#but with less information about salem's side of things!

[nightmare-foundation-2]

Hot take: Ozpin isn't even morally gray. I guess he is if you count past lives (slaughtering potentially thousands of ppl to end a war), but otherwise?? I really don't think he is.

Imo, Qrow is more morally gray, Ironwood pre-villain arc was morally gray, etc. I really don't think any of Oz's actions could count as 'morally gray', even when considering that he kept important information to keep his circle and by extension RWBY and Co hopeful, regardless of if you think it's manipulative or not (technically yes, but there was good intentions behind it so imo it's fundamentally different).

Oz really isn't the bad guy the entire fndm tries making him out to be. If he was I think the show would show him in that light, which it doesn't. It TRIED showing him as morally gray, but generally his actions aren't that bad. The FNDM loves saying Oz is an awful manipulative compulsive liar who's intentions are weird and muddy. But honestly I think if he was like that, he wouldn't be portrayed as good. Most of Salems own opinions on Oz is her projecting and being a hypocrite. I don't think the characters narration is reliable when it comes to Oz. The show itself tried making him seem like that in v6, but ultimately failed.

An example people use to say he's morally gray is pointing out that he made the Academies. Which, I won't lie, is a pretty stupid take. The Academies train older teenagers (17-21, possibly older if they allow older ppl to join) who have already been learning how to fight presumably since they were young. Ruby had presumably already had Crescent Rose for a few years by the time she was 15, and there's several combat schools to teach kids how to fight. Remnantians count as a warrior race! They HAVE to fight to survive. Even if you haven't been to an academy, it's normal to know how to fight to defend against Grimm. Controlled by Salem or not, Grimm are a constant that you NEED to fight against. The Academies just give widespread access to tools and education to learn in a safe environment filled with other hunters. They just so happen to fight off Salems Grimm forces, and unknowingly defend the Relics inside. It's a win-win-win on everyone's side. Yes, people are going to die. But they'd be MORE likely to die if a) they can't defend themselves properly b) don't have proper tools to do so or c) don't know how to fight at ALL. Thanks to the Academies, militaries don't need to be used (except Atlas). The possibility of war goes WAY down, and it's harder for the kingdoms to be actively corrupt (not impossible just less easier to be enforced). Objectively? The Academies are a GOOD thing.

Another example is people saying Oz brought RWBY and Co unwillingly into the shadow war. Which... is objectively incorrect. Qrow was the one who told Ruby about the information Cinder and Co were going to attack Haven, and Yang eventually went after her after she left. Ruby brought RNJR with her, because they all experienced trauma and reasonably wanted justice, thinking it was just Cinder behind everything. Then Qrow was the one who told RNJR roughly the truth. He didn't particularly want to, bit he relented anyways, and even then he held back information like Oz being immortal. He didn't even tell them about Salem, just that some nasty people wanted the Relics and Maiden powers and that one of them was named Salem. I guess you could count Ruby being brought into Beacon early, but even then that was the SAFEST option. If Cinder or Roman noticed her silver eyes in ep 1 and that got back to Salem, Ruby would be FUCKED. She was already involved in fighting Roman at that point, and thus would likely get targeted again, silver eyes or not. So Oz brought her in, citing her skill as the reason, while the others likely knew the truth. Qrow OR tai wouldn't have been fine with it if Oz only brought her in to put her into the circle. They would've torn him a new one. Not only that, but obviously he DIDN'T KNOW about the upcoming fall of Beacon. He genuinely thought Ruby and her team was going to be fine for the next 4 years, and when he was starting to suspect something was up, he STILL had no idea the Academy was going to be attacked during the festival. Why would he?? A direct attack isn't typical of Salem, iirc he or someone else said it themselves, especially since it had been 80 or so years since the Great War, which is implied that Salem started. Even IF he wanted to bring her in, he would've waited until after she graduated, which is what happened with STRQ and was going to happen with CVFY. Oz places an emphasis on letting them be kids for as long as possible. He only had to involve them when Qrow already told them everything. And even then, Oz repeatedly gave RWBY and JNR an out. He DID NOT WANT them involved, not yet at least. And with Pyrrha, he didn't exactly have a choice. He gave her time they didn't have, and required her to wait n think, and then needed her verbal consent WHILE BEACON WAS BEING ATTACKED. Yes telling her stressed her out, but I think if she knew the same thing could be offered to anyone else, she'd prefer to take on that burden. It wasn't fair, but it visibly pained Oz to have to give her the choice. He didn't want to, but war is never fair. He would've had to go to SOMEONE regardless.

As for Oz keeping the truth that Salem can't be killed a secret, imo, that is a very VERY hard call for anyone to make. For him it was the option of: tell them immediately and not have any allies (something he values heavily) or have them join Salem out of fear, wait first and tell them later and have them possibly freak out like Ironwood/betray him/lose hope and thus not have any allies, or never tell them so he has important allies and they possibly don't betray him or lose hope. Obviously, he chose the last option, and it's entirely possible he wanted to, eventually, tell them the truth, but we just don't know that. Of course I agree that Oz should've told his circle anyways, but for someone as traumatized and paranoid as Oz who's had to make this decision countless times, you can't exactly fault him for keeping the truth hidden. He's likely told the entire truth before and it bit him in the ass several times before he finally decided to keep it hidden. He said it himself, Leo was NOT the first nor was the last to betray him. As for not telling RWBY and Co? They're CHILDREN he's barely known for, what, a year?? And all of that he was their teacher/Headmaster who didn't often interact with them, or their mentor. He barely knew them and as far as we know, didn't get the chance to actually know and get close to them. They already knew just how dangerous Salem was from the fall of Beacon and battle of haven, plus the fact that she controls Grimm. They could've easily assumed Salem was hard to kill at LEAST since she's immortal and been around for countless thousands of years, and there's no way they thought no one tried to kill her. Oz barely knew them and they almost proved him right by nearly giving up. Plus, he was FRESHLY betrayed at that point. I'm sure yall noticed he was immediately pretty closed off due to the revelation of Leo's betrayal. He genuinely considered Leo a friend, so Oz's trauma response is to hold everyone else at arms length.

Another thing is the fact that he hid the truth from Salem as well early on in their relationship. Thing is, Jinn (a presumably reliable narrator) stated that they BOTH hid things from the other. Salem likely didn't tell him that she lied and manipulated kingdoms into turning against the gods, just that she wanted him back and the gods didn't like that bc that ABSOLUTELY would've upset Oz. Oz, knowing Salem didn't like the gods from her story, likely decided right then to keep the full truth from her, worried she wouldn't react well to it, something anyone would do. Not only that, but right after, Salem convinced, possibly manipulated, Oz into acting as a god-king with her, something he clearly didn't want to do. Jinn herself said "the hearts of men are easily swayed" as Salem convinced him to become a God-king with her. So yes, it's very possible that Salem manipulated him into doing that. "But Salem was fine with the truth later when he told her!" Yes, she was, but Oz couldn't have known that. And the whole reason he tried to leave her was because Salem was turning into a dictator tyrant, something Oz didn't want and something Salem was set on. He did overreact a little bit by bringing the kids instead of communicating with her, but it wasn't his fault that Salem immediately attacked him instead of trying to talk to him, or at least waiting until the kids were in a safe place before attacking him. Most of this wasn't Oz's fault, if any of it. Salem overreacted heavily by attacking him with the kids being react there. Had Oz and the kids lived and escaped her, they would've been TERRIFIED of Salem afterwards, traumatized by the ordeal. And it's never shown that Salem actually cared that they died, just that they "could've had freedom", blaming Oz instead. Meanwhile Oz, afterwards, spent whole LIVES drowning his sorrow and regret and trauma in alcohol, and he's clearly STILL affected by it if Salem using the silhouettes of their children is any indication, since she was likely taunting him (but also reminiscing, regardless of her feelings on the matter) and never brought up their children in any matter.

Overall I really don't think Oz is as bad as the fandom says he is. People like to think he and Salem are the same (something i might make a post on later), when they're very, very different. Oz really isn't bad, he's just traumatized and is basing current events off of past experiences. He's far from manipulative, uncaring, or really any negative adjective I've seen people describe him as. I've probably missed some things, but my point has been made I think. The fndm really likes to misinterpret Oz's character, saying he's exactly like Dumbledore, but in reality he's a subversion of characters like Dumbledore. He's a seriously good guy, and I think people miss that.

[bestworstcase]

Your points about Salem really make it evident why Salem and Cinder being at Beacon is probably the only time that we can really learn the truth about her:

Because it's basically near impossible for her to be truthful about anything except only to those she knows she can trust absolutely, or at least those who are able to challenge the facade she puts up around herself.

Tyrian, for all of his devotion, knows nothing about her except what he wants out of her (Destroy the World for reasons not explained).

Hazel was always someone who was on the borderline of betraying her due to his own moral complications. Emerald is basically an automatic no due to her own history with those who try to deceive her. Mercury is a giant question mark so far.

Watts is a big maybe depending on how you interpret his character, though it does lean towards something akin to mutual respect (and the fact that he's tellingly the only one in canon who doesn't seem to project his own desires onto her, not factoring in the dubious canonicity of the JL x RWBY films)

Cinder's basically the only person other than Salem's contact at Beacon who would be willing (or really even consider) carving through the layers of bullshit to figure out what's actually going on, even though I get the feeling she still has to sort out her own side of things in relation to the parallels with the Madame and Salem made in "Midnight".

salem divulges information more or less on the same principle jinn does, which is “if you ask, i will answer”—which is complicated somewhat by the fact that she also really doesn’t know how to communicate what she’s thinking in a straightforward way (cinder asks what’s the point of leaving ruby alive -> “never underestimate the usefulness of others; take leonardo. he was one of ozpin’s most trusted, but now…” -> what salem is trying to express is that summer rose, her general, is ruby’s mother and she’s optimistic about the possibility of getting ruby on their side down the line, but she talks in a circle around her actual point because she isn’t used to having conversations with people, like cinder, who actually talk to her like a person)

so part of the problem is that nobody asks and part of the problem is that salem, while generally honest in that i don’t think she ever lies when asked a direct question, does not think or talk in straight lines. she’s cryptic. i don’t think she’s being cryptic on purpose so much as she’s incredibly fucking old and has spent most of her very long life alone.

and conversely part of the solution is that cinder is likely to ask and summer did ask, and summer has had fourteen years by this point to unravel salem’s cryptic best efforts to probably have a mostly complete understanding of what salem’s deal is and the requisite social skills to, like, translate for cinder. salem Wants People To Know The Truth, she’s not trying to hide, she’s just not making an active effort to not be hidden, so it’s all tipped to start coming out once she enters an environment where it’s her and one person who already knows the game and a second person who is mainly desperate for salem to treat her like an equal.

where oz is the man behind the curtain, salem is stuck behind a mirror. she just needs to be asked, and heard.

