MARCH UPDATE

5'4 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

967 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @robin

POSTED ON Sept 1, 2024 14:30:38 GMT

lam logan likes this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","robinsgift"]

[attr="class","robinsgiftimg"]

No one walked out of the battle unscathed. She staggered into Lam's arms and got carried out, and for that, she had only one wound: hearing loss. The minor scrapes and bruises weren't worth mentioning, but it was only thanks to Lam's own Decidueye, Artichoke, that she had any hearing left. She lost about thirty percent. Worse still, she had no scar to show, but the battle would forever haunt her waking hours. Tinnitus, the doctor had named it.[break][break]

She wasn't worried. Her panic at the end of the battle had been a fluke. A momentary lapse. But she walked in the righteous path, one guided by the item of her visions, the shiny Duskull. She was finally made whole, no longer a walking fragment of her bloodline but someone wholly encompassed by the psychic prowess her family had had the whole time. [break][break]

So, she was eager enough when Lam reached out to make sure she was okay, and the feeling doubled when he agreed to visit Dewford with her. After all, they'd discussed her moving to Lilycove just before the battle of Sootopolis. It was time to collect her things, kindly boxed by her family, and transition to this new stage of life. She could offer her family's psychic talents to Lilycovians and spread the Coello wealth with the world.[break][break]

She hadn't confided in Lam about the visions. In fact, he hardly knew the shiny Duskull was of any importance. But it hadn't been something she could talk about during the battle given all the chaos, and now, she figured he might as well wait for the reveal with the rest of her family. All he knew was she had news for all of them.[break][break]

"Okay," she said with a steadying breath as they stood before the door to her childhood home. "Are you ready to meet Mom? She's kind of intense." She could hardly contain her excitement as she knew her life was going to change upon knocking on the door and revealing that she was no longer the black sheep of the family, no longer some failure in the bloodline. "Thankfully, she talks super loud, so I might not have to address the hearing loss just yet." Her ears were ringing then, but she didn't want to worry Lam about how constant the tinnitus was.

[break][break]

notes[break]
post the first wave

[break][break]

Omen the Shiny Duskull | M levitate / future sight, shadow ball, gravity, shadow sneak, disable, imprison

[attr="class","robinsgifttag"]
lam logan

[attr="class","meulkcodes"]MEULK CODES

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played by

lou

lam

he/him

twenty-seven

may 7th

hau’oli city, alola

rooksexual (demi)

lilycove gym leader

gym leader

5'9 height

his hands keep turning into birds and flying away from him. eventually the birds must land.

awards

1,782 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @lou

POSTED ON Sept 3, 2024 16:02:39 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","prophet lam"]

[attr="class","amilkycredit"] [attr="class","fas fa-cookie-bite"]

[attr="class","textbox"]

[attr="class","iconimg"]

Regardless of how much Robin had or hadn’t told him, his concern had remained steady and practically tangible. Despite Artie’s good work in the field, her injuries hadn’t been insignificant. And he hadn’t been oblivious to that. It made him grateful that she hadn’t made a great fuss when he moved them out of the scene, away from the action when the stand down had been called for.[break][break]
Lam hadn’t really even seen much of Robin in the days following the fallout of battle. He’d been up to his elbows in attempting to survey the extent of the damages within Lilycove, and sorting out with city planners how best to go about repairing the worst of the wreckage from all of the flooding. And when he wasn’t in some sort of tedious meeting, he and Ikarus Rook were undertaking the work on his gym.[break][break]
He was just grateful it was only the gym and not their house as well.[break][break]
So when Robin asked for his company on a visit home to Dewford, he was admittedly glad for a break. (Though it was too bad that he had little idea of what he was walking into.) They hadn’t really discussed her family, and the subject had always shifted away when they had come up previously. But she sounded so hopeful that he might come along, that he couldn’t really bring himself to refuse regardless. Whatever her news was, she was amped about it. And that was enough for him.[break][break]
“No worries,” he replied as he glanced down at her, a crooked smile tugging at his mouth. “I can handle intense.” There were plenty of intense people in his life, what was one more? Lam laughed, head inclining in understanding. “That’s a perk, at least. But my ears might be ringing.”[break][break]
Robin was practically buzzing like an excitable combee, and while he could understand it to a degree, that worry still lingered under the surface. That it was a lot, too quickly. Even if, again, he didn’t really know what she had to reveal. Call it an intuition. “Are you ready?”

[attr="class","nametag"] robin coello

[attr="class","oocnotes"]
// bingo prompt: surprise (robin’s got NEWS)

[attr="class","bottom"]

[attr="class","pkmnlist"]

[attr="class","tagline"]
M: POST THE FIRST WAVE

[newclass=".lam"] --accent:#acc77b; [/newclass]

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[googlefont="Playfair+Display"]

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played by

Ghostfinch

She/Her

January 5

Dewford

Lesbian

Ranger

Elite Ranger (ooc)

5'4 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

967 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @robin

POSTED ON Sept 3, 2024 16:30:11 GMT

lam logan and Navy like this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","robinsgift"]

[attr="class","robinsgiftimg"]

Lam seemed to be in high spirits, at least compared to the somberness that plagued Hoenn currently. She intended to give him some advice for being around her overbearing mother, but the front door opened before she could get any further words out. Her mom's visible interest seemed to deflate at the sight of Robin, but it reignited at the sight of Lam. "Oh my stars, lam logan the Lilycove gym leader, what brings you to my doorstep?" [break][break]

Ah. Robin smashed down the twinge of resentment. Her mom's always had an obsession with those in the League limelight, leaders and champions and E4 and Head Captains. She followed their collective developments on the daily and showered them with a spotlight that Robin had never felt, even when she'd bragged about her first gym badge, the one from Navy . Her mom's comments about him had been very complimentary, but Robin knew her mom's interest in Navy was more than... polite. [break][break]

Belatedly, Robin offers a flat, "Hi, Mom."[break][break]

Her mom blinks down at the sight of her third born. "Oh, dear, don't let the chill gather." She glanced back to Lam. "Come on in, come, come." She opens the door wider and sidesteps, letting them into a spacious living room filled with dated advertising posters for the CLAIRVOYANT COELLOS, newspaper clippings about the Coello family and their psychic readings, and many framed photographs of the family Slowking posed with various family members. Notably, Robin is not in any of them. [break][break]

Robin sits on the edge of the L-shape couch, watching Mom try to dote on him. "My goodness, what brings someone like you all the way out here? Don't tell me: you're looking for a reading?" "He's not." "Oh, but what a waste of a visit if you don't get one. Here, let me read your palm." "Mom." "I can grab the tea leaves, let me-"[break][break]

"He's here for me." That shuts her up, for a blissful moment. "I have news, and I thought it would be easier to share with all of you at once." He was her anchor. She needed to get this off her chest without losing her nerve. That, and Lam's status would draw Mom's attention like a magnet, keeping the woman too occupied with impressing him to denigrate Robin.

[break][break]

notes[break]
post the first wave

[break][break]

[attr="class","robinsgifttag"]
lam logan

[attr="class","meulkcodes"]MEULK CODES

close tab

played by

lou

lam

he/him

twenty-seven

may 7th

hau’oli city, alola

rooksexual (demi)

lilycove gym leader

gym leader

5'9 height

his hands keep turning into birds and flying away from him. eventually the birds must land.

awards

1,782 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @lou

POSTED ON Sept 5, 2024 4:25:13 GMT

Gwendolyn Conway likes this

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[attr="class","prophet lam"]

[attr="class","amilkycredit"] [attr="class","fas fa-cookie-bite"]

[attr="class","textbox"]

[attr="class","iconimg"]

An overbearing mother wasn’t something Lam could claim to know or have experience with. In fact, he didn’t have much understanding of mothers at all. Not personally, anyway. Any semblance of normalcy in the role was far removed from his own experience. An empty space in the family photo.[break][break]
But he didn’t like the way the expression withered on the woman who opened the door as she set eyes on Robin. Even less so when gusto swelled back up as those eyes turned on him instead.[break][break]
Though he’d grown gradually more accustomed to strangers recognizing who he was, Lam still found it a bit jarring to be greeted so emphatically on sight. He blinked, smile turning somewhat awkward as he let out a short laugh. “Uh, yeah—that’s me.” His eyes darted to Robin, though, who went unaddressed verbally. And though his demeanor remained polite and pleasant, his guard shuddered up. “Mrs. Coello? It’s nice to meet you.”[break][break]
It was probably strangely formal, coming from him, but Lam was admittedly poor with this sort of attention. He wasn’t like other members of the league, who flourished in the spotlight. But it went deeper than that. Wasn’t she interested in how her daughter was? He glanced over the old posters, and idly he wondered if Ikarus Rook had ever run a mediumship scheme in the past, before they’d met. He made a mental note to ask his partner if that was ever one of the short-lived scams he’d run.[break][break]
Rather than follow much direction from her mother, he defaulted to Robin. Only sitting when she sat, and not far away from where she’d perched. Absently, he nodded along as her mother prattled, not all that fazed by the chattiness so much as her continued ability to avoid Robin. “Ah, no-“ another sheepish laugh, a wave of his hand as he failed to get much of a word in edgewise. Lam shook his head, “I’m just here to-“[break][break]
He quickly gave up the effort.[break][break]
He continued to take in all of the memorabilia enshrined in the room. The distinct lack of the ranger who sat beside him. The dots began to string together. He knew what it was like to feel invisible to a parent. The tangible disinterest that had lingered in his childhood home until the day his mother had removed herself without any sort of regret in the decision.[break][break]
But before he’d learned how to make himself cold to the rejection, he remembered how it felt. That eagerness to please that he had recognized in his fiancé when he’d brought Lam to meet his father. The same humming energy that had radiated off of Robin minutes ago.[break][break]
“Sure am,” he finally managed to interject in agreement as his stare drifted between mother and daughter. As steady and neutral as he could manage, though he naturally drifted toward Robin’s side of things. He could ignore the stilted, awkward feelings that made anxiety crawl under his skin, if only for the sake of her surprise. It was obvious that it was a big deal, and he was here for that. For her.

