daemon au

[sockof_ages]

 

In the universe of the His Dark Materials trilogy (see: The Golden Compass Movie, His Dark Materials on HBO, the books), every person has a creature called a daemon that accompanies them all their lives, and is emotionally and metaphysically a part of them. Daemons are often described as sort of external souls (while the part of the personality in a human's body is the spirit).

Basic Daemon Facts:

• They take the shape of animals
• They can talk, no matter what their shape
• Children's daemons can change form at will; around puberty they 'settle' and become one animal permanently
• Neither the person or the daemon chooses the final settled form, but it always reflects their personality (although not necessarily in obvious or simple ways)
• They are almost always the opposite sex as their human
• If a daemon feels pain, so will their person, and vice versa
• Being physically apart from one's daemon causes horrible emotional and physical pain
• Daemons frequently talk to and touch each other, in ways that reflect or complement their persons' interactions, but daemons talking to humans other than their own is considered strange, and touching humans not their own is extremely taboo; it generally occurs only between long-time lovers. Touching someone else's daemon without permission is a terrible violation.
• If a daemon feels pain, so will their person, and vice versa

How it works:

Just design a daemon for your muse and put as little or as much information as you like about them (shape, name, link to a picture or species wiki if you are so inclined) in a top-level, with your muse's name and series in the subject. Check out other people's daemons and let your daemons interact too.

Comments

Pleakley | Lilo and Stitch | OTA

[wendypleakley]

[A totally normal bird daemon for a total normal human Earth woman!]

El | Weird Stuff Happens: The Series | OTA

[e11e]

[11a, now known as Lee, is still capable of shifting, though not as frequently or as widely as he could even just a couple of years ago. He tends to stick to mostly-wild animals that still aren't out of place in a town like Hawkins, rabbits, raccoons, opossums and even a fox sometimes.
Also available in 'found by the Munsons instead of Mike Wheeler' flavor at not_011, just let me know which version you'd prefer.]

Armitage Jade-Hux | Star Wars (AU) | OTA

[empires_heir]

[Kiorè is a crystal snake, and is usually doubly hidden by lurking under the collar of Armitage's coat or coiling around his wrist under the cuff, somewhere that even stray light refractions won't give her away.]

Pixel | Inception OC | OTA

[inkedchemist]

[Rocco might look big and tough, but he's mostly a sweetheart, the same way Pixel can be prickly at first, but does have everyone's best interests at heart. In dreams, he's always a different kind of dog, and never the same kind twice in a row.]

Torii | OC | OTA

[java_squirrel]

[Irving the chipmunk is usually perched on Torii's shoulder or sprawled on her head, occasionally tucked into a pocket or just perched on whatever mannequin or dress form she's using at the moment.
Sure, he looks like a chipmunk, but he's always some color not usually found in nature, or at least, not natural for a chipmunk.]

Eddie + Stranger Things + OTA

[jukebox_hero]

[People look at Eddie and expect his daemon to be something like a rat or a snake, maybe a bat to match the ones inked on his arm, maybe a spider, even.
No one expects Betty. Which is how they like it.]

[wendypleakley]

[Behold, a Totally Normal Human Woman, with... something... perched on her shoulder.]

Excuse me, would you mind helping me out? I'm a little lost.

Charles - Dead Boy Detectives - OTA

[just_aces]

[Do ghosts even have daemons any more? I feel like he's probably got the memory of one, at least, and she probably manifests the same way clothes do once in a while. My first instinct is cricket because of the bat and I love puns. But in truth I think probably a budgie, tiny, brightly colored, and sweary as fuck.
I'm also cool with alive!AUs, whatever works.]

Henry Stillman | X-Verse OC | OTA

[malesiren]

[Gator was generally curled around Henry's wrist -or sometimes his upper arm- like some kind of bangle during shows, but on the road or just off-stage, was most often tucked into a breast pocket or lurking under the collar of his jacket.]

Patrick | Companion (post-canon AU) | OTA

[piecedit_together]

[Whatever he's got, it must be small and easily hidden, since no one's seen it before.]

Petit | X-verse OC | OTA

[prettylittlebunny]

[Bambi is a majestic creature, and neither he nor Petit will hear any argument to the contrary. He's a good lookout when she's working, and at least as fearless as she is when doing roof-level parkour.]

Mina / Urban Fantasy OC / OTA

[raisedgrimm]

[Jacobi settled as a raccoon early on, because Mina needed something that could keep her warm when they were traveling in cold places, but also needed something that had grabby hands for helping with first aid or carrying supplies or even locking doors and boxes. The two of them can stand to be fairly far apart if needed for a job, though they prefer not to do that.]

