#I love the jacques chapters because he’s not an ass

[the-name-is-loser]

Bro can anyone read this fic and tell me it’s not just me seeing that everyone is going batshit insane over… an asshole??

[gold-rhine]

What the guard dogs are for

There are some things you never want to hear your secret years-long crush saying, such as “I’m getting married,” “I think we should stay friends” or “I’m the destroyer of the present order, the one who shall judge all gods, and the foe of humanity.” Wriothesley’s very bad, no good day of trying to unravel conspiracy theories, fumbling a tea party with Chief Justice and learning Teyvat’s ancient history and vishap lore from the leading expert lector.

Genre: angst and misinformation campaign

Characters: Neuvillette\Wriothesley, Enjou

Warnings: sfw in a sense that nothing even remotely sexy happens, but there is dissociation, ptsd episode, brief mention of self-harm, and Enjou doing same thing he does in canon, which is not quite gaslighting? Anyway, let me know if you feel any other warnings need to be added.

Chapters: 1 out of 2. Wordcount: ~8k

With his morning tea, Wriothesley riffled through the reports as usual. Nothing was marked urgent, so he started with the most boring part, - the official ones. The production numbers, coupon consumption statistics, everything is prepared for Neuvillette’s upcoming inspection, which was mostly a formality, but he would want it to go as smoothly as possible. 

Reports from the surface informants. Traveler stirring up a ruckus with the research institute… Well, about time, that pit couldn’t go on forever pretending that massive explosions are just a part of science routine. 

Next, creatures called “vishaps” appeared recently in Erinnyes Forest. These vishaps are apparently a lesser form of dragons, and connected to Liyue vishaps, also lizard-like creatures, though in Liyue they are aligned with geo, not hydro. Non-hostile to humans, aside from one accident. But in that one they fought back against the hunters sent by nobles to capture them as novelty pets. So the only regrettable part was that they didn’t get the nobles, only their lackeys. For shame. 

Next, there are gangs with new lingo going around, which generally was a good thing to pay attention to as they usually ended up in Meropide. Wriothesley frowned, reading the lingo translations, as he suddenly felt old. “Trendy Zaytun Peach” was something he’d got called for taking it up the ass a lot in his days, but now it’s a hip and cool nickname with the youngsters. 

Informal internal reports. Victims of beret society are rehabilitating fine, preparations for the wedding are underway. Good. Albert, a new guy from the shop, is sending him tea. Quite good tea at that. Obviously a bribe attempt, though he didn’t ask for anything as of yet, so it was basically free. Everything was fair in love and bribes as far as Wriothesley was concerned. You could throw everything at the feet of your beloved as to the feet of your targeted bureaucrat, and receive nothing and you would have no claim to complain. Now, the fact he wouldn’t take it into account when making decisions about their proposals, and sometimes would even consider it a negative, was a different matter altogether. 

He perked up reading the last report. There was a new conspiracy, whose agenda was not very clear, as they were more careful than the others, but the gist was something against Neuvillette, so Wriothesley was tracking it for some time. It was hard to get anything concrete though, as they were pretty good at keeping a low profile, but now apparently one of the members by the name of Jacque got into the Fortress on unrelated charges, and he was reportedly not the brightest shank on the block. 

Wriothesley made the arrangements. 

Half an hour later, he happened to stroll by when Jacque was being beaten up by three guys in the shadowy corner. 

“Hey, what’s going on here? Leave him alone!” he said, walking up to them.

“Oh yeah?”, said one of the bullies, turning to him. “Well, make me!”

They were paid double for the pretend fight. It might have been an overkill, usually Wriothesley would go for just scaring them off without combat. Especially because anyone who’s been in the Fortess for some time or had a head on their shoulders would understand that nobody would try to openly fight the Duke outside of the fight club arena. But Jacque was as fresh as they get, allegedly stupid, and it was Wriothesley’s first chance at any info in two whole months, so he decided to make it as impressive as possible.

He went as easy on the guys as he could, they theatrically threw the fight and retreated. 

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked, kneeling next to the guy in the corner and putting his hand on his shoulder for emphasis. 

“Yeah, yeah, I think I’m fine,” Jacque muttered, shaking his head. 

“Why did they attack you?”

“They don’t want me to spread the truth...” Jacque said with heavy emphasis. “But uh, thanks for helping me out.” 

“No need to thank me. I feel bad enough that honest folk like yourself get picked on in MY Fortress. That’s not how I want to run my place, so it’s only natural that I stand up for you.”

It took a moment, but finally the guy gasped.

“Your fortress? Are you… the Duke?”

At least he knew what “Duke” is.

“Yeah,” Wriothesley grinned, turning up the charm. “And allow me to get you a couple of drinks to compensate for the rude welcome you’ve received so far.”

He got them to the Coupon Cafeteria, where best meals were already arranged, and generously poured alcohol into the poor guy, listening to the story of his life and misfortunes that brought him to the Fortress, nodding empathetically. He didn’t ask about Neuvillette at all, to not spook the target, trusting that he will come to this anyway, and finally his patience was rewarded. 

“You know, you’re good!” the guy said drunkenly after some time, clasping his hand on Wriothesley's shoulder, which he beared stoically, grinning with all friendliness in the world. 

“You know, they say we can’t talk to you because you’re bought by that lizard, but I think you’re a good guy. You just don’t know all the facts!”

“Which are?”

The guy leaned closer to him and lowered his voice to a dramatic whisper. “Neuvillette is an evil dragon!”

Wriothesley choked on a laughter, which was way too obvious to turn into cough even for the dunce this stupid. 

“No, you don't understand! Dragons were enemies of humanity that Celestia conquered. But they come back when killed! They reincarnate! He is a hydro dragon who was reborn in a human form so he could more easily trick us!”

Wriothesley blinked, remembering Neuvillette standing under the rain, and the old children’s song. “Hydro dragon, Hydro dragon, don’t cry….”

“He put our rightful archon Furina on that trial, right? No one else saw the verdict, so he pretended she was declared guilty. He forced her to abdicate and took the power for himself!”

Wriothesley realized long ago that Neuvilette, of course, was not human. It was clear to any idiot who talked to him for longer than a minute in an informal setting, not to mention a lifespan of at least five hundred years. But there were a lot of options other than “evil dragon”. There were old gods who did not receive archonhood, but instead decided to serve the archon, like Liyue’s adepti, and he always assumed Neuvillette was of the same kind. But the idea that Iudex was some kind of evil monster with a grudge against humanity was ridiculous. Especially when he showed up at the Fortress and saved the entire Fountaine and Wriothesley’s own hide from the flood.

“Really?”

“Yeah! We should restore our true archon Furina to her rightful throne!”

Furina’s insurrection? Interesting. Wouldn’t peg her for someone capable of this type of conspiracy.

“And did Furina herself give us her blessing?”

“She can’t speak publicly, as this monster threatens her.”

Hmm, inconclusive on Furina’s involvement.

He spent more time with the drunk Jacque, trying to get more details, but couldn’t get much more than unhinged ramblings on how evil the dragons are and how insidious it was for a dragon to pretend to be a human. He had to leave to prepare to Neuvillette's arrival the next day.

_____

Neuvillette stepped out of Opera Epiclese into the rain and slowed down his pace to prolong the sensation. It was a bit of what humans called guilty pleasure, as he felt guilty from inflicting rain on humans for his own pleasure. Though from his understanding, humans felt guilty because they saw this pleasure as something bad for themselves. Even if often this supposed harm made no sense to Neuvillette. Eating too much food until a human's stomach hurt was at least understandable to see as such, but he heard one of palais’ secretaries say that romance novels were her guilty pleasure. How could humans feel guilty for something as simple as reading? He stopped and asked her why she would feel guilty for reading, because melusines kept telling him that socializing with humans is very easy, you just need to ask them questions about themselves and let them talk about what they like. Well, it didn’t seem to work, as the secretary stumbled, started hyperventilating and emanated levels of panic and anxiety comparable to someone in the defendant’s chair. Sensing human emotions did not actually help Neuvillette in communicating with them, as he could not discern the reasons. He asked her if she perhaps came into possession of any cursed texts? He could generally sense the stench of corruption and there was nothing on her, but there was always a possibility that it was a curse he could not register. She panicked even more and vehemently denied. At this point he decided to give up on socializing, as it was obviously very distressing for humans, but felt obliged to tell her that if she ever did read anything she felt was cursed, to inform him. He hoped it would assuage her fear of reading. She thanked him, stuttering, and after that day avoided him at all costs. 

The rain was a compromise solution in any case. Neuvillette always felt a bit strained and uncomfortable in his body, but after obtaining full dragonhood and most of the memories of past lives, the human shape felt downright stifling. He now remembered thousands of years of being something much bigger, long coils that could easily crush the spire of Opera Epiclese. Now, when he looked at his own reflection, it was hard to comprehend that this small and ridiculous frame was actually him. In addition, all of his memories and instincts called him to be submerged in water. But even with his poor understanding of humans, he realized that seeing the Iudex floating in the river would alarm humans much more than him standing under the rain. So rain was the closest solution he could get at his position. 

He summoned rain instinctively, to be as close to engulfed in water as possible. It was a bit embarrassing that even humans noticed it and composed a rhyme, even if that rhyme was inaccurate. He didn’t cry, as vishaps didn’t cry at all and even his current human shaped body didn’t have tear ducts. The closest he could pinpoint to human experience, as he understood it, was being stressed and desire to be comforted, for which water was his best remedy.

And currently he was quite stressed, looking over the Fontaine laws in an attempt to revise them. The current system that treated justice as theater was clearly imperfect, which he realized long ago. But he never saw himself as authorized to change it, as humans were the responsibility of the archon and even without it, he was well aware he didn’t understand humans, so he knew it wasn’t his place to question the human justice system, to which he was only a temporary guest. But now, as fontanias became part of Teyvat after his decision, and so, a part of his responsibility as Teyvat’s god of life, even if the usurper tried to deny him, he couldn’t ignore the need for change any longer. The problem was that he did not understand humans any better, so it was very stressful to try and restructure their systems of governance. 

He extended a hand, catching raindrops on his palm, when he noticed a silhouette near the elevator to the Fortress, and stopped himself from visibly controlling the weather. 

Wriothesley caught his eyes and grinned, approaching him at brisk pace, umbrella over his head.

“Greetings, Monsieur.”

“Good morning, Your Grace.”

Wriothesley always somehow managed to make a “Monsieur” sound more impactful than Neuvillette could “Your Grace”, despite one being a noble title and another just a polite greeting. 

“Would you like to…?” Wriothesley extended his arm with an umbrella, without actually covering Neuvillette with it. In the past, as a part of playing a role of “normal human”, Neuvillette accepted such offers, though there were not many aside from Wriothesley who dared to approach him with it. But now, as he was a full-fledged dragon, at the height of his power and influence in this land, surely he could afford to discard this role? Surely he could afford to be himself at least in this?

“No, thank you,” he said, smiling and trying to sound as cordial as possible, so that Wriothesley would not think it was a slight against him personally. “Don’t take it as offense, but I actually like being under the rain.”

The Duke smiled back, shaking his head.

“No offense taken, but why didn’t you say it last time? I felt like an idiot forcing you under an umbrella.”

“Really?” Neuvillette perked up, falling in step with the human. “You could tell that I…”

“Hated it? Yeah, for sure.”

“....prefered not to have an umbrella.”

Wriothesley let out a low, guttural bark of laughter that somehow got to the dragon despite him not being interested in humans in general.

“Not only I could tell I disturbed you, but I had to walk on the flowerbed to get to you, and then I trailed dirt in the Palais while everyone here glared at me for the audacity. Meanwhile you walked on the same dirt, but stayed pristine!”

“I’m sorry for…”

“Hey, don’t apologize. I’m just kidding, don’t worry.”

Neuvillette met the greyish blue eyes of thawed ice directly and sensed that he was truly not bothered, which didn’t make much sense. But Wriothesley was one of the very few humans who was not scared in the dragon’s presence. He was, probably, the only one who emanated only positive emotions at their meetings. Neuvillette mostly encountered negative reactions in his daily life at the trials, so he could not tell apart which positive feelings exactly that he read from Wriothesley due to the lack of exposure. But perhaps…

“I wouldn’t want you to feel unwelcome at the Palais,” Neuvillette said after a short pause.

Wriothesley grinned with a careless shrug.

“Then I will be there, even if the rest of your bureaucrats make faces. As I said, don’t worry.”

Neuvilette frowned, but didn’t see much point in pressing this further. After a confrontation with Navia, the dragon realized that his lack of understanding of humans hindered him, instead of making him truly impartial. Especially now that he was de facto in charge of the entire Fontaine government. And practice showed that only direct interaction with humans could give valuable experience, as watching from the Iudex seat did not allow him a nuanced understanding. 

So perhaps, if Wriothesley was a rare human who was not scared of him, and he proved rational and trustworthy in the years they knew each other, Neuvillette could confide in his true nature and maybe ask for advice in understanding humanity?

“Perhaps staying for some tea would make up for this past offense?”

Wriothesley stumbled for a moment.

“Seriously?” He sounded as casual and ironic as usual, but the surprised burst of positive emotions from him was bright and obvious. “After all these years you finally decided to deign my humble office with your presence?”

“It’d be a completely unofficial visit, of course.”

“Sure, sure. It was never my secret plot to bribe you with a tea party, trust me, even I realize my tea is not that good.”

His voice was ironic, but for a moment Neuvillette could see his crooked grin turn into a genuine smile. So, reassured that he was not imposing, Iudex nodded and followed the human into the Fortress’ entrance.

_________

The inspection itself was mostly a formality. The Court of Fontaine technically had no direct authority over Meripode, but it provided guards and substantial resources, and so it had a right to oversee the use of these assets. The actual budgeting was done on the regular in behind the scenes reports though, as the data was not visible in the in person visit. Still, it was a time honored tradition that got Neuvilette to show up regularly.

“Take a seat. It will take me a minute to make tea.”

Neuvilette gracefully sat down on the visitor’s chair In Wriothesley office, folding his hands on the cane. He still sat with a ramrod straight back and perfect posture, but there was a certain lightness to him today, which was hard to put into words. 

“The inspection is over, yet you are still nervous.”

Wriothesley knew he had a poker face good enough to cover it, yet Neuvillette saw it anyway. He had theorized for a long time that the Iudex could sense emotions, but usually he would not acknowledge it directly like this. “I wasn't nervous about the inspection to begin with. But inviting a high and mighty Iudex himself to the tea for years and then disappointing him when he finally accepts would be a devastating faux de pas. They will mock me on the first pages of all the papers tomorrow.”

Neuvillette frowned slightly.

“I must underline that I’m not here in any official capacity, and I would hope I’m talking to Wriothesley, not the Warden or the Duke. If you agree, I would ask that we leave the titles at the door.”

“No, of course,” Wriothesley, who had fantasized about leaving titles at the door and then clothes on the floor for actual years, said quickly, frantically recalculating how he could turn the tea party to wine tasting, which best wines he had confiscated in his storage and how he could make turning on the gramophone and then maybe leaning against the edge of the table in front of Neuvillette look natural and smooth. “Absolutely. I was just joking anyway, don’t mind it.”

“Ah, I see. I apologize, I’m unfortunately prone to missing humorous intent, so I appreciate your clarification.”

With how far the Iudex went out of his way to assure people of his good intentions in informal situations, Wriothesley really didn’t understand how everyone found him so intimidating. Especially because he very often had to interact with assholes in positions of power who did try to intimidate him on purpose and the contrast was very apparent. Neuvillette projected an aura of power without really wanting to, and then tried to over-explain himself to make others feel at ease. His earnest awkwardness was something like the clumsiness of a huge beast like an elephant trying not to step on the gaggle of kittens at his feet.

“In any case, there is nothing to be nervous about. After all, tea is liquid, and it’s really hard to make liquids unpleasant. So far I think only Fonta truly managed it.” Neuvillette drummed his fingers on the table and glanced at Wriothesley. “To be frank, if crimes against water could be prosecuted, Fonta would receive life in prison.”

Wriothesley snorted. “So no sugar in your tea, I take it?”

“No, thank you,” Iudex said politely and then, after a short pause, “And to clarify, I was not serious. There is nothing wrong with people liking sugary drinks, of course. I was just making an attempt at a joke.”

He really was horrendously bad at pretending to be a human. How could anyone hear him talk and still believe he’s a scheming manipulator was beyond ridiculous.

“No, I got it. It was a good joke,” The Duke grinned, placing a teacup in front of Neuvillette and sitting down across the table with his own.

Neuvillette gave him a graceful nod with a little smile and picked up his cup, giving it a swirl before tasting.

“Hmm. Interesting. Poignant. Bitter,” he said thoughtfully, tilting his head. 

Wriothesley was about to mention that this sort was not usually bitter, but Iudex continued. 

“Not by nature, but forced by circumstances. Not nearly enough water to be nourished, so it had to adapt and conserve strength, letting leaves seen as unimportant to die and concentrate on survival of the main branches. But there is not just hunger… there is a dream of rain. An ache of something not ever known, but yearned, longed for, without realizing what it is. But then…” Neuvillette closed his eyes for a moment. “It happened. There is a memory of luminous joy of water not gathered by mere drops, but drank in full, overwhelming, a feast after a life of fighting for scraps of morning dew. It had tasted rain at least once in the end.”

Wriothesley put his own cup down, leaning forward in disbelief.

“No way. This was a harvest from a drought year and it’s normally a mild sort, considered unusually strong in this season. How could you know this? Are you cheating?”

“You’re welcome to test me with other samples,” Neuvillette said with an air of a magnanimous ruler granting a boon and put the teacup down with a delicate clink. 

“Oh, I’m taking you up on your word, trust me,” the Duke grinned, but then paused. He didn’t want to spoil the mood, but he remembered how strongly Neuvillette felt about the perceived melusines conspiracy. Wriothesley had to tell him about the evil dragon idiots just to make sure he’s not thrown off balance later. That’s what the guard dogs are for, after all.

“Actually, before we move forward with testing your psychic tea reading abilities, there is something concerning official business that I think you should know. And then we can forget it completely.”

Neuvillette inclined his head with a small smile.

“There is a small group of conspirators, - and I must reiterate, it’s very small - who operate on the ridiculous idea that… uh, that you’re some kind of an evil dragon who schemed to overthrow Furina.”

Neuvillette's smile froze.

“You don’t have to worry about it, really. It’s negligibly small, and well, anyone with a working brain would not believe that you’re a monster in disguise.”

Iudex was silent for some time, not meeting Wriothesley’s eyes.

“Are melusines implicated in this?” he said finally.

“No. No, there’s no connection to them in this stupid theory.”

“Good. That's good. They do love living with humans so much.”

Wriothesley suspected that Iudex was taking things kind of out of proportion again.

“Listen, it’s really nothing…”

“No, no, I understand. It would be so unacceptably horrifying for humans to learn their ruler is a… monster.”

Neuvillette's voice wavered, but his face was impartial, strict, previous lightness gone completely. Wriothesley saw his hands tighten their grip on the handle of his cane a moment before he abruptly stood up.

“I must apologize for impropriety, but I have important business in the Palais which was inappropriate for me to neglect for so long. I must beg your leave to depart.”

Wriothesley stood up too, scraping to understand what he did wrong.

“Wait, it’s not…”

“Thank you for your time, Your Grace.”

Wriothesley shut his mouth, the title feeling like a slap for the first time in his life. The formality and politeness somehow only made it worse. He took a deep breath and willed himself to sound calm.

“I hope you have a nice evening, Monsieur Iudex.”

Neuvillette left in what for his usual dignified pace could be considered a hurry. Wriothesley followed him without being seen, partly to make sure he doesn’t get bothered by inmates and partly on an instinct to investigate. 

At the Fortress’ entrance, he watched Neuvillette walk under the rain, lifting his head upward. The blue strands of his long hair glowed and so did his coat-tails. They extended, shining brilliant bioluminescent blue, trailing behind the Chief Justice, in a moment looking like fish’s fins, then the next - as colossal snake’s coils. Sea waves crashed against the ridge without any wind, rising high, reaching to a lonely glowing figure of Iudex. With bated breath, Wriothesley watched Neuvillette extend a hand, as if catching raindrops - and rain stopped mid-flight in the air, lingering over his palm, waves frozen cresting over the earth. The raindrops gathered in a shuddering spheres, and then stretched upwards, against all laws of gravity.  Wriothesley’s heart skipped a beat as Neuvillette closed his fist and the rain flew backwards to the skies.

Wriothesley stormed back into his office and frantically searched through the reports, pages flying about, until he found the one about vishaps. He looked at the photos, seeing similarities he would never look for before. The dark blue color of vishap’s hide was nearly identical to Neuvillette’s attire, but that was small beans, easily written off as coincidence. Their eyes, bright magenta with white vertical slice of a pupil, resembled Iudex, but there was room for debate, as his eyes were much paler, lilac merging into gentle blue instead of a bright pink, even as white vertical pupil was so similar. What really struck Wriothesley after all this, was actually the little blue feather at the side of the head of both vishaps and Neuvillette. It was identical and looked so… deliberate. It had to be chosen and placed precisely like this. 

Still, this was not enough. He needed more evidence. He needed… he needed answers.

He walked to Jacque's block as quickly as he could without alarming inmates, but when he got to the conspirator’s room, Jacque was sleeping on the bed and a man was sitting on the chair next to him, reading a book. He looked up when Wriothesley walked in and stood up, clumsily dropping the book. He was tall and gangly, had dark hair, Inazuman features and light brown eyes behind the glasses. 

