Tybalt, King of the Court of Dreaming Cats (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
notrequiredtomakesense) wrote2012-09-13 10:37 pm
notrequiredtomakesense) wrote2012-09-13 10:37 pm
Entry tags:
application for Adstring
Name: Fae
Personal Journal:fae_of_the_rose
Contact: Same as Toph’s
Other Characters Played: Toph Beifong
Are you 18 or over? Yep
Canon: October Daye by Seanan McGuire
Character: Tybalt, King of the Court of Dreaming Cats (also known as the San Francisco Bay Area)
Timeline: After the gang gets back from Annwn, but a short time before Toby wakes up at the end of Ashes of Honor.
Personality: The easiest way to describe Tybalt’s personality is to explain what he is. What he is happens to be a Cait Sidhe, or a cat fae. Tybalt is a cat. A remarkably attractive, regal, and snarky cat who can do all sorts of un-catlike things, but a cat. To most (mortal/human/non-fae) people, Tybalt comes off as aloof and a bit full of himself, like he thinks he’s more important than he appears. That would be because he is more important that he appears, but also because ninety percent of all cats have that attitude about them, and it makes sense that one of their Kings would as well. Even if he isn’t expecting something, he’ll act like he meant to do that and don’t you dare suggest otherwise. Tybalt is the master of the cool, nonchalant persona for the most part. Just. Don’t piss him off. The Cait Sidhe are a vicious race of fae, and Tybalt won his throne by beating the previous king in a fight. He can and will fight to the death if he’s pissed off enough or defending his Court and his friends.
If you happen to be someone Tybalt cares about, he’s just like those cats who pick one or two people to like: he’ll be affectionate and friendly in his way, and anyone he distrusts/dislikes who comes near you while he’s around is likely to get a very cold stare. He’s too proud to hiss or attack anyone for silly things, but his glares are just as effective. If he likes you, he’s…temperamental. The only person he really seems to like in canon at the moment is October, and calling their relationship “weird” is like calling Ragnarok “a little bad weather”. However, he’s snarky and full of dry comments in general, and the people he likes just get subjected to them more often. This is because he’s around them more often, though, so it’s a bit of a guess if the snarkier he is to you equals the more he likes you. My vote is on “yes”, however, for various reasons.
If you’re a friend or someone he respects, he’s unquestionably loyal (or as loyal as cats get anyway. They kind of hate responsibility). He offered Toby an alliance when it looked as if the land Courts were going to get destroyed in a war, and he broke into the Queen of Mists’ dungeon to get her out of an iron prison. He will do anything to protect those he’s loyal to or his Court, and he does not like either of those things being threatened. Threatening those things isn’t something silly. Threatening those things will get you the claws and the teeth.
Like all Cait Sidhe, Tybalt is remarkably vicious and just a tad violent. In his world, killing another faerie is punishable by death by fire. Unless, however, you’re a Cait Sidhe fighting over the throne. There are rules to that fight, and it can’t be an assassination, but the Cait Sidhe are a violent group of fae and when Oberon allowed them to have their own Court, he made an exception for that. (That’s not to say he’s wild and crazy and just decided to get rid of his former king one day. There’s rules and stuff that’s way too complicated for an app.) Tybalt, as one of their Kings, has to be the best fighter. He has to be vicious and violent and good at it. He’s not cruel—far from it—but he’s not necessarily a nice guy, and you really don’t want to make him mad.
Background: Much of Tybalt’s background won’t be cleared up until November, but what we can tell from hints and things the author has left on her LiveJournal is that Tybalt’s been King since the late 1800s, he lived in London in the 1700s, he’s likely no younger than 300 or 350 years old, and he’ll go by the name “Rand Stratford” if pressed by humans. The author’s stated that Princes change their names when they take the throne, and Rand was Tybalt’s childhood name. As for “Stratford”, well, he’s Tybalt now. He’s probably a Shakespeare fan.
Over two hundred years before the start of the series, Tybalt met a young Irish woman named Anne O’Toole. She was human, and he fell in love and married her. Sadly, this wasn’t to last. They were in New York at a time where mortal medicine was horrible and at a time where Tybalt wasn’t respected. When Anne became pregnant, the baby turned out to be too much for her, and she died. The baby, Tybalt’s changeling daughter, also died. This would color his behavior and toleration of all things human for centuries.
Sometime in the 1960s, Tybalt met October Daye and promptly decided he was going to torment her for no apparent reason. Cait Sidhe are fairly tolerant of changelings in general, but Tybalt, thanks to losing Anne, began to dislike changelings and October in particular. This dislike became more like hate once his niece, Juliet, followed Toby to Home, which was essentially a gang of changelings. And then Toby got turned into a koi fish in 1995 and he didn’t see her until she broke the spell in 2009. Once she came back, Tybalt made a point to follow and find the changeling, harassing her at every turn. This was weird for him, as most cats won’t go to that much effort. But October smelled different to him, and he wanted to make sure it was in fact the lovely Miss Daye.
