#fantasy!au

[sboochi]

Even more dnd-inspired designs! You might recognize Hiccup from an old post, I redrew him to match my current style (this started as a game where I assigned not-first-choice classes to the characters, that's why he's a druid and not an artificer or smth else!)

See more: RotBTD / Rise of the Guardians / Red Shoes and the 7 dwarfs

#httyd #how to train your dragon #hiccup haddock #astrid hofferson #fishlegs ingerman #snotlout jorgenson #ruffnut thorston #tuffnut thorston #dnd #fantasy!au #incredibly proud of fishlegs ngl look at those thighs #sorry for not including my man eret but let me know what you think he might be! #the F7 from Red Shoes are nexttt

[mysicklove-main]

Pairings: King Merman! Bakugou x Human! Fem! Reader

Word Count: 5.2k

Warnings: Just fluff.

Summary: You meet a merman one day and find yourself with your very own trading companion. You exchange gifts of the land and sea. The two of you were fine until Katsuki says he wants more from you.

𝐅𝐈𝐂 𝐌𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓

Katsuki Bakugou gets everything he wants. The underwater kingdom is his, and whenever he wants or needs something, with a flick of his webbed hands, it appears. He is worshipped and maybe even feared by all of the seas. King Bakugou, the warrior ruler of the sea.

Except for a mate. No matter how many mers, both male and female, his court presents him with, he never feels anything toward them. His mother scolds him for not even meeting the young candidates, but he doesn’t give a shit. He gets what he wants; he will know if they are worthy just by a single glance.

So on some days, he forces his mother to watch the throne while he swims and swims just to clear his mind. He picks fights here and there with other sea creatures just to test his strengths. After he wins his battle against his third great white, he realizes he needs something stronger. Something to really pique his interest.

A human. Well, from afar, they look pathetic with their gangly limbs, but it is common knowledge to a mer that they possess weapons that can easily kill any creature of the sea. But this is Katsuki Bakugou we are talking about here. He isnt just some mer. He is the most powerful being of the sea. No one, including a human, could beat him. 

So, the arrogant bastard took toward the surface to find the closest human. The water becomes more shallow, and not that he would ever admit it, but adrenaline fills his veins when he gets closer and closer to the shore. 

Luckily for him though, a human was close. In the water, too. He was dreading trying to coax one into the ocean. Katsuki snickers at the strange limbs called legs kicking to try to keep the human afloat. It was so embarrassing for them. One flap of his tail, and he is yards ahead of them. It was incomparable the strength between the two species. 

Without much hesitation, he grabs the submerged legs and pulls. They scream, of course, when they lose their precious oxygen and are surrounded completely by salt water. Their arms flail, and their legs continue to fight their way to the surface, but it’s all in vain. After all, this is Katsuki’s element.

Wanting to get one glance at the human before making a swift and easy death, he turns the figure around, and his eyes widen.

You were pretty. Prettier than any of the other mers he has ever seen. Even if your face is contorted in fear, he takes a second to admire your hair, eyes, and lips. They were all so cute. Exactly the way he likes them.

And your strength was actually impressive. Although you were no match for the king, you were definitely putting up some sort of a fight. He actually had to grip you tighter so you wouldn’t squirm away. Both of you knew it was a losing battle, but still, you really tried. You definitely had survival instincts.

As Katsuki gets distracted admiring the creature, you get one lucky hit and manage to kick him right in the nose. He hisses out and lets you go. 

He could go out and grab you again easily but didn’t feel the need to. After that fight you put up, you deserved to stay alive. Stay alive, so Katsuki can meet you again.

You were just trying to take a dip in the ocean, really. After all the stress you have had this week, you deserved it. A nice relaxing day by the beach. You were not planning on almost getting drowned.

You swim swiftly toward the dock and yank yourself up before the creature tries to grab you again. You didn’t see much except for flashes of blonde hair, red eyes, and an orange tail. What was that thing? Some sort of fish? It just didn’t make sense. What fish could pull you down into the water? The beach was completely private, so it’s not like you could tell a lifeguard what happened.

You shiver and grab your towel before heading inside your beach house. You began to ponder, desperately trying to figure out what the strange animal was. After about an hour of research, you came to the decision that it was definitely a mermaid. Many studies have shown that they do, in fact, exist but are extremely rare to find.

It seems absolutely insane to you, but what else could be able to hold onto you like that? And that tail…It was huge. 

You aren’t going to go near the beach for a while. Even so, though, you really did want another glance…I mean, seeing a real-life mermaid is crazy! Once little peep of the mermaid surely wouldn’t be a problem.

After all, curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Three weeks. Katsuki has managed to escape his royal duties to see your ass, and not once have you come back even close to the water. He has scouted the area over thirty times and found the small shack you call home. The mer lets out a scoff as he watches your shadow move back and forth inside the building.

He has thought about throwing something at the building but thought against it. He didn’t want you to think he was a violent maniac (even if he was) with your first real meeting. So, he boredly swam back and forth, waiting for you to come outside again.

He was in luck because at around 5 pm, you did finally open the door of your shitty shack and step outside. He quickly dove into the water to watch from below the surface. The last thing that he needed was to scare you back into hiding. 

His eyes follow your figure as you walk toward and onto the dock that bridges into the ocean. You look nervous but determined, and Katsuki can see you holding something but can’t determine what it is. 

Suddenly, your loud voice calls, “Hello!” over and into the water. You flush in embarrassment for doing something so silly. But you continue anyways, “If you are out there, mermaid, come over here!” It probably wasn’t the most convincing way to lead the visitor over, but whatever, you were desperate.

Katsuki smirks in triumph. He only knows very little of the human language due to his studies as a child. All he knows is that you greeted him and said the word “mer,” so you must be calling for him.

So he pops his head out of the water with a small smirk on his face. His orange ear fins are spread wide and on display. His scarred tail, from all the fights he has won, beats against the water as he watches you. He gently displays his sharp canines with his smirk. Like always, he looks like the strongest being of the sea. 

When you take in his appearance, you scream and fall onto your butt.

Katsuki lets out a light bark in laughter, watching you fall. He couldn’t blame you; those strange limbs looked hard to use. If he were human, he definitely wouldn’t struggle, but he bets Denki or Eijiro would. 

He puffs out his chest and made himself look as large and powerful as he could in the water. “Hello, I am King Explosion Murder or King Bakugou, ruler of the undersea.” He stood there waiting for the excitement or shock that usually comes from hearing his title, but nothing came. “Ruler of the undersea. Did you not hear me extra?” Judging from your frightened appearance, trembling on the doc, no, you did not understand. 

And then he remembered. Of course, you don’t understand. He isn’t speaking in your tongue. To you, it must have sounded like a bunch of trills and clicks.

Katsuki opens his mouth to speak but growls. He doesn’t remember how to speak your language. It’s unnatural for mers to do it, but nobility are taught it, just in case. However, that was when he was ten, and he hasn’t practiced since.

Upon hearing his frustrated growl, you point your knife straight at him and threaten him. “S-Stay back! I have a knife, and I know how to use it!” You didn’t, but that was beside the point. You shouldn’t have come out here. It was a stupid idea. Curiosity did kill the cat, and you’ll need more than satisfaction to get you out of this situation.

The blonde doesn’t understand any of your words. The only thing he understands is that you are holding out a knife toward him. A gift! Already? Katsuki is known to be bold, but here you are, offering a courting gift on day one. I mean, it made sense, considering his physique. You must have seen how powerful he is and were quick to pounce. Eager, he likes it, and he can’t really blame you.

He huffs out pride and lets out a click in thank you. Then, quicker than lightning, the blonde snatches the knife from your hands and into his. He holds it up to admire it, unaware that you’re currently freaking out without your weapon to defend yourself. He scoffs at it. It was sharp but not even close to his very own canines. He turns toward you and pulls the knife up next to his teeth to show the comparison. He is once again unaware of how you pale drastically.

“Stay.” He uselessly commands before diving down back into the water, knife still in hand. You cock your head to the side in confusion at his disappearance, but realizing this is your only time to escape, you begin to book it down the dock and toward your home. 

You don’t get very far. Katsuki, effortlessly fast, grabs your foot before you can return to the sand. You stumble forward and land on your knees, causing you to hiss in pain. A small scrape forms on your left knee.

He huffs in annoyance. “I said stay, you idiot! Look what you did!” 

The loud growls cause you to tear up. This is it, isn’t it? He has got to be growling so much  because his prey got away. It was a stupid idea, all of it. You were going to die, and nobody was going to find your body and–

Katsuki grabs your leg and licks the wound on your knee like he has done countless times with others during battles. After all, mer saliva has healing properties. Then as your eyes widen in shock, Katsuki pushes an orange sea shell toward you. He set in the water, just earlier for you. He lets out an annoyed bark when you don’t reach for it, and hearing the warning, you quickly scramble to take it. The blonde smirks in triumph and continues back to healing you.

You shiver when you feel the tongue back on your knee. It was like a cat’s tongue. The prickles gently nick at you. But, with all the courage you can muster, you tear your gaze away from the creature and onto the sea shell. It was light orange, and absolutely massive. Seriously, it was about the size of your whole hand. But, it was pretty and shiny in the sunlight. 

You spare a glance at the blond, who is still completely focused on the task at hand. You could guess that he is trying to heal you for some odd reason. It made your heartbeat begin to return back to normal. Why would he heal his prey from such a minor wound if he was going to kill anyways? But why would he want you alive?

Then, you look to the right of him and see that in his hand, he is still holding the knife. Your eyes widen in realization of what is happening. “Trade! You want to exchange items with me. From the…human world?” The mer tears his mouth away from your skin and furrows his eyebrows in confusion. You point to the knife and then the seashell. “Trade?” You explain.

Katsukis eyes widen in understatement. So, the human word for “courting” is “trade”! Only a genius like himself would be able to figure that out so quickly. He lets out a soft grumble and nods his head. Then, realizing if this relationship is going to work, Katsuki has to tries to try and speak in your tongue. “Chr–aye-dd”

Your mouth falls open at the attempt of your language. The whole thing was absolutely insane, and now the strange creature is trying to communicate with you. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so you continue speaking. “Yes, Trade! But say “Trr” instead of “Chr” You enunciate the sounds, so he understands.

Katsuki grumbles stubbornly when you correct him. Only his mother has been one to nag in, nobody else has the guts to do it, but here you are correcting him within the first greetings. You were bold; he had to give it to you. He also likes that. So, for your sake, he tries again.“Trrr-aye-d”

You laugh at this and smile gently. “Yes! Thats it! Trade.” You once again point to the knife and the seashell. 

Seeing you smile, Katsuki lets out a trill and nods. Without much permission, the blonde rests his head on your leg, careful not to touch the wound. Then the hopeless mer begins to daydream. This was going perfectly! Not even one day of knowing him, and you have already allowed him to court you. Now, it was smooth sailing from here. He just needs to bring you a couple more gifts, and finally, King Bakugou will have his very own mate! 

You, on the other hand, are freaking out a little bit. A merman is here and resting his head on your legs! Nobody would ever believe this was happening. 

You tear your gaze away from him for a second and notice that the sun is almost down. Although the mer seems friendly as of now, you didn’t feel comfortable with him enough to stay with him during the dark. So, you try to gently get it up without disturbing him too much.

His daydream comes to an abrupt stop when you begin to move your legs. He groans in annoyance. “Stop.” He commands, which comes out in a small bark. You ignore him, considering you can’t understand him, and Katsuki slides back into the water. 

He lets out a low growl, and your eyes widen. He wasn’t having second thoughts about this little exchange, right? So as you get to your feet, you quickly say, “Tomorrow, I will come back, and we can trade again. Okay?”

