the-13th-black-cat:

Okay but here’s the thing: can we talk about demons and their horns.

Sure, they look badass, but they’re often overlooked beyond that. But think about it.

Baby demons born with tiny bumps under the skin where their horns will eventually grow. Young demons with their horns just now coming in properly, fussing and rubbing their heads on every available hard surface because they itch, and purring with contentment with a parent or older sibling massages the horn bumps to ease some of the discomfort. Numbing creams for especially sensitive demon kiddos, and having to relearn how to style their hair once they finally break through the skin, after years of not having them in the way.

Teenage demons (especially the boys, but girls too) proud of the size of their horns and showing them off at every opportunity, polishing and waxing and filing away little nicks. There’s rumors about them, of course (you know what they say about guys with big horns, tee hee), and tomboyish girls frustrated that their horns never got very big (but they’ll fight anyone who makes fun of them for it) or feminine girls embarrassed that they inherited dad’s massive, looping ram horns when they just wanted little, delicate ones(but they’ll learn to accept it, eventually). Demons with particularly dry horns who oil them regularly to keep them from flaking, or who pick obsessively at the flaky spots even though they know they shouldn’t.

Increasingly silly horn fashion that adult demons don’t even bother to try and understand, because you know how teenagers are: a whole generation’s-worth of demon kids were obsessed with gluing fake jewels to their horns, and another time intricate, criss-crossing patterns of string and ribbon was in-style. There’s an array of colorful horn polishes to be found, in gloss and glitter (and even velvety matte–that’s a new trend).

Demons don’t use their horns to spar like most animals, of course–they have other ways to fight that work better for their bodies–but that doesn’t stop the younger ones from slamming their horns together during wrestling matches like sheep, at least until the hormones settle. Gentle, playful headbutts taking the place of a friendly punch to the shoulder. 

Adult demons dedicating as much time to the maintenance of their horns as the teenagers do, but in a more mature way: they’ve replaced the exaggerated, experimental stylings teenagers favor with jewelry, often more subtle, but sometimes bold. Demons who sharpen the tips of their horns for fashion, or have holes carefully drilled into them so they can be fitted with jewelry (horn piercings are in style now, you know! just be careful not to get the core). Horn technicians who specialize in intricate designs done in polish, to complement the demon’s own colors and natural horn shape. Some of them even use dyes, tinting their horns a different color or giving them a different sheen if they were too dark to change color much.

A broken horn being devastating and painful. It’ll never grow back, after all, not like antlers, and in a way it’s almost as bad as losing a limb: suddenly you’re unbalanced, and you feel like everyone is staring, and you know you’re not as pretty as you used to be. Eventually it will heal over, the sharp edges will be filed down, and it will be normal–but never the same.

HORNS.