ambrulia

Latest Posts by ambrulia

You are a supervillain, and everyone was surprised when you declared another supervillain to be your arch nemesis instead of one of the heroes who constantly thwart your plans.

secret identities 🏳️‍🌈

Sumi showtime except its akechi

Memories

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am I the only one who never saw this official art? It’s from a limited edition vinyl release from 2020. they both look so hot

Jason and Bruce are out late one night in Gotham as civilians. They get cornered by a mugger and Jason nearly pisses himself, he’s so amused. He teases the would-be mugger about their hand placement, even tries to goad the mugger into a fight because he’s Red Hood. He can disarm anyone in seconds. It doesn’t matter if you have a gun — he has two.

He’s Red Hood, and he has the literal Bat of Gotham standing behind him like a wall of muscle. They’re as close to invincible as humans get, in this town. And that kind of confidence scares off their would-be mugger.

But then Jason turns around, a smile stretching across his face, and Bruce is white. Bone white and so so quiet, eyes wide and trained on where the mugger had been standing.

"You… Expected me to betray you from the start?" "Look. At this point I just asume that everyone is going to betray us and I am just pleasently surprised when I am wrong."

The hero, normally jovial and humorous in their interactions, steps into a watering hole for villains, shaking with rage, tears running down their face, and with as much patience and calm as they can muster, simply asks "Who did it?"

'You can't kill him!' 'Ugh I am so sick of this idea that killing this monster would make me just as bad as he is!' 'What? No I'm saying I can keep him alive for DAYS while I torture him' '…'

Ah! I was also Stars! which, you’ve already answered. There we go. Also, just thought of one last title: (I Weep for the Last Dying Spark Yet) You Call Me Demon in the Dark.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm I could make this horribly, HORRIBLY angsty and depressing but instead I’m going to yeet this into the comedy angst territory.

FFXV Dimension Hopping AU.

A much more fantasy version of FFXV with mythical races and such that has been plagued for YEARS, since the time of King Mors grandfather, by an immortal Accursed no one has ever seen, who wields forbidden magics and brings darkness and commands the things of the night.

Noctis, Chosen King, King of Dawn, he who fulfilled his destiny, wakes up very, very confused. He expected to be DEAD after all. Not … alive on the throne he’d been stabbed on.

Check that.

This was NOT the throne he had been stabbed on. It was a throne, but it was a melodramatic thing, draped in Behemoth and Coeurl furs and with a Behemoth skull centerpiece above the top of the throne. It was also in a Throne Room so- so STEREOTYPICALLY fantasy evil Noctis has to wonder if he’s dreaming.

He is not.

He nearly beheads the first daemon (which are sentient or near-sentient depending on race and their own races rather than the result of a plague). Luckily for the daemon, he is very good at dodging sword blows and bows deeply to Noctis, who pauses in confusion.

Apparently, when he slipped between worlds (by accident), he crash landed in the evil throne room of the Accursed (by accident!), and the sheer force of the magic shockwave that resulted form his arrival in this world (by accident!!), purified this world’s Accursed on the spot (BY. ACCIDENT.).

Instead of killing him for destroying their master, Noctis is horrified to realize that … by killing the Accursed … he … is now … the new king.

Of daemons.

In another dimension.

That he hasn’t even seen yet outside this weird throne room with it’s creepy animal furs and weapon displays and floating blue balls of fire that serve as torches along the walls.

What.

What is his life right now.

Can he go back to dying nobly for his brothers and his people again?

Said brothers (plus Iris because where her brother goes she goes, and Talcott because he just got his king-friend BACK he’s not leaving) who managed to strong arm an Astral or three into yeeting them into that same world so they can be with Noctis: NO. NO YOU MAY NOT.

And that is how Noctis went from being the Martyr that saved a world to being the newest King of Night, with his brothers, baby sister, and newest bby retainer as his “evil court”.

In between the shenanigans of learning how to Deal™ with being in a much more primitive, King’s Knight like dimension, there is actually a lot of angst because- well- Noctis DIED. He died and now he’s alive, he died to save the world from darkness but now he’s the kING of darkness (if a different kind) and can’t leave because if he leaves the daemons here will run wild and destroy the world. Again. Also the Chocobros are an Emotion and Iris and Talcott are Major Emotions because they almost lost their king and, for Iris and Talcott, HE DIDN’T EVEN WARN THEM. He let them think they would get their happy ending when instead he’d gone off to DIE.

So yes, there is angst. Angst as the King of Light weeps softly for all he has lost and all the unwanted things he has gained, who sits on a throne he has no use for save to keep those who curse his name safe.

Meanwhile, Crown Prince Regis of the Kingdom of Lucis is sent out into the world to tentatively investigate why the encroaching darkness and nigh-constant daemon night raids have … stopped. The thick, magical clouds that protect the borders of the Night Kingdom, the ancient, ruined once-capital of Lucis known in the ancient manuscripts as Insomnia, no longer try to encroach onto the nearby territories of Leide, and daemons no longer scream and tear apart any who are caught out of the magically warded towns and safe zones when night falls.

The Accursed, Regis’s father insists, must be planning something Big™. Some kind of major, overwhelming strike to have gone silent for this long, and Regis is the only one Mors’ trusts to find out what.

Regis isn’t expecting the journey to be easy. And he fears being killed, or worse, his friends being killed protecting him. So when they are captured by daemons on their journey and dragged into the heart of the Night Kingdom itself, they all fully expect to be tortured and killed, possibly even cursed into horrible forms before they die.

