Julien Davinos x changeling reader
Julien x changeling reader headcanons
Your relation to house royce and how that affects your relationship-
Since changelings are related to the fey, and you know Julien, it's possible and likely you’re somehow related to house Royce. Maybe you’re from the golden orchard, maybe you’re a servant of house royce, maybe you’re some kind of guard, or maybe you’re a member of a vassal house. Either way, Julien has an easier time trusting you knowing you are an ally of house royce (and house davinos, by association).
If you’re associated with house royce, I imagine you and julien have known each other for quite some time, and you may also be friends with aranessa. (I have a personal headcanon that being friends/friendly with aranessa would really help julien warm up to someone since he trusts and cares for her so much.)
If he already knows you’re a changeling-
There’s a possibility Julien already knows you're a changeling, in which case he isn’t all that distrusting of your appearance changing. If he knows you and knows about your abilities, then he’s not too worried about it, since you’ve not kept it a secret and he has no reason not to trust you.
As kids, he asked a ton of questions about your appearance changing abilities, and was super interested in learning all that he could. Now that he’s grown, he’s glad he asked all that as a kid because he’s much more reserved now and would be much less confident admitting how clueless he is about all this.
You can occasionally pull pranks on him, pretending to be someone else, but remember he’s awfully prideful and hates to be embarrassed. So please, be a little gentle with his pride.
On the other hand, he loves to see you trick or deceive other people. If you’re in the business of impersonating others or playing mind games, let him in on the joke and he’ll quickly grow fond of you. He loves to be in on the joke, and if you’re witty or a little mean, he absolutely adores being a bit of a menace with you.
He’s not a very playful person by nature, despite his vices, but I think he’d like to watch you be playful or funny.
It’s likely you often take advantage of your powers to sneak, spy, and gather intel- pretending to be someone else to get close to the information you need. And Julien respects that- in some ways he’s amazed by your abilities (being someone with a fairly low understanding of magic himself.) but work like that brings you towards danger, and with you working undercover like that, you often aren't at liberty to have guards or soldiers with you. And he worries about you a lot. He hates when you go to dangerous places that he can’t follow.
If he finds out you’re a changeling after you’ve grown close-
This is where we could see a lot more drama. Julien doesn’t trust easily, so when he finds out you’ve been hiding an ability like this, and also likely your true appearance, he’s going to be upset.
A lot of things could make his reactions better or worse-
If this is something that you’ve kept a secret from most people, julien isn’t quite as mad. In fact, the fewer people know when he finds out, the better for your relationship. If it’s a secret you keep from everyone then he feels a little less angry about being kept in the dark.
In fact, once the initial shock of finding out fades, and he can think clearly again, he may even be a bit flattered that you opened up to him about your secret. And of course he’s fantastic at keeping your secret because he doesn’t open up to others very fast, and he’s used to keeping things under wraps because he serves a sundered house.
Worse case is if it’s something lots of people know about you, because then he feels betrayed that you kept it from him specifically. If it’s something others know about you, then why couldn’t you tell him? Why were you keeping it a secret from him? In this case, his trust is broken to a much higher degree and there will be a lot more hard feelings that will take some time to iron out.
What were your reasons for keeping it a secret?
Julien is somewhat distrustful of people who keep secrets and tell lies. He runs in noble circles, but he doesn't really have the mind for all the politics these circles demand. With you he thought things could be easier- you open up to him and he does the same to you. But now he knows you’ve been pretending.
Best case, you keep your identity a secret to protect yourself; in which case it’s hard for him to stay mad for too long. Even after finding out you misled him, he still cares for you, and if keeping this secret has kept you safe, then he understands it (begrudgingly).
How did he find out? Did you tell him? How did you tell him? Did he find out himself? Did someone else tell him?
There’s lots of scenarios here, but I think it really matters to him. Julien is pretty hung up on the details of things, especially when it comes to how he copes with finding out something so new about you- someone he cares for.
If he finds out from you telling him directly, that’s the best case scenario by far. Wait until you’re alone with him, in a quiet and peaceful moment between just the two of you. It goes a long way to know that you feel safe enough with him to tell him such a major secret. And it means a lot to him that you willingly shared this secret.
Telling him in a group setting (for example; telling your entire party at once) is acceptable and he won’t lash out about it, because you were still honest, but it makes him wonder if you’re really as close as he believed. If he was so important to you, why did you tell him with everyone else? Why didn't you tell him first? There’s going to be some amount of pain here, though he tries to hide it.
Finding out on his own or being told by someone else are both bad scenarios for your relationship. He’s incredibly hurt that you didn’t feel you could tell him about it, and he immediately turns that hurt into anger, lashing out at you for lying to him and keeping secrets.
This is really the kicker with this scenario.
If you’re not together, this is decently easy to forgive. If you’re not together, then you don’t owe him the truth, you don’t owe him any information about you at all (even though he wants to know you so badly.)
If you’ve been hooking up or otherwise non-committal, it’s a middle ground. He knows he’s not entitled to information about you, but you’re close enough that he thought if there were secrets, you’d tell him. Apparently not. He tries not to let it sting but it’s a huge blow to his pride and his confidence in your relationship.
But if you’re established partners for any amount of time before he finds out he’s going to be incredibly hurt and angry. He keeps nothing from you, and he thought you treated him with that same transparency- knowing you don’t is a huge blow to your relationship and badly damages his trust in you. If this is the case, you’ll have to navigate the conversation carefully because his feelings are quickly spiraling out of control; hurt and sadness turning into anger and all too fast he’s lashing out at you.