Katsuki looks scepitical. He only got out the word tomorrow and trade. Which definitely is a good sign, but does he trust you enough to keep your word? If he has to wait another three weeks, he is going to absolutely pissed. But then again, you seem to like him a lot if you already began wanting to court him on the first day of the meeting. Plus, you allowed him to touch you, once again, another good sign. You have got to like him.

So he sighs and trills a goodbye before swimming back down into the deep blue sea.

Katsuki Bakugou was adorable. It’s been about a week since you have known him and you have visited him every morning. He seems to be rather attached to you already. One day, you overslept and missed his meeting, and the next day you got an earful of mostly growls and barks. You thought it was adorable that your new friend missed you.

Currently, it was Friday, and exactly a week since you guys have been talking to one another. You learned his name and even have gotten him to speak in small sentences. He seems to pick up the human language very quickly. You wonder if it was a mer thing or a Katsuki thing.  Either way, you praise him immensely, and he acts like he doesn’t care, but its obvious by the red ting on his cheeks he does. He also teaches you the language of merfolk. Your vocal cords don’t really do the barks or clicks justice, so the two of you continue to speak in your language.

Not only that, but the mer was heavily physically affectionate. It was hilarious, considering the fact that he would insult you on being a “weak human,” and then the next minute, would curl into your lap as if nothing had happened. 

In all honesty, no matter how much of a brat the mer was, it has been one of the best weeks of your life.

“Human. Att–tention. Now.” The orange merman demands when you stop running your fingers through his soft blonde hair and stare off into the distance. You chuckle at this and continue to pet him. You are glad you taught him the word “attention” because before that when he needed it, he would take to softly biting you. You have small bite marks all over your leg because of the overgrown, needy creature.

A small, content smile falls on his face as he nuzzles into your legs. Courting has gone absolutely perfectly. You were gentle and warm but were able to put up with his shit. A perfect match the two of you are. 

Of course, every once in a while, you do say some stupid things. “Katsuki, do you think I can meet some of your mer friends?” The merman looks up at you and gives you a familiar glare. You smile in return, hoping to encourage him. 

It doesn’t seem to work because he lets out a cat-like yawn and closes his eyes again. “Friends, weak. Stupid,” He grumbles, and you roll your eyes.

“I bet we would get along considering you call me weak and stupid,” You remind, and Katsuki opens his eyes back again to glare at you.

He lets out a series of trills and clicks on accident before sighing and switching back to your language. “On–ly need me,” He challenges, and you give up the argument. Katsuki was as stubborn as a mule. If he didn’t want you to meet his friends, you won’t.

All of the sudden, Katsuki rolls off your legs and into the water. You tilt your head to the side, but the mer just grumbles out a, “stay.” and lightly bites your calf to get his point across. You, like always, flinch at the bite, but let him, knowing that denying him makes him even more upset. Besides, it’s probably a sign of affection.

Then, he dives back into the water, leaving you alone. A couple of minutes go by, and eventually, he pops his head back above the water. He raises his webbed hand and shows a squirming fish in his hands. You give him a questioning stare, but before you can ask, he plunges his sharp canines into the body. The fish dies immediately, and you’re left in shock at what the hell just happened.

He then offers the fish to you. “Eat,” He barks, and you shake your head, disgusted by the fish placed so close to you. Katsuki doesn’t like this answer, and he glowers at you. “Food. Eat. Hun–ted for you.”

Even if you are used to his demands, you are not willing to go that far for the sea creature. “That will make me sick, Kats. I can’t eat raw fish, but I really appreciate the offer.” Katsuki stares at you for a second and then, like usual, lets out a series of annoyed trills. He grabs the fish and quickly begins devouring it, bones and all, much to your horror. 

Once finishes, he looks back up at you with a satisfied smirk. “Good Hun–ter.”

You nod in agreement, “Yes, you are a fantastic hunter Katsuki, way better than me.” He chirps and nods, preening at the statement. You roll your eyes and laugh at his behavior. 

And then he sighs and, like usual, begins his goodbyes. He seems to be a very busy creature, only being able to meet for about two hours a day. You wonder what is taking up his time. Another mer? Maybe he has a family? But he never mentioned either of these things.

You don’t get time to ponder on it, because Katsuki rubs against your legs one last time before saying his usual statement. “Trade. To–mor–ow”. To which you nod and wave your goodbye with your new pink seashell that you add to your collection.

He nods before falling under the water and disappearing.

You begin to think more and more about Katsuki. Even if he was another species, you couldn’t help but be attracted to him. His muscular upper body, his soft blond hair, his piercing red eyes, and even if you hated the canines in the beginning, they are beginning to grow on you. Plus, he has the best personality. Although it is a little aggressive at some points, you know he has good intentions. 

He is sweet to you, under all of the insults, and is exactly your type (well, if he was human). So, like a normal person of your age, you begin to daydream what it would be like, to be more than a trading partner with the strange, but enthralling creature.

It’s been about three weeks, and the two of you have been “trading” almost every single day. Things like forks, coins, small mirrors, and cups have been given away while you receive an abundance of seashells and old jewelry that has fallen into the sea. Katsuki goes out of his way to find the nicest items he can. After all, he is a king, and his mate deserves only the best.

Katsuki knew he was doing a perfect job courting you. You are happy with him, he provides for you semi-well (only because you won’t take his food), and he is a fantastic protector. Often times the red-headed shark tried to talk to you, but Katsuki manages to scare his friend away every time. He isn’t going to risk you falling for some other extra. You were way too eager to court with him (even if it did make sense considering his physical appearance), and he didn’t want to play the odds of you accepting some idiots advances. You were his, and he was yours. That’s how things are supposed to go. So, today is the day he was going to ask you to be his mate. Then, the two of you are going live happily ever after.

He leaves his mother on the throne, like always, and grabs the ring he has planned to use. It was gold, and he removed the previous gemstone and replaced it with a pearl he had found when scouting the area for any threats. He knows that rings are weirdly important to humans, so, it was probably a good idea to get one. Then, he heads to your guys’ meeting spot.

You were waiting at the dock with your feet in the water. He swims up to you and lightly traces his hand up the bottom half of your leg. Then, like usual, he lays his head on your legs. You smile and pet his hair, “Hey, Katsuki.” He lets out a small click in greeting.

“I brought you something,” You continue, and Katsuki’s ruby eyes look up at you, slightly intrigued. You always gift him the strangest things. You pull out a tennis ball, and Katsuki squints at it before snatching it from your hands. He then begins to assess it. He rubs his cheek on it, then bites it gently, and finally growls at it, just to make sure it wasn’t anything dangerous. Once completely satisfied that it was safe, he trills in thanks. In your broken language, he says, “Good gift. M–Mine better.” to which you chuckle and nod, not willing to argue with the guy.

He pulls away from your legs and back into the water. A second goes by, and he is back up above the water and smirking as confident as ever. Katsuki quickly reminds himself of the stupid human customs he is trying to follow. He has practiced this sentence about a billion times. He forcefully, and a little nervously, thrusts the gold ring into your hold. “I K-King Katsuki Bakugou, take you, Y/N L/N to be” He lets out a small growl in frustration when he forgets how to pronounce the last part correctly. “To be…my mate.” He puffs his chest out while he waits for the tears and your acceptance.

But much to his surprise, you begin to giggle as you grab the pretty ring. You admire it and praise him on how beautiful it was. You have never seen a ring like this, it was pretty. You place it on your pointer finger and smile. Then you pat his head lightly and say, “Yes that is how wedding ceremonies go! How did you learn those lines? And I love the addition of “king.” Great touch Kats. Actually, did you know that I happen to be the Queen of the human lands?”

Katsuki has never been more confused in his life. Firstly, you put the ring on the wrong finger. He read so many slabs that told him that you were supposed to place it on the one next to the pinky! Secondly, you didn’t even respond to the declaration. You just praised him on his abilities. Thirdly, you are a queen?! Would this mean that your two people can finally live in peace? This seems like the most important question, so he says, “You–Queen?”

You laugh once again and, this time, shake your head. “No. Sorry I was just teasing you, Katsuki. I couldnt help it since you said you were the “king” of the sea.” He furrows his brows. Did you think he was joking? He has left his people abandoned for you daily, and you don’t even believe him!

“I am King! You are my Q-Queen! Mate!” His newly learned language gets choppy when upset. He grabs onto the doc with his hands and looks up at you with a scowl.

You tilt your head to the side. “Mate?” 

Poor Katsuki goes into another hissy fit. He growls and grumbles, and you furrow your eyebrows, used to his dramatics. You don’t know exactly what’s pissing him off, though. 

You are pissing him off. You guys have been “trading” for two weeks now, and you don’t even know what mates are. What do you think these entire interactions have been about? “We trade. Now we mate.”

“Like animals do?”

He uses his tail to propel him above the water. Now he is almost your height when you are sitting down on the dock. He only does this when he really needs your attention. The scowl has deepened, and this time, you do flinch. “Like mer do!”

Was Katsuki joking? About the king and the mating thing? You have never heard him joke before, but also, what was he talking about? You guys originally were trading items, and now you guys are friends. Did you confuse him somehow?

Your thoughts were suddenly cut off when Katsuki leans forward and pressed his lips onto yours. They are wet and a little salty, but still soft. You are just glad that you can’t taste fish on his lips. Your eyes widen for a second, but then gently kiss back for a second, and Katsuki pulls away. Red tints his face, and you probably match his furious blush. “S-See! Mate.”

Oh. So this entire time, he has been wanting to get with you? You use your hands to cover your face in embarrassment, but Katsuki is quick to remove them with a short but scolding bark. “We trade. Now we mate.” He repeats.

You realized that you confused him this entire time. He misunderstood your definition of trade. “You court and then mate. Not trade Katsuki. Trade is when you exchange items, like merchants do.” 

Katsukis face contorts into disgust. Like the lower-class people? He is a king, for christ’s sake! How did you think that he was trading with you like some lowly extra? He didn’t need your useless items (yes, he did, he actually loves them all)! He lets out a series of growls and barks in the mer language at your misunderstanding. Finally, he, in your tongue, says, “Stupid human!” 

Although you haven’t known Katsuki for that long, you know is not mad specifically at you, just upset. I mean rightfully so; you have misunderstood his attentions this entire time. You have got to make it up to him. So, you lean over and tilt his chin upward toward you and cut off his growls with a soft kiss. He, of course, shuts up and kisses you back intensely. 

He hates craning his neck to kiss you, it makes him feel small, and he is the strongest creature under the water; he should never feel small. So without much hesitation, he grabs onto your figure and pulls you into the water. 

You screech in surprise as the cold water hits you, and Katsuki grins. He presses his lips against yours again and effortlessly holds you above the water. Eventually, you pull away with a trail of salty saliva. “You are going to have to recourt me.”

Katsuki frowns as his face fins pin straight back on his face. “Why?” 

“Because I didnt know you were trying to courting me. I want to enjoy it this time,” You hum, and Katsuki flicks a tad bit of water into your face. You scrunch your face up and whine, and Katsuki laughs low.

His orange tail flicks into the water. “Idiot human.” But, he still nods in agreement. It wasn’t like he was going to force you to be his mate. If needed to be, he can wait.

Your smile turns mischievous. “And you have to court me like a human does.” This time Katsuki does growl in annoyance. Human ways are so tedious.

“No.”

“Awe I guess I just got to find a human “mate” to court me….” You fake pout, and Katsuki grips you tighter. He can see right through your bluff, but pissing you off right now in such a nice moment does not seem like the best idea.

“Fine.” You give him a peck on the lips for his compromise. He in return, grabs your hand and replaces moves the ring from your pointer onto your ring finger. He lets out a satisfied click with the new placement. Now both mer and human will know you are his.

