(no subject)

sighs, puts on my stupid little hat for the (last? maybe? the lie detector is hovering on doubt) plotting idea

also I am so v sorry in advance for how fucking long and convoluted this turned out being. I am doing math. Alchemy math. So please, no rush, you have so much on our plate already and I am so sorry I am here only to cause problems (not entirely on purpose this time!)

General Idea: AKA I am flying too close to the sun (the whole write up is below and I ... I am so sorry in advance again)
Who would be involved? Whoever wants in. Greed'll be kicking this off, but this literally cannot happen unless people are down to mess around with some alchemy! Tokens, Offerings, groups. Anyone is welcome on this wild ride.
Timeframe it will likely take place during: Starting off in August and then, ongoing. Until things change! Then, it might be dead on arrival. Who knows!

➥ Alchemy and You: Greed's Big, Stupid Plan:

I'm gunna preface this that I don't think this will work! And that is absolutely ok! Greed fails more than he wins in FMA:B, so it would be par for the course if all of this ends up being a dud. I'm also trying to keep in mind that there will be a game shift come Fall, so seriously, if none of this works or if it's all a hard no, that's completely fine! It could all be an effort in vain! He also will not have enough time to actually get all the pieces together before the shift in September/Fall (there's ... a lot of moving parts to FMA:B alchemy bullshit and it takes time! More than he probably has!)

Ugh, and I hate giving u homework, but here's the long and short of it:
(CW: War, Genocide, Murder, Blood, Death, Major Spoilers for FMA:B)

➥ A quick guide to the Nation-Wide Transmutation Circle: here
➥ A quick guide to The Promised Day: here
➥ A quick video guide to Weird Alchemy Bullshit: here (AKA doesn't that shit from July look familiar, but the video goes a good job of explaining everything I have listed below)

A warning, the video gets a little opinionated on other series here and there, but most of it does a great job at explaining shit!

So, he's had a few theories for a while now. Mostly just going off what he knows about his world, about how alchemy works, about the history of Amestris, how his Father was made, and his connection to both Van Hohenheim (Van used his blood to make the first homunculus), as well as his connection and desire to consume and be one with Truth (the universe). Sleep and One feel all too similar. That Sleep's entire goal is to finally entwine herself with one, much like Father tried (and succeeded, if only briefly) to consume and become one with Truth, AKA the knowledge or "God" of the universe. They're doing it for different reasons, of course, but the gist seems the same. Least, this is what Greed is assuming, right or not.

He's drawing parallels! That might not actually be there! Listen, a Sin's only going off what he knows.

Seeing what actually happened to Manhattan in real-time during the AU event in July has just confirmed?? it in his mind: What ended the city is almost an exact mirror to what happened to the Kingdom of Xerxes and what happened (but was reversed) to Amestris: the Promised Day. A giant, nation-wide transmutation circle that was designed by his Father to use the souls of 50 million or so people to open the Door to Truth. All of which had v similar patterns!

➥ Both happened during an eclipse (which is a key element during the nation-wide transmutations activated during the fall of the Kingdom of Xerxes, as well as the Promised Day of Amestris proper). This is a key part of the alchemical process). For my sanity (and yours, I am so sorry, this is going to be such a messy, complicated plot that will probably go no where), here's a brief expert from a wiki page:

Father was able to hypothesize that the solar eclipse was a union of the alchemical representations of the sun, which represented the male, and the moon, which represented the female. The combination and overlap of these two were seen as a "perfect being" or "God" and was thus the only time that this being would be able to be interacted with...the resulting release of energy would be able to open the Earth's Gate, which would allow Father to forcibly "strike down God" and bring its power to Earth.

➥ Both involved the (maybe perceived, maybe not) the sacrifice of people in order to get the job done
➥ Sleep and One's mirror to Father/Van Hohenheim/Truth are too close for him to ignore. That Sleep needs to be one with, well, One in order to achieve her goals. Same as Father needed to be one with Truth in order to achieve his (gain the knowledge of the world, ultimate power, the ability to manipulate the world around him to his whims, and transcend the void where he came from)

AKA Greed is looking at this whole thing like: this sounds like some fucking alchemy bullshit

He doesn't plan on doing something to that scale, but he does plan on doing something smaller to achieve a similar result (more on the scale of Xerxes). Which!

The Evidence: AKA, Greed connecting bullshit dots

In order to open the Door to Truth, there's some things Greed needed and still needs to confirm:

1. That Hosts retain any part of their soul (confirmed by Sirius): See thread here
2. July showed him that there was a reaction, maybe not in terms of alchemy, but it was close enough to what happened to the Kingdom of Xerxes and Amestris that he thinks, perhaps, this whole crazy plan might work since he got some form of alchemy to work back in April
3. That those who have gone through convergence are admired by Sleep (confirmed by Lortel): See thread here
4. That there will be another eclipse in the next year (Still Needs Confirmation, something he is going to ask someone to look into)
5. That there are a ton of Hosts underground! And because they retain their souls, he's hoping that he can gather enough people to funnel them under or around Central Park when this whole thing goes off as part of the payout to open the Door.

