#but that’s maybe bordering on evil so i won’t plan that far in advance

[livvyofthelake]

did i ever tell y’all about my little cousin who i’m very patiently waiting for her to turn 12 or 13 so i can get her to read city of bones as a long term comedic revenge plot against her father

[firelxdykatara]

P1: The rwby fandom is being really weird about that scene with ironwood shooting slate huh? Cause it’s like you said: he doesn’t have a history of reacting violently to situations up until the very end of v7. Actually i remember ironwood being the one to stop winter from killing? (idk if she actually had the intent to kill but her blade was at his neck) Qrow in a fit of rage. And now you’re telling me Winter is terrified and shocked by ironwood killing slate. Idk i guess you could argue that

P2: that what ironwood did was a cold-blooded execution but still WHY? That still isn’t in-character for him from what we’ve seen so far. Maybe crwby realized that being afraid of salem doesn’t make james paranoid bc she’s a real threat so they decided to make james see threats everywhere. Threats that he desperately and “robotically”  tries to eliminate. This would solve some problems with the writing while creating a whole lot of other problems that i don’t even want to get into

Honestly, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.

For whatever reason, the writers/showrunners (is there a meaningful difference for a show like RWBY? genuine question, I’m not sure how the production is structured) decided they needed another villain. I’m not sure why, since they have a whole slew of villains and more than enough obstacles to throw at the heroes by keeping Ironwood as a morally grey ally with an opposing viewpoint, meaning he could very well have become an antagonist without getting yeeted over the moral event horizon on a rocketship. But whatever the reason (his heart or his shoes wait wrong show), they wanted to add to their cast of card-carrying evil villains, and picked Ironwood, and by extension anyone following him.

Rather than setting this up volumes in advance, though--for instance, by showing him reacting irrationally, with unnecessary violence, and these reactions getting more extreme despite not having concrete evidence that Salem was acting--what they did was have Ironwood act as a rational, reasonable man, who had to make some very tough choices. He never reacted with unwarranted aggression to any situation before volume 7--again, his ‘I’d have you shot’ comment was delivered with sarcasm in a moment of irritation, but there was no heat behind it, and he certainly wasn’t threatening to actually shoot Qrow--and he had very concrete reasons to set up the embargo and close Atlas’ borders.

He knew about Salem--he knew everything the heroes know, except the fact that she is immortal and can’t be destroyed, a secret which Ruby chose to keep and which, in the long run, did more harm than good (and yet none of them reflected on why Ozpin might have been keeping that secret in the first place, but I digress)--and he knew that her agents were acting in Remnant. He knew they were behind the Fall of Beacon, and he knew they all remained at large. Not a single one of the instigators of Beacon’s fall was captured in the aftermath. For all he knew, Atlas, the greatest remaining bastion of military strength and the only kingdom that might have a chance at defending against her if she chose to make her move (which he had every reason to believe she soon would, since this was the first time in centuries that she had acted directly to anyone’s knowledge), was going to be their next target. While global communications were down, he had no way of getting fast and reliable information from the other kingdoms. He could not risk spreading his forces too thin in an attempt to protect them without that knowledge--which is why his focus was on Amity Arena.

Get global comms back up and running, talk to the other kingdoms, warn them about Salem, and then they might have a chance. This was a plan, by the way, that team RWBY was all for, even though it meant that he would be setting up the entire world to fail because they knew Salem couldn’t be defeated. Ruby encouraged him to keep diverting resources from Mantle to finish the tower as quickly as he could. No one so much as mentioned the fact that if he did, and he told the world about Salem, they would be gearing up for a fight team RWBY&Co knew they would not be able to win.

Not until after James told the people of Atlas about Salem--again, without the crucial knowledge that she was immortal and they could not fight her.

So, notably, the entirety of volume 7 we see James Ironwood reacting reasonably, and rationally, to very real threats. We know Salem is a threat, we know the world is in danger--shit, we know Atlas is in danger, because Watts and Tyrian are there causing chaos. We see him take in the news that Salem is immortal much more calmly than I think the situation warranted--I would not have blamed him for exploding then, because the fact is that they didn’t give him this critical information until after it was nearly too late to act on it. And now he had an entire kingdom of people who likewise are laboring under the false belief that they have a chance against Salem, that she can be defeated, if they stick together. Which the protagonists know to be false, because if that were the case, then Jinn would have said as much to Oz when he asked how she could be destroyed.

