Continuing my Hohenheim-centricism

[lykomancer]

Title: Out of the Whirlwind
Words: ~710
Genre: Gen- Angst, Hohenheim-centric
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Wholesale, for the entire series
Notes: This is a bit different than the others, and I don't think it's as good, but then, I knew this'd be the hardest one to do, so...
Quotes from the ending chapters of the Book of Job.
Previous Parts:
1-- Divine Proportion
2-- Day Star



Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, 'Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.'
'Shall a fault-finder contend with the Almighty? Anyone who argues with God must respond.'

The alchemical energy swayed like a brilliant golden flame, swirling up through the room like a pillar of fire, a wild tornado of heat and power. Electromagnetic sparks jumped and arced like lightning in the closed space, and plumes of smoke spun out and filled the room, obscuring everything in thick gray fog that hazily reflected the sun-bright light, amplifying it in the close room.

The alchemist held his breath, bronze eyes wide as he watched ribbons of fire spurt up and out, twisting up in a blaze that roared like a dragon’s breath and dried the tracks of grieving tears from his face

It... It was working.

It was working!

Then the activated array crackled and hissed angrily, and there was a swift, cold backdraft that swept counterclockwise, raising his skin in gooseflesh; the light that emanated out was suddenly shot through with streaks of bruised violet. The room dimmed as more of the golden rays were eaten by the virulent, violent indigo, and the clouds that billowed off the reaction stank of burning sulphur.

For the first time, Hohenheim was afraid. For the first time, he grasped the enormity of what he'd done, of laws broken and taboos violated, of the magnitude of his own arrogance in thinking that he could reverse the decree of God. For the first time, he suddenly understood that there was worse than death.

The Gate loomed before him.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements-- surely you know!
Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it?
Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on earth?

Hohenheim clutched at his chest, forehead touching the array-spangled floor, blonde hair dripping over his shoulders and pooling in the thick puddles of blood and shredded tissue. He opened his mouth to gasp for another electric, dizzying breath of air and instead felt more of the hot copper flavor roil over his tongue and spill over the dam of his lips to pour down, soaking into his clothes and staining his skin near-purple. His fingers clawed at the searing wound in his chest, trying in vain to knit the unraveled flesh back together.

It's too dark, he thought, staring wide-eyed at the viscous liquid splattered upon the floor. Too dark and too much of it... Oh, God, what happened? What went wrong? The calculations should have been... It took...

Hohenheim fought to lift his head, blackness darting across his vision, the room spinning drunkenly and folding itself inside out. He had to see... He had to know. If it worked... If he had gotten his child back, his son, the only ray of light in this drab world, then he had gotten the better end of the bargain. Just a piece of his physical heart for his entire emotional heart; just a few pints of his own lifeblood for the son with whom he shared it; a little bit of his lungs for the boy who breathed love into his life...

Worth it. Worth it. If only...

The smoke rolled back, and Hohenheim could only stare in horror, silent but for the sound of blood dripping out of the jagged hole in his breast from his wounded heart and spattering the floor.

Oh, God.

Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have the gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this!
Where is the way to the dwelling place of light, and where is the place of darkness, that you may discern the paths to its home? Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!

Comments

[wiccat.livejournal.com]

Whee!! Papa fic! *saves to read when I'm less tired*

[chauni.livejournal.com]

Very nice. Very. This line just killed me:

Just a piece of his physical heart for his entire emotional heart; just a few pints of his own lifeblood for the son with whom he shared it; a little bit of his lungs for the boy who breathed love into his life...

Absolutely beautiful. I love your Hohopapa writing.

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

yuuo and I were dicussing what Hohenhiem sacrificed to get Envy; it couldn't be anything too obvious, since he's pretty whole-looking when he makes the Philosopher's Stone. Yuuo voted for his heart, which some pretty good justification, and pointed out that medical realism doesn't seem to play into FMA much-- there's no way Izumi could live with half her guts gone, and even if it was just her reproductive organs, she shouldn't be coughing blood; Ed should have died from blood loss, since his femoral artery had been abruptly cut... But I couldn't duck the whole you-need-one-of-those-to-live problem entirely, and so I voted for bloodloss.
A little research revealed something else interesting: the sin of Envy is planetarily associated with the Moon, which rules the chest/breast area of the body.
I mingled the ideas a bit, and hoped it wasn't too far of a stretch. ^_^;;;

(Though a bad heart would certainly explain why he collapsed after the strain of making the Stone...)

