Spring Festival, 1915

[Styx]

"I'm housing a nincompoop," Morty grumbled under his breath, knowing Jules and Sam both could hear him...not that he cared. "That's right, Jules; you're an idiot." He usually didn't call the kid an idiot, nincompoop, moron, or imbecile, but Jules had earned it this time. "I don't care if Serena Lohengrin's vouching for your intelligence; you lack common sense."

Rubbing the back of his head, Jules scowled at Morty. "At least I was creative," he replied smoothly, not really wanting to get into an argument. "Creativity earns big points on the exam, right?"

Rolling his brassy eyes, Morty could see just how hopeless reasoning with this kid was going to be.

~~~

"That was odd," Korsakov curtly grumbled before heading toward another stall. She planned on meeting some of her colleagues later, seeing as they had a jazz gig tonight at the White Panther nightclub. As McGriff headed elsewhere, he appeared in the woman's gaze one last time. 'Very odd,' she thought.

[Kitanna]

Acheron just looked a little lost when she watched Korsakov walk off towards another stall.
Then with one more look at the streamer, she sighed and just let it go.
" Maybe I'll find another one that's not attached to something.." she muttered.

However curiousity kicked in again and she made her way over to a goldfish stall, her eyes lighting up with joy as she saw the little fish swimming around in bags.
" Hmm.. maybe I could take one home to Madame Drosselmeyer!"

--------

Samuel had just looked to Mortimer with a lop-sided grin and just shrugged slightly before looking to Jules.
" Well you've got spirit, that's a good thing" he told the teenager; before grinning slyly and leaning in to whisper to him.
" When Morty went to take the exam, he was sure that he'd get accepted straight away, along with Shou of course"

[HeavyMetal]

McGriff pulled out the stone and looked at it for a moment, entranced by the deep red shine it had. It was a beautiful red glow, the blood red shade. The color of blood, he’d grown far to accustom to seeing the shade, he almost enjoyed it. This deep red stone was the cause of so much fighting and why he had to hide in this alley way. He was so entranced he was completely oblivious to those who might have approached him.

Meanwhile it was Julia out on a spin again, just walking through town, looking for something to get involved with, she remembered the war too, but no one else should know that, she just sat back and listened to the war stories, and all the things the older folks had to say

[Styx]

The woman sitting at the goldfish stall was Emily "Circe" Aeolia, a Rush Valley resident. She got involved with the South City Spring Festival every other year, and the goldfish stall just seemed like the opportune place to try. After all, she planned on meeting a cousin or two she hadn't seen in a while later on at the jazz concert. "Why, hi there!" the middle-aged Aerugan immigrant said, beaming at Acheron. She had a pearly mandala scarf around her neck; what that meant to the little Regret was probably unclear at present, but Drosselmeyer usually sent her homunculi out to destroy Necromancers. "We've got a little game over here and you can win a fish if you do well. Care to give it a try?"

--------

"Shou...?" Jules looked confused, then turned toward Morty. "Who's Shou?"

Morty looked at Sam, then at Jules; he hadn't mentioned his former friendship with the Sewing Life Alchemist to his tenant, nor had he ever intended to do so. "That'd be Shou Tucker; he took the exam a few years after I did. Needless to say, he passed..."

~~~

"That's an incomplete Philosopher's Stone, isn't it?" Envy snapped at McGriff. "How'd a blockhead like you get your paws on something like that?" The war reinactment had ended and that gave him the opportunity to skulk around and find something else to do. The smell of the stone had called him over, so (naturally) he was going to confront the man with the red stone.

[Kitanna]

Little Acheron had yet to learn of the Regrets duty, yet in years to come..that would possibly change.

For now she was a mere infant Homunculous wanting to win a goldfish for her master.
Looking up to Emily, the small child smiled and nodded eagerly.
" I'd love to have a try ma'am!"

--------

Samuel just nodded in agreement with Morty.
" I don't exactly know the details from my point of view, though..I'd kind of lost contact with him" he said, smiling somewhat sadly.

At the time that Shou had passed the Alchemy exam, Samuel had shut himself off from other people, already having strived for two years to try and find a way to return his daughter back to human form after he'd tested his animal serum on her.

Needless to say, things hadn't looked up.. especially since his beloved daughter ran away.

" But me, Morty, Shou and Julius all used to hang out together in Eastern City" he explained.
" And them three were more or less the alchemist's of the group"

[HeavyMetal]

Well this was a sticky situation, Hmm…how to answer the questions of a homunculus. McGriff could only wonder how long Envy could take a game of pen pal before going berserk on the old fool. He almost made a move to pull the gun of his back but he wasn’t /that/ fast. He motioned to pull out the note pad but he stopped and assumed that such a message could be sent to the Homunculus much more easily then the writing. So he lifted up his hand and flipped him off, grinning as he put the stone in his pocket, clutching a shell, twisting the back end open every carefully.

[Styx]

"It'll cost you a penny to try, but after that, let's see how you do," Circe said, holding out her hand to the little girl. "One sen, please." She'd been doing this all day, and made herself a number of younger friends (if only for a while) at the carnival side of the festival. Spring was such a wonderful time of the year...if only she could spend it with her son, Miguel.

--------

"You were pretty good at it, too; I just think I kicked the most ass out of the four of us," Morty teased, chuckling a bit. "Jules, when we were close to your age, trust me; all of us wanted to get a pretty woman's attention, but only rarely did it happen. Julius got a lot of attention from other guys, but all that did was piss him off. He--"

"Who was Julius?"

"Julius Loxias, the Sanguine Alchemist. I think that--in a sense--all of us cast our lots with Serena Lohengrin, Lucretia Fortenbras, Mythos Rosencrantz, Rossignol Guildenstern, and Basque Gran as soon as we sold our souls for Alchemy," Morty confessed. "Now, take that stupid sign down before you become a filthy trucker's love bride."

~~~~

'Bastard! How dare you!' Envy mentally snarled as he saw McGriff give him the finger. People like this pissed him off to a great extent...so great, in fact, that he shifted into a much larger individual and decided to fight this rude son of a bitch. Picking the form of Alex Louis Armstrong, he ensured herculanean strength.

[Kitanna]

Acheron looked around, before looking back up to Emily and nodding.
" O-okay then..I think Madame gave me some money to spend" she said as she fumbled about with her dress pocket as she tried to find a penny.

The little Homunculous let out a sigh of relief when she found one and handed it over to the woman.
" There you go, Ms"

---------

" Well you were the one who managed to make an entrance into that girl's school when we were delievering that love note" Samuel said with a sly grin.
" So that's saying something.."

He had then nodded in agreement, and at that point couldn't help but laugh slightly.
" Yeah, out of the four of us, Morty and Julius were the ones who were more physically brave in their approach to love of the opposite sex.. one time Morty here ended up sweet talking Lucretia Fortenbras.. then again, that was pretty much a day where a lot of things went wrong"

And of course, upon hearing about the 'selling souls for alchemy' part, the brown haired man couldn't help but nod somewhat grimly.
" But in the end, those were our paths in life.. it would seem so anyway"