#I feel like the order of the homunculi’s like. ages are-

[fandoms-spamdom]

does thou have any headcannons? 👁v👁🎤 /nf

👁👁 maybe-

[the-catmans-offical-2]

I wanna ramble about Ed/Wrath (Wrathfull) so much so I'm gonna.

A lotta people I've met have been seeing Wrath as related to the Elric brothers bc of his relationship to Sloth - but I gotta say that I personally don't agree with this.

Yes, Wrath does later state in episode 47 (before killing Lust) that he's going to take everything Edward loves (even though he doesn't want Al, he doesn't want Winry, he doesn't want anything - except Ed's limbs/body and a maternal figure.) Yes, Wrath clings to Sloth, calls her mommy/mama and sees her as his genuine mother.

But you HAVE TO realize it's not reciprocated, and even then - a clear point shown with the homunculi - she's *not* Trisha. She is, but she isn't; She once was, but is no longer her. Just like how Lust is no longer that Ishbalan woman that Scar's older brother once loved, just like how Wrath is no longer that infant Izumi miscarried. The homunculi were ONCE human, ONCE those those people - but they aren't anymore. Anyway, back onto the topic at hand, Sloth doesn't feel any maternal love, she doesn't allow herself to express it nor feel it; A huge part of her character is being apathetic, is changing herself and not allowing herself to chase the frivolous dream of being who she once was - which was a loving mother.

Sure, she let's Wrath hang off her and depend on her - but that's probably to help keep him in check so he'll listen better to Dante and whatnot, because she can easily ACT maternal, but not express it.

So yeah, that's my clarification. Ed and Wrath (And Wrath and Al) aren't related in anyway (even if Wrath did say "she was your mama too", in ep 48 after Sloth was killed and Al was kidnapped).

Also, as an additional clarification - yes, as I've posted before, I do genuinely think that Wrath ages. So in CoS he'd of been 17-18, and in the end of 03 he'd be 14-15. (Ed is 18 in CoS, and 15-16 at the end of 03.)

NOW, with all of that out of the way, here's why I ship this ship; And why I think I may be one of the only people that ship it.

THEIR FUCKING RIVALRY IS AMAZING; This may honestly be one of the only ships I ship that involves them being straight up rivals. They hate each other (or so they think?) - Wrath wants to deprive Ed of his limbs, while Ed just wants his limbs back and deprive Wrath of his (temporarily.)

They're two sides of the same coin, their goals are similar - to regain or gain human body parts in order to complete their individual goals; They both yearn for maternal love, they both are just kids.

But unlike Ed, Wrath is playful and childish - Ed had to grow up fast in order to survive and take care of his brother.

But unlike Wrath, Ed isn't as carefree and trusting to the world.

I dunno, they're just so UGH they make me sick.

Ed clearly is unsure of how he feels about Wrath - at first he's jumping on him and fighting him for answers, being aggressive and trying to kill him, and then he seems to just give up on that; He let's Wrath throw him around, punch him and strangle him. He let's Wrath scream and yell, and cry. He even catches Wrath and gives him a look over after Envy kicks him in the warehouse!! AND on top of that, his reaction to Wrath's death in CoS hits me HARD.

In this scene, I'll maybe get the specific translation later, Ed remarks about how he's surprised that Al got out of the underground city - and Al replies that Wrath showed him the way out, to which Edward questions by saying Wrath's name and Alphonse simply says that he used Wrath to open the Gate on his side. LOOK AT THE DESPAIR HE HAS; And yes, this could be just at the fact Al had to take a life - something Ed never wanted Al to have to do - but I see it as both. ESPECIALLY WHEN ED BRINGS UP WRATH LATER.

Meanwhile, Wrath seemed fearful of Ed at first - likely due to how he'd attack him at first and question him so aggressively - and then calm around him; Before reciprocating Ed's violent behavior. That violent behavior then turning to grief and despair, before Wrath seemed to become an ally for Ed a bit too late - hell, he was fucking SHOCKED when Ed died.

In this scene he only said "he's.. Dead" in the English dub - and he sounded so sad :( Then in CoS, as we all know, he tells Alphonse that he doesn't want to see him sacrifice his life for Ed's again - and very likely doesn't ever want to see the reverse again! I don't think Wrath was solely upset about Sloth during the whole four/three years before CoS took place - especially since he begins to miss Izumi - I think he was absolutely fucked up about Ed. ESPECIALLY SINCE he and Rosé were the last to see Ed alive, they didn't try to stop him, Wrath couldn't bc he was down two limbs and Rosé had to get her baby out of there and Wrath - it must of broken their hearts :(

But yeah! I ship them, and I have never seen any fanart of Ed and Wrath being shipped together, never seen any fanfics - and this really, really surprised me ngl.

If anyone ever does see ship content of them please lmk!! It'd be very much appreciated, I will go insane.

Uhh, that's all I gotta say ngl. If anyone has any questions just ask, my ask box is always open.

[loremaster]

oh yeah. so i’ve been rewatching a playthrough of rain code with my partner, and this line from vivia’s second gumshoe gab really got me:

now, it’s implied that all the gumshoe gabs take place before chapter 1… so i wonder… given what happens in the story and to whom… has vivia changed his tune about this at all?

of course there’s a lot to read into with this scene, vivia’s being coy about the idea that he is immortal (which, I wondered the same thing as yuma for the same reason in the beginning), being his usual secretive self. it’s also clear he’s thought about this hypothetical a lot, what you would do if you lived forever, and how it’d all eventually lead back to craving death in the end

we now know that vivia is not immortal, he’s just extremely fixated on death for other (understandable) reasons. he is absolutely able to die and kinda… lives his life on that edge, however long it may end up being. but even though ghosts, spirits, and the afterlife have been part of his reality for his whole life… immortality has not

it sounds like it’s straight out of a story. a fantastical idea that could only be real in someone’s made-up world. romantic, not in a relationship sense but in a thoughtful, poetic sense. for vivia, someone who craves (eventual) death, the idea of craving a death you can never have, that yearning… of course it’s very romantic. it makes one’s heart flutter, the thought of feeling anything that strongly… forever.

to him at this point, it’s a fantasy. it’s a story. it’s fictional. an idea to mull around in his overactive head, yet another escape from reality.

but as we find out later… here? it’s absolutely real. it’s real and it’s everywhere and it’s everyone.

when does that fantastical yearning for death cease to become romantic and instead become horrifying?

it’s only been three years since the people of kanai ward were replaced with immortal doppelgängers, so we don’t really know for sure… will they still die of old age? of sickness? or, if left unchecked, will an imperfect homunculus go on to live forever?

they can die, sure. but not in the way that vivia is so intimately familiar with. the homunculi leave no ghosts behind, instead their bodies keep walking - forever, while their minds remain shut down. it’s unclear really but it seems as if their spirits are trapped within their bodies but unable to control them. to die without being able to move on to any sort of afterlife is the exact opposite of what vivia yearns for. his whole life, he’s been connected to this other world, to people who have moved on from his life to that world, and one day wishes to join them there. but being held in this interminable jail between either world must be hell to him. too terrifying to be called romantic… and yet

we still have to talk about yakou.

yeah that’s right, you all thought it, this is why you came here to read this post

of course with vivia being as secretive as he is, it’s hard to say definitively whether his feelings for yakou are romantic in the relationship sense… (i personally do believe so, i’m going to cling to whatever scraps of queerness i can get) but they absolutely for sure are in the poetic sense. yakou was able to help vivia back up from his lowest point and give him something - and someone - to live for. gave him a place to call home. sounds like it’s straight out of a story.

and yet after inspiring vivia to stop chasing death, he immediately resigns himself to his own as soon as he gets that letter, in order to reunite with his wife.

yakou, as an imperfect homunculus who has died (through his own machinations), is now trapped in that zombie hellscape. no ghost, no spirit, no rest for the dead. he is, at least according to vivia’s definition of it, Unable To Die. …sounds like it’s straight out of a story…

yakou’s body is just a shambling husk now. and even with a potential cure for zombified brain cells thanks to his wife… what next? that still doesn’t solve the immortality problem. he’s still gatekept from the everlasting peace and quiet of the afterlife. he’s still separated from his beloved. he’s still Unable To Die. and in his current state he’s even unable to form enough semblance of thought to yearn for his own death.

so vivia has to do the yearning for him.

how romantic.

[xenosaurus]

I have a page for my worldbuilding projects that’s a huge WIP, but in the mean time, here’s a list of the ones I can remember off the top of my head!  I’ve done my best to split these by genre, although some obviously fit in multiple categories. You can also browse through my "original stuff" tag for things that haven't made it as far as a concrete project, if you can tolerate the mess.

UPDATE: Tumblr changed their tag system, so I had to fix the links.  They SHOULD be working, but chronological links don’t cooperate with mobile, so I’ve made them general links.  Please add /chrono to the url if you can, a few of these are very weird out of order (looking at you, Boar’s Blood).

Urban Fantasy

Witchmouth General; comedy about a hospital in a city that is mostly monsters and aliens

Freedom Over Gold; a comedy-drama about a trio of homunculi killing their masters

Immortality and Tax Fraud; a comedy about gods who possess people and the hosts that are still resisting them (slightly NSFW)

Mundane Motherhood; a slice of life/recovery story about a woman who adopts a kid who was being raised to fight demons

The Empty City; a drama about a limbo world entered in dreams by people who compete for “days”, which give them another day of life in the real world

The Mortal Forge; an adventure story about a group of cursed people putting together an expedition to find a legendary cure

Tethered; a slice of life story in a setting where everyone has a familiar, starring two teenagers who are “tethering” their familiars, allowing them to become more physical and sentient

Fallen Angels in YOUR Area!; a comedy about a group of angels who are banished to earth for gaining too much individuality

Arlan Kingslayer; a comedy about classic high fantasy book characters being brought to the real world and not wanting to leave

High Fantasy

Boar’s Blood; an adventure story about a magical society built on the grave of an undead dragon that is rapidly falling apart (NSFW)

The Phoenix Bride; an adventure story/romance about a woman exploring an ever-expanding magical tower to confess her feelings to the woman who created it

God Hunters; technically closer to magical steampunk, an all-women drama about monster hunters (NSFW)

Scales and Bonedust; in a setting where some humans live in dwellings draped over the backs of dragons, a man and a dragonling try to find their way home after their whole community is killed

Rabbitheart; a fairy tale of sorts about a young jester (and would-be sorceress) trying to reclaim her familiar to earn a princess' hand in marriage, with a large section of backstory about the setting's version of Arthurian lore

The Mayfly; a dark fantasy about a mortal half-elf prince learning the truth of elven immortality

Whalefall; merfolk dark fantasy about a "bloodsalt knight" (a soldier who bites themselves to draw attacking predators to the blood and away from their school) who is separated from her people

Mark the End; trope manipulation on 'everyone grows up and has babies' endings where the children are the reborn god-monsters their guardians fought as teenagers. heavy on monster lore and character drama

Vampire Prince Walter; a romantic comedy about childhood sweethearts (who have since become a vampire and a werewolf) being arranged to marry each other... as long as their fathers don't find out they like each other too much to spy on the other.

