Background: It was at the tender age of ten that Al’s story began. Under the guidance of his older brother Edward, Al helped to activate an array that would change his life forever. The array was designed for human transmutation, for Ed and Al were going to bring their mother back to life. At first, the transmutation went well. The energy activated, swirled up and around, sending a wind that whipped through the grinning brothers’ hair as they watched carefully the elements they had gathered to become their mother’s body. Then disaster struck.
“Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy's First Law of Equivalent Exchange.”
Ed and Al has focused on the materials needed to transmute their mother’s body while adhering to equivalent exchange- what they did not factor in was payment for their mother’s soul. What they paid? Edward Elric’s left leg- and Alphonse Elric’s life. In a desperate attempt to save his little brother, Edward sacrificed his right arm to bring him back- but it did not matter. Alphonse was gone. It was a sobbing, horribly injured, and bleeding Edward that crawled to the Rockbell home afterwards.
What Ed did not realize was that- in a way- he had succeeded in bringing Alphonse back. Al’s soul was inadvertently tied to the body the brothers’ had transmuted for their mother. Alphonse Elric was a homunculus.
It did not take long for the attempted human transmutation to draw the attention of certain alchemists. The homunculus Envy was sent to observe the results as well as gather anything that survived. What he found was a dazed Alphonse Elric with no memory of his past. One look told Envy exactly who this new homunculus was and he immediately attacked. Fortunately, although his memory was gone, Al’s body was identical to his human body in almost any way- included muscles and reflexes trained from tutelage under his old teacher Izumi. After the first defense, Envy calmed, realizing that there was better possibilities for revenge against Hohenheim if the youngest Elric were trained to hate him, rather than just killing the new born homunculus.
Al was taken back to Dante, where she offered him a feast of incomplete philosopher’s stones as well as a name and a place in her ranks. Something within Al told him to decline, so he did, making an agreement instead to just observe for some time before taking her offer. Envy was assigned to take care of Al until he was given his name.
Alphonse traveled with Envy for three years. During the first year, Al’s memories began to slowly return. By the second year, Al remembered everything. At the end of the third year, Alphonse murdered Envy when the homunculus attempted to take Edward Elric’s life. He then returned to Dante, taking the name Envy and having his first taste of the incomplete philosopher’s stone. With this new power, Al immediately split from Dante.
Since that day, Al has lived as a human, shadowing his older brother and using his power to protect the person he sees as more important than life itself.
RP Sample:
Al frowned deeply as he strained his eyes to find his brother ahead of him. He knew that just minutes ago Ed had been there and now- he was gone. He sighed as he realized he would have to risk being seen by Ed if he wanted to find him. Then, without a second though, the homunculus was suddenly moving faster than humanly possible, almost a blur as he ran in the last direction he’d seen his brother.
The people in the city around him gasped and looked around in confusion as a strong wind swept past them, but only a few were able to see the red streak that passed- the trademark red coat billowing. Ahh, so it had been the Fullmetal Alchemist. It was well known that he was in town, so nobody thought twice.
Al grinned to himself as he heard the dismissal of his presence. There was a reason besides just wanting to emulate his brother that he wore the coat. He looked so much like Ed that not many could tell the difference- and he liked it that way. Speaking of his brother… where the hell was Ed?