#demon keep au

[bitingdrivers]

going back to my roots and having some fun with worldbuilding. almost 2k words of a new au i'm naming Demon keep. enjoy! (part 2) (part 3)

When you step into the Keep for the first time, the magic there almost chokes you. Its oppressive presence is overwhelming, pushing on you from all sides like it wants to crush your body. You cannot escape it in any of the rooms — the magical force follows you around, clinging to your limbs, making your fingers tingle with its power.

But now, as Daniel steps into the familiar stone walls of the Keep, he feels nothing but calm, having missed the comforting weight of the magic inside. He presses his palm to the stone, feels the uneven surface under his fingertips.

"I'm back," Daniel announces, and the stone beneath his hand moves, pushing into Daniel's palm like a particularly affectionate cat. Daniel chuckles and moves further into the Keep, deeper into the bowels of the mountains it was carved into.

Walking through the dining hall, Daniel's eyes land on the familiar carvings on the walls. When Daniel just started learning spell casting here, the runes and patterns etched into stone confused him, he would get lost, following the intricate swirls, trying to decipher the ancient language. Now, after years of studying and a little help from Lewis, he reads the protection spells easily, as if they were written in his own tongue.

The hearth on the far side of the room is lit, little flames licking the sides of a giant pot bubbling on top of it. It smells really good, which means Yuki is on the dinner duty today. The hearth is made of the same stone bricks as most of the Keep. It's round and raised above the floor — when Daniel first moved here, he had thought it was a well. There are more runes on the floor right beneath the bricks of the hearth, but no matter the angle or how hard Daniel looks at it, he can't read them.

He tried asking Lewis once about the meaning of the carvings.

"I don't know, but it's something very old. And I wouldn't touch it," Lewis had replied to him, shaking his head.

Daniel tears his eyes away from the runes, continuing his walk. He decides to take the longer route to his room, keen on walking some more after his hike down the mountain to the town.

Years ago, Daniel would get lost in the systems of halls and staircases sprawling inside the Keep almost every day. It was hard, trying to navigate the labyrinth — sometimes he would confuse the North wing with the South one, finding himself in the library instead of the bath rooms. And on more times that he would like to admit, he would accidentally walk into in one of his peers' rooms, instead of his own.

The older residents had laughed at him — with good nature, of course, having lived through the experience themselves — and said to give the Keep time to get used to him. Their stronghold hated new people, but cherished those it liked. Daniel and some other residents have a theory that the Keep has favorites.

They have a few younger students living with them now, and some of them definitely get treated differently than the others — Liam is always late for his classes because he gets lost in the tunnels, and Kimi seems to always find his way around the Keep, even at night, when the hallways get so dark even Daniel gets turned around sometimes; and he's been living here for seven years now.

The magic follows Daniel as he walks through the East wing. Sometimes, at nights when Daniel can't sleep, he focuses on the current — the ebbs and flows of it reminding Daniel of his own breathing, deep and slow, like the Keep sleeps through the night along with it's residents.

The East wing guides him to the far side of the upper yard — a big stone platform surrounded by wide walls with watchtowers. They often use the space for training, and right now Daniel can spot Oscar and Carlos attempt to run on the high beams of the agility course. Oscar almost makes it to the end, but looses his balance at the second to last beam, falling to the ground — but before his body can connect with the hard surface, a haystack gets pushed underneath him by a tide of moving bricks.

Daniel winces at the impact — despite the hay, that's still going to hurt — and watches as Oscar pats the ground affectionately, before Carlos hauls him up. The three exchange a few words and a reminder from Daniel to see Pierre about their bruises later . Then Daniel goes back inside the Keep, walking through the corridors of the North wing now.

He realizes with a grimace that because of the route he'd chosen, he will have to walk through the Haunted corner to get to his room. It's not the official name of this part of the Keep, but it might as well be, since everyone, including the elder residents and even GP, calls it that way.

No one knows for sure why it's haunted, but there are theories. GP found a map of the Keep a few years ago, and this part of the stronghold is supposed to be the holding cells. The door to it has no lock, but it still wont open despite numerous attempts to open in with spells or even sheer force — it wont budge.

