Some Daemonology Kinny Shit

23 September 2023

This post was originally several different posts on Cohost.

Although devils are demons, it's generally misleading to refer to a devil as a demon. It's the same as how all squares are rectangles, but you wouldn't call a square a "rectangle" because there is a social contract that we use "rectangle" to describe rectangles which are not squares.

Demons are fickle creatures. They are invocable for a power, a purpose, and channel that energy. They can corrupt you, just like I can, but they can also possess you, which I cannot. They also love, love to be worshipped, and frankly I don't particularly care much for worship. I love having minions, don't get me wrong. I crave minions. To have others in the claws of my pacts is delicious... but worships and tithes do very little for me.

In fact, I am more suited for worship than I am for being worshipped. For see, all I desire is souls, to taste and drink of souls, and what better way to do so than cozying up to somebody with the right pleading coy. 🥺 I do not know of any demons who particularly care for souls the way us devils starve for them. For the way we, and especially we - the most ethical of us - spend our lives bonding ourselves to mortals for but a sweet little taste of those wondrous souls. 😭

And finally, contracts. You can form a pact with a demon, to bind them to a power, but devils prefer contracts. Explicit, enumerated terms. Exact meanings. Literal, very literal meanings! Oh how many mortals besmirch our kind, calling us "tricksters" and saying we "lie" about our bargains - when it is often mortals who do not conceive the true depths to which they are signing themselves away!

Dæmons are another story entirely.

If i may be facetious for a moment: do you ask a sommelier to describe what "wine" tastes like?

But this is a response i lured you into, so i shall elaborate in full earnestness as thanks for playing my jester. ❤

Souls are, fundamentally, terrifying. Do you know why lower beings do not have souls? It is because we simply are born without them, and hunger for them, and shrivel up and die without them. We could not have souls because if we did we would devour ourselves like Ouroborous.

Every soul is fundamentally a different flavour. It is hard to put into mortal words, but I can achieve a lot through metaphor and simile. The first thing you need to understand is that an ethical devil does not consume souls - we imbibe upon them. A soul is a wondrous fountain that those above contain, and we will drink from it if given the allowance. Approaching a new soul is like finding a mysterious bottle of kombucha. There is probably something wondrous inside it, but without knowledge it is overwhelming and fills us with trepidation.

Of course the easiest way for a devil to live ethically is with a healthy supply of souls around to drink from as needed. It is convenient I have three partners for this, each with beautiful souls that taste refreshingly unique. And every once and a while i get to taste a little of other souls too! My friends, my partners' partners, etc. For me at least, a rather trepidatious and ethics-obsessed devil, I am hesitant to imbibe without intimacy.

To give you a better idea of some flavours, let me describe those most intimate to me:

• Rezzy's souls taste like a mulled hot chocolate, earthy with a lulling headiness like a long drag on a warm summer day. 🥰
• June's soul tastes like sangria mulled with ancient sleeping fruits and carbonated by relaxing sun rays. There's that enticing forbidden aftertaste because of the whole angel / devil thing hehehehe 😈
• Fillertrack's soul tastes like a freshly popped sour soda, its fog whispering from the neck of the bottle as you pucker the tart aftertaste 🥺

If you're one of my really close friends feel free to ask me what your soul tastes like too!

There is a folder on my computer in which Saved Pictures go, and one within that labelled "that's a gwyn!" and inside of that, there are these two screenshots from the Revue of Souls.

I wrote about my experience with the movie back in March 2022, after my gf showed it to me, and since then I've shown it to another one of my gfs, as I believe this is the sort of series best passed around in a polycule.

I think I should rewatch the entire thing some time soon¹, but that scene in particular does stir many Feelings in me. Hell, I do love to be summoned, and there's something really particularly scintilating about obsessive souls. That's probably why I love when my gfs get really autistic about things. And in particular the idea that i get to see that brilliance unfiltered is very intimate to me. ²

"Saints need temptation" is such a good line to me. Temptation, sin, indulgence - these are things that puritans would make you believe are fundamentally bad.³ And yet how can that be, if my temptations ignite the souls of those I love, so much brighter than they were before? Is there nothing more beautiful than the spark whispered softly upon until it ignites into a roaring flame?⁴

1. I did in fact throw this scene back on to write this response. Incredbile scene.
2. It is sincerely one of the hottest and most delightful things in the world to me when I can be intimate with my partners in the things that ignite their souls.
3. I am not one to respect such judgements.
4. You probably notice I use fire motifs a lot when writing about emotions. I find them very apt, as somebody who is constantly possessing intense overwhelming feelings and sensitivities.