#Make a world of mythological creatures without humans

[niceysmusings]

I wanted a mermaid story that had nothing to do with humans so badly that I wrote one.

I love mankind but I'm tired of seeing them in everything 😂. I wrote a mermaid story set completely in the sea.

I'm going to start posting it in bits by next week because I'm a slightly better writer this year than I was in 2019 when I wrote it, so I need to edit it and take out the cringy parts.

If you'd like to gift me an art work of a pale-skinned mermaid with white hair, a dark-skinned mermaid with black hair and a rudy merman, my inbox is wide open. 😹😸🤭

[uluru-xavren]

GET IN THE WATER

Rafayel x Reader

Summary: The moment he saw you, he knew he was doomed. He needed you to be his, even if it was against your will.

CW: God!Rafayel, manipulation, cohesion, obsessive Rafayel, yandere? I think

Words: 1,8k

𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆝⋆.˚ 𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆝⋆.˚ 𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆝⋆.˚ 𓇼 ⋆.˚ 𓆝⋆.˚ 𓇼

The gods are greedy. They know they can have anything they want no matter what they have to do to get it. He was especially spoiled in that sense.

The first time he saw you, he thought the same thing as when you see a seashell. Insignificant but charming.

He had gone to the surface to entertain himself after getting bored of being on his throne. I had simply wanted to see what life was like for those who lived on the surface, but his eyes fell on you, who was collecting seashells. Insignificant as all humans, innocently picking up something that belonged to the sea, and he was simply unable to take his eyes off you until you were done and gone.

Unlike the rest of humans, you had something that made his gaze always end up straying towards you sooner or later. He was fascinated by it and hated it in equal measure. How was a mere human able to enchant a god without doing anything at all? You had to have some kind of magical influence.

As time passed, fascination turned into obsession. He was unable to go a day without knowing about you, where you were, who you were with, what you were doing, etc. Inevitably, he ended up sending some of his subjects —Lemurians or animals— to warn him of any sightings of you.

The day they told him that you had been seen with someone near the beach —that you and that person had laughed, played in the sand and were almost about to kiss if it weren't for the Lemurian who saw you and made enough noise to get your attention— he destroyed most of the throne room by pure rage.

No one said anything as he abandoned his throne and went to the surface again, determined that it was time to intervene.

He was aware that the Lemurians could not reveal themselves to humans. He had imposed that law. However, when he saw you on the beach in the middle of the night, strolling along the shore and enjoying the breeze, he ignored how selfish he was and called your attention to come closer to some rocks that could hide him from the rest of the humans.

That's when you saw him for the first time.

A being from the oldest stories of mythology related to the sea. The nightmare of many sailors, who told countless stories about beings like him. Beings that people knew were a danger and that as soon as you saw him you should have run away.

But you didn't. You couldn't do it when you saw the elegance in his posture and the intelligence in his gaze. Before you was not a wild creature that many stories told, but a creature that looked at you with curiosity and with a familiarity that made you feel lost.

And his eyes… Maybe that was what made you unable to move. As soon as you saw his eyes, all chance of escape was gone.

When he had you in front of him, he forgot all the world around you. For him there was only you at that moment, his muse finally within his reach. He used all his charms to attract you, to make you see that he wasn't dangerous —to you—, to be able to reach out and finally touch you.

None of you spoke, but you didn't stop looking at each other. He let your hands intertwine with his and explore the texture of his tail. But he wouldn't let you touch his face even though he was dying to let you, because he knew that would only leave you wanting more. He knew human nature. They were greedy and so easy to tempt.

After that encounter, you started looking for him more. You went more to the beach and your gaze did not leave the sea. Every movement you noticed out of the corner of your eye was enough to make you alert, thinking it was him.

He noticed. He could see the desperation with which you looked for him. And he loved it.

He moved the waves in a specific way to make you believe that it was him swimming. He would make dolphins, sharks and even whales swim near the surface to make you think their tails were his. And every time he saw your disappointed expression, a wave of satisfaction would fill his chest and that would make him finally show himself to you. Like an owner rewarding his pet.

Everytime you two were alone together he had to use all his willpower not to take you to the depths of the sea. You were so cute, so obedient and attentive to him, to his movements when he conjured tricks with the water for you, when he moved to get a better look at you, so still when he caressed the skin of your face, your arms and your legs.

It was normal that he didn't want to let you go.

When he came to the surface one particular day, he saw you weren’t alone. Someone was holding your hand as you spoke animatedly, pointing at the water. His blood boiled at the thought of you bringing a stranger to see him. Boiled with the way that person held you so freely as if it was someone special to you. That couldn't be.

Thanks to your attempt to show your "friend" the existence of the creature you had met a few days ago, he didn't appear for a while. No matter how much you looked and called for him, he ignored you for several days until, overwhelmed by the thought that it had been a dream, your tears fell and mixed with the sea and he appeared before you, moved by your desperation.

“Foolish and selfish human.” He said with a mystical tone that instantly enchanted you, causing you to fall into a trance that didn't allow you to take your eyes off him. “Who are you to decide who can see me?”

He liked being able to have you like that, with all your attention on him and without you being able to think of rejecting him.

Gods were greedy, and he was the worst.

“Next time you want your friends to meet me, let me know. I'd love to meet them.” He smiled at you tenderly, caressing your face with the same delicacy and reverence as a lover.

Humans were naive. A simple smile and you believed him. How adorable and silly you were.

You didn't suspect anything when you took your partner with him. You were excited by the idea that someone else could see the beauty of a mystical being like him. That someone else confirmed that their existence was not just a hallucination of yours.

Then you heard music.

It was soothing and inviting, and you felt like you were drifting off to sleep the more you listened, but when you saw your partner, you saw with horror that something was wrong.

Your partner was drowning. They clutched their head with both hands in despair and began to shake from side to side. They didn't make a sound, just a silent expression of horror. Then they fell to the ground, motionless. Dead.

And Rafayel appeared. He looked at you with an intelligible expression. A look that was enough to make you realize he was the responsible of that.

“Why…?!” You felt your throat close, a mixture of fear and disbelief.

He didn't answer you right away. He just watched you silently, admiring every expression you made. The tears that gathered in your eyes, the tension in your shoulders, the fear. You looked so insignificant it was adorable.

As you leaned towards your partner's limp body, he frowned.

“Don’t.” He warned you. “Don’t get close to it.”

‘It’. You stood still and looked at him in disbelief at the contemptuous and inhuman way in which he had referred to your partner. Was this really the same mystical being you had met and who brought you gifts every time you saw each other? The one who looked at you with such warmth as if he had the sun in his eyes?

“Get in the water,” He said after a moment of silence in a dry, clean tone. An order that left no room for a negative response.

“What…?”

There was a change in the waves that made you look around. The tide was tossing restlessly and had taken on a dark color. He didn't seem affected by it, as if he were the one responsible.

“Get in the water.”

His eyes began to shine. The pink color that made you think of the sky at sunset was replaced by a cold, bright blue. The sea shook threateningly and the sky began to cloud over, as if it were a premonition of a tragedy. Unconsciously, you stepped back, ready to flee and seek refuge, but then Rafayel's voice penetrated your head, like an ancient, magical voice that was part of your consciousness.

“Get in the water,” he said for the third and last time, any trace of gentleness and care gone. His expression was so cold that for a second it seemed like you were dealing with someone else. “Do it. Or I'll call a tsunami so you have nowhere to go.”

“Rafayel, why— why are you—?”

Thunder fiercely interrupted the conversation. You couldn't ask anything else, not when Rafayel seemed to want to drag you into the depths himself.

“Do I have to make you do it?” he asked, his voice echoing in your head.

You shook your head. Fear had you trembling, but you felt unable to disobey him. Little by little, your feet dragged themselves into the water, and with each step, Rafayel's expression softened more and more.

When the water reached your waist, he reached his hand to you.

“Come, my love,” he said softly, and you felt a shiver run down your spine at his words and the coldness of his hand.

He pulled you towards him, wrapping you in his arms and taking you with him to the bottom of the sea.

And as the air drained from your lungs, Rafayel's voice remained in your head.

“My dear, my love,” he said it so gently and lovingly as if he wasn't drowning you. “After so long, you're finally with me. Mine, all mine. Now we'll always be together.”

And after nights of dreaming about it, he finally kissed you.

That night you were reported missing, as was the death of your partner, who was found on the beach. People made many assumptions, the most popular being that you were the culprit and that you had fled. Therefore, the police opened an investigation in which they started looking for you as the main suspect.

But it didn't matter, because you would never come back.

Lemuria welcomed you with open arms, knowing that with you chained to the throne, their god would never be alone again. You just needed to love him and pay attention to him. After all, you had no other choice.

[creature-wizard]

How the "divine feminine" and the "divine masculine" perpetuate patriarchy - and what we can do about it

One thing the occult is very good at is coming up with systems to categorize and conceptualize things. These can be incredibly useful to us in various ways. But we also have to remember that these systems we come up with are mere constructs, and the actual world itself probably doesn't conform to them as we might like. As the saying goes, all maps are wrong. But as the saying also goes, some maps are useful, and some are more useful than others.

One thing that often comes up in esoteric and occult systems are various forms of binaries or polarities. This often makes sense; for example, without light, you have dark. Without heat, you have cold. One party gives, the other takes. Creatures are born, and eventually they die.

But we can run into problems when we start trying to lump all apparent forms of polarities and dualities together. Here's an example: Life/Death, Masculine/Feminine. In doing this, we create an association that might lead us toward some terrible ways of thinking about real people. If we associate masculinity with death, we can find ourselves thinking that waging war and inventing weapons of death is just what men and masc people do, but women can always be counted on to be diplomats and peacekeepers. Or if we associate femininity with death, we might find ourselves more inclined to think that women and femmes have a natural desire to commit infanticide and tear apart societies, and they must be carefully watched and their freedoms limited so they don't upend civilization and endanger the human race.

These are of course extreme examples, but they are real ways that some people think. And you might think to yourself, "well, I don't polarize genders this way, I think people should try to be a healthy balance of masculine and feminine." And if this is you, I want you to ask yourself why you're so attached to categorizing traits as "masculine" and "feminine" at all.

If you're like most people, you probably just came across this in some form of occult or spiritual literature and just adopted it without really asking yourself too many questions about it. When we see something framed as ancient or higher wisdom, it's pretty easy to take it fairly uncritically, especially if it aligns with our unconscious biases in some way. It often doesn't cross our minds to ask where these terms really come from, and what they signified in their original contexts.

You may have heard that male/female stuff has roots in alchemy, which is true. But the thing with alchemy is that it was using familiar terms and concepts to describe chemical processes and reactions. Think of it a little bit like how we use terms like "male plugs" and "female plugs." While old-time alchemy did have a spiritual component to it, it was more about believing that you had to be spiritually pure to make your desired alchemical reactions happen. When alchemy gave way to chemistry, and people began to realize that your spiritual condition had nothing to do with your ability to make things happen in the lab, certain people began to seek more mystical meanings in the works of alchemists, and this idea of masculinity and femininity as transcendent mystical forces unto themselves really started to emerge. It was an incredibly easy concept to project on all kinds of mythologies, because a lot of myths have male and female figures interacting in various ways.

Now the thing is, having myths with male and female figures doesn't mean seeing masculinity and femininity as discrete forces or powers unto themselves. It can mean that they simply personified various figures as male or female depending on what their own experiences and cultural biases suggested to them. For example, straight men tend to think of love and lust as something they experience when they see a beautiful woman. In a patriarchal society, where men are calling most of the shots in conceptualizing the divine, a love deity is thus likely to be personified as a beautiful woman. Straight men can also see beautiful women as a source of discord and strife, so it makes sense that love goddesses would have war aspects to them.

A society where men are sent to war while wives are left behind to raise the children and tend the farm is going to produce an association with men and violence, while the act of nurturing will be associated with women. Men who deny higher education to women are going to produce a society where intellectual pursuits and higher abstract reasoning are associated with masculinity, and intuition and practical knowledge are associated with women. A society where men are seen as bringers of social order and upholders of civilization while women are viewed more like forces of nature than rational actors will associate men with civilization and women with natural, wild spaces.

In continuing to associate these characteristics with the "divine feminine" and the "divine masculine," we preserve and perpetuate the implicit biases created by these patriarchal societies. And while there is absolutely value in saying, "hey, these 'feminine' things are actually valuable and worth respect actually," framing them as intrinsically feminine in any sense - physically, psychologically, or metaphysically - will undermine any effort to dismantle patriarchy and bring true equality.

So what can you do? I would suggest being more specific.

Do you mean passive/active? Then just say it.

Do you mean giver/receiver? Then just say it.

Do you mean harmonizing/disrupting? Then just say it.

Whatever you have filed under boxes labeled "masculine" and "feminine," you can simply take them out of those boxes and find better categories for them.

[thecreaturecodex]

Alkonost

Image © Eugenia Vi, accessed at her ArtStation here

[After a whole bunch of reruns of CR 12 magical beasts, here's a brand new one! This is, in fact, the first in a miscellaneous world folklore set, one inspired in large part by my girlfriend, @abominationimperatrix. The alkonost is a monster I was first introduced to in a wild way, in The Magic Voyage of Sinbad, a Roger Corman produced dub of the Soviet epic Sadko that appeared on Mystery Science Theater 3000. And so learning that it wasn't originally "the bluebird of happiness", and had its own tradition behind it, took a while. This art is my favorite because it incorporates the monster's origin. "Alkonost" is a Cyrillic adaptation of "Alcyone", the woman turned into the first kingfisher in Greek mythology. One of the few remaining tidbits of that story actually gets inverted in the Slavic version; instead of laying their eggs when the storms of winter are unnaturally calm, they lay straight into stormy water! So I had to incorporate that into my version, and wanted to make an alkonost in kingfisher colors.]

