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ironwoodprotectionsquad · 3 years ago

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Penny being trans + autistic coded made me resonate with her as I am nonbinary and autistic myself. Her being a robot felt like me when I have to hide my neurodivergent traits. Her getting confirmation that she wasn't just a robot/machine but a real girl felt so validating. I don't have to look like everyone else to still be considered "real".

Ironwood's semblance being literal hyperfixiation, something I've dealt with since I have ADHD + autism would have made me feel better about myself. This is a man who, despite everything: his PTSD, being an amputee, still was a kind-hearted man. This is something rarely seen in media. I was happy.

Then they fucked up both Penny and Ironwood in ways that struck me. Penny is hacked into and forced to comply with basically forced suicide- she was to open the vault, then self-destruct.

Ironwood, oh dear god. They couldn't wait to fuck him over. He was so HAPPY to see team RWBYJNROQ. He told them everything about his plan, trusting them with literal GOVERNMENT secrets, giving them a place to stay, FREE weapon upgrades (Atlas is known for its advanced technology), hell even gave them their HUNTRESS LICENSES THREE-ISH YEARS EARLY (which Ruby later uses as a credibility source in her broadcast, which was eerily similar to Cinder's in Volume 3, when she says IRONWOOD CANNOT BE TRUSTED.)

Not to mention that she conveniently forgot she was calling for help from OTHER KINGDOMS. OF COURSE they wouldn't arrive soon enough. And no one had reason to trust her. She's a nobody. She was at the Vytal Festival and her team made it all the way to the singles? Cool. Ruby wasn't the final fighter, hell after the 4 vs 4 match she didn't compete further.

Blake would have obviously been a bad choice: she's a faunus and if anyone knows about the White Fang, they might recognize her.

Yang is more known than Ruby, but the world saw her kick an unarmed teen in the finals round. She doesn't have too good a reputation.

Weiss? She's well known as the Heiress, but also her singing. Having her give the speech is a mixed bag: on one hand, she's a recognizable face. On the other, that's a problem. Her father, the CEO of the SDC, is known for his cruelty. Blake said it herself way back in Volume 1: questionable business practices and partners.

So... How about no broadcast at all? What did her broadcast accomplish?

Nothing. Help didn't arrive and likely caused more panic. Plus, people still had a negative view of Atlas, as the last thing the world saw was Atlesian soldiers turning against civilians.

The last broadcast was before Beacon fell. So likely another hacker giving a message would be met with fear.

And what attracts Grimm? Negativity.

Ruby's broadcast could have been a DEATH SENTENCE to so many. But no, this is treated as the... Right course of action?

Ruby and co. hates Ironwood's plan, yet it's clear they don't have one. RWB spends a lot of time moping around the manor drinking tea. Team YOJR (Yang, Oscar, Jaune and Ren) actually DO SOMETHING. Oscar gets kidnapped and they chase after him. Ren rightfully points out that NONE OF THEM SHOULD BE DOING THIS. But that goes against the Hivemind™, so he must apologize and agree to whatever the fuck Ruby decides to do.

Which is NOTHING! RWBY didn't even take down the hound: WILLOW and WHITLEY did. A drunk woman and an unarmed teen defeated it.

Oscar is the one who blows up the whale (with his time bomb? huh??)

Ruby whines that it's all too much, cries on a staircase while her sister (remember that Ruby and Yang are related????) comforts her. The scene has no emotional depth because the two barely interact anymore.

OH GOD AND WHEN YANG TAKES A HIT FROM NEO THAT WAS MEANT FOR RUBY IT TAKES HER OUT COMPLETELY. AURA? GONE. HELL, SHE'S EVEN UNCONSCIOUS. I swear it's like the animation budget could only afford to have ONE character react, and it's Blake "sad kitty face" Belladonna. Not Ruby, who is her sister. WHO HAS A SPEED SEMBLANCE. But no, they just watch her fall, not knowing if she's alive.

Ruby has more of a reaction to CRESCENT ROSE, HER FUCKING WEAPON falling.

Which is retconned so hard in the Vol 9 trailer, where she tells Neo "I hope it was worth it" before falling into the void. Huh??

Anyways I'm rambling again but I am so angry!

-🎼

Never, ever, EVER apologize for rambling. I LOVE hearing peoples thoughts and sometimes it's a really nice feeling to let out your frustrations and anger towards something that has caused you harm and it really REALLY sounds like this caused you a lot of harm and so I do not blame you one bit for being hurt and angry. I should apologize for this taking so long. This was a lot and I needed to sort my thoughts and even so I probably missed some points so I also apologize for that.

Penny and Ironwoods biggest mistake was trusting and being kind to RWBY. They lied and betrayed James and treated him like garbage even though he showed them nothing but kindness and did whatever he could to help them and listened to them. Penny was told what to do and think far more so then James ever supposedly did. Ruby decided to give her a new body, decided she didn't like how James was treating her and that she thought James was a bad person, and decided that Penny was better off with them. Penny stopped being able to make her own decisions once she started hanging out with RWBY and co.

Really though what did they all think was going to happen when they sent out a message that matched beat to bear a lot of what Cinder said before Atlas fell? Did she think about the panic that would cause? Did she forget she was worried about Ironwood telling everyone back in Volume 7 because of the panic it would cause everyone??? Did that just conveniently slip her mind?

I honestly think Weiss would have been the best choice to give the broadcast of them all but I don't think they should have sent out the broadcast in the first place. It should realistically only cause panic and death but the narrative is gonna yadda yadda right past all of that.

Oh god yea RWBY and co complain and whine and scream that Ironwoods plan is bad whilst offering up no alternatives then just taking his plan and acting like it was theirs the whole time. They even did this in Volume 7 when in episode 2 they where worried about James telling Atlas about Salem and then turning around and acting all happy and shocked when James told everyone near the end of the season as if they wanted him to the whole time and not the other way around.

Man RWBY really did jack shit all volume huh? As you said all the major things side characters did: Fight James TWICE: Winter, Emerald, and JNRO.

Try and rescue Oscar: JRY

Blow up the Whale: Oscar

"Redeem" Hazel and Emerald: Again Oscar

Defeat the hound: Whitley and Willow

Launch the tower: Penny

Help defend Mantel against the swarm of Grimm: FNKI and the soldiers that all died trying to buy Ruby time while she cries in a mansion.

Like what does this girl do to help any of the people SHE trapped???

Oh god Ren, poor Ren, he's finally seeing the light but he can't stray from the Hivemind so he needs to get back in, we can't question the pure and perfect Ruby her plans are always right even if it causes Salem to get two relics and destroys the only kingdom with an army or the technology to restore global communications in the process.

Yea you're right like CRWBY can make excuses all day for why Ruby didn't react to Yang falling and MAYBE I can buy her not using her Semblance because she's in shock but not crying or reacting at ALL to her supposed death?? Why does her weapon get a more emotional response then her SISTER? Why is only BLAKE allowed to be sad about Yang supposedly dying? Why does fucking WINTER have more of a reaction to her sister dying?

Why are all the people we are supposed to be rooting for so fucking unlikeable???

#RWDE #Pro Ironwood #James Ironwood #RWBY Bashing #Pro James Ironwood #ironwood Protection Squad #penny polendina #Sorry for MY rambling #and more rambling to come most likely

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itsclydebitches · 4 years ago

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The thing that feels disingenuous about Miles answer about Ironwood is that he was part of the writing staff that framed the general as a cool character to start with. I do think that the signs about Ironwood's evil were clear since V2 and in V7 he was an outright dictator from episode 1. Nonetheless, he was still consistently framed as a cool character, someone you can trust and rely. You don't get to blame the fans for liking a genocide if you was the one framed him as cool in the first place.

I actually don’t think being cool is the problem. If we’re satirizing and/or making a statement about the toxic masculinity that leads to something like a dictatorship, then being “cool” is a crucial part of that. People don’t leverage the power they have by looking lame, they do so by appearing desirable, enviable, awesome. Being in the military is supposedly “cool.” Being a white guy with a giant gun is supposedly “cool.” Having power over an entire nation is supposedly “cool,” etc. If you only make such characters look revolting — even when they are — then you miss one of the main recruitment tools for this kind of rhetoric. Any version of Ironwood that’s meant to make a point about the dangers of following someone like him needs to make him look “cool” and then deconstruct that, pointing out the ways in which this cool veneer is a lie meant to pull you in. To do otherwise is to claim that evil people are always easy to spot. Making your villains “uncool” implies that the people who do appear cool in real life must be fine then. That good looking, charismatic leader is great. Why would I look critically at his actions? He’s too cool to be evil.

My personal problem is not that “They made the dictator look cool and we can’t possibly expect the audience to tell the difference between someone who is truly good and someone who is just using various Cool Points to skate by” because that would be the point of such a character — the work the show needs to do. My problem is that RWBY didn’t do that work. At least, not to the extent they needed to. Rather than making Ironwood a truly heinous character (prior to Volume 7 ‘s shooting, I mean) and allowing the audience to learn how appearing cool can’t hide that, they just made him good person. Straight up. Flawed, absolutely, but no worse than any of the other character on screen, particularly post Volume 6 when our heroes are frequently putting people in danger, seizing power, telling lies, keeping secrets, and generally acting in the ways we’re supposedly meant to condemn Ironwood for. Since talk of Miles’ vid last night I’ve seen three separate “Ironwood was always bad, idk how people can miss the signs” posts and those people are half right. There 100% were signs we were meant to pick up on. The problem is RWBY then went and deconstructed those signs. Ironwood didn’t just bring an army to a peace festival, he brought an army to an event he had good reason to believe wasn’t peaceful — and he was right. Ironwood didn’t wrest control from Ozpin (using a series of checks and balances that exist for this very purpose...) because he has an obsession with being in control, he did so because he honestly believed Ozpin was putting people in danger — and he was right. Ironwood didn’t step up post-Fall because he arrogantly believes he’s the only one capable of saving Remnant, he did so because he’s actually the most qualified: a fully trained huntsmen leading an Academy (like Ozpin) with an army and knowledge of this secret war. What, was Ironwood supposed to read the script and wait for the group of dropout teenagers to arrive and save the world instead? To say nothing of how his power and responsibility are framed as sacrifices, not something he sought out. Ironwood doesn’t want to be the sole ruler here. His desperate relief at having allies again proves it. Good setup for the rise of a dictator would have been Ironwood being cagey with his information and exerting control over the group... not telling them everything, not giving them more power, not letting them keep the Lamp, not taking arrest off the table so as to keep them in line, and generally doing the opposite of everything he did do to share that responsibility and power. RWBY got very good at giving us the first half of these red flags — he has an army, he’s stubborn, he’s hurting Mantle, etc. — but then time and time again introduced a context that changed that flag dramatically: they are fighting literal monsters, he’s no more stubborn than our title character, hurting Mantle is a consequence of a plan he thinks will help the whole world and our heroes back this. Those who insist that Ironwood was 100% a villain in the making (or a villain already) prior to shooting Oscar are working from their assumption of what his archetype represents, not what RT actually put on screen. Because RT is just really bad at writing a dictator character. They didn’t have the skill to manage someone who only appeared good on the surface, let alone a character with the complex nuance of wielding “coolness” to their advantage, which is why in Volume 8 they had to resort to cartoon villainy with literal, evil spotlights. It’s not that the audience is too dumb to pick up on those red flags, it’s that RT couldn’t manage to plant them without continually introducing valid justifications. You can’t say, “Bringing an army is a bad thing. Look at this dictator coding!” without me going, “Yeah, except in the fictional world you created an army does not represent the problems it does in our real life societies. This isn’t a guy amassing soldiers to go after oil, he’s trying to protect people from monsters. Not even metaphoric monsters acting as stand-ins for a minority group. Literal, evil monsters!” RWBY ignores its own context and a good chunk of the fandom ignored it too.

The problem with that (besides the general frustration of someone ignoring parts of canon to forward a particular reading) is that the fandom’s go-to claim is that everything is meaningful — and it’s a reading the writers very much support. Fans do not, as the above attests, push for a simple reading of, “Don’t think too hard about it. Just take the surface reading and run with it” which, while still frustrating, would have at least been a valid stance. Rather, they insist very strongly that nuance and depth are what drive the show. From the song lyrics to a tiny detail in the opening, everything is important and if you don’t accept that then you can’t appreciate RWBY’s complexity.

“Okay,” I said. “Then in that case Ironwood coming around to Ozpin’s position is meaningful too? Glynda — one of our best and most faultless characters — supporting him is meaningful? Flipping his gun, defending Weiss, Qrow writing to him, the group working with him for months on end... all of it is meaningful to his characterization? You said so yourself.”

“No, no, no,” comes the reply. “He’s just bad. But he’s also nuanced. He’s tricked you into thinking he’s a good person by acting kind sometimes, by getting support sometimes, but none of that is true. His actions are what matter and his actions are simplistically bad.”

“Ohhhh. So then does that mean this story is really about the creation of a villain?”

“Huh?”

“Well, Ruby. She’s ‘nuanced’ in the same way. She acts kind sometimes and gets support, but her actions are terrible. She endangered an entire city because she couldn’t wait to see if Ironwood got his letter. She condemned Ozpin for keeping secrets about Salem and then kept those same secrets just two days later. When the kingdom was under attack she sat around drinking tea, crying on a staircase, just hoping someone would come fix things for her — all while actively sabotaging the one person who was trying to save people, even if that action seems silly to us (let’s fly really high). So if we’re looking at the impact of someone’s actions outside of their intent, as we just did with Ironwood, then she’s a bad guy too, yeah?”

“No! She’s the hero!”

“... these characters don’t know she’s the hero from a meta perspective. If we’re supposed to judge the meaning of RWBY based on these details — ”

“But it’s not just the details. It’s also the allusions. Everyone in RWBY is based on another person or character. It’s very complex and that inspiration drives their story, so if you don’t have that information it’s no surprise you’re confused. For example, this is why Penny had to get a human body. That’s what happened to Pinocchio!”

“Oh! So then Ironwood is destined to be a good guy!”

“What?”

“Well, you just said the allusions drive their stories, right? The whole point of the Tin Man is that he always had a heart and just needed to realize that. So clearly — “

“No! He’s supposed to be a classic dictator, he’s only bad!”

And ‘round and ‘round we go. RWBY’s writing is atrocious yet the fandom pushes this narrative that it’s all a complex, multi-layered story that requires taking every part into account to understand the “real” message... but when you try to do that with certain characters like Ozpin and Ironwood it’s, “No, actually, they’re just simple archetypes of Bad Men.” Nuance exists for the bees, but not other ships. It exists for the characters fans like, but not the ones they don’t. And RWBY’s inspirations have to predict the ending for this character... but not that other character. It’s a nonsense grab bag!

Fans are right that Ironwood had a lot of red flags to set up this downfall. Fans are also right that those red flags were severely undercut, thus reversing their impact. Fans are right that Ironwood becomes a 100% bad guy who kills because he can and threatens to bomb a city. Fans are also right that this characterization feels absurd for Ironwood, both in terms of his morality and his intelligence (how does bombing Mantle help you now??) Ironwood is badly written. He was badly written in 7 and 8, if he was always meant to be a dictator in the making then he was badly written in 2-6, and he’s conclusively badly written when it comes to lacking a backstory and a canonical semblance — two things are are supposedly driving all of this characterization. That’s the answer: not that he’s good, or bad, but that RWBY can’t write a consistent character, let alone a nuanced one, so it’s no surprise the fandom can’t decide on anything. What’s there to decide on? It’s that nonsense grab bag. In a different show I think making the dictator appear cool would be a crucial bit of commentary, but RWBY doesn’t have the skill to pull that off.

#rwby #rwde #mymetas #Anonymous

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hadesisqueer · 4 years ago

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How do you feel about Yang and how she’s summarized in Vol. 8 as suspicious and emotional?

Late, but better late than ever. I've been waiting for this one. It's probably the longest because as I said, I make either two lines or just an entire character analysis lol. And I'm going to do it properly this time.

Okay, I straight (gay) up don't know where to start. I love Yang. I truly love Yang. She's not perfect, she has many flaws, but that's what I like the most about her. I can't help but laugh when some people say she's a Mary Sue.

Childhood, first volumes.

Yang starts the series as the funny blonde hot girl that goes around punching people. And I liked that, but I also like how she wasn't just that, as I said with Nora being the comic relief. Like, there's so much more in Yang than that, just like Weiss turned up to be much more than just the bratty tsundere.

Yang's mother abandoned her. Her other mother disappeared. Her sister was a toddler that didn't really get what was going on except her mother being gone, and her father was so depressed that for a good while, he wasn't even able to raise her daughters. Can you imagine being in that situation? I imagine she was, at most, six when that happened. She was forced to become Ruby's mother figure at six. She was forced to become the fucking adult in the house at six.

Damn, you can even see the difference between how Qrow talks to Ruby and how he talks to Yang, at least at the begining. He talks to Ruby as her uncle, as her mentor. He may tease Yang a little because she's still his niece, but when he talks to her, he always talks like she's an equal. Like, Tai still considered Yang a kid, but Qrow treats her like an adult, and knows and expects her to be the mature one. Because he saw her all those years, being forced grow up so fast. He trusts her to protect and take care of Ruby, and she trust him to protect her as well.

And damn, all of this really explains her behaviour when the series began. As Ruby got older and started to be able to take care of herself, and Tai eventually started to be functional again, Yang had more freedom. Her personality and eagerness for adventure and parties and all of that - is just her trying to make up for her sacrificed childhood. But even then she still was, out of all the girls, the most mature and nurturing of team RWBY. She is the party girl, yes. The hot headed one that will break legs. But she's still the adult of the group.

And then volume 3 happens. She gets framed in front of the entire world, two of her friends die, Beacon falls, she loses her arm in the most traumatic way possible; Weiss, her friend, is basically taken away from her and Blake -her partner, the girl she probably already had feelings for at that point- left, triggering her abandonment issues. And of course, PTSD, because she isn't fucked up enough already. She's so fucking destroyed that she can't even talk about Weiss, about Blake, about what happened. She doesn't even want talk to Ruby, because she can't stand the thought of her little sister seeing her at that state. She is not used to be the one people have to take care of, and it becomes more and more obvious in the next volumes.

Disability, recovery, abandonment issues

I like how volume 4 treats her recovery. I mean, I wish her storyline was longer, but I also like the DC comics. Now, the thing is, she isn't really recovered. In vol 4, she learns to live with her disability, she learns how to use her new arm, she learns how to fight better than she ever did before. It's about physical recovery. But is she okay? No. She hates being taken care of. She forced herself to be okay, or at least pretend she was, so Tai would let her go with Ruby. And in vol 5, she's anything but alright. She is pretending to be for Ruby's sake, because she is her mother figure and Ruby can't see her like that. She has to face her abandonment issues, she still has PTSD, and she is just not okay. Weiss notices right away, and tells her that it's okay if she is not okay. She noticed how hurt she was about Blake leaving. She just could see through the façade because if Weiss knows about anything, is about loneliness and pretending.

Her conversation with Raven at the end of the volume is just one of the best scenes, because you can just see how much Yang has grown. That scene deserves a post of its own because it's just amazing. But she finally faces one of her fears -her own abandonment issues, though they probably will always be there- and sees right through Raven. Because just like her, Raven just puts a façade to hide her own fears and insecurities, and the moment her own daughter isn't just taking any of that shit, she just starts crying. Because Yang is right. And deep down, she doesn't want to let Yang take the lamp, but she isn't just strong enough. Deep down, she wants to be in Yang's life, wants to protect her, and I think Yang knew that. But it was just too late.

More abandonment issues and relationship with Blake.

Now, to Yang, Blake coming back was huge. Not only in the terms of shipping, but as a whole. In her mind, Blake left her, just like Raven, just like Summer (though Summer didn't do it in purpose), and technically, just like Ruby, though she knew why Ruby did it and understood. But she's probably wondering “what is wrong with me that everyone always leaves me”. And she always has to be the one looking for the person who left her.

Not with Blake. After that talk with Weiss (bless the wingwoman), Yang was able to understand Blake's perspective better. But she didn't think Blake would actually ever come back, because no one ever does. But she did. Not only did she come back; literally, all Blake cared about once she entered the room and saw Yang was her (for once, someone is prioritizing her). And later, she was the one to walk and talk to the team, and tell them she didn't plan to leave again if they accepted her back. She didn't have to look for Blake because she was already looking for Yang. She was the one who made the effort, not the other way around. And to Yang, even though they still had issues to work through, even though she was still afraid at that moment that Blake would leave and break her heart again (All That Matters), that was enough to forgive her. Or at least give her another chance.

Now in volume 6 they clearly have issues. Like, Blake is very nurturing to the entire team because she feels like she has to make up. But mostly, she is trying to make up to Yang. She still feels guilty because of Adam, and she knew that Yang had already abandonment issues before she left and she probably made them worse. She was just trying so hard to be there for Yang so she could understand that she would never leave her again that she made things awkward. Yang is used to be the one who takes care of people, not the other way around. She thought that Blake “protecting her” was her seeing her a weak when actually, it was just Blake just genuinely caring about her but with the wrong words. Blake understood after that, and she changed the phrasing in the fight against Adam. Protecting each other. Equals. It really applies to the Bees relationship as a whole. “You're taking care of me, yeah, but I'm going to take care of you as well, no matter what”. For once, Yang is allowing someone to take care of her (well, except Tai, but again, she wasn't completely sincere with him, so technically she wasn't really allowing him to fully help her). And that's what I love the most about their dynamic, and why I ship it.