[wiccat.livejournal.com]

I just read all three drabbles and wow, you're awesome. Hoho needs more lovin'. With Izumi, I do think it's possible for her to have some of her innards gone and still be alive, depending on exactly how much was removed. Don't know how to explain the blood--coughing though, unless she can't afford good healthcare for the surgery to fix up her insides. Or maybe she has weak capillaries in her lungs and the strain of alchemy causes a few of them to burst each time and flood her lungs with blood, like how a stroke happens in the brain... And finally, with Ed's arm and leg, the gate looked like it had literally cut the limbs off, like eaten it up to the point. And because it was a clean cut, the muscles of the artery and veins running through the limbs will automatically constrict to reduce blood flow. He would've been given a lot more time for Al to take him to Winry's place. Only if the limbs were actually ripped off and the blood vessels left jagged and torn (like someone's arm being caught and crushed in a cardboard box compactor) would the contriction not work and he would bleed out.

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

Hoho does need more lovin'! Whenever I get done with these pesky little gen drabbles, I'll pick up on "Solve et Coagula"'s sequel, in which he will get even more love. ^_^

Indeed, that's a decent theory as to why Izumi would hack up blood even though her lungs weren't injured. I like that.
And you're right; humans can lose a lot of their gutti-wuts before they are in real dangers of dying: reproductive organs, a kidney, and quite a bit of your intestine can all go, for example. However, if she lost part of her large intestine, the ends of her digestive tract would still need to be "hooked" up. If the Gate took from her colon on up for a bit, it would then need to connect the two loose ends for her to survive (and not get a toxic reaction from the contents of her intestine spilling out into her stomach cavity).
That's true enough about Ed's leg being cleanly cut, but I still have to wonder about the time involved. An adult human has 8-10 pints of blood, and loss of as little as 25% can result in death; Ed was not an adult, so he had less blood to begin with, and then after his leg was already gone, he also had to seal Al to the armor and lose his arm, which resulted in his cephalic and basilic veins and his brachial artery being severed, and then Al had to figure out what in the hell was going on and truck it over to the Rockbells'-- all without even a tourniquet. Seems a little improbable to me.

[wiccat.livejournal.com]

Yes, poor Izumi probably needed to have her entire bowels flushed out and a truckload of antibiotics pumped into her. Has it ever been explained if her blood-coughing was related to her human transmutation or not? Maybe she's always had that problem.
As for Ed, blood loss doesn't really apply to him, because like I said, complete amputations really don't bleed all that much. It takes him perhaps a minute to crawl over to knock over the armour. Another minute, maybe two, to drawl arrays on himself and on the armour. He has the upper hand, but he doesn't elevate his amputated limbs, which causes stress on the muscles of his vessels to weaken. Al looks around and assesses the situation, picks Ed up and runs to Winry's house. I'm not sure how far Winry's house is from the Elrics', but it couldn't be more than 15 minutes flat run by something that doesn't get winded. By the time he gets there, Ed has already passed into decompensated hypovolemic shock. As long as he gets treated quickly, it's reversible and he has a good chance of survival.

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that it does state somewhere that the blood-coughing is related to her attempt to raise Wrath, but I may be wrong. It's been a while since I watched those episodes.

I'll take your word for it; like I said, I'm not saying impossible, just improbable-- but my specialty in biology was never anatomy-physiology or anything like that; I was always better with virology and genetics and that type of thing, and then, I did, of course, drop it as a major because I wasn't doing that well, so... *laughs*

[wiccat.livejournal.com]

Been a while for me too. Mm, must have FMA marathon sometime soon XD Wrath is such a cute little bugger.

LoL, I'm not saying you're wrong. I do think it all depends on how far Winry's house is. I like biology, but ONLY the anatomy and physiology ^___^ I was an EMT for a while, but I do wish I could get into pre-med without studying the other stuff. I just want to do emergency medicine, s'all.

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

Agreed. When he's not being uberscary child from Hell, Wrath is frikken adorable.

I was wondering. You sound like you know what you are talking about-- i.e. it was pretty clear you weren't talking out your ass-- which is why I said I'd take your word on it; I know some stuff, but not to the extent that I could tell that you do.
Heh. I wanted to work for USAMRIID or the CDC with my bio degree; I have a weird facination for superviruses and emerging diseases. I wanted so bad to work on Class Four infestions...but then I ended up switching over to writing. ^_^;;; Yeah, whatever, I guess.

[wiccat.livejournal.com]

Hell, he's adorable even when he's scary XD

Envy: *gives Wrath red stones*
Wrath: bwahahaha! I'm evil now! I need evil-ish clothes! Gimme!
Envy: T_T my shorts...
Wrath: nice fit *prances off*
Envy: wai.. the wind blows in places it shouldn't...

