|
|
Post by PuzzleChick on Feb 10, 2012 9:08:15 GMT -5
TRIPLE-POSTING FOR GREAT JUSTICE. To: Helle is a SLYTHERIN <3
From: Dearheart and PuzzleYou had two gate babies! Dearheart made you the first day's icons and banners, and I did the rest. =3  ...I just thought it would be really cute if they had little teeny flowers in their hair. =3= |
|
|
|
Post by helle is a SLYTHERIN <3 on Feb 10, 2012 11:14:43 GMT -5
Aw yay~ :3 It was all so lovely, thank you both <3 To: Crowmunculus
From: Helle is a SLYTHERIN <3really, who else would write about the mice acting out Hamlet?Despite what it may have seemed to some, Alfons Heiderich was never in want of money. Funding, sure – materials for rockets were expensive and Dr Oberth's work was still theoretical at best – but never money. He was surprised that his roommate didn't wonder. He never worked, after all (aside from working on rockets, that is, but Ed knew very well that he earned no pay from that). What's more, he had a car. Had being the operative word (as Ed had wrecked it, predictably). It hadn't even been a particularly bad car, and surely that was a clue. After all, he'd heard of other Junker sons having cars whose doors were wired shut and that would stall in the middle of the street. However, they probably hadn't inherited all of their father's fortune (his father was a second son, and, as primogeniture dictated, he had had to earn most of his money, but... it was still more than any other young man his age, he was sure). For god's sake, he was seventeen and renting an apartment with a guy who was quite probably insane (due to a favour from the man's father, who reminded him too much of his own father to deny).
Perhaps it was for the best. He didn't particularly want to talk about his past, before Munich and before Edward.
It had been happy enough, at first. A manor in the countryside with his mother, father, brother, and even servants. His older brother had been somewhat condescending at times, but the two almost always got along quite well. When they didn't, Alfons would just spend more time with his friends amongst the servants (his father was more amused at his youngest son's lack of elitism than angry). His mother was doting and his father gave the boys everything that they could want. However, due to Junker tradition, he felt inclined to serve in what would become known as the Great War: the greatest tragedy to befall Germany in Alfons's opinion.
Not because of the loss of national pride and dignity, increase of national debt, and rapid inflation. While that was all rather annoying, what Alfons really loathed about the war was that his father came home in a casket.
...They were amongst the lucky ones, apparently.
The media had said that they were doing so well! Everyone was certain that Germany would win, and that the “boys” would come home within a month... but they kept enlisting more and more soldiers and more and more people Alfons knew from parties and whatnot were leaving.
His father hadn't even been a footsoldier! He had been a general! Generals weren't supposed to die in battle! Not against France of all countries!
And then... his brother had gone off. Not even to fight, but because Alfons had fallen ill, and Eduard had taken it upon himself to be the man of the family.
He never came back, and they never found his body.
His mother was absolutely distraught, and, when the Spanish Influenza outbreak occurred, Alfons knew that she wouldn't make it through it. She was young (at least, young enough to be affected by it), and, honestly, Alfons had been the only one that was keeping her going.
It was 1919. Alfons was thirteen years old.
His uncle arranged for him to attend a gymnasium in Munich. He'd stay with him and his family. He hadn't wanted to move, but his uncle made it quite clear: he either went to gymnasium in Munich or he'd end up in an orphanage. Of course, Alfons's uncle had had no intention of actually sending his nephew off to an orphanage, but an empty threat never hurt...
Alfons had agreed on one condition: Wilhelmine could come along. Wilhelmine was the daughter of Alfons's old nurse – she had caught the influenza from his mother and died even before her. Wilhelmine's father had been a doctor who had been called off in the war and never returned (not even in a casket; it made Alfons realise that his family really was one of the lucky ones).
His uncle had been hesitant, but Alfons was adamant: Wilhelmine went with him or he didn't go at all.
There was no getting around it.