“Who are you?” Wriothesley was really not in the mood for playing games.

“Well, my organization caught wind that you are interested in learning some… historical information, and our poor Jacque is really not the best source, which is why I’m here to answer any questions you have,” the man gave him a groveling smile. “You can call me Enjou.”

“Not here. In my office. Follow me.”

When they got there, Enjou whistled musingly.

“Uh, what a nice office! Must be a pretty sweet gig. I wish I had an office instead of slinking in dump ruins all the time.” He sighed theatrically. “So, I assume your main questions are on the vishap situation. I…”

“Wait,” Wriothesley said, walking up to one of his wall cabinets. “You can’t expect me to just believe you on your word.”

“Oh, of course, of course! You’re free to rough me up a bit first. Maybe a little bit of torture? But only a little bit, I’ve got a glass jaw, haha!”

Wriothesley didn’t live so long as an undisputed champion of fight club to not recognize a freak who gets off on pain. He grimaced, walking up to the table where Enjou was already trying to rifle through the papers. He stopped with an apologetic grin and put his hands up. Wriothesley put a glass vial on the table.

“Drink.”

Enjou raised his eyebrows.

“Are we dining and wining first or?...”

“It’s a truth serum,” it was a secret project of the Sumeru Akademiya, before the sages were overthrown. Dendro Archon reportedly could read the thoughts of people, and sages were trying to replicate the effect at least partially. Wriothesley came into possession of it after using his network to get the sages connected to the needed people in Fontaine institute, as Fontaine was at the cutting edge of mech technology and the sages were apparently building an artificial god. Didn’t pan out for them, but the serum worked. Wriothesley was sure of it, because he tried it on himself first.

“Oh! How exciting! How does it work? Will it perhaps burn my insides in agonizing pain if I lie?”

“Drink,” Wriothesley said through gritted teeth.

Enjou smiled and drank the vial in one shot.

“Well, nothing is burning so far, but the evening is young, haha,” he said, smacking his lips.

Wriothesley took a deep breath.

“Why are you here?”

“Huh? What do you mean? To explain the history to you, as I said.”

“Because of the goodness of your heart? What’s your agenda? Your goal?”

Enhou cleared his throat.

“Well, first of all, I do believe in uncovering and spreading so-called “forbidden” knowledge. But with your particular case can you really question my agenda? I didn’t come to you first. You were the one who sought us out. I didn’t even want to be here! I was doing my own thing without knowing about you, to be honest! But, well, I am in an organization with some unfortunate morons who thought that recruiting a convenient idiot and then sending him into underworld prison to make sure he isn’t heard is a great plan. And then when the Warden takes note of the idiot and gets him to blabber, these same morons go, Enjou, you have to get there, because you’re a vishap expert! Ugh.” 

Enjou shook his head in seemingly sincere frustration.

“But um, yeah, I’m not trying to recruit you or anything. We know how you’ve disposed of House of Hearth agents and how you generally obstruct Fatui’s activity, and we just don't want you to do the same to us. Because we’re not your enemy! So I’m here to provide you with the necessary context to see that.”

Wriothesley drummed his fingers on the table.

“Okay. Start talking about Neuvilette and vishaps.”

“Well, Neuvilette is a Hydro Dragon, that should be obvious. To clarify, Hydro Dragon here means Hydro Dragon Sovereign, because technically all hydro vishaps are hydro dragons. If you didn’t know, which is understandable, as you’re more of a fighter type and not a bookworm like myself, haha, vishaps are primordial elemental creatures, original rulers of this land and mortal foes of humanity. Long before Archons, there were Dragon Sovereigns in charge of each element. Then there was a war with Celestia, specifics of which are not widely known, but we do know that Celestia won, dragons were largely eradicated and the huge chunks of powers of Sovereigns were taken from them and given to the Archons. Hydro Sovereign was killed.” 

Enjou made a dramatic pause, before leaning forward with a grin. “But you see, vishaps reincarnate. Neuvillette is a Hydro Sovereign reborn in a human shape. There was actually an Inazuman prophecy about it, recorded in the Byakuyakoku Collection. That Hydro Dragon will descend in a human form, and it specifically mentions a cane. This really baffles me, to be honest. How could they predict the cane? Why does he even need a cane? Surely not because of any weakness, he’s an immortal dragon, 500 years is very young for him. And the records say when Neuvilette took his position as the Iudex some 400 years ago, he already had a cane. Was he born with it? Like, had he sprung fully formed, with a cane? Did he pick it up as, I don't know, honorary agreement with a prophecy? Or were his fashion choices actually predetermined to the degree that the prophecy knew them millenia ago?”

“Get back on track,” Wriothesley growled.

“Oh, sorry. Hmm, this serum works by forcing you to spell your thoughts out loud, yes? Well, then it’s not my fault I’m even more blabbering than usual!”

Wriothesley clasped his hands together and said slowly, carefully watching Inazuman’s reaction. “Even if he is a hydro sovereign dragon, as you say, this alone does not make him evil, as your conspiracy claims.”

Enjou fixed his glasses. He really had the hands of a bookworm, no work calluses or fighting scars. But there were spots of reddened, peeling skin that looked like burns that didn’t get to fully heal before getting burned again.

“Did you miss the “mortal foe of humanity” bit? But okay, sure. This is Fontaine after all, presumption of innocence and all that. I mean, I can’t read his thoughts to tell you under oath that he’s evil, so don’t take me to court, hehe!” Enjou grinned, clearly pleased at his own joke. “But I can tell what I know and ask some questions. My first question is why, after losing a war and presumably being killed by Celestia, would an ancient dragon god want to serve a servant of Celestia? The Archon, who rules with what is actually his own power? Unless he had some sort of agenda, perhaps? And come to think of it, why would Hydro Archon put a mortal foe of humanity into a position of such institutional power?”

“Are you implying Neuvilette forced Furina to give him the position of Iudex?”

“Well, I wasn’t here!” Enjou raised his hands defensively. “But why else would he become the Iudex?”

“There are higher beings and gods serving archons in other nations. Like Liyue adepti serving Rex Lapis.”

“Morax was known as the prime of the adepti. None of them could compare with him at strength. Same with yokai and Baal in Inazuma, she was the strongest by far. It’s natural that they would accept servitude. But here…” Enjou glanced at Wriothesley with a sly smile. “If you had to make a bet on a direct fight between Neuvillette and Furina, who would you bet on? Come on, I know tales that her own court would not listen to her until the Iudex tapped his cane.”

Wriothesley couldn’t really argue with this. When the Primordial Sea started breaking out, he himself sent for Neuvillette and didn’t even think to ask the actual Archon.

“In that case, why didn’t he just kill her immediately? Why would he play the judge?”

“Well, you see, he would not get his power back from just killing her. It would just pass to the next Archon. No, the Hydro Archon had to destroy her own throne. And running out the ruler requires a long game, as you know very well yourself, You Grace.”

Wriothesley kept a calm face, but something must have given him away, as Enjou grinned predatorily.

“Next set of facts and questions. You know of the infamous Archon trial, of course? When it was revealed that fontanian people are actually oceanids, given human shape by the previous hydro archon, Egeria? And the prophecy of the flood works because Primordial Sea waters dissolve fontanians into their oceanid forms. Well, the flood actually came. Why were fontanians not dissolved?”

“I’m sure you’ll tell me that.”

“Hehe, yes. It was because Neuvillette turned them into real humans with his powers of Hydro Sovereign. How generous of him, yeah? The question is, why did it take him so long? It’s been 500 years, and yet fontanians were made human only minutes before the flood.”

Despite a feeble bookworm posturing, there was a shadow of unhinged madness in his eyes, dangerous enough that in any other case Wriothesley would cut contact. But the stakes were too high right now. He needed to get all the information he could out of this lunatic.

“You might also remember that on the same trial it was proven that Furina is not a Hydro Archon. And I can tell you that the actual Archon, Focalors, was in the Oracle machine the whole time. Sorry, I’m not even trying to pronounce that full name, haha!”

The urge to punch this bastard was overwhelming, but Wriothesley kept himself in check, mostly because he could tell he was being baited into it and he didn’t want to give the piece of shit the satisfaction.

“Anyway, Neuvilette had an audience with her right after a trial, and as result she killed herself and gave him power back. You see, Hydro Archon doesn’t have the ability to turn oceanids into real humans. All of you were just… things, playing at being humans,” Enjou said with a smirk that looked more fascinated than mocking. “But Hydro Sovereign, the original god of life, does have the power to do so. And he also, conveniently, has control over the Primordial Sea, which you, Your Grace, already know as he stopped the flood in your own Fortress.”

Wriothesley raised an eyebrow and Enjou smiled with a shrug.

“Again, I was not there! But I do know Hydro Sovereign controls the Primordial Sea, and that there is an entrance to the Sea in the Meripode Fortress. I also know that there was some emergency in the Fortress, where inmates were told to run as close to the surface as possible, and then Monsieur Iudex visited and the disaster was somehow avoided.”

Wriothesley frowned. 

“If he was really a mortal enemy of humanity, why wouldn’t he just let the gates of Meripode break and the flood happen right there and then? We would all be gone and he wouldn’t need to lift a finger. Instead he ran to help when I… when the Fortress called.”

“And what would that achieve? He still wouldn’t get his power back,” Enjou shrugged dismissively and then smiled, almost wistfully. 

“No, you know what I would do if *I* was the Hydro Sovereign with an ability to take human form? And if the Archon who held my power hostage was relatively weak AND had the prophecy involving a flood of the Sea I control? Well, I’d infiltrate human society, take a position of high authority and make sure the humans not only see me as the personification of law and justice, but also respect me more than their own Archon. And when the prophecy deadline is coming up, I’d make sure I have people loyal to me in some key positions. Such as Royal Duelist… and the Warden of the Fortress.”

“He didn’t make me the Warden,” Wriothesley gritted out. 

“No, but he did make you the Duke, didn’t he?” Enjou smirked with a wink. “Our sources say the Court was not thrilled to give the highest noble title to you. And if the Iudex did not throw his own weight behind it, it would have never come to pass. How generous of him.”

It was true, Wriothesley’s own informants reported that the Court loathed to give him a title, let alone as high as the Duke. Neuvillette was the only one who fought for him and fought hard, because usually Iudex’s one word was enough to make a decision, but here the stalemate lasted for two months. They wanted to compromise and give him the viscount, but Iudex wouldn’t budge, so in the end, they caved.

Wriothesley never asked Neuvillette for the title. Neuvillette never mentioned what he did for the Warden and never dropped anything even as close as a hint of asking anything in return.

Unless you see it as a part of centuries long game, where mundane favors didn’t matter, but being called first to the access of the Primordial Sea did.

“Ah, you’re starting to get it, don’t you?” Enjou sensed blood in the water, like a proper shark would. “Then I would orchestrate a public court hearing to absolutely discredit the current ruler and corner the actual Archon. And when Focalors is forced to talk to me…. I would make a bargain. Saving the lives of all fontanians in exchange of getting my full power back and Focalors dying. Isn't it ironic that the dragon playing human was the one to turn human-shaped water things into actual humans?"

Enjou leaned back against his chair, grinning with satisfaction.

“And then I’d have an entire country loyal to me as a ruler, which would make a great foothold to use for attacking Celestia.”

Wriothesley took a deep breath.

“You really expect me to take you on your word? You might believe it yourself, which will pass the truth serum, but the word of a lunatic is not evidence.”

“Oh, of course not! I would never expect you to take my lowly word for it. Instead, why don’t you take Monsieur Iudex’s word?”

Enjou made a dramatic gesture of spilling a heap of conches onto the table. Wriothesley raised his eyebrows, when the other man poked one of them awkwardly.

“Now that I have reclaimed one of the Seven Authorities from the hands of the usurpers, I have regained my true form,” a calm voice that was undoubtedly Neuvillette, said out of nowhere. “I am now a fully fledged dragon, powerful enough to judge the rest of the gods. My final destiny is to judge the Usurper-King in the heavens above.”

“This could be faked,” Wriothesley said automatically, just to argue, but his heart already fell.

“You wound me! These are his words, and I spent an entire night fishing them out for you, I’ll have you know. It’s quite hard to capture this. You’re welcome to listen to all of them and see for yourself.”

Almost against his will, Wriothesley reached out and touched one of the conches.

“…I shall fulfill my vow to judge all of The Seven in turn, even if the sky should fall and the ground give way.”

Wriothesley took an abrupt breath through his teeth. Enjou sighed and stood up.

“I think it’s better for you to listen to this alone. After, you’re welcome to reach out to us, but please don’t make any hasty decisions. I’ll see you soon, Your Grace!”

Enjou walked down the stairs, and by the time Wriothesley got to them, there was no one there. The Duke couldn’t bring himself to focus on that though. Instead, he walked up to one of the wall cabinets and took out a bottle of whiskey he was saving up as a possible gift.

He didn’t bother with the glass. He fell down into the chair in front of the conches and clenched his fingers on the bottle, icy veins springing up from under them. He took a sip and touched another conch.

“…my grievances with the usurpers have yet to be settled... They owe a debt of blood that shall not be forgotten.”

He drank, staring blindly into the distance, and listened, and the quiet words burned worse than whiskey sliding down his throat. He caught himself on a familiar thought. “This can’t be happening. This is too monstrous.” The same feverish thoughts he had when he discovered the truth about his foster parents.

As if by now he shouldn’t have learned that nothing is too monstrous in this world.

“As a survivor of the dragon race who has regained my full dragonhood, I must fulfill my oath and obligations even if it means returning all the water in the oceans back to the heavens.”

It really did sound exactly like Neuvillette. Wriothesley tried to find the lie, something that sounded fake, but not only the voice, but the cadence and word choice fit. And it sounded calm, impartial as usual too. And then there were hydro vishaps appearing in Erinnyes…

Fuck, was it really that easy to fool him? Was he really this big of a fool? He learned to distrust sweet words and warm smiles, and he was so sure that he wouldn’t get caught in the same lies ever again, even if he sacrificed his ability to love for this. But all it took was a seeming opposite, direct and harsh, too cold and intimidating to appear manipulative, but endearingly awkward just sometimes, just enough to make him believe that… That there was something true and clear in this rotten world. That he could trust in *someone*.

“Nothing will stop me from rendering judgment on each of The Seven.” 

He went through all of the recordings, frantically at first, wanting to find contradictions, then, when none were found, numbly re-listening to the few that hit the worst.

“…also the destroyer of the present order, the one who shall judge all gods, and the foe of humanity. “

Wasn’t it too obvious in hindsight? Why would the Iudex stake his own reputation on Wriothesley’s title? How could you not see it coming? Oh, because you thought you “deserve” it for turning this dog-fighting pit of a prison into something with a modicum of fairness? Because you thought he recognized your redemption? Gods, what are you, fucking fourteen again, did you learn nothing, why would anyone ever care about you, you naive goddamn idiot?

Soon, the bottle was somehow almost done. At this point he was running one recording on repeat, mindless and purposeless except for repeating slashes of pain, familiar rhythm like the knife on his wrists years ago.

"Hydro Dragon, Hydro Dragon, don't cry." Whoever had penned that rhyme, as well as the Fontainians who came to believe in it, must not have known the Hydro Dragon all that well, considering that they thought the Hydro Dragon could cry. What did they take said Dragon for, some sort of bleeding heart who grieved for humans and the heavens alike?”

If this was true… If this was true, then Wriothesley didn’t just get fooled himself. Then he helped a monster take control of the country and potentially use it in war against heavens. 

He clenched his hand and it took him a moment to realize he broke the bottle he was holding in it. That pain from glass pieces in his palm felt small and distant now. But at last, it spurned him into action.

If this was true, he only had one shot. He’d already told Neuvillette of the dragon conspiracy, like a good little idiot eager to please. And any tyrant worth his salt would make sure to take him out after his, especially now that he outlived his purpose in giving access to Meripode vaults. He might have some time because of how oblivious he was, dismissing the conspiracy openly, but it couldn’t be long. 

He couldn’t take his time. He couldn’t hope for the better. He had to act like it’s the worst option possible. More than anything, he needed to confront Neuvillette, dragon Sovereign or not. He had to fix this, no matter the cost.

He realized he needed leverage. Brute strength was out of the question. Even before the flood, Neuvillette absolutely destroyed Fatui Harbinger in one flash, quicker than anyone in the audience could see what happened. Wriothesley would put himself against Harbringer with no hesitation, but he wasn’t an idiot. If this was how powerful Iudex was before, then after allegedly gaining his full power, there was no way Wriothesley could threaten him. No, he needed something else.

He took out the paper and wrote a note, taking care to not stain it with blood. Fortunately, he held the bottle in his left hand, so he could keep it out of the way.

“....and so confess that I, Wriothesley, Warden of the Fortress of Meripode, killed Chief Justice, Iudex Neuvillette.”

He finished the note and carefully put in his signature, then folded the paper into an envelope and closed it with his personal seal. Then he walked up to a safe, one of the hidden ones, and punched in a code. When the safe opened, he rummaged in it for a moment, until finally taking out two vials.

This was sold to him as the poison that could kill a god.

[bonefall]

Are there any changes to Smokepaw (ShadowClan Apprentice in TNP) in BB? He is my all time favourite Warriors character for literally no reason, he existed twice, the second time to fall off a cliff and die, but I love him. I feel like he was a huge waste of potential, in that first time he appeared I thought of Blackstar as a sort of parental figure to him. Think like Firepaw and Bluestar, maybe? Or maybe more like Firepaw and Yellowfang? I'm sure that was just me serious projecting onto like less than a page of screen time, but I am so attached to him. I even made an AU where there was a conveniently placed river that swept him away to the Sundrown Place where he was taken in by Midnight.

Does BB have anything for my little guy?

Smokefall! Given an obligatory Sardonic ShadowClan name after he fell off a cliff and forced the entire journey to halt in its tracks for almost a month!

because shadowclan is like, ridiculously small and the family tree is a brick, Smokepaw (TNP), Smokepaw (Field Guides), and Smokefoot (Po3) are reworked. SmokeFALL survives, Smokepaw is now BILLOWCLOUD, and Smokefoot is SMOGFOOT.

Smog and Smoke are siblings. Billowcloud is not related to them.

Anyway, Smokepaw got REALLY hurt in that fall, but did survive

A (currently unpicked) Tribe cat actually climbed all the way down to get him. He had to be carried the rest of the way.

But once safe, he really couldn't move or else jeopardize his recovery. That, paired with a lack of travelling rations and a few pregnant cats close to delivery halted the Journey.

But Smokepaw still got ribbed relentlessly for "holding everyone up." Poor guy. ShadowClan humor.

Talonpaw got really close to him in that time. In fact, a LOT of cats developed close bonds in this "intermission," including many of the cats who would ultimately support Mudclaw's claim in WindClan.

Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost, as well.

In general, this is a really important hiatus because it's adding some PIVOTAL breathing room for cats to bond free of Clan divisions.

Clan Culture is never really the same after this. It's a change a long time coming.

He is also one of Birchfall's friends. This entire apprentice/kit generation has a very odd view on Clan divisions, because the Destruction of White Hart and the subsequent journey were so formative.

It was actually Smokepaw's "idea" to make Paw Soup. It came from a suggestion towards some WindClan apprentices, that they should try to make an ancient gumbo recipe that hadn't been seen since the start of Heatherstar's campaign.

Birchkit and his big bro Spiderpaw butted in, RiverClan apprentices didn't want to be left out, and the rest is history.

They never did make that gumbo but they made something new.

At the Lake, he also prevents Talonpaw from dying to Jacques and The Dreaded Susan. By also getting his ass beat.

(But that's probably gonna be offscreen because im not dedicating several chapters to it like canon when theres a civil war that should be in focus)

Smokefall becomes the next Educator of ShadowClan, and the mate of Talonclaw. Eventually Smogfoot surrogates a kit for them-- probably Pinenose.

The couple shows up at various points throughout Po3 and OotS as very important friends of Birchfall, and general friendly faces in ShadowClan which is a major ally through the arcs.

Sadly, though, they meet a gruesome and tragic end in AVoS. The Kin is a cult, and once it takes power, it immediately targets the one who teaches history. Smokefall. Talonclaw refuses to abandon his mate.

His position is taken by the infamous Berryheart, who is the educator through TBC. He is survived by several grandkits through Pinenose-- Slatefur, Puddleshine, and Happyface.

[pink-pages]

The Bones of Ruin

Spoiler warning. Also mentions of colonialism, racism, and ethnocentrism

Wow!! Oh my god!! Wow!!! This book deserves far more than 5 stars. Sarah Raughley is a master storyteller. First of all, the way she explores social issues and morality in this book is incredible. I love how Raughley combines fantasy with very real aspects of the past to discuss themes like colonialism, racism, and ethnocentrism. Also, somehow she managed to write a story in which there are little to no good guys but you still love the characters.

I’ve got no clue how Sarah Raughley even conceptualized this book, much less write it. Like, both the main character and the reader go into the book completely blind. We’re all trying to put together the pieces and figure out what the hell is going on. I can’t imagine the organization it would’ve taken to break such a complex plot and world together into little pieces and then scatter those little pieces throughout the book in a way that didn’t give things away and made things make sense at the end while keeping some questions unanswered for the next book. Honestly, the story is just incredible.