Alkonost CR 12 CG Magical Beast This creature has the body of a bird, with ochre and blue feathers, and the head of a human woman. Both aspects are beautiful. She has an expression of serene grace on her features.

An alkonost is sometimes called a bird of happiness or a bird of paradise. They are goodly kin to the sirens, and use their magical music only in defense or to aid others. They are incorrigible optimists that see the beauty in everything and are certain that good will ultimately prevail over evil. They are by no means naive, but assume good intentions until demonstrated otherwise. Alkonosts may deliver messages of hope and joy for goodly gods or nature spirits, and they are sometimes mistaken for angels. An alkonost is a purely mortal creature, albeit one with a lifespan measurable in hundreds of years.

It is rare that an alkonost starts a fight, but they can certainly end them. The song of bliss sung by an alkonost fills those that hear it with an overwhelming euphoria and saps them of their will to fight. Anyone who resists this effect will be targeted with the alkonost’s other magic, at first to try to convince them to lay down their arms. The talons of an alkonost are relatively weak, but the birds can create magical gusts of bludgeoning wind to fight creatures that resist their compulsions. If accompanied by allies (charmed or otherwise), alkonosts fill a support role, using bardic magic to bolster their strength.

Alkonosts tend to live on islands, tropical mountaintops and other remote locations. This is partly because they value sites of natural beauty and partly because they value solitude. The song of bliss is so beautiful that it can induce feelings of worship and dependence in those who hear it, and the goodly birds do not particularly want to have armies of devoted thralls. If their homes or persons are threatened particularly dangerous monsters, they may use diplomacy and enchantment to recruit other creatures to assist them. In these cases, alkonosts go their separate ways when their goals are accomplished.

Most alkonosts are female, but males and members of other genders do exist. Alkonosts are poor parents, but make up for it with their magical abilities; an alkonost mother lays her egg in stormy seas, whereupon it is incubated by the rocking waves and blowing winds. When it washes up on a shore, the egg hatches into a Tiny alkonost with a fully mature mind, which goes about finding itself a territory and learning new things to find wonder in. Alkonosts feed on fresh fruit and nectar as well as fish and insects; one of the ways to curry an alkonost’s favor is with finely cooked foods (since cooking without hands is very difficult).

Alkonost CR 12 XP 19,200 CG Medium magical beast Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +20

Defense AC 26, touch 23, flat-footed 20 (+5 Dex, +1 dodge, +3 natural, +7 deflection) hp 161 (14d10+84) Fort +14, Ref +14, Will +11 Immune charm and compulsion effects; Resist cold 10, sonic 10; SR 23 Defensive Abilities resplendent feathers

Offense Speed 20 ft., fly 80 ft. (good) Melee 2 talons +15 (1d6+1) Ranged air blast +19 (6d6+5) Special Attacks bardic performance (43 rounds/day, Will save DC 24; countersong, dirge of doom, distraction, fascinate, frightening tune, inspire competence +4, inspire courage +3, inspire greatness, soothing performance, suggestion), song of bliss Spell-like Abilities CL 14th, concentration +21 At will—calm emotions (DC 19) 3/day—charm monster (DC 21), quickened mental block (DC 19), modify memory (DC 21), shout (DC 21), suggestion (DC 20) 1/day—break enchantment, cloak of dreams (DC 22), geas/quest, heal (DC 23)

Statistics Str 12, Dex 21, Con 21, Int 18, Wis 24, Cha 25 Base Atk +14; CMB +15; CMD 38 Feats Dodge, Extra Performance, Flyby Attack, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Quicken SLA (mental block), Toughness Skills Bluff +18, Diplomacy +18, Fly +22, Knowledge (nature) +15, Perception +20, Perform (sing) +26, Sense Motive +18, Stealth +18; Racial Modifiers +8 Perform (sing) Languages Aquan, Auran, Celestial, Common

Ecology Environment warm mountains and islands Organization solitary Treasure standard

Special Abilities Air Blast (Su) As a standard action, an alkonost can fire a gust of powerful wind, acting as a ranged attack with a range of 60 feet. A creature struck takes 6d6 points of bludgeoning damage plus the alkonost’s Constitution modifier (6d6+5 for an average specimen), and must succeed a DC 22 Reflex save or be pushed 10 feet away from the alkonost. The alkonost can use this ability at will. The save is Constitution based. Bardic Performance (Su/Sp) An alkonost can use bardic performance as if she were a 14th level bard. She does not get other bard class abilities unless she takes levels in the bard class. Resplendent Feathers (Su) An alkonost gains a deflection bonus to its Armor Class and CMD equal to its Charisma modifier. Song of Bliss (Su) An alkonost can sing a supernaturally soothing song as a standard action, affecting all creatures in a 60 foot radius. Creatures in the area that can hear the alkonost’s song must succeed a DC 24 Will save or be effected as by a euphoric tranquility spell that lasts for as long as the alkonost concentrates on the song and the creature can hear the song, and for 1 minute thereafter. Creatures that succeed their save are immune to the song of bliss of that alkonost for the next 24 hours. This is a mind-influencing, compulsion and emotion effect, and the save DC is Charisma based.

[cherllyio]

Mei is connected to Chaos - Theory (Spoilers)

This theory started out after I did an analysis of chaos powers and how they work, more specifically with our two known chaos-powers-holders: Macaque and Xiangliu.

Here I realized that their chaos powers share two very important traits, that are also found in the Samadhi Fire:

The powers have a connection to the persons state of mind (meaning if they are unstable, the powers will also be unstable)

Just look at how, after Xiangliu lost connection to chaos, he went insane.

And then there is also the theory that the reason Macaque died was actually because his shadow powers took over him, as we see here (Just look at how they latch on to his body!):

He even laughed like a maniac while Wukong and Macaque were fighting! (as we heard in season 5)

2. They also have a general black core in the middle, no matter if its just general chaos powers, or shadow powers, which core seems to be chaos.

And this also goes for the Samadhi fire!

1. The Samadhi fire is incredibly unstable, and if Mei wasn’t in the right state of mind, she would have destroyed the world.

Princess Iron Fan describing the Samadhi Fire: “But over time it became… unstable.”

2.The Samadhi fire does indeed have a very strong black core, even after Mei has taken control of it!

Not only that: Try to take look at how it looks, when the Samadhi Fire was about to explode vs when Macaque used the stronger parts of his shadow/chaos powers:

AND how Mei, Xiangliu, and Macaque also has a sort “lightning” connected to their powers:

Mei: “This ol zippi zappy lightning thing? I’ve always kind of- “

Red Son: “You haven’t lost your connection. That’s the Samadhi Fire!”

And if The Samadhi Fire is connected to chaos, it would actually also explain why Red Son even had the Samadhi Fire!

Because it’s not treated as a part of Red Son’s "normal powers". Instead, the Samadhi Fire is explained as a completely different thing. Seeing as they could remove that part of his powers, without removing the rest.

DBK: We had no option but to… remove this power:

And while it may sound strange at first, that someone would give a demon baby, chaos powers (as they did with Macaque in the “deal”), it does actually make sense.

As whoever that “he” is, that Xiangliu mentioned, seems to want the universe to be destroyed. And what was it, that was so dangerous about the Samadhi fire again?

Red son:” The Samadhi fire is more than just an inextinguishable flame. It’s an interdimensional weapon with a destructive power to burn through the very fabric of reality!”

And not only would it destroy the fabric of reality, but it would also destroy the cycle! (it is “interdimensional” after all)

Which would also explain why LBD was so interested in first MK and Wukong (someone who has a very close connection with the cycle) and then the Samadhi fire! (Something that could destroy the cycle)

She likely knew about the cycle, which would make her motivation for “destroying” it, make even more sense.

So, if anything, giving Red Son (especially as a baby) chaos powers, would actually be a really clever, and quick way, to destroy the cycle, leaving only the primordial chaos left:

(notice the lightning again!)

And this is not just speculating! As we saw in season 5, they kept bringing the Samadhi Fire up, meaning it’s still important.

More specifically with this little guy, who is not only a “failed replica of the Samadhi Fire”, but also has an incredibly important place in Chinese Mythology!

More specifically I believe him to be “a failed replica” of Taouwu, who is explained as: “a creature with a human face, tiger’s feet, pig’s teeth, a long tail, and flowing hair.”

And what do you know? That fits our little creature exactly!

Meaning that the one who gave Red Son thoughs powers was Taouwu, and now (when Red Son tried to make a replica of it), it represents itself as Taouwu!

And Taowu is actually also known to be part of a group called “The Four Evils”, that are known to be the most malevolent beings in the Chinese mythology!

They are even sometimes explained as being the antagonist counterparts of the Four Guardians! Meaning that if the Guardians symbolize “order”, these guys symbolize “chaos”. (Which is definitely important!)

Which could hint at, that either one of these guys are the “he” who is winning or is connected to him in some way! (Hundun, as seen in the picture, legit represents “chaos”)

And that’s not even getting into the theory, that the Four Evils have a high chance of being the ones, or one of them at least, who made a deal with Macaque! Though- that will take some time to explain, so I will just link that theory here.

But more importantly the Taowu, in itself, symbolizes stubbornness and arrogance.

And here we have Red Son (someone who is very arrogant) and Mei (someone who is very stubborn), who has thoughs powers, meaning that they would also be the perfect fit for these powers!

Quick examples:

Red Son: “Get off me you peasants!”

Red son: “You (Mei) and the newdle boy will stop at nothing to defeat her (LBD), that’s how I know you won’t lose.”

Conclusion

The Samadhi Fire is, in its core, a destructive and unstable power, aka: a chaos power.

Which also includes a lot of similarities back to normal chaos powers (like we see with Xiangliu and Macaque) With examples like being unstable, a black core, and lightning.

Meaning that Red Son didn’t “create” the Samadhi Fire, and instead was likely given it by one of the Four Evil’s, more specifically Taouwu.

And since Red Son already had fire powers, and was a demon baby, no one would suspect anything, and Red Son wouldn't remember getting them.

But what do you guys think? :)

[dropsnectar]

Bee-men Stuff

Hi Everyone! So I've been getting alot of attention for the bee content I was making! I just want to thank you all for reading! However, it looks like my fanfic might have made the original author uncomfortable, so I was thinking of just making my own universe for bee monsters and other things! If I'm honest, i’m more into world building, and fluffy stuff anyway. So, if I do write anymore stuff, just assume its this new universe! Here are some thoughts I've been having!

Bees have long had spiritual associations with life and even being messengers to the gods. Because of this, you will find that most Bee-man have a grasp on certain magics, especially when it comes to making honey. This universe is set in a world where monsters are the norm, and often live in colonies in forests or their natural habitats. Humans can be found anywhere as we are a pretty sturdy species and there is often mingling of the species. While there are mostly human cities, there are some that are filled with monsters or other humanoidish creatures. 

Bee-men are pretty rare, as insect monsters usually have to be imbued with sturdy magics to survive out in the wild and upkeep their large physical forms. Its how they are able to fly and be light, while also having some strength!

Bee-men are kind of seen as an endangered species by other beings, due to their rare essence, so there is rarely an overlap of territory between monsters. This also has to do with their honey making skills.

Bee-men are very good at making honey, and do so in a similar way to normal bees. Their territory is often filled with huge flowers, often magical ones that like to travel about. This is how they evolved some of their magics. Their song, difficult to hear for most humans, has been known to calm the rogue nomadic flower into compliance. 

Bee-men are also known to keep normal bees! They often mix their own honey with theirs to form certain concoctions, or just food variety for daily life. Bee-men love sweet things, though cane sugar itself has been known to give them indigestion. Give your local Bee-man jams, or fruit tarts and he will be so happy!

Honey has also been associated with mead, an alcoholic wine made from honey. Irl bees are very stern about drunk bees entering the hives, and contaminating their own honeystores. They've even been known to tear limbs off! But Bee-men have a sort of complicated history with alcohol. In old times, when Bee-men didn't have to worry about their numbers, their would be long, three day festivals, usually on the Queens birthday, where all bees of every class would take shifts working or partying it up on their special mead with their Queen. Their meads natural magical properties also help the drinkers with better speech(Think Kvasir of norse mythology), where Bee-men would take turns telling their Queen and the crowd stories, or share in musical song. There have been times in the past where other beings have broken into the hive to procure this magical mead, in hopes of hitting it rich. For this reason, many hives don't make much mead anymore.

Much like normal bees, Queens are usually made within the hive by feeding an egg Royal Jelly. However, the hive that I will be focusing on has had issues being able to secrete Royal Jelly, as they have been so long without a proper Queen.  

The hive has been able to survive due to surviving off of human product, since honeystores have been low lately, but this has weakened the hive considerably.

Hives are able to take a human queen only if they have the proper pheromone type to interact with the hive. Bees communicate through pheromones, which is why Bees are often covered in a lovely lemony scent. Thats there pheromones and them talking to each other!

