#Oberon october daye
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So, I've been thinking about Toby's knives.
Well, okay, I specifically think primarily about Toby's main knife, but there's something interesting to be said about all three of the knives she "regularly" wears (silver, iron, and the new one.) All three of them are gifts. All three of them are given to her by someone expecting Toby to be a hero.
"Ms. Daye?"
"Yes, Dare?" It was like trying to leave kindergartners with a babysitter. If I was lucky, they'd run out of questions before the sun went down. Maybe.
"Here." She pulled a knife out of her sleeve, offering it to me. I didn't recognize the style of the blade, but if it was street legal, I'm a Kelpie. "In case you don't scream fast enough."
"Good idea," I said. She looked almost disappointed by my reaction - she was still young enough for the rules against saying thank you to seem pointless. I winked, sliding the knife into my belt with the edge facing outward to keep me from cutting myself. She brightened, reading the unspoken gratitude in my eyes. She was pretty smart when she let herself be.
(Rosemary and Rue, Chapter 21, pages 239-240)
The first and most important, of course, is Dare's knife. And yet, this is a pretty minor moment. There's no sign this particular knife is special to Dare - it's mentioned earlier she's got enough weapons on her at the moment to clank. Manuel will ask for it later, claiming it was a loan, but that's the most he can say - and May, who would know, corrects him that it was a gift.
By this point, Dare's already told Toby she wants to get away from Devin and take Manuel with her, and Dare asks because Toby's already her hero. She got out. Dare doesn't get to, in the end. And so the knife that Dare all but offhandedly gave her becomes a keepsake, and one of Toby's most valued possessions. As Toby says taking it in A Local Habitation, maybe Dare's knife would help her be someone else's hero. Eventually, it does. Dare's knife is Toby's promise to herself not to fail anyone again. It's the justification she uses when she needs to go back and confront Blind Michael. (Incidentally, May tells her they can get a new knife in response. For all that she remembers being Dare, she doesn't yet understand what the knife is to Toby.) It's so tied to Toby's identity that when she loses her way home, among all the allies she can't recognize or only knows as enemies -
[Quentin] walked toward me, pausing to bend and gingerly retrieve a silver knife from the floor. It looked sharp. It also looked well-used; there were flecks of blood dried on the hilt, and streaks of something much fresher on the blade. "I'll just, um, hold this for you, for now," he said. "I promise I'll give it back when you're ready."
"You can't give it back when it's not mine," I snarled. At least I could talk.
(A Killing Frost, Chapter 19, page 266)
Toby thinks at this point that she's sworn to Sylvester and can return to him, not knowing she's banished. He's not part of her way home anymore. But the knife is. When Toby can't recognize the knife, it's because she's not herself anymore. (Incidentally, it says a lot about how thoroughly Sylvester fucked up, particularly in AKF, that Shadowed Hills isn't home anymore.) On top of that, because of its link to Dare, the knife is also Home - the shitty flophouse for changelings with nowhere else to go run by an exploitative crime lord, but also the place where Toby learned to fight and survive. Sylvester's tried to teach her, but she's not the kind of knight to use a sword.
Moving on:
Then Acacia's hand was on my shoulder, and a knife was landing in the dust beside me. "Kill him or let him go, Amandine's daughter, but don't torture him," she said. "Make your choice. You haven't got much time."
I looked up. "Acacia -"
She looked down at me, the short tendrils of her hair curling around her face. When I distracted Blind Michael, that must have broken his hold on her, allowing her to rip herself free. "No. You let others make your choices too often. Kill him or let him live, but do it now. No more games."
"I don't know what to do."
"You always know. You just don't listen to yourself." She shook her head, turning, and started to walk away. The Riders parted to let her pass, still silent, still staring at me.
Choices. Oh, Oberon's blood, choices.
I put the candle between my teeth, keeping my knife pressed tight against Blind Michael's throat. The flame licked at my cheek, filling the air with the hot smell of singed blood as I reached out and picked up Acacia's knife. I almost dropped it when the metal hit my hand. Iron - it was made of iron. It would have to be; did I really think I could kill one of the Firstborn with silver alone? That was never an option. Not really.
...
"I'm sorry," I said. "I can't forgive you." I lifted my hand, bringing the two knives together, and slammed them together down into his throat.
Iron slices through faerie flesh like it's nothing but dry leaves and air. That's what iron exists to do: it kills us. Silver can do almost as well, if you use it properly. Acacia's knife was iron, Dare's was silver, and I held them together as I thrust downward.
...
It didn't really matter; he was dead, I had won, and I couldn't fight anymore.
No more children would suffer because of him. In the end, I'd proved myself as a child of Oberon's line, no matter how much I tried to deny it; I was a hero...
(An Artificial Night, Chapter 31, pages 295-296)
A longer passage there because Acacia's knife is by far the one that gets the most dramatic focus when Toby receives it, for obvious reasons. But it's also more significant than the moment itself. Up to this point, the closest Toby comes to considering herself a hero in more than Dare's eyes is just before the Ride, where she thinks that all her kids are safe (except Katie, who she can't save,) and that she should run before the Ride begins, even if it kills her, because at least then she'd die a hero. There's even a moment early in the book where the Luidaeg calls her a child of Oberon (five pages after Toby reflects to herself that the children of Oberon are heroes,) and Toby thinks to herself that the Luidaeg's wrong, since she still thinks she's Daoine Sidhe.
