#daemons au

From left to right:

Franco Colapinto & Rosa | Eleanora's Falcon | ♀

Pierre Gasly & Guillaume aka 'Willow' | Willow Ptmarigan | ♂

Fernando Alonso & Heliodoro aka 'Helios' | Blue-Bellied Roller | ♂

Lance Stroll & Geneviève aka 'Ginette' | Raccoon Dog | ♀

Charles Leclerc & Henri | Pink Robin | ♂

Lewis Hamilton & Archibald aka 'Archie' | Beauceron Dog | ♂

Esteban Ocon & Olivia | Günther's Dik-Dik | ♀

Oliver Bearman & Ethelinda aka 'Ethel' | Western Swamphen | ♀

George Russell & Angel | North American Elk | ♂

Kimi Antonelli & Celestino aka 'Celeste' | Darwin's Fox | ♂

Lando Norris & Cosimo aka 'Cosmo' | Golden Lion Tamarin | ♂

Oscar Piastri & Elizabetta aka 'Betty' | Riverine Rabbit | ♀

Isack Hadjar & Jabir | Spectacled Caiman | ♂

Liam Lawson & Harlow aka 'Arlo' | American Bullfrog | ♀

Tsunoda Yūki & Katsurō aka 'KitKat'/'Kitty' | European Wolverine | ♂

Max Verstappen & Brunhilde aka 'Brun' | European Hoopoe | ♀

Gabriel Bortoleto & Augusta aka 'August' | Common Raven | ♀

Nico Hülkenberg & Erik | Adélie Penguin | ♂

Carlos Sainz Jr. & Carmela-Jair Jr. | Ethiopian Wolf | ♀

Alex Albon & Briar | Ragdoll Cat | ♀

Dæmons are all chosen through the analytical format.

Some Details About Each:

Rosa is a dark morph and would often be marked as the wrong species of bird in race graphics early in his career. This has led to lots of fun (annoying) online confusion to what she actually is.

Guillaume is primarily known as and in F1 is branded as Willow, his real name has never occurred in official F1 print or graphics, though it's not a secret or anything. He's white in winter and moults to brown in summer according to France's seasons. His general appearance in graphics is a consistent mix of brown/white to keep him identifiable.

Helio acquired an upper beak prosthetic during the 2021 season due to Fernando's injury. He spent a portion of the season missing the upper portion; the prosthetic was fitted during the summer break. His feathers are dulled and their tether has been disconnected now longer than it was ever together. They're fine with it and consider it as making them better racers.

Ginette is incredibly fluffy during winter months but slims down heavily in summer. It can cause problems with travel and she's more prone to overheating and the cold depending on the time of year. She's often joked about as 'lazy' as 'constantly asleep' due to her habit of laying down pretty much all the time, this habit increased drastically after Lance's accident.

Henri and Charles relationship is brilliant despite some cultures frowning upon small dæmons for men. Henri is far more outspoken and brash than Charles and has a habit of saying what he means and what he wants as loudly as he wants to that Ferrari hasn't quite stamped out yet, and most likely never will. He wears sponsor rings around his legs and prefers to settle on Charles' hand or the brim of his cap. He's well known for a completely round plushie Ferrari sells of him.

Archie has cropped ears (as dæmon's are made of 'dust' these can be grown back anytime if wants it) and often wears jewellery to match with Lewis. The cropped ears makes applying piercings easier. Traditional British dæmon naming is giving them 'strong' and older names, though some are breaking away from this and trending towards 'new-age' names (Angel, etc). Archie is highly protective of Lewis and dislikes the time forced away from him due to racing. He says he doesn't hate Roscoe, but he can't fully cover the loathing that apparently the dog made as the perfect partner wasn't good enough alone.

Olivia dislikes her size greatly and finds herself too sensitive to speak up for herself. Esteban often finds himself coming to her rescue when overwhelmed which helps him feel more responsible, but puts her in a weird spot. They're working through it, somewhat.

Ethel is newly settled, this is obvious based on the difficulties to adapt to feet the size of tennis rackets. She prefers to taxi on whoever or whatever she can find instead.

Angel is mandated to wear tine-caps in the paddock for 'safety' reasons. It looks stupid and everyone thinks its stupid. The colours of the caps are changed to match any special designs for the car livery. George owns a branded Mercedes dæmon trailer for him, but in general finds it difficult to accommodate him still. He's often put in separate hotels to other F1 drivers due to Angel's size. He's an advocate dæmon acceptance and accessibility. (But if any other driver is asked, he's spent his driving career too reliant on Angel's physical power and presence warding off negative reactions to overly brash behaviour.)

Celeste is recently settled but adapted quickly due to being used to fox-like forms already, so her final form was far from a surprise. Kimi is endlessly thankful she never swayed towards hawks to avoid even further comparison to Kimi Räikkönen (who's dæmon, Katariina, was a zone-tailed hawk). Seen frequently following Brunhilde at a distance on their media rounds, though Max says they've never actually spoken to one another

Cosimo is publicly branded as and known by Cosmo. He's considered an ambassador animal and is part of charity efforts for the species. He's outspoken and uses his opposable thumbs only for evil and considers everything a climbing frame. Gets on most people's nerves, sometimes even Lando's, but the therapy is helping.

Betty is also an ambassador animal for public charity efforts. She's the rarest species on the grid. She hates being at ground level and always wants to be carried by Oscar or placed on tables. She's more outwardly emotive than her counterpart, but not by much.