Bee-men in the hive are constantly aware of each others emotions, and it is not uncommon for them to be able to use their magic to sooth each other. Their pheromones can make eachother(and humans!) Very calm and relaxed(Or excited… we will get to that later:)). If a Bee-man is around a human long enough that he is acquainted with most of the behavior of your pheromones, he can somewhat talk with you telepathically! Although the most this can do is share emotions, and occasionally images. This isn't very efficient, so many bee-men have learned how to speak human language. 

Bee-men actually have a really interesting origin! Like how I mentioned before about Bees being messengers of the Gods, their was one who loved bees so much he fell in love with one. He gave it human form and their children became Bee-men, hence their innate magical abilities and somewhat humanoid appearance. 

Bee appearances can vary alot! A bees appearance can often effect their skill, and a lot of worker bees or drones share similar features. They have human like faces and are covered in fuzz! Some have several sets of arms, and all have long wings. They can get mistaken for fae sometimes, but the yellow and black fuzz gives it away. Also, their skin has varying textures per where you touch them, some parts are hardened, while things like their inner arms and palms feel more like skin.

Bee-men tend to stay together but there are times that bee-men will leave the hive willingly, or be exiled. In this case it is very important they find a mate or family unit. Much like bunnies, they die easily of broken hearts, and need to have their daily cuddle sessions! They also need to share their pheromones, so it is more often that they create mate bonds with humans. This can be difficult for our little bees, because very few humans are compatible with their type of magic. Its even harder to find a human who is compatible to be a queen.

Thats it for now! I might make a post about their hierarchy and some more stuff. Anywho, if you want more bee media(more smut focused), go ahead and check out @bunnis-monsters ! Also, again I am creating a wider universe of monster and magic stuff through here so if you have any questions, i'm open to it! 

[annarobszombies]

After your horror post I though what if during the sailing to america KoS met up Sirens that started to lure others into the sea but they fail in the end as Senku doesn't give even one millimeter interest to Sirens and barely manages to save his companions!

Oh but you see

Senku can be affected. He very nearly is.

They offer him answers. Not love, not sex, answers. They sing that they know the secrets of petrification, that they can tell him anything he wants to know. They sing that if he just took their hands, they'd show him all the secrets of the world.

But that's also what saves him. Because Senku does want those things, but he wants to discover them for himself. He doesn't want to take the easy way out, because then he wouldn't get to have fun, he wouldn't get to do the one thing he loves doing most.

That's what snaps him out of it, milliseconds before one of the creatures can convince him to fall into the water.

When he lays eyes on a Siren for the first time, he has no idea what he's even looking at. He'd never considered the idea that something like this could happen. But then again, Sirens and Mermaids have been in human mythology for thousands of years. They had to come from somewhere. And though he'd prefer if they were just drunken hallucinations from ancient sailors, there's nothing he can do about it now.

Because he's looking a scientific anomaly in the face, and she and her sisters want to eat him and his friends.

His mind races, digging through memory after memory, trying to remember all those stories, searching for the way to defeat them without killing them.

Senku ends up running down to where their radio is, and uses it to shout across the ship as loud as he can, hoping to drown out the sound of the incessant song in the air, and manages to startle Taiju out of his reverie. Senku tells him to plug his ears, and help him herd the rest of the crew into one of the lower parts of the ship that didn't have windows.

That's where he gets his hands on Ryusui, who he literally has to shake until his eyes snap back into focus with one of his trademark laughs. The captain of the Perseus tells Senku that Sirens are tricky. That, assuming the things outside were the same ones from ancient myth, getting out of this wasn't going to be easy. Just because he broke free of their spell once, didn't mean they couldn't entrap him in another.

These things worked outside the realm of science and fact, so the only way to defeat them was to play the game by their rules. So Senku clogs his ears with some spare wax, and leaves Ryusui and Taiju in charge of looking after the rest of the crew.

He heads up to the deck, only to find the world silent.

No more singing, no more pretty words and false promises. His eyes scan the horizon, searching for the wing-ed women who had been attempting to lure him and his friends into the depths.

"I know you're still here," He says. "No way you gave up that easily."

Something like a laugh, muffled by the wax, then a body drops in front of him, crouching on the railing of the ship.

It's easy to ignore her nakedness when she's covered in feathers.

"There you are." Senku can't stop the grin that spreads over his face. She was frighteningly beautiful, all sharp claws and birdlike eyes.

The Siren mimics his grin, showing off equally sharp teeth.

She leaps from the railing to stand at her full height. She was his size, maybe a handful of centimeters taller. Her hand lashes out, grabbing his face and tilting it to the side, eyes narrowing at the wax in his ears. Her claws dig into the softness of his cheeks, drawing blood.

"Cheat." She spats, shoving him away hard enough to make him stumble, and before he can fully steady himself, she's closing the small distance again, her wings folding neatly behind her.

"Let's play a game," Senku says quickly, backing up more. "Things like you like games, right?"

She pauses, tilting her head.

"What game?" She asks.

"A question game. Whoever can't answer the others question first loses."

"What happens to the one that loses?"

"Easy," He says. "The loser has to do what the winner asks."

She lets out a thoughtful hum, head tilting the other way not. She truly looked like some kind of humanoid bird.

"Fine. Your question." She says finally.

"What are you doing here?" Senku asks.

"We have always been here," She says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "My question. Where did you go?"

He blinks, then understands.

She and the rest of her sisters hadn't been affected by petrification because they weren't human. So as far as she knew, humans just suddenly disappeared for thousands of years.

"We turned to stone," He says. "How have you survived without humans? If I remember my stories, you usually eat us."

She rolls her eyes.

"Humans stopped being good food long before you 'turned to stone'." She says. "How did you come back?"

"Science," He says. When her eyes narrow, he continues. "The stone I was trapped in was eroded through contact with nitric acid, which came from the caves near where I was stuck." It was best to keep it simple for now.

"How do you convince humans to jump into the water?" He asks.

"By knowing what's in their hearts." She says with a shrug. Of course, it was something totally natural to her, just like breathing. She probably has no other way to explain it.

It was her turn now, but instead of shooting off another question quickly as she had been, she takes a moment to consider.

"What is your name?" She asks, finally.

"Senku," He says. "I'll ask the same question. What's your name?"

She gives it, but it's in a language he's never heard, spoken with an accent that makes him dizzy. He doesn't try to repeat it.

"Where are you going?" She asks.

"America, to get what we need to start saving more humans from their stone prisons." He catches the way her expression shifts, just slightly, at his words. She seems pleased.

Senku sucks in a breath, it was time to end the game, and he had the perfect question.

"Why did the Why-Man turn humanity to stone?"

"Cheat!" She snaps, baring her sharp teeth at the question he knew she couldn't really answer, despite what had been promised to him in the songs.

"The rule is that you have to answer until you can't anymore. I never said the questions had to be something you should already know," He grins at her.

Her eyes widen, her feathers puffing out and he knows he's pissed her off. She makes a noise, something similar to an angry trill.

Then, she laughs.

"You win." She says. "I do not know why your Why-Man took humans away."

"That means you have to do what I say now," He reminds her.

"Tell me, Se-en-kuu. What you want."

"To study you. I want you to stay with me and my Kingdom of Science, and let me learn everything about you."

Her eyebrows raise.

"Is that your true desire, Se-en-kuu?" She asks. "I know you want more."

"Sure, I want plenty of things. But this is what I'm asking you for," He says. She makes another trilling noise, this one less angry but still annoyed.

"Fine. I will stay with you and your people."

"No trying to eat anyone," He says. "I need every person in good health."

"That is more than you asked for."

"Wanna play again?"

She scoffs.

"No. You cheat. I will not harm your people."

"Good Siren."

"You are, as I have heard it said, treading on thin ice."

[opultea]

Eons Ago

You and your husband listen to a tale of the mythology from your homeland, and from your lives.

A.N. - Zhongli and Cloud god reader origin story! This pair originated from my Where's My Kiss? drabbles and then had a cameo in my Babe, Look At Me! headcanons. Maybe I'll make a masterlist for Zhongli and Cloud god reader?

Zhongli x Cloud God GN Reader (No Pronouns) - Romantic - SFW - Fluff

Word Count: 1.7k

When the sky and earth were first created by Celestia's light, they were intended never to meet. If the sky and ground ever touched, the world would be crushed between them, all life lost to the weight of the heavens. But it seemed that even despite this fundamental law of Teyvat, when influenced by the force of love, not even the gods could help but disobey.

The world was young when the God of Contracts and the God of Cloud were born. The great dragon and shimmering white tiger roamed the lands alone, observing and discovering the world. The land was not as plenteous and grand as it is now, for the gods were young and had not created the wonders we marvel at today. The two gods wandered, familiarising themselves with their land and growing their power. And then they met.

Rex Lapis was the first to notice that he was no longer alone, and he was the first to fall. The dragon stared above as the white tiger lay in the clouds, the gentle shimmer of its fur the only way to tell its form apart from its bed. The god of contracts observed the calm and loving gaze held within the creature's glowing eyes, admiring the world below. Feeling himself pulled toward the god in the sky, Rex Lapis spoke;

"Oh great creature above, pray tell your name so that I might worship it as I do your beauty,"

The illuminated beast peered to the earth below, where the dragon perched on a mountain peak. Leaping down from the highermost clouds where it lay, the god observed Rex Lapis curiously, before speaking its name.

"I am the one they call Oculi Caeli, the one who dances in cloud.” The formality behind the introduction was dropped at the soft smile the cloud god formed, head tilting. “Although, neither this name nor this form needs such dutiful reverence. After all, it seems we are of equal power and beauty,”

Rex Lapis, intrigued by the god’s disposition, proposed a contract.

“Then, let us forever consider ourselves equal so that we may always treat each other as we deserve."

The contract was sealed, and a love was born between the sky and the earth.

Your hand flew to stop any tea from bursting from your mouth. Your hidden giggling caught the amused gaze of your husband, who took the teacup from your shaky hold.

"Are you finding the story amusing, my love?" Zhongli teased, though he lovingly stroked your back to calm your spluttering.

"I just wasn't expecting such an abrupt statement," You cleared your throat. "I'd like to think there was a bit more to it than simply 'and then they fell in love', wouldn't you agree?"

A deep chuckle resonated in Zhongli's throat.

"Yes, perhaps you are right. Though let us honour our dear storyteller and allow him to finish his rendition of this tale,"

When the first humans were born, their fragility was coddled by the god of clouds, who shrouded them from the burning sun of old. Their intelligence and fairness were nurtured by the god of contracts. Together, the two gods raised the people of old to lead them to the greatness of our nation today. The people adored their gods, touched by their kind-heartedness and inspired by their great love. Temples were erected to celebrate them, and not one was ever complete without a statue of the holy tiger and dragon mid-flight, locking eyes, tails intertwined.

"I've always thought it'd be quite difficult to fly with our tails intertwined," you whispered to Zhongli, brought out of the tale by imagining the silly action.

Zhongli chuckled, patting your thigh before nodding toward the storyteller, refocusing you.

However, two familiar voices make your head swivel. "Aether, Paimon, come join us," You call, waving your hand over toward the duo.

Paimon waves excitedly as the pair approaches your table at Third Round Knockout. Aether smiles apologetically.

"Are you sure we aren't interrupting your date?" He asks, concern mixed with some level of teasing in his tone.

Zhongli chuckles, his eyes glowing with a pleased sense of pride. "Nonsense. You are most welcome to join us. We indulge in your company, after all."

The pair take a seat, Paimon quickly helping herself to the red bean bun you offer her. She looks curiously toward Iron Tongue Tian, swallowing her food swiftly before she asks; "What's the story about today? You two seemed pretty interested in it,"

You and Zhongli share a look, knowing smiles exchanged. Zhongli takes your hand in his, affectionately placing the joined hands on his thigh.

"It is a story very close to our hearts," He says mysteriously. "I'm sure you will gather exactly what makes it so as you listen,"

Aether and Paimon tilt their heads, interest piqued as they listen carefully to the storyteller, who continues the tale.

But such prosperity could never last, for Celestia felt great unrest brewing, and the Archon War broke the world.

The world turned red, the land splattered with blood and the sky angry with the hatred that seeped from below. The cloud god walked through the war-torn plains of Teyvat with heavy sadness. Tempest and blackness had been forced from the sky, causing great tiredness and discontent in the god who had always adored the pure white clouds.

"My love," Rex Lapis' voice rang deep through the open plain. "It is not safe here; Osial plans an attack. We must make haste."

"This place used to be a bamboo forest, teeming with life." The soft tone took the god of contracts from his battle-framed mind. He kept his silence and waited for his love to continue. "Now it is torn apart. Not even the weeds grow here anymore."

"Caeli, there is nothing we can do for this place, but we can save our haven from the wrath of Osial if we go now."

"Osial and his wife are not much different from us Morax; they are two gods that will do anything to protect their love for each other,"

"That may be so," The god approached, bringing his hand to his love's waist. "But they are lovers on the other side of a war. Bloodshed may not be ideal, but it is the only path we have left."

The cloud god was despondent. The deity pushed Morax's hand away.

"I will not come to watch you tear them apart."

Rex Lapis did not understand. So he left and did exactly as they both knew he would. As he knew he had to.

When he next returned, Oculi Caeli was still on the ground, staring down at the earth.

"Why are you not amongst your clouds, my love?"

"It is too painful. To be up so high, and to have such an encompassing view of all the destruction and pain in the world below." The god gripped the dirt. "I wish you would bury me. So I did not have to see anything at all,"

Rex Lapis rushed to Caeli's side, on his knees to hold his love close.

