museboxofmuses | DRAGON AU

DRAGON AU

Prometheus hibernated a lot.

There wasn't much else to do, as a hermit-dragon. He couldn't venture out into the world in case some intrepid 'adventurer' wanted to slay him for bragging rights or his hide, he couldn't mingle with other dragons because he was one of Nidhogg's brood (a fact which was why he couldn't socialise with any Ishgardians because spears inevitably got involved in those conversations, he knew, he still had the scar on his hindquarters from his last naive attempt), and he knew absolutely no one else, knew nothing about the world or its new continents or civilisations, so hibernating it was.

But even then, sleeping got dull.

Prometheus sighed deeply, drawing his wings tighter about himself. Perhaps it was because he spent so much time sleeping, but his draconic body evolved to have furred wings - which was nice, it was very warm, even if they did shed some strange, fluffy black motes from time to time (he soon learned that these motes were highly toxic to mortals, probably from his subconscious desire to be left alone slipping into this body's maturing evolution). The downy undercoat of his wings was shed often and thickly enough that he even had a little nest, in a cave warmed by geothermic means, in the high mountains of Coethas. It was cosy, safe, and isolated.

It was also boring and devoid of anything. Prometheus came here... fuck, centuries? Or millennia? He couldn't remember. A long while, just after the war between Ishgard and the dragons kicked off in earnest. He flew here as a dragonnet, and slept and slept and slept, with miserable waking moments in between where he went to stretch his wings, eat a bear or something, and crawled back in his warm, soft cave to sleep some more.

He was avoiding reality, he knew. He didn't understand why he woke up in the form of a dragon - an alien species, not native to their star, how the hell did the reincarnation cycle mess up that badly!? - what happened to Amaurot, why the geography was completely different and... where Hades and Hythlodaeus were. He remembered, in the early days of his life, he would cry out through the Lifestream to hear nothing back, and was slowly accepting that, maybe, it was just him. Alone.

No Hades. No Hythlodaeus. Just him and his cave.

He exhaled heavily, flexing his claws as his body sluggishly roused from its latest bout of hibernation. His stomach was an empty pit of starvation, so he had to eat something calorie dense before dozing back off again. The only thing was, it took ages for his body to fully 'wake up'. Spending centuries practically in a coma made his limbs lock up, and it took a while for the aether flowing through his body to regain strength and feeling in them again. Not that he was in any rush...

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“The man they knew me as has already died,” Hades replied. “I spent eighty-eight years as a mortal before the body fell apart entirely. I had a poor relationship with my grandson. It’s no reason, but my son’s death... I withdrew. I knew he would die, too, sooner or later.” Hades leaned forward to bury his face in Aza’s fur.

“So, abandoning after a fashion, but I doubt they miss me. They are probably angry about the not-naming-an-heir thing, though. ... But I think I did give my grandson a complex. There’s this whole business with some clones...”

Prometheus stared at him.

"Hades... what the fuck," he blurted, "Should I even trust you to be alone with Aza at this rate?"

He meant it jokingly but, kind of not jokingly too. Geeze! Did Hades decide to design a family after a Xeroran soap opera? He did remember the last season of 'Our Father Is a Homunculus' having a clone plotline of some sort...

Hades lifted his head and stared back. He had said too much. He had grown too careless in his euphoria. His soul bloomed with anxious, angry panic— and then shut off entirely. He had forgotten that Prometheus treasured these broken souls.

Hades’ soul leaked out, hot and possessive, guarded as he eyed Prometheus. “It was all for this. Everything I’ve done was for this moment.” Well. Not exactly. But what was Amaurot but the people he loved?

“I would never, never betray you, Aza, or Hythlodaeus.” Unlike you, he didn’t say.

Hythlodaeus cautiously leaned into view when Prometheus drew himself up dangerously, "Um, guys...?"

"I never said you would," Prometheus said tersely, ignoring Hythlodaeus, itching to rip off his necklace. He felt vulnerable sitting in this human skin, without his scales and draconic magic to protect him, which was alarming, because why should he feel physically threatened by Hades? He shouldn't, and yet, when faced with that unpleasantly familiar bubbling of possessiveness and anger from Hades, something in his soul quivered and cowered, a spark of fear, anticipating... something. It was like a snatch of a rubbed out, forgotten memory that left a bruising impression, even if nothing detailed remained.

("You are ill, Prometheus, and He will heal you-")

"But you're not really making your case of being a family man, what with traumatising your human family to complete dysfunction," Prometheus continued, covering up his anxiety with bravado, "I mean, you... they're still your children!"

