Robin

## Affiliations

### Pack

Chandor; Highvalley (formerly); Loner (formerly); Heylguard (formerly); Heyl (formerly)

### Rank

Omega (Chandor); Delta Steward (Highvalley)

### Relatives

Bronwyn (Mother)Thallo (Father)

Extensive Highvalley Kin

### Familiar

(Formerly) L'Hru'chrruu "Chubbers" (Rock Dove)

## Application Sheet

Robin is the red-and-charcoal-pelted daughter of Thallo and Bronwyn of Highvalley. Fleeing her home due to the rumors about her coloration and parentage, she spent time in Heylguard before leaving to travel the territories. Eventually, she returned to her mother and left the Domain with her. After some time, she returned to the Domain, and her story as a loner continues (recently) without her familiar - a rock dove she had named Chubbers. In the midst of the Hive Wars, she fell pregnant with Paimon's pups, who would come to be known as Baby and Mewlin. After the wars, ready for some rest, she asked to join the pack of Chandor, where her story continues. She was created and RP'd by Lachtaube.

## Personality

* ***Socialite.*** Robin enjoys the company of most wolves, even if it's to place them beneath her. She does what she can to make herself known with the least amount of effort, typically accomplished through weaving white lies and generally talking too much. In her puphood, she was used to sitting near the top of the social hierarchy, palling around with the more popular and well-off wolf pups her age.
* ***Socially Intelligent (Receiving/Inward only).*** Since her independence, Robin finds difficulty in socially integrating herself among new groups of wolves. She has, however, retained her social strengths in reading other wolves more easily, unless they are particularly stony-faced or when nerves get the better of her. Interestingly, she is also highly aware of her own social cues at any given moment. Unfortunately, she is still quick to react and has not done well to learn how to express subtleties herself, and still wears her heart on her sleeve.
* ***Socially Inept and Internally Self-Loathing*.** Robin's arrival in Highvalley is accompanied by self-doubt and self-loathing. She has reverted to her puphood antics to try and claw for dominance and the center of attention, despite not actually wanting to be the center of attention any more. The shame of her own history haunts her everywhere she goes within Highvalley's Territory, and she copes by living up to what she assumes is everyone else's expectations of her. She feels out of her skin and out of her element. She is floundering, but keeps her head above water, and does not let anyone else in on how she's actually feeling.
* ***Conformist*.** Robin's main agenda in a pack setting is to be accepted by the highest-ranking wolf around, or the greatest majority of a pack if she does not respect a superior's status. She fears disappointing those around her and will often act immediately to appease someone she respects, without much forethought. Although she generally does not like to try new things, she gives in easily to peer pressure, including believing in superstitions. She was always encouraged by her puphood friends to step out of her comfort zone, which trended toward a lot of rule-breaking. However, Robin's group often got away with trespassing, staying out after curfew, or skipping lessons due to their statuses as 'dominant' pups, and generally poor parenting.
* ***Judgmental*.** Robin has a novella of opinions and assumptions about you even before you open your mouth. She will, however, reserve judgment if a wolf is particularly difficult to read.
* ***Impressionable*.** In spite of her often unforgiving assessments, Robin is weak to the opinions and tastes of others. She is not consciously aware of it, but she has much to learn from the wolves around her.
* ***Reserved*.** As a juvenile, her developing physical appearance--the reddening of her fur--had made her begin to second-guess both herself and the wolves of her birth-pack. The stigma of her coat color within the pack and her father's accompanying uncertainty about her had sparked a sense of ugly-duckling humility in this young wolf. She does not take to new wolves quickly, projecting her own degree of judgment on them. She is quick to defend herself, but not physically.
* ***Independent*.** Having been alone for so long now, Robin has found comfort in herself and the open world around her. Realizing that she can make it on her own has made her increasingly more cautious around other wolves; she is convinced she needs nothing from others and will reserve what she has to offer from them unless they make the first move. Even then she remains withdrawn and skeptical.
* ***Imaginative*.** As an individual, Robin is easy to fall prey to her own imagination. Enthralled by her own fantasies, she is often caught unawares or with her guard down and is frequently perceived to be dimwitted or slow. She does not believe she is intelligent because no one else around her does. No one ever expected more from her because she was already destined from birth to inherit success. As a result, she spends much of her spare time wrapped up in daydreams and ghost stories. She is in love with the idea of the supernatural and will often fabricate ghost stories to liven up almost any situation. Robin does not truly believe in ghosts or spirits but her insistence of their existence is a hill she's willing to die on. Her so-called 'ghosts' often serve as scapegoats for her to try and weasel out of trouble--even if whoever she's trying to fool doesn't believe her woven ghost stories, they believe that she believes in them, which is often good enough to get off easy.
* ***Manipulative*.** Whether her attempts to steer a wolf's emotions are intentional or not, Robin will play up and milk a situation for all it's worth. She is particularly scheming around youngsters and takes advantage of their newness to the world. It is the best consolation she can manage amidst self-doubts about her own intellect.
* ***Moral*.** At the end of the day, Robin has deep and loving conscience for all living creatures. Her judgment is often clouded by immediate happenstances and the thrill of coming out on top, but she will ruminate on her mistakes. Robin will often feel badly towards another wolf she may have taken advantage of or put down, but she's far too proud to admit it to herself, let alone their face.