As you watch Katsukis ministrations, you think back to what he said earlier and hum in thought. “Hmm and Kats you were just  joking about being a king right?”

Katsuki laughs mischievously and a little arrogantly. Your eyes widen at the response. “Right, Kats?”

“Nope.”

You squirm in his hold, but he wraps his tail around you, preventing you from leaving. “I can't be the ruler of a kingdom that I’m not even from! Plus I'm not even a mermaid!”

But Katsuki was already lost in thought, daydreaming once again of the future. Besides, there are many ways to get you changed into a mer, it wasn’t hard. “King and Queen Ex-plo-sion Murder. The most powerful mates of the sea.”

“Katsuki!” 

#bakugo katuski #bhna fanfiction #bakugou x reader #katsuki x reader #bakugou katuski x reader #mer!au #Mer!Bakugou #Mer!Katsuki #merman #bakugou katsuki fanfic #merman! Bakugou x Human! Reader #fantasy!au #bnha bakugou #mha bakugo x reader #king! bakugou #King! Katsuki #female!reader #mello.writes

[matchamilkislover]

White Horse, 1. (a.a.)

pairing: knight!abby x princess!reader

cw: fantasy!au, fem!reader, eventual displays of fighting and violence bc it’s fantasy, kind of slow burn?, tension, reader has an attitude, tall af!abby bc size difference, royalty!au, mentions of arranged marriages, some mentions of au politics, abby in armor is a warning in itself

synopsis: you are the youngest princess of the royal family that rules over your kingdom, Aphrynia. now a young adult, you’ve come of age in a tense time, and your personal protection is of utmost importance — which is why the resignation of your previous personal knight means a rushed reassignment ceremony with little to no preface. That being said, why does the name of your new knight sound so familiar?

word count: 2.8k

a/n: this is gonna be so trope-heavy and romantic and cheesy and i don’t even care i’ve been giggling and kicking my feet this whole time

⊹ ⋆｡˚ ————————— 𓆩♡𓆪 —————————⊹ ⋆｡˚

“Princess, you really do need to get up.”

You groaned, rolling over in your excessively comfortable bed as your lady’s maid, Nina, started forcefully pulling the many blankets you had covering you off. Your proper mind knew that she was right, that you needed to get ready, but the pounding in your head begged otherwise; and right now, the pounding side was winning. You tried to sit up and open your eyes, but the bright sunlight instantly blinded you, causing you to groan and fall back again. Nina sighed.

“Either you get up, or I’m calling George and he can drag you out himself.”

That made you sit up. You’d had enough of your second eldest brother ripping you out of bed throughout your childhood to last a lifetime. Your legs already felt a phantom soreness at just the thought.

“Okay, okay, I surrender, I’m up…” you grumbled, swinging your legs over the edge of the mattress and tenderly standing on the cold floor. Nina rolled her eyes as she started gathering materials for you to bathe.

“I told you to ease up on the wine last night,” she scolded as you started shedding your nightclothes and trudged to your washroom.

You rolled your eyes in response and yawned. “Don’t judge me! You would let loose a little too if you knew it was your last night before getting assigned another overbearing knight,” you replied dramatically. These were the times that you both loved and resented that you and Nina had known each other since childhood; sometimes she knew you a little too well. Nina just chuckled and followed you.

A while later, you were clean and dry. And cold. You shivered as Nina helped you slip layer after layer of your intricate clothing on your body. “Why is it so frigid in here this morning? I can literally hear the fire going,” you whined as another shiver made your arms shake. Nina shrugged as she picked up another layer.

“The mornings have been getting colder lately,” Nina remarked thoughtfully. “Perhaps an off the shoulder dress wasn’t the best decision the seamstress could’ve made for today’s gown.” She grimaced as she eyed the off the shoulder masterpiece waiting to be adorned.

Your pout spoke for you. Even so, you had to admit the gown was rather lovely. The gauzy pink seemed to shimmer in the light, and you couldn’t help but stare at it in the mirror once you had finally put it on. Nina, however, still anxiously watched the time and rushed to finish getting you ready.

For whatever reason, one you weren’t exactly keen on understanding, being assigned a personal knight was something of a ceremony in the royal family, and was therefore to be treated as such. And ever since your former knight, Mattheo, had resigned not even a fortnight ago to wed and begin a life outside of his knighthood, you had been assigned a rotation of lower knights while a replacement was decided on. While you couldn’t blame Mattheo for wanting to have a different life and a family, you couldn’t help but resent his leaving just a little bit; he had been your personal knight since you were young, and you had grown to trust him like an uncle or a father. Whatever young, overconfident knight you would be assigned now would not be nearly as tolerable, of that you were certain.

Nina’s voice pulled you out of your thoughts and reawakened the pounding in your head. “Princess? Princess, we’ve got to go,” she harped, placing a guiding hand on your back. “Wouldn’t want to keep everyone waiting.” You nodded in agreement and started walking, trying your best to hide the grimace pulling at your face.

You could barely keep up with Nina’s quick steps as you navigated the corridors of the palace, your shoes clicking on the polished stone floors. “Nina,” you muttered through panting breaths, “You know you can slow down a little bit, right? It really isn’t that serious,” you pointed out. Nina shook her head.

“Sorry, princess, but I’m under strict orders to get you there on time. Promised the queen,” she replied with a wink sent your way. Your mouth gaped while your brows furrowed.

“Seriously? For a knight assignment? The fuck…” you muttered back, still grumpy from your hangover and unending headache. Nina clicked her tongue at you in disapproval.

“Princess! Language!” she scolded, holding back a giggle and not quite managing to suppress a tickled smile. You made an amused face in response and you both had to struggle to hold down your laughs as you passed knights and members of the court in the long corridors.

As you finally turned onto the corridor leading to the throne room, Nina cleared her throat to get your attention. “Please try your best not to seem hungover, princess,” she muttered through clenched teeth, “lest the queen come for my head.” You both stifled one last giggle before the doors to the throne room opened, and your arrival was announced to the small crowd standing inside.

You took a steadying breath, blanking your face as you delicately walked forward, desperately hiding your fight not to wobble in these godforsaken shoes. You kept your gaze steady on the front of the room, not wanting to risk an offhand glance at the crowd interrupting your focus.

You breathed a quiet sigh of relief when you reached the front and stood in place amongst your siblings, ignoring George’s knowing smirk and Elyssa’s disapproving look. Like always, your eldest brother, Philip, stayed as stone-faced as ever, and Henry, the fourth sibling, gave his best attempt at matching Philip’s ever-serious mood. Although he was closest to you in age, only being 18 months older, the two of you couldn’t be more different. He never seemed to possess the itch for mischief and adventure that you did, and instead followed your eldest brother like a puppy and tried to copy his every trait. You suppressed the urge to roll your eyes and turned towards the rest of the room.

Glancing at you to acknowledge your arrival, your parents rose as one, and your mother’s voice rang out in the spacious throne room. “Welcome, esteemed guests and friends, as we conduct our youngest daughter’s knight reassignment ceremony on this lovely morning. As many of us know, our youngest has quite the…lively spirit, and as she reaches marrying age, we’ve found it impertinent that we find a unique knight to ensure her safety amidst the happenings of that lively spirit.” A soft chuckle carried through the room, and you had to suppress another eye roll as your mother – the “ever-esteemed” queen – basically called you a burden who needed watching. Great. Exactly what you needed this morning.

Your mother continued her speech. “While the knight we’ve chosen for her assignment may not have the age to match her rank, her experience and accomplishments make her quite the perfect match to guard our lovely daughter. Thus, Knight Anderson, will you please approach?”

Your mind came to a sudden stop. ‘Her’? Your new knight was to be a female knight? Well that certainly makes things more interesting. And her name…Anderson. It sounded oddly familiar, but you couldn’t put your finger on it. A young female knight, a respected, high-ranking one at that, was to be Mattheo’s replacement? Certainly she wouldn’t be quite as easy to slip past. But you had gotten creative over the years…

Your racing thoughts mixed with your eyes searching the crowd for this ‘Knight Anderson’, but came to a sudden halt when the knight finally stepped through to the front of the crowd, and the sight of her left your mouth hanging ever so slightly ajar. Although it had certainly matured since the last time you saw her, you would recognize that face anywhere.

9 YEARS AGO

Abigail Anderson was going to be the death of you. No matter where you went, she was somehow there, ready to show off and drive you up the fucking wall. Since her father was the royal family’s physician and a childhood friend of your father, and the two of you were so close in age, the two of you had been shoved together since you could read, and you couldn’t resent it more. She never failed to take an opportunity to prove herself against you; whether it was her intelligence in tutoring sessions, or showing off her strength and size outdoors while exploring or riding, if the chance was there, she took it.

You were both twelve, and while you were able to spend more time apart, tutoring and riding lessons were still spent together. You had started spending your free time with the daughters of the court members, while Abby spent her time training for knighthood or whatever it was that motivated her to sweat in a dirty training ground for hours a day. It wasn’t like you paid it too much regard; you were perfectly happy spending tea with your friends that you could actually relate to before retreating to the palace library to spend afternoons reading and exploring different worlds.

On one sunny spring day, Abby had shown up late to your joint riding lesson, and you were already annoyed since George had ruined your favorite riding boots by dropping them in a boiling, soapy wash basin while the maids weren’t looking, only for them to be found hours later and sorrowfully returned to your chambers. The twat. So when she came jogging up to the stables, your glare was already set upon her, and she preemptively rolled her eyes.

“I know, I know, training went over,” she retorted to your glare in an annoyed voice, raising her hands apologetically at your instructor.

You continued glaring as she saddled her horse and mounted the steed, flipping her braid behind her shoulder. Sensing the tension and not wanting to be a part of it, the instructor casually instructed the two of you to take a simple ride through the naturalistic grounds surrounding the palace during your normal lesson time. You nodded curtly and took off in a simple trot, Abby quickly following and settling into a matching trot beside you.

“Heard about what happened to your boots,” she remarked casually, not even glancing your way. But you knew what she was doing, and you already weren’t in the mood for it. She kept pushing anyway.

“What a waste,” she continued, clicking her tongue. “You poor thing, how will you ever survive?” You could feel her smirk without looking. Trying to be the bigger person, you only sighed and kept ignoring her.

She laughed. “What, don’t want to admit that you’re upset over a pair of boots? It’s okay, you are a princess, after all.” Even though she was right, it wasn’t like you wanted to admit it to Abby, of all people. You really liked those boots! Princess or not, you were allowed to be upset about it! You could say that, but it’s not like Abby would care. She’d just keep teasing you about the boots, or poking you about some other stupid thing that was sure to push your buttons. So you kept your head straight forward and kept riding. She wasn’t satisfied.

“Too good to talk to me now, are you? You’d rather be at a prissy tea party with your prissy friends?” she said, mocking a posh accent and expression as she spoke. And you just snapped.

“You know what Abby, just because you don’t like me or think I’m shallow or spoiled for whatever reason, that doesn’t mean you have to go after my friends too! You don’t even know them! You know, I don’t think you even know me like you think you do, so why don’t you just shut up already,” you exploded, taking off on your horse like a bullet and leaving Abby shouting after you in the dust. You heard her call your name after you a few times, but you ignored her, clenching your teeth as your resolve hardened and you quickened your pace even more.

By the time Abby started galloping after you, you were too far ahead to hear her. You just kept riding and riding, not stopping until you reached the creek that bubbled along one of the far edges of the palace grounds. Hopping off your horse, you gently smoothed the mare’s chestnut hair as you watched the clear water run up and over the rocks in the creek. Remembering what Abby had said, you clenched your other fist and loudly groaned in frustration, holding back the urge to go as far as to stomp on the ground.

