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okay, so i know we havent been chatting much (which i blame silly things like time zones for) but i must say i love all your new verses and also that you are an amazing writer that is all
*flails quietly in thank you*
*flails some more in excitement that you like my new verses*
*falls over because a writer I respect a lot thinks I’m a good writer too*
Gosh thanks to your goosedyn posts all I've been thinking about is Ardyn being delighted to see this goose version of him. Everyone else despairs
@sparklecryptid
Pffft yes. He would be so delighted. Goosedyn is also delighted. Also now I’m picturing just-
Ace is having a normal day working his bar, but then things keep getting less and less normal. Things go missing, patron’s have odd experiences, something is going on. Ace tracks it down, because he’s not dumb and if someone’s playing a prank he is going to make someone Suffer. He finds his uncle in the back room, staring hard at something between two sets of crates and is at first ready to yell at his uncle because WHY THE PRANKS. Then Ardyn looks up with a grin of pure delight and beckons Ace to come over.
He does.
He stares.
The pure white goose with a too-intelligent spark in its eyes and a tiny hat that is IDENTICAL to the monstrosity on his uncle’s head stares back.
“Honk!” It says at last, wings spreading as it waddles out from behind the crates, and Ace sees a pile of missing items behind it. He glares at Ardyn, who raises his hands and cheerfully insists it wasn’t him! He was coming to visit his dear nephew when he sensed something odd and tracked it down to find this goose.
Ace sighs, reaches carefully down to shoo the goose out of his bar (warily though, because geese can be vicious and he knows this).
The goose.
Warps.
Out of his reach.
W A R P S.
Ace and Ardyn both stare at the goose, who stares back from the top of a pile of boxes with an undeniably smug look and spreads its wings again in a “come and get me pathetic mortals” kind of way.
Anyway yes, the chase is on, though Ardyn is less chasing and more trailing behind laughing his head off because this is hysterical to him while Ace tries vainly to catch a magical goose without using his own magic. The chase eventually leads out of the bar (by this point like- five different glaives are helping Ace chase Goosedyn and no one is having any luck) and out of doors for a while before FINALLY the goose is caught.
By a very exasperated teenager who looks eerily like Noctis with long hair, or like someone who looks like Noctis and grew long hair to hide that fact (as someone who also lives in fear of being identified by his looks, Ace can relate, which is how he spots it so fast). The terrible horrible no good goose wiggles a bit in the teen’s grip, but doesn’t attempt to warp away or bite and eventually settles with a few petulant honks. The teenager eyes the breathless pursuers, spots Ardyn losing it silently in the back, and sighs. “Uncle,” he addresses the goose in a tone of long suffering, “why do you do this. I’m beginning to think you get hit by this status effect willingly just so you can troll people.” A far too pleased and innocent sounding honk is his answer and the teen rolls his eyes.
Tredd, in between his wheezing, demands to know who this kid is and who the magic goose is (and why the goose HAS MAGIC). The teen flinches, then glares down at the goose (because this is all Goosedyn’s fault) then looks up and says with a straight face, “I’m Nox. This is my Uncle. He’s usually human, but he got hit with a goose status effect and Remedies can’t cure that, so I’m waiting for it to wear off naturally. We’re from another dimension, actually.” At the disbelieving silence, Nox shrugs, “You don’t have to believe me, but if you have a better excuse for today I’d be interested in hearing it.”
They end up taking Nox and Goosedyn back to the bar, where Ace quietly loses his mind a bit at parallel dimensions and ANOTHER ARDYN (not that Nox says his Uncle’s name but with that hat and attitude Ace can guess) WHO ADOPTED ANOTHER ILLEGITIMATE SON OF REGIS. They do end up believing the teen though, because nothing else really explains why Goosedyn has red versions of the royal arms, though the others assume that Nox gave his uncle magic, rather then his uncle having magic to begin with and the teen lets them believe that without comment.
Ace keeps a wary eye on the quietly honking Goosedyn as he trundles about the bar in case he tries making more mischief, but in the end he just winds up perched on a table in front of Ace’s uncle Ardyn, the two seeming to hold a conversation with nothing but a few words, a handful of honks, and a LOT of wing/eyebrow waggling.
Ace can feel a headache coming on.