## Pre-Group History

Robin was born in Highvalley to her mother Bronwyn and father Thallo, a proud high-ranking couple, but the product of an all-but-arranged marriage. When she was born, she was the spitting image of her black and silver mother, with the same light-colored stripes and accents on her legs and around her shoulders. However, as she grew, the patches began to fill in with a reddish-brown color. This recent physical development raised questions from Thallo, as neither parent had red fur in their families as far back as they could remember. However, Robin still emulated her father in every way from speech to habits and interests. Of course Bronwyn denied any allegations of cuckolding her husband. Since there was simply no way for Thallo to know for sure if Robin was truly his daughter or the product of an extramarital affair, the point was moot: he continued to love and raise Robin as his own.

Robin lived in the lap of luxury as the daughter of well-off wolves, near the apex of a huge pack where skill and talent were scarce, save for the art of the tongue. A high-status wolf could talk his way out of nearly anything. As in any such society, gossip became a favorite past-time. When Robin was old enough to start leaving the den, she was the subject of speculation regarding Bronwyn's loyalty to her mate. Still, Bronwyn insisted that Thallo was Robin's father; eventually the other wolves changed their tunes to instead sing old wives tales about black or white parents whelping red pups. To Thallo and Bronwyn, the pack's superstition was at least a marginal improvement from publicly bastardizing their only pup. Robin was oblivious to the adults' suspicions and rumors--until the other pups began to call her "Red Robin". Thallo, who did not share the pack's superstitions, became very reserved around his daughter when she started asking about the significance of her coloration.

Robin has little to no knowledge of breeding or heredity, so there is absolutely no question in her mind that the all-white Thallo is her father. But the subject of her coat color continued to weigh heavily on her as it clearly caused tension between her parents and some of the other wolves of the pack. She's sure that if she can only wash out or mask the color, the pressure on her parents might subside. She began to spend a lot of time in and around water, just soaking in it or gently rubbing up against the rocks in the river. She would come home with a meek smile, her fur completely caked in black mud, and her father would drag her back to the river to wash it off. On the last of these trips, Robin finally snapped at his disapproval for her attempts to cover up her reddening fur, to look more like her mother. Bewildered and humbled by her true intentions, Thallo could find no words to respond in the heat of the moment.

Robin ran from his silence until she came across an old loner wolf at the edge of the territory. The wolf told the mud-coated juvenile of a place in the mountains, where the water was magic and could cure any ailment or disability. His stories of grandeur fostered a seed for an idea and a ray of hope for the young wolf, and so she set out alone to cultivate a cure, to find the place he called 'Heyl.'

