#afteran

[chikorra]

Ruby and Little on their little quest ~ Color test. Half way I wanna give up but I pushed through, yay... But yeah, this totally lost all the vibe of the original sketch smh

[BG: RWBY V9 - EP1 Screenshot ]

[shakytailstudios]

Meet Sunshine, an Afteran/RWBY OC and commission piece for @everafteran thanks so much for commissioning me and for the wonderful ref. I hope you enjoy the model!

[everafteran]

No one cares about this mouse as much as me so I’m going to be so unhinged that I’ll eventually take over the entire tag with just my art of Somewhat and my fursona and I am totally okay with that

[dragon-razor-writings]

(Arcs Of The Ever-After Shitpost)

What people who Don't Know think when Hunter describes his 'bio-mom': A grizzled, goth lady knight.

What he's actually talking about:

[bestworstcase]

oh. hm. i wonder if dark made grimm by himself because light refused to participate in creating anything destructive again after the jabberwalker—certainly it seems telling that in the myth, light creates a vast monoculture lawn and then declares that dark’s contribution of a moon and new biomes and plate tectonics is “spoiling” it; the myth flows from light’s presentation of himself to ancient humans and if he saw any value in these things he would surely have claimed them as his own—and then there’s the brother-cult framing that humans were given the capacity for evil (destruction) and good (creation) and the free will to choose which path to walk, always with the underlying premise that if humankind chooses wrong then they will “destroy themselves” (by earning annihilation at the final judgment)

this is in stark contrast to the narrative treatment of destruction as hunger and as an agent of change, and creation-without-destruction as, well, a vast monoculture lawn. sterile, stagnant, artificial, unalive.

(<- not a euphemism for “dead” and i resent that the word has those connotations now.)

to create is to destroy; paint, for example, is destroyed by the act of painting. you can’t ever use it as paint again. eating a meal is destructive—both in the sense that something living has to be killed, whether plant or animal, and in the sense that the food itself is destroyed. but this is the basis of all life. one eats to stay alive, to grow.

so in light’s view grimm are evil abominations because his brother made them to be destructive; to dark the grimm are embodiments of natural forces whose churnings keep the world forever in motion and therefore alive. jabber came out wrong—brutal, but effective, the blacksmith says—because light’s misapprehension of destruction influenced his nature. the grimm, created by dark alone, turned out right.

are they good? are they bad? they just are. the tides, the mountains, the deserts, the storms, earthquakes and volcanoes, the grimm.

meanwhile humans were given destruction by darkness and creation by light—the separation and recombination into one being was probably necessary to avoid a repeat of what happened with jabber—and then taught, by light, to understand their natures as a moral conflict and a moral challenge to rise above ‘evil’, i.e. destruction.

this is, of course, why light is so set on the necessity of permanent death: in his afterlife the dead are unaware and unalive, existing in everlasting stasis, and so nothing can ever be destroyed. darkness, who has never feared destruction, allows salem to glimpse the truth that life and death are a circle. and then he burns it all down and leaves her alive in the ashes, the wellspring of primordial destruction there for her to do with it as she will. and she does, and that is how mankind returns to life and how the faunus come to be.

which is the whole point. the grimm represent and embody pure destruction, hunger and change, which the brothers’ humans were taught to abhor as unnatural, evil abominations. salem becomes grimm and in doing so stakes humanity’s claim on destruction as darkness understood it, rejecting the false moral dichotomy light imposed on her generation. remnant is set free, and humanity rises phoenix-like from the ashes, unbound by death.

the brothers’ humans rebelled in order to claim the powers of their creators and perfect their own design. and she did.

[tumblingxelian]

Divine or not, they are Dicks

I really hate the "Well they're gods" defense for the brothers genociding all of humanity because a couple of hundred rebelled. Its usually paired with stuff like "When I smash a mosquito for biting me, I'm not oppressing it" and I have many reasons to dislike it.