(Which doesn’t mean that RWBY won’t pull some sort of ‘actually she only said Oz couldn’t, because he didn’t have the ability to unite the world [even though that’s bs], so team RWBY can kill her with the power of friendship actually’ ending out of a hat, but still, when it comes to characterization, we have to go by what the characters know and what they might reasonably believe based on the information they have--not meta knowledge we have as an audience because we’re genre savvy and can see the writing on the wall.)

None of his behavior throughout volume 7 indicated that he was on the verge of a complete mental break with reality that would lead him to start shooting people, including a child containing the soul of his best friend, in cold blood let and right. But I suspect that the crew was relying on the fandom having decided that James must be a bad guy, because he’s a military leader and military = bad, and the Ace Ops are effectively cops and cops = bad (even though if we’re going to call the Ace Ops cops, then we need to be calling all huntsmen cops, including Weiss, who performed a legal arrest on screen; if huntsmen have the authority to act as law enforcement officials, they are cops, period), and since they are already mostly bad, performing (and condoning, since there were six witnesses, four of them armed with auras, who just stood there and looked at each other after watching Ironwood gun a defenseless man down) cold-blooded murder is just the next logical step. Of course James would just murder a guy standing in between him and power, he’s a military leader, they’re all evil!

Nevermind the fact that Salem is literally right there, and if ever there was a situation that called for martial law to be legally enacted for the continued safety and protection of the kingdom (there’s a reason martial law exists, and there are reasons it can be justifiably enacted and enforced!!!!!) this is it.

Anyway.... yeah. I am unsurprised by the general fandom reaction--nevertheless, I’m disappointed by it. And I hope for the day in some nebulous future where the very idea of nuance and gray morality doesn’t just make a majority of them break out in hives.

[crazynekochan]

Omegaverse Fantasy AU (Approximately in a Steampunk/1920’s transition period): King Gundham has recently been crowned king in his own right after a rather long regency (his father was assassinated when he was younger, not that he’s too upset, since his dad was a violent asshole who never treated Gundham’s mother well. Gundham was their only child, so he became king.) Now that he’s king, his mother tells him that the council is expecting him to start considering who he wants as a mate. He’s not very happy about this, since he’s painfully shy and he doesn’t want to be forced to choose a mate, but this is his mother and he loves her, so Gundham agrees to perform the Soulmate Ceremony.

The Soulmate Ceremony is a magical/religious ceremony where an unmated royal would have a magical rite performed and, at the end, it will show their ideal mate. It works best when the royal is rather open with their intentions and when the ideal mate is shown as actually obtainable (or within their acceptable social range), but plenty of royals have wed ideal mates that are way out of their social circle or required great lengths to even meet in person, much less mate. The Tanakas haven’t had the ritual done for their family members in centuries, mostly getting into political marriages or, on occasion, never officially mating the other parent of their children. But Gundham has much more faith and interest in magic, no prior engagement, and absolutely no interest in trying to woo one of the dams that are practically falling over themselves for him (combination of shyness and disinterest in most, if not all of them).

Sonia, Gundham’s best (and only) friend and a very capable mage in her own right, visits with her wife, Kyoko (they met through an international smuggling case Kyoko was working on), and Gundham asks her to help perform the Soulmate Ceremony, since he can’t do it by himself and he doesn’t want to bring in someone he doesn’t know to help set him up with who is supposed to be the love of his life. Sonia gladly accepts and by the next day, the preparations for the ceremony are complete and Gundham is pacing anxiously in a private chamber next to his throne room out of nervousness (though he would never admit it).

Gundham’s mother, being the saint she is, tells him that he doesn’t have to go through with the ceremony if he doesn’t want to or even get a mate if he doesn’t want to but Gundham reassures her, telling her that he’ll go through with the ceremony. Mother and son share a very sweet hug and they head out into the throne room, which is absolutely filled with the press because a Tanaka hasn’t had the ceremony performed in centuries and this is a super significant event that determines the future stability of the nation.

The ritual goes ahead and, appearing in the magic smoke from the incense, is the technomage (a person with control over technology and who creates such advanced tech that it might as well be magic, never has much, if any actual magic) Kazuichi, who lives near the dragon-infested mountains on the border and has quite a few nasty rumors surrounding him, including him killing his own father and laying waste to his home village with his inventions when the authorities came to arrest him for the murder.

Gundham is smitten instantly, of course, despite the terror and horror from about half of the visitors to the castle and the frantic flood of questions from the press about what the hell that means for their royal family and country (Gundham’s mother is mostly happy that Gundham’s happy; Sonia’s happy that the ritual worked (at least he didn’t go into an allergic shock from the incense like her cousin Nagito did during his ritual) and Gundham’s clearly smitten with Kazuichi; Kyoko’s mentally evaluating all of the information she knows about Gundham’s preferences and how well Kazuichi matches up with them). 

