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

[Scarf]

Eh, worlds tough and cruel. Have to settle and not change early in that enviroment type, I'd like to imagine. I mean, three or four time's I've had my heart ripped out, stomped, chewed up, and shoved in my face like so much mystery meat.
So me and Giddy settled early, like marble, I'd suppose. Magma. Igneous rock.

Heh, Gideon and I love shouting at eacher, " 'Mr. Williams, you're dying!' 'I already know that!'"
Gideon DIED when my science teacher said that when we were talking about lab safety. XD

I had a pretty crappy early teenagehood (I don't consider it too melodramatically crappy, but I have a tendency to play down my Things and other people might play up theirs, so who knows how they relate), but I don't think it settled me so much as narrowed my field of possible forms. Being squashed into a situation forces you to quickly adapt and adopt particular ways of dealing with things and compensating for others, but I'd be very surprised if they narrowed people down to a conclusive form. There are people on the forum who have suffered really severe life issues and have claimed settledom on the premise that they had been locked into a form only to continue to shift after a little while. Maybe trauma holds us still for a bit, rather than settles us (as permanently as settling ever is).

I had some pretty canine tendencies in my early teens (I needed a social group to rely on (though I was usually unmotivated to socialise because I am the eternal socially ambivalent introvert), I was desperately loyal and I was lost and terribly unhealthy without my friends, I was hierarchical and fit nicely into a pecking order, all of that), but my social woes meant that I spent a good while without any sort of social structure, and because it was during my formative years I forgot how to work neatly in a social hierarchy and lost that need for people to lean on. Going into high school I was terrified because I wouldn't be able to deal with not having close friends to rely on, going into uni I was perfectly happy and prepared to spend five years by myself, interacting politely with others when I had to.

I would say that my teenage drama narrowed forms down to ones that were:

-detached and aloof in social situations
-able to recognise hierarchies but not innately able to work within them (case in point: my relationship with my boss at work is unbelievably casual because I instinctively treat everyone as an equal. When I remember that she's my boss this horrifies me, but she finds my obnoxious know-it-all behaviour endearing)
-socially awkward and vague (because I missed a lot of that time when teenagers learn how to interact with other teenagers)
-confident enough in my abilities that I can be quite thick-skinned
-able to fall back on myself if things go pearshaped with my social groups without it being detrimental to my health

Those things could be loads of forms. The whole thing probably also strengthened my conflict avoidance and manipulative-for-the-greater-good qualities, which narrows forms down even more, but even if we pretend that all of that only fits semi-social solitary carnivores there's still a lot of scope there. I can tell you that going off that I could've been any viverrid in my adolescence, and probably most mustalids and a million other things. At that point I probably would've declared myself settled though (and I actually did use the word in a tear-streaked argument with my grandmother about why I couldn't make friends when I was thirteen or something).

Just my perspective *shrugs*

(marble is metamorphic)

[Zitface]

Eh, worlds tough and cruel. Have to settle and not change early in that enviroment type, I'd like to imagine. I mean, three or four time's I've had my heart ripped out, stomped, chewed up, and shoved in my face like so much mystery meat.
So me and Giddy settled early, like marble, I'd suppose. Magma. Igneous rock.

Heh, Gideon and I love shouting at eacher, " 'Mr. Williams, you're dying!' 'I already know that!'"
Gideon DIED when my science teacher said that when we were talking about lab safety. XD

I had a pretty crappy early teenagehood (I don't consider it too melodramatically crappy, but I have a tendency to play down my Things and other people might play up theirs, so who knows how they relate), but I don't think it settled me so much as narrowed my field of possible forms. Being squashed into a situation forces you to quickly adapt and adopt particular ways of dealing with things and compensating for others, but I'd be very surprised if they narrowed people down to a conclusive form. There are people on the forum who have suffered really severe life issues and have claimed settledom on the premise that they had been locked into a form only to continue to shift after a little while. Maybe trauma holds us still for a bit, rather than settles us (as permanently as settling ever is).

I had some pretty canine tendencies in my early teens (I needed a social group to rely on (though I was usually unmotivated to socialise because I am the eternal socially ambivalent introvert), I was desperately loyal and I was lost and terribly unhealthy without my friends, I was hierarchical and fit nicely into a pecking order, all of that), but my social woes meant that I spent a good while without any sort of social structure, and because it was during my formative years I forgot how to work neatly in a social hierarchy and lost that need for people to lean on. Going into high school I was terrified because I wouldn't be able to deal with not having close friends to rely on, going into uni I was perfectly happy and prepared to spend five years by myself, interacting politely with others when I had to.

