"Well That Is Concerning," She Admits As Her Brows Furrows When Hearing About Nirvaan's Current Predicament.

title: the hunt continues when: post the tinkerer where: rome, Audelë, more trigger warnings: usual stuff

Agony.

Tamlen’s death had been painful, the drainage that followed a rip on their plan. But Tamlen had come back to them against all odds, and the relief had been overwhelming.

Inan hadn’t.

His death feels like being unraveled, like losing a part of herself that she assumed would always be there. The second heartbeat behind her chest is gone, the thread of devotion and steely determination rotting away as death came to take her warder’s hand. Somewhere, a drow is being born. In Rome, Robin’s warder dies, an unfinished melody, a hunt cut short. 

She hadn’t even been able to convince him to call her by her name. 

Lain’s death had hurt, the growing care she had felt for the lycan, a sharp stab to her chest, but she had not loved the wolf. Not quite, not yet, and now never for he is gone, and she knows that even if Death was the one to collect what was due, she had played a part in that game. It is a tragedy, a story unfinished. 

It was not love. 

Inan was her warder, she had welcomed him in and invited him into her soul. Loving him was not unlike loving a part of herself. She had kept that emotion at bay, well aware that she had done nothing to earn anything from him but his loyalty, suppressing it to prevent any more awkwardness between the two. Inan’s story with Fen’harel is well known, and she would not push through his boundaries after that betrayal. 

Would not have. 

But in the end, it did not matter.

Her warder is dead, decay spreading through Rome as Thanatos collects his due, and all Robin can do within the Titan is sink her thoughts with her fellow Chancellors and fall upon the song of destruction they are weaving until they cannot do so any longer. 

The Titan falls, and with the fall, their end is marked. 

There is no opportunity to fight, no magic to summon, no song capable of stopping the Great Old Ones as they fall upon them like predators upon their prey.  

The next fifteen years are spent in the ground, all thought lost beneath the agony of the song of decay and rot, of the end and the beginning. 

The darkness is a familiar call, the pain an old comfort, akin to the ritual that had seen her confirmed into her role as Fall Chancellor. A legacy of the Dusk Elves that they once were, the ritual recalled costumes of old, and it is now the only reason Robin does not lose her mind to the slow movement of rot, slowly spreading through her body but keeping her alive to keep their nutrients. It’s a song of fungi, beautiful on its ugliness, on its destruction. She doesn’t lose herself to it, doesn’t break down and lose hope, but it comes close. Were it not for the familiarity of the torture, she might have.

She doesn’t. 

She awakens to the astral bombs falling and to freedom that tastes as sickly sweet as the rot that had settled on the back of her throat over the last decade. There is no hesitation when she joins the other Chancellors into a song and they come together to become the Titan once more. 

For one last time in this timeline. 

Robin dies in the battlefield, only to awaken in a Rome that has not yet been Forsaken. 

The battle is set aside, more pressing matters coming into the forefront as they find themselves changed. The Chancellors’ retreat, the war pushed back and with it their destruction of Rome, far more important things to do than to deal with the mortals that destroyed them and saved them alike. The world changed one more time, and Robin changed with it, working with the four other chancellors to create Audelë, a new home, alike the Courts that sheltered them for so long, but something new altogether in the same breath.  As the dust settles, she finds Inan, brings him forth into a hug despite his arguments against it and laughs before letting go, polite distance that he is so fond of falling upon the two once more. 

Peace fell upon their kind once more, a deal with the dark elves set in place. And the Courts? The Courts protected once more.

It’s not enough. 

It will never be enough, but her people deserve the rest. Dusk has fallen upon them, and with it comes a new world they need to learn for themselves. Ignoring it all in reckless rage would be foolish, and the tricksters that hide in the shade are anything but that. 

They will wait, they will watch, and they will be ready.

The hunt is eternal, and so are they.

alekgray​:

-

“That’s useful.” Access of any kind was important, “So you what, control them or something?” Robin was a chancellor, which meant she had magic, but The Eye had means of countering most of what they could do. They were smart, so they had to somehow be smarter. Lain was already trying to learn the identities of its members, and they had other allies to but still Alek had to question if it was enough. “When you do, we’ll take it out, maybe look at their supply chains.” The metals from those weapons they were carrying smelled different, foreign. Otherworldly, even. 

...

