Ok but hares are hella ugly and big couldn't neil's daemon be a fluffy red rabbit or something 😂😂😂 much easier to conceal too
brooooo that was savage wth did Firinn do to u??
for real tho i have a lot of thoughts about daemon form that u defo didnt ask for but ur getting anyway (daemon au fic here for anyone who is confused!)
First off this is the visual reference I’ve been using for Neil’s daemon. I never thought of hares as looking particularly ugly, but you do you I guess?? Have I tapped into some sort of hare/rabbit discourse I was previously unaware of?
Neil and Andrew (amongst others) deliberately have daemons that aren’t convenient (re size) or aesthetically pleasing - I chose this for Neil and Andrew as neither have characters that conform to what others want from them; Neil is an instigator, stubborn and contrary at the best of times (the time he turns his phone off literally seconds after Wymack tells him to keep it on springs to mind) and so I wanted his daemon to reflect that contrariness, meaning that Firinn’s form is difficult and contrary even to Neil’s own needs.
Andrew has a Sphynx cat for similar reasons - I’ve seen such a culture around this breed of it being the “ugly” “creepy” “weird” “scary” breed, the most openly hated according to most cat people I’ve mentioned them to. Andrew is not a character who ever shields the “ugly” parts of his character, nor does he care how others might react to them; he is un-apologetically violent, ruthless, etc etc in protecting himself and others, and sees no reason to disguise these parts of himself like others (hello renee) might. If anything, he wears his brutal nature like a shield, using it to push others away no matter their intentions. I wanted his daemon to be similarly offputting and “unpleasant” to those who are happy to judge on outward appearance - which is a lot of people in Andrew’s world. Similarly, the lack of fur on an animal normally is expected to be soft and fluffy (but equally dangerous) ties into Andrew’s unflinchingly honest brutality - nothing is disguised or hidden, Andrew is what he is and leaves the world to their own opinions of it.
Bonus image ref for Lexia…. I love these cats really :3
As for the rabbit aspect (which is going to come up in-fic soon!) I made a very deliberate choice to have an animal for Neil which was rabbit-like, but importantly not a rabbit, and it’s based on this line from tfc:
“Remember this feeling. This is the moment you stop being the rabbit.”
(slight spoiler but not really alert) until this moment, Neil has been coasting by letting people assume that his daemon is a rabbit, not a hare, to help keep his cover (possibly not hella realistic given the size differences but I sure as hell wouldn’t know any better) so this will be an important turning point of the story; Neil is no longer going to pretend to be the scared runaway the others have pegged him as, but is going to step into his “real” identity with Andrew (and Lexia!) at his back to support him.
Now, RED is an interesting colour choice for a rabbit - which makes me wonder if I’m just being trolled for my well-documented love of @redrabbitspod …
