#also gender doesn’t real. his gender is daemon

[creacherclaudius]

in the last couple years i have occasionally thought about daemon stuff, and when i did i often wondered if c’s coyote form still suits him, bc while i do feel a strong attachment to it, i’ve also felt drawn to some other forms that i didn’t have much of a connection to back when i first bonded with him. i’ve also had periods of wondering about daemon gender etc… basically just questioning everything i’d established about him in the past.

the point of bringing this up being, one reason i’m so glad i’ve rediscovered the daemonism community is that it’s reminded me that there aren’t actual rules to having a daemon. he doesn’t have to have one final form, or even be really and truly settled now or ever. he’s a part of me, and if something Feels Like Him, that can be enough!

[princesssszzzz]

I read leaks so much and it’s so hard to confirm some of them but I’m worried the most about Nettles. So many book purist stans want her cut and I just think they’re racist

The losers that hate Nettles don’t hate her because of racism, it’s because of misogynoir and it’s very specific to her gender. It’s more than what show Laena, Baela, and Rhaena deal with because they are portrayed on screen by multiracial actresses. B & R are also the legitimate biological daughters of Daemon and don’t present as a romantic threat to a fictional ship. Obviously there is not black or white races in ASOIAF so Nettles is canonically a different race than them and physically looks different than them even show Baela & Rhaena. The vitriol and constant attempts to dismiss her is specifically because she’s NOT a male not solely because of her race. If people had an issue with book characters that allegedly “caused” infidelity of some sort or got in the way of a ship, then people wouldn’t have attempted to campaign for this Cregan/Jace crackship to be real. Even after Jace’s actor goes on long rants calling Baela his wife and they love only each other they are still at it and dead serious about it. Instead, they were praying that Baela would be disrespected and cheated on. George can come out tomorrow and say Daemon is bisexual and slept with Addam of Hull and I promise you nor the character or actor would receive hate. Corlys, Alyn, and Addam have never and will never receive this hate. Hugh and Ulf also won’t despite being “traitors.” They are portrayed by black male actors. No one is hating on them. No one is nitpicking their scenes or attempting to devalue their characters. At most Corlys is ignored unless he’s propping up someone else.

And then speaking of propping up others, Daemon seems like a total POS on the show and 99% of the people who are suddenly oh so concerned about how he is as a father want Rhaena to replace Nettles. There’s no reason to even pretend like that’s the real reason why they want Nettles cut and want Rhaena near him instead. This #1 attaches a likable and innocent character to Daemon to make him seem like a better person without the writers actually making him a better person #2 removes the threat called Nettles. Nettles doesn’t have to actually sleep with Daemon, her literally existing is an issue to these people

[atopvisenyashill]

What if Rhaenyra and Alicent's children took after their mothers in appearances?

this is difficult for me bc the answer is “everything” and “nothing at all.”

rhaenyra has a much easier time convincing people the children are laenor’s bc the only evidence the greens & vaemond put forth is that they don’t look like laenor’s kids (which tbh, in a time before dna testing, saying “hey these kids look suspiciously like the mail man i mean the captain of the guard” is great evidence). if the three oldest LOOK Valyrian, then not only is Rhaenyra’s reputation much better bc she’s not considered an adulterous whore, but it leaves the greens with only one real argument against her and that’s HER gender and not that she doesn’t have a proper heir. The gender argument is still incredibly good because it’s the argument the greens push anyway - Boremund, Peake, Aemond, and that expired jar of mayo Orwyle all explicitly say that their issue is a woman inheriting the throne! Whether Laenor lives in this situation affects a lot as well; if he’s less stressed at court it’s possible he’s a better political ally to Rhaenyra so he doesn’t get offed for being useless & Laenor as Prince Consort during the Dance is just leaps and bounds better than Daemon.

HOWEVER. Alicent’s children looking like her actually gives Rhaenyra a new argument - something something, my son & heir is of Pure Valyrian Blood, look at him with his Pure Valyrian Looks and look at my brown haired baby brother. This can certainly be overlooked by being cool and riding a dragon - pls see Rhaenys and Meleys - but even flying on the prettiest dragon might not be enough goodwill to get people to overlook The Everything about Aegon not even wanting to be king. And an Aegon who doesn’t want to be king AND doesn’t even look Valyrian AND his sister has a true born son that looks Valyrian? Even if a faction forms up around Aegon - and to be clear it definitely still would because Otto will still be pushing it - I think it becomes an uphill battle to get Aegon to actually take up the crown.

I would say that they’d deal with this by betrothing Helaena and Jace but the thing about the Targaryens is that they are their own biggest opps so I genuinely don’t know if Rhaenyra, Viserys, or Alicent would see the sense in combining their lines & do this or if Rhaenyra still decides “Laena & Daemon are my besties of course I’m tying our lines & ensuring Daemon fights for me in the upcoming political showdown” (even tho Daemon was never gonna fight for Alicent in a million years) or if Laenor pushes for a different betrothal (either a smarter one that gets them allies, like betrothing Jace to one of the Baratheon girls, or wants to combine his line with his sisters & pushes for Baela/Rhaena anyways). If Jace and Helaena DON’T marry I think there’s still going to be a succession crisis, and if they still decide to use their dragons to fight that crisis, it’s still destructive no matter what. The main issue is that if Rhaenyra can make the greens look bad, they have less of a foothold in ousting her, but can Rhaenyra use the fact that her sons are legitimate well enough to shore up support? On her own I don’t think so - she got a lot of support in canon even with the boys looking like Harwin, but also needlessly shot herself in the foot like several times as well so - but with Jacaerys by her side (and potentially Laenor as well) I do think she’d have a better shot at taking & holding Westeros bloodlessly over Aegon. But again - while Otto focuses on Rhaenyra being a whore (bc they live in a hellscape and it’s a great argument) the issue is Andal succession laws & Jaehaerys. There was always going to be conflict surrounding Rhaenyra taking the throne. If she can make an ally out of Alicent somehow or even completely bury Alicent’s arguments (ie, why do your kids look like Criston Cole or something to that affect), the issue becomes more akin to Aenys’ problems of having a few unruly lords. Jacaerys and Laenor are good politicians though, as is Corlys, and if she doesn’t have the legitimacy of her children being questioned, i think she has an easier time but that doesn’t mean it might not still come to war.

[the-daily-dreamer]

I am team black, however I am incredibly sympathetic toward Alicent.

Alicent was ‘pimped’ out by her own father to push his desire to have his blood on the throne, asked by her KING to not say anything to Rhaenyra, then punished by her only friend for having married Viserys, which she literally has no say in. Alicent is a child bride at this point, she has been raped and abused in its many forms all for the sake of kingdom and duty..

Then Rhaenyra lied, held truths from Alicent which left her feeling betrayed especially when it results in Alicents only guaranteed ally (her father) being removed from court.

That all could have been resolved over the years, But then come along Rhaenyras bastards. Yes, they are bastards regardless of Laenor claiming them, but it further adds insult to injury because those lies have now become physical and everyone’s ignoring it. And Alicent has sacrificed so much.. she isn’t wrong.

People are constantly up in arms about daemon grooming Rhaenyra, but overlook the grooming of Alicent. Both women are victims of the patriarchal game, the only difference is that where Alicent is a pawn in this game, a game she has played by the rules without complaint of her own position. Rhaenyra is a prize who doesn’t have to follow the rules because her father will always support her, we’ve seen that from how her children are constantly viewed as legitimate when they’re obviously not.

