#true heart hohenheim

[emayuku]

SONGBOOK: The Big Band Singers II

The Big Band Singers: Tanjuro Kamado, Van Hohenheim and Minato Namikaze

Starring Elizabeth Mayuku and the American Standards Ensemble

This season’s lineup highlights the music and times of the greatest 20th century American composers and singers.

@doyoulikethissong-poll

@muichirosboba

@tanjuros 

@ask-tanjuro-anything

@tanjuro

@bloody-arty-myths

@funnylittleredhead

@ask-tanjuro-anything

@noisylovepatrol

@nothingtoseehere1-2-3

@staymarus

@silverynightart

@charlottecors

@anime-demon-slayer-kny

@nostromoboy

@brokendeathangel

@2demon2slayer

@demonslayedher

@nothingtoseehere1-2-3

@noisylovepatrol

@almond0moon

@vinjiko-kny

@iwriteloveletters

@reicchel

@crimsonblack2

@miimiishii

@earlgreybocchan

@vanhohenheimoflight-blog

@hohenheimoflight-blog 

@hohenheiml-blog-blog

@ry-hohenheim-light-wizard-blog

@illustraice

@theliteraryluggage

@roymaes 

@fma-merchandise

@areyousanta

@too-cool-for-facebook

@atomicpowered

@dearreader

@kokodrawings

@yellow-flasher 

@minatonojutsu 

@minaa-munch 

@sockendrache

@taetaebabe 

@minakushiweek 

@wandering-wardster 

@yn-uzumaki-hatake

@fuckyeahminatonamikaze

@xninosch

@konoha-kiiroisenko

@yell0w-flash

@konohasflcsh-blog

@namikaze-yellow-flash-blog 

@minato-namikaze-official

@thetide-thevamps-5sos-1d-blog

@culturegeek20

@annakirk23

@yuumei-art

@lackadaisycats

@bip-n-bop

@funfairsundaes

@ordinaryartistt

@matthew-knyshait

@ordinaryartistt

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Short Story: Midsummer Pt. 1

 The months have passed since Hohenheim became a cocoon in a cave, the container’s green glow dimming as its fibers loosen. Silver tone streams of fluids poured from the opening of the cocoon after a boot-like appendage ran its wing-like groves on the weakened fibers. Heaving its first breath from three heads, the thing once Hohenheim pulled itself out of the cocoon. The body pulsed for the next few minutes, wings expanding with each beat of its heart. The beast’s body was scaled and shined like bubble solution in the sun with the face of Hohenheim embossed on its chest, gasping for any form of relief from this hell as it made its way out of the cave with renewed needs. The three writhing heads twitched and wriggled in the frosty air before realizing a very important detail: it was too cold to ensure the creature’s survival. The snow was too much, too cold for such a specimen of Hohenheim’s degree. Using the once human brain in its possession, Hohenheim stealthy made its way towards Resembool by wing for the warmth it promised as well as the readily available food source. 

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

 The winter came and passed into the new year of 1990, the weather being unusually mild as midsummer preparations in the household of the Mancers. There hadn’t been a flaying in months since Gluttony had chased off Hohenheim into the wilderness with threats of being devoured hideously, most figuring Hohenheim died from the injuries. Because there was the ease of Hohenheim likely being dead and no longer a dangerous presence, plans were made to head down to Resembool for the Midsummer of this year’s celebration. Carmilla the dreadful had mellowed out ever since being placed under the care of Lust after winning full custody rights from Thomas and his now ex wife. Thomas, after the events of the Yule festivities was fully exiled from the Mancer Household, rumor being he got a job on a crab fishing boat elsewhere to make ends meet. At least, that’s what Envy had wanted everyone to believe as they sat on the bottle cap adorned chair like a grody dumpster gremlin as Dolly backed her luggage. Ever since not getting custody of Carmilla, Envy had been dead set on getting a mutant ever since that topic came back once more. “Wayfarer, we’re not going to build a monster from the spare body parts in the morgue.” Dolly calmly stated to Envy as she rolled her luggage towards the exit from her bedroom. “But it’d be fun!” Envy argued, the idea of a frankensteined abomination had absolutely tickled Envy’s fancy. “I might be great with sewing, but I’ve never sewn organic body parts together to make a fully living person. Besides, we have Ernest and Dorian.” Dolly placed her luggage with the familys’ collective suitcases that’ll be rolled out to the van.

 “Exactly! I think we should make them a new sibling!” Envy pointed out, clearly that would be the winning argument. “If that’s the case, then why not go with the clay like before?” Dolly pointed out as the fight for reanimating a nightmare of spare body parts fell apart right away. “Because patchwork monstrosities are better. Besides, I’m sure Face Fur isn’t wanting to make us another clay monster.” Envy clearly wasn’t going to let go of the reanimated monster path as they sat on that damn chair as though it were a throne. 

 “True, Freddy was traumatized by both Ernest and Dorian, but we’re still not going to craft a patchwork reanimated corpse.” Dolly waited a bit on Envy to conclude the debate and hoped they would start packing their bag soon.

 “Fine, dash our hopes for another mutant in our lives! But, I’ll needle Face Fur for another clay asshole instead.” Envy gave a very melodramatic swoon out of humor much to Dolly’s dwindling patiences. 

 “Just don’t get your hopes up on that, Wayfarer. Like I said, Freddy was pretty messed up after the creation of Ernest and Dorian, especially given that Ernest did eat a chunk of his arm back in his youth.” Dolly cautioned as continued to wait for Envy to get their things together for the family vacation.

 “Fairytale please, I’m a master at the art of convincing! I’m sure I’ll get Face Fur on board with making us another clay monster, Grody Gertie will be reality I promise you!” Envy said, clearly proud of the name they had picked out for the hypothetical monster and was clearly determined to have that name. “Oh my gods Wayfarer we are not naming our potential lifeform Grody Gertie!” Dolly paused upon realizing she just agreed to making a monster with Envy as they just gave a shit eating grin at the response.

 “Hey now, I just got you to say ‘our’!” Envy teased immediately, thrilled that Dolly was now sold on another clay monster for Ernest and Dorian. “Envy.” Dolly gave a very deadpanned look at Envy’s antics and was prepared to just pack Envy’s bag herself. “Alright, I’ll get my bag packed now, but we’re definitely going with Grody Gertie.” Envy just had to get that one last shot in for Grody Gertie as an official name before they started packing the bag with what could only be described as a gremlin’s survival pack from the hallway closet.. “No, we are not naming our monster Grody Gertie, we can come up with a better name later once we’re in Resembool.” Dolly gave a sigh at the fact Envy was very much dead set on Grody Gertie and would have to formulate a better name to get Envy hooked on.

 Dolly made her way out of the bedroom to go check on fixing up snacks for the long train ride out to Resembool, the very idea of using planes was not even an option with her. Envy watched as Dolly left, smirking away as making Dolly flustered was now a new fun thing to do. To Envy, Dolly was super adorable when flustered like that as they finished packing their garbage gremlin bag with their favorite Kuromi plush and placed it with everyone else's luggage. Sure, it would be a lot of convincing on Envy’s end to get another clay monster made towards Freddy and just as much convincing to name it ‘Grody Gertie’ once that’s been achieved. Envy stopped for a moment to debate on what to do. They could go straight for Freddy and pester the living hell out of the ancient man to make another clay monster or be a turd in the kitchen while Dolly is packing their snacks for the long ride out. Though it was to make things easy for snack prepping, it was also a bit of an economical move on having each family member book their own cabins on the train in small groups. Envy would be riding in a cabin with Dolly, Ernest, Dorian, Freddy, and Greed as he found a break on tour for it. 

 The fact Greed would be in the same cabin had Envy a little on edge for that pestering of the Face Fur for another clay monster plan. They would have to forgo the snack pestering and head for hunting old man Freddy down for just this occasion. It didn’t take Envy very long to locate Freddy, a smirk coming on their face upon noticing the old man was alone. Perfect, everything was going as planned for getting that shared alchemical abomination. Freddy had been resting in his favorite cushioned rocking chair, relaxing after having to help load up his father into the van for the family vacation. This was possibly the last family vacation Joel could have, seeing as his health finally started to go into decline after Talia’s passing last year. Talks of death and funeral plans had been the topic for the past couple of months, Freddy doing what he could do to make the last moments as pleasant as possible. Freddy had requested to be the one solely responsible for his father instead of Dolly for a change. There came a grip on Freddy’s shoulder, strong and firm as the aging Face Fur sighed knowing who that could be. “Yes Envy, what do you want? Are you even packed?” Freddy sighed as he looked up to greet the family’s garbage gremlin in full view grinning away.

 “Of course I’ve packed, Face Fur! I’m not that lazy now, am I?” Envy scoffed indignantly at being called out in such an unfitting fashion. “Would you care if I responded with yes?” Freddy sniped at Envy rather quickly, having grown tired of this game.

 “Ha ha, you’re such a comedic genius. I’m not here to joke around though, I’m here to talk to you about a possible favor.” Envy shifted topic, their being bruised a bit from that come back. “You realize when you say ‘favor’, it usually revolves around me getting harmed horrifically in some form.” Freddy narrowed his eyes as he said it, a pit forming in his stomach of what was to come next.

 “Well it simply depends on how well you pull it off. Dolly and I have been speaking about getting a third clay construct, how’d yah feel about making that for us?” Envy grinned as widely as possible to sell this plan to old man Freddy who looked at Envy as though they gleefully spoke about a homicide. “Envy, I have that fucking scar still on my arm from Ernest..I rather not get my flesh dissolved once again if I made a third little bastard.” Freddy stated blankly that Envy would even request something as awful as the first time.

 “It could be less flesh hungry than Ernest was when he was made, like Dorian. I’m sure Grody Gertie would be a very fine addition to our little clay based family.” Envy said reassuringly as they revealed that dreadful chosen name for the poor construct. “....Are you being serious with that name?” Freddy had to hold back a laugh at such a ridiculous name that Envy produced. “Why is everyone so against me naming the third clay construct Grody Gertie!?” Envy looked frustrated that their picked out name was being trashed once more. “Because it’s a terrible name!” Freddy finally began to laugh at the absurdity of that name alone and the fact Envy was so determined for it to be official.

“I’ll have you know that Grody Gertie is the most superior name I’ve come up with on my own!” Envy didn’t care much for being mocked like this for a beautifully crafted name such as Grody Gertie.

 “Envy, it’s clear Dolly didn’t even like that name since you left her out in that comment just now. Tell you what, if you and Dolly can come up with a better name than that travesty, then maybe I’ll play nice in making that clay construct.” Freddy was morbidly curious what other dumb names would potentially come out of Envy’s mouth as he gave that offer.

 “You’ll make it if Dolly and I come up with the perfect name? It’s on.” Envy readily took up that perceived offer and ran off to the kitchen to tell Dolly what that old Face Fur said.

 “I said maybe….goddamnit I’m too old to be dealing with this�� bullshit…” Freddy mentally declared his chair time was over as he went to get his own luggage into the van to stay there instead until it was time to leave.

[felixcloud6288]

Fullmetal Alchemist Chapter 67

I have been so excited to get to this chapter!

Was this guy using a heater to cook squid?

Miles was giving Kimblee a gentle warning that discrimination is illegal in Briggs.

And we finally get what I want!

A FULL MAP OF THE COUNTRY!!

This map is mostly consistent with the one from chapter 15 except it's missing the train routes going south from Central City. In the chapter 15 map, there was a train line heading directly toward South City and it passed through Rush Valley and Dublith. That route is missing here and it implies Rush Valley is a detour route instead.

We also have confirmation that Reole is completely disconnected from Amestris's train lines. So Ed and Al likely went to Youswell in chapter 3 because that was the only train they could catch.

So were Ed and Al suspecting this was Father's plan for a while or did they realize when they started going through the tunnels? Ed should have enough suspicion this was their goal after finding the evidence of Cselkcess. And he circled Ishbal before asking Falman for information.

And as a side note, Sloth couldn't just be digging in random directions. He has some skill with geometry and knows how to orient himself in complete darkness. And I'll guess Central was responsible for collecting the rubble.