The girl was immensely grateful for Alfons's help, and promised his uncle that she could help the maids – there was no reason to have someone wait on her, when she was a common girl living in a house full of Junkers. She was quick to help, and was surprised when his uncle offered to put her into a gymnasium. “It'd be a shame for such a bright girl to end up a personal maid,” he'd said. (It had really been due to the prompting of the man's wife, but he hadn't told the girl that). Wilhelmine studied to become a doctor, like her father. It wasn't exactly socially acceptable, but, considering all that had happened to her, it wasn't surprising – at least not to Alfons.
His uncle hadn't died in the war, though he'd fought. Alfons couldn't help but feel like that was slightly unfair; why did his father have to die while his uncle lived?
The things that his uncle had seen, however, had greatly changed the man. Granted, Alfons didn't remember much from before the war – he'd been a small child, after all – but he wasn't the same. He was distant and standoffish, and spent the majority of his time locked in his study.
Alfons's aunt, therefore, had total control of the household, which meant a tremendous amount of stress. Alfons wasn't entirely sure how she handled it – especially when she always managed to have a smile on her face.
From an early age, Alfons had been interested in space. The stars at night were beautiful from his country estate, and, sometimes, Munich was dark enough at night to get a decent look at some of the stars with a homemade telescope. A publication from a Romanian engineer caught his attention – the man claimed that rockets were the way to get to the moon! Rockets! Alfons managed to push his way through gymnasium early – and he passed the arbitur without any trouble. After that, he went to study in Romania with Dr. Oberth.
Oberth... wasn't quite what Alfons expected. He'd assumed, for some reason, that the doctor would be an outgoing, enthusiastic person, but he was rather pessimistic and critical. However, his intelligence was far more astounding than Alfons had bargained for.
Another person studying with Dr. Oberth proved himself to be exceedingly intelligent, and, as such, caught Alfons's attention.
His name was Edward Elric... and, if Alfons wasn't wrong, he was related to his old professor Elric. When asked, Edward's reaction left no doubt in Alfons's mind that he was right. He just wondered why the boy seemed to hate his father so much. Alfons had loved his own father, and Wilhelmine had loved hers, just as his cousins loved theirs. It was strange, he thought, that someone could hate their own father.
After speaking to Edward a few times, however, it became clear to Alfons that the other teen wasn't quite right in the head. He spoke of another world, another life. He wanted to get back to his world, as he called it, and believed that Oberth's intelligence and theories of rocket-powered space travel was the way to accomplish it. He'd often babble to Alfons about the people he knew in this world of his – what was unnerving was that the people Edward described seemed to be people that he met every day.
This Winry of his (just a friend, he said, which confused Alfons to no end – she was fictional, it didn't matter if she were just a friend) reminded him very much of Wilhelmine: smart, caring, pretty, and incredibly headstrong. He described a brigadier general (or, rather, a lieutenant colonel in his life) who reminded him of a police officer who patrolled his new neighbourhood. The brigadier general's wife seemed to be the very same flower shop keeper who rented him his apartment. And his brother... Edward's brother seemed to be very much like Alfons himself. In fact, he wondered if it wasn't merely transference at all. It was all very bizarre, and Alfons had to half-wonder if Edward were telling the truth, as he so adamantly claimed to be.
However, he found himself drawn to Edward. Perhaps it was because he was reminded of his own brother, who had been much older than he was, and not too much younger than Edward was now. It was strange; Edward was clearly not entirely mentally sound, yet... Alfons couldn't help but spend time with him. It was almost like having his brother back.
Professor Elric had asked Alfons if he'd be so kind as to take Edward in. Alfons accepted, in part because Professor Elric reminded him of his own father, and in part because Edward reminded him of his own brother. He was surrounding himself with ghosts of his past, it seemed, and he really didn't mind. He just made sure to keep in mind that Edward was not Eduard, and Professor Elric was not Theophil Graaf Heiderich.
Edward had no idea, of course, that Alfons was a Junker. Why would he? He didn't seem to recognise any names, and Alfons didn't have the “von” title before his surname (his family was much too new for that, but perhaps soon, if the government would just restore the Kasierreich and get rid of this ridiculous Weimar Republic.) Alfons didn't bother to tell him – what did it matter? He didn't use his name for privilege, anyway.