When the earthquake that shook the Domain reached Heyl, Robin was in the midst of climbing the western sides of the White Hills in search of the main den site. She was only half a day into her trek through Heyl's territory when the stones began to move beneath her feet. Deftly she clamored to the top of the peak as the marble boulders slid beneath her paws; she threw herself on what she could only hope was solid ground. The tremors finally subsided. It took much longer for the dust to clear, and with tired lungs full of hot air from her sudden burst up the ridge, the winded wolf settled down to rest for the night. Fearful of more earthquakes, she lay out in the open, curled up with only her own tail for shelter. Robin did not get much sleep that night, which left her feeling ever more exhausted and vulnerable than the previous nights on her journey alone across the Domain. More things seem to go bump in the night when your faculties are strained and you can't trust your surroundings...

## Group History

Robin arrived in Heyl after the earthquake subsided, greeted upon first arriving by none other than the alpha himself - Fitu. She was naturally exhausted and desperate to get at Heyl's "magical" waters, but Fitu explained to her that it wasn't magical at all. She would soon discover that most of the ailments faced by wolves in Heyl were genuine problems - not simply aesthetic ones.

She would ask the healer, Anders, if *he* knew of any cures for staining, and he tried to help her feel better by explaining the rarity (and beauty) of red wolves. Robin threw a bit of a tantrum, being desperate for a cure to her 'plight', but Anders would manage to calm her down and assure her that she was welcomed in Heyl. Indeed, she would make new friends in Heyl - Saphira, Shoshana, and Ronelle, wolves all about her age.

Many events shaped her time in Heyl. The earthquake led to Dawnguard and Heyl merging into Heylguard, and the Curse of Pajackok would creep through the lands. Poor Robin would grow ill from eating tainted prey, but her youthful resilience allowed her to recover quickly. Unfortunately, her friend Saphira did not heed the warnings. The two would have a big falling-out when Saphira tried to drag a tainted elk carcass back to the den site. Saphira, not believing the Curse 'crap', scorned Robin for believing it. Robin, in turn, called Saphira stupid, and Saphira told her friend to never speak to her again.

Robin fled Heyl, deciding she couldn't stay in the cursed lands, not with Saphira hating her. She traveled to the border and stopped Olega from drinking the water, believing all water in the territory to be tainted. Olega was grateful and offered to take Robin to the nearest pack, and Robin officially became a loner. She traveled with Olega for several months, taking their sweet time on the way to the nearest pack, with Olega teaching Robin key survival skills such as hunting.

When they reached Chandor, however, Robin was greeted by a face she didn't want to see: Shoshana. Her old friend from Heyl...well, they *were* friends, before they fell out, just like she had with Saphira. Robin insisted that she wouldn't stay in Chandor, and she and Olega set off to live a loner's life once again.

Summer arrived, and with it, Olega received shocking news - news that her daughter, Moth, was in Fellfang. Bearing a bitter resentment towards the pack (and fearing the Curse of Arn that tainted its leadership), Olega decided that she must go to her daughter. But she couldn't bring Robin. She couldn't expose the young she-wolf to danger. The two wolves said painful goodbyes, and Robin was on her own.

She would meet up with her old friend Ronelle again, briefly, who would inform her that two Highvallians were looking for her. Robin recognized the description of one - Gwendolyn. But the other, she didn't know the name of (only assumed he's her steward). She felt frustrated that her former packmates are still looking for her, because she can take care of herself now.

While living alone, she would find herself meeting other wolves. Arthur, for instance, was searching for Tilika and her pups, and Robin was quite helpful, informing him of the location of Highvalley (though not without giving him some attitude). She would enter the winter season with optimism, and would even start to catch feelings for a handsome (lost) Arynian named Lazarus, who she rescued from a cave-in. She'd accompany him back to Aryn, and while there, she was approached by a pigeon. The pigeon made her wary, as her father had a whole flock of them. But the pigeon spoke to her, gently informing her that Thallo had died.

In this moment, Robin knew she needed to return to Highvalley.

