#Sloth the indolent

[dyingroses]

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood + text posts and stuff

[riveluart]

Seven Deadly Sins

[shocotate]

Last Cloudia x Fullmetal Alchemist

16 to 30 March 2023

『ラストクラウディア』×『鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST』

[derseprinceoftbd]

Hear me out (something you probably hear a lot of with her):

I think Olivier should have been a villain.

Her philosophy of the survival of the strongest never seems *honest*, and that seems like it's kind of a waste of screentime. Like she's basically just a tsundere.

We never actually get characterization for the military high command in an individual capacity besides brief glimpses; this would allow an actual characterized corrupt military leader going along with the scheme, letting us put a face to their callousness (possibly with the plan of slaughtering the rest and being the sole human to receive the supposed immortality benefits of the scheme). It lines up with her philosophy, and, I think, helps move some stuff around in the Plot.

Sloth is... more could definitely have been done with him. I believe Olivier would have been a better final opponent for Armstrong; the courage thing seems pretty easy and obvious against a giant basically pure evil monster, but having to take a stand against both the leadership of your country directly and your own blood seems like a more complete way to bring him finally fighting back full circle.

I think I'll discuss my thoughts on the new Sloth, and various other plot elements I would move around, when I finish the series, but that's a thought I've had so far.

[auxwired]

I just need to tell someone how hilariously stupid Sloth is

Does he know what's going on? Did anyone bother telling him? Would he have been awake to hear it if they tried? Who knows, all that matters is that that man's brain has been on standby for the last 200 years

HEHHEHE YEAH

i seriously doubt sloth has seen the light of day other than when he emerged from briggs. only god knows how long he was under there, his dad tells him to dig a tunnel surrounding amestris for like a few decades and he doesnt have the energy to ask why; his character is so funny to me. hes the #1 idgaf soldier of all time

[sepublic]

            I love Fullmetal Alchemist, but I will admit I was a bit disappointed with how Arakawa handled Sloth the Indolent, who came across as very bare-bones compared to the other Homunculi, and basically just felt like a more muscular Gluttony at times. So for fun, I’ve come up with my own fanon version of Sloth the Indolent, basically an OC at this point; Think an AU where everything about Fullmetal Alchemist is more or less the same, it’s just that Sloth is a different character, which does change a few things here or there… But in the long run, it’s the same.

         We have Sloth, who resembles a young woman, younger in both appearance and age than Lust. She’s got a short black dress and platform boots, and always looks bored with her arms crossed; Sloth is basically an edgy goth teenager who’s always complaining about what a pain everything is, expects everyone to hear and cater to her whining and discomfort, and is deeply unenthusiastic most of the time.

         She’s a spoiled brat; Sloth wants everything to come easy and be easy, she prefers consistency and simplicity, because thinking and adapting, growing, these are all too troublesome for her. She’s sympathetic to a point, but after a while, she gets frustrating; Sloth is the kind of person who will go through the most convoluted, roundabout method that ends up more frustrating in the long run, to avoid something, rather than just going through the thing and getting it over with.

         Appropriately, Sloth doesn’t even do her own work; She relies on her ‘thralls’, various victims she’s implanted a parasite into. The parasite comes from Sloth’s own body, so in a way they’re her own children, yet she makes them exist purely for her own benefit… Like Father, like Daughter. She communicates with these parasites via ultrasonic frequencies, not that Sloth actually realizes this; To her, this command simply works, and she doesn’t have the curiosity nor passion for life to look any further into this, taking that ability for granted.

         This does backfire eventually when the Armstrongs and Curtises devise a transmutation circle that disrupts Sloth’s frequencies by emitting its own, thereby preventing her from controlling her thralls; More on that later.

         The parasites take control of Sloth’s thralls, forcing them to follow commands; Sloth needn’t control each thrall individually, their brain does the rest of the work in interpreting a command and carrying it out, and relying on the host’s own memories and knowledge so that Sloth doesn’t have to peruse through them herself. There’s a limit to this ability; Probably how many parasites Sloth can have operating at once, and the distance they can operate from Sloth.

