Fourteenth Move - Check

[king_of_flames]

[Video]

[The video feed comes on showing Roy holding something between his fingers:]



And then there was one.

I may stay here a little while longer and get some extra training in. The wild Pokémon around Mahogany Town are stronger than those around Goldenrod City.

Additionally, I could use someone to help me evolve my Magmar. Just one trade and a tradeback is all I need. Any takers?

[The video feed ends.]

[Video; a few hours later]



[This time, Roy looks more serious when the feed comes on.]

Lust. I know you're here, so don't bother trying to hide. Pick up.

Comments

...Oh, Hughes.

[king_of_flames]

[And derailed. Magnificent job, Hughes.]

You always jump to the most absurd conclusions, you know that?!

[derpsaboutfamily]

[ What was the original intent of this video again...? ]

How is it absurd? How do you expect a man to conclude after you've just gone live on the air and called out some random woman like that?

[king_of_flames]

I don't know, maybe that she's an enemy?

[derpsaboutfamily]

Not everyone makes enemies as fast as you do, you know!

[king_of_flames]

A certain group of us back home certainly did.

[derpsaboutfamily]

This 'Lust' is from Amestris, then?

[king_of_flames]

That's right. She's one of the seven homunculi. Back home, I killed her...but of course that means nothing to this place.

[derpsaboutfamily]

Homunculi?

[ Not an alchemist, so that word means nothing to him. ]

[king_of_flames]

...

[Hm. How to go about this...]

...Has anybody told you about the ouroboros tattoo yet?

[derpsaboutfamily]

No...

[king_of_flames]

...All right. If you see anyone with a tattoo that looks like a snake swallowing its own tail, it means they're a homunculus -- an artificial human created through alchemy. With one exception, they are all bad news.

[derpsaboutfamily]

Artificially created humans?!

And there's one here...?

[king_of_flames]

More than one. Lust, Envy, Gluttony, and Wrath are all here. The only three missing are Greed, Sloth, and Pride.

[derpsaboutfamily]

Any chance one of the ones here is the exception?

[king_of_flames]

No. All four of the homunculi here were loyal to their creator.

[derpsaboutfamily]

[ Grumbling: ] Guy can't catch a break, can he?

And these homunculi... they've got that tattoo you mentioned?

[ Should be easy enough to tell who they are, right? ]

[king_of_flames]

Yeah. Normally they don't try to conceal them.

Except for Wrath. His tattoo is on his eye...so he wears a patch over that eye.

[derpsaboutfamily]

A... patch...

[ ................ can't possibly be...? ]

... You said they were artificially created humans? So they'd be made to look exactly like a normal human?

[king_of_flames]

...I'll come right out and say it. Wrath's public identity?

He's King Bradley.

[derpsaboutfamily]

[ Have a lot of shocked silence as he tries to wrap his brain around all of this new information. ... The most powerful man in Amestris was artificially created.

Finally, a wry laugh. ]

I take it the goals of whoever created these homunculi isn't world peace.

[king_of_flames]

That depends on how you look at it. Some might consider a world ruled by an immortal, omnipotent being -- one that sacrificed tens of millions of lives to attain that immortality and power -- to be a peaceful world.

[derpsaboutfamily]

[ Honestly, he's beginning to wish that Lust had just been a scorned lover or something... ]

That's...

[ There are plenty of words he could use. Absurd, insane, etc. but none of them seems to fit just quite right. ]

They've already got the fuhrer of the country on their side. I take the other other six aren't exactly small fries either...

[king_of_flames]

The other six are damn near immortal themselves. Their cores are Philosopher's Stones, and they need to be killed enough times to exhaust the regenerative properties of the stones.

[derpsaboutfamily]

The Philosopher's Stones... but those take dozens of human lives to create!

[king_of_flames]

The mastermind had hundreds of thousands of lives at his disposal. He was responsible for the entire population of the Kingdom of Xerxes ceasing to exist.