Title: The Things We've Handed Down
Author: Tiamat's Child
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist Manga
Word Count: 500
Rating: K
Characters/Pairing: Various OCs.
Summary: The Armstrong family library is just as impressive as everything else about them.
Warnings: None.
Notes: Written for fma_fic_contest LJ, prompt twenty seven, "Armstrong". It took first place.

The Things We've Handed Down

Excerpt from Annalise Olivier Armstrong's (1419-1502) letter to the Duke of Clovis dated 1433

I may appear to you as only a child, but I assure you, you will find me not a tender sapling but a steady oak if you make an attempt upon me and upon my people. I am a maiden, true, but I am not yours for the plucking. I will fight you if you try, and my house with me.

I am the last of my family. Do not think I wish to be a minor notation in yours. I will build my own again.

Excerpt from Cecelia Maria Armstrong's open letter to the Royal Philosophical Society, dated 1558

I do not apologize for what it pleases the gentlemen of the committee to refer to as my 'presumption'. My actions require no defense. I said no more than what any member of the society has a right to. Indeed, I restrained myself better than my august masculine counterparts, who are so free with their advice.

I will not oblige the Society by attempting the vindication of my sex. I am not a rhetorician, nor a moral philosopher, and refuse to set myself up as either.

Excerpt from Clothilda Genoveva Armstrong's (1604-1681) letters to Kirsa Schenck (1604-1680), dated 1628

My sweet friend,

I am glad that you are in the country, for here life is both difficult and precarious. I shudder to think of you in the middle of this plague. The bells ring day and night, the carts never stop, we have long since ceased to dig individual graves for the unfortunate dead.

As head of the family, I take my turns on burial detail. It strikes me to the heart. But I think of you, and your long hands, and you carry me through…

Excerpt from The Proceedings of the Royal Philosophical Society, Vol. XXII, Issue XI, 1786

…At this point, Doctor Armstrong appeared to tire of the whispering and put down her papers. She informed the assembly that they were a pack of scurrilous rascals, and if they would care to repeat their remarks in a loud, clear voice with proper enunciation she would be glad to have her friends wait on theirs in the morning, but if they did not care to do so, she should like to finish her presentation on the calculus.

There was a significant silence throughout the hall.

Clipping from The Central Daily Mail, March 15, 1824

Congratulations to our girls in blue, who, under Colonel Maud Armstrong, have gained a major victory in the North, taking the Drachman stronghold of Briggs from behind! The gallant colonel, cut off from the main force under General Halifax, determined that the only way to rejoin was through enemy lines. So through enemy lines she and her women came! What joy those on the slope below felt when, from the ancient castle, they beheld the striking of the Drachman flag and the raising of the startling signal - Amestris takes Briggs!