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ackerpreach · 3 years

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This ending .... I can name 500 reasons and I will name them right now, because I don’t think I’m the only one who is upset with how things turned out. (Also, A positive message for all of you at the end)

MAJOR LEAKS SPOILERS/ READ WITH CAUTION

Update: after reading more theories from fellow RM bloggers, and sleeping over it one day, this entire chapter might be an april fools... Don't fully lose hope yet beautiful people. It's me just giving a review on a possible fake April fools chapter

After following this franchise since 2013, so nearly a DECADE. this ending is a pure disserve to the entire fandom. I feel like Yams has rushed it just for the sake of being done with the entire manga. So many things are left open, characters and their developemt are reverted back all the way to chapter 1 or are left even worse than that...

Mikasa’s worthless character development/ Aaronmika’s horrible toxic codependent relationship

Oh honey... Let’s start with how horrible Isayama has treated her. We were all rooting for her, because we all felt like she was so misunderstood. She had a horrible childhood and imprinted on a guy who treated her like trash 99 percent of the story. And then, slowly but surely, she starts to realize she has to stop obsessing over him in the uprising arc with the help of a real man who treats her like a queen, more importantly, he treats her like a real human being. This man sees her for her abilities and that she has the power to be self dependent. She learned parts of herself, that she was able to work together with him like no one else could. She learned parts of herself she was unable to do so if she kept obsessing about Aaron. All this love, care, mutual understanding and RESPECT these two shared.

but...NAH FUCK THAT, right Yams?? Throw all this development away, all this bonding. Let’s make the main female lead even more yandere than she already was in the first season. Let her make out with his decapacitated head (like dude, this is also pure disrespect to Aaron’s dead body btw) and let her obsess even more about the guy who has treated her no better than a piece of toilet cloth 99 percent of the time. The guy who was never really appreciative in front of her for saving his ass billions of times, who always pushed her away, who yells at her and snaps at her whenever he can instead of reasoning and talking calmly with her in mature way. (EVEN PARODY YOUTUBE CHANNELS WHO DONT SHIP ANYTHING MAKE IT A TROPE WHERE AARON TELLS MIKASA HE HATES HER GUTS WHENEVER HE CAN)

Then after all that, suddenly Yams tries to last minute persuade us Aaron’s always been head over heels for her??? He should have build their relationship better which he hasn’t even tried to do so... He must be thinking his fans are stupid for eating this from his hands.

Like seriously??? What is this???

Isayama is just fully contradicting himself. It’s like someone tipped him off with a buttload of money for him to write Aaron like this to satisfy shipping needs and to cash in those extra money’s from it. Even if he tried to cater to Erem*ika, this is not how you write a loving and caring couple which people will root for.

This next two panels just freaking infuriates me to the core of my soul. I can’t even describe how dissapointed I am with Mikasa.

Why is she clutching that head so obsessively like that? Why is she walking and turning her back away from her comrades? After everything they have done for her, after all they’ve been through?! After everything Armin has done? Standing up for Mikasa, beating up Aaron for hurting her. I feel like even Jean, Connie and Sasha have cared more for her in a healthy way. Sure, Aaron cares for her romantically too apparently (What a twist Yams :)), but has he aided her to becoming a mentally healthier individual? Has he aided in her mental stability? The answer is a big fat NO! All I see between these two after today’s raw Chapter’s are too Yandere obsessed individuals who have no clue on how to maintain a healthy relationship.

Love should only go as far as the heart can endure and it seems like her character is not willing to be aware of that. Even Armin was able to let go of Aaron in those latest panels. Why does her entire character resolve around this guy??? I really do not understand. Her Ackerbond and her age is not an excuse for her to throw her life away like this.

Shonen’s disgusting portrayal of women

I’ve seen this countless of times in the many years I’ve watched anime. SasuS*ku from Naruto, Ichih*me from Bleach, Shinji and that oranged hair girl from Neon Evangelion.. Why do these women get decreased to simpletons with one single goal? And that is to obsess over a bland male lead who either treats them like trash or doesn’t notice them up until the last last chapter (LITERALLY WHAT YAMS HAS DONE). Some go even as far as the male leading wanting the kill the female love interest and yet the female lead is still in love with them???. It’s disgusting for him to write the MAIN female character this way.

It’s dissapointing we believed in Isayama doing Mikasa’s character right. That she’s finally being able to let go of her codependency and to live for herself maybe live in Hizuru and find more about her roots???, but every single time she shows some improvement, it’s burried deep in the ground again by the Author. It almost seems like a lowkey kink of some of the male Mangaka’s to write about a girl obsessing over them no matter what. I see this so many times to the point that I truly stand behind it that some of them might have this fantasy.

I wished he didn’t portray her last panels like this. Everyone else is living their lives while Mikasa is still grieving about him. I’m not saying she’s not allowed to grieve and everyone takes it at their own pace, but cmon... Show her living her life too. This is too much. Her being next to his grave and grieving him as her last panels just shoves it in our faces that YET AGAIN, BEING OBSESSED WITH AARON IS ALL HER CHARACTER STANDS FOR.

I truly despise how Isayama handles her grieving, kissing his decapacitated head, carrying it around like some handbag, and her last panels being thissss.

The world leaving Paradis alone miraciously after all that???

It’s so weird and out of place with so many political feuds and disagreements between the world and Paradis, the entire Rumbling happening and we can see Mikasa just chilling outside in Paradis with no one bothering them. You can see the rings of the walls in the picture below. I don’t know the exact reason behind as the manga is still in Korean, but from what I see, the story went the route of: throwing a happy ending without enough proper reason and it was all fixed just like that in a snap! It doesn’t fit the entire narrative of attack on titan for things to be so peacful out of nowhere. When it comes to the narrative, how things work in that world, how hard it is to achieve peace, everything made somewhat sense up until chapter 138. 139 seems so so out of place... It’s like I’m reading a chapter from a totally different manga.

Aaron Yoghurt got defeated so easily/ Aaron’s character assassination

The build up on the first part of the rumbling was great, those kids carrying coins. You could feel humanity’s fear and Aaron’s hatred in those pages. As if he truly had a goal and he has turned away completely from his comrades and his closest friends with no return. The world seemed truly doomed, but he got defeated just like that. He was in the nape all this time (because screw the warhammer power of hiding yourself elsewhere in his ginormous titan body). There is no master plan as we all expected, and in the end he just acts all yandere in the paths with Armin and that’s it... They massacared his entire character as well. Many fan theories created a better ending with his character. Him being reincarnated as Historia’s baby would be so much better. For him to still keep on seeking and to strive for power. It has always been his motive. It’s his personality from the start until chapter 138. Even if things are okay, to keep on going and to seek that adventure, but then.. He’s so weak and directionless suddenly.. It’s so weird... This is not Aaron at all???

Using Aaron for him this entire post, because I don’t want others to invade our tags... :)))

Historia’s baby

The only panel we got from Historia’s child was this. Just a normal kid, normal life... Why did Isayama put so much effort in highlighting Historia’s pregnancy if it was nothing too spectacular anyway? It seemed he had major plans for this kid and for their development too??? It’s again, big plans, big developments, big relationship dynamic, but all got thrown out of the window...

Don’t read the next sentence if you are a minor :’)

It’s like almost ejaculating, but stopping right before it and repeating that every single Arc.

My energy when writing about this chapter is the same as Nostalgia Critic and his hatred for atla the live action

In Conclusion...

I know us fans should not be deciding on how this story should end, because this is Isayama’s story after all, but I truly wished for him to wrap up things much more rounded. There are so many unanswered questions... Again, I think for the sake of being done with this manga, he rushed all of it. He’s become a millionaire from this story and now his pockets are jammed full, I guess he doesn’t need to put in any effort anymore, right? Perhaps a controversial opinion, but I really wished he cared for his fans a little bit more with this last chapter by giving some answers that make sense at least. It’s his fans who gave him this platform and the opportunity to tell his story and for him to at least give in a bit of effort especially in the last chapter is the least he can do. Rivamika being canon or not, he truly rushed it without thinking much about the entire story line. He expanded it so much, he didn’t know how to bind it all together.

Even after all this, I’ll still ship them in the headcanon type of way. I do give credit to Isayama for giving us a template for such a beautiful dynamic between Levi and Mikasa. He decides to waste it, but that doesn’t mean we have to. I want to thank all the people with amazing writing skills, the ones who give us beautiful art like @carmenlee @phit chan @vialesana and many more. I want to remind all of you that we can create something beautiful of our own and we don’t neccesarily need canon lore for that. The art I’ve seen, the fanfictions I’ve read have touched me deeper than Isayama ever could at times.The Mikasa in our mind is appreciate of Levi, is mature, classy and has a strong will for herself. They spend their remaining days together peacefully. Keep writing, keep drawing, stay creative.

I love you all so so much, I’ve only been publicly active since March, but thank you Rivamika fandom for giving me so much joy as a lurker these past 7 years <3

#rivamika #snk leaks #snk 139 leaks #levimika #mikalevi

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mcmystery · 3 years

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Ok ok, I know this is a doozy of a Question:

Dissecting Team Salem, what is Cerise’s Opinion on them, how would she describe them. And which of those she would allow to join the Ranks Of Good. Or to be Cast Down?

Well this is gonna be a bit hard to answer since you haven't caught up with vol 8 and a lot of these characters have gone through some, interesting character development.

Let's start with Tyrian. From Cerise's POV, Tyrian is a very disturbed and troubled individual. She's heard about the crimes he's committed from Mr. B and was told in the past to not travel to the locations the murders were taking place. Or if she was to travel, that he had to accompany her if possible to do so. Meeting Tyrian now, and knowing where he stands with Salem's group makes Cerise feel a bit uneasy, but she isn't afraid of him. She's more concerned about what he's capable of doing to others, if she or someone else can't take him down. Sadly, as much as she doesn't want to believe it, she sees him as a lost hope. That he's too devoted to Salem and too damaged (from whatever caused him to be like this) to save him or let him join their side.

Arthur Watt From what she was told, he was a respected scientist in Atlas and tragically died in an accident (which we know is false). Learning about Watts in the present time and what he did, which includes the hacking of the Academies and his role at Haven. Cerise thinks that he could have used his talents for the good of Remnant and not just focused on Atlas. That he wasted his potential to serve someone like Salem for such a petty reason. Cerise truly believes that any of the Headmasters would have gladly welcomed his work and funded it for him, but he chose to lose all those opportunities because he was narrow minded. Cerise believe that he could still have made the right choice and help; that his potential to expand his research can be made else where. That is, if he's willing to help the heroes to see that world where his research can be made in peace.

Hazel Someone like Hazel, leave Cerise feeling complicated on how she sees him. On one hand, she views his reasons to side with Salem doesn't justify what had happened to his sister. She sees that Hazel is hurting from the loss, a loss that Cerise can relate too. Losing someone that felt like a sister. But his anger is misplaced because he wants to find someone who will take the blame and can be punished for it. Obviously Salem can't take any punishment because she can't die. There is no rewarding feeling for Hazel that will justify his sister's death. So who's the next person to blame? Someone who has equal involvement in his sisters death? Ozpin. Someone who can take the blame and punishment for it. With Cerise finding out about what happened at Haven with Oscar/Ozpin and the events that took place in vol 8; Cerise has conflicted feelings about Hazel. In the end, I think she can come to accept him as an ally, if Oscar was able to accept him and understand the warped justice Hazel was clinging to. If Oscar can accept Hazel, then Cerise can too.

Emerald Cerise feels sympathy for Emerald and her situation. She can tell that Emerald got wrapped up in the wrong crowd and they lead her down this path. They used Emerald's misfortunate past to the enemies advantage. Cerise can see the qualities that Emerald holds, the care for the person that saved her, Cinder. This is enough to show Cerise that Emerald isn't really bad, she's just holding onto the only companion she's known to trust. And Cerise can relate to that. To hold onto a companion that was there for you at your lowest moment in life and they gave you that support. Cerise knows that Emerald can be saved, she just needs someone to reach out a hand to her and hopefully, Emerald grabs back.

Mercury Cerise's doesn't know much about Mercury, only that he seems very rude and craves control over his life. Either that's through powerful allies or some type of authority. Cerise views him as a punk, but also someone who's suffered through some issues in life. She can't really trust him at this point to let him join the heroes. He seems too power hungry to associate with people who are trying to take down the very power source he seeks.

Cinder Cerise has strong feelings about Cinder. Ones that are very complex and hard to swallow. She knows that Cinder is the main source of Beacon's Fall; the destruction of the school and all those that perished that night. The reason why Vale and the surrounding villages have had a hard time living in peaceful conditions. How she was also involved at Haven and the events in Atlas. Similar to Tyrian and Mercury, Cerise sees that Cinder is driven by wanting power, that she's damaged because no individual can cause all this pain and suffering just to get what they want, and do it with a smile. Cerise wants justice for the wrong Cinder has caused. So at this point, no, Cerise doesn't want Cinder anywhere near our heroes. If anything, Cerise will personally stand between the two if the moment called for it.

#ask mc #rwby #tyrian callows #arthur watts #hazel rainart #emerald sustrai #mercury black #cinder fall #rwby oc #Cerise Han-Brunswick #Between Destiny #Salem #Oscar Pine #Ozpin

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catherdrashepard · 3 years

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Atlas au Raa

So, I finished Dark Age not that long ago and it came with so many brand new questions. And so many thoughts about the characters. But, as the title suggests, the character who has been at the forefront of my mind is Atlas au Raa. There’s just so little we know about him but there’s pieces there that I think just need to be put together. It will in no way reveal the full puzzle that is Mr. au Raa but I do hope that it can give some idea as to what he’s about. Spoilers ahead. This post is very long and a but rambly, apologies in advance.

What DO we know about Atlas au Raa? Shout out to @hyena-frog for helping me with this part. (Read: pretty much doing this part for me.) He’s a Rim Gold and brother to Romulus au Raa. He grew up in Octavia's court as a ward because she required each Rim family to send a kid to her as a hostage to prevent another rebellion. Apparently he was a favored student of hers. He mostly stuck to himself there but loved the library. Octavia forced him to have a child with Aja (Ajax, AKA the Core’s Storm Knight.) Atlas himself is the Fear Knight. He was best friends with Lysander’s parents, Brutus and Anastasia and, at some point after they died, he was sent to the Kuiper Belt to supposedly deal with the Ascomanni. Although, we’re pretty sure Octavia sent him there in order to eliminate him. He tortures people in order to kill enemies psychologically, preventing further deaths. He also controls Volsung and Xenophon. There is also the implication that he views the Rim as enemies and is more loyal to the Core. He makes meditation totems out of those who make him question his prejudices. Currently he has totems of (that we know of): Daedre, a Red woman. And a WIP Darrow.

The whole “question his prejudices” thing is really Interesting to me. Golds are taught that they are at the top, that they are the pinnacle of humanity (which they are but....that’s only because they MADE it that way) which definitely gives them some biases against the other Colors. I haven’t quite puzzled out if he counts these people as exceptions or if he realised that Color isn’t indicative to someone’s ability and he needs to remember to judge them based on individual ability. My money’s on the latter tbh because he doesn’t seem like the type of person to assume everyone is going to fit into the place they were assigned. As @hyena-frog beautifully put “He's learned not to let his biases blind him to how dangerous even LowColors can be.” But you know who doesn’t have the same critical thinking skills as Atlas? Lysander.

There’s also the question of his motivations, and what exactly he uses the Fear Knight persona for. Something specific that’s been nagging at me is the story about the Ascomanni that Pax told to Ephraim. I already mentioned it briefly in the first paragraph but I’d like to expand on why I think he was involved in what happened with the Ascomanni.

First, I’d like to go through the timeline. From what I got from the Wiki, some Obsidians escaped to the Kuiper Belt around Late 3rd Century PCE (Post Conquering Era) and approximately 736 years later, Atlas au Raa was banished to the Kuiper Belt by Octavia au Lune. 11 years after that in 747 PCE, Atlas returned to the Core to allegedly help fight against the Rising. In 754 PCE, 7 years after Atlas’ return, the Ascomanni attack the Pandora over Mars. Darrow enters the Institute 2 years prior to Atlas’ banishment. The majority of the first trilogy happens while Atlas is in the Kuiper Belt, including the entirety of Morning Star. So Atlas returns sometime in between the end of Morning Star and the beginning of Iron Gold. I’m not really finding any answers on how long it might have take Atlas to travel to the Kuiper Belt. Pardon some weird math for a second. Based on the Wiki: “the novels depict travel time between planets taking several weeks and often two or three months without layovers...” For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to assume it takes about 3 months to get from one planet to the next. I’m sure it will vary depending on distance between planets but...3 months is a good average. I’m also going to include the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. If Atlas was travelling from Luna to the Kuiper Belt, assuming he made no stops in between, my guess is it would have taken him probably about 2 years to get there. Theoretically then, Atlas would have spent 7 years in the Kuiper Belt doing whatever he was doing.

Something else that I’ve been thinking about is why Atlas joined the Core Golds and why Octavia appointed him as the Fear Knight. I don’t believe for a second that it would’ve been to foster peace between the Rim and Core Golds. Atlas’ parents were most likely alive during the First Moon Lord Rebellion considering their oldest child was born 9 years after it took place. We don’t really know a lot about Atlas’ parents but we have gotten little bits of information that I’ll do my best to analyse. Revus au Raa, Atlas’ father was said to be involved in the death of Lysander’s parents so that puts his death to sometime after 739 PCE and I believe before 742 PCE. I am not the cultural anthropologist that my sister, @saiikavon is so I got her opinion on Atlus’ potential motives for joining the Core. Her thoughts are that Atlas joined because he wants to understand the Core. The Rim Golds believe the Core is “barbaric and has corrupted itself with a sense of entitlement...” so it’s safe to say they have heavy prejudice against them. My sister mentioned that based on Atlas’ totems, he seems to be the type who would question the prejudices the Rim has against the Core and prefer to do his own research in person. From what little I know about Revus au Raa, I doubt he would have approved of his son’s choice.

Since I don’t know exactly when Atlas became the Fear Knight, I have to make guesses on which events he was on the Core for. I think it’s entirely possible that he was present for Eo’s song and her death. He also wasn’t sent to the Kuiper Belt until a year after Darrow finished at the Institute so I don’t think it’s farfetched to think that he witnessed all of what happened with that. He was also friends with Lysander’s parents, one of which who was planning a coup against Octavia. As we know, Lysander’s parents were killed because of this plan and, if Atlas was in on it as well, that could explain why he was sent to the Kuiper Belt. Octavia obviously didn’t want him to return from his exile, but she couldn’t outright kill him because that might have started a war between the Core and the Rim. And I don’t think Revus would have wanted to risk a war either had his son been able to succeed in the coup. Which would explain why he became involved in the death of Lysander’s parents and why he allowed his son to be sent away. Revus was then killed which I suppose could’ve been Octavia tying up loose ends.

This finally brings us to the Ascomanni. 736-738 (to account for Atlas’ travel time) years is a long time to be isolated in and beyond an asteroid belt. My guess is that they were incredibly far behind in technology until Atlas showed up. If we consider the above paragraph as canon, I suspect Atlas would have tried to recruit the Ascomanni to help him overthrow Octavia. If we take account the 3-4 years that it probably took for Atlas to reach the Kuiper belt, he spent about 7-8 years with the Ascomanni. We can only speculate (until Pierce Brown maybe tells us please) as to what happened between them but I feel like it’s safe to say that Atlas helped the Ascomanni obtain at least some of the technology they used during the attack on the Pandora. Also, because the Ascomanni didn’t arrive until 7 years after Atlas did, he had plenty of time to make plans and recruit Xenophon.

