Work Text:
Idia Shroud had always known that he would never meet his soulmate.
He was a Shroud- the idea of him getting to leave the Isle of Lamentation for anything but schooling was laughable and the chances of meeting his soulmate there next to non-existent. Unlike most others in his position, he didn’t really mind. Idia liked to think of himself as a realist; he knew that nobody would willingly and knowingly tie themselves to someone like him for a multitude of reasons. First of all, he just plain looked creepy, this he knew without having to be told. Second of all, his attitude. Nothing else needed to be said. Third of all, he was a shut-in gamer and hyper-fanboy, which would turn a lot of people off right out of the gate.
And, well, there was also the small matter of him being eternally chained to “the family business”.
(Nobody in Idia’s family had ever met their soulmate.)
(Not since they were first bound to their duties.)
(Idia had known he would be no different for as long as he could remember himself. He had known and he didn’t mind in the slightest. He did not want to meet his soulmate.)
(Ortho, though… well. Ortho was a different story.)
Did you know?
The King of the Underworld had once had a soulmate of his own. She was called Persephone. He loved her like he did no one else in his life. She was bright and she was full of life- both things forever out of his reach.
Did you know?
Persephone lived above the surface, frolicking in the sun with her handmaidens. She lovely and she was happy and she was spring; the King of the Underworld knew he could not have her, not in his dark and gloomy realm of the dead.
Idia cried when his first soulmark appeared. He cried bitter tears. He felt the burn on his cold skin and wept in pure misery.
(The Shrouds all felt it keenly whenever their soulmate developed a new negative belief about themselves. They felt the vile words being burned into their skin as if magnified by the heat of the sun itself.)
(Idia looked at the blistering fake etched above his heart and did not say a word.)
(The soulmarks kept on coming after that, many of them, so, so many.)
(Idia stopped bothering to keep track.)
(What it did matter anyway?)
(It was not as if he would ever get to meet them.)
Cater Diamond was always sceptical of the whole “soulmate” deal.
Oh sure, he would put on an act in pubic, making himself seem desperate for love, chasing every soulmate trend there was, but in reality?
Cater doubted soulmates were anything but a pretty little lie people told to make each other feel better about the fact that their worst insecurities and the things they most loathed about themselves would be spelled out for anybody to see on some random stranger’s skin. Just the thought that somebody was getting to see everything he sincerely believed he was made his skin crawl. What did people like about this? What was there to like about this? He was giving somebody a direct line into his fucking head.
(His sisters didn’t force him to reveal his soulmarks.)
(There were some lines that just shouldn’t be crossed and they were nowhere near cruel enough to try.)
(Cater had always secretly wondered what kind of soulmate he had that their most deeply held belief about themselves was cursed.)
(That was what was etched above his heart after all- and everybody knew those words were the ones that cut the deepest.)
Did you know?
Persephone was, in her heart of hearts, utterly miserable. She played her mother’s happy, clueless little girl, she made herself into the perfect damsel in distress, but the real her was anything but.
Did you know?
When the King of the Underworld came crashing into her field, terrifying as he was, she was glad of it. She played her part, as was expected of her.
When Idia came to Night Raven, he did not expect much. Things had been the same for countless centuries before his birth and they would remain so for countless more following his death. The most he could hope for was to remain undisturbed for the duration of his time there and then grudgingly trudge back to serve his life sentence at STYX. It was honestly not that bad a deal, considering that he’d managed to wrangle an agreement to his learning remotely instead of attending like most others. Other than the occasional mandatory school event, Idia remained on his own, left to his games and anime, and that was just how he liked it.
Watching soulmates on screen sort out their issues was so much better than actual soulmates any day of the week. Really, why did anyone even bother trying to find their soulmate in real life when fiction was so much better?
Idia was perfectly fine not knowing who his soulmate was.
Fate had other plans.
Did you know?
The King of the Underworld knew he could not have Persephone as a citizen of the above- so he kidnapped her to his own realm. He made her into the Queen of the Underworld.
Did you know?
The world above rotted in the wake of her mother’s grief and fury.
Persephone did not care.
The King of the Underworld would not budge.
Persephone would stay.
Did you know?
When he offered her the pomegranate seeds, the Queen of the Underworld put them to her lips and swallowed them, binding herself to his realm forever.
Did you know?
Persephone stayed willingly.
(The more Idia really looked at his soulmarks, the worse a trend he noticed.)
(When he spotted cursed above Cater’s heart at one chance meeting, he got a sinking feeling.)
(Idia knew.)
Idia Shroud would be the first of his family to meet his soulmate in person.
He would be the first to regret from the bottom of his heart that he hadn’t just fucking stayed in STYX.