Dante
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Post by Dante on Mar 5, 2007 21:55:41 GMT -5
Time: During the Isbal war Place: Ishbal Thread Type: one-shot Spoilers Y/N: none...really Min Chars Wanted: anyone who wants to play Canon NPCs used: Ishbalen soldiers Notes: the military is at war with Ishbal, but what of the many soldiers of the military who are forced to take part? And not just the alchemists, what of the other soldiers? How did they interact with the alchemists on and off the battle field?
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Roy Mustang
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Flame Alchemist
No One Really Wins this Time
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Post by Roy Mustang on Mar 8, 2007 21:44:16 GMT -5
Roy leaned over the water basin rubbing almost obsessively at his already pale hands and fingers. They were blood stained but the blood could not be seen. The scent of charred flesh seemed to hang in the air, it seemed to coat the fresh air around him following him wherever he went. The smell never went away, it followed him to bed at night and to patrols in the morning. Everytime he got the chance to rest, it hung over his head like a dark cloud, just another grim reminder of the things that were not happening here.
The sun was high overhead now, it was well into the afternoon and he had just come back from a patrol. The camp reeked, several soldiers were loitering around at tent corners and the place was falling apart as usual. There was nothing extraordinary about the drab military camp stationed on some remote desert corner that no one had given a name to. The camp was just another place that they could send you to rot, and right not there was a lot of that happening there. It was beginning to look as if he would be back for the rest of the evening. This was something that Roy feared, every moment he was here was another moment longer that sanity begun to slip away from him. It was like trying to hold a rope between two fingers, there wasn't any success in sight because the load on the other end was just too heavy. Roy's somber expression didn't seem to convey the mood well enough as the water in front of him grew golden with the sun shining overhead. The water in the basin had a red tint to it, but Roy didn't dwell on the factor, trying not to think about it. Keeping his mind blank was the best alternative that he could have in such a situation. If your mind was blank than you had no thoughts to dwell on and nothing to think about.
Trying to quell his tormented mind, Roy finally stood up wiping his hands haphazardly on his faded navy blue slacks. The golden buttons of his navy blue jacket were undone and the front of the military style-coat had been peeled down to reveal a sweat-stained off-white button down shirt that had also been adjusted for the temperature change. Despite his current situation, Roy had still been thinking of his appearance when he packed his bags. But now that didn't seem to matter much anymore, since things had changed. Still under such circumstances he found himself reluctant to change the things that he knew, so despite the temperatures he wore two layers of long sleeves, and was always clad in a full dress uniform and his gloves.
Gloves.... where are my gloves? I think I put them in my pocket.[/color]
Reaching instinctively in his inner pocket, Roy produced the gloves that had been his pride and joy before the conflict. Now they were nothing but a weapon, a thing to be used to kill and protect. No one was being saved by his hand as of yet, actually there was nothing to be saved. There was no crumbling republic here or some worthy cause, it was just a slaughter. A massocure =sp?= of the innocent. Just a war-happy country trying to see how far they could get with an empty proclaimation brought on by false threats. After being over in Ishbal for a period of time, Roy was beginning to deduce the real truth about the matter that never existed in the first place.
Standing up, Roy now surveyed the dead arid desert that stretched in either direction. The compound was to his back as his onyx eyes skimmed the plain horizons that seemed to hold no promises for any civilization that wanted to flourish. But the people here -- they had done just that. They had taken nothing and turned it into something, and now they had come here to destory that something.
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Dante
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Post by Dante on Mar 9, 2007 19:35:25 GMT -5
Jaise watched Roy with interest, facinated by the futile attempts her fellow contrymen made to hold onto their sanity. Too late for her, she had lost hers some time ago. She enjoyed the sight of the charred and rotting bodies, the taste of burnt and evaperated fat that clung to her lips in the air and made them stick together. Jaise, it seemed, was one of the few who was enjoying this ordeal. She was 'unstable' according to General Haruko and couldn't be sent into battle. So she made due with watching from the sidelines, going though and looking at the broken peices of land the alchemists and soldiers left in their wake. Jaise was merely an information obtainer, nothing more. Her job was to find out what the enemy was planning, not in stopping them. Too bad....