If I’m being quite honest, it’s a bit hard to write about this cause my mind is still completely blown. There are still some things I don’t understand like why the massacre at Club Uriel. Did Max orchestrate that with Gram and Jacques cause it really doesn’t seem like his style. I loved the pacing of the story. I loved the dialogue (Max and Jinn’s bantering just straight up reminded me of the beach off scene from the Barbie movie). I loved the characters. I loved the references to mythology with the Norns and Cerberus. I loved the in universe lore like the Naacal civilization. I liked the Victorian setting. I liked that the book made me think. Sometimes, it hurt. Sometimes that book made me despair for humanity. That’s the mark of a good book, though. A good book should make you feel, and not disappointed or angry at the writing but feel for the characters and the world created. That’s what this book did.

Characters

Iris: I’ll admit it, I wasn’t expecting to like Iris as much as I did. In the first chapter, when it was talking about how good her instincts are and all that, I was like here we go again, another main character who’s tragically suffering from Mary Sue syndrome. As things went on, though, I saw more bits of her personality, her sarcasm, her banter with Jinn. I still think there’s some Mary Sue-ism about her, but I found that I could push that aside because I liked her sarcasm. I liked her independence. I respected the way she took charge of the team. I also liked how she tried to get to know the competitors in the competition and how she treated them like people and less like obstacles.

Jinn: There’s always gotta be at least one love interest of the MC that I fall in love with. Lol. Usually it’s not the stoic one though. I think what I liked about Jinn that made me like him so much was A) his banter with both Iris and Max. It’s just plain hilarious. B) the fact that doesn’t really seem to go too far over the line with his grump behavior. He doesn’t act like an ass to random people, just those he sees as competition (like Max and Adam). And C) his loyalty to Iris. He is the only character in the entire book besides Granny who stays unfailingly loyal to Iris. He doesn’t even question her when it’s revealed that she’s meant to destroy the world. The one thing I don’t like about him is his overprotectiveness and insistence on fighting for Iris’ affections or some shit like that.

Max: Most of the time, I loved Max with all my heart. The one time I questioned my affections for him was when he seemed to be very close to siding against Iris after her raison d’etre was revealed. I can’t blame him for that, of course, but I still don’t like it when characters I think should be friends don’t get along. For the most part, though, I adored Max. I want him as a friend. His humor was always a delight to read about and he really lightened the mood. Max’s drive and his loyalty to his sister was also incredible. I can understand that, I wouldn’t want to be unsure of where my sisters are or even if they’re alive or not. That love triangle thing though. I honestly feel bad for Max there cause it’s clear Iris likes Jinn a bit more. But oh my god. The brothel scene. I felt so uncomfortable there. Like, I was just thinking oh shit. How could Iris diffuse the situation without breaking Max’s heart? Then she kissed back and I was like whoa girl, stop playing with his feelings like that. Anyways, yeah. I love Max and I kind of hope that he winds up falling for Cherise in a “I can’t believe I never noticed how beautiful you are before” moment cause I really don’t want him to get his heart broken but I’m pretty sure Iris and Jinn are endgame.

Adam: I really don’t like Adam. I hate how he seems to try to portray himself as so much better than the other members of the Enlightenment Committee. Oh, I’m so much more of a humanitarian. I’m so against the evils of humanity. I don’t agree with all this greed for power. I treat everyone as people. I’m just a better person. I’m trying to protect you Iris. I’m on your side. Bullshit, buddy. Your POV chapters betray your true nature. Adam might treat Iris and his champions better than the other Enlightenment Committee members but he only does that because he needs Iris for his own goals. Honestly, that one bit at the end where he refers to Iris as his Iris. Adam might not call Iris a beast or try to measure her head, but he still thinks he owns her. And the only reason he gives a damn about Max and Jinn is because they might help protect Iris.

Cherise: Cherise may only be in here a little bit, but I love her. I love her chaos gremlin energy. I love how much she reminds me of Toph from ATLA. I mean, a petite girl using her special abilities to run schemes on the street. That’s SO Toph. I also love her friendship with Iris. They both were surrounded by boys for as long as they could remember and the fact that they finally get to have friends that are girls is pretty cool.

Hawkins: I don’t have as much to say about Hawkins. I do like him, but since most of what I know about his personality is in reference to his relations with other people, most of my opinions about him involve the way he interacts with other people. I love his flirtatiousness. Also his obsession with clean toilets. His relationship with Jacob is pretty interesting considering the hinted at previous romance with Chadwick. I really hope we get to see more of their dynamics in the later books.

Jacob: I loved seeing an Inuit character!! I have almost never seen an Inuit character in YA Fiction so I loved having one here!! Also, I love Jacob’s mediator character. I love how kind and warm he seems. Also, I kinda wonder what the extent of his powers are. Like, can he deal with languages he doesn’t even know the name of? In the scene where they spy on the envoy, Jacob gives Hawkins the ability to understand Yoruba but I’m pretty sure Jacob doesn’t know what language the envoys would be speaking.

Rin: Rin is another character that I really liked. I respect her warrior skills. I also really liked that she didn’t try to be likeable. She did what she was meant to do I loved her purpose and her drive and her power. I think she’s more powerful than Iris in a way. She’s able to hold her own against Iris and while Rin is a fanciful freak, she’s still only human. Iris is some form of immortal supernatural being with a crystal heart and regeneration abilities. I really like her character the way it is, but I also recognize that that’s not much of a character. Like, there’s not much personality there because of how mission oriented she is. I do hope we get to see more of her personality in later books.

[in-silks-and-flesh-and-leather]

Forgive me if you have answered this before, but what is your fave gif/image (of Jacques) from the last duel?💙💜

Ohh, what a won der ful question! Thank you, I was all aflutter putting this together 💜💜

I like some big moments and some smaller moments (but honestly every frame that he was on screen, I was positively melting 🥴🥴)

*

I love this one; it's the first time we see all of him and his long ass legs are sprawling luxuriously under the table - I always think about this.

*

THIS LOOK! When he needs to calm down his jealous girlfriend, Pierre, or squeeze out money from stingy lords. It's calm, composed, chilling. He doesn't need to yell, not even to speak. Love it!

*

The lil' spin of love and frustration! It's so cute, my heart passes out every time I see it.

*

The chompy chomp! It's now a scene in several upcoming chapters of Jacques stories because it's so feral and cute at the same time, and you know he loves snatching a snack out of the air!

*

Thiiiiiiiiiisssssss! 🤤🤤 The gift-unwrapping vibe, slow and anticipation-building. And her little feet wiggling.

*

This wanting, yearning look. Jeeeesuuuuuus-uh! I wish we had more gray-red outfits for him, but I am a sucker for black, so this is perfect for me.

*

I love the scoundrel Jacques, I love the smartass Jacques, I love the badass Jacques. But potentially my favorite is earnest, wounded Jacques. Those rare moments when he's serious, unsure of what's going to happen, dying of love. Look at that face, the depth of despair. It ruins me.

*

The swishy swish! You knew it was coming. It's absolutely iconic, it's so unnecessary and over the top, it's 100% Jacques.

The new HC in Bear and Maiden is that you can tell whether he's actually depressed by the fact that he doesn't do these flourishes.

Gorgeous! You'll never see a better outfit or a better-looking man. Fact.

*

This little moment when he traverses the room in this stunning outfit.

I am in agony over the fact that we don't get to see the gorgeous fabric and fit, and that it goes by so quickly.

He is a sleek animal and I am a mess.

*

This inescapable trap of a look.

Fffffffffffffffffffffff!

It's so slow and deliberate; the power, desire and confidence dripping off every delicate move... you could sear a steak on how hot it makes me.

*

Aaand that's the limit of images allowed; I'll have to add one or two more in a reblog.

Whew!

What a great ask - absolutely made my day! Thank you so much 💜💜

[shera-dnd]

Face Turn - Three Count

What’s up fuckers it’s time for another chapter of Face Turn

This time let’s watch as these two slowly bond over their fucked up childhoods

Also this chapter has a joke about Weiss’s name and I want to clarify that Veiss is not quite the correct pronunciation, but it’s like the closest most english speakers can get to it

anyway AO3 link and on with the show

Her match with Yang had been long, painful and bloody. They had to sell this as the nastiest fight they’ve had and by god did they fucking sell it. Of course, their wounds weren’t half as bad as they looked, but they were still in some serious pain, and Weiss loved it.

She missed this adrenaline, she missed the thrill that came with a really good match. Beating the living shit out of Yang had been the most fun she’d had in well over a year now and it showed.

“Well someone here is having a lot of fun.” Yang joked, from the seat to her right, “for a loser.”

In the end that was the solution they found for the story. Weiss had beat Yang and showed the world that she was the strongest fighter around, but she had gone too far and the judge was forced to disqualify her and give the victory to Yang. 

Yang kept her honor and her win streak intact and Weiss got to make her point that she could kick anyone’s ass in a real fight. Now they were both set to continue their rivalry properly.

She had to admit she was happy with that result. That didn’t mean she couldn’t sass Yang back though.

“And you’re talking a lot of shit for someone I just beat up.”

“Hey, if you want me to shut up, next time aim for the mouth,” she joked.

Weiss laughed, but Doctor Goodwitch was having none of that.

“You’ll do no such thing.” She interjected, “and you will both run your ideas by me before you go out there and beat each other black and blue. This is wrestling, not boxing.”

“Don’t I know it,” Weiss tried to bite back, but Goodwitch had a glare that would put even her sister to shame, so she toned the attitude way down, “sorry ma’am.”

They stayed in silence there for a while, patiently waiting for her to finish patching them up. It was awkward and painful, but the grin didn’t leave Weiss’s face the whole time.

“Hey, ice queen,” Yang called after Goodwitch had left, “wanna hit the bar tomorrow to celebrate our first match?”

It was good to hear that not even she was crazy enough to go drinking while on some serious pain meds.

“Only if you’re a gracious winner and pay for my drinks.”

The next day, after a nice night of drinking, Yang offered to do exactly that.

“Hey, I was joking about paying for the drinks,” she interjected.

“I know, but I am, in fact, a gracious winner,” Yang replied, looking her smugest.

“Yeah, not gonna happen,” Weiss slammed down her money and turned to leave.

“Jeez,” Yang complained as she followed, “it was just a few beers.”

“I don’t like owing people,” she replied, and before Yang could say anything she added, “and you saying I don’t owe anything won’t change that. I don’t buy that shit.”

“You have some serious trust issues, you know that?” That earned a laugh from Weiss.

“First lesson in the Jackass Schnee’s school of life,” she declared, “don’t trust anyone and don’t owe anyone shit.”

Yang looked at her like she didn’t know if she should laugh or give her a hug. Instead she settled for saying, “okay now I need to hear that story.”

“I’m not drunk enough for that one.”

But next week she very much was.

“Then I tried singing,” she rambled, “and of course that asshole tried to get his creepy little hands all over that. Then I joined the military, like my sister did, and there he was again trying to make sure I honored the Schnee name or whatever.”

“Shit, you used to sing?” Yang asked, focusing on the wrong thing.

“And I was fucking great at it,” she answered, with quite a lot of pride, “don’t ask me to try singing any of it now, I haven’t practiced outside of a shower in almost ten years.”

“Aww and here I thought I’d get a show all for myself,” she joked. There was something else in her tone, but it was lost amidst the alcohol and her absolute lack of experience with casual social interactions.

“Anyway that’s when I decided that I needed something that he would hate too much to get his hands on,” she continued, “something that he would refuse to tie the family name to.”

“So you’ve decided to spend the rest of your life punching people just to make your dad angry?”

“I mean, at first,” she hated how petty this made her sound, “but then I started liking it. It was something I could focus on and try to get better at, and I could do it for myself for once.”

Yang gave her a smile that was more soft and genuine than anything anyone had ever given her. Then she lifted her bottle and announced, “to spite and all the great things it helped us achieve.”

Weiss smiled back and raised her own bottle, “to defiance, and not letting anyone tell us how to live our lives.”

They both chugged their drinks and laughed loudly, like the two drunk idiots they were.

“Hey, wanna hear what’s worse?” Weiss offered, trying really hard not to laugh.

“You mean it gets worse?”

Weiss nodded and then leaned forward as if she was about to tell her some sordid Schnee family secret.

“Jacques doesn’t know how to say my name right,” she whispered, “but everyone thinks he does, so they all just say it wrong too.”

“No fucking way!”

“Yes fucking way!” She insisted, “my mom gave me a german name and it should be pronounced like Veiss Schnee, but that dumb shit has been butchering it since the day I was born.”

At that Yang started cackling. 

“Shit, Weiss,” she called, trying and failing to say it properly, “your family makes even mine sound functional.”

“Okay now it’s your turn to share your tragic backstory,” Weiss asked, maybe a little drunker than she was planning on getting tonight.

“Maybe next time, Ice Queen.”

Thankfully Weiss didn’t have to wait long. Even though they barely saw each other at work that week, they knew they’d both be at the White Fang again. It was a strange new routine that she wasn’t sure when she had fallen into.

“So after Summer died dad got hit pretty bad. Couldn’t fight anymore, couldn’t even help around the house,” Yang told her over some drinks. Weiss had noticed she’d been drinking a lot less that night, “so that’s when I took up wrestling. Indie stuff at first, just trying to get some bills paid and help raise my sister.”

Weiss didn’t know how to respond. She’d never been in a position like that before. Should she console her friend? How would she even do that? Shit, were they even friends or just very close coworkers?

“I try not to blame Tai for it,” Yang continued, “he’s a great dad and I know he was going through a lot back then, but it’s hard not to get bitter over that stuff.”

She looked down at her drink, having vastly underestimated how hard this would hit her. It was strange seeing Yang’s face doing anything other than beaming or laughing. She was such a joyful person that it hurt to see her like that.

Damn it, she had to fix that.

“Hey, jackass,” fucking great start there, Weiss, “stop torturing yourself over feeling shit. Just because you know it wasn’t his fault doesn’t mean you don’t get to let yourself be bitter about it.”

Yang chuckled weakly, “wasn’t expecting an actual lesson in emotional health from you of all people.”

Weiss should be offended, but Yang did have a point.

“Hey, letting me feel things was the first thing I taught myself after I told Jackass to fuck off.” 

“Was the second thing swear words?” Yang joked and it was as if that shadow from before had never been there.

“You can bet your ass it was fucking swear words!” She declared, slamming her hand on the table.

At that they both laughed loudly and happily. When had Weiss ever felt so at ease with someone else? The answer was never, but she didn’t want to focus on the sadness that came with that realization. She wanted to focus on the idiot laughing in front of her.

“Weiss Schnee,” Yang called. Her pronunciation getting just a little better, “you’re the fucking worst!”

To that she smiled.

She liked how her name sounded in Yang’s voice.

[rockofeye]

Out of the depths.

It is somehow appropriate that a re-emergence and re-alignment comes with the beginning of the month of May. May is a big month for vodouizan; we celebrate Kouzen and all his family this month and, for people from Jacmel, it is a month devoted to celebrating Jacmel's heritage, which is tied closely to Kouzen. It is said Jacmel is where Kouzen was from before he went to more rural areas; it's not a coincidence that fet Jacmel and fet St Jacques e St Philippe (the patrons of Jacmel) are celebrated on the same days as fet Kouzen (May 1 and May 2).

I've been thinking about Kouzen a lot lately. It's been a difficult year in a lot of ways, but not a bad year. COVID has really permanently changed how things in my professional field work, and with the help of Kouzen and a few of my other lwa, I managed to leverage that into a position using all my professional strengths with the org that has been my target for employment for years. Landing that has not only been life-changing and future-solidifying, but really reinforces that I know what I know and that I am an expert at what I do.

That's a lesson that comes from Kouzen, and it's one that I struggle to learn and remember in my life. Kouzen shows me balance: he is the expert worker in his field (literal and figurative), but you might never know that from how he does his work. Underestimate him and you'll find out, but how he carries himself keeps his mastery of work and growth and agriculture from being the first thing that you see.

I'm pretty okay with that part, but that's the part I get tripped up about. I don't find anything fulfilling professionally or personally about illustrating what I know,, but there is a difference between going about your business and actively hiding from those moments where you can insert who you are and what you know.

I'm a hider. It might sound kind of funny coming from someone who has been writing a blog in the internet for close to a decade, but it's true: I am actually pretty shy and private and being the center of attention--professional or personal--is kind of horrifying to me. I've reached the point in my life where I don't feel I have a lot to prove because I know what I know, but in many ways that's just not possible for me. I don't work in a field where I can just close my office door and have it all be fine, and the lwa have made clear time after time that I cannot just ride off into Ginen with them and live a private life.

This has something that is always a struggle for me because I am introverted and like my alone space and time. It comes back to the good ol' lessons the lwa want me to learn over and over: balance and vulnerability. Sometimes it goes well, sometimes I react like a cat thrown into a bathtub full of water. The lwa win some, I lose some.

I had to get my ass in gear with the notions of balance and putting myself out there and being vulnerable in knowing my worth and demanding (politely) that it be recognized when I found myself completely dissatisfied with my job(s). I was working two jobs (houngans and manbos know about that hustle...) and making good money, but I was ready to work one job and free up time for spiritual work and projects.

I took a chance and applied for a job that was juuuuust within my experience. It was definitely bigger than what I was doing and while it was within my experience level, I honestly wasn't perfectly qualified....but you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, so I buffed up the resume, sent it off, and sat with my lwa about it. I told them that if this was where I was supposed to go next, I knew they would clear the way.

I didn't get it.

I made it through two rounds of interviews, but ultimately there was an incumbent with 10 more years of experience than I have, and that's almost always a losing equation. I was okay with it because I still had work and at the end of the day, I don't have to love my job to cash the paychecks.

BUT....the lwa had another plan. The team of interviewers liked me, and so I got headhunted for a position that was very, very in line with my professional experience and goals. I spoke with them several times about it and they made me an offer....and it was so low I almost rejected the offer outright.

I was both angry and scared at the same time; angry because the salary offer was ridiculously offensive based on my career history and scared because I have never been in a position to turn down a job offer or, honestly, negotiate.

This time was the first time in my life that I was planning to leave a job because I wanted to. I grew up in a upper working class home and as an adult have spent too much time jobless and underemployed to discount steady work and a regular paycheck. It was scary as hell to be staring down the possibility of kicking the steady paycheck to the side in favor of taking a step into the unknown.

When I got the offer letter, I sat down with the lwa and literally cried because I was so burned out with my other job that it was affecting my performance, but here I was getting a bullshit offer for a hugely involved job. It felt like a loss if I took it and affirmed that both my experience and what they were asking of me was only worth what they were offering. It felt like a loss if I didn't take it, because those opportunities do not come alone like that very often.

It was such a moment of unique despair. Like, I was not hurt or anything tragic but that feeling like I was painted into a corner and that the choices in front of me would leave me at a loss was HUGE and real. For me, when I feel like that it's hard for me to turn on the part if my brain that's analytical. I just need to sit in my misery for a minute (or more) until I get it together enough to figure out what to do.

That is where the blessing of Kouzen (and really all the lwa) came in. He told me to go back to the table, creat another option, and ask for my worth. Like, not swing my proverbial dick and be an asshole, but go be vulnerable and say that the offer was disappointing and that I expected more. So weird because it makes so much sense, right? And yet there I was totally sold that I was either going to be worked like a mule for less money than I was making already, or I was going to remain in The Bad Place until something else came along.

So I did. Even if I felt pessimistic about it (I did) and thought they would say no (convinced of it), I did what I was told because at the end of the day I agreed to sèvis lwa because I believe in the vision the lwa have for me. Some days I say that through gritted teeth, but that's my guiding principle and they have never let me down.

I sent in my counteroffer and waited for the 'we're sorry, but..' email. It was fucking scary. My agency is a behemoth in my field and has been around forever, so pushing back felt a little bit like David versus Goliath, and I didn't have the benefit of a sling and a rock.

It took two days but they got their offer almost to what I asked for, so I took it and it was a huge relief. I am sure that somewhere in the background Kouzen maybe did a quiet fist pump of 'Alex learned a thing' before going back to his work.

In all seriousness, that's a lesson I have struggled so hard with and it was a moment where I had to put it all into practice and rely on what the lwa have taught me as being an ultimate truth. Knowing my worth is not enough; I have to be able to communicate that in a way that both opens doors and doesn't get me used as a doormat. Not doing that seems like it would be almost offensive to Kouzen because, at least in this case, it would be essentially leaving money on the table and wasting it. My Kouzen is very rational about money, but the idea of not trying to set up my financial future makes his eyes bug out and would probably result in Having To Have A Conversation, which I avoid at all costs. Nothing like the lwa reminding you not to fuck up your own blessings.

Getting settled into this particular blessing has been what has been occupying my time the most these days. I came back from Haiti and went right into this job. I have finally clawed my way into administration and, in a very Kouzen twist, am responsible for managing several million dollars worth of grants and spending them both quickly and wisely. I work closely with the person in the position I originally interviewed for and am really happy I didn't get that job, as I am able much better fit where I am.

What else? In late January, I turned in a final draft of a chapter I was tapped to write for a book detailing the experiences of people who are converts to African Traditional and Diasporic religions. I'm excited to see the book when it comes out; I was the only writer on Haitian Vodou, and so it is chock full of other experiences from people from all different places who converted at some point in their life to a huge variety of African and African Descended religions and cultural practices. It's a project that has been in the works for several years, and it was interesting to see personal growth during my involvement in it and while tracking and detailing my journey from a fairly conservative Protestant upbringing to where I am now as a sèvitè lwa.

