draws]

I’ve watched FMAB a thousand times but Greed’s death STILL gets me every fucking time. 1. Him realizing that Ling is going to get hurt and possibly killed by Father if Greed doesn’t leave his body, 2. Greed coming to terms with the fact that he’s definitely going to get killed by Father but he’s willing to make the sacrifice for Ling, and 3. Greed discovering that what he wanted was what he had the entire time, and that was true friends who would stick with him through thick and thin, who would share the same experiences and failures and triumphs and still love him despite his homunculus status. I’m so.

Also I’m SO pissed at the fact that Pride got to live but Greed didn’t. In my brain I kept saying “Well yeah I guess it makes sense for all of the homunculi to die bc they came from Father and HE has to die” but then I remembered that Pride LIVES and that makes me so salty. Out of all the homunculi Greed deserved to live the MOST AND I JUST. FUCKIGN.

[eilaafterhours]

A Master's Desire [Lucifer]

Content: Blow Jobs, 69 (Position), Oral, Come Eating, Come Swallowing, Cowgirl, Dirty Talk, Edging

Pronouns: None (FMAB)

Prequel : A Master's Request

Remember: Remember: I’ll block you if I catch your ageless or under age (not 18+) ass in my activity :)

Reblogs: Let me know that you enjoy my work and want to see more, so don’t forget to like and reblog (and comment in the tags. I love seeing people’s rambles in the tags)!

This work’s concepts, plot and original characters are my own which means I do not allow any sort of creative theft nor do I allow my work to be entered into any sort of A.I. bots. Thank you for respecting my space and boundaries.

The moment he had you in the bedroom and on the bed, you wrapped your legs around his waist and by some random grace of strength, you were able to pin him beneath you. 

You smirked as you took him in. His frown may have been deep, but the crimson flush against his pale cheeks was deeper. 

“What? Were you expecting something different?” You leaned down, giving his nipple a kitten lick before giving it a firm tug. “Don’t worry. I’ll let you go as feral as you want, but please indulge me a bit more….”

You shifted your body, so that your mouth was hovering over his shaft and your ruined pussy was over his waiting mouth. 

“...and clean this mess up.” 

The moment the words left your mouth, his hands gripped your ass and pulled you down. You arched your back at the sudden pleasure. He wasted no time in delving in your folds and sucking hard. 

Well, two could play that game, couldn’t they? 

You dipped your tongue into his slit, smiling at the way his grip tightened. 

So, he was just as sensitive as you… 

You gave him two more quick flicks, then swallowed him whole. He bucked into you, causing you to clench around him, which had you both moaning and coming soon after. You each made sure to swallow every drop. 

Your body tingled and ached in the best ways, and you wanted nothing more, but to curl into his embrace. However, there was still more give, to receive, and you were still holding the reins. 

So, you shifted again, now lining yourself over his cock. His eyes glinted with a mix of concern and intrigue that melted into lust the moment you dropped on him. Despite him licking you spotless, your arousal knew no bounds, and you were already slick enough to make those sinfully wet sounds. His hands found purchase on your hips, but you swatted them away.

“Ah, ah Keep those to yourself.” You slowly dropped on him before gyrating in figure eights. “I wanna give you a really nice build up…” 

You leaned down and whispered in his ear. “...so that you fill me up real nice. So much that you need to use your dick to keep me from spilling everywhere. So that no matter what—”

“Everyone will know I’m yours.”

Play with fire, and you get burned. 

Teasing Lucifer usually meant that you got teased senseless and unable to move for a few days. Sometimes, after waking up with that ache, you thought that it wasn’t worth it. 

But this time,

The you of the now was certain that the you of tomorrow would not only forgive you but thank you. 

“Now claim me, Lucifer, Avatar of Pride.” 

I swear I have to write the tags as I go because

WHAT

THE

FUCK

LITERAL HOE SHIT

Masterlist

[liathgray]

Ranking fmab characters worst to best

(Please don’t take this seriously)

1. Khymbleigh

- Lives in the sewers

- Committed mass murder

- Has a silly idiot hat

- Called me a dyke :(

2. Shou Tucker

- fuck this guy.

- Electric chair

- Also hes balding what a loser

3. Dwarf in the Bong

- mike wazoski lookin ass

- Literally the greasiest motherfucker on the planet

- Was one of the only characters introduced by NOT beating up Ed or Al..??

- Smells like rotten cabbage

4. Moy Rustang

- Incel

- Has stupid hair

- War criminal

- Teen dad

- Canon fat tits

- Useless🥰

5. Envy

- a bitch

6. Whorehenheim

- deadbeat

- Has never taken a shower in his life

- Only wears glasses because he thinks its quirky and cute

- Took the fattest bong rip of all time

- Also killed thousands

7. Tim Marcoh

- doctor and deserted the military

- honestly pretty chill

- But his name is Tim so... *cocks gun*

8. Bradley

- :/

- Killed a lesbian and thus is homophobic

- He wears an eyepatch despite having both eyes.

9. Elicia and Gracia Hughes

- tax evaders

10. Jean Havoc

- cool dude

- Cohntry boyy i luv youuu

- Did not look respectfully

- Smokes. Must be executed

11. Gluttony, pride and Sloth

- assholes but also what the fuck

- This boy like 10

- Wheres his babysitter

- fast????????

12. Armstrong

- his arms are strong

- Lil bitch

- Got his ass beat my his hot lesbian sister

13. Lust

- is sexy

- Murderer :(

- Big tibbies so she gets extra points

- She was just checking if roy and havoc were cake

14. Scar’s brother

- Truth took his cock.

15. Truth

- took Scar’s brother’s cock

16. Barry the chopper & the slicer

- criminals

- Almost killed Ed and Al

- Kinda sexy tho 😳

17. Greed (OG)

- greasy garbage man

- Got cucked after two eps

- Has dumb hair

- Was funny

18. Yoki

- He yo the ki or whatever

- I dont remember him

19. Fu and Lan Fan

- Legs for days!!!

- Breaking and entering

- Lan fan smugly cutting off her arm and saying “I beat you” awakened something in me

- Fu got shanked :(

20. Rose Thomas

- Maybe im gay. What of it?

- Almost shot Ed lmaooo

- Probably owns a ukulele

- Local

21. Greed 2.0

- stupid

- Beats the fuck out of Bradley

- Might’ve eaten dirt

- Went camping for five months instead of being helpful

- Aphobe :/

22. Ling

- freeloader

- Diabetic??????

- Smells like broke

- Gay little bitch boy

23. Sheska

- haha nerd

- I’m in love with you

- Was only in two episodes :(

24. Captain Buccaneer

- Off his shits always

- Took ten years to die lmfaooo

- MLM but a gatekeeper

25. Major Miles

- His facial hair is atrocious

- Otherwise? King

- Sunglasses indoors... ur on thin ice

- Turn around bright eyes...