Her eyes were devoid of pigment because she was albino and she kept them trained on Mustang as he stood up, put on his gloves and turned his back to the camp. She was always curious about his gloves. Anxious to get her hands on a pair and maybe try them out. She what destruction she could cause. But she knew the Col. would never let her so she didn't even share this insane, perverse desire with anyone but kept it to herself.
Noislessly she came up behind him, standing a good five feet away, watching him intently. "Enjoying the view,, Col.?" she asked in her usual, carefree voice. She sounded almost childish in the way every word was saturated with pleasure and joy sometimes. She and Roy had spoken briefly once or twice but she suddenly realized she had never personally spoken with him. At least not of anything of importance. Maybe now she could see if Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist was all her pretended to be.
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Roy Mustang
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Flame Alchemist
No One Really Wins this Time
Posts: 73
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Post by Roy Mustang on Mar 11, 2007 12:06:24 GMT -5
Although Roy was usually wary of being watched and keep a close eye on everyone around him, today this wasn't happening. He was tired, exhausted, and seemingly uncaring now about who or what was watching him. Besides the compound gave off the illusion that they were safe and right now that was enough to quell the self-preservation mechanism that seemed to be malfunctioning within the depths of his mind.
Sweat was dripping down his face now, it was meant to cool but all it ever did was make him feel even hotter and more suffocated. The air here was so thick and humid that it might as well have been sweating along with them for the all the difference that it made. Shoving gloved hands in his pockets, Mustang fought the reflex to wipe his sweat-stained forehead on his jacket-sleeve. He perceived this habit as a rather crude way of trying to get cooler, because in the end it made no difference and it left his clothes smelling twice as bad. Besides he would have to wear this same uniform for another few days before he would be able to wash it himself. Prespiration shoaked up the front of his hair, leaving the black spikes looking even slicker than they had before. He would have given anything at that moment for a cold clear shower, but the only water that was avaliable here had a tendency to sit out in the sun only a few hours and overheat. There was no such thing as cold water in Ishbal, unless he could ask the right alchemist to give him a hand. He knew that there were many others over there too in his unit but he refrained from talking to many. Getting attached to someone could be both an immediate positive and a negative. Either way it worked against you.
Staring off into the distance, this was the last place on Earth that Roy would ever suspect to be bothered. But apparently today someone had other plans for him. 'Enjoying the view,, Col.?' Somethings would never startle Roy, he was used to having people sneak up on him. It was the oldest trick that could be pulled, and it had used to work a long time ago, but it had worn off with the years. Roy gave a short laugh at the title 'Colonel,' but didn't bother to give his insight into the mix-up all he did was correct the girl. "It's Major. If I was a Colonel than this wouldn't have been one of the mistakes that I would have made." Roy prompted the conversation with these words. He didn't care who heard him speak his own opinions as far as he saw it he was headed straight for a dead-end job when he got back to Amestris because if he had been right they had just performed the unspeakable on a whole race -- mass slaughter minus the good reasons. Said crimes and warheroes would be paid for their silence, sent off to some go-nowhere job assignments and than eventually shut-up permanantly when the issues begun to surface again decades later. Wasn't that what they had been planning?
Roy turned to the side to get a good look at the girl that had spoken to him. He didn't recognize the voice and he barely recognized her. He saw thousands of hundreds of people every single day and although he didn't get all their names, the ones he did get he tried to remember. He didn't know her name, nor who she was, but he had never seen her in battle. Roy remembered possibly speaking with her on one or two occasions, that was easy to remember she had spoken strangely almost as if she herself wanted to fight in the war.
