#like robbert valerio WHO?

[onstarsandiron]

Quick reminder that Captain Siege responded to an SOS out in the middle of nowhere and that’s how she learned 1) Most of her childhood friends were murdered in an intentional fire, 2) The childhood friend that escaped the fire didn’t escape the ship he escaped to, and 3) She was now holding her 10-year old cousin once-removed

Also, she knew for a fact that Mercer Valerio was dead when she was questioning Robb and didn’t let that slip once

[onstarsandiron]

Robb, who looks exactly like if you copy/pasted Cynthia’s eyes onto Mercer’s face: My last name is... Aragon!

Siege, one of Mercer’s best friends and one of the only surviving Aragons: 

[onstarsandiron]

Might As Well Face It, You’re Addicted To Love: Chapter 4

Your fourth installment: We’re still winding up to the real main event, but dw, it’s coming very, very soon

AO3 link here

Chapters: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 [here] / 5 / ?

Robb

Private fencing on Saturdays, Mondays, and Wednesdays. Private contrabass on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Private lessons in the Old Language on Fridays. Private business and accounting lessons on the weekends. Private solitary study on days ending in y. Private dinners by himself taken in his room every night. Robbert Valerio lived a very private life that ticked along like clockwork.

It was enough to make him scream.

As his language instructor packed his things, Robb made himself a timetable. It was 5 now. The show was at 8, but he should get there early to make his plan more believable. That meant leaving by 6:30. He’d stay for the show then text James for a ride. If all went well, he’d be back in his bed by 11 and no one will have missed him.

He’d already changed out of his school uniform into khakis and a loose button up, so he was plenty casual for the show. He supposed he’d just spend the remaining time as if it were a typical afternoon. Robb made his way through the maze of his home, moving through corridors of polished black stone and white walls with gold-trimmed crown molding. Black doors with gold accents lead into the seemingly endless set of rooms and made the halls look even longer than they were. No matter how many guests were invited over for galas or visits the house was never truly full. There were always rooms left untouched, save for the staff who cleaned them needlessly.

Robb opened one of the doors and entered his musical study. Eric’s musical study was towards the center of the house where his mother could keep an eye on and listen to his brother’s playing. She always loved the violin. Robb’s musical study was in the far east wing of the house and well sound proofed. He’s pretty sure his mother didn’t even dislike the contrabass before he started playing it.

Inconvenient as it may have been, Robb actually didn’t mind not being directly under his mother’s eye. If she didn’t want to hear him play, then she wouldn’t much care about what exactly he was playing, now would she? His contrabass sat in its case in its designated corner where one of the staff brought it from the car, but Robb headed for the cushioned bench underneath the room’s window. Pulling the curtain shut, he lifted the seat of the built-in bench to a small pile of old beginner music books. Moving a few books aside, however, revealed a small tab that he pulled on to open a secret compartment in the bench. There he kept his electric bass.

Kept in the padded cloth case that came with it, Robb pulled it out and treated it with care. He’d gotten bored playing only classical music, and in his spare time had fallen down a rabbit hole of modern pieces written for classical instruments. It was only natural to find even more interesting pieces for an electric bass. Plucking at his contrabass’ strings was nice and all, but the more music he listened to the more he wanted badly to have a bass guitar of his own. So, naturally, he did what anyone would do and spent the next few weeks taking out small, unnoticeable amounts of cash until he had enough to go to the store and buy himself one. He got a real beauty, too, jet black with a glossy finish, a maple neck, and a rosewood fingerboard. He kept it well polished and cared for to a religious extent.

If his mother was disappointed in him for playing a contrabass, he can’t imagine she’d be any more enthused about an electric one. He could hear her now, sounding exactly like a character from a Disney Original, “Valerios don’t play rock and roll.” What his mother didn’t know couldn’t hurt him, though.