Science Fiction

New Apocalyptia; a comedy about a world where all movie apocalypses happened at once (slightly NSFW)

Salt Water; an adventure story about a group trying to reach the bottom of their world’s incredibly deadly oceans, also mermaids and surfing as a death sport

Peppermint Circuits; a gay love story set in a world where everyone has a chip in their brain to influence their behavior (slightly NSFW)

Spycaller; a murder mystery about humans who interact with the intergalactic community from within mech suits

Superheroes

Superfish; a traditional coming of age superhero story about an LGBT group for college-aged sidekicks

Isaac is Okay; a very gentle story about a timetraveling superhero that traps himself in the past to raise his younger self away from their abusive father

Villain Risk; a superhero drama about an illegal hero team being arrested, told after the fact by a social worker, a kid in juvenile detention, and a shapeshifter who killed a cop and stole his life

Fate and Switch; a soulmate au fakeout about psychically linked superheroes who have been brainwashed, and their partners’ attempts to find them

Tooth and Nail; a superhero/kaiju mashup about bioengineered superheroes fighting monsters, and the protagonist’s attempts to protect his new apprentice from the horrors of their work

You Can Keep the Mask On; a superhero story intended to be told through sexual encounters between characters, obviously (very NSFW)

Overpowered; a comedy about a city's extremely, well, overpowered supervillains

Abelsons; a superhero story focusing on the "support" members, such as the people who make costumes and the medics

Bonus Individual Posts

that one about the destiny orphanage that one about the silkworm aliens

[beremy-from-trigun]

(more about the fma and trigun combination hehe.. im just gonna start tagging it as fullmetal trigun. i might do like designs or smth since thats more my strong suit than writing stuff..)

was thinking more on the roles of the deadly sins with the shift of having the characters from trigun instead and came up with a loose list (under the keep reading) of who i personally think would align best with each of the sins (with how they are portrayed in both 2003 and brotherhood!) if u have a different opinion or take lemme know :3!

firstly with the sin of pride, i struggled to place one specific person in this role as a lot of characters have the theme of pride, so i considered then instead to focus on how pride acts as a sort of leader (literally for 2003 as pride is king bradley, and then by age as pride in brotherhood is the first homunculi after father (who in this case would be knives)) which then led to me assigning legato bluesummers as the sin of pride. perhaps in this case it would less be about his own personal pride, but instead about his pride of being someone who is so close to knives to the point he is trusted with control of the gung ho guns.

for the sin of wrath, i immediately had the idea of putting elendira the crimsonnail in this role as she is a wrathful person by nature; she is repeatedly seen as being the one who punishes the gung ho guns who try to betray the order and also keeping them in line in general as the strongest gung ho gun, and similarly in her always holding her wrath in (im thinking of that one scene where she throws a glass of water at legato lmao) this would be most in line with the portrayal of wrath in brotherhood though, as that is king bradley who is portrayed as a methodical man who has anger always lingering underneath a thin veil. it would also place elendira in a similiar place bradley holds in brotherhood, as he is one that has higher status. than other homunculi.

for the sin of envy, i thought zazie the beast fit best for that role when taking into consideration the role envy plays in the story of 2003 and brotherhood. i dont really have much for this one asides from the similar powers between the two hehe.

for the sin of lust, i wanted to put a character who dies in the story fairly early so it has a similiar impact that lust had in the series of leaving the homunculi without their minor leader. so i was split between dominique the cyclops and midvalley the hornfreak, but ultimately i went with midvalley since he was shown to have a higher status than other gung ho guns in the 98 anime and the manga (i also think its just funny to put the man named hornfreak as the role of lust)

for the sin of sloth, i decided to then place dominique the cyclops in order to line up more with the role sloth plays in the 2003 series. sloth in that series more acts as a supporting role to king bradley, and i can see her maybe doing that for legato bluesummers (we really didnt see enough of dominique to say much about her character though.) i feel the characters in sloth and lust could be changed interchangebly though as 98 midvalley does play a supporting role for legato in the anime, but he does not play that role really in the manga. perhaps itd be fun to instead create a new character though, maybe putting a distorted version of rem in this role instead as in 2003 sloth is the aftermath of the failed revival of ed and al’s mother.

for the sin of gluttony, i decided to place livio the doublefang/razlo the tripun. i feel this one would most likely be a divergance from how fma portrays gluttony, instead dipping more into how greed is portrayed with the craving/hunger for power and strength. livio is repeatedly seen craving strength and in general power in order to escape the trauma he has been through and also to just have a place he can belong (with that being belonging in the eye of michael), with the manga having the flashback of him training to the point he is puking and passing out, and tristamp portraying it as a choice of him wanting to have the same strength as wolfwood. additionally, when considering the role gluttony places in 2003 and brotherhood, he acts as a force that isn’t necessarily for or against the protagonists, but instead he is there simply because it is where he belongs (and who has made him).

finally, this brings us to the sin of greed, which i have decided to put nicholas d wolfwood. this was my immediate thought from the beginning, as greed in brotherhood is portrayed as being a force that always ultimately betrays the order of the homunculi due to his greed. specifically, wolfwood would end up in the role that greedling plays, with chapel from ‘98 being the initial greed seen. this also plays into the role wolfwood has in the series, as it is a greedy action to take the life of another as you are depriving that other of their chance at a happy life in order keep your own life. in a way, wolfwoods final character arc is overcoming that greed/guilt by self sacrificing for livio in order to give livio that chance at a happy life instead of taking it for himself.

also, in this au, vash would be in the role of hohenheim, and knives would be in the role of father, as previously stated. i was thinking on who would be the role of ed and al, as i dont think i would neccesarily want it to be the father and sons dynamic. so instead i think it would more be the dynamic of meryl being ed and milly being al, where they find the writings about this great figure (vash) and try to find him for some reason i have not thought of (maybe for the military lmao, the insurance agency would most likely instead be the military and maybe some mishmashing would take place and the insurance agency would actually have relevancy in the plot of trigun??? who knows. i need to think more)

[talldapple]

so about that cod x 7 deadly sins thing >:3

hdjsahdksks yes. Now that I’ve had time to sleep on it, I’ve had ideas.

For everyone else, we briefly talked about 141 as the 7 homunculi from Fullmetal Alchemist. I’ll go in order that you see them in the show. This is all coming from the perspective of a timeline in which Father is never found out?? But never wins?? I guess?? idk man. im just having thoughts. but now writing this out makes me wanna make them all state alchemists...

Later... Later...

Gluttony: Soap

Man's got a voracious appetite. Soap’s got the bottomless stomach and is hungry all the time, but to curb it, he's got an oral fixation in this au. (I love putting that on him) Constantly has something in his mouth: a lollipop, a cigarette, Ghost, Roach, a gag, or a toothpick. As usual, he sticks around with Ghost and Roach a majority of the time.

Lust: Ghost

👏 give 👏 me 👏 Ghost 👏 in 👏 a 👏 deep 👏 v 👏 neck👏 please 👏 and 👏 thank 👏 you 👏 Seducing men and women left and right. Tight clothes. I feel like instead of the extendable finger knives, they can detach and become actual knives. Like the ones Huges uses. Love the idea of Ghost being the embodiment of lust but being at least a little modest with his face and covering it 24/7.

Envy: Roach

Shapeshifting out the wazoo. We don't know what this man looks like and he loves to cause chaos.

Greed: Alejandro

Obvs I make the protective man the protective man. Rudy would def be a part of the chimeras. Maybe like that snake chimera? Either way, Ale would def be the rebel of the homunculi like usual and just keep his little gang to himself.

Sloth: Alex

Unfortunately, I don't have much justification for this one. I needed someone to fill Sloth and Alex seemed appropriate. Instead of the heavy chains around his wrists, both of his legs are heavy weights.

Wrath: Price

Price in an eyepatch. Enough said. I rest my case. jkjkjk Mans was born to take a leadership role. It even makes sense that he would willingly sign up for the trials to become Wrath.

Pride: Gaz

Little shadow man. Fits perfectly into place as Price's adopted son. Powerful af. Would be aged up to at least a teen in this au. Uses his shadows regularly to just move around the Fuhrer's mansion to fuck with the staff there. If capable, sadistic little shit (affectionate).

Bonus Father: Laswell

Someone's gotta be in charge. That and imagining Laswell in the draping white sheets makes me even more of a lesbian than I already am. All Powerful and Sexy. Just like how I like my women.

[cantillat-moved]

@naive-petals Not how things realistically go but for Romani how would he have reacted if Violet joined chaldea at 6 instead of not aging?

tw because this might be really upsetting

In the world of Type-Moon and the Nasuverse at large there is a lot of inhumane things happening all the time. Mash is a design baby, someone who was carefully "bred" in order to perform a function and had their age accelerated - she was supposed to be a tool to become a demi-Servant even if it had never been successful before. Homunculi are also very common and they also have their growth accelerated, cases like Illya are actually very uncommon: Iri from Fate/Zero was actually "born" an adult and had Illya when she was one year old ; Mordred was actually seven years old when they joined the Round Table. Both design babies and homunculi have shorter life spams, in the Fate route that Illya survives she will die at age 21. It is never stated Mash's true age but I don't think it would be farfetched to say some magecraft shenanigans were afoot. So it doesn't matter how Romani feels about certain things, and as an observer he had always been dethatched from humanity. It isn't a decision that he can make the call, it was always Marisbury's decision no matter what -- he could make recommendations, but he wouldn't interfere. It would fall to Olga Marie to decide to rescind the permission, but he wouldn't interfere. The emotions had never been part of any decision progress. In that sense, you may say he is heartless and cruel. He cares deeply about Fujimaru, Mash and everyone, but it is very hard for him to be swayed by emotions like everyone else.

The too long, didn't read: he wouldn't react. It isn't something he would have a say. If Marisbury wants to employ a 6 year old, he would work with that. That's all.

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Chapter Nine: Pan Pt. 4

Envy took a pause for the moment, realizing this was the first time that Dolly had mentioned her abandonment to them. They could care less about the sentimentality about humanity or whatever the hell this Oscar was, but there was one thing that confused Envy. Why wasn’t there the bitter hatred towards the ones that abandoned Dolly in the first place? Didn’t Dolly want revenge for what they’ve done towards her? Shouldn’t that be the same mutual response to abandonment? It made Envy feel a sense of nausea afterwards, thinking about the lack of bitter hatred or longing for revenge.

