No Heart for Regalement

He has been traveling through timelines for... many many resets now. At first, it was an accident, a glitch, a loophole, a break in the system. It was like falling through the map while the world happened around him. But then it kept happening. And kept happening... When he found himself starting to separate from heart, mind, and body, he had to learn how to control it. He had some... help, but that allowed him to see something that no one was meant to see. Something... that sends a chill through every Sans when he's outside the boundary. Even for just a moment.

He's been running ever since.

Also, "he". (You know me and agendering my favourites.)

In typical Sans fashion, he makes jokes to cover his feelings, but he also jokes to masquerade as if he has any. The truest things he feels are fear and apathy. He tries hard to contain himself because his being is now tied to The Boundary; he doesn't want to risk anything he's running from to break that containment.

When he does feel, there are some side effects: black sludge when he's sad or overwhelmed; he starts to chip when he's angry; he dusts when he dissociates or has a vision...

He does have "tattoos", but they're actually bone carvings. Being that he has memories from every timeline he visits, and he's even given some depending on who he touches, he is starting to lose himself. He has engravings on himself to try and remember things. (He's even had others engrave him where he can't reach to help him remember...) The carvings are the only thing keeping him sane. They're steeped with magic and emotion. And they're the only things about him that still feel organically...

He's slowly losing himself... He's about to be caught in an inbetween place, and he's... terribly afraid of the dark.

Outside of that, he still tries to be present and enjoy fun. It breaks his heart when he has to leave a timeline, but he tries to visit. He knows it's bad to make connections, but... is it a crime to hate being alone?

'Proximo' and 'Ultimo' were words that kept coming around during those times; there were a sea of other candidates, but I ended up landing on 'Proximo' for a short while. Unfortunately, it didn't sound great when saying it beside Prompto's own name. I switched gears, and tried someone who would match Prompto's personality, something positive and uplifting. "Sunshine" was where I started, and then I started branching into other words of hope and good will.

Being sold on this, how did I end up on 'Futurus' after so long? Well, I had a name map that I started off with (with Prompto being the base tree). I kept coming back to the basis of 'promptus' and how it just meant to push into action and how that could inspire the movement of going forward.

I bounced across a number of languages and kept picking at the meaning of Prompto's first and last name to get the effect I wanted. It took a few days of nonstop thinking before I landed on "Futurus~"

(You can clearly see that he was in the top three names. The others just didn't sound as great with the Argentum surname!)

✩ LET'S TALK: WEAPONS ✩

I love the idea of these two being contrasts, and you'll see that as we go on. One of the contrasts is that he is the primary sniper. He can use a wide range of firearms like his brother, but because of some… incidents, he developed a proficiency. (I developed Futurus fully before I even got my hands on the game, so imagine my delight of seeing Prompto with a sniper.)

Futurus' proficiency with bioweapons also comes from his extended time in Gralea/Niflheim. However, because of the weapons that he can use best (MT weaponry), he tries to stay away from using them where others can see or suspect him. There are also specific tools in Zegnautus Keep that he's particularly deft in. They're also last resort weapons.

Explosives are really my parenthetical weapon. Depending on whatever AU he's in, it's possible that he'll use this over bioweapons. He's great at making small scale infiltration explosives or just making a bang.

✩ LET'S TALK: SKILLS ✩

Just like his weaponry, it depends on what AU he's in. One was developed a bit later in his life while the other came about once he was, hm, retrieved. So we'll start with the first.

Futurus ended up developing additional skills once he rejected his…. retraining. He was supposed to be an evolved for of what they were currently testing in the Empire, so he ended up developing his skills of Kinesics as a child.

He became very good at reading people and working around them, but he's no good at connecting with them. He's very slow to really build a meaningful connection with people outside of Prompto, who he's determined to rebuild a bond with to make up for lost time. If someone sees through him (read: Ignis), he's either impressed or he doubles down and shuts himself out of his own emotional processing. He's very much a "use 'em and lose 'em", heartbreaker, playboy type.

