Ficlet - The Ripple Effect

[cornerofmadness]

Title -- The Ripple Effect
Author-- cornerofmadness
series -- manga/brotherhood
Disclaimer -- Arakawa owns all
Rating -- PG-13
Characters/Pairing -- Roy
Timeline/Spoilers -- Immediately post 108
Word Count -- 246
Warning -- none
Summary -- The smallest ripples have large effects
Author’s Note -- I wasn’t planning to do this because of time. Roy had other ideas. Thanks to evil_little_dog for the beta. This was written for fma_fic_contest for the prompt ‘ripple’ and won second place. sonjajade did the lovely banner.

XXX

He had too much time to think about all the things that brought him to his sickbed. It was like ripples in a pond, expanding, cutting through. The death of his parents was the first splash. Roy barely remembered them. His father was a spice merchant. Roy could remember being in the store, the smell of it, the sweet heat of cinnamon, the fiery tongue-eating peppers from Creata. Why was it the hottest countries had the hottest spices? Was it for the sweat factor?

His father fallen in love visiting Xing. Roy’s mother had been quiet, delicate and then she was gone and the ripples from that event took him to his aunt, a merchant of information, no less spicy than anything in his father’s shop. All her connections spiraled out and he found himself at Master Hawkeye’s.

Roy was the splash in Riza’s pool, his ripples carrying her into the military, into hell. She was caught in his wake, but Roy knew she didn’t want to break free. A fateful decision to join the Academy caused his waves to cut across Maes’s, the best friend he ever had. Another stone, mistaken ages in a report, led to Resembool and the undulations swept the brothers, Roy and all his men to this distance shore.

His best friend had gone under. His queen nearly died. He couldn’t see. Soon Marcoh would arrive with a red stone. Roy could only guess at where those ripples would carry him.

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I still think this is very evocative.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

thank you very much

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[helliongoddess.livejournal.com]

I like this very much. You say so much with so few words, and it reflects an idea I have been pondering with regards to my own life just in the past few days, so it really hit home.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

thank you very much. I'm glad you liked it and I think we do ponder things like this.