Kaleidoscope of Hours, Part Four

[mfelizandy]

Title: Kaleidoscope of Hours
Author: mfelizandyRating: PG-13

Comments

[dreamer1789]

I think it flows right fine. XD Another must-keep-reading chapter. ^^ Especially like your vivid description of the Xingese quarter of town.

[mfelizandy]

I had fun dreaming up the Xingese quarter. Hughes calls it "Xingese", but it's really a collection of an assortment of far eastern cultures--dominated by Xingese, but there are representatives of other far-eastern cultures mixed in.

If it weren't for frequent warfare between Amestris and all its neighbors, there would probably be "quarters" for Creta and Aerugo, too--which would give me the chance to make up some more exotic customs.

As a tidbit--somewhere earlier in the story I mentioned that Ed had been in "Mundo" recently. In my interpretation and expansion of the canon, Mundo is what Amestris calls what we call the Americas. Somewhere back in our history, the Western Hemisphere was labeled on European maps as "Mundos Novum" ("New World") or something similar. I like that name because it would make me a Mundos Novian. So I tossed it in for my own amusement. One of these days I'll have to write a story featuring Ed et al wandering among the strange and varied Mundos Novians.

[dreamer1789]

If it weren't for frequent warfare between Amestris and all its neighbors, there would probably be "quarters" for Creta and Aerugo, too--which would give me the chance to make up some more exotic customs. That would be neat! I guess you could still do that (on a saller scale), arguing that even when at war, minorities might try to cross the borders anyway.

One of these days I'll have to write a story featuring Ed et al wandering among the strange and varied Mundos Novians. Lol, I look forward to the day. ;)

[militsa]

[mfelizandy]

I wish I had more time to write! But the realities of working life restrict my fanfic time to pretty much the weekends. I will be trying to post a new part once a week, though.

As for Roy's past--he had a busy childhood, almost on par with Ed's weird odyssey. Some more of it may work its way into this story as the plot starts to get really twisted. Being a Roy fangirl, I've spent a lot of time (mentally) filling in the history Hiromu Arakawa (may her pen never run dry) hasn't seen fit to put into the manga or the anime. Yet.

[sapphyre_kikyo]

I think I must say...I knew the whole Roy's parentage thing that you have, but the way you pulled it off in this story is just amazing. It flows well, don't worry about that. I really like how Lao reacts to Roy.

Good, that was the part that had me most worried

[mfelizandy]

I'm glad you liked Lao's reaction. Setting up that scene was the reason this section got posted on Tuesday rather than the weekend before. I didn't want Lao to come off as a mere prejudiced jerk. He's revealing some important things about Roy, and I needed him to feel real so Hughes could believably take his comments seriously. Now the question is whether to continue that scene in the next part, or have Hughes sum up the rest of the conversation to either a police official or Gracia.

I haven't forgotten about "Feral Mustang", either. I just need more hours on my home keyboard rather than the work one!

Re: Good, that was the part that had me most worried

[sapphyre_kikyo]

Well I think you pulled it off fine. Since it's a new chapter, you should probably just sum it up to Gracia or something, I should think.

That's okay, I haven't exactly been around to talk to you about it anyways. -.-" But don't worry, tonight I go home, and though I may not get online, I'll be around all weekend online. :)

[fractured_chaos]

I should have commented before. You're doing a fantastic job of keeping the characters IN character, even in the alternate time-line, and you give just enough to satisfy, and yet, keep me wanting more.

Interesting how you came to the theory of the name Mustang. It's actually similar to the one we'd come up with a couple years ago (except it was for the Basque culture... I think... I'll have to dig up the old chats to find out).

Anyhow, I'm curious... are you basing Roy's father's culture on the Mongols? It seems to have some similarities.

You got it

[mfelizandy]

Yes, I am "borrowing" the idea of the Mongols for Roy's father. At least, they're mostly-nomadic people who have a cultural reverence for horses and live in round semi-permanent houses called yurts. Since my knowledge of our world's Mongols comes from the Discovery Channel and the Internet, I named the "northern barbarians" referred to in my fic the Utars (that's what the Amestrians call them, anyway), and invented cultural myths and a worldview for them to suit the needs of my story. So--yes, they're inspired by the Mongols, no, they're not Mongols. Roy's mama prefers to go by the name her "grass-husband" bestowed on her, rather than her Xingese one, for reasons that I may or may not get into in the course of this story. (There's already one scene that I want to find a way to shoehorn in here somewhere, except I think it would distract from the main threads of the narrative. But the image of a thirteen-year-old Riza Hawkeye throwing silverware at a sixteen-year-old Roy Mustang delights me too much not to get into a story

Re: You got it

[fractured_chaos]

Hah! I knew it! XD

I love it when fan writers put a lot of thought into the backgrounds of characters. It shows they care about them and the story. All the theories and leg-work and research that goes into that kinda thing might not actually -show- in the story, but it definitely reflects in it.

Manic!Hughes is a tough one for me to write. I can do a fair Investigator/Cop!Hughes well, and a stable, level Hughes. The man -is- tough to write well, though, because he has so many facets to his personality.

Oddly enough, I actually have a harder time writing Al (and we won't even discuss writing Heist, from BoP).

[mfelizandy]

The "Heiderich, Shamballa" key chain is cute. I don't think I'd use it for keys, though, because anything that rides around in my pocket or my purse gets beaten the tar out of and destroyed pretty quickly. I use key chains as decorations on the end of lamp pulls and the like. Heiderich is such a sweet character--I might succumb to temptation and toss him into this story too, if I can make room for him