His Dark Materials / Daemon meme

[memelikeyoumeanit]

Daemons! One of the most enduring parts of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials. As each soul is born, they're born in the form of an animal that shifts as they grow up before settling as a sort of spirit guide, a creature companion, a patronus if you will into adulthood. They range from any animal and come with their own enduring quirks and difficulties since they can't go more then 5-10 feet from their human counterpart at any time. Those without daemons are unnerving, those with daemons simply try to navigate the reality of their world living with everything from a snake to a goat as a best friend.

In this case, the omniverse has opened and everybody gets a daemon. Imagine a talking, walking best friend with it's own personality. Rules are simple and to the point:

1- give your character a daemon
2 - pick a scenario
3 - do that RP thing.



The Basics
1) Getting a Daemon Is this a new experience? an old one? Did you just wake up to find some sort of creature on your bed that talks to you?
2) Shifting Daemons shift shape upon need - or at least what the child is feeling.If you're young and you're caught in a dangerous situation this is the moment your daemon could be a fearsome lion...or a tiny mouse.
3) Settling That first brush of love and acceptance, of someone knowing you wholly for who you are can come as a shock -Especially when your daemon takes on it's final form. What will it be? Are you surprised? Angry? annoyed? How will your friends and family react?
4) Nothin' but Mammals The obvious sex option. And, as weird as it may sound - while no one knows how this kind of thing works it obviously involves people at least petting other people's daemons. Work it out.

Secondary Level

5) Day-to-Day Say your daemon shifts into a goat - and you have to take the bus to work. Say you're a pilot but you have a huge bear as a daemon. Can you do your job? In HDM sailors whose daemons settle as dolphins or fish can never leave the ocean. Are you doomed to the same fate? Happy? Or Upset?
6) Excuse me! There's lots of etiquette around daemons, the biggest of which is Do not touch another person's daemon without their consent. But it's starbucks, or a party, or something and you've just bumped into somebody's daemon. How do you make amends? Do you make amends?
7) Fight you for it Daemons do fight - and it has consequences for humans who feel everything their daemon feels. Either in battle or in an everyday scuffle, your daemons are going at it and you're getting banged around. Do you stop them, or square up against the human you're also technically fighting against?
8) We have to fight for it This is a fight that's required. Daemons bodies are said to be so scared soldiers can't even touch them in battle. You either have to fight to the death, you have to kill someone - how do you cope? Does it work out?

Advanced
9) Death When humans die, their daemons vanish in a puff of dust and smoke. You've just seen someone die. How do you and your daemon take it?
10) Tradition! Tradition The great thing about daemons in the world of HDM is that there are traditions that we never get to see explored. Parents name a child's daemon - how does that work? Explore what you and your daemon will do, from weddings to parties to births.
11) I'm not human There are witches and lots of other creatures without daemons - how do you feel without one? Jealous? At peace? OR do you have a specific kind of daemon like a witch and her bird?
12) Wildcard Do what you want, just toss some animals in it.

Comments

Sabriel | Old Kingdom/Abhorsen series (Sabriel) | OTA

[bybell]

[ Her daemon is a cat, of course, like many before her to the perpetual annoyance of Mogget. ]

Don Draper | Mad Men | OTA

[anotheroldfashioned]

[Don's daemon is a coyote - two sizes larger then a normal one. There's a good chance that Adelaide may make introductions along with Don, the daemon is a bit charismatic.]

Hades | Greek Mythos/Lore Olympus

[underworldsdoglover]

[Cerberus is Hades partner, daemon, and employee all in one. Who wants to come chat with a very large three headed dog?]

Deimos ★ STARFIGHTER

[lapmouse]

[ Bitch yaaas it's my favourite meme. Deimos doesn't actually know that his dæmon is a tasmanian devil! Crummy education systems on Mars have just left him with the impression that she's some kind of big rat, lol. ota canon, crosscanon, whatever - let's be dumb in space, but like, with soul pets this time. ]

y u do this to me bb

[dracoinspace]

[Ok so I can't resist when you send me links. I'll even entertain the clownfish idea. But you write the starter.]

mordred | arthuriana

[cynnen]

[His daemon has recently settled into a badger named Kader. She's a bit too big to ride on his shoulders but heck you, she still does most of the time.]

N. "Mac" Macintyre / Niccolò Machiavelli | Rewrite OC

[sogreataname]

[Both Niccolò and Mac have gorgeous leopard daemons. Niccolò's is named Valencia and Mac's is named Morrigan. All four of them defy you to say a five-and-a-half foot long cat is A Bit Much in normal city life.]

Horatio Hornblower | Hornblower

[midship]

[Irene has settled into the form of a fairly skinny and slightly ungainly red fox. It wouldn't be such a big problem except that everyone else in the Navy seems to have settled as a spaniel or a greyhound or, you know, a proper sort of something.]

felix hugo fraldarius | fe:3h | ota

[crossblade]

[Daemon is a serval cat, and she's an asshole too.]