         When infected with a parasite, right below your brainstem, you aren’t 100% doomed yet; There’s a very slight possibility that with precise surgery (or Scar’s deconstruction), you can remove the parasite and be free. But after a while, the parasite fully acclimates and shuts off your free will, killing a person and the soul; All that’s left behind is a reanimated brain. When outside Sloth’s range, thralls who pass this threshold will simply collapse and remain inert.

         This is why Sloth hasn’t infected central command with her parasites to keep them in line; Eventually, she’d have to remain in range 24/7, which would distract from her other responsibilities. Likewise, the figures in central command are supposed to be leaders who regularly make complex decisions and appear in public, which is far too bothersome for Sloth, who prefers the same approach to everything because ingenuity takes too much effort. This means Olivier doesn’t have to worry about Sloth’s parasites when she’s recruited.

         Sloth hates doing things on her own and fully abuses her thralls, having them carry her, move her own limbs for her; Ironically, it looks as if she’s being puppeted by her own thralls at times. Because of her Philosopher’s Stone, Sloth’s body doesn’t atrophy from this lack of use, but still. Sloth will work her thralls down to the literal bone, doing only the bare minimum to keep them alive, apathetic as their muscles tear and bones crack.

         It is said the human body is capable of much more than people realize; But to achieve that strength would damage the body, hence why it only emerges in times of crisis and high adrenaline. To rely on this power consistently would kill someone… But Sloth doesn’t care, so she wrings every last bit out of her thralls until they’re broken beyond repair; In which case she discards and grabs another victim. At that point, Sloth carefully gauges potential victims to see which one seems the most fit; But some days she’ll just get it over with by infecting the first person she sees. Other times she’ll control the Chimeras lurking beneath Central.

         Sloth is a manipulator, unwilling to do her own dirty work, and griping about having to do Father’s. And she’s often looking for a way out of her tasks, such as by getting one of her siblings, usually Gluttony, to do things; But Gluttony often requires oversight from Lust, who will then call Sloth out and lecture her. Sloth is deeply unpleasant and unreliable to work with, as a partner will have to do everything just to get her to do more than the bare minimum of her job, and sometimes she doesn’t even do that; Father had to resort to many threats of violence, and even then had to make some concessions before Sloth finally agreed to her tasks. Sloth makes sure to wring out as much as she can out of others in a manner almost greedy, to minimize her own work and offerings.

         Sloth is irreverent and apathetic; She doesn’t care for the drama of her siblings. She doesn’t care for them at all, period; Too much effort. Nor does Sloth care for Father, she only goes along with him because defying Father is more effort than it’s worth in her eyes (or eye, one of them is covered by a red node). When Greed defected, he extended the offer to Sloth, hoping she’d reciprocate after picking up on her dissatisfaction… But Sloth decided that having to deal with Father’s forces going after her was much too stressful.

         Besides, for all of Father’s faults, he nevertheless gave Sloth security and resources, as well as consistency; Without Father, Sloth would have to figure life out for herself, which would be such a burden. It’s simpler and safer under Father, no risks for Sloth! For that reason, Sloth feels some need to defend Father, if only because he’s a bastion of resources and security such as additional souls and the like, which secures her own comfort. It should also be noted that even without Father pushing her, Sloth would still choose to rely on and enslave others, so keep that in mind.

         When Greed returned, the Homunculi were all gathered together… And Sloth legitimately did not care about Greed’s return, nor his impending execution. The whole time she just stood there unenthusiastically, using her thralls as a chair, before snapping at one point that they should just get it over with, and questioning why she even needed to be there, which earned a lecture from Pride, who insisted Sloth be more grateful for the dignity of serving Father. When Greed died, the other Homunculi felt various emotions, mixed feelings such as resentment, but Sloth felt nothing and was simply glad it was wrapping up.

         For Sloth, only the ends/destination matters, not the journey nor means. It’s all about shortcuts and results for her. Comfort is her only goal in this world, because it’s the only thing that grants her reprieve from the inherent suffering and misery that is life. A part of her might, deep down, desire death and thus be suicidal… But that would also be too much of a pain, too difficult to go through with. Or is living more of an effort? To ponder is a pain in and of itself… An object in motion stays at motion, or in rest stays at rest, Sloth has a stubborn, unbudging inertia at times.

