tarot based starters >> @daviinos
Something has changed in Julien since Riesingürtle.
Occtis has run out of things to categorize when it comes to himself, and so his attention has turned outwards, if only to keep it from turning towards nothing at all. His grip on his body still feels occasionally loose, like he's only a visitor to it and his straying attention will cause him to lose himself again. It's better to be distracted by his companions than by that strange not-quite-fear.
As it stands, Julien is easy to be distracted by. It's difficult to look at either Thaisha or Aranessa most times, and Vaelus's veil makes her mostly inscrutable to Occtis, who struggles at the best of times to read other people the way he's always read his textbooks. Julien is the convenient middle-ground between difficult to figure out and easy enough to read, but only since the bridge.
( Only since the bridge, he thinks, like it was so paltry a moment. Like Frons hadn't been pushed over the edge of the cliff towards the water below, and Occtis's first thought was relief that it wasn't Julien before he'd even considered feeling grief over his brother. He doesn't know why he left the grave, really. Frons wouldn't have done it for him. )
There's something more determined, now, in the way he holds himself. Before, he'd sometimes seemed like a desperate animal of some kind, clawing his way towards any inch of an answer. Now there's a kind of satisfaction Occtis sometimes catches in his eyes when he looks back, like he's found himself repose in knowing that Occtis's siblings are all within the reach of his cheap tactics.
Well. It's not like they play fair, either.
It's been time enough that they're safely away, for the moment—Aranessa has already slipped into conversation with Thaisha and Vaelus has already gone near glassy-eyed with her usual meditation, setting a very fragile peace over their group as they finally find themselves a chance to rest. Occtis doesn't mean to, but he ends up near Julien, who until recently had been busying himself with whatever task needed tending to until there were no longer any tasks to attend to.
"Um," Occtis says, not fully knowing what he's going to say next until he's already started speaking. "You know, I really can't tell if the lack of chemical reactions occurring in my body is dulling my ability to produce emotional responses, or if I'm just not really upset that you pushed my brother off a cliff."