As another note, the first Greed said he left the others about 100 years ago, and in chapter 31, he was not surprised about hearing Sloth is still working. So Sloth has been digging this tunnel for at least 100 years.

The first crest of blood for the Country-wide transmutation circle was created 356 years ago, and Marcoh said the formulas for Amestrian Alchemy were created over 350 years ago. The legend is a Philosopher from the East, from Cselkcess, taught the Amestrians Alchemy.

NOTHING about Amestris's shape, design, or culture was coincidental. It was all purposely manufactured so Father could achieve his goals.

Even the Alchemy of the country was designed by him. Envy laughed at Ed for thinking he knows how Alchemy works, but Father was the one who manufactured the formulas that all their Alchemy is founded on. So he is the one who truly controls it, and that is why Father can shut it off.

I had the same reaction as Ed and Al when Olivier Mira Armstrong put on the "soft-hearted woman" act.

Major General Armstrong is Greatest Woman. She's not stereotypical in any way, but she can put on the act to trap people who assume she is. She is a power player.

Meanwhile, Raven is clearly a fool with delusions of grandeur. He thinks he's so clever that he can't tell there's any deception nor does he use any caution. He's a disposable pawn who would be discarded once he's no longer of any value.

May said she senses the movement of lots of people under the earth. We then cut to Hohenheim. He apologizes to a list of people for having to use them. Then he spills his blood which proceeds to dig its way into the ground.

At this point, there's no question that Hohenheim has something going on. Father looks exactly like him and they have some history with each other. Hohenheim is also similarly immortal as Homunculi, so that means he must also have a Stone within him.

Just as we might ask what May means when she brings up the movement beneath the earth, we have our answer from Hohenheim. The true source of the energy for Amestrian Alchemy is the Philosopher's Stone.

back

[alloftimeandspacetosee]

Into the Storm, Part2

[1]

Can we say more needless drama? I believe Nyx's writer was still wanting to do some flexing and I got salty about my girls being ignored lmao

~

 Back in the centre, a large crowd had gathered around the two trainers. Several dozen broken pokéballs of all kinds lie around Hohenheim.

 “What is the catch rate of a Ho-oh again?” the female trainer asked, grinding her teeth.

 The other shrugged. “Really low. But it’s a legendary, what do you expect?” he replied, throwing another pokéball.

 Hohenheim shrieked as he was drawn into it for a few seconds, before breaking out again.

 “You need a pure heart, so they say,” the girl said.

 “Maybe. But we can still try. It will be worth it, imagine how powerful it is.”

 Arlette and Aurora, now out of breath from running rather than from laughing, reach for their bags. Harpy nuzzled against Arlette’s hand, purring slightly.

 “Shall we distract them a little?”

 “Not really much space for it.”

 “You should go save him!” Nyx looked to Zlata.

 “It’s alright. We don’t need any distractions,” Zlata said. “This can be resolved easily.” She scowled as she walked towards the two trainers.

 When Hohenheim saw her, he whistled and ran to her. Zlata hugged him, looking up at the trainers – both of whom had paled.

 “Are you… you’re its trainer?” the girl asked.

 “You could call it that, I suppose. His name is Hohenheim, by the way,” Zlata replied coldly.

 The twins drew their hands back from their bags, taking their seats.

 “Why does no one ever want distractions?” Aurora asked. “Why’re we here again?”

 “To travel with friends, collect pokémon, and broaden our horizons?” Arlette suggested.

 “Oh. I thought we were just here to draw heat off others.” Aurora shrugged. “So there is more point to it.”

 “If you did distract them, where would we run off to?” Nyx slipped into the seats beside them.

 “You wouldn’t need to run,” Aurora replied, sounding disgruntled. “We’d just be drawing attention away. You could just not be noticed while we did our thing.”

 “Cheer up.” Arlette grinned. “You could always run away and join the circus again.”

 Nyx reached over to pat Aurora. “Don’t worry, there will be plenty of opportunities to distract and freak, I am sure.”

 Zlata finished with the trainers and sat down with the group, releasing Hohenheim from his pokéball as she did so. “What sort of circus would be around Lavender, anyway? It doesn’t seem like the kind of place where one would fit in.”

 “A ghost circus might,” Ryun said, shrugging.

 A chill gust of air blew around the group, and Xenos pressed himself closer to Arlette’s neck.

 “Circuses aren’t really supposed to fit in. They’re supposed to draw the eye, be fantastic, question the bonds of reality… give people something other than normality.”

 “That’s true.” Nyx smiled. “If a circus wasn’t freaky, I’d ask for my money back!” She lifted a hand to Rem and flinched, looking around.

 “Good point. Although there are many different circuses. Not all are supposed to be freaky,” Zlata said, stroking Hohenheim.

 Xenos whistled and slipped into Arlette’s hood, as if hiding from something.

 Arlette frowned, lifting him out carefully. “Xen, what’s wrong?”

 “They don’t make a habit of fitting in, though.”

 Nyx frowned, looking around. “Did you hear them as well?”

 “I felt something.” Warren hooked an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t run off again, alright?”

 “I won’t.” Nyx lifted her head. “But I definitely heard something, I think they want our help.”

 “What wants our help? There’s nobody here,” Ryun said, frowning.

 Xenos shrieked and clung to Arlette’s hand, shivering.

 “It’s alright. There’s nothing here.”

 “I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Aurora muttered. “There’s something alright.”

 Crawn, from his perch on top of her bag, looked up and cawed in agreement.

 Nyx frowned and stood up. “There’s something here, and it wants our… well, my help. Who are you? How can I help you?”

 “I don’t like this, Nyx.” Warren kept a hold of her arm. “Are you sure it isn’t Giratina?”

 “I’m not feeling any distortion.” Nyx looked around.

 Zlata nodded, stroking Hohenheim. “Hohenheim can feel it too. He doesn’t know what it is, but he is nervous.”

 “Can we do the clever thing and not listen to the voices only you can hear?” Arlette asked. “Because really, it’s getting tiring.”

 Xenos whistled, nodding agreement.

 “I helped people before, didn’t I? And that was with Giratina trying to break through.”

 “What do they want you to do?” Warren asked.

 Nyx frowned. “They won’t say. Just that they’re the ghosts of Lavender… and that I should come alone,” she sighed. “You could follow me? If I get into trouble, then you can help.”

 Rem squeaked, shaking her head.

 “Well they are talking to me, and they are saying they need my help…”

 “I agree with Arlette, Nyx,” Zlata said. “It can’t be good if they want you to come alone.”

 “What if they aren’t the ghosts of Lavender? What then?” Ryun asked.

 “And if they are ghosts, what good will you be able to do them?” Arlette frowned. “It could just as easily be another trick of Giratina’s.”

 “It isn’t Giratina, alright? I know what he feels like, and it isn’t him.” She slung her bag onto the table. “I have Corvus and Rem. Dark beats ghost, and they won’t be able to touch Rem.”

 Warren shook his head, standing up now as well. “No, come on, this is stupid.”

 “You are forgetting, these are ghosts. I am ghost blessed. If they try anything, if anything looks suspicious, then at the very least I’ll be able to fight for myself.” Nyx stroked Rem. “And these are the ghosts of Lavender… I can’t imagine how much they have been messed around with since all the modernisation.”

 Zlata lowered her head. “Be careful, please. I understand wanting to help, but you can’t lose sight of the fact that they are ghosts, they could be dangerous.”

 Hohenheim chirped at Nyx pleadingly, shaking his head. Ryun went over to stroke him behind the crest, shooting worried glances at Nyx.

 “Don’t call us tricks,” a voice murmured from the air – no, several voices, speaking in unison. “We just want our home back.” They were making an effort to sound pitiful, to sound hurt. “We promise we won’t hurt her, so let her come with us.”

 “What good is the word of a dead thing?” Arlette asked.

 “They need help,” Nyx said.

 “Then go.” Arlette waved a hand, scowling. “Go and get soaked, tear down the radio tower or whatever. See if we care when you get thrown in jail for it.”

 Aurora frowned. “Arlette, what–”

 “If we’re just going to be ignore every time we give advice, why do we bother? Go do what you want, Nyx. Someone else can clear up the pieces afterwards.” Arlette pulled her feet up beside her, resting her head on her knees and closing her eyes.

 Nyx flinched away from her. “Arlette… I’m sorry. It’s just, they need help.” She turned away. “I’m sorry…”

 Warren made as if to stop her, and Nyx pushed him gently back into his seat.

 “I can’t keep seeing you in danger,” he hissed. “I don’t like this.”

 Zlata moved closer to Arlette. “That was harsh. It is Nyx’s decision, and we have to respect it.”

 Nyx took up her bag and ran for the exit.

 “No matter how wrong everything about this may seem.”

 Arlette shifted away infinitesimally, refusing to answer.

 “Why do you think they wanted Nyx?” Ryun asked.

 “You’re taking everything too seriously,” Aurora said, sighing as she leant against Arlette. “She can handle herself, we’ve seen that.”

 “I don’t know… perhaps they saw what she did in the storm and want to use that somehow?” Zlata moved back over to beside Hohenheim.

 Ryun frowned. “But how? If they just want their home, how can Naga Nyx help? I’m missing something.”

 “She’s powerful, you saw that.” Warren leant back in his chair. “I suppose they won’t be able to do anything bad, even Giratina couldn’t make her do anything in that form.” He released Vamp, and the umbreon pricked up her ears as her fur bristled, turning slightly darker.

 “I suppose you’re right, Warren.” Ryun made an effort to relax, but he was still tense.

 “Where’s Sargeras, Arlette?” Aurora asked.

 “With Soise,” Arlette muttered. “In the tunnel. They’ll be fine.”

 “They’ve been there a long time.”

 “It’s a long tunnel.”

 Hohenheim chirped sadly, looking up.

 “There’s something not right, though…” Warren reached out to scratch Vamp between the ears.

 The umbreon nodded, springing from the table to the ground.

 Ryun let Dante out, and the houndour let out a growl, hackles raising.

 “Maybe we should go after her. The ghosts said not to, but… it’s not right having Nyx out there alone with them.” Zlata gritted her teeth. “Even if we can’t do anything, at least we’ll know what is happening.”

 “Alright. I don’t see why they’d want to split us up anyway, unless they knew we would interfere.”

 “Oh, the joy of disobeying orders!” Aurora laughed, standing up. “Coming, ‘let?”

 “Nope.”

 “Can we borrow Ferkay, then?”

 “You know where he is.”

 Aurora crouched down and found the pokéball, frowning. Crawn flitted to her shoulder and clung on as she stood up again.

 “Arlette,” Zlata began, and then seemed to change tack. “Please get help if something goes really wrong.”

 “Yeah, sure.”

Warren stood up, pulling vials of potions and tonics from his bag. “If anything happens, guess I’ll have to be healer this time.”

 “With luck, we won’t have to fight before we find her.” Ryun stood up, Dante bounding out of the door ahead of them.

 Aurora glanced back at her sister once before turning to leave the centre with the rest of the group.

 Arlette unfolded as the door shut behind them and reached for her still open bag. Xenos whistled at her, but she ignored him as she pulled out the juggling balls. He whistled more insistently, pressing a hand to her wrist.

 “I know!” She shook him away. “I don’t care.” But she sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than him.

 He subsided and sat down on the table, watching as she aimlessly chose three of the balls and tossed them into the air, catching and throwing almost on instinct.

 She continued to throw them until the shudder of armour across her skin made her miss a beat, and the ball hit the ground. Xenos whistled at her as she frowned at it, shaking her arm until it left.

 “I hate going back on myself,” she muttered. “Harpy, stay with my stuff?”

 The quilava seemed more than happy to do so.

 “Xenos?” Arlette held her hand out for him, putting the balls down on her seat.

 The ralts climbed up and settled himself on her shoulder.

 Arlette left the centre and looked towards the tower. Then she took a step forward – and disappeared.

 She reappeared in the tunnel, almost stumbling into Soise.

 The zoroark leapt away, hissing, as the vaporeon beside her pulled water from the soaked ground to attack with.

