Daemons

Entry tags:

[meme] au

Daemons

In the universe of the His Dark Materials trilogy (or the movie The Golden Compass), every person has a creature called a dæmon that accompanies them all their lives, and is emotionally and metaphysically a part of them. Dæmons are often described as sort of external souls (while the part of the personality in a human's body is the spirit).

Basic Dæmon Facts:

- They take the shape of animals
- They can talk, no matter what their shape
- Children's dæmons can change form at will; around puberty they 'settle' and become one animal permanently
- Neither the person or the dæmon 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 dæmon feels pain, so will their person, and vice versa
- Being physically apart from one's dæmon causes horrible emotional and physical pain
- Dæmons frequently talk to and touch each other, in ways that reflect or complement their persons' interactions, but dæmons 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 dæmon without permission is a terrible violation.

How it works:

Just design a dæmon 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 comment, with your muse's name and series in the subject. Check out other people's dæmons and let your dæmons interact too.

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[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 both her wrists together, 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 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.]

[Raisa is a shrike, probably a Northern Shrike, she's small, grey, and can scream like a banshee when she wants to.
She's also at least twice as ready to throw down at any given time as Ilya is, the rage is stored in the bird, apparently.]

[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.]

[Adrian's daemon is a dragonfly/scorpion kind of critter, made entirely of crystal points, sort of an oilslick-cobalt blue-black, and either sits on their head inside the exo-suit, or has their own that's like a soap bubble so they can still fly around when they visit Grace ~~and/or Simon~~
I've also got a human AU for reverse-verse shenanigans if desired. Daemon stays the same, though.]

[Grace's daemon is a red fox named Rosalind. I'd love some kinda scene on Erid with them! Thoughts?]

[Absolutely! Obvious answer is Adrian (and Spike) coming to check on some kind of environmental update in person. Or coming to join Grace on his daily walk because Rocky got caught up in a project and can't be there.]

[Either one sounds good! You have an idea for a starter or shall I?]

[Go for it! I'm finishing up my obligations for the day so I can get into the fun stuff]

[Every day that they wake up on Erid feels like a gift.

Just being able to wake up by itself, that is. The dome is far, far beyond that, a debt they can never repay no matter how much their hosts insist it isn't necessary. Grace and Rosalind saved Erid, giving them a home is the least they can do, they insist. And he supposes he can't argue with that.

The novelty of having a house has yet to wear off as Grace tidies the bed, brushes his teeth, and drinks his breakfast, his mood a buoyant force against the heavier gravity. Rosalind trots along at his heels, adding her commentary to the morning routine, ears perked in the direction of the door. Rocky's not coming today - summoned halfway across the continent for some reason he'd deemed too complicated to explain - but he'd promised that Adrian would look in on them in his place.]

There were many things that had -mostly jokingly- been dubbed P2C2Es, which was 'Process Too Complicated To Explain', and it was a descriptor that went both ways, when they didn't have time to waste with breaking down the exact reasons and cascading processes that caused any given thing -generally something biological but not always- they invoked a P2C2E to keep on track, and generally came around to the full explanation later.

Though in this case even Adrian only knew part of what the committee and the project was for, they'd know the full scope of things later, when necessary. For now all they needed to do was keep on doing what they'd been doing with the environmental adjustments, but also keep Grace company on his walks since Rocky wouldn't be there to do so for a few days.

They trundled up the hill, Spike zipping around in circles in their own xenonite globe, one that was lightweight enough that Spike's own movement kept it aloft, pausing only long enough to make sure they were oriented correctly in front of the door rather than the wall, they knocked, rocking happily back and forth as they did, anticipating the response to Spike's globe, since they'd just rested on Adrian's carapace inside the exo-suit the day before.

"Adrian's coming," Rosalind announces, her sharp ears hearing that familiar five-footed gait approaching the house.

"Two seconds!" Grace hurries to finish putting his shoes on, an important part of the morning routine, although he's usually running far more behind than this. Or, rather, Rocky loves showing up early, impatient to be reunited with his squishy human friend. Strange to hear those measured, patient knocks instead of the frantic pounding that usually starts his days on Erid.

The door isn't locked (it doesn't even have a lock), but the Eridians have taken care to accommodate human customs on privacy, silly though they seem. Grace opens the door to greet his visitor, a smile already on his face, always happy to see someone he knows, and Adrian most of all. "Good morning!" he says, and only then does he notice the little clear orb that seems to be flat-out orbiting the Eridian. "Oh wow! Spike got an upgrade!"

