Just a few things I want to say about this story:
1) I know some people are going to be disappointed that there wasn't any lemon. How could I write a story in a nudist colony and not give the boys some fun time? But I wanted to make a point that just because they could do the sex doesn't mean they have to, and that it can be a really good story without all that (in my opinion). Also it just didn't fit with the plot line. So...sorry?
2) I would hope this would be obvious, from the tidbit about the Freezing Alchemist at the end there, but this was meant to be a sort of prequel to Brotherhood. Hence why they didn't know that the thing that dropped in and killed Mark was a homunculus. I know that seems like a bit of a cop out so I don't have to explain it and keep going, but I actually wish I could continue with this story. It was a blast to write, but I've tried writing within the timeline of the anime and it just never works well for me. I change too much and make the story less amazing than it already was, which is the exact opposite of what I would like to do. So for this one, I put it before hand, so it ends up being just another encounter that they would be able to make sense of later. If you ask me, that makes more sense contextually and doesn't diminish the original storyline, so I'm pretty happy with it.
As always, thank you all so much for reading this. It's gotten just over 280 reviews as of now, which is a new high for me (by a big margin) and I can't even begin to explain how much that means to me. All I can say is: thank you again, and I hope to see you guys stick around for the stories I write next :)