(re: her inability to communicate properly, this woman describes the murderdivorce and forever crusade situation as a bad “working relationship.” every time she has to go off-script is a train wreck. she’s on her 1174932th language. someone help her)

[maypearlss]

𝐰𝐢𝐩 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 : 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐚 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭!

this is an intro post for my current main (and favorite) wip, "the nona incident!" i've had this wip for about 2 months now and it's currently still in the development and plotting stage, but i'm kinda... obsessed with it... so i'm super excited to actually start writing it, whenever that will be! for now, here's a little bit of information about it!

𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 ⋆｡°✩

genres: historical fiction, drama, romance, thriller

target length: novel

setting: the united states, mid-1980s (begins in 1985, ends in a currently undetermined year)

rating + content warnings: "the nona incident!" will be intended for a mature/adult audience. content warnings include strong language, drug/alcohol use and addiction, sex and sexual content, an abusive relationship, biphobia and homophobia, compulsory heterosexuality, misogyny, graphic violence, and death. there will be other content warnings i have yet to nail down; just know that this story will be on the (for lack of better word) grittier side, so if you aren't comfortable with some generally disturbing content, this probably won't be for you.

𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬 ⋆｡°✩

it’s 1985, and there are two things on may costa’s mind, the same two things that have always been on her mind for as far back as she can remember: making it in the professional music industry, and being with her best friend since childhood, nona darnell. but as a guitarist with no band and few friends to speak of, stuck working as a local music store clerk, and with nona busy living an exciting life on the sunset strip with her too-cool boyfriend, duke strickland, may is about as far from those two things as is possible to be. that is, until nona invites her to accompany duke’s growing band, overconsumption, on their first tour—accompany the band, and her. with this opportunity, may is determined to carve out a place for herself in both the rock legendarium and in nona’s life, but success has unexpected consequences, especially in the untamed world of rock ‘n’ roll.

𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐬, 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐬, + 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐬 ⋆｡°✩

the thing about tni! is that it's a very self-indulgent project—like, even more self-indulgent than usual, which is saying something—so the themes and ideas explored in it are pretty much all things somewhat personal to or specifically geared towards myself. for the most part, they all boil down to one of two things: bisexuality and rock 'n' roll. basically, tni! is meant, in part, to be an exploration of both the good and the bad of the 80s rock scene from the point of view of a closeted bisexual woman who feels out of place in the world she loves. this does make may somewhat of a self-insert, i suppose, but i don't really consider her a self-insert, because she's not meant to be me? she's more meant to be an avenue for me to express my feelings towards the concepts presented in the story. if that makes sense. to get back to the point, tni! is more or less just me projecting onto and living vicariously through a fake 80s rock band for an indeterminate number of pages. boom, there's the theme.

𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 + 𝐜𝐨. ⋆｡°✩

may costa: a talented but lonely guitarist from vermillion spring, california in search of a band and respite from her own dislike of herself

nona darnell: the treasured girlfriend of duke strickland with aspirations of becoming a photographer and filmmaker

duke strickland: overconsumption's charismatic frontman with a famously kind and humble reputation

tommy salem: overconsumption's reserved bassist with a penchant for nighttime motorcycle rides

logan vaughn: overconsumption's multitalented drummer who started it all in the first place

rj patterson: overconsumption's rhythm guitarist who loves stirring up conflict for the sheer fun of it

𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 ⋆｡°✩

the short answer to what inspired tni! is music (shocker)! if you haven't put it together yet, i live for the rock music of the 80s (and 70s, and 90s and onward, but especially the 80s). a huge amount of the inspiration for this story came from me listening to my favorite music, and i specifically decided to make this an actual wip while listening to the use your illusion albums by guns n' roses on a drive home. from there, the ideas just sort of collected and collected, which has kinda... never happened for me before? So that was really cool (and probably only because i daydream about being a rockstar way too often).

beyond just the music itself, i've also gathered a lot of ideas and inspiration from researching my favorite bands! i went through a span of time a month or two ago where i was just obsessed with reading up on the history of the bands i love (and i still am, honestly), and a lot of the stories i discovered—there were some crazy-ass stories—had a big influence on some of the plot points and the overall "vibe" of tni!.

𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 ⋆｡°✩

⋆ bad obsession - guns n' roses

⋆ nona - mötley crüe

⋆ magic touch - aerosmith

⋆ hide your heart - kiss

⋆ rocket queen - guns n' roses

⋆ detroit rock city - kiss

⋆ patience - guns n' roses

⋆ you could be mine - guns n' roses

⋆ thrills in the night - kiss

⋆ don't cry (original) - guns n' roses

⋆ mr. brownstone - guns n' roses

⋆ get in the ring - guns n' roses

⋆ sweet child o' mine - guns n' roses

⋆ too young to fall in love - mötley crüe

𝐟𝐮𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬 ⋆｡°✩

⋆ the plot of tni! was originally going to be a lot more... extreme? it still gets pretty extreme as it is now, but may used to be a way different character in a way that made the plot much more horrific before i realized that that wasn't the kind of story i wanted to tell with these characters

⋆ may is probably one of my favorite main characters i've ever written, so you guys have that to look forward to <3 facets of her character are also inspired by slash (the person, not the fanfic, since i know this is tumblr lmao), because... i love slash... shock and awe, i guess

⋆ this is my first attempt at realistic and historical fiction

⋆ nona is the first of two ocs i have that unintentionally have the same names as characters from the locked tomb series (maybe you'll meet the second someday? who knows... not me)

so, that's "the nona incident!" if you read this far, thank you so much, i really appreciate it! i'm not new to tumblr, but i am new to writeblr, so i'm not 100% sure of how to go about connecting with people and making friends here, so if any of this seemed interesting to you, or we have some common interests, or you just wanna chat, feel free to reach out in any way you want, and i'd be super happy to talk!

[maximalttigers]

Third character profile for my Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! series 'Hunted Butterfly'.

This is Salem. Like Chrome, he is one of the monkeys created after the Hyperforce team as a form of counter team against them for the Dark Ones however the Alchemist sent him with his other creator Dr Iwasaki to protect him. While he and Chrome are fully aware of their past (Albiet Chrome only has lingering memories and was told the information by Professor Dominic), Salem himself knows everything including the previous monkeys before them. This is due to him convincing the Alchemist to let him remember in case the Hyperforce and the monkeys created after them meet by chance as he believes that someone should know the full truth to explain things better, the Alchemist was reluctant but agreed to let him remember everything. Salem would not admit it but he feels a lot of pressure and guilt from this as he knows he should reveal information to the Hyperforce team but he's not sure on how they would potentially react. From the Dark Ones prompting, he is actually a hybrid of a robot monkey and spider. He claims he's a demon because of how drasticly different his powers and abilities were, in present day he's relatively at peace with this information as he has full control of all aspects about himself but in the past he was very afraid and feared his cannibalistic side will take hold. He still somewhat has this fear.

Salem lives a relatively normal life; Working with the mining, working with the preservation of a spider species on his home planet and helping old friends. He is old friends with Chrome and they talk often. In fact, his heroic deeds got him knighted by the royal family which gains him his title of 'Lord' although technically these days his rank is almost equal to royalty but he goes by 'Lord' for simplicity. He is feared and respected because he has such a high rank yet he is clever with how he uses it and never abuses it unless necessary. In the recent events of the series, he's a godfather to his old friends' son and loves him like his own which he is open about it in comparison to Chrome's relationship with his goddaughter as Chrome is naturally reserved in comparison to Salem. He has gained a new fear of cave in accidents due to an event that caused a lot of heartache which will be revealed in the story. While the Hyperforce were surprised by him, they were quick to accept him as one of them and his knowledge of Dark Ones has been beneficial but he will not share where he got this knowledge from. It is later revealed that he and Gibson are biological brothers, that fact is still being processed by Gibson due to his shock but is not ultimately upset.

Salem is probably one the more unique characters I have created, he's a hybrid of a monkey, demon and spider (Even though I have a fear of spiders). The general premise of his abilities and design were inspired by a range of influences; The general idea of Spiderman while the markings are a reference to male Black Widow spiders and his extra fur being a reference to Cobalt Blue Tarantulas. I was really trying to create a design that could be trustworthy and soft while being dangerous and intimidating to better explain his character.

I was inspired by @scyrel's SRMTHFG character Razor because I really liked his premise of the demon side. Funny enough, I feel that Salem would handle Razor's personality well and just let him rant since Salem is usually careful in his words so he's less likely to trigger Razor's aggression. But I may be wrong...

In the series, there will be flashbacks to better explain his story and the events of the story that will shape his character.

I will reveal more about him at a later date.

[oldsalempost-blog]

THE OLD SALEM POST

Our  Local Tamassee-Salem SC Area News each Monday except holidays                                          Contact: theoldsalempost@gmail.com                              Distributed to local businesses, town hall, library.                           

