Fic: The Phoney War, Chapter Eleven of Twelve

[bob_fish]

Title: The Phoney War, Chapter Eleven: Gauntlet
Setting: Fullmetal Alchemist, mangaverse, post-series, slight ending AU.
Characters: Roy/Ed, Havoc/Rebecca, Riza/Miles, Al, Winry, ensemble.
Rating/content: NC-17 overall, this chapter a light R for violence and swears.
Word count: 5603
Summary: Two years on from the Promised Day. Amestris is

Comments

[japanimecrazed]

That is a horrible cliffhanger! I loved this entire chapter- Rebecca's letter, and Alex's visit, and Gracia was amazing. I'm eager to see how this ends!

[bob_fish]

Thanks so much! \o/ Glad you enjoyed, and sorry about the cliffie. At least the final chapter is nearly ready!

[lunaria_kitty]

*splutters* Cliffhangerrrr. I've got to get ready for work, so I can't drop a long comment, but this chapter was absolutely great. From all the goodbyes/letters/final night together (was tearing up right along with Ed there ♥), to the suspenseful next day. Glad to see some of Gracia in there too!

Nice illo too! Love the scar on his hand.

Can't wait to see the last! I'll be on the edge of my seat waiting for more!

[bob_fish]

\o/ Thanks for reading and leaving lovely comments! I haven't used Gracia much so it was good to bring her back into the mix.

Roy has quite the scar collection by now. As does Riza, and Ed, and Havoc ... *pats them all*

[orion117]

I am praying that Breda's bad news is that the commissary has run out of sandwiches for the coup, but I am fairly certain that will be proven wrong.

I love the illustration-that truncated view of Roy's face with one hand and a bit of uniform is very powerful. I liked his thoughts about doing the broadcast, as well as Fury's "Your excellency." Aw.

I also loved that now that Roy has opened the door to being in a relationship, he's thrown it wide open, or opened the floodgates on his feelings, or something like that. Very sweet, and the passage where Ed asks him to tell him he's bulletproof reminded me of Buffy's "Lie to me," to Giles. I was already getting teary, and then that recollection hit me and made it all the more powerful.

The action scenes were great, as usual, and kept me on the edge of my seat, and all the goodbyes were very poignant. Alex's thoughts and Roy and Gracia's conversation hit me the hardest. Can't wait until next week!

[bob_fish]

Haha, if only it were a sandwich shortage. XD That would be the cheekiest cliffhanger payoff. XD

Thanks for the lovely review! I loved writing and drawing the radio broadcast bit, anything that involves Roy and the tachi being Big Damn Heroes gets me right in the sappy places.

Re. Roy's feelings, that's a good way to describe it! Just as with the sex, once he's let himself go there, the floodgates are open and it's all a bit unstoppable - probably more so than he anticipated.

I'm actually a big Buffy fan - it's been years since I saw "Lie to Me" but now that you point it out, I do see the similarities of tone and dialogue with that lovely scene with Buffy and Giles, so maybe it rubbed off on me! Consciously, I was thinking of Roy's occasional habit of giving direct orders to his subordinates not to die, and how Ed's uncompromising determination sometimes takes a similar form.

Glad to hear both action and sap worked for you!

[skelody]

CLIFFHANGER

You are cruel in your kindness, O Bard.

[bob_fish]

*shifty eyes*

[lazylamia]

Watching these preparations and farewells I almost wanted the coup to start - because waiting is always the worst part - but now I wonder what kind of problem they can have? I'm sure that Roy planned (almost) everything.

[bob_fish]

The waiting really is always the worst part! Roy and Team Mustang planned for nearly everything, but as they talked about in Chapter 9, there's some potential for complications. :O