#twewy City Of Angels AU

[abnormallynice]

TWEWY Joshneku City of Angels AU lets gooooooooo when you just gotta admit "who am I kidding Im never coming back to this even though I reaaally want to asdfgh I'll just post what I have"

[Wall of text of lore below~]

TW// Suicidal ideation Angels wander the city of Shibiya to lead spirits to the afterlife. They cannot be seen, unless they want to be and have no personal want of emotions or free will. They cannot feel the way humans do. Physically or emotionally.

Angel Joshua arrives to lead away suicidal teen, Neku. But he wavers and Neku decides against his decision. Joshua becomes intrigued by Neku when the teenager goes out of their way to save the life of another, when Neku was so ready to give up on their own. It's a spark of fascination for Joshua that quickly fades, as time goes on and the depressed-teen-turned-hero-friend fades to memory.

Years later and Joshua is doing the rounds in a local hospital when he spies a familiar face. Neku, now in scrubs, doing his medical residency. During a young patient's last moments, Neku refuses to let the child die and his eyes meet with Joshua's. Neku doesn't see the angel of course, but a familiar spark lights up in Josh. He begins to follow Neku's daily comings and goings in the hospital, then outside of the hospital. Despite careful (but entertained) warning from his angelic colleges, Joshua makes himself known to Neku, and only Neku.

Apprehensive and disbelieving at first, Neku eventually begins to believe this angel and they become closer (or as close as one can get to a being with little comprehension about Emotions). Neku decided on a medical career since the day he helped save a (now) friend's life. He wanted to help people but realized that the job was a lot harder on one's emotional and mental well-being. Unfortunately, you lose as many lives as you save in his profession. In talks with Joshua, Neku remembers another thing he loved to do: sing. He never had time to indulge more in this hobby, thanks to his studies but after Joshua mentions how he's got a nice voice, he begins to experiment with the idea of writing music. We also see the two try to make sense of Joshua's sudden interest in human free will, and thanks to a friend(?) of Joshua's, they locate someone interesting: a fallen Angel. He explains that when an Angel falls from Grace and obtain free will, they become human and receive all the pros and cons that come with it. However, it's not an easy thing for an Angel to do; physically and morally. Also fun fact: fallen angels can see other angels, all the time.

Regardless, Neku starts catching feelings for Joshua and the Angel finds himself mentally struggling to make sense of human attraction. It's like an itch he can never reach, much less scratch. Frustrated and unable to get through Joshua's hard shell (or understand his motives), Neku leaves Shibuya without resolution with Josh.

Joshua is an Angel assigned to Shibuya, and thus unable to leave to look for Neku. The time apart does something to him, and he feels what he believes is loneliness. Or heartache? Whatever it is, the thought of never seeing Neku again is horrifying. He does the unthinkable and Falls. When he wakes up, everything hurts. Hurts. He bleeds, his stomach turns from hunger, his eyes ache and tears stream down his face. But he's...happy. He feels exuberant joy. Joshua travels across the boundaries of his world, exits Shibuya and follows Neku's trail.

Neku answers the door to a rain-soaked, ripped clothing, feet bleeding, wide grin now-human, Joshua. He has little time to process the scene before him, before Joshua word vomits all these new sensations he's been having and confesses his feelings for Neku. How else can Neku respond but with a kiss (now that they can physically touch each other) and they spend the night together.

Neku later explains that he needed some alone time to think, so he cashed in a favor. He left to take a break, but then took the opportunity to make lemonade, so to speak. Neku used a friend's recording studio outside the city to write a song and record it. Upon hearing it, Joshua was brought to tears. It was beautifully melancholic, but hopeful. It suited Neku.

A few days on and the couple is relishing this time together... but disaster inevitably arrives. Neku leaves on a bike to retrieve some groceries, leaving Joshua behind with a "Be right back." Only minutes later does Joshua feel anxiety grip him and he knows something bad has happened. He runs the road that Neku took, finding the young man in the street, having been in a traffic accident. Neku mumbles something about a beautiful light, then dies in Joshua's arms.