Volume 7 Issue 16                             Week of April 1, 2024                https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog/oldsalempost-blog                                                         Lynne Martin Publishing

EDITOR: Have you ever noticed when you are talking, you cannot listen. You also won’t listen if you already have your mind made up.  A one-sided conversation is no conversation at all, especially if the talker, never listens, even  when the other person is allowed to speak.  Maybe that is why some people feel defeated and will not even try to stop something they know is wrong. It amazes me when so many people will not try.  It makes me ask myself, what is wrong to allow unhealthy things to become normal?  Pollution is wrong.  Overdevelopment is wrong.  Destruction of nature without replenishing or replanting is wrong.  People need to start listening to what others are saying about the destruction of their beloved communities and the way of life they cherished.  We need to stop the overdevelopment before we destroy everything good about the place we live.                 LynneRMartin

Childhood Poem:  The wise old owl lived in the oak. The more he heard, the less he spoke. The less he spoke the more he heard.  Why aren’t we like that wise old bird?  Some credit this poem to Edward Richards other sources list unknown.   One version of the poem is “the more he saw the less he spoke.” (I prefer the version I learned, and it makes more sense. The more I see the more I speak!)  LRM                                         

TOWN of SALEM:  Located 5 Park Avenue * Visit the Downtown Market every Sat, Winter hours 9am-1pm. April 13th at 5PM with be the first Downtown Car Show this year.  The Fire Department will be selling food.  More information call 944-2819  

SALEM LIBRARY:  Located on 5B Park Avenue.  Hours Monday 10am-6pm. Tues-Friday 9am-5pm. Closed 12-1 each day for lunch.  You may request books or movies we do not have in stock.  Visit us to find a wealth of opportunity!  944-0912 for more information.

Jottings from Miz Jeannie  by Jeannie Barnwell.  Miz Jeannie   We were so deprived-- children of the 1940's and 1950's-- growing up without cell phones, television, and  computers. The alternative was to TUNE IN to the conversations of grown ups.  My father constantly repeated safety instructions so that we would NEVER forget his sound advice.  Any time we lit a candle, Daddy would remind us, "Fire is a good servant, but a bad master." So true.  ALWAYS KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE FLAME BECAUSE A TINY SPARK CAN IGNITE YOUR WHOLE HOUSE!!! I am an old granny now, but I never take my eyes off a glowing candle.  In the fall, grand daughters Daphne and Margot come to visit. We use old candles to light up our jack o' lantern. Then we roast marshmallows over a crackling fire. This gives me the opportunity to pass down family wisdom. I envision that someday the girls will pass this advice on to their grand children. FIRE IS A GOOD SERVANT BUT A BAD MASTER Pass it on.  Save a Life! Oconee County, I Love You! Take care of yourself and those whom the good Lord has placed in your care... Miz Jeannie

ASHTON RECALLS    by Ashton Hester      FISHING LAKE OPENED IN 1954 - In the early and mid 1950s, public fishing lakes were becoming a popular enterprise in Oconee County. The owner would stock the lake with fish--bream, bass and catfish--and charge a fee to fish there. Following is an advertisement for a fishing lake that was in the March 17, 1954 Keowee Courier: "Open For Fishing! Now in Second Year! Lake Diana - Located 7 miles northeast of Salem on Shallow Ford Road, Mrs. L.P. Head, Owner. Highway paved all the way. Over a ton of Blue Cats recently put in lake. Also stocked thoroughly last year with Bass, Bream, and Catfish. We serve delicious Country Ham and Catfish Dinners."

.                                       

JOCASSEE VALLEY BREWING COMPANY,(JVBC) & COFFEE SHOP* 13412 N Hwy 11 Open Wed–Sat 9am-9pm and Sunday 2pm-7pm   Events this week:  Wed:  Blue Grass Jam at 6:30pm. Food:  Blue Ridge Grill.   Thursday: Food:  Blue Ridge Grill  Fri:  Music: The Binge at 6:30pm Food:  Chocs BBQ  Sat– Music: Spalding McIntosh at 6:30pm Food: Simple Sammies   Sun:  2pm-7pm. More info 864-873-0048  

Ecclesiastes 3:7 KJV:”.. A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; …”

2024 UPCOMING EVENTS                                                                                                                                         April 26th, 7 PM Friday Evening Wellness Event:  Reclaiming Our Inalienable Wellness  Doors open at 6:30 PM  Free event hosted by ENAC featuring speaker Meredith Orlowski, AFMC, INHC.  Bring your friends and family along. Gain Energy, Lose Weight, Feel Happy, & Save the World While Doing it! 

Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea on Saturday, May 4th  from 2 PM-4 PM:   Join us for a special afternoon and treat yourself to delicious goodies, hot tea, and a guest speaker!  Our youngest guests will enjoy manicures and a craft!  $10 per guest.  All funds will be donated to support the Eagles Nest Art Center.  There are also opportunities to sponsor a table for the event.   To RSVP or find more information:  Kayla or Emma Lusk at 864-903-0681

Oconee Mountain Opry:  May 18th at 7PM.   Jef Wilson, West End String Band, Mystery guests, comedy and more.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

The Eagles Nest Treasure Store is open every Saturday morning 9AM-12PM.  We are accepting donations during that time or call 864-557-2462.  We still have many beautiful gowns short and long to choose from.

For Information on sponsorships, events, volunteering, donations, or rentals call 864-280-1258 or email us at eaglesnestartcenter@gmail.com.  Check out our website Eaglesnestartcenter.org as future events are added.     

Rentals for birthday parties and class reunions.  $100 for 4 hours minimum for the commons area                                                              

                                                                       CHURCH NEWS                                                                                                                                                            Bethel Presbyterian Church (PCUSA),  580 Bethel Church Rd Walhalla, 29691. Worship at 10:30 a.m.   Come visit us. All are welcomed!                                                                                                                                                                                     Boones Creek Baptist Church, 264 Boones Creek Road, Salem invites you to join us for regular worship service on Sunday morning with Sunday School at 10am and followed by worship at 11am.

Salem Methodist Church: 520 Church Street, Salem.  9AM for breakfast, 9:30AM for Sunday School, and 10:30AM for Worship.  You may tune in to our live service on Facebook or view it later on our website.  Women’s Monday morning Bible Study with Sherill Carothers at 10 AM Please know all are welcomed!

Calvary Baptist Church in downtown Salem is inviting you to attend a special Bluegrass Gospel Singing featuring, "The Tugaloo Holler Band" on Saturday, May 11th at 6 PM. You will be blessed so come worship God with us through singing and fellowshipping with believers

COMMUNITY FOOD PANTRY CONTACT:  James and Teresa Barker  864-944-0258   No one should go hungry. 

OPUS TRUST, a local 501c3 will host a Unique Wine Tasting on April 9th at the Jocassee Valley Brewing company from 5PM-7PM. Tickets are $45 and must be purchased prior to the event. Call 864-873-0048. Supporting Local to Save Local.  Call up your friends and learn about OPUS Trust and see how your can be a part of saving our local farmlands, open spaces, natural landscapes and resources and our unique upstate. 

Speak up. Do not be Silent!  Have a wonderful blessed week! LRM    

[etruatcaelum]

Cinder knew the pitiable wretch had recognized her, or at least understood the threat, by the desperate please-don’t-hurt-me terror drawn taut as a bowstring through her spine. Fear flowed fast and thick enough to drown someone in it, and an answering satisfaction kindled in Cinder’s chest. With a poisoned smile curling her lips, she paused to savor the moment—stoked the warmth hotter to burn out all the dross of this miserable little venture—and idly twirled the knife between her fingers.

The smile withered as the woman’s footsteps slowed. Her eye narrowed. She bared her teeth at the woman’s back in a fleeting, silent snarl before whisking it away like a magician’s trick; Cinder relaxed into a posture of haughty indifference, her expression all polished ice as the woman turned to meet her gaze. The knife spun lazily around her thumb.

It wouldn’t be the first time some frail little nobody tried to stand up to her.

Cinder was… less prepared for this stammering attempt at introductions. Faint incredulity crept into her face while the woman—babbled—as if she thought Cinder cared about her name or her address or whatever pitiful little tragedy befell her once upon a time.

Her eye flicked down to the pincer, then tracked slowly back up to the woman’s face, pale and drawn. Fear still shone in the mist-grey eyes. Desperation.

Hunger.

Something in the back of her mind clicked.

An… experiment, Salem had said. The massive hound at her side smoldered with aura, dying embers to her roaring bonfire. Cinder had better things to do than waste time asking questions Salem wouldn’t answer, but she could do the math. So far I am pleased with the results…

But the hound did not leave Atlas with them.

Maybe. Maybe she could use this.

She smiled, tossing the knife and plucking it out of the air with her left hand. Her grimm hand. It had been a while since Cinder last thought of it in those terms; a while since the illusion of a dividing line between herself and it began to melt away.

“It wasn’t,” she said, drawing it out, “anything like what happened to you, girl.”

(the crystalline ache of frost—pain tessellating inside her head—cold white light—a ceramic clatter)

The obsidian warped under her claws, glowing sunset-yellow as it rapidly liquefied. Molten glass dripped down her wrist to splatter the half-frozen mud with angry little hisses of steam. Cinder blinked, catlike.

Flame glinted behind her eye.

She leaned closer with a slight, mocking smile. “Don’t be coy. The whole world heard that girl’s broadcast–” No power on Remnant could hold back the hatred ripping under the seams of her velvety murmur. “—so you and I both know what you think happened.”

The smile returned, bright and false, as Cinder rocked back on her heels. She could anticipate what Kiara would ask her next, the same questions Emerald and Mercury had wanted answered after Beacon fell and Summer brought them all to Evernight; the same fascinated revulsion for what—as they saw it—Salem had done to her.

“Salem is real,” she said. “Everything you heard is… almost… true. But I don’t give information away for free.”

Kiara made her way cautiously through the streets of Mistral's slum, relying heavily on her cane to keep her false foot from slipping in the slush that was beginning to coat the ground. There was a block crudely strapped to the bottom of that foot that Kiara used when she wore a shoe on her real one to match the extra height because the stupid prosthetic was square and flat, and didn't fit into a shoe. But the block was made of wood and didn't have good traction.   She cursed as she slipped slightly for what felt like the one hundredth time, her legs beginning to feel a little shaky from repeatedly having to catch herself. It wasn’t just the sleet making her life miserable either; she hated the cold and damp in general.   But at least focusing on making it home in one piece kept her mind off other things.   Until it didn’t.  The broadcast. Atlas. The Forces That Be gathering in Vacuo. The world was preparing for war. It was all anyone at work could talk about these days.   There was wild speculation and theories being tossed around left and right; Kayce in particular was a great perpetuator of many of them, which meant Kiara often had to hear about them during lunch break. She didn't participate. Not because she didn't have her own theories, but because they weren't focused on the same things as her coworker’s. No, they wandered the dark and twisted path her thoughts had been set on one fateful evening perhaps five months ago now.  