I don’t even like Criston but he was right when he said to Rhaenyra that there are girls who would kill to be in her position, because not only is she heir she still has that sense of freedom and security and we are seeing it in real time with Alicent..

Being a Targaryen fan shouldn’t remove one’s ability to be sympathetic or look at the nuance within these stories. You can back the Targaryens (blacks) while still holding sympathy for Alicent and her family (Greens).

All of this. Just. Yes.

This is the kind of nuance that this fandom needs and I’m so happy to see that there are some targ stans and black supporters that can understand the other side.

Alicent is not the power-hungry demoness that people paint her as. She’s a victim of the society she lives in. Groomed and forced into a role that actively will harm her for the sake of the men in her life. Trying desperately to consolidate everything in her life so that everyone is happy with her, and thus getting hurt by everyone. Rhaenyra is also a victim of grooming and the sexism of her world. She does face disadvantages solely for her sex and gender. I don’t always agree with her but (and I do think her father constantly saving her ass makes her quite privileged) but I can still see the nuances of her case.

I’m just so happy to see a good take. Black or green, we should all be able to see the nuances and not be blind to how a character is mistreated for the sake of bolstering our side.

[rhaenyradelights]

do you think rhaenyra has been softened by the show? people talk about how she and alicent have less initiative than in f&b (alicent not scheming, rhaenyra not killing vaemond herself, etc) and have been whitewashed in a way. i personally was expecting more crimes but also i didn't read it so idk. in my mind you are a rhaenyra expert so i wanted to hear your thoughts ❤️

okay here’s where i’m at. i think it is by and large not useful especially from a character perspective to continually judge the show against the book. we have established that this is not a traditional adaptation, that f&b is a textbook full of propaganda, and that the show is more than happy to diverge and expand as necessary. and i don’t know why this is SO difficult for people to do, but these are not people whose True Selves are recorded in f&b and then the show is mutating or taking away their feminism or whatever. the rhaenyra onscreen is not the rhaenyra in the book, and we have to find a way to engage with what we’re watching without using fidelity to the book.

people are currently OBSESSED with saying that the show is “taking away” alicent and rhaenyra’s “agency” but these are not real women!!!!!!! why is the only power some fans are capable of recognizing the power of being the one saying “yes kill them”. it’s utterly strange to me that humanizing these characters and placing them in a larger narrative context is making so many people regress into middle schoolers. the show is about gendered power and ruination, and the different forms battle and control pressed upon women based on station and circumstance, and the tragedy of looking for love in places where it cannot be given. showing rhaenyra and alicent strive for peace while amongst men who are thirsting for war isn’t whitewashing them, it’s giving added pathos and context so that when things change and they DO call for violence, there’s an understanding that there were other choices that could’ve been made, and other paths that weren’t taken. it’s storytelling 101. did people want rhaenyra to go from a young girl to a bloodthirsty killer at the first opportunity????? we’ve set the stage for future crimes and like….. a good narrative…. by showing how these women got to be where they are and how they feel about it… and they’re already complicit and responsible for so much wrongdoing, just bc we don’t see rhaenyra screaming “GO DOG GO” at daemon in the throne room doesn’t mean the show didn’t communicate that she approved of his actions (and maybe did so beforehand).

like not to be a cunt (and this isn’t directed at you) but grounding action in a story by expanding character motivation and having them work within an existing patriarchal framework in order to make a cohesive narrative and communicate the core themes of the story…… is just basic television storytelling. people complaining about “weakness” being “antifeminist” because these two women are clinging to the love they share DURING SEASON ONE OF THE STORY instead of jumping directly into a war they will be leading for the next three seasons…. is. stupid. just absolutely braindead and really hard to critique justly bc i have so much contempt for 90% of the fan engagement 😭

i’m looking forward to way more expansion of nyra’s character next episode and next season, i do think she’s had less to work with because the majority of the focus has been on the necessary work of centering alicent so the next three years aren’t just people cheering for violence with no thought. she’s definitely had weaker development so far but that’s not because she’s Weak. there are just far more subtle things going on with rhaenyra, who is a very internal character, and i think we’ll be laughing at having this conversation when she snaps and the war starts.

tldr crime is coming, it will be numerous, and in the meantime we’ve been given a season of character development and worldbuilding that will allow us to sympathize and empathize with these women, who DO exist in a reality where men control everything. that’s the point. it doesn’t make them weak or mean that they won’t show traditional power during the war.

[horizon-verizon]

I don’t understand how Aemond stans think Aemond “respects women” when Aemond literally supports his rapist brother as king. Aemond himself calls Aegon a wastrel. Aemond is clearly driven by misogyny and hatred for the Blacks. Just because he seems to care about his mom and sister (Helaena) it doesn’t mean he respects all women. And if Aemond truly respected and cared for Helaena he wouldn’t support putting her rapist and abuser Aegon on the throne.

Aemond doesn't even respect or have enough regard for either his own mother and sister. (And I mean real respect. Not the culturally-compelled feudal "parental authority" sort of respect [which is already contradictory]).

So he respects no women, none at all. I explain why this is true HERE and Alicent has made sure that Aemond feels that his gender makes him exempt and superior.

He and Helaena would not have had any sort of deep or close bond. I explain why HERE. Add the fact that she is a girl/woman who also becomes a mother, no Helaena gets no respect at all from Aemond.

Soon or late, “the bitch queen” would send a dragon or two out to stop him, and Vhagar would destroy them. “She dare not send all her dragons,” Aemond insisted. “That would leave King’s Landing naked and vulnerable. Nor will she risk Syrax, or that last sweet son of hers. Rhaenyra may call herself a queen, but she has a woman’s parts, a woman’s faint heart, and a mother’s fears.”

(Fire and Blood; Rhaenyra Triumphant)

Daemon calls Rhea Royce his “bronze bitch” in the sense he despises and resents her for being someone he doesn’t want to be married to anymore. He stays far away from her for years and requested an annulment that Viserys always rejected.

Aemond calls Rhaenyra a “mere woman whose gender and motherhood is her inherent weakness”. He has always planned to depose and kill Rhaenyra and her sons, ever since Alicent taught him and his siblings to.

....

especially with Alys Rivers being his fucking war prize!

[unohanabbygirl]

Greetings! Since Targaryens are intersex in your FMBH universe and Aemond has “womanly parts” why was it that Luke bottomed on their wedding night and was expected to carry their child if he’s the Lord and Aemond was the consort? I would love to see and AU of FMBH where suddenly during that wedding night discussion among the family they decide Aemond will bottom for Luke. Can you imagine?? Him shit talking during their entire engagement and wedding night only for his behavior to create a situation that flips the script.

But also it would be so fascinating if Otto was so desperate for Hightower blood to rule Driftmark that he outright told Aemond to bear the child. Luke always took moon tea because he truly hated Aemond in those first years of marriage (while also thinking in the back of his head that he wanted one of Baela or Rhaena’s children to inherit to a) ensure Velaryon blood on the driftwood throne and b) ensure Hightower blood WAS NOT on the throne. I think the reason I like FMBH so much is because Luke actually stuck to his moon tea for 20 years. There was no “I forgot to take the drink oh no!” moment so there was no child to force them into loving each other. It’s much more gratifying for them to have a child after decades of awkwardness and estrangement so it’s not a plot device to fix things

Aemond not bottoming on their wedding night is a result of Luke basically taking pity on him. He knows that as the one who holds the position of power in their relationship that he had every right to push such responsibilities onto Aemond and Viserys would’ve happily agreed. But since it’s pretty obvious to anyone who’s spent more than an hour in a room with him that Aemond isn’t someone who’s in-tuned or even comfortable with that part of himself enough to take on that role. And while it would’ve been so satisfying to see Aemond panic at the thought of being the “woman” in their relationship, Luke wouldn’t have been able push for that reversal knowing it was against his uncle’s will.

