So this is me dipping my toe back into writing...at all lol, and a way to cope with Caelum not getting videos anymore.
Pairing: N/A
WC: 835
TW: Mentions of the Inversion, feelings of loneliness, mentions of loss of memories.
Three years.
It had been three years since he had spoken to them. His freelancer buddy. Three years since the Chorus decided that he no longer needed the support of being able to speak to his charges.
Three years since the Freelancer had their memories of him removed.
It was still sad when he thought back on it. He missed talking with them, making cookies or brownies or any other kind of sweets to cheer them up. He missed them. But he also wasn’t selfish anymore, he knew that they didn’t need him like they used to.
He watched as they played Smash Bros with their friends, silently smiling at them as they laughed and cheered when they won or when one of the others did something cool. It was fun to watch, in a bittersweet way.
He wasn’t expecting for Gavin to catch his eye, the desire demon gesturing with his head towards the balcony. Then he stood from the couch and set his controller down.
“I think I’m going to get some fresh air,” he said plainly, stretching for Freelancer to see the barest hint of his stomach. The Freelancer in question caught him with a curious look, silently asking if he was okay. Which Gavin responded to with a small kiss and a whisper of “i’m fine.”
Once again Gavin made eye contact with Caelum and the younger daemon followed him out onto the balcony.
Gavin leaned against the railing so that no one could see his lips moving as he spoke to Caelum.
“You know, you could probably ask the Chorus of visitation.” He suggested, his voice gentle and lacking the sensual undertone that his words normally held. “It’s different without you around, little guy.”
Caelum couldn’t help but smile at the words, and the meaning behind them.
“But they don’t need me anymore, and I…I don’t need them. Not in the same way I used to. We both grew up. That’s what we were supposed to do.” Caelum says,his voice light and bright, but he can’t hide the undertone of sadness that he felt when thinking about his old friendship with Freelancer. “We were a crutch for each other, and now we’re both fixed. I don’t want them to lose that progress.”
He moved to lean on the railing next to Gavin, watching the city. He could feel all of the good emotions around him, he treasured it. After the Inversion, there was a time when he thought that no one would be happy ever again. It was a foolish thought, even he knew that, but there had been so much hurt that it seemed nothing would ever get better.
But they had, and they had done it on their own without him stepping in. Which was the way it was supposed to be.
“You know, your words would be more convincing if you weren’t crying.”
Caelum looked up at Gavin in surprise, he was…crying? He reached a hand up to his cheek and sure enough, there were tears streaking down his face. He shouldn’t be crying. He should be happy for his friend because they were happy! That’s all he wanted was for his friend to be happy! That’s all.
“It’s okay to be sad.” Gavin said gently, unable to truly comfort the young daemon without alerting his friends inside. “You won’t fall from just that. I promise”
That was apparently all it took for Caelum to burst out into tears. Everything spilled out, how much he missed spending time with them, both of them. He missed the Freelancer even if they didn’t know who he was now.
That was the part that hurt the most.
“They can’t remember me…ever.” He whimpered, clutching the railing as he stared out at the city. “They can remember the feelings, the happiness, the way I helped them, but not me. And I know that’s a good thing, i know but it makes me so sad to know they thought they were all alone until they met you and everyone else. I should be happy, I should be happy.”
Gavin is silent for a moment before moving to embrace the boy, not caring about what his friends inside might think.
“You don’t always have to be happy, Caelum,” Gavin says softly. “No matter what the Chorus, or your mentor say. Just because you are of Empathy, doesn’t mean that you have to be cheerful all the time. It’s okay.”
Caelum didn’t know how long they were out there, how long Gavin held him while he cried, he just let everything out. All the sadness he had been holding inside for the last three years. All the things he told himself it wasn’t okay to feel because he was doing the right thing, he had finally succeeded in what the Chorus wanted him to. He hadn’t gotten too attached to leave a charge to their own devices. But the Freelancer wasn’t just a Charge anymore.
OMG redacted fan art in my sketch book??? Insane! The first is Gavin and freelancer’s infamous first meeting, second is my son, and third is a doodle from my fic ‘swords sails and the open sea’. Shout out to Gavin for drowning people he likes.
And if I say April Foolsverse Caelum should be a sadism demon what are y’all doing. If I said the most terrifying thing would be this 8 year old telling you to isolate and kys with a huge grin on his face as if what he’s saying isn’t incredibly threatening and fucked up what is the consensus because genuinely this would be my favorite shit
Freelancer: …
Sadism!Caelum: You should kys :)😃
Freelancer: YOU KNOW THAT THATS NOT APART OF YOUR JOB RIGHT? LIKE ME DYING DOESNT PROVIDE YOU FOOD??
