concoursec | The King in his Court

Characters: Greed. You. (...Ling?)
Location: The Training Center, the Secret Area
Rating: PG
Open/Closed/Finished: Open.
Summary: Greed, having heard the news of Garden's independnce, ponders how he can tun this to his advantage.

Greed, especially of late, had fairly shamelessly declared the Secret Area to be 'his territory'. Physically, this amounted to little more than a comfortable chair he'd snuck out of an empty dorm before it could be locked up again, and maybe a few bottles of alcohol he shouldn't have. Those who came here were welcome to stay, so long as they respected his presence and what nominal authority he claimed over it.

Now, the homunculus sat thoughtfully in his chair, staring out over the lovely view of Garden with a frown that clearly showed he saw none of it. He'd been denied one chance at his desires already, but now...

"At least I did the right thing, joining up here. More than I knew at the time."

After a moment of thought, he grinned. "Guess my instincts are still sharp, huh?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Your instinct for reaching, maybe."

For all of his usual dramatics, Ed could be quiet when he wanted to be, and the moment he'd spotted a by now familiar ponytail disappearing through the foliage of the training centre had been one of those times. Now that he was up here, though - well, it was hard to say what he'd really been expecting, but it had to have been something a little more nefarious than a comfy chair. A quick scan of the area didn't turn up anything else obviously suspicious, either.

Still, that wasn't a good reason to relax, even if he was more or less on his way out.

Not at all bothered by his visitor, Greed relaxed into his chair, sprawling his legs out.

"Hey, Fullmetal. I got a question for you. What do you know about immortality?"

After all, even if a Greed had asked an Ed this at some point, this Greed certainly hadn't asked this Ed. Honestly he was kicking himself just a little for not thinking of it before.

Asking a question and getting an answer out of somebody as stubbornly uncooperative as this Ed were two different things, of course. He narrowed his eyes. "What's the point in asking me?"

Oh yeah, he expected that. "The point is you might know something, after everything. I have no clue how much you really know about me, but it's still high up on my list of things to get. All the more so since this body's not going to last nearly as long as a straight-out homunculus one." He tapped his cheek.

"Well, that's not what I was saying," he said flatly. "Even if I told you everything I know, what makes you think it'd be worth anything to you?"

Greed shrugged broadly, spreading his hands with a confident smirk. "Maybe it wouldn't. Seems kind of silly to me to not ask because it might not be useful. Though I already know your brother's way isn't a good one, so that's covered."

That hit a nerve - not that anything Greed had been likely to say wouldn't have, but Ed still found his hand clenching by itself. "Sounds like you've got everything covered," he said. "Good for you."

He looked away for a second, out over the scenery. "Though there are a few things I'd like to know..."

"You ask, I'll give you answers." Not even any need to charge; the very fact of asking would be price enough. Every little nudge that swayed Fullmetal into a little less hostility, and a little less anger... "Of course, they might not be the right answers for you, but they're the answers I have."

"Did you tell anyone?"

He didn't elaborate - but then, Garden having apparently settled right back into its routines and forgotten all about two months ago, he was pretty sure he knew the answer to that question. What mattered for now was how Greed decided to put it.

"Haven't said a word," Greed said, spreading his hands as if to ask why on earth he would have. He wasn't sending any other messages, although whether that superficiality is deliberately affected or absolutely genuine might be a very good question to ask.

It seemed unlikely to Ed that he was going to tease out that particular answer just by giving Greed another hard stare, but it was worth a try.

After a moment, though, he relented a little, looking almost thoughtful. "Yeah... that's right. It didn't go the way you were hoping, either."

"Yeah. Kind of amazing... I was so close to having the power to reshape worlds..."

He lifted a hand as if he were reaching for the memory of that power, unusually subdued. Then, coming to his senses once again, he chuckled and flicked his hand away from that imaginary point dismissively.

"Thing is, it didn't turn out bad either. A play like that is generally all or nothing, but everything went so crazy I didn't have any real fallout for trying to haul Tee Cee into myself. So nothing lost except an opportunity, and there'll be more of those."

"In other words, you're no different than him." He tilted his head to one side, looking away from Greed. "Makes me wonder why you bothered trying to stop him."

Greed threw back his head and laughed. "Sure I'm different. He wanted it for himself. I wanted it for me! There's no bigger difference in the world!"

He dropped his hands back to the chair arms, cracking his eyes to regard Ed with a much sharper look than the amused grin on his face would have indicated. "Of course, you went for broke in the middle of it all, too."

Ed didn't return the look, although given how quickly he started to frown again he had to have noticed. "Is that what you'd call it?"

"Something like that. You went for what mattered, and damn the consequences. Though I'm guessing you didn't even have the slightest idea what would happen..." Obviously he wondered what Ed had been expecting, but he felt asking would, if anything, make the answer harder to get.

He shrugged, pointedly ignoring the almost-question Greed had trailed off on - and pointedly not even trying to disguise the accusatory note in his voice as he said, "Call all the names you want. This isn't just some game with a prize to me."

"Sure it is, Fullmetal. Think about it -- you're playing under an arbitrary set of rules to accomplish a goal. What else is a game by that? Your problem is you think a game isn't serious."

Greed steepled his fingers, smiling over them at Ed with a wicked, dangerous look in his eyes. "Games can be serious. Games can cost lives. But you're playing along with the rules for the same reason I am -- because playing along benefits us, as far as we can tell. It's all in the service of getting what we want."

The King in his Court

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