But she claims it here, because she has no option not to. You can't kill one of the great monsters of Faerie and not accept that you are, ultimately, a hero. So long as she's herself, Toby won't deny that she's a hero again.
Toby carries Acacia's knife with her regularly for the period of time between the end of An Artificial Night and the events of Late Eclipses. This is all but exactly six months - she receives it on October 31, 2010, going back to confront Michael almost immediately after being freed from the Ride. She stops being able to carry it regularly once Amandine changes her blood, in early May 2011. (I’d have to reread Late Eclipses in full to get the exact point it ends, since she’s still carrying it even though she can feel it in the scabbard at the very end.) After that, she keeps it secured at home unless her blood’s changed far enough back towards mortal that it’s safe. But she always keeps the iron knife, and she always brings it with her when she IS more mortal than fae. In The Brightest Fell, she notes the hilt fits perfectly for her. She has to throw it off her when she changes back in Chimes at Midnight, but once the False Queen’s been ousted, Toby apparently makes sure to reclaim it from the treasury. It’s not a good idea to lose a gift from one of the Firstborn, after all. And you never know when you might need to kill another one, especially when one of them is your (terrible) mother. Which she considers, to some extent, at the start of The Brightest Fell, and openly threatens in its ending to get Tybalt and Jazz back.
In short, Toby thinks of the iron knife as being a part of her life for much longer than it actually was, consistently. Part of it’s definitely that it represents the balance of her blood the way she was used to for most of her life - after all, when she gets another blood choice vision in CAM, the choice is presented as iron and silver knives for human and fae. But it’s also the knife she used to kill one of the Firstborn. Dare’s knife is Toby’s promise to be a hero going forward. Acacia’s knife is Toby choosing the title, and all the danger that comes with it. She stabs them both into Michael at the same time. When she’s rebalancing her blood, in CAM, she does the same thing to herself.
"... You do make the first cut, though, and you use my knife to do it, since yours is probably covered with something unspeakable that would despoil my beautiful creation."
"Or she can use mine," said a male voice, from behind me.
I turned.
There was Oberon, still in his mostly-unassuming buise, the antlers on his brow small enough not to attract more attention than he wanted. He was wearing red, which was a little odd, since he wasn't part of the official wedding party, but he was also Oberon, which meant absolutely no one, not even his daughters, was going to tell him "no".
And he was holding a knife by the blade, offering it to me hilt-first. I blinked, first at the blade, then at him. "Sire?" I asked.
This was one of those things that probably held some great meaning and import no one had ever bothered to explain to me, assuming it wouldn't be important enough to matter.
...
"I would be honored," I said, and took the knife from Oberon's hand, turning to face the cake.
...
Oberon was gone when I turned around, leaving me holding his knife. I tightened my grip on the handle. I wasn't putting this one down until I could return it to its owner.
(And With Reveling, the novella/epilogue to When Sorrows Come, pages 360-361)
Today would be the first day I carried two knives to Arden's Court. The first, the silver, was familiar. The second was relatively new, although it felt natural and easy in my hand, and was made of a material I still hadn't identified. In a very real way, it was the only gift I had received on my actual wedding day.
...
The knife was different. I hadn't even realized it was a gift at first; I'd thought it was just something I could use to cut the cake. But when I'd tried to return it, the Luidaeg had interceded, explaining that once her father - you know, Oberon himself - handed someone a weapon, it was a grave insult to hand it back, and did I really want to insult my grandfather, the Lord of All Faerie, on my wedding day? Was I that eager to become something genuinely unpleasant and leave Tybalt functionally a widower?
I was not. And so now I carried a gift from the father of us all on my left hip, sharp and deadly and ready to be used.
But no pressure.
(Be The Serpent, Chapter Two, pages 9-10)
Oberon's knife is given with so little ceremony Toby doesn't realize it's truly a gift at first, at a time where - for once - Toby does not actually need a knife for standard stabbing purposes. Oberon's knife immediately has the kind of importance that Toby isn't entirely comfortable with it, in stark contrast to how quick she is to accept the iron knife and how thoroughly the silver knife has become an extension of her identity. She's gotten used to being a hero, and even a hero of the realm - she lets/asks Aethlin to re-recognize her hero status so she can help investigate, which may or may not mean she's now a hero of the entire Westlands as a realm, not just Maples. (Neither of them bothers to specify.) But when a god gives you a knife, it's understandable to be a little hesitant about it. It's given under the most gift-like circumstances of the three - Dare's was a preemptive gift for self-defense, and Acacia's came with a direct request: Kill Blind Michael, or not, but choose. Oberon's gift is more to have than to cut that cake, even if it's not laid out until later.
Dare's knife's metal isn't actually specified in Rosemary and Rue - it's specified when things are iron in that book, but Toby never actually bothers to mention what they use instead. It comes up for the first time in A Local Habitation, instead. What's important to know at the time is that it's a knife, and a pretty unexceptional one, because Dare thinks Toby might need it. Acacia's knife, of course, is immediately singled out as iron. Oberon's knife is just left as "a knife" in And With Reveling (most importantly, a CLEAN knife,) but when it first comes up in Be The Serpent its material is explicitly mentioned as unknown. We immediately know that will be important. Oberon's children are heroes. The man himself does not give weapons lightly.
