#Ed and Al and their two dads and three moms and Winry is there too hehe

[awesomedurraworld]

post promised day hug for October 3!

happy Fma day

[worryinglyinnocent]

Fic: Haven (18/50)

Summary: They say Resembool is a haven, and they’re right. Lush pastures, quaint country town, farmers’ markets on Saturdays: a bucolic paradise.

But it’s more than that. Resembool is a haven for the runaways, the deserters, the people who don’t want to be found…

The Resembool community knows there’s something odd about Hohenheim, but they’re not going to let that stop them helping him out. This is Resembool after all, a place where no one has to hide and neighbours help neighbours, be they building a fence, chasing a sheep, or trying to save the country from an evil they inadvertently helped release centuries ago…

Or: A series of slices of life in an AU in which Hohenheim never leaves, and several broken state alchemists find hope and home in Resembool.

Rated: T

==

Haven

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [AO3]

Summary: Trisha realises that her sons are growing up, which leads to some very awkward conversations.

Characters: The Elric family, the Rockbell family

Pairings: Trisha/Hohenheim (Yuriy/Sarah in the background)

==

“Mom, where do we come from?”

“Pardon?”

“Me and Al. Where did we come from?”

“How do you mean, honey? You come from Amestris, like me. This is where you were born. Your dad comes from Xerxes.”

“I know that.” Ed gives an exasperated sigh. “I mean before we were born. Winry says we came from the stars and that a stork brought us to earth.”

Oh. So that’s what he means. Not where he comes from per se, but where babies come from in general. 

Are he and Al old enough for her to be having that conversation with them?

“Tommy at school says babies grow under cabbage leaves,” Al adds. “But I checked all our cabbages and I couldn’t find any.”

“There aren’t any babies under our cabbages, I can assure you of that.” Trisha looks to Van in desperation, but he’s wearing the same ‘rabbit faced with a fox’ expression that she knows she is.

“Babies grow in their mom’s tummy,” Van says eventually. 

“Huh.” Ed stares very hard at Trisha’s midsection. “How did we fit in there?”

“You were a lot smaller at the time,” Trisha points out. “And I stretched quite a lot.”

“Huh.” There’s silence for a moment and Ed goes back to staring at his plate rather than staring at his mother, and for a few minutes, Trisha dares to hope that the conversation is closed. Unfortunately, she and Van raised two scientists and they’re not going to be happy until they have the answers they want. 

“How did we get there in the first place?” Ed asks eventually.

Trisha exchanges another ‘how are we having this conversation at the dinner table with no prior warning?’ look with Van. 

“Erm, that’s what Dad’s for,” Trisha says quickly. Van glares at her with the same ferocity that Ed glares at his milk as the boys look to him innocently for an explanation.

I hate you, he mouths. 

“I don’t think this is a conversation for the kitchen table,” he says. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Once Mom and I have had a very long discussion. And possibly roped in Aunt Sarah and Uncle Yuriy.”

For all he’s usually extremely mild, Van’s tone brooks no arguments and the boys accept it easily, the talk moving to other subjects until the meal is finished and they get down from the table. 

Van groans and faceplants into the scrubbed wood. 

“Why?”

“It was going to happen sooner or later.” Trisha resists the urge to join him in his very close contemplation of the table. 

“Why couldn’t it have been later rather than sooner?”

“I maintain that’s your fault.”

Van looks at her indignantly. “How on earth is it my fault?”

“You’re the reason we have two such incredibly precocious children.”

“Their ability to do alchemy and read Ancient Xerxian has absolutely nothing to do with them asking about the birds and the fleas.”

“Bees.”

“What?”

“It’s birds and bees, not birds and fleas.”

“Right.”

There’s a long silence, both of them trying to find a way out of this that doesn’t involve actually discussing the situation. 

“What do we do now, then?”

“I think your idea of roping in Sarah and Yuriy is probably a good one. Maybe Winry’s been asking the same questions. We can get them all together in one room in one go and maybe the ordeal won’t be as nightmarish as we think it might be.”

“And they say I’m the one who lives in cloud cuckoo land all the time. You’re kidding yourself if you think this is ever going to be anything other than awkward.”

“I have hope.” If there’s one thing that Trisha is never short of, it’s hope. 

X

The next day, Trisha’s hope is not buoyed up by Sarah bursting out laughing when she tells her the tale of what went on over dinner. 

“Sorry, I’m just imagining the look on Hohenheim’s face. It must have been priceless.”

“It was, but that’s kind of beside the point. I have the unfortunate situation of having a family of scientists and if I don’t give them answers, you can bet they’ll go looking for them. Not that any of Van’s books contain anything that will help them, so they might be there a while, but time is still ticking and I think they ought to learn these things from parents rather than anywhere else.”

“Are you saying there’s no such thing as erotic alchemy?”

“If there is, Van’s been keeping it very secret for the entirety of our relationship.”

“Ask him. You never know what you might be missing out on.”

“I am not bringing alchemy into our bedroom. I have enough trouble getting him to leave it alone and come to bed as it is, and this is all beside the point, Sarah!”

“All right, all right, I’m sorry. I’m having way too much fun with this.”

“I’ll say. Have you got any ideas?”

“Nope. None at all. I’m trying to remember the discussion I had with my own parents but to be honest I think I must have blocked it from memory.”

“Same.” Trisha sighs. “Do you think they’re old enough?”

Sarah nods. “Yes, I think so. And you’re right, we might as well get all three of them together.” She pauses for a long time. “It just goes to show the mundaneness of everyday life. Your husband is immortal and pretty much on a one man mission to save the world as we know it from imminent destruction and yet you still have to worry about giving your kids The Talk.” Suddenly she bursts out laughing again. “You know, I think I got most of my education from trashy romance novels. Heaving bosoms and quivering thighs, that kind of thing.”

Trisha snorts. “Yeah, I know the type. Then you get to the real thing and it’s nothing like the books, and you can’t decide whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

“It’s a good thing. I’m a doctor. I know that heaving bosoms aren’t usually healthy.”

“I think this is going to be one of those occasions where I walk straight back out of the kitchen and pretend I never heard any of that.” Yuriy is halfway out of the door again when Sarah calls him back. 

“Wait, wait. We were talking seriously about things before you came in.”

“We were?”

“Yes, we were. We were talking about giving the kids The Talk. Ed and Al have been expressing an interest in learning where babies come from.”

“Ah.” Yuriy sits down at the table with them. “Right. I see.” 

There’s a long silence and then Yuriy gets up again. “If I have to be here then Hohenheim does too; he’s not getting out of this.”

Half an hour later, all four of them are sitting around the Rockbell kitchen table whilst the three kids play in the garden and Pinako watches them all from the doorway with barely concealed amusement. 

“For two doctors, a farm girl and an immortal who’s seen everything, you aren’t half squeamish about the topic,” she remarks. 

Yuriy and Sarah protest that it’s a sensitive subject that requires deliberation, Trisha protests that animal husbandry is very different, and Van protests that he definitely has not seen everything.

“Well, before you resume your debate as to the best way to go about this, I’ll draw your attention to the kitchen window.”

They all look out into the garden, where the three children are staring open-mouthed at the field next door, where a particularly virile ram has decided that now is the time to vigorously perpetuate its species.

Trisha just groans and resists the urge to faceplant into a kitchen table for the second time in two days. Yuriy does not resist the urge. Sarah is back to giggling, and Van appears to be trying to reach a higher plane of existence. 

“Granny…” Winry comes to the door. “What are the sheep doing?”

“Mom, if you answer that I will kill you,” Yuriy mutters, muffled by the table. 

Pinako just rolls her eyes and shepherds her granddaughter out of the house again. “Winry, I think it’s time you and Ed and Al learned where babies come from, and since the thought of telling you seems to have made your parents short circuit, I suppose the task falls to me…”

Trisha supposes she should be grateful that the talk is out of her hands.

She’s absolutely not grateful when Ed asks questions about the circumstances of his birth the entire way home. 

“Does it hurt?” 

“Which part?”

“Any of it.” 

“It hurts when the baby comes out.”

“Huh.” There’s silence for a while and Trisha dares to hope she’s past the worst. “I’m glad I don’t have to have babies.” Another pause. “I hope Winry never has to have any.”

Al agrees wholeheartedly, and Trisha catches Van’s eye. He smiles. Things could have been an awful lot worse, after all. He finds her hand and she goes up on her toes to kiss him. 

“Are you making us a sister?” 

They break apart to see Ed standing with hands on hips, watching them.

Trisha can only sigh. It’s going to be a long evening.

[lannisterdaddyissues]

answer all 20 fma questions go. i am holding you at gunpoint 🔫✨

ANON YOU HAVE SAVED MY LIFE IM OBSESSED WITH U NOW JFDJSGJFSKGJ but please dont hold me at gunpoint who do u think u are riza hawkeye--

1.) What type of Alchemy would you use?

i'm currently on the pre-med track so medical alchemy would be cool!! but if i'd have to fight then i will cheat and say i can do lightning alchemy bc guess what its my fantasies and I GET TO CHOOSE THE ALCHEMY HEADCANONS but it would probably be related to water alchemy somehow since lightning comes from charged particles in the clouds. maybe i could primarily be a water alchemist and lightning is a subset of that!

2.) What would your state alchemist codename be?

hmmm im gonna cheat and decide yes i can do lightning shit bc i said so so i guess my codename would be something lame and on the nose like the lightning alchemist or the spark alchemist :/ im lame and useless like roy but on the opposite end of the spectrum because i can only use my alchemy when its wet or raining boohoo...

3.) Would you serve in the military?

yell heah their uniforms are sick! i would like to be an army doctor tho :/ idk about fighting other people and electrocuting them to ash. i would DEFINITELY be on edward elric's call list when the promised day comes around tho, i refuse to miss a chance to go toe to toe with a homunculus

4.) Alchemist/Engineer/Soldier? alchemist! maybe soldier. not sure.

5.) Would you commit the taboo? mmmmm yeah probably if i had sufficient motivation, ignoring the fact that it doesn't work because i would probably ignore that

6.) Favorite character? answered! it's roy :)

7.) brOTP? HYUROI!!!! their friendship is so so so so personal to me. i love it platonically and romantically, i love it in pre-canon and canon, i love it in an au, i love it no matter what. there has never been an anime friendship more personal and close to the heart than hyuroi

8.) OTP? ROYAI!!!!! it's been 7 years and i'm still utterly obsessed with them. how arakawa-sensei managed to make a tangible love story with two characters who barely ever touch and arent even allowed to look each other in the eye without getting arrested on suspicion of secretly fucking is beyond me. she is a genius

9.) Which theme song do you find yourself singing the most/the catchiest? either rain by sid (fmab op 5) or undo by cool joke (fma op 3)!