Though neither of them actually wanted to bed each other let alone carry one another’s child, Luke likes being topped, he likes having sex that way, he’s comfortable both in his body and gender identity to the point where outsiders trying to use these things to shame him just doesn’t work. Aemond on the other hand isn’t the same. He views masculinity and what it means to be a “real” man from a very black and white hardcore conservative POV. He may not like his uncle, hates him at times even, but he isn’t that cruel. Not when he knows Aemond would probably shake like a leaf despite a strong front.

However, I could see Rhaenyra pushing for it despite Luke insisting he’s okay with taking on that role. She knows how horribly Aemond thinks of her son and wants him to remember who’s the consort and who’s the lord. Making sure a fresh batch of moon tea is ready as soon as the bedding is done with because she can see the wheels turning in Otto’s head and doesn’t like it at all. Especially when Aemond comes back from a private talk with his mother and grandfather suddenly ready to lay on his back. No, Rhaenyra wouldn’t trust it all and would happily sit and watch Aemond drink that tea as Luke is more than serious about not bringing children into their marriage.

Luke is strong willed for sure. He doesn’t claim something if he has no intention of following through with it. So if he says they won’t be having any children, then that’s what it is. Rhaenyra, Daemon, and Corlys taught him what it means to stand on business and be took those lessons seriously. The only way there could ever be a mistake with taking his tea is if someone sabotaged it, and even then that’s unlikely since Driftmark’s servants are loyal.

[ofsaera]

╰     ┈     [  milly alcock , 22 , cis female , she/her ]  in the time of dragons , SAERA TARGARYEN is entering the game of thrones . said to be audacious + determined , we can only hope that is the case as regrettably they are also well known to be distrustful + impulsive . when asked about them , people are always reminded of burning pages of old books, the sparks of fire seconds before it begins to burn, the urge to voice an opinion when it's not needed, unopened letters, clenched fists . though they are the LADY OF CASTAMERE , their true loyalties lie with house targaryen and rumour has it that if given the choice they would support their family above all else . those of us in the shadows wish them luck and can only hope they will survive what is to come .   ──  zahra , 23 , gmt+3 , she/her .

basics

full name: saera targaryen gender: cis female pronouns: she/her age: 22 sexual orientation: bisexual (with slight preference for femmes)

background

mother: helaena targaryen father: owyn reed siblings: gael targaryen other: king lucerys targaryen (uncle), queen visenya targaryen (aunt), prince daemon targaryen (cousin), prince aegon targaryen (cousin), princess vasila targaryen (cousin), prince rhaegar targaryen (cousin), princess aerea targaryen (cousin), lord daeron targaryen (cousin), lady meera targaryen (cousin)

physique

face claim: milly alcock eye color: violet hair color: silver height: 5′2 dominant hand: right

about

saera targaryen doesn’t know what love feels or looks like. she’s read stories with the septa as any other child; but could any of it be real? was marriage not love? all love stories ended up in marriage. exchanging vows in front of the gods. yet for as long as she could remember, marriage to saera meant and mother and father screaming their lungs out at each other; brother covering your ears so you could not hear it. they’re getting physical now; brother stands between them. saera speaks to owyn and helaena each in private; if they love her, they will get along. but they don’t. they don’t even bother to listen.

at the age of eleven, she just stops speaking. no one notices at first but gael, and eventually helaena. this goes on for years and although her mother tries maester after maester, saera just refuses to speak. that is until she’s fifteen; she sneaks out the castle with a friend, no one recognizes them in the crowd. they drink ale for the first time in a small inn; saera speaks for the first time in years. she feels safe with that friend. they’re her first love; but once again, she can’t believe in love, she shouldn’t, and they’re young and stupid and things simply don’t work out.

having spent so much time listening instead of speaking, saera likes to think she’s a good observer. she notices what other people don’t, the slight change in their facial expressions, how effortlessly the lies slip out.

sneaking out of the castle becomes somewhat of a habit. she knows her ways around, she learns how to go around unnoticed and quietly. on the rare occassions they visit king’s landing, saera had made sure to wander around the town at moon rise. she misses it. king’s landing feels so much more magical than castamere. this place has to be cursed, saera thinks.

she’s obsessed with history, especially anything involving dragons. collects daggers, though how well she can use them is another matter.

easy to befriend, but can’t deal with love or feelings that threaten to go too deep.

last proper family dinner ended up with owyn losing his shit, posing a huge threat to helaena and gael killing him - as always, the protector of the family. to everybody else, it was a guard who attacked owyn and was later executed for his crimes. saera has pretty much repressed this whole scene as she doesn’t want to acknowledge how it affected her.

doesn’t want to admit it, but she cares about people. a lot. but above all, she has to stay loyal to helaena and gael. at the end of the day, they’re all she has and she’d die for them.

[notanotherockstar]

How is Rhaenyra ANYTHING like JK Rowling? Rhaenyra supported and ENCOURAGED her gay husband’s love affairs (plainly stated in the book Fire & Blood, and the show) while Alicent endorses and encourages the Faith of the Seven (the most misogynistic religion that perpetuates the Madonna/Whore complex, condemns sex workers and, much like Catholicism, shames homosexuality as a sin). Alicent knowingly dismisses and denies Aegon’s sexual violence to working women and children, and doesn’t give a fuck about the bastard children he’s sired -children who are clearly suffering (Alicent’s actions are exactly like those that privileged misogynistic women in power do in real life). Read the book and learn that Alicent is no saint- her family is the second wealthiest in the entire seven kingdoms, they are known for their worship of money. And she slides her way into King Viserys’ personal life cunningly and willingly- both in the book & less brazenly in the show. Then proceeds to use her status as queen to slut shame and tarnish Rhaenyra’s “purity” as a woman (a fake concept of purity that has been a facade and excuse for violence against women who exercise their right to govern their own bodies). Rhaenyra fights and dies for her own right to be the ruler regardless of the misogynist claims that Aegon is more deserving (these claims founded and stated CLEARLY on the basis of his gender- PLAINLY STATED IN THE BOOK, and in the show it is said many times by men in power). So say whatever you want about Rhaenyra, but to claim she’s anything like JK Rowling, while Alicent (who would adhere more to Rowling’s ideology) is plastered all over your blog- that’s just pure CRINGE hypocrisy. If you think Alicent would ever stand as a LGBTQ+ ally, you’re more stupid than you are pathetic.

Anon, I’m clearly talking about (and have even tagged) white feminism but since you want to talk about LGBTQ+ issues to call Rhaenyra an ally when the book states that she and Daemon probably had him k*lled to be together is such a joke. Also, Rhaenyra was always intending to have an open marriage so she would have encouraged Laenor to have affairs wether or not he was gay......

Secondly, the only reason Rhaenyra doesn’t follow the faith of the seven is because all the Targs think they are gods not because they don’t endorse the teachings of the religion

Thirdly, Alicent straight up disowns Aegon (you are no son of mine) after the incident with Dyana (I still hate how she handled situation which was basically her being paid hush money and dismissed after being assaulted) and there is no proof that Alicent knows what Aegon does in his own time apart from getting drunk

Fourthly, Alicent must have been what fourteen? fifteen? when she was pimped out to Viserys by Otto so to claim that she, a child, somehow seduced him is....problematic at best and victim shaming (like it or not she is a victim of statutory and marital r*pe) at worst

Fifthly, Alicent is the only person to stick up for and defend Rhaenyra after her little late night rendezvous with Daemon so and only changes her side when she discovers that she has been lied to and made a fool out of. 

