#[Ludger's been a good boy since I promise!]

[ofstarsandskies]

MUTTON! FRESH MUTTON!

Oh no. OH NOOOOOO.

IT'S BEGUN AGAIN?!

At the sound of the Mutton Man, Ludger's already throwing his hands up in surrender, "I-I haven't said anything bad about your wares for years! No need to assume anything bad, I've even sent Zig to check your mutton out! R-Right Zig?"

"Sounds about right."

"S-See? So, um, don't worry-- your mutton is still the best in Rieze Maxia and Elympios!"

Would that be enough? He still remembers the other Ivar who got cleaved for disrespecting the Mutton Man's authority. No way does Ludger want to be next; he's content with life and his family now.

[kikaromi]

AU Rambling -- The Struggles with Trust

One of my favorite things about my FE:Fates AU is exploring Ludger’s central conflict: trusting in others, particularly the Nohr Royal Family. 

So the framing is as follows: as part of conditioning the other Kresnik Clan members into martyrs against the Kingdom of Nohr, no members outside those hand-picked by Bisley are allowed to leave the village. This avoids giving those who aren’t completely loyal chances to sympathize with those outside the clan, which could later plant a seed of doubt in their actions come their future invasion. Ludger, the naturally kind-hearted boy, is of course not one of those people. Thus, as Ludger escapes the village by himself, he’s left in a world he barely knows, tasked to find people who’ll help him rescue his brother. 

Who may those people be? There’s two options: Hoshido or Nohr. 

The first thought would be the peace-loving Hoshidans, but there’s an immediate problem: his situation’s circumstances. It’s hard not to suspect a stranger who hails from seemingly nowhere asking you to come help him with a problem within enemy territory. And it gets worse-- helping Ludger would mean following him up into his secluded mountain village into what’s almost guaranteed to be a trap, as Bisley knows Ludger’s going to come back eventually to rescue Julius. Anyone with sense would conclude Ludger was intentionally trying to lead his country’s enemies into a trap for the Kingdom of Nohr’s sake. 

Plus the opposite could be true too-- maybe the Hoshidans would only go with him to kill a future cog in the ongoing war. Ludger would finally be with his brother again, only to get them both killed because of his naivete. Asking for their help isn’t an option. The next option would be the Nohrians, but that’s a no-go as well. 

Though Ludger now knows Bisley’s stories of the Nohr Royal Family being vile, untrustworthy monsters were just to mold the other members of the Kresnik Clan to feel no reservations killing his conquest’s enemies, that doesn’t change that all his life, he’s been taught the Nohr Royal Family are his enemies. And he can’t entirely shake off that stigma through the power of will alone; it doesn’t help either that the current king at the time, King Garon, falls pretty in-line with what he’s been taught. 

But to his good fortune, a third option does exist. Ludger hears of Corrin’s forces, who purportedly has Hoshidans and Nohrians fighting together as comrades. It sounds perfect... until he finds out the entire Nohrian Royal Family (excluding Garon) is among the forces. And they call Corrin their sibling, meaning the leader is also part of the Nohrian Royal Family. It creates an ultimatum: does he put his faith in these supposed “monsters” to save his brother, or does he let this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity go? Ludger chooses the former, yet his reluctance keeps him from telling the group why he’s interested in joining their fight. He lies and says, “I want to see an age where all Nohrians and Hoshidans can call each other comrades.”

The cycle of distrust sadly doesn’t show signs of stopping after he joins. Ludger has a hard time sleeping in the camp for the first few weeks in fear someone’ll think him a traitor and kill him, and he refuses to so much at look any of the royal siblings (bar Corrin as they’re his commander) because being near them reignites his worries of what Bisley might be doing to his sibling. This behavior makes Ludger come off as incredibly sketchy, rightfully so, thus Ludger isn’t afforded much trust in return. 

Corrin’s faith in Ludger does allow him to eventually invite them out to a late night picnic where he admits the real reason he wanted to join the army: he was looking for someone to help him rescue his older brother, Julius. He’d kept his intentions secret until now because he couldn’t expect people to risk their lives for what might be a pointless suicide mission when he can’t even trust them first. In that vein, he asks Corrin not to tell anyone about his brother-- he promises he’ll tell them when he feels ready. Corrin goes along with it. 

