Title: Introduction
Series: FMA - Bluebird's Illusion
Word Count: 572
Rating: G, I think.
Characters: The homunculi, including Pride!Ed. :D
Summary: My name isn't Edward. 100 themes, Pride!Ed centric.
Warnings: None, unless you haven't played BBI.
"Envy."
Said sin turned his head, making an inquiring noise.
"Say hello to your new brother."
Envy sighed and turned his head further, glancing to where someone new stood beside Father. Disgust flashed through his eyes momentarily before he gave a lazy wave.
"Hey, there... Pride."
Pride simply stared, golden eyes blank. Dead.
"Big... Brother?"
Envy rolled his eyes, disgust filling his features again. "Yeah, yeah."
"I'm assigning you to the task of looking after Pride for now, Envy. He'll accompany you on missions and such, and I expect you to take good care of him until he can get around on his own." Father held up a hand as Envy made a face and started to whine. "No objections." With that he left, off to sit on his throne once more.
Envy took a moment to look Pride over. Long blond hair, left loose over his shoulders, which, as the rest of him was, were covered in strange red tattoos. His outfit was similar to Envy's, other than the varying lengths of his gloves and lack of foot coverings, instead having simple black bands around his ankles, making him look like some kind of prisoner. The thing that intrigued Envy the most was the scythe he carried. The blade was nearly as long as Pride himself, and black chains wrapped around his wrist, binding it to him. All in all, he looked like some strange parody of an angel of death, and Envy almost wanted to laugh.
Pride's dead eyes focused on him.
"You don't... want me around?"
Envy snorted. "No shit."
Pride continued to stare, and Envy began feeling very unnerved.
"Come on." He frowned and gestured that Pride was to follow him, turning and leaving the room they were in. "I suppose I should show you around, because believe me, I'm not going to have you following me around all the time." Pride didn't say anything, and simply followed obediently. Envy gave him a simple tour of the basement under Central Command, the place they were staying. He'd saved the room where all the other homunculi, save Greed, liked to reside for last, and as they entered said room, there were several noises of interest made towards the blond.
"Well, well, who's this?" Lust inquired.
"Pride," Envy spat. "Apparently Father thought the Fullmetal Pipsqueak would make a good homunculus."
Everyone took some time to mull this over, Gluttony wobbling forward to examine Pride curiously, poking at one of his tattoos and asking innocently, "Can I eat you?"
Pride stared. "Why... would you do that?"
Gluttony furrowed his brow and sucked on his finger. "Because I'm hungry," he explained.
Pride simply continued to stare.
"Gluttony," Lust called. "You can't eat him. He's your brother."
Gluttony pouted, but wobbled back to Lust's side, where she gave him a pat on the head.
"Hello, Pride," Wrath called. "My name is Wrath."
"You can call me Lust."
"I'm Gluttony! And that's Sloth." Sloth snored in response.
"Greed's currently away," Wrath continued. "And I'm sure you already know Envy."
Pride stared a moment before nodding once.
He stared as Envy walked towards the group and found himself a place to sit.
He continued standing where he was, staring, until Wrath told him to relax and sit down a while. He obediently walked over and slowly sat down next to Envy, not saying anything as conversation slowly resumed.
No one said anything about his appearance.
Title: Love
Series: FMA - Bluebird's Illusion
Word Count: 620
Rating: G.
Characters: The homunculi.
Summary: My name isn't Edward. 100 themes, Pride!Ed centric.
Warnings: Same as above.
From what Pride had observed, Lust seemed to have taken it upon herself to be sort of a mother figure for all of the other homunculi, or at least an elder sister, and everyone more or less listened to her. Well, except Envy, but he didn't seem to like listening to anyone. Apparently Lust was the oldest, after the previous Pride.
The more he watched, the more he noticed the little things that signaled her affection towards all of them. She might absentmindedly pat Gluttony on the head as she talked, or jokingly tease Wrath and Envy. More than once she'd caught him staring and given a small smile, a kind look in her eyes, and then direct a question or two at him. He supposed it was to make him feel welcome.
