Beneath the Blue and Flame
May. 21st, 2009 10:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dracoqueen22Barely made it again.
This time, I bring you Beneath the Blue and Flame, one of my first fanfiction, a oneshot, and belonging to the Fullmetal Alchemist fandom. It also happens to be one of my most popular oneshots in both favorites and reviews. On every website it has been posted on. Of course, now there are many I consider to be better. But even three years later, I still get the occasional review and favorite for this.
The oneshot is from Roy's POV, first-person because that seems to be all I could write for the FMA fandom, and it based entirely on the anime canon, and not the manga. It takes place after the end of the series and the movie, with Ed having returned from the "other world" by a method that isn't explained. It is more AU than anything.
It focuses on Roy and Ed's scars, how they are alike and different, and how they have saved each other. There is a small bit of smut involved, but it is mostly emotional rather than being purely PWP. I enjoy writing from Roy's POV. I actually find it easier than to write Ed and though I dislike First Person, I find it easy when it comes to Roy. Something about the Mustang and I coincide, I suppose. It helps that he's incredibly hot ( and shares the same Japanese VA as Urahara Kisuke from Bleach *swoon*) FMA was also the first anime fandom, outside of Samurai Champloo, that I wrote the fanfiction for.
The title comes from a line within the story, where Roy remarks that Ed is one of the few who has ever seen him for the man he really is. The man that exists beneath the blue ( the color of his uniform and representing his position in the army) and flame (a reference to his existence as the Flame Alchemist, and all the prestige, recognition and shame in some cases that entails). They both share similar nightmares and as Roy is shamed of his (the sexy eyepatch he has in the movie), Ed points out that he bears his own visible scars as well -- the automail limbs. Roy also remarks that it is ironic that Edward proves to be more the adult than he.
I'm fond of this story myself because it is romantic without being overly mushy, and it presents an interesting contrast. They are so similar, and yet pointedly different. I adore this pairing. But I believe that skydark writes them best. Her series that begins with "The Adventures of Roy Mustang: Sex Ed Teacher" continues with "Better Living through Alchemy" and her new story "Life After Truth" has the ability to be both amusing and heart-breaking. One of my favorite moments is here in "The Adventures..." :
"
“How can you,” and Roy had to stop and catch his breath a moment, “how can you ask me if I missed you,” and then the emotion was back, a ragged hiss, a gut wrenching snarl.
“Roy,” Edward began.
“I wanted to die, did you know that? I wanted to crawl in a fucking hole and hide my head and scream for them to shovel dirt over me. How can I have missed you? I mean, it’s not like I drew my every breath lying there in that hospital bed thinking of you, is it? No, it’s not like I made every fucking day sitting in that court a living hell by wishing for you to be there, is it? How can I have missed you Edward, you never left me! You haunted me endlessly, you tortured my dreams, your image played over my every waking moment like you were fucking burned into my retinas! How can I have missed you? Your brother called to me, wrote to me and looked at me with eyes, but for a shade of color, that were just like yours. How can I have missed you when I would wake in the night screaming your name and listening to it echo off the walls, alone in the goddamn bed with my fucking body insisting, fucking insisting you had just been right there and that it was warm on your side! HOW COULD I HAVE MISSED YOU!?” he screamed.
Edward was trying to turn around, but his current condition made even the most simple of movements difficult. Roy only watched him and let him struggle, not moving to help. He was making noises too, almost like an imitation of the noise he always made, those rumbly throat murmurs that Edward would press himself to against his chest, heaving sighs of relief.
“I didn’t miss you at all,” Roy continued, “I fucking died and was a goddamn corpse until this very night. I could feel nothing!” he howled.
“No,” Roy said and shook his head violently, “that’s not right, let me rephrase that. I could feel nothing unless you allowed me to! You took from me every ability to feel anything for anyone else, you robbed me of my very breath, I looked for you in every fucking man, woman and child I met for six goddamn you, six fucking years, but BY THE GOD YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN, I didn’t fucking MISS YOU!” His throat ripped and the sound he made was raw like an animal. His eye clouded and he couldn’t see, he clawed at it and the goddamn patch, but then there was another hand clutching his shoulder, sliding to his neck and hooking behind it, trying to pull him forward, and a voice, also raw and not the same, but still that voice it used to be, begging.
“Please don’t cry, I didn’t mean it. Please Roy, I’m so stupid. Please don’t cry like that, I’m sorry, I’ll do anything,” Ed was saying, eyes wide and frightened.
“I would do anything, too,” Now that it had started, it wouldn’t leave him, “I would have said anything! Served any god! Paid any PRICE,” his voice cracked and his chest heaved, “just to have you, JUST TO HAVE YOU…” He couldn’t breath and there were those sounds from his own throat again.
Ed was pulling on him desperately, starting to make a keening sound which flayed him. He grabbed him and crushed him and held him and knew him… but he no longer missed him."
This scene I think reflects such strong emotion that I couldn't help but weep a little myself. There is so much love, that I feel like I can never convey it quite this well. I'm always striving to match it and never quite make it. Amazing.
And wow, I hope she doesn't hate me for pointing that part out. But really, go give this woman some love. She writes the best Roy/Ed ever. And she's on livejournal "sky-dark".
