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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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."

Prometheus hesitated for a moment, watching Aza happily clamber up a branch and disappear into one of the many 'trunks' with a flick of his tail. His soul was thoroughly pleased and pulsing with curious joy, so Prometheus reluctantly let him be. He felt kind of weird leaving him alone, some deep, ingrained draconic instinct hissing at him to tuck his child under his wing and keep him there. Hades's overprotectiveness must've rubbed off on him.

"Ah, yes, the second most important room," Prometheus said distractedly, the three of them leaving Aza behind, "I hope you're using 'our' as in, just us two, and not, like, all three of us."

"Hey," Hythlodaeus mock-protested.

"Hyth, I love you and I don't mind the occasional ogling but, sometimes me and Hades wanna, y'know, without an audience..." Prometheus waved a hand dismissively, "I'm sure you can bunk with Aza or something."

"Hey."

Hades just chuckled into his hand at their bickering. Hades never minded Hythlodaeus watching— he always found it kind of hot, for one. And he was always a fan of specifically having an audience. Doing things where no one could see was hardly his style, after all.

“I made Hythlodaeus his own room. And it’s special.” He led them down the hallway a couple doors down. The frame was inscribed with powerful runic magic, and if one bothered to read it, they would find his and Hythlodaeus’ sigils in the decorative scrawl. Hades stepped aside to let Hythlodaeus open the door into.... into a completely empty, white void— save for a floating wooden box, about the size of a music box.

“Go on, touch it. You will find that in this room, you will be able to quite easily utilize your Creation magics.”

"Oh," Hythlodaeus said, quietly stunned.

Slowly, he reached out to grasp the floating wooden box, the runes inscribed on the frame flaring when he did, and he made a small noise when that small flame of Creation inside of him blossomed. He hadn't realised how guttered it had been until now.

"W-Well, um, thank you, Hades. This is thoughtful of you," Hythlodaeus said, clearly trying to keep his glib composure despite the overwhelming feelings inside of him. Unlike Prometheus, who had centuries to adjust to a life of no Creation, Hythlodaeus had been quietly struggling to the adaptation.

Prometheus eyed him, then Hades, and said slowly, "Way to be lazy, Hades. Making Hyth Create his own bedroom when he's such a close family friend."

His aim was achieved. Hythlodaeus smiled a little, "It wouldn't be Hades if he didn't shirk work..."

“Shirking work! How simple do you think Creating this room was? Not very, that’s what! It’s hooked directly into my aether well, which you know that lesser markers are liable to get themselves sucked dry!” Still, he frowned and snapped his fingers, setting up the inside bounds of the room. He set up a couple windows, some flooring, and simple plaster walls.

“Besides! The fun is customization, right?” Hades wasn’t truly offended, he knew when they were joking with him.

Hades sighed, placing his hands on his hips. “I suppose there is one last bedroom for you to see then... there are a few guest rooms in case... I don’t know, Elidibus, wants to come stay for breakfast.”

Though, since the sundering, he had not once seen that man eat.

Prometheus scratched his jaw, puzzled, "I thought we were mad at Elidibus? Why would he come for breakfast?"

"Would you prefer Lahabrea instead?" Hythlodaeus asked dryly.

"...okay, Elidibus can come for breakfast," he muttered, "But he has to make his own food."

Hythlodaeus coughed, then muttered, "The other bedroom...?"

"Oh, yeah!" Prometheus turned to Hades expectantly, eyebrows raised, "Our bedroom, right?"

“It’s funnier if you cook him something subpar and watch him eat it out of politeness.”

“Of course our bedroom. What else would it be?” He could think of some depressing answers, but why pay those any mind right now?

At the end of the hall stood double doors of intricately carved teak inlaid in silver of some kind of pleasing patterns of wind gusts. Up close the carvings were clear as could be: a flock of birds comprised of hundreds of different species, from large to small, winding their way up to the top of the door.

Inside, there was an open-air balcony the length of the room... perfect for a certain someone to sneak off in his dragon scales whenever he so pleased. In a small feat of aether-cycling, the room was still a perfect temperature. The bed was large and close to the ground, framed by curtains hanging midair from floating clasps. Left of the enormous balcony was a reading nook with floor to ceiling shelves. The opposite wall held a door that led to sumptuous baths. They could see it even from here.

The room just exuded luxurious comfort and relaxation. It could blow the pants off any en-suite in xerora. Hades padded slowly across the rug, swiping his hand across the room, materializing panes of glass with it. “Just as easy as that, if you’d like to try.”

Hythlodaeus hung back slightly near the entrance of the bedroom, as Hades and Prometheus entered it, giving them some semblance of privacy (except not really because he was also totally ogling this).