It had been a day much like today, in that Kiara had been trudging home from work, although the weather hadn’t been this wretched. When she neared the alleyway in which the door to her apartment stood, she had noticed a girl, leaned up against the wall of the opposite building, eating an apple.   It was odd. Kiara was quite certain this person didn't live in her apartment, and in her 16 odd years here, she had learned that a strange loiterer in these parts usually spelled trouble.  It was when she reached the alley that she noticed the hand. Hanging listlessly at the girl's side, it was completely concealed by bandages . . . but it was wrong. Each of the too long fingers ended in long, sharp claw, and even beneath the sleeve of the garment she wore, Kiara could tell that the arm it was attached to was too long as well, even if it was slight.  She could be a faunus, except, the hand holding the apple was very clearly, a normal human hand. Kiara had never heard of that kind of asymmetry before. And besides. Kiara's instincts told her she knew that shape. Those claws. Covered though they may be.  She wasn't even halfway to the apartment door when the girl's head snapped her way. Kiara froze. The girl froze too. She was young. There was one, piercing gold eye that held Kiara's stare for a fleeting moment, a mop of dark hair covering the other from beneath a beige cowl, and then she was gone. Quick as a wink, she dipped out the other end of the alley and vanished. But the encounter would haunt Kiara for much time to come. 

That night, she had gone to bed troubling over the odd, nagging feeling that she had seen her somewhere before, but most of all, her thoughts lay with that awful, wretched arm.  It wasn't human. It wasn't faunus. If it had been a prosthetic, it wouldn't have been bandaged.  It was grimm. Somehow, some way, it was, and Kiara knew it. But what did that mean?  For hours, she had lain awake, her mind jumping from one theory to the next.  Mistral was famous for it's black market; were they selling grimm body parts these days? Was that even possible? Kiara was fairly certain the only grimm bits that could be harvested intact were the bones. So was the girl an escaped lab rat? Was there some secret facility performing experimentation on human/grimm fusion? Or even more unsettling, was it some kind of genetic manipulation?  Or perhaps . . . perhaps there was some type of grimm she'd never heard of, one that was parasitic. One that got within a person somehow and slowly corrupted them from the inside out.  

Kiara had never been so leery of the shadows in Mistral's streets. For a week, she had strained her eyes looking into every alley she passed, and peered around every corner before she turned it.  Then, just as she was beginning to calm down, one day at lunch break, Kayce had gone off again on one of his conspiracy theory tangents about the recent attack on Haven, and suddenly, like a blow to the chest, Kiara had realized where she'd seen that girl before. She'd immediately looked up the footage from the Beacon attack, and sure enough, there was that gold eye and that mop of dark hair, a cruel expression etched into a face that looked far too young to carry it.  But Cinder Fall had two, distinctly human arms. There was no mistake about that. And the longer Kiara had stared at the footage, the less certain she became about what she had seen. In the end, she had simply put it from her mind and moved on.  

That is, until one brave, slip of a girl had told the world the truth behind the academy attacks, and the shining city in the sky had come crashing to the earth.  

War was coming to Remnant, perhaps on a scale never seen before. Or perhaps, if Ruby Rose were to be believed in full, it would just be the crowning battle in a war they had already been fighting for centuries. An enemy that controlled terrorist organizations and manipulated grimm. And Cinder Fall was a soldier in this war, working for this person. Suddenly, Kiara had been more certain again of what she had seen. Suddenly, an explanation presented itself. If this individual, this Salem person could control grimm, then perhaps she could replace a girl's arm with a grimm one too. Out of all the things she had heard lately, something like that really didn't sound that far-fetched anymore.  And in the moment that Kiara had decided this must be the case, she had stared down at her own inhuman arm; the simple, clunky prosthetic, and with a sick, twisting feeling in her gut, she wondered. She couldn't help but wonder.  And she had wondered ever since.  Could Cinder Fall feel with that arm? Did it have the inhumane strength of a grimm? Did it obey her the way the other arm did? Did it feel normal where it connected to her human flesh, did she live without the constant ache?  She thought about it every time someone at work brought up the broadcast. She thought about it every time she put on her prosthetics in the morning. She thought about it when she took them off at night. When she sorted through the newly hatched chicks at work, she wondered if a grimm hand could handle them as delicately as her human hand could. 

And now, sliding around on the slick paving stones in the sleet, she wondered if a grimm arm would mind the cold, if a grimm foot would grip the stone securely with strong, steady claws. With her head down and eyes focused on where she would place her cane next, Kiara wasn’t looking at her surroundings. Her alleyway was just across the intersection she was crossing now, her sanctuary out of the driving weather at last within reach. None the less, as she crossed in front of the other street, she saw a figure out of the corner of her eye. The impression seared into her brain was that of a young woman with a knife and a long, black arm, ending in an awful black hand with long, wickedly clawed fingers. Kiara kept walking. Her doorway was right there, she was nearly home. Maybe if she pretended she hadn’t noticed, maybe if she just kept going, the stranger wouldn’t follow her, wouldn't harm her. Kiara simply knew she was wrong, knew where her mind had been as she passed the stranger, knew that there was no grimm arm, that Cinder Fall was not lurking around every corner waiting for her. It was the sleet, it was the poor lighting, it was the shadows, it was her imagination.  

But . . . 

Even so.  

Her footsteps slowed, her heart rate ever increasing as they did, until she came to a stop barely fifteen paces from her door. She held very still for a moment and swallowed, but her throat had become dry and the action was painful. Ha. When had she become such a coward? She was young and fearless once. And stupid. “Light protect me.” She muttered under her breath, and then she turned. There the girl stood, still just inside Kiara’s alley at the intersection, knife in hand, watching her. It was Cinder Fall. Or at least, it was the same girl Kiara had seen before, the one she believed to be Cinder. And there was that arm. It was there alright, unbound and awful and real. Why? Why was she here, of all places, in Kiara’s alleyway again? What were the odds? What was the reason? It didn’t matter. What mattered was what Kiara would do now. She couldn’t just stand there, rooted to the spot staring, she had to make a move. Cinder was a terrorist, and at the moment, she was living up to her nasty reputation with the clear threat that Kiara could see was etched into every line of her body.  Kiara’s eyes were rooted to the grimm arm. Her head was spinning, her thoughts were everywhere. And then, almost unbidden, she began to move back down the alley towards Cinder, falteringly at first, but then with more assurance as she went. She was bolstered up and driven forward by the unwavering certainty that if she let this ghost slip through the cracks again, she would surely haunt her life forever. Along with that there was a hunger, no, a desperation to know. Besides, what did she really have to lose? A shitty life in a shitty apartment with a shitty job? Endless, sleepless nights wracked with pain, trapped in a body that was broken and unable to do anything useful anymore? Cinder Fall watched her approach with an unreadable expression, until Kiara was close enough to speak without yelling. She stopped and steadied herself, willing words to come out of her dry, sticky throat. How did she even begin to explain? 

Be diplomatic. You want to ask her about her arm? Tell her something about yourself first. It was the only reasoning her scrambling brain could come up with. 

“Hello, I – my name is- my name is Kiara and I . . . I live in the apartment there . . .” 

She gestured with the hand holding her cane, clearing her throat and steeling herself, lest she continue to sound so pathetic. 

“I’m sure you don’t remember, but we’ve seen each other before. It was a while ago now, but you were in this same alleyway and I . . . I saw your hand that day and I. Well.” 

She pushed her prosthetic hand forward so it slid somewhat out of the sleeve of her jacket for Cinder to see.  

“I’m not sure how you got your grimm arm, but if it was anything like what happened to me, if you lost your original one then. I was just wondering . . .” 

She felt shaky now. She didn’t think it was visible thankfully, but she felt a shivering in her ribcage every few moments and she was very, very cold, and the longer she stumbled on, the more afraid of Cinder’s response she became. 

“I was wondering if I could ask you about it. If you would tell me how you got it and if it . . .” 

She didn’t know how to phrase the last bit.  

“I just. I need to know. I have to know. Please.” 

She finally moved her gaze from Cinder’s arm to her eye, and there was nothing left in her now but painful, sorrowful desperation. 

[secret-engima]

Snippet of One in a Hundred

     It had been a long time since Oscar had cried himself to sleep in his aunt’s arms. A long time since the voices in his head were so loud he couldn’t sleep unless there was someone real and alive to hold him tight and make sure he didn’t shake apart in his dreams. But his last semi-solid memory was Aunt Parsine pulling him —them— down and pulling him close while she flicked the covers overtop of them. He dimly recalled pulling his magic around Ozpin, cradling him close as best he could, the nearest he could get to a hug when one of them was incorporeal.

     He dreamed of green magic and white hair. Of gold eyes that stared down at their intertwined hands and looked sad and confused.

     The morning felt sluggish and off when Oscar woke up. The world felt blurry, vague, far away. There were no ghosts haunting the edges of his senses, but it wouldn’t take much to bring them out. Oscar stared blankly at the empty bed, at the blinking clock that told him Aunt Parsine had let him sleep in a full hour past his usual time, and he sighed heavily. He felt old. He got up slowly, achingly, and before daring to brave the bathroom or the idea of getting dressed, he lightly probed his mind. Ozpin was back on his little island, magic flickering faintly in something akin to exhausted sleep. Oscar let him stay that way as he forced his body to hurry through getting up and getting dressed, through redoing the bandages around his neck and pulling his gloves back on and making sure everything was properly tucked in before buttoning up his shirt.

