✿*° ‘° ･

"So you have met often," Robin confirms, a spark of delight on her carefully light tone as she bumps her shoulder against Farenduil. As much as she truly does enjoy gossiping, her attempt to tease the former fey lays more on her desire to bring a smile or a blush upon his cheeks, anything to distract him from the reality in which his mother sacrificed herself for the common good. What Titania had done is commendable, but Robin worries that with Farenduil's already set tendency for melancholy, the grief would not leave him. He might be human now, but he grew up as a fey, and she is sure the long lasting melancholy he is used to would kill him in his fragile shell. "But you have not ventured outside? That cannot do. We must do some recon and find good outing spots, then. The Saturnalia market, for example, sounds fantastic."

"I didn't know that, actually." It's very casual, almost too casual, because he knows what she's getting at and it's something he hasn't really put too much thought towards. Just because he'd made peace with Titania passing didn't mean it didn't hurt, but with all of that swept away, confined to the house, he was left with....Life is quite strange. Though he is touched that many have made a point to keep him in their lives, even if Robin is grilling him on the elephant in the room. "We usually just have coffee at my place. I still haven't gotten out much."

who? @vincenzodives​

where? robin’s apartment

when? the morning of the 14th, before the chaos

notes: plot drops?? don’t know them

Preparing for events the mortal way is not an usual occurrence, but Robin desperately needed a quiet moment amidst the search of the missing artifacts, a break and — Perhaps she had wanted to check on Vinny, amidst all her duties. Her work as a Chancellor had lamentably made it difficult to drop by as much as she had wanted, but no one could deny her time to prepare for a royal wedding. She is applying a soft layer of eyeshadow when the door to her room opens and she senses Vinny’s presence enter the room.

“Oh, perfect! Do sit down, Vinny,” she urges as she finishes a swipe of her brush while looking at the mirror. “I need your opinion on the palette I am using, as it is rather more colorful than my usual.”

who? @wintersaurora where? outside the tower of the white flame, winter's mountains

Robin stands before the Tower of the White Flame, admiring the work of Aurora's recovered song, as well as the bright shining light emitting from within. It is a marvel, to see something from legends made reality, and in a way, she does envy the Chancellor. She had traveled the Otherworld for 300 years, but never made it as far as they had, had not witnessed the marvels than that troupe had. In a way, though, she had been lucky to avoid the dangers that they had accomplished. Deep upon her musings as she is, it is not enough to erase her awareness of her surroundings, and she senses the presence of the Winter Chancellor's before she sees it.

"Impressive," Robin says with a hum as she keeps her eyes on the building, rather than on the newly minted lunar elf. "How does it feel? The change?"

yaviefey​:

-

Dark eyes watched as the creature that Robin pulled him from rotted and disintegrated, his skin melted off the bone and Yavie smirked at the effects of the fall eladrin’s rot magic. Violence had hardened something in him, these vampires had been eyeing them all night, this seemed almost inevitable. He’d have to find Hayliel, though considering the nature of the fallen’s blood he didn’t think that the man had much to worry about tonight. More accurate to say would be that Hayliel needed to find him, because Yavie had work to do and planned on having a great deal of fun along the way. 

“Faren left just after the reception started,” Yavie remembered the man dancing with his daughter and the complication emotions that inspired. Grief was there too. He’d have to ask Farenduil what that was all about. The last time he’d seen Meryasek the prince had just walked in on him and Hayliel… Well… They were preoccupied at the time. “I haven’t seen anyone else since things got crazy.” Yavie looked the other up and down, Robin didn’t seem any worse for wear but the night was young.

...

There is a pause as she absorbs Yavie’s words and she nods in understanding, even as her eyes narrow both in consideration and at the lack of response to her question. There is a brief moment of relief at the information that Farenduil is not present amidst the current festivities, but that does not mean nobody else is.

“Are you alright?” she repeats deliberately, not willing to let it go when she had sensed so much pain and misery already. Yavie is her friend, has been her friend for centuries, and she refuses to lose him, not now when she fears she will lose more members of her court before the night is over.

summersiofra​:

          Siofra couldn’t take offense to certain play on words like mortals may, but she still raised a brow as if offended that Robin had showed her up in knowledge. They still had plenty to learn in the mortal realm but also could figure that Aurora wouldn’t take kindly to her knowledge pursuit being tainted by alcoholic beverages and their monikers; even if most humans did tend to openly abuse the substance. “Let us start slow with tequila and lime then,” they uttered despite being wrong about the transition from drink to drink, jumping up as a scream tore through the room, putting the summer warder on edge. “I need to find Aurora now.”

...

