KPDH : Ancient Greece AU
Credit to @deathbypony21 for the idea !
I have a confession to make. I saw this drawing, and immediately went:
So. I've been working on it for the past few weeks. This is the tale of Perseus and Medusa, crossed over with Kpop Demon Hunters, and Polytrix as the endgame. What a fucking sentence. Thank you @silviaesnake and @deathbypony21 for lighting my brain on fire. I will be posting the first part of two this week on AO3 and I will link it on my tumblr as well, naturally. Here's my AO3 profile:
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
For now, have a little taste. :)
ꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙꡙ
Tide came in fast, that evening. It carried more debris, wood, rope, cloth, even some pottery. And a low, ominous fog. A portent of things to come, she had the wherewithal to realize. She was contemplating weathering whatever was coming her way in her sanctuary, when she spotted movement where there should have been none.
A woman slid through the water, darkly and quiet. One arm slung over the back of a dolphin, another around the torso of another body.
She had never seen this woman before. She was clearly not mortal, but a Nereid. A daughter of the sea. Patrons and protectors of those who dwell on the water. And probably witness to whatever tragedy had befallen the ships beyond the horizon.
The Nereid wove between the statues carefully, eyes firmly on the water. No, on her reflection, as she neared the outcropping of rock upon which she was resting. The woman pressed a pale hand against the dolphin’s snout, and with a chitter, it swam away, quickly sinking below the surface. Its eyes never found their way to her.
The woman knew of her, then.
“Who approaches?” She asked.
“Zoey, daughter of Nereus and Doris.” The Nereid spoke, voice lilting, musical, playful like a gentle sea breeze. Eyes like dark water reflecting a sunset watched her image in the water carefully. Curiously.
“With what quarry?” She did not believe a daughter of Nereus would approach her willingly. Not with the danger involved. And it was known how deeply her loathing of all under His domain ran.
“This one lives.” Zoey pushed the body into view. A woman, unconscious, not wearing livery, but a simple tunic, winged sandals, a curved black-sheathed sword at her back. The hair, long, braided, and purple, and the play of light beneath her skin told her one immediate problem: this woman had a godly heritage.
“Why bring her to me?” She was not a savior, she was a monster. Every day she carried the broken pieces of stone birds into her temple and mended them with clay and twine. The few animals she kept have had their sight removed, yet they nuzzled into her hand all the same. Her garden flourished, because it could not see the cruelty of the face of the one who tended to it. The island had been pristine when she had found it. Alive. Thriving.
Now it was a mausoleum. Laconic. Lorn. Just as much a reflection of her as the one Zoey studied with such strange intent. It was a miracle she had not yet fled, as those few fortunate enough to be spared a direct look often did.
The Nereid only tilted her head, sea-weed dark hair sliding wetly across her shoulders and throat. “Her quest was to find you.”
“Find me?” She scoffed. “People find me for one reason only.”
“To kill you?” Zoey grinned. It was a feral thing, revealing rows of serrated teeth. The illusion of a beautiful woman suddenly replaced by something wild, something dangerous. How apt.
She shook her head morosely. “To die.” It was no boast. Merely the simple truth. None could outwit their own eyes.
Zoey, inexplicably, giggled. “I did not come here to die.”
Perhaps she was a little unpracticed at the art of conversation. Most of them involved a lot more terror, and a lot less mirth. She could not quite figure out what this Nereid was trying to accomplish. Puzzled, she asked. “You came here to deliver death, then?”
That serrated smile, feral and sharp, softened. “No. I came hoping to save two lives.”
“Hers?”
Zoey nodded, something strange flitting across those dark eyes. “And yours.”