The only thing is, I think Atlas’ plans must have changed during that time, at least to some degree. In one of the previous paragraphs, I mentioned that Atlas returned to the Core sometime after the end of Morning Star. I’m sure that on his journey back, he learned that Octavia was killed and that Lysander was taken away by Cassius. Whether or not he knows WHO Cassius is is unknown. I think it’s possible depending on how closely he followed the events at the Institute. But as Cassius trained with Aja in 740, Atlas probably didn’t have a close relationship with him or know him all that well. This makes me think that it’s possible that Atlas assumed (like most people now that I think about it) that Lysander was dead.

Where does this leave Atlas then? Octavia is dead, Lysander is also presumed dead, and the Core has been taken over by a new group. I’m reluctant to say that he is entirely for restoring the Core back to how it was, but I imagine that he sees the Rising (and defeating the Rising) as a way to reshape the Core to be what he thinks it should be. I feel like his motives are similar to Lysander’s in that he wants to fix what he thought was broken about the Core. Although, Lysander’s (stupid) opinions on what’s broken and Atlas’ are probably different.

Anyway, I don’t really feel like I answered any questions about our beloved(?) Fear Knight but here are my thoughts. I really hope we get more of him in the next book.

#dark age spoilers #iron gold trilogy #dark age #atlas au raa

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itsclydebitches · 4 years

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Strings”

Happy Saturday, RWBY friends! I am, quite obviously, going to dive into the recap in just a moment, but first I wanted to take a short detour to discuss the elephant in the tumblr room. Namely, Supernatural.

For those of you out of the loop, the tl;dr is that a fifteen year, beloved show ended with a truly horrendous finale. Specifically, the finale rejected everything that the show had been building towards: the logical conclusion to character arcs, the theme that “family don’t end in blood,” the potential for a queer romantic relationship… I could go on. The point I want to make is that the fandom had every reason to believe we’d be getting these things. This isn’t a case of fans upset that the finale didn’t go the way they wanted as an individual viewer, but rather that the finale didn’t go the way the show clearly and explicitly said it would. It’s not an exaggeration to say that in many respects, viewers were straight up lied to.

(I recommend reading the reviews.)

What does this all have to do with RWBY? Well, I can’t help but think that history is repeating itself. Certainly there are some notable similarities between the two series. Both have long, meandering plotlines with no clear end in sight (though I hope RWBY doesn’t reach the 15 Volume mark…). Both began with a small, core cast, but quickly expanded—generating the expectation that these now equally important characters will be given their due. Both have moved from the small conflict of fighting everyday monsters to a god-based mythology. Both have a popular queer relationship dangled in front of the viewers, featuring scenes where they’re “obviously” in love… but will it ever be confirmed? Both have a fanbase that says loudly and confidently that the writers know what they’re doing. Just wait! It’s all been planned! We’ll be rewarded for our patience and soon all the naysayers will be proven wrong.

Thing is, the Supernatural fandom wasn’t rewarded. Right up until a week ago those fans—myself included—had faith that the writers knew what they were doing because they can’t really be that out of touch with their own story...right? It’s not possible. Yet they were, it was, and now that I’ve gotten solid proof of precisely how far a show can go to reject its own logic, themes, and premise, that just makes me more wary of RWBY’s mistakes. Before I had a solid faith that things couldn’t possibly get that bad, that no matter how much RWBY might be messing up in the short term, it will undoubtedly pull it together overall, because what show wouldn’t? Especially a show with such promise and, at times, wonderful storytelling. Well, Supernatural didn’t manage it and frankly I’m not sure what to do with that information.

Seriously. I don’t have any grand conclusion here. It’s not my intention to suggest that anyone should stop watching RWBY, or to claim that it will absolutely fail because Supernatural did. Obviously, we don’t know what will happen until we get to see it in the show. I only want to acknowledge these parallels and the similar journey I see both fanbases on. I can’t help but wonder if, a couple years from now, RWBY fans will be making incredibly optimistic posts about how it’s all coming together, just have some faith, everyone who says that the group won’t get a satisfying ending, or Blake and Yang won’t be confirmed are just mean trolls… only to wake up that Saturday morning and get another metaphorical slap in the face.

It’s something to think about.

But here I’ve spent a page talking about the wrong show. Let’s get into the episode!

We open on a black screen with lots of ambiguous noises. At first I thought this was Oscar struggling in the Hound’s grip or something, but then I remembered that RWBY likes to insert an episode between cliffhangers. I watched Ironwood (presumably) shoot a guy and he only came back this week (though that question still isn’t answered. At this point I kind of wonder if it will be). Oscar was kidnapped last week, which means we won’t get to see him until next week. Or… two weeks from now? RT skips the week of Thanksgiving, don’t they? Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Something horrible happens to Oscar and we need to wait two weeks to find out how it’s resolved.

Watch him escape the Hound off screen and return to the group with a new outfit 😂

So it’s not Oscar we hear, but Ruby, the last one coming out of the tube. Weiss is in the process of pulling Nora’s ear for that stunt… with a frankly strange looking hand. What’s up with RWBY animating weird hands lately? I’m pretty sure that’s not how anatomy works.

Anyway, Nora counters that this was a “Once in a lifetime experience,” but they were all going to go through the tubes regardless. Weiss isn’t pissed that you sent her through, she’s pissed that you did it unexpectedly when she was alone, heading into enemy territory. But of course, there’s no one in the room to hinder them, so the mistake is meaningless.

We’re setting the tone again though. For the first half of this episode everything is sunshine and giddy adventure, which doesn’t fit the situation at all. It also creates emotional whiplash when I’m suddenly supposed to be super worried about things later on. This sort of about-face works once in a blue moon, as an emotional punch, like we see in Mulan:

But RWBY does it every other episode, which makes the overall tone of the series confusing instead. Half the time RWBY feels like two different stories—the cartoony tale of girls going on fun adventures, and the traumatic tale of a fantasy war—that have been badly spliced together.

“Alight, Robo-Girl, which way?” May asks and Penny demonstrates why she’s the best for sneaking into a facility. She’s able to map out the whole place, including seeing where everyone is so they can avoid detection. Kudos to RT for going this route. I was worried that they would have Ruby and the others straight up attacking Atlas grunts, knocking them out/potentially even killing them because who cares, right? They’re the bad guys! So I’m glad they’re working to get in and out undetected. Granted, we see in some places that they’re clearly willing to fight the soldiers if it comes to that—they’re reaching for their weapons when Penny opens the final door, expecting the room to be full of people. They were going to attack—but at least they’re trying to lessen that conflict as much as possible. That’s the sort of choice I expect to see from heroes and I’m glad we got it here.

After scouting the area Penny corrects May: “And my name is Penny,” to which Ruby gives a satisfied “Heh.” I’ve got no problem with Penny rejecting nicknames, even potentially well-meaning ones, because she’s always struggled with her status as a real girl and her name is her own. She gets to decide what others call her. I do, however, have a problem with making the presumed trans character the one who is corrected. Granted yes, we haven’t gotten confirmation in the show that May is trans, but RT doesn’t get to cash in on that rep without likewise suffering the consequences for how the character is treated. You’re telling me that a trans woman is going to roll her eyes when someone asks her to use a specific name? Please give May flaws, yes, she’s a person, but out of all the millions of flaws across the human spectrum, this is the one we’re shown?

Not to mention Ruby’s continued attitude. It’s like, ‘Yeah, May. Stop being a horrible person who draws attention to the fact that Penny is a robot. I never did that.’ Except when Ruby first met her she didn’t know Penny was a robot. Just like she didn’t know Blake was a faunus—something we’re reminded of this episode. We might assume Ruby wouldn’t have ever made any missteps at the beginning of these relationships, but the fact remains that she got to know both girls before their minority status was ever revealed. Ruby loved them before she ever had to grapple with their differences.

Put in her place, May then demonstrates that she can make lots of people invisible, not just herself. That’s handy. She creates an invisibility bubble that reminds me of Harry’s invisibility cloak. In the sense that others might not be able to see you, but they can still hear and touch you, which makes sneaking around still pretty challenging.

No sooner have I thought that then two guards get into the elevator with them. The group keeps quiet as the duo discusses how no one can get close to Salem’s storm without “getting shocked right out of the air.” Interesting. And frankly one hell of a roadblock if the Hound escapes into the clouds. Oscar may be gone for a while if he doesn’t escape on his own... The woman also comments about how creepy it is that all the grimm are just hanging out, waiting. It’s “worse than if they’d attacked.”

No it’s not! RT, stop trying to implement the idea that Salem withholding her forces is some epically cool choice. She should have decimated everyone by now and the fact that she hasn’t just shows how transparent the problem is: you’ve created a villain that’s too powerful and now you don’t know what to do with her.

As the group sneaks out of the elevator Nora grins and presses all the buttons, which is, as expected, a dumb move. They’re supposed to be sneaking into this base. If they’re caught they’re going to be thrown in jail at best, killed at worst, but Nora wants to risk that for a practical joke? Again and again we see this insistence on incorporating comedy where it’s not only unnecessary, but actively interferes with other aspects of the scene.

Reaching a terminal, Penny inserts her finger and gains access via Pietro’s credentials. She’s really demonstrating this episode why she’s… pretty terrifying? I mean, Penny is an incredibly powerful fighter with a computer’s view of the world, access to everything in the most powerful Kingdom alongside its information, and she now has Maiden powers to boot. Which, I should add, it took her one fight to master (because remember, the heroes are now always as strong as they need to be to win…). Now that Watts is planning to hack her, I expect her to be an incredibly formidable enemy, just given the amount she could potentially do. I think Penny herself is too kind to exploit all that potential and as we’ll see via Pietro briefly taking control, she doesn’t always have the knowledge to use the tools at her disposal. But in the hands of someone like Watts? He’ll turn Penny into the ultimate weapon.

Access granted, they learn that they have to go “Right through central command!” Of course, Penny makes it sound like a fun game and the spy-movie music/cartoon lecture doesn’t help. Again, tone. It’s adorable! It just doesn’t fit sneaking into a military base with your lives on the line while Salem waits outside. That was a RWBY Chibi moment.

Penny explains—twice—that Ruby can use her semblance to fly them all through central command and it’s treated like a revelation. At first, I was pretty confused because Ruby has been dong this for ages? She carried Weiss in “Argus Limited” and Nora during the Geist fight. But upon close inspection, what Penny seems to have “figured out” is that Ruby can carry multiple people at once because the “mass doesn’t matter.” Okay. Not a contradiction then, though I think RT could have made it a little more clear that Ruby was shocked at the idea of carrying multiple people, not carrying someone at all.

What I do take issue with though is Ruby mastering this skill instantaneously. I mean, why is Ruby being forced to try this on the fly (pun not intended)—Penny has known the layout of the building since they made this plan. She knew they had to get past central control and that it would be packed with people. She’s obviously thought about Ruby’s semblance a great deal—and why is she succeeding? Give me a Volume 7 where Ruby actually trains in this technique, set up via Harriet’s comment early on about her semblance, and then she’s victorious here when it finally matters. Or give me Ruby assuming she can pull off this incredibly difficult skill only to fall out of her semblance halfway through, a roomful of Atlas personnel staring at them. Then what?

Not this.

This is a character who does everything perfectly on the first try without ever having to fail. Ruby is boring like this.

Crisis averted, we transfer to Ironwood who is… working with Watts.

What else is there to say? I’ve already laid out all the reasons why this is stupid and makes no sense. Others keep coming onto my posts to explain to me how Ironwood’s awful deeds up until now fully show his decent into villainy, conveniently ignoring the numerous limitations he was under and his choice to do what he thought was best for the world using inaccurate information. Ironwood was always a divisive character and many are happy to ignore the years’ worth of deconstruction done—a man who looks like the Evil Military General but actually isn’t—because they never liked him to begin with. Not liking him is fine, no one has to like any character, but I’m honestly shocked by the number of viewers who refuse to acknowledge how bad the writing is, even if it means defending a character they hate a teensy tiny bit (#SupernaturalVibes). As a friend put it, Ironwood now feels like a caricature of his former self, a Pure Evil Ironwood who appeared out of nowhere and is now here to stay. He shoots kids. He shoots unarmed civilians. He teams up with Salem’s men and tries to hack Penny. These are undeniably horrible acts, they’ve just been given to a character who never would have done them until RT randomly flipped the Evil switch.

The “RWBY” tag, alongside all the fluff moments of this episode, is now filled with posts encouraging Marrow to turn, yelling at the Ace Ops for being “bootlickers,” and capslock screaming at anyone who dared to speak up for Ironwood. It still sucks to have bad writing twisted into an attack on the fans and it’s going to continue to suck until at least the rest of Volume 8. I’d like to again remind everyone that Qrow teamed up with Tyrian a few episodes, yet because he’s again in Ruby’s graces, that was twisted into a ‘not that bad’ situation. The issue isn’t really that Ironwood is teaming up with one of Salem’s subordinates, but that he’s doing it to go against RWBYJNOR… the second a character teams up with Salem to get what Ruby wants (to not have her team in jail) then that’s totally fine… but that’s a wrinkle a lot of people are happy to ignore.

So yeah, Ironwood is an idiot now too. Like Qrow also was last Volume. He really thinks Watts isn’t going to betray him somehow? Although, I do wonder if the chance to ruin Pietro’s creation outweighs his loyalty to Salem, but the point is that Ironwood can’t be sure of that either. At least he’s smart enough to keep Watts under continuous guard. He puts his hand on Watts’ shoulders and goes, “I’d hate for us to have to try motivating you. Again.”

So he tortures people too now? Like I said, caricature. This was Ironwood and we were given no clear idea of where he disappeared to.

RIP a great character.

Watts notices though that Pietro has apparently accessed a secure area and alerts Ironwood to it. I laugh that the information is just ¡EMERGENCY! In large, red letters. Ironwood immediately makes an announcement for everyone to be on guard. It’s a level 3 lockdown — that won’t impede the group leaving via airship! — and they’re to use “lethal force” if necessary. Weiss is disgusted.

As much as I disagree with making Ironwood into a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy — he’s definitely wrong to be doing this — I also find myself rolling my eyes at reactions like that. Yes, Weiss. You attacked four operatives until they were knocked unconscious. Prevented an entire city from escaping Salem’s wrath, endangering them all. Now you’re breaking into the most classified room in the Kingdom to steal an equally qualified project and use it for your own means. There’s no reason why Ironwood would level his might against you. Is death still an extreme response? Yes. Should Weiss be acting like Ironwood is crazy for responding to them in an extreme manner? No. Her remark makes it sound like Ironwood is attacking her poor, innocent, defenseless team… not the team that’s been lying to him, betraying him, attacking him, and stealing from him. Not the team carrying deadly weapons into a facility to take what they want at any cost.

With their presence known, May wants to go grab an airship. That’s the series now.

Meanwhile, Penny insists that they can still complete their mission and we see Nora come up with some sort of plan.

Except, what plan was this?? What did she say to the group? ‘Hey, let’s wait around until some guy conveniently walks by with a full cup of coffee. Then we can trip him and the mug will fly alllll the way across this gap to land on a terminal, startling at least two workers. Except this guy will be hated by the whole room because he’s always messing things up—his coffee mug has been changed from #1 Dad to #1 Dud—so that this little mishap will create a ruckus that gets everyone involved, giving us the opportunity to slip by them all.’

Seriously, what? This kind of “plan” only works with someone like Clover, where we know he has a good luck semblance and thus all these unlikely pieces fall into place. I could absolutely buy Clover smiling smugly, working under the knowledge that he just has to wait around a few minutes and something will come along that works entirely in his favor. But Nora? How did she know any of this would happen? Obviously she couldn’t have, so what exactly was their intention if this coffee carrying, hated guy didn’t show up? RWBY, your contrived plots are showing.

I do, however, love the grimm Jaws poster. Jaws is an absolute favorite of mine, so seeing a reference to it in RWBY? A funny one at that? It almost makes up for how bad this episode is lol.

Because frankly I’m bored. The group sneaks around, criticizes May and Ironwood, briefly confuses me about Ruby’s semblance knowledge, and gets through tons of Atlas personnel in the stupidest way possible. I have to watch this guy running out of the room with coffee on his pants screaming, “WHHHYYY???” and he doesn’t notice the five girls standing right next to him. It’s silly. It’s boring. Luckily for RWBY, things are about to pick up in the second half.

After Ruby gets them upstairs and the final room is also conveniently devoid of people, Pietro takes control of Penny—including yellow possession eyes like Oscar has with Ozpin—and he...gets Amity started. That’s it. After a whole volume of ‘It’s not finished yet’ and ‘We barely have the resources’ and ‘Robyn stole what we were using to do idek what with’ he presses buttons for a while and they’re in. How good for them!

I do love that Penny calls Pietro “Dad” though. I’m here for the android-father relationship.

While Pietro works we turn to Blake, Weiss, and Nora. Blake tries to convince the audience that Ruby and Yang had an actual fight with, “I’ve never seen Yang and Ruby fight like this.” Yeah, because no one in this group has ever said the sliiiiightest thing against Ruby, so you all read the tinniest disagreement as a “fight” to be worried about. I mean, doesn’t RT have friends to draw inspiration from? They’ve never disagreed about Huge and Complex Questions before? Never gotten pissed and then shrugged it off the next time you want to text? RWBY’s idea of a diverse friend group feels like many other writers’ idea of a sibling relationship: anyone with an actual sibling goes, “What is this?” Speaking of, Weiss explains that sisters often have “very different ideas about what’s right” as if, again, people don’t have different ideas? Just in general? Why is this suddenly a sister thing? She’s clearly thinking about Winter, but doesn’t actually bring it up, so all we’re left with is the same situation we had last Volume. Weiss thinks she’s right, Winter is wrong, and they’re just going down their separate roads because there’s definitely no reason to re-examine any choices here. It’s all static.

Until Winter betrays Ironwood, of course.

Nora tries to reassure Blake that the group will be fine (ha) even though they’ve split, the irony being that we, the audience, know they just got wrecked by the Hound. Jaune is a great leader though, Oscar has grown so much, Yang could defend them all in a fight, and Ren… well, she can’t think of anything to say about Ren. I hate the Nora is acting like Ren has drawn away from her for no reason, after she chose to kiss him—without consent—rather than listening to what was bothering him, then proceeded to pretend that this mystery problem never existed. What does she expect? I do, however, like the general acknowledgement that she doesn’t know who she is without Ren. Who is Nora? Someone who is “strong and hit[s] stuff?”

See, this feels like RT writing self-consciously because Nora doesn’t have much of a personality. Oh, on a surface level she’s bursting with it, but past the bubbly exterior? That single layer? We can add maybe one thing to this “Likes Ren, is strong, hits stuff” list: she’s funny. That’s it. Anything else we might add like “she’s loyal” or “she’s kind” is just a generic characteristic of this entire team. They’re all meant to be crazy talented good guys and even the “is strong” aspect is suspect when others frequently pull off attacks as showy as Nora’s hammer hits. So who is she? What are Nora’s dreams? What are her hobbies? Her fears? Her history? We’ve seen a single flashback of her on the streets and one scene back at Beacon where she listens to music and reads a magazine. Seven years worth of material and that’s it. There’s a reason why the go-to, non-combat action for Nora in fics is “makes pancakes.” We know so little about her still.

So I was excited for a brief, shining moment. Yes! Explore who Nora is outside of being strong and hitting stuff! … and then her big action this episode is, as she says, being strong and hitting something. Don’t get me wrong, outside of that setup it’s pretty epic. I like Nora going to those lengths to save Penny and I absolutely love the repercussions of the choice: a broken aura, passing out, and badass lightning scars all over her arms and neck (especially when women often aren’t allowed to accumulate scars in visual media). That’s pretty damn awesome. It’s just that it comes on the heels of the story insisting that Nora is more than this, that we’ll learn something new about her… and we haven’t. This is indeed cool, but we already knew that Nora was willing to crazy lengths by hitting things really hard. That’s already her established norm.