I would say that my teenage drama narrowed forms down to ones that were:

-detached and aloof in social situations
-able to recognise hierarchies but not innately able to work within them (case in point: my relationship with my boss at work is unbelievably casual because I instinctively treat everyone as an equal. When I remember that she's my boss this horrifies me, but she finds my obnoxious know-it-all behaviour endearing)
-socially awkward and vague (because I missed a lot of that time when teenagers learn how to interact with other teenagers)
-confident enough in my abilities that I can be quite thick-skinned
-able to fall back on myself if things go pearshaped with my social groups without it being detrimental to my health

Those things could be loads of forms. The whole thing probably also strengthened my conflict avoidance and manipulative-for-the-greater-good qualities, which narrows forms down even more, but even if we pretend that all of that only fits semi-social solitary carnivores there's still a lot of scope there. I can tell you that going off that I could've been any viverrid in my adolescence, and probably most mustalids and a million other things. At that point I probably would've declared myself settled though (and I actually did use the word in a tear-streaked argument with my grandmother about why I couldn't make friends when I was thirteen or something).

Just my perspective *shrugs*

(marble is metamorphic)

Thanks for the insight, but I'll keep my status. XD
Hmm. Maybe Mr. Williams should touch up on the rock cycle again. The last time was in sixth grade. >.<

Gah. Gideon and the other voice in my head QUARREL EVERY HOUR OF THE DAY. [/endcapsabuse] When I'm working on homework, when I'm reading, when I'm drawing, it is very distracting. ;A;
Gideon hates her, as I manifest Mrs. Grouchy-cynic-Negative-Raging-at-me-every-second-Voice as a female for no apparent reason. Yin-Yang, much?
The other voice, the female, is always shouting and cursing at me, saying I'm not good enoug, saying I suck and should give up hope, and THAT is probably the only thing that can get Giddy raging. Sends him into a fury, and they bicker like fire and ice.

[Scarf]

No worries C: Just highlighting the importance of keeping an open mind and going with the flow...I can't really see myself as anything other than binturong but if I do change then I'll roll with it. It's really hard at a point in time to imagine what we'll be like in the future. I guess my point is just to take life as it comes and not fight personality development. It's all healthy :)

[Zitface]

No worries C: Just highlighting the importance of keeping an open mind and going with the flow...I can't really see myself as anything other than binturong but if I do change then I'll roll with it. It's really hard at a point in time to imagine what we'll be like in the future. I guess my point is just to take life as it comes and not fight personality development. It's all healthy

I have stubborness issues. XD

STFU, female degrading voice! Just STFU. Giddy doesn't want to hear your crap, I dont want to hear your crap, and that quiet, anonymous voice there, I'd bet he/she doesn't want to hear it either.
I've finally gone crazy. Four people in my head: Me, Gideon, Female Voice, and Unknown Voice. ;A;
Gideon keeps it all balanced, thank goodness. He hides under my desk at school. *squee* As an armadillo.

[Rainbow Dash]

I'm thyla-crisising. I keep flip-flopping between Thylacoleo and Thylacine and it's driving me nutso only because I'm so paranoid of Forer. I know, deja vu because I went through this exact phase like a year ago afhlahal.

[Aureus]

No worries C: Just highlighting the importance of keeping an open mind and going with the flow...I can't really see myself as anything other than binturong but if I do change then I'll roll with it. It's really hard at a point in time to imagine what we'll be like in the future. I guess my point is just to take life as it comes and not fight personality development. It's all healthy :)

I have stubborness issues. XD

Not to harp on you or anything, but I just wanted to mention that, ideally, stubbornness should have no part in the form-finding aspect of daemonism. You never want to force your personality into one shape and cull any room for growth, nor do you want to twist a form to fit you if it no longer does. That's...literally pointless if you are going to by a "personality typing" system. ;P Why bother trying to find an animal that truly represents you if you are blatantly going to ignore change or growth because you're too "stubborn?" I don't know, that just seems totally illogical to me. I'm not saying you aren't settled or something right now, but just echoing Scarf when she says to keep an open mind. ;)

Edit: Oh, you are settled as a cheetah? In that case, I just wanted to point out that I don't believe cheetahs are particularly stubborn or confrontational. I read a while back that cheetahs have a 50% chance of loosing their kill to another predator that wants it. Because of their rather fragile body type and the speed they rely on to hunt, they avoid injury like the plague and will rarely fight to defend their kill, even if the attacker is just a single hyena. Unlike lions who have a team to work with or ambush predators who can just pop out of the bush and nab their prey, cheetahs absolutely need to be healthy in order to get enough food to eat. I can't imagine them being terribly risky, confrontational or stubborn people. Just my 2 cents.

Haha I probably sound like I'm trying to shut you down, but trust me this is just how we old farts do daemonism. We like to be very thorough and make sure everyone understands our process so we can come off as nag-y.

[Tibetador]

In so far as conditions settling us early on...sorry to kinda barge in, but I think that people can show a remarkable amount of change in just a few weeks sometimes after traumatic experiences, although it tends to take much longer than that for most of us. And while echoes of that experience can continue for years, we are still capable of growth as individuals.

