#and now we learn the truth of what happened to Ruby

[acourtofquestions]

🚨 SPOILERS🚨

Kingdom of Ash Chapter 50

Rowan's hands tightened on Aelin's shoulders as the words settled into her, hollow and cold.

"Maeve is a Valg queen?" he breathed.

Aelin said nothing. Couldn't find the words. Her power roiled. She didn't feel it.

Nesryn nodded solemnly. "Yes. The kharankui told us the entire history."

And so Nesryn did as well. Of how Maeve had somehow found a way into this world, fleeing or bored with her husband, Orcus. Erawan's elder brother. Of how Erawan, Orcus, and Mantyx had torn apart worlds to find her, Orcus's missing wife, and only halted here because the Fae had risen to challenge them. Fae led by Maeve, whom the Valg kings did not know or recognize, in the form she had taken.

The life she had crafted for herself. The minds of all the Fae who had existed that she had ripped into, convincing them that there had been three queens, not two. Including the minds of Mab and Mora, the two sister-queens who had ruled Doranelle. Including Brannon himself.

"The spiders claimed," Nesryn went on, "that even Brannon didn't know. Even now, in the Afterworld, he doesn't know. That was how deep Maeve's powers went into his mind, into all their minds. She made herself their true queen."

The words, the truth, pelted Aelin, one after another.

Elide's face was white as death. "But she fears the healers." A nod toward Yrene. "She keeps that owl, you said—an enslaved Fae healer-should the Valg ever discover her." For that was the other piece of it. The other thing Nesryn had revealed, Chaol and Yrene adding in their own accounts. The Valg were parasites. And Yrene could cure their human hosts of them. Had done so for Princess Duva. And might be able to do with so many others enslaved with rings or collars. But what had infested Duva ... A Valg princess.

Aelin leaned back into her chair, her head resting against the solid wall of Rowan's body.

His hands shook against her shoulders. Shook as he seemed to realize what, exactly, had ripped into his mind. Where Maeve's power had come from that allowed her to do so. Why she remained deathless and ageless, and had outlasted any other. Why Maeve's power was darkness.

"It is also why she fears fire," Sartaq said, jerking his chin to Aelin. "Why she fears you so."

And why she'd wanted to break her. To be just like that enslaved healer bound in owl form at her side.

"I thought—I managed to cut her once," Aelin said at last. That quiet, ancient darkness pushed in, dragging her down, down, down-" I saw her blood flow black. Then it changed to red." She blew out a breath, pulling out of the darkness, the silence that wanted to devour her whole. Made herself straighten. Peer at Fenrys.

"You said that her blood tasted ordinary to you when you swore the oath." The white wolf shifted back into his Fae body. His bronze skin was ashen, his dark eyes swimming with dread. "It did."

Rowan growled, "It didn't taste any different to me, either."

"A glamour-like the form she maintains," Gavriel mused.

Nesryn nodded. "From what the spiders said, it seems entirely possible that she would be able to convince you that her blood looked and tasted like Fae blood."

Fenrys made a sound like he was going to be sick. Aelin was inclined to do the same.

And from far away—a memory-that-was-not-a-memory stirred. Of summer nights spent in a forest glen, Maeve instructing her. Telling her a story about a queen who walked between worlds.

Who had not been content in the realm in which she'd been born, and had found a way to leave it, using the lost knowledge of ancient wayfarers. World-walkers.

Maeve had told her. Perhaps a skewed, biased tale, but she'd told her. Why? Why do it at all? Some way to win her-or to make her hesitate, should it ever come to this?

"But Maeve hates the Valg kings," Elide said, and even from the silent, drifting place to which Aelin had gone, she could see the razor-sharp mind churning behind Elide's eyes. "She's hidden for this long. Surely she wouldn't ally with them."

"She ran at the chance to get hold of a Valg collar," Fenrys said darkly. "Seemed convinced that she could control the prince inside it."

Not only through Maeve's power, but because she was a demon queen.

Aelin forced herself to take another breath. Another. Her fingers curled, gripping an invisible weapon.

Lorcan had not uttered a word. Had done nothing but stand there, pale and silent. As if he'd stopped being in his body, too.

"We don't know her plans," Nesryn said.

"The kharankui have not seen her for millennia, and only hear whisperings carried by lesser spiders. But they still worship her, and wait for her return."

Chaol met Aelin's stare, his gaze questioning.

Aelin said quietly, "I was Maeve's prisoner for two months."

Utter silence in the tent. Then she explained—all of it. Why she was not in Terrasen, who now fought there, where Dorian and Manon had gone.

Aelin swallowed as she finished, leaning into Rowan's touch. "Maeve wished me to reveal the location of the two Wyrdkeys. Wanted me to hand them over, but I managed to get them away before she took me. To Doranelle. She wanted to break me to her will. To use me to conquer the world, I thought. But it perhaps now seems she wanted to use me as a shield against the Valg, to guard her always." The words tumbled out, heavy and sharp. "I was her captive until nearly a month ago." She nodded toward her court. "When I got free, they found me again."

Silence fell again, her new companions at a loss. She didn't blame them.

Then Hasar hissed, "We'll make the bitch pay for that, too, won't we?"

Aelin met the princess's dark stare. "Yes, we will."

A Valg queen.

That's who had held his Fireheart. What sort of power had tried to break into her mind.

What power had broken into Rowan's mind.

All their minds, if she could glamour her blood to look and taste ordinary.

He felt the tension rising in Aelin, a raging storm that nearly hummed into his hands as he gripped her shoulders.

Yet her flames made no appearance. They hadn't shown so much as an ember these weeks, despite how hard they'd trained. Occasionally, he'd spy Goldryn's ruby gleaming while she held it, as if fire glowed in the heart of the stone. But nothing more. Not even when they'd tangled in their bed on the ship, when his teeth had found that mark on her neck.

Elide surveyed them all, their silence, and said to their new companions, "Perhaps we should determine a plan of action regarding tomorrow's battle." And give them time, later tonight, to sort through this colossal mess.

Chaol nodded. "We brought a trunk of books with us," he said to Aelin. "From the Torre. They're all full of Wyrdmarks." Aelin didn't so much as blink, but Chaol finished, "If we get through this battle, they're yours to peruse. In case there's anything in them that might help." Against Erawan, against Maeve, against his mate's terrible fate. Aelin just vaguely nodded.

So Rowan forced himself to shove away the shock and disgust and fear, and focus upon the plan ahead. Only Gavriel seemed able to do the same, Fenrys staying where he was, and Lorcan just staring and staring at nothing.

Aelin remained in her chair, simmering.

Roiling.

They planned it quickly and efficiently: they would return with Chaol and Yrene to the keep, to help with the fighting tomorrow. The khaganate royals would push from here, Nesryn and Prince Sartaq leading the ruks, and Princess Hasar commanding the foot soldiers and Darghan cavalry. A brilliantly trained, lethal group. Rowan had already marked the Darghan soldiers, with their fine horses and armor, their spears and crested helmets, while they'd strode for this tent, and breathed a sigh of relief at their skill. Perhaps the last sigh of relief he'd have in this war. Certainly if the khagan's forces hadn't yet decided where they would take this army afterward. He supposed it was fair-so many territories were now in Morath's path-but when this battle was over, he'd make damn sure they marched northward. To Terrasen.

But tomorrow-tomorrow they'd hammer Morath's legion against the keep walls, Chaol and Rowan leading the men from inside, picking off enemy soldiers.

Aelin didn't volunteer to do anything. Didn't indicate that she'd heard them.

And when they'd all deemed the plan sound, along with a contingency plan should it go awry, Nesryn only said, "We'll find you ruks to carry you back to the keep," before Aelin stormed into the frigid night, Rowan barely keeping up with her.

No embers trailed her. Mud did not hiss beneath her boots.

There was no fire at all. Not a spark.

As if Maeve had snuffed out that flame.

Made her fear it.

Hate it.

Aelin cut through the neatly organized tents, past horses and their armored riders, past foot soldiers around campfires, past the ruk riders and their mighty birds, who filled him with such awe he had no words for it. All the way to the eastern edge of the camp and the plains that stretched past, the space wide and hollow after the closeness of the army.

She didn't stop until she reached a stream they'd crossed only hours ago. It was nearly frozen over, but a stomp of her boot had the ice cracking. Breaking free to reveal dark water kissed with silvery starlight.

Then she fell to her knees and drank.

Drank and drank, cupping the water to her mouth. It had to be cold enough to burn, but she kept at it until she braced her hands on her knees and said, "I can't do this."

Rowan sank to a knee, the shield he'd kept around her while she stalked here sealing out the cold wind off the open plain.

"I-I can't—" She took a shuddering breath, and covered her face with her wet hands.

Gently, Rowan gripped her wrists and lowered them. "You do not face this alone."

Anguish and terror filled those beautiful eyes, and his chest tightened to the point of pain as she said, "It was a fool's shot against Erawan. But against him and Maeve? She gathered an army to her. Is likely bringing that army to Terrasen right now. And if Erawan summons his two brothers, if the other kings return—"

"He needs the two other keys to do that. He doesn't have them."

Her fingers curled, digging into her palms hard enough that the tang of her blood filled the air. "I should have gone after the keys. Right away. Not come here. Not done this."

"It is Dorian's task now, not yours. He will not fail at it."

"It is my task, and always has been—"

"We made the choice to come here, and we will stick to that decision," he snarled, not bothering to temper his tone. "If Maeve is indeed bringing her army to Terrasen, then it only confirms that we were right to come here. That we must convince the khagan's forces to go northward after this. It is the only chance we stand of succeeding."

Aelin ran her hands through her hair.

Streams of blood stained the gold. "I cannot win against them. Against a Valg king and queen." Her voice turned to a rasp. "They have already won."

"They have not." And though Rowan hated each word, he growled, "And you survived two months against Maeve with no magic to protect you. Two months of a Valg queen trying to break into your head, Aelin. To break you."

Aelin shook. "She did, though." Rowan waited for it. Aelin whispered, "I wanted to die by the end, before she ever threatened me with the collar. And even now, I feel like someone has ripped me from myself. Like I'm at the bottom of the sea, and who I am, who I was, is far up at the surface, and I will never get back there again."

He didn't know what to say, what to do other than to gently pull her fingers from her palms.

"Did you buy the swagger, the arrogance?" she demanded, voice breaking. "Did the others? Because I've been trying to. I've been trying like hell to convince myself that it's real, reminding myself I only need to pretend to be how I was just long enough."

Long enough to forge the Lock and die.

He said softly, "I know, Aelin." He hadn't bought the winks and smirks for a heartbeat.