The days both drag on and fly by as Joshua tries to now live as a human without the person he wanted to be human with. Despite it all, Neku had met good people and they help Joshua through his turmoil. Eventually, Joshua decides to release Neku's song to the world and it grips anyone who hears it. His life is lost, but his voice will live on and fill his (and others) world with music.

Congrats on making it this far please enjoy this [your favorite donut]

[beanmaster-pika]

i'm so sorry to inflict you with my brainrot but i need to scream to someone i'm very sorry... twewy and servamp have aligned as my Current Interests and that means (mostly) joke scenarios where characters interact including: Joshua's obnoxiousness reaching a new level after picking up Licht's "Because I'm an ~angel~" quirk. (Still on the fence on whether Licht's reactions would be like "ah!! fellow angel!!" *geeks out about angels and Joshua either humors him or messes with him depending on his mood* or >:0 "You are an Imposter. A false angel sent to mislead the masses." because of josh's Unfortunate Personality.) Bonus Hanekoma does the pose exactly Once unprompted and then immediately pretends as though nothing happened. He's designated supernatural babysitter for supernatural entities he's allowed to mess with people as a Treat. (Hazuki would join the trend only if he's convinced this is a cool new Composer thing to do i feel like he would just be like ????????okay?????? the whole time)

I also think it would be funny if Licht became a Composer when(if) he dies. He fits so well in the unhinged nature of the UG and i think he would make a good Composer who would be against erasing humanity unlike some other composers.

okay i'm sorry i didn't realize it would get this long so if you're interested in more (aka the other stuff that's not just Licht and Angels) i'll add on the rest but for now i'll cut this off thanks for attending my ted talk

DRAGON...............WHAT'S IT LIKE BEING THE SMARTEST AND FUNNIEST PERSON ON EARTH. Do not ever apologize for inflicting me with your brainrot!! It's always good!!

Josh would definitely find it hilarious to mimic Licht's shtick even though he is technically Not an angel, and him roping Hazuki into it just for laughs is,,,,, very in character. ALSO HANEKOMA DOING THE POSE ONE (1) TIME AND NEVER AGAIN,,,,,,, COMEDY GOLD!! He's earned it. He deserves it. After everything all these hooligans have put him through he Deserves to mess with them at least a little. Licht as a Composer would be super cool too! The strength of his Imagination is literal canon so it wouldn't take much to translate that over 👀 And even without considering how strong he'd be, the strength of his convictions and how he views people's dreams would make him good at the job!! He'd get to be an actual guardian angel of his city!!!!! Also yes please I would like to hear more about this AU

And under the cut because I couldn't resist,,,,,, Some Doodles

[ha-youwish]

May I ask very nicely about the twewy au of your last fic? Pretty please 🥺

you read fast i just posted that lmao

this is the fic if anyone is wondering

okay so hm i really wasn’t prepared to talk about this. this fic came from an idea about post-apocalyptic situations, and im not sure where i got that idea from. so basically i started crafting a whole Thing based around that but then i scrapped it once my brain made the joke that its just The World Ending (with you) (again).

basically add this fic to my list of reasons i need to get diagnosed

anyways about the actual au shit going on in the background, please understand that this is hastily put together with duct tape so if it doesn’t make sense idk what to tell you

so it starts like this. this whole thing runs off the (correct) assumption that Neku is the most powerful being not in the UG right now, and possibly one of the most powerful in general. now someone (idk who, maybe another trigger-happy angel) decides that neku can be the perfect centerpiece for the next thing that will try to destroy shibuya.

and so, in some kind of ritual not to different from the taboo sigils from the first game. everyone in shibuya basically are like mindless wandering half-ghost things and theres a shitton of noise.

most UG folks and people who were caught up in the whole spell thing made it in one piece, but the rest of the city turned into those soulless beings, including rhyme and eri. and where did all those souls go? well. neku’s kinda still connected to all the minds in shibuya oops so guess what

now this ends up being kind of like some zombie apocalypse bc this whole thing Will spread to other areas of tokyo if they dont hurry and its already leaking into shinjuku, which is still recovering from their own world-ending event. and not only will this soullessness spread but so will the strain on neku which is fun.