At least this moment has some really nice characterization alongside the stupidity. The conversation between Ruby and Penny is just plain stupid. Penny wants to stay to help with the evacuations, but Pietro says she should come with him in Amity. Why? As Ruby says, because then she’ll be up in the sky and Salem won’t be able to access the relic.

That’s what Ironwood wanted to do! We could have had this conflict episodes ago with you all working with him! I really can’t with this cast. Also, the rest of this is still confusing. I thought pretty much everyone was in the slums by now, so what evacuation are they talking about? Do they plan to evacuate everyone in Mantle out of the kingdom somehow… like Ironwood wanted to do with Atlas? And why are they acting like Amity is evacuating some people too? I thought they were just using it as a communication device? To add insult to injury, Ruby then contradicts herself a minute later when she tells Harriet that Ironwood can’t have the relic because “Salem will find her way to the relic no matter where you go.” Ruby, if Salem can access the relic high in the sky she can also access Penny in the sky. If you believe that literally nowhere is safe then why are you sending Penny away under the claim that she—and via her the Relic—will be safer? If you want Penny in Amity to lessen the chance of Salem getting the Relic, why can’t Penny be in Atlas while simultaneously (hopefully) getting a whole slew of people to safety?

I’m continually confused by this “plan” of theirs. Their claims just flip-flop according to what (supposedly) contrasts them with Ironwood. Even though that’s not actually the case.

Penny is me, sad while watching this train wreck of a scene.

So yeah, the Ace Ops are here. I’ve wondered since the trailer why Weiss looked smug while everyone else was startled. Turns out it’s because of her line, “So, your first time losing to us wasn’t enough?” I can’t express how much I dislike all the girls’ personalities now. I want to shake some compassion and humility into them. Plus, they never should have won that fight in the first place. Marrow yells, “We were holding back!” but coming from the team’s weakest member it reads as defensive. Like we’re supposed to go, ‘Lol yeah right, Marrow. Just admit you got your ass kicked,’ even tough the Ace Ops should have wiped the floor with them, holding back or not. That’s my biggest takeaway from this fight: it’s the reverse of what we should have gotten. The Ace Ops should have beaten Team RWBY with ease and struggled greatly against an android Maiden, not falling before a bunch of teens and succeeding against Penny if not for Nora’s timely breakthrough. Your half-trained cast of growing heroes should not come across as more powerful than an intelligently designed weapon now wielding magic.

Before the fight starts we get a whole lot of lines that are, frankly, frustrating. Vine tells Penny, “I thought you were supposed to protect the people, not hurt them” which is true enough. Penny is taking action that is putting a lot of people in danger, regardless of the fact that Ruby is at the helm. Problem is, the Ace Ops then blame her for Winter’s injuries and “stealing” the power? That’s not the issue here. The issue is Penny’s blind loyalty to Ruby, but by having the Ace Ops back a stance that is clearly inaccurate—Penny didn’t cause Winter’s injuries, Cinder did; Penny didn’t steal the powers, she was encouraged to take them—it makes them come across as Very Evil people who will twist things to make poor Penny look like the villain. Even if this is a case of Ace Ops having bad intel (which seems unlikely. Wouldn’t Winter have told them what happened?) RT has avoided letting the Ace Ops take a justified stance here because that would make them look too sympathetic… even though they do have multiple justified stances to take. Like, ‘Hey, stop keeping half a kingdom here where Salem can easily kill them all’ or, ‘Hey, why did you spend months betraying Ironwood and then turn on us instead of trying to find a compromise?’ Even, ‘Why did your uncle help kill our leader?’ There’s plenty that the Ace Ops should be rightfully pissed about, so choosing Penny and Winter out of everything feels like RT is firmly backing them into Ironwood’s corner: you’re just bad now and bad people blame innocent girls, rather than acknowledging the actual wrongs done against them.

So we have Ruby contradicting herself and the Ace Ops backing warped ideas that make them look worse than they actually are. Adding to the stupidity is the fact that Elm mentions that Winter is in “critical condition” and Weiss… doesn’t care. Harriet then tells Ruby that she’s “throwing [her] in jail right next to your uncle, runt” and... Ruby doesn’t care. Qrow is missing and Ruby just found out he’s been captured by Ironwood, yet there’s no reaction whatsoever. This show continues to go hard on the ‘screw adults’ mentality, huh? Ozpin needs to keep quiet and is horrible for coming back. Ironwood is now a cartoon villain. Winter made the wrong choice so no one cares about her anymore, not even her sister. The Ace Ops remain enemies despite trying to talk things out. Qrow? Barely know him. Who’s he? This is a Ruby loves Penny episode. There isn’t enough emotional nuance for her to care about him too.

The sad thing is I adore Nuts&Dolts. In a different context these moments would be a goldmine for me.

If anything, this episode feels worse than the majority of last week’s because there are good things here that have been thrown into a bad setup. I can’t get excited for the group’s battles when I see who they’re attacking. It’s hard to squee over Ruby hugging Penny when she doesn’t react to Qrow. Watching Nora go all Thor feels like it only has half its potential when it’s coming out of a very messing, ‘I’m more than just being strong and hitting things… which is why I’ll continue being strong and hitting things.’ RWBY has excellent moments set into a terrible story.

The fight, at least, is exciting. The Ace Ops goad Penny into stepping away so they can trap the rest of Ruby’s team—smart—and she’s forced to hold her own while Weiss tries to break through with her knight, then Nora overloads the system. To be frank, I’m not great at analyzing combat. Not unless I’m looking for something specific like whether a win is justified. I’ve already mentioned above the broad issue of the Ace Ops very nearly beating the most powerful fighter next to Salem herself, yet failing so spectacularly against Team RWBY. Outside of that context though? I really enjoyed this. Lots of tight action, creative attacks, teamwork, some emotional pauses throughout… it feels like a pretty solid battle. Put it on Youtube as a clip, outside of the rest of the story’s messiness, and you’ve got yourself a fantastic watch.

We can’t stay in the combat forever though. During all this Weiss calls the Ace Ops “cowards” for making it four vs. one. You know, RWBY should really just do away with dialogue and make the show purely action because the cast frequently sounds so stupid when they speak. Like her comment about Ironwood’s lockdown… really Weiss? ‘Yes, we might be wanted criminals who betrayed this group in the worst possible way, but how dare they not do the honorable thing and have three of their teammates sit out while trying to capture us? Even though the girl they’re trying to capture has magic. I mean, the nerve of them!’

Weiss, at this point I’m not sure how to explain to you that the people you’ve made into your enemies do not owe you a fair fight.

Another detail: we get to see Ruby fall off the edge of the walkway and this time she remembers she can fly! A definite improvement from Volume 6.

Finally: by the time Penny’s eyes go full Maiden in Elm’s grip, I think we’ve seen everything from our trailer. Episode 4 will truly be a mystery.

Ironwood has, of course, been watching the fight this whole time. When it looks like the Ace Ops will lose against the team he means to send in reinforcements, but Watts says he has “a message for your operatives.” Instead of capturing Penny they steal one of her swords instead, ending with a shot on Marrow looking conflicted.

Because remember, there’s no actual moral grayness in this story. The protagonists are right and everyone else is wrong. It’s (supposedly) black and white. Which means that if the Ace Ops have any hope of surviving this Volume and being seen as anything other than evil bootlickers, they have to join with Ruby. Marrow seems primed to do that.

Am I surprised? No. Disappointed? Always lol.

May has the airship ready to go and they fly off… despite the shields. And the lockdown. Consistency? Who’s she? Nora is said to be “in bad shape” and after another hug Penny leaves to hide in Amity, even though Ruby thinks that hiding is a useless, cowardly choice. Just not when she and her allies choose to do it.

We end the episode with Watts receiving Penny’s sword and making the statement, “If you can’t beat them… then make them join you.” I have to say, his cheesy villainy is something I continue to enjoy, even if it’s heavy handed at times. Watts is just fun. I do have to say though: if Penny is hacked, what does that say about her agency? We double-downed on the ‘real girl’ narrative by giving her the Maiden powers, but she’s simultaneously synthetic enough that a single piece of her can remove all autonomy? It once again feels like RT isn’t sure what point they’re trying to make, they’re just chucking a lot of themes at the wall and seeing what sticks. Still, we’ll have to let it all play out before making any judgements.

And that’s it for this week. It seems like this is a slightly shorter recap than normal, though that may be because I struggle with discussing pure action sequences, which made up a decent chunk of this episode. I’ll no doubt return to the Ace Ops vs. Penny fight when I’m not on a self-imposed, one day deadline for posting. The only thing left is to update the Bingo Card, but I don’t think we made any headway this week. So... good job, RWBY?

I’m still going to hold off on the civilian’s square until Salem’s army actually attacks, as well as the two day timeline square.

No Winter this episode

Watts is teaming up with Ironwood which is… so much worse than him teaming up with Jacques again. Does a square get an X if the canon is even worse than what you assumed it would be??

Maria was mentioned this episode. Jury’s out on whether she’ll actually do anything.

Atlas is still standing, we knew Penny was heading towards a hack so it’s not much of a cliffhanger, no Qrow, no Ozpin, no Neo or Cinder.

It certainly looks like we can check off “The team gets Amity up and running,” but let’s just see if there are any problems next episode. If the problem is only ‘We would have launched it if not for Salem’s attack’ or something, I’m checking it off. The point is it would have worked.

I’m also leaning towards “More obvious Blake/Yang implications without confirming a relationship” given Blake’s heart-to-heart with Nora… but let’s see if the Volume does anything more egregious.

All in all (and perhaps despite what I’ve written above), I don’t think it’s fair to totally drag this episode. As said, this feels like a strong episode in a bad story, something that I would have LOVED if a) Salem weren’t here and b) the ‘ethical dilemma’ wasn’t boiled down to a ‘Team Ruby is good’ and ‘Ironwood and everyone associated with him is evil’ situation. It’s an episode whose tone and character action belong in a different version of RWBY. If you gave us this fun episode in an earlier Volume against a Pure Evil antagonist? It would have been great.

Ah well. It is what it is. Expect more emotional whiplash when we come back and everyone learns that Oscar has been kidnapped by Salem’s talking pooch 🙃

See you then! 💜

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #rwby strings #mymetas #rwby recaps #apologies if this Recap is messier than normal #I have a zoom meeting in five minutes lol #gotta go fast!

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razorblade180 · 5 years

Text

Rosebud prep 9

[Vale Hospital]

Today, today was supposed to be a glorious day. A day of laughter and new beginnings; the next chapter in Ruby’s fairytale. Unfortunately it wasn’t. The fairytale was over; the ending snatched away right from her arms. It was time to go back to reality. It’s been hours sense the incident. Ruby was finally awake again and sitting up in her hospital bed for roughly half an hour. Only the doctor had come to see her. She could only imagine why. Quietly she stared at the window and into the night sky with such a vacant expression. No one had to tell her the state of the situation. Deep down she already knew it wasn’t good. Knowing how bad it was would only serve to hurt her more is most likely why she left alone. Or so she thought. A click at the door brought her attention back to inside her room alarmingly. The shadow on the other side told her it was a man but it didn’t ease the anxiety. One too many people have walked through a hospital door into her room today that didn’t like her; anything could happen. Ruby slowly lifted her body off the bed a little as if to dive off of it and catch the person by surprise just in case. Her fears were put the rest though when the first thing to peel into the room was a crooked cross.

Ruby:Uncle Qrow....?

Qrow:*walking in* Hey kiddo. So you are awake? That’s good; I assumed the worst when Tai called.

Ruby:You spoke with dad?

Qrow:Yeah. He called as soon things calmed down. Thought I would want to head over ASAP. He wasn’t wrong....

Ruby:So.....what’s the situation?

Qrow:Ruby, I think right now you should focus on-

Ruby:I’m not a little kid anymore Qrow....

Qrow:....

Ruby:I need...I need to hear someone say it. Where’s Dustin?

There was a tremble in her voice. One born out of pain and pure frustration. Both hands gripped the sheets to the point her knuckles looked white. Ruby’s eyes met Qrow’s with nothing but vulnerability. His heart was breaking at the sight of it.

Qrow:He’s...he’s gone. We don’t know where Cinder and Neo went. Everyone is out looking everywhere and I do mean everyone. You have friends all over the world keeping an eye out. Even Raven is out with Tai searching Anima with Ren and Nora. Weiss went back to Atlas and having all bases sweep through the airspaces they can. Blake and Yang went to search all over Vale before expanding to a few miles outside the kingdom. Team SSSN has called earlier. Your house is just fine and nothing out of the ordinary is making its way through the streets of Vacou as it yet. Glynda assigned extra huntsman here. Oz himself is searching spots that are hard for most people reach and many more.

Ruby:....What about Jaune?

Qrow:He’s....processing. He tried to go off with Yang but we got him to help gaurd the hospital. Figured protecting you was more beneficial.

Ruby:Yet you’re the one giving me the news instead of him.

Qrow:Don’t think poorly of him. Jaune just couldn’t handle telling you the news. I barely can.

Ruby:I know. I just..... *tearing up*

......

Ruby:I’d like to be alone now please.

Qrow:Of course. I’ll keep you posted. *grabs knob* I swear to you Ruby, we’ll find him. Cinder won’t get away with this.

Ruby:Uncle Qrow...?

Qrow:Yeah?

Ruby:Don’t make promises you don’t know if you can keep.

Qrow:.....

He closed the door and left the room after that statement. She knew it came of cold but it was the truth. Hope wasn’t what she wanted right now. She wanted results. Payback; and she wanted it with her own two hands. Tears hit the sheets as she did everything in her power to hold back a scream of pure frustration. Cinder caught her when she was weak, defenseless, forgiving. Ruby wasn’t gonna make that mistake ever again.

xxxx

It wasn’t long before Ruby was finally able to be released from the hospital. The only person there to escort her out was Jaune. She didn’t mind; it meant everyone else was still looking. The two of them didn’t say anything to each other at first; not even a glance. What could you say in a time like this? No words could comfort either of them. Even so, Ruby reached for his hand and held it tight; almost as if she was afraid it would disappear too. He looked at his wife who still faced forward as she walked with tears in her eyes. He returned the handholding with equal force. Their love was still there, but so pain. Too much pain for anyone to deal with alone; yet too steep to truly let anyone in. They were together, but they never felt so lonely.

Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. Before anyone realized it, roughly a year passed. No sign of Cinder, Neo, or Dustin. Almost like they vanished into thin air. No one ever truly gave up but plenty still had to worry about their own lives constantly. As a result, more people took a passive role into searching. Ruby couldn’t blame them but she never stopped. Mission after mission she kept owning her skills in baited breath for the day she could end Cinder’s life. It was her ultimate goal if the worse had happened and her child was long since gone. Ruby didn’t even revel in the fact her old dream had come true. Most likely she didn’t realize it yet. Greatest huntsman of her time; of any time most people argued. Finally had she passed the status of of Grimm Reaper. Maria was proud of not sad at the circumstances. Most knew Ruby Rose by one of two very popular names. The Crimson Reaper; not for the color of her attire but for the sight anybody would see if a grimm or for challenged her. The other name was more inviting; a way to let the innocent know their lives would go on without meeting an unfortunate or unsatisfying conclusion by the hands of tyranny. They call her The Storyteller. There wasn’t a day that went by that she wasn’t focused on her goal. Not even today of all days; a special day that everyone took time off for. Everyone but her.

xxxx

There’s a lot of beautiful places in Anima. Each with its own unique charm and way of making the smallest moments feel like the most precious. In one specific forest there’s a meadow of flowers; a garden of peace where everything is graced with the appearance of spring even though it’s currently the middle of fall. Birds sing happily while butterflies dance their gentle wings on the warm breeze that pass through wind chimes to give off a feeling of tranquility. The perfect place for a new beginning. The perfect place for a wedding.

Two sets of chairs were set up perfectly in the middle with plenty of friends and family on both sides for the celebration; while a white carpet ran in between them. It led to a giant majestic tree that was filled with magnolia flowers. Under the tree was a very nervous but excited Blake who was dressed in a dark black tux that was accompanied with gold trim and bow tie. Every so often she would glance at her parents that were giving her the biggest thumbs up for encouragement. She tried not to laugh when attention was directed a few seats back to see Neptune holding a sign that said. “rock that dragon” with a tiny picture of Yang that had her hair glowing and spiky. Sun was behind her and tapped her shoulder which made her flinch. It was probably the tenth time today he had to remind her to breathe or else that suit would be a sweaty mess. Truly the easiest choice for a best man. Wouldn’t be long now. She hoped the brides maids weren’t giving Yang a rough time who was in a log cabin nearby getting ready...

Nora:All I’m saying is a little makeup on her wedding day would show how committed she is!!!

Weiss:She’s a natural beauty! Makeup ruins that!

Ilia:Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

Yang smiled as she watched her enthusiastic bridesmaids bicker in their teal dresses about the finishing touches. The bride to be turned around to look in the fool body mirror yet again to see if she thought she was truly bringing her best self out there to her beloved. Long hair that slightly curled? Check. A bouquet of sunflowers? Double check. Wedding dress?Triple check and stunning. Yang would not call herself a dress kind of gal but she fell in love with this one.

The strapless dress started of white around the chest area put will slowly go into a yellow that only got more intense as it went down. Right at her waist is where the dress spread out several inches before almost touching the ground below it; Yang joked many times over the past few months that she felt like she was showing up as a wedding bell herself. Silk gloves that followed the same color design went up to her elbows. The silky attire had a intricate lace kind of design at the bottom that matched the midsection. How her sister wore such complicated things like a corset she would never know. After all she didn’t show up to any practices, the bachelorette party, or anything. Not even a phone call. All she did was send a present.

As happy as Yang was to get married it didn’t seem right without her baby sister chanting for her along the way. Ruby was so happy about the proposal back when it happened; when she was expecting. It was two big news at the same time. No doubt she couldn’t think about the wedding without thinking about Dustin. Yang already made up her mind months ago not to hold this against Ruby. Still, right now there was a stinging in her heart where her sister’s smile should be.

Yang:No makeup....

Weiss:Ha!!

Nora:What!? You can’t be- Yang?

Yang:*tearing up* I would just ruin it, so no makeup.

Weiss:*frowning* Yang those don’t look like tears of joy right now.

Yang:I’m fine. Just feeling a lot of emotions right now.

Ilia:....Let’s give the bride a minute alone shall we?

Yang:That would be nice. I’ll be fine in a minute.

The three girls slowly walked out the cabin. Almost like they were waiting for Yang to stop them, but she never did. This day was almost perfect. Most things are in Yang’s opinion. She never believed in true perfection but if one thing could’ve changed that it would’ve been today. For crying out loud, her mother was here and was gonna walk her down the aisle with her father. “Let’s make this the most unconventional wedding there is!” They told her with a spark in their eyes she had never seen before. She prayed it would lead to some sort of mending between them. They deserved love and it was plain to see their love never truly died.

Yang:(Okay Yang, no more moping around. Despite everything, today is a beautiful day and you’re getting married. Perk up and everything else can be dealt with another day.)

knock knock knock

Yang:I’ll be out in a minute you three!

Jaune:Uhhh just one person.

Yang:!!!? Jaune? Is that you?

Jaune:Yeah. Can...can I come i-

Yang:*swings open door*

Its been awhile since she seen her blonde headed brother in arms. After a couple of months things got pretty hectic and everyone seemed to slip through the cracks when it came to actually checking in. It was something Yang really regretted. Jaune’s hair had grown to his shoulders and stubble was on his face. He greeted Yang with a small smile but she knew it wasn’t genuine. His eyes couldn’t hide how tired he was. Faint dark circles could be seen under them.

