okay alright here we go. disclaimer here: i am not an expert on his dark materials. i am just a nerd that read the books at the age of 11 and fell in love with them. i have started to re-read them again as an adult but i can't find my copies of the subtle knife or the amber spyglass. things in this post will be wrong. i'm using the knowledge i have in my head. also, i'm going off the book lore, not the film (we do not speak of the film) or tv show lore.
also, there are spoilers under the cut for his dark materials.
so, for those of you that are unfamiliar with Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, daemons are a sentient animal companion that is a reflection of your soul/personality that appears when you are born. they can talk, have independent thoughts, express emotions, feel pain, and also have a telepathic link with their human counterparts.
pre-pubescent children's daemons can change shape/type at will. at the onset of puberty (or, it's heavily implied that trauma is a factor too) the daemon will "settle" into its adult/mature form and can no longer change shape.
in his dark materials lyra's daemon, pantalaimon, is shown to change forms multiple times during her childhood/adventures before "settling" into the form of a pine marten. pan commonly changes forms to represent a mouse, a small bird (a sparrow i think?), a dolphin when she was travelling via sea voyage, and the book referenced that pan turned into a dragon when playing with other children and their daemons too. daemons can and do express a preference for certain forms throughout childhood.
according to the books (please note the first was published in the 90s), daemons are most commonly the "opposite sex" to their human counterparts. so males would have a female daemon and vice versa, but it was noted in the books that an unnamed character was considered an oddity because his daemon was the same sex as him. so it's not unheard of, just uncommon (or at least, uncommon according to the author - but i digress. i'm not getting into gender stuff on this post. i'm trans. i have Other Thoughts regarding gender stuff and daemons but i'm trying to keep this as short as possible.)
important stuff to know about daemons that could be considered spoilers if you haven't read the books/watched the TV show (sidenote: do not watch the 2008 film. it's bad. it's so so bad.)
social etiquette is that humans do not touch another human's daemon. it's an exceptionally intimate act, usually reserved for familial/romantic relationships or incredibly close friendships.
daemons are usually named by the parent/guardian's daemons.
daemons can and do talk to each other, groom each other, play, cuddle, and otherwise interact with each other. it's not uncommon for children's daemons to get into scuffles with each other.
if you are hurt, your daemon will feel it. if your daemon is hurt, you will feel it. if someone else touches your daemon, you will feel it. (in the books it's described as a kind of paralysing, anxiety inducing sensation if someone with hostile intent touches your daemon.)
if the human dies, the daemon turns into Dust (they turn into a shower of gold sparks and float away). if a daemon turns into Dust before the human does the human may not necessarily die...
there is a finite distance with how far a daemon can travel away from their human. some types of daemons (birds, dolphins) can travel further than terrestrial daemons but that is entirely dependent on the size/motility of the daemon AND on whether or not the pairing have been Separated.
being Separated hurts. it's agonising. it's not something that most people or daemons would willingly choose to do but there are exceptions...
people are very much stereotyped on their type of daemon. for example, in his dark materials soldiers usually have canine-type daemons. "common" folk usually have "common" types of daemons but more wealthy/better educated/higher social classes have "uncommon" daemons. in his dark materials lord asriel's daemon is a snow leopard called stelmaria, marisa coulter's (a wealthy socialite) daemon is a golden monkey (unnamed in the books, but according to the tv show and radio adaptation is named ozymandias) compared to various staff members at jordan college who all have daemons like house sparrows or small dogs or cats.... make of that what you will.
so yeah, consider this a primer on daemons as inspired by his dark materials. hopefully i will be able to weave this lore (and some of my own headcanons) into the au i'm noodling away on for the 141!