Damn zealous supporters, they won't know this Hell until they are handed a rifle and told to shot their best friend in the face for committing some sort of treason...[/color]
Roy realized that he hadn't answered her question and than begun again, "It would be a lie if I told you that I did." Roy remarked as he allowed his charcoal eyes to skim the horizons. The sun was too much, and the bright golden scenary didn't fight the crazied moods of war or even the freakishly merry crackling of all the fires that he had set. Those were of course the noises that were below the screams, because if you could effectively tone out the screams for help than you would become aware of the sound of the fire feeding itself. One of the few main reasons that Roy had hated Ishbal at first was because of the sun. When he had arrived he had fair pale skin, but when he would leave he was almost sure that he would be sunburned for the next five years. Currently his face held evidence of sunburn, angry red patches on either cheek showed that he had been out in the sun to long today. This was another one of the reasons why Roy was so motivated to keep all of his clothes on. The first week that they had been there, him and a few other men had gone swimming in a small pond near the middle of the compound. The results after three hours out in the sun shirtless had been something painful that he wouldn't have easily relived.
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Dante
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Post by Dante on Mar 11, 2007 13:37:10 GMT -5
Jaise laughed harshly as he corrected her. "Of course, my mistake." she said, sarcasim dripping off of her words. She was strangly facinated by the misery that was radiating from him, surprised that people found this whole situation to be a bad thing.
Her head cocked at his response, wide, crazed eyes examining him as if looking for more of an answer. She could see the sweat pouring down his face and saturating his skin and hair, yet strangely her body was hardly impacted by the harsh sun. Her skin did glisten with sweat but it was unnoticed by her mind brinking insanity. Her pale skin, although devoid of pigment, did not burn nor tan. Many of the soldiers viewed her as some invincible freak when it came to the physical conditions they were forced to endure. She never complained about how hot it was. She only complained when she was left behind when the battles began.
Jaise knew that Roy probably didn't remember her name, so why deny herself the pleasure of a re-introduction. "You most likely don't remember me; I'm Major Jaise von Helmont." she bowed slightly but continued to allow her eyes to bore into him. She was so curious it was almost upsetting to her happy mind. She was interested in people. In how they worked, how they thought, how they worked. Deconstruction alchemy wasn't her forte, but most defiently her weakness when it came to satisfying her curious mind. She wanted to know how to break things down, take things apart but failed when trying it on her own. So now she was forced to revert to poking and proding people with words and questions to maybe figure out how to break them down on a phycological(sp?) level.
She cast a glance at the bowl Roy had been using earlier. The water rippled and glistened in the sunlight and a smile still tugged at her lips. "Washing your hands?" it sounded more like a statement than a question at this point, but it still demanded an answer.
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Roy Mustang
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Flame Alchemist
No One Really Wins this Time
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Post by Roy Mustang on Mar 11, 2007 16:13:48 GMT -5
Roy felt as if Jaise's eyes were scrutinizing everything about him, it gave him an uneasy feeling deep down in his gut but he refused to comment on the matter. Allowing his eyes to stay focused on the horizon he shrugged off her glance, even though he allowed the information to linger in the back of his mind. Her response to his correction didn't seem so convincing, but Roy wasn't bothered by it. He was known for his supposed "arrogant" nature, many people looked down upon him for exactly that. Roy didn't exactly realize it but most of the time that he had remained quiet and kept to himself during the weeks that they had been out here were making him out to be a very 'snobbish' person. Roy didn't think that he was better than everyone else, although there were times when he did acquire said arrogant edge, it was just that he didn't want that kind of attachment with anyone because it smelled of death.
Upon hearing the introduction, Roy pryed his eyes off the horizon and turned to face Jaise. The name sounded familiar enough, but she already appeared to know who he was, or did she? The eyes contact that she kept was daunting almost. It seemed to Roy that her eyes had been watching him long before she had even appeared before him. "Pleasure." Roy said dryily before adding, "Major Roy Mustang, but you already knew that." He was bitterly tempted at that moment to turn away, there was something about this girl that wasn't exactly sitting well with him. The crazied look in her eyes might have had something to do with it, it somewhat resembled the look that Kimblee always had when he was strutting around the compound. Despite the eerie glance that she was holding, Roy refused to break eye contact. He was stubborn and young, which never mixed, thus he was still out to prove himself.
The ebbing feeling that he would be washed up long before he started was beginning to eat away at his insides lately. This war meant nothing good. Standing here before this girl only seemed to intensify his knowledge that there were other people out there that actually approved of this slaughter. 'Washing your hands?'
