TATI GABRIELLE Dazed Korea (October 2020)  

meryasek​:

Meryasek glanced at the other now, “I think that’d be more beneficial than me getting you caught up. Do you really not pay attention to the happenings when you’re away?” A lot had happened in a short amount of time, granted, but it also wasn’t his job to police that. He’d missed Robin’s humor and friendship, “How many more deer now?” He finished off his drink, now on to his next. “Thirsty?”

...

“In my defense, I did get bitten and nearly stabbed in the Otherworld, and I was supposed to be taking a vacation after I got my doctorates,” perhaps she should feel the slightest hints of shame, but well, she had known she would be rather busy with her plans for the Eye as soon as she finished vacation. Before that, she had wanted some time to wander around and have fun without consequences. “Three more,” she admits reluctantly, with a sheepish smile before reaching out and swiping Mery’s new drink and taking a sip. “Very much so, my thanks for the drink, dear.”

wintersaurora​:

Sympathy and pity came to Aurora in droves, and if she’d had even half of the arrogant pride that she’d possessed only months before, it would have made her sick. Now she was too tired to care, too knowledgable of how easily it was to lose all of it - all of them. The last time something similar to this had happened to her, Aurora had spent so long cold and dead to then all but explode with vengeance towards Titania, spurred in that direction by Fen’harel and her own bubbling resentment and overwhelming grief. But she wouldn’t allow herself to make that mistake again. When her time to explode came, it would be in a rage directed rightfully to Ayi’ig. She could save it until then, let it fester in her chest as she went absently through the motions of surviving each day.

Robin’s appearance was reminiscent to her of Fen’harel, the other Autumn Chancellor that had come to her in concern for her well-being. How so much had changed. Aurora had been looking out at the Winter fey working on bringing down that ridiculous statue that Laer had encouraged them to put up. She’d probably have them store it in some cave. But now she turned her attention to Robin as she came up the steps and spoke. “Sure,” she replied softly. No joy but no annoyance either. It was inevitable that they spoke. “… Though I know you’re sorry for what happened and I appreciate any concern you might have, I would prefer not to dwell on my state right now. I promise you enough other people are caring.” 

...

Aurora’s permission is all she needs to walk to the other’s side and set the basket delicately by her side, occupying her hands on opening the cork. The movement pulls slightly at the new scar that occupies her stomach, but not enough for her to show any sign of pain. It has been long enough that the scar is almost fully healed, long enough that it will soon enough be nothing but a reminder of humanity’s worst. A reminder that trusting humans is a foolish endeavor and to believe on her instincts rather than on her whims. A reminder that as a Chancellor, her own desires do not matter, she must destroy anyone who wants to harm her people before they can attempt to do so.

“You have no idea how much I wish I could use sarcasm the human way right now,” Robin offers flatly as she uncorks the cider and hums a melody to create two glasses, filling them up with it and offering one to Aurora. “Are we not friends? Are we not fellow Chancellors? Do I not have the right to be concerned? Or do you not consider my concern as truthful as you would want because you only see me as Fen’harel’s failure of a replacement, Aurora?” The last question is asked flatly. All she had wanted was to ensure that her friend was alright, and yes, she understands the distress Aurora has suffered is unspeakable, but she has always been confrontational and the sense of betrayal is too fresh, the thought of her weakness too heavy, for her not to default into her old instincts. She regrets the words as soon as they leave her lips, though, and she sighs, a hand raising to rub her eyes tiredly. “Apologies, everyone is on edge right now, including me, but I should not have said that.”

floratitus​:

The security that surrounded Mercuralia was only the beginning of the police state they were about to become submerged in, Flora desired public safety for those innocents to not fear that they would be plucked off the streets and hauled away into a van. She remembered her time serving as a Marshal on the Senate and somewhere along the lines, it had been determined that it was the Eye who had been kidnapping supernaturals only to have it brushed underneath the rug again. She wouldn’t forget the body that she found floating down the Tiber river with bites from its own vampiric kind littering its body, it had been killed by the Leech but the Leech had been under the control of the Eye at the time. “I will do what I can to help you, he’s chosen his side and I won’t allow any more Lycans to suffer at the hands of the Eye.”