Alternatively, driving! Driving was something he was taught out to do as soon as he was tall enough to reach the peddles. As he progresses down the skill ladder, he becomes more adept at various vehicle types, conquers different terrain, etc. He starts off being able to highjack most basic vehicles (trucks and cars) and he's adept at high speed getaway driving. It's what he was quite literally what he was (re)born to do. At some point later, I'll come up with a real skill ladder for him.

✩ LET'S TALK: FOODS ✩

Futurus' S-rank food is cotton cheesecake with chocolate-coffee ganache. He loves the fine things in life. He had this once in Lestallum after his escape and shortly after he joined the Hunters.

↓↓Food Rankings (not on Iggy's list!)↓↓

A-Rank: Wild Steak and Potatoes with Cream Sauce

B-Rank: Roast on Toast

C-Rank: Convenience Store Bento

↓↓Food Rankings (based on Iggy's recipes)↓↓

A-Rank: Elegant Orange Cake

B-Rank: Oil-Drizzled Steamed Fish

C-Rank: Fried Rookie on Rice

D-Rank: Creamy Bisque, Packed Mushroom Stew, Crown City Roast

✩ ELABORATED BACKSTORY ✩

After he and his brother were taken from the Empire to the Crown City, they grew up together in a quiet part of town. (What passes as the suburbs in a place like this.) Futurus was inquisitive, good at getting his way, but ultimately, the younger brother.

It showed in the way he kept close to Prompto, learning his interests, and mimicking them half-heartedly before finding things that he enjoyed himself. He clung to small things, and early on in his life, however amateurishly, he took up scrapbooking.

However, Futurus also had a bad habit of wandering. If there was a hobby that he enjoyed more than scrapbooking or collecting, it was taking off on his own to go explore the city he lived in. When he was caught in the day time, he would start to leave at night. (Imagine seeing a blond four year old just toddling around the city alone.)

One day at around nine years old, Futurus had taken off on his usual excursions, since he and his brother were primarily alone at this point, he left in the day as was his wont. He ended up getting caught by some agents who had come looking for the missing boys.

Futurus lied and said that Prompto had died in the trip; he was the only one left. Being that he was a young child, it was easy for him to pretend to be distressed. (It wasn't all an act; the idea of losing his only bond terrified him. Still does.)

They went for him, and he ran away. At first, he was going back home, but he realised that if they caught Prompto too, he wasn't sure what they'd do to him. So, he ran somewhere he could make a call, left a message on the house voicemail, and then allowed himself to be taken.

"Hey, Prom. 'm sorry I ran away. But you should be safe now."

It was the last thing Prompto heard from his brother. Futurus was taken back to Niflheim and "reeducated" to follow his original purpose. However, he had a strong sense of will after being out in the world for a brief time. He was, however, still responding to the re-training. This proved promising. They could work with this.

Around sixteen, he ended up reprogramming some MTs to cause chaos and then fucked off for as long as he could. He almost died in Gralea trying to escape, but he would have preferred that over life under the Empire's thumb.

He did end up escaping in something of a haze. When he finally woke up, he was in Accordo. It was the last place he'd ever think to end up, and it was probably better that way. He gathered his life placing bets and warming himself up to the extravagant folk who lived there.

After getting enough money, he scoured around for work until he found a mercenary who was heading back to the mainland to continue her business. He decided to go with and showed off his ability by smooth talking them into a ride back at a reduced rate. She was all in for that.

There are bits of his life that are still being detailed in Lackspurs and Marigold, but he ended up finding a place with the Meldacio Hunters. They ended someone to watch their back; he was their guy. He ended up getting a car of his own, something functional that could take a good amount of a beating but was covert. Funnily, he ended up meeting Cid and Cindy during a mission to retrieve some missing parts for some wayward soul.