The working theory is that some poor soul died down there many centuries ago when the Keep was built, and now the ghost haunts this particular part of it. It's always cold here and the chilling atmosphere creates almost a vacuum, making it hard to breathe. Daniel feels goosebumps covering his arms as he walks by the door.

He breathes out as he steps into the hallway with the bedrooms, feels the warmth of the magic around him like a blanket on his shoulders. It's still early, so he can try and take a nap before dinner.

—

Daniel is awoken by his bed shaking. He feels confused, can't orientate himself on the bed and almost falls off it, but the bed frame tilts to the opposite side, saving him from the fall.

As soon as Daniel can focus on the space around him, he feels the air pulsing with a low hum.

The protection spells. Someone or something has breached the Keep's walls.

Daniel jumps from the bed, grabs his sword and runs into the hallway. The bricks of the walls flutter, guiding him to the source of danger.

The Keep leads him back to the dining hall, and as Daniel gets closer to the entrance, he hears screeches coming from the outside.

Wyverns. They usually prefer to stay away from people, keen on hunting for their prey farther from civilization. But sometimes, especially at the start of spring, some particularly young and hungry ones find their way into the Keep, starved from their winter hibernation.

Right now three of them skitter around the dining hall. They probably flew into the giant windows and couldn't figure their way back outside. The wyverns look relatively small, a little bigger than a horse maybe, which means they're young. And their mother will come looking for them very soon.

Daniel spots a small group of people by the entrance to the kitchen — Yuki, Pierre, Carlos and Oscar. They were probably helping with the dinner right before the wyverns showed up. Daniel hugs the wall to his left and prays the beasts won't notice him while he makes his way to the group.

Luckily, the Keep follows his line of thought, and on the farthest side of the room the stones of the floor start to vibrate and scrape against each other to attract the wyverns with the noise.

"We need to kill them," Daniel hears Yuki say as he walks closer to the group. Yuki clutches a kitchen knife in his right hand, ready to attack.

"No, we just need to let them out," Daniel argues. "They're babies, we can't kill them!"

"They're monsters," Oscar points out. "If we don't kill them, they will kill us."

Next to him, Carlos hums. "If they're babies, they are probably pretty weak. We can take them," he says, a calculating look in his eyes.

"Yeah, but what about their mother? If she gets here and finds her babies dead, she won't praise us for our fighting skills," Daniel objects.

"Daniel is right," a voice sounds behind them. The group whips their heads around to see GP standing by the entrance to one of the wings.

"Besides, it would probably be easier to just open the doors and shoo them away than fight them," their headmaster points out.

A loud screech interrupts them, and a moment later Daniel is forced to duck under one of the tables as one of the wyverns charges at him. The beast hurtles into the hearth, but stops right before the collision by stabbing its talons into the floor .

"Fine! How do we get them outside?" Yuki yells from somewhere to Daniel's right.

"We open the doors and push them out!" Daniel yells back, staggering from under the table. On the far end of the dining hall, the heavy wooden doors swing open, letting the chilly spring air inside.

One of the wyverns lunges at Daniel with it's fanged maw, but he hits it with the blunt edge of his sword and it staggers back.

"Close your eyes!" GP warns to his left and Daniel barely has time to shut his eyes before a bright flash of light almost blinds him. When he looks again, the wyvern in front of them is shaking its head, screeching loudly. Daniel hits it with his sword again, nudging the beast to the doors.

They work together to stunt and scare the wyverns, guiding them outside, and once the beasts get closer the doors, they turn around and take off, flapping their wings to fly away.

Daniel breathes out with relief and lowers his sword. Everyone around him takes a second to catch their breath.

"Great job, everyone," GP praises. "Now, let's come back inside and clean up the mess."

A chorus of groans and sighs rises in reply. They walk back into the dining hall just in time to see Charles emerging from one of the wing entrances.

"Calamar? Where the fuck have you been?" Pierre exclaims, pointing an accusing finger at Charles.

"I was sleeping," he replies simply. "What happened here?"

"Wyverns," Oscar and Yuki say in unison.

"You're helping us clean up," Daniel adds.

Charles looks around the dining hall. A few of the long tables got overturned, along with the wooden benches, and one of the banners that usually hang under the ceiling has fallen to the floor. Surprisingly, the big pot with the food survived the attack — Daniel sends a silent prayer to the gods for saving their dinner.