“They are bound to me through deals and contracts made with magic that reinforce their loyalty to me, but I don’t control them fully. Furthermore, they don’t tend to know each other to protect their identities from each other,” Robin says, leaving out the fact that she could control them fully if she so desired. That is a piece of information she has kept for herself, as to not make her birds loyalty waver. She trusts them, on some level, but not enough to keep safeguards to herself such as her own anonymity and subclauses on her deals that will deal with betrayal swiftly and painfully. Robin is so very careful when it comes to the Eye, and it is that cares that made the situation with Wade all the more painful because she had given him her full trust and he had spit on her face for it. “I am curious about the supply chains myself. They might import their materials from other countries, but some of what I have been informed remind me to materials in the Otherworld and that is concerning for it means the Eye has direct access to it.”

Tati Gabrielle as Jo Braddock Uncharted (2022) Dir. Ruben Fleischer

who? @wardernirvaan​

where? winter’s mountain

notes: they are sitting and chilling near a cliff like bros

“Alright spill, something it’s in your mind.” It’s not too clear what exactly, but they have been enjoying the moment of quiet for long enough for her to hear him absolutely failing at the game he is currently playing. It’s distracting enough that she had messed up her strategy on her own game and that alone is a serious offense of the highest order. “What is it?”

yaviefey​:

-

Yavie wasn’t having nearly as much fun as he wished he was. Everyone looked nice in their costumes, maybe not as good as him, but not everyone could pull off a pumpkin like him. “Have you ever been in love, Robin?” Yavie asked, his voice a stranger as it fell through the mouthole of the pumpkin that sat on his neck.

...

“Yes,” Robin admits with a shrug, mind going back to William and Anne, and the many paramours she has had over the years. She has loved them all, in different ways, but all of them were meaningful. There has been no one true love, but there is time for that right? Beings as long-lived as them could afford the wait. “Although I don’t know if my definition of love and yours are exactly the same.”

"Autumn is quite alluring, is it not?" Robin replies with a delight as she takes her time taking in the drow's appearance. There is no denying that he quite suits his clothes, his mask adding a particular allure to the entire ensemble. Bringing her class of champagne to her lips, she drinks slowly while maintaining eye contact, a grin decorating her lips as she brings the glass down. She can't quite remember why she should be avoiding drows, not when easy flirtations are fun. "Although, I have to say that is not quite as alluring as the tall, dark, and handsome."

Time: MIDSOMMAR PARTY Location: SAYTR MAGIC Characters: @thegoodfellow & @shadowseveron

"You know, I was a spring fey back in my last life," Severon said, sparking up a conversation with the gorgeous looking woman in garb that screamed autumn. It reminded him of Yavie. And the more he thought of it, the more strange it seemed that he was speaking to any fey that wasn't that little noble but there he was. He couldn't seem to remember why he shouldn't be speaking to her. Severon had always been a fan of flirtation. "But I've got to say, I'm acquiring an affinity for autumn."

"I am no fool, Wade Calhoun," she tells him coldly, but almost invitingly. In the end, she desires for him to take his chance, to attempt a culmination of their conflict, so she can have the excuse to retaliate finally once and for all and altogether destroy what makes him him. Death is far too much of a blessing for a man like him, and it is not what expects him if he falls on her clutches. Perhaps a changeling fate awaits him, hunting and maiming those he holds dear. Perhaps eternal rot, his body being eaten molecule by molecule before being put together again. Perhaps, a return to his mushroom form, a slow suffocation that slowly destroys his ability to think until he becomes a doll on her hands. She simply cannot decide, all the options as tempting as ever. "I have never been anything but who I am, Calhoun. You must forget, my kind is older than humanity, we have never been human. I held fondness for your species, yes, desired for peace between us. You have changed my mind, however, as you became an ambassador of all that you hate. I hope you know, the abomination that killed your family would be proud of what you have become, and he likely awaits you on the depths of what is left of the Inferno, awaiting for your inevitable transition into demonhood. For make no mistake, you will become a demon if you continue on this path."

