A/N:
**Will write most of author's note later, it's almost 2AM here…**
Previous reviewers
Larsa7- thanks for the reviews every chapter, it must take you ages ^_^.
Chapter 108: Well, brotherhood solved all the problems about that 'Bradley family poverty' scare, since her hair's back, her wedding ring's drawn in, she doesn't look that much older and New-Pride's clothes fit him properly.
I think Mrs. Bradley (I'm thinking of jumping on the bandwagon and giving her a name of my own…) would have taken in Pride not knowing he had amnesia, since I don't think Ed knew he'd wiped his memory. It still isn't much of a happy ending though…What makes it worse is that this Selim will probably have different interests and the like…it really will be like a different child to her…Not to mention she's what? 60? And the age expectancy rate in 1915… is about 75…he's gonna be an orphan before he's eighteen…and then he won't be able to have children…it's all downhill for new-Pride isn't it…? :(
Let's just hope it is his soul…I mean Marcoh knows his Philosopher's stones…I really don't trust Ed's stone destroying powers (though that still brings up all sorts of questions like why Pride's soul is shaped like his container when it's not his real body, or why he isn't wearing clothes while Ling and Kimblee keep their clothes on as souls…it's too confusing…best not go into it)
Chapter comments-
Homesickness- aww, I never saw it like that…and I wrote it, missing Father after an hour or two… it's a wonder he hardly ever visits the homunculi lair in the series…I guess he didn't like being Father's personal secretary/phone, really, he has to give him Hohenheim's message in episode 42, he has to tell Kimblee to carve that bloody crest in Briggs, and he has to tell him Sloth's finished digging. Pride is such a good long distance phone now…where was I going with this…? Oh well…
Pride's politeness- yes, what a polite little monster… but he always was one to take Father's words to heart…um…Philosopher's stone…nevermind.
And…I'm really bad at Japanese… but I've managed to assume that Pride always talks extremely politely, even around his enemies like Edward.
Bad Example: when he tells Edward in 106 that his way of thinking is human logic he says (copying from the raw) 'Kimi-tachi ningen no shoushuki o watashi-tachi HOMUNKURUSU ni atehamenaide kudasai', which is something like 'Please don't force your human logic onto us homunculi', in itself that doesn't prove anything, except he used 'kudasai', a polite form of asking for something, even at a time when Ed is basically telling him his Father doesn't love him. Now later on, though this is only in the brotherhood episode, when Edward invades Pride, he says 'yamero…yamero…yamete kure!' which is 'stop…stop…stop!'. Now 'kure' is a shorter form of 'kudasai' and is more commanding and less polite, I think this is to show how desperate Pride is at that time, though in the manga he says 'watashi no naka ni haittekuruna' which is…I'm not sure it's been a while since I've read the scanlation…but it looks more polite than a simple 'stop' at any rate…I wonder if Bones did it on purpose to show that Pride really has thrown everything away when he's so close to dying…or at least thinking he's going to die …or maybe Studio Bones wanted to keep the ending theme and shortened the last line, who knows. ^_^ Or it might be that he isn't used to using a less polite form, considering how old he is and since he needs to be polite when acting and when talking to Father. Bad Japanese lesson over! But I wanted to show how he talks since the politeness doesn't transition well to English, and since it might play a role in later chapters, but that's for another time.
The way Lust uses 'get'- I'm sorry, I shouldn't use words like that since I know you're only still learning English…even though you're doing really well. It's sort of like…shoo, you usually say it to animals to make them go away, I unwittingly ended up revealing Lust's opinion on humans with the simple word choice *shrug* ^_^
Lust…yeah…Lust doesn't mess around…at least she knows the score…but she's a premade homunculus…
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selimpride- aww thanks, there's never enough Manga Pride stories, good luck with that fic should you write it, I'll be sure to review it, don't let me and my fic discourage you though, Pride doesn't get enough love as it it~ :)
Chapter stuff:
Now in this chapter I have changed perspectives slightly, since I want to include some of proto-Central's people…am I…making…dare I say it… OCs? ! ! ? ! *gasp* no no I would never…well I needed that one guy and…well… they'll only be here for this chapter…or two…and I need to show some of what Lust's been doing…it'll be back to Pride next chapter I promise. The chapter takes place…from the middle of last chapter to just after it…give or take…
By the way, for no reason I've been snooping around the character charts…and by my calculations…Selim, oh excuse me, I mean Pride's container…is only 3 foot 3 inches/ 1 metre tall, I guess now I can see why some people think he's six years old…then again anime1 Selim's that tall too…and he really is ten…
Anyway on with the fic!