 “Is everything alright?” Dolly asked, getting a bit concerned by the length of the pause.

 “You’re a bit of a freak, you know that?” Envy finally responded, Dolly raising an eyebrow at  the response.

 “Well I certainly do my very best to be the freakiest of freaks out there, so thanks.” Dolly said in a cheery tone, deciding to just roll with the casual insult.

 “Whatever, look, I’ll let you continue looking at the museum on your own. I need to do something quickly anyways.” Envy relented, clearly they weren’t going to get the same response as the Fullmetal Pipsqueak.

 Dolly watched as Envy left so abruptly and was left to wonder if it was something she said. Hesitantly, Dolly went along with looking at the exhibit while Envy went off to do whatever horrible homunculus thing they’re up to. Horrible things were in fact brewing, but not with the rage fueled homunculus. No, a small grandmotherly looking old woman had been visiting the museum out of pure coincidence when she noticed her lately distracted offspring in disguise at the special exhibit. Initially, Dante was going to have a private chat with Envy, however, that changed upon noticing some girl she wasn’t made aware of, a wrinkled scowl forming on Dante’s face. Creeping closer like the aged predator she was, Dante made her way towards Dolly. Dolly froze a bit when she smelled that strong odor of human decay and she slowly started making her way out of the special exhibit, making sure it looked like she was still touring it. A small smirk that could’ve passed as a gentle smile was forming on Dante’s face, she had always enjoyed a good hunt.

 A silent chase had commenced, the museum goers not noticing the event going on. Anytime Dante drew too close, Dolly would dart over to the next station. It was something Dante had anticipated though, Dolly was getting closer to the exhibit exit which would lead to the darkened halls of the minerals and fossils exhibit. This hall was narrow and hard to truly maneuver, making an attempted escape near impossible. It was like leading a lamb to the slaughter in Dante’s aged eyes. Just two more installations away from the exit and Dante would get her way. Dante kept playing her card, forcing Dolly to dodge from the last two remaining stations before ultimately forcing Dolly to open and walk into the minerals and fossils exhibit. Gripping the handle of the door with her wrinkled vulture-like talons called hands, Dante grinned in a sickening manner as she opened the door to the next exhibit, expecting Dolly to be there for an easy confrontation. 

 There was no one there as Dante entered, her expression starting with surprise before blooming into one of annoyance that her target somehow slipped away. Taking in a breath, Dante continued through the minerals and fossils as if the chase hadn’t even happened. This would have to be a long term game, Dante did have the means of doing so and let her plan a better punishment by the end of this game. First though, Dante would need to give an order or two for one of the homunculi to be delivered and a body to steal. Meanwhile, at the beginning of the special exhibit, Dolly reappeared after the emergency teleport. It was hard to believe that horrendous corpse lady had attempted to have a confrontation in a museum of all places in Dolly’s mind. Heresy and sacrilege were the first two words that popped into Dolly’s mind over the whole situation. Definitely, a fight will have to happen on better grounds rather than a museum or a library. Collecting herself after that brief encounter, Dolly waited a bit for Envy to return as she hung around the mummies for a bit.

 Making their way back to where they last left Dolly, Envy was hastily getting away from the gift shop after committing theft. To put simply, it would be an indignity to throw cash away in a dusty dump and if Envy wanted something, they were going to get it. The journal and a keychain tucked away under their moth-eaten argyle vest, Envy unwittingly walked past Dante as she went to exit the museum, glowering a bit at her offspring before disappearing into the crowd. It didn’t take long for Envy to see Dolly at the entrance of the special exhibit, surprised that she had finished it so soon.

 “You’re finished early, what happened? Did you get bored already?” Envy asked in a taunting manner, though this was concerning even for the heinous little sadist.

 “I’m alright, just had a bit of a creepy encounter is all.” Dolly explained, wanting to not dwell too much on the incident.

 “What happened?” Envy nearly growled upon hearing that, giving off the exact same tension as before with the Greed incident. “Well this really creepy old woman was following me a bit, but I managed to escape her.” Dolly said, looking concerned with the sudden change in demeanor. 

 “And now we’re leaving the museum.” Envy decided, not needing to think much after hearing the ‘creepy old lady’ bit.

 No protests were had as Envy grabbed onto Dolly’s wrist and started to haul their way back to the entry point. In the long time Envy had been around, this was truly the first time they had felt fear. What scared Envy most, Dante hadn’t even tried to pursue after her ‘target’ slipped away from her gnarled talons. There was a chance that it was a different old woman, but, in the back of Envy’s mind, it was likely Dante and that wasn’t good news. Not wasting time, Envy shoved Dolly through the entry to the sewer before closing the door behind. The tense silence lingered for a bit, partially on Dolly’s end to let Envy calm down and on Envy’s end to rationalize what just occurred. Ten minutes passed as they stood in the sewers before Dolly decided to break the silence. “Envy, what happened back up there?” Dolly asked, concerned about the reaction and the sudden exit. “Okay Pipsqueak, listen to me carefully. That old woman could’ve been Dante, she sometimes comes to the museum to reminisce. I didn’t even expect Dante to be there since she had visited last week. You’re going to have to stay in the complex for a while, at least until Dante swaps out bodies. By then I’ll introduce you to her so at least she could understand you’re a homunculus.” Envy finally said, breaking their silence after thinking about the scenario. “Wait, you’re telling me she was shopping for bodies like a hermit crab hunts for a new shell?” Dolly was now pretty disgusted with the corpse lady. “Again, a weird way to connect things, but yeah, Dante is like a hermit crab looking for a new shell.” Envy started relaxing a little, knowing Dolly was still able to make weird analogies.

 “It’ll be alright, we got out of the museum and plus, she likely didn’t know you were there.” Dolly incorrectly said.

 “At least you’re optimistic about this near disaster encounter. Come on, we’ll pick up something on the way back.” Envy said as they started to lead Dolly through the sewer once more. “Sure, what should we pick up?” Dolly asked as she began to follow Envy once more. “I’m thinking of getting a blackberry mead.” Envy answered, subconsciously letting the past come through as a craving.

 As they went on, Envy slipped something into Dolly’s hand, a keychain of the jade plate with the little angst pickle creature on it. Dolly smiled warmly and thanked Envy for the gift, not knowing it was pretty much shoplifted. Up above at the apartment complex, Lust had managed to come to terms that her life had indeed been turned upside down and made peace with the horrible clay abomination when there was a knock on the door. Silently, Lust instructed Dorian to hide as she went to answer the door with Sloth standing there with a crate of the requested goods in hand. Relief was the first thing on Lust’s face as it was just a simple exchange as she accepted the crate and handed Sloth her cookie tin. The things they wanted were all there, the wines, the luxury snacks, bathing supplies, the Kirsch, and oddly enough, a lovely floral arrangement in a rather expensive looking vase. Not thinking too much of it, Lust placed the arrangement under the infamous wall art as she went about sorting the items out. The arrangement stood proudly on display, hiding its little secret compartment as a small recording device started its mission.

=======================================================================

 The ride to Dublith was long and boring, being able to have a solo run without a mandatory babysitter had been one of a mixed blessing. Edward sighed as he just watched the passing landscapes go by, often catching glimpses of Alphonse slipping some of the leftover donuts into his chest cavity. An eyebrow was raised when the sounds of something alive rustling inside of Alphonse caught Edward’s attention. Sitting straight up and figuring it was another stray cat situation, Edward leaned towards Alphonse’s chest.

“Al, you know we can’t keep cats and you also know cats are obligate carnivores. Those donuts can’t be good for the…” Edward said as he opened the chest, only to be greeted by the little red clay lion sloppily devouring donuts.

“Meow~” Said Ernest in a raspy adult man’s voice as he posed a bit in front of Edward, bits of donut dripping from his mouth.

“THAT IS NOT A CAT WHAT THE HELL AL!?” Edward yelled out in shock at a talking clay construct that had a clear personality problem.

“But Ed, he’s funny and nice! Ernest just wanted to come along with us.” Alphonse attempted to reason with his Brother about keeping a hideous crime against nature.

“Yeah Ed, I’m funny and nice!” Ernest said in a way that would’ve been befitting of the big bad wolf in front of the three little pigs, trying to get into their home.

“Alphonse, we are not keeping…whatever the hell that thing is!” Edward said, scrambling away from the mockery of alchemy.

“Hey now Edward, I’m a friend. You can trust me to be of absolute use to you and your unique little brother. I only accept payments in donuts though.” Ernest smoothly said with that raspy voice.

“Seriously, you’re going to ask me, a sixteen year old, to pay you in donuts?” Edward asked unamused by the already surreal moment.

“Well yeah, I mean I can’t ask you to buy me cigars.” Ernest reasoned in his own defense.

“Okay that’s a good point there.” Edward had to agree that the donuts were the lesser evil than having to pay in cigars.

“So, what do you say, Edward? Do we have a bargain?” Ernest purred a bit as he held out his horrid amalgamated hand paw to Edward to shake.

Edward took his time to consider the offer, which was obviously in Ernest’s favor since he hadn’t once mentioned Edward’s size and correctly guessed that Alphonse was the younger brother. Ernest in the meantime waited patiently, afterall, he would still be in a win-win sort of situation either way. All Ernest would need to do for the time being was to play along with the two Elric brothers until he could find the perfect place to settle down in and escape from them in the dead of night. In the meantime, Ernest would get protection, a means of travel, and free food. Plus, who would go after teenagers? It was a perfect failsafe plan in Ernest’s mind as Edward decided to shake the clay hand of Ernest.

“Okay, fine, you have a deal, but the deal will be off if you call me short or little.” Edward said as he made eye contact with Ernest who in turn shaked Edward’s hand.

“Fair, I’m a little guy myself, so I don’t take too fondly of being called that either and ugly, I don’t like being called ugly.” Ernest ‘agreed’ to the verbal contract with his own terms.

The train pulled up to the station in Dublith, Edward carefully closing Alphonse’s chest plate and grabbing his suitcase in the other. It’ll be an awkward enough time with their teacher, Izumi, to bring the bad news that her feral homunculus child had joined the other homunculi that have been plaguing him and his brother for way too long of a time. Now they would have to covertly keep the little clay monster Alphonse found hidden during the visit. In the background, near the station, Greed and his chimeras watched as the Elrics entered town, Greed having recovered from the truck from hell ordeal gave a sharp tooth grin. It was about time that he should make the Elrics aware of this homunculus’s existence and find out the secret to Alphonse’s armored body.