My living situation has changed up in the middle of this and I am once again at a point in my life where I have a dedicated space for my lwa. Living in one of the most expensive cities in the US has meant roommates and keeping my lwa in a closet in my room (my most recent roommate lovingly referred to them as the Closet People), but the lwa managed to swing it so I have a room dedicated to my spirits.

I have longing for that for so long...it's been years since that was a reality, and now it's finally a thing again. I always have the room for my lwa as my studio space too, since they are a creative force behind a lot of it, and it make my heart so full again to have room to spread out. It's such a gift for me. No more sitting down to pray and having my roommate start to have sex with their partner on the other side of the wall....I cannot tell you how many times that has happened.

Recently I listened to my mother tell some folks how to make tchaka/Kouzen's favorite meal. The regleman/ritual food is one of the most important parts of both ceremony and personal relationships with the lwa, and Kouzen reminded me that it had been quite awhile since I made him tchaka and boy his stomach would feel so much better with some tchaka in it and I already had a lot of the ingredients and wouldn't it be delicious to make some doumbrey for the tchaka too?

...so I went shopping for what I would need for tchaka for my beloved Kouzen because I have clearly neglected his stomach for too long. Living in a city with a huge Haitian population is great because the Haitian grocery store I went to had joumou/Haitian pumpkin, lalo sèk/dried jute leaves, tritri/tiny dried shrimp, djondjon/Haitian black mushrooms, fresh kowosol/soursop(!!!!!), and fresh lam veritab/breadfruit(!!!!!!!!!!).

It is so rare to find fresh kowosol and lam up here in New England because it def doesn't grow here and it doesn't last well when it's shipped....but it looked great today. The kowosol is going to be for me...ji kowosol ak lèt is a favorite, ESPECIALLY with a little Barbancourt poured in...and Kouzen will either get some tomtom or at least boiled lam veritab with his tchaka. Also have the makings of some bonbon siwo, so this husband is gonna eat GOOD. He deserves it.

And then...? Our live-on-Zoom socially distanced fet Kouzen will be sometime late in May. Making our fets available for folks to 'attend' at a distance has been surprisingly cool. I was not thrilled about the idea because of my personal hangups (I hate being on camera) but it's been really wonderful and has been a way for people who can't get to the temple to be able to share energy and get a taste of what a real Haitian fet is like. COVID isn't going away anytime soon, so we'll probably keep doing our fetes this way for awhile.

And...Haitian Summer is coming. I could write another whole post on what's going on down in Haiti, but I am very much looking forward to our kanzo and fet cycle this summer. My very favorite ceremonies are part of kanzo, and I love the opportunity to see the lwa in their home in the temple. I've been so lucky to be able to travel safely to Haiti several times during this mess, and it has fed my soul. It's safer for me and many of my family members now that we are vaccinated, so one less thing to worry about.

With Kouzen's month and the season of spring, I hope for growth in new directions for each of you, complete with all the blessings that Kouzen can bring: fertility and fecundity, inspiration, energy, commitment, rootedness, solid partnerships, and wise investments in self, community, relationships, and business ventures. May the fresh breeze bring you health with every breath and wealth with every exhale.

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 10 Review/Remix

WHAT the ever loving FUCK was that just now RT?? You give us several great answers and scenes we really wanted to see, and then rip all that joy away in the last 3 minutes!!! I want to sue for emotional damages, but I really can’t be mad cuz it’s very masterful writing on their part. After years of shows doing redemption arcs we finally have it... the bastardization arc~

We open, perhaps to the disappointment of some, on Ironwood staring out the windows of his office at the battlefield and city in turmoil below. He’s being given a situation update on the destruction of the cellblock two episodes back, and he takes the news a little differently than might have been expected (read: worse). Jacques apparently stayed right where he was and let himself be put back into custody, while Qrow avoided much harm by being a bird and ending up in a spot where the rubble wasn’t landing directly on him. Robyn was only slightly lucky, she was under some large debris but doesn’t seem terribly hurt and is actually conscious when Atlas soldiers uncover her and say she’ll be moved to a new cell elsewhere. Qrow isn’t about to be put back in a cage though, and flies right at the soldier who finds him. Behind a conveniently placed piece of wall he turns back and, as I was somewhat praised for phrasing it in a discord chat, he tackled that man as a man. We can assume he knocks out the guy about to apprehend Robyn, and the two make a getaway. Ironwood doesn’t like this news one bit, though he focuses more on recapturing the two huntsmen he had arrested on paranoid treason charges than the actual war criminal he lost an arm catching whose dangerous work on the city of Mantle still hasn’t been undone. Not cool, dude. He yells at the soldiers who had come to report this, and they leave to try and find the jailbirds. He stares out the window again in contemplation and tries to calm down a little before turning on his earpiece to get an update on the status of some thing or another, probably the bomb, when something massive happens.

With a blinding flash and an array of gold and green, Oscar’s staff goes off with whatever he was charging up. It’s as bright and forceful as you’d expect a nuclear bomb to be, and it knocks Winter and the Ace Ops off their feet as they were heading towards Monstra lugging their own bomb. Weiss and Nora see it from Schnee Manor, and it seems to do a real number on the Grimm around Monstra and in the city. Rooster Teeth had to give a flashing lights warning at the start of the episode for those it would adversely affect, and I can totally understand why after the crazy display this gave us. When the light fades and the noise settles, Monstra has been snapped and is fading away to dust, and in that dust cloud we hear and barely see Neopolitan skipping away with the Lamp in hand. What a little punk... Winter gets back on her feet and is quick to ask her squad for their status, she doesn’t want to have lost anyone or suffered serious wounds from whatever the hell they just saw/felt. No one is hurt, though Elm’s ears seem to still be ringing. But Marrow is very distressed, realizing they still hadn’t heard back from Jaune and the others and they may have been killed in that blast. Nobody has anything to say that would appease him, so they stay silent. Vine tries to put a reassuring hand on Elm’s shoulder but she brushes him off. Guess after they got called out by Ren she wants to show even less emotion and sentimentality than before. Ironwood contacts them under the false assumption this was the result of their bomb, and requests they return to HQ for an update on the new problem he wants to deal with. Marrow naturally points out that the destruction wasn’t their doing, and Winter decides that will be news best delivered in person, so they load the bomb back on the airship and take off. 

Cutting into the city, we see Watts and Cinder viewing the destruction of their mobile HQ from a distance. Nobody is returning Cinder’s calls but they know Salem will be back so Watts suggests they come up with a plan in the meantime. But Cinder is fully confident that they can still do what they originally intended, that being having her kill Penny and take the Winter Maiden powers after Watts brings the synthezoid to her. But this was a plan made under false assumptions, because apparently she misunderstood the terminology in his message and thought he could puppeteer Penny to go wherever he demands when really he just laid a new prime directive to send her straight to the Vault as we saw two episodes back. Hearing this pisses Cinder off immensely, especially the part about Penny being set to self destruct as soon as the Vault is open since that means the next recipient of the powers will be randomized again and she’ll have lost her chance to yoink them. Watts is too busy grumpily musing to himself about Penny having free will and a spirit that doesn’t want to succumb to his leet hacks to notice Cinder growing more and more enraged, until he turns around and she pulls him in close to yell at him. But Watts is having none of that, he works for Salem not her, and his plans weren’t made to give this flaming whining goth what she wants every single time. He’s just supposed to get the Vault open for Salem, and this is how he’s doing that. This is not the kind of answer Cinder wanted to hear, and she stretches her arm out to shove Watts to the edge of the roof and leave him on the verge of falling over to his demise. He doesn’t seem terribly fazed, calling her bluff and saying her mission was to bring him back and Salem won’t be a bit pleased if he dies. But you know what Salem is not? Here right now to stop Cinder from dealing with this arrogant self righteous prick once and for all. So she fully intends to drop him and then tear up Atlas on a fiery path to the Vault where she can intercept Penny and steal the Winter powers before tearing her to pieces herself and being the triumphant follower getting everything done that Salem really needed. And Watts just... laughs. Chris Sabat must have had a great time in the VO booth for this one, because he gets to have an absolute roast session the likes of which he hasn’t delivered since Majin Vegeta tore that clown Kakarot a new one. Naturally Cinder’s plan would be to brute force her way to victory and get glory for none but herself with her every whim satisfied along the way. Because that’s always her plan. And it always fails. She tried to storm Fria’s hospital room like that and got her ass handed to her by some teenagers and a dying woman before Penny took the powers before she could. She did the same damn thing 2 Volumes ago when she tried to massacre all her enemies under one roof in an alliance with a woman she thought she could outwit, but ended up blindsided by a surprise Maiden reveal and almost died while her outnumbered forces were on the verge of surrendering without her. And did anyone warn her not to do that? YES! WATTS DID!!! WATTS IS ALWAYS RIGHT, YOU FOOL!!! Well, okay, he’s really not. But he’s more clever and meticulous so he saw the flaws her arrogance left her blind to. And then Watts really tears into her by saying she isn’t smart, she isn’t worthy, and she isn’t entitled to what she wants because she’s suffered in the past. The one thing she is is a goddamn migraine. I’m a little mad Tyrian stole the show’s first cuss 4 years back cuz I really would have liked for Watts to cap this off by calling Cinder a bitch. This roasting literally lights a fire under Cinder and she seems ready to snap and kill Watts here and now, but instead she pulls him back onto the roof and stares off blankly into space before her fire fades and she walks off to sit on the ledge of a different side of the building to really think about his harsh words and shed a single tear. It’s a little unclear if she’s just feeling sorry for herself and realizing she’s more of a failure than she wanted to admit, or if she’s just overwhelmed by Watts reminding her of her childhood trauma. Maybe she’s realizing how powerless she’s truly remained all this time after fighting so hard for her own freedom and independence, and crying at the fact that she seems unable to escape that role she hates so much. Whatever the case, it’s real rough for her but I don’t feel like shedding any of my own tears for her sake. She doesn’t seem like she’s gonna change her allegiances so I don’t feel much need to cheer for her, but maybe she’ll reevaluate her strategy and become a force to be reckoned with as a villain because of this. I wouldn’t mind that. We’ll have to wait and see.

Back in the ruins of Monstra, we see Yang Ren and Jaune are all doing alright, and Oscar seems to be as well. Jaune is using his Semblance to help Oscar heal up quicker so that’s good to see too. Yang answers a call and sees Blake anxiously hoping she’ll pick up. The biggest smile comes to her face when she does, and the two halves of the group are ecstatic to hear the other is still alive and well. Neither are quite ready to tell the full tale of what they’ve been up to, but Weiss pulls up a map of the city and lays out a safe route through the subway tunnels that will take OYRJ straight to the mansion so they can actually reunite. Oscar isn’t about to leave Emerald behind though, and we see her knelt in the chaos holding out her hands as if hoping to catch some of the dust that was once her father figure. Yang is vocally against the idea of bringing Emerald with them, but Oscar advocates for her being every bit against Salem as them so the enemy of their enemy should be their friend. Emerald actually doesn’t seem to want to keep hanging around them and says they should just part ways, but Jaune isn’t about to let her walk free without facing any kind of justice for her past crimes. Ren thinks they need to be able to see past their emotional hang ups and consider the value in having her as an ally, and Yang is quick to remind them all that Emerald is part of the reason she lost her arm. Technically that is true, Adam was working with Cinder and if Yang hadn’t been framed as a brutal criminal she would have been around the rest of the team when everything popped off so maybe that first fight would have gone differently. But I do feel like it’s a bit of a stretch. Yang keeps going about why she can’t just forgive and forget when Em had been such a snake in the grass back at Beacon, but that’s not what Oscar is asking of her. He just wants her to try and give the girl a second chance to be better. He gets a little cryptic about how they’ve already gotten help from someone they haven’t had the best track record trusting, and Ren perfectly guesses he means that Oz has reemerged in his mind. This takes the blondes by surprise, and Oscar stands up for the old soul by saying he took the brunt of the beatings and told him how to impede Salem like he did just there. Turns out we’ll be finding out the secret of Ozpin’s cane today: It’s been made into a magical repository for kinetic energy stored over dozens of past lives to be made into a sort of bomb to set off when needed. I don’t know quite enough about physics to describe how exactly that would work, but it seems to make sense that it does. But the blast that took out Monstra used up the majority of what was in there so he can’t rely on it for that kind of attack again. It seems likely that was what Ozpin used against Cinder in the Beacon Vault, but didn’t use very much of it, and again what Oscar used to bust a hole in the bottom of the pit Ironwood shot him into. Oscar finishes making his case that Oz really does want to aid them, and the others seem convinced. What’s worth noting is that all eyes had been on him during this, but Emerald made no attempt to run away or even lower her hands. Guess she might really want to stick around after all... The moment is interrupted by the not so distant sound of a crying baby, and they all run further down the tunnel to find a subway station where the people of Atlas are taking shelter on Ironwood’s orders. Emerald starts to feel the weight of her action and those she used to side with, especially when she sees kids scared and hungry like she was before Cinder found her. They continue past the station on their way to the manor, and Oscar offers some encouragement to Emerald that they need her help in this war considering what she’s capable of. Considering the feats she performed under stress back in Volume 5, I’m inclined to agree. 

We fade away from that scene to Ironwood’s office and the camera rises up the stairs as if being held by the Ace Ops as they and Winter come through the still broken doors to give their report to the general. He’s looking at multiple holographic screens projecting from his table: one with graphics telling him the status of all the airships mechs and soldiers, one pulling up news articles and any other info they can get on Monstra presumably for the purpose of cataloguing it in case they ever need to worry about another one, the third seems to be a map of city to monitor the damage so far, and the last is all the info they have on Cinder. He congratulates the team for their work destroying the Grimm, but Winter admits it wasn’t their bomb that did the job, they still have it intact for him. This confuses Ironwood greatly, but he sees an opportunity in this twist of fate. Penny hasn’t come to the Vault like he wanted her to be programmed to do, so he assumes Watts did a shit job of reprogramming her or just intentionally screwed them over. Yet the truth is something he can’t seem to imagine, she has free will and doesn’t want to do as she’s told. Who’s the real tool now Jimmy? He informs them that Cinder broke Watts out, and he seems to consider Qrow and Robyn escaping to be an even worse consequence. Harriet seems ready to sprint out of the room and haul them back here herself, but Ironwood stays her hand... or foot in this case. With Salem temporarily halted, now is the best time they’ve got for him to have the Winter Maiden open the Vault and use the Staff to lift Atlas higher than she can reach like he wanted so badly. So he wants Winter to bring him Yang Jaune and Ren. Winter doesn’t see the purpose of that, or she does and hates to imagine it’s truly what he intends, but either way she knows she can’t do what he’s asking. He plans to make full use of the lives they hold in their hands, and he’s going to use Jaune and the others as leverage to make Penny do what he says. He acts as if he’s actually proud of himself for realizing this is an option available to him, and I think it’s his Semblance that’s partially blinding him to the moral reasons why it should not be an option worth considering. Winter is left wilting under his unaware and proud gaze, and then Harriet pipes up to tattle on her commanding officer. Winter gave the kids a chance to try and rescue their friends from inside the whale(they don’t mention that friend was Oscar so he still doesn’t know the kid survived his attempted murder), and they weren’t seen exiting before it blew up. I want to say I’m shocked and disgusted that Harriet snitched on Winter just for the brownie points of being honest and taking Winter down a peg, but I’m really not. She’s been a loyal bootlicker since this time last Volume, and this feels like payback for that whole “I outrank you so you can’t stop me from giving them a chance” thing in chapter 7. Ironwood removes the proud and probably intended to be comforting hand he had placed on Winter’s shoulder, as if ashamed to be touching her after she let him down like this. This was his last plan for his definition of success, and now it’s ruined so he can’t do anything. In a fit of rage he smashes his table like the goddamn Hulk and the Ace Ops are left to watch and wonder just how in his right mind he actually is. As he tries to catch his breath, the general gets an urgent transmission that dozens of non-military aircraft have shown up on radar. I and probably a few dozen other people watching this hoped this was an Avengers Endgame moment of tons of allies coming to the rescue of the down and out heroes. But no, its the Schnee Dust Company ships Whitley sent out. Almost forgot about that plan, whoops. Ironwood immediately recognizes this as Weiss’ handiwork for the sake of saving Mantle, because nobody would have guessed Whitley would show some humanity and make this plan himself. Winter immediately shows attentive concern hearing her sister has done this, and Harriet gives her a look as if to say “you are such a bleeding heart for these little criminals...” Ironwood makes the very one dimensional assumption that everything Ruby and the others have been doing is simply to protect Mantle, as if they didn’t have a serious conversation with May about helping Atlas as well as Mantle 3 episodes back. With that knowledge in mind, he decides he needs to make a call. 

Speaking of phones, Cinder gets a cheeky text and an accompanying selfie from Neo revealing she has the Lamp and she knows Salem will tear Cinder to pieces if she doesn’t bring it back to her. So she’s proposing a trade; Cinder gets the name to activate the Lamp, and in return she has to bring Neo to Ruby for the revenge she so deeply craves. Watts can’t see Cinder’s screen so he wonders who among their comrades has survived. Unclear if Cinder is going to tell him.

At last, we see Ruby throw open the front doors of Schnee Manor with Weiss and Blake flanking her, to see Yang and the others on the front steps. The sisters immediately embrace and Ruby sheds a tear of relief and joy that they’re all okay. Yang tells her she missed her too, and that seems to be that for the distrust and argument they had back in chapter 1. Ruby goes to greet the guys, and Yang gives Weiss a nice hug too. Then she sees Blake has taken a few steps away from the group and seems ashamed or embarrassed, unable to even look in their direction in Yang’s direction. Yang puts a hand to her cheek, her thumb softly stroking up and down as she turns Blake’s head to meet her gays gaze. Yang blushes and smiles, Bake returns the smile, and the two softly press their foreheads together. The intense sapphic energy of this deeply intimate moment was almost overwhelming, and many couldn’t help but adore it. I know I couldn’t stop myself from being a little giggly. Ren notices Nora isn’t there to greet them, and Weiss seems like she’s going to bring him up to her room and possibly even explain what happened along the way. Ruby takes this chance to go and greet Oscar with a hug, but stops short when she sees Emerald behind him. She seems real mad and is about to go on the attack, but Oscar steps between them and insists he can vouch for her, or maybe he’s saying he can explain? We don’t quite know because they get cut off by the sound of Ruby’s Scroll ringing. May is calling from the crater to say that the SDC freighters aren’t the only thing in the air right now, and she seems very panicked by what she sees. She yells for everyone to run into the mines for shelter, and an explosion is hear before the call is cut short. Before anyone has time to try and puzzle out what they just heard, a loud alarm tone goes off on all their Scrolls. It’s a fun detail that as a Faunus Blake covers her ears cuz the loud noise is especially bad for her. An emergency CCT broadcast is coming in for everyone in the kingdom, and Ruby magnifies her Scroll’s playing of it to be projected into the air for all of them to watch. The cargo ships are shown being shot down by military ships, and then the feed cuts to Ironwood standing ominously under a single light to deliver a downright villainous speech. He claims he has been trying his best to protect the technology and future of the kingdom from those who would do it harm, but I think it is VERY telling he never mentions protecting the people. Because that’s not what matters to him anymore. Not really. He says the only person stopping him from finishing his plans of making sure the currently crippled Salem can’t hurt them anymore is Penny. So he has an ultimatum for Penny and her friends, because he knows they will be listening right now. Either she turn herself over to him so he can have her do her “duty” and save as much of the Kingdom as possible and forget about trying to save Mantle, or he will nuke Mantle as punishment for her selfishness. The more he talks the more angry Ruby and the others get, and we are right there with them. He somehow thinks that if Mantle is destroyed then Penny will be free to only care about Atlas and its protection and will gladly work with him to do so. What a delusional bastard. And if anyone tries anything other than what he has said to do, he will use the bomb. 1 hour to decide how they will respond, and a hell of a lot riding on that choice.

There can be absolutely no question now, Ironwood will be the villain for the rest of the Volume and Salem will probably return at the end to ruin whatever hope putting him down will have raised in our heroes... And I’m kinda excited for how that’s gonna play out. Let’s see how team RWBY get out of this one~

[shadows-twilight]

RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 10

My various thoughts and opinions on Chapter 10 of RWBY Volue 8, “Ultimatum”

SPOILERS BELOW:

Ooh. A photo-sensitivity warning. That’s always interesting to see. Nice of them to be considerate.

I feel so bad for these guards. They very clearly wish they were anywhere but here, doing absolutely anything but this.

That soldier will never be comfortable around birds again.

That explosion was absolutely breathtaking. The sounds fading out while soft music plays during a huge, dramatic moment is one of my favorite tropes and CRWBY executed it flawlessly here.

Neo considers to be her iconic self.

At least Marrow still cares. He’s such a good boy.

Oh. My. God. I love everything about Watts’s “Reason You Suck” speech to Cinder. The editing, the writing, everything is just super cathartic. Not to mention the voice acting. I mean, Chris Sabat being an amazing voice actor isn’t exactly a new concept, but the amount of frustration and disdain he poured into that rant was superb. I full believe that this rant was the outpouring of every feeling Watts has had for Cinders over years. Watts has certainly reaffirmed his place as my favorite member of Team WTCH.

