"Once Again, Congratulations On Your Children," Robin Says Kindly, The Words Pushed Out Of Her Lips To

who? @farenduil where? farenduil's place when? after the autumn solstice

After the answering the call of the Wild, the door before her should mean nothing. It does not lead to an end, nor towards any sort of physical agony of the sort, and yet it is a looming creature she almost does not want to confront. Yet, what sort of Chancellor would she be if she were to allow a mere conversation to scare her off with her tail between her legs? A sigh leaves her lips as she raises her hand to knock on Farenduil's door, a second basket of the Autumn's Harvest floating next to her. With his change, she had not felt it safe for him to be welcomed to the yearly festivities, and yet his lack of presence had been painful. The least she could do is to offer more of the Harvest to ensure he knew that he was still welcomed to peruse the fields, even if they could no longer be his home.

"Do open, Farenduil, we have far too much to discuss," Robin calls through the door, even as she plucks one of the apples from the floating basket and takes a bite for herself. "The longer you take, the more likely the pumpkin spice ice cream tubs are too spoil, too."

alekgray​:

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“How many plants do you have within their walls?” Alek asked, he was still unsure what the extent of Robin’s influence was over the men and women that she had somehow bewitched despite The Eye’s affluent power. Their anti-magic and everything else that they were capable of. Just the same, Robin had an in and information, that the Lupo could take advantage of. Their borders were closed to the rest of Rome, the wolves and the fey had shut the world out in favour of preparing for the inevitable. “We’re trying to find where those officers are storing all that bullshit they were carrying.”

...

“One in the Roman outpost and two in the labyrinth,” Robin says simply, the number a point of pride and of annoyance. Too may little birds, and the Eye discovers them, too few and she does not get enough information. It’s a hard balance to strike, and one that took her a century to build. “There used to be a fourth amidst the hunter ranks but she pushed her luck and was branded a supernatural sympathizer.” Her fate had been to become one of her Changeling after that, the devotion she had seeded into her little birds making the former hunter unwilling to become unhelpful to her, and although she had always been hesitant of the practice, bolstering their protections has always been a priority. “I have an idea where that might be, but I shall let you know once I have confirmation.”

wadecalhoun​:

          Wade typically doesn’t have a penchant for silence but he finds himself at a loss for words in face of Robin’s rallying confessions. There’s a fragment of anger at feeling obsolete when it comes to aiding her in her peril and another sliver of guilt which jabs at the tender under carriage of his ribcage when he sees the anxiety that consumes her. She’d gotten past the dagger he’d placed to her throat when he once figured her to be a demon and she had taken a sense of pity on Wade to teach him how to better hone his pitifully human senses when it came to his own mission. Now, as she laid herself out for the wolves to metaphorically feast on her flesh he was left feeling useless once more; a typical pattern when it came to their dizzying back and forth. “Y’never told me about drows,” Wade conceals his concern with a vexed carapace as if annoyed by such a perilous detail that she’d left out. He understood is was likely for his own good in face of how overwhelming it all seemed, swallowing hard as his gaze averted down to her hands, watching as they jump from one distraction to the next, toying with her drink, her own hands; he was so utterly useless. “It’s not like you’ve got a gun to my head, I’m helping,” he sits up straighter, brows contorted as he sets his own demand to aid her through such troubles knowing Robin would refuse. “These drows… wearing loved ones faces,” his mind flashes back to his father and the empty shell he’d become as an abomination rattled inside his corpse and Wade became nauseous. “Sounds mighty familiar to me,” his jaw clenched, hand curled into a fist, and he couldn’t bear to look at Robin, he’d likely crack under the pressure, staring off behind her instead, “I’m helping.”

“I never told you because we were supposed to be safe from them,” Robin states, words bitten off with frustration as a hand raises to rub her face. She can’t get a good read of his answers, can’t get a confirmation of her worries and it is slowly killing her. She needs to know, needs to know if the man she considers a dear friend has joined hands with the people that massacred the Senate’s prison, needs to know if he has a hand on the growing disappearances. Robin cannot get the answer from her little birds, cannot gain the names of the members of the organizations and while her clairvoyance all but confirms her suspicions, she needs Wade to confirm them. She needs this, needs to know the truth from his lips, needs to know if she had armed the Eye by a moment of kindness. Needs to plan and prepare and ensure that the affection she has for her dear hunter will not cause harm to her people, because she doesn’t think she can forgive herself if harms them. She cannot forgive herself if Wade harms them. “I don’t want to put this on you, not when you have a mission you need to fulfill, not when you have mentioned your rising responsibilities,” she comments, a desperate attempt to get him to tell her the truth. But even in her desperation for the truth, she is kind, and she knows what Wade is thinking about. A sad smile is on her lips as she looks at Wade, an understanding one. Carefully, she reaches out and places a hand over his fist to squeeze reassuringly. “Yeah, I guess it would, but it’s a bit different than possession. And complicated. A lot more complicated really.”

Elodie Yung for Mixed Asian Media

"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 ph. Jack Waterlot for Numéro Netherlands (March 2022)

TATI GABRIELLE Vogue Beauty Secrets

wintersaurora​:

❅

Aurora takes the glass, silently grateful to have something to occupy her hands and to have something to burn her throat. She takes a sip as the other speaks, hesitating only when Fen’harel was mentioned. Her eyes fell. As she took the glass away from her lips, her gaze finally returned to Robin. “Please… I’ve always counted on you to speak your mind. Everyone else is walking on eggshells around me and I-” She sighed. “I understand. But it’s very difficult to try to come back to myself when no one else is doing it.” She ground her teeth nervously, turning away, pacing very slowly. “If it’s any comfort for you, Robin, I don’t think you’re a failure of a replacement. You’ve held your Court together. You’ve managed to despite never being groomed to do it, despite perhaps the worst travesties we have endured as a people in… millennia.”

...

“If you want me to speak my mind, then you are going to have to accept my kindness and empathy, neither of which are a weakness, as brief as they are, because ignoring tragedy does not help, and you know this,” Robin says pointedly, the allusion towards her own brothers demise vague enough that most would miss. Not Aurora, though, not when they had known each other for so long and the other was aware of the reason why Robin had become involved with the hunt for the Eye in the first place. “I have managed yes, but managing is not enough when we are facing our current threats. I have to do better, be better, but I lack the training and the person who could have trained me is a traitor and no longer part of the Court. Whatever legacy there is for the Fall Chancellor is one that I have to learn without training.”

“ Dear Prudence…won’t you come out to play? “