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hophophopperPromptfill from Jukebox June! (Initial post here)
If you'd asked Lachesis a year ago what she thought of the stars - not to ask after what she thought of her place in the universe, just if she thought the view was pretty - she'd have given you a long, baffled look.
As a cover for deciding if you'd make a good Malgam host down the line, of course. She wasn't that easily caught off guard.
But until she'd freed herself from Master Geryon's chains (master no more as he was), she hadn't treated any view of the skies with much more than a cursory glance.
---
It was nighttime in September, and as much as Lachesis preferred night to day, it was definitely chilly, but Professor Kyoka (you can call me Edami now, y'know?) had insisted on setting up the equipment by hand to get the best views of the solar system, and Lachesis didn't like the idea of Kyoka carrying everything by herself.
Not that she'd admitted the rationalization out loud; as fun as she'd found certain kinds of banter, she had discovered there were certain conversations she didn't need to repeat after a while. So Lachesis had a preference for novel stimulation; who knew?
(Clotho teased her about it sometimes - sneaking out to take in movies, reading books just to critique them to pieces, experimenting with which restaurants would let her take in the atmosphere without asking why she wasn't ordering anything. This, when her sister usually came with her, made her older sister absolutely absurd - but all the same, Lachesis found herself cherishing the shared smiles.)
But tonight, there was supposed to be something called a 'Supermoon'. Why this one was unique, Lachesis hadn't asked - but then, she supposed they had been preoccupied with other events much of the rest of the year. And Kyoka had also insisted on her getting a good look at Saturn's rings.
(She'd refrained from asking what she felt were the obvious questions on that one. The sisters were getting their own schooling of sorts, but she was in no hurry to reveal any holes in it.)
They'd found a hill, a spot well enough away from the cities to ensure the sky was clear and their eyes wouldn't suffer from excess lighting. Down the hill, in the direction they weren't looking, was a campfire where the rest of the Academy lot was gathering.
Lachesis kept her mind off of them, for now; while some of the things they did she could (now) admit were interesting, there were some things they'd been a part of that meant she didn't feel compelled to stick by their sides.
(Except for Spanner. Sometimes. Maybe she just liked irritating him, maybe it was something else. It was one of the few things Clotho didn't get on her about - mostly because Rinne was usually right there, or sometimes Houtaro, and Lachesis could absolutely give as good as she got.)
Lachesis let herself drift close as Kyoka adjusted the dials, dipping down to help anchor one tool or another so it wouldn't slip on the grass. The closeness was something she'd had to get used to; some people, she'd found, the Professor could get very comfortable around. It was part of how she communicated.
And if there was one thing Lachesis needed now in this world, it was ways to communicate. To not be isolated or ignored or mistreated like she had been before.
---
"Clotho! Get your burning self back up here; you need to see Saturn!"
(And Edami Kyoka smiled.)
[OTHER PROMPTS!]
She never thought she'd return to the Ouroboros Realm. It wasn't her birthplace, not truly, but it was a place specifically associated with alchemy-
And yeah, where Geryon had disappeared. And, yeah, she'd given Minato passage there, but she hadn't stepped on that otherworldly ground herself. It was different.
But today was the anniversary of when their mission to prepare the Driver had begun. And now, she had a bit of a mission herself.
---
There was a fog over the land - patchy, in places, revealing glimpses of a blue sky, or a darkly-gleaming snake biting its tail. The base elements of Life itself resided here...
And one, small homunculus, sitting alone. Thought so.
When it came to their creator, their feelings these days were largely the opposite - but, particularly due to Kyoka's influence, she'd gotten a lot better at hearing out viewpoints that weren't her own.
"You know how he feels about you," Lachesis began, kneeling next to where her eldest sister sat.
Said sister spat on the dirt, glittering fragments of her alchemical artifact at her feet. "... I do now."
"But you still miss him. How he treated you." Out of them all, Atropos was the one he most appreciated - perhaps the circumstances behind her creation were the ones Geryon had most appreciated - but in the end, he'd still only seen her as a doll.
Which, naturally, had bitten him right in the ass, when he'd reasserted that viewpoint. Right when he could have gotten away with everything, started anew.
"I didn't understand what it meant. To not be the favorite."
Lachesis shifted a little, sitting closer to Atropos (who didn't seem to notice, or pretended not to).
"He wanted us different enough to work as leverage against each other, if needed. But in the end, to him we were the same."
