#sunburst sandstorm

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

Thinking about those dudes who came to help Mustang on Promised Day. They were under his command during the genocide and were thankful to him bc his pillars of flame kept them safe. I initially thought they must've quit the army or smth after the genocide and were a contact Mustang had with a bond/gratitude that he could cash in on when he needed help, so I wondered what they were doing between that and Promised Day, maybe some underground spy thing, maybe some inconspicuous life in reserve to be called in when he needed, NOPE! THEY WERE IN THE MILITARY THIS WHOLE TIME. UNDER GRUMMAN. Truly my lofty expectations have let me down.

Seeing as not Mustang, not his men, not his former men, none of them seemingly having any outside ally contacts or dabbling in smth underground like I dunno hiding as some bumfuck civilian work, aside from Madame Christmas and her whole thing, made me so... I don't even know how to describe it. Did I overestimate Mustang? Like, not even trying to expand their sphere of influence or smth? I dunno what I'm even expecting out of them anymore.

Mustang wanted to rise in the ranks protecting the few under him with his limited power until he got on top, okay, but like. What will he do if/when he is asked to participate in another genocide? Are the lives he's taken, that he's going to take, an acceptable price for his dream? Trying to change nothing? Nothing at all? Not even “from the inside” like Miles ‘tried’?

If the Amestrian military gov were to tell Mustang to put down a group of people who also want to change Amestris albeit by overhauling it instead of conforming to it, a radical group who might have the power to sway people to think like them, do you think Mustang will do it?

I wonder what Miles would think of such a group as well. Of his daughter (OC) being part of it.

Oh yeah, those guys. I forgot they existed! But now that I'm not only reminded that they were A Thing, but also reminded (informed? I forget, was this confirmed in Brotherhood as well?) that they continued to have thriving careers in the military under Grumman I can confidently say: oh for fuck's sake.

The ethos of mangahood is that reform is necessary, and must come from within. Unfortunately this precludes it from entertaining the notion of solidarity with non-establishment groups and rebels. (Though typically working with cops and soldiers, former or active duty, doesn't bode well for more principled revolutionaries and for the common folk but hey.) Mustang's approach is meant to be taken seriously because we're not even supposed to think about what other alliances could be made outside of the few dissenting military personnel.

Nevermind the fact that none of these soldiers even so much as retire or defect. And nevermind that it would counter the staunch "reform from within" perspective if we had to actually show those who want to aid in toppling the government who have become angry, jaded, or irreverent towards the state. Why, that's for beating out of Scar so everyone can swallow the correct lesson: soldiers are the best among us, who are sometimes commanded to do sad things. Enlist to fix this!

It really makes Studio Bones' decision to create McDougal and have the first episode kicked off by quelling a nearly successful destruction of Central just. Such a fucking choice. The implications are massive, and they don't reflect well on any of our protags whatsoever.

See, I can usually enjoy the tragicomedy of our dickhead protags realizing to their petrified astonishment later that, "Oh no. Oh no oh no oh fuck we fought that one guy whom we could have allied with instead and would have had [in some respects] a far easier time taking down this regime together on a quicker timeline, rather than aligning our coup with the Promised Day." Obviously we don't get such self-awareness ever, so I don't even get to enjoy a wry chuckle at their expense.

McDougal's Brotherhood-exclusive existence is the most damning and ironic choice for this adaptation the writing team could have made. Fma broadly is not good at showing organized resistance. Outside of the military dissenters, it's lone actors all the way down. I'm not expecting some sort of high minded polemic on insurrectionist anarchism or Marxist organizing etc etc, but it is a notable blind spot. So McDougal, in canon, being a one-man army against Amestris, who rightfully didn't trust any of these other career genociders he once fought alongside to take up the cause with him, and is felled without a second thought and without internal crisis by Big """Revolutionary""" Mustang and friends cements right out the gate that this story will not handle any of its harder themes well.

Sadly, McDougal's fate answers your questions for you. Mustang would absolutely oppose any threat to the current government that isn't spearheaded by him and his lackeys. Given that he only calls on former squad mates and the Briggs squadron to back his coup, he never cared to consider anyone outside of their ranks for a multi-disciplinary attack. If we had gotten a chance to see Mustang curse the fact that someone had murdered McDougal, instead of apprehending him so that Mustang could perhaps orchestrate his freedom and collaborate with a growing cell of rebels, that could have been an interesting character moment that makes Mustang a 0.5% less putrid bootlicking dictator-wannabe than he actually is.

If they won't serve as part of his new government's military force and appropriated economic hub (the military arm in Ishval, using Scar for this purpose), then he won't organize with them. Again though, so long as he remains in the military, with a goal to gain a higher station in the state, any underground cells or anti-state groups would be better off rejecting someone like Mustang as the fed he is.

(We both know Scar alone pokes a hundred more holes into whatever miniscule revolutionary, liberation of the people potential Mustang ever had in mind.)