     Ozpin was still “asleep” as Oscar slunk out to the kitchen area and found his aunt had waited for him instead of heading straight out to the barn for morning chores. Aunt Parsine watched him with concern as she cooked him a breakfast that was easy to digest, just like she did on Quiet Days. He could feel her watching him as he sat down, trying to figure out if he was present or just drifting. Oscar made a point to look her in the eyes for several seconds. A silent confirmation that he was here and not entangled with ghosts. Then he looked down and shook his head. He wasn’t ready to talk about last night.

     Ozpin woke up just as Oscar was entering the barn and grabbing the feed for the old plow horse, Ben. Old Ben hadn’t actually done anything of use on the farm for a few years now, he was too old to pull a plow or even to be ridden by anything heavier than small children, but he had served the Pine family faithfully for over two decades, and he had even saved Oscar’s life more than once. Aunt Parsine and Oscar had both agreed that the old horse deserved a nice, relaxing retirement for whatever time he had left. Oscar let Ozpin flit about on the island of Oscar’s mind for a while without comment, pretending not to notice the sensation of Ozpin cautiously peering through Oscar’s eyes to watch the farm work.

     Finally, when he was out in the fields and out from under Aunt Parsine’s worried eye, Oscar said, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

     Ozpin stilled in his head, almost flinched back, then steadied, “…Even after what you have seen?”

     Oscar frowned faintly, “Because of what I’ve seen. You didn’t … you didn’t deserve that.” He took a breath, “Ozpin? I know I said it last night but-. I’m so sorry. For making you relive that. I … I won’t say that I wouldn’t have done it, and if the situation was the same, I know I would do it again. But for whatever it’s worth, I am sorry, and I was wrong.”

     The silence in his head was aching and confused, “You aren’t angry.” Ozpin sounded genuinely confused, “You know now, what I am asking of you. What I am dragging you into. You know that Salem cannot-. Yet you aren’t angry.”

     Oscar’s hands slowed down in their work and he breathed past the urge to hurt something. Betrayal, the taste of it from Ozpin’s memories, sat bitter on his tongue, “None of that was your fault. You were given a choice without being told what it meant. You made mistakes, yes. Forming a religion was a spectacularly bad idea, but … all you ever tried to do was protect mankind. All you’ve sacrificed has been for humanity, even though it has killed you again and again. I can’t be angry with you over that.” He tilted his head, tempted to say he had an idea about Salem and her supposed indestructibility, then decided it wasn’t important right now. What was important was Ozpin and the fragile equilibrium they needed to form, “I … I can’t do it right now. I’ll be non-functional for the rest of the day if I do but … I understand. More than you realize. I understand what that feels like, and I can show you why later.”

     Oscar straightened up and looked out sadly over his aunt’s farm, over the silhouette of his aunt a few hundred yards away, busily working. A peaceful life. Small and isolated but loving and … safe.

     And once again, destiny was calling him to leave his own happiness behind.

     At least I’m not alone in destiny’s grip this time, he thought, but it was a sour, bitter thing. Oscar sighed and pressed a hand over his chest, “I’ll help you.” Ozpin stilled, surprised and confused and a touch disbelieving and Oscar repeated, “I’ll go to Haven, and I’ll help you. I’ll fight your war with you.”

[strqyr]

I'm ready for the conversations about why Raven left! Hit me!

well, for starters, i feel like it's at least a two-part deal. like, there's the coffin, and then there's the nail in the coffin.

"the coffin" is raven meeting salem; when raven talks about the new discoveries she made that made the world more terrifying, the focus in on a map of remnant slowly panning towards the unnamed dragon continent. and with how raven speaks about salem—not just that she cannot be beaten, but that she cannot be reasoned with either—it's pretty clear to me that the two have not just met, but talked, and that's how raven found out the truth about ozpin (and we've seen how devastating that can be).

and, y'know, raven listing three things that all apply to salem that she has seen with her own eyes is pretty good indication of that, too.

salem has different approaches when dealing with different people; she boosts watts' ego, promises cinder power, and with leo she makes him fear her. for raven, salem's method was to threaten the survival of her people—in this case, her tribe. but knowing the complicated mess that is raven branwen, tribe = family, and when her semblance is called kindred link (kindred = one's family and relations) yet the only bond to the tribe that raven shared was with vernal, it's like.

we're not really talking about the tribe here, are we? no we're not.

during raven and lionheart's conversation, raven assumes that the only way lionheart would turn his back on ozpin is if salem had something on him. considering how this whole scene is basically showcasing the similarities between raven and leo, it's not too farfetched to consider that this applies to raven (especially since lionheart is dead and there was no implication that salem had anything on him. what i'm saying is that raven is projecting).

so, we have salem potentially threatening raven's family and the implication that salem has something on raven. combining that, it's not exactly the nicest picture to have and would be enough to at least consider leaving, depending on the level of the threat. it's definitely enough to stop working for ozpin, that's for sure.

that's where "the nail" comes in. see, i think there was at least a smallest of possibilities of raven staying (without working for ozpin)... but it's looking like her teammates didn't quite believe her when she told them the truth. and i can understand why if your source is the enemy, but that doesn't make it hurt any less; qrow straight up refused to go look for the information himself even when raven told him to because it's that easy to come by, taiyang fully blames raven and her faults for their team falling apart, and the look on raven's face when ruby says "we had each other" and her reply to that doesn't make me believe that summer was on her side, either.

her team doesn't believe her, doesn't have her back and raven feels betrayed, there's an immortal witch who is threatening her family in some way and possibly has something on raven related to that to keep her more compliant and from interfering with her plans, and she's deathly afraid of dying which she believes is the only end for anyone who stays in this war, so what does she do?

she leaves, because that's the only way she can ensure survival—not just her own, but her family's, too.

and probably also to avoid letting everyone know how much they hurt her feelings with all that "not believing her" stuff.

[onewomancitadel]

If Knightfall weren't to materialize in canon, yet Cinder still ends the series redeemed, would you feel it was more of a missed opportunity for a potentially interesting development or a bungle on the part of the writers?

Now this is a good ask, thank you! It's a very interesting question because I essentially predicate my theorising about Cinder's redemption upon Knightfall; if Knightfall weren't to materialise, would that sort of make her redemption arc... accidental? The storytelling less precise? The Ozlem less of a big deal? Would it still be able to precipitate Salem's? When you've got all of these moving parts what as a reader you're trying to divine - you must wonder what it looks like for the storyteller - you really can't read any of these elements separately.

I've mentioned a few times that what I struggle with when it comes to the very little Cinder redemption speculation I've seen - which doesn't necessarily include her living, so her happy ending is not always prioritised but moreso her service to other characters - is that it's sort of just so. It happens because it needs to. It happens because she's sympathetic. It happens because they like her. It happens because Ruby figures out what's going on with Cinder's arm - without asking how Cinder would feel about the purification, of course, particularly if she herself has not put all the parts together yet... how do you get either of them to see each other as more than faceless enemy? What I really like about the Knightfall dynamic is that it is putting a face to an enemy - before even any real empathy emerges or... more complicated relationship.

So that informs how I read her redemption arc because I think Cinder's actually a very, very tough nut to crack, and it's why I find her so interesting. Her redemption arc is meant to be a tough nut to crack - so you either have people not really sure what it's going to look like, people convinced the Power of Friendship has already failed her and anyway Emerald got her shit out so Cinder doesn't matter (what about Mercury...), or people who think the idea of her redemption arc is flagrantly ridiculous, either because they like the idea of a cackling villain who stays evil because that's more interesting or because they hate her.

I'm mostly trying to convey that I don't really ship Knightfall because it's arbitrary. It's the ballerina en pointe on a knife's edge. It's the clincher that holds it together and makes it intelligible.

So if Knightfall didn't materialise I would assume the storytelling is not as thoughtful as it was. That's all. I wouldn't just read it as a missed opportunity, I would read the allusions uninteresting, the Ozlem conflict not fully solved and certainly not fully mythic... and Cinder's redemption arc was never really that special, it just had to be paused until Ruby or Emerald or whomever wizened up or Cinder learnt her lesson. There was no need to write Jaune in any particular way, it would make him accessory - unless they DID involve him with no romance and that wouldn't just be COWARDLY, it would be STUPID and a complete BUNGLE and wouldn't realise the mythic magic of the story or the romance or, you know, character boon on either side. Why the fuck would I settle for platonic love for Cinder? Sorry, friends are great, but this girl grew up desperately unloved and absolutely no one's priority. Heal that or fuck off and die.

I'm not pulling the related character arcs out of thin air - this is already a thing all over the show - and I think that Emerald/Mercury is going to be a romantic redemption arc/enemies-to-lovers - so there's no reason to act like Knightfall is exceptional. if R/WBY is coherent, Knightfall is a thing. If R/WBY is incoherent and less interesting, Knightfall is not a thing. That is pretty much the way I see it. There's a lot more than Emerald/Mercury paralleling it but I wanted a very specific similar archetypical example. You can see the twin pairs related across redemption arcs through the story (which lead them to reconciling/connecting ot others). I use the word coherent as opposed to clever because I'm establishing that this isn't difficult: it simply needs to make sense. It doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to use intuitive narrative language and basic storytelling tools and that's it. That's what you predicate Knightfall on.

Really no Knightfall wouldn't just be a loss to Cinder's character but Jaune's, because I have no fucking clue what they'd do with him otherwise. I'm being genuine, I sincerely don't know, and I think it's why he doesn't make sense to so many people because they can't read him in response to Cinder and it's just not obvious to them. It certainly depends how they play the Penny angle - but there's no reason to make him do that and connect him to Cinder again unless you have something interesting cooking.

I've encountered this idea with previous pairings before that involved redemption arcs that platonic love between the two characters could be just as interesting. I'm sorry but that's just obtuse. We know it's not the same thing. We know a romance would convey a different message (particularly if it's Ozlem in reverse and fixed) and we know that there are other powerful friendships in the series that this isn't something we're exactly starving for. There is no way you can expect a major relationship between Jaune and Cinder to just be platonic. Of course I'm banking on a happy ending, or something approximating it - tinged with loss but still happy - because otherwise the story should've ended with Salem's loss. I really can't see it as tragic love either as the big transcendent send-off for the story that heals all mythic wounds.