Now, Kazuichi has not done anything from the rather nasty rumors about him; he just ran away from his village to the mountains by using his technology (Which includes humongous magic crystal-powered mecha that he can never actually ride in before getting motion sick from the first step of the mecha) and he quite ardently refuses to interact with anyone that tries to use his technology for malicious purposes, sires from town that won’t take a hint, or the nosy press (he’s got a security system surrounding his property which he activates at will to take out unwanted guests).

He’s taking a social call from his two friends and fellow technomages Chihiro and Miu when there is some rather firm, repeated knocking on his cottage door. He’s not expecting anyone, which confuses him a lot, so he gets up from their planning table to answer the door. Which is when he opens the door to see the actual King standing there (holding a bouquet and blushing bright red into his customary scarf?) flanked by two royal guards (Nekomaru and Akane) and a larger royal retinue and press corp standing just 30 ft behind the King, which he can’t really see because both guards and the King (the actual King!) are very broad and buff, especially the King who looks so much bigger than in the papers (did he mention that this was the actual king?!?)

Gundham is quietly talking with Nekomaru and Akane (they’re giving him a pep talk before he actually talks to Kazuichi) when the door opens and he sees Kazuichi answer the door in messy simple workman’s clothes and wow, he looks so much more attractive in person and his scent is amazing and Gundham can feel himself blush into his scarf, oh, Great Spirits, speak you fool!!

And before Gundham can get a word out, Kazuichi shrieks and shuts the door behind him. And the press caught every moment of it. So this is going to be much more difficult than anyone thought.

—

Mod: The way you wrote this made me laugh so much, especially the end with all the emphasises and their thoughts in the text. Though the best part is by far the fact that Kazuichi’s only reaction to the king is shrieking in fear and slamming the door into his face, for everyone to see and enjoy. (Though the mentioning that Nagito went into an allergic shock when he did the ritual was funny as well, even if I feel so bad for him ^^” But it’s fitting, since this is Nagito and almost dying in exchange for finding his soulmate is just how he works ^^”)

When Gundham does the ritual I could so see him not actually really believing that anything would come out of it. Not because he doesn’t believe in it, but because he likes to pretend that he’s an evil overlord he needs no one and is destined to walk the world alone. Which is nothing more than him trying to hide that he is probably shaking from nervousness and shyness about the prospect of having to court and mate someone. At least until he actually sees Kazuichi and instantly falls in love. No matter if other’s might be in shock that this was supposedly a wanted murderer. Though to his luck he is friends with Kyoko who would be fast to find out what really happened with Kaz’s old village and his dad

The courting would be a pure adventure, because one of the first things Gundham needs to do is actually get close to Kazuichi, who has a lot of high level technology solely designed to keep people away from him. That Kazuichi probably also fears that the king is there to arrest him or force him to give him his service as a inventor to build him god know what also doesn’t help, because no one ever wanted anything else from the poor guy. Though then imagine Kaz’s reaction when he actually learns that the king doesn’t want him in prison or as an inventor for deadly machines, but actually wants him as his mate and future queen. Him, as the queen of the whole kingdom. Now that is something to kick off his anxiety x)

I could also imagine that many within the kingdom, and also the royal court, wouldn’t be very trusting of Kazuichi as a future queen (and maybe also question it if a guy who is destined to love a “wanted criminal” would be a good king) and try to get in-between the courtship or even try to get rid of Kazuichi altogether. This could add in quite a lot of drama

[skyecrandall]

Book Concept

Notes: I was rather reluctant to share this idea of mine since it is not exactly like your usual conventional choices story. It is darker, has more criminal themes ad your LI choices are morally grey and even get to date the main villain. My main aim with this idea was to make it different. Romance is in the backseat, different atmosphere ,Different LI formula ( they are not goody two shoes, they lack an eye and have moles (something not usually present on LIs), etc...). I would also like to apologize in advance if I somewhat put a bad stigma to a certain persons. My aim is not to do that. However it is possible that it might have lost sight of it in the attempt of making the persons different, I apologize again.This was mostly the reason why i was scared to post it. I would also really like if you gave me suggestions and stuff how to make this a solid story. I’m interested in writing it out completely.

Themes : Mainly Adventure , Self Discovery, Crime with a slight tinge of romance.

Length: Single book, about 16-20 chapters

LIs: 1 male, 1 female, 1 selectable gender.( I'll be calling them Derrick, Anais and X respectively for the next section)

What is it about :

You (Can choose your gender) are a member of a rather rich family. On the day that was supposed to be your engagement with X, you overhear a conversation between them and his friends/family, that they are only doing this for the money and stuff and not for you. Since you really loved them, you leave the pre-engagement party with a bottle(s) of a drink alone in the night.

