via
https://ift.tt/2Mm94wisparklecryptid:
hamelin-born:
sparklecryptid:
hahaha while we’re on the topic of de-aging imagine jean visiting insomnia and covering something at the citadel and something happening and theres a flash of light and then-
child!jean is in his place. child!jean cant be more than 14. child!jean who has a very nasty scar on his throat like someone attempt to slit it open (adult jean usually wore something to cover his throat, its with a dawning horror that nyx looks at child!jean and realizes why.). chlid!jean who looks like he’s thinking of the fastest way out of this area and also like hes planning six different ways to kill everyone that would try to stop him.
someone tries to approach him.
jean runs. cor steps in front of jean and grabs him.
jean looks at him. looks at rafters of the ceiling, and then fucking warps out of cor’s grasp in a flash of gold light.
ardyn has a kid au ▸ its like a game of tag! expect the adults are trying to catch one very slippery child that is determined not to get caught
@sparklecryptid
OK, this? This is gorgeous. And the implications alone are just - amazing. Fantastic. Absolutely fucking incredible. Because because because
Because Jean would not trust any of them. He’d look at them with the clear expectation that Very Bad Things were about to happen at any second, and - why wouldn’t be believe that? To kid!Jean, he’s just been violently separated from his father, the only person in the world he actually trusts. At best, these people are strangers, but at worst - and to Jean’s mind, this is the worst-case scenario. Because he recognizes them. That’s the King of Lucis, these are the Kingsglaive, this is Insomnia - and his father is the Chancellor of Niflheim.
To kid!Jean’s mind, this is the worst-case scenario. He doesn’t know how he got there (he suspects Astral involvement) but there is absolutely no way that this is going to go well. Political hostage at best, but if he’s been transported here against his will by the Astrals then it’s likely to be much, much worse.
Jean doesn’t want to know what Shiva and/or Bahamut have planned. He doesn’t want to know. Because - because Bahamut cursed him to share his father’s fate; Shiva tried to break his mind in an attempt to make Jean turn on Ardyn, this cannot go well. He needs to run. He needs to get out of here, he needs to get back to his father, he needs to get out of here.
And if Shiva/Bahamut teleported him here - well. The secret’s out of the bag. There’s no need to hold anything back.
The sole mitigating factor Jean can see in this situation is that the Insomnians don’t seem to know who his father is, but - this is bad. This is very, very bad.
The running theory re:Jean is that he’s someone’s bastard - maybe Regis’, in a ironic echo of the Royal Bastard ‘verse. Except when they finally manage to pin him down (and kid!Jean screams, screams in a way that no one has ever heard from him before, that no one wants to hear from him ever again) and get a DNA sample to run - it turns out that he’s not related to Regis and/or Noctis at all? (Two thousand years is a long, long time for genetic diverge from a single common ancestor). There’s some speculation he’s from a branch of the family that diverged a long time ago, but -
Crowe probably comments that Jean can’t be Regis’ son even before the results come back; she’s met Jean’s dad, and they’re practically mirror images of one another. She won’t tell them his identity - it’s not a matter of national urgency - but she will admit that if Jean’s dad has magic, that would explain - more then a few things.
They probably give Jean a phone and tell him to contact his dad. He’s - he’s a scared, frightened kid, who has obviously had some Really Bad Stuff happen to him in the past, judging by the scar on his neck and the way he’s practically trying to climb the walls to get away.
And Jean - Jean just stares at them. Because he wants his dad. He wants his dad more then anything else in the world right now, he wants his dad, but this - this could be a trap. This could be the kidnappers asking him to contact his father to prove he’s alive before they start demanding concessions, and Ardyn - he knows they can’t hurt his dad. Right? But if the Astrals brought him here, this could be a trap, and he loves his dad, he’s not going to lure him into a trap, he doesn’t know what to do -
(Crowe might end up calling Ardyn - she probably has his number, Just In Case of a Jean-related emergency - because Jean locks down and refuses to.)
That’s it. Jean wants his dad but he doesn’t trust anyone in the Citadel. He doesn’t even know why he’s there, how he got there, there is no reason for him to trust anyone here and so when he is given a phone and told to get in touch with his dad he refuses.
They try to feed him and he refuses. The food could be poisoned, so he doesn’t eat or drink and he watches everyone that tries to talk to him like they’re going to try and hurt him. He acts like he thinks he’s a prisoner rather than a kid they are trying to help.
Crowe’s face does a funny thing when she comes out of the room that Jean is in.
“I’m calling his father,” she informs Regis and Co. who were watching, “The only reason I haven’t before now is because I didn’t think that he’d act like this.”
Crowe phones Ardyn, tells him an abridged version of what happens. There’s silence on the other end of the phone before Ardyn tells her to put the phone on the ground and step away.
Just as she finishes doing that, there’s a flash of red-purple light and Ardyn is there.
“You didn’t tell us that you’d be phoning Niflheim’s Chancellor,” Cor says.
“I told you I’d be phoning Jean’s dad,” Crowe says, “Same difference.”
Ardyn looks at Regis and Co. looks at them like he’s plotting ten different ways to kill them then string their bodies up as morbid decoration.
“My son,” Ardyn says, smiling with just enough teeth to be unnerving, “I’d very much like to see him.”
They take him to Jean, who sits up straight in the chair he’s been slouched in when Ardyn comes in.
“Dad!” he says, but then worry takes over any relief he might have felt, “What are you doing here?”
“I’ve come to get you of course.”
“But-” Jean flounders for words, “But they could hurt you! If this was part of their plan then they could use the Lucians to hurt you.”
No one misses how Jean says that something could use the Lucians to hurt Ardyn. Regis files it away under ‘things to investigate.’
“Jean,” Ardyn says in a tone that is reserved for fathers everywhere, “I would rather they hurt me than use you as a pawn in their games. If one of us is to be harmed I’d rather it be me.”
@sparklecryptid
Ardyn probably sits down next to Jean, plops The Hat on his head, and wraps an arm around his shoulders - a silent message that anyone or anything trying to get to his son will have to go through him first. And Jean - he’s a teenager, he shouldn’t want his dad to be there, but - but he does. He wanted it so much; Jean leans into his father’s shoulder, and lets himself tentatively believe that everything will be All Right now.
Ardyn probably doesn’t waste any time informing his son what’s happened. That Jean is actually an adult at this point in time; that he’s been de-aged to his current state. That he’s a successful journalist, that he apparently prefers to live part-time in Lucis these days because he ‘likes the weather better’, and that he still has the most atrocious taste imaginable for flannel. “I don’t suppose - “ “No, dad, I like flannel.” “Pity.” Oh, and that he still takes every available opportunity to fluster Commander Ravus. “His flailing is hilarious, dad.” “Oh, I quite agree.” Jean, much to the surprise of the various onlookers, calmly accepts what his father says as the truth.
There’s no mention of the mysterious ‘they’ that Jean was so afraid of. Although - his earlier reactions do make a lot more sense now; the child of a high-ranking member of the Imperial Government, suddenly finding himself deep in enemy territory with no notion why? Of course he’d panic.
In the meantime - Regis et al are probably seeing this as an opportunity. They have the Chancellor of Niflheim and his son in their possession - both of whom are, apparently, Lucis Caelums. A bastard branch of the family, maybe, one that split off a long time ago - but they have the magic. They have the magic, and that’s all that’s really needed to identify them - and they’ve obviously kept it hidden from Niflheim. That means something. There is opportunity here, if they can come up with a way to seize it.
(Your picture was not posted)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