[attr="class","nametag"] robin coello

[attr="class","oocnotes"]
// bingo: past (childhood lore drop)

[attr="class","bottom"]

[attr="class","pkmnlist"]

[attr="class","tagline"]
M: POST THE FIRST WAVE

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played by

Ghostfinch

She/Her

January 5

Dewford

Lesbian

Ranger

Elite Ranger (ooc)

5'4 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

967 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @robin

POSTED ON Sept 5, 2024 16:27:53 GMT

ollie morales, lam logan, and 1 more like this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","robinsgift"]

[attr="class","robinsgiftimg"]

The only way to begin was by beginning. The nerves sat at the base of her throat like bile, but Lam was here, and she would be okay. He would make sure of it. "It's been six years since I told you about that dream. No, that vision." Instantly, her mom looked nervous. "That shiny duskull, right? I had seen it once, with ollie morales in the interdream mist," the water routes, that skirmish last year around August where she'd broken her nose and been nearly abducted. "And I thought that would be the end of it, y'know? That I had my opportunity and missed it."[break][break]

"Oh, dear, maybe we shouldn't -"[break][break]

"No, this is important, Mom." She shook her head. Why didn't she get it? "During the battle of Sootopolis, before Kyogre broke out and before all the Mossdeep folks entered the scene, I had been fighting with Roy Aker and Gwendolyn Conway , and I was in this cave with Roy, and there were these glowing rocks, and I saw it, Mom. I saw the pokemon from my vision, exactly the same." Her mom fidgeted with her hands, eyes flickering between Robin and Lam with a growing anxiousness. "The space around me, like, stopped but expanded, y'know? Like, this foggy maze formed around me and I wasn't in my body anymore, but that Duskull was still there, somewhere, and I had to search for him."[break][break]

Nearly hysterical, Mom interjected, "Robin, please-"[break][break]

Louder, more insistent, not to be silenced by her mom's dismissal of the vision again - "I saw him! I made my way through the maze and I saw him and I grabbed him and the maze fell apart and he was real. Mom, he was real! My hands were bloodied in the vision and when it left, there was blood on my hands, Mom, I get it now. The visions, the way we see things that aren't there but then they are. I get it!" Relieved tears pricked at her eyes, that she had finally claimed her birthright as a clairvoyant. Her whole life, being the only Coello who couldn't access any of those powers, being the odd one out and the forgettable child and it wasn't - she wasn't a failure.[break][break]

"ENOUGH."[break][break]

Silence. Stillness. Softer, like she hadn't torn Robin's heart out again, she tried to soothe. "Dear, you know how I feel about lying." She sounded out of breath, still fidgeting as she stood and loomed over her and glanced at Lam. Lam might realize she isn't anxious so much as... fearful. "Why did you really bring him here?"[break][break]

Robin, with shaking hands, pulled out the pokeball. Before them all, the shiny Duskull appeared. More ephemeral than the average Duskull, but with a brighter core behind its skull. Real.[break][break]

notes[break]
post the first wave

[break][break]

[attr="class","robinsgifttag"]
lam logan

[attr="class","meulkcodes"]MEULK CODES

close tab

played by

lou

lam

he/him

twenty-seven

may 7th

hau’oli city, alola

rooksexual (demi)

lilycove gym leader

gym leader

5'9 height

his hands keep turning into birds and flying away from him. eventually the birds must land.

awards

1,782 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @lou

POSTED ON Sept 5, 2024 22:33:36 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","prophet lam"]

[attr="class","amilkycredit"] [attr="class","fas fa-cookie-bite"]

[attr="class","textbox"]

[attr="class","iconimg"]