26. Father Cornello

- So theres this middle aged man...

- Won the sexiest character poll on twitter

- Re🤢🤢 l🤢🤢. r-r-religous🤢🤢🤢c-cor🤮🤮 religious corruption

- Got gunched lol

26. Kain Fuery

- Has watched pulp fiction

- Haha glasses

- Probably volunteers at a animal shelter

27. Vato falman

- Skinny legend

- Genuinely cool and has development at briggs

- Go white boy go

28. Heymans Breda

- Has a moped

- Could crush my spine but wouldnt ❤️

- Crew cut 🤢🤢

29. Xiao Mei

- small and filled with rage

- Has good taste

- Gunch??????

- Literally so small please be careful

30. Gay chimeras

- TWO MEN

- WE’RE BURLY

- WE’LL DO WHAT YOU WANT

- cottagecore

31. Pinako Rockbell

- has been high off her ass for the past three years

- Sultry doctor who lives in a faraway town 😳😳😳 hello ma’am 😳

- Hair is definitely a weapon. Shits pointy

- Home wrecker

32. Sig

- wide

- Very wide

- Kiss kiss

- Only eats potatoes

33. Riza Hawkeye

- big arms big arms big arms biG ARMS BIG ARMS

- Would kill roy on sight

- she should kiss me

- rn

34. Maes Hughes

- had a band in highschool named frog soda or some shit like that

- Pretty cool! Nice to ed and al and winry

- Good dad

- Dead lol

35. Olivier Armstrong

- goth gf

- Sword.... sword hot.....

- Killed a dude for being annoying and I respect that

- Snorts snow and says its coke to freak people out

- Gay ass....

36. Ed Elric

- ok gay boy

- Makes everyones life hell. Good for him

- NERD????? A FUCKING NERD???

- I’d steal his lunch money

- No tiddies?

- :/

- Short king

37. Maria Ross and Denny Brosh

- wlw mlm solidarity

- maria ... hold my h-hand...

- literally had nothing to do with this but got McFcuked anyways

38. Scar

- acab

- Was right

- Dilf

39. Al Elric

- likes cats so he’s automatically superior

- Malnourished 😔✌️

- Cha cha slide in full armour

- Mean but only to Ed ❤️

- I love when he *king noises*

40. Izumi Curtis

- kiss me sexy woman

- Stole from briggs because fuck the military

- .. m...milf..

41. Paninya

- fucking superb you funky little lesbian

42. Winry Rockbell

- NERD!!! NERD !!

- Curb stomps her enemies

- Acab but also stole Riza’s look so 😳

- Is she.. u kno💅

43. Mei Chang

- her life is a YA drama

- gained a dad by being perfect

- bullies Ed

- is better than everyone

And finally..... the best character in fmab...

Resurrected Trisha

- 😳😳😳

- Yes i do the cookin yes i do the cleanin

- 😩😩😩

[thanks--for--listening]

collision moments

hello ppl im back with another FMAB fic this time featuring my best girls, Olivier and Izumi. there’s a chance i do another fic in this series but tbh i’ve struggled with it so who can say whether it’ll happen or not lol. (also on ao3)

~~

Olivier Armstrong prided herself on her refusal to give in to fear. 

It wasn’t that she was fearless. To never be afraid would take away the core of her humanity — even the Humunculi, it had been reported, seemed to hold some level of fear, if for nothing more than their own death. Unlike what she let so many men believe, she wasn’t void of the feeling: she simply knew how to handle it. She’d spent a lifetime refusing to allow it to transform into cowardice, to let it debilitate her. Survival depended on the ability to compartmentalize, to fight off paralysis long enough to eliminate the threat. In battle, she would never waver. She would never allow someone to see through her, to let her own feelings fan another’s spark of hesitation into a flame of weakness. She’d stand in front of them like the very wall they compared her to: unwavering and unbreakable. 

But compartmentalizing was only effective if there was some form of relief. So it was in the cover of night, when no one was there to follow her lead, that the cracks began to show.

Tonight, she saw the beast. In her dreams it stood in front of her exactly as it had that morning, it’s eyes lifeless and it’s skin impenetrable. She’d beaten it before, but the variables had changed. Central City was too warm, too populated, its men unaccustomed to the survival instincts those at Briggs relied on. And there was Alex, fighting alongside her, and for all her complaints and her irritation, she couldn’t stop her heart from skipping beats with every blow he took. Especially when he took them for her. 

She watched her brother defeat it time after time, only for sparks to sew its artificial limbs back together. She could feel the blood dripping down her face, blurring her vision and painting the room red. The pain in her arm screamed, and it took more energy than she’d care to admit to ignore it. Alex held his own scars, blood decorating his face as well, and as it began to charge, a part of her thought that, at the very least, their deaths would be honorable. 

A fist of stone punched through the wall, through her thoughts of honor and sacrifice, and for a moment the end didn’t feel imminent anymore. The woman fought with grit, cracked a smile at the sight of the beast before them. As she pieced together her identity, she thought perhaps she was looking at the reason those brothers had lasted as long as they did, the reason they’d managed to hold their own alongside her men. The survivor mentality surrounded her, shined like the glow of the colors they sometimes saw in the northern sky, just defined enough to know it wasn’t a trick of the light.

In an instant, they were on the stairs. Olivier silently begged her mind to wake up, to leave before it happened again, because there was one moment that scared her beyond belief, more so than the monsters and the soldiers without souls, more so than dying alongside her brother in the heat of the city. 

Her brain refused to give her the relief of avoidance. Perhaps this was the cost, the price she’d have to pay for holding herself together when it happened. The eye appeared out of nowhere, opened up as if it was emerging from inside the earth. Izumi screamed as the hands pulled her apart, piece by piece, until there was nothing left. In dreams she often saw reality in brutal slow motion, every misstep spotlighted so bright she couldn’t ignore it, but not tonight. Tonight, it blinked and took her as fast as it had in real time. 

The only way she could think to describe it was forbidden; no human should be able to witness what she saw and walk away with a sound mind. Olivier couldn’t tell if it swallowed her whole or simply snapped her out of existence. Worse than the sight of it was the feeling, Izumi’s hand in her own turning into nothing but air. Despite her strength and her unfailing grip, when it mattered most, she wasn’t strong enough to hold on. 

In the safety of her subconscious, she allowed herself to give in to the terror she’d buried. It pressed down on her chest like a weight she wasn’t strong enough to lift. Tears fell from her eyes and she let them, just this once, because she truly thought they’d all meet their ends, losing to something she couldn’t even begin to comprehend. And she couldn’t shake the feeling that if she'd held her a little tighter, if she hadn’t needed help in the first place, it could have all been avoided. She wouldn’t have had to listen to the desperation in Sig’s voice, to watch as he searched for someone that may no longer exist. The blame sat heavy on her shoulders, and she let it suffocate her. 