"Guys," Hythlodaeus tried again, when Aza started to pick up on the tension and anxiety, and sat up a little on Hades's and Prometheus's lap with a soft, distressed noise, "Aza's listening..."

Right. Aza. Aza was a peculiar newborn. He had to be careful about what he said here.

Hades squeezed his eyes shut, taking breaths to calm himself and his aether. After he opened them he drew his hands slowly through Aza’s fur and reconsidered his tone and his words. He had a do-over with Prometheus, a chance of a lifetime. Several lifetimes. Was he really tough to fuck it up being flippant and dramatic?

“We will discuss this later,” Hades said softly. “And I will make any amends that I can.”

Prometheus opened his mouth to push the issue - only to grunt when Hythlodaeus roughly stomped on his toes. He shot the man a glare, but relented when Hythlodaeus firmly shook his head. Right. Fighting in front of the kid would probably give him some kind of dysfunction.

"...fine," he muttered, "Later."

He patted Aza's hindquarters, and after a moment, their child lied back down again, though not without giving them both suspicious looks, like he expected them to start yelling again. Prometheus distracted him by catching his hindpaw, squishing the bright pink toebeans there, tiny claws sliding out from the pressure.

"Aw, look at these cute paws," he crooned, smiling when Aza giggled and squirmed. Ticklish.

Hades gave Aza a small, nervous look before he briefly leveled his gaze at Hythlodaeus . New fatherhood seemed to always make him much stupider. He had to be careful.

“Very cute. I think you gave birth to a cat, somehow,” Hades replied, looking at the aforementioned paw pads and claws. “I know dragons are such aether dense creatures that they change shape naturally and easily, but...”

Hades prodded Aza’s dense soul to check in on him. “But I wonder where this came from.”

"I have no clue. Maybe some forgotten bloodline in Nidhogg's brood...?" Prometheus mused, flexing Aza's rear leg. There was quite a bit of mobility there, and Aza seemed to take to a low walk - he didn't fully stand on his legs, almost crawling on his belly like a stalking cat, and at the moment, Prometheus wasn't sure if that was his natural way of walking, or just because he was a newborn and didn't yet have the strength to walk properly.

As Prometheus did a discreet physical, checking limb function and musculature, Aza squeaked at Hades's prod, looking up at him in surprise. His soul was bubbly and fuzzy, fluctuating and mercurial as any Amaurotine child's would be: very impressionable and swift to adapt, though, perhaps Aza was a little more adaptable than most, thanks to the rapid mutating genetics of his dragon heritage. It wasn't unheard of for dragons to go through several forms throughout their lives. Prometheus, after all, started off as a wyvern and ended up 'growing' his front legs, shifting his wings more to his back.

"He looks nothing like either of us," Prometheus concluded, frowning, "Well, he's bulky for a dragon, like me, I suppose, but..."

“He has my eyes. Your current form has none,” Hades said with a small shrug. “I haven’t decided if it would have been odder if an Amaurotine infant hatched out of that egg.”

Hades could talk and think about agemates later. Wasn’t it good enough to just... enjoy the birth of his first son with Prometheus? Thank goodness that they had Hythlodaeus to keep them at bay.

“Isn’t that right, Azeyma? We had no idea how you might have hatched!” Hades took his head into his hands to gaze into Aza’s eyes. He placed a kiss on the end of his snout and smiled.

Prometheus imagined the absolute hilarity of a baby hatching out of an egg, and sniggered quietly, "Stars, that would've been weird as hell..."

Aza went a little cross-eyed when Hades leant in and kissed his snout, sticking his tongue in a blep as he blinked a few times. Then, deciding he quite liked that, burbled demandingly and pawed at Hades's cheeks, his tail flicking up and smacking against Hythlodaeus's stomach.

"Ow," Hythlodaeus said blandly.

“And then we would still have to figure if it wanted meat or milk...”

Oh no, so cute...

Hades chuckled warmly, taking his paws in hand to administer more snout kisses. The kiss itself was nothing extraordinary, but figured that it might be how brightly his soul glowed whenever he gave his son affection. He paid Hythlodaeus no mind, locked in his world where it was just him and little Azeyma. He kissed each of his little paw pads and pressed his forehead against his snout.

Prometheus and Hythlodaeus watched as Hades pepped Azeyma with soft, little kisses, the dragonnet shamelessly soaking up the affection like a fluffy sponge. At some point, Aza returned the gestures by licking Hades's nose and forehead, squeaking and churring loudly.

"Well, looks like we're just chopped liver," Prometheus commented wryly, "We're pretty much like potted plants now, Hyth."