In December of 2009, Evening Winterrose, one of the local countesses, was murdered and October was drawn into the investigation. Aside from the general problems that come with a pureblood noble getting killed, this wasn’t any of Tybalt’s business until Toby, who usually avoided him, came looking for him with a hope chest. Hope chests are artifacts created by Oberon with a hundred rumors surrounding them, and one of the most prominent ones is that it can turn a changeling into a pureblood or a human. Tybalt was given it by October because she didn’t trust herself with it, and she couldn’t trust anyone she liked. In her mind, that meant she went to the guy she hated. Yeah, it doesn’t make sense, but that’s October. A short while after that, Tybalt followed and found Toby when she was close to death in Golden Gate Park, helping to get her out of the koi pond. As Toby, Juliet, and Juliet’s boyfriend were heading to Toby’s place (the other two were asked by the Undine Lily to protect the injured October), the trio was attacked by some hired thugs and Tybalt came to the rescue. He claimed it was because of the hope chest. He had promised to return it, and he couldn’t if she was dead. Shortly after that, he had to pull Juliet off of Toby when the changeling came to his Court to get something to help her find Evening’s killer. Julie’s boyfriend had died in the park, and she blamed Toby for it. Once it was all said and done, Tybalt returned the hope chest and that was it. He poked and prodded and harassed her more, since she owed him, but things went mostly back to normal. (Rosemary and Rue)
Six months later, in June, is when the second book of the series starts. It just happens to start with a drunk October and an amused Tybalt getting said drunk October home, staying long enough to take a message for her, and getting the hell out of dodge. He later went down to Fremont to help October figure out who was killing members Sylvester’s, Toby’s liege, niece’s business/fiefdom and to avenge the death of Fremont’s Queen of Cats, who had been one of the victims. He became insanely protective of Toby during this incident, nearly killing the local seneschal until October explained the situation and attacking a succubus-like changeling when he realized that it had been trying to suck October dry (this changeling, however, was completely innocent of the murders). In Fremont, October did something that no Daione Sidhe—what she was—could do, and he knew what it meant. After that, he vanished for a few months to try and track down Amandine, Toby’s mother, and ask a few questions. (A Local Habitiation)
He showed up in Toby’s life again in September of 2010 to ask for help in tracking down five missing Cait Sidhe children, including his nephew and heir, Raj. These children, as well as the children of October’s friend and the girlfriend of teenaged fae in Sylvester’s court, had been kidnapped by Blind Michael, one of the Firstborn of Faerie and essentially the queen of the Tam Lin ballad (just male), up to and including the midnight rides and Halloween hijinks. Toby, after saving most of the children, was caught up in this Ride. Tybalt was one of the ones to play Janet for her. After this, he didn’t mostly vanish! He stuck around for the most part, going off like cats are prone to, and warned Toby that she was being lied to about something significant. During this, Tybalt lost one of his lives. Kings and Queens of Cats have multiple, if not a full nine, and he was killed saving Toby from some of Blind Michael’s goonies. (An Artificial Night)
The next book starts in April 2011, when Toby’s been called by the local Queen to be granted Evening’s old title, Countess (not that she knew that at the time). Tybalt shows up at the party, warns Toby that the Queen is plotting, and then kisses her. Sadly, it was just to make everyone think they still hated each other. When Toby learned that Lily, who really shouldn’t have been able to be sick, was sick just after being made Countess, she slapped Tybalt to make a scene and he went with it. He found October outside the Tea Gardens a day or two later, after Luna, Sylvester’s wife, collapsed and their daughter, Rasyeline, began blaming Toby. Toby claimed it was the woman who turned her into a fish, Oleander, but no one believed her. Tybalt did, but he didn’t see or smell her when Toby said she had, so he wasn’t sure what to make of the whole messy situation. The Oleander confusion carried through the book, and at one point Tybalt had to promise to kill Toby if she’d gone crazy. He went with October when she tending to the dying Lily, and was there when she died. Just after this, once they’d gone home, he called Toby in as close to a panic as he gets, asking her to come to his Court. Someone had poisoned the meat, and people were dying. It was shortly after this that the lie Tybalt warned about—Toby was in fact not a Daione Sidhe, but the child of a Firstborn—came to light, and thankfully Toby didn’t hate him for it. Even if she had, he broke into the Queen’s dungeons a few days later and got her out, so it wasn’t like she would have hated him for long. He also spoke up at her first “trial” in her defense at the end of the book. (Late Eclipses)
