Full Metal Journal: The Life of a Military

Yup, yet again, FMA does not belong to me.

Entry 7:

Lt. Col. Hughes took me and Smokey to the library and told us to get comfortable. He said all this crap about how it was a disgrace to have done that and he hoped it would never go before a court martial, yet he wouldn't blame it if it did.

Makes it sound like he had never done it to anyone before.

So, as punishment, Lt. Col. Hughes wants us to spend the next thirty- six hours researching and gathering info about some artificial human called "homunculi". He didn't want to see us outside of this library and- just to make sure that we wouldn't leave- he would have guards outside to make sure we wouldn't escape.

And just when I thought there was a loophole, he said they would be all around the building and that all secret passages had been boarded up years ago.

He wished us good luck and left, the door locking shut behind us.

Me and Smokey looked at each other.

What the hell were homunculi?

We looked at the seven large mountains of books, each containing about three thousand books. We gulped.

"Jesus," I said.

"Hey, man, you know an easier way of doin' this, right?" Smokey asked.

We looked at each other again. I grinned.

"Sheska," we both said.

Sheska was the old librarian, but she was fired for bringing too many books home with her. She still spends the majority of her time here- even though I think she's supposed to be banned. She's kinda cute- kinda short, with short brown hair and glasses. Not my type, but given the choice? Why not?

So I went over to her and asked her- super suave- if there were any books about homunculi. Before I knew it, she carried two large stacks of books, one in each hand, and put them on the table. How she managed to carry one in each hand was a mystery, how she never dropped them was an even bigger one, as both stacks brushed against the ceiling. She also told us that there were old records and all this other crap in the cabinets and if we needed any more help that we should go see her. Then she went back to where she had been sitting before and kept on reading as if nothing had ever happened.

Hard to believe that all that happened faster than it took to write that whole paragraph.

So, we got to work. It's hard to believe, but with the twelve hours of study and the fifteen hours of sleeping, eating, and playing card, we actually went twenty- seven hours and still made a pretty lengthy report. Or rather Smokey did- I just read the crap out to him.

It turns out that homunculi are artificially generated beings that retain human physical forms and mental abilities, but have no soul. They are created when someone fails a human transmutation. They at first are hideous monsters that are a mangle of bone and flesh. However, when given incomplete versions of the Philosopher's Stone, they begin to take on human shape and stature. At some length, they can eventually become near immortal- you could blow the top half of a homunculus off and it'll just regrow itself. They have this mark called the Ouroborus tattoo- a winged serpent that is eating its own tail- that's supposedly representing the life and death cycle the homunculus goes through.

There was a hell of a lot more to it than that, but if I wrote it all, then this journal would be completely filled up.

After it was done, we left the library- convincing the guard that we were done and showing them the report- we went on our way to Lt. Col. Hughes' office. Smokey gave me his half, and then told me he was going to go catch forty winks and said he would meet me back at the barracks. So I went alone to the C.O.'s office.

I put our reports on the table and told Lt. Col. Hughes that we had finished. He glanced through it real quick, then told me he would look more into it, and dismissed me.

"Lt. Col., sir?" I said.

"Yes?" he asked wearily.

"Why'd you have us look this shi- stuff up?" I asked.

He smirked at me. "You never know," was all I got out of him, so I just saluted and left.

Walking back to the barracks, I started thinking. The Philosopher's Stone. This was the second time I had come across it, and I still didn't fully know what the hell it was- the research hadn't really gotten into it. The homunculi used incomplete ones to get immortal, or near it- what happened when (and if) they got the real thing? Would we be royally screwed?

I just now remembered something- Ed and Al had failed a human transmutation. Did that mean…

Aw, crap.

Just a little note- some may have wondered why we don't really get into the show much here.

This isn't really looking too much into Ed's story- it's basically looking at the whole story in general. I guarantee that the more we continue, the more we'll get into the actual storyline. Right now, this is it.

…I'm really just explaining things to you as well as myself. So… yeah.