Finally spilling his heart out does encourage Ludger to start putting his faith in the other members of the camp. He starts talking more about himself (where before, he restricted that information to near nothing), mentions his brother, and generally tries to include himself in the conversation. But he’s still got a sour point in the Nohr siblings, finding it near impossible to get a word in without wanting to abort the conversation. Not because they seem like bad people--he think them to be kind souls--he just can’t shake that small voice in his head telling him not to associate with his “enemies”. 

Once he feels comfortable enough, Ludger blurts out during a strategy meeting that he needs everyone’s help to rescue his brother from Bisley back in their hometown deep within the mountains. Corrin naturally agrees to aid Ludger’s plea and Ludger storms the Kresnik clan in full confidence. Ludger goes on ahead to search the houses, finds his brother, and escorts him to safety. Julius needs time to recover (he’s not eaten a proper meal since Ludger left and his wounds need medical treatment), but he’s quick to congratulate Ludger for finding comrades who've loved and trusted him in his absence. Ludger agrees.

His burdens lifted, Ludger recognizes he’s got a real apology to give Xander, Camilla, Leo, and Elise. He apologizes for avoiding them and refusing to trust them up until they’ve done him a great favor, and he’s going to try extremely hard to treat them properly from now on. 

[sryryfm]

Killing Us Slowly

Pairing: Julius Will Kresnik/Ludger Will Kresnik

Warnings: Incest, Unhealthy Codependency, Praise Kink, Exhibitionism Kink, Voice Kink, Phone Sex, Angst, Canon Divergence

Summary: The fact his brother was apparently keeping tabs on him to this extent should worry him. Or maybe the fact he wasn't bothered at all was more worrying.

Words: 1.8k

AO3

He can’t help blinking at the supposed name his GHS lists as currently calling him. Given how heavily he’s being tracked—well, the both of them really—it seems strange and almost too risky; but even though Jude looks at him inquisitively, Ludger is already making a vague gesture that he’ll be answering it outside.

“You’re alone now I presume?” Julius’ voice came smooth over the receiver and before responding it takes Ludger a second to realize that he wouldn’t see the nod over the phone. It seems like weeks since he last heard his brother’s voice.

“Good. We still can’t talk long, like this, but I’ll call you again; likely if I’m not busy myself when you reach the next inn.”

The fact it’s cryptic isn’t surprising and while he is sick of having everything questionable his brother’s been doing unravel in front of him, being the person he is, he finds himself quietly acquiescing like he always does. At first, Julius asks a series of yes or no questions that seem normal. Ludger’s supposed to be looking for him, yet by the time they reach the end it becomes clear the call was just a means to check on him.

He’d barely spoken or asked the things he wanted to ask, but with the way he had said they would talk like this again, Ludger wonders if he can next time. Julius has always been secretive, but he was worried too; the fact he hadn’t got ask the same kinds of questions back or better yet what was going on was disheartening to say the least.

“Take care of yourself Ludger.”

The call ends and he forces himself to close his GHS before taking a moment turn it off altogether. It was so short and seemingly pointless, but at the same time, the clandestine message underneath his brother’s words was something he was happy to hear. Julius didn’t say it, but there was just a high likelihood he called to hear Ludger’s voice as well as establish in a maybe dubious way that he knew where he was. He remembers hearing people around Trigelph and the few times he’d dropped by the Spirius Corporation building say things like he developed the GHS and that’s why he’s so familiar with its functions. Considering his brother was the one who gave him it to begin with, he wouldn’t doubt he could track it far easier than anyone at Spirius.

The thought has him stop momentarily as he walks back though as he had also heard that they were having trouble tracking Julius down because of that very same fact. Was calling him a risk in that case? Ludger wasn’t too versed on how things like this worked, but it just made his sentiments stronger if it were true.

When he closes the inn door behind him Jude turns and asks him who called. The doctor’s been kind to him thus far and seemed trustworthy, but there was an element to his relationship to Julius and the call itself that he wanted to keep to himself. He settles himself into bed finally facing him and answering with a quiet voice.

“Wrong number.”

