APP

[fullmetalbrat]

〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Edward Elric
CHARACTER AGE: Just shy of 16
SERIES: Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)
CHRONOLOGY: Mid-promise day, just before Roy is forced through a Gate
CLASS: Dog of the Military Hero
HOUSING: Top priority is with Winry, bonus points if he can also be housed with Hughes

BACKGROUND: Welcome to Fullmetal Alchemist, a series set in a world where alchemy is real and kind of horrible. Alchemy is the science of using energy drawn from the earth and channeled through a circle to deconstruct matter and reconstruct it into a new form, a process known as transmuting or transmutation. With this, alchemists can change coal sludge into gold, nondescript cars into hot rods that look like they rolled off the Mad Max set, and even perform medical procedures all while looking like they're throwing lightning at whatever it is they've chosen to transmute. The one big taboo in the series is this: Human transmutation is forbidden.

The two lead characters, Edward and Alphonse Elric, chose to just ignore that little rule. They attempted human transmutation to bring their mother back to life, failed, and were horrifically maimed for their troubles. Edward lost an arm, and Alphonse lost his entire body. The botched transmutation had, however, gifted Edward with a new profound understanding of alchemy, and he used that knowledge to pull his brother's soul back to earth and bound it to a suit of armor in order to save him. That also cost him his leg, but to Edward it was well worth the cost.

Obviously they didn't die there or there wouldn't be very much of a series at all. Ed survived and after a year spent recovering, getting incredibly advanced metal prosthetics, and learning how to use them, was recruited into the military by Roy Mustang at the tender age of ten as a National Alchemist. He used his newfound freedom as an official member of the military (and his newfound riches granted to him in the form of research funding) to travel around the country with his brother in search of some method of restoring their bodies.

Throughout this journey, the two of them gain unlikely friends and allies ranging from foreign royalty to corrupt officials to known serial killers to actual abominations in human form with a hunk of solidified human souls at their core. Now, obviously they don't always agree with or even remotely like the people they're working with, but Ed at least spends the greater part of his journey learning about having to make hard choices for the greater good. Choices like deciding between the lesser of two evils no matter how much it might turn his stomach to work with either one of them.

With the help of this growing and ragtag group of allies, Edward and his brother uncover a conspiracy that dates back to the very creation of their country. What they learn is that a mysterious figure known only as Father or The Homunculus has been effectively using the military of Amestris as his own puppet in order to carve a country-sized circle of blood into the very earth itself. With this circle, Father will bring about a nationwide apocalypse for his own personal gain, and much of the military's upper brass is all too eager to further his cause. In addition, Father has created lesser homunculi; those abominations with condensed human souls (also known as philosopher's stones) at their core.

Upon realizing the sheer scope of the situation, the quest to restore their bodies becomes almost secondary. Being whole again would be great and all, but having a country and loved ones to enjoy it with is also a pretty high priority after all. He begins working more closely with people he's met including members of the military he knows he can trust like his commanding officer, Roy Mustang, or the sister of another trusted ally, Olivier Armstrong, both to discover everything they can about the conspiracy and to begin to build a plan to halt it.

All their plans come to fruition on "The Promised Day" when a solar eclipse required for Father's transmutation is set to take place. Immediately prior to this, Ed had to leave Al behind in an earthen prison they were using to contain one of the lesser homunculi, Pride while he traveled to the nation's capital to help the efforts against Father. While Roy and his crew take care of confusing the military as much as they can, Edward takes on a more direct approach and runs right into a horrifying army of alchemically created "humans". Turns out the only reason human transmutation was forbidden was to prevent anyone other than the military from creating an army only they could command. Class act, those guys.

After battling his way through what was effectively a zombie horde for a couple of hours, he's able to regroup with Roy and one of his subordinates, aaaand then they immediately run into Envy, one of the aforementioned abominations created by Father. Envy has the special honor of being the murderer of Roy's closest friend which doesn't exactly go over well with Roy when he confirms it. He sends Ed away so he can carry out some incredible revenge torture, but Ed's conscience forces him to turn back and confront Roy over how completely crazy and opposed to his own goals he's being.

Thankfully, it works! But then he was immediately ported into the game, so he really isn't going to be in the best of moods upon arrival.

PERSONALITY:
First and foremost, Edward is determined. This is a kid who at the age of ten lost not one but two limbs, blamed himself for his brother losing his entire body, and still found the drive to go through excruciatingly painful surgery and rehabilitation in order to replace his lost limbs so he could join the military. In the face of common knowledge telling him that accomplishing his goals was impossible, he still traveled the country for four years looking for any glimmer of hope that could prove it wasn't. Edward Elric is not a boy who gives up (even when he should).

A lot of this determination is fueled by a strong sense of guilt. He blames himself for the failed transmutation that cost his brother his body which, in part, is why he will stop at nothing to restore it. Any time someone they care for is hurt or killed in the course of their journey, Ed wonders first what he could have done to prevent it, but he refuses to let himself be weighed down by that guilt or sorrow for long. He takes and carries it with him on his quest as a way of refusing to let their sacrifice or loss be in vain. If he gives up then, in his mind, everyone who's been hurt trying to help him and his brother will be let down, and he can't bring himself to disappoint them or do an injustice to their memory that way.

He also can't bring himself to kill; not even indirectly. When he and Alphonse learn the philospher's stone is made from human souls, they both agree they don't want any part of that. They refuse to even consider using it on themselves and agree that they'll find a different way to restore their bodies; a way that isn't drenched in the blood of innocents. This determination comes up again when he, Al, and their dashing foreign prince friend are left to battle an enraged homunculi hellbent on eating someone. One of Roy's subordinates hands Edward a gun to defend himself with, and for a long moment all he can do is stare at it with a miserable look on his face. The only time he ever fires it is when trying to locate a wall after he becomes trapped in an apparently endless, blood-filled plain. He never once raises it against anything living. It goes entirely against who he is and who he wants to be as a person.