Arakawa-sensei owns…you know the drill…
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Sin's Child
Chapter Ten: a Child enticed by Shadow
The darkest of blues descended upon the bustling town, erasing the previous crimson pigment entirely, instructing the townsfolk below that it was time for them to pack away their stalls and businesses and try again the next day. And a young boy skipped happily among them, ignorant to the annoyed glances and the occasional call of 'watch it you little wretch' he received as he darted through the small gaps underneath the frames dotted about the marketplace; they didn't scold him often, assuming him to be much younger than he really was. Luna said that one day he'd be taller, taller than everyone else in town in fact, Father had been tall too, but he wouldn't know about such things, he'd never seen him, and everyone was tall to him anyway. Even so, he appreciated the reassurance, but such carefree times were a rare occurrence these days, ever since Luna had to start working more and hardly ever had time for him- what kind of work was beyond him, but Luna hated it more than anything else in the world it seemed. The boy wasn't quite sure what had ruined their usually stable source of income, but knew that it was necessary, and he was capable of looking after himself.
Some of the few adults that recognized him didn't say anything to him, only returning his wide smile, delighted that he had gone back to his usual self; he was quite the living example that children looked much better with smiles on their faces.
He wasn't tall, evident by the constant and convenient wrong assumptions about his age, a torn and tattered dress barely concealing his stick-like legs, far too large for his frail body– his sister's hand-me-downs of course, far too worn for her to work in at any rate. It was a wonder how he had the energy to run around like he did now, or how those legs manage to hold up the rest of him.
The surprisingly sprightly child continued onwards, his tiny hands fisted tightly as he mused about the cause of his burst of energy and excitement, and his smile widened at the very thought.
He'd seen Luna again.
After what seemed like forever, he'd managed to catch her, despite the rule that he shouldn't disturb her while she was working. Yet strangely, she didn't mind as he rushed up to meet her, she simply smiled, ruffling his hair and giving him a few cen, a clear indication that she was making money again, but he assumed as much when he saw the peculiar things she was wearing on her hands- shiny and black, poking out from beneath her new cloak. With that she had instructed him to buy 'something nice' and sent him on his way with a mischievous wink. And he was about to do just that, moving as fast as his bare feet would carry him, hoping that the woman who sold the fruit hadn't packed away yet.
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"Now what can I do for you?" He'd got her, latching onto her sleeve tight, remembering to let go for the sake of being polite "Is your sister with you or…?" Iris added with a smirk, the child didn't see what was so funny, but knew better than to question an adult.
"N-no…but I'd like an apple please" He held out the coin, hoping it would be enough, Iris' prices changed whenever her Father thought she wasn't making enough money, especially in the autumn when fruit didn't grow.
"Who'd you steal this off? Y'know I really expected better from you…Luna isn't making you pickpocket is she? The lousy little-"
"I didn't steal it, Luna gave it to me, I found her working" Iris couldn't resist a laugh
"Oh really? Good for her, wonder what poor excuse for a man she's been begging again for…oh you're still here, sorry, I completely…here, I'll give you the change the next time I see you" Iris took the coin while she picked any apple from her cart and threw it to him, waving as she quickly hurried off, it was getting late after all.