Canon Miles would agree with Mustang's approach, but the Miles of Sunburst Sandstorm is going to suffer a head-on collision with the hypocrisy of his position. Maybe it won't happen right away, but his daughter's involvement with these Ishvalan liberationists and her fury against him and the military would have to tear the blindfold off of his mind. It's either that, or the tragedy of her family continues to its logical end.

[tired-reader-writer]

@heartisrote I set your drawing as my wallpaper!!! Thank you so much for drawing my angry daughter!!

Edit: because the way my phone cropped it excludes the signature, here's the post where the artist kindly shared this with us! Again, thank you so much!!! 😭😭😭😭

[brotherslayer]

Sudden, I know, but this song reminded me of Jewel Shards and Broken Bastards, plus my FMAB AU (Sunburst Sandstorm) and that one 19th century story where the British Empire becomes a republic (Painting A Perfect World, though I've never posted about it):

https://youtu.be/CoaS16WjGLQ

https://youtu.be/jw16QmhjTJ0

I don't even know which link was the dance choreo and which was the lyric vid but it has this... militaristic, revolution sorta vibe, and yeah.

Granted, many of the AUs I have tend to have rebellions in them but aesthetic wise, with the guns and all, these AUs fit so darn well imo.

I hope you like it! Dreamcatcher is awesome.

I like it! It sounds like something you would use as an anime opening while the main characters put on their uniforms and load their guns and look up at the sky with full determination before they march out to fight the enemy forces ready to die for their cause. Thank you for sharing!

[chicalooca]

I wanted to make some refreshing but interesting look for summer 🤗 Hope you like it ❤ @anastasiabeverlyhills glow kit that glow sunburst, @maccosmetics studio fix fluid spf 15, @bhcosmetics 1st edition 120 color and @urbandecaycosmetics vice palette, @nyxcosmetics sandstorm liquid lipstick, @anastasiabeverlyhills dip brow pomade in chocolate, @aurakozmetika eyeliner black • • • • • • • #mariyanamakeup #makeupaddict #makeupjunkie #wakeupandmakeup #fiercesociety #slave2beauty #hudabeauty #bhcosmetics #anastasiabeverlyhills #abhbrows #like4like #colors #beauty #artist #mua #brian_champagne #lillyghalichi #amrezy #chrisspy #norvina #vegas_nay #maquiagem #sminkanjesubotica #sminkoholicarka #makeuptutorial #likeforlike #instadaily #instamakeup

[tired-reader-writer]

I'm so glad you enjoyed this long ramble of mine! It was a bit intimidating to go mask-off as it always is but hey, it's fine!

It was not mentioned where Miles was stationed before the Extermination order went through— and we know the Extermination thing was only issues a couple years into the civil war near its end when the State Alchemists were brought in, and the arrests happened accompanying the order for the Extermination. Miles mentions that he was stationed at the North during the Extermination aka the later phases of the war, with no mention of where he was or what he was doing before that point. We... don't know, when he was first assigned to the North. I previously assumed it was only after his imprisonment that he got carted off to the North but now I'm not so sure.

Miles is canonically married, indeed. There used to be many translations of the manga when I first read, but there's only one everywhere now, and that one doesn't mention a wife only a mother saying his “grandmother, father, and mother don't have Ishvalan blood” which I think is a mistranslation because I distinctly remember him pronouncing the word “妻 (tsuma)” meaning. WIFE. IN THE ANIME. Back then I checked the raws to make sure and came back out with the conclusion that he did have a wife, but I can't seem to find the raws to confirm it again.

I did, however, went to check the anime again, and extracted this sentence from it, “私��は確かにイシバール人の血が流れている。だが、祖母、父、ちなみに妻も違う人族だ。” aka, meaning, “While it is true that I have Ishvalan blood running in my veins, my grandmother, father, and also my wife are of a different race.” with no mention of a mother anywhere.

It's been a debate since I first got into the anime, I was obsessed with Miles back then as one of the only two prominent Ishvalan characters because I loved the Ishvalans as a wee lil 11yo or smth. People have suggested that well maybe he was talking about his father's wife who may or may not be his mother or stepmother but... I dunno, the Japanese line shows no connection between “father” and “wife” like “父の妻 (my father's wife)” and if it's his mother that's a WEIRD ASS WAY to refer to one's own mother, and if it's a stepmother then... what does she have to contribute in this bloodline conversation? She didn't donate no gene to him????

Anyways that's how lil kid me got the idea to append a wife and daughter to this man, though of course both the wife and kid characters have evolved beyond what my child self had in mind.

Marigold... a woman frail of body and health who did believe that things could be changed by an individual, rather than things being systemic, who also bought into the “prove them all wrong” kool-aid her husband drank, but fell into a deep depression and physical decline after the arrest (or more like, has been consistently worn down by life and the society around her for as long as she's been dating/married to Miles which is neither of their fault it just sucks, but she was in Denial Central until she couldn't deny anymore, the arrest was the last straw) and until the very end she only had their daughter by her side as her family didn't come for her and her husband was trapped. A deeply tragic figure who impacted her daughter a lot— the girl was traumatized by her mother's breaking and... yeah.