Aelin let out a sob that cracked something in him. "I can't feel me-myself anymore. It's like she snuffed it out. Ripped me from it. She, and Cairn, and everything they did to me." She gulped down air, and Rowan wrapped her in his arms and pulled her onto his lap. "I am so tired," she wept. "I am so, so tired, Rowan."

"I know." He stroked her hair. "I know." It was all there really was to say.

Rowan held her until her weeping eased and she lay still, nestled against his chest.

"I don't know what to do," she whispered

"You fight," he said simply. "We fight. Until we can't anymore. We fight."

She sat up, but remained on his lap, staring into his face with a rawness that destroyed him.

Rowan laid a hand on her chest, right over that burning heart. "Fireheart."

A challenge and a summons.

She placed her hand atop his, warm despite the frigid night. As if that fire had not yet gone out entirely. But she only gazed up at the stars.

To the Lord of the North, standing watch.

"We fight," she breathed.

Aelin found Fenrys by a quiet fire, gazing into the crackling flames.

She sat on the log beside him, raw and open and trembling, but … the salt of her tears had washed away some of it. Steadied her. Rowan had steadied her, and still did, as he kept watch from the shadows beyond the fire.

Fenrys lifted his head, his eyes as hollow as she knew hers had been.

"Whenever you need to talk about it," she said, her voice still hoarse, "I'm here."

Fenrys nodded, his mouth a tight line. "Thank you."

The camp was readying for their departure, but Aelin scooted closer, and sat beside him in silence for long minutes.

Two healers, marked only by the white bands around their biceps, hurried past, arms full of bandages. Aelin tensed. Focused on her breathing.

Fenrys marked her line of sight. "They were horrified, you know," he said quietly. "Every time she brought them in to … fix you."

The two healers vanished around a tent.

Aelin flexed her fingers, shaking the lightness from them. "It didn't stop them from doing it."

"They didn't have a choice."

She met his dark stare. Fenrys's mouth tightened. "No one would have left you in those states. No one."

Broken and bloody and burned—

She gripped Goldryn's hilt. Helpless.

"They defied her in their own way," Fenrys went on. "Sometimes, she'd order them to bring you back to consciousness. Often, they claimed they couldn't, that you'd fallen too deeply into oblivion. But I knew—I think Maeve did, too— that they put you there. For as long as possible. To buy you time."

She swallowed. "Did she punish them?"

"I don't know. It was never the same healers." Maeve likely had. Had likely ripped their minds apart for their defiance.

Aelin's grip tightened on the sword at her side.

Helpless. She had been helpless. As so many in this city, in Terrasen, in this continent, were helpless. Goldryn's hilt warmed in her hand.

She wouldn't be that way again. For whatever time she had left.

Gavriel padded up beside Rowan, took one look at the queen and Fenrys, and murmured, "Not the news we needed to hear."

Rowan closed his eyes for a heartbeat. "No, it was not."

Gavriel settled a hand on Rowan's shoulder.

"It changes nothing, in some ways."

"How."

"We served her. She was ... not what Aelin is. What a queen should be. We knew that long before we knew the truth. If Maeve wants to use what she is against us, to ally with Morath, then it changes things. But the past is over. Done with, Rowan. Knowing Maeve is Valg or just a wretched person doesn't change what happened."

"Knowing a Valg queen wants to enslave my mate, and nearly did so, changes a great deal."

"But we know what Maeve fears, why she fears it," Gavriel countered, his tawny eyes bright. "Fire, and the healers. If Maeve comes with that army of hers, we are not defenseless." It was true. Rowan could have cursed himself for not thinking of it already. Another question formed, though. "Her army," Rowan said. "It's made up of Fae."

"So was her armada," Gavriel said warily.

Rowan ran a hand through his hair. "Will you be able to live with it-fighting our own people?" Killing them.

"Will you?" Gavriel countered.

Rowan didn't answer.

Gavriel asked after a moment, "Why didn't Aelin offer me the blood oath?"

The male hadn't asked these weeks. And Rowan wasn't sure why Gavriel inquired now, but he gave him the truth. "Because she won't do it until Aedion has taken the oath first. To offer it to you before him ... she wants Aedion to take it first."

"In case he doesn't wish me to be near his kingdom."

"So that Aedion knows she placed his needs before her own."

Gavriel bowed his head. "I would say yes, if she offered."

"I know." Rowan clapped his oldest friend on the back. "She knows, too."

The Lion gazed northward. "Do you think ... we haven't heard any news from Terrasen."

"If it had fallen, if Aedion had fallen, we would know. People here would know."

Gavriel rubbed at his chest. "We've been to war. He's been to war. Fought on battlefields as a child, gods be damned." Rage flickered over Gavriel's face. Not at what Aedion had done, but what he'd been made to do by fate and misfortune. What Gavriel had not been there to prevent. "But I still dread every day that passes and we hear nothing. Dread every messenger we see."

A terror Rowan had never known, different from his fear for his mate, his queen. The fear of a father for his child.

He didn't allow himself to look toward Aelin. To remember his dreams while hunting for her. The family he'd seen. The family they'd make together.

"We must convince the khaganate royals to march northward when this battle is over," Gavriel swore softly.

Rowan nodded. "If we can smash this army tomorrow, and convince the royals that Terrasen is the only course of action, then we could indeed be heading north soon. You might be fighting at Aedion's side by Yulemas."

Gavriel's hands clenched at his sides, tattoos spreading over his knuckles. "If he will allow me that honor."

Rowan would make Aedion allow it. But he only said, "Gather Elide and Lorcan. The ruks are almost ready to depart."

[odinsblog]

This is recent history. Ruby Bridges is 68yrs old and she is still alive.

Emily Conklin is thee definition of a racist Karen, and she is trying to whitewash the history white children learn by erasing a rated PG Disney movie that has already been shown for years in Pinellas County schools, usually as a part of Black History Month.

Two immediate thoughts that come to mind are:

“The people who threw rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school in 1960 now are upset their grandchildren might learn about them throwing rocks at Ruby Bridges for trying to go to school.”

and

“IF BLACK CHILDREN ARE OLD ENOUGH TO EXPERIENCE RACISM, WHITE CHILDREN ARE OLD ENOUGH TO LEARN ABOUT IT”

Look, Ruby Bridges was six years old when racist white parents (men and women) threw rocks and hissy fits because she was trying to get an education. A full year younger than most of the white children who are now being “protected” from learning the truth about what their grandparents did.

I guess these delicate snowflakes are so triggered by the racism of their elders that they need to get the Republican governor to whitewash away the truth.

I’m almost 40yrs old and I used to wonder how it was that in college, white kids my age genuinely believed that Martin Luther King, Jr. died of old age. But somehow, every single Black person my age knew the truth. How does that happen?? This is how it happens. This is a prime example of precisely how that happened and still happens—because to “protect” them from the truth, white kids weren’t taught that he was assassinated. It’s literally no different than raising generations of white kids to believe that 2+2=5. There’s going to be serious problems when they hit the real world. But what can I say? Conservatives like ‘em dumb and ignorant.

Anyway, this is how you get generations of fully grown white adults who truly honestly believe foolishness like “racism is over,” or “Martin Luther King basically ended racism,” or, “we don’t need affirmative action because there is no more racism; if anything it’s white people who are more discriminated against now.” (The majority of white people polled said the same thing in the 1960s too, btw).

Keeping as many white people as possible ignorant of the truth does not happen by accident. It’s very intentional. And that’s not to say that ALL white people are ignorant of the truth. Some of them, like Emily Conklin, know the truth, but just do not care.

And make no mistake: The same white people who want to keep their white children “pure” and “innocent” have ZERO problems criminalizing and sending young Black children directly to jail for even the slightest misbehavior in a classroom.

Evil, racist cowards (redundant, I know).

[mentalmeles]

Well. While the brain rot has me, I wanna talk about some lines in ‘Trust Love’ that have been bothering me lately. Mostly how they blatantly reference Penny and how she just might return once more.

Yes, it’s that kind of Penny posting. If you don’t subscribe to the Penny 3.0 theory or think she should stay dead, please carry on and let me have my silly little thoughts in peace. Also this is 100% Nuts and Dolts propaganda. I will not apologize.

ANYWAY! Onto the lyrics!

Right now, your hopes are shattered / Just pointless ever after

This line obviously talks about the loss of hope. Penny, time and again, has been the character to symbolize hope. The most obvious time this has been done was during Jinxy’s auction in Volume 9.

Ruby is inexplicably drawn to the jade marionette, which we all know turns out to be one of Penny’s swords. (And ofc let’s not forget that weapons are considered an extension of their owners in this world.)

Without knowing why, Ruby wants it and tries to wager for it. But Jinxy asks for something in particular—something Ruby has lost.

“Enough hope to fill [a] jar.”

I also want to point out that the pov making it look like the jade marionette is fitting inside the jar as well as the star charm tied around the top are not at all coincidences. This is the show telling us point blank that Penny is the personification of hope. Or at least Ruby’s hope.

But Ruby just lost her. She has no hope left.

But in time, you'll find / Through love, your power just shines

(I felt the need to put this gif here since it is exactly what plays during these lines in the Volume 7 intro, so let’s just sit and think about the implications of that for a moment. Cool? Cool.)

When you don't know where to turn to / And you're sure all hope is gone / When the day you waited for won't come / And dark won't yield to dawn / Trust love and open up your eyes

Now these lines are what get me. They talk about Ruby losing hope and direction, caught in darkness. Now, while this is the intro song for Volume 7, it’s clear that Ruby has not lost her hope yet. If anything, she just got a big chunk of it back.

And I’d argue that even In Volume 8 when shit has hit the fan and it just keeps coming and coming, Ruby hasn’t lost her resolve yet. There are definitely moments when she comes very, very close to it and she falters, but she does end up maintaining it for the most part.

(I can't find it, but imagine the gif where Ruby is looking down at Penny's unconscious body and is tearing up while saying "It's all...too much." Wow. Such a pretty gif.)

(It's also funny how these moments where Ruby's doubts are the strongest are taking place when Penny is seriously wounded and incapacitated, now isn't it? Surely that's just a funny coincidence...)

But then she and the rest of team RWBY fall into the Ever After and, after learning about Penny's second death, Ruby's mental state just falls deeper and deeper.

But then the lyrics tell Ruby that all she has to do during this dark and harrowing moment is to 'trust love.' Who's love is she supposed to trust? The song has been relating to keeping hope up till now, so it's not a stretch to say that she's supposed to trust the love she had for Penny, platonic or otherwise.

