[ ooc ] Application
☣ Character
Character Name: Winry Rockbell
Character Age: 15
Canon + Format: FullMetal Alchemist [manga]
Background: FullMetal Alchemist Manga Chapters
Winry grew up in the small town of Resembool in the country of Amestris. Resembool is mainly a farming town; the most exciting thing that happens there is the annual sheep festival. Yay. She lives with her Grandmother, who runs the “Rockbell Automail” shop. Automail is a type of prosthetic limb that can be manipulated using artificial nerves that connect to your real nerves/ Along with her regular school studies (the school is quite a walk from her house, in the more “active” part of town), Winry has been practicing the art of automail design, installation, and care since the death of her parents.
Her parents died when Winry was about six or seven years old. During this time, Amestris was at war with Ishbal and had called her parents, who were most apparently military-certified doctors, out to the battlefield to help wounded soldiers. Though she originally did not know all of the details involved in her death, she did receive the news that her parents had been killed on the battlefield. Her grandmother, Pinako (who was the mother of her father), became her only living relative.
Years passed and Winry healed from her sorrows. Her best friends during her childhood were Edward and Alphonse Elric, due to the connection of their father (Hoho-papa~) being her grandmother’s old drinking buddy. Their father had left the family and they had been living with just their mother, Trisha Elric, so when Trisha was struck by an epidemic that was spreading about and died, Winry was deeply affected as well. After all, that was the mother of her BFFs.
The friends became closer as a result. The Elric brothers became more part of the family, typically joining the small Rockbell family for all of their meals. It got to the point where Ed and Al call Pinako “Granny”, as if she was their own family member. But while this happy healing process seemed to be going about without a hitch, Ed and Al were planning STUPIDNESS. When they were about 11 and 10, the boys went to train with an Alchemist named Izumi Curtis. This left Winry to take more interest in Automail, but she didn’t realize that her numbskull friends were about to give her alchemy obsession a new meaning.
When Ed and Al finished their training, they returned home and tried to use Alchemy to bring their mother back. Which failed miserably. Al’s body was lost and stuck to a suit of armor (by Edward) and Ed lost his arm and leg. Naturally, this had a huge impact on Winry. With her friends crippled and one not even having a body anymore, and considering how deeply she cared about them, Winry was crushed. But rather than sulk, she focused those next few days on helping them recover.
Then Colonel Mustang came. Winry met and politely befriended his assistant, Riza Hawkeye, before Ed decided to join the military. Ed was outfitted with the best automail that the family could give him and Winry decided to become his personal mechanic. While Ed and Al went on their quest to get their original bodies back, Winry stayed in Resembool. She would only see them when Ed broke his automail or if she had to come to him to personally repair it.
This infrequent seeing eachother lasted for three years, from when Winry was 12 until she was 15. Winry came to do a repair for Ed after he was dumb again and tagged along to Rush Valley (automail geek land), where she got an apprenticeship. A while after, Winry’s friend Hughes-- who was a military adult that had let her stay with him during one trip to visit Ed and repair his arm-- died, leaving her heartbroken. She became closer to his widow and daughter as a result. But this was only the first smack in the face. The boys started doing more dangerous things while Winry was with them, and she had to wait more anxiously than ever for them to come back safely (and pay the hotel bill).
Shit got even more real for Winry when Ed and Al got into a conflict with the serial killer Scar, who was an Ishbalen on a mission to kill Alchemists with Alchemy because being a hypocrite is OKAY. Winry made the mistake of coming to the battle scene, unable to just stand by and wait for the boys when she might lose them both for good. Ed, being a super genius, announced that Scar had killed her parents (granted, he didn’t know she was there, but still) and Winry found herself a nice gun. She nearly shot Scar, but Ed protected her both from being hurt and doing something to hurt another. It was at this point that Winry learned she wasn’t meant to hurt people but to heal them, which left a huge impact on her. On the train ride back to Rush Valley, she also came to terms with the fact she loved Ed, after they promised that the next tears she cried would be of happiness.
Ed went off to continue his search with Al, and managed to get practically the entire upper half of the military to hate his guts. Winry became the unofficial hostage, as the military basically threatened to kill everyone she cared about if Ed wasn’t a good military puppy. She was blissfully unaware of this until she came to Fort Briggs (winter wonderland) to update his automail. She was eventually told the situation in a typical blunt Edward manner.
So she decided to do something about it.
Rather than wait at the Fort, Winry insisted on accompanying Ed and Al as they searched for Scar again. When they found Scar, Team Scar and Team Edward joined forces. Winry knew that as long as she was with the military she would be safe, because Ed would cooperate, but cooperating meant Ed having to do terrible things. So she offered herself up to be a hostage. If Scar was carrying a hostage then he could escape without being shot at and the military could no longer dangle Winry over Ed’s head. He was reluctant to agree, and Winry left her earrings in his care as a promise that they’d see each other again soon.
And cue not-so-happy Adventures! Winry began traveling with Alphonse, May, Yoki, Scar, and some Chimeras. At the point I am taking Winry from, they’ve just started traveling and she’s only barely used to it. They’re staying in an Ishbalen Refugee camp in the snowy wonderlands. Envy hasn’t been bug-i-fied yet.