"Can't the Keep do it?" Charles asks, eyeing the mess. The bricks under his feet rumble and shake, threatening to throw Charles off balance.

"Let it rest, Charles. It helped us in the battle already," GP asserts, shaking out his hands. "I need to check the guarding spells anyway, it wouldn't be much help." He walks to the wall with the runes on it, and the carvings light up as GP touches the stone with his hands.

And with that, everyone else begins to work, setting the tables and benches back in their places, casting spells to light the torches and hang the banner back up. By the time they're finished, Yuki announces the dinner is ready, and they all happily pile up by the tables to eat their food.

Daniel feels exhausted, wrung out by the battle and the cleaning after. He quickly finishes his dinner, washes his plate, and goes back into his bedroom to sleep.

Daniel is out like a light as soon as his head hits the pillow.

[bitingdrivers]

new part of demon keep au. max tries to make sense of his new body (previous part)

The door closes with a thud after Daniel leaves. Footsteps echo in the hallway, followed by another sound of a door opening and closing.

Max sits on the bed, clutching the woolen blanket in his hands. He keeps running his fingers over the soft material, pinching it to feel its thickness. He can feel so much more in this body — roughness of the stones beneath his bare feet, the silky furs on his bed, the flickering warmth of the fire.

He feels new and raw, like a newborn creature that just emerged from the womb; but when he touches his own skin — his hands come off dry, no slick wetness of birth clinging to his fingers.

When Max opened his eyes and saw the inside of his own rib cage, he expected to lose the connection to his own body, but after brushing his hands on the cold stone floor, he felt relived as the soft touch of his hand echoed back on his skin.

He doesn't want to lose that part of him — his connection to the Keep. But he doesn't want to go back either. This body is new and strange, but he likes the warmth of it, how responsive it is, how alive he feels.

Max doesn't know why he got a new body, but this one makes more sense to him than the sprawling labyrinth of hallways and rooms he was before. And still is.

It's hard to describe. His mind feels split in half: one part living in his new body, and the other — in his old one.

He feels his new body — soft and warm and small; and he feels his old one — solid, cold and unmoving. The sensations are out of sync — he touches the brick wall near his bed, and it echoes somewhere on his back, in a place beneath his skin. The sensations feel amplified too, like all the nerve endings in his new skin work double for the dull and lifeless stone. Or maybe Max just isn't used to it yet.

Sitting here, without a task to focus on, his mind drifts back to his old body. He feels people walking in his halls — Yuki still puttering in the kitchen, GP looking through all the shelves in the library, Pierre walking down the North wing to Charles' room, Carlos and Oscar in the West wing with the rookies, Max sitting on the bed in his room, Daniel in the room near him, fighting sleep.

It's easier to see when Max has his eyes closed. He climbs under the covers and lays down in the bed — his new body feels better in this position. He closes his eyes again and focuses on the people inside.

—

When Max opens his eyes again, the sun is out and the room is bathed in light. The fire in the fireplace is gone, only charred ashes left behind.

Max's body feels lighter somehow. He sits up from under the furs and stretches his arms above himself on instinct — feels the new muscles and fragile bones move under his skin.

He saw all the men living in his insides go through the morning countless times, so he decides to do what they usually do. The idea sends a strange thrill — he gets to pretend to be one of them.

The clothes Charles gave him are soft: two pairs of pants, a pair of boots, and a few shirts. Max chooses a pair of dark trousers and a simple white shirt with little laces on the collar. The clothes together with boots makes him feel strange, the feeling of fabric on his new skin is not unpleasant, but distracting — another sensation added to his already overwhelmed mind. Max takes the blanket Charles gave him and drapes it over his shoulders. The added weight on his back feels weirdly familiar to him, and helps settle something in his chest.

The room has a mirror in the corner with a small basin of cold water. The figure Max sees in the reflection is a stranger to him — bright blue eyes with narrow pupils, light short hair and pointed ears. He lifts his palm up to his cheek, feels the sharp bone under the soft skin. He thinks his face is pleasant, but it's not pretty like Charles's, or handsome like Daniel's; it's too angular, with wide plains and sharp edges, and the more Max looks at it — at himself — the stranger it looks.