So either R/WBY is coherent and thoughtful or it isn't. Knightfall happens or it doesn't. I'm being completely serious, I genuinely don't think there's any way to otherwise write Cinder's redemption arc as the precipitator to the ultimate narrative resolution or even if he's involved there's almost no way to do it without romance. You either answer the questions posed by the narrative or not. We know what those questions are now, we just don't know what the answer is.

It can always go tits up but I really don't care. I'd rather be invested now and do damage assessment after the fact than wonder if it would've been worth speculating about Knightfall. If Cinder's redemption is tied up in all the ideas I think are interesting about the show and so is Knightfall, then yes, I wouldn't like it if it didn't happen, but I can't be blamed for listening to my storytelling instincts. It's not about being right or wrong, it's about feeling something.

[kob131]

I can actually show you how with some other examples in Fixing RWBY.

Let’s start small- The onsen scene. Not the fact that there is an onsen scene (even though RT doesn’t do fanservice usually so this is just odd) but the moment where Neo disguises herself as Jaune to go into the men’s side to be with him. Generic anime stuff, right? ‘Haha, person is in gendered side they’re not suppose to, funny!’ Except that this kind of scene is done in one of two ways- A. The person is a pervert and the character promptly gets punished for their perversion, usually by getting beaten up. Or B. Character is in the wrong side by accident and they’ll be beaten up due to a misunderstanding (or be subverted and forgiven, with the subversion being the humor).

The jokes are set up this way because being in an onsen is a personal thing. You are naked and vulnerable, it’s VERY easy to violate your privacy and your space in this situation but people trust that you aren’t going to do so. By violating this space, you are committing a very serious crime and are looked down upon.

But not Neo! She just gets to be with her man despite them supposed to be GOOD GUYS. One of whom has OZPIN, a VERY moral man, in his head. All because ‘ahaha, me like ship!’

Moving back a bit- the joke about Ren and Weiss’ genders to Roman. The joke is that Ren isn’t a brickhouse and Weiss lacks big boobs, traits often used to identify men and women so ‘of course, Roman makes a mistake! Classic anime joke!’ 

But again, consider WHY and HOW these jokes are usually used. The traits we use to identify men and women aren’t exclusive to the genders aside from a few examples. So if you take away those examples, it becomes harder to identify one’s gender and it can be embarrassing to get it wrong. The issue with these moments are simple- Ren and Weiss lack ONLY the aforementioned traits. Other traits, like Ren’s deeper voice, Weiss’ facial features and both’s body types- they would easily inform someone that they are their gender, to say nothing of how they dress.

Contrast this with, say, Mordred and Astolfo from Fate/Apocrypha. They both dress and act more like the stereotype of the opposite gender (Mordred wears heavy armor and is highly aggressive and Astolfo wears feminine clothes and acts girly) alongside having less clear appearences. Ren nor Weiss act more like the other gender nor do they dress that way- There is no reason for Roman to assume as such aside from ‘haha, anime joke!’

Going beyond the onsen scene- Let’s take his change with Raven. He changes Raven from someone who didn’t think through her plan due to a character flaw, tying all her actions together to...lady who bury Relic because forever war. While she kills and murders people for her own selfish desires (not living a civilized life). The point with Raven in the original was to shoot down the idea that consolidating power was anyway to stop Salem and that someone in her position isn’t some noble Anti-Hero doing the dirty stuff to avoid the corrupt Ozpin and evil Salem- she’s a coward too scared to fight unlike the heroes.

But he changed it because ‘That everyone headcanon!’

And finally- Putting Ozpin in Roman’s body.

Think about Roman’s character. The way he’s voice acted, the way he’s animated, the lines he’s given, his design. They all indicate to the audience that Roman is suave, in control criminal who loves what he does. Then take Ozpin in all those same respects- Ozpin is a moral but flawed man who lost faith in people, a take on what Ruby would be if she lost her innocence. In essence, her predecessor and prototype.

Now tell me- in what way are these two characters compatible?

In what universe would Roman risk letting Pyrrha go to give her some kind of chance to consider her options and not pressure her continuously for his own survival, if not out of sadism? In what universe would Ozpin help a terrorist organization blast open a hole into one of the four major cities in the world to kill untold scores of innocents without so much as batting an eye?

In what universe is a criminal who doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself and Neo AT ALL compatible with a man who spent hundreds if not thousands of years trying to preserve the lives of others?

Trick question: They AREN’T compatible characters. Aside from gender, general body type and some vagueness about control- Nothing unites Roman and Ozpin. Even the reason why they lie make them incompatible since Roman lies for his own benefit and Ozpin lies out of his own mistrust of others.

But ‘Roman so cool! He must be main character!’

No one questions this shit because they get what they want from it. Nevermind how it actually works in practice- They feel pandered to so it’s a-okay!

Because you can always call your critics ‘fanboys!’, as if you aren’t acting like the delusion of CRWBY you have.

You could not pay me to willingly read a Rwby rewrite written by a bunch of weebs who have almost no experience writing actually. I would rather remove my own eyes.

[bridgyrose]

The more I think about it now that we have more information about Salem, the more I realize that Cinder putting a spear through Weiss's side was a more nuanced choice than "what would hurt Jaune" and "who can I hurt without getting into trouble?"

Like, Weiss is a Schnee and everyone knows it. Cinder would definitely know it. Which means she actively tried to kill who she knew was an Atlas elite knowing that it would satisfy three things: 1) her need to hurt someone that would be considered an elite, 2) could hurt Jaune much more than killing him when she could tell he had a death sentence at the time, and 3) someone she could get away with hurting/killing without either irritating Salem (which is why she couldnt hurt/kill Ruby at that spot) or wouldnt immediately try to come after her in retaliation (Yang, Ren, Nora, Oscar, and Qrow, who all were holding their own against their opponents for the most part.)

It definitely is a lot less random now that we know how she was treated in Atlas and now that we have a definite idea of how her past was instead of just assumptions and head canons. Kinda puts into perspective that while she is ambitious and it doesnt always work out, she still is smart in her own respects.

[bestworstcase]

If it turns out that Summer joined Salem of her own accord, it'd honestly put a VERY different light on Raven's words and action, especially her point towards Lionheart about "doing whatever he had to do to survive".

Because if everyone on Ozpin's side had found out about Summer's changing of sides, the fallout would have been devastating, especially given how everyone at the time was still in "Ozpin's war is hopeless, just gonna leave and not bother with it" or "Ozpin's war is the most greatest thing in the world and no one can tell me otherwise" mode of thinking.

Maybe Raven knows that Summer defected, and out of her own personal loyalty for whatever reason, ended up basically being Summer's secret keeper, basically allowing other people to see her in a bad light for Summer's sake.

Because who's gonna believe that the black sheep of Team STRQ would be actually still caring of their team leader, especially when she had already abandoned them years ago? If they had found out years ago in their mental state of obedience to Ozpin, finding out the truth would have made them either worse off, or try to get rid of Summer and Raven without being willing to understand what was going on.

But now? After multiple volumes of realizing how Ozpin is full of shit, and coming to understand more and more just how fucked up his holy crusade and his mission really is? They might be a helluva lot more willing to listen.

Maybe.

After some asskicking and hurt feelings at least.

something to keep in mind maybe is raven wouldn’t just know that summer joined salem, she would’ve gotten a “join salem with me” recruitment pitch and rejected it, because they were clearly very close despite the tension between them in the flashback.

consider:

“all previous acts of defiance against salem will be forgiven”—previous acts of defiance like turning down a job offer, perhaps?

the pain, disgust, and anger with which raven reacts to ruby entreating her to work with them; “you sound just like your mother.” (“if i get this right” “trust me”—in what context did raven hear summer delivering an earnest plea for raven to work with her?)

“i’m not helping salem. i’m not helping ozpin!”—raven helping ozpin wasn’t a point of concern until raven brought it up; cinder even overtly points out that raven abandoned ozpin’s cause. but you know what else cinder says? “you’re not the only one to turn your back against oz.” perhaps that was a jab at something more sensitive than lionheart’s treachery. perhaps it brought up some memories of the last time someone asked her to join salem.

“that’s why i tried to leave when i did”—TRIED to leave. raven doesn’t say she left. she says she tried to leave, and in v9 we saw the extent of how very much she did not succeed. her loyalty to ozpin shattered but she was still actively working with summer, unbeknownst to anyone else including her own brother. summer was very, very important to her. the present day state of affairs, where raven flatly refuses to share ANY useful information with qrow unless he gives her equal information in return first, did not begin until summer left.

