#seeker's table

[schemer-aishama]

The Murder of Occtis and the Slaughter of Davinos/Royce - What Brennan was trying to lead the party to realize in Ep.13

(Spoilers and a wild speculative theory for C4:E13 below)

During episode 13, there were several times that Brennan, as Aranessa, tried to lead the group into thinking about what happened at the Palazzo Davinos. Things weren't making sense. If Royce/Davinos were the target, why was Aranessa not focused on to make sure she was eliminated? If Tachonis came to target the House specifically, why did they have everything they needed to do whatever it was they wanted to do to Occtis? If Occtis was the intended target, why did Primus say aloud, "Tonight Davinos, Royce, and all their vassal houses end" ? Why did they bring enough forces to take on an entire house as they ended up doing if their intended target was only one relatively weak wizard?

When the party grouped up in Julien's room, Aranessa was trying to guide the party's thinking to get them to consider what the angle was on House Tachonis's plan. They seemed stuck thinking that one part or the other must have been the wrong part. They think it can't be true that both halves of the attack were always intentional.

But the party failed to remember a specific detail that I remembered right away (to be fair to them, only Julien and Aranessa aka Brennan would have known this in-character, so I'm not too mad that they didn't put two and two together): Raimond Davinos knew about the plan to rescue Thjazi. In Episode 2, at 3:10:37, he states to Julien: "It has come to our attention that there may have been a plot to rescue Thjazi Fang."

Aranessa, who is present, shakes her head at Julien to communicate We know what we heard at that funeral. Because she doesn't say this aloud, I have been taking this to mean that Aranessa did not tell Raimond about what they overheard at the funeral, meaning she isn't the one who told him about the plan.

This is further evidenced by what Raimond says to Julien when he picks Julien up from the brothel, on the carriage ride over to the Palazzo:

Raimond: "Is there anything you heard at the Farramh of Thjazi Fang yesterday when you attended in escort of the Lady Aranessa?" 3:05:20

Julien does not say anything about the rescue plot here, so we know that he is not the source of Raimond having that information. Raimond wouldn't ask about what was heard at the funeral if Aranessa had told him about the plot already. Him asking the question at all sounds innocent, but if he already knew about the rescue plot, he may have been intentionally probing to see if there was more information to be had that had come out of the funeral.

So I think Raimond already knew about it from an outside source.

Raimond is likewise the one to give Julien the order to secure Occtis and bring him to Palazzo Davinos for safety. He is explicitly the one trying to get Occtis onto the Palazzo grounds.

We know that Casimir spilled the beans on the plot in order to sell out Thjazi to House Tachonis. So, Tachonis were aware of the plot going into the execution. Thus, for Raimond to have this information without being told by Julien or Aranessa, one of two things must have happened. Either:

Someone from House Tachonis told Raimond about the plot as a means of manipulating him into catching Occtis for them, intentionally grouping their targets together at one location for the purpose of elimination.

or

Raimond was secretly in contact with the Tachonis and had reason to intentionally betray Occtis and give him to his family, possibly in exchange for some favor or alliance that was meant to be favorable to Royce.

(In this case, this would be why Primus targeted Raimond first in the attack and killed him instantly - he wanted to clean up the loose end of anything that would tie the attack back to House Tachonis, and that includes a secret ally within House Davinos.)

So, what I believe Brennan was trying to get the party to realize was: Raimond Davinos is the reason Occtis was at the Palazzo, and is thus the single overlapping detail of both halves of the attack.

Now, the real question is: was it intentional? Did Raimond betray House Royce intentionally and get killed for it? Or was he a victim of the manipulations of Tachonis just like the rest of them?

As a final note: I think it's very interesting that in the same episode that Brennan was trying to lead the party to this detail, he also had a flashback where he showed Raimond teaching Julien to fight dirty. "A man who is booed, but alive." Did Raimond try to go behind Aranessa's back and offer up Occtis in some way that was meant to protect Royce/Davinos from Tachonis's wrath, only to be killed anyway? Something that would've been dishonorable, but might have protected them? "Booed, but alive?" Something to think about.

(Thank you for coming to my rambling TEDTalk.)

[cr-404]

Following up on the PolySeekers ficlet- what sort of piercings and jewelry does Thaisha give them? What sort of other marks do the other three leave on each other to mark them as theirs? Occtis seemed to think his knight could use a choker or collar... 👀

Extra spice! 💜

He is definately having Thoughts about His Knight that he can't quite figure out how to put into words, or even if he should. Even in the middle of an orgy intimate ongoing four-person sexual relationship he's still very much got the "letting someone with a crush on him walk out the door" energy. Like sure they're being nicer to him and fucking him on the regular but doesn't mean they like him, right?