                                     -

He calls again when they arrive back in Aladi Seahaven. They had come back to get Elize and Rowen and he feels a little better about not having to lie to anyone about the call this time. Jude had needed to take care of some things at the lab and Alvin seemed distracted by his own business so they opted to stay behind for the time being. Once he got the call about a fractured dimension, he would call for them, but for now, all he really was doing was trying to deal with his debt.

Well, he would be tomorrow. It was already late when they arrived back and Elle and Elize were asleep. Rowen had mentioned visiting the bar downstairs as he had a few acquaintances in the area and Leia had tagged along to try and get an interview regarding politics. This left Ludger in a comfortable position to answer without worry on who would overhear or potentially ask him questions he both didn’t know the answer to and wouldn’t want to answer.

By this point, he can’t be sure what Julius knows or doesn’t know. It’s likely he knows about Ludger being made to give the disk back as it had been Spirius agents fighting him, but does he know how he’s technically an agent now too?

It leaves him a little uneasy, but in a way if he’s calling he’s glad to see Julius is okay. Something in the back of his mind says he should take these moments of contact with more caution or maybe consider telling someone else, but he can’t bring himself to. No one would understand the true nature of them to begin with.

“Ludger? It seems I caught you at a good time.”

His voice sounds strained and it makes Ludger wonder how injured he really was as the agents made it sound like they just barely were able to obtain the disk. That had been hours ago though hadn’t it?

“I’m truly sorry for all this I never wanted you to know…”

He isn’t sure what Julius is referring to. There are a lot of things he’d learned in the past few hours, but there is so much—far too much—he still doesn’t know. Asking would be pointless as it always is and if his brother hadn’t wanted to share this much than what good would it do to ask further.

“I never wanted to put you in danger. Can you understand and trust that?”

There’s a desperation in Julius’ voice that has Ludger replying instantly, a same urgency filling his rare moments of speech.

“Of course,” he tries to reassure and allows himself to ask at least one worry that had been on his mind. “Are you safe though?”

The laugher that answers him is surprising, but refreshing. It’s enough to bring a smile to his face even though he shouldn’t be having this conversation let alone be happy about it.

“You always were a worrywart huh? Everything will be all right,” He responds but there’s a lingering hesitancy to say more. Obviously, it doesn’t quite answer Ludger’s question and there’s plenty that Julius has neglected to share in general, but for now it’s enough. It’s enough to talk to him beyond the brief conversation they shared a week or so ago.

“Should we… not be doing this?” Ludger wonders out loud deciding to voice his earlier concern about people using this to find Julius.

It comes out far too similar to a different concern he once gave towards other things they used to do and it takes even Julius a moment to figure out what he means.

“It should be safe right now. They won’t get me just yet, I promise.”

The separate question of what Julius really did versus what people say he did is on the tip of his tongue as is every other confusing matter, but he bites it back.

“I miss you,” is all he breathes, quiet and scared. He doesn’t regret meeting all these new people he’d like to call friends, but he can’t deny he wishes he could just go back to the days when it was just him and Julius.

It doesn’t even bother him that there’s a perhaps unhealthy codependency he has on his brother; it should and given how careful they’ve had to be before this he should feel ashamed, but Julius has never made him feel anything but safe.

“I miss you too Ludger. I haven’t had one of your tomato omelettes in a long time.”

This is sick. He’s sick, but he can’t help the quiet labored breaths he gives as he strokes himself while his brother talks of simple things. Cooking for him, when they’d watch things together, the few times they went out together.

“Are your sides still as sensitive as they used to be? You’d always squeal when I tickled you, but you made a similar noise when I’d bite your neck too,” Julius’ voice lowers, as he’d been aware from the beginning of Ludger’s movements. He’d long since trained his ears to listen for the slightest changes in his breathing or tone given how little he actually preferred to talk.

A slight shift crackles across the receiver as Ludger presses the GHS against his shoulder and chin bringing another hand to cover his mouth, but the groan caused from Julius’ words slips through anyway.

“I wish I could touch you, but I’d settle for just being able to see you. You always loved giving me a show, didn’t you?”

His noises though muffled now, still manage to be heard, and he’s trying to slow down, but he wants exactly what Julius is saying.

“You’re such a good boy, always eager to please and listen. I want to reward you for it, open you up and make you come again and again.”

Julius had done it before. He could imagine it so clearly despite it feeling like it’d been years since the last time they were together and alone.