...

“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?”

who? @springlia where? the memorial pathway

One step after the other, the sound resonating all around her as she makes her way through the Memorial Pathway with quiet reflection. The month of planning had been worth it, the hours spent learning from the elders and the daimona leaving their mark on her psyche and her confidence. Robin feels more like herself than she has ever felt, settled into her skin now that there is no hesitation with her step. It's a pleasant yet odd feeling, and she had taken to the pathway to meditate upon it. Despite it all, she did not expect to see the spring fey on her path. Their situation had driven Robin to learn the names and faces of all the survivors, so she knows the name of the fey before her. A former exile, now resworn to the courts.

"If I recall correctly, you were invited to the solstice," she muses as she steps closer to settle at her side. "Did we have the pleasure of hosting you?"

wintersaurora​:

❅

Aurora gazed sidelong at Robin, feeling the way her tone almost taunted. She decided she wasn’t going to be baited, not now. Only inhaling from her nose and quieting as she drank. She wasn’t going to plead for information or guidance in a matter that she had already begun tonight and concerning a person that she had known since he was tall enough to reach her knees, when she had firm doubts that her friend knew his name or his story. Important as Raja had always been, Aurora had honored her promise and kept him far away from anyone in her world, save for herself. It had worked to keep him safe this long, at the very least.

She is taking a drag of her drink as Robin bows, putting on a show of annoyance. And she was abruptly forced to remember that, despite having known her for ages, Robin does not spend much time in her Court and none in her counsil. “Did you take my demanding tone for an order? Do you forget I don’t beat around the bush - if I wanted to use influence on you in any way, Robin, I would have said so very plainly and with indisputable meaning. And why would I do so when I’d known you long enough to ask?” She sighs and puts her empty glass on a passing server’s tray. “‘That is all’ is that is all I have to say and what you may do for him. As he’s my nephew and is not wholly aware of the circumstance that he’s in, that is my jurisdiction to decide. If you have a differing opinion, share it with the consideration that I will only hear nothing of him being harmed. Otherwise, share it. By all means, I have not stopped you from being honest as you know better than to stop me.” She beckoned another server with a full tray of drink. “I’m not your cousin, or aunt, or whatever Fen’harel is to you,” she said, glancing back at Robin as the server changed course towards them. “You don’t need to go trying to read between the lines.”

...

“Why else Aurora? Politics. I am well aware how things work, and I realize we are in a fairly tentative era for the Courts. It would not be unwise to ensure your position is cemented on people’s mind, simply to make it stronger,” the explanation leaves her with a shrug, as the spite leaves her as she puts the logic into words and it clicks as a possible reason. Robin is not quick to anger, but she is not one to back down in an argument, out of instinct. She enjoys arguments, enjoys arguing and teasing out ideologies and beliefs out of others and striking them down if they are wrong. And yet, she also enjoys being proved she is wrong and learning from it. This is not a fight she wants to have, not when she still doesn’t know what is happening in the Courts or in Rome. Not when in all things that matter, she tends to agree with Aurora. “I do apologize for the my reaction, the years apart have not made me any less confrontational.”

She follows Aurora’s lead, grabbing another drink and throwing it back before switching it with another. It won’t get her drunk, but the shock of alcohol going down her throat is enough for her to collect herself.

“And I am sorry for overstepping. The party might be a delight but I almost got a heart attack when I saw there were multiple mortals in a supernatural party,” her admission comes with a sigh, mind wandering to the mortal she had met a few years back. It is likely she would have the same reaction if she found him at the party, but what were the odds? Unlikely, as it was full of supernaturals in the first place. Then Aurora keeps talking and she snorts. “Read between the lines? I need to bring a damn microscope every time I want to try and talk to them. There are layers underneath the layers, and while that is sometimes fun, sometimes is plain annoying.”