Canon Point: Around Chapter 78
Personality: Winry is Ed and Al's kind-hearted childhood friend, and many of her personality traits come from learning to put up with them. She's gotten used to the fact that her friends are secretive, and though it hurts her that they don't open up to her, she has learned [from Hughes] that she just needs to be there to support them when the time comes. And support them she does; Winry cares a whole lot for her best friends. When Ed decided to become a State Alchemist she decided to be his personal automail mechanic to help support the mission to get their bodies back. While she was waiting in Resembool she worried about them and the Lite Novels show that she thought about them a lot; she was learning to cook specifically to make Ed's favorite stew, for example, even though he rarely came home. She was orphaned at a young age so understands the pain of lose and was quick to "adopt" Ed and Al into her family-unit when Trisha died. "Waiting" is a big factor for Winry, and even though she is sad not to have her best friends, Winry lives her lonely days with a cheerful attitude.
Of course, that's not to say she's 100% supportive. Winry does have moments where she wants her friends to come home, and she does get angry at them. Particularly at Edward. She might be very kind, getting along with almost everyone she meets [providing they aren't obviously bad guys, because while she is a bit naive and overly trusting (ex.:Kimblee), it's not that bad], but she is short tempered. Good ways to trigger her anger are by acting like she's not normally nice, doing something stupid, tromping all over your older brother's insecure feelings and regrets [Which Al does to Ed], or by breaking your automail [She's looking at you, Ed]. And by "Short Temper" we also mean "Violent Temper"; Winry's trademark is using a wrench to clobber Ed, occasionally Al, but very rarely anyone else.
On the topic of her childish short temper, Winry is also childishly selfish on occasion. She sometimes shamelessly treats Ed as her walking piggybank, making him buy her automail tools when they cross paths in the Anime and forcing him to take her to Rush Valley because "who else would pay for the travel expenses?!". She can become very materialistic, though while other girls drool over diamonds, Winry is drooling over the latest automail design. Along with her material-loving side, Winry loves compliments, and she prizes the automail she makes. Automail is Winry's one true passion and she is a very work-focused girl. Winry wanted an apprenticeship in Rush Valley and once she got one she worked "like a busybee".
Her determination does not end with automail. Winry might be a countrygirl who has never seen adventure, but she's brave. While visiting Rush Valley, Winry helps to deliver a baby to a couple when they can't get to a doctor. Sure, she'd never done it before and only had stuff she'd read a long time ago to work with, and yes, she was scared out of her wits, but she got it together and did her best, and did a good job at it too. Much later in the series she decides to stop standing on the sidelines and go help Ed and Al, which means not staying in the safety of Fort Briggs but coming out to the battlefield because she is determined to support them. She wants to help at whatever cost. The Winry I am picking up has seen a bit of adventure; not much, but some.
It's also important to emphasis how friendly Winry is. Sure, she can be a sarcastic jerk to Ed, and yes, she beats him up quite nicely almost every time she sees him and she complains about how he breaks his automail and along with calling him short she will sometimes comment on him being stupid and reckless, but she is a nice girl. Winry's customers in RushValley notably prefer Winry's repair jobs because she's so nice, and she goes out of her way to help every last person reach a happier life with their automail, going as far as planning special arms and legs to suit their personal needs. She's got a healing nature, which Ed reminds her of. Winry's hands "aren't meant for taking lives, but to save them". Even when she had the man who murdered her parents at gunpoint, and even though he was putting Ed and Al in life-threatening danger, she couldn't pull the trigger. And when that same man was injured later she sucked up her personal hatred to help him... Though it's important to note that she never "forgave" him. While she can be a bit naive, Winry isn't able to forgive something like murder. She can, however, look passed it and move on. She is not the type to spread hate but to quietly suffer it without taking revenge.
Winry's also a crybaby. Ed calls her a crybaby, and he's got every reason to. In the manga profile book Winry wins second place in the "Crybaby Contest" for crying in the most panels, and she's only beaten by Armstrong because he cries comical tears of happiness. When Ed and Al won't cry Winry "cries for them". Ed burns down his house and it's Winry that's crying. Ed's pocket watch is opened and his deep dark secrets are revealed and Winry cries for him. Al upsets Ed and Winry cries for Ed, and beats up Al in his honor. She even says it herself; "Because you won't cry, I'll cry for you".
Oh, and if you noticed that Ed's name just came up a lot, there's a reason for that. Winry is in love with him, though she hasn't gotten around to admitting it to him. She does question why she's in love with such a weirdo, and who can blame her? The guy rolls around reciting the Table of Elements.
All in all, Winry's a pretty nice girl. Sure, she's excitable [especially over automail], and she be a childish money-leeching brat with an ego... and yes, there are wrenches and she's quite violent at times, but she's friendly and wants to help people. But don't get on her badside... and please, don't break her automail.
Appearance: Winry has long blonde hair and bands that are pulled off to the side of her face. She wears a slut outfit during her initial introduction but only dresses that way at home. In public, Winry puts a shirt on and dresses more cutely. Her trademark fashion sense is that she has a ponytail at almost all times (it keeps her hair out of her face when she works) and that she wears a lot of earrings (all of which are gifts from Ed and Al). At this point in her canon, Winry is wearing a winter coat, because she's been traveling up North.
Abilities: Winry has no special abilities.
Items/Weapons: She has her mechanic’s tool kit.