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itsclydebitches · 4 years ago

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Witch”

Happy Saturday, everyone! Well, it's perhaps happier provided you didn't watch today’s episode lol. Getting through these 18 minutes felt like watching an extended version of a CinemaSins vid. I heard a little 'ding!' every time something nonsensical, contradictory, or just downright stupid happened. My mind became a pinball machine.

Which, in the interest of being fair as opposed to just snarky, only matters if you're looking for something resembling emotional depth in this show. RWBY, for all its faults, is enjoyable as a mindless spectacle. It's when you expect — or simply hope — for anything more that this very fragile house of cards comes tumbling down.

If it’s not clear already, today’s recap contains copious amounts of salt. Fair warning.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s dive in. Episode nine is titled "Witch," which is fitting since many members of our group go toe-to-toe against Salem herself. The narrative issues inherent in having your heroes fighting their final boss years before the series is meant to end might have been avoided if it weren't for Oscar's ridiculous, sacrificial attack... but we'll get to that.

We open with a sweeping shot of the Atlas battle, as hundreds of dead soldiers segue into endless grimm. Hold onto that image for a bit. At the end of this carnage is, of course, the mouth of the whale. We cut to Jaune, Ren, and Yang already safely inside.

"Well," says Yang, "that was harrowing."

I'm on the fence about this choice. On the one hand, yes, it's good that RWBY knows it can skip over extraneous scenes. We have NINE characters to keep track of and develop, fourteen if you count Ozpin, Maria, Winter, Ironwood, and now Whitley. Plus villains. There simply isn't time to show every insignificant moment... but was this insignificant? Obviously finding Oscar and escaping Salem's clutches is the true hurdle of this mission, but that doesn't mean getting through an entire army of grimm is in any way a cake walk. I'd be more willing to ignore this time skip if it weren't likewise presented as such a challenge for Winter's team. They have to "clear a path" to the whale, but our trio got there unscathed and unnoticed? The obvious implication here is that Ren just masked them the whole way — supported by his aura breaking later in the episode — but it still feels like we missed an important chunk of this task.

I'm nit-picking though. As said, I’m straddling the fence on this one and, given that, I'm inclined to settle on a, "Good job, RWBY. You're keeping the writing tight," if only because I don't have much else to praise about this episode. Throw the poor, struggling show a bone lol.

Now that they're inside, they realize they haven't the slightest idea how they'll find Oscar. “Like finding a needle in a giant…whale… why did we think this was a good idea?!” Because you and your friends are idiots who no longer bother to think about a situation before throwing yourself straight into it? This isn't me being mean to Yang, she literally says as much later on. Our heroes no longer get by on intellect, strategy, and skill, but rather plot armor and a staggering number of coincidences. For example, Ren.

Yang: Wow, it sure is lucky for us that on our way to this incredibly dangerous mission Ren inexplicably developed a new part of his semblance. Now he can not only mask peoples' emotions, see the true emotions that someone is feeling, pull thoughts out of their head about what they believe about a situation, but can also track someone across long distances through their emotions alone. Even that doesn't actually help us find Oscar, we just got lucky again when, in this maze of a whale, he ran right into us!

Me: So what were you going to do if this meta-world stopped giving you the most contrived solutions in Remnant history?

Yang: Die gloriously, I guess.

What Yang actually says is, "Okay. That's new!" and they enter the literal belly of the beast wielding a shield of convenience.

Jaune is also being awkward again because remember, RWBY doesn't know when to incorporate humor and when to treat a situation seriously. He reminds Ren not to "drain [himself]," he'll help him, and it's clear the scene is hinting at their earlier fight. There's a lot to unpack there, but I want to save it for the second conversation.

For now, we cut to Oscar, curled up in his cell, repeating stories to comfort himself. Yeah that's fine. I could use a broken heart right before Valentine's Day.

“She brushed off her bumps and bruises, for nothing hurt worse than the loneliness in her chest." It's a line from The Girl Who Fell Through the World, which Ozpin recognizes given that he's "lived through" a fair number of fairy tales. He immediately asks how Oscar is holding up — because he's a caring person! — and Oscar admits that he never understood why the girl of the tale was sad upon reaching home again. Now he does: she wasn't the same person anymore. I don't think the fact that Oscar has had both a metaphorical fall — leaving his farm to 'fall' into this war — and a literal one — falling through Atlas to unlock his magic — is lost on anyone. This is a nice allusion to our themes. Yang's speech to Salem later on? That’s something else entirely.

Storytelling done, Ozpin says he thinks "this plan to divide might have run its course” and it's time to try and find a way to leave. I'm sorry, I love my farm boy, but what plan? He didn't do anything. At least nothing that could remotely be termed an intellectual plot. Oscar convinced Ozpin to try and turn Hazel by telling him the world would end under Salem's rule and the only reason that worked is because the story decided to chuck out Hazel's entire character. You know, the one that hates Ozpin above all others, wants the world remade into a non-Academy horror show, can't understand that people make their own choices, is terrified of Salem, and has no reason to trust a prisoner he's currently torturing. Oscar's "plan" hinged on his writers erasing a great deal of work to build a new story that fits said “plan.” He didn't even get Emerald involved, she just — again, conveniently — eavesdropped outside their door at just the right moment.

To be clear, I'm not against a story being written to work in the hero's favor. Of course things are going to be convenient in a happy-ending tale. Someone manages to hold out just as long as they need to, a sword is lying just within reach, you, yes, happen to run into the one person you're desperate to find. This kind of stuff is reassuring, telling its audiences that sometimes things do work out for the best. It's enjoyable... but only provided the hero's entire success doesn't hinge on fate being shockingly kind to them. That's what RWBY has become. A world where Salem doesn't attack Mantle, Amity Tower is suddenly finished, the group can charge into any deadly situation they want to and bank on destiny twisting around itself to ensure they come out of it safely. A hero finding a convenient weapon nearby to defeat their enemy with is only reassuring after we've seen them implement a brilliant attack, struggle, nearly win, but then suddenly be faced with failure, necessitating that little push from coincidence. They earned it. The hero doesn't get to run in blindly and find a Defeat Bad Guy plot point gift wrapped for them at the first sign of trouble. They just die.

RWBY used to be a better written show because that's precisely Pyrrha's story. She charged a Maiden unprepared, without a single plan or hope for success, and she died. That's what happens in a dangerous, internally consistent world, but RWBY has since lost the second half of that formula.

I'm harping on this because this entire episode is built on that foundation of coincidence, something that shouldn't be happening at all, but especially not when you're pitting the heroes against Salem herself.

So yeah, it just gets worse from here.

Back to Oscar. Without the cane magic is the only weapon they have at their disposal, but he's reluctant to use it because every time he does, they merge more quickly.

They... do?

Okay, there are three major problems with this announcement:

I'm pretty sure we've only seen Oscar use magic once: creating that barrier to survive the fall through Atlas. That was the point of his near death experience, to unlock something that had previously been unavailable to him. Yet if he's only used it once, why is he so sure that it hurries the merge along? What's this "every time" business? This confusion could have easily been avoided if the show had just let Oscar use his magic this volume, tackling some other questions and gaps in the process. Let him use it to fight off the grimm in Mantle, giving him the opportunity to admit to at least Jaune, Ren, and Yang that Ozpin is back. He could have used some magic against the Hound with Ozpin's encouragement, answering the question of why he was entirely silent while the two of them got their ass beat. Give us a moment where Oscar uses his magic against Hazel, nearly escaping in the process, but is captured again at the last moment. Basically, his line makes it sound like magic has been this ongoing resource with an established downside when... it hasn’t.

Coinciding with all of the above, how is it that Oscar can suddenly use magic at will? Yeah, yeah, he unlocked it during the fall, but really? You open up the magic gates and from then on out it's as natural as breathing? This is the same issue with Ruby's silver eyes. The story gives these characters incredible powers, but never has them talking about how they work, let alone training them. They just exist, perfect in execution, as soon as the plot needs them. (See: the final shot of this episode.) At least Weiss had to practice her summoning for multiple volumes.

Finally, the question of how Oscar instinctively knows how to use magic could easily be answered with, "Well, he's kind of Ozpin now," but that would require the story to actually explain what the merge is. "We merge faster," Oscar says, but what does that mean? The Ozpin and Oscar we see in this scene are fundamentally indistinguishable from the Ozpin and Oscar who existed at his aunt's house, four whole years ago. They're still separate people, with one controlling the body and the other existing as a consciousness he can talk to. Nothing has changed. The show keeps insisting that Oscar is going through this deep and painful arc of losing himself to Ozpin... despite the fact that he has yet to lose a single bit of Oscar-ness. Has he changed? Well of course, but anyone going through these experiences is going to change. Remove the "merge" aspect and Oscar's confidence or power up is likewise indistinguishable from any of the other characters' developments. Nora is becoming more of an individual this volume. Ren is becoming more powerful in his semblance. Neither have an Ozpin to force that change, it just happens on its own. So what separates Oscar from every other character going through a formative experience? When is “I’m not the same person anymore” due to unnatural magic vs. just growing up?

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy our boy is getting more screen time — and that the cast is actually being kind to him now — but overall his arc is objectively terrible. He bought some clothes, told Ironwood he was as bad as Salem, told Hazel how to access the Relic, and then asked him not to be a villain anymore. Somehow these things are presented as significant moments of growth while the real questions surrounding his merge go unanswered.

“Honestly, I think you’re doing just fine on your own," Ozpin tells him, but he's not. God knows our boy is trying, but this is a moment where Ozpin's self-hatred (and the story's insistence that the younger generation is intrinsically better than the older) is blinding him to the situation. Oscar has made terrible decisions lately, in as much as he's been able to decide anything at all, and now he's rejecting escaping captivity because he's terrified of a concept he doesn't even understand yet. None of that is fine. Reassurance is one thing, but painting this situation as Oscar making better choices than he would with Ozpin's input is insane. He literally just decided to keep them in Salem's clutches indefinitely because something something magic is scary, I guess. Oscar doesn't need a, 'You're better than me' speech, he needs a reality check so they don't both die. Remember back in Volume 5 when Oscar, a brave but idiotic 14 year old, insisted on fighting someone entirely out of his league and Ozpin was like,

then saved him from getting his head crushed in like a cantaloupe? We need more of that. Our teenage heroes need guidance, but because RWBY keeps insisting that every adult they encounter is corrupt or incompetent, that hasn't happened in three volumes. They're just aloud to decide things like, “Let's tell our captor the Relic's password because UwU ~trust~” and then the story bends over backwards to make that work. Instead we could, you know, let characters learn that they can be wrong.

The snow scene was the beginning, but RWBY really went off the rails the day it let Qrow warn the group against stealing from and attacking an allied city, only for them to call him an idiot for doubting them. Now, Ozpin doesn't even get to warn Oscar about stupid decisions, he just agrees with them, reassuring and passive. Never mind the complication of whether Ozpin is even emotionally capable of providing guidance after they labeled him the worst thing to ever happen to them.

Why does RWBY keep ruining my faves 😔

Anyway, we’ve got to stay on track. Oscar has decided to just lie there but, luckily for him, Hazel's redemption — I use that term so loosely — has begun. He drags Oscar out of his cell before we cut to Winter.

She's leading a portion of Ironwood's army, trying to get things ready for when the bomb arrives. Neon and Flynt are a part of her team, sharing scared glances and trying to remain optimistic. It's a legitimately hard-hitting moment, striking that balance between horror and hope. Funny though, I wonder that RWBYJNOR would think of their friends fighting for evil Ironwood...

Marrow, continuing the tradition of insisting that our heroes be both adults and kids simultaneously, looks sadly at the soldiers heading into battle and goes, "But... they're just kids." I would like to remind everyone reading that Ruby is younger than them. Anyone who thinks that these teenagers shouldn't be fighting grimm — the thing they have been training to do as their professional career, during an unprecedented attack on their home — should not simultaneously be looking to the girl who is two years younger as his savior. (Something that, while not overt yet, is very much where Marrow is heading as he continually doubts the Ace Ops and looks to RWBY's group as his new, moral leaders.) I'm glad that, for once, this perspective is firmly called out. Elm arrives to tell him point blank that he needs to figure out his personal ethics later. It doesn't matter because there's an army of grimm out there and monsters aren't going to spare anyone, adult or child. Quit philosophizing and kill some already.

Back to Hazel where we get the doorway shot from our trailer. He's taken Oscar to the Relic, because of course he has. Do I really need to list how convenient this is too? Apparently, "the moment we move that thing, this place goes on high alert," but there’s no alarm for when Oscar is taken from his cell, they enter the Relic's room, or when they use it. What does a movement alert matter if someone can just waltz in and waste the last question themselves? Put some of those endless grimm in the room to guard it, Salem!

Just assume that I am, at any given point in this episode, letting out the longest sigh my lungs are physically capable of.

Emerald shows up, demonstrating both the convenience of everyone arriving when they need to, and the very real danger that Salem herself could come in and discover what they're up to. Hazel has Oscar summon Jinn, only to immediately say that “Actually, I think all my questions are answered now.”

I'm sorry, how does this answer any of Hazel's questions? His driving question was not, "Is the Relic actually a magical object capable of doing magical things?" but rather "Are you telling me the truth about Salem's plans to summon the Gods and destroy all of Remnant in her quest to finally die, thereby changing who I'm going to support in this war?" Seeing a naked, blue djinn does not answer that question.

Hazel's "redemption" is non-existent. He — we — learned about Salem's death wish despite how that contradicts previous lore, then he trusted Ozpin despite that contradicting his entire character, now he joins the heroes because, literally, he sees Jinn floating there. It’s bad enough that Hazel goes from clear villain to sacrificial hero in a matter of in-world hours, but we don’t even get a reason for why that change occurred.

Oh, there's also this:

So Jinn doesn't come out of her lamp unless someone intends to ask a question, but does it for Ruby because she's special, yet still reiterates that this won't happen again. Then Oscar summons her without intending to ask a question, she comes out anyway, confirms that none of them seek knowledge from her, and happily pops back inside her lamp because eh, it’s whatever.

If RWBY had any courage the three of them would be cursed now for toying with a powerful, magical object. Remember the days when Jinn was a little terrifying because it felt like she was warping her answers and we had no idea what she might do to someone who used her carelessly? When she felt like a djinn? Good times.

Or better times, at least.

So Good Guy Hazel and Good Gal Emerald promise to get Oscar out. Never mind all the horror they caused, the people they killed, and that for Hazel, at least, this defection is coming out of nowhere.

Anyone remember that Emerald orchestrated Penny's death? No? Just me?

As they leave it turns out Neo was camouflaged against the wall, because she was also precisely where she needed to be. Does everyone just periodically pop into the Relic room to see what’s going on? At least this time it's not working in the heroes' favor. Remember when I said it's beyond idiotic for Oscar to just hand out the Relic information to known enemies currently holding him captive and torturing him?

Yeeeeaah.

So Neo's got the Lamp. Funny how all of this could have been avoided if Ruby had just put it in the vault like she came to Atlas to do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We return to our trio where Jaune and Ren need to rest because their aura is giving out. Good! These guys fought a battle, fought Neo, fought more grimm, fought the Hound, traipsed through the tundra, presumably fought through more grimm to get to the whale, and have been using both their semblances to look for Oscar. It's about time their reserves started to falter.

Jaune decides to scout ahead a bit, leaving Yang and Ren to talk about nothing of importance. I mean that seriously. Remember a few days ago when I spoke about how, if the snow conversation does come back up, Ren's points would be entirely ignored for a nonsensical “I’m glad we’re friends” speech? Remember how I also spoke about how every emotional beat now is entirely generic and you could replace any character with another and not a single thing would change? Yeah. This is both those arguments in one. Nothing is said about the points Ren made. His problems with how the group has been acting lately and the very real, very deadly consequences it has had are flat out ignored. We went from

"But these aren't the kinds of decisions we should be making because we have no idea what we're doing!"

"Forward, no matter what!"

in a matter of hours, with precisely zero insight into how Ren went from one perspective to the exact opposite. Kind of like Hazel. Because see, RWBY doesn't write arcs, it just writes one thing until it decides to switch it up for something else, with the opposite idea presented as a “resolution” or a “twist.” Our creators writes scenes they know the fandom is begging for without considering how to get a character to that place, let alone how to get them out of it. That's all Ren's speech was, the equivalent of moral fan service. Here's a glimpse of actual character depth and a morally gray situation... now forget it ever happened because we're back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Instead of working through the laundry list of issues Ren raised, Ren instead accepts Jaune's aura help — something they've been doing since Argus — and tells Yang it's okay to be scared. These moments are meaningless and, as said, could have been between anyone in our cast. Ren could have told Nora she doesn't have to use jokes to cover up that she's scared. Jaune could have reminded Ruby that she can depend on him. Yang could have tried to keep Blake and Weiss' hopes up. This scenes ignores the individuality of the characters, like the fact that they just fought over very different world views, to instead favor any dime-a-dozen moment of support. The number of times this volume has rejected the conflict and resolution the group needs for bland, generic reassurances staggering.

Also, apparently Jaune isn't scared at all? I don't think that's as good a thing as Ren seems to think...

Then Jaune immediately rounds the corner, terrified lol.

One of the seer grimm is on its way and he tells Ren to mask them. Apparently he had been masking them before — one of the reasons he's so tired now, trying to do two things at once — but it's only here that they go black and white again. Ren manages to keep it up for a little while, but his aura breaks before the seer passes and they're spotted.

Hark! A consequence!

That was well done. It makes sense and it adds to the stakes. We've seen the insane amount of fighting the group has done since Volume 7, we just established that they're at their breaking point, and then Ren's aura fails him right when he needs it the most. Add this to the miniscule pile of things that were well done this episode.

Salem runs into Emerald and Hazel, the former of which is acting very suspicious when asked if he's made any headway with Oscar. The seer's alarm interrupts them though and... okay. Was I the only one who cackled during this moment? Between Salem's voice acting and the fact that she just yeets herself down the hallway, it came across as really funny to me.

Either way, it is a bad situation. Our trio is trying to figure out what to do, to which Yang responds, "Do what we do best… charge blindly into danger!!”

Ren's aura is broken. Jaune barely has any left and it’s unlikely he could heal right now even if Ren had any aura to amplify. If Ren takes a single hit anywhere important he is dead.

Me, on my knees, surrounded by the ashes of the Hound, the last bit of serious storytelling we had: "For the love of God, the kingdom is on fire and simultaneously dying of cold. There's a grimm army decimating hundreds outside. Half their group is missing and they're wandering lost inside a devil whale, about to have the most powerful being Remnant has ever known personally try to kill them — can we please have their attitudes reflect that?"

The answer, in case you were wondering, is no.

Back to the bomb. Whatever scientists were given this task have completed it and Marrow watches as it's flown out towards the whale. "Come on, Juan" he whispers and I'm all, "Juan?" Apparently it's a callback to last volume when Marrow couldn't remember Jaune's actual name, but it took me hopping onto the RWBY wiki to remember that.

As death via explosion inches closer, the trio runs into Hazel and Emerald. Turns out though that Hazel is really Oscar, disguised through Emerald's semblance. Nice trick! Jaune immediately drops both weapons to hug Oscar and, while that's nice and all, it's also the stupidest thing he could possible do in enemy territory. Also, Oscar has been beaten up by the Hound, tortured with magic, and likewise beaten bloody by Hazel. I was hoping for a tender hug like the one Nora gave him, not a giant squeeze for more comedy purposes. It just feels like RWBY has no idea how to manage the tone of this volume, let alone the torture of a child...

There's the obligatory, "Why should we trust you?" from Yang regarding Emerald joining the team, to which Ren responds, "Because she's scared, just like us."

That doesn't prove anything. Literally everyone is scared right now. There is a war going on. I really cannot emphasize enough how RWBY throws out Deep™ sounding lines that are, upon inspection, absolutely nonsensical. Nora reminding Penny that there are different parts to her personhood, Hazel saying that all his questions have been answered, Ren announcing that Emerald is scared... it's all worthless chatter that has no bearing on their problems: How do I keep from being hacked? How do I know you're telling the truth? How do we know you're trustworthy after you spent years trying to kill us? But of course, because it's RWBY, Ren's announcement is treated as some sort of secret truth that everyone accepts. Emerald joins up.

As they head for an exit we return to Marrow who, frankly, is getting on my last nerve. I know the fandom loves him because he's clearly leaning towards Team RWBY, but does anyone actually listen to what he says? He starts yelling at Winter for sending in the bomb because the trio might still be alive in there, despite:

Seeing for himself the hundreds of soldiers that have fallen trying to keep Atlas safe

Knowing and hearing again from Winter that the only way to stop this carnage is to take out the whale. Given more time, the whole city falls

Sadly announcing to the world that children shouldn't have to fight in a battle, rather than just joining the fray and helping to keep those kids safe

How does Marrow think those kids are going to be able to stop fighting? How does he think he'll get a city to return to? It's no wonder that he's drawn to Ruby because both characters stand around twiddling their thumbs, mourning that things are bad, and blaming others for imperfect solutions rather than doing something to make the situation better. Marrow's disgust at Winter over the bomb is precisely the same as Ruby's disgust at Ironwood over Mantle: how dare you not have a plan that results in both victory for us and zero sacrifices? They want perfection which, yes, is an admirable trait, but their problem is they refuse to do anything until that perfection appears. They’re paralyzed, a trait that’s particularly dangerous when your story insists that perfection will never appear: it’s not a fairy tale. So they just continue to get mad at others for the fact that they live in an unfair world. You want that perfect solution? Think it up yourself. Otherwise, stand aside and let those coming up with something do what they can to make things better.

Marrow goes so far as to drag Weiss into things, trying to guilt Winter with the knowledge that she'll have to relate the death of her sister's friends back to her. Winter, because she's a badass who isn't in denial over the situation, tells him that yes, she will shoulder that responsibility. To Marrow's credit he backs off then, but man. RWBY has legitimate moral questions here — when is holding out for a few worth risking the many? — but they go about exploring it in the most frustrating way possible. I personally have no respect for the guy who wants to announce that Children In War Is Bad instead of, you know, using the power he currently has to protect those kids already neck deep in a battle.

Because John Mulaney remains relevant:

"There shouldn't be a horse in the hospital :( "

"We're WELL PAST THAT."

Marrow is the one going, "There shouldn't be kids in a war :( We shouldn't have to kill a few to save the whole kingdom :( " and everyone around him is like, "No shit, dude! But this is the hand we were dealt! You going to help us, or what?"

Literally all of these characters could have been so much more than what they currently are.

Except Winter. She's doing great.

