About Chapter 114

非常好分析使我的眼睛流泪

crying because "a shallow bond" is exactly what caused fyodor's own downfall.

his lack of trust in nikolai, shown by not just taking the antidote right then and there. shown by being cold towards his friend and simply getting in the helicopter with no further words. the fact that, if he had stayed outside with nikolai or even beckoned him in the copter, he'd probably still be alive.

fyodor called dazai & chuuya's bond shallow but never faced the fact that his bonds are shallow as well.

dostoevsky's downfall begins with his sentence, "are you unfit to utilize a gravity manipulator?" with this sentence about chuuya, fyodor sums up his relationships with everyone who cares about him most. he sees them as tools to be used, not people he can rely on.

with ivan, who would literally give his life for him, fyodor brings him into battle once and casts him aside (which, by the way, stupid move fedya. ivan could've saved his ass too!)

with karma, who was nothing more than a boost for fyodor to get back on his feet.

with nikolai, who saw something in fyodor nobody else did, a friend. who tried to form a connection, to see beyond the "demon" in dostoy. who got cast aside anyways because fyodor doesn't see the value in other people's love.

fyodor's lack of trust makes his bonds shallow, which in turn makes him "need" to manipulate others so that he still gets his way. it's a vicious cycle for him, with the path of "trust" and "faith" in anyone else being too long and winding for his ambitious heart. once again, the path straight forward has nothing at the end.

BSD Theory: Time Travel

Before chapter 113 comes out and BSD in general progresses, I'd just like to get out this half-baked theory/observation that I'm not going to think too hard about and you shouldn't either. I'll admit I haven't checked the information in a while.

So, assuming the anime putting Fyodor in the ADA backstory was actually done with Asagiri's approval as a coherent piece of the plot, there are two things I want to note:

Fyodor looked the same age as he does in canon. This has been used to suggest that he's really old, but even old people change at least a little in twelve years.

He said that "V" referred to "five", and, later, we find out that "five" refers to the five members of the DoA.

Sigma, one of the five Decay members, was created from the book three years before the events of canon. Nine years after we first heard "V" mentioned.

This leaves us with a few options. Firstly and most likely: I'm an idiot. Second: there were different members that ended up being replaced by Sigma, or else Sigma has existed for longer, and everyone is either lying about his backstory, or something happened to him to make him lose his memories, and Fyodor tracked him down and brought him back into the DoA.

Finally, and in my opinion the most interesting theory: Fyodor is time travelling. I don't necessarily think that that's what's happening, but I saw someone suggest it, and this is, I think, a good piece of evidence.

It would explain why the guy in the background projection during the stageplay Ranpo and Fukuzawa watched looked like Fyodor in his Meursault attire. People have already made the connections between what looks like Fyodor being crucified, and his last words before he got exploded/crushed/his arm ripped off. Maybe Fyodor is trying to communicate with someone?

Since he (when we for sure see him on the rooftop at the very end of the arc) is wearing the outfit he did before he got locked up, it's possible he travelled back a while ago, and post-Meursault Fyodor is in some way capable of sending messages back, dead or alive. The reason for this is: Fyodor is already back in that time period, if he knew everything that will happen in the future why wouldn't he just tell whoever he's trying to communicate with/act on the information himself? Either post-Meursault Fyodor is communicating with someone in that time period, or any itteration of Fyodor is trying to communicate with someone else subtly because they are in some way unable to otherwise communicate.

Anyways, yeah. Don't take my word vomit too seriously.

hc fyodor killing ppl by touch isnt his ability its actually just bc hes so old hes infected w every possible disease but just isnt symptomatic. so when u touch him u immediately contract every plague of the last thousand years and simply perish

Sunset Road Trip

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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

[Sandbox] A piece I drew for Feb 2nd last year, I post it here now. Happy 2/2.

You can't win against Fyodor </3

ohmigods! That last snippet! Am dead from cuteness! I mean the in universe implications are kinda terrible for those not in the know, but still. Cute af. May I ask for more brotherly interactions? Only if you're up to sharing your thoughts of course :D I am LOVING everything about this.

Sure! Lemme see what I can jot down real quick.

-Nox acts … a bit odd around Noctis for at LEAST several months (and will occasionally revert to that oddness even years later). Stiff when touched, stammering when talking, sometimes unable to look his little brother in face for all it’s clear to anyone with eyes that he LOVES Noctis to no end. Regis thinks its a side-effect of his upbringing (he already suspects that Nox is touch starved, but add to that a cheerful little half-sibling who likes to spontaneously touch Nox and wrap his magic around Nox in greeting-affection-attention? Regis mourns even as he goes about trying to help acclimate his son to positive touch from people other than Ardyn).