But even approaching the argument on its own terms I don't feel it holds up. Because the whole "Well they're gods" angle really doesn't work any better than people insisting that the Maidens have to have seasonal powers does.

Which is to say it does not work at all.

The Maidens don't actually embody the seasons, they just got gifted four chunks of powerful elemental magic.

The brothers aren't actually manifestations, embodiments or the inherent arbiters of creation and destruction, knowledge or choice the way Zeus is for storms and hospitality.

These are just magics they have a lot of power over and not even in specific domains split between them, they are literal twins, its just personal preference and their aesthetic.

I also find it weird people keep trying to latch onto the "Well they're gods we can't expect them to act like people or hold human morality" and then act like Salem is 100% human and also bereft of any other motives beyond petty selfishness and spite.

Ya know, despite her being ancient to an outright eldrich degree, functionally immortal, very blatantly no longer human when you explode her chest and find only black goo. Let alone that she is in possession of powerful supernatural abilities no one else has.

Hell, she actually was apparently imbued with destructive desires!

So by the logic of "They're gods, its their nature" its actually harder to blame Salem for her actions when she is canonically confirmed to be imbued with an inherently destructive impulse by her new nature.

The same cannot be said for the Brothers where its all just speculation.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

Today in "I am unduly focused on side characters" I noticed that when Weiss is talking about how they might have accidentally given Ruby the impression that she couldn't talk about her feelings, Juniper looks notably upset for a bit.

But later when everyone else is frozen in shock at Ruby drinking the tea, Juniper is smiling.

When Jaune was poisoned, Juniper was the one that got help. They know that humans don't die like Afterans. So why are they okay with Ruby being taken by the tree?

What do you know, jackalope? What makes you so sure this is a good thing?

[sir-adamus]

the argument over the Jabberwalker was interesting

Light wanted it destroyed because he’s a tantrum throwing toddler and didn’t like it, Dark refused to punish it for their fuck up in creating it flawed

neither of them attempted to fix it

those two idiots, the first of the Tree’s creations, are completely unaware of what the Tree does, that it helps Afterans improve themselves through ascension

and they created two flawed beings to do their jobs for them; the Cat, to find hurt Afterans to help their problems and ascend, but couldn’t ascend themselves because there was no one to send them for repair. and the Jabberwalker, a broken mess of a death system (meant to clear away the parts of the Ever After that had run its course) that they just left running instead of making adjustments (and because it’s the only threat to the Cat, it was never going to be able to Ascend and have the major issues it has fixed)

and why would they consider that their creations are in need of repair? they’re meant to do the jobs that Light and Dark do, ergo they shouldn’t need repair. because that would mean Light and Dark would need repair, and that would mean admitting they have flaws or are at fault for anything and we know from how they responded to Salem that they’d never fucking do that

[phopollo]

No pressure if you don't want to discuss it but I am super intrigued by the RWBY Afteran AU, is there anything you can tell us about it?

Oh, yeah yeah! Sure!

So, before I say anything else;

I apologize, I don't have very much for it-- definitely no plot-- because I kind of started falling out of RWBY a little bit shortly before I started working on it, and because it was part of a contest entry I kind of just crashed and burned after I finished them haha

So! With that out of the way;

Let me first share with you just the design lineup I made because looking back at the post I can see I only shared the character drawings

Aaaand I can tell you that while I was working on it, the piece of Alice In Wonderland I kept thinking about was the queen of hearts and the red roses

In my head, the thing that made Ruby special wasn't her silver eyes, it was being a naturally red rose-- the only red rose left (because Ruby & Yang are flower people-- Yang is a snapdragon)

And the change happened within their lifetime-- or-- I suppose, within their current ascensions

It was going to be a whole thing that Weiss and Blake didn't realize that Ruby was always red, because its been a thing with other roses to "paint themselves red"

Because red roses were excellent warriors

So it wasn't uncommon to try to be perceived as red

Weiss has vague memories of other red roses from when this ascension was young, as many were on the red king/prince's guard-- perhaps she even has memories of them teaching her things