She returned and found herself attacked by her mother - knocked to the ground, staring up at Bronwyn's snarl, before she collapsed and pulled her daughter close, tears streaming from her face. Robin, astonished by the act of fondness, apologized to Bronwyn for running away. She was welcomed back into Highvalley's fold, by old acquaintances like Edythe and Shardae - and made to serve as Mohawk's steward. Mohawk, having no need for a steward, dismissed her initially, but Robin's snark made him send her hunting in his stead.

When High King Rodwen fell ill, Robin took it upon herself to do *something* about Vladimir's leadership. Having grown up with Vlad, she knew what he was capable of - and that he was no saint, and ill-suited to the job of leading Highvalley, in her opinion. She went to speak to Adela on the matter, but only earned the elder she-wolf's ire - Adela drew blood and scorned Robin publicly for her language and the insinuation that Vladimir was not suited to be leader.

Outraged by the treatment of lowbloods (and herself), Robin threw a tantrum in her and her mother's den. Bronwyn offered to take her daughter to Thallo's final resting place, and reveal the circumstances of his death - and how the rest of the pack had been relieved to see him gone. Robin aired out her frustrations to her mother, who softly told her daughter she was right to leave - though perhaps not at such a young age. Bronwyn offered to leave the pack with Robin, she only had to name where.

Robin's reply? "Anywhere but here."

And so, mother and daughter reunited, they left the Domain for a better life.

At least, for a little while.

*They decided it was time to take "home" elsewhere and returned to Bronwyn's birthpack, known only as The Hird. It was here Robin thrived, making friends, enjoying her time as a young wolf and needing to hide nothing about herself. ... So why did she still have this nagging feeling that she was missing something? She decided she needed to further explore her options and set out on her own to return to Highvalley's territory.*

She struggled to find it, though, and ended up at Riverfell first, encountering a wolf she hadn't seen since she was young: Shiloh. Shiloh warned her of stealing food (berries) from *her* territory, and Robin made some enquiries about Highvalley. Shiloh reported that two of the ex-Highvallians had made a home in Riverfell, and suggested that Robin come speak to them and learn what had happened to their alpha (leading Robin to realize bitterly that Vladimir was the new king) - and then telling her Highvalley was *gone.* Robin didn't believe Shiloh, and believed Shiloh was just saying that to be a bully, and raced in the right direction.

But when she arrived, she realized Shiloh was right. Highvalley was gone. And she was utterly alone.

She wasn't alone for too long before meeting another loner - a white wolf named Vilu. He offered to help her catch prey, and Robin told him to piss off, cursing at him vividly. Eventually Vilu left, thinking her not worth his time. Robin's manners hadn't improved with her time away with her mother, clearly.

Robin also resorted to thievery on occasion. When she saw some *lovely* feathers left by Keezheekoni of Riverfell in a safe spot for collection later, Robin stole them and used them to decorate her own fur. She'd steal from old carcasses, disregarding their age or taste - food was food! She would eventually cross paths with Vilu again, and things got heated, resulting in a brief battle in a muddy field before a thunderstorm sent them their separate ways.

As autumn seized the Domain, Robin kept a wary gaze on the Hive wolves, and kept well away from them. She was less prone to avoid other wolves, and though these meetings usually resulted in conflict, a few were less so - such as her meeting with Paimon. Their personalities, both dripping with sarcasm and selfishness, matched one another well. They parted ways shortly thereafter.

Robin met another pair of wolves in the unclaimed lands near Riverfell: Josephine and Ashwood. They were on their way back to their pack, and Robin inquired as to whether they'd met any pale-furred non-Hive wolves; they hadn't. Still, she decided to hang around them for a little while, insisting they call her 'Cheeks'.

That was when Robin met *him.* Or, rather, met him again: one of her father's trained messenger pigeons. He introduced himself as L'Hru'chrruu, and Robin, struggling to pronounce the name, decided to call him Chubbers - which the bird found degrading. However, he decided to remain with her, as her familiar, and would grow very fond of Robin as time passed.