Miles. He, in an attempt to make sense of his character which doesn't seem to make sense in canon (why oh WHY are you STILL in the institution that SLAUGHTERED YOUR FAMILY), maybe clung harder to this lie of a dream he had because he lost everything and needed some reason to keep on living. Maybe. Maybe Olivier is the one to instill that into him that he must man up and be brave and live. I don't even know if that makes sense.

Aka, he becomes more similar to how Marigold navigated her life before her breaking point, clinging to a dream that's impossible not because of their fault but... yeah.

McDougal has... issues. Traumatized from war, carrying the guilt, the kid he's raising is from an ethnicity he was supposed to eradicate (even if he quit halfway through and fucked off it doesn't erase the fact that he participated for a while and he knows and acknowledges that), he has never raised a child and doesn't know how, all leading to problems with him raising this kid who herself is traumatized from all the abuse in her life— they have a complicated dynamic of dependence and fear and guilt and resentment and love in equal measure directed at each other, it is by no means healthy or good but it is what they had. Also hey he was on board with the girl becoming a member of the resistance despite her incredibly young age. All in all my attempt to do a realistic take on all those “Mustang and Riza adopt an Ishvalan kid and it's fiiiiiine, guys! It's atonement! There's nothing wrong with this!!! :)” headcanons I suppose. I don't know how successful I am at that. Despite all this baggage though, the girl does mourn him when he dies, and his sense of responsibility on protecting her does go beyond just his guilt.

The difference between Miles and McDougal in the girl's life, I suppose, might be something of a “Miles buys into this dream and so tries to give his daughter hope through it, but while he's trying to be encouraging it's so out of touch from what his daughter is experiencing that it feels indifferent and dismissive of her struggles in her eyes” and “McDougal does no such thing as protect her from the truth unfortunately he's a deeply deeply angry and unhinged and traumatized man who in turn has no idea how to treat a child and thus scares and traumatizes this poor child, oops”

I like to think Scar strikes a balance between the two, or is a whole category in of himself. I like to think he has experience in instructing younger priests and apprentices in the past, and so would be able to be a good father figure to the girl.

(her former name is Petunia, because petunia flowers can represent resentment and anger, hahahahaha, I really need to find a way to refer to her as anything other than “the girl”)

I do definitely think the AU will inevitably have to diverge from canon— especially since there actually exists a faction that is formed of deserting soldiers and other ethnic minorities that Amestris tried to flatten into a singular cultural hegemony, and they're not exactly a small faction, unlike in canon where there's no such mention of such a faction, and they might actually fast-track the “get rid of the government BYE” thing rather than wait for the Promised Day. I... still don't know how.

I'm sorry, Ling just Does Not Compel Me. I don't know what it is about him, his Greed thing and rulership themes did not resonate with me, rather they felt... superficial. Wouldn't it have been more compelling for a girl who knows poverty to greedily seize any chance she gets for a better day, shouldering the responsibility of her impoverished clan, a girl carrying so much on her shoulders, to have these themes of greed and rulership juxtaposed against, I dunno, ugh Ling vs Bradley on a thematic level just felt forced.

It's one of the reasons why the two bond— both girls shouldering a burden far beyond their age, both growing up in poverty from a clan/people that were not granted the same fortune of peace and wealth as others. In a way, both of them are “greedily” reaching “above their station” to make things better for their people.

The family dynamic is just hilarious. We have this sunshine girl Mei between two emotionally constipated people LOL. Daughter must be like 17 by the time canon starts, if I'm remembering my timeline correctly.

Maybe there's something to be said about Mei-Daughter and Ling-Fu-LanFan but I don't know what. Team Yao Ling does not compel me one bit I'm trying so hard to incorporate them into the AU and my brain keeps coming up blaaaaaaank 😭

I want to give Winry something to do beyond “Ed's love interest” in the AU but I'm... marinating her. I'm marinating Ed, too. I want Ed to grow as a person, though.

The reunion between Miles and Daughter. Mm. In a way it's a cold reality shock to jolt him out of the denial dream he's trapped himself in to cope. Daughter, who thought Miles was dead all the while, is also shook but filled with more anger (to be fair, any emotion of hers is filtered through anger bc of her trauma— being vulnerable has not served her well, not with Miles and Marigold in her childhood, not at school, not at the orphanage, not with McDougal). In hindsight this would probably make the start of her dynamic w Winry start on an even worse note than if it had happened at any other point in time because the girl is reeling from the betrayal that her father is still in the place that perpetuated such violence on their people.

(could Miles follow them to that Ishvalan slum in the North? would the wary cautious reactions he's met with by the people there make him reconsider his path, perhaps? could father and daughter have another confrontation there?)

I need to refresh my memory bc it sucks but was Winry and Al with Scar when they got split up? Maybe something could be done with that.

Also instead of Scar being all self-deprecating against Miles who's supposed to be “better” his reaction to this entire mess is “dude, what are you DOING”

On the bright side(?) this whole debacle could actually lead to Scar and the daughter bonding a bit more. Talking about names. How she discarded her name both because she can't be the same again but also for the shame of being raised predominantly Amestrian and it made her insecure about being disconnected from Ishvalan culture. She'd already been eagerly (though she tries to hide it) taking any scrap of information on Ishvalan culture Scar provided (she also would've encountered Ishvalan refugees in her life before Scar but let's just assume he can give more bc he'd been a priest who knew a lot, a holy man), maybe Scar can start explicitly and directly offering her more.