"Disposable." Atropos growled, and internally Lachesis agreed wholeheartedly. She sure does understand now, that's for sure.
Still, Lachesis didn't immediately speak again; only look, one which the shorter Abyssalis Sister met slowly.
"... I wish I could only hate him."
"So do I," Lachesis said, taking herself by surprise. "I think Clotho does too."
But those words did have some sort of impact on Atropos; her shoulders relaxing ever so slightly.
"Ready to head back home?"
And, again to her surprise, Atropos did not say no, or even correct her.
"Wheel!"
"Not now," Kurogane Spanner murmured, one hand drifting to loosely hold MadWheel's card in his pocket.
"I need to do this." The other hand, he brought up to knock.
---
The juniors not understanding him, he could live with - they were kids, and he was pretty sure he was always going to think of them as younger than him, needing to be shielded from the worse truths of life, the ones they didn't discover for themselves firsthand anyway.
With Kyoka - Professor Kyoka - he'd learned slowly that he didn't need to rush making her understand how he felt, the things he did. He did feel that he didn't deserve her, sometimes.
But that wasn't the matter today. He needed to make sure Professor Minato - senpai - understood. To know that he did. Especially now that he was back.
---
The door opened without more than a single knock; Minato had been expecting him.
Spanner could feel his arm just holding position there. Before the voice inside him that pointed out every time he acted a fool could speak up, though, the other man stepped back, gesturing for him to come in.
Good. That was... that was good. "I should be holding the door," he said, even as he stepped inside.
"Please, leave me some things," Minato said - Spanner paid maximum attention to the faint smile on the older man's face - before shepherding the two of them to a familiar couch. Behind them, the door shut of what seemed its own accord.
Knowing Minato, it was a subtle sort of alchemy... or, perhaps, Spanner wasn't the only one who wanted to keep more than just an eye on the man.
"Thank you," Spanner said, and then his voice left him. I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I? Hell.
"I know you're not talking about how I acted as Dread," Minato said, a note of wry self-deprecation creeping into his voice. Spanner fought off a scowl.
"No - I - you, you went up against Geryon, unarmored."
Not unarmed, because that wouldn't have been the truth.
"I was there when I needed to be. For once," and there was no mistaking the self-hate in the older man's voice then.
Progress made, progress lost.
"Minato - Professor." There was a surge of strength in Spanner's voice, causing the other man to look at him, look up and truly look at him.
"You scared me. Seeing you do such a thing - even the right thing - at such risk to yourself, that scared me."
It was good they weren't sitting across from each other; it made it easier to reach out and, cautiously, rest a hand on the one that had been impaled in an older fight. Spanner watched as Minato didn't flinch.
"Minato. Senpai. You are one of the people I wanted to be strong for."
Where the professor hadn't pulled away at the touch, he did pull back at those words - at which point, entirely unexpected, MachWheel surged out of Spanner's pocket, de-Carding itself and rolling right over to Minato.
"Wheel! WheelMach Mach MachWheel!"
Even without knowing exactly what the Chemy was saying, the fury in its voice reached them both.
"... And you're why I came back. Why I resolved not to let my former master's words reach me anymore."
There wasn't much of anything more to be said after that - though to Spanner's relief, he wasn't the only one of them suddenly possessed with the strong need for a hug.
(Fun fact: the charactary used in Minato's name on the official cast list means 'harbor' and I think that's neat-)
If you had asked - as in, actually asked, such that you were speaking the same language as them and could understand any answer - why on earth the Chemies stayed at the Academy when they could probably just go anywhere and hide, live in a peace as free of malice as was possible on this planet, you'd receive a wealth of stories.
Not all of them had been born within these halls. Not all of them had even been made in Japan. All of them (barring two - and now three) had outlived their creators.
But the ones that had been made here considered this a home; the ones who had been brought here believed it to be shelter, better (in turns...) than the places that had raised them. And those who had come here of their own accord - they had the other Chemies to protect.
And now, with the youngest alchemists declaring they would protect the Chemies in turn, nothing short of the cessation of existence itself could pry them out of their place in the world.
Alchemy spells, Tsuruhara Sabimaru had learned, were meant to be said aloud. It helped channel the flow of energy.
Much to his relief, it turned out he didn't have to shout the spells, and Isaac's presence did not derange any of them either. It had saved his friends more than once.
Combat alchemy, however, required that one did not speak at all. Logically, then, he should be better at it than regular spells.
