#fma xing

[ilovepannacotta]

They are still in their honeymoon phase, even 10 years after being married. pls stop

[shanastoryteller]

Happy birthday!!!! More FMA!

He’s fucking tired.

In Xerxes, he’s Van Edris. In Xerxes, he’s the son of a former slave, having narrowly escaped being born into his father’s fate by virtue of him being awarded freedom by the time of his birth. In Xerxes, he’s an uncommon commodity, an alchemist with a skill that hasn’t been seen since his father fucked off to who knows where.

In Amestris, he’s Edward Elric. In Amestris, he’s the son of Trisha Elric who was born free and died free because while there are lots of different forms of freedom, in Amestris there’s one that everyone shares. In Amestris, he’s unknown and unremarkable and no one gives a fuck about what he does.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he says flatly.

This is what he gets for visiting his father’s country. It’s just fucking unfortunate that the really good alchemical texts are here.

He should have let Al (Van Altun, as they know him, even though the two of them having been using their Amestrian names almost their whole lives, regardless of what country they were in) do it. They’re not nearly as weird about him.

Pakor is alright, as far as kings go. He’s freed a lot of people, is poking at the laws of ownership that has governed his country for centuries to see if he can do anything about them without getting beheaded for it. He’s also known Ed since he was a barely able to walk, back when his father still made court appearances and brought the family along with him. Former slave against most talented alchemist in the country, and people tended to politely ignore the former. Hell, Ed’s been counting on the same thing since he was twelve.

Of course, now it’s coming back to bite him. People say he’s a genius, but if he was really smart he would have stayed far, far away from court. Like in Amestris, perhaps.

“You’re fluent in both languages,” Pakor says, coaxing.

“So are you,” he says accusingly. “We’re speaking Amestrian right now!”

Pakor sighs and switches to Xerxian. “You also speak Xingese and Drachman. You’re a difficult man to keep secrets from.”

“I’m also Amestrian!” he shouts. “And free, might I add! You can’t sell me off to slavery just to get some intel!”

“It’s not like we’ll brand you,” he says, affronted, and Ed is reminded that alright for a king is still pretty shitty. “We just need someone to do a little – double checking. To ensure the situation in Amestris is as it’s advertised.”

“You want to gift me to the Fuhrer to spy on him and you’re, what, just hoping he doesn��t notice that I understand everything and know everything and am, oh yeah, one of his citizens? I’ve been to Central before! With my luck, I’ll get recognized the first day here and then run out of Amestris! And, again, Amestris doesn’t have slaves! The leader of the country really can’t have one.”

Pakor sighs. “You’re very dramatic, Edris. It won’t be so bad. Here, I’ll say you’re my personal slave and that you’re on loan. It’ll be for cultural exchange purposes. He speaks Xingese, so you can communicate in that language without letting on you know Amestrian.”

Ed pinches the bridge of his nose. “This is a stupid fucking idea.”

“If you do this,” Pakor says, “I’ll give you the key to the royal library.”

Ed slowly lowers his hand, eyes narrowing. “I’ve been asking you to let me in there for years.”

“I figured I’d need to bargain it away eventually,” he says. “I was hoping you’d marry one of my daughters for it.” Having even light court obligations is bad enough, he’s in no way stupid enough to marry in. “You’re very difficult, you know. I’m your king. I shouldn’t have to bargain with you.”

“Tough shit,” Ed says, because Pakor may have known him for nearly twenty years, but that knowing goes both ways. Besides, he can’t piss him off because then he and Al will stop reparing all their shit bridges and infrastructure. “Fine. But if I lose my Amestrian citizenship over this, I’m going to be pissed.”

“Noted,” Pakor says brightly.

Uhg.

It doesn’t help that everything he’s heard about Fuhrer Mustang makes the man sound insufferable.

[kashlegon]

Xingese siblings let’s goooo

[waitineedaname]

thinking about ed leading a relatively mundane life post-canon while still having all the connections he made during his time as a state alchemist is very funny to me, especially when thinking about his kids' perspectives. several high ranking military officials send them birthday gifts every year. they know four different guys who can turn into animals and this is mostly just a party trick for them. the emperor of xing is a family friend. they go to school and learn about the state alchemists and hear about the youngest state alchemist ever edward elric and they're like "you mean our fucking dad? our loser dad who can't do alchemy and consistently hits his thumb when using a hammer and has a rivalry with our pet chicken? you mean that edward elric?"