Ok, I know there is a very vocal part of the FNDM that says we should feeling sympathy for Cinder, but unless they actually bring Pyrrha back, I just can’t. The fact that she is an abuse victim is certainly heartbreaking, but it doesn’t excuse everything that she’s done just then. While I don’t exactly feel joy seeing her break down and cry like this, I can’t bring myself to feel sorry for her either. To restate a sentiment that I made for Adam, I pity the girl that suffered in that hotel. She didn’t deserve what happened to her. I spare none for the woman she grew into.

D’aaw, the way Blake’s face lit up when Yang answered the video call. CRWBY has improved in a lot of ways over the years, but my favorite has to be how good they’ve gotten at facial expressions.

So, I’m assuming that it’s safe to say Hazel’s dead then? I mean, I know there’s a reason that people say “No Body, No Death”, I’m a pretty firm believer of that rule myself, but after that explosion, would there even be a body? I find it hard to believe we’d find anything bigger than a fingernail after that, I don’t care how tough he was. I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong in the future, but until then, RIP Hazel, you went out like an absolute boss.

I like how no one’s really in the wrong with the debate about Emerald. As much as I’m in favor of her redemption arc and the heroes working with her, it’s true that she’s done some awful things in the past, things that have heart them directly, so they are far from wrong in holding that against her, especially when even her ditching Salem was only done in the name of self-preservation.

Hmm, purple petals, wonder what emotion those represent. I like the theory that it’s guilt, but we shall have to wait and see.

So the cane can store kinetic energy? Is that, like, an impact thing, like what Yang and Adam have going on? Would it store the impact of every strike it took? That’s pretty cool.

On one hand, this is probably the cleanest version of the “refugee camp” scene I’ve ever scene in media before. On the other hand, it’s still a pretty powerful image. War sucks, y’all.

It would be easy to think that the simple answer to Ironwood’s quarry would be that Watts betrayed them, but interestingly, it was neither. Watts did everything in his power to force Penny into the vault, the only reason she isn’t is because she’s resisting. This is less Ironwood failing to recognize Watts as a slimy snake and more failing to recognize Penny’s agency and humanity.

Speaking of amazing facial expressions and people who clearly don’t want to be in Ironwood’s office, I am really feeling for Winter right now. I imagine Ironwood is starting to look very Jacques-like in her eyes right now.

Harriet, you are really going out of your way to make me ashamed to have ever called you my favorite Ace-Op. For the love of god, shut your snitch-ass mouth.

Well, that WAS a nice table.

Neo is incapable of being anything other than a little shit, and by god do we love her for it.

NEW SONG! We haven’t had a lot of those lately, I’m getting the feeling we’ll be getting a lot of them near the end.

So many hugs, all worthy of note, but my god, the face cupping, the forehead touch, it’s too much for my heart to handle!

Goddamnit, Ironwood, Whitley finally got a chance to do a good, and you just had to take it away from him.

Ooh, the way the broadcast transitioned from hologram to in person. Nice editing, well done.

I have a lot to say about Ironwood’s ultimatum, but instead of taking the time to type it all out, I’ll just give you the tl;dr version: FUCK! YOU! IRONWOOD! I wasn’t totally on board with Qrow’s idea of an assassination attempt back when he proposed in Chapter 2, but now, I’m a little more open to the idea. There’s no way Ironwood makes it out alive after this.

[lacependragon]

3, 9, 11, 20, 24?

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

You know what’s really funny? I put... 90% of these in Weight. But let’s talk about one I just. Could not make work. Because the theory is so fucking ridiculous and cracky and didn’t fit Weight.

I wanted to write a scene, for the longest time, where James takes down Jacques and gets the SDC out from him because he finds out that Whitley is biologically his and not Jacques’, and there’s a bunch of legal shenanigans but it all hinges on Whitley being made heir and some other stuff.

And it was supposed to be the midpoint of a really big ass longshot that talked about family and trauma recovery and the whole thing was going to be in Whitley’s point of view.

But god damn man that is a lot of fucking effort.

9.  Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?

Longfic. I will write a hundred longfic starts in a year if you let me and I have at least six or seven that have gotten to chapter 4 or so that I started this year and never posted because I went to something else. Do you know how many tens of thousands of words I scrapped in the first half of 2020 writing long fic openers that no one ever saw? It’s wild.

I’m definitely a loose plotter. Not as rigid as some people but not as loose as others. I know my story. I think about it obsessively. I write down everything I can think of. I constantly turn it over and over in my head, trying to work out themes, arcs, development, etc. I’m juggling so many pieces in so many fics and I’m constantly trying to tweak them as close to perfect as I can. But I’m not rigid with it. I change things CONSTANTLY (Hi Weight, SR) and I find it a lot of fun, tbh.

I would love to write more oneshots. But I’m a long writer by nature and it’s hard to get my stories down to that tiny piece when I know I could build them out so much bigger. It’s why I love longshots.

11. What do you envy in other writers?

Descriptions. I would love to write better descriptions of settings, moods, etc., and piece it better into my stories. I have such a hard time remembering settings when I’m working on intense emotional scenes and I really wish I could keep them in mind better. Tyrian’s apartment scene in SR is a scene I spent ages agonizing over because I needed the set-up to be perfect for who and what it was tackling.

I also wish I had a more lyrical style? I feel really blunt and rough at times and I know it’s part of who I am. I just wish my writing was more. Beautiful. Pretty.

20.  Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

So I have this twice in my Inbox, so I’m gonna approach it from two different angles and I’m gonna tackle the meta of Silver Rings in this ask.

So let’s talk Silver Rings meta.

Yang lost her arm in an accident with a bull horned red mustang, as a reference to Adam. Red for his colour, bull horns because he’s a bull, mustang because male horses tend to be kind of aggressive. It was a lot of insurance money to pay for the wreck, and the court case was a nightmare.

Raven had a form of postpartum depression that actually looks more like psychosis. Because of this, her intrusive impulses were almost entirely extremely violent and that’s why she left. Having intrusive thoughts to kill your child because she won’t stop crying is scary, especially when your impulse control is bad on a good day.

Qrow is an artist, specifically a painter, as a nod to his dance-based fighting style in the show. I didn’t think dancing would work for his backstory in this world, but pencils and paper from the dollar store are cheap and easy to steal. It was his way of bringing beauty into the dark parts of his world.

Pietro and Penny are not, in fact, related. However, Pietro did design Mercury’s prosthetics and has met Penny before because of that.

Tyrian and Qrow met when both were in really shitty places. Tyrian was six months sober and seven months clean, and he wasn’t supposed to be a sober buddy yet. However, his parole officer and social worker thought he’d do well with responsibility. Qrow didn’t know this when he met Tyrian, but found out later and never regretted it.

Tyrian is schizophrenic. He’s well medicated and functions decently, but he does have pretty regular hallucinations. Part of why he keeps such weird animals is because he knows they’re good at vibes and if they aren’t freaking out, nothing is wrong. Also, if he ends up in the hospital, they’re okay on their own for a few days, and a dog isn’t.

There are a fuckton of references throughout the story related to Raven and Yang’s canon relationship, and more coming up soon that are meant to mimic their conversation at the bandit camp. I really wanted to push that parallel while showing how it could go different in another world.

If you’re paying close attention, you already know the location of Silver Rings’ big climactic scene.

If you’re paying close attention, you can accurately guess all the major conflicts for the rest of the fic.

Summer is a media consultant. That’s something I never managed to get into the story.

The reason Glynda is a dominatrix is partially her weapon and partially her style.

Hazel is technically a Daddy Dom but he plays other roles. That’s just his official one.

If you pay close attention, you’ll know where Arthur’s storyline is going (not the part related to Tyrian).

That’s all I got.

24.  Would you say your writing has changed over time?

I’ve got a fic from 2013 on my AO3. See for yourself.

But yeah, it’s changed. I’ve gotten a lot denser, a lot better at showing, and a lot less reliant on adverbs and tags. It’s great to see and I think I’ve still got a long way to go.

Thank you!!

[lirusstories]

Songs of the Lost Souls Chapter 1: Man in a Magic Shop

A/N: So Liru’s pronouns switch from they/them/theirs to she/her/hers in the chapter because she’s like me in that aspect. Also there are feminine pronouns in the they/them/theirs part and I’m letting you know that is intentional because thats how it is form and therefor her. 

(Word count: 4,632)

        “Are you sure your fine, the city is pretty big I can-”

        “Jacques! I’m fine, I’m just exploring near the tower.” The blonde sighed exasperated into the phone. A fluffy black and white cat sat on their shoulder with a pink service cat vest on, attached to a leash in their hand while a small white fluffy cat walked next to her wearing a bright green service cat vest, also attached to the leash in their hand thats wrapped around their wrist as well.

        “I know but still, it can be pretty dangerous.” The green haired Irish-French man fretted over the phone.

        “I’m fine. I wouldn’t have moved here if I couldn’t handle it and I highly doubt you would have bought me an expensive ass apartment either. Still mad at you for that by the way.” They say, letting the cat on their shoulder lick their head.

        “Grateful, but mad.” Jacques laughs softly, shaking his head fondly as he does.

        “I know you are.” He says in a loving voice that makes the blonde’s heart stutter for a second. 

        “Well if you don’t mind,”

        “I do.”

        “IF, you don’t mind, I’m going to continue to explore.” They state with a slight smile, their tongue poking their cheek as she does. Jacques sighs over the phone, knowing he lost their little… whatever that was.

        “Alright, alright, fine. I’ll leave you alone about it.” He concedes. They grin more as they come to a stop, waiting to cross the street, ignoring the people watching and attempting to record their cats.

        “Thank you darling, I’ll see you and the others tonight.”

        “Alright, Love you.”

        “Love you, too.” They both hung up just as Liru got across the street before the both froze, realizing what they said to each other. Jacques looks over to two of his brothers, Shawn and Sam, who are looking at him with their mouths agape while Jacques is flushed red, heart racing a million miles an hour. It’s quiet for almost a minute before Shawn picks up his sketchbook and repeatedly smacks his brother's arm.

        “You fookin Idiot.” Shawn hisses out between his teeth.

        Meanwhile, Liru’s face is flushed red with their heart beating rapidly in their chest before a happy grin on their face as they begin to giggle to themself as they walk.

        “He loves me.” They giggles out through the knuckles pressed to their mouth, phone still in hand. Their cats just purr in response, Izzy rubbing her head against Liru’s while Marvin rubs up against her leg before continuing to walk next to them. They put their phone in their pocket as they walk with a slight skip in their step. 

        You see, her and the three brothers or well four technically, Angus doesn’t really stay in one spot for very long, have been dating for a few months now, back when they still lived on the other side of the country, and since they finally decided to move, they suggested that they move here, to this city, Dago(Day-go). After some explaining of what's going on in the city, meaning the unhinged “demon” and the somewhat high crime rate, but their brothers also lived there, they agreed happily. Besides, anywhere is better than there, especially if they’re there.

        Anyway, after a few minutes of sheer giddiness, like a kid who just tasted smores for the first time on a summer night around a campfire, they manage to calm herself down but she still had a pink tint to her cheeks and a smile on her face but not enough to draw anyone's attention. They look around at the little stores around, looking for anything interesting before finding an supposed Magic and Oddities shop right beside them. 

        With a small shrug, they walk into the store nearly jumping as a voice comes from the back of the shop.

        “I’ll be with you in a minute!” A male Irish voice with a slight hint of a French accent mixed in, calls out. They tilt their head looking around the shop, surprised at the magic that covered the entire place. It was a beautiful regal purple with a mix of red, blue, electric green and a forest green with streaks and flecks of gold everywhere. They find it rather fitting when his voice sounds the same way it looks although the lingering bits of black in the magic makes them a bit uncomfortable. They bent down picking up the white cat, who was watching the gold in the magic with wide eyes.

        They walks around the shop browsing the oddities and books and ingredients with interest. There’s a smell of Lavender with burning Jasmine incense and a hint of fresh Basil. They take a quiet but deep breath noticing that it clings to the magic as well and sounds faintly of Gothic Ballroom Music and something that sounds like an electric violin. Very soothing and something that they could relax to but also something that makes them want to dance. She might actually paint something based on it.

        They're looking around noticing that the electric green was the same electric green that was mixed in with Angus’, Jacques’, Shawn’s and Sam’s. Yes they have magic, they haven’t told them yet but it doesn’t matter, they're happy to wait until they're ready. But that doesn’t stop the fact that they can see it as well as someone with 20/20 vision can see the world around them without glasses. Liru just happens to see more than that, and hear, feel, smell and taste. 

        It’s more of a burden though, when you're trying to get away from it, trying to at least pretend you’re normal in a world that loathes anything different unless it benefits them, the city’s hero for instance and his occasional assistant. Trying to be normal when the first 20 years of your life was made hell just because you’re different. They wander around the store, not processing anything, deep down the lava pit that is memory lane until the voice snaps them out of it.

        “Hello there! My name’s Marvin, can I help you with anything on this sunny afternoon?” The voice snaps them out of her little trip as she jumps a little and turning to the voice and jerking back a little at the familiar face, near carbon copy to Jacques’s if not for the slightly darker brown hair dyed a spring green and went down to his mid back and tied into a ponytail. On top of that he had Royal Blue, almost cat-like eyes that she found rather fitting for him, with scars definitely made from some form of claws that had scratched over his eye’s. 

        Who ever gave them to him was obviously not trying to blind him, or he’s just that good at healing magic but most likely a mix of the two if the magic that comes from it is anything to go by, dark and controlling.

        ‘Most likely under the influence of a αφέντης των μαριονετών.’

        “Miss?” They snap out of their thoughts and realizes they been staring, face flushing a deep red.

        “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” Their voice is shy and quiet and extremely apologetic and she puts her head in their head muffling her repeated apologies. The shop owner smiles rather amused despite himself right now.

        “It’s quite alright, miss, long day?” He asks with a friendly smile as they look at him through their fingers while her cat’s lick their arm and forehead in a comforting way, purring softly. They slowly nod a little as they put the hand down, resting it on Marvin’s back who purrs just a little louder.

        “More like a long week.” They smile sheepishly at him, picking at the white crystal bracelet with a golden rose around their right wrist.

        “Ah, understandable miss, are you new here? I don’t think I've seen you around the city.” He asks, his head tilted ever so slightly, looking them up and down curiously. They nods a bit, swallowing a bit, wanting to ask him if he was one of the trio’s brothers.

        “Yeah, I um, I just moved here a week ago.” And um it’s Mx. Right now at least.” She tells him a bit shyly and feels her heart stutter slightly when his eyes light up a little.

        “Ah, apologies Mx.” He says, forcing down his excitement, wondering if sh- they’re genderflux like him.

        “It’s no problem, you didn’t know.” The blonde smiles at him relaxing a little, rather grateful for the small blessing of finding someone who isn’t an asshole.

        “Well if you need anything let me know, I’ll be right here.”

        “Alrighty then.” They smile before continuing to browse, actually looking at them now rather than just walking aimlessly. Once they’re out of sight behind a few shelves, the shop owners smile drops as suspicion sets in. 

        The blonde has magic that seems to wrap around everything, as if curious, and shines like the sun and moon while looking like the very fabric of space itself. It’s comforting but he knows that it could turn on him in a second if he had any malicious intent towards them. He notices that there seems to be a dark grey almost black type of magic that forms into bones shaped as six arms and hands that seem to be holding wing type bits of space that stand out from the rest of the space type magic.

        The magic seems to outline three pairs of horns as well, a pair that waved up wards, a pair that went back before curling against her cheek and a pair that reminded him very much of bull horns. The pair that curled around their cheek had a rose gold streak that followed the curve of it and a gold one that followed the curve of the bull like horns. Next was the one that was shaped as a long eight or nine foot rainbow tail with a whitish yellow pink spike at the end. The tail seemed to sway along the floor calmly while they browsed. And to top it all off, they had familiar bond’s with the two cats that they came in with and two more that are clearly somewhere else.

        Despite the beauty and comfort that the magic brings, he’s a bit weirded out by the fact at how familiar it is. It reminds him of his brothers but still somehow different. He knows for a fact that they haven’t met before but the familiarity is undeniable, almost as if his soul is going ‘Oh, there you are’ and it doesn’t make any sense because the only other people that have made his soul feel that way were his brothers. And not because they are brothers, but because they’re soulmates.

        Familial obviously, but this one feels a little different and not in a platonic way almost in a romantic way. But how? The only way that could be possible-

        ‘Oh.’ He feels heat begin to rise to his cheeks. Long blonde hair, tan skin, Midnight Blue eyes and a scar on her chin that goes up to below her eye.

        ‘They must be Liru.’ His brothers’ girlfriend. His heart drops a little but also speed’s up from excitement, after all his brothers are pretty sure that they're soulmate’s with all of them. But at the same time, she clearly hasn’t told them about her magic. And he supposes it’s understandable, people with anything to be considered magic or “superhuman” are usually murdered for it. No ifs, ands, or buts. And I can only imagine what they've been through to have halo’s turn to horns. 

        He swallows a bit harshly as she walks up to the counter, the white cat on her other shoulder, and the pink bracelet with a silver rose that was on their left wrist was now on their right with the white and gold one. Taking mental note of what she picked out. An old book in Latin, a few different types of crystals, he knows those are meant to ward off nightmares and can’t help but feel as if his theory about her hidden horns are correct, and few other assorted things including a few small jars of paint. They set them on the counter as he begins to ring them up.

        “Will that be all for today?”

        “Huh? Oh yeah.” She pulls her attention away from the feeling of the phantom wings wanting to wrap him up and pull him close and never let go, the exact feeling they got and still get when around the four men she’s dating who, not to mention, are her romantic soulmates, four of them at least.

        “I’m actually wondering something though.” His heart jumps to his throat for a second before he continues putting her items in a paper bag.

        “What do you wish to know?” He asks with a small smirk as he hands her the bag in exchange for the money.

        “Is your last name Mcloughlin?” They finally ask. Marvin freezes for a second before he continues to pull out their change from the register.

        “Why yes it is. Why do you ask?” He swears his heart skips a beat from the smile that spreads over their face.

        “Your brothers told me about you!” She takes her change, haphazardly shoving it into her pocket before she sticks her hand out for him to shake. 

        “I’m Liru, I’m dating Angus, Jacques, Shawn and Sam!” They announce excitedly and any suspicion melts away at the sight. He grins happily,

        “I’m Marvin,” He grasps her hand but the both freeze as veins filled with space fly up his hand and under his sleeve and purple and green swirls dance up their arm until the lyrics write themselves on her bicep and on Marvin’s shoulder. They stare at each other for a full minute once the colors die down, a blush dusting both of their cheeks. 

        ‘Looks like they were right.’ The magician thinks before snapping out of the trance first. With a sly smirk, he turns their hand over and brings it up to his mouth and presses a kiss to her knuckles. Liru’s face turned red almost instantly, the cats on her shoulders seeming to almost snicker and smile.

        “It’s a pleasure to meet you Liru, Ma âme sœur.” She let out a squeak as she shyly curls in on herself a little, pulling her hand away as he lets go, standing back up straight looking directly at her with a smile.

        “I-it’s nice to m-meet you too, η αδερφή ψυχή μου.” His eyes light up even further and they swear his pupils grow bigger with a gold ring around it.

        “Ααα, μιλάς και ελληνικά και γαλλικά; Πόσο εντυπωσιακό.”  Her eyes light up as well, her own seeming to grow a few shades darker with a purple tint.

        "Μι- μιλάω λίγα γαλλικά, δεν είμαι πολύ καλός σ’ αυτά." She manages to get out, stuttering once.

        “Θα είμαστε χαρούμενοι να σου μάθουμε κάποια στιγμή.” He leans against the counter on his forearms, happily watching her as he does. Meanwhile she begins to toy with the white and gold bracelet.

        “Ο Jacques σε έχει νικήσει ήδη” She informs him, a small, shy but excited smile on her face.

        “Ααα, ντροπη.” He grins up at her from his lean. Looking at the cats on her shoulders, Marvin asks,

        “And who are these lovely creatures?” He goes to put his hand up for one of them to sniff before remembering the service cat so instead he put his chin in his palm. He could see the phantom wings shake eagerly behind her as she lights up like a tree on Christmas eve.

        “This is Izzabella,” She reaches a hand up and begins scratching under that black and white cat's chin who, in turn, immediately begins to purr and lean into the scratch and closes her gold lined green eyes.

        “But I just call her Izzy, she’s part Norwegian Forest Cat and Ragdoll.” She tells with a happy smile. She stops and Izzy looks at her, obviously pouting from the sudden stop as she turns her attention to the smaller white one, scratching its side in which it immediately leans against her head and begins to purr.

        “And this one-” She cuts herself off with a small laugh that makes the shop owner’s heart melt just a little bit.

        “Ironically, is named Marvin as well.” Human Marvin perks up looking surprised at the white cat.

        “He is also part Norwegian Forest Cat and Ragdoll with a little bit of Munchkin.” Said cat purrs louder as she reaches up and scratches under his chin, leaning forward looking ready to fall. Marvin goes to ask something but Izzy hopping from her shoulder down in front of him. Just as she landed Cat Marvin had indeed fallen forward trying to lean further into the scratches and wound up being caught upside down before moving to and set on the counter as well.

        “Well isn’t he over excited.” He says with an amused smile on his face while the female cat looks over at him and pats his hand.

        “You have no idea.” She goes and scratches behind his ears and he proceeds to flop against her stomach, making it rather difficult to scratch. Izzy pats Marvin’s hand again, staring him down.

