#he does have parallels with some real life fae myths that may or may not be intentions

[twistmusings]

Diasomnia - Heats, Ruts, and Mating Seasons

CW: nsfw, non-human anatomy, mentions of infertility, slight possessive behavior, otherwise that's pretty much all!

Malleus Draconia

Malleus does have a rut, though it's not exactly the same as what you would see in a beastperson's rut. (It is still called a "rut" or "rutting season" though.) It's largely based on external temperature over time. While he, himself is warm-blooded, many of his reptile ancestors were not. If the daytime temperatures warm to be rather balmy (90 °-100 ° Fahrenheit or around 32 °-38 ° Celsius) for over a week, it can be expected to trigger his rut, and he will remain in his rut for however long it takes before the temperature drops again. Due to the location of Briar Valley, that means his rut is rarely ever triggered in his homeland, far to the North. That, however, means the opposite is also true: the warmer a location he is in, the more likely he is to have his rut triggered and have it last for a long period.

Malleus is demisexual, so his sex drive also differs from the average dragon fae. Generally speaking, unless he is incredibly familiar and comfortable with a partner, he essentially won't have a sex drive at all. Of course his rut will make him want to mate, but he isn't likely to seek someone out for it unless there is someone he is already in a long-term relationship with.

Malleus has an increased olfactory sense which allows him to pick up changes in others bodies in line with pheromones and horomones. He will pick up on others ruts and heats but it won't really affect him. He might use it to tease a partner, though, if he notices the change in their scent.

To get a bit nitty gritty, since he is a dragon fae, Malleus is classified as a Squamata (i.e. scaled reptile). He has scales that are plate-like and he will periodically molt. (However, molting time for squamata fae varies-- typically they molt more often when they are younger and are growing quickly and then less often once they reach late adolescence and maturity. TL;DR Malleus molts but likely only once every few years.) This might seem like a lot of nonsense, but it's not without purpose: squamata also share another pretty common features that has to do with mating. They have hemipenes and hemiclitores, meaning that anatomically, Malleus has two dicks. Biologically, it serves the function of ensuring that he would be able to mate should he need to mate multiple times, but realistically it just means that he has two dicks and two separate refractory periods. Depending on his partner, this could be a good or a bad thing, just depending on their stamina. Unlike other reptiles, his anatomy doesn't fully retract into his body, only partially.

So far as the appearance of Malleus' dicks, they're similar in structure to a human's, though visibly different. It wouldn't be entirely incorrect to describe it as spiny, though the reality is less unpleasant than it sounds. His dicks are ridged until around halfway down the shaft from the head. So long as his partner is prepared (which they would be, if he has anything to say about it-- he cares about them too much to let them get hurt) it wouldn't hurt, though it would feel pretty different from a typical dick.

Malleus' rut is interesting, to put it one way. As silly as it might sound, like some of his reptile cousins, dragon fae mating is largely based on status. Since he is a prince, and there's not a whole lot he needs to do to maintain his status as prince, his rut largely consists of him just being extremely tired and wanting to laze around in bed all day. If he does have a partner who wants to spend his rut with him, it's going to be a lot of napping and cuddling interspersed between sex. In fact, he's so exhausted by it that he can hardly drag himself out of bed to eat, so being cared for would be much appreciated. (And when I say exhausted I mean he is out. Like snork mimimimi out.)

When he ruts, Malleus does get pretty territorial. He dislikes having people he doesn't actively trust anywhere near his room or his partner. He also will protect his partner bodily, and will usually place himself between them and someone else. This ALSO usually means just laying his body over them because he's so tired. He will apologize for squishing them after he gets his wits about him again.

Due to his biology, without some medical assistance he cannot have biological children with a partner that doesn't lay hard-shelled eggs. It's not impossible for him to have children with a human/beastman/merfolk partner, but it's not something that can be done without medical assistance via artificial insemination, and will likely require a third party to provide a "host egg" for them.

Sebek Zigvolt

Being half-human and half-nocturnal fae, Sebek doesn't experience all of the symptoms of a rut that most nocturnal fae of his species do. His 'ruts' are usually an increased libido in the wintertime, and otherwise a pretty regular sex-drive.