 “Ice, you move fast!” Soise made an effort to smooth down her fur, spiked up when she startled. “D’you mind not – what’s wrong?”

 “There’s trouble,” Arlette said, catching herself on the wall. “Nyx.”

 “Giratina?”

 “Ghosts.”

 “How much time do we have?” Soise helped Arlette, letting her lean on her.

 “None.”

 “How long will it take us to get there?”

 Arlette grinned, stooping to pick up Sargeras. “Even less. Hang tight.” She grabbed Soise’s claws – and they disappeared from the tunnel.

 In the basement of the radio tower, Nyx was turning away from the gengar as it pushed the griseous orb towards her.

 “Turn. You were doing well.”

 Ghosts were forcing the rest of the group away, keeping them from helping Nyx. Aurora laughed, even as she was pushed back under an assault of electric and ice type moves, armour rippling into place to defend her. Crawn and Askir worked together, the espeon weaving a shield to hold back the attacks momentarily while the murkrow tore through as many as possible.

 Ryun and Zlata were backing away, under the assault of a ghost nidoqueen. Warren was in his ghost form, trying to keep the nidoqueen occupied, trying to stab it with a knife – but before he could, the ghost retaliated, slamming him away with such strength that his form disappeared.

 “Warren, no!” Nyx shrieked, yanking her hand away from the orb as distortion rippled across her arms.

 Then Soise leapt out of nowhere to rip her claws into the gengar, bowling it over and away from Nyx. “Not late, are we?”

 “We can’t be,” Arlette hissed, slamming her hands into the ground as they became armoured and then hooves, the jewel flourishing on her chest into a crest as armour arced out around her body from it. “I know my time.” She kicked the orb away from Nyx, stepping in front of her to guard. “And yours – is passed.”

 Nyx flinched away and lowered herself, snarling at Arlette. Arlette ignored her, concentrating on the white sheet in front of them, that covered something crackling and so totally wrong it could never exist fully.

 “Your time never was,” Arlette snarled, rearing her head up.

 The ghost under Soise disappeared with a shriek and she turned, looking for another target. Seeing Aurora in trouble, she leapt across, ripping through ghosts on her way.

 Aurora hit the ground, faint wings shattering as she screamed. Sargeras let out a piercing whistle, drawing water from the air and freezing it into a blade of ice that she wielded perfectly, slicing through the ranks.

 Nyx growled, beginning to change in waves – fur to scales to fur, not fixing between dragon and wolf. “He can’t – he can’t take me over fully!” she roared, standing up and lashing out at the ghosts nearest her.

 Warren stepped towards Nyx, sheathing his dagger. “We should get out of here,” he said, meeting her eyes.

 “They want to hurt us, kill us all, harm all those innocent people out there!” Nyx roared, baring her teeth.

 Arlette paces towards the MissingNo under the sheet, growling. The MissingNo backed away, crying out shrilly. The ghosts were fleeing as Nyx let distorted flames lick across the floor of the cellar.

 “We only did it because we were desperate. We turned to such measures because we had to,” the gengar said, stepping out of the wall. “We are attacked, exorcised, our graves desecrated. If they keep going, we will all be destroyed.”

 Zlata came forward. “I am sorry, but Nyx is right. What they did does not excuse what you did. Have you tried speaking to the people of Lavender?”

 The gengar snorted. “You are sweet. And who would speak for us? None of us are listened to, and nobody has stepped up from the humans.”

 “Your time,” Arlette swung to face the gengar, eyes glowing blue from a face that was no longer purely human, “Has passed. The world – this town is not yours to command its attention.” She stepped towards the MissingNo again. “Your time never was. Your time will never be. Go – abomination!”

 Nyx whined and slammed her paws into the floor. “I was willing to listen to you! You called to me and I came, and I would’ve helped you!”

 Warren nodded, placing a hand on Nyx’s paw as he stood beside her.

 “Call off the attacks, now!”

 MissingNo crackled and collapsed in on itself, leaving only the sheet – which fell to the ground now – and small bits of static.

 “It’s too late now. They have taken our tower. The only solution was revenge. But even that is gone now.”

 “People still remember you, surely.”

 “Here and there. Most don’t. Besides, memories don’t do anything for us.”

 “You are ghosts. Nothing does anything for you. Why do you stay, when your time has passed?”

 “You really think revenge would sort out your problems? Just more pain and suffering?”

 Warren looked towards the exit. “You asked for help, but she’s not going to give it to you, not in that way.”

 “If you were willing to cause that much pain then you deserve to be trapped here. Giratina would’ve done far worse than humans ever have.”

 “If the humans were gone, we would have gotten our home back, we could have lived. More death does not matter to the dead.”

 “If there is nothing for you here, why don’t you just let go? Why not die for real?” Zlata asked.

 The gengar stared at her and started to laugh. “You’re one to talk, little Guardian, considering what is likely in store for you.”

 Zlata flinched and glanced at Hohenheim. “What happens to me is no concern of yours. What do you want? To keep living in pain or at least try to be free?”

 Arlette reared up, glaring at them. “Your time has passed,” she repeated. “You have no business on this plane.”

 “Perhaps they are not ready to leave yet, sibling,” Aurora spoke, moving closer. “Perhaps we should give them a place to think things through.”

 “An interesting suggestion.” Arlette looked back at Aurora over her shoulder.

 “The only reason you should be helped is to stop you inflicting more pain and suffering,” Nyx growled as she padded to Warren’s side. “If we help you, you should know it is not done out of kindness and I only hope that we can spare others of your misery.”

 Hohenheim dropped the sheet from the MissingNo and put it over the griseous orb, allowing Ryun to pick it up and pass it to Zlata.

 Zlata paled, wrapping the sheet tighter around it.

 “That should be hidden again, where no one will find it.”

 “We’ll throw it in the sea, Nyx. Would that satisfy you?” Zlata turned back to the gengar. “What will you choose?”

 “It will be up to each individual ghost what they want.”

 “You cannot stay here.”

 “You’ve all made that clear enough.”

 “It’ll always find its way back, like it has a mind of its own or something.” Nyx ran a hand through her hair, finally returning to normal.

 “So where would you hide it?” Warren asked, groaning as he woke up.

 “I can’t.” Nyx laughed. “It’s people like me it needs to be hidden from. People like me, and other ghosts.” She glared at the gengar.

 “We will deal with it.” Arlette held out a hand for the orb, returning to a more bipedal state.

 “Make your choice.” Aurora glared at the gengar.

 “A decision like this isn’t one to make without some thought,” it replied, flinching.

 But ghosts are beginning to disappear, to pass on. More are staying, seeming reluctant.

 “Take what time you need,” Aurora snarled. “But do not presume that you still hold power here.”

 Zlata gingerly passed the rolled up orb to Arlette before hurrying away after Nyx.

 “Just be thankful we aren’t banishing you, and you’re actually getting a choice.” Nyx scowled, leaving the basement.

 The gengar growled, but it is in no position to argue. Ghosts were still disappearing, and others slowly approaching the twins. Then it relaxed, even smiling a bit before dissolving into mist.

 “You and your sister… you mentioned a new place,” the ghost of a torchic murmured. “A few of us would like to accept that offer.”

 “We will deal with… this first,” Aurora replied, slicing an arm across at chest level.

 Arlette brought her free arm down across it as the gems in their chests glowed, peeling open a dark hole. “This will never be opened by us or our own.”

 The ghosts flinched away from that hole as Arlette threw the covered orb into it and Aurora closed it up again. The time rip that Arlette had opened glowed white, with nothing to anchor it to a place. Aurora brought her hands together at the centre of it, closing her eyes.

 “There will be – peace,” she said, pulling her hands apart.

 The rip darkened again as space anchored it to another place.

 “Thank you,” the torchic whispered, leading the rest of the ghosts through.

 “It is done.” The twins met each other’s eyes as the portal closed after the last of the ghosts.

 “So you can let go of those forms now?” Soise asked, peeling away from the darkness.

 “There are no more… aberrances to clear up.” Arlette nodded. “The time for this is finished.”

 They turned towards the stairs out of the crypt, armour shedding like scales into dust.

 As they left the radio tower and found the rest of the group, they were leaning on each other and Soise, perfectly human and utterly tired.

 Nyx scowled and stepped away from Warren. “I said, I’m fine.” She turned, seeing the twins. “Have the ghosts been dealt with?”

 “Perhaps you don’t, but Arlette and Aurora seem like they need it,” Zlata said, hurrying to help support the twins. “I assume they have been, otherwise you wouldn’t have left.”

 “You have felt better,” Arlette said to Nyx. “Or you will have.” Her eyes still glowed an unearthly bright blue as the last of the legendary power raced through her mind.

 “They’re dealt with.” Soise nodded. “And no alarms set off, either.”

 “I broke them earlier. Or later. Some other time.” Arlette shook her head.

 “That’s good.” Nyx folded her arms. “You think we should head back to the centre?”

 “Will you two manage the walk back?” Zlata looked at the twins.

 Hohenheim crooned at Nyx, walking over as he fluffed himself up, pressing into his side.

 “Yeah, we’ll manage.”

 “Shouldn’t’ve left,” Arlette muttered. “But we’ll get there.”

 Nyx glared at Arlette for a moment. “Ok, I was stupid, alright?” She dropped her gaze. “I just wanted to help, that’s all.”

 Warren nodded. “And they were helped. Eventually.”

 “Thanks.” Nyx glared at him, pushing Hohenheim away. “The centre then?”

 “If we hadn’t solved this, the ghosts would have just kept getting angrier and angrier before finally finding some other way. What’s done is done, so let’s not create any more bad feeling between each other.” Zlata glanced between Nyx and Arlette.

 Ryun nodded. “We’re all alive and safe. That’s something, right?”

 Nyx stalked off before them, keeping apart from the group. Warren drifted towards Ryun as they followed her.

 “Why did you bother leaving the centre?”

 “I thought you were going to stay there.”

 “Because I was – will be – am bad at going through with what I say,” Arlette replied. “Especially when there’s danger to people I know involved.”

[greed-the-dorkalicious]

The other interesting thing about Hohenheim imo is that it’s his own relationship fears that are his biggest flaw.

There’s a scene (I think in one of the bonus mangas, maybe?) where he confesses to Trisha that he doesn’t want to touch the boys, because he views himself as “a monster”, and he doesn’t want them to like, idk get cooties or something??? Which Trisha rightfully points out is fucking stupid. We’re introduced to Hohenheim as the cruel, cold-hearted man who wouldn’t even look his kids in the eye and say goodbye, but we later learn it’s because he was emotionally overwhelmed and couldn’t bring himself to do it.

LIKE. Can you imagine how different FMA would have been if Hohenheim and Trisha had taken the kids aside and said “Listen boys, daddy loves you very much, but unfortunately uncle Homunculus is trying to kill everyone so daddy has to go away for a little while”? If he’d sent the family a “Hey, how’s everybody doing” letter once in a while? So much as given them a phone call?

But he DIDN’T do those things. Hohenheim is not a bad person and he does love his family, but he ends up being a bad dad on virtue of being too much of a dumdum to actually talk to them. We can see very clearly what his problem is. And yes, probably part of it was not wanting to worry them or not wanting Father to learn about the kids (the latter being the reason he and Trisha were never married, for those who don’t know), but there’s still better ways he could have handled the situation.

AND THE OTHER INTERESTING THING IS!!! Ed inherited this trait too! Multiple characters have commented on the fact that he never tells anyone anything about how he’s feeling, he always tries to shoulder every burden himself, and he pretty much only goes home when something’s wrong. But we ALSO see Ed start to overcome this issue after having it pointed out to him. This is part of why Ed is the true Philosopher’s Stone thanks for coming to my (I am dragged off the stage with a comically large hook)

See the thing is that for the good of the world Hohenheim leaving was objectively the good choice (in my opinion). He was at a crossroads between ‘get the fuck out of dodge’ and ‘try and stop the dwarf in the flask’ and, having wife and kids, he decided on the later.

But it was also not the right choice for Ed and Al, for his family.

