Commissioned from @ensiriustea ! He translated my design beautifully. I love & appreciate his hard work in helping me bring this ref to life!
Lupin uses They/Them primarily. This is the demon form you can most often find them in! It is not their final/full, but it is a stage/level above the in-game designs of only horns and tails/wings. The bottom right is a human form bust.
Lots of misc facts about this form and Lupin below the cut!
A lot of the below is information from early in Lupin's timeline and the game's story. I tried to keep these related to the appearance above. I'll make more posts at a later date with more lore, current facts and etc for Lup.
They started their demon life in the wilds of the devildom, surviving alone for a time in their full demon form before they were brought into the town. This form is closer to their full, but more convenient, so they prefer it.
They could unknowingly shift into this form early on from "episodes" triggered by high aggression and urgency (a fight in the streets), or resurfacing memories from their previous life as a human causing immense mental distress.
After they learn to shift into this form while calm and coherent, it felt more natural and relaxing than being in a lesser one.
This form is more manageable for being in a house than their full form. Their hands are more capable with tech and tools. They also enjoy their gained height, weight, and muscle when like this over the human form.
Their human form is almost 2ft shorter.
Their build is rather athletic, in-shape from the wilds, fighting often, and eating wildlife (and occasionally other demons).
Lup likes to go outside when they can and enjoy the forest and fresh air. They find comfort in the forests and near forested streams and rivers. They will also flee to the devildom wilds when they are upset enough and want to isolate or become hard to find.
They can choose to not manifest the wings for convenience sake, (and for art commissioning ease lol).
They've startled their MC, Valerus, a few times before while in this form. Their reflective eyes, along with being unaware of how scary they could look in dim lighting, are the main culprits. (In the beginning ,they would often forget Val cannot see as well as they can in the dark.)
Lupin heavily prefers to not wear clothing when they can, especially in this form. If they must be dressed, they'll just stick to a lesser form.
---Mammon---
Lupin first changed into this form consciously while in Mammon's room, after an event that overexcited Lup and drew it out. He helped Lupin embrace their new traits and steer away from the creeping shame, embarrassment, and uncertainty of the changes. They were worried too much about what he or Val would think of them, despite knowing their personalities and how much they loved them. It was an intimate experience, and with them being alone and the door locked, Lupin could safely explore their changes and discuss their thoughts together without interruption or further fear of judgement and ridicule.
If it wasn't for him, they would be WAY shyer about sharing this form with anyone they love, especially intimately or sexually, instead of being proud of it and finding joy in being their true self.
Despite not caring what others think usually, Lupin values the opinions of those they hold dear, which can unfortunately shake their confidence.
There was a rather traumatic experience involving this form that I may post eventually. It re-awoken the fears Lupin has of being too different form their partners to be enough for them; Val being a human, Mammon being avian/dragon-like, and Levi being a large serpent demon, while Lupin's dominant traits seem to be feline (for many reasons, they are usually called a lion).
In their final form, they lose their humanoid face and take on a more felid one. The design is not yet finalized, but i have a rough WIP that's been sitting for the past year or so that I plan to finish eventually.
Unrelated but: Mammon and Val were Lupin's first partners, Levi was not yet a partner at that time, but they did become friends. Their feelings grew and after a lot of bonding, overthinking and communication, they got together later on. Currently, all 3 are Lupin's partners.
Not confident in sharing the rest. I like the cropped version and am unsure if the mouths look good 😶🌫️ . He's got a long tongue here, so I'm sure you can guess what I cropped out haha.
Really needed to get the cheesy heart-shaped pose idea out of my head. Lupin on the left, Levi on the right.
Rest of doodle, lots of Levi headcanons, and sea serpent Lupin design WIP under the cut.
I was at work and shouldn't've been doodling lol. The heart doodle is pretty basic and not final designs for either.
Make no mistake, Levi is bigger than Lup in these forms. He made sure to not make them bigger or as fast as he is, lol. I gave them arms mostly bc I wanted them to also hold hands/claws wjwjwjw.