10.) FMA or FMAB? fmab by a long shot! fma is good as a standalone because you don't know what you're missing out on lmao

11.) nOTP? mmm i wouldn't exactly call this a notp but i don't really ship edling all that much even though it's popular. i don't actively dislike it tho. i do hate edvy though bc that's gross and whenever i see it i gag.

12.) Character you’re most like/relate to? winry! she and i both have our Special Hyperfixation™ (automail for her and medicine for me), and i felt a real kinship with her, esp in 03 because at some points she felt like an afterthought which i am used to feeling that way too. but she's always so optimistic and a little hot-headed with her friends which is definitely me!

14.) Who (which character) do you look the most like?

hehehe i also look a lot like winry if you mix her with catherine elle armstrong! just give me shorter hair and that's me!

15.) Black Hayate or Den? ...................black hayate :(

16.) Favorite deadly sin? answered! it's wrath/king bradley :)

17.) Who would you want as your parents? hohenheim and trisha bc they remind me of my parents in some ways! my dad is awkward like hohenheim but he could also totally kill god without breaking a sweat and my mom is totally a momma bear and she would fight anyone who messes with us

18.) Who would you want as your child(ren)? mmmmmmm the main three i guess? ed al and winry? i would also totally adopt baby pride/selim because look at that face... hes so precious

19.) Part that made you cry the most? i never cry at fiction but hughes' death is a given, and also rain (fmab op 5) definitely gives me the feels whenever i watch/listen to it

20.) Least favorite character? answered! it's a tie between shou tucker and envy :)

21.) Your favorite FMA AU? i love the various time travel fix-it fics on ao3 where ed goes back in time and fixes everything, but my hands-down all-time favorite fma au ever has to be the meaning of hyacinths by @starryeyed-char! (shoutout!) it's an au where hughes lives and roy "dies" instead of him and the writing is so EXQUISITE i cannot express to you in enough words how amazing and incredible this series is. it is absolutely a must-read. caveat that it's still being written and currently has eight parts, but the author plans to take it all the way to the promised day so just be patient for the next installments!!

[vannahfanfics]

Shattered, Not Broken

Category: Hurt and Comfort, Angst, Family Fluff

Fandom: FullMetal Alchemist

Characters: Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric 

The wind rolled over the hill, ruffling the grass to fill the air with a quiet thunder. The green blades flapped against Edward’s boots as he slowly trekked the winding dirt path meandering through the small cemetery on the outskirts of Resembool. The worn gravestones glinted white in the sunlight, bleached like bones. The image made a short wave of nausea roll up his esophagus that made acid burn at the base of his throat. He coughed uncomfortably and swallowed it down. Stop being a wimp, Ed. 

The sun beat down on his back, making his shoulders and long blond hair uncomfortably warm. He swept his braid from his neck to release some of the trapped heat, but a thin sheen of sweat already shone on his skin, and the perspiration had already dampened the neckline of his cotton shirt. Still, Edward ignored the blazing heat and continued his solemn march to the top of the hill, where a pair of headstones sat side-by-side, gleaming in the sun. 

Edward released a long sigh as he buried his hands into the pockets of his trousers. His eyes were lidded as they gazed down at the pair of graves to read the names and dates inscribed on the worn gray stone. His eyes drifted first to the one on the right that read Trisha Elric, then to the newer, cleaner one on the left that simply read Hohenheim. It was on the latter marker that Edward’s eyes remained fixed on, inspecting all the small fissures and specks of dirt that had accumulated in the long months since it had been placed. 

He shifted his foot from one foot to the other, deliberating what exactly to say. He hadn’t known what to think at first when Granny told him that she’d found Hohenheim slouched over his mother’s grave, all the breath and warmth long since vacated his body. He’d just sat there, slack-jawed, and uttered something the lines of, “Oh. So he’s gone, then.” However, when the watchful night closed in and he was finally left to process the fact that his father really was dead and gone, Edward felt a way he’d never expected— shattered. 

“It’s not fair,” he growled under his breath and curled up his fists tight. The gravestone stared back at him, unblinking, unforgiving. “You bastard! You shouldn’t just get to run off and die like that!” he accused with a jabbing finger at the bleached rock. Tears pooled in his eyes and streamed down his cheeks. Were they of sadness? Frustration? Relief? Probably all three. Edward’s chest heaved as his pointing finger wobbled as slight tremors wracked his body. 

“You shouldn’t… You shouldn’t get to do that,” Edward sniffed, voice cracking and softening as the sadness washed over him in great waves. His arm slowly fell to his side, mirroring his head slumping down so that his chin struck his chest. “We were… we were supposed to be together again.” 

Edward had sworn to himself once that he’d never acknowledge Hohenheim as his father and allow him into his life again. Yet, here he was, directly contradicting himself… Because that’s how he felt. Even after years of cursing the man’s name, resenting him for his abandonment, as soon as Edward had clapped eyes on him again, the first thing that had come surging up was not anger. No, that came second. 

What came first was joy— that foolish joy, the kind that makes one think that everything will be all right and nothing bad would ever happen again. Edward had thought that he’d long since grown out of that— after all, his life hadn’t been sunshine and rainbows for such a long time— but just one sight of Hohenheim, and he’d been reduced to that little boy clinging to his mother’s skirts and idyllic childhood. It had been maddening, frustrating, and oh, so nice. Perhaps that moment had never left him, had never truly been washed down by the surging hate he’d drudged up by force. Maybe deep down, Edward had fooled himself into really thinking that Hohenheim would come back. 

“I hate you,” Edward sniffed and rubbed at his eyes. Another lie he told himself day after day. He couldn’t hate Hohenheim, no matter how much he wanted to, after learning all the sacrifices and tribulations the immortal man had endured. As much as Edward wished to convince himself that Hohenheim was a selfish bastard, the fact of the matter was that Hohenheim was a selfless bastard. 

“I hate you for leaving again, you crappy old man,” he sighed and kneeled down in front of the gravestone. He pulled a small flask out of his pocket and uncapped it, then dumped it over the grass. The sharp scent of whiskey wafted into the air, burning Edward’s nostrils, as the brown liquid splashed over the green blades and seeped deep down into the earth to coat the wooden coffin lying below. He returned the empty silver flask to his pocket and then sucked in a breath. “Too many people are celebrating Father’s Day like this, and you just had to go and make me one of ‘em.” 

Edward thought of Alicia. She was probably sobbing over Maes’ grave right now, still too young to understand why her daddy was never coming back. He thought of Winry, who he’d found passed out on her bedroom floor that morning curled around a dusty medical textbook with her father’s name written inside. He thought about all the children across Amestris whose fathers had been taken in needless wars and merciless slaughters. He thought about the Ishvalans; even if they didn’t celebrate Father’s Day— he wouldn’t know. 

Edward thought about Alphonse, who was forcing a smile on his face as he helped Granny make pancakes and had so cheerfully said, “Granny, what should we make in honor of Father tonight?” 

“You should be here, you bastard.” Edward couldn’t muster up and venom to spew anymore. All that was left was the hollow coldness of sorrow, the chill of his voice freezing the breeze that rolled by again. “But happy Father’s Day, all the same.” He reached out to gently splay his hand across the headstone. It felt warm. Edward knew that it was just the stone soaking up the sun’s rays, but he still imagined a heartbeat pulsing within the rock, still imagined that his father was there listening to him tirade with that affectionate, apologetic smirk on his lips. 

Edward hated how much that smirk meant to him. That bastard. 

“Ed!” 

He looked over his shoulder to see Alphonse trotting through the gate, cheeks pink from breathlessness. His little brother hurried up the path to join him at the gravestones. “What… What are you doing?” he panted as he looked in confusion at Edward, kneeled in front of the headstone with his hand tenderly caressing Hohenheim’s name. 

Edward could lie, he supposed, to make himself look good. He didn’t really see the point, though. Alphonse knew him better than anyone; he’d look right through him and then scold him for setting a bad example for his little brother. The image alone of Alphonse stamping his foot and waggling his finger made Edward smile wryly. 

“I’m wishing this bastard a happy Father’s Day,” he shrugged. Alphonse’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head in shock, and he stared at Edward as he slowly rose and shoved his hands back in his pocket. His palm was still warm, heating up the cloth. “Telling him he shouldn’t have gone and died, the damn deadbeat. Now Granny has to drink whiskey all by herself!”

Alphonse stared at him for a moment, and then his face softened into a sweet smile. Alphonse could always pull off that look so well; even when Edward tried, he still looked a little grumpy. His little brother glanced at the gravestone with an appreciative hum; then, he closed his eyes and clasped his hands together in prayer. 

“Happy Father’s Day, Dad! I hope Mom treats you well today.” 

“Don’t say that,” Edward griped and lightly shoved his brother in the shoulder, making him yelp and pout at him. “He doesn’t deserve it. What he ought to be doing is kneeling at her feet, begging for forgiveness for all the missed Mother’s Days!” 

“That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?” 

“Hell no!” Edward sniffed and turned up his nose. “He’s got a million years to make up for all the crap he put her through!” 

“Well, it’s a good thing they have all the time in the world now,” Alphonse giggled. The comment made Edward stiffen, and then he melted, giving his brother a sappy smile. 

“Yeah,” he admitted. “They do, huh? That still won’t save him from when I get there and sock the hell out of him.” 

“Big Brother! You’ve already socked him while he was still alive!” 

“Yeah, well, I got a few more left in me, okay?!” 

Alphonse heaved a sigh, watching wearily as Edward whirled on his heel and began trudging out of the cemetery. He then trotted to catch up, a grin forming on his lips. 

“Hey, you know what Granny said? She’s making beef stew tonight!” 

“Beef stew, eh? No wonder you’re in such a good mood,” Edward smiled. Alphonse giggled happily and bumped shoulders with him. Edward marveled at the feeling; it wasn’t a metal shoulder, but one of flesh and bone. Even though he’d spent years fighting to get his brother’s body back, sometimes he found himself still not used to it. 

Edward glanced over his shoulder at the cemetery on the hill, where his mother and father rested in eternal slumber. I guess some things you never really will get used to, huh, Hohenheim? he wondered with a small smile. Just like… I’ll never really be used to it— the two of you being gone. 

“Ed! Al! Do you want to go with me to the market?” Winry’s voice came floating down the road as she stood, waving them down and cupping her hand to her mouth as she called. Alphonse cried out in affirmation and sprinted to meet her while Edward stopped walking, admiring the two people who meant the most in the world to him. 