‘It’s lime and —,” her correction to Siofra’s understandable mistake is interrupted by the sense of dread coming from her clairvoyance, and soon is swept aside by the scream and the wave of necromancing magic that follows. Robin had not been alive the last time Asphodel had risen, but she had read the accounts, heard her mother’s stories. Fear fills her as she realizes that the coven has returned and with it the threat of the war her kind still fears due to the losses they had at the hands of the dead. Danger is in the air, and there are so many possible victims on it’s path.

“Go,” Robin nods, understanding the warder’s duty. “I will attempt to work in evacuation and wait for my chancellor’s orders.”

vincenzodives​:

It had not been long since he had met his unfortunate demise. The night had been burned into his brain and it playing like a movie on the back of his eyelids every time he closed his eyes. There was still nothing that gave him any inkling as to who it could have been. All he could truly remember was the lycan’s teeth digging into his flesh. It took two seconds for him to realize that he was going to die. Less than that to realize he was going to die while he was high. It was disappointing, but not at all surprising. Vincenzo could only think about how his mother would have felt. How he had proven her right to stay away from this place. But then August had brought him back. Being around people was already a chore. Now it was even more of that. It seemed like their magic was calling to him. Yet, he had absolutely none of his own. He hated it. What was he to do when he had lived most of his life with magic and now he was without it? There was so much going through his head, he couldn’t even focus on the gelato in front of him. He had gotten it, but it didn’t even look appealing to him. 

There was a small commotion that he barely got to look up to see before he had a presence in front of him. The magic was strong, but all he could think about was how much he wanted it. And he wasn’t sure if that was meant as a witch or as a ghoul. The face that was behind the magic was definitely a pleasant sight to see though. Vinny didn’t have many friends, but he was lucky to have the ones that he did. August most of all who had actually cared enough about him to bring him back. When was the last time he had seen Robin though. It seemed like forever, but he was sure it hadn’t been that long. Time was something of a strange concept to him now though. He was dead. Why would it matter what fucking day it was? The spoon dropped back into the gelato in front of him as he scanned her face. It was…good to see certain people. Yet, he still didn’t know what to say to her. 

“I’m not sure there’s anything you can do to help.” His eyes darted to any prying eyes and anyone’s ears perking up. This was nobody’s business but his own and whoever he decided to tell. Once he deemed the air clear for him to speak, he looked back at her, his eyes meeting hers. “I died.”

...

A thousand and one thoughts flit through her head at the whispered confession, the words hitting her harder than she had expected. Friends and lovers alike, she had known of his mortality, had expected to have to mourn him in a century like she had done with so many of those she had gifted with her heart and her trust. It’s still a blow to know it happened sooner than she had hoped, a blow to know he had died and come back and she hadn’t known. That he had been alone, on his first days as a ghoul and she had not helped. And make no mistake, she now knows he is a ghoul. Knows it for there is only one thing he can be if he has been brought back. There is a hundred and one questions hanging over them, but at the end, Robin is kind. She is not going to push when it is clearly not what he needs. She wants to know the truth, wants to know who brought him back, what he wants to do, if he had been buried once again to regain his humanity. She wants to know, but won’t ask, not now, not when the reality of his early demise so clearly weights upon him.

Robin doesn’t care about his new status as a Terror, does not fear it.

It’s Vinny.

A soft sigh leaves her as she sits on the chair across Vinny and settles her gelato on the table before them. There is a weight to his confession, something she can’t take away no matter how much she would wish for it. There is usually no coming back, once a mortal dies, no changing what has happened. He had been given a second chance, but with it, much had been lost. There is no words she can use, no empty platitudes that could be said. Carefully, gently, she reaches across the table, hands falling upon his shoulders and squeezing briefly, before they slide up to cradle his cheeks, thumbs brushing them reassuringly as she leans forward to rest her forehead against his in an attempt to provide comfort.

“I am here, whatever you need me, I am here.”

"The slow decay never stops, but with it comes the birth of new life," she whispers, more to herself than to her fellow Chancellor, a fond smile of her own as she keeps her gaze on the golden splendor before her. One must die and die and die, before they can live, just as she had been told on her confirmation ritual. She had learned that lesson intimately as nature consumed her and reshaped her over and over again, and learned it once more when buried along the roots, but it was easy to forget, when face with the enormity of their losses, of their grief. So many had died, sacrificed themselves for a better future for the courts, and that future has yet to arrive, for they are the ones that will be building it up from nothing. There is a reason that for as much as she does not understand Zahrya, she respects him. He is doing his part, building the future they deserve, and she can only thank him for that. "It will be hard work, reaching that future, but I look forward for that toil," she admits, even as a bemused smile spreads and she sends him an arched look. "I am beyond delighted to receive your invitation, I will not miss such a high honor."

