(OOC: Profile. In here thar be spoilers!!)
Appearance: Hughes has black hair, which is kept short and somehow is still very untidy. Normally, there’s only one thin lock of it in front of his face, but expect more hair to get loose the more frustrated he gets. He also maintains a scraggly, half stubbly beard, and is one of the many unkempt things about him. He wears rectangular glasses, with a clear frame. They have a habit of catching the light and shining, particularly when discussing his family. He has small and narrow green eyes behind said glasses. As a soldier in the military, he obviously keeps himself in good shape, and is slightly taller than average. When not in his blue military uniform, complete with medals and shoulder pads, he tends to wear very normal shirts and polos, and thick khaki pants. His pajamas are pink with yellow duckies on them.
Beneath the barrage of his daughter’s pictures, Hughes has a mind as sharp as the knives he throws. He’s uniquely skilled at investigating people, and although he occasionally misuses his skills to look up birthdays and trivial things, he’s very attentive to more pressing and important matters. He’s seen a lot of things in his line of work, and almost none of them are pleasant. Partly because of this, he’s one of the better friends anyone could ask for. He goes out of his way to assist them whenever and however possible, and remains kind and warmhearted despite the deadly dealings going on around them.
If he has to, he fights with an amazing degree of resourcefulness and, again, skill. He’s one of the most competent non-corrupt members of Amestris’ military. He’s determined and dogged about the very real dangers and darkness closing in, and investigates into almost every single one of them. When investigating murders and death, he can have a rather bleak sense of humor, in contrast with his usually bright and cheery nature. In addition, he’s been known to hog the phone for hours talking about his wife, and later, his daughter. He has a clue about how annoying this behavior can be, and sometimes, he uses it to his advantage. Indeed, judging from how fast he can drop the praise and gets down to the serious business, the sickening sweetness is a bit of obfuscation on his part. Despite this, Hughes loves his family very much. Never doubt it.
Strengths: Hughes uses push knives to fight. Normally, this isn’t very impressive, but he has amazing accuracy and a lot of heft with his weapons of choice. He tends to keep at least two of them in his sleeves and a few on his belt. He has quite a few mental strengths as well, most notably his kind and helpful nature. He’s very loyal to his friends and family, and he inspires the same in them. He’s easy to know, and for the most part, easy to like. Unlike quite a few people in his position, he has the habit of telling people what they really ought to know before it’s too late. Almost as soon as Hughes learns something of importance, someone else will know, too, leading to the breaking of conspiracies and proper communication.
Weaknesses: His constant babbling and praise for Elysia and Gracia are absolutely annoying to anyone who has to work with him. He’s been known to hog the phone for hours during work to spread his good cheer, and it’s about as sickeningly sweet to other people as it sounds. In addition, it’s an easily noticeable soft spot, and it can be easily exploited. His habit of spilling the beans to important people is not exactly the best strategy for extending his lifespan. It rarely takes long for him to get found out. As a final note, he tends to stall on actually telling this important information until after he praises his daughter first, which causes many hang ups and even more shouts to get to the point.
History:
About eight years ago, most of Armestris’ military was sent in to deal with the Ishbal rebellion. Hughes was one of the few exceptions, as he asked for a desk job and surprisingly, he got it. During this time, he met and started dating Gracia, his future wife. When the war ended, almost everyone who went there returned with scars, some more literal than others. This includes his friend Roy Mustang, who remained rather haunted for what he’d done during the conflict, and at the time sought to kill himself. But, when Hughes discovered this was more concrete than a passing thought, he confronted his friend. During the ensuing fight, Mustang revealed that he was planning to become Fuhrer to change the way the military worked, so that the massacres wouldn’t happen. It took quite a bit of convincing, but Hughes agreed to help him, by pushing him up the ladder from below.
Four years ago, he was a Major, assigned as a communications officer for a General. During one of the dozens of train rides to get to central, things went badly, as almost everyone knew they would. During this incident, he met the Elric brothers, and provided assistance through the cunning use of push knives. Later in the year, in the midst of a blizzard and a birthday party for Edward Elric, Gracia gave birth to his daughter, Elysia. His obvious glee only got worse from there.
Due to another demonstration of his detective skills, he got promoted to Lt. Colonel this year. Also this year, someone began to murder state alchemists, and this person gained the nickname “Scar”. Hughes did his best to investigate this person, while protecting his alchemist friends from suffering any real harm. He had absolutely nothing to do with the big wigs piggybacking on Mustang’s abilities, but anything he does know, he passes on. Of course, that doesn’t stop him in the slightest, but what can you do? He continued to keep an ear to the ground on any developments, even when more important work presented itself.
Later, the most important National Library caught fire, most probably intentionally, and along with a large amount of very important research, almost all of the Investigation Division’s files went up in smoke. However, all was not lost! Thanks in full to the Elrics, he gained a secretary named Sheska who had a photographic memory. Through her, he gained almost all of his files back, and it’s because of her he’s of any real help at all. This proved to be very important, because of events concerning the Elrics deep beneath the city.
Hughes got the story from them, about the horrible experiments in Laboratory 5, about what it takes to make the stone, and most importantly, about the homunculi. He begins to investigate this incident, as it is his job to do so. What he finds out, though, is not at all what he anticipated. Namely, that the homunculi have infiltrated the highest levels of the military, and that everyone is in great danger. He almost seemed to know what’s coming, as he fired his secretary so she can’t get hit with any reprisals. He kissed his daughter good night, and explains that he has work to do.
There are a lot of things about yesterday he remembers, and quite a few things he doesn’t. He remembers that the Fuhrer and his secretary are homunculi. He remembers almost getting ambushed, and it would have worked if he didn’t expect it. He remembers hitting one of them in the eye with a push knife and escaping. The last thing Hughes remembers running to a phone booth and trying to call Roy, to explain the very important and dangerous development.
He doesn’t remember Envy. He doesn’t remember that the homunculi turned into his wife before shooting him. Hughes just woke up in a church, somewhere strange, and he knows it can’t mean anything good.