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31_days2011-12-17 03:00 pm
seta-suzume.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2011-12-17 03:00 pm
[Dec. 17] [Fullmetal Alchemist] Shadowy Identity
Title: Shadowy Identity
Day/Theme: Dec. 17, 2011 "the dark level of not knowing"
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist
Character/Pairing: Selim & Mrs. Bradley
Rating: PG
Author's comment: post-series
There were pictures in the manor of his mother and his father beside a boy who looked just like him. It was his older brother. He had died young. With a touch of awkwardness, his mother had admitted to Selim that he was named after him. The way she acted over it, apparently that was a strange thing to do, but Selim wouldn't have known that on his own. Who was there to compare with? What were the general criteria for people to receive their names? He didn't know very many people. He was ten now and the twin of the Selim who had come before him.
Who did he know? There was his mother, of course, the center and sun of his world. There was Führer Grumman, funny and strange, General Mustang and Captain Hawkeye, Edward Elric (he had a wife that Selim had only seen and two daughters and a son only a few years younger that Selim would have liked to play with and an assistant who somehow managed to look both very sharply focused and sleepy-eyed at the same time), his tutor, Mr. Georges, and of course there were Clifton and Amber, who took care of the house along with his mother. He had met others from time to time in passing, but this was the entire count of the people he could actually say he knew. Less than the number of fingers on his hands.
He felt like he knew his father though, at least a little. Mother talked about him a lot. She talked about Selim too, though she spoke of him less. Perhaps there was not as much to say because she said they were very much alike, he and the Selim who had come before.
"He had a shadow too, a jumpy, active thing with a mind of its own, like mine?" Selim asked.
"Yes..."
"And why isn't your shadow like mine, Mother? Why isn't Führer Grumman's?"
"...Because you're... You're very special, Selim," she stumbled for a moment, then she smiled, "Aren't you happy to have a shadow like that? I've seen the way you play together."
"I guess so." Selim wrinkled his nose. Maybe there were other shadows out stalking the streets of Amestris that were like his. Maybe he just didn't have a wide enough sample of people to base his guesses on. Selim and himself was a pretty big amount out of all the people he really knew, after all.
They didn't always feel as solid and perfect as they had in the past, but his mother always had answers.
Selim wished he just had less troubling questions.
Day/Theme: Dec. 17, 2011 "the dark level of not knowing"
Series: Fullmetal Alchemist
Character/Pairing: Selim & Mrs. Bradley
Rating: PG
Author's comment: post-series
There were pictures in the manor of his mother and his father beside a boy who looked just like him. It was his older brother. He had died young. With a touch of awkwardness, his mother had admitted to Selim that he was named after him. The way she acted over it, apparently that was a strange thing to do, but Selim wouldn't have known that on his own. Who was there to compare with? What were the general criteria for people to receive their names? He didn't know very many people. He was ten now and the twin of the Selim who had come before him.
Who did he know? There was his mother, of course, the center and sun of his world. There was Führer Grumman, funny and strange, General Mustang and Captain Hawkeye, Edward Elric (he had a wife that Selim had only seen and two daughters and a son only a few years younger that Selim would have liked to play with and an assistant who somehow managed to look both very sharply focused and sleepy-eyed at the same time), his tutor, Mr. Georges, and of course there were Clifton and Amber, who took care of the house along with his mother. He had met others from time to time in passing, but this was the entire count of the people he could actually say he knew. Less than the number of fingers on his hands.
He felt like he knew his father though, at least a little. Mother talked about him a lot. She talked about Selim too, though she spoke of him less. Perhaps there was not as much to say because she said they were very much alike, he and the Selim who had come before.
"He had a shadow too, a jumpy, active thing with a mind of its own, like mine?" Selim asked.
"Yes..."
"And why isn't your shadow like mine, Mother? Why isn't Führer Grumman's?"
"...Because you're... You're very special, Selim," she stumbled for a moment, then she smiled, "Aren't you happy to have a shadow like that? I've seen the way you play together."
"I guess so." Selim wrinkled his nose. Maybe there were other shadows out stalking the streets of Amestris that were like his. Maybe he just didn't have a wide enough sample of people to base his guesses on. Selim and himself was a pretty big amount out of all the people he really knew, after all.
They didn't always feel as solid and perfect as they had in the past, but his mother always had answers.
Selim wished he just had less troubling questions.