Pride turned to stare at Envy for a while, silently drinking in all his details. He was scowling, as was usual, his chin propped up against his hand. His dark hair fell across pale skin, the contrast making him stand out. The more Pride thought about it, they all had this sort of look. He supposed he must have something relating to it, but his hair and eyes were so different, he must have looked out of place.
He stared down at himself, pondering this. His strange tattoos - Only one of them looked similar to what the others had; it was on his left shoulder - None of the others had these. The more he studied himself, the more he wondered how he fit in around here. He looked up at Lust, and she noticed, smiling at him again.
"Pride, that's quite a nice weapon you have," she directed at him.
Everyone stopped to look as he hefted up his scythe, staring at it silently for nearly a minute before directing his gaze back at Lust.
Wrath struck up another conversation with her, and Pride went back to staring at his tattoos, then at Envy again.
They all referred to each other as siblings. He supposed that made them a family of sorts. The conversation continued around him, and Lust and even Wrath kept trying to include him. At some point Gluttony had left Lust's side and plopped down next to Pride, sucking on his thumb and tracing his tattoos with a fat finger. He eventually became bored and went to poke at Sloth a bit before going back to his place next to Lust.
Pride eventually decided on defining this odd family's interactions as love. Except for Envy, who almost always seemed irritable, they were fairly affectionate with each other.
Then it occurred to him that they kept referring to him as part of their odd family as well. He was rather startled at the prospect of having this familial love given to him, before realizing that's what Lust had been doing all along. It hadn't seemed so bad then, so it couldn't be too terrible now, just because he'd acknowledged it for what it was.
Pride stared at Envy again, contemplating that he was still scowling, even in the face of this love Lust was handing around.
"Big Brother... Why... are you unhappy?"
Wrath's latest sentence trailed off, and everyone turned to look as Envy's scowl deepened.
"Who said I was?"
It was silent another moment before Lust asked Wrath, "What were you saying before?"
Envy looked relieved to have the attention off of him, and Pride continued staring until he came to the conclusion that Envy didn't like love, and this of course opened up a whole new world of questions Envy probably wouldn't answer.
Pride focused his attention on Wrath, who was still speaking, deciding to give Envy a bit of space.
Title:Light
Series: FMA - Bluebird's Illusion
Word Count: 1,251
Rating: PG-13?
Characters: The homunculi, Mustang's crew (excluding Mustang).
Summary: My name isn't Edward. 100 themes, Pride!Ed centric.
Warnings: Character death, and again spoilers for BBI.
Notes: Sorry about the strange ending. D: It was far too long already, and I needed to end it somewhere. I also realize the reference to the theme, Light, was very small and not very exciting. And does anyone think I'm moving this story too fast? Talk to me.
Lust and Wrath conversed, Envy sulked, Gluttony whined about being hungry, and Sloth slept. Pride simply stared, observing. Things went on in this way for an indefinite amount of time, though Pride estimated it to be about two days.
He stared over at Lust and Wrath, who were still talking about nothing in particular. Right then, it seemed to be... Clothing brands.
He turned to stare at Sloth for a while. Sloth wasn't very interesting, as he did nothing but sleep, but at that point a rather amusing bubble, made entirely of snot, began to form at the edge of his nose while he snored.
The bubble had begun to grow very large when Father's voice rang out from the next room, silencing any conversation and making Sloth jerk in his sleep, popping the snot bubble.
"Envy."
Envy lifted his chin from his hand and glanced at the doorway before standing.
"Bring Pride."
Envy paused, scowling down at Pride while he stood as well. He followed Envy into the next room, and Father stepped out of the shadows his throne was hiding in, peering down on them from a small ledge.
"You have a mission."
Pride noticed the corners of Envy's mouth twitch upwards, and filed this information away. Missions... made Envy happy.
"A group of humans has been looking a little too far into the deaths of their friends. Your job is to dispose of them. The names of these humans are Riza Hawkeye, Jean Havoc, Kain Fuery, Heymans Breda, and Vato Falman."
Envy glanced towards Pride, not seeing anything in his expression out of the ordinary.
"I believe this will make a good first mission for Pride... See to it that nothing goes wrong, Envy."