You mentioned an x-over with au and my mind automatically went ‘aeon meeting Nox and Ardyn’
Okay for THIS one I’m gonna be weird and try a fusion. Probably a bad one but HERE WE GO (note that this takes place during the early chapters of your fic? Just cause that’s what the muses wanted).
-Aeon gets thrown to Gilgamesh by a non-time-traveled Ardyn, and he still gets brutally trained by Gilgamesh but because this is a fusion and I’m feeling sappy, we’ll say the time-travel for Ardyn and Nox happened RIGHT after Aeon got thrown into the Tempering Grounds.
-It still takes Ardyn about eight months to finish sorting through the memories of this parallel dimension fused self and go OH SNAP and tear off for the Tempering Grounds with Nox on his heels.
-Aeon is in the middle of scraping what food he can from the scraggly garden when he feels the ground shake. Feels … something roll over his skin like fury and storms and ANGER and blood and hears his (tormentor) mentor howl in hatred that turns … pained?
-Aeon grabs his sword and runs to investigate. A part of him thinks to just take the chance and run, but he doesn’t think he’ll make it that far and if there is a greater threat about to come for him, he wants a chance to watch and see its weaknesses.
-Aeon is NOT expecting to see Ardyn. Ardyn wreathed in blood red flames, Ardyn with an entire armory of blades spinning around him as he tears Gilgamesh limb from limb with a tightlipped expression that Aeon thinks must be the fury he can taste in the air. Aeon decides that, as fascinating as it is to see Gilgamesh and Ardyn screaming at each other and tearing each other apart, this is a prime chance to run. So he does.
-He draws his sword and nearly beheads the person following him a second later. The sword is blocked effortlessly and blood red eyes drill into him with some emotion Aeon doesn’t care about, “Easy,” scoffs the black haired boy who must be his age, something world-weary and dark in his features that reminds Aeon of looking in a mirror, “I know a shortcut out.”
-“I don’t trust you.”
-A curl of lips, dark and feral, “You’d rather deal with all the monsters THAT,” a thumb over his shoulder at the screaming fight, “will stir up?”
-Aeon scowls as the boy slips by him, unafraid of exposing his back to Aeon just like Gilgamesh was unafraid.
-Aeon follows him out.
-He doesn’t know how long its been since he saw sunlight, just that it was too long, and for a moment Aeon has to stop and bask in it despite everything going on. The boy waits a wary distance away, watching the entrance to the Tempering Grounds and not flinching when the earth shakes. Aeon looks around and spots a campfire smoldering and something smells … good. The boy sees his look and says, “I cooked some fresh Behemoth sirloin. Figured you’d be hungry for something that didn’t come out of the ground.”
-Aeon eyes the boy warily, and for a moment considers questioning him as to why he is here, why he came, why ARDYN came and can apparently wield magic.
-Then he decides that it can wait until he’s eaten. The boy keeps watch on the entrance while Aeon eats, and Aeon is just finishing his first non-vegetable meal in months when Ardyn comes out, blood on his clothes but no wounds on his person, a dark look in his eyes that raises every hair on Aeon’s body. “There you are,” murmurs Ardyn and something in his eyes looks … off, “I feared you had died.”
-Aeon bristles, “You’re the one who threw me in there.”
-Ardyn looks away, studying the horizon line, “A grievous sin I have now rectified. There are supplies in the pack to your left, take them. Consider them a present for surviving Gilgamesh.” And Aeon wants to stab the man, wants to throw the bag at Ardyn’s head, but between one blink and the next the man is gone, vanishing into the shadows of the trees.
-The black-haired boy, who’s eyes are now blue rather than red, does not leave. He stays, and when Aeon breaks camp and leaves, he follows behind.
-Aeon snarls at him, hand on his mother’s sword hilt, “What do you want?”
-The boy blinks at him, “My name is Nox.”
-Aeon bares his teeth, his father’s fangs showing, “That’s not what I asked.”
-Another blink and thoughtful stare at the sky and then a slow, “Well. I suppose I want a friend.”
-And its the dumbest lie Aeon has ever heard, to the point where all Aeon can do is walk away in disgust.
-Nox follows him.
-It becomes a theme. Nox occasionally disappears, but never for more than a few days, then he always pops up again, falling into step in Aeon’s peripheral vision, just out of range of attack, content with the silence no matter how much Aeon tries to make him go away. Aeon thinks maybe Nox will leave once Aeon makes it to an outpost. He doesn’t.