[jostenneil]

happy father’s day and a big fuck you to people who call hohenheim a bad dad for having the courage to want to live happily with his family and save them from an apocalyptic death. i know the cognitive thinking skills in fma fandom are puny but sometimes this phenomenon really takes the cake!

[maggins]

hey loOK it’s the FMA x Luca crossover nobody asked for!! [crowd booing]

i’m in so freaking deep i also wrote a bullet point outline of this AU so gET READY for a lot of text, grammatical errors, plot inconsistencies and overall unfinished ideas because i’m a terrible writer and i’ve never done anything like this before (but bOY was it fun to erratically type down these ideas as they came along)

Hohenheim was a human, Trisha was a sea monster living in disguise among humans

Hoho never knew Trisha was a sea monster; they lived in a town that was pretty prejudiced against sea monsters and he had that internalized phobia (???)

Due to having having mixed parentage and having been born while Trisha was in human form, Ed appeared to be a human-looking baby on birth, so Hoho never really suspected anything

Hoho and Trisha’s life together was short but sweet, but not long after Trisha got pregnant with Al, Hoho (not sure how??) discovered her secret and was horrified

(not sure about this part now it feel sO CRUEL) Hoho took Ed and ran away with him, clinging desperately to the hope that he was just a human child and that Trisha’s sea monster-ness hadn’t actually passed down to him since he never displayed that ability to transform when wet

surprise, surprise, Hoho was wrong. Ed’s sea monster genes just awoke a bit late (maybe a few years later??), but he was still a sea monster through and through after all

Meanwhile Trisha, heartbroken and with an unborn baby to take care of, returned to the ocean and went to live with two old friends of hers: Izumi and Sig. They welcomed her with open arms and helped her raise baby Al

Trisha had always been fond of humans and their world, that is why she was living on the surface in the first place, but Izumi never shared that view. Even more so now that one of them had broken her friend’s heart and stolen one of her children. That hate increased tenfold when years later Trisha got captured/killed(?? not sure which yet oops) by humans. This led to her being overprotective of Al and warn him against the horrible land monsters who not only took his mother away, but also were absolutely NOT be trusted (since Hoho was a human who held Trisha’s love and trust, but the second he found out about her true nature he ran away with their older son)

On Hoho and Ed’s side of things, Hoho got increasingly frustrated with his clashing worldviews of hating sea monsters and the fact that the person he loved and now his son are actually those exact creatures. Not to mention that now he has to raise Ed all by himself and can’t have anyone find out about his son’s true nature.

He does so for a while, moving from town to town and laying low so as to not raise suspicion, but also getting locals’ help wherever he goes bc they take pity on this wandering vagrant and his small son

However, Ed is growing up and being… Ed, and it gets harder for Hoho to hide his true form from everyone else so eventually they settle on an abandoned island just off the coast of [insert weird mix of Resembool and Portorosso town here]. For a while Hoho stays there and takes care of him, but eventually leaves and Ed has to fend for himself for a while (à la Alberto and his dad)

Ed has grown up to be a very curious and inquisitive boy, but he also acts a bit rashly, which has led to him getting in some trouble. However the greatest trouble he’s ever encountered was when some hunters almost got caught him and harpooned his arm, leading to its loss (i was actually not sure if he should lose his arm before or after Hoho leaves, but i guess it’d make a lot more sense for his survival if he had someone there with him to treat it rather than him being a literal child all alone on an abandoned island and still having to deal with the loss of an arm)

(I’m still not sure of the exact circumstances in which Hoho leaves or what kind of justification he could have for leaving Ed all alone to take care of himself, and missing an arm nonetheless; buuuut idk maybe he admitted to himself he couldn’t actually do this alone anymore and went away to try to find Trisha again or some other sea monster bc he can’t raise Ed to just be a human anymore, he was and always will be a sea monster, and there are things that Hoho just can’t teach him)

So this is kinda like parent trap….. brother trap???? lmao that makes no sense at all wHATEVER the brothers grown up separately (i’m still not sure if they should be aware of each other’s existence??? Ed probably would know bc how come he was a sea monster and his dad wasn’t one like aNSWER ME DAD WHERE DID I COME FROM; but Al would be more sheltered by Izumi i suppose); Ed goofs around on his island and Al leads a pretty boring life underwater, longing for m o r e

They meet one day kinda like in the actual movie Luca, hit it off right away, make plans to go to town and get a Vespa maybe blah blah blah (but like….. elric*st shippers DNI)

and tHEN THERE’S WINRY. i suppose she’s our giulia now lol except automail still exists in this weird mish-mash world, and she’s been training to be an engineer probably from the moment she’s born lol and once the brothers’ secret is out she takes it upon herself to build an automail for Ed that not only is lightweight and extremely water resistant, it also has to be adaptable to whenever Ed changes forms… one hell of a challenge but holy shit she’s resilient and Ed really, rEALLY appreciates her kindness and willingness (Al cheers on them from the sidelines, the little shit)

the reason i wasn’t sure i should kill off Trisha for good was just…. gosh, she’s been thru so much, she deserves a happy reunion with her TWO sons, one of which she hasn’t seen since he was a toddler jUST LET ME HAVE THIS OKAY ;n;

i’m also not sure how the brothers discover they’re actually siblings, but i’m thinking Ed is the one who figures it out first by learning more about Al and his mom, and piecing things together with the stuff his father told him…. and when he DOES figure it out…. oH BOY……. ;;;u;;;;

aaand that’s all she wrote

[lilyvines]

yes my favorite character is roy but i also really super duper adore olivier. I also cry everytime at the last episode when Ed decides what to do and stuff and lose his alchemy like that scene when he gets to his door and the conversation is my favorite thing ever in the world. I also ccryevery time over when Ed thought Roy had killed Ross and stuff and like you sort of believe it to be true but she lived and aughghghahhghg wailing. sorry this is nonsense

ITS MY KIND OF NONSENSE

my favorite characters are ed and al easyyyy theyre my boys!!! i also love mei i hold her very near and dear to my heart

for me saddest moments in fmab are def that one with maria and that scene with ed and winry where she goes to shoot scar and also the nina one and the death scenes (especially hughes) but also everytime i think about hohenheim and his relationship with his children especially im just. tears in my eyes. on the floor. bawling like i did not like him for a while i thought he was an ass bc i am an edward elric apologist but when we learned more about him i just.

[gimblestank-the-goblin]

Father’s Greed

Finally finished my FMA Brotherhood rewatch and one thing that stood out was Greed’s admission that what he was looking for all along was not wealth or fame or power but simple human connection. Friendship would have filled the hole in Greed’s heart. 

And I think that’s really interesting for what it says about Father. Because, as Father himself says, Greed came from him. There isn’t a thing Greed doesn’t desire that Father didn’t want first. 

And I think that holds true. It would certainly explain a lot of father’s actions. His decision to treat the homunculi like children, his continued and seemingly genuine affection for Hohenheim, this all point to a man who is deeply desirous of human connection to the point of forming his own family. 

[worryinglyinnocent]

Fic: Practical Alchemy (8/11)

Summary: "Everyone knows that the Hawkeye name is cursed. There are always two girls to a generation and they have to keep the family name in order to inherit. They'll fall in love with alchemists, and those alchemists are doomed to die. We thought Aunt Trisha had broken the curse - she changed her name, and she had boys not girls - but it just rebounded on her. That's why I dread falling in love."

Riza Hawkeye lives a quiet life - running her late aunt's herbal dispensary and helping her Uncle Hoho bring up her young cousins, having vowed never to fall in love herself. A call from her estranged sister Rebecca turns her life upside down - especially when a certain State Alchemist named Roy Mustang enters the scene on the sisters' tail.

A Practical Magic AU.

Rated: T

[One] [Two] [Three] [Four] [Five] [Six] [Seven] [AO3]

Eight

Mustang was true to his word about seeing them the next day, as the thing that Riza had been dreading happened - he came to the house. She was pleased to see that he had come alone; she didn’t know where Havoc and Fuery were camping out or what they were doing whilst Mustang came to question her and Rebecca, but she wasn’t naive enough to think that they weren’t still investigating in the rest of the town, getting statements from other people about what might have happened that previous weekend. There was always the chance that someone had seen something strange that might incriminate them, even if they didn’t know exactly what it was that they were saying. As soon as she saw Mustang coming up the path, Riza’s heart started beating painfully in her chest. Ed, Al and Uncle Van were all still in the house and there was no way of keeping them apart unless she did something drastic. 

To that end, Riza found herself speeding out of the house to waylay the alchemist on his way up the path. There was nothing she could do to stop him seeing the car, but she made a valiant attempt at distraction nonetheless. 

“Colonel Mustang, it’s nice to see you so bright and early this morning. You must have been very keen to talk to us again to tackle the hill up towards the house.” She cringed even as she said it; she had never been good with talking to strangers. She wasn’t all that good at talking to people she did know. Really it was Rebecca who should be out here providing the flirting and distractions, although quite what she was distracting Mustang from was up for debate. Riza had visions of Rebecca trying to shoo Ed, Al and Uncle Van out of the back door with increasingly impossible excuses. It was never going to happen. 

“Good morning, Miss Hawkeye. Is your sister at home, too?”

“Yes, she’s around somewhere.”

“And the rest of the family?” 

Something inside Riza twisted. “Yes, they’re around too.”

“I’m right in thinking you live with a Mr Hohenheim?”

“Yes. He’s my uncle, married to my mother’s sister.” Why had she volunteered that information? What was it about this man she’d met all of four times that made him so trustworthy in her eyes?

“Is there anyone else in the family?”

“My two cousins. They’re just kids though, surely you don’t need to talk to them?”

“No.” Mustang gave a small, amused smile. “Just trying to get a picture of things.”

“Right.” Riza started fidgeting with her hands, trying to think up some small talk to keep him occupied for a while longer. Unfortunately, he beat her to it.

“It’s a beautiful car,” he said, indicating the Panther abandoned haphazardly in the driveway. “Whose is it?”

“Mine.” Rebecca raced out of the house, still pulling her shoes on. “It’s mine.”

“I see. You drove here from Central in it?”

“Yes.”

“I see.” There was a long pause. “May I come in, ladies? I’d like to speak with your uncle.”

Riza and Rebecca looked at each other. There wasn’t going to be any getting around it, so they might as well just bite the bullet and get it over with. At least Uncle Van wouldn’t have to lie; he really was clueless. 

They led him into the kitchen, and despite her nervousness, Riza was somewhat glad that Ed and Al were in there, because they could distract Mustang with their genuine enthusiasm for all things alchemy and their barrage of questions for the State Alchemist better than she and Rebecca ever could. They were asking about his codename and asking to see his watch, and he seemed to be happy to accommodate them. 

“The Flame Alchemist, huh.” Rebecca raised an eyebrow as they left Mustang talking to the boys and went in the direction of Hohenheim’s study. “Probably best not to get on the wrong side of him…”

She trailed off, staring at the cellar door. There was nothing different about it, it was looking exactly the same as when they had shut it on their indiscretions on Sunday evening, but there was a strange intensity in her gaze that Riza had not seen there before. 

“Becca?”

She shook herself, looking over at Riza. “Huh?”

“You kind of spaced out for a second there.”

“Yeah.” She glanced back at the door and shivered, moving on past it with a determined force in her step and knocking on Uncle Van’s door. 

“Come in.”

“Uncle Van, the State Alchemist is here. He’s investigating a missing person and he wants to ask a few questions.”

“I see.” Uncle Van came out of the room, giving both of them a look over the top of his glasses. It was clear that yesterday evening’s conversation was still fresh in his mind, and Riza felt another wave of guilt pulse through her. 

They made their way through into the kitchen, and Mustang immediately stopped his demonstrations of flame alchemy, much to Ed and Al’s consternation. 

“Mr Hohenheim? I’m Colonel Roy Mustang with the State Alchemists.”

“Yes. How can I help you? Rebecca said you were investigating a missing person.”

“Yes. A State Alchemist by the name of Solf Kimblee. He was known to Rebecca and he was last seen in Central City on Saturday. He is a dangerous man and we need to find him as soon as possible.”

