AU Week: Daemonverse

[2goodarms]

Eighteen years of tight quarters led to some changes in basic biology. Everybody below the age of thirty settled as something small, compact, easy to keep close. People around Curtis’ age usually had something a little bigger: malleable enough to re-settle, just hardened enough not to venture too far from their original shape. A few people who were too old — too set in their ways, even after what the train did to them — ended up dying from the stress, unable to keep their outsize daemon from being touched so many times a day. Nobody had anything much bigger than a dog anymore.

And nobody’s daemon could ever get more than a foot or two away from them without feeling the strain of separation.

But, like Dejah’s fond of telling Curtis, he’s not on the train anymore. He remembers people whose links could extend almost the full width of a car. Joanna thinks it’s a shitty idea, but it’s just a test, he keeps reassuring her. It’s just another muscle to build up.

So, by the fire, Curtis hunches in an armchair with his eyes fixed on the honey badger next to his feet. Slowly, Joanna places one clawed foot in front of other other, inching forward against the pressure of their link.

They can do this. They’ve endured worse hurts.


[ooc: keeping it simple for AU week: daemons! Everything else about Curtis' background remains the same. Mun will be sporadic until about 10 PM ET, then around solidly until 11:30ish; post is open until I say it's not.]

Comments

[iambetadraconis]

The unfolding scene is studiously being observed by a greyish-brown unicorn who is using his magic to scribble down notes into a journal of some kind. Research notes, no doubt.

Even after his graduation from school, some things die hard.

The unicorn in question has only been to Milliways for a few months, and he still can't quite get his head around the concept of "human".

Let alone the concept of "human with external soul".

Thus all the notes.

His reddish-and-white, bully type pet dog, on the other hand, looks keen to make friends with said external soul.

If Beta Draconis has trouble understanding "human" and "human with external soul", Betria is even more clueless, albeit in a goofy, dog-like manner.


[Oh damn I love me some daemon AUs. And yet I AU'd in a different direction.]

[2goodarms]

Two feet. Two and a half feet.

The pull's already starting; Curtis grits his teeth, resisting the urge to snatch Joanna back to him. She's digging her claws into the floor with the effort, leaving thin gouges in the wood.

And then the dog comes bounding over. Not a daemon, but somebody's pet (a concept Curtis still finds pretty fucking weird). Instantly, Joanna bares her teeth and backs out of reach of the animal -- the tension on their link eases, and Curtis tries not to breathe a sign of relief.

"Watch it!" she snarls.

[iambetadraconis]

Wait, it talks?

That causes the goofy dog to stop where she is and whine, and Beta Draconis to lose his concentration over his magic, letting book and quill drop to the floor.

Book and quill are retrieved after the surprise wears off, and added to the rest of his notes is,

Some of these creatures' animal companions are capable of speech. Sign of possible intelligence above that of typical woodland animals?

While he writes, he's muttering something that sounds like "Interesting. Very interesting..".

Pacific Rim AU

[makesthings]

Sam would like to understand daemons, they seem something like the Drift but he's not a pilot.

So he respects them and when he enters from a long day on the Shatterdome, he stops to not get in Joanna's way, "Hey, you both alright?"

Re: Pacific Rim AU

[2goodarms]

His attention tears away from Joanna; she stays put, claws braced against the floor.

Thin lines of strain etch Curtis' face, but he sounds neutral enough when he says, "Yeah, we're good."

Joanna mutters darkly under her breath. Are they, Curtis? Are they really?

Re: Pacific Rim AU

[makesthings]

"Right, sorry, can I sit over there?"

He gestures to a chair a step or two beyond them, the Shatterdome's been cold today and even his welding wasn't helping.

[vance_prime]

Joanna's not the only visible daemon in Milliways tonight. An Afro-Asian woman and a fully-grown Bengal tiger watch the struggle from a respectful distance.

[2goodarms]

Joanna hasn't quite made it to two feet when a memory shoots through their link: Curtis underneath a tree, the indistinct shape of Joanna (what is she? a bird? an insect?) trying to stretch higher into the branches. It feels like someone digging fingers into their chests, tearing out their lungs one sinew at a time.

In a flash, Joanna's swarming up into Curtis lap, head pressed to his belly as she tries not to shiver; Curtis wraps his arm around her as he catches his breath.

When Curtis notices the woman and her daemon watching them, Joanna goes still and sullen. She curls herself smaller in his lap, teeth gnashing quietly.

[vance_prime]

The tiger's ears flick back against his head. "We've been spotted," he murmurs.

The woman grimaces. "Sorry," she says to Curtis. "I was just... are you all right?"

(It's a stupid question, and they both know it. She knows what pulling against the bond between human and daemon looks like, even if she's never seen it at such a short distance before.)

AU Dejah

[dejah_thoris]

[More info on AU Dejah here]

Dejah's been watching them struggle for a few minutes, and it's exhausting. She can't even imagine what it's like, having one's soul outside of one's body. But just as she can't stop her thoughts from returning to Curtis over and over, she can't keep her eyes away from the blunt-bodied creature straining to reach the far side of the rug.