Trust love, the truth is there, but sometimes in disguise

These lines are certainly interesting when put into the context that they're also related to Penny somehow. Personally, all I can think of is when Penny transferred the Winter Maiden powers to Winter. I'm definitely not the first to mention this, but it's awfully suspicious that the aura glow was yellow and not green, isn't it? Sure, there were motes of green, but that isn't what happened when Fria gave Penny the powers previously. So why the change? Unless the truth, while there, is disguised. The truth is that Penny is dying and giving up her power, but it's disguised somehow...

The way's uncertain but we're together / Movin' toward the light / When we trust in love and open up our eyes

Mention of Ruby being together with someone. Obviously, this could just be referring to team RWBY or the whole group being together, united under the mission of saving Remnant from Salem. But, again, when mostly every other line has been tied to hope--and by extension Penny--, it's hard to believe it's talking about that. So, maybe a reunion with a certain someone that hasn't happened yet? A reunion that will bring Ruby back towards the light--towards regaining her hope--once and for all? I mean, if Ruby's character arc in the second Justice League crossover movie is where her arc will go in the show proper, it's not too far of a stretch.

(The reason I mention the Justice League crossover movies is because Ruby's arc in the first movie was very reminiscent to the arc she had about her leadership role in Volumes 7 and 8. So, since she became very self sacrificing in that movie, diving headfirst into mission after mission with no regard to her safety, maybe that's what will happen in Volume 10 too? Maybe having the potential of getting Penny back will be the thing to make her stop?)

Anyways... I don't know if any of this really made any sense and I might just be rambling nonsense, but yeah. Some things that I noticed and felt the need to shout out into the ether.

Thanks for reading!

[st-whalefall]

I’m taking a big ol’ swing with this one so everyone please keep your limbs inside the vehicle until we reach our destination (let me cook)

So, what happened here? For this to go from-

Goofy ass grin <3

Summer: “Trust me..”

To this-

Raven: “The creatures of Grimm have a master named Salem. She can’t be stopped, she can’t be reasoned with, and she will not rest until humanity crumbles at her feet.”

Raven: To Ruby with disdain, “You sound just like your mother.”

Let me lay some of my cards on the table. I’m in the “Summer is still alive” camp and I got thoughts on: if Summer is still alive, why has she not been in Yang and Ruby’s life?

Not even a peep? For 14 years?

Something BIG had to have happened to her to keep her away from them.

Now, a lot of folks will go straight to where Ruby jumped to: Summer got Grimm hound-ed by Salem

But I think that’s takes a lot of agency away from Summer and the building revelation of her character and the purpose she serves in the narrative.

If Summer has been grimmified, I posit it was by her own doing, by choice. And her choice alone.

Qrow: “You’re special the same way your mom was…The creatures of Grimm were afraid of those silver eyed warriors.”

Salem: “Do you feel it? Don’t fight it girl. It can sense your trepidation. You must make it dread you.”

How does Salem illustrate the melding of Cinders flesh with the Grimm arm and mastery over it?

In the few instances we get, how are silver eyes described in their effect on Grimm? Obliteration, yes. Resistance to their influence? Possibly (see Ruby & the apathy). But command over them? Let’s explore that.

We are working with a pretty small dataset here, so you’ll forgive me for mostly drawing from Cinder for this (separate post I think the hound is a reanimated corpse and so different from true living hybrids like Cinder (& hypothetically Summer)).

Grimm evolve and Grimm hybrids, like Cinder, adapt.

From vol4 to vol8, Cinder’s Grimm arm grows. It spreads. And she becomes more comfortable with it as time progresses.

Cinders Grimm arm has become an integral part of her and, side note, I dislike theories that revolve her hypothetical redemption around her being purified of evil (Grimm) by silver eyes.

[But that’s just me, I want the monstrous to stay monstrous rather than erased or watered down for easy digestion. Let the monster stay a monster in its appearance and still be worthy of love, and so on and so forth.]

So, we come back to Summer Rose.

Summer confronted Salem, learned something earth shattering, destroyed Raven’s faith and trust in her, and did something that prevented her from returning to her daughters for more than a decade.

What did Summer do? Agency, we’re thinking strong choices here.

Choices that are radical but in line for a character with strong convictions, an alluded to pedestal she stands upon and all the complexes that comes with, perhaps a little self destructive, and a big heart. Big enough to sympathize with the devil and do something about it.

The thing that could be preventing Summer from returning home could be as simple as:

After she learned the truth about Oz’s shadow war, she joined Salem’s side, and won’t return until she’s seen it through to the end.

But I want to put some spice on there because what if:

After learning whatever it was Salem told Summer, that turned her world upside down, Summer looked down into the pools of black and took the plunge

To understand Salem on a molecular level

To be Grimm as Salem is Grimm

To be a world changer

In the world of Remnant, that’s what the Grimm are. A force of destructive change, like hurricanes and wildfires, they shape the world through calamity. Disaster doesn’t feel any one way about you, it just is. It is devastating, but it doesn’t hate you. And it doesn’t love you either.

So, what would that make Summer?

How do you think that’s changed her, fundamentally?

Bloody evolution indeed.

And that’s why she stayed away. Summer changed, and now she looks a little more on the outside how she feels on the inside. But to the rest of the world, she is something horrifying. Unspeakable.

She didn’t want to give her girls nightmares.

Yeah, Summer was the inspiration for the Hound, and Cinder’s Grimm arm. But not in the way Ruby thinks.

[hana-no-seiiki]

YAN! REINCARNATING LOVE INTEREST x READER ( ft. YAN! REINCARNATING LOVE RIVAL + YAN! SECOND LEAD BRAINROT / CONCEPT )

I legitimately could not stomach waking up and separating from this wild dream I had about this so…

These ocs have already been posted about before I just haven’t given them appearances and tbh I didn’t like Yan! Love Interest that much before but seeing as how HOT he is in my dreams I’m just like 🙇🏻‍♂️ my apologies have this post dedicated to you king

warnings: mentions of prostitution, classicism, elitism, aliens, mentions of seggs.

this post is for readers 16 and above, otherwise dni

In this scenario we have YAN! LOVE INTEREST. He’s loved you since time immemorial. He has lost all sense of affection for the world and everything in it since he was trapped in this wicked cycle. That is, everything but you.

You held no memories of your past lives and thus changed quite a lot in the ones that followed but even then he fell hard each time.

The lives I remember from my dreams are as follows:

LIFE NUMERO UNO

YAN ! LOVE INTEREST is head over heels for you. It’s been a few lives since he started remembering everything that happened before as such he’s still not as yan as he currently is.

This is set around “ancient japan” but like anime/genshin ancient japan cause he has pink hair and the prettiest ruby eyes I’m-

Anyways he’s arranged to marry his cousin who happens to be YAN! LOVE RIVAL. She’s also super pretty but unfortunately does not retain her memories like he does.

In my dreams he gets drunk, flirts with her and ends up biting her lips while he has her underneath him. YAN! LOVE RIVAL is just relieved he’s starting to move on from you but oop what does he whisper in her ears? Your name.

(Note: After this incident, YAN! LOVE INTEREST now never gets drunk without your or trusty YAN! SECOND LEAD presence around to anchor him. That and he doesn’t drink that often anymore since stalking you has become a much more uh- fulfilling vice)

Furious she goes over to your residence and you come from a new money sort of family which impressed her since she thought you’d be some pretty peasant or ‘hostess’ from a ditch somewhere.

And when she sees you she’s just like “God damn.” (for some reason her exchange with you went down in Korean in my dream-)

In that life you were a refined lady. Literally everything she idolized in YAN! LOVE INTEREST, but better. You carried yourself with such elegance and had a such an entrancing temperament that she immediate forgets what she was angry about. Also YAN! LOVE RIVAL is a bit of a face con so you bet she thought you were beautiful af.

…

You two end up fucking like animals that it alerts the entire noble world. Eventually leading to your execution.

From that life onward YAN! LOVE INTEREST swore to enact vengeance on all of YAN! LOVE RIVAL’s lives for your sake. Not knowing his family is the reason you died in the first place ( and. yan! love rival did her best to save you )

LIFE NUMERO DOS

This life is set in highschool (ish) where you and YAN! LOVE INTEREST have recently broken up due to rumors of him cheating on you arising. At least that’s what you told him. The truth was that you learnt he was getting married to YAN! LOVE RIVAL and decided you weren’t going to be part of this drama like at all.

In this life you don’t interact much with the YANs because oh shit aliens have invaded and now you’re in a survival game.

Told ya this dream was wild.

Anyways this life follows the typical Infinite Flow/Quick Transmigration format and has you traveling different universes to accrue points and well, survive.

While you’re out here suffering, YAN! LOVE INTEREST just immediately gets an S-rank due to his reincarnations and memories. You learn to hug the golden thigh and got back with him solely for the sake of staying alive.

Once you got to the same ranking as him you dump him to get with SECOND LEAD.

You underestimated how petty this man could be so in a last ditch attempt to have you in the end, YAN! LOVE INTEREST turns back time with the help of YAN! LOVE RIVAL to make you pay.

BUT THE PLOT THICKENS AS YOU DONT LOSE YOUR MEMORIES AFTER THE TIME REVERSAL.

AND IT’S JUST MIND GAMES AFTER MIND GAMES.

Anyways to HEAD-CANNONS !

Each character could look vastly different in each life but have identifiers you can point out from em. YAN! LOVE INTEREST always has red eyes that glow when he has menacing plans. They’re also unlike my other yan! oc eve are hella blank. super flat, reminiscent of kafka’s eyes in the opening of HSR. Also he’s usually a short king.

YAN! LOVE RIVAL always has purple/pink eyes. Is usually femme and has wavy hair. In comparison to LOVE INTEREST’s eyes, hers are always sparkly and full of life.

YAN! SECOND LEAD has blue eyes reminiscent of the sky. Fashion icon. You’ll never see him in crappy drip.

You can also pretty much identify them from their personalities. YAN! LOVE INTEREST is super flirty, often hypersexual and horny. He’s the most sadistic bitch I’ve ever written. He yearns for blood as much as he yearns to fuck you.

YAN! LOVE RIVAL is prissy, entitled and deliciously cruel. Somehow is always rich in every life, whether it’s new, old or lucky money.

YAN! SECOND LEAD is a clean freak. He usually either hates you at first or is indifferent. There’s actually a life where YAN! LOVE INTEREST confused him for you, and this led to YAN! LOVE INTEREST literally selling you to prostitution. SECOND LEAD saved your ass and you end up living happily together for the rest of that life as LOVE INTEREST was too busy dying out of guilt.

YAN! SECOND LEAD’s danger as a yandere mostly stems from how subtle it is. Manipulation king. Sometimes he doesn’t even know it, but he’s already making you hate the other two and come to him for comfort.