They are not expecting the figure lounging (dozing) on the throne room to blink awake when the daemons eagerly throw Regis and his Retinue at the bottom of the ancient stairs, take one long, long look at them with surprisingly human blue eyes, and sigh, “You tried to sneak in didn’t you. They wouldn’t have bothered you if you hadn’t.” The terrible Accursed, king of Night and Daemons, stands up and limps down the stairs to crouch in front of the prone Regis, an unreadable expression on his surprisingly human face. Then the Accursed sighs again, lifts his head and calls, “Iris.” A human woman jogs into view and the daemons part way for her, cooing softly at her heels like dogs seeing a favored mistress. The woman stops in front of them and shoots a surprised and unreadable look at the Chocobros 1.0.

The Accursed stands up straight and Regis braces for dungeons, or torture, or SOMETHING.

“Tell Iggy we’re going to have five guests at the table tonight will you? He’ll want to cook extra, they look like they haven’t eaten in a while.”

…

What?

when you finish a fic that was everything you could of hoped for and you click on their user to see that they’ve written dozens of fics for that pairing

[Sandbox] A piece I drew for Feb 2nd last year, I post it here now. Happy 2/2.

after i posted caps regarding ann’s feelings towards her costume, an anon asked if i had any interest in redesigning it, so here’s my attempt! i also threw together a kinda messy AOA card with it as well. [ process gif here ]

many of the notes above cover my thought process, but under the cut i get a little more into detail on a few specific references i took inspiration from!

note: if you’re gonna get mad that i covered up your 16 year old waifu’s chest, please do us both a favor and block me instead of writing a comment i’m definitely not going to read.

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idk if it's been explored yet how fyodor's ability opens up insane fyolai dynamics like i'm pretty sure fyolai shippers gotta be ready to have prime quality angst content for breakfast lunch and dinner but now you get a full on five star seven course meal 24/7, 365, made of bernadette animatics and tears of blood

like what do you MEAN his ability is to take over the person who finally kills him, stripping them of their will and freedom in the most visceral way possible, until they become his everything? what do you mean that knowingly killing him now would be, perhaps, the ultimate act of going against human instinct to so thoroughly give yourself and everything you are up to this person who can now use you in such a complete sense of the word?

shut UP and don't talk to me about the possibility of nikolai finding out or knowing about his ability and still wanting to bury a dagger into fyodor's heart - except maybe not, because he remembers the burst of the helicopter and tower, he remembers the still-warm limp hand clutched in his own, he wonders if that agony was humanity, there goes the one person, the one person-

and fyodor, would he hesitate at all? what's one more person after all these years of living on stolen time? or would he bleed at nikolai's hand and wonder even for a second if maybe it's time to let it all end, that his suit and hat and cards wouldn't suit fyodor anyway, that maybe those mismatched eyes might not be a sacrifice he's willing to pay

imagine the sheer devotion it would take to look him in the eye and kill him, killing yourself, the ultimate lovers' suicide really, dazai should be jealous, because here is a bond that can rival the stars, like a single free dove reviving a demon from the pits of hell, carrying him on white wings, because he is the only person who ever understood

imagine fyodor opening his eyes in that offered body and looking at his own hands and knowing they will never be clasped so happily again, no one to look at him without fear, no one bold or deranged or maybe just lovely enough to offer him a friendship bracelet with one hand and stab him with another

do you think nikolai would kill him, die for him, die with him, free himself from the world by becoming a vessel for a hell he loved. do you think fyodor would even care.

I drew this back in october a few days after the last episode of season 5. It's been a while but I wanted to post it anyway^^

+ close up

Sunset Road Trip

Patreon | Redbubble

In Insomnia, 3:40 p.m.

Patreon | Redbubble

ohmigods! That last snippet! Am dead from cuteness! I mean the in universe implications are kinda terrible for those not in the know, but still. Cute af. May I ask for more brotherly interactions? Only if you're up to sharing your thoughts of course :D I am LOVING everything about this.

Sure! Lemme see what I can jot down real quick.

-Nox acts … a bit odd around Noctis for at LEAST several months (and will occasionally revert to that oddness even years later). Stiff when touched, stammering when talking, sometimes unable to look his little brother in face for all it’s clear to anyone with eyes that he LOVES Noctis to no end. Regis thinks its a side-effect of his upbringing (he already suspects that Nox is touch starved, but add to that a cheerful little half-sibling who likes to spontaneously touch Nox and wrap his magic around Nox in greeting-affection-attention? Regis mourns even as he goes about trying to help acclimate his son to positive touch from people other than Ardyn).

-Noctis is the initiator of contact for the longest time. Hugs, conversation, casual hand grabs, you name it, he’s probably done it to Nox and then patiently chatted his way through Nox’s instinctive freeze. Because Nox always snaps out of it and interacts eventually, and at this point Noctis  A D O R E S  Nox okay? He has a big brother who is totally EPIC and COOL and isn’t always too busy for him like his dad and is totally fine with playing Kings Knight instead of doing homework, and has all sorts of cool hunting stories and-

-There is some serious hero worship going on at first okay? And Nox CANNOT figure out how to deal with being looked up to by his YOUNGER SELF. It’s honestly hilarious and sad at the same time, and Ardyn alternates between instigating more contact between them and rescuing his nephew from death by confusion via being the Cool Uncle.

-Eventually though, as Nox begins to relax around his little brother counterpart and hang out more easily … Noctis beings to notice that something is … not wrong exactly, but … off about Nox. That it isn’t normal for Nox to always walk around with his armiger just beneath his skin, ready to draw a weapon at a moment’s notice, that the Quiet Days Nox and Ardyn have aren’t quiet so much as Painful, because Noctis is even more magic sensitive than Regis and he can feel the thick grief-love-mourning-exhaustion that clings to Nox’s bones on those days. The way Nox (and Ardyn too) feel like today is a day to lie down and just- never get up. Nothing Noctis does can break Nox or Ardyn out of their Quiet Day, even though they never raise a hand against him even in their worst moments, so eventually Noctis learns to come find them and curl up against one or the other’s side, radiating at much love and good thoughts through his magic as he can so that they know they aren’t alone.