[maomaomoa]

[wyvernspirit]

Thinking about Edling and who's last name they'd take if married

Like the obvious answer is Yao because Emperor but like

Would Ed go for that?

Presumably Elric is Trisha's maiden name (Since she didn't take Hohenheim) and he'd probably want to keep that??

Would Al keep Elric then? I feel like the Chang clan might not go for that but I'm not super informed on Chinese surnames traditions (and also Xing is probably not a 1 to 1 for China anyways so)

But again if we circle back to Ling I don't think the Yao clan would let him take a different surname either

Hell I gotta wonder if Ed would be considered like,, a consort??? High consort?? Would ling be allowed only one partner instead of doing the 50 heirs thing (Let's be real Ling probably wouldn't allow that to happen again it just caused an inheritance mess)

If we go the 'they are both cis' route/One of them isn't but doesn't want to birth a child

Like,,, would Ling have to take on a female consort? And Ed would just, be the higher ranked one in the palace

Shakes Arakawa-san

Please I need to know more about Xing and Xing culture and Xing Politics

Hell I want to know more about Xerxes culture and politics!!!

[gipsyjr]

been thinking about this

Ed gave up his gate for Al, yada yada ok but at the end he clapped his hands and couldn't do alchemy as a demonstration BUT THATS THE CHEAT VERSION??

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OLD FASHION CIRCLE DRAWING ED-WARD?!

Ok fine, lets say he can't activate alchemy circles for arguments sake but clearly he's still got all the information about alchemy from the gate, plus his own intellectual brilliance. Therefore, he can make advance theoretical circles, but can't activate them.

SOLUTION. just let someone else activate them. loop hole found, easy fix.

flash forward to Dad Elric in the lab inventing time-universe teleportation alchemy portals so he can traverse to Xing easier and grabbing his kids who were crawling by to make them to "touch the funny circle but don't tell your mother please she'll kill me"

Truth gave up on his bullshit, told him to "go wild as long as you don't break anything important, I have other shit to deal with"

[vikingpoteto]

my dumbass typed "edward cullen/ling yao" on ao3 and sat here staring at the screen wondering why there were no results

[jad3rat]

for ed's birthday ling and lan fan have decided to visit the brothers. although a long journey its 100% worth it. also spoilers ed and ling deff kiss for there birthday present as well as real gift of taking him to the tattoo shop to finally get the alchemy tattoo ed has wanted for so long. ed and ling end up staying all nigh talking before ling has to leave to attend to his contrite. ed ends up following ling home him to continue learning about different cultures and knowledge xing has to offer. and of course to spend time with his boyfriend

this post is also doubling for day 4 of fmabruary since i said so. im posting this around midnight so its right between the two days since the challenge and ed's bday dont quite match up.

fmabruary

day 4: desert

please please please ignore the eyes i did those myself instead of tracing like i normally do. ive been trying to actually learn some basic art bc im tired of having to trace everything to get a result i like. i did the background myself but thats not saying much lol. still new to art but i hope to improve mostly using this months challenge.

[higuruma-s]

The way I've never cared abt royai

[just-trying-my-best-everyday]

I think we are way too chill about Lan Fan. She's sixteen. She cut off her own arm and waded through dirty sewers right after. She recovered from automail surgery in six months, a shorter time than the main character of the series, who previously held the record for shortest recovery period. She took on not one, not two, but THREE immortal beings and came out alive from every encounter. She cut off her own arm. She blew up a town in her first appearance. She blushed a lot. She cut off her own arm. She was the key to a more important character accomplishing his goal. She was arguably the most loyal character out of a giant cast of hyperloyal characters. She cut off her own arm.

[kattythingz]

Time to expose myself as a dragon girl. Edling httyd/rtte au be upon ye!!! Happy new year!!!

This art is pretty representative of my growth as an artist this year, given I officially started my art journey January 2024! It's insanely wild how much I've grown and improved since then; comparing this version to my very first doodles for au is uh... very illuminating, to say the least.