-Noctis is the initiator of contact for the longest time. Hugs, conversation, casual hand grabs, you name it, he’s probably done it to Nox and then patiently chatted his way through Nox’s instinctive freeze. Because Nox always snaps out of it and interacts eventually, and at this point Noctis  A D O R E S  Nox okay? He has a big brother who is totally EPIC and COOL and isn’t always too busy for him like his dad and is totally fine with playing Kings Knight instead of doing homework, and has all sorts of cool hunting stories and-

-There is some serious hero worship going on at first okay? And Nox CANNOT figure out how to deal with being looked up to by his YOUNGER SELF. It’s honestly hilarious and sad at the same time, and Ardyn alternates between instigating more contact between them and rescuing his nephew from death by confusion via being the Cool Uncle.

-Eventually though, as Nox begins to relax around his little brother counterpart and hang out more easily … Noctis beings to notice that something is … not wrong exactly, but … off about Nox. That it isn’t normal for Nox to always walk around with his armiger just beneath his skin, ready to draw a weapon at a moment’s notice, that the Quiet Days Nox and Ardyn have aren’t quiet so much as Painful, because Noctis is even more magic sensitive than Regis and he can feel the thick grief-love-mourning-exhaustion that clings to Nox’s bones on those days. The way Nox (and Ardyn too) feel like today is a day to lie down and just- never get up. Nothing Noctis does can break Nox or Ardyn out of their Quiet Day, even though they never raise a hand against him even in their worst moments, so eventually Noctis learns to come find them and curl up against one or the other’s side, radiating at much love and good thoughts through his magic as he can so that they know they aren’t alone.

-Nox and Ardyn appreciate the gesture more than Noctis will ever know.

-But it isn’t always angst and caution. Noctis is not like Nox, he’s brighter and happier and so earnest that it’s infectious. Noctis essentially has Nox wrapped around his little finger, and when Noctis isn’t busy with the tutors Ignis won’t let him escape from, he can usually be found trailing after Nox like a puppy, asking questions and begging to join in whatever Nox is doing (if Nox uses this as a chance to train Noctis in magic and fighting, then nobody comments. If those practice sessions usually end in Nox tickling Noctis into submission while the latter squeals with laughter and joy, Ardyn is the only one who dares interrupt, and Regis has about half a dozen pictures framed on his study desk).

-These two grow up to be super tactile with each other. Nox because he’s touch-starved and Noctis because he figures out that Nox needs touch and they both enjoy mingling their magic together (Cor comments once that their magic is so in sync and similar they might as well have been twins born seven years apart, Ardyn laughs himself sick for reasons no one dares ask about). Tackle hugs, arms over shoulders, smooshing into the Smallest Space Possible on the couch when watching movies because Noctis likes using Nox as a pillow are all very common (not during game though, because Nox is a cheater who isn’t afraid to use tickling as a weapon).

-Only time Noctis is ever really trying to get AWAY from Nox is during training once Noctis is a teen and his training starts getting Serious. Because Cor’s favorite tactic is to yeet the Chocobros into an obstacle course or arena with Nox as their sole opponent and tell Nox to “Go wild”. Nox has way too much fun doing just that (channeling his Uncle’s trolling tendencies to a scary degree in the process) and the Chocobros inevitably end up wheezing helplessly on the floor to a man, each aching in places they know intimately know they have from prior reenactments of this very same event. Noctis never, ever wants to go up against Nox for real, especially since his madman of an older sibling is always FINE at the end of the spars. Barely breathless and still so full of magic he can casually spam healing spells to get them back on their feet.

-Noctis went though a jealousy phase when he was 14-15, because Nox was so much BETTER at stuff than him either in combat or talking nobles in circles. It lasted approximately until the first time Noctis actually tried to do the Brat Teenager Thing and said something INCREDIBLY spiteful only for Nox to go very, very Quiet and just- leave. For two weeks. Wasn’t even in the Citadel. Ardyn actually got angry at Noctis for that and told Noctis that he had no idea what Nox had been through to get as good as he was. Noctis told his uncle to prove it, Ardyn left and came back twenty minutes later with Nox’s Citadel medical file. It had info on all his checkups and doctors notes since first coming to the city. Pictures of his scars, how underweight he was, his suspected trauma issues and what probably caused them.

-When Nox finally slunk back to the Citadel, magic curled in and subdued like a flinching dog, the first thing Noctis did was run to his brother and hug him tight, crying/apologizing the entire time. Noctis never told Nox that he’d seen Nox’s file and Nox was too glad that the jealousy phase was over to question it.

-Nox once borrowed (kidnapped) Noctis when his little brother was eighteen to go on a brother-bonding road trip around the country to show his sibling how to survive in the proper wilds and what the kingdom of Lucis was really like. He genuinely forgot to tell Regis or anyone else about this, so by the time Axis and the Chocobros track him down (with Ardyn’s bemused help) the Citadel had gone beyond Meltdown and straight into Murderland. Nox wasn’t sorry, and Noctis was having the time of his life as long as he wasn’t being chased by cactaur while Nox sat on a high ledge and laughed at him (Nox is at this point perhaps a little TOO big of a believer in learning on the job).

SOOO LIKE everyone should go read @theloudguy beautifully written fic The Princess Who Carries the Blood of the Goddess Had to do fanart for one of my fave scenes!! Whoever loves main character Zelda has got to read this fic no exeptions!!

-Lisbeth