“what does she have on you?”—so here’s the thing, right, about raven knowing where summer is, and raven having rejected summer’s team salem pitch, and raven’s militant refusal to help ozpin. summer is important to her. there was a time when raven was closer to summer than to qrow, and raven is a person who cares very deeply and permanently whether she likes it or not. right.

and raven is firmly convinced that salem is an unstoppable, inhuman monster who cannot be reasoned with and who only uses people until they’re no longer useful, then discards them. and summer rose is working for that monster. raven has been living in terror every day for more than a decade of what’s going to happen when summer stops being useful to salem.

what happens if raven tells the other side where summer is? summer becomes less useful, because now she can’t act in total secrecy. (remember that everyone connected to ozpin is convinced that salem values secrecy as highly as ozpin does.) what happens if raven passes more information to the other side—such as, for example, the detailed spatial awareness of what’s going on around summer that her semblance can feed to her? she could undermine summer’s usefulness so hard that she turns summer into a liability for salem.

and then summer dies.

and it will be raven’s fault.

that’s what she’s so fucking scared of.

she’s not keeping this secret out of concern for qrow or tai or ruby or yang; she’s not sacrificing her own reputation to salvage summer’s, nor is she trying to protect herself or summer from anyone on ozpin’s side. she’s keeping her mouth shut and loudly, stubbornly maintaining her neutrality to protect summer from salem.

and none of these factors have changed whatsoever. raven’s opinion of salem’s character hasn’t budged, summer hasn’t left salem’s side (metaphorically speaking), and certainly raven hasn’t stopped caring about her. i think the only circumstance where raven divulges where summer is rn is one where she thinks there’s a chance in hell of immediately getting summer away from salem—which means ruby could well be the only person raven might be willing to tell, because if she could put ruby in a position to appeal to summer directly then maybe, MAYBE that would be enough. but even then it’s going to be a heavy lift, i think.

no asskicking just raven being eaten alive by more than a decade’s worth of her own miserable anxiety

[itsclydebitches]

re: that ask you posted a couple days ago about the male and female representation in RWBY, part of what makes RWBY's whole 'girl power' thing ring exceptionally hollow to me is the fact that there are like... no women in positions of real power in remnant. like at all. except the big bad.

winter is second in command to james. glynda is second in command to ozpin. all of the headmasters are men (for no discernible reason, imo; why theodore and not dorothea?). the leader of the ace ops was a white man (and then winter seemed to take over clover's position instead of either of the women of color on the team, and she was still second to james). RWBY is an all girl team, but JNPR was led by a boy despite a girl arguably being far more qualified (pyrrha). the happy huntresses are all women, and robyn had no real power to speak of--she didn't even manage to win the election, because jacques rigged it, and then the council ceased to matter. there was one (1) woman on the council, but she was so inconsequential that i can't even remember her name. (i suppose we're lucky it was the guy and not her who james shot lol) jacques controls the SDC instead of willow, even though he's not even a schnee by blood and actually married into the family for power. (and we don't even know how he got it over his wife.)

and then there's the white fang, which ghira led and not kali--and it's ghira who leads menagerie itself, while kali seems to be a housewife. sienna had five minutes of screentime before being brutally killed and her position assumed by adam, a man. cordovin is basically a one off lackey we haven't even thought about before or since. neo was second to roman. you have cinder, sure, who is a second but to salem, a woman, and raven as the leader of the branwen tribe--but what does it really say about your 'girl power' narrative when the only women with genuine systemic power in your world are villains or antagonists with massive bodycounts??

atla has the same sort of problem--a couple great female characters, but all the leadership positions are men (except the kyoshi warriors, an all girls group, and even then the leader of their island is an old man) and the one female mentor figure also turns out to be evil--but it at least has some great writing to help overlook that fact, and it came out in the mid-00's and so has some sort of excuse of being a product of its time. but rwby didn't even start until 2013 and it's still going and still making these kinds of decisions well into 2021.

where is this supposed girl power, exactly? am i really supposed to overlook the very patriarchal worldbuilding just because the title characters are girls?

That's an excellent summary of the situation, anon, and as with so much in RWBY, it comes down to the full context. Any one of these examples isn't necessarily going to mean much on its own. It's when you look at the pattern that you can start making a case for those conclusions: Why is the show marketed on "girl power" set in a world where men hold the vast majority of that power? And, more importantly, why is that setup not the point? We could easily have a story where that lopsided gender dynamic is the problem that the girls are looking to fix, but... that story doesn't exist. Like the problems discussed with Jaune, the supposed point here exists only on the surface. Dig just the tinniest bit — the above — and you hit on a lot of structural problems with this "girl power" world.

To add just a few details to what you've already said:

Salem indeed has power, but she's never allowed to fully use it. Each volume the frustration with this grows as Salem accumulates more abilities and then just sits on them. From literally hiding out for a thousand years to worries that she won't use the Staff in Volumes 9-10, Salem really isn't allowed to be the threat she's presented as on the surface. And yes, this is absolutely due in part to the "She's too OP and the writers don't know how to let her be that powerful while still having the heroes win" issue, but again, context. That problem doesn't exclude others occurring simultaneously.

Same double explanation with Summer. Yes, dead moms are an incredibly common trauma to dump on a protagonist, but it still left Yang and Ruby with Tai as their primary influence. And Qrow. The uncle becomes the extended family influence while Raven is the absent one/eventual antagonist. It's personal power as opposed to political power, but Tai, Qrow, Ozpin, formerly James... most of the mentors are men. Maria, a key exception, has been ignored in that regard. The story announced that she was Qrow's inspiration, setup her being Ruby's new mentor, and then... nothing. Nothing has come of that. She disappeared for a volume and then went off to Amity and was literally forgotten by the story when evacuating everyone was the finale's whole point.

Like that Endgame moment I mentioned, the Happy Huntresses feel a little too forced to me. Yes, it's the same basic idea as in ATLA, but ATLA, as you say, has a lot more going for it. The Happy Huntresses feel... on the nose? Idk exactly how to explain it. Like, "Here they are! Another team of all women! Isn't this how progressive storytelling works? Just ignore how this is a one-off team of minor characters compared to the world building issues discussed above." And if you're not paying attention, you miss just how insignificant they are, with a side of Robyn being, well, Robyn. The Kyoshi Warriors, at least, are based off of Kyoshi. A woman avatar who is a significant part of their history. That is, presumably, why they're an all women warrior group (but who notably still teach Sokka). The Happy Huntresses are all huntresses because...? There's no reason except that meta "We want to look progressive" explanation. Just like having all the women superheroes team up for a hot second so people get excited and ignore the representation problems across, what? 21 films? Don't get me wrong, I love that May is among the Happy Huntresses. I think including her in the explicitly all-women group was one of the better things RWBY has done in a long time, but the rest is still a mess.

RWBY is arguably about these smaller groups as opposed to systematic power (despite the writers trying to work that in with things like the White Fang and the election. Not to mention the implication that everything in Atlas is fine now that evil Ironwood has died and taken the symbol of wealth (the city) with him. We saw a human holding hands with a faunus after all. Racism and corruption solved, I guess.) So yes, our group is dominated by women... but Whitley is the one saving Nora, helping to defeat the Hound (plus Willow), thinking of the airships, and providing the blueprints they need to escape. Salem is our Big Bad, except Ironwood is the one the volume focuses on. Ruby is our leader, but Jaune is the one leading the group into the whale and getting praised for how heroic he is. Ren does more to shake things up, even if he's painted as the one in the wrong. Oscar gets to confront Salem and destroys the whale threat. Ozpin provides the information they need to evacuate. Meanwhile, when the girls do things in Volume 8 it's almost always followed by a long-stint of passiveness. Nora opens the door so she can be unconscious for most of the volume. Penny keeps Amity up so she can also be unconscious for a good chunk of time. Ruby sends her message and then sits in a mansion. Blake fights so she can tearfully beg Ruby to save her. Weiss, as said, takes a backseat to Whitley (and Klein). They forward the plot, absolutely, but comparatively it doesn't feel like enough.

It's that pattern then, no one specific example. More and more the personal power, not just the systematic power already built into Remnant, seems to be coming from the men. Not all the time, but enough that scenes like the tea drinking moment feel like a part of a much larger problem. Pietro taking control, Watts hacking, and Ambrosius literally remaking her when Penny is supposed to already be in control of herself and her fate. Winter being presented as the active mentor to Weiss, only to turn around and claim that Ironwood was actually responsible for everything. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and May straight up commenting on how awful things are out there while Yang, Jaune, Ren, and Oscar lead the charge against Salem — with the latter three doing the most to forward that mission (no fear, semblance, cane). As others have only half-joked, Yang's supposedly badass moment was bringing up a mother she's ignored for six volumes and briefly blowing up the immortal woman for a couple of seconds (with Ironwood's bombs). Even Marrow is arguably the most significant Ace Op after Clover. Vine isn't actually a character, Elm slightly less so, Harriet is there to go crazy and try to drop a bomb (notably before admitting to never-before-existed feelings for Clover), but Marrow? He's the one who breaks out. Who is meant to heroically stand up against Ironwood. Who comments on how awful it is that teenagers are fighting and, regardless of how messed up the moral messages are, is supposedly pushing for active change while all the women in his group, including Winter, insist on maintaining the status quo. Look at all these choices as a whole, it makes throwaway worldbuilding choices like "All the Maidens are women" feel pretty hollow. Why does it matter if Amber is a Maiden if she dies in a flashback so Ozpin can struggle to pass on the power? If Pyrrha dies before becoming one so Jaune can angst about it? If Raven is one and then disappears from the story entirely? If Winter has enough power to break Ironwood's aura, but supposedly had no power throughout every other choice she made getting here? If Penny is one, but is continually controlled by men and then asks another man to help her die? It's just really unconvincing, once you look past the surface excitement of a woman looking cool with magic powers.

When you do consider the whole of the story — both in terms of our world building and who is forwarding the plot in the latter volumes, getting the emotional focus, being proactive, etc. — there are a lot of problems that undermine the presumed message RT wants to write. They say, "girl power" by marketing RWBY with these four women, but too many of the storytelling decisions thoroughly undermine that, revealing what's likely a deeply ingrained, subconscious bias.

[wyndford-dekarios-majima]

if ace were actually canon a lot of the shit thats up with them would probably not be real. their whole...living shadow thing, i doubt would be in there. it'd be more metaphorical, perhaps. they'd be psyker, stealthed, literally masking because otherwise it's really damn obvious. they would still juggle people but they are not...as dedicated to pearson or meryl in the beginning. they're one of salem's lackeys. told to spy on pearson and atom, meryl's simply a passing coworker relationship. they still have their shop, of course. as they get closer to pearson and atom and their secrets they'd have a bit of a change of heart. they'd deliver half truths or perhaps even total fabrications. hanging around atom and pearson gets them the chance to talk to meryl more as they get atom out of trouble, they catch feelings.

everything crashes down around them, of course, whether it be after a first date with meryl or if it's an "eventually". salem finds out, meryl finds out, pearson and atom find out, they didn't come out on top and everyone leaves them.

they're useful, though. it's a race to see who can get them first; salem, or pearson and meryl. they have nothing left to lose, they have information on both sides. their leash is a lot tighter no matter what, but i think they'd objectively be worse off with salem (horrible toxic relationship but they think theyre having fun and they think theyre loved). meryl is probably a lot less forgiving, but pearson...he wouldn't completely understand, but he knows a failed con when he sees one. some sort of wry comment about how two is all it takes to make a club.

they're a lot more closed off and serious for a while if pearson and meryl get to them but they eventually become their old self, perhaps a bit more learned and open. if salem gets them first theyre a horrifically magnified version of their old self, a literal joker moment because they have nothing but salem and they were always willing to die for him but at this point? DYING FOR HIM IS ALL THEY HAVE LEFT. TAKE THE SHOT AND MAYBE HE'LL NOTICE.

teehee salem

[threeclans]

As the deadline for our Moving Mountains opening application period draws nearer, we would like you to meet a few of the member-created OCs who will be involved in the event. However, we won’t feature all of the characters being introduced during Moving Mountains through the blog; you’ll have to apply to ThreeClans to get to know them all! Meet Salem, a scout for the rebels.

