via
https://ift.tt/2zL4djYcharlottedabookworm:
Short snippet from an SI/OC-ish Somnus that was inspired by the discord:
“Brother, please,” Somnus begged, clinging to his older brother. “Don’t do this.”
Ardyn sighed. “They are our people, Somnus, and I have to help them.” He said gently, in the same tone that he had used when Somnus had broken his arm when he was eight and when they had had to get their cat put down when he was twelve.
He shuddered. “But it hurts you.”
“I’ll be fine, brat.” He laughed softly, pulling away, and Somnus nearly whined.
No. He didn’t say as his brother walked away, remembering a game from another life. Remembering how the man who was now his brother had nearly been destroyed by the scourge after taking too much of it in. No, you won’t be.
Somnus wanted to cry.
@charlottedabookworm
YES YES YES YES YES. sobs softly YES.
…I’m. Fairly sure that SI!Somnus would have done literally everything in his power to undo the future that he knew was coming. He would have sat Ardyn down and told him, he would have threatened Gilgamesh with torture unimaginable if he ever, ever betrayed/hurt his brother, he would have worked furiously with the Ancient Eos equivalent of the High Council to solidify his brother’s hold on power by whatever means necessary, he would have attempted to demolish Angelgard preemptively so that no prison could ever, ever be erected on said island.
…except it still ended up going so, so wrong. Ardyn would have listened to his brother and dismissed his concerns as - well, a dream, an illusion, a false vision - not a true foretelling of the future. (After all, what would si!Somnus have been able to do, to say, to prove it? Not when he himself knew - so little of ancient Eos, and so much about the far-flung future). Gilgamesh would have sworn his oath, as he does, and never considered that he was capable of betrayal. And Somnus’ work with the High Council just made him that much more of a public figure, proved that he knew how to politic, and how to politic well.
And it would all come crashing down regardless. Bahamut would take Somnus and force his hand, force him to betray his brother, to nail him to the cross and kill him and condemn him to life unimaginable and si!Somnus - he would never stop fighting. Never. And Ardyn - well. I hope. That Ardyn would see his brother, bound so helpless behind his own eyes, struggling so hard, and remember the story that Somnus had once told him. All the efforts he’d dismissed as paranoia as his brother tried desperately to prevent what he knew was coming.
(Huh, I just realized - this Somnus has the Cassandra Curse, more or less - no one believed him when he told them what the future held).
Though - how. How the hell would Bahamut even compel Somnus to obey him, to be the First King, after - that? I mean, I can see si!Somnus doing some things - scrubbing his brother from history in an attempt to protect him, but - Bahamut can’t control Somnus forever. It’s simply impossible (Isn’t it?) and Somnus would be fighting him every inch of the way, except - well.
Except.
Except Bahamut wouldn’t have to threaten Somnus. He’d just have to threaten Ardyn and Gil.
Ardyn is immortal, but there are so many things worse then death, and Gilgamesh, as Ardyn and Somnus’ joint Shield, shares in said immortality to some extent. Bahamut wouldn’t have to waste time and energy controlling a struggling, squalling mortal (besides, Bahamut doesn’t know anything about how to actually run a kingdom) - he’d just have to threaten Gil and Ardyn. Threaten to do - so many, many unimaginable things to them.
And si!Somnus would. Obey.
He’d wring the promise that Ardyn would be released from Angelgard, that Gil wouldn’t be hurt, and he’d bow his head and obey.
He’d be a good king, but he’d be. Bitter. So very, very bitter; he’d tell Gil everything, and Gilgamesh would be horrified. And, with Ardyn gone - those two would be the only ones they had left. Oh, they’d marry other people, they had to continue their respective lines somehow, except - after. After Gilgamesh spawned, he was - expendable, to a certain extent, and all Somnus could do was scream as he watched his Shield, his confident, the only one he had left banished and bound by Bahamut when the dragon-god felt that Somnus had been - too insolent. Too defiant.
And then years later, after Somnus had raised his own son, when his son was established with a family of his own - then, too, was Somnus deemed ‘expendable’.
Except Bahamut wouldn’t let him die. “You love you brother. You love you Shield. So share their fate.” Bahamut had had enough of Somnus and his stubborn not-defiance, how the mortal had struggled against him every inch of the way, how Somnus never stopped trying to find a way to free, to help his loved ones.
He banishes Somnus to Galahd, and tells the world that ‘The First King is dead. Long live the King.’
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