Yet again, when October runs into Tybalt at the beginning of the fifth book, which starts in June of 2011, she hasn’t seen him since April. He showed up at her doorstep after war had been declared between the Kingdom of Mists and the nearest Undersea Court (mermaids and all that) over the Undersea princes going missing to offer his Court as protection for Goldengreen, the knowe she got from Evening’s will when she was made a countess. He also tried (and failed) to make Toby coffee while at her apartment. He stuck with her while she searched Rasyeline’s rooms, as they had reason to believe she was connected to the kidnappings, went with her to the Luidaeg (sea witch and Firstborn) to get something to let Toby swim underwater, and then left when she had an appointment with the Undersea regent, Diana Lorden. When she returned from the ocean, he had bad news for her: Rasyeline had taken Toby’s daughter. He stayed with her until she was safe with Sylvester and then went to have his Court search for Toby’s daughter and the boys. When she and several others figured out where to go, he joined them with even worse news of the political sort. A lot of Tybalt’s dealings involve bringing Toby bad news. They tracked down Rasyel, saved the boys and Gilly, and then Tybalt left again. This time, however, it was to let Toby mourn someone close to her who had been killed by Raysel in the rescue attempt and very likely sympathy. He’d lost someone he loved before, and knew that pain. (One Salt Sea)
The next book starts a year later. Toby had been depressed and a bit suicidal since the end of the last book, when her boyfriend died. Instead of Tybalt avoiding her, she’d been avoiding him, and Tybalt dod not like this. After saving Toby from some crazy drug dealer changelings, he tried to have a conversation with her, only to have it shoved aside when Etienne, a fellow knight of Sylvester’s, came to get Toby to help find his previously unknown changeling daughter. His changeling daughter who, instead of the normal “all the limits, none of the power” lot that changelings get, had the rare “all of the power, none of the limits”. Tybalt promised to help Toby as he had been for years, though he was unable to be there when the search started (partially because he was tired of Toby’s stupidity and just needed a moment). However, he used the Shadows to find Toby after Chelsea, the girl, had somehow gotten deep into his Court and knocked Raj somewhere he couldn’t get to, as well as bringing in a flood of fire from the Fire Kingdoms and damaging the Court, injuring Cait Sidhe, and killing Tybalt. Together, they went to investigate Tybalt’s Court and were met by Raj’s father, Samson. Samson, the definition of “jackass pureblooded fae”, punched Tybalt and began chewing his King out for going to “that changeling whore”. This was just the start of the trouble with Samson. Later, when Toby and her squire go back to Fremont and ALH Computing (see ALH) and then onto the nearby fiefdom of Dreamer’s Glass, Tybalt appeared as back up and remained with them, as finding the girl would find his nephew. He and Toby took the Rose Roads to get to a place where they could locate Raj and discovered that Chelsea was opening portals to places in Faerie that no one were meant to be, and that Raj was in one these places. They managed to get him out, though. (Raj also managed to temporarily put his father in his place, which made Tybalt proud.) As soon as they left the Court to return to ALH, the two were set upon by assassins determined to kill and depose Tybalt. They failed, obviously, though they were forced to rest in another Queen’s territory (with her permission) and try to recover as best they could from their wounds. While they waited for the assassins to try again, Tybalt took the chance to tell October what he had been trying to tell her before Etienne showed up: he was in love with the young changeling, had been since she gave him the hope chest, and was tired of waiting. He’d let October process and finish the job, but he wanted to court her.
That was the last moment of calm, as Samson and his assassins showed up and tried to kill them properly. Chelsea, thanks to some luck bending, was hiding nearby and they managed to jump from near death to the place that Raj had been—Annwn. However, it turned out that Riordan, the Duchess of Dreamer’s Glass, had a charm on Chelsea and they couldn’t bring her to safety with them. After getting a healer for Tybalt, who had for obvious reasons suffered the most damage, diffusing a reluctant attempt on Tybalt’s life by Raj that ended with Raj denouncing his father, saving May and her girlfriend from an attack by Samson, getting rid of an annoying stalker cop by pretending Tybalt was Toby’s boyfriend (the first instance of “Rand Stratford”), and learning that Etienne had gone into Riordan’s domain to get his daughter back on his own, everyone (annoying stalker cop included) was kidnapped and sent to Annwn by Riordan. Here, Etienne stabbed Samson and everyone learned (through Toby) that it had been the crazy cat who had kidnapped Chelsea and had been allied with Riordan in exchange for power—after all, if he could get Tybalt killed, Raj would be King and Samson would have the power he craved. Samson had kidnapped Chelsea, and Riordan was using the girl to keep a portal open to Annwn so she could colonize it and gain power. This would never happen. Samson was killed by iron, and the group got Chelsea away, leaving Riordan locked in Annwn with no way out. Before Samson died, however, he managed to gut Toby and she passed out shortly after everyone returned to the regular world from Annwn. Tybalt went to fetch Sylvester’s healer, Jin. He’s coming from just after having returned to Dreamer’s Glass with Jin.