“I see.” Uncle Van gave Riza another incomprehensible look. “I’m afraid I can’t help you. Ed, Al and I were in Dublith all weekend. We left Saturday morning and came home Monday. We were staying with some friends there, the Curtis family.”

“I understand. Thank you anyway, and if you do receive any indication of Kimblee’s whereabouts, please contact me.”

Uncle Van nodded, and Mustang rose to leave. Riza escorted him to the front door, Rebecca tagging along behind them, almost as if she was trying to chaperone without being too obtrusive. The fact that Mustang wasn’t saying anything was worrying to Riza, and she couldn’t get a read on him. Was it a good thing or a bad thing? He’d evidently accepted that the rest of the family would be a dead end, for which she was grateful, but that did mean he’d probably double down on her and Rebecca since only they could provide the missing information. 

“It really is a lovely car,” he said as they passed it in the driveway on their way down to the gate.

“Well, Rebecca has always enjoyed the finer things in life.”

“Miss Hawkeye, I happen to know that this lovely car is registered to Solf Kimblee. His name is on all the insurance and licence paperwork. I also know that no one in this family is officially licensed to drive.”

Riza sighed. She had known that the car would be the thing that caught them out, and she still didn’t have any way around it. 

“Ok, we stole it.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, not wanting to get caught out in another lie and thinking it might be better to tell a small part of the awful truth now if it might divert attention away from the rest of the awful truth. If Mustang believed that they were only being so cagey because of the stolen vehicle in their driveway, then it might throw him off the scent of what had actually happened to Kimblee himself. 

Mustang just looked at her, his expression calm and open. “Go on.”

“I’m not licensed but I’m a halfway decent driver. Rebecca called me and asked me to come get her. We stole his car whilst he was incapable of driving it, and I drove it back here. There. There’s the story.”

“I see.”

There was a strange moment then, an odd sort of stalemate. In a way it almost felt cathartic to get it out there in the open. 

“Thank you for your honesty, Miss Hawkeye,” Mustang said eventually.

“So, what happens now?” Riza pressed. 

“Now, I focus on finding Kimblee. Finding his car is all very well but it doesn’t really help me if I can’t find the man himself. Good morning, Miss Hawkeye.”

He made his way down the path, and Riza watched him go. A small part of her felt a little bereft, like she was willing him to come back for some reason. 

“Come on. There’s nothing to be gained from standing out here looking wistfully down the driveway like you’re in one of Aunt Trisha’s romance novels.” Rebecca put an arm around her, and eventually they turned and went back towards the house. 

“Do you think he’ll leave us alone now that he’s caught us out with that?” Riza asked. 

“I don’t know. We can hope, but considering your lingering looks, I don’t think you entirely want to be left alone.”

“I’d rather be left alone and know that it was all over than having it still hanging over us.” Riza shook her head. “I still think that we can trust him, and that he’s only trying to help us. I don’t think we’re helping ourselves by being so secretive but at the same time, I just want it over.”

There was a part of her that wanted to spend a lot more time with Mustang, but she’d far rather that it was in less fraught circumstances, and in a choice between never seeing him again or having this entire affair drag on a minute longer, she would gladly never see him again. It was just her luck that the first time she had ever really been interested in getting to know someone, it was the man who could, and possibly would, arrest her for murder. 

When they got back into the kitchen, Ed and Al had left, but Uncle Van was still sitting there, looking out over the garden and the tomato plants where they’d had their discussion the previous evening. He turned to them as they came in, and Riza could see that he was not in a good mood. It was rare for Uncle Van to be angry - he was often in his own little world, and he was generally affable. It took a lot to shake him, but it seemed that he had definitely been shaken now. 

He didn’t shout. He’d never shouted. But his demeanour was far from normal.

“Considering we now have State Alchemists coming to the house to investigate missing potentially dangerous persons with whom I know you’ve previously been in a relationship, Rebecca, are you any more inclined to tell me what’s going on?”

Rebecca sat down at the table and repeated the story about the stolen car that Riza had given to Mustang, but Uncle Van’s expression didn’t change. 

“There’s more to it than that,” he said pointedly. “This goes further than you stealing a car to get away from a bad relationship. I’d already guessed that was what you’d done and that was why we have a random car in the driveway.” His expression softened. “I don’t blame you for doing what you did. I’m just glad you got away from him. But please tell me what else has been going on.”

Rebecca gave a shaky sigh, looking out of the window and not meeting Uncle Van’s eyes. Under the table, RIza grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly.

“Rebecca, please let me help you. Both of you.”

Rebecca shook her head. “I can’t. It’s too…”

Dangerous? Strange? Shameful? Riza didn’t know how Rebecca would have finished the sentence, but the word that came to her own mind was much. It was all just too much to explain, to take in, to accept that it had all happened. It was too much to expect Uncle Van to jump in and help with. They’d brought this upon themselves, in a way, and it was up to them to fix it. At least, that was Riza’s take on it. 

“All right then.” Uncle Van just looked sad now, and Riza wondered if he thought that they didn’t trust him. She trusted him with her life, but this was bigger than her and Rebecca, and it was because she loved and trusted him so much that she didn’t want to come clean. She just wished that she knew how to articulate that to him. “I’m going to call Izumi and arrange to go back and stay with her and Sig for a couple of days. Whatever you might have got yourselves into, I don’t want Ed and Al to be in danger from potentially murderous State Alchemists on the rampage.”

Rebecca just nodded, opening her mouth as if to say something and then shutting it again. 

He got up and left the room, and Rebecca leaned into Riza’s side. 

“I just want this to be over,” she said. “I just want him gone. I can still feel him hovering over the house like an ill omen. He’s not gone yet and I need him gone, and I don’t know how to get him gone.”

Riza would admit that she was beginning to be somewhat perturbed by Rebecca’s insistence that Kimblee’s spirit was hanging around them, especially as she couldn’t really feel anything nefarious herself aside from her now constant sense of unease at the entire situation. She wondered if maybe it was the manifestation of a guilty conscience and if they told Uncle Van exactly what had happened, then it might set Rebecca’s mind and rest and allow her to find peace and move on, but ultimately, she would stick by her sister whatever might happen. 

“Riza? Becca?” Ed came into the kitchen. “Are you ok? I can’t tell if Dad’s mad at you or not, and if he is, then I can’t tell why. You stole that car, didn’t you?”

Riza sighed. “Yeah, we did. It was an emergency and we had to get out of Central so we stole the car. But that’s not why Uncle Van’s mad at us. If he’s mad at us. I can’t tell either.”

“It takes a lot to make Dad really mad.” Ed came and sat down with them, still musing. “I think you’d have to have done something really stupid for him to actually get mad. Like when Ed and Al decided to try human transmutation.”

Beneath the table, Rebecca squeezed Riza’s hand hard, and Riza gave an involuntary grimace at the pain. 

“Even then, he wasn’t really mad, he was more plain terrified that something could have happened to us. Look, if you tell him the truth then he won’t be mad. He might be mad for about a minute and then he’ll just be glad that everything’s out in the open. Come on, you’ve known him for ages. You’ve known him as long as I’ve been alive, so you must know that he’s not going to go mad. He’s already half-mad in the cuckoo sense.”

“It’s more complicated than that, Ed. People might get hurt, and I don’t want you or Al or Uncle Van to get hurt so just let us handle this, and stay safe out of the way with Izumi. Please.”

Although Ed looked hurt by Rebecca’s rejection, it was clear that he too could pick up on the sheer desperation in her voice. 

“Becca, you don’t have to do this on your own. We all want to help you, and we’re not going to sit on the sidelines and let you go it alone when you’re in trouble. If you need help, then Al and Dad and I can help.”

“No you can’t!” Rebecca snapped suddenly, and Ed recoiled, alarmed by the sudden shout. “No one can!”

“Ok then…” He left the room, giving Riza a worried look as he passed her. 

“Becca, what was that about?”

Becca just crumpled onto the table, burying her face in her arms. “I don’t know,” she said, her voice choked and muffled. “I have no idea where that came from. It’s him, I swear it. He’s poisoned my mind.”

Riza put her arms around her sister, stroking her shoulder gently. “It’ll be ok.” She wished she sounded more confident. Out in the corridor beyond, she could hear strains of a whispered conversation. 

“Dad, we can’t leave now! There’s something really wrong with Becca!”

“Ed, I have tried, but I can’t help her if she and Riza won’t tell me what’s going on, and I’m not letting you and Al get caught up in this drama.”

“But can’t you see how scared she is? You can’t just leave her!”

“Ed, I know something is wrong and I have tried to find out what but it’s like I’m banging my head against a brick wall. Riza and Rebecca are adults, and you and Al are not, and I think Riza and Rebecca will agree with me when I say that keeping you two safe has to be my priority right now.”

Riza would agree with that. She squeezed Rebecca’s shoulders. 

“Come on, Becca. Please snap out of it. We can get through this.”

Rebecca sat up again, scrubbing her hands over her face and rubbing the tears away from her eyes. 

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s happening to me. I should go apologise to Ed. I just…” She trailed off. “I just feel like there’s something watching us, and I don’t know whether that’s because Kimblee really is haunting us, or it’s a kind of persecution mania brought on by Mustang, or what. I think I’ll be better once Ed and Al and Uncle Van have gone and aren’t in the firing line anymore. We’ve got to be the ones to fix this.”

“I know. I just don’t know how.”

“Me neither. I mean, eventually Mustang will give up and go home, right? Eventually he’ll realise that wherever Kimblee is, he’s not doing anyone any harm anymore.”

Except perhaps Rebecca herself. Kimblee was definitely still at the forefront of her mind all the time and he was definitely still causing her mental distress if nothing else. Riza had to do something to bring her back into equilibrium. She couldn’t let Rebecca continue like this. She just didn’t know what the best course of action was - how could she bring her closure? They’d cleaned up after themselves as thoroughly as they could and the body was under the ground, there wasn’t a lot more that they could do to draw a line under everything. Maybe she could get Mustang to have the car towed away or something - he’d probably need it as evidence. Or if he didn’t maybe he could torch it, although it was a bit too close to the house for comfort for doing that. It was the only thing that she could think of that was still out there as a reminder of everything that was going on. 

Then again… RIza thought back to the previous evening and the mystery of the pocket watch. Maybe Rebecca did have a point that forces beyond their control were at work, and if that was the case, she had no idea how to go about drawing a line under the whole thing and having it over and done with. 

By the evening, Riza and Rebecca were alone in the house again. Ed and Al had been positively mutinous about leaving, but Uncle Van had put his foot down, and Izumi and Sig had been happy to welcome them back so soon after their last visit, even if the circumstances were somewhat fraught. Uncle Van had taken Riza aside just before they left, reassuring her that if they needed help, all they had to do was pick up the phone and call Dublith. The implication was clear; he was giving her a final chance to come clean before they left, a final chance to tell him what was going on and let him help her right here and now, somehow knowing that she would be more receptive to it than Rebecca would. 

The tension in the house was palpable after they had left. Since her outburst earlier in the day, Rebecca had been closed off and brittle, spending most of her time staring into the middle distance, arms wrapped around herself as if she was physically trying to hold herself together. All of Riza’s attempts to get her to try and calm down a little had been for nothing, probably because Riza herself was so highly strung as well. They were feeding off each other’s fear, and it wasn’t conducive to them actually doing anything to get out of their situation. 

Riza knew she needed to make a plan, but aside from telling Mustang everything that was going on, she had no idea what to do. She didn’t even know where to start. In a way, she was glad when Rebecca went to bed early with a headache, leaving her alone in the greenhouse with her thoughts. 

She was going to have to talk to Roy.  Even if she couldn’t tell him the full truth, she had to tell him something. Her idea about getting him to take the car away was still sticking if nothing else. She would go and see him first thing in the morning, it was too late to do anything now…

Riza woke suddenly in the middle of the night, unsure of the reason for her wakefulness. Her sleep had been dreamless and she’d been glad of it; her nights had been disturbed ever since this whole thing had started. 

She looked across at the other bed, finding it empty. Rebecca was up. The clock on the wall showed that it was just gone three in the morning. There wasn’t really any reason for Rebecca to be up, and surely Riza would have heard her moving around downstairs if she’d just gone to the bathroom or to get a glass of water. The entire house was eerily silent. 