The were voids in his heart that nothing could ever fill, but… Edward had to admit that his heart was pretty full, too— and it wouldn’t be this way if things hadn’t turned out the way that they did. Even if it was pretty damn painful in the process. He tipped his head back to the sky, where the clouds drifted along like white ships in an azure sea. 

I guess I should say thanks too, you shitty old man. 

“Ed! Are you coming?” 

He looked back down, where Winry and Alphonse were both smiling expectantly. 

“Yeah. I’m coming,” he said and got started down the road again. Piece by piece, he’ll put himself back together— even if there were a few holes here and there. Shattered, not broken, because he still had plenty of people here with him.

Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

[splendidshinobi]

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 2003 LIVE REACT: EPISODES 26-30

been awhile since i’ve watched but.... another day, another emotional rollercoaster 

episode 26: her reason

who’s her and what’s her reason

bother him ALLLLL you want maria ross...bother him all day long

he deserves it

INVOICE HAHAHAHAHA

dont yell at maria fuck off!!!! 

GIRLY WHAT IS IZUMI DOING!!!!!!!! 

i screamed i did

i love sig and izumi sm!!!!!!

omg ed and al’s faces

PANINYAAAAAAA

why does she have an automail arm whAT

i feel almost insulted for paninya’s dope weapon legs

oh wait ive seen this arm wrestling scene before lmao

go paninya goooo

i do not tolerate this mr dominic slander

OH NO DO NOT INSULT QUEEN WINRY’S WORK

sucks to suck!!!!

i do think winry may have just fallen in love

ed is such a simp though

JUMBO????? his name iS JUMBO??????

al’s mousy little what?

yikes yeah you know what winry id be pissed too

she felt so good about her work!!!

crush over

jk theyre soulmates

wow roy ur so smart

damn oh ok they kept paninya’s legs too

so she only has 1 biological limb wow

paninya is definitely a lesbian 

we’ve all known that though i mean-----the camo pants

i saw paninya wearing army pants and flip flops, so i bought army pants and flip flops

oh my god winry you DEVIOUS BASTARD

i can see why people ship paninya and winry but im sorry im an edwin simp

young pinako is hot i get it dominic

OH MY GOD DEVIOUS

WINRY LMAO

GUN LEGS!

kill him?? pANINYA think about that before you shoot someone!!! 

AWWWWWW ED!!!! “best automail in the world!!!!” IM CRYING

“hello sir” alphonse you sweet boy

sheska u good???

OPE HEY CURTISES

ed why are you sad

omg winry dont cry!!!! 

hahahaha sig

THE BOYS’ FACES LMAO

episode 27: teacher

izumi time lets gooooooooooooo

the ominous music lolololol

THE WINDOW

WHERE IS ALPHONSE

HA

RIGHT THERE

ED’S FUCKING FACE HAHAHAHA

grumman!!!!!

STEW TONIGHT FUCK YEAH

xerxes drop

edward you are being so foreboding

izumi queen of my life lets go girl!!!

umbrella king sig curtis!!!

ed you dumbass!!!!!

angry face boys

mom dad and the kids on the train!!!! makes me cry

awww win’s gonna miss the dudes

omg havoc plzzzz

why is he calling riza like she doesnt already know shes going too

do not leave my boy falman behind!!!

oh good ok

mason my dude!!!

“yes maam”

this is UNCOMFORTABLE

guys i simp for sig tbh

omg al scary boy

uh oh she SAWWWWWWW you!!!

aww i forgot about the dead cat goddamnit

not THE KITTY

ok but those baby kittens need some MELK

its all over for you two watch out

cant hide JACK SHIT from mama bear

yikes

she gonna kick your ass oof

hugs oh thats nice

episode 28: all is one, one is all

island timeeee

wait theyre on island time PART 2???? ok

the way sig’s HAND---- anyway

ok so creepy naked child??

im suspicious

clearly the boys didnt read my hero academia 

or the three musketeers

al really got YEETED

yote?

oh the kid has clothes on. leaf clothes

i know dublith is in the “south” but is it really a tropical locale?

aww the bunny

“kill it”

owie hope you dont get rabies edward

the ost man so good for both series

al really said J’ACCUSE

they didnt know the masked man was mason the first time around? aight

im really having trouble typing and eating dumplings at the same time

might pause for a dumpling break

i made these in the microwave theyre pretty good

def not the best ive had but they were, ya know, microwaved

anyways sad al hours

YOU THOUGHT THAT WAS YOUR BROTHER????

it’s the circle of life simba

getting REAL philosophical rn

“dont call me small”

now we’re getting REAL scientific

im just imagining these idiots on shrooms rn

mannnnnnnnnnnn

WAIT IMAGINE LING YAO ON SHROOMS

wow what a yummy snake breakfast

izumi said 👁 👄 👁

izumi is so hot

that is the creepiest motherfucker i ever did see

ok im gonna go rinse this dish out be back in a min!!!

episode 29: the untainted child

i am the tainted adult

you SURE his parents are lookin?

i feel like izumi is being very loving towards this child

what happened to tough love bbygirl

im not saying shes not loving in her ways but shouldnt she by nature be a litttttleeee bit more sus of this kid???

dont tell me

this is sig and izumi’s “child”

theory pending

winry is such a protective lil egg

here’s whats cookin in my head

its sig and izumi’s child and ed’s arm and leg smooshed together into a homunculus...theory still pending but im definitely right

WHY DOES SIG SLEEP W HIS EYES OPEN SIR!!!!!!!

whole situation is a mess my dudes

what did u do kid????? 

“i know ed lies sometimes”

l oh fucking l

who transmutes themselves with a bed though

not the move kid

OPE

of course winry slept through this whole thing

sheska and elicia and gracia. my heart.

did the colonel just LEAVE HER BEHIND? god what a dick

sheska WENT OFFFFFFFF!!!!!!

yes maam!!!!!!!

u tell that dumbass!!!!!!

why does envy have to sit like that

gon make me SIMP

embarrassing

*debby ryan hair tuck meme*

i love the way al sits

hes so dainty

what a gent

oh that lil kid was in the gate!!!!

how a homunculus is born? please tell me more

ARCHER....my sister was texting me about him when she asked how far i was. i googled him i saw his....bod....

yup

ARM AND LEG CONFIRMED

my brain waves are unparalleled

ED REALLY JUST YEETED WINRY AND KABEDONED THE HOMUNCULUS

EDWARD STOPPPPPPPPPPPPP OMG

off goes the kid

BIDOOOOOOOOOOO <3

why is she upset??? what did you realize izumi

that its your baby??? probs

im just that smart

episode 30: assault on south headquarters

YOKI LMAO

seeing yoki and scar makes me miss mei chang

MEI CHANG SUPREMACY

yoki really about to snitch

BIDOOOOOO

everyone showing up this episode

greed is gonna roll up with a venti frappuccino any minute now

archer is a creep

is this footage from the arnold classic?

“the muscles did the talking for them”

archer is a creep

who ru calling a freak HAHA AL’s angwy voice

ope

how IS hughes doing

pls not the pain

how did this kid come into the corporeal world

armstrong what

OUROBOROS

so he’s either wrath or pride ig

i dont think bradley is a homunculus in this one

yoki is basically michael yagoobian aka the bowler hat guy

there’s greed lmao 

with the ladies

EW NO PLEASE GOD

I DONT WANT ANY MORE SHOU TUCKER

KIMBLEE WHAT

WHAT THE FUCK WHO CUT HIS HAIR LIKE THAT

WHO ALLOWED THAT I AM CHOKING

NOT THE MULLET PONYTAIL

izumi taking on the military

of course

kimblee JESUS 

bradley is EVERYWHERE at ALL TIMES

this is rOUGH

there are so many parties vying for the kid

i still cant get over kimblee like WHAT

WHAT IS HIS PURPOSE HERE

AGAIN it just seems like bradley is everywhere at all times

[scribblescrabblebabble]

FMA Gift Exchange 2019!

Title: Snow Day

Rating: T+

Relationships: Roy Mustang/ Edward Elric; Trisha Elric/ Van Hohenheim

Cross- Posted on AO3 (link)

This is my (kinda late :/ ) gift to @melissamelody for the @fmagiftexchange on Tumblr. They said that anything would do, and I was inspired to do a cute fluffy snow thing because I have never gotten a lot of snow over the holidays due to where I live, and I'm finally about to get some up at my college, so it has been on my mind a lot! I hope you enjoy!

------------------------------------

It took Ed several loud thunks to realize he had been awoken by snowballs. On his window. Flicking his gaze to the alarm clock a foot from his face, Ed rolled his eyes and nestled deeper into his pillow.

          ‘8:00 am! What kind of cruel fuckery is this?’

The thuds continued for far too long, hitting square in his window just when he thought the tirade over. After about the millionth thud, a new sound disgraced Ed’s sleepy daze: the loud buzz of his phone on the mattress by his ear. With an indignant grunt, he rolled his face to the edge of the pillow (out of the nice, warm divot his head had made through the night) to glance at the screen.

           ‘Message from Roy <3 : Get up! Hands r numb from snowballs :( ‘

“Of fucking course,” Ed grumbled, pulling himself blankets and all from bed and over to the window that stood mockingly across the room from him. He pushed the window open as far as it would go, leaning out into the frigid winter air cocooned into his comforter indignantly.

Below him stood his stupid neighbor-boyfriend, covered to the hat in flakes of snow and a truly ridiculous number of floral coats and scarves. Around him spots of frozen grass were visible where the teen had scooped up snow to form his projectile annoyances. He smiled radiantly up at Ed’s scowl, “Morning! Look, it’s snowing!”

Ed rolled his eyes, “Yeah, I can tell, dumbass Southerner. You look like you’ve been rolling around in that shit for hours.”

In response, Roy just shrugged, still grinning like an idiot, “And you look like a quilted burrito.”

“…Paisley marshmallow.”

“Grumpy caterpillar.”

“Bastard.”

“Killjoy—Oh, good morning Mrs. Elric!” Sure enough, Ed turned to where Roy looked, spotting his mom’s head poking out from the front corner of his house.

“I thought I heard something! What’re you doing out here Roy?” Trisha asked.

“Serenading your son, ma’am.”

Ed snorted, “Yeah, with projectile snow. Mom, tell him to stop being shitty and let me sleep.” Trisha looked up, noticing Ed’s disgruntled form. She laughed, “Oh my, I see I’ve interrupted! Roy, dear, why don’t you come inside and have some coffee? You look near frozen.”

Ed let out a betrayed shout following Roy’s polite ‘yes ma’am’, “You’re supposed to be on my side Mom!”