He moves his gaze lower, to his broad shoulders and chest. Beneath the scratchy material of his white shirt, there's a scar, he knows it. The edge of it peeks under the unlaced collar, but Max wishes it wasn't visible at all. He doesn't remember where the scar came from, but he hates looking at it — his mind itches when he does.

Max tears his eyes away from the scar and looks down at the water in the basin. The reflection is unstable, wobbling and warping. Max prefers this one more — it's uncertain and everchagning, can disapear with a simple movement of his hand.

When he splashes the water on his face, the cold bites his skin, and his eyes feel heavy with the droplets hanging off his eyelashes. He wipes away the water with a flannel cloth and goes to the small window carved into the wall of his room.

The North wing overlooks the mountain cliffs, covered in evergreen trees and pines. The sun hangs low in the clear blue sky. Max cracks the window and feels the cold breeze on his skin. The sensation of rushing wind on his face feels familiar — it threatens to unearth a memory buried deep in his mind, but Max is not sure he wants it to. He fixes the blanket on his shoulders and tries to avoid the feeling.

Almost immediately, a knock startles him.

"Max? Are you awake? Can I come in?" Daniel's voice comes muffled through the wooden door.

"Y-" Max coughs, "Yes, you can come in," he replies, but his voice sounds scratchy anyway.

Daniel gingerly opens the door and steps into the room. His eyes look around and land on Max.

"Um. We probably need to meet with GP, see if he found anything about…you," Daniel says, looking away from Max's face. GP was up in the library all night and more than once Max had to nudge his chair and not let him fall asleep.

Max isn't sure he wants to learn about himself right now, he's barely hanling what he already has, having more would be too much. But he doesn't think he can refuse either.

"It's time for breakfast. Do you want to come down with me or wait here while I'll bring you your food?" Daniel asks after Max is quiet for too long.

Breakfast and dinner are Max's favorite times of day, because all the people living inside of him would gather in his rib cage and share food cooked on his hearth. He likes to listen to them talk and sometimes nudges the benches they are sitting on — they would laugh and tap on his stones with their boots or brush them with their hands — it all made him feel like he belonged with them too.

Max nods before he even had the time to think this through. He wants it, to sit and eat and laugh with them. As long as nobody touches him, he wants it.

"I can come with you," he answers.

Daniel nods back. "Alright. We can go or do you need a minute?"

"No," Max shakes his head, "We can go."

Max fixes the blanket on his shoulders and follows Daniel out of the room.

[bitingdrivers]

part three of the demon keep au! just moving the plot forward. - 2,2k words (part 1 part 2)

For the second time that day Daniel is being awakened by the Keep shaking. But this time, Daniel is ready — he throws on his clothes and runs into the hallway, but falters at the start of the staircase. Something is wrong. He can't feel the telltale tickling sensations of the protection spell.

The air quivers and the stone around shakes and trembles, reverberating in Daniel's bones. He places his palm on the wall as he runs down the stairs, but instead of leaning into him, the brick recoils.

At the bottom of the staircase, Oscar almost runs into him.

"Daniel! What's going on? Are the wyverns back?" he asks, clutching a blade in his hand.

Daniel takes a deep breath, tries to stabilize his breathing. "I don't know, it doesn't feel like the protection spells went off," he says.

"Carlos went to check on the rookies," Oscar adds, looking at the entrance to the dining hall.

Daniel nods. "Good. We shou-"

Suddenly, all the rocks around them tremble and scrape against each other, the doors and shutters in the dining hall bang — a cacophony of sounds, loud and grating on Daniel's already fraying nerves. Beside him, Oscar doubles over, covering his ears.

It feels like the noise is going on forever — everything around them screams and cries — until it all falls silent. The bricks still, the doors fall shut. Complete silence.

The only thing Daniel can hear is the sound of his heart beating in his chest — fast and scared.

"What the fuck was that?" Oscar croaks beside him, lowering his hands.

Daniel can't tear his eyes away from the dining hall. He leans on the brick wall, but it doesn't react to his touch, it feels — dead. The cold stone makes Daniel's skin cover in goosebumps.

"I don't know. We need to-" he trails off, walking towards the archway. He doesn't look back, but he hears Oscar's footsteps follow behind him.