the reason they have to be so cautious when going out (and why rindo being injured was a thing that was mentioned) is because of that whole “shitton of noise” thing i mentioned earlier that spread that soullessness stuff or whatever

sometime during a battle or something, shiki, beat, and neku sync up and realize very quickly how much hes been carrying and use the sync to help share the burden (but he silently refuses to let them actually help bc its That Bad that he doesn’t want them to feel even a little bit of it)

joshua’s abilities as composer allow him to help neku feel better almost exponentially, but the Ending the World Spell accounted for that and so it tends to do more damage after some time.

anyways at the point the fic is set in, they’ve found out how to reverse it (hopefully) by basically drawing giant No U sigils all over the city. the next part, the part that would come after the fic, is when neku would go to each sigil and activate them to get rid of some of the people in his head at a time until all of them were gone and the noise went away as well

i think thats all i got for this one. definitely not as interesting or fleshed out as other ones i have but i like the fic that came from it so who cares

[denizenhardwick]

intrigued by what the "TWEWY Dystopian AU" entails 👀

It entails a lot, but I'm going to try to summarize it as best I can haha

It takes place in a dystopian fantasy world that is divided into three sections, both both physically and socially. At the bottom of the hierarchy are the Humans, who live in terrible conditions and are barred from access to all but the bare essentials; then, there are the Reapers in their section, who have to earn points by accepting often-unpleasant assignments in order to survive. Above them all are the Angels, those in power, who control everything from their floating district in the center of the city.

Humans and Reapers are all required to wear a red skull pin that allows the Angels to imprint on their thoughts. This is usually subtle, just keeping them from questioning the world they live in, but can get stronger when activated.

Hanekoma is a Fallen Angel, banished to the RG, where the Humans live. He runs a cafe to keep up appearances, but is secretly CAT, leader of a group of rebels who tags the city with graffiti that has the ability to counteract the effects of the red skull pins. Everyone in his group wears special pins of his own design that make them immune as well.

Neku is a Human who is really inspired by CAT. To question things, to not be complicit, to seek change on his own. So he starts doing his own graffiti, leading Mr. H to seek him out and ask him to join his group.

Beat and Rhyme are Reapers, but Beat can’t get a lot of points because many of the assignments involve fucking over Humans, and he can’t bring himself to do that.

It looks like I forgot to write down my notes on Shiki, but iirc, she's a Human who was involved in some sort of situation with her friend Eri, resulting in both of them losing their pins, Eri getting in trouble, and Shiki realizing that she can't just keep her head down for her whole life.

Joshua is half-Human, half-Angel and was sent down as a spy to infiltrate the rebel group, but after being mistreated by other Angels and treated as though he's lesser for his entire life, does he really want to bring the rebellion down?

I'm stuck on this one because there are so many logistics that I just haven't been super interested in hashing out, so the plot is really nebulous. I've written bits of the beginning, and I've written bits of... the end? Part two? I don't know what the structure is tbh but it's really interesting.

[joshneku]

post-NTWEWY shipping chart, updated w/ commentary

JoshNeku: Post-TWEWY (before AND), I prefer JoshNeku from the original universe, only my own timeline, where Neku gets 3 years not FRIDGED in Shinjuku, but actually alive and gets to finish school before he chooses to stay by Josh’s side in the UG while alive, without sacrificing his RG friendships. So, kind of like Signal to Noise, but different in parts.

Sho/Rindo: I love the imagery of Sho chaotically waltzing Rindo off rooftops as he flies them around in elegant golden circles, maniacally laughing here and there about math. I like the idea that he dispelled of the bird noise on purpose so they wouldn’t over-accumulate on the last day, and that Sho is not pure selfishness and I wanted actual character development for him should he ever succeed the Composer. He will never be suitable if he remains selfish, imo. I want Rindo to have a theme a bit deeper than just dealing with responsibility, as well. But as Rin is in canon, they’re not very suitable for each other, hunh. Regrettable. Maybe if NTWEWY went deeper on themes of apathy and mere self-interest...? But that’s like... the opposite of his very “in-group before all the rest” theme lol...