Olivier woke with a gasp. The first thing she noticed when she opened her eyes was the lights. The brightness rivaled the sun’s reflection on the snow, a sight that could cost a man their life in the North. She shut her eyes again, a groan slipping out before she could stop it.

“It’s about time you woke up.” Olivier felt the lights dim around her. She hesitantly opened her eyes again, turned her head and found Izumi sitting in a chair, mindlessly turning the pages of the book in her hands. 

A hundred questions sat on her lips, but she settled for the important one: “How long was I out?”

Izumi shrugged. “About a day, give or take.”

That couldn’t be right. She glanced out the window, saw the afternoon sun hanging in the sky, and it was exactly as she remembered but...but she hadn’t been inside. She’d been brought up from under the ground, she’d seen the youngest Elric brother stand in his own skin, and then...and then…

She tried to sit up, but her body screeched at the first hint of movement. Every bone throbbed, every muscle ached. Injury and pain had never been a stranger, but this rivalved her worst moments. Holding her breath, she gingerly settled back down. 

“You’ll want to take it easy,” Izumi told her. “Doctor said you took quite a nasty blow to the head. He wasn’t sure how you’d survived it, let alone the damage to the rest of you.”

Olivier scoffed. “Then he’s an idiot. It’ll take more than some falling stones and a beast as idiotic as that one to kill me.”

“Yes,” she said with a grin. “From what I’ve seen, I don’t doubt it.”

She turned her attention back toward the window. Her brain tried its best to think back to the fight, to the aftermath, but even trying to think made the pain so agonizing she was forced to shut her eyes again. Damn Bradley, and damn his fucking monsters with their sorry excuse for a life and their outright refusal to die.

“How—“ she asked in between labored breaths, “how did I get here?”

Izumi hesitated. “How much do you remember?”

Normally, she’d refuse to give up anything that could be used against her, especially to someone outside of Briggs. She was vulnerable here, confined to her bed, body broken and bruised and memory ridden with holes. Logic said to keep her mouth shut, but there was something about her. She may not have been one of her soldiers, but her gut told her that Izumi Curtis was someone she could trust. And her gut was never wrong. 

“I know about Alphonse. You carried us up to the surface just in time to see him stand. After that, there’s nothing.”

Izumi nodded. “At first, everybody celebrated. It was calm, even after everything that had happened. Al getting his body back...well, it was about as clear a victory as any.”

Olivier watched the way she smiled at the thought, the way her eyes held unshed tears. Truthfully, the boy getting his body back hadn’t been at the forefront of her concerns, but she’d hoped for their sake they’d accomplish it. And hearing her talk about it, about both of the Elric brothers, it became increasingly clear that despite her intensity and her ruthlessness, Izumi cared deeply for the two of them. 

“What happened next?”

Izumi laughed. “You happened next. You walked up and demanded someone take Al to a hospital, before his weakened body gave out on him.”

Oh. Well, she wasn’t wrong. The boy had been nothing but skin and bones, the textbook image of malnourished. She would bet that Edward might not have appreciated her interruption, but he’d come to understand her later. 

“And did they? Take him to the hospital?”

“Your brother did. Lifted him up and carried him there himself.”

“I assume he cried the whole time?”

“Like an infant.”

Olivier groaned. “My brother’s soft heart and hysterics will be the end of him one of these days.”

“You should have seen him in here earlier, blubbering over you.” She scoffed. “Men and their emotions. They just don’t know how to control themselves.”

She hummed in agreement. “It’s a disease if you ask me.”

Izumi nodded, before adding, “Although, perhaps it was better that he left when he did.”

“And why is that?”

“Once he carried Alphonse off the battleground, you began commanding all the people who were left. You coordinated trucks to take the injured to the hospital, communicated with the soldiers still out in the streets. It was impressive, until you gave your last order and promptly collapsed.”

If her arm hadn’t been bound to her chest, she would have curled both fists in frustration. A leader never showed weakness like that, not even after the battle came to an end. Her reputation would need patching, of that she was certain. 

If she noticed her embarrassment, Izumi didn’t comment on it; instead, she shrugged and said, “It could have been worse. Most of the soldiers had already dispersed. Plus, you didn’t hit the ground. Not sure your body could have taken another blow like that.”

Maybe it was the head injury, but she couldn’t fully comprehend the words she was hearing. “How is that possible? That I fell but never reached the ground?”

“Simple. I caught you.”

As if her humiliation couldn’t get any worse. The thought of being caught like an overwhelmed maiden made her want to take her sword and plunge it through her body herself, but instead she sighed and said, “I suppose I owe you an extra bit of gratitude, then.”

“Nonsense. I’m a housewife — I’m meant to take care of others.”

“You’re much more than that. The way you fought that beast was as impressive as any warrior I’ve seen.”

Izumi smiled. “I must admit, it felt nice to fight something that presented a challenge. And I’d been itching to let my alchemy loose ever since Hoenheim healed my ailment.” She laughed to herself as she said, “Vomiting blood would not have been an impressive conclusion to a battle like that.”

Olivier raised her eyebrow. “Vomiting blood?”

“A consequence of my visit through the portal. Physical exertion like that used to leave me bedridden for days.”

She wasn’t sure how to respond. The image of Izumi confined to a bed was almost as unimaginable as the one of her desperate enough to attempt human transmutation in the first place. She’d chalked up the Elric brother’s mistake to childhood idiocracy and arrogance, but she couldn’t fathom what would lead a woman like Izumi to do the same. 

“You’re wondering who it was,” Izumi said, her tone attempting neutrality and almost succeeding. “You’re wondering who I tried to bring back.”

“I understand if you want to keep that information to yourself. You don’t owe me any kind of explanation.”

“No, but I think I’ll give you one anyway.”

The answer surprised her. “Why?” 

“Because I’ve spent years forced to pretend it never happened. The attempt alone is enough to get me arrested, or worse. But ever since Ed and Al came back, ever since they figured it out...I’m not sure why, but it felt nice. Talking about it. Not trying to hide from it. I’d like to continue to do that, if I can.”

Had she been in a different place, a different time, she may have left it at that. Instead, her thoughts slipped through her mind’s weakened blockade, materialized right in front of her. “I know this topic is...delicate. For all his flaws, my brother is the one who knows how to provide comfort. If you’re looking for sensitivity, you won’t find it here.”

The words felt like a confession. She’d always been this way, cold and callous and short-tempered when it came to matters of the heart. It wasn’t that she couldn’t sympathize with anyone (although, in all honesty, she found many of the so-called problems people claimed to have were weak excuses for pain, and didn’t deserve her sympathy in the first place), but she had never known how to express the feelings properly. Her and her brother could be pinpointed on opposite sides of a spectrum, and while she’d choose her position over his a thousand times over, she could still admit that, outside of the battlefield and the barracks, her lack of emotional expression could be perceived as a shortcoming. 