Close-ups and au lore under the cut as always, and thank you to everyone who's supported me the past year! <3

Starting off with our main cast and their dragons! We've got:

Ling -> Lan Fan (albino night fury) ♀️

Ed -> Sunbane (deadly nadder) ♀️

Al -> Socks (prickleboggle) ♂️

Winry -> Sledge (egg biter) ♂️

Paninya -> Rumble & Tumble (hideous zippleback) ♂️

Russell -> Victoria (devilish dervin) ♀️

Most of the gang are from the diverse village of Xing, but the Resembool trio are sanctuary-seekers after a violent dragon raid destroyed Resembool when they were kids and the Rockbells and Trisha died in the aftermath. Winry still had Granny to raise her in their new home of Xing, but Ed & Al, alone, were adopted by the Curtises. They regard Izumi as their mother over the years and eventually take on her family name at 16 (hyphenated. Elric-Curtis) and get her creed tattooed at 18.

Ling is technically the heir to Xing's Chiefdom, but he has no actual interest in the position, not like Mei does. She might be his younger half-sister but she's more commonly regarded as the "heir". This allows Ling the freedom to fuck off to the Edge without consequences lmao.

(He doesn't lose a leg in this au so much as he gets horribly scarred by the fire on his arms; Lan Fan still loses a tailfin. Ed loses his leg protecting Al from a wild dragon as kids.)

Now, as for the dragon hunters... those are obv the homunculi.

Envy serves as early stage Dagur; Greed is INTRODUCED as Ryker, kidnapping Sunbane from Ed and everything (great first impression there), but later becomes post-redemption Dagur thanks to proving his trustworthiness to Ed in "Enemy of my Enemy"; Lust serves as Heather, Greed's sister and Ed's close friend; and Bradley is Viggo, matching Ling's wits in an eerie parallel that steadily tests Ling's temperance.

(Greed and Lust relatively match the gang's ages. Lust was 19 when she met the 16 y/o gang; she never made any advances like Heather, but she was still sus enough that Ed disliked her at first. Envy's—the same age as the gang probably, tbh, given their whole asshole energy. Bradley's still old tho. Ha.)

Team Mustang come in as the Defenders of the Wing, the Riders' first allies, and the Wing Maidens... are the Wing Maidens. Honestly, they're exactly the same but Rose and Noah are part of them lmao. Ed particularly takes a liking to them, because they serve as his genderqueer awakening! He realizes during "Snotlout's Angels", while posing as a woman to save Russell's ass from becoming sacred soup, that he doesn't mind being perceived as a woman and being called she/her. He still personally perceives himself as a man and as he/him, but if his friends want to use she/her? Call him a woman? Call a friendly "have fun, ladies!" at his, Rose, and Noah's collective backs? He doesn't mind at all.

Russell is weird about it at first but mostly out of ignorance. For all his jackassery, he is still a friend and does his (awkward) best to understand Ed's deal. He's also def dealing with unrequited feelings for Ed.

(Mustang is also weird about this, but that's just because he's old and very very confused with the youth. The rest of the team sans Hawkeye is quite fond of calling Ed "little lady" [akin to their canon "boss"] in light of his new gender expression though, and Ed is actually pretty pleased by the nickname. A rare instance where a "short" synonym doesn't irk him.)

Despite his status as a Rider, Ed's actually still pretty distrustful of wild dragons; they did still cause the loss of his leg as a kid. Nevertheless, he's always the first to support Ling in his crazy dragon training endeavors. He carries Izumi's spear as his favored weapon, handed down to him as a gift for dragon killing training initially. He also used to carry a basic but beloved knife that he sadly loses during an episode. Ling makes up for this loss by making his betrothal gift a knife, knowing Ed would prefer a practical gift in the first place.

He forges it himself, as Fu's old apprentice and now a capable blacksmith of his own. He was always capable, technically, but he was also pretty often distracted by his big fat crush on Ed when they were kids, so... he's got a few accidents on public record. This laughably leads to Ed randomly being banned from the forge sometimes just so Ling can focus on his work. Context that is not given to Ed until years later when he and Ed are courting.