But-
"Hiyah! C'mon, Sabi, you're doing great! Isn't this fun?"
Launching another deactivated charger, Ichou Renge smashed through her fifth target of the day - and Sabimaru was only on his second.
"We're not doing this for fun, Renge," Isaac reminded her, as Sabimaru sought to hold another piece of junk without using words.
And sure, she was right, but he was right too; they were doing this to get better as alchemists and seniors, to do their part in protecting the innocent and their friends, to stop Malgams and free Chemies. To stand up to Geryon.
He needed this little garbage can lid to move as part of that, that was all.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to make himself relax. To see the target like his friend probably did: a goal, something harmless, a benchmark to tell how they were doing.
Bonk!
Opening his eyes, he stared in bafflement at a dented target. "How'dya managed that one, Sabi?" Renge asked, about as surprised as him.
"... I think I need to try this another way." He wasn't going to give up - absolutely not! - but with a result like that, clearly he needed a new approach.
"Renge, what do you think of, when you're using combat alchemy? Why you're doing it, or something else?"
He'd said it aloud, not through Isaac, but Renge clearly had no difficulty hearing him: "It's not really thinking. It's more... feeling? That I know you're at my side, that the enemy is in front, and that what I'm movin' is only gonna hit them!"
... Now he felt a little like an idiot; that explanation was quite straightfoward, really. "Thanks, Renge!"
With another breath, and not letting himself close his eyes this time, he affirmed those truths for himself. My friends - my partner - are beside me. The threat is ahead of me. And I'm going to hit-
BOOM!
Them! Even with his eyes open, the demolished target ahead of him was a hell of a sight.
"Woohoo! Now let's keep at it!"
"You're on, Renge." He smiled, and he knew his partner was too.
If you'd asked Lachesis a year ago what she thought of the stars - not to ask after what she thought of her place in the universe, just if she thought the view was pretty - she'd have given you a long, baffled look.
As a cover for deciding if you'd make a good Malgam host down the line, of course. She wasn't that easily caught off guard.
But until she'd freed herself from Master Geryon's chains (master no more as he was), she hadn't treated any view of the skies with much more than a cursory glance.
---
It was nighttime in September, and as much as Lachesis preferred night to day, it was definitely chilly, but Professor Kyoka (you can call me Edami now, y'know?) had insisted on setting up the equipment by hand to get the best views of the solar system, and Lachesis didn't like the idea of Kyoka carrying everything by herself.
Not that she'd admitted the rationalization out loud; as fun as she'd found certain kinds of banter, she had discovered there were certain conversations she didn't need to repeat after a while. So Lachesis had a preference for novel stimulation; who knew?
(Clotho teased her about it sometimes - sneaking out to take in movies, reading books just to critique them to pieces, experimenting with which restaurants would let her take in the atmosphere without asking why she wasn't ordering anything. This, when her sister usually came with her, made her older sister absolutely absurd - but all the same, Lachesis found herself cherishing the shared smiles.)
But tonight, there was supposed to be something called a 'Supermoon'. Why this one was unique, Lachesis hadn't asked - but then, she supposed they had been preoccupied with other events much of the rest of the year. And Kyoka had also insisted on her getting a good look at Saturn's rings.
(She'd refrained from asking what she felt were the obvious questions on that one. The sisters were getting their own schooling of sorts, but she was in no hurry to reveal any holes in it.)
They'd found a hill, a spot well enough away from the cities to ensure the sky was clear and their eyes wouldn't suffer from excess lighting. Down the hill, in the direction they weren't looking, was a campfire where the rest of the Academy lot was gathering.
Lachesis kept her mind off of them, for now; while some of the things they did she could (now) admit were interesting, there were some things they'd been a part of that meant she didn't feel compelled to stick by their sides.
(Except for Spanner. Sometimes. Maybe she just liked irritating him, maybe it was something else. It was one of the few things Clotho didn't get on her about - mostly because Rinne was usually right there, or sometimes Houtaro, and Lachesis could absolutely give as good as she got.)
Lachesis let herself drift close as Kyoka adjusted the dials, dipping down to help anchor one tool or another so it wouldn't slip on the grass. The closeness was something she'd had to get used to; some people, she'd found, the Professor could get very comfortable around. It was part of how she communicated.
And if there was one thing Lachesis needed now in this world, it was ways to communicate. To not be isolated or ignored or mistreated like she had been before.
---
"Clotho! Get your burning self back up here; you need to see Saturn!"