Have I mentioned how cute YAN! LOVE INTEREST is? He genuinely loves you to the moon and beyond, but because of the reincarnations he’d slowly gone insane. Your early lives together were diabetes inducingly cute. Mostly of him shirking his responsibility to be with you. If this post goes well I’m definitely drawing these three god im horknee for this man.

But for some reason despite literally having lives of experience fucking you (and him) as every gender/sex somehow YAN! LOVE RIVAL is the most physically compatible with you.

Honestly, if these three set aside their differences they’d make a great poly relationship with you. Unfortunately they hate each other too much for that to happen 😭

[strqyr]

i find it funny how ruby's "then you must've forgotten who raised me" is taken as gospel and proof that yang raised ruby alone for several years when it's. preceded by ruby outright lying about the reason why she ended up in the ever after: at no point was ruby planning to jump into the void after yang. they all thought it meant death, and after ruby drank the tea yang didn't try to follow her, either. it feels... absurd to take what ruby is essentially saying—"i would follow you to death because that's how you raised me :)"—as the truth when later it's made clear that yang isn't reciprocating in the same, self-destructive manner.

like. it just makes yang seem super awful?? that she would raise ruby to follow her to death, but she won't do the same in return??? is this really the hill people are willing to die on???

anyway. yang is upset that ruby is there after she tried to save her, and ruby is trying to make yang feel better. that's what the scene is about. much later, when ruby snaps, she says this to yang: "'gotta stay positive!' right?! smiles all around! maybe even get our feelings sorted out!"

ya know. to yang, who makes jokes to hide her fear, her discomfort, her pain.

according to yang, tai "kind of shut down", but we know this doesn't mean that he fell into a depression so deep he couldn't even get out of bed; yang needed to wait for him to be out of house to sneak out—meaning he was attentive of them—, ruby relates to penny for having a dad who worries a lot, he reads them bedtime stories, he was busy with work, ruby's memories have him right there present even after summer's disappearance, etc.

(and that's without mentioning that ice queendom's website description for tai sites him as having raised ruby and yang on his own. or that according to the writers and voice actors alike, yang can't cook.)

everything that we've learned, from V1 to V5 discussion between yang and weiss to V9 points towards the issues of yang and ruby's childhood being emotional. tai didn't literally 'shut down', he just wasn't the same happy, positive person than he was before summer disappeared—and of course he wasn't, he was grieving. and yang took it upon herself to be that person, to 'pick up the pieces', to stay positive and to be smiles all around, making jokes to hide her true feelings, just to bring that little bit of normalcy back to their home.

and ruby followed along. there was no time to sort out feelings, you just had to be happy in the face of great grief. no one in this family really has: tai was focused on raising his daughters (a trait ruby and yang both exhibit: focusing on something else, doing chores or helping others, even when they're not doing do well themselves), he wasn't going to burden them with his issues, and who knows where qrow was doing that time, drowning in his own sorrows; and yang and ruby were busy staying Positive™... until the fall of beacon happened, and yang got to start her journey of sorting her feelings outs. maybe she hasn't quite reached the end of that journey, but she's well on her way. ruby isn't, tho, hence her words to yang when she snapped: it feels unfair, that they've been in the same spot for so long and now yang is moving forward but ruby can't. doesn't feel she's allowed to.

and i feel like V9 perfectly showcased how it was in their childhood even if they were asked "are you okay?": avoid the question, pretend you're okay, happy, smiling, whatever. there's only so much one can do to force the issue if the other person is avoiding it altogether.

anyway. they're finally getting out of the cycle of toxic positivity. the wound is now healing.

can't wait for summer to appear to open a new one.

[bridgyrose]

Is it bad that I’m imagining Tea Amidst Terrible Trouble is the Ruby Clone Army AU?

I feel like Ruby might actually choose to become someone else at the blacksmith because she believes that the Ruby Clones are just better than her.

(At some point I plan to get that far with this au, but I think you misunderstand if you think the Ruby Clones are better than here. Because, they're not better than her, just trained differently. No, the real problem is how easily they seem to replace her with everything. Which, yeah, if Ruby is that easily replaced, she'd definitely consider choosing to be someone else. That said, since here's a small continuation)

Ruby took a small breath as she stepped off the airship, feeling the cold, Atlas air hit her face. After a few days of resting and helping Pietro upgrade her equipment, she finally felt ready to take a mission with her friends to help Ironwood, and to take her mind off everything she’d learned. Clones of herself being used as weapons against the grimm, an army of huntresses that could be replenished at a moments notice, an army that would be loyal to Ironwood… it was almost as if she was being replaced.

She shook her head and let out her breath as she tried to clear her mind and spoke under her breath. “I dont need to worry about that right now.” 

“Dont need to worry about what, Rubes?” Yang asked 

“N-nothing,” Ruby said nervously as she started to make her way in front of her team. “Just excited for this mission!” She paused and shivered for a moment. “Though its a lot colder than expected.” 

Harriet nodded and started to walk towards the dust mine. “Its cold enough out here that even with aura, the windchill is enough to cut through you. And without aura, well… try not to let your aura break.” 

Ruby nodded and watched as her team made their way forward, following close behind them. Her heart raced with each step as she kept an eye out for any of the Ruby clones that might’ve been following them or sent ahead. It wouldnt have surprised her if Ironwood sent them out to start clearing the mine and let her and her team finish the cleanup. She paused in her step as she tried to take another shaky, deep breath as she tried to clear her mind again. 

Weiss put a gentle hand on Ruby’s shoulder. “Everything okay? Ever since we’ve come to Atlas, you’ve seemed on edge.” 

“I’m fine, really,” Ruby replied through a fake smile as she let out her breath. “There’s… there’s been a lot to take in since coming to Atlas. Ironwood being told the full truth, Penny being alive, the clones of me… it feels like I’m being pushed away and replaced.” 

“None of us would ever replace you.” Blake stopped in her step and flashed a smile to Ruby. “You’re our teammate, irreplaceable as our leader. No matter what, we’ll always follow you.” 

“Yeah, but… what happens when you dont?” Ruby pulled her scythe off her back, unfolding it and gripping the hilt as she looked into the blade at her reflection. She watched as her red cloak turned white, silver eyes flashing into a blinding light before returning back to normal. “What… what if every decision I’ve made is a mistake?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“I-I wanted to go to Haven Academy for answers about who Cinder was and why Beacon had to fall. And since then, we seem to keep getting in deeper and deeper without any clear answer about what we’re really doing. Salem wants me and I still dont know why, she cant be killed and we still dont have a plan to stop her, I… I backed Jaune up with stealing the airship and almost got ourselves killed doing it…” Ruby felt her arms shake for a moment as she remembered watching the cannon start to charge just before she took her shot. “And now we told Ironwood the truth, the same truth that we all had an issue with accepting. How do we know we’re doing the right thing?” 

“We dont,” Yang answered. “All we can do is keep going and see if we can figure things out. Besides, Ironwood thinks he has a plan that’ll work and Uncle Qrow seems to trust him. And maybe having those clones of you will help us.” 

Ruby looked up at Yang, her heart breaking at hearing that. “You… you cant be serious. He made those clones to replace me!” 

“Only if you were dead,” Weiss rebutted. “And since you’re clearly not dead, those clones wont replace you. But that doesnt mean we shouldnt use them to our advantage.” 

“Yeah but-” 

“None of those clones will ever replace you,” Blake said as she started to walk deeper into the mine. “But right now, we need Ironwood’s help, so if that means we’ll need to get used to an army of yous at our side, then we should use that to our advantage.” 

“I-” Ruby held her tongue as she watched her team walk ahead of her, deeper into the mine. For a brief moment, it truly felt like her team didnt need her, even though she knew that wasnt what they had meant. Finally, she let the words out as she followed behind everyone else. “I… just want to be careful about all of this.” 

Ruby started to rush forward to keep up with her teammates, fingers gripping her scythe tightly as she ran down the tunnel. She stopped once she saw the geist in the main chamber, controlling chunks of dust. “Alright team-” 

“We’ve got this!” Harriet yelled out as she joined the rest of the Ace-Ops. 

Ruby slowly lowered her weapon as she watched the Ace-ops work flawlessly to take down the geist, Marrow using his semblance to slow it down, while Clover picked off chunks of dust that Harriet, Elm, and Vine caught. She quickly raised her weapon as she noticed the geist leaving the dust it possessed, making its way to another pile of rocks and dust. With her finger on the trigger, she tracked the grimm as Clover’s hook missed the mask… until a silver light caught her off guard, blinding her for a few seconds until she heard the sound of rock hitting the ground. As her vision cleared, she saw a couple of the clones rush in with their semblances to catch the remaining dust crystals. 

“Got it!” one of them yelled out as they hit the ground. 

Clover smiled and sheathed his weapon. “You both came just in time. And I’m sure you’ll be able to handle the rest of the cleanup, right?” 

“Yes sir!” the clones yelled out in unison, saluting to Clover. 

Ruby tightened her grip on her scythe as she let it fold back up. “My team and I will make sure the perimeter is cleared-” 

“No need to worry about that,” Elm said as she put down one of the dust chunks. “If those two are here, then that means everything around us is clear. You and your team can head back to Atlas to rest. Tomorrow will be the start of a long week.” 

Ruby slowly put her scythe onto her back as she watched the clones pick up some of the scattered dust crystals. Everything she could do, they were capable of. Just as fast as her, able to clear out grimm with ease, even able to use their eyes reliably. She lost focus on the clones as she felt Yang lightly hit her shoulder. 

“We should make it back to the airship before it takes off,” Yang said. “And then we can play a few games before it gets too late.” 

Ruby made a small nod as she looked away from the clones, putting up another fake smile as she held back the pain she felt. “That… that sounds like a… like a great idea.”

[howlingday]

Just more maiden blake

First / Second / Third / Previous

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

"It sounds like you had an exciting first day." Blake's mom said with her usually cheery.

"And you're sure you didn't, uh... slip up?" Her dad, on the other hands, was his usually worrisome self.

It was to be expected, though. Her first conversation with them after who knows how long she'd left, and only days after leaving the White Fang to top it off, it shouldn't come as a surprise that they'd be feeling a whirlwind of emotions ranging from anxiety to ecstasy. What was surprising was how... not angry they were. She'd abandoned her family for the White Fang and then abandoned them to attend Beacon.

"No, Dad, I'm fine." She sighed. "And Professor Ozpin said he paid extra close attention to me while I was in my initiation."

"Mm, I don't like the way he said that." Her father grumbled through the screen.