        “She wants you to pet her.” The blonde says through a giggle. He raises an eyebrow and looks at said cat who lets out a squeaky attempt at a meow.

        “Oh? I was aware that they weren’t to be handled by anyone other than their owner when on duty.”

        ‘Not to mention they’re your familiars.’ he finishes silently, trying not to eye the rope made out of Bronze and Deep Blue standing for Companionship and Loyalty, like all familiar bonds are with both the cats and her own magic mixed in as well

        “Usually so but you're obviously an exception.” He slightly tilts his head before letting her sniff his free hand and scratching behind her ears.

        “She’s very soft.” He note’s out loud.

        “Yeah, she makes a great pillow too.” The cat just purrs in response although shooting the woman a dirty look that says ‘Don’t out me’. It takes both Marvin and Liru all they have not to burst out laughing, unaware that either one could understand the look. After a few seconds of silence Liru’s phone lets out a few piano notes, indicating she got a text.

        Quickly swiping it from her pocket and unlocking it before snorting.

        “Naturally.” She quickly sends a reply and goes to put it away before freezing and looking at Marvin.

        “Is something wrong?” He asks with a curious look.

        “I should probably get your number huh?” She’s smiling sheepishly and he just lets out a soft chuckle standing up straight again pulling out his phone.

        “Yes, and I suppose I should give you mine as well, huh.” They both quickly exchange numbers, Liru sending a quick hello, so she remembers it’s there before putting both of their phones away.

        “If you don’t mind me asking, who texted you? You seem rather… well not annoyed but more like you were expecting and didn’t want to hear it, if that makes sense.” He prods, curiosity overriding anything else.

        “Ah, yeah, that was Shawn. Or, Shawn from Jacques' phone so I’d read it.” She looks rather exasperated, looking back at Marvin, the human one, the cat one is currently pouting against her waiting for more scratches.

        “Why would he need to do that?” He was curious on why on earth his little brother would need to use his other brother's phone to get his girlfriend to read his text.

        “He always pesters me to get him black licorice whenever I’m out.” Ah. Sounds like him.

        “That… definitely sounds like him.” Marvin stated, fighting back a laugh. Liru smiles a bit sheepishly before looking down at the cat’s and petting them both for a few seconds.

        “I suppose I should explain the bracelet thing before I leave.” She muses out loud, picking at her palm. Marvin raises an eyebrow at the shyness showing itself again.

        “You don’t have to if you aren’t comfortable. I understand that we just met.”

        “No I do, being misgendered makes me uncomfortable even if it’s unintentional.” He could feel his excitement shoot up, his rings almost burning with the thought of her being like him.

        “Ya see, I’m genderflux,” Marvin’s pupils blow wide in excitement, looking like a cat now more than ever. He has to refrain himself from launching over the counter, picking her up and spinning her around. 

        “So my pronouns tend to change, usually it’s pretty erratic and hard for me to constantly tell people which one is which so I made these bracelets, pink and silver for female pronouns and the white and gold is for gender neutral pronouns. So they/them/theirs and obviously Mx. The pronouns I’m using are on the right wrist so right now female pronouns.” She looks up at him and her face turns a deep red at the excited grin on his face, unconsciously noting at how much he looks like a cat with his eyes.

        He puts his hands out, showing off a small assortment of gold rings, two standing out from the most. One with beautiful peacock opals formed into a feather on his right middle finger and a silver cat with amethysts for an eye on his left middle finger.

        “The peacock one stands for male pronouns,” Her head snaps up to him in shock that quickly changes into rising excitement. “And the silver and amethyst stands for gender neutral pronouns.” He smiles happily at her, seeing just how excited she is.

        “The one on the right are the pronouns I’m currently using.” Her grin widens even more, looking like an excited Cheshire cat and she begins to flap her hands close to her chest excitedly, letting out a low happy squeal. 

        “Oh you have no idea how badly I want to hug you right now!” She exclaims trying to rein in the flapping.

        “Well,” He hops over the counter, making sure not to hit the cats, who were watching the whole interaction, and lands next to her spreading his arms out.

        “The feeling is mutual.” She nearly tackles him, throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly, something that he returns enthusiastically, glad his risk of being so forward paid off. Because from what his brothers told him, she takes a while to warm up to people, so he feels like he just won the lottery. After a few seconds they break apart, faces red with wide grins. Liru moves away a little for space just as her cats hop off the counter and begin meowing up at her.

        She looks down at them, both of them meowing, reminding her that she has more places to go. 

        “I suppose I should get going now, got more to explore before it gets dark out.” The shop owner hides his disappointment with an encouraging smile.

        “I suppose that would be best. It’s not safe for people to be out at night, especially when they’re new.” The thought of her getting caught up in one of Anti’s attacks or getting assaulted by the low-lifes of the city makes his stomach feel heavy with worry but he tries not to show it. She looks up at him with an eyebrow raised, her magic seeming to grow a tad heavier.

        “I can take care of myself, new or not.”

        “I don’t doubt it, if you're anything like my brothers told me I doubt anyone would bother you after the first attempt.” Her face flushes red again, hearing that her boyfriends talked to their brothers in such a good way, her magic seeming to become lighter again.

        “S-so I guess I’ll see you and meet the rest of your brothers this Sunday?” She squeaks out shyly, again.

        ‘I wonder what it will take for her to properly open up. I supposed on time will tell.’

        “Absolutely Beauté.” He says with a teasing grin, wondering if she’ll understand him, and by the looks of the already tomato red face turning a darker shade of red before gaining a mischievous glint in her eye. Picking up her bag and standing up straight, she’s about two inches taller than him.

        “Then I’ll see you then, Minou.” She grins giving him one last quick hug before making her way out of the shop leaving and blushing Marvin behind.

        ‘Holy shit. I think I might be in love.’ The magician thinks, watching after her.

        Meanwhile, once she’s out of sight of the shop, Liru crouches down putting her face in her hands mumbling.

        “Kitty?! Why the fuck did I call him Kitty?! On top of that I kept loosing my cool, what the fuck me. I should be better at this already, it’s been three years!” Marvin, the cat, and Izzy both meow and gently paw at the back of her hand.

        “Don’t say that, it’s obvious he enjoyed it. If the look on his face was anything to go by that is.” Izzy attempts to reassure her.

        “And! You didn’t lose your cool because you refrained from wrapping your wings around! Just like you refrained with Angus!” Marvin states, as if proud of her, now that there was less of a risk of anyone catching wind of the telepathy.

        “Yeah, I suppose you’re right fluff.” She mumbles dragging her hands down her face before setting them on her knees, looking at them both.

        “Although his face might’ve been one of confusion not… wait.” Both cats look at her curiously.

        “How do you know that my wings were… oh shit.” A feeling of dread begins to pool in her stomach.

        “Ohnononononononono, oh god please tell me he didn’t see, that no one saw.” She looks at them, her voice pleading and desperate, terrified at what he’d think of her if he saw or what would happen to him and his family if someone saw. Both immediately begin to purr, putting their front paws on her knees and rubbing their foreheads against her chin.

        “No one saw, everything's alright.” Izzy ‘voice’ shaking with the purrs. Liru relaxes immediately, relieved now more than anything. The blonde pets them both taking deep breaths to calm herself down.

        “And it was only for a few seconds. I think you’d have to see magic anyway to really get a look at it anyway.” The white cat's voice wobbles just as much as the other’s as he reassures her. The blond relaxes completely resting her forehead against theirs while they begin to stop purring. They get off her knees looking up at her.

        “Now, I believe you have a few more places to explore and pick up some food for your mates.” Liru’s face turns red once again as she hisses out, embarrassed,

        “Izzy! We haven’t done anything like that!” They both snicker as they begin to walk away, pulling on the leashes. Liru quickly gets up, walking again blushing furiously while glaring at her cats.

        “Doesn’t matter, you love them don’t you?”

        “Well of course I do!”

        “Then they're your mates.” Liru sighs in annoyance at her familiars who are snickering at their owner’s embarrassment.

        “Yeah, yeah laugh it up. The suns gonna set in a couple of hours and I have to wear a dress tonight so let's just get as much energy out as possible.” She looks up at the clear sky with a slight smile though. The thought of spending some time with her boy’s always brings her a little bit of peace. She just hopes she can sit still long enough for them to paint and draw.

Translations: Greek translations courtesy of @antis-gauge thank you so much

Master of Puppets = αφέντης των μαριονετών

My Soulmate = η αδερφή ψυχή μου = Ma âme sœur

"Ahh, You speak both Greek and French as well? How Fascinating." = Ααα, μιλάς και ελληνικά και γαλλικά; Πόσο εντυπωσιακό.

"I-I speak a little French, not very good at it." = Μι- μιλάω λίγα γαλλικά, δεν είμαι πολύ καλός σ’ αυτά.

"Well I’ll happily teach you sometime." = Θα είμαστε χαρούμενοι να σου μάθουμε κάποια στιγμή.

"Jacques has already beat you to it." = Ο Jacques σε έχει νικήσει ήδη

"Ah, a shame." = Ααα, ντροπη.

Beauty = Beauté

Kitty = Minou

Tags:

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@animallover4000 Thank you for commenting and reblogging because you are what gave me the motivation to finish this as quickly as I did.

@i-maybe-exist

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@the-chemist

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@immabethehero

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@queendominion​

@immabethehero

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[helihi]

The Good, The Bad, and the Dirty: RWBY Vol 7 Ep 4

Thank you for renewing your Punch Jacques Club Membership, I cannot confirm or deny that you’ll accomplish your goal this season, but we’re family.

Overall rating of the chapter: 7.5/10 

*Spoilers Ahead*

The Good

To start off this chapter, we learn more about the true dynamics of the Ace Ops and, more importantly, about Atlas Academy. At Beacon, teams are chosen by interactions and collaborative efforts during a recorded test. Ozpin chose teams based on trust, leadership skills, and bonds. In Atlas, teams are chosen based on effectiveness. The students are not viewed as people or individuals, they are viewed as numbers.

In the previous episodes, there were a couple of things that didn’t quite sit well with me: Harriet’s original comment to Ruby regarding her Semblance felt more mean than playful, and the fact that Marrow was everyone’s punching bag. At first, you might think that this is just playful banter between friends, like Yang and Ruby referring to Jaune as Vomit Boy from time to time, however, that’s not true. Since Harriet declares that they are not friends, you may realize that they are not “picking on Marrow”, they are actively bullying him. There’s no complements thrown his way, there are no mutual laughter or apologies, it’s just drag after drag after drag.

I have the slight feeling that Marrow might consider them his friends, and that’s why he’s letting the comments slide. We should also consider that he is the only Faunus in the team, and although I believe their comments don’t come from a source of casual racism, but rather at pointing out the fact that he’s the most childish of them all, we should pin that for now.

I get Harriet, there’s a difference between co-workers and friends. Though some times you may befriend your co-workers, playful banter and after office outings don’t translate to friendship. I say this as someone who has worked for a big company. There were coworkers I genuinely befriended, and other who I was friendly after office hours, but never hung out with outside work parties or outings.

That being said, I find it hard that you wouldn’t bond with those whose life you’ve saved before, the same who’ve saved yours. Interestingly, when Yang inquires about this and gets dismissed by Harriet, you can see the way Blake reacts in the background. Have we bonded over trauma? Is that all that this is?

Let me be clear: people can bond over trauma, but at the same time, going through a lot of things with a person can show you sides of them you never noticed before, you see them in a different light. That being said, Team RWBY’s enemies haven’t been random people: Cinder killed Pyrrha, their friend; Emerald was someone they trusted; Mercury framed Yang in front of Remnant; Adam was Blake’s abusive ex and his goal to destroy Blake and Yang was personal. During the arcs these characters have gone through, they have grown as people as they faced death, obviously they are going to bond.

This may have been pure coincidence, but it’s interesting that an anti-bee section of the FNDM posed the idea that Yang and Blake’s relationship is based on mutual trauma. This claim is ridiculous because both of them cared about each other before the Fall of Beacon. The traumatic event made their relationship take a turn, and realize some things that they didn’t notice before or made things clearer for them. (On a side note, Asami realized she had feelings for Korra when she thought the avatar was going to die at the end of book 3). Sometimes certain situations change your perspective about things and people.

I want to note that Nora’s comedic relief landed perfectly, and Jaune’s sass was on point. Once again James is presented as someone trouble seeking the best outcome through the wrong means. That being said, Tyrian and Watts plan seem to be to overthrow him and generate chaos through political manipulation, and as someone who comes from a country with high levels of corruptions and suspicious murders, this is true real. Also, don’t think James is a good poor guy trying to be his best. He’s actively choosing one portion of the kingdom over the other and dooming certain populations.

Next stop is Jacques “Scumbag” Schnee making his first appearance in the volume. TBH it was about time. Given how the opening frames him, he had to show up soon. Just like I expected the moment he started bickering with Ironwood, he turned around and will now help Watts. At first, Jacques might have had power over Ironwood, but now he doesn’t, at least until he get his seat at “The Council”, which I’m expecting him to win.

As someone with an abusive parent, Jacques’s mannerisms make sense. The shift from his violent approach to a more manipulative one are common abusive tactics of an abusive person when in public or when their victim stands up to them. My parent used to be more physically abusive when I was a child, but when I grew taller and stronger, they switched to a psychological one since I could defend myself. In this case, Jacques was super close to striking Weiss again, but stopped the moment one of her true dads stepped in (Ironwood).

Jacques using Willow to guilt trip Weiss was dirty and awful, and once again adds on to my theory that she might be the Winter maiden. Thankfully, like Ruby promised, Team RBY is right beside her.

Blake is ready to kill him, and Yang is processing how awful the man is. Ruby is utterly confused at his attitude. Following this, we find that Winter was siting for him to leave before showing up. She looks around to confirm that he’s no longer there, and Weiss points out “Winter, it’s nice for you to finally show up”. Just like I've talked about before, while Weiss got out of the abusive environment and found a real family (Team RWBY), Winter escaped Jacques by joining the military. James Ironwood is only missing one Schnee child to adopt, and we’ll get to that soon enough.

All our kids are now huntsmen! Congrats! Just like they say, the licenses feel hollow after all they’ve been through, and TBH I agree. It also shows progress for the characters, specially Yang who had the most superficial goal out of the 4 Team RWBY members. Regardless of that, it’s nice to see the goof around, take pics, and eat cake. Something I thought it was adorable is how Winter interacts with Penny: she’s so caring and nice. I love them.

We got a really good moment between Ruby and Qrow, and some background on Summer. The DC comics have helped us understand Summer a little bit ore, but this confirms that she was a brat (hell ye). Apparently, her last mission was a “Summer mission”. I really need those Team STRQ flashbacks. I bet Raven know more than we think.

I also think it’s important that Qrow pointed out how Ruby is not Oz since she doesn’t keep the secret to herself. I think certain conditions should be met to be open about Salems existence, especially considering current circumstances.

Jaune offering to protect little children is the most Jaune thing ever, never change boy.

Lastly, Watts finds an ally: the douchbag who married into the Schnee name. That small interaction with Whitley and Jacques might be a small sign of foreshadowing him having a reception arc. His father doesn’t trust him to invite his heir into the meeting, and he treats his son rudely. Whitley looks genuinely dejected.

Watts faked his death, that might be an indication why Ironwood doesn’t have a clear suspect yet. Now, he’s part of the Asshole Mustache club.

Anyways, next episode it looks like we’re going to meet Robyn. The sheep faunus and the tattooed guy next to her might have been part of her team.

The Bad

Those quick animations for cheap comedic effect have started getting kinda annoying. I wish they didn’t overuse them ass much.

The Dirty

Where’s Klein.

--

Final Rating: 7.5/10. Good, but not above expectations.

A.N.: Alost 18 mins, keeping up with the consistent episode length, congrats!

[unfortunate-stranger-losers]

All Those Things They Couldn’t Say - A Runaway Baudelaires AU

{ao3} {tumblr} {masterlist}

Chapter Thirty-Five - We lost our opportunity for “Home Alone”, thanks Jacques

Violet sat at the edge of their map, sketching while she talked. “Beatrice and Bertrand faked their deaths with Lemony’s help. He snuck them out of the city.” 

“No.” Jacques shook his head. “No, Lemony was investigated at that time-” 

“And he was smarter than you little shits.” Violet shrugged. 

“Beatrice and Bertrand would’ve gone to our organization for protection.” 

“Likely.” Violet rolled her eyes. 

“They’ve been on the run the last fifteen years.” Klaus said. “And ended up with us.” 

“Then Olaf found-” Violet shut her eyes a moment, taking a deep breath. 

Isadora, noticing her discomfort, picked up. “Olaf found they were in contact with Lemony. That’s… how he died.” 

Jacques didn’t say anything. 

“He faked a telegram and summoned them to Lemony’s place,” Duncan said, “And then kidnapped their parents.” 

“We escaped.” Violet muttered, reaching into her ponytail and pulling her ribbon out of her hair, wrapping it around her fingers. “Olaf’s been following us, killing anyone near us. We had to take Duncan and Isadora because they caught his attention and- and we can’t let anything happen to them.” 

“We can’t keep running this time.” Klaus said. 

“Kill.” Sunny nodded. 

Klaus shut his eyes, and translated. “We have to kill Olaf before he can kill us and our parents.” 

“Children…” Jacques said. “This is very serious. You should’ve gone to the authorities-” 

“The police will arrest our parents and VFD sucks.” Violet said. “We are on our own. Olaf killed your brother, don’t you want him dead?” 

Jacques stared at the paper beneath him. “All I know is Lemony died in a fire at Valorous Farms Dairy.” 

“Because Olaf killed him to get to us.” Violet said. 

Jacques sighed. “I can’t say I didn’t suspect… but I- I heard he may be heading this way, so I came to investigate rumors he was involved with the recent Paltryville riots.” 

“Well, he is heading this way, we’re here and he’ll come for us.” Violet said. 

Duncan hesitated, before pulling his commonplace book out. “Did you say Paltryville riots?” 

“Yes.” 

“Would… that include the death of Georgina Orwell?” 

Violet and Klaus stiffened, and Jacques said, “How do you know about that?” 

“Um.” Isadora said. 

“Bitch.” Sunny sighed. 

“Jacques, just leave Olaf alone, let us handle him or help us kill him.” Violet said. 

“Violet, you cannot just kill him.” Jacques said. “We can have the authorities handle this. Justice will be served.” 

“Justice is watching him die.” Violet said. 

“Mr Jacques, with all due respect,” Klaus said, “You weren’t there. He told our parents he was going to torture and kill us in front of them. He will if he gets a hold of us. He needs to die, and so does everyone helping him.” 

“Children, we can figure this out.” Jacques said. “Listen, we’ll just go to headquarters-” 

Within an instant, Violet’s knife was in her hands again, pointed directly at him. “Call VFD here and Olaf will be the least of your worries.” 

“Violet!” Jacques sighed. “Listen, I just think…” he looked pointedly at the Quagmires. “If you go to our organization, you might find… several good things.” 

“VFD stays out of this.” Violet hissed. “We kill Olaf, we find where he stashed our parents, and then we leave. We get the Quagmires somewhere safe and then go back on the run until we figure out something to do, and you will not tell your organization shit because we have knives and a very angry disposition.” 

“Frater,” Sunny said, which meant something like, “Also, Lemony wouldn’t want you to.” 

“Children-” 

“This is not open for discussion.” Violet said sharply. “The last time someone contacted VFD, two men died- Sebald and Montgomery.” 

Jacques shut his eyes. “May I… speak to the Quagmires privately?” 

“No, you may not.” Isadora said. 

“We’re not splitting up for any extended amount of time.” Duncan said. 

“And also, we should get going.” Violet said. “We’re going to set a trap in the second floor. Will you join us or are you going to hang out down here and mope?” 

Jacques sighed and sat back. Then, finally, he said, “You really are just like your parents. Beatrice was just as stubborn, Lemony also wouldn’t let anyone get a word in edgewise, and you’ve got that spark in your eyes that Bertrand had when he had a plan.” 

“And it’s a good plan.” Violet said, hiding a smile. “We’re going up.” 

“Call us if you need us, Uncle Jacques.” Klaus said, picking up Sunny. 

Jacques mostly kept to himself on the first floor of the firehouse, so the children quietly got to work on the second floor. They brought the map up with them, and eventually managed to drag the rulebook from the shelf and to the top of the firepole to toss down if need be. Duncan boarded the windows, Violet and Isadora marked several floorboards that would be easy to break, and Sunny banged on an empty beer bottle with a spoon and sang a rather repetitive song she’d written herself. While that was going on, Klaus went over their supplies, muttering and trying to find something good to set them up with. 

“I think if we put a tripwire under the door-” Klaus began. 

“We’re using the rulebook for the firepole, Klaus.” Violet reminded him. 

“I know, I know, but we could probably use the force of gravity, put a rock on a high shelf-” 

“Do you have a rock?” 

“Violet,” Klaus sighed, “There are rocks outside.” 

“We could attach Sunny to the wire,” Duncan laughed slightly, picking her up as she cheered and dropped her spoon, “And have her bite his head off.” 

Sunny growled and giggled and waved her arms. 

“Not risking it, but good backup plan.” Violet snorted. “Have you got the windows?” 

“I think so. I’m not great with a hammer but I got the boards up.” 

“It’s just slamming it into a nail, Duncan, don’t be an idiot.” Isadora said. 