You took a deep breath to steel yourself as you heard hooves approaching quickly from behind you. Abby called your name again, but you barely even turned your head, fist still clenched. She scoffed and dismounted, walking up to you casually.

“You know you can’t ride off like that,” she remarked. You continued to ignore her. “C’mon, you know I didn’t mean it like that,” she continued, leaning to try to get in your line of sight.

You only scoffed in reply and turned away, speed walking along the creek bed. Abby kept following you, reaching out to grab your arm once she was close enough. You gasped angrily and whipped around, hair slinging from side to side. You tried to pull away, but her grip was tight. And you panicked. No one had ever grabbed you like that, and you were so shocked, you couldn’t help but go into panic mode.

“Will you– let go– get your hands OFF of me–” you shrieked, starting to flail and struggle in her grasp. Abby also began to panic in response to you, and before you knew it, you were slipping on the creek bed, and the two of you tumbled into the creek, a tangle of limbs and shocked exclamations as you fell into the surprisingly icy water.

As soon as you hit the water, you gasped, inhaling water instead of air and immediately choking. You floundered, desperately coughing and trying to eject the water from your lungs. Finally, your flailing arms found a large rock to land on, and you started pulling yourself out of the water. At the same time, you could hear Abby climbing the water as well, and you got distracted, your hand slipping as you crashed back down into the creek. Another breath of water infiltrated your mouth and throat, and you continued to choke and cough, unable to gain enough footing to grab back onto the rock. Finally, a pair of stronger arms latched onto your own, stopping your flailing to pull you out of the water and onto the creek bed.

Flopping onto the ground, you coughed out the remaining water from your lungs until you could finally take clear breaths, anger returning with the consistent oxygen. You shot up suddenly, cutting Abby off as she opened her mouth to ask if you were okay. “You are despicable, Abby Anderson! Despicable!” You shouted as you pushed hair out of your face and straightened your soaking clothes. “I am leaving. You need to give me time to return my horse and escort myself inside, lest I see your despicable face and decide to strangle you once and for all!” You continued as you mounted your horse, giving her one last dirty look before riding off as fast as you could.

It wasn’t until the next morning when Abby wasn’t present at your lessons that you discovered that she had left for official training. And no matter how angry you were at her, you couldn’t help but be at least a bit disappointed that she hadn’t said goodbye.

THE PRESENT

Your mother’s voice was all but muted background in your head as you watched Abby – apparently now known as ‘Knight Anderson’ – approach you and your family at the front of the throne room. A lump settled in your throat, and your mouth felt impossibly dry watching her armored form get closer and closer. You barely registered your mother reciting practiced phrases as Abby knelt in front of her and bowed her head towards the queen. It was like you were outside your body, watching everything happen, only an observer as Abby stood and she and your mother approached you. You were sucked back into your body as Abby knelt in front of you, taking one of your polished hands in hers and bowing her head towards it.

“Knight Abigail Anderson,” your mother began, her voice confident and steady in contrast to the nerves that rocked your body, leaving you lightheaded. “Do you solemnly vow to dedicate your life to the protection and safety of the princess?” Abby looked up at you through her lashes, and you felt like you could faint.

“I do.”

#abby anderson #knight!abby x princess!reader #knight x princess #abby x reader #abby tlou #abby fic #fantasy!au #royalty!au #princess!au #knight!au #wlw #lesbian knight #lesbian princess #matchamilkislover

[devilatelier]

the way this verse has consumed me

#fantasy!au #sessnara #my art #naraku #sesshomaru #once i draw a solo sess ill edit this and reb

[cuckoo-on-a-string]

Promises Five: The Hunt

Dark!Morpheus x (female)reader, fantasy/medieval AU, 18+

Master List

Dream of the Endless had been promised a bride.

A/N: I'll offer song recs to folks who are interested in asks! Still dealing with some mental health issues, but pushing through. HOLY SHIT THE NEXT CHAPTER. 0,0 Liking is sweet, commenting is divine. Talk to the lonely hermit, people. Her dog is tired of her shit.

The hounds sang after the hinds, and their masters followed them under the trees.

In the distance, the high castle sat like a toy house from which all the dolls had escaped, spreading their games and pageantry through the forest with bells and horns to warn away the deer and fox. Huntsmen released other deer, fox, and fowl from prearranged cages out of sight of the king and his swarm of courtiers, so the dolls could play pretend at feats of skill.

The bard kept to the back, holding a tight rein on her grey mare – who didn’t understand why she couldn’t stop and graze if the bard insisted on moving so slowly – in the company of the ladies Alder. Eilwyn, who’d visited the bard’s chamber two nights past, glimmered and glowed, illuminated like a piece of art in the dappled sunlight and the eyes of a few dozen would-be suitors. Officially, no one could pay court until the Endless had his pick. Unofficially, Eilwyn had received six declarations of love, five bad poems about her eyes, one good poem about her hair, and an uninspired puzzle box containing a gaudy necklace without a single gem of value.

Eilwyn loved it all, of course.

But as the younger woman amused herself snaring hearts for her collection, the bard conversed with the Dowager Alder, Eilwyn’s grandmother.

“The city lights are unbearable,” the elder Alder insisted. “My eyes are bad enough as it is, but when every street and tavern glows like the moon, I can hardly make out the planets with my telescope, let alone the fainter stars. With the travel time, I’ll lose whole weeks of work, and gods know if I’ll be alive to note my calculations this time next year.”

Manly shouts and howling dogs suggested something ahead had died, or was about to. The bard wondered how many of these fools in their fine furs would discover the material cost of bloodsport when they couldn’t scrub the stains from their velvets in the morning.

“You say that every year.”

The Elder Alder, on her aged palfrey, squinted at the green canopy shielding her beloved sky and tutted.

“And one year I’ll be right, like I always am in the end.”

The woman was an astronomer, a mathematical magician, and the idea of death hadn’t scared her since the bard first met her as a young maid. The wheel of the heavens moved before her, and it would move after, and that was well enough if she could just understand the damn thing before she shuffled off this mortal coil. She’d written books, and papers, and more books, and the bard wondered if Death would really hold off until the universe held no more mysteries. It wouldn’t be the first time.

“Of course, Lady Alder.”

Arthritis had long-since gnarled the lady’s hands, and they twisted over the saddle pommel and a hank of her horse’s main like knobby cypress knees, straining with the roll and sway of her palfrey’s gait.

“How far is the damned camp?”

Another lady – one of the fools hoping to wed her daughter to the Endless riding very far ahead near the king – seized the reins of her precious child’s horse and passed the odd trio. She did not look to the side. She did not look at anything. She lifted her nose far too high. And she nearly trotted over her own servants in passing.

The bard waved, and the daughter gawked with wide eyes as she was spirited away from poor influences and dangerous words. Really, any damage was already done, and fleeing the scene of battle only showed weakness. What kind of lesson would the girl really learn besides the fact that her mother enjoyed making a spectacle of her piety? Parents really had the strangest ideas about children.

“Grandmother!” Eilwyn exclaimed, clearly delighted.

The bard, equally delighted, couldn’t help herself. “Such language from so fair a lady. Shocking.”

The Dowager shifted in her saddle, face puckered in discomfort. “Hush, the both of you.”

Oh, if only she could. She laughed to imagine how much pain and trouble might’ve been saved. And how many adventures missed. They never would’ve been friends at all if the bard kept her own counsel.

“You expect a bard to hold her tongue?”

“The sun will freeze first.” The Dowager made a point of staring down her granddaughter, though, and her granddaughter made a point of smiling very prettily in reply. A lord several lengths ahead called for Lady Eilwyn’s attention, and she brokered an armistice by riding out of her grandmother’s line of sight entirely, leaving the two old companions to fight their own wars.

“My old bones are not made for riding.”

A jolt of pity seared the bard’s belly like the pain after eating a rotten fish. She’d rather purge it and be done, but the prickling discomfort would only grow with age. There was no course but to swallow it down and imagine it hurt much less than it would in time.

“Why didn’t you take the coach then? It could’ve brought you in comfort.”

Swollen knuckles flexing, the lady scoffed. “With the rest of the invalids? Don’t insult me.”

“But it’s so much fun, old friend.”

“Old,” Lady Alder muttered. “Yes. I am that.”

The bard shifted in her own saddle, wondering if she could stomach any of the inevitable banquet awaiting them.

“That wasn’t the word I’d hoped you’d echo.”

An eye sharper than any hawk’s pinned her from the side, and she felt like a child caught sulking. “If you need reassurance as to that, then you are not half so clever as you make yourself out to be.”

She seized on the opportunity for levity and smiled with all her teeth. “You’ve known me for a fool many years, have you not?”

“Aye, but a clever one.” The lady considered. “Most days.”

“Such praise you give me.”

“You fished for it so often the lake is empty.”

“Unfair but not untrue.”

The lady hummed her affirmation, welcoming in a moment of calm as they road in the wake of the hunt’s chaos.

Ahead, those most eager to prove themselves brought down smaller prey on their way to the day’s camp. Once all had a chance to refresh themselves with wine as their horses grazed, most would sally out again in the name of dead beasts. Dusk would bring them back, and they’d spend the night drinking, feasting, and debauching one another just outside the safe ring of torchlight, pretending to be very daring and wild for fucking someone in a bush.  A bit more hunting in the morning for those who could still sit straight in the saddle, and then all would return bloody and victorious to the castle.

The bard struggled to understand those who found the prospect of a royal hunt… thrilling. None worried to go home hungry, and the creatures they met in the wood came hobbled, with teeth filed and tusks blunted.

Rushing down a winding stair risked greater peril.

Bored by the day’s excitement, she let her thoughts spin out in wider and wider passes, circling the crux of the drama.

What did the King of Dreams dream of?

Revenge, she suspected. Vengeance on the king that may boil over on the land he ruled, and she must guide her favorites out of the flood’s path. Those practical answers satisfied the part of her that always craved a direction, a purpose, the next challenge to conquer, but the Dream King’s retribution sat like a wax seal over a longer letter. She would very much like to read that letter, even if it was dangerous, and unwise, and entirely reckless.

The Prince of Stories must have depths unfathomable, millennia upon eon of secrets and experiences carved into his bones. She wanted to dismiss her curiosity as nothing but interest in a vision of her future. Would she be like him in another thousand years? No. She’d still be human, and he was Endless. All the lifetimes of the Earth couldn’t teach her to understand one such as him.

But that didn’t mean she had no desire to try.

From farther up the line, a runner came jogging, peering up at the faces of the mounted company. He looked from one to another, seeking the right address to receive his message. The bard paused, recognizing the Everard house colors on servant’s tabard. Her horse stamped, whickering around the bit as her rider leaned out of the saddle to catch the young man’s eye. He saw her and darted to her side quick as an arrow.

“Is all well?” the bard asked.

“My lady Alis Everard and my lord Tomas Everard request you ride with them.”

The bard looked to Lady Alder. She hardly needed her friend’s permission, and none of the Alders were the sort to cherish grudges over perceived slights. But the bard didn’t want to leave her to ride alone, either. She needed good conversation and someone who cared enough to notice if she swayed on her horse.

“Oh, go tend to your nervous foal.” Lady Alder waved her off. “My own proud filly will see you pass and return to keep me amused. We favor different arts, but she has a sharp enough eye to see trouble riding by.”

“Thank you.” The bard pulled out of the column of riders, careful to avoid the servant at her side. “I’ll see you at the camp.”

Whatever Lady Alder replied was lost to the wind. Finally given her head, the bard’s mare leapt into a canter, her hooves thumping a second heartbeat that rattled up and through her rider. Old loam and the sharp green scent of freshly broken twigs gathered around her like a cloak as she moved just left of the path, removed from the rock and dust of the road.