He was careful, always so careful. The door was always locked, the window’s curtain always drawn, the room was soundproof and he still played with headphones on. He kept his music sheets digitally on a tablet he bought off a kid at school that his mother didn’t know about nor track the use of. The only other person who even knew the bass guitar existed was James, who’d driven him to the store, and he doubted the man kept a small errand from five years ago in mind.

It was exhausting to always be so careful, but he’d been careless enough times in the past to know the price he’d pay. It was either carefulness or being nothing but a puppet with his mother pulling the strings. He didn’t think the world needed a second Eric.

Robb plugged the bass into one port on an amp and his headphones into another. It was a shame the amp wasn’t used properly, but it, along with the other miscellaneous musical equipment in this room, wouldn’t be seeing any action otherwise anyway. Some days he followed sheet music, some days he’d listen to songs or videos and try to recreate them by ear, some days he just messed around trying to recall music by memory or playing whatever came to mind. He felt aimless in his study of the instrument, but it was freeing to play just for the sake of playing. He didn’t play to be heard or judged or measure up to anyone or please anyone. He simply played what he wanted when he wanted how he wanted because he wanted, and it being good or bad had no repercussions either way.

Today he decided to play through a bit of sheet music he had. He played a lot of 80s and 90s rock, really pop rock. It was easy to find, and there were plenty of interesting pieces. He pulled out his tablet from a pocket of the bass’ case, set it on a music stand, and sat himself into the corner of the bench. He began to strum, and the world melted away for just a little while.

Chapters: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 [here] / 5 / ?

[onstarsandiron]

Cannon Character Full Names

Or, at least, as full as I can find them, for all of your name-related needs; may be updated as I re-read and find new names. Let me know if there are some I should add!

Main cast:

Ana of the Dossier

-Born Ananke Armorov

-Nicknamed “Princess“ by Elara

Robbert Mercer Valerio

-Called Robb

-Later just Robbert of nothing

-Later still Robbert Aragon

-Nicknamed “Smolder” by Elara

Jaxander Taizu

-Called Jax

-Note: Siege calls him by Jaxander a couple of times, but I think he tried to keep his last name a secret from her (no cannon support either way, mind you, and she clearly knew who he was by how she was able to quickly call into Zenteli, as if she’d had this worst-case contingency plan already prepared)

-Nicknamed “Sparkles” by Elara

D09

-Later, just Di (of the Dossier)

-Later (earlier?) Dmitri Rasovant

Elara Vath’aka

-Vath’aka is, “a name given to Solani with no birthright.” We later learn that her parents were caught studying the ark in the valley of Zenteli, which is forbidden. We aren’t given her original last name, nor the fate of her parents.

-Went by “Starbright” when contacting Ana for the first time

Xu

Malifare

-Presumably she could go by Malifare Rasovant, but she wouldn’t have in the palace as it would have been very conspicuous 

Dossier’s Crew:

Captain Siege 

-Born Marigold Aragon

--Mari to her friends :)

-Nicknamed “Sunshine” by Talle

Talle 

-Nicknamed “Starlight” by Siege

Barger

Lenda

Riggs

Wick

Nobles:

Cynthia Malachite Valerio

Mercer Valerio

-Mercer took Cynthia’s last name, no particular reason is given, but it would be reasonable for it to be due to Valerios having higher status than Mercer’s family name. Mercer’s maiden name is unknown, as he was apparently using Valerio even at the academy when they were simply betrothed

Erik Malachite Valerio

-Malachite was Erik’s middle name in the first book, as announced when he accompanied his mother to the pre-coronation ball. However, during the funeral of the second book, he was celebrated as “Erik Mercer Valerio”. 

Celene/Selena Valerio 

-Unless Cynthia has two sisters and the Selena at the tomb with the boys and Mari was that second sister, the spellings of Ana’s mother’s name are inconsistent between HoI and SoS

-Cynthia’s sister, Ana’s mother, married Emperor Nicolii

-Thus presumably later Selena Valerio Armorov

Nicholii Armorov

Rhys Armorov

Wylan Armorov

Tobias Armorov

Gregori Rasovant

Wynn Wysteria

Quintin Machiavalle

Viera Carnelian

-Robb, at one point, curses his luck that “Viera Bastard-Born Carnelian was the Grand Duchess’s Royal Captain.”