Admittedly, it was a bit difficult to follow the stream of explanation that flowed out of Robin once she started. Mainly because she hadn’t really been too open about her family and whatever complications had tangled up and knotted the lines between them. And he’d let that lie. Now, though, Lam wished he’d asked for a bit more clarity.[break][break]
But as she continued, it wasn’t exactly difficult to see how agitated her mom got. Sure, he was a bit skeptical himself about the whole clairvoyance thing. Or he would have been, if he hadn’t become progressively more enlightened to the oddities that continued to crop up around the region. What Robin was describing didn’t…seem all that unheard of. Her conviction was obvious, and so he was inclined to believe her.[break][break]
He kept quiet, expression somber, though it deepened into concern when Mrs. Coello continued attempting to dismiss her. His notions of everything aside, shouldn’t she have been thrilled by news like this? Given all of the news clippings and posters, it was clear this was a family thing. So why wasn’t she over the moon?[break][break]
The harsh bark of her interruption startled Lam, and he tensed. A noticeably defensive shift toward Robin turned him in his seat as his head snapped toward Mrs. Coello. Definably protective posture, even. What the hell was even happening right now?[break][break]
“How do you know she’s lying?” he interjected, unable to really help himself as something in his tone hardened. It wasn’t his place, he knew that. Lam was known for his laid back demeanor. It probably jarred with the public view the older woman would have come to associate with him. But much like Rook’s visit with his dad, Lam wasn’t exactly there to play around with accusations.[break][break]
Lam frowned, obviously confused. He tore his eyes away from Robin to look up at her mother as she stood over them. Why was she looking at him that way? Like he might suddenly–he didn’t know– do something troublesome? “It’s like Robin said…” He spoke slowly, still looking between them, “I’m here with her, to hear what she had to say.”[break][break]
He tried to keep up with the confusing pace of the pieces continuing to click together. It had been obvious from the jump that something wasn’t quite right with the dynamic between them. But even as he said that he was there for that simple reason, it did suddenly feel like more.[break][break]
Maybe he was more of a buffer than he’d realized.[break][break]
“I don’t think–” Whatever he’d been about to say broke off as she released the duskull. Shiny, yes, but definitely not like any duskull he’d seen before. “Woah.” But that was pretty irrefutable proof, wasn’t it?

[attr="class","nametag"] robin coello

[attr="class","oocnotes"]
// bingo: protect

[attr="class","bottom"]

[attr="class","pkmnlist"]

[attr="class","tagline"]
M: POST THE FIRST WAVE

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played by

Ghostfinch

She/Her

January 5

Dewford

Lesbian

Ranger

Elite Ranger (ooc)

5'4 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

967 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @robin

POSTED ON Sept 5, 2024 22:58:19 GMT

ollie morales and Gwendolyn Conway like this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","robinsgift"]

[attr="class","robinsgiftimg"]

Lam's support is a beacon of light in the dark. She's optimistic because her mom has done nothing but put Hoenn's "finest" on a pedestal her entire life, so surely Lam's words carry weight. Except, her mom still let things reach a fever pitch, still yelled, still watched in dumb silence at Robin's Duskull, Omen. [break][break]

And then Mom started crying. [break][break]

"Is this what I deserve? For you to bring someone so respectable down here to laugh at me?" Oh. Not the turn of events she'd expected, and she's mute. "It's not enough to be mad at me and confront me, you have to bring him here to rub in the humiliation of being phonies? You have to rub it in?" Her tirade is punctuated with an accusing finger jabbed at Robin.[break][break]

"What?"[break][break]

Mom takes in a stuttering breath, pink in the ears. She is humiliated. Robin can't follow it. "You know our reputation is everything to me! I've spent decades building it. We all have. Even your exclusion from the family gift gave it weight, made it seem special. Made it more real. That it truly was a gift. How could you bring a guest in to watch you humiliate me over it all being fake?"[break][break]

It isn't the tinnitus this time. Her ears ring, growing louder, too loud to hear her mom continue justifying herself and, more importantly, scolding her for bringing in someone who is functionally a celebrity, someone who matters so dearly to the matriarch. [break][break]

A lifetime of being excluded from the family and systematically told she wasn't good enough... over selling a lie she wasn't even in on? [break][break]

Omen ducks out of the way - the only premonition for the others - as Robin launches herself from the couch and lunges for her mom, fingers immediately snapping around Mom's neck like a vice. Something animalistic tears from her throat that she can't even hear. The ringing is all that exists, is all she can process even as she looks down at her mom's red face and sees her own still-dirtied fingernails digging deep indents into Mom's neck. She's pressing hard at the front, the trachea, intending to break it. [break][break]

Fake.[break][break]

Fake psychics. Lying family. Black sheep. The tragedy of it hangs over her like a guillotine but the burning question (why me? why was I the unlucky one? why didn't I deserve-) isn't what bubbles out of her mouth. She's laughing. The ringing in her ears breaks into silence, which is broken by her laughter and a litany of "I'll kill you, I'll fucking kill you," that she can't stop.[break][break]

She's the only psychic in a family of liars.