EriShiki: NTWEWY robbed us. where tf is our confirmation that Gatto Nero is both Eri and Shiki’s brands, huh?! | EriShiki used to be my ideal relationship bc I used to be a fashion major and wanted a Shiki to my Eri :’) 

Eijiru: lol kimchi pizza shipping

Hane←Neku: Idol-crush, admiration, deep respect, and some leftover bitterness but ultimately forgiveness. I like things subtle and lovely, and very tactful on both ends. I like it w/ Neku still being most of all head-over-heels over Josh (regrettably for him). Doting Hanekoma would be lovely. I would love for them to have each other as a muse. I want Hanekoma to see Neku as a light of hope for the UG.

Hane/Hazuki: I just want Hazuki to learn how to give a shit like Neku and Rindo do, yo. imo he needs Hanekoma’s expertise if he’s to ever unfuck Shinjuku lmao lend him out for a deal with the Upper Plane xD

HazRin: I’m eeehh about the ship (not negative, just don’t care that much), but I like the art ppl draw for it. My gripe is that their character designs don’t match for me, that’s it, lol. I’ll only ship it in a specific instance, and maaaybe if a Swallow AU but don’t count on it. I don’t like that Hazuki’s interpretation is so limited/skewed to “he must be evil/weird/--it’s so biased. What, because we were against him at one point, he must be evil? We don’t know anything about him, and I’d rather people not make assumptions. I’d be fine if it didn’t seem like 90%+ of the content lol and some of the art is still nice for that interpretation but yeah, more open-minded takes on Hazuki would be appreciated, thanks. Like. Why is he a social pariah? Dude’s pretty normal? Lots of people don’t feel like they have something they feel that strongly for. It’s normal????? Sure, he scoured a city, but from the viewpoint of an angel...? For all we know the angels were right and Shinjuku really would have poisoned the other grounds. Dude was just following policy, no? If some angels have such a different view of the world, I don’t see the need to judge him for it rather than make him understand. imo people should be more willing to understand before judging others.

Cocogumi: Coco gives me that vibe, lol. and my dream relationship is w/ someone I can do couple cosplays with and go to South Italy in Matera (OTP related...) with for our honeymoon... if we can share hobbies, that’s extra cute. These two are visually appealing, but there isn’t much there either hunh, besides that Coco is doting. And shot Neku (partially) for her lmao...

Rindoka: Acceptable for a het ship for this kind of game, but that’s a low bar lol. Wow, Shouka has an actual personality!! But other than that, they’re a bit boring. Some of the art is cute. That’s it. I mostly dislike it because of ppl who ppl who act like the ship is more than it is, and people who go around bullying/ostracizing others for liking “problematic” ships.

Bret: They’re too similar tbh lol. two dumbasses in an idiot pod

Frin/do: pretty much every frin/do shipper I’ve met besides like 2 are antis. Turned me WAY off of it, but yeah, that Rindo doesn’t seem to care about him as much as like, Shouka for instance, doesn’t help. There just isn’t much there in canon imo, sorry. I don’t care for friends to lovers unless the pining is good personally

I don’t think HT Masuoka knows how old Neku is lol

Ayaka and Uzuki look good together visually, but haaaa.... nothing there obvi lol. You can tell I’m thirsty for good wlw. See, Saika/Ayaka in StN was good... yummy...

I really don’t like ships I find to be heterotypical lol... like if I wouldn’t ship it if they were mlm, I wouldn’t ship it as het, visa versa.

please give Rhyme a girlfriend i’m begging

[composeregg]

5hcs AUs : how about one in which Neku becomes Composer ? starting from "how did it happen ?" and then going wherever you want to take it

Send me an AU and I’ll give you 5+ HCs about it! (accepting)

Okay I’m getting to this first but rest assured the ask/essay about Hanekoma is gonna happen

SO twewy spoilers obvs lol, and also suicide tw

Also this got long it’s basically a bulletpoint fic OOPS

I have multiple fics where he becomes Composer!!! The series Feels More Like a Memory has a bunch of Composer Neku hijinks and more planned! Alternatives a 400 word one-shot Take Your Place Dear which is what this is gonna expand on!!

“How did it happen?” With the duel. Neku pulled the trigger. He didn’t mean to pull the trigger. He was going to lower the gun, but thoughts pound in his head, he’s tired, and the force of a Composer’s strongest Imprints hit him as he starts to drop his arm. He flinches. The gun goes off. And Josh does not stop it. Josh lets it hit him, lets Neku kill him, as he always intended.