Now for the final scene. Our group nearly manages to escape the whale, but is incapacitated by some sort of screechy power that Salem employs.

She contorts her body, stretching out her arms to snag Emerald, and the others have a brief, but intense skirmish. Jaune manages to block a blast of magic aimed at Ren with his shield — nice — and Yang dots Salem's face with a bunch of bombs before blowing her sky-high — double nice. Oscar shoots out some magic of his own because, yeah, I guess he can just do that now? It really feels like it came out of nowhere after eight episodes of being the punching bag.

Of course, Salem immediately reforms. She traps the group with grimm arms that come out of the whale, interrogating Ozpin about why he bothers to keep coming back. There's a very sad answer there of, "I don't," referring to his lack of choice in reincarnating to fight her.

Yang interrupts their little tet-a-tet to throw the question back in Salem's face, calling her out on her choices. A great idea but, as always, execution: "because something bad happened to you once upon a time? No one gets a fairy tale ending."

I’m sorry, but that dialogue had me cringing. Like I said before, way too on the nose. There's keeping with the fairy tale theme, and then there's shoving the viewer's face in it. More of Oscar's musings on how he relates to the protagonists of fairy tales, blurring the lines between storytelling and reality, which in turn encourages the viewer to consider how they see themselves in the RWBY cast. Less... whatever this is.

Yang goes on to talk about how many people Salem has taken from her, which upon reflection makes a certain amount of sense if you toss in all the people who are here, but changed somehow due to Salem's influence, as well as acquaintances who died as a result of her meddling: Raven is scared off, Tai suffers as a result, Pyrrha dies, Penny dies, Yang loses her arm and her school. I think the dialogue could have been revised to reflect that better though because what Yang implies is that Salem has killed countless of her loved ones, yet what she says is, "Summer Rose. My mom." Honestly, for the few seconds this exchange was happening my thoughts weren't even on Summer. Yang calls Salem out for killing loved ones and my brain went, "Pyrrha??"

That's how little they've done with Yang and Summer. I know in the past I've argued that RWBY has a "better late than never" situation going on, that I would praise them for making the right writing choices even if they arrive years too late... but now that we're here, I find that it's a hard problem to overlook. Summer is Yang's mom? When's the last time we heard that? Volume 2? Whenever the conversation with Blake was. Since then Yang has called Raven "Mom," focused on that emotional connection (or lack thereof), was excluded from the conversation with Qrow, comforted Ruby after she was blindsided by Salem's taunt, and otherwise hasn't mentioned Summer at all. There is no foundation for this accusation except a few lines about getting cookies as a child and the fact that we're tossing references in now makes me worried that we'll indeed get a grimm!Summer reveal. Better remind the audience that she exists before the twist arrives! Honestly, as much as a part of me wants to praise RWBY for trying to get things back on track, moments like this just ring hollow now. They waited years and now it’s too late. It doesn't help that this is the episode where we shrug off Ren's speech. What will Yang's cutting admission amount to based on this trend? Probably nothing. Summer will become Yang’s mom again in another six seasons.

Salem, obviously, doesn't care. The real Hazel arrives and she orders him to take Oscar back to his cell. Instead, he gives him his cane with a whispered, "No more Gretchens, boy."

Behold, another meaningless line. Hazel hates Ozpin for "forcing" Gretchen on a mission and "getting" her killed. The whole point of his villainy is that he doesn't understand the concept of choice and that bad things can happen to good people with no one able to prevent it. Not every loss has a responsible party attached (outside of, you know, Salem/the grimm). So what is he even demanding here? No more huntsmen schools? That's what you wanted Salem for. No more "forcing" people to fight for you? Ozpin never did that in the first place. Or is it just a strange promise that no one else will die here? RWBY seems to be under the impression that they can just name drop dead family members — Summer, Gretchen — and that's that. Emotional depth created, never mind a lack of buildup or clarity.

Then Hazel punches Salem across the room and she releases every single hero from their bonds. See the theme of this episode: convenience. Hazel shoves a whole bunch of dust crystals into his shoulders and yells that he's doing what Gretchen would have wanted, clearly sacrificing himself so that the others can escape. The battle between him and Salem is pretty decent. I enjoyed the dust vs. magic creativity and the sheer damage Salem can take before reforming. This fight really showcases how not human she is.

It does, however, bring into question Hazel's reveal about her needing an hour to heal at the longest. I mentioned how unlikely it would be that our heroes would get the chance to "kill" her multiple times, yet here we are, just a few episodes later. They got that opportunity and... does it matter? Salem's reforming doesn't appear to slow down at all, despite her head getting obliterated at least three times, so at what point does she need longer than a few seconds to heal? If this was meant to be a potential weakness the group would eventually exploit, we needed to see it here, both for that setup and to keep it consistent with Hazel's story.

Regardless, they fight and at first it looks like a pretty straight-forward sacrifice on Hazel's part, giving the group their chance to escape. Except... Oscar.

"She'll just come after us," he tells Jaune, turning away from him to fight.

I need a list for this:

Of course she's going to come after you. This is not some shocking revelation. At no point has anyone thought that escaping the whale is the answer to all their problems, it just creates one less problem to deal with. Namely, the problem of "Our ally is captured, being tortured, and may give up important intel to the enemy. Oh, also he's about to be blown up with a bomb." Salem coming after them doesn’t matter. What matters is making her plans as difficult as possible as you work to come up with more solutions of your own. This is just a smaller version of the Ironwood conflict: “Well, Salem will just follow Atlas into the sky so it’s useless to attempt escape, or to buy ourselves time.” It’s really not. I know I’ve used this ridiculous comparison before, but if you’re ever chased by a horror movie serial killer hell-bent on your destruction and your reaction to this problem is, “Why run? He’ll just chase us. The only possible choice is to fight him with a 99% chance of our death,” then I beg you to re-evaluate things.

What was the point of coming to rescue Oscar if he was just going to stay behind? The whale is about to be blown up by a bomb and the trio risked their lives ten times over to get to him. If I were them I would be pissed. We went through all that to get you out and now you’re refusing to leave when we have a chance? Thanks for that.

Same with Hazel. Not that I care about the guy, but if I was sacrificing myself for others to escape I'd be pretty annoyed at them randomly deciding not to do that.

What does Oscar even think he's going to do? Kill the immortal witch? The entire point of our series is that they can’t do that (yet).

However, if he is able to do something significant via Ozpin's magic, why didn't Ozpin do that generations ago? Somehow I don't think a younger Ozma closer to the height of his power was in a worse position to attack Salem than a tortured, aura-less kid who unlocked his magic yesterday. The more RWBY reveals about Salem, the more I go, “Okay, but why didn’t his happen [insert any number of years] ago?”

Did Jaune actually leave? I assume he's just grabbing an airship or something before coming back to drag Oscar away, but seriously where did he go?

There's no way I can approach this scene without throwing up my hands and going, "What? WHY?" Which is a real shame because we finally get to see a bit of what the cane does and it’s... precisely what Ozpin's magic has always done? I mean, we saw that green shield five years ago and now there's a giant white beam. Okay.

If the beam just hits Salem with Generic Magic Power then there was never anything secret about the cane, it’s just, you know, Ozpin’s weapon. If the cane does something significant to hurt her we're left with the question of why it took literal generations to use it. Nothing is making sense to me and the only way I can think to salvage this scene is if Jaune runs back in, snags Oscar like a sack of potatoes, and runs out yelling about how he's clearly suffering from a concussion because what are you trying to accomplish here?

It doesn't help that this moment feels... final. Hazel has managed to hold Salem in place. Oscar has unlocked his cane and lands some mega hit right before Hazel passes out and looses his hold. Not only does this feel like a scene that should be at the end of the volume (we've still got five episodes), but also the end of the series. RWBY is building Salem into an unbeatable enemy by giving her more and more powers, and simultaneously eliminating the stakes by having our currently weakest character (in terms of exhaustion/injuries/aura/training) landing a shot like that. Why would you nerf Salem's threat level like that in the middle of a volume? Especially with a tool our group has had available from the start? If the cane does damage, maybe lead with that in the, “Here’s why we should stay and fight” office conversation.

I assume that Oscar's hit will obliterate Salem to the point where both he and Hazel have time to escape, or he obliterates both of them (“Do it”) and that's somehow presented as a better choice than just running while Salem is captured, or the bomb will interrupt things somehow... but it's just so shoddily done. At the very least, if they were going to have Oscar refuse to let someone fight alone, have it be an actual friend he's staying to assist. Having Oscar refuse his own rescue to help Hazel has more than one problem attached to it. We can say what we want about RWBY's themes of forgiveness, but this guy was torturing him just a few hours ago while serving Remnant's version of the devil. Just let him sacrifice himself and move on.

And that's where we end. Oscar powering up, the cane getting all magic-y, and him shooting a crazy big blast that engulfs both Salem and Hazel. I can't believe how not excited I am about my farm boy doing something badass, but here we are.

Overall I think this episode was way worse than last week's. We absolutely had problems in "Dark," particularly when it came to the Hound and the group's blind devotion to Ruby, but at least those moments were cushioned by an otherwise decent episode. "Witch" felt like I was watching something closer to a parody of RWBY, one deliberately poking fun at the fandom's desires: erase all conflict for awkward silly times, your favorite villains are instantly good now, the heroes go toe-to-toe with the main antagonist because why not, throw a bunch of magic in there for good measure, and wrap it all up in some over the top "this isn't a fairy tale" lines. I can see the pieces of a much better episode here — Emerald sneaking Oscar out with her semblance, Neo snagging the relic, Flint and Neon, Hazel attacking Salem — but it simply didn't come together.

I know I said this last time, but I have no idea what we're going to do for another five episodes. Salem slowly reforming from bomb damage as the group tries to keep Penny from opening the vault? The grimm attack halted with the whale gone so Qrow can go after Ironwood? The longer this volume runs, the more I think it was a mistake for them to introduce Salem as a fightable antagonist now. RWBY doesn't know what to do with her besides have her inevitably fall in the final season, so until then she's left being stupid (Relic), passive (Mantle), or, likely, written out of the story temporarily so the heroes can turn their attention towards smaller conflicts and weaker foes. They literally can’t beat Salem yet, but they can’t focus on other problems when she’s around without coming across as negligent, so if you have to find ways to erase her to make room for that... what was the point of bringing her here in the first place? We could have established that Salem is bound to her realm and had her send the Hound and whale to attack Atlas. There, all the fun parts of the volume without her complicated presence.

Well, the next five weeks will certainly be interesting, at the very least...

Until next time 💜

[Ko-Fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #rwby witch #mymetas #rwby recaps

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thewildmonkey · 5 years ago

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A feeling of excitement and nervousness swept over Blake’s body. She had agreed to an experiment. In this experiment, Blake would find the love of her life without seeing them. She would talk to them but never actually meet them face-to-face until they’re engaged.

Blake was very skeptical of this new analysis, but her luck with dating had been rather sorrow-filled. Blake finally just decided to do it and see where it would take her. After all, she might just find the love of her life.

When Blake arrived at her house for the next ten days, she started to settle in. It was this huge building that could easily home dozens of people. It was beautiful. Equipped with the latest appliances, it made the undersized mansion feel extremely modern. Some of the comfiest couches the world has to offer were in the common area, so simple, yet so desperately, asking to be sat in. Blake was not the only person to be living in this wondrous place; around nineteen other people were joining her. She was alone, but not for much longer.

There was other group was kept in a house similar to the one Blake’s group was in. The other group’s house was directly across from Blake’s, with these medium-sized rooms in the middle. When the groups went on their blind dates, they went inside of these rooms.

After everyone on both sides had finished settling in, it was time to start their dates. As the group Blake was in was being told on what was to happen, Blake’s pulse started to rise. Before she knew it, the people around her started to move to a set of doors, and Blake felt herself move toward them too.

Blake’s feet moved with the crowd. She found herself in a hallway shortly after walking. There were numerous other sets of doors within this hallway, all leading to the ‘blind date’ rooms. Blake picked one and stood in front of it. Her heart racing. She had no idea why though. Blake didn’t even believe in this, yet she was getting so incredibly anxious about it. Blake reached out her hand and made contact with the cold, metal doorknob and opened the door.

Blake walked into a semi-dark room with a sizeable couch in the middle, covered with blankets. Precisely in front of the couch was a thin piece of wall that was a rich, royale blue. It almost looked like ice. Near the couch was a little stand that held food and drinks.

“Hello?” A deep voice called out from the blue stretch of the wall. Blake slightly jumped at the unfamiliar sound.

“Gods. This is so weird.” Blake responded to the mysterious voice. She heard a hum of agreement from the other side. Blake eyed the couch and decided to sit. As soon as her body touched the navy blue cushions she fell victim to its heavenly comfort.

“So, what’s your name?” The voice asked from the other side. Blake was so comfortable she almost didn’t recognize that someone was asking her a question.

“Oh, Blake. You?” Blake hated icebreakers. It was always awkward, and Blake just wished that she already knew the person.

“Cardin Winchester.” He said smugly. Blake rolled her eyes. She could hear the smirk in his voice. Of course, he was a Winchester. Obviously wanting to brag about it too. The Winchesters were amongst the richest families in the world. And where money is power follows.

Blake already wanting to leave, decided to suck it up and finish the stupid date. “What do you do for a living, Cardin?” Even though Blake knew the answer, she was dying in the silence.

“Oh, I work as a Huntsman. I’m the best in Atlas. The mayor just awarded me the Medal of Strength and Bravery for saving a group of kids from Grimm. Single-handedly.” Cardin let out a quiet chuckle. Blake’s faunus ears twitched at the sound. She hated people like Cardin. Two-faced millionaires that only care about their outward complexion. Blake gagged at the thought of ever being with someone like that.

Blake managed to last the rest of the date with Cardin and moved to the next one. Blake’s second date went much better than her first. She was paired with this enthusiastic, overeager ball of energy named Nora. Blake didn’t mind Nora, but Blake didn’t make a connection with her. This charismatic playboy, Neptune, was Blake’s third date. It went well but she didn’t like him. She only had one more date to go. Blake was exhausted and her entire body ached, she was also drained from talking to so many people, but she was going to power through it.

Blake arrived at her final door. She opened it and walked in. As soon as her eyes made contact with the couch, she flopped on it with a loud OOF. Blake kinda just laid there, face down on the cushions, her legs dangling off of the back. It was comfortable even though she was slightly suffocating.

“Umm, you good?” A kind voice from the other side of the wall asked. Blake could hear the concern in her voice, which Blake thought was unusual.

Blake repositioned herself so that her entire body was on top of the couch. Laying on her stomach, Blake moved her head so that she could talk. “Oh yeah. I’m great. Everything is great. Especially when you hate meeting new people and all you’ve done today is meet new people. It’s wonderful.” The voice let out a small snicker.

“It sounds like you’ve had the time of your life.” Blake’s lips quirked up in a brief smile, before returning into a frown. “Ok, well, since you’ve had such a shitty day, I’ll do all the talking for this date,” Blake’s smile returned. “Does that sound good to you?” Blake gave a small hum of agreement. “Alright.” The person on the other side cleared her voice and started their date.

“Hello, my name is Yang Xiao Long. What’s yours?” Blake could hear Yang move around a tiny bit, almost as if Yang was getting ready for the next part.

“My name?” Yang responded to herself in the most high-pitched, shrilly voice possible. Blake let out a huff and groaned. “I’m too mysterious and tired to tell you such things!” Now it was just getting out of hand. Blake tiredly propped herself up with her arm. An itty-bitty smile started to creep its way onto Blake’s face. She liked this one.

“Oh well, that’s too bad,” Yang replied in her normal voice. “I really want to know,” Blake swore she heard Yang grin. Some of Blake’s energy was coming back to her. She sat upright on the couch and cocooned herself in a blanket.

Blake’s small smile turned into a smirk when she decided she was going to have some fun. “You want to know my name?” A gasp escaped Yang.

“She lives!” Blake giggled. She burrowed herself into the blanket even more. “Thought I lost you for a moment.” Yang’s voice began to become soft toward the end of the sentence.

“I am never lost,” Blake paused, “most of the time.” Yang mimicked the giggle Blake voiced earlier. This was fun. Blake genuinely enjoyed this.

“I don’t believe I caught your name.” The sound of a smile prevalent in Yang’s voice. Blake wished she could see Yang. The only one of her dates making Blake wish that.

“That’s because I didn’t give it to you.” Blake purred. Her smile was slowly getting brighter each time Yang spoke.

“Oof!” Yang exclaimed. “Wow, that hurts. I’m already at a loss for not seeing you, but now I don’t even get to know your name! That’s just a low blow.” Blake caught herself laughing at Yang’s words.

“What can I say, I like to keep my suitors interested.” Blake gave a small shrug with the statement, something that she did subconsciously.

“Well then, consider me happily interested, just as long as I’m kept as a suitor in your eyes.” Butterflies danced in Blake’s abdomen. How was Yang so inexplicably smooth?

“I don’t think I can uphold that,” A whimper sounded from Yang. “Because you might become something much more than a suitor soon.” Blake’s cheeks were on fire.

“Now that,” Yang started, “that is something I can get behind.” Before they knew it, their time together had passed. Blake had gotten up and was at the door.

“Will I talk to you again tomorrow?” Blake asked calmly. A smirk arising on her face.

“I don’t know, mysterious lady. I’ll have to see if I’m still interested.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Blake paused dramatically, “you will be.” And with that Blake left the room. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Blake wanted to hear Yang’s voice again, she needed to. Blake began to walk towards the end of the hallway. She couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

#rwby7 #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #bumblby #the bees #BZZZ BZZZZ #rwby au #love is blind au #writing #rwby #blake x yang #blake belladonna x yang xiao long #THE BEEES

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razieltwelve · 6 years ago

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Dive (Final Rose)

Penny dreamed, but her dreams were not of open fields or starlit skies. Instead, she dove into the InfoNet, her mind wandering endlessly through the seemingly limitless sea of information that awaited her. Whether it was blogs, news sites, or even video and image sharing sites, she saw it all. There was the good and the bad, things that would have shaken anyone’s faith in civilisation and things that would have restored it as well.

It was all there, waiting for her, just like it was every time she closed her eyes. Few people realised just how deep her connection to the InfoNet ran. Professor Dia and her father had been the architects of the InfoNet, and even now they maintained access to backdoors that no one else would ever find.

They had made Penny a nexus, one of the key points of the InfoNet, as well as a chief administrator whose access was topped only by theirs and a select few. It was not an exaggeration to say that she could, on a whim, seize control of almost any device connected to the InfoNet with as little effort as it took for her to make a fist.

It was a terrifying ability, but her father knew her well. She would never abuse it. In fact, the most common thing she used it for was telling Ruby what was in her dorm room’s fridge, so the other girl would know if she needed to buy anything while they were out. Oh, and sometimes, she used it to send Ruby or her other friends funny pictures on their scrolls.

As dawn approached, Penny emerged from her dive into the InfoNet. A human or Faunus would have been mentally exhausted by exposure to so much information, but she felt rejuvenated. Her own systems were exquisitely precise, and the feedback she received from them could at times seem overwhelming. Losing herself in a video about a cat knocking over cups or a dog chasing after its own tail was the perfect way to unwind and relax.

Rising, she ran through her usual cleanup and maintenance subroutines, watching for any possible signs of system degradation or error build up. All of her scans came back clear, and she smiled as her optics came online. Robo-Kitty was still snoozing away on the corner of her bed, and she briefly tapped into his prosthetic leg to see if he was well. As she had expected, her pet cat was in excellent health.

A quick patch into the systems that controlled her fish tank revealed a similar story for her pet goldfish. They were doing fine too. She got up and headed toward the shower. She did not sweat as a human or Faunus did, but regular cleaning was still essential since she did go outside regularly, and combat against Grimm inevitably led to a bit of muck and grime building up.

After her shower, she headed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for her pets. Robo-Kitty was his usual friendly self as he slunk onto the kitchen counter and waited eagerly for his morning meal. Once he had his food, she made a quick stop at the fish tank to feed her goldfish too. There were systems in place to allow for automated feeding, but she liked to do it herself when she could.

Satisfied that all was in order, she spent the next hour reviewing any files or messages that had come in during the night while playing with Robo-Kitty. He was a cheerful cat, and nothing pleased him more than to curl up on her lap and pick fights with her hands while the television played in the background.

Of course, it was eventually time to leave. Classes were due to begin shortly, and she did not wish to be late. Based on past experience, leaving her room at this time would also maximise her chances of running into Ruby and the others.

Sure enough, Ruby and the others were on their way to class, and Penny fell into step beside them. A drone hovered overhead, and she took a moment to open a connection to it since Diana wouldn’t have one hanging around unless she wanted to talk.

“Good morning, friends!” Penny said.

“Good morning, Penny,” Ruby replied as the others returned her greeting in their own ways. “Did you get a good night’s sleep?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.” Penny smiled. Splitting her consciousness, she allowed some of her processors to focus on the data that Diana was sending. Apparently, there had been a breach of Atlas’s perimeter defences. Based on present estimates, the number of Grimm was still fairly manageable, but Diana wanted her to know in case it got out of hand. “Did you?”

Ruby made a face. “Not really. I think the thermostat in our room broke or something, but it was way too hot.” She fanned herself. “Even with all the windows open and everything.”

“You should have called me,” Penny said. “I am more than qualified to fix a thermostat.”

“I didn’t want to trouble you.”

“It’s not trouble.” Penny smiled. “Or you could have asked Diana to send a drone over. Many of her drones can perform routine maintenance without outside supervision. It is quite ingenious.”

“And kind of terrifying,” Yang said, grinning. “Since I bet she’s also got automated kill routines too.”

Penny wanted to deny it, but Yang was right. Buried in Diana’s combat-capable drones were routines specifically designed to optimise their lethality if necessary. “Not on the repair drones,” she said at last since that much, at least, was true. Her brows furrowed. “But were you able to identify the problem?”

“No.” Ruby took a bite out of a cookie she’d brought along. “But we reported it, so it should be fixed by the time we get back. Beacon is pretty good about stuff like that.” She grinned. “You looking forward to mix and match today?”

Mix and match was a training program that Professor Farron ran. It involved mixing the teams up, so students could get experience working with people outside of their teams. “I am looking forward to it. It is always nice to work with new people.”

“I just hope you don’t get Cardin,” Yang muttered. “Although hopefully he’s learned his lesson. I swear Blake was about two seconds from killing him last week.”

“He is… unpleasant,” Penny murmured. “But I think he will do better this time. If nothing else, he resents failure, so he may try to get along better with people to avoid it.”

“Here’s hoping,” Yang replied. “Anyone you’re hoping to get?”

