Fully on my bullshit (Blumendrie FMA AU)
so. Think of this as a loose FMA universe, wherein Alchemy is a slightly larger part of the military, but the head of the military is not also the king. The Blumendrie take the place of Roy/Riza.
Caleb, Astrid, and Wulf grew up together, and ended up dabbling in alchemy, as lonely nerds are wont to do. They enroll in training academy together, and catch the eye of General Ikithon, the Null Alchemist, whose ability is being able to cancel/counteract other alchemists’ abilities.
Ikithon takes them to study at his house in the country, and is as brutal and charming by turns as CR canon. He teaches them new and dangerous alchemies, and tattoos the secret to each of them on the back of another: Astrid gets Caleb’s, Caleb gets Wulf’s, Wulf gets Astrid’s.
Caleb, of course, is gifted with Flame Alchemy. Wulf becomes the Invisible Sword, for his ability to compress air into blades. Astrid becomes the Revenant Alchemist, gifted at luring and trapping lost souls into haphazard armored bodies for the front lines.
After the war in Ishval, it is Astrid who rises to the rank of Colonel, with Wulf and Caleb as her most trusted Lieutenants. Always promising to watch her back and to watch her, as she rises through the ranks toward the man they need to unseat: one General Ludinis, First Alchemist of the Assembly of Generals, and unbeknownst to our heroes, also a being known as Greed.
(the Nein show up in other places. Jester in a part-speakeasy-part-brothel run by her parents, where Caleb goes for intel. Beau in the inner sanctum of a private library when Astrid needs to do covert research. Cad in an unassuming temple to forbidden gods.)
The three of them are all very much together, and although they are very professional about it the only reason they get away with it is no one can figure out who is dating whom. Are Caleb and Astrid dating? Can’t be, Wulf is always with them. Etc. Etc.
I could go on but like. Yeah. Them.