Abilities/Additional Notes: First and foremost in Tybalt’s abilities is the shapeshifting. He’s a Cait Sidhe, and most of them can go from cat to humanoid fae to humanoid fae with cat claws/tail/ears/what have you. When he’s in bipedal form and has no illusions up to make him look human, he’s got tabby stripes in his dark brown hair, cat pupils, pointed ears, and he’s decidedly not human, although he’s freaking gorgeous in that terrifying and inhuman way. When his illusions are up, it’s plain brown hair, human ears, plain hazel eyes, and a normal human level of handsome. His cat form is a brown tabby with a tattered ear.
Tybalt can communicate with cats, which I think would carry over to the hellcat and other feline-like creatures. There might be communication barriers, and they won’t treat him as a regular cat would (your typical housecat listens to a King or Queen first and everyone else second), but he’d be able to at least attempt communication and get somewhere with it. This might go for other, non-Cait Sidhe who shift into a cat form, but that depends on how much of them is “cat” and how much of them is “person in cat form but still totally a person” more than likely. The only instance of this we get is when October’s turned into a lion, and it worked because she was a lion, so it’s a vague area. He’d be able to understand and speak with them even if they wouldn’t listen to him, at least. If this won’t work on the hellcats, just let me know.
The last “major” Cait Sidhe ability Tybalt has is access to the Shadow Roads. This is a Cait Sidhe-only place that works like a physical short cut between point A and point B. It’s not teleportation, but the literal taking of a road. However, the Shadow Roads need to be anchored to a place, and Adstring is decidedly not on the lists of places any King or Queen thought to connect before, so Tybalt can’t use them to get out. He could, feasibly, use it to get around the city after anchoring it to certain spots, but that would open him up to Animus hijinks and be mostly imperfect. Even if he could eventually use it in the city, he likely never would.
As King, he can also die a few times and just come back to life. This, obviously, will not carry over to Adstring, but it’s here for posterity.
Aside from the race-specific traits, Tybalt is a pureblood fae. This means that he is graceful, has more stamina than pretty much anyone, and immortal as long as no one attacks and kills him. He’s also a brutal fighter, and in the Bay Area he’s one of the best. He has to be in order to be a King. As a cat, he’s exactly the same. Just, y’know. A cat. He’s also a good actor, as most fae are. When you’re going to live forever among people who don’t believe your kind exist anymore, you need to be.
Sample Journal Post: [Tybalt is…not happy. Thankfully for all you mortals out there, he looks human, if pretty badly beaten up—hazel eyes with normal pupils, brown hair, normal ears, scratches everywhere, and if you can see his wrists, they look pretty badly burnt. His wounds don’t seem to be affecting him too much, however. He’s too pissed.]
I have better things to do than be kidnapped and spirited away to God knows where. [That was so weird to say. Oh well] There is a woman who is very likely dying back home, and I need to be there. I have no idea how I was taken or by whom, but I demand you send me back.
[His tone indicates that he’s not used to being denied.]
If you do not, I am not responsible for what happens to you.
Sample RP: Tybalt was decidedly unamused. Toby, his Toby, was lying in Dreamer’s Glass, half-dead and getting deader, and he was Maeve knows where with iron-burned wrists and ankles. He couldn’t use the Shadows, he didn’t feel anything remotely familiar, and he was surrounded by humans. Today could not possibly get any worse.
He leaned against the tree he’d found to sit beneath, wincing when the bark rubbed against a scrape on his neck wrong. He didn’t belong here. It was rare for him, but Tybalt wasn’t above admitting that he didn’t belong somewhere. This wasn’t Faerie. This wasn’t Earth. This was some hellhole, and he needed to get back. He needed to be there for Toby, either to kiss her when she woke up from Jin’s healing or mourn her when she didn’t.
Hopefully, she’d wake up.
The strange cellphone he’d been given by the strange human beeped, and Tybalt glanced down. Someone was replying to his demands. Perhaps it was whoever had taken him.
No. It was some human, telling him that he was stuck in this city thanks to someone named Animus. Several humans, actually. Apparently, Animus made a game of this, tormenting its captives and playing with them. Threatening and attempting to force Animus into sending him home would end badly. There was no way back. It sounded almost as bad as Blind Michael.
Growling low in his throat, Tybalt did his best not to scare the mortals responding to him and expressing concern about his injuries. It was all he could to do remain controlled and deflect their worries. He was fine. He’d heal slowly, but he’d be fine. Toby, however, would not, not if Animus had taken Jin when it had taken him. He didn’t see or smell her, but with the Shadows not responding to him, who knew if she was here?