Penny paused. “I would, of course, enjoy working with any of my friends.” And wasn’t it great that she had so many now? “But I would not mind working with some of the new students either. We have had several join us this year, and they are unfamiliar to me. I do have files on them, but it isn’t the same.”

“Oh?” Weiss raised one eyebrow. “Do you have a file on Rin Tohsaka?”

Penny nodded. “Expert in close combat with particular skill in utilising Dust to augment her abilities. Her Semblance allows her to massively increase her abilities temporarily. It can also be concentrated in certain parts of her body, increase the size of the boost even further.” Her brows furrowed. “Enhancement is more than sufficient to reduce solid concrete to powder in a single strike, and there is video footage of her crushing heavily armoured Grimm with seemingly little effort.”

“Heh.” Yang snickered. “You’d better keep her away from you next week then, Weiss. Otherwise, you’re going to look like a piñata.” She grinned. “What do you have on Averia?”

Penny delved into her files again. “Averia is apparently a killer robot.” She gave the pink-haired girl an apologetic file. “It seems your file is deemed classified even to me. However, I do believe your sister added that, so it wouldn’t be completely empty.” She looked at her. “Based on the scans I have run, you are completely organic.”

“Thanks,” Averia drawled. “That’s good to know.”

“You’re welcome.” Penny smiled. “But I was hoping to work with Asami Sato this week. Her Semblance is fascinating, and I am curious to see how it interacts with me. If she enhance machinery, it is entirely possible that she might be able to enhance me as well.”

“That would be awesome,” Ruby said. “Imagine how big your death lasers would be!”

“They are properly referred to as heavy assault lasers although I do admit that they tend to be lethal when deployed.” Penny giggled. “And it would be nice to speak to Asami more as well. She is often in the professor’s lab, but we have rarely spoken. Diana says that she is nice, however.”

“She’s pretty cool,” Ruby said. “I actually asked her for some tips about streamlining the transformation mechanism on Crescent Rose, and she had some good ideas. I’m not sure if I’ll follow through with them, but it never hurts to ask another expert.”

“That is good,” Penny said. She looked ahead. “But I think we should increase our speed. We our currently running ten seconds late, and I do not think Professor Farron will be pleased if we are late.”

X X X

Author’s Notes

Just another normal morning for Penny. Incidentally, Robo-Kitty is a friendly guy, and it’s not unusual for him to find his way out of her room and hang around the campus before heading back after class is done. Thanks to his robotic prosthetic leg, Penny can keep an eye on him no matter where he is, and she can authorise him to open automated doors and other security measures so he can enter and exit buildings like a regular student. He often finds his way to Professor Goodwitch’s office since she is quite fond of cats and often spoils him. Penny is fully aware of this but has wisely kept silent about it.

You can find me on fanfiction.net, AO3, and Amazon.

Definitely check out my Amazon stuff if you enjoy my sense of humour.

#final rose #fanfiction #penny polendina #ruby rose #weiss schnee #yang xiao long #averia yun-farron #robo-kitty

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littlemisssquiggles · 6 years ago

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RWBY Musings #73: Happily Ever After. A Squiggle Meister’s Views on the fates of Cinder Fall and Neopolitan for the Future of RWBY

yellow-eyed-green-crocodile asked “Do you think Cinder would be the equivalent of General Jinjur? Not only does it rhyme, but they are also somewhat similar, in a way. Jinjur used both violence and charm to gain what she wanted, just like Cinder uses both force and temptation. Also, Jinjur had a catchphrase, which was "there's not an ugly face in my entire Army", which would parallel Cinder's disfigured body. One interesting thing to note is that Jinjur's army got defeated by mice and she was too cowardly to face them.

I wonder if this could hint at a possible backstory for Cinder. Maybe she used to live in a village when she was little, and that village got overrun by a plague caused by mice. Since she was one of the very few that didn't contact the disease, she wad tasked with taking care of the patients, but the plague was so bad that they had to resort to killing all of them. Among the pacients, there were also Cinder's parents.

Cinder dreaded the villagers who killed her parents and felt like a weakling for not only not being able to stop them, but also for not being able to enact revenge. Unless maybe this is how she discovered her Semblace. Because of these events, Cinder wanted more power, enough to snuff out that of others. The power never felt enough, so she eventually met Salem, who groomed her into becoming what she is now. And the rest is history. I'm sorry that the ask got so long, but what do you think? ”

Squiggles Answers:

@yellow-eyed-green-crocodile Hey there Yellow. Sorry this answer took so long. I decided to answer your question as a new musing because while thinking up my response, I did my own research on General Jinjur and in doing so you made me come to a very interesting realization that I think you might like.

Cinder and Mombi

I think you are definitely onto something with Cinder possibly inheriting some traits from General Jinjur. I like this concept because it would provide Cinder with a connection to Oscar considering that General Jinjur made her first appearance in the Marvellous Land of Oz sequel story where Princess Ozma was also first featured.

I can definitely see the charm part and I can also see Cinder building herself an army and using it to overthrow or antagonize General Ironwood. Isn’t that what Jinjur did? According to Wikipedia, she was the self-appointed general leading the Army of Revolt---an all-woman force seeking to end the reign of the Scarecrow and take over the Emerald City.

Perhaps…we might get something similar to this for the Atlas Arc. What if…Cinder follows in Salem’s footsteps back in Ancient Remnant where Salem manipulated mankind into forming an army which she then led to take down the Gods but failed.

Oh! Perhaps this will be Cinder’s role in the Crimes of the SDC storyline of the Atlas Arc. Imagine if…Cinder ends up gathering and leading a revolt formed of all the oppressed and abused Faunus under the SDC in an attempt to overthrow the Atlas Council including General Ironwood. Either that or perhaps Jinjur will be an original character inspired by her fairy-tale counterpart from Oz that Cinder ends up manipulating into doing her bidding.

One thing I’ve been curious about is how the CRWBY Writers are going to handle the Crimes of the SDC and the oppression of the Faunus in Atlas without Adam Taurus. If you’d allow me to deviate here for a second, I’d like to voice this point. I’m not one of the Adam fans who were heavily disappointed or should I say, firmly disgusted by this death in V6.

On the contrary, I actually found Adam’s death to be fitting. Adam went out exactly like how I pictured he would---defeated by Yang and Blake working together to take him down while paying homage to the Beauty and the Beast.

In the Beauty and the Beast, the Beast was stabbed in the back by the villainous Gaston before Gaston fell to his death below Beast’s Castle. I thought that was a nice detail that RWBY had Adam more or less go out in a similar fashion considering that he was a fusion of the Beast and Gaston.

My one gripe with Adam’s death is Yang and Blake killing him in cold blood while suffering no further emotional/psychological repercussions from the experience---something that I’ve voiced before. It’s not the fact that the two killed Adam that’s disappointing. It’s the fact that here we have an example of two hero character slaying a villain and it’s treated as nothing beyond a victory for the Bumblebee relationship by both the series and its shipping community. Don’t get me wrong, conquering Adam was a triumph but it was one that came with a price.

I understand that people wish to take the positive away from this moment where Yang and Blake together overcame the man that caused them both so much strife for the past few seasons. That’s fine. However, it’s hard for me to focus on just the positive aspect of what transpired when it’s not as black or white as people believe it to be.

This victory is stained. At the end of the day, Blake and Yang killed another person. Let that sink in. They took another character’s life. Nevermind that it was done in self-defence. A kill is still a kill. Not to take the joy away from the folks who love Bumblebee as a romantic pairing and took this triumph as the signal fire for their beloved ship becoming canon, but this squiggle meister, on the other hand, didn’t see that. I didn’t see two girls professing their love for one another. I saw two friends who claimed to have failed each other in the past rise up and take down the personification of their turmoil but at a price. The price being that now Yang and Blake share Adam’s blood on their hands. They both killed him and…afterwards, the series acted like it didn’t matter. I’d like to believe that Adam was a first time for kill for both Yang and Blake.

That kind of thing could be detrimental to someone especially if it’s their first in a lifetime of being the hero and using your skills to save lives; not end them. But Yang and Blake appeared fine after the fight and what was worse was that their comrades accepted their nonchalance with their own. I understand that they were all mostly relieved to see their friends safe following what went down with Adam but nonetheless, Blake and Yang killing Adam could’ve been something the heroes could’ve discussed with how far they are all willing to go to protect themselves and defeat the forces of evil as huntsmen. No one questioned the morality of what transpired. Didn’t even give it a second thought. It just happened and the story moved on.

Again, not an Adam fan but I still found that bit bothersome in a way because it highlights that the heroes could simply kill off villains and feel nothing. When the villains killed off heroes, we got to see the aftermath of how it affected their psyche. Following Pyrhha’s death, we got to see how it affected the rest of her teammates and the same can be said for Ruby with how she’s still being plagued by flashbacks of the moments she failed to save both Pyrhha and Penny.

But when we have our first villain being slain by a hero, it’s handled with as much expressive feedback as when the heroes take out the Grimm. I know we got Blake completely breaking down after stabbing Adam with Yang comforting her to the best of her ability. I thought this would have jumpstarted something else that Blake now had to overcome giving Yang something to help Blake work through.

When Blake ran away after Adam took down Yang, Sun was there to help her through her turmoil. Imagine if…Blake hadn’t meant to legit kill Adam and only did it as a last resort as a means of protecting Yang. Imagine if…the fight hadn’t ended with Adam being overpowered by Yang but was the complete opposite where Adam blindsides Yang and subdues her after she thought she’d won; similar to how Gaston double crossed the Beast in the animated film. Imagine if…Adam had once again placed Yang in a vulnerable position like before, despite her training forcing Blake no choice but to do what she failed to do before for Yang in V3.

Imagine if…Blake was left completely traumatized by dropping to Adam’s level, using violence to take the life of another---his life in the sheer attempt of desperation to protect the friend she promised she would protect. Imagine if…Adam’s death at Blake’s hand left her just as emotionally scarred as the aftermath of their encounter after V3.

Imagine if…Adam’s death had left Blake with another chapter of guilt and pain that this time Yang would be present to help her work through. And from that interaction, their bond could’ve blossomed, rekindling the closeness they shared from previous seasons, which could’ve ultimately led to Blake genuinely falling in love with Yang from this interaction. It is for this reason why I haven’t bought into the notion of Bumblebee being officially canon.

Even though I’m a BlackSun shipper, I neither hold any animosity towards the Bumblebee pair and its shippers nor would I get butt-hurt if the CRWBY Writers chose to steer Yang and Blake’s relationship in that direction. My issue is not the pairing itself but the execution and handling of it (and at times the attitude of its shippers).

My personal justification for thinking Bumblebee isn’t canon (yet) is because regardless of how many Yang and Blake moments the CRWBY attempted to spoon into V6, I didn’t see it as romantic at all. There actually weren’t that much Bee scenes when you think about it to be honest. At least not in the sense where it felt they were trying to set them up as lovers apart from the glaringly obvious ones like for example, Yang grabbing Blake’s hand and running off with her alone during the terrifying moment with the Apathy back on Brunswick Farm, while leaving Ruby alone to pick up Uncle Qrow with Weiss.

As appetizing as those small moments might’ve been for the Bees, it doesn’t excuse the fact that Yang and Blake have only just reunited with each other after going two full seasons of zero interaction. If anything, I would consider the development of Bumblebee from friends to lovers after V6 incredibly forced if true since personally, I think their relationship could benefit from at least one or two more seasons of focus and growth before making the leap into romantic status.

They could’ve spent V6 re-establishing the comradery between Team RWBY before delving back into the issues that caused the rifts between them before while going hard to build up the Bees’ recovery post Adam. At the moment, in all honesty, I don’t know what to make of Bumblebee. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Writers do wish to make them officially canon as a couple and that’s perfectly fine. I just don’t think they’re there as yet. But…y’know, that’s just me. Please don’t bite my head off if you’re a Bee shipper that happens to be reading this post.

Anywhozzits, that’s not really what I’m here to discuss. Let’s get back on track. My main issue with Adam’s death is that I think the CRWBY missed a real golden opportunity to use him for the Atlas Arc. Adam Taurus would’ve been the ideal antagonist to lead the audience into the Crimes of the SDC storyline that’s coming up.

His scar reveal clearly highlighted that he had an unknown history with the SDC. We’ve known about the White Fang’s war with the SDC since Weiss’ brief mention of it back in V1. As a matter a fact, I believe her words were that the White Fang has been in war with the Schnee Family for generations and this war actually featured bloodshed. We discovered this information yet we never received any more info to suggest anything further. Now fast forward five seasons later and we got a sense of why the White Fang targeted the SDC.

Adam’s scar hints at the possibility of Faunus abuse at the hands of the SDC. This is a sign that the SDC don’t just treat their Faunus labour as employees but as property. Who’s to say that Adam was the first Faunus to be branded? Of course Adam must’ve been scarred this way as punishment for an action we’ll never know more about but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that his scar is a brand. This must be a common thing or at least that’s the theory.

That being said, the Writers could’ve used Adam as a third accomplice to Neo and Cinder going toward Atlas. We know that the Faunus in Mistral had fallen out of Adam’s reign after learning of his actions at Haven Academy. But what of the Faunus in Atlas? With the CCT still not functioning, there’s no way the Faunus of Atlas could’ve gotten wind of the news of Mistral. So even if Adam found himself without an army in Mistral, he could have easily built himself a new one in Atlas especially given his clear connection to the SDC.

Adam could’ve lead a Faunus revolution in Atlas and use that as the cover fire to instigate Neo and Cinder’s act of revenge against Ruby and the other heroes. Adam could’ve been the General Jinjur in this sense, appointing himself as leader to the new regime that led the Faunus of Atlas to rise up against the SDC and their oppressors. And it would have fit in with his story since as we learned in V6, Adam has an untold past with the SDC. If the Writers desired to keep Adam in the story, they could’ve had this be his final curtain call. They could’ve still had him die in battle against the Bees but they could’ve used the Crimes of the SDC subplot as the much better build up to his inevitable climax.

After V5, the CRWBY Writers could’ve had Adam decide to go full rogue---going on a personal vendetta to enact revenge on all who wronged him in the past. Not just Blake. Not just Yang but everyone starting with the people who cast the first stone to send him spiralling into becoming the bloodthirsty revolutionist he was striving to be.

They could’ve had Adam return to the place where his trauma all began. He could’ve returned to Atlas to start his revolution over there, using the wayward Faunus employed under the SDC to enact his revenge on the people who wronged him.

And along the way, Adam could’ve met up with Neo and Cinder and the three could’ve formed the Trinity of Vengeance whose actions would pave the first chapter of the Atlas Trilogy. Adam Taurus may not have been one of my favourite RWBY characters but I’d be lying if I said his fans weren’t wrong about him being a missed opportunity.

As I’ll repeat, Atlas would’ve been the perfect setting to end Adam’s story. It would’ve been the right place. Adam magically showing up in Argus after going episodes without knowing anything of what he had been up to since his first appearance in the first episode of V6 was admittedly not the right place to have his final showdown with Blake and Yang. Not only could it have provided a chance for the audience to uncover more about Adam’s past but the Writers could’ve killed two birds with one stone by tying Adam’s story to Weiss’ story through the SDC. Adam revealing his scar would’ve tied him to Weiss.

Imagine if…Weiss had been present to see Adam’s scar. That could have set off some things. Or…imagine if… Blake never saw Adam’s face in the entirety of their relationship so when the reveal happened, she is genuinely shocked to learn that it was the Schnee Dust Company---the company that one of her dearest friends is connected to that was partially responsible for the creation of Adam Taurus.

There are ways the Writers could’ve kept using Adam in the plot particularly for Atlas but…they didn’t. Not going to lie, Adam was the epitome of a missed opportunity.

But… it’s not to say that his potential involvement for the Atlas Arc couldn’t be handed over to another character. Since the Adam fans claimed that Ilia took Adam’s characterization following V3, I guess you can see this as a sign that another current or new character could gain the remains of his potential role for Atlas Arc, right?

With Adam gone, this could provide Cinder the chance to take his place with the Crimes of the SDC subplot. It wouldn’t have the same impact as it would’ve had with Adam however it can still work. Cinder has proven herself to be a master manipulator. She’s no different than Salem back in her younger years. I guess this could explain why she was more or less made to be Salem’s faithful apprentice.

Salem must’ve seen much of her old self in the young girl and wished to nurture it. Jinn did comment once that the hearts of man are easily swayed. This is inclusive of the Faunus as well. So maybe Cinder will be like Jinjur in this sense where she forges her army or… at least, she’d play a key catalyst to the potential Faunus Revolution for the Atlas Arc.

But get this, I actually think Cinder has way more in common with the Oz character of Mombi as opposed to Jinjur. It was said that in the Marvellous Land of Oz story, Jinjur summoned the witch Mombi to aid her in keeping her kingdom in check after she gained control. Perhaps this can play into Cinder’s story for Atlas in V7.

What if…RWBY’s incarnate of Jinjur would be an oppressed Atlesian Faunus employed under the SDC who gets manipulated by Cinder. It was also stated that Jinjur secretly feared Mombi. Perhaps this is how Cinder will get Jinjur or the Faunus of Atlas to listen to her. By flexing her Maiden magic which would force them to view her as some kind of sovereign that can aid them to their freedom or worst a witch who can smite them if they cross her.

Similar to how Jinjur called upon Mombi in Oz, what if…Cinder helps Jinjur start and maintain her Faunus Revolution in exchange for aiding her in luring out the target she most desires: Ruby Rose. Jinjur the Faunus will have great reason for working with Cinder since Cinder’s target is Ruby. Ruby is friends with Weiss Schnee and who is Weiss Schnee connected to?

Imagine if…Jinjur agrees to work with Cinder on the grounds of the two using each other to get what they want. Jinjur wants Weiss Schnee to use her as collateral to bribe the SDC into fulfilling the Faunus Revolution’s demands (not to mention that it would provide Jacques Schnee with an interesting opportunity to show his true colours with who he cares about the most---his company or the safety of his own child). And Cinder of course wants Ruby. If Cinder helps Jinjur get Weiss then chances are this will lead to Ruby showing up to rescue her friend.

This could paint a great way for Cinder Fall to have an involvement in the Crimes of the SDC plotline which would lead her to her eventual reunion with the heroes and confrontation with Ruby. That could be an intriguing storyline.

As you can see, in this case, Cinder would be the Mombi in the story. While she may share some traits with Jinjur, I see more Mombi. I feel like Cinder is more an antagonistic hybrid of Cinderella and Mombi. But unlike Cinderella, who had a happy ending at the end of her story, I highly doubt Cinder will for hers.

Obviously, Cinder is going to be killed off soon. I’m calling it now…Cinder Fall will be defeated for the Atlas Arc and following her demise, her maiden magic will return to Oscar since he is Ozma’s current incarnate and from there, Oscar’s own magical abilities will finally be awakened. That is my theory.

I’m definitely banking on the idea of Cinder being the Mombi to Oscar’s Princess Ozma based solely on her obsession with gaining more power. Mombi was obsessed with magic as well. So Cinder previously trying to steal Raven’s Spring Maiden magic only fuels my hunch that she might try to pilfer the little remainder of Ozma’s magic from Oscar as soon as she learns that the powers originally came from his predecessor; granted that she doesn’t know this already.

Perhaps this moment might even lead into my new Pinehead headcanon for Oscar’s semblance---the ability to take back Ozma’s magic from the Maidens. Picture…Cinder with Oscar pinned underneath her with her Grimm hand piercing into his body in a similar manner to how she killed Vernal. She tries to absorb Ozma’s magic from Oscar while simultaneously forcing him to watch Neo attempt to finish off killing an unconscious and very defenceless Ruby.

I’m with every Rosegardening Pinehead who believes that Oscar will awaken his semblance to save Ruby. And what better way to do that by making Oscar wipe the smug overconfident smile off Cinder’s face when he unlocks his semblance and starts absorbing magic back from her.

Now that could be an awesome semblance reveal. But as always, these are just my theories. So yeah, in this sense, Cinder is definitely more Mombi than Jinjur. However do you know who I think might surprisingly share better equivalence to Jinjur: Neopolitan.

Neo and Jinjur

And here is the real meat of my musing. My theory is that Neo will be the Jinjur to Cinder’s Mombi based purely on her potential to be redeemed. I don’t see Neo being killed off. If the Writers decide to kill Neo after bringing her back a whole two seasons later out of the blue in V6, that would be quite frankly a foolish move that they wrote themselves into. I don’t even see it being a case where Neo gets defeated and ends up being locked away in jail for her crimes, either.

If anything, my theory for Neo is that she is going to have a fairy-tale endgame. Her very own happily ever after. And part of that is due to my assumption that Neo will have some essence of General Jinjur added to her character inspiration.

Here’s something interesting: I think both Cinder and Neo will be the two sides of the same coin, in the sense that Neo will be the version of Cinder Fall who gets the good ending. In the Marvellous Land of Oz series, Jinjur was described as ‘not evil, just misguided’ and I think the same description applies to Neo. I don’t think Neo is entirely a bad person at heart. She’s just fallen into this archetype based on the people who she has followed in her life. If what us RWBY theorists have speculated about Neo being the little girl who survived the Fall of Brunswick Farms turns out to be true then Neo came from a reasonably good and happy upbringing that sadly turned tragic.

Following that experience, she and Roman, as the two possible lone survivors, turned to life a crime as a means of survival. But despite their nefarious background, Neo and Roman still maintained their love and comradery from when they were kids. Roman seemed to care a lot for Neo and Neo in turn cared a lot for Roman. I wouldn’t be surprised if Neo was, at some point, in love with Roman. Whether or not he felt the same way, we’ll never know.

But Neo has always been good. Destined for good things because naturally she had a good heart. I’d like to think that at some point in their past, before he became the big crime boss that we knew him to be, Roman possibly approached Neo with the intention of convincing her to cut her ties with him. Imagine if…Roman personally didn’t want Neo to be pulled into the immoral lifestyle along with him because he didn’t wish to tarnish the one good thing he still had in his life, y’know what I mean.

However Neo stubbornly stayed at Roman’s side since she in turn possessed a strong desire to stay by his side. She wanted to be there for him. That was the extent of their bond. I’m looking forward to listening to the full version of Neo’s theme from V6. I feel like there could be more potential clues to shed light on her relationship and past with Roman that the series never will get the chance to delve into. Not unless we get a unforeseen Neopolitan Character Short for V7.

I’d imagine that Roman and Neo were the ultimate ride or die pair. But picture there being a underline twist where deep down, in his heart of hearts, Roman always wanted Neo out of the crime lifestyle. He appreciated her loyalty and didn’t argue when she became his accomplice but deep down, it’s not what he wanted for her. It’s not what he thought she deserved not like he ever admitted that to her face. Or at least that’s how I’m starting to look at it now.

