Hamelin-born

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