Lyle Elric and the World of Magic

Chapter One: Lyle

Lyle Elric was not a normal boy. Heck, he couldn't even be considered a boy anymore. In his early twenties, Lyle had been through a proverbial Hell and back again. Sure, he was more fortunate than others across the world, but that didn't detract from his personal sufferings. When Lyle was small, he and his mother got along famously. They were practically inseperable. However, several months before his fourth birthday, Lyle recieved the news that he was going to be an older brother. Finally, he wouldn't be considered the baby. He'd been ecstatic at the time. Over the next 7 months, Lyle turned five years old, had a better birthday than usual despite his family's low income, and even got along better with his sister Jane than usual. Things were looking up. However, the fateful day came, and his smallest brother Luke was born. After that, Lyle's mom had no time for him. Usually, the mother HAS to devote all of her time to her smallest, in order to properly care for them. However, while Lyle's kind hearted father did his best to pay attention to all of his children, his mother seemed fixated on her eldest, and her youngest. Lyle was then suffering from "middle child syndrome". Often, he'd think about sneaking out, somehow carrying his dad down the steps with him while he slept, and driving off... Even though he didn't really know how to drive, nor could he see over the top of the dashboard.

Rather than fade over the years, his mother's disinterest in Lyle only grew further. Sure, sometimes she would stand up for him when the neighborhood kids messed with him, and after he started school, she put the teacher in her place for trying to force the left handed Lyle to write with his less able hand. But it pretty well stopped there. On trips alone later in life with his mother and siblings, she would purchase snacks and drinks for Luke and Jane, but seemingly forgot about Lyle. However, he sucked up and moved on. He knew that his father would never forget about him, and that was comforting in it's own way.

Throughout Lyle's life, he could literally look back and tie most of the travesties in his past to his mother. For instance, a scarce four years after Luke's birth in 1998, Lyle's father Patrick had decided he'd had enough of his wife's machinations. After informing Karen, (Lyle's mother,) that he no longer wished to be married to her... Well, she wasn't happy. Lyle's family was rather intelligent, all things considered. Despite this, Patrick Elric could hardly ever find a well paying job, even in the relatively decent economy of the 1990's. One of the reasons the senior Elric wanted the divorce, was simply because his significant other was always trying to find a way to keep him home. Especially after becoming a truck driver. Karen was worried inside that her Patrick would run off with a lot lizard, and never return home. However, her clingy, desperate nature was clouding her judgement. Patrick, while having his faults, was a responsible, loyal man. His loyalties had their limits, like everyone's loyalties, but his stretched miles further.

Desperate to bring the family back together so she could continue to sponge off of Patrick, Karen began turning to the popular media of the time to figure out what to do. Using books like Stephen King's "Carrie", or the Country song, "Sunny Came Home", and twisting them to her own needs, Karen Elric discovered a way to potentially bring them together. Crisis is always what brings people close together in fiction. However in real life, it's a huge gamble, especially to use a fabricated crisis. Not heeding this bit of common sense, Karen put her books and two-bit songs to rest, and put her plan into action. One day, shortly before Patrick got off of work, she sent Lyle and his siblings out with the dogs to check the mail. Being kids, they didn't really see any hidden agenda, and they obeyed.

When they returned to the house with a thick stack of credit card bills and mortgage statements, they were shocked to see the back half of the trailer they lived in being swallowed up by rolling flames. Standing in front of the fire with a sort of dazed expression upon her countenance, Karen Elric simply stood there until she heard the screams of her children. Lyle's was especially loud due to the fact that it was HIS room that started burning first. Whether it was an attempt to look like she was doing something about it, or even a fleeting last moment surge of regret, Lyle's mother began trying to put the fire out with the hose connected to their grandmother's house. Living out in the country, nobody would see the fire until the smoke rose to a sizeable height, and by then it'd be too late. Rushing into his grandmother's house and grabbing the phone, Lyle desperately called 911, blubbering into the phone about a fire, never once thinking that it was his mother's doing.