"Do not speak this way," He pleaded, bringing his lover's head to his chest. "I will cover and covet you. I will shield you from all that troubles you. But I will never be the reason you are lost to me. This, I vow forever,"

In the years following, no one saw the cloud god. Some believed the deity to have died in the Archon War. Others theorised that Rex Lapis had sheltered his love away in the mountains, so he could protect and love Oculi as he had promised. Even today, no one truly knows what occurred, why the god left this earth, and whether the great Archon Rex Lapis has since had to mourn his love.

Today, our temples still carry statues of the two gods, tails intertwined and eyes locked with an eternal love that echoes through the sky and earth even after their death.

The audience applauds as Iron Tongue Tian takes a bow, some dabbing their eyes at the sentiment in the ancient tale. Paimon rubs her eyes of tears, shooting up from her seat and flying toward you and Zhongli, fists curled.

"What actually happened? You guys can't make us listen to that story without telling us the real ending!" She demands.

You giggle behind a crooked finger, settling a hand over her shoulder to calm her. A pensive look of remembrance passes over your eye.

"The theories are not so far off. I- Oculi Caeli could not take the pressure and tragedy of war. So Rex Lapis hid the god away in Jayeun Karst, where he placed Caeli into a deep sleep. The adepti watched over the mountain heart where the god slumbered, and for centuries, Caeli lived in a dream."

"They say Rex Lapis grieved as if his love had fallen, in the years they were apart," Zhongli continues for you, his smooth voice edged with an old pain. "But he also took heart, knowing that Caeli would not have to see him committing the atrocities he knew made the god's heart break,"

You squeeze your hands around your husband's, moving your knee so it sits against his.

"When Caeli was awoken, after the war, there was a bond to repair between the sky and the earth, as our storyteller put it," You smiled softly, your eyes meeting Zhongli's, a gentle understanding present in the silent exchange. "The time they had spent apart had changed them both. Living in the dream world for so long had placed a haze over Caeli's mind, and the war and bloodshed had hardened Rex. But they fell in love once, and they were more than sure they could fall in love again,"

The two of you share a small smile, and you lean to place your head on Zhongli's shoulder, a gesture he meets by placing a hand on your opposite shoulder to squeeze you discreetly closer.

"Aww, you guys," Paimon places her hands on her heart, evidently touched. Aether smiles at the scene, his heart warming at the prevailing love you shared.

Notes: Oculi Caeli - Latin for 'the eye of heaven' (When Morax calls you 'Caeli' it means he's calling you 'heaven' 😚)

Literally never thought this would get out of my wips, but somehow it's here. Hope you enjoyed!

[insert-random-account-name]

Analyze the Princess- The Beast

The Beast is similar to her companion voice, the Hunted, in that they’re a nightmare to analyze (for me, at least). Her route is one of the most difficult to discover naturally, since you have to make a sequence of decisions that don’t make much sense in order to reach her chapter. She is probably the least popular out of all the Chapter 2s, simply because there is no “good ending” in her chapter, and her design may not appeal to some people like the other Princess’ do. The Beast is almost as if the Witch was even more feral, and these similarities have doomed the Beast to obscurity. Of course, with what I know about the Beast, she’d enjoy slinking in the shadows, known only by the whispers left in her wake.

You get the Beast by entering the basement without the knife and a) Backstabbing the Princess when the knife reappears, and giving up when she attacks you, or b) Retrieving the blade and closing the door before investigating the arm. The Princess overwhelms you with her savagery, and rips you to pieces with tooth and nail. In the dim moonlit basement, she looks more animal than human, staring at you with glowing eyes. This results in a Princess who is, well, inhuman. She resembles every mythological creature blended into a single terrifying chimera of death. She has sharp claws and teeth, small wings, (creepily enough) hair, and has the stature of a four-legged animal rather than a human. Her eyes glow in the dark like a predator.

The Beast operates with a scarily intelligent instinct. She outplays you at every step. You can’t run, you can’t hide, and you certainly can’t fight. She holds no resentment for your previous actions: It’s a dog eat dog world, after all, and she understands that your interests lie with only yourself. However, the Beast also knows that you’re the key to escaping her cage, and dead doesn’t count. Talking isn’t her style: It only opens her up to attack. No, she will devour you and hold you in her stomach until the cabin finally releases her. It isn’t personal, it’s just survival. You of all people should understand that.

The Beast also holds no patience for resistance. If you keep needlessly running, or you try to kill her, she will effortlessly reduce you to a pile of bloody feathers. If you try to slice her open from the inside, she isn’t scared, but curious. What will break first: The cabin door, your will, or her flesh? If you “allow” her to leave, she will tauntingly acknowledge the weakness of your resolve. After throwing you up outside the cabin, she notes that you survived, and should count yourself lucky.

The Beast represents extreme selfishness. Neither of you will ever be able to cooperate, especially not her. A compromise could easily be made, but that’s not what either of you want. Her desire to consume you is so strong that even the Shifting Mound comments on it. Both of you will do your best to drag the other down with them. The Beast’s chapter truly shows the cunning in her heart.

Guess who finally caved and made a masterpost? Me! You can find links to all of my character analysis posts there!

Slay the Princess Character Analysis Masterpost

[darlingpwease]

I wonder if Can you write Yandere Omega Seth (from Ennead) if you okay with it

I'll find you

hide as much as you can // I'll find you

♡ fictional mythology, unhealthy behaviour, lovehate dynamic (love -> lovehate), animalistic behaviour, pet names, power exchange, mention of bloodletting (seth), hints of incestuous relationships?; beta!reader -> alpha!reader, heqet/khnum!reader implied

♡ rough treatment, mild blood kink, mild scent kink, heavy petting, dubious consent -> consensual, unprotected sex / breeding, bondage by sand, power imbalance -> power exchange; word 'womb' used once for Seth

𓂀 Contacting this omega is not the best solution — you realized when you first met him, while coming out of the Nile, the keeper of the floods of which you were.

Of course, it's not that you were obliged to communicate with any of them or even be interested in your distant relatives, who were no more than the seventh water on the jelly, but you needed to come out of the depths of the Nile at least from time to time — and when you finally come out, for the first time you meet an unusually red shade, burning like a torch against the background of burning golden sand and the sky blue as the waters of the Nile.

He was like a creature that was born from the spilled blood of all the fallen warriors who did not find their way home, but took refuge in your waters, sprinkling your waters over and over again until the river turns red like the sunset.

His name was 'SETH', he was the god of war and the desert, his parents were Geb and Nut — and when your gaze first crossed, it was as if you were hit on the head with something; almost a low cry of 'YOU WERE NOTICED' so loud that if you were human, you would turn away and run away, — under the sand, under the ground, under the water, no matter where, — but you are not a human and, even if you were weaker than him, you would not run away.

After all, who is the 'God of War and the Desert' against the Deity who keeps the Nile?

“Don't you dare look at me like that anymore.”

wolf cub.

You can guess that his behavior is probably an attempt to attract, as a fertile young omega provokes a fertile young alpha to get angry and chase after him, showing everything they can, just to prove that they are good enough to fill the womb. You know all this. After all, you were the one who created the figures of people who were illuminated by Ra, and you were more than able to watch these playtimes when the lovers went too far in their games and fell together into the coastal waters after a long chase.

And you more than know the brilliance of those eyes — and react faster than realize, like water, which acts intuitively, not relying on reason, to survive. They say that betas have a stronger intuition with understanding of the world — it's not for nothing that you are one of those gods who prefer maximum detachment, 'spirituality', achieved through refusing to accept the role of omega or alpha.

And you let your instincts dictate.

Before his cheeky mouth has time to say anything, you just have to make a wave so that the waters of the Nile aim at him like a beast that has found prey — and break against a strong, slender figure, without causing severe pain, but forcing him to take steps back, no longer bursting into your space.

SETH'S hair, dripping and darkened from the water, sticks to body — but before he has time to resist you in any way, calling to himself the sands of the desert, submissive to him like a tamed pet, you dissolve into the water, returning to your native current...

“I'll find you!”

... The waters of the Nile easily take you into themselves as a natural part, hiding you from the outside world, dissolving like everything that falls into the water abyss and stays here; it's not for nothing that people say that it was water that gave birth to life, and that water is necessary for life.

And although you are not a water Deity, you are also worth something.

𓂀 You know that this is not Ra — although the method of summoning is the same, Ra would rather strangle herself than summon you, especially so soon after the last arrival. Even if you had a... good relationship, — you both contributed to the appearance of 'humans' — it was obvious that you were still different.

Your clay figurines needed a bright fire to come to life, just as she craved worship and followers — it was an interchange where mortals became what brought you closer and pushed you away from each other.

However, SETH was looking for you for other reasons, quite different from 'worshippers'.

Although you are used to being summoned in other ways, such as sacrifices and festivals, you must admit that you clearly underestimated the son of Nut and Geb, who were no better than any of them — but at least they were smart enough not to try to find out from Ra a way to summon you without having to wait at Nila.

Because more than herself and power, Ra loved only to have fun — and sometimes you wondered if she was looking for power just to have fun.

“... Heh.”

When he looks down at you, like a child who has found a gift hidden from him, his scarlet lips stretch in a cheeky smile.

If most gods and goddesses somehow have more alpha and omega traits, then SETH looks like there are too many of these traits in him, like an omega-like alpha or alpha-like omega than beta.

“It turns out that this is the only way you can be summoned? I thought to the last that she was lying...”

The scarlet spot spreads across the water surface of the unusually calm Nile, dissolving in the streams of water that carry the particles with them, absorbing a new part of itself into its course. If people knew how much Nile water contains particles of their children, parents, friends, spouses, enemies, detractors, traitors — would they drink it?

If they knew that the same water absorbs the blood of the gods they worship, what would they look like, scooping up water like the purest gold — the same as he controls, the God of the Desert, smelling of sand dust, dry grass and heat?

“I don't care. You're here, so it was worth it.”

You don't think that the blood of God should be used for such things, like simply calling you from the river bottom, but don't say anything, giving someone to continue — and SETH continues without hearing an answer.

And although he, in fact, created a trap for you, filling the entire stone floor with his sand to make sure that you don't run away anywhere, you feel more like in the paws of a small puppy than in the cave of a mature wolf.

Wasn't it really an exaggeration to be afraid of him?

... Apparently, you have been under water for so long, absorbing the blood of warriors and animals, that you have become too sensitive to any danger...

“I promised you I'd find you.”

𓂀 SETH smells of freedom — not the freedom that has no limits or restrictions, only dead bodies that float along the Nile can have such freedom, but the freedom that is like the hot breath of the desert during the day and the icy whisper of the desert at night; it smells of heat, dry grass, the blood of soldiers and treasures captured with the help of weapons.

You pretend that you don't notice when treasures fall to the bottom of the Nile, and that, moreover, don't understand who gives you them; but it's hard for you to deny that you don't like the look of them. After all, the Nile is not just a 'river' or 'your home', but your temple and refuge, and the sight of expensive and precious things sheltering the once bare, dreary bottom undoubtedly improves the view and your mood; especially when the current of the river carries you further, and gold, like a lighthouse, shines; sprinkling the dark bottom is like the moon shining on the darkest desert night.

SETH is hot and fervent, like burning blood flowing out of him until you hand an object that can immediately contact you, instead of flooding waters, as if out of spite spending more than really needed, as if the more blood, the faster you will rise to the surface.

(in a sense, it is, but for other reasons...)

You can understand that this relationship is frowned upon, at least by his brother, but there's not much you can do — the waters of the Nile are all-encompassing and almost omnipresent, and the way SETH regularly calls you is almost charming if it wasn't so intense, as if every time he struggles with himself in the desire to devour you or to drag away, but at the same time I have to give up this need, which is close to the human need to drink water. You don't need to ask him about it to know — the way he looks at you, as if wanting to sink his teeth into your skin and take you to his cave, is more than eloquent, and even the way his smell intensifies, silently shouting that he is a strong, healthy and fertile omega, in itself is an obvious sign.

And the fact that you are just as quiet and calm, like serene dark waters, untouched by gusts of sandy wind, only further inflames his burning passion and desire, which he himself cannot describe in any way except as 'mine'.

Mine.

Mine mine mine — you give life, carry life, no matter in a running stream or standing water, watching as the surface is filled with bodies and blood, dirt and tears, bodies entwined in passion and love embraces. It doesn't matter — everything will be dissolved in your current and carried away until it becomes no more than another drop in billions of the same, carrying information that only you know.

SETH, on the other hand, carries with him the smell of something wild, giving life, — but also ruthlessly taking it for himself, strewing everything with the red-hot gold of the desert, which becomes more and more every time you rise, noticing how the waters that used to caress the fertile lands now nourish the sand.

And you know what will happen next — SETH has never been a secretive type, even if his method of hunting was closer to big cats hiding until they get close enough to bite into the throat and gnaw, taking them to their hideout. SETH is the same cat — big, red and strong, smelling of mature omega when he notices that you are more responsive to this fragrance.

SETH is not at all deeply interested in the topic of "let's mate" — are you sure that he is attracted not at all to your physical data or smell, but to how comfortable and safe he is next to you, letting him finally relax, looking for comfort in your waters, and that if he decided that you would be his, then you will be his.

He will always find you.