Sixth, while Rhaenyra does indeed die fighting for her claim to the throne but to say that she and her actions are in any way feminist is grossly incorrect as she upholds and enforces the patriarchy whenever it suits her best. The perfect example is the claim over Driftmark, where, rather than advocating for Baela to be heir (which makes more sense than any of her children being heir because she is the legitimate child of D*emon and Laena, who is the older of the Velaryon siblings) she pushes Luke as heir and has Baela marry him so that he has no one to challenge his claim to the throne. She tried to do the same thing with Helaena and her first kid (whatever the fuck his name was) but Alicent was smart enough to recognise that Helaena’s marriage to Rhaenyra’s first kid would surely result in her death as no one would accept as bastard as king and a coup to usurp him would be devised. 

Rhaenyra is like JKR in the way that they’re both white women who actively use their status and position to harm other people, especially other women. 

I know Alicent isn’t a good person and I definitely don’t agree with everything that she has done throughout the course of the series, but I accept her for a morally grey and flawed character, something people just can’t seem to do for Rhaenyra

Hope this satisfied your anger and annoyance anon <3

[ask-akira-natsumi]

LOV w/ Daemons

Shigaraki - Chinchilla (Shigi has to make sure she doesn’t bath in the dust of his enemies, his pretty sure its not healthy for her even if it is hilarious. he lets her play video games with him, but because her hands aren’t big enough for most controllers he always has to help her out but controlling the other side. He will never admit that he got animal crossing for her and he loves watching her play it because she can mostly handle it on her own and its super cute to see her ramble over the what she’s doing on her island and her favorite villagers)

Dabi - Doberman (I like to think that she didn’t fully settle until after he got his burns & that her face markings are a little atypical because they match his burns. but before the burns she most often took on the form of a  Rhodesian Ridgeback-they’re a reddish dog that has a mohawk of fur down their back that runs in the opposite direction. I think it’s fitting because the way he was treated always rubber her the wrong way, she’s a bit more subtle about her displeasure than he is)

Spinner -  Egyptian plovers (everyone always expects him to have a lizard or some type of reptile. Instead he has a bird. he was a little exasperated when he looked up what type of bird she was but she’s always very helpful with helping him maintain his scales & take care of himself. how could he not when his soul cares enough to take on a permanent form to help remind him he needs it and that he’s 100% worthy of being taken care of)

Toga -  Kenyan jumping spider (this species of spider of known for preferring human blood but lack the fangs the break the skin, luckily Toga’s got plenty of knives to do the job so its never really a problem for them. He usually hides in her hair when they’re out and about. its dangerous for such small daemons to be out in the open when they can be squished so easily. Plus Toga likes how freaked out people get when she goes around with no visible daemon.)

Twice - Two-headed Viper (she wasn’t always like this. she went through a very unexpected ‘split’ the same time Twice did. When it was determined by all his clones that only the real Jin would have a daemon, because he couldn’t duplicate her, they fought over her too and seeing Jin tear himself apart of it changed her on a fundamental level as well. Now, she argues with herself and both sides of Twice just as much as he does with himself)

Magne -  Homing pigeon (with how in tune he is with magnetic fields he can always find his way to Magne no matter where she goes. It comes in handy since he’s able to go much further from her than a daemon typically can. She often has him deliver messages to her best friend who does get to see often. He’s also always been a huge comfort to her because he is a representation of her soul and she’s never heard of a daemon that was the same gender as their person.)

Compress - Magpie (she loves the shiny marbles & the tricks he does with them. she’s also rather fond of stealing them and hiding them from him when he’s not paying attention. when she’s not taking his shinys she’s taking them from other people while he puts on a show to distract. she was a crow for a while when he was a kid, but they both decided they liked this more colorful look, especially when she matched the color of his marbles)

Kurogiri - ... (he no longer has a daemon, he lost it in the process of becoming what he is now. he does not remember them, what they were or what if felt like to have one. its pretty uncomfy for everyone whenever they remember that his daemon isn’t just small and hiding for safety, its just gone and they don’t know how he’s here without one)

[goose-books]

& while i am posting things today. some more maxwriting, specifically two mini-fanfictions for yves. @yvesdot​ ’s WIP the one and only universe of kay rainier (would recommend! arguments to lovers! he/him wlw! interdimensional (?) shenanigans!) one of which also features an OC i've mentioned a few times on this blog but done historically very little with.

it’s occurred to me in my moment of posting that neither of these pieces have titles. oh well.

THE FIRST ONE

you ought to send yves. some bingo prompts. anyway, i sent them kay + daemons, and then immediately realized i had ideas and thoughts about that, too. so i wrote my own version. unlike theirs, this is vaguely set in the HDM universe, which is funny because i haven’t read HDM and learned everything i know from waya vivji, a single war and peace fanfiction, and also wikipedia just before i wrote it. the notable context here is that daemons are usually the “opposite sex” of their humans, and if i got that wrong do not tell me because i am embarrassed.

Kay is a precocious child; she is twelve years old when her daemon settles. Chesire is a sleek dark mahogany, a ferruginous hawk with a wickedly curved beak and eyes that glitter like beads. He is also male. This, for the Rainiers, is not done; even the absent Ariel, despite his eccentricities, had a properly gendered daemon. It unsettles Kay in a way she will not place for many years; still, as soon as she registers her disappointment (for it must be disappointment, surely; nothing more), she’s awash in guilt.

“How lovely,” she tells him, stroking his glossy new feathers, keeping her voice low less to keep out her father and more because it is only polite. Cheshire bobs his head and flutters his wings and seems, very slightly, to preen. He must be able to sense her uncertainty, the subdued flatness to her voice, but he is a Rainier as well; the polite thing is to ignore it, and he does.

“How curious,” Father says, stroking Fauntleroy’s velvet ears.

“Not unheard of,” the dormouse says from her seat in his breast pocket. Constantine inclines his head slightly; he does not deign to offer more.

/

When the Neighborly enters the house the jackal stalks at his heel, ears pricked at attention, wet black nose gleaming, mouth crooked open in a canine grin. With it comes a distinct smell — not unpleasant so much as it is unbalancing, an earthy scent, filling the foyer as its claws click on the floor. Like his clothes, it is black, head to toe. They aren’t usually. Kay wonders if it’s coincidence, if perhaps he dyes its fur so it will match.

She thinks of it as such — it — because to be frank she is not sure what to make of Atlas, and what to assume about his daemon. During the customary introductions, Cheshire perches atop Kay’s shoulder, and Fauntleroy emerges from her pocket to whisk up to Father’s collar and cling to the fabric to study the Neighborly. He can’t stay quite still. His hands twitch at his sides. He shifts his weight. The jackal paces maddening circles around the room, eyeing the dark walls and the fine wooden furniture, too dignified to lower its head and sniff but not too good to cast judgment without speaking. Every time it passes Kay in its slow inexorable orbit, Cheshire’s claws tighten on her coat.

“It’s a pleasure, Atlas,” Constantine says stiffly, extending a hand to shake with an expression that suggests he’d rather have it removed.