So here pegs the question. If Neo is to be redeemed, how can the Writers redeem her character? Well here’s this squiggle meister’s take one that. I think part of her redemption arc might involve an unexpected romance that causes her to become very conflicted and to rethink her choice of lifestyle.

Yes. I’m not pulling your leg. My idea for a redemption arc of Neopolitan is a love story. Allow me to justify why.

One Neopolitan headcanon that I wanted to toy with is the idea of Neo unintentionally finding love in Atlas; meeting the person who would ultimately cause her to drop her criminal ways and turn a new leaf. I never shared this theory before so this musing post provides the chance to do so.

The hunch I had was Neo falling in love with someone---her own Prince Charming whose allure and confidence reminded her a lot of what infatuated her about Roman and it is this person who would force to Neo to become very torn between her loyalty to Cinder and their revenge plan against Ruby Rose and her chance at a possible new life with this new love interest.

This is where I think Neo will share commonality with General Jinjur. At the end of her story, despite her previous escapades Jinjur ultimately settled down and lived a contented happy life with her husband. Here’s what I’m thinking. While this may be a very big stretch, what if…and this is a huge ‘if’…Neo’s Prince Charming will be none other than Henry Marigold.

Yeah that’s right, him again. Bear with me on this one alright. I don’t know how it could be done but…I have this idea of Neo using her shaft-shifting abilities to impersonate Weiss stuck in my head for the longest time.

In terms of following the plot, there is no real reason I can think of for Neo to mimic Weiss. Unless it’s in the form of her using it to infiltrate Schnee Manor to commence the Faunus Revolution against the SDC or something like that.

But beyond that I don’t see the possibility of Neo shapeshifting into Weiss becoming something canonically possible. But in spite of this, me being me, I’m still going to toy around with this concept because like many hunches I tend to hold on to, I kind of like it a lot. I like the idea of Neo using Weiss’ form especially if it leads into her charming Henry.

For Neo to be paired off with Henry as her intended prince, it would surprisingly fit and I’ll tell you why. Neopolitan is a play on Neapolitan which is a type of ice-cream. Ice cream is a dairy product. Coincidentally, Marigold is a real life brand of dairy products. In the Marvellous Land of Oz, General Jinjur’s future husband was a dairy farmer. You see where I’m going with this, right?

And since Henry was introduced as part of Weiss’ story from V4, I still think he’s going to be brought back for her arc in Atlas. For whatever reason, what if…Neo bumps into Henry on coincidence and falls for him. However since Henry showed an interest in Weiss, for whatever reason, Neo uses Weiss’ likeness to charm Henry.

I can’t help but sort of like this theory because I’m seeing both a bit of The Little Mermaid and Cinderella III in this. In The Little Mermaid, after she gave up her voice to Ursula the Sea Witch to become human, Ariel was tasked with making her love interest---Prince Eric fall in love with in a few days otherwise she’d turn back into a mermaid.

Ariel had to woo Eric without the use of her voice which was what Eric remembered most about her after she saved him from drowning. I found this titbit kind of cool. Weiss, as we know, has a tremendous singing voice and the first time she and Henry met was right after her concert hosted by the SDC back in V4.

Back in V4, Henry Marigold showed an interest in Weiss. Perhaps Neo will impersonate Weiss on a scheme for Cinder but ends up meeting Henry Marigold who recognizes Weiss. From there, Neo secretly starts using Weiss’ form whenever she’s with Henry. Neo falls for Henry and Henry himself falls deeply for Neo but doesn’t know that it's really Neo and not Weiss.

And in the end, Neo is afraid to tell Henry the truth. That she isn’t the person he thought she was and she believes Henry to be in love with Weiss. But in actuality Henry fell in love with Neo for her. I just really love the idea of Henry and Neo going through a similar scenario from Cinderella III.

I know not a lot of Disney fans tend to enjoy the sequels to their classic films but in the case of Cinderella, I actually really enjoyed both Cinderella II and III. I loved Cinderella II because it completely changed my perception of the evil stepsister, Anastasia.

Her love story with the baker was my favourite side story from Cinderella II. I just wished that Disney had given the same opportunity for development with Drizella, the other stepsister. My one gripe with Cinderella III is how they missed a chance to develop Drizella too. I know III takes place right after the original Cinderella but before Cinderella II in terms of storyline. Nevertheless, I feel like they shouldn’t have made Anastasia the focus sister again---they could have done it for Drizella to have both former evil stepsisters be redeemed. But I guess since Anastasia was made likeable by Cinderella II, they decided to roll with her for the third movie again.

Anyways, in Cinderella III, there is a part where Cinderella is supposed to marry the Prince but the Evil Stepmother, still determined to get Anastasia to marry the Prince instead uses the magic of the wand to turn Anastasia into Cinderella.

In the end, it takes Ana stepping up for herself and Cinderella to foil her mother’s plan. I enjoyed Cinderella III because I liked the take away lesson of what the King taught Anastasia about love because there is a moment where the King has a heartfelt chat with Ana and tells her about the day he fell in love with the Prince’s mother---the Queen. I know it was a small scene in a sequel that probably shouldn’t have existed but dagnabbit, the hopeless romantic in me just couldn’t help but gush at the whole idea of the Prince knowing he loved Cinderella from just holding her hand. Even when Ana was temporarily turned into Cinderella, the Prince instantly recognized that she wasn’t his Cinderella because of how she made him feel.

Something as simple as a touch of a hand is used as an expression of love and I dig that.

Strangely enough, I can see something like that being done for RWBY in the form of Neo impersonating Weiss and Henry falling in love with Neo as Weiss. But when he meets the real Weiss, he becomes conflicted, not because she doesn’t reciprocate his feeling as Neo did under her guise but purely because she doesn’t feel like the woman he fell in love with. Real Weiss doesn’t make Henry feel the same way Neo did when she was using her face. So in the end, Henry doesn’t care what Neo looks like. It’s how she made him feel that matters. He fell in love with her for her. Her loves her for her and she did it without needing a voice.

Every bit of joy Henry experienced with Neo was done through touch and gestures. Not through words making it genuine and pure. That sounds like an interesting dynamic. I feel like that’s an essence from the Cinderella story that could be translated into RWBY, if that is the Writers’ intention.

It's funny. When we first met Henry, he was portrayed like all the other guys who pursued Weiss. Appearing to only be interested in her at face value. But I think this was mostly a misunderstanding on Weiss’ part since I didn’t think Henry wasn’t that big of a jerk despite Weiss’ reaction to his remarks about Vale and her charity painting.

While I don’t think Henry is necessarily a bad guy, I feel like he will make a return for Atlas. Whether or not, he will somehow play a part in Neo's story, seems extremely unlikely right now. Nonetheless, I’m going to roll with it; canon or not. Thus I shall christen this tiny sail boat of mine as Milky Way---the unofficial pairing of Neopolitan and Henry Marigold.

I know romantic subplots is pretty much tertiary in RWBY to the point that some FNDM fans even complain when the show takes its time to drop romantic hints of their favoured pairs. My one gripe with the romance in RWBY is that I wouldn’t mind if the CRWBY Writers were more assertive with it. I don’t necessarily need a full episode of characters dating or snogging. However I am hoping for the series to handle its love stories in the same manner as A:TLA did. Avatar found an exceptional way to balance its romantic subplots with the rest of the story to the point where it felt natural.

I’m not a viewer who believes that romance should be omitted from a story just because its key genre is action/adventure and/or fantasy. Relationships are a part of life and when a story takes its time to develop the bonds between its characters, romance is a natural expectation. It doesn’t need to be the focal point of a story especially if you’re looking at a single standalone piece of media like a film.

However in the case of a series that is ongoing and has an overarching plot where its cast of characters are likely to grow and progress to fit the narrative outlined by the writers then…romance between characters should neither be omitted nor do I think it can be avoided nor …should be if that makes a lick of sense. Because romance is a type of relationship. Relationships can be either romantic, platonic, family-orientated and so forth and as I’ll say again, relationships are a part of life so it happens.

That being said, this is why I genuinely don’t understand when people complain when RWBY takes a chance to develop the relationships between its characters, particularly if its romantic. These kids are teenagers of mixed genders, ages and sexual orientations.

Naturally I would expect a romance to blossom among some of them. I actually think RWBY could benefit from taking some time off from all the action to focus on the bonds between its characters from time to time. But as always, this is just my opinion.

Neo and Oscar

Another interesting thing about Jinjur’s character is her connection to Princess Ozma, next to Mombi. After Emerald City was liberated, Jinjur was captured but on promise of good behaviour, she was sent home to her mother like all the girls in her army.

General Jinjur swore her loyalty to Princess Ozma and became an ally, promising her that she would behave herself.

Now some Pineheads have asked me before about the possibility of Neo and Oscar becoming friends and I think having Neo share inspiration from General Jinjur would be a nice way to tie her to Oscar.

Neo could be Oscar’s General Jinjur. From what I read on the Marvellous Land of Oz, Jinjur’s interactions with Ozma seemed rather friendly for the most part, even when she was still Tip, her male persona.

Perhaps…Neo will unintentionally befriend Oscar but neither will know each other’s true identities until their final confrontation. A part of me strongly believes that Oscar will definitely be most present during Ruby’s rematch against Neo. If Ruby is going to fight Neo again then surely Oscar should fight Cinder again. I mean, Cinder is the one who murdered Ozpin so imagine the two clashing on those terms.

After all, as I said in this answer post right here, Oscar has the remaining 10% of Ozma’s magic and if Cinder is the megalomaniac that she’s been painted as then picture her challenging Oscar to a duel in an attempt to try to steal the rest of Ozma’s magic from him.

Imagine…Cinder and Neo kidnapping Oscar to get to Ruby. Or…imagine if this leads into Ruby and Oscar possibly tag teaming against Cinder and Neo. That could be a cool way to satisfy us Rosegardeners hungry for our Rosebuds fighting side by side on the battlefield.

Even though Cinder and Neo agreed to allow Neo deal the final blow to Ruby, my hunch is that when Neo overpowers Ruby and goes to kill her, Oscar will stand bravely in front of Ruby to protect her. Picture Neo raising her weapon to Ruby and Oscar cradling Ruby’s unconscious body pleading with Neo to not kill her.

Imagine if…it’s Oscar’s desire to protect Ruby that results in Neo turning on Cinder. Because Oscar sees Ruby as someone very important to him. Someone he cares about deeply and wishes to protect, this sentiment could remind Neo of Roman. The good version of him anyways.

What if… as children, Roman used to protect Neo and seeing Oscar protecting Ruby reminds Neo of that. And so, Neo decides to spare Ruby and turn her weapon on Cinder instead. An alliance between Neo and Oscar is another alternative way to her possible redemption especially if it ties into my hunch of Neo drawing inspiration from Jinjur.

Another trait of General Jinjur that reminds me of Neo is that Jinjur was a native Munchkin girl. Munchkins are a race of short people in Oz and right now, Neo is physically one of the shortest characters in RWBY so far. She’s even shorter than Oscar I believe. If you put her next to Jinjur, I think it could fit.

So in conclusion…

I hope this answers your question Yellow. I know I went off topic on certain parts, again (as usual) but for the most part, I hope there was a sprinkle of an appropriate response to your curious inquiry among all my jibber jab. Let me know your thoughts on my thoughts if you can. To reiterate and summarize, I do see an equivalence to Jinjur in Cinder. But I see it more in Neo.

In terms of Oz characters, Cinder’s motivations screams more Mombi to me more than Jinjur. This is why I think Neo is a good candidate to take influence from her character. At the moment, Neo is a blank slate. She is the one RWBY character in the current main cast for Atlas who doesn’t have a fairy-tale counterpart to draw inspiration from.

From what I know about her, she was originally meant to only be a female counterpart of Roman Torchwick. That’s what I was told that one time I made a comparison to Neo being like Tinkerbelle in reference to her bond with Roman who I saw as being the Peter Pan in her story.

I still would like to stick with my idea of Neo being inspired by Tinkerbelle. Her illusion semblance is the closest thing to pixie dust I’ve ever seen and when she transformed the Mistralian airship into the guise of an Atlesian airship, it reminded me of how Captain Hook used pixie dust to make his ship fly.

Beyond that, Neo has no true fairy-tale equivalent which is why I’m fancying the idea of Jinjur being hers instead of Cinder’s. I’m also starting to love the idea of Neo and Cinder sharing influence from Cinderella only with Neo gaining what Cinder will never have---a happy ending.

We know Cinder desires power and revenge against Ruby; but what does Neo want? I know right now she shares Cinder’s hatred for Ruby Rose and aspiration to kill her. But beyond that, what else does Neo want for herself? After she kills Ruby, what’s she going to do next? Based on her theme, Roman apparently was her life. She lived for him.

After he died, she returned to Mistral to do who knows what with herself but didn’t miss an opportunity to get her revenge on Cinder, believing her to be the reason Roman fell. Cinder, of course convinced her that Ruby is to blame and now that has become Neo’s drive. But once that deed is done, what’s next? What is going to be Neo’s story? What’s she going to do after avenging Roman?

I ask these questions because this is something I want a character in the series to ask Neo herself. If Neo dedicated her entire life to Roman then she needs to create a new one for herself now that he’s gone. A better life.

This is why I’m loving the idea of her gaining Jinjur’s happy ending and settling down with a man who will love her unconditionally and vice versa. This is why I’m loving the idea of Neo meeting Henry Marigold with him becoming her prince. The man she will marry and settle down to start a new life with in Atlas. I’m fully on-board for this Milky Way ship especially if it goes in accordance to everything I just shared in this theory.

It’d be nice if Neo gets her happily ever after. Especially since Cinder surely ain’t gonna get that luxury. She’s too far-gone. But Neo still has a chance. A chance for change and redemption. A chance to learn to behave herself.

Plus I like the idea of Neo promising Oscar to ‘behave herself’ in a similar fashion to Jinjur’s promise to Princess Ozma. I don’t know what the CRWBY Writers’ future plans for Neo will be. But for the most part, I hope it’s satisfying especially to her hardcore fans who were pining for her return.

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#yellow-eyed-green-crocodile #squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #cinder fall #neopolitan #rwby theories #rwby volume 7 theories #rwby atlas arc #rwby musings #rwby rosegarden #ruby and oscar #oscar and neo #cinder and oscar

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dammitadolfnomorecake · 6 years ago

