[Fic] "At the Very Ports We Blow" (Premovie, 4/5)

[cryogenia]

Title: At the very ports we blow (Part 4 of 5)
Author: cryogenia
Pairing: None (gen)
Rating: R (rating has increased)
Prompt: For 7stages, set 3, #4: "draw a line in the sand"
Spoiler level: Post-series, pre-movie
Warnings for this fic: References to ethnic tensions, both fictional and historical

A/N: Huge chapter is huuuuge D: One more to go (I hope)! (And

Comments

[engine_blue]

I knew, I absolutely knew you updated last night.

You wrote this installment particularly well; I can see why you are so devoted to it, and how it's paying off. The dynamics are so reallistic, and not every last little thing is discussed, put out in the open, and fixed, as it is with real life.

[cryogenia]

Thanks - this lets me know I missed my mark a bit at the end there. (If someone has to ask, then I wasn't doing it right XD) Mostly, Ed is in a very low place right now, and he was earlier thinking about how he should be thinking of alter!Jean as his own person - because alter!Jean is trying to reach out and be a friend to him, and here he is going on about "I like you cause you are Havoc's doppelganger :D" But then, Jean goes and does something that does directly parallel the 'real' Havoc, and Ed is all upset again. He's starting to feel like this place is a hell created just for him...and now he's running off to see this strange fake Al who is nasty and mean and hates him, unlike the real Al. (That has got to be the most painful part of all.)

[engine_blue]

Ahh, that would make sense then. That last sentence about Al would be a good one to put in there. xD I always like it when Ed talks about his emotions. hee...

But thank you for clearing that up for me. :) ( I like being able to help, too.) :]

The other thing that's been eating at me though is Ed's friendship with jean: Jean doesn't seem too emotionally invested in Ed. Is that how that's supposed to be coming across? I wonder, if I could tell more of the backstory--how it had been previously--I could grasp what's being lost or strained in this fight. Could you help me out again?--Has my reading comprehension flat-lined again, and I am missing something you put in there? :O Thanks! :)

[cryogenia]

Well, Jean isn't very emotionally invested in Ed XD; Jean thinks Ed isn't a bad guy, he's a coworker; they share cigarettes and sandwiches sometimes and they are both slightly outsiders. They're not like, best friends 4ever :) So yes, Jean's interest in solving this Ed/Alfons problem is in some ways selfish. I will get into it a bit more next chapter too, but really, both Ed and Alfons have been annoying everybody -- but Ed and Alfons are smart and the group needs their brains. This rocket project isn't just Alfons's deal or Ed's deal -- everybody who is working on it would like to see it completed. And if Alfons and Ed are being such dicks that it screws up everyone else's chances...well, that's why Jean is atm mad at both of them :)

[engine_blue]

I see. *nod nod* That works. :) Thanks for explaining it to me. ^__^