#I also wonder if in his mind Miles subconsciously contrasts Marigold and Olivier

[tired-reader-writer]

Don't be sorry! Not for the delay (what delay? you're not supposed to be at my beck and call) nor for me coming out of anon! I think it was for the best, I'm just a generally anxious person lol.

Oh yeah I should put stuff under the cut too this post is, uh, getting Long™.

“That's right Ed, my grandmother, father, step-mother, god-father, niece, my best friend's uncle, our family friend when I was growing up, and the owner of the convenience store conveniently located inside of this fortress do not have Ishvalan blood.” PLEASE I'M HOLLERING

Yeah Marigold and Miles... they thought they could prove racists wrong, thought it was their responsibility to do so, to deserve a good life as though they already don't deserve it because they're human. Marigold is estranged from her family— they didn't approve of her marriage with Miles, and I get the feeling she didn't exactly have a good relationship with them to begin with, something about being constrained, something about not having autonomy. Maybe part of why she has that belief of “we can prove them wrong!” is because, how do I put it, her marrying Miles was in a sense wrenching back control of her life from her family, or something of the sort, and she wants to believe she can keep this up. Wants to believe that it is within her power to change things for them.

Yeah I think I'll have Olivier be the crux of his decision to remain— her deciding to keep him for his “different perspective” instead of discarding him like he expected her to would've given him hope that it's not impossible after all. If she had decided to not accept him then, if he had been sent to anyone else, maybe the disillusionment would've been able to settle in and he could've chosen another path. But that didn't happen, so he didn't. Thank you for giving me this idea! 👀 What do you mean you're not helpful??

Yeah I wanted to give a dynamic some justice. They could've been a healthy, good father-daughter dynamic. But the more I thought about it, the more I just... first of all he's unhinged. I don't think a man like that should be raising a child. But even without that factor, even if he has a perfectly pleasant personality and isn't a traumatized mess (like some fan favorites, like you can't convince me they display symptoms of trauma and PTSD, maybe it's just bc I haven't seen mangahood in a long long while but outside of a “you have a murderer's eyes now” thing, ehhhhhhhh...) it still feels. Wrong. The girl sticks to him for survival, because she wants to obtain enough strength to defy the world aka his water alchemy, while having A Lot of complicated feelings towards him because of his “bluecoat” background because her father was a bluecoat too and it's just... it all connects to each other. And McDougal was wearing his Amestrian army uniform in the episode he appeared. Tattered and ruined, but there nonetheless. I think it was just a Doylist decision to communicate that he used to belong w the State but I found it... interesting. Might suggest some form of attachment to the uniform and whatever it may represent. I don't know exactly what yet— I curse the fact that we know nothing about the guy— but. Something. That act of keeping his tattered uniform... would cause complicated, bitter emotions in the Daughter. And every time he looks at the girl's face a wave of guilt and disgust (at himself) wells up in him. And since he's not okay, the emotions make him volatile and he lashes out at the slightest trigger. He doesn't know how to deal with a vulnerable child, so he tries to make her “toughen up” because he can't bear to face it. A lot of Daughter's issues regarding filtering every emotion through anger to hide her vulnerabilities came from this less-than-stellar upbringing under McDougal.

So yeah there's just no way their relationship will come out of the other end intact, with all these factors tangling up into one ugly knot.

Maybe the guilt was what made him leave alone, when he found out about the nationwide circle. Maybe the guilt drove him to try and “clear the way” for the girl. Because for all that he couldn't bear to treat her as one all these years, she is a child. Seventeen. Just a child.

Tentatively putting in “Amiran” as a placeholder for the name she and Scar end up choosing for her down the line but it's a dude name and it's a Georgian name and I haven't decided for sure that I wanna base Ishvalans on that. We'll... see.

I probably need to also name this faction/group thing but eh that'll be a problem for future me. They'll probably deal with stuff like underground newspapers, spreading the theory, making people more aware, maybe even trying to expose some of the military's crimes, all of which would paint a target on their backs... maybe the organization has always been a hazardous position but they hold fast regardless. I have decided the current leader (blissfully un-assassinated so far) would be this tall butch lady with a sick undercut LOL.

I think ultimately both Ling and Mei suffer from a lack of information regarding the severity of the situation they're dealing with. Like. We don't know what the Yao clan is like. We know the Chang clan is impoverished but we don't know what they're going through exactly. Ling cares about his people, yes, but does Mei also not care? Is that not why she braved a hazardous journey into a foreign land, all alone?