Will Byers | Stranger Things

[orshouldigo]

[post-Upside Down, Will's daemon, Radagast, Settles as an orange oakleaf butterfly, who tends to hide in Will's pockets or the collar of his shirts. He's male (which 100% contributes to the bullying Will gets in school), shy, and very self-conscious.

The Mind Flayer's possession does multiple fucked-up things to the poor guy: 1) while he and Will never quite Separate, they can get a pretty large distance from each other before pain sets in. 2) he re-Settles as a black tarantula, on the small side. Neither he nor Will is comfortable with this, and Radagast is even more prone to hiding, either on Will's person somewhere, in his bag, or even some distance away. They try not to let people at school other than the Party know about this change. There's hope that Radagast will return to his butterfly form at some point in the future. 3) if that wasn't bad enough, Radagast is missing a leg, as a sort of permanent reminder of all the damage the Mind Flayer did to Will and his daemon.

(In adulthood, Radagast does eventually return to butterfly form, but one of his wings is torn.)

post-possession fun.

[micycle]

[The week after the gate is a blur. A laughable grounding for dishonesty, a failed history test, two shouting matches outside the secluded cabin. It's Friday again before he makes it back to the Byers' driveway, tires skidding on gravel; Bob's car is still parked next to Joyce's, and it puts a twist in his gut.]

You should have called ahead, [Jody chimes from his backpack, sticking her snout up against his growing mop of hair. She's been taking this form more and more lately, even though she still hasn't officially Settled. Mike, for one, is keeping his fingers crossed - a Tasmanian devil is a lot more manageable than some of her other preferred shapes, like the obstinate bison she decided to be on the day of his last algebra test.

Ignoring the warning, Mike reaches out and raps on the front door. He hasn't seen his best friend conscious and himself in almost a week, and if he's being honest, he's almost... nervous. Like he won't be right, or he won't be enough.]

Eijirou Kirishima | My Hero Academia | ota

[explodosafe]

[ His daemon is either a not quite yet fully grown black wolf or a honey badger, prolly thanks to hanging out with Bakugou. I think an au where the daemons can't actually speak or just do it to 'their' humans might be fun? ]

apprentice Xehanort | Kingdom Hearts

[ayoungmansteppedinto]

[There's no daemon yet, but something seems to be forming. If anybody's curious.]

Fenris | Dragon Age II | OTA

[inthesmallthings]

[It's a wolf. The Daemon, that is. Fenris mostly ignores him.]

Galahad du Lac | MoA/Arthurian Mythos | OTA

[knightgallant]

[Galahad's daemon, Efa, has settled into the form of a white lioness. She's more boisterous than her peaceful and patient companion, and has a knack for sniffing and head-bumping first and asking questions later.]

[givingexposition]

[ Big lionesses aren't something the bard sees often and he's immediately drawn to it, although he keeps a respectable distance as to not cross any personal boundaries. ]

Aren't you gorgeous? Most impressive, for certain.

[ Jaskier's daemon, Dandelion, is perched on the lute case strapped to his back and looking over his shoulder. He's not a small bird either, being a peacock, but Jaskier is so used to the weight that he doesn't mind at all. Dandelion doesn't say there for long, jumping off his shoulder to the ground and stepping a little closer to the lioness, head tilting. Jaskier looks up at the other man, blue eyes friendly, a mischievous smile playing on his lips. ]

And good day to you too, sir.

Moloch | Milton's Paradise Lost | OTA

[bloodysacrifice]

[Moloch, despite being angel, has a stable daemon named Távros, and no one knows why. Távros is a playful black Angus bull calf.]

((Well, I found a name for Loki's daemon, so I had to do this.))

[coldsong]

Anyone knowing Loki by reputation would be likely to assume he has a snake daemon, or, failing that, maybe a fox or a horse. A cat wouldn't be too much of a surprise, either; certainly he's catlike in his contrary nature and selective affection.

What he actually has, is an Arctic hare. Her name is Jökulrós, Ice-Flower, and it took her a long, long time to settle, even by the standards of the long-lived Aesir. She has, in fact, been a snake, a crow, a wasp, a caribou, a black mare, and a more ordinary-looking cottontail. Her slowness to settle was waved away as a side-effect of his own shapeshifting gifts, until he discovered his true Jotunn heritage. Then, the brown rabbit turned white, and stayed that way.

After some of the things that have happened to him, she bears scars, as well, small thin lacerations on her ears, a healed cut on her lips, and she walks with a limp--which is why most of the time he carries her, tucked into his jacket, merely a pair of soft ears and whiskers and bright black eyes peeping out against his chest.

He is in the Plaza today, seated with Jökulrós in his lap, while reading and drinking the last of a cup of coffee, when he catches sight of the bull calf. There is enough distance between it and its person that he cannot immediately connect to whose it is, but it's an unusual enough daemon that he watches its approach curiously. And so does the hare, sitting up on her hind legs (just slightly wobbly).

Ben Solo/Kylo Ren | Star Wars

[chiaro_oscuro]

[Ben's daemon is a large jet-black loth-wolf, who easily keeps pace with him as he walks. She's the more calm and measured of the two.]