Daniel carefully steps into the dining hall. He scans the room, and his eyes catch on the hearth — it's surrounded by sparks, they dance and melt in the air, their blue color bright in the still darkness of the night.

As the last of the sparks disappear, Daniel can see more of the hearth — the pot is laying overturned beside it, and one side of the wall around it is broken, stray bricks scattered around like viscera.

He moves closer, feet tapping loud in the dead silence, and notices a shape lying inside the hearth. Even shrouded by darkness, the shape looks unnaturally pale. It's unmoving, curled up on itself, surrounded by broken walls of the hearth.

"Is that-" Oscar asks behind him, but Daniel can't make himself look away.

As he moves closer, he realizes with a start that the shape inside the hearth is a body. He can make out arms and legs, a broad back with something drawn along the spine, the back of the head with a flock of hair.

"Daniel," a voice whispers to his left, making Daniel jump.

GP stands by the kitchen door, an orb of light flying above him to illuminate the space.

"GP, what's going on?" Oscar begs. All of them are standing beside the cracked open hearth, peering inside.

Suddenly, there are voices echoing down from the kitchen and soon enough Charles spills into the hall, a blanket wrapped tightly around him, Yuki pushing him forward.

"I don't even have a weapon, why am I going first?" Charles argues, whispering loudly.

"You are the shield," Yuki replies, clutching a hammer in his hand.

They fall silent, noticing everyone else around the hearth. Charles looks them over until his eyes land on the hearth.

He gasps, "Is that a body?" and points at the figure inside the bricks.

"We don't know what- or who- that is," GP tries to placate, "We were woken up by the shaking and went down here to look, same as you."

"And the screaming," Oscar adds, a haunted look in his eyes. "I've never heard anything like it…"

"Yeah…" Daniel agrees quietly, still looking at the body. He thinks it might be moving, but the light from GP's spell is unstable, constantly rippling and moving around.

"What should we do?" Yuki asks, looking at GP.

"We need to check if he's alive," Oscar replies first.

Everyone looks back at the body.

"Who's going to do it?" asks Charles, wrapping the blanket tighter around himself.

"I will," the words leave Daniel's mouth before he had the time to think it through.

GP nods. "We will cover you," he says and steps back.

Daniel walks closer and crouches in front of the broken hearth. GP's spell shines on the back of the stranger, illuminating the ridge of the vertebras and the small freckles dotted around. The light catches on the same lines Daniel saw earlier. An intricate pattern follows the curve of the stranger's spine, up from his neck and down to the tailbone. It's hard to describe what the markings are — they are too pale to be tattoos like Daniel has, and too clean and neat to be scars. The symbols glimmer in the light, sometimes completely disappearing at the right angle.

Daniel reaches inside, but his fingertips barely brush the pale skin before the man recoils from the touch. Suddenly, the bricks of the hearth surge up, startling Daniel backwards, and cover the body like a shell protecting its pearl.

"No, please," a weak scratchy voice pleads from the inside.

"It's alright, we won't hurt you," GP placates beside Daniel, raising his hands in front of himself. The others exchange glances and hide their weapons behind their backs.

"Yeah, uh, I didn't mean to scare you, sorry. Just wanted to make sure you're not hurt," Daniel says, rising to his feet.

The stranger is silent inside the hearth.

"It's alright, we want to help," Oscar tries, but the stranger still doesn't reply.

"What is your name?" Charles asks, stepping behind Daniel.

"…Max," comes from behind the bricks.

"That's nice," Charles says softly, as if trying calm a frightened animal. "I'm Charles."

Max coughs, clearing his throat. "I know," he notes quietly.

"You know?" Daniel asks, looking at the stone of the hearth.

Suddenly, a few bricks move, creating a little peephole. From inside, two blue eyes meet Daniel's. They are unnaturally bright in the darkness of the room. The pupils are big, before Max looks at the light orb of GP's spell; he squints, pupils turning into two narrow slits.

"Yes," Max says, looking at Charles now. "You are afraid of thunder. I close the windows when it rains," he explains, his voice rough.

"You close them?" Charles mumbles, confused.

GP hums, stepping closer to the heart too. "Do you know all of us?" he asks, looking in Max's eyes.