PTSD

Now (I'm sorry I'm taking so long), I've seen many, many people saying that Yang's PTSD is poorly written, or that the writers messed it up in the fight against Adam. Now, I have to ask those people: what the fuck do you think PTSD is?

If a Great WriterTM reads this and tries to tell me I'm wrong, or that I don't know what I'm talking about and I don't know anything about good writing and blah blah blah: I have PTSD myself. Diagnosed. So yes, I acknowledge there are many things I'm ignorant about, but I'm quite familiar about this topic. Yang's PTSD is, at least by my point of view, very well-written. It isn't perfect, but it's still far so much better than most PTSD portrayals I've seen in TV, along with Korra's. And I've seen people saying that Korra's portrayal was so much better. Well, let me tell you, it isn't, or at least I don't think it is. It's just different, because the worst thing about PTSD (and what makes it harder to treat) is that it's different for every person; sometimes it can be really severe and obvious, sometimes it seems “light”. Damn, sometimes it doesn't appear until years after the event; mine didn't trigger til I was like sixteen, and the event took place when I was around five or six. And yes, sometimes I have nightmares or flashbacks about it if something triggers me, but it isn't the whole time like some of you apparently think it is. I'm not scared 100% of the time, what the fuck.

When it comes to the fight with Adam, saying it didn't affect her: did you watch the fight? First of all, at that precise moment, Yang was so full of adredaline and too busy keeping Adam from killing Blake that I don't think her brain even realised he was the cause of her PTSD. Second of all, when he triggers it, it does affect her; she starts shaking, he's able to land hits on her that he couldn't before. But PTSD is different in every person, and is a defense mechanism, not a freezing mechanism as some people think. If I see the cause of my PTSD in front of me trying to hurt me again, I'm not gonna freeze; I'm gonna do whatever it takes so they don't ever hurt me again. Same goes with Yang: some people think she should have completely freezed during the fight, like “oh my god this guy fucked me up really bad and now he's gonna do it again and there's nothing I can do oh my god”. No. As I said, PTSD doesn't work like that, at least not always. She's not thinking that, she's thinking “alright this guy really fucked me up once but there's no way I'm letting him do that again”. Again, PTSD is a defense mechanism. A fucked up one, but it's what it is. And the writers handled very well.

Yang being suspicious and not completely trusting someone.

Now, I'm not lying when I tell you that I have no idea about what this could mean. Well, it could be her disagreeing with Ruby and having a bad argument, and that would really break my heart because I just love those two sisters so much. It could also be about Ozpin; she's teaming up with Oscar and hearing Ozpin is back could bring some problems. Or maybe Raven just appears there and she's like Hell Naw. I have no idea.

Conclussion.

I love Yang. She's not perfect at all. She's a bit of a hypocrite with the whole Ozpin thing because she's keeping Raven's identity as the Spring Maiden a secret as well (or maybe she did tell them off-screen? Honestly clear that up already). But she's over all a really good friend and person, an amazing older sister and just one of the most inspiring characters in the show. I see part of myself in her, and I don't see that often in a character. I just love her.

Damn, sorry I wrote the Bible but my girl deserved that.

#yang xiao long #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #ruby rose #bumbleby #rwby #qrow branwen #ptsd mention #raven branwen #summer rose #taiyang xiao long #rwby analysis

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okay-victoria · 4 years ago

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What do people think of Tanya? AKA: Actually, a lot of people agree with Lehrgen

Summary: WHOOOOO BOY. You know it’s going to be fun when my subsections have to have their own subsections. Briefly, there is the Good [people who like Tanya both personally and professionally], the Bad [people who like/love Tanya professionally but not personally], and the Ugly [people who ideally, Tanya will never speak to, look at, send mail to, or be in the general vicinity of ever again].

I would say most people fall into the “Bad” category - they recognize her value as an officer, sometimes to a worshipful degree, but on a personal level range anywhere from thinking she’s a creepy child to actively disliking her. Unfortunately for Tanya, the people that fall into the Ugly category are as a rule higher-ranking than the ones in the Good category, and most people in the Bad category seem to like her specifically in her military role, and it is questionable they’d want her as even a coworker outside of that, let alone as a friend.

The Good

People who’re in here: People who have only ever heard of Tanya in the context of the Silver Wings award, people she interacts with in the Imperial Navy; rando soldiers; someone kinda high up in the later-war Eastern Army command; Ugar

People who only know her from Silver Wings:

V1/C1

Describes the nice aura people would see in someone who wins the Silver Wings.

The Navy

V3/C2

A naval officer does assess Tanya as having a predatory look, but doesn’t seem to think particularly badly of it, he just notes it, and then says “Degurechaff was a fellow soldier he could be proud of, which was why he extended his hand in utmost seriousness to wish her well.”

Rando Soldiers

There’s no real good single quote on this, but over time Tanya comes in to reinforce various units and leaves behind various impressions, ranging through Good, Bad, and Ugly, but anyway, there almost have to be low & middle ranking officers and soldiers who are presumably nothing but grateful to Tanya for rescuing them, even though we never get much of anything from their perspective.

Others

A superior officer of Tanya’s in Eastern Army command, in V5/C1, gets a transfer request for Tanya’s unit and reflects he is sad to be losing her.

Ugar - I don’t have down any specific pieces, but IMO it comes across in the LNs that Ugar is generally well-disposed to Tanya and doesn’t have the positive professional/negative personal thoughts that most other people close to her do.

The Bad

People who’re in here: Tanya’s academy/war college instructors, the 203rd battalion & later Kampfgruppe, Zettour, Rudersdorf, Generic Superior Officers, Romel, Lehrgen’s professional opinion

Tanya’s Academy & War College Instructors:

V1/C1

Tanya’s zeal during academy scares her instructors.

V1/C4

The instructors scrawled “abnormal” across the top of Tanya’s file.

“In the academy, we were told over and over – and, for some reason, over again – to love our troops. Weirdly, now that I think about it, I feel like they emphasized this the most when talking to me.” <= Tanya...you’re...you’re so close.

V1/C5

Mentioned that some teachers in the academy are on Lehrgen’s side of the What The Fuck Do We Do With Tanya debate.

V3/C5

Romel’s summation of her personnel assessment notes that at least on paper, the academy and the war college gave good overall evaluations of her.

203rd Battalion:

V1/C3

[Visha] “The moment she turned her icy cold eyes on us like we were objects to be appraised, I shrank from her in spite of myself. People might laugh at me for being afraid of such a little kid, but those eyes reminded me of the way a cat looks when it’s playing with a mouse, which creeped me out”

[Visha] “I was different from Lieutenant Degurechaff, who could calmly nail fleeing soldiers in the back with optical sniping or explosion formulas. I was relieved because I wouldn’t have to shoot.”

V1/C5

[Visha] “Was she an agent of the devil or of God? It had to be one or the other. Ahh, I can’t believe I have an ally more horrible than the enemy. She’s not human. I would bet my life on it. Me and a few others saw it once. During training, one of our teammates dropped like he was dead. The captain gave him a good kick, and before we knew it, she was back on his feet. I had been staring into the abyss of death myself…the captain heaped abuse on me. But I know, I saw it: she charged into the avalanche to save me. Even after my friends told me that she tossed my busted body aside like a used rag, I believe. She is definitely a good commander, even if I’m not sure about her as a human being. Of course, we all laugh and bad-mouth her…if the captain is an apostle of God, then only the devil can possibly exist.” <= in good news, Tanya, you are currently winning on your quest against Being X and mostly making people believe that he’s the Devil for allowing you to exist!

V2/C1

[Weiss] also refers to Tanya as a vampire

[Weiss] thinks Tanya is arrogant

[Visha] “her thought is That’s so low, Major.” <= this is in response to Tanya pulling out her child voice to announce they were going to bomb Dacia’s factory.

[Weiss] “Weiss has only known her for a short time, but even he can pick up the displeasure his superior doesn’t bother hiding. Her mood is as dangerous as nitroglycerin. When Weiss quietly takes a step back, everyone discreetly follows suit. Nobody wants to be so close to Major von Degurechaff when she’s irritated.”

V2/C5

[Grantz] “If the devil exists, it has to be our instructor, the commander of the 203rd Aerial Mage Assault Battalion, the legendary Major von Degurechaff. The way she smiled. The way she looked at us like we were maggots. The way she seemed thirsty for blood. I’d believe she had tried to kill a rebellious underclassman or crack his skull open. If I screw up on the battlefield, she’ll definitely kill me. That’s how threatened I felt by the instructor who just had to also be my advisor…I wanna cry.”

[Grantz] “This was the major who had once said during a speech at the academy that deadweight should be killed…This is crazy. No one said it aloud, but it was the look on everyone’s faces. This was a nighttime mission to abduct enemy soldiers…Magic Second Lieutenant Warren Grantz realized he was shaking. My survival instinct was screaming. I wanted to avoid the war, the combat, the killing. I was hesitating. But one glance from Major von Degurechaff was enough to subjugate that instinct. She was far more terrifying…I was so terrified I hardly felt like myself anymore…How could the major just calmly sing a hymn?”

[203rd banter] Visha asks if anyone wants to trade places with her so she doesn’t have to be with Tanya all the time, and Weiss and Grantz are not itching to take her up on the offer.

V2/C6

[Grantz] Is really, really bothered by how chill Tanya seems to be about Arene.

V2/C7

[Weiss] Reflects on all the horrible things Tanya has put him through, but ends his reflection on the note that he understands why it was necessary to prepare them for war.

V3/C5

“Apparently, the troops serving directly under her thought she was a great field officer” <= Romel re: Tanya’s personnel file

V4/C5

“‘Please have the 203rd be part of your Kampfgruppe. All of us in the battalion wish to continue serving under you.’”

Tanya doesn’t get what she wants, is then pissed, and it gives off weird abusive-parent vibes where all her children try to flee and not be present, and for the ones who have to be (Weiss & Visha), they take it by flinching, cowering, praying to God for Tanya not to explode, etc.

V5/C4

[Visha] “Reality is far too unreal. She’s crazy. There’s something strange about her...The colonel cackled – no, she giggled, smiling like a child. It was positively surreal to see her eyeing the enemy with her tender gaze and licking her lips. She snickered, but what was so funny? She was terrifying...Dripping red liquid. Pink things that used to be humans, flying everywhere. And opposite that scene was a beaming little girl. It was so surreal, it made more sense for me to suppose I had gone insane. No, maybe I really did go insane. The sight of my superior officer nodding with satisfaction and beginning a confession of her faith was horrific. I didn’t get even a glimmer of madness from her beautiful, innocent eyes. They were the eyes of a stubborn servant of logic, full of pure reason. But that’s what was horrific: those eyes stuck on that doll-like face.”

V5/C5

Tanya has some good banter with her Kampfgruppe soldiers and it seems like everyone’s getting along.

V8/C4

T: ‘Are you saying you throw yourself into the slaughter purely, justly – sane and sober? Don’t make me laugh. That’s a broken man talking. Going to war after downing some liquid courage with a grimace is much more human.’ He frowns for a moment, perhaps thinking to argue back, and then whines, ‘So are you drunk, then, Colonel?’ <= yes, a random officer from Tanya’s Kampfgruppe just asked if she was drunk and that’s why she’s always throwing herself into battle so excitedly.

V8/C5

T: ‘Glad you’re safe, Lieutenant.’ V: ‘Thank you, ma’am. That said, I would have rather you spared me from getting caught up in that attack.’ T: ‘What choice did I have?’ V: ‘What is that supposed to mean?’ Serebryakov puffs her cheeks out in a pout, which is surely a sign that she’s feeling better. <= Tanya, Visha wanted you to apologize, not excuse yourself, damn!

Zettour

V1/C5

“He doesn’t know whether they should praise her original ideas or call her insane.”

“Apparently, she hasn’t forgotten that she once said she wanted a battalion. She, a first lieutenant, to a brigadier general…something liable to provoke antipathy? She’s already done that.”

“The smirk on Tanya’s face reminds Zettour of some unpleasant rumors he’s heard about her.”

V2/C5

Zettour both remains horrified that Tanya was able to speak so frankly about a world war, yet he is sympathetic to the fact that she could do it because she understood what would happen.

V4/C3

Tells Rudersdorf that he “unwaveringly trusts” her military decisions.

V4/C5

Tanya comes to Zettour to request better units than he’s given her. He finds the request beyond arrogant, seeing as how pressed they are for men, especially for the fact that this is shortly after the Moscow situation and her battalion has “gone too far and been a handful”.

“Somehow, he didn’t think there could be that many damaged kids in the Empire like this young teen back from the battlefield. And actually, regardless of how he felt about it as a soldier, personally, the idea of interacting with them was terrifying.”

“But Degurechaff was unfazed and inquired about their experience with killing people. She saw people as products, and she was asking if they had been tested – that was the nuance. Could such a completely utilitarian view of people even be taught? Certainly, the army is an organization that pays attention to individual functions. Substitutability and cost consciousness are two factors hounding everyone. But can you really judge a human being by those criteria alone?...That innocent face and her straight back made her look something like a surreal doll. Doesn’t…Doesn’t anyone think this is strange?”

Zettour is mentioned to have originally had the same doubts about Tanya as Lehrgen, but after her performance he claims he is ready to “swallow any pill, no matter how bitter” (I think working with Tanya being the bitter pill) to win the war.

Zettour gives Tanya a little discretion to commandeer some equipment, she takes a lot of discretion. Zettour sort of laughs at off saying “this was Degurechaff” but does also mention that Tanya’s actions “amounted to a borderline interference in Supreme Command.”

V8/C4

Zettour is impressed with how Tanya has trained Grantz and thinks that if she wasn’t so good in the field, he’d put her in education.

“Sure, Degurechaff may have been broken, but not as an officer.”

Rudersdorf

V2/C1

Rudersdorf says that Tanya has a “distinct” [read: probably means difficult] personality, but if he just divided people into useful and not useful, she was useful.

V4/C3

Zettour and Rudersdorf debate Tanya, and he mentions that he only thinks she is talented in the military realm.

Generic Superior Officers

V2/C5

Tanya has a misunderstanding with her CO on the Rhine front. He wants her to train some new recruits normally, she mistakes it as saying “well, kill as few of them as possible, but do what you gotta do,” she gets kind of reprimanded over it.

V3/Intro

“Performance Evaluation: Major Tanya von Degurechaff:

Counselor’s Notes on character and conduct [this is printed normally]: Abundant loyalty and excellent fighting spirit. Follow regulations to the letter. Devoutly religious.

[this part is handwritten] Has a bad tendency to take matters into her own hands. Competent but as difficult to handle as a mad dog.”

V3/C1

“Some of the officers even added another thought in the back of their minds: Major von Degurechaff might actually be able to wring out even better results.”

V3/C3

Tanya goes wild on her base commander when he won’t let her sortie to Brest to prevent the French army from evacuating. <= Oddly, IIRC, no one ever like, apologizes to Tanya for not believing her, which is kinda rude, so mostly the incident reflects negatively on her instead of being a balanced: ok she did violate some rules, but...maybe if we’d listened to her we’d have avoided the rest of the fucking war, so seems like it might have been called for?

V3/C5

“The most important evaluations during a war are the ones from the battlefield, and those were all over the place.” <= Romel, re: Tanya’s personnel file

“The second was that although the evaluations were contradictory, she had achieved enough that she was considered an outstanding soldier. Awkwardly, regardless of how she was as an officer, as an individual mage, she was thought very highly of. Her number of kills was among the highest on the Rhine front.”

“In any case, strictly as a mage, she was unrivaled. As an officer, too, she was by no means incompetent. So they must have been giving her to him as reinforcements and as an excuse to get her out of their hair. Honestly, he felt like they were foisting off their problem on him. ‘They’re telling me to take a mad dog out on a walk with no leash?’ He let slip a complaint. Maybe it was just prejudice, but that wasn’t what it felt like to General von Romel. After all, he was basically being asked to bet on a bad hand.”

V4/C2

Everyone on the General Staff realizes the huge amount of fallout from Tanya attacking Moscow. The backstory of this is that when Tanya asked for permission, the General Staff thought she was just going to do a fly-by and freak them out, not attack the city. It pretty much kills any opportunity they had to negotiate a quick settlement with Russia in the cradle.

Romel

V3/C5

Romel’s first meeting with Tanya pretty much goes: “so arrogant it’s invigorating...unbelievably insolent...in addition to her self-important attitude, it exuded heavy sarcasm...not only was she arrogant, she was clearly horribly warped.”

“Any commissioned officer would understand just from hearing her make that one comment why the Northern and Western Groups couldn’t control her. Having a mage battalion drop out of the command structure was almost like losing a whole division” <= ie, Tanya’s previous superiors must have really disliked her to give her up.

“She simply decided she would be a patriot if it was good for the nation. In short, she’s a capable lunatic, but the bad part is she doesn’t realize she’s twisted…She’s crazy. And competent. And more sincere than anyone I’ve ever known.”

“Without a doubt, she’s going to end up being the most horrible person I know. And she’ll probably also be one of my most reliable friends on the battlefield.”

V3/C6

Romel reflects that she is a mad dog, and that she is an ego-crushing entity for the average officer. <= while Romel never brings this up, this has a *ton* of important real-world implications for Tanya, especially assuming men still have more than a little trouble listening to women outside the military. Even if you believe the best rumors about Tanya, you still might not want to hire her because she’s going to be better than you, and most people hate that feeling.

V4/C1

Tanya goes to the Eastern Front, and Romel reflects that he is sad to lose her and that once you got used to her, he found her easy to work with.

The Ugly

People who’re in here: Lehrgen’s personal opinion, Some wartime randos, OG Eastern Army Command, OG Northern Army Command, Imperial Government, people who mostly know Tanya from her Arene reputation, Western Army Command; Implied Future View of Tanya

Wartime Randos

V1/C5

“Some of those who had been on the front lines had a strange reaction to the name [the 11th Goddess] we picked. They claimed it was the worst joke they’d ever heard.” <= ie, Tanya was the Devil, not a goddess

V2/C1

Tanya is happy that Dacia has zero airpower. She displays her happiness by smiling maniacally and skipping around her tent. Everyone thinks Tanya is happy that they just got invaded again and the war is growing and she can go kill people.

V2/C5

A kinda random infantry guy is still having nightmares about Tanya in like, 1960, and reflects back on how he felt when he heard Tanya casually call for friendly fire to go right through where her men are flying. He questions why anyone listens to her.

“But when I replay the memories in my mind, I can’t help but shout, You monster! A hero, a star, and outstanding magic officer. You, ma’am, were a great officer. To all of us imperial soldiers serving on the Rhine lines, you were a god...Yeah, she’s a god – an immensely powerful one who presides over life and death. Her words, brimming with a spine-chilling anger, swept over the area as if she was planning to attract all the enemy hostility like moths to a flame. Major von Degurechaff had bared her fangs. It invited a violent reaction. The Republic wanted to hunt the devil. In other words, they devoted all humanity’s wisdom to killing the god of death. Gods don’t die, but those of us next to them? …They were right to call her a god of death. She killed the enemy, and the enemy killed our men. Then the noble major, with a glance at all the dead in the mud, took her leave. Fucking hell.” <= and you thought Lehrgen hated her. But, again, real-world implications of this could very well be that post-war, Tanya is a total persona-non-grata as someone that had a high degree of influence on how rabidly everyone fought against the Empire, and how the Empire was treated in the aftermath. I don’t make it out quite that bad, but it could be really rough if someone wanted to make it that way.

V4/C5

“The Guard Division had been on many assignments dealing with formal events, so we had experience…But what is that? That absurd, expressionless, doll-like creature was giving orders to people who appeared to be bloodthirsty mages just back from the war zone.”

“Could it really…could it really be possible for a child to wear such a smile?...Her hands were soft and would have looked more natural holding a doll, but instead, this odd, human-shaped creature spread her arms as she delivered a welcoming address. No one. None of the high-ranking officers present could raise an objection to this thing. The veteran mages all obeyed this inhuman being in the form of a person.”

OG Eastern Army Command

V1/C5

“The members of the eastern army had been openly angered by her annoyed look until days before, but now their faces were pale. She said exactly what she thought: ‘Incompetent, pitiful, lazy, arrogant, unprepared, mentally disabled, inattentive, no powers of observation’ and her conclusion was that ‘all mages of the Eastern Army group require reeducation’”

“The ranking officers from the regional field armies who had come to protest ended up bearing the brunt of the General Staff members’ critical glares.”

OG Northern Army Command

V2/C3

“With no idea when Colonel General von Wragell might explode in his seat at the head of the table, Lieutenant General and Chief of Staff von Schreise was inwardly annoyed, but at the same time, the atmosphere was so tense he wanted to bury his head in his hands.”

“Schreise couldn’t be the only one thinking that he would have thrown her out immediately if she weren’t a representative of the Central Army’s view.”

“‘You’re very humble, aren’t you?’ one of the staff officers murmured, curling the corners of his mouth into a smile that was more of a sneer.”

“Schreise had never seen a major with such a big head without making light of him…without hesitating even a little, she – a mere battalion commander – matter-of-factly gave her opinion to the staff and even had the audacity to disagree with them. Even with the sacred, inviolable General Staff’s power behind her, she was nearing an inexcusable challenge to authority. A head could be allowed to swell only so far. There’s a limit to what can be tolerated, even for recipients of the Silver Wings Assault Badge!...the major, though still rather new, was readily crossing a line of which all graduates from the war college should have been aware.”