With a small smile, Father stepped back into the shadows, and the sounds of him sitting down were noticeable.
"You are dismissed."
Envy turned on his heel and left the room, stopping at the doorway to look back at Pride, who hadn't moved.
"Come on... Blondie,"
Pride stared for a long moment before obediently following.
"What did Father want?" Lust asked.
"We've got a mission! It seems Ponyboy's buddies have been getting a little too curious for their own good."
Lust sent a smirk in their direction. "Do have fun."
Envy gave her a crooked grin before gesturing Pride to follow and leading him up a few flights of stairs. Pride stored the directions they took through all the winding hallways, knowing he'd need the information later.
They reached a small foyer, and Envy shifted into a civilian woman, grabbing a dark cloak off a rack and throwing at Pride.
"Put that on, we can't have anyone recognizing you."
He reached for the doorknob and glanced back at Pride, looking him over. He paused, noticing the very large scythe still in his hand.
"Can you... Do something about that?"
Pride followed Envy's gaze down to the blade in his hand and stared a moment before a light flashed, much like an alchemical reaction, and the scythe retreated into the cuff around his wrist.
Envy looked him over again and nodded once, flinging the door open.
"Welcome to Central, Blondie."
Pride was blinded momentarily, bringing one glove clad wrist up to shield his eyes. He hadn't realized before just how dark the basement under Headquarters was, but compared to this kind of light, it was undeniable.
His eyes adjusted quickly, much faster than a human's would, and it appeared they had exited the building into some sort of alleyway. It wasn't all that far from what appeared to be a fairly mainstream road, but Envy turned the other way, towards a small back road. Pride followed obediently, and they headed around the corner. Envy removed a set of keys from his pocket and unlocked a small door, gesturing Pride inside.
He blinked at this new kind of light, harsh and fluorescent. Envy relocked the door and shifted into an officer, leading him out into a new hallway, a few passing people giving Pride's strange clothing an odd look. Envy walked like he knew where he was going, so Pride just followed along behind him, keeping the hood of the cloak over his face. They eventually reached a door that looked like many others they had passed, but Envy seemed to assign it some significance, so Pride studied it closely. Envy simply reached forward and opened the door, entering quickly and pulling Pride in with him. The occupants of the room, four men and a woman, looked up, startled, at the intruders. Envy flicked the lock on the door into place.
"Why, hello," he took this time to shift into his original form. "I've heard news that you all have been getting a bit... Nosy."
Recovering from her shock, the woman, Hawkeye, pulled her gun from it's holster and fired a round into Envy's chest. The sound echoed around the room as Envy chuckled, licking some blood off his lip as the bullets popped out of his skin and the wounds sealed themselves off before their eyes.
"I do believe this was supposed to be your mission, Blondie. Take off the cloak first, though, why don't you."
Pride obediently unfastened the cloak, pulling it off and slowly setting it on the desk nearest the door. The atmosphere of the room was tense, the five humans hardly daring to breathe.
"E-Edward?" Hawkeye breathed, lowering her gun an inch.
There were disbelieving murmurs of "Chief..." all around as Pride stared blankly.
"Who... Is Edward?" he spoke slowly, gently cocking his head to one side. " My name is... Pride."
He turned to stare at Envy. "Father said... Dispose of them. Does that mean... ?"
"Kill them." Envy grinned. Hawkeye's eyes widened, and she brought her gun up again.
Pride nodded, and stuck his left arm out straight. There was a flash of light, and his scythe formed in his hand once again. He gripped it tightly before swinging into action, lightning fast. He slashed at Riza, as she was the one closest to him, but Jean grabbed her and pulled her out of the way, receiving the blade instead of her. It sliced easily through his shoulder and upper back, and he screamed in pain.
"Havoc!"
Pride stared a moment before moving along to the next one, a small, trembling man with wide eyes hidden behind thick glasses. Kain Fuery. He quickly and efficiently lopped his head from his shoulder before doing the same with the other two, Breda and Falman. By this point, Hawkeye was crying, having witnessed all her co-workers and friends murdered around her.