-They end up taking Hunts together, only because Aeon can’t make him GO AWAY.
-Eventually he stops trying. Either Nox will get bored and leave or he won’t, and until then Nox follows him around, hunting extra food or helping to bring down monsters for the gil (not that Aeon NEEDS the help, but Nox listens to every demand except the one to GO AWAY)
-And so it continues for like- ten months. And eventually Aeon stops trying to make Nox go away or ignoring Nox when he finally breaks the silence between them to say something. Nox is just … always there. A constant fixture that does nothing to sway Aeon one way or another, or use him, or anything that makes SENSE.
-Sometimes he thinks about what Nox said all those months ago. About wanting a friend.
-Aeon doesn’t quite know when he started to think it just might be true. Not because it makes sense, but because nothing about Nox makes sense (he is Ardyn’s nephew, he claims, but he is so clearly an illegitimate Lucis Caelum even without the open use of magic around Aeon it’s a wonder no one else can tell) and if anyone would hang around Aeon just for … “friendship” rather than to use him as a weapon, it would be Nox. Stubborn, stupid, quiet Nox who sometimes acts just like Aeon and other times acts like someone else altogether (he’s messed up in the head, Aeon is certain, he’s seen the days Nox goes Quiet for reasons beyond Aeon refusing to have a conversation, the days Nox operates on instinct more than conscious thought).
-Aeon ignores the feeling in his chest the first time he grudgingly offers a hand to help Nox out of the dirt after a mistimed warp and Nox smiles at him with something like joy in his face. It makes no sense. But most of Nox doesn’t. So Aeon ignores it like everything else and they resume the hunt.
-Aeon doesn’t register the importance of their similar ages until well after he’s turned fifteen and a month or so after Nox mentions that he’s done the same. It really shouldn’t surprise him that they both present at the same time, when they both operate on the same routine and all, but somehow it does.
-It’s only sheer spite that keeps the two of them going to finish the hunt and not just lie down and drown in their combined emotions going EVERYWHERE, and he takes almost morbid amusement in the realization that Nox has no clue what is happening. Aeon has no patience to explain it beyond “keep fighting and we’ll deal later”.
-The two stagger back to an outpost and book a hotel room and somehow end up passing out in the same bed and for once Aeon is too freaking tired to care that Nox is within touching distance. It’s not like Nox is going to try anything, especially not when he’s just as miserable as Aeon.
-Later, after showers and joint miserable looks, they are approached by an Alpha Guide, who teaches them how to shield themselves. The Alpha Guide also gives Nox a crash course on basic biology that even Aeon knew, but apparently Nox did not as he hadn’t even known what it meant to be an Alpha Guide like Dave the Hunter.
-After they move on, Nox takes to occasionally reaching out with his emotions and mentally brushing against Aeon in affection-recognition-greeting before pulling back. Somehow, Aeon finds himself letting the slightest flickers of annoyance-greeting-affection slip out in return. Nox has grown on him, and even if the rest of the world is untrustworthy … Nox is too strange and dumb to use him as a weapon.
-And things go back to being routine. Him and Nox and occasionally Ardyn, who drops in with more supplies and news for Nox and a spar for Aeon after Aeon insists on learning how to combat the kind of red magic Ardyn uses.
-Then they overhear Niflheim Soldiers talking about their successful kidnapping of the Prince of Lucis and Nox growls, low and feral and for the first time since that day in the Tempering Grounds, Aeon can taste Rage on his tongue.
-Well. He supposes they’re off to rescue a princeling then.
(Gonna leave it here, hope you don’t mind this … basically AU drabble of your fanfic? But I wanted to try a fusion and then Nox was like “imma befriend Aeon before he ever gets revealed as Cor’s son” and so here we are.
Also they rescue Noctis and Noctis insta-recognizes Nox as a Relative and Nox panics and Aeon thinks he’s being Dumb but they walk Noctis to Hammerhead and Aeon gets shot and Nox goes BALLISTIC over it so whoops now they’re both revealed and Regis gets to join Cor on the “my son I didn’t know I had is Feral and Abused AAAAAA” boat).