The boy smiled, biting into the apple messily, sending juice pouring out the sides of his mouth, and making a bit of the scarlet skin stick to his lip. Iris was nice when she wanted to be, though very sarcastic at the same time, with a terrible sense of humour that he couldn't understand and less than positive opinions on the 'urchins' that roamed the streets- excluding him of course (or so he hoped). She was a year younger than Luna, the daughter of the farmer that lived on the outskirts of town, but she already had a child of her own, the boy had caught sight of a pale baby peeking out from underneath her dress, strapped to her back, he frowned a bit, Iris must have thought he was ignoring it, taking another bite of the apple he promised himself to ask about it the next time he saw her. Even if she was pleasant with him, the boy knew that she was just particularly fond of him, she and Luna, however, was a different story entirely, they had never seen eye to eye, Iris didn't like Luna's 'disgusting line of employment', and Luna didn't like Iris' easy way of life, 'with her 'daddy' just spoiling her rotten while she sits and rides around on that carriage of hers…'. Despite what Luna said, her brother knew that she despised Iris' golden hair most of all, Luna often wished she could sell her hair, wigs were apparently popular now and people wanted them made of real hair, she said that if she cut it all off she'd get enough money to keep them fed for at least three years, but no one wanted black hair, everyone wanted hair like that 'sage of the east' that had supposedly founded the country some hundred years ago, that was what Luna hated about Iris. But, hard as he tried, he couldn't share that hate for the golden haired woman, since she had looked after him somewhat when Luna went away to work extra extra hard and forgot to come back, giving him the occasional fruit free of charge during the plentiful summer months, it wasn't his place to think badly of someone who had given him food. Either way, the boy usually left the girls to fight by themselves, and while the promise of more cenz than he dared to imagine was awfully tempting, he liked his sister's hair, he didn't want her to cut it all off just for his sake, so long and shiny and 'poofy', it was a wonder someone didn't want it, but people were weird like that, he was used to it. He smiled as he recalled fondly the times he used to lean on it for a pillow while Luna held him tight to her chest when he had a nightmare, but that was a long, long time ago. A quick glance at the sky told him he had better find a place to sleep until tomorrow, and he, like Iris a few minutes before, headed to whatever place he was going to call 'home'.
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The boy liked horses, they were tall and strong and dependable and self confident and proud, everything he wanted to be when he grew up, and everything he wasn't at the present. But he liked them because they were friendly, Iris had one, an unbelievably expensive white one she called Lily, and let him pet it every once in a while, but never ride it of course, though he wasn't sure he wanted to anyway.
The child would have never had thought that something terrible could happen because of a horse…
He'd found the perfect place to sleep, in the alley across the street, even if he'd only seen it due to the dimly lit lamp hanging outside one of the houses, that didn't matter, he'd still managed to find it. He pulled the freshly eaten apple core out of his pocket, neatly placing it in a corner of the street for the mice. He turned his attention back to finding his place to sleep for the night, scurrying over the path and stopping just outside the entrance, he smiled to himself, but tensed up when he heard the quiet clang of metal against stone. He patted his sides, and sighed, shaking his head and turning back around.
He'd dropped his money- there in the middle of the road, were the coins Luna had given to him, had entrusted him with, if he didn't pick them up then some other 'urchin' was going to take them for himself, probably an older, taller urchin, and he couldn't have that.
With another sigh he sat down and began to crawl towards the-coins-that-Luna-had-given-to-him, he thought he heard a faint whinny and the clopping of hooves against the stone floor, and for a moment wondered if it was Iris' horse, but he didn't turn his head towards to noise, ignoring it, far more focused on trying to scoop up whatever coins he could and shoving them into the shallow pockets of Luna's dress. The sound of hooves got louder, but he didn't move an inch, still too far away for him to fully notice.