Pride turned towards her again. She was using one arm to hold up Havoc as best she could, but by that point he'd gone unconscious from the blood loss, if not already dead.
"Edward, don't do this," she sobbed, pointing another gun at his head with her free hand.
When he didn't stop moving towards her, Hawkeye gritted her teeth and emptied two shots into his head.
Pride paused only momentarily, frowning slightly as the pain registered. However, the bullets simply rose to the surface of his skin and dropped to the floor at his feet, the wounds alchemically closing. Without much further ado, he stepped forward and did to her what he'd done to the others, easily severing her head from her shoulders.
Envy chuckled as Pride paused to wipe the blood from his face, licking it off of his palms.
"I've... Disposed of them. What do I... Do now?"
Title: Dark
Series: FMA - Bluebird's Illusion
Word Count: 536
Rating: G again, I think?
Characters: The homunculi.
Summary: My name isn't Edward. 100 themes, Pride!Ed centric.
Warnings: Spoilers for BBI.
"I've... Disposed of them. What do I... Do now?"
"Leave them," Envy shrugged. "I'm pretty sure Ponyboy had this office soundproofed at some point, so I doubt anyone even noticed all that." He kicked at one of the bullets on the floor. "Besides, we won't have to deal with the repercussions of anyone finding them. That's Wrath's job."
Envy tossed the cloak at him again, and as Pride put it on, he noted with a small sense of satisfaction that Envy seemed much happier, even though he hadn't gotten to kill anyone himself. He retracted his scythe and watched in fascination as Envy shifted into the same officer as before, unlocking the door and stepping outside. He followed, and they walked back the way they came, pretty much doing everything they had done before, but in reverse.
Pride was relieved to be back in the dark. The way the shadows hugged him made him feel safe, and much less exposed. He discarded his cloak at the entrance to the basement, and followed Envy back through the maze of hallways.
"How did it go?" Lust inquired upon their entry to the main room.
"It was surprisingly easy," Envy replied. "It seems that without their darling alchemists, the humans don't put up much of a fight. I will say, though, that you're going to have to do a lot of bullshitting to cover this one up, oh dear Mr. Bradley." he stuck his tongue out at Wrath, and Lust laughed.
Envy continued into Father's room, and Pride followed.
"Done," Envy remarked casually, and Father's voice sounded from the shadows.
"Were there any complications?"
"Not that I'm aware of," he replied snarkily, losing some of his good mood. Another thing to note: Father made Envy unhappy.
"Good. You are dismissed."
Envy left to the main room, plopping down with a huff. Pride followed at a much slower rate, sitting down next to him and looking around.
"How was your first mission, Pride?" Lust asked.
He thought a moment. "It was..." He paused, searching for the right word.
"Enjoyable."
"That's good." Lust smiled, examining him for a moment. "What happened to that nice weapon of yours, then?"
He stared at her a moment, then down at the cuff on his wrist, willing the scythe to reappear. It did so in a flash of alchemical energy, and he held it up, examining it a moment before laying it across his knees. It seemed all the blood that had coated it from before had been removed in the process of storing it, and it shone dangerously.
Lust seemed a bit surprised, as did Wrath, but they recovered easily. Gluttony looked on curiously, and asked innocently, "Can I eat it?"
"No," Lust pat him on the head. "But we'll find you a snack later. Maybe Wrath will let you help clean up Envy and Pride's mess?" she looked pointedly at Wrath, who nodded.
"A fine idea," he stated.
Gluttony smiled, settling against Lust's side.
Envy frowned, muttering something about Lust's face being a mess, which she chose to ignore.
Pride looked around, realizing he enjoyed being around the other homunculi, being a part of their family.
Yes, he decided. He liked the dark.
Title: Pride
Series: FMA - Bluebird's Illusion
Rating: G
Characters: Pride!Ed
Warnings: Spoilers for BBI, I guess?
Notes: Here, a craptastic drawing just for you! :D This was drawn a few days before I started writing this fic, so it's pretty much how Pride's supposed to appear in it. Also, please try to ignore the tattoos, they were drawn without reference and are entirely inaccurate. D: Visit my deviantART for a larger and higher quality version. (: