#;howling at the queue

[wolfvirago]

@selfmenticide - from here

A great shudder runs through the woman, gazing back at the panicked entity. While part of her wanted to gloat, to laugh at the creature for being so frightened, she also knew it wasn't a good sign for them to be this frazzled at the mere sight of her.

Usually, Dark found her. She would take a wrong path, pass the wrong loop, then get thrust into darkness and the Void. They would have their usual conversation (or scolding more like it) and then the creature would throw her back to where she first fell in.

Their encounter now, however, was like the roles had switched. And for the briefest of moments, Robin smirks.

"What? What now? Nothing I do is ever good enough for you!" The smirk drops, instead giving away to frustration, anger that had festered for many, many loops. Robin could feel the energy in the crystal cracking and spiking, humming with the deep celestial magics hidden in her soul.

"You're always in my way. I'm simply trying to find my friend, and get out of these damn loops. Did I catch you in the act too soon, little demon?"

[animal444]

[userfrieren]

Howl's Moving Castle (2004) dir. Hayao Miyazaki

birthday gift for @shadowsofrose ♡

[wolfvirago]

@memcria - from this

She wasn't sure how a creature like this one could even exist beyond the forest. But maybe it was because similar creatures to the yokai existed everywhere... Clinging to spiritual energy and feeding upon fear.

Robin didn't know if her blade could harm this strange beast. Which was why she had taken the nearby girl and run, fleeing so they could regroup.

"It will hurt someone if we let it keep thrashing around. Which is why we have to stay put and think over our battle plan." The shifter began, before her thick brows furrowed together.

"No. Not our plan. Mine. You stay here, alright?" She came to a stop, urging Moana to hide amongst the brush. "I mean it. This is not kid stuff."

Unsheathing the holy blade at her hip, the shifter grunted and tried to calm down, to feel the energy of what was behind and ahead of them.

[wolfvirago]

"It's a horrible creature." Is all she can manage, mind spinning at a hundred miles an hour. Even if she wanted to explain the lore and mythos of this particular yokai, it wouldn't help them. There was no exploitable weakness. No hero in its legend that slain the beast or outwitted it.

A thought does come to mind in her frantic searching. A realization. The smell o freshwater revealing where the beast might have been coming from.

That's right. Ushi-oni often made their territory at the foot of loud sources of water-- oceans or waterfalls. It could hide itself in the loud roar of water and then strike when it had the strength (and chance) to do so. It could leech the life force of those who gazed into its ravenous eyes long enough.

Robin swallowed, breath uneven as she heard the other human in her peripheral try to make a game plan for them. Cover.

With no other options, she spotted a ravine nearby. It was a steep drop, with many discarded trees and brambles that would likely cut up anyone's soft flesh... But it was better than having poison.

As the great, horrible beast bellowed, black-ish purple smog fanning from its drooling maw, Robin gave a mighty shove to her traveling companion, before diving into the ravine after him.

@storyuntrue

“𝑨   𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕?!”   Damn   it,   he   needs   just   a   minute   —   that’s   all   it   would   take   for   him   to   get   his   armor   on   and   get   the   both   of   them   the   hell   away   from   whatever   was   charging   at   them.   But   that   minute   could   be   enough   for   them   to   become   a   meal   to   some   freaky   monster   and   Tony   just   could   not   risk   it.   Not   without   some   kind   of   safety   net.   

The   fact   that   the   beast   after   them   apparently   had   the   ability   to   breathe   freaking   poison   was   just   a   cherry   on   top   of   a   very   messed   up   pie.   

“Can   you   get   us   some   cover?!”   He   tries   to   shout   over   the   wind   blowing   in   his   ears,   heavy   thudding   of   boots   against   the   forest   terrain   and   the   sound   of   his   own   frantic   heartbeat,   as   he   puts   all   his   energy   into   running   away   from   the   danger.   He’s   hoping   that   Robin   knows   at   least   some   parts   of   these   woods,   and   could   find   them   some   momentary   hideout   where   he   could   finally   put   his   suit   to   good   use.   “I   need   a   minute   of   cover!   Whatever   you   can   give   me   works,   as   long   as   you   can   get   me   time!”   

[userfrieren]

for @shadowsofrose

HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE dir. Hayao Miyazaki

[wolfvirago]

@intoshards - from this

Part of her wants to scream. She wants to rage, to slam him down to the ground, to claw out his throat just to feel the blood splatter against her skin. To wail, to show him how much all of this has hurt...

After all, his energy was so much like the one of the Entity, the thing that had forced her into these loops. The one who had driven their friends mad.