𓂀 SETH is persistent, stubborn and aggressive. Even if his emotions are a sphere that is easy to push and cause pain, you understand perfectly well that he is the god who will break rather than bend.

But when he asks you what happens to the bodies of those soldiers that he led to war, when they find themselves in the Nile, like bags full of blood, breathing and thinking recently, at first you don't know what to answer — not because you can't share his silent pain, looking like a scorpion that suddenly bared you have a soft vulnerable tummy, but because you have nothing to answer.

What happens to the bodies? The Nile absorbs them — everything that was dumped into the waters finds itself in the stomachs of animals or in water particles, carrying with it such an amount of memory that nothing else can contain.

“... If I die one day, will you promise that my memory will be preserved in your waters?”

You no longer know if you are talking about the waters of the Nile or something else — but you know that you will probably never find SETH like this again.

Unusually fragile, as if really an ordinary omega who just wants to have a family, a common nest and puppies. To have you as an alpha, to be in the same nest with you and to have children together.

What can you say other than consent? No matter what happens, he will always remain in your memory — as a special memory that will never be erased.

“... Thank you. I'll never forget you either. And I won't let go.”

His eyes are burning just like the sunset on the background.

“We'll be together. Always. Because I chose you and I won't let you go.”

𓂀 His power becomes stronger, and when you meet him again, you have nothing to oppose when the sand from the land and the bottom rises to grab you.

Undoubtedly, it wasn't something that you 'didn't expect' — SETH was never the type who tried to hide what intentions he had if he saw that it would affect your attitude, and even if he found comfort in your touches and hugs, covering him like a blanket from the whole world, he never had this safe habit of 'being content with little'. His intentions were obvious from the first meeting and did not change at all — you were perfect, from head to toe, the only one with whom he would like to spend one heat and then make you spend thousands more, finally feeling complete, finished.

He, the god of the Desert and War, with you, Deity of the Nile flood — is not the best couple that can be?

'No'?

... Ha, does someone think that things like "imperfect couple" or "more worthy" or "more accessible" or "morally wrong" or something else will stop him?

Does he need permission? If he wants it — he will get it. And nothing can stop him.

Even if you are a beta, you smell fertile, pleasant, sweet — you smell of life, sex, from which children are born, absorbing the spilled blood and creating from it what brings birth and fertility, and SETH has always been more than gambling and ready to put everything on the line.

And you knew it.

Even if you are safe in the water, once you get out, nothing can save you — especially when you step on the sand, which immediately becomes your cage, locking you in. The waters immediately splash out of the Nile, crushing on him, but now SETH moves only a couple of steps, becoming much more powerful — and when palms grab by the wrists while teeth close on neck, everything inside you starts screaming again that you need to run right now.

Now the sand turns out to be decorated with spots of the deity's blood.

His mark pulsates on never-marked neck — and although it is not the same among deities as among people, you clearly see that for him it was not at all 'just a bite' or a 'mating mark', but a sign of possession, while the pupils in the blood-red iris, the shade of red-hot metal, expand, and a nimble pink tongue licks the blood from scarlet lips.

Red.

RED RED RED.

Nails are no worse than the claws of a wolf, and even fangs look like they can easily tear apart a dozen other people who decide to intervene.

The sand squeezes your feet so tightly that you can't even twitch.

This is all completely wrong.

You cowardly escape into the waters — betas are not capable of mating, are not created for this, closer to 'asexual beings' who do not have a biological task in the form of giving birth, much closer to the primordial asexual matter than to the omegas and alphas giving birth, but for some reason a mark with an imprint burns on his neck which didn't exist before.

Was it you? Or was it the part of you that you denied? You didn't know. It is easier to plunge into the native waters than to try to figure out why for the first time its fragrance was so dizzying, or why you went for something like this. You're not like that at all — not like that at all. It's not normal.

But you'll have to get out soon anyway.

You don't want your omega to get hurt while calling you, right, alpha?

Interlude

“I'm surprised you decided to step in anyway, dear.”

When the sand almost gently wraps around your hands, you realize that the biggest stupidity you can do is to try to escape.

Even if there is water in things like vases in the room, this is too little to create the necessary amount — and even to make sand soft and heavy, such a meager amount is not enough, except to pour it on him and break a vase on this face.

“Wasn't it you who liked to be constantly huddled in your little shell? Hiding there from any danger and thinking that it will help you?”

His hands are not the same as before — slightly rough, wide palms that easily slide over your cool skin, leaving warm traces, slightly scratching with sharp nails, as if hinting that you should not do rash things; if he did not smell like a blooming omega, you would think that he was alpha or alpha-like beta.

“But it turns out that if it's not me, but someone else, then you're ready to help them! No matter how much blood I shed, you didn't come out — but as soon as it was Isis, you immediately got out to help.”

His mark on your neck has not been pulsating for a long time, but when his fingers touch your neck, he freezes for a moment, assessing the scar left, which is almost impossible to notice — and from something, your body again feels this soreness, fettering for a moment from the realization of what happened before the brain began to work feverishly.

Then.

Now you are experiencing phantom pain until you realize that it is not 'phantom' — SETH shamelessly licks your blood from his fingers when he realizes that he scratched the old mark.

“This is wrong.”

Even when blood drips down from the shoulder, you know that's not what you need to worry about — his body is hot as the desert during the day, especially when his hips easily sit on top of yours, taking care that the sand does not let go of your hands.

“I promised you I'd always be there for you; although it was you who avoided me all these years, not appearing even when the corpses filled the entire Nile, while the other gods were terrified of what was happening — but I understand. A lot to do, yes? You've always been busy and strict, ever since our first meeting, when you doused me like some kind of animal.”

The thick scent of omega is so strong that you are not sure if it smells from him or if it is something else — the same thing that made you bite his neck then; your bite is also still burning on his skin, although it looks much more noticeable on him, although you are sure that you bit weaker than him.

The sweet bloody fragrance makes you dizzy.

“And when I saw you, I realized that you didn't live well either; after all, who but me could take care of a hermit like you?”

His hands, in spite of everything, are omeganine soft and pleasant, even if he uses them to look even more wrongly charming, as if he did not sneak into your bedroom — in which you were definitely expecting this meeting — to "talk heart to heart" while his hot wet slippery thighs touch your hips,

obviously.

“I was doing the wrong thing. I gave you the 'right to choose', thinking that this is what lovers should do — but, you know, people around me explained to me what I did wrong. By own example. And I'm ready to show you what I should have done back then, instead of this idiotic thought that you'd think it over and make a nest with me...”

He purrs — deep in his throat, like a big cat, when a strong flexible hand gently rests on your chest while the second one uses the surface behind as a support, rubs against your thighs, leaving sticky wet traces of juice on your bare skin, from touching which your skin burns, and you don't look at him, making sure not to do anything you might regret,

“Look at your omega.”

but it's hard to do when his hand moves from your chest to your throat, not squeezing, but feeling quite threatening, even if you are sure that it will not cause any harm.

“Don't you dare take your eyes off me or I'll scratch them out. You can only look at me and see only me. No one else and nothing else.”

The way he hovers feels almost the same as when he was able to summon you for the first time — his hair hangs down freely, like the flames of candles burning around you, and the same abnormally bright glow burns in his eyes, like the eyes of a cat. Or a wolf.

An abandoned, starved wolf.

“... Like I said, no one cares about you but me — you can fight this idea all you want, but we both know it's true.”

It's wet, wet, hot, sticky, tight between SETH'S thighs — you didn't consider yourself a 'virgin', but when the smell gets stronger and sharper, even you need time to get rid of the veil of excitement that covers eyes in the basest way, looking at his strong thighs while red hair falls over his shoulders, revealing a view of the most handsome omega in your life.

“Therefore...”

His lips are scarlet, thin, beautiful, and when he bends over you, you can't feel the inarticulate delight and the misunderstanding that follows it, associated with the simultaneous desire to pull away from repeated unusual stimulation and the desire to take this stimulation, grab by the hair and breed until it becomes clear that you will need a joint nest, in which he will keep the puppies while you fill him again and again.

Over and over, until his belly is rounded.

This is wrong.

His legs are slender and strong, ideal so that you don't have to do anything while SETH is able to at least move his knees — but you are sure that if you just wrap your hands around his hips and squeeze, you will get much more pleasure and delight, hammering into him with the basest this is wrong in a way.

It's the smell of omega. Definitely the smell of omega.

You yourself can't feel like this for him — for omega, who first marked you, then pursued you for many years and now, finally getting a chance, immediately pounced like an overexcited wolf, to such an extent that you can see the juice flowing down his thighs, although you are sure that even he does not realize it himself, considering it nothing more than a 'punishment'.

“... let me take care of–”

Of course you will.

Everything happens in the blink of an eye — the water, the sand, astonished expression on his face and how it takes you no more than a couple of minutes to find yourself in a deliciously tight heat, from which his claws immediately scratch your hands holding him on his back until it bleed, but nothing in him tries to escape, even if SETH growls mixed with purring, choking on words as you snuggle tighter, allowing something more animal, dirty to take control.

You smell of life, passion, sex — 'the very sex from which children are born', the very life that gave rise to mortals, and you know that you have something to fill this womb with.

When his cheeks are covered with a bright blush, reminiscent of the shade of his eyes and hair; you can't help but reach out to burrow into his neck, not caring about the sand that is wrapped around your ankle — and not caring about the aggressive imperiousness with which SETH squeezes you while sharp fangs bite your lips almost to the point of blood, greedily kissing, almost devouring.

If you leave me again, I'll find you and kill you.

[theblasianwitch]

@creatingblackcharacters Is currently hosting an event for Black History Month. And I for one am so for it!!

Please have a look if you'd like to learn more about their challenge and participate

Not sure who to tag as I'm not sure how many people I know on here are artists or writers, but if you make things of any kind you can still participate. @crazycatsiren @thecomfywriter @venusrrvelez

For my contribution (the word feels wrong but my brain doesn't know what word to use at the moment): Szar Rei Ra, Jay Benu, Anthony Benu, Bora, Fiona Ra, and Xana.

In my series "Different Yet Same" I have many characters of varrying backgrounds. Everyone's background, upbringing, family history, and culture are as diverse as they are. I'm going to describe all of them, but put certain emphasis on one's I feel embody Black History and have something to offer in terms of being more culturally sensitive and understanding.

Szar Rei Ra is the main male character in my story. Without spoiling too much, he is a descendant of the Egyptian God Ra and has a heart for the people that was noticed and taken advantage of. Realizing and breaking away from that leads him into making a community of diverse individuals to help him with his role as an important figure for the future of the world on a whole.

Fiona Ra is Szar's older sister who was quite literally bound to the body and whims of a man via a curse placed by their older brother. She was released once the old patriarchal system was destroyed and is now trying to live life and use her divinity to help others while recovering from her trauma.

Jay and Anthony Benu are a married gay couple. Jay is from Libya and Anthony is from a secret society deep within West Africa. The creatures they are are based off of are from various African mythology but would be recognized, I hope, by my future readers from certain pop media of the 2000s where these creatures were white washed and Asian coated. The creatures they are heavily impact their outlook on life as Jay is more protective and pessimistic and Anthony is a symbol of life, prosperity and safety and is very optimistic. They serve as a hidden Easter egg to educate others on the origins and true nature of the creatures they are.

Bora is an intersex demi god who's upbringing led them to isolate themselves from society. In my second book they are forced to face the fact that they are one of the few gods on earth allowed to actually do anything for the people who have and still are suffering from the African Slave Trade and African Diaspora. The second book is very heavy on humanity suffering the consequences of their actions via divine intervention and having to come to terms with what they do and a need to change.

Xana is a North African bouda, a hyena shifter of African folklore and mythology, sometimes called a werehyena. Her story is part of the second book as well. Hyenas are a very female led and dominate species so her character and her people are used to show the determination and strength of Black women and just how much women do for society. Her people are one of the few matriarchal societies throughout the series.

I do hope people give my story the chance when it's first book is released in April. As a mixed race person who has suffered from all ends of my spectrum it serves to show just how connected we all are and to remind people of the humanity that exists within all of us. "There is nothing in this world that humanity hasn't done to another human." That is a quote that has stayed with me throughout my life as it is repeated quite a lot by my mother whenever injustice happens. World history, TRUE world history proves that and shows why so many people seem afraid of another set of people. Fear drives people more than anything, but we should not need to fear each other because we all bleed red; we all live on the same earth; we all are capable of the same emotions and therefore capable of both love and hate. All my life I've chosen love and only suffer from those who don't.

[lizzaneia-elizalde]

Male Yandere Deep Sea-Creature x Female Mermaid Reader x Male Yandere Human

I don’t think you’ve ever done 2 yanderes pursuing the same darling, so think you could try it? (Unless I’m just stupid and aren’t remembering your other stories right)

We all know of the classic mercreature x human forbidden romance story, but what if there was another from the same marine world added into the mix? Yandere deep sea-creature is also in love with mermaid reader darling, so imagine what he’d do to keep her with him. Same goes for yandere human

This story you can hopefully have fun with as there’s so many ways it can turn out. And another note on why deep sea-creature…it was because I think a merman can be a bit boring, and it’d be interesting to explore a deep sea-creature instead (or straight up eldritch monster of your own creation). Just remember…deep sea-creatures usually get bigger the deeper you go. Much bigger thanks to deep sea gigantism…;)

(Re-sending this to you, because you said you only got 3 requests when I think I sent you 4. But if you had this request, just ignore this ask with this additional message at the end)

Thanks!!! 💝

Yandere! Male! Deep sea creature x mermaid! Fem! Reader x Human! Male! Hunter

OH THIS IS A DOOZY TO WRITE

By the way, guess whose birthday it is today (Hint: it's me LOL)

Got a little bit sidelined on this fic, but i tried. Two men pursuing darling ain't for me but for you, 💝anon, I'll do it ( ꈍᴗꈍ)

This one starts with (and focuses on) you, the reader, since I can't exactly make a yandere man focused fic with two men without making it really long. So unfortunately I cannot put that much of their lore.