Robin was a mirrored image to a life of tenderness; where once he felt limited to his humanity, Rome had soured and changed that. She taught him faultlessly of the demons in this world not knowing what he'd become when allowing him to pursue such vengeful acts. Hatred bled into his heart, fused into the entirety of his being; there'd be no turning back from the path set before him, the Archer had set ablaze his former ties. Even his family, plenty of his closest friends; Wade had chose to threaten them and evade them rather than settling for their differences. To him, to the newly established Darkfriend, there were no compromises when it came to these creatures. He couldn't say Lilith was different, spliced between any strange affection he felt for the First Demon was that petulant hatred that arose at the thought of their dalliance. They both kept each other at arms length at the end of the day and it was perhaps the only distinction. Wade laughed, a casual rendition considering the very public place, but his voice lowered, gravelly with animosity, "If I were to get another chance, you'd choke on your words." He leaned in as though sharing a sordid secret, "Strange how you talk about how I've changed, you're filling your own shoes well." This vision of a monstrosity he created for her, it was the only way Wade could allow himself to feel hatred for his former friend on his betrayal, "But get your last laughs in while you still can, Robin." A grin pulled at his expression as he leaned back, arms settling behind his head.

wadecalhoun​:

          He flinches as Robin tosses the shield atop of them, Wade had expected her vehemence to triumph over all and confusion for what they’re currently enduring, to the way she still came forth to protect him, settles over the Archer as they drift into blackness. He’s unsure of how long he’d been out and Wade snaps to attention, the rustling of trees and the chittering of creatures has Wade standing, or rather scrambling to attention. Robin’s not far off and he half-jumps over to her, kneeling beside her as he unsheathes a knife. It’s poised to strike in his hand, yet his other hand hovers over the autumn fey, frowning down at her with a litany of thoughts and extempore he’d never say aloud. There’d be time to grieve the new chasm between them, but now was not such time for he could have sworn the ground beneath her was swirling, haunted by his own imagination. This place gave him the damned creeps and though his eyes peered around the cavernous depths of the woods, he’s shaking her awake in tandem, a hushed whisper escaping him, “Robin?.. Robin,” more emphasis as he attempted to rouse her, “Where the hell did you take us?” He’s a mere human, he can’t actually sense magic, but everything that revolved around him felt pretty damned fey-like to him, begrudgingly so as his eyes peered past the littering of bodies that surrounded them, listless and still.

...

Awakening comes with Wade’s voice and his shaking, and it takes her a long second to rouse through the sluggishness she feels. Her magic is oddly settled against her skin, an uncomfortable feeling that she has to asses at once, but first, she flickers her eyes open to find Wade above her with a knife on hand. A droll look is sent his way as his words register, and she brushes his hand away as she straightens into a sitting position, not bothering to dignify him with words as she glances around with a level eye. The scenario is familiar for years spent exploring the boundaries near the courts, the Otherworld stands before them but it does not feel right. Not when there is an ominous sentiment settling over her chest as she looks around. Finally, she deigns to look at Wade as she stands up and brushes off any dust that had gotten on her clothes. She does so by hand first, and then attempts to gather a gust of wind, but the air around them is filled with twinkling flames instead. A swift curse leaves her as she cuts her magic.

“I did nothing but throw shields in an attempt to protect us,” she explains him calmly as she looks around. “And if I venture a guess, I would say we are somewhere that looks like the Otherworld, but not quite, as something is interfering with my magic.”

lainxsolus​:

As he patrolled the border between the Lupo’s claim and the Fey’s forest, he could not shake the feeling that he was being watched.  He stopped walking, focusing on his surroundings and quickly picking up on the distinct scent of magic.  Sure enough, a woman emerged from the shroud of fog.  “Who told you that?” Lain asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously at the eladrin that emerged from the veil of mist.  Paranoia was always in his nature, it came with the territory of his chosen profession.  “Alek isn’t the only one who wants to destroy the Eye,” Lain responded evenly, crossing his arms over his chest. His distrust of Robin was evident, his guard was always up when he was around eladrin. But their species both shared a common enemy that threatened the safety of their people.  “Alright, let’s hear it.  I’m all ears when it comes to intel on those evil fuckers.” 

...

“One Miss D’Angelo, she is in Lycan Council and answered my questions when it was clear our interests align,” Robin offers freely, willing to go along his paranoia if it means appeasing it. Altogether, she would prefer to grow past that as quick as possible, but building good relationships with the lycan before her is a priority and she is willing to slow herself down. She needs allies to fuck with the Eye, and she has always been rather patient with those who are worth it. Her relationship with the hunter she is soon going to destroy is proof that she is more than willing to extend her patience to unholy degrees for some. “For the most part, I deal with little birds that are affiliated with the Eye, but it’s hard to get much info from the inside even then. I would give you their name too, but compromising them at this point would lessen our flow of information. What I do have is the name of one particular hunter that I know for sure is connected to the Eye. Compromising him is no issue, as he is not one of mine and he provides a good start if we can access their servers through him. Alas, I am no hacker.”