You drunk walked throughout the city and eventually end up in the more criminal sector of the town. You stumble into a warehouse. As you look at everything there, you hear some people talking and decide to hide in the back part of a truck.

You here a person ordering other persons that the merchandise needs to be delivered at far away place F before a certain date. Afterwards someone then comes to close the truck and somehow they did not see you inside in the dark (it was at night) and you ended up stuck inside and the truck starts moving. You tried getting out but the door won't open and so you decide to sleep but then your phone rings and from the echo of the inside of the truck, the persons in the front of the carriage also hear it and come to a stop (they had already traveled a few miles.)

They check behind and discover MC. Those persons are the male and female LI. And so they force you out and decide to interrogate you together (with the female gun pointing a gun at you) but however due to personality clash they can't seem to interrogate you properly. And so you are given the choice of choosing who will interrogate you. The other one will go as lookout.

As of this moment, your choices start to matter. These choices will decide whether your character will end up liking their new risky but always new experiences and stuff or return back to their original boring rich life. You will also be able to gain points with Derrik and Anais and will also determine your ending. And if you are romancing either of them it will further change your ending.

Since we were talking about the LIs. Here is a brief summary of them with some of them having a little mini-background:

Derrik: Calm, pessimistic, driver of the truck, in his late 30s. Good cook. Rather gruff looking. Has scars from encounters and lost his right eye and so he wears an eye patch. However he can get a little violent to protect the others and his own life. Mexican origin. During his youth he enjoyed his life back home and had dreams of becoming a doctor but his father forced him and his whole family to cross the US border for 'new opportunities' .They succeeded but could not find any way to gain money and raise the family. And so his father introduced him to the crime scene and since then he became a delivery man. He lost his ee as a young kid because of it. Due to his father he could not leave the scene before and now he does not have the confidence enough to leave the delivery job because other persons find him too scary and he might not get a job. His personal scenes will be about helping him to stop his self-loathing and help him gain some confidence. 

Anais: Mafia member here to secure the delivery. Reckless and a bit sadistic. Cringy jokes. White. Has a mole on the nose. Has a soft spot for  cats but dislikes dogs. Also really likes cheese. She grew up in the rough parts of a certain town and developed incredible fighting techniques. She became a professional kickboxer. On the final of a tournament she got so enraged by her opponent that she went full beserk on them and even though they begged for her to stop, even with the referee's interference she kept punching them. It was then she developed those sadistic tendencies, that she liked seeing her enemies twisting in pain. She liked it so much she ended up killing her opponent. She went to prison but after it she was left jobless and could not perform as an athlete anymore. The mafia reached out to her and she agreed. Her personal scenes will be about calming her down and developing her empathy and tone down the bloodthirsty-ness by a notch.

X: Straight Up jerk, Can be made less of a jerk depending on choices, you finally get to romance an og villain, only wanted to marry you because of your money but you can make them like you for you, as I said customisable gender, most of the book you will only interact with them by calls.

Anyway where was I. During the interrogation you will already be able to skew either towards the return home or keep travelling ending. You will also get to gain points with the person you chose. (Derrik usually like the safer choices while Anais likes the more direct and frontal approach). Maybe even score some romance points with them.

After a while the lookout person orders to get inside. The other asks what to do with you and they eventually take you because there were rival gangs behind their asses.

And so your journey wth them starts. You will be able to experience chases, gang wars, deals, motels, explosions and more during the journey.

Eventually you reach your destination a huge town were you get to choose who to celebrate with, including X as you saw him in the crowd and this is where the different endings get in play.

If 1 of the 2 truckers don't like you they kill you. However if one hates you and the other is in love with you, they will kill the one who tried to kill you first. If you decide to meet with X in the big town and get them to divulge their plan (through questions or win them over with a sexy night through a diamond option) on how to capture the truckers who they thought kidnapped MC, you can either go home and took his plan and let the 2 roam free or join the 2 quickly and escape together and even convince them to stop their current crime relations. If you are really want to feel evil you could go home with X and have the 2 truckers captured (and executed). If you do not discover X's plan or inform Anais and Derrik about It, you and the other 2 will be intercepted by the police. Then you get the option to fight the police with them and become outlaws or if the two like you, they will force you to return home by playing along and acting like they were truly kidnappers. (and they are killed).

tagging @ninamckenzie22 @bobasheebaby @garlickk @butindeed @aryn-choices since they seemed to be interested in this draft.

Also @playchoices