During his rut period, regardless of if he has a partner or not, he tends to get a bit more aggressive and combative than other times of year. This tends to be the time of year that he gets into spats with the people around him without meaning too. If he is in a relationship with someone, they're pretty much the only person not on his warpath. Well, and Malleus, but he's a special case considering Sebek is his guard.

Like Malleus, he has a good sense of smell-- better than an average human though not quite a strong as a full-blooded fae. He will usually be able to smell the change in a partner indicating a readiness to mate, however he likely won't be able to pinpoint what it is that he is smelling and will simply think they smell nice and it kind of makes him want to spend more time around them.

Sebek's dick is pretty normal looking in comparison to other kinds of fae. To be crude, the only real attribute that he has inherited from his Nocturnal Fae bloodline is that he's hung like a goddamned horse. That being said, I don't think he probably realizes that he's on the big side compared to most humans (he's never really paid much mind to it), so he will probably be quite smug if he is told that he is. Like most other humans, his anatomy does not retract into his body when not in use.

Sebek is a special case when it comes to producing offspring. While he is biologically compatible with both humans, beastpeople, some merfolks and other fae (of the non-egg laying variety), because of him being a hybridization of humans and fae, his fertility is quite low. If he and a partner would like to have children with each other, they will likely need to look into methods of assisted fertilization or will simply have to be exceedingly lucky.

Sebek's ruts are easy to miss if his partner is not in-the-know about them. His sex drive is a bit elevated, but not extremely so. As mentioned before, he gets a bit aggressive, though otherwise he's simply pretty lethargic and unusually touchy. If he has a partner, he will often want to be close to them, and he will nuzzle against their face and neck. It's a instinct that he doesn't realize that he has that is his way of signaling an interest in mating.

Most of Sebek's knowledge about sex and anatomy comes from standard human sex ed, as Lilia taught him and Silver at the same time. It's not wrong, perse, but definitely leaves him with some inexplicable things that are his fae biology that he's unaware of. He probably isn't even aware that he HAS ruts unless someone else points it out to him. His response would be a solid progression of "don't lie to me" to "wait that can HAPPEN?" to "Fae truly are amazing".

Lilia Vanrouge

So, while it's heavily implied that Lilia is a vampire, that's not entirely accurate. I won't go into the long winded spiel I would if I were just talking about headcanons about Lilia's species in itself, but I believe he's moreso a general parallel to an unseelie fae. There are fae that are shown to drink blood, but without knowing more about him in canon I'm not going to label his species at this time.

That being said, and not to be boring, but Lilia is essentially an exact parallel for humans and their mating behaviors! He doesn't have ruts, and he doesn't have an especially strong sense of scent that would make him key into someone else's ruts/heats either. (In fact, it's possible his sense of taste and smell might be a little either altered or dulled, considering what we see in canon...)

So, given all this, I'm sure most of you are wondering why the hell Lilia is even on this list, right? Well, Lilia (and the others, but especially Lilia) are implied to be capable of changing their appearance for short periods. While that's a taboo magic in canon, you can't tell me that Lilia wouldn't be down to fool around with some shapeshifting in the bedroom.

Lilia can reproduce with most humans, merfolk, beastpeople, or fae (who don't lay eggs). Or he could just... Yknow, adopt another child. He's cool with that, too...

However, even with the experience already raising Silver, he's definitely not always got the best paternal instincts. Chalk it up to a combination of being a vet and being used to raising... Some particularly durable babies (*cough* Malleus *cough*). He does his best and tries to do right by his kid(s?) but sometimes it simply doesn't go to plan despite his best intentions.

[atherix]

Alright listen i wanna scream about the last three chapters but i do not have the brain for fully fledged thoughts so this is what you're getting.

I am FASCINATED by this creation myth for the fae, btw. If I had more brain i feel like i could probably pull on things i know or have read but as of righgt now just know i reall love it and eventually i will be returning to it because I have some Thoughts I cant get out of my brain.