-Nox and Ardyn appreciate the gesture more than Noctis will ever know.

-But it isn’t always angst and caution. Noctis is not like Nox, he’s brighter and happier and so earnest that it’s infectious. Noctis essentially has Nox wrapped around his little finger, and when Noctis isn’t busy with the tutors Ignis won’t let him escape from, he can usually be found trailing after Nox like a puppy, asking questions and begging to join in whatever Nox is doing (if Nox uses this as a chance to train Noctis in magic and fighting, then nobody comments. If those practice sessions usually end in Nox tickling Noctis into submission while the latter squeals with laughter and joy, Ardyn is the only one who dares interrupt, and Regis has about half a dozen pictures framed on his study desk).

-These two grow up to be super tactile with each other. Nox because he’s touch-starved and Noctis because he figures out that Nox needs touch and they both enjoy mingling their magic together (Cor comments once that their magic is so in sync and similar they might as well have been twins born seven years apart, Ardyn laughs himself sick for reasons no one dares ask about). Tackle hugs, arms over shoulders, smooshing into the Smallest Space Possible on the couch when watching movies because Noctis likes using Nox as a pillow are all very common (not during game though, because Nox is a cheater who isn’t afraid to use tickling as a weapon).

-Only time Noctis is ever really trying to get AWAY from Nox is during training once Noctis is a teen and his training starts getting Serious. Because Cor’s favorite tactic is to yeet the Chocobros into an obstacle course or arena with Nox as their sole opponent and tell Nox to “Go wild”. Nox has way too much fun doing just that (channeling his Uncle’s trolling tendencies to a scary degree in the process) and the Chocobros inevitably end up wheezing helplessly on the floor to a man, each aching in places they know intimately know they have from prior reenactments of this very same event. Noctis never, ever wants to go up against Nox for real, especially since his madman of an older sibling is always FINE at the end of the spars. Barely breathless and still so full of magic he can casually spam healing spells to get them back on their feet.

-Noctis went though a jealousy phase when he was 14-15, because Nox was so much BETTER at stuff than him either in combat or talking nobles in circles. It lasted approximately until the first time Noctis actually tried to do the Brat Teenager Thing and said something INCREDIBLY spiteful only for Nox to go very, very Quiet and just- leave. For two weeks. Wasn’t even in the Citadel. Ardyn actually got angry at Noctis for that and told Noctis that he had no idea what Nox had been through to get as good as he was. Noctis told his uncle to prove it, Ardyn left and came back twenty minutes later with Nox’s Citadel medical file. It had info on all his checkups and doctors notes since first coming to the city. Pictures of his scars, how underweight he was, his suspected trauma issues and what probably caused them.

-When Nox finally slunk back to the Citadel, magic curled in and subdued like a flinching dog, the first thing Noctis did was run to his brother and hug him tight, crying/apologizing the entire time. Noctis never told Nox that he’d seen Nox’s file and Nox was too glad that the jealousy phase was over to question it.

-Nox once borrowed (kidnapped) Noctis when his little brother was eighteen to go on a brother-bonding road trip around the country to show his sibling how to survive in the proper wilds and what the kingdom of Lucis was really like. He genuinely forgot to tell Regis or anyone else about this, so by the time Axis and the Chocobros track him down (with Ardyn’s bemused help) the Citadel had gone beyond Meltdown and straight into Murderland. Nox wasn’t sorry, and Noctis was having the time of his life as long as he wasn’t being chased by cactaur while Nox sat on a high ledge and laughed at him (Nox is at this point perhaps a little TOO big of a believer in learning on the job).

It's gonna be interesting to see Lucis's reaction to the existence of the second Prince.

OH IS IT EVER.

-Meltdown just about covers it, but not quite. Like- not only is this a second prince, but he’s OLDER than Noctis by a good seven years. Ignoring the media for just a sec (though OH BOY THE MEDIA) the MOOGLENET (or whatever the FFXV version of the internet is) is gonna have a collective heart attack. Some people are gonna be joining on the media boat of questioning Regis for having a son out of wedlock (and if he still has Nox’s mother in hiding somewhere as a mistress) but others are going to be harping on Nox himself. Like- the theories get WILD. How did Regis’s agents not find him until he was 15+? How strong is his magic? Why does he wear long sleeves in every (rare) photo or video and why are his photos and videos so rare? Where was his mother from? Was she even Lucian?

-Top theories on those are that either his mother/mother’s family HID him from Regis’s agents or he was living in another country until recently (considering the only other “countries” right now are all under Niflheim’s thumb, this immediately spawns the theories that he’s a double agent for the Empire or he was tortured by them and escaped, which would explain the long sleeves). Other theories for the long sleeves is he’s hiding tattoos that would shame the royal family (he already has long hair and strange taste in earrings after all). Maybe Regis is hiding him from the public eye because he’s ashamed of his illegitimate child, or maybe there’s something wrong with him (people who go with the “tortured and escaped the Empire theory assume he has mental issues on top of scars). A really popular theory for his mother was that she was from Niflheim, possibly a Nif agent there to get the royal bloodline in Nif hands, until someone dug up a picture of him hanging out with the glaives and someone else (probably a Galahdian tbh) did a breakdown on how the single braid visible in all of Nox’s photos is a Galahdian braid, which immediately makes the theory that his mom was Galadhian way more popular (there’s also a niche theory that he’s the kid of Queen Sylva and Regis and that Slyva had been hiding him in Tenebrae until recently, but few people subscribe to that one).