“I’m not looking for someone to cry for me,” Izumi told her. “I’ve spent enough years crying for myself.”

“I don’t mean to be rude. But I don’t know what it is I have to offer you.”

“How about a captive audience?” She said the words with a smile, and despite the fact that Olivier could hear the lie in her voice, she decided not to call her out on it. 

Izumi put her book down beside her, but she let her gaze drop, spoke to her lap instead of her face. “Ever since I was a girl, I’d longed for motherhood. Most people never expected it of me. Those who knew me wouldn’t have described me as the nurturing type, and they wouldn’t have been wrong to do so. I spent so many years wanting. It made me angry, how much I desired, how much I had to fight for every piece of it. The ability to make decisions for myself. Independence and strength. An education. I wanted it all, and I wanted a child of my own. A legacy.

“When I got pregnant,” she continued, “I thought I would finally get to stop fighting. Sig and I, we’d spent so much time trying. I’ve heard some describe motherhood as a gift or a miracle, but to me, it felt like a victory. A battle I’d finally won.” Her tone softened when she said, “I made the mistake so many do when their mind is clouded with arrogance. I celebrated too early.”

A part of her didn’t want to hear what came next. Listening to this story was like witnessing a car crash and knowing you didn’t have the time to avoid the collision. There were only two options: watch it happen, or close your eyes. Either way, the end was inevitable. The only difference would be whether to spare yourself the added pain, to become blind to the indisputable evidence laid out in front of you. 

Weaker men often chose to hide. In the collision moments, plenty of strong men did, too. But she’d never been the type to look away when faced with the incoming hurt; she wasn’t going to start now. So she said nothing, showed nothing. She simply waited for Izumi to find her way to the conclusion.

After a moment of hesitation, she did. “Our baby never cried. Never made so much as a sound.”

Every puzzle piece clicking into place only made her regret asking. When the Elric brothers told her about their mother, they’d done so mostly out of necessity. It was all connected — their action, their bodies, their shared enemy. It pained them, obviously, but she hadn’t realized how much of that pain had been clouded by the looming danger. They’d told her, but not like this. Nothing like this.

Izumi stared right through her, like she wasn’t even there. “Silence had never felt so sharp. So present. It was like it was making fun of me, drowning out all my claims of strength by reminding me just how little I could control. Even now, in the quiet, I still hear it. The mockery. It drove me to lengths I never thought I’d go, carried me past lines I never thought I’d cross.” She tried to laugh, but it never stood a chance. Nothing about this was funny. “You can fill in the blanks of what happened next.”

Olivier waited for more; when it became clear there was none, she began searching for words of her own. She wondered, for a moment, whether now would be the time to channel Alex, to speak the way he might. But his words would sound fake coming from her. Even if they were the right ones. 

In the end, she settled for sincerity. “Boy or girl?”

Izumi blinked, and Olivier watched as her eyes refocused. She could hear the joy hidden in her response. It was buried underneath the hurt, just barely poking through the rubble, but it was still there when she smiled and said, “Girl.”

She nodded. There wasn’t much else to do. “I’m sorry.”

“As am I.”

Silence slipped back in. Olivier thought about her words, about the noiselessness. She’d never been one to relax in the quiet. Any good soldier knew that the most dangerous of enemies hardly made a sound, but right now it felt almost tangible. The weight of it grew with every passing second. Loss was heavier than any object she’d come across, and while she was no stranger to it herself, this pain Izumi described felt harsher than any she’d ever experienced. 

As the seconds passed, she felt a restlessness unrelated to her physical incapacitation. Uncertainty crept up on her, and in its presence she found her thoughts from yesterday’s battle, the observations that now felt increasingly relevant.

“Well,” she told her, “If it’s a legacy you want, I’d argue you’ve already got one.”

“What do you mean?”

“You taught the Elric brothers. Their success is your success. And right now, they have a significant share of it.”

Izumi shook her head. “It’s not the same.”

“I know. But it’s close, is it not?” Izumi hesitated, before nodding. Olivier shrugged and said, “Maybe one day close will be enough.”

She spoke with more confidence than she felt. An old habit from childhood, when she’d learned that faith in oneself could be manufactured, that pretending to have it could make it appear. She may not have her brother’s alchemic strength, but in her mind she’d discovered her own kind of magic, one that had yet to let her down.

“You know,” Izumi said after a moment. “I don’t think you were honest with me earlier.”

Olivier frowned at the accusation. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“You told me I wouldn’t find comfort here, when in fact, I think you may have told me everything I needed to hear.”

She had to bite back the smile that threatened to make an appearance. “If you ever tire of the warmth, I could use someone like you up North.” Olivier knew the suggestion was nothing more than a courtesy, but she meant it. A spirit like Izumi’s was hard to teach — often, it had to be found. And she’d never found anyone quite like her. 

“I appreciate the offer, but my life is here. I’m not ready to give that up just yet. Although,” she said with a grin that could only be described as mischievous, “I won’t lie and say I didn’t enjoy fighting alongside you and your brother.”

She couldn’t help but match her expression. “You should see me fight up North.”

“A spectacular sight, I’m sure. Though I don’t think you’ll be fighting any battles in the near future.”

“I wouldn’t rule the possibility out just yet. Reconstruction is no simple task, and there’s a lot of idiots still hanging around in the military. And that’s not including the ones on our side.” 

She groaned at the prospect, at her own reminder of what frustrations lay ahead. Just the thought of having to work alongside Mustang during this incoming period of transition was enough to bring her headache back. 

Izumi laughed. “I don’t envy you and your companions for the job ahead of you. The complexities of bureaucracy were never of much interest to me.”

“A necessary evil, I suppose, albeit an annoying one. Governing would be so much simpler if we disregarded the absurd level of formality and politeness demanded by those in charge.”

“The perk of teaching the Elrics on my own — I never had to adhere to such ridiculous standards.”

Izumi looked so much calmer, so much happier, that Olivier almost didn’t ask. But curiosity and boredom formed a crossroad with opportunity, and holding her tongue proved to be much more difficult than she’d expected. “Will you continue teaching?” She asked. “Now that your ailment is healed, that is.”

She hesitated, and for a moment Olivier longed to take back the question. “Maybe,” she finally said. “The future isn’t as clear as it once was.”

“I suppose that’s the beauty of it.”

“Yes,” Izumi said. “I suppose it is.”