[cut for length, turned out a little light on spice but hope you enjoy]

As for marking each other, it's Thaisha who goes first. She's not the oldest, but she does have the most confidence and experience in navigating relationships. And piercings.

She mentions something to Vaelus first. She's not shy about the multi-purpose of such things. She likes the decoration of it, she likes using something unique and trackable, and she likes the idea of placing a little claim. Not a claim to any form of exclusivity exactly, but a claim none-the-less.

Vaelus is immediately entranced by the idea. Everything about her, every mark on her body, is to a dead goddess who cursed her children in ways she's only just now starting to understand. Something that could help ground her to this mortal world to balance her calls to her.

It's a few days later that she approaches Thaisha in return, offering her four small thin pieces of metal, each one a semi-circle, no bigger than the tip of her pinkie, and asking if they would work.

It does not escape Thaisha's notice that the metal is such that even she has not worked with before. And that the veil that covers her friend's face is just the littlest bit smaller than it was the day before.

It takes her the better part of a week to properly shape them into simple rings, and she suggests waiting until the next town, but Vaelus is eager, and says she'd rather do it in the woods, under the light of Ilumi's Blanket, so she can always look up and remember the moment.

Julien and Occtis curl up one on each side of her, fingers sliding over her skin as Thaisha knelt between her legs, her hands steady as a drumbeat as the needle slides through her clitoral hood. The small ring follows after it, a touch of magic fusing it together smoothly, and another nudging the healing just a bit. Not too much, or the ring would be rejected, just enough that she can lean down to soothe sore skin with her tongue.

Julien demands his that same night to match hers, although the actual process turns out to be quite different. He squirms so much just from being cleaned up that Thaisha laughingly threatens to pin him down. With his cock her hand she couldn't possibly miss his reaction to that, and then idle threat becomes reality, Occits holding him in his arms, Vaelus pinning down his legs, and Thaisha kneeling at his side, needle in her hand again.

Occtis doesn't quite know what makes his knight pull and shout so as the needle presses in. He understands pain, but surely Julien has endured much more without being restrained. He doesn't mention it though, just holds him closer and tries not to think why it's so easy to get hard like this, and why he wishes it was his hands doing the hurting. He's pretty sure he doesn't want to actually hurt his knight? But then why does it feel like this to hold him while he cries out in pain?

It doesn't seem to bother Thaisha or Vaelus the same way, they tucked him between them when they were done, Thaisha soothing him like she does sometimes when their bickering tips over into sex, when she's mean to him in ways Occtis can only watch and try so hard not to think about later.

He clings to her so tightly after.

It's a few days later when it's his turn, the ring placed higher, right at the bottom of his scar, with most of the ring unseen, just a little sparkle in his skin. It doesn't hurt much at all, but he likes how each of them reach for it, finger brushing over the metal, warming it in a way that travels under his skin.

He did know that sometimes, late at night, he'd reach down and touch it, and the connection to Vaelus and Thaisha was of great comfort.

----------

Occtis was allowed to do Thaisha's. She said he had the steady hands for it, with a look in her eye that even he knew meant good-trouble.

She took him on her lap, not putting her cock inside him, now wouldn't be a good time to try that for the first time, but he could feel right there as he took one breast in his hand and carefully pushed the needle through the nipple under her guidance.

No one had asked about the ring in her other nipple, that he was aware of. Occtis wondered if anyone else knew its mate was still with Halandil Fang. He wondered what it meant, if anything, that their ring was in a similar place.

------

It was in the middle of the night, during the changing of the watch. Neither Vaelus nor Occtis truly slept, so they would let their mortal companions rest while each of them would watch half the night. They'd gotten into the habit of spending a few moments with each other as they swapped, a quieter company that more often than not was mostly soft aimlessly touches. Occtis loved running his fingers over the scars that ran most of her body, and some nights she would tell him the stories of how she got them, in soft, soothing tones, a bedtime story for a beloved undead boy.

"You could add to their number," she offered one night in the same quiet voice. "It might be nice."

It was hard to school his face to horror rather than interest.

"Oh don't tell me you've never thought of it?" She teased lightly, her eyes staring out into the night.

"I, uh...." There was no world in which Occtis could frame an appropriate response to that in any time frame that was under an hour. ".... Have you?"