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CSUAVS prt 9 start

Shiro didn't wait the asked vargas, calling him back within doboshes of Keith sending the message. Filling the screen on the cockpit, Shiro looked as if he'd been sleeping. His white hair sticking up in every conceivable direction, with drool crust to the left side of his lips "Keith? What's up?" "I didn't mean to wake you" Blinking away his tears, Shiro moved from where he'd been in bed with Curtis. The man's sleeping form visible in the background as Keith's vision cleared. It felt incredibly wrong to be betraying Lance, yet the image of the blade slicing through Lance's skin so easily refused to leave his mind. He felt sick to the very depths of his boots for walking away. For not tackling Lance down tearing that damned blade away from him. He knew Lance hurt himself. He knew it. He could have done something about it. He could have done something about it back before this. Back before Lance broke down further. Sniffling, more tears leaked from his shimmering purple eyes "No. It's fine. What's going on? Did something happen? You've been crying" "It's... do you remember what it was like to die?" Shiro wrinkled his brow, then winced as a bright light came down from above with the whirl of a fan faintly coming through. Great. Now Shiro was hiding in the bathroom, while Keith was fighting to bring his tears and emotions back under his control. He hadn't meant to disturb him. God. He was an adult. He'd seen so much. He should know how to help Lance "Keith... are you ok? Did you have a nightmare?" Shaking his head, Keith scrubbed at his eyes with right hand "No. No... Just a shaky day" "Wanna tell me about it?" "I... can't..." Shiro sighed softly "I'm fine, kiddo. I don't remember much from dying. I was dead before I knew what had happened, then onto the astral plain" Keith had had nightmares of fighting Kuron and losing. Of Shiro never coming back. Or them never knowing Kuron wasn't Shiro. They'd spent far too many nights reassuring each other over the experience "What was that like?" "Keith, I've told you all of this before..." "I know. I... Lance had..." "Lance had" what? It slipped out his mouth, and now there was no going back "Did Lance have a nightmare?" A waking nightmare that was called a hallucination of Allura "Yeah. Something like that..." "Is that why you're upset? Was it to do with Allura?" "I don't know how to help him. I keep stuffing it all up" Drawing his knees up, Keith felt more like a moody teen than half way through his 20's. The action far too comforting and familiar "I'm sure you're not. How is he? Have you two been talking? Have you told him how you feel?" "I... Shiro... it's... I don't think I can" "Keith, he's your best friend" "Then why did I fail him?! You haven't seen it Shiro. He's... different" "Of course he's different, people grow and change. We grow closer together and we drift apart. It's a fact of life, Keith" Shaking his head, Shiro wasn't giving him the magic answers he needed "That's not it" "Then what is?" "I... he... God. Shiro. It's a mess" "Keith, if you need me to fly out to where you are..." "No. No. That would make it worse. I got him into trouble with his boss, so we're not on Erathus. We went on a mission together today..." Shiro perked up, like Keith wasn't depressed "How did that go?" "Not great. No one died, but only because the Galra had been there first. They wouldn't talk to us. Hey, Shiro. Did you know people intentionally go after remaining sentries for their parts and their guns?" Shiro hummed for a moment "I've heard of it" "I hadn't really thought of it. There are so many planets out here. How many slipped through our fingers and were destroyed while Voltron was missing. It was three years" "Keith, you can't think like that" "Can't I? Lance does. He had a member of his team killed" "Shit. When was that?" "I don't know. I don't know if I can help him. I don't even know if he wants me to help him" "He wouldn't have asked you to be there with him if he didn't" "He's doing me a favour" "You're still there. Sometimes that's all it takes" "I think all I've done is make things worse" "You're his best friend. You're also the only one he's opened up to. None of us know what he's doing, and now you say he has a team?" "Yeah. He's a bounty hunter. Can you believe it?" The frown on Shiro's lips was severe "I thought Veronica said he was working in security?" "He works with the police on Erathus, or he did until I messed things up with one of Pidge's programs" "I'm sure it's not all that bad..." "People have tried to kill him. How do I fix any of this for him?" "It's not your job to fix things" "But I want to help him!" "Then tell him how you feel... Oh hey, Lance" Jumping up, Keith rose to stand in a kind of half-stand half-blot kind of pose. His heart hammering over Lance interrupting the conversation. He'd slightly forgotten Lance was paranoid over their communications being intercepted "Hey, Shiro. How are you?" "Good. Good. How are you? Keith was just telling me the two of you were hanging out" Lance nodded, his arms wrapping around his waist in a selfhug as he cautiously moved closer to the screen. His face was covered in a green face mask, that clashed with the jacket and jeans he was wearing "Yeah. You know how it is. Heard you and Curtis finally got together. Congratulations" "Thanks. It hasn't been easy, but Adam would want us to be happy" "You deserve to be. I didn't mean to interrupt..." Lance couldn't meet Shiro's eyes, talking to the corner of the screen rather than to Shiro's face. Sinking down in his chair, Keith was mentally worrying how much Lance had heard before walking in "You're not interrupting. We missed you when Keith came to visit. You definitely need to come with him next time. Hunk's been talking about you both non-stop" Thank god for Shiro. He made everything sound so natural "Yeah, man. That sounds good. We're a little busy at the moment, but I've missed his cooking" "Did Keith share the supplies Hunk sent him off with?" "Yep. Erathus tries, but they just can't get those spice ratios right like Hunk can" "We could call Pidge back and make a day of it..." "Uh. Yeah. I don't know what my schedule is like, but that sounds good. I might leave you too it..." "It's a date" Keith blushed at date, shooting a glare at his adopted brother "Sure. Sure. See ya, Shiro. Keith, I'm going to take a nap. We're still a few vargas out, right?" "Yeah. Want me to wake you when we arrive?" "Sounds good. Bye Shiro" Lance gave Shiro a wave before disappearing back out the cockpit. Shiro giving it a few long moments before sighing "That was awkward" "I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that. I thought he was going to start yelling when he came in. I'm not supposed to be on the comms" "Why not?" "Bounty Hunter security and stuff. Already had to call back to the ship as it was, so maybe it's alright?" "The ship?" "Oh, Lance has his own ship. You should see him, it's like he knows exactly who he is and what's he doing when he stands at the helm" "He deserves it. He always did his best to keep the team together, even after you left and Kuron was there. Coran said it was quite a rough time for him" "Coran said?" "Lance became quiet and withdrawn. Initially Lance wanted to hand the Red lion over when we returned to Earth. I'm glad he's found something he likes doing. I'm not so happy that it's bounty hunting on his own. Anything could happen to him" "I think it already has..." "What do you mean by that? Did someone hurt him? Keith, if someone's hurt him, I'll bring the full force of the Atlas down there..." There was the space dad that everyone knew and loved. He'd known Shiro would react like this. He knew how much Shiro cared for Lance. He was tired of going around in circles in his mind. Shiro hadn't give him the magical cure for Lance, and Lance already knew they were talking about him. "It's his nightmares. He... Shiro, I swear to god I will never talk to you again if you breath a word of this to anyone" "Keith..." "Swear it. I won't tell you until you do" "Keith, we're not kids" "Shiro, I need you to promise. Lance has made me a promise to explain things, but he won't if I break his trust" Shiro gave a grim nod "How bad is it?" "I think he's been tortured. I think something happened on Erathus and that he was tortured" "Tortured?" "He doesn't want to be touched. This is Lance. Since when does Lance not like hugs? His room is as far away from everyone else's as it can get... and his nightmares. He wakes up screaming. He looks like he's barely sleeping or eating. Today, a sentry landed a lucky blow and knocked me down. He lost it. He threw himself in recklessly, then had Kosmo teleported us out before blowing up the top floor of the building. The slightest thing sets him off... I'm scared for him, Shiro. Something really bad happened to him..." "Has he told you himself?" "No. I mean, I didn't think he looked like himself when I saw him. What he's doing out here isn't safe. But he's really helping people..." "Keith, if he's been tortured, then we should let Veronica..." "No! Weren't you listening to me? He doesn't want anyone to know. I don't know what to do. I don't know if he's worse or better because I'm here. I can't stand to think of what he's gone through alone, and I won't leave him again... but... I don't want him to hate me" "Keith. It's not your job to..." "I know I can't take the pain away. What I want to know is how I can help him when he's having a panic attack or he's scared. What I know isn't working, and it seems like they're getting worse" "Then you need to talk to him. Help identify his triggers and help him see you're not going anywhere" "He's scared I'll hate him" "If he didn't care for you, he wouldn't be scared. Do you think he's a danger to himself?" Keith bit down the bitter laughter that welled in his chest "Maybe? I don't know" "If he is, then you really should talk about whatever's wrong. If he doesn't open up to you, see if you can get him talking to his family? Veronica can take leave" Bringing more people into this was only going to make Lance shut down more. His crush always automatically jumped to thinking himself a burden. Bringing his family in was only going to make his anxieties worse "No. I better go. I still need to take a shower and change" "Alright then. Call me if anything changes. No matter what the time is. I'll try and get some information out of Hunk about how Lance was when we were gone, and how he was on Earth. Lance's family adores him" "Don't make too much fuss. Lance isn't going to like any of this" "Keith, I know how to be discrete" "Right. Do I need to bring up that time you and Adam were in the tea-" "Nope. It's fine. Goodnight, Keith!" "'night, Shiro" Keith wasn't sure if he felt better for having talk to Shiro. He'd betrayed Lance, and still wasn't sure that Shiro had given him advice worth using. Rising out his chair, he clicked his fingers for Kosmo to follow him. His left hand moving to rest of his wolf's head as they made their way through his ship and to his quarters. Keith's own anxieties were starting to flare. The voices in his mind dreaming up all kinds of horrible ways things could go if Lance was still awake. He could leave things until they reached the Telula, but he knew he'd be a mess if he did. He needed to know what Lance had heard, and to make sure Lance wasn't crying his eyes out secretly while Keith left him to suffer alone. Opening the door to his room, he found Lance sitting up on his bed, his communicator laying in front of him as he read some document that it was projecting. Smiling slightly, Lance closed the document "We can't be there yet" "We've barely left the planet, so no. I just wanted to make sure everything was ok back here" "It's fine. What did Shiro want?" There it was. Lance was jumping right into the conversation. It took less than a tick for the white lie to begin rolling off his tongue "Oh, he had a nightmare. He wanted to make sure I was actually alright" Lance visibly relaxed at the idea of Shiro reaching out to him, rather him running crying to Shiro "Nightmares suck. Is that why you were crying?" Lance had noticed he'd been crying? A small part of his pride felt wounded for having been caught "Old memories. We all suffer with the memories of what we went through fighting as Voltron. Shiro still gets, though I think they've gotten better as he has Curtis now. He's been able to open up about it all" Nudging the subject, Lance sidestepped it effortlessly "They're good together. That's good..." "Yeah. I'm happy for him. Adam would be too. They always got on really well, but when Shiro wanted to go to Pluto, Adam had a hard time. He was sure by the time Shiro came back, his disease would have progressed so far that Shiro would barely be the man he loved. He'd have stayed with him to the very end. Curtis said he regretted the way it ended. Adam let his jealousy over Shiro choosing to spend the last few quality months in space instead of with him, get the better of him in the moment. Curtis really helped. He talked him through everything that happened with Adam. And of course, that whole family loves him" "It must be nice to be loved like that... to have some one who has faith in you until the very end" "I'm sorry. I didn't mean..." He didn't mean to make Lance think of Allura leaving. He just wanted Lance to know that it was ok to reach out to him "You did nothing wrong, Mullet. What else did he have to say? I heard you yelling" "Oh. He wanted to know what we were up to and how you were. I... ugh said I wish I could stay and help you..." Lance snorted. Moving his comms, he started making a show of settling down for his nap "I believe Shiro said to "tell me how you feel". What does that have to do with sticking around?" So Lance had been listening... had he heard more than that? "There's the Blades and that to think of. But I'm tired of relief missions. You're out here making a difference, and I was thinking it time for a change..." Waving a hand at him, Lance climbed under the thin blankets "In the scheme of things we're barely making a difference. Space is too big to help everyone, and not everyone wants help" "Lance..." "It's still Leandro. We still need to be careful, especially with comm signals. You never know who's listening" No one was quiznakking listening. He'd called Shiro on his Blade's comm. The signal was encrypted. "Leandro. I'm serious" "So am I. Remember what I told Bob? You're the future. You can do more things by being on Daibazaal than you can out here" "But we could pool our resources. We could take on more missions..." "Keith, there are planets that actually hates Voltron. Did you know that? People blame us for disappearing. People died when we went to Earth, and during those seven months. We fought so hard, yet they hate us. I like working without a face. Without people knowing I used to be a Paladin. Most people see Voltron and Earth as this holy beacon of hope, but then there are those on tiny little planets who curse our names. They'd never take aid from the Red Paladin, but they will from a rebel faction. They will from Leandro. Can you stop being a Blade? You can't, can you? You need to keep moving, that's just the kind of person you are. I'm not going to ask you to stay and hold my hand. I don't need it held. I don't want it held. I like what I do, and I'm going to keep doing it. I also like napping, and I'm going to do that now" "Leandro... what if I want to stay?" "Then you have rocks in your head. No one would stay if they knew anything. Go clean your knives or something. Maybe take a nap? You didn't show me the other quarters so you'll have to suffer losing your bed" Keith balled his fists "I've missed you. I've missed this. Us. Being a team" "We made a great team. But I don't know if we can ever work together like that on a permanent basis again" Why not? It'd been fun creeping through the giant black building, elbowing each other and whispering as they did "I..." "You don't have to say anything. It's how things are now. Wake me when get to the Telula" "No. You don't get to say all of that without listening to me" Lance raised an eyebrow at him "What you did today was reckless. You could have been hurt. We could have been hurt. Then you act like it's all ok because we survived. It's not ok Lance. I don't know what's going on with you, and you keep coming close then pushing me out. I know I messed up as your friend. But you messed up too. Do you know how much it hurt that you didn't tell me you were out here? I was the only one thinking you were finally free and happy back on Earth with your family! You were my best friend. The one person I could trust to have my back. Now you're hurting yourself. You're lying. You have nightmares and won't let me help you. Why can't you just let me in? If it was me, you'd be saying the exact same thing, so stop looking at me like I've grown an extra head!" Well. That happened. Lance glared coldly at him "What do you know? What do you know about what happened? You don't know anything because you left!" "What? Voltron? I left to find my mother" "And I was happy for you, but..." "Are you seriously holding onto that? I thought we were ok?" "Gargh! You're not getting it. You don't know..." "I don't know anything, because you won't tell me anything! I care about you! I want to know what's going on! I want to help you" "You can't, Meteor. So just drop it. I told you I would explain after we visit the prison" "Meteor. My name is Keith. And you're Lance. I know... I know you were tortured" Lance gaped at him, before shaking his head as he echoed Keith's earlier move by drawing his knees to his chest. Resting his head on his knees, Lance sighed softly "I wasn't tortured" "Lance" "I wasn't tortured!" "Then..." "A lot of stuff happened ok. Between you, me and Allura. I can't tell you, but... whatever you have in mind, isn't what happened" "Then tell me" "I can't. Not yet" "Why not?" "Because I can't... why do you have to be so goddamn smart? Why did you even have to come find me to begin with? Things weren't great, but I... I didn't feel like a child with a babysitter" "I'm not trying to babysit you" "Really? You suddenly want to stay. You want to work here. You think we can do things better with you and your team around. Our ways aren't perfect, but we get the job done" "That's not it at all... I've missed you" "You might have missed me, but I was finally free. Free of Earth. Free of my family. Free of you and Shiro always being better than I am. Free of being the stupid, useless, unwanted Paladin who was only ever a place holder for you. I was free of all of that. And now you're back, and I don't know what to do. You've been trying so hard not to blurt out everything you just did, and now we're like this. I was... ok" "You were never useless" "You weren't there" "Then tell me!" "I had no one when you left! Kuron wasn't exactly the nicest of people you know. I wasn't what he wanted. Every single thing I did was never ever good enough for him. I spent months thinking that Shiro hated me. I spent months being pushed away by all of them! Even Coran was over me. I was so excited you were coming back, then you came back with your awesome space mom, and Kosmo. I worked my arse off trying to reach your level, only for you to be in a whole other league, and for me to be once again in your shadow. I was only promoted because left the Garrison. I was only promoted in Voltron because Shiro was missing. Red should have been yours. And when I tried to point this out, you tell me to leave the maths to Pidge. I never felt enough when we were in Voltron. I simply got better at hiding it. So forgive me if I want something for myself for a change. If I like my job. If I like my team. But between you all treating me differently because Allura was dead, Earth no longer being the place I held dear, and everyone at home giving me shit because they couldn't believe a fuck up like me actually did any of the things the others did, I needed out. And I found out that even without the Galra forces, the universe is a pretty shit fucking place to exist in. I really thought it would be different with you. That you wouldn't push. You wouldn't force my hand. That maybe you could see past all my failures and be my friend. But you can't, can you?" "I am your friend. You're my best friend. You're everything, Lance. Why can't you see that? Why can't you see how much you mean to me? Why do you think it hurt so badly to know you didn't tell me you were out here? I..." "Then where were you? Would you have come to Erathus just to visit me for me? Or would you all have kept talking about me behind my back?" "I would have..." Stray tears rolled down his cheeks. He didn't want to hear any of this. That tiny thread of trust had snapped so loudly that it'd taken his breath away. Lance... Lance could never love him the way he loved the Cuban. Not when he was still grieving over the loss of his childhood being stolen away. Not when he couldn't see how amazing of a person he was. All of these fears, he'd thought them gone. Lance had been good. He thought he was alright. Now he found he'd been stupidly blind to Lance's pain all along. He loved the stupid bastard with all his heart, but Lance... he hated him "You would have had a mission. Then another mission. Then another. That's how it works. It's how it works for everyone. None of us have time. We never had time when we were on the castle. We were simply stuck there. I missed my family so much. I used to day dream of returning to find Earth how we left it. I'd day dream we'd all sit around having drinks on Varadero beach. My family would have cooked up a massive feast. All my aunts and uncles, and cousins, and my nieces and nephews would be there. All of this would be left out here. We'd joke and talk about our time up here, and we'd all be happy. I was so stupid. I really believed it. I believed we were doing the right thing, but since Red left, I don't know anymore" "I didn't... Lance..." "It's fine, Keith. You didn't know. No one knew. No one bothered to know. I was never a great Paladin, but I felt good doing this. You should probably go. Before I make things even worse" "I don't want to... I... you're my best friend" "Things change Keith. I've changed. You need to move on. Now, I'll help you with Guile, but after that, I don't think we should keep in contact. You're asking something from me that I can't give anymore"

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marshmallowprotection · 6 years ago

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Ray deserves more love. I just? Wanna hug him? And make him feel loved?? Is that too much to ask??? Ray needs to be happy and not think he’s useless all the time if Rika doesn’t fuck off I’m gonna lose my shit

You about summed that one up.

I feel awful when Ray feels bad about himself, or when he says horrible things about himself. I have an internal dialogue with myself that can be like that too, so I know what it feels like to be that insecure about his own needs. He is the manifestation of what was left of the Saeran of the past balled up into one person who could only feel sorrow.

Everything I see that I’m like, “I need to protect somebody get this boy some ice cream oh my GoD!”

Here’s some messy personal views

First lemme say I don’t condone sending hate to people that like Rika in any way because I know this is something that always happens when you drag her name out into the open and talk about her character in any capacity. People are free to like characters and enjoy them without getting flack for it. I find her character interesting to read into, and write into at times, but I don’t really care for her in huge capacity given all she’s done and the lack of empathy she has for everyone. I feel like I gotta say this any time I touch the discourse that surrounds her because I really don’t wanna see people going after each other but okay, now that I said that!

I get really tired of the nonsense that Rika does.

Look, she’s done a lot of bad things, and she needs to get the due process and punishment for those actions she’s committed. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like that is ever going to happen given the fact she’s sent away to Alaska post Secret Ends.

The fact that she gets to go free post V route (although she’s ostracized and pushed away from her former by miles it really isn’t legal punishment; I don’t like that when you basically say the most valid feelings about Rika and about not wanting to forgive her, rather, judging her because all of that awful shit she’s done, you’re not given this ‘happier’ end. Although I do like the sentiment that you can forgive someone and move on from that, that just doesn’t work for people. News flash, you don’t have to forgive abusers for what they’ve done. I really throw back my feelings about ATLA where Aang feels like Katara should try to forgive the firebender that took her mom away from her, Zuko clearly disagrees with that ideology because you know he won’t ever forgive his abuser, but in that journey, she realizes that she doesn’t have to forgive this guy to move on with her life! She never does, and she continues on living just fine).

In the end, it’s up to the RFA members, V, Saeran, all of them, it’s up to them what they decide to feel about Rika.

And when I think about Saeran’s route… I hate the fact that V wound up going back to Rika. I fear for what might happen in his after end, not only to my fears for Saeyoung’s fate, but just for the way that Rika might be handled. I really hope that we can get him the hell out of that toxic relationship. It does no good for him and it does no good for Rika. She needs to get her own help for her mental health along with punishment. V needs to learn how to love himself again, and have people in his life that love him for the right reason.

Their relationship is never going to be healthy.

Rika really needed help for her mental health but she kept spiraling down that rabbit hole. She started to push back against what she needed, and it all just cracked the moment that she blacked out and killed the Choi brother’s Mother. That was the moment that she really couldn’t turn around in her own opinion, and as she said herself, it was where her demons had grown so strong that she couldn’t ignore them any longer.

When you look at what she did to Saeran you can’t help but have your stomach twist and think okay, this is awful. But when you think about these crimes that she’s done that’s not the end of the atrocities you guys. She’s done a lot more and a lot of it hasn’t even been mentioned all that much. You have to infer and read between the lines a lot of the time.

Mint Eye was already a developing complex by the time she deceived Saeran and made him come to Mint Eye. There’s a bit in Ray Route where we’re treated to a flashback where he’s being tortured in the past, and if you need to see more of that descent in madness for Saeran, you can check his diary from the Mint Eye believer package. But aside from that, this place has already been building up with people that Rika has cultivated from the first two RFA parties.

She’s been building this place up already, and there are people working for her already at that point. Countless believers and people she’s gotten on her side thanks to her speaking abilities. The ideology of this place is pretty much already set in stone. So you know she’s been doing this fairly often by this point, torturing people to the brink of madness and instilling the idea into them that they need the elixir, and her words to survive in the world. God knows how many people were roped in before she got Saeran.

I don’t think that’s ever clarified.

She’s been torturing people for months. It isn’t just Saeran. And I think when anyone turns against her, she has no qualms about getting rid of them as she’s said it herself. Depending on how dark you want to read into this, that means that there are people getting killed or locked away until they basically waste away to nothing or they start to listen to her again only to pray that she doesn’t actually kill them.

It can get pretty dark. I try not to think about that because I tend to think of the worst possible scenarios. It makes me angrier for Saeran and everyone else who has ever had to deal with Rika after she decided that she needed to “protect people” by hurting people in the process. Her idea is that if you have been hurt enough you can become stronger. She took that idea and manifested it in Saeran like he was toy, like he an experiment. She twisted him up so bad that he’s going to be recovering for a long time.

Don’t even get me started on all the stuff that’s happened with V, or the toss-in character that they added in the Rika DLC to push all the blame onto. No, Rika is still complicit in these actions.

She’s still guilty.

Cool motive, still torture and murder and wrong!

It’s Cheritz’s game so they can handle the story how they want to do it, and because they do so much for us, I’m always grateful to them and how hard they work for everyone. They didn’t have to do Another Story, and they don’t have to give us the DLCs. Please don’t send them hate, you guys, I’ve seen that going on and I don’t like that. Don’t send hate to people in general, I hope that’s clear to y’all.

#anon #ask #mod kait #ray mystic messenger #ray route #saeran choi #spoilers #spoilers for everything #secret end spoilers #another route spoilers #rika dlc spoilers #discourse #i'm not gonna clog the rika tag with hate or anything so here we go #mystic messenger #mysme #jihyun kim

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sol1056 · 7 years ago

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When does a criticism become a valid one? There was a time where I spoke and explained why S7 and Shiro's overall treatment in the series hasn't been well received but apparently the criticisms weren't valid enough and people are just overreacting. It's fine if people like Shiro in Atlas but I still don't understand how the common criticisms for S7 aren't valid or worth thinking about when there's evidence is in the EP's writing and interviews.

At first I thought you were asking about the moral judgment between valid and invalid. After some thought, I think I know what you’re really asking: when do people grant a credibility to a critique?

Well, truth is: sometimes never.

In some ways, we’re (un)lucky enough to be fans of a series with a staff that talks an awful lot. Like easily ten times what I’ve ever seen before. And that’s before we add in random commentary from directors, storyboarders, VAs, writers, even interns. I’m kinda surprised we never heard from the guy who stocks the kitchen, too.

That’s a lot of fodder for fandom debate, and it doesn’t help when the EPs contradict everyone else and the story itself. Maybe they think controversy makes buzz, or they’re susceptible to interviewer manipulation, or maybe it’s stress and jet lag. Who knows.

All I know is it feels sometimes like people are standing in the aisles shouting at me while I’m trying to watch a movie. I’m not entirely without sympathy for the impulse to shout at the audience. It takes a lot of self-discipline to shut up and let a story speak for itself.

I’ve said this before and I’ll keep saying it: the story only exists with you in the picture. The creators bring the body; you’re the half that gives it life — and your praise or critique is also a story: you’re walking readers through your experience. Readers mix that with their own perspective, which means your reaction, by definition, now exists outside you, as much as the story exists outside its own creators.

Unfortunately, all that shouting from VLD staff has now become part of our experience of the story. And while it can be entertaining in a slightly twisted way to tug apart those often conflicting or ambiguous messages, sometimes you gotta step back and remember what’s driving the noise.

It’s each person also trying to express their experience of the story. From the showrunners down to the kid in receiving, their reactions will be as myriad as fandom’s own; they’re also people with their own varied experiences. Where it becomes a problem is anyone else insisting that this other version should somehow override yours.

And no: it doesn’t, and it never will, and it never can.

I’m not saying there isn’t an objective story: we have the transcripts, we can make gifs, we can screenshot. But we lose that objectivity as soon as we try to put a finger on what it means, because we keep forgetting that what it means should come with an addendum: for us.

So you gotta do what’s clearly given the EPs so much trouble: you accept that another’s interpretation, in the end, is their own. You gotta back off and let them have it; if they disagree, that doesn’t make your version invalid. It just means they bring different experiences to the table. You aren’t responsible for that, and it neither reduces you nor boosts you if they agree, disagree, or stick sporks in a little doll made in your image.

By the same token, your reaction — your critique or praise, your experience of the story — is also valid, full stop. New experiences down the road may change your reaction, and that’s fine, too. Sometimes it’s from experiencing another’s reactions; sometimes it’s everyday life itself teaching you a new perspective.

But, see, there’s a beautiful thing hiding in all this chaos, and it’s the real reason we get noisy about our reactions. It’s a desire to bridge the distance. It’s to hear someone say, yes, it’s exactly like that. Because that means somewhere in their experiences, they align with us just enough to have seen the story much like we did. The story reveals our common ground.

Sometimes, bridging the distance means hearing someone say, I hadn’t seen it that way but now I understand why you do. This is where critique and praise teach empathy. In hearing/reading another’s reaction, you are literally walking through the story in their shoes, seeing it through their eyes. The story reveals our common humanity.

Not everyone wants to go there. Not everyone can. For them, your critique or praise will fall short, because they can’t or won’t or just aren’t ready to hear what you’re saying. There’s a good chance they never will be, but maybe you’re not ready to hear their experience, either. It’s a difference of opinion based on a difference of experience.

There are too many factors to list for why some percentage of the fandom (or the staff itself) can’t or won’t hear your critique. Their refusal to listen does not invalidate your reactions, but it does --- to me, at least --- underscore that your reaction is all the more valuable.

In retail, we say that for every happy customer, there’s five more who are silent. For every unhappy customer, there’s fifty more. It’s so much easier to say nice/good things; it’s much harder to say, “what you did there, that hurt/made my life harder/was bad.” That’s why we pay so much more attention to the unhappy customers, because they’re the ones stepping up to let us know what we need to fix or do better. That wasn’t easy, and we should recognize that.

If you’re pointing out problems and it seems like you’re surrounded by people who insist it’s all in your head, it’s just you, you’re overreacting, that tells me two things. One, chances are better than even that some of them privately agree with you, but lack the energy, time, or confidence to speak up. And two, that you gotta look around and find your tribe. Because those insisting it’s all fine and you have no right to your reaction? They ain’t it.

Maybe someday they’ll be ready to hear what you have to say, and walk the story’s miles in your shoes to understand how it made you feel. But they aren’t there yet, and until they are, there’s no point in shouting them down.

Fandom has no governing body to grant your response credibility; even if it did, most of us would just ignore it, anyway. Our reactions --- whether praise or critique --- are valid, because they’re ours. No one, and nothing, can take that away from us.

Tell your story, build that bridge, and find your tribe. You’re not as alone as you feel right now.

#vld #voltron #fandom #critical thinking #sol thinks about stuff

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gwenore · 7 years ago

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Changeling Troubles. Chapter 6.

Chapter 11: Jim and Strickler have a talk and Strickler offers an alliance.

Synopsis: Barbara knows her friend and crush from college Walter Strickler is a changeling, trouble comes when she figures out he is not the only changeling she has met in her life. Jim is trying to balance his teenage life and being the trollhunter when he experiences certain… changes, which makes his life a whole lot more troublesome.

The drive up towards the outlook point was silent though Jim was glaring at his teacher, their eyes meeting a couple of times in the mirror.

Jim’s teeth gritted his teeth together. He was so pissed, a rage he had never really felt before. Never before had he been betrayed like this. Strickler was a man he trusted! Someone he felt he could talk to when he could talk to no one else would listen. It had been strange when he thought was dating his mom… but to find out that he was two faced. Literally! And that he had used his mother like that! Turned her against him and she did not even know!

His hands were clutching the amulet. He wanted to kill this man! Never before had he actually wanted to kill someone. It made him feel sick to his stomach, but he was so filled with rage.

After all… that was always the trouble with betrayal… it never comes from your enemies.

Strickler slowly pulled into the outlook point and put the car in park. He did not even look back as he stepped out before he wandered over, his green eyes gliding over the town of Arcadia. Despite hearing the trollhunter exit the vehicle he did not even look back, not even as he felt the crackle of magic and could see the shimmer of blue light in the corner of his eyes.

“Give me one good reason not to separate your head for your shoulders!” the teenager snarled, for once leaving the helmet off as he stared directly at his teacher. Strickler still did not even turn to look at him.