[break][break]notes[break]
post the first wave

[break][break]

[attr="class","robinsgifttag"]
lam logan

[attr="class","meulkcodes"]MEULK CODES

close tab

played by

lou

lam

he/him

twenty-seven

may 7th

hau’oli city, alola

rooksexual (demi)

lilycove gym leader

gym leader

5'9 height

his hands keep turning into birds and flying away from him. eventually the birds must land.

awards

1,782 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @lou

POSTED ON Sept 9, 2024 5:17:40 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","prophet lam"]

[attr="class","amilkycredit"] [attr="class","fas fa-cookie-bite"]

[attr="class","textbox"]

[attr="class","iconimg"]

Later, when he recounted all of this to his partner, he’d likely ask if he’d ever had run-ins with this family on old cons he’d run. He’d also ask Rook if his own father had ever done this. Had ever denied him so fully or hurt him so profoundly that he couldn’t control the reaction it produced.[break][break]
Lam both understood and didn’t. He did, because he knew how the hurt and anger felt. How it had made him shut down. But his own mother had removed herself from his life. He had never had this sort of continued feeling of rejection. He’d filtered it out of his mind, boxed her up, and succinctly compartmentalized her out of his life.[break][break]
But this was the sort of wound that refused to heal. Scratched open again and again, as Robin’s mother rejected every attempt at every turn. Lam grimaced as she unwound a stream of bullshit accusation at Robin, and his mouth set into a firm line. There’s, once again, no room for him to get a word in edgewise.[break][breaK]
But it’s laughable, every bit of it. A dry sound wheezed up his throat at the insinuation. A scoff of incredulous laughter. “Robin isn’t the one humiliating you—“ She had done that all for herself. But they are words that fall on deaf ears as the light went on in the attic of Robin’s mind.[break][break]
It hadn’t been real. He watched as the duskull became a red blur of movement before Robin flew. The howl that tore out of her swelling to fill every corner of the room.[break][break]
A beat belatedly, he was scrambling after her. Once it registered that Robin wasn’t merely flinging herself at her mother—but that her hands had wrapped themselves around her throat. The older woman’s cheeks reddened as she struggled, lips darkening to a grotesque shade.[break][break]
“Hey, HEY!” The struggle to pry her fingers loose was a greater one than he anticipated from someone so much smaller than himself, but they were curled with white-knuckle force. And no matter how much he shouted her name, she didn’t seem to hear it.[break][break]
“Robin, stop!”[break][break]
He continued attempting to pull her off, to break through the chorus of her furious muttering. “It’s not worth it, c’mon, let go!” Flailing limbs and Mrs. Coello’s face an ever-purpling hue. Eventually, it seemed like the only thing to do was to deadlock his arms around her from behind and lift her up and away.[break][break]
The last thing he wanted was to see her commit an act she could regret later. Or one that she would be majorly punished for. He wasn’t exactly sympathetic toward Mrs. Coello, but he didn’t want to bear witness to a murder, either.[break][break]
“I’ve got you, you don’t need to do this.”[break][break]
Anxiety spiked its way through his system. Needle sharp points picking at his nerve endings. He was shouting, the both were, but he could hardly hear it over the roar of his blood in his ears. The uneven thunk of his heart in his chest as he pinned Robin’s arms to her sides and refused to let go.[break][break]
Hoping at some point, she would hear him. His own repeated mantra set in. Quieter than before. Even if she fought him and howled. Or kicked and clawed and cursed.[break][break]
“I’ve got you, Robin. I’ve got you.”