The Luidaeg waited until the door was closed behind her before she spoke again. "I saw my father hand you a knife at the wedding," she said. "I know he didn't take it back. Do you have it with you?"
"I do," I said, and touched the knife belted to my hip.
"Show me."
Pulling the knife from its sheath felt like a promise I didn't want to be making, as if by doing so, even when asked, I was committing to using it for its intended purpose. The Luidaeg held her hand out and I dropped the handle into her palm, letting her take the blade for me. She lifted it toward the light, squinting.
"Hmm," she said. "I think it's antler, rather than bone, but it should still work."
"Oh, go- Wait, what?"
"Antler. You know what those are, don't you?" She offered the knife back. I took it. "They're the handles on the stag. Not that I'd suggest grabbing them if you don't have a damn good reason, since the best-case scenario when you do that is being stuck on the end of a pissed-off stag. Bone would be better, but I guess Daddy has a renewable source for antler. He drops them every spring, right around Moving Day, and we used to use them for all sorts of things. There's a piece in every hope chest."
"You're telling me that I've been carrying around a piece of Oberon?" I demanded, staring at the knife in my hand.
The Luidaeg nodded, apparently untroubled. "He isn't good at showing people he likes them, but he must like you, if he's giving you one of those. He tends to keep them close, given what they're used for."
"What's that?"
"Murder, mostly." She said it so lightly, like it was nothing out of the ordinary. "Silver and iron for a Firstborn, silver and bone - or antler - for our parents. Not that we know that for sure, of course. It was just what the magic seemed to indicate, and what the oracles Saw, back when there were enough of us to ask."
I kept staring at the knife. I couldn't seem to take my eyes away. "So you're telling me this knife could - could -"
"Could kill Titania, if you used it correctly and caught her off-guard, yes, I am," said the Luidaeg.
(Be The Serpent, Chapter Twelve, pages 161-162)
Oberon's knife is a piece of himself, and it is the ability to kill one of the Three, if Toby dares, if Toby deems it necessary. Granted, that last part was also the case with Acacia's knife - she's Firstborn too, after all. (And of course, ANY knife has the capacity to kill a changeling like Toby starts the series, or Dare.) But coming from the King of All Faerie, it feels even more tremendous, particularly because it's given when the only one of the Three active is Oberon himself. He's actually surprised when Toby discusses killing Titania or threatens him in Be The Serpent. He isn't actually expecting her to start thinking about killing gods with her god-killing knife. Oberon doesn't think about things he knows A LOT. Toby probably gets it from him.
But he's already given her his absolute trust. You don't give someone the one kind of knife that can kill your wives and yourself if you think they would use it irresponsibly.
Toby's wedding is in many ways, in- and out of universe, a recognition of her heroism. Oberon's knife is, as well. And with it comes the burden she's locked herself into: She's the one who brought Oberon home. She's the restorer of the Roane. She's the one who will go to the Heart of Faerie. She has broken the bindings on Titania, set on her by Oberon himself, and destroyed the illusions of Titania; unraveling something of Maeve's seems as inevitable as finding her and bringing her home as well. The antler knife isn't just marking her a hero, it's marking her as something all but mythic.
Even a hero would be nervous about that responsibility.
But for all the weight it carries, it still feels natural to use, just like the iron knife. The antler knife and the role it brings with it are just as much a part of Toby as the silver and iron. And by the time she receives it, she's more than earned it already.
#violence#moreso than the sheer fact of Knife Meta implies there's a death scene under the cut#october daye#october daye series#meta#wall of text below the cut#spoilers through the most recent books; quotes through Be The Serpent#toby daye#Dare october daye#Acacia october daye#Oberon october daye#not gonna tag the other appearances here but I feel like the knife-givers deserve it
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Just learned dòchas as in dòchas sidhe means hope. Hope fae. Like the hope chests. Bit on the nose but I Guess
#I would judge Toby for never looking that up/commenting on it but neither did I#also they're meant to find Oberon so that tracks#kat reads october daye
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Faerie Shenanigans
October Daye Theory under the cut.
Just a slightly disturbing thought (it would be disturbing for all characters involved)...
Toby seems just as powerful as August even though she still has some humanity left. If anything, there are things she does that we don't know yet whether August can do, and whether she can do them as well as October. Toby can do these things despite having absolutely nobody to teach her how.
It's kind of weird for someone who's still a changeling to be potentially more powerful than her full fae sister. She was even able to fight against her blood being changed as a child. I don't think we have any other example of anybody at all being able to fight their blood being changed. It could be a Dochas Sidhe thing, but it's still impressive if she was still able to fight past the point where the balance of her blood was mostly human.
You know what changelings we've seen who are more powerful than expected? The ones who turned out to be Titania's children and therefore First Borns.
But we already know Amandine is a First Born herself, and that Toby's father was a human.
Or do we?
Here's the theory: If Oberon was human for most of the time he was missing, and did not remember himself for most of that time, and if he was cycling like Titania was, one lifetime after another, who's to say Amandine didn't go and play fairy bride with her own father, with neither of them having any way of realizing it?