The bard knew what colors to look for, and she let all definition blur as she moved past lords, ladies, knights, and their scores of attendants. They all looked so strange and out of place in the tunnel of green woods, dressed to stand out in a part of the world where blending in more often preserved life.

Near the front of the cavalcade, she found the Everards. Alis stared with wide eyes as the bard pulled even with her, mare prancing and snorting in frustration as her run came to an end. Her dramatic entrance pulled other eyes, and the king – only a few riders ahead – glanced back with frustrated disgust. Perhaps she should apologize that she wasn’t a stag. For all of the ruckus she’d heard from afar, she saw precious few carcasses dangling from the hunters’ belts.

“Thank you for coming in such haste,” Lord Everard said. Stifled amusement plucked at his lips, trying to lift them into a broad, laughing gale. It would be bad manners to laugh too loudly too near the king over a jest to which he wasn’t party, but Everard clearly struggled.

She answered with the grin he’d tried to school away. “Best way to travel. Now, what is the matter?”

Lord Everard gestured to his daughter, and she in turn tried to sink into the mud of the forest track. She hunched low, like she could melt into her boots. Her complexion had gone pale, despite the flush of embarrassment creeping up her neck, and her gloves creaked as her dainty hands squeezed into fists. The bard let the merriment fade, looking and listening beyond the girl’s silence.

Alis’s doe eyes flicked towards the shadow who rode beside her king, and the bard understood.

Dream of the Endless wore his customary black, with the blood-red ruby shining on his breast like a heart he’d ripped from his prey. His nightmare mount had teeth where it ought to have eyes, and it laughed with a man’s voice. He carried a raven on his shoulder rather than a hawk on his glove, and anyone who hadn’t met his sister may mistake him for an aspect of Death. Or something worse, perhaps.

Lord of Nightmares indeed.

“He frightens me,” Alis whispered, leaning close. “I’ve had nothing but bad dreams since I came to the castle.”

As she should. A glance at her father confirmed he thought the same. Just because he’d been forced to bring his child to this storm didn’t mean he didn’t fear the lightning. He had too much sense for this farce and too big a heart to let the girl suffer. If his wife were not busy running the estate, she’d be here to shelter and comfort their little girl, but in her absence, he must ask the bard to fill the role, and she gladly pulled Alis’s attention from bad dreams to simpler truths.

“And you’ve never had a nightmare before?” She didn’t chide. She reminded. Even in the security of her own bed in her own home, the girl had touched the darker shores of the Dreaming. Its king would not reach out to swallow her now, even though he prowled so near in the Waking. “Alis, believe me, you are safe.”

Alis pulled her spine straight, taking a deep, intentional breath that shuddered on the way in and trembled on the way out.

“Do you promise?”

“I promise that if I’m wrong, I’ll find a convenient sword to fall on, and you can say you told me so. Does that make you feel better?”

“A little.” Realizing what she’d said, Alis blanched and rushed to add, “But only because I know you’d come back!”

This time her father did laugh, and the bard reached to reassure her with an honest to gods giggle, when chaos erupted at the front. The king and his companions came to a dead stop, and without warning or order, those who rode behind struggled to halt in time. Rearing horses and shouts of alarm rolled down the line like a breaker, and in the wave of confusion that followed, the bard once again left the road to circle forward.

They’d reached the camp.

A glory of golden stitching over swaths of emerald, the vast tents might cover an entire town, and smoke rising with the smells of rosemary and stewed venison hinted at the delights within.

The display paled behind the entity waiting at the edge of the woods, however.

Golden eyes like licks of flame from the sun’s heart smiled over ruby lips. Welcoming and menacing and all-too pleased with themselves.

Power perfumed the air, like honeysuckle and ambergris, clashing with the winter-cold snap of Dream’s clear displeasure. The King of Dreams had lost the veneer of humanity, and he set himself against the intruder like the deepest hour of the night resisting the dawn.

Few creatures could stand up to the king’s guest. Even fewer commanded the presence of function beyond personification. The bard did not know who the stranger was, but she knew what they were.

Another fucking Endless.

Every inch screamed of passion, romance, obsession. Golden hair and loose-fit silks that flowed like water into a garment that was neither tunic nor gown inspired sensual curiosities. They rode a unicorn, a bay mount with cloven hooves, a lion’s tail, and a goat’s beard. The russet horn glinted with flecks of gold, like treasure winking through a smear of blood.

The King of Dreams sneered, lip curling as he shared a frigid greeting.

“Sibling.”

The Endless in their path laughed, bright as bells and smooth brandy. It sounded to the bard’s ears like trouble. “I hope you don’t mind if I join in your hunt. Big brother.”

#fic: promises #morpheus x reader #sandman x reader #dream of the endless x reader #morpheus x you #morpheus x oc #female reader #morpheus x original character #dark!morpheus #fantasy!au

[heartofjasmina]

(back again with another request not even two days after the first XD) (don't judge me I'm a whore for this man and you're one of the few Shinsou writers who doesn't write only female reader)

I see your incubus Shinsou and I raise you:

Dragon Shinsou.

Specifically, Dragon Shinsou in the middle of mating season, desperate to knot and breed, but still being so so so gentle because his mate is a fragile human and he might hurt them.

Do with that what you will.

-⚡

Gender neutral reader is so important!! for so many reasons, glad I can help!

::

Shinsou had many glittering jewels, gold, silver, all the treasures he could ask for. But a mate? That could only be you.

Soft, he loved soft things as much as he loves sparkle, and beautiful as the jewels in his horde. You had stumbled into his cave from the forest and within a month you had him so wrapped around your finger he couldn't imagine life without you.

But mating a dragon with a human's body was difficult, and he rumbled at your throat to help you relax to let more of his shaft inside you. Or maybe he was rumbling because of how much his skull was pounding with the need to

knot

knot

breed

BREED.

It was a struggle he was going to win every time though, because he feels your tiny soft hand on his horns as you tell him, "It's alright, I can take it. Love you, Shin.."

"Human, mine, mate." He growled pupils blown wide with need and love and desire.

"Mate." You nodded and kisssed him, over and over until he remembered you. His fragile little human in need of protecting and loving.

#shinsou smut #shinsou x reader #hitoshi shinsou #hitoshi smut #hitoshi x reader #jasmina writes 🌸 #fantasy!au #sorry its short but life is rough <3

[sharky-is-not-here]

I have finally gathered the courage to post this

It's old and it's kind of ugly but yeah

Fantasy AU Gangle

She's a siren

#fantasy au #fantasy #fantasy!au #Fantasy!Gangle #Raaah #Tadc Gangle #Gangle #*dies cutely*

[phantomphangphucker]

Phic Phight - How Not To Resurrect A Half Demon Lord

@lexiepiper @Ghostfox_fuyu

Being both an adventurer AND technically a monster wasn’t exactly the best mix to avoid fights, so it’s a good thing Danny actually LIKED fighting even if he couldn’t exactly ‘go hard’ against humans to avoid, you know, KILLING THEM. Other adventurers though? Yeah they didn’t exactly enjoy fighting what they thought was a weirdly powerful dungeon spawn.

Danny runs, skidding across the ground on his claws, the scrapping sound is loud but nowhere near the volume of the explosion happening right behind him. His tail nearly gets nicked! He’s not happy, not one bit. “WOULD YOU STOP THAT!”.

The mage with a frankly obscenely large hat damn near growls at him, which hey, growling was Danny’s thing. “Silence! Foul demon!”.

For fucks sake! Like yes, he gets that he looks like a demon. He gets that. But could people please just stop assuming that he belonged to whatever dungeon he and they happened to be in? This place was a goddamn lava dungeon, he was an ice demon with a black and white theme! Use your brain! Why would a fucking ice demon be in a lava dungeon!

Which, to be fair, him going into a lava dungeon wasn’t exactly smart or using his own brain; but Sam and Tuck thought this one would get them some sick ass gear so off they went. Of course they wound up getting separated, and of course Danny wound up running into other adventurers with the same idea as his party, and of course they mistook him for a dungeon beast. That’s his classic luck right there, everybody!

Ramming one set of claws into the wall and climbing up the hot rock as fast as he can, channeling some ice to his palms to avoid burning himself, it also was making some super cool-looking mist sizzle off of the rock so that was a neat bonus.

The adventurers trying to annihilate him seem to agree, the dude in black armour muttering to another mage with super orange hair, “hey if I equip ice gauntlets you think I could do that, it looks cool as Hell”. The mage whacks him over the head, ha!

Danny snorts to himself, jumping on to a ceiling stalactite of solid hot magma, ow ow ow ow ow, stupid ice core, stupid Tuck and Sam dragging him into a lava dungeon, stupid him for jumping onto solid magma, stupid stupid stupid. Ugh. But Danny does what Danny typically does when presented with pain, quips, shouting down, “why don’t you give up if you keep misting me!”. Ha! Good one, self. Ow.

The armoured guy chuckles, “I love it when monsters have a sense of humour, makes it so much more fun”, and hurls a goddamn spear at him. Nice, Danny can do spears and show off a little.

Danny launches himself down, grabbing the spear in between his teeth, fangs making it easy to keep the spear in there, and uses the spear head stabbing into the ground below to allow him to basically land going face down before gripping the shaft with his hands and spinning himself into an upright position. Him yanking it out of the ground and spinning it dramatically, grinning meanly, “oh I love free gifts, how’d you know it was my birthday?”, it’s totally not, he’s just being an asshole.

Big hat mage scowling at armoured guy quickly, “nice going, Salient”, then glaring back at Danny. Okay so armoured guy is named Salient, weird but okay. She shoots a fire last at Danny, Danny bats it away with the spear head snickering all the while. Then the other mage hits him with a holy-blast, because of course she does, and sends him into a wall.

He absolutely dropped the spear. Damn. He wanted to add that to his collection, which sure was definitely something he wasn’t doing before the whole resurrection gone wrong crap happened and he some how wound up getting his human souls wires crossed with Hell itself. A fuck up of hellish proportions.

Him shaking off the burn and sizzle from the holy power, at least still being kinda human and alive would stop that shit from outright smiting him, just burned and hurt like a motherfucker. The biggest annoyance his holy sensitivity usually caused him was not being able to use holy based healing potions… which were the cheapest kind aka the kind his party usually used to buy. Demonic based healing potions were the shit for him though, especially since he never had to worry about them debuffing or cursing him.

Orange hair mage huffs, “damn it, that didn’t do it”, scowling, “this place has some seriously strong demons, we might have use a hearth stone if it keeps up like this”.

Danny sticks his hands out to the side, tail twitching, “or maybe! Think a little and realise I’m not from this freaking dungeon!”.

“As if we’d believe a snake tongued demon!”.

Okay that’s just rude! It took him a very long time to learn how to talk with a forked tongue and he had to put up with a lot of mocking from Tuck! He sticks his tongue out at the group before having to climb up a wall again to avoid some thunder bolts from big hat mage and an arch of fire from Salient’s sword. At least he’d learned not to throw solid objects that Danny could grab, progress; progress for them and not him specifically. A very unfortunate specific.

Danny sending out a bit of icy flames that glowed black with his demonic energy to destroy another flame arch from Salient while moving sideways across the wall, he hates this dungeon it’s too fucking hot, goddamn. Zipping up to the ceiling and smacking his claws and palms on it, sending out a powerful wave of pure cold to force the ceiling to start snowing, which of course turns into very hot burning rain by the time it gets down to ground level. The party starts screaming and ducking for cover, that was surprisingly more effective than he expected and he absolutely had not intended to basically rain down boiling demonic water on them. Oops. He figured the snow would melt but not to the point of becoming boiling hot! How much energy was his core expending just to keep him fucking cool in this goddamn hellscape?!?