[aquilaofarkham]

title: mishpachah rating: T+ word count: 3,085 summary: Five years after rebuilding the manor—and the birth of a new Belmont into the world—Trevor decides to share an old recipe with his newfound family.

For @fibulaa 💛  Thanks so much for commissioning me!

READ HERE

The first bread Trevor Belmont ate while living his newly orphaned vagabond life was so dry it cut at the inner walls of his throat. He swallowed each bite with grimace after grimace, knowing that despite the pain, the already hardened child of thirteen could stave off starvation for a little while longer. Until he tasted the faintest tinge of copper on his ruined tongue.

Putting those years far behind, he now stands in front of a wooden counter, blurry eyed and with a yawn reminiscent of a sun drunk cat. It seems clean at first glance but in every corner Trevor notices fragments of past meals which he tried wiping away once they were finished and placed on a more pristine table meant for family. Bits of salt, half minced vegetables, and crumbs of bread much softer than the ones belonging to a later childhood he would rather forget. This kitchen, warm in its early morning sunlight, was the final instalment of the manor, newly risen from the ashes. Or rather, simply rebuilt thanks to the calloused, blistered, and splintered hands. No more ruined stone, no more fire blackened beams holding together little less than an architectural skeleton. The somewhat mirror image of Trevor’s lost home has been faring better than the castle. Too many memories, fresh, ranging from bitter to incomprehensible.

Slowly, he grows conscious of his surroundings and his own self. A continuing habit of being the first to wake not just in this manor hold but in life. Reluctantly opening his eyes prior to dawn covering the landscape while still traveling alone only to drag a pair of worn boots back along a similar muddy road. Trevor never wanted to wake up before the sun. He just couldn’t bear to stay in the same place for much longer whether due to the laundry list of dangers or more often than not, his newfound hatred of whichever backwater hamlet he unfortunately found himself in.

He’s happy to wake up early. Happy to never feel a need to leave or escape, happy to know that lack of food replaced with pints of liquid pleasure mixed with death will never plague him again. Happy to prepare breakfast in a hot iron pot over a well stoked fire. What he thought he lost forever has come back, along with new additions to the family he’s carved out.

Another presence bounds her way into the kitchen and ambushes Trevor from behind. He’s not old—not yet, he’ll give it time—but years of drinking have made their permanent stay, dulling the more acute senses. Makes it easier for a five-year-old to catch him off guard. Trevor’s eyes bolt open as tiny arms hold him in a tight cage.

“Good morning, papa!”

His ears ring at the sound of Mirele’s loud voice, but at least he won’t have to worry about nodding off. He stares down at the youngest Belmont who looks as though someone had split Trevor and Sypha straight down their centres into four pieces and sewed each differing half onto the other in order to create a new person. A homunculi of messy dark chocolate hair, bright eyes shining with blue ice, full rosy cheeks somehow conspicuously smeared with some sort of dirt or jam, and enough energy to wear out an electric powered jackrabbit. 

“How’s my little monster doing this morning?” Everything Trevor says is laced with his own personal touch of affection and Mirele loves it.

“Mama and papa are still asleep. Help me wake them up! Pleaseeee?”

This doesn’t surprise him; Sypha has always preferred to savour her last moments of sleep longer than normal and Alucard is… well, Alucard.

“Tell you what.” Trevor places a lid onto the simmering pot with a heavy clank. “While this heats up for our breakfast, we’ll go wake up those lazy bones.”

“Right!” Hand in smaller hand, the two make their way upstairs into the shadowy master bedchamber. Curtains drawn with only a sliver of light cutting its singular path across the floor and over two distinct lumps covered by blankets and furs. They seem conjoined, linked in each other’s arms, unaware that a third party has been missing for long enough. Mirele plunges into the room first, jumping onto the bed as all children do when parents refuse to join the land of the conscious. She playfully shoves and cuddles her way between the two bodies who sink deeper beneath the covers, lazily moaning like ghosts.

“Mama! Papa! Wake up! It’s time to get up!”

Trevor hopes that his tactic of throwing open the weighted curtains works in a more effective manner. Listening to the rising chorus of wordless protests coming from behind, he’s pleased with the results. “Never thought I would be the one setting a good example for our daughter.”

“Do not get cheeky, especially this early.” Sypha’s response spills out like running water. It’s clear her mind isn’t quite all there yet. But she can scoop Mirele into her arms, find every ticklish spot, and illicit giggles that only canines might hear. “At least we both know how to have fun, right my sweet?”

“Vampires… nocturnal…” A deeper, muffled voice emerges from under one of the pillows.

“Something you’d like to share with us, Alucard?” Trevor quips, amused at how the other father of the household can never seem to shake off his morning dishevelment. Perhaps sleeping in a coffin would help—a very large one so he doesn’t have to be alone. Alucard reluctantly removes the pillow as tangled heaps of gold fall over his face.

“Vampires are supposed to be nocturnal. Would you rather I burst into ashes upon contact with the sun? Think of our girls, Trevor.”

“We’ve all seen you in the sun before, it’s about as dangerous as a clove of garlic.”

“I have my own means of physical protection. Far beyond your measly human comprehension, love.”

“Personally, I’ve been able to comprehend you plenty.”

Mirele stares up at Sypha, her bushy brows furrowed. “What does… comp… sshhheshion mean?”

“It’s just another word your fathers use whenever either of them want to feel smart.” 

Alucard gives Sypha a gentle pinch on either side of her abdomen. “I thought you were on my side.”

“What about my side?” Trevor asks, excelling at the greatest strength he possesses—the ability to never take anything seriously, only when he must.

“I’m hungry,” Mirele speaks up. “Hungry and bored. Can we eat now?”

--

This life is not normal, but then again it is. It always has been for them. Normal once meant coming together because of violence, encroaching darkness, and some flimsy prophecy stringing them along one dead body at a time. A prophecy which never said what had to be done after they followed it to the hard earned letter. Perhaps that’s why Trevor, Sypha, and Alucard floundered afterwards. No instruction on how to live their upturned lives.

Fuck prophecy.

They made this life by their own standards and in accordance with their own desires. They loved how they wanted to love and no prophecy could have foreseen Mirele. How she calls for her father while both Trevor and Alucard turn their heads at the same exact second. How she quickly calms herself when presented with a bowl of warm oatmeal drowning in honey and wild fruits hand plucked from the surrounding forest. But it’s not enough. Nothing ever is for someone always growing, always wanting more from life at such a young age.

“Can I have bread?”

Trevor, half way through his bitter coffee, turns to Sypha then Alucard as all three parental figures exchange glances. They haven’t the heart to tell Mirele. No bread at the ready, only the necessary ingredients and a considerable amount of flour bags to blanket Enisala. There’s the option of making it themselves, yet it depends on a certain someone’s capacity for patience.

“How do you feel about baking our own?” Trevor’s voice wavers, which he tries to mask with his characteristic dry tone. It’s been a long time since he’s made bread. Then again, helping the manor cooks was a somewhat selfish endeavour as it meant extra servings for the baby of the Belmonts. Yet his proposal goes over well with Mirele, whose inherited eyes light up at the prospect of trying something new.

“I wanna make bread! Can we? Can we please?”

“When was the last time you baked anything, Trevor?” Alucard asks, genuinely curious and with a healthy dose of skepticism. “You still won’t tell us much about anything concerning your former life, let alone the sort of foods your family ate.”

Trevor feels a twinge in his gut—still better than a punch. His two lovers, even his daughter, they only know of his mother; a matriarch in her own right. They know her name, the monsters she killed, and not much else. Trevor’s excuses: he doesn’t remember anything about her, despite the fact that he does. He didn’t know her for very long or very well, so there’s no point in missing her. Trevor did know Sonia and he does miss her, sometimes more than he can handle. Then the easiest excuse: it’s just another self-preservation tactic.

Out of this inner reflection comes an idea. It breaks tradition in a way. For the Belmonts and other Jewish families, everything is passed down through the mother—recipes, forms of worship, blood memories, centuries old tactics of bruising one’s knuckles and temples. Trevor doesn’t think this slight deviation from his culture’s norm will make him any less of what he’s always been. Mirele will simply have to pick up where he left off when she’s grown.

He doesn’t want to think about that now. She’s only five after all. One lesson at a time. 

“Alright. Gather round, pupils. The bread we’re making isn’t just any bread. Forget everything you know and everything you’ve been taught because this will be the closest thing to heaven you’ll ever taste.”

“How dramatic…” Sypha mutters under her breath. Alucard joins her amusement with a subdued chuckle. 

“I believe you were partially his influence.”

Trevor knows how much trouble he’ll be in if he puts Mirele through the most agonizing cruelty of waiting a second longer than necessary. Fearful of her pint-sized wrath, he gives everyone the order to start gathering ingredients: flour, eggs, honey, and some indulgent herbs to make this particular bread something special. As much of a strategic leader in the kitchen as he is when the world is coming to an end. With everything spread out on the countertops, Trevor guides his family step by step through the only recipe he remembers. He calls this bread “challah”, which Mirele immediately strains her freshly green vocal chords, trying to pronounce the word exactly as her father does. She quickly gives up and focuses on mixing the ingredients with an intense look—almost to a fault as bits of sloppy dough fly out of the bowl. Good. This enthusiasm is what Trevor wants to see.

Kneaded and allowed time to rise, the next step is the most important. Trevor divides the dough into four halves, then again, and again until each participant has their own handful of raw unbaked strips. 

“We have to braid them?” Mirele asks following his explanation. 

“That’s right. It’s what makes this bread different from all the rest.”

“Just like when papa let’s me braid his pretty hair!”

Every pair of eyes turns to Alucard, whose smile widens in that way which causes his eyes to shut tightly. Fangs happily bared as he pulls Mirele into his flour and dough covered arms while she giggles in delight. After they all return to work, her loaf turns out the same way as the braids she gives to him—lopsided, uneven, lacking a few outsticking stray hairs, but filled with affection and genuine resolve.

Three loaves are placed into the oven, including a fourth crudely constructed but still adequately done piece. Mirele is now more willing to play the waiting game—so she claims. Sitting in front of the oven while staring directly into its insides, utterly fascinated, oblivious to her surroundings. Unaware that her three parents are whispering behind her back. Eventually, Sypha has to gently pull her away with her bottom dragging along the kitchen floor.

“How about you and I do something a little more interesting while your fathers keep watch over things.”

“But what about the c… the calla!”

“Don’t worry, they will look after it. And we are not going far, my sweet.”

“We’ll make sure nothing burns down.” Trevor assures, despite it being Sypha who usually revels in cinders and ashes, intentionally or not.