Louder
Louder
Louder
He was on the ground, his arms barely holding him up, dragging along the floor, staining it red, something pushing him down, something heavy and sharp, something—
A hollow neigh echoed in his head
Something cracked inside his chest, and his whole body trembled, arms quivering violently as he somehow managed to stay up. The weight on him lifted, and he watched through blurred vision some large brown animal gallop away. The child wearily raised his head, clearly not thinking straight, it was quickly corrected as a new pain exploded in the back of his head and he was forced forward, his nose colliding first, bending it into a painful new position, once again sending blood spurting across the path, his head tilted, cheek scraping hard along the ground, leaving behind another line of red– the carriage wheel had hit him, not that he cared. The boy gasped, clutching feebly at the back of his head, unable to see, unable to register anything outside the pain and the mocking sound of the carriage carrying on, perfectly fine. No one checked to see if he was ok, and as he dragged himself underneath the dim street lamp, collapsing back into a heap, trying to curl up into a ball, he realized that no one was coming to help him either.
"Luna…h-he…e…lp…" that was all he could muster, before the pain dulled and everything went dark, he didn't care either way, he'd found a place to sleep, like he was supposed to, and this was the perfect place to stay the night.
It was in the quieter part of town.
It was sheltered somewhat.
No one would ask him to leave…
…and no one would care about what became of him.
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The child awoke with a quiet groan, lifting himself onto his knees with little difficultly, seemingly unaware of any injuries outside of a peculiar throbbing in the back of his head. But then the pain returned, and it all came back. After a few minutes of enduring and gritting his teeth the pain went away somewhat, and he assumed that he had simply escaped with a bloody nose, a headache and cuts on his hands and legs, which wasn't that bad.
Something glittered nearby, and it caught the child's interest, he leaned forward, squinting, trying to make out its shape through the darkness.
It was a flask. A flask made of glass.
The boy smiled, absentmindedly wiping the blood from his nose. Who would leave such a precious thing in a place like this? The boy didn't know, but at the same time didn't really care, too busy thinking of the endless possibilities this stroke of luck would bring. He could sell it, those 'scientists' always paid good money for 'glassware', with that much money he could…he could buy food, then Luna wouldn't have to work so much, then she could spend more time with him, she could play with him and ruffle his hair like she used to, and she'd say that he'd saved the family just like she said he would. Everything could go back to normal, or perhaps even better than whatever sense of normal he'd ever known, everything was possible if he took the clear round miracle that shone but a few feet away, glimmering, tempting him to crawl forward, to reach out and take it before anyone saw him and snatched it away.
But of course, as Luna had always told him, simply taking it was wrong; it wasn't like it was his to take in the first place.
It wasn't the most noble of things to do, but the child saw it as justified, Luna would surely understand that it was one of those 'necessary evils', if it fixed all their problems then… and it if someone had left it there...
The boy nodded to himself, reasoning it to be something like that 'fate' Luna often went on about when times got beyond what her optimism could tolerate, back before she went away to work extra hard and forgot to come back, he was meant to find this, to make their lives better, the person who used to own it obviously didn't need it anymore, that much was certain- in his eyes at least.
A steady stream of warmth trickled down from the side of his cheek, dripping onto his clothes- her clothes- forming little red splotches over them- another injury, he paid it no mind, it would stop eventually, and it was nothing he couldn't brush off, just like he had everything else inconvenient in his life, not to mention he had more important things to attend to. Stretching forward he gripped the flask that would solve everything tight between his fingers. The boy yelped, biting onto his lip, bringing the flask close to his chest, careful not to drop it as a bitter cold continued to seep into the cuts on his palms. A few moments passed, and the pain started to fade, the cold beginning to soothe it after a while.
The oblivious injured child sighed to himself, trying to retain his smile as his spindly legs began to ache beneath him and droplets of water formed in the corners of his eyes. He ignored it, and instead focused on the flask, it needed to be perfect for it to make enough money to fix things. Resisting a wince, he lifted one of his hands from the flask, a red stain smeared all over the side where it had been.
Besides the streaks on the sides (which he could easily wash off in the canal in the centre of town) the flask was flawless, smooth and clear, without so much as a scratch, as if it had just been made.
Or had never left the place it had been previously.
