#( anonymous ) / ✖ take off the mask when you speak to me .

[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: Did you ever love Tai?

And there it is. The question she always dreads, the one thing that everyone has some opinion on. She knows how her so-called family viewed her after she left him -- everyone coming to their own conclusions without her.

"...He was..." Raven's voice is uncharacteristically soft, now -- far from the usual bark or snarl she displayed. "...a light for me, in all of my darkness. Like a beacon calling me home. No matter how I tried to scare him away, he never left. He never flinched from my sharp edges or baring my teeth. He deserved so much better."

But did she love him? No -- not in the past tense. No, she still loves him now. But that's far too painful to unpack.

send my muse anons about their family

[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: How did you fall in love with Tai? The two of you are so different and he doesn't really seem like he'd be your type

"He wasn't. He isn't."

For a moment, that seems to be the only response that the bandit queen is going to offer, before she fights that bile rising up in her chest back down to try again. "Taiyang was... undeterred. In a way that I had never experienced before, he was determined to know me. No matter how badly I tried to keep my feelings locked away, no matter how many times I bit and snarled at him. He always... just kept coming back. Always with that smile of his, that resolute positivity... like a sun that could never be extinguished."

But how? Even she couldn't say with certainty. One day she had simply woken up and realized that the sight of him with other women was irritating her in a way she hadn't felt before. Her soul had claimed him long before her lips ever did.

"He was persistent. I suppose that's the best answer I have for you."

semi-unprompted

[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: Are you able to use other weapons?

"I'd be a pretty fucking worthless huntress if I couldn't."

Although, that would have been far from the only reason she was a pretty pathetic excuse for a huntress. "Every huntsman has their preference, but a good one is trained in a variety. Never be caught with your guard down, and all that. I prefer blades, but I'm a decent enough shot and I will fight tooth and claw if I must. I've even played around with Harbinger, years ago."

semi-unprompted

[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: How did you deal with your subordinate who tried to kill your daughter?

"I would say she did a fairly good job of dealing with him all on her own. She doesn't need her mother to come and fight her battles for her."

Shay really had thought he was something special, first trying to hit on Yang and then -- after already being promptly put in his place -- trying to pick a fight with her. Raven hadn't needed to do anything: he had already made enough of an ass of himself. And she hardly thought he had been trying to kill Yang.

[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: Does the fact that Yang considers Summer to be her mom bother you?

Oh. Raven's jaw is set now, body language stiffening as if preparing an attack. Still, her hands make no move to reach for the sword at her hip, instead clenching and digging her talons against the palms of gloved hands.

"Summer Rose could never be Yang's true mother. She knows that, just as well as I do."

She has no right to be angry about this: she was the one who left. But to be erased from her daughter's life? To be hidden away, as if Yang should never know her? It burned her in ways she hadn't anticipated, a betrayal the likes of which she didn't believe Taiyang to be capable of.

send my muse anons about their family

[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: I still love you. I know what I said when we last saw each other, and I can't just cut ties like that. I'm just... so angry that there's this /distance/ now.

...Now, a person with a heart that wasn't turned to stone would have been secretly ashamed at the fact that this could apply to far too many people for her to settle on who it was immediately. The remark about distance makes it clearer in her mind, or so she thinks. The others who have such anger toward her have either long since accepted the distance, or never knew her to be close.

That left...

"...Two halves of one whole," is murmured, as if recalling some long hazy memory, before eyes shut and her head shakes. "Don't lie to me or to yourself. You meant what you said."

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[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: Did you know your parents?

"No, I didn't. Either Qrow and I were abandoned or our parents never owned up to it. Whatever the case, I'll cut you off from the next question: no, I don't care, and no, I don't want to know who they were. They didn't care to know us, why should I?"

semi-unprompted

[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: 🍁 + okay but did you have a relationship with both Tai and Summer at the same time?

"...I think we're done now."

Honestly, she doesn't particularly enjoy answering questions about her relationships at the best of times; when it comes to relationships that still tear at her heart so painfully? She shuts down twice as quickly as she normally would.

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[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: 🍁 + Would you have stayed, if you didn't know about Oz what you do?

Brothers, she hated this sort of question. Conjecture that she could never truly answer: if she hadn't know what she knew, she wouldn't be who she is now. How could she ever try to guess as to how that version of herself would have responded? What else could have happened in that time?

Breathing a heavy sigh, Raven taps her nails against the nearest surface thoughtfully. "...I can't say. I would love to assure you I would have, that we could have lived happily ever after, but I can't. I don't know who that person would have been. I'm not her."

send 🍁 + any question you’ve been curious to know about my muse

[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: 🍁 + how many of your team members did you sleep with?

"The luxury of knowledge, and this is how you use it." Raven gives a rather open roll of her eyes, exhaling a heavy sigh before refocusing on the question. "I would think at this point it's fairly common knowledge that I slept with Tai, considering Yang's continued existence. I've been somewhat open about my relationship with Summer Rose -- fleeting though it may have been. And obviously I didn't sleep with my brother. Now, do you have anything more interesting you would like to know, beyond judging my promiscuity?"

send 🍁 + any question you’ve been curious to know about my muse

[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: 🍁 + Were you the one who named Yang?

"I wasn't, no." She thinks to make a passing joke; a remark that everyone knows you shouldn't name things, else you will have a harder time letting them go. It dies on her tongue. "No, I don't know if that was Taiyang's idea or Qrow's. I never asked."

send 🍁 + any question you’ve been curious to know about my muse

[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: Why the rift between you and your twin?

"Qrow made his choices. He chose to follow Oz into a war that we cannot win, and it pisses him off that I decided I would rather try to survive." It's a watered down version of the truth: there was far more minutae to it, those little things that slowly broke down their relationship over the years. Once, they had been inseparable. Now? She cannot say where they stand, but it is not a place she wishes they were.

send my muse anons about their family

[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: Do you have any regrets when it comes to Summer?

Of course, she did. Didn't everyone, when someone you cared about disappeared from your life without a proper goodbye? Without answers? Even if she knew more about Summer's vanishing than the rest, she did not have all the answers -- and that left a bad taste in her mouth, one she couldn't talk about with anyone.

"I regret not being able to talk her out of... listening to Oz. I regret my part in her disappearance. I regret that..." That she never got to see her daughter grow up? That her death tore their little found family apart in a way that had proven irreparable? "...I don't even know."

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[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: If you had to choose between Tai or Yang, who would you choose?

"What a stupid line of questioning."

The answer comes a bit more quickly than she would have liked or expected, and although she cannot quite bring it to her lips -- doesn't want to think of the possibility -- she knows that Tai would agree. Instead of the truth, she rolls her eyes and spits, "Neither of them. They're huntsmen, both of them -- if they can't save themselves, then they die. That's the world we live in."

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[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: If you had to, would you kill your brother?

"I don't appreciate being told I have to do anything."

Spoken like a true pain-in-the-ass, it's a rather blatant way of avoiding the question. Let the world think that she despises Qrow -- hell, let Qrow believe it himself. If he did, that would just show how far apart they truly had grown. Raven would not kill Qrow, not unless her or her daugher's life came into play. And should that ever be the case, she knows that he would be far too willing to sacrifice himself.

send my muse anons about their family

[varnaedhar]

@anonymous: Did you know your parents?

"No."

Qrow had brought it up, now and again. Asking if she wished she had known their parents. Her answer always remained the same: if they didn't care enough to give a fuck about her, then why should she care about who they were?

"I didn't, I don't, and I don't care to. I've already got enough family to deal with, I don't need any more."

send my muse anons about their family