Jaune:Hey, been awhile.

Yang:Y..Yeah, sorry about that.

Jaune:Don’t worry about it. Things happened. You look beautiful.

Yang:Thanks. You look....

Jaune:Rough?

Yang:I was gonna say like my dad when Summer died.

Jaune:Ah, so worse; sounds about right. It’s been quite the year.

Yang:Wanna sit down?

Jaune:No I don’t wanna take up too much of your time. I just wanted to-

Yang:*pulls out a chair* Butt.....in the chair.

Jaune:*sits down* Sigh still don’t take no for an answer. You think I would know better by now.

Yang:*smiles* Don’t let this dress fool ya. It’s still me under all of this fluff. How have you been? No lying either.

Jaune:Yang I didn’t come here to bring down the mood. I just wanted to see you one on one so I can congratulate you before things got busy down there.

Yang:*holds his face*......

Jaune:.....

.........

Jaune:I haven’t been doing well. Slacking on missions, eating, sleeping......

Yang:How is Ruby allowing this?

Jaune:I barely see her.

Yang:What?

Jaune:All she does is take missions. Long ones at that. I see her maybe twice, three times in a few months. Even when she’s home it’s for a day at most and we don’t talk. Haven’t since...you know.

Yang:Do you know where she is now?

Jaune:*shakes his head* I never do. Ruby she won’t, she just won’t slow down; and I can’t keep up. That house *trembling* it feels so empty it might as well be haunted. Sleeping in that bed doesn’t feel the same. Then there’s his room.....

Yang:You can’t get rid of it, can you?

Jaune:I can’t even go upstairs anymore Yang.

He looks down at the floor before his head was brought up to see Yang looking at him with an expression that could only be described as pure empathy. Her right hand rubbed his face gently before taking both of her arms and wrapping around him in a loving embrace. Yang could feel the warmth of his tears land on her collarbone but she didn’t care. She just continued to rub his back as Jaune slowly started to wail.

Jaune:I....I......

Yang:Ssssshhhh it’s okay. It’s gonna be okay I promise. I promise....

Jaune:How do you know!?

Yang:Because I know you two. There’s nobody else I know who can go through so much and come out on top. You both are fighters and I’m sorry I wasn’t there as much I should’ve been. I think there’s a piece of that was little scared to. I mean what’s to stop some terrible thing from happening to Blake and I. The thought drives me crazy. Weiss too.

Jaune:You all have a reason to be. We were caught so off gaurd. So unprepared for all this. I don’t know how to recover from this. Not without help. Not without Ruby! *sniffling*

Yang:I won’t let you be alone anymore. Nobody will. It might take a little more time but we’ll think of something. Until then let’s focus on things one step at a time.

She finally lets go of him and helps him stand up. His eyes are now a bit puffy but she has no doubt that her eyes look exactly the same. Yang smiles at him and is given one back in return. This time it’s one that feels more real. There’s still pain in it but also an understanding. He’s not alone. Yang will never let him feel alone.

Yang:Care to walk this emotional mess of a bride to her mom and dad? I think everyone has been waiting long enough.

Jaune:*Nods* You’ve gotten pretty good at this whole comforting me thing. I owe you.

Yang:We’re family Jaune. The only thing I want from you is to see you happy. So after I get hitched why don’t we make that happen?

Jaune:I think you should enjoy your honeymoon as much as possible. Don’t worry about me. I can endure a little longer and lean on others for ideals.

Yang:Keep me informed?

Jaune:Always.

Yang:Good. Now then, hand me that ridiculously sized bouquet. Wedding time.

Jaune tossed her the flowers but did so a little too suddenly. Yang’s pinky didn’t even time to twitch before her face was full of petals and pollen that made her sneeze and hair light up. The two of them stared at each other silently before breaking out into a fit of laughter. All while never noticing the presence of someone else on the other side of the door.

xxxx

Days proceeded to blend together for those trapped in grief. Ruby had just completed another mission solo despite the warnings of of it being at least a three man job. It probably would’ve been for normal huntsman. She’d elevated above that a long time ago. That didn’t mean it was a piece of cake though. The young woman found herself tired as she walked through the sands of Vacou to her home; her only company being the moon shining above her. Much like Jaune, her appearance was somewhat altered since the incident.

It’s been a long time since she bothered to cut her hair. The majority of it reaching her shoulder blades and few strands that fell across her face to the left side of her chin. Her red cloak was tattered from constant battle yet the damage would make it seem like it was only three or four tough adverse that made Ruby strut her stuff. She had gotten really good at not being touched. Red thigh high socks ran up her legs and were only visible by a decent sized slit in a black skirt that went just below her knees. The frills on it made it look layered and flowed effortlessly in the breeze. Pregnancy did a number on her body but finally she was back to black and red corsets that had the pattern of thorny stems crawling towards the top from the side. Long gone were the days of feeling like a kid compared to most of her female friends. Ruby filled out nicely even if she was still a far cry from her older sister, she definitely wasn’t small anymore. The many eyes of men and women staring right above the corset line or paying way too much attention to hips on the opening some of her skirt told her that much. Anyone who tried anything would have the pleasure of getting to know her combat boots. She had gotten used to heels finally but they didn’t fair to well in sand. Lastly she wore her wedding around her neck. The ruby gem matching nicely while the silver band went with her exhausted eyes. At least she finally made it home.

Ruby:*opens door* I’m home.

.......

Ruby:(Guess he’s asleep. Makes-

Creeeeeeeek!!!!!

Without hesitation Ruby back stepped right back outside and whipped out her scythe. Any trace of tiredness left her body and was ready for a fight.

Ruby:Whoever you are, step outside into the light right now!

???:After all this time and you’re still kicking off with the wrong foot. I suppose some habits are hard to crack even for the most exceptional huntsman. I don’t have to tell you that though now do I Mrs. Rose?

Ruby:*tilts head* Ozpin? Is that you?

The man walked through the door way and onto the moonlit porch. The use to be farm boy and ancient hero wore his professor outfit as he twirled his cane casually. Much like Ruby, Oscar’s body had grown up nicely. A shame it wasn’t truly his anymore. Broad shoulders, significant height increase, his skin as tan as ever; no doubt women would’ve been crawling all over him. Especially with his hair. The white contrasted the rest of his design but it also seemed fitting.

Oscar:You can put that away. I thought we could have a chat.

Ruby:So you decided to wait in my house without the lights on?

Oscar:Of course. I don’t pay your power bill so why should run it up when I didn’t know when you would return.

Ruby:......I’m not in the mood for this. Just tell me why you’re here and- gasp! Did you find something on Cinder!?

The man looked at woman who’s eyes seemed to grow big with anticipation. Unfortunately he had to shake his head no; causing what little excitement she had to fade away as her body began to slouch.

Ruby:Should’ve known.....

Ozpin:I might not have come here with the news you hoped for but it is about the same topic. Ruby....I think it’s about time you’ve accepted the reality of the situation, and press on.

Ruby:*jolts up* Excuse me?!

Ozpin:What I’m saying is-

Ruby:I know what you’re saying! I just can’t believe you had audacity to say it! Press on? How could you think I could just move past this?

Ozpin:I never thought that, which is why I’m here now. It’s been over a year and not once have we found clues to where they went. I’ve personally turned Remnant upside down at least twice and never found a true lead. I can imagine how many times you’ve done it by now.

Ruby:What’s that supposed to mean?

Ozpin:It means I’ve been watching. Everyday I look at the mission boards across all the kingdoms. A high ranking job never failed to be crossed almost as fast as it appeared. Low ranking jobs seemed to come in go like the wind and almost all of them had your petals floating in it.

Ruby:A pro huntsman job is to get results quickly right. Of all people I thought you’d proud of my progress, or are you scared I’ll slip up and you’ll lose one of the most valuable chess pieces you ever had? Hate to break it to you but I distinctly telling you once before I’m not apart of your game anymore. No one has been since Salem was killed. Sounds like you’re the one who should press on.

Ozpin:*clenches fist* This has nothing to do with-....*breathes* There’s only one kind a person who gains so much recognition in such a short amount of time. Those who push everything else out. Do you even know where your husband is right now? Because I promise that he is not in that house.

Ruby:.....

Ozpin:It’s a simple question. Do. You. Know. Where. He. Is?

Ruby:*walks away* If you’re not gonna help then stay out of my business.

Ozpin:Jaune has been living in Patch with your father for almost two weeks now. Ever since your sister’s wedding. It was real shock when the maid of honor wasn’t the bride’s loyal sister all because she never answered. Instead she was chasing ghost for all she knows. Is this even about Dustin anymore?

Ruby:*stops walking*......

........

Ruby:Out of respect I will give you a warning; tread lightly Oz. Say his name again and I’m gunning for you.

Ozpin:Then start aiming. *readys cane* Du-

She vanishes almost instantly and appears behind him ready to slash his back but is blocked by a swift pivoting attack. Oz new better than to go into this thinking he had the upper hand. This wasn’t a Ruby he knew. This one had a years worth of anger behind her attacks. Ruby wasn’t deterred by the block. She charged straight at him; cross slashing and firing at him with every move she had. Constantly she kept her scythe spinning like a saw with each advance she made towards the man blocking attacks. Sparks flew with every collision of the two metal weapons trying to bully the other out of the way of their wielder. Ozpin had enough of skirmish and stopped Ruby’s next over head attack by grabbing each end of the can and slaming it upward. The vibration of the block rattled his bones and numbed his arms.

Ruby:Despite it all, Oz I don’t want to hurt you.

Ozpin:That goes both ways.

His cane drops to his side and pulls back before raming itself into each of her ribs and smacking her clean across the left side of her face. Oz doesn’t giver her a chance to breathe and springboards off of her chest; sending her right into the sand. Ruby hits the ground hard then vanishes into rose petals immediately. The wind kicks up the sand around Oz to mask her location in a tiny cyclone.

Ozpin:Recovery time like that comes with practice. Tell me, when did you figure out a skill like that?Maybe it was Tai’s birthday or Weiss’s? Better yet, it was probably Penny’s. You know she just knew you would show up. I mean even James took time out of his busy schedule. Why wouldn’t her best friend?

Ruby:SHUT UP!!!

A streak of red breaks through the sand and crescent rose hooks around Oz’s can. The sound of the trigger pulling back is enough warning to tell him to clench his stomach as a sniper round hits right above the man’s navel and simultaneously yanks Long Memory from his hands. Ruby charges right at him in a fit of overwhelming emotion. Each attack hitting nothing but air and scarring the ground as Oz continuously dodges the assault. He might’ve been an expert at fighting but he couldn’t credit himself entirely for his well time movements. Not when his opponent was too busy fighting the tears rushing to her eyes...

Ruby:Do you have any idea how much this hurts!? What you’re telling me to do!? Every night I have the same clip replaying in my mind over and over again! His face! The way he fit so perfectly in my arms. Those eyes....he had my eyes Oz! All I saw in them was a future filled with potential, but then I wake up and realize it’s gone!

Crescent Rose extends out and Ruby puts all her force into a thrusting attack that Oz side steps easily passed. The ground below Ruby betrays her as she tries to pivot back around. Landing the woman face down in the sand. A gentle breeze blows between them that brings a chill to their fighting area. Oz stands normally over his former student who is now on her hands and knees looking at the ground. He can see her entire body fidget and shake as the sound of her strained voice begins to finally cry.

Ruby:I never dreamed of being of mom; of having a family of my own. But the moment I held him in my arms I knew right then and then. This was it. This was the moment I’ve waited for. I’ve never been so happy in my entire life. *sobbing* Then they took it away from me Oz. They took my son. How am I supposed to live with that!? When does the pain stop!?

Ozpin:*kneels down*.....It doesn’t. Not entirely anyways. Kids, they take a piece of you with them the moment their born and all you ever want to do is protect them. When I lost my daughters I might as well died five times over that night. Salem left me feeling truly alone that day. Robbing me of her love and there’s forever. Till this day I find myself closing my eyes too and them hug me tightly before I wake up to a world where they aren’t around anymore. *tearing up* I’ve had blessing and curse to have lifetimes to cope with such pain; something no one else has. However, you have everything I wish I had when my world crumbled around me.

Somehow Ruby managed to lift her head and meet the eyes of a crying man starring right back at her in quiet agony.

Ozpin:There are people in your life right now who want nothing more but to help you grieve and put yourself back together again. There is someone who loves you more than anything suffering a very similar pain to yours and guarantee you that all he wants right now is his wife by his side; trying to heal and endure together. No one is truly going to stop looking for Cinder but you can not waste your life aimlessly searching for her to beat her. Don’t give her that power over you. Don’t be me. Be better. Learn to be happy.

Ruby:...*wipes tears* You....you really think they’ll forgive me? I missed a lot.

Oscar:They’d have to be mad at you to do that. Ruby, do what you do best. Keep moving forward.

He offers his hand to her and she takes it slowly. Ruby’s heart was still in shambles. Her mind in complete disarray from the wave of pain she’s been holding in. It should be one of the worst feelings imaginable and yet it wasn’t. Crying felt good; amazing even. Finally progress in something felt like it was being made. Even if it wasn’t in what she had hoped for, it was what she needed. Ruby was finally ready to take the first step towards her new ending. She had no idea where it would lead but she knew one thing as she held her ring. Ruby was going to keep her vows. The journey wouldn’t start without Jaune.

Ruby:Patch, right?

Ozpin:Yes if you leave now then you’ll probably make it by-

Ruby:Not yet...

Ozpin:Hmmm?

Ruby:I can’t face him quite yet. Not like this. There’s someone else I need to face first....

Part 8

#rwby rosebud #rwby #ruby rose #jaune arc #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #weiss schnee #nora valkryie #ilia amitola #qrow branwen #rwby ozpin #rwby lancaster #bmblb #bumbleby

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eastonia-blog · 5 years

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I’m going to do a weird.

I know a whole lot of us are stuck at home due to the COVID19 outbreak and all our respective governments attempting to flatten the curve. So I’m going to break out my VAST library of fanfiction recommendations for you to read! Please bear in mind that my tastes in fics are not necessarily like yours so the following 15 Fandom reccs might be hit or miss. All ships and above T ratings will be tagged with brackets, all crossovers will be mentioned in those same brackets. Also, if I mention it’s part of a series, I’m not just recommending the fic I mentioned, I’m recommending the whole series. I’ve tried to recommend a different author’s fic each time. So! Let’s start with the 3 fandoms I mention in my blog description.

1) ATLA Fate Deferred (Zutara) Aang remains in the iceberg ten years longer. Sozin’s comet comes, the world keeps turning with no Avatar to save it, and by the time he’s finally found by a waterbender and her Fire Nation husband, a lot has changed. [Zutara established relationship full series rewrite; Now on Book II: Earth] Cheating at Pai Sho (Canon Divergence) “You said you were the Avatar!” “…I lied?” Aang doesn’t get rescued in episode two, and no one’s seen him go glowy yet… so he starts bluffing. Hard. Or: “The Avatar joins Zuko’s quest to find the Avatar.” In which Zuko doesn’t join the Gaang, the Gaang joins Zuko. The Undying Fire: Blood and Fire (First in the Undying Fire Series, eventual Zutara) Book 1. In which rescuing the Avatar from Pohuai Stronghold doesn’t end so well. It’s a tough life being a banished prince trying to get home, especially when the Avatar just wants to be your friend and keeps making everything confusing. Oh, and did Zuko mention he somehow healed the kid? Yeah, that happened. Stalking Zuko (First in the Stalking Zuko Series, eventual Zutara) Katara has developed a new hobby. At the Western Air Temple she takes to stalking Zuko. Much silliness and shenanigans follow. In chapter 20: Katara and Zuko return home to the others. Katara hates the F word and she comes to a decision regarding Zuko. Embers (Canon divergence) Dragon’s fire is not so easily extinguished; when Zuko rediscovers a lost firebending technique, shifting flames can shift the world… 2) Percy Jackson and the Olympians The Father (Percabeth in the GFFA, eventual Anidala) It all started with a wish, but because it was Percy Jackson it couldn’t have been a friendly goddess granting him a wish. No, it had to be Nemesis, goddess of revenge and balance. Now Percy and Annabeth are stuck in a strange new galaxy right when an ancient and powerful darkness finally begins to stir. Glass Figures (MCU Mashup) I lifted my gun, pointing it towards the minefield of shattered fragments, and kicked the small coffee table out of the way.Only to stare down at an awfully familiar face, which split into a somewhat lopsided grin. The intruder raised his hands in a mocking surrender. //“Long time no see, dude.” //I lowered the gun. “What the hell are you doing in South Peru?” //Or in which Clint Barton and Percy Jackson have a long personal history that starts in high school. All Together, Cousins (Canon divergence) When Thalia ran away with her toddler brother, Jason, she slowly gathered her cousins: she and her cousins being Big Three children. As Jason gets older and their motley group expands to six, Thalia resigns herself to the fact that she won’t always be the leader of the pack. As she accepts that, something more is coming, able to challenge even the gods above. A Crown of Golden Leaves (Historical AU) Annabeth, a Lady from the declining polis of Athens, must marry the Heir Apparent of Rome to save the rapidly expanding world from a threat even the gods couldn’t foresee. Deluge (Percy in the Arrowverse) Barry has to deal with yet another Metahuman that Zoom has pitted against him. But this ‘Metahuman’ is an unwilling pawn in Zoom’s plan and really wants to find a way around killing the Scarlet Speester. But how can he when Zoom is holding something against him?

3) DC Firework (First in the Sparks in the Dark Series) Orphaned and removed from the only life he’s ever known, Dick feels like there’s no light left for him in the world. His new benefactor, however, still sees something worth saving… Chronological beginning of the Spark in the Dark series. Iron, Fire, Mirror-Glass After a brutal confrontation with Bane, Bruce comes away with a broken spine and the certainty that his days as Batman are over. An unexpected discovery offers him another chance—but at what price? The story of a man who risks his soul for the sake of his mission, the dangerous creature he names Robin, and the unlikely partnership that will shape the legend of Gotham’s Dark Knight. Get Back Up There was a mole, one who played a long game. The team was betrayed, crushed. Robin nearly died. What are they going to do now? Only one chirped the answer. Get back up. WARNING: lots of talking, little action, many follow ups Five Times …Five times Damian thought of Dick Grayson as his father, and the one time Dick thought of Damian as his son. Future-fic. YJ characters will show up later. Batman!Dick and Damian as Robin. With guest appearances from Jason, Tim, Cass, and Steph. Unveiling the Mystery Series of one-shots about the team learning a little about Robin (Dick Grayson). With all the fics, I heavily suggest you also read what else these authors have to offer in their archive.

And now here’s the plethora of other fandoms I read fics in under the cut!