...um, yeah. I hate how Wrath's outfit looks so much like Envy's.

Eh, I have an unhealthy obsession with medical shows and such. Viruses sound fun, but I've always been more interested in the human body. I hate people, though. Wanted to be a mortician for the longest time, but then emergency medicine caught my attention XD

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

*dies laughing*
Poor Envy!

Being a mortician would be awesome! XD
I love dead things, though, so... I randomly collect roadkill, for example. I'm weird, I know.
I like the way viruses affect the human body. I mean, is there a cooler way to die than ebola?

[wiccat.livejournal.com]

Hey, at least Wrath still left him with his skirt! Otherwise he'd have to find his way back to Dante's buck nekkid XD

Now the big question is what exactly do you DO with the roadkill? Mmm, ebola... yeah, I like those cool viruses that make you bleed out from all your orifaces <3 Or like my grandma had cancer and right before she died, all her innards were pretty much mush and she just kinda... melted. From the inside out. Fascinating to watch, but incredibly smelly.

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

...I fail to see how nekkid Envy would be problematic. I mean, practically speaking, he could probably just "shift" a new piece of clothing, but that aside, it is my opinion that the series would be vastly improved by a few fanservice-y shots of his bare bum. ^_^

Roadkill? Ah, the birds I give to friends who make fans out of the wings and tails; I take the paws and tails of the squirrels; and I grab whatever bones I can from deer-- I have two skulls and a spine just sitting around my room and that's no where near my full collection.
Really? Dude, I'm sorry for your grandma, and even sorry for the people who had to handle her body. That doesn't sound fun.

[wiccat.livejournal.com]

*imagines completely ridiculous scene with fangirls tearing Envy's shorts off and it continuously regenerating like a paper towel rack*

ooh, I've heard of people making artsy stuff out of animal parts. that's really neat. Eh, don't worry about my grandma.

[kuchenhexe.livejournal.com]

yuuo told me to come read these, and I'm glad I did. I'm still working through them to formulate feedback on the actual stories but I gotta interject here...

Heh. I wanted to work for USAMRIID or the CDC with my bio degree; I have a weird facination for superviruses and emerging diseases. I wanted so bad to work on Class Four infestion

You and me both. XD;;;; Ebola fascinates me like nothing else. *_* I want an ebola plushie. (Yes, they make those.)

And, on principle, I'm fangirling you for NOT using "Hohenheim Jr." or anything else like that for Envy. I rather like Lucas. I'm getting a feeling why you chose that, for the Latin meaning of the name unless I'm wrong, and I like.

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

Tsk, tsk. yuuo is bad, forcing you to read stuff. ^_^;;

Keep in mind that I have at least one more up my sleeve, possibly more. This was a rather impromptu arc; I never expected it to get this far.

Dude. I want an Ebola plushie! *squees!*
I'm so happy that I'm not the only geek that loves diseases. *glomps*

...indeed, you are perceptive, too. *laughs* Lucas was chosen for its meaning and its roots, and I'll be playing that a bit more in my next piece. Good eye.

[kuchenhexe.livejournal.com]

Nah, she just pimped it, and I'm always interested in pre-Envy Envy stuff of quality. ^_^

Giant Microbes : Ebola. Innit just so cute? XD You're far from the only disease-lovin' geek. I once spent 2 weeks researching virology in order to create a different version of the Techno-Organic Virus from Marvel comics per a GM's request on a now-dead game, and researched it to try and find a way to make it at least somewhat physiologically believable.

::looks over the rest of the journal:: ... you have a very good style, and UO does speak highly of your writing skills. Any objections or complaints to me friending you? (with my personal LJ, writing LJ, or both, or none XD;; your call)

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh... Y'know, there really isn't a lot of that, is there?

*squeaks!* OMG! That is adorable! I wish they had more-- I'd love a good old-fashioned influenza. ^_^
Ooooh, man, you sound like you had/have a helluva fun job. I die from jealousy.

You may friend away however you'd like; I mind not. I don't separate my fandom dorkiness-- writing and icon-making-- from my ramblings about real life, so it's a mixed bag, I'll warn you. ('Course if that's a real problems, friends filters and organizational tags do wonders to weed through things...) But if you can handle the veering back and forth, you're more than welcome.