It was still strange that Edward hadn't picked up on it. Alfons didn't really make any attempt to hide it; he was rather apathetic toward his roommate's knowledge of his rank. He'd have thought that the car and the money that came seemingly from nowhere would have caused Edward to pose questions, but he was wrong in that. It was almost unnerving how blasé Edward was toward it; it made Alfons wonder, again, if perhaps he wasn't insane, and really had come from some other world.
He didn't act German, after all. He didn't have the sense of national pride. He felt no shame in the Treaty of Versailles. He wasn't outraged by the reparations that were so unjustly imposed. He didn't understand what the loss of German land meant. He didn't see the difference between Germans and gypsies.
Alfons considered himself a very reasonable young man. He didn't loathe gypsies like most Germans, having learnt from his mother that just because someone was different didn't mean that they weren't human, but that didn't mean that he considered them on the same level as Germans. They were fully human, of course, but they shouldn't just assimilate into German society – they weren't like the Jews, who just looked slightly different (and some of them could pass for full-blooded German) and had been wise in how they'd handled their money during the war. German Jews were just as German as he was, as far as he was concerned, but the gypsies were nomads who certainly didn't belong in the (once) great nation.
But enough of that. Introspect was only so useful. It never helped to dwell on the past, after all. Best keep his mind on the future; he'd get into space. Maybe he'd even get into this crazy world that Edward talked about where they might have a cure for him. He had to get these rockets perfected, and that meant massive funding. He was willing to get it from anywhere – well, anywhere German. He had his sense of national pride, thank you very much. If only the Weimar would learn that rockets, seemingly the only technology not banned by that ridiculous treaty, were the thing of the future. If Germany could get a man into space, then they'd certainly regain some national pride. What's more, if Alfons was one of the engineers, then his name would go down in history, and he would not have lived in vain. He'd leave a mark on the world, and maybe even go into space himself. |
|
|
|
Post by piedpiperpluto on Feb 10, 2012 11:29:40 GMT -5
To: Neoeevee
From: Pluto(also asdfjdklsjk Puzzle the noises I am making are not human)
|
|
|
|
Post by Artemis Day on Feb 10, 2012 11:57:07 GMT -5
To: Dearheart
From: Artemis Day“Ed, stop that right now.”
Ed froze, the lid of the cardboard box held between his thumb and pointer finger and hovering half opened in the air. His wife glared back into his eyes, her arms crossed and looking very much like a mother punishing her child for sneaking a cookie before dinner.
He allowed the lid to slip out from his already light grasp and fall shut before giving a nervous cough.
“I just wanted a small piece,” he muttered.
“You know we’re not serving the pie until dessert,” Winry reminded him. “Surely you can wait.”
“Oh I can,” he answered, drawing himself to full height (and not for the first time thanking Truth that he was finally taller than her). “But by the time dessert rolls around, that idiot Ling will have eaten it all, just like every other time we invite him and his pals over.”
“You shouldn’t be calling a foreign emperor names, Fullmetal,” the ever annoying voice of Roy Mustang sounded as he and Riza Hawkeye approached, drinks in hand. “That could cause some serious problems for our country.”
“Yeah right,” Ed said, rolling his eyes at the thought of Ling Yao actually starting a war over a few insults. “He doesn’t care what I say about him as long as he can raid my fridge. And stop calling me ‘Fullmetal,’ you know I’m not part of the military anymore.”
Roy snorted, taking a sip of water before responding.
“I know, but you’ll always be Fullmetal to me.”
“Fine then,” Ed replied. “And you’ll always be a self-righteous bastard to me.”
“Now, now you two,” Hawkeye calmly spoke up. “Today’s a nice day. No need to start anything.”
“She’s quite right,” the eponymous Ling Yao said as he and Lan Fan walked over, both of whom had loaded their arms with food from the refreshment table. “Have you tried the chicken wings, they’re incredible!”