"Thought about it? Yes. Done it?" She sighed, pulling him closer, although her gaze never waivered. Occtis liked that she didn't look at him. "No, never. It would have been sacralige, you see, to marr one of Her carefully crafted works of art."

She handed over a knife. "Such a blessing it would be, to given a first time, from someone like you."

It was small, and not particularly deep. But Thaisha promised him it would scar. It ran a few inches on the inside of her thigh, right where Occtis liked to liked to rest his head. Even when it healed, he could feel it against his his cheek when he settled in. It was one of the first places that that he felt was his, like he belonged... like he was allowed to be there.

____

Of course when Julien found out, he had pouted for days before Occtis figured out what he wanted. There were some days he wished his knight was better with words. He had taken some more time this time, just him and Julien in a tent one night, and had carved four deep lines on his hip and watched the blood run down his leg. Right where his hand would grip when he fucked him. Right where he could touch him through his clothes without drawing much attention. Right where Thaisha would grab him when she took him to bed, a line that was just Occtis would be between them, part of them.

"I'll give you one more for each of my family you kill," he whispered that night in his knights ear, a dark promise as he held him close and stroked him to completion. He hoped it wasn't his imagination that Julien's cries were louder than normal.

______

Julien had refused when Vaelus had offered the same to him, pointing out that they all now how each other's marks... other than his. He was content, he said, to leave such marks as he could with his mouth and his teeth, ones that would fade within a week, or the first time one had to be healed after battle.

He was not like the others, he pointed out, when Thaisha had cornered him later. He appreciated what they had give him, but could not return the favor. He was not a druid beholden only to the Old Path, not an elf moving on from a dead goddess, not a young noble who was estranged from his family.

He was a Davinos. And as much as his family thought otherwise of him, while he lived that meant something, while there a single member of House Royce alive that meant something, and he would not leave such a mark on another. His lady may have given Thaisha leave to his body, and she may have extended it to the others, but the return was not necessarily true.

___

That night Occtis waited until Julien was asleep before pulling out a thin strip of leather from his bag. His fingers were gentle as they brushed the curly hair out of the way and wrapped it around his knight's neck, measuring it out carefully, marking and cutting it. He didn't have access to the proper hardware right now, and the leather was thin, and he doubted this would even be allowed. But he could lay it across the pale, vulnerable skin for a few moments, and in the morning he would knot it around his own wrist, and remember.

[headraline]

Ok but the parallels between the Soldiers' Table and the Seeker's Table.

They abound.

I have been silent for the entirety of the Soldier's table first arc, mostly because real life is a bitch and I had no time for anything... but I've got shit to say. SPOILERS will probably abound, beware.

First and easiest parallel: Occtis vs. Wicander

Both the youngest scion of a Sundered House with hands in whatever the conspiracy is, both kept in the dark about any major plans, but in very different ways: Occtis was openly ostracised and disliked, while Wicander was used as a pawn, "look at this perfect shiny puppet with hands clean of all corruption" -which he incidentally was.

Both when the corruption comes to light decide to do something about it, but while for Occtis that meant a very violent and open enmity, Wick gets the chance to play it subtle and go save Teor -the first person to actually be nice to him.

Standing up to their respective families looks different but they both have big decisions to make: Wicander lands on "probably spearheading an inside revolt and exposing all the lies the Halovars told about the Candescent Creed and where filament comes from", while for Occtis it means "get out of library and theoretic study and get your ass to the front line to get whatever it is the Tachonises wanted before they do".

And I love that the person at the Soldier's table will engage in political games while the person at the Seeker's table is essentially going to fight a guerrilla.

Second parallel: Julien vs. Thimble

This one is slightly less obvious, but still very much there.

Both have had someone they loved taken away (Thjazi for Thimble, Julien's entire House at Palazzo Davinos of which his father has become the most prominent symbol for the loss), and both are out for revenge.

Thimble, however, knows -possibly by virtue of the fact that the traitor selling them out was only one, and thus revenge seemingly "easily" accomplished- that revenge doesn't really accomplish diddly squat. She killed Casimir, it didn't do anything to bring Thjazi back, she realised she'd eventually have to process her grief and that her friend is gone, and moves onto the next target to avoid thinking about it.

Julien is not there yet, and has a different mindset: to him revenge is retribution. He hasn't processed the grief, and probably won't for a while -won't rest until he has killed enough of those responsible, nevermind that it won't bring anyone back. He intellectually knows it won't, but the injustice that his family is dead and those responsible live must be righted regardless, and he is so hungry for that blood, for that retribution, that killing a second-to-last son who we're not even sure was at Palazzo Davinos at all felt healing to him.