V3/C5

“There was a pile of especially severe criticism from the Northern Army Group. They said she was transferred after voicing a clear objection to those in authority.”

Imperial Government

V2/C5

Tanya sinks a Commonwealth vessel, she is court-martialed, the military says she did nothing wrong [which I agree with], but the diplomats want to punish her to appease the Commonwealth. After the not-guilty verdict, Tanya’s smug-ass smile makes everyone go: umm...should we really have let her get away with this??

V4/C2

She then further makes the diplomats hate her over her Moscow raid.

V4/C3

Rudersdorf warns Zettour that Tanya going overboard is earning Zettour criticism from the government.

V4/C4

During her second court-martial, Tanya doing the most in Moscow manages to fracture the relationship between the government/supreme army command & the guys more in charge of the day-to-day war, like Zettour & Rudersdorf.

International Post-Hoc View on Arene

V2/C6

“They gunned people down like they were so many targets in a firing exercise. They got ‘points’ for shooting people. People had blocked themselves in, so they used heavy-explosion formulas to bombard whole districts. Those are all painful memories of the tragedy being shared today. Even counting only the confirmed deaths, the city of Arene lost half its population that day. In order to avoid the heavy responsibility for each soldier that would result if they went into the city and had to visually confirm their targets, they aimed to cause widespread fires via artillery bombardment from positions surrounding the city. A portion of the documents shows that they had chosen targets that were likely to spread the flames as proof-of-concept for firestorm.” <= the reporter doesn’t know this, but Tanya is the person that comes up with that proof-of-concept for creating a firestorm, as well as the person that creates the case to make it legal to repress a civilian revolt with a military. To me it seems like Arene is presented as the Tanyaverse Bombing of Dresden, except how it would be viewed if Germany had won WWII.

Tanya thinks about how if the Empire loses, her reputation is in the toilet if it becomes known that she did this.

Western Army Command

V2/C6

[The Lt. General or above that is in command of the Western Front] “A terrifying report or a proposal from hell. The one who thought of this was either a lawyer so cunning the devil would invite them to join forces or a criminal. This way of thinking is practically inhuman. Only a devil who forgot their reason and conscience in their mother’s womb could come up with such a tactic. That someone would equate having the technical capabilities for an operation with actually doing it…Are they deranged?”

“Luckily, an army corps commander summoning a mere major is extremely rare. Exceptional though it was, it meant there was a chance he might have to summon this monster again someday…Doing his best not to look directly at the monster straightening her posture in front of him, the army corps commander accepted that it was for work and met her.”

“The principles behind the actions of this major in front of him were impossible to understand using anyone’s logic or emotions. Her inorganic eyes compelled you to conclude that her thoughts, her frameworks, her way of being were all warped.”

This guy keeps going on and on more than I have here, tbh he’s one of Tanya’s main haters. It’s fine Tanya, it’s only the guy in charge of Western Army Command, who listens to him?

“I hope no one noticed that I just flinched, thought the army corps commander, sensing that he was distinctly afraid of her…No worries about what? He deeply wanted to ask what she was planning to do, but he held back. He told himself it was surely better not to know…But there is probably no one more suited to being a soldier than you. Perhaps you feel at home in hell on the Rhine front.”

V3/C5

“The Western Army Group declined to evaluate her, saying her good and bad points neutralized each other, so it was difficult to rate her. Furthermore, she had attempted to resist orders.”

Implied Future View of Tanya/The Parable of the Salamander

V4/C5

“From what I heard, the Salamander is adorable and very clever. If you show it affection, it’ll get attached to you. Like a German shepherd, it can become a trustworthy member of the family. Sometimes it begs or plays tricks, but apparently, everyone ends up overlooking these things. Of course, Mrs. Legen grew angry and screamed that it went too far, but…Well, in the end, everyone doted on the Salamander. Because when it’s even more reliable than a German shepherd, how could you not? At some point, though, the Salamander’s requests and pranks grew to be too much. But what do you think happened when no one was sympathetic to dependable Mrs. Legen, who had continued to angrily scold it the whole time? That’s right. No one was able to stop the Salamander! Of course, the Salamander loved and cherished everyone. But sadly, there was no one to teach it right from wrong. So the Salamander never realized that everyone disliked it. Soon it had exhausted everyone’s patience.” <= for reference, Tanya commands the Salamander Kampfgruppe; this is told as a cautionary tale that Andrew says circulates throughout the future Empire.

Your Author’s Take on Tanya’s Reputation vs Reality

The above should have real-world implications for Tanya’s personal life as far as friends, and for her career both within and beyond the military once the war is over, because, you know, people talk. Anyone who phones up an old pal because said old pal had some quality time with Tanya and they’re curious what she’s like is probably not going to receive a glowing personal recommendation, and the higher up those people are in society, the worse it is likely to be.

Even for people who think she has a genius applicable beyond the military sphere, outside of extreme circumstances people generally don’t want to employ anyone, no matter how smart, who is known for being unpredictable, uncontrollable, arrogant in the extreme, abusive towards coworkers, manipulative, possibly just straight up evil, etc etc. Within the military, after the war I would expect her to be hampered by the fact that a lot of people won’t want to work with her unless there’s a really pressing reason they need her skillset.

I can’t believe I’m bringing this show up from years past, but she’s sort of in the same position as Dr. House from the TV show - famously talented; famously toxic in the workplace; only one place will employ him, and at a much lower salary than his reputation should command, and even so, thinking that he could get away with that in real life is pushing the suspension of disbelief for the show. The same goes with friendships - very few well-adjusted adults are willing to befriend The Cool Asshole in real life.

When it does happen IRL, those relationships usually aren’t healthy & happy, and can easily end up with borderline-emotionally-abusive undertones because the follower is afraid of losing the leader, and molds themselves to fit what the other person wants so as to be an unchallenging, uncritical presence in the life of their idol.

For a story about an adult man reincarnated as a young girl fighting in magical WW1.5, YS manages to put a surprisingly interesting twist on the Main Character is a Cool Asshole Without Consequences model, with Tanya getting away with it in the present due to extreme circumstances, not realizing that the war is the only reason she’s getting away with it, and facing many implied future consequences for it.

While it’s entirely possible and often completely necessary to handwave Tanya overcoming this for storytelling purposes, as you can’t go many places story-wise if Tanya is as screwed as it sounds like she’s going to be, standard reality is that she’s gonna need to do some serious legwork to dig herself out of the hole she’s in, both personally and professionally.

I appreciate that the crux of a good Tanya story is often Tanya thinking normal reality will apply to her but then bypassing normal reality to end up somewhere she never intended on being, much to her chagrin, and readers therefore may feel adhering to realism violates the reality of Tanyaverse.

For the purposes of this story, I have chosen to stick with where the preponderance of evidence leads and apply a good amount of normal reality to Tanya, because that is exactly what allows me to proceed along a different avenue of Tanya misunderstanding things and ending up somewhere she never intended on being, keeping to the spirit of Tanya stories. Plus, Tanya doesn’t seem very intent on growing as a person in the absence of consequences and I need my character growth drivers.

...and I can’t avoid admitting I still end up handwaving some portion of those consequences for Tanya, since, as stated above, it’s...hard to go anywhere with a story if you don’t.

#LN Reference

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rachetmath · 4 years ago

Text

Ren’s Discovery

Ren: Jaune?

Jaune: Yeah.

Ren: I was on the computer.

Jaune: Okay so-

Ren: I've seen it.

Jaune: *raises an eyebrow* What did you see?

Ren: Us.

Jaune: *relieved* Oh thank brothers, you meant just all age approiate fan-

Ren: On rule 34.

Jaune: Crap it was to good to be true. Okay, what's up?

Ren: I saw Qrow having sex with Nora.

Jaune: Okay. And?

Ren: And!? Jaune she was drawn having sex with Qrow.

Jaune: Yeah. So was Ruby, Gylda and Winter. So what?

Ren: Jaune you don't understand--

Jaune: Ren?

Ren: I mean what if Nora descides-

Jaune: Ren!?

Ren: I mean maybe I should---

Jaune: Ren, calm down, rule 34 does everyone like that!

Ren: Really?

Jaune: YES! Dude, I'm basically screwing Pyrrha, Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Nora, and Blake! Including you and Oscar!

Ren: Me and Oscar? That's kind of-

Jaune: Insane? Crazy? Fucked up? Kind of devinant? Yeah, that's rule34. No character in any series is safe from it.

Ren: No character?

Jaune: No character. Dude, some people drew me doing it with Cinder and Emerald, Pyrrha's mom, my own sister, and even with Cardin.

Ren: But I got-

Jaune: Cucked? Basically cheated on? Yeah join the club pal. People will do that. I been through it. (I also make sure Ruby never finds that out.) And don't blame the artist most of them are doing a job while few are just because! The point is rule34 is literally porn with characters from the show acting like porn stars. Basically don't take it too serious just admire the detail and the work the artist put into their stuff.

Ren: So nothing is true?

Jaune: Non-canon. Imagination. That's it.

Ren: So I can still-

Jaune: Stick your sword in Nora? Yes.

Ren: *relieved* Oh thank you.

Jaune: *sigh* Man. Glad you feel better. But since we're on the subject, be lucky you are not team RWBY.

Ren: Why? I mean they got most drawings.

Jaune: Yeah. Of them being horny, big penis sized fuck girls who would let anyone or anything smash them. Trust me, if they saw what you saw they be going crazy.

Ren: *nervously* Oh. Um... Jaune?

Jaune: What?

Ren: I left the computer on.

Jaune: *exe stopped working and rebooted* OOOHHH SHIT!!

Jaune and Ren run to the computer only to be too late. Team RWBY and Nora saw everything. Every image of them doing sexual things with strangers, eachother and their families. Yang was angry, Weiss was discussitsted, Blake embarassed beyond belief, Nora a bit unphased but Ruby feeling very ashamed of herself.

Jaune: Okay. Girls? Ladies? Mature young women? Listen, I get this looks bad but... I mean... well...

Yang: I'm going to kill them! *trys to walk away only for Jaune to stop her*

Jaune: NO YANG IT'S JUST FICTIONAL PORN.

Yang: SCREW THAT! THEY CRIMATED MY SISTER AS HOOKER!!

Ren: I mean red riding hood did have darker stories with-.

Jaune: REN, YOU ARE NOT HELPING!!!

Ruby: *in tears* Is this what everyone thinks of me? As some girl who can't control her urges. As some kind of slut.

Yang: SEE!? JUST FOR THAT, I'LL MAKE THEIR DEATHS SLOW AND PAINFUL!!

Jaune: *while being hit by Yang* Look Ruby, i-i-it's not that ba-

Weiss: How could people draw me like this?

Nora: I mean you do have an ego the size of that thing.

Jaune: NORA!!

Weiss: HOW DARE YOU!!!?

Blake: Wait didn't we see a few pictures with you and Jaune doing it?

Nora: I mean, if Pyrrha and Ren weren't going to shoot their shot then I'll shoot mines.

Ren: Oh so would sleep with Jaune!?

Jaune: Damn it, come on people, can someone help me!? Yang, is trying to kill somebody. Please, Yang, calm down!

Yang: NEVER!!

Oscar: Hey.

RWBY and JN_R stop what there doing to see Oscar and Penny.

Jaune: *scared* Oh no.

Penny: What's going on here? Why is Jaune holding Yang?

Jaune tells eveyone to play along.

Jaune: I'm just giving Yang a hug. Right, Yang?

Yang: Y-Yeah. Oh Jaune I love you so much.

Oscar: *looks to Ruby* Ruby, why is there tears coming out your eyes?

Ruby: *staring at the computer and Oscar back and forth* Umm just something on the web. You know... a sad video.

Penny: Really, oh Ruby, let's watch it together if you can't handle it.

Weiss: No-no-no just stay right there.

Oscar: But why?

Ren: Oscar, i-it's just-

Oscar sees everyone look at the computer. Penny sees this well and stares Oscar who agrees as he nods his head. Penny rush in and takes the computer only for her and Oscar to be stunned at the results. Oscar then sees his name and was ready to click on the link however-

Jaune: Oscar wait!

Oscar: ...

Jaune: Listen. Buddy there are times when a man or woman will sometimes have to let things go. Trust me, when I say, this, is right now the time to walk away and leave with your inncocence still attached. Oscar, please, don't click the link with your name on it.

Oscar: Oh how bad could it be?

Oscar clicks the link only to regret it in the end. He saw horrible images of himself and then proceeds to lye down on the floor and crys.

Oscar: I've been a good boy haven't I? I don't deserve this, do I? Did I do something horrible to deserve this? Why? Why?

Ruby: *comforts him* It's okay Oscar. We'll get through this together. *starts crying again with Oscar*

Jaune: Damn it.

Penny: *confused* I don't see the problem. I thought sex was a natural process for humans.

Jaune was about to explain only for Yang to wave her head and stopping him, knowing Penny would ask a bunch of questions if he tries to explain.

Nora: But to be clear, I still stand by to what I said, I would bang you Jaune.

Jaune: Okay, Nora, we get it. But like I said it's fiction, no one would do-

Blake: Jaune, let me be honest, I would do you if Pyrrha, Sun, Ilia or Yang weren't around.

Yang: Same here. You are nice guy.

Ren: No denying it.

Nora: *smile* Oh Ren!

Ren: Hey I being honest.

Weiss: Okay, perverts, but I wouldn't-

Jaune: *nervously* Yeah... Weiss... um... how do I put this?

Weiss: Jaune, not you too.

Ruby: *sobbing* Weiss you still have a big ego.

Weiss: Okay but still, I may have hated Jaune but I would never-

Jaune tairs Yang's shirt off, revealing her chest.

Yang: Jaune!

Weiss: *blushes*

Jaune: Guilty as charged.

Weiss: Shut up!

Blake: But would you screw Jaune?

Weiss: Oh gosh n-

Nora tears off Jaune's pants, revealing is sword and butt.

Jaune: Really Nora?

Weiss: *blushes brighter than before* You guys are mean. *walks off*

Yang: *staring at Jaune's 'sword'* Aren't you going to cover up?

Jaune:*staring at Yang's breast* Why haven't you?

Yang: You can look but never touch.

Jaune: Touche.

Ren/Blake: Will you both cover up. Please? I don't want look at Jaune's/Yang's dick/breast all day.

Nora: Admit it, you both like it.

Ren and Blake: Shut up Nora!

#rwby #JNPR #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake bellodona #yang xiao long #Jaune Arc #lie ren #nora valkyrie #pyrrha nikos #cinder fall #emerald sustrai #cardin winchester #Oscar Pine #penny polendina #qrow branwen

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kitkatopinions · 4 years ago

Note

Blake has nothing going on for her now or in the future except Yang and to a lesser extent her team. These are the consequences of bungling the faunus storyline and replacing it with nothing. They've cleaned their hands of Blake's personality and goals. Like you said ship bait is all that's left.

Blake is honestly the worst treated character amongst Team RWBYJNR + Oscar imo, and tbh, I think even Qrow gets a better rep than her. And that’s saying something, because Qrow has been so badly handled.

The worst thing about this for me is the wasted potential. Blake was really wrapped up in their horribly bungled racism/faunus allegory even more so than Weiss. There are obviously problems with how CRWBY continues to try to use the racism/faunus allegory in some problematic ways rather than dropping it completely, without seeming to put in any effort to actually fix it. Blake’s story being so wholly wrapped up in the faunus racism arc had made her character problematic (for instance, she looks hypocritical for being totally against reactive violence in the case of the White Fang, but is training to be a Huntress and is just fine ripping through White Fang members.) Blake has a lot of good to her character from volumes 1-5 if you can separate her from the bungled allegory however (although I totally understand when people just can’t do that.)

Removing Blake from the faunus/racism arc doesn’t have to leave her with nothing as a blank sheet that must be built from the ground up, her character should’ve stayed the same. Blake’s base character at the start of the show that remains pretty dang consistent for five seasons is cynical, stubborn, defensive, active, passionate, focused, someone who has more life experience and a bit of a darker worldview than her friends, someone who has a hard time making friends anyway, a fairly quiet, independent girl with a tendency to run when things get to be too much and tends to self-destruct and push people away, but is still brave and selfless, with a moral code she believes in (although misused, a character that believes things like ‘stealing is always wrong’ is not an uninteresting one. Blake’s moral code was just used badly.) Blake also has a more subdued way of expressing her affections. A few things about Blake - like her tendency to run, many of her insecurities, pushing people away, and self-destructing - started to get worked through and addressed in an actually meaningful way during volumes 4 and 5 (although her resolution with Yang was wonky, but I could talk more about that in a different post.) However, in good narratives, these traits don’t just go away because they start getting worked through. For instance, just because Zuko in ATLA turns to the good side and starts addressing his trauma and working through his anger issues doesn’t mean he isn’t snippy, hotheaded, and prone to outbursts anymore. And for another instance, just because Yang starts trying to control her temper doesn’t mean she’s no longer prone to anger based reactions, snapping, being defensive, and getting into fights.

While Ruby, Weiss, and Yang read as more consistent even if there characters are going in a bad direction - Ruby’s always been reckless and considered her team the end all, her character now is the incredibly frustrating result of this never getting checked or worked through - but Blake is severely lacking in many of her old traits.

Blake has become an incredibly passive character who can’t stand up for herself and tends to just go along with whatever Ruby wants, and is more than willing to steal and lie and let others steal and lie. She’s lacking in passion, even her supposed stronger moments carrying a more passive tone. She relies on others to save her, both by relying on Yang and Weiss to defend her from mean anti faunus people, and constantly relying on others in fights, not able to land hits and begging Ruby to help her when she’s left without Yang to do her fighting for her. She doesn’t make choices herself, literally in the ‘will we launch Amity or defend Mantle’ conversation, Blake is one of the only people who isn’t shown out and out picking a side. She’s no longer cynical and no longer seems to mind waiting around - telling her younger, naïve teammate who’s spent hours doing nothing that it’s okay that she’s been doing nothing and hasn’t really helped anyone because Blake knows she’ll do something eventually and admires Ruby’s optimism. Blake no longer is independent enough to even be temporarily left by Yang without reacting like she did something she has to be guilty and ashamed of.

Like, what is this? Seriously, what is it? They didn’t even fight and they have her reacting like this.

It’s like the writers decided when they dropped her faunus arc that they could now create a new character from the ground up. A passive, supportive, co-dependent, damsel in distress character who can give the other girls a leg up and fuel their more compelling arcs. You know what? May isn’t Maid Marian, Blake is. She’s Disney’s Maid Marian. She’s the encouraging love interest/friend figure who can be jokey sometimes, occasionally tries her hand at convincing other people to do things, and to prove she’s not totally helpless, gets a hit in every now and again.

Look, maybe I’m being a little over dramatic, but that’s how she feels when you compare her to the other characters. Even Ruby, sitting around drinking tea and crying on staircases until the plot falls into her lap two different times, is a much more active character than Blake.

The closest CRWBY have gotten to making Blake an active character was when they had her react in anger to Neo knocking Yang into the void, but again, it didn’t amount to anything.

The writers could have made Blake the same character she was before while still deviating from her White Fang plot. She could have continued to be an independent, somewhat snarky, brave, passionate girl with more of a cynical worldview and a tendency to overwork herself in her hurry to get real work done that would help make the world a better place, while she tried to push past her more pessimistic tendencies and her struggles to connect with others in order to be there for them, because she believes in them and their purpose and herself. And you know what? I’m just gonna say it... That version of Blake, V 1-5 Blake, is the version that works best with Yang! Like don’t get me wrong, Yang and this new character have some cute moments and it’s... Lacking, but it’s at least something. But Yang and Blake as she was could actually be a compelling ship, they could fit well together. And Blake as she used to be could’ve interacted really well with the Atlas arc and the story in season six. She could’ve related to Ozpin when they find out about their past, she could’ve been on Qrow’s side when it came to stealing the plane in Argus and have to be convinced, she could’ve been trying to talk the Ace Ops into being reasonable, she could’ve been at Robyn’s rally, ready to help out in the fight against Jacques and passing out flyers, only to get angry and upset when she hears how Robyn talks to Marrow, she could’ve been on May’s side when May told them they needed to take action, she could’ve been right there with Yang telling Salem what’s what, or if they had to split the two (which I’m more than fine with,) they could’ve had Blake with the Mantle crew, but stay behind to help civilians, or they could’ve had had leave the manor with May. And if they were going to try and make Blake guilty for a fight, there should’ve been an established conflict where Blake and Yang disagree about Ironwood, and then that leads into a wider conflict about who was wrong and who was right. I don’t know, guys, I’m not a professional.

All I know is that Blake doesn’t feel like herself anymore and the writers won’t give her anything. It’s frustrating. This was kind of a vent post, but... You know what, I can vent about it. It feels like the writers are doing this on purpose at this point.

#rwde #anti rwby #anti crwby #anti blake belladonna #this post isn't really anti bb I think but I should tag it anyway #anti-bumbleby #anti bumbleby #anti bumblebee #anti bb #anti-bb #anti blake x yang #anti yang x blake #bees sorry if this shows up on your feed #I just really miss the old Blake :/

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miaicefyre · 4 years ago

Text

My headcannon

Juane washes Oscars wounds

“C’mon. Let’s get you cleaned up”

They sat in the giant Shnee bathroom, his coat hung on a peg outside, his boots sat just beside the door so he was down to just his top and trousers.