A small calico came over, mewing and rubbing at his feet. That made Tybalt smile slightly. At least there were other cats here. A small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.
Personal Journal:
fae_of_the_roseContact: Same as Toph’s
Other Characters Played: Toph Beifong
Are you 18 or over? Yep
Canon: October Daye by Seanan McGuire
Character: Tybalt, King of the Court of Dreaming Cats (also known as the San Francisco Bay Area)
Timeline: After the gang gets back from Annwn, but a short time before Toby wakes up at the end of Ashes of Honor.
Personality: The easiest way to describe Tybalt’s personality is to explain what he is. What he is happens to be a Cait Sidhe, or a cat fae. Tybalt is a cat. A remarkably attractive, regal, and snarky cat who can do all sorts of un-catlike things, but a cat. To most (mortal/human/non-fae) people, Tybalt comes off as aloof and a bit full of himself, like he thinks he’s more important than he appears. That would be because he is more important that he appears, but also because ninety percent of all cats have that attitude about them, and it makes sense that one of their Kings would as well. Even if he isn’t expecting something, he’ll act like he meant to do that and don’t you dare suggest otherwise. Tybalt is the master of the cool, nonchalant persona for the most part. Just. Don’t piss him off. The Cait Sidhe are a vicious race of fae, and Tybalt won his throne by beating the previous king in a fight. He can and will fight to the death if he’s pissed off enough or defending his Court and his friends.
If you happen to be someone Tybalt cares about, he’s just like those cats who pick one or two people to like: he’ll be affectionate and friendly in his way, and anyone he distrusts/dislikes who comes near you while he’s around is likely to get a very cold stare. He’s too proud to hiss or attack anyone for silly things, but his glares are just as effective. If he likes you, he’s…temperamental. The only person he really seems to like in canon at the moment is October, and calling their relationship “weird” is like calling Ragnarok “a little bad weather”. However, he’s snarky and full of dry comments in general, and the people he likes just get subjected to them more often. This is because he’s around them more often, though, so it’s a bit of a guess if the snarkier he is to you equals the more he likes you. My vote is on “yes”, however, for various reasons.
If you’re a friend or someone he respects, he’s unquestionably loyal (or as loyal as cats get anyway. They kind of hate responsibility). He offered Toby an alliance when it looked as if the land Courts were going to get destroyed in a war, and he broke into the Queen of Mists’ dungeon to get her out of an iron prison. He will do anything to protect those he’s loyal to or his Court, and he does not like either of those things being threatened. Threatening those things isn’t something silly. Threatening those things will get you the claws and the teeth.
Like all Cait Sidhe, Tybalt is remarkably vicious and just a tad violent. In his world, killing another faerie is punishable by death by fire. Unless, however, you’re a Cait Sidhe fighting over the throne. There are rules to that fight, and it can’t be an assassination, but the Cait Sidhe are a violent group of fae and when Oberon allowed them to have their own Court, he made an exception for that. (That’s not to say he’s wild and crazy and just decided to get rid of his former king one day. There’s rules and stuff that’s way too complicated for an app.) Tybalt, as one of their Kings, has to be the best fighter. He has to be vicious and violent and good at it. He’s not cruel—far from it—but he’s not necessarily a nice guy, and you really don’t want to make him mad.
Background: Much of Tybalt’s background won’t be cleared up until November, but what we can tell from hints and things the author has left on her LiveJournal is that Tybalt’s been King since the late 1800s, he lived in London in the 1700s, he’s likely no younger than 300 or 350 years old, and he’ll go by the name “Rand Stratford” if pressed by humans. The author’s stated that Princes change their names when they take the throne, and Rand was Tybalt’s childhood name. As for “Stratford”, well, he’s Tybalt now. He’s probably a Shakespeare fan.
Over two hundred years before the start of the series, Tybalt met a young Irish woman named Anne O’Toole. She was human, and he fell in love and married her. Sadly, this wasn’t to last. They were in New York at a time where mortal medicine was horrible and at a time where Tybalt wasn’t respected. When Anne became pregnant, the baby turned out to be too much for her, and she died. The baby, Tybalt’s changeling daughter, also died. This would color his behavior and toleration of all things human for centuries.
Sometime in the 1960s, Tybalt met October Daye and promptly decided he was going to torment her for no apparent reason. Cait Sidhe are fairly tolerant of changelings in general, but Tybalt, thanks to losing Anne, began to dislike changelings and October in particular. This dislike became more like hate once his niece, Juliet, followed Toby to Home, which was essentially a gang of changelings. And then Toby got turned into a koi fish in 1995 and he didn’t see her until she broke the spell in 2009. Once she came back, Tybalt made a point to follow and find the changeling, harassing her at every turn. This was weird for him, as most cats won’t go to that much effort. But October smelled different to him, and he wanted to make sure it was in fact the lovely Miss Daye.