I'm tagging @vcaudley in this since Ria also wanted to know ^.^ (Thank you both so much for feeding into my shenanigans)
The story of Kronos is a pretty easy one, right? Kronos the titan, god of time, who deposed and castrated his own father. [Interesting and relevant tidbit: Kronos may have been the god of time specifically viewed as a destructive, all-devouring force.] Anyway, Cronus, fearing the prophesy foretelling that he'd be deposed by his own son, devours all of his children with the titaness Rhea, goddess of motherhood and generations. But Rhea gives birth to her youngest son Zeus in secret, tricking Kronos with a swaddled rock, and Zeus grows up to depose his father and free his siblings.
What I'm proposing, and bear with me here, is that the story of Kronos can be a cyclical one. Kronos devours his son [ie destroys whatever made his son different from himself] and when he becomes a father himself, the son perpetuates the cycle and devours his own son. It's a role forced upon each generation. The more you fight it, the more painful your devouring becomes, so why fight it at all?
There's a quote from the play Elektra by Sophocles:
I always think of it when I am working on the Montrose family and their dynamics.
Laurent Montrose, current family head and rotten old bastard, is Kronos. He clings to power, despite his age, and does so with an iron fist and a cruel smile. He knows what makes the perfect Montrose leader, the perfect crime boss, and that is himself. He won't allow his descendants to be any less.
Caesar Montrose, son of Laurent, is another Kronos, molded and guided by his father. He knows his duty; that he must devour his son, to make him the perfect leader. It does not matter that he has not one, but four children. He will devour them all.
Xiaoli Yuen-Montrose, wife of Caesar, is Rhea. This one caught me a bit by surprise, because Xiaoli is every bit as mercenary and cold as her counterparts. But she is a mirror for Rhea. She watches Caesar devour two of their children, and decides that her youngest will be spared. And perhaps, by being spared, they will end this cycle of father devouring son.
Lucas Montrose, the eldest child of Caesar, is set to be another Kronos. He takes after Laurent, cruel and proud - and thanks to two generatons of Kronos before him, sees no other path for himself. His Rhea did not save him.
Adrien Montrose, youngest child of Caesar, is Zeus. The cycle breaker. Shielded by Rhea from Kronos' all-devouring force. Not completely, he still learned hatred and ruthlessness at his father's feet, but enough. Enough to give him strength to step out of the cycle, to say 'no more'. Strength to fight back against the three generations of Kronos trying to devour him.
Anyway, I realized that I have three different paintings of 'Saturn/Kronos Devouring his Son' by de Goya, Muttoni, and Rubens in my 'Montrose' folder, as well as 'Sacrifice of Isaac' by Caravaggio, 'Dante and Virgil' by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, and 'The Struggle for Existence' by George Bouverie Goddard and they make me feel some kind of way towards this fucked-up family
I haven't decided what the eventual trajectory of Adrien's deposement of his grandfather/father/brother will be, but I have plans >:3
just thinking about dorian having only one friend when he lived in tevinter and about how he basically had to watch his friend die. but not just his friend, felix was basically the only good thing in tevinter to dorian (sure okay alexius was a fine mentor for the most part, but he still had shortcomings). he was never someone dorian thought he'd befriend, he was rather the opposite when it came to magical ability, but he was so good, his heart was so good and he was the closest thing dorian ever had to real family, proper loving and caring and all of that. they were brothers, and tdorian absolutely still has nights where he feels he somehow failed felix. he can never fully blame alexius for going mad — had dorian been a weaker man, more prone to fantasy, he's sure he would haev as well.