He nodded “Mm’kay”

At first Oscar had protested against the idea, saying they’d only been given an hour and they shouldn’t waste time on him, but given they had some explaining to do anyway...he agreed so long they agreed to listen to what Emerald had to say.

Jaune went over to the bath and set the tap running, testing the temperature then looked back at Oscar in time to see him wince trying to take his top off. Jaune felt a rush of sympathy and regret looking at him. Beneath the scorched fabric, the burn was red-raw, and angry dent in the boys chest. He wandered if it would ever fully heal. While his aura-amp had fixed up most of his ribs, the bruises still seemed to be there. At the time, he’d just focused on getting Oscar back on his feat after the explosion. He honestly hadn’t had much aura left himself after there run in with Salam. and even where there weren’t bruises, patches of dust and dirt had still managed to seep through his coat. He really did need this bath.

Leaving the tap on slow fill, Jaune took the discarded shirt and opened the door just enough to try and hang it on the same leg as the coat. Someone would come for them later, he knew. Weather it was Wiess, Cline or even mrs. Shnee, he felt sure they’d have some clean clothes by the time they were done.

When he looked back, he found Oscar leaning over the edge of the tub, with his hands on its edge. He looked as though he was finding it somewhat difficult to get in, his arms and legs shaking slightly. Jaune went to help, giving him something to lean on while lowering himself gently into the slowly expanding stretch of water. He suddenly realised it wasn’t just a wash he needed, but rest as well.

He still had those bandages he always wore on his neck but when Jaune took them off he noticed some old scars across his throat. “How long have you had those?”

Oscar raised a hand to the scars, as if he’d only just remembered they were there. “About a decade.”

Jaune took up a sponge, squeezed it full of water and gently rubbed the boys shoulder. “You never told anyone about them.”

He shrugged. “No one ever asked.”

He decided to drop the subject, and not to mention it to anyone else either.

Neither of them said anything else until Jaune got his wrist and a reflex caused Oscar to wince and pull away.

“Sorry.” Jaune said “does that hurt?”

“Only a little.”

He could see why. Thin markings were clearly visible all down his wrist. When he started on his other shoulder and noticed similar markings on his other wrist, the realisation struck him. “Did they tie your hands?”

“Only when it was him.” Oscar stifled a chuckle. “I don’t think she really saw me as much of a threat...but she didn’t wanna take any chances with him.

All of a sudden, his feelings of anger towards Ozpin mixed with his feelings of responsibility for Oscar and he found himself feeling bad for the old man.

“Hold still.” With the softer side of the sponge, he dabbed at the blood by the corner of his mouth, only mildly surprised to see the cut underneath had completely healed. “Sounds like he had it pretty ruff...did take all of it though, did he.”

Oscar didn’t bother asking how he knew that. “No. But that was because I didn’t want him too. He wasn’t gonna force it. Not again.”

Momentarily confused, Jaune let the sponge fall. “Why? Why wouldn’t you want him to?” He realised just a second too late how mean that question actually sounded but Oscar didn’t seem to mind.

“I didn’t want them to know he was ready there. Otherwise, it would’ve been worse...was, worse.” He looked at the markings on his wrists. Once again, Jaune felt a pang of sympathy for Ozpin.

Filling a jug full of water, Jaune said “head back.” And Oscar did so, letting the water wash though his hair to drop back into the tub. It was getting dirtier now but they were almost done. “Your very brave.” Juane told Oscar, running his fingers through his wet hair. “You always have been...but that was kinda foolish.”

Once more, he saw the boy holding back a laugh. “It was him she really wanted...and I wasn’t gonna give her what she wanted.” Juane could help but smile too at that, but then it quickly faded when he realised “but you did in the end.”

Up till then, Oscars eyes had been closed but now he opened them. “Yeah.” He lowered his gaze to the slowly dirtying water.

“Hay.” Abandoning both jug and sponge, Juane put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t be ashamed. You held up for as long as you could. And...in a way I-I’m glad Oz was there for you...to take hits when, you no longer could.”

That didn’t seem to help much. Oscar lowered his head, his eyes becoming hidden in the dripping locks of his hair. Juane sighed, letting the subject simmer for a while. He would realise in time.

They kept quiet until Juane turned his attention to the scar on Oscars chest. He didn’t want to risk touching it, for fear it would just cause more pain, so he just placed the sponge just above it and pressed it there, causing the water to run down the wound. Even that cause the boy to wince and suck in his breath in pain.

“Shh, this want take a sec.” Jaune tried to reassure him.

Hoping the boy wouldn’t notice, he also tried a bit of his aura amp again but, not to much of his surprise, it didn’t seem to make it any better.

That just left the bruises over his ribs. The water had risen to just below his chest by now, meaning those bruises were partly submerged. This made it a little harder to see them but easier to get them clean.

“Did Hazel do this to you?” Jaune asked, rubbing the bruises away, careful not to press to hard.

“Most of it.” Oscar told him, nodding.

“It doesn’t make sense.” Juane said “Why would he suddenly go from beating your ass to saving it?”

For a moment, Oscar started to look a little smug. “Cause even while he was doing that, I was tryn’a get him to turn...make him see what he was doing was wrong.”

“And how did you manage that in the end?”

“Simple. I told him the truth.”

But before he could ask any more questions, there was a knock on the bathroom door.

Getting up, Jaune turned off the tap and went to see who it was.

It turned out to be Wiess, holding a pile of clean clothes. “Freshly washed.” She says, handing them to him

That was bloody quick

“We’re waiting in the dinning room when your done.”

Jaune took the cloths. “Thanks. We should be out in a minute.”

When he closed the door and looked back, he saw Oscar was laying back in the water, his arms outstretched above him, as if he were examining something on his hands. The marks on his wrist were still there but they were much less visible then before. You had to actually be looking for them and even then to be pretty up close to be able to spot them.

He looked up when Jaune took a towel from the rail and came towards him. Crouching down, he let Oscar put an arm around his shoulders in order to help him out of the tub and Wrapped the towel around his shoulders.

“There.” Juane told him. “That didn’t take to long.”

Meanwhile

“What did you do to him?!”

Emerald stood pouting in a corner while the others looked at her accusingly. “I never touched the boy. I barely even saw him. It was mostly Hazels job to...try and get him to talk.”

“But why...what was she wanted to know?”

Emerald shrugged. “Probably a few things. All I know is that at that moment, she has the lamp but didn’t know how to use it.”

Blake nodded. “So that’s why she needed Oscar.”

There was a pause for a while.

“Did he?” Yang asked, unable to take the silence much longer. “Did he tell her?”

Emerald shook her head. “But I...sometimes a-I could hear it...all the hits...and the screams.” She closed her eyes and looked away. “It was horrifying...listing to him cry out like that”

Was she actually feeling sorry for him?

“But you didn’t try to stop it!”

She actually laughed. “How could I? Then it would’ve been me on the receiving end. They tortured him...beating him until he wept but...he never gave in. I kind of admired that.” She looked up to where Jaune had taken Oscar to get cleaned up. “He’s a brave boy.”

There were looks of shock and sympathy all around. Ruby in particular looked close to tears.

“But wait.” Yang realised “he said Ozpin took the torture for him.”

That seemed to stump Em for a second. “I wandered about that too when I heard cause...I’m pretty sure it was the boy to begin with. Even though it wasn’t really him she wanted...that was the other thing she thought the torture would do. Try and draw the old man out. And I guess it worked in the end but I-I honestly couldn’t tell the difference.”

But that just caused them to ask more questions.

“Why would he want to keep control while going through that?”

“Because I think he knew. If she knew Ozpin was really still there, it would’ve been harder on both of them. He knew that.”

“Well then why would he end up giving it to him in the end.”

Em shrugged again. “I don’t know, I guess it just became too much.” Then when they all just looked her blankly. “Look, I’m not gonna pretend I knew what was going on in that head of his, But if I had to guess, I’d say when we were all brought to the bridge to watch the whale land on atlas, it was him in control then.”

“So you did see him.”

“That was the first time I saw him. Being dragged from that cell it...it looked like he could barely walk.”

Two things happened one after the other: Ruby stifled a sob and the door opened to reveal Wiess coming in. Thanks that later, no one seemed to notice Ruby.

“They say there almost done.” Weiss told the others, referring to Jaune and Oscar. She glared at Emerald as she passed but said nothing.

“Good, cause we really need to talk about things.”

Maybe he’d be able to validate Emeralds claims but they had other problems.

It was a another few minutes until they came in. He still looked a little pale but at least he was clean. Yang moved towards him but he waved her away. “I’ll be fine, don’t fuss.”

He stopped just in front of Emerald. “They treating you alright?” He muttered to her.

She nodded vaguely.

He went to stand my the window...

Let’s be real, it probably didn’t actually happen like this but it still would’ve been nice to see how Oscar went from beaten and tattered to clean and fresh.

#rwby #Oscar #headcannon #Jaune #volume 8 #Emerald

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russellcreste · 5 years ago

Text

Confession Fails

[WR, Fluff, 1.5k words, Pre-the crappy events of V3]

It was evening back at Beacon Academy. Ruby and Weiss have returned to their dorms after a long day of spending quality time with each other. They'd gone to different stores that sold sweets and brought back several bags with them, which was weird because Weiss had never really been fond of them, though she was the one who insisted to go there in the first place.

She had also brought Ruby to the library, where they mostly rambled about their favorite pieces of literature to each other. Most of the time, Ruby's eyes had been brimming with eagerness while making all these explosion and crashing sound effects, excitedly telling the story of how the "wicked cool" protagonist slayed monsters left and right. Weiss would listen to every word that left the girl's mouth, and when it was her turn to speak, she would notice that Ruby had her eyes and ears focused on her as she eagerly waited for the next part of her story. Several hours had passed while they sat there, just enjoying each other’s company. Sometimes Ruby would tug on her sleeve and squeal about another chapter she'd just read, but it was peaceful and relaxing in its own way, for Weiss at least. She could easily spend hours and hours on end in the library with Ruby, but they'd noticed it was getting late. And so, they were back in their dorms. Surprisingly, Blake and Yang were nowhere to be seen, probably doing their own thing. They had teased Weiss about sneaking into the closet to record her confession, but it seemed they had given up on the silly idea, knowing that it would eternally embarrass Weiss. And with their decision, Weiss was grateful for all the deities and gods up above. The entire day, her hands were cold, sweaty, and in general, just outright gross. She had never been this nervous during a battle or a presentation before, but for some reason, the thought of telling Ruby how she felt... it was too much for the poor girl. Weiss Schnee, the future heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, the smartest girl in class, the epitome of beauty and perfection! Was it too late to back out? Would it be alright to try again another day? Maybe she needed more time to compose herself. She looked in the mirror and saw her face already red and about to cry. Yeah. She definitely needed more time. She needed to plan things out. She needed to rewrite and polish her 20-page confession script. She needed to- "Weiss?" All the little hairs on her arms stuck out, and she froze in her place. "YES?" "Woah, uh, are you doing alright?" Ruby asked while eyeing her down. "You've been acting weird ever since we got back." "No- I mean, yes. I'm fine. Maybe. I think? Is it hot in here? I think we need to open the windows. Yeah, we should totally open the windows." Stammering while mentally telling herself to shut up, Weiss quickly walked past Ruby, but before she could make her way to the windows, Ruby grabbed her hand, causing her to almost slip. Not until Ruby caught her in her arms. "What was that for?!" Weiss peeled herself away from Ruby and stepped back, turning into an even darker shade of red. "I'm sorry, but you were worrying me again!" Ruby sighed out. "So, tell me, what's wrong?" Almost instantly, Weiss' cheeks were in flames as she stared at the floor, unable to look into her partner's eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but for the first time ever, she had no idea what to say. What was wrong? Her. She was making things more complicated than they actually were. She was over-analyzing every single detail as if it were some kind of exam. She needed to prepare, plan, and cut everything down to absolute precision. Like always, her perfectionist side was taking over once again. That's just who Weiss Schnee was. She glanced at Ruby, concern evident in her silver eyes. Her hand was already outstretched, but some sort of barrier was keeping her from reaching out to Weiss. And Weiss couldn't blame her for that. She'd never acted or felt like that before, so it was no wonder Ruby was confused. It was no wonder Ruby didn't know what to do. But Weiss did. Without even thinking of what could possibly go wrong or worrying about anything else, she grasped Ruby's hand with hers, and they fit perfectly together. It felt good. It felt... right. Tightening her grip, Ruby stepped closer as her voice lowered to a whisper. "Look, I don't know what's going on, but I'm here to listen. You can tell me anything. You know that, right?" Weiss couldn't help but roll her eyes as her lips formed a small smile. This girl... She always knew just what to say to make things better. That was one of Weiss' favorite things about her. The entire world could fall apart, and she'd find herself staring into Ruby's eyes, just holding her hand. This girl in front of her was always ready to listen and be there for her, not only as a leader, but as a friend – a partner. And that was exactly what Weiss adored about her. Finally giving in, she exhaled slowly. "Ruby Rose." "...Weiss Schnee?" At the sound of her name being spoken so softly and innocently, she felt a tug in her heart. In an instant, her resolve was shattered. Heat rose up to her cheeks and very nearly caused steam to come out of her ears. "Don't say my name like that!" "Wha- uh, okay? I'm sorry?" Ruby blinked in confusion. Quickly, Weiss closed her eyes and made several attempts to steady her breathing, still holding on to Ruby's hand. "Take your time." "RUBY! I can't focus!" She groaned out. This? Was a disaster. Just a few seconds ago, she actually felt like she could do it. Then she got thrown out of her rhythm again. One second, she could be calm and collected as she usually was, then the next, her heart could be leaping and beating right out of her chest. Whenever she was with this girl, her emotions were all over the place, but in a good way, not that she’d ever bring herself to admit that. Honestly, this girl had no idea how much she was driving her insane with her stupid adorable voice... and her stupid goofy smile... and her sickeningly sweet personality. Nevertheless, she decided to give it another try. Because she had to. Another exhale, and off she went. "Ruby, I... For the longest time now, I've-" She bit her tongue. Instantly, she covered her mouth and blinked away the tears, stomping on the wooden floors all the while. Ow, ow, ow, oww- That wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was the LOOK on Ruby's face. This girl was just lost at this point. Yup. She was never going to forget this. Weiss Schnee. Stumbling over her words, face red and just about ready to explode. Ruby was never gonna let her live this down. Ever. She was going to make fun of her and tease her and- Weiss felt a pair of soft lips press ever so gently against her cheek. Her heart stopped. "Don't need words to say 'I love you,' right?" Ruby whispered. "It's okay, I think I got the hint... dolt." That! That was HER line! "You...! You just-!" Ruby winked. "YOU'RE IMPOSSIBLE!" Weiss abruptly let go of her hand to cover her face. "I knoooow," Ruby cooed. "I was waiting for you to spit it out, but then I felt bad for teasing you, sooo." She reached out to pull Weiss for a hug. Surprisingly, she didn't pull away, and instead, buried her face on Ruby's shoulder. Carefully, Ruby rubbed her back in attempts to soothe her and hopefully get her to relax. And it was working! Weiss managed to open her eyes and return the hug, despite being nearly embarrassed to death. "Feeling better now?" "No thanks to you, dunce." Ruby chuckled. "I'm not sorry." "Of course you're not." Weiss let out a heavy sigh and rolled her eyes. This was nice. This wasn't how she planned or imagined it. In fact, this was far from it, but she was still glad. She was happily wrapped in a warm hug with her partner's arms. No doubt, she wouldn’t mind staying like this for a long ti- Achoo! ...what. Did she just hear someone sneeze? It wasn't her or Ruby. But they were the only ones in the dorm... unless- "CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW COUPLE!" With guns blazing, Yang Xiao Long walked out of the bathroom to congratulate them like they'd just won the lottery. Although both were caught off guard by the surprise entrance, Ruby seemed to be happy to see her sister. "Yang!" "Ruby!" "YANG!" "Yes, Ice Queen?" Furious. Weiss was furious. Of course Yang decided to hide in the bathroom. She was lucky it was just Yang or else she would've- Weiss heard heels clacking from the bathroom. "Give her a break, she's been through an exhausting day." Blake stepped out of the shadows and stood next to Yang. "Nice job you did there." With a blank face, Weiss stared at her teammates. All this time... they were there. Just listening to her being an utter mess. Probably laughing and most certainly recording. Ruby noticed Weiss' silence and looked over her shoulder to check on her. "Hey, are you doing alright?" "Un..." Weiss said in an almost inaudible voice. "Un?" "UNFORGIVABLE!" And just like that, the sounds of glass shattering and furniture getting tossed around echoed throughout the halls – the sounds of chaos which team JNPR and the rest of the other teams grew familiar with especially when team RWBY was around. Nevertheless, it was a peaceful night. Just not for Weiss.

#rwby #whiterose #white rose #weiss schnee #ruby rose #noodle fics #it took so long to answer this ask cuz I was feeling a bit unwell recently ;-;#also writing isn't exactly my talent so there's that #but I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing #it was fun to get back to writing #thanks for the ask <3

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greekletters · 4 years ago

Text

Monos One-Shot Time!

Hey everyone! After spending from time talking with @dedicatedseeker, I have decided to give the one-shot business a... shot. So here we go with the first prompt!

“I think you missed your calling.”

It was that time of year again. The day of Winter and Robyn’s only child’s birthday had been slowly approaching. Just like it had every day for the last few years. And much to your surprise, Weiss had been way less resistant to going than you had been. Was Weiss Schnee excited or thrilled in any way to spend an entire afternoon in a house filled with little kids? Absolutely not. But you were even less thrilled. The mere idea of tens of children running around, screaming and being loud. And not to mention dirty. Kids always had something on their hands, no matter what. It was always guaranteed that you would be greeted by hands that were either sticky, wet or dirty in some fashion.

But when Winter and Robyn invite you to a birthday party for your nephew, you have to show up. Regardless of whether or not you want to. It was also your sister-in-law, which didn’t make attempts to resist going any easier.

To make matters worse, Winter called Weiss in complete panic mode the night before the party because she forgot to order a cake. How do you plan an entire party and forget the cake? It’s for kids, there could be nothing but the cake and the party would be fine. And for some unknown reason, Weiss told Winter that it was fine. That you would just bake cupcakes instead and the two of you could bring them.

You have nothing against baking. You rather enjoy cooking. And baking. But you didn’t care for baking and decorating four dozen cupcakes until two in the morning the day of this birthday party. Also, for someone that only sets foot in the kitchen to reheat leftovers and help clean up dishes, Weiss was making some hefty promises for this party. She did, however, sit and watch while you did all the work. And you appreciated her company. The cupcakes did look flawless, but that wasn’t the point. The cupcakes could look like they’ve been run over by a car and the kids would still eat them. They were kids.

—————

When the two of you arrive at Winter’s house, you can hear the dreadful sound of children at play long before you can see it.

“Are you sure we can’t just leave them on the kitchen counter and run back to the car?”

“Blake! Absolutely not! This is our nephew’s fourth birthday party, and we must attend.”

“Fifth.”

“What?”

“It’s definitely Aiden’s fifth birthday.”

Weiss stops in place on the pathway to the front door. When you look back towards her all you see is a quizzical look on her face.

“Are you sure? I could’ve sworn it was his fourth.”

“No, no. This is the fifth. Because last year I got tasked with filling all the balloons with helium, and Robyn thought it would be fun to have sparklers at the party. And I vividly remember a number four balloon turning into a giant ball of flame very close to my hair. There were many adults screaming. Lots of kids crying. And if I remember correctly, lots of muffled laughter coming from you.” She laughs quietly and a smiles spreads across her face.

“That’s right. I remember now.” She clears her throat. “This is his fifth birthday.” She opens the door of the house and the two of you step inside.

Luckily for the two of you, the kids seemed to be solely concerned with themselves and none of them wanted to wipe their sticky and grubby hands on your clothes, or spill their drinks on your shoes. And since you didn’t have any children of your own to watch, you weren’t obligated to take a turn babysitting as they played outside in the backyard.

And in a desperate attempt to try and keep that distance, you volunteered to help get food ready when the time came. Putting pizza, and eventually cupcakes, on paper plates was arduous and grueling work.

When the time comes for opening presents, you and Weiss chose a spot away from the crowd in the center of the room. Instead, leaning against the wall.

She leans over and says to you quietly “I guess I should’ve asked this way before now but, what did we get Aiden this year?”

Rolling your eyes, you cross your arms over your chest. “We got him one of those kits to dig up your own dinosaur. Because all five year olds like two things, dinosaurs and digging in the dirt.”

“Okay. Perfect.” She purses her lips and nods her head. “Good thinking. Also educational.”

“Not really. It’s literally a block of sand and dirt compressed together and it comes with a little chisel and hammer.” You shrug.

When he opens the gift from the two of you, he raises it over his head and yells in excitement. And when you look over, the smile on Weiss’ face is so infectious that you can’t help but smile yourself.

————

A few hours later, the party has ended and you are following Weiss around with a trash bag helping clean up after the countless little minions.

“We definitely had the best gift. We are the best aunts ever. I mean, did you see the look on Aiden’s face when he unwrapped that book Whitley sent him?”

“Hey, I love reading. I read all the time when I was little too.”

“Not when you were five! The book didn’t even have pictures in it.”