The other's face was like the creature's. The same one who had shoved her soul into the mirror realm, her fists bloodied as she pounded against the glass.

(DAMIEN! CELINE!! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE! DAMIEN!!)

(I thought you were my friend. Don't go.)

At the same time, this creature couldn't be *her* Damien at all. And that was why she had frowned at him with empathy, across the darkened expanse of their shared tomb. A Sea of Fragments of their worlds, their loops, ever spinning without a sound.

"We are the same, then. How long have you been traveling this place?" A laugh, the girl rubbing her eyes. "Time is odd here."

[userfrieren]

That's my girl.

[wolfvirago]

There were always whispers. From the beginning, as she tried to carve out a name for herself, Robin would hear those sounds behind her back. The giggling. The whispers and soft tsks of disappointed adults. None of them understood why she was going through all this.

She had a chance to do what her mother never could. She could be free, far away from the forest and all its responsibilities. The curses of old generations left to rot slowly.

Robin was wrong about that, that curses didn't exist and were left in her past. But she didn't know it yet.

"You're braver than you think, Dames." A soft nickname offered, as the blonde adjusted in her seat. There was a pause, their eyes lingering upon one another...

Before she remembered what she came in to report.

"Oh! Right. I meant to check up on your speech prep for the next debate. How's it coming along?"

@blueheartedmayor

He couldn't help it. When he looked up at her, the smile blossomed as naturally as the sun would rise each morning.

Robin's rise to this position was nothing short of a constant struggle to prove herself in the face of people who wanted nothing more than to silence her. Damien would lying if he said that she wasn't an inspiration to keep going when the odds were stacked against him.

Once more, her comment brought with it a warm laugh from the Mayor. Most men would try and defend their honour, insisting that they could fight for themselves... But they both knew Damien was a pacifist. He would be pummelled if forced to fight in any capacity.

"You would look amazing," he repeated, fully in agreement. "Truthfully, I don't think anyone would have a chance if they were up against you. They refuse to see you as you are because they aren't ready for someone as skilled as you." Robin was like Celine, in that regard. Women that were too good for this world, who were too ahead of their time as they grew frustrated and waited for the men to accept that the truth was as clear as day. It bothered Damien that Robin wasn't allowed the same level of respect that he had.

"I think they are fools not to see that you are the reason I can win my battles."

[wolfvirago]

@blueheartedmayor - from this.

"Damien." The name escapes her without allowing it to, dancing upon her breath in a cloud of mist. The winter pierces her, anxiety cold and unyielding as it settles upon her stomach. It dances in the scar on her belly, burning.

She had fought so hard to find him again. She had been told, quite smugly, by the strange entity that this world was the closest she would get to finding Damien. Or rather, what was left of his shattered soul.

She had chased him across galaxies. Across loops and loops of the same date, the same party, the same heist. Her hands were stained by the blood of countless men with smiles like his.

None of this is fair. It never was.

WITHOUT ____ IT CANNOT BE SEEN.

The forest is achingly familiar. His axe has fallen so many of the trees that had consumed your days as a child, more boy than darling daughter, more wild child than woman. He had broken down every bit of your beastly form to reveal a princess. And yet. And yet.

You are both cursed. The pathway is still obscured, but Robin was certain that this time, for sure, she would find the exit.

"Let's go home." Spoken with quiet determination, yet the voice wavers, girlish and frightened. "Let's just go home."

[wolfvirago]

@starsweepers - from this

"I'm fine." Robin answered with a shake of the hand, waving away any concerns the younger might have. She was entirely too used to fighting these creatures... Purifying the essence in smouldering ash upon the ground, left for the spirit to hopefully seek retribution beyond the pale.

"I'm sorry I wasn't quick enough. Onryo are good at scaring the life out of you." She saw the ghost trying to get Marinette to freeze, to suck away her life essence or make use of her as a vessel. If Robin hadn't come, there'd be an exorcism needed...

Her own hand lifts, finding the prayer slips her mother had created years ago, before she was ill. They were used only in dire circumstances to weaken yokai before coming in for the kill with the holy blade... She only had so many left.

"I'm going to assume you got lost." The shifter continues, eyes wandering the glade for any other malice. "Let me guess. Fell down a rabbit hole?"

[wolfvirago]

@saheira - from here

"The way you evaded that stuffy old prince was impressive." Robin explained, a twinkle in her eyes. She kept her arms crossed over her chest, many robes shuffling and sliding in eloquent colors along her form. They concealed muscles and training of her life before becoming a princess-priestess, hiding a strength similar to what she imagined the other heiress did.