slick is my main one! and…. possible headmate lmao. idk his real name, so i just call him slick but he just uses whatever name he wants at any given time. i p much built him around the idea of subverting the stoic intense fighter/mercenary archetype. like he’s not sadistic at all, he’s masochistic. but then it developed into him needing grounding and seeking it out in very poor ways and just became this interesting analysis of ig toxic masculinity, (internalized) ableism, etc. probably says a lot abt what was on my mind at the time lmaoalso gonna mention my old rp character, gio. this was back in my gaia years (lmao) and he was really fun to play. i was super into venice and masquerade/comedia del arte at the time, so gio ran this (figuratively) underground masquerade whose only rule was Masks Always On. ngl, the reasoning behind it wasnt developed very well, but it was a way to allow ppl from all walks of life come together and interact without being 100% sure of who’s who. gio was so much fun to write, but mostly bc my rp partner’s character was an absolute foil; we built them together. gio was dry, restrained, but genuine in his expression, where nessu was theatrical, mischievous, and stunningly clever.gio had been the hotheaded youth with a prideful streak a mile long, but a serious brush with near-death made him reconsider how to change to get control of his life. the fact that he’d grown up really poor factored into his decision to open the masquerade and run it like he does
Valentines is, in Totoko’s opinions, the single worst day of the year.
Every year, on the dot, lovey dovey couples suddenly think it’s free real estate to brag about their relationship, making dramatic confessions in public, interrupting everyone else’s day just to do so.
Flowers? Hearts? Chocolates? Please! You really think other people care! We just want to take the train, or buy our lunch from the supermarket, or cross the damn street!
…This resentment, by the way, totally has nothing to do with the fact that Totoko has never once spent a Valentines with someone special. No, that’s just a sidenote. She’s gotten countless confessions (from perverted NEETs), countless propositions (from perverted NEETs) and countless chocolates (again, from perverted NEETs), but in the end, they only wanted one thing from her —
so what’s wrong with her wanting something in return?!
Just, generally, she has no attachments to the date, but some company’s better than none, so when a handsome stranger — albeit in that rugged, roguish sort of way — gives her a lazy smirk, invites her to dinner, Totoko accepts coyly.
Dabi flirts for a bit, she flirts back, then he excuses himself momentarily; Totoko doesn’t even blink when screams sound off in the distance, and Dabi returns moments later with a burnt (stolen) wallet.
(Later, a policeman approaches, asking if anyone’s seen anything suspicious — ‘There’s been a mugging in this area, you see!’ — and Totoko gasps, eyes wide. She glances to the corner of her eye, bottom lip trembling, eyes tearing up in fright.
“Officer… There was someone… they ran off in that direction… They were so scary… But you’ll take care of it, right…? I have so much respect for you guys, after all…”
Damsel in distress has so much pull that the officer completely ignores the villain holding stolen wallet beside her, flustered that such a pretty girl would flirt with them that they stutter and rush off in the random direction Totoko’s pointed.
Once they’ve passed, Totoko shrugs, expression changing quickly and turns back to her date—
“Dabi-kun, is it…?” a bat of her eyelashes. “It’s so nice of you to invite me out. This place is so strange and scary.” The back of her hand ‘accidentally’ touches against his as she keeps pace with him on their way to dinner.
“So many thieves about, you know? I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”
Are there any songs that remind you of Stephanie? Jason?
ooooh let me see (just remember.......... this is based on my music style and im... pop garbage okay) (be grateful i didnt put 1d bc boy let me tell you...)
Steph:
Every single Hayley Kiyoko song
It’s On Again by Alicia Keys
Bird Set Free by Sia
Kill your Heroes by Awolnation
Shut up and Let me Go by The Ting Tings
Bruises by Chairlift
Grow up by Paramore
Jason:
Gives you Hell by the All American Rejects
I Wanna Get Better by Bleachers
Don’t Stop (Color On the Walls) by Foster the People
Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes
Gospel by Panic! at the Disco
R.I.P. 2 My Youth by The Neighbourhood
Wreak Havoc by Skylar Grey
Both:
Alive by Sia
Royals by Lorde
Now by Paramore
like... every song from Save Rock & Roll by Fall Out Boy (and some from American Beauty/American Psycho) (Especially Alone Together, The Phoenix, Miss Missing You / Irresistible, Centuries, The Kids arent Alright & Fourth of July) (some are more jason, some more steph but fob is.. them. Steph & Jason invented fob)
