#im gonna make posts soon about the Dionysian cult & the night feasts of new york & the lawless cities so stay tuned ig

[itwill-comeback]

Buckle up y'all, this one gets wild

● Having been doing it for two hundred years longer than Otis, Enrico is the more skilled swordsman of the two, as he's been honing the skill since childhood & can't recall a time before knowing the weight of a sword in hand.

○ Otis went his entire human life having never held a sword, being a poor man he'd never had any need for one & didn't see the value of having a weapon unless you had wealth to protect, until of course he'd been thrown in the Bastille & Ignatius started using him as a practice target. Even after Ignatius gave him a sword as a means to trick him into thinking he could defend himself, it became clear quickly that a sword is only ever useful with skill.

● The two of them crossed paths after Otis & Tomas were taken in by Vikas. [who was meeting with the rest of the Elder Council in Antwerp, Belgium to deal with an unraveling scheme to destroy the Athens Council & liberate a woman leading what we would consider a cult which threatened the secrecy of Elysia (but to keep things short: Vikas was busy, too busy to look after fledglings)] Tomas & Otis were, like all fledglings, heedless, incorrigible gluttons who had no interest in waiting for permission to go around Antwerp & instead went out without Vikas knowing because they were both bored. Looking for humans to kill & instead running right into Enrico & Dorian [who were on their way to go speak with Em, since their bloodline's patriarch, Enrico's grandfather, had a whole slew of things to report about the Athens Council's misuse of the law & disregard for Elysian rights during this crisis, arguing that all of their behavior was warranted due to the threat they were facing, but the way things were going Enrico wasn't trying to leave Dorian alone as they were still both young by Elysian standards] Naturally, Otis introduced himself in his usual polite fashion, whilst Tomas almost instantly wanted information about what was going on with the Elder Council & the Dionysian cult that threatened the Athens Council. Both Ciottis were under strict instructions not to speak a word about the situation to anyone other than Em & were immediately put off from Tomas. This interaction actually helped shape Tomas' desire for power, being out of the loop terrified him. Otis persuaded Tomas to return to their hunt & ask Vikas about it later.

○ Following this [Vikas gets back from his meeting to find no fledglings & the two return shortly before dawn but believe that Vikas grilled them for disappearing] it became clear that Vikas couldn't leave the two to their own devices & opted to take them with him to meet with the other Elders. One of the issues holding the Elder Council back was that they were focusing primarily on protecting the Athens Council rather than catching the cult radicals. Tomas actually shines here [despite the fact that the two brothers were supposed to remain dead silent for the duration of this meeting], in that he points out that using the Athenians as bait raises their likelihood of catching the majority of the cult all at once, laying a trap rather than pursuing them. This coincides with the rather damning report from Enrico's grandfather leading Em to the conclusion that maybe one of these problems could solve the other, as replacing the Athens Council's president would be a hassle, but reminding him that his Council would always need the resources & protection of the Elder Council would put him in his place without having to put him on trial for misusing his position.

● Otis actually questions Em after the meeting on why she agrees with Tomas' idea, in his mind if it were a simple issue that a fledgling could solve it wouldn't require the Elders' wisdom in the first place. Em explains that the rigidity & political pressure of the Elders denies them the more brutal solutions, & that it wouldn't have been the correct solution if the Athens Council were upright in their pursuit of justice. She reveals the important role Enrico & Dorian played in the decision, in other words, it wasn't just Tomas who shined on this issue, he'd have seemed petulant & cruel without the reasoning of the Ciottis that the Athens Council wasn't handling the situation properly.

○ Otis took a shine to the Ciottis after that, having been stuck in a guest room with them & Tomas [because Hey! The Adults Are Talking Right Now! was all it took for the four of them to be removed from the meeting hall, even if Tomas had made a valid point.] This began the way in which the four interacted, still despite the appreciation Otis had for the duo, the sword on Enrico's hip made him nervous, too fresh were the wounds Ignatius had left him for him to ignore the nervous twinge that settled in his stomach at the sight of a sword.

● Once Enrico finds out that that's why Otis is so skittish he offers to teach him to use a sword, "If you ever run into that dog again, you'll know how to cut him down." Of course the first lesson was to hold a sword without letting his hands shake. In the two months it took the Elder Council to sort out the Dionysian cult Otis had picked up half-decent swordsmanship, but more importantly he'd made friends where Tomas had failed to. The Elders praised Tomas for being clever, Otis seemed comparatively quiet, trusting the Elders to handle the problem themselves.

○ Otis continued his trend of making friends throughout Europe & eventually to the Americas where Tomas was helping D'Ablo to establish the North American Council as a valid Council rather than a rogue government. D'Ablo was disregarded by much of Elysia initially, being one of the oldest sons of a patriarch who upholds the law free autonomy of Marseille, but many had to acknowledge his ability once the Council began enforcing the law within North America. He took a liking to Tomas due to his tenacity & willingness to do whatever needed to be done, it certainly didn't hurt that Tomas had also picked up allies over the years that made establishing the Council easier. This was actually the turning point for many powerful Elysians to take note of the fact that Em's bloodline was rooting itself in powerful positions throughout Elysia unimpeded.

● Enrico's grandfather also noticed it, but rather than yielding to the influence her bloodline had, he insisted on waiting for the prophecy to come to fruition, which put a strain on his relationship with Enrico after Dorian became prophecy keeper.

○ Enrico had already started what would eventually be the V Bar, the idea of safe havens for vampires to share drinks & conversation wasn't new, but became increasingly popular with the creation of the Slayer Society, which had a propensity for targeting nests to "stop the spread" of vampires throughout cities. So no matter how anyone in Elysia felt about Dorian, no one would be able to sense slayers coming before he would, making the safest place for Elysians in New York near him. This is part of the reason why the Elder Council convenes in New York & why the city was able to attain exemption from the law.