“Oh… I would not do that… not unless you want to decapitate your mother as well,” the changeling spoke softly.

“What…?” those words ran down the boy’s spine like icy water as he watched the changeling finally turned around.

“Well… young Atlas. When you get to my age… which… I assure you I am older than I look…”

“Hard to believe that is possible,” Jim’s interrupted causing Strickler to raise his brow slightly.

“Well… your mother does not seem to mind,” he then bit back, before he could blink he had the sword of Daylight against his throat.

“Keep speaking like that and I am going to turn you into a PEZ-dispenser,” Jim snarled. Strickler raised his brow slightly.

“Inventive… I got to admit that. But your threats does not work on me. I know what you are capable off, I know what you are not capable off,” he spoke softly.

“You believe I am not able to kill you simply because you are my teacher and my mother’s friend?!” Jim demanded.

“Well… I assumed as much. But… that was not what I was banking on. I know you will not wish to hurt your mother. As I was trying to say… when you reach my age you travel a bit… pick up certain… items…” he grinned, even with the sword which had claimed the lives after so many trolls.

“Where are you going with this?” Jim’s voice held a clear warning.

“Oh well. I found an interesting… enchantment. It binds the fate of two people together. I told your mother that this is meant to help us against the troll hunter. To know if the other is in distress,” he told her.

“Another one of your lies!” Jim snarled.

“No… just another version of the truth. As it is true. If the trollhunter… or anyone else… harms me… that damage will also happen to your mother. My fate is bound to hers as she is bound to mine,” Strickler said, speaking slowly as to make every word sink in Jim’s face.

“What…?” the word fell out of the trollhunter’s mouth.

“Well… to put it in simple terms… everything you do to me… happens to her,” the changeling grinned. The trollhunter’s face fell.

“You… you did that to her?! Why?!” he growled towards her.

“Among other things… not getting my head chopped of by the sword of Daylight is a rather big reason,” Strickler stepped back, rubbing his throat where the blade had been placed. Jim gritted his teeth.

“What is your plan?” he growled softly.

“Well… a reason for us to be out here… I am suggesting an… alliance. I am sure you have figured out Bular is building the Killahead bridge, to bring Gunmar to the surface world. And I am also sure that you know that changelings work for him,” he continued speaking as he moved towards the outlook point.

“And you aren’t?” Jim huffed.

“Of course I am. It is foolish not to. We unlike your troll friends cannot hide from Bular… and some of us got into service a long time ago. Some gleefully await his return,” Strickler made a hand movement.

“So why are we having this conversation?” Jim said.

“I know that if Gunmar were to escape the Darklands, he will slaughter humans… I have seen what he is capable off and who do you think can stand up to him and his army. You? No… the ones that could left this world long ago and I promise you that was for the better. However, this is not a history lesson. I know that the moment he gets bored… or doesn’t need us anymore changelings will be slaughtered too. Changelings have lead themselves to believe that if we serve him faithfully, we will gain respect,” Strickler stopped as he let out a chuckle. “Can you imagine something so foolish? That those that calls us impure will ever accept us? No… that is an infantile dream.”

Jim swallowed as he looked towards his teacher.

“So what do you suggest?” Jim said as he glared over at him.

“We wait… figure out a way to strike and end Bular. If he dies… then I doubt anyone will be able to bring Gunmar to the surface,” Strickler continued.

“Oh, kill Bular… nothing more, oh why did I not think of that!” Jim hit his head with a laugh before he glared at Strickler.

“I did not say it would be easy young Atlas. If it was do you not think I would be able to do it myself?” Strickler grumbled at the teen’s antics.

“Why are you not going to turn me into Bular the moment I decide to trust you?” Jim asked.

“Never trust a changeling, young Atlas. Do not trust anyone. Trust is a very expensive thing, and it is something that we cannot afford. I know you do not believe, yet the truth is that you are one of us… if only partially, and that is a lesson you have to learn. Those you consider your friends will turn on you when they learn the truth,” Strickler’s green eyes turned towards the city again.

“They won’t,” Jim’s voice was firm.

“Are you certain?”

Strickler’s voice made the teenager stare up at him as their eyes met.

“It does not matter. Even if you tell the truth, which I do not believe, this is just some plot on your part! To trick me, or make me doubt, I don’t know! Anyways, it is not like I chose to have a changeling father if that was indeed what he was. If I am half changeling it was nothing I could control!” Jim insisted. Strickler simply let out a chuckle as he looked down.

“No changeling chose to be a changeling, Jim,” He then said. Jim swallowed. He remembered what Blinky had told him about how the changelings came to be. Troll children… stolen from their parents by Gunmar and then twisted by dark magic so they could take their human form through a familiar.

He looked at Strickler again and there was no words spoken between them for a long while as both of them looked over the town.

Strickler then turned and walked towards his car.

“Strickler…” Jim began.

“Do not worry young Atlas… I won’t tell anyone about your… family relation,” he turned towards him again.

Jim huffed himself up, clutching his hands.

“I am not a half changeling!” he gritted his teeth.

“If you insist…” Strickler shrugged as he sat himself in. “See you at school young Atlas.”

This was his parting words as he drove away. It was only once the car was out of sight that Jim remembered that it was Strickler who had driven him up there and he did not have his bike. It was also a very long way back to his house.

Jim stood there absolutely fuming. He had his phone… with Strickler’s number, but there was no way that he was going to call to ask about a ride back. His pride would not allow it.

“Asshole!” he grumbled as he crossed his arms walking down the path, swearing that he could hear his teacher’s mocking laugh in the distance.

It was nearing midnight when the teenager finally got back to his house. Slowly he snuck himself inside and went to his room, closing the door.

Jim felt as if he got no sleep that night, simply laying on his bed even watching how the light in the window started to flow in, signaling a new day. Jim sat himself up, running his hand through his hair, rubbing his hair.

Slowly he reached out and grabbed the phone, calling his best friend. It took a couple of rings before he heard that the call was picked up.

“… ello… uh… what time is it…? Ugh… Jimbo… it is six AM… on a Sunday… isn’t that… illegal… is anyone even awake at six AM on a Sunday?” Jim heard Toby mutter in the phone.

“I am sorry… just… couldn’t sleep,” Jim said in a low tone. Over the phone he hear his friend sit up listening closely.

“Did something happen?” Toby’s voice was far more serious than it usual was.

“Found out some things last night. You were right. Strickler is a changeling,” he then told him.

“WHAT?! I knew it! What happened? Did you kill our history teacher?” Toby spoke quickly.

“I wanted to. But he has a spell on my mom… I cannot hurt him without hurting her. He could have lied but… the way he said it…”

“Shit… what are you going to do? Are you going to tell Dr. L?”

Jim ran his hand through his black hair and he sighed softly.

“She knows. Apparently she knew Strickler was a changeling before anyone else. He… accidently exposed his troll form to her in college apparently,” Jim explained. Toby remained silent for quite some time.

“That must have been rather awkward… wait… so she chose to date him even knowing that he is a changeling?”

“They are not dating!” Jim insisted.

“Alright, alright! Why did she invite a guy over she knew she was a changeling?” Toby wondered.

“She likes him and he… he has told her stories… not just lies… just he had not told her it right! He has convinced her that the Trollhunter is a murderer out to kill trolls and changelings, which… how can I convince her that he is evil changeling when she believes every word he tells her? Believing he is a good friend who the trollhunter is out to kill this friend?” Jim clenched his hand.

“Uh… yes… that is difficult…” Toby had to agree.

“I just… need to think. Not to mention, Strickler offered a sort of… alliance? I think… I am still not sure what he meant,” Jim fell back on his bed.

“Well he is a changeling, so it is not like we can trust him,” Toby said firmly.

“I know… Toby…” Jim paused slightly.

“Yes?”

Jim remained silent for a long while.

“Strickler seems to think I am…” Jim could hardly bring himself to say it.

“What is it? You know you can tell me anything,” Toby’s tone was serious in a way that Jim wasn’t used to hearing it.

“Nothing… he just said some things and… I guess he got to me,” Jim found he couldn’t say it. Not out loud. Not yet.

Toby remained silent for a bit longer.

“Hey, how about I come over, you make us breakfast, then we go out, find a place that sells birdseeds and pour it all over Strickler’s car so when he is about to drive it, it is covered in bird shit!”

Jim let out a loud laugh at this. His friend really knew how to make him feel better.

“Brilliant Tobes! See you soon.”

“Later Jimbo!”

#changeling troubles #stricklake fic #walter strickler #jim lake jr #changeling!Jim #toby domzalski #best friend ever

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elvisosgood1 · 4 years ago

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itsclydebitches · 6 years ago

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Diving Deep

Hello, @badluckcharm-exe! It’s finally done! Sorry this took forever and a day. Inspiration decided to take a vacation for a while... Regardless, I hope you enjoy this. I’ll be sure to get it up on AO3 tomorrow 💚

Prompt was for a Mermaid AU.

“Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream! Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream. Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream—”

“Holy shit, kid, you’re twelve. Don’t you know any other songs?”

Oscar blinked, finally drawing his gaze away from the aquarium. The hallway they stood in had water on both sides as well as above, a dome that never failed to leave Qrow’s stomach queasy because good god what happened if that glass ever broke? Oscar had no such reservations. He pressed right against the barrier—things with teeth passing him by—until the water rippled off his skin and there was a green tint to his eyes.

“I’m fourteen,” he said, head cocked strangely against the glass.

“That’s worse.”

Oscar shrugged. “I like it. The song I mean. Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. If you meet the kelpie’s eyes then don’t forget to scream.”

…What the actual fuck?

It wasn’t the first time the kid had said something totally off the wall. Qrow leaned on his mop, watching Oscar tap the glass until, coincidentally, a bright orange fish swam up to where he stood. Qrow had worked at Atlas Labs nearly a year now and knew that, no matter what Ozpin claimed, they were only surrounded by a bunch of dumb animals. You couldn’t train a fish to come when called, no more than he’d been able to train Oscar to be marginally less annoying. Honestly, what the ever loving hell was a kelpie?

“Hey.” Qrow tapped his boot until Oscar finally looked his way. The fish immediately swam off. “If you’re just gonna stand there how about you help me wipe down the glass?” That way Qrow didn’t need to go near all that nonsense. “All boys your age should have chores. Builds character. Or something.”

For reasons unknown to him Oscar’s eyes strayed to the bucket full of water next to Qrow’s feet. He split into a grin.

“Nope! Tell Dad I said hi!”

And Oscar scurried off, boots squeaking on the tiled floor as he disappeared around a corner. He’d left smudges on the glass and a scuff where he’d stood. Great.

Another bug-eyed fish bumped against the glass parallel to Qrow’s head. He scowled.

“What the hell are you looking at?”

***

Atlas Labs. Renowned world-wide for their cutting advancements in marine biology. Not exactly the sort of research that got Qrow all hot and bothered, but what could he say? People were weird. Apparently while most looked to the skies for answers to Earth’s problems, the real scientists were turning to the many mysteries of the seas. Our origins, future, even a chance at immortality—all of it was hidden somewhere beneath the waves. At least, that’s what Ozpin claimed.

Not that Ozpin was any less weird than his son.

“Your brat says ‘hi.’”

Lithe and tall enough to hit his head on the occasional hanging lamp, Ozpin Pine presumably had his picture printed next to the dictionary definition of ‘eccentric.’ Qrow had never seen him in anything other than a wrinkled green suit (not the same one every day… surely?) and a lab coat stained with all sorts of things that he never needed identified, thanks. A mop of white hair looked perpetually windblown despite the fact that the man rarely stepped outside and Oz wore these teeny tiny glasses that couldn’t possibly help a flea see, let alone a grown-ass man. He wore rings on his fingers, a long line of earrings, and had hidden tattoos that Qrow sometimes caught peeking out from beneath the cuff of his shirt. It hurt to look at him. In the same way it hurt to look at an ongoing car wreck while being blinded by the sun. Ozpin was, simply put, an oddball.

And Qrow would have laid down his life for him.

Heh. Not to be dramatic or anything, but there weren’t many world-renowned scientists in this place who’d design to speak kindly to their janitor. Or speak to him at all. His first day Ozpin had slipped a sweet from his pocket into Qrow’s hand, made some horrendous joke, introduced Oscar as “My much beloved offspring” (what?), and capped it all off with the warmest smile Qrow had ever had the privilege of soaking up. Those scraps of kindness would have bred devotion on their own, but Ozpin genuinely seemed to like him, as ridiculous as that seemed. Qrow had thought this job was going to be the worst of the many he’d grabbed in the last three years. Instead it was…

Interesting. Yeah. It was something alright.

Ozpin had no inkling of Qrow’s inner judgement. He was too busy comically looking around the floor, or roughly around the height where a pint-sized teen might stand.

“My brat?” he asked, smiling so wide the florescent lights glinted off his back teeth. He took another candy from his pocket and munched it, seemingly thoughtful. Qrow had heard the other scientists bitching about Ozpin bringing food into the labs, claiming that it would attract animals. Like they weren’t already surrounded by animals. Duh.

Qrow eyed the tank in the far corner of Ozpin’s office. Like every other room in Atlas it was a space with aquarium tendencies, though this tank wasn’t listed on any of the public tours. The fish in there were clearly some special experiment of Oz’s, with bright neon strips on top and transparent bodies below. Qrow caught a glimpse of fish skeleton and swallowed back a gag.

“Yes, your brat. He kept bugging me while I cleaned the entryway. Don’t you have a leash for him or something?” Qrow started emptying the trash bins while Oz watched, gaze so focused it seemed to sizzle a hole in the back of his uniform. He did a lot of that. Watching. Qrow had also heard the other nerds complaining about Ozpin’s overly observant nature, saying he wasn’t just intense, but downright creepy.

Weren’t science types supposed to be curious about everything though? If Ozpin wanted to examine the slope of Qrow’s ass, then by all means.

He bent a little farther while picking up the next can, just in case that really was what Oz was interested in. Gray slacks and beige boots weren’t exactly the height of style, but Qrow was confident in his ability to work even the saddest of outfits. Besides, it wasn’t like Ozpin had room to judge. Today he had a stack of jelly bracelets on his left wrist and an octopus pin on the collar of his coat. The man was a hodge-podge of strange adornments, wearing each and every one like they were actually fashionable.

Months he’d been at this job and Qrow was still trying to figure out if the man was just that dense or just that indifferent. Besides, none of this even touched on Ozpin’s tendency to—

“I’m afraid not. I tried a leash of kelp once and Oscar slipped right out of it. He always was such a nimble little fry.”

—say weird shit.

Like father, like son. Apparently.

Qrow paused in the act of dumping five billion used tissues into his cart. He pinched the bridge of his nose. It was 10:00 at night and he didn’t have the energy to tackle whatever the hell a kelp leash was. Instead Qrow raised a single finger, letting it flop. “Nimble fry? Should I serve Oscar up with ketchup tomorrow?”

Which resulted in Ozpin throwing his head back and laughing—literally, like something out of a cartoon. His desk was a mess of papers covered in rainbow highlighting and the bookcase next to that was organized by color rather than genre. Or heaven forbid, last name. Between those and the fish (and his iffy fashion sense) Ozpin was surrounded by color in the otherwise sterile room. It was like this wherever he went. Ozpin blended in with the vibrant life of the tanks around them; always looking like he was more at home with the water just out of reach. Qrow supposed that was a good thing for a man who’d devoted his life to marine biology. It did make one wonder about stupid, sappy things though. Like fate maybe. What kind of man was born with eyes the color of sand and a smile that lit you up like a glimpse of the horizon?

Sometimes Qrow wondered if he’d hear waves if he listened for Oz’s heartbeat. Would he taste salt on his lips?

Right now Qrow had neither. All he could smell was trash.

“A fry is a juvenile fish,” Ozpin said, still wiping tears from his eyes. “Ah, but you’re a fry too, aren’t you, Qrow? So very young. I wouldn’t expect you to know such things.”

Ozpin came up and actually gave his cheek a pat, like some doting grandmother humoring her young charge. Qrow got a close look at his unlined face and could see how soft his hair was, with none of the wiry texture that usually accompanied gray strands. For a man who loved teasing him about his age (not nearly as young as people tended to assume), Ozpin didn’t look a day over thirty himself. It was just one more of his oddities. Qrow had stopped bothering to count them long ago.

Instead he leaned into Ozpin’s touch when his hand decided to rest on his cheek a moment, like some rare bird designing to visit. Ozpin’s fingers were cool as their pads lightly took in the texture of Qrow’s skin. He thought he saw Ozpin’s pupils dilating, blowing black against brown, though that may have just been a trick of the light.

“Is anyone gonna let me do some actual work around here?” he finally groused. A moment longer and Qrow might not have let Ozpin go.

“You should be very proud,” he said, voice carrying a touch of awe that didn’t sit right with the rest of the scene. Ozpin was looking at a bio waste bag. “You have such a wonderful job.”

Qrow stared. Then he looked down to make sure that yes, he was still a janitor and yes, those were drops of day-old coffee on his shoes. A smear of something vile-smelling on his sleeve. Everything else was disinfectant.

“I do?”

“Of course! Why, it’s a service. You keep things neat and sterile. You help make sure my family has a lovely home to keep coming back to.” Ozpin rested his hand on the tank and all the fish congregated around his reflection. Must think it was time for food or something. Qrow was used to the term ‘family’ getting thrown out when Ozpin was speaking and slimy, big-eyed fish were involved. That hardly fazed him nowadays.

The idea that someone found janitorial work impressive? That was something out of left field. Qrow could feel the blush now staining his cheeks.

“Guess I’m not the worst at it,” he muttered, taking up his bag again because damn, he couldn’t look Ozpin in the eye when he got like this. He was expecting another non-sequitor into the new book he was reading, or maybe the fact that Oscar had started collecting forks again (don’t ask). Instead Qrow felt a touch at the crook of his arm, as gentle as when Ozpin had touched his cheek. He stepped closer.

“You truly are marvelous,” Ozpin whispered.

“…Do you hear the stuff that comes out of your mouth?”

“Oh yes. Sometimes I’m the only one who hears. Except Oscar, of course…and you. You’ve always heard me, haven’t you, Qrow? Tell me, do you enjoy the music?”

Must just mean music. In general, like. Qrow suspected that Ozpin was foreign, slipping articles in where none where needed because there certainly wasn’t any music playing now.

…Right?

He wasn’t holding the trash bag anymore. It was thrown haphazardly across his cart, now replaced with Ozpin’s cool, surprisingly smooth hand. Qrow stared down at the appendage, reeling, wondering when that had happened and why. How many times was the man going to touch him tonight—freely—when he’d kept some sort of distance all these months before?

“You do hear,” Ozpin murmured, seemingly to himself. “And Oscar is so very fond of you…why, we both are.” His contemplative look suddenly split like ripe fruit, revealing a blinding smile beneath. “Come, Qrow. Let me show you.”

“Show me what?”

Don’t ask too many questions. You’ll spoil the fun. Ozpin had said that to him once when Qrow had feigned an interest in all his nasty fish, figuring that maybe he’d have some sort of chance if there was a shared interest between them, even a faked one. Instead his words had been rebuffed, Ozpin seeming to stare through him to the lie beneath, finding it all very humorous. Qrow wasn’t surprised that his questions weren’t answered now.

Instead Ozpin led him down the long corridors of Atlas labs, their steps echoing and their breathing overly loud. The aquarium around them shifted with dark blues and greens. The fish seemed to follow, waiting.

It occurred to Qrow then that they were the only ones here. He was the late-night janitor. Ozpin was the workaholic who never seemed to sleep. The only thing that broke the isolation was Oscar’s voice drifting faintly down the hall as he sang that insistent song. Row, row, row, your boat. Where to though? They were the only ones here and suddenly that seemed as much a possibility as a threat.

Don’t forget to scream.

Qrow opened his mouth, but all that came out was a soft, devoted sigh. He stepped into the water.

…water?

“There you are,” Ozpin said. It came out as a coo. “Quite lovely, isn’t it?”

He’d taken him to one of the wading pools. Into the wading pool, where the wildlife swam free, providing the scientists with a place to get up close and personal with their research. A tiny part of Qrow’s mind expressed surprise that Ozpin had stepped in with him—he and Oscar had always had such a strange aversion to touching water, despite their love of it. Filled boots. Wet pants sticking to his ankles, now his thighs. A slightly larger part of him was sending off panicked signals, claiming that he never ever wanted to be this close to a bunch of fish. There were little guppy things scurrying about. Rays with long tails. What might have been a small shark. Everything circled around them as they moved forward, a whirlpool of all the things Qrow had wanted to avoid since taking this position.

Except for Ozpin. Qrow waded deeper, moving towards him and him alone.

“You heard, Qrow. Do you see too?”

Dumbly, Qrow stared down at their still clasped hands. There were membranes between Ozpin’s fingers now and when he smiled his teeth had grown sharper. He’d grown more.

There was a ledge where the pool connected to the tank, a space between the two worlds just large enough for the kinder animals to slip through. Or perhaps two men. One man and… Ozpin; who pulled Qrow under with a forceful, determined tug.

He’d always thought it would be boring under the water. All dark and silent. Far from it though. When Qrow first jerked in panic Ozpin was there, his tattoos, his scales bright within the pool’s gloom, casting little prisms between them. His tail pulled Qrow close while his pupils narrowed into slits. There were tender, clawed hands bowing his shoulders.

There was a moment of suspension then, poised somewhere between bobbing and swimming. Qrow caught Ozpin’s gaze and gave himself up to drowning in those eyes.

Well done, they seemed to say. A mouth filled with teeth and fierce possession leaned in for what might have been a kiss.

Qrow had always taken his chances. He met Ozpin halfway and what do you know.

He tasted salt.

#rwby #ozqrow #rwbyfic #mermaids #badluckcharm-exe

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seyaryminamoto · 8 years ago

Note

This is the first time I have come across Sokka and Azula being shipped seriously. This interests me, so would you care to explain why you ship them? =)

Well, I have explained a few times before… or a lot of times xD but alas, if something can get me rambling, it’s a question like this.

Alright, soooooo… why Sokka and Azula? Why not any other combination of characters? Why did I have to choose these two despite their canon interactions are so few and far apart that sometimes it made me, a hardcore shipper, lose my mind, desperate for more?

Everything really sums up to one word: potential.

People have all sorts of reasons to ship anything they like. The most common one you see out there, in fandoms, is history: the childhood friends trope is very loved, for instance, and even I can’t help but love certain ships built on the basis of long-term, strong relationships that could endure absolutely any obstacles. When shows take ten thousand years to get that big fan couple together, people will start gushing about all the history the pairing has, and alas, it’s a great reason to love a pairing!