That's not how healing works, but that's how he feels in the moment.

If we were to talk about stages of grief (loosely used), Thimble blazed past denial and rage and is now in bargaining, while Julien is still firmly into the rage part.

Third parallel: Vaelus and Tyranny

This one is a LOT subtler than the others, but it's there.

Both are "outsiders" to the world they're in, both have become attached to someone within it.

Tyranny is attached to Wick by their contract and also, ironically for a demon, by a deep compassion for the only truly "pure" thing in the entirety of House Halovar, and she felt deeply for him when the revelation of where the filament came from and what the Candescent Creed really was quite possibly broke Wick's heart. Tyranny felt a renewed drive to defend and support Wicander once it became obvious that he wants to oppose his family and right all the wrong they did, and, like the world's most hardcore cheerleader, repeated "my contract is with you, not with your family". Hammering down the fact that even if his entire family betrayed Wick, she will never.

Vaelus became attached to Occtis after he was brought back by the Stone of Nightsong -something she had not bargained for, she was there solely for the Stone, but the events at Palazzo Davinos brought forth a shift in her knowledge or perhaps her perspective, and after the vanquishing of a god she considered beloved she has found something new she could believe in, starting from what happened to Occtis. If the Stone of Nightsong was able (or chose to) bring Occtis back, however only "halfway", then maybe something about him is special, or maybe something needs to be done that involves him which is important enough to defy death for it. And Vaelus will be there to see it through.

Fourth Parallel: Kattigan and Thaisha

This one was also subtle enough that it took some work for me to see it.

Both share a deep connection to nature and the wilderness, both never put much stock into the gods and couldn't care less for their demise (which, fair), both ill-at-ease with the constraints of cityfolk and cities thmselves.

To a point, both adopted a mentorship role: at the tail-end of the Soldier's arc, it was Kattigan's words and advice which spurred Wicander on to get his shit together and decide what he was going to do about his family; and Thaisha seems to have been a point of reference for Occtis even before the story as we're seeing it began, Occtis looks up to her to a point, whether for more venerable age, superior wisdom, affection, or all three. The fact that Thaisha was probably the first mentor-like figure to show him genuine care and support likely didn't hurt. The fact that she takes no shit might also be a quality Occtis admires.

Kattigan gives advice and support to Wick like one would give his sincere opinion to a stranger -in his case, to a kid that he sees way out of his depth, but with the potential to do a lot of good and cause a lot of change, and so Kattigan can't in good conscience let such an opportunity go to waste, even though he could technically wash his hands of this conflict. Thaisha instead is very deeply involved in the conflict, on a personal level, this is her battle, but she is also there for Occtis, because someone has to be, and even though her druidic side has on occasion recoiled at the more obvious manifestations of what Occtis has become, she will stick by her young friend's side, undeath be damned.

Bonus side parallel: Occtis & Wick vs. Julien & Thimble

Occtis: outwardly beloved universally across the group *except* by the Seeker on the other side of the parallel (but don't get me started on knightingale, this is not the post for it it's already too long)

Wicander: outwardly hated/disliked/dismissed across the group, at least initially, *except* the one(s) sworn to be at his side (yes I'm counting Teor's oath)

Thimble: outwardly beloved by the entire table and loving them in return, *except* Wicander which she has a real problem with for obvious reasons

Julien: actively disliked by the rest of his group and antagonising them back at every turn, at least at the start, *except* lady Aranessa, and with (seemingly) a specific problem with Occtis (we'll not touch "I like seeing him squirm" on this occasion but iykyk)

So Occtis is beloved like Thimble but in a parallel with Wicander, and Julien is hated like Wicander but in a parallel with Thimble... idk I just think that's interesting. Especially considering that, while Wick tried to "intercede" for clemency in a way that we the audience know was never gonna work, Wicander and Julien are the only two player characters who were on the "wrong" side of Thjazi's execution.

...oh and then there's Teor.... but only Teor can be Teor.

[renatogpadilla]

I'll be so real, I don't know if Occtis can cast Cure Wounds so I was REALLY hoping that Pin could hold on to the ballista bolt and use it to fly to Vaelus when she was downed to expedite the wi-fi touch spell process. XD

[pyrot3ch-nick]

I do hope the seekers' and schemers' tables have just as much combat as the soliders' table

[straight-with-a-gay-agenda]

Ok so just a passing thought but what if the number of demon aspirants matches the number of assmars in the house Halovar. Additionally what if the task the demons need to complete is to corrupt the angel kids. Thoughts anyone?