Atlas shakes, grinning easily, a looseness to his motions, and then he tilts his head and says, “Anubis.” In a moment the jackal’s at his side, curling around the backs of his legs to turn its wet smile on Kay’s father. It’s too large; that’s what she decides. How does he take it anywhere? Why hasn’t it learned to behave? Unless this is his goal: to part rooms, to announce his presence as soon as he steps through the threshold.

“Anubis,” she says, the first time she and Atlas are alone. “Like the god?” Atlas and Anubis; it is the sort of half-joke she can appreciate.

Anubis looks up at its name. Atlas looks at it. “I don’t know,” he says. “It was my sister’s idea.” He looks to Cheshire, who has settled near Kay’s inkwell to reorganize her pens. “And this is…”

“Cheshire.”

“Cheshire,” Atlas repeats, piercing glinting as his eyebrow quirks.

“When I was younger, I thought he would be a cat.”

“I thought she’d be a crow. Probably better this way. Crows are poser birds.” Anubis snorts at that, a sound both doggish and human.

“She is… she, then,” Kay says carefully.

“Oh, yeah. Apparently that’s weird.” Atlas leans back in Kay’s chair until the front legs leave the ground.

“Is it,” Kay says.

Atlas’s eyes flit around her face, like he knows what she’s asking; his smirk doesn’t lessen. “Well, women have male daemons, right? Ask Cheshire.”

Kay and Cheshire look at each other. Cheshire fluffs his feathers and says, “This is dull.”

Kay is less certain. She does not smile at Atlas, but some of the edge has smoothed from her voice. “I should like to watch you explain it to my father.”

“If he could take it,” Atlas says. “What’s the mouse’s fucking name again?”

Cheshire steps back and forth, feathers ruffling, until Kay sets a hand out to still him, gentle, comforting. “Fauntleroy.”

“Christ,” Atlas says. “Bless you.” When he catches Kay stiffening, he relents a little, letting the chair clatter back to the floor. “Fits the vibe, I guess.”

“As yours fits you,” says Kay, making it as uncomplimentary as she can.

“Guess my soul’s black,” Atlas says cheerily. He balls up a piece of paper and tosses it to Anubis, who, flopped across the floor, doesn’t move. “Not the weirdest thing about us.”

“Well,” Kay says, “I think it would be rather unfair for me to talk about oddities,” and she takes a small victory in the look they share: not friendship, not fondness, but something like an understanding, reached in the quiet moment before Cheshire hands her another pen and she resumes her work.

THE SECOND ONE

this one’s a bit older but i never posted it until now, at yves.’s urging! i think i was doing... camp nano last year? or something. and couldn’t think of what to write. or maybe i couldn’t focus on my project because i was thinking about my other project, the butch4butch hamlet retelling i still haven’t written. to which yves. said, “write kay x your lesbian hamlet character,” to which i said, “you don’t think i will, but i will,” and i did. so really this is yvesmax crossover fic.

It is annoying, Holden’s habit of dropping by whenever she likes. This can probably be attributed to the fact that Holden, herself, is annoying. Kay can only adjust the items on her desk (pens, mainly) so many times; she is caught up in an aggravating state of waiting but also not waiting, and she does not care for that.

Just as she thinks so, there’s a knock at the front door.

Holden doesn’t ring the doorbell anymore. She did that the first time and Kay came down the stairs a few seconds too late to find Father staring at the creature in his front hall, looking like he didn’t know whether he should be put out or concerned. “I think the earrings got him,” Holden said later, on Kay’s bed, tapping the crosses hanging inverted from her ears. Kay’s opinion was that it was all of her, from the messy post-buzz hair to the propensity for suits to the Doc Martens to the way Holden leans on any available surface.

She opens the door and Holden is leaning against the doorframe. Which looks a little more awkward coupled with whatever she’s carrying under her arm.

“Hi,” she says.

Kay blinks slowly.

“It is late,” she says, spinning on her heel and heading for the stairs. Behind her, she hears the quiet click of Holden closing the door. The grandfather clock in the front hall is ticking toward eleven.

“I never get over how weird this place is.” When she glances back, Holden is peering into the nearest glass cabinet. “Like a little dollhouse.”

“Thank you,” Kay says stiffly. She cannot decide whether she is irritable.

“And this is coming from someone whose parents were devoted to taxidermy.” Holden follows her up the stairs, hands shoved into the pockets of her suit jacket, looking entirely too comfortable here, and Kay decides that she is irritable after all.

“I do not know what you suppose your business is here,” she says. “Especially as it is almost an hour past ten.”

Holden shrugs.

“Do not shrug at me.”

Holden opens her mouth as if to speak, then casts a glance behind her. There’s no one in the darkened hallway; Father is in his office. Still, Holden waits for Kay to shut her bedroom door.

“I know I’m late,” she says, slouching back against it. “Sorry. I lost track of time in the bookstore.”

Kay blinks. “You are late to see me because you went to the bookstore,” she intones.

She says nothing as Holden withdraws the books from under her arm and extends them. “I really wanted to find Carmilla for you,” she says. “Like, the oldest print version I could find.”

It certainly looks old. Kay purses her lips. “I own Carmilla.”

“I know. But, like… it’s vintage.” Holden attempts one-handed jazz hands. “I have a sentence in my notes app from six months ago that just says carmilla but like the old edition.” She shuffles the stack of books. “And then I sat down for — look, I swear I was trying to be timely about it. Trying to be punctual.” She pops the P. “But time isn’t real and I read two chapters of Pride and Prejudice and I don’t know if you own that but it feels like the kind of thing you’d find sexy.” Her smile glitters. “And then — I know The Catcher in the Rye isn’t your thing. But I wrote in this one, so.”

Kay reaches out, very carefully, to take the books. She does own Pride and Prejudice, actually, but she still feels a pang. She flips through The Catcher in the Rye and is met with scrawls of black-ink handwriting, filling up the margins and underlining passages.

“Thank you,” she says, very softly, and moves to set the books on her desk. “You didn’t have to… get me anything.”

“I like knowing that my parents’ money is fueling homosexual agendas,” Holden says pleasantly. When Kay turns around, Holden catches her hand and steps in closer, showing her teeth in a smile. “But I’ll try to be on time from now on.”

“As you should,” Kay says, pulling Holden a few inches closer.

Holden raises a hand to caress Kay’s cheek. “That said,” she says in a low voice, “now that I’ve — what did you say. Now that I’ve fulfilled my business here, I can think of a few things we could do. Unless it’s too late.”

Against her will, Kay smiles.

“I suppose we can extend your stay a little longer,” she says, and their lips meet.

[myfanwymusings]

QUICK GUIDE TO DÆMONS IN HIS DARK MATERIALS*

This is, by no means, meant to be a fully comprehensive breakdown of the mythos used in Phillip Pullman’s books and it’s subsequent adaptations. Rather it is meant to serve as helpful guide for role players and fiction writers who are dabbling in AUs based on the series. This guide will also be worded in as spoiler free of terms as possible, for anyone new to the series.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT THIS IS A VERY BASIC BREAKDOWN, THAT DOESN’T DIVE INTO SOME OF THE DEEPER CONNECTIONS OF DÆMONS AND DUST, DUE TO MAJOR SPOILERS. YOU CAN RESEARCH MORE, BUT YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Firstly, although it is spelled in the old-English usage, the word is still pronounced as demon. Although, that hasn’t stopped many fans from saying Day-mon. It’s really up to you.