“Listen, I have no motor skills or upper body strength.” 

“Have you considered not being a weak-ass bitch?” 

Violet laughed. “Alright, it’s getting late. I’ll take first watch, the rest of you chill.” 

“We can’t chill, we’re committing premeditated murder in self defense.” Duncan whined, giving her pleading eyes, which caused her to laugh quite a bit. 

“Let’s just lure him here now and throw a knife at his head.” Isadora said. 

“We don’t even know if he’s here yet.” Klaus reminded her. “And if we’re all tired-” 

“Yeah, yeah, we’ve got the drill.” Isadora sighed. She found her bag, digging out her blanket. “Maybe we could strangle him with this.” 

“A rope would be better. Maybe we should’ve saved the one from Dark Avenue.” Violet said. 

As she sat beside the rulebook, looking down the hole, Sunny turned her. “Woc?” she asked. “Are we sure we can trust Jacques?” 

“Absolutely not, so the guard on watch has to make sure he doesn’t do anything idiotic.” Violet said. “If he comes up here make sure he doesn’t drag anyone off by the ankles.” 

Duncan curled against the wall, smiling as Klaus sat beside him and leaning his head on his shoulder, settling Sunny on his lap. “I feel bad for him. Like, he must’ve been in there for a while.” 

“Lemony was abducted as an infant, so, yeah.” Violet nodded. 

“Why do you think he wanted to talk to us?” Isadora asked. 

“You’re easier targets.” Klaus shrugged. “Two of you, less experience on the run, more prone to be friendly to the cult.” 

“As if.” Isadora snorted. 

“That’s enough chatter.” Violet sighed. “Everyone shut up and go to sleep.” 

“Sing?” Sunny asked, looking up from Duncan’s lap as she grabbed his jacket and wrapped it over her like a blanket. 

“Guard probably shouldn’t sing. Won’t help the guarding.” Violet said. 

“I can sing, though.” Duncan giggled, wrapping his arms around Sunny and leaning more onto Klaus. “Our Father loved this one- It was such a fine spring day, down Lou’siana way, with fragrance divine…” 

“And such magnificent regalia,” Isadora sang along gently, wrapping her own blanket around her._ “Oh, so fine, Azalea.” _

“Oh, what a lovely sight, in red, pink and white! Can’t help but believe…” 

“That nothing evil can assail you, so naïve, Azalea…” 

Violet sat at the edge of the hole and kicked her feet, hitting against the pole every now and again. She heard Jacques writing something down below, and the fading voices of the others slowly drifting off to sleep, but she kept herself focused on her watch. 

Just keep an eye out, Vi. Keep them safe. 

Violet knew she should’ve waken someone else up for a watch, but instead she sat by the hole for a while, enjoying the silence. Eventually she laid down on the floor, staring at the ceiling and trying not to fall asleep. 

She failed pretty fast, but thankfully she was awoken by a door slamming. 

As soon as she recognized the sound, she sat up straight, her hair flying into her face. She quickly tied it back, peering down the hole and listening. No noises. And no movements. Likely someone had gone outside. Probably Jacques… fuck. 

She ran to the other children, quickly pushing them and darting between sleeping bodies until they all sat up, groaning. 

“We have a situation.” she muttered. “Jacques has left the building.” 

Klaus glanced around. “What time is it? Why didn’t-” 

“Jacques has left the building.” Violet hissed. 

Duncan turned to the nearest window, froze, and said, “I’m starting to see the downsides of boarding up the windows.” 

Sunny gave him a look, crawled over to the firepole, and immediately slid down. 

“Fucking- Sunny!” Violet shouted. 

She groaned, and Duncan jumped to his feet. “You get the bags, we’ll get Sunny.” he said quickly. 

Isadora and Klaus quickly nodded, and Violet ran to the pole, sliding down and running as soon as her feet hit the ground, her eyes darting around the room. She finally spotted Sunny crawling on a dusty, creaky chair in order to peer out the window. 

Violet slid to a stop beside her, and Sunny only blankly looked up and said, “Issi.” “Jacques is just standing outside. I think he’s just chilling.” 

“Sunny, for fuck’s sake, what did we say about splitting up?” Violet hissed. 

Sunny shrugged, as Duncan ran to the window and checked the outside. “Yeah. He’s just standing there- do you think he’s sending a message? Waiting for something?” 

“Ughe,” Sunny shrugged. “Maybe he’s just being a weirdo.” 

Violet peered into the dark. “Maybe he’s trying to guard. May- shut up.” 

They quieted, just as Klaus and Isadora slid down the firepole. Duncan gestured for them to be quiet, as Violet put her hands on Sunny’s shoulders and squinted. Another figure was emerging from the darkness, and Jacques started heading towards, holding his arms up. She caught a few muffled words- “remember… friends… do good again…” 

“He’s talking to someone.” Violet muttered. “I’m gonna hazard a guess, he’s doing something really stupid and trying to talk Olaf down.” 

“Fuck.” Isadora said. “We’re not ready.” 

“I was hoping for the element of surprise,” Violet muttered, “But we can still-” 

“He’s going to get himself killed.” Klaus muttered, his eyes wide. He stepped forwards towards the door, and Violet grabbed his arm and yanked him back. “Violet!” 

“I’m not letting you die because of his stupidity!” 

“We can’t just let someone else die for us- we can’t let Lemony’s brother-” 

“He made his choice.” Viole hissed. “We just need to do our best to kill Olaf before anything happens to us. We-” 

“Shh!” Klaus suddenly leapt forward and grabbed Violet’s shoulders, ducking her down. Duncan quickly grabbed Sunny and knelt down beside them, while Isadora backed up against the wall. 

At that, Klaus gestured to a far, stained window behind the bar. Outside was another figure, walking carefully, clearly straining to hear a sound inside. 

Isadora sunk to the floor, her face going pale as she shook slightly. Duncan crawled beside her, grabbing her hand, while the Baudelaires shared a look, as they heard shouting begin outside. 

“They’re surrounding the house.” Klaus gestured. “If we go out to attack, one of them could grab us.” 

Violet paused, and then signed, “Side door leads to the firetruck. We could get there and drive over him.” 

“They’ll hear the door open.” 

“We’ll have to run.” 

“What if they jump over the fence?” 

“We have knives, idiot.” 

Klaus nodded, and Violet shot him an encouraging smile before reaching over and squeezing his wrist. She turned to Sunny, who was hugging Duncan in an attempt to comfort him. Violet gave her a thumbs up, and then gestured to the sidedoor. Sunny’s eyes widened in realization, and then she beamed. 

Both of the older Baudelaires crawled over to the Quagmires, and Violet pointed to the door, and then to Isadora’s bag pocket that held the throwing knives. Then she held up three fingers, then two. The Quagmires nodded, but just as she lowered her finger to one… 

They jumped as they heard the sound a shot- a harpoon gun, firing off. They heard a gasp and a shout, and Klaus let out a cry. Instantly, Violet grabbed his arm, hauled him up, and shouted for them all to move. 

They were at the door in a matter of seconds, and Duncan curled around Sunny as Violet burst the door open and took off for the truck. They heard shouts, running footsteps towards the source of the noise… they likely had a few seconds before they found the broken boards and found their way into the fence… 

“Throw Sunny into the driver’s seat!” Violet called, and Duncan gave her a quizzical look. “Just do it and then jump in the back!” 

Duncan sighed and tossed the toddler, watching as she grabbed the window of the truck, hoisted herself through, and thumped onto the seat. 

Violet heard something whish behind her, and ducked Isadora down as a dart flew over their heads. They raced to the back of the truck as more things flew their way. Klaus occasionally glanced back to the driver’s seat, where they saw lights start up. Just as they reached the back of the truck, the engine began, and Violet leapt up, almost hitting the hose, and lifted Klaus in first, waiting until she was sure he was ducking against the wall before helping Isadora up. She then reached down for Duncan, who was trying to climb up himself as Sunny started shouting back for everyone to grab onto something. 

And just as Violet grabbed Duncan’s arm, starting to lift him, there was another whish, from the other direction, the one Violet hadn’t been expecting anything from. And in a flash, Duncan let out a piercing, pained shriek that made Violet’’s blood run cold. 

“No!” Isadora hurled herself forwards, just as Sunny hit the gas. 

The firetruck burst forwards, as Isadora and Violet gripped Duncan and hauled him up. Violet’s eyes darted upwards, just in time to see a figure atop the fence, trying to crawl over, reaching to grab another weapon. 

No, no, no… 

Isadora was screaming, and Violet whipped around as Isadora and Klaus pulled Duncan to the back of the trunk, trying to stop him from shouting so much. The car shook as Sunny burst through the fence, and Violet could hear shouts of people running away from it. 

“Roundabout!” Sunny called. “We’re facing away from Olaf, I could turn around though!” 

Violet glanced towards her sister, and then down at Duncan. Klaus’s panicked, shaking voice was telling Isadora to keep him down, and Isadora put her hands on Duncan’s back, tears already streaming down her face. Duncan, for his part, was doing his best to stay calm when he had a large, sharp dagger jutting out of his shoulder. 

“I- I don’t think it hit an artery-” 

“Could it have? Klaus, could it have-” 

“Shut up! I need to- to focus! Duncan, stay calm, we’re going to save you, just- just-” 

Violet shut her eyes, and then called to Sunny, “Keep driving! We need to get him somewhere safe!” 

Sunny didn’t question, and the truck drove off into the night. 

Violet gave herself a moment to process. Harpoon gun- Jacques was dead. She was sure of that. Olaf had shot him, and he or one of his henchpeople had just injured Duncan. Duncan… Duncan was going to need help. 

Sunny was… not the best driver of the group, and the truck swerved between streets, almost hitting mailboxes and porches. Klaus was struggling to help Duncan in such conditions, saying something about laying down, try not to move, Isadora _hold him in place, _Violet I need a bandage, everyone stay calm. 

It was a bit hard to stay calm, though, as the truck sped forwards.

[littlemisssquiggles]

Hey! Any theories on the intro? And the upcoming fight with Oscar and Ironwood. I'm soooo excited 😖 gooo OSCAR!!😍

Hello again Luna. Well I don’t wish to discuss much out in the open since there are still folks who follow my blog and content who haven’t seen the episode as yet. So out of respect for them, I’m going to give my answer under cut.

Theories based on the intro. Whelp since the tradition since V6 is that RWBY opening sheds light on some of the story beats and subplots that will be focused on for part of the season, here’s what I’m anticipating is going to go down for V7:

Keeping Up with Best of the Best: 

JNR_RWBY will probably placed under the guidance and supervision of Atlesian Ace Ops who will more or less oversee their continued training as huntsmen.

We’ll probably have at least one episode or two in which our young heroes head out on missions  around Mantle and Solitas accompanying the Ace Ops in the field.  

While I’d love to see JNR_RWBY work alongside the Aces for more than one mission; if I’m going off the footage in the V7 opening and the V7 trailer,  the main mission will obviously be the one teased before in the trailer. The mission that takes place presumably in the Dust Mines of Atlas; infested with Centinal Grimm and another Geist Grimm.

Wouldnt surprise me if we got that mission episode between CH3 and 4 since I’m sure CH2 will involve the group being held in prison under firm interrogation until Ironwood arrives to bail them out (much like in @miki-13’s fanfic “Reconciliation”)

Oscar-Worthy: 

While JNR_RWBY will be out with Ace Ops, they’re not the only ones getting a taste of Atlas style of teaching. As shown, Oscar will remain in Atlas to be trained personally by Ironwood.

James and Oscar weren’t fighting. I guess this was more or less a little friendly sparring match for Ironwood to test just how far Oscar is in his training and skills as the successor to Oz.

Like you, I’m interested to see how this match will go. However at the same time, I’m not rooting for Oscar to win this one on one. On the contrary, I’m more anticipating Ironwood to wipe the floor with Oscar in their first match. He’ll probably go easy on him at first only to later take it up a notch and become more aggressive, forcing Oscar into a corner.I’m hoping this first fight between them is actually more…I guess serious when it comes to the actual episode. This opening makes it look like these two are play fighting and Ironwood is humouring Oscar. Don’t get me wrong. I want Ironwood to more or less be a good teacher to Oscar but at the same time, I don’t want him to coddle him either. Ironwood has been shown to be a hard boiled badass of a soldier. A man who singlehandedly slam-dunked a charging Beowolf with one hand and shot it straight through the neck with his other hand.

Let that guy teach Oscar a thing or two on what it’s light to be a warrior. War is nothing to take lightly. One slip up—even the tiniest of them can easily open the door to victory or failure. I can see Ironwood drilling that lesson into Oscar very firmly.

One thing I’m also hoping for is that there will be an audience there to show Oscar support during his sparring match with Oscar. I know JNR_RWBY will be mostly out in the field but I think it’d be cute to have someone there on Oscar’s behalf to cheer him on and help him up after Ironwood kicks his ass the first time.

With Ironwood training Oscar for V7, I’m hoping for V7 that we can at least get one Oscar-worthy episode where he is the focal point or key driver of the chapter. 

Similar to how we had the Jaundice multi-part episodes back during V1, it would be pretty great if Oscar got his own ‘Oscar-worthy’-titled episode that focuses heavily on his feelings handling everything (leaving home, the events of Mistral and Haven, Jinn’s story, Ozpin’s isolation, etc)  while additionally trying to keep up with Ironwood’s rigourous training regiment which the poor boy unfortunately struggles with in the beginning.

As a matter of fact, one thing I’m anticipating for with Ironwood training Oscar is the show highlighting Oscar struggling at first. I understand that Oscar’s whole thing is that he picks up things fast while also being expected to inherit Oz’s muscle memory; which we’ve seen him achieve.

That being said, I hope it’s not another example of the Writers neglecting to portray Oscar as his own character first and foremost.It still bothers me that after two seasons, we still don’t know much about Oscar’s true thoughts and how he feels. 

For the most part we’ve just seen him humbly accept everything that’s happened to him since the events of V4 and be perfectly comfortable with being puppeteered around by Ozpin while signing away his life to being another for Ozma to live through.

…Yep. Oscar has been with with the heroes for 48-49 days (1 month, 2 weeks and 4 days since V4 to V6, according to the RWBY timeline)  since he first left his presumably sheltered life back in Mistral and he’s just fine with all that’s happened since then. Uh huh. That’s what the show and the CRWBY Writers want me to wholeheartedly believe. Sure. 

It was especially worse last season where Oscar was supposed to be a focal figure of the season, like Ozpin, but the Writers once again overlooked him in favour of other characters (including ones who weren’t relevant to the main plot of that season). 

This is why I believe an Oscar-worthy episode isn’t only warranted by strongly needed at this point. What could be even better is if that episode is used to spark a close friendship and potential brotherhood between Oscar and Jaune. 

Why I want an episode where Oscar is seen struggling with his training and/or slowly beginning to fall apart from the pressures of everything around him to the point of frustration is because I can see it parallelling Jaundice where Jaune suffered through the same emotional struggles.

Jaune have come a long, long way from the whimpy kid he started off as. Perhaps he could use his experience to help and/or guide Oscar when he falters. 

I believe it was mentioned in an interview with M&K that Oscar might share a similar story beat to Jaune when he first started out.  I hope this means we’ll get to see Oscar go through an Jaundice-esque type of experience which in turn will prompt Jaune to want to help him since he sees his old self mirrored in Oscar. It’d be even nicer if this is followed up by Jaune offering to have practice sessions with Oscar to help him with improving his fighting technique. 

While I’d still love for Ruby to be the one to help Oscar with his training, I feel like it’d be more meaningful if Jaune offers to help Oscar similar to how Pyrhha once offered to help him back in V1.

I’ve been waiting for a moment where Jaune becomes a big brother/ mentor type character to Oscar since V5.

Plus if Oscar is indeed destined to join JNR (as the opening alluded to), this would be a nice way to have Oscar and Jaune bond to build into the potential of them eventually become teammates and brothers in arms.

I’d love it if we get a moment where Jaune and Oscar are training together while Nora, Ren and even Ruby observe from a far.

Having RNJR be a part of Oscar’s training and development as a fighter is a nice callback to V5 where the five of them were being trained under Oz’s watch and guidance.

Plus this could provide another example of RNJR becoming Oscar’s Golden Circle of close confidantes.I’m seeing more and more signs of the Golden Circle being a canonical possibility as the series feeds me more evidence for my Pinehead headcanon.

I hope they don’t stop for V7. I really want to see RNJR become Oscar’s main group. JNR as his potential huntsman team and surrogate family and Ruby as Oscar’s best friend, most trusted companion and of course, his potential love interest (maybe).

So yeah it’d be nice if Oscar training Ironwood is a sign he might have his own Jaundice-esque episode that focuses on him and his growing friendship with RNJR. I mean it’d be nice if one of the episodes gave us that for him this season. 

But given the Writers’ track recording on dishing those out; that’s wishful thinking. Ey who knows?

Schnee Family Affairs: 

Judging by the fact that they are featured in the intro, apparently Weiss is going to have to confront the conflicts with her that she left behind in V4. This also seems to be tied into something to do with the Crimes of the SDC. As alluded to the audience during the World of Remnant episode on the Schnee Dust Company, the company has committed one or two nefarious deeds under Jacques Schnee’s leadership. 

The intro also highlighted the new Robyn Hill character looking at tele-ad of Ironwood which later glitches to Jacques.This makes me wonder something curious but I’ll save it for my musing post. 

All I will say for now is that there is a definitely a connection between this Hill character, Ironwood and Jacques Schnee. It can also be noted that Qrow will meet Hill face to face. My theory on that is that James will probably task Qrow to investigate some strange things going down in Mantle that’s connected to Hill. 

My hunch with that is that Hill is the prime suspect in some reported mishaps down in Mantle when the reality is that it’s Tyrian Callows who's been causing trouble on Watts behalf. 

That’s my hunch. Speaking of Watts.

Watts’ Mole?

In the opening Watts is seen observing an image of the Ace Ops. This got me curious about that. Why show a shot of Watts eyeballing them specifically of all things with a smirk on his face?

This made me consider two theories as a rationale. Either Watts is watching the Ace Ops because he plans on using them and their influence on the People of Atlas as possibly their finest soldiers to once again humiliate and mock the strength and integrity of Atlas’ Kingdom to the rest of the world; as it was done back during the Vytal Festival.

Or…the Ace Ops or at least ONE of their members is secretly in cohoots with Watts. While I understand that Watts’ gig is that he’s a genius, what if…he had a secret accomplice among the ranks of the Ace Ops who has been feeding him valuable Atlas intel that he then used against the Atlesian military.

We can assume that Watts’ was exiled from Atlas for reasons. But imagine if before being banished, Watts had a family? Like imagine if...Watts is also a dad and one of the Ace Ops members is secretly his kid who he was forced to leave behind when he was banished. Watts then reunited with said child and together the two have been working together to enact their revenge and said child is in the Ace Ops and has been feeding Watts valuable info to help with his schemes for years; including the Fall of Beacon.I could be completely wrong about Watts having a kid in the Ace Ops but…who knows. Let’s leave it on the table for now.

Attack on Mantle: 

This shot makes me think that at some point for the V7 Finale, something big is going to go down in Mantle. Like there might be some big attack. Maybe Watts will create a stronger virus that’ll once again take over all mechanical lifeforms down in Atlas and the robot soldiers (inclusive of Penny 2.0 possibly) will suddenly turn fire on the innocent civilians, sending the People of Mantle into a frenzied panic which in turn will bring forth an army of Grimm to reign down on the Surface Kingdom. It might even attract another big Grimm.

Last time for V6, we got an underused Kaijuu Grimm. Perhaps this round we’ll get an Artic Yeti or Abominable Snowman type of Grimm. Who knows. 

The Relic of Creation: 

Well…we saw it clear as day in the opening. So we can bet the Relic of Creation will be a factor this season. I’m curious to see how Atlas uses this Relic since my hunch is that part of the reason why Atlas has been able to advance so much is due in part to them using the power of Relic of Creation. And since we saw the Relic, I wonder if this means we’ll get a teaser of the identity of the Winter Maiden and the Vault of the Winter Maiden.

Penny: 

... As much as Penny’s shining smile in the opening brightens me up every time I see it, I can’t help but feel uneasy about that. I’ll talk more about on that later in a future musing post. 

No Fire and Icecream? 

Another thing to point out in the V7 opening is the lack of Cinder or Neo.

Even though they were teased heading toward Atlas at the end of V6, the V7 opening showed nothing of them. This makes me wonder if the two are even going to appear at all this season.

I mean take Adam Taurus for example. Even though Adam Taurus didn't appear until the later half of V6, he was still featured in the V6 opening.

Cinder and Neo; nowhere to be found in V7′s opening. This leads me to believe that we may not see these two at all for V7. Then again, it was said in another interview with the Writers that we’ll be learning about Cinder’s past at some point. I can’t remember if it was teased for V7 or a future season.

Either way I can’t really think that she’ll be a character for V7 since she wasn’t shown. 

The same can be said about Salem’s army of Winged Beringels sent after Oz at the end of V6.

I guess they won’t be a factor for V7 either. I guess they’ll be saved for V8 (which is actually a good call).

Speaking of Oz, he was also omitted from this opening. Makes me wonder how much of a presence he’ll have this season.