         Sloth’s function in Father’s system is simple; Carve his nationwide transmutation circle into the earth. But Sloth isn’t really doing it, it’s her thralls, whom she supervises as they bleed and wear themselves away as much as they wear away at the bedrock. Sloth meanwhile, comfortably sits a distance away, relying on earmuffs to deafen the noise (usually a thrall’s hands over her ears) as she lays back, minding her own business as other thralls pamper her.

         Sloth is just thinking, maybe having a drink, because Sloth enjoys the worldly pleasures to some degree; It’s all about comfort and relaxation to her. She’s a spoiled daddy’s girl who felt entitled to being accommodated by everyone, and because of her parasites, Sloth was able to get Father to assign her –with insistence- the seemingly arduous, yet simple, task of mining, while offloading all other tasks to her siblings. To Sloth, this is the easiest and most leisurely job. She's the underachieving sibling who operates in the perfect, comfortable middle ground between the leader who's responsible for figuring things out, and the worker who does all of the grunt labor.

         Sloth loathes stress, and she loathes unexpected assignments that distract her from her role as manager; Not for love of the job itself, but because it’s simple and easy and consistent, and she never has to expect anything else nor respond to change. Sloth is impatient and grumpy during these other missions, seeing them as a breach of contract, the compromise Father painstakingly got out of Sloth in order to utilize any of her contributions. Sloth wishes to get things out of the way as quickly as possible, or else she will procrastinate and put it off to the last second, with no in-between. With how stressed out she is, Sloth doesn’t care too much about the sentiment behind her mission, instead preferring to accomplish only the literal definition of her orders, and never go any further because that’s unnecessary work.

         Because of this, Sloth might sometimes fail to see something all the way through, such as assassinating someone; If it seems they’re dead, no need to look further, she’s done and can finally relax! All she’s looking forward to is getting a task over, never the task itself. She won’t derive enjoyment from the task, she refuses. And because of her paradoxical aversion to effort, Sloth doesn’t give it her all and thus gives opportunities for the protagonists to survive; They don’t know just how easily she could and should’ve killed them by now, if it weren’t for Sloth’s laziness. She’s deeply frustrating to supervise, for both Pride and Father, for these realizations.

         A part of Sloth did ponder what would happen after the Promised Day; Because that would be an end to her job, right? And she didn’t like the idea of losing that secure routine, so sometimes she stalled, calculating when to get it done by the last second before the eclipse. But she ultimately realized that even as God, Father would still need others, and would still use Sloth; So long as she blindly trusted in him, Sloth would be taken care of, more or less. Sloth did, to some capacity, see the folly in Father’s efforts and goals, though she wasn’t much better herself. She was similarly perceptive in deconstructing herself and her siblings, but never bothered to do anything with this self-awareness; Sloth was fully conscious of her demons yet indulged them anyway.

         Sloth is actually incredibly strong; In fact, she’s physically the fastest and strongest of the Homunculi, and the most gifted in terms of academia and intelligence. Not that Sloth ever makes use of these abilities; She’d much prefer to rely on her thralls. Remember what I said about Sloth being the kind of person to rely on methods so roundabout they prove more troublesome than just doing the thing? That’s Sloth. She hates having to move and use her own body so much that she’d rather use her thralls, which are far less effective, and thus less efficient in accomplishing tasks.

         So Sloth is her worst enemy; If she just mustered in the effort for a bit, she really could get it over with… But she hates applying effort, and thus just makes herself more miserable and for longer in the end. But there does come a point where Sloth has to rely on her own strength…

         During the Promised Day, Olivier leads her rebellion, and is targeted by Father for her treachery. He sends Sloth to kill Olivier, but Sloth accidentally murders a member of high command, not that she nor Father care, of course. With Alex and other reinforcements showing up, Sloth is suddenly forced to apply more and more effort than she’s ever used in her entire life;

         Suddenly Sloth is pushing herself to her limits. She welcomes her new siblings, the lesser Homunculi, by proceeding to immediately exploit them with her parasites. Sloth uses more thralls than she ever has at once to form an amalgam around her to defend and attack with, stretching out the tendrils from within her body. But with the Curtises, this shell is chipped away at, and eventually the protagonists disrupt Sloth’s high frequency signal to control her parasites with.

