The Daemian Union (TDU) V2 (POSTING OPEN!)

[Ad Infinitam]

As for the poll, I put Settled. I can't see myself changing to a degree that would alter my form... Rather, I see myself growing into the form more if anything.

[Lizbutt]

Carry was interested in Fancy Rats at one point. I believe she's joined the canine side of life.

It was Fancy Mice
and I still love rodents, so cute =D

But I think Im to openly aggressive for a rodent, at lest a domestic one.

[Prinz]

I don't believe in settledom of form, only settledom of personality. Sense, that makes lots.

Two years ago I was a capercaillie, and now I'm a horned screamer. But I still feel like I'm pretty much the same guy I was two years ago. Certain little things have shifted and changed or else disappeared or evolved into something different, but my "core" is the same. Perhaps to traditional settling-believers, this indicates stability rather than settledom, but to me it doesn't. I'm never going to be a hyena soul, a gharial soul or a bald eagle soul, true enough.

I'm always going to be some kind of bird or another that, though in appearance it may seem completely different, in behaviour will be extremely similar. I feel like it all comes down to choice, to a certain extent. I could be a crested screamer, I suppose, but I feel that horned screamer suits me better. In the future I could become more goose-like, or else more duck-like, or even more pheasant-like, none of which are far cries from my current form. But whether I do or don't will be a matter of perspective.

Two years ago I looked into screamers, but only now do I see things in them that I didn't see back then, and things that I now think I lacked while I was a capercaillie. Perhaps I will remain a horned screamer, or perhaps by the time I'm 30 I think that I may in fact be a musk duck. It's hard to say. Either way, I'll still think I'm settled as far as personality goes, but because between these bird forms of mine the differences are subtle, it is quite likely that I may jump from one to the other every few years or so. It doesn't mean I'm unstable or unsettled, it means that I change little enough to fit those subtle differences that didn't fit before, or else to not fit those of the previous form that were once fitting.

I mean, consider a capercaillie, a kakapo and a musk duck. To non-experts, these look ridiculously different. One is a grouse, the other a parrot, and the third one a duck. Yet if one were to compare their behaviour, habitat, etc. the results would be ridiculously similar. To switch between these three is hardly an indicator of an unsettled personality, but rather an indicator of shifts in said personality subtle enough to change form but not major enough to change into something totally different.

So yes, personality-wise? I'm all for settledom. But form-wise? No. It's all a matter of perspective. Lots of forms have wiggle-room which will allow people to stay in the same form even if they have changed enough for a similar one, and that's fine; nothing wrong with sticking to the form that you've had for ages, so long as it fits. I believe a personality can become settled and does become so over time in most cases, but a form can only be stable; should the person with said personality start looking at another (similar) form and decide they're better off with it, that's that.

After all, no rule says that because I'm settled personality-wise, I must identify with a horned screamer all my life. If at some point I decide that I've changed enough for Muscovy duck or crested screamer, then I'll switch forms accordingly while still thinking of myself as settled. Since unlike in HDM my daemon isn't visible, his form isn't fixed.

tl;dr - In my opinion, it is a person's personality that which settles, not their form. Their daemon's form stabilizes, but doesn't settle. You can be settled and still change form (to something that is ridiculously similar to your previous form). Your form is "settled" for as long as you think/feel that you are: some will feel/think that their form is the one pretty much all their lives even if they change slightly along the way, while others will switch forms [but stick with forms "close to home"] while still being settled in personality.

[Aureus]

Ahh, Prince that makes much sense. I think I have always been a canine, and I think I always will. Hierarchy, a strong sense of loyalty, vague sense of pack, territoriality, and a strange sense of humor are my core traits. Actually, I can look back at my lower-school self and see those traits. I truly can't imagine ever growing out of those traits because that's just me. I have thought about before, and I think that if I do ever change it will be into another canine but no further than that. If I become more solitary, I will be a bbj. More solitary but not as mean; a melanistic red fox. Less mean; a coyote. Less mean and more pack-oriented; an Arabian wolf. I really can't imagine being anything but a canine in the end.

The golden jackals has a lot of wiggle room, though. They are very variable when it comes to pack structure and hunting methods. They live all over the place and adapt in all sorts of ways. Therefore, its going to be hard to shove me out of the form. :) Plus, as a monogamous-soul, I have unfortunately bonded to the form and what it means to me. >>

[Rainbow Dash]

tl;dr - In my opinion, it is a person's personality that which settles, not their form. Their daemon's form stabilizes, but doesn't settle. You can be settled and still change form (to something that is ridiculously similar to your previous form). Your form is "settled" for as long as you think/feel that you are: some will feel/think that their form is the one pretty much all their lives even if they change slightly along the way, while others will switch forms [but stick with forms "close to home"] while still being settled in personality.

I pretty much thought the same thing. I don't really think of daemonism as "OMG IT'S MY SOULLLL" but more putting a face on my subconscious and summing up me as a person.

When asked "What's your personality?" I can either go into a long winded rant about how I like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain, or I can just say "Thylacine."

I feel like I'll always be an extinct/mythic critter. Exactly which extinct/mythic critter may change (I may actually gain social skills some day!) but for now, I'm a thylacine. And I'm a pretty happy thylacine.