For just a moment Laer thought about his father, the storyteller of only some renown. He thought about his sister who hadn't lived long enough to see what would become of this world. He thought about Liandrin, the mother who was chancellor before him who'd been chased into the Otherworld alongside Titania. "I was a child then." His gaze lingered on the tree, thinking still on the warder that he'd held dying in his arms, and the immense grief that had sent him wandering in search of himself. Laer had found a great deal in the many, many years he had spent in the Otherworld. A thousand for the mortal realm, many more elsewhere. He'd wrongfully assumed that there was no more lessons for him to learn, yet here he was, seeing old things made new once more. "Bittersweet isn't how I'd describe it, that's the interesting thing about time: when it's gone we lose it forever. Not just years, but moments. Someday in the distant future there will be no elves left who remember the garden of Eden, immortal as we are, nothing is eternal. I hope when that day comes this Laurelin still stands. That an age will come when our people know more of this blessed life than they do of hardship." Laer touched Robin's shoulder briefly, sentiment done, "This year you'll be welcome to partake in Summer's orgy."

wadecalhoun​:

          “Hell, I thought we were friends,” Wade snickered as a hand was held over his heart, as if Robin had uttered a moral offense that could not be remedied. “Just doin’ my obligated duties as bein’ a good friend an’ all that nonsense.” A smile laden with the shards of grief that he is incapable of swallowing down takes hold, matches the detachment in Robin’s eyes, but he’s good at deflecting, always has been. It’s how Wade has computed survival into himself, a prominent and almost primal sense as he has somehow survived things most humans would perish beneath. He’d battled supernaturals through grit teeth and broken bones, blood staining his clothes and flesh, only to come out stronger each time. Wade fiddles with the packets of sugar that are always automatically lingering upon the table, tearing open the brown packet and pouring it onto the napkin that sat in front of the position he now occupied, “Just haven’t seen ya’ since all that ruckus at the Pluto Palace,” he puts an obnoxious flair and emphasis on the destroyed palace’s name, flippantly disregarding all they’d lost.

....

“That we are, my dear southerner,” Robin drawls, her smile turning smaller but gaining a soft twist as she raises her hand and swipes away a couple of strays tears before focusing her full attention back on the hunter. The grief is still settled upon her chest, and she is aware she must let it out at some point, but not right now, not in front of someone who would care. Silently, she wraps her hands around the mug in front of her and lets the warmth seep into her fingers as she feels a measure of fondness settle on her chest at his subtle concern. She takes another second or so to compose herself, pull back the tears but keep the grief on her eyes that match his. Then, carefully, she reaches forward to place a hand upon his and squeeze softly. It’s a small gesture, meant to comfort and to show her empathy, before she pulls her hand back and wraps it once again around the cup. “I have been rather busy, but I do apologize for not reaching out. My newest promotion to Chancellor might have me busy, but I should have made time.”

"Good," Robin purrs, content on the confirmation. Another piece falling into piece, another siren to lure the unwitting sailor down to the depths. A hard job for the wolf before her perhaps, but one that must be done. She, herself, already has second thoughts about the whole matter, but war demands sacrifice, and her desire to destroy the Eye and get revenge for her brother had not diminished through the years. Instead, it had grown stronger, the rage too powerful to be contained the longer it goes unaddressed. "It will be my pleasure to work with you, Miss Titus. I will be keeping in touch, but if you are ever in need of my services, do not hesitate to find me in the Autumn's Field."

END

thegoodfellow​:

“Splendid. I will work on this misdirection on my part too, but please do be subtle. Wade might not be the sharpest tool in the box but he is not an idiot either.” At least not most of the time, and she cannot risk such a fruitful connection into the Eye to be alerted that he is being used. The hunter had made his bed and then believed a mere apology would be enough to brush it all aside when he would never forgive the creature that had destroyed his family. “He has to believe that he has been forgiven, so that he doesn’t suspect anything we do. For that, if you currently have a good relationship with him, you might need to maintain it. Can you do that? Can you lie to him?”

It’s an intimating question as they carried on their affair under a cover of oblivion until the obvious couldn’t be ignored any longer and it fell apart from there. Love had never been involved but it had been a connection of some sort of intimacy and Flora had always been a compassionate, empathetic person so to look someone in the eyes that she cared for and to lead them into the jaws of a trap was a dangerous game but she was with the wolves and the war wouldn’t go away quietly. She had to do horrible things in order to survive and protect her pack. “I’ll do it, whatever it takes. I won’t allow my pack to be snuffed out and to live in metal cages for the rest of their days. It’s for the greater good.”

TATI GABRIELLE Filmed by Robert Marrero for Wonderland Magazine (Winter 22/23)