Dæmons are not pets. They are not real animals. This seems to be a hurdle for most newcomers, seeing people be “mean to the animals”. They only look like animals, they are not. Its just a physical appearance, they are made of Dust. Seeing someone be mean to their daemon is not animal cruelty, its self harm. Seeing someone mean to another's daemon is not animals cruelty,  its abuse against another person. Just remember that. Not a real animal.

Originally, before our mainstream view of gender evolved beyond just male and female--- it was said that your dæmon is “““the opposite gender of you””” --- but that is not always the case. Cases where this doesn’t happen can be affected by sexuality, gender, psychic gifts, etc. Phillip Pullman has said:  “There are plenty of things about my worlds I don’t know, and that’s one of them.”  Which means you can basically do whatever you want based on what makes sense to you. Literally. There are no rules anymore, so don't get hung up on this as some fans still do. The books were written when a more binary view of gender was the norm, so this particular aspect didn’t age well --- but as said above, Pullman admits there are gaps in this nowadays; so really just have it be whatever makes the most sense to you.

They are the physical manifestation of your soul. You share thoughts and feelings with your dæmon. Dreams, and can communicate verbally and non-verbally with them. However, you also share physical pain and a lifespan. One cannot live without the other, when a person dies their dæmon turns to Dust instantly.

“Dæmons are able to hold different intuitions to their humans and reveal emotional responses to their surroundings that might not otherwise be obvious in their humans.”   - hdm wikia

A child’s dæmon can change shape at will, and an intelligent child can have the shape change due to a particular need or emotion. Truly exceptional kids have also been able to have a dæmon use the abilities of one animal to while in another form, but this is extremely rare. This is due to the fact that children are ever changing and undecided yet. They could literally be anything, and their  dæmons represent that. An adult’s dæmon cannot change shape at all. It’s set in that form forever.

A  dæmon will typically settle in a final form around the time of puberty. The exact point might vary. The form is often reflective of something to do with their human’s life. It could represent their personality, but it could also represent a chosen career or way of life. For instance, guards and police often have dogs and canines. Witches (who also have dæmons but are a different species)  often have birds. Your personal wish for what it might settle as has no bearing on what it will become.

It could also settle as something you might not even like, or would make your life challenging. In the books, there is a sea captain’s whose dæmon is a Dolphin. So he cannot be on land for long.

You cannot be separated from your dæmon for long or for great distances, it is physically painful to the point of causing trauma and death. In canon, it’s known that even a dæmon flying upwards to the next story of a building from their human began to feel uncomfortable.

There are a few practices that can allow for a separation of long distances. It’s voluntary, but only really a rite of passage for shamans and witches. It’s not easy to undergo otherwise due to societal, geographical, and other issues. Human’s doing so is practically unheard of... extremely rare to the point many don’t even know this is something you can do. [There are more details on this --- as well as alternate methods, but that falls into spoiler territory. Research at your own discretion]

Dæmon’s become intoxicated when their human’s do.  Cederwood has an effect similar to being drugged or drowsy in dæmons.

You do not name your dæmon, it is named by the dæmon’s of your parents at birth. Birth is also when your dæmon appears (how this happens exactly has yet to be detailed)

Touching another person’s dæmon is strictly taboo, it’s often accompanied by a strong sense of repulsion. The exception to this being an act of love in which two humans touch the other’s dæmon in a loving way.

The taboo is learned as you develop however, not instinctual at birth --- as instances of a person touching the dæmon of a baby has occurred in canon (no details given for spoilers), and instead of disgust, they felt privileged. Of course, this changed as the baby grew.

UNDER THE CUT IS ONE MORE POINT, BUT IT’S A BIT SPOILERY --- ITS NOT SUPER OBVIOUS HOW UNLESS YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE STORY, BUT FOR ANYONE WHO WISHES TO AVOID ANY SPOILERS, DO NOT READ.

SEMI SPOILERY: In worlds like our own, our dæmons still exist but they  don’t reside separate from us or to our awareness at all.

[arcane-aspirations]

The Frustration of the Experienced or, When Nothing is New* Anymore

I’ve recently picked back up attempting an active practice of daemianism. This form of daemianism is inspired by the animal-formed, corporeal representation of human souls in Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series (best known book is The Golden Compass). I first read the series in 2005 or 2006 or so, and I am very sure I imagined what it would be like to have my soul beside me as an animal then. That’s the sort of person I was then - to imagine and bring forth what I experienced in stories that inspired me to my daily life - and indeed, hope to regain a powerful sense of being again.

I first encountered others who were daemians on the internet a few years later. I didn’t remain an active member, but I found The Daemon Page Forum and was fascinated with this community that developed detailed profiles for what sort of person would have what species as their daemons. It was like personality typing, with varying levels of commitment to an imaginary friend or what I would now recognize as a thoughtform.

Let me come back to that. “What I would now recognize.”

Over the years, although I didn’t post on TDF, I would check back every few months as I remembered daemianism and read over various species’ profiles that interested me. I have always been fairly obsessed with representing myself; I never felt like I had to explore or understand myself though - that felt intrinsic and obvious.

Though I always found it deeply frustrating that often the most common “default” characters and teams were the ones I related to the most, genuinely. I considered myself for a wolf-formed daemian for a very long time. That was also an issue for me being Gryffindor, an Autobot, Thunderclan... My archetype gravitated towards that that was popular, which often was annoying in that many who claimed the popular affiliation with something were frequently the ones just claiming an affiliation with the fandom or the popularity, rather than the soul behind it.

I digress. Mostly. That context of something being popular affecting my relationship with the thing itself isn’t completely irrelevant.

I would say the most important and active time in my beinng a daemian was a rough patch in my life around 2015 into 2016. I was lonely and had became my own worst enemy too, given that a precious friend turned enemy makes for the worst sort. The comfort of my daemon, this entity which was supposed to represent the real, true self, was incredibly valuable. Setting aside the slight reprieve it gave from ‘being alone’ - although of course, it was still unforgettable to me that, my daemon being me and all interactions coming from and only being perceptible by me, I was still alone - the sense that I valued, saw, and still was myself at a time where I had very much lost all of that elsewhere was invaluable for getting through that.

My daemon had a name, mostly, and a gender, mostly, and a few forms that were right, mostly. He didn’t do much but provide imagined cuddles from an animal companion friend - I really remember something  I did regularly where I’d imagine leaning our foreheads together - but I remember feeling at least sometimes happy and content as a result of the whole thing. But he wasn’t quite what people on TDF would’ve called a daemon.

Firstly, as much as I liked the idea of having an animal to identify my persona, my self, by, I didn’t like the idea of “settling” in one form. “Settling” indicated being an adult in Phillip Pullman’s series, which I have always reviled becoming and now being. That is, perhaps, a story for another time. Beyond that, it felt limiting - let’s put a pin in that one, too, though only for later in this post.

Secondly, my daemon occasionally wasn’t an animalic shape. In one vivid memory, I danced in my aunt’s kitchen when I was home alone one evening with my daemon in the form of N Harmonia from Pokemon. Is N Harmonia even someone I think is close in personality to myself, and thereby a fitting depiction of myself? Not at all, although I do think we’d be excellent friends.

Thirdly - here’s the woo warning for folks who’ve missed that my blog is witchy - I started having the sense that my daemon wasn’t “just” this thoughtform expression of my soul. I remember feeling like having this thoughtform that was me projected was sort of this... shell of my own self, that then this entity from very far away - in space, in time, from another life, who knows, it’s complicated, I never even felt comfortable saying whether it was real or not - I felt very connected to because we were of similar soul energy could inhabit. That was very much not related to daemianism. A pin here for later in post, too.

