Comments | bob_fish: Fic: The Compass Rose, Chapter 5/9

bob_fish

Fic: The Compass Rose, Chapter 5/9

May 19, 2013 10:59

Title: The Compass Rose: Chapter Five
Characters/Pairings: Roy/Ed, Riza/Miles, Havoc/Rebecca, Al, Winry, Team Mustang, Ling, Ran Fan, and more
Rating: R for swears, violence and horror at about the same level as the manga itself
Word Count: 9451 this chapter
Summary: An infant Homunculus under the command of an idiot ruler: this can't end well. Two ( Read more... )

[pairing] havoc/rebecca, [chapterfic] the compass rose, [odd tag out] ling, [pairing] roy/ed, [fanworks] fic, [fic series] wrong turn 'verse, [pairing] riza/miles, [fanworks] art

Comments 21

japanimecrazed May 19 2013, 13:07:50 UTC

Great chapter! I love that Al and Roy knew what Ed was thinking. I'm really curious about the Homunculus. It was actually kind of cute in this chapter; I hope nothing awful happens to it. Looking forward to more!

bob_fish May 21 2013, 09:02:27 UTC

Yay! Thanks! I'm particularly delighted you found the Homunculus cute - I sweat a lot over making the little creature both sympathetic and scary.

stultiloquentia May 19 2013, 14:42:23 UTC

You know, you remind me of Bujold. In a number of ways, but particularly a quote of hers that went something like, "If you have clever characters, dream up clever things for them to do!" I LOVED the train hijack for this reason. So damned cool.

And I started going, "Ohohoh, where will this go?" when Al first spoke to Beastie. Beastie's newspaper nest is an amazing detail. And the art is so striking.

Butt peaches for dignitaries!

bob_fish May 21 2013, 09:06:03 UTC

Comparisons to Bujold make my ego asplode. Thank you so much. <3

I do try to let my characters be brilliant, as much as I can. Part of the fun and the challenge of working with the FMA cast is that they're all so brilliant and ingenious and competent, which means it can be challenging to get them into enough trouble and also to come up with smart enough strategies for getting out of it again. They are also all brilliant and competent and flawed in different ways from each other … but it makes plotting for them entertaining.

I love the nickname Beastie for the Homunculus! And glad you liked the art!

You know Ling would serve rude-shaped patisserie to VIPs during important negotations. Even as Emperor, he'd never quite stop being Ling. <3

havocmangawip May 19 2013, 17:32:38 UTC

Simply amazing!

bob_fish May 21 2013, 08:53:00 UTC

Thank you!

bay115 May 20 2013, 00:36:54 UTC

Another enjoyable chapter there. I too like the train hijack scene a lot. Yay Winry able to drive a train, haha. The interaction between Al and the Homunculus is very nice also. Looking forward to next chapter!

bob_fish May 21 2013, 08:54:06 UTC

Thank you! Glad you're still reading and enjoying. I sweated a lot over the Homunculus scenes so it's always good to hear they're coming across.

amethyst_koneko May 21 2013, 01:47:58 UTC

Ok, nobody said anything about it because maybe nobody else felt this way, but Al letting that thing out of its tank freaked me the hell out! I was all, "AL! The hell are you doing???" :) Not sure if Al was being very brave or what but I know there's no way in hell I coulda done what he did! Him double/triple checking the locks did make me feel a lot better afterwards tho. :)

Loved the pulling railroad tracks out of thin air, or thick ground as the case may be! ^_^ very clever that. :)

Something about Capt Huang bothers me. He seems all too willing to kill innocents, he was more than ready to challenge and outdo Ed, and he slighted Mei ("The seventeenth princess is a fourteen year old girl."), something I would not expect of a soldier who is supposed to serve and respect the royalty without question. Meh. Maybe it's just me...

More fic soon please! :)

bob_fish May 21 2013, 09:00:50 UTC

Thanks! Glad you're reading and enjoying!

Well, Al is very brave but this was really skirting the boundaries of brave/dumbass and he knew it. XD

Thanks for the comments on Huang! Just because I love nerding about Xingese court intrigue, I might splurge a bit on where I see him … Captain Huang is pretty ruthless, yeah - intentionally so. If you look at the Xingese political situation, killing innocents is sadly a thing that happens. Their normal process for choosing a new emperor is assassination and civil war, so an officer like Huang who's based at the palace would be steeped in this stuff and likely not afraid to get his hands pretty dirty. His questioning of Mei was supposed to be a startling moment - my thinking was partly that he respects her status but on the other hand, she's a low-ranking royal from a clan that isn't his (remember clan is everything in Xing). His unquestioning obedience is all for the Emperor himself.