         Without her army, Sloth should be handicapped, and she’s certainly stunned at this happening, and what is required of her next… But now the heroes see what Sloth has truly been hiding (and wasting), when she’s forced to stand on her own legs and fight with her own fists. Sloth is incredibly fast and powerful, and enraged at the protagonists for stressing her out this much. Normally she wouldn’t take it personally, that just causes pointless stress, getting invested into things like winning or losing interferes with personal peace.

         But even Sloth has limits, even Sloth begins to look forward to winning, and starts caring about being vindictive and making people suffer as she has. Sloth’s body gets bigger as her muscles bulge and reach their true potential, turning her into a hulking brute resembling her canon counterpart; But eventually she takes too much damage. Normally, Sloth procrastinates and is very slow on regenerating damage to herself, since it’s bothersome; Sometimes she’ll leave wounds because her body still functions, only the results matter so if the job can still be done, who cares, right? Pride does and he lectures her about maintaining a respectable appearance worthy of a Homunculus, but whatever.

         And there’s another reason to this; Because Sloth’s ‘body’ isn’t actually her body. What everyone thought was her body is actually just another host, one synced to Sloth’s true form and Philosopher’s Stone, which is how she’s able to regenerate it. Previous incidents would chip away at Sloth’s host to reveal something inside, just a brief glimpse and hint to her true nature.

         Sloth’s host is destroyed, and she’s forced to unveil her true self; A flying insectoid monstrosity, the queen of the parasitic hive she’s relied upon all this time! Sloth is even faster and stronger in this form, but luckily, more soldiers show up to aid the protagonists in defeating her.

         Sloth is seething, and mentally unraveling; She can’t remember the last time she had to buzz her own wings. She can’t even recall ever struggling this much; Everything usually came so easy to her because of talent, now it’s not enough and she needs hard work?! Since it’s been forever since she relied on her own natural strength and speed, Sloth hasn’t bothered to hone her talent with actual skill; As a result, she’s a bit clumsy in her rushes, which provides openings for the heroes to survive and maneuver.

         Still, Sloth begins to get the hang of things, and despite herself, finds herself more and more dedicated to killing Olivier; At this point, it’s no longer about just getting the job done so Father won’t hound her for it. It’s no longer about what comes after; Right now, Sloth is going to kill that damn stubborn general, whatever it takes!!!

         Sloth’s unprecedented rage unlocks an ability she herself didn’t even know she had; She spew energy beams from her own Philosopher’s Stone, which does devastating damage in how they can slice and burn through anything. This burns up souls fast, but at this point all Sloth cares about is this one goal of killing Olivier and everyone, she just wants to win and in a way is more alive in the lead up to her death than in her entire life otherwise.

         That’s the thing about Sloth; She CAN care. And she isn’t as objective as she thinks, obviously. She is subject to irrational emotions that interfere with her supposed efficiency that gets it over with for maximum relaxation at minimum effort. Her quiet life has always been fundamentally undermined by Sloth herself, it’s why she chose to remain a servant to Father and suffer that way, than find true peace by working for it. For someone who thinks only the results matter, surely putting in the effort for self-actualization is worth it, versus the eternal suffering in the long run of not growing.

         Maybe Sloth comes to realize this in her final moments… Or not, because she’s so pissed that eventually, after constantly failing, she just rage quits. Screaming and screeching, Sloth decides she’s going to kill Olivier, no matter what; And is similarly so frustrated and tired and done with life, raving and ranting, that she gives up. No more! She’s done with this, she’s not gonna do it anymore! You know how some people will rage quit by turning off the console, even thrashing it in a moment of passion?

         Sloth opts to self-destruct by concentrating her remaining energy and souls, all of her mass, into one singularity point that burns with the light of a thousand suns; And then detonates. It’s a devastating explosion that our protagonists somehow survive, but it does wipe out a good chunk of the army. And to think what Father later pulls off as God is even worse…!