4) Harry Potter The Horse (Mature) Looking after a Muggle animal should be easy compared to saving Hogwarts from Voldemort. Harry and Draco might disagree with that. Featuring Luna, Marauders, peppermints and, of course, a tall, black, badtempered horse named Simon. The Potions Master’s Nephew An accident occurs and Professor Snape finds himself trapped in his fifteen-year-old body. Enrolled into Harry Potter’s fifth year, he is forced to hide his true identity. Girls, drama and teenage angst do not bode well with Severus. Keeping Up with the Grangers (Dramione, Mature) Mr. Malfoy, I invite you and your mother to tea next Tuesday, May 25th at 2o’clock to discuss recent events. Dr. Helen Granger //… …// He glances at the boxy too-uniform numbers flashing on the face of Richard’s radio. It’s nearly noon, and he should be getting ready to leave; but there is still a harsh tension in his shoulders and neck that he wants to work out before Hermione finds him. It is, after all, Tuesday; and while his Tuesdays were designated ‘tea with Helen’ days previously, they are now ‘lunch with Granger’ days, ever since the chance meet-up with the Weasel’s wife and the insufferable swot herself. Faceless (Dramione, Mature) New year. New love. New threat. A powerful enemy is on the rise, and Hermione Granger finds herself intertwined in a relationship with Draco Malfoy – only she doesn’t know it’s him. / / RUNNER-UP: Enchanted Awards Summer 2017 for Best Relationship Development

5) Devil May Cry And the Rest is Silence (Mature) The destruction of the Saviour wasn’t the end. Too many people had too much invested. An Uncle’s Thoughts Dante’s thoughts and feelings regarding one particular quarter-demon kid. Vignettes that span from the start of Devil May Cry 4 through Devil May Cry 5, and beyond. Fortuna’s Fool Events after DMC5 with flashbacks to the events we briefly see in DMC4SE only with Vergil telling Dante all about Nero’s mother. Family ties are so complicated, aren’t they? Family of Happenstance Some orphans have happy endings, getting adopted or finding their family. Having a demon slaying half devil for a father tends to throw a tiny monkey wrench in the process. AU Father!Dante, Son!Nero. Rated because hunters don’t exactly have clean mouths.

6) Power Rangers (Focus on Might Morphin’ and Dino Thunder teams) Of Love and Bunnies Set just after Dino Thunder. When Angel Grove announces another Power Rangers Day, Tommy takes the Dino Rangers to Angel Grove for a reunion with the original team… including Kimberly. TommyKim, JasonTrini, KiraTrent. The Reason (Part 1 of eclyptyk neo‘s Dino Thunder AU) COMPLETED. DT. AU. Years go by as Tommy Oliver becomes accustomed to his job as a teacher. A person from his past returns. The new ranger team grows interested in its outcome. How will these new changes between rangers young and old be? Sequel: Ordinary World Change of Hearts (Wild Force) PRWF: When Jindrax and Toxica set out to find themselves, they had no idea that their greatest adventure was only beginning. Chronology Conundrum DT/MMPR - After a strange mutation is released in Reefside, the five Dino Thunder Ranges find themselves thrown back into the past, circa 1995 Angel Grove. Somehow, they have to figure out how to make it back to their present without destroying it or themselves. And if they succeed, they must navigate the consequences of their actions in the past, while still protecting Reefside. 7) Merlin (Mergana leaning) The Other Version of Events What if Merlin and Arthur had met when they were children? What if a mysterious illness fell over Ealdor and Merlin was blamed? What if Arthur had actually felt sorry for him? What if destiny was thrown at them in a whole new way? AU, no slash, Bromance, A/G M/M… You get the idea. Flipping the Coin, Part 2 of Coins (2nd story in the Coins Sage but 1st multichapter) Merlin and Gwaine are sent on an adventure to discover their past and stay one step ahead of Morgana. Fearing for them, Arthur and the other knights set out to find them, but soon discover much more than they bargained for. Alt version Season 5. Sequel to “Two Sides of the Coin” Angst, Adventure, BAMF, Bromance, Redemption, Twists on Arthurian Legends. The King’s Legacy “I hope you are rolling in your grave brother, I will find your son, and I hope he is like you. I will ruin him and gain a lovely weapon in the process.” Cenred spat on the grave, “I win Balinor.” .Sequel posted. The Warlock’s Quickening (First in the Albion Cycle) Merlin might have come to Camelot to master his magic, not to end the Purge, but he’s not going to sit idly by while his kin suffer. Oh no. Whether it’s releasing a chained dragon, smuggling sorcerers out of the city, or trying to change Arthur’s mind, he’s fighting back. Now. Series rewrite beginning after 1X02 featuring Proactive!Merlin. AU.

8) Dragon Ball Under the Radar (Gohan/Videl) Gohan is living life as a secret superhero, but Videl is making it her business to find him out! How will Gohan manage her and Saiyan hormones? Will he fess up? Or will he try to live his life -puts on sunglasses- “Under the Radar”? *applause* Thank you! Thank you! And GOODNIGHT! G/V obviously. Rated T because adult situations and language in later chapters. COMPLETE! Golden God (Mature) To save the lives of millions, Gohan is forced to expose himself as a Super Saiyan, proving that his tricks are indeed very real. And it drives the whole world to insanity. Warning; becomes a little graphic goes as it on. Walking Towards the Sunset Bardock’s curse sends him to a mysterious place where weaklings are abundant and an odd trio claim to be his family. Eventually giving in, he stays with them to discover that Earth is more unlucky than Planet Vegeta. Impatiently waiting for his son’s arrival, Bardock has to survive a new life with his estranged family and a certain girl set on finding the truth. (Saiyaman-Buu Saga) Plus One (Gohan/Videl, Mature) Tired of being pursued by the gold-digging, glory-seeking, Satan obsessed freaks of the world, Videl will resort to the only method open to a celebrity like her to find Mr. Right. 9) Sailor Moon (Mainly SenshiShitennou) The Crystal Age (Rewritten) In an alternate version of Season 1, as a result of Beryl’s curse at the end of the Silver Age, Tuxedo Mask and the reincarnated Shitennou are fighting a losing battle to save the city and find the lost princess. Sailor Moon has disappeared, Sailor V is working on her own, and the other Senshi are still just ordinary girls. Sequel to The Silver Age. MxU, SxS. Please R&R. Hooligans It’s after Galaxia and time for University. The Senshi and Mamoru settle into life in Great Britain and meet some old friends. Inner Senshi x Shitennou and Usagi x Mamoru. Modern Timeline. Strong language, crude humour, hilarity and sexual situations abound, be warned, there will be some heavy angst later on too. Never Gone R A single choice can change the course of Fate: a choice, say, like waking up on time. If that choice were made, Chiba Mamoru would never meet Tsukino Usagi; but, he WOULD meet Unami Seiya and the burden of Terra’s future would fall onto his shoulders. Never Gone AU. The Dinner Hour (Part of The Dinner Series) It can be hard to be patient in the face of eternity. But good things come to those who search and refuse to give up on their dreams. R/J. (Sequels: Dinner And Again, Dinner at Last completed!)

10) Les Miserables (Warning: Enjonine ahead) When Apollo Met Persephone (1st of the 1830s AU) The revolution, or at least the first part of it succeeds. Enjolras confronts political and personal realities. Eponine is suddenly faced with more opportunities than she ever thought. Can they guide each other in a world that needs them as much as they need it? Les Choses Qui Sont Arrivées Après “You must flee Paris at once.” Enjolras and Eponine. The thief and the leader, the marble Apollo and the dark street girl… two wholly different survivors of the Revolution are forced together under a dangerous circumstance. Can they successfully fight their demons as well as each other? Neither of them knows quite what is going on, or what will happen when they figure it out. Teacher of Man The first time Enjolras and Éponine meet, it is their wedding day. (arranged marriage AU) My Best Friend’s Wedding Éponine Thenardiér always thought that Marius would eventually come back to her, until the wedding invitation came in the mail. Now she is going to do everything that she can to get him back from that blonde tart Cosette. Nothing goes according to plan and even her partner in crime Enjolras is becoming an obstacle. E/E. 11) Naruto Beginnings Naruto was six years old when he met the man who changed his life. …Now he’s kind of just hoping he survives it. An Inch of Gold (Part of the Legacy of Fire series) Team 7 is sent on a mission to investigate a disturbance outside of the village, where they encounter an unconscious girl in a crater. The mysterious Sarada insists she’s a shinobi from the Hidden Leaf trying to rescue her teammates. When the team discovers she possesses a Sharingan, things become even more unbelievable. [Part of the Legacy of Fire Series] Guilt of Innocence Uchiha Sasuke abandoned Konoha in his persute of power to join Orochimaru. However, this was only a cover story. In fact, on Tsunade’s orders, Sasuke is to act as Konoha’s spy within Otogakure. One agreement and his path had changed forever… Blind (SasuSaku) It was almost time, Orochimaru was going to take his body as a vessel. He hated being used…he refused to be used. With that thought, he took the kunai in his hand and slashed across his eyes.

12) Legend of Zelda (Zelink) The Conviction to Save The princess is dead. Those are the words being whispered in the streets. A great shudder sweeps across the land of Hyrule as news of its beloved monarch’s passing spreads like wildfire. In the midst of the ensuing chaos, a humble village doctor happens upon the body of a gravely injured young woman on the road. Legend of the Miraculous (Concepts taken from Miraculous Ladybug) A legend retold through many a tale, but when a darkness resurfaces after so long, Athena and Sheikhan Wolf must return again! Will Link and Zelda be able to combat this threat? and will they figure out each others’ identities? Come inside and take a look! Hit List AU. It all started as a typical day at Ordon High, until a sudden school shooting turns the life of Link Hero upside down. Now, surrounded by enemies, can Link save his friends and escape the school alive? (Edit 10/2015) Counting Stars Link finds himself caught in the middle of an elaborate gang war. Lucky for him, being a B-list superhero makes that predicament a tiny bit easier. / Modern AU ZeLink, inspired by Spider-Man. Under Revision! 13) Hunger Games Vox Libertas Due to things playing out a bit differently in the last few minutes of the Quell, the rescue also goes a bit differently than expected. Now Peeta has the responsibility of representing the Rebellion thrust upon him. No pressure. *AU Mockingjay. Part I of Dandelion in the Storm AU. Mainly Peeta POV.* Someone To Watch Over Me (Everlark, 1st in the Series) A HG rewrite. What would happen if Peeta was just a little bit bolder, and Katniss a little less emotionally confused? You’d be surprised. Let the Games begin. This is an AU, but I’ve tried to stay as canon as possible. Rated T to be safe. Enthralled (Everlark, Gadge, Mature) Thrall (þræll), n., a slave or serf in Viking Age Scandinavia. After a successful raid, Gale is rewarded with a slave girl: the Saxon noblewoman Madge. Meanwhile, shieldmaiden Katniss grows closer to captive monk Peeta. Gadge/Everlark historical AU with background Odesta and other pairings. Katniss, Vampire Slayer (Mature) “Into every generation a slayer is born.” the man droned out slowly, quietly, in a way that made her think he was quoting something. “One girl in all the world. A chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their number. She is the Slayer.” // Haymitch mocked. “One girl in all the world. Ain’t I just lucky it had to be you.” 14) How To Train Your Dragon Becoming Lífþrasir (Hiccstrid) People often wondered what kept Hiccup going during those early years. When that single, most-treasured thing is taken from him, there is little left to keep him on Berk. The day Stoick returns, and the day before the best recruit is finally chosen, Hiccup leaves Berk; little knowing that he would one day return under … strange circumstances. H/A, R/F, rated for violence. HTTYD Easter Special Sequel to “The Unholy Offspring,” set after the season finale. When Alvin the Treacherous threatens Asgard with a rogue demigod’s help, Hiccup and Berk’s Dragon Riders must prevent an early Ragnorak. It doesn’t help that Alvin has learned to tame dragons, and that the only god that can help Hiccup is a sullen, suspicious boy named Mud. Happy Eos week, Hiccup! The Blacksmith’s Apprentice (Hiccstrid) AU. Hiccup never took the shot on that fateful night-and the war continued. Three years later, Berk is beset by dragon raids and hostile tribes while the boy who should have saved the island is merely the assistant in the forge. With only Astrid as his friend, fate gives Hiccup one more chance to end the war and become the hero he was meant to be. Hiccstrid. Snap (Hiccstrid, Mature) He was just supposed to fix her back, and she doubted that at first. She definitely didn’t expect to get dragged into the ethics of a girlish crush. Modern AU. 15) Star Wars Double Agent Vader The one where Vader turned double agent for the Rebellion about three years after ROTS, and Leia is now his primary contact with the Rebellion. Or, a man attempts to escape slavery by turning into one of his culture heroes, teaching his daughter how to do magic, killing people, and flower arranging. A New History During a heated battle, Dooku escaped into the past! Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker follow to stop him, but discover that Dooku went to the past where Obi-Wan is a young padawan to a very much alive Qui-Gon Jinn. Now, the two must go undercover to stop Dooku’s plans from coming to fruition in order to save not only the future, but also young Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn. Pulse AU for ROTS. As Padme’s life hangs in the balance on Mustafar, a stream of brilliant light causes Anakin to reconsider his choices. Jedi Shmi AU Shmi leaves Tatooine with Anakin and goes to the Jedi Temple.

#Stuff to do #while youre stuck inside #due to coronavirus #eastonia reccs #fanfiction recommendation

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toooldforfandom-liveblogs · 5 years

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RWBY S07E08 - Cordially invited

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The subtitles really make the screenshot here.

Oh. Penny is here.

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

Is... Is Qrow flirting with Clover?

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

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

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

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

I'm in Team Yang here.

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

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

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

fuuuuuuuuck youuuuuuuuu

Yeah, she didn't like that either.

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

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

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

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

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

there you go

Aaaaa stop treating Penny like a lesser being.

Oh lord help me if she starts crying

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DC comic Willow reminds me of Emma from Ghost Trick:

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

lol, "literally who?"

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

Turning off the heating feels comically evil.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#rwby #rwby liveblog #rwby v07e08

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avatar-news · 4 years

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The Fire Nation Awaits 🌺 An in-depth look at the ever-elusive islands in the era of Korra and when we will finally pay them a visit

[Artwork by Avatar News; not official.]

Note: This article was published before the official announcement of Avatar Studios at the Paramount+ investor day.

“Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.” We’ve all heard those words a million times. The four elements, and the power to control them bestowed by four subspecies of giant lion-turtles, are at the very heart of the world of Avatar. The balance between them was once upon a time broken by one of the four, the Fire Nation, forming the main conflict of Avatar: The Last Airbender. For much of Aang and the Gaang’s quest at the close of the Hundred Year War, the Fire Nation was a forbidden, far-away location, until the curtain was finally drawn back in the aptly-named Book Three: Fire when our heroes entered the inferno, undercover behind enemy lines. A dramatic tropical destination! New outfits! Culture shock! Needless to say, it was a big deal.

→ 🌺 The big reveal of the Fire Nation in Book Three: Fire had its own marketing push, matching public anticipation.

When the Hundred Year War ended, the newly-instated Fire Lord Zuko dedicated his life to righting the wrongs of his forefathers and working with Avatar Aang to bring the Fire Nation back into the fold under peace. By the time Aang’s successor debuted as the next Avatar in the titular The Legend of Korra, Zuko had abdicated the five-pointed crown and his daughter, Fire Lord Izumi, took the stage leading a reformed, rebalanced Fire Nation.

There was no more war, no more enemy lines, yet the Fire Nation became more distant and mysterious than ever before.

Korra’s close encounters with the land of fire

To this day, Korra has never visited the Fire Nation, nor has it been seen at all, nor do we know anything about it in her era. In fact, practically the only thing we do know is that its leader is a noninterventionist, which conveniently gets it out of the way of making an appearance in Korra’s journey as the Avatar so far.

The closest we have come to seeing the Fire Nation in The Legend of Korra was in Book Two: Spirits, Chapter Five: Peacekeepers. In the midst of the Water Tribe Civil War, Korra sets out across the sea to get help from the royal family, however, she is intercepted by a dark spirit and never makes it to her destination. In the next episode, she washes up on a secret island home to the Bhanti sages, which probably technically counts as Fire Nation territory, but as we know from The Shadow of Kyoshi (more on that later), this faction predates the Four Nations themselves so it doesn’t really count.

→ 🌺 Korra washes up on the beach of Bhanti Island in Book Two: Spirits, Chapter Six: The Sting.

No, as cool as that location and the events of the Beginnings two-parter that happened there were, it wasn’t the main draw of seeing the Fire Nation that we’re still waiting for: seeing how the Fire Nation, which was already industrializing in Aang’s time, changed over the decades, compared to places like Republic City and Ba Sing Se; meeting new characters; visiting new and familiar locations; worldbuilding both new and expanding on what we already learned.

After this aborted tease in Book Two, we never come close to the island country again (at least not with this Avatar and in her era; yes I’m leading up to something...). Instead, the focus turns strongly to the Earth Kingdom in the third and fourth Books, and beyond.

Keep in mind that The Legend of Korra aired for about two-and-a-half years total from 2012 to 2014. Since then, the story has continued in comics. The comics era has lasted from 2015 to present-- seven years to the animated series’ two. In that time, there have only been two comic trilogies due to various production troubles, and neither have touched the Fire Nation. Instead, they directly continue the Earth Kingdom-focused threads started in Books Three and Four of Korra, both originally airing in 2014. Or, in perspective: we had a focus on Republic City in 2012, the Water Tribes in 2013, and the Earth Kingdom from 2014-2021.

Will we finally see the Fire Nation in the next graphic novel trilogy?

This question comes to mind every time new Korra content is supposed to roll around, and the powers that be know it-- it’s a pretty obvious gap in the world of Avatar right now. This franchise is iconically built around four elements and the Four Nations based on them, so one of them being MIA is quite glaring, and for that reason everyone is understandably always asking about it.

The most concrete confirmation we’ve gotten was this AMA answer from franchise co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino in 2016, two years after the show ended and a year before the first graphic novels did come out:

“Yes, hopefully in the [Korra] comics, we’ll have a chance to go to the Fire Nation and see how it has changed since A:TLA.”

Since then, as previously discussed, two comic trilogies have come and gone, obviously not getting closer to the Fire Nation-- and I would actually argue entrenching themselves further away from it.

I want to make it clear that I’m against fan entitlement. Creatives telling the tales they want to in service of the story and the artform is how the industry should run. I’m just hoping to offer some perspective on how we got to where we are almost a decade into the era of Korra and the metatextual pacing of the franchise itself.

Either way, the next Korra comic trilogy has been official confirmed by the editor for Avatar at Dark Horse Comics in this informal statement on Twitter:

We’re not ready to announce any details yet, but we are working on the next trilogy. I really appreciate your patience and hope it’s worth the wait! ✨

There’s currently some kind of holdup for which we really have zero context or information, and we of course have no idea what this next trilogy will be about. (I do speculate a bit on what it could be a few paragraphs down.)

But, like what turned out to be Ruins of the Empire before it, I faithfully made a mockup graphic for my post announcing the confirmation of the next The Legend of Korra graphic novel trilogy. And like before, I chose to completely speculatively and blindly make it Fire Nation-y, as if the next comic could/would(/should?) feature it. This is mainly because I feel like that’s what most people’s eyes would be caught by and thus result in the most successful post (hey, at least I’m honest), but also because it’s just fun.

Here are both images, from 2018 and 2020 respectively:

→ 🌺 Speculative edits I made for my posts on the announcement of previous and upcoming Korra comics before we knew anything about them.

In both cases, the response was huge, and people were super excited about the prospect of Fire Nation content just from my quick speculative mockups. I am of course hoping that the new artwork I made of the Krew for this post will have a similar effect (it’s the first time I just straight-up drew it instead of editing existing images) but again it’s really mostly just for fun.

Anyway, until the next trilogy is properly revealed, we’ll just have to wait and see.

However, that’s not the only place this could happen.

Are they saving the Fire Nation for an animated movie?

With Avatar’s HUGE success on Netflix last year, interest in the franchise rocketed to an all-time high. The streaming wars have begun, and Avatar’s owner and its parent company, Nickelodeon and ViacomCBS, have finally started to notice.

ViacomCBS is launching Paramount+ on March 4th, a relaunch of its existing streaming service CBS All Access. Paramount+ is meant to be a big expansion and refocus to compete with the big hitters: Disney+, HBO Max, and, yes, Netflix. (There’s quite an entanglement there, with Netflix being the home of Avatar’s big year and the upcoming live-action series.)