Toby couldn't see or detect Titania at all until she revealed herself. It's entirely possible Amandine would not have detected Oberon or his parentage in Toby when she was shifting her blood, and did not realize that the human blood she was drawing from in Toby was from Janet only, and not Jonathan.
October's grand father might also be her father. And boy can you imagine how unimpressed she'd be if she found THAT out.
On the upside, she'd be able to call the Sea Witch "Big Sis". Whether she'd survive it is another story, but it wouldn't be a lie.
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I know they say that only cold iron can kill the fae, but I feel like in this day and age we should at least try polonium.
#october daye#we have so many more elements now than we did a thousand years ago#hey oberon meet my friend radium#let's find out if you're made out of cells
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Oberon: If anything goes wrong, I'm holding you responsible.
Titania: Yeah. That'll teach me.
#Source: Archer#October Daye#Incorrect October Daye#Oberon#Oberon King of Faerie#Titania#Titania Queen of Faerie
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October Daye Series
Does anyone know the birth order of Titania's children? I swear that in the Unkindest Tide the Luidaig says that Captain Pete is Titania's oldest
"Count Lorden, you may know her better by her given name: Amphitrite, Firstborn daughter of Titania and Oberon, Mother of the Merrow."
But I know Eira/Evening has been referenced as her oldest a ton of times. Is it a typo or am i missing something? At first I thought they were from different lines, but Amphitrite is Titanias since maeve's children accepted her as their own before they realized that she was one of Titania's.
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Round 2 Side A Poll 4
Larry the cat
"He has been the shining light in UK politics for the last 10 years. I say that is a sign that he is, indeed, the once and future king returned to England in its time of need."
"He has been at downing street longer than every 2022 Prime Minister and the current King put together so why not?"
The Luidaeg
"I think a politician who is magically bound not to lie would be a good thing"
"The Luidaeg is Oberon and Maeve's eldest child. Merlin is a descendant of her who was involved in a war between pureblood fae and their descendants. In the present time, the Luidaeg is a tired and cranky witch who is bound by far too many curses and suffered far too many losses, but she still cares deeply for her family and she deserves the world."
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I just did a reread of the entire October Daye series to look for breadcrumbs and hints in the earlier books towards some of the big reveals. The following contains spoilers for all books through An Innocent Sleep, so I’m hiding it all under a cut.
As of Book 18, we have found both Oberon and Titania hiding out in relatively minor characters in the San Francisco area, as well as Janet, and it’s clearly hinted that Maeve is also in the neighborhood. Janet was a housewife in Berkeley, Oberon was a cop in San Francisco, and Titania was October’s changeling friend Stacy. Upon rereading, there were more clues for Titania than Oberon or Janet, but there was also more time building that story. Accordingly, I think Maeve will have more breadcrumbs as well. The following is a list of potential candidates, and the arguments for and against them through the whole series.
There are clues scattered throughout, but especially in the last 3 books. From Be The Serpent - “[find] Mom lurking under a rock somewhere. Or maybe a pier. She always did like the water.” When we get to Sleep No More and An Innocent Sleep, the question is who has been shoved outside the main bubble, or is back when they should be gone?
Here is my list of candidates, in no particular order:
Lily
She’s a very rare type of fae, but her powers are extremely restricted by location. She’s strongly tied to water, and has been keeping an eye on Amandine and October for many years. Her court is one of the oldest independents in the region, but she stays out of politics. She also knows about Luna and her ties to Blind Michael. On the other hand, we’re pretty sure she died in Late Eclipses, which might be a problem.
Marcia
There’s a reason this seems to be the most popular fan theory. She’s a weak unspecified changeling who has been there from the very beginning, present at many critical moments, with often inexplicable immunity or reactions. She steps up to be seneschal of Goldengreen, she has no fear of the night haunts, she loves pixies, and resists transformation by Simon (One Salt Sea is a big book for Marcia). In Chimes at Midnight, she reacts to King Giliad discussions as if she remembers him. She is unphased by meeting multiple Firstborn (Ludiaeg and Amphitrite and Eira). Eira also fails to transform her, or she escapes the transformation somehow. We also never see a description of the smell of her magic. She does not appear in Titania’s mirror universe, but we don’t ever go to Goldengreen, so she may still be there. The only real argument against Marcia is she’s too obvious.
Marianne
We haven't met her directly in the novels, but the Windermere’s nursemaid comes up a number of times, saving Arden and Nolan from Oleander and death in the earthquake, helping hide them for years after. While she is missing, Nolan is convinced she is still alive, and brings Marcia to the Duchy of Ships to help him search for her. The biggest arguments come from the novella, Once Broken Faith, where Marianne tells a story with the sentence “because she was happy then, my sweet girl” in reference to Luidaeg, strongly implying Marianne has a sense of ownership. Titania is called “her father's other wife”, which again hints at Marianne being her mother.
Melly
Hob in Shadowed Hills, Kerry's mother. She fits the pattern of background characters close to October, but her inclusion in Titania's illusions makes it less likely.
Mary the Roane
Another background character with significant impact, but her level of contact with the Luidaeg as her mother makes her unlikely.
Julie
Another background character with strong ties to October, and changeling status, plus a transformation type. She does mysteriously vanish in the fight with Titania, but Seanan indicated in a Tumblr post that was an editing hiccup (or was that a false trail?) Her desire to kill October at various points is probably the biggest argument against her as Maeve.