         The final battle against Sloth is one of the most arduous and difficult ones, out of the other conflicts with her siblings; Sloth puts up the biggest fight, she has more souls than the rest due to saving on energy by making thralls do the work for her across centuries. And now all she’s saved up, she uses up and wastes. If only Sloth weren’t so slothful, she might’ve made good use of her potential and changed the world for the better… Or done anything with that potential. Or at least NOT used it to harm others.

         But Sloth barely utilized her efficacy, and as a result, indirectly contributed to Father’s failure by not giving it her all much more than she did. This was of course something Pride observed and suspected, and resented Sloth for, believing her Philosopher’s Stone would be so much better used by him! If only he’d gotten to absorb her instead of Gluttony… Oh well. Sloth finally gives up on life and earns the sweet release of death she was searching for, the eternal rest, by simply concentrating all of her effort and power into one moment. Now Sloth has achieved her consistent, everlasting, unchangeable, rest.

[arsonamiright]

😬 and 😮

[supersaiyanjedi14]

Inspired by this meme by @atomic58-blog

Bonus:

[ficks-of-fancy2]

So we all know this little shit, Pride the Arrogant, but I have a vision for you and if you've read the tags you can guess what it is. A Dual Ego au were Selim and Pride are the two distinct individuals inhabiting the same body, like Seele from honkai impact and "Veliona" or the "Other Seele". (This could work with any of the Homunculi)

I'm going to talk about it like it's a mha au. The homunculi would still be well homunculi, just a creation of All For One's attempts to create a new and truly immortal body for himself. Pride was a undesirable result that initially sought to usurp him, this could have been about the time that AFO gave Shigaraki his quirk so about twenty years before the cannon start. AFO lets him go expecting him to come back or die in a few days, due to his core (Philosopher's Stone) needing to recharge to keep his body stable or just needing energy to stabilize. But Pride manages to discover that devouring people allows him to turn them into energy for his core and prevent his body from disableizeing and returning him to how he was before (A "stillborn" child, don't ask).

So flash forwards twenty years and Pride is having moments when he blacks out and wakes in a random orphanages. So in his infinite wisdom Pride has a piece of himself pretend to be a shadow and he finds out that his body has a ego of it's own that has slowly been astabithing dominance over him. AKA Selim, who is the polar opposite of Pride and his ego had been randomly taking control of their body. Pride, being, well Pride, doesn't want this to happen so he's been trying to take the body back for himself. Separation doesn't work due to them both being the same person on a spiritual level, and it is extremely uncomfortable and potentially dangerous to be separate for long periods of time. So eventually Pride has to make some form of agreement with Selim for shared use of the body. (They call each other Humility and Arrogance)

Eventually it gets back to AFO that Pride is still alive and has developed healing powers and light manipulation, well Salim has and he found his way into U.A somehow, maybe Nezu figures there's something up with this nine year old that isn't quite normal. So AFO makes more Homunculus like Pride, to hunt him down (Pride is the perfect vessel in his eyes, or at least able to return him to normal) and a couple of encounters later Pride and Selim find out that as long as their core remains in one piece the can revive with minimal effort. Eventually one of the other Homunculus begin to gain a separate self (Greed and Ling) and defects form the L.O.V this continues until all of them have a opposing self. It takes a while to discover that the "other selves" are the people who the bodies were before death and Selim took so long to manifest because he was stillborn. Some accept their others, some ignore them, but Wrath out right dominates his due to his passive nature.

I don't know, I just like the idea of the sweetest kid imaginable and the most spoiled rotten brat being the same person. I would love to hear other opinions.

[number1greedlingfan]

FOR THE BLORBO BINGO: sloth from 2003, and gluttony (can i suggest 2? is that okay?)

It is absolutely ok!! There are no rules here at number1greedlingfan (our society is crumbling). I've included explanations for my choices under the cut

Sloth

Gluttony

This is my opinion but Sloth in 03 just... didn't hit right? I know what kind of character the writers wanted her to be (and for some viewers, she was that!) but it felt like she wasn't around enough for that to come together or feel meaningful (hence, the "Too little screentime" choice). Sloth was really cool conceptually but I think the emotional deeper aspects of her character were just too little too late and overshadowed by other plot developments.