6

[knightgallant]

[The various Nexus markets are very busy on the best of days. Humans, humanoids, creatures, and daemons are all scrambling to get their errands done and doing their best to squeeze and weave around the throng of other bodies all tightly packed into one spot.

It's no wonder, then, that Galahad accidentally backs up into Ben's wolf as he's trying to pick out fruit to take back to the inn for breakfast. As he stumbles, one of his hands reflexively comes out along the creatures back as he struggles to find something to catch his balance. He thinks he's bumped into a child at first, but as his fingers tangle into fur the knight's eyes widen in mortification.]

Oh-- [Efa's quick to step in as her human flails, her large mouth coming out to catch the front of Galahad's shirt to help him right himself again.] My apologies, sir and madam!

Cassandra of Troy | Greek Myth | OTA

[prophetessoftroy]

[Cassandra’s daemon is a Pontic adder named Illus. Probably the living being she trusts the most.]

Sam Winchester \ SPN

[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 very 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 had to learn how to live with it outside his body rather than inside of it.

Ignis is a dark crimson dragon. She is about the size of a cougar, has four legs and a pair of wings. Even though having a dragon dæmon is incredibly rare, that is not the most notable thing about her: she is a creature that has been ripped apart and put back together again, and it shows. Her scales and skin carry innumerable and grotesque scars, and although she may have been beautiful once, she is difficult to look at now. Despite the fact that's she's battered and worn, she's incredibly affectionate and often seeks out physical contact from Sam and other dæmons of Sam's loved ones. )

Rey || Star Wars

[hardscrabble]

[Kian is a fennec fox, small and scrappy like Rey.]

[survivalthroughhate]

[Maul's daemon is named Malice, an apt name for a vornskr. They're both full of fury, but Malice is a bit easier to deal with. Just as Maul is missing everything below the waist and has cybernetics, Malice had her four legs lopped off during their first duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi. They've since been replaced with prosthetics. When she spots Rey and her daemon, she walks up to Kian, looks the other daemon over with a disdainful air, and then bats them to the side with one of her mechanical paws hard enough to send the fennec tumbling head over heels.]

Malice, where are your manners?

[She replies in a deep, throaty rumble full of amusement.]

In the dust along with the fox.

[Maul tries hard not to smirk at her words and fails.]

Kitty | Shadowrun or Changeling: the Lost | crosscanon welcome

[runs]

[Daemon hasn't settled yet and likes to hide and prank others.]

Milla Silent-Death | Werewolf: The apocalypse | ota, crosscanon welcome

[untailed]

[info in journal

Daemon's a wolf.]

Jaskier | The Witcher (Netflix) | OTA

[givingexposition]

[ Jaskier's daemon is named Dandelion, usually friendly and just as curious and prone to get in trouble as him.

It's also kind of impossible to hide that it's male, given how it's a rather striking looking peacock. Jaskier only regrets the fact that it can not sing properly. ]

Cirilla of Cintra || The Witcher

[girlinthewoods]

[Caspar can often be found taking the form of a pied wing swallow or other birds, though he has not settled yet and can take on any form he wishes.]

[givingexposition]

[ ooc: Hi! Would you like to do anything between these two? because I need more Ciri in my life. ]

Amelia Ronsam | 4th Ed. D&D (Rogue)

[rogueinladysclothing]

[ Amelia's daemon is an exceptionally long and quiet black cat named Koli. When he and his rogue aren't slipping unnoticed down darkened alleys or through large crowds, the pair can be found enjoying each other's company on opposite sides of a room. However angry both woman and daemon can get, the two are both very happy to sit in silence together, separated by distance but comforted by presence. ]

Thnisko/Death |Milton's Paradise Lost| OTA

[thnisko]

[For all your creepy crawler needs(warning it is very large and creepy). Death has a Giant Amazon Yellow Legged Centipede hanging out around him. Her name is Lepta.]

[vliste_staba]

[On Thra, gelfling do not have daemons. Their souls, spirits, Essences, are kept within their bodies unless interfered-with. And thank Thra Itself for that, else the Skeksis might have been much better able to steal them from them.

Coming to the Nexus, though, makes for a slight change. Maybe it's temporary, maybe not, but Deet finds herself waking in the curled body of a full-grown Nurloc, which is easily twenty feet long. Of its many luminous eyes, most are spiritfire-blue, but one is purple, the mark of the Darkening.

It would be exaggerating to say she knows what's going on immediately. She doesn't, though she welcomes a familiar creature with open arms. The Nurloc himself has to explain, and after a long discussion, during which she names him Lir, they emerge to see if anyone else is experiencing this as a change from the norm.

Thnisko is probably only easy to find for Deet, but find him she does, and while he can't see the huge invertebrate following her, there's no doubt he can hear the approach, and catch the earthy-sweet scent of rock and moss.]

Ohh...oh, you have one too! [Deet is immediately smitten with the centipede, which just looks like a pointier, tiny version of a Nurloc to her eyes.]

esther greenwood | the bell jar | ota

[higginbottom]

[Archie is a red-billed chough who likes to hop on Esther's shoulder while she writes.]