Unconsciousness tugged at her brain. Olivier tried her best to resist it. There was work to be done, after all. Their revolution didn’t have the luxury of idle time — there was a country to rebuild, and she would be crucial to its second life. Yet, lying there, conversation dwindling back into the comfort of silence, she found it hard to stay awake. The weight on her eyes wasn’t just from the pain, or the medication, or the head injury; she found herself at ease here. It was a feeling she often avoided in the North, and one she certainly hadn’t known in Central City for quite some time. 

Izumi noticed, which didn’t surprise her. “I should let you rest. When you wake again, I suspect responsibilities will be waiting for you.”

“Before you go,” she said, “I wanted to thank you. You saved my life, and my brother’s. That’s not an act I take lightly. I owe you a debt I may never be able to repay.”

She smiled, but this time it was softer, lacking the bite and mischief of the one she’d worn earlier. “Fix this country, and we’ll call it even.”

Olivier couldn’t hide a groan as she put her remaining energy into lifting her free arm, extending her hand out as best she could. 

Izumi looked at it, before laughing. “Guess even you aren’t immune to the military’s ridiculous formalities. Is a vow in words not enough? We need to shake on it?”

“It’s—“ she held her breath, gave herself two seconds to let the pain subside, before continuing, “—not about the military.”

Recognition came over the other woman quickly. Olivier wondered how she remembered the moment, her own disappearance. How it might have felt. Part of her longed to ask about it, but so much had been given to her today — it felt insensitive to want more. Not to mention it wasn’t answers she needed: it was confirmation. Indisputable proof of her own that, despite her own failure, she’d truly come back. 

Izumi didn’t take her hand; instead, she kept her eyes on it, like it might disappear if she looked away. “I hope you know there was nothing you could have done to prevent that.”

“Had we not needed your help, then—“

“Then I would have been taken somewhere else, and my husband would have been left stranded on the street instead of in your company. Trust me when I say that sticking with you was the best thing we could have done.”

Olivier closed her eyes. The pain still lingered, her outstretched hand dropping slightly with each passing second. She wasn’t one to dwell often, and the logical part of her understood that few people could stand up to alchemy as advanced as what she saw yesterday. But none of that changed what she knew to be true.

She opened her eyes, waited to speak until she caught Izumi’s gaze. “Regardless of the circumstance, you saved me. And I couldn’t save you. For that, you have my sincerest apologies.”

Izumi finally took her hand. Olivier forced her mind to pay attention, to commit this moment to memory, because she knew in the coming nights, when she saw her failures again and again, she’d need it. She’d need to remember. 

A handshake could tell her more about a person than any words they might say. It spoke not only to their character, but also to their perception of her. Yesterday, Izumi’s grip had been firm, communicating mutual respect and self confidence. It was looser this time around, more delicate, but Olivier could tell the change wasn’t an insult or an indication of weakness — it was a sign of care. Thoughtfulness, the type only found in nurturers, given to her in perhaps the only way she’d accept it.

“My husband said you refused to stop searching for me.” She spoke softly, kept their hands clasped together. “I appreciate that.”

“Of course. I’m not in the business of leaving my people behind.”

The grin spread quickly, until it took over Izumi’s entire face. “I’m your people, huh?”

Olivier tried to humor her, but sincerity won in the end. She wasn’t entirely sure when it happened. During the battle, maybe, or the conversation on the stairs afterward. Maybe it didn’t happen until today, until she’d woken up and found her sitting by her side. Either way, the truth couldn’t be denied: Izumi was one of hers now. Not a soldier under her command, but a companion she knew she could trust. And that meant there was nothing she wouldn’t do to keep her safe.

 “Yes,” she told her. “You are.”

“Do I get a say in this grouping?”

Olivier raised an eyebrow at her. “Would you object to it if you did?”

The standoff only lasted a few seconds before Izumi burst out into laughter, finally breaking their handshake to wrap her arms around her sides. She tried not to focus on how deeply she felt her absence, how cold her palm became without Izumi’s hand to keep it company.

“No,” she said lightly. “No objections here. Although if I’m really part of your group now, I wouldn’t mind a chance to test out that sword of yours.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she fought a grin of her own. “Don’t push it.”

Izumi just kept laughing. She wasn’t prepared to like the sound so much, to feel it echoing in her chest. To feel the desire to join her. A sound like that, after the battle they just had, wasn’t so easily conjured. It took strength to find joy after trauma, to stare death in the eye and laugh, not at it but in spite of it. And for someone like Izumi, with so much heartbreak and hurt in her history, to stand here and revel in it? It was impressive, as much as any display of alchemy or strength in battle. Olivier just stared and tried to resist a smile of her own. Each minute with her revealed a new layer, and she could hardly fight the urge to uncover her completely. 

“I’m just saying,” Izumi said, “how else am I supposed to fight off all the military assholes who’ll try to wake you up with their paperwork and other useless bullshit?”

“I think you’d manage just fine without it.” Five seconds passed between them before the rest of her sentence clicked. “What would you still be doing here, anyway?”

Izumi scoffed. “I’m not just gonna leave you by yourself.”

“But I’ll be asleep.”

“Yes. And I’ll be here. Doing exactly what I was doing before you woke up earlier today.”

She should have left it alone, but whatever shame she’d had disappeared the moment she’d heard about the fainting incident, so there really was no point in trying to resist curiosity anymore. “Why?” 

“Don’t tell me you’ve never stayed in someone’s hospital room before. As a general, I imagine it’s something you’re quite familiar with.”

“No, it’s not that — why me?”

Izumi stared at her, wearing an expression that managed to combine amusement with confusion. “You really don’t get it, do you? If I’m your people, then you’re mine. And I don’t leave my people alone when they’re hurt. Conscious or otherwise.”

She didn’t know how to explain it. The way it made her feel. Like the sun was shining from inside her, spreading its light through her veins until warmth was the only thing her body knew. She wasn’t one for humility, but she genuinely wondered what she’d done to deserve it, this kindness that felt entirely unearned. Whatever the reason, she decided then and there that she’d fight to hold onto it, no matter the cost. 

“Very well.” The words came out softer than she intended. She forced herself to swallow the emotion back before she added, “But don’t avoid seeing the Elrics on my account. I imagine they’ll need you more than I will.”

Izumi waved her off. “Al will be in here for quite a while, I imagine. And Ed — well, I suspect he’ll be desperate for some time alone with his brother. The last thing they’ll want is my hovering.” 

“You don’t hover,” she said without meaning to. 

Izumi just smiled. She did that a lot, she’d noticed, and Olivier didn’t know how each one managed to convey something different. Amusement, joy, borderline impertinence, all finding their way into what should have been a simple expression. Maybe it was Izumi’s own kind of magic. Maybe they shared more than she thought. 

“You know,” she said, “it’s okay to put yourself first once and a while.”

“Maybe next time,” Olivier lied. 

Izumi shook her head as she looked back at the book in her lap. Part of her wanted to grab her attention again, to keep whatever this was going, but her eyes grew heavy again with sleep, and she could only hold it off for so long. She caved as she finally closed them. Silence slipped back in, broken only by the slight hum from the turning of pages. 