Okay but I gotta ask. Did you know that raen au Ra have villages that live under the sea? And that those that do can breath underwater? Did you Know. Because this is a nifty fact and lore and I'm having fun with it (I made a WoL OC that's going to be Nocts older sister send HELP)
I did NOT know, considering I’m still stuck in the ... 9 hour? 11 hour? something ridiculously long hour second part of a Realm Reborn. But like- that is EPIC
Underwater dragons.
hgffhgf
Also don’t ask me for help unless you want me to enable because that sounds AWESOME.
Okay so bare with me here, but what if, what if I wrote a Thing. A Thing where my Fleur-Aulea verse met your Nox verse. What if. ( I'm sorry I'm just cackling over the idea of Fleur-Aulea seeing Nox and just. 'alright regis we have another son now yes I know he's not mine but also he's mine now')
*jumps up and down screaming* THING? HYPOTHETICAL THING?????
YES PLEASE???????
Ever since you mentioned Ace and Nox meeting I literally cannot stop thinking about it because Ace would just. Be so confused about Nox existing. (Also I'm just seeing Tredd or Luche introducing Nox to Ace's cooking)
OHHHH OH YES THAT. I’ve been meaning to do something with that *rolls up sleeves* HERE WE GO THEN:
IN CANON, Noctis has something of a …. Talent for either stumbling into other dimensions of meeting them (the hiso hiso and the miqo’te lady side quests, as well as Dissidia NT if you wanna count that which I DO) and Ace has something of a penchant for running to trouble because honestly the Astrals need entertainment from somewhere and apparently they don’t get cable or streaming in that blue Void of theirs. So the way I see it- either Nox accidentally goes to Ace’s universe for a few days, or Ace accidentally goes to Nox’s for a few days.
Because I love both ideas, I shall do both. This is gonna get Very Long™ (edit: It’s almost 3k words WHAT IN THE WORLD ME-).
Option One: In Which Nox Really Needs To Watch His Step More and Axis and Fem!Nyx Get Dragged Into Things.
-It starts when Nox trips. Seriously. That’s how it starts. Nox trips and Something Happens in the split second his best friend and his girlfriend/wife grab his arms to steady him and then- they’re falling. Like- seriously falling. Falling from 10+ stories up kinda falling and Axis is cursing the entire time Nyx grabs Axis and warps to the relative safety of one rooftop, expecting Nox to do the same. He does, but he misjudges the threshold of Impact Resistance that the roof he lands on holds (that or the Astrals are laughing at him again). It breaks under him and he topples down in a crash of magic and debris onto a slightly cushy landing of broken crates (hey better than concrete or solid ice) and … glass?
-Why are his clothes soaked with what looks but does not smell or feel like blood?
-He is just pondering this quandary (is this whiskey? It smells like whiskey did he just crash through the roof of a bar?) when the door to the storeroom in which he’s landed slams open and in rushes a very unhappy looking Galahdian with a very large knife and braids in a style he doesn’t recognize. The Galahdian stares at him with wide, vaguely disbelieving eyes, Nox barely refrains from summoning a knife of his own (he’s not a threat, he’s a Galahdian twice-over now and Axis insists that means no Galahdian in their right mind will try to hurt him without due provocation).
-(He really hopes accidentally falling through the ceiling and ruining who knows how much whiskey/wine/whatever doesn’t count as due provocation.)
-Thankfully, all the stranger does is slowly sheath his knife and look both exasperated and amused, “Care to explain what just happened?” He says and something inside Nox … jolts.
-Nox swears he hears the low whispers of thunder and magic in the man’s voice, buried as it is under a veil of humanity and normalcy. But surely that’s his imagination.
-Nox pries himself free of the rubble and ruined alcohol, inwardly mourning his no-doubt ruined clothes (they’d been so comfy too) and the stranger looks sympathetic as Nox futilely tries to wring a bit of the alcohol out of his sleeves as he answers, “I have … honestly no idea.” Because weird as his life is, even he usually doesn’t take a step forward, trip and somehow go from inside the Citadel to somewhere in the … he’s going to assume he’s in the Galahdian district because this is a bar with a Galahdian worker (owner?). The last time he blinked and went from one place to somewhere drastically different had been-.
-Dissidia. The Hiso Hiso.
-Astrals please no.
-Nox looks up and can hear the slight beg in his voice as he says, “Please tell me I’m still in Insomnia during the reign of King Regis Lucis Caelum.”
-The stranger’s eyebrows go up almost to his hairline (which is a fair reaction to his question) but answers, “….Yes?”