Trisha scoffed, “And pass up the chance pick on you? Oh, please, I’m your mother! Get dressed, it’s a beautiful day to be up early.”

“Ugh, fine.” The blonde stuck his tongue out at Roy’s smirk before pulling his head from outside, relishing in the warmth of his room tingling against his cold cheeks.

He hefted the window closed, letting his comforter fall to the wayside in the process. After struggling into a less-rumpled sweater and jeans, Ed gave his invitingly unmade on last, wistful look before leaving his room to face whatever bad joke he could hear Roy politely laughing at downstairs. In the kitchen, Ed found his boyfriend (shed of his comical layers of warmth) receiving a mug of coffee from a scrub-clad Trisha at the table, his similarly-clothed dad tapping away on his phone by the counter where it was plugged in.

“Work day?” Ed asked, making Hohenheim look up. “We were called in a minute ago. Apparently, the snow caught a lot of people by surprise and the ER’s packed.”

“And because a ton of people are injured, you decided to wear matching cat scrubs?” The blonde teen took the coffee proffered to him by his mom and sat by Roy, who kicked his foot lightly in greeting. He kicked back.

“It couldn’t have been a nice coincidence?” Trisha asked innocently.

“Absolutely not.” Ed deadpanned, sipping the coffee and finding it pleasantly over-sweetened. He turned to Roy, whom he found gazing out the window at the flake-coated tree in the (other) neighbor’s lawn. The former elbowed the arm not holding a mug of coffee and asked, “What haven’t you done yet in the snow? Since I just so happen to be up this early, we might as well do something.”

The dark-haired teen was silent for a moment, sipping thoughtfully at his drink, “I’ve really only been in my yard today. Maybe we should walk around.”

Trisha interjected before Ed could comment, “That’s a lovely idea! The park always looks beautiful in this weather. Just be careful; as much as I love spending time with you, Ed, I don’t want you making any unexpected visits to us at work today. You wither, Roy, your aunt would have a fit.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Kissass.”

“It’s my Southern hospitality, Ed.”

The aforementioned scoffed, “You’ve been out of there for like a year and a half, the hospitality shoulda worn off by now.”

Roy faked an affronted look, “A gentleman never loses his hospitality!”

“A gentleman who throws snow at his boyfriend to wake him up at 8 am?”

“Yep!”

Ed let out a small laugh, “You’re hopeless. C’mon, it’ll take half an hour just to put all of your coats back on- best go ahead and get started.”

“I like being warm. ‘S not my fault Riza stole my good coat to walk Hayate.”

“You aren’t going to have breakfast?” Hohenheim asked Ed as he grabbed his keys and herded his giggly wife out the door.

“I’ll eat later.” Ed waved his parents off as they closed the door, leaving the young couple sitting with their coffees at the small kitchen table. The blonde turned to the other, “My family’s way too used to you, you know that?”

“I prefer to think they’re just the right amount used to me,” he stood, walking to his coat-pile, “Besides, I could say the same for you and Aunt Chris.

Ed huffed, moving beside Roy and taking his thick red coat from its hook, “That’s different- Miss Chris’s been out neighbor forever. My folks’ve only known you for like a year. You’re just way too charming for a seventeen-year-old.”

“Seventeen and a half, thanks. And you’re too grumpy for a sixteen-and-three-quarters-year-old. Ready?” He had just finished putting his final scarf (purple with blue roses) on as Ed yanked some gloves on and opened the front door.

The blonde was still cringing from the blast of cold air as Roy sped out into the blanketed lawn. He gained his bearings and joined, standing with his boyfriend in the whiteness.

“It’s so peaceful.” The older teen commented, looking into the cloudy sky serenely.

Ed hummed his agreement, crunching over to the shoveled-off sidewalk, “Let’s go,” he said with a small smile.

Side by side, the two strolled in peaceful silence, Roy taking in the new scenery and Ed silently enjoying his boyfriend’s company. The park sat two blocks from their houses, and since the neighborhood did not boast of a huge population of children, the mid-morning snow sat untouched on the park’s grass and benches.

“Your mom was right, Ed, it really is beautiful here. Look at the trees!” Roy exclaimed, grabbing Ed’s gloved hand in his own and dragging him further into the space. They ended up under one of said trees, the branches little black outlines against the piles of snow atop them. Both were content to be close to one another, looking around at the scenery for a time.

The moment, of course, was not destined to last, as just then two particularly large snowballs collided with their faces quite spectacularly. Both teens startled back, stuttering and wiping the freezing material off of their faces. Ed whipped his face to the tree’s large trunk, behind which he could hear uproarious laughter and two excited dogs’ barking.

Just as Roy shouted an indignant, “Riza!”, Ed yelled, “Fuck off Winry! You too Al!” Three giggling blonde heads popped out from around the tree, Den and Hayate yipping at their heels.

Quicker to react than Ed, Roy responded to the attack with a chunk of snow to Riza’s face. She was still in shock, then grinned and made to form a new ball. They scattered, laughing, and the wintry war was on.

~End~

[elfpen]

The Elric Kids

I said I’d outline my take on the Elric kids eventually. Here’s my take on Ed and Winry’s collection of little monsters:

—————————

Yuriy: Born 1921

Tall, lanky. Gold hair, gold eyes, tan skin. Yuriy is the oldest. He looks just like his father. but his heart has always been a bit more like his mom’s. He falls in love with automail and becomes his mom’s assistant from a young age. One thing he does share in common with his father is his sense of style. He loves edgy styles and crazy color combinations, gets several ear piercings, and is constantly changing his hairstyle. Eventually he settles on a mid-length cut with undercut sides, a style he claims is perfect because it looks cool both up and down, and also doesn’t get in his way when he’s working. His parents are skeptical but supportive. In his work he likes making cosmetic embellishments to automail limbs, which Winry bemoans when he’s still young, but eventually, Yuriy turns this into a service to help people, especially young kids, feel comfortable with their new limbs after painful losses and surgery. Yuriy is very outgoing and loves a challenge. His biggest insecurity is that he can’t be the older brother his dad expects him to be; he sometimes resents his parents for having so many kids, especially when he’s a teenager. But at the end of the day, he loves his weird family and takes care of them all as best he can. He harbors special affection for Heimel, his only brother, who he’s constantly trying to drag out of his shell, as well as Sarah, his baby sister who can do no wrong in his eyes. When he turns 18, Yuriy legally changes his surname to Rockbell, so he can carry on the name of the family business. When he does this, he has his uncle Al draw “Elric” in Xingese and has it tattooed on his wrist because he wants to show that he’s still immensely proud to be an Elric, even if he is officially a Rockbell.

————

Henrietta: born 1922

Tall for a girl and fairly thin, flat-chested, blue eyes, gold hair that puffs up in odd ways. Henrietta, or Henry as most call her, is the second eldest child of Ed and Winry. She’s only one year younger than Yuriy, and the small gap in age difference as well as Henry’s serious, mature personality means that she is the only one of the Elric kids who can go toe to toe with Yuriy and win on a consistent basis. Unlike her brother, Henry is fairly reserved but no less confident in her skills. She is a bookworm, and grew up spending most nights with her father in his study while her mother and brother tinkered in the shop. She found alchemy came to her rather easily, and became adept enough at the science that by a young age she could correct most of her father’s college students with ease. She’s not super great at expressing her feelings (though she has many), preferring books and ideas to people, because people are confusing, especially boys. To her utter dismay, she develops a crush on Roy Mustang’s oldest son, but has no idea how to deal with it. As an adult, Henry becomes an academic for a while before branching out into writing, both fiction and nonfiction. Eventually, she writes the combined memoirs of her father and her uncle.

————

Trisha: born 1924

Ed was hesitant to name any of his children after his mother, but when his second daughter was born she appeared with dark brown hair that could have only come from his mother, so they called her Trisha. She has dark brown hair and her mother’s blue eyes, and all her life was fairly conventionally pretty, taking after her mother in personality. She is two years younger than Henry, but in many ways acts as the older sister in their relationship, helping Henry navigate fashion and crushes and schoolyard politics, while Henry stands by ready to pommel anyone who hurts her sister. Trisha is nearly magic in how much she can get away with by looking the right way and saying the right things, a fact which made her a subject of intense sibling rivalry growing up. She is particularly fond of her uncle Alphonse, and Al’s wife Mei is her ultimate hero. She is susceptible to ideas of romance, and wants to see the world. Of all his kids, Edward has perhaps the biggest soft spot towards Trisha. Later in life, Henry realizes that this is probably because the older she gets, the more Trisha looks like Ed’s own mother, and he still feels like he failed to keep her safe.

————

Heimel: born 1926

In a family of strong personalities, confidence, and stubbornness, Heimel is the exception. He has yellow hair like his mother but his dad’s Xerxian gold eyes. He’s extremely shy, to the point that as a child his parents were afraid he might need developmental help because he took so long to talk. He is a sensitive soul and observes far more often than he engages with anything. He likes to explore, but on his own. He likes to read and also draw, though he’s not very good. He enjoys learning about alchemy but also likes other sciences, social sciences, anything that helps understand other people. Ed is often baffled by him, and they often have a hard time connecting. As Heimel grows older, Ed realizes more and more than Heimel inherited much of his personality from Hohenheim - which is fitting, considering they based his name off of that of his grandfather. Heimel remains a sensitive man throughout his life but eventually becomes more confident and, when needed, assertive. He is always quiet, but if he does ever get angry, it is terrifying. As an older teen, Heimel spends several summers in Xing learning Alkahestry with his uncle, which inspires him to pursue medical school. After earning his degrees he works as a pediatrician.

————

Sarah: born 1929

Yellow hair, blue eyes, petite in stature. Sarah is the baby of the family, and she knows it. She is more like her father in personality than her mother, but she grows up virtually inseparable from her mother’s side. She is extremely competitive and is willing to fight just about everyone even though she’s a pipsqueak. That being said, she’s far more cheerful than her father was as a child. She likes both her sisters, but finds Henry often too dour and Trisha not daring enough. She could eat Heimel for breakfast. Her sibling bestie is Yuriy, and when the two are together they raise absolute hell. Sarah often thinks it’s a shame she and Yuriy are eight whole years apart, or else they would’ve been able to really grow up together. Ed and Winry are both very grateful they did not. Sarah is interested in everything, but has no real sense of purpose. She works for Yuriy for a little while, and then helps her father at work, and drifts from job to job. Failing all else she eventually enlists in the military, a decision that nearly makes Ed pass out of anger and fear, not least of all because she didn’t warn them. In the military, however, she finds that she is excellent at thinking on her feet and shouting above loud crowds. Eventually, she rises to the rank of Colonel, and commands a battalion of men three times her size who all adore her and would obey and protect her at all costs.