“How badly do you want to come for me Ludger?” Julius’ voice also sounds a bit strange and the change makes Ludger wonder if he’s doing the same thing. The thought only made heat pool further and without hesitating Ludger let him know. Repeated over and over, pushed to not only speak, but be louder.

They shouldn’t be doing this. They especially shouldn’t be doing this, but it doesn’t take long for his responses to move into begging and Ludger isn’t sure whether it was just his voice or the sound of him begging Julius seemed to like more; he never had the strength to ask him.

“Come for me Ludger, I want to hear you,” his brother panted over the line and it was clear he was close too.  At his urging it didn’t take long for him to finish and there’s a silent pleasure to be found in hearing Julius follow quickly after. It only invokes a painful longing however as the reality hits him that all he can do is hear, not see or even touch him. That it was unclear when or if they’d ever get to do something like that again.

Nothing but Julius’ breathing comes over the receiver and it’s taking Ludger all he has not to cry.

“I love you, Ludger. Stay safe, I’ll… try to call again,” Julius finally brings himself to say, but hangs up before he can reply. Almost mechanically, he forces himself to sit up more properly and clean up the mess before Rowen turns in for the night.

His dreams are full of Julius, but all he can remember is the one that started this all; his blood staining his brother’s clothes as he lets the other kill him and he wonders if what they have is killing him slowly.

[ofstarsandskies]

plots please????

Send “plots please” for  3 interesting  plots / relationships / connections I can think of for our muses. || Accepting

OutOfCanonShips;; NGL I was expecting this to be like a 3/3 angst train, but it honestly stopped after the 1st one.

1. “It’s Too Late for Me.”  Despite Julius’ insistence on being Sync and Etude’s cool dad, post-Chapter 9 has Julius completely change his tune and tell Sync he can’t offer the guardianship he promised them anymore. Sync is curious why despite forcing the issue before now no problem, he chose now to completely pull out and corners Julius when he returns to the Prime Dimension about tossing all his mushy garbage so quickly. Julius naturally does the cryptic thing at first (because it’s Julius, he never gives straight answers), but Sync won’t let him weasel out so easily.

Julius realizes he’s just gonna argue forever if he avoids the topic and tells Sync his intentions: he plans to be Ludger’s Soul Bridge once he has all the Waymarkers. In other words, he’s going against everything he’s preached to die like the tool he’s been, just now for a different person than intended. Julius apologizes for being a bad father-in-spirit and reiterates Sync and Etude forget about him as he won’t exist in a matter of time because “It’s too late for me.”

2. “What’s so good about Ludger anyway?” As Julius will often use how he treats Ludger as an example, Sync wants to see this person Julius apparently tossed out his tool programming for. Julius dances around the idea as he doesn’t want Sync to be, well, Sync and start trashing on his baby boy who’s already struggling as is trying to find a good job which isn’t his fault. Nope. Can’t prove it. Course you can’t tell a God General what he can’t do and he simply goes to Julius’ place while he ain’t there to find Ludger quite confused how this young man got a key to their apartment.

When Sync shows he’s got a key, Ludger guesses he must be the Sync Julius once mentioned and he was curious what Sync was like as well; he’s heard... interesting things. Possible cuteness or Sync trashing Luds-- could go either way.

3. Even Death Won’t Stop This Nii-san! After Ludger becomes the last catalyst and wins the Trial, Origin decides to grant Ludger’s true wish of his perfect world-- including bringing Julius’ soul back from the reincarnation cycle and sending him back to the human world with his memories and no family curse (so no catalyst bby). With his tickling clock gone and an incentive to live in Ludger’s perfect world properly, Dad-san takes this time to retrack not-son after being, well, dead.

Julius reports since now he’s got nothing holding him back, the dad energy isn’t going to stop until he’s 95 and can’t find the energy to get outta bed in the morning. If Sync thought Julius was overbearing before, hoo boy he’s goddamn wrong. He lost Kid A, he’s got gonna (re)die young, no holds barred baby. Could be a continuation to the 1st upon thought or completely separate.

[ofstarsandskies]

Demon Lab Assistant AU -- Headcanons & Background Synopsis

OutOfCanonShips;; Since I’ve been doing this AU for quite a while with @loyal-nerdlinger​, I thought to write out a basic background synopsis. Since the synopsis part does get a decent length, will put it under a Read More. But the HCs, I’ll put here cause I find them cute and want to show them off. 