I think one of the reasons why I'm not sold on Ling's “a king is nothing without his people” thing is that. We don't really... see... the people... like yes he treasured Fu and Lan Fan but we don't— we don't see The People. Both he and Mei feel insulated from their clans. I know this is a side effect of the premise being that they're in a foreign country away from their roots and their people, but still. They don't think about their mothers or anyone else, really.

I definitely want to show off the Chang clan, somehow. Make them matter to Mei beyond a Doylist “oh yeah she needs a reason to be in Amestris so here ya go let's not think about them more than that”.

I feel like Team Yao is gonna end up foiling Team Chang one way or another, I just don't know how yet because despite being boring as a character Ling is... a good-hearted lad.

Maybe something can be done with the fact that Scar, Daughter, Mei, even the rebel organization, they're all doing things for the sake of the people, their people, and yeah Ling is a good boy but we haven't really been shown... his relationship to his people outside of his two bodyguards 😭

They're inevitably gonna clash. Lan Fan and Fu at least are gonna want to clear the way for Ling. We see Lan Fan and Mei about to Throw Hands with each other in canon. It doesn't really... seem to matter to those two that Mei is the Chang clan's lifeline. Could Ling possibly be a little blind to that?

Ugh, needs marination.

Anyways, about Mei and Daughter: I originally planned to have Mei and the girl meet in Amestris when the canon plot kicks off but I'm wondering if they couldn't meet in Xing. Daughter DID spend a lot of time in Xing, after all, and she + McDougal could've learnt alkahestry from someone with ties to the Chang clan and they could plunk the girls together but that feels kinda impersonal, so what if Daughter stumbles upon a crying Mei or a Mei who's desperately training and she... offers to help, and by help she probably ended up trying to get Mei to pummel her in a spar or smth bc she's Constipated like that and then whoever the alkahestry master was, could find out about their impromptu scheduled pummeling sessions and then decide “yeah let's put the two together why not” and THAT could be the beginning of their relationship???

I feel like Mei would try to find an isolated spot to cry or overwork in secret bc she's the PRINCESS and she's gotta be TOUGH she can't make her people and family WORRY she's STRONG she'll be STRONG and and— A girl with a burden too big for her little shoulders. And Daughter... she too had to “grow up too fast” bc McDougal as a parental figure has PROBLEMS as you have seen.

Kinda kills me that we don't get an exact age for Mei. I can't tell how many years there are between Daughter and Mei. Five?

Anyways I'm still trying to hammer it out but I do want this to develop into sort of a “we know each other really well, we know each other's insecurities, weaknesses, we can be vulnerable around each other (to an extent, they probably won't be laying it all out in the open but they'd Know), and we regard each other as strong despite the vulnerabilities” type thing, there's also an “I know you're strong, you have to be, and I'll support you through anything.” Is this making any sense?

Conflict between Ling and Mei could also be bolstered by the fact that with Daughter by her side Mei has essentially obtained the alliance of the rebel group and also Ishval and I don't think Fu and Lan Fan are particularly gonna be happy about it. Ling could have a blind spot problem, potentially? He could ask that she just surrender to him and that he'd “protect the Chang clan” while offering no concrete solution, not because he doesn't care but bc he could have this blind spot that makes him inconsiderate to a degree. They'll be “his” so things will be fine! Just become his vassals! Mei who probably still takes pride in her clan and would like them to retain their dignity and autonomy thank you very much, could be against that.

Yeahhh neither Winry nor Daughter are having a good time. And them meeting in such unfortunate timing means that things are gonna be quite rocky. I do think Winry could become curious about what made Daughter this way, where she's coming from, but Daughter doesn't trust her and... frankly speaking it cannot and should not be Daughter's responsibility, especially not right now.

Fucking can't remember if Winry was in that Ishvalan refugee settlement but she could listen to them there and realize with growing horror that Amestris is not innocent. She still has complicated feelings regarding Scar but y'know, she could come to realize that she isn't the only one who suffered. It'd take a while, probably, she wouldn't come to that conclusion immediately, she'd get to mull on it, and... yeah.

Marcoh could help her realize too. He knew what was done to Ishvalans, after all. He was there. He was part of it.

Mei potentially could, as someone who knows Daughter really well and one who admires Scar as a parental figure.