Wait, so what does this mean? Do they belong to the same number, or separate? (I mean, I am targeting 16 yanderes in one set. So do they count as one or nah? Eh...)

Yandere! Deep Sea creature name: Viper (from the viperfish) Yandere! Hunter: Orion

It was truly an unfortunate day for you.

You, a mermaid living in the ocean, swimming freely without any people's judgements and even other mermaids.

You aren't exactly a woman of fear.

You love exploring. It's one of your favorite hobbies and actively seek out new thrills and discoveries.

In a world where mer/werpeople were still a newly discovered concept by humans, your folks were adamant on telling you to keep safe from them. Since humans are cruel and what not.

But you didn't care. You wish to see humans and their inventions.

Because of this, you became an outcast from your people, and live on your own in one of the trenches. Just a tad far away from oceanic civilization.

You felt bad for yourself, honestly. Why can't they just accept you're just thirsty for knowledge?

You want to swim up top, where the sun shines and the huge boats reside, with legged people running around in water vehicles. You want to know how they operated it, how they made it, and stuff like that.

Contrary to popular belief, Humans are the uneducated ones. They went on for years upon years not knowing about wer/merpeople other than their mythologies. Yet these other species had always blended with them seamlessly.

Foolish, but that's what made them fascinating for you.

But you only knew what's up above, but not...

The current suddenly felt cold as you lounged at one of the trench dugouts, and you looked down from your side.

It was deep. Too deep for you to explore.

You love the light, but hate the dark.

And it was dark down there. An eerie, dark blue of emptiness.

You're the only one in this abandoned trench, teeming with other sea life other than merpeople, with corals so beautiful and sea anemones that sway with the waters.

But as the trench go down... And down... And down...

They decreased in numbers till they got swallowed by the darkness.

You heard of deep sea merpeople sometimes, but a lot agreed to not look for them. For they are hideous and ugly. Some use them as a scare tactic for young merchildren, that these hideous and large merpeople will eat them alive.

Unfortunately, you believed those stories due to your parents drilling it in your head to not head down.

You shook your head and grabbed your bag, before swimming upwards as you saw a weird mechanism suddenly being dropped in the water via a boat.

You swam around it, curious to this weird ball. It's clearly cut in half then somehow glued together. It's tied to a rope, with little baits decorating the sides.

"Weird, how do humans catch fishes with this?" You asked to yourself, tilting your head as you swatted away the fishes from trying to eat the baits.

Curiosity got a hold of you though. And as you accidentally pulled a bait out from trying to carefully remove it, the ball bursts open and spews out a net, catching you off guard as you got enveloped by the fishnet.

"WHA--?!" As you got enveloped, your body got hauled back to the surface.

Your heart is beating wildly as you broke through the water tension. You can feel the heat of the sun now enveloping your body, which was once only can be felt by your face. You can feel the water dripping from your body down to the waters below, and the net digging onto your skin as your weight made the machine creek.

"Oh? A mermaid?"

A sultry voice said, snapping you from your fear. You looked up, and saw not two, but only one human in such a big boat.

He stood tall, with long legs in a fitted pair of pants and boots. He's wearing a dress shirt that hung loosely on his torso in an inserted fashion. He had a hooded look in his face, examining you over.

"This is the first time I saw a mermaid. Hey there, love." He said again in that voice that made you shiver.

He leans to the edge of the boat, his elbows on the railings. Looking at you with an inquisitve look.

"My name's Orion, love. What's yours?" He asked in a deep tone that made you gulp.

"Y/N..." You whispered, gripping your bag.

"Pretty name for a pretty mermaid." He smiled and you flushed red.

Due to being a recluse, you never got the chance to find a lover, let alone a mate.

As you started to dry out a bit, you scratched your skin, uncomfortable from the direct heat.

Orion saw this and went to the machine.

You curiously looked at what he's doing, trembling from the sudden realization that you're so close to a human invention!

You clutched your bag once more and intently watched as Orion hummed and pulled the lever, making you jerk back as the machine whirred to life and lowered your net.

"Forgive me, love. Thought I caught a big octopus or a huge school of fish." Orion said, making you nod as your body got immersed with the water.

The net unclasped from the bottom, which was held together by a strong magnet as it retreated back to the ball.

"Thank you, Orion." You whispered.

"No problem, love. I'm sorry for catching you like that again." Orion chuckled at your voice.

You didn't make a move from your place, still so curious about the boat. Orion noticed it and chuckled once more.

"Want to know stuff about boats?" He asked and you nodded eagerly. "Alright."

And, as Orion and you talked the afternoon off, you didn't notice a pair of eyes from down, down below look at you with such intensity, hostile.

Orion. A rich man who got a vessel by himself to know more about sealife, hunt them, and display them as catches.

He's always been interested marine life. Living by the seaside most of his life due to his yacht investing father and a beach resort owner mother, he's drawn to the sea in more ways than one.

Due to being mostly by the sea, he developed such tan skin that glistens under the sun whenever he walks by the port. Plus the way his face is built, he looks like a Carribean prince waiting for his mermaid to appear on the beach while not being able to speak.

But due to his parents' financial status, most of the time he only spends time by himself. Other children his age in that port town were intimidated. Despite him trying to be friendly, he can't catch himself a friend at all.

That goes for lovers too. Yeah, there are people who are brave. But in the end, they get overwhelmed from his clinginess.

This made him more clingy and possessive.

He just doesn't want them to run away. He's too lonely for such an extroverted man like him. And with so much love (baggage) to give, how can he make somebody stay in such a demanding and overwhelming way?

It's honestly a draining cycle for both him and the lovers he had.

Now, he only hunts fishes and and examine them. If they're edible, he eats them. If it's interesting, he taxidermies them somehow.

Then, while testing a new net system he developed, he catches a mermaid, you.

He's surprised, but got his heart speared when he saw your clear, fearful, yet curious eyes.

You're so pretty that he swore he's in heaven rather than the sea.

For the first time, an aggressive want to make you his filled him inside that it scared even him.

But he doesn't want to scare you. So, rather than being overwhelming immediately, he took his time.

Why not start with fulfilling your thirst for knowledge?

Everyday, he goes back to that specific spot only for you. You always asked him about his boat, about the machinery, about technology that he brought... He filled your head with information that made you so giddy it was adorable in his eyes.

But he can't shake off the feeling of somebody staring at them. It's honestly unsettling. Sure, it may be other merfolks, but you swore that nobody other than you goes here.

It's strange, but he shrugs it off. He's happy to solo you anyways.

What you didn't know is that he's already ordered a large aquarium type habitat on his home. The size of city wide aquariums of sharks, whales, etc. He made sure to put everything that he thinks you will like.

He wants you in his arms.

He wants to jump down to the sea, hug you in such a tight embrace, and devour your salty lips that will probably taste so sweet on his tongue.

You're so sweet, inquisitive, kind, and understanding. Too lovable. And just thinking that other merfolk have interacted with you before and some probably saw you as a potential mate darkens his mood to no end.

He hasn't tried hunting mermaids yet, should he?

Somehow, he's grateful that you're a social outcast. That means he could just solo you like this.

Not until you didn't show up in a meeting, and his heart dropped to the floor.

Hours before the daily meeting.

You plucked some kelp from a nearby kelp farm that you personally oversee. Hungry, you rolled some and continued to find more proper kelp to join in a fish salad.

Hey, some sealife here are the equivalent of meat consumables for humans.

Getting some oysters, you continued to get food for dinner when a light flashed from your peripheral vision.

"Hmm?" Your body swayed as you looked to the side where the light came from.

Putting what you got in your basket, you swam to the trenches again and tried to find where the light came from.

Some fishes got out of your way as you tried to find it once more, before it flashed again.

"Aha! Now, where... Huh?"

The flash came from the deepest part of the trenches.

The cold current got to you again, and you shivered.

It flashed again, enticing you to swim closer.

But you knew not to do it.

The stories of the deep sea merpeople flashed your mind again, and you almost shrieked in fear from the memories.

But the light is so enticing...

"Just a bit..."

You swam down, passing by the corals and the anemones. Your heartrate picked up, feeling the cold current once more.

Then, you noticed how the corals and anemones are thinning out, but you pushed through, telling yourself that it's not that far.

It's really not that far... Right?

The light flashed once more, now a bit bigger.

So, with a burst of energy and the adrenaline, you swam harder, wanting to see what's the flashing light is.

Then, the light went out.

You gasped in fear and astonishment as suddenly, it got so dark.

With nothing around you at all. Not even the trenches' walls kept you company as the vast, dark nothingness filled your vision.

Cold currents on warm waters, water rippling around you as if some kind of entity kept swimming past you, and you swore you saw beady eyes look at you from afar.

Should you go up?

But wait, where is up?

You felt your stomach drop.

Then, the flashing light blinded you, making you yelp and cover your eyes.

Feeling a sense of deja vu, you felt a presence in front of you.

No, around you.

You trembled, not wanting to open your eyes, but you knew you have to face whatever was in front of you.

So you opened your eyes, and almost shrieked once more from the person in front of you.

He's huge. With beady, ghost like eyes and sharp teeth as he unhinges his jaw in such a grotesque way that made you squirm in how uncomfortable it is to look at. His antenna, the one flashing, shone in now a dimly light as he swerves his body around you. Almost coiling his tail on your body.

He's triple your length, maybe quadruple even. And he laughs deeply at your scared face. He had a sick joy flashing his eyes before he tilted his head.

"Upper Dweller, didn't know you would follow my light." His voice, a ghost like quality with such roughness that it's gravelly. "I'm surprised you're still alive with such curiosity inside of you. Tell me, little one, what's your name?"

"Y/N..." You gulped, cowering from his stature as he swam around you once more.

He looked so creepy, yet had this look that's attracting you to him. Is it the antenna? Who knows.

"A name that matches you." He chuckles and you squirm. Was it a good thing or bad?

"My name's Viper. Nice to meet you, Upper Dweller Y/N." He smiles, his jaw now back in its place yet the sharp teeth still shone. "Hmm... Tiny mermaid, so easy to crush..."

He fully coiled his tail around you, and it felt so cold. The scales felt so cold and uncomfortable against your own tail and skin.

"You dwell on the trenches that nobody dares to live due to being the entrance to my lair." He whispers, closing his face against yours. "Did the people not tell you that?"

You felt your blood run colder than usual. Nobody did. Did they send you there knowing a deep sea dweller lives at the bottom?

Suddenly, you felt helpless against his hold as you realized that you got sent to your what's essentially your death.

Viper smiles from your reaction as he kept himself from pulling you down to the abyss completely.

The first time you got to the trenches, Viper was thoroughly surprised. The abandoned trenches suddenly got a resident once more? Who's the stupid mermaid who dares to live on his what's essentially a frontyard?

And he got a good look on you. Despite being of a viperfish specie, his ghost like eyes were useful for him, making him look at your face fully even though the distance is so far.

You. You look so precious, so pure as you swam around above. So small and puny that just one bite from his powerful jaw can crack you open.

But he didn't lure you yet, just observed his prey as you swam around, trying to watch the boats on the surface.

Viper's a lonely man.

Deep sea merfolk are rare, and in this place, it was only him.

So, he never really got the proper education on what to do in social contexts. Not like he had a chance to do so.

The only time he got is when people still reside the trenches up above when he's still a fry. They looked so happy and chatty, friendly and kind.

And he wants to experience it too.

So, he swam up, trying to form relationships, but this only scared the merfolk away from the ghost like appearance of Viper and his sheer size despite being only a fry back then.

And all of them left the trenches.

It broke small Viper's heart, and he steeled them in the years to come.

But now, you moved in.

Fortunately, Viper's in that age that he's finding a mate to be with for life.

And, with how much he observed you, taking in your smiles, curious glances up above, and fearful looks you gave down below, he slowly fell in love with you.

Well, in one way or another.

So, when he saw you talking to this puny human, he knew he had to make his move.

So, he lured you here.

"Little one..." He whispered, nudging your hand open with his sharp claws.

You opened it nervously, and gasped in terror as he gave you a black pearl.

A symbol of wanting to be mates.

"NO!" You screamed in fear as you got the strength to break free and swim with all your might up to the surface.

Viper growled and tried to catch up with you.

"COME HERE!"

You shrieked in terror as his hand is only a smidge away from your tail.

The darkness slowly got lighter, and you were tired from exhaustion but you knew you cannot stop.

Viper was angry. How dare you reject him! A little upper-dweller that he can just crush with one hand yet he graciously let live reject his offer to be his mate?

But the light got too much for him, and he had to hiss and retreat.

"You will be back." He whispered, watching your retreating figure. "I just know it."

Viper remembers the other man, the human, who somehow saw through him one day when he observed the both of you. Viper felt the hostility and bloodlust from him as he looked directly at where Viper is.