The two retreat down the corridor past diamond shaped stained windows and into one of the manor’s smaller libraries where the cabinets reach the high ceiling painted in deep blue hues. Scattered from corner to corner are constellations of stars and midnight clouds obscuring each phase of the moon. Once when Alucard found Mirele curiously asleep atop a number of pillows when she should have been in her own bed, it was his decision to paint the library in new colours. Sypha moves aside an entire shelf of thick volumes as though trying to find a carefully hidden switch that will lead them into a secret chamber. It’s what Mirele hopes but turns mildly disappointed when the books do not in fact magically shift to reveal a stone passageway. Her soured anticipation is only countered when Sypha places a box on the desk.

“Can you guess what’s inside?”

“Is it treasure?”

“Close! You are almost right.” Sypha opens the lid just as Pandora did except there are no horrors, no evils to be wrought upon humanity. Mirele peeks inside and her eyes shine with the glistening silver of trinkets, pendants, and talismans. She resists the innate urge to reach her hands, still white with flour, into the box only to briefly experience the sensation of holding one between her fingers. Even children know when something is sacred.

“These belonged to your grandparents. They used them for protection and strength. A long time ago, before you were born, their home burned down and everything was destroyed.”

“Papa’s home?”

Sypha nods, grateful that this story now has its happy ending, slight as it may be. “However, when your other father started building the manor we live in, he found this box trapped amongst all the rubble. It managed to survive.”

“What do they say?”

Mirele points to one pendant molded in the shape of a sword. Inscribed along the curve of its ash-riddled blade are the Hebrew names of angels which must have been muttered by Sonia or Gabriel. The longer Mirele stares, attempting to decipher yet another new language, the brighter her cheeks grow red with frustration. Her mother acts quick just as her eyes begin to water. 

“It’s alright if you don’t understand what any of them say.”

“I can learn! Please, mama? I promise I’ll study really hard!”

Sypha’s lips curl as Mirele continues her begging. Oh the mind of a child. How quickly it changes.

--

The kitchen feels hotter, wafting through the air. Enveloping the room and everything caught between its walls. Trevor stands by the oven, a thick cloth ready in his hand. It shouldn’t take much longer. At least there’s no stench of something burning. Almost makes him pine for the days of his family’s massive stone oven and how he would sneak around at night and pick out leftover morsels from inside like an insatiable mouse. Not unlike the actual beasts which he hunted throughout the hallways before moving onto larger prey typical of a Belmonts’ work—or as large as his own runtish body mass could handle.

Minutes of quiet pass, still eyeing the loaves with a keen gaze. Trevor’s concentration soon broken by the feeling of two arms wrapping around his softening yet still robust midsection. Slow and careful, until his back is pressed against an equally broad chest.

“Can I help you?” He asks as Alucard buries his face into the curvature of his shoulder blades.

“You’re already helping.” The dhampir, unchanging in his physical appearance (a revelation both Trevor and Sypha refuse to acknowledge for the time being), tightens his embrace.

“Something wrong?”

“No… I just enjoy feeling how much softer and warmer you’ve become.”

Trevor’s cheeks blush ever so pinker and not because of the oven’s heat. By now he should be used to Alucard’s sudden bouts of outward affection.

“You even smell better.”

There it is. Trevor thought he would be waiting forever to hear that little jab, though said with nothing but a good heart.

“That might be the herbs you’re smelling.”

Alucard shifts around so that the two of them are side by side, cheek to cheek, as he chuckles in Trevor’s ear. “Come here.”

He doesn’t offer a kiss, not where Trevor was expecting. Instead of his lips, Alucard singles out every patch of stray flour on his face, kissing, wiping, even licking them clean. Cheek, jawline, and nose. Trevor’s expression twists into a ticklish, surprisingly delighted facade. 

“You’re a half vampire, not a cat.”

“Better to clean you now than later.”

“Always so fucking odd…”

“You love it.”

Much to his lucky stars, Trevor manages one curse mere seconds before Sypha and Mirele return. They let their daughter speak at a breakneck speed neither one can fully comprehend—something about silver pieces and whether they can teach her a new language—until one series of questions finally sticks.

“Is the bread ready yet? Can we eat it now? Can we please?”

Trevor placates Mirele by revealing the fruits of their joint hard earned labour: four freshly baked and perfectly shined challah loaves each representative of whoever did the braiding. She bounces in her chair before simmering down to an excited tremble once Trevor warns her of how they need to cool. In order to make this more of a meal, he rummages about in search of two other beacons from his childhood. He’s rewarded with one of the few fresh apples they have left while Sypha, ever in tune with his inner thoughts, grabs another small pot of honey for him.

Trevor thanks her by gently running his palm across her lower abdomen, over the growing bump. He keeps it there for just a second longer, a subtle gesture of love noticed by Sypha. Fingertips intertwined with each other, they join Alucard and Mirele at the table as the midday sun shines golden through the windows.

[raionmimi]

I just had a random thought and accidentally came up with a theory about Medb out of the blue

Okay, so in Medb’s interlude, when she’s asked about whether or not she likes kids, she says “Not really,” and that she doesn’t like the idea of raising one. The thing is, despite her talking about birthing, she never outright mentions the fact that she had several children, not even the two kids that were played a much larger role in her legend. At some point, she realizes that you and her aren’t quite on the same page and reveals that her “giving birth” to soldiers is completely different to making an heir, something that she says she would only do with someone she could give her whole heart to

But Medb has never been given unadulterated love and in her voicelines she is insecure about what it means to give and receive love. Combined with the way she talks in her interlude, it almost sounds like she’s never actually had any children of her own, even though it’s a fact that she had several in her myths. I always chalked that up to Medb being summoned at young age (18~23 ish), before she had gotten married to Ailill, but that wouldn’t be right since she would’ve long since had her first born son and divorced Conchobar, leaving both in Ulster. My other thought was that they wanted to keep Medb marketable by not mentioning that she was a wife and mother, but she outright has no romantic interest in the player. So maybe that wasn’t actually the case?

Going back to her talking about her soldiers, it’s this interlude that she decides to reveal her ability to Guda in order to make herself more useful in battles. She pricks her finger to draw blood and is able to spawn an entire army, which is like instant homunculi. She used this ability in America a lot, and it was a huge factor in why she was able to steamroll everyone with Alter Cú’s help. 

So the obvious conclusion to draw is that all of Medb’s children were most likely homunculi, and this was an ability she had in life. She is a warrior queen, so naturally, she would choose to create soldiers, but she never said that she couldn't just create a homunculus baby, or even a child. Medb might even have the ability to not get pregnant if she doesn’t want to, and instead just created homunculi to appoint as an “heir” instead of dealing with pregnancy herself, as the only people who would really care for an heir would have been her past husbands. Her children are barely mentioned at all in her myths, and despite their magical circuits being amazing, Homunculi are known to have extremely short life spans

TL;DR: I kind of have a feeling that Medb never actually gave birth to any of her children, and chose to create homunculi from her blood instead. Whether she did this in secret or her past husbands asked her outright to do it is a discussion theory for another day

[shocotate]

My scans & scanlations

I’ll update this post as I scan and translate more things. Feel free to make suggestions if there’s something you’d like to see. For some reason the captions aren’t showing up on a few of the posts, but they should appear when viewed on the dashboard :)

Books

Character Guide

Front cover

Homunculus Divination personality test (untranslated, machine translation reblog by @imadetomorrowhappen​ here)

Perfect Guidebook 2

Traveler’s Guide - Dublith

The Homunculi’s ages

Perfect Guidebook 3

Order of birth (Homunculi)

Q&A 1: Do Homunculi need to eat or sleep?

Q&A 2: Selim’s appearance and age seems to change a little, can it transform?

Q&A 3: Have Sloth’s chains been attached to him since birth?

Q&A 4: What rude thing did Bradley do on the date with his wife?

Start of a Romance 4koma

Anime TV guidebooks

TV animation FMA official guidebooks - covers 1-4

Fullmetal Alchemist Cast Message – TV Animation Fullmetal Alchemist Official Guidebook 4 (Subpage)

Genga Collection

Cover art

Dust cover interior

Opening 2 Cut 016 - Photographs

Opening 2 Cut 018 - Lust and Gluttony

Opening 2 Cut 021 - Father

Episode 19 Cut 310 - Lust

Episode 53 Cut 198 - Roy

Episode 54 Cut 098 - Envy and Roy

Episode 61 Cut 282 - Pride

Misc.

Perfect guidebook 1 - Personality test (Viz english edition, ‘FMA Profiles’)

TV animation FMA Postcard book 2 - cover and three postcards

Zelda Minish Cap manga first page (colour)

Pokémon picture book covers (Ditto, Porygon, Cubone)

Anime

Reference art

Height charts (episodes 5 and 60)

Height charts (all Homunculi, episodes 5, 13, 52 and 60)

Central underground, Father’s room / Father’s chair and desk

Pride’s True Form

Ed (11) and Al (10)

Transmuted thing

Nina chimera (partial)

Scar (compilation)

Pride (obscured)

Lust (obscured)

Making Of booklets

Opening 1 Cut 017 - Riza

Hohenheim as a youngster

Limited Box DVD sketches

Envy’s 3D render (untranslated)

Playbacks (list)

Yahoo Auctions (subpage)

Fan Comics

Translated

Artificial Family segment 1

Artificial Family segment 2

Untranslated

Artificial Family assorted panels

Artificial Family, some panels with Envy

New Face assorted panels

Hawkeye Report / Minimum / Maximum covers

Hawkeye Report / Minimum / Maximum panels

Games

FMA Brotherhood PSP (Subpage)

Alchemist Code Alphonse voice

Alchemist Code Roy voice

Alchemist Code Riza voice

Alchemist Code King Bradley voice

Alchemist Code Envy voice

Alchemist Code Pride voice

Alchemist Code Lust voice

Alchemist Code Pride level 75 voices (translated)

DS Dengeki Bunkou ADV: Baccano! - Ending #44 (translated)

Misc.

Pride’s Morse Code (Raw)

Pride’s Morse Code (Viz)

Pride’s Morse Code (Fullmetal Edition)

Pride’s teeth

The Homunculi’s (almost) reverse colour spectrum

Ed’s rerecorded voice in episode 26

2 random mistakes in the Viz manga

They didn’t fix one

They fixed the other

Shoco asks the void

What town was Envy in before going to Liore?

Why did Father take such a long break on both the Crests of Blood and Homunculi after creating Lust?

If Pride stayed stuck in the dome, would the nationwide transmutation circle have killed him, too?