The bedroom was amazing, of course, and Prometheus couldn't hide his approval and satisfaction as he look in the bed, the balcony, and, of course, the large baths. Oh, he hoped it had jacuzzi mode installed. He didn't realise how much he missed his own extravagant bath back in Amaurot until he spent a few centuries in a cave, freezing cold icemelt his only method of getting clean (ugh). Vaguely aware that it had been a while since his last clean, what with egg-warming and all taking up most of his time, he shifted his weight, watching Hades demonstrate another wonder of the room.

"Hm? It'll work for me?" he asked, "I don't have Creation magic, so I thought..."

“It has some built-in responsiveness,” Hades replied. “They should all be fairly intuitive things... and I can always add or remove features as you like.”

Technically Prometheus should be able to use some creation magic since an dragon’s soul was massier than a regular mortal’s soul... creation, did of course, have an enormous amount to do with the belief of the user in their capability to utilize it. Maybe later.

Hades looked at Prometheus as his gaze lingered on the bath. He felt the hot clench in his lower belly as he realized they might have a little proper alone time. Depending on how soon Azeyma would want their attention, that is.

Hades approached, paying not mind to Hythlodaeus as he tilted Prometheus’ chin to kiss him. “Do you like it?”

Prometheus hummed into the kiss, his draconic instinct briefly rearing his head as he bumped his nose against Hades's in an approximation of a nuzzle.

"Yeah, I do," he admitted. The house was lovely, perfect, really, and he couldn't see himself wanting for anything. They could live a lavish lifestyle in isolation, marred only by Lahabrea and Elidibus coming to visit to... probably disapprove of them playing house, or whatever. He still felt a niggle, a something like 'we're procrastinating from the issues' but... well, fuck it. They can procrastinate for a bit longer. Until Aza was an adult, maybe...

"I'll like it even better," he murmured, kissing Hades gently, worrying his bottom lip briefly, "If we take that bath for a test run. Has it got a jacuzzi mode?"

Hades blinked at him for a moment before he understood the nuzzle. His cheeks warmed as Prometheus bit his lip. Hades kissed back, his hands slowly entering Prometheus’ back pockets to scoop him closer.

“Of course,” he said. “What use is a bath you can’t properly fall asleep in?” The truth of it didn’t matter. But it was a good thing Hades was an ascian or he would have certainly drowned in the tub by now.

It was one of the facts of his borrowed man. He had died of old age, yet while soaking. The water had been a bit warm for him as he tried to soak his weary bones and his body had suffered a heart attack as he slept in the tub. He would definitely hold that fun little fact close to his chest. He didn’t think Prometheus was ready to laugh at it.

Maybe Hythlodaeus.

“Are you going to just stand and watch, Hythlodaeus?” It was as much an admonishment as it was an invitation.

If Hades told him that story there and then, the mood definitely would've been ruined by Prometheus descending into an uncontrollable laughing fit. Of all the ways for Hades to die, falling asleep in the bath and having a heart attack was the most ridiculous and mundane. Also disturbing, because the thought of actually dying of old age... well, yes, Prometheus really wasn't ready to laugh at that yet.

Prometheus settled his arms over Hades's shoulders, humming low in his throat as he glanced over to where Hythlodaeus was leaning against the door frame, openly staring at them.

"Oh, well, far be it for me to intrude on such a romantic scene," Hythlodaeus sighed gustily, straightening up, "And I have something I should be doing..."

"Yeah, like, making sure your room has a bed?" Prometheus said, as pointedly as a knife to the ribs.

Hythlodaeus flapped a hand, "I've gotten the hint, Prom! I'll leave you two..." he stepped back, grabbing the door hand as he did, drawing out the next word suggestively, "Alone~"

"Check up on Aza for me!" Prometheus yelled just before the door shut. He got no answer, but he assumed Hythlodaeus would wander over to babysit the kid beforelong.

Hades recaptured Aza’s lips, standing up straight for once to drag Prometheus up into his arms by his ass, coaxing him to wrap his legs around his waist. His Garlean body was really very sturdy in spite of what he had and hadn’t done with its maintenance. He was certainly more muscular than in his days of Amaurot.

He walked them into the bathroom, setting him down on the edge of the gargantuan tub. Hades pulled a lever, and the large tub began rapidly filling from what looked like a waterfall built out of the wall. The water was wonderfully hot and smelled like milk, honey, and bergamot. He began to undress. His once immaculate skin was now riddled with scars. Had Prometheus even seen them with his regular eyes? That was the shame of spending so much time in war, he supposed. Life had been cruel for Solus zos Galvus,

“You look different too, don’t you?”

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