I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS A LOT AND I MUST ASK YOU, GREATEST POSTER OF ERA 0 🎤
Did Marika send Nihil to Psaltarian for his music career because she had met him while traveling and they had kept up by writing letters back and forth
Did Psaltarian, hungover after a night of shitface partying on tour, stumble into Nihil's hotel room to hear her yelling at him through the phone because it was worth the money to tell him off for losing Imperator AGAIN, and then he fell in love?
you’ve just opened up so many possibilities farmer this is insane. in response to this new inspiration i raise you: marika and psaltarian being business partners during her circus days after he was hired to deal with the extent of music/arrangements, trademarking, etc. and such (OR get him rlly into the circus scene as the band conductor). he takes in the family drama from a distance before unfortunately becoming part of it per marika’s insistence on staying around them. meeting her future husband in the circus just like how her mama and papa met🫶🫶
marika/psaltarian being long distance friends for the first few years of knowing each other is the sweetest thing ever. one of the Biggest things about their relationship and how their characters function is their independence (which is obviously a huge part of their faith as well) and this just Makes Sense for them... even in their old age they don’t feel the need to be around each other constantly and are happy pursuing their careers apart while still being head over heels- being an ocean away doesn’t make any difference to them.
in their youth, marika finds friends everywhere and for her to bump into psaltarian by total chance and seriously keep up with him through the years feels entirely realistic. while the romance side of things may have taken longer to develop and came in waves over time, not even by the time she’d sent her brother psaltarian’s way. not to mention, marika makes friends with EVERYBODY. she is 100% her father’s daughter and her cultist charm is her favorite way to maintain connections- she’s a business lady okay? running that circus was a learning curve for her but god did she love it.
they meet on business initially and despite the walls psaltarian has built up, marika manages to captivate him just enough for him to put the effort into keeping in touch. the first few times marika reaches out it’s for advice regarding the circus orchestra (which he lovingly put together fyi) but she sneaks into his life before he really knows it. in the late hours, suddenly he’s dragging a barstool to sit beside the phone in his kitchen while he awaits marika’s “morning” calls from wherever the circus has taken her and will spend the entire night catching up with her, lost in thought and appreciative of the distraction from what would’ve undoubtedly been another restless night otherwise. she makes his chest all warm and it’s nice knowing that somewhere in the world, someone is thinking of him- even if they aren’t playing with the romantics at this time (unless?👀).
when marika eventually calls in a favor, something she’s been sitting on for years after helping psalt out in his own career endeavors, he doesn’t hesitate. marika is stingy with details to keep psaltarian’s judgments of her dearest friend/sister at bay (which doesn’t help much, he’ll get the truth out of nihil one way or another) but tells psalt about this absolutely marvelous idea that her siblings have come up with and how they could use a hand getting settled. now, finding out about the whole satan schtick was a bit of a shock but even if marika had warned him? he wouldn’t have been able to say no to her.
and on the flip side, psaltarian falling in love with marika after meeting nihil… he’s heard all the stories from nihil, knows more about these people- that he’s certain he’ll never have to meet- than he needs to. he’s also heard the angry phone calls between family, clipped insults and reminders of failure hurled between siblings which psaltarian can only eavesdrop on from the perspective of nihil’s responses.
his first “run in” with marika comes in the form of a late night call accidentally picked up while psalt is absolutely sloshed in his shared motel room with nihil (a common routine of theirs during the nights that sister imperator finds herself busy elsewhere). psalt hardly cares enough to keep himself updated on when the mr and mrs of the band are broken up or together but lord is marika about to inform him. he sits of the edge of the mattress beside the receiver and listens. he doesn’t bother interrupting, too drunk and too slow at the moment to process everything he’s being told but he lets out a few “uh-huh”s when marika demands that he relays every single insult directly to her brother. and you know what? psaltarian drunkenly reaches into the nightstand for the spare housekeeping notepad and pen to take notes. she’s basically spitting through the phone about how nihil can’t keep a good thing but psaltarian’s giggling and kicking his feet because suddenly he understands what it is that nihil sees in imperator when she has her fits. over continental breakfast the next morning, psaltarian updates nihil on exactly everything he had attempted to avoid when ditching their room just before the time he had told marika he’d be free to explain himself. it doesn’t take much for psaltarian to become a fan and he is absolutely tickled when he hears that marika will eventually be making her way out to california on holiday (and to beat her brother’s ass).
