#also i loooooove love love love reading about everyone's de riva rooks helping lucanis work thru crow shit

[cannibalisticskittles]

the whole mess about lucanis becoming first talon is, well, a mess no matter what, but im kind of obsessed with how much more of a mess it can be with a rook that doesn't know how royally fucked lucanis is until later.

like obviously a de riva rook knows what's up with the crows and their hierarchy and all the awful shit that happens as a part of that life -- not even just the parts that come about because, say, a house is staging a coup, but all the terrible aspects that come with being a crow when everything goes right. the training (a form of torture), having to compete against other fledglings (another flavor of torture!), the risk of death, the reality of injury, the possibility of betrayal from someone you thought was close to you just to gain power or favor, and all the trauma that comes from having to use seduction as a part of an assassin's repertoire. fun stuff!

and i as a player know all this and am looking at the path before lucanis with horror (oh no baby you're right where you started -- in a position you never wanted to have, under your grandmother's thumb without having learned how to say no to her, except now you don't even have your cousin to lean on)

but my mourn watch rook is not in the know at all.

like. she definitely picks up on the fact that all is not quite right and satisfactory with the way things go with lucanis and the crows throughout the game, and with the way that technically wraps up, but. that's kind of The Usual Vibe with lucanis.

things happen and he buries them down instead of processing them. gotta show him support and trust and kindness and hope he eventually feels comfortable enough to work thru it enough to talk about it (or do something about it). pspsps-ing at the feral cat who's scared to approach. she's unraveling his trauma little by little but she has not gotten to all the bits that make it click that this is a nightmare scenario until well after he's technically accepted the position of first talon.

weeks after the fall of the gods, she's kicking down doors at the necropolis hollering "PROFESSOR HOLY FUCK WE GOTTA DO SOMETHING TO HELP LUCANIS"