-And let’s not forget the DRAMA the mooglenet is waiting breathlessly for the moment his existence is known. I mean- think about it. Much older illegitimate prince with possible scars, mental issues or enemy agent mom suddenly gets found and taken into the Citadel and named the second prince? A lessor inheritor even though he’s older than the Crown Prince by seven-ish years? If this was a drama show, then Regis would end up assassinated by the long-lost son he foolishly took in and Noctis would either die or disappear mysteriously and Nox would suddenly be the only LC left to take up the throne (and possibly turn it over to the Empire if you’re one of the theorists on the “was born and raised in Niflheim and is their double agent” boat). Like- you KNOW that is how the plot would go, and so does all of the mooglenet, who await the descent of their kingdom into Game of Thrones intrigue and murder with baited breath and much frantic typing.

-But those are mostly Insomnian mooglenet users. No, the ones who live out in the wilder areas, the small towns and the outposts where Hunters often come through have a different kind of meltdown that mostly comprises of “hgdgfd that guy who saved me from monsters/daemons/nifs was WHO????” or “That’s my regular non-regular. He and his weirdo Uncle stop by my ramen stand whenever they’re in and bicker over the best toppings. ACTUAL ROYALTY likes my ramen WHAT IN THE WORLD-” or, arguably the funniest one, “HGFGFHGFD THE DRIFTER I REGULARLY HIRE TO DO RANDOM CHORES IS THE PRINCE. OF. LUCIS?? THE KIDDO WHO DRESSES LIKE A HOBO AND TAGS ALONG WITH AN EVEN MORE HOBO UNCLE IS ROYALTY???? I SENT ROYALTY TO COLLECT MY BEAN CROPS??????”

-Basically while all of Insomnia is wary and confused by Nox’s existence, the rest of Lucis is collectively losing their minds because, you know, Nox has helped out his people where he can, which means he has ABSOLUTELY done all those random side-quests where you harvest somebody’s crop or look for a lost shipment or go out and fight HORRIBLE MONSTERS so bring back some of their parts that you need for your dinky little weapon’s shop. Like- everybody thought they were the only ones who got helped out by this random drifter kid, but then THIS happens and the mooglenet explodes with stories from ALL OVER FLIPPING LUCIS of this kid dropping everything to like- help a researching find certain colored frogs or something in exchange for trinkets and petty gil and shop discounts and the occasional potion.

-While Insomnia is busy prepping their Game of Thrones style fanfic and the tabloids are speculating on the mental (in)stability and bloodline of the “brooding illegitimate prince, no doubt embittered over his early life and eyeing the little brother keeping him from the throne”, the rest of Lucis are basically melting into puddles of shock, confusion, and adoration for the royalty that would drop everything to help out random citizens. Care packages start showing up from all corners of Lucis to thank their prince, and after they’re cleared by security, Nox opens them all. And writes thank you cards. Personalized thank you cards that often reference some individual event or factoid of the person/people it comes from (thing’s like, “I hope your ankle is doing better”, or “tell your wife thank you for the knitted socks, they’re very warm and she didn’t have to make them for me, I know wool is expensive in your area”, or “sorry I won’t be around to deliver your next batch of spiracorn tails, my father doesn’t want me going on Hunts right now for whatever reason”) and this proof that he REMEMBERS and STILL CARES just makes them love him more.

-Also there’s this music-based drabble thing I’m working on that happens JUST as the mooglenet/media is starting to calm down and THAT sets everything off again with even more screaming and confusion and Insomnians going “I’M SORRY WHAT????” while the rural Lucians just go “ahh. Ah yes that explains it. That’s our little Drifter.”

-Regis is torn between being Responsible About Security and wanting the Hilarity Factor of letting Nox have a social media account. Like- his son hates public appearances of any kind and he respects that (barring the few mandatory noble balls), but Regis can just imagine the utter chaos Nox would unleash if anyone ever let him have a Twitter account and it’s …. tempting. The nobles haven’t been this off balance in years and for all some (a lot) of the tabloids and media commentators are annoying in their harping and gossip, the collective brain-melt Nox keeps triggering in the collective public/nobles/Council/media is HYSTERICAL.

-Nyx, snickering, announces one day that Nox has fanfiction about him. Like- A LOT of it. He is reigns over a thriving chunk of the Real Person fandom, almost all of which is massively OOC and either filled with political intrigue and assassinations (and sordid badly written romance) or just straight up AUs (vampire/werewolf/supernatural Nox is a stunningly popular AU as is the Usuper Dystopia AU). Nox is morbidly curious but refuses to actually read any of it for fear of losing his mind (she doesn’t tell him about the very fierce Shipping Wars that have broken out, or the fact that most of those Shipping Wars are over various popular celebrities Nox has never met, Noble Daughters he’s met and despised, and Aranea Highwind, who is on the list solely because she’s a famous female Nif officer and the Nif!Nox theory is very popular).

-There would be a segment of that fandom dedicated to works from the common folk who’ve actually met him, but for that part of the population it’s more popular to share various stories about how they met the then-unknown prince for real and how he either helped them or was adorably awkward over something (there is a magazine anthology of those stories, released monthly and very popular out in Lucis proper, Cindy has a subscription that Cid refuses to admit he reads).

-The fandom/theorists even stretch into Altissia and Niflheim. If ANYONE asked, Loqi would refuse to admit, on pain of DEATH, that he is the author of That One Fic everyone knows about/favs/follows/fanarts that features a Nox/Aranea ship, the now ex-Chancellor as Nox’s maternal uncle, and a SCARY in-depth knowledge/breakdown of both Niflheim and Lucian politics (in the context of Nox and Aranea navigating them, surprisingly this is the one Super Popular Nox-Nea fic that DOES NOT feature a Double Agent!Nox).