"Usually, back home, when meeting with men of the court, my father has a screen up between me and the man, so he cannot see me. It doesn't stop them from trying to peek." Messing idly with her fan, the shifter lifted it so she could hide a whisper to Jasmine's ear.

"You must teach me how you get out of those situations, Princess."

[wolfvirago]

@bllcphr - from this

"No, I suppose you're not a yokai then." Robin mused aloud. Though, she wasn't sure he was kami... Or spirit... Either. All she knew was that the scent of the supernatural was thick here, making her nose burn and her mouth go dry.

Licking her lips, she swallowed nervously, before adjusting. There was an odd power at work here... The world seemed to slowly lose its color just from being touched by this deity. Whatever spirit he is, Bill is not to be trusted.

Nearby, a murder of crows alarms, rushing from the brush with a flurry of screams and wing feathers. Robin feels her body tense.

"Then who are you? What are you?"

[wolfvirago]

@infernalapparatus - from here

Did Faerun have a bone to pick with her?

Robin sighed, gazing over at the soldier with a glimmer in her eyes. Yes, she could feel her tadpole squirming behind her eye, wanting so badly to read Karlach's thoughts and search her memories. But the wolf bit it back, wanting to be polite.

"Well… It's a little complicated. The world I come from is so different from Baldur's Gate. I know many of us in the party have hailed from the city, but I… I technically do not."

Yes, her father and mother had met there and had their first born son, but they swiftly left for the forest not even a moon later. A year later, in that cabin, Robin was born.

"My mother was a worshipper and paladin of a goddess many do not think even exist these days. My father was a ranger. He taught me everything I know of being a ranger, how to care for the land and its inhabitants. I took over his job of caring for the Lost Woods once my brother…" The shifter's voice trailed off. Then she straightened.

"My older brother, Haruki, was the designated guardian. But he disappeared. I always wanted to leave the woods to find him but… Responsibility, n' all. The Mindflayer ship scooped me up on my way to the city to get supplies, and well, here I am."

A pause. "I do not think the world will understand us. Even without our little hitch hikers." Robin chuckled quietly. "We're not the norm. But maybe... Maybe I'd rather be around the nonconformists."

[wolfvirago]

♥ for kyo?

Send me a ♥ for a kiss! [accepting] [x]

Timelines split and fracture, lines weaving in the cosmos. Fragments of this world clink together, spinning and winding. In a way nobody could ever know, the world has changed. In their original life... She never saw Kyojuro again. He had gone to battle, a mission on the Infinite Train to slay a supposed Lower Moon. All that came back home was his haori and blade guard. In that loneliness, the then Wolf Hashira focused all her efforts, all her emotions into aiding the final quest of the demon slayers. 

She had died alone.

But in this world? In this world, Kyojuro did come home. Robin had been there every step of the way for his recovery, student and teacher, now allies, side by side in those long autumn days in the hospital wing.

Winter had come, yet Robin couldn’t find any cold even when snow had blanketed the estate. She had gone away for her mission, only just returning with a bruised rib, needing to rehabilitate in the same old estate where she and the eldest Rengoku bade their time.

Robin had expected to walk quietly to the hospital wing, to maybe sneak a peek at her love, to smooth the hair from his face while he slept or just smile if he had awoken. What she didn’t expect was to see him up and about-- walking. He was standing under the old cherry tree, a burning red and gold amongst whites and gray.

The slayer began running. Her feet sloshed noisily and clumsily in the snow, faster, faster, until she laughed aloud, mist bursting from her mouth and fanning around reddened cheeks.

“Kyou-chan!!” Her nickname, just for him. Her elation burning bright until she took his hands in her own, tugging him forward, not stopping to think her decision over for one second. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him, hand cradling his burning cheek, drawing to his flame like a moth.

When they part, she laughs, not having to hide her feelings, her true desires anymore, nor the joy she had received upon seeing him again. If they were going to die... She didn’t plan on doing it alone.

“I missed you.” 

@wystirea

[wolfvirago]

@memcria - from this

"I meant you look like trouble. Good trouble. Like you dance around everyone's hearts and let them fester for you, before vanishing like a flame." Robin mused aloud, but her smile and glittering blues revealed she wasn't saying this in a malicious sense. If anything, she wished she had the same abilities. She wanted to be coy, mysterious. A woman taken by the wind.

Perhaps in a sense, she already was. A mysterious wolf-witch who protected man from the monsters of the wood.

Here, in this strange catacomb, she could witness the humanity that was not frightened by their circumstances within the trees. Just humanity trying to survive.

"I can tell you're resilient. Not many people are anymore."