"Oh, you know he means well." Her mother said, rubbing his arm to calm him down. Judging by his relaxing face, it must have been working. "And what about your team? What are they like?"

The question made Blake flinch. There was a lot going on with her team, and the least concerning was the fact that she was sharing a team with Weiss Schnee of all people on Remnant. But she gave a sigh and chose to answer the question as best as she could.

"Well, I just learned my partner is just as 'special' as I am."

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

"And that's when I learned what was happening to me."

"Yeesh, talk about a creepy story." Yang said, stirring her spoon in her cup. "I mean, you have a nightmare, get visited by a creepy, old dude with broken glasses, and you learn that you have a super power that you can't tell anyone all before you learn how to write your own name."

"I was still learning." Blake gave a chuckle. "But yeah, learning all of that while being so young. It's... It's uncomfortable to think that it could happen again to someone else. When did you learn?"

"Oh, you know..." Yang gave blinked a couple of time, then brought a hand to scratch her ear as she answered. "I just kinda walked into it."

An obvious lie. Blake could make a standing argument about the hypocrisy of the scenario. She'd just explained how she had to change her sheets the night she learned of her Maiden powers and how terrifying it was to be told about a double life you'd be forced to live for the rest of your life. Yet Yang refused to explain how she'd come to gain the powers herself.

But that wasn't how you made friends. Especially friends who would be going through the same thing you are.

"Well, if you ever feel the need to walk through it, just know that I'm here for you. And for your sister."

"And Weiss, too, right?"

"Yeah. Her, too." Blake didn't lie. But it was still a distance away from the truth right now.

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

"And that's how I got over my fear of bees!"

"Wow..." Jaune was in awe of the young lady in the red hood sitting across from him. He'd wished he was half as brave to run through a beehive to grab his sister's hairbrush. Unfortunately, he didn't have the stones, or the immunity, to survive even one bee.

"So, uh, what crazy things have you gone through?" Ruby asked. "You know, besides the whole initiation we went through?"

"I, uh, haven't really been through a whole lot." Jaune sheepishly replied. "My life has never been that exciting. Just me going in and out of hospitals all the time."

"Whoa!" Ruby awed this time. "Like, all the time?"

"Mhm." He nodded. "Sometimes I'd have to stay the night."

"Wow! I can't imagine being in a hospital at night. What's it like?"

"It's... cold... and dark... Not a lot of people walking around." Jaune shut his eyes as he tried to remember something neat to tell her. "One time, I slipped on a bedpan."

"What's a bedpan?"

"It's this metal thing they put under beds for patients who can't go to the bathroom."

"Ew!" Ruby shouted. "That's so gross! Was there anything in it?"

"No, but I was kind sad, though."

"Why were you sad?"

"I thought it was a dog food bowl, so I thought my parents were bringing me a puppy." Ruby and Jaune shared a laugh. A long, good, healthy laugh shared between friends. Jaune was kinda amazed. He couldn't remember the last time he had a long laugh like this one. Not without throwing u- There he goes.

"Jaune? Is everything oka-" She winced at the sound of loud vomiting reaching her ears. "Gross..." Still, she waited where he'd left her. Because that's what good friends do.

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

"Hey, Cinder! I ain't runnin' a daycare!" Cinder rolled her eyes and looked to Roman. "I'm trying to run a business here!"

"A business that can't spare time for one child?"

"What are you- No!" He shouted back. "I'm trying to keep an eye on the news for any big breaks in a heist I've got planned, and your stupid brat keeps changing the channel!"

"Well, maybe you should go to a different TV." Cinder mused aloud.

"There's only one, and I am not buying another one!"

"Well, Roman, it's your operation, and since you're the one running things here, then I guess you should figure out how to solve it, right?" Before he could get a word in response, she sauntered away, her tail swaying with delight through the air.

"Stupid, no good, demanding..." Roman groused before turning to the kid on his couch. "You! Out!"

"But I'm watching Pumpkin Pete." Mercury replied.

"I don't care! I wanna watch the news!"

"I wanna watch Pumpkin Pete!"

"Well, I don't!" Roman pointed the remote at the TV, turning it off. He then turned popped out the batteries inside and tossed them behind him. "There. No TV for anyone, because I can just read the news on my scro-"

Mercury wasn't listening. Instead, he was watching TV with the remote in his hands. He hummed along to the Pumpkin Pete Pumpkin Patch Pals theme song that played. Weren't his legs supposed to be broken?

[midnightsun-if]

What sort of history does our grandmother have? 👀

Can you give us a snippet or some more tidbits about her? When will we be able to meet her in game?

You’ll meet Elizabeth later on, probably when the rest of the family arrives in Aurelian, but you’ll probably be able to write to her before then if you’d like to do so.

As for her history? Well, I suppose I can write something from an event that happened a while back.

Theodore Greer, resident of a small town just outside London, jerks awake, hazel eyes blearily blinking open as he tries to see through the blood encrusting the left one. Heavy shackles bind him to the floor, a rickety stool being the only thing keeping him from the dirty surface, and the air stank with various different odors— none of them pleasant— but it was the overwhelming undertone of metallic copper that made him want to hurl up what he had eaten that morning.

Was it this morning that he had eaten with his wife? He couldn’t remember. Squeezing his eyes shut, while trying to ignore the dull throbbing of his skull, he tried to recall anything that could help him piece together what had happened. He recalled eating with his wife— slightly burnt toast with eggs— and going off to work— after he had kissed his wife on the cheek— with the intent to see Isobel that night; as he hadn’t been able to visit her for the last fortnight due to his wife’s growing suspicions.

But what happened after he left work? From the point he had stepped out of the building he called his job to now? Everything was just complete darkness— as if it had been erased entirely from his mind.

“Watching humans try to piece things together is always fun to observe.” A light voice whispers out from the shadows of the room, causing Theodore to jerk back in surprise. The husky chuckle, intermixed with a dark undertone, that rumbles out, almost like a growl, due to the action, raises all the hairs on the back of his neck. “It’s quite adorable the way your childlike brains try to grasp the greater world around you.”

Theodore finally catches sight of the figure leaning against the wall, shrouded by darkness. How long had she been standing there? Had she been there this entire time? Is she stuck here too?

Even as the last thought crossed his mind, Theodore knew it couldn’t be further from the truth. Knew that this woman could never be the prey of anything— that she was a born hunter— and that he had unwittingly become her target.

“W—” He clears his throat, trying to sound more assertive than he felt. “Who the hell are you? Why am I here?”

Another chuckle rings across the room, the woman finally stepping into the light the lanterns casted off. A long gown, of the richest maroon, hugs her body, the corset accentuating the fullness of her chest, as delicate ringlets of the softest gold cascades across her shoulders, her fair complexion seemingly glowing because of it. The sight of such a beautiful woman would normally bring some semblance of enjoyment, but looking into the woman’s eyes— that were the color of the purest ruby— he knew that it was a front to the monster that lurked beneath the surface, a gorgeous facade hiding a dark truth.

“I’ve been observing you for a while, Theodore.” Full lips tick up into a smile, none of the emotion reaching the sharpness of her gaze. “Watching as you gallivant around in your pathetic excuse of a life.” The woman stoops to be at eye level with him. “It was almost charming in a way. Seeing you walk around town like you were biggest name there, but you’ve been a bad boy, haven’t you Theodore?”

He shakes his head, a lead weight settling within his gut. “N-No!”

“Really?” She tilts her head. “Would your darling wife agree to that? Such a sweet woman, I truly don’t see what she sees in you. Although she could definitely learn how to make a proper cup of tea—” A delicate wrinkle of distaste appears between an elegant brow. “—Hers tasted a bit weak.”

“What did you do to her?” Surging forward, despite his chains, Theodore almost spits out his next words. “What the hell did you to my wife?”

“Nothing, you insipid little man. Not that you’d know about doing anything to her.” Gripping his cheeks, talon-like nails dig into Theodore’s cheeks, a grip that forces his head back. The ease in which the woman is able to mould his body how she wishes causes another bolt of fear to surge through him. “I tend to not indulge myself with humans, you’re gone within the blink of an eye regardless, why should I care how you decide to destroy one another? No—” She tilts her head, strands of gold falling in a dazzling curtain. “My business with you goes a bit deeper than that. You’ve been dealing with a new partner, haven’t you? One that’s been given you just a bit more money every week to offer specific supplies.”

The lead weight becomes an unbearable mass that he’d never be able to move from— impending doom looming over him with every second.

“My how pallid your face has become, I expect you know exactly what I’m talking about. You see—” She jerks his head further up, displaying more of his neck. “That partner of yours hasn’t been the happiest with you. As you’ve left him quite empty-handed the last couple of times you’ve seen him. Something that’s caused more issues with a group of individuals that decided, instead of waiting for a reliable transaction, they’d take their own approach to the issue. I assume you know about that little town massacre a few hours from here?”

“What?” Theodore shakes his head, straining his body against her iron-clad hold. “No. No. I didn’t help cause that.”

“You didn’t help prevent it either.” Letting go of his cheeks, Theodore is almost surprised at the blood now falling from the incisions her nails had left behind. “I was tasked with handling that little incident, as well as the ones that caused it, which has left me a bit hungry and in need of a solution that’ll solve my problems down the road. Do you know what I’ve come to the conclusion of?”

He gulps. “W-What?”

Leaning forward the woman tilts her head and gently licks the trail of blood rolling down his left cheek, a sound rumbling from deep within her chest at the taste.

“I’m going to get rid of you, find an actually reliable mule, and have some dinner after the day I’ve had.” She pulls back, crimson-red now staining her lips. “And I’m so looking forward to hearing you scream.”

He’s not able to react, or respond, before the hand that had been steadily creeping up his back grips the back of his neck, fully exposing his neck, and she lunges forward.