(And Edami Kyoka smiled.)
[OTHER PROMPTS!]
in the snow, the antlers (Lachesis POV, Lachesis and Atropos, post-series)
She never thought she'd return to the Ouroboros Realm. It wasn't her birthplace, not truly, but it was a place specifically associated with alchemy-
And yeah, where Geryon had disappeared. And, yeah, she'd given Minato passage there, but she hadn't stepped on that otherworldly ground herself. It was different.
But today was the anniversary of when their mission to prepare the Driver had begun. And now, she had a bit of a mission herself.
---
There was a fog over the land - patchy, in places, revealing glimpses of a blue sky, or a darkly-gleaming snake biting its tail. The base elements of Life itself resided here...
And one, small homunculus, sitting alone. Thought so.
When it came to their creator, their feelings these days were largely the opposite - but, particularly due to Kyoka's influence, she'd gotten a lot better at hearing out viewpoints that weren't her own.
"You know how he feels about you," Lachesis began, kneeling next to where her eldest sister sat.
Said sister spat on the dirt, glittering fragments of her alchemical artifact at her feet. "... I do now."
"But you still miss him. How he treated you." Out of them all, Atropos was the one he most appreciated - perhaps the circumstances behind her creation were the ones Geryon had most appreciated - but in the end, he'd still only seen her as a doll.
Which, naturally, had bitten him right in the ass, when he'd reasserted that viewpoint. Right when he could have gotten away with everything, started anew.
"I didn't understand what it meant. To not be the favorite."
Lachesis shifted a little, sitting closer to Atropos (who didn't seem to notice, or pretended not to).
"He wanted us different enough to work as leverage against each other, if needed. But in the end, to him we were the same."
"Disposable." Atropos growled, and internally Lachesis agreed wholeheartedly. She sure does understand now, that's for sure.
Still, Lachesis didn't immediately speak again; only look, one which the shorter Abyssalis Sister met slowly.
"... I wish I could only hate him."
"So do I," Lachesis said, taking herself by surprise. "I think Clotho does too."
But those words did have some sort of impact on Atropos; her shoulders relaxing ever so slightly.
"Ready to head back home?"
And, again to her surprise, Atropos did not say no, or even correct her.
parentheses, the antlers + spanner/minato (Spanner POV, post-episode 27)
"Wheel!"
"Not now," Kurogane Spanner murmured, one hand drifting to loosely hold MadWheel's card in his pocket.
"I need to do this." The other hand, he brought up to knock.
---
The juniors not understanding him, he could live with - they were kids, and he was pretty sure he was always going to think of them as younger than him, needing to be shielded from the worse truths of life, the ones they didn't discover for themselves firsthand anyway.
With Kyoka - Professor Kyoka - he'd learned slowly that he didn't need to rush making her understand how he felt, the things he did. He did feel that he didn't deserve her, sometimes.
But that wasn't the matter today. He needed to make sure Professor Minato - senpai - understood. To know that he did. Especially now that he was back.
---
The door opened without more than a single knock; Minato had been expecting him.
Spanner could feel his arm just holding position there. Before the voice inside him that pointed out every time he acted a fool could speak up, though, the other man stepped back, gesturing for him to come in.
Good. That was... that was good. "I should be holding the door," he said, even as he stepped inside.
"Please, leave me some things," Minato said - Spanner paid maximum attention to the faint smile on the older man's face - before shepherding the two of them to a familiar couch. Behind them, the door shut of what seemed its own accord.
Knowing Minato, it was a subtle sort of alchemy... or, perhaps, Spanner wasn't the only one who wanted to keep more than just an eye on the man.
"Thank you," Spanner said, and then his voice left him. I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I? Hell.
"I know you're not talking about how I acted as Dread," Minato said, a note of wry self-deprecation creeping into his voice. Spanner fought off a scowl.
"No - I - you, you went up against Geryon, unarmored."
Not unarmed, because that wouldn't have been the truth.
"I was there when I needed to be. For once," and there was no mistaking the self-hate in the older man's voice then.
Progress made, progress lost.
"Minato - Professor." There was a surge of strength in Spanner's voice, causing the other man to look at him, look up and truly look at him.
"You scared me. Seeing you do such a thing - even the right thing - at such risk to yourself, that scared me."
It was good they weren't sitting across from each other; it made it easier to reach out and, cautiously, rest a hand on the one that had been impaled in an older fight. Spanner watched as Minato didn't flinch.
