The Shipping Forecast
Our lovely little show, much like Merlin (not that Demons is at all derivative, you understand), has a cast with four main characters, evenly divided between male and female, making for six possible ships, four het and one each for slash and femslash. Almost all the ships have had teases deliberately put in by the creators already, because apparently we're all too stupid to understand subtext these days. But what will happen when fandom really starts to get their teeth into them?
Luke/Ruby
In many ways the most obvious ship, being a het ship with two humans, one of whom has already fallen for the other. Luke/Ruby will be shipped by people who are mostly interested in OTP4eva happy-ever-afters, schmoop and babyfic, and for whom the entity-smiting is decidedly incidental to the "character" "interaction". They will insist, repeatedly and loudly, that the obvious smooshname for the ship is "Ruke", and definitely, definitely not "Luby". Ruby's supposed working-class background will enable them to label as "elitists" the shippers of ...
Luke/Mina
... but secretly the Luke/Mina shippers won't mind, because they'll think they are an elite, shipping an edgy ship like this with that woman from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen instead of the boring obvious human choice who moons after Luke pathetically. Will probably start off with a much smaller number but much higher quality of fics than Luke/Ruby, and will still be claiming this proves their superiority long after they're just as flooded with badfic. Probably ends up being called "Minke", initially by someone who can't spell "mink" and wants to imply fur-lined luxury, but soon there will be lots of whale in-jokes.
Rupert/Mina
As the only characters with a past prior to the show, this ship will appeal to people who like inventing complicated backstories for canon characters. And as two people who we can assume have a fair bit of sexual experience, it will appeal to pornographers. Basically, the ship boils down to "oh, come on, they must have done at some point, and it would have been hot". Even the most active fans of it won't consider it an OTP, though.
Rupert/Ruby
Luke/Mina shippers will claim to ship this just so that things are tidy, but be in no way fannishly active about it. (Note that Luke/Ruby shippers won't feel the need to do the same for Rupert/Mina: there's an obvious difference between supporting characters and the canon OTP, after all.) A few people will like it on its own merits; probably they will mostly have Ruby top as a way of reasserting control over her life.
Ruby/Mina
Will have all of three fanfic authors writing for it (one who writes long, plotty not-quite-PG-13 epics; one who writes an endless succession of different first time scenarios and fetishises Ruby's first experience of Mina's psychic-touch-that-compensates-for-her-blindness; and one who writes badly spelled, anatomically impossible porn) until the Ruke-Minke wars become intolerable (probably when one or other ship comes true in canon, however briefly) and moderate people self-consciously start writing it to show they do like both of them, honest.
Rupert/Luke
The only potential slash ship, so bound to be insanely popular. There will be lots of self-involved meta about how Rupert's teaching Luke about the underworld is a metaphor for inducting him into the ways of hot gay sex. This will make the vast majority of shippers feel better about themselves, despite the fact they are writing just as much OTP schmoop and babyfic (with added mpreg, to boot) as the Luke/Ruby crowd. There will be a much smaller number of people who are into it because of their student/mentor kink, who will spend most of their time moaning behind flock about how bad most of their ship's fic is.
Luke/Ruby
In many ways the most obvious ship, being a het ship with two humans, one of whom has already fallen for the other. Luke/Ruby will be shipped by people who are mostly interested in OTP4eva happy-ever-afters, schmoop and babyfic, and for whom the entity-smiting is decidedly incidental to the "character" "interaction". They will insist, repeatedly and loudly, that the obvious smooshname for the ship is "Ruke", and definitely, definitely not "Luby". Ruby's supposed working-class background will enable them to label as "elitists" the shippers of ...
Luke/Mina
... but secretly the Luke/Mina shippers won't mind, because they'll think they are an elite, shipping an edgy ship like this with that woman from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen instead of the boring obvious human choice who moons after Luke pathetically. Will probably start off with a much smaller number but much higher quality of fics than Luke/Ruby, and will still be claiming this proves their superiority long after they're just as flooded with badfic. Probably ends up being called "Minke", initially by someone who can't spell "mink" and wants to imply fur-lined luxury, but soon there will be lots of whale in-jokes.
Rupert/Mina
As the only characters with a past prior to the show, this ship will appeal to people who like inventing complicated backstories for canon characters. And as two people who we can assume have a fair bit of sexual experience, it will appeal to pornographers. Basically, the ship boils down to "oh, come on, they must have done at some point, and it would have been hot". Even the most active fans of it won't consider it an OTP, though.
Rupert/Ruby
Luke/Mina shippers will claim to ship this just so that things are tidy, but be in no way fannishly active about it. (Note that Luke/Ruby shippers won't feel the need to do the same for Rupert/Mina: there's an obvious difference between supporting characters and the canon OTP, after all.) A few people will like it on its own merits; probably they will mostly have Ruby top as a way of reasserting control over her life.
Ruby/Mina
Will have all of three fanfic authors writing for it (one who writes long, plotty not-quite-PG-13 epics; one who writes an endless succession of different first time scenarios and fetishises Ruby's first experience of Mina's psychic-touch-that-compensates-for-her-blindness; and one who writes badly spelled, anatomically impossible porn) until the Ruke-Minke wars become intolerable (probably when one or other ship comes true in canon, however briefly) and moderate people self-consciously start writing it to show they do like both of them, honest.
Rupert/Luke
The only potential slash ship, so bound to be insanely popular. There will be lots of self-involved meta about how Rupert's teaching Luke about the underworld is a metaphor for inducting him into the ways of hot gay sex. This will make the vast majority of shippers feel better about themselves, despite the fact they are writing just as much OTP schmoop and babyfic (with added mpreg, to boot) as the Luke/Ruby crowd. There will be a much smaller number of people who are into it because of their student/mentor kink, who will spend most of their time moaning behind flock about how bad most of their ship's fic is.