Another one bites the dust...
Jul. 3rd, 2005 09:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lykomancerTitle: Day Star
Words: ~450
Genre: Gen—Angst, Hohenheim and pre-Envy Envy-centric
Rating: G
Spoilers: Wholesale, for the entire series
Notes: I refuse on principle to use "Hohenheim Junior" or "Hojo," so pre-Envy Envy got rechristened. This also allows me to make multileveled connections and tie-ins later, so...
Oh, yeah. And this is intended as a flash-back type scene that fits after my last Hoho-drabble, which is why it's in present tense.
And as a side note, for those of you interested, keep an eye on my listed music. I'm making sure that I pick songs that go with these pieces just for the fun of it. ^_^
"That stuff is highly dangerous, you know."
The young man glances up from his work, focusing on the man in the doorway of the lab, and he smiles-- a slow softening of his features, rich and sweet as warm honeyed milk-- still swirling the questionable contents of the flask absently in steady flicks of his wrist. He shrugs lazily, rolling his shoulder and waving his father's anxiety off with his free hand.
"I know," he acknowledges, still smiling. He had been working with the compound for a number of months, ever since he returned from his research trip in Xing, coming back with endless notes on various new alchemical processes and arrays, and tantalizing hints of a formula for immortality that he simply couldn't let rest. "But there's something in this. All of the oldest and most reliable sources all concern some usage of cinnabar. We've been over this."
Hohenheim sighs, stepping into the lab, which is immaculate despite the flurry of activity that had been taking place since the whirlwind of his son had come back with the new foreign ideas driving his every step and breath. The young man was zealous in his dedication to alchemy, and that zeal stretched even to keeping his workspace perfectly spotless. "Lucas..."
"Don't worry so much; I'm careful!" Lucas laughs, and Hohenheim's chest aches at the sound of it-- beloved and familiar, his golden child's high-spirited song. He doesn't want to chastise the boy; he knows how much this means to him. He knows the darker side of his son's heart-- the part that always feels that he isn't good enough, that he can't keep up, that he will always live in his father's shadow and achieve nothing on his own; he lived in the fear that he would always be riding Hohenheim's coattails, and he both hated and loved the favors he got, not through recognition of his own work, but through the name of his father.
It's not that Lucas was a bad alchemist; no, it's worse, for he was a good one, but even the brightest star was lost in the blaze of the sun, and Hohenheim didn’t know how to remedy the situation...his actions to get the young man's talent noticed was misinterpreted as Daddy's endless interference by Lucas and nepotism by others...but he was hurt and worried by the boy's crippling jealousy. He had to move past that, or it would end up killing him…if not in body, then in heart.
Wrath was cruel, and anger outrageous; but no one was able to stand before envy.
___
___
Last line is adapted from Proverbs 27:4
Cinnabar, HgS, is, like all mercury compounds, highly toxic. The Chinese were very aware of the poisonous properties of most of their alchemical concoctions, especially those that promised immortality, leading Kristofer Schipper to note in The Taoist Body that "...the final act of the Taoist search for immortality may very well imply suicide."
Words: ~450
Genre: Gen—Angst, Hohenheim and pre-Envy Envy-centric
Rating: G
Spoilers: Wholesale, for the entire series
Notes: I refuse on principle to use "Hohenheim Junior" or "Hojo," so pre-Envy Envy got rechristened. This also allows me to make multileveled connections and tie-ins later, so...
Oh, yeah. And this is intended as a flash-back type scene that fits after my last Hoho-drabble, which is why it's in present tense.
And as a side note, for those of you interested, keep an eye on my listed music. I'm making sure that I pick songs that go with these pieces just for the fun of it. ^_^
"That stuff is highly dangerous, you know."
The young man glances up from his work, focusing on the man in the doorway of the lab, and he smiles-- a slow softening of his features, rich and sweet as warm honeyed milk-- still swirling the questionable contents of the flask absently in steady flicks of his wrist. He shrugs lazily, rolling his shoulder and waving his father's anxiety off with his free hand.
"I know," he acknowledges, still smiling. He had been working with the compound for a number of months, ever since he returned from his research trip in Xing, coming back with endless notes on various new alchemical processes and arrays, and tantalizing hints of a formula for immortality that he simply couldn't let rest. "But there's something in this. All of the oldest and most reliable sources all concern some usage of cinnabar. We've been over this."
Hohenheim sighs, stepping into the lab, which is immaculate despite the flurry of activity that had been taking place since the whirlwind of his son had come back with the new foreign ideas driving his every step and breath. The young man was zealous in his dedication to alchemy, and that zeal stretched even to keeping his workspace perfectly spotless. "Lucas..."
"Don't worry so much; I'm careful!" Lucas laughs, and Hohenheim's chest aches at the sound of it-- beloved and familiar, his golden child's high-spirited song. He doesn't want to chastise the boy; he knows how much this means to him. He knows the darker side of his son's heart-- the part that always feels that he isn't good enough, that he can't keep up, that he will always live in his father's shadow and achieve nothing on his own; he lived in the fear that he would always be riding Hohenheim's coattails, and he both hated and loved the favors he got, not through recognition of his own work, but through the name of his father.
It's not that Lucas was a bad alchemist; no, it's worse, for he was a good one, but even the brightest star was lost in the blaze of the sun, and Hohenheim didn’t know how to remedy the situation...his actions to get the young man's talent noticed was misinterpreted as Daddy's endless interference by Lucas and nepotism by others...but he was hurt and worried by the boy's crippling jealousy. He had to move past that, or it would end up killing him…if not in body, then in heart.