If Pride changes his clothes when he gets downstairs on his visits

Could Pride be damaged by lightning?

Why can Pride use his True voice in his container when Father cannot?

Were the Homunculi unaware they could be killed permanently until Lust died?

Why were the desert camels not afraid of Hohenheim?

Could Pride use Gluttony’s False Gate power after eating him?

Did Ed only manage to use his soul because he was bleeding?

Did Berthold Hawkeye invent ignition cloth, or did it exist already?

[anthropwashere]

our indestructible days ch 4

ch 1 | ch 2 | ch 3

Al time Al time

(also Mei is sick and tired of these motherfucking homunculi in these motherfucking teenagers)

=

Mei's gotten blood on the splintered ruin of his chest. Her small hands trace the rough edges of his damage with soft and hurting sounds. Alphonse lifts one hand to pass a thumb across her eyebrow, smearing the cut before it can spill into her eye.

"I'll be okay," he assures her. His body might be broken again, but that's nothing to be worried about. Pain has been an absence in him for a long time now, and here she is spilling over with it.

"Lay still!" She admonishes, then whimpers. She's small, smaller than Ed was when he was her age. She must have bones like a songbird’s; easily broken. "Y-you're going to fall apart even more if you aren't careful!"

"I'll be okay," he repeats. Maybe she'll hear him this time. "You need to get out of here. You're too hurt to fight anymore."

"So are you!"

He's not hurt, not really, and as long as the blood seal isn't damaged he'll be safe laying here until the battle's over. He's not sure if there's enough of him left for Ed to transmute without risk, but that's a concern for later. His armor rings with the furious rattle of nearby gunfire, the thunderous booming of mortars. Mei Chang is small and wholly human, and this isn't her fight at all.

"I'll be okay," he repeats again. There's nothing else he can tell her. He's always okay.

"If we're careful, Xiao Mei and I can—"

"Stop," he interrupts, not unkindly. "You're hurt and I don't have legs right now. I'm too big for you to carry."

Her dark eyes are shiny with pain but she still manages an impressive harrumph! "You doubt the strength of the Chang princess? I'll have to prove you wrong on the honor of—oh!"

"What?" She's gone rigid and breathless, hunching over him as she looks at something further off than he can strain to see. "What's wrong?"

"There... there's three of them again," she whispers. "Three homunculi."

"But—" Father's one of them, obviously. And Greed, him and Ling are out there fighting too. The third though, that can only be—

"It's definitely Pride," Mei confirms. She's slipped a hand into her sash, no doubt readying a fresh fistful of knives. Just in case. "But I can't see him anywhere. Can you?"

"No." The last place Al saw him was down in Father's throne room, a ribbon of shadow wrapped brutally tight around Ed's left arm. He strains to sit up, to get a better look, to see— "My brother—do you see him? Is he okay? Mei, please—"

"He's fine! Please don't exert yourself!" Her small hands touch his shoulder, trying to force him down again. He only knows because he happens to see her doing it in his peripheral. "Their Father attacked Edward, and your Teacher too, but the soldiers saved them both! I swear!"

Relief floods him, a tension that isn't exactly tension as he remembers it easing in him. It isn't relaxing, it isn't easing. It's like allowing himself to forget for a moment the enormous weight his small blood seal is carrying. He sinks back, ignoring the scrape and clatter of his pieces. "O-oh. Oh, thank goodness. Thank you. Where are they now?"

"Two soldiers took your Teacher elsewhere for a few minutes. She's fighting again now, and she seems to be doing fine. Edward ran toward, ah, Central Command?"

"Yeah," he confirms automatically, wondering why Ed would run away from the fight. It's not like Ed to run. Does he have a plan, maybe? Something he needs some distance for? Or a better angle? He can usually guess what Ed's thinking, but this is….

This doesn't make sense.

"I lost sight of him in the smoke." Mei hesitates, looking toward the western wing of Central Command that's still standing. "Alphonse, I'm sorry, but that's where I'm sensing Pride too."

It's an easy conclusion from there. "Oh, of course! Pride must have run from their fight, and Brother's making sure he doesn't get away!" Al's relieved laughter is nearly lost in another burst of firepower—literally, as the Colonel's taking point again, Lieutenant Hawkeye directing his attacks. Mei dips low as wind whips her braids wildly, her little hands white-knuckled on his sharp edges. The armor must be getting painfully hot with how close the Colonel's attacks have come. He desperately wishes he could get up and protect her, join in the fight again, something. But he's simply too broken now. 

It strikes him out of nowhere, how absurd everything's become. Barely a year ago his biggest concern had been getting his body and Ed's limbs back, and keeping a running list of tasty-sounding food to try once he could eat again. That all seems so long ago, now.

Mei stiffens, Xiao Mei snarling on her shoulder. "He's getting closer!"

Al doesn't have to ask who she means. Father hasn't moved from the center of the parade field, and Greed's made it clear which side of this fight he's on. "Get out of here! Before he sees you—"

Ed strides out of the thinning smoke, hands fisted at his sides and jaw stubbornly set, and the world makes sense again.

Al struggles to his elbows, wishing he could run, desperate to pull Ed into a brief but fervent hug. "Brother!"

"Look, he's fine," Ed drawls in a tone of voice that's distinctly other in a way Al couldn't describe if pressed, yet all the same dread knocks the joy clean out of him even before ink-black shadows rise, serpentine, behind Ed. When Ed looks down at them his yellow eyes are empty tunnels. Then his face shifts, the shadows twitch, and Ed's rushing to his side. "Are you crazy? He's not fine, he's in pieces! Al, hey, are you—"

One of Mei's knives appears in Ed's left shoulder like a magic trick, its pink ribbon fluttering. 

"Get away from him," she orders imperiously, on her feet with another three knives at the ready. Her face is a wax mask of pain, but her outstretched hand is steady.

Ed looks at her, not surprised but—resigned? He brings his right hand up to touch her knife, a ting of metal against metal. Belatedly, he winces. "...Jeez, Mei. You didn't have to do that."

All wrong. This is all wrong. Ed wouldn't act like this—wouldn't react like this. He'd holler hurt, curse up and down, insult Mei horribly. But he just stays kneeling, a curl of something like—like shame to his mouth. "Ed...?"

Ed's face shifts again, his right hand dropping like dead weight. Ed sneers. "Are you really so oblivious?" He reaches left-handed for Mei's knife, yanking it out without a flicker of pain on his face. Al doesn't see so much as a drop of blood before red light heals the wound like it never existed. The unmistakable crackle of a transmutation, and red light can only mean one thing. Another bizarre expression crawls across his face, settling on a far more familiar sneer. Ed's derision. Ed's disappointment. Ed's bitter laughter. "If this is a win in your book then it's no wonder your Promised Day has turned out to be such a shitshow." 

Ed's voice warps and warbles, gaining and losing an awful, malicious echo. Distantly, Al registers the familiar shapes of Teacher and Major Armstrong giving it their all against Father not so very far away. The outcome of today's battle seems, suddenly, wholly unimportant. "You...? Edward, you're—you're a homunculus?"

Ed's face softens as his hands hover over his armor. "Al—Alphonse. Hey. I'm sorry. I didn't—it wasn't like Ling, okay? Pride forced his Stone into me. I couldn't—I tried to fight him, but—" Ed takes a shivering breath, knocking his right hand's knuckles against the shrapnel of Al's chest. Ting. "Jeez. What even happened while we were down there?"

"He protected me," Mei pipes up, glaring fiercely.

Ed smiles. "Did he? I'm glad." He shivers again, shuttering his eyes. When he opens them again they've gone horribly flat, a mirror to Selim's cold cunning in all but the color, but his voice still sounds Ed-adjacent. "Can you keep an eye on him for me, Mei? There's no time to fix him now."

"I'm not sure I'd let you try even if there were," she retorts. "Not with one of those monsters inside you!"

Another shift of Ed's face, and then thick shadows splash inside Al's broken chest like waves on a beach, skirting his blood seal. He feels the barest brush of tiny claws scratching at the metal around it. It's all he can do to keep from crying out. "Foolish girl," the monster possessing Ed spits. "Do you really think so little of Edward Elric? He's fought me every step of the way. I've had to take a firm hand with his soul to get this far."

Pride gestures. Mei gasps, failing to smother it behind her bloody hands. For a moment Al thinks Pride's hurt her, sunk his shadows into her skin beyond where he can easily see, but she's not bleeding or writhing or anything like that. She's just—staring, horrified, at Ed. Al strains for a better look and feels the world stutter in terrible shock.

Ed has two legs again.

His left pant leg has been cut short, all the way up to his mid-thigh, and the entire leg is just... normal. There's a perfectly normal, flesh-and-bone leg where Al's become accustomed to seeing layered steel. There isn't even a trace of the thick scar tissue that's darkened Ed's thigh since his outfitting.

"He—he cut it off," Ed whispers. "To—stop me from—I mean, I—I kinda woke up, inside the—his Philosopher's Stone, or whatever, and he was.... I heard him and I looked out and he was… he’d killed—" Ed shudders again, gasping. Teeth split the black shadow curling at his knees, and Pride's voice echoes his. "What did you do, Pride? What did you do to them?!"

Al wants to grab hold of Ed, wants to shake sense and sanity into him again, but the shadows pooling inside his armor are circling even closer to his blood seal. Unbidden he finds himself thinking of stories he's read of sailors and pirates on the high seas, of shipwrecks and dark water and sleepless predators circling. He knows that if he moves now they'll all regret it. "E-Edward."

Ed snarls. After a tense few seconds the shadows pull back. "Sorry, sorry, I—I'm sorry." His exhale comes out loud and shaky as he drags his hands over his face. "I asked you a question, Pride." 

A pause. 

"Are you lying? If you are, I swear I'll—" 

A pause. 

"What about him? You think I'm gonna trust anything he says either?" 

A pause.

"Shut up, stop laughing. They went where?"

A final pause, and then Ed sighs heavily, glancing at the hole in the parade field they'd all come out of. "Fine. I'm holding you to that."

Did Greed and Ling ever speak like this? It's frightening, to see Ed clinging to control over his own body. Fresh explosions ring in his broken armor and Al forcibly puts his concerns aside. Ed's alive. That has to be enough, for now. "Pride?"

Ed twitches, his eyes going flat and cold. "What?"

"You—you could have killed Edward, but you didn't."

"Not for lack of trying."

How cruel. How indifferent. Al can't begin to understand this thing wearing his brother's face. He's not sure he even wants to try. "I don't think that's true. Promise me, please—"

Guttural screaming from shockingly nearby cuts him off. Dazzling red light fills his vision briefly; when it clears he catches sight of Teach and Major Armstrong again, scattered like autumn leaves. 