Not willing to call thylacine as my new OTF just yet, still hitting the books on it but things are looking good for thylacine.

[Prinz]

XD Aggression works in funny ways, indeed. Some of the seemingly less-threatening things are the most aggressive of them all, such as rodents and gamebirds. :3

Question: To what extent is your form aggressive, and how so?

(Note to newbies: aggression isn't necessarily a positive thing; it doesn't mean you're badass or fierce or confident [you can be all those without being openly aggressive]. For some reason many people [including me when I was starting out] think that aggression is somehow better than not being aggressive, etc., and that predators are by nature more aggressive than prey, when in fact, the opposite tends to be the case, due to predators being able to inflict greater damage on each other.)

Anyways, my form is openly aggressive; I am, in fact, probably one of the more aggressive bird people in TDF. I don't see this as a good thing, but merely as... well, just the way I am. Though I must say, I don't see myself as the type to "start things"; rather, I'm usually just cruising around doing my thing and then something happens and I snap.

In other words, I almost always react aggressively, rather than act aggressively. This is typical of "apex" would-be prey animals such as the horned screamer and the giant anteater; they are usually going around their business and then if bothered by something they will try to avoid it and if they can't then it's show-tiem. :3

One of the reasons I switched forms was aggression; I think a capercaillie, healthy or unhealthy, would be much more aggressive than myself, and behave a lot less "lulzy", so to speak. Of course, "lol aggression" is their specialty, since people find it funny when they get flustered, but to the cap it's not funny. I think a cap soul would be more serious-faced than I happen to be and take himself/herself more seriously than I do, I dunno. :>

[Warburton]

Rats, mice, they're both rodents. ;3

Also, that dog in your sig = lookalike to my own dog. :3

@Question - Openly aggressive. Male P.Hounds will and can be aggressive to a fellow male dog. Apart from that they're mellow? They are very rarely aggressive to people in general. That fact spawned my crisis as I'm much more aggressive than a Pharaoh Hound ever could be. XD

[Rainbow Dash]

Question: To what extent is your form aggressive, and how so?

Thylacines have weird aggression issues for a predator.

They're pretty passive aggressive and tend to pick a buddy (or a few buddies) to rant to and not let the other party hear one word of their frustration unless they want to just to piss the offender off and be passive-snarly.

But when thylacines rage, which takes a lot of pushing, God have mercy on whoever was the straw that broke the camel's back. They only have a handful of buttons that will make them go into full RAAAAEEEG mode.

Normally they're just kind of "grrrr stoppit" rather than "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HULKSMASH."

[wibeke]

Question: To what extent is your form aggressive, and how so?

If an okapi is threatened it will probably choose to run away rather than fight, but if you back one into a corner it won't have any problem defending itself. They'll bite and kick when it's needed, but it's used more as a last resort. They'd rather try and hide all the time. Considering how we only discovered them 100 years ago and still know very little about them, I think they do a pretty good job of that.

And I don't know what this would count as, but females will kick a male in the crotch to show they're not interested. If they don't like someone they're not shy about telling them.

So they're agressive when needed, but are better at avoiding it altogether.

[Scarf]

Binturongs are pretty passive passive, especially the males. The girls are a little more likely to get cross (because they get sort of narky and beat up their mates when they're hormonal), but for the most part binturongs are really hard to get mad. Binturong people have very long fuses. They tend to ignore or avoid conflict wherever they can, and can take a hell of a lot of crap before they start to get irritable. I've got a couple of kill buttons that are things that I care deeply about (binturongs are most aggressive when they're looking after vulnerable babies, or when their mates are vulnerable, or if they're really stressed out...I have a shorter fuse when I'm stressed), and if you poke me for long enough you'll get a response, but I go through a very long period of passive aggressiveness before I'll become openly aggressive. I prefer to take the non-confrontational way out...bitching about things to people who might have some sort of influence over the situation, saying things generally and non-specifically and hoping that the people that I'm directing it at pick up on my irritation, sending snarky notes...

I'd also be the sort of roommate who you find has written their name over all their food when you open the fridge. Because coming out and saying to you "this is mine" is a bit too direct for me :B Scent-marking passive aggressiveness forthewin.

If you manage to get me angry I prefer to start with vaguely threatening speeches with undertones of "back off or you'll regret it". If people don't back down I will then proceed to explode and verbally tear you apart to the best of my ability (I tend to go ballistic at anyone in the area if I'm at this point, I have very non-specific rage attacks :P). And then I calm down really quickly. Adult binturongs don't skunk like other civets, but when they're pissed off they go for anything they can get their teeth around. I saw a video once (that I've never been able to find again) of a couple of college prats who were pulling around a binturong by its tail. It spent the first two minutes of the video just trying to escape, and then swatted at them a bit to try to get them to let go so it could run away, and then finally decided that enough was enough and took a chunk out of one of the guys legs and turned on the other one (most deserving animal attack ever :/ It was a long video, I only watched to the end because the description said "durr hurr the bite was really bad" and I wanted to see them mauled). As soon as they backed off (which they did pretty quickly) it just shuffled off as if nothing had happened.

Angry bearcat is rare but HOLYCRAP GET IT OFF ME.