Gluttony I have no issue with. Conceptually he is cool as fuck (being a failed gate) and he serves his purpose in the narrative. Imo though I felt nothing for him until he was an active threat or until he died, which I think was kind of the point of his character. What Pride did was fucked up enough to make me pity him for a minute, but I didn't get the same "It's not fair" urge that I got with other character deaths in the show. So yeah, as a blorbo I think Gluttony would ultimately be kind of boring to think about.

[dyingroses]

Some FMA:B + text posts and a tweet

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Chapter Sixteen: Music Pt. 7

Envy opened their eyes finally after being trapped in that painful memory only to be surrounded by Lust, Gluttony, Dolly, Hughes, Dorian, and weirdly enough, Freddy. It was something that deep down, Envy had wished for all those centuries ago as they got hugged by a worried Dolly. Slowly, Envy wrapped their hands around Dolly and hugged her right back, getting that much needed comfort they craved for. Freddy was relieved that the horrible reptile that tormented him was alright and wasn’t attempting to do despicable things right away. Slowly, Envy started to sit up from the couch after being out of it for a while to regain their footing after realizing just who poisoned them with mercury. All those years of being told it was their own fault for attempting to make the stone with mercury, was simply just lies from Dante. Those centuries of having to deal with the periodic return of the mercury poisoning and the pain that came with it was all that horrific mother’s doing.

 “I got good news….I no longer want to murder that bastard Hoheinheim..” Envy spoke after a while of processing that new information. “That’s great news Envy, you’re moving in the right…” Lust started, hopeful that Envy was growing up into a better homunculus before the next statement shattered her expectations. “I want to murder Dante instead.” Envy said in an eerily cheery tone laced with arsenic.

 “....you know what, it’s still progress, so I’m letting that one slide since we are going to kill off Dante anyways.” Lust figured things were good enough with Envy to let the murder goal change slide for now.

 “How are you feeling? You were out for a while. I have a parfait waiting for you in the freezer to enjoy.” Dolly calmly said as she let Envy out of the hug to go collect their parfait. “Terrible, but I’m definitely going for that parfait, thank you Dolly.” Envy slowly got up from the couch to go get that parfait that was waiting for them.

 “Maybe after the parfait, if you’re comfortable with this Envy, do you want to talk about what happened?” Dolly asked as she watched Envy go get that parfait to enjoy.

 “Sure, let’s talk on the rooftop after I’m done with my parfait.” Envy decided to finally be fully opened to Dolly about what happened as they reached the fabled fridge.

 “I still say you should’ve gotten everyone here ice cream Dolly if you were going to do that for Envy.” Freddy huffed a bit, though glanced at Envy to make sure they were moving alright after being so still like that.

  “Shut up Face Fur, Envy’s been through enough bullshit, you can get yourself your own ice cream if you want one so badly.” Dorian mouthed off to Freddy before violently starting to cough up something.

 “Ewww Dorian, what the hell is wrong with you!?” Freddy yelped as clay slip splattered across his chest from Dorian. “Herk…Herk….Herk….HORK!” Dorian heaved and launched out a large clay covered mass that splattered onto the floor with a clatter in a single cough.

 Everyone froze in their place, staring at the clay mound on the ground that Dorian coughed up in a disgusting fashion. Dorian simply walked away from the mess he made as he climbed back onto the couch to relax after giving his input. Freddy was gagging a bit from the rancid vinegar and soured earth smell that was coming from the clay mound as Dolly went to check  on Dorian to make sure he was alright. The only one that did bother to investigate what exactly Dorian coughed up was Lust who was in the mindset of getting this bullshit done and over with. Hughes, Gluttony, and Envy watched Lust as she picked up the clay mound to inspect it before taking it to the sink to rinse off. The soft stream of water glided against the mound, slowly peeling away the layers of clay like a potato. The four homunculis’ eyes widened at what the water revealed the mound to be, it was a fully formed Philosopher’s Stone in all its glory. The fresh cut meat red of the stone glistened in the artificial lights as everyone stared in awe.