“Nobody will be able to if you eat them all,” Ed cried, grabbing a large plate of them that Ling had somehow been balancing on his elbow. He ignored Ling’s protests and replaced it on the refreshment table. “And by the way, just because we said to try whatever you liked doesn’t mean you can take everything. Other people here need to eat too.”
Ling scoffed.
“I know that, and I did not take everything, for your information,” he motioned at his ever present and unfailingly loyal bodyguard, who didn’t seem at all affected by the twenty something dishes in her arms. “I gave some of it to Lan Fan!”
Ed stared at him, then pinched the bridge of his nose, a growl escaping his throat.
“How the hell did you become Emperor when you’re such an idiot?”
Despite the obvious rhetorical nature of this question, Ling felt the need to come up with an explanation anyway. It was more than likely for the sole purpose of getting even more on Ed’s nerves than he already had.
“Why, with charisma and a charming personality, of course!”
He was succeeding beyond his wildest dreams.
“Yeah, whose?” Ed answered snidely.
Before Ling could answer and continue the impromptu comedy routine, their party was joined by two more arrivals, both of whom wore traditional Xingese clothing similar to Ling and Lan Fan.
“Hey, what’s going on over here?” Al asked as Mei leaned over the punch bowl, getting herself and her husband a drink.
“Nothing much,” Roy shrugged and pointed a lazy finger at Ed. “Fullmetal here is just trying to spark an international incident.”
Ed scowled at him, while Ling began chuckling between massive bites of potato salad.
“Are you guys enjoying yourself?” Winry asked while Mei handed Al his drink.
“Oh yes,” Al answered, wrapping an arm around his wife and pulling her close. “It’s great to see you guys again after all this time.”
“We just saw them last year,” Ed said.
“That’s a pretty long time,” replied Mei.
Ed cast a glance at Ling, who was still gorging himself on enough food to feed ten people, and narrowed his eyes.
“For some of us, it’s not long enough.”
“Alright, everyone,” Al said loudly, whether or not to avoid another pointless argument from breaking out, no one would ever know. “I propose a toast.”
This was met with a murmur of agreement as the eight of them all grabbed their drinks from wherever they had placed them (Ling and Lan Fan choose this moment to finally put down all the plates they were holding, somehow not dropping a single crumb). Winry poured herself some punch before rejoining the circle, standing between Ed and Ling.
“So what are we toasting to?” Hawkeye asked.
“To all of our great friends!” Ling suggested, clapping a hand on Ed’s back which the former alchemist promptly pulled away from.
“The nice day, maybe,” was Mei’s input. “I was sure from those clouds yesterday that it would rain.”
“How about the growing amicability between the clans of Xing?” Lan Fan spoke up softly.
“We could toast to Fullmetal finally growing a few inches!” Roy joked, earning an enraged glare from Ed.
“Or what about we toast to you getting rid of that horrendous thing on your face,” he shot back.
“That mustache was very distinguished,” Roy said, a vein popping out on his forehead as he glared at the cheeky grin on Ed’s face. It only got worse when a certain Emperor leaned into view.
“No it wasn’t,” he said. “In fact, when I first saw that picture of you, I was sure that Ed here had just drawn it on as a joke. I was shocked when I found out it was real.”
Roy’s eyes twitched, and he grumbled something incomprehensible. The only thing anyone could make out was something that sounded suspiciously like ‘just shut up.’ Naturally, Ed jumped on that like a wildcat on the hunt.
“Oh, now who’s trying to ‘start an international incident?’”
Roy was unable to respond, as Al suddenly burst out laughing. He shakily put down his drink so as not to risk dropping it while wrapping his arms around his gut from sheer force of his mirth.
“M-man, you guys are something else,” he gasped out, leaning on Mei’s shoulder as she began to giggle with him. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself, then raised his glass a second time. “I say we toast to all the good times we’re having now, and that we will have in the future.”
Ed raised an eyebrow, then glanced around to see that no one had any objections to this idea as far as he could see. His gaze then landed on his brother, and he gave a snort of his own.
“That’s pretty corny, Al.”