[kuchenhexe.livejournal.com]

^_^ I don't mind mixed bags. My own journal's a hodgepodge of fandom, childfreedom, political bitching, random weirdness, and RL stuff. The only thing I tend to avoid is original fantasy so I don't end up accidentally copying something in my own work. I only post my 'fics separately because 1, what goes in my fanfic writing LJ is raw and unbeta'ed and not ready for public consumption, and 2, I have friends on my list who can and do get squicked or badly triggered by some 'fic content I like.

Hmm. I wonder if I still have a copy of that 'paper' that "Dr. McCoy" wrote on that virus... ::pokes around her HD::

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

*squeaks*
Oh, I like you already. Political bitching! Childfreeness! Random weirdness! Whoooooo! *wallows like a pig in mud*

I don't post my original fiction, usually. No one ever cares about it, so why bother? I think you're safe. ^_^

Heh. I never bother with a beta. I write and then post-- usually late at night-- wander off and then come back in a few hours to reread it. I always think what I've written is terrible at first, but I trust myself enough to post it, strangely.
Ooooo... squicky? I like squickiness!

[kuchenhexe.livejournal.com]

I want Dubya out of my reproductive system and the Religious Right out of my Religion. ::nods:: That's usually the extent of my political bitching topics. ^_^

And squickiness... Some people on my flist are abuse and/or rape survivors who are triggered by certain things, and since I know at least one person IS triggered, period, by detailed talk of BDSM activities, and can't read romance 'fics, or noncon, I just keep my writings separate. I really need to finish working on a DMC 'fic which has some heavy BDSM femmeslash in parts. >_> ::kicks her plotbunnies back over to Trish:: I don't normally write smut, which might be what keeps staliing me. ^_^;; But I do like well-done noncon and rape 'fics (To me, those are two separate things.) and I like playing with characters who have distinct D/s traits.

I can't get away with NOT having a beta. I have a horrid tendency to write in the passive voice AND leave out entire words from sentences. -_-;;; Quite embarassing, that last one.

[yuuo.livejournal.com]

Actually, if I recall the eps right, and I watched them not TOO long ago because of Greed (I had to check for something), I believe the doctor said she lost everything from about her midsection down. I'm looking at my diagram of Grey's Anatomy for that region and she lost a shit-ton of bodily organs. Probably part of her stomach, her duodenum, maybe part of one or both of her kidneys, and both of her intestines. And maybe part of her pancreas, but I kinda doubt that.

Impossible to live like this? Yes. Unless the Gate knew that a punishment was pretty damn pointless if she died from it instead of living with her sins. The doctor mentions that somehow, her organs had all shifted to compensate for the missing ones, so essentially, her entire body got rewired.

The hacking up blood thing, I think, was more her puking up blood and gagging on it as she did. That'd be my guess.

And what the EMT said about the bloodloss- if that was a clean decomposition, which it looked to be, the vessels would constrict so that even though he was still bleeding ungodly amounts of blood (some of that was probably animation liscence), it wouldn't be enough to kill him as quickly as a jagged cut. I learn fun things from my RN father. XD

[yuuo.livejournal.com]

(Though a bad heart would certainly explain why he collapsed after the strain of making the Stone...)

You pointing that out makes me wonder something... are you sure that Hohenheim created the Stone after creating Envy? He does clap his hands to activate the circle for the Stone, and that does look a hell of a lot like his current body, but there is still a circle on the ground in that transmutation, and Dante says that creating the Stone actually killed Hohenheim, and she used the Stone to transfer his soul to the body of the guy that was standing there with them. And if you ask me, Envy's true face looks a hell of a lot like Hohenheim's current face- nevermind that he looks like a genetic brother to Ed, who's the child of Hohenheim's current body.

Meh. I think the show just doesn't handle the passage of time in history very well in the later episodes. XP Because Envy's a few hundred years old at least, if I recall right, and if he and Ed both were fathered by the same body (not just the person), then that body has lasted Hohenheim a hell of a long time before it started to rot. Where as Lyla's body lasted Dante all of a few months before it started going the way of the zombie. -_- The whole body switching thing wasn't explained enough for my little brain to comprehend. XD

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

No, I'm not sure. Can't be sure of anything, really.
However, why would he clap at all if he hadn't already learned that trick as a result of human tranmutation? The gesture is useless and kind of silly otherwise... Interestingly enough, when Ed goes to make the Stone in the Fifth Lab, he, too, claps and then bows down to touch the already existing array.