"Yes!" That got an excited little wiggle, bobbing briefly, it was what usually came before their version of Rocky's excited waving, "Spike prefers to be mobile. Yesterday was fine. But this is better." Adrian tried to stick to short statements so as not to overload the translator, especially because they definitely had a habit of rambling off on side-tangents and having to come back around to the main point multiple times.

Spike apparently agreed if the tinkling wind-chime noise and the quick loop of a figure-eight around first Grace and then Rosalind before returning to the loose orbit around Adrian was any indication.

Adrian extended a hand, then, fully intent on holding Grace's hand for the walk even if it wasn't wholly necessary. The newest revisions of the exo-suit allowed for some digital manipulation even if it was more like a mitten than a glove it was still good enough for that, "Are we going to the bluff or to the beach?"

[I feel like ~~stupid Canadian wolf-bird~~ Loon is too on the nose, but I also feel like it's exactly perfect just for reasons.
Molly was probably good at being bigger things when he was a kiddo, something to just hide against when he got too anxious or the panic started to set in, but eventually they learned that smaller was actually better, and feathers made a good tactile sensation to focus on and drag himself out of it. She also just likes lurking.]

[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.]

[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.]

[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. I think she's probably a budgie named Cricket, tiny, brightly colored, and sweary as fuck.
I'm also cool with alive!AUs, whatever works.]

[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.]

[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.]

[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.]

[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.]

[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.]

[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 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.]

[Also available in modern-day AU flavor, deets on his profile - his daemon is named Barun, she's a sugar glider with the coloration of a silver point Siamese cat, and she's usually tucked into the pocket of his scrubs, but also likes clinging to the back of his shoulder.]

[Zeno's dæmon is a harpy eagle. Her name is Hera, and much like him she is large and in charge, standing nearly to Zeno's hip when at full height. As fastidious as he as well, she is always preened, never a feather out of place, and often is as aloof, perching above and out of most reach.

Seemingly, at any rate.

Keen eyes will note how she chooses her roosts, picking those near some more often than others. How she'll just quickly pull the tail of the dog that teases her when she gets a chance. How she'll allow certain dæmons to shelter under a wing.]

[ Gideon is in his office when he hears a commotion from out in the hallway. At first, he ignores it - occasionally, the more aggressive patients cause disturbances.

But then he registers its rapidly approaching his office, and the only people he hears yelling are...his staff. And the singular voice of--

Gideon looks up. Puts his pen to the side, and pushes his chair back to stand.

By the time he's circled around his desk, the door has burst open, with a brief shower of feathers and blood. ]

Hera.

[ There are those who find Hera's ability to travel so far as further evidence that the clones don't have proper souls. That something is wrong with Zeno. Gideon had always thought, pragmatically, that it sounded like a useful option to have available. His own dæmon hardly leaves his side - rarely leaves the room.

It means it could never do what Hera is clearly doing right now.

Hera's chest feathers are slick and dark with blood. ]

...Where is he?

[ Mnemosyne waddles out from where he had been sleeping underneath Gideon's desk, claws tapping on the wooden floor. ]

[Security is still chasing her, a man in uniform - his snake dæmon hanging from his neck like a loose tie, shaking its rattle tail - crashing through the doorway even as she sinks her talons into the high back of Gideon's guest chair. Leather pops as she squeezes. She hisses and flaps her wings in warning, crest raised to the ceiling.

Like her other half, Hera could be petty or pragmatic as the mood and necessity struck.

In this moment, trapped between Gideon and the guard, she fixes her great grey eyes on Gideon and speaks.]

Raccoon. [A clear, sharp voice. As cool and smooth as water.] The BSAA sent their pets.

[The Connections weren't the only ones with a bespoke tool in their arsenal.]

[ Gideon puts out a brief, dismissive hand towards the security. Fools - as if they can't recognize a dæmon that belongs to one of their own, as opposed to an infiltration.

The guard lingers, uneasy, but Gideon ignores him and his dæmon in favor of Hera.

Mnemosyne doesn't speak often, and her anxious chittering happens before she talks. But she clambers up onto the seat of the guest chair, staring up at Hera. She's often more active than Gideon - higher strung, as well, nervous about things Gideon has long since forgotten he used to worry about too. ]

Ambush? Cowards.

Well? [ Gideon looks past both of them to the security guard again. ] Raccoon City. You heard her.