Jabir is every bit a cool and chill temperament as Isack isn't. He's often the one to think things through slowly and Isack will never make a choice without Jabir's direct influence, even more so than is usual for a dæmon. He's quiet, but is very far from shy.

Harlow spends most of her time in a climate controlled environment tank, a usual accessory for amphibious and insect dæmon. Liam has a spray bottle on hand for misting her whenever she's out and about, though that's not often. She is a chill, laid-back, moisterised, and unbothered queen.

Katsurō is very very large for his species and always stands and walks in front of Tsunoda. He's very particular and not afraid to throw his weight around when his counterparts wants it. His nicknames come from Kitto Katsu 'you will surely win' a false cognate being 'kitkat', 'kitty' came later in English markets from 'Kitto' to avoid sponsor issues in public, though in private it's still his favourite nickname.

Brunhilde and Max are one of only a small handful of drivers to enter F1 without a settled dæmon (a normal settling age is anywhere from 16-25). She would settle May 15th 2016 and snaped May 29th the same year. He suffers from TTR—Traumatic Tether Rejection, a chronic issue handled with therapy and medication. Brunhilde is quiet and like her time spent to herself, including being away from Max, a normal TTR symptom. She rarely says anything unless heavily coaxed and what she does can be considered unsympathetic and has brought them their fair share of dislike in the sport.

August settled recently shortly before Gabriel entered the grid. She didn't often take on the forms of birds before this, so she's still coming to terms with her new form and sticking the landing, of which she has become slightly notorious for failing at. She prefers to ride around on his shoulder despite being slightly too large for it to be comfortable. She is also doing nothing to combat corvid stereotypes and enjoys stealing women's hairclips and men's tieclips mostly for the thrill of the game.

Erik is easily bribed with fish treats and takes himself far from seriously, most of the time he prefers to entertain the children who find him amusing. Most well known for chilling in the kiddie pool that's brought with him for every race.

Carlos and Carmela's bond was artificially severed in 2024 via and intercision procedure but had been on the rocks for a decade. Carlos sponsors public charity efforts for the Ethiopian species with Carmela being considered an ambassador, though she is at best annoyed by the attention and at worst legitimately despising of it. Rumour has it she attacked a reporter near the end of the 2024 season, though nothing's been confirmed and the media remains tight-lipped. She has found herself the main star of too many 'dæmon body-language analysis' videos. Her favourite place is behind the sofa of any room she's in.

Anakin and Ashla: Cougar, or Puma.

“Cougars are apex predators in their range, and do not have any predators to worry about. They will kill large animals by themselves, going after anything they might encounter. Females are fiercely protective of their cubs and have known to fight animals as big as grizzly bears in order to protect them. They are very territorial animals and males will often kill any other males they encounter in their range, especially young transient males. Males will try to kill cubs that aren’t theirs as well as kill mothers who try to defend their cubs. Through their aggressive dispelling of other males, male cougars are protecting the well-being of their offspring, who are very vulnerable to infanticide of other cougars.”

Obi Wan and Boga (Maned Wolf)

so to me, the dc universe is particularly suited to not just a "what if everyone had a daemon" AU but more of a HDM fusion... since the dc and HDM universes are both like ours, but slightly different, i think you could do something really cool there... the way they both do AU geography (not talking about DC editor's general need to find a map), the insertion of cape organizations/the magesterium as these higher, supra-state forces, the empowerment of children in a violent/gothic (esp. re gotham this mood works well) world, and the tension/synergy between science and magic--these are all shared themes/motifs! unfortunately i kind of have choice paralysis and should probably just write a series of snippets rather than trying to plot something out (bc plot frankly was not pullman's strength either lol).

anyways like someone has to get a bat daemon, right? and for me that's not bruce but cass <3 i thought i would get clever with bruce and give him something like a bat-eared fox--not a bat, but it's in the name. likewise i wanted to do a subversion w the robins and have jason be the only one who actually gets a robin daemon (severed). dick i'm less firmly committed on but his daemon should be like, something furry and soft and beautiful, the kind of daemon everyone wants. tim gets a salamander (settles late) because he's a little weird like that. for steph i was thinking violet-backed starling, but any bird with some purple coloring works... for damian some kind of wild cat is the obvious play but i feel like i could do better... and anyways he's still baby... babs is the hardest for me i truly feel like nothing is cool enough/straddles her shift from batgirl to oracle in a way that does justice to both... i gotta think abt it more...

lore wise i was thinking of playing into the "the bats were urban legends until war games" angle by having all the robins have to undergo some witch-esque daemon separation ritual before/once their daemons settle, maybe even before they take on the mantle. be the biggest friction w a capes/daemon fusion really is that they're a dead identity giveaway... oh and of course i'm following in pullman's proud tradition of giving our upper class characters (bruce, tim) insanely posh/byzantine daemon names.

in terms of plot i was thinking of working in the conveniently US-shaped hold that pullman leaves in canon (which, mood, tbh), and perhaps having the events of the first HDM trilogy vaguely going on in the background while an age-compressed band of robins takes on a composite lyra/will(/olivier?) role to bruce as the asriel surrogate with probably talia as our marisa... ugh okay im having Ideas again maybe once stephcass fic is done (1 chapter left!) i'll just make myself free write...