Al frowned, looking deflated for a moment, but then Ed’s face broke out in a smile and he raised his glass high.
“Cheers,” he said.
One by one, Winry, Roy, Riza, Ling, Lan Fan, Mei, and finally Al brought up their drinks and clinked them together, making a loud and disjointed sound that went unnoticed amid the round of ‘cheers’ spoken and the short bits of conversation that followed. Ed couldn’t stop smiling, an elated feeling in his stomach that years ago, he never would have imagined he could experience.
Now he was making up a circle of his closest friends, his beautiful wife at his side. And it was such a beautiful day for this get together. Ed sighed, pulling Winry closer and enjoying the feel of her against him. He saw Al and Mei in a similar position, and Mustang talking with Hawkeye in the corner, probably about something he would never discuss with anyone else. Even Ling and Lan Fan seemed happier, even though Lan Fan was still afraid to stray from the master/servant bond as Ling clearly wanted to. It was a great time for all of them, the fruit of all the hardships they had faced together.
“Having fun?” Winry asked.
Ed nodded his head, not looking away from crowd of his friends and family. “Yeah, I am.”
“Well, I know I’m enjoying myself!” said the obnoxious and muffled voice of Ling as he came back over and draped himself over Ed’s shoulder. Ed groaned in annoyance, which only grew when Ling swallowed whatever he’d been eating and leaned in close. “And don’t worry about what Mustang says. I wouldn’t start a war with you guys over a few playful jabs at me.”
“Playful, right,” Ed droned, trying and failing to subtly push Ling off of him.
“If worse comes to worst,” the idiot Emperor continued. “You could just settle the dispute by letting me take Winry as my Empress!”
Two seconds later, a fuming Ed pulled Winry back into the house, while Ling remained in place, a bowl of chocolate pudding overturned on his head and the brown substance running down his face and neck.
“I was kidding,” he whined.
As Lan Fan went to help him clean up, everyone else had to fight to keep from laughing out loud. Even the infallible Riza was smiling. And even though Ed’s face hadn’t lost that angry red and Winry was clearly not happy with him for wasting a dessert she’d helped make, he couldn’t find it in him to lose his smile, or those happy feelings that came with it.
After all, today was a very good day.
|
|
Packrat
Sergeant
a.k.a. Packrat (Previously Butterfly Kisses)
Posts: 60 
|
Post by Packrat on Feb 10, 2012 19:23:37 GMT -5
TO: Taranova
FROM: PackratI am your gate baby! Happy belated Christmas!   They are actually drawn on the same sheet of paper my scanner just cropped it weird :U Roy as Mulan!...supposed to be Roy as Mulan anyways. Based off of your tumblr icon <3
|
|
Packrat
Sergeant
a.k.a. Packrat (Previously Butterfly Kisses)
Posts: 60
|
Post by Packrat on Feb 10, 2012 19:24:42 GMT -5
ALSO.
TO MY GATE BABY: EEEEEEEEEEEE I adore the gifts! I'm sorry I didn't come in and squee earlier, but I really do love them! So cute! <33333
/doublepost
|
|
|
|
Post by PuzzleChick on Feb 10, 2012 20:53:18 GMT -5
I just now had a chance to read my Day 4 gift and OH MY GOD THE CUTE. I CAN'T HANDLE IT. My eyes are watering from how hard I'm trying not to squeal so loud that I startle the rest of my family. Just...GAHHHH. SO. AMAZINGLY. CUTE. *swoons* <333
|
|
|
|
Post by neoeevee on Feb 12, 2012 23:12:42 GMT -5
LATE POST IS LATE, SO VERY SORRY D: To: Packrat
From: NeoFair warning, big image is big. ALSO, ALSO EEEEE LOOKIT ALL THIS MADOKA  |
|
Packrat
Sergeant
a.k.a. Packrat (Previously Butterfly Kisses)
Posts: 60
|
Post by Packrat on Feb 13, 2012 17:41:01 GMT -5
AAAAAHHHH NEO YOU ARE AMAZING LET ME LOVE YOU <333
|
|