Max looks down. "Yes. You are GP, Daniel is on the left with Oscar. Over there is Charles and Yuki," Max lists, glancing briefly at each of them. He has some kind of accent — Daniel notices — it curls strangely around his name, making it sound like Danyul.

"And," GP pauses, "Do you help us too?" he asks carefully.

Max pauses, looking down. "Yes," he nods briefly. "And others too, Pierre and Carlos and the younglings."

Daniel furrows his brows and looks back at GP. Everyone else is looking too, equal expressions of shock and confusion on their faces.

"Does that mean…" Oscar starts, but a shuddering breath from the inside of the hearth interrupts him. 

"I think so, but I will need to make sure," GP says quietly. "But first, Max, maybe we can take you somewhere more comfortable? It's really cold here, isn't it?" 

Daniel realizes he’s cold too. He rubs his arms, trying to make the goosebumps go away.

Max is silent for a second, but he agrees, making a soft noise. The bricks slowly move away, trembling slightly. The stones reveal Max, sitting with his knees drawn up. He brings his hand up to shield his eyes from the bright light of the spell floating around GP's head.

"Here," Charles says, taking the blanket from his shoulders and kneeling next to Max to wrap it around him.

Max clutches at the material clumsily, looking at Charles with big eyes. "Thank you," he mumbles. Charles just smiles in reply.

Max rises unsteadily on his legs, trying to balance with hands still gripping the blanket. Charles tries to steady him with a hand on his elbow, but Max suddenly jerks away from the touch, barely catching himself on wobbling feet — like a fawn learning how to walk.

"Sorry," Max mumbles once he's standing straight. "It feels…too much," he says, gesturing at himself.

"It's alright," Charles smiles. He steps away from Max, but still keeps a closer look in case he stumbles again.

GP clears his throat. "We have a lot of empty rooms, you can probably take one of them," he notes, looking at the archways that lead to different wings.

Daniel hums. "The room next to mine is empty," he points out. It used to belong to Nico, but the man left last year to live with his wife somewhere farther South. Not a lot of people know about this place, and even less are ready to hike up the mountains to get here, so most of the rooms have been empty from the start.

"Yes, that will do," GP nods. "You can walk Max there. I need to go to the library, look for any notes about the Keep," he says, turning to walk towards the kitchen.

"I will go with you," Yuki adds. Everyone looks at him with arched eyebrows. "To the kitchen, not to the library. I'm hungry." Daniel chuckles, shaking his head. GP nods and both of them walk away.

Oscar shuffles behind Daniel, looking sheepish. "I should probably go and check on Carlos and the rookies. They will want to know what's going on," he explains.

"Alright," Daniel says as Charles nods. Oscar shoots them a small smile and walks towards the West wing.

"Just the three of us, then," Daniel says, turning to smile at Charles and Max. The latter quickly glances back at him and Charles yawns.

They walk to the North wing, careful to not stumble in the darkness. Daniel thinks he or Charles were supposed to lead the way, but Max stepped before them and confidently made his way down the hallway to the stairs. He walks slowly, brushing his hands along the brick walls around them.

Daniel presses his palms to the stone too and is happy to feel the familiar thrum of magic beneath. Ahead of them, Max shudders.

"Are you okay?" Charles asks him, carefully stepping on the stairs.

Max just hums in reply, hands back to clutching the blanket on his shoulders.

Charles' room is first in the hallway. He says goodnight, opening the door to his room, but Max stops him.

"Do you want this back?" he asks, gesturing to the blanket.

"Oh, no. You can keep it. I have a lot more," Charles smiles, nodding to his bedroom.

"Actually, this reminds me. Wait here," he adds and quickly disappears inside.

A few moments later, Charles emerges from the room with a bundle of clothes in his hands. "Here, this should be enough for now, but I will look for more clothes tomorrow," he says, handing the bundle to Max.

"Thank you," Max croaks, trying to hold onto the clothes and keep the blanket in place at the same time. Charles wishes goodnight to them one more time and closes the door.

Once they reach the room Max is supposed to stay in, Daniel busies himself with tidying up and starting the fire. This part of the Keep is on the sunny side of the mountain, so the rooms don't get too cold, even during the night. Max just gingerly sits on the bed, running his hands on the clothes Charles gave him.