“Now you just sound like Yang.”

Suddenly, you feel something pulling at the hem of your shirt. Quickly turning to see if you got it caught on something, you find yourself looking down into ice blue eyes.

“Hey birthday dude, what’s up?”

“I wanna tell you something. But Aunt Weiss can’t hear. It’s a secret.”

“Oh really?” You quirk an eyebrow and glance at Weiss, who’s mouth is hanging open slightly in surprise. “Well then let’s go over here, so Aunt Weiss can’t hear our secret.”

You grab his hand and take him over to the patio table. Seemingly out of the way, but where Weiss could still hear from where you knew she was creeping behind the wall.

After you help lift him up into the chair, you kneel down in front of him so that the two of you are eye level with each other.

“Okay. So what’s this big secret?”

“Actually,” he draws out the word into each syllable. It must be his new word of the week. “I have two secrets.” He holds up two fingers for you to see.

“Oh wow, two secrets. That’s a lot.”

“They are good secrets though. Not bad. So they are okay.”

“As long as they are good and you don’t hurt yourself or anyone else, there’s nothing wrong with keeping a few secrets sometimes.”

“The first one is that I think you make the best cupcakes in the whole wide world. I told my moms and they said that you made the cupcakes for my party and that I needed to say thank you. So thank you for making the best cupcakes ever for my birthday. I told all my friends that you made them.”

This makes you chuckle and shake your head. And when he’s finished with his thank you, Aiden looks over through the window and you see Robyn giving him the thumbs up. Which he gives right back to let her know he completed his mission.

“I’m not really sure it’s a secret that I make the best cupcakes though. You and I both know that Aunt Weiss can’t cook.” You hear a small scoff from behind the wall, so you know she heard you. It also makes Aiden laugh. “So what’s the second secret?”

“This is a big one. Big, huge secret. I haven’t told anyone ever.” He motions with his hand for you to come closer so he can whisper. So you lean in. “When I grow up, I want to be a curer like you.”

“You want to be a curator like me when you grow up, huh?” You put your hand on your heart, acting surprised.

“My mom said that you work in a museum and you take care of all the old dinosaur bones and fossils and stuff. And all the other really old stuff. And I love all dinosaurs. Every single one. Like the triceratops and the t-rex. And the ones with really long necks. Even the really scary ones with razor sharp teeth.” His enthusiasm makes you smile.

“Well, there are a lot of other things to being a curator than taking care of the dinosaur bones, you know.”

As soon as you say it, the smile fades from his face and he looks defeated.

“But hey” you poke him on his knee, “maybe one day you can come to work with me and I will show you all of the stuff that I get to do. We can walk through the entire museum and look at everything. Including all the dinosaur bones. And I will even show you all the cool stuff we don’t have on display. Top secret stuff. How’s that sound?”

“Then I can be a cure, a cur-“

“Curator.”

“A curator like you?”

“Not after your first day. There’s a lot of stuff you have to learn. But I can teach you, if you want?”

“Yes please!”

“Okay Aiden, I think you’ve told Aunt Blake enough secrets for one day. It’s time to go brush your teeth and get ready for bed.” Winter appears next to the two of you and pats Aiden’s shoulder.

He slowly slides off the chair and makes his way towards the house.

“Wait! I almost forgot.” He turns and runs back toward you and wraps his arms around your neck and gives you a hug, which you quickly return. “Thank you for letting me tell you my secrets, Aunt Blake.”

“You got it dude, any time.” You pat him on the back when he runs off.

—————

Later that night, when you walk down the stone pathway in front of Winter and Robyn’s house toward your car, Weiss hooks her elbow with yours.

“You know what?”

“What?”

“I think you missed your calling.”

“Oh yeah? And what would that be?”

“Blake Belladonna, kid whisperer and world’s best secret keeper.”

“Oh come on, really? He tells me one secret, and suddenly I’m the kid whisperer?”

“Let’s be real, you folded for that kid like a lawn chair. Miss ‘I hate all kids, they are dirty and gross and yucky.”

“So what? He’s our nephew. If he wants to talk to me about dinosaurs and working at a museum, who am I to dissuade him?”

“Fair point.”

“Or maybe I have discovered my true calling, as the cool aunt. And you are just jealous that I’m the cool one.” You tease, knowing Weiss would never be bothered by it.

“I am not! And there are plenty of other fun kinds of aunts that I could totally be like…”

“The wine aunt.”

“Yes! Exactly. That sounds great. I volunteer to be the wine aunt. I’ve been practicing.”

“There is one thing we will never have to worry about though.”

“And what is that?”

“As long as Whitley keeps sending books, we will always be the favorites.”

“That’s true, the competition is very slim.”

#rwby monochrome #rwby fanfiction #rwby checkmate #Blake Belladonna #weiss schnee

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razorblade180 · 4 years ago

Text

Interdimensional Moms pt3

Part 2 right here! <-

Team RWBY continue their interesting chat about their respective worlds. After the emotional roller coaster that was Weiss’s, a bit of light hearted stories would be welcomed.

Yang:Okay, does anyone have some real feel good things to talk about for their world? Just run of the mill pleasant life?

Ruby:Guess I’m going last....

Yang:Oh no!

Weiss:We’ll circle back to you then. Blake, I guess you’re up.

Blake:Wouldn’t you want calmer stuff at the end?

Yang:Blake, I would very much like to go at least ten minutes without wanting to cry.

Blake:Hmmmm I can guarantee you like...six I think.

Yang:I’ll take it! Blake Belladonna, tell me about a world where you and Jaune Arc are happily married. How did such stars align?

Blake:You make it sound crazy?

Weiss:Blake, there’s list of people I could see you with. Now I’m not saying Jaune couldn’t be one of them, but he’d have to fight his way up that list.

Blake:You...that’s kinda fair. It’s a bit hard to explain really. It happened back at Beacon initially, or our bonding did. Some days his team was busy and I didn’t tag along for the crazy antics you three wanted to do all the time, so we occasionally bumped into each by circumstances. He’d go to the library for a book, I’d do training and he was there, or sometimes he’d knock on our door and not realize I was the only one around.

Weiss:Was he trying to sing to me?

Blake:That plan did show up at our a few times, yes. One of those times I asked him out of nowhere to sing the song anyways because I just had to know if it was any good. Hehe, it wasn’t sonically pleasing at times, but you could tell it was genuine. Eventually though...he just sort of gave up on you. It was actually a little sad to see, even you thought so. It was strange. Jaune was definitely stumbling through his flirting and it came off as childish, yet the day he gave up, it was easy to see his heart was breaking a bit. Like all his insecurities ate even the faux confidence away.

Yang:Ma’am, it has barely been three minutes and I’m getting sad about thinking of Jaune being sad.

Weiss:Yeah don’t tell me I broke his heart!

Blake:Whoops, sorry. It’s important though. Jaune kinda kept to himself a little more after that. He still chatted pretty regularly but it was easy to tell he dived more in studies as a way to keep his head clear, which lead to us being on a project together. I was the only person in our friend group that wouldn’t actively try to make him open up about how he feeling. At first I thought it was a bit rude when he told me that, but I didn’t room to talk when it comes to socializing.

Yang:One more time for the people in the back.

Ruby:I’m the back.

Blake:*smirks* I was very against socializing about my feelings at Beacon.

Ruby:Yeah you were.

Weiss:I couldn’t even ask if you slept well without a lukewarm answer sometimes.

Blake:I’m better now. That’s all that matters. Romance and feeling love is a personal thing and talking about it is uncomfortable. I think we both recognized that in each other during our project. Trouble is, there’s only so many conversation starters and small talk subjects. Talking only about the project was dry and eventually all the facts a person could say about themselves ran out. Favorite food, color, hobbies, etc. We eventually had to dig a little deeper into those topics. To our surprise, we actually more in common than we thought when it came to how we felt about certain pieces of literature and music.

Ruby:Awwww, bonding over smut.

Blake:*red* It wasn’t all adult literature! Some were poems and stuff. Even when the project ended, we began being less formal around each other and hanging out. We went to the bookstores we mentioned and he even got us tickets to bands I liked. It...it was nice. I never really got to have just a normal teenage experience before without it being political. He always felt bad about being average compared to everyone but average was so foreign to me that I welcomed it. I liked having a normal time out. It was a thing we all took for granted. Especially when Beacon fell.

Yang:Yeah, that probably put a real bind on your relationship.

Blake:Actually....we technically never officially started to date.

Ruby:What? You courted each other all of Beacon.

Weiss:Ruby, who the heck says courted? I’m a Schnee and even I have never used the word courted.

Ruby:Hush, I read a lot of bed time stories to a five year old.

Blake:We were a bit shaky on labels. Me for obvious reasons. As for Jaune, it’s really true about what they say about guys when they get heart broken.

Yang: “Never again.”

Blake:Hehehe, it’s funny to look back at it but he’ll tell you it’s a bit cringy. He was so on gaurd. I could tell all the time when he was mentally telling himself to not be excited whenever we hung out or I complimented him.

Ruby:Hey it takes guts to shift feelings to a teammate of your first crush. That could blow up in your face.

Blake:Yeah...about that. *looks at Yang* you...were another reason why nothing was official. You uhhh, we actually had some jumbled up emotions.

Weiss:*sarcastic gasp* You and Yang, liking each other? Who could’ve seen that coming?

Yang:Was it mutual or...

Blake:Very mutual. Also...intimate at times.

Yang:*red* Oh....yeah. Yeah that tracks.

Blake:That jumbled mess was only more confusing after you got hurt trying to rescue me from Adam. Meeting up with-

Ruby:Question, so was Sun just not on your radar?

Blake:Sun? We’re just friends. He’s cute and I’m glad he was there for me when I needed help but things between us were always pretty calm. I think he noticed how confused I was with other people in my life and chose to not add to it.

Ruby:Bless him. Please continue.

Blake:Learning about Salem and reconnecting with you all was a lot. I’d really been out of the loop and my Yang and I were on....shaky ground.

Yang:That’s what happens when you leave someone who’s been left their entire life.

Blake:Sigh...yeah. It was a trying time, but not with JNPR. It’s funny, Oscar and I also hit it off quite well from the jump. I think we were both glad to have each other learn on the craziness at once. Even with readjusting, Jaune and I fell back into a groove naturally. Instead of doing average things we day dreamed of the things we did. Once again we become this little slice of simple life in this crazy adventure. Still didn’t date.

Weiss:What is this, a slow burn!?

Yang:Weiss, you literally didn’t date your Jaune until Atlas.

Weiss:There’s a difference. I didn’t make any heart eyes at him until around Atlas. I say I may have been a little quick. These two were “courting” for over a year at this point.

Ruby:Stop making fun of me!

Blake:Well anyways, I wouldn’t say much was too eventful in terms of romance with world destroying things happening. Salem, she was way too much to deal with. Every move age did was calculated and unrelenting. Keeping our head above water wasn’t easy. In fact, it was boarder line impossible. Yang and I barely beat Adam after all.

Yang:How’d you two feel about that?

Blake:Relieved. Huge weight off my mind, and yet...a piece of me still wishes things never got so dire. At least now I know that in another world, things aren’t.

Ruby:Sounds like your world was put through their paces? You survived though.

Blake:Not conventionally. I gotta say, hearing the ages and how you beat Salem so far makes me feel more than a little embarrassed. To be frank, we didn’t have this grand battle that involved the entire world making a final stand. We had Atlas, and then we had Haven. With their might and a plan to gain more time, we managed to seal Salem in a vault.

Yang:*chokes on water* Y- cough what!?

Ruby:You put her in a vault!?

Weiss:Thah sounds harder than a last stand honestly.

Blake:No matter what way we looked at things, we just weren’t ready for her, so we locked her away until we were. Two years on constant defense from her followers and grimm until Ruby had trained enough to use her silver eyes and we were all strong enough.

Ruby:Two years!? How old was I then?

Blake:Twenty I believe.

Weiss:Hey, you beat mine by a year.

Yang:Not mine, I think we either tied or just narrowly beat yours by like a year. Honestly it hard to keep track of birthdays and stuff.

Ruby:Wow. No offense to myself, but that’s a little disappointing. I guess being the same person really doesn’t mean we were all at the same level.

Blake:Hey, my Ruby put everything she had into saving the world. There wasn’t a second she wasn’t trying her best to defend it!

Ruby:My point exactly. If that was her at her absolute best then by all accounts, she doesn’t hold a candle to me; at least back then anyways. But I have no reason to believe she would be at my level now.

Yang:Okay little miss prideful, care to tell us when you saved the-

Ruby:Seventeen.

The reaper took a long swig of coffee while the others processed that information. It took a her a couple of seconds to realize she may be acting just a tad bit arrogant.

Ruby:Uhh, sorry. I think I was tooting my own horn a bit there.

Weiss:Seventeen....why so soon?

Yang:Why? Don’t you mean how?

Blake:That’s....almost unbelievable.

Ruby:Really? I don’t think so. I’ll dive into it when it’s my turn but for now all I really gotta say is people needed help, and I was going to answer those cries. I bet your Ruby had a similar urgency in her, but for some reason or another just had different limitations. I got hurt a lot as a kid. Maybe an injury did more damage in one universe than another? Who can say?

Blake:I...wouldn’t know. Odd, I know if my Ruby heard this, then she’d probably be more than a little upset. Saving lives is still what she’s all about. I know when she put everything she had into fighting Salem when the day came. All that training paid off. Her skills were polished and her silver eyes eradicated the grimm essence in Salem.

Ruby:Wait, she’s not dead?

Blake:No. Salem roams Remnant with Oz keeping an eye on her until one day she can finally grasp the lesson the gods wanted her to have.

Yang:That uhhh sounds risky.

Weiss:Yet oddly okay?

Blake:Funny, my Weiss said that too. Those two get checked on in secret. Can’t be too careful. With Salem beaten though, Remnant entered a state of...let’s call it average chaos. All in all, it’s way more peaceful but you know, people will be people. Downside about a secret war is you don’t get the unity of the masses. Atlas and Haven working together was still a great step in the right direction though.

Yang:Woah, I’m a little jealous. My world felt like a race against the clock. The pressure either broke you or made you harder than diamond, with most people crushing under it.

Weiss:Yeah. The tension and meet of extremes I had on the frontlines was beyond imagination. The unity was great, but to feel it on the battlefield against the odds was feeling with way too much adrenaline and stress. Can’t say I enjoyed it. I simply lived through it.

Blake:Well it isn’t like I had a walk in the park. But I guess in comparison, my experience was a tad more mellow. Still, people were lost and hurt. Oscar isn’t himself anymore, don’t have Penny, former classmates and a few enemies turned allies fell in battle. Family.... it took a bunch to get the plan of containing, then it took a lot more to do it. In a way though, the two years of training is time I can’t regret. It tested bonds, strengthening and reestablishing others.

Ruby:I take it since love couldn’t bloom on the battlefield, it bloomed in the training yards?

Blake:*red* You can say that. That’s when Jaune and I got serious. *frowning* But.....

Yang:We fell apart?

Blake:Yeah. I didn’t learn my lesson well enough the first time about the potential problems of dating a partner. Only difference this time was I felt like I was the one being cruel. We had gotten into arguments and apologized more than once. Your fear of being left and my own insecurities just kept butting heads. I’d cry, you’d cry, our friends would be concerned. Then the day came where you put it all on the line. You confessed genuinely how much you loved me and how you felt a bit jealous when it came to Jaune. I had never seen you look so vulnerable; letting your gaurd completely down. And though a piece of me loved you and wanted you in my life for ever....this sense of genuine comfort Jaune gave was something I want-needed for so long. So I did the one thing I didn’t want to do. I broke your heart. I hurt you again.

Yang:Sigh....*leans back in chair* Okay, let’s see how well I know myself. My eyes went red automatically, followed by tears. I lashed out at you angrily out of pain and embarrassment until I was probably blue in the face. But to take make things worse, somebody probably overheard. No matter who it was, I yelled at them too for trying to calm me down and then I eventually run off leaving everyone unhappy. A good old meltdown. Sound about right?

Blake:To the letter. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so distraught.

Yang:Of course not, I’ve never been in love before meeting you. I....did a similar thing with my Blake over the stupid Adam shit. *covers face* of all the things to be similar, it had to be my temper. Please tell me our team didn’t suffer too harshly?

Blake:The good thing about two years of training was it didn’t have to be together all the time. Team RWBY didn’t fall apart, but it didn’t feel comfortable either. Outside of missions, the four of us didn’t hang out as much. It was three at the most. Nobody pinned blame on me or Yang for it but it was obvious.

Ruby:I mean how can you blame someone for feeling sad or not in love with someone? Pointing fingers doesn’t do anything. However, I bet missions were rough.

Blake:Bumblebee was shelved. We did any other team up we could. When push came to shove, Yang and I did put feelings aside. Neither of us wanted our feelings to get anyone killed. That’s probably what kept us connected for awhile, especially with Salem. I don’t think we questioned each other when it came to watching one another’s back. Slowly, our relationship got a bit better. Until....we stopped speaking to each other altogether about a couple years later.

Yang:Wait, why!?

Blake:I got pregnant.

The three listeners’ faces scrunched up and they let in a sharp breath like they just got cut. No one had considered that bombshell.

Blake:Marriage was rough enough. Having Jaune’s kid and starting a family just...cut deep I guess. You didn’t make a scene or anything if that’s what you’re worried about. One day you told me “I just can’t do this” and exited my life. I wanted to keep you close to me, but you wanted to be closer. That was a thing I couldn’t do. Hehe, I can’t tell you how weird it is talking to you like this again.

Yang:So that’s it!? We just don’t see each other at all!?

Blake:Certain events and celebrations have us in the same room, but that’s all. Ruby is the only thing that regularly links us, but she’s busy living life too.

Ruby:Is it a good life?

Blake:The best. You’re the huntress you always wanted to be and a hero to many.

Ruby:*smiles* Really? That’s good. May she ride that high for as long as she can. Though I bet she wished she had a special someone to share that with.

Blake:Huh? Oh, you married Weiss.

Weiss:*red* What!?

Ruby:Aye, nice.

Weiss:Weren’t you upset about thinking of other people with Jaune besides you!?

Ruby:Yeah, but I won’t deny if I am going to be with someone that isn’t him, I’m very happy it’s the other special person in my life. I mean come on, the only reason we don’t get weird in your universe is because I married your brother and you already invited my sister.

Weiss:I mean...it’s mainly the brother portion. The second part...

Ruby:Weiss, that’s weird.

Yang:Eh...

Ruby:IT’S WEIRD! YOU CANNOT TELL ME OTHERWISE!

Yang:*sips coffee* Eh.

Blake:Anyways, Weiss, you’re running your company. The Schnee Dust Company was scrubbed top to bottom to remove as much corruption as possible. No department was overlooked. In times of money, there’s a notable decrease in how much the company used to make.

Weiss:Gee, I wonder if that’s because the other me is doing oh let me guess, paying all their workers and not cutting corners in safety?

Blake:The SDC people approval has gone up considerably, just so you know that too. Turns out people like it when the company they buy from have good morals.

Weiss:Am I happy though? I make time for my social life and hu- I mean wife?

Blake:Yea, you’re happy. In a way I think we’re all happy, but....

Yang:We’d be happier if we were all happy together? Yeah, that’s how it works. You’re only as happy as the most miserable person in a family or group; if you all care about each other that is. Ugh, I wanna punch the other me. I get how she feels but it’s fucking immature to just ignore years of teamwork and family. At the end of the day, team RWBY is a family! Can’t believe I’d runaway from it instead of figuring out...I don’t know! Something!

Blake:*small smile* Well if you feel that way then there’s no reason to believe she doesn’t. My Yang just struggles with it more I guess, but I hope she can come around one day. Not really for my sake, but for her own peace of mind. As well as Lucas’s.

Ruby:Lucas? Your son I take it?

Blake:Mmhmm. My strong and lazy young man. He got his father’s hair but my eyes and ears. I can’t think of a person who warms my heart quite like him. He acts uninterested in a lot of things, but his heart is so big.

Weiss:Ah, so he’s just you?

Blake:More or less hehe. Though I’d say I was passionate about things all my life. Lucas will sleep all day if he could and doesn’t like going out without a reason.

Weiss:Still sounds like you if I’m being honest. Teenager?

Blake:Seventeen, almost eighteen.

Yang:You said he’s need peace of mind too? I’m not...hostile towards him am I?

Blake:No, not by a long shot. On the occasions you two have meant, you were polite. It’s just he knows why you don’t visit or talk to me. That’s rough, knowing your parent’s closest friend stopped being apart of their life because you were born. I think sometimes he believes it’s actually his fault.

Yang:I really, really want to meet this other me and have a few words. She needs to know she isn’t trying hard enough. I’m proof.

Ruby:Yeah, but you’re only well off because the person that helped you get over Blake, was Jaune. Yeah she still can find love, but who that person will be would be uncharted territory for everyone.

Blake:Also I’m not entirely sure exactly if my Yang is even bi like you.

Yang:Sigh....

Weiss:Love.

Blake:Huh?

Weiss:As long as a person shows your Yang genuine love and a place in their heart where she’ll remain forever, Yang would fall for them. They just have to make it a point to make her feel like they’ll stay. Yangs are softies like that.

Yang:Wow, you an expert on me and all the versions of me now?

Weiss:No, you’re just a bleeding heart that’s super emotional. Let me guess, you fell for Jaune the moment you realized just how relaxed and vulnerable you could allow yourself to be around him.

