bakerstreet | Apprentice-Shipping

Apprentice-Shipping

APPRENTICE-SHIPPING

From the moment we begin our lives, we're learning. It's imperative to surviving, to growing - don't walk in the shadows, it's dangerous, don't touch the fire, you'll be hurt. These days, most continue to hone this natural instinct with formal schooling, but that's certainly not the end all, be all of knowledge. If you go to school or not, if you have the opportunity or otherwise, you won't stop sharpening your mind after those formative years. That's just not the way our incredible brains work.

You, specifically, have actually decided to something equally incredible: you want to really dedicate yourself to learning a skill, and what better way than an apprenticeship? Formal or informal, you're under someone's tutelage, absorbing everything they can teach, growing closer to them in the process...

...unfortunately, though, you've gained a little something extra with that bite from the fruit of knowledge. You've fallen for your mentor.

Do you realize this pitfall immediately, or will you have to learn the hard way?

Comment with your character, preferences, what role you'd like them to fill, and any information you'd like to include.
Like it says up there, the situation or setup can be strict or loose, and there may or may not be an age difference involved. Be specific in your preferences.
Thread.

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(Being a nearly-omniscient dreamscape demon who is known to "seduce with knowledge", chances are Bill's going to be in the mentor role! Though if you have a plausible scenario for the other way around I'll hear it out. He's something of a cosmic businessbro so we can chat a bit about what he's teaching your character/what he's planning to get out of it in return.

Being a sneaky sonovabitch, though, chances are also extremely high that he's using your character for his own purposes; he doesn't offer his knowledge for free. He uses loopholes and tricks in his deals. He doesn't play fair unless it gets him what he was gonna cheat for anyway.

So, those emotions your character is apparently developing for a charismatic illuminati triangle might turn out to be a serious liability. Fun!

also psst i'm working on a human!Bill journal so if you'd...rather play with that...let me know...)

( preferably the mentor out of the two, but other than that, i'm not too picky! hmu if you have any questions as well. )

_{[Definitely the apprentice or underling.]}

[Apprentice preferred, because I'm playing him pre-series. Time-travel shenanigans welcome.]

( probably a stern, cool-headed mentor to a spunky younger fighter type. also open to mentee if your character is an older master a la Stick. )

[ master alchemist. ]

When he'd started learning, Roy planned to stop at sixteen to go enroll in the Military Academy. But he'd stumbled across a man who might be the most brilliant Alchemist he could ever encounter, possibly who even existed. He taught things and said things and pointed out little pieces of Alchemical advice that Roy hadn't read anywhere. Even with the books Hohenheim had, most of the things he learned weren't written down except in Roy's notes.

His carefully guarded, carefully encrypted notes. But there was always more to learn so he stayed longer than he planned, already a year longer than expected. Everything about the man and his lessons were confusing. He was a puzzle Roy desperately wanted to unravel, but didn't want to stop learning long enough to solve. The looks of confusion he received for the first years had eventually faded, and reappeared only occasionally.

But recently he'd noticed a different look it had taken him some time to place. He hadn't seen that look in years. Definitely not directed at him. At first Roy was just going to wait until Hohenheim decided what he wanted. But the occasional looks continued and nothing happened. Trisha had the boys over at the Rockbell's for the day, so Roy mentally prepared himself to act on his plan to unravel some of the mysteries, or at least get some of the secrets Hohenheim was holding back.

The man in question was currently reading the newspaper, so Roy made his way over. He put a hand on Hohenheim's shoulder and leaned in closer. To get a good look. "Anything interesting today?" He asked, trying his best to copy a teasing tone he'd heard a lot growing up.

Edited 2015-09-23 07:32 (UTC)

This was not actually the first time he'd taken on an apprentice-- in the long-term, exclusive sense. The early days of Xing had been like this. Once he'd grasped the language, and softened the screaming, enough to function, there had been several people brave or stubborn enough to want to learn from the mad westerner. They had been his close friends; he had still, in the early days, been horrified by the way they aged and he didn't. If they were children when they came to him, he knew them as fellow scholars when he left.

It had been difficult to translate conduct between master and apprentice from Xerxes to centuries-ago Xing. There was some of that in his head when he looked at Roy; he wondered at Amestrian apprenticeship, at what the man regarded him as. This was Homunculus' country, and his alchemy, and when the young man blinked bemusedly at alkahestry concepts it was impossible to forget. He did not wonder often what people thought of him-- he would spend a great deal more of his life explaining or apologizing, if he did-- but this, the foggy space beside friendship he associated with sharing his study, was something the Amestrian language had no good term for.