Perturbed, Riza got up, tiptoeing down the stairs from the attic and padding through the house, checking all the rooms in turn. When she got downstairs to the hallway and saw the cellar door open, she felt cold fear running down her spine again. 

The cellar was dark, and she felt around for the light switch before she made her way down the stairs. When she saw Rebecca sitting in the middle of the circle, Riza realised she wasn’t entirely surprised. Rebecca had been pre-occupied with the cellar all day, even though neither of them could really tell why today of all days she was so affected by it.

They had cleaned up the blood and the chalk after their disastrous attempt at alchemy, so there was nothing to remind them of what had happened down here. 

“Becca? Rebecca?”

There was no response, and Riza inched closer to her sister. She was curled up in the middle of the circle, arms wrapped tightly around her knees.

“Becca?” She reached out to touch Rebecca’s arm, she was freezing. “How long have you been down here? Come on, let’s get out of here, it’s creepy as it is and you’re only making it creepier.”

Rebecca, who had been completely unresponsive until that moment, seemed to come back to herself then, giving herself a shake and looking around the cellar. She shuddered with revulsion, and then, as if she hadn’t noticed the cold before, stayed shivering. 

“How did I end up down here?”

Riza gave a worried shrug. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

Rebecca shook her head. “I think I’m going mad.”

Riza didn’t say anything as  they made their way back up out of the cellar and up towards the attic again. Rebecca crawled into her bed and curled up under the covers, still shivering. After a moment, Riza got in with her, holding her close.

“Something’s got to give,” Rebecca said. “We can’t go on like this. I can’t go on like this. Maybe we should have told Uncle Van after all. I don’t know what he could have done to help but three heads are better than two when it comes to a solution, I’m sure of it.”

Riza nodded. “Yeah. We can call him tomorrow, if you want. To be fair we could probably call him right now and no one would mind.”

“I know.” Rebecca sighed. “It’s just so unfair that everyone’s being dragged into this and it all could have been avoided if we’d gone to the police in the first place. We might be in jail but at least I wouldn’t be going crazy and sleepwalking around the house at night.”

“I think it’s just stress, and perhaps a guilty conscience,” Riza said. She really hoped it was that and nothing more sinister. “I’m going to talk to Mustang tomorrow,” she added. “Maybe if I tell him everything, we can reach some kind of understanding. I think he genuinely wants to help, and if he knows that Kimblee isn’t out there terrorising the young women of Central anymore, he’ll leave us alone and things can go back to normal. I’m sure that we’ll be able to work something out.”

Rebecca nodded. “Are you ok if I don’t come? I don’t think I can face it. You can always bring him back here if you need to arrest me or anything. I just… It’s all so much, Riza.”

It was an echo of her thoughts from earlier, and Riza could only agree with her. 

[gamespritearchive]

yes i like fullmetal alchemist brotherhood a normal amount (<- lying) this post is going to be long so open the readmore at ur own risk

ok this is genuinely going to be a mess because im really terrible at summarizing things and organizing my thoughts so if ur actually gonna read through this then good luck!

here are just some short thoughts before the longer paragraphs

- i absolutely LOVE the note that plays right after the alchemists clap their hands together that indicates that theyre abt to use alchemy. the sound of the clap + the note that plays is incredibly satisfying

- the strong and well-written female characters in this show was a really good touch and i loved how they brought them (izumi and olivier) together at the end :') also their beefy husbands together was super nice too

- my favorite part of the story was actually the part where ed and al go to briggs because thats wher they introduced olivier. it was super nice to see her talk about how strong-willed she is and her army and all of that

- lan fan is another example of a strong female character but a little less favorable since she serves ling yao. that doesnt make her any less cool though she was super badass and i definitely cried over her more than once

- the details in this show was really nice. alphonse's body being malnourished was something that seemed really obvious, but the fact that when ed got his right arm back it was noticeably less muscular and had longer nails than his left was such a good detail

- in the last episode there was a scene where alphonse made a dumb face that was animated just like how ed's faces looked and that made me really happy that we finally get to see al emote just like his brother :')

- im pretty sure i cried through the entirety of the last episode because being able to see the characters laugh and smile without feeling burdoned by anything after youve seen them go through repeated heartache and physical pain for 63 episodes is a super nice feeling

- "i'm a terrible father but i want to make you two proud" .

- "i'll give you half of my life and you give me half of yours" UGH

- also right after this when ed was laughing at how flustered winry got because normally hes the one who gets flustered :') that was so sweet

- i literally guessed that it was morse code whenever they showed selim banging on al's head because its like why would they put so much emphasis on that and let it go on for like 10 seconds without any music over it. this happened like multiple times too and i guessed it before they made it incredibly obvious bye im the smartest guy alive

ok heres where i talk more besties lets go

fmab was absolutely worth watching 64 episodes. i was convinced that i probably wont finish it because i have trouble finishing 12 episodes but as it may be obvious i got super invested. fmab being this long allowed there to be enough time to explain aspects of the story separately and to watch them all come together at some point. it also allowed for a ton of details that even though they're small, they're still important to the story. they rehash a lot of points because it was a simple detail that could get lost through the story but when its rementioned and you recall the time, it's such a nice feeling to have that click in ur mind.

also the character development was really good and ill get more in-depth about characters later but the length of this anime also allowed for a ton of really good character development. it ties into the whole thing where you learn about a characters backstory and you don't understand why it's important to the show until later on and then you're like ohhhh holy shit that makes sense now! also all that time for character development also lets you get attached to more than just the main characters and makes you care more about the role they play in the story.

roy mustang. at first i liked him, but when he started to speak about how he wanted to become the fuhrer president before he knew the military was corrupt, i assumed that he would just become as corrupt as bradley was ("starting wars for no reason"). i was convinced for the longest time that he would eventually just turn out to be the second bad guy and that nearly came true whenever he was trying to kill envy but riza helped him :) i loved the entirety of their relationship they're so sweet and compliment eachother so well. the scene where roy demonstrates the sheer amount of trust he has in riza's abilities by blindly (heh. he was blind during this if u didnt know.) following her directions and hitting their target ... it was just so good. also even though i didnt trust roy i thought he was super badass the sound of him snapping was always super satisfying as well

i almost want to rewatch fmab because it would be really nice to pick up on things that were later referenced in the anime. because of how long it is, its super easy to forget about things that happened early on in the anime (especially for someone with memory issues lol) so being able to watch back with the second half of the show still fresh on my mind would be almost an entirely different experience. the first thing that comes to mind is whenever we were shown kimblee in prison super early on. i know he had dialogue but i remember nothing about it because i was focused on thinking "literally who the fuck is this guy lol" but now i know. wow.

edward elric. im aware that this is going to be incredibly biased but i literally do not care. anyways. character development is always important and needed within a story but i genuinely feel like ed's character development was interesting to watch. it was never super obvious and his core values never changed. he did somewhat have a change in attitude when he nearly died to kimblee, but thats like expected you know ... being that close to death and all. i think that event was essentially the beginning of the end of his naivety. he was always consistent with the people he cared about though :) he never stopped calling them stupid and weird and he never stopped threatening to punch hohenheim whenever he was frustrated even if they were like in the middle of like a life or death situation. i just think he's neat

when ed destroyed pride('s vessel) i felt my heart well up with. pride LOL. that was his very first explicit win against someone who has been against him this entire time, and seeing him defeat pride with his own two hands was such a nice feeling. it wasnt technically his own win since he was only able to get to that point because of his friends and family around him

episode 60 was suuper good it was the part where the father was gonna swallow god because of the solar eclipse. its super hard to explain if uve never seen it but basically the scene was super cool simply because of how well the animation showed the sheer scale of what was happening. like this guy was literally reaching to the moon. theres a lot of unnatural things that are shown in fmab and although this scene didnt introduce any new concepts, it was still incredibly captivating because of how well the animation was

aand thats it i think! i regret not writing down how i feel during the earlier episodes but i think watching it with little to no distractions was a better experience. if u actually read this im giving u a kiss on the cheek rn ilu

[anthropwashere]

our indestructible days ch 3

ch 1 | ch 2

=

Stubborn child! Tenacious little brat!

Pride seethes as he carries his new container up through another ruined, empty floor of Father's home, teeth gnashing at stone and metal. How could one inconsequential human soul cling so stubbornly to its body? Especially after being absorbed into his Philosopher's Stone?

It's lucky the little alchemist is such a mad acrobat, otherwise Pride wouldn't have been able to climb to the surface as quickly as he has, even with his shadows to assist. There's only a floor left between him and the parade field. The light from Father's attack has faded now, but he's still wary of jumping out without having a better idea of the situation out there. The light alone hadn't been enough to damage his Stone, but it had been an altogether painful experience for his true form.

A part of him hates to let those survivors scurry off—all those long years guarding Sloth's tunnel, no doubt—but now isn't the time to hunt down vermin. His Stone has only barely stabilized thanks to those few soldiers he'd consumed. He was able to grow this container a new leg without much strain, but he doubts he'd be much good in a proper fight. He's made the mistake of underestimating humans before. It's not a mistake he's keen on repeating.

He slims his shadows to a few cautious coils, tasting the air. Even up here he can smell the living humans below, soaked in blood and snaking away from the epicenter of things. They could reappear virtually anywhere in Central but he doubts they'll go that far, not with how injured they are. Aside from them there's nothing but corpses down there, which won't do him any good. Thanks to absorbing Gluttony he finds the meat delicious, yes, but it's souls he needs. 

Aboveground is a far different story. He sniffs again and can't help but smirk. There's dozens—no, hundreds of humans gathering up there, rushing around with their hearts racing and sweat salting their warm skin. He smells too, all the silly little guns they're hauling around in some vain hope of stopping Father.

Pride licks his lips, eager now. They want a fight, do they? He may be weak, but he thinks he can at least provide Father a distraction.

He's careful to keep his container out of sight as he peers over the last crumbling edge, curling tendrils into the air and squinting in the brightening daylight. Behind him Central Command is in ruins, as if some enormous hand had come along and taken a scoop out of it. He can smell only a handful of living humans there, most of them bloody and bruised and terrified. Before him a triangular stretch of the parade field is charred black, heat to sting the razor edges of him still rising from it. Greasy smoke smothers the air, reducing visibility to a frustrating few feet. From here he can only make out the woman sacrifice, sprawled nearby and barely conscious. He can smell her pain, the new bruises and welling blood, but it's nothing serious. There's no urgent spike of adrenaline in her blood, no sour snap of broken bone nor the damp heat of exposed organs. She'll live, for now.

The wind shifts. He narrows his eyes, sniffing, and finds the shredded remains of Alphonse Elric's armor a little further off. Beside it is the troublesome Xingese girl, weeping loudly. Has the younger Elric's blood seal broken? Either way, he won't be taking part in this fight any longer, not in the shape he's in.

The woman sacrifice—Izumi, wasn't it?—wakes, coughing roughly. "H-Hohenheim," she forces out, and as if summoned by her voice Father appears before her, so quickly that neither Pride’s eyes nor nose sensed him move. A strong hand grabs Van Hohenheim out of the dust that had obscured him as well, knocking him aside like so much refuse. He lands in a heap some distance off. Pride pays his piteous groaning no mind, relieved to see that Father still has God's power within him.

"Father!" He cries, springing out into the open to present himself. Izumi twitches nearby, straining to see him over her bloodied shoulder.

