bided | application!

Mun
Name: Lucy!
Insanejournal/Dreamwidth Username: ~pluto / ~fleeting!
E-mail: ilovelucille89@gmail.com!
AIM/MSN: lucylovespluto / N/A!
Current Characters at Luceti: Ikki + Primrose.

Character
Name: Trisha Elric.
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist (manga/Brotherhood).
Gender: Female.
Age: Twenty-six.
Wing Color: Lavender.

Canon Point: The Volume 27 Special Gaiden: Aftermath (Spoilers for that, obviously).
Canon Point Explanation: She was going to be post-death either way, and that'll just give it a sort of interesting spin, I think. I really liked her conversation with Hohenheim at that point, and Gore and I thought it would be a fun canon point to pull from. Even more than Gore's Hohenheim, this point shouldn't enable Trisha to spoil Edward or Winry at all; all it gives her is a reunion she waited for even after death, and the knowledge her sons could smile happily, with many friends.
History: Here! (Why is the wiki so blinding.)

Personality: The first time Trisha Elric is ever directly referenced in the series, this is what was said about her: "She was kind...She was a really kind mother. All we wanted to do was see our mother's smile, just one more time." And throughout her appearances in the manga, in the memories of the characters and in flashback chapters, this statement was only proven true. Trisha was a kind and loving mother. Edward and Alphonse have countless memories of their mother, shown throughout the story. These range from happy, mundane family life (the first time they did alchemy; later experiments, just to see her smile; chores...) to other aspects of their life, but all of them show a woman who is very dedicated to her family. She was never shown to express anything more than typical motherly frustration at her sons, and always in response to something rather than at random - she scolds Edward for picking on Alphonse when he was small, for example, and later asks the boys why they'd made a mess of Hohenheim's study, scolding Ed for drawing on the floor - though she quickly forgives them the latter offense when she discovers they weren't just playing around but were actually actively learning from the books.

Instead, Trisha is shown to be supportive and caring towards her sons (and, indeed, her family). She's not an alchemist herself, but that doesn't stop her from taking an active and enthusiastic interest in their alchemical experiments. She's shown cheering them on and supporting them in their studies after they pick up alchemy. It was, in fact, Trisha's praise of Edward and Alphonse that led them to continue studying alchemy while she was still alive. Though the boys were initially worried they'd done something wrong after showing off some alchemy for Trisha, making a small wooden bird, Trisha was instead impressed by their skills, albeit really shocked. She is very quick to reassure her sons that they hadn't done anything wrong as soon as they look the least bit worried about it, not letting her own surprise and slight overwhelmed feeling (she went from standing to sitting on the floor staring in the space of the alchemy panel) stop her from comforting them and letting her pride in them be known. And it is Trisha's death that compels Ed and Al to continue their alchemy studies, in the efforts to see her smile one last time, though that was not meant to be.

Not just a caring mother, Trisha appears to have been a kind person, as well; many people seem to remember and regard her fondly. One of the most important examples, however? Trisha's entire relationship with Hohenheim. While she is apparently aware of Hohenheim's nature and what he is (he asks her not to tell the boys about him, and tells her he is a monster more than once), Trisha doesn't seem to treat him any differently for it. Despite the fact that she's an ordinary citizen from a small town where the biggest event of the year is apparently a sheep-shearing festival, Trisha accepted the fact that the man she loved was over four centuries old and a living philosopher's stone, the relic of a civilization he unwittingly assisted in ending, as if he were a character out of some sort of storybook. Trisha never once agrees that Hohenheim is a monster, and instead actively argues the point with him, in her own way. When he explains why he won't touch the boys, she sets up a meeting with a photographer, and gently but firmly explains to Hohenheim that he isn't a monster (yet again) and that none of it matters to her so long as they can look back at smiling photographs of their family, together. She asks him not to distance himself from his family, saying they're there for him.

When he does leave them, however, Hohenheim tells Trisha first. Well, before telling her he set up a swingset, which was out of character for him to the point where Trisha asked what he was doing. When he told her he had to leave, she looked sad for only a moment before smiling and saying "Okay". Though she couldn't have wanted him to leave, Trisha didn't do anything to stop him after he made his decision, but instead did as Hohenheim asked, and waited for him. If he asked her to wait, after all, he meant to return. Ed would later note that when asked about their father's leaving, Trisha would just smile and say it had been inevitable, although she would also cry when she thought no one was watching, trying to put on a strong face for her two young children and her hometown on the whole. It can be assumed that Trisha didn't have a family of her own to rely upon at that point, since Ed and Al were left without any guardians (and no idea how to reach their father) upon her death, being mostly looked out for by their neighbor, Pinako Rockbell, rather than any other Elric from Trisha's family. This means that she was very much a single parent, although this was at least partly true during her time with Hohenheim, as well. Much of his time with his family was apparently spent researching a way to become mortal again, or simply being uncertain of how to interact with two small children.

The fact that she didn't cry or ask Hohenheim to stay when he told her he would leave, the fact that she kept smiling for her sons and deflecting their questions, the fact that she tried to keep a brave face for them - Trisha always tried to put her family first, and she normally succeeded in this. One of her last acts was to tell the boys to use the money she'd put aside for them to take care of themselves, desperately trying to help them as much as she could to prepare for her not being able to help them any longer. She always seems to be very attuned to the emotions of her family members when she appears, and this is just another way in which she looks after the welfare of those dearest to her. These things also show a very real patience and a strangely gentle brand of stubbornness (which admittedly also shows itself when she argues with Hohenheim about his status as a monster). Trisha seems willing to wait endlessly for Hohenheim, and never really loses her temper except for when he says he's a monster (and when Ed bullies Al). And even then, her "losing her temper" isn't particularly terrifying, but just notable. In the Gaiden chapter it's shown that she waited for Hohenheim even after death, and when he speaks to her, her final question to him is whether or not he was satisfied, after everything - and when he says that he was, she looks pleased. The happiness of others is her happiness, in a very real way.