-The only reason Ardyn does not contribute to the rumors/fanfics/theories is because he doesn’t Understand How the Mooglenet Works™. He has, however, gleefully listened to some of the glaives read Loqi’s That One Super Popular Nif-Written Fic and smirked to himself over how it is so OBVIOUS who the author is, and pleased that Loqi the author is actually tasteful in his courtship subplot and shipping habits.

Hi! You know who I am and what I bring, so... Nox and Ardyn having serious arguements; what's do you reckon it would be like and how others think of it?

YOU. HOW DARE. (grumbles) fine. Lemme see how long it takes me to make everyone cry.

-There are very few things that Ardyn and Nox have serious arguments about. That doesn’t mean they don’t fight (they do, nigh constantly unless one or both need moral support instead) but the things that make them have serious fights are things they intentionally try to avoid. Those things can basically be boiled down to:

1. Nox not taking his health/self-preservation seriously

2. Ardyn not taking his health/self-preservation seriously

3. The Past (not just their personal past, but the past that lies between them as the Accursed and the Chosen King, the 114th of Somnus’s line and the Betrayed Healer King, and no matter how hard they try sometimes, after bad nights or hard days, it weighs them down).

-Both of them are aware of their own buttons and take pains to avoid them, which is why a serious, slow-burn argument literally never happens between them. If tension starts to slowly rise between them, one of them will notice before it gets too bad and call a time out for them both to cool off.

-No. When these two fight, really fight, it’s sudden and devastating. Like flash floods and lightning strikes. Little to no warning, sudden escalation that looking back on it either can fully explain. From the outside it’s a little more visible, the sudden tensing of shoulders, the way Ardyn’s teasing because suddenly layered in venom without him even seeming aware, the way Nox’s insults turn genuine and become pointed, stabbing into old wounds that normally he would never touch. For the two of them, there is no real memory of when or how their words escalate from the norm to trying to verbally rip each other apart.

-No matter what the topic is about or who “started” it (and really there is almost no way to tell who starts the escalation in these things), it always ends the same way: one of them crosses a line. Spirals out of control so far and so fast they reach out and verbally gut the other with something that only they know about. Ardyn might reference the Train Incident with Prompto, or him not being there when his father died, or, worst of all and only in his blackest of moods, Nox’s failure to save Luna (no one is ever mentioned by name, but the references of trains, ignorance, protecting loved ones… Nox always knows what Ardyn is talking about and it always cuts too deep). Nox, on the other hand, drags up Ardyn’s own temper, needles him over his old manipulations and his lies or, in his worst, most poisonous moments, references Ardyn’s lover Aera (again, no specifics or names, just oblique references, random phrases that only the two of them understand).

-(It is ironic, in a way that makes both of them hurt, that their greatest weaknesses are the Oracles they loved and lost. This one pain they share on an intimate level yet somehow can’t always stop themselves from weaponizing against the other).

-After that Final Line is crossed, the silence that falls around them both is a weight of its own. Anyone unfortunate enough to witness it can feel the hurt emotions, the regret for words that cannot be taken back and the anger that keeps apologies from being aired. From the inside of the argument it feels like a tornado just whipped through, tearing apart their emotions and leaving them both stunned and hurt and confused on how it went that bad so fast or even what the argument was originally about. From the outside, it feels like witnessing a horrible car crash, the silence that follows being the harsh ringing in the ears after metal stops screaming.

-One or both of them always leaves the room after that. If the other stays, they tuck into themselves, refusing to interact with anyone, drifting to some window or corner where they can brood and seethe.

-The silence will stay for at least a week. Maybe more. Less because they are being stubborn and more because they have little to no sense of time on a good day, and they are Not Having A Good Day right now. They won’t stay in the same room, won’t talk, won’t even look at each other.

-Ardyn will sometimes leave the Citadel altogether, disappear into the wilds for however long it takes him until he either no longer looks at Nox and sees Somnus standing over Aera’s corpse calling her a “foolish woman” (if Nox is the one who crossed the line) or no longer feels like there’s a monster trying to crawl out of his skin and finish the job he did hurting his nephew (if he’s the one who went too far).

-Nox, since he cannot exactly leave the Citadel without an escort unless he wants to panic his dad, will go mute entirely. He won’t talk to anyone, will barely eat or drink and often can’t hold it down as he stews-stews-stews. If Ardyn is the one who crossed the lines (particularly the Luna line), Nox might go out into the garden and scream wordless pain into the rain (and it will always rain when he goes to the garden, his magic calling down Ramuh’s storms even as the Fulgarian tempers away the lightning and thunder that want to come to the grieving Chosen’s call). If Nox was the one to go too far, eventually someone will find him in one of two places. One of those places is the Hall of Arts.

-The other is the Throne Room.

-For Regis, there is nothing quiet as terrifying as the day he walked into his Throne Room without warning or knowledge of Nox’s presence and walked straight into a grieving magic field so thick and powerful it took him ten seconds of frantic blinking to see Nox standing by the throne, touching one armrest with shaking fingers rather than sitting on the throne looking too-old-too-tired in a pool of his own blood with a sword through his heart (he never asks what that vision was, but he does order an extra close watch kept on Nox for the next month, just in case it was a look at his eldest child’s inner thoughts).

-Eventually, whoever wandered off will drift back in, fall into the other’s orbit without a word. They’ll stare at each other for a while, not apologizing, not speaking. Then either Ardyn will plop his dreaded hat onto Nox’s head, or Nox will slide forward and hug his Uncle with shaking hands and they will know that all is forgiven. Their regular snarking and arguments resume like nothing has happened. To an outsider, it looks unhealthy. Surely they need to talk about what happened, to understand each other to prevent if from happening again?