January
One of the people Titania shoves out of the way in her illusion, but also, January *creates* things. She made the first cyberdryad. She died and was resurrected. October says “There had probably been some reason she needed Jan’s existence to keep her reality from crumbling, but i couldn’t think of what it might be”
Minna
Offhand mention in Sleep No More, she deposited servants at Dreaming Glass and vanished. Too offhand for such a major player.
Helmi
Maeve is a creature of the water and the deep, and the most maternal of the three - her presence in Saltmist still gives her visibility to the land, but keeps her safe in the depths, away from Titania’s purview. She's more background than some of the other candidates, with no real unexpected capabilities. Like Marianne, some of the strongest evidence is in the novellas.
My slightly more complicated hypothesis: much like Titania had multiple pasts, Maeve too has gone through multiple identities, in 1906, she was Marianne, the Windemere’s nursemaid, and she sacrificed that version of herself for their survival, becoming Marcia. This explains both why Marcia recalls Giliad, as well as some of the signs pointing to Marianne.
#october daye#dont read seanan#seanan mcguire#spoilers#be the serpent#an innocent sleep#one salt sea#chimes at midnight#fan theory#leaving off character tags that might be spoilers#the luidaeg#rosemary and rue#sleep no more#late eclipses#once Broken Faith
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the sleep no more excerpt dropped, and i… have a lot of thoughts. too many thoughts. nearly two thousand words of thoughts under the cut (though half of those are quotes).
!!! huge spoilers for all of the october daye series !!!
(some details referenced from the wiki. thank you wiki contributors, you're amazing.)
> The two Moving Days, when the least among us—those ranked even lower than changelings like myself—are free to pack up their lives and move along to their next home.
whee, starting off immediately fucked up. the moving day description is very "the exception that proves the rule" – apparently fae can only leave at this time.
also, no doubt that changelings' lots are even worse now than they were before.
> Oberon himself has granted his blessing
has he? has he, titania? is he even around, by choice or otherwise?
> the levels of hospitality required by Oberon’s decree and not a crumb or comment more
color me unsurprised that amandine holds to the mere letter of the law and no more.
> I felt shamefully as if I held some actual station in our house.
toby fought so hard for recognition. this is a triple punch of her no longer having that recognition, still wanting that, not feeling that she deserves it.
> one of the children glanced back over her shoulder with glossy eyes and a quivering lip, making me wonder whether they had first sought sanctuary in my uncle’s halls. Fools.
well, sylvester (or some… facsimile of him) is probably around and acting terribly. rest in (hopefully temporary) peace, sylvester's character development. i wonder how much of this is luna, though.
> The bread was rich with herbs he had grown himself, and I sometimes suspected he enchanted it in some small way, to give petitioners luck on the journey yet ahead of them.
simon <3 also the back door = simon's space, front door = amandine's space is… interesting.
> removed changeling children from the household they were born to serve was not a violation of the rules, but it was unseemly at the very least, and unwise by any measure.
i will yell about this more later but. sounds bad!
> the comforting scent of smoke and roses.
on the one hand: comfort in august (and maybe simon's) magic scents! on the other hand. roses, mm, mixed connotations those have had.
> The word was devoid of context in my mind, and I opened my eyes, blinking into the dimness. What was a lawn?
and here we have the first (maybe only) evidence of leak through from the… non-titania world, whatever that may be. at the very least toby knows some things she shouldn't.
> thank Oberon and his beautiful bride
bride? singular? titania what are you doing…
> There is no shame in standing by the rules of your house.
honestly this feels like the most out of character thing for toby yet. toby, breaker of rules and shirker of authority, expressing obedience? oof.
> My blood and magic clearly felt the same, for they had never been inclined to illusions, however hard I struggled to master and call them forth. Nothing in me wished to lie.
this is… a lot. does toby know she's dochas sidhe, not daoine? if she does, does she know what that means for her in terms of magical strengths and abilities?? and "nothing in me wished to lie" – hahahah, except for the huge lie of her entire fake life that titania has forced upon her.
> The kitchen is and has always been Father’s domain. [...] I have always felt most comfortable in the kitchen and the kitchen garden.
simon and toby <3 <3 <3
> I am better left behind the scenes, protected and anonymous. Father sees that need in me, and has always done his best to nurture it.
whiplash! ouch, terribly, no good, very bad. i wonder how much of this on simon's part is an attempt to protect toby-the-changeling from the awfulness of titania's faerie, and how much of it is the changelings-as-servants mindset from that very same… (there is some interesting similarity here of toby not really enjoying the limelight/public speaking/etc, but she's no shrinking violet by any means.)
> A direct descendant of Melia, then, most likely, only two generations removed from Maeve’s dishonor.
i have many questions. is this a reference to a specific act on maeve's part or something else? a real action twisted into something else by titania or something made up entirely?
> The children of the Firstborn are meant to know better, to be better as an example for all of Faerie.
here, i wonder how much of this is amandine versus how much of it is titania.
> neither of which I was authorized to give
the difference between toby in her own home providing shelter to so many, and here in amandine's tower not having any autonomy… ow.