In December of 2009, Evening Winterrose, one of the local countesses, was murdered and October was drawn into the investigation. Aside from the general problems that come with a pureblood noble getting killed, this wasn’t any of Tybalt’s business until Toby, who usually avoided him, came looking for him with a hope chest. Hope chests are artifacts created by Oberon with a hundred rumors surrounding them, and one of the most prominent ones is that it can turn a changeling into a pureblood or a human. Tybalt was given it by October because she didn’t trust herself with it, and she couldn’t trust anyone she liked. In her mind, that meant she went to the guy she hated. Yeah, it doesn’t make sense, but that’s October. A short while after that, Tybalt followed and found Toby when she was close to death in Golden Gate Park, helping to get her out of the koi pond. As Toby, Juliet, and Juliet’s boyfriend were heading to Toby’s place (the other two were asked by the Undine Lily to protect the injured October), the trio was attacked by some hired thugs and Tybalt came to the rescue. He claimed it was because of the hope chest. He had promised to return it, and he couldn’t if she was dead. Shortly after that, he had to pull Juliet off of Toby when the changeling came to his Court to get something to help her find Evening’s killer. Julie’s boyfriend had died in the park, and she blamed Toby for it. Once it was all said and done, Tybalt returned the hope chest and that was it. He poked and prodded and harassed her more, since she owed him, but things went mostly back to normal. (Rosemary and Rue)
Six months later, in June, is when the second book of the series starts. It just happens to start with a drunk October and an amused Tybalt getting said drunk October home, staying long enough to take a message for her, and getting the hell out of dodge. He later went down to Fremont to help October figure out who was killing members Sylvester’s, Toby’s liege, niece’s business/fiefdom and to avenge the death of Fremont’s Queen of Cats, who had been one of the victims. He became insanely protective of Toby during this incident, nearly killing the local seneschal until October explained the situation and attacking a succubus-like changeling when he realized that it had been trying to suck October dry (this changeling, however, was completely innocent of the murders). In Fremont, October did something that no Daione Sidhe—what she was—could do, and he knew what it meant. After that, he vanished for a few months to try and track down Amandine, Toby’s mother, and ask a few questions. (A Local Habitiation)
He showed up in Toby’s life again in September of 2010 to ask for help in tracking down five missing Cait Sidhe children, including his nephew and heir, Raj. These children, as well as the children of October’s friend and the girlfriend of teenaged fae in Sylvester’s court, had been kidnapped by Blind Michael, one of the Firstborn of Faerie and essentially the queen of the Tam Lin ballad (just male), up to and including the midnight rides and Halloween hijinks. Toby, after saving most of the children, was caught up in this Ride. Tybalt was one of the ones to play Janet for her. After this, he didn’t mostly vanish! He stuck around for the most part, going off like cats are prone to, and warned Toby that she was being lied to about something significant. During this, Tybalt lost one of his lives. Kings and Queens of Cats have multiple, if not a full nine, and he was killed saving Toby from some of Blind Michael’s goonies. (An Artificial Night)
The next book starts in April 2011, when Toby’s been called by the local Queen to be granted Evening’s old title, Countess (not that she knew that at the time). Tybalt shows up at the party, warns Toby that the Queen is plotting, and then kisses her. Sadly, it was just to make everyone think they still hated each other. When Toby learned that Lily, who really shouldn’t have been able to be sick, was sick just after being made Countess, she slapped Tybalt to make a scene and he went with it. He found October outside the Tea Gardens a day or two later, after Luna, Sylvester’s wife, collapsed and their daughter, Rasyeline, began blaming Toby. Toby claimed it was the woman who turned her into a fish, Oleander, but no one believed her. Tybalt did, but he didn’t see or smell her when Toby said she had, so he wasn’t sure what to make of the whole messy situation. The Oleander confusion carried through the book, and at one point Tybalt had to promise to kill Toby if she’d gone crazy. He went with October when she tending to the dying Lily, and was there when she died. Just after this, once they’d gone home, he called Toby in as close to a panic as he gets, asking her to come to his Court. Someone had poisoned the meat, and people were dying. It was shortly after this that the lie Tybalt warned about—Toby was in fact not a Daione Sidhe, but the child of a Firstborn—came to light, and thankfully Toby didn’t hate him for it. Even if she had, he broke into the Queen’s dungeons a few days later and got her out, so it wasn’t like she would have hated him for long. He also spoke up at her first “trial” in her defense at the end of the book. (Late Eclipses)
