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."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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*)