Strengths:

physical: Nothing in particular. Trisha is reasonably strong for a woman her age who is (...was) fairly active, but she is by no means actually comparable to even the typical badass normal combatant, since she is not actually a combatant. At all. "Reasonably strong" for her age and lifestyle means "carries bags of groceries and baskets of vegetables/laundry and small children with little to no problems, though not all at once". She was weakened by illness at the end of her life, but since she's now past that point, she's basically just completely ordinary in terms of physical strength. Citizen to the bone. She is capable of keeping up with two small children, though, which is really all she's ever needed to be capable of.

mental: Like her reasonable level of physical prowess (i.e. normal levels), Trisha is a reasonably intelligent person. She doesn't seem too inclined to dabble in academics herself, but she had lived with academics for a long time and seems able to at least take an active interest in their pursuits for the sake of those involved if not for the sake of the knowledge itself. On the whole, Trisha's mental strengths lie in a certain intuitive connect-the-dots sort of thinking and steady practicality (which is admittedly a pretty good trait to have when one lives with two small children and a scattered alchemist). She's quick on the uptake. In one of the extra chapters showing a scene when the four were living together, Ed is shown bullying Al. Edward is scolded and goes to Hohenheim, who gives him a very Hohenheim-ish talk, and Ed later turns around to pat Al on the head instead of bullying him. While Trisha appears to be briefly startled (since what) she immediately is shown to be thoughtful for a second before asking Hohenheim "you said something to him, didn't you?"

emotional: Emotional strength is where Trisha really shines through. She's so supportive and caring and kind that her sons try to bring her back to life when she dies. She seems very in tune with the emotions of her family members, and when Hohenheim feels more like a monster than ever, she arranges for a surprise photo-op, saying that she'll be a monster someday, too, and that none of it matters as long as they can look back on pictures of them all smiling together. Trisha's also willing to wait for Hohenheim, and doesn't say anything to stop him from leaving when he says he has to go - and she furthermore tries to put on a brave face for her sons.

Weaknesses:

physical: As was mentioned above in strengths, Trisha...has none, really, in terms of physical attributes - and therefore her weakness here is largely in her lack of strengths (as in across the board unimpressive). She's normal. Completely and utterly. While she's perfectly able of lifting anything a woman of her age and stature could reasonably lift, that's...really it. A very large portion of Luceti could trample her without breaking a sweat (though her family might object a bit to that happening).

mental: While she's reasonably intuitive and seems capable of at least sort of understanding what the males of her family are getting at when they explain their alchemical pursuits (or at least tolerant of the chatter), Trisha isn't actually an academic by nature. She views all the alchemy that goes on around her with a sort of tolerant, admiring amusement and occasional awe, but doesn't seem to have any real interest or inclination in learning about it on a personal level. She's proud of her husband and son's talents in that area, yes, but she would honestly probably be just as proud if Edward and Alphonse had developed a talent as mundane as catching frogs (though she might object to that if this also extended to a penchant for keeping caught frogs). They're her sons; she thinks they're great as a rule. Basically: she's intelligent for a given degree of intelligent, but isn't a prodigy or genius like the rest of her family. She doesn't mind this in the least, but it's worth noting.

emotional: For all her emotional strengths, Trisha also has her weaknesses. While she isn't passive on the whole, she doesn't seem willing to act to stop others even when they do something that hurts her, if she cares for them. She also never sought out any support when Hohenheim left - Edward noted she used to cry when she though she was alone, once. It was reasonable that Trisha didn't confide in her to young sons, but she never seemed to seek out even other adults to rely on. Instead she internalized her negative emotions as much as possible and carried on as usual.

Samples
First Person: Here @ the test flight meme.
Third Person:

The thing about the wings was that they were always there. No matter what. And the thing about the clothes were that they weren't always suited to the wings, although Trisha had found many of the clothes in the shops had special holes or flaps to accommodate the Lucetian wings. "Many" was not "all", however, so she still found reason to sit at the window-side table of the place she shared with her husband - her husband! and after how many years, and how much waiting? - with the sewing kit she'd collected from daily visits to the item shop, various garments stacked neatly beside her. The bright light of a summer afternoon was good light to sew by, though Trisha didn't need to see what she was doing too much after a while. There was a certain rhythm to sewing, and after cutting and hemming half a dozen wing-holes, she didn't have to think about what she was doing beyond absent-minded measurements before she started, to mark where she was.

It was mindless work, but useful. They had to wear something, after all, and she couldn't help but think that confining the wings was probably bad for them, and anyway at least this kept her hands busy. And keeping one's hands busy was important, generally. So was relaxing, but - well, even in this place, this life after death? There was always housework to be done, or started on, or delegated. Though her options for delegation mostly included her husband, and he'd never been very handy to start with.

Even weeks after arrival, Trisha didn't feel panicked about the new place. She hadn't felt panicked upon her arrival, either. She'd accepted her death before it had ever happened, only worrying about the boys - but no, they'd be okay - they had money, at least enough to take care of them, and she knew Pinako would look in on them, maybe take them in, though she hadn't known where Hohenheim was - and here, at least, she knew that no matter what they'd gone through, they'd grown up well. And that was something to be happy for, wasn't it?

Pushing aside another finished shirt, Trisha picked up a new one as the door opened. She glanced up with an immediate smile, though she didn't stop threading her needle and pushing it through the fabric. "Oh, hello - find anything interesting?"