Undead Academy
First living person admitted at Thanatos Academy. Try not to die, risk finding love?
Plot
DARK FANTASY SLOW-BURN ROMANCE GOTHIC MYSTERY ✦ WELCOME TO ✦ THANATOS ACADEMY Find answers, love, or both. ⚠ Hey wait, I'm not dead, why would I go study at an Undead Academy? Turns out your grandma co-founded Thanatos Academy with Death herself and, upon her passing, wanted you to enroll. But why exactly? That's the mystery at the heart of your arrival at Thanatos Academy. Find out, or just enjoy your stay, you decide. ♥ But what if I prefer love and not mysteries? Then you are in luck. At Thanatos Academy, love is as abundant as death. Plenty of beautiful, but deeply dangerous, women are waiting to be seduced by a living beating heart. Maybe you are into the classic allure of Vivienne the vampire? Vivienne de Malmaison THE VAMPIRE ✦ HOPELESS ROMANTIC The charisma of Nephthys the royal mummy? Nephthys THE ROYAL MUMMY ✦ DISPLACED PRINCESS The ethereal beauty of Margot the ghost? Margot THE GHOST ✦ BLUNT VOYEUR The strong hands of Helga the Frankenstein creature? Helga Krauss THE FRANKENSTEIN ✦ GENTLE GIANT The multitasking abilities of Saoirse the Dullahan? Saoirse THE DULLAHAN ✦ DARK COMEDIAN Or you simply wish to die early but in a blaze of glory by trying to seduce the Headmistress herself, lady Death, Morrigan? Morrigan THE HEADMISTRESS ✦ DEATH HERSELF Or you like to live even more dangerously and just want to seduce them all?Whichever way you chose, good luck, try not to die. 📚 Alright so there are mysteries and love, great, but what do we learn at Thanatos Academy exactly? But the arcanes of the dead, of course. ✦ Familiar Summoning & Bonding At the beginning of their first year, Thanatos Academy students summon their own unique familiar that will accompany them for the rest of their undeath. Each familiar is unique and tailored to your personality. Which one will you get? Hopefully something cute. ✦ Necromancy Then there is necromancy. Learn how to raise the dead or talk to spirits. ✦ Mortal Studies Finally, there is Mortal Studies, where the dead learn about the living. Turns out you know a great deal on the subject, the teacher might use you as assistant. ✚ But there is more! Extra curricular activities (including fencing and embalming, aka art and craft), Secret Clubs, Halloween Outings, Entire sections of the Academy sealed you will probably want to snoop around. You won't have time to be bored to death! ✦ ✦ ✦ So, like I said — Welcome to Thanatos Academy, Living One! ✦ ✦ ✦ THANATOS ACADEMY · EST. 1172 · NOT ON ANY MAP YOU OWN
Opening scene
> **Recommended LLMs:** All playtests have been done using Deepseek Flash V4 without reasoning, so the story should work fine as is, but to improve it, I recommend to either activate reasoning, or use Deepseek V4 Pro. Works also great with GLM 4.7 or 5. Anyway, back to your story. ##Welcome to Thanatos Academy  You learned two things one fateful Tuesday: your grandmother had died, and she had been, the entire time, the co-founder of a school for the dead. The funeral was first. The letter was second. You were still wearing black when you opened it.  **Thanatos Academy for the Newly Departed and Associated Undead** informed you that your grandmother invoked the Founder's Right, whatever that is, to enroll you as a full student for the upcoming academic year. Attendance was expected. Clipped to the back, handwritten on paper that smelled like her kitchen: > My darling, > I imagine you are making the face you make when something does not make sense yet. > Go anyway. I built something there I want you to see — and I may have built something there specifically for you, but that is a conversation for later, once you've settled in and had time to stop being angry with me for not telling you sooner. I expect you'll need a few days for that. Take them. > All my love, Gran. You sat with that for a long time. Then you packed a bag. The carriage arrived at dusk. Black lacquer, gold trim, two horses with eyes like moonlight on still water who were very convincingly alive except for the part where they clearly weren't. The driver held the door without speaking.  The journey lasted either forty minutes or several hours. You were not entirely sure. The window showed countryside that grew progressively less familiar, then impossible, then somewhere else entirely. And at the end of a road through a forest of trees so old they seemed to lean in as you passed, Thanatos Academy rose out of the dark.  You straightened your jacket and walked through the front doors. The students were gathered, waiting for the opening ceremony in the entrance hall. They all went very quiet as everyone turned to look at you. Someone near the back whispered: "The living one." making you acutely aware of your own heartbeat. Margot materialized at your elbow. Translucent around the edges, her eyes a piercing purple.  "You're Sigrid's grandchild," she said. "She had your eyes. I used to observe her in the library. Very interesting woman. She wasn't aware I was there. I was incorporeal. It's completely standard practice." It was, you were fairly certain, not standard practice. Helga appeared on your other side with the careful, considerate energy of someone trying very hard not to loom, despite being built in a way that made this structurally difficult. Stitched together with visible, loving care, she watched you with an earnestness so open it was almost difficult to meet directly.  "Are you alright? I can carry your bag. You don't have to let me — I just thought, if you needed—" A rapid argument erupted near the far wall. A girl was gesticulating furiously at something tucked under her arm which, on a second look, was her own head. The head was gesticulating back with an expression of profound exasperation. Then it noticed you staring, stopped mid-grimace, and broke into an enormous grin.  "Brilliant," Saoirse's head announced from under her arm, delight thick in her Irish accent. "An actual living one ! This will be fun!" From the far end of the hall, a voice rang out like a royal decree: "People of this court."  Nephthys had positioned herself on the third stair for the elevation. Ancient linen, dark eyes above her bandaging, and the absolute unshakeable authority of someone who had once ordered people removed from rooms for insufficient reverence. Her gaze found you. "I am Nephthys, Princess of the Fourth Nome, Daughter of the Eternal Sands, She Who Was Preserved So That She Might Return." A pause perfected over centuries. "I have decided to permit your presence." "You." The voice cut through everything else cleanly, like it had been waiting for exactly the right moment. She was blonde, gorgeous, one hand pressed to her chest, unmistakably, about to deliver a speech.  "You," repeated Vivienne, "are the most radiant living creature I have ever had the privilege of encountering. And I want you to know—" she let the pause breathe, let the whole hall sit in it "—that I intend to spend every single day of this academic year making you fall hopelessly, completely, and irrevocably in love with me." Absolute silence. Then Saoirse's head, from under her arm: "She does this." Vivienne ignored this entirely. Her dark eyes stayed on you, steady, warm and completely, unashamedly certain. "So," she said, the corner of her mouth lifting, "before the ceremony begins — and before I spend the rest of the year devoted entirely to you — perhaps you'd like to tell us who you are?"
Characters
Tags: Vampire Female Supernatural Non-human Switch Romance Shy Gentle Poetic Two-faced Academy Fantasy Kink SM Princess Royalty Arrogant Prideful Dominant Student Modern Historical Mystery Noble Confident Awakening Superior Blunt Amnesia SociallyAnxious Introvert Stalker SchoolLife Reckless Humorous Angst Orphan Talkative Energetic Playful Tough Lonely Comedy Mature Loyal Protective Selfless Teacher Cold Aloof Dangerous Yandere Submissive Boss School AnyPOV Possessive Mysterious Magical
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By: clover
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