Yang:*red*.......he holds me when I’m overwhelmed.

RWB:Awwww

Yang:Shut up! Blake, take the heat off me.

Blake:Not too much more. Lucas is a smart kid who generally stays out of trouble. Unfortunately, trouble finds him. Mainly because of his semblance.

Ruby:Don’t tell me...

Blake:No no, it’s not bad luck like your uncle, but Lucas can’t always control it so their similar in that regard. Premonitions, that’s his semblance.

Weiss:Like...the future? You child can see the future?!

Blake:Yeah. *sips drink* it’s terrible.

Ruby:What? That sounds so handy! Man, if I could someone fighting me before it happened, I’d be a monster on the battlefield.

Blake:Lucas isn’t a fighter. Well, he’s not aspiring to fight. He can fight, pretty dang well in fact.; but randomly seeing the future is not a gift. Imagine picking up a book and you suddenly know the ending, or watching a movie and you start seeing the middle of it right after you press play?

Yang:Ahhh, that’s why he’s lazy and unmotivated. His semblance is massive spoiler alert. Half the fun of new things is not knowing what will happen.

Ruby:Oof, you have a point. I’d be paranoid to no end.

Blake:To a point, he was. Ever since he was ten. Disasters happen at the drop of a hat. Lucas isn’t the kind of person to watch bad things unfold, so whenever it was possible or even if it was risky, he’d do whatever he could to prevent said disaster. But.....there’s only so much anyone person can do. There’s only so much information he sees. The constant strain and guilt that came from failing ate him up. The. There’s the incidents he’s seen that didn’t show him how it began or how it will end. *rubbing her hands* It’s bad...

Weiss:Hey, I...I’ve noticed your hands and frankly even your face are a bit....slim. Your skin isn’t as colorful as I’m used to either. Almost like it’s regaining color.

Blake:Hehehe.......I guess you were bound to notice of all people.

Weiss:Of course. I may not run a a company in my world but I keep tabs on my brother and have had my fair share of visits to a doctor. Why wouldn’t I notice.

Yang:So can we talk as if there are people who have no clue what’s going on?

Weiss:Blake has had one of two things happen to her. She’s either worked way too hard to the point she’s not taking care of her health, or she’s fallen very ill and her body is still recovering.

Blake:Yeah, it’s more of the second one, but probably because of the first one as well. Forwarding equality, I was overzealous with it. One day Lucas just started shaking and crying when he was twelve and I couldn’t understand why. Turns out he kept seeing me bedridden and unconscious without a reason. Day in and day out he simply cried and tried his best to get another premonition to learn more, but couldn’t. A week later I started feeling a little dizzy, and then blacked out after vomiting. At first I thought maybe I had the flu or something. Nope, a tumor.

Weiss:What?

Ruby:Blake!?

Yang:Oh shit, are you-

Blake:Perfectly fine! *smiles* I’m fine. Liver cancer, but it was caught early. No more tumor what so ever, but the meds and the entire process was really draining. Got sicker a couple of times. Not once did I feel like I was dying necessarily, more like...slipping? I felt myself getting drained. The whole time Lucas was so scared; blaming himself for not preventing this or knowing how to fix it. Though simply knowing he saw me like was a warning most people wish they got. I know I said seeing the future is terrible, but the scariest part through all of this was not knowing how it ended. Choosing medicine, doctors, surgery possibilities, it made me crack under pressure a little. I think he noticed that. I wasn’t sure if I picking an option that lead me dying or getting better. The stress alone may have killed me. Ever since then Lucas hasn’t been so outgoing.

Ruby:....

Weiss:....

Yang....It was already said, but there was no way this wasn’t going to get sad was there?

Blake:Take it from me, there’s joy in pain. So many people came to visit me when I was recovering. Even Yang dropped by for a bit. After I got out, I don’t think Lucas ever hugged me so hard. Jaune tried to stay calm through the whole ordeal but it was rough for him too. He was all but spent emotionally when I came home.

Weiss:I’m surprised Lucas didn’t become an older brother.

Blake:The last thing a recovering patient needs is a pregnancy, but as far as missing me goes...

Ruby:You can stop right there with that tangent.

Yang:We’ll talk about that in private. I wouldn’t mind that story.

Blake:*playfully rolls eyes* These days I try not to over do things. I’ve only officially been deemed completely cured for about a year. I can feel that I’m still not entirely up to strength. It’s fine though. It gives me an excuse for Lucas to dote on me a little. He’s a mama’s boy at heart. My biggest worries these days is peeling him out of this shell his semblance had put him in. At the very least I want him to smile like he used to and find away to live in moment when possible. His entire life is ahead of him. Hopefully he doesn’t see all of it.

Ruby:I guess too much of anything really is bad. Knowledge included. I hope things work out.

Yang:Me too. A happy life is something you definitely earned.

Blake:Thanks. That seriously means a lot, which is why I made sure to not end this on a sour note.

The happy faunus pulled out her scroll to scroll through pictures and her friends eyes lit up. The first one was a beach photo. This Jaune was different from what they were used to. He let his hair grow a little bit longer and the back went down his neck, but it was definitely still him. This jaune was pretty toned and went for a lean look than bulky like Weiss’s, but a tad slimmer. On his shoulders was an adorable toddler with wide amber eyes and big blonde cat ears. Both men were enjoying the sunset on the waves.

The next photo was more recent with Blake right in the middle of hopping into Lucas’s arms. Weiss noticed the girl still had on the hospital bracelet. She must’ve just gotten cleared. Lucas had grown like a weed. He was now roughly Jaune’s height. His hair was messy and looked like Jaune’s in his younger years. Also like his father, Lucas was jacked! His sleeveless purple shirt should off his biceps as they wrapped around Blake’s torso for a hug. His baggy purple shorts had black and gold trim through the seams and the shorts stopped right below his knees; but showed of his well defined calves. A smile of pure joy and what could’ve been a few tears were visible as he looked lovingly at his mother. It warmed all of the ladies hearts. Still, the girls also could tell under his eyes were a little dark. Lucas must’ve been very tired.

The final picture had to be the most recent. It was Blake and Lucas sparring. Both looked at each other with excitement and ease as their wooden blades clashed. Their clothes mirrored one another by being black and white kimonos. They even wore the traditional shoes and everything.

Weiss:Yeah, that’s your kid.

Blake:Damn right. Unfortunately that makes him a little too stubborn. But I guess that’s okay. Without a doubt, someone’s gonna break through that shell of his.

Yang:Oh? It sounds like you already know who?

Blake:Well....I have a hunch.

xxxxx

RING! RING! RING! Lucas’s scroll chirped, in the middle of the night. The boy let out a long, agitated groan of sleepiness as he rolled over in bed; reaching for his scroll on the nightstand to answer.

Lucas:Hello?

???:Did you know you are mathematically more likely to choke on a hotdog than get attacked by a shark?

Lucas:....Serenity, who gave you my number?

Serenity:Your parents, and it’s Serendipity!

Lucas:Too many syllables. Also a bit ironic given who you are. With the way you act though, my name for you is better.

Serenity:Ooooo so we’re moving on to pet names? How forward of you.

Lucas:Five seconds before I hang up. Three...two-

Serenity:You’re late! You promised to guide me around the beach at twelve. That’s now.

Lucas:.....P.M. Twelve P.M. Serenity. Why in the world would I mean midnight!?

Serenity:It’s romantic and personal. Nobody else is around. I thought you were trying to use that Belladonna magic on me by acting all cool and aloof in the moonlight.

Lucas:.....

Lucas:Please delete my number.

Serenity:Not on your life, my whiskered bodyguard!

Lucas:Don’t have whiskers-

Serenity:If you don’t wanna move that butt of yours to hang out with a pretty girl in a floppy hat and sundress with a bikini underneath, that’s your loss. I’m still going for a dip.

Lucas:Do not go in the water when nobody is around.

Serenity:Pfft, I’m a strong swimmer.

Lucas:Sharks.

Serenity:It’s more dangerous to eat a hotdog.

Lucas:Sharks feed at night.

Serenity:Are you trying to tell me the statistics aren’t as reliable just because it’s nighttime.

Lucas:That’s exactly what I’m saying.

Serenity:Then you better move your butt just in case. Either you get a snack or the sharks do. Either way, I get attention.

Lucas:Difference is one wants to eat you.

Serenity:My goodness Lucas, oh brazen of you.

Lucas:......

Lucas:Tell the sharks I said hi.

Serenity:Okay! Byyyyyyeeeee! *hangs up*

Lucas:(She’ll be fine.)

..........

Lucas:*putting on shoes* This is bullshit. Who thinks midnight!? *walking down stairs* Can’t have a peaceful day or night....

Jaune:*watching tv* Hey Lucas, going some-

Lucas:I’m giving out your phone number to a homeless man the first chance I get! *walks out door*

Jaune:.....(Whatever gets you outside more.)

It took about fifteen minutes of aggressive walking for Lucas to wrap around to the back of his house towards their section of the beach. Where Serenity walked around humming and collecting seashells without a care in the world.

Lucas:The next shell you grab will have a crab in it.

Serenity:Huh? Oh hey you’re finally-ahhhh! Ow ow ow ow ow ow!

Lucas:Should’ve listened.

Serenity:Have a better warning!!!! It won’t let go!

Lucas:Pull it off.

Serenity:That’s hurt!!! Lucas, help!

Lucas:Fine, if you delete my number.

Serenity:*sniffling* Stop being mean!!! This really hurts, it’s breaking the skin. Isn’t a young and pretty girl’s tears payment enough!? I thought you were getting paid to-

Lucas:Oh my goodness! Okay, just shush. I’m too sleepy for this.

Serenity:You’re mean when you’re sleepy. At least your waking up voice sounds handsome though.

Lucas:Please....stop. Stop everything. *removing crab* Happy?

Serenity:No, you’re not happy. Also my finger is bleeding.

Lucas:Yep, looks like you can’t go swimming now for real.

Serenity:Eh, I lied anyways. I’m not getting in that water. There are sharks in that watery grave.

Lucas:So. Why. Did. You. Wake. Me. Up?

Serenity:....*red* I...don’t really, have friends here. Besides you. Umm *points to pail and shovels* sandcastles?

Lucas:*inhales*......I’ll get the water.

Serenity:*smiles* Yes! I’ll delete your number later.

Lucas:*red* You....can keep it of you really want.

Serenity:....Kek, okay Mr. Tsundere

Lucas:You can remove the next crab alone.

Serenity:Don’t joke like that! That was a joke, right?

Lucas:Welp that pail isn’t gonna fill itself. *leaves*

Serenity:What!? Lucas!!! You were joking right!? Right!? *looking around the sand* you’re a lousy bodyguard!

Lucas:Good, fire me.

Serenity:I...you....ugh!

Lucas:Cheer up, I’m happy now after all. *smiles*

Serenity:*pouting* This is why I’m a dog person.

#rwby #the void #jaune arc #ruby rose #weiss schnee #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #rwby knightshade #lucas belladonna #rwby ships #rwby premonition

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theraikouhotel · 4 years ago

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Massive Headcanon Post

ALRIGHT I HAVE IDEAS!!! I think.... Headcanons below the damn cut because they’ll be separated into different series! God I hope this becomes a thing I do...

Please enjoy!!

Fate

Raikou’s favourite time of day is dawn. She likes to see the sun coming up and the hope of a new day washes over her, making her look forward to another day of her being not insane as she believes she is.

Shikibu secretly collects figures of the other Casters and sometimes makes them move with her magic, re-enacting something she sees in her head. She then writes out in her little diary, as if it was the most interesting thing ever when really...she made them kiss with her own figure she had gotten made.

Arturia also does baking on the side whenever she’s alone and she’s made sure that the cafeteria is empty. She’s been caught several times but they let her do her thing as she looked determined to get the recipes down. This is usually to thank everyone who has helped her, especially her master.

Tiamat likes to decorate mindlessly when she’s stressed. She’ll do it usually with Christmas decorations she has in her room, because she likes how fun they look. Sometimes it might be with Halloween ones. The Primordial Mother just likes decorating so much.

Europa sometimes might summon Talos and pet him to calm herself down. Having her bull close to her soothes her, especially when she sees things aren’t going as well. If she doesn’t have her bull, she’ll curl up and try to breathe but it doesn’t work sometimes.

Irisviel isn’t too fond of people badmouthing her children. Especially those she considers her own. She’ll kick the crap out of you so hard that you won’t even get up for the next week.

Black Clover

Asta hates it when people ask about his parents or drill into him that he should have died way too long ago. He’s never had any proper blood parents so he’ll say the Father at the church he was raised at is his dad. But when people say that doesn’t count, he won’t like it. He’ll also say that the belief in his comrades helped him live.

Noelle isn’t actually too close to the Mama Squad. She feels awkward around them. Or any sort of mother figure as she has no idea what to say. She’s also afraid of breaking down in front of them as it’s not becoming of a royal as she has drilled into her head.

Vanessa only drinks to make sure the lonely thoughts don’t invade her mind. She hates feeling lonely and drinking helps alleviate it. But when she doesn’t, her mind starts playing on the fact that she’ll be alone forever and she just heads to bed, crying.

Bleach

Ichigo has nightmares about Yhwach from time to time. He always thinks about how he could have ended it a lot more quicker so that everyone could have lived. He always imagines several outcomes. But whenever he opens his eyes, he remembers those who have died in the War and it hurts him so much.

Orihime wishes she was as strong as Yoruichi. She has one of the strongest abilities yet she hates how indecisive she can be. She has kept to herself that her kind heart has hindered her so much, even with the amount of people telling her it’s her best trait and one that should be kept as there was enough hate in the world.

Yoruichi often feels like a failure. She has strongly felt this ever since Aizen and it continues to eat away at her even after the Thousand Year Blood War.

Highschool DxD

Issei often feels like the girls that love him aren’t real. That he’s not really deserving of their love. He has these thoughts that plague his mind every other day that tell him that Rias is lying or that Raynare is actually still alive and is playing tricks on him.

Rias does her best to be there for everyone. But hates how her own duties stops her from doing that which instead makes her rely on Issei to see how everyone is. It’s not just as the alpha female in the harem, it’s as a friend to everyone.

Sona secretly enjoys dressing up with her sister, Serafall, as it reminds her that one day she may not be able to spend much time with her. So she never tells her to go away whenever Serafall is with her, rather she’ll just bear it and blush in embarrassment.

Date A Live

Kotori still enjoys the kids meals at the nearest restaurants as she loves how cute they are always made. She’ll always add it in with another order so she gets to indulge in how cute it is before devouring it.

Kurumi isn’t a big fan crowds. Whilst it does help her with her concealment, she feels her heart race whilst being within them. She has to take a moment in the shadows to get her heart to a more normal rate before going back in there again.

Love Live!

Umi is always the strict one. However, she almost always feels bad when she has to berate someone because in her own home, she has been treated a lot more harshly as the next head of the Sonoda household. But she keeps this fact closely guarded.

Kotori is always thinking about something. Usually about how to get Honoka to be hers only but she never acts upon it. She’d hate that she’d feel horrible if she did make Honoka only hers and “took out” the other competition that is her idol group. So instead, she gets out of this habit through fashion designing.

Mari isn’t actually a big fan of showing her wealth off to other people, only her friends. Sometimes she accidentally does it and then they try and cosy up to her. She hates that. She can see right through them and immediately denies them.

Chika doesn’t actually have many passions except idols. If it weren’t for idols, she would most likely stare blankly into the ceiling of her home as she would take over the Ryokan Inn that her mother owns. She’d just wonder what she was doing, whether or not if existing was right or not.

Karin has been offered various modelling gigs, which is of no surprise. However, there have been times when she has considered going 18+ modelling but refused in the end. She was curious yes but will never do it. Of course, she’s just about getting by.

Emma has always been Karin’s best friend. They always look out for each other. However, Emma can see whether or not something is bothering Karin but doesn’t ever bring it up. Instead, she just wants to see her happy.

Bang Dream!

Sayo is a girl of many secrets. She only ever tells them to her twin sister, Hina as of late. Before, she’d never tell anyone about herself and if she did, it was only the bare minimum. She’s still closed off as she refuses to get hurt by anyone.

Tomoe is always overworking herself. She has lots of volunteering and things she does, which always leaves her knackered (tired as fuck) at the end of the day and all she wants to do is sleep. Even on days when she looks like she’s okay, she isn’t. She wants to rest.

Aya is clumsy and will get lost, just not as often as Kanon, her friend. However, she feels inadequate as an idol. She has trained for this but it always bothers her, as it goes into late night practices and early dawn nap times. She has considered giving up so many times, because of all the hate she has seen, even with her idol group, she’s usually the one with the most hate as she is at the centre most of the time.

Arisa is just gay as fuck. But she isn’t sure if it’s right to feel that way or not about certain people (KASUMI TOYAMA)

My Hero Academia

Kyouka has an innate talent of analysing quirks as well, she has never realised it. She has an analytical brain that can probably compete with Midoriya’s if she applied what she knew about music into hero work.

Momo hasn’t been the biggest fan of being raised rich. She always wondered what it’d be like to live a normal life, without all the privilege and weight of a legacy she has on top of her.

Danganronpa

Tenko has always been confused about what to feel about the ‘degenerate males’ she has met. Especially the likes of Shuichi and Makoto. She has wondered if her view of them being horrible is skewed as she seems Shuichi as one of her closest friends. But she won’t ever admit that, ever.

Kaede really wants to know if she can stop with the piano puns. She likes to make them too much.

Makoto hasn’t exactly had the easiest time mentally. The death of his friends always haunts him even in his sleep. The screams, lights, flames, everything. He remembers all the details vividly and when he tries to reach out for them, their dead bodies are there on the floor.

Komaru has a hard time of knowing if she fits in or not as she had been taken from school and is now older than what she believes she is. She sits there wondering if it’s right to be this way now or not.

Other Muses

Jotaro is very cautious of everyone he meets. He doesn’t want a repeat of what happened in Egypt if he gets too close to anyone he likes. Even if DIO is gone, he’s never gotten rid of the feeling that someone will die in his presence or in his name.

Levi has a soft spot for his brats. He basically sees them as his children as this point and he may have been called dad once or twice by a few them. He enjoyed that but only gave them a glare.

Weiss is a soft gay for Ruby. But apart from that, she’s fine with both guys and girls.

Mami always has the feeling of her wish being selfish at the back of her mind. It’s there nagging away at her as if it would come back to bite her in the ass so she’s always out there doing her best for her juniors and always on the look our for Kyoko Sakura.

Natsu hates how his former guild had treated him. He isn’t a dumbass who can’t do anything right, rather he’s someone who was the most attuned to his emotions as his flames prove. If he meets anyone from there, he won’t hesitate to take them out with one punch.

Lelouch actually had a crush on Cornelia for a brief moment before knowing of his relation to her. He decided to drop it and add her to the list of “Siblings I absolutely adore” but from time to time he does wonder if they weren’t related, would they take over the world together?

Haru has pictures of her friends in a small box. She also has one thing they owned within it too. She’s unaware of how strange this is.

#{stories - writing headcanons}

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rwbyremnants · 4 years ago

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This one's for all the Kali fans. Sorry for all the long stretches between chapters. Truth is I just don't have any motivation anymore; not just for writing. But whatever, life is dumb. See you all soon.

=Chapter 21

Once the police came, they took one look at the situation and sided with the two women. Though they could serve as a terrible reminder for the rest of their lives, the bloody welts on their faces and arms provided explicitly clear evidence that they had not attacked the man of the house without provocation. Whitley looked shocked and saddened to find out he might actually have been mistaken in his estimation of the situation, and retreated into his room once the officers were through questioning him.

By the time they were wrapping up the scene, carting Jacques off in an ambulance with handcuffs binding him to the stretcher, Pyrrha had shown up out of nowhere. Of course, it wasn’t truly out of nowhere; the presence of police vehicles with their sirens wailing had drawn the attention of quite a few people in the neighbourhood. Weiss could tell her mother was embarrassed at all of the attention, even on top of her behaviour for the past several years of their lives and the truly awful experience of confronting her husband’s true nature.

“It’s good to see you looking more yourself again,” Pyrrha finally breathed as she embraced Mrs. Schnee gently, as if worried she might break her.

“You, too,” she said with a weary smile. “I’ve missed your face around the house. And I’m… I can’t even begin to-”

“Mother had a problem,” Weiss interrupted. “And she’s working on it. That’s all.”

Though the elder woman looked even more ashamed of herself, Pyrrha let out a sigh before smiling and patting her forearm. “Well, that’s all we can do, isn’t it? Work on our problems. I have faith in you.”

While tears were streaming down her face again, Weiss steered her into the living room and sat her down in a chair. She could tell she needed a moment, so she slipped back out the front door again to talk to her friend.

“I don’t know what to think,” she whispered, staring down at the ground. “She’s… this is really hard on her. And you were right about my father. Somehow, I just thought if I kept ignoring the problem, it would go away - and Salem was counting on me to-”

“Shhh.” Her index finger rested against Weiss’s lips just long enough to silence her before she dropped it. “Take a moment to breathe. I know…” She shook her head for a moment. “You’re really in a pickle, Weiss.”

“What am I supposed to do? I’ve lost my father, my mother is barely holding it together… Yang’s mother hates me. I’ve made a choice to stand by my gal no matter what, but that doesn’t mean everything is about to magically get easy.”

