it’s time for more oracle!au :D! as always, thanks to @jasperraven for enabling me and whose blog you should visit if you want to read fics written in this au~ also, @goddamnminyard for inspiring the part about mechanic!aulea!
okay, when we left off, tiny oracle had just been released into the world with overprotective papa cor as a guardian
but we are first going through flashbacks because man did sylva, regis and aulea have an interesting life before being tragically cut down okay im shutting up
sylva totally had her own road-trip with a side of fighting in the resistance, alright? her and her girl gang of course. they were going to accordo to strengthen their alliance in the midst of the war against niflheim
her best friend, aulea, whom she met in high school but really got to know when the regalia broke down during her first test drive at sixteen and she was the one to repair it. after all, she’s a mechanic’s only daughter and fell just as hard as her mother for everything cars. tbh, she first fell in love with the regalia and only decided afterwards that sylva was “okay, i guess”. she ended up asking to be trained with sylva’s shield because there was no way she was letting sylva go without her on the frontlines! in battle, she is deadly with a rapier, cutting down anyone in her path.
amy and sylva gave her so much shit when they found out what type of weapons she favoured. they were sure she was going down the same “big fucking sword” road as amy. she got back at them through magical “mishaps” when she was “learning” how to wield sylva’s magic.
the regalia was totally aulea’s wedding present from sylva. all of them knew that it was more aulea’s car than sylva’s at this point~ she was ecstatic as you can believe. the heart attacks she gave regis when she took baby noctis out on drives though! she did not manage to pass on her love of cars to him, but speed? noct is all about it!
then, there is sylva’s shield, amaryllis “amy” amicitia, clarus’ twin sister. both clarus and her were trained as potential shields because it’s tradition that the eldest amicitia become the king/queen’s shield. except it was not possible to make the choice based solely on age in this case. it was decided that the next shield would be the one with the greatest compatibility with sylva, both magic and personality wise, while the other would become a high ranking military official and advisor to sylva. she is a fucking giant, okay? which was useful when she had to pick up one of the other girls to stop them from doing something ridiculous. really, her and gentiana were the most even-tempered of the group. though her and her greatsword are truly and intimidating sight, which was helpful during their travels
she ended up receiving a grievous injury in defense of sylva which left her sterile. this is why iris, clarus’ eldest, ended up becoming luna’s shield. after the wall was shrunk to surround only insomnia, she became sylva’s other advisor alongside her brother.
and while we’re talking about clarus, he also ended up travelling for a while, which is when he met his future wife, who is a power plant worker. however, she continues to work in lestallum and the children mostly live with clarus with occasional visits. when gladio ended up showing interest in hunting, he moved to lestallum and started training as a hunter around there to supplement his father's training and then started to move around eos
camelia claustra, another friend of sylva whom she met during one of the many political parties she had to attend. she comes from a family of politicians and is seen by everyone as a strong candidate for a high position in the government, maybe even first secretary, when she gets more experience. she meets sylva in secret when she can to organize the resistance’s next attacks and to talk politics in order to gain an advantage over niflheim.
she does keep contact with aulea after lucis falls back because they are both in “nifl” territory (accordo and tenebrae) though it’s much more difficult with sylva
and finally, gentiana, who will later become known as “the immortal” for her prowess in battle. she was recruited by the former commander of what would turn out to become the crownsguard. she wields a katana in battle and her strategic mind was a key element in keeping everyone safe during the bigger battles.
regis was not without his share of adventures though
he was one of the most rebellious of the oracles tbh. he did not think that his role was to passively keep the scrouge at bay while staying safe in tenebrae, a belief his parents tried to instill in him and one of the reasons why their country lost some of its hard gained independence during his father’s reign. despite not being acknowledged as the oracle at the time and not having access to his full powers, he went on tours to help those afflicted by the scrouge. it was also the occasion for him to travel the world a little. he mostly used swords and magic during his travels, having sought training from guards and hunters when he could while growing up so that he did not have to solely rely on magic.
it was in accordo that he met weskham, who would become one of his best friends yet. seeing that weskham was originally a tattoo artist, that’s when he started developing a passion for them. nobody would believe the many designs hidden under the oracle’s formal clothes~ he mostly used guns in battle and was the one to make sure everybody actually ate, what with regis’ and cid’s tendency to get lost in whatever they’re doing at the time.
he stayed in contact with regis and regularly visited him. he was pretty much a uncle to noct growing up, but could not be there as often as he wanted due to niflheim’s surveillance and restrictions after regis and aulea’s death. noctis does still visit him during his oracle tours, and weskham tries to be there for the biggest festivals in tenebrae where the oracle plays a significant role.
cid became another one of his friends when they met in one of the lucian towns afflicted with the starscrouge. fighting daemons together does create bonds after all. he teamed up with regis and co after that during regis’ tour. it was during that time that he started modifying weapons, with some “interesting” results in the beginning. after regis’s father died in the middle of one of the tours and he officially became oracle, cid ended up going back to lucis and founding hammerhead due to cars being his true passion. as you can imagine, him and aulea got on really well~
he also kept into contact with regis, mainly with letters sent via regis’ messengers and occasional visits. and just like weskham, tried to be there for noctis when he could
cid also adopted prompto as a child after regis and co saved him from daemons (more about that later!)