[attr="class","nametag"] robin coello

[attr="class","oocnotes"]
// bingo: —

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M: POST THE FIRST WAVE

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played by

Ghostfinch

She/Her

January 5

Dewford

Lesbian

Ranger

Elite Ranger (ooc)

5'4 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

967 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @robin

POSTED ON Sept 9, 2024 18:27:48 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","robinsgift"]

[attr="class","robinsgiftimg"]

Her world shrinks with black edges until her awareness is just the pinpoint vision of her hands around her mother's neck, up until she feels herself tugged and pulled. "I'll kil-" Her breath catches as she fights to press down against that lying lying lying throat, but ultimately, for as much rage and fight as she has, Lam is simply stronger, and she's yanked from her mom. Her fingers clench around empty space as she's tucked against him. [break][break]

"NO," she shouts, struggles against his unmoving arms. "STOP IT, LAM!" She tries to throw her weight around but he's got her arms clinched tight against her torso. She kicks out as best as she can. "STOP," she pleads, hysterical, words thick with emotion, "I have to, I have to, I have to." No half measures, she can't quit while she's right here, she can't let him talk her out of it or remove her or keep her from this. She brought him to support her, not hinder her. Not stop her.[break][break]

She can't - it's a betrayal, and she knows he means so well, but his words are an ointment for her wounds, like the sanitizers for dirty wounds to keep out an infection but all she is is festered wound at this point. To kill the infection is to kill what's inside her but she can't articulate it, can't muster the leverage she needs to break his hold or convince him. His words erode her resolve slowly as she burns out in his arms.[break][break]

She's crying. [break][break]

His words are bright and clear like bell chimes against the muddled background of her mom coughing and heaving and gasping. "Please, Lam," she cries, but he's not letting her free. Her fists are clenched. She can't release them. Her nails dig into her palms. "I can't - I have to -"[break][break]

Her older brother barges in from the patio door with impeccable timing and takes in the scene instantly. "Get out!" He scurries to Mom's side ( was it his sixth sense? was it his intuition? was he attuned to the spirits in the room? ) and helps her sit up, dark marks forming around her throat already, spittle framing her mouth. "Get the fuck out!" He spares a sharp glance their way ( did his third eye tell him Mom was in danger? was their shared blood thrumming in his veins? ) with a curled lip. [break][break]

Robin's sobs tip into laughter, a dark and mocking sound at the utter hilarity of it - the timing and the alignment of the stars to give Mom such a stage to perform on - and feels the imagery of her mom's casket fill her mind for a blissful second, a vision or a dream or a fantasy. [break][break]

"I'm calling the fucking cops!" And she laughs in her older brother's face, laughs at the farce of it. It is no surrender, no white flag, no admission of guilt nor an apology. She can see his anger, and underneath it, his fear. She was born a loser in her family but she is leaving it in a ceasefire. She does not give ground to him or her but she offers the room only one concession.[break][break]

She yields to her only brother, letting him lead her to the front door and away from the battlefield.

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post the first wave

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[attr="class","robinsgifttag"]
lam logan

[attr="class","meulkcodes"]MEULK CODES

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played by

lou

lam

he/him

twenty-seven

may 7th

hau’oli city, alola

rooksexual (demi)

lilycove gym leader

gym leader

5'9 height

his hands keep turning into birds and flying away from him. eventually the birds must land.

awards

1,782 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @lou

POSTED ON Sept 10, 2024 3:39:42 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","prophet lam"]

[attr="class","amilkycredit"] [attr="class","fas fa-cookie-bite"]

[attr="class","textbox"]

[attr="class","iconimg"]

“NO,” his voice raised in volume to counter hers, “You don’t need to.” He continued to struggle with her, fumbling to maintain his hold until her mother was finally released. There was too much potential in her, too much for her to do, to waste it on this.[break][break]
It wasn’t until he felt the tension in her limbs slacken that he would let her go. But even then he kept close, prepared to snag her again and prevent her from launching herself on her mom again. “You don’t Robin, it’s not worth the trouble.”[break][break]
That’s all he could repeat as her furious words give way to garbled sobs. “It’s really not,” again and again, until it sank in. The sound of each jagged inhale, watery and angry and hurt, lanced through him. And again he was reminded that, in a lot of ways, she was still just a kid.[break][break]
And this was just one more thing forcing her to age at a rapid pace.[break][break]
It’s just one more thing on top of a teetering pile of one more things.[break][break]
It pained Lam to see her fall apart over it. For someone who was clearly not worth her time or her effort or her want for approval.[break][break]
The scene must’ve looked like pure chaos to the fourth person to arrive. With Mrs. Coello gasping like a goldeen on the floor, Lam holding Robin back as she cried and struggled. A sibling, Lam assumed. From the age and the resemblance. His expression contorted in an instant—no attempt to understand, only immediate vitriol.[break][break]
If it mattered so much, if you were so concerned, Lam wanted to say, why weren’t you in here? Why didn’t you come sooner?
“C’mon, Rob,” he muttered, the words far from anything harsh or reprimanding. His arm hung itself tight around her shoulders as he tugged her toward the door. “This isn’t worth it.” He cast a sharp look back over his shoulder, green eyes furious. A forest fire of pine.[break][break]
He didn’t stop steering her until they were out on the street again. But when he turned her toward him, his hands planted on her shoulders so that he could give her a short shake. Soft, but firm. “I get why you lost your cool in there, but don’t you ever give them more leverage to blame you with something like that.” Another shake.[break][break]
His voice devoid of his typical calm, but still earnest in its reprimand. “Don’t give them the satisfaction. You got me?” Only then did he soften again, reeling her back into a hug. “That wasn’t okay, though. And I don’t blame you for it, yeah? You’re gonna be okay.”[break][break]
Eventually.[break][break]
“Let’s go home.”