Kimblee gets 100% done in by Scar and gets given no dignity sorry I hate him and I don't understand how anyone ships him with any Ishvalan character aaaaaaaaaa

Mustang's fate hasn't been quite solidified yet, but I do know that he won't have a part in the new government that's coming to be, it'll be made of those members from that resistant faction, which means I will have to make more OCs which is. ARGH. To be fair I do enjoy making OCs and coming up with cultures (of the two fics I'm writing and have published for two fandoms, one has seven OCs introduced in the first 2 chapters, the other has 10 in the first chapter alone, out of sheer necessity to fill the roles their canons respectively ignored— aka, commoners for the first one, any and all Uzumaki for the second), but still. I will complain of having to do more work. There probably will be a trial. It's just that I have no clue if they will get executed or imprisoned.

Yeah. Yeah. That post was way fucking wild and I hate it.

The Briggs crew would definitely complicate Miles' journey bc he feels a loyalty and an obligation to them, they were his family when he lost his, a steady presence in one of the worst period of his life, and now he'll have to choose between them and his daughter. He will have to leave them behind if he wants to cause any actual change.

Also, I don't like Grumman... at all... I don't want this man anywhere near a position of power please and thank.

I really do need to create and develop more OCs and more Ishvalan OCs, this is supposed to be an Ishvalan-centric AU after all and I refuse to just slap the Ishvalan label on Amestrian characters (I don't know why but Ishvalan Elric AUs or Ishvalan Riza concepts don't really... sit right with me, and I can't tell if I'm being oversensitive or not)

I really want the daughter to be referred to by an epithet of sorts Mei gives her. Something Xingese/Chinese referring to her guardian status or something else, like how John Blackthorne from Shogun is referred to as “the Anjin” or “Anjin-sama” by the Japanese cast. I, unfortunately, do not speak Chinese, but hey I guess I can rely on Google Translate? If anyone has any ideas, please give this idiot some help 😭 (from a country right next to China and can't speak Chinese, lmaoooo)

I do definitely want to turn this into a fic and publish it as I have two of my other AUs (my AO3 is IdiotWriterEgg!), I just need to develop this, and hopefully find someone I can rubber duck to to develop this further lmao.

Looks like I dropped another long ramble on you, hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

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.

[tired-reader-writer]

My List of AUs

I have quite the bunch of AUs for various fandoms (one per each fandom, really) and I realized I never quite made a list of them so here's a quick lil list, I might be forgetting some and the post won't include links (yet) but I will tag my AUs!

I'll probably make a proper pinned post for this someday but that day is not today!

Winds of Wolfsong (Arslan Senki)

Foxes, Pillars, and Sea-salt Rust (Naruto)

Sunburst Sandstorm (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

like the strings on a rope (darling I fray like a firework) (Witch From Mercury)

Painting A Perfect World (Moriarty the Patriot) (abandoned)

A Perfect Summer Storm (Who Made Me A Princess)

Jewel Shards And Broken Bastards (Villains Are Destined To Die)

Of Malice and Madness (I Shall Master This Family)

Unnamed AU (Doctor Elise)

Unnamed AU (When the Villainess Loves)

[tired-reader-writer]

[“Still though, that's surprising,” Nosey says, leaning against a wall. “I thought you two were father and daughter.”

Freeze doesn't move. True to his title his stands still, frozen in that pose with folded arms— though she doubts he was named The Freezing Alchemist for that.

“I picked her off the streets of East City.”

“East City? How'd she end up in East City? What about her parents?”

“Dead,” she says flatly.

She opens the chest. It's got holes in it, bullet holes, the colour it once must've been now faded into a dull, dusty version of its old self. Doesn't matter, so long as it's still usable.

“Dad was—” and the word tastes of disappointment, of discipline, of distance, of... of... “Was a bluecoat.”

Nosey makes a sympathetic noise. “Your poor mother. Shouldn't have married a bluecoat— no offense to you, McDougal— There would've been good men back home, she really shouldn't have left Ishval for a—”

“No,” she says, putting their things in the chest, there isn't much anyways and a little dust won't kill them. They'll deal. “My mother was Amestrian.”

She doesn't turn around to see it, but she can practically feel Nosey's eyes going wide. “Then your pa, he was—”

“He wanted to change Amestris.” There's a stone where her heart ought to be, she thinks. An admirable dream, some would say. But to her it never was within grasp. Even the her of many years ago, a wide-eyed kid with a hopeful heart, even she knew it was a stupid dream.

Change? By being upstanding citizens? Take all the abuse, all the ridicule, stand and take it all, never raise a hand, even to protect themselves? She remembers rulers on her knuckles, of cruel laughter, of vandalized desks, of hungry nights and cold dark rooms, all the injustice in her little life.

