So, in FMA there are five military laboratories, right? The first we hear about them is in mention of Brigadier General Grand, who is in charge of research and has been recently killed by Scar.
I spent a while wondering if the research in the labs was all alchemical, or if there was more than that - I mean, militaries have a lot to research even without taking alchemy into consideration. They're bound to have engineering and chemical departments, surely? And although the fifth laboratory is where the Philosopher's Stone was made, was it the first place? Was it the only place? The torture and experiments in Ishval during the civil war could be extended back to the main labs, too. If they don't shy away from the Philosopher's Stone this far into the centre of the country, I can't see why they wouldn't shy away from the other tortures and abuses.
Anyway. I wanted to see what went on in the labs, and a fic I've already made an alternative decision on would have required non-alchemical experiments in order for the Lab option I was considering to work.
(The following pics are all from Chapter 38 unless noted otherwise.)
The exterior of Lab 3 / the third facility / third laboratory (whatever you want to settle on) looks well maintained. Lots of windows, as compared to Lab 5. More of a modern office look than a dungeon. The difference could be because Lab 5 was built next to the prison specifically for nefarious purposes, so they limited the chance of outsiders seeing what was occurring inside 5 ("Don't worry, citizens! We have fewer windows in order to keep security tight while in a riskier part of town!"), while this one is meant to be the best and brightest - the primary research labs all stuck in one building.
We can see beakers and bottles full of liquids. People in lab coats who are clearly academics, not soldiers. Are they even part of the military? No! They're not wearing uniforms, and even the non-combat personnel are required to.
(See Scieszka as an example, who is dragged into a job but doesn't appear to have the extended training period a recruit would go through - non-combat, but uniformed.)
Boxes and papers and signs and folders, inboxes, corkboards etc.
As far as detail and equipment, there's very little on show in this hallway (fair enough), but the liquid in those bottles indicates a chemical purpose (al-, or not). They could be the materials for a transmutation, or for a process a transmutation is going to interrupt or restore - or they're the product of an experiment.
Science is happening here. We have the white coats to prove it.
Now imagine working in a building and having That Staircase that we just don't go down anymore. It's a bit gross and worn down there, and there's a chain-link fence inside with a monging huge padlock around this massive chain ... but the fence itself is still just tough wire and you can see through it.
How many scientists dared each other to go look through the fence and see if you can make out the ghosts of experiments that were done down there? Down. Underground, in labs that have been locked up and abandoned. Not like our lovely modern labs upstairs where everything is fine.
Why was there a fence like this?
To keep something in, of course.
Central did human transmutation to make the Philosopher's Stone, but that's not the only human experimentation they've done. They did so much more in Ishval. Roy did so much more.
Maybe it was animals. Scientists making the animal chimeras that live in the sewers protecting Father's hideout.
But this was probably where they made their human chimeras. Greed's gang. The military's super soldiers who couldn't stand it and joined Greed in the schism.
And the one-eyed dolls.
It's been absolutely trashed in here. There are internal windows that look like the barred windows of a jail cell, and the door is barred and still broken. Rust has done its damage, sure, but age and lack of care isn't what threw everything over the ground.
More scientific experiment equipment. And in that last panel, can you see it? The belt restraints hanging off the table that Roy is side-eyeing? He knows. He's familiar.
The stain on the floor could be anything, with this many years of dust and decay on top of the mess, but it seems ominous. A blood stain, maybe. There's a small container (or lid?) at the edge of one part, that could have spilled it all out.
The shape looks like a small animal, legs splayed. Four outstretched to the sides, a head at the bottom of the panel, and a tail pointed towards the top.
As the scene goes on and Lust enters, we see the room from other angles - more of the same. After Roy blows things up it's hard to see any more detail, but I am in love with how much clutter Arakawa adds to the scene.
She goes so hard on making sure she fills backgrounds well, and it all adds to so much more of the story.
And then of course further around the corridors there's this giant room, pipes through the ceiling etc to our wonderful alchemical mural.
(This one pic is from Chapter 39! Ignore the lurker - he just wanted to be in the picture.)
Behind that door is a sleeping army of created humans, soon to be filled with the souls of animals and people.
Just to sum up Lab 3:
Upstairs is standard, modern, great - except for that foreboding staircase and the chainlink fence Terence always eats his lunch next to, daring the new workers to put their arms through and see if the ghosts of alchemy past will tear them through like a meat grinder or bless their scientific endeavours.
Downstairs, through the hole Barry ripped in the fence, we can get to the old experiments. On humans? Maybe. On animals? Looks like it.
(Here is where I went into a diversion about the souls of animals being stored for the white dolls, before @novelmonger reminded me the dolls talk and they're probably humans. Who knows if animal souls can be stored? There doesn't seem to be any long-term swapping around of them. Probably, like the soul put into Barry's body, which Barry refers to as another guy (person), human souls simply deteriorated to the point of incoherence before being put in the dolls. A worse storage method than Hohenheim's Stone, where his personal care has retained the individuals and their sense of self.)
There are small labs and then there's this giant space, massive and ominous in a performative kind of way. That space doesn't belong in a lab. It's made for showing off. Just like the room in Lab 5 where the Philosopher's Stones were made, with pillars and high ceilings, and a massive array on the floor. This room in Lab 3 has the alchemical research printed there. A manifesto of sorts, with the sun and the moon together beaming in towards the centre.
Father sure likes to show off.
So, to answer my initial question: Do the labs do research other than alchemy, too?
Probably! Those beakers upstairs looked pretty cool! Thanks for asking, me - I hope you enjoyed this deep dive to find out about the cool chemical things that must be happening upstairs!