-Oh good. Now to figure out if he was in his Insomnia or some kind of parallel dimension because at this point he’s not very optimistic on his odds.
-He opens his mouth to make his excuses and get out of there when the stranger cuts him off with a bemused, “Need a new shirt? You can borrow one of mine.”
-He blinks, narrows his eyes in instinctive suspicion, “Why would you help me?”
-“You’re a kid,” points out the amused man, “and a Galahdian.”
-Nox refrains from pointing out that he’s nineteen and technically married, because a new shirt sounds nice and this is the one day he didn’t pack a spare outfit in his armiger. The man takes him to a different room of the definitely-a-bar and produces a spare shirt (short-sleeved unfortunately but Nox will take what he can get) from somewhere, which Nox takes gratefully. His pants are still a mess, but at least he doesn’t smell so strongly of whiskey. He’s thanks the man (who introduces himself simply as Ace) profusely and offers to try to pay for the damages (not like he can’t afford it with a prince’s allowance). Ace turns him down with a shake of his head, reaches out to lightly touch Nox’s elbow (the man hasn’t commented on the scars the t-shirt reveals, Nox is grateful for that too).
-The moment they make contact, the world turns blue and violet. Nox can feel the other man’s magic, pulsing under his skin like the tooth-shaking rumble of thunder and the flicker of lightning in the far distance, taste the ozone on his tongue and feel the jungle rains Nyx speaks of so fondly. Ace’s magic feels like the jungle and the wilds and yet also like the soft snows that settle over a battlefield after the bodies have cooled and Nox’s gaze snaps around in astonishment. He can’t stop himself from reaching out with his own magic in greeting-curiosity-shock toward this- this other Lucis Caelum (sibling? Is he in his home dimension or another’s? Is this man his brother or someone who was never born in Nox’s world?).
-(To Ace, the teen he’s just touched suddenly seems to burn like a star barely captured in flesh, his eyes glow red and Ace can taste blood on his tongue, feel it drip down his chest from the gaping sword wound he knows isn’t there. He can feel the teen’s magic, like crushing ocean depths and the broken, too-deep hush of old ruins. He can feel ash caking his skin like being back in the rubble of his home village. In the back of his mind he recoils, because soul is magic and magic is soul and this teenager’s is a blood-stained, centuries old battlefield).
-They both stare at each other for what feels like too long and not enough before Ace jerks his hand away like he’s been burned (maybe he has, Nox’s magic is still too much for his skin sometimes, still lashes out when he’s too startled to stop it). Ace cradles his hand and curls his magic so tight into his soul Nox can barely feel it (wouldn’t feel it if he didn’t already know it was there). “Well,” Ace manages after several more seconds of mutual staring, “I wasn’t … expecting that.”
-Nox blinks twice, feels realization settle in his bones, “You don’t want anyone else to know.” He can feel it in the way Ace is hiding himself, see it in the wary glint of silver eyes. He understands perfectly. He hid from Regis too for as long as he could.
-Ace laughs a little breathlessly, “You don’t?”
-Nox isn’t given a chance to answer, because that’s right when Nyx and Axis finally figure out where he is and how to get there without jumping through the hole he left in the bar roof.
-He can hear Axis flinging open the door to the bar and Nox is instantly grateful that it’s empty of everyone but him and Ace because his Shield almost bellows through the empty building, “Nox. Izunia. Lucis. Caelum. Arra. Ulric.” Nox hunches his shoulders, hears Ace sputter beside him in confusion at the ridiculous number of last names Axis used.
-“In here, Axis.”
-Axis and Nyx poke their heads in the back and Ace’s sputtering gets louder, then quiets as Axis storms over and slaps Nox across the back of his head and snarls, “What did you just do?”
-“Fell through the roof of a bar and made a new friend,” Nox snarks back past the sting in the back of his head, “Axis, Nyx, this is Ace, Ace, this is my friend and my wife, Axis Arra and Nyx Ulric.”
-Ace definitely makes a strangled, confused noise, silver eyes wide before he takes a deep breath, exhales slowly, and announces, “I’m getting everyone a drink. Go sit at the bar.”