Vermion Carnelian

The Grand Duchess is Aragon born, and married into the Armorov family

-I feel like her first name is in there somewhere, but where I could not find.

Misc (mostly other pirates/out-laws)

Mokuba

Redbeard

-Captain of the Illumine

Cullen

-Captain of the Prospero

Cavorn

The leader of the Red Dawn

-I think that’s just how they like to be referred to, similar to the artist formally known as Prince

[onstarsandiron]

Band AU Outline

Because where else am I going to put this?

[Lol I made it long, it’s under the readmore]

Scene 1 is Jax is trying to get coffee for his shitty boss and this asshole bumps into him, spills it all over him, and has the goddamn nerve to not stick around. Jax doesn’t know how he feels about the $50 bill casually thrown at him before Asshole runs off

Scene 2 is Robb arriving late to after school rehearsal and smelling faintly like coffee and his stupid brother is there and sneers at him because Eric is sooooo perfect and Eric gets to be the one that plays the violin, the instrument that everyone likes, and Robb is here playing the bass. Well fuck you, Eric, because Robb’s a damn good bass player and he actually likes how it sounds, thank you very much. If he’d gotten stuck with the viola he would have killed himself; he’d literally be second fiddle to Eric.

Scene 3 is Jax on his lunch break talking to Ana about their bassist or something I think? 

Scene 4 is Robb secretly practicing his electric bass in a quiet part of the mansion, like he always does, playing along with youtube videos and learning whatever he feels like

Scene 5 is Jax arriving at the venue and finally feeling the stress of the day wash off a little

Scene 6 is Robb arriving at the venue; he’s got a genuine ticket, but he brought his electric bass to try and say he’s part of the opening act or something and get backstage to try and get an autograph (maybe got dared to get one?) This goes, of course, wrong when the stage runner insists on personally seeing him to the correct dressing room saying they’ve been looking for their goddamn bassist all over the place, where the fuck have you been? and just shoves him in 

Queue: “YOU!” “Me?” Robb studied the other’s face, looking for where he’d know those features from. Suddenly it came to him. Oh. Oh no. Coffee boy. “Oh no,” Rob said, unable to help it, “Me.” 

Robb fucking OWES Jax for that bullshit, he may have payed for replacement coffee, but you can’t pay for replacement dignity, and that was his FAVORITE sweater. What’s that instrument he has? A bass? Fucking good because Barger is a no-show and they’re on in 15. 

Ana’s drums, Di does keyboard and synth, Jax is lead (only) guitar and lead (only) singer -- Di cannot carry a note to save the galaxy and Ana gets too excited and just ends up screaming more than singing (you physically cannot stop her from doing this, mind you, so mostly Jax just doesn’t give her a mic. It helps only so very much. To be fair, it is Ana’s band, so she has a certain right to do whatever she wants) They are the Dossier [Idk if I wanna include Xu and Elara in here yet; if I do, Elara’s a techie and Xu is additional tech support + Social media manager/marketing/gig booking/etc]

Queue the gang tearing up Robb’s pretty boy outfit to get grungier bc if you believe Ana started some kinda new wave bullshit band full of crooners you’re goddamn wrong. They do loud hard rock and you can die made about it. Also Jax applies Robb’s eyeliner and Robb has never had a more intimate moment with an individual without actually touching one another in his life. 

Then there’s the show. Lucky for Robb they’re playing all covers and it’s stuff that he knows. unluckily for Robb, it’s completely different to playing quietly in his tucked away chamber to youtube videos. He makes do, though. 

He’s kind of mouthing along to the words he knows and then he’s singing them quietly and then he’s singing them outright and then Jax notices and somehow there’s now been a mic placed in front of him and he’s become backup vocals now and if he believed in fake things he’d think Jax was actually pleased about this. Wow, performing sure makes your heart beat hard.