Caelum: Yeah but have you considered it’s fucking funny
(He proceeds to have his mouth washed out with soap by Freelancer but escapes mid way through like a pissed off cat, hissing and hunching up in the corner to escape his punishment)
Headcannon that freelancer is an insomniac but it’s been getting better thanks to Caelum and Gavin’s help; and that’s because before they all lived together freelancer used to just pop into bed and pray to fall asleep and then get up and do other stuff if that didn’t work (seen in the Caelum sleep audio). But now they have a 25 step night time sleep routine that Gavin and Caelum have helped them develop for their health that involved yoga and sleepy time tea and classics music.
Hi I get vibes of colours from names, words, and songs, so here's what I get for the D.A.M.N boys :)
Gavin:
Gavin changes a bit, he's both bright pink and a deep pink/pinkish red, bright pink is more when he's happy/comfortable/with freelancer and/or caelum,
Meanwhile the darker colours are more when he's sad, serious, stressed, angry, worried, basically any heavier feeling/emotion.
Lasko:
Lasko is blue, plenty of different shades, but usually staying away from dark blues (none of the audios with him so far have given me a dark colour for him but who knows what colours he's gonna be with this impirium hell)
Damian:
Damian is yellow and sunset orange, the orange thats mixed with pink (I personally like to think that when he makes fire it's less normal fire coloured n more pinky orange)
Huxley:
bestest bro there is, hux is green, a dark dusty sort of green (interestingly a lot of H words are green, but A still holds majority), it's my favourite colour of green n I don't know how to describe it properly, it's close to military green but nicer? Maybe I'll call it road green or somethin
Kody:
Grey, kody is a Grey's, like storm clouds, almost black in places but silver in others, beautiful to watch but absolutely not something you want to get close to, I have never been more glad that my nephew's name is spelled with a C than when we met this man
Caelum:
whose name I never know if I'm spelling right, Lavender, the almost blue purple of the actual plant, this boy has so much love and I am so worried about him all the time because he is too kind for his own good ( at this point I'm assuming all empathy daemons have their own empathy daemon if this boy thought that FL being worried about him was a problem)
HI HELLO I'M HERE FOR THE ANIMALISTIC FEATURES ON D(A)EMONS TED TALK
I’ve been waiting for you. *sits and turns in my swivel chair evilly with my hands pressed together at their finger tips.*
Full Explanation on Animalistic Traits on D(a)emons in no assorted order under the cut (with art included)
@bazpire @vind3miat0r (tagging y'all cause I finally made the damn post)
(From left to right, Gavin, Caelum, and Azmidi in both their material forms and their pure demonic forms visualized)
Fear demons are very Creepy Crawlie based! That being said nearly all of them have amphibious/reptilian traits! Though they don’t have blood they do appear to at least feel cold blooded and do enjoy similar activities that reptilians might like sunbathing or anything equivalent!
Fear demons have Very thick and long tails, some have tails that end in fins or have extra fins on the side but that differs from demon to demon. Most fear demons have black sclera or entirely black eyes that are Very sensitive to light leaving them to only coming out at night which is both great for feeding but sucks because they get limited sunlight unless wearing sunglasses :[
Fear daemons tend to be cooler/dry colors! They’re not exactly pastels, think more calm and soothed colors that blend in w their surroundings.
For Example (of a standard fear demon): The Caller Boi is a light grey, fully scaled demon with a long tail that’s finned at the end and has smaller fins on the side! His tongue is fully that of a lizard (he can grab food with it!) and is forked, he also has heat pits underneath where his nose would be! His hands and feet are clawed and his hair is long, black, and oddly limp. His hair is incredibly long and always vaguely sopping wet looking, it also kind of looks like deep dark Kelp.
Most fear demons have longer hair/hair that very much seems uncared for, either too oily, or too dry, or too wet. Very much unnatural/uncomfy looking. Their eyes are usually obscured by their hair to keep them safe and few fear demons feel a need to show their eyes since the whole “Tall, oddly colored, long limbed creature in your room watching you” thing is enough to get a reaction and feed as is.
Most fear demons Do Not wear clothes. They don’t actually have any genitalia or defining features sexual and the effort to make clothes at both fit their proportions, feel comfortable against scales or oddly smooth/silky/slimey skin, and have tail holes is too much for any of them to Want to do unless they genuinely find it fun. So if you see one of these guys in public, don’t stare. They’re just doing their thing. Also they will notice you and will end up following you home :] (fun new buddy who definitely loves you)
Fear demons tend to either have flopped/lop ears or no ears at all! Their ears can still be perked to look for prey to pay extra attention to things if needed but are most comfortable flopping down and staying there. The chances of you touching a fear demons ears are slim to none since you will almost assuredly lose your hand afterward.
Empathy daemons very much got the best end of the deal as most of them are Chimeric in nature and therefore have a variety of mismatched animal traits! Where as other demons have traits that come directly from on family/class of animal, Empathy demons can and will have Any. (Though seeing mammalian traits is very common) This can go from mismatched fur and skin patterns to even each of their limbs. Being the most animalistic trait inheriting variety of demon, it’s incredibly helpful that Empathy demons aren’t able to be seen by their charges for a certain amount of time as this typically allows them time to be able to disguise their forms into something vaguely more human.