-Ten minutes later, the bar’s sign reads “closed”, Ace has gotten everyone drinks and served up some kind of Galahdian dish too spicy to be healthy (but one Nox loves anyway, this guy is a great cook), and they’ve all concluded that Nox straight up tripped into a parallel dimension and dragged Axis and Nyx along with him. Because Ace is certain that he knows Axis Arra and Nyx Ulric and they should know him (he also gives Nyx several looks that are a mix of horrified, confused, and extremely amused, which Nox doesn’t get at all).
-Apparently, Ace is the result of Regis and a Galahdian woman having a night, no, he has not told anyone else, and yes, he really would like that to stay a secret. Nox has no qualms with that, Axis just smacks Nox over the head again because parallel dimension and Nyx stares maybe too intently at Ace’s braids.
-Because apparently braid meanings and symbols are a bit different in this dimension. Or something. And it’s confusing Nyx to no end.
-“So,” Axis sighs finally once his temper has been settled, “what do we do now?”
-Nox shrugs, “Don’t get killed, don’t make trouble, and wait for either one of our Astrals to come fix it or for it to wear off on its own. These things never usually last long.”
-Axis, Nyx, and Ace all stare at him before Nyx sighs into her hands, “Nox. Babe. Love of my life. Tell me you did not just imply that this is a normal thing for you.”
-“Well- I wouldn’t say normal but….” Axis turns to look Ace straight in the eye, without a word, Ace passes over something much stronger than before. Nox feels vaguely insulted. He’s not that bad is he?
-It takes three days and one very annoyed Shiva (apparently the Astrals of this universe barring Ramuh are jerks?) for the “Trip” to wear off, during which Nox, Axis, and Nyx all lie low at Ace’s place. And by “laying low” what Nox really means is stay well away from the Citadel and any potential Dad Confusion and get gawked at by the various glaives that visit Ace’s bar. There’s no hiding that Axis is from another dimension, though Nox takes care not to go by Lucis Caelum or Izunia around them, just Ulric (which, of course, gets him stared at even more than being an LC, though not as much as his Nyx gets stared at, because Nyx is a guy here and apparently seeing a female Nyx is breaking everyone’s brain. The Libertus of this world just about has a heart attack when he comes in and sees two Nyx’s of opposite sexes staring each other down with trouble-making grins).
-(Nox was the only one who didn’t choke on his drink when his Nyx cheerfully announced to all and sundry that her counterpart was hot and clearly anyone would be lucky to land a date with him. Axis dryly pointed out that it still counted as narcissism if you complemented your counterpart, Nyx just laughed and flopped onto Nox’s legs like she was queen and he was her throne, which made the male Nyx stare and Ace crack up laughing).
-Eventually though, the Trip wears off and they find themselves back in the Citadel with an adventure to tell and a bunch of Very Panicked Adults who want to know how they disappeared for a week and why (and a list of names to check because Nyx might never have met an Ace in her childhood, but that didn’t mean one might not exist and Nox is nothing but thorough about his family).
Option Two: In Which Ace Has A Very Strange Week
-Ace has gotten used to the fact that life (the Astrals) like to mess with him. It’s just- it’s a thing. It’s a thing he hates but there it is.
-But he’s still not used to the entire world glitching out around him like a video game, tripping on air and then landing not in his apartment where he was standing five seconds ago but on the marble floors of-
-The Citadel.
-Great.
-Ace scrambles to his feet, hoping against hope he can sneak out before whatever trouble is coming next can find him, only to hear someone order him to hold still and explain his arrival, look up and see-
-Nyx?
-No wait. This was a woman. A woman who could have been Nyx’s twin, but a woman.
-W h a t ?
-The woman appears to be of similar opinion, eyeing him in confusion before glancing at the other person in the room, “Friend of yours, Nox?”
-Magic swells over him as Ace turns to look at the “Nox” person and he has maybe five seconds to register the inhumanly old gaze and the angry claws of magic sinking into his skin before his own magic reacts against his will, shoves outward in a flicker of violet and ghostly royal arms. It’s not, creepily enough, enough to shake off the foreign magic, but it is enough to startle the Lucis Caelum he doesn’t recognize into backing down. Red eyes turn blue and blink at him while Ace struggles not to swear a blue streak at revealing himself in the Citadel, then the strange Lucis Caelum says, “Oh. You’re not from around here. Let me guess, the world glitched out, or you tripped on thin air, or something happened and now you’re not where you were a few seconds ago?”