Since I want to have it in the AU, a theme of anger as a motivating impetus, a clarity instead of blindness, something that protects and defends you from mistreatment, it's something that stands up and says “no. I don't deserve this.” I don't want to totally dismiss Winry's anger and loss. However. Anger as a force to make you move forwards, into the future. Winry will have to be the one to decide what moving forward means to her now.

Equipped now with the knowledge of injustice and inequality, she will choose what she wants to do with this knowledge and this anger.

Fuck, what am I gonna do with Al. I hear that Al had better characterization in 03? Could I possibly try to incorporate that? Do you have any ideas?

The theme of anger as clarity vs anger as blindness could possibly come into play with Scar soothing Daughter in the aftermath. Because you can't convince me that Scar was particularly blind with his anger except with the Rockbells but that was an exception. Every time he kills it's either 1) a specifically calculated targeting of a certain demographic, 2) self-defense, or 3) an act of mercy. He's not tethered to the people of Ishval in canon in his deeds bc Ishvalans are invisible from the story (no thanks, Arakawa) but here it could be more intertwined. He's anger as impetus, right? Does that make sense? Daughter is too, in what she does, decidedly less so in the way she uses anger to cover up her vulnerabilities but y'know. She's still learning.

She's lashing out, short-fused, hurt, unable to express it, and what is this father figure to do but help her find a way to process it in a better way? Not telling her to swallow her pain and endure like Miles did, not exacerbating it like McDougal did, but... something else. As you said, he could be now to Daughter what he didn't have when he woke up with his brother's arm attached to his body. A grounding presence.

I... probably need to figure out the specifics but yeah! Understanding, grounding...

And yeah because Scar isn't untethered from his people in this AU he wouldn't have that sort of “oh I'm doing terrorism [Miles] is better than me” attitude, mangahood can suck it.

I think I do want Miles to, eventually, choose his daughter and their people. It won't be easy, it won't come for a long while, but he would. That'd place him against Briggs. Against Olivier. And Olivier... I have to wonder if her brand of Darwinism would influence the way she sees victims of injustice. They must've been lacking in some way or another so do they really deserve... I don't know. Independence, power, stuff like that. I'm just spit-balling here.

I could potentially put Grumman up against the org leader, once I flesh her out. That has the potential to be fun!

You covered everything with what you said about Ishvalan race-bending, I legitimately have nothing to add. Especially the part about the race-bent character being a “better Ishvalan” than Scar. No wonder it never sat right with me.

I haven't come up w anything for the epithet yet but. Gods I gotta find a way, lol.

I hope you enjoy! I know you're not in the fandoms I've written for so far but a lot of the stuff in the fics is just certified me-original nonsense because I had to fill in the blanks canon left (“WHERE ARE THE COMMONERS??” for one, “WHAT ABOUT THE POLITICS???” for another) LOL.

Just hoping my stylus gets fucking fixed soon, lol, I haven't drawn in a long while and it's making me antsy. Thank you so much for your kind words!! 🥹

Hi hi hi! Tis the OC anon, now off-anon! (That was fast ngl but whatever I'm here to have a good time on a quality blog) and yeah!

If you won't mind, here are some more tidbits about the AU:

Miles got arrested via the manga iirc where Ishvalan soldiers got rounded up and executed for “treason” but Miles got off scot-free supposedly because of his diluted lineage (which I have some doubts about, maybe he chose to swear allegiance to Amestris somehow and that's why he was spared, but I could very well be wrong and it really was just a matter of blood), he was held there for a while, during which time his wife collapsed and passed away while his daughter got shipped off to an orphanage bc Marigold's relatives did not want to raise an Ishvalan child.

By the time Miles gets out he's like “Where's my wife? Where's my daughter?” and while he gets a definitive answer regarding his wife (oof, feels guilty for being unable to be there for her), NOBODY KNOWS WHERE HIS DAUGHTER IS.

Our little daughter (nameless though I did give her a name) faces so much mistreatment in the orphanage that she decides to haul ass and try living on the streets instead and runs into Isaac McDougal.

In this AU, there would be a faction of former Amestrian soldiers who went “no fuck this shit I ain't gonna slaughter civilians what the hell” and defected from the military, which of course the government wasn't happy about so they got bounties on their heads.

Isaac is one of them.

Their cause might or might not expand to ally with other ethnic minority movements that the Amestrian majority has caused problems with.

Anyways, she gets picked up by Isaac (she must be, what, 11?) who is decidedly NOT suited for raising a child, much less a traumatized one. Also he was a bluecoat and she's an Ishvalan kid.