She was watching me. The blood in the basin, does she know? Has she been following me?[/color]
"Cleaning up before dinner." Roy responded, his bland tones were returned to his voice as stood appearing unaffected by her comments. The crooked soon-to-be smile on her lips was appalling to Roy, but he kept his mouth shut. Aside from the few 'irrational' comments that he made occasionally he wouldn't allow anyone to know how much the war truely bothered him. Anyone aside from Maes Hughes that was. No one could know how he felt about it, because if they did perhaps he'd be the next one shot for treason or maybe desertion.
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Dante
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Post by Dante on Mar 11, 2007 22:12:45 GMT -5
Denial Jaise thought triumphantly. She could smell the stench of it rising off of him like a rotting corpse in the sun. He was troubled by what he was doing. By what he was forced to do. It was quite obvious to her, being one who disected and broke down every aspect of a person from the subtle tone of the voice to a small flicker of the eyes. She could see it in his eyes, for maybe a millionth of a second, fear manifest itself blatantly before being covered up again.
He was stubborn in the way he kept his voice devoid of any real emotion and in the headstrong determination to not look away from her insane, dialated eyes. She nodded at his answer, though. "Ah, I see..." she replied, not really a response at all when she thought about it. Merely an acknowledgment. She let a few moments pass before speaking again.
"You want to know something interesting, Major?" she asked. Not waiting for his response, she continued. "When people give themselves away, it's with little things. That's how I know what the Ishbalans are planning. In the way they talk in a slightly more hushed tone. Or have a glint of mistief(sp?) about them. Yes....us humans always think we're fooling someone when in reality, we're broadcasting our feelings to the world." she knew she was being unnecisarily forward about her feelings and she knew Mustang to be an excellent combat alchemist. She was sure he would attack her, even in warning, if she pushed him too far. As she was known to do. But she waited for a response, her maniacal grin still planted firmly on her face as she waited for another small flicker of Mustang's disposition to give him away.
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Roy Mustang
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Flame Alchemist
No One Really Wins this Time
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Post by Roy Mustang on Mar 13, 2007 15:06:02 GMT -5
Her answer was intimidating, but Mustang said nothing, it was not yet clear exactly if he was annoyed, agitated or just indifferent to her words. She didn't seem to be convinced of his expressed response, but she might have very well just have seen straight through him. Despite the fact that she had only been staring at him, Roy felt as if he was being disected, picked apart piece by piece to be studied and observed. She might have been seeing straight through his shallow guise and thick blank mask. The slight hint of paranoia begun to haunt Roy again, but he would still refuse to let it really get to him just yet.
Jaise's next remarks caught Mustang off guard, she definitely had a death wish. Her words were outright, they were to blunt to be conspicious which bothered Mustang, she had guts.
She knows. But why is she being so straightforward about it?[/color]
Roy held back all temptation to simply snap the matter away, he could incinerate her on the spot. A blind rage would have been a nice relaxing agent at the moment, since he had been killing people who had been completely innocent and idle. But this woman, she knew things, and she was one of the ones that worked to kill people. The information she provided people with was the information that the military acted on, it was because of her cities were burned to the ground and people were hung from trees and tortured. But than she was no different from Roy, she was just doing her job, even if it meant wiping out a few hundred people everyday. She did so in such a way that the string couldn't be directly connected to her as the killer, it was only because of her that they were dead, they hadn't been killed by her hands.
Maybe I'm more of a murderer than she ever will be. It doesn't change the fact that she sends people to their deaths, but it doesn't matter anymore no will be spared.... whatever she's up to, it can't be good.[/color]
Roy felt indirectly as if he was being set up for something, an invisible red target circle being painted around the place where he stood. Taking a closer look at the girl standing feet from him, Roy realized that he would have to approach the situation more carefully than he had been before. This forward way of thinking was probably meant to hint at all the cues that he had been dropping before now. Mask in place, Roy's onyx eyes stared at the girl for a second surveying the manical grin gracing her lips. "Is that so?" There was no curiousity in his voice, his tone seemed a little distant too, but this wasn't unfamiliar to Roy. As the days merged into weeks and weeks into months he had been growing distant, sending himself away to another world where he would be safe and unharmed.