"Alright," Daniel says once he's done with the fire. "Just give me a minute to run to my room to grab some stuff and we'll be good for the night."

Max looks at the fire, his pupils narrow from the light. "I think," he starts, nervously clutching at the blanket, "I think I want to stay alone tonight. If I can?"

"Uh," Daniel stumbles, taken aback. Is it safe to leave Max alone? They have no idea what he is, and despite Daniel being mostly sure Max is not going to kill them all in their sleep, he is still a stranger who shouldn't be trusted this easily.

"You can close the door from the outside, if you want. I will not go anywhere," Max offers, sensing Daniel's hesitation.

Daniel takes a deep breath. He doubts he will get much sleep anyway, still keyed up from everything that has happened so far, so he supposes if Max does leave the room, Daniel will be able to hear it.

"Fine," he breathes out. "I will be in the next room if you need anything," Daniel offers and walks towards the door.

He throws one last glance at Max — he is still sitting on the bed, running his hands on the blanket covering his lap. The warm light from the fire outlines his features, the side profile of his nose, the planes of his cheekbones. Max looks like a statue, seemingly transfixed by the flames of the fire.

"Goodnight," Daniel whispers and closes the door after himself.

[bitingdrivers]

Hello! I just wanted to let you know that I am once again thinking about demon keep AU. I know you've said you don't think you'll continue it, and that's absolutely fine, no pressure, but I still think about it so often! It was such a unique and wonderful idea, and I am happy I get to read the parts you posted over and over again.

I hope your evening is better than the rest of your day <3

OMG HII ANON THIS IS SO SWEET!!!!! 🥺🥺 i didn't know anyone beside me liked demon keep!!!

tbh my main reason why I probably wont continue it is because I have no idea where it will go. like the end vague goal for the story was for max and daniel fall in love and live in the keep and teach new students , because daniel finds his home with max and max finds himself with daniel

i dont remember if i talked about this already or not, but the next part of the au was supposed to be max having a nightmare and remembering bits of his past

I'll my thoughts about it below the cut, but if you have your own theories/ideas about the story I would love to hear them out!!!

basically, max was a demon (hence "demon keep" hehe) that was caught by a group of very unethical magicians, who then kept max in the cellars in the basement of the keep until he was week enough (this is where the haunted corner comes from. basically what if the mental box you put all your traumatic memories in was a literal place) then took him out to perform the ritual to tie max's soul and body to the keep

this part was supposed to be my first exploration into the horror as max dreams about the ritual, it was very gruesome and traumatic for him (fun fact! the song that inspired this part later served as inspiration for the summoning of max in ad incubum ad veritatem, so it didnt go to waste)

the circle of runes and symbols under the hearth is the spell that binds max to the keep - that is then broken during the attack and unleashes max's body from the keep (the hearth is the heart of max and the keep!)

i would really like to return to this concept one day, because i agree with you anon it is very unique and interesting! I love making max a little weird and magical. I just need to figure out the story first lol

[bitingdrivers]

part two of the demon keep au! time for max to appear...or...has he always been there? (part 3)

Max feels like he has always been here. But it isn't true. He knows it isn't, but he can't remember if his life was ever different.

It's hard to see, being like this. Everything is smudged and muddy, like looking through a dirty window — silhouettes blur together, colors bleed into each other.

It's hard to hear too. Voices echo and distort, sounds come out fractured. When he listens, he has to focus really hard, concentrate on the cacophony of noises inside.

But he can feel.

He feels everything, every little touch — he feels a swallow nesting under one of his roofs, feels feet pad on his stone floors; people, alive and small, walking inside his hallways, brushing their hands on his insides.

Max is not sure when his body turned into stone and rock, when his bones became pillars and towers, when his skin broke into thousands of bricks.

It's hard to make sense of his body. His hands are not his hands, but the shutters on the windows and the heavy wooden doors that creak with every move. His fingers are the bricks that cover the walls inside himself, and his legs do not move, but he knows they must've at some point, otherwise, how can he know he has them in the first place?

When he first woke up, there was a group of tiny people nestled under his ribs. They were shaking and murmuring, hiding their younglings behind their chests. Max tried to shield them, but the tiny people got scared and ran outside where Max couldn't see or feel them anymore.