The boy shook his head, forcing away the minute pang of guilt, it was his now, whoever had left it behind didn't want it anymore, so he, who had found it, deserved to keep it. Like the strange 'logic' those older boys insisted on using at any given moment- that he had simply 'thrown away' his shoes when they tripped him that day, and had as quickly ran off with them, the threat of a broken nose and who knows what else if he dared to follow them lingering long after they had disappeared. But of course, he was above their flawed 'logic', someone had actually abandoned this flask, and with that action had opened up a world of opportunities for him, and in turn the flask itself would help some scientist or doctor hold something important, but that was none of his concern- he didn't care much for prying- outside the odd innocent eavesdrop, which was perfectly fine.
Content with himself and his new possession, the boy yawned as he started to smooth out his tattered clothes, preparing to go to sleep, ignoring the dull ache that awoke inside his chest whenever breathed, his dirty green eyes sparkling for the first time since he didn't know when. Tomorrow, tomorrow he was going to fix everything, he could find Luna, he could sell the small blessing in his hands and everything would be-
His eye caught sight of something, something that made his heart sink deep into his stomach, and made the tears of joy he didn't even remember crying change at once into the complete opposite.
One of the corks was missing- standing out clearly against the otherwise symmetrical object. Surely no self-respecting (or rich) person would buy it now, in such a state- what could he possibly do now? The boy thought that, at the very revelation of what this new issue meant, he heard his entire dream shatter in that one instant. He tried to breathe softly, to calm himself down, but he couldn't breathe through his blood filled nose, and instead opted to stop breathing all together- he wouldn't cry, he'd never…he was too old for it… he promised he'd be strong while she was away…
The boy couldn't suppress the lump that had built up in his throat any longer, the temptation to cry just to make himself feel better and burning in his lungs from denying himself air were too powerful for someone like him to decline, and he sobbed into the flask, causing sharp objections to erupt somewhere inside his ribs. The sudden pain in his chest only succeeded in forcing more laboured cries to pass his lips. He ignored it the best he could, uncaring as his tears and sobs heighted the feeling until he had long since forgotten everything else. He sat there, alone, shivering as the wind whipped around him, too far into his self-induced despair to notice anything anymore- he didn't notice the blood that continued to pour from his nose and cheek, and now his mouth, onto the flask he once so coveted, or over his sister's clothes, once so precious to the boy.
He didn't even notice the curious gaze of a shadowed mess that rested on him a few feet away, tiny clawed hands clutching onto a cork protectively, as if it was important to it as the child considered it, looking suspended as it blended in with the surrounding darkness. The creature's wide mouth- filled with countless flawless white teeth that shined through the dark- hung open, tilted at the corners, confused, its reddish-pink eyes large and slanting upwards, creating the illusion of a floating frown. It inched forward with a peculiar sound, failing to attract the boy's attention- if that was its intention at all. It suddenly gasped, dropping the cork, which bounced away almost instantly, it wrung its hands together nervously, only able to watch, helpless, as the cork rolled towards the inconsolable child, colliding with his grazed knee with an inaudible tap- but the child felt it.
The boy wiped at his eyes, smearing blood and remnants of tears about his face, his frail body still shaking from the cold and his slowing sobs. He sighed, for some strange reason feeling much better, his cuts didn't sting anymore, and he couldn't feel the usual autumn breeze. But that was beside the point, he reasoned, something had disturbed him. With another oddly relaxed yawn, the boy forced himself to blink lest he fall asleep, and through drooping eyes he sighed.
And looked up.
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A/N: We ALL know where this is going…but that's what I get writing pre-series ^_^ can't get any suspense in at all…
Awww…I've started to warm up to this boy with no name, and he seems so happy (then sad…and happy again… then sad…then happy again…bad mood whiplash *shot* …TV tropes!) near the end of the chapter…ah…the poor pathetic delusions of a dying child…thinking scientists actually had money in 1680… :( what do I think I'm doing writing such depressing stuff…I should write Victorian fiction…too bad I was born 150 years late…but it makes you wonder why on Earth I see Central in 1680 as Victorian style anyway…weird… 0_0'
Why did I pick the name Luna you ask…? Well it means moon…and Lust's fake name is Solaris, which means su- *Shot* yeah yeah I know I'm a right cheat.
Reviews still adored~!