Also. I am once again projecting onto Scar as someone who Has Been deathly ill a few times in my life. Genuinely there are periods of terrifying lucidity and long stretches of basically unconsciousness for me too so its like. I am. Looking.

Oh my god and then Mumbo and Cub. PRESIDENTIAL ALERT: THE GIRLS ARE FIIIIGHTIIIIIIIIIING. but also genuinely I think whether it stays Mumscarian or goes Mumscarvexian Cub's relationship to the trio is SO interesting. How he does to some extent know Scar but he knows a younger Scar who was less sure of himself. How Mumbo DOES know Scar but he only really knows the older and more confident Scar. God. they. MMMMMMMM. And the fact that Mumbo and Cub are like, two sides of the same coin here - Shadow magic of two different kinds. So so so close with Scar. God. AUGH.

F U C K AO3 WENT DOWN UHHHH But Also. The fact that there is definitely Something in there and I don't mean the Skeleton Archer while they are GOING AFTER HUNTERS. MUMBO! CUB!!! WAAAAAAAH

And then the NEXT chapter where Grian's fucking dumbass takes Scar's magic and is like 'SCAR AND MUMBO CAN NEVER KNOW *kills the lawn and a tree*" liike okay bird brain. GOD!!!! ALSO THAT SCENE WAS SO INTENSE I AM!!! AHHHHHHHHH GOD GRIAN YOU!!! DUMABASS I AM RATTLING YOU!!! AND SCAR AND MUMBO ARE GOING TO RATTLE YOU AS THEY FUCKING SHOULD!!!!

And then more of the Fae story I am!!!! WELL I WOULD BE LOOKING AT IT IF AO3 WASNT DOWN BUT!!! STARING!!!!

LMAO a lot has happened and I did not give anyone time to process <3

LOOK. I AM SO. I fucking love myths and legends and I've been sitting on this for MONTHS, trying to figure out the best way to piece it together to maximize Creation Story vibes, and I am loving how it's coming together <3 I love the Fae story I have created, it is near and dear to me. Also leave it to me to create a "monarchy with absolute power" but said monarchy has absolutely the most brutal burden and responsibility to carry <3 May slightly be influenced by Cost of the Crown. "Though I am the head of state, in truth I am the least." THIS LINE LIVES IN MY HEAD RENT FREE so it may or may not have influenced how the Fae royals (and Elves in general) carry a burden and obligation <3 BUT YEAH THE FAE STORY. I am absolutely in love with it I'm hjgjkhfkfd <3

jkfgdjk Ihope I'm presenting that well enough, I know it's not 1:1 with real life (because it's a fantasy illness that depends on magic production + how much magic is in your system so it's more cyclical than real life) but just the idea of being aware that you're slipping away (and knowing very well that you might never wake up again) just scares me and makes me feel absolutely helpless, so I hope I'm conveying that well enough </3

THEY'RE FIGHTIIIING. Regardless of what happens yes I think Cub is an interesting addition to the Coven group 👀 YEAH That is exactly what I wanted to highlight here- Cub used to know EVERYTHING about Scar, but that was a completely different time and a completely different Scar. And Mumbo knows Scar NOW, knows him in the way Cub doesn't anymore, and just hhhjjgf. PARALLELS BABEYYY you know me, I love me some parallels <3

AO3 SABOTAGED YOUR ESSAY HJJSKJFSK </3 IT'S OKAY THO WE SURVIVED!!! Hahaha oh yes <3 The sad thing is Mumbo KNOWS there's something else... but he's so focused on Scar that he just dismisses it.... oh Mumbo.... and Cub doesn't really know any better, this is his first time spending any extended time out here </3

HAHAHA YEAHHHH Like I said to Void, why take "Deus Ex Machina" when I can use "Fuck Around and Find Out" and have Grian being stubborn and overconfident and fucking suffer for it <3 GOD GRIAN IS GONNA GET SO RATTLED. I wonder how he's gonna try and hide the damage to the lawn :)

I LOVE THE FAE STORY. Also the fact that Scar is sharing this story in his moments of lucidity.... <3 And trying to keep going even while his focus and his mind are slipping I AM SO JKFSKLFS-