Rogue + Doctor Who + OTA

[roll_for]

[Crit, originally for 'Critical' and lately for 'Critique' had always been some kind of insect, and had settled as a brightly-colored beetle the size of a teacup well before Rogue had been in his current line of work. She was generally green, but in some light looked blue, or purple, and sometimes even black, a little bit like the reflections off of an oil slick.]

Edwin Payne - Dead Boy Detectives - OTA (M/M for romantic-type but anything goes for friends)

[technicallyhellbound]

[Feels a little too on the nose to say that his daemon is now a death's head moth, if ghosts even have daemons at all. But I'm going with it, because it's the first thing I thought of.
I'm down for alive-type AUs as well, if that's easier, it'll have to be compelling, though.]

Steve | Stranger Things | OTA

[the_hair]

[Most people suspect Steve's daemon is something small, easy to hide in a pocket or a sleeve, and he's happy to let them think that, mostly because he and Ursula have had to learn to have some distance between them.
She's definitely not as small as people think, and while she's smaller than an actual grizzly, she's still big enough to have carried Steve off after a fight or two.]

Shiny \ Fabulous Killjoys OC \ OTA

[twice_as_shiny]

[Shiny couldn't really remember what shape Ghost had been when they'd still been in the City, couldn't remember if he'd even existed then. But that hardly mattered now, because she knew the jewel-bright hummingbird was hers as much as she was his, and sometimes making sure he was safe and cared for was easier than taking care of herself, even though it amounted to the same in the end.]

Apollo | Inception OC | OTA

[apollodreaming]

[Hera was usually a reptile of some kind while she could still shift, and settled on a cobra before she'd settled on albino, having gone through a range of colors first. Interestingly, in dreams she shows up usually as some kind of fantasy lizard, a small dragon or wyvern, and usually a metallic cobalt blue.]

Chrissy Cunningham + Stranger Things + OTA

[cheerybomb]

[Before everything that happened, Simon was a corn snake, maybe a foot long, thinner than a garden hose and pale blue with pistachio-green mottling.
Now, however, he's longer than she is tall, thicker than her wrist, and a deep cobalt blue with a scattering of equally deep green scales across his face. He takes his job of protecting her very seriously.

Equally okay with 'everyone lived' as I am with 'back from the dead', whatever suits!
Also available as a dude at ccunningham if preferred, just let me know.]

Techie | Dredd | OTA

[clan_techie]

[Techie has Grace, a usually vibrantly yellow and green Leopard Moth, who keeps close, generally hidden up his sleeve or under his collar, mostly because MaMa Madrigal either tried (unsuccessfully) to sever them, or repeatedly threatened to, perhaps both.]

Sam Winchester | Supernatural

[hellunbounded]

[ Sam Winchester was born without a dæmon. In their world, this was completely unheard of, and it instantly set his father on edge, wondering what could be wrong with his son. Growing up, he told all his friends and teachers that is dæmon was a shy spider that didn't like to leave his pocket to avoid drawing attention to himself, but his lack of a dæmon always made him feel like a freak.

They learned much later that Sam did have a dæmon - it had just been born inside of him rather than outside like everybody else. When Castiel rescued Sam from the Cage, he unknowingly left his soul behind - his dæmon, which Lucifer and Michael had separated from him. After being reunited with his soul, Sam has to learn how to live with it outside his body rather than inside of it.

Ignis is a dark crimson dragon - a common symbol for Lucifer. She is about the size of a medium-sized dog, has four legs and a pair of wings. She learned how to glamour her appearance to hide the worst of the damage Lucifer has inflicted on her, but when it drops, she looks like a creature torn apart and barely put back together again. Still, like her human, she is patient, intelligent and kind, and only wants to continue the Winchester work of helping people. ]

Dorian Storm | Critical Role | OTA

[makingmyway]

(( Dorian’s daemon is a bluebird named Ottava, as birds are common daemons for those from the Silken Squall. They’ve also received training that is typical in the Squall, allowing the daemon to travel a pretty far distance without hurting their person ))

Tim Drake • (Aged-Up) DCU

[sifr]

Zhong is a small, drab looking black bird with a light whistle. While he's often perched hidden, but nearby, it's not unusual for Tim and his daemon to operate separately.

[dead_tongue]

In an office building full of CEOs, there tends to be a preponderance of daemons resembling predator animals. Wolves, foxes, hawks, eagles.

What trots down the hallway is a fluffy ginger chihuahua. It spots Zhong and starts yapping deliriously.

Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter | MCU

[ricochetingbullets]

[Dex's daemon is a Belgian Malinois named Cressida, Cress for short. Most people unfamiliar with the breed think she's some sort of weird really skinny German Shepherd. She's far more rash and impulsive than Dex, the kind ready to bite first and ask questions later, and the two often get into arguments of how they should proceed in their decision-making.