Yet again, when October runs into Tybalt at the beginning of the fifth book, which starts in June of 2011, she hasn’t seen him since April. He showed up at her doorstep after war had been declared between the Kingdom of Mists and the nearest Undersea Court (mermaids and all that) over the Undersea princes going missing to offer his Court as protection for Goldengreen, the knowe she got from Evening’s will when she was made a countess. He also tried (and failed) to make Toby coffee while at her apartment. He stuck with her while she searched Rasyeline’s rooms, as they had reason to believe she was connected to the kidnappings, went with her to the Luidaeg (sea witch and Firstborn) to get something to let Toby swim underwater, and then left when she had an appointment with the Undersea regent, Diana Lorden. When she returned from the ocean, he had bad news for her: Rasyeline had taken Toby’s daughter. He stayed with her until she was safe with Sylvester and then went to have his Court search for Toby’s daughter and the boys. When she and several others figured out where to go, he joined them with even worse news of the political sort. A lot of Tybalt’s dealings involve bringing Toby bad news. They tracked down Rasyel, saved the boys and Gilly, and then Tybalt left again. This time, however, it was to let Toby mourn someone close to her who had been killed by Raysel in the rescue attempt and very likely sympathy. He’d lost someone he loved before, and knew that pain. (One Salt Sea)
The next book starts a year later. Toby had been depressed and a bit suicidal since the end of the last book, when her boyfriend died. Instead of Tybalt avoiding her, she’d been avoiding him, and Tybalt dod not like this. After saving Toby from some crazy drug dealer changelings, he tried to have a conversation with her, only to have it shoved aside when Etienne, a fellow knight of Sylvester’s, came to get Toby to help find his previously unknown changeling daughter. His changeling daughter who, instead of the normal “all the limits, none of the power” lot that changelings get, had the rare “all of the power, none of the limits”. Tybalt promised to help Toby as he had been for years, though he was unable to be there when the search started (partially because he was tired of Toby’s stupidity and just needed a moment). However, he used the Shadows to find Toby after Chelsea, the girl, had somehow gotten deep into his Court and knocked Raj somewhere he couldn’t get to, as well as bringing in a flood of fire from the Fire Kingdoms and damaging the Court, injuring Cait Sidhe, and killing Tybalt. Together, they went to investigate Tybalt’s Court and were met by Raj’s father, Samson. Samson, the definition of “jackass pureblooded fae”, punched Tybalt and began chewing his King out for going to “that changeling whore”. This was just the start of the trouble with Samson. Later, when Toby and her squire go back to Fremont and ALH Computing (see ALH) and then onto the nearby fiefdom of Dreamer’s Glass, Tybalt appeared as back up and remained with them, as finding the girl would find his nephew. He and Toby took the Rose Roads to get to a place where they could locate Raj and discovered that Chelsea was opening portals to places in Faerie that no one were meant to be, and that Raj was in one these places. They managed to get him out, though. (Raj also managed to temporarily put his father in his place, which made Tybalt proud.) As soon as they left the Court to return to ALH, the two were set upon by assassins determined to kill and depose Tybalt. They failed, obviously, though they were forced to rest in another Queen’s territory (with her permission) and try to recover as best they could from their wounds. While they waited for the assassins to try again, Tybalt took the chance to tell October what he had been trying to tell her before Etienne showed up: he was in love with the young changeling, had been since she gave him the hope chest, and was tired of waiting. He’d let October process and finish the job, but he wanted to court her.
That was the last moment of calm, as Samson and his assassins showed up and tried to kill them properly. Chelsea, thanks to some luck bending, was hiding nearby and they managed to jump from near death to the place that Raj had been—Annwn. However, it turned out that Riordan, the Duchess of Dreamer’s Glass, had a charm on Chelsea and they couldn’t bring her to safety with them. After getting a healer for Tybalt, who had for obvious reasons suffered the most damage, diffusing a reluctant attempt on Tybalt’s life by Raj that ended with Raj denouncing his father, saving May and her girlfriend from an attack by Samson, getting rid of an annoying stalker cop by pretending Tybalt was Toby’s boyfriend (the first instance of “Rand Stratford”), and learning that Etienne had gone into Riordan’s domain to get his daughter back on his own, everyone (annoying stalker cop included) was kidnapped and sent to Annwn by Riordan. Here, Etienne stabbed Samson and everyone learned (through Toby) that it had been the crazy cat who had kidnapped Chelsea and had been allied with Riordan in exchange for power—after all, if he could get Tybalt killed, Raj would be King and Samson would have the power he craved. Samson had kidnapped Chelsea, and Riordan was using the girl to keep a portal open to Annwn so she could colonize it and gain power. This would never happen. Samson was killed by iron, and the group got Chelsea away, leaving Riordan locked in Annwn with no way out. Before Samson died, however, he managed to gut Toby and she passed out shortly after everyone returned to the regular world from Annwn. Tybalt went to fetch Sylvester’s healer, Jin. He’s coming from just after having returned to Dreamer’s Glass with Jin.
