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@notavodkashot @sparklecryptid @theotherguysride @lectorel
How do you think a soulmates!AU version of Nyx/Cor/Ardyn would go?
So I’ve done some heavy thinking on this because I’m a sucker for soulmate tropes but I’ve never written one before. Because I don’t know which one speaks to me most? I dunno.
I’m not sure that the names on the wrist thing is what I’d go with, because for me, names are….ephemeral? You can change them so easily. They don’t really describe the Soul to me. Same for things like color-vision and such.
It makes a lot more sense to me that soulmates are able to do things like dream the same dreams, hear the same songs, and communicate with each other on a subconscious level. They Know things that the other knows without having any idea how it happens.
When Ardyn becomes Chancelor, he starts helping create these monsters. Nyx knows how to kill them all. He can tear them apart because he sees their weak points, their vulnerabilities. He also knows how to leap just right for maximum altitude, how to stalk his prey, and more importantly, he knows where and when to strike any blow that will save anothers life. Also he can’t get this fucking song out of his head.
Cor is well aware of how Niflheim operates, and thinks that there’s some sort of intelligence mole in his office. He tells the King later that either something is wrong, or he’s compromised. Do not let him know the battle formations ahead of time, please. He’s testing a theory. He’s been humming the same soft tune under his breath for years.
Ardyn, for his part? He hums as he works to tear down the world, he figures out how the Glaive fight and offers just enough to counter it in the manner he wants, and well. The Crownsguard are going to be a non-issue because they’re ever so utterly, boringly predictable. Also, when in the world did he decide he liked spicy food? Or sweet things?
It all culminates of course in that moment of Click. When soulmates meet for the first time, and they realize that they know each other on a fundamental level. That they can speak to each other across universes. That they touch each other, and there is no pain, no heartache, no sorrow.
Ardyn, well. He looks up at the elder of his two so very young soulmates, and decides that…for this? For these men? He can halt the engine of his hate long enough for them to be happy. Because they make him happy. And Bahamut…well. He’ll be Dealt With.
It’s an interesting sensation, having a song crawl up from his chest, knocking on his teeth to break free. To see that same glassy-eyed delight-what-how-shit on someone elses face (The man behind the King, oh, he’s beautiful, he’s deadly, he’s singing) and then hearing a *third voice* behind them, from the guard stationed at the doors.
Hearing the three of them sing in perfect harmony in the vaulting halls of the Citadel Throne Room….well. THAT raises a few hairs on the Council, but Ardyn smooths them over with a smile that’s mostly a snarl, and tells them that for this? Lucis does not have his loyalty, but neither does Niflheim. ALL of them can burn.
Amazing. I love this so very, very much.
I love - the subconcious knowing, and how each of them got something essential out of their not-quite-there connection. Nyx got what he needed to fight back against the monster, to stay alive. Cor got an instinctive understanding of how Niflheim operates (and, in true Cor fashion, suspects a mole/that something is Going On - of the three of them, I think he’s the one who actually has the best idea of what’s going on, that he might have a soulmate over in the frozen depths of Niflheim). And Ardyn - of course Ardyn dismisses his instinctive knowledge of how the Lucian military forces work as the product of the experience of centuries (and of them being utterly predictable, it’s obvious, isn’t it?) …honestly, I think the most important thing for Ardyn would be the fact that he’s actually interested in food again; it’s a fad with him that falls - in and out of favor, and he’s probably quietly delighted that his tastebuds have decided that yes, this is a century where he can get some enjoyment out of food. The little things in life, you know.
And - what song? …for some reason, I have the mental image of them all humming Ardyn’s theme, but I rather doubt it.
And Ardyn’s entirely practical reasons for scrapping his plans and ‘defecting’ to Lucis are - entirely reasonable, of course. Ardyn has had - so little across the centuries. Things that can genuinely make him happy are very much a rarity, and these two men? Whom he already adores? Yes, he can put off his hate long enough to enjoy a lifetime with them. (They’re mortal. So very mortal and breakable, he can’t afford to waste a single moment with them.) And that famous Lucis Caelum possessiveness is probably already rearing its head - mine.
Did Cor and Nyx know they were soulmates ahead of time? Or did it take all three of them being in the same room at the same moment for things to just ‘click’ into place? It’s - a strange thing, now that the connection is fully realized. Now that they understand the how and the why and find themselves reacting unconciously to one another - Nyx brews Cor’s tea just the way he likes it, and stares in bafflement at his hands for a long moment. (His previous experience with tea was ‘dunk teabag in hot water for a few minutes). Ardyn shows up at the Glaive barracks one day with cartons of Nyx’s favorite takeout because he knows that Nyx had to skip lunch in favor of getting that report turned in. Cor brushes Ardyn’s hair, and instinctively works around the tangles - and Ardyn all but melts.
@theotherguysride @lectorel @sparklecryptid
See, the music is….important, and I keep coming back to the same three songs for these jackasses. For some reason, the Wailin’ Jennys keep coming back to me, because they’re three ladies on a REALLY TIGHT harmony.
As for finding that Resonance….See, it wouldn’t WORK without all three of them. They’re a harmonized set. If Cor and Nyx were to be together without Ardyn, it wouldn’t WORK. They could try, but there would be that yawning chasm between their voices that they couldn’t fill and nobody else could hear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e66rJn01_AThis is the song that I think they know together without thinking. Nyx already has a song in Starlight, and shit that one breaks me every time. Storm Comin’ is also SUCH a Nyx song, but also an Ardyn song too.
Cors music in my head tends to be a lot snarlier and darker than them. Nyx is all laments and eulogies and singing to the dead, to the ones who won’t give up. Ardyns music is very much about dying and death as well, because he’s looking to die. (Nyx is always looking for the dead over his shoulder, and Ardyn is looking for the death that was denied him. Different executions, similar results.) Cors music in my head is feral and vicious and about survival. Because that’s what these two need from him.
(I do love the mental image of Ardyn petting Nyx’s hair while Cor lounges at the head of the bed, just humming ‘snare and deadfall’ while Nyx dozes and Cor plots out the rout he has planned for the Nif forces in south Leide. )
It is a particularly lovely mental image. *snicker* I’ve always pictured ‘snare and deadfall’ as a Galahdian song, actually - is that one of the things that Cor picked up from Nyx? And - well. Now that Cor has a good idea of why he knows the things he knows, now that he’s no longer taking the precaution of not knowing the battle plans ahead of time - now that he can draw upon the knowledge, skills, and instincts of not only the former Chancellor of Niflheim but Ardyn, who has lived through so many battles and has so much accumulated experience - well. Cor is probably a lot more effective, that’s all I’m saying.
And - well. Nyx probably appreciates how the other two - sort of semi-adopt a lot of quintessentially Galahdian customs, through their link to him. It’s not like being home, but it’s familiar in a way that is heartbreakingly good, a way he never thought he’d have again, and it’s - comforting, to say the least.
And. That’s a really, really good analysis of the three of them. Nyx, carrying the dead with him. Ardyn, constantly seeking his own death - and Cor being the one who drags them, kicking and screaming, away from it all. Because here and now? They are alive.
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