and to finish, they did journey for a while with clarus, who was on his own training trip. really, just like in canon, he is there to keep regis out of trouble which he cannot help but seek. it’s exhausting really.
like for the other members of regis’ “crew”, he keeps in contact via messengers, though it’s impossible for him to visit seeing that he is in insomnia and sylva’s advisor
one last thing about regis, his messengers are hawks, and not dogs. new messengers are born at the same time as the oracle they will serve and will be taught by the previous oracle’s messengers. in that way, power and knowledge grow with each new oracle that is born. most of the time, they die at the same time as their oracle except if the last of the oracle’s power is used to preserve them. of course, cor is an exception to all of that, seeing that he voluntarily joined the lucis caelum household at the time of noct’s birth. his origins are actually a mystery to regis~
as said earlier, noct is basically raised by cor after his parents’ deaths and was inducted at a young age as the oracle
it was during one of his first tours that he heard about galadh being overrun by the starscrouge and he decides to go there in spite of it technically being in lucis
when a gralean official learn about his plans and tell him that it is not possible, he tells them in his gentlest voice while cor is looming behind him that the territories surrounding insomnia are now part of niflheim, and seeing that tenebrae is also considered part of niflheim, it would be fine to go there, right?
of course they end up agreeing with him because they’re terrified of cor and they’ve received orders from higher up. the oracle is to be kept out of gralea as much as possible, and if that’s impossible, he is to be given what he asks for (within reason) to make him go away. noct milks that for all it’s worth and ends up getting free accommodations and transport in niflheim territory in spite of being around 8-9 at the time (regis and aulea’s influences shining through)
though, you know how gentiana uses her powers to photobomb the chocobros? cor uses them in a much more sinister way by appearing in the corner of gralean officials’ eyes and showing up for an instant on security footage to, ah, reinforce the message to leave noctis the fuck alone!!!
finally, noct can be on his way and heal the galahdians, including nyx, who swears to become his knight and serve him
oh boy, nyx doesn’t know what he signed up for (everytime he hears nyx complaining about some ridiculous shit that noctis has pulled, he always laughs and point out that he was literally the one to hire himself as noctis’ guard. and “employee”? pffffttt, as if he was just that)
first of all, the first thing noct asks him is to call him “noct”. it takes nyx an embarrassingly long time to go from “your royal highness” to “noctis” to “noct” XD
and he’s so blasé by the time he finds out that noctis makes niflheim pay for nearly everything during his tours that he is not even surprise. he has accepted by this point that his boss casually pulls things like those and the only way to avoid a heart attack is to get used to it
eventually, nyx is the one to design the Oracle’s Knights uniform, seeing that he is the one that founded them (he is stunned when noct first tells him that)
now, nyx started his training as a galahdian warrior young under his father’s tutelage before he was killed in battle
after he joins noctis’s “entourage”, cor is actually the one to continue his training thanks to his experience and the time he spent on eos. it’s supplemented with the occasional mission with hunters so that he can gain fighting experience.
cor would never admit it on pain of death but he was totally jealous when nyx became the oracle’s first knight, seeing that he got used to being the one to protect his starchild
it takes noctis a few days to understand the root of his guardian’s “mood” and he confronts him in private about it. when cor notices that it’s something important, he kneels to put himself closer to noct’s level. which is when teeny oracle tells him point blank with no embarrassment whatsoever that nyx being with them does not mean he loves cor any less before kissing him on the cheek.
(the straightforwardness definitely comes from cor)
cor is confused and does not know how to answer and his chest feels weirdly warm (that’s called happiness, cor). he finally realizes that he got attached and that feelings, unfortunately or not, are catching.
the first time nyx go on a mission, noctis gives him one of his earrings (which have been in his family for a long time and that his father had given to his mother as an engagement present), with the implied promise that he will always have to come back to noctis to give it back one day.
this is followed by nyx giving him one of the charms his sister made, so that noctis too will always come back to nyx
it’s after one of those missions that noctis half-jokingly asks him what he wants, what with him never having asked for anything during all of those years
nyx not-so-jokingly answers “to be closer to you” which stuns noctis until he rewords it as “to be bonded with you in a way similar to the lucian crownsguard” to save face, which noctis accepts bemusedly (@jasperraven ;D)
it sends him on a research spree with the help of cor, during which he finds out about his ancestors having forged some of the nox’s royal arms. but the account of the oracle having forged the scepter of the pious is the most interesting
and it gives him an idea about how to channel his power through nyx using a piece of himself as a focus in order to always be able to find nyx in both astral and mortal realms magic-wise
really, he is always channeling power through himself and he can feel that he has lot more power than necessary to keep the starscrouge at bay. using it to strengthen nyx would not be a burden at all. it would also go well with an idea he’s had for a while
they all head to accordo to visit weskham, and noctis asks him to tattoo both of them. mixing each other’s blood in the ink would allow noctis to create a bond between them and to share his power by giving nyx access to a part of himself and thus access to his power
for the tattoos, noctis’ is on his back and represents a fish (because of course) similar to a siamese fighting fish with its flowing fins blending into sylleblossoms
whereas nyx’s is more simple and represents sylleblossoms climbing up his wrist, so that he can always see it/touch it for strength
to be continued in part iii~