Wrath was cruel, and anger outrageous; but no one was able to stand before envy.
___
___
Last line is adapted from Proverbs 27:4
Cinnabar, HgS, is, like all mercury compounds, highly toxic. The Chinese were very aware of the poisonous properties of most of their alchemical concoctions, especially those that promised immortality, leading Kristofer Schipper to note in The Taoist Body that "...the final act of the Taoist search for immortality may very well imply suicide."
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 08:20 am (UTC)Your description is always so lush, but never overbearing, and your characterization is on the nose. ::smiles:: I love your notes and all the little nuances you but inside each piece.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 01:50 pm (UTC)Thank you, thank you! *kisses*
I was trying to keep pre-Envy Envy in a weird combination of Hohenhiem and Ed's own characters, so... *shrugs* I think it worked. I also think it's interesting that he was searching for immortality on his own track even as Hoho and Dante were building up to making the Phiosopher's Stone-- and it was his own efforts-- driven by envy-- that killed him. ^_^ Wheee! I is smart!
no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 12:40 pm (UTC)I worship you and your muses even more now ^^
no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 01:01 pm (UTC)^_~
Great line, yes, which is why I had to use it.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 02:11 pm (UTC)Second, this rocks. So much. I love your Hohenheim fics GIMME MORE NOW, BITCH. ::whip crack:: X3 I'm serioulsy jealous of your ability to write him. I got enough muses in my head that know him very well, and yet I cannot for the life of me pin down his character. -_- You'd think the fact that Trisha lives in my head would make him behave, but ooooooh no.... brat.
Third- another thing about cinnebar. Mercury sulfide is used in a lot of jewelry and in its unrefined-for-wearing-purposes form, is a very pretty red crystal ... which I'm sure you know, but I just like going "ooh! look! something I actually know about!" XD;;;; I do like the parallels between that and the Philosopher's Stone (and its various names) in the show. >_> XD
no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 02:55 pm (UTC)Exactly. You nailed it. Well, I think so anyway. Pride has never been a particular vice of mine-- I mean, I always understood why it worked as the chief sin, but only on an intellectual level. Envy, on the other hand, is something I suffer from on an almost daily basis, and when it kicks in... *shakes head* It's bad.
I luff my Hoho-muse! And he seems to love me, despite the horrors I unleashed upon him in "Solve et Coagula." He's a resiliant one, yup.
I got three more drabble-fics like this one and the previous lined up already, with titles and general topics. ^_^ There shall be more, especially since these are so damned easy to write. Like Lay's potato chips...
*giggles* I happened to know a lot about alchemy-- both Western and Chinese-- even before I started watching the show. (Hence, when I saw the first episode that mentions the Sins being "homunculi," I was not only able to pick out the word from the Japanese raw my friends and I were watching, but I was able to explain in a bit of detail what that meant. ^_^;;; Over-educated, I tell ya...)
I did not know that they used HgS in jewelry; that seems like a bad idea! ...but I did know that it was red, and I know of a lot of symbolic connections to its redness and blood and so on and so forth. It's actually because cinnabar is red that the Philosopher's Stone is the Red Stone/Red Waters/etc. ^_^;;;
God, I am teh ubernerd...
no subject
Date: 2005-07-07 04:36 am (UTC)And yup. Cinnabar is used in jewelry Of all sorts, really. Rings, bracelets, necklaces... I've seen more pendants than anything.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 02:37 pm (UTC)This is a wonderful addition to the story ark you've got going.
It's interesting that Hohenheim can't ever seem to protect people he cares about, because what he ends up trying to protect them from is his actions/self or their own natures. Both efforts that are almost intrinsically impossible to succeed in, and a part of him, I think, knows this, but he keeps trying to fix things anyway. And everyone knows how well that kind of tinkering generally turns out.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 02:41 pm (UTC)*shakes head amusedly*
I got so enthusiastic I forgot to sign in.
no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 03:03 pm (UTC)Funny that. I used eclipse symbolism in one of my older fics, but it keeps coming up, over and over. I think that's because it's an easy association to have with the concept of envy.
Thank you, thank you! I'm glad people are appreciating it!
Yeah, I am really happy with the most subtle themes and character observations that are buried between the lines, and it makes me even happier when people catch them. (*laughs* Man, I wish I had some fic idea where I could explore more of Hohenhiem's romanticism... because he is, entirely, such a romantic. *shakes head*)
no subject
Date: 2005-07-03 04:22 pm (UTC)Actually, I think this is either my first or second writing that I've ever even SEEN dealing with pre-Envy stuff. More people should write about it. Yes. xD
If you wouldn't kill me for asking, though, where did you find any of your information on Cinnabar, or Mercury, in general? A friend and I are working on a large-scale project dealing with Mercury and any extra infor we can throw in there would be wonderful. =3
no subject
Date: 2005-07-04 04:37 pm (UTC)^_^
Yeah, there isn't a lot of pre-Envy Envy stuff, but there's some pretty good reasons why. Primarily it's because we know nothing about his past other than some real basics; we don't even have an canon clues as to what his personality was like before he was resurrected-- although I'm willing to bet that he was a lot like Ed.
A lot of my information is coming from The Taoist Body and The Shambhala Guide to Taoism and/or Wikipedia searches. I also know a lot of this stuff off the top of my head from various things I've read and heard over the course of my life, so... Yeah. Any basic chemistry text would tell you more about mercury, too. (Things to keep in mind: Mercury poisoning is also known as Mad Hatters' disease or Minamata poisioning/disease. That'll help broaden your search a bit.)