INTRODUCING... || Salem (roleplayed by Apple / @mudblossomwc)

Rebel ✤ Female (she/her) ✤ 53 moons

Raised as a housecat, Salem always had an insatiable curiosity for the outside world. When she was a little over a year old, she managed to escape- and finally had her taste of adventure! Unfortunately, though, it didn't take much for her to get lost. She did her best to survive, but after moons of wandering around on her own, half-starving, and being attacked or driven out of many of the places she tried to shelter in, she wasn't doing great. She fell extremely ill, and likely would have died if she hadn't been found by Shiloh- a member of Monarch's group.

Shiloh took her back, and nursed her back to health. While Salem was initially uneasy, Shiloh managed to win her over, and eventually convince her to stay once she was well again. To earn her place, she had to do some... less than savory things for Monarch. But she convinced herself it was worth it, for her own survival.

She never told Shiloh about any of that- she wasn't proud of it, and she wanted her friend to think highly of her. By the time they became mates, at a little under 30 moons old, it felt too late to say anything. Salem was working her way up in status, anyway, so she wasn't required to stoop that low quite as much anymore. She figured Shiloh must have known how Monarch kept cats in line, anyway; they had lived here so much longer, how could they not?

Around ten moons later, Salem and Shiloh took in a kitten they found named Apollo. He became like their own kitten, and while Salem had always been reluctant to bring new cats into the environment of Monarch's group she found joy in caring for him. She worried about him getting hurt, but figured that she could protect him- that was always her biggest priority: keeping their little family safe.

Unfortunately, as he grew older Apollo's mouth got ahead of him. He disliked Monarch's rule, and was very vocal about it- enough so that one night, he simply disappeared.

Salem was furious, and heartbroken. She knew in her heart that Monarch must have ordered for him to be dealt with- but she wasn't sure which of her lackeys had done it. When she said as much to Shiloh, though, she was surprised to find that they didn't believe her- that they insisted it must have been something else, a wild animal. Salem had been unaware of just how much Shiloh didn't know previously, and in the moment was too upset, and too frightened of what they might think, to tell them everything.

Instead they had an argument.

Salem left with Elk that night, unable to convince her mate to go with her. Still, she was determined to dismantle the Rulers and get Shiloh out safely. It soon turned out, though, that the Rebels were not what she had first thought- disorganized, and more violent than she'd anticipated. Soon her fears shifted focus... now she was just as worried about Shiloh getting hurt by her own group. Desperate to find some way to protect them, Salem jumped on the chance to be a scout, using the opportunity to go ahead of the others and pass off information to her mate when she could.

Like her fellow scout, Specter, Salem seems very prickly and closed off. She doesn't seem to trust or like anyone in the rebels- something that might draw suspicion from the others. But her top priority has always been protecting her own, and right now that means Shiloh, even if trying to play both sides like she has been is risking her own tail.

Like her fellow scout, Specter, Salem seems very prickly and closed off. She doesn't seem to trust or like anyone in the rebels- something that might draw suspicion from the others. But her top priority has always been protecting her own, and right now that means Shiloh, even if trying to play both sides like she has been is risking her own tail.

The decision is yours to make. Will you fight for the rebels alongside Salem, or do your loyalties lie with the rulers? Applications for JaggedClan’s Moving Mountains event are open now. Check out this post for more information! A special thanks to Apple for Salem's character art and blurb.

[prof-peach]

I know on your island you guys deal with a lot of pokemon from a lot of scenarios, but have you ever had to deal with ex-rocket pokemon? Either surrendered or found. Would there have to be a specific protocol for that, or safety measures?

Yeah we get a few that come to us each month, someone either hands them in, or we get them sent to us from other places that can’t handle them.

As for treatment we have to take each case sepratly, the local authorities send us poison, bug and grass types who need rehabilitation, usually it’s not too bad and we socialise them for a while. No people, just give them time to hang out with their own for a while. This can take anywhere up to a few months, just them and some other Pokemon kicking back and taking time out. We see a lot of Pokemon who didn’t get a chance to learn about their skills, their home, they never had a good family life, they often got torn from the wild and remember humans quite harshly. This time is key for them to settle into normal Pokemon behaviour. They are usually surrounded by others and can eventually pick up the right social queues and etiquettes, when they behave like the others, we start to introduce humans more, one member of staff will be assigned groups to care for, usually handling the rescues alone for the first few months, so the Pokemon being helped can get use to just one person at the start. Once that trust has grown, and they seem confortable, we introduce more members of staff. At this point it’s usually clear who will be rehomed fast, and who will need extra care, and we can divide up time appropriately. Recovery depends o the Pokemon in question, and what they’ve gone through. We’ve got patients with us that have stayed on the island for many years now due to relapses in behvaiour, if anything they’ve become part of our personal teams, part of the family, so I suppose they usually find a home one way or another. When possible we release those who are fit but otherwise uninterested in being a trained Pokemon, there are many release sites that the regional rangers oversee all around the world. Getting them home isn’t too hard luckily.

Because we have such a high population of bugs and grass Pokemon we just handle them more. They can find a group and settle here, without any outside interference.

On occasion we will personally choose to take on difficult cases, our lab is pretty hellbent on taking the Pokemon that are deemed “too far gone”, mostly because of the space we can offer them. Grey handles a lot of unruly water Pokemon, he has no fear of a Gyarados, doesn’t shy away from defensive Walrien or Carracosta, that’s just his area of love I guess? You have to love the work if you put yourself in the way of pretty big, pretty angry Pokemon, right?

Either way, we have our joy areas, and work with the odd species that can’t be otherwise helped by normal means. We use unorthodox methods, perhaps have too much patience, and tend to get really stuck into the work.

One case that’s a wonderful example was a dowdy little Salemance that came to us, had been shifted about by Rockets to fight in underground battle rings, it’s poor wings torn to shreds over the years, didn’t fly anymore, pretty sure the original trainer wanted it that way so it couldn’t just fly off. But it came to us so angry, and so violent towards anyone and anything, well I just about had it with the big idiot. Threw down with the dumb baby myself to put him in his pace once and for all. He was being outwardly nasty to everyone, snapped at everything. So I waited, and dodged, and ran, and hid until he had exhausted himself, and then used its bad vision against it and body slammed the little devil. He got tired trying to thrash me off, fell over and stayed there. Because I didn’t hurt him, I simply used his big dumb baby energy against him, he lost. Since then he was under me in the hierarchy, and we were able to get close enough to treat him, get his wounds seen too. He didn’t dare snap again after that, least not at any of the team. He got fitted with a prosthetic wing, has been flying for about half a year now, and is in the process of being adopted by a lovely young couple who live out in the mountains away from any towns, perfect place for him. I think they run a pumpkin farm out there and needed some defence. Me and that Salamanca are friends now, he’s learnt that just because a humans in a position of power doesn’t mean you have to cower, no ones ping to hurt them now, they’re safe, they can enjoy again. We socialised them, we tended to them, they’re not perfect, they still get spooked by too much noise, they’re jittery with crowds, that’s to be expected.

This is a case I mention because it’s a difficult one, not a lot of sane people will throw themselves at a Pokemon like that, and this is what the work is like. Sometimes you just do what’s right, even if it could end pretty badly, luck, great training, and years of practice are on my side, and for that reason I’m able to take in difficult ones. Each professor will handle different Pokemon, different types and varying levels of difficulty, all help is good help, you don’t have to wrestle a dragon, you can handle things a hundred different ways, and hell they might just work! The only true constant is patience. You sit up at night with them, when it’s stormy or windy and they’re scared, you hold your ground when they’re lashing out, you sit through the worst of it with them. You get bitten and cut and bruised and broken and it’s worth it because at the end they get to start again, they get a go at a second life that’s way better than what they had before.

Very rarely will we ever initiate attacks on a Pokemon on the island, we usually do all damage control with non-violent, defensive methods, and at the very most the rescue Pokemon will be put to sleep or knocked to the ground and immobilised. I see some folks battling against their rocket Pokemon, which can be a great use of energy but also can plant more seeds of distrust between the humans and Pokemon involved. It’s best to at least leave that until you’ve built up trust between you and the Pokemon I think, but each to their own I suppose.

If we need to do psychology we send them to Pari, who does therapy sessions with individuals who think they need it or are referred to her, she’s quite an accomplished student and uses my dear old porygon-z as a translator to talk with patients about their issues. Life is a lot easier when there’s less of a language barrier. We offer pretty much everything we can to the rescues we get, and they are given dedicated space upon arrival.

As for safety measures, yes, of course we have them. Gear is necessary when handling certain types, fireproof overalls and gloves are most common. We always go in with a functional pair of Pokemon, alwasy two minimum. We have this minimum because of many Pokemon going to attack our partner, missing on purpose, and going straight for us. One partner is offence, one is defence, you must cover your back, that defensive individual is more for you than anyone else, if you get hurt you can’t help others effectively. It really depends on the case, I’ve handled big Pokemon who got freaked out by heavy protective gear. Their old trainer would wear safety gear while being cruel to them, so we had to ditch it all, we realised it was causing problems and dealt with it fast. There’s also a number of first aid stations all over the island, not only for the sake of the law but also, we all get hurt a fair bit on the job.

Hope you feel informed!