#diminutive even

[bl00dalchemist]

Working with blue is not that bad, turns out.

[stuckinapril]

Kids have it so right. Be weird without shame and cry about anything that so much as dares to inconvenience you

[mirrorhouse]

I have what you're looking for. High quality. Befitting a man of my tastes. I have a room over on Divisadero, not too far a walk.

[montrealmadison]

perks of writing older zimbits: strong nonverbal communication, lots of inside jokes, getting to work through jack’s retirement and bitty’s career success, really REALLY tender, peak ride-or-die energy

pitfalls of writing older zimbits: fellas is it weird that jack’s inner monologue still defaults to “bitty” when bitty is a 44-year-old father of three who hasn’t played organized hockey in years

[fremulon]

oh, sure, NOW Goncharov blows up on Tumblr. The degree to which people are ignoring the fandom that’s been here since day 1 is honestly insanely disrespectful. “oooh Katya/Sofia finally getting the respect it deserves” as though some of us haven’t been writing Katya/Sofia since the livejournal days. And it’s so frustrating because I can already see how everyone hopping on this train is going to warp the fandom into something unrecognizable. Like, ok yes, the AO3 tag was basically empty before but at least when you saw something new posted you knew it was someone writing it because they actually liked *the movie* and not someone dashing off 3k words of generic PWP just to easily rack up the kudos.

[somepsychopomp]

Winged!Ed AU ft. Hohenheim (Pt.1)

rotating an idea for an FMA(B) AU in my mind where Ed has wings that are typically folded tight against his back and hidden by his red coat. He's basically born a chimera and chooses to hide his status to avoid obvious questions and suspicions.

But I want to lay down the background details, starting here:

Xerxesians, being prodigious alchemists, would of course have dabbled in chimeras and were the first to produce "successful" chimeras- similar to Greed's crew where they pass pretty much entirely for human. Most of their test subjects would have been servants, slaves, poor folk trading their bodies for coin, etc.

that's how we get Hohenheim- or 23, the twenty-third in a long line of chimerical experiments. He himself wasn't fused with an animal, but his mother or father was. 23, in turn, was actually born with a set of wings.

(Hohenheim being born a chimera is important to note bc it means his master not only made a series of healthy chimera, but ones that could reproduce! unfounded at the time)

Hohenheim was born w/ the wings of a lesser kestrel. I chose this bird more because it fits Ed more than Ho, but I just liked a few key details about it!

The lesser kestrel occupies a territory from Germany across the Middle East all the way to East Asia, which isn't super important given that FMA is set in a fictional world but loosely speaking, it's feasible that a Xerxesian alchemist could get his hands on one for human experimentation purposes.

I like the faintly red-brown coloration the males have on the back of their wings in combination w/ that black- very Ed.

They do well in grasslands/agricultural fields but are also adaptable to urban environments & co-existing with humans.

They are birds of prey!

however, they're quite diminutive birds of prey- meaning they're small and arguably very cute. (They're like 10-13 inches in length and notably smaller than Common Kestrels & other birds of prey)

Hohenheim's wings are proportional to his body tho, giving him the ability to fly.

As a slave, his physical fitness was well tested. He can fly and glide with great agility, but he was never allowed to go far because his master always kept him tethered to prevent his escape. Hohenheim also has a trail of feathers going down his spine but interestingly enough, he lacks a kestrel tail. He supposes that's not surprising, he lacks talons or a beak or eyesight far beyond that of a human. But perhaps he carries the genes for a tail. (Foreshadowing)

As an adult post-fall of Xerxes, Hohenheim found himself lost and shell shocked.

For many years, he contemplated cutting off his wings so he could better blend in with humans. But as a living Philosopher's Stone, he felt like it would be pointless endeavor and instead learned to hide them with a long coat.

Most of his canon story is basically the same until he meets Trisha.

When he fell in love with Trisha, Hohenheim knew full well that as a born and fertile chimera himself, it's fully possible their children will be born like him. He wasn't certain how great of a chance it was, it could be a recessive trait with no hope of ever resurfacing down his family line, or it could be a guarantee.

Hohenheim first has to reveal his wings to Trisha.

Even though he fully expected her to reject him at that point, understandably so, she instead accepted Hohenheim for who and what he was. She understood the possible consequences of their relationship and was completely willing to raise a potentially chimera child, together.

cue their first son.