-They don’t though. They had an entire afterlife and time-traveling journey to hash out their issues and scream their grief and sob their apologies. What arguments that flare between them, the hurts they air, are nothing that they have not already bared their souls about and apologized for a hundred thousand times before. They know where they went wrong, they know that they are both sorry. They don’t need to say it again, just like they don’t need to bother pretending that the wounds ripped open in the latest fight ever really stopped bleeding in the first place. They know that the other will never intentionally hurt them anymore, so flash-fire fights like these are just … slip-ups. Steam blowing before they can turn it against someone who doesn’t understand what they do and might not survive the fallout should it turn physical.

-That’s why they so rarely fight. They’ve both done enough hating and hurting for lifetimes. After everything they’ve been through, there is very, very little worth fighting over in their minds. And certainly nothing worth the inevitable fallout.

So i saw a post about a deaged Ardyn in @secret-engima ‘s Little Nox verse and now all I can think of is what if Ardyn had gotten deaged along with Nox when they wound up Suddenly Alive Again? Maybe they’re both teens, or maybe there’s a teenage disaster uncle trying to take care of bb!Nox? Honestly I’m just amused at the thought of all the flailing over teen Ardyn because - the chancellor had a secret son?? was cloned?? On top of THE CHANCELLOR OF NIFLEHEIM IS MISSING

So reading the regis / nox/ noctis headcannons, snippets, and lil noct notices how nox shies away from ignis and gladious and im wondering when does that stop? Does it stop? It would have to, after prom gets brought in wouldnt it? Like nox starts being in their company a lil longer and a lil longer over and over. Also what are iggy and gladdys reaction to lost prince nox and how he seems to avoid them?

It eventually stops, yes, well after Prompto comes into the picture, though some days (usually in the aftermath of a really bad Quiet Day) Nox still sometimes leaves the room abruptly when they’re around. None of them know why, though they all have theories. Prompto is, perhaps not surprisingly, the closest to guessing, but that’s because of them all Nox has slipped up around Prompto the most when he “first” met him and because Prompto is an artist, and artists tend to Notice Details. Prompto has never forgotten how the kindly prince called him Prom when he shouldn’t have known his name and how he bought a kid a stupid-expensive camera without hesitation. He has ALSO noticed Nox’s earrings, and unlike Gladio and Ignis who think they’re just Nox’s personal preference, Prompto thinks that they are MEANINGFUL in their seeming randomness. Prompto thinks that all four of them remind Nox of himself and three very close friends. That Nox lost those friends well before he was discovered by Regis and that looking at them interacting with Noctis sometimes reminds him too much of the people he’s loved and lost. He never shares this theory with the others or Nox, so he never knows just how right he is.

But on Iggy and Gladio:

-Ignis is … Concerned™. He may be a prodigy child, but he’s still a child andall his intelligence really does is make his imagination more vivid in this instance. He spends the first several months being on Constant Vigilance around Nox in case the teen tries something. In case he wants Noctis’s status as Crown Prince for himself. He doesn’t like how skittish Nox is, or how Nox tends to go quiet when ignis is in the room, or how Nox sometimes just- leaves without so much as a by your leave. He doesn’t like it At All™ and it takes Noctis throwing a tantrum about Ignis “scaring his brother away when he’s just hurt and sad” to make Ignis stop bristling like a cat whenever he’s around.

-AFTER Ignis takes a few chill pills and really starts to look at Nox, observe him from discreet distances and listen to the servant gossip, his opinion changes. Clearly Nox Is Trauamatized™. Clearly he is overwhelmed with his new status and just needs time to adjust. Surely Ignis is imagining Nox’s agitation in his presence. Nox is probably just agitated in general and when he leaves it’s for some other reason than Ignis’s existence.

-But as time goes on, and especially as he looks back on it once he’s older, Ignis concludes that he was NOT imagining things. That Nox really did go to great lengths in the early days to avoid being in the same room as Ignis and Gladiolus and later Prompto (that Prompto was the major reason he finally made an effort to stop that, because Prompto is Sunshine Incarnate and nobody wants to make him cry). Like- Nox was learning to cope in their presence before Prompto, but it wasn’t until AFTER Prompto that Nox would actively seek them out rather than just accept their presence if they entered a room he happened to be in.

-Ignis thinks it probably has something to do with Nox’s past and the mental issues he hears the doctors mutter about, but how Ignis or Gladio set off those things he hasn’t the faintest idea.

-Ignis does, at some point, realize that Nox literally cannot say no to Ignis on 90% of topics. It’s Noctis who figures it out first and shamelessly abuses the fact to get Nox to either take care of himself or hang out with Noctis, but Ignis once Ignis realizes just why Noctis keeps asking Ignis to go ask Nox something … Ignis is curious. And Concerned™. He starts pushing his cooking on Nox and tries not to be Very Alarmed™ when Nox straight up cries (silent and slow but there) the first time Ignis makes him something. Ignis is also one of the only people who can get Nox into a Tux, though sometimes Ignis thinks that Nox gets frustrated with his own inability to say no, so Ignis makes a point not to abuse this knowledge.

-He still wonders though. And sometimes…

-Sometimes, after a day spent in Nox’s company, he sleeps, and dreams, and wakes up crying from a profound sense of loss and regret and love so deep it hurts and the sense of calloused hands holding his own.

-He can never remember what the dreams are about.

-For Gladio-.

-Dislike. Major dislike at first. Nox shows up before Noctis saves Iris from being lost, so Gladio’s opinion of non-Regis LCs is Pretty Low™ from the get-go. He’s also eleven years old and maybe a little arrogant, and he’s just old enough to know that what it means that Nox is from an affair. And that Nox is part Nif because his Uncle is Nif.

-So yes. Bristly bby Gladio who huffs and puffs and is about as threatening as a wet puppy. Nox still avoids him A Lot, Gladio just thinks its because he’s scared of Gladio. Or a flake like Noctis. Or just a wimp in general. Or something.