[ruinedsam]

To further my “Meg calls Sam her little brother” agenda, when Azazel possesses John and tells Dean that he killed his son and exorcised his daughter, he makes a reference to Sam being his son as well. Maybe it’s when Dean is staring at his father’s body and it’s his voice threatening to kill Dean and when Sam starts to struggle to try to help Dean, Azazel turns around to say “Now now, son, I’m not ignoring you, but I need a few minutes to talk to your brother here.” Sam and Dean have other things to worry about and this slips their mind until other demons start referring to him as such as well. And when John goes to make his deal with Azazel and Azazel comments about how if only the boys knew how much their daddy loved them, he adds on something about how Sam is more Azazel’s kid than John, or at least he will be soon enough; maybe this happens when John reveals he’s hidden the truth about the special kids from Sam and Azazel says, “Oh Johnny boy, that’s colder than even I expected. Letting your kid run around searching for answers when you’ve had them all this time. And to think, you’re willing to make a deal for one son but you can’t even tell the other the truth about himself. But then again, Sammy’s more my son than he is yours, isn’t he? Or at least, he will be before long.” John has to weigh Dean’s life against whatever Azazel’s plan is that makes him so sure Sam will be Azazel’s son by the end, and still makes the same choice as in canon, still tells Dean he might have to kill Sam but tells Sam nothing. It still gets revealed to Sam around the time it does, but when Meg reveals she’s possessing Sam, she calls him “our little brother” to Dean; also it’s important to me that Meg genuinely viewed this possession as a sibling bonding activity because she’s a demon. But one demon early in s3, I wanna say in Sin City but I’m not sure, tells Dean that Sam was supposed to take over after Azazel died and now there’s nobody actually in charge down there, so unless Ruby and this demon were lying and Pride was just running his mouth when he talked about how he was supposed to bow to Sam and called him the boyking, Sam was genuinely Azazel’s heir. But then we get to season 5, assuming HBO supernatural would follow the same broad plot, and when they’re in heaven and they see Sam’s memories, Dean talks about how he shouldn’t even be surprised none of Sam’s memories are of their family, after all he’s more Azazel’s son than he is John nowadays—and it is key that Sam and Dean never learn exactly what Azazel said to John, Dean is referring to the blood drinking the season before and all the demons calling Sam Azazel’s kid—and this is Sam’s worst nightmare, that he really is Azazel’s son and Lucifer’s vessel and the heir to the throne of hell and nothing he ever does will ever change that blood in his veins.

But to lighten it up a bit, because this agenda is not solely limited to HBO supernatural, I need a meeting with Sam and Abbadon where she kinda feels him out about maybe Sam taking over, because Azazel was a Prince of Hell who became the king and Abbadon was chosen by Lucifer to be a Knight and she just wants Crowley off the throne so she’s perfectly willing to use the original plan, and Sam stares at her for a solid minute because of all the things he expected from a Knight of Hell, inquiring after his interest in ruling Hell was not one of them. This also means that at any given moment, Crowley’s biggest competition for the throne is Sam, who flatly refuses every time. Abbadon catches up on everything that’s happened since her jump to the future and she learns Sam killed Samuel Campbell; she tries to use that as a reason to bond, because I think it’s funny if the demons just latch onto Sam: “I killed your dad’s dad, you killed your mom’s dad, we have loads in common.” Sam also gradually gets demons’ phone numbers until they make up about 80% of his contact list. Also, Crowley does not kill Meg here, because he knows she considers Sam a brother but isn’t sure if Sam considers her a sister and Crowley has no interest in dealing with Sam trying to kill him for killing his sister, just in case. Winchester Family Drama, Azazel blood edition. “Dean Winchester’s behind you, dumbass” but instead it’s “you know Sam Winchester’s my brother right?”

Ahhhhhh 👀👀👀 Omg I love both scenarios so much!!! Thank you mysterious speedy anon <3

it’s important to me that Meg genuinely viewed this possession as a sibling bonding activity because she’s a demon

You're so right about this!! We should see how demon's perceptions and opinions are just so skewed because they're no longer humans. According to the demon lore of the early seasons demons forget about being human, so of course they don't get them. And Meg being like well this was fun is much more compelling than her doing it for the sake of being evil or revenge (as I think she cited in canon).

this is Sam’s worst nightmare, that he really is Azazel’s son and Lucifer’s vessel and the heir to the throne of hell and nothing he ever does will ever change that blood in his veins.

You should know I was in full on sicko mode as I read this.

“I killed your dad’s dad, you killed your mom’s dad, we have loads in common.” Sam also gradually gets demons’ phone numbers until they make up about 80% of his contact list.

LMAO I love this so much 😂😂

Crowley does not kill Meg here, because he knows she considers Sam a brother but isn’t sure if Sam considers her a sister and Crowley has no interest in dealing with Sam trying to kill him for killing his sister, just in case.

This but, to bring in my cram agenda, he then goes to Sam and is like "look I didn't even try to kill your sister will you please fuck me now 🥺"

[starres-stuff]

Day 4- Reticent FFXIV Write 2024

Reticent: not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily.

“Viviane we are Noblewomen we should not cry at every funeral or sad moment in our life it gives those out to harm us the upper hand.” The words rolled off her tongue with surprising accuracy regarding how her Mother sounded when she launched into another lecture. 

It was just about Twelve Bells and she sat in the office of one Father Ashax at the Cathedral. She was quite good at being on time now and she enjoyed her weekly chats with the Priest, as they encouraged her to heal the more she expressed about her past. 

“I hear this type of upbringing occurred in Noble families rather consistently. A pity, expressing, our emotions is a rather important thing in life. We should be able to tell others if we are happy or sad. What happens when you try to communicate what you feel?” The older man with his silver-gray hair was in the process of pouring cups of Ishgardian Tea and adding this week's treat; rolanberry scones to the desert plate in the middle of the desk between them as he asked his question. Viviane often considered this his superpower as she could not fathom how it was done. 

“It feels like I am frozen in a block of ice, or someone has stolen my voice from my body and locked it away. I try to communicate how things make me feel, I can hear my inner voice put it in perspective for me. Physically I can express” Viviane paused for a moment, her cheeks flushing as she added on “I can have an entire conversation with my husbands sexually” She cleared her throat “And without saying a word during in the process. I feel broken and it all traces back to being told by my Mother to keep my feelings to myself that no one else needed to know them. 

Down, the Priest sat now, a soft sigh of relief came from taking the pressure off of his knees and relaxing back into the softness of the chair, his hands folding neatly on his desk to reveal his signet ring with Halone’s symbol on it. “You are not broken Viviane, you are reticent as are many of your peers. You were raised to be this way by a woman who had many reasons not to feel herself. She was a divorcee, her eldest child never saw adulthood and there was speculation that she was involved in her Parents’ murder. All of these things are excellent examples of events that teach us not to let others see how we feel.” 

Viviane stared across the desk, the fine line of her ruby-painted lips curling into a sneer that told the tale of how offended she was in the moment by the Priest defending her Mother's practices, but the watery blue eyes that held her gaze stopped her short, he had always been unbiased in all the conversations they had but he was also quick to point out when her hate for her Mother was clouding the truth and producing a reaction she would have otherwise suppressed in polite conversation. 

“Well, how do I learn not to be reticent?” The thought of being able to communicate how she felt vocally was both terrifying and exciting. She wanted to be able to speak up, share her thoughts, and express when someone hurt her feelings without the fear that doing so would cause those people to leave her. 

“You practice. You find people like myself that you can speak your mind to. I do this every day with my survivor groups from the Dragonsong War. They are often reticent as well, and I have seen many make full recoveries by letting their truths out.” It was then he reached out to grab a scone, one bite leaving a dusting of crumbs sprinkled on his mustache. 

“I will have you know this is a terrifying prospect, this speaking up for myself. Do you want to teach me to do that?” Viviane’s hand reached for a scone and brought it to her lips, a gentle bite causing fewer crumbs to appear on her lip than on the Priest’s. 

“Why yes Baroness, I do want to teach you to do that.” The priest offered her a small smile, pleased with where their conversation had arrived at its end.

[invested-in-your-future]

For a show whose premise uses inspirations from (and homages to) various fairytales and myths, the show doesn't really explore the concept at all, does it?

For example, we are told the tale of what happened with the two gods and then (in spite of calling it "the lost fable) instantly reassured that this is 110% truth and exactly as it happened. The same is true with the Maidens myth and that's just...ultra-dumb and a huge missed opportunity?

The show is quick to throw random surface-level references to fairytales and myths, but is not really interested on actually exploring the concept, in spite of the supposed protagonist being inspired by the said fairytales (yes I am ignoring the absolute nonsense use of it in Ever After right now and even Ever After's dumb use of it seems to miss the point).

What does the concept of folk tales being passed down from generation to generation mean to the story and it's characters? Can you always trust the narrator of the stories being told? What is the intent behind the many myths and legends that exist and does the said intent still remain or have the stories changed and gained life of their own as time passes?

RWBY as an idea should absolutely be about playing around with that kind of ambiguity.

The idea of gaining inspiration from legends and fairytales because of how our imagination perceives them and then the possibility of sheer disappointment that comes with the truth.

Why should every myth characters learn be true? Why should their recollections of specific events and people in their past be exact and truthful?

Part of journey to adulthood is about uncertainty, about challenging your ideas and worldview as you learn and see more than before and the world you live in slowly opens up.

V3 literally ended with the world opening up for the characters and them being thrown into different environments than before, while also being shaken to the core and unsure of themselves.

So where's the actual challenge? Where's re-evaluating of what they believe in? Where are the ideas and truths that challenge what they think of others and of themselves? Did they re-evaluate their goals and ideals? Or even the concept of what a huntsman/huntress is?

Not really. Yang stays angry and plays exact same role, Blake gets to regurgitate the exact same rhetoric without answer as before, Weiss gets to be nostalgic about how her grandpa was The Good Capitalist and Ruby gets to learn how changing or questioning herself is wrong and evil. The show is so quick to reassure the leads that they can't possibly be wrong, that there's no real growth involved.

Wouldn't it be a lot more interesting to see Ruby struggle with the idea of being A Hero/Huntress and the lack of clear-cut good-and-evil in the world?

Wouldn't it be a lot more interesting to see Weiss rose-tinted perception of her family history be put to the test?

Wouldn't it be a lot more interesting to see Blake's motivations and inconsistencies/hypocrisy within them be explored?

Wouldn't it be a lot more interesting to see Yang actually look inward, face her emotions and worries and actually find a path forward she can take?

Wouldn't it be a lot more interesting to have characters actually question the motivations and truths of the world around them instead of being told the Definitive Past History via Plot Narration McGuffin Relic? Wouldn't it be more interesting to see characters try to reconcile conflicting tales of ancient past that DON'T match together at all? And characters having to question the motivations and goals of various characters arriving at different conclusions with the information they have?

[someidiotwithalaptop]

Alright: What the FUCK happened to Summer???

Because something sure did, and every new thing we hear about her gets more disturbing, and it haunts me.

So, I'll start with stuff that's fairly certain and like, small leaps of logic before I go full tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist. We have very little actual info about Summer, nearly all of it from different characters talking about her.

From Yang we get the basic facts from her family's perspective: Summer was a Huntress who went out on a mission and never came back. We also get the characterization of, "Super-Mom: Baker of cookies and slayer of giant monsters."

