Just finished reading chapter 100 of Fullmetal Alchemist on http://www.onemanga.com.

. . . after last month's chapter, I really wanted to know what was coming next. Now I need even more badly to know what's coming next.

Also, arrgh.

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Proud Maisie

Proud Maisie is in the wood,
Walking so early;
Sweet Robin sits on the bush,
Singing so rarely.

"Tell me, thou bonny bird,
When shall I marry me?"
"When six braw gentlemen
Kirkward shall carry ye."

"Who makes the bridal bed,
Birdie, say truly?"
"The grey-headed sexton
That delves the grave duly.

"The glow-worm o'er grave and stone
Shall light thee steady.
The owl from the steeple sing,
'Welcome, proud lady'."

-- Sir Walter Scott

Title: the Devil guards his own
Requester: starsandtildes
Series: Full Metal Alchemist
Requested Topic: Pride and Wrath: Mrs Bradley
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/788099.html


Wrath's position is that nobody touches what is his. Nobody crosses him. Nobody irritates him. Nobody speaks too loudly in his presence. Nobody threatens his wife.

Pride's position is that his is the best. Who else should he have for mother but the wife of the leader of the country? Her behaviour is perfect. She is an ornament to the Presidency.

Mrs Bradley walks between the two of them, smiles at them, cares for them, and thinks that the burning shadows behind their eyes are love for each other, and faith in their family, and hope for the future.

Title: experience, the best teacher
Requester: liralen
Series: Bleach / Fullmetal Alchemist
Requested Topic: Fullmetal Alchemist's Izumi Curtis and Bleach's Matsumoto. Prompt: "A firm hand."
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/724310.html


What could have been a dramatic, portentous fight had turned into a comfortable chat.

"I don't get nervous," Ed lied, "but does it seem to you that they're getting a bit too friendly?"

"They're certainly drinking enough," Hitsugaya sniffed. "MATSUMOTO! Any more of that wine and it comes out of your personal salary!"

The two women looked at each other.

Matsumoto shrugged.

Izumi made a gesture strangely reminiscent of dragging a smaller person over her knee, then raised a hand menacingly.

"Oh, that's just going too far," Hitsugaya said, and stepped forward firmly, chin set.

Ed was already running away.

Title: uncorrupted memory
Requester: rachelmanija
Series: Full Metal Alchemist
Requested Topic: Any of these characters: Roy Mustang, Hawkeye, Hughes, Ed Elric, Al Elric, Izumi Curtis: The things I remember, the things I forget.
Due to http://incandescens.livejournal.com/622248.html

The things Izumi remembers; the weight that imbalanced her, the hunger, the constant pressure on her bladder (they called it 'needing to pee for two', she can hear the voices now): the heaviness in her breasts, the sickness in the mornings, the weariness in the evenings, the sudden kicks and wriggling shifts: the smell of new paint and fresh wood in the nursery: the way that her husband would rest his hand on her stomach and try to feel the baby moving inside her.

The things Izumi wishes she could forget; how small, how very small a grave it was.