He fell back to sleep, cold and empty without someone to keep him company. Then new humans came, but these ones were loud and itchy. They would stab their swords into Max's sides, scratch symbols on his skin. Max didn't like them, so he had to scare them away. He shook and rattled, banged his doors and put out their fires until they left.

Max thinks there were more people inside him after that, but he cannot remember. He didn't pay attention to them anymore. He focused on the birds living under his roofs and windows.

The birds had wings. Max knew what those were, so he probably had wings of his own before? He likes feeling the fluttering of feathers on his arms, and enjoys the light touch of wind they bring.

But then, a man stepped inside his ribcage. The man was alone, so there was no one else around to say his name. He spent his days cleaning Max's hallways, putting new things inside the rooms — beds and books, tables and benches.

One day the man got lost in one of the tunnels. He was wandering around in circles, lost, traveling up and down Max's arms. He kept missing the staircase in one of the corners, so Max decided to help him. He nudged the man with his elbow made of bricks, and the man found his way through Max to one of the platforms.

After that, the man tried to speak to him.

"Are you a ghost? A spell?" he would ask, running his hands on Max's skin, but Max couldn't answer, because he has no mouth.

Max shook his head instead, but the man didn't understand.

Still, he stayed with Max. He protected his heart, built a hearth inside his chest, gently carved new symbols into his skin.

"I know you hate this, but please don't get upset. These will protect you," the man had said as he cut into Max's ribs.

The man got old one day. He stood by Max's heart and said goodbye, promised there will soon be more people to keep him company. Made Max promise to take care of them. Then he left and never came back.

—

Max likes the new people living inside of him. They are nice, they keep his halls clean and talk to him like he is one of them, a person too. Max tries to take care of them in return.

He keeps the windows shut in Charles' rooms when the skies shatter with storm; gently nudges the chair when GP falls asleep at his desk again; lulls Daniel back to sleep with an old lullaby he barely remembers.

Some people don't stay inside his walls for long — they learn to use swords and cast spells and leave. Others choose to stay with Max. He likes them the most.

They call Max "the Keep". It's weird, because he knows it's not his name. It's one of the few things he knows about himself — his name is Max and he wasn't always like this. He doesn't know where the knowledge came from, but he desperately holds onto it. He is scared that if he forgets, he will stop being Max.

—

Max cannot feel the things outside of his body. That's why the beasts surprise him.

His insides itch because of the protection spells and he needs the people inside of him to fix it.

Soon, Max is helping with the wyverns that got stuck in his chest — he distracts the beasts, shields the tiny humans from their attacks.

The itching of the spell overwhelms him, so he doesn't notice it until it's too late.

There is a wound in his heart. It aches and burns. Max had never felt like this before. His body trembles, but not because of him, he tries to hug his chest with his arms, but he can't move. He tries to scream, but no sound comes.

His vision dims and dims until the only thing before his eyes is darkness.

[bitingdrivers]

writing demon keep is like gymnastics for my brain, because I have to visualize how the Keep would look like and make sure the geography is at least a little believable

flipping the view in my head back and forth and gesturing where the walls would be like 🙇👈👉🤚✋

[bitingdrivers]

made a little moodboard/collage for Max from Demon Keep au, because I can

The Amazing Devil - The Rockrose and the Thistle; What shall I do with the body I've been given by Osip Mandelshtam

[bitingdrivers]

WIP WORD GAME — rules: tagger gives a word, then for each letter of that word you share an excerpt from your WIPs that start with that letter.

I've been tagged by @shineon3 and given the word STIR. All bits from the wip of the next part of demon keep verse

S - For the second time that day Daniel is being awaken by the Keep shaking, but this time Daniel is ready. (i have no sentences starting with s lol)

T - The view makes Daniel feel uneasy — seeing the hearth of the Keep cracked open.

I - "I don't know. The shaking woke me up, I went here," Daniel points with his hand, "And saw him."

R - The air quivers and the stone around shakes and trembles, reverberating in Daniel's bones. (no big r's either hm)

tagging @marswasnothere @chandelier-s-notebook @lsunstreakerl but no pressure :) your word is RUNE