'till heaven knows our name
Characters: Mustang-family
Summary: Modesty had never been a strong point of this particular family.
There were many old family with ancient reputations, with a fame older than the country, with proud bloodlines that had been watered down along the years but never died out. Such a family was – albeit nearly unknown if not for a few members – the family that had once, more than a century ago, been reigning over EastCity.
The Mustangs.
They would always give everything and battle their enemies until the moment the fight was over, either won or lost. This was their way. They hardly carried grudges but when a friend fell and had to be avenged they would not rest because until the moment the score was even again.
To back down was something they could never do. They stood up for what they believed in and if necessary, they would walk through hell and back to keep a promise. They were not like the Llewellyn-family who valued loyalty above everything else. They were not brave like the Armstrongs or witty as the Grummans. They did not have to be. The only thing they truly had to do was to stay true to themselves and value their promises.
They had been high-ranking military officers, brilliant alchemists, queens and kings of the high society, feminists and philosophers. They had been well-respected and they had known it so a certain air of superiority and pride had always surrounded them. They had basked in the warm light of everyone's adoration and marvelled at their own greatness. Some might say that their superiority-complex had been caused by everyone's adoration but no matter what, at their prime, they had been unmatched by anyone else.
This had been ultimately their downfall.
They had grown too self-centred and at one point, they had stopped functioning as leaders in so many ways.
Their number had dwindled down as misfortune befell them, as sickness and accidents became two regular guests in their lives. Additionally, rebellion against the own family became a serious issue. The very people who had made the family what it used to be and what it still was in its core would never believe that a potential heiress to the wealth of the family rather choose to ran a hostess bar than to take responsibility.
And yet, after even the last people who had still believed that the family would realise their weakness and get back up had lost hope in the stubbornness and the pride of the old and formerly adored family, a new generation was born and grew up.
And these children, children of ancient blood and born with every inch aware of what it meant to be a member of this formerly prestigious family, turned it all around.
They were cut from the same cloth as their ancestors. Roy Mustang was the brilliant leader and scientist the family had needed so desperately to cover their inability to keep up with the Hawkeyes or the Armstrongs. Jadelina Mustang was gifted with wit and the ability to wrap everyone around her little finger and yet, she was not as superficial as the women before her because beneath the silken ballgown hid a backbone made of steel. Her younger brother was not the mindless womaniser he pretended to be because Philippe Mustang was a warrior to the core, loyal and fiercely protective over those he cared for.
Of course, they did not only carry the strengths of their kin but also the flaws.
Roy was often blind to the consequences of his actions because he only saw his dream. Jadelina broke because she had forced herself to live a life that was not hers. And Philippe lost the ability to decide what was the truth and what was only part of his play.
Some might say that they would have been happier if they had traded their roles. Roy would have been luckier to be in Philippe's shoes. He would have kept track of the many masks he had worn. He would never have gotten lost in an act. Jadelina would have been happier as a warrior on the battlefield where her wit would have done more than to destroy lives via the mysterious power of gossip. And Philippe would have glowed and shone in his sister's place. As a natural people-person, he would have been the centre of any party and he would have grown there because his lack of self-confidence had been the reason why he had started to hide behind faked smiles in first place.
But even though all of them were painfully aware of this, they accepted their fate and took whatever life threw at them in stride. They had learned the lesson their ancestors had never been able to understand: in the end, everyone got a set of cards at the begin of his or her life. What they made out of it depended on the way they played their cards.
And even though all of them had cursed their cards at one point or another, they had never considered the possibility to fold their cards and give up without a fight.
This was not the spirit, not the way of their family.
One day, their names would be spoken with the same admiration their family had received back in the days of the clan's prime. And their lives would be the begin of a new era, of an era that would not end in the pathetic state of utter uselessness. They would actually do something that would change the world for the better.