Danny skittering his way across the ceiling and in-between a gap between a stalactite and the dungeon ceiling, shouting a quick, “not trying to boil ya! Sorry!”. As he goes. Maybe they’ll be too busy hiding to realise where he’s tucked himself away. That would be nice, real nice.

“What kind of demon says sorry!”.

Don’t quip back, don’t quip back, don’t quip back. He’s trying to hide and quiping will fuck that up… “MY SORRY DEMONIC ASS!”, ah goddamn it, why does he do this to himself? Unsurprisingly the stalactite his hiding above gets fucking shot at by a holy bullet. That’s… that’s not great. Those sucked to get hit by and he’d one hundred percent need to be resurrected again if that shit hits his core enough times. But hey! Maybe that would un-demon him! Stupid plan, but hey! At least it is a plan! Plus that did not work when he accidentally fell into a pit of pure holy water. That had been the worst.

The stalactite gets shot at again, this time piercing through it and skimming his shoulder; him making his lip bleed by biting down to avoid yelping. Still hissing out a, “bloody hell”, though, because he could never just shut the fuck up could he? Also, he is officially panting, because it is too fucking hot here and his breath is making a bunch of mist aka giving away his spot more than his stupid quip did. Fuck him entirely.

He’s got three options:

One: start killing adventures like a proper full demon.

Two: overheat and pass out, possibly falling into hard ground or a pool of lava only to be descended upon by adventurers who would definitely hit unconscious him with a holy attack.

Three: leave his hiding spot and start looking for cooler areas while avoiding getting hit or doing any major hitting.

Four: use a hearth stone to teleport out of the dungeon, seems like the obvious choice right? Except when Danny’s half demon ass did that he wound up in Hell every time and Sam and Tuck would have to go through the hassle of getting him back out of there. That crap always resulted in them having to track down yet another ice dungeon and use forbidden demon summoning magic. Meanwhile he’d go throwing hands with demons for however long it took his friends to get him. Not ideal.

Then it turns out that there’s actually a fifth option, a wall blowing up and sending his bullet hole riddled stalactite crashing down towards the ground and exploding in hot semi solid magma. OW! Danny sputtering and shaking himself off aggressively, “oh fuck! Bloody hell! Me damn fuck it! Stupid fucking lava dungeon! Stupid fucking adventurers! Where’s my teammates when I me damn need them!”.

“Shit since when do goddamn demons team up! We need to hurry this up!”.

Then there’s a very loud thump, Danny squinting his fucking burning eyes up at the noise, fuck yeah! It’s Tuck! Nice! The guy’s landed directly on top of the orange haired mage, pointing his fricken lightning cross bow right in her face. The Salient guy getting hurled into a wall by vines seconds later, and a few more seconds and said vines are on fire and brunt to a crisp.

The big hat mage jumping back from the newbies assaulting her group, “great, how many different kinds of demonic vermin does this dungeon have!”, her creating an explosion with electricity to make something of a smoke screen for her to grab Salient out of the hole in the wall the guy made.

But! BUT! That puts their backs to Danny, and Danny might object to killing people but he did not object to bruising them up some. Meaning he launches himself at them, grabbing the back of both of their necks, and slams them into the ground; using his tail to tie their ankles all together. He also grabs the hat mages hat with his teeth and eats the fucking thing as a probably insane looking show of superiority.

Tuck, not looking at Danny and still staring violently down at orange hair mage, “you good, Danny-man?”.

Danny growling, “I’m annoyed, burnt, and vaguely considered making y'all haul me outta hell again for dragging me to this shit ass place”.

Sam walking calmly through the destroyed wall and into where they all are, “honestly I hate this place too. My plant magic is completely useless and I wrecked my helm”.

Danny snorting, “ha! Serves you right!”, he gets elbowed in the chin by Salient for being distracted. But well, an elbow, even armoured, isn’t gonna do much to Danny, so he just growls down at the man while said elbow is being pressed up into his chin.

Tuck snorts at the scene, “I’d stop that, Danny’s an obsidian rank combat warrior”. The mage beneath him scowling, “that is a demon spawn or are you fucking blind?”.

Danny takes offence to that, demon wise he was on par with a demon lord! Not a freaking basic hell spawn! “Excuse you!”. But Tuck laughs at Danny’s expense, “that’s what you get for never fighting back, moron”. Danny sticks his tongue out at the guy.

Sam shaking her head as she walks over to Danny, “seriously, if they attacked you first who cares if you hurt them”, grabbing the unconscious ex-hat mage out from Danny’s grasp, shit he hadn’t actually realized he’d knocked her out. Whoops. Sam pointing a finger at Salient, whose elbow is still pressed into Danny’s chin, “you wouldn’t be holding your own for shit if Danny took you seriously”.

“Pfft, I could take him”.

The orange hair mage snapping, “are you serious right now?! You are literally being pinned down you idiot!”.

Danny nodding, “glad we’re on the same page on that”; rolling his shoulders as he can feel some of the burning healing itself, he’d be healing a hell of a lot faster if he wasn’t in this damn hot lava dungeon though.

Tuck rolling his eyes before staring down at the orange hair mage, “look. Danny’s an adventure, he literally has a license on him right now. The only reason he’s in this dungeon is ‘cause we heard there was some bomb ass equipment in here, same as you guys probably”.

Sam laughing a bit meanly as she gives the ex-gay mage a healing potion since Danny probably gave her a concussion, “Danny’s not a ‘hell spawn’ he’s a fucked up resurrection spell gone wrong”.

Salient snorting, “prove it! And how the Hell did that happen?”. Danny snickers, “hell happened”; Tuck moving his crossbow out of orange hair mages face specifically to shoot Danny with it.

“Ow! You jerk!”.

Unfortunately orange hair takes that opportunity to blast Tuck nearly point blank in the stomach with a holy blast, sending him smashing up into the ceiling. Oh Hell fucking no, attacking Danny was one thing, he was a demon-looking mother fucker and could take hits like a champ; attacking his friends was a whole ass nother matter. At least Sam catches Tuck with some vines as he starts falling down from the ceiling and Tuck wasn’t knocked out by the attack.

Still though. Danny is none too impressed. And he refuses to tolerate a repeat of that, so just as the orange haired friend hurting asshat gets herself up off of the ground Danny lets himself loose more than a little bit. Limbs extending, spines pulling up out of his upper back and shoulders, second set of kudu horns extending out, ribs cracking and expanding through and over his torso skin to settle into a bigger form, that stupid gharial crocodile skull boiling and forming out of and off of his head; him all but shoving orange hair back into the ground and pinning her there with a single hand. Slamming the other hand down near her face, using a foot to keep the Salient guy pinned. Danny snarling, snout opening right over the mages face, “shoot at me all you want but you don’t get to hurt what’s mine”.

Tuck’s shaking off all that holy power, grumbling about stupid trigger happy adventurers as if he wasn’t one himself and stomps over to fucking shoot orange hair in the face with some sand; her unable to do anything about it because of Danny.

Salient muttering, “holy fucking shit, goddamn”. While Sam stops over to him, Sam smacking Danny’s ankle, “give over your license, you demonic horror”. Danny huffing out an icy breath in orange hairs face, moving his tail to use the many little quill hair spines on it to grab out his license from his torso inside his ribs, slipping it into her hands, “thank you”, she shoves the license in the probable warriors face, “see? Adventurer. You really think Clementine would approve him without goddamn checking him and his bullshit out?”.

He grunts from under Danny’s foot, “fair ‘nough. You tryin’ to crush me here?”.

Danny huffing another icy breath, “maybe”. Sam smacks his ankle again so Danny, with a shrug, lifts up his foot and lets the guy up. Danny thinks some mild crushing is totally deserved in this case, even if that was maybe influenced by these guys hurting his friends and making him feel all possessive and shit. Demon crap could be so annoying; being in this hot ass place only making it more annoying.

Salient rolls over and sits up, rolling his shoulders, “ow yeah, definitely not a spawn, damn”, eyeing himself over, “aw man, you cracked my shoulder pad. License doesn’t look fake though so”, looking up at Danny, “bad ass ability though”.

Danny tilts his skull head at the guy before looking back down to orange hair, “you gonna keep trying to annihilate me?”.

“You’re a demon”.

“And?”, lifting the hand that isn’t pinning her and waving it around dismissively, “it’s only a by half thing anyway”.

Tuck chuckling down at her, “need I point out that Danny could absolutely just crush you right now? Yeah, okay, so he’s sorta a demon, and sorta dead and not dead, but he’s not confined to a dungeon or Hell and he’s an adventurer. adventurers run into weird shit all the time, it’s not his fault he is the weird shit”. The girl glares but sighs, clearly giving up, so Danny basically forces himself to compact, puffing icy steam everywhere. Tuck grinning, “so dramatic”.

Danny pointing a normal standard human length clawed finger in the guys face, “hey, if there’s one thing I do well, besides confusing people and myself, it is dramatics”; if he was gonna be stuck as some weird dead but not dead, from the afterlife Hell but not from Hell, then he can be an overdramatic asshole about it.

Orange hair gets up immediately and moves over to the still unconscious ex-hat mage, muttering, “good, they didn’t poison her or anything. Damn demon worshipers”. Oh for fucks sake, was it really that hard to understand that he was a good guy and just a weird but typical adventurer? Ugh. Plus! He’s definitely a higher rank than her, so rude.

Salient standing up and shaking himself off, shouting at his teammate, “Lily good?”; nice, Danny’s got another name.

Orange hair sighs, “yeah. They didn’t do anything to her besides knock her out”. Oh everyone’s a critic.

Danny rolling his eyes and huffing, “you say that like you guys weren’t trying to fucking destroy me. Again, you gonna keep doing that shit? ‘Cause I’m positive all three of us outrank you guys, we just don’t exactly want to start having to fucking kill people just because people keep thinking I’m a me damned dungeon monster”.

Sam shaking her head and moving to be over by Tuck and Danny, “at least they didn’t think you were the dungeon boss this time”.

“Oh Hell that had been such a pain”.

Salient chuckles and looks at him, “you make a lot of ‘Hell’ comments and shit”.

Danny shrugging with a smirk, “hey if I’ve gotta be slightly, vaguely, hell bound then I might as well take the piss outta it”.

Orange hair glaring at Salient, “seriously? You’re making friendly with it now?”.

Danny pouts, “hey, rude much”. While Sam and Tuck laugh at him meanly.

Salient shoves her, “chill, aren’t adventurers supposed to at least try to get along. At least he’s not another psycho paladin who's just using his god as an excuse to commit way too much murder”.

Danny’s entire little party nodding, “yeah fuck paladins”. Earning them a scowl from orange hair, “we all know why you demon-lovers wouldn’t like paladins”.

Then Lily groans a little, sitting up and holding her head, “well at least I’m alive”.

Danny snorting, “yeah I have a thing against committing murder”.

“That is the strangest thing I’ve ever heard a demon say”.

Danny pouts at her. He gets that demons have a terrible rap, an earned terrible rap, but cut a guy some slack will ya? It would be so nice if he could shapeshift to look fully human, he bets that in some other universe he definitely could and he is jealous of that version of him. Stupid fucker probably got all the super sneaky useful abilities. Like being able to turn invisible or something, that would have been so useful today. Ugh.

Lily looking to her party members, “so care to explain what’s going on here?”.

“Demon dude is a legit adventurer, licensed and everything”.

Orange hair just grumbles incomprehensibly.