As such, what he has come up with is a plan. One to recreate the transmutation that Father used to crack open the door, but instead of gaining power, he plans to send Sleep right through it. This is not a means to kill her! Or even hurt her! What he wants is for her to be forced to cough a cost of her out. To have to give up something of herself she holds dear, just as she's done with everyone surviving in Manhattan. A little tit for tat. A little equivalent exchange, if u will

What Greed needs to Get This Done (???):

➥ 10 Crests in Blood: These will take the most time, and they have to be done in a specific pattern (see the diagram below, Figure: Manhattan and the Black Circles drawn on the map). At least 10 Hosts have to be brutally murdered on the specific points I have marked in black for the payment to stick. Once the deed is done, the ground will also need to be sealed off with a transmutation circle (designed by a Token, preferably one that helped or participated in the murdering process), including a drop of their blood or an Offering's blood as the final "payment". These can be done at any time before the final reaction. Think of it like the stepping stones or building blocks for the bigger transmutation.

➥ 5 Points on the Alkahestric Reverse: These are the innermost part of the reaction (see Figure: Alkahestric Reverse, which I tried to overlay over Central Park with the Blue Circles on the Map). These will have to be transmutation circles done either by a highly tethered pair (an Offering and a Token, or a Token that is good pals with a tethered Offering pair), or a pair that has gone through convergence (if there are no Tokens involved in said pairing, the pair may bring in a Token to do the actual reaction). These will act as the reverse, pinning the reaction of the wider transmutation back onto (in theory) Sleep.

Here's his reasoning:

His idea is that, by using strong tethers or those who have gone through convergence as the 5 points on the reverse, that means the reaction will have a stronger connection to Sleep, herself.

Strong tethers are more connected to each other, and convergent candidates are the actual thing Sleep is looking to achieve. To him, this means that whatever transmutations these candidates make, it'll result in a stronger pull, enough to power the reverse so that they don't have a real Promised Day repeat on their hands.

➥ 5 Points on the Umbral Circle: This is the smaller design (see Diagram for Umbral Circle, and the orange dots on the map), that Greed is using as the final catalyst. This is to ensure he can actually open the door and force Sleep through. He can only do it with people he is tethered with, and he will have to use his blood (as well as whoever agrees to perform said transmutations) in order to kick them off. These, along with the 5 Points on the Alkahestric Reverse, can only be done during the eclipse for this whole thing to work. So it's about timing! A lot of horrible timing!

As a note, Greed is also planning on knocking himself out (with enough of a dose of whatever tranquilizer or anesthesia he can find that hasn't gone completely bad), so that, once the whole thing starts up, he can slip into a deep sleep and (hopefully, UNLIKELY) be able to access the dream world and thus his Philosopher's stone so that he does not have to make a payment to Truth himself. He is going to reach out to some people he knows to do an exam on him and eventually test how much of a dose he needs (he does not know! He has never had to go under before! We're trying everything here). I fully expect none of this to actually work, but at least? For once? He has a plan? It's a bad plan. This is all a terrible plan. He is banking on not dying for this (and if that is even on the table, he will put on the brakes to find a different solution!). He just knows that his core is a battery, and shredding off a couple of souls from his 'Stone in exchange? That's nothing, far as he's concerned.

➥ Paint, Tar, Oil, Etc. and Artists!: Instead of digging out the lines for the circle (because ha HA fuck that underground in particular), he needs supplies. Paint, tar, oil, basically anything that will stick. These lines will follow the outlines of all these layered transmutations, and he cannot do that alone! Or at all! So this is the call out to all artists. Do u wanna build a horror? Of course you do!

This plan is absolute bullshit! A homunculus is doing a homuncul-yes.

Other Things to Consider (TM):

Having an equal representation of both Token and Offering types for the 10 transmutations done on the Blood Crests might be a cool way to play into the balance that's needed to achieve a successful alchemical reaction, especially if the individual reactions are done by those of slightly opposing elemental types (think like, an Aquamancer sealing off a Bloodcrest with say, a demon), resulting in a "marriage" of fire and water.

Escape routes! Greed's already eying the 'Nest, as well as all the saferooms Silco has been working on as places for people to go to avoid being anywhere near the transmutation when it goes off. Do not be in there! Do not pass go! Do not lose your actual soul!

As part of this, Greed has been fostering/building connections with other groups in Manhattan to beef up supplies and secure points where people can shelter, as means to tie off any loose ends.

Your Actions, Your Actions have Consequences!:

All this effort could go no where! Which would be hilarious, to me, but probably make for a very grumpy homunculus. Back to the drawing board, I guess! If any of it does work, I do expect for Greed to have consequences for his actions. Will he be stuck behind a door (see: 2009 example) that suddenly appears in Central Park like some sort of horrible statue? Will none of this work at all? Will something else awful happen? Or maybe, he simply runs out of time. Who knows! Some ideas to consider:

Him, being stuck behind that door, in a weird void for a while (hell, it could be he's stuck in the Interstice for a while! Wouldn't that suck?)

If it does work (and if he does get stuck somewhere), if and when he gets spit back out again I, the player, would find it funny as hell if he's forced to walk around in Ling Yao's body (albeit older, because of reasons) for a while. That would be a v specific pain in the ass for him that I would ask to reset the next time they're out of the next dream world scenario. The possibilities of frustration here are endless!

In Conclusion:
This could also be dead in the water since I know it's a fucking wild idea with too many moving parts to count. Which is totally fine by me! I do not want to step on toes, or cause any issues for you at all, and I am more than happy to have this Sinner get distracted (lord knows, he has enough balls in the air right now), that it never actually comes to pass. Just ideas in his head, and some horribly drawn designs on a map.

Diagram: I have been doing alchemy math. And by math, I mean screaming in a combination of Photoshop and Clipstudio. But here is what this all will look like. With examples! (Larger version here)

Disclaimer: Is this me, trying to nudge people into making more tethers and more possible pairs to try to gain enough trust and love for convergence? U bet ur ass it is.