The World Is Not Enough (A Study Of Greed)

Money, women, power. They call to him like a tempting reward just out of reach, falling like card castles as he grasps them, spurring him onward to desire more. More and more, that nothing can satisfy. No wonder he is considered Gluttony's closest brother.

No wonder he cannot be anything but his own person.

Greed does not gain anything by simply serving; that implies a restriction of movement, a forced content. And Greed is never content; even the world is not enough to satisfy the chasm in his soul. If homunculi had a soul, Greed would be their representative. After all, desire springs from within; if there is nothing within, there would be no need to fill the gap, no desire to replace something that has never been lost.

Maybe it is this proximity to the human soul that attracts other souls to him; not peons, but friends, other misfits, who are content to let him direct them. All right, so maybe they do fill the capacity of henchmen- every villain needs henchmen, dammit!- but he doesn't talk down to them, ever; he makes pointed suggestions instead. They will never betray him, just as he will never betray them. In that way, he is closest to being a human in that he has friends, loyal friends who would willingly follow him into hell itself for the sake of what they share.

And for what?

He ponders this as he hangs, pinned to the concrete cross like some fallen-angel messiah. He ponders the deaths of his followers, trusting to the end, at the hands of a brother he never knew. Goodbye, Dogman, Oxman, Snakegirl, everyone. Wait for me in hell; I'll join you there, eventually... just let me get free of this fix... I'd bring you the best gravestone offering in the world.

The world is not enough. It never has been.

For one sickening moment he contemplates giving in, submitting to the Father-Maker's direction, a doglike peon himself. It tempts him for barely a heartbeat.

The world is not enough. HIS world will never be enough.

As the words leave his lips, he knows that he has doomed himself. All that is left of the memories that he has painstakingly gathered will disappear in the fiery wash of the boiling oil that creeps lover-like up his dangling legs. All that is left of Greed will be a collection of carbon and hydrogen atoms; all that is left of the person he was will fade away upon the heated air with his last manic defiance.

I'LL WAIT FOR YOU IN HELL, SUCKERS!

And the laughter turns into a scream of hellish mirth, ending in a final gush of oil and bubbles.

Farewell, small realm; I'm off to conquer the world beyond.

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And yeeess, I actually did like Greed. Never did know why in the world he wanted to become human… he seems plenty human enough to me already. And he died! (sniffles)

Next up: Trisha Elric! (dadadaDA!) And, as always, review to request your favorite character!