The FMA Gift Exchange for Sal: @radioactive-bread-guy / @i-need-a-warning-label

The Prompt was: the Homunculi at a Sleepover

I couldn't decide which idea I liked the most, so I kind of did them all in a big collection:

The family staying at the Bradleys, because Selim really wanted a sleepover and, well, it's the only logical place.

Mrs Bradley is kind of an honorary Homunculus.

Sloth gets surrounded by a nest of plushies and stuffed animals.

Wrath is an old man who goes to bed at 20:30, but is also not going to admit that he's tired, so Mrs. Bradley has to get him out of there.

Lust and Envy would definitely have the full spa treatment, with face masks and fussy gowns.

GreedLing and Gluttony get a midnight feast. Ling's influence.

Ironically, Sloth is the only one who stays awake all night, because A: he is well-practiced in keeping awake all the time and B: he just enjoyed himself so much, he didn't actually want to sleep.

Thinking about how Wrath said that the idiosyncrasies of humans (read: his wife, the only part of his life he was actually allowed to choose) were what made his life worth living for and maybe worth dying for. Thinking about how the opposite of wrath is charity, caritas, self-giving love which is patient and kind, slow to anger and quick to forgive, the love exemplified in good marriages (any good family relationship, really, but Pride pretending to be his son does NOT count). Thinking about how the personification of wrath chose a woman who is gentle and feminine and kind, who dotes on their "son" and doubtless on him as well, and, inasmuch as he's capable of it, loves her.

Thinking about how Lust died admiring the eyes of a man who fought for real eros, romantic love, that is faithful and patient and chaste because the beloved is worth waiting for, because any discomfort of self-denial is worth the joy of giving oneself to her fully and without encumbrances.

Thinking about how Envy killed himself after his desire to be human was truly perceived by the thing he both hated and wished to be.

Thinking about how Pride was stripped of all his power and became a little child in truth, compassionate and gentle and unafraid to show it (because the death of pride is humility and what is more humble than to be unselfconsciously gentle?).

Gluttony...isn't really deep enough to analyse like this, but...thinking about how Pride consumes him. (This is where Lewis comes in.) Pride can quell many other vices. "It is beneath me," we say of gluttony (or lust or wrath or envy), even as we feed in ourselves the very thing that made the devil what he is.

Thinking about how Greed called his friends possessions but treated them like family. Thinking about how he admitted - the only homunculus to do so - that what he had really wanted was companionship with other humans, and was rewarded with peace and a hand in the final victory. Thinking about how we lay up treasure in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves do not break through and steal, through, among other things, kindness to our friends on earth.

Sloth also isn't really deep enough to analyse much, but I think it's interesting that the only time he shows real interest in anything is when he's dying and wondering what death might be like, and how the desire to find peace in death is itself human.

FMAtober Day 19: Sloth