So Weiss doesn't really take kindly to roses painting themselves red, and it's part of why when everyone initially meets she's not super fond of Ruby

-

I can yell you that Ruby and Yang come from the garden acre, where they've essentially been working on a farm & protecting it from any threats or harm

And Weiss obviously comes from the king's acre, where she's been on the red king/prince's personal guard

And Blake from one of the uncharted acres, but similar to the curious cat, she just vibes across every acre-- if she had a particular job, no one really knows what it was

The 4 of them came together as a team due to the rise of jabberwalker attacks-- they take on a role similar to the grim in the world of remnant that we know

I dont think they attended school for it though, Afterans hardly stay themselves ling enough to go to school for it

I was

Also toying with the idea that team RWBY was a "friendship lasting more than one lifetime" kind of deal, but

I never really settled on whether to roll with that or have it be that things were by complete chance

(Because if it was, Weiss remembering red roses from her Younger days could have TOTALLY been Ruby's previous ascension, and that could be super cool, but also, super complicated which is why I never really settled)

-

Oh! I can also tell you that Yang lost her arm to a jabberwalker

And that Blake can turn into a little kitty cat

In theory, Blake can do all the things the curious cat can-- she either chooses not to, or doesn't know how

I never really decided on whether they both exist or not though either :,)

Lots of undecided things and ideas I toyed with

-

Thank you for asking!

I haven't really thought about where any of the other characters fit into this au, but it was a lot of fun to think about again!

Maybe I'll even add a little more to it now that I know folks are interested!

This was probably a lot more of an unorganized ramble than it could/would/should have been, but what would be anything ever after if it made sense?

[kkglinka]

After v9, I legit believe that Weiss' semblance is actually inherited magic, because the Brothers' actions only destroyed the physical world. It did not destroy all the souls and magic itself, and their assumptions it had was pure conceit. Indeed, I think everything and everyone systematically popped back into existence, ascension style, after a time.

That magic restructured itself into things like aura and semblance, but here and there, took an older form. This is also why she didn't have superpowers in the jla crossover; she was an untrained (and therefore incapable) magic user in that 'verse.

[omni-writes-stuff]

Ok, starting off with the first person that came to mind... Here's Roman as an Afteran. The Merrimadder

The party guy in the Ever After.

More under the cut:

His whole life Roman had been doing everything he could to survive, but he gave it all up when he thought that Neo had perished. It seemed that his motto “lie, steal, cheat, and survive” wasn’t enough in the end. His ambitions of becoming the greatest criminal in Remnant: a mere footnote in the overall scheme of things.

There was a great deal of denial and shenanigans that happened when he came to the Great Tree to face the Blacksmith. Naturally, he tried to get back to Remnant (but since his body was bird poop, he couldn’t do that). Forging him into an Afteran was difficult, but the Blacksmith had seen their fair share of difficult souls and managed to calm him down enough to get him to decide what his next life would be. He wanted excitement and freedom but most importantly, he desired genuine connections. And so the Merrimadder was born.

The first thing they did when he first came to the Ever After was coming up with Naming Days for the mice. Since then, they've been throwing parties, causing trouble for the likes of the Red Prince and just being a lovable rogue.

Their current incarnation does the whole “Unbirthday” schtick. Tea and all. This is because the Curious Cat had convinced them to do their Ascension job thing. They do like this job because they believe they are helping but something just doesn’t sit right with them (their heart remembers being suspicious of food and drink being drugged and now they’re doing that exact thing to other Afterans - even if the Afterans are aware of the tea being used for Ascension, it still feels a little wrong). When RWBYJN land, they become increasingly suspicious of CC's intentions for the humans.

Abilities: Other than just being a really fun person to be around and great organisation skills, they use the Stopwatch Fruit to pause time.