Sleep, the restful kind, had evaded her for the past few months. Even before this war and its revelations, it had always been a luxury she couldn’t afford, a risk she refused to take. But now, accompanied by the quiet presence of the woman sitting next to her, it knocked at her door. And for the first time in as long as she could remember, she let it in, without fear or hesitation.

[presumenothing]

looked at my top posts from 2020 and unsurprisingly they’re ALL fma

1: 652 notes - Nov 7 2020

finally got around to watching the fmab 4koma and they're all bloody hysterical but aLSO THE PRIDE ONES??

2: 592 notes - Aug 5 2020

so y'all know that atla post about sokka going "please aang can i just borrow ozai's firebending for 5 minutes to screw with zuko"

3: 195 notes - Aug 25 2020

*leans into the mic* au where it wasn't izumi and sig in resembool when the river overflowed..... but mustang and hawkeye

4. 186 notes - Aug 27 2020

anyone else remember that old text post about like. if you fall down just wave it off and go “not used to this mortal flesh body yet”? yeah?

5: 184 notes - Nov 14 2020

They say the Elric house is haunted.

Of course. Empty houses are always haunted.

6: 183 notes - Aug 22 2020

……au where al starts being able to see ghosts after getting his body back from the gate

7: 182 notes - Aug 12 2020

The Elrics make transmuting without circles look easy.

It really, really isn’t.

8: 175 notes - Aug 22 2020

thinking about edward “fuck the military i’m retiring bye” elric ending up in some messy situation during his travels that ends up involving the military… 

9: 143 notes - Apr 4 2020

yes folks i know it’s literally 2020 but i just finished watching fmab for the first time ever

10: 137 notes - Aug 5 2020

After he stops semi-randomly collapsing of physical exhaustion from what is effectively years of constant wakefulness (which happens more than he or Ed would like, in those first few weeks and months), Al finds that he’s kind of… forgotten how to sleep.

[liquidstar]

You should talk more about the language of flowers, it’s fascinating and you seem to know a lot about it!

i’m FAR from an expert but i honestly do have a real interest in floriography now! it started with just doing research to get names for characters but when you look into it enough you realize that it’s pretty fucking cool! though i’m not sure what to say about it unprompted. 

i like doing analysis sometimes when flowers are featured prominently in series though, even if its not the original intent it’s just cool to see what metaphors can be drawn from it!

like for example in the 3rd fmab opening, the flowers ed crushes can be seen as a symbol of innocence or purity, he crushes it at first but later realizes he should preserve it. as far as purity or lack of sin goes, well his sin is pride and his entire arc is about getting over it lol. though the crushing of flowers in this case could represent something different all together and i shouldnt be looking at the TYPE of flower but rather the general idea of what flowers represent, but its not all that different!

i also LOVE anohana for the flower symbolism it uses. the full title is “anohana: the flower we saw that day”  (i want you to know that just typing the title of that show was enough to make me tear up a bit but i’ll prosiest) and the truth of the matter is that there were two flowers they saw, the first is daisy fleabane which is symbolic of nostalgia and remembrance, most likely for their childhoods and their lost friend. the second is scorpion grass, also known as forget-me-not, as the name would imply this flower is also symbolic of remembrance but because of the name it seems like more of a request from menma to not forget her. they also symbolize true love which is honestly represented the best through menma’s letter to jintan. anyway please watch anohana is so fucking good i had to hold back tears from typing this. they still dont remember the name of the flower they saw that day..... oh god... oh fuck

[novatix]

I posted 5,195 times in 2021

142 posts created (3%)

5053 posts reblogged (97%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 35.6 posts.

I added 2,375 tags in 2021

#op art - 714 posts

#promare - 497 posts

#fma - 317 posts

#hq - 316 posts

#kuroken - 184 posts

#fmab - 105 posts

#jjk - 64 posts

#greed the avaricious - 62 posts

#fave - 58 posts

#!!!!! - 58 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#i keep finding and remembering more of them and it’s like damn!! i really did. spend 3 years of my life with these characters and they help

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

no thoughts just him

20 notes • Posted 2021-03-22 22:07:17 GMT

#4

wait question:  do you say “gonna” or “going to” and what area do you live in

22 notes • Posted 2021-01-21 19:20:22 GMT

#3

the them brainrot is coming back....

24 notes • Posted 2021-05-06 22:16:36 GMT

#2

a bunch of really stupid sketches from a fic i’m working on

44 notes • Posted 2021-04-09 00:47:34 GMT

#1

i’ve been consumed by the fact that what greed wanted most was to be wanted by people and it made me think—the other homunculi only work with non-homunculi when they’re trying to go undercover [wrath, lust, and envy] or need help [pride getting bailed out by kimblee]. but greed 1.0 had his chimera gang and greed 2.0 sees ed and the other chimera gang and goes “hey work for me.” he craves companionship! even if he doesn’t realise it and sees the people he gathers as his underlings on a surface level, we know deep down he really cares, as per tunnel scene with bido [which fucked me UP, i can count on one hand the number of times a fictional character has made me cry and greed is responsible for 3 of those]. he just hates admitting it! it took him seeing edward get cheered on by all his friends and ling directly calling him out on his reaction for him to admit that, yeah, maybe it’s not about ruling the world, maybe he does want friends, maybe that would fill that emptiness in him. i’m going insane. 

54 notes • Posted 2021-03-25 23:29:58 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[medievalcat]

so I watched FMAB and here are my thoughts! (just a few weeks ago I watched 03)

-I’ve never actually seen this version in full, only read the manga, however I read the manga years ago and haven’t read it since high school. It was good but I have heard that it cut a lot of some important things in the manga, which I can’t entirely verify bc of what I just said but also, some of it felt different from how I remember and maybe some of that is cutting but also maybe some of that is the difference in mediums?

-It was really well paced for the most part except towards the end. I think either shorten the Promised Day arc or not make it an arc in and of itself given that it’s one day...like the Armstrongs vs Sloth stuff was kind of dragged out. But the last few promised day arc eps weren’t lagging.

-Greed and Ling are so good......I feel like there was less of them than I remembered from the manga? But still. SOUL FRIENDS...

-I.....take issue with how a lot of the Ishval stuff was handled for reasons that are probably....clear if you know the material or that you already know if you’ve been involved at any point in fma discussions... but Scar is also #iconic in this version.... “I’ve died twice now. I’m not someone of this world” is A Line and I like that he lives

- I love how one of those “the cast gets stuck inside a human body system” plots literally happens with Ed and Envy and Ling in poor Gluttony ksfhsjdfgdjv

-this was inspired by a post I saw but. Envy is a good driver. who the fuck taught him to drive. did Bradley teach him to drive.

