Thank you, my friendly daemon, close to me as my shadow

Just a blog for daemon aesthetics etc. Main at penny-anna.

[modelsof-color]

Bhavitha Mandava by Daniel Arnold for D Repubblica Magazine May 2026

[kafkasapartment]

In the Silence of the Green Garden, 2024. Bat Ella. Acrylic, oil and pigments on canvas.

[kaijuno]

the prettiest girl in the world

[centuriespast]

A young Woman with a Macaw Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696–1770) Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

[clawmarks]

Raznye zveri - Evgenij Ivanovič Čarušin - c.1931 - via Paris bibliotheques

[corpest-deactivated20250712]

Atlantic City beach 1901

[fyblackwomenart]

The Budgie by Catherine Forter-Chee-A-Tow

[lagomorphosting]

Ezo Mountain hare, Lepus timidus ainu.

Japan

Source

[homunculus-argument]

Saw some lady at the train station with a long flowing white skirt, walking a dog with a long flowing white fur, and they both were glowing equally in the contre-jour light of sunshine. Had to draw a rough sketch of them and then shittily shade it on my phone so I'll remember to try to draw them later.

[homunculus-argument]

drawn from the impression of a memory

[meirimerens]

my better half

[meirimerens]

(Notkin voice) "I wanted to create a real utopia, a fraternity of boys and pups, girls and kittens, tots and cubs... ... ..... sighhh tiny ones and toads¹ too I guess we have those too..."

¹ siberian wood frog

[elodieunderglass]

So, how does racing with daemons work? Do they sit in front? On the jockey's head? Get carried along in a cart next to the racetrack somehow? Are there specific species restrictions or weight limits or speed minimums or -

Oh GOD this is a loadbearing problem.

The way I see it working, jockeys would either have to have a daemon that they could carry, that was part of their weight limit, or one that could keep up separately.

No matter what I do, I think I know in my heart that Killie’s daemon is O Holy Thunder, and that’s just what they’re like, as people. Thunder can run along the inside ring of the racetrack to keep up. Being the soul of an intensely competitive jockey, he naturally has a resting pace of 30+ mph, because that is what he is for. Thunder cannot participate in races because he is not eligible - and that’s okay, because horse racing is largely about the testing, refinement and unpredictability of bloodstock. Horse racing isn’t about the fastest horsie, or there wouldn’t be things like weight handicaps; horse racing is about dramatic guessing games with complicated multisided dice and statistics, but the factors are all natural - jockey skill, horse personality, terrain and weather, genetics - and it’s more exciting than rolling dice, because someone might die. So it wouldn’t matter if Thunder was occasionally faster than the field; horse races are about horse performance.

Anyway. Killie would have a racehorse daemon, running on the inside of the track. This would be such a systematically insane way of managing the problem that I think it would have to be a rare way of doing it, and a rare daemon.

his father has a bantam cockerel that weighs about as much as a bath sponge with talons, and I think that’s a lot more normal. Other valid and usable jockey daemons would be insects, birds, and small animals, probably in carry cases.

Meeting the weight limit would always be a problem, and people would be unable to continue in the profession if body weight + gear + daemon weight went beyond their posted assignment. It would be very stressful. but it always IS a problem, and that’s how it is already, and everyone has decided it’s part of the sport. Since jockeys tend to be single-mindedly bloody bonkers about choosing their unhinged profession in OUR universe, they presumably would predominantly settle on daemons within usable parameters, especially generational jockeys who would have conceived of no other career. Settling would probably happen exactly during pony racing/flapping years; apprentice jockeys start in their teens, so I think most people on the career track would know whether or not they’d continue. Although, much like today, if you aren’t naturally very short, your career will be a constant battle - there would probably be fewer eligible jockeys if the pool had to be bodyweight+daemonweight. But it really would be an extension of our own real-world pressures and problems, and it’s such a niche sport already that I can’t imagine it impacting much on society.