But as you will notice, there’s no such canonical history between Sokka and Azula. What is the root of this ship, if not shared history? What makes me say they have potential, when they seldom interact?

The potential we shippers see comes from something else entirely. It comes not from history, but from the contrast between their characters, the parallels, the similarities and the differences between them. All this brought together can give birth to a unique relationship that, to this day, I can’t realistically picture brewing between any other characters in this show aside from Sokka and Azula.

Alright, to start off:

1. The parallels and circumstances: Sokka and Azula were born to the family of leaders in their respective nations. The situations aren’t 100% the same, but their fathers are the leaders of their communities and their mothers had a closer relationship with their other sibling. In regards of their relationships with said siblings, Sokka and Azula are the rational, even cold-blooded siblings at times, in contrast with their emotional and hot-headed siblings, Zuko and Katara.

Curiously, with the upbringing they have, Sokka and Azula both turn out to be the siblings who tease the others, the ones with the sense of humor (I will never let anyone forget Azula’s absurd puns), They’re the ones who grew up with a tight bond with their fathers, looking up to them and wanting to follow on their footsteps - not that Zuko didn’t try to do it too, but the difference here lies in how the fathers reacted to it: Ozai embraces Azula’s attempts to imitate him and rejects Zuko’s, while Hakoda tries to teach Sokka how to be a leader and a warrior, much like he is. So, Azula and Sokka have similar relationships with their fathers.

And just so, they’re the ones who are more military/strategy oriented of their pair of siblings. Azula was, hands down, a strategist and intellectual, shown as she can recite perfectly what Ozai requests from her as a child in Zuko Alone, and shown again when Zuko asks her about Sozin’s history, uncertain of his own knowledge but assuming Azula would know better. Sokka, likewise, is the “plan guy” in Team Avatar, and the one who was ecstatic and determined to go to a Library. Sokka loves learning new things, and from the looks of it, Azula may be intellectually inclined as well.

Also, they’re the most awkward flirts you’ve ever seen. Combine “Maybe we could do an activity together?” with “That’s a sharp outfit...” and you find yourself with the most hilarious attempt of courtship ever seen.

Considering all this, we also have the issue that comes with their insecurities. The complicated relationships with their mothers, the sense of inadequacy... they’ve both canonically felt the despair of not being good enough, Sokka struggled with it silently for a long time, begrudging his sister for her special skills. Azula felt it too, while watching as her friends picked to side with her brother over her. Sokka felt it as well when his father left him behind in the Water Tribe as he took off to the war... and Azula did it in the same circumstances, years later, as her father leaves her behind, too. Even in these regards, they’re similar.

In conclusion, their upbringing may have just had a hand in grooming them into being this similar to one another, no matter that they were as different as they were. These experiences are the kind of thing that could easily bring two people together, realistically speaking. There’s a lot of potential bonding that could happen because of this.

2. The differences: these two are also vastly different, and of course, the opposites attract notion has been repeated to no end with this ship and many others. But what’s going on with Sokkla isn’t that simple, I believe. People can ship something on the premise of “opposites attract”, but I personally can’t do it unless there’s more substance to it than just that (ergo why I like the parallels I listed above more than I like the differences).

So, let’s list the obvious differences, shall we? Princess and peasant (despite there’s a lot of people who like to think otherwise, but upbringing-wise, Sokka lived far more humbly than Azula did and that’s really what this is about), water and fire, bender and non-bender, moral and amoral, sociable and loner, healthy family and unhealthy family.

Amongst the not-so-obvious differences, I said they’re great at strategy, but as it turns out, they’re great at different kinds of strategies: Sokka loves long-scale plans, but they fail for him more often than not. He’s better at improvising, at thinking of solutions on his feet. Meanwhile, Azula is the opposite: she regroups when a plan fails, then builds new plans steadily, but with perfect precision so that everything falls into place when it has to.

The differences abound, by the tons, but as you may see, they’re not the worst kind of differences. While it sounds cliché as heck, even the example of the way their strategies work is ideal to prove why these differences aren’t quite as problematic as they can seem. If they work together, those differences become complementary. Take your time to imagine what a strategy concocted by Sokka and Azula would look like: who on earth would be able to stop these two if they joined forces? I tell you, no one on ATLA’s cast would stand a chance xD

The differences between them are pivotal for the third point, I’ll say. And that’s where things really kick in.

3. What they could become together: Sokka and Azula are of course not without flaw, they’re both pragmatists to the point of cold-bloodedness, he can be really goofy sometimes, she can be extremely amoral often, so as much as I adore them in every sense, I know there’s a lot of room for character growth in both of them, even now (yes, I sing praises for Sokka’s development, but I’ll be damned as a fan if I didn’t realize he can grow even more than he already did!).

The one who clearly needs to grow more is Azula, nobody will question that. Her downfall is very heartbreaking and everyone wants her to heal. I am not going to claim Sokka and Sokka alone can patch her up, that’s absurd. But I do believe Azula needs support from someone who’s as emotionally strong as Sokka proved to be throughout the show, someone who will stand by her even in her darkest moments, someone who doesn’t give up on those he loves. Sokka fits the requirement just right.

3A. But why Sokka, and not anyone else? Because Sokka, who’s one of the characters with the best moral compasses in this show, is also not a preacher. If Azula chooses to take an aggressive stance on something, or a threatening one, Sokka might talk her down from that by showing that approaching the problem from a different angle will be more efficient. Sokka isn’t above murder, that’s something that cannot be forgotten: he knows sometimes you can’t find peaceful solutions for problems, as it was in canon when they killed Combustion Man. But Sokka would seek any other solution before reaching the point of killing someone. Spending time with someone who has a good moral compass, but who isn’t high-and-mighty about it, is the kind of thing that I think Azula would benefit from. With him, she can learn to let go of her father’s teachings of using fear as the means to control anyone: Sokka would show her why that’s pointless, really.

And speaking of which… it’s canon that Sokka isn’t inherently terrified of her. Azula could intimidate Ty Lee into submission, even send Mai away with a mere suggestion (and sure, Mai glared at her but still left as she was asked), she can terrify her brother and uncle enough to make them think the Earth Kingdom killing them isn’t as bad as being handed over to Azula… and yet, when she goads Sokka during in the Eclipse, he doesn’t hold back. He doesn’t back down. He gets up in her face and yells, demands for the truth. He will not let her walk over him, and even when she regains her bending afterwards, he makes a move as if to go after her before he realizes it’s futile. But he isn’t scared. He’s courageous enough that in the Chase he swings his club at her as she’s running off, tosses his boomerang faster than the elements the others sent at her. His sword threatened her far more than Zuko’s bending in the Boiling Rock when the two of them took her on. Sokka kept her in check, never hurt her, but it SHOWS that Sokka isn’t going to back down on her just because she’s threatening. Heck, even the comics prove this! He took her on, one-on-one, in the Search. And heck, he survived despite the roof collapsed :’D wouldn’t you consider that quite a feat?

Point being, Sokka will NEVER let Azula walk over him. And this is something that makes me believe he’d gain her respect rather quickly. He’s not a minion, he’s not a vassal: he’s a leader in his own right, and I believe Azula would acknowledge it.

Why would she? Because she ditched an entire firebending procession in favor of traveling with two non-benders. Because she took a legion of earthbenders under her command, no matter that they weren’t Fire Nation: contrary to the popular belief, Azula’s sense of superiority doesn’t blind her to other people’s skills, regardless of who they are or where they come from. She’s willing to find allies anywhere, and the show proves it clearly. Why would she scoff at Sokka for being a non-bender when she didn’t do this to Mai and Ty Lee? Why would she scoff at him for not being Fire Nation when she didn’t do that with the Dai Li? Well, my answer is that she wouldn’t scoff at all. Not if they met under better circumstances than they tend to meet in canon, or if they amend their relationship somewhat.

Sokka has a lot to offer Azula, but the first thing that hooked me on this pairing was the realization that he might actually make her laugh to the point of tears. Sokka’s jokes, silly as they can be, are the sort of thing that definitely could fly with the girl responsible for “the Avatar’s fangirls”, and nobody’s ever going to convince me otherwise. The real thing that hooked me is that this goofy boy, with his witty comments, his sarcasm, his often poorly-disguised enthusiasm for all things new, could really bring happiness to someone like Azula. The little history between them is bad, yes, they were at opposite sides of a war, but as enemies they could respect each other. As friends? I think they would find they suit each other really well, their senses of humor match, their countless list of things in common do, too. Even if someone doesn’t want them to become romantic, the potential between their interactions is so great it fascinates me even after all this time. They have it in them to be amazing partners, whatever the nature of their relationship.

The bad blood between them isn’t the kind of bad blood I see between Azula and any of her Fire Nation friends. She never expected anything good from the members of Team Avatar, but she did from the Fire Nation gang. She had helped her brother out but that went to waste in her eyes, and their relationship only ever got worse to the point of them damn near fighting to the death in the finale. She was definitely not the greatest friend to Mai and Ty Lee, but she believed they were friends for real: they betrayed her. The amount of backstabbing Azula has received is kind of overwhelming. People can think she had it coming, whatever, but those wounds are a lot more likely to open again when dealing with the people who inflicted them in the first place. Team Avatar was always just the enemy for her. She doesn’t need to bounce back from being double-crossed with them, so honestly, I find that establishing bonds with them could be smoother for her than trying her luck with everyone who turned their backs on her before. She should have new friends that she knows aren’t lying to her face, or shooting glares at her when she’s not paying attention.

And that brings up another reason why Sokka is so good for her, in my opinion: he is terribly, ABSURDLY, blunt and honest. Sokka’s attempts to lie his way out of anything are laughable, and for someone like Azula, it’ll always be obvious that he’s lying. But he’d never lie about serious things, too, which is where his great principles are a wonderful thing for this relationship. He’s not going to be dishonest to her, and she’ll know it. She’s a people person xD she can tell when someone’s absolutely honest, and she’ll find that Sokka is practically incapable of dishonesty. So whenever she’s doing something he disapproves of, he’ll say it. He speaks his mind, always, no matter the cost. He doesn’t even know how to hold his tongue.

Finally… the honesty part ties in with something essential for me in a stable, healthy relationship for Azula. This girl has gone her whole life telling herself she’s a monster: when someone as honest as Sokka gets to know her, and lets her know she’s not one? No doubt her life would end up upside down because of it, but she’d know he’s not lying. She’d know he’s saying it because he truly believes it. Sure, it’s a huge source of drama for their relationship anyways xD but if Sokka loves her, her fears of not being deserving of love could start to be dismissed. If her enemy from the times of the war could possibly grow to have feelings for her… well, first off she’d think he’s crazy xD but once it kicks in, so much of what she feared and dreaded about herself would be disproved. I know many people expect this problem of Azula’s to be fixed through her family, but as I said above, the bad blood there is so damn bad that I don’t see why someone else can’t do it instead. Maybe it’s not the ideal way, but I believe it would work.

So, that’s quite a bit on why Sokka suits Azula as well as he does. But you might be wondering by now if it’s a two-way street: can someone like Azula be good for someone else? Well… you might be surprised.

3B. But why Azula, and not anyone else? Sokka has a ton of love interests in-canon, and a ton more ships outside of canon. So why would I dare claim Sokkla is the best ship for him?

Something funny I like to bring up is that what people love in Sokka’s most popular ships gets gathered into one with Sokkla.

The main reason why people ship Yuekka: impossible love, princess and peasant, he did everything he could for her, didn’t stand a chance and fell head over heels for a girl who loved him but loved her nation too. So… Azula and Yue are obviously characters who differ in A LOT of aspects, in fact, in most of them. But they share two things: they’re princesses, and they would do ANYTHING for their nation. Azula’s goal when striving to become Fire Lord is to be a great leader for her nation, remember? Curious coincidence, right? So… if Sokka falls for Azula, you get these same elements that you had with Yuekka. Funny.

Top billed reason why people ship Sukka: “I’m a warrior but I’m a girl too”. That quote sold a lot of people on this ship, and frankly it’s the main reason why Sokka and Suki are together at all: both are warriors but her feminine side appeals to him anyways. Do I even need to say who’s a girl and a warrior, AND A STRATEGIST JUST LIKE HIM…? Yeah. I don’t. You already know :’D

Top billed reason why people ship Tokka: Toph and Sokka were hilarious together, right? Got along really well, they even bonded over Katara being annoying and all that. They were the nickname ones, the jokesters, offered a lot of comic relief in the show. But alas… I am not a fan of the comics, yet Sokka and Azula provided comic relief just fine too. As I pointed out above, Sokka and Azula grew up with very similar siblings: they could just as easily bond over that, too.

Point being, Sokkla can pull everything off. At the same time. It really can. You could say that Sukka’s famous line applies to Tokka too, but it doesn’t work with Yuekka. You can’t say the appeal of Yuekka can also be found in Tokka because Toph actually doesn’t care for worldly affairs the way Yue did (she doesn’t join Team Avatar out of wanting to help people, she does it to be free and to have a chance to be herself, completely personal reasons). The comic relief thing about Toph and Sokka having similar senses of humor can’t apply to either Sukka or Yuekka. And Yuekka’s circumstances simply don’t apply for Sukka either.

So Sokkla has the potential that every one of these ships has, and more. It even gathers factors that the other ships didn’t have (as I mentioned, relationships with family, interest in strategy and intellectual pursuits), and adds several that I find pivotal for why Azula can help Sokka grow lots:

Azula is a challenge. What does canon show us regarding Sokka and challenges? He absolutely THRIVES in them. Sokka can claim he wants to have a peaceful and easy life, but the minute something extraordinary happens, he’s all over it and doing his best to be part of it. Sokka was set free from burdens and allowed to grow into the young man he became because of the challenge of stopping the Fire Nation. It was a fight they could have lost, but he did his damnedest to help his friends succeed.

Yue was a challenge of sorts for him, too. She was out of his reach, and he tried to love her without being with her, which showed an amazing nobility from him and proved how much he can care about the people he falls in love with. It ended too fast for anyone to say if that relationship could have gotten anywhere, but it was promising, if anything.

As for Suki… I really don’t love the ship. And one of the reasons I don’t is because while they care about each other, I feel that Sokka doesn’t need to try at all. Being comfortable is fine, but as I said earlier, Sokka thrives in challenges. He loves proving himself, and he did to Suki early on, but he doesn’t need to prove anything anymore. Thus, their relationship isn’t the kind I think would suit Sokka best. It’s not a relationship that compels him to do better, to try harder, to give it his everything.

A relationship with Azula would be the absolute opposite of that. Sokka would know Azula doesn’t settle for mediocrity in anything and he will not be a man who doesn’t deserve her. He would constantly strive to better himself, and she would help him reach his potential as a fighter and even as a leader, because that’s the kind of stuff she knows, and it’s the kind of stuff he’s interested in. So he can learn more about these things with her! In any case, he’s not going to have a single second of boredom with Azula. Not a chance. And I really think that’s something Sokka would love to enjoy in his life: a relationship that never ever feels complacent.

And another thing that always gets to me is Sokka’s acute awareness of how ordinary he seems in comparison to all his friends. It’s a nonsensical thing if you ask me, HE’S WONDERFUL! XD but he has these insecurities, and those insecurities can gnaw at him a lot. Wouldn’t it be great for him to be with someone, a partner who would make him realize how amazing he is? And I don’t mean that Azula would spend all day coddling him and telling him he’s remarkable: I mean that she would make him feel remarkable, because nobody can hold a relationship with Azula the way Sokka can, no matter how hard they may try. In a fully stabilized relationship, where they’ve both worked together to reach their full potential individually and together, these two really would develop a bond like no other. A relationship this incredible would be so strong it could reduce Sokka’s insecurities a huge lot. And I’d say that’s yet another point in favor for this ship.

4. The potential: with everything I said, I think it should be clear now why I talk so much about this ship being one based on potential. Nothing is set in stone, you can really do whatever you want in fanfiction with this pairing. You don’t have nearly enough canon interaction that you can take as shippy, no landmarks, nothing you absolutely need to feature… you really can do anything.

There’s Sokkla fics about them being partners in some organization, be it the White Lotus or anything else, there’s Sokkla fics where they’re a happily married pair, there’s fics where Azula captures Sokka that can start dark and go light, or even stay dark all along. There’s modern AUs, there’s crossovers of all kinds… there’s SO MUCH you can do with Sokkla. So much. These two really aren’t limited by anything, as far as I can see. People can portray their relationship as the healthiest in the Avatarverse, but some enjoy drama or angst, and they can take the relationship towards a toxic angle if it suits them. Someone can write them in the fluffiest of fluff, simply being happy together, and instants later they can give them the wildest smut you’ve ever imagined. And if done right? Everything will work. EVERYTHING.

Canon didn’t give us the ship, but it gave us the possibility. As I am, I don’t even worry about it becoming canon or not anymore: the richness of stories I’ve seen with these two is so vast I am constantly in awe over it. There’s been some serious fanfiction masterpieces for Sokkla that anyone should read (but if you want those, there’s another ask for fic recommendations waiting for me, so hold on and I’ll get to it eventually xD). The worlds that can be created for these two are amazing, truly.

And well… maybe you know this, but I’ll say it in case you don’t. I’ve spent almost five years of my life writing a fic about Sokka and Azula in the most compulsive manner EVER. Five years WITHOUT writer’s block. Five years of constant work in an AU that has already spanned over 1.6M words. What can I tell you of this experience? That I could have never made it this far, and created something this vast, with another leading pairing. I can’t replace their characters with others, I can’t write a version of Gladiator with, say, Toph and Zuko instead. It wouldn’t work. I can’t do it with Azula and Aang. It would never work the way it does if the main characters weren’t Sokka and Azula, and if their relationship wasn’t the main line that moves the plot forward (or slows it down, sometimes). I’ve rewritten ATLA as a whole, and gone further than I ever imagined I would with a story.

And it’s all because of them. Because that’s how much potential they have. Whatever criticism Gladiator deserves for my decisions, the fact remains that the story wouldn’t even be even a pale shadow of what it is if it weren’t about Sokka and Azula.

Lastly… doesn’t hurt that they make a beautiful pair, does it? :D

(Sokka and Azula by Drakyx)

Nope. Certainly doesn’t hurt one bit.

So, I hope if you got through this absurdly long ask, you would take two things with you: first, this wonderful ship has a ton of potential and it just takes a willing eye to see it. They’re a remarkable match in every way, seriously. Sometimes I get so lost in it I forget there’s next to no canon material about them, because of how real the connection between these two characters feels to me xD

The second thing I want you to take with you is…

… I talk a lot. I have too many feels about Sokkla. If you ask me to talk about them, I will ramble for hours, as I just did :’D hope you enjoyed reading my crazy gushing, and if your curiosity is still stirred, stick around and I’ll recommend Sokkla fics very soon! Thanks for the excuse to squee about them!

#anon #sokkla #sokka #azula #and I rambled again #how many times will I ramble today I do not know but I sure am happy about this last session of rambling xD #this is the kind of stuff I wanna talk all day about yes

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terraclae · 7 years ago

Text

Glasir

lore pings: @yuushanoah-fr @cityofinoue

[Lore directory]

The crew arrives in the city of Glasir and poses an offer to President Odin. All dragons are in bipedal forms.

‘Okay, move along, don’t you folks have anything better to do?’

Arodan watched Caer shoo away a few curious onlookers. She was grouchy but he felt safe by her side at the moment. At the moment a few too many people were staring at them curiously and he had half a mind to join her in scaring off the onlookers. He kept his eyes the window instead.

Glasir was a city he could have never even dreamed of. Towers rose into the heights and shimmered with glass and steel in the skyline. He had never seen cities being built in such a way and if he hadn’t recognized little tidbits like the city lights working on magic and style of building he would have been completely disoriented. This was a city in the image of the second age and Arodan barely could begin to wrap his head around how one would go about just studying the schematics for such a civilization.

‘Hey, you okay?’

Arodan turned to see Dmitri had silently sidled up to him. Caer took note of him too but kept quiet for the moment and instead stayed on guard for nosy onlookers, shuffling the other way. ‘I’m alright, just a little overwhelmed.’ He leant against the window and then immediately drew back once a heavy feeling of nausea washed over him. ‘This is the least dragon friendly city I have ever seen.’

‘Yeah, it’s… Something.’ Dima hummed nervously. He threw a glance over his shoulders. Balam’s form could vaguely be seen through the frosted glass of Odin’s office. Carmen and Atlas stood by the door attempting to listen in. ‘It feels familiar to me. I’ve seen cities like this before.’

‘Did you remember anything?’ Arodan looked up wide eyed at Dima. Even if the memories weren’t important to him he was still curious as to who Dima was. ‘Is it helpful for our situation perhaps?’

‘Not a lot, but I remembered a city in a desert across the ocean. It was situated somewhere by a river bank and… I don’t think they believed in the gods that reign here.’ Dima mumbled, and then promptly shrugged. ‘That’s about it.’

‘Wait, you say this city isn’t on this continent? Or is it located on the other side of the Sea of a Thousand Currents?’ Arodan’s brow furrowed and he found himself searching for Mimir in his bag. He was pretty certain he must have showed her a map sometime so maybe she could be of help. ‘Did you remember the name?’

‘It was…’ Dima tapped his foot impatiently on the floor trying to wrack his brain for any clues. ‘No… I can’t remember that. Just that it was an empire to the east of the Beacon of the radiant Eye.’

Arodan flipped open Mimir and she already had a map of the continent ready. Above the map she had spoken.

I’ve never met someone from across the sea before.

‘Mimir, you haven’t met a lot of people, you’re a book.’ Arodan whispered. It wrestled loose a hearty chuckle from Dima. ‘So this city you remember, did people walk around in a bipedal form on a daily basis?’

‘I think it actually took was the only form they had there. I don’t think a lot of people had a normal draconic shape or practiced magic.’ Dima watched Mimir note down the details with a sort of giddy wonder. ‘I… I lived there. That used to be my home.’ He turned his head sideways. ‘Have you been keeping notes on me?’

Arodan and me note down every odd little thing that happens!

‘No we don’t.’ Arodan said, lying and averting his gaze. Warmth rose to his face and he hoped dearly Dima didn’t press him any further on it. ‘It’s just a few-‘

‘Oh?’ His head whipped back to Dima, then to Mimir. She was in fact, flipping through her own pages so Dima could see the research they did when they still weren’t sure what was different about him. Dima himself looked at Arodan with a small smile and brows raised in downright sultry manner. ‘I have never had this much attention invested in me before.’

