Inner Demons is an ongoing multi-chapter story created by Requiesticat. It is hosted on Deviantart.
It centers on Prudence "Prue" White, a neurotic individual who is possessed by a demon. The demon, Schaden Freude, finds that he has become linked to this person and cannot leave the world of the living because of it. The subsequent relationship that develops between the two is vitriolic, but ultimately a rewarding one.
Inner Demons provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- Schaden's thoughts imply that his father is an alcoholic, and that he has a less than close relationship with him.
- Prue's parents might not be this, but it could be the reason why they're estranged from their family. Either way, it lead Prue to stop visiting them at some point.
- The Alleged Car: Prue admits that their car wouldn't pass inspection, but is very proud of it otherwise.
- Ambiguous Gender: The main character falls under this trope. We're lead to believe that they are male, but other character's assertion that they aren't causes them significant distress. Prue seems to be biologically female, and it's unknown why they view themself as male beyond being transgender.
- Artistic License – Medicine: In the first chapter, Prue's therapist diagnoses them with minor depression. A psychiatrist cannot diagnose. That is a psychologist's job, although individuals are sometimes referred to psychologists by their psychiatrists for a proper diagnosis. Jonas also couldn't diagnose Prue with a few quick questions.
- Enemy Within: Subverted. You'd think Schaden would be bad, but he's actually a pretty decent individual. Though given how he treats Prue, it's debatable.
- Fantastic Slurs: "Beezlesheep" is a swear that demons use in order to mock stereotypically nationalistic members of their species who support Lucifer without question.
- Fantastic Racism: Demons hate humans with a passion, and look down on those of their kind that are deemed weak in their eyes.
- Granola Girl: Tess counts as one.
- Hearing Voices: Prue, prior to their demon's escape.
- Hollywood Atheist: Prue used to be an atheist, but becomes open to believing otherwise after finding out that demons are real.
- Meaningful Name: All of the characters have this.
- Prudence: Prudence is a name that means "cautiousness" and "good judgement." Prue definitely exhibits both traits.
- Schaden Freude: An obvious misnomer of schadenfrude, which is a german word that means to laugh at the misfortune of others.
- Teresa: Means "harvester" or "reaper", and is the name of many Roman Catholic saints. It's actually stated that Tess was named after Mother Teresa.
- Hamza: Hamza is a muslim name derived from the arabic word hamuza, which means "strong".
- Metaphorically True: Prue has inner demons- both troubles and a literal one. Schaden ended up getting stuck inside their head after a botched possession attempt, where he was trapped for six years. He refers to it as "imprisonment".
- Nervous Wreck:
- Prue is afraid of being thrown out of their therapist's office for being crazy, although the office is meant to help alleviate the stress of mental illness.
- Schaden could also qualify as this. He's much less neurotic than them, but shows symptoms of having PTSD from serving in Hell's war and being trapped for so long.
- Precocious Crush: In the first chapter, it is evident that Prue has a small crush on their therapist.
- Sanity Slippage: Somehow, Schaden managed to stay sane all those years, and doesn't even do that poorly when reintegrating into human society, but his debut chapter makes it clear how being forced to live in isolation affected him.
- Shower of Angst: Schaden takes one during his first night on Earth.
- Theme Song: Seyu states that the series' theme is "Half Jack".