> It would have pained me to lie to them. I would have done it anyway, of course. I knew my duty almost as well as I knew my place.
no comment. just… fucked up.
> We dwell here, between demesnes, because [amandine] has no desire to guide or guard a holding, only to live in peace with her family and be left alone.
well, that doesn't seem like it's changed. though obviously amandine's idea of peace doesn't usually jive well with anyone else's happiness.
> Mother had taught me they were the best Maeve could do in imitating her better sister, and should be pitied but never trusted.
ah, the usual Yikes(™).
> “Golden Shore,” said Maia. “We have heard that such as we can be welcome there.” [...] it was the best any changeling born without a promised place could hope for.
interestingly, golden shore seems to be approximately equivalent to earlier canon. maybe worse in reputation, but they did take in changelings and supply food.
> As [amandine] also refused to allow any member of her family to shop in mortal lands, we had to purchase our eggs from Golden Shore
first, wow amandine you controlling asshole. second, i bet this extends not just to shopping but to leaving the summerlands entirely. makes me wonder if titania is primarily exerting control over the summerlands and/or the kingdom of the mists, but not the rest of faerie? even for one of the Three, this must be quite an exertion of power (though it likely depends on the physicality + how many people are caught up in it, of course).
> had not Maeve so cruelly cut us off from the deeper lands of Faerie.
ahaha but oberon did that, not maeve. perhaps this is the 'dishonor' referred to earlier.
> the [changeling] children they claim rarely last a handful of seasons. They break.
fuuuuuucked up.
> “Your kindness is noted, and will be remembered,”
toby's still toby, even after it all 😭
> The lives of changelings were short and brutal, better than humans only because they could see the glories of Faerie, worth less than both humans and fae in every other possible way.
did i say fucked up? well. fucked up. and the degree to which toby has internalized this is extra fucked up.
> Who was I, orchestrated, wanted, and beloved, to pretend at understanding what they suffered? [...] If Mother tired of me and cast me out before August was ready to establish a household of her own, I had little doubt that I wouldn’t survive the year. [...] Mother has made sure I knew that well and truly.
toby, the fact that you have a legitimate concern about this directly contradicts what you just said. subconsciously she knows that amandine doesn't love her. (also, the later offer from the hamadryad for toby to leave with them is just. even strangers can see there's a fucked up dynamic here.)
> I had never lived a day outside this tower, and Oberon willing, I never would.
hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahaha (sarcastic). again, though, really reinforcing (via steel chair to the face) how much this is not our toby.
> My mother, Amandine, is daughter to Oberon himself, and my father, Count Torquill, keeps no noble Court because he is sworn alchemist to the Rose of Winter
first, interesting that amandine is being open about her firstborn status now. second, simon no :((((((((. third, oh fuck me sideways evening may be awake. (though, interestingly, if this is a dream world, she may still be more 'real' than other folks if she's asleep but sharing the dream-reality.) (also, 'rose of winter' – evening may also be open about her firstborn status? presumably because titania is around to favor her daughter.)
> I was simply a girl who knew her place, who was content where she was, who understood her limitations.
[screams]
> More tired than I should have been after such a brief encounter
i wonder how much of this is emotional, versus how much might be toby being tired from pregnancy?
> My name, as I have now stated twice, is October. That is all.
[SCREAMS LOUDER] did i say steel chair? sorry, i meant a wrecking ball. toby is always, always, always introduced as october daye, the knight of lost words. often with additional titles. she is never just october.
> My mother’s trick is in changing the balance of someone’s blood.
so toby knows what her mother can do, but does she know what she herself is capable of? i bet not, if amandine is trying to keep her contained.
> they rendered our social customs unstable and unsustainable, for any changeling child could get their hands upon one such and remake themselves in Titania’s image without intervention or consent.
in titania's image, hmm? also interesting, this is just like the early rhetoric around hope chests as being items of legend, unavailable to modern fae.
> Her services are but one of the many reasons changelings are better off within the Court system rather than hiding in hovels with parents who should have known better than to bear them without.
so much internalized hatred for changelings! also, amandine openly using her power in addition to being known as firstborn – doubly wild.
> I will never marry, never have a household or children of my own.
haha. hahahahahhaha. but. also. toby, i weep. she's going to be so fucking confused.
> Each noble house and each among the Firstborn is asked to do their duty, to provide a pair of hands to press into the service of greater Faerie.
this is both uhhh kind of gross and so extremely titania-esque. this hatred of changelings as lesser and yet also 'ready made servants.' forcing everyone to have kids. yikes.
> whose daughter, January, still dwelt in her father’s halls in Briarholme.
interesting, given we know jan's dad is dead and has been for almost a century. perhaps this means that january inherited the place, or that in this version of faerie her dad is… someone else?
> A pureblood could no more offer insult to a changeling than a cat could look at a king
as pointed out by many on the discord server… a cat can look at a king. but, apparently, not in titania's faerie.
> strong against iron, which would be the preferred means of disciplining an unruly commoner who somehow offended a noble.
… if i recall correctly, iron exposure is considered torture normally? and now it's used as common discipline? fucked up!
> If August left without me, my death would be the likely outcome.
hmm. yikes! i would like to think that simon and august would not let that happen, but between titania and amandine… to reiterate: yikes.