 “How…how did Dorian manage to make the stone…” Lust spoke after a moment of processing of what she was holding.

 “....I think I know…you know how diamonds are made from pressurized carbon? Dorian’s body must have acted like an athanor for the little red stones we were feeding him this whole time…it must have pressurized the red stones into forming into a massive perfected Philosopher’s Stone..” Freddy finally spoke upon realizing he had inadvertently made a walking athanor with an attitude problem.

 “And you would be very correct on that theory sir, though I will say it had been the worst experience of my life.” A voice spoke from within the Philosopher’s Stone causing Freddy to pass out from the shock.

 “.....I didn’t know the Philosopher's Stone could speak…” Dolly quietly said as her eyes widened a bit at the unfolding event.

 “Oh yes, apparently a fully perfected stone can speak after a democratic voting had taken place. I am Doctor Tim Markoh, speaking on behalf of all the souls inside of this rock with me and we all agreed to say this to the homunculi present in this room: Fuck you and your damn agenda, we’re not going to make you human after the hell you put everyone of us through.” Dr. Tim Markoh announced, getting Lust very offended by that tone. “....Dorian mind if we put the stone back inside of you until it cleans up their collective language?” Lust looked at Dorian who simply turned Lust away. “I evicted Tiny Timmy fairly from this body, he’s your problem now.” Dorian simply stated not wanting to re-pressurize the stone any further.

 “Your athanor has spoken and frankly, we too refuse to go back in there, it was a nightmare! We still have the yellowjackets inside here that we’ve been battling with too from the previous week!” Tim the Stone explained from the collective trauma of being made into the stone had brought to everyone.

 “Okay, so Tiny Timmy said no to using him, okay, then we're just going to use him as bait for Dante to lure her out. Lust, you know what you must do now that we have this rude rock with us.” Envy instructed, their need for revenge becoming stronger towards Dante now more than Hohenheim.

 “Does that mean I’m off the hook for being the replacement for Pride, right?” Hughes asked in a hopeful tone, praying it meant he can go back to his wife and daughter with Ruby in hand.

 “Oh definitely, Dante will forget about you once she gets that stone in her talons.” Envy stated who watched Lust make that phone call to Dante about the stone.

 As Lust was delivering the message to Dante about the stone finally being created and ready to use, Dolly went to carefully pick up Freddy and get him into bed after the fright he had from the talking people soup rock. Envy, who couldn’t care less of what some rock thought of them, listened along to the phone call as Lust explained how they managed to gather a stone for her to use. Soon in Envy’s thoughts, soon they would trap Dante and torment her for the agony they had to endure because of that maladjusted mother’s poisoned fish stunt. From the tone Envy could hear from the phone, it was a happy sort of voice coming from Dante, it felt like the drippings of sickly sweetened honey laced with poison to Envy. The interaction was brief as Lust hung up the phone and placed Timmy the Stone on the counter. Gluttony sat at the couch with Dorian as he watched Lust and Envy for the news of what was going to happen now.

 “Dante is satisfied that the stone is now ready for her, however, she will call back later for a pick up date on the stone. Dante’s still promising to turn us human, though I’m sure our mineral and soul based friend over there would greatly disagree with Dante.” Lust informed Envy as they finished their parfait. “Good, she doesn’t suspect a thing yet. We won’t be letting Greed know about the stone just yet, I’m sure he’d just run off with it the moment Timmy is brought up.” Envy started making their way over to Dolly who had picked up Dorian to bring along for the rooftop. 

 “Valid point, Greed would likely run off with the stone, though to be fair, I wouldn’t mind at this point since the stone has a rather terrible mouth on it.” Lust truly wanted the rude stone to be gone after the interaction they had.

 “Can we please be placed on a pillow or something soft? This is uncomfortable being on the counter like this.” TIm Markoh requested from the kitchenette countertop, clearly having a not so great time all together. “...Okay, we can get you on the couch then with Gluttony.” Lust unceremoniously lifted the Philosopher’s Stone from the countertop and plopped it onto the couch with Gluttony.