I don’t totally remember why my focus on daemianism waned for a bit after that. Things didn’t really get better for me, but my fixations do tend to move around. It may well just be that I got better enough to start playing video games again, and was checked out from my surroundings where a daemon would be projected to remind me where he was. Or it might have just started bothering me too much that he wasn’t “real” in so far as he couldn’t/didn’t exist outside what I projected.

It bothers me that I have to create and maintain so much of the things that bring value to my life myself. It’s exhausting. And those things don’t feel as real as things that exist independent of me and my influence. There’s power in “I invented that” and there’s a kind of resignation about one’s world in “I had to invent that, because it wasn’t there but I wanted so very much for it to be”.

And while there’s others out there, obviously, doing this whole daemianism thing, was that what I was doing anyway? Clearly I was taking it my own direction... or at least, combining it with other non-daemianism things that made it distinctly not quite exactly daemianism.

So while I’ve off and on projected my daemon back into the space around me - that’s the term for imagining and “seeing in your mind’s eye” your daemon existing in and interacting with your environment around you - since then, I haven’t done nearly as much.

I’m picking it back up recently and finding it rather difficult.

Some of the things I established as fitting and suitable back then, while still suitable and true in some lights, are hidden under a complicated tangle of things that don’t make them untrue but certainly obscure or make the way to the situations and perspectives where that truth is apparent difficult. There are roads I don’t walk anymore, even though those roads and how I’d walk them are still important to me. There are many roads I walk now that ...could? should? be acknowledged now that mean nothing to me but resentment that they’re where I walk. I still feel I am the same person I was; I just feel like I never get the same sorts of opportunities to be myself. 

So the forms’ fittingness to my personality feel a bit tangled in the context of my life I can’t control, where embracing that tangle feels like a near final step of losing myself. The name is roughly the same; I want a name that feels right and conveys something, and anyone who’s ever named anything to convey a meaning probably has experienced that problem.

And I can’t focus on forms suiting myself entirely, because I’m still bothered by knowledge of how a form is perceived popularly - or because of an animal’s popularity. That in and of itself feels like misrepresentation or miscommunication; I’m not able to communicate why I really feel that is right because there’s an assumption it’s what I chose consciously or unconsciously because it was popular; I’m not able to communicate through that sense of the popular thing that I feel incredibly different and disconnected from others; I’m not able to communicate what I’m saying because the most accurate denotative and personal connotative vocabulary I can find to communicate is full of connotations I don’t mean to others.

Let’s not even start with pronouns, alright?

But I think something in particular that’s frustrating is that daemianism is not the only thing on my mind when I think:

1. representation of the self

2. a form to indicate the self on an entity with malleable form

3. thoughtforms

4. animal representations of the self

I neither want to compartmentalize nor combine daemianism & daemons with witchcraft/paganism familiars/fetches, my polymorphic shapeshifter Otherkinity, souls, thoughtforms, and entities I may or may not share some kind of special soul-energy-woo bond with.

I don’t want to separate what has a resonance - except that resonance, frustratingly, sometimes shifts.

I don’t want to combine what could be varied and interesting, because now any community or representation of that thing is no longer what I am doing or can speak about and find any sense of connection through - or worse, what I am now taken to be misrepresenting or ill-informed about.

And this is the frustration of the experienced, visible here but far from exclusive to daemianism, spirit work, et al in my life: what I know I cannot but help connect to what else I know.

Connecting what  I know to what I know alters forever what I do and feel about what I know and what I learn next. I have opinions and feelings about so many things, and everything I encounter is layered upon my opinions and feelings about it all.

And I feel like that connection isolates me from ever being able to appreciate and participate in something new and fresh.

It isolates me from being able to connect to the experiences of someone else who doesn’t have the connections and syncretic perceptions that I do.

I never wish to be someone I’m not, but I frequently wish to be less experienced than I am.

*I don’t think ‘new’ is the word I wanted here, but I couldn’t find it. After the post, I feel fine recording that what I wanted to reflect was not just that something was new and exciting, but also that something was able to be fresh and untainted; able to be its own thing viewed on its own terms without being conflated, connected, or tied to anything else.

[skyr4t]

So err, I created a new OC for my Cadet Cooper comic. Meet Zig :3 ESA Personnel File Name - Zig (he doesn't have any other names..) Age - Looks around 18 (Actual age, Unknown) Gender - Male Orientation - (Won't say, looks and acts very gay though) Species - Unknown Bio Zig was found as a child in an escape pod on the very fringe of ESA territory by the frigate Montrose. wreckage of a vessel was found nearby. The ship had been literally torn apart by forces far greater than anything ESA had seen before. The wreckage was too badly damaged to get any more clues. Therapist have tried repeatedly to learn about his past, but it seemed that everything in his memory up until the escape pod drifting in space had been erased. He didn’t even know his name. Zig was actually a name that was on one of his toys in the pod. Zig is believed to be from a species that ESA have never encountered before, or since. Physically in looks he is very similar to a human. Only difference being his strange elf like ears, blue pupils and enlarged canines. Oh and the fact he seems to have both male and female reproductive organs. Other than that internally his organs are also similar, only difference being that his heart for some reason is upside down. Another strange note however is that he has several tattoos all over his body, with strange symbols, believed to be in the text of his species. ESA has tried to decipher them, but failed. After months of study ESA pretty much ran out of test to do on him, short of dissecting him anyway.. As for what to do with him though they didn’t really know. Eventually though he was adopted by the captain of the Montrose as she was retiring to Earth. Zig grew up on Earth living a happy normal life as though he was just any other teenager. Later he joined ESA with the intention of becoming a captain just like his foster mum. Of course he had to start from the bottom, so he became a cadet. He was assigned to the Montrose's sister ship, Reliant. There he met fellow cadet, Sam. Despite being from hugely different backgrounds Zig and Sam quickly became friends. Personality Zig is a little shy, but outgoing enough to get noticed. He always tries his hardest to impress his superiors, causing Sam to call him "teachers pet". Hes not really the type to fight his own battle, if you insult him he would likely run away crying. Though if you insult his friends, he can have a very fiery temper. Strange occurrences Its only happened a few times, a strange force seems to try and take over Zig. His tattoos will all start glowing bright red and his eyes will change to an almost daemon like appearance. Its only lasted a moment or so, but it really frightens him. Sam is the only other person to have witnessed this. Though scared himself, Sam helped to calm Zig down which in terns causes the strange effect to subside.The trigger seems to be when Zig tries to think about his real parents. The pair have decided to keep it between them as they know it would result in him being removed from the ship. Something in Zigs past though seems to want to resurface, and it terrifies Zig to think what it could be. So yeah, I've kinda got a big backstory already made for him :3 He'll be in the next Cadet Cooper comic Sky/RBD<3

[kariachi]

Hello! I don't know much about daemons. Could you tell me about them/what they are? Assume I know nothing.

Daemons are the brain-child of Phillip Pullman, from his His Dark Materials series (there's a tv show now and there was a crap movie for the first one- The Golden Compass- ages ago). The basic concept is that each individual has a daemon, a living talking companion and other half in the form of an animal that is generally accepted as being some sort've physical representation of the soul. Daemons are made of Dust (a golden, well, dust), a little understood substance that's just sort've part of everything I believe? (haven't actually read the books myself so...) and upon death dissolve into Dust once more.