He’s absolutely distraught over this. He didn’t mean to shoot, but there’s always a part of him that thinks “you wanted that. You wanted to do that. Him Imprinting me is just an excuse. I shot him and it’s my fault.”

He actually has to cope with becoming Composer first, though. It takes a toll, becoming connected to a city. Mentally, it exhausts him, becoming everywhere at once.

But he deals, and he brings his friends back to life. His Entry Fee was his friends, yes, but he won. The winner becomes Composer, he gets his fee back. Josh, in the canon, just gets to decide what to do with it in canon and doesn’t hold onto it.

So he has a meltdown, this autistic boy, breaks down and is overwhelmed and screams, but he manages to get it together enough to do that. And then he passes out for three days.

He manages to drag his ass to Hachiko, and he tries to keep it from his friends. Hanekoma says he shouldn’t go at all, he’s Composer after all now, that requires secrecy, isolation. That’s just how it’s done. But Neku insists, and goes, and keeps his Composer Title secret.

It works, kinda. Rhyme knows something is up, they can tell it instantly. They sense it, residual Noise instinct. Beat and Shiki don’t quite realize, but they know something is wrong with Neku. Eri is there too but she doesn’t know shit.

Rhyme asks, one day, about a month after the Game. Neku breaks down, and explains. The first Game week he’s overseen has just ended, no Players made it to the end of the week, and he s h a t t e r s. 

In front of Rhyme, and Shiki, and Beat. 

He breaks. He cries. He tells them everything, tells them about Josh, about what he did. What he doesn’t know if it was his own will or not. He’s so terrified that they’ll reject him, freak out because he’s still tied to the Game, and what if they’re afraid of getting dragged back in?

They all just fuckin pile on top of him and hug him and comfort him and give him all the love and affection he deserves, he needs.

“Neku, it’s okay. It’s not your fault. You said he was imprinting on you, you didn’t want to do it.”

The thing is.

Josh lingers.

His soul. It still exists. The code is strewn through Shibuya, but sometimes. It whispers.

Neku can feel the impulse, Josh’s thoughts and feelings, or at least what he would’ve felt, thought, and he doesn’t know if he’s imagining it or if it’s there.

He also never realized a city could be sentient, or that he’d never get to sleep again. It takes a bit to deal with that. But Shibuya loves him. She loved Josh, so much, even under the threat of Erasure she loved him, was sad for him, but accepted his choice for his replacement. But she. Holds onto him too.

Neku learns, and grows as a Composer. He’s so powerful, but he refuses to be recruited by the HG. He’s no Angel. He can shape the Game here, make it better, heal the broken cracks. Find himself in Shibuya, her power, his friends adding to his own power. He expands his world, pushes those horizons as far as they’ll go.

Decides to believe the that Joshua whispering in the back of his mind might be something more than just wishful thinking, when it shares facts about Josh he never knew. Little details, at first.

“Hey, you’ve got more friends than I’ve ever had.” Makes sense, he could extrapolate that.

“Oh, that game came out the year before I died.” Does not, especially not when it’s whatever pokemon game was just 3 or 4 years old at the time of the Long Game.

Another Josh visits from a different universe, and between the infuriating conversation and a breakdown, and finding out a lot.

Neku realizes. that these Notes, this Music strewn through Shibuya, the tune stuck in his head, is actually Joshua.

Long story short he finds a way to bring Josh back by reconstructing that Music into being a person, using Alt!Josh as a basis. 

And Joshua is alive again. He’s a living, breathing, human being. he sees the UG, but he has life. A second shot. 

Josh moves into the back of WildKat and gets to try being a normal boy! Who has friends!

Shiki throws something at him the first time she meets him, Beat threatens to wreck his shit if he ever pulls anything so fucked up ever again. But Neku wanted this. So they respect that choice. And grow to care about him

Neku is also big pissed at Hanekoma for the Taboo Noise thing. And gets Uzuki to be his Conductor. Josh may take that role from her later but that is unknown.

[abnormallynice]

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The World Ends With You

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