I have a couple of theories on Hohenhiem and Envy's appearance. (They also explain why I don't view Envy/Ed or Envy/Hoho as incestuous; there's no genetic OR emotional foundation.)
As I told absolut_artemis:
Because the body that Hoho-papa used to knock up Dante was different than the one he inhabited while living with Trisha, ensuring different genetics [for Envy and Ed]. (Ok, I know what you’re thinking: if that’s the case, then why do Hohenhiem, Ed, Al, and trueform!Envy all have gold hair and eyes; obviously, there has to be some genetic connection between them for that to happen. I have several ideas on this:
1) Either Hoho-papa tends to pick bodies that are similar in looks for some reason whenever he changes hosts, or
2) No matter what his physical body starts out looking like, eventually it ends up (for some reason) looking the same, like the soul’s imprint of his original body works its way outward to express itself on his flesh, or
3) …why the fuck do I have to explain this? >.< Envy having blond hair and gold eyes is obviously just a way of making a quick-n-easy plot device/movement, rather than having to explain his origins out slowly and painfully. Gawddammit.

That clarify my position on that?

[wiccat.livejournal.com]

I vote for #3!

The reason I love anime more than American cartoons is because of the attention to detail. But I guess you can't win them all XD

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

For fic-writing, I'm going to abuse theory #2, but for all intents and purposes, I know its a #3 all the way. *laughs*

[yuuo.livejournal.com]

... yup. Third one explains it. XD

[absolut-artemis.livejournal.com]

I still reckon it was his brain XD

AWWWWWESOME piece, lovely! Mmmmm!

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

You would, you freakazoid! *giggles* But there is no way in hell that I am writing zombie!Hohenhiem, so you're outta luck.

Thank you! *smooch!*

[yuuo.livejournal.com]

*________* I love you. I am so loving these gen drabbles and I abso-frickin'-lutely love your Biblical references. I went to a Christian school for a few years, so these are all imagries and metaphors and symbolisms that I actually get right away. *_* I am so loving this.

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

Hohenhiem-muse won't leave me alone. I weep. And I write.

*giggles* This piece was originally going to be based off of the Icarus story that Ed mentions in episode 1, but as I wrote the first paragraph, I described it at first as being a "whirlwind"-- which you can see that I changed to avoid needless repetition-- and that made me think of God's answer to Job. It's a bit of a stretch, I think, but God does basically chastise anyone who questions Him by pointing out that He's God and He makes the houserules; Hohenhiem suddenly realizes (in my fic) that there are limits to his power, and that he'd strayed into God's own domain. I'm glad it makes sense to someone other than me, anyway.

The last passage kills me. ^_^ With the talk of gates, the dwelling place of light (Rizembool with Trisha, Ed, and Al) and the dwelling place of darkness (with Dante and the Sins), and words "the number of your days is great!" *laughs* He has no idea yet, but they will be...

[empty-geas.livejournal.com]

This has so many interesting possibilities. I like the price you had him pay, it seems very fitting, but I can't help wondering if that was all it cost him. I haven't seen all his appearances, but he always seems remarkably calm about things. Normally I would just chalk that up to his long life/jadedness, however, this take on events makes me think the gate may have taken more then just a physical chunk of his heart, but also an emotional one. It would be a fine sort of irony for him to lose that when he had just been thinking it was what he was buying back. And that's almost what he looks to be doing, since his focus is on what his son meant to him/made him feel rather then on Lucas himself.

If he in fact can't feel certain emotions fully or at all it puts an somewhat different, potentially much darker, spin on his abandonment of Envy and the time he spent with Trisha and the boys.

I liked your choice of the name Lucas before, but after this fic I liked it twice as much. One of the most well known associations with the name is "light" or "light bringer". However, another meaning/association is 'bringer of knowledge." The second meaning weaves together with Hohenhiem's bitter revelation so nicely.

Another excellent addition to the ark.
*wanders off to read the next part*

[lykomancer.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting concept, and one that I might, if I may, toy with a bit. I don't think I'd do anything that obvious-- not that it is! it's quite subtle, in fact-- but I think I can weave something of the theme in easily.
I like Hohenhiem's detachement; he's a real scientist at heart, I think, despite all his romanticism, and I think he started out a pretty cold fish, too, and the passing of time simply worsened it, as did the loss of Envy. Also, I have this idea that it wasn't just Envy that made him leave, but I think that Dante had something to do with it, too. She's not a whole lot warmer than Hohenhiem, and a helluva lot bitchier, so...

*giggles*
If you managed to get "bringer of light," out of the name-- and not just "light"-- then you are digging close to the roots of what I'm about to pull in the fifth section, since there is one other fairly well known name that means the same thing.

[empty-geas.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting concept, and one that I might, if I may, toy with a bit.

*grin* Please, go right ahead. I'd love to see what you come up with from it.