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Dante
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Come back to me Hoenhiem...
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Post by Dante on Mar 15, 2007 13:14:43 GMT -5
Jaise's grin, if possible, widened at his response. He was catching on to her game, that much was obvious. But she liked it, it just made it more interesting to play. To her, life was a game, a joke, all you had to do is find the punchline....
She could tell very easily that Mustang had had the sudden impulse to incinerate her on the spot, but it was extiguished and controled. He was a very predictable person to her at the moment. She was fairly sure he would not move nor speak until she replied or just left.
A small rag doll moved floppily on its own as it made it's way towards them. Jaise took her eyes off of Mustang for the first time in these long five minutes and looked at her home-made soul transfer make it's way back towards her. It collapsed at her feet, allowing her to pick it up. Just a bit of her soul was enough to make a doll move around on it's own. She put her finger on the dolls forehead, letting the transmutation circle carved on her index finger touch the worn cotton. The soul fragment was returned to her with a flash of alchemic power. Immidiatly the images and sounds the doll had obserbed was added into her memory. Looking up at Mustang she grinned. "It seems you got lucky, Major." she said holding the now limp doll at her side. "The Ishbalans haven't moved or made any major tactical decisions since yesterday." she turned heal to tell this to Haruko. Being her commanding officer, he would want to know such information. "I suppose our conversation will have to be continued later."
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Roy Mustang
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No One Really Wins this Time
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Post by Roy Mustang on Mar 20, 2007 22:00:41 GMT -5
Her grin widened and Mustang wanted to gag, he held back the strong reflex that had been eating away at the back of his throat ever since his arrival in this desert. Everyday seemed to take him further from the things that he had thought that he had believed in. It seemed like it had been a lot longer than minutes, it could have been measured in hours, this was something that Mustang realized when Jaise had finally looked away. Their locked eye contact was broken just as quickly as it had happened. When the eye contact broke, Roy allowed his eyes to wander downwards before he found the source of Jaise's sudden interest. A small ragdoll had been limping towards them. It was almost eerie to see the ragdoll flopping towards them like a person.
Almost immediately Mustang realized that it was a soul transfer device, something that could be animated, used, and than tossed. Mustang just nodded at the information that she gave him. It meant another day of a stagnant war. It meant sitting here and waiting for the next set of orders to strike. But it could also have meant the beginning of the end of the war. Since Mustang didn't want to get his own hopes he disreguarded the later as an actual explanation for the situation. "I will be here." Roy confirmed as he watched Jaise turn on her heel and start in the opposite direction. Mustang was left standing there, he was rooted to the spot with thought on the conversation that he had just had with Jaise. To think that people like her actually existed out here made a chill run down his spine. Despite the cool feeling it was one that was unwelcomed, even in the heat.
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Dante
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Come back to me Hoenhiem...
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Post by Dante on Mar 21, 2007 20:28:45 GMT -5
((We need some more people from the military to come in....))
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Roy Mustang
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Flame Alchemist
No One Really Wins this Time
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Post by Roy Mustang on Mar 24, 2007 12:42:05 GMT -5
][Yeah that's what I was thinking too. I'm going to ask Hawkeye... I'm not sure how many characters were around during the Ishbal but there might be a few more somewhere][
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Post by Riza Hawkeye on Mar 25, 2007 20:11:31 GMT -5
((Hi ppls, I'll join in, fear not!! XD ))
Riza had been silently watching Mustang and the strange young woman. She was sitting outside, in the heat of the dessert, trying , practically desperately, to clean her guns. Blood clotting in the gun not only left a terrible smell but prevented accuracy when she protected others. This routine was one of the few things that could keep her sanity intact, the senseless killing was slowing working its way through her shield that kept people from knowing her emotions.