Then they’re taking a bow and off the stage before he even knows it. He thinks now he’ll be shooed off, but actually they let him watch the actual concert with them and then there’s like an after party and they let him tag along and actually he has a really good time (He gets that autograph he wanted too lol)

Like a week later he gets a call from Ana -- Di had made him sign a goddamn liability waiver including personal and emergency contact info -- and turns out that Barger skipped town for reasons which are genuinely undisclosed but 99% probably because he has a gambling problem. They need a new bassist. He worked out well in a pinch, does he think he can make practices monday at 7? 

So that’s how Robb starts sneaking around to be in this band and play little gigs here and there and it isn’t the sort of places anyone from his circle would be involved in and it isn’t so big that he’s so very worried about an internet presence (he does “”Shyly”” hide behind his hand when Di tries to get pictures for their social media). Robb like tells his mom he’s doing some extracurricular thing and turns his phone off and pays off his chauffeur to say nothing

There’s probably some cute scenes or clips of outings or something. They go thrift shopping to get Robb some actual stage clothes, they hang out with Ana’s moms, they don’t talk about Jax’s parents ever and don’t mention that Jax pretty much lives with Ana or the rotating cast of personnel through the house, there’s heart-to-hearts, there’s laughs, there’s drama, there’s friendship blossoming, walls breaking, truly incredible stuff

Then comes the inevitable. The day of the Big School Concert is also the day of the big Battle of The Bands or something. It’s some sort of contest where they play some songs and then they play one they were like assigned and they were assigned Space Oddity and one thing is that the judges are really looking for those strings but Di’s synths just aren’t cutting it; they’re timing and intonation just aren’t right. So Robb is like “Okay, you can’t ask any questions, and I’m going to be like on the wire BUT I will be there and I will bring strings. You have to trust me.” 

And then it’s Robb’s concert, and bananas things happen and he gets out of there with the bass and we’re switching back and forth between everyone being antsy and worrying and Robb booking it with this big ass piece of shit on his back and he’s in the back of the car fucking up his $300 suit. Maybe there’s a run-in with Eric? I kinda really want him to show up a little worse for ware for Jax to fuss over. 

And Jax and Ana and Di are like Bass??? Suit???? Hair half slicked back??? Are those LOAFERS??? Is that a BLACK EYE?? [one of the judges later asks the same thing and Robb just replies “We are a grunge band, ma’am]  But there’s no time to fuss! Because he rolls up literally like two minutes from going on stage!

They rush out and they play their song and it’s magical and fucking gay and Di’s going fucking ham on the piano and the whole room is vibing. Then they play a couple more songs or something idk I don’t want to like ruin this emotional high but I do need to justify the electric base being there for the next bit which issss

Di and Ana shove Robb and Jax into the dressing room and they FINALLY make out. And it’s amazing and heavy and full of emotional and physical catharsis and it’s just exactly what everyone -- robb, jax, the reader -- needs. 

And then there’s a knock on the door. Followed by “Robbert, darling, are you in there?” 

And Robb’s blood goes cold. Because of course Eric told his mother. Of course he forgot to turn his phone off. Of course, just as he finally has the things he wants, what he’s been craving for all his life, here comes his mother reminding him of what he is supposed to be. 

“What’s wrong?” Jax asks, “Who’s that?” But Robb can’t bear to say a word. It’ll all become obvious in a minute anyway. All he can do is hope that the sadness on his face shows, for once he wants his stupid face to show his goddamn emotion to the one person, and that Jax will know that’s how he really feels and won’t take this next part too personally. 

His parting words are to hand his electric bass to Jax and say, “Here, can you keep this safe for me? Valerios aren’t supposed to play these sorts of things.” 

And before Jax can say anything Robb turns away and makes his face a mask and replies, “Yes, Mother.” 

The door opens and there stands his mother, graying hair pulled into an elegant bun, still in the dress from the recital. Eric stands there too with his sharp suit, looking as if their tussle had never happened and like he didn’t need to wash blood off his rings. There were also a couple of men in suits, some of his mother’s assistants. One entered unceremoniously and silently took the bass from the room. 