From Qrow, we learn that 1. She was a brat, which like, honestly STRQ was probably just "oops! all brats" 2. He thinks she would have pressed on if she knew the truth, which, uh, she almost definitely did. "We don't have to kill you to stop you," is not the sort of thing you say to Salem if you don't know she's immortal, that's all I'm saying. 3. Whatever her final mission was, she didn't tell him or Tai or Ozpin. I'm inclined to believe Ozpin when he says he genuinely doesn't know what happened to Summer, since his biggest secret is already out—plus he's been genuinely repentent about the mess his lying caused in Volume 6 and is taking steps to do better in the future. It would feel really weird thematically if he knew and was keeping yet another giant bomb of a secret. So Summer went on her final mission alone, or at the very least, she didn't tell any of Ozpin's inner circle where she was going.

We'll get to speculating about why not later, but I think this point is probably going to be important in Ruby's character arc—whatever Summer's ultimate fate, she got there because she tried to save the world alone, and we've seen Ruby do something similar. Like she's not running off after Salem by herself, but she's definitely trying to shoulder the burden of leading and inspiring everyone to keep going all on her own, without asking for help as that responsibility has been slowly yet systematically destroying her mental health. I mean ffs she's been literally carrying her team on her shoulders for two episodes now.

HOWEVER: Oz, Tai, and Qrow don't know anything about what happened to Summer, but it's possible that Raven might. When Ruby tries to reach out to her and convince her to work together, because they'll have a better chance than if they try to do it alone, Raven says, "You sound just like your mother," in truly the most bitter, disdainful-ass tone I have ever heard. And then she opens a portal for Cinder to throw a fireball at her. Whether this is about a more generalized friction that maybe contributed to Raven leaving, or a specific moment when Summer tried to get her on board with whatever she was doing on that final mission, is kind of uncertain. Or it could be both!

(And it might also be she married my ex bitterness but, admitting my biases here, I hate that fucking trope with a fiery passion and I think it's more interesting if her anger at Summer is actually about Summer.)

Regardless, if Summer did ask her for help, then based on how Raven reacted to Ruby I don't think she got it lmao

And then. Oh, and then. We get Salem!

"Your mother said those words to me. She was wrong too."

"Her again?"

So like. Salem definitely met her. Had a whole-ass conversation with her, even.

And that fucking smile??? Salem did some shit to Summer. It's just a question of what, exactly?

Right. Okay. So after they kill the Hound and realize WHOOPS that was a person and he looks an awful lot like Ruby! and everyone reunites, Ruby says this:

"When I saw its eyes, I knew. Salem used to kill people with Silver Eyes, like Maria. But she’s always wanted me alive. Why would that change unless, when she met Mom, she learned she could do something new?"

Timeline-wise, this seems accurate! But I'd like to also insert TR into the equation. It's a little hard to tell given the uhh, body horror of it all, but he definitely looks younger than Qrow (which is maybe not saying a lot given that Raven looks at least ten years younger than Qrow and she's his twin lmao) and, more to the point, like he's probably younger than Summer.

Like, yeah, hard to tell, but I don't think this man is past forty. And even if he is, it doesn't seem like Salem's had him for very long, seeing as she never sent him after Ruby or the relics in previous volumes. So he's probably an example of what Salem's been doing to SEWs after Summer.

Also, Salem calls him an experiment, and says that so far she's pleased with the results. Meaning Summer isn't exactly a Hound, though I wouldn't say that puts grimmification off the table. Just that it's not in the exact same way he is. And it's worth pointing out that the way TR has been grimmified, it's left him completely without agency and unable to disobey Salem. Even after Ruby blasts the Grimm off his head, he's still left repeating "Take The Girl" over and over without any sign of whoever he used to be coming back to the surface. It's possible that is what Salem is referring to when she calls him a successful experiment.

So the way Salem has dealt with people with silver eyes has gone:

Maria (kill her) > Summer (?!?!) > TR (an... experiment) > Ruby (bring her to me alive)

Adding TR into the mix, it seems unlikely that the "something new" Salem learned she could do from Summer Rose would actually have been, y'know, a Hound. Plus from a narrative perspective, I don't think we're going to have Ruby literally saying exactly what happened to Summer into the camera only for her to turn up, Hound-ified just as expected, a couple volumes later. So, some possibilities:

Ruby is actually exactly correct about what happened to Summer, but she's not going to show up later so there's no reason not to just tell us. Personally I doubt it's this, given the way the mystery has been unfolding over eight volumes and counting. It'd be kind of weird to just tell us instead of showing us, or indeed having the Hound literally be Summer. Also, if Summer is a Hound too then why is TR an experiment?

Summer was Grimmified but didn't survive the process, so she gave Salem the idea but she's not actually a Hound. This also seems a bit odd to me given that would mean she's basically just dead like we assumed, but with extra steps. Like it's upsetting but it doesn't represent the kind of dramatic upheaval to the sisters' worldviews that it feels like this is building towards. It doesn't explain how fucking smug Salem is about the whole thing.

Summer was Grimmified, but didn't actually lose any agency. This would explain why Salem is still experimenting, and why she's so pleased with TR—he's even more singleminded in carrying out her goals than Tyrian is. It also fits with the way the Grimmification worked on Salem. Even after she jumped into the goop, she was still very much herself—it's possible it influenced her, but she was definitely capable of showing love and affection to both Ozma and her daughters. She just, uhh,,, was also willing to try and murder them. But it's unclear to me how much of that was Evil Goo and how much was just that there's no way a human being spends any significant length of time as the Last Woman Alive without some unpleasant side effects. We're social creatures and we do not generally do well when completely deprived of company.

Summer wasn't Grimmified at all, the whole Hound thing is a red herring.

In either 3 or 4, regardless of how much body horror happened, Ruby is wrong about what happened to Summer. And in order to not undercut that moment of utter despair at what probably happened to Summer... I feel like what actually did happen has to be. like. worse.

AND IT'S A TAD DIFFICULT TO GET WORSE THAN THE HOUND.

So. Time to put our tinfoil hats on: what if we add an element of horrible betrayal?

Yes this is a Summer-joined-Salem conspiracy post.

But hear me out okay! Circling back a bit, why wouldn't Summer tell any of the inner circle where she was going? If she talked to anyone, it was Raven, who had already noped the fuck out by the time Summer went on her final mission. Now, if it was just Tai and Qrow I'd say she might've kept it from them for the same reason everyone always keeps that secret—she didn't want them to lose hope. But... Ozpin already knows. There'd be no reason not to tell him what she was doing, unless she knew he'd try to stop her.

Now: my goal here is to make all this make sense, without altering the first foundational piece of characterization we get for Summer. Namely, "Super-Mom: Baker of cookies and slayer of giant monsters." I'm not saying Summer learned the truth and went, welp, if you can't beat 'em join 'em. Because both Summer and Raven tend to act as foils to Ruby and Yang, and "gave up immediately" doesn't feel like an interesting foil to Ruby's perserverence. But, if you find out that there's an existential threat to the entire world, and she can't be killed...

Isn't it worth trying to negotiate?

Especially if, say, you were absolutely desperate to end this war in your lifetime. Because Summer knows that if it's really impossible, if Salem can't be stopped, then Ruby will get dragged in whether she likes it or not. All because of a trait that Summer passed down to her.

Salem's been killing people with silver eyes, probably for millenia. It's easily possible that Summer had her own visit from someone like Tock, or noticed the same thing Maria's father did, that there's a suspicious lack of people with silver eyes considering how useful they are against the Grimm. As long as Salem is a threat, Ruby is going to be in that same danger. Forever.

So she has to do something, right? If there's even the tiniest chance she can end this now, before Ruby will ever have to suffer for it, before she gets pulled into an impossible war and Yang comes charging in after her, because of course she's going to try to help her sister... isn't that a chance worth taking?

This is why I think Raven knows some shit, by the by—when she's telling Yang about Salem, she actually kind of indirectly drops the same bomb that went off in Volume 6, it's just that she didn't do it in the same explicit terms that Jinn did. "She can't be stopped, she can't be reasoned with, and she will not rest until Humanity crumbles at her feet."

"Can't be stopped" is Raven's translation of can't be killed, since "We don't have to kill you to stop you" seems to be a flavor of terrifying exclusive to Ruby and apparently Summer. But "can't be reasoned with" implies that somebody tried. And like, let's be honest. Do we really think Raven was the one who decided to give diplomacy a go?

Not to mention this line, which I'm like 90% sure is referring to Summer:

"Or... you can go back to Qrow and join Ozpin's impossible war against Salem, and meet the same fate as so many others."

It really seems like Raven knows something she's not telling us. Like, if that is a reference to Summer's fate, does that mean Raven knows what it is, or is she just speculating like everyone else? Does she have a portal to Summer, and is that giving her information the others don't have? All that, combined with the fact that she's also way more bitter about Summer than everyone else, seems signficant.

Anyways. Let's say Summer decides to have a chat with Salem.

She can't tell Ozpin. He'd try to stop her, because he'd see it as a suicide mission. Qrow or Tai both might tell him, or agree with him and get in her way, so she keeps it from them too. Maybe she goes off completely by herself—or maybe she goes to Raven, because she's the only one who might be able to help who Summer knows won't breathe a word of it to Ozpin. Either way, Raven doesn't help her. She's not getting anywhere near Salem.

And then... well. Salem got here by manipulating people, by swaying them to her cause. Summer asks her what she actually wants out of all this. Isn't there some way they could resolve this without this endless war, all this endless death?

Important to note, I don't think we've heard Salem's motivation in her own words. At least, not since the Lost Fable, when she wanted to rule with Ozpin as the new gods of Remnant. I think it's safe to say at least a few things have changed since then. Closest I can think of is what she says to Cinder in Volume 8, "In pursuit of a new world, no cost is too great." Which is ominous, but also quite vague, and says nothing about what she plans to do with the relics.

Instead, we get a whole lot of people guessing. Ozpin thinks she wants to die. Tyrian thinks she wants to destroy the world. Hazel and Mercury think she wants to remake it, with no Huntsman Academies, with them as the new top dogs.

There's a pattern here—Salem never actually says what she wants, and other people have a habit of projecting their own motives onto her actions. Ozpin wants to die, Hazel wants to destroy the Huntsmen Academies, Mercury wants to be the one with the power so he's not getting hurt, and Tyrian's just in it for the chaos.

And it's not like Salem hasn't done stuff like that on purpose. By the time she started growing her army against the gods and telling people they would all steal immortality like she did, she'd already tried to kill herself. She didn't want immortality. She just let people think she did, because it was more convenient for her.

So if this agent of Ozpin's comes to her, absolutely desperate for a way to end the fight before it can come for her daughters, well... why not just tell her about the gods? About how Ozpin plans to one day reunite the relics, and submit Remnant to their judgment? About what might happen if he does?

