Title: Trespasser
Rating: G – PG
Characters/Pairings: Psiren
Genre: General, Angst-ish, if you feel bad for Aquroya, kind of a character study.
Warnings: Spoilers for episode 10 of the anime, but it doesn't actually spoil anything, really… It's just about Psiren.
Disclaimer: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist.
Summary: "There was only one part of Aquroya left that was accessible to the public."
Notes: It's 1,298 words, not counting the two quotes (but it is counting the quote from the newspaper). Kind of short, I know, but it's long for my crappily low standards. This has to be one of my worst pieces that I'm willing to post in public. I mean, I've done worse, but none of them have the honor of making it onto the net. I feel it's a bit boring, as I spend most of the time talking about how Aquroya turned out… But maybe other people will like it. I was trying to incorporate the June Fanfic contest theme ("Beach") over at fullservicefma. I tried.
"No one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself." -Charles Dudley Warner
"Yesterday morning, government officials arrived in the legendary City of Water to attend a press conference on the steady sinking of Aquroya and how the government intended to handle the situation. Chairman Leonard Kelsoph announced to the public that the government had passed an official evacuation notice, ordering all citizens to leave Aquroya within the year..."
It was a wrinkled an old newspaper. It was soggy and smell faintly like moldy bread. It had been plastered thickly to the broken submerged ground with a heavy layer of water and slime. The words had mostly run together, in a messy blot of black ink on greenish paper. The pages were inseparable, glued together by aged watery paste.
It squelched disgustingly she as dropped it back on the ground, instead of back into the water, where she'd found it from. It landed with a splash in the puddle, washing a wave of greasy brown water over the woman's shiny black boots. She shook her foot gingerly, little speckles of mud spraying off her boot.
She looked back up at the crumbling city before her. The once beautiful and unrivaled architecture has sunk below the surface, arches sliding sideways like disfigured half moons. Pointed tower tops peeked out of the surface, delicate carvings once admired for their beauty were coated in slime and moss. The water had worn away the soft sandstone, and even the tough limestone of the city's pillars.
She stood on one of the few platforms still above the surface. It was a part of a building that had fallen over, or perhaps it'd sunken so deeply she was standing on its roof, she couldn't quite tell. The old newspaper was two years out of date. The disgusting yellowish water had collected on the platform; the once pretty, ivory white blocks were dull and yellow, with bits of green algae all over it. She noted with a slight thrill that she could get arrested for trespassing in the closed-off city.
There was only one part of Aquroya left that was accessible to the public. It was a dock that had been erected once Aquroya's actual structures were no longer safe to visit. The few tourists that trickled by stood on the dock and snapped pictures of the sunken city. There was very little to see, and there wasn't another city or town around for miles, so only those who happened to be passing by even bothered to see the remains. But even the dock creaked and groaned and dipped a little lower each day. She knew they'd even have to replace that, one day, too.
She stared out across the water. The sun was setting and it reflected brilliantly against the gentle waves of the city. The light trickled over the destroyed buildings and homes, peeking through the cracks like a child peeking through their fingers in a game of Hide-and-Go-Seek. It almost made the water look pretty again.
She sighed and hopped across to another piece of a building, barely poking out of the water, she crossed them gleefully, reminded of the hand-made path of stones she'd used as a kid to cross a little stream in the woods. Balancing preciously, she felt the heel of her shoes slip on the smooth wet rocks, and she quickly scrambled across. Eventually, she made her way to another large chunk, a small pointed tower that looked as if it had broken off the top of the capital building.
She grinned to herself, adjusting her messenger bag and hiking up her large brown coat and skirts, before starting to climb the architecture. The various grooves and decorative ridges made excellent handholds. It had been a while since she'd done anything like this. The thrill of the fall thrummed through her, and the exhilarating paranoia of being caught made it only more fun. Shortly, she made it to the top.
Sitting with her feet dangling over the edge like a child, she looked out across the wide waters. The sun was still glinting off the water in an explosion of reds and golds, with tints of purple shading the edges. She remembered once that her grandfather had told her there was a river that connected the City of Water with the sea. She hadn't believed him then, there were too many buildings between the sea and the waters of Aquroya. Besides, Amestris was too far inland, it was impossible for a river to be that long, she'd reasoned. She couldn't see all the way out that flat expanse before, nor could she see the tiny white birds flying in from the salty waters.
The view was pretty, in a dull, relaxing sort of way. Even now, she could taste the salt on the air, making the building feel crusty and sticky. The wondrous waterways and filtration had sunk with the city, so now the sea's water had merged with the once clean Aquroya water, making it murky and disgusting and completely poisonous for straight drinking. The littering tourists were no help, either.
She grinned again, forgetting thoughts of pollution and began rummaging through her bag until she felt the smooth material of that familiar mask. She felt slightly silly to think of herself as a masked crusader or savior, but those hadn't been her words, anyway. She pulled the mask out, slipping it on; it greeted her like an old friend, or a companionable cat.
"Hey, you!" Someone shouted from down at the docks, presumably.
She turned, squinting to see who it was. Ah. It had been the guard. He stood, hopping slightly in irritation, waving his baton around and yelling. "Get down from there! It's not safe!"
Grinning, she stood effortlessly, balancing carefully on the unstable tower, and drawing herself up. The guard was supposedly the 'protector' of this place. Keep vandals out, keep litter out, and keep people safe. She laughed at the thought. No annoying old man with a badge would ever be able to tell her what to do. Not even now.
She dug through her bag again, and soon felt the smooth plastic case she kept her special alchemic cards in. She grinned and pulled them out. A sudden draft of wind rushed over the waters, and she paused to enjoy the dramatic flare it added, with her long brown coat whipping about behind her.
She slipped a card out, holding it between her middle and pointer finger. With a quick flick of the wrist, the card went sailing through the air, landing flat on the man's face. She laughed as he fell over flat and she quickly pulled off her shoes, shoving them into her bag. Before the man could recover from the shock, she slid down the side of the sunken tower, releasing her cards into the water to form a bridge for herself.
"H-hey! Hey, you! Come back here!" The man called suddenly, eventually recovering from the shock of having a card thrown on his face. He had realized after a moment that she was not going to activate the array on its back. "Get back here! You're under arrest!"
She laughed, skimming across the water to the shore farthest way from the dock, when the guard was still yelling and shaking his baton. "Don't have a fit, old man," she called over her shoulder. "Then I'd feel guilty and have to go back and help you. Besides, it's just a big pile of rocks and water, nothing worth getting upset over. Not even a speck of gold here anymore."
She turned away, but she should still taste the bitter, salty sea air on her lips. Not even a speck of life here anymore, either. What a waste. A perfectly good performance with no one but a senile old guard to see it.
"I am convinced that the majority of people would be generous from selfish motives, if they had the opportunity." -Charles Dudley Warner, My Summer in a Garden