Eventually, she can't stand it anymore and asks the bar for two mugs of tea. She takes them in hand and heads towards the two of them, pausing at the edge of the rug.

"Permission to come aboard?"

Re: AU Dejah

[2goodarms]

Joanna stops where she is; they look up at Dejah, all the tension sinking out of Curtis' frame as he brightens.

"Yeah, of course," he says. Joanna retreats back to his side under pretense of clearing a path for Dejah. "Hey."

[dejah_thoris]

"Hey you," she says to Joanna, her voice warm.

She hands Curtis the warm mug, and settles next to him on the couch. When she sits, she slips her shoes off and curls her feet under her. It makes her knees show through the holes in her jeans, but she doesn't mind.

"How's it going?"

[merryeccentricities]

Joly, his own Alcmaeon fluffing himself over the mug of tea in his hands, sees the struggling pair with some concern. "Monsieur, are you well?" he asks, just as the little wren chirps at the honey badger in worried tones.



[[OOC: Hello, fellow Daemon AU!]]

[2goodarms]

[ooc: o hai. :D I am delighted to see so many other daemon AU folks this week!]

"Yeah," says Curtis as Joanna draws herself up short. As she watches the man's daemon, her claws stay half-dug into the floor, like she's bracing herself at the end of a bungee cord -- a posture anyone with a daemon's seen before. "We're okay. Thanks."

[street_sparrow]

Sparrow watches them for a while, familiar with people from the daemon world.

"There a reason you're putting yourselves through that?" he asks dryly, eventually.

[2goodarms]

"Exercise," says Curtis, no less dry -- but with considerable more strain -- without looking away from Joanna's progress.

"Fuck exercise," Joanna mutters under her breath, stretching another step away from Curtis. Are they satisfied yet? Can they stop this bullshit? They can't even sleep in a room bigger than a prison cell yet -- why bother with this?

[street_sparrow]

"Don't think your - " He has no idea what Joanna is. " - daemon's that keen on it."

[garde723]

Izana doesn't mean to interrupt, and they do take care not to get within a meter of any daemon, but when you are chasing your own daemon--who is being a little too excited--well, intentions can be forgotten.

Thus, a teen-aged person in a white military-esk uniform is chasing a white bat with long ears, who is flying about rather joyfully and erratically. "Niten, this is most improper!" The human exclaims, rather tersely.

"But Izana, we've been in the cockpit for eleven hours! I need to stretch my wings."

[OOC: Another daemon AU. I'd prefer a first meeting but am okay with them having met before.]

[2goodarms]

[ooc: first meeting works for me! Hurrah, more daemon AUs \o/]

That's a pretty good distraction from this self-inflicted torture. Joanna stops where she is, watching the bat daemon loop its way through the bar; both she and Curtis suppress a smile.

That smile disappears when the teenager gets a smidge too close for comfort. Joanna yelps a warning and scampers back a couple steps, nearly putting her at Curtis' side.

[garde723]

[OOC: WHere the hell did the last two days go?!? Sorry for disappearing. I'd love to pick this up but if you'd before to drop it, I understand.]

Izana quickly comes back to themselves and freezes at the yelp. They look down and quickly realize their error, bowing a deep apology to both Curtis and Joanna. "Please forgive my rudeness. I had no intention of disturbing you."

Niten lands on Izana's shoulder not a moment later and chirps, excitedly and with worry, "The fault is my own. If I hadn't been so thoughtless, Izana wouldn't have been watching where they walked."

[not_the_cavalry]

[ooc: Hey, do you mind if I throw Clint Barton and his daemon Winona at these guys tomorrow? :) I'm in study mode so prone to slows, but eeee daemon AU land. Winona is... chatty. And not well behaved. I'll do a write-up, I promise.]

[2goodarms]

[ooc: I don't mind at all! :D Slowtimes are love.]

[hasthehighground]

[AU write-up]

Winona leaves Clint where he is at a near-by table where he's being boring, reading a book or something, when she catches sight of what's going on. (Clint glances over, then back, assured she can handle herself.)

She takes two flaps to get there, then lands a good distance off. You don't fuck with badgers.

"What's wrong?" she asks, bobbling forward a few awkward steps, head tilting as she watches Joanna out of her right eye.

[2goodarms]

"Nothing," says Joanna through gritted teeth. "Short link. Working on it."

She tries another step, only to have her hindquarters thump to the floor like she's parked herself in front of a brick wall. "Shit."

[hasthehighground]

"Well, just stay there," Winona says, and flops up to a nearby chairback -- not between Joanna and her person -- so she has a good view. "Getting used to it'll be a lot easier if you don't overdo it. The one with the crappy hat, he's yours? I can make sure nobody's creeping."

If Curtis looks at her, he'll get the bird equivalent of an upwards head-nod, yeah, I'm looking at you style.