-Then one day Gladio sneaks into the training arena to watch his dad and Cor train and sees Cor spontaneously challenge Nox to a spar. Nox not only keeps up with the famed Immortal, he BEATS HIM and suddenly Gladio is rethinking all his previous opinions about Nox. Unfortunately, now that he wants to hang around Nox (this prince is way cooler than the one Gladio is stuck with no fair) he discovers that Nox AVOIDS HIM LIKE THE PLAGUE and this is now a problem.

-Gladio being Gladio, he aggressively starts trying to follow Nox from room to room and ends up Really Stressing Nox Out until Axis steps in and threatens to yeet Gladio into the royal pool if he doesn’t Knock It Off and Leave His King Alone. Gladio sneers and demands to know who died and made Axis Shield. Axis’s eye twitches and two seconds later Gladio is both very wet and very miffed and Nox is nowhere in sight.

-Clarus ends up being the one to convince Gladio to stop chasing Nox around the Citadel, but is unable to answer why Nox avoids him so.

-Stuff happens and Gladio eventually gets along with his own prince, and Bonding Via Trauma happens when Cor starts happily throwing Noctis, Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto to the wolves a delighted Nox who forgets all his hesitations the moment Cor says he’s can fight them however he wants. Gladio never does figure out why Nox avoided him in the beginning, or why sometimes even years later he’ll quietly just- get up and leave the room, but that’s okay. That’s just one of Nox’s Quirks and if the dude needs some quiet time sometimes then fine. Whatever. Just as long as Nox shows him how to pull at off that cool broadsword move he used to kick Gladio’s butt in the last spar.

-And sometimes, after a hard day of training with Nox, he sleeps and dreams and wakes up with tears in his eyes and his forehead and chest stinging with scars that aren’t there and a name on his lips he can’t remember. Sometimes he wakes up in time to see the dawn and the sight of the rising sun makes him sob for reasons he can’t remember.

I've been wanting to ask you about Regis's reaction to the Ardyn is an LC reveal (and the Kingsglaive and Titus's) but I know that's something you'll probs want to keep under wraps, because SPOILERS, so instead can I ask how is it that Titus, Cor and Ardyn end up getting along? Like does Ardyn mention doing something Stupid™ that catches Cor's attention and suddenly Titus finds himself looking over the edge of a cliff debating his life choices as the other two egg each other on?

Those are under spoilers yes. So ON TO TITUS, COR, ARDYN FRIENDSHIP.

-Titus is mostly along for the ride in this friendship. Because one is his commander and the other is his King/Glauca’s boss and yet somehow he is the One Braincell™ of the group.

-Cor and Ardyn start to get along for reasons lost on literally everyone else.

-It’s their LC inflicted trauma, if you’re wondering. Cor knows what it’s like to be driven too far by a king and since he assumes that Mors was Ardyn’s tormentor as well-. He sympathizes once he becomes certain Ardyn isn’t going to hurt or be a threat to Regis and Noctis.

-Ardyn accepts his company with vague bafflement at first, since he’s Not Used to Sympathy. But then he figures out why Cor is awkwardly trying to Do the Friend Thing and- well- it’s not really the same. But he appreciates the thought.

-They REALLY start to click after something happens and Ardyn realizes that Cor, for all his serious scowling, is secretly an adrenaline junkie and Fully Down for Chaos of Any Kind (as long as it doesn’t threaten Regis or Noctis or Nox). Ardyn, who is the Ultimate Chaotic Good/Chaotic Neutral figure in this verse, is more than happy to lure Cor into things that give them both an adrenaline high.

-Cor figures out what Ardyn is doing the third time it happens and the tiny part of him that is still the teenager that went to Throw Hands with Gilgamesh is- so very pleased? Like- YES. Someone who understands his need for adrenaline to feel alive. Someone who not only goes along with it but comes up with cool new ideas. Yes this is good.

-Titus Hates Them Both™ (not really). But seriously- YOU TWO ARE ADULTS AND HIGH-RANKING OFFICIALS. STOP DOING STUPID STUFF LIKE THIS. ARDYN AND COR //NO//. Ardyn and Cor as they Do The Thing: Titus, YES.

-Regis honestly finds this very funny. Is mildly alarmed at Cor’s new choice of bestie, but- as long as no bones are broken? I mean- this is probably the first time in years Cor has taken time off willingly when he isn’t hospitalized. Regis is gonna look on the positive side and let Titus and Clarus deal with all the fallout.

-Cor and Ardyn also bond over Quiet Days, surprisingly. Or not so surprisingly, considering Cor is a child soldier who saw War at 13. Sometimes they share a drink. Most of the time if Ardyn is somehow alone in his brooding and titus and Nox haven’t found him yet, Cor will slip into whatever room Ardyn’s in, settle down in the corner and start polishing his sword. No words, no pity. Just- company.

-Ardyn appreciates it a lot.

-He tries not to let it remind him of Somnus and Gilgamesh.

i'm actually taking the whole fyodasaku thing seriously

hamelin-born

@secret-engima

*snicker* Just - think of the shenanighans if they both came back as teenagers of the same age! Considering their obviously familial interactions, people would constantly mistake them for siblings - but, oooh. If Nox still addresses Ardyn as ‘Uncle’, that - opens the door for some truly hilarious misconceptions on the part of any onlooker…

*giggles*. Just. Imagine people thinking that Nox and Ardyn are nephew and uncle, and Nox wearily (and Ardyn gleefully)  having to tell people over and over and over again that Nox’s grandfather had Ardyn in his old age - Ardyn will be sure to imply all kinds of things about said ‘grandfather’, and end up misleading so many people by telling them the truth.

