Hey bestie tell me more about that phantom theives band au👀
(^is enabling again)
Oh my god Al. My best friend Al. I have so many thoughts this is gonna be such an essay I hope you’re Fuckin ready
No seriously this got so long it's basically the bones of a fic, but uh, I'm kind obsessed with it so here we are
First of all, it’s an aged up non-metaverse au, so everyone is like 23~ give or take. Akira, Ann, Yusuke, Haru, Makoto and human Morgana all met in university, Ryuji is childhood friends with Ann, and Futaba met the rest of them through her adoptive brother Akira, and Akechi is the ex-boyfriend that no one ever talks about.
The band consists of singer/front man Akira who does the song writing. He was one of those child prodigy musicians who primarily played piano and violin, but taught himself guitar despite his parents aversion to his favourite genre (which is emo-punk bc it’s not a true James hc without some MCR influence.) The first beginnings of the band were him and Futaba as teenagers since she also played the keyboard, but the Phantoms would not be a realized dream until he met the rest of them in uni.
He meets Morgana and Ann first, the former who can play guitar, and the latter who knows absolutely everyone. When Akira floats the idea of wanting to form a band, Ann is more than happy to rally up her friends Makoto, Haru, and Mishima to fill the spots of bass, second guitar, and drums. Things actually come together very well at first, they start simple with practices and small shows at Crossroads (Akira works nights there and Lala-chan is very supportive of his endeavours) and eventually they start to be able to handle more complex songs. Haru becomes truly incredible at absolutely shredding, Makoto is the pinnacle of sexy bass-player coolness, and Akira is more confident than ever in his songwriting. They even end up commissioning their friend Yusuke to make posters and design a logo for them (he would've done it for free since he was hanging out anyways, but they insisted on compensating him properly)
Unfortunately there is one person who is not very confident, and Mishima ends up quitting the band because he’s worried he’ll weigh them down, leaving them with a rather open gaping hole to fill. The Phantoms have become fairly well established at this point and are pretty popular among the other university students, leaving Akira very worried about finding an adequate replacement- and none of the people they audition seem to be able to keep up.
Luckily, Ann knows a guy.
Akira is hesitant because this guy apparently has no experience playing in a band and is totally self taught, but Ann swears up and down that he’s really good and “please Kira just give him a chance, what’s the worst that can happen?” And so he eventually caves and agrees to have the guy try out, assuming that it will end up in failure just like all the others.
Enter Ryuji Sakamoto to the chat. He’s loud, he’s energetic, he’s covered in tattoos and piercings, he’s arguably obnoxious, and Akira doesn’t want to be impressed but he absolutely is. Ryuji surpasses all his expectations and it drives him fucking crazy because he shouldn’t be this good and yet. And Yet.
So he begrudgingly agrees to have Ryuji join them for their next practice, and decides to throw all of their most complicated songs at him. Make or break. Sink or swim. Either way he’s determined to push Ryuji hard until he cracks and crumbles under the pressure, ultimately proving Akira correct.
What he does not account for is Ryuji’s incredible stubbornness and determination, pushing him to outlast and out-perform each and every time without fail, even in the face of the rather tense relationship building between them.
Or at least Ryuji thinks it's tense, but Akira is starting to crumble himself, and although he is loathe to admit it, their new drummer is growing on him.
Of course in this au Akira is autistic (bc again it wouldn't be a James hc otherwise) and communication is not his strong suit, so he expresses himself in the only way he knows how, which is music. He writes the songs himself and is usually the one choosing which ones they're going to play, and the ones he picks become gradually more emotional and personal to him in hopes that Ryuji is paying attention.
The culmination of this being when Ryuji overhears Makoto questioning his song choices, saying "but don't you think the new guy..." and assumes (understandably so) that they're still questioning his abilities to keep up. He confronts Akira about it, only to be told "you know I write these all myself right? So listen and maybe you'll learn something."
Ryuji ends up feeling awfully foolish when the song ends up being about deeply personal struggles, but Akira doesn't hold it against him- instead inviting him out for ramen after practice so they can have a real conversation that doesn't involve them bitching at each other. He apologizes for being so standoffish, and explains the autism that went undiagnosed for so long, and the fact that his parents kicked him out when he was 16 because they found out he was gay- which is what lead to Sojiro adopting him.