I’m at least hoping for a thing where Oz comes back a bit for Oscar’s sake. Like maybe he and Oscar sort of reconcile but Oz doesn't take over Oscar’s body anymore. Instead he just plays a voice of guidance to him at times. I wouldn’t mind if Oz was relegated to that role for Oscar’s development. I want V7 to focus on Oscar since his side of things is often overlooked so much. He needs to be a focus.

Love is the Key: 

Looking at how much times it was mentioned in the opening, it may seem that love is a central theme for this season.

It also seems like the lyrics to the V7 Opening might be alluding the Fox’s lesson from the Little Prince. Interesting.

With all this talk about love, I hope this means that romance is in the air for some of our young heroes.

I know we’re more likely to see love in the form of friendship (platonic love), family (familial love) devotion and responsibility to another person. But regardless of this, this squiggle meister is hoping for cupid to rear his fat naked ass and prick some of our heroes with a dose of love straight through the heart.

I want to see some of our characters fall in love with each other (particularly a certain pair of rosebuds who’ve been shown to really care about one another despite only knowing each other for 49 days and have been pretty chummy these past two seasons---just saying).

And yeah, that’s it. That’s all the theories I have for now based on the V7 opening. Anymore that pop up, I’ll just share in a musing or headcanon post. Hope that answers your question, fam.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019) 

[sunsetscurving]

honey, you should see me in a crown [modern royalty AU]

CHAPTER 7 || ao3 link

Lucas Lallemant, crown prince and heir to the throne, never needed someone to protect him. He never needed someone to protect him until the day he nearly got stabbed by an assassin.

Now he has to deal with an annoying bodyguard named Eliott Demaury who is, to the chagrin of Lucas, fucking handsome too.

As if his life hasn‘t been difficult enough already.

Over the next two weeks, nightly walks became their thing. Lucas didn’t bother to hide his little escapes from Eliott anymore, he wanted his bodyguard to know that he left the castle for some precious moments of freedom outside the castle. And if he wasn’t allowed to do this alone, he would drag Eliott with him gladly.

And Eliott seemed to be delighted by it too.

Lucas talked most of the time in the beginning but slowly but surely, something like a friendship developed between them. Eliott opened up, told Lucas about his big brother and how much he wished that he could see him more often. But he was in the army and Eliott was afraid at every waking hour for his big brother to whom he looked up to so much.

“Jacques was one of the reasons why I wanted to be a bodyguard in the first place”, told Eliott Lucas on one of their nightly walks, “I… I also wanted to be brave. To do something that could maybe save a life. That could maybe make an impact how history is written. And although I wouldn’t be the spotlight of this history, I wanted to be part of it, at least…”

And in this moment, Lucas fell in love.

He didn’t want to admit it but the feelings for Eliott had developed more and more over their walks in the middle of the night, where just him and Eliott seemed to be on this planet, where time stood still and only the two of them were moving, two young men who couldn’t be more different from each other.

Lucas had stopped in his tracks and turned around to Eliott after he told him all of this and reacting without thinking, he took hold of Eliott’s hand, the other one looking deeply into Lucas’ ocean-blue eyes.

“You will be in the spotlight. You already are. For me, at least”, Lucas had whispered and Eliott’s lips formed slowly into a smile.

After this night, things were different.

Lucas had the feeling that not only he felt different, that not only he was surer of his feelings but also Eliott. Lucas had the feeling that Eliott actually sought Lucas out to be near him, to spend time with him and not only because his job description said so. And for the first time, Lucas not only felt like a prince but he felt seen. He felt like Eliott could look behind the royal mask of him, that he genuinely cared about Lucas and what he thought and how he felt. Eliott was more than a bodyguard for Lucas after this faithful night where Eliott opened up to him.

He was maybe even more than a friend.

And not only Lucas was happy about this development: Cece was probably the one who profited the most from Lucas’ and Eliott’s upgraded friendship – she had now two people to have a tea party with and Eliott’s laugh whenever they were together with Cece was his highlight of every single day. Eliott seemed to shine brighter than the first weeks of his stay in the castle and Lucas often told himself that maybe he was the reason for his bright smile.

At least he hoped so.

“So, what are you going to do in your free time without the little brat aka me to protect?”

Lucas grinned from the couch where he lay lazily, looking over to Eliott who lounged in a comfortable chair, his tie lose and his suit jacket over the arm rest. This was Lucas’ favourite sight of Eliott – him being relaxed, forgetting about his job for a moment and the both of them just being boys, joking around and laughing.

Eliott laughed and leaned his head back, considering Lucas’ question. Eliott would leave for a little holiday with his parents and his brother tomorrow and Lucas would miss him terribly. He would get some old guard at his side for these few days.

“I’ll have so fucking much time without you commanding me around the whole day”, said Eliott with a grin eventually and Lucas sat up, playful indignation on his face.

“How dare you to speak to your prince like this?”, said Lucas with a played serious tone and Eliott tried to hide the smile on his lips, playing along with Lucas and his little game which he loved to play. All the formalities between them were forgotten whenever they were alone and this was Lucas’ favourite thing about it all – feeling normal without being reminded that he will inherit the throne of his country soon.

“Oh, I beg your pardon, your highness. Please don’t hang me in front of the whole court!”

Lucas laughed and leaned back again, turning his head and tried to memorise Eliott’s face and his laugh so that he could replay it whenever he wanted when Eliott wasn’t around. It was strange how accustomed you could become to someone in such a short time.

“No, but seriously. I will have a lot time to read a book, to talk with my brother till the morning hours, updating each other on the life of the other one and just… enjoy some family time.”

Lucas smiled and nodded, looking at the ceiling now. He didn’t know when he had read the last book or when he had the last family centred holiday and just as Eliott talked about all of this, he realized that he kind of missed it.

“And you?”

Eliott’s voice dragged Lucas out of his thoughts and he looked at Eliott again.

“And me?”

“What will you do without me?”

This is actually a very good question.

“Oh, you know. The princely duties, the masquerade—”

Lucas halted and sat up, looking directly into Eliott’s irritatingly beautiful eyes.

“You’ll be back for the masquerade, right?”

“I’m trying my best.”

“Your best?”

“I’m not sure yet, I—”

“Please, Eliott.”

Lucas stood up now, walking over to Eliott and sitting down on his armrest. They were so close now that Lucas could feel the heat of Eliott’s body radiating off him and Lucas was not sure if the closeness between them was so good right now because Lucas’ thoughts drifted off into a dangerous direction.

“Promise me, that you’ll be there. I cannot do this without you.”

This was another fact that came with their bonding: Lucas kind of felt unsafe without Eliott by his side. Eliott had been there for nearly a month now, always a shadow behind Lucas or next to him, his presence always there and making Lucas feel safe. Safer than in weeks. He knew that no danger could reach him with Eliott by his side. The masquerade would be guarded to the teeth but the anxiety which came with such a big event could only be calmed by Eliott or his little sister.

It’s unbelievable how much I need him.

Eliott looked up to Lucas and laid a hand on Lucas’.

“I’m trying. I really will. Okay?”

Eliott smiled and Lucas couldn’t resist this smile.

“Okay.”

.

It was the evening of the masquerade and Lucas was walking around in his room like a caged tiger.

“Your highness, would you please stand still for a moment?”, asked his dresser and he couldn’t blame the slightly annoyed undertone in her voice. He had been acting like this for the past few hours and when Lucas looked out and saw how many guests already spilled into the castle, he felt sick.

Eliott wasn’t here.

“Could I—Could I have five minutes, please?”

The dresser nodded with a sigh and curtsied.

“But we really need to hurry then, your highness.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

And with this, the dresser left his room. Lucas pulled out his phone and opened the chat between him and Eliott.

lucallemant: where tf are you?

lucallemant: eliott pls

lucallemant: I need you

srodulv: I’m sorry, I cannot make it

Lucas stared at the display, his eyes suddenly burning.

lucallemant: what

srodulv: my flight was cancelled and the next one is leaving tomorrow morning

lucallemant: you’re kidding me, get your ass here

srodulv: I’m not kidding. Please forgive me.

He was not kidding. Lucas could feel it. And although he shouldn’t be angry at Eliott, he was. Eliott knew how unsafe Lucas felt without him and Lucas had hoped that he at least could sneak away with Eliott and maybe dance in secret with him and—

Lucas took a deep breath and looked into the long mirror in front of him.

“I am Prince Lucas Charles Louis Alexandre Lallemant. And I can do everything.”

He would smile tonight. He would dance and he would have fun.

Lucas put on his mask, a delicate half-faced thing in black covered with velvet.

And he wouldn’t think about Eliott.

.

A servant was booming the golden stick against the polished marble floor and thousand of masked faces turned around to that sound. The big hall was decorated with white flowers, the queen’s favourites, and the air smelled like candles, sweet honey from the buffet and… mystery.

“Your majesty, King Alexandre Antoine Raphael Lallemant, his wife, Queen Adalene Celeste Claudette Lallemant, their daughter Princess Cecille Estelle Camille Lallemant and their son, Prince Lucas Charles Louis Alexandre Lallemant.”

Lucas automatically straightened as his name was called into the room and echoed back against the high walls. His father and his mother started to move and so did Lucas and Cece. They floated down the stairs and into the crowd of aristocracy and royalty. Lucas actually hated the silence whenever they entered a room, hated the eyes of so many people on him and the feeling of tripping every second. With Eliott by his side, he would feel surer, better.

You didn’t want to think about him tonight. You survived so long on your own. You can also do it again for one night.

And finally, the music was setting in again and the murmuring of people filled the room. His parents were off to some important people and Lucas took a deep breath. He was kind of glad for all the masks around him, no one could have seen the panic in his eyes and he was very happy about this.

“I really like your mask, Lulu.”

Lucas nearly forgot about his little sister next to him but as she addressed him, a smile spread on his lips. He kneeled down to be on eye-level with her. Today, she was wearing a lilac dress with puffy sleeves and a little tiara was seated on the curls of her blonde locks. She was wearing a tiny fragile mask which only covered the upper half of her face and she looked absolutely adorable. She wasn’t allowed to be that long on the ball but she had begged their mum so long till she agreed to let her go, at least for two hours.

“And I like yours, little princess. You look stunning tonight.”

Cece beamed at Lucas’ words.

“And you look very good, too.”

Lucas knew that Cece meant everything she said and it made him happy to hear his little sister say that. But, today, he had to admit that he really do looked good. He was wearing a burgundy coloured suit which was only made for him and therefor fitted him perfectly. The black mask was colour-coordinated to his black tie and although the outfit was quite simple, it did his effect as Lucas realized that some young women, and young men, turned their head towards him, maybe waiting for Lucas to come over or waiting for the perfect moment to ask him out for a dance.

“Okay, little one”, said Lucas now and turned to look at Cece again. He poked her in the chest, “Don’t eat too much cake, don’t trip on the dresses of other women and please, don’t spill any limo on the marble floor. Mum and dad would be furious.”

Cece giggled and nodded.

“Okay, gotcha.”

And with that, she disappeared between all the people and Lucas lost sight of her. A smile was still playing around his lips and his thoughts slowly drifted back to Eliott, as suddenly something caught his attention in the corner of his eyes.

He turned around and froze.

Someone was coming late and that someone had the attention of the whole court.

Which maybe could be connected to how fucking stunning he looked.

He was wearing a midnight blue suit and a mask which covered his eyes and left his full and smooth lips open where a little smirk was plastered. He was walking down the stairs with the grace of a king and he was wearing a little cape, attached to his suit and coloured in the same midnight blue. His mask, in stark contrast, was white.

And Lucas was totally mesmerized.

He gaped at him with all the others who started to murmur who this could be and why he was late and where he got that exclusive suit. Lucas tore his gaze away for a moment and looked for his parents and Cece but he couldn’t find them.

And because no one dared to walk over to him, Lucas used his status and his chance to weave through the crowd till he stood in front of the stranger. The taller boy sank into an elegant bow and Lucas’ heart automatically started to beat faster.

Which it actually only did around Eliott.

“Your highness”, said the young man quietly and Lucas motioned him to stand up again so he could get lost in his eyes. But the shadow of his mask kind of hid the real colour and Lucas could only see the slight gleam in them. But that was enough for him now.

“With whom I’m having the pleasure to meet with on this masquerade?”, asked Lucas quietly, his voice slightly hoarse. He had the feeling that every single eye pair where on them, even the music had stopped, but the funniest thing was: He didn’t care right now. He suddenly felt sure and safe again and that only because this breath-taking stranger walked into this masquerade and suddenly made Lucas’ evening far more interesting.

The stranger leaned closer to Lucas and Lucas stood still, waiting.

“If I’m telling you my name, then the mystery would be solved and this isn’t the sense of a masquerade, right?”

Lucas smirked and looked into the eyes of the other one while nodding.

“That’s true”, said Lucas while slowly holding out his hand, “Would you dance with me?”

The stranger laid his hand into Lucas’ own and Lucas felt a jolt go through his body, the music was silently playing again in the background.

“It would be a pleasure.”

And so Lucas led them both in the middle of the room and they danced.

And danced.

And danced.

Lucas lost count of how many dances he only did with him. Anyone else who wanted to dance with him was met with an excuse so that Lucas could dance another round with the stranger. They didn’t talk much but that was actually not necessary in the first place. Their touches and their gazes spoke more than thousand words. Lucas was nearly forced by his dad to dance with some other people but he eventually always came back to his mysterious stranger.

As the night wore on and the first people already left, Lucas saw his chance to be alone with him. He took hold of his hand and pulled him out of the hall, into the hallway and towards one of their hundred balconies. Lucas opened the doors and was met with fresh night air. He breathed the air in and looked over his shoulder, smiling at the stranger and indicating him to follow him. Lucas leaned against the balcony parapet, looking down over the palace garden where he took so many walks with Eliott and…

No, he wouldn’t think about Eliott again.

Not when he was here with a beautiful stranger who seemed to be interested in him. And who would maybe be more available to him than Eliott.

“The view his breath-taking”, said the stranger silently now and Lucas watched him from the side, his strong jaw and his profile. He wondered if he was some duke or some lord or even a prince from another country. But his French was perfect, without any accent. He wouldn’t solve this mystery tonight but he was determined to solve it any other day.

“Yeah, it is… I often come here to take a breath between some nightly events here in the castle.”

“I can relate. It must be hard for you.”

Lucas turned around now, leaning against the parapet with his back now and watched the other one carefully.

“Sometimes. But then there are nights like tonight where…”

Lucas had stopped and the other one, of course, realized that.

“Where?”, asked the stranger and his gaze was now landing on Lucas. Lucas bit his lip and couldn’t tore away his gaze from the man in front of him who was literally dipped into the moonlight from above.

“Where I’m meeting special people. Like you”, said Lucas and his voice got quieter with every word till his voice was barely audible, barely a whisper.

The other one started to smile and took another step towards Lucas till he was nearly pressed again the parapet and the tall man in front of him.

“Like me…?”

“Like you…”

Lucas couldn’t calm down his beating heart. He usually was someone who thought a lot about things before doing them. But right now… He only wanted to do one thing. He had the feeling to know this man, to know his secrets and his dreams although Lucas didn’t even know his name. But something about him was achingly familiar.

He felt good around him.

Like he only felt with Eliott.

Lucas tiptoed, his eyes on the lips of the other one.

His heart was nearly jumping out of his chest and he could feel the breath of the stranger on his lips and then their lips nearly brushed and—

“I’m sorry.”

Lucas’ eyes snapped open and he saw how the other one was withdrawing from Lucas, disappearing slowly but surely into the darkness of the hallway, “You deserve better.”

And suddenly, he was gone.

Lucas was frozen but after some seconds, he realized what had happened. He was gone and when Lucas wouldn’t chase after him right now, he would never know his name and never see him again.

“Wait!”, Lucas called out and stumbled after him.

But the hallway was empty.

As if nothing happened.

Lucas blinked, suddenly feeling dizzy.

Maybe none of this happened.

Maybe everything had been a dream.

But if so, it had been a wonderful one.

[shera-dnd]

Face Turn - Work the Left

The second chapter of our lovely wrestling AU. Now we get to go back in time a few months and see how it all started and we can take about 12 more chapters getting back to where we were

Just as a heads up, I had to google MMA eye injuries for this chapter, so please keep that in mind

also the AO3 link if you want it

The pain was blinding.

The pain and the blood streaming from her left eye.

Weiss Schnee was no stranger to blood and pain. She had been fighting in the octagon for years now and had her fair share of injuries, but fuck did that hit to the eye hurt like an absolute bitch.

It probably looked really bad too, because even her opponent - some newcomer with a Schnee sponsorship - took pause at the damage she caused. A real shame for her, because the judge hadn’t called the match yet and Weiss was more than happy to capitalize on that distraction.

Usually she’d play it safe and calculate the risks, but she knew she wasn’t about to beat anyone in an extended fight when she only had one working eye, so she just poured everything she had into beating that bitch into submission.

It was only after she had been announced the victor that she realized how bad the damage had been.

No, she wouldn’t realize how fucked she was until much later.

It took her a year to fully recover, and the word ‘fully’ was doing a lot of work there. They said it was a miracle that they managed to save that eye, that she was so lucky to have gotten so much of her eyesight back. They expected her to be happy that her life hadn’t been completely ruined by the event.

Except it had. Except she had lost a year of her life to surgery after surgery and treatment after treatment and at the end of the day she didn’t even get her full sight again. For everyone else it just looked like she got a cool scar out of the deal, while for her she was stuck with eye strain, headaches and a gigantic blindspot.

How the fuck could anyone expect her to be happy when she knew she couldn’t fight anymore? Her career had been ruined, her future was thrown under the bus, and she was ass deep in medical bills. It didn’t take long for the vulture to show up.

It had happened a few weeks after her final surgery. She had been dedicating just about every free moment after that to her workout routine. She wanted to make sure the rest of her body wouldn’t suffer from the inactivity, and she could definitely use the distraction from the absolute dread that came with any thoughts about her future.

It was during one of those workout sessions that she heard a knock on her apartment door. She was half expecting it to be her manager coming to check on her, but of course the universe wouldn’t even allow that basic decency. She looked through the eye hole of her door and was greeted by her least favorite sight.

“Fuck off, Jacques!” She yelled through the door.

“Is this how you greet your father?” He replied, as much of an ass as ever, “am I not allowed to worry over my own daughter?”

Worry. Of course he was ‘worried’. Same as he got oh so worried whenever she had shown any vulnerability, whenever he thought he could sink his claws back in her and drag her back under his control, just another pawn for his schemes.

“When have you ever?” She replied instead.

“Fine. If you wish to be like that,” the bastard replied, no longer disguising his intent, “if you’re done crying over your own failure, I believe it’s time for you to do something with your name besides dragging it through the mud.”

And there it was. Weiss didn’t matter, the name Schnee mattered. He had never liked seeing the family name tied to such a barbaric sport and she was sure he had liked it even less when it was tied to such a colossal failure.

“The name is mine,” she bit back, “and I can do whatever I want with it!”

“Oh don’t be such a child,” he mocked, “I came here to welcome you back into the family and cover all those medical debts you managed to amass in your foolish attempt at rebellion, not to deal with your temper.”

She had suffered through this man doing many despicable things to keep her in control, but she just had enough of it. She would not have her future, her health, her well being dangled in front of her like a carrot on a stick. Not now. Not after all the bullshit she just went through.

Her hand clung to the handle like she was about to rip the whole thing off, and goodness she wanted to. She was having a rough time and maybe forcefully dragging her dad off the building would make her feel better. Not like she needed both eyes to put him in his place.

No, she shouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her angry. That man had a gift for getting under people’s skin and she wasn’t about to let him know he could still do that to her. He had no power over her and it was better that way.

“Whatever you’re selling I’m not buying.” She shouted through the door one last time before turning back to her apartment. She pumped her music up a little more so she couldn’t hear his incessant yelling and got back to her workouts.

It was a couple of days later that she received a different visit. This time from a man she only ocasionally wanted to murder. Jaune Arc, her manager.

“Hey, Weiss, you doing okay?” He greeted. Earning him just a single raised eyebrow, “okay that was a stupid question.”

She brought that fumbling mess to her living room and offered him a seat on her couch, lounging to his left so she could look at him while they talked.

“What do you want, Jaune?”

“I think I found a solution to our money problem,” he began. That same eyebrow raised again, this time in question, “it’s not MMA, but you’re still gonna get a chance to fight again, you won’t risk any more eye injuries, and we’ll still make enough money to pay the bills.”

That sounded incredible. It was good, really good… maybe even too good.

“What’s the catch?” She asked, knowing full well there always was one.

“It’s wrestling,” the man cringed as the words left his mouth.

“No.” She sneered, feeling absolutely insulted by just the suggestion of it.

“Listen-”

“No, you listen!” She interrupted, “I’m not gonna debase myself and make a mockery of the sport I love just for a quick buck.”

“Look, do you wanna keep fighting or not?” He asked, “because that’s the only way I got. I can’t put you back in the cage, but I can still put you in a ring.”

As a person Jaune was a mess, his personal life is the stuff of both comedy and tragedy, and Weiss has laughed at both of those things. But as a manager he was the best in the business and he had been with her for a long time. She trusted that if he said this was the only way, then it really was.

It was just a fucking awful way.

Still what was the alternative? She barely had any working skills besides beating the shit out of people, she was sinking in medical debt, she couldn’t go back to doing what she loved, and she sure as hell wasn’t gonna take up Jacques’s offer.

What other choice did she have?

It was with a heavy sigh that she finally agreed, “fine, but they better not put me in a stupid costume.”