[shiryonsheli]

(alchemic-elric) 📒- For a secret journal/diary they keep (Bonus: Share an entry from it!)

@alchemic-elric

[ SPILLING SECRETS MEME ;; 📒 A secret journal/diary they keep and entry from it | Accepting ]

The journey is long and tolling, the search is heartwrenching and mindbreaking. Their formative years plagued with consequences for a mistake they didn’t know they were making, their childhood torn from them and replaced with the life of a soldier. Although Alphonse was free from the binds of the military, where Ed goes, he goes. Every decision they’ve made for years was about how to turn back time and regain the body’s they’d lost.

But they can’t regain the time. They can’t make new childhood memories, because they’ve long since grown past when it would have been acceptable to play tag through the streets of town and have snowball fights with the friends from school. The Elric brothers have been alienated from their childhood, and Alphonse is all too aware that those years are out of their grasp. 

All is not so bad, though.

Alphonse can still remember so much. Playing hide and seek with Ed and Winry, meeting Den for the first time, bombarding his mother, Winry, and Granny Pinako with questions wondering how automail worked and not being to hang on to a word. True, the bad memories litter his mind, but he lives with the results of them every day. And so, it’s every night that he gets to–and has to–recall what they don’t have time for when the sun is out.

Edward and their friends are all well aware of the journal Alphonse keeps of foods he wants to try when he’s regained his body, and now he’s admitted to writing poetry in them, too. Some nights he sits and thinks from the moment the sun sets and rises. Some nights, however, he’s a poet when he’s not a meditator, a writer when he’s not a wanderer. And he scrawls memoirs into his journals, recalling every memory in as vivid detail as he can so he doesn’t lose them. 

He has had doubts of his memories before, but never again. He knows who he is, and he knows that to doubt himself is to doubt his brother is to doubt their mission. And journaling helps, from small entries bullet pointing their day to the stories that span fifteen or more pages of adventures they had in their childhood; he reminds himself of how brilliant and vibrant the grass is, how cool and lush it felt on his skin. He can trick himself into smelling the mud after a downpour and feeling it squish disgustingly against his toes as they ran out to play, and then comes the horrible stuffy nose from the colds they’d gotten as a result.

Al is never without a journal or a pencil, and so he is never without the good times they will return to. 

[ Journal Entry below cut. ]

Sometimes, passing days are just passing days, especially when travelling. Today consisted of one four hour train ride with two hours before our three hour transfer. The station for the transfer was a step up from the one we’d left from; no grime on the rails or litter on the platforms. It was quiet and peaceful and we were kind of in the middle of nowhere. It felt like the station in Resembool. Nothing too eventful happened.

Well, that’s a lie. We helped a kid find her parents at the station. She was so funny! She came up to us and said, “i need to find my mom and dad you’re tall so you can see better.” Ed was not pleased that she wasn’t talking to him. Turns out her parents were just at a food vendor and she’d wandered off. They were very kind. I hope they’re doing well.

The sun was already pretty high by the time we’d gotten there, but it really took its time setting while we were on the second train. Ed was trying to stay up for a while to keep me company, but I could tell how tired he was. He looked like he was struggling to keep his eyes open and soon enough he’d fallen asleep. 

I like that he wanted to stay up for me. I wish he wouldn’t, though. He needs to sleep. The countryside was beautiful and the sun set this orange look to everything. It made Ed’s hair look like real gold. I wonder if my hair will look like that, too. I hope it does.

[fullmetalirin]

Fullmetal Alchemist OG vs. Brotherhood: Tucker Chapter (OG 07, BH 04)

We’ve caught up to Brotherhood’s timeline! This isn’t quite a 1:1 comparison, as some of the introductory bits were covered in OG 06, but for the most part we should be able to compare the two episodes directly.

Fullmetal Alchemist Episode 7: "Night of the Chimera's Cry"

Ed is now a "dog of the military" for having passed the state alchemy examination. Mustang gives Ed a silver pocket watch, being a symbol of his rank and an alchemical amplifier. Ed writes a letter to Winry, and Nina writes one to her mother. After Tucker's reluctance in answering Ed's questions concerning the talking chimera that he created two years ago, Ed investigates at the state library but is denied access. On the way out of the library, Ed encounters a mysterious man with a cross-shaped scar across his face, and a strange tattoo on his right arm. After Brigadier General Basque Grand finds out about Ed's investigations, he orders him to cease and desist, having the Elrics moving out of Tucker's mansion. However, the Elrics sneak into the mansion into Tucker's laboratory in the basement, where he has just finished creating another speaking chimera in order to satisfy his yearly examination requirements. Ed then verbally places the pieces of the puzzle together, revealing that Tucker was responsible for using his wife for his first chimera, and now he is using Nina and Alexander for his new chimera. Tucker tries to accuse Ed that he is guilty of this as well, and Ed nearly beats Tucker to death in response, though is stopped by the Nina-Alexander chimera. As Tucker is arrested, Ed manages to free the chimera, which escapes into an alleyway and encounters the scarred man. He declares it to be a sin against nature, and ultimately deconstructs it. The scarred man disappears, and the Elrics discover Nina-Alexander's blood-smeared remains on the alley wall.

Tucker watches Nina play in the yard with an anguished expression.

Mustang tosses Ed his State Alchemist watch quite callously, and Ed is disappointed.

MUSTANG: Congrats. You're a dog of the military now.

Nothing about it letting you do alchemy without a circle, so I guess we’re left to assume Cornello just didn’t know what he was talking about.

Ed makes a crack about Mustang wanting a promotion, and Havoc tells him seriously that yes, he'll do anything to move up the ranks. Foreshadowing.

There is a serial killer targeting women.

Havoc reminds Tucker his assessment is coming up soon. Tucker looks nervous.

Tucker claims that his wife left them because he was too poor, and that if he fails the examination, they'll fall into poverty again.

Ed restrains Scar from entering the library, saying he needs to pass the exam like everyone else. As a kid, I think this is more excusable from him.

Ed goes to Hughes when he's denied access, because Hughes said he was in intelligence last episode. Oh, that's clever! Hughes tells him Tucker's chimera said it wanted to die and then starved itself to death. He also reveals Tucker's wife is actually dead.

Ed has a PTSD attack when he sees the woman's mangled body. When he recovers, Tucker explains that he figured out that they did human transmutation, but he understands their reasons.

Tucker's lab looks like a torture dungeon. Everything is very poorly lit.

Tucker claims the real reason he fused Nina was to prove that he could, and insists that Ed's attempt at human transmutation was no different. Ed flies into a rage, beating him so savagely he draws blood. Nina stops him, and Ed attempts to separate her. I think this is a really important part of Ed's character: he's a very dark and flawed person, but at his core he really is a genuinely good person, and it's vital he gets opportunities to show that.

Ed flips out at Grand, accusing him of covering it up and planning to use Nina as a test subject. Grand punches him, and Ed visibly staggers and clutches his stomach for the rest of the scene. Ed uses alchemy to warp the road and topple the van.

Scar has not yet started killing State Alchemists. He's still figuring out how his arm works and what he's supposed to use it for.

Ed has a breakdown when he finds Nina's bloodstain, and actually cries.

FMA Brotherhood Episode 4: "An Alchemist's Anguish"

A mysterious man with a cross-shaped scar across his face attacks and murders Brigadier General Basque Grand. The Führer orders Hughes and Armstrong to use all available resources to stop the murderer. Meanwhile, to avoid being in their debt, Mustang introduces Edward and Alphonse to state alchemist Shou Tucker, the "Sewing-Life Alchemist", who obtained his credentials by creating a chimera which could understand human speech. He opens up his library to the Elric brothers to study living creature transmutation, but they also spend time playing with Tucker's daughter Nina and the family dog Alexander. On returning to the house for another study session, they find that Tucker has created another speaking chimera in order to satisfy his yearly assessment requirements. However, Edward is furious to discover that the chimera was created by combining Nina and Alexander. He then realizes that Tucker did the same with his wife two years earlier and Alphonse stops Edward from nearly beating Tucker to death. Mustang tells him that by being a state alchemist, he must prepare himself to take a life if called upon by the military. While Tucker is arrested for his actions, he is visited by the scarred man, who kills him, and then delivers a mercy killing to the Nina/Alexander chimera.

We get a recap of the previous episode before the title card. Not sure why it thinks this is necessary.

We open with Scar already killing State Alchemists. Grand makes cannons out of the cobblestones. As with Ed's train cannon, I have to wonder where he's getting the gunpowder – though since this is his specialty, he might carry the materials on his person.

Grand also raises massive metal walls from the road. We can presume he is drawing metal ore from the rock, but he's still making an awful lot of metal.

And Scar just... kills Grand. Okay. Well, that was a waste of a character.

There's a lot of blood spurting when Scar kills Grand, but no visible wounds. I was expecting his head to explode at least.

Then we cut to Team Mustang doing clerical work. There's a report on Yoki and a reference to the Youswell incident, but no details beyond that the Elrics were involved. So I guess Brotherhood wants to assure us that's still canon, but didn't think it was important enough to spend an episode on. Reasonable.

Ed groans when he hears he has to meet with Mustang. It hasn't been established why he hates him yet, so that's a little weird. I guess we can take it as an in-medias-res thing, to be explained later.

The hook to make them meet Tucker here is that they start going on about how impressive it was that Cornello made a chimera with the Stone, and that they don't know much about biological alchemy. That seems… really random. That was hardly the most impressive or even the most visible thing he did with the Stone. It's reasonable for them to take an interest in it, but that just highlights that it should have been the first thing they researched when they got to Central. It's really bizarre that the people looking to restore their bodies completely ignored an entire field about that for three years and only now go "Oh hey, actually that sounds useful."

Mustang is referring them so he's not indebted to them for handling the Liore case. So apparently they actually were on military business there.

Mustang tells them the story of the talking chimera in place of Hughes, on the ride over there. Okay wow, so we are really speedrunning this then. What is pacing.

Tucker doesn't apologize for being sexist, and more directly says his wife ran out on him when explaining the mess in the house. Possibly this is just different translations?

Tucker is a lot more aggressive, demanding that they tell him why they're interested before he shows them his research. Goes into scary shiny glasses mode when he says this. Ed tells him everything.

Tucker shows them his lab right off the bat. It's better lit and much less sinister-looking. He also mentions he hasn't been doing very well.

Tucker is framed as much more obviously evil in pretty much every scene. He keeps doing the creepy glasses-adjust thing while making creepy expressions and having creepy music play.