In turn, Ryuji tells him about his father and the Kamoshida incident (resolved in a non-metaverse way obv) and a new understanding is formed between them, which eventually paves the way to a budding friendship. They bond over shared taste in music, video games, anime, the works, and the band becomes stronger than ever.
And it isn't long before group hangouts become one-on-one hangouts. They'll get takeout and go back to Ryuji's apartment to play games- Ryuji always drives and always makes a point of opening the door for Akira- and each time they'll stay together a little later, and linger a little longer in the car before saying goodbye.
The rest of the gang is understandably intrigued by this turn of events, especially since Akira hasn't seriously shown interest in anyone since his big breakup, but Ann The Matchmaker is confident that she can give them both the push they need to take the leap. Ryuji is skeptical about her insistence that he absolutely 100% does have a shot with Akira, meanwhile Akira has come to terms with his feelings for Ryuji but does not know how to express them, so he does what any reasonable person would do: get everyone to go drinking and dancing so he can have a very convenient excuse to get very close. He even remembers to put the snake bites in for this one
(spoiler alert, his plan absolutely works and he does not wake up in his own bed the next day)
And then things are good because of course they are. They're the sun and moon, adhd/autism, they balance each other out, they respect each other, they bring out the best in one another, and for the first time in over a year Akira feels totally at ease.
But of course we have to have an obligatory "oops we ran into your ex-boyfriend in public and now he knows you have a new boyfriend and is being weird about it" scene, where Akechi susses out their relationship and proceeds to be a massive bitch about it. Of course all of it is ire directed at Ryuji and his general appearance/demeanor, which doesn't really bother him because fuck it, he managed to get through high school and is okay now, why would he care what some pompous twink has to say about him? Akira on the other hand is not having it, and Ryuji has to interject before they can have a full-on argument in public.
This run-in prompts Akira to actually talk about his relationship with Akechi- something that he had never done before- and in doing so can finally come to terms with how much it really affected him, and gain some semblance of closure. (Perhaps I will talk about the Akechi relationship in a different post so that this one doesn't end up being 800 miles long)
In the end, this is all a very long and elaborate pegoryu story that I haven't really thought of a proper end for, and was entirely inspired by me listening to music whilst walking my dog and going "ough but imagine emo Akira" which became "imagine emo Akira singing." That coupled with the fact that Ryuji is the most drummer ever, and I found myself with a recipe for a delightful daydream that became so wild the more scenes I imagined and wrote in my head.
Maybe one day I'll try and turn this into something, or at least just a collection of scenes ranging from fluff to angst to, uh, other, if I'm feeling really crazy about it, but yeah, long story short I am absolutely buckwild insane about them and I think about this a lot
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Hi Nikki! I just read through your answer from your most recent anon ask and your amazing tags too, of course.
anyways. pls say more things.... 👀
I love this post-cos HC. so interesting!
HI!!!! First off, I have to say I’m quite honored you messaged me because you’re one of my fav fma artists!! When I think of my early years in this fandom, your art is one of the things I think of 🥰🥰
OKAY. SO. POST-COS. Like I said in my previous post, I think they definitely fudged Alfons’s papers for Alphonse. Ed was his roommate, he would have had possession of all the stuff Alfons, my poor boy, left behind, and it was the 20’s, it wouldn’t have been too hard to forge the documents a little further to match Al’s age, appearance, etc. Idk why, but I feel like they would have lied on the papers and said Al was older than he was, maybe to get government agencies off his and Ed’s backs in case they wanted to force Al into school or foster care or something. I could see them saying he’s like 15/16, and since he is mentally like 16, I don’t think it’d be too hard to pull off. He’d just be a little short for his supposed age (oh how the tables have turned!!)
Anyway, I think directly post-movie, Ed and Al (and Noah!) went on to have adventures all over Europe while trying to find and destroy the bomb, similar to how they ran all over Amestris to find the stone. And this is a more lighthearted hc but imagine them getting to travel to all these amazing places and learning all these brand new cultures!!! I know Al’s had his body back for a while post-CoS, but I think he would absolutely love all the new foods, experiences, etc.
