Gen drabble fic-- Divine Proportion
Jul. 1st, 2005 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lykomancerTitle: Divine Proportion
Words: ~450
Genre: Gen-- Angst, Hohenheim-centric
Rating: G
Spoilers: Wholesale, for the entire series
Notes: There's going to eventually be a whole bunch of these style drabbles; I have far too many good ideas... It'd be a sin not to use them.
The alchemist looked over the array, checking the sleek efficiency of the design one more time. The lines ran smooth into one another and then ricocheted, forming perfect forty-five degree angles as if they, too, obeyed Newton's mechanical laws of force and acceleration and opposite yet equal reactions; they spun out in a magnificent pinwheel, whirling in a design that echoed the gyrations of the stars in the heavens, the ordering of seeds in the head of a sunflower, the fluted curve of seashells.
There was power in those dark lines-- power in the calculation that had rendered this particular array, in the irrational and divine numbers that wove this pattern-- and there was power in the alchemist who had designed it-- power in the poetry of his wild desperation and poignant grief.
He had already given the universe his tears, floods of them that burned his eyes and clotted his throat, that ravaged his face-- hot, helpless, hopeless hours spent sobbing broken-heartedly until he collapsed from exhaustion.
He had given the sweat of his brow, slaving over the old tomes, working and reworking the calculations, digging for hints buried in the moldering pages and deceptive codes of ancient alchemists long into the night, pushing away anything that didn't close the distance between himself and his goal and working hurriedly in a race against time.
He had given his own blood, more than what fate had already stolen away from him; he had smeared his very essence into the design, the red waters of his own life mingling with the black ink and making the room throb with latent energy.
He had given the body of his first-borne son, laying the corpse down in the center of the array so that it was the sun from which the lines on the floor radiated out from like beams of light. Despite the passage of days since the funeral, the golden hair was just as thick, just as lush, fanning out around the boy's head like a heavenly corona.
He gave, and he gave, and he gave, and he could only hope that it was enough... Enough to regain what had been taken away. Enough to regain the joy and light of his life, that which meant more to him than anything else: his son's smiles, his laughter, his determination, the fire of his soul that had blazed so high and bright that it had quickly burned out before its time.
Enough to start his shattered heart beating once more.
Hohenheim took a deep breath and knelt before the alchemical array, barely daring to hope as he touched his fingers down on the outside edge of the design.
Words: ~450
Genre: Gen-- Angst, Hohenheim-centric
Rating: G
Spoilers: Wholesale, for the entire series
Notes: There's going to eventually be a whole bunch of these style drabbles; I have far too many good ideas... It'd be a sin not to use them.
The alchemist looked over the array, checking the sleek efficiency of the design one more time. The lines ran smooth into one another and then ricocheted, forming perfect forty-five degree angles as if they, too, obeyed Newton's mechanical laws of force and acceleration and opposite yet equal reactions; they spun out in a magnificent pinwheel, whirling in a design that echoed the gyrations of the stars in the heavens, the ordering of seeds in the head of a sunflower, the fluted curve of seashells.
There was power in those dark lines-- power in the calculation that had rendered this particular array, in the irrational and divine numbers that wove this pattern-- and there was power in the alchemist who had designed it-- power in the poetry of his wild desperation and poignant grief.
He had already given the universe his tears, floods of them that burned his eyes and clotted his throat, that ravaged his face-- hot, helpless, hopeless hours spent sobbing broken-heartedly until he collapsed from exhaustion.
He had given the sweat of his brow, slaving over the old tomes, working and reworking the calculations, digging for hints buried in the moldering pages and deceptive codes of ancient alchemists long into the night, pushing away anything that didn't close the distance between himself and his goal and working hurriedly in a race against time.
He had given his own blood, more than what fate had already stolen away from him; he had smeared his very essence into the design, the red waters of his own life mingling with the black ink and making the room throb with latent energy.
He had given the body of his first-borne son, laying the corpse down in the center of the array so that it was the sun from which the lines on the floor radiated out from like beams of light. Despite the passage of days since the funeral, the golden hair was just as thick, just as lush, fanning out around the boy's head like a heavenly corona.
He gave, and he gave, and he gave, and he could only hope that it was enough... Enough to regain what had been taken away. Enough to regain the joy and light of his life, that which meant more to him than anything else: his son's smiles, his laughter, his determination, the fire of his soul that had blazed so high and bright that it had quickly burned out before its time.
Enough to start his shattered heart beating once more.
Hohenheim took a deep breath and knelt before the alchemical array, barely daring to hope as he touched his fingers down on the outside edge of the design.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-01 09:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-01 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-01 09:26 pm (UTC)Hohenhiem's first-borne son. This is about Envy.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-01 09:39 pm (UTC)Such dedication and almost perfect calculation in the midst of his tearing grief. He's an alchemist to the core, and that's not necessarily a compliment.
I always have wondered if any alchemist had tried to use the body of the one they lost. It would be a good reason for why Envy seems so different from the rest.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-01 10:23 pm (UTC)Man, I had to look so many things up just to write this short little thing! Stuff I knew a little of-- the golden mean, Newtonian physics, dimethylmercury poisoning... I'm not used to writing about/from a scholar's POV, and I find myself having to scrabble to get the details of things I need to use. *laughs*
no subject
Date: 2005-07-01 10:32 pm (UTC)Damn fine, damn fine piece. Shame on you making me have some Envy-sympathy, I guess after all he really didn't ask for this. Shame on hoho-papa =(
no subject
Date: 2005-07-01 10:44 pm (UTC)Envy didn't ask for it, and I don't think that Hoho knew what he was getting into, either, the poor darling. But I'll get into that more in later drabbles.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-01 10:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-01 11:17 pm (UTC)Doing your homework always makes the assignment turn out better. ^_^ I don't skimp, even when I think I know enough to scrape by without anyone noticing.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-01 10:58 pm (UTC):blinks: Damn, this is good. The last few paragraphs in particular are great.
It's things like this that invoke vague feelings of jealousy and envy in me, cos they're written so well. :pouts: So we can expect more? :D
no subject
Date: 2005-07-01 11:14 pm (UTC)Talk about nothing coming out perfect...
Thank you, thank you. ^_^
There will be more. Hohenhiem and Envy, for all their differences, are both insanely easy for me to write and I am fascinated by them.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-02 01:27 am (UTC)And the amount of research you're putting into this sounds like the amount of research into quantum physics I'm putting in for a ficlet for one of the themes on that
But in your case, definitely, it was so worth it. *____*
no subject
Date: 2005-07-02 01:39 am (UTC)But thankies!
Obviously, the discussion I had with you last night help inspire this, and I look forward to continuing with the next 500 words. ^_^
no subject
Date: 2005-07-02 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-02 09:09 pm (UTC)(aka: Thank you, lovely. Your compliments, as always, mean the world to me.)