Allusion: The Mad Hatter and The Fox (The Little Prince) Other: Afraid of birds - or things that generally do a lot of swooping.

[chikorra]

"Shine like Gold"

And No BG version:

[chlothequeen]

So how are people feeling about the theory about the gods not actually creating the relics spirits after that one

[rubyneo]

"a very simple understanding of what the tree is"

[sagaschan]

Wait but could the afterans die like.. like that? The red prince with his decapitations, only thing that can stop anyone from ascending is being eaten by the jabberwalker, the paper pleasers' whole schtick- I can't quite remember how it was explained

[bestworstcase]

Honestly still can't get over how you go into such well in-depth and coherent narrative deep dives! They're always such a joy to read ✨❤️ (I swear if I had your grasp of articulation I'd finally get around to polishing my note doc about Tang Sanzang/JTTW and how it relates to Starr Sanzang being the prime Summer Maiden candidate fsdf.).

ANYWAY. I just wanted to say that I didn't put two-and-two together about Alyx and Little being possibly connected until I read it in passing during one of your posts. Like after reading it, I stared at the ceiling for a few minutes as I wrapped my brain around it fsdf

It makes sense omg! Like of course Little could be Alyx in a new form!!! Alyx=Alice Liddell=Little!

I always thought that maybe Alyx was reincarnated into Juniper, because of the rabbit pin she wore + her hair tie, etc., yada yada.

And like yeah, sure Juniper is Jaune's companion, but:

-Little is implied to be a new/or a new version of an Ever Afteran since they have no purpose or even a name.

-They're scared if cats (I mean yes, they're a mouse, but Alyx was also killed by the Curious Cat, so ✨past life trauma ahoy!✨)

-They're also drawn to Ruby, who goes on a similar narrative journey to Alyx in the Ever After, while also acting as a guide for Ruby

-Which in by helping Ruby/guiding her, is in turn able to fulfil Alyx's desire of 'fixing everything she broke' (i.e. by being by Ruby's side until their 'death', they inadvertently lead Jaune to the Ever After Tree=allowing him to meet the Blacksmith, and then go home to Remnant.)

GAH! THAT THEORY MAKES SO MUCH SENSE. So, uh, apologies for the mini tangent, but just wanted to thank you for this unintentioned big brained moment! Now I'm gonna see V9 with a new perspective on my next rewatch! 🥰✨❤️

<3

there’s also this moment:

where the facsimile of penny’s sword manifested from ruby’s grief transforms into alyx’s dagger when little wakes up, and then as she lifts it up and tilts it toward little, the reflection of alyx’s face appears. it’s little’s reflection, just as the reflections of penny and summer are really reflections of ruby—her grief, her insecurities, manifesting as images of her fallen friend and her missing mother because she can’t recognize herself.

and then:

alyx lied -> little is a child playing pretend (“i’ll be your trusty guide!”)

alyx tricked the peddler -> little steals the jade mannequin for ruby

alyx cheated at the red king’s game -> little helps ruby play the prince’s game

the cat, on alyx’s book: “yes. oh, please! i simply must know more. what did she write about? how was i portrayed? and… do i smell a mouse?” <- the cat knows alyx didn’t write that book because they know they killed her and she ascended. the heart, as they say, very rarely forgets. thinking about alyx and lewis brings little to their attention—their heart knows who little used to be!

alyx broke her promise to the cat, and the cat killed her -> the cat betrays ruby in turn, and little bites them and goes you’re not a friend.

alyx wanted to go home no matter what -> little wants to help ruby get home no matter what

alyx acted selfishly but her dying wish was to help put things right -> little is a selfless but very helpless child who dies trying their best to help ruby -> they become somewhat, who is both selfless and able to take action to help others

alyx’s rabbit pin and narrative role as the white rabbit -> somewhat adopts juniper as their steed

also. the narrative makes a point of emphasizing that ruby didn’t see little in the tree, although we do see the blacksmith making their new face. but jaune does see alyx during the same time.