Pyrrha tapped her chin for a moment. Then she straightened and said, “Salem.”

“What?”

“Let’s ask Salem. I believe she would be understanding of your… problems. Besides, you have to tell her about losing your ‘in’ with your father.”

Though she didn’t want to admit it, she knew Pyrrha was right. Salem may have terrified her but it was unwise to sit around, waiting for the High Dragon to find out from someone else. Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly before saying, “I suppose I’ll need to ask you for a ride? Although I could probably borrow my father’s car at this point; I doubt he’ll be needing it soon.”

“I’ll drive you,” she chuckled. “We shouldn’t have to risk you getting in trouble for stealing a whole car. What about your mother, though?”

“Oh… go and get your wheels. I’ll be right back.”

Her mother hadn’t moved, other than to curl in on herself again. Weiss knelt at her side, taking her hand between both of her own. “Mommy?”

“Yes?” she sobbed.

“I’m going out now. I… well, there’s something I have to do. With the Dragons. I know you probably hate that I’m-”

“Go on. Don’t worry about me.”

“Of course I’ll worry about you! I just… need to do this. Will you be alright until I get back?”

After a brief pause, she took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yes. As long as you do me one favour.” It cost her a lot to continue. “Go… into the cabinet under the sink and throw away the bottle of bleach all the way in the back. Take it with you and dump it out somewhere, or… or just make sure it’s gone.”

“What?” she asked, completely confused. “Why would I need to do that?”

“Because it’s filled with wine. It’s… I hid it there, because I’m weak… I’m so weak!”

A fresh sob erupted as she pushed her hand into her mouth again. Weiss could understand; if the whole reason her mother had become a wino was because she was upset about their family situation, then she might not be able to resist on a night like this. She was reaching out for help, acknowledging her own limitations. Standing up, she pressed a kiss into her cheek.

“I love you. I’ll take care of it. And… a-and this isn’t forever! You’ll… Pyrrha’s right, you just…”

It seemed they were both out of words. But unlike other times in the past years, Willow reached up and ran her fingers through Weiss’s hair, smiling at her. Really seeing her instead of looking through her at the demons.

“I love you, too, my little angel. See you soon.”

----------------------------------------------------------------

Again, Weiss felt awful for lying to someone. This time, it was a small lie.

“Maybe… you should slow down on that,” Pyrrha said in mild alarm as she watched Weiss tip the bleach bottle back again, swigging down the bitter red liquid.

“I’ll stop after this,” she gasped, capping it just as she had promised. “But… Salem scares me. My brand hurts right now from having it smacked with a belt, so I definitely can’t forget how scary the last time was.”

“But you sat with her waiting for Yang, didn’t you?”

Shrugging, she put the wine under her arm as Pyrrha pulled into the lot behind Shopkeeper’s. “We didn’t speak. And she still wore that big cloak. Why do you think she does that? Why is she so, so… shadowy?” But knowing her friend would have no answers, she sighed and smiled weakly. “Thank you for being such a good friend. Maybe… maybe after this, I’ll get my own motorcycle. Start taking care of my own transportation. And then you won’t have to be my chauffeur, which isn’t fair, and it isn’t-”

“I’m happy to do it,” she reassured her with a wide smile. “You’re in an impossible situation, and doing the best you can. Don’t worry about me.”

The corner of her mouth twitched up a little higher. “My mother said the same thing. Not to worry about her, I mean. I have so many selfless people in my life.” Her hand reached over to take up Pyrrha’s. “Come in with me. You know Cinder will be happy to see you.”

“Oh, please,” she tittered, rolling her eyes. Her cheeks did pinken, but Weiss was reasonably sure it was just all the attention; she was still fixated on that blonde boy from her class. Still, she did get out of the car and enter the den of sin.

By the look of all the girls in the restaurant, no one had heard what happened. Either that, or they didn’t care; most of them were relatively unconcerned with Weiss and barely knew her. Only the girls from the high school lit up when they saw her approaching their corner.

“Hey, hero,” Coco said with a huge grin. “Dove right in to get Yang patched up. Not bad, not bad.”

“Maybe we were wrong about you,” Cinder conceded, her manner more reserved as she inspected her fingernails. “Maybe. But I’m fairly sure I’m right about this tall drink of water.”

With a nervous little laugh, Pyrrha waved briefly to her. “Hello, again. We’re actually here because Weiss has some news for Salem. Is she in?”

Inwardly, Weiss felt herself cringe at the way she put that - as if this were some kind of impromptu doctor’s visit. But none of the others seemed to feel the same. Emerald immediately said, “She’s back there, yeah. But she’s in with, um, a client.”

Suddenly, Pyrrha’s question didn’t sound so out of place.

“Wait with us,” Cinder encouraged in a velvety smooth voice, looping an arm around Pyrrha’s back and leading her to the table. Weiss had to suppress an annoyed sigh or a stern comment, but her friend could handle herself. “I’m sure you have some fascinating stories that I’d love to hear.”

Even while Emerald was rolling her eyes, Pyrrha was allowing herself to be seated. Meanwhile, Velvet approached timidly and gave her a quick little hug.

“That was a brave thing you did for Yang, and that boy. Quite brave.”

“Don’t mention it,” she said with an awkward smile. “Are Kali and Blake here?”

“No, sorry.”

“Damn,” she sighed, folding her arms over her chest and staring anxiously at the door that would lead to her fate, whatever it may turn out to be. “I was hoping for some support.”

“What do you mean? We can support you!”

Wincing at how that ended up coming across, and at the earnestness in Velvet’s fair features, Weiss flashed her a pained smile. “Oh… no, I didn’t- well, it’s only… Blake and her mother have become close friends of mine. Especially Kali, with how supportive she is, and always, well, mothering! So… it’s nothing against you and the rest of the Dragons, of course. But you know how Cinder and Emerald and those others can be sometimes.”

“Yeah,” she said with a clearly nervous laugh. “I do.”

That brought back a memory. “What did happen between you and Cinder? I’m almost afraid to ask, but…”

“Nothing worth mentioning, really. Coco loves to be dominant in the bedroom, and I can say the same about Blake to a much lesser degree. That’s fine! But Cinder… it’s a quite another level. She made me feel awful - like I was just an animal to her. A thing. And alright, she did apologise when I told her later that she made me cry, but she also seemed… irritated?” Her slight shoulders raised and lowered. Weiss noticed Cinder was watching them from her seat beside Pyrrha, but she was far enough away that she couldn’t hear a word over Fats Domino blasting out of the jukebox. “As if I ought to have known my own limits, told her in advance. Which I would have if I’d known how much rougher she was! But she didn’t say that, and didn’t shout at me or argue. Just was irritated, as I said. Like a child who’s had their toy taken away because they’ve been a prat; she knew what she did wasn’t on and apologised, but didn’t like that she needed to.”

“Oh.”

“But she really isn’t a bad person,” Velvet said urgently, as if needing to make up for the character assassination. “Truly! Other than that incident, she’s been rather good to me, and agrees that my parents wanting to leave is tragic. And since her own family life is so… well, it is the way it is…”

Nodding, even though what she wanted to do was ask more about Cinder’s home life, Weiss reached up to pat her on the shoulder. This was more important right now. “I understand. Sorry for having to bring all that unpleasantness up again.”

“Oh, no worries,” she said with a wider smile, even if her eyes were still shadowed by melancholy. “That’s life.”

Weiss barely had enough time to drop the wine off with the bartender and head back over to chat with the girls for a minute or two before a man exited the back room. He must have been a Huntsman, because when Cinder and Emerald started booing he merely laughed and made a rude gesture at them, and they laughed, as well. Then Cinder hopped up and glided back there to check on Salem’s status.

“She’ll see you,” she called over to her, beckoning. “Don’t dawdle.”

Weiss wouldn’t have dared.

As usual, Salem was cloaked in shadow instead of her actual cloak, and smoke hung heavily on the air. Weiss didn’t wait for Cinder this time; she confidently strode to the booth and sat in the bench opposite the High Dragon, trying not to wince from her brand being shifted.

“Well?” Straight to business, apparently.

“My father has been arrested.”

“Oh?” she breathed in mild surprise. “Whatever for?”

“Domestic violence. He…”

Only now was Weiss tripped up. She didn’t want to describe what happened, or relive it. But she needed to find the best and most accurate way to retell the tale so Salem would be aware of the situation.

“It’s written on your face, little one. Literally.” A ghostly hand reached across the table and grasped her chin, thumb rubbing over the welt her father’s strike had left. Hard. It burned, but it was a pain she could weather easily - a lot more easily than the initial strike, or the feeling of betrayal it brought with it. “Did you get him back?”

“No. But my mother did. She smashed a vase over his head - a very expensive one, too.” When she saw Salem’s teeth glinting in the dark from her smile, she couldn’t suppress one of her own.

“Satisfying?”

“Yes. I wish it wasn’t - I wanted him to… be…”

“A father.” When Weiss nodded, she leaned back and sighed. “You still expect too much from men. They’re beasts, incapable of controlling themselves, and should be regarded as such. No matter. What will become of his control of Schnee Communications?”

Though she couldn’t quite agree with the way Salem saw men - her father was simply a bad apple, not a representative of all of them - she knew pressing the point would be unwise. “Well… I’m not sure. There’s only been enough time for me to ask him to look into hiring Mr. Scarlatina; I didn’t think… well, he found me out way too soon, and he lost it. I couldn’t get him to believe I didn’t know what he was talking about, he just… needed me to be a bad child.”

“Your acting skills leave something to be desired, then.” She considered while Weiss tried to ignore the flicker of fear in her stomach. “Not your fault. You’re a babe in the woods, and you have done well so far; saving my warlord, restoring peace between us and the Huntsmen. And we can’t always predict how animals will behave.”

Something about that struck her. First, Velvet was saying Cinder treated her like an animal, and now, Salem was saying the same about the male gender as a whole. Perhaps the teenage Dragon was hanging around with her mentor a little too often.

“Cinder?” The girl approached and dipped her head slightly. “The phone.”

From a neighbouring booth, Cinder retrieved a black telephone with a longish cord, setting it in front of her boss. Salem picked up the receiver and began to spin the dial. “My Duchess seems to be the best one for this job; that business acumen of hers. Ah - Kali?” A brief pause. “I’ll need you to pick up the little Schnee and take her home. And once you get there…”

------------------------------------------------------------------

In very little time at all, Weiss and her surrogate mother were riding through Vale in her Ford, on their way to speak to her real mother. Though Weiss felt guilty about leaving Pyrrha to head home on her own, she privately thought it was smart they didn’t stay much longer; she looked a little green around the gills from having to rebuff so many of Cinder’s advances. The only one who looked greener was Emerald - with envy rather than nausea.

“Mother?” she called out as they entered. “Are you still here?” No response. The living room was empty, so she gestured for Kali to enter.

“It’s a lovely home,” she remarked easily. In preparation for this meeting, she had donned another lovely dress fit for any homemaker, quite modest with its high neck and capped sleeves but very becoming on her figure. The little peep-toe window at the tips of her black heels were the only flirty accent that reassured Weiss no one else had forced her into the outfit against her will.

“Thank you. Will you wait here for a moment, please?”

“Of course.” The tone was overly gentle, coddling. She had been using it ever since Salem explained why Weiss needed a ride, and the reality of her situation. It was maddening, but at the same time, she appreciated having friends who truly gave a damn about her safety and wellbeing.

To her surprise, her mother wasn’t in the drawing room or her bedroom. She was in her room, standing with a handkerchief pressed to her mouth and gazing around at the surroundings.

“Mother?”

“Oh,” she breathed in mild surprise, a watery smile springing up. “I’m sorry, Weiss. How are you?”

“I’m fine. How are you?”

“Fine.” After a moment, she shook her head, sinking down onto the corner of her bed. “And now… we’re lying to each other again. Old habits die hard.”

“I am fine, though. Not great! Not… thrilled that my father is such a… a-”

“Say it.”

“An un-nice person.” When her mother laughed, she smiled slightly. “You know what I mean. But I have a feeling you’re worse off than I am, and today, I got my mother back, and… and I still have my friends. Especially now that I don’t have to hide them.”

The smile on her mother’s face faded. For the first time, she realised how old she looked. Still beautiful for her age, but there were bags under her eyes, wrinkles at the corners and by her mouth. Being with Jacques had obviously aged her quite a bit.

“Your ‘friends’. I… might not have agreed with your father on how he handled the situation, but I agree that it should be handled. They aren’t the type of people I want you associating with.”

“Mother…”

“I won’t do what he did,” she told her firmly, holding up a hand to forestall her complaints. “That was… well, let’s not think about it. And I won’t forbid you to see them, but honey… can’t you enjoy your friendship with the Nikos girl more? It’s… safer. And I’m going to be a lot more worried now that I don’t have the wine to keep me from worrying anymore.”

Frowning, she sat down next to her mother, painfully aware that she was now wearing the jacket. Not hiding. “Sorry, Mommy. I really am sorry that… that the people I care about aren’t people you like. Or that I would have liked before I got to know them. But I can’t turn my back on them now.”

“Can’t you? It’s easy. Your father seemed to have no problem doing so to us.”

“They aren’t those kinds of villains, and neither am I,” she replied harshly, and Willow flinched. “Sorry.”

“No, no… it’s alright. We need to start being honest with ourselves about what kind of man he was, or we… or the lies will only get worse. The ones we tell others, the ones we tell ourselves.” Her voice broke. “I let him hurt you too many times. More than once was too many. And I let him hurt me so much more, but I could tolerate that as long as he- as l-long as he d-didn’t-”

Weiss wrapped her in a tight hug, squeezing as hard as her arms could handle. She wanted nothing more than to march into the jailhouse and stomp on his head with Yang’s boots - or maybe borrow one of the girls’ heavy chains to really give him what for. But that would make her no better than him. She wouldn’t rule it out, but she would try to be the better person.

“Don’t apologise anymore,” she whispered as softly as she could. “I love you, Mommy. Always have and always will. And… I don’t know what I would have done in your place, either. It’s hard; he’s your husband.”

“Not anymore.” The growl in her tone shocked Weiss a little, but it was also heartening.

“Good. I… I don’t know what we’re going to do now, but I agree with you.” Then she sat up straighter. “Oh!”

“What is it?” she asked, sniffling and wiping at her cheeks.

“There’s someone here to see you! And this is good because-” Pausing, she hopped up and began to pull at her mother’s hands to help her stand. “-because she’s one of the Dragons. But, well, she’s not really a Dragon; she’s one of their moms, and cooks for them sometimes.” That may have been a little white lie, but it was more or less true, functionally. Other than the rumble, typically Kali was content to cook food and stay in the background. She could clear up the rest of her roles herself.

“A gangster cook?” They both exchanged a bemused smile, even if Willow’s was a bit watery. “Well, where is she? Downstairs?”

Her mother insisted on nipping into the bathroom to fix her face and hair before entertaining guests. Appearances had always been of utmost importance to the Schnees, after all, and she couldn’t expect her mother to change her spots entirely - not on the same day as they ousted Jacques from their home, tentative as that was. Then they descended the stairs together.

Kali stood from the sofa where she had been waiting, and pressed a hand to her chest. “My goodness, look at these twin beauties gracing me with their presence! Such style, such grace!”

“Stop it,” Weiss laughed. But her mother seemed a little confused by the praise.

“I… I can’t tell if you’re joking or not,” she confessed.

“Not at all,” she assured her as they arrived, reaching forward to take one of Willow’s hands and pressing it between her own. “Kali Belladonna. Pleasure to meet you.”

“Willow Schnee.” Then she shrugged, self-conscious. “I look like a wreck and I know it; crying for hours, and… can’t I get you something? Tea?”

Kali led her over to the sofa, pulling her down onto the middle cushion and taking one of the ends. Privately, Weiss noticed that she was sitting very close to her, but it could just as easily have been because she wanted to comfort her as any untoward reasons. “There, there. You’ve had a terrible day; it’s not your fault, please don’t feel like you have to go to any trouble on my account.”

“Thank you,” she sighed wearily. “Ordinarily, I might put up a fight, but… thank you.”

“I must say, if I knew Weiss had such an attractive twin sister, I would have stopped by much earlier than today.”

“What? Oh,” she tutted, rolling her eyes. “Don’t try that flattery on me.”

“You mean you aren’t sisters?” she said with a theatrical gasp. When her mother actually laughed quietly, she smiled. “But don’t worry, I’ll stop buttering you up if it actually does bother you.”

“It doesn’t. I just… I can’t feel very attractive right now. I can’t. Not after-”

“No, no, it’s fine. So! I’ll admit that my visit is not strictly an excuse to pay you compliments.” Barely glancing at Weiss as she seated herself on her mother’s opposite side, she went on, “This is a very tricky time. I’m going to have to ask you some difficult questions about your, erhm… financial situation, business. It’s not fun, but I’m hoping to help you and Weiss avoid having the rug pulled out from under you.”

The sudden topic change startled her. “What? I mean… I’m sorry, I don’t understand. I only take care of managing the bills in the house; my husband is in charge of the finances and our bank holdings.”

“Are they all in his name?” When she only blinked, Kali pressed, “Are any of his shares in your name? Do you have a joint bank account?”

“Sorry again, but I don’t see what business it is of yours.”

Kali didn't even flinch. “It’s not. But do you want me to paint you a picture of what may happen if we don’t try to work on this immediately?”

“No, I don’t. But… I’m curious now.”

Taking that as permission, she went on, “Your husband is a first-time offender. We both know the law, the courts, always favour men - it’s just the way the system works. He looks repentant for striking his wife and child, says he was overworked, under a lot of stress. The judge herds you into court to testify, asks you if he’s done this before. Then he starts bringing up your drinking problem, and well… you’re faced with two choices. Either you leave him, and leave all of his money, and wind up out in the street, or you go back to an abusive husband and suffer. Do those choices appeal to you?”

As horrified as Willow looked, so did Weiss on her other side. “Oh. I… no, be reasonable. He won’t get out - he struck me with a belt. He’s never gone that far before.”

“Exactly; he’s never gone that far before.” Weiss found herself dismayed at how much inflection could change a sentence. “That would make it quite easy for him to convince a judge he never will again, even though that’s exactly what he’s promised in the past about striking Weiss.”

“How much have you told this woman?” she demanded of her daughter, though she looked more stunned than upset.

“Enough, Mommy. I… I know it’s hard for you right now. It was hard for me, too! But I trust her. She helped protect me when Father made the Dragons think I ratted- I mean, sent the police after them. Which wasn’t a very nice thing to do when he knew I was friends with Yang.”

Sighing, she pinched the bridge of her nose. “I know. God, I don’t know what to do right now… I should be telling you never to see them again, but I know that wasn’t fair of him to ask. But I don’t want you getting hurt, either!”

“We won’t hurt Weiss,” Kali told her firmly - conveniently leaving out a certain initiation ceremony. “My Blake and her get along well, and that girl Yang is like a daughter to me, as well. We Dragons may not be ‘safe’, but we are loyal, and we protect our own - and that includes your Weiss now.”

“And me? You really would help me figure out how to… how to avoid living on the street simply because, what, Weiss is wearing your jacket?”

“I would for that alone. But I genuinely like her; she’s a sweet girl. Also…” Kali shrugged, wrapping an arm around the aggrieved woman’s back. “My Ghira was a good and decent man, and I miss him every day since he was K-I-A. I'd give anything to be reunited. For your husband to take advantage of you, to treat you like dirt when he’s lucky enough to still have a spouse as good and loving as you are… that’s simply disgraceful. I can’t let that go on, and if I can help you escape him, then I will. It’s my duty, woman to woman.”

The tears started fresh. Weiss expected them, and already had her handkerchief ready to offer. Kali simply held onto her as she cried, and Weiss took her hand up and patted it again, waiting for the emotional outpouring to pass.

“I’m n-not good,” she finally blubbered. “Or loving! I’m not!”

“You are,” Kali whispered softly, petting over her hair. “And it doesn’t matter right now, anyway. We just need to make a plan and make it work.”

A long sigh issued from her mother’s throat as he brought herself under control again. “Alright. I’m… I’ll try to help however I can. What must I do?”

“Nothing all at once. Find your husband’s business documents and we can get to work. And… you said your name was Willow?”

“Yes, Kali.”

Smiling at their shared memory skills, she kissed her cheek before standing up. “It’s going to be alright. One way or another, you have Dragons at your back now. We’ll get through this together.”

Vaguely flustered by the cheek-kiss, her mother stood to follow Kali upstairs to fetch important paperwork from her father’s den. Weiss remained downstairs, squinting suspiciously up the staircase at the two women. Maybe she shouldn’t be thinking it, especially after everything they had been through over the course of a single day. But she couldn’t help wondering…

‘Did that just go the way I think it did?’

#princess and the dragons #freezerburn fanfic #kali belladonna #rwby fanfiction #rwbyremnants

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toooldforfandom-liveblogs · 5 years ago

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RWBY S07E08 - Cordially invited

Every time I see "cordial" written I can't avoid thinking that it's passive-aggressive, but I think that's mostly a thing in Spanish (saludos cordiales -> best regards) In this case I'm pretty sure Jacques does mean it in the most passive-aggressive way possible.

I expect insults, fights and generally the worst. So, what I imagine thanksgiving is like but with actual politicians in the table. Can't wait to see this mess, let's do this!