"A pity," Hythlodaeus said, holding Prometheus's tail so it would stop smacking him in the belly, "We should just elope together then."

Hades rolled his eyes as he hugged Aza, having pulled him more fully into his lap. “Well if either of you want to hatch out of an egg I’ll give you my undivided attention. Though I suppose now is as good of a time as any for us to move somewhere a bit more permanent, hmm?”

Hades glanced at Hythlodaeus. “I dare you to elope. You’ll be giving Prometheus back by the end of the week.” He joked but he wanted neither of them to go anywhere at all. “...Stay awhile. I’ll build us the house that we were never allowed to have in Amaurot.”

"Oh?" Prometheus's lip curled, "Are you going to install that slip 'n slide I've always wanted?"

Hythlodaeus elbowed him for his glib response, "Shush, you. That sounds lovely, Hades. Sleeping with the Buduga was nice, but it would be good to have my own bed again that doesn't have hands glued to my backside."

"Well, I guess it'd be good to have a place with running hot water again," Prometheus, slowly warming up to the idea of a house now that he was in human form. A soft bed, a hot bath, blankets... hm, he's definitely missed rolling up in blankets...

Hades’ grin widened. Yes, yes. Be captured by the creature comforts!

“Should we be concerned for you? They Buduga haven’t been sexually harassing you too much, have they?” He asked genuinely. By now, Azeyma had his neck wrapped around Hades’ shoulders and he was beginning to doze again. Ah, the simplicity of infancy.

“I have been thinking on it for weeks, so... as soon as you want it, we can have it. It can even overlook this very valley!”

"Oh, no, no, nothing like that," Hythlodaeus said airily, dismissing the subject with a wave of his hand, "They're overly affectionate, is all."

Prometheus honestly had no idea if Hythlodaeus was being intentionally oblivious, or if maybe he indulged some of those 'overly affectionate' Buduga. He must've been bored, whenever he left the nest while he and Hades were- busy.

"...you've been wanting a house for a while, huh," Prometheus asked rhetorically, rubbing the back of his neck, "Well, I guess... if we're gonna move into a house, we better do it now, while Aza's a baby and, you know, can get house-trained."

He briefly imagined Aza using a toilet, and nearly snorted, "Might have to make a, er, tailored toilet for him, though."

“Have you gained some proper admirers, then?” Hades asked with raised brows. He made a mental note to interview the offending Buduga.

Hades laughed. “You think that I haven’t thought of every eventuality by now?”

Hades pointed at a far mountain face with only the drama he himself could muster. “Don’t blink, my darlings,” he said in a near whisper as he snapped his fingers.

The mountainside carved itself into the shape of a lavish home of decidedly Amaurotine influence. Non-native trees grew and bloomed in the courtyard, outdoor lamps lit themselves, and a sheen of protective magic momentarily flowed on the surface before receding into invisibility,

“There,” he said, dusting his hands off.

"I bet you just gave someone a heart attack," Prometheus muttered, already imagining several tribes being thrown into disarray at the mountain carving itself into a foreign building without warning. Well, s'long as they didn't come investigating with pitchforks or something...

Hythlodaeus dutifully clapped, "Efficiently done, Hades! It's nice to see you haven't been neglecting your architectural skills over these past millennia."

"Yeah, yeah, it looks lovely on the outside," Prometheus huffed, "But let's see the inside, huh? Now that I've thought about it, I'm dying for a hot bath right now."

Not that they could get very far with pitchforks anyway. Hades would have them worshipping him by the week’s end.

“All I’ve been doing is building things,” he murmured. “Oh? You would call my drains hollow or artificial? A bold insult, but I suppose there is no better rebuttal than to show you what is truly inside. And of course there’s a hot bath. We can all take a bath, and we all rather should.”

Hades snapped his fingers, pulling the four of them to the gates outside the home. It was framed by a grand archway with a lovely garden that fed into a stone patio. There were multiple rock formations that led fountain water into a small fish-filled lake. In the center stood what seemed to be an open air aviary, though the spells cast would indicate that there was more to it.

As they passed through the entryway, there was a blip of magic, but only Azeyma seemed to change. He shifted smaller and Hades grinned at the handiwork of his calculations.

"Oh!" Prometheus startled when he noticed Azeyma shifting size, turning away from admiring the garden to anxiously check over the dragonnet still curled up in Hades's arms. Thankfully, Aza didn't seemed harmed of distressed. Nope, he was too busy trying to eat his hindfoot, blissfully unaware of being shrunk from the size of a small labrador to a large housecat.

"He's... smaller?" Prometheus cocked his head, "Oh, that's clever."