Change won't come to good little citizens, it just won't. They'll have to seize it by the throat and drag it to where they need.

He stayed with the military even to the bitter end, until he was taken away— presumably to be executed or imprisoned for life.

Some part of her dimly wonders if he was turned into a Philosopher's Stone, too. Like those other Ishvalans. Like the rebels who refused to keep fighting for Amestris.

She's broken out of her thoughts when they hear a loud thud. There's someone hollering from another room— and Nosey curses under his breath as he hurries that way. Fucking clumsy dolts.]

[tired-reader-writer]

“He is the champion, the key, their brightest hope— if they dream to ever reclaim the Holy Land. Everyone who knew him said he was the holiest of men, the most upstanding priest. She looks at the man sitting next to her, features and face hard and strong, and wishes he could've been her father instead.” —Petunia, about Scar

[tired-reader-writer]

Thought ramble about both canon and AU:

It's really hard to feel anything for Father as an antagonist and villain, he always felt more like an inanimate object and plot tool (technically all characters are plot tools for the author to utilize as they wish or need, they serve a purpose they're not human people who are alive but that's not the point here, 99% of the characters hold up the illusion of being people because it's part of their job to emulate and invoke humanity and... it's just fucking lacking in Father, imo) who has no meaningful dynamic, bond, link, anything with any other character, or even the world at all. Very insular, isolated, inhuman. And maybe that's the point! The dwarf in the flask was never human, and one of the points of the story is how being human is an amazing thing actually, and the ones who abandon their humanity and their bonds to pursue stuff like immortality or god are missing the point entirely. So I guess it's a function not a bug that Father is Like That™.

Doesn't mean I have to like that.

Especially when he is used as the convenient culprit for all the atrocities the Amestrian government had committed against... everyone, really, but especially Ishvalans, by both canon and the fandom. It doesn't, shouldn't, mean that every soldier who took part in the genocide should not be blamed because Father was the root cause of it all. So what if he was? It still doesn't mean the soldiers were innocent. Father can still be the root cause of things and the soldiers can still be guilty of genocide. Both things can be true at the same time. Father makes a convenient scapegoat to heap the blame onto so that more likeable and popular characters who actively murdered Ishvalans can be washed free of the sin. (There's something about how the scapegoats are by principle dehumanized and Father is also Inhuman™ and it's interesting but that's neither here nor there)

Anyways, it's just that... whenever I try to think about Father, mostly for AU purposes like “how can I make this character contribute to what I feel is one of the main Points of the AU I'm making?” kinda deal, my brain just displays an error popup. Due to the way he lacks everything, like how does he feel about what he did to all those people? Nothing! He feels nothing! How about the “children” he made? Also nothing! There's just... nothing I can extract for extra AU juice. He's just a plot point to me, a villain because the narrative needed a villain, he doesn't do anything else outside of this role. Again, probably by design, but doesn't mean I have to like it.

That's why he's just... not gonna be much of a prominent figure in Sunburst Sandstorm.

I mean, he still exists and does the stuff he does in canon but he's not important to the POV characters. Scar doesn't care, Petunia doesn't, the rest of the Ishvalans are too busy to care, overall he's just not very present. Also the Ishvalans are gunning for Independence. So, more to do with the human side of stuff like the government and the Amestrian public and everything.

At first I tried for a fatherhood parallel thing between him, Bradley, Scar (who gained a gaggle of kids and now must Parent them), and Miles (because my OC Petunia is his daughter) but as I said before Father has nothing I can extract from him and Scar doesn't even interact with him, so... bye-bye, that idea. Maybe if or when I finally figure that shit out I'll find a way but, not in the foreseeable future, lmao.

Also, the version of Scar I'll be having in this AU is the depiction of Scar from the fic “even the nameless” by Nonymos:

Please go read it, it's very good, if you see IdiotWriterEgg in the comments that's me, this is the version of Scar I take as absolute, also somebody please tell me if the author has a tumblr blog so I can @ them—

So that's it for that one particular train of thought, hope y'all enjoyed it, not many people are gonna see it though and eh.

I still have Thoughts™ about both canon and AU, this time involving the Philosopher's Stone(s) made of Ishvalan souls, Roy Mustang, Yao Ling, and Chang Mei. Quite a soup of a thought that one is, but I don't want to ramble for too long so I'll leave that to another post.

[tired-reader-writer]

Two of my AUs are just “a strong red-eyed man acquires a gaggle of children” huh

[tired-reader-writer]

Your AU has an amazing concept.

The problems with 03 are the studio was in love with Roy and tends to handle him softly but even then it's better than FMAB, which is not saying much lol.

Yes I too want to punt Miles into the sun. His advice to Scar was bizarre no other word for it.

The problem with Noa is she is a real minority so she absolutely deserved better handling. I would suggest skipping FMA COS if you don't want to deal with the mishandling (not racism against) of a Roma character.

The studio had to cut out a lot for the movie in which she appears due to sudden budget cuts. It's garbled and doesnt make sense. You can actually skip that movie. It's not a must see in the fandom.