Daemons typically are the opposing gender to their other half (so, dudes normally have lady daemons and vis versa), with daemons having matching genders meaning something but last I checked even Pullman not knowing what. They have a set, short distance they can be apart from their other half before it causes pain and potentially death. This distance can be expanded but it's rare, painful, and dangerous (again, potentially death). If one half of the pair dies, so does the other.

Children's daemons shapeshift, changing animal form regularly, before eventually Settling into their permanent shape sometime during puberty (canonically it's early puberty, most people from what I've seen play around with it, I generally put most people as Settling between the ages of 12 and 14 with outliers doing so late or early). The shape a daemon Settles as is generally considered to reflect who they are as a person.

Touching someone else's daemon is Not Done though why is honestly I think a little wibbly. Like, it's treated as just horribly invasive at the very basest level but also from what I've seen of Pullman's recent works it doesn't quite seem like that's so? Recent works have it reading more as a cultural thing in my mind (which certainly works with my scifi tendencies and multiple sapient species with multiple lifestyles) but it's normally considered something that's viscerally and physically upsetting to experience outside of extremely close, positive bonds. It's common in fic, for instance, for the ultimate 'they will' moment in shipping to be touching each other's daemons.

None of us, including the author, has any real idea how the fuck they come into being, but it is known that a child's daemon is named by the daemons of their parents.

I, am probably forgetting something or getting something wrong, but I will have to hope that others can pick up the slack or I can come back later because I am late for a table top game right now

[secret-engima]

The Stand Strong Glaive are probably my favorite people to fling at various universes and watch the chaos, because I just imagined them meeting their canon counterparts. SS!Insomnia is a Fear, because the hit and run experts have cloned themselves into tanks. Canon!Glaives have no idea what to do with this, pls send help. That’s, that’s not how the culture works? What, what song is that? Why, why screaming? Why quadrapedal? How Jungle in Insomnia?

Pffft this has just made my day. This is awesome. So glad I’m not the only one who does this.

-The Canon!Glaives have NO IDEA how to handle this. What do you mean “scent”? What are “secondary genders”? WHY THE DAEMON NOISES?????

-I’m honestly not sure if it would be funnier for the C!Glaives to go to AU or for SS!Glaives to go to canon but I’m leaning toward the latter for the hilarity. Just- SS!Regis and Noctis and Clarus and Cor are there too (and Amissa obviously) and the Confusion is Real for everyone involved.

-At one point SS!Regis gets too stressed (BECAUSE EVERYONE HERE IS SCENTLESS. WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT SECONDARY GENDERS ARE. REGIS IS NOT GIVING HIS COUNTERPART THE TALK THANK YOU) So SS!Titus just- instinctively goes into Pack Dad mode, picks him up and carts him off to the nearest couch or whatever and starts purring. 0.05 seconds after SS!Titus has sat down with SS!Regis, the other nearby glaives have flocked over and are essentially puppy piling the king while purring like chainsaws. In the stunned, moderately horrified and confused silence that follows from the C!Cast, SS!Regis just sighs and says from amid the cluster, “Yes. This is normal. No, I’m not explaining why. It’s a Galahdian habit I believe.”

-All the C!Glaives would like it to be known that in THEIR universe this is NOT a Galahdian Thing thank you.

-SS!Glaives get antsy in this other dimension with nothing to do, C!Glaives make the eternal mistake of agreeing to like- a team based sparring match or capture the flag or something, because they’re all glaives here, the playing field should be even right?

-It’s not even. Not even close. All the SS!Glaives are confused on why the C!Glaives keep trying to frontal assault and tank things and the C!Glaives are internally (and externally) screaming because WHERE ENEMY. ENEMY GONE. WHY SCREAMING NOISES FROM BEHIND AND ABOVE??????

-Amissa laughs at them all, because Lovable Morons.

-Amissa kisses SS!Cor in front of everyone, C!Cor.exe has stopped working pls reboot.

-None of the SS!Glaives like C!Titus. They can’t for the life of them explain why, but actually its the scent of the Glauca armor under his skin that they’re smelling and is tripping every danger-danger-DANGER switch in their heads. This includes SS!Titus.

-C!Cast’s first introduction to scents and secondary genders is probably not the Purring Thing, it’s probably C!Titus getting too close to SS!Regis (who’s hackles are also up internally but he’s good at hiding it and used to dealing with people whose scent he dislikes) and SS!Titus just- Going Nuts. Ever seen a dog just- GO for something in a MUrDeR sort of way? The deep feral snarling and body slamming and snapping teeth warningly in the face? Yeah. That. That’s what happens. SS!Titus has C!Titus against the wall in a SECOND, his teeth guard thing in his mouth straight from armiger, his snarl deep and bass as a REALLY mad Behemoth, jaws snapping dangerously close to C!Titus’s throat in warning as he pins his counterpart to the wall.

-Naturally all the SS!Glaives react to their Captain Pack Dad’s fury and crowd around, snapping and chattering and cackling in furious warning that raises all the hair on the C!Cast’s neck while they frantically try to figure out how to react to all their counterparts seemingly losing their mind in sync.

-SS!Regis knows this is going to turn into a bloodbath fast if he doesn’t do something (he can see the C!Glaives gearing up to try to rescue their Captain) and so he sheds Royal Restraint, flares his scent enough for attention and roars, a wordless, draconic command for the SS!Glaives to Back Off Now.

-They do, grudgingly and with much disgruntled hissing and poor SS!Regis spends the next ten minutes calming his Glaives while C!Titus retreats with wide eyes and shaking hands and the C!Cast just go WHAT? W H A T??????

-SS!Regis does in fact end up giving the Talk to his counterpart and rest of the C!Cast, he wants to go retire with a nice glass of wine to wallow in his embarrassment thank you.

-In complete contrast to the Near Murder, the instant C!Noctis (just a kiddo) enters the scene wondering what all the noise is, SS!Noctis yips and bounds over in greeting. They get along like a house on fire. SS!Noctis drags C!Noctis over to SS!Titus and before C!Regis can get TOO close to a heart attack because FERAL TITUS NEAR BBY, SS!Titus just- plops down on the floor with the boys, purring softly and indulging in their chatter and letting them climb all over him. Total contrast to the Deadly Feral Looks he keeps shooting C!Titus every time the man gets too close.

-The Nyx’s meet. It’s a match made in Libertus’s nightmares. Both of them. Pls help they have two Warptastic morons to deal with now and one of them is Feral.

-Amissa finds all of this Extremely Entertaining because her sense of humor was permanently warped about ten dimensions ago so this is popcorn worthy to her.

-Everybody picture SS!Noctis seriously explaining to C!Noctis how to Warp Pounce and why it is good. Everybody picture C!Regis’s face when he realizes his son, despite not having any of this “secondary gender” strangeness, is being successfully taught how to purr. And give a distress scream that sounds just like a horrible daemon rising from the abyss. Amplified by magic.

-Someone help him he’s going to lose his mind.

-Counterpart why you so calm???? What you MEAN THIS IS NORMAL?????

-SS!Clarus is like- the only one of the entire SS!Cast who can sympathize with the C!Cast’s wild eyed confusion. Because SS!Regis is just- accustomed to this insanity now and SS!Cor was the first of the adults to get folded into the SS!Glaive’s ways.

-Heaven help the assassin that tries anything while this is going down. C!Nyx is impressed with his counterpart, that was good hunting (even if the screeching and the eerie hunting songs were more than a little creepy, but psychological warfare right? And it worked). Hey can you teach him that warp pounce thing? 

-SS!Nyx is happy to do just that. C!Libertus makes a faint gargling noise of despair.