"A nice diffusion of mass, too," Hythlodaeus praised, "Wouldn't want to consider how messy that would have been if it went wrong."

"Erk, please don't talk about magical accidents on our child, Hyth," Prometheus muttered queasily, reaching out to gently tug the foot out of Aza's mouth, "Stop eating yourself, silly."

“I’m well past the time where I would make any magical errors or accidents in my Creation,” Hades said with muted ire.

“He must be teething...” Hades conjured another toy, somewhere between a baby and a dog toy for him to put in his mouth. “Moving along, we have quite a bit of house to look at,” he said with an airy flamboyance.

He walked them through the courtyard, and as they approached the front doors swung open as if expecting them. The floors were wooden, though not overly polished. There were what appeared to be handwoven rugs running along the floor, intricate but just imperfect enough—

There were stairs that led up and stairs that led down, but straight ahead laid a kitchen with floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out at a lake so clean and pure that it might have been made of crystal. It reflected the sky so clearly, the clouds looked ephemeral on the water’s surface.

“All I’ve been doing as I’ve slept is designing this place,” he said a mite proudly.

Edited 2020-01-06 11:29 (UTC)

"Wow," both Prometheus and Hythlodaeus said in unison, boggled at the sight before them.

Though, Prometheus was a little more awed, considering he spent majority of his life in a cave or a deliberately ugly house to deter unwanted visitors. He gravitated towards the kitchen, remembering, vaguely, that he used to enjoy cooking and plying Hades with countless meals (some of them wild experiments that were really inedible, but what Hades ate anyways), inspecting it and finding it to be up to modern Amaurot standards. No cookfires here.

"You've... really gone all out, huh?" Prometheus said as he ambled back, feeling kind of guilty now for kicking up such a big stink before about moving into a house, "I'm guessing you've designed a room for a dragonnet too? Unless you really were banking on a literal baby hatching out of that egg..."

"Only the best," he said, deciding to drop off the for my family part. No need to kick up any dirt here.

"Come see," Hades said with a coy grin, as he gently bounced Azeyma in his arms. He walked them through the kitchen, turning right at the windows to go down a corridor made of arched glass. As the sun was hitting it just right, it left a tasteful kaleidoscope of color on the floor.

He opened the first door on the right, and let it gently fall open to reveal a room that was the interesting combination of a nursery and a playroom more suited for a cat. The crib was a mass of squashy pillows covering a pillowy bed underneath a mobile of the star systems. In the center of it all was a cat tree of sorts, though it reached the ceiling and spread out all around, and it actually looked like a stylized tree.

There were toys, dolls, letter blocks.... The left wall had childrens' books and a small desk with simple creation matrices on it. The center wall was a frame left blank, though as Hades snapped his fingers, their images wrote themselves upon it. The ceiling was domed with the same sort of glass, though all a blue hue in mimicry of the sky.

"What do you think?"

Hades really had been fantasising about this for a long while, Prometheus thought dazedly as he took in the room. It was a perfect blend of nursery and playroom, for a very mobile dragon baby who clearly liked climbing anything vertical that stayed still long enough. His gaze lingered on the books and creation matrices, and Prometheus sincerely hoped that Aza was either capable of Creation magic, or Hades wouldn't take it hard if Aza proved to be incapable of it. Honestly, Prometheus wasn't sure which scenario he preferred...

"It's... perfect," he said dumbly, "I'm kinda jealous, actually. Hades, you're making me jealous of our baby."

"I'm sure if you want your own nursery to play baby in, Hades would indulge you," Hythlodaeus added slyly, laughing when Prometheus elbowed him in the ribs, "It's true!"

Aza, clearly bored with the adults' conversation, and enraptured by the dazzling room, wriggled in Hades's arm, clearly wanting to go and explore.

Hades set him down on a chest height branch, giving in to his wiggling.

"It should be simple enough to shrink you down again.... Though you should fit in your current dragon form. If my calculations are correct, and they always are, you should be about the size of a wolf while on the premises. If you would like your own obstacle course, that would be simple enough. We aren't going to roleplay babies."

Hades watched Azeyma teeteras he was about to make a jump. "Ah, and before you worry about him falling... Though dragonets are very durable--"

Azeyma teeters for a moment, nearly falling as a branch of the play tree automatically moved to catch him in its boughs, setting him back to where he was before. "The tree responds to his soul. If he wants to jump down and feels safe, the tree will let him be."

"Come, there are more rooms to explore," Hades said as he tagged Azeyma's soul, extending himself to stay right near him and watch him. "Namely, our bedroom."

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