Did they succeed in destroying the bomb? Either they did (great!) because the Axis powers didn’t use uranium bombs, or they didn’t and somehow it ended up with the Americans. Oppenheimer who??
Either way, personally, I think the boys stayed in Europe through the war. I mean, it would have been difficult to leave after a certain time, but they’re also not ones to leave a fight when they can stay and help people. Also, I feel the need to point out, by the time the war was in full swing, Ed would have been late thirties, so for this next headcanon, you need to be envisioning older, Hohenheim carbon-copy Ed. But I think Ed and Al would 1000% join the underground resistance. Can’t you see them doing that?! Secret missions to blow up or set fire to government buildings to destroy as many records as they could, sabotaging railway lines, things like that. They both have incredible knowledge of science, especially chemistry, and Ed was in the military, these things would have made them super knowledgeable and super effective to a resistance.
But I also think they would have been in constant danger, I could see them having to stay hidden or be on the run constantly (but hey! They’ve done that too, so they know how to do it!). Idk, I just feel like they might hide out with a resistance and help others to hide with them. And there would definitely be some doppelgängers in their midst, you just know it!!
That’s all I’ve got tbh. They would probably stay and try to help rebuild too after the war, but at the same time, I can see them just being tired of the constant fighting and running and turmoil they would have been through for over 30 years at that point. I can see them taking a step back and trying to lead more or less peaceful lives once the war ended.
As for how they ended up in Japan? I have absolutely no clue haha. I feel like after the war, maybe they continued to travel in search of knowledge, similar to how they did it at the end of the manga, and somehow it lead them to Japan, and they liked it, so they settled there!
Also, 84 year old Ed was definitely in attendance for the grand opening of the first Hot Topic in 1989. Just kidding (sort of…)
Sorry to everyone that has to scroll past this, this ended up much longer than I thought it would! Lol. Anyone who has post-CoS headcanons, feel free to come share them because honestly I think there’s a lot of directions they could’ve gone after the movie!
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I need more fuel for my obsession with these two, ya wanted asks for the Kirby anime? Gimme your headcanons for Sword and Blade! <3
hAhA!
These two are a little harder to instill HC's on because there's generally more information on them, but I have a little bit!
Sword and Blade had been friends for as long as either can remember, and although they aren't actually related, they see each other as close brothers. Both of them would die to defend the other.
When they met Meta Knight, they weren't really aware of the intergalactic war, just that their home had been destroyed. They learned after that Meta Knight was a Star Warrior. They felt the need to repay him for saving their lives, even when he initially refused. After leaning about the war, they had no issue with fighting against the one who had destroyed their home to begin with, alongside the one who had just saved them from one of that guy's monsters.
They were a bit off put by Meta Knight at first, and even after they had known him for years, they didn't know much about him personally. They became close friends, and he finally let them in on some things, such as friends he lost in the war, but would leave out details. They became very quickly aware from there that this was an incredibly personal fight for him.
After arriving on Dreamland, they had already known most of the basics surrounding his history in the army, granted, he hasn't told them where he grew up or how he ended up involved. They didn't question it, since they were both aware it was a sensitive topic. They helped with the Halberd and keeping it a secret, sometimes staying up a few nights at a time.
They worry about Meta Knight's health, and will occasionally bother him to get rest when he's hurt, but they won't do much. They care, but they have a high amount of respect for him. Although if it's bad enough, they won't hesitate at all to force him to rest. They know he's blind but not that he ever even had wings, but they know about Galaxia and don't know what to think. On one hand, she's a talking sword, on the other, Meta Knight had told them that contacting her would result in then being electrocuted. That was the first thing he told them about her. Lovely introduction.
They appreciate Tiff and Tiff's concern for Meta Knight, but are off put but Tiff's questioning habit. She doesn't like not knowing things and they're painfully aware of that, so they try to keep Meta Knight's bad habits and injuries a secret, from her especially. They've saved Meta Knight from an interrogation or two. They both find Kirby and the Waddle Dees enjoyable to be around, and enjoy socializing in cappy town when they get the chance.
They also know by now that Meta's an awkward burrito man, although they'd never dare say it to him.
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