Ed swears, already on his feet and running off, and this time Al can't go chasing after him to make sure he doesn't do anything crazy. "There's no time! Mei, take care of Al for me!"

"Ed—! Brother!"

But Ed doesn't look back.

[glowyjellyfish]

More Fullmetal Alchemist

I took a break for a few days, and watched two tonight. 1.13 and 2.01. And man, either i forgot a lot or i just had it all wrong; either way I am confused. I can already sense a need to rewatch once I have seen the whole thing. The way that the subtitles use different words and phrasing than the dubbed dialogue might be making things more distracting for me, I’m not sure.

So here’s what i gathered from what I watched tonight:

-The seven deadly sins crew are homunculi, created by this Father (hey that’s another thing i apparently knew in advance), using parts of his own soul, somehow. Greed is 200 years old, and Lust, Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth are probably a similar age because they were together 100 years ago. Wrath aka the Fuhrer is newer, only 60, and designed to age. He’s also capable of having children. I am betting that all his assorted shadiness add up to wanting true immortality, just like Greed did, but that’s entirely separate from whatever Father’s goals are. I am half convinced that Father is going to turn out to be Hohenheim, but a. He’d have to be over 200 years old, and b. His shady alchemy activities would have to age him dramatically since he was last seen by the boys maybe ten years ago. So it’s possible, but really it’s mainly the “luke i am your father” trope making me leap to that conclusion. The other thing I noticed is that we have not seen a Pride yet. Perhaps Pride is the one who is Hohenheim! I don’t know!

-It is quite clearly seeing the Truth that makes Edward a valuable sacrifice. I don’t think my logic about sacrifices from before is quite right, but it’s not entirely wrong either--if i am remembering and interpreting correctly, Al stayed in the vision of the Truth until he reached what he thought was their mother, lost all parts of himself and what he thought was their mother he saw turn into him, and then it seems like he was in the body of the dead-mother-husk? Did I see that right? Because that’s even worse than before, somehow. It matches with the apparent way that Father created homunculi with pieces of his soul, although I assume Father must have a different or more refined process in order to survive and give the creations individuality. Al’s life was used to make the thing, so his entire soul was in it. So… was Ed’s leg just the price for the knowledge he got and making the attempt, and his arm the price for binding Al’s soul to the armor? The impression I get is that Ed just wasn’t willing to give so much of himself; he stopped the knowledge before it consumed him, and only lost a leg because that’s as far as he got. Hmmmm.

-I do think I was pretty damn right about Ed and Al being recruited entirely because of the advanced attempt at human transmutation. Of course, Fuhrer Wrath over there needed to lock down that potential sacrifice, but also if everything the chimeras said was true, then the guy who tried to transmute his wife and daughter was arrested because he failed. Or he would have been recruited and taught the secrets had he not been murdered. I think it’s all taboo mainly so that the military can swoop down and recruit anybody who has any degree of success. And probably murder anybody who refused to participate. Of course, I am making some assumptions about how entwined the culture of alchemy is with the culture of this nation; it may just be that the government is exploiting a traditional taboo in order to control all rising talent, idk.

Those are all the thoughts I had about these two episodes. I had to stop there, my brain is mush today and I did not feel I could process any more complexity.

[thehollowprince]

Top 5 TV shows?

Okay, so I've thought long and hard about this and finally narrowed it down to five shows. And before we list them, to anyone who reads this, yes I am aware of the problems that these shows have, but I love them anyway.

In no particular order, here they are...

1. The Magicians

I fell in love with this show when I first saw the pilot way back in December of 2015. This was a show that spoke to me on a deep personal level. The characters were me, they were people I knew, they used pop culture references that I got and acted in ways that my generation has adapted to in light of (gestures vaguely) all of this.

And that's not even getting into the world of this show (and the book series that inspired it). The magic is grounded and almost tangible. There are times that I feel under the right circumstances (ba dum tsh), that I could do one of them. No wand waving or vaguely latin words. And the magic comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes and disciplines.

Its great.

Sure, there have been some bumps in the road along this ride, but I've made some great friends in this fandom fbat I wouldn't trade for anything.

2. Teen Wolf

I fully admit, the whole reason I started watching this show was the fact that I saw some stills of Tyler Posey as Scott McCall with his shirt off. Look, I'm not proud of it, but I'm a simple man with simple pleasures. Sue me.

But as it turns out, the show wasn't half bad. Not at all like the comedy that I thought it was going to be. A show that dealt with not only werewolves (an oddity in such vampire-infested times), but all sorts of other shapeshifting creatures from various mythologies and folklores. Sure, they missed the mark once or twice (*cough*skinwalkwers*cough*) but all in all I thought they did a really good job.

Also, this is one of the incredibly few shows that I've ever watched that I loved the main character. I usually either only tolerate them or can't stand them, but Scott McCall was a great character and a good friend, in an era of too much sarcasm.

3. Penny Dreadful

This show was criminally overlooked and underrated!

This has got to be one of the best shows I've ever seen, and that's not even factoring in my feelings on the plot. The whole show (all three - incredibly short - seasons) felt like watching a Victorian novel come to life. And I think that's where it lost so many people. PD wasn't like all of these other shows in this particular genre, with over the top action sequences and metaphysical powers like telekinesis and setting fire with your mind. This show was very internal, very introspective. There was a lot of dialogue and the story was character-driven rather than driven by the plot or action itself.

It was ahead of it's time. Here's hoping that the spinoff show, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels gets a better reception.

4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Yes, I am aware of Joss Whedon's less than stellar reputation, but I will take my love for this show to the grave. This was the first show I actually started paying attention to and watching with any kind of regularity (minus the Power Rangers, of course) and I wouldn't trade it. This show got me through so much growing up, even though I'm sure I started watching it when I was too young to understand what was going on.

Also, Willow's journey helped me with my own self-realization when it came to my own sexuality.

5. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

I love this anime. It's one of the few I've actually watched and one of the only of those few that I've ever rewatched. I highly recommend it to anyone who hadn't seen it because its amazing. And a lot more adult than you would think for an animated show, but it tackles a lot of really important issues while utilizing a middle-age "science" that is often left by the wayside on modern adaptations of anything occult or supernatural related; that being alchemy. They include things like homunculi and chimeras and even the fabled Philosopher's Stone.

And unlike a lot of animes, or even shows, there is an actual ending to this story that wraps up everything our heroes have gone through.

Bonus: Toy Boy - I'm including this because this is the show I just binged on Netflix. I thoroughly enjoyed it for just being a good, entertaining show. It's like a Magic Mike murder mystery, in Spanish. I loved it.

Bonus Bonus, because that's how I roll - I highly recommend Diary of a Future President on Disney+. I know people have issue with Gina Rodriguez, but its a great little show about a Cuban-American family and the issues that arise from being in middle-school. The kids actually look like kids, the mom actually acts like a mom, there's a nice storyline with the older brother realizing he might not be straight. And it's only ten episodes. You could finish the whole thing in five hours or less.

And there's my list.

[angcrmanagcmcnt-moved]

CHAR. STUDY: SINS AND NAMES.

     Now, we all know that the seven homunculi featured in both Brotherhood and the 2003 series are based upon the seven deadly sins of mankind: Lust, Sloth, Wrath, Pride, Greed, Envy, and Gluttony. But...then we have my girl over here, Anger. ‘Now Lilmun,’ I hear you say, ‘Isn’t Anger essentially Wrath?’

     For this character study, despite Anger being based in 2003 canon I’ll be using Bradley to compare her with. Wrath and Anger are seen as the same, yes, but if you look closer, when personified they’re different, two opposite ends of a scale.

     I’ll start off easy, with Anger’s literal age in comparison to Wrath. He’s somewhere in his late fifties in the beginning of the series, while Anger is...both physically and actually a child. In fact, she looks older than she actually is, in the body of an eleven year old. And depending on where you are in the timeline, she can be anywhere from a newborn homunculus in late 1909 to only five years old by the time the Promised Day comes in the Spring of 1915. In essentially every context, Anger is the baby of the homunculi(until Greedling comes along, that is). 

     Moving on. Like I said before, Wrath is a more extreme version of Anger. Of course, this is shown clearly in Bradley, someone who cuts down his foe with pinpoint accuracy and precision, leaving no regard for mercy. Anger, as many of you have seen in threads, is decidedly against violence in most cases. In fact, she isn’t exactly hostile unless provoked; unless you’re a certain alchemist, that is. In the moment, when feeling threatened enough, she may attack, but it usually serves as a distraction in order to escape.

     Even so, Anger is clearly not as innocent as she appears to be. She wiped out an entire town, after all, only leaving a lone survivor. Meanwhile Bradley has caused the death of hundreds, if not thousands of people-some being the country’s own citizens. And while he does have the ability to sympathize with humanity, seeing as he’s far closer to them than the other main seven, he doesn’t seem to hold regret for the destruction he’s caused. Then we take a look at Anger, and whenever Pendleton is brought up, the regret she feels consumes her.

     Both Bradley and ‘Lyssa’, however, are outwardly pleasant and calm in most cases, only attacking when severely provoked. Whereas Bradley may have far more patience, in Anger’s case it’s mainly fear that keeps her in line, comparable to how a child is afraid of getting caught doing something wrong. 

     Even without all of this, there’s one last reason why this homunculus is Anger. Homunculi in the 2003 series possess the memories of whatever human they were supposed to be, and though they may be buried, they can easily be triggered by their doppelganger’s remains. Anger was supposed to be a little girl named Lyssa, and that girl’s last memories flashed through Anger’s mind when she first gained consciousness. 

     And those memories were full of anger. Not just her own, but Lyssa could see the rage in the cruel eyes of her murderer as everything went black. Anger was the first thing that the homunculus knew, the first emotion she was exposed to, and so she became it. But then we have Bradley, who only truly became Wrath after being exposed to the philosopher’s stone, made up of souls filled with the aforementioned sin.

     In short, while Wrath and Anger may be seen as the same entity as a whole, when personified it becomes clear they are different, despite their heavy similarities.

[fullmetalscullyy]

Don't feel obligated to write this but if you're free could you write a royai oneshot where Grumman abolishes the anti fraternization laws so roy is finally able to take riza on a romantic date?

ahhhhh this prompt gave me life!!! thank you so much uwu

i genuinely love canon dates like this bc even though it will never happen who cares that’s what fic is all about and it means i can be as self indulgent as i want 👀

The daythe news broke ended like every other day. The team said their farewells atfive o’clock on the dot. It was Friday night, after all, and Roy wouldn’t holdthem back longer than was necessary. It had been a long week working theirlatest case, but it had been closed today and there was talk under the tablethat it might be enough to push him to General.