Ed gets angry at Al for playing with Nina.

Ed gets comically angry at the dog and fights it. For once I can say without reservation that the comic relief is totally appropriate.

The Elrics leave for the day, and Havoc gives his message about the assessment. Tucker just says "I know" creepily, with no indication of anxiety or conflictedness.

Tucker exposits about the assessment to Nina. Shouldn't she already know from last year?

Tucker does look solemn when he hugs her.

The next day, Nina tells the Elrics her mom left. Nothing about the letters or anything.

Nina says her dad's always in the lab. There's a small flashback to the Elrics remembering their father doing the same, and Ed suddenly decides to play with Nina. That's sweet, and nicely subtle.

While they play with Nina, there's a cut to Tucker in his lab. This time it is all shadowy, lit only by one gaslamp. Geez, Tucker, you're already wearing glasses, stop ruining your eyes even more.

Cut to Team Mustang discussing Scar's murders. Armstrong brings up the perverse nature of State Alchemists, saying alchemy is supposed to be for the people but State Alchemists turn it into a weapon of the State. The Ishbalan War is also mentioned.

Cut to Tucker giving his backstory about his wife leaving him and why he needs to pass the assessment. Why, exactly, is he telling them this? They're just random strangers in this continuity. Also odd that the Elrics would ask in the first place. This reeks of needing to deliver exposition regardless of sense.

The lighting actually is darker in this scene, but it doesn't feel as natural to me, more like it's cel-shaded.

There's a mini-flashback to him arguing with his wife.

Tucker offers to play with Nina the next day. The Elrics find nothing suspicious about him doing this so close to the assessment.

Pathetic fallacy is in full force: we get a shot of the storm clouds outside as Ed discovers the Nina chimera. This seems over-the-top to me.

Tucker actually covers himself better here, telling Nina "That person is Edward," instead of "That's Edward, your friend."

We spend slightly more time on the shot of Ed's realization.

Tucker's "not so different" speech is very similar but a little compressed. I feel like it loses something when they didn't have a philosophical conversation earlier. I thought that lent him a bit more credibility, because Ed didn’t refute it then. There’s also the element of perversion in how it was initially framed as positive advice given by a father figure and now that’s all been twisted... there’s a lot of nuance lost here.

Ed looks more sad and anguished as he's punching Tucker. The beatdown actually looks less violent to me – the camera keeps shaking and cutting between perspectives so quickly we can't really focus on anything, and I don't think there's any actual blood splatter. We do actually see Tucker's bleeding face for a split-second, but I personally thought it was more horrific to just see Ed wailing on him as blood flew everywhere. Let the audience’s imagination do the work for you.

One of the blood splatters makes it look like Ed is crying blood. Like it literally looks flush with his eyeball. In later shots it isn’t flush, so I guess that was just an art goof.

Nina doesn't restrain Ed, but she does ask if her dad is hurt.

The brothers don't try to unfuse Nina, they just say it's beyond their power.

We spend more time on Tucker saying how great it is he'll be a State Alchemist again. Ed kicks the watch out of his hands and he crawls over to it like Gollum. This feels over-the-top.

Mustang handles the case this time, and muses that they're not so different because he's killed people in war. That's not really the same thing, Mustang.

Ed is sulking, but it's unclear if he was crying – he sounds like he's sobbing at a few points, but there are no tears. Mustang tells him to suck it up and deal because there's plenty more cases like this, implying that he may have sent Ed here on purpose to teach him a lesson.

EDWARD: Whether we get called dogs of the military, or cursed as devils, Al and I are going to get our bodies back.

I find the phrasing here noteworthy – Ed is only concerned about persecution, not the implication that he will be doing things to deserve it.

Ed starts going on a dramatic rant and Mustang and Riza just walk away. LOL.

Scar shows up and kills Tucker. I initially asked "How did he get in?" but that is actually explained with a helpful cut to the guards outside having been turned into bloody messes.

Nina cries when she sees her dad get murdered in front of her. Jesus, Scar. He still kills her, but all she says is "Dad", nothing about being in pain, so he looks like he's just killing her for being a chimera. Yeesh. You're not scoring a lot of points on the sympathetic villain front, Scar.

Conclusion

I think these two episodes are lessons in "show, don't tell," and "less is more". Brotherhood's version just feels so rushed, a villain of the week with no greater significance. Ed couldn't save the innocent girl, isn't that sad, now let's move on. We don't linger on anything long enough to form a real emotional attachment. Even if it did, the endless HEY HAVE YOU REALIZED TUCKER IS EVIL YET HAVE YOU HAVE YOU would have wrecked that anyway. It's so trite. It's also so forced – there's no real reason for Ed to be visiting him at this point, and if they actually learn anything from the research, it's never mentioned. It's so transparently just an excuse to place them in position.

In OG's version, this becomes part of an actual arc in the brothers' lives. We have time to get invested, get a sense of wrongness without it being obvious, to feel like we got the rug swept out from under us instead of expecting it. There is a sense of progression, with real foreshadowing as Ed slowly pieces it together. Moreover, the change of Tucker becoming their guardian informs so much of this. These are no longer skilled, hardened shonen protagonists dealing with the tragedy of the week. These are desperate children who have to see this horror destroy their adoptive family. Even after you process the tragedy of Nina's suffering, you're left with the tragedy of: what will these kids do now? Who will take care of them? Will they be able to trust anyone ever again?

It’s also just so important that Ed actually plans to separate Nina, and moreover puts his life on the line by fighting a scary general for her. He knows there’s probably nothing he can do, but he wants to try anyway, because he cares. Because that’s the kind of person he is. It’s so easy to tell yourself you don’t have to try because there’s nothing you can do. That’s almost never actually true. To do nothing is, itself, a choice. And indeed, Scar shows that there was a solution here -- it was just one they couldn’t bear to take. Now, was that the correct solution? Is it right to give a mercy killing to a suffering toddler when you can’t ask her permission because she does not even know how to express such a concept? Should Ed have tried to separate her anyway, even knowing it likely would have killed her? And of course, the elephant in the room: should we really be expecting a sobbing 12-year-old to be a rational moral actor in the first place? OG gives us so much to engage with, important questions, important choices, important feelings.

I cried so bad I could barely focus on this writeup when I saw the OG episode. I didn't cry at all when I watched the Brotherhood version. That should really tell you something.

I also prefer OG's portrayal of Scar here. You can see how he is, himself, lost and confused. He's a mysterious figure I sympathize with and want to learn more about, not just a one-note murder machine.

We are already beginning to see divergences in the plotlines, too. In Brotherhood, Tucker and Grand were both killed. In OG, they're still around. Followup on that, there will be.

[space-gh0sts]

Fandom questions

RULES: Choose any three fandoms (in random order) and answer the questions, then tag 10 people you want to know better.

Tagged by the wonderful @spaceoutdreamer like 7000 years ago. But I’ve been out of town and I’m just now back to the land of the living and consistent internet connection.

Three Fandoms:

Fullmetal Alchemist (mainly focusing on Brotherhood)

The Raven Cycle

Harry Potter (can apply to both books and movies)

The First Character You Loved:

Alphonse

Ronan

Minerva McGonagall (I distinctly remember being 4 years old and reading this aloud with my mom and brothers before bed and thinking “She’s can turn into a cat?!?!??! I wanna be her”)

The Character You Never Expected To Love So Much:

Greed

Don’t @ me but I love Piper Greenmantle so much.

Draco and Narcissa

The Character You Relate To The Most :

Probably Al. Especially the constant hiding of cats in his armor, bc that’s exactly what I would do.

Ronan

This one is difficult, but probably Hermione?? IDK

The Character You’d Slap :

So many characters are so slappable, but I’d probably start with Envy. I like Envy well enough, but he’s def a little shit. (also I need to pay him back for Hughes)

Artemus. Seriously get your shit together.

Either Dumbledore or Snape. Both are shit heads, but for different reasons.

Three Favorite Characters (in order of preference):

Izumi Curtis, Olivier Armstrong, Greed and Winry (I couldn’t decide between the two. whoops)

Ronan, Noah, Persephone

McGonagall, Sirius, Luna

Character You Liked At First, But Don’t Like Anymore:

I can’t think of anyone. I dislike very few characters in this series. And the ones I do, I’ve hated since the beginning. I guess maybe Nina’s dad, but I wasn’t a huge fan of him to start. So idk.

Joseph Kavinsky, I guess. I don’t hate him, I just thought he was more interesting in the beginning. 

Albus Dumbledore. I think we all know why.

A Character You Didn’t Like At First But Do Now:

Envy. I still haven’t forgiven him for Hughes, but he’s def grown on me

Declan

I didn’t hate her, but I wasn’t a huge fan of Ginny when we first met her. I thought she was kinda annoying. Jokes on me, bc now I’d die for her. lol

Three OTPs:

Hawkeye/Roy, Ed/Winry, and Greed/Ling

Ronan/Adam, Blue/Gansey/Henry, and Noah/Happiness

I’m basic af so: Draco/Harry, Remus/Sirius, and Ginny/Luna

People to tag: this is always the hard part. @cactusdodes, @magicalxme, @starlit-casualties, @kevinsneil, @forgottentoforgive, and I’m too tired to think of more people. but srsly anyone that wants to do this should! 

[madefate-a]

❥ ✍ ☽

▉▊▋✕. ( memories. accepting. ) 

❥ — a childhood memory 

❛ Ha !! I told you I’d win! ❜ 

❛ That’s cheating. ❜ 

❛ No way, Ed! It’s not cheating just ‘cause I won for once! ❜ 

❛ Of course it is !! ❜ 

Words give way to action -- Al’s laughter, high and airy, wobbling with a rush of adrenalin that paints everything rose colored and inexplicably hilarious; Ed’s sitting stubbornly on the grass, small arms crossed against his chest, stubbornly looking away. It doesn’t nothing to diminish the grin plastered over Al’s lips, exuberant and as wicked as the soft curves and dimples will allow. 

❛ ‘Sokay, Brother. You can still come to the wedding. ❜ 

❛ I don’t know what you’re talking about, Al. ❜ 

❛ Yeah you do. ❜ 

❛ What’s that? Was that the wind? I could have sworn I heard something. ❜ 

❛ Brother !! ❜ 

( it’s fifteen minutes later when Al tells Winry that they’re going to get married, fifteen minutes later when his six year old heart is brutally crushed by her iron clad moratorium and his height crushes his dreams. it’s years later when he looks back on it all fondly. ) 

✍ — a memory of their mother 

Al holds out for an impressively long time, eyeing his mother’s waiting arms but stubbornly refusing the comfort offered. He doesn’t realize how gently patient Trisha’s expression is, how she can see the varying degrees of his resolve unraveling, how she can calculate almost to the second when his stubborn insistence finally wavers and, with a small noise of self protest, he walks over and places his hands on her forearms and his head on her knees. 