To be safe, they have a home brith without a doctor or midwife, relying instead on Hohenheim's knowledge of alkahestry and human anatomy to tend to and heal Trisha.

And at the end of it, Edward Elric is born with wings. His were characteristic of baby kestrels, puffy and white and lacking the coloration or streamlined appearance that Hohenheim had as an adult.

Turning Edward over to properly examine his body, Hoheheim is horrified to see a small, tiny tuft of a tail protruding from Edward's lower back.

Dear god, his child was even more of a chimera than him! It's devastating to think of, until...

Hohenheim and all his souls cry at the sight of Trisha cooing at Edward as if he were a normal child, kissing his forehead and soothing his chip-like cries. She loves him. She loves their child, even if he was like Hohenheim. So brave, so loving, his Trisha.

But it also terrifies Hohenheim. He knew Trisha wanted at least two children, partly so they could help on their small family farm and partly so that the children could keep each other company.

All he has to go off of is the fact that his one and only child was very visibly a chimera. Ed will always be lesser than those around him- he will always have to hide his true self. But Trisha loved him and still wanted another child with her whole heart.

So they have Alphonse. And to Hohenheim's amazement, their second child has no visible chimera traits whatsoever! He's for all intents and purposes, human! He's human, and beautiful.

And perhaps, perhaps, just perhaps...even if Hohenheim does his best to treat both his boys equally, there's just the tiniest part of him that wants to recoil at the sight of Ed in the bathtub, flapping his wings and sending up bubbles. He's arguably slow to help Trisha bind Ed's wings before he goes out to play with Winry so they aren't seen, as well as when Trisha fits Ed with some kind of outer garment like a loose sweater or coat to hide the shape of his wings. He's possibly, if one looked close enough, a tad bit reluctant to groom Ed's wings. To gently pinch his pin feathers to release them (new feathers are encased in a white sheath as they grow out to protect them before they're fully developed), or combing his feathers or anything else.

The only thing Hohenheim does persistently and with excruciating effort/attention is when he clips Edward's flight & tail feathers so that even if he tried, he couldn't fly. It's honestly better if Edward never, ever learns how to fly and never develops the desire to. Far less a chance of someone ever uncovering his condition.

Hohenheim and Trisha have the same argument many times over the course of the first few years of the boys' lives. Hohenheim, as Ed's father, wants to take responsibility for his son's unfortunate condition by severing Ed's wings and tail before he's old enough to really remember them and the procedure.

Trisha, in contrast, argues that Edward's extra extremities are perfectly healthy limbs, even if his wing muscles are underdeveloped, and that it would be a tragedy to cut out such an integral part of himself.

[devilsainz]

carlos just wants to teach something to charles 🥹 x

[despazito]

americans: i need to move to europe where it’s not a fucked up dystopian hellscape

the least racist candy in europe:

[mentattea]

my Piter de Vries doll has a good enough hair to call that part almost done! it's made of felt, glue and a couple hours of late disco mixes on the radio for bg noise

[fortune-maiden]

Comparing some Brothers Karamazov translations and so far my takeaway is no one can agree on how to romanize ‘Alexey’

[wastelandhell]

Thank you mutuals in the tags for reminding me that I have never actually talked about Val and Danse's relationship. The entire point of this blog. The two characters that I post about almost exclusively. Oops.

Yeah, they're hopelessly in love with each other, but they don't get together until shortly before the brotherhoods siege on the institute at the end of the last act. 90% of the time when I'm drawing them its mid-game, when Danse is still in the brotherhood and Val is still looking for Shaun. Maybe I should start actually talking about what happens to Val through the story instead of vaguely alluding to it.

[idissectgermanwords]

I love german names that are nicknames but you could barely even tell (or maybe you can, I don't know). Like Hans, Fritz, Heinz or Heidi.

Hans: short for Johannes

Fritz: short for Friedrich

Heinz: short for Heinrich

Heidi: short for Adelheid

[bahoreal]

im gonna go off on one in the tags pls enjoy

[doomed-era]

hey. so. urbosa's nickname for zelda makes SO much more sense if the gerudo language has diminutive forms

[oceanmoss]

my favourite thing is when new friends call me by my diminutive name like wahhh it just makes me blush so much 😳 it's sahhoora btw hehehe

[koschei-the-ginger]

Idk what is it with our clients from (REDACTED) country but they are never normal about my name. Let's say my name is Catherine, they will respond to my formal work emails with "Dear Miss Kitty" and they don't find anything strange about it. What ARE we?