Phantom Thief Jamil AU feat. Ruggie and Ace.
(Yes Ace's cotsume is a combination of KID's and his ghostmari outfit. More AU notes under the cut)
Ruggie: A cat burglar from Sunset Savanna. Met Jamil when they targeted Sunset Savanna’s royal treasury simultaneously by pure happenstance. After being cornered by Leona’s countermeasures against burglary, they managed to escape by working together and relying on the other’s magic. Realising they could benefit from cooperation, they struck a business arrangement in which they execute heists together and split the spoils. Though they can hardly be considered “friends” given the constant suspicion, there’s still a level of camaraderie and understanding between them. Jamil typically masterminds the heists and Ruggie follows his instructions, but is frequently derailed by his own agenda and greed. They both lead their regular, day to day lives separately, but they’ll make the necessary arrangements to meet before executing a heist. After Octa is hired by the Asim family to investigate the thieves, Jamil moves strings for Ruggie to get a job at the pop-up lounge location and keep an eye on the fish. Unbeknownst to them both, Ruggie was already on Octa’s radar due to him robbing a safe in one of the Lounge’s branch locations in the past, but they agree to hire him in order to monitor his actions as well. Ruggie happens to enjoy his job at the lounge, and is a pretty competent worker, so Octa isn’t planning on getting rid of him…yet. (Keep your enemies close…)
Ace: A traditional phantom thief à la Kaitou KID. He currently works as an intern at a travelling circus from the Queendom of Roses where his older brother stars as the stage magician. He doesn’t have a leading role himself so he’s typically relegated to grunt work behind the scenes. He starts an undercover career as a phantom thief purely out of boredom and dissatisfaction with his current lot and does it for the thrill. His heists are performances that showcase his magic and sleight of hand skills. He’s well liked as a magician and there’s lots of speculation regarding his identity, which helps stroke his ego, but he has a tendency to overestimate himself and get in trouble. He publicly challenged Jamil to a heist, claiming he could steal Jamil’s target first. To the public eye, that appeared to be the case: Ace put on a flashy show…only to get trapped by him and Ruggie as he made his escape. Because of this, Jamil and Ruggie are aware of his civilian identity, but he isn’t aware of theirs. They allowed him to go and promised to keep his secret…in exchange for him providing assistance whenever requested. Jamil has been blackmailing him to act as bait for some time now, but it’s not like he’s able to refuse. Kalim frequents the circus whenever it visits the Scalding Sands, so the two have crossed paths normally without Ace knowing.
