Animate My Thoughts
(I tried adding these to AO3 first—then I realized I no know how to put picture in where words normally go… so I gave up, twas pathetic, twas very quick.)
These are my fills for RetroWriMay26’s (@retrowrimay) prompts 3+12+24
Prompt 3: Gratuitous Self-Insert
Prompt 12: Daemon Fic (dæmon??)
Prompt 24: Vampire AU
I numbered the doodles so that I could give a description for each. When making these fills, I thought about the questions: what animal(s) get to be a daemon? The Daemon is the soul of the human, but aside from that, what does the daemon represent? The person’s passions/interests? Deepest darkest thoughts and desires? … mental heath????
These drawings are basically my answers to questions like that 👍🏽
Here are the descriptions for each:
1: that’s a quetzal, the quetzal is a vibrant green bird with a red belly (that got a lil legend to it as to why, bathed in the blood of its enemies or the last Aztec emperor or something, I forget, don’t got my book with me so don’t ask). For this one, I was thinking of one of the questions, what does a daemon represent? People’s past? Culture? … preverbal trauma of what was lost before they were adopted and now might kinda be longing to reconnect with??? (Ignore that one, is a rabbit hole I have yet to save myself from.) The quetzal bird is the national bird of Guatemala, where I was born and adopted from, I do love the bird, is a cool bird. I also like music, and birds make music.. sometimes they can be annoying, but still!
2: that’s an Irish Wolfhound. Why an Irish Wolfhound? Cause I was thinking of like.. 3 things.. 1) What if the daemon represented your mental health??? Or something similar to that like your troubled thoughts or something?? 2) which follows up after 1, there was this thing I saw, once, about how this black dog, long ears, kinda lazy and weighing down on its owner by acting like it was a lap dog—the black dog to represent depression.. I would not say I have depression, but I also wouldn’t say I don’t have it, either. I definitely got some anxiety issues, and anxiety can occasionally lead to depression.. also, 3) Irish Wolfhound, cause I was thinking of the Skyrim dogs, I like them, they’re cool, part of me wishes I did a Basset Hound as well, but, I’m already late on my fills, I need to catch up.
3: That’s a Chimera….. I think—look, the point is, why just one animal? People are complicated things, if an animal represents anything—is that people really can’t truly be described “if I was an animal, I would be____” I WOULD BE A SHAPESHIFTING SOMETHING OR OTHER, SO, CHIMERA! 🙌🏽 because people do be changing with time! … Also, imagine if, in this world.. all those magical/fantastical animals did exist… as peoples’ daemons and such.. that’d be kinda cool (if the other signs weren’t clear, this one should be the one to tell you… I have not read the book, and it’s been a long while since I even seen the movie so I am not aware of the “daemon rules” 🙂↕️). Also, this one would be my answer to the question, “what if your daemon represented your deepest, darkest thoughts/secrets/desires?” As someone who has been considered a “good/easy child,” my deepest darkest thoughts (AKA: my intrusive thoughts) occasionally scare me.. took me a while to finally laugh at them, but if I saw it manifested as a daemon.. a chimera??? … yeah, I dunno, I really dunno.
4: Originally I wanted to do a classic MCU Gratuitous self-insert… it was gonna be cringy (I would bet money on it, one of the cringiest), I don’t think it’d be considered much of a “classic” self-insert, cause I wasn’t gonna ship myself with anyone, I admit I was just gonna low-key kinda crash out about real world happenings and how all the superhero movies have a happy ending… among other things.. anyways—when thinking about a self-insert, I’m thinking about.. what would I do, in this world exactly?? Well, in the MCU, I’d spoil everything, cause I would time travel myself to a specific spot, and in this one with Daemons and such—I’d more or less just be keeping a low profile, doing some sightseeing… mostly cause; there are some worlds I’d like to interfere in, and there are others I would not… and others in which, if I do not know what is best, I rely on my default answer, which is always “no,” I would be a bystander, probably contemplating staying, cause I do indeed like the idea of a daemon, one to represent me/my soul/personality or whatever.
5: (Ignore the numbers on these last two, I kinda messed up)… this is my fill for Prompt 24: Vampire AU. Why? Cause if there be witches, it stands to reason there ought to be some vampires too, right? Right??… right??? … twas a gratuitous self-insert, first, so, sorry that this is the only one—it’s Dracula from Castlevania, that one cartoon/anime something or other, 🤷🏽♀️. I don’t consider this one my fill for bizarre crossover, though, I got different plans for that one. I thought Dracula was like a badger, kinda mean-looking… but the mean-looking is not as bad as when actually trying to be mean—holy crap, that show was a bit wild. I swear I was lulled into a false sense of security more than once… After a while of thinking about it, though, I was wondering—do vampires even have a soul???? Then I was like, screw it, I’m halfway through this doodle, and I need the fill, so. Here we are. I thought Dracula’s daemon would be a badger, cause not many people like badgers (foxes occasionally team up with them, though), and I thought daemons for vampires would be like they are for witches. Able to wander far away, if they so please… also, I’m 100% certain Dracula’s daemon would not be on board with the choices he made in the show, okay, I’m done.
6: … I don’t love my self-portrait drawing(s, especially) in this one. It was a little difficult, and honestly, I kinda wish I just gave it up, but also, I needed a better one for the daemon in doodle number 4… one of my final questions was.. “well, if it truly must only be one, and it cannot be a chimera, what would it be, to represent me, really?” And a north American porcupine was the answer. Why? Cause.. well.. porcupines very clearly do not want to be touched. I got an aversion to touch. 🤲🏽 y’see what I mean??? Also, that doesn’t mean a porcupine is all prickles, they got a soft belly with no quills. Then they got a special ability to produce their own medicine (don’t ask me about specifics, the memory fails me) in case they poke themselves. They lose their quills, if I remember correctly, they do indeed shed. And they can regrow and such… what I’m trying to say, is that I think they are resilient.. which is not.. exactly something I would say about myself, but.. something I’d say I try to be, at least. If this guy was my Daemon, that’s it, I’m staying in the world, no one can convince me otherwise. That’s me, just contemplating how to start a new life with my accurate soul-defining daemon. That’s it. (I’d more than likely stay for the Quetzal, too, but, that’s it, that’s really it, no other animal will do—except maybe one of the many hummingbird moths, okay I’m done.)
(Also, don’t talk to me about the inaccuracies of any of these drawings, I’m much more confident in drawing animals than I am with people, and I confess I traced—not very well—with Dracula, my expertise is in doodling and definitely not people.. and the chimera was weirdly harder than I thought it would be, I blame the lion, that thing’s head would not cooperate. 🤧)