One of the keys to a successful streamer today is high-profile originals to drive new subscribers. ViacomCBS knows this and they know Avatar has just become among the highest profiles a property can have, breaking records and going toe-to-toe with other big-hitting sci-fi/fantasy/genre franchises. This knowledge goes right to the top of the food chain: the CEO of ViacomCBS mentioned Avatar by name when discussing potential originals for Paramount+.

I have previously discussed how The Search relates to this. The Search was the second ATLA comic trilogy, focused on the search for Zuko’s mother in the thick of the Fire Nation, and if you didn’t know, it was originally pitched by Bryke as an animated movie after the original series ended.

I just want to be clear that what I’m discussing here is purely speculative, but this is the only other piece of the Avatar franchise that we know was optioned for animation besides the shows themselves. It’s possible they would be interested in going back to this idea as a Paramount+ original (and it would certainly be popular among audiences), but it is of course set during the era of Aang and thus covers both a time period we’ve already seen, and also by nature of already being released as comics, events we’ve already seen too.

However, the whole point of this article is that there is one major, huge thing we haven’t seen yet, with massive anticipation building for a decade behind it: the Fire Nation in the era of Korra. So, again, this is just speculation, but it’s also possible that they could return to the very smallest seed of the original idea for a The Search movie, and do a Fire Nation-focused Korra movie now.

→ 🌺 ATLA’s Fire Nation-focused The Search was originally pitched as an animated movie.

You can skip this next part if you don’t want to see me embarrassingly promote my fan idea 😆 but this is where the artwork I made for this article comes into play. The general idea for it, and the reason I tried to replicate the show’s style as much as possible, is that it’s what a Fire Nation-focused movie could maybe look like. Something as standalone and unrelated to Earth Kingdom drama as possible, with fresh new looks for the Krew to get people excited for something fresh and new! I really feel like the Avatar franchise has so much potential for expanded content like this, that’s why I have high hopes that Paramount+ will make the most out of it! You can see the individual characters’ artwork in larger size here. Ok I’m done back to business.

If the idea of a movie seems too impossible to you, we can also take a deeper look at Bryke’s involvement with upcoming comics instead.

After Korra ended, they officially each went their separate ways. They vaguely consulted on Avatar stuff, and Mike of course wrote the Korra comics, but Bryan was planning on writing and drawing his own original non-Avatar comic series and Mike was releasing his own non-Avatar novels. This all appears to have come to a stop when they signed on to showrun the live-action retelling of ATLA at Netflix, officially reuniting the partnership and committing to Avatar again in a big way. Of course, they ended up leaving that project over creative differences, but it did result in a big, lasting change: this time they remained official creative partners and have indicated they’re still working on Avatar now, together. This is a far cry from the official breakup after Korra, so it begs the question what exactly they’re working on. I of course have my fanciful predictions of a sprawling expansion of the Avatar franchise at Paramount+, but what if it’s actually a combination of the ingredients from before the live-action series...

More speculation, but what if the reason for all the mystery behind the next Korra comics is because they will be made by Bryke, with the two of them co-writing and Bryan doing the art for the first time? If that’s the case, they could want to make them a bigger deal than the other Avatar comics have been so far, and maybe that’s why it’s taking so long to iron everything out, have a more significant story, have more of a marketing push, etc. If they’ve been saving the Fire Nation for something big, this could be it.

I personally think this is less likely than a show or movies or something, but it is possible. Anything is possible right now since we know so little about the large-scale direction of the franchise moving forward, just that it’s gonna get big.

⛰️🌋 The Fire Nation in the era of Avatar Kyoshi

We’re not done! Despite everything I’ve written here, believe it or not, the Fire Nation was actually the star of the show in the last year.

With the debut of the Avatar franchise’s first original novels, Kyoshi made a huge splash (in a way only she can). If you haven’t read them yet, you NEED to-- they’re some of the best Avatar content EVER. The Rise of Kyoshi hit shelves in 2019 and The Shadow of Kyoshi followed in 2020. The latter is of particular interest here, because it was almost entirely set in the Fire Nation and featured practically everything and anything you could want from a visit to elusive islands. Though obviously set in a historical period some four hundred years before Aang’s time, Kyoshi’s sojourn in the Fire Nation gave us a huge amount of new information, a depth and breadth of worldbuilding, culture, and character we’ve never really seen in Avatar before. It truly makes the most of the literary medium, so hats off to author F. C. Yee for the passion and effort he put in.

In The Shadow of Kyoshi, we learn about the era of the previous fire Avatar before Roku, Avatar Szeto. Through Kyoshi and her own Team Avatar, we learn about the different clans and islands of the Fire Nation, as they experience the fraught early reign of Fire Lord Zoryu and the conflict between the Keohso and Saowon clans, culminating in the Camellia-Peony War. We get a multitude of fleshed-out perspectives from the upper crust to the flea-bitten underworld, matching the heights of the worldbuilding quality of Republic City. It’s such cool, intricate stuff, and really shows Avatar’s potential (and that’s all just the worldbuilding-- the character work is also top-notch).

That’s not the only place the Fire Nation has shone recently. One of Insight Editions’ awesome scrapbooks, Legacy of the Fire Nation, gave us a tour through the royal family’s history, including never-before-seen looks at young Iroh and Ozai and much, much more.

All this just goes to show that the Fire Nation has been a hot ticket throughout the ages and there’s one conspicuous gap in that history: the era of Avatar Korra. With so much recent expansion and development of the Fire Nation in our world, it would be perfect to see the culmination of it all in the current time period in the world of Avatar too.

If this made you excited for the potential of what the Avatar franchise could look like in the coming years, same boat!

The next concrete date where something could be announced is February 24th, when ViacomCBS will host their investor day and present their streaming strategy, including Paramount+ originals. There’s no guarantee Avatar is mentioned, but I’m keeping a hopeful eye out.

As for comics, Dark Horse’s schedule marches to its own beat, so there’s no way to know when the next drop of information is coming our way.

Could this finally be the comics that take us to the Fire Nation, or could the much-anticipated visit be in another medium like animation? Stay tuned-- as always I’ll post as soon as we learn anything new!

#korra comics #paramount plus #the fire nation awaits

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kamekamelea · 5 years

Note

Homework and hobbies for the prompt list???

the one where Jake gets a warrant that Pilsners are boring indeed

#34. Hobbies from this kids prompt list

This is far from my best work (sorry about that *hides*) but even though the idea was clear in my head from the moment I saw this request the words just wouldn’t form and this one has been in my inbox for so long I had to get it out of my system. Hope you enjoy it anyway, Anon! :) Thank you for sending the prompt 💕 it turned out silly but I like it :D

Thank you so much @cheddar-the-dog for beta-reading and your words of encouragement 💖💖

Special thanks go to @rosalitadiazz and @vernonfielding for being my information sources on this one, your help is very much appreciated! :D 💕

read on ao3

“Isn’t it weird our 17-year-old son is spending his Saturday with his Nana?”

Jake asks his wife one day, getting suspicions after few weeks of Atlas staying all afternoons at Karen’s on work days (Amy responds that she finds it endearing, and hopes her own future grandchildren spend so much time with her when they’re teenagers). Jake’s totally aware of his son’s special bond with his Mum and is very grateful for it but still, call it 6th sense or work-related bias after so many years being a cop, he can’t help but feel something is off.

Sure, Atlas and Karen’s bond is truly special, especially given the fact that he’s a teenager and kids his age are not mostly known for spending an awful lot of their afternoons with their Nana. But they have just so much in common, Karen being the only competent person supporting his love for cooking and helping him with developing his skills making with him all kinds of weird foods only Uncle Charles seems to enjoy.

(At a very early stage of his life it turned out cooking is Atlas’ passion and since his parents aren’t very talented in that area, it was Jake’s mum who’s helped Atlas to discover his skills. As he grew older, he started making more sophisticated dishes, he learned to bake and make all sorts of pickled vegetables. He even made some jams one summer and the amount of jars full of sweet substance was so enormous, the whole family still has their pantry packed with it, even after a giveaway to the whole Nine-Nine squad). And his Nana was there throughout it all - such victories as the first batch of well-done pierogis for Mother’s Day one year, or a 5-level birthday cake for Jake. But she was there for the failures as well, like when a whole box with jars of pickled beetroots gone bad and Atlas, being a sensitive boy, cried all afternoon because of it.)

Eventually, Jake convinces his wife to visit Karen later that day. “What do you say we pay my mum a surprise visit this afternoon?” To which suggestion she agrees eagerly, realizing Karen might appreciate them doing groceries for her.

Jake knows he’s been right seeing the unpleasant surprise on his Mum’s face the moment she opens the door, seeing him at her porch with bags in his hands.

“Jake?” Karen’s bewilderment, showing in her eyes being wide, is priceless.

Busted.

“Hello Karen!” a muffled shout comes from his car, where Amy is picking up the rest of the groceries they got for her. Conspiracy visit or not, his mum still is an old lady, who needs help with basic chores (even though she has a hard time admitting it).

Jake gives his - still a bit in shock - mum a quick kiss on the cheek and heads straight to the kitchen, for one to leave the bags there and for two to get over with this mission on catching his son red-handed as soon as possible.

The problem is, the kitchen is empty.

“Amy, my love, Jake - would you like a cup of coffee? And cake?”

“Oh, yes please!” his wife obliviousness of the situation really taking place (Karen trying to distract him from finding his son) is annoying, but Jake couldn’t clue Amy in, because she’d call him obsessive and would made an awful lot fun of him.

“Mum, where’s Atlas?”

He goes past her, ignoring her attempts to distract him from going further the hallway (while Amy’s still blissfully unaware of her husband and mother-in-law’s game, cheerfully asking about Karen’s well being).

There’s no sign of Atlas all over Jake’s childhood’s house so the only place left for Sergeant Peralta to look for is the garage. And that’s where he finds his one and only son doing a thing he would never accuse him of, startling Jake and filling his heart with horror, simultaneously shattering it to pieces.

HIS SON IS BREWING BEER.

For a moment Jake thinks he’s having a heart attack, his legs suddenly too weak to hold him and Amy seeing him in that state rushes to his side and only then she notices the source of her husband’s sudden deterioration. There is a million thoughts going through her mind but there is one that is especially loud ‘HE’S UNDERAGE, HE’S NOT SUPPOSED TO DRINK ALCOHOL NOT TO MENTION MAKING IT’ but also a quiet one ‘How did my son turn into my boring ex-boyfriend?’ .

She orders her son to go straight to the car and as Jake starts to feel better they all go home in a suffocating silence. Jake feels heartbroken seeing that his son shares a passion with his wife’s ex-boyfriend (especially when only last month Atlas confessed to him that “only the first Die Hard movie is good, Dad”) and doesn’t utter one word even when his wife makes a long and loud lecture to their son once they arrive at Santiago-Peralta household. In the spur of the moment she bans Atlas from making any more alcohol which results in Atlas shutting himself in his room for the rest of the evening.

Mr. and Mrs. Santiago-Peralta spend the rest of the day questioning all their parenting choices, wondering when did they put him on this road to being a boring person. Especially Jake can’t see a moment when everything went wrong - his son has made so many explicit “Title of your sex tape” jokes ever since he was 13, he and Ana team up every year for a Halloween Heist, not failing to fool their old parents for 3 years straight now and they go together to the waterpark every year (just the two of them, some quality father-son time) -in Jake’s eyes Atlas is the most fun person he knows (but don’t tell Amy that).

Their self-pity party gets interrupted by their 22-year-old daughter Ana, who enters demanding answers as to why everyone is acting so weird today. After telling her the whole story of the staggering discovery at Nana’s, she tells them how Atlas has been afraid to tell them about his new hobby for the longest time, knowing of their weird prejudice towards beers that are not Blue Moon (or Corona if they feel fancy).

(Actually it was Ana herself, gutted by her parents taste in beers, who convinced them shortly after her 21st birthday - discovering there is more to adult alcohol-drinking-life than the cheapest beers in her parents’ fridge - to switch to Dos Equis (her personal favourite), so that the policy of ‘not drinking anything that doesn’t taste like piss’ is no longer on the table. Their resentment towards trying anything new beer-related was obvious and weird to their kids even.)

Ana’s revelation actually makes them even more sad - to know their son kept a secret from them, being anxious of their reaction feels like a true parenting failure for the Santiago-Peralta couple. Sure, their interaction with Teddy has been traumatic for the both of them, the memory of it still giving Amy a Pilsner-TSD. But they see now so clearly it should have never influenced their behaviour towards their son.

“He has foreseen you might react this way so he decided to keep his mouth shut. And Nana was his partner in crime because she’s just the best, obviously.”

And they reacted in the worst way possible. Especially Amy seems to have huge regrets regarding her outburst.

She has tears in her eyes, cursing herself for being so harsh before, and she’s overcome with the strongest urge to just hug her son and never let go (well she has this urge constantly from the second he was born but sometimes this need gets just unbearable just like in this moment) so she sprints to his room, apologizing and hugging him until he’s all abashed from the sudden affection coming from his mother ( “It’s okay Mum, I’m not even angry anymore. Could you let go, I can’t feel the half of my body, you’re crushing me.”).

“We owe you an apology, Atlas. We should have trusted you with this instead of being so close-minded when it comes to beer.” Once Amy finally lets her son breath again, loosening her grip on him, Jake takes a seat next to him.

“Where is your animosity towards beer coming from anyway?” Their son’s question catches them off guard and there’s no way for them to hide it, as they start to mumble incoherent excuses.

“It’s... just that at one point your Mum was really sick of it.”

“Title of your sex tape, Dad!”

After Jake high-fives his son and his wife rolls her eyes with a fond smile forming on her lips, they make a promise to Atlas to never ever react that way to anything happening in his life and he assures them he will not drink his own beer (Jake doesn’t believe this promise for a second but Amy seems to be satisfied with his answer). As Amy makes a move to leave, Jake stalls, almost insecure and tries to make an attempt to fix what once was an unbreakable bond with his son (before he stabbed his back with the Die Hard confession and start this new “a-lot-like-Teddy” hobby) asking him about his new interest.

(Of course he’s being overly dramatic - such a silly thing would never jeopardize his relationship with Atlas. Still, Jake can’t help but feel a bit left out, jealous even, of not sharing Teddy’s knowledge of beers so that he can impress his son and engage in this new passion of his.)

“So, what is it you’re brewing there, buddy? Some good ol’ pilsners?” Jake’s knowledge about beers is really limited and he has never even tried expanding it, what he mildly regrets right now.

“Pilsners, Dad? Really? Who do you think I am? Some old, boring Czech guy? Pilsners are like the worst type of beers! There’s nothing fun about them. They’re BORING. I brew Ales and sometime Weizenbiers but NEVER Pilsners!”

His son is so indignant and almost offended Jake would think he has anything to do with THE MOST BORING type of beer his heart warms and he becomes overwhelmed with a wave of affection towards his son, resulting in him grabbing Atlas' round face in his palms and planting a very manly kiss on his forehead. They spend most of Sunday talking about Atlas’ new hobby (Jake actually learning a lot of new and surprisingly interesting facts about beer brewing).

(Jake’s the first person honored to taste the first sip of next batch of Atlas’ beer and is pleasantly surprised finding out he actually likes it. When he pats his son on the back, showing his appreciation, a giant beam appears on Atlas’ face, the one, as Amy says, that makes him look exactly like his father.)

#b99 #b99 fic #b99fic #peraltiago #peraltiago fic #jake x amy #jake x amy fic #peraltiago kid #jake peralta #amy santiago #my writing #mine #kids prompts #brooklyn nine nine #brooklyn 99 #ofc i didn’t want to offend any czechs #😂😂😂#i love them and their beer <3 #kasia writes

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wematch · 5 years

Text

Avatar: The Legend of Neil

For many years, the four nations lived together in harmony.

Then, everything changed when a conspiracy to start a war began.

Only the avatar, master of all four elements, could stop it, but when the identity of the new avatar was found, he vanished.

Many years passed without anyone knowing where he was. Then he appeared in a farm in the Earth Kingdom, disguised as a firebender named Neil. And although his bending skills were weak when he got there, with practice he grew stronger every day that passed.

Now with a war looming by, Neil must find his own path into becoming the new avatar and bring balance to the world.

***

A/N: I remember watching atla in nickelodeon way back in the day and I still love watching it. So one day, when I saw art about Neil being the avatar my mind went crazy thinking about that world and how these characters would fit there... I originally planned on writing a one shot about it, but when I started to write I just kept going.

For those of you who still remember watching atla, I tried to make the same structure of the series. Each “book“ here will represent a part of Neil’s journey to master a new element. As far as the other elements go I took some creative liberties here and there, hope it’s okay! Enjoy!

A huge thank you to @jsteneil for being an amazing beta! Your feedback made all the difference <3

This fic was inspired by this amazing piece of art by @aymmidumps, go check it out! [here]

You can also read it on [AO3]

***

Book 1: Air

Chapter 1: The Beginning

When the new cycle of the avatar begins, Nathaniel is born into the Wesninski family. His mother belongs to an ancient fire nation family, and his father is a powerful and ruthless firebender that has built his reputation working for the Moriyamas, helping taking care of unwanted resistance against their plans.

The Moriyama family is an old and very wealthy family that has gained their power through war many generations ago. They control most of the transactions with the other nations and any business in the city outside the law is also connected to them. Ichirou, head of the Moriyama family, is always looking for ways to expand their territory to have more power, so Nathaniel grows up hearing whispers of conversations in his house of their plans to make it happen. The problem is that the current council and the Firelord were wary of the idea of expanding their territories into the other nations. They didn’t wish to start a war when the fire nation is prospering like never before.

However, it doesn't take Ichirou long to realize that that isn’t reason enough to stop his plan. Nathaniel is shocked when he listens through the wall about what plan they want to put into motion: if the council and the Firelord don’t want to take part in this change in history then they would have to be taken down.

To make something like this work required careful planning and discretion so Nathaniel keeps seeing more people come and go to their house. He can feel everyone on edge, too afraid of the repercussions if their plan fails. And if the plan was to succeed, they couldn't be linked to it.That could cause the fire nation to be divided between not wanting to go to war for those who had just killed their Firelord and the ones who supported the idea. And a civil war was not the purpose of it. Ichirou needed the full support of the fire nation to bring his plan to life. And he needed someone they could manipulate as Firelord so that they could then use the full army to conquer the other nations.

Time continues to pass and even though there’s no big developments on how to achieve this plan, regular meetings keep happening. One winter night a reunion is held at the Wesninskis’ house that has the presence of most of the advisors of Ichirou, and that caughts Nathaniel’s attention. So once the reunion starts he goes to the stairs to listen in. The advisors don’t waste time and are quick to explain their newest idea to form the Ravens, an elite team of skilled firebenders trained to serve them as private, disposable soldiers that could execute the plan when the time came. Tetsuji, Ichirou’s uncle, will run the academy. Training young firebenders owned by them under the disguise of being a private restricted school.

Before the reunion is over his father walks out of the room and Nathaniel is caught listening in. He has never seen him more furious. Nathan has a murderous expression on his face as he drags Nathaniel down the stairs spitting insults and threats for him to never embarrass him ever again. Nathan throws him against the wall and attacks him. It all happens so fast that Nathaniel only has the time to put his arm up to shield his face when the fire hits him.

***

Months pass, and Nathaniel knows that the Moriyama family is growing impatient because of the lack of results. And he knows that that didn’t bode well for either him or his mother: his father frustrations were often released on them. At least it meant that they hadn’t come up with a way to dethrone the current Firelord without causing complete chaos over their nation.