"You're first," Father says, raising his hand. Red light arcs between his fingertips. Too late, Pride realizes what he means to do—

Pain riots through his container. All his thoughts collapse to panicked static. His newly acquired lungs and heart seize, his every muscle spasms and his every joint locks. He would scream if he could because to have true flesh is to be set on fire. He'd thought the leg bad before, but he'd retreated into his Stone at the first white-hot shock of hurt and here he's pinned in place, nerves flayed, choking on ash—he can't, he isn't, how is it possible to—hurt—so completely? Defense—he—he must defend against—shadows—his self—all gone, he can't think, he can't—

Father is going to kill him—

A gunshot cracks in the distance, and a wound appears in a fizzle of come-and-go alchemical light at Father's temple. Father's concentration breaks. Pride nearly falls on all fours, sucking in dirty air with a relief that unmoors him. He doesn't hesitate, falling back on the instincts of this taken flesh. His hammering heart says run, so he runs. He sprints through the thinning smoke, wanting distance, needing time to get his bearings, needing to understand why Father just tried to kill him—

He ducks behind some heap of rubble near Central Command's wall, pressing his spine against it and shutting his eyes against the acrid sting. He's—he's panicking. He is, isn't he? He's never one to panic. He is first of the homunculi, oldest and strongest and cleverest. He won't—can't—be cowed so easily as this. Even if—even if it was Father that came so close to—

He is one part of a greater whole. This is something he's always known. But it's never occurred to him that Father might one day want that part back.

No. Never mind that. Father had his reasons. He always does. Surely Father only intended to siphon Fullmetal's soul away, to tear the stubborn child out so Pride could have unfettered control over this container—

[Coward.]

Pride freezes—still panting for breath, damn this flesh—and glares with several pairs of eyes. That voice. It shouldn't be possible, and yet— "Just how many of you damned insects are clinging to sentience within my stone?!"

[Oh, it's just Fullmetal and myself in here, and he's not doing too well at the moment.] Kimblee's laughter grates for all that it's not, technically, real. [He doesn't enjoy the company as much as I do.]

In the distance Pride can hear-smell humans shouting, soldiers making a perimeter in some feeble-minded attempt at hemming Father in, barking out nonsensical orders to one another over the bustle and clatter of all their useless weaponry. A man shouts over a megaphone that Fullmetal is not to be confused with Father, which is a relief and in some small way, terribly funny. He watches the clamor with his container's eyes, peering carefully around the crumbling edge of what might have been a bit of the east wing. If he focuses he thinks he can very nearly feel the pinpoints of solidity within his Stone, Kimblee as fine and bright as a needle, Fullmetal a stolid lump fumbling his way back to consciousness at a snail's pace. "I suppose you'll be wanting to fight me for control over this body next?"

[Oh no, not at all. It'd be a poor fit, I think. And besides, I already have a front row seat to the glorious battle going on right now. Just listen to it!]

The attacks are certainly concussive, if nothing else. From his position on the field it only looks like the soldiers are wasting a great deal of ammunition for nothing; Father's glimmering shield is protecting him even from the heat and dust of the blasts. Some soldier down there belts out a command to take cover and scarcely a moment later a gout of flame rushes down the same charred path as Father's earlier attack to engulf the majority of the parade ground in an inferno. It seems that despite his newfound blindness the Flame Alchemist remains unwilling to sit idly by while there's murder and mayhem to sow. Still, it'll take more than that to slow Father down now.

"They stand no chance against him," he mutters aloud. The plan has fallen apart, perhaps disastrously so, but Father will win. It's only a matter of time.

[No chance?] Kimblee asks, pausing when another gout of flame explodes across the parade field. This one Father catches as easily as a child's toy and sends it right back. Even after that display, amusement curls Kimblee's voice. Infuriating creature. [You say there's no chance, that you homunculi are so much better than humans, but what's Greed without his human vessel? What are you?]

"I am Pride the Arro—"

[Just the two of you left now, and that only thanks to the humans you've attached yourselves to. You claim to be higher life forms, yet you're really nothing more than parasites. How disappointing.]

"I won't die here! Whatever the cost, I refuse to die today!"

[And if your Father willed it otherwise?]

He flinches, and loathes this treacherous body all the more.

[He seemed eager enough to kill you a moment ago,] Kimblee goes on cheerfully, [Yet you turned tail and ran away the second you could. You were named for your dignity as much as your arrogance, yet all you've proven today is that you're a hypocrite and a coward.]

"BE SILENT, KIMBLEE!"

[Mmph.] The Fullmetal lump shifts within his Stone, waking up properly. Pride very nearly throws his hands up in exasperation. [Ah, hell. That hurt. What happened?]

[Welcome back, Edward. I wasn't sure you'd be joining us again.]

Pride curls his mouth irritably, digs dirty nails into the stone's crumbling edge. The automail arm only twitches at his side, still stubbornly resistant to his will. "How many times must I put you in your place until you stay there?"

[Ha. At least one more. Where are we?] 

Pride has no chance to reply before his control is tugged away from him. Edward Elric wavers, bracing himself with both hands against the same stretch of scorched stone. Pride's connection to the container and all its startling sensations remains; a sour tang of nausea burns their shared throat, dizziness makes their pulse pound in their ears, a line of sweat down their spine makes them shiver. Edward directs their eyes about the parade field and back to Central Command, taking in the splendor of Father's power. Their ears ache with the ceaseless crack and boom of gunfire.

"Holy shit,” Edward breathes.

With a growl of displeasure Pride pushes back and retakes control. The boy's too stunned to put up more than a token resistance, one that's easily brushed aside. Pride smiles, licking the new configuration of his teeth. "Do you understand now? Do you see what Father is capable of, despite all your little tricks? Are you still so certain you'll win?"

Kimblee whispers, so quietly that Edward seems not to hear, [Are you?]

[Of course I am,] Edward retorts, and while he's unable to wrestle control of his body back he does manage a few of the eyes circling at their feet. Their shared vision wobbles and blurs, and Edward grumbles. [Jeez, how can you stand this? I think I'm gonna puke.]

"Then stop it."

[Nah.] Their shadow twitches, an inelegant lurch that nevertheless forces one of their eyes to loll, and in just such a way that it glimpses Edward's bare left foot. Through their mutable connection of his Stone Pride feels the stuttering evolution of Edward's reaction—dumbfounded, denying, horrified, furious. Their mouth opens against his will and Edward's snarl froths out. "My—my leg. It's—the automail—it's gone. You—you son of a bitch! You really cut it off?!"

[It was slowing me down,] Pride replies calmly, content for the moment to take refuge in his Stone. It almost feels as he did in his Selim container this way; placid, unflappable, controlled. [You're welcome, by the way. I saved you the trouble of trying to get back the original one.]

"Wh—That's not the point! Al and I made a promise! After we found out the cost of making a Philosopher's Stone we promised not to use one for ourselves! We never wanted to be so selfish as to use another life to fix our mistake! Al and I—we—I didn't...."

Edward's inhale is a shaky mess. He sways again, gritting his teeth. It seems he has a new tendency to speak through more than one mouth if he lets his anger get the better of him. How interesting. Pride certainly hadn't manifested one of the three thin mouths in their shadow. Edward bends at their waist to brush their left hand across their new knee cap, draws a line down their shin, splays their toes on the sun-warmed concrete. Pride feels each sensation like a static shock, which isn't half so bizarre as the curdled snatches of Edward's thoughts he absorbs secondhand. Nerve damage—phantom pain in the night—gone, it's gone, he shouldn't feel anything because it's gone—Granny said the cold would be harder on him—cold night spent lying awake, teeth gritted, muscles aching—no amount of massaging around the ports ever helped—Al's metallic voice, "Did you dream about Mom again—"

Pride retreats deeper into his Stone, startled by how real that felt. The ever-groaning souls inside him keep their distance from his toothsome shape—all but Kimblee, who sidles up to him with an overly familiar grin. 

Outside, Edward reins in his anger enough to ask, "Where's Alphonse?"

[In pieces,] he replies sullenly, and finds base satisfaction in the diminished jolt of panic he feels from the boy. [The Xingese girl has been using what's left of his armor as a shield—]

Red light crackles in their shared vision and a feeling not unlike a brand burns his Philosopher's Stone. He writhes within and without, as much from shock as from pain. When he can see clearly again Edward's braced against the rubble, breathing raggedly. "Shut up," he growls.

[You're so willing to be free of me you'll hurt yourself to do it?] Pride marvels. 

"Shut up," Edward repeats, a mouth splitting in their shadow to hiss the same. "You too, Kimblee."

[I didn't say anything.]

"I can feel how much you're enjoying this." He spits, wiping their mouth with the back of his automail hand, then begins a clumsy half-jog back into the thick of things. There's no telling if it's the new leg or their shadow nipping at their heels giving him more trouble.

[Where are you going?] Pride demands. [What do you intend to do?]

"I'm gonna find Al, then I'm gonna make that bastard pay."

[If you confront him, Father will take my Stone for sure!]

"Good. Let him take care of you for me!"

[He'll kill you too!]

"I don't care!" Edward picks up speed, keeping low and favoring their new leg. When Pride opens a train of eyes in their shadow Edward trips, slapping a hand over their container's eyes with a curse. Nausea tongues his Stone, altogether unpleasant. "I gotta make sure Al's okay!"

[Damn you!] For all that he tries to wrest back control Edward just hangs on to himself harder. Pride rages, scattering souls like gravel beneath the wild sweep of his awareness. Edward snarls back and picks up speed.

[Such dedication!] Kimblee exults, a white sore in his Stone. [Such drive! He really is an admirable creature, isn't? Put a fire under him and he'll burn himself gladly for the chance to keep those he cares for out of it!]

[Be quiet!]

Kimblee calms, raising one unimpressed eyebrow. [Why should I listen to you? A pitiful homunculus who couldn't keep a single human under heel?]

Pride seethes.

[ithinkiknowenoughofhate]

Edward heard the familiar crunch and rumble and immediately reacted. For a second, he was the only person in the street looking up; then he was flying across the street. He couldn’t reach the other side in time to knock the kid out of the way of the falling rubble, but he could--

Old instinct kicked in, equations flying through his head, variables clicking into place as the equation balanced. Then factor in the change in plate tectonics--

He was the circle.

Ed’s palms met in a resounding clap and he slammed them against the wall. Brick and mortar surged outward and down, creating a partial dome over Ed and the girl. It was small but sturdy enough to do the trick.

Broken masonry thudded off the curve and slid to a halt inches away. For a second, there was no sound but his own pounding heart and the echoes of the rattling pebbles that trailed after the true danger.

Still carried by the remaining fumes of the adrenaline spike, Edward clapped a second time and returned the wall to its former state. He glanced upward at the damaged facade of the building before ushering the child away from it. “Someone’s going to have to look at that later. Come away from here.” he mumbled. The German sounded almost Amestrian--it was Amestrian.

At least the two languages were close enough to be understood.

Hohenheim had told him that there was no alchemy here. Maybe there hadn’t been until Edward brought it here. It wasn’t boasting when it was the plain, unflavored truth that Edward had long since surpassed his father. Alchemy was not impossible here. It could be done.

He had just done it.

The realization sent his heart off again in a muddle of joy and fear. He wasn’t quite back to rationality yet.

What was he going to do now?

@lovedthe-stars-toofondly

[felixcloud6288]

Fullmetal Alchemist Chapter 43

We continue from where Al, Lin, and Winry left off. Al reveals his soul will eventually get rejected by his armor body. Lin just goes full Dunning-Kruger and thinks the solution is as simple as switching to a new body and says Al's situation is very convenient. Lin really is just like Greed.

The scene of Al's first night in that armor might be the first time we've gotten full confirmation that he doesn't sleep. If you pay attention to Winry's movements in that scene, she was about to offer her jacket to Al when she asked if he's cold. She wanted to give Al some sense of comfort but Al's body made it impossible.

Ed has another nightmare. He's trying to blame Truth for making Al what he is, but Truth and Shou Tucker tell Ed that he is responsible for what happened to Al. And then Trisha in that mangled form asks Ed to fix her and bring her back.

Tucker's taunts at Ed have been buried in the back of Ed's mind this whole time. Ed really does think he's no different from him, because they both did forbidden acts because they could and consequently trapped someone in an inhuman body.

The last nightmare Ed had was about his mother, and he woke up with pain in his left leg. This nightmare was about his brother, and he woke up with pain in his right arm.

Ed gets his repairs done and decides to answer the question Hohenheim asked. As he and Pinako approach where the body was buried, Ed's heart starts to race, and his stomach starts to churn. When Pinako points to the spot, his heart let's out it's strongest beat.