Viper swore up and down it's just coincidence, but the way Orion's eyes never left his spot was unsettling. How can Orion even see Viper?

But Viper knew that this man is not an easy opponent.

So he retreats...

And Orion also retreats as he realized you aren't going to be in the meeting place today.

Two men. One up above, and one below.

Both wants you in their arms.

One will offer you the light but in such a restrictive way,

And the other will offer you the darkness filled with uncertainty but within the waters you know and love.

So, who will it be, love?

Time is ticking, little one.

It will not be long until these two go face to face.

And one will not live to see the tale.

[highlordofkrypton]

FINAL PART

SUMMARY: Tamlin has seen the horrors (aka Rhysand), but worse is on its way. Will he team up with this monster in the woods? The tale of truth is spilled before his feet and Tamlin has to decide where to go from here.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi, it's me... I'm late again for @tamlinweek. The last time I posted, I wasn't able to finish this fic, so please enjoy the conclusion to my submission for Day 2: Dark Spring/Spring Mythology & Celebrations.

TW: Death, implied abuse, the horrors

dividers by @olenvasynyt

READ ON AO3 OR BELOW THE CUT

Tamlin.

Tamlin.

TAMLIN!

A dream. A nightmare. That’s all this is. If he keeps running, he’ll reach the end of it and wake up. Ean has gone limp on his back, arms hanging loosely over his shoulders. Tamlin reaches behind him, ignoring the whispers in his mind. They have its voice—that creature in the woods that pretended to be human. The clues were there, masked in strangeness that Tamlin played off as personality quirks.

The trees around him shiver with a warning, and Tamlin has the instinct to duck. Wood splinters above him as something— something attacks. It careens past him, having missed its target and tumbling back into the darkness. Tamlin catches a glimpse of that familiar ethereal long-limbed horror. To think, he had chalked up Rhysand’s attention to genuine interest. The only desire he sees now is a desire to kill.

His limbs scream with exertion, wanting a break—just a small one—and he’ll be right as rain. He needs to get farther before he can even think of resting, at least for Ian’s sake. Tamlin pushes any and all thoughts out of his mind. Just do.

Stop running.

Tamlin might be a fool, and he might not be the brightest student in his class, but even he knows that stopping means death. He won’t die, not like this. Not without pushing himself beyond his limits, and not without a fight if he can’t run anymore. 

GET DOWN!

This could be a ruse. What if there’s a trap laid ahead by something terrible? Would he be playing into it?

NOW!

Tamlin refuses to listen, so he moves with compromise. He pushes off one foot, a move reminiscent of when he’s evading the opposing team’s linemen in hope to stick with his teammate to protect them. It shifts the course of his escape, so that anything careening towards him will have to pivot as well. His decision comes a second too late, and the bag on Ean’s back gets clipped. Tamlin is thrown out of balance, and he is carrying too much weight which prevents him from catching himself. 

He stumbles, and falls.

Fuck, Tamlin curses at himself.

The forest seems to shift, a cruel mistress, and there is no end to his tumble. Tamlin rolls down a hill, unable to catch Ean and protect him. He slams his ribs against a rock, praying that nothing breaks. 

“Fuck,” he exhales, laying there in the dirt and moss, looking up at the darkness. The canopy blots out the night. “Come on, get up.” Tamlin is bruised, but nothing feels broken. “Ean,” he croaks.

No answer.

Movement in the woods reminds Tamlin that he is not safe, and the commotion of their fall is sure to attract the monsters. He grunts, getting to his feet, and pulls out his knife as he limps towards Ean. The boy isn’t moving, and there’s an ache in Tamlin’s chest. His heart thrashes, wanting to be free of this moment. Ean was kind. Even if he wasn’t, he doesn’t deserve this.

“He’s dead.”

Tamlin whips towards him, flipping the knife in his hand. He’s immediately on guard, having fought his own brothers for years. His father wanted warriors, even in a world where fighting is imposed on others of lesser privilege. Rhysand approaches him, just a handsome man, like he always was.

“Why’d you kill them?” Tamlin asks slowly. The knife is about half the length of his forearm, and nearly the width of his palm. He doesn’t know if he can kill this thing with the glowing eyes.

“I didn’t. Even so, humans die. Such is life.”

“Are you going to kill me?” There is no doubt in Tamlin’s mind that he is going to make that task as difficult as possible; he does not want to win, he simply wants retribution for the others.

“Come with me.” Rhysand glances up the steep hill from which Tamlin fell. “Time is of the essence.” He offers Tamlin his hand.

“Are you going to eat me?”

“Did you not hear me? We have to hurry.”

“I can’t leave Ean here.” Tamlin is only half listening, too bogged down by the train of thoughts clouding his mind. He has no reason to trust Rhysand. “The others. People will miss them.”

“People will forget them.”

“So, why me then?”

The incessant questions irritate Rhysand who’s fingers have curled into a frustrated fist. “Enough! You will come with me, whether you like it or not. I don’t have time to answer your questions.” 

He reaches for Tamlin, and Tamlin pulls back. He tries again, more aggressively to grab Tamlin. Tamlin retaliates accordingly, swiping back with his blade, and when Rhysand blocks it, he snaps a low kick into the side of Rhysand’s knee. Pain sparks through his leg and Tamlin realizes that he is hurt. Two attacks isn’t enough to deter this creature, but it is enough to make its glamour begin to slip. Nails elongate into black claws, and those eyes darken once more. Perhaps if Tamlin didn’t know what to expect, he would be shocked or feel fear, but Tamlin simply adapts. 

Tamlin uses his size, still bigger than Rhysand while he maintains his half-human form, to become an oppressive opponent. He pushes forward, favouring his right leg. He manages a few cuts—the one on Rhysand’s forearm is particularly deep and bleeds black. Rhysand roars in frustration, and the forest roars back.

There’s more of them.

He scoops up dirt while Rhysand is distracted, and tosses it into his eyes. He has no choice. He has to run. Whatever’s coming is now Rhysand’s problem.

Safety comes in the form of a cave further off the path. The sounds of battle and warfare fade with each step Tamlin  puts between himself and Rhysand, and the quiet… The quiet means nothing. The forest no longer brings peace, and he longs to find another human soul. The cave, at the very least, puts something against his back. He’ll only have to guard the entrance. Just an hour, he promises himself. He can’t afford to linger long.

As soon as he sits, the exhaustion hits him from walking all day, running and fighting.

Rhysand’s approach wakes him, and Tamlin grabs his knife.

“Found you,” the demon wheezes. He moves differently now, wavering and limping. “Stop fighting me.” He sounds tired. 

Tamlin retreats anyway, enforcing measured distance. He won’t let this thing get any closer, but his curiosity gets the best of him. “What were those things? What are you?”

“Faeries,” Rhysand sighs, sinking against the other side of the cave wall. In the darkness, Tamlin can see Rhysand’s glowing pupils and parts of singed skin that glow like embers between coal. He’s hurt, and whatever he confronted brought fire with it.

“Faeries aren’t real,” Tamlin insists.

“I know you were spying on me in the woods.”

There’s no explanation for what he saw, except the insistence that this is a dream. His mother would have loved this revelation. She would have responded with wonder and grace; she would have charmed Rhysand in a way that not even he can rival.

“Why me? Why not any of the others? They’re more… more knowledgeable than I am.”

Another soft sigh escapes Rhysand’s lips. Pain? Fatigue? He rests his head against the stone wall. “Knowledge is not what we need. I’ve come to bring you home.”

Home. What a strange concept. Tamlin has many homes—courtesy of his family—around the world. Manors, cottages, lake houses and beachfront properties. Places with things in them and people he should want to be with. He loves his brother and his father, he really does, but there is a gap he cannot bridge. 

‘Home’ elicits pain and longing. He hasn’t come home in years. Not since his mother…

“I have a home,” Tamlin says automatically.

“You have a lie. You don’t belong with the humans. You belong with us, and we need you.”

This is a dream, he tells himself. It’s too fantastical, and too good to be true. Tamlin wanted a story and he wanted his mother’s myths, but it feels so far removed from the reality he knows.

“This isn’t a dream. You’ve been living a walking dream, and I am here to wake you.”

“I have class on Monday.”

“Fuck class,” Rhysand snaps. He sounds tired.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“You wouldn’t have believed me. You would have thought I was insane.”

“I still do.”

“But you’ve seen me. The others. You can’t deny it anymore.”

“You didn’t answer me. Why me?”

“Because you are your mother’s son.”

Anxiety fills Tamlin. He toys at the hem of his pants and fiddles with the knife. His mother was just a housewife who loved her children. She was beautiful and magical, but those were the memories of a little boy who loved his mama. There was nothing supernatural about  her—nothing except her beauty, her kindness and her… her…

Ferocity.

The memories needle in his mind, worn by the passing of time. Fights—arguments with his father where she had been terrifying. Her words had cut like a blade, but her eyes held the fury of a thousand storms. His father would remind her, time and time again, that she was bound to him. That is the vow of marriage, Tamlin had always told himself. 

No, that’s not true —

“Have I told you… the tale of the Lonely Queen?”

A boy and his mother are piled into the bed. The duvet covers are thick and fluffy, just the way Tamlin likes them. There are never too many pillows, and he wriggles deeper into the pile. He’s so focused on getting comfortable that he almost misses the question.

The memory is so old that he forgot the blooming bruise beneath her emerald eyes, so dark it looks black.

“No, mama. Why was she lonely?”

“You always ask the best questions, little poppy.” She taps the tip of his nose with her finger. “The Queen was a very lonely one, surrounded by responsibility and servants, but no one who truly loved her.” Tamlin’s mother pauses and tips her head. “No, no, that’s not true. Those who loved her were very far away. In another place. In another world.”

“Why were they far, mama?”

“Because the people around her all wanted her, and they were so numerous and… perhaps… as time went by, they forgot who she really was.”

“What’s nu… numerous?”

“It means there were a lot of them, dummy.”

“Be nice, Enfys!”

Tamlin’s older brother wanders in, flopping onto the bed on the other side of their mother. He has a bowl of popcorn, tossing one in his mouth and holds it out to them. Tamlin takes a whole fistful, and shoves it in his mouth like the uncoordinated child he is.

“What’s today’s story?”

“The Lonely Queen!” Tamlin chirps.

“Sounds cool.”

“So what did the Queen do? Did she go find people she loves?” Tamlin bounces in his spot. “Does she have a family?”

“Tam, you’re always skipping ahead. Let mom tell the story, jeez.”

“She does, but it came to her in ways she didn’t expect.”

Bare feet dance across the forest floor. Bramble and stone yield to their Queen, making way for her light. She is bright, she is air and she is nature. When she runs, she soars. The forest keeps her secrets, watching her escape through newborn paths and swallowing up her traces behind them.

But the one thing she cannot escape—

The wolf with black teeth gives chase, slipping into her territory through every shadow cast. His power grows with the setting sun, no longer a shade, but a fully-fledged snarling thing.

Where do you think you’re going?

When I catch you,

I will devour you.

The Queen knows no fear.

He has yet to catch her, and if he does, she will not stay as such. She will fight. He will die.

Or they both will.

Pain needles at Tamlin’s temples, growing and growing until the pain becomes akin to spikes drilling into his brain. Tamlin clutches his head, biting back the urge to scream. Memories swirl. 

His mother’s voice is soft as a feather, and she could wield it like a blade in anger, but never at him.

He is a wolf made of smoke and starlight, hunting her and her crown. Oh, what she would feel like between his teeth.

I would never hurt her. Never.

“Tamlin, stop fighting me. You have to let me show you.”

No, no, no—

His mother is hurt—she has been hurt, and there is nothing he can do about it. Tamlin doesn’t want to see it, he doesn’t want to feel this helpless. He is a child again, unable to do anything about the pain so clearly etched on her face. A hug couldn’t have possibly saved her, but she always said it did.

“STOP!”

Anger, fear and frustration burst forth from him, and the very world around them shakes. Tiny loose stones clatter down from the cave walls, raining down on Rhysand. The trees quiver, their leaves shaking like chattering teeth. Tamlin’s roar has his chest heaving, and his bright emerald eyes glaring at this horrible stranger who has upset everything he’s ever known. 

For the first time since he’s known this creature, Rhysand smiles. Truly smiles. Such beautiful radiance could not possibly be contained by his human shell, and his laughter is the blazing burst of a star. Loud, bright.

“It really is you.”

“I’m no one!” Tamlin rebukes, rejecting everything Rhysand has been trying to show him.

“Your mother was the High Queen of Prythian. She used to visit between worlds, maintaining the border between us and the humans for their safety. No one could touch her. She was beloved, and many Lords wanted her hand, including my father.”

“Are we brothers?”

“Mother, no. That would be terribly unfortunate. My father found his mate after chasing your mother out of our lands.”

Chasing your mother out…

Tamlin’s grip tightens on the knife, and Rhysand’s gaze flickers towards it.

“I took his memories after I killed him,” the former teaching assistant supplies. “Our lands have been plagued with war and famine ever since her disappearance. The Lords who wanted your mother for her power have been fighting for the crown. Myself and the sons of other Lords want to restore peace.”

“This has nothing to do with me,” Tamlin insists. The more he denies, the closer he gets to unmaking this nightmare.