Said talkcame from Fuhrer Grumman himself, so Roy was inclined to believe it. The mancould be conniving and wily, but when it came to Roy’s career and ascension tothe top, Grumman was forward and blunt.

“You didsecure the position for me, after all,” he would state cheerily, twisting hismoustache. But when his expression relaxed, his eyes opening as his smilefaded, Roy always saw the same cunning glint within them.

Call it afavour for a favour.

One otherfavour, in return for taking care of his granddaughter – not that she needed“taken care of” at all, but he was an old man from a different time so theyboth played along – was abolishing a certain set of laws that prevented themfrom making the old man’s dream come to fruition.

Thefraternization laws were in place simply to protect officers from each other.They weren’t really enforced, however if any issues arose then they were for afew months as the issue was dealt with – the worst-case scenario ending in atransfer – before dying out to lie in wait in the background once more.

Roy andRiza never risked it because in order to reach the top they needed to besqueaky clean. Not the mention the fact that if the homunculi knew about themthen all hell would break loose.

Just likeit did when the late Fuhrer Bradley took Hawkeye hostage.

“Any plansfor this evening General?” Hawkeye asked casually as she stood patiently beforehis desk, waiting on him to finish signing off the report of their latest case.

It hadbeen exactly a month to the day since the fraternisation laws had beenrepealed.

“Just one,if you would be willing,” he ventured, handing over the manila folder, but notrelinquishing his control. Hawkeye’s eyes flashed up to his, raising an eyebrowat his hesitation to let go.

“Oh?”

“Whatwould you say to dinner?”

Silencefell as Riza regarded him. He watched as she calculated his request, openingher mouth to refuse, but then paused, lips slightly apart after an intake ofbreath as she remembered what had happened recently.

“So soon?”

“Wedecided we would once the case was finished. Now it is,” Roy smiled, letting goof the folder. It flopped towards his desk, Riza remaining still as shecontinued to weight his request. Finally, she schooled her expression, tuckedthe folder under her arm, and a small smile appeared on her face.

“Pick meup at seven, sir.”

She turnedon her heel and left the room to head towards the Fuhrer’s office to hand in hisreport.

“It’s adate,” he called to her back, a goofy grin on his face.

Hecouldn’t help himself.

*          *          *

AlthoughRoy just knew Grumman had done thisfor their benefit – and it made him uncomfortable to say so – there were many happy people around headquarters theday the Fuhrer had announced the Big News. Apparently that law had restrictedmore than just them.

“It isn’tcompletely abolished,” Grumman stated quietly to Roy, afraid his secretarywould overhear in the other room while they played their weekly chess match.“There are clauses still in place to protect our officers, however it is nowpermitted in the workplace.” Grumman took Roy’s knight as he was distracted.“With a new Fuhrer comes a new age. Times are changing and have been for manyyears. It’s about time the military caught up with them.”

Royadjusted the cuff link on his right wrist, angling the flowers in the same handso they wouldn’t bump against the door of the lift and crush the petals. It dinged above him, signalling his arrivalon Riza’s floor.

Armed onlywith his ecstatic grin and bunch of flowers – pink and white carnations, whichwere her favourites – Roy knocked on her apartment door and waited.

It’s finally happening.

“Goodevening, Roy,” she greeted. There was a sharp intake of breath as he presentedhis gift with a flourish. “Oh, they are beautiful.”Riza motioned for him to enter, closing the door before wandering into herkitchen area to retrieve a vase and fill it with water. “You remembered,” shestated softly, a smile on her face that made Roy’s grin even wider.

“Of course,I did,” he replied, popping his hip and leaning it against the kitchen counternext to her sink. “You always brought them back from the Saturday market.”

“They weremy mother’s favourites –” she began, cut off by Roy before she could finish.

“And theyalways reminded you of her,” he grinned. The quiet laugh that filled the roomwas music to his ears.

“Yes. Byextension, they became my favourites too.”

Theylapsed into a comfortable silence as Roy watched her busy herself withpreparing her flowers. It was incredible to even witness a moment like this;never mind the actual date he had planned for the evening. If Roy could forgothe date, and just stay in her apartment all night while they did such normal,domestic, things, he would.

That wasall he had ever wanted, just to love Riza Hawkeye openly and freely withoutanyone trying to make his life miserable for it.

“So, whereare you taking us tonight?” Riza smiled, hooking her arm in his as theyapproached the lift.

“Somewherespecial,” he replied mysteriously, chuckling as Riza rolled her eyes, butdidn’t press him any further.

She lookedstunning in her midnight blue dress. It rose up her throat, covering hershoulders and neck, and stopped just above the knee, the skirt swishing as shewalked. Her short hair rustled in the summer breeze, her fringe blowing overher nose. Flicking her head to the side to remove it, she continued walking,oblivious to Roy staring at her with a lopsided grin. Well, oblivious was thewrong answer, that woman saw everything.More like ignored him.

“Can Ihelp you?” she asked dryly, not looking away from the path ahead of them. Therewas amusement in her tone, belaying any fears that he had offended her.

“Justadmiring a lovely lady.”

“Would youlike a picture instead,” she asked sweetly, finally turning her face to look athis.

Roychuckled, giving the hand atop his arm a squeeze. “That won’t be necessary. I’mjust still in awe that I can take you out on a date now. Well,” he added with asmirk. “A proper date.” He waggledhis eyebrows suggestively.

Rizablushed and Roy laughed at her reaction. The playful swat on his arm didn’tstop it either.

Theirevening stroll was cut short as they arrived in front of a very fancy lookingrestaurant on the main street in Central. Said street was packed full ofhigh-end shops, bars, cafes, and restaurants that cost more to shop and eat inthan most people would pay for their weekly shop.

But onlythe best for Riza.

Besides,they had a lot of time to make up for.

“This is…”Riza gazed up at the sign above the door in disbelief. “Very fancy,” shefinished lamely. Roy repeated his earlier sentiment about giving her the best,which resulted in a pointed look, before glancing worriedly up at the sign.

“Riza,relax,” he soothed, gripping her hand tightly and guiding her inside.

Highvaulted ceilings greeted them alongside the melodic sound of a harp beingplayed in the corner farthest from the entrance. A woman in a beautiful, floorlength golden dress plucked at the strings, soothing the patrons with her musicwhile they ate. Roy also noted there were three chandeliers hanging from above,the crystals catching the soft candlelight, the reflection of it barely visibleto the naked eye from this distance. Roy chuckled quietly at his own joke,thinking Riza could probably pick out the reflections easily.

A waitershowed them to their table, situated towards the back where it was quieter andmore private. Roy has specifically requested this when he called ahead, andwhen the manager found out one of Amestris’ top Generals was paying a visit tohis restaurant, the staff had practically fallen over their own feet toaccommodate him. Roy never liked using his rank like that, it felt dirty.Besides, he had more than enough money to burn on things like this, he didn’tneed free handouts from people trying to impress him.

And everypenny was worth it when he got to take Riza Hawkeye out on a date.

“Thisplace is incredible,” Riza whispered in awe once the waiter left them toretrieve a bottle of the house wine. Roy nodded in agreement, picking up themenu the waiter had left for them.

It was sofancy it didn’t even have prices next to each dish.

Roy wavedoff Riza’s concern, stating tonight was his treat.

“You canget the next one,” he offered.

Rizafrowned. “It will be nowhere near as fancy as this,” she griped, closing her menuwith a forceful snap.

“Itdoesn’t need to be,” Roy stated calmly, placing his menu down on the midnightblack tablecloth. “As long as I’m with you, it doesn’t matter what we do.”

Rizascoffed, but there was no real anger behind it. Still, Roy felt the need totell her how he really felt. They had spent decades fighting it, hiding theirtrue feelings from each other, and Roy had promised himself that he wouldn’tany longer.

“Truly.Riza,” he stated, taking her hand in his. “I could spend a night in CentralLibrary with you, cataloguing and moving books and it would still bewonderful.” She blushed and Roy grinned. “Every day at work is a treat becauseI have you by my side.”

“Eventhough I irritate you by pushing you to complete your work on time?” she asked,amusement in her eyes.

Royflashed her a grin. “That’s the best part.”

They splitapart once the waiter returned and took their order, but their eyes neverstrayed too far from the other as they chatted and ate.

As thenight wound down Riza boldly slipped from her own chair to the one next toRoy’s. He didn’t comment, just eagerly accepted it as she begun to lean in andspeak lowly, unknowingly creating a more intimate atmosphere.

Slightlyinebriated by the wine and drunk on his love for the woman sitting so close tohim, Roy smiled, inching his head closer to hers. Riza’s breath caught and she madeno indication she was going to pull away. She simply waited for him to takecharge, like so many other aspects of their lives, and Roy thought – with dismay– that was not the way he wanted things to be.

Instead ofkissing her, he paused, hovering just above her lips, eyeing them hungrily.

“Roy?” shebreathed. The desire was clear in her strained tone.

“Yes?” heanswered innocently.

Silencehung between them. It was a delicious ache to be so close to her and not kissher like the need burning inside him demanded, but Roy held out. He had waitedthis long. He could wait a little longer.

Plus, hewasn’t in charge here. They both were.

Riza justneeded a gentle push and he would be more than willing to give it to her.

“Wh – What–?”

It trulywas adorable to hear her stutter this way, incapable of forming the sentencesshe wanted to. Roy smirked, moving his head so his nose brushed against hers,confirming that he definitely had anaffect on her when her breath hitched.

“Do youknow how long I’ve waited for a moment like this?” he murmured, his breathcaressing her deep, red lips. They parted in anticipation and Roy felt herbreath flit across his face. It was intoxicating. “For a night like this?”

His gazecaught hers, trapping Riza in place with his eyes. She swallowed, lips partingonce more, yet she made no move further.

Roy got adevilish idea.

He dippedhis head, moving towards her neck. Her dress had a high collar to hide her scarfrom the promised day, but the heat of his breath and his touch still seepedthrough the fabric. His lips trailed around her jaw to her ear, nuzzling it.Riza gasped and he smirked as he pressed his lips to her throat, kissing thevein pulsing in it gently.

“Do youknow how long I’ve waited for you?” he whispered.

That wasapparently enough for Riza. She grabbed him by the lapels of his suit jacket,their eyes meeting for the briefest second. Desire met desire, although his twinkledwith a hint of amusement. Riza tugged him closer, pressing her lips hardagainst his, whimpering as his tongue stroked her bottom lip.

“Do youwant to move this back to my place?” she asked, breathlessly, pulling awayabruptly.

Roygrinned.

“I’d followyou into hell, Riza. Lead the way.”