She'd meet another familiar face when saving Vilu from a Hive wolf, and they begrudgingly decided to travel together, for safety. She told him she was traveling to Heylguard for a place in a pack, and Vilu agreed to go with her, having been separated from his previous traveling partner Archer.

That winter, Robin would meet with Paimon again. They made the most of the snow before parting ways again, and Robin and Vilu continued their journey towards Heylguard. They were pleased to discover a pack there, but - the pack was not Heylguard! A new pack, Mhor, had settled in the unclaimed lands. Robin was stunned - they were gone *just like Highvalley was gone.* They set off again, and she and Vilu once again fell into serious arguments.

Their little group of traveling loners gained a few extra members - Isabel and Solstice. Robin had met Solstice in the winter and invited her to join them, and Isabel was found by Vilu when he was hunting. Briefly, Robin took a detour from her little group of companions, and ended up meeting Paimon again. The reunion wasn't all joyous, though, because they were chased by a Hive wolf into a very small cave. Their enemy couldn't reach them, and so they spent the night in the cave, enjoying one another's company - Robin laughing and having a better time with Paimon than she'd had in a *long* time. They parted ways in the morning.

Spring arrived, and Robin found - much to her concern - that she wasn't turning red again. What could be the reason? Was she sick? Chubbers reassured her that he still found her beautiful. But as spring progressed, approaching summer, Robin began to feel worse and worse. She *must* be sick. She was frequently ill and her back hurt immensely. One morning, she slipped away from her traveling companions to try and remedy her situation. L'Hru'chrruu followed her, worried about leaving her completely alone.

She thought maybe she could try reaching Chandor, but hadn't gotten very far when she was sick, and collapsed. Robin's thoughts were fuzzy as dragged herself to a hollowed-out tree stump, where she was sick all day and faded in and out of consciousness, agonized by her pains.

At one point, when she stirred, she was no longer alone. She had two pups in the makeshift shelter with her. She didn't realize she was pregnant, and couldn't think much about the possibilities of being a mother - all she could focus on was how weak she was, how unable to protect them she was. And she kept struggling to retain consciousness.

For days, she remained in the stump, L'Hru'chrruu hovering over her, begging her to try and move, for her sake and the sake of the pups. But she was so weak, and growing weaker. Eventually, she realized if she didn't get prey, she and the pups would die. She called L'Hru'chrruu to her and instructed him to get help...and while he was close, she used her last remaining strength to grab him between her teeth, killing her familiar pigeon, her unwaveringly loyal companion, to save her own life.

## Trivia

* Robin likes telling stories and daydreaming.
* Robin used to try covering her pelt with mud to hide the redness in her fur - a habit she would continue to employ as a young adult, but for cooling off in the hot summer months.
	+ Speaking of Robin's pelt, she is one of the few wolves in the Domain to have such a dramatic color change with the seasons - she *loves* when her pelt changes to silver-and-black in winter and laments the red's return in summer.
	+ Due to age, as of 2022, Robin's fur has stopped changing colors, and retains its silver-and-black coloration permanently.
* Robin appears pudgy due to excess skin (developed in part as a result of Highvalley genes).
* Had Robin been born male, she would have inherited Thallo's off-white Highvalley coloration.
* Robin was the **Fall 2018 Character of the Season!**

## Quotes

* "I can't be white like you, I want to be dark like Mama! Please don't let me stay red! I don't want to be red anymore! I KNOW I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE RED! MAMA'S NOT RED, YOU'RE NOT RED! YOU HATE THAT I'M RED, BUT I DON'T WANT TO BE THIS WAY! I DON'T WANT TO BE UGLY!!" (from *Ugly*)
* "Oh, Edythe, I met the *cutest* boy out there..." (about Lazarus, *Bittersweet Welcomings*)
* “I wish things here were different. I wish wolves here didn’t have to fight tooth and claw just to be heard. Or treated fairly, with decency. I wish...I wish I knew how to act right.” (to Bronwyn, *Anywhere But Here*)

## External Links

* Official Application Sheet
* Lachtaube's deviantART Gallery