Sam crossing her arms at the three, “I’m Sam, platinum rank herbalist and green mage. The one with the crossbow is Tucker, silver rank earth mage and gear smith. And the half demon, that you are to stop attacking, is Danny, obsidian rank combat warrior as already mentioned; he’s also a weapons smith and death magic apprentice. Yes he’s a resurrection spell gone wrong, he did it to himself somehow, but people screw up spells all the time so whatever”.

Danny shrugging, “I mean, typically they don’t screw up so impressively they fuck up half their genetic species but yeah”; Sam swats him one, expertly avoiding the horns.

Salient snorts, “you’re a death magic apprentice and you made your self half dead? WOW you suck”.

“Hey!”, Danny puts a hand to his chest, “technically it’s useful, this way I can actually go to one of the death planes now without slowly dying”.

Lily shakes her head disbelievingly, “ridiculous and inane”, gesturing at herself, “Lily, steel rank lightning high mage”, gesturing at Salient, “Salient, silver rank knight”, gesturing at orange hair, “Gemine, iron rank white mage and apprentice priestess”. Tilting her head, “why is an obsidian with a platinum and a silver? He’s three and four ranks above you two respectively?”.

Danny waves her off immediately, “eh, I was gold before the demon shit fucked my shit up. And I am the leader so it’s not that odd”. Sam nodding, “if anything it’s weirder that an iron is travelling with a silver”.

Gemine scowling, muttering to herself, “of course the demon is the leader, disgusting”. Lily cuffs her over the head, making the girl pout. Lily nodding, “demons are more powerful than the living so I suppose that is logical, and a lower rank priestess will best any higher rank warrior”, glancing around, “where’s my hat?”.

Sam and Tuck stare at Danny judgingly, him rubbing his neck, “I ate it?”; it was a heat of the moment thing okay! He makes really dumb decision when he’s put on the spot!

Salient nodding with a smirk, “yeah, it was pretty weird”.

Danny pouting, “I’m not paying you back for it”, twitching, “and can we get the fuck out of this hot ass place already?”, looking at Sam and Tuck, “if you found nothing good I’m gonna be so annoyed”. Sam rolling her eyes and digging in her bag, pulling out a little unassigned demon core. Yum! Him brightening up immediately, “oh nice! This was so worth getting shot by holy bullets!”.

“Danny!”.

“Dude what!”.

Danny grabbing the core and biting into it, much to the disgust of his unwitting onlookers, “eh it was just a shoulder nick and I am literally covered in lava and holy light burns so that’s kinda not what I’m focused on”. Basically dumping the demonic energy down his gullet with a happy purr.

Salient pulling a face, “wow that is disgusting, awesome”. Lily sighs tiredly before gesturing at Danny’s party, “so are we good to just go our separate ways?”. Danny’s down for that, his burns were healing much better now even if he was still hot as hell.

Sam crossing her arms, “depends on if you’re going to keep harassing Danny”; Danny’s just content to lick his chops in demonic satisfaction. Gemine pouting, “I won’t be able to vanquish him so fine, I won’t”.

Danny giving her a thumbs up, “that’s the spirit, now let’s get the hell outta this furnace before my core decides I deserve to over heat”. Sam and Tuck roll their eyes at him and laugh, Tuck patting his shoulder as they all turn to wander off to the exit. The other party of adventurers awkwardly heading deeper into the dungeon.

Danny stretching a little, going all demon always made him feel like his bones were all fucked up and needed a stretching, “so find anything else?”.

“Lightning bolt in a bottle”.

“Bone dagger. Lots of bone daggers”.

“Oh and a whole ass dragon hide, it’s in the dimensional pocket”.

“We did put all the random gem stones in there too right”.

“Uh…”.

“Damn it, Tucker”.

Danny laughs to himself, shaking his head. This day was some bullshit but at least they didn’t leave empty handed, and wasn’t finding treasure and getting to throw fist-a-cuffs the whole point of being an adventurer? Even if he’d rather be beating up dungeon monsters than constantly having to duke it out with other adventurers.

---

Of course they don’t even make it a full day before running into the very same party. At least this time they’re at the adventurers guild so there’s no way he’s gonna get attacked again.

Gemine blinking at Danny, “so you actually can leave the dungeon”.

Danny rolling his eyes, “yeah it’s almost like I was telling the truth or something”. Hell, he seldom lied about shit, people just thought it was all too ridiculous to be true.

Lily looks to the desk lady, quirking an eyebrow then gesturing at the demon in the room. Juhe blinking and smiling, understanding quickly, “yes the demon is welcome here, yes he’s an adventurer, no you’re not allowed to vanquish him, and no he’s not mind controlling anyone”.

Salient chuckles, putting a hand on his hip, “wow it sounds like this happens a lot”. Tuck shaking his head, “you have no idea”; before Sam goes up to make their report to the guild master. Technically Danny’s supposed to do that, being the leader and all, but head office had a barrier around it and they refused to take it down just for Danny’s sorry ass, meaning compromises were made.

Danny nodding at the guy, “anytime we go into a dungeon and run into a party that hasn’t met me before, it turns into a fight”, rubbing his neck, “which has earned me the title of adventurers bane since I keep basically having to beat down adventurers until they give up”.

Juhe nodding, “and he helps out the enforcers sometimes, since he can be quite the intimidating presence”.

“Boo, having a demonic aura isn’t my fault, and if just a simple demonic aura is enough to scare someone they probably shouldn’t be an adventurer”.

“You forget most adventurers do gathering quests and less dangerous dungeons”.

“Pah!”.

“You also forget that your demonic aura is that of a demon lord not a simple spawn or lesser demon”.

Danny’s only response to that is a pout.

Lily had been about to go up and make her own report, one foot stopping in midair, “that one is… a demon lord?”, and looks very concerned at Danny. While Salient grins to himself, “sweet, I got to fight a demon lord. Man that’s cool”.

Danny blinks, shrugging, “I was a wee bit miffed about suddenly being very literally in hell one time, not the time I fucked my resurrection up, and went demon killing happy. Two might have been demon lords and one was definitely a death god”.

All three look at him in shock, horror, or looking just plan impressed in Salient’s case. Lily shaking her head, “alright, you very well could have annihilated us”.

Johe glancing at some paperwork, “you three are silver, steel, and iron? Yes, you would not have stood a chance if taken seriously by him. He’s officially listed as obsidian, but he’s closer to iridium, which still stands as our highest class”.

Danny blushing, “aw shucks”.

“Don’t you ‘aw shucks’ me, if you’re that flattered then stop leaving your tail quills in the lobby wall”.

“Hey! It has a mind of its own”.

“It’s still attached to you, ain’t it?”.

Danny pouts at her, tail twitching near the ground, he’s half tempted to stab the wall with it just to be petty. He did petty very very well after all.

Lily shakes herself before finally going up to give her report; Danny absolutely hearing Sam whisper a threat at her, “Danny’s a lot nicer than the rest of us, don’t pull that shit with him again or else I won’t hesitate using a mind vine to make you break your party members”, as they pass in the stairway. He makes a point to roll his eyes disappointedly at her when she makes it down fully.

His friends were great but so over protective and possessive of him, it was nice but also a pain. She rolls her eyes right back at him as the three of them head out, waving bye to Salient and Gamine as more of a form of pleasantries than genuine fond fair-wells or whatever. They ain’t friends and weren’t gonna suddenly become them, something Danny was frankly fully uninterested in. He had his Sam and Tuck and was definitely not interested in sharing them.

End.

Prompts: Fantasy/rpg setting. Danny died, but the resurrection spell went wrong, and now he’s trapped as something not quite dead but not fully alive either. Not that he’d ever let that stop him from becoming an adventurer, even if he does get mistaken as a resident dungeon monster by other adventuring parties every now and then… Demon!au

#danny phantom #phandom #phic phight #danny fenton #tucker foley #sam manson #my writing #have a fic suck my dick #phantomphangphucker #phicphight24 #phic phight 24 #gothmoth #demon!au #rpg!au #fantasy!au #op danny #bamf danny

[rosewaterandivy]

Nature Offers A Violence

summary: Two births, one in a blaze of heat, the other in a glaze of ice followed by the death of the Chieftain's wife: a prophecy feared and foretold. He will be crowned in a glint of gold, and she in bone as pure as snow. Fate will draw them together and none shall tear them asunder.

pairing: s.h. x fem!reader

warnings: fairy/folk tale dynamics, royalty au, viking au, red string of fate, invented pagan practices, apocryphal historical know-how, period typical violence/murder and social dynamics

a/n: i’ m insufferable, i know.

Table of Contents:

(*) denotes NSFW 18+ MDNI content

prologue

I. Of Antlers and Ash

II. Of Elm and Earth*

III. Of Swords and Steel

IV. Of Winds and Wolves*

Links:

glossary

moodboard 1

moodboard 2

playlist

pinterest

inspo tag

#steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington fanfiction #steve harrington smut #viking!au #fic: noav #noav masterlist #royalty!au #fantasy!au

[haisaree]

Another doodle

Alan and the Second Coming are the best father and son couple in AvA. Change my mind.

Alan: Don't talk to me or my son ever again!

#animator vs animation #alan becker #ava the second coming #fantasy!au

[greendreamer]

What he lost

#this is TUGS #bigg city port #tugs lillie #lillie lightship #OC: Lucinda #tugs ten cents #fantasy!AU #my art #this is Hercules' locket btw #it's the only thing he has left from his days in Bigg City

[packofstereks]

Stiles and Derek as modern wizards

#stiles stilinski #derek hale #sterek #fantasy!au #fic prompt

[sboochi]

They say three is the perfect number, so...

Dwarf barbarian Merida

Elf monk Jack

Aasimar paladin Rapunzel

Elf-orc ranger Hiccup

(I'm just a casual fan of the dnd aesthetic so there might be inaccuracies, I apologize in advance to dnd experts 👉👈)

#the big four #rise of the brave tangled dragons #rotbtd #httyd #rotg #tangled #brave #Hiccup Haddock #Jack Frost #Rapunzel #Merida #my art #fantasy!au #I can not be stopped HELP #is drawing the same concept three times considered boring? perhaps i have issues #Merida has a beard because we are not cowards #also i can't understand for the life of me what is the correct grammatical order between class-race in english pls enlighten me

[vellichor-of-the-solivagant]

What do you guys think of kinda Fantasy Historical!AU Ghost X F!Reader???

It's been in my head for some time now after rewatching 3 pride and prejudice movies and reading historical romance LIKE COME ON

edit: Apparently, I'm talking about Period Drama and freaking forgot the word

#call of duty #simon ghost riley #cod 141 #141 x reader #cod mw2 #ghost x reader #ghost smut #cod smut #ghost simon riley #simon riley #simon riley x you #simon riley x reader #ghost x y/n #ghost x you #Historical!AU #fantasy!au

[devilatelier]

so,,,, fantasy au:

sesshomaru is an exiled elven prince and sole (legitimate) heir to a fallen kingdom. he is now searching for an old legendary blade which he claims is his birthright.

naraku is a bastard (in more ways than one), was raised from street urchin, to bandit, to criminal. upon capture he was given the option of execution or service, so he chose service. now he serves sesshomaru as his (left) right hand. quite literally at times

#i posted this as a sketch earlier #naraku is going to betray sesshomaru 100% #and wants to become a god or something #my art #fantasy!au #sessnara #tbh i just wanted to design some armor for them

[cuckoo-on-a-string]

Promises Six: The Patron

Dark!Morpheus x (female)reader, fantasy/medieval AU, 18+

Master List

Chapter warnings: language, violence, (temporary) character death A/N: You're all fucking fabulous. 💖Aiming for another update next week. Wish me luck.

Only two thrones waited in the main tent. The king’s servants rushed to move a third chair to a place of honor beside them, layering it in swaths of silk and velvet designed to hang over the canvas walls, like they could veil the differences in quality and size with a few curtains.