I have a very deep fondness for all of the forms Kalerian took in the past, and it was (and still is) hard to let go of them...but most especially the ones he took during the hardest times of my teen years, namely cat-tiger-badger But it was tibetan mastiff that ended up sticking and came out of nowhere (he had had a brief month-long? give or take? stint as a german shepherd in 2004/05 some time when we were still getting to know each other and then no other canids) up until then (2007). And he didn't take what would be his final form until we were already out of high school. Settling, anyway, is really up to you. Daemons are what we make them, so yours technically never "has" to settle...if yours changes forever it's not a big deal. Settling suited Kael and I...we needed stability, some way to identify ourselves, and his molosser form did the trick. I've tried to see him as other things, even old beloved forms, and it just doesn't work. Tibbie we are and tibbie we shall remain. We had our four year anniversary on the 5th and I love him to bits. But as a huge Crisis junkie (I think the daemian term "settler" was probably coined with me first in mind...) recovered, I can say that you will probably go through a LOT of "OMG WE ARE SO SETTLED UTTERLY" and months, even a year later, might suddenly find that the form you adored just isn't right, and that's perfectly normal. Form is nothing compared to the real benefits a relationship with your daemon can give you.

[Zitface]

No worries C: Just highlighting the importance of keeping an open mind and going with the flow...I can't really see myself as anything other than binturong but if I do change then I'll roll with it. It's really hard at a point in time to imagine what we'll be like in the future. I guess my point is just to take life as it comes and not fight personality development. It's all healthy

I have stubborness issues. XD

Not to harp on you or anything, but I just wanted to mention that, ideally, stubbornness should have no part in the form-finding aspect of daemonism. You never want to force your personality into one shape and cull any room for growth, nor do you want to twist a form to fit you if it no longer does. That's...literally pointless if you are going to by a "personality typing" system. ;P Why bother trying to find an animal that truly represents you if you are blatantly going to ignore change or growth because you're too "stubborn?" I don't know, that just seems totally illogical to me. I'm not saying you aren't settled or something right now, but just echoing Scarf when she says to keep an open mind.

Edit: Oh, you are settled as a cheetah? In that case, I just wanted to point out that I don't believe cheetahs are particularly stubborn or confrontational. I read a while back that cheetahs have a 50% chance of loosing their kill to another predator that wants it. Because of their rather fragile body type and the speed they rely on to hunt, they avoid injury like the plague and will rarely fight to defend their kill, even if the attacker is just a single hyena. Unlike lions who have a team to work with or ambush predators who can just pop out of the bush and nab their prey, cheetahs absolutely need to be healthy in order to get enough food to eat. I can't imagine them being terribly risky, confrontational or stubborn people. Just my 2 cents.

Haha I probably sound like I'm trying to shut you down, but trust me this is just how we old farts do daemonism. We like to be very thorough and make sure everyone understands our process so we can come off as nag-y.

Not naggy at all. On the contrary, that DOES describe me. Fire and ice and rage, INSIDE. I back off way too easily for fear of the Middle Boy, Vice Princible, and the people who are out for my precious blood. ;A;
I cower off with a few hisses and spits, but I almost never get into a fight. I usually confuse them with my wit. >.>
Thanks for the insigh. When I said stubborn, I meant not changing my status because of info brought to me. THAT is something I almost never change. XD

[Cacti]

I have a question, what are the characteristics of a melanistic/albino dæmon?

[Aureus]

Not naggy at all. On the contrary, that DOES describe me. Fire and ice and rage, INSIDE. I back off way too easily for fear of the Middle Boy, Vice Princible, and the people who are out for my precious blood. ;A;
I cower off with a few hisses and spits, but I almost never get into a fight. I usually confuse them with my wit. >.>
Thanks for the insigh. When I said stubborn, I meant not changing my status because of info brought to me. THAT is something I almost never change. XD

Well I was trying to say that a cheetah-person would probably say "oh, ok I'll consider changing my status" if a number of people were questioning it, even if they thought otherwise inside, because they wouldn't want to step on anyone's toes or get in an argument. The way you are acting doesn't seem to match up with cheetah behavior they way I interpret it. But if you aren't going to change your status, you aren't going to change your status so whatevs.

I have a question, what are the characteristics of a melanistic/albino dæmon?

Generally it wouldn't effect the form too much. An albino animal may be more vulnerable in the wild as it would be easier to spot. Some say that melanism cause some animals to be more even tempered and less neurotic than their normal-colored counterparts (it has to do with nerves or neurotransmitters or something) but this is hardly documented so I wouldn't use that interpretation on all animals. Basically, you should never say "well I'm an albino lion because they are outcasts and loners and the normal social lion doesn't fit me." If the standard animal doesn't fit without the help of a pigment mutation, you should definitely look at other animals.