[attr="class","nametag"] robin coello

[attr="class","oocnotes"]
// bingo: —

[attr="class","bottom"]

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[attr="class","tagline"]
M: POST THE FIRST WAVE

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played by

Ghostfinch

She/Her

January 5

Dewford

Lesbian

Ranger

Elite Ranger (ooc)

5'4 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

967 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @robin

POSTED ON Sept 10, 2024 16:07:20 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","robinsgift"]

[attr="class","robinsgiftimg"]

Don’t give them the satisfaction. You got me?[break][break]

She looks at him and deflates. All the fight in her had been sapped out in his arms, in the distance from her front door to the street. She shakes underneath the hands on her shoulders, but he ropes her in for a hug before she can shatter. Her arms wrap around him tight and she can't imagine letting go. All she has is this, is him; she has no inheritance from her blood relatives, not their lies nor their inflated sense of superiority. [break][break]

"I don't know what to do," she confesses against his chest in a raw whisper. Her identity had been chosen by her family, that of the outsider, and now she doesn't even have a family to exist outside of. She's more alone than she was in the arms of their ostracization. [break][break]

Is that irony, or comedy? [break][break]

That wasn’t okay, though.[break][break]

She senses Omen come close and she pulls away from Lam. It wasn't okay to him, but to her - to Omen - it was divine retribution. She shakes her head at his assessment. She deserves worse, she nearly says. Instead, she thinks about how he says home and feels exhaustion set deep in her bones.

She turns from Omen to look at him, imploring. "You think I'm crazy." She has to know. She can't find a new start in Lilycove if the closest thing she has to family doesn't trust her. She can't do it a second time. This has to be different. It has to be different.

[break][break]notes[break]
post the first wave

[break][break]

[attr="class","robinsgifttag"]
lam logan

[attr="class","meulkcodes"]MEULK CODES

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played by

lou

lam

he/him

twenty-seven

may 7th

hau’oli city, alola

rooksexual (demi)

lilycove gym leader

gym leader

5'9 height

his hands keep turning into birds and flying away from him. eventually the birds must land.

awards

1,782 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @lou

POSTED ON Sept 11, 2024 2:22:14 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","prophet lam"]

[attr="class","amilkycredit"] [attr="class","fas fa-cookie-bite"]

[attr="class","textbox"]

[attr="class","iconimg"]

His shoulders sagged as her furor ebbed away. For all of her brightness and determination, Robin seemed so frail in that moment. It was even more vulnerable than when she’d shown up at his door because now there was no deflecting what her family was like—the question she’d avoided. He’d been granted a front row seat. “Well, you get to decide for yourself now.” Methodically, his hand brushed between her shoulder blades in a soothing circle.[break][break]
And then he lets her lean away, his own gaze following the strange duskull. There was nothing natural about it, it was obvious. She didn’t need to tell for him to see it in the odd, ruby glow behind its mask.[break][break]
You think I’m crazy.[break][break]
“Oh,” he shook his head, “no, you misunderstood. I meant what she said and did wasn’t okay. I have a lot of thoughts about shit like that.” Lam squinted then, face twisting in ponderance. “I mean, attempted strangulation isn’t too cool, either, but my point is that I get why you’d, uh, react that way.” Again, he was reminded of his own younger brother. How he’d desperately sought their mother’s approval and affection while Lam had done the opposite and worked to shut her out.[break][break]
How Leif had pined for that acceptance long after she’d gone. How that had pained Lam to see, and how it eventually caused a rift between them.[break][break]
He shrugged then. “I don’t really care what happens to them,” his head jerked in the direction of her old house. “But if you take matters into your own hands, your robbing yourself of what you can do away from that. Don’t do that.” He smiled then, broadly so, though the hard-lined concern didn’t fade from his eyes. “I don’t think your crazy. You’re better than them.”[break][break]
Though he couldn’t say he was a steadfast believer in the mystical, it would be ridiculous to claim she was out of her mind. After everything that had been happening, after he’d seen gods come down and stake their claim on people, and reality begin tearing apart at the seams (poorly suturing itself up afterward,) who was he to not believe her?[break][break]
“Now, c’mon. You can crash at mine tonight. Rook won’t mind.”