Some foils could be drawn between Miles and Isaac, I realize, both with ties to the army, one choosing to stay despite everything and the other leaving because he couldn't bear the injustice, both “father” to the girl, both probably less-than-stellar parents...

She becomes a brash, harsh, no-shits-taken, borderline reckless type of person.

Anyways he might or might not teach her water alchemy. Also via the anime I've seen some folk headcanon that Isaac can use alkahestry so maybe he went to Xing and took the girl with him too and they both know alkahestry?

They're both part of the coalition that wants to get rid of the current system of government.

Isaac abruptly discovers the whole nationwide alchemical circle thing and leaves on his own to go and put that to a stop, gets killed by Bradley a la canon, our girl who was not told what he discovered was like “????? I'm gonna go find out”

Which kicks off the plot, and... originally I just had it stick to canon for the most part (except the ending) just told from a different perspective but methinks I should really lean into the whole AU thing and go off the rails somehow

Anyways for fear of the ask getting too long here are some rapid-fire bullet points:

Mei becomes the Emperor in the AU. Sorry not sorry, I don't care about Ling all that much.

Miles' daughter offers to be a bodyguard for Mei and help her win the throne in exchange for her helping Ishval later. She agrees, and a badass duo is formed.

Our girl felt shame for being disconnected from her culture, she feels like she's not “Ishvalan enough”, even her name is Amestrian, so she discarded her name, just like Scar.

If she could allow herself to be vulnerable enough to say it aloud she'd tell Scar, “I wish you were my father instead” but homegirl is kinda constipated where her insecurities are concerned.

Complicated dynamic with Winry

Does NOT get along with Ed unless he gets his shit together and grows

Running into Miles in the North would be... a catastrophe

She thought her dad was dead all along but he's alive AND IN THE MILITARY?

I need to map out Miles' development if I'm not gonna stick w canon, he can't be Arakawa's mouthpiece who only appears once in a blue moon he gotta be a presence somehow

Marigold... haunts both Miles and their daughter. Miles' guilt, the daughter's anger and hurt and not understanding why her parents won't say anything beyond “be a model citizen and prove them wrong”— and of course, grief at losing Marigold, losing both her parents, even if they weren't perfect by any means.

I don't know if it's feasible for Miles to recognize his daughter whom he has not seen in years but the girl would absolutely recognize Miles. Yeesh.

Anyways Miles will have much to think about. And will eventually get his shit together but not right away. He's quite shaken after seeing his daughter again for the first time, though. Probably happens when the north crew had Scar trapped and Mei + the girl come to his rescue. To add to the absolute fucking MESS.

Scar and the girl would eventually take on new names as part of their healing or whatever, as their old name selves kinda “died” long ago? [Scar] died when his brother died, [the girl] died when she fell through the cracks of the system and never came back up.

Also Kimblee deserves no dignity he should've been killed by Scar.

Mustang does NOT get to use the fucking Philosopher's Stone to heal his eyes, if he even comes to need it— he might not even get yeeted into the Gate in the AU, someone else might have to take up the burden or things never come to that point, the Ishvalans are given back their dead and Marcoh gives either Scar or the girl or both the way to destroy a Stone. So they do. As part of a funerary rite for those who got turned into a Stone. It doesn't erase what was done to their people, but... it's closure, at least.

On the topic of that, the other day I went to check the Ishval tag after sending my previous ask to you, and. Uh. Uhhhhhhhhhh.

There was a post going “wouldn't it be so cool for Mustang to have red Ishvalan eyes since he used a Stone made of Ishvalans to heal his eyes?” and I had such a visceral reaction to it that I immediately exited the tag.

Yeahhhhhhhhhh

Regret™

Oh and there's also a couple underdeveloped Ishvalan OCs I have one of whom wants to be a doctor and may or may not become the girl's love interest? He's a soft boy.

This AU didn't really get all that much developed compared to my other AUs so I'm still up in the air on how the cast would react to my OC(s)— Olivier could be like “whomst the fuck is this upstart tyke and also that's a threat” and that could potentially drive some conflict between her and Miles, Miles is, understandably, distraught over everything, Ed... probably wouldn't like her tbh, no idea on how the Mustang gang or the homunculi would react to her, it's just a whole bag of ?????