Demon Lab Assistant AU Headcanons:

Despite being a criminal on the run, once a month Julius leaves Ludger a present at the apartment so Ludger knows his Nii-san still loves him.

One of these presents is a COMP which only communicates with its twin so Ludger can securely send and receives messages to/from Julius.

Ludger likes to sign everything with his full name because he cherishes the name Julius gave him. People around the lab have told him its unnecessary, but Ludger does so anyway.

Ludger is somewhat notorious around the lab for how often he sympathizes with the subjects he’s assigned to. That said, the Director does sometimes assign Ludger to specific subjects to see if his “friendly” approach gets better results. 

Bisley Bakur, CEO of one of Japan’s most successful companies,Spirius, had a hidden history of promiscuity. One of the women he saw, Claudia, ended up getting pregnant and promptly went into hiding in fear of the repercussions of being the mother of a bastard child. This child was a boy named Ludger. 

Though with Spirius’ (and by extension Bisley’s) influence on Japan at large, Claudia knew she’d always live a life on the run; not wanting to subject her son to this same fate, she handed the less than 1-year-old Ludger off to a local orphanage with a note of only his first name. 

As Ludger grew up in the orphanage, he became acquainted with a boy eight years older than him named Julius. Julius had a reputation of acting as a big brother to all the kids younger than him, and Ludger was no different when he became old enough to walk and talk. As Ludger got to know Julius, he quickly took a shining to him and tried to do everything he could to show Julius how much he liked him. 

His crowning moment was when he asked one of the staff to help him make a plate of pasta margherita because he knew tomatoes were Julius’ favorite. Though the dish was sub-par, Julius was touched by Ludger’s efforts and started getting attached to Ludger in particular. This lead to a promise where once Julius got old enough, he and Ludger would leave the orphanage together to live in a nice house by themselves; Julius sought out various jobs to make money when he was 13 so he’d have the money to make good on his promise. 

When Julius turned 18, the age of maturity, he used the money he saved up to rent an apartment in Shibuya and filed for adopting Ludger. Once he checked out, he officially gave Ludger the name ‘Ludger Will Kresnik’ after his own middle and last name. From there, the two lived normally up until a rumor starts going around about Bisley Bakur having a secret son. 

Through some digging, Bisley manages to find out these rumors are true: Claudia had a son named “Ludger”, and Julius (who works at Spirius) just so happens to have an adoptive little brother with that same name who coincidentally looks like Claudia. This spurs Bisley to start hiring hitmen to discreetly kill Ludger before competitors can find out and blackmail him. Julius picks up on this when he notices a strange group following him and Ludger around during a small weekend trip the two take away from the house; he puts the pieces together and decides to confront Bisley after he and Ludger return home. 

Unfortunately for Julius, the day of confrontation is the day of the Tokyo Lockdown, and Spirius’ building is within the Yamanote Circle. But this also presents Julius an opportunity: if he were to kill Bisley before the Lockdown ended, the crime could be pinned on either the demons running around or a group of demon tamers. And so Julius stages several assassination attempts, all of which end in failure due to Bisley’s superior power as an individual and as a demon tamer. 

Julius is eventually forced to retreat once the Lockdown is lifted, though Bisley doesn’t let these incidents go. Bisley spreads to the media a story of Julius being a terrorist seeking to destroy Spirius by assassinating him, the current CEO. This story also has an intended secondary effect of burying Ludger’s image by being a terrorist’s little brother. During this whole mess, Ludger has absolutely no idea what’s happening-- he only knows Tokyo got locked down for a week and suddenly his brother is smeared as an at-large terrorist. Any attempts to get in touch with his brother ends in failure. 

Now forced into a label of a criminal’s brother and having to pay bills by himself, Ludger seeks out a job considered “under the table” as no place “clean” wants to hire him. Two months into this growing mess, a man takes note of Ludger’s desperate job search and offers him to come work as a lab assistant. Ludger accepts no questions asked, only to find out this lab is an illegal operation researching how to bring demons back to Japan. Having already accepted this job and being sworn into secrecy, Ludger accepts his fate and continues working at the lab.