I HC that the brothers, and other strong demons (Lupin included), are capable of shifting into many alternate versions of their demon forms, instead of only having 1 form. There are a few default and favored options that are most commonly used. Obey Me! in-game demon forms are far from their true form and equivilant to being level 1 as far as transformation progress goes.
Lesser forms are far more convenient for navigating their typical environment and indulging in their modern interests. Can't really play video games sized for lesser demons and humans when you're possibly bigger than the Demon King's castle, or the screen's smaller than your eye.
Levi True Form Head Canon's
I consider Levi's true form to be The Serpent of legend. He is Leviathan. The old leviathan tales and threat level should not be attributed to only Lotan, instead of Levi or both of them together.
Levi is huge, and cannot shift into his true form in the house of lamentation without destroying it entirely. He has a Naga-like form that he can fit in his room though (just barely it feels like).
Strong enough demons can also control the size of their larger lesser forms when they shift, their true form cannot be size adjusted since it's a full glamour release. So, Levi can make sure his partial demon forms fit in his room, but because he cannot force his true form to shrink, it's typically off limits. Even when every cell in his body is itching to return to his true size. Each level of their demon forms have a default size, so they have to think about it to make themselves smaller. It's less taxing to simply stick with the default size.
Levi's full sized presence in the water can drive other life out of the area until he leaves. It's unclear if it's out of fear of being eaten/killed, or respect. He was known for beig rather temperamental, that has not really changed. Plus, he'll need to eat eventually. Anything can be your meal when you're big enough.
For vocal communication, he can make low bellows, growls/rumbles, hiss, and sing (long notes that travel pretty far under water). Depends on if his head is above or below water. He does not sing often, preferring to hiss or use silent communication.
For silent communication he has his tongue, eyes, scent and sense of smell, electrical pulses, his entire body (including display and facial fins), bioluminescence, and telepathy when it's needed.
He prefers silent communication between him and his partner. His intimidation and flirting tactics avoid the use of telepathy. Easier, and arguably more fun, for him to do it with noises, pulses, and body movement than put things into words and beam it into their mind.
Lupin
Lupin's sea serpent form is an alternate form Levi can change them into w/magic, not one of Lupin's natural forms. The purpose of figuring out this spell was to be in the ocean together for an extended period of time, for no particular reason at all, wink wink, with Levi in his true form when desired. This meant Levi could indulge and relax, was more physically an instinctually comfortable than on land in his room, AND the pair were way less likely to be interrupted or bothered by anyone during Levi's cycle (aside from Lotan).
Lupin's draft design is below. I prefer to NOT design Levi's and leave his to interpretation. Though I needed to doodle something for the heart pose lol. Their head is wider than you can see here I swear. I need to draw a top down or front facing version if I ever feel like getting back to this.
More misc info ↓↓ just me yapping
Unfortunately, Lupin's natural demonic traits cannot keep up with Levi in water. (One form of theirs you can see here for reference). They get pretty waterlogged with all that fur and surface area. They CAN swim, but not well enough to keep up with The Leviathan, even when he's going slow. It's a lot of effort fighting your own drag in order to swim well. Lupin's true form (🦁) is much smaller than the Lord of the Sea's.
Lupin could fly above the water to keep up, but they needed to be submerged with him. They also needed to be able to go far deeper into the abyss than they safely could with just a breathing spell. An they really wanted to get him to let loose and let them appreciate his true form while he yearned to be in it anyway.
In typical Lupin fashion, they also wanted to be changed just for fun. Longing to know what it was like to be huge, aquatic, and serpentine as well as able to play around with him in new ways. Both Levi and Lupin are mischievous like this, so they will play around and goof off between hunts, sleep, and cuddle sessions.
Lupin was also elated to be able to wrap their entire body around him. They are a very affectionate demon.
While under water with him in this form, Lupin also slept deeper than they ever have. It's theorized it may be because of the all encompassing water pressure serving as a weighted blanket, but could've been from the exertion of moving around as something you aren't naturally.
Finally got around to working on this ref again! Much happier with it now! Reworked their face and horns, started adding onto the mane.
Still lots of tweaks to do. Redrawing and resizing the wings is next, then redoing body markings, adding the rest of their traits. THEN... everything on the rear view lol. They have a lot of demon form versions....