"Minato. Senpai. You are one of the people I wanted to be strong for."
Where the professor hadn't pulled away at the touch, he did pull back at those words - at which point, entirely unexpected, MachWheel surged out of Spanner's pocket, de-Carding itself and rolling right over to Minato.
"Wheel! WheelMach Mach MachWheel!"
Even without knowing exactly what the Chemy was saying, the fury in its voice reached them both.
"... And you're why I came back. Why I resolved not to let my former master's words reach me anymore."
There wasn't much of anything more to be said after that - though to Spanner's relief, he wasn't the only one of them suddenly possessed with the strong need for a hug.
harbor, vienna teng + hotaro (Chemies Perspective, as of episode 39)
(Fun fact: the charactary used in Minato's name on the official cast list means 'harbor' and I think that's neat-)
If you had asked - as in, actually asked, such that you were speaking the same language as them and could understand any answer - why on earth the Chemies stayed at the Academy when they could probably just go anywhere and hide, live in a peace as free of malice as was possible on this planet, you'd receive a wealth of stories.
Not all of them had been born within these halls. Not all of them had even been made in Japan. All of them (barring two - and now three) had outlived their creators.
But the ones that had been made here considered this a home; the ones who had been brought here believed it to be shelter, better (in turns...) than the places that had raised them. And those who had come here of their own accord - they had the other Chemies to protect.
And now, with the youngest alchemists declaring they would protect the Chemies in turn, nothing short of the cessation of existence itself could pry them out of their place in the world.
never look away, vienna teng + Sabimaru&Renge (Sabi POV, pre-episode 27)
Alchemy spells, Tsuruhara Sabimaru had learned, were meant to be said aloud. It helped channel the flow of energy.
Much to his relief, it turned out he didn't have to shout the spells, and Isaac's presence did not derange any of them either. It had saved his friends more than once.
Combat alchemy, however, required that one did not speak at all. Logically, then, he should be better at it than regular spells.
But-
"Hiyah! C'mon, Sabi, you're doing great! Isn't this fun?"
Launching another deactivated charger, Ichou Renge smashed through her fifth target of the day - and Sabimaru was only on his second.
"We're not doing this for fun, Renge," Isaac reminded her, as Sabimaru sought to hold another piece of junk without using words.
And sure, she was right, but he was right too; they were doing this to get better as alchemists and seniors, to do their part in protecting the innocent and their friends, to stop Malgams and free Chemies. To stand up to Geryon.
He needed this little garbage can lid to move as part of that, that was all.
Taking a deep breath, he tried to make himself relax. To see the target like his friend probably did: a goal, something harmless, a benchmark to tell how they were doing.
Bonk!
Opening his eyes, he stared in bafflement at a dented target. "How'dya managed that one, Sabi?" Renge asked, about as surprised as him.
"... I think I need to try this another way." He wasn't going to give up - absolutely not! - but with a result like that, clearly he needed a new approach.
"Renge, what do you think of, when you're using combat alchemy? Why you're doing it, or something else?"
He'd said it aloud, not through Isaac, but Renge clearly had no difficulty hearing him: "It's not really thinking. It's more... feeling? That I know you're at my side, that the enemy is in front, and that what I'm movin' is only gonna hit them!"
... Now he felt a little like an idiot; that explanation was quite straightfoward, really. "Thanks, Renge!"
With another breath, and not letting himself close his eyes this time, he affirmed those truths for himself. My friends - my partner - are beside me. The threat is ahead of me. And I'm going to hit-
BOOM!
Them! Even with his eyes open, the demolished target ahead of him was a hell of a sight.
"Woohoo! Now let's keep at it!"
"You're on, Renge." He smiled, and he knew his partner was too.
Tags:
(no subject)
22/6/24 04:07 (UTC)(no subject)
22/6/24 13:42 (UTC)I'm so glad you like! Feel free to drop more prompts at the jukebox toplevel if you want more. ;) (I know it just says for June, but hey, why not...?)
(no subject)
2/7/24 00:33 (UTC)(no subject)
2/7/24 00:55 (UTC)I'm glad you enjoyed - I wrote that Spamina with you in mind, of course, so it delights me that it landed for you.
(no subject)
2/7/24 01:08 (UTC)Thank you so much for taking the time to write all of these and share them.
(no subject)
2/7/24 12:05 (UTC)I'm so glad it helped you! :D Writing these was a pleasure.