-Ace decides he both does and doesn’t want to know how this guy knows that and stiffly nods. The teen (Nox? He was pretty sure this guy’s name was Nox) nodded back, looking far to calm for the situation, and turns to the Nyx look-alike, “Come on then. He can slum at your place until we sort this out.”
-The woman raises her eyebrows in a miffed expression that Ace … knows (oh no. Oh no-no-no this better not be what he thinks this is, his life is not a sci-fi show and this better not be that one episode those kinds of stupid dramas always throw in-), “I’m sorry, when did we agree on that?”
-“The alternative is to stand here and get caught and then explain to my father that no, he doesn’t actually have yet another illegitimate son running around. What’s your preference?”
-They go to the woman’s apartment.
-It’s Nyx’s apartment.
-Same address and nicknacks and everything. Just … missing all traces of Selena or Ace himself. There’s only a few traces of Lib and some scattered objects that clearly represent someone, but Ace doesn’t know who (he has a nasty suspicion its the teen in charge of this escape, the one with long black hair and strong magic and several braids that look a lot like Arra and Ulric braids but … off somehow).
-In the safety of the apartment that is Nyx’s but not, Nox introduces himself, then introduces the woman as … Nyx Ulric.
-Ace maybe gets weird looks from them when he gives into the urge to swear. Because really? REALLY? This is his life now.
-Nox gives him a sympathetic look and a pat on the shoulder and promises to have Shiva sort things out (then shrugs off the stares Nyx and Ace give him at the casual implication that he can boss around an Astral or three). Nyx shrugs and says Ace is free to take the couch, but only if he tells her stories about his world, once Nox and Ace convince her that yes Ace is from another world.
-Naturally, because fate hates Ace, the Libertus of this world walks in on them in the middle of their plotting. Libertus is even more skeptical about a “Lucis Caelum from another world” but Ace has pictures of him and Nyx and Lib and those plus his braids (which are similar but also not to the Galahdian braids they are used to) is enough to sway him.
-It takes a week for Nox and apparently the rest of this dimension’s Astrals to sort everything out (Nox comes back to the apartment at one point snarling about wanting to kick dragon tail and roast fish innards, Ace can relate), during which Libertus and Fem!Nyx alternate between tiptoeing around him and pestering for information (Nyx goes … very, very quiet when Ace asks about her Selena. Ace doesn’t ask again, and is grateful when Nyx lets herself be distracted with pictures of her counterpart)
-(“I’m hot,” she announces smugly, “Lib you owe me twenty gil.” To which Lib sputters, because apparently that bet had been made five years ago when drunk and could not be expected to be valid because really what are the chances of running into an alternate dimension Lucis Caelum that knows a male Nyx? Fem!Nyx gets her money anyway with a mischievous grin that makes Ace ache a little inside).
-Nox, who is far more entertaining to be around than Ace expected another Lucis Caelum to be, finally gets things sorted out and arranged for his return. Ace shows up at his proper apartment a week after tripping into another world and is instantly mobbed by a frantic Lib, Nyx, and Selena who do not believe him about parallel worlds until Ace whips out the photos and phone recordings he got.
-(“Huh,” Nyx breaches the silence after they’ve all seen the video other!Libertus took for him of Fem!Nyx and Nox kicking each other around a training ground, “I’m hot.” Ace laughs, Lib just groans and slaps Nyx on the back of the head because that’s not the issue here, Nyx.)
OKAY SO YOU KNOW MY LITTLE ARDYNSON JEAN? I’m. I’m laughing at Nox being titled the Recusant because that’s- that was a potential contender for Jean’s Lucii title (Settled on The Apostate but I’m still laughing)
*cackles* IT FITS BOTH OF THEM SO WELL.
On that note I can see Nox and Jean getting along like a house on fire. This is their Emotional Support Uncle. No Touch. All Astrals Will Be Smote For Touching. *cat hiss noises from Nox and Jean as they bundle up their respective Ardyns*
SPEAKING OF songs that are oddly appropriate to sing during the long night; consider ‘fear not this night’ from guild wars 2
THAT’S ANOTHER ONE I LOVE XD. I have no idea what it’s game is about, but I discovered it by accident and I love to listen to it when I need to write Angst. XDD
But also yes, Bast, Nox, and Amissa are all the types to sing this song. Also probably Gladio-Thors too, seems up his alley.