Of course even Edward Goddamned Elric can't be pure unstoppable determination all the time. He does hit low points or just plain run out of energy from time to time. The very first time someone they meet dies, Edward takes on such an intense load of guilt over it that he actually gives up when he and Alphonse are attacked by a murderer. Alphonse had been damaged and couldn't escape, and Edward couldn't bring himself to leave his brother behind to save himself, so he was entirely prepared for everything to end right there. Naturally Al literally knocked sense into him after the fact, but the point remains that the potential for Ed to become so overwhelmed that he can't move forward is there; it just doesn't happen very often.

All this determination and guilt leads nicely into the next major point: Edward is really bad at taking care of himself. This manifests in two ways. First, he really doesn't like to let himself rest until he's quite literally worn himself out. It's not unusual to find him passed out on a pile of research documents or on his own journals. Second, he has a bad habit of either over-extending himself in fights or taking on more risk than he really should in them. He often won't retreat when it might be wise to do so, either because his temper has gotten the better of him or because he's hoping to draw a little more information out of whoever's fighting him, and it can have fairly serious consequences ranging from hospitalization to completely shattering his automail, the mechanical prosthetics he has.

Other things Ed is not good at: dealing with people in general. For starters, he has a wicked temper that can flare at the most inopportune of moments. He has an almost pavlovian rage reaction to being called short in any way, and his temper can also flare up if he feels like he's being made fun of or condescended to or in defense of people he cares about. This can lead to people getting bad impressions of him, but he really isn't the kind of person who cares about that. In fact, he finds it useful from time to time! It can come in quite handy to have someone believe you're just as rotten as them while you concoct a scheme to use against them. For example, in one of his earlier adventures he and Al come across a coal mining town run by a corrupt lieutenant who is taxing the citizens into destitution. He takes advantage of the town's bias against military to get in the lieutenant's good graces just long enough to trick him into signing the town's deed over to him. Which he promptly sells right to the townsfolk themselves for what amounts to pennies.

His temper isn't the only thing that can get in his own way through. Apart from dealing with his own brother, he has some difficulty expressing sympathy or affection for people he isn't already very close to. He may stumble over his words, or he may harden up his walls and take a distant, almost scolding approach. Or he might bicker childishly like a five year old in the case of his childhood friend, Winry. He's actually quite in love with her, but he's in no way ready to actually deal with that emotion yet. The last time he even thought about it he worked himself up into a blushing fit and began reciting the table of elements to distract himself. Suffice to say he's got a long way to go before he can really confront positive feelings for people in a way that's at all mature.

But when he's not caught up in nationwide conspiracies or dealing with emotions awkwardly, Ed's a pretty great guy! He loves enjoying simple things in life like playing with a kid and her dog (even if it means putting important work aside), or eating apple pie with a friend. When he has a moment to forget about all the deadly serious business going on in his life all he wants to do is enjoy himself with the people he cares about.



POWER:
Alchemy which is the power to break an object (or objects) down into its core components and then reform those components into another item of the same or similar chemical composition. For example he could take some wood and graphite and fuse it together to make pencils or some really wonky looking fossilized wood or something that requires both wood and graphite, or he could make paper from the wood and fuse graphite onto it for instant printing. What he could not do is turn the wood and graphite into, say, a bunch of clay tile. Whatever he makes has to be made up of at least some of the components of whatever material he's using otherwise he runs the risk of causing an alchemic rebound which can have devastating physical consequences. A rebound is how he and his brother damaged and lost their bodies, after all.

Additionally, because he sinned against god (or whatever passes for it in the world of FMA) with human transmutation, he can perform alchemy without needing to write a circle out. He only needs to clap his hands together to perform a transmutation. This power is limited in the sense that Ed can't transmute something he doesn't know the elemental composition of which really just means he's going to have to put in a lot of hours at the library to catch up to modern materials.

Dog of the Military
Dog shapeshift will allow Ed to transform into a norwegian buhund. He can also opt to just get the ears and tail so everyone can make fun of him. While in full dog form he can't perform alchemy unless he manages to scratch out a circle with his paws which is sure to be incredibly awkward and time consuming.

Pack boost which is basically a stat boost. When he's fighting alongside fellow Amestrians, he provides what amounts to a stamina boost. Comrades will find they have more energy allowing them to fight longer or with more ferocity. They can't go ripping doors off their hinges if they couldn't before, but if Ed jumps in at the end of a long fight a boost in energy could give his side the push they need to break through.

Height manipulation but he can only make himself smaller so we can all rest assured this power will only exist for him to have hilarious fits about from time to time. Maybe one day he'll have to swallow his pride to fit beneath a door. Tiny limit of about a centimeter in height.

〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE: Can people really read this? If anyone can, I got some questions for you.

Someone told me that when people leave this world they forget everything about it, but they might remember if they come back. Is that really true? Is there anyone who's left and come back that I could talk to? I want to know more about this registration scheme they've got here too. I heard plenty about what you get for it, but what's the catch?

Now that that's out of the way, has anyone seen a huge guy in a suit of armor around? Goes by the name Alphonse? Tell him his big brother's looking for him if you do.

LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE: Bam

FINAL NOTES:

I am apping Edward in under the assumption that he got himself sedated after refusing to stop trying to fight his way out of the intake process even after the power nullifier kicked in, but I hope that's acceptable. I went on the assumption that the dosage and reasoning was carefully noted and he was treated very well after he was down and not actively causing damage to the facility or staff.