However, everything changes when Nathaniel arrives home from school one day and the fire sages are waiting for him. They declare him to be the next avatar and shock runs through him. Nathaniel doesn’t know how to process what he has just heard so he looks around the living room. He can see that his mother is trying to disguise it but he knows what that look means: she’s terrified of what this could mean. His father, though—his father is smiling coldly at him, showing all his teeth, and that’s what really scares Nathaniel too.

When the Fire sages leave, Nathan takes him into the Moriyamas’ academy and goes to talk to Tetsuji while Nathaniel waits outside the door. Nathaniel looks around and notices a boy with dark hair train firebending on the field to his side. The boy must be his around his age and seems to be practicing advanced movements. Nathaniel moves to the side to be able to watch him more closely and as he moves he begins to hear his father’s voice in the background. He scans the building and notices a window on the far corner and continues to walk towards it. He doesn’t take more than two steps when his father’s voice begins to rise and Nathaniel starts to understand what he’s hearing and realizes that it’s not anger that’s making his father raise his voice, quite the contrary.

“If it’s the avatar conquering in his name, what do you think the firelord will do? Refuse the new territories?” Nathan throws in the air. And Nathaniel feels like an ice bucket of water has been thrown at him. They want him to start a war?

“No, he will not,” Tetsuji agrees. Nathaniel cannot believe what he’s hearing. He looks around feeling panic rise in him and that’s when he notices another boy getting closer to him with a cold expression on his face.

“A new era will soon start, Admiral.” Tetsuji continues. Nathaniel steps away from the window in direction to the boy. “Ichirou will be very pleased to hear this. You must go now. I will call and emergency meeting to tell him about it.”

The boy steps closer, and looks down at him.“ Are you coming to study here too? I’m the best student they have here.”

Nathaniel looks up and instantly dislikes the look of arrogance the boy has. “I’m not sure,” he answers.

“I’m Riko, and you are?”

A door opens and they both look to the side. His father exists and keeps walking. “Lets go, Nathaniel.” Nathaniel is quick to jog to catch him. And when he’s about the exit the property gates he glances at the building once again and sees Riko still watching him. And Nathaniel hopes he never sees him again.

On the same day that Nathaniel finds out that he’s the new avatar, Mary takes him away and they vanish.

***

Nathan is quick to send his most trusted soldiers to find them and bring them back. Through the years Mary and Nathaniel have had a few close calls but always manage to escape them. But Lola and her team are persistent and eventually one morning comes when they’re finally caught.

That morning, Nathaniel is walking back from the lake when he hears an explosion. His mother had still been asleep when he left not too long ago. Fear and panic settle in and he starts to run toward the house they have been staying in.

He starts to see the flames and the smoke rising to the sky. As he gets closer, he sees Lola’s team circling the house, and freezes. From where he is he can see Lola’s cold grin. “He must be close, search the woods,” she shouts to the others.

Nathaniel starts to feel his control slip away as rage overpowers him. They’ve found them, and he quickly realizes that her gloating means only one thing: his mother is inside the burning house.

In a moment his control is gone. Nathaniel feels power run through him like never before. All of a sudden he’s getting higher into the air, moving fast towards Lola and the others. The earth shatters to his will and boulders begin to rise, then he throws them to where they are staying. Lola and the others start to run to find cover and try to block his attacks and that's when they see him flying towards them. Nathaniel can see the hesitation in their eyes when they realize what is happening, but they don’t run. They start to fight, shooting blasts of fire at him but Nathaniel can easily predict their movements and easily block their attacks as well, using all the elements. And one by one Nathaniel knocks them out unconscious. Lola is the last one still standing but even she can't fight him like this and soon he sends her towards the wall of the burning house, knocking her out too.

Nathaniel regains control over his body and drops to his knees, feeling weak. He looks at all the destruction around him in shock. Uprooted trees are thrown around and the house is still burning, creating a big dark cloud above his head. The smoke in the air is making it difficult to breathe, and three unconscious bodies are scattered around the area.

And his mother is gone.

Nathaniel tries to calm down. He clenches his fists and bites his lip until he can taste the blood. For a moment he just stares at Lola’s unconscious body in front of him, wishing that he had killed her. Wishing he was strong enough to get up now and do it. He knows he’s just entered the avatar state, but it wasn’t on purpose, and he had no control of what he was doing at that moment.

He hates that he was the new avatar now more than ever before. He didn’t ask for it. He can’t even control it. That power inside of him just got his mother killed. And now he is all alone.

Nathaniel begins to cough and slowly gets up. He spares a moment to look at the unforgiving fire burning down the house and turns around. His mother is gone. There's nothing he can do for her now. He runs back towards the lake. Tears start rolling down his face but he pays them no attention. He needs to get as far away from this place as he can. Lola and her team will wake up soon enough and he needs to put as much distance between them before that.

Nathaniel begins to run, on his mind the constant reminder of what his mother kept telling him when they managed to dodge his father’s men: never stop running.

So he runs, and runs, until he finally approaches the nearest village. There he looks for an ostrich horse to steal. Once he finds one tied near a fence with no one around, he jumps on his back and pushes it to run as fast as it can through the night. Tears keep falling down but he keeps going. Because stopping means he is going to get captured and delivered to his father. It means he is going to be punished for running away, and be sent to train as a Raven. It means he would be forced to start a war. And he would rather die too than let that happen.

#myfic #aftg #neil josten #andrew minyard #andreil #atla!au #atla au #nathaniel wesninski #avatar #tfc

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littlemisssquiggles · 5 years

Note

Sooo, I'm in love with the theory that Ruby's silver eyes destroy Salem's connection with the grimm+ the pools so she turns to humanity to start a second Great War. It also lets me expand my personal theory on Cinder: she's going to usurp Salem as the big bad. Right now, it's being foreshadowed that the only way to beat Salem is to redeem her; meanwhile Cinder is trying to gather as much power as she can; heck, she might find a few drops of the pools left and grimmify herself- role reversal!

Firstly, I’m pleased to hear that youliked the idea Miki-chan. Secondly, alright, if I may be honest with you here I have toconfess something. I actually don’t think Cinder has a chance of remaining a poignant character in RWBY. I mean in the sense that I’m quite torn on what’s next for her given the way the Writers’ have portrayed her side of the story up until thisvery point in the series.

Similar to you, I used to share in the theory that Cinder would ultimately rise up and replace Salem as the ultimate big-bad of RWBY. As a matter of fact, I used to be of the opinion that that’s part of why Salem was grooming Cinder. In the past, I figured Salem had taken Cinder as her apprentice to nurture her into becoming either a) her next successor or b) her next vessel.

This was way back when my theory was that Salem was some kind of face-stealing intelligent Grimm that has lived for centuries by stealing the bodies of its victims. I figured Cinder was someone Salem was going to eventually turn into her next vessel. Almost like a darker version of what becomes of the Wizards during their reincarnation cycle. I figured Salem was just like Ozpin—she’s been changing her face over the years but whereas Oz was sympathetic of taking control of his successors, Salem would force her way. She would find her vessels, groom them to her liking and when the time comes for her to reincarnate, she would forcibly take over her successors bodies replacing their minds with her own—like a parasite.

That’s what I though Salem was. Her being an invincible immortal was way out of what I pegged. So yeah, I thought Cinder was going to become Salem in a way.

But as of V6, I have not the slightest clue what the Writers’ intentions for Cinder’s story are and I’ve also lost faith in her actually getting a proper progression with her side of the narrative. With the way how the Writers have positioned Salem as this invincible force, I can’t picture anyone usurping her since they’ve placed her on this pedestal where she literally can’t be dethroned. Because of the direction the show has taken with both Salem and Cinder, I can see one of the following:

Cinder is given the Adam Taurus treatment where she is unceremoniously killed off during the events of the Atlas Trilogy. This is why this squiggle meister has shied off from any theories that suggest Cinder having any kind of ongoing story including a redemption arc. Nothing against the fans and theorists who want this to happen, it’s just that after watching the Writers play character assassination paddy cake with Cinder for the entirety of the Mistral Arc, I’ve lost hope for her.

Personally, speaking for myself mostly here, I never saw Cinder as a character worthy of redemption. Again, nothing against the folks who believe this. I just don’t see it for Cinder since in my opinion, redemption arcs should go to characters who’ve shown a shred of remorse or doubt for their past actions. This has not been the case with Cinder. Not once has she revealed a side of her that’s regret anything she’s done.

This leads me to believe that Cinder’s downfall will her megalomaniac personality. Her lust for power is going to continue to consume her until it ultimately brings her to her final curtain call. As a matter of fact, twice over, Cinder’s power hungry ways has brought her to her own demise.

In V3, her pursuit of the Fall Maiden magic resulted in her killing the original Fall Maiden, Professor Ozpin and Pyrhha and the karma from those murders resulted in her losing her arm and eye thanks to Ruby awakening her Silver Eyes for the first time.

In V5, Cinder’s pursuit of the Spring Maiden magic resulted in her losing to Raven and being frozen alive before plummeting to her second alleged death.

But as we saw from V6, Cinder survived that ordeal scotch free and is well on her way to Atlas on the assumption that she is going to have another fated rematch with either Ruby Rose and/or Oscar Pine.

Huh. 3, 5…7? Am I sensing a pattern here? At this point, after baiting her death two times, either the CRWBY Writers kill off Cinder for good in V7 or…continue to drag her character around while doing very little to progress her character and story while providing the audience with more incentive to question why she’s being kept around.

What is Cinder’s purpose?

I thought she might replace Salem but if Salem can’t be killed and Salem has sort of disowned her as of V6, seriously what is Cinder’s purpose now? What hope is there for her now to be kept in the story?

Really sorry to all the Cinder fans but, to me, Cinder feels like another villain with wasted potential at the moment and I have this sad gut feeling that she’s going to get the same treatment as Adam Taurus.

While the end to her story might be fitting (being defeated by the combined efforts of Ruby, Oscar and possibly Jaune and having her be stripped of her Maiden magic by Oscar, an incarnate of Oz and the rightful wielder of said power), Cinder might get killed off before the audience could even get a chance to learn more about her. I feel like that might happen given the weird way the Writers have treated the villains these past volumes.

However…

Since I’m someone who often likes to toss out ideas to the FNDM, I’m going to toy with an idea I have right here. A headcanon of how this squiggle meister thinks Cinder can be salvaged for the future of RWBY.

You might even like this one Miki-chan since it encompasses one or two things you wanted to see done for Cinder.

Hear me out:

Let’s say…by the end of V7 or whenever during the Atlas Arc, Cinder isdefeated. Neo betrays her and Ruby Rose isn’t killed. As I said, Cinder isstripped of her Maiden magic by Oscar and is left completely powerless and at the heroes’ disposal.

Imagine this as Cinder’s lowest moment yet as she is forced to kneel before her enemies. Like how Pyrhha was made to kneel in her final moments. Despite her weakened state, Cinder’s pride forces her to fight against her enemies restraints but to no avail.

Out of the crowd, Jaune walks up to Cinder. This provides the perfect opportunity for Jaune to finally get justice for Pyrhha—the justice he tried to get back in V5 during the Battle of Haven.

But rather than enacting his revenge, Jaune does the opposite. He shows Cinder mercy. He refuses to kill her. He doesn’t give her the satisfaction of staining his hands with her blood and instead looks back at her in pity.

Jaune decides to leave Cinder be since in her feeble state, Jaune saw heras less of a threat. No longer worthy of his wrath and he even quotes that Pyrhha wouldn’t wish for him to fall to the same level as Cinder.

Jaune’s anger toward Cinder over Pyrhha’s death nearly made him into a monster. This wasn’t the boy Pyrhha knew and no one, not even the likes of Cinder Fall was going to make Jaune become less of who he was. Not anymore. Cinder is shown pity by her enemies and such a feat angers her to no end.

After all, let me remind you of a quote from Cinder from V3.

‘I want to be strong. I want to be feared’.

Cinder desired power so that she could become someone whose power made her feared in the eyes of others. Cinder saw power as her ticket to making her formidable. A somebody in the world to possibly contrast her previous lifestyle that made he feel less of a person, perhaps?

So for another time in her life, Cinder finds herself back at the beginning. At her lowest. Alone. Powerless. A nobody that even her enemies saw more fit for pity than fear.

If this happens and Cinder is left completely powerless but spared, my headcanon is that the Geist Grimm arm attached to Cinder’s body will fully corrupt her, turning Cinder into a Grimm-human hybrid. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. A Grimm in human skin.

And since Cinder is part Geist, this grants her the creature’s unique ability to possess other things. And since Cinder is part human, her Geist abilities enables her to steal the form of other humans.

So that’s how Cinder is able to escape again. She ends up walking right out of custody by possessing the body of a guard or something. When outside, she discards this human skin and goes in search of another body to steal.

I even have this dark idea of Cinder stealing Neo’s body. Since I can’t think of any other way that the Writers might wish to keep Neo in the story outside of being redeemed (y’know becoming the General Jinjur of RWBY, falling in love with Henry Marigold and having her happily ever after with him somehow).

And with Cinder becoming part human, part Grimm, this adds to your idea of her gaining control of Grimm and becoming their new leader in Salem’s place after she’d been cleansed by Ruby’s Silver Eyes. Imagine the Grimm coming to see Cinder as their new leader since her Geist Grimm half makes her one of them.

I figured the Grimm saw Salem as one of their own since she crawled out of the same dark Grimm Pools that made the Grimm.

So why wouldn’t the Grimm see Cinder as one of their own should she shed her human skin and become all Grimm—well mostly Grimm. A Grimm in human skin.

No need for her to bathe herself in a Grimm Pool. Since she failed to gain power to dominate the humans, Cinder becoming a complete Grimmoire (my fanon name for Grimm-human hybrids basically) gives her an advantage. She dominates the Grimm, showing her superiority by positioning herself as an Alpha among the Grimm.

Heck! Perhaps becoming a Grimmoire even enables Cinder tocommunicate with the Grimm. Speak to them. Hear their voice. Understand the Grimm in ways that even Salem never did. And by becoming the Grimm’s Alpha—their Queen, that’s how Cinder will become feared. Not through Maiden Magic but through becoming a Grimm in human form—the very personification of fear leading her newfound armies to do her bidding.

I’m not sure what Cinder’s goal would be after becoming a Grimmoire. Basically if she becomes a Grimmoire, she’d be the embodiment of what she desired. As Qrow Branwen once said. The Grimm are fear. So if Cinder becomes the Grimmoire and turns into the new Queen of the Grimm—she’d be fear itself too.

Oh! Oh! And do you know what would even more awesome? Imagine if…by being part Geist and Geists are able to take possession of other things, what if Cinder gets the idea to grow her Grimm army by making more of her.

For the Game of Thrones fans, remember the Night King and the White Walkers?

Imagine if Cinder ends up becoming something akin to the Night King? A Grimm-human hybrid whose Geist Grimm abilities allowed her to possess the bodies of the dead.

So imagine Cinder leading an army of the Grimm and dead humans she’d reanimated with her Geist abilities. I know this last bit is a huge stretch but…think about it?

It’s a way to make Cinder a bigger big bad than Salem? Oh!Oh! And it can also be another huge burst of irony. Remember what Salem told Ozma when he told her about the Gods’ Judgement? Salem wanted to bring about the end of the world so that her and Ozma could replace humanity with their magical off-spring or something to that extent.

Imagine if…after becoming a Grimmoire, Cinder decides to make all of Remnanther kingdom. She desires to convert all of Remnant into her World of Death. A complete Grimm World under her reign.

Imagine if…the second Great War and Salem’s second attempt at using humanity to kill the Gods or even the Gods’ Judgment becomes less of a threat when Cinder decides to turn her Grimm army on humanity and use them to pillage and kill in order to grow her armyof death and destruction.

Imagine if Cinder becomes the big powerful fearful threat that everyone inRemnant cease everything to band together to stop since she and her army can literally kill everyone and turn them into one of her. I mean she’s not as indestructible as Salem was. Her fear factor isn’t that she can’t be killed because she’s immortal.

Making Salem immortal actually made her less interesting of a villain to me if I’m being honest. She can’t be defeated because she literally has a magical thingamabobble (that the Brother Gods’ rather foolishly bestowed upon her and idiotically never revoked from her after abandoning Remnant with the monster they created) that’s preventing the main heroes from destroying her. To me, if Cinder is to replace Salem as the biggest threat in RWBY, I like the idea of her still being vulnerable in some way but her fear factor is that she’s difficult to kill.

Not because she’s immortal. But because her power, strength and overall cunning makes her a formidable opponent who forces our heroes to become, not only stronger, but smarter if they stood any chance of killing her. I like a villain that challenges our heroes in that kind of way. But that’s just me.

I originally pegged that the reasonSalem survived for so long was because she was cunning. Especially more cunning than Ozma and his reasons for never defeating Salem up until this point was because she would always find a way to outsmart him and thwart his plans no matter how much he tried to plan ahead. That could’ve been interesting.

But nah. Salem survived so long cause immortality that the Gods stupidly gave to her as punishment for tricking them even though she tried to kill them. Who gives someone who tried to kill you the power to not be killed? I mean….

Anyways, moving along! If Cinder replaces Salem, let her be formidable through the same strength and intimidation tactics that was originally meant for Salem…but done better.

Seriously picture Cinder becoming RWBY’sversion of the Night King. Like a Queen of Darkness or the Red Queen. Cinder the Red Queen sounds kind of cool, in my opinion.

I know, this is all one big stretch of a squiggly theory. But…think about it? If Cinder is destined to become a character like that then I wouldn’t mind hoping on board with it. Buuuuuuut it’s up to the real Writers’ of RWBY.

Overall, what do you think of the concept?

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #cinder fall #rwby salem #rwby theories #miki-13 #squiggles answers #cinder headcanons

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avrelia · 4 years

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I have several thoughts about the most recent announcement of the next graphic novel in the AtLA universe: the solo adventures of Katara.

First of all, I am happy to read a story about Katara, written by Faith Erin Hicks – and as she tells on her twitter how much fun she had writing it, I am genuinely excited for the book, will pre-order and wait patiently. I know my kids will love it, and Faith Erin Hicks is an author I trust to tell a good story and get the character right. So, they’ll get my money, no questions asked.

The format of a “solo” adventure seems cool, too, as we don’t have to find things to do for characters who don’t belong in this story.

But I keep thinking about the general publishing strategies. It seems the length of the cycle for one book is about two years. Right now we know nothing about publishing plans, and in the extremely uncertain times of the pandemic I wouldn’t say much about my plans, either. But I hope that they do have more books planned already, by different writers, about different characters set in different times.

I mean, it seems that the target audience for the most supplemental comics is children ages 6 to 14. They are the happiest to read more adventures of their favorite characters staying the same age forever. The problem is that the children themselves grow up, and they are not going to wait for ten years for more of the same. As they grow older, they might want to know what happens when people move out of their teens. So far, it seems that the answer is: they grow old and die, because we only have vague ideas of what they were up to in their adult lives.

Avatar the last Airbender premiered 15 years ago. Its first viewers are in their 20s now, and new generations of kids – and their parents – are falling in love with the series. If anything, it proved it’s staying power and appeal for the diverse audience.

But a big part of this audience what to explore the rich and detailed world of the Avatar beyond the five main characters during one year of their lives.

A novel devoted to Kyoshi was awesome and expanded the world painting a believable picture of the world four centuries before the events of the series. It was addressed more to the older teen audience and seemed to be met with almost unanimous praise. We want to learn something new about the characters or the world. Of course, the previous three part comics are not universally loved, but they present a brave attempt to look at the world after the war and show new problems our beloved characters will be grappling with. They were not afraid to show them make mistakes and grow – as teenagers normally do.