The Aurums are one of the few hands that he lets touch his car with any promise of success. Other than that, he has someone in the Cleigne who knows a thing or two. (This contact travels a lot and is modeled loosely off FFX's Yojimbo design.)

There are two main ways that the twins reunited. The first is in L&M, where Futurus gathers his courage and goes into the Crown City and find his brother himself.

The other, which is in another story called Twin Pistols (in development) where they meet during a base busting mission.

Prompto is the only person that Futurus has a soft spot for and goes to pieces for because he already lived through losing him once. And unlike Prompto, Futurus hasn't tried to heal that emotional hole by making new friends. If anything, he's relied on himself far, far too much for far, far too long. At this point in his life, he, truthfully, doesn't even know how to rely on people in an emotional way. For as world weary as he is and for as much as he's seen, it's always the genuine and personal that scares him.

It's all too easy for him to take his role as "the younger sibling" when he's around Prompto. (They're gremlins together. Often fucking around and acting out like nothing changed.) In truth, he's incredibly worried about Prompto's safety with Crowned folk.

Gladio is someone he's very rarely off his guard around. By game standards, it's because he's blunt and aggressive (they did you dirty, baby. I'm sorry.), but overall, he just has that bodyguard vibe. He's dangerous.

Noctis is a prince; one wag of his finger and a whole town can burn. That's just how Futurus sees it. He doesn't trust Noctis to be genuine; he could be seeing Prompto as a way to just keep his image clean. "I don't hate poor people; I have a friend who's poor..."

Ignis... Now that's a man Futurus doesn't want to turn his back to. He and Ignis are on the same wavelength, and that makes him Futurus Enemy #1. As an advisor, tactician, and diplomat, Ignis is Mister Suave, but he's the one who could make people disappear if he wanted.

But seeing Prompto well and truly genuinely happy is what sets some of Futurus' nerves at ease. Even more so, he can see how they act together, but when the ribbing turns a bit mean, he's very defensive. 0 to 100, immediately.

The three aren't entirely certain about him either because who knows what could have happened to him. This could all be some ruse. The fact that they're incredibly protective over Prompto in return (specifically Noctis) is heart-warming. But only just.

It does take some one-on-one time with each of them or some far away observance for him to see the good in any of them. Even still, he has a healthy amount of reservations.

It's not until they either leave the Crown City or run into Cindy that barriers properly break with any of them. If I go into anymore detail, I'll just have to go back to writing L&M. Also, Twin Pistols is the """"canon"""" ending with him, and why would I hurt myself like this? It's not happy at all.

FUTURUS ARGENTUM

✛ Age: 20 ✛ Birthday: October 25th ✛ Weapons: Sniper, Bioweapons*, Explosives ✛ Skill: Kinesics, Driving

Due to his environment, Futurus learned how to use people best to his advantage. He doesn't believe (or even fully understand) how to make a connection with someone who isn't his brother. He keeps people at arm's length as much as possible and views interacting with people as transactional only.

The reprogramming efforts in Gralea largely failed because, even as a child, he had a strong sense of self and was highly attached to the idea of his family or those he perceived as his family. Years later, he's now confronted with the horrible reality that he might have overhyped his connection with Prompto. They were separated for several years, and as he traveled, he began to wonder if his brother would even want him back. If they would ever be close.

Scared but never a coward, he decided to confront his fate by driving all the way to the Kingdom of Lucis in his beat up hoopty he got during a job.

Beneath it all, as cheesy as it is to say, he does want to be loved. He wants some semblance of normalcy. He wants family; he wants kindness. He wants to be regarded as something other as a tool or useful, but he doesn't know how to make peace with the fact that he is exceptionally good at what he does.

So, he settled for vanity. He comes off as arrogant and abrasive, and he learned that that served as a good qualifier if people were even worth his time in the first place. He's very calculated and precise in what he does, to the point of overthinking himself being six steps ahead.