She felt sympathy as she watched the Major trying to clean his hands, she knew his hands were clean technically, but she also knew there was no way to remove the blood. The blood shed by countless innocent Ishbalen citizens. This whole war left a bad taste in her mouth, but she wasn't one to disobey a commanding officer. Her loyalty was firm, and her resolve firmer. She would not quit, she would remain here and protect the other people here, the people who where dear to her. She continued to watch the Colonel even as he shivered in horror at the woman who was walking away, briefly she turned her sharp golden eyes towards the woman, she had seen her around the camp but as a silent sniper she didn't communicate with most of the others at the camp. Turning her gaze back towards Mustang she silently contemplated the things around her and the future.
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Dante
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Post by Dante on Mar 30, 2007 16:56:13 GMT -5
((I'm not really sure how to reply to that, but here goes!))
Jaise saw her as she walked away. The silent blonde woman who was good with a gun and stuck to Mustang like a protective hound dog. Her pink eyes scanned her but was sorely disapointed to find her as inpenitrable as ever. She could pick up the short, silent glances she made towards Mustang, but it showed little to Jaise's mind of her intentions or thoughts. She forced herself to push all thoughts aside though as she pushed the flap aside to the General's tent and entered. She would have to speak to him about the doll's report, seeing as he was her supirior but a great heavy part of her was still itching to be talking to Mustang. She had been so close to breaking his shell, shattering it before picked each piece by painful piece from him. But, sadly, it would have to wait for another time.
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Roy Mustang
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No One Really Wins this Time
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Post by Roy Mustang on Mar 30, 2007 20:43:35 GMT -5
Mustang's dark eyes gave the horizon one last look, it was possible to lose oneself in the golden sand of the desert, but he wanted to prevent that from happening at all costs. Because losing himself meant only that he would get further away from the things that he had come here to do. It meant falling into the insanity that was the military's empty reasons for war, and Mustang did not have any intentions of trying to care out these beleifs. He knew now that the military's reasons for war had been very far from the truth, most of these people were not even armed and it was something that he noted time and time again right before he was ordered to burn them to death. How could weaponless people want to fight a war? Their intentions couldn't have been as hostile as the military had first interpreted. Turning away from the sandy rolling hills, Roy didn't have any idea where he would be off to next, there was the withering temptation of dinner and the not-so-tempting idea of trying to sleep. Neither sounded very attractive considering the circumstances that he found himself in. The food was never good and eating was usually out of the question because it never stayed down for long, than sleep always brought untimely nightmares.
There was the remaining option of a walk, it sounded peaceful enough, but it wasn't very promising there was nothing to see out here. Mustang strolled calmly away from the fence, it was a miracle that he could keep his composure even in the heat he insisted on wearing his uniform properly. Even with the front of his coat swinging open Roy was still hot, and sweating lightly. It was incredible how there was no breeze at all out in the desert, even during the nights when it got colder there was still no wind. Pacing near the high fence that had been put to protect the compound Mustang walked in long drawn out steps. He was tired, in reality he was exhausted, but there was no sleep to be found here because there was always something to do. The conversation that he had just had with Jaize had left him feeling uneasy, but he wouldn't admit it. The crazied look in her eyes was one he recognized, he had seen it before, mostly it appeared in the eyes of those who hadn't been in combat yet. Usually the ones most excited about combat were the ones that you could easily label as troubled or as having a problem.
Mustang briefly rememebered the day that he had shipped out to come here he had been anxious to help. But soon he found that there was nothing that he could do to help because the conflict wouldn't be resolved with the killing of a few thousand people, bloodshed only complicated matters and peacetalks seemed few and far between. War seemed inevitable for the next few years and there was nothing standing in the way of stopping the destruction. Soon people would grow tired of it and it would have the potential to fall out of public favor and political favor, maybe than it would seize and eventually end or just burn out in the evening news. Mustang strayed away from the fence and begun to head towards the rows of tents which seemed to prove a more adequete space to walk in. He tended to isolate himself from others, he only really talked to a few people because he found that there was nothing to talk about. Mustang walked right past Hawkeye's tent, he knew her only as his teacher's daughter, a girl that had been off-limits for years especially during his years of training. Nodding slowly Mustang gave Hawkeye a muttered, "Good evening." He realized that she was cleaning his gun, but the thought that she had been watching him never occured to him. He proceeded to walk past her without another word, unless she would stop him in his tracks.
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