And, speaking of courting! Ed used to wear Trisha's kransen as a kid, uncaring that it was "for girls" (insert transfemme egg meme) and that he was judged for it. It was his mothers so he was gonna wear it, damn it. Ling was one of the rare few to never judge Ed for this. When Ed loses his kransen to Envy or sth in a Riders of Berk episode, Ling secretly goes through hell to get it back for him. When he hands it back to Ed, he asks no explanation as to why Ed "cares so much about a girl's accessory" (*cough* Russell *cough*), and simply says, if it's important to Ed then that's all he needs to know.

Ling, oblivious mf that he is, is shocked when he earns a spontaneous hug for this trouble.

Ed later takes to wearing the kransen just around his wrist. He says it's because he's much more confident in his place in Xing now, but he never mentions that it's partially cuz... he feels whatever he has with Ling doesn't really count as "unmarried" anymore.

But Ling doesn't need to know that for a long, long time.

Ed and Russell are basically a one-to-one of Astrid and Snotlout, only Russell is a little less of a dickhead than Riders of Berk Snotlout; he puts his foot in his mouth cuz he's a dumb teenager with a dumb unrequited crush. He and Ed generally refer to each other by last name (friendly rivalry and all), but they've been known to use first names in genuine moments. Russell also notably asks if Ed would like to be called by "Curtis" after he takes on Izumi's name, at which Ed shakes his head and says it's fine to keep things as they are between them.

They've come a long way since their relationship in "Fright of Passage", when Russell, like Snotlout, initially took free jabs at Ed's family name because everyone knows the story of when Izumi Curtis froze against the Flightmare. Izumi's long gotten over those rumors, but Ed was determined to regain her honor and predictably lost his temper with Russell at that comment. That was largely their relationship before Russell got his shit together.

Ed and Al are often confused for twins by the hunters, and they're close as ever on the daily. However, their biggest fight happens when they discover that Hohenheim made the Dragon Eye. Ed and Al have two different reactions at this news: Al is astounded that Hoho was a hunter and is disappointed at the fact... and Ed couldn't care less. Ex-hunter or not, the guy is still a deadbeat.

Al is of a much more forgiving opinion of Hoho, having been two years younger than Ed and thus remembering less of the man who abandoned them and their mother.

They get into an argument over this. The entire gang is stunned.

The fight is bad enough that, in "A Ruff Transition", when a baby razorwhip (Moonshade!! <3) takes a liking to Ed on Wing Maiden Island and he has to train her for a bit, the gang actually wonders if Ed will abandon them for the Maidens. Since he seemed to have so much fun with Rose, Noah, and the rest, nothing like his previous anger and stress after his and Al's fight.

Ling is the only one who doesn't think this, reassuring them calmly that Ed just needs time to cool down and have fun. And he's proven correct! Ed's hurt to discover the gang had doubted him so easily, but Ling hadn't, and the aftermath of that episode leaves things between Ed and co. (sans Ling) a little strained until Al can apologize.

(Moonshade later tracks down Ed in a separate future episode, and she becomes a resident of the Edge, much to the male Riders' initial misfortune lmao.)

Aaaaand that's where my notes weirdly end. I've got a ton more "episode" ideas but that's all the coherent stuff. Bless you if you read this far. As a treat, have a useless fun fact: Ed's dragon names are all based on poisons. Sunbane -> henbane, and Moonshade -> nightshade. Winry's dragon name is an obv pun about sledgehammers, Al's name is a repurposed cat one, yes the gang makes fun of him for this, and Russell just likes classic names and Victoria is a classy name for a classy lady, Elric, can it.

Ling just made the obv canon cold rice pun lmao.

[clearbun]

hey do you ever think about Ling being more deeply affected by Greed's death than Fu's and him feeling horribly guilty about that forever (how do you explain the feeling of emptiness from someone who became part of your soul being torn away to people who only would have seen him as a monster they were lucky to have on their side at best)

[sailforvalinor]

Like obviously he’s overjoyed at having his body back but how much do you think Alphonse misses having such a convenient way to kidnap adopt cats

[maomaomoa]

[saturnaous]

do you wanna send me art rqs I promise I can actually draw sometimes