‘Save it, if it’s up to me I’m closing this investigation right now.’ Arodan grunted, his fluster deepening. ‘Mimir, stop that already.’ When she stopped she did on a half empty page. There, on a small black patch two dots and a curved line appeared in gold, looking like a smiling little face. Arodan slammed Mimir hair on that note and put her back into his bag. ‘Besides there’s no reason to continue, we figured out what’s your situation.’

‘Well, I mean… I do like the attention.’ Dima said and giggled. ‘Being around beautiful people is fun, I like being around other people.’ He looked around, fondly, and his eye fell on Kassa, Atlas and Carmen discussing what they might have heard from the office. ‘I think it’s just been a while.’

‘Considering you weren’t in control of your body for a while I can understand.’ Arodan responded. Dima’s arm touched his side and he didn’t know how comfortable he was with it. The earlier experience rang in his head. ‘You and Sachairi aren’t fighting over the body, right?’

‘It would be nicer to have my body back, but so far it’s going fine. We switch based on mood, when he needs time alone, I’m here.’ Dima fumbled with his hair for a bit. ‘It is a relief that I don’t have to pretend to be him anymore although… I’ve disappointed a lot of people, haven’t I?’

‘It’s just been a very difficult few weeks. I don’t think you turning up was any more special than what else has happened.’ Arodan said. Subconsciously he had reached to pat Dima on the back and when he did the imperial actively flinched. Arodan chose not to question it. ‘Why did you not try to explain who you were? It would have been easier.’

‘Yeah, I know, and this is going to sound really dumb-‘ Dima started, scratching the back of his head with a silly grin. ‘-But I just wanted to make them happy. I don’t think they would have lashed out in hindsight but whenever I ran into them I just wanted to be as quiet as possible, not give them reason to get angry with me.’ He gestured at the air and a nondescript noise escaped him. ‘Maybe I don’t have to worry about that anymore. I just have to worry about helping Sachairi find a way to reunite with Raz.’

‘You’re a huge imposing figure, why are you worried about anyone hurting you?’ Arodan gestured at Dima idly and now that he pointed out he felt even smaller actually. ‘What happened?’

‘I um…’

‘What are you boys up to?’ Kassa poked their head inbetween the two before rounding around Dima and opting to size him up. ‘You are Dmitri, no?’

‘Yes, did the lack of smokiness tip you off?’ Dima jested, his demeanor growing more radiant immediately. ‘Is something the matter?’

‘No, my curiosity has just gotten the better of me.’ They said, with a tilted head. They extended their hand towards Dima. ‘And we haven’t been formally introduced yet darling, you do have manners don’t you?’

‘Not that I remember. Maybe with time.’ Dima responded, shaking their hand. He was slow and careful in reaching out and didn’t hold on that long either. ‘But I’m Dmitri. It’s nice to meet you all.’

‘Well, it certainly is interesting to have you around.’ Atlas chimed in. Carmen was right behind him and soon Dmitri was surrounded by the three. Arodan found himself dropping out of the conversation and willingly stepped back until he ended up next to Caer who had wandered off earlier. The group got him to introduce himself and they barraged him with question. It could very well have been that they had just gotten bored with listening, but the sight was in a way endearing.

‘Well, at least they are happy.’ Caer said this quietly, her arms folded. ‘In all this worry it good to see them relaxed.’

‘I can agree. It’s… I’m really glad they’re happy.’ Arodan’s gaze first fell on Atlas, then gently slid from him to Carmen and Kassa. He felt warmer thinking of them, hollow so once everything that had happened hit him yet again. ‘What’s next?’

‘Judging by your tone of voice you’re staying with us and I couldn’t be more excited.’ Caer responded. Her tone of voice was flat but her posture was upright and proud. ‘What’s next preferably, is that we get help from the Stratus Corporation to take back Paramo. War is their forte so they might as well do what they’re good at.’

You’re not going to fight any Glasir natives, are you?’

‘Balam asked me not to and if he tells me no I am obligated to listen to him. Not because he’s my king but because I respect him.’ Caer hummed. That would explain why she didn’t say anything beyond shooing off some curious Stratus employees. ‘Maybe if one talks bad ‘bout any of you I will throw down but you know what, I don’t care what they say about me. We’re guests so I reckon we should behave.’

The door to Odin’s office open and his secretary emerged. They held their hands close to them as if they were about to be jumped. ‘Your presence is requested. Please come in.’ The group entered in varying degrees of hesitance but eventually settled at the far end of the spacious office. Balam stood by Odin’s desk, Odin himself sat behind it with his hands propped under his chin. Next to him stood a woman, who seemed to be a tundra judging by the shape of her horns. Shelves with books and files lined the walls and the entire room was only illuminated by a humongous arch shaped window behind Odin through which the city could be seen. Arodan took quickest notice out of everything that Balam looked nervous and tired. This couldn’t have gone well.

‘So, I will get to the point-‘ Odin said, jovially clasping his hands. ‘It is an honor to have you here and we are going to ask you to stay a little longer.’ Odin looked eerily calm. ‘I understand that you need help, but what you are requesting of me and my people is a very tall favor and I need to discuss this with a few of my advisors, most importantly my Vice President Syr.’ He gestured at the woman besides him who immediately stepped forward with an eager little bounce.

‘Yes! Please understand, but it is a lot to ask of us to send out our own forces and unite those of towns under our jurisdiction.’ She answered. She tapped her clipboard impatiently with her pen. ‘Besides, just rushing in guns blazing is a very archaic approach, don’t you think? It will only cause more casualties.’

‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’ Atlas spoke up, pacing forward. Arodan swore he could hear Caer muttering to herself that she didn’t know what a gun was. ‘So are you helping us or not?’

‘We’re saying we haven’t decided yet. Your people have the added advantage you are an allied nation but that doesn’t mean we can just send troops all willy-nilly.’ Syr answered, her eyebrows perking up. ‘By all means, we will make your stay here comfortable. You will be provided for while we figure out our answer.’

‘That’s spineless-!’

‘Look, listen-‘ Odin interrupted Atlas who was right in front of his desk now. He rose with a stately grace someone of his rank might have. ‘I did not invite you in and listened to you if I didn’t want to hear what you had to say. Balam’s father was a dear friend of mine, and Balam is now. But times have changed.’

Balam put a gentle hand on Atlas’ shoulder. ‘I got angry like you did but he is right. We need to think about this.’ Balam said. He looked up, met Odin’s eye and looked momentarily deeply disappointed. In that same moment Odin flinched just slightly. ‘We are taking up the offer to be staying, but I urge of you to consider our proposal.’

‘What are you providing beyond a place to sleep?’ Carmen stepped forward this time. ‘We do not just have wounds we need to tend to but we also have-‘

‘A body on board, we heard yes.’ Syr responded. ‘First of all, we are sorry for your loss.’ She bowed elegantly and continued once she righted herself again. ‘We can aid you with whatever funeral rites you require. Beyond this, and concerning yourselves you are free to explore the city, request guides and bodyguards, and have food be delivered to you.’ She hummed to herself and already her mind drifted off track. ‘Really, it’s the sort of relaxed vacation most here crave.’

‘Does this look like a vacation to you?’ Arodan muttered. He threw the most fleeting glance at Caer and he could see her hands were balled and shaking. She was utterly seething and he was wondering when her breaking point was. She shook, until Kassa silently moved to her side, and slid their hand into hers. They said nothing, but Caer stopped shaking. It seemed like a bizarre gesture, yet it made complete sense. Arodan’s gaze fell on Dmitri and it occurred to him he was glad Sachairi wasn’t there now.

‘I want a funeral pyre arranged.’ Carmen demanded, disregarding Syr’s other words. ‘And I want Heart roses, Myosotis and Alstroemerias with that. After I have cremated my brother you can show us whatever fancy services you have on offer, I don’t care about them right now.’

‘That can be arranged, do you want alcohol with that?’ Syr sarcastically blurted out as she was making a list on her clipboard. ‘We’ll get all of that, but please just have a little patience.’ This time it seemed Carmen’s turn to count to three before she was going to knock someone out. Her solution was to grasp Dima’s bicep and she held onto it for a while. Her hand soon slid into his and he indulged her. The situation was a mess to say the least, and everyone was quiet.

‘So… I’ll have someone guide you to where you will be staying then.’ Odin hummed anxiously. ‘It was a pleasure to see all of you again and… Let us catch up later. It’s good to have you around.’

‘It’s an honor to be here.’ Balam quietly said, bowing his head. He was first to start leaving the room, the same secretary waiting by the door. ‘We will discuss this again later. Let’s go everyone.’

The Stratus Corporation headquarters was a large sprawling building yet they left its marble halls in no time at all. They exited through the glass front onto the bustling street, faces still hot with anger. The secretary spoke gently and seemed intimidated by the group. ‘I um… Someone will arrive soon to help you navigate through the city.’ They bowed their head. ‘And we hope this was not an unpleasant experience.’

After a moment of quiet Balam flashed his best smile, stepped forward and bowed his head. ‘No, thank you for your hospitality. We know you are doing the best you can.’

‘We try sir. Still, we extend a gentle apology.’ They bowed their head in similar manner. It had in fact been difficult to discern what sort of dragon they had been because their horns had been filed down. Judging by the shape they must have been an imperial. They turned and a mirror, clad in green approached them. ‘There is your guide it seems.’ They ran up to Balam and started to scribble something on a piece of paper. ‘If you need anything, the staff of the inn knows my name. Just ask for Mor and they know who to notify.’

‘Thank you Mor.’ Balam whispered, pocketing the note. Mor backed away and momentarily met with the Mirror in green before they passed the group and disappeared into the building again. The guide said nothing but signed something, then gestured at the group to follow them.

The trip to the inn turned out quiet. No one knew what to say and instead each chose to focus on some other facet of the city to not think of themselves. Arodan himself couldn’t find anything in the bustling evening traffic within Glasir to focus on. Instead he stuck to Atlas’ side for a bit, as silent as the rest.

‘Dan, you okay?’

In the end Atlas was the first to speak. Arodan slowly looked up at him, nodded and bumped into his side. Atlas understood that as his cue it really was okay, and that it was even more so to take his hand. ‘Well, I guess this is in a way an escape.’

‘Not one I had envisioned but we’re going to make the best of it.’ Arodan whispered. His hand was tightly clasped around Atlas’. ‘We can stick together at the very least.’

‘And sticking together is the most important thing to do.’ Atlas added. He seemed lost in thought just momentarily before glazed eyes focused on Arodan again. ‘What did you and Dmitri talk about?’

‘I asked him if he remembered anything. If I’m gonna be teaching him magic then I want to know what sort of person I’m dealing with.’ Arodan answered. Dima walked on a short distance in front of them inbetween Kassa and Carmen. ‘He’s definitely more chipper than Sachairi is.’

‘Can't say I prefer it.’ Atlas jovially responded. ‘I mean, what if he gets more popular than I am?’

‘You’re plenty popular.’ Arodan responded, nudging his side. ‘And I know your joking but if it helps I think all he wants is to go home.’

‘Any idea where he comes from yet?’

‘The east, from across the sea he says.’ Arodan answered. A quaint and humble building came in sight that looked well maintained yet aged. ‘I’ve never met someone before that came from across the sea.’ He said, mimicking Mimir’s earlier statement.

‘Me neither, sounds like a far fetched tale.’ Atlas shook his head.

‘Well, it’s all we have to go on.’ Arodan murmured. ‘And you know, it’s something to do.’ He held his head high. ‘I like these people. I like you. So I’m going to keep on doing my best whether you like it or not.’

‘Well, I did start to love you because of your stubbornness so that excites me to say at the very least.’ Atlas squeezed his hand and pulled him forward, closer to the group. He seemed to have perked up significantly then and it rubbed off on the others just a little. Soon they were basking in the warmth of the inn and all seemed well.

#my lore #fr #flight rising #ch: Arodan #ch: Caer #ch: Dmitri #ch: Odin #ch: Syr #ch: Atlas #ch: Carmen #ch: Kassa #ch: Mor #ch: Mimir #lots of characters in here

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snuckintobeacon · 8 years ago

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Wheels and Feels Pt. III This is an earlier sketch of Skye by @white-rapier. She drew Skye perfectly. I love Skye’s dorky ass smile.

Skye is a Tsundere.

Skye: “NO I AM NOT!”

Andy: “Skye tell the truth. It’s not good to lie.”

Skye: “I am not a tsundere no matter-.”

Andy interjecting, “I’ll take away my fluffy ears from you.”

Skye: “I-THAT’S-YOU! ... .... ... ... Fine...”

Andy: “See.”

Skye and Andy also both have matching tattoos. Skye has a diving lark on the left side of her head that she keeps shaved. She also has a paw print tattoo on her ribs.

Andy has the same diving lark on her neck and also the paw print tattoo (I forget exactly where!)

Now because certain people asked for more... hehe. Here’s how they first met.

At Atlas Facility…

“You’re going to love it here Skye,” the lady dressed in an Atlas lab coat said as she tried to wheel me through the sliding doors. I took control of my wheelchair and wheeled faster so she couldn’t push me.

“I can push myself thank you. I don’t need your help,” I said annoyed. I was only thirteen years old but I was tired of being treated like I was disabled. It made me so mad when all everyone else ever saw was a little girl in a wheelchair.

“Very well,” my newly introduced escort said. She sounded a little insulted, but it didn’t look like she minded. “As I was saying,” she continued, explaining this facility while showing me the way.

The hallways were as long as her words, white walled and pristine. I looked around my new home with a burning in my chest. When I was much younger I got into an accident. I woke up days later to find out that I couldn’t use my legs, I couldn’t feel them at all. It was such a shock to me but my parents helped me through it and I continued my life. There was one problem, I was dependent on everyone else. Everyone saw me as just a girl in a wheelchair that needed help. I couldn’t stand that. I wanted to stand on my own two feet again, literally. One day, a man and a woman from Atlas said they could give me my legs back. All I had to do was agree to be a part of their experiment. My parents were hesitant but I accepted immediately and before I knew it here I was.

“And here is your room,” she said, leading me into a lavish room furnished and extremely clean. “This will be your room for when you are here.”

I took a quick lap around glancing at everything before wheeling back to the lady. “When do I get to start?”

“I’m sorry, start what?” she asked confused.

“When do I get to start walking again? When do I get to start training? When-.”

“Whoa whoa whoa young lady. Not so fast. In time, in time you will get your chance to walk again. Of that I am certain,” she said calmly holding up her hands to slow me down.

*** Over the next week they either left me alone or introduced me to more adults. They told me that these would be the people that would be working with me for however long it took me to walk again. I tried to hurry them telling them I was ready and wanted to walk again already but again they stopped me and all my efforts. And so it was either me biding my time in my room or the areas I was allowed, or various other meetings or measuring sessions with the people here.

I thought I was going to get to walk again but right now it just seemed like I was being put into school. I hated it. As I roamed around this facility I ran into many more adults. There weren’t any kids like me around. It was odd too because in what places I could see there were machines building things or labs doing tests. Actually, it seemed like everywhere, everyone was doing tests. It struck me that I hadn’t asked anything about this place or where I was before coming here or accepting the Atlas’ peoples offer. Shaking my head it didn’t matter, all that mattered was that they were going to help me get my legs back.

*** Finally after more days of taking measurement of my body and my legs and more tests they told me how they were going to let me walk again. They were going to build me a machine that would attach to my legs and my spine to let me walk again. It was going to be like I had never lost them at all. With the way the adults explained it was extremely complicated, but the leg braces would connect to my spine and my nervous system directly. I’d be able to feel and use my legs like they were new.

After more fitting they told me they were going to now do some tests with my spine. I was happy and excited that everything was moving along finally. Soon I could walk. They laid me on a table and I faced down. I couldn’t tell what they were doing but it was silent except for them moving around and setting some things up above and beside me.

“Are you ready?” an older man asked.

“Yes,” I said confidently and impatiently.

“This is going to hurt,” he warned me.

“Okay. I’ll go through anything to walk again.”

The man didn’t respond to me that time, he only gave me a weak smile before disappearing from my sight. It was a few seconds before the most excruciating pain lanced through my back. I screamed with everything I had. It felt like they were hooking my spine up to electricity. It arced and raced through my limps and jerked my body uncontrollably. After a while I couldn’t bear it and the screaming didn’t help.

“St-stop! Please, stop!” I screamed and for a moment the pain subsided. I breathed in ragged breaths and cried rivers out from my eyes.

The man reappeared, kneeling so I could see him, “You asked for this remember. This is how you’re going to get your legs back. If you want… we can stop.”

“No!” I cried, “No, please. I want to walk again.”

“Okay,” and without warning the pain began again.

I don’t know how long it lasted but by the time it was over I felt like I had died. I almost wanted to die, my body ached and my back felt like it was on fire. I couldn’t even fight back when they picked me up and put me into my wheelchair. The other thing I could do was grunt and moan in pain and displeasure.

“That’s all for today. You did good Skye,” said the older adult, smiling weakly.

“Will this… Is this… going to make me walk again?” I mumbled.

“Yes, yes it will,” he said putting a hand on my shoulder.

“Good,” was all I could managed to say as I numbly began to wheel myself away.

One of the ladies tried to stop me, “Skye, let me help you!”

“I’m fine!” I yelled back, continuing to wheel myself away.

Outside I wheeled myself through the hallways, barely staying awake. I was so tired, I was in so much pain. My wheels began to scrap the walls as I wobbled through the hall. I wasn’t even sure I was going the right way. Then I ran into a wall a bit too hard, falling face first out of my wheelchair onto the floor. The shock of slamming into the ground made me shriek in pain, grabbing at the throbbing lightning that shot through my lower back. I had heard my chair fly backward away from me and I tried to crawl toward it but it was too far away.

I had begun to cry, “Stupid chair! Stupid freaking legs! Stupid, stupid, stupid!”

With my ear so close to the ground I heard the pity patter of someone’s feet running towards me. To my utter surprise, and for the first time since the weeks I had gotten here, I saw another girl. She skidded to a halt, rounding the corner and spotting me laying on the ground.

“Are you okay?!” she said worriedly and then saw my chair across the hall from my stranded body. “Oh my Gods!” The girl ran up to me and began to drag me to my chair.

“I don’t need your help!” I tried to yell at her as she grabbed under my armpits and dragged me across the hall.

“It doesn’t look that way,” she grunted.

As we neared my chair I managed to shake off of the other girl and land on the ground. “I can get into my chair myself! I don’t need anyone’s help!”

The girl stared in disbelief at me as I began the long climb back into my chair. She slid over and held its handles, steadying it so I didn’t fall out of it. As I reseated myself in it I moaned in pain, having to lean back against my spine. The whole time the other girl didn’t let go of the handles.

“Thanks,” I said, “You can let go now.”

“You’re welcome,” she responded but didn’t let go of my wheelchair.

“I’m fine, really. You don’t need to keep holding on,” I told her.

“Can I… at least take you back to your room?” she asked.

I wanted to yell at her and tell her to go away but I seriously doubted that I could even wheel myself back now. “Fine,” I relented, “but just this once! I could’ve done it myself.”

“Okay!” she said and gently began to push me, “Which room is yours?”

“172, in the dorms,” I told her as she began to make turns, apparently knowing the layout of this place. “I didn’t think there was another girl here.”

“I just got here a few days ago,” she told me, “I thought the same thing too when they brought me here. Oh sorry, I’m Andy.”

A hand appeared over my shoulder and weakly I shook it, “I’m Skye. Are you here for an ‘experiment’ too?”

“You too?!” she exclaimed, almost making me run into a wall.

“Whoa!” I yelped, “Yeah well…” I hesitated, not wanting to tell this new girl everything. Then again she tried to help me and seemed nice enough, plus it appeared like she was in the same situation as me. “Well, the Atlas scientists said that they could give me back my legs, let me walk again.”

“Oh,” she said a little quietly. “How did you lose them?”

I cringed, that I definitely didn’t want to talk about. “It was in an accident long ago. Anyways, my rooms is right here. Do you… want to come in?”

“Sure!” Andy said joyfully.

Inside my room I found myself a nice spot while Andy took up one of the sofas. It was odd, this was the first time while I was at this facility that there was anyone my age. She seemed so much like me too. Andy seemed about the same age and height. Her hair was bright orange, cut short so that they reached her shoulders. I wondered…

“So Andy,” I started, “Why are you here? You obviously can still walk.”

Andy laughed a little uncomfortably at my joke. “Well, I don’t know how to say this.”

“Come on,” I began to loosen up, “Can’t be as crazy as being able to walk again is it?”

“Oh, no but uhm… they want to turn me into a faunus,” she said.

“They what?!” I exclaimed, falling out of my chair again and crying out in pain.

Andy leapt up and helped me onto one of the couches without asking.

“Why do you keep helping me?” I asked her as the pain went away once again.

“Why not?” she said back. She didn’t shoot it back but just said it kindly like asking if it wasn’t normal to help someone else.

“Well I’m fine on my own you know. Anyways, why are they trying to make you into a faunus? That doesn’t make any sense,” I said.

Andy chuckled a bit and then put her finger to her chin thinking, “I don’t know or understand it myself but they are and they want to try to make me into one.”

“But why volunteer for something like that? You did volunteer right?”

“Haha yes I did and well, it just seemed interesting you know? Like, becoming a faunus just seemed so alluring,” she said dreamily, gazing off into nothingness.

“You’re weird.”

“So are you! Not letting others help you.”

“I didn’t need help, I just had fallen out of my chair!”

“You would still be in that hallway if I hadn’t help you I think.”

“I’m sure I would’ve made it back just fine. Just because I can’t walk doesn’t mean I can’t do things myself.”

“I never said that you couldn’t do things by yourself. You seem very capable.”

“I! Well! You know! But!” I stammered, unprepared for something like what Andy had said.

She laughed as I stumbled through my words, “Capable or not I still would have helped you. It’s just… the right thing to do.”

I crossed my arms and pouted, knowing that I had lost this little argument.

As I turned back we both spoke at the same time, “Hey,” “You.” Then there was that awkward silence as we both waited for the other to continue.

“You go first,” I told her, wanting to hear what she had wanted to say.

“No it’s fine, you can go first,” she said kindly.

“It’s fine Andy, go ahead,” I tried again.

“No you…” she paused and eyed me, “Same time?”

I grinned back at her, “Alright.”

“On three,” she said through a likewise grin.

“Okay, One,” I started.

“Two.”

“Three.”

And at the same time we shouted, “Do you want to be friends?!”

We both stared at each other for a moment in disbelief and then began laughing hysterically. I laughed so hard I fell onto the floor… again.

#rwby #RWBY OC #OC #Original Character #Skye Miriage #Andy #Wheels and Feels

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