…it also works out pretty well time-wise. Regis, once he gets over his heart attack(s), will be faced with the unfortunate conjecture that Mors had Ardyn at approximately the same time Regis had Nox - that is, during the Chocobro 1.0 Roadtrip.

Regis: My family is so messed up.

Cid, unsympathetically: Yer royalty, Regis. Pretty sure there’s a lot more screwed up stuff yer family’s done over the years.

Regis: Do not remind me!

Me: *wheezes softly* you’re so lucky I’m looking for some stress relief rn and thus in the mood for another Nox verse. That and this is hilarious.

-Nox still calls Ardyn Uncle. No he doesn’t care they are both physically sixteen (aging Nox up from the 13 of Main so that they’re both “born” while Mors was kicking), this is his UNCLE. He will not call him otherwise. He got used to calling him that in the void.

-Nox and Ardyn still drift in to Hammerhead, this time together, and Cid gets to witness the combined stupid of an uncle-nephew pair of Lucis Caelums who are both going through puberty at the same time.

-Cid is a Screech™ on the inside.

-Ardyn needs a new name since “the Chancellor” is now missing. He snags the name Apollo because he’s a gremlin like that

-Axis is still Nox’s Shield, and Titus is still Apollo’s, but neither realize that Apollo is Ardyn de-aged. Nope, they think that Ardyn was Apollo’s half sibling, one of three, the other being Nox’s mystery mother. It’s a soap opera level backstory, but it works because APOLLO AND NOX NEVER SAY IT. Everyone else just puts those pieces together themselves when struggling with the name “Izunia” and the pair’s insistence on them uncle-nephew.

-In this AU, gremlin child Apollo is the one to give the game away, he kinda-maybe comes across Noctis’s birthday trip to Galdin during the day, WHILE Noctis is in Galdin, remembers what is going to happen that night and is just like “Welp the marilith can’t kill him if he isn’t THERE, right?”, promptly picks Noctis up, knocks him out with a bit of magic, and wanders off using his magic in a manner very similar to his old daemon illusions.

-Nox is not a happy camper when Apollo saunters over to their campsite a few miles away from Galdin with mini-him under one arm.

-So anyway Regis and the guard proceed to wig out when they realize Noctis has somehow disappeared from the middle of his security detail and start combing the area, Apollo and Nox evacuate said area with child in tow because What is Braincell and encounter Axis on a Hunt.

-Axis: “what is that.”

-Apollo, lion kinging the unconscious prince: “A CROWN PRINCE”

-Axis: “NO”

-But Axis doesn’t want to get caught by Regis anymore than Apollo and Nox do so welp off to Hammerhead we go with a small child in being passed around like delicate but unwanted baggage.

-Noctis wakes up about halfway to Hammerhead and would freak out except Nox is wrapping him up in frightened by caring magic and Apollo is laughing his head off as Axis chases him around with a knife and it’s all very three stooges like. So Noctis giggles despite himself and then laughs out loud when the three “kidnappers” proceed to freak out and fall all over themselves to keep him happy.

-Noctis: Are you two … my brothers?”

-Nox: *bluescreens*

-Apollo: Nox is your half-brother yes, but I’m your uncle, actually.

-Noctis: *confused but pleased noises*

-So LONG story short, Cid calls Regis to inform him that his kid is in Hammerhead, Regis rushes over and because Apollo and Nox have already been discovered by Noctis, they swallow their unease and stay put where Cid ordered them while Axis sneaks off before the king can arrive.

-Regis arrives to find not one, but THREE blood relatives waiting for him, once of which is a son he didn’t know he had, the son he DID know he had, and a HALF-BROTHER who is roughly the same age as son number one.

-Regis needs a drink. And a sit-down. Clarus is just about ready to blow a gasket.

-And OH the conclusions they make (with Cid’s help because he’s known these morons for about a year now), oh the RUMORS that start once the pair are returned to the Citadel and eventually announced to the public. OH BOY.

-Apollo is honestly taking a bit too much glee in everyone’s horror at his age and Mors supposed actions. Nox is just- he’s tired. He’s so tired. Can he just go to sleep and wake up when people stop being ridiculous? No. Lovely.

-Cor is vaguely impressed. Just when he thought Regis’s life couldn’t get more complicated thanks to Mors, look what shows up seventeen years later.

-Also Cor: You know so if Ardyn is Apollo’s half-brother, and Apollo is Nox’s uncle, that means-

-Regis, nursing a drink and a mental breakdown: I KNOW COR. DON’T TELL ME COR. LEAVE IT ALONE COR.

-Titus, who has been dealing with the gremlin (read: Apollo) for a while now: I’m not sure if he inherited most of his problems from his mother or from Mors’, honestly.

-Apollo: :3

@secret-engima THESE GIVE ME NOX/LITTLE-NOX AU VIBES!! AS WELL AS CHILD KING NOCTIS AU!!

First Pic: https://www.zerochan.net/2129241

Second Pic: https://www.zerochan.net/2129242

Third Pic: https://www.zerochan.net/2090127

@blackkatmagic @rayshippouuchiha @followthestars @araceil

SOOO LIKE everyone should go read @theloudguy beautifully written fic The Princess Who Carries the Blood of the Goddess Had to do fanart for one of my fave scenes!! Whoever loves main character Zelda has got to read this fic no exeptions!!

-Lisbeth

aight gamers, whose getting possessed by the rat

I hope Fyodor is in Nikolai's body now and that he's forced to experience Nikolai's love for him in such a way that he can't escape because he's joined them irrevocably. I hope it does something deranged to his psyche to parasitically gorge himself on someone who had, with utter, grief-stricken sincerity, mourned him.

I hope Fyodor drowns in the horrifying waves of intimacy as he subsumes the only person who didn't need a lobotomy to adore him.