And if you want to include some of their mental health stuff, they can optionally come with having Daemon Detachment Disorder or DDD from the time they were young thanks to their BPD and ASPD making their connection to one another much more tenuous than they would like. Basically, they can move way farther away from one another than a human/daemon combo should be able to without pain, and it's quite a disturbing sight. People with this disorder often have a bad reputation given the mental illness that also usually accompanies it.]

[avoidthechicken]

[At one point Bob's daemon was an extremely grumpy looking feral cat named Harper because his parents daemons were very, very boring. Then you know, he stopped being a rave loving meth addict who traveled Malaysia looking for drugs and trying to find himself/themselves and scared the hell out of his future superhero team because-

People are sort of shocked because he defies stereotypes a bit - since he's got a daemon that looks like Harper*. Harper is twice the size of a normal tiger daemon, Harper goes where she wants but prefers to stay nearby and Sentry's mania manifests with a sense of a lack of boundaries. DDD is a hell of a thing. and a cool fucking idea that works holy shit

It's twice as unnerving when The Void is here because Harper glitches once, twice, and is - gone. Then appears and reappears whenever the void does it's hunting terrifying work.

In this case Harper is behaving leaning against Bob before offering Cressida a pleasant chuff of greeting with Bob's eyes glowing slightly because today is one of those days.]

I've always kind of wondered if like, you know. you gravitate towards a military career do you get a dog daemon? Walker's got Columbia.


[*The added tragedy of big gold tigers is that they're the result of humans messing with tigers which makes sense for bob/sentry because when you look for big gold cats that aren't super noble (because y'know he's noble - but also sadly) you get gold tiger and you learn how they're all descended from one and you can kinda see Valentina would pull a Mrs. Colter.]

Jessica Jones | Jessica Jones/The Defenders | F/M

[assholic]

[Jessica's daemon was a Bismarck crow with blue eyes named Jesper, who was never shy about sharing his opinion on her life choices with her. But he'd always had the grace to keep those between them- though one could easily tell who he was part of when that same wicked beak would open to spill out rather salty expressions about anyone that they didn't like.

I'm open to all Basic scenarios and all Secondary scenarios. Not entirely up for Advanced options. Can be with someone when the portal/whatever opens and their daemons appear and they try to sort it out together. Or part of a 'how to come to terms that your soul has feathers/fur/scales and judges you openly' group. Comment if you'd like to work something specific out, or just hit me up. M/F for anything shippy/smutty, but open to all for gen cr.]

thomas jopson | the terror

[regularmongoose]

[Jopson's daemon is a Chartreux cat named Ada. She's fairly soft spoken and might seem aloof - or spooky, with her uncanny ability to appear out of nowhere with her big, bright eyes, much like Thomas himself - but can be very warm and friendly if you've wormed your way into their hearts.

Happy to do any scenario - Terror timeline and setting, straight HDM AU, modern AU. Daemons are very much my jam! Would prefer gen rather than shipping, unless you don't mind your character crushing on this gray-ace Victorian.]

[emotioneater]

[Exactly where Cooper and his brown hyena daemon Briseis had come from before they'd ended up on the Terror as a cabin boy was anyone's guess. The pair amused themselves by telling a different story anytime someone asked. He looked very young, no more than seventeen or eighteen years old, and had claimed to be even younger when the expedition had first begun.

What was clear is that there was something a little bit....off about the pair. They often seemed to be around just when the negative emotions of anyone on the ship began to intensify and his mere presence seemed to keep those emotions from getting any worse. There was the odd glance or two as well that was happening more and more these days. The boy hadn't aged a day since joining up nearly two years ago and there was something in the flat dark gaze of Briseis that seemed to say she knew the secrets of everyone around her, human and daemon alike. The crew had started whispering among themselves. If the Tuunbaq had proven real, who knew whom (or what) could be wandering around in the shape of a human among them.

Cooper was leaning against the railing of the ship, gazing out into the icy landscape, with Briseis laying down next to him. She stood up and nudged her other half when she saw Jopson and Ada coming over. Cooper sent out that sixth sense, the one that could pick up on the emotions of the people around him, trying to get a taste of what Thomas was feeling right now.]

Something on your mind?

[The thick Irish accent made many on board believe the pair had come from some backwater farm or the like.]

Bob/Sentry | Thunderbolts / MCU

[avoidthechicken]

[Bob's daemon was a feral cat that looked like a grumpy gray female named Harper (because his mother and father's daemons were boring) but going through the sentry program has...effects and now his daemon is a golden tiger* which given how unassuming he is should be kind of a shock. After all, Harper is twice the size of a normal tiger.

She also wanders, going farther from him than normal daemons would. As Sentry she glows gold, gold eyes, gold fur.

As the void she glitches in and out of reality before she disappears completely. The void rooms have no daemons. But in them, in his void rooms, she's Harper the cat. Just a plain old ordinary cat.]

*gold tigers are a mutation that stem from one tiger. Which makes weird sense.