(Colm’s Irish Setter daemon would be an instant removal from the job - too large and heavy, no hope of keeping up - and a source of tremendous astonishment and frustration to his family. It’s like the lad doesn’t want to be a jockey!)

[elodieunderglass]

... probably not! Jockeys are thought to be the most injured professional athletes [1] - reportedly sustaining more concussions and TBIs than rugby players, boxers, and American football players [2] to the point where the NFL funds studies on jockey sports medicine [3] - and human and horse deaths in front of audiences do happen. It's been that way for hundreds of years, and is part of the thrill. Jockeys ride with very lightweight helmets, called "skullcaps", and only recently in the UK have they started wearing a safety vest under their colours, which mostly protects against getting stepped on.

It's estimated in one place that 2 jockeys (around the world) die per year, and that's frequently quoted, but I have struggled to find actual data and the sentence goes on to say that 60 jockeys are paralysed per year, a number so shocking that it should have people running around biting pencils in half[4]. Instead, I have to rely on things like "I've personally followed the sport since I was 6, and I feel like I notice a jockey death every year."

Jockey Death 2021 - generational jockey Lorna Brooke, age 37, in England, fell in a race from her mother's horse in front of an audience. Nooresh Juglall, 29, champion racing in Mauritius, in a fall in front of an audience.

Jockey Death 2022 - generational jockey Jack de Bromhead, aged 13, in a pony race in Ireland - led to minimum age for professional pony racing being increased to 14.

Jockey Death 2023 - Dean Holland, in Australia, fell in a race in front of an audience. Left behind wife and four young children.

Jockey Death 2024 - Keagan Kirkby. age 24, in England, fell in a race in front of an audience. Jockey Death 2025, so far - Michael O'Sullivan.

Irish champion jockey Michael O'Sullivan (2000-2025), a generational jockey from a racing family, was fatally injured in a race in February this year. It was upsetting but not nationally shocking. The results of his coroner's inquiry were just released five days ago: “The incident was attributed to the inherent risks of National Hunt (steeplechase/jump) racing, with a series of independent falls triggering an unavoidable chain reaction.” [5]

I think a jockey dying of daemon separation during a race would be treated just the same. Racetrack staff would close in instantly; if the horse was still alive, the outriders would catch it. The ambulances, which follow the field around the inner track, would pull up, and the screens would go up around the body. The remaining races on the card for the day would be cancelled, the gamblers refunded, the horses packed away - and the jockeys would go home without their riding fees.

At the next race meet, jockeys might get permission to wear a black armband on their colours and have a remembrance.

6 months later there would be an inquest stating that it was a daemon separation from a fall, due to the risks inherent in the sport.

And it would go on the same as it is now - the same as it has been for hundreds of years. We have already decided on this.

[1] N. Baldini, A. Kahn, R. Willinger, A. Gueutier, J-D. Kün-Darbois, H-D. Fournier, F. Bernard, B. Le Masson, Cranio-maxillo-facial injuries in professional jockeys: A systematic review, Science & Sports, 2022

[2] Jockeys play hard, but head injuries ride under the radar 09 June 2024 Free

[3] How Horse Racing Research May Help Make Football Safer

[4] Jockey suicides bring attention to stress and mental health concerns of the job | PBS News

[5] Michael O'Sullivan's cause of death revealed after jockey's horror fall from horse - The Mirror

[handweavers]

my grandmother with a deer somewhere in eastern ontario, canada around 1957. she's around 20 years old here and my grandfather took the photo

[coldprism]

The Witch Queen of Harrenhal

[obscurumstar]

HUNTED 🏹🐾

It’s just a quick doodle, but I really like how it came out!! First time ever doing a 2 page spread (I think)

[dximonions]

his dark materials meme: one object

vial with serafina pekkala’s cloudpine sprig 

[centuriespast]

CARRIERA, Rosalba Young Girl Holding a Monkey c. 1721 Pastel on blue paper, 63 x 48 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris

[antiqueanimals]

Rabbits. Written by Herbert S. Zim. Illustrated by Joy Buba. 1948.