Abilities/Additional Notes: First and foremost in Tybalt’s abilities is the shapeshifting. He’s a Cait Sidhe, and most of them can go from cat to humanoid fae to humanoid fae with cat claws/tail/ears/what have you. When he’s in bipedal form and has no illusions up to make him look human, he’s got tabby stripes in his dark brown hair, cat pupils, pointed ears, and he’s decidedly not human, although he’s freaking gorgeous in that terrifying and inhuman way. When his illusions are up, it’s plain brown hair, human ears, plain hazel eyes, and a normal human level of handsome. His cat form is a brown tabby with a tattered ear.
Tybalt can communicate with cats, which I think would carry over to the hellcat and other feline-like creatures. There might be communication barriers, and they won’t treat him as a regular cat would (your typical housecat listens to a King or Queen first and everyone else second), but he’d be able to at least attempt communication and get somewhere with it. This might go for other, non-Cait Sidhe who shift into a cat form, but that depends on how much of them is “cat” and how much of them is “person in cat form but still totally a person” more than likely. The only instance of this we get is when October’s turned into a lion, and it worked because she was a lion, so it’s a vague area. He’d be able to understand and speak with them even if they wouldn’t listen to him, at least. If this won’t work on the hellcats, just let me know.
The last “major” Cait Sidhe ability Tybalt has is access to the Shadow Roads. This is a Cait Sidhe-only place that works like a physical short cut between point A and point B. It’s not teleportation, but the literal taking of a road. However, the Shadow Roads need to be anchored to a place, and Adstring is decidedly not on the lists of places any King or Queen thought to connect before, so Tybalt can’t use them to get out. He could, feasibly, use it to get around the city after anchoring it to certain spots, but that would open him up to Animus hijinks and be mostly imperfect. Even if he could eventually use it in the city, he likely never would.
As King, he can also die a few times and just come back to life. This, obviously, will not carry over to Adstring, but it’s here for posterity.
Aside from the race-specific traits, Tybalt is a pureblood fae. This means that he is graceful, has more stamina than pretty much anyone, and immortal as long as no one attacks and kills him. He’s also a brutal fighter, and in the Bay Area he’s one of the best. He has to be in order to be a King. As a cat, he’s exactly the same. Just, y’know. A cat. He’s also a good actor, as most fae are. When you’re going to live forever among people who don’t believe your kind exist anymore, you need to be.
Sample Journal Post: [Tybalt is…not happy. Thankfully for all you mortals out there, he looks human, if pretty badly beaten up—hazel eyes with normal pupils, brown hair, normal ears, scratches everywhere, and if you can see his wrists, they look pretty badly burnt. His wounds don’t seem to be affecting him too much, however. He’s too pissed.]
I have better things to do than be kidnapped and spirited away to God knows where. [That was so weird to say. Oh well] There is a woman who is very likely dying back home, and I need to be there. I have no idea how I was taken or by whom, but I demand you send me back.
[His tone indicates that he’s not used to being denied.]
If you do not, I am not responsible for what happens to you.
Sample RP: Tybalt was decidedly unamused. Toby, his Toby, was lying in Dreamer’s Glass, half-dead and getting deader, and he was Maeve knows where with iron-burned wrists and ankles. He couldn’t use the Shadows, he didn’t feel anything remotely familiar, and he was surrounded by humans. Today could not possibly get any worse.
He leaned against the tree he’d found to sit beneath, wincing when the bark rubbed against a scrape on his neck wrong. He didn’t belong here. It was rare for him, but Tybalt wasn’t above admitting that he didn’t belong somewhere. This wasn’t Faerie. This wasn’t Earth. This was some hellhole, and he needed to get back. He needed to be there for Toby, either to kiss her when she woke up from Jin’s healing or mourn her when she didn’t.
Hopefully, she’d wake up.
The strange cellphone he’d been given by the strange human beeped, and Tybalt glanced down. Someone was replying to his demands. Perhaps it was whoever had taken him.
No. It was some human, telling him that he was stuck in this city thanks to someone named Animus. Several humans, actually. Apparently, Animus made a game of this, tormenting its captives and playing with them. Threatening and attempting to force Animus into sending him home would end badly. There was no way back. It sounded almost as bad as Blind Michael.
Growling low in his throat, Tybalt did his best not to scare the mortals responding to him and expressing concern about his injuries. It was all he could to do remain controlled and deflect their worries. He was fine. He’d heal slowly, but he’d be fine. Toby, however, would not, not if Animus had taken Jin when it had taken him. He didn’t see or smell her, but with the Shadows not responding to him, who knew if she was here?
A small calico came over, mewing and rubbing at his feet. That made Tybalt smile slightly. At least there were other cats here. A small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.