“My dearest, whatever are you here for? I believe we agreed to a dinner at your favorite restaurant for your recital tonight,” it was Eric’s favorite, Robb hated the place, “This event was not on my itinerary.” 

“I apologize for the delay, Mother,” Robb said, as if he’d made them wait five minutes instead of running off across town and surely ruining their evening, “I owed a debt, and as you know that cannot be outstanding.” 

The barest hint of anger flashed over her face; she absolutely hated when he threw Valerio Family Names items back at her. He must have been hanging around with Ana too much, because he found himself relishing in having made her mad. The flash was gone almost before it was there, though, and her face was cool once more. 

“And what, pray tell, did you owe to these... people,” his mother said, eyeing Jax in a way that made Robb so angry he could feel the white hot rage in the center of his chest. But he was a Valerio, and he knew better than to show it like Ana was allowed to. 

“Did you not catch the show, Mother?” Robb asked, protectively stepping between her gaze and Jax and praying that it didn’t show his cards too thoroughly, “They required some strings accompaniment. I lent them some. Our transaction is done, I have no more business here.” 

He had so much more business here. He had results to hear. An after party to go to. Pizza to eat. Jokes to laugh at. A boy to kiss. 

But now all that business is done for. Who wants to hear results for a song played by a liar? Who wants to go to an after party or eat pizza or tell jokes with a Valerio? Who would want to kiss him after seeing who he really is: a spineless wimp who is doomed to live and die by his mother’s whims. This whole arrangement was doomed from the start, and he always knew it. He was just too happy to let himself know that. 

His mother was clearly displeased with him, but what was new? “So I see,” She said at last, “Well then, come along, no need to tarry in this... venue.” 

“Of course, Mother,” Robb said. A cool nothingness washed over him. He knew his lines. He knew his place. This was who he was. 

Robb left the room, not sparing Jax a single look over his shoulder. He told himself it was because his mother would certainly notice, and she would, but really he couldn’t bear to see whatever expression Jax was wearing -- betrayal, shock, anger? It would only break his heart further. 

As he left the room he now saw that Di and Ana were looking on in shock. Apparently they hadn’t stepped too far away. “Hey!” Ana yelled, “What’s going on?” 

“Did you not hear the entire conversation about what’s ‘going on’?” Erik asked, and Robb wanted to punch him again. Apparently Ana wanted to too, because Di instinctively reached to hold her back just as she began forward. 

“And who is this, Robbert?” his mother asked, as if they were at the zoo and she was asking which animal was in this enclosure. It was so hard for Robb to see Ana riled up without getting riled up too. 

“The leader of the band, Mother,” Robb said, carefully not naming her. She was nondescript, hard to track down by description alone. Hopefully more trouble than his mother thought worth it. He never wanted any of this night to come back to hurt the band. 

“Well, as you’ve heard, his debt is payed, so he is leaving. Say goodbye, Robbert.” 

“Goodbye,” Robb said, feeling like a dog, “Thank you for the experience.” That was as close as he could get to what he wanted to say. Thank you for being his friend, for being there for him, for letting him be dumb and clumsy, for a thousand things Ana has done for him. Her and Di and Jax. And all he can say is, “Thank you for the experience.” He makes him sick. 

And like that he turns with his mother and brother, because he is nothing but their dog. A spare for if something goes wrong. An extra to be married off for a good business deal once he’s ripe. That’s all he is and all he will ever be. 

He can hear Ana yelling after them, struggling against Di’s hold. He can picture Di’s face as he struggles between holding Ana back for her own good and letting her go because he knows she’ll at least land a hit. He tries not to picture Jax at all. 

But don’t worry because I hate sad endings but idk exactly what I want to happen but basically a few hours pass and then either Siege or Ana is like “So, when are we going?” and Jax is like “? Going where?” “To break your boyfriend out.” and idk, but it works out in the end.