Are we now stuck in forever loop of same time, same place? Are we going to explore other characters, also beloved? Or will the solo novels also pretend Suki never existed, for example?

Yes, I know that the attention of the creators are in the live adaptation, as it should be. But it’s also ultimately more of the same, and I so want to see something new – in the same world. Maybe a Suki solo book. Or solo Katara adventure set after the events of the Imbalance comic. Or Aang’s before the war. Or Kanna’s journey from North to South. Or Mai and Ty Lee and Azula being at school. Or Mai anything. I really want to know how Fire Nation is doing several years after the war – we didn’t see it with Korra, and probably won’t ever see it again. Or… I mean, anyone can come up with a number of ideas that might work. And to get one book about nothing new in every two-three years would be disappointing. I really want to learn something knew about the world I love and the characters I love, and see them change themselves and change the world. But for now it seems, the only way I can get through my own imagination. Still. An official Suki novel would be awesome.

#atla #ATLA: Comics

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mdelpin · 5 years

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The Red Dragon - Chapter 13

Gratsu Bingo 2019 Prompt: Alarm AO3 | FF.Net | Tumblr: Chapter 1 | Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Natsu woke up to find he'd tangled his limbs with Gray's as they slept, just as they had as children. This time, however, he didn't have to be afraid of the other's reaction. They were both exactly where they wanted to be.

Natsu's smile was full of affection. Even though it had taken them years, they'd finally come full circle. He watched over Gray as he slept, loving how his nose wrinkled as he dreamed. It was so peaceful and cute, and Natsu knew he could spend hours watching Gray like this and never grow tired of it.

He carefully moved some hair out of Gray's face, and the ice mage began to stir. His eyes twitched behind his eyelids, and soon, they were blinking awake.

"Morning," Gray said groggily, eyes still heavy with sleep. He studied how their bodies were connected, and instead of pulling away, he snuggled closer and closed his eyes again.

"Morning, Droopy Eyes," Natsu greeted fondly, "Shouldn't we be getting up?"

Even though he'd rather do anything but go to work, he remembered Gray mentioning Erza had demanded he go.

"Uh-uh, I want to enjoy this, Erza's going to be pissed at us no matter what. We might as well at least deserve it." Gray squinched his eyes stubbornly shut.

"I can't argue with that," Natsu grinned as he slowly turned his body to face his boyfriend.

The movement caused Gray to open his eyes reluctantly. He gazed at Natsu's face, eyes moving slowly down until they came to rest on his boyfriend's luscious lips. Natsu licked them nervously, and Gray wasted no time, leaning in for a kiss. They spent the next ten minutes experimenting and finding what they liked best.

Natsu was enthralled, he really liked this tingly warmth that coursed through his body, it burned, but it was so enjoyable. Much different from any heat he'd ever experienced through his magic.

A strange yet familiar scent wafted into his nose, and he stiffened prompting Gray to stop what he was doing and glance at him in confusion.

"So, you two dumbasses finally got your act together," a sardonic voice came from the entrance of Natsu's room. "About damn time."

Gray groaned as he recognized it but made no move to cover himself. "Lyon, what are you doing here?"

"Erza sent me to get you when you didn't show up for your shift," Lyon informed his brother, "She's not happy with either of you."

"Well, message received, you can go now," Gray attempted to get rid of his brother so he could go back to the new thrill of making out with Natsu.

"No can do little brother. She asked me to escort you back, and I'd rather not piss her off."

"Yep, Lyon's already whipped, and he's not even dating her," Gray grinned at Natsu who chuckled.

"Oh please, she's got all of you whipped," Gajeel entered Natsu's room as well, carrying a bag of food from the local bakery, "Here you go, losers. Don't get used to it," he said gruffly.

"Jeel, I didn't know you cared," Natsu grinned at the dragon slayer.

"I don't, I was up early and happened to remember you didn't eat anything yesterday," Gajeel muttered, "Just… don't scare Wendy like that again."

"I won't," Natsu promised as he got up and gave the burly slayer a hug, which was returned although somewhat reluctantly.

"Now hurry up, Red wants to have a strategy meeting."

"Can you keep this to yourselves for now?" Natsu asked Lyon and Gajeel, "We haven't had a chance to discuss how public we want to be."

Both guards agreed, even though Lyon stared at Natsu warily. Gajeel, however, pointed out that since he didn't care anyway, it wouldn't be a problem.

Natsu and Gray got ready quickly, and Gray did his best to ignore Lyon's snickers at seeing him wearing Sting's clothes as they headed out with the other two guards.

They wolfed down the food Gajeel had brought them as they walked behind Lyon and Gajeel, all four of them bickering the whole way down.

O-o

Natsu and Gray entered Erza's office. Natsu had turned quiet as soon as they'd reached the field, not looking forward to the interrogation he was sure was in his future. Something else had been bothering him, and he didn't quite know what he should do about it.

"Natsu," Erza greeted him coolly as she gave him a once over, "I trust you're feeling better?"

Natsu ran his fingers through his hair nervously. "Yeah, Wendy was able to heal me completely."

"Can you go get the others?" Erza requested, fixing her gaze on Gray, who left to search for the other guards.

Erza waited until Gray was out of earshot before asking the one question that had kept her up most of the previous night. "Was it a dragon attack?"

Natsu nodded, "I was attacked by a Silver Dragon, he caught me by surprise on my way home."

Erza stared at him in horror, remembering how serious his injuries had been, while also thinking about what could have happened if Natsu hadn't encountered the dragon first.

"How are you holding up?" Erza asked worriedly, "Wendy mentioned you had some sort of incident last night?"

"I had a pretty bad nightmare," Natsu admitted and then muttered, "At least I hope that's what it was."

Erza narrowed her eyes at his words but decided to wait until the others arrived. From what Wendy had told her, it had sounded like Natsu hadn't given them any details.

Erza cursed under her breath but didn't ask any more questions. She paced around her office, trying to determine what the dragon attack implied for the safety of the village.

One by one, all the guards arrived and took a seat. Lyon closed the door behind Gray, who was the last to enter, taking his place next to Natsu. Sting and Wendy had already begun their shift and would have to be updated later.

"Can you finally tell us what you've been doing?" Erza asked Natsu, not really expecting him to agree.

That silver dragon had been either desperate or aggressive enough to ignore his claim, others might soon follow. For the safety of Talos, Natsu would have to put all his cards on the table, save one.

"I've been going out every night looking for evidence of any dragons in the area. I've only encountered a few, and I was able to scare them away," Natsu avoided Gray's eyes as he knew the ice mage would be freaking out right about then, but Natsu couldn't afford to keep them in the dark any longer.

"Dragons work off scent, they usually won't encroach on another dragon's territory, so every night I mark the territory that Atlas had claimed as his in the hopes that it would scare others away. I've actually expanded it quite a bit since the refugees arrived." He added proudly.

"I was returning home when a silver dragon attacked me from behind. It was able to paralyze me with a spell before he attacked with his ice, but I was able to injure him and get away." Natsu explained, "He shouldn't return, but others might."

"Paralyzed you with a spell?" Rogue asked, and Natsu could see the tension in his friend's shoulders. Even though all the dragon slayers had learned and practiced with their dragons, like Natsu, they'd never been in a real fight. He could only hope that their initial reaction was better than his had been. Rogue's shadows would probably work to his advantage. He looked over at Gajeel and to his surprise, the Iron Dragon Slayer looked calm, if anything his features looked more determined than ever.

"I don't understand any of this," Erza complained, "How are you even able to mark like a dragon?"

"Atlas taught me a spell, it can only be cast by a fire dragon or a fire dragon slayer, it lets me do the marking and move swiftly," Natsu improvised quickly, "That's why no one else could help me. "

"That's changed though, Happy went out on patrol with me last night, and he's willing to continue helping, I just have to teach him what's needed."

"Who's Happy?' Erza asked in confusion.

"Happy is the red dragon Sting, Lyon and I attacked," Gray answered dully.

"He's also the one who brought Natsu to us after he was injured," Rogue added, keeping his eyes on Natsu as he seemed to be thinking about something.

"I was lucky he found me," Natsu said with sincerity, "There's no way I would have been able to make it back home on my own."

Natsu could feel Gray's distress at his words through their bond and cursed himself for sharing that.

"So we have one dragon on our side, are there any others?" Erza asked eyeing the dragon slayers hopefully.

The three dragon slayers all shook their heads, as far as they knew all the other dragons had already left to fight.

"There's one more thing, and I hesitate to mention it, but I feel like I need to," Natsu had thought about this all the way down. Once he'd calmed down, he'd realized there was something about that dream that troubled him.

It had felt like Atlas had been trying to communicate with him. Natsu wasn't sure if that was likely, but he knew that Atlas had a lot of magic at his disposal, so it was at the very least possible, and it had felt so real.

"It's about my dream. It was about the war, there was a dragon slayer, a renegade one, and he was going after our parents. Atlas was protecting Metalicana, Grandine, Weisslogia, and Skiadrum who looked to be already injured, but the dragon slayer was going after Igneel. Atlas was trying to get to him when I woke up."

Natsu couldn't look at any of the dragon slayers, he already knew what he would see.

"It was just a dream, Natsu, "Rogue reminded him stiffly, "It wasn't real."

Natsu could hear the cautious hope in his friend's voice, and he hoped with all his might that Rogue was right, that he was just overreacting to a very vivid dream, but in his heart, he knew differently. He wanted nothing more than to take off and find them, but he'd made a promise to his father, and he intended to keep it.

"You mentioned renegade dragon slayers last night too," Gray stated, sounding confused, "What are they?"

"Igneel told me about them before he left. Renegade is the name given to dragon slayers that betray the dragons after receiving their magic. They kill all dragons, regardless of what side they're on and they use their blood to make themselves more powerful."

"Irene had identified several, and Igneel and the others went to try to take them out once and for all," Erza gasped at the mention of her mother.

"Why didn't you tell us any of this before?" Gajeel glared at him, his red eyes glowing dangerously.

"I didn't want to worry you," Natsu had often thought about telling them, but he'd decided it wouldn't help anything, worse they might begin to worry that it could happen to them as well. Atlas and Igneel had assured him that wasn't likely so he'd tried to protect his friends as best he could.

"Did you see my mother in your dream?" Erza demanded while staring at Natsu, wanting to make sure he wasn't keeping anything from her.

"I'm sorry, Erza. I didn't," Natsu said honestly, "That doesn't mean anything though, she could have been somewhere else. I could also be completely wrong about all this."

Erza took a moment to digest the information, "It's official then. We need to prepare for the worst."

"I'm sorry, Lyon," Erza announced, "We'll have to call off the festival," She smiled at the ice mage briefly, and wanting to soften the blow she added, "Perhaps soon, we can plan for a victory one."

She remained quiet for a few minutes staring at all of them thoughtfully before barking orders out.

"Lyon and Gray, I want you to go to the refugee camps and let them know we're looking for recruits. If they don't have magic, I want you to train them in hand to hand. If they do send them to Sting to train. I'll talk to him as soon as he returns. I'm counting on the three of you to whip our new recruits into shape."

Both ice mages nodded in agreement, it had been a while since they'd been assigned to work together. Gray looked at Natsu wistfully, all hopes of stolen moments shattered, but he knew what he and Lyon would be doing was important.

"I'll have Wendy and the healer train some others, it will be crucial to have more healers on hand."

"Natsu, you're off regular rotation. You will focus exclusively on your patrols," Erza barked, "I want you to teach this Happy what he needs to know, and I want someone to go with you as a backup. No more surprise attacks."

"Gajeel, I want you to go with N-" Erza didn't even get a chance to finish her order.

"Rogue, I'll take Rogue." Natsu quickly interrupted Erza before she could assign Gajeel the job of being his backup. Natsu didn't particularly relish the idea of having anyone with him but considering what they would discover he had to pick the most level headed of the male dragon slayers and that was Rogue. Natsu was a bit concerned about his entanglement with Sting, but he hoped that if he explained the situation, Rogue would agree not to share his secret.

Rogue raised an eyebrow at him, Natsu knew that it would seem an unusual choice for him to make for something like this. Although they were friends, he and Rogue had never been particularly close.

Erza seemed surprised as well but shrugged it off, "Gajeel, you and I will analyze the town's defenses and find ways to improve them. We will also come up with an evacuation plan should it be needed."

Gajeel nodded, but his eyes never left Natsu, who steadfastly refused to meet his gaze. The meeting was adjourned, and everyone left Erza's office.

Natsu and Rogue were headed home when Natsu felt Gray tug his arm. He sent Rogue ahead telling him he'd catch up with him in a few minutes.

"Don't do anything stupid," Gray looked worried, and Natsu hated that he was the reason for it.

"Hey, relax. I've done this every day for a long time now." He smiled in a way that he hoped was reassuring, "I always come back."

"Promise me."

"You know I can't do that," Natsu reasoned, "I can promise you this. If it's within my power to do so, I will always come back to you. Besides, there are a lot of firsts in our future, I wouldn't want to miss any of them." Natsu winked and smirked at the blush that Gray wasn't able to hide.

"I was thinking about hand-holding, you Pervy Popsicle," Natsu teased, "What were you thinking about?"

"S-same," Gray replied unconvincingly.

"You're a horrible liar, Snowflake," Natsu pressed his forehead to Gray's, "Meet me at the field later, we can hold hands and watch the sunset. Does that sound good?"

When Gray nodded, Natsu gave him a quick kiss and ran off to catch up with Rogue. He had to figure out the best way to tell Rogue his secret and convince him not to tell anyone, especially Sting.

O-o

"So how big of an area are we talking about?" Rogue asked as they neared the cave. So far, they had stayed away from any weighted topics, but Natsu was well aware that he wouldn't be able to do that for much longer.

He was terrified, he didn't think Rogue would run away from him, but it still frightened him to have anyone know what he was.

"Hundreds of miles," Natsu replied honestly.

"But how, how are you able to travel those distances in one night?" Rogue looked shocked, "What kind of spell did Atlas teach you?"

"Look, Rogue, before I show you anything, I really need you to promise me that you won't tell anyone about this. Not even Sting."

"Natsu, you're asking me to keep something from my mate. I'd never ask you to keep anything from Gray," Rogue watched Natsu's reaction closely and when one wasn't forthcoming pressed, "He is your mate isn't he?"

"Yeah, he is," Natsu agreed readily, "But this is something that he can't know, at least not yet."

"I wouldn't be asking you if it weren't important," Natsu could see Rogue was curious, but he didn't want to do or say anything more until he could extract a promise.

"I'll consider it, that's the best answer I can give you."

Natsu looked at Rogue with frustration, maybe he'd made a mistake in picking him. Gajeel might have been the better choice, after all.

"HAPPY?" Natsu yelled out, smiling as he heard the young dragon come flying out of his bedroom and land in the main room.

"Naaatsuuuu!" Happy greeted the dragon slayer cheerfully.

"This is Rogue," Natsu introduced the Shadow Dragon Slayer to the wyrmling, "He will be coming on patrols with us."

"Pleased to meet you, son of Skiadrum," Happy attempted to bow, but he was too excited at the prospect of going out again to be able to manage it properly.

Rogue chuckled at the dragon's eagerness, liking him right away. "The pleasure is all mine." He bowed to the dragon." You may call me Rogue."

Natsu led them to the rear entrance of the cave and climbed on Happy, he motioned for Rogue to climb on behind him and hold on. "We'll just fly around and keep an eye out to start with. I want to see what it looks like in the daytime."

Happy took off, and Natsu explained to the two of them in great detail the things that he regularly kept an eye out for. He was enjoying riding Happy, it had been a while since he'd ridden any dragon.

Natsu preferred flying himself, but as a child, he'd loved riding Igneel, and when riding Atlas, there was always a snack, much to his uncle's dismay.

He felt a sharp pain across his chest as he once again thought about his family. Were his father and uncle okay? Had it all just been a very realistic dream prompted by his attack? Natsu had no way of knowing.

They were almost at the edge of his territory when Rogue finally spoke. He had been quiet for most of the ride, and Natsu's nerves had finally settled.

"Do you really think Skiadrum's in trouble?" Rogue asked, his grip on Natsu tightening.

Natsu could still see Igneel and feel the terror Atlas had experienced as the renegade dragon slayer had transformed and come straight at his brother, could see the battered bodies of the other four dragons he had come to know as family. He shuddered and tried to clear his mind of the image.

"I really don't know what to think anymore, all I know is it felt real," Natsu replied honestly.

"They've been gone for so long, sometimes I think they're never coming back." Rogue said in his matter of fact tone, "I'm worried Natsu, we've never really fought a dragon. What if we're not strong enough and everyone dies because of it?"

"You can't do any worse than I did," Natsu assured him, "When that dragon paralyzed me, I panicked. I just froze and waited for it to finish me off. Then I heard Igneel's voice urging me to keep my head," Natsu frowned, still disappointed in himself. "Even when he's not here he's still saving my ass."

"I guess none of us will know how we'll react until it happens, but I think you'll do better than you think," Natsu encouraged his friend, "We are our parents' children after all, and they trained us for this. When the time comes, I think we'll be fine."

Rogue stared at him for a bit and then gave him a small nod, accepting Natsu's words. "Is it time for you to start marking yet?"

Right. Natsu took a deep breath and braced himself for what was coming. "Happy can you set us down for a moment?"

Happy found an open field to land on and touched down gently. Natsu climbed down and stretched his limbs a bit before calling out to his magic. He turned towards Rogue and before he had a chance to chicken out transformed into his dragon form.

Natsu faced Rogue silently, wings stretched out behind him, letting his friend see him for who he was. Rogue climbed down from Happy and stared at him open-mouthed, taking in the red scales that covered most of his body, and the lighter colored skin that highlighted the tight muscles of his chest and underbelly.

Natsu turned around, showing the black spikes that ran down his back to the tip of his tail. He swished it, and Rogue's eyes were immediately drawn to it. Natsu had seen himself reflected in the water as he flew over it and he knew that he looked like a smaller version of Igneel, down to the horn on his snout. The only real difference was his eyes, where Igneel's were yellow, Natsu's remained a bright green. He waited patiently for some sort of response, somehow sensing that if he spoke, it might be too much for Rogue to handle.

"Natsu?" Rogue finally blurted out, "Is that really you?"

‘Yeah, it's me," Natsu replied, his voice sounding deeper in this much more massive body.

"You look like Igneel!" Rogue exclaimed. To Natsu's surprise, Rogue came over and explored his face with his fingers before backing away, face red with mortification.

"Rogue?"

"I'm sorry, I guess I miss the dragons more than I thought," Rogue looked sheepish, but he quickly went back to evaluating Natsu's transformation, "So Atlas taught you a spell that turns you into a dragon, allowing you to mark his territory?"

Rogue was still watching him, awaiting his response and Natsu felt the weight of that gaze as he tried to decide how to answer. He hadn't given any thought to his earlier words in Erza's office, but he now realized they could be interpreted in a way that explained his transformation.

This was the moment to come clean and tell the truth. Finally, tell someone what he really was and hope they would accept him, but he wasn't ready. The promise he'd made to Igneel all those years ago still weighed heavily on him, and he was just too scared of another reaction like Gray's when they'd been young.

"Yes?" Natsu responded, taking the easy way out. He was disappointed in himself. It didn't matter that he was now able to control his transformations. That he currently had the enormous body of a young dragon, or that he was capable of taking out multiple foes on his own. Inside he was still that same child who had been brutally rejected by the one he loved most.

Even though Natsu had stated it as a question, Rogue accepted it as fact, the variation in his dragon voice hiding the uncertainty in his answer.

"I can understand why you wouldn't want Gray to know. That would be very traumatic for him." Rogue remained quiet for what felt like an age before finally adding, "As for Sting, there