Caelum is still struggling with this, thus his odd eyes and two sets of animal ears.
Though since that’s been repealed in canon (since it was causing empathy demons to have weird attachments to their charges due to being unseen) more people will probably be having what they assume to be visits from “angels” (more on that below)
Empathy demons are often mistaken for angels are where the idea of angels comes from somewhat! Truthfully the Sovereigns are what the concept of angels comes from but after their disappearance and the much more common appearance of Empathy demons to those in need, empathy demons became the standard as well as the saying “Do not be afraid” because seeing a creature that’s part every animal is Very Scary.
(The sovereigns look like biblically accurate angels)
Empathy demons are all born Incredibly short but grow to be one of the tallest kinds of demons! For example: Caelum was the shortest in his batch/litter of empathy demons but this means that he’ll grow to be the tallest and above average size for an Empathy demon! Which will be very inconvenient when he tries to visit freelancer and is now a good 8 feet tall (please be nice to him he hates being too tall to be held it makes him sad)(also Caelum is right handed by choice but all demons are ambidextrous…I couldn’t find anywhere else to fit this hc in so shush)
Empathy demons are born in litters/batches! Batches are used to refer to litters that have been born (typically 1 to 2 at a time otherwise the word litter will just be used interchangeably if it’s less than 2) while Litter is used by the demons in said batch to refer to themselves and their siblings that were born.
For example: “A couple new batches of empathy demons were born, they will NOT stop crying about someone taking their toys.”
“Oh me and my litter used to do that, have you tried just labelling the toys with their names?”
Empathy demons can be born with duplicate limbs! So there’s like a non-zero plausibility of there being an empathy demon named Tails who does In Fact have two fox tails. He would not find this funny. (But he would love tails and name himself Miles after him)
This can span from multiple arms on their torso to multiple tails, wings, ears, or even horns! Caelum has been known to have two tails on occasion but primarily is known for his two sets of ears! One resembling a bear or lion cub and the other resembling a lamb.
Concubi (incubi and succubi) have the Least animal traits as it would generally be hard for them to shift and disguise if they had the amount of traits other demons had. This leaves them feelings rather put-out by other demon groups and it’s very common for Concubi to be jealous or upset because of their lack of traits. Sure it’s great for catching food and all but it feels like a denial of their demonic attributes honestly. Being mistaken as human by other demons and humans themselves is a common and very down putting experience for concubi, while some embrace it and the ease it gives them to catch food, many reject this idea and will try and make their animal/demon traits more apparent.
It’s very common for concubi to have ur standard demon tail and a thing layer of fuzzy/fine fur as well as clawed hands and sometimes feet! It’s more uncommon to have cat eyes and slit pupils. Almost all concubi have long elf like ears and if they don’t then that’s very rare! The outcome of that is either having human ears (extremely rare) or some form of animal ears (even more rare) Obviously it’s much more favored by the general concubi population to have animal based ears and those that don’t have normal ears or animal ears will disguise their ears to be normal and elf like but demons can always tell when one another are using magic to hide themselves, so this trick only works on non-demons or humans
Gavin has a fair mix of uncommon and common traits for incubi! He has fairly long animal like ears (similar to a sheep/goat or rabbit), hooves, and claws! But for the most part it's not incredibly hard for him to shift and pass as human which is a mixed bag as far as he's concerned with how it makes him feel. He definitely has More traits than the average concubus but the ones he has are incredibly concubi specific, meaning they're as minor as genetically possible for him to pass as human when shifting.
Think of it like being double jointed. Is it uncommon and kind of weird? yes. Is it something noticable that's going to come up every day unless you show it off? No. It's a minor oddball trait at best which sets him in this weird spot of either being idolized by some concubi for his traits, demonized by others for his lack of conformity with human standards, or being denied his demon-status due to the simplicity of his traits.
It's a very hard topic for him.
At the least he's lucky that there are Very few sadism demons left out in the world, it would give him an even bigger complex of problems.
(Sadism demons are basically what would happen if you took Concubi genes and pumped them with steroids. EVERYTHING about their genetics is more obvious. While Gavin has retractable claws, a sadism demon might have claws that never retract. Cats eyes that properly dilate in every light, more markings as well as markings that are more blantantly obvious. Fangs and tusks that protude from the mouth and glint in the light, whiskers and antennae that properly feel and catch every change in movement.
Compared to a sadism demon, an incubus is just a chubby house cat playing an unconvincing game of pretend to a big cat. Really, if you asked Vega he would say their lives are spent playing a charade of pretend, a mockery of what a real demon is. they're practically human.)
(I have way more but this post was too long so lemme know if the tags if you want a part two on the other kinds of demons plus some more art :3 Also demon on demon discrimination because thats so fucking funny to me.)
