Sorry for the long prompt, but I can't get this out of my head.
The long, ugly war comes to an end with an uneasy peace that is to be sealed with a royal wedding between Ardyn (the normal human prince of Niflheim, healing powers optional) and Noctis.
Naturally he's less than happy about this. It means leaving his home and his life to marry someone far from his own age, and going to live forever in a hostile kingdom where he's sure to be humiliated and abused. But for the good of his country, he is willing to make the sacrifice and endure whatever might happen to him.
Him being Ardyn, naturally.
See, after all these years of war and propaganda, the Niflheimian view of Lucis is a little bit skewed.
Ardyn doesn't believe all the rumors, of course. Just the basic things everyone knows, like that the Lucians worship death and venerate the corpses of their past kings, and that in exchange for power the king enslaved himself to a rock that slowly sucks away his soul, and that their malign gods command them through messengers in the shape of eyeless women and ravening beasts.
The surely cruel and callow young prince is bad enough, but he knows he'll also be contending with the royal retinue. The mindless brute. The cackling sycophant who they say rose to his place by making himself useful to the prince, providing endless photographs of blackmail to use against his enemies. The icy adviser who they say takes joy in nothing but the very precise use of his beloved knives on helpless subjects.
Niflheim, on the other hand, is blameless. Everything they've done has been for the greater good, and out of sad necessity. What, using daemons and MTs as weapons? Isn't that better than sending human beings to be slaughtered?
At least, that's Ardyn's point of view. And now he's alone in the lion's den.
+ He's trying to face it all with courage and dignity, which comes across as acting like an aloof, superior dickhead + Noctis keeps vanishing for hours on end, and everyone is obviously covering for him. Ardyn is more and more sure he has some sort of horrible Bluebeard secret (he is actually going to fish) + It takes the guys a while to catch on that this arrogant, smirky jerk is actually covering for being lonely and homesick + It turns out the brute understands Ardyn's literary references, the knife-wielder makes him a dish he'd missed from home, and the sycophant sneaks off to take dozens of pictures of Ardyn's beloved black chocobo + Ardyn and Noct slowly get to like and even love one another, and are so offended to find out that they both thought they were the one making the terrible sacrifice of marrying an evil stranger
Ardnoct is the basis, but if what you feel like is an OT4 that Ardyn gets added to, I am definitely down for that too.
("You seriously thought we were some kind of death-cult?" "...You are wearing no less than fourteen skulls.")
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timeasmymeasure
Ardnoct arranged marriage AU, misunderstandings
Date: 2017-11-20 09:27 am (UTC)The long, ugly war comes to an end with an uneasy peace that is to be sealed with a royal wedding between Ardyn (the normal human prince of Niflheim, healing powers optional) and Noctis.
Naturally he's less than happy about this. It means leaving his home and his life to marry someone far from his own age, and going to live forever in a hostile kingdom where he's sure to be humiliated and abused. But for the good of his country, he is willing to make the sacrifice and endure whatever might happen to him.
Him being Ardyn, naturally.
See, after all these years of war and propaganda, the Niflheimian view of Lucis is a little bit skewed.
Ardyn doesn't believe all the rumors, of course. Just the basic things everyone knows, like that the Lucians worship death and venerate the corpses of their past kings, and that in exchange for power the king enslaved himself to a rock that slowly sucks away his soul, and that their malign gods command them through messengers in the shape of eyeless women and ravening beasts.
The surely cruel and callow young prince is bad enough, but he knows he'll also be contending with the royal retinue. The mindless brute. The cackling sycophant who they say rose to his place by making himself useful to the prince, providing endless photographs of blackmail to use against his enemies. The icy adviser who they say takes joy in nothing but the very precise use of his beloved knives on helpless subjects.
Niflheim, on the other hand, is blameless. Everything they've done has been for the greater good, and out of sad necessity. What, using daemons and MTs as weapons? Isn't that better than sending human beings to be slaughtered?
At least, that's Ardyn's point of view. And now he's alone in the lion's den.
+ He's trying to face it all with courage and dignity, which comes across as acting like an aloof, superior dickhead
+ Noctis keeps vanishing for hours on end, and everyone is obviously covering for him. Ardyn is more and more sure he has some sort of horrible Bluebeard secret (he is actually going to fish)
+ It takes the guys a while to catch on that this arrogant, smirky jerk is actually covering for being lonely and homesick
+ It turns out the brute understands Ardyn's literary references, the knife-wielder makes him a dish he'd missed from home, and the sycophant sneaks off to take dozens of pictures of Ardyn's beloved black chocobo
+ Ardyn and Noct slowly get to like and even love one another, and are so offended to find out that they both thought they were the one making the terrible sacrifice of marrying an evil stranger
Ardnoct is the basis, but if what you feel like is an OT4 that Ardyn gets added to, I am definitely down for that too.
("You seriously thought we were some kind of death-cult?" "...You are wearing no less than fourteen skulls.")