❛ It’s not fair. ❜ 

He doesn’t hear the soft, knowing laugh -- she disguises it too well, waiting a beat before meeting him halfway and pull him up, up, until in one smooth, practiced motion, she has him sitting comfortably on her lap. It stings as much as it soothes; he’s never hated anything or anyone, but Al distinctively dislikes the way he can’t let himself fully enjoy his mother’s embrace. 

❛ What is, sweetheart? ❜ 

A whine prefaces the reply that, had he more composure -- years of experience and hardness, not the softness of childhood -- he might have swallowed. ❛ Just because he’s older doesn’t mean he’s in charge. ‘Sides, I’m taller now anyway! Doesn’t that count? ❜ 

And then there’s a delicate, infinitely strong hand carding through his hair, warm and familiar. Al forgets every indignant protest, every desire to be older and taller and stronger than his brother and how those frustrations have momentarily bled over, and after only a few moments of silent touch he feels more himself than he has all day. 

❛ First of all, no one’s in charge. ❜ There’s a hint of something airy and sweet in his mother’s voice, something almost amused. ❛ No one but me. ❜ That’s when the laugh comes, Al responding in kind -- two high, quiet chuckles mingling in the quiet of the house. Even when they quiet, the ghost of the sound lingers. 

Trisha slows, her fingers calm against the back of his head. Al looks up. She waits for that before she continues. 

❛ You know Ed loves you. ❜ Her brow is arched a little, and Al knows to nod in agreement; her smile deepens. ❛ And you love him. ❜ 

❛ -- Yeah. ❜ 

❛ So just have faith. ❜ 

She leans forward, pressing her lips to the crown of Al’s head before letting him go, helping him balance on two feet as she slides him off of herself. Al’s grip lingers on her wrist. 

❛ Talk to him. But talk. ❜ 

❛ No fists, ❜ he replies, practiced. 

❛ Just words, ❜ she confirms. Finally, finally, Al smiles. He lets go, turns on his heel, beats a hasty retreat out to the yard. 

❛ And don’t you two stay out too late ! ❜ 

☽ — a memory of their father  

It’s only fragments. It’s a back silhouetted by candlelight, seen from down below with his fingers curled against the door. It’s a hazy sensation of someone solid standing beside his mother as she holds Al, her arms so hauntingly familiar he’ll remember them long after he loses the ability to feel anything at all. It’s reaching out, reaching out, reaching out and connecting with nothing. 

It’s everything that his father leaves behind: the swing in the yard, the study that they take over, the books they touch and don’t touch. His mother -- his world. His brother -- his brother’s rage, his brother’s pain. Their house, the three of them a family all together. The wondering. The questions. The what ifs. Al’s desire to know him and his subsequent guilt when he worries that his family will think they are not enough on their own which they are, of course, they are everything to him. They are everything he has ever wanted and will ever want. 

It’s the things that aren’t there, but it is also just one memory in its full -- Ed’s hand holding onto his, his shoulder blocking half the view. It’s Hoenheim in the doorway, more of a shape than a person, his face hidden by the angle. 

Dad? He wants to ask. But the words get tangled and then there’s Mom, Mom making everything better, Mom filling up his vision and blocking the doorway with her body. When she stands, there’s no one there. 

( there are days when Al wonders if he only ever imagined if -- if he was ever real to begin with. and then, later on, there are days when Al takes more comfort than maybe he should in the knowledge of his father. unable to reach out and feel anything, anymore, knowing that even the briefest presences leave their mark, even the most fleeting are still human, remind him that he, too, is still human. ) 

[alma-liveblogs]

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 2 Liveblog

Last time, we got started with a pretty good first episode. Now, onto episode 2, which seems to be delving into the Elric Brothers’ Backstory! Three, two, one, and…

Start!

And we’re starting on a train! A bit of a cold opening, but I can dig it. They did say they were going to this place last ep. Also, High Priest who makes miracles? In a world of alchemy, is that such a weird thing?

It’s alchemy. Kids. Please. It’s obviously alchemy.

Oh, that makes sense. They think that making flowers out of nothing would require a philosopher’s stone. That’s fair.

Where did these kids get that book. How do they know about alchemy to the point of having tried human transmutation? Is it their dad? It’s probably their dad.

Episode 2: The Day It Began.

Well hello there Elric mom. You have the dead anime mom hairstyle. If I didn’t already know their backstory I would be pretty sure you’d die by now.

Yep, it was their dad! Apparently he’s not only a knowledgeable person in alchemy related things, he’s also a person who *studies* alchemy.

And he’s an absentee father. Great.  The kids are also stated to be prodigies once again, if it wasn’t clear already. I’m not against characters who are prodigies and/or complete dumbasses (see: I like both Re: Zero and Hunter x Hunter), so I just hope they do something good with this and it isn’t just a get out of jail free card for the main characters to be able to develop skills “way faster than a normal person could!”.

Everyone in this family is cute as heck, wtf.

And there she goes. Kind of non-chalantly, but hey.

Good god their dad’s a dick. What the fuck kind of person doesn’t go to their SO’s funeral?

Winry. Who are you? You were in the OP, alongside Ed and Al, so I think you’re their sister, but you don’t seem to be part of their family. Whaaaat?...

Ed, what the fucking fuck? Where do you get off?

Oh, she just lives with them in a foster home. That makes sense. Also lel at Ed being insecure about his height ever since he was *as tall as his younger brother*.

The only stew you’re having tonight is a stew of pain, suffering and sadness

Ed please don’t do a necromancy

GOOD LORD

I GUESS GOD GOT THE MEMO SOME DARK SHIT WAS GOING DOWN AND MADE SURE TO ADJUST THE LIGHTING

Huh. A recipe for all the components in a human. Neat. Although I remember having watched a video that debunked this, I’ll just go with it.

I feel the need to mention that purposefully not showing us the children’s eyes really adds to the unease of this scene and was a great cinematographic choice.

JESUS CHRIST RINNEGAN OUT OF THE ASS WHY GOD

JESUS JELLY FUCKING CHRIST IN A PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH NO

And we’re in limbo

OH HEY BODILESS BEING HOW ARE YOU

…what

I never thought god could be this sassy

W h a t    t h e    f u c k

Wait. No. Back up. Back right the fucking fuck up.

I recognize that body shape.

That’s Gluttony’s body shape.

IS GLUTTONY GOD? WHAT THE FUCK

nope. done. Goodbye

The fucking VA work in this scene is absolutely breathtaking, dear god.

And I guess that’s their story of how they got to this point. Even knowing this ahead of time, the execution was a total 10/10. Loved it.

“We did”

hughes and roy you poor souls what have you witnessed

They certainly have, christ almighty.

They’re just… broken. They had their mother’s return right in their reach, and it was violently taken from them, along with their bodies. This is heartbreaking.

Riza Hawkeye. Nice to have a name.

tbh I thought she was winry until just this moment so uh yeah

The clear overlap between Riza saying that the choice lies in the brothers and Roy’s speech on basically saying “yknow if you go to the army you maybe wont have an absolutely horrible life maybe” shows that they don’t, in fact, have a choice, and I love that.

As an aside, can I just say I love what anime does with the removal of the shine and pupils in a broken person’s eyes? It just looks really appealing to me.

Ed is a fucking determinator. You don’t break a determinator. You don’t stop a determinator. You just briefly delay them.

And here comes the automail. I wonder if there’s a pseudoscience explanation on to how it works or we just gotta take it in stride.

Wait, so their master (which I forgot to talk about earlier, sorry) can use alchemy without a circle. But the following scene seems to imply you have to have seen The Truth in order to do so. Who is their master, and what the fuck did they do to meet God?

Also holy shit I didn’t even think of that. Manipulating metal + metal arm/leg = Cool Shit

I CANT BELIEVE ED IS FUCKING DEAD

“uncute machine freak”

That is the worst insult I’ve ever heard

AL’S FACE,,,, BBY,,,,,,,,, YOU SHIP IT TOO DON’T YOU,,,

Oh hey there Fuhrer King Monarch Leader President Master Man.

Ed why are you lyi- wait I forgot. Taboo. Yeah, you should be lying. Also again with the Ishbal war. What the fuck is up with it?

ED SON YOU DON’T JUST GO CHARGING IN THE FUHRER KING MONARCH PRESIDENT LEADER MASTER MAN’S DIRECTION WITH A WEAPON UP LIKE THAT YOU’RE GONNA GET SHOT

Fucking shrekt

Aw, Winry’s gonna miss them. Cutie.

Ok show the paper was not written in that order at all but ok

And thus, the Fullmetal Alchemist is born.

And with a shot of Liore, along with adventure, looming in the distance, we end things off with the second episode.

Well that was fantastic! Especially the whole alchemy and God segment. This show just got a whole lot more interesting.

I rate episode 2, a 9/10! I’ll see you tomorrow for episode 3.

[elfpen]

Inequivalent Exchange

"I'm gonna go show this to mom!"

"Yuriy! Get back here!"

Trisha Elric, blonde, blue-eyed, and hanging backwards over her father's shoulder, giggled as they spun. Edward pointed a finger as his son, who was already halfway to the door.

"Don't you dare - you can't go downstairs without pants! Yuriy, get-" Ed ran, stooped, and scooped up his son in with his free arm, "-back here. Honestly, your mom would kill me." Excited by the running and lurching, Trisha squealed with delight and clapped her hands. Ed carried his children back toward their shared bedroom.

"But I made it!" Yuriy complained, holding up the crudely-constructed mechanical dog.

"Yes you did," Ed said, dumping his son onto his bed and pulling out a dresser drawer with his foot, "and your mother will love it, but you can't show it to her if you don't have pants on. You'll scare away our customers."

"My underwear isn't that scary," Yuriy complained as his father helped him, one-handed, into a pair of corduroys.

Ed snorted, but made sure the pants were all the way up - and buttoned - before turning his son loose toward the front door. "Don't run down the stairs, you'll lose a leg!"

"Mom has plenty!" was Yuriy's carefree response. Edward shook his head and turned his attention to Trisha, who still had sticky hands from her breakfast. Ed took her to the kitchen to clean her up.

"Your brother is silly, isn't he?" he cooed. She tried to clap while he was wiping her hands, and got honey residue all over his wrists. He ignored it. "Hopefully not as silly as your mom. He gets it from her side of the family, but don't tell her I said that."