“It has everything to do with you! We are ready to strike, all we are missing is the heir. There is no power stronger than being connected to the very earth beneath our feet.” Rhysand digs his claws into the dirt, scooping up a handful of it and letting it slip through his fingers. “You’re telling me you like pretending to be human? You’ve never felt like you don’t belong? Out of place?” He dusts his hands off. “I’ve only been here for a handful of months and it is a cage for creatures like us.”

At that, Tamlin hesitates. The thought feels plucked out of his mind, as if Rhysand knows the way his body feels too big or too small—or how he wishes he could flit between either to fit the situation at hand. If only he was stronger, so he could protect his classmates. If only he was smaller, so he could vanish out of his father’s sight.

“I’ve seen you play. You run like you are chasing freedom. Imagine the things  you could do if you could fly.” Rhysand unfurls his skeletal wings with its nearly translucent membranes, a tease for someone who knows only the confines of his mortal body.

“Even if I was the heir of the Queen, I can’t do any of the things you’re saying. I don’t have powers.”

“The Forest’s expansion is your doing. Ever since you came of age, we could sense you through the barriers between worlds. We’ll teach you what to do.”

Tamlin bounces his leg, a tell he hasn’t quite been able to stop. Each word spilling from Rhysand’s mouth makes his proposition more and more alluring. It could be a trap, a sweet promise to lure him in before he is devoured by a horror this world has not yet seen. (It would’ve been on the news, otherwise.) But if he were to play along… what would he lose? Home is an oppressive place, a mausoleum for his mother’s memory and a constant reminder of her absence. His brothers have shed the pieces of her to survive, but Tamlin won’t. Perhaps this is his reward: her legacy, and his freedom.

And if he’s wrong, death is its own release, too.

“Alright,” Tamlin concedes. “I’ll go, but I won’t be your King.”

Rhysand’s face blooms with the moon’s shine. “See, you’re perfect already.”

[toastyghostey]

My little university project - STARCROSSED. For my packaging design class, we get to come up with our own brand / product, so I am working on my own take of a Warhammer / Trench Crusade-esque project that is Saturday-morning sci-fi cartoon themed!

"In the universe of STARCROSSED, the Milky Way Galaxy is teaming with races and creatures of all sorts. Originally migrating to the Sol Solar System to meet the humans who sent out messages to outer space some time ago, many different races were devastated to find out they arrived fashionably late to the party and that humans had been gone for some time. Being able to scrounge up spare physical, analog, and digital artifacts, humans were mythologized as this daring and sometimes vicious race - to the rest of the galaxy, humanity existed only in glimpses of daredevil action stars and cold blooded cowboys. One day, at the turn of what would be the year 9999, just within the Oort cloud, a stray S.O.S. ping is received. Many dismiss it, some notice it but don't care — until the rumors spread. The dates match up, and some even bring artifacts of it: the Last Fleet. A fleet of perfectly preserved humans in cryo-sleep is spotted, with the humans inhabiting it possibly still being alive. A scramble begins - a gold rush for the stars to find the Last Fleet and the humans inside. Everyone has their reasons to lay claim to the Last Fleet, but only one faction can make that claim a reality!"

King-God-Emperor-Boz Bozzi is the king of the Bozzi people, of the Bozzi Planet. Upon taking power of the throne, Bozzi changed the name of the race and planet, along with choosing every possible title to give himself (including a new one based on his name). King Bozzi, dissatisfied with just one solar system, took to becoming a space warlord in a quest to take all of the galaxy for himself, and has seen success on a solar system scale. Now King Bozzi turns his interest to the Last Fleet, where the once-great Human race is ripe for the conquering.

A Khatun of the nomadic Yggran people, Kiraluna enjoyed a life of luxury as part of the royal family — a pleasure only afforded to them and their innate resistance to the Yggran Mass Mind Migraine, a frequent event that causes all Yggran psionically connected to the Yggran Mass Mind to suffer crippling (and often deadly) psychic overloads. Kiraluna, knowing her ancestors used to once study the humans long ago and may have even made contact with them, believes that humans may hold the key to ridding themselves of the Mass Mind Migraine: either in their technology, or in their biology

Waking up from deep sleep just outside of the Kuiper Belt, Skipp Jimenez woke up to a very different universe, one without mankind in any place except the Last Fleet. Having to hop planet-to-planet in his trusty Celano, a former Urani-Yum Co. Soft Serve freighter, he has learned to survive in a world where his kind are highly sought - dead and / or alive. Skipp now travels all over the Milky Way, chasing stories of stray human cryo-pods in an effort to revive enough allies to retake the Last Fleet and save his kind!

(this is not a real product yet, but uhh if you have the ways to make something like this happen then hit me up)

[jollmaster]

To be honest (no same anon of aristocracy and Ars Goetia) the Ars Goetia in HB neither are, well, aristocrats. Just... rich modern people.

As for some Ars Goetia being based on gods, well yes, that is true, but there are also others that are simply pulled out of thin air.

For example, Stolas is not based on any god. In fact, his name is just the plural of the Latin word stola, the female version of the toga in Ancient Rome.

But back to the aristocratic hierarchy of HH and HB, I've always felt it more like "wealthy American people" because aside from not being noble... it's not like it reflects the difference even wealthy people from different parts of the world either.

Idk, I feel that way, but maybe it's just me.

I might even say that Vivzie's idea is not bad, just misguided.

You can have this "mythological, magical and fantastic" status but also put this "very human" without it feeling like a copy and paste from the real world (in my opinion).

Mind you, in the universe I'm doing (it's not a rewrite, but it has HH and HB characters) is that the goetias are a native species of hell and they have different titles in their native language... until Lucifer came and started the war. While there were many Goetia left, they had to reunify and create new limits/borders and to repair the hierarchy by changing the 72 remaining nobles. (It doesn't make sense to me that they are fallen angels, and less so in the world I built which is basically "Hell is habitable, for native species. For fallen angels and sinners... it is a place of punishment").

The difference between a noble, a rich and a common Goetia is that in the Goetia culture they do not need a surname, each name is unique. The Goetian tradition is to combine the names of the parents.

Prince Stolas, son of Paimon and Svaitlas, The reader of the future, keeper of the ancient words, the master of astronomy, wizard of hierbalogy, gemologist of Infernus. A nobleman is introduced first by his parents, then his domain and (if he has) achievements and exploits and finally his lands.

Octavia from the kingdom of Irkalla.

A common one is only presented with his name (or a false name) and of the place of his birth/growth.

But, a rich one, and more those living near colonies of sinners or pits of punishment, gave themselves surnames:

Kaitan Ars Wicca (the stolas of HB). His parents are not important, so he cannot introduce himself by using them, but, he is not an ordinary person either.

That is why surnames were invented in the Goethean culture.

At least this way I see that both can be done.

Anyway, I really liked your character designs. Also that you included Naaamah, Agrat and Eishet (I'm using them too).

Do you plan to put djinns, or put some religious mythological creatures from the Abrahamic religions or even from other religions (Tulpas, for example)?

Sorry for the long message, have a nice day.

I like long messages tbh 🖤 your takes and variant with mane merging as a social differentiation sounds interesting! (as I said myself, I have no problem with concept of aristocracy, but in series it's underdrawn, and yes, Viv really doesn't seem interested in cultural diversity)

and thanks for kind words about my designs, I wanted them to look interesting, and these three women too 🖤

I don't plan to add jinns separately, because it's effectively about the same thing as spirits/shedim in judaism, according to myths they made of flame too and can be both kind and evil; I use this word as shedim's name in another region (after all, deities and spirits often have multiple names), what about another creatures, I think time and work will show

thank you again and sorry for late! have a nice day too

[dreaminrainbows]

Greek Mythology has always been a favorite of mine, here are some AU fics i've enjoyed over the years.

Collision by itjustkindahappened/ @tequiladimples | [226k]

Mythology/Fairytale!AU in which Louis is a dainty fairy with a temper who wants to be intimidating and Harry hurts people. Naturally, they hate each other. (Featuring Liam, the big and not-so-bad wolf who’s got a thing for humans, Zayn, a human with supernaturally good looks, and Niall, the cupid who just wants his job to be easier.)

our endless numbered days by petricuor | [120k]

“Harry?” whispered Louis, his mouth dry, his nose pressing against the other’s warm skin. “Mh?” Harry’s humming was gentle, his fingers lightly caressing the younger boy’s arm, his chest steadily rising and falling beneath Louis’ cheek. A couple of seconds passed, and Louis looked up at him in the darkness of the cave, barely able to make out the expression on his face. When he tried to inhale deeply, his breath hitched. He struggled to find the words to tell Harry what he was thinking about. Another couple of seconds passed, and Louis listened to the reassuring beating of the prince’s heart beneath his cheek. He couldn’t. “Nothing,” he whispered, his voice weak. I think you’re half of my soul. Or, a ‘Song of Achilles’ AU with Louis as Patroclus and Harry as Achilles.

Say Hallelujah, Say Goodnight by alivingfire/ @alivingfire | [110k]

Louis is an angel who is just a little too bad to be good, Harry is a demon who is just a little too good to be bad, and they're both a little too in love to be impartial when angels and demons go to war. Louis has been alive since life was a mere concept; he watched the summoning of Man into existence, he was there when Eve took the apple. He’s seen seas break the world into separate pieces, he’s watched empires crumble into dust. He’s seen wildfire consume cities, he’s seen the world painted white with snow. He has known the most beautiful humans to walk the planet, he has watched the most powerful mortals gather their riches and influence around them and then die just like the poorest, weakest humans do. He’s met humans whose motives defy explanation, people who use their lives as battering rams, as tools, as weapons, as chess pieces. None of that stopped Louis in his tracks. But Harry did.

Breakable Heaven by amomentoflove/ @daggerandrose | [44k]

“What do you think?” Louis gets captured by Harry’s green eyes, unable to look away or even take a breath. “I think you’re the most magnificent creature I’ve ever met.” “You must not have met many creatures then.” Harry’s eyes glance downward to Louis’ lips and his tongue darts out to wet his own. “None like you.”

My Heart Lies With You  by asphodelknox/ @iamasphodelknox | [31k]

“What did you hit me on the head for?” Louis said. He tried to frown, but it hurt too much. Plus it was hard to frown at someone taking care of him so tenderly. “I didn’t hit you on the head,” Harry said calmly, moving from Louis’s forehead to remove some bandages on his arm. “My friend Niall, the God of Death, hit you on the head.” “Well, why did Niall hit me on the head?” Louis asked. He noticed his lips hurt too, and felt a small gash on them. His arms were covered in scratches and cuts, and as he moved to sit up, he winced at a pain coming from his waist. “What the hell happened to me?” Harry sighed. “Niall… can get a bit… excited.” “Was he excited about hitting me on the head?” “No!” Harry said. “Niall just got away with himself.” “Does he do that often? Get away with himself, I mean?” Louis asked wryly. “Only when an idea gets stuck in his head that he can’t get out.” For being the God of Death, Niall has a habit of acting on ideas without thinking them through. It's probably why Harry ends up with an unexpected but entirely welcome visitor in his bed the day after a Mount Olympus party.

Glow, Chrysó Mou by amaltaas/ @amaltaas | [21k]

The sun is the one who braves darkness the most. The sun isn't the one who never gets tired.

adelfés psychés by pleasinglouis | [19k]

Louis looked even more beautiful under the glow of a million candles with stars in his eyes and the moon splashing light over his golden skin. He was a warm summer night with sea salt clinging to your skin, or the feeling of hearing the angelic flourish of strings from a lyre performing Hymn to the Muse for the very first time. He was transformative. Metamorphic. Life altering. “Is that him?” The words floated in one ear and out the other, hardly a whisper in the back of his mind when he was looking at Louis. Harry exhaled shakily when Louis’ eyes met his, breath rattling behind his ribs, and his chest tightened with the smile of an angel looking back at him. He looked beautiful in his cream chiton with a purple cloak draped over his shoulder, an iris tucked behind his ear. “What gave him away?” Liam laughed, thick meaty arm slinging around Harry’s shoulders and breaking him from his reverie. “Was it the look of a starved man scrambling for his final scrap of food?” . Harry has been hopelessly in love with a certain woodland nymph for as long as he can remember and no amount of wooing seems to be working

you flower, you feast by stylinsoncity/ @stylinsoncity | [18k]

He's King of the Underworld, but don't assume Louis has it all. He could stand for some excitement in his monotonous, eternal life and maybe, even.....a soulmate. (Despite not having a soul.) And along came "Harry".

Through Darkest Clouds  by LadyLondonderry/ @londonfoginacup | [3k]

“He isn’t to know.” Harry’s stomach drops. He takes a deep breath. “How?” “That’s the deal. You cannot look at him. You cannot speak to him. Until you’re over the border, he is to know nothing.” Harry nods, face set. “If that’s what it takes,” he says. After all, he has no choice. Orpheus and Eurydice AU

Let the Poets Cry Themselves to Sleep by graceling_in_a_suit/ @graceling-in-a-suit | [2k]

“My dearest God of Figs, I devote myself to you. Please accept the offering of my flesh, my body, and my soul, and in return bless me with your fertility and… fig trees,” Harry said, at first confident and then a bumbling mess.   “If you offer me your flesh, your body, and your soul, are you not offering me your hand in marriage?” Louis asked cheekily. Greek mythology AU. It's a fairytale with gods, husbands, and figs.

Make sure you always leave kudos and comments!!!!

I am thoroughly enjoying making these fic recs so if you have any suggestions for a new list hit me up i have like ~30 pages of bookmarks!

Happy reading!