> I slumped into one of the uncomfortable couches Mother insisted were appropriate for the sitting room
it amuses me that amandine has shit taste in interior decorating.
> Something was terribly wrong, if Faerie’s children were so afraid of their own homes, their own places. I frowned to myself, a private expression. Such thoughts were unbefitting.
more cracks in the wall! toby cares, and toby knows this is fucked up, even if both her conditioning and her conscious mind are trying to tell her otherwise.
> Nothing was wrong. Nothing could be wrong, not in Titania’s Faerie. [...] To fail her was to fail Faerie.
[screams EXTREMELY loudly] this is going to go so well (dripping sarcasm).
closing thoughts: toby is in quite a bad place, but she's still herself underneath it all, and there are already some cracks showing. amandine's situation may be different but her attitude towards toby and the rest of her family clearly hasn't changed from treating them as playthings that she owns. titania seems to be... as fucked up as expected.
honestly i can't wait for this book i am so excited to see how this all catches on fire.
#october daye#uhhh meta i guess?#please tell me your thoughts#i am extremely curious for folks who had theories about this being a dream vs reality: does this excerpt change things?
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Current Things
Tagged by @evenaturtleduck (thanks! ☺️)
3 ships: idk I’m not really much of a shipper! We were just talking about ships in the October Daye discord though - my favourites to come out of that convo were August x Nolan, Oberon x Sylvester (aka the Disappointing Dad Duo™️), and Toby x Literally every knowe she meets 😆
[Edit: sorry I lied a bit I forgot I’m shipping Outlaw Ty and Texas Michael after the latest WOE.BEGONE episode 😅]
Last song: decadence by woe.begone (the fact I was listening to a track from the cowboy album is pure coincidence, my music was on shuffle lol)
Currently reading: ok so I was reading The Truth by Terry Pratchett when a bunch of my library holds became available. So now I’m also reading System Collapse by Martha Wells (Murderbot my beloved 💕), Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire, and A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon 😅
Last movie: I think it might have been Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (lmao) - I remember a distinct lack of decent telly on over the holidays so I’d decided to watch this mostly out of nostalgia
If you mean in a movie theatre then I don’t think I’ve been back to the cinema since Barbie in the summer - I want to go see the boy and the heron but need to find the time lol
Currently watching: Delicious in Dungeon! And also the new series of The Great Pottery Throw Down (think bake off but for pottery). I need to watch season 4 of what we do in the shadows when I get the chance as well
Currently craving: Sleep! And maybe a cup of tea
Currently consuming: food or media?
Food I consumed this evening was leftover quorn korma with fruit and nuts, followed by a bunch of chocolate I got for Christmas
In terms of media the podcast brainrot is still going strong lol. Namely WOE.BEGONE and Hello from the Hallowoods but The Grotto and Jar of Rebuke deserve honourable mentions!
Tagging @flamefirenut, @boopblep, @felixcosm, @forbidden-fungi, @mocha-moth, @discursivetacenda and anyone else who wants to take part! (no pressure though!)
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Seanan McGuire - The Brightest Fell
Book 11 in the October Daye series
In this book, Toby's mother shows up and demands that Toby find August, Toby's missing sister, taking Tybalt and Jasmine hostage to ensure her compliance. August went missing when searching for Oberon, and now Toby must search for her.
I really didn't like Toby's mother, who is controlling and unpleasant. Her sister, I'm less sure about - she's pretty bigoted about changelings but in a sheltered sort of way that makes me think that some time hanging round with Toby's lot could change her for the better.
The police officer who was stranded earlier in the series gets retrieved! He is alive but traumatised (alive but traumatised seems to be a theme for this book). I'm a little surprised that there have been no consequences for his disappearance up to this point (did no-one ask who he was investigating when he vanished?) but we shall see whether the the lack of consequences will continue.
This book includes the bonus novella Of Things Unknown, which is told from the perspective of April the cyber-dryad. April has been much more lost than I realised, so although it ends happily, there are a lot of feelings to deal with before that point.
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Sentences I have said that make sense in context:
That wasn’t actually her kingbreaking, that was a “play stupid games, win stupid prizes” situation where both games and prizes were murder.
#and she was not the one committing murders that was all on them and their blackmailed assassin#october daye#so strictly speaking it was ‘violations of Oberon’s Law’ but for clarity here
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According to the wiki night haunts are the children of Maeve and Oberon and claimed by Oberon, so why does Titiana call May "child of mine" at the end of Be the Serpent?