"Get a grip, we are at war. I know sex is all new and novel for you, but it will still be there after we defeat the drows," Robin calls out, rolling her eyes at Zahrya's incredible sense of timing. There is a time and a place for everything, and the middle of the battlefield is surely not the time for sex, unless he had the audacity to think they were losing. But if that were the case, she would be more pissed about his lack of faith on their abilities than his desire for one last desperate fuck before he died. "Frankly, I couldn't give less of a fuck of your hot date, considering that we have yet to defeat any drow of importance. "

✿*° ‘° ･

Between the Chancellors being inside of each other and the sensation of crushing the earth beneath their combined power, Zahrya fell out of the Titan leaking nectar like it was the height of spring in spite of his exhaustion. Luckily he didn't fall too far before being scooped into an enormous, scaly bosom which he happily found comfort in. "Chancellor, His Majesty is giving us a wonderful soundtrack for what the mortals call a hot date," Zahrya responds from atop Alastor, barely turning his head to acknowledge Robin. Zahrya's magic reached explosive magnitude when he and Alastor came together, so he was irritated that he had to remove demonic scales from his lips to speak. "I cannot believe you'd interrupt our couple's time for something so trivial. Clearly, I have more urgent matters to attend to than the locations of the others," Zahrya continues, never halting his stroking of Alastor's horn for a second. Yes, Mery's continued destruction of Rome had him feeling incredibly fertile. He never knew war could be so erotic.

brianna shaneé

"Would you believe if I say that my current courage is thanks to your actions?" Robin coos almost playfully, eyes cold and death as she faces the human she had once trusted and taught but had done nothing but betray her since the moment they met. There is no denying that she had been a naive fool, far too fascinated with humanity to see the vipers hidden beneath the shape forged by Prometheus to look just like them. The once perfect vessel to the gods, reduced to cockroaches at Eden's fall. They could not kill them all, but there was no need to. As enterprising and creative as humanity could be, their deaths were as easy as plucking one heart string and watch their entire circulatory system collapse as a result. Perhaps there was good amidst their kind, but Wade had always been a hypocrite, willing to put the blinders on and ignore reality just to adhere to his stubbornly idiotic viewpoints. Perhaps humanity as a whole was rotten, and there were individuals that were good, but no matter how many delusions Wade filled his head with, the truth was simple: he had long since lost the right to call himself a good man. All that was left of the young man she had once helped trained had suffered a slow suffocating death since he reached Rome, and died as his knife sunk on her side. "I must thank you really, if weren't for your betrayal, I wouldn't have gotten the idea of my Autumn Boon. Did you not like it? I made it specially for you, so that you knew what it felt to have a dear friend stab you in the back."

who? @wadecalhoun where? killjoy's notes: doing the randomize top songs thing and got i shot cupid by stela cole

"Oh, dear. Are you alright, Wade?" Robin wonders mockingly as she sits next to him at Killjoy's bar and sends him a faux concerned looked as she takes him in slowly. There is something different about the human, danger blaring on her sense as she sits next to him, but she does not knot it comes from her boldness at entering a hunter friendly establishment or something more. Regardless, she has paid precautions, having mentioned of her desire to purview the establishment to one of the vampire marshals and Davheira, and with the new laws, she doubts any hunter would risk to attack her all too openly. And if they choose to do it in the dark? She will be ready and grinning, knowing they took the bait. " You look a little yeasty, as if you had just battled a fungal infection."

"Robin, Inan, call me Robin," Robin says, a fond smile flitting through her lips as she sees his reluctance to drop the formalities. It is good for her, to have someone to depend on after the last few months. Unfortunately, as much as she wanted to keep him by her side, their bond would make it more convenient if they separated to cover more ground at a quicker speed. "Your place it's by my side, yes, but we need to cover a lot of ground in a small amount of time. The less time we spend apart, the better for our chances. Did you see where the others fell?"

Tamlen's nature remained a great mystery, but Inan understood now why they said power was seductive. The warder had never been stronger, sharper, or faster than when he'd felt Tamlen's power come flooding through his warder bond with Robin. Joined in body and soul, Inan did wish that Robin wouldn't put it like that, but he kept it to himself, he knew how the summer fey were when it came to carnal pleasures but the warder had always been more reserved. By no means prudish, just far more private. "What would you have me do, chancellor? My place is at your side." Inan did not enjoy the thought of leaving Robin in this moment, but he would do as he was commanded regardless.