Thank you!! It's very dear to my heart, it's been a thing since I was like 11 but of course, it has morphed and changed quite a bit...

Duly noted, and I'm not surprised. Mustang seems to be a generally favored character, both by writers and the fandom. I was indifferent to him at first but... recently I've been getting pissed off at him haha.

Miles is... when I first watched BH I liked him just on the basis of him being an Ishvalan, because I was just that starved. I didn't want to acknowledge the fact that what he said was total bullshit, wasn't ready for it because I wanted to like him. So to acknowledge it recently, it feels like a weight off my chest but also I feel my anger thricefold, lol.

Noted, thank you!! When I get around to watching 03 I'll skip the movie.

[tired-reader-writer]

Imagine an AU where the Ishvalans ally with the Chang clan to put Mei on the throne and in turn the clan along with their Emperor Mei (I'm pretty sure the reigning monarch is called Emperor regardless of gender, see Wu Zetian, but I might be wrong!) aiding the Ishvalans in regaining and maintaining their independence...

[tired-reader-writer]

How would y'all feel about a fic/AU where Ishval reclaims its independence? Where Ishvalans aren't shafted, their culture not depicted as savage or murdery? Where the Amestrian government and characters are called out?

The only thing keeping me from doing a full-out fic of the AU I have is the fact that trying to figure out the logistics of Ishval keeping themselves independent and NOT get invaded again by Amestris or Aerugo is frying my brain.

Anyways, have this very messy unfinished WIP I have of two Ishvalan OCs I have. They're in love.

[tired-reader-writer]

Having sudden feels™ about my two FMAB OCs who are shipped with each other. Because I am trash.

[fullmetal-scar-simping]

! Jumping ahead here, but I hope your stylus gets (or has already been) repaired/replaced. Would love to see more of your art 👀

Oof, Miles and Marigold labouring under the unspoken belief that they don't yet deserve a life of happiness, that it needs to be earned, sums them up well. So Marigold was already on rocky terms with her family prior to meeting and eventually marrying Miles. Her choosing this person she loved was both a profound standing up for herself (and him as well), yet it would lead her to tragedy when Miles gets arrested and her health nosedives. Her family leaving her to die alone, and allowing formely-Petunia to rot in the orphanage system is so cruel.

Very sad for them. I almost wish their fantasy could have succeeded but of course the world isn't a racist and sexist meritocracy, where you beat the system by becoming a model citizen. It's just playing the game set-up by people who hate you, ruining lives in millions of overt and subtle ways.

Haha, I'm glad I could be of some help. 😁 And since you mentioned that Miles may potentially choose Briggs/the military over his daughter and the Ishvalan liberation front, then emphasizing his (perhaps desperate) gratitude towards Olivier and his dreams would slot in well with the fact that she maintains his delusions. Doesn't matter how much of his family is put into the ground (not his Ishvalan side, not his wife, not even his still-living daughter), he's doing 'real good' by working at the Drachman-Amestrian border! Keep the agony at bay by building those deluded walls higher!

Guh, the way you're characterizing and fleshing out McDougal is so good! He absolutely shouldn't be in any position to care for a young person. You're not sanitizing him or making his good intentions wholly translate into consistently kind, calm, and loving actions for The Girl. He's trying to fell a travesty of a regime, having done its bidding and ACTUALLY regretting it, while dodging the bounty on his and his fellow deserters' heads. I fully agree that his PTSD should be more evident than the tidy demeanour of the fan fave military characters. They live such clean lives, they're so blase about serving the institution that they traumatized themselves under (I refuse to give willing conscripts the benefit of the description of victimization). Meanwhile folks like McDougal are out there living underground lives within Amestris or otherwise outside of its borders, and actually attempting to demolish the regime without rewarding themselves for doing what desperately needs to be done.

Super appreciate that The Girl isn't being naive about soldiers and that blue coat, even if it's in part because of her complicated feelings around her father. And ough, the feedback loop between her and McDougal, his guilt and self-disgust, her disdain towards him keeping the damnable military uniform, him being such a wreck that he lashes out at this kid who doesn't deserve it whatsoever, hardening her in ways that don't actually aids or serves her, magnifying their separate pains. “[F]iltering every emotion through anger to hide her vulnerabilities,” goddddddd! Magnificent, it's exactly what would come out of relying on an ex-soldier for your survival amidst these horrendous circumstances.

As for him still holding onto his uniform, besides what you mentioned of the Doylist reasons (which I believe to ultimately be the case as well, given the break-neck pace of that first ep and the one-off nature of McDougal's existence), I often view it as a symbolic gesture on his part, at least when he's attacking Central. Here stands one of your soldiers gone rogue, whose skills that the state used to eliminate Ishvalan lives in service of a grander near-future extermination, now wielded against them. The tattered uniform as a declaration of retaliation and violent rebuke. I could also see it as symbolic of whatever grand idealism that perhaps McDougal once had (similar to idiots like Mustang) having been tarnished by a grim reality, and unlike the aforementioned idiot, instead of being unable to relinquish that idealism McDougal keeps it as a reminder of his hand in Amestris’ atrocities. Of course we could imagine numerous reasons for him wearing the damn thing, but those are the ones that come to my mind.