As they begin digging, Ed's heart can no longer be heard, but the stress is still there. He vomits multiple times from the stress, but every time he collapses, he gets back up with a greater fire in his eyes. His hands shake less each time he grabs the shovel again. The sounds of his shoveling grow louder with each panel.

Gracia told Ed he must move forward otherwise Hughes's death meant nothing. Winry said she wants Ed and Al to get their bodies back even though she doesn't want them to put themselves in danger. Breda, Foo, Armstrong, and Maria Ross gave Ed their support when he said he would move forward. Hohenheim told Ed he wasn't moving forward but was instead running away from his mistakes. It's been less than a week since Ed learned about Hughes's death, and this is the first time he's figured out how to start moving forward.

And then he digs up a bit of bone and hair. His heart begins to race again. He's about to find out the truth about that day. He takes the hair, rinses it in water, and inspects the color.

As they dig up the bones, Pinako is able to confirm nothing about what Ed and Al made was actually Trisha. And Ed laughs.

He laughs the kind of laugh one makes when a great burden has been lifted from them. for 4 years, he'd thought he had revived his mother only to kill her again by placing her in some twisted body. But now he knows that isn't the case. He understands the dead can't return to life, but he knows Al can.

In his own way, Hohenheim helped Ed the most here. everyone had been telling Ed to move forward and Ed himself was convinced he must, but he didn't know what that meant. Hohenheim instead demanded Ed to reevaluate everything, determine whether his assumptions were true, and then act accordingly. He could have given Ed an answer, but he wanted Ed to decide for himself if he would face the truth.

Ed decided to face the truth and now he can truly move forward. He's not moving forward to distance himself from what he's done; he's moving forward because he's found closure and can begin to focus on what he needs to do rather than trying to atone for a sin. Ed can truly move forward because he knows for sure Al can return to normal, even if he's not sure how.

We finally get another chapter with May (not including the easter egg from chapter 40) after 11 chapters. It's night time at Central City when Yoki finds her collapsed on the ground.

Scar encounters Giolio Comanchi, the Silver Alchemists. He's one of the silhouetted figures from chapter 7. There's not a whole lot to say about the fight itself outside how it lets us know Scar is still murdering State Alchemists. So I'm just going to talk about Comanchi's tattoos.

To start, I can't determine what the symbols on his inner fingers are, nor can I determine any of the writing along them, but I can tell what most everything else is supposed to be or can make a guess.

Starting with his right palm: It's a circle with a downward pointing triangle. There is also a smaller upward pointing triangle which is slightly inside the large triangle. There is a circle with a dot inside the upward triangle. The lower part of the large triangle is wrapped in another, smaller downward pointing triangle. Inside it is a crescent moon.

The larger triangle becomes the symbol for earth due to the other downward triangle cutting a line through it. That downward triangle forms the symbol for water. Meanwhile the upward-facing triangle is air due to the large triangle striking a line through it. The circle and crescent are gold and silver respectively.

As for his left palm: It has a six-pointed star with an upward triangle in the top point. In his palm is the symbol for Mercury which is also called Quicksilver. The six-pointed star is transmutation. The upward triangle is fire.

On each fingertip is a transmutation circle. The corresponding digits are the same on each hand. His pinky is two downward triangles where one is slightly on top of the other. This causes the top triangle to become Earth and the bottom to be Water. On his ring fingers are two upward triangles with the same layout. The bottom one is Wind and the top is Fire. His middle fingers are the six-pointed star for Transmutation. We can see on his right thumb is the six-pointed star again. There's something in the middle, but I can't tell what it is. His index fingers are obscured by text boxes.

So overall, Comanchi seems to have a very chaotic Alchemy style where he 'cheats' the structure by overlaying symbols such that any marking could potentially represent multiple elements as he needs. Not that it helped him.

I was going to also expand on the loose chronology stuff I mentioned last chapter, but this has gotten too long. I'll save it for next chapter.

Nina Trauma Count: 5

back

[ask-fullmetal-leon]

carnation

💐 25 flower asks:

carnation - does true love exist?

Leon: Maybe it exists if you find it. I think Mom found that, so, when that lousy Hohenheim left, he must’ve broken her heart.

[hollywoodhangar]

👫 (Ed and Trisha or Ciel and Lizzie??)

Send a 👫and I’ll write four headcanons I have about our muse’s relationship // @thcsevoices​ // accepting // you think I am not gluttonous? you think I would only choose one of the two? wrong-o!

People who’ve met Ed ponder at the sort of terror his father must be, so imagine their surprise upon viewing interactions between him and his mother and realize, “oh god, there’s two of them”. Ed gets so much of his personality from his mother, from his tender bleeding heart for the people to his absolute stubborn mule “I will die on this hill” disposition. Neither are passive, and neither give an inch, which leads to some passionate disagreements that leads Al to a state of absolute exhaustion as he watches them split off from each other to cool off. In the Envy Elric au, Envy is the one waving their hand and saying everything will be okay.. yet they split off to drag Ed home to talk it out with Trisha, while Al handles bringing Trisha around. You wouldn’t expect it, but Envy and Al can be some pretty tough glue that brings the family back together much more quickly. They’re an entire four person unit.  But Trisha and Ed can’t stay mad at each other for long, not at all. That actually fades away quite fast, and it’s more of the guilt that keeps the distance, and pondering how to fix it. If it isn’t for Envy and Al’s quick interventions, Trisha’s always the first to close the gap, and Ed takes note of that, and puts it into practice later on. Growth. 

They share the same drinking habit. :’) They both hold cups and mugs in a very peculiar way that no one thinks is even feasible to drink from, and it’s so distinct you can’t not notice the similarity (they refuse to use the handle, they just straight up pick up the cup from its bottom and hold it that way the entire time. it earns them weird looks and has gotten them chastised from many loved ones, especially at formal events). Lowkey, it makes Hohenheim very, very emotional later when Ed & He meet up down the line, and of course that earns him quite the squint from Edward. 

Ed learned how to braid from, of course, his mama, and he learned how to be quite the speedster with it, too! She’d have him braid her hair in the morning, and he’d take it so seriously he’d march right into her room at the crack of dawn if he just so happened to be up before her and tell her it’s time for her hair styling appointment. Trisha just thought it was the sweetest thing. She slipped her own trick into him during the learning process though, passing on a ritual of her own. Slipping a sprig of chickweed between your locks during the braiding process for protection is an old Elric tradition, their own little superstition. A farmer’s superstition, at that. The protection will last for that whole day for as long as you keep that sprig bundled up nice and tight with no possible way for it to fall out. Ed always thought it was poppycock, especially as he grew older and took to science more than silly superstition. However, every now and then early in the morning, Alphonse does spot Ed fixing his hair and notices a little flick of green being tucked into the blond locks before hidden away within the signature Fullmetal braid. Ed thinks he’s being sneaky, but Al is off to the side like :3c

You wouldn’t believe it at first glance, but Trisha and Ed do get into arm wrestling matches for fun whenever the family is brought back together. It looks harmless and innocent, and it is, but Trisha is also actually teaching him how to play dirty if he should ever find himself in a match versus someone who is obviously stronger.. but reminding him to only use these “powers” for good reason, no involving it for normal play matches! Unless it’s against a military official, then go all out.  That isn’t the first time he’s learned dirty tricks from his mother, either. She’s taught him in regards for cards too, which we’ve seen him pull on Al during long train rides, and I’m sure he’s also pulled on Envy and nearly got whooped over.  The only one this will never completely snow is Hohenheim, because he knows his wife’s dirty tricks and he will quickly recognize them in Ed, too. 

They both discover their love for a good mystery novel when the subject is brought up during a conversation regarding the same author they like, mentioned by no other than Sebastian who knew of their mutual interest but figured it’d be ages before the other found out about it, so he decided to get that ball rolling all the sooner. These two completely spun out from there and talked for ages about their favorite books, and what sort of mysteries are their favorites (missing family heirlooms to murders).  It felt impeccably good to find a ground on which they’re both passionate about a subject. They share interests such as their love for games, but they hardly have time to discover much else about the other. This is a very well welcomed addition, and leads to them having their own little book club for two. Gives them a lot to theorize about, and they do love having someone to bounce theories off of before the true answer is revealed. The servants and Claudia gush about this.

It will be years before they marry, but that doesn’t stop Elizabeth from fantasizing and sharing her ideas. It makes Ciel’s cheeks burn to no end, but he’s a good fiancé, so he listens and he quietly takes note of just about everything she suggests. Matching outfits are a must, and there’s a debate going back and forth if they should be allowed to see what the other has Nina design for them to make sure it’s perfect, or if they should stick to tradition and not see one another’s attire before the wedding. Ciel thinks they can rely on Nina to make the perfect matching set, but Lizzie is ever fretful. Sebastian will notice when they’re out and about on the town scoping out competition that Ciel has his eyes lingering, window-shopping, looking at fabrics and décor in the windows that are purely for wedding ceremonies, and he has to hide the smirk when Ciel actually goes inside to have a better look. The demon can swear he hears the boy murmur to himself about how this is what Lizzie was talking about, but it doesn’t look quite right.. and then the Earl’ll take notice to the damn demon surveying him and storm from the store in a flustered huff.  The boy has no reason to look so onward into the future when he likely will not even make it so far.. but unfortunately, Elizabeth keeps the smallest flame of a dream alive inside of him, keeping alive the flare of excitement, however incredibly, incredibly small it is.. and Nana’s enthusiasm certainly doesn’t help, especially when she offers her own pointers from her own wedding, and says she’ll gift them the cloth she used during her own sacred ceremony.  Something olde, something new, Something borrowed, something blue.

Frances was incredibly intimidating as an instructor, but Elizabeth is more gentle and much more approachable. When she inquires Ciel about wanting to be taught how to handle a firearm (met with protest, but eventually weaned into submission through much persuasion on her part), she offers him, in exchange, the chance to learn how to master a sword. Ciel is, in truth, made curious by the prospect. There was trepidation at first, but only because of the lessons he’d gone through with his most merciless aunt. This is Lizzie teaching him now. Their lessons are something that are going to be treated quite seriously, to the depth that Ciel actually fits them into his schedule where he feels it’s most appropriate. From lesson one, they both see just how interesting this arrangement is going to be, and how much more easier it is to learn from one another than very, very intense adults (sebastian, frances).  It’s a gradual process that will take place for over a long period of time, but both will come out of it better trained in their desired aspects, and have one another to thank for it. Not only do these lessons deepen their bond, but it works with their chemistry. They learn the other’s pattern in battle, especially during fencing. Indirectly, they’re going to learn how to fight fluidly side-by-side. They become a tiny team that works together efficiently, and are better taught in communication.

Their first kiss will, or would, be their wedding kiss. It’s both of their idea, and there is a terrible guilt that storms in Ciel’s gut when he suddenly thinks on the fact that it is more than likely that the day will never come. It’s a small thing, a first kiss, but it’s so special, and it’s so human. Sebastian doesn’t understand the etiquette or romance behind it, and will never understand the depth as to why there is genuine dark cloud looming over Ciel when he reflects on this. It’s not even just a kiss, there’s more to it. Perhaps it’s this decision that has Ciel truly reflect on the power his death is going to have on Elizabeth. Their love is genuine, and it’s growing stronger, and he knows just how hard she loves him, because he loves her the same. He could think to himself that Elizabeth will find a different suitor and move on, but his mind tells him he’s a fool: Would you move on for the sake of continuing the Phantomhive lineage? Would you move on from Elizabeth? No, of course you wouldn’t. So, why would she move on from you?  The Midford who puts aside title and rank for a loved one? The hurdle is the most intense Ciel’s had to overcome in a while because of how tender the love is, and how true it is, how it’s for him and him alone, and how rough it is to tear such affection from the root and push it beneath the floorboards. Causing such a beautiful, true thing to bleed profusely because he’s chosen the path of no return, and he can’t be barred down by it. He’ll love Elizabeth intensely, he’ll never stop until his dying breath, but he can’t be held back by his emotions. He’s pursuing his goal. But damn, if this isn’t the one that made him hesitate, if but for a strong, strong moment.