[ 'What? But...' The man wilts under Gideon's impassive, glass-lensed stare. '...Sure, boss, I'll...get the others.'

Gideon pulls out his phone, already assuming Zeno can't be contacted, and intending on alerting the few higher ups he can personally reach. ]

The Connections won't help? Is that why you've come to us?

[ Gideon pauses, staring at his unlocked phone screen and then over at Mnemosyne. Back up at Hera. ]

...Is that correct?

[Jill's dæmon is a lynx named Cobalt.]

[ Gideon's dæmon settled when he was relatively young still; a fat, surprisingly lively beaver named Mnemosyne. She is especially attached to his side, with the two usually touching unless they're busy with a task that requires them to temporarily separate.

Gideon himself is not shy about breaking social taboos around dæmons, frequently speaking directly to others' dæmons; Mnemosyne also will speak directly to other people. There's a rumor that Mnemosyne even touches other people with some regularity, particularly ones Gideon likes, but surely that's...just a rumor? ]

[ Rumors circulate around Will not having a dæmon at all. That perhaps he was born without one, a sign of his difference; or that perhaps it died, and that's why he's so strange now.

But those who spend more time around him will realize these rumors are not true. It's just that the tiny trap door spider, Hestia, is often hidden away in Will's pocket or sleeve, or else hiding within the room at large. She does enjoy her privacy, seemingly as much as her human half...

But she can be convinced to crawl out and greet those who she appears to deem worthy, and who don't hover or crowd her, hoping for a peek. ]

[Traditionally, one's dæmon was kept close. A comfort for halves of the whole. But Hera was less a manifestation of what Zeno is, than what he yearned to be.

While he remained trapped in the cold and dark, leashed by the whims of others, she soared high and free. The sun on her wings, the wind in her feathers. Beholden to nothing and no one....

But for the desire to bring back small joys to him. Treasures and tales to share.

Her shadow passes over the treeline and falls onto the lawn at the back of Will's tidy little house. A wild rabbit hunches and freezes in the grass, too frightened to even dare to breathe. She pays it no mind and drops gracefully, with a whomp of gusted air to a stump near where Will works. Her long talons digging into the soft, decaying wood, she shifts and turns, and cocks her head. Crest raising quizzically.]

[She didn't used to be a bat, but somehow when he had the transformation, she became one - a little Honduran white bat. She spends a lot of time in David's jackets.]

[As someone else with a daemon that's changed after it should have (and after some uhhh life-altering events) I think this needs to happen, if you're interested.]

Sounds good to me; give me a starter!

Chrissy still wasn't entirely sure how she'd survived everything that had happened in Hawkins, but she had, though not unchanged, there were still hairline scars spiraling unevenly down her limbs, and full daylight was a problem, unfiltered sunlight hurt her whole face and not just her eyes, though she found she hadn't minded becoming more or less nocturnal, overnight bus tickets were cheaper than sightseeing routes, which meant that the babysitting money she'd saved got her all the way to California instead of just somewhere in Oklahoma, or Kansas, maybe as far as Colorado.

Mostly she was lucky that she'd had a place to land when she arrived, Amber, who had been cheer captain before her own reign, had a place and a futon she could crash on, and had even gotten her in at the cafe and souvenir shop she worked at, though Chrissy didn't start there until the following week, which meant that she had time to familiarize herself with the boardwalk.

More than her own changes, Simon, her daemon, had been altered by the experience. Before everything that had happened he'd mostly settled as a corn snake, though a powder blue with pistachio green mottling along his snout. After it all, though, he was closer to a boa constrictor, those pastel hues gone to deeper jewel tones, and where she had been able to comfortably carry him wrapped around her wrist or draped across the back of her neck, even during cheer practice, now he sat heavy along her shoulders, wrapped fully around her waist and still had tail trailing.

It was something that drew attention even here, where there was more variety in daemons than she'd ever seen. Music drew her attention through the general hubbub of the place, and found herself carried along easily with the crowd, keeping herself to the edges of it as best she could, just finding herself relaxing into the thrum of it, the music itself and the energy of the audience.

All the boys had bats; only Dwayne's ever came out of hiding during a show, perching on the brim of his hat and chittering with the music. David's own daemon, Sunniva, in particular hides in the collar of his jackets or in his pocket, a tiny flash of bright white against the black.

Tonight they're playing a loud, long set, which is why when it ends and the boys gather to pack things away, they're all hungry. They like to play a game when they're like this: they all find a tourist, and bring them down to the beach, and the one who they like the look of the most gets eaten. Winner gets first bite.

