#this got.... long

[pfhwrittes]

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!

[thatndginger]

Hey! Please tell me more about the mirrors! :D

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

[itsscaredycat]

so ok yeah fine i watched gravity falls again and read the book of bill

[mintaii]

take responsibility

[gongyussy]

make men slutty again.

HEAT STROKE | GQ CHINA Photographer: Wintam; Editor & Image: Shawn Gao Ding; Makeup: Lucas; Hair: Tao Liu; Art: Grade 2 & Lei Min; Art Assistant: Jiang Mi; Models: Kim; Ye Hao, Yu Hang, Ho Jun; Fashion Assistant: Yiyi, Coco; Photography Assistant: Li Zhenxi; Song Luanyi

bonus as rightfully added by @polyabathtub:

[buzzrds]

here's my wonderful isopod child, handcrafted in leather

[daeyumi]

I am what you made me 🩸

[fwicksart]

how long you think it'd been since he'd last seen his reflection?

[eggwishing]

I ONCE TRIED TO WASH THAT SCUFFED OLD THING WHILE HE WAS TAKING ONE OF HIS NAPS, BUT WHEN I TOOK IT OFF HE WAS WEARING ANOTHER IDENTICAL ONE UNDERNEATH! AND ANOTHER! I GOT THROUGH TEN MORE LAYERS OF THE SAME THING BEFORE HE WOKE UP. I WAS SO FRUSTRATED! WHERE DID HE EVEN GET THOSE FROM? THEY ALL EVEN HAD THE SAME STAINS!!

[windwenn]

UHURA!!!

[incredubious]

MODERN AU ACESAN !!!! first impressions with a guy who barely passes the No Shoes No Shirt No Service rule

[datcravat]

DANDADAN

[eydilily]

would you bite the hand that feeds you?

[yaknowlikenyah]

Remember kiddos, good kink relationships come from genuinely enjoying another person outside of kink. Don't expect to get into a serious dynamic if you can't actually like the person attached to it.

[blumothy]

i love dandadaniel

[gongyussy]

"we know how to move our bodies, but i didn't know how to manage my heart, so you need help for this"

hi we need to talk more about judo gold medallist christa deguchi.