Wow, how did this turn into a review of someone else's fic? lol
This time, I bring you Beneath the Blue and Flame, one of my first fanfiction, a oneshot, and belonging to the Fullmetal Alchemist fandom. It also happens to be one of my most popular oneshots in both favorites and reviews. On every website it has been posted on. Of course, now there are many I consider to be better. But even three years later, I still get the occasional review and favorite for this.
The oneshot is from Roy's POV, first-person because that seems to be all I could write for the FMA fandom, and it based entirely on the anime canon, and not the manga. It takes place after the end of the series and the movie, with Ed having returned from the "other world" by a method that isn't explained. It is more AU than anything.
It focuses on Roy and Ed's scars, how they are alike and different, and how they have saved each other. There is a small bit of smut involved, but it is mostly emotional rather than being purely PWP. I enjoy writing from Roy's POV. I actually find it easier than to write Ed and though I dislike First Person, I find it easy when it comes to Roy. Something about the Mustang and I coincide, I suppose. It helps that he's incredibly hot ( and shares the same Japanese VA as Urahara Kisuke from Bleach *swoon*) FMA was also the first anime fandom, outside of Samurai Champloo, that I wrote the fanfiction for.
The title comes from a line within the story, where Roy remarks that Ed is one of the few who has ever seen him for the man he really is. The man that exists beneath the blue ( the color of his uniform and representing his position in the army) and flame (a reference to his existence as the Flame Alchemist, and all the prestige, recognition and shame in some cases that entails). They both share similar nightmares and as Roy is shamed of his (the sexy eyepatch he has in the movie), Ed points out that he bears his own visible scars as well -- the automail limbs. Roy also remarks that it is ironic that Edward proves to be more the adult than he.
I'm fond of this story myself because it is romantic without being overly mushy, and it presents an interesting contrast. They are so similar, and yet pointedly different. I adore this pairing. But I believe that skydark writes them best. Her series that begins with "The Adventures of Roy Mustang: Sex Ed Teacher" continues with "Better Living through Alchemy" and her new story "Life After Truth" has the ability to be both amusing and heart-breaking. One of my favorite moments is here in "The Adventures..." :
"
“How can you,” and Roy had to stop and catch his breath a moment, “how can you ask me if I missed you,” and then the emotion was back, a ragged hiss, a gut wrenching snarl.
“Roy,” Edward began.
“I wanted to die, did you know that? I wanted to crawl in a fucking hole and hide my head and scream for them to shovel dirt over me. How can I have missed you? I mean, it’s not like I drew my every breath lying there in that hospital bed thinking of you, is it? No, it’s not like I made every fucking day sitting in that court a living hell by wishing for you to be there, is it? How can I have missed you Edward, you never left me! You haunted me endlessly, you tortured my dreams, your image played over my every waking moment like you were fucking burned into my retinas! How can I have missed you? Your brother called to me, wrote to me and looked at me with eyes, but for a shade of color, that were just like yours. How can I have missed you when I would wake in the night screaming your name and listening to it echo off the walls, alone in the goddamn bed with my fucking body insisting, fucking insisting you had just been right there and that it was warm on your side! HOW COULD I HAVE MISSED YOU!?” he screamed.
Edward was trying to turn around, but his current condition made even the most simple of movements difficult. Roy only watched him and let him struggle, not moving to help. He was making noises too, almost like an imitation of the noise he always made, those rumbly throat murmurs that Edward would press himself to against his chest, heaving sighs of relief.
“I didn’t miss you at all,” Roy continued, “I fucking died and was a goddamn corpse until this very night. I could feel nothing!” he howled.
“No,” Roy said and shook his head violently, “that’s not right, let me rephrase that. I could feel nothing unless you allowed me to! You took from me every ability to feel anything for anyone else, you robbed me of my very breath, I looked for you in every fucking man, woman and child I met for six goddamn you, six fucking years, but BY THE GOD YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN, I didn’t fucking MISS YOU!” His throat ripped and the sound he made was raw like an animal. His eye clouded and he couldn’t see, he clawed at it and the goddamn patch, but then there was another hand clutching his shoulder, sliding to his neck and hooking behind it, trying to pull him forward, and a voice, also raw and not the same, but still that voice it used to be, begging.
“Please don’t cry, I didn’t mean it. Please Roy, I’m so stupid. Please don’t cry like that, I’m sorry, I’ll do anything,” Ed was saying, eyes wide and frightened.
“I would do anything, too,” Now that it had started, it wouldn’t leave him, “I would have said anything! Served any god! Paid any PRICE,” his voice cracked and his chest heaved, “just to have you, JUST TO HAVE YOU…” He couldn’t breath and there were those sounds from his own throat again.
Ed was pulling on him desperately, starting to make a keening sound which flayed him. He grabbed him and crushed him and held him and knew him… but he no longer missed him."
This scene I think reflects such strong emotion that I couldn't help but weep a little myself. There is so much love, that I feel like I can never convey it quite this well. I'm always striving to match it and never quite make it. Amazing.
And wow, I hope she doesn't hate me for pointing that part out. But really, go give this woman some love. She writes the best Roy/Ed ever. And she's on livejournal "sky-dark".
Wow, how did this turn into a review of someone else's fic? lol