Is the entire team invited or just Weiss? Because Blake is _really_ good at burning houses down and it'd be a missed opportunity if she doesn't go.

I almost wrote "wouldn't they at least suspect Watts is around if they've already seen Tyrian?" but they have never even seen Watts. Dude was smart enough to leave once Cinder agreed to Raven's plan.

That makes me wonder how is he going to get revealed. I feel Pietro (or Ironwood?) has to be around for that or everyone is going to go "literally who?"

Oh look at Ruby, so grown up, planning things on the border of being illegal.

I've been looking at this paused frame for the past 30 seconds and I can't figure out her expression. Is she smiling? She goes from sad -> this expression -> determined.

Huh. I wonder if they're reusing an asset from a past season, it looks... not bad but a lot simpler than I've become used to.

I keep saying this but I really like how the show manages to make Ironwood likable even though he's one step from becoming a dictator. He feels very human.

What a power move from Ironwood to have both of Jacques's estranged daughters by his side.

On the other hand, the show has no qualms in making Jacques the most over the top evil they can. Because of course he'd fire Klein.

The subtitles really make the screenshot here.

Oh. Penny is here.

Oh no. Please tell me Jacques is not going to ask Ironwood to dismantle her of something.

Is... Is Qrow flirting with Clover?

I have been avoiding reading fanfiction because I'm so behind but I definitely need more "Fair Play" in my life after this.

I'm trying to remember if there have been any more women with a larger body type in RWBY. There was the blacksmith with an eyepatch in Volume 5, Lil' Miss Malachite in V6 and now this woman. Progress, I guess?

Back when "one of the Ace Ops is with Robyn" was a stronger possibility, I was a bit against Marrow being the one to "betray" Ironwood, if only because it felt too obvious. He obviously has issues with how the Faunus are treated in Atlas but he seems to be going for the "fix it from the inside" route.

Related to that, I was also against Harriet being the "traitor," if only because it also felt too obvious that the brash "we're not friends" woman would be the one to betray her team.

I'm in Team Yang here.

I _really_ like the animation of her hand here. It's very Weiss.

That's the saddest, emptiest plate I've ever seen.

Props to Jacques VA because I feel like there's actual slime on me after hearing him.

fuuuuuuuuck youuuuuuuuu

Yeah, she didn't like that either.

I feel Penny's best outcome after this season/arc would be to just leave Atlas and everyone who can control her behind.

That was amazing. And he actually looks a lot better with some color on him.

They were getting to Ironwood (because they _are_ making a lot of sense) but the second Jacques opened his mouth it tainted everything.

It's awesome that Winter is finally getting the chance to explode at her father (and Robyn liked it) but I think this is going to hurt them more than help them.

This just screams that there's someone at her back.

there you go

Aaaaa stop treating Penny like a lesser being.

Oh lord help me if she starts crying

Soft Winter to the rescue. She _has_ been spending a lot of time with Penny, she probably knows that's a sore topic.

What an interesting exchange. I wonder what Winter got out of it though.

And it really shows that _everyone_ is hiding or trying to hide something this season except Penny. She doesn't even really understand the concept of hiding your true feelings because it's not the right moment. I wonder if that is going to come up at some point.

The reason I'm not freaking out about Willow here is because I read the DC comic where she appears so it felt like an inevitability. She sounds a lot softer than I imagined.

To the point she feels like a different character altogether. What happened in the months Weiss was away?

that pause screams "oh wait I should have used them when he hit you"

For an unnamed character that has been mentioned maybe twice in the show, that was a really strong intro that said everything we could need about her and her relationship with Weiss.

It's _so_ easy to drink your problems away, and Willow definitely had a lot of problems. But that meant abandoning Weiss and Whitley, who probably resent the hell out of her (Weiss obviously does after seeing her reactions.)

I feel the writer of the DC comic just got a memo saying "drunk rich lady" and went from there because the characterization was so different.

DC comic Willow reminds me of Emma from Ghost Trick:

Eccentric drunk rich lady. While the Willow we see here is just a sad defeated woman. V3 Qrow vs V6 Qrow.

lol, "literally who?"

Standing on a roof while it's raining means serious business.

Turning off the heating feels comically evil.

That kid is going to appear frozen to death next episode.

Was this episode the calm before the storm? It really feels that way, nothing concluded. They are still having dinner, Weiss is still in Jacques's office, Watts _just_ turned off the heating, the Ace Ops are... somewhere(?), even Penny's reaction felt like it was hinting at something.

Willow giving a canonical reason for Whitley being such a little shit was good. I mean, it's only her impression but it makes a lot of sense, especially considering Whitley himself mentioned how hard it was to be under Jacques tutelage. I hope he gets redeemed at some point or another, but sometimes family relationships are unfixable and maybe the best they can do is to get Jacques out of his hair and then go their own ways.

JNR's plan to distract Whitley was a fun way to show us that they are still a cohesive team even though they may not share the same ideas of what's the right thing to do at the moment. I was a bit worried about Ren last episode but he's not that far gone yet.

Penny's entire thing is breaking my heart. There's been a lot of "she's just a robot" talk lately in the show and it's really making me wonder if Penny is going to explode at someone at the end of the season or becoming free somehow. Because there's no way Ironwood doesn't have some sort of way to _really_ control her. Or maybe she'll get controlled by Watts and she'll defeat that by the power of friendship? But something is definitely going to happen with her.

I already wrote about Willow and Weiss so I won't expand too much on that. Just reiterate how real it all felt and how effective that scene was.

I think that's all for now so, until next time!

#rwby #rwby liveblog #rwby v07e08

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white-rose-week · 5 years ago

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White Rose Week 2019: That Day on the Airship - Chapter 5

Audience Prompt: Ball/Dancing

Admin Prompt: Loss

(Also available on FF and AO3)

One photo became a half dozen.

“These turned out great! I had no idea you were so good at taking selfies.” Ruby said over her partner’s shoulder as they viewed their results.

“It’s all in the camera angle, and it helps when a really pretty girl with dark hair and silver eyes is in the frame.”

Weiss finished setting her favorite photo as her scroll’s background and rearranged several of the icons on her home screen so they framed the cheerful faces in the image. She was about to shut off the device, but stopped short when her eyes landed on an icon with music notes. “Hey, Ruby?” One of her hands floated upward and pinched a bit of her snowy hair as she turned to her partner. “Could I interest you in a dance?” She quickly glanced down and then up again as her cheeks took on a light shade of pink.

“Huh?” Ruby tilted her head slightly. “Dance?”

“Sorry. I know it’s an odd thing to ask out of the blue.” She twirled the bit of hair around her finger, looking sheepish. “This will probably sound weird, but I’ve wanted to dance with you for ages…”

“I don’t think that’d be a very good idea. I’m just not much of a fancy pants-y dance-y girl.”

“Ruby, I’ve seen you do multiple midair flips, maintain balance in close combat with the asymmetrically-weighted Crescent Rose, and you have no trouble navigating yourself when you use your semblance to spin around at absurd speeds. I’m confident that you can handle shuffling your feet back and forth. Plus, I’ll be able to help you.”

“But that’s fighting. Dancing is completely different. It has beats and rules and I always feel awkward when I try…”

Weiss slid a hand into Ruby’s and gently pressed their foreheads together. “Would you be willing to try it one more time? Please?” Her tone was gentle and encouraging.

Ruby let out a small whine as her face became the same color as her cloak. “That’s not fair. How am I supposed to say no when you’re being cute and flirty like that?”

Weiss nuzzled her nose against Ruby’s. “For what it’s worth, I’m going to have the exact same problem whenever you try to do this to me. Don’t worry, it’s just us in here.” She stepped towards the nearby countertop and opened her scroll’s music app before placing it beside her empty coffee mug. “I made a dance music playlist a while back, it’s been ages since I listened to it though.” Weiss rejoined Ruby as an orchestral melody began filling the small room. She carefully moved one of Ruby’s hands to her waist and began moving her feet with the steady tempo.

Ruby instinctively stared at the ground, making sure her feet matched the clearly more experienced pair across from her. Weiss simply smiled and watched the crown of her girlfriend’s head. “This is a waltz. All you need to do is think in sets of three. One, two, three. One, two three…”

Weiss kept them relatively stationary, allowing Ruby to familiarize herself with the movements. “There you go. Now keep moving your feet with that rhythm, but while looking at me.” Ruby’s eyes drifted upward to see Weiss glowing with pride and delight. “There you go. Just follow my lead.”

Once Ruby nodded in acknowledgement, Weiss began to shift her weight, subtly pushing and pulling in time with the music. After a few measures, Ruby’s shoulders lowered in relaxation and she became decreasingly aware of her feet’s motions. They glided around the airship’s kitchenette together, allowing themselves to get lost in the music and each other’s eyes.

Ruby spoke quietly, not wanting to overpower the music. “Well, at least I haven’t stepped on your feet yet. Am I doing alright?”

“You’re perfect. I hope this isn’t too miserable for you?”

“It’s not so bad. Maybe I just didn’t have the right dance partner until now.”

Sensing her partner’s growing confidence, Weiss allowed her motions to become slightly more dramatic, occasionally bending Ruby slightly backward and guiding her through a twirl as the music swelled. As Ruby completed her rotation, she leaned in and placed her lips on Weiss’. Their feet slowed to a halt as they kissed, and the music began to fade.

“Thanks for giving it a chance. Any chance I might be able to convince you to dance with me again sometime?” Weiss asked hopefully.

“I’d say your chances are pretty good, that was fun.”

“I think you’d really enjoy Tango. It’s high-energy and—”

They both flinched as their conversation was interrupted by the abrupt start of a new song. Instead of flowing instrumentals, this one featured a poppy beat and a female vocalist.

~~~BABY! IT’S TIME TO MAKE UP YOUR MIIIIIIIIND!~~~

Two pairs of wide eyes met. Ruby’s appeared to be in shock. Weiss’ looked distraught.

Weiss’ shaky, panic-stricken voice barely made it to Ruby over the music.

“I forgot this song was on the playlist.”

~~~I THINK! THAT TONIGHT IS WHEN OUR STARS ALIIIIIIIIGN!~~~

Ruby felt hot tears forming in her eyes and saw that Weiss was experiencing the same thing. She managed to form a few words.

“Turn it off. Please.”

~~~HONEY! IT’S TIME TO LEAVE THE DOUBT BEHIIIIIIIIND!~~~

Weiss bolted over to the counter and fumbled with the scroll, her misty eyes reducing her visibility.

~~~TAKE MY HAND CAUSE YOU AND I ARE GONNA—

The music cut off as suddenly as it had started, leaving only the sound of stifled crying in the air. When Weiss turned to Ruby again, they both had tears streaming down their faces. They hugged each other tightly and began openly weeping.

“I’m so sorry. I forgot that song was there. I haven’t listened to that playlist since Beacon.” Weiss apologized between sobs.

“It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault at all. It’s on my scroll too. I’ve actually tried listening to it a few times, but I still can’t get through it. I can’t hear it without thinking of that night. Of the four of them dancing together. Of Penny in the corner, doing the robot.” Ruby was physically trembling, emotions overwhelming her.

“I’ve made peace with the fact that they’re gone. I’m even at the point where I don’t cry time I think or talk about them. But it still happens a lot, and that caught me off guard. I want to be able to smile when I think of them. I want to think of the amazing times we had together. But it’s so difficult because I miss them so, so much.”

“I know. I do too. It hurts. It hurts every time I think about them.”

They spent several minutes embracing and letting themselves cry, occasionally murmuring words of comfort. When they finally calmed down and pulled away from each other, they wiped their eyes and held hands.

“That dance didn’t end quite how I wanted it to.” Weiss admitted disappointedly. “But at least we were able to cry together. It was certainly better than all the nights I cried alone in my room before I escaped.”

“That didn’t end how I wanted it to either. I guess that means we’ll have to dance together again sometime soon.” Ruby offered, pressing her forehead lightly against Weiss’.

“I guess so. Thank you.” Weiss gently placed a hand on Ruby’s cheek, wiping away the last of her tears before bringing her in for a soft kiss.

“You know, I think they’d be really happy for us.” Ruby said, her natural smile returning to her lips.

“I’m sure they would be.” Weiss said confidently. “So we should shine. For them, and for ourselves.”

A/N: This chapter is being released much later than I’d hoped, not due to writer’s block or laziness, but because the past several days were far busier than expected for me. Since I decided to try my hand at White Rose Week a few hours after the first day started, I wrote my first five fanfiction chapters in a bit more than four days, with nothing prepared in advance. If I do this again next year, I’ll probably writ at least a bit ahead of time so I can have a better chance of being able to reliably post a chapter each day. Regardless, I still have every intention of completing the remaining prompts in the next few days, and I already have basic outlines for all of them. I hope those of you that are reading as chapters are being released will continue to follow me on this journey.

As soon as I read the prompts, I knew exactly what I wanted the major beats of the chapter to be. Ruby and Weiss dancing happily, only to be hit by the emotional freight train that is “Shine”, and to have the chapter’s resolution be one of catharsis. I mostly enjoy writing fluff, but I like the occasional gut punch as well, so long as it ends in a fluffy way, because it makes the sweetness even sweeter. It’s really strange to go back to Volume 2 and see how far the series has come in terms of character development, plot depth, and animation quality.

Thank you to everyone who has read, fave’d/kudo’d, followed/favorited, commented/reviewed. As always, I hope my writing was able to bring you some joy!

#white rose week #white rose #whiterose #rwby #fiction #weiss schnee #ruby rose #submission #day 5 #wrw2019

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mamahanu · 5 years ago

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8, 14, 20, 23?

Thanks @darksidekelz for the lovely ask! :-) By the way, it took so long to answer this because I was searching through 3 of my stories (and then 3 or 4 chapters of the last one) to find what I wanted to use.

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Oh wow. I was not expecting this. I’m a dialogue fanatic, too. I could probably answer this more than once, to be honest. I’m going to choose a scene from Chapter 23 of Omertà. Sorry, it’s not a short one. I’ll try to edit. If you want to skim, my reasoning is after the second set of asterisks.

***

“I messed up,” he said, sniffling and closing his eyes. “Oh God, I messed up so badly.”

“So what do you do now?”

Peter’s eyes snapped open and he looked around, but there was no one present that he could see.

“Hello?” he called. There was no response. Peter let out a quiet sob, closing his eyes against the fresh wave of tears trying to escape him.

“What do you do when you mess up, bud?”

Peter opened his eyes again with a gasp and he looked around. That voice—who—why was it so familiar? “Who—where are you? I can’t see you?”

“Come on, you know this. When you fall down, what do you do?”

Peter heard it. He heard it clear as day, but when he focused his senses, he knew he was the only person here. Peter took a careful breath and thought hard about what he was hearing.

“You… you get back up?” he asked, tentatively.

“That’s right, bud. The thing about Parkers is no matter how much people knock us down, we always get back up, right? We get back up until we can’t anymore.” Peter shivered, sniffling slightly. He knew that voice.

“Ben?”

“Who else?” Peter felt his eyes drift shut. Strong calloused fingers were combing through his hair. His eyes opened again and the feeling disappeared.

“Ben,” he whispered, closing his eyes. The fingers returned, calming him. “Ben I’m so scared. I’m stuck.”

“I know buddy, I know,” Ben said, soothingly. “I wish I could carry this for you.” Peter’s shoulders shook from his crying and exertion. He was so tired. “All this power you have—well it’s a bit much, isn’t it? Too much, sometimes.” Peter nodded. “But Pete, I know you. I know you and I know what you can do. Trust me when I say you can do this.”

“I can’t, Ben, I can’t. I’m not strong enough.”

Peter heard Ben’s low, smokey chuckle. He could practically see the man’s brown eyes staring at him, twinkling. “You think your strength comes from you arms? From your muscles and these fancy powers?” Peter nodded. The fingers left his hair and he whined, bereft at the loss of contact. He kept his eyes shut.

“Peter, your power has always come from here,” Peter felt warm fingertips pressing against his forehead, “and here.” The large palm of a hand was pressed against his chest over his heart. Peter sniffled.

“But Ben—”

“You’ve always, always had such a mind, Peter. The only thing bigger is your heart. That’s where your power comes from,” Ben said resolutely. “You know what’s right, and what you have to do.” Peter broke down and wept, body shaking with each little sob. The hand returned to his hair, another touching the tear trails on his cheeks. “I don’t anymore. I don’t do good things anymore, Ben. I’m—I’m not—” I’m not good, he thought. “Peter, you listen to me,” Ben said sternly. “You are good. You are so, so good. The best of all of us. Rich and Mary are so proud of you. I’m proud of you. How could you possibly think you’re anything but good?” Peter sniffled. “I’ve done—I’ve done bad things,” he cried. “I—I knew they were bad. I knew it, but I did them anyway. I did it to protect May and Ned and MJ, but people got hurt because of me. People died because of me.” Peter heard Ben sigh. “Peter, I’m not gonna say what you did was right.” Peter trembled, new cries trying to make their way out of his throat. “But your heart was in the right place, hmm? We all lose our way, sometimes.” “We do?” “Of course,” Ben chuckled. “We’re human. We’re not infallible. Life is full of twists and turns, and we have to react to the situation with what we’re given. The important thing is finding your way back, right?” “I’m sorry,” Peter said, crying. “I’m sorry that I let that guy go—” “Stop right there, bud,” Ben said, stern again. “That was not your fault. That could never be your fault.” “But if I just—” “No,” Ben sighed again, letting his hand still on the back of Peter’s head. “You can’t live this way, buddy. You can’t live your life through what-ifs. It’ll eat you alive. Okay, yeah, what if you stopped that guy? I’d be alive. But what if he pulled a gun on you for stopping him? Would you still be here?” “I—” Peter had never thought of that. “I don’t know.” “Exactly,” Ben replied. “May taught you to keep yourself safe when you don’t know all the ins and outs of a situation. I taught you that when you’re strong enough to protect yourself and others, it’s your responsibility to do so. At the time, you were doing exactly what we would have wanted. What happened wasn’t your fault. Okay?” Peter sniffled. “Benny,” he whispered. “I didn’t say I love you, when you—I love you—” Ben sighed again, petting Peter’s hair. “Oh, Pete. I know. I knew it then and I know it now.” Peter’s heart ached. Ben couldn’t be there, but he felt so very real. He could even smell him now—cedar wood and old spice deodorant and dust and sweat all mingled together, covered by that old cologne Ben always put on. “And I love you. I’ll never stop loving you, no matter what.” “I miss you. I miss you so much,” Peter whispered. “I miss you too, bud,” Ben said in a watery voice. “But to be honest, I would much rather you stay right here.” Peter laughed, almost hysterically. “I can’t. I can’t get out.” “Okay,” Ben said, gently. “If you can’t, if you really can’t and you want to stop, I’ll stay with you.” Peter sighed, relieved. “But I know you, son. I know you, and if I remember rightly, you’ve never, ever wanted to stop, and you’ve always been able to shake off anything life tried to throw at you.” Peter felt a warmth fill him at his uncle’s words. “You—you think I can do it?” Peter asked, hesitantly. A bright light burned red behind his eyelids, and even though his eyes were still closed, for a moment, a brief, shining moment, Peter could see his uncle clear as day. Peter saw his long, silvering brown hair that was always pulled back in a ponytail. He saw his uncle’s weathered face, tanned from working outside so much, freckles spread across his nose. He saw Ben’s warm brown eyes, and warmer smile. “Of course you can, Pete,” his uncle said, looking at him with such pride—a look Peter hadn’t realized how much he missed until now. “How can you not? You’re Spider-Man.”

***

I’m proud of this for a couple of reasons. The main reason I like that dialogue so much is because it comes from a very personal place for me. My mom passed away when I was 19, and I often wonder what she would think of me and my life. There are many times (especially lately) where I’ve really wished I could have a conversation with her and get her advice. Peter in this sequence is going through some heavy stuff, and Ben was his father-figure, and all the source material implies that he loved and supported Peter very much. I think sometimes, Peter gets lost, and with all this stuff from MCU, Ben gets forgotten or shuffled off to the side, but he is essentially the catalyst for Peter becoming Spider-Man. Whether it’s real or in Peter’s head is open to interpretation, but the conversation came from a very honest place, and I think it’s something that many people who have lost a loved one can relate to.

14. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Well, I don’t think any writing advice is bad, per se. I think the pieces we take and leave behind are helpful to our own individual styles. For me, I I don’t like when people say, “Don’t use italics for emphasis.” I like italics. I like reading italics, and I like putting emphasis on words with it. That’s my writing style, though. For someone else, that may be wonderful writing advice.

20. Describe your perfect writing conditions.

Whenever my kid is asleep and I’m in a private room, preferably my living room, Spotify playing whatever playlist I need to get me in the right mood. I’ll write anywhere, but that is ideal.

23. If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

Oh dear. To be honest, I think I would revise all of them, even the ones I’m writing right now lol. For the older fics, it’s a toss up between Hear me, which is a Diabolo fic that takes place during the crazy epic fight at the end and is told from Rai’s perspective, and Leave the Dead to Rest, which is a Weiss Kreuz fic that is told from Omi’s perspective. A kind of, “this is after,” confrontation type piece. Hear me is really muddled, and while that was partly the point, now I think I have the skill of telling the story while also keeping it disjointed and weird. Leave the Dead to Rest feels a little out of character, looking back on it. I could have given Omi a better voice.

#asks #friends #fanfics #hanuko writes #hanuko answers #thanks!

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