-May is so underrated I love her... I feel like there was a little ambiguity as to where she ended up in the end re her being in the photo with the Elrics but I like the idea of May and the Elrics both living in their countries officially but traveling everywhere all the time (also as May gets older she helps take a leading position in her clan) (May calling Xiaomei her sister is....Oh Same. Only Pet Havers Will Understand)

-the last episode was a really strong note and I like that 1. Al goes traveling to Xing 2. Ed gives up his alchemy 3. it also ends with Ed on a train like on the 03 version I think that’s just a good ending scene. I feel like both versions have strong ending episodes and not to talk about 03 again in this post but I feel like the reason cos was badly recieved by many is because it was hard to follow such a strong end (and tbh because the script was for 4 hours and the studio was given an hour and a half movie when they clearly needed a short series/season to follow)

-I like that Izumi lived as well! also I love her background story of surviving in Briggs for a month alone lol

-I feel like it would have been cool to really see Xing and Drachma but the point of the series is really about Amestris so I guess...it makes sense that they didn’t go in depth there

-Pride is so effectively creepy...poor Gluttony though neither version is fun for him is it..

-I was looking at that post that was like “everyone gets one murderboy with no redemption arc and a sad story” and was like but all the ones I like get redeemed and then I realized: Goth Icon Envy (Both Versions)

-I want to see the liveaction movie now it’s coming out next week! Black Hayate looks so adorable

[riveluart]

The hierophant, temperance and the devil for that ask meme?

Hey Hi Hello friend wow I was actually asked something

The Hierophant: do you believe in ghosts?Not particularly to be honest I’m a pretty skeptical person however it’s one of those things where you can’t really know for sure (I do know plenty of people who do though)

Temperance: can you describe a strange dream you’ve had?Buckle up because this dream is really weird/hilarious and to make it even better it was FMAB related 

So I had this dream in middle school basically in the dream I was being chased by Pride in my old family home okay and I was for some reason trying to keep him from going upstairs(I think it was because my parents were up there or something I don’t remember one of those things that fades after you wake up you know) and there were these random “alchemists” I say that with quotations because these motherfuckers literally just threw fucking dirt like I’m not joking I was so sarcastic about it too like I was running for my life from Pride no less and my gay sarcastic ass still took the time to sass those motherfuckers like “Well that was effective maybe you should try rocks next?” after Pride killed those guys I guess?? or they just went poof you know dream shit I went into the basement and hid under the stairs Prides shadows made everything pitch black and then an eye opened right in front of me and that’s when I woke up and I was like “why didn’t you turn off the lights you moron??” it’s one of those things where you don’t have rational thought because it’s a dream but hey I still laugh about it because seriously those guys were throwing dirt at a being that could control razor sharp shadows like it was so ridiculous I can’t

The Devil: do you enjoy thunderstorms?:Yes I love thunderstorms a lot and rain(I really love the smell of rain too)

tarot questions

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: Katana Maidens, Episodes 10-12

Holy crap, this show just got awesome. In which we reach what seems like a logical endpoint in spectacular fashion, but there’s still half a show left to make things even better.

Pedal to the Metal

I’ve talked a lot about how Katana Maidens’ ability to surprise me is its greatest strength. When you watch as much anime as I have, you tend to start picking up on the tropes and trends shows keep coming back to over and over again. It’s not every day that you come across a show that’s able to keep you this consistently on your toes, knocking you off balance with shocking regularity as its plot zigzags in directions you aren’t expecting. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on where Katana Maidens is heading, suddenly all the characters are doing a double phase shift out of existence and you realize that once again, you don’t know what’s coming next. I can’t remember the last time I tackled a show where I legitimately have no idea where it’s heading at any given moment, yet remain eternally excited to find out. That takes a special kind of skill.

And Katana Maidens just threw its most unexpected curveball yet: it pulled off a successful climactic battle at the goddamn halfway point.

Like, holy shit, folks. Whatever else I was predicting from Katana Maidens, I wasn’t prepared for it to bring all its moving pieces to such fantastic closure with twelve episodes left to go. But once Evil Yukari vores the pools of tang hiding in her basement, sprouts an FMAB-Pride-looking hairstyle of nightmares and sets the alarm bells ringing for the end of the world, I realized that against all odds, we were getting a final showdown now. We’re already facing down the big final boss, with all important characters in tow, and letting the fireworks explode as they all collide and bring their stories to fruition. And it’s awesome! It’s awesome in the way only the best big, stupid battles can be! Like, Jesus, where do I even start here? The six warriors maidens leaping into battle on goddamn rocketships! A series of brutally intense battles against the Elite Four, complete with everyone hacking their arms off left and right because this show’s aura system lets them get away with it! Hiyori gets one over on the most dangerous guard by smacking her in the face with an ejected chest particle! Sayaka stands up to President Takatsu and embraces her own life, leaving her abuser behind and showing how much she’s grown into her own, mature person (”The pain I feel is because I pity you” is such a raw line, god damn)! And then, at the bottom of the well, Hiyori and Kanami face off against the monster who was once Yukari Origami, and it’s the slickest, most kinetic fight of the entire show! AND THEN KANAMI GETS HER MOM TO POSSESS HER AND TAKE DOWN YUKARI ONCE AND FOR ALL BECAUSE HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS IS AWESOME!

Seriously, it cannot be overstated just how damn good Katana Maidens is at generating hype. It knows how to keep you on the edge of your seat with slick moves like a rocket-boot skid, abrupt changes in the flow of battle, and a consistently riveting back-and-forth of clashing blades and ideals. Hell, even the CG animation, which would normally be a massive drag on any series, is used real fucking good here! The characters all move with such specificity and fluidity, and it lets the sword-on-sword duels race forward at a mile a minute with kickass moves firing off like machine gun rounds! And the way the camera swings to follow them, plus the way their CG models react to the momentum of the fight to keep the action constantly in motion, directs your attention shockingly well. I don’t even mind how stupid the actual aradama look anymore; when they let this show pull off sequences as riveting as that lighting-speed six-on-one smackdown at the end of episode 12, I have nothing to complain about. This is legitimately some of the best use of CG anime I’ve seen, not just in an otherwise 2D series, but all together. Only studio Orange’s work with the likes of Land of the Lustrous trumps it. And it blows my mind because this is the same studio behind Yuki Yuna is a Hero, which also used a lot of CG elements in its battles, but it stood out in a bad way back then. So Studio Gokumi is clearly getting better and better as it goes, and I couldn’t be happier; any production team this dedicated to crafting original anime based on kickass female friendship (and “friendship”) deserves to put their best foot forward.