#kat reads october daye#only thing I can think is that May is legally either Toby's sister or daughter#and Toby chose Simon in the divorce so she's legally a child of Titiana#but she still counts as claimed by Oberon and Janet bc Titiana's geased to not touch her#so what IS the truth
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fic writing notes on my phone currently:
outline for a chapter (notably not the first chapter) of a Monkey Prince Everything Everywhere All At Once AU
finished but unedited Joker Junior aftermath fic that’s essentially just Jason & Tim bonding
outlines of several chapters (not in order) of the Other Jason fic, which I do currently have several more chapters of ready to go if anyone wants them, but I’m not sure if anyone is still reading that
outline for the next chapter of my Monkey Prince OC fic
outline for a Death & Jason fic
outline for what I think is chapter 2 or 3 of my time traveling Terry & psychotic!Jason fic
outline for a Marcus/Billy fic I wrote because someone was sad it’s a rarepair and I want to bulk out the fic count
outline for a mistaken identity TimBer fic where Tim is the only member of the Batfam who turns out to be cis
outline for the second half of the sequel to Robin’s Egg Blue which is Marcus & Pigsy hilariously failing to communicate (which may only be actually funny to me)
outline for the first chapter of the Laura/Winston fake marriage AU where they’re on the run from the feds. part of the second chapter too
the beginning of an October Daye fic where Quentin is cursed into having a harem in order to summon Oberon back
outline for a Pennyworth fic about Patricia Wayne
outline for the conclusion of Kate And Katie Destroy The World
the beginning of the Monkey Prince Animal Crossing fic
outline for a Dead Dove PJO fic
outline for the next chapter of a Monkey Prince (platonic) soulmate AU, or at least I hope it’s the next chapter
outline for also the damn conclusion of a full series QaF rewrite where the emotional impact doesn’t exist because I didn’t write the rest of it!!
outline for an angsty SuperBat breakup fic (DKoS)
half an outline for Kryptonian Sex Ed (feat. my OC Dave)
outline for a rewrite of Jon-El coming out to his holodad
outline for a random scene in my The Graysons Live AU
outlines for like. 2.3 chapters in Batfam Goes to Therapy
notes on a very Dead Dove Gotham fic
outline for a chapter (not the next one!) of my Dick time travel story, where Dick and Constantine are talking about the ins and outs of the spell he used and how Dick is stuck there and also hot
outline for a random scene in my fic that is just titled, in both my notes and the word document, MCU Jason
the ending of a fic I was going to write (but at this point, realistically, probably never will) about that Chuck Tingle version of HP
finished but unedited fic about Jack & Jill from the Every Heart a Doorway series, kind of bleak for a fixit
something titled Draco Mpreg which is not as bad as it seems
something titled Harleycest which is probably worse than it seems but I can’t honestly tell anymore
an outline of a scene that would exist in an Arrowverse/Birds of Prey (2003) crossover, if I actually planned to write that fic, which I don’t, considering it’s mostly a setup to a stupid punchline (the punchline is that Tweety Bird is also a canary)
outline for a scene in a UtRH rewrite where Bruce kills the Joker and Jason, upon returning from the dead, vows revenge for such an egregious betrayal by becoming the Joker
finished but unedited Kate/Yelena fic
a scene snippet from an AU in which the Waynes are a low level mob family Alfred is a homeless vet who poses as Bruce’s grandfather so he’s free to dress up as a bat without intervention
notes on a YJ crossover about Dog
several scenes from a Grey’s Anatomy s/i fic that is only for me and not something I will be showing anyone (no offense)
a whole bunch of scenes from an AU in which Dick adopted Dami and is trying to take care of him as Ric
something titles Star War which I swear is a fic I already posted but I’m not even sure at this point
outlines of several scenes in the Other Damian fic which I do seem to have abandoned for the moment??? since I haven’t touched those notes since January apparently???
the beginning of a Marcus & Billy fic that I think was about The Trans Journey but honestly I never knew where I was going with it and hell if I remember it now
further scenes of the Xanthippe fic outlined
okay I definitely posted “““character study””” I am bad at labelling my notes in a way that I can remember what they’re even supposed to be about
outline for a chapter of Do You Remember Paige Tico Now
outline for the next two sections of the psychotic!Dick story which I think actually finishes the story and yet! I never managed to actually put those words on paper
random other notes about my oc Dave
okay is this the outline for the next chapter of my Gary/Casey story or the last one that I already wrote and did I finish that one? there are more notes on this story elsewhere, too!! somewhere!!
outlines for some scenes in my Spike Spiegel batfam AU
outlines for some scenes in my Doctor Who AU that’s like. opposite day I guess. it’s a character swap. mostly about Captain Jack’s brother Gray who is not actually called Gray Harkness but I haven’t checked what his character tag is on AO3. mostly this is funny jokes about translation errors across time and space
notes on Sparkles McVillain
outline for a super angsty scene in Earth 420 which is, as the name suggests, mainly supposed to be comedy
outline for Even More Bones, a Lucifer future fic
this is not including my origfic notes, or the shorter notes that are all smushed together into one note because they’re shorter. in conclusion I really need to go back on adderall you guys I would be completely unstoppable
I mean this is mostly a callout for myself but feel free to ask me about anything on this list. it might convince me to work on it. (for reference, outline means I need to add in details but it genuinely is the whole thing laid out)
tune in next time for: fics that I posted on tumblr but never managed to post to AO3, fics that are fully written on my computer but I simply haven’t posted and have no idea why, fics that are almost done but for some reason I haven’t managed to finish, and fics on my ideas list that don’t have enough information and I can no longer tell what they even mean
#look i said something#what I'm working on#for a very loose definition of working on (tho many of these are recent)#long post
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Further adventures in re-reading the October Daye series by @seananmcguire
"Oberon doesn't claim most of his descendants, leaving him to the mercy of their mothers. Those few that he does claim... those are Oberon's children. And Oberon's children are heroes."
Seanan AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!
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Incorrect October Daye
Oberon: Before I go... Please, just let me say this...
Oberon: I'm seriously thinking about getting a dog.
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