Omfg, the guilt being a factor in his going off alone...! ;___;

Oooh, Amiran. I rather like the placeholder name. The genderplay could be a fun bonus, but I get wanting to be more certain about which real world cultures you want to take inspo from. Hopefully a name and culture(s) align in time

Naming things can be the worst lol I don't envy being in the position of having to come up with so many too. 😅But I like the loose details of this factions actions and goals. The closer they get to the State itself, even if it’s just keeping their crimes against humanity in circulation, would certainly have them on the government’s radar. But what’s this about a tall butch lady You need to get that stylus up and working again, I’d love to see her made real!

I know that the manga is juggling numerous threads (and a rather bloated cast) but it’s odd that there seems to be nothing there to flesh out the Yao and Chang clans a little tiny bit. I do kind of appreciate that the other clans aren’t mentioned or seen in so far that it would be realistic that not every one of them would just congregate in Amestris, but c’mon now. Not even a flashback sequence or two for the main clans we do get to see?

Describing them as feeling insulated from their clans is spot-on. The narrative doesn’t do enough to underline the urgency Ling and Mei are operating on, in part because their people just feel like concepts. I wouldn’t suggest that Arakawa or Studio Bones should have created an entire side story that might otherwise derail the pacing and story of the main plot, but giving us SOMETHING more would have done a lot to bolster the Xingese characters. With Mei we just get a flashback to how she met Xiao Mei and why the panda is small. Which is. Cute. But like, ok? Where’s her clan tho

(Personally even if I got a smorgasbord of Yao clan backstory and characterization, I would still remain unmoved by the whole “A king is nothing without his yada yada” since, no, monarchies are not based on nor beholden to their vassals and commoners/peasants. So it’s just more nation-leading idealism that I personally don’t stomach. :P Still, more characterization please!)

As good-hearted a lad a Ling is, definitely contrasting the efforts of him and his bodyguards to save his own people against Mei, Daughter, Scar, and the rebels seems like solid narrative mirroring. Placing him as more as an antagonist (not a villain) puts him and his actions under a new light. I know it was delved into a bit with Manfred’s mangahood AU, but perhaps teasing out the more calculating and ruthless aspects of Ling’s personality would facilitate the tension that would feed into his storyline in your own AU. Definitely vibing with Ling’s blindspot towards Mei’s people only having her to rely on for their long term future, therefore allowing Lan Fan and Fu to be cutthroat against Mei.

Daughter learning alkahestry while in Xing with McDougal and tying that into how she meets Mei sounds good as hell imho. The journey to Xing could also be a rich opportunity for Daughter to ruminate on her Ishvalan heritage, perhaps seeing refugees, new settlements, or nomads on the way.

(That couldn’t have possibly been handled well by McDougal in this hypothetical tho. Perhaps any excitement that breaks through the hardened veneer would be awkwardly ignored, mumbled through, or snapped at. Or perhaps he would keep his distance if she got a chance to interact with anyone? Or they didn’t encounter anyone and I’m just rambling.)

LMAO @ Daughter’s constipated brain trying to help a struggling Mei by offering herself as locomotive punching bag. But Mei would definitely struggle to balance her training and frustrations against her crushing burden, so I really like the idea that this moment of vulnerability could serve as the point that these two meet and connect. All the details around that may need hammering out, but it works well as a central point for them!

Mei’s 12 no? Did I hallucinate that? I swear she (or somebody else?) says something like that in Broho at least. Because for awhile after Mei got introduced I assumed she was, like, 8 years old or something LOL And then at some point in the show somebody said she’s a tween. Anyway, 10-13 thereabouts if I fever-dreamt that detail.

THEIR DYNAMIC! Yes, it makes a lot of sense. Like an unspoken but deeply felt and mutual (and mutually known) support, empathy, and camaraderie built on their similarities. They need someone in their corner, closer to their respective age range, who has struggled and feels they must lift themselves and their people from poverty and suffering. “I’ll support you through anything” *Sobs* 🥺😭

Ah yes, the rebel group, Ishval (if/when liberated), all through Mei and Daughter vowing to help each other is a great way to stress the tensions, negotiations, and rejections between Ling and Mei. Nice teasing of the Greed theme there, with Ling’s diplomatic proposal for the Chang clan’s survival to simply become one of His Vassal (things). Without a philosopher’s stone in his hand however, Mei certainly wouldn’t settle so easily.

It shouldn’t fall on Daughter to have to lay out her lifetime of struggles and the racism/fascism she has been subjected to just to satiate Winry’s curiosity, but I can appreciate that Winry would wonder about such things. With a (mixed) Ishvalan teen around, this would more likely open Winry up to inquiring about the Ishvalan perspective on the war with the refugees (as you yourself said lol).