He'd barely finished cleaning up when Winry's voice echoed up through the floorboards,

"Edward!"

Oh, hell. Yuriy was wearing pants, he was sure of that. But he hadn't checked to make sure the kid was wearing shoes. Had he slipped and fallen on the stairs? Had he taken his shirt off again? Was he making customers look at his skinned knee?

Trisha balanced on his hip, Edward leaned out the front door and looked down into his wife's automail shop. "Yeah?"

Yuriy was showing off his miniature automail creation not to his mother, but two uniformed figures at the front of the shop. Winry turned to look up at him.

"We have visitors."

Yuriy saw his father and waved, and the two uniformed figures turned to look. Edward's face went slack.

"Colonel?" he said.

"It's General now, actually," smiled Roy Mustang, taking off his hat and tucking it under his arm.

Riza Hawkeye stood next to her commander, and in the filtered sunlight, Ed could see a new silver bar adorning her epaulette. He smiled at her.

"Captain Hawkeye, it's good to see you."

"It's been a while, Edward," she glanced at Roy, who was scowling at Edward's failure to recognized his promotion when he'd so easily recognized hers.

The Major General Bastard's annoyance made Ed smile wider.

"I'll clean up here," Winry announced, "Ed, put a pot of coffee on. It's so great to see you both!"

"Alright, so why are you really here?" Ed asked once he and Mustang were alone. Roy looked over to where Winry and Riza had retired to the living room to catch up. Riza bounced Trisha on her knee and laughed at something Winry had said. Yuriy was sprawled out on the floor with piles of nuts and bolts that Winry had given him to tinker with.

"What, I can't make a social call once in a while?"

"You never have before," Ed pointed out. "And definitely not in full uniform. What do you want?"

Roy took a sip of his black coffee and set it carefully back down on the table. "Your assessment is coming up soon, and I want to make sure you've got something good."

Edward blinked at him, utterly nonplussed. "I'm not in the military anymore."

Roy stared him down. "Were you ever discharged?"

Ed blinked at him again. "I'm not a State Alchemist - Roy, I can't do alchemy anymore." he'd only ever used Mustang's first name a handful of times, and he'd expected it to elicit a reaction, but the General only sighed and shook his head.

"Of course you didn't think this through. You ran off to Resembool and then to the West, then to Rush Valley, confusing the certifications office and leaving your overworked commanding officer to fill out five separate change of address forms for you, because you're apparently too busy." Roy tilted his head, fixing the stewing blond with a curious look. "Yet somehow, you've found the time to make three kids."

"Two and a half," Edward snapped. Roy shrugged, and continued to drink his coffee.

"Well before you get started on a fourth, you should really consider what you're turning in this year. I've deferred your assessment for years, but the bureaucrats are catching up with me. You'd better make it something good."

Ed's jaw was hanging open, coffee abandoned and growing cold on the table in front of him. "How the hell," he said, and realized he was raising his voice. He eyed Yuriy, and leaned forward to hiss at Roy, "How the hell do you expect me to be a state alchemist if I can't do alchemy?"

"You're a state alchemist if you pass your assessments, and you will pass your assessment, Fullmetal."

Ed spread his hands, "With what? I can't perform alchemy."

"Alchemical research is not all about performing alchemy," Roy demurred. "You'll think of something."

Ed was annoyed - no, he was furious. How dare this bastard come into his home and remind him of what he'd lost, and act like he owed him something? "What the hell is wrong with you? I'm not an alchemist! I'm a state-at-home dad, for god's sake!"

Roy's whole demeanor changed, and he loomed over the kitchen table, dark eyes glinting with a determination that Edward had seen just a few times, the times when Roy had talked about becoming Fuhrer.

"You were the youngest state alchemist in history, you performed human transmutation and bound a human soul in a blood seal when you were eleven years old, you learned more by the time you were fifteen than most alchemists learn in their entire lives, you saw the Truth, you beat the Truth, you comprehended the solutions to the oldest questions that alchemy has to offer, and you're telling me that it never once crossed your mind to write it down?"

Edward stared at him, dumbstruck but still furious. "No," he spat back.

Roy leaned back in his seat. "Well maybe you should." He reached behind him to the coffeepot still on the counter, and poured himself a new cup. Edward hadn't moved a muscle, mind reeling.

"I've deferred your assessment for one more year, but even with this promotion, I'm on my last leg – sorry," he glanced at the metal foot peeking out from beneath Ed's trousers. "If you don't pass your assessment, you'll lose access to your research funds, and I'll look like an ass."

"I haven't even tried to access my funds for years," Ed said. "You saying I still have an account?"

Roy laughed. "A very full one, if you've left it alone. You might want to look into it." Roy glanced over to Riza and Winry, and Ed's eyes followed him. The two had been exchanging stories and news all afternoon, but now Riza reached out a lay a hand on the distention of Winry's four-month pregnancy.

"Has she started kicking yet?" the captain was asking.

"No, not yet, and I'm enjoying it while it lasts. How are you so sure it'll be a girl?"

"Because she's not making you sick - considerate. If it were a boy, he wouldn't even think." They both laughed.

"Winry's business is doing well, I know," Roy said, voice going uncharacteristically soft. "But I also know that no matter how much commission she earns, three kids is a lot. If your family keeps growing, it won't be enough. You don't have enough bedrooms as it is."

"And how is that any of your damn business?" Edward demanded.

"It's not, of course," Roy shrugged. "But your assessment is. You still have your watch, don't you?"

Ed sulked, watching Yuriy show off his skinned knee to Riza, who held a sleeping Trisha to her chest. "Probably," he said.

"Good. They'll ask to see it for assessment. You have one year to prepare."

Edward's head was beginning to hurt. "What the hell am I supposed to one year?"

"I don't know, but the good ambassador tells me you've been working on something new since your sabbatical to the West. Maybe you could start there."

"The ambassador?" Edward frowned. Roy blinked at him, and then nodded in realization.

"Ah. Yes, the Xingese are not quite as fond as telephones as we are, so you probably wouldn't have heard: the Fuhrer recently appointed Alphonse Elric as the new ambassador to Xing." Edward's eyes grew wide in elation, but Roy cut him off, "but please do me a favor and act surprised when he tells you."

"Ambassador?" He grinned, "That idiot never tells me anything – that's incredible!"

"Yes, the Fuhrer expressed particular interest in a new 'principle' Alphonse told him about. Something about taking ten and giving back eleven. It's a fascinating concept, and would turn the principle of equivalent exchange on its head."

Edward shrugged. He'd spent years working on it with Al, but even now he knew they'd hardly scratched the surface. "If we can prove it works, yeah."

Roy downed the rest of his coffee in one large gulp and stood to his feet, hat tucked under his arm. "Well in that case, you have one year to overturn the foundation of all alchemy. Get to work."

"You couldn't have given me more notice, could you?" Edward griped, glaring up at the General above his cold coffee.

Roy did not answer the question. Instead, he reached out an open hand, "I'll be needing that 520 cens back."

"W-wait, what?" Hadn't this bastard just insinuated that they didn't have enough money to support his family?

"Don't tell me you forgot about that, too."

Glaring at Mustang the entire time, Edward dug around in his pockets and came back with the owed change. "There," He slammed it into his palm. "But I'm going to need to borrow some more money, you know that, right?"

"Of course," Roy reached into his pocket and pulled out a prepared fold of cash. "One hundred and fifty dollars."

Winry and Riza must've hit a pause in their conversation, because the number rang through the house louder than it should've and they both turned to look. Roy ignored them.

"One-hundred and fifty…" Ed was genuinely shocked. He looked up at the General. "What…?"

"It should just cover the cost of a typewriter - I saw a handsome one in the store across the street. You know how to use a typewriter, don't you, Fullmetal?"

"What, are you saying I don't?" He didn't - he was horrible at typing.

Roy smirked. "Good. I look forward to reading your book by this time next year. Captain," he called, and Riza looked up at him.

"Sir?"

"We should go. Thank you for the coffee and your hospitality, Mrs. Elric," Roy nodded at Winry, who stood alongside Riza. "But I have another appointment outside of town."

"It was good to see you again," Riza embraced Winry and patted her stomach. "You need to tell me when this one comes along - I'll bet you five dollars it's a girl."

Winry laughed. "I'll take you up on that."

"Keep an eye on your dad for me, Yuriy," Roy saluted the young boy, who saluted back.

"Yes, sir!"

Edward scoffed.

"I'll warn you, he's a handful," Roy said.

"That's what momma says," replied Yuriy. Edward scoffed louder, and Winry cackled.

Roy and Riza walked out the front door, and while Riza turned to shoot the family a smile, Roy didn't look back as he waved.

"See you around, Fullmetal."

One year and three months later…

"Ugh, it's freezing out there!" complained sergeant Fuery, hanging his coat up to to dry on the rack. He shook snow off a bundle of mail.

"A letter for you, Captain," he reported, dropping by Riza's desk.

"Thanks, sargeant." As he handed off the mail, Fuery caught sight of Roy Mustang in his office. Back turned to the door, he was leaning back in his chair with his feet propped on the desk, left fingers twirling through the telephone cable.

"How's the General doing? He's been holed in his office all day." Fuery stood on his toes to see into the window of Roy's office.

"Edward's new book arrived yesterday," Riza flipped over the envelope to see the name of the sender; she smiled. "He stayed up all last night reading it."

"Edward? Elric?" Fuery seemed surprised. He grinned. "Who woulda thought… Didn't peg him as a writer. He sure is full of surprises."

Riza opened the letter to find a five dollar bill, a picture of Winry Elric in the hospital holding a baby swaddled in pink, and a note: You win! Sarah Nina Elric congratulates you, and invites you to come and gloat over tea (or wine!) any time.

"He sure is," Riza said, still smiling at the photo. She wondered if Sarah would have her father's fiery golden eyes. She put the five dollars aside and resolved to use it to buy Sarah a gift. "Who knows? He's still got a lot left to do."

Fuery laughed as he returned to his work. "Nothing too dramatic, I hope."

If she listened closely, Riza could hear Roy talking on the telephone, voice muffled by the closed door of his office:

"Fullmetal… Congratulations on your certification… As a matter of fact, I was just reading it. Could use some work, but overall… don't interrupt, Elric. I was calling to ask if your wife would be interested in relocating her business to Central – there's a shortage of automail engineers here, and… No, not exactly. A job opened up, and I've pulled some strings for you… You can still stay at home with your kids, most of the year, but in the fall… Well, tell me, Elric, have you ever thought about becoming a professor?"

Riza stood with a smile, fetched her coat, and went out into the winter streets to buy Winry a congratulatory gift.