So tonight David spots her, a girl he's never seen before, her daemon watching him the same way she is, like he's taking up all the air in the room. Well then.

He finds his way over to her, one of his cat-smiles making his teeth flash white and pretty and handsome all at once. "I think I would have remembered seeing you before."

Sunniva chitters from her space in his jacket collar, not peeking out, but getting a sense of this person. She's hungry, too.

That smile reminded her of Eddie, just a momentary pang that she'd left without so much as a goodbye, but it was definitely better that way, since she'd all but ruined his life.

Though what had her attention more than the smile was the fact that Simon had lifted his head from her shoulder, drawing up to where his gaze was almost level with hers, just watching intently even as she answered, "That's because I haven't made it down this far before. Mostly stay up at the civilized end." She tilted her head briefly in the direction of the more populated end of the boardwalk, or at least the end that had more businesses lining the way. It was a movement that caused both her ponytail and her daemon's head to sway.

"Moved here a few days ago." A nod towards the stage, then, "You're good. We don't get music like that in Indiana. Not in Hawkins, anyway. Not live."

"Oh, the boring end," he replies thoughtfully, but there's that smile again. People miss the the teeth, when it's pretty like that.

Sunniva peeks her head out of his collar, and then climbs up to his ear. He's about to thank her for the compliment, and possibly say shit about the crappiness in general of Indiana, when Sunniva chirps her daemon's the wrong shape.

And he cocks his head. "Hawkins. I think I've heard of that town. Shithole central, is what the tourists say. I'm David."

Sunniva immediately goes into his hair, where she hides next, her white fur matching his mullet.

That initial response got a soft laugh out of her, half-startled, like it was a sound she didn't expect to be making, but that was usually how laughter was for her, not that he'd have any way of knowing it.

There was no rush to defend her hometown, instead she just nodded an agreement even as Simon tracked the other daemon's movement, "I'm pretty sure people were saying that before it as a literal five-mile sinkhole." It wasn't quite that big, or at least it hadn't been when she'd left, but that had been a week now and things might have changed.

"I'm Chrissy, one member of a mass exodus." Her brow creased a little, "Which is really just 'an exodus', the 'mass' part is implied." This was followed by another head-shake, ponytail flicking again but Simon's head staying still, "Sorry, decade and a half of Sunday school, some of it actually stuck."

[AIs aren't supposed to have daemons, so the recent appearance of Arid's came as a surprise to both of them. Moreley's usual form is a raven, though on occasion he shifts to one of a handful of other forms - a jumping spider, a hawk, a golden retriever…

He and Arid frequently argue, since both of them are still learning to be themselves and certainly aren’t used to dealing with one another. Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to mind when she takes off into network space, and while he tends to find his way to whichever physical system she’s occupying, he isn’t tied to her physical presence.]

[Graybird is a black rat snake. Graybird, of course, is probably not her real name, but what her real name is, only Brain knows. She's average sized for her species, and black as coal. Usually she's hiding under Brain's coat, or on his monitor, or slithering at his side.

Usually.

Sometimes, she's nowhere to be seen. Now why might that be...?]

[Just like Maedhros himself Maltariel was rather hard to miss. So wherever they go she just resigns herself to lounging in plain sight, trying her best to look too lazy to be intimidating.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Daemons

Chrissy Cunningham + Stranger Things + OTA

Techie | Dredd | OTA

Ilya | Heated Rivalry | OTA

El | Weird Stuff Happens: The Series | OTA

Adrian | Project Hail Mary | OTA

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Shane Hollander | Heated Rivalry | M/M for anything serious, otherwise OTA for platonic stuff

Torii | OC | OTA

Eddie + Stranger Things + OTA

Charles - Dead Boy Detectives - OTA

Henry Stillman | X-Verse OC | OTA

Petit | X-verse OC | OTA

Mina / Urban Fantasy OC / OTA

Rogue + Doctor Who + OTA

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

Steve | Stranger Things | OTA

Shiny \ Fabulous Killjoys OC \ OTA

Everest | Hotel Artemis | OTA

Zeno | Resident Evil

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Jill Valentine | Resident Evil

Victor Gideon | Resident Evil

Will Graham | Hannibal

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David | Lost Boys (musical) | ota

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Lemme know how this hits you, I'm happy to change things up, tried to keep it open-ended

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Arid | The Fall | OTA

Brain|Kingdom Hearts UX|OTA

Maedhros | The Silmarillion | OTA