They needn’t have bothered.

Lord Morpheus refused to sit as his sibling lounged on their impromptu throne with the grace of a cat and a shark’s smile. Familial enmity crackled around the two like a storm, and Desire basked in the attention. The King of Meiren hovered, clearly aching to take his seat, but anxious should he disrespect the guest who would not.

Quite a tableau. If only the bard could paint.

She saw her patrons settled before she went to study the drama unfolding around the two Endless and the king who would dare consider himself an equal. Even the most delusional suitors kept their distance now. Alluring as Desire may be, they did not hem in the waves of power as their siblings did. The bard recognized the overwhelming presence of an Endless even when they tried to shutter the worst of the tidal crush when walking among mortals. She’d felt it with Death. She felt it with Dream. But Desire didn’t even pretend to care for the humans’ comfort.

Every scent was sweeter in their presence, every whisper of taste carried on the smoke of the outdoor cooking fires a draw to addiction. The company looked finer. Everyone murmured about the heat and struggled to meet each others’ gaze as they shifted in their tight clothes, fanning away glittering drops of sweat that drew the eye down, and down, and down to the curious places hidden from view by cloth and lace.

Plenty of mistakes would be made that evening. More than the usual wild carousing inspired by fantasies of bloodlust in the woods. She’d already advised her friends and supporters to avoid as much of the spectacle as possible. To keep a hair pin in their pocket to prick themselves and their loved ones back to good sense if needed. She pointed out the horse troughs and water buckets, and reasoned the king couldn’t complain if a few members of his court felt poorly and left before dark after such a long day.

She couldn’t follow them back, of course. Her curiosity forbid it, and she wanted to be near if a spark caught that might ignite the entire kingdom.

Desire made no effort to hide their conversation from the fragmented assembly. Most were too busy wrestling with their influence to take notice, but the bard knew Desire’s family, and – what was far more important – she knew herself and her desires too well to be so easily swayed.

“I heard you’d been offered a bride, and I simply couldn’t help myself.” Desire treated the seat more as a kind of low couch, spreading over the arms in a pose to draw the eye to their long limbs and fiery eyes. Their red lips looked bloodstained as they grinned. “And a mortal at that. What could have possessed you?”

The king stuttered to join in the conversation, his eyes so dilated even the bard could see the dark hollows swallowing his mind. “I-I offered, your… grace? A bargain for the King of Dream’s aid some years ago. He has not chosen, but there are still many days…”

“Hmmm.” Desire dismissed him effortlessly, not even bestowing a wave. Their eyes never turned to his face, and the king finally slumped into his seat, unseen and unheard by his betters. The bard had never seen him so cowed, and gods knew she’d put in the work.

“An offer only.” The Dream King’s hands flexed into fists. Although the bard had thought he couldn’t grow any paler, his knuckles looked deathly white against his pallid skin. “I have accepted no one, and no one in this host has so inspired my attention or affection.”

Somehow, Desire’s smile grew wider, and as they let their head fall back over the arm of their throne, they chuckled through their teeth. “I wonder, big brother. Really, I do. Ah, well.” They straightened, spinning with unnatural fluidity to properly face their kin. “At least I didn’t miss the hunt.”

The close air within the tent fostered the unnatural heat. It stuck to the roof of the bard’s mouth, and she licked her teeth to scrape it off her tongue. The warmth ached where it dripped into her chest, clenched and hungry for every good and wicked thing she could not or should not possess. Her dead mother’s hand to hold. A good cup of tea in a quiet place beside a trusted friend. Wind in her hair, songs in her throat, and someone –

She left the tent.

Out of sight, the waves of Desire’s power didn’t strike with such force, and the bard walked with her hands on her hips, taking deep breaths of fresh air to clear the scent of longing.

A breeze cut through the clearing where the king’s court set camp, and she imagined it cleaned the stench of foiled passions as it combed through her hair, that it brushed aside the bitter shards of unshaped dreams from her mind.

Sometimes she forgot how much harder intrigue and politics were to wash off than dust from the road. It worked into crevices and scars, surprising her with old filth every time she thought herself free of it.

Her time with the Endless would stain her, surely.

Her mother’s acquaintance with Death left more than a mere mark. If she wasn’t so proud of her own legacy and legend, she’d say it defined her. If she had any sense, she would’ve stayed with the dragon and sung him pretty songs until the Endless had fucked off back to the realm he governed. When Desire appeared, she should’ve turned her mare around, packed up her things at the castle, and left a note of apology. But she hadn’t. Couldn’t, honestly. She wanted to know. She wanted to see. She wanted to witness history – or add a few lines of her own.

Really, what was the worst that could happen? She had manners and a frustrating inability to die, so the chances of lasting consequences for her recklessness were slim.

Gradually, her hands slipped off her hips, and she felt she could breathe easily again. The world wore familiar shades, and no one’s power but her own threaded through her blood. Half finished stories and snarls of old songs half forgotten filled her head. The air tasted of dirt and smelled of sweat. All good and human things.

Strolling through the camp, she found an old fortune reader laying out her tools on a red blanket. The woman chose her spot well, a patch of shade that would only grow as the sun set, just beside the smaller tents where the noble families rested.

The bard nodded in passing, but a wizened hand seized her wrist, bringing her up short. Stumbling to a halt, she blinked down, bemused, but only a little surprised. The woman didn’t have many other customers passing at this hour, when most were resting or preparing for the hunt, and plenty of folk stopped the bard in the street.

All her cards, bones, and runes sat in tidy piles and dishes, untouched, but the reader glowered at the bard with a fortune on her lips.

“You have already caught your doom’s eye.”

Smiling, twisting her wrist in a vain attempt to thwart the old woman’s grasp, the bard said, “You must be mistaken, mother. I have no doom.”

Ridged nails sank into the bard’s palm as the fortune teller squeezed.

“Just because you are deathless does not make you fateless, girl.”

A presence too much like the ones she’d left in the king’s tent coursed like deep roots through the old woman’s words. They tapped unseen waters and sprouted a gravity beyond the woman’s ken. Her glare cut across realms, and the bard’s hair stood on end.

“You are become an ache that preys on the heart. A yearning made flesh. And your doom will tear you from the world if you continue this way in the Garden of Forking Paths. Heed my warning.”

A shadow cut across the sun, and the bard looked up, expecting a thunderhead. That sort of fortune ought to be followed by forked lightning and rolling thunder. But as the light returned and the shape passed through the sun’s glare, it roared, and the bard cursed, ripping away from the fortune teller even as the old woman released her grip.

“Fucking hells!”

She tore through the camp, running before she thought to move, knocking guards and bemused nobles out of her way as they stared up at the great, winged beast above. A dragon. A dragon had come to the king’s hunt.

And the bard knew just which idiot dragon it was, too.

She recognized his scaled bulk. His petulant, flaming rumble.

The absolute twat.

What did he think he was doing?

Time rushed against her, precious seconds slipping beneath the soles of her boots as she found her horse, fumbled on the bridle, and swung onto her back. By that time, knights and hunters had stirred themselves. The bard cantered between men-at-arms rushing to their mounts and young archers half-armed and eager.

She flew by the entrance to the king’s tent where the two Endless stood observing the chaos like it was so very far below them. Fair enough. But at the moment, the bard couldn’t care less. Kingdoms and fates be damned. Her patron was going to get himself killed. She barely felt their gazes wash over her, burning like molten gold, sharper than diamond stars. After a life of dragon’s fire and executioners’ blades, they did not make her tremble like a sensible mortal.

Out of the camp, into the woods, galloping along the path in the direction the dragon wheeled. A goodly field stood some distance away, and it was the nearest place her patron might land without risking his wings on the treetops. So she rode, aware the crash of arms and hooves behind her was growing.

She hadn’t stopped for a saddle. Her thighs clenched tight around her mare’s heaving ribs, every bit of energy and intent straining forward, trying to yank the distant break in the trees closer with sheer force of will. The woods pressed too dark and thick, and she couldn’t tell if the crush of noise in her head came from her heart or the dragon ahead.

The ride lasted half an age, but she cleared the tunnel of trees at last, and blinded by sun, she heard rather than saw the huntsfolk who’d gathered from where they kept the caged beasts and dogs. A dragon was much better quarry. As the glare faded, she wheeled her mare between the humans and the fiery beast. They stumbled, clutching weapons and glaring as she swung down, facing the thing they’d planned to capture.

Hands raised, seeking to draw his eye, she marched towards the dark gouges in the earth where her patron landed.

“Glistiven!”

He turned from the lancer he’d been snapping at, flaring his nostrils wide to smell as well as see her. The wind carried her scent across the field, and he lowered his head, creeping low to be on her level.

She hissed at the hunters as she passed, “He’ll burn you all if you scratch him. Your lives aren’t worth the coin the king will forget to pay you.”

A few, convinced, moved back into the trees. The rest at least backed away, cautious, ready to see if the beast would incinerate the bard before they pushed their luck.

Glistiven stood taller than an oak, and his wings could shade a whole village. He looked a fine prize with his glittering scales – and the gold trapped between them – but he’d not grown to such a size for his tame love of humanity.

He’d burned the bard to ash three times before his curiosity won over his bad temper.

A month of stories, songs, and negotiations convinced him that it may be easier to let the local villages sell him their sheep. It was easier than dealing with unwanted visits from every bounty hunter and monster slayer in the kingdom. Every year, she carried his order down from the mountain, and the farmers let the chosen sheep run wild into the dragon’s territory.

He ought to be in the mountain now.

“Why are you here?” she demanded, marching through the tall grass and struggling to look dignified. As if she didn’t have enough to worry over. Two Endless, a fool of a king, and families looking to her for protection she was wholly unqualified to promise. Just because she was old didn’t mean she was powerful. “You great, flaming… Why are you here?”

Though still many yards away, his great sigh sent ripples through her clothes. “You have not finished your story.”

Hells above and heavens below. The petulance in his voice. She noted the remaining huntsfolk shift even further away from the corner of her eye, disturbed by the voice like a landslide in a wildfire. Crackling, and rumbling, and doubtless inhuman. A voice they all felt rattle in their bones. It reminded them that though they be hunters, they might yet be hunted. Many of their kind fell to dragons’ appetites. This one may yet have them.

The bard dropped her hands, forcing her way through the swaying weeds. She’d give her patron a piece of her mind and sort out this mess. He ought to fly home, but if he didn’t, she could tell him where to hide, where to sleep away from the hunter’s hooks and the castle’s ballistas.

A sharp twang cut the words she went to speak from the air.

Pain struck. It pierced through and out, scattering thought and breaking breath. A strange weight sat in her flesh, and as her mouth fell open, desperate for air that would not come, her hands rose to find the wound, the hurt, and the thing that made it. An arrow tip sliced her fingers. A bolt from some great weapon meant to take down boar and the scaled wyverns that sometimes came this far north.

It had taken her heart out of her body. She could feel it with her bleeding fingertips, fluttering around the wooden shaft, half-pinned by broken ribs.

She fell. To her knees. To the grass. To the waiting arms of Death. Her blood pooled ruby over her hands, her body shuddering and jolting with the determination of a broken clock still trying to tick.

The ground shook with Glistiven’s rage, and the heat of his fire curled over her like a blanket as the last heat of waning life bubbled onto the grass.

Here you are again.

A gentle touch settled over the crown of her head. Cold, but soft. A familiar companion she hated to bother. The bard relaxed into the entity’s hold as she lost all sense and feeling, swaddled in the dark.

What have you gone and done to yourself this time?

#morpheus x reader #dream of the endless x female reader #dream of the endless x reader #dark!dream of the endless #fic: promises #fantasy!au #morpheus x oc