Note: Because this fic takes place during the conclusion of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, it contains spoilers for that series.
The Bank Called, Your Reality Check Bounced
is a crossover fan fic by Lady Norbert. When the president of Ouran Academy's Black Magic Club manages to open an improbable doorway to another dimension, the seven members of the Host Club manage to even more improbably stumble through it and land in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist. There, they encounter Edward and Alphonse Elric, who reluctantly end up hosting them for the majority of their time in Amestris. Hilarity ensues, in part due to the completely different styles of the two shows failing to merge; the oddball medium awareness of OHSHC does not entirely mesh into the more serious setting of FMA.
Tamaki gets on Ed's bad side almost immediately through his behavior toward Winry Rockbell, so Ed dumps the Hosts at Central Command. There, Tamaki equally irritates Roy Mustang by offering to provide romantic advice to the officers, so Roy sends them right back (and establishes a Central Command Host Club for the weekend to soothe his own ego). Maes Hughes, who died in the FMA canon but is left alive for this AU, is placed in charge of babysitting the Hosts while they're stuck in Amestris.
The story is absurdly self-aware and deliberately brimming with tropes, some of which are invoked by name.
As of summer 2017, the Heart of Hearing Players are recording a performance of the fic; the first installment can be found here.
Tropes used in this story include:
- Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better: Roy creates his own Host Club at Central Command because he's nettled by Tamaki offering to give him and his men pointers on how to charm women.
- Art Shift: As much as possible in words. FMA characters notice (and are perplexed by) things like the air around Tamaki's head turning pink and filling up with roses. It's just a nod to the completely different art styles of the two animes, Played for Laughs.
- Audience? What Audience?: Hughes does not understand who Tamaki is talking to...
- Banana Peel: Largely responsible for the Hosts ending up in Amestris.
- Berserk Button: Ed and Al unwittingly press the Hosts' collective button on their first meeting, when their efforts to aid Haruhi are misinterpreted by the boys as being threatening. It all gets cleared up reasonably quickly, though.
- Buffy Speak: When Roy is designing his Host Club, he wants it to include "one of those weird drippy bamboo things."
- Call-Back: According to this fic, the actual canonical ending of FMA where Ed proposes to Winry at the train station is in fact a call back to Ed's final conversation with Tamaki before the Hosts leave.
- Conversational Troping: A few times, usually by Kyoya.
- Corner of Woe: Mentioned twice, once by Tamaki himself when he retreats into it.
- Crossover: With a dose of Alternate Universe and Affectionate Parody for good measure.
- Dances and Balls: The teenagers all attend a barn dance as part of Resembool's sheep festival.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Nekozawa, as in the Ouran canon. He's honestly pretty sweet, and the narration specifically notes that he's fond of the Host Club members, who seem to like him quite a bit too.
- Deadpan Snarker: Kyoya, much as in canon. Havoc also gets in a bit of this during the 'Central Command Host Club' misadventure.Havoc: It's a good weekend to die.
- Deus ex Machina: Kyoya invokes the trope by name in the last chapter.
- Down the Rabbit Hole: Name-dropped in the title of the last chapter.
- Everyone Can See It: How Hughes describes both the Ed/Winry and Roy/Riza pairings; the difference between them, he notes, is that Roy and Riza are aware of their feelings and have legitimate reasons for not pursuing them, while Ed and Winry really have no excuse (in his opinion, at least).
- Fandom: Referenced directly in the third chapter.
- Fictional Country: Played straight (with Amestris and its neighbors) and averted (with Japan). Of course, their respective citizens have never heard of each other.
- Fictional Currency: Played with; the Host boys are rich in Japan, of course, but their yen are no good in Amestris, which uses cenz as its currency. Roy manages to allocate a small amount of emergency funding from the military to feed and clothe them during their stay.
- Fish out of Water: The Hosts, naturally enough.
- Flat "What": Ed, in the last chapter, when confronted with his feelings for Winry.
- Fourth-Wall Observer: Tamaki occasionally addresses the audience that no one else can see. Kyoya is aware of the audience but more or less ignores them in order to appear sane; however, he does comment more than once on the existence of the fic author.
- Genre Savvy/Medium Awareness: Kyoya is not only aware that they're not really in an anime (as Tamaki thinks), he's the only character to figure out that they're in a fan fiction.
- Gratuitous French: Tamaki speaks a bit to Winry ("Enchante, mademoiselle") but, being Amestrian, she has no idea what he's saying.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Used a little bit by the Hosts, prompting Roy to ask, "What the hell is a chan?"
- Green-Eyed Monster: Ed hates Tamaki because he thinks Tamaki is flirting with Ed's Love Interest Winry. Also for being a generally insufferable twit, but mostly the jealousy thing.
- I Kiss Your Hand: Tamaki irritates Ed by doing this to Winry.
- Imaginary Love Triangle: Ed thinks Tamaki is after Winry, but Tamaki's schemes are actually about getting Winry together with Ed.
- Inspired by…: The FMA fandom on Tumblr:Author's note: Most of the blame... lies with my Tumblr followers, who encouraged my sleep-deprived delusions.
- A Lady on Each Arm: Roy has this going on with the secretaries in the Central Command Host Club, until Riza walks in.
- Meanwhile, Back at the…: How the scene shifts from Ouran Academy to Amestris.
- Meta Fic
- Meta Guy: Along with being the above-noted Fourth-Wall Observer, Tamaki has shades of this too. It shows up in the first chapter, where he comments that they "probably don't have enough time in this episode" to review Amestrian political history.
- Non-Indicative Title: The story has nothing to do with banks, calls, or bounced checks. The author just heard the expression, liked it, and frankly couldn't come up with anything better.
- Only Sane Man: Haruhi is all but outright called this more than once by the FMA characters.
- Papa Wolf: Hughes, of course, who looks askance at the friendship between Elysia and Honey until Haruhi explains that Honey is actually a grown adult with martial arts prowess. He then reasons that this makes him a lot like the Elric brothers, and stops worrying.
- Recursive Canon: Near the end of the fic, Renge is shown reading a volume of the FMA manga.
- Romantic False Lead: Done with a twist. Tamaki (who is Haruhi's Love Interest in the OHSHC canon) is floored to discover that he himself is this, and that the author of the fic is actually pairing Haruhi with Mori instead.
- Self-Deprecation: Plenty by the author, using Kyoya as a mouthpiece; he derides her for using tired cliches and being a hack.
- Shipper on Deck: Hughes is one for Roy/Riza and Ed/Winry. Tamaki becomes one for both pairings as soon as he's convinced of the mutual regard, but Hughes will only allow him to actively work on getting Ed and Winry together. Kyoya notes that the author is one for Mori/Haruhi.
- Shirtless Scene: Averted. Armstrong is only allowed to participate in the Central Command Host Club if he promises not to take his clothes off.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Hughes was too necessary to the plot for the author to allow his canon death to take place.
- Technicolor Eyes: Tamaki, as in the OHSHC anime. Roy's internal monologue even lampshades it.Roy: (thinking) Really, who the hell has purple eyes?
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Averted. Since they're in a completely unknown place, the Hosts decide there's no harm in letting the FMA characters know from the start that Haruhi is really a girl.
- Wholesome Cross Dresser: Haruhi's dad, as in the OHSHC canon. Played with when Havoc wants to know who the hot woman in the photograph is. (Havoc and Mr. Fujioka are both voiced by Mike McFarland.)
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Invoked at the end of the story, when the Hosts return to Japan mere hours after departing even though they spent a full week in Amestris. Kyoya expresses disdain for the use of the trope.