After so much wandering, Hohenheim had a family. The young man who sat eagerly with him in the study, and came rumpled to their table every morning, and had learned to uncurl Al's hands from his hair, was a part of it. But he wasn't certain how an apprentice factored in, what category he occupied within the new framework. So he just watched him, sometimes, and thought about it.

When a hand settled warm on his shoulder, breath against the side of his neck, he was abruptly not sure at all.

"Not really." And there hadn't been, but now he was distracted by the new note in Roy's voice. He turned his head, just a little, to look at him.

Over the years Roy had learned that Hohenheim had a very, very different idea of what was 'interesting' and what wasn't. For the most part, nothing was interesting. At least not enough to do more than read it or give it one of those slightly baffled looks like he knew it was something that happened but he had no idea what to do with it. Roy was glad he wasn't getting one now, it was a slightly more curious look.

At least Roy was winning over the newspaper for getting Hohenheim's attention. He gave Hohenheim's shoulder a very slight squeeze and smiled at him. "In that case, why don't we do something else?" More of, 'why don't you join me doing something else'. He tried to convey that with his tone as much as he could, but wasn't sure how successful he was being.

The whole situation was Pinako's fault.

To be entirely fair, it was a joint effort; Pinako was too bold-- brandishing a bottle of scotch at him, waving his attention to some boy in the bar-- and Trisha, when she discovered the young man standing stubborn on their doorstep in the morning, was too kind. He'd never had any means of denying her when she tipped her head and smiled and was purely, incomprehensibly good.

He was fairly drunk, that first night, and his explanations slid a little further from Xerxesian basics than was typically advisable in Amestris. In fact, about a quarter of it might have been in Xingese. No one was around to witness it but Pinako, who good-humoredly never cared, and the young man. By morning, he had frankly forgotten the young man.

Hohenheim had taught a lot of people a lot of things. He had traded alchemical advice for supper and a friendly place to sleep, in more countries than still presently existed. This was hardly the first time someone turned up on his doorstep.

It was the first time he had a family-- his own family-- to answer the door.

Which brought them here: the guest room now barely moved-into, Hohenheim still uncertain how he was talked into accepting a proper apprentice, and Edward tugging absently at the man's pants leg. He didn't seem to be doing any harm, so Hohenheim didn't stop him.

"And you followed my explanation?" Even after a few days of talking endlessly on basics, and pointing out useful titles in the study, he could sense the questions boiling off the young man. He hadn't expected the patience for long-term study. He was still faintly surprised every time he was met with fierce determination and note-taking, even when he strayed onto more complex concepts.

That first night had been enough to get his curiosity. Roy could tell the man obviously knew what he was talking about, even if he was drunk, and part of his explanations were in another language. Even in the language they both shared Roy hadn't understood more than a fourth of it. Parts of it he could grasp and get the general idea behind but without a firm grasp of the underlying principles.

He'd taken plenty of notes that night, and in the days since then. Despite a toddler frequently trying to steal or eat his pens. And his paper. After rescuing a sheet from the boy's mouth he learned not to leave anything where it could be had by tiny wandering hands. "Yes, but I'm still not sure where these," Roy said, flipping to a page of symbols and complex geometric shapes in his notes, "Come into transmuting wood." It was entirely possible they didn't, or it was simply too advanced for him to grasp at the moment.

Beginners transmutations. Roy had looked at a few books and done some self study before deciding on this as his path. None of that had really prepared him for 'learning the basics' from Mr. Hohenheim, and he half wondered if the man was messing with him. But he kept getting these odd confused and surprised looks from the man every time they saw one another. As though he wasn't sure what Roy was doing there, and what he should do about it.

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Apprentice-Shipping

Bill Cipher | Gravity Falls | OTA

rin tohsaka | fate/ ( ota )

Cremisius "Krem" Aclassi | DA:I | OTA

Hatake Kakashi | Naruto | m/m preferred

elektra (don't say it fast) natchios | marvel

Van Hohenheim | FMA:B

that awful AU we talked about

blame plurk memes and run

we are awful people and plurk is awful and enabling /runs

closed

no subject