 As the group spread apart to do their own things now that the plan was in motion. Envy, Dolly, and Dorian decided to simply teleport up to the rooftop instead to enjoy the star lit skies up above. Hughes on the other hand, went to check on Ruby to make sure she was sleeping well to keep his mind off on having to encounter Dante once again. Back at the mansion, however, things were far from being the easy deal initially planned when Sloth finally arrived with the recording device for Dante’s listening pleasures. Dante was in the middle of opening a bottle of port to celebrate the fact the stone was created and ready to use for her pursuit of eternal youth and life when Sloth entered the room. The exchange was brief between Sloth and Dante as the recording device was exchanged for a new order to fetch the wanted criminal Kimblee. Once Sloth was out of the room, curiosity got the best of Dante as she sat down to listen to the recording to figure out what else had unfolded with her child and the other homunculi. The smile Dante once had on her face slowly started to morph into one of shock and rage when a certain little plan came into light. A loud and rage filled scream could be heard throughout the cottage villa mixed with the small infant crying shortly after.

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[shocotate]

SINoALICE X FMA Collab Artwork

SINoALICE X Fullmetal Alchemist Collaboration 2 – 16 December 2022 SINoALICE ーシノアリスー X 鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 2022年12月2日(金)17:00 ～ 2022年12月16日(金)14:59

[derseprinceoftbd]

Okay so here's my big FMA rewrite take:

*Pride* should have been *Sloth*. *Father* should have been *Pride*.

I think it fits; the only genuinely prideful things about Selim, who I always found underwhelming, were his extra levels of loyalty and his belief in the superiority of his species-and not only were both of those not unique among the Homunculi, Sloth would have been an interesting way to view the first.

(Sloth's removal is easy enough; Gluttony can take his place in the Briggs fight, and a military general or, heck, a *resolution* to the horde of zombies *or* chimeras (you know, those ones in like the sewers that May fought like three times) (mini sub-rant; those two should def have been combined into giving the chimera horde Philosopher's Stones, like the zombies were ugly ass MFs in a bad way) could take the place of the Armstrong-Curtis fight. I'm not even entirely talked out of my Olivier idea (that I'm too bad at mobile to link to rn, uh, search the fma tag on my blog IG), she could fight him and Izumi... I'm getting off track.)

(Look; the point is, big guy Sloth is as boring and basic as they come. Even Gluttony says something with his innocence, this guy is just blargh.)

It also fits his sedentary lifestyle, living the simple, un-troubling life of a human, as well as his fighting style and design (he stands there and lets his tentacles do the work, and the shadow seems kind of cribbed, almost lazily (this is not a criticism of the Author/his design, I'm just adding some context behind a hypothetical Selim-Sloth), from his creator).

And let's talk about the creator;

First, it always felt weird that he was called "Father" more than anything else, like he was defined by a set of relationships that he never cared for, instead of anything about him.

Second, that guy was *Prideful as balls*. His actions are like 60% Pride 20% Sloth 20% Lust. I've seen people say that he embodies all the sins, like it's a point that he only pretended to purge them, but some are *demonstrably* bigger motivators for him than others.

And I feel like, honestly, he *straddles the line of being interesting*; if you go into it viewing the story as a philosophical masterpiece, you'll like him a lot, but you can easily hate him. This may be my Menardist "you can literally apply any lens to anything as a positive constructive measure, up to and including false information, as long as you can string together an argument about why it becomes interesting in a new way with that lens" perspective talking (actually, that's easy to say for both of these guys given how their very names are lenses), but I think having that central idea would really push him over the edge and define him.

So... yeah. Selim should have been Sloth, Father should have been Pride, the big guy should have been erased, and the zombies and chimeras should both have been wrapped up at some point.

Interested to hear your thoughts; please comment and RB!

[auxwired]

fma 03 spoilers

the contrast between wrath and sloth between their brotherhood counterparts is SO funny to me. in 03 sloth is a beautiful woman who works a secretary job, and wrath is a little kid who was forced into joining his siblings. in comparison we have a giant dude who slept under the earth for like the last 17 years or so like a cicada and the literal Fucking president. then again, i guess bradley is still a homunculus, just not the one we thought of, and PRIDE in comparison to 03 and brotherhood is literally just a monarchial status i GUESS