Needless to say, once the fire was put out, there was no saving anything. The blaze had started at pilot for the gas water heater, and moved quickly backwards. Once the flame had consumed Lyle's room, it progressed forward and enveloped their home in a hellish blaze before the fire department arrived. This briefly united the Elric clan as per Karen's wishes, but after the investigation of the fire damage, it was clear to Patrick that his soon to be ex wife was clearly more unstable than he'd originally anticipated.

This was just one of the many things that happened to Lyle over the years, one of the many things that forced him to swallow his bile and face the world with a fierce gaze. Years of bottling up his emotions gave way to a need to comfort himself without showing weakness. Depression is not a sign of weakness. No, it is a sign of remaining too strong for too long. It happens to all of us, who put up a face to show the world. Lyle had always been a rather good looking kid, having several girlfriends throughout middle school. But after turning 14, his still-developing psyche couldn't take it anymore. He broke down and began eating as a way to cope. Going from a skinny 120 pounds to 160 in a matter of months, Lyle's sudden weight gain frightened him. Trying to cut back on what he ate worked, but only for the next couple of years. The facade began eating way at him more and more, and by the time he was 16, Lyle had dropped out of High School and attained his G.E.D. through Job Corps. The stress of being in a school-like environment with 200 other adolescants and even full grown adults had taken it's toll on Lyle's body. Once more resorting to eating to relieve stress, Lyle had reached 200 pounds. Though he looked to be about 40 pounds lighter than that, Lyle was devastated. His mild good looks had been ruined by the sudden weight gain, and that drove him further into depression.

Now six years later, Lyle stares into his computer screen, his fingers ablaze as they race across the keyboard. Weighing 240 pounds, and still looking only 200, Lyle is playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. Sighing, and leaning back as the Warzone ends, Lyle looked up at the ceiling, noticing the irregular bumps and patterns of the upper wall of his apartment. These days, Lyle could sit around and play games as long as he wanted, eat what he wanted, and sleep whenenever and however long he wanted. Yet a stroke of melancholy plucks at his heartstrings like a guitarist plays a chord. He feels that there's something out there he's missing. Lyle is by no means a total shutin. He has real life friends who he can visit, and they visit him pretty often despite the absolute mess of his apartment. He goes Karaokeing every now and again in an attempt to meet girls, and woo them with his teddy bearish looks, shaggy hair, fierce eyes, and low tenor voice. It doesn't work often, but once in a while a girl becomes interested enough for Lyle to charm her.

Lyle was confident of his charm. All he had to do was get someone interested in something about him, and he could pretty well get anything he wanted. It was a trick he had picked up watching his mother all those years, and it was one of the most useful things he could have ever learned from her. It had gotten him out of trouble with law enforcement a few times in the past couple of years as well. However, it was getting them interested romantically that was the hard part. Lyle's looks fell into a category that not many girls like. Well... Not many attractive girls, anyway. Lyle's "type" of girl was often shallow, though he hated that part about him. He wanted women to look past his husky exterior, but he wouldn't do the same for very many women. In short, Lyle was something of a hypocrite.

However, Lyle was also extremely intelligent. His mother's criminal tendancies had stuck with him, but he used them only when necessary. Other times, he could figure a way to get what he wanted or needed without having to rely on his mother's gifts. Though, it was his mother's "gifts" that had landed him where he was now. Unemployed, living on a fixed income. Hell, he was practically unemployable, due to his shoddy work history. All of this went through his mind as he stared at the ceiling. Exhaling softly, the rush of air hot upon his lips, Lyle turns his attention back to the game, queueing up for another Warzone before hearing a knock on the door...

Author's Note: Phew! I sure rambled on that one, huh? Oh, well. I felt that I needed to paint a picture of what Lyle's life has been like so far. At first you think he's whining and hasn't gotten over his Mommy issues, but eventually you'll see what makes him such an interesting character. Who's at the door? Gimme a bit to finish Chapter 2, and you'll find out. I'll have it up some time today, and perhaps with another chapter. Forgive the low word-count for now, it'll increase as my imagination gives way to the important stuff.

P.S. I need a beta. Badly. Holy crap, do I need a beta. A Britpicker would be nice, but it's not an absolute requirement. On that note, shoot me some reviews. I'll take the good, bad, and the ugly with grace. I enjoy feedback. =D