(TBH I don't think Oz will ever do that, not because I think he's decided not to or anything like that, but because I doubt he'll ever see a humanity united enough for it to be worth trying. We're an argumentative bunch.)

But like. To Summer, all of a sudden there's this other, even bigger existential threat. And Salem isn't like Ozpin. She does have a plan! She wants to destroy the relics, so that the gods can never be resummoned, because of course she hates them and so she would never want them to come back!

(Again, not saying this is actually true, my best guess is that she's trying to bring them back so she can fight them again slkdfjlskdj)

And then, if they succeed, not only will the gods not be a threat anymore, Salem won't be a threat either. She'll have gotten what she wants!

"This can all... be... over..."

Summer has to finish this. There has to be a way for her to do this by herself, to save everyone, to put a stop to it all in time to protect her children! (Raven can't be right, it can't just be hopeless!)

From there, all Salem really needs to do is be a bit careful how much she tells her other followers about what she plans to do—which it seems like she has—and eventually find a way to either hide what relics she has or convince Summer that she's trying really hard to destroy them, definitely, pinky promise!

(And, as an aside: if true, it's very possible that the reason Salem's so insistent on keeping Ruby alive isn't that she wants to turn her into another Hound, but rather that was one of Summer's conditions.)

All this, of course, may or may not come with a sprinkle of Grimmification. Because why not add some body horror to the good old-fashioned betrayal horror! Though, if I'm right and not going completely off the wall here, I suspect it's probably more in the vein of Cinder than TR. Namely, like, consensual.

Regardless, it definitely feels like Summer has been idealized to a point that's just sort of... begging for trouble. She's the perfect Huntress. The best of us. The one who would have pressed on. And like, historically putting people on pedestals like that has not gone well in this show (see: Pyrrha). Not to mention the way trying to be the perfect Huntress that Summer was has been affecting Ruby over the years.

Also, definitely totally unrelated to all of the above: I think paragons that turn to evil despite or indeed because of all their wonderful paragon qualities FUCK SEVERELY and I would like to see it.

[xtruss]

At Long Last, The American Buffalo Has Come Home

A conservation effort has returned bison to Blackfeet Nation tribal lands more than a century after the animal was nearly slaughtered to extinction.

— Photographs By Louise Johns | By Lailani Upham | Sunday July 09, 2023

“Nititawahsi” is the Blackfeet name for our land—the land where the iinnii (buffalo) live. Our people are Niitawahsin-nanni: the people of the land where the iinnii live.

As colonizers moved west, millions of buffalo were killed and brought to the edge of extinction. Millions more Native peoples were murdered, displaced, and forced to assimilate. By the end of the 19th century, only 300 buffalo were left in the wild and Native populations dropped to less than 300,000.

Now, after more than 150 years, iinnii have finally returned to their homeland, the Amskapi Pikuni (Blackfeet Nation) tribal lands, to roam free.

Forty-nine buffalo run out of their temporary enclosure towards Chief Mountain on the Blackfeet Reservation. The rest of the herd (about 70 buffalo) will join them at the end of the summer. Chief Mountain is not only prime buffalo habitat, but also a sacred place for Native people in both the U.S. and Canada.

“I can’t hardly describe the feeling that I have. I have this jittery feeling, goosebumps,” says Ervin Carlson, director of the Blackfeet Nation Buffalo Program. “It just feels so good to finally see them here in this place where we want them to be.”

On June 26, 49 iinnii were released into the wild at the base of our sacred Ninaistako (Chief Mountain), a Strong Miistaaki (Mountain) that stands tall like the warbonnets of Blackfeet warriors. This miistaaki towers along the border of the Blackfeet Nation, Glacier National Park in Montana, and Waterton National Park in Canada.

Our people, the Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy) always believed the land we came from was a gift of the Creator, Ihtsi-pai-tapi-yopa. Our stories tell us that iinnii was created as a gift for our people as our life source. The iinnii were and still are our staff of life.

The iinnii coming back and being free on Blackfoot lands again is the beginning of reconciliation, says Cristina Mormorunni, director of Indigenous Led, the organization that leads cultural restoration and conservation of buffalo on Blackfoot lands. “This is the beginning of the truth being told about what happened, and they’re the best ambassadors,” she says.

Helen Augare, a Blackfeet knowledge keeper and director of the Blackfeet Community College Native Science Field Center, has been an integral voice in the return of buffalo to Chief Mountain for the past 15 years.

Now that the buffalo are free, she says “there’s so much still to reconnect to and learn from them.”

“What does that future look like and what [do] our children and grandchildren need to know to be able to help iinnii live a full and prosperous life with us again?” Augare says. “It entailed everything from healthy people, healthy land, healthy water, and most of all healthy relationships. That in itself requires a lot of healing, growth.”

Buffalo are corralled and sorted (calves from adults, and males from females) at the tribal-owned Buffalo Spirit Hills Ranch on June 25, 2023. The herd, originally from Canada’s Elk Island National Park, have been living on the ranch since 2016. The herd descends from the last remaining wild buffalo before they were nearly extirpated.

Blackfeet tribal member Wyett Wippert takes a photo of his daughter, Ruby, in front of the buffalo in their soft release pen at Chief Mountain. “We put so much of our hearts into getting them here,” he says. “It’s a very good feeling knowing that they are under Chief Mountain. People know what they’re going to be doing for their environment and for us as Blackfeet people.” The buffalo are held here for several hours to settle into their surroundings before being released into the wild.

Racine, Monroe, and director Ervin Carlson of the Blackfeet Buffalo Program, on June 25, 2023, after a long day of preparing buffalo to be released at Chief Mountain. “It’s a lot of work to get these animals to this point… they are wild buffalo,” Racine says. “Nobody can do it by themselves. It’s a real honor to be able to have the Iinnii here and to be doing this.”

Blackfeet tribal members Wyett Wippert and Christen Falcon work together to stretch their bison hide onto their handmade wooden frame, the first step in tanning the hide by hand at their home in East Glacier, Montana. on April 9, 2023.

“Bison are a keystone species, they are ecosystem drivers and engineers. They were here for thousands of years,” says Brandon Kittson, wildlife biologist for Blackfeet Fish and Wildlife. “Now having them back on this landscape is a good thing. It’s going to help revitalize some systems and help drive diversity among the different vegetation and communities found in this area.”

Children collect and examine clumps of buffalo fur from the corral at Buffalo Spirit Hills Ranch on June 25, 2023. The fur is integral to the health of the grassland ecosystem, as certain species of birds use it to line and insulate their nests.

— Photojournalist Louise Johns is a National Geographic Explorer. Her National Geographic Society-funded Project, "Buffalo Renaissance," is about Native American efforts to restore Bison to build cultural resiliency and ecological integrity.

[strqyr]

pretty much all we know about gretchen is what ozpin told oscar: that she enrolled at beacon academy despite her brother's wishes to become a huntress, and that she tragically lost her life on a training mission.

if ozpin knows something more about gretchen that he isn't telling, the show hasn't given much of a reason to suspect anything outside of a general "well, ozpin keeps secrets, so... who knows?" everything about gretchen seems to be rooted in becoming a huntress, whether she was ready for it or not—that is what oscar focuses on and asks hazel about after ozpin's explanation: "did she know the risk of being a huntress?" "she was only a child! she wasn't ready!"—, and thus hazel's desire to see a new world where the academies are no more.

now, ozpin's explanation is vague in a sense that he never states the cause of death. gretchen being a huntress-in-training who lost her life during a training mission implies grimm, but it's never actually stated so; if he is hiding something re: gretchen's death, that's what i'd be focusing on, since if he's blatantly lying, why didn't jinn bring it up? why didn't ozpin come clean later on during their captivity inside monstra, where hazel also played a major role? if hazel knows more, explaining why he blames ozpin so strongly, why never bring it up?

is ozpin hiding the whole truth of what happened to gretchen, or is he hiding a small part of it by omitting a detail or two, and if so, why? is he taking the blame to protect someone else? a question of greater good? the same as lying about lionheart's role in the attack on haven?

and that's why i'm now questioning if gretchen was a maiden. it would neatly explain why she was, supposedly, allowed to attend beacon when she "wasn't ready"—nothing new for ozpin there, and gretchen could be a combination of ruby & jaune in that way—but if that's the case... why never bring it up? they wouldn't need to specify which maiden she was if that's considered to give too much away (i.e. if she was the spring maiden), but any explanation from ozpin akin to "gretchen was a maiden and that's why i allowed her to attend beacon even if she wasn't ready, bc the risk of her being hunted down was too high and beacon was the safest place for her" surely couldn't hurt?

it also has a chance to make "no more gretchens, boy" ring a bit hollow, especially if gretchen was the spring maiden and involved in summer's mission, bc of what happened to penny afterwards; how is anyone supposed to prevent it from happening again, when no one knows what exactly happened to gretchen in the first place?

so. the academies. oscar asks hazel if gretchen knew the risk of being a huntress, to which hazel—who desired to see a world with no huntsmen academies—replies: "she was only a child! she wasn't ready!"

"they're supposed to be the defenders of the world," says glynda. "and they will be," says ozpin, "but right now they're still children. so why not let them play the part?" and it's a nice statement... if they weren't a part of system created by oz that encourages children as young as thirteen to pick up a weapon, and to learn how to fight.

why start training your "defenders of the world" when they're still children? what's the rush, why not wait when they're older?

is there more depth to what happened to gretchen, or is it exactly what it says on the tin: that the system is broken, and it needs fixing?

[nin-deer]

god the newest chapter of onk revealed so much to me about ruby a;lsdkhfaslkdf; (spoilers below)

We knew why Gorou was obsessed with Ai being one of his last things Sarina left behind, but now we get Sarina's real obsession: her mother.

Assuming from the end of the chapter and what we know from Aqua, her mom was not good. But because of the false hope she gave to her child, Sarina believed her. She wanted to believe that her mom loved her, so she took that as the truth. Sarina has no way of knowing what was happening behind the scenes, like how we learn from Aqua no one actually visited her. Who knows how long ago that memory from Sarina was?

Then she dies and Ai becomes her mom, and that obsession forms. Her idol is now her mom, one of the only positive figures in her past life? What a dream! Then Ai gets killed and the murderer is so close, and she starts her revenge plot. As Ruby, her perfect life got pulled away from her (perfect family, perfect health), so now she wants to get back at the person who took it away from her.

What will happen when she finds out her mom didn't actually love her? Will we finally get a Gorou/Sarina reveal? WIll Ruby spiral even further????