Omg @heartisrote you wanna draw my baby? 🥹

Here are some older drawings I did back before I had the means to do digital art (when the earlier versions of the girl had a younger brother, unfortunately he got scrapped, he may get inserted again in another shape, question mark?) and after that, before my stylus fucking broke 🥲 (that's her potential love interest next to her)

Anyways, apologies for rambling so much in your inbox!

Hey Egg! Hope hopping off anon wasn't too intimidating. Maybe the cool Miles/Scar anon will get in contact with you in the near future.

Also, hell yeah, OC AU breakdown! Loved all the details you provided; I'm really digging the outline of the story so far.

Ah, so Miles' arrest is a manga detail that was eschewed for Brotherhood. Sigh, I really do have to read it don't I? But good to know, since it makes sense given the actions of the Amestrian government. They disbarred Amestrian Ishvalans from the service, so I thought it odd that Miles was spared. Initially I thought perhaps Olivier had thrown her pedigree behind keeping him in her squadron (which could still be true) or that his placement at Briggs provided plus his mixed blood gave him some leeway. But now I wonder if Briggs and Olivier only enter his military career and life post-arrest. 🤔

Excuse my ignorance, but is Miles canonically married? Doesn't matter either way, this is a cool AU, but I realize that my recollection of Brotherhood is perhaps spotty in that regard, or maybe the show also elided that info. Anyway, rip Marigold

So the poor daughter was utterly rejected by the Amestrian side of her family and gets sent to an orphanage. Man. It's realistic tho, since many families under a racial-class system deny, hide, or disown members of the "wrong" racial/ethnic makeup. Miles must have been distraught by both losses.

Good for her for running away from her abusers. Love that McDougall and his merry band of insurrectionists take her in! He may not be parent of the year (especially given the parallels between him and Miles in this AU), but it had to have been better than being at the mercy of a racist, indifferent orphanage. His death must have been like losing yet another parent.

With how much has shifted in the AU's plot, divergences are all the more likely to occur/become necessary. Especially once you get into the nitty-gritty of it all.

Lmao oh shit, Ling doesn't get the thrown. Ripppp, all hail Mei! Daughter becoming allies/friends with Mei on the agreement that, should Mei ascend to emperor, she and Xing aid Ishval is smart political maneuvering on Daughter's part. (If there's some other way I should refer to your oc, lemme know). With the alchemy/alkehestry thag Isaac taught her, Mei can further sharpen Daughter's alchemic skills.

And of course the two of them becoming an inseparable duo puts them in-line with meeting Scar. 🎉 Man's gotta properly father two tween girls while hunting down fascist pigs (thankfully they're both capable and willing to throw down). No surprise she's emotionally constipated, but hey, Scar's just as blocked up. But I gotta say: awwwwww 🥺

Oof yeah, her dynamic with Winry would be messy. And Ed, maaaaaan. Maybe in this AU he can actually shape up to be a better person (but unlike what Miles believes, that's not Daughter's nor Scar's responsibility)

Omg, that meeting between Daughter and Miles will be ROUGH. And during that scene in the Briggs mining town?? Nobody is prepared for the earthquake to follow

Yessss, the pair of them having to reconnect with who they will become, who they want to be, questioning who are they without the lives they once lived, with so much pain to come. Having someone else in similar straits would be an interesting dynamic

Amen. Kimblee got off easy in mangahood, when he shoulda had his spine ripped out by Scar (glad he gets murked by Scar in 03). Glad he gets his in this AU

Seems like Mustang's fate has been solidified quite yet, but I can appreciate that the Ishvalan philosopher's stone will not be misappropriated for him and his posse. It returns to its rightful people to receive final rights.

Ok, that post in the Ishval tag that you encountered. What the actual fuck. Wtf wtf wtfffffffffffffff

This fucking fandom, man

Anyway!

Fine tuning the interactions between your OCs and the canon cast will be quite the task, given the length of mangahood's story. There's no way Olivier (probably the entire Briggs unit) won't seriously complicate things with Daughter and Miles, but it's promising that Miles is slated to get his shit together eventually.

And the character designs! I really dig Daughter's design, she looks so good! The way you draw her hair is 🤌 Rip to the scrapped brother, but I can see how his passing as Amestrian would have thrown a wrinkle into her life and her insecurities. The love interest is adorable af. He's the one who's going to become a doctor, yeah?

Time to get some artwork of your oc done. Godspeed, heartisrote!

Thanks so much for sharing your OCs and AU! No apologies necessary for the length of the ask, I enjoyed reading it. 😄 If it gets posted anywhere, lemme know.