[attr="class","nametag"] robin coello

[attr="class","oocnotes"]
// bingo: ruby

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M: POST THE FIRST WAVE

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played by

Ghostfinch

She/Her

January 5

Dewford

Lesbian

Ranger

Elite Ranger (ooc)

5'4 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

967 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @robin

POSTED ON Sept 11, 2024 18:33:40 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","robinsgift"]

[attr="class","robinsgiftimg"]

I meant what she said and did wasn’t okay.[break][break]

Warm relief washed over her. She needed his acceptance more than she'd thought. She clung to him, letting all the hypervigilance that had stressed her mind since before Sootopolis wash away. She trusted him to protect her and to guide her, and she didn't have to stay in survival mode any longer. [break][break]

The fatigue made it hard to keep her eyes open. [break][break]

"You don't have any cuddly pokemon," she complained as he offered up his home. "Altaria don't count." Snorlax wouldn't fit comfortably in his home either. Most bird pokemon weren't good cuddle buddies, but she was the biggest ghost fan on the planet, so she didn't have a leg to stand on. Though, she found her collection of Yamask to be the worst offenders, since they tried to line up the mask with her face and she did! not! like! it! [break][break]

Even as the trip to Lilycove went swimmingly, she found her mind replaying his words. (You’re better than them.) He believed in her. (You’re better than them.) He saw her worth. (You’re better than them.) He was her only family. She would have to make the most of this new chapter in Lilycove. She was exactly where she was supposed to be - fate has dictated it as such. [break][break]

She touched on her Ranger armband as they entered Lam's home. "They're gonna take my 'band away," she said as the epiphany struck her. Attempted murderers don't get to stay on Ranger payroll; they'd never said so outright, but she'd be stupid to think they'd allow her to stay after Dewford.

[break][break]notes[break]
post the first wave

[break][break]

[attr="class","robinsgifttag"]
lam logan

[attr="class","meulkcodes"]MEULK CODES

close tab

played by

lou

lam

he/him

twenty-seven

may 7th

hau’oli city, alola

rooksexual (demi)

lilycove gym leader

gym leader

5'9 height

his hands keep turning into birds and flying away from him. eventually the birds must land.

awards

1,782 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @lou

POSTED ON Sept 13, 2024 0:31:39 GMT

robin coello likes this

[nospaces]

[attr="class","prophet lam"]

[attr="class","amilkycredit"] [attr="class","fas fa-cookie-bite"]

[attr="class","textbox"]

[attr="class","iconimg"]

He let her hang onto him as long as she needed. Hoping that the steadiness in his pulse would be enough to bring her down further from the fever pitch of her cooling outburst. This was what he was meant for—caring. He’d never really considered himself that much of a fighter. He wasn’t a combatant, or an instigator. But for someone who needed a shield to stand behind? Lam could do that.[break][break]
He could let the badness fade away behind playful words if that was what she needed. Even if only for a little while.[break][break]
“One, that’s not true,” he quickly argued, looking down at her with an indignant frown. “And two, altaria do count. Their wings are like soft clouds. That’s inherently cuddly.” Lam shook his head sadly as they turned to head down the street, en route out of Dewford. “You’ve never cuddled a psyduck and it shows. But fine. I can probably commandeer one of Rook’s stunkies if you’re gonna be like that.”[break][break]
Maybe the shiny one he’d gifted Rook for Christmas, when he’d proposed. That one was pretty pampered, and snuggly.[break][break]
Though he’d moved into Calm Robin Down mode, the encounter was one that would linger in his mind. Unaware of the way his words had taken root, the whole thing left a sour taste in his mouth. Not because he didn’t view Robin as family (he did now, come hell or high water,) but that this was yet another example he could point to of a parent’s selfishness trumping the love of their child.[break][break]
He detested how acquainted he was getting with the universality of the experience.[break][break]
Unlocking the front door, he let her pass through. Rook wasn’t back, he’d been working on repairs at the gym and had been dispatched for takeout on top of that. “How are they gonna take your band away if they don’t know what happened?” he asked simply, shrugging his shoulders as he played the intentional fool. His head tilted in her direction pointedly, and then he turned to pull open the refrigerator door to rummage for drinks.

[attr="class","nametag"] robin coello

[attr="class","oocnotes"]
// bingo: -

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[attr="class","tagline"]
M: POST THE FIRST WAVE

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played by

Ghostfinch

She/Her

January 5

Dewford

Lesbian

Ranger

Elite Ranger (ooc)

5'4 height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

967 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @robin