The Price of Power

But amidst all this unparalleled hype, the characters themselves, especially the Elite Four, are all undergoing far more interesting emotional journeys than I ever could have expected. It looks like I was right on the money about Yume’s aversion to using aradama; she values power, but only real power. She was a child prodigy who awed everyone with her immense talent, but when her body started giving way to an unknown illness, she had to rely on the aradamas’ tang to stay alive, and that shame boils within her like a cauldron. She hates feeling like she has to rely on outside sources to stay alive, and thus she detests everyone who cheats to get ahead, subsuming their own talents with shortcuts to fake strength. It’s a wonder she hasn’t torn the rest of the guard apart yet; they come at power from such fundamentally different philosophies. But the fact is, she does need that outside help to stay alive, and her inability to lay that contradiction to rest eats away at her like, well, a debilitating terminal illness. She readily accepts an equal challenge with Kanami, who she sees as worthy of her full power, but when that chance is snapped away by Mai’s quick thinking (to both of their annoyance, amusingly: ”Wait, I wasn’t done fighting her!” Fucking dumbasses, the lot of you.), she can’t bring herself to accept that Kaoru and Ellen, weaker in her eyes, are actually just as capable of challenging her. Because if she’s not defined by her power, if the skill and talent that made everyone fall in love with her as a child is actually meaningless... then who is she?

Well, we’ll never know, because to get to my one serious complaint with these episodes, why the absolute fuck would you kill Yume off right after revealing her backstory? We finally fully understand what’s driving her to be the person she is today, and that’s when her terminal illness finally catches up to her? That’s Akame ga Kill levels of bullshit character death. You could have done so much more with her! There were so many more directions you could have gone now that her near escape from Ellen and Kaoru’s started breaking down her preconceptions of what gives her personal worth! Maybe parallel how Yume embraces her position as a tool of destruction with Sayaka’s newfound independence? That would’ve been cool! But I guess the real meat of the growth from here on out is gonna fall to her companions, who’ve just had a nasty shock in regards to the true nature of their situation. The rest of the Elite Four were all too happy to take on the aradama’s aid to enhance their skills, making them stronger, braver, faster, closer to the goals they sought so hard to reach. But Yume’s death forces them to come to terms with the fact that at the end of the day, this power is destroying them. It’ll eat them up from the inside out as they use it, and when it finally devours them, they won’t even have the grace of a proper funeral to look forward too. They’re kamikaze bombs that will inevitably go off and be left with nothing but wreckage. And hell, even their leader was little more than a glorified skinbag at this point, a darkly prescient reminder of what they’ll inevitably become. And now that Yukari’s officially gone, they’re gonna have to decide what to do with the half-finished suicide pact she left them with.

Eyes Forward

Speaking of Yukari and her Venom-esque sidekick, good god is she a fascinating villain. It seems the eye motif of her aradama isn’t just for show; she’s built her legacy off of seeing all possibilities. It’s no surprise that she’s been playing the long game from the very start of the show; it was clear from the moment she let her would-be assassin leave alive that she had her gaze firmly fixed on the big picture. With just a little patience, letting such a small opportunity slip away could easily lead her to far bigger ones down the line. And with the resistance facing her all but crippled, it’s clear that mindset paid off for her. It’s a simple enough feat to lose the battle if it lets you win the war, especially when her demon possession literally gives her future sight. She’s like Nighteye from the latest season of My Hero Academia, seeing all future possibilities ahead of her and acting on that knowledge to travel her desired stream of fate. Though in her case, that foresight also extends to the intense, quick-thinking heat of battle, allowing her to see through her opponents’ strikes in the blink of an eye. It makes for a terrifyingly efficient foe, even before her big gloppy stand starts sprouting out of her hair for some six-sword action.

But holy shit if Kanami doesn’t take down this power in the coolest way I think I’ve ever seen someone outwit a seer like Yukari: she stands perfectly still and prepares herself for any possibility. She lest Yukari make the first move, because that way, there are infinite ways that Kanami can respond, all depending on what direction Yukari pushes her in. In that moment, Kanami is capable of making any strike within her power, and the infinite possible futures of that state overwhelm Yukari’s ability to process them just long enough for Kanami to slip through her guard and get the first good blow in, allowing the real Yukari just enough time to rise up out of the recesses of her devoured mind and give them the opportunity to fight back. Sweet buttery fucksticks, that was awesome. Kanami is so much smarter than I sometimes give her credit for.

What Happens Now?

But all this praise leads me to a very simple question: where the absolute hell do we go from here? Yukari’s been defeated, the battle’s reached its end, all our heroes have found some sense of belonging, most of our surviving villains have been thoroughly humbled and started down the path to redemption, and Hiyori and Kanami have brought their shared destines to a close by repeating the same mutual sacrifice their mothers did to seal the great evil away once more. This could have very easily been the end of the show, and were this all Katana Maidens had to offer, I would rate it as a very high 6/10, a satisfactory journey with a few rough spots that nevertheless kept me invigorated and excited all the way through. But this isn’t the end at all; we’ve still got a full cours left. So what’s left for Katana Maidens to tell? In all likelihood, it has to do with the true nature of the aradama and noro, whether or not it’s part of the natural world, what its place should be in modern society. Those questions still haven’t been answered, after all, and the Great Aradama’s chilling speech to Yukari in that final flashback is evidence that there’s a far deeper driving force behind this seemingly mindless enemy than it first appeared. But what about character arcs, emotional journeys, all that stuff? What’s going to happen to our heroes and villains now that they’ve all found some general sense of closure? Where will this journey take them next?

Once again, I have no idea what’s awaiting us. And once again, that prospect excites the hell out of me. Katana Maidens is real good thus far, but if it can successfully expand off the logical stopping point it reached here, then we might have something genuinely special on our hands. Ball’s in your court, show. Let’s see what else you’ve got up your sleeve.

Odds and Ends

-”I don’t know if I can save everyone, but I at least want to save the people closest to me!” Proud of you, Mai.

-”Akane-chan so kyute!” I hate how accurate this comments section is.

-”I choose you!” Wow, Pokemon’s a lot more bloodthirsty than I remember.

-God damn, this show has some awesome battle music.

-Also, Hiyori catching Kanami over her shoulder was veeery nice.

-”It was worth it just to see the look on your face.” Kaoru remains the best.

-”No way!” “Yes way.” Kaoru. Fastball. Special. This show is pretty good, y’all.

-”You need to stop talking, President Takatsu.” Mai grows in my estimation every day.

-”So have you left the nest, or are you still weak fledglings? Prove it with the swords you hold.” Welp, she’s terrifying.

-”She’s dead, huh?” kpffffft

-Mai with her hair down? Is a Look(tm).

-”I will not let you go!” That’s real gay, folks.

”This future should not exist!” “And yet, here we are!” I really fucking love Kanami’s mom, guys.

Hot damn, this one’s a lot better than I expected. Here’s hoping it can keep it up to the end! See you next time!