I’m fairly certain Winry was there after she and Al split from Ed. That’s when they all go back to decipher Scar’s brother’s research. So yeah, that allows the story time for Winry to ask some questions or inadvertently get into a conversation with some folks. Or Marcoh himself. I can also see the Mei route too, though I wonder if Winry would interpret that as Mei simply being overprotective of Daughter and Scar? Though maybe that frustration at what feels like an unfair bias towards her parents’ killer could be further motivation for her to seek answers with the refugees and/or Marcoh? Or Marcoh could chime into the convo as it’s happening? A lotta options here

“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.”” Perfect theme, 10/10. Very much agree that Winry’s anger and pain shouldn’t be dismissed or discarded, but unlike the canon that shows her pain having to be kept in check by her kindness as a means of rising above those who don’t deserve it (barf) and breaking that stupid fucking “cycle of violence” crap, I feel like her getting more perspective on the horrific reality of Amestris’ actions and why any of this happened to begin with could steer her character towards a less reductive and more interesting route.

See, it’s funny that you bring up being unsure what to do with Al following the AU’s theme of anger. 03 Al is angry. Very angry. It bubbles under the surface and informs his diverging opinions and actions from Ed’s (unlike mangahood Al, who is mostly just Ed’s double or prim defender). He starts to see the necessity of violence, or at least why someone would take a violent path given the losses some people have suffered in part because of his codependence on Ed and how he would feel if he ever lost him (which tbf may not be effectual in a mangahood AU), as well as more directly interacting with Ishbalans and Scar. And all of that sympathy for those who are not seen as wholly human ties into his existential nightmare and inherently dysmorphic life as a soul tethered to an object. He’s dehumanized physically and in mentally/socially. So! All of that is to say, there’s a depth of anger that Al 100000% should have by the very nature of his constant dehumanization that mangahood neatly sweeps away (because Al could neeeeeeever be truly hurt by Ed, because he knows Ed loves him and love never hurts anyone and he forgives him because feeling even some doubt against Ed hurts ED which is BIGMEAN to Ed, Al needs to apologize- where was I?) Tapping into that, plus weaving in Al’s time in the Ishvalan camp could be useful for your story. I know he starts dipping out of consciousness around this point in the canon due to Ed nearly dying, but I think you can jiggle those details around to suit what you’re doing. His interactions with Daughter and Mei should be fruitful territory to make use of him + anger theme.

(03 Al>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>mangahood Al 4ever)

Scar IS anger as impetus! His actions can’t be divorced from his anger and pain, and unlike Arakawa’s perspective that this is wrathful and thus a sin (snooze), his anger being treated as clarity fits both his overall canon characterization pre-Briggs-induced-bootlicking and the focal points of this AU perfectly. He struggles with himself and what awaits him once his duty of killing his and his people's murderers ends one way or another in canon; but given he hasn't lost his ties to Ishval, in the vein of his involvement in a resistance group as well as guiding this young Ishvalan girl, he may be better able to help piece someone together in the throes of her own heartwrenching revelation. Or rather, show her how to channel that into a solidified way, that doesn't just combust against herself and everyone around her. That she doesn't have to be the bearer of those around her who cannot see or honour her and her pain. That she need not be people-less. Being up against her father and his allegiances, and what that did to her, her mom, and her people, must feel like so much cruelty from someone she already felt complicated about when she thought he was still incarcerated or dead. That feeling of having your world rocked to such a destabilizing magnitude would be all too familiar to him. Ugh, Daughterrrrrrr 😭😭😭

Man, my head is swimming with the possibility of Miles sticking with Amestris here instead of eventually tearing himself away (and parts of himself out) for his child! I want to root for the guy to get a clue and make the right choice, but it would certainly feel in-character for him to bury himself deeper into the fabric of a society he can't seem to stop feeling beholden towards. And how would that then impact her and the resistance if he essentially declares himself their enemy? Does Olivier and the Briggs faction still side with a coup led by Mustang and Grumman? Is the coup still going to happen? Does he report this to Olivier, and if so, what does she do with this info? Will Miles essentially end up at war with Daughter? (I'm sure these things and more are all being percolated and marinated on, I just wanna babble about the possibilities because DUDE!)

I have no doubt in my hater's heart that Olivier would see the Ishvalans, these once adept fighters (as per the manga, apparently), having their country and their people fully ransacked by the state's alchemists as evidence that they were indeed too weak and unworthy of their land and lifeways to continue on.

Ooooh, the rebel leader up against Grumman you say? 👀 Fully rooting for her and the resistance to decimate him and his men. Very curious what plots he (and Mustang?) concoct in regards to the Ishvalan Resistance.

Wish I had a suggestion for Mei's epithet after all this time, but I got nothing. 😶

Fair enough re: myself not being in the fandoms/a fan of the source for which your other fics are based on. But the fact that you've plunked away at such details in previous works is admirable and no doubt needed even in those other fandoms. Fans are not great about expanding the scope of their focus on the things they love, let alone tackling politics with any sort of skill or penache. (Looks at official published works like fma that fail in that way too lol)

I really can't wait to see more from this AU, but even just getting to read the details and some of the workshopping around how things will take shape has been a blast. Daughter seems like she'll be a wonderful character, and I'm a fan already.

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.

[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.