"Would You Believe If I Say That My Current Courage Is Thanks To Your Actions?" Robin Coos Almost Playfully,

assanx​:

-

“Tuna.” Please. Assan said as he folded his hands behind his head and walked forward with Robin at his side, head tilted towards the sun. It was so warm in Italy, especially with summer just around the corner. That suited Assan’s temperament perfectly since he was most fond of sleeping outside, sometimes under the stars, sometimes in a cat nap somewhere on a rooftop. Occasionally he slipped into another’s home and snagged their couch or their bed. Dungeons & Dragons were fun, the tiefling was clearly the most superior choice - getting everyone together was a hassle though and Assan never had the motivation. That was on Robin and Rawlins’ shoulders. There was something bothering him and it wasn’t any human with a gun, he’d come to Rome for a reason but everything he thought of just felt like so much work. He looked towards Robin from the corner of his eye, “Salmon?” Are they making you nervous?

...

“I do have a rather time consuming job, you know,” Robin says dryly at Assan’s dismissal. Planning meet ups had fallen upon the cambion’s shoulder, at the end, as any free time that Robin found herself having was devoted to personal projects or meets up with those she cared for. On occasion, she would help Rawlins with organizing, but with the forest closing it’s borders, it would be impossible for her to host unless it is on her apartments within Rome and she would rather those remained secret to most aside of Assan and a few others. At least for now. She shares a brief look with Assan at his question and inclines her head ever so slightly. “I have never found pleasure on their presence, and their overt displays of power do not bode well for Rome, now that they have been foolish enough to work with them.”

Magic has always been a second thought, the swell of it coming to her aid without hesitation or thought. Rarely has she used as extensively as she does in battle, and rarely has she been left with nothing but the dredges of it after a spell. But the Titan is no ordinary spell, and her magic is not limitless. The thought tastes bitter as she feels Tamlen's death and falls. There is no enough to gather the dredges to stop her descent before Inan catches her, and Robin does not even try, trusting her warder to accomplish his duty. As they descent unto the roof, Robin eyes their surroundings thoughtfully and notes the direction the other Chancellors fell. She will have to rejoin them sooner rather than later. "Exhausted, but that will not stop me," she admits with a thankful nod as she stands and stretches for the first time in days. "My thanks for the rescue, my dashing knight. But do drop the title, it's altogether too stuffy and I have never been one for pomp."

@thegoodfellow location: Rome notes: warder things

Everyone connected to Tamlen felt the sudden severance of his life. Sharp and swift. Time was all but an illusion to the fey, they'd been at it for days, but moments later the Titan began to glow, then broke apart as the chancellors were scattered. The well of magic he'd had access to gone, Inan still had his own, and even without it that would not have stopped him from coming to Robin's aid. She fell and the warder lept to catch her before he landed with the soft footfalls on the opposite rooftop, the chancellor in his arms. Around them the city was in flames, the streets were a butchery, and the sky was an obsidian night. Cloudless. Starless. There was just the drow above them. Inan set her down on her feet, "Are you alright my lady?"

who?@farenduil where? the cemetery

"I hear you can now be considered a DILF," she mentions, raising one of the glasses she is carrying to offer to the princeling. Is she mildly irritated that he is walking around when his daughter is nearby? Sure, but it's not the kids fault, and she doubts Farenduil realizes how privileged he is to have the right to meet his children. She will have to warn him about the Eyes movements at some point, though, what with their interest in halfblooded blood and all that jazz. "Congratulations are in order, Faren. Or should I call you daddy?"

She had no intentions of doing so, but she is curious to see his reaction.

chancellorxlaer​:

-

The fey were clairvoyant, knowing who to trust and how was all but woven into their nature, still, it was not impossible for them to be deceived. Deception, however, was typically their game. Laer knew, he’d employed it countless times before. Robin looked like a frail and broken thing, hollowed eyes and worry laced her words, it was… Uncomfortable. She was a chancellor now, strength was what her people needed more than anything - what all the fey needed. One weak link reflected poorly on all of them, if there was something he could do to dispel this worry then he would do it. 

“Our judgement isn’t infallible.” Laer offered, “What did this betrayal really cost you?” The chancellor asked in an attempt to ascertain the depth and breadth of her relationship with the individual who betrayed them. Fey, as it happened, were especially skilled when it came to vengeance. The magic that bloomed within them was enough to blanket this city, this forest was a focal point and anyone with intuition could feel how Zahrya had embedded it with the very nature of their being. Blood magic that Laer had affectionately steered him towards, after all, it wasn’t without its uses. 

...

“A gut wound, an iron-made scar and a great deal of the empathy I set aside for humanity,” Robin admits, a near sardonic smile on her lips as she speaks. She is more than aware of her own predilection for humans, knows that her young age had given her a kinder perspective of them as she had not experience the same violence towards their kind that the older generations had. She knows that all things considered, she had been more understanding of humanity than many other eladrin, knows despite the new jaded certainty sitting on her chest, she is likely to remind kinder still. It’s her better nature, but as any eladrin that is not the only thing that she is. “I had a project of sorts, a human that hunted demons for revenge for what they did to his family, and I saw myself on him in a way. That blinded me to his cowardice and lack of principles.”

The truth is simple, at the end of the day. Robin had seen herself on Wade, desperate to avenge the lost of a loved one, and because of that, had been willing to help him. Willing to love him as a friend, because she had trusted him as one trusts those they believe they understand, those they believe to be alike them. What Robin had failed to see was that Wade lacked the strength of character to be anything but a lamb. Well, if that if he was so very willing to betray her for puny convictions, she would need not hesitate any longer. He is a lamb, and one she would gladly lead to a slaughter

“The good news is that now I have a stronger link leading back to the Eye, and little compunctions on exploiting it,” she offers, slowly. It still weights on her, the care she held for Wade, but her people always came first, and now that the little archer is a threat, she will spare him from her anger no longer.

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.”

floratitus​:

Flora feels like a live wire, she hasn’t entirely made peace with the fey have all that happened in the consequential year and the battle for territory over the forest. It was at their most vulnerable that the forest where they had been able to run free was taken from them and lorded over as if they were animals that didn’t deserve the wild. A lot of discontent sat with the spring chancellor so she tries to lower her guard to focus on what this fall chancellor has come to say. There could be use for the Lupo pack for which Robin wanted to do. A fey she met before through New Rome council meetings. “Maybe we could work together on this.. my affair with Wade is over but he still remains a liability and capable of bringing great harm to my pack. It isn’t the first time they’ve trapped one of our own but it will be the last. Let me know what I can do to help and I will aid you in taking down the Eye for benefit of New Rome.”

...

“Just the words I wanted to hear,” she mentions with a sly grin, head tilting as she takes in the lycan before her. There is not a great deal she knows about her, aside the obvious. Former marshal, currently seated in the lycan council and working still within Rome. That last bit of information had been what had prompted the Fall Chancellor to approach her, for moving around Rome freely drastically increased Flora’s likelihood of meeting Wade and she had to know the lycan would be ready to lie to the hunter or hide her knowledge of the Court’s machinations. Dealing with the Eye is a delicate matter, and compromising Wade even more so. “For now, if you do meet him merely dissuade him from the notion that New Rome has him on it’s sights, if he holds it. I am working with Lain on the technological aspect, but Wade has to be unaware of any overt animosity for this to work.”

wadecalhoun​:

          He’d not been privy to the mysticism of the Otherworld before, had been prepared for it by The Eye’s admissions, but the Archer had never seen it firsthand. He’d not know, inherently, if this was some infernal place disguised as the realm, but it certainly felt embedded with irrefutable malfeasance, a suffocating miasma of death which clouded the two. “So, the Otherworld wouldn’t be so littered with bodies, yeah?” It sounds like a cold and calloused inquiry and Wade’s expression is grim as he looks down upon the soulless cadavers that litter the woodsy floor. Though he’s a bit hopeless in the brains department in lieu of any brawn, Wade peers around the shadowy realm, nods at Robin in finality, “Well, even if it’s a fake place parading around as the Otherworld, it’ll have to mirror it, then. Wouldn’t you know of some exit in the real place?” An unrealistic solution but they’d have to try.

....

“Not quite, it’s inhabitants would have eaten them before long,” Robin says as she observes the bodies more closely with narrowed eyes. She had traveled the area around the Courts enough times to know that the Otherworld was a dangerous place, but one in which predators did not falter when it came to devouring their prey. “The Otherworld is a rather dangerous place, however, so I recommend you keep an eye out as I will likely have a hard time protecting us.” Then, she tilts her head in consideration as she thinks his words through. She has a basic sense of recognition of the area, so she would likely be able to guide them to one of the exists she knows if they are lucky. “Perhaps, and it is worth a shot. I believe there is a exit nearby, but we might have to search for it as I have only been on this area’s counterpart a few times.”

who? @wadecalhoun where? by the dance floor

"Do they teach you how to dance in the fancy farm of yours?" She asks as she slides next to Wade with a chesire grin on her face. Bumping her shoulder good naturedly against the hunter's, she basks on his presence, wondering why does it feel like it's been far too long since the two of them spent time together. "I sure hope so, you won't be impressing anyone if all you know is square dancing."

sabinabrutus​:

“I imagine they’ll suss out any lost party goers, just have to use their nose as bloodhounds for the bloodbags that are still trapped in the castle.” It’s a dark and disgusting way to refer to the party goers but Sabina has always prided herself in her general disregard for social niceties. “For tonight, we’re allowed to go wherever we want. Is there any mirrors you’d recommend stepping through?” She doesn’t know if she’d take the recommendation, she loves to take chances just to see what’ll happen but she does not trust Eladrin and doesn’t believe that they won’t send her to the otherworld as another attempt at the changeling army.

...

“And what if they don’t until it is too late? Castles are a rather dangerous thing,” she points out with a sigh, eyeing the mirrors both with interest and wariness alike. Robin would be fine no matter where the mirrors lead, but she had seen more than one mortal amongst the guests and the poor dears would likely unlucky enough to cross the mirror into a predatory vampire or something of the like. At the least, she has to make sure that the mortal which Aurora calls family does not step into the room. He seems like the sort that would be unlucky enough to accidentally become someone’s meal. “I haven’t gone through any myself, I am currently fighting my curiosity to do just so. I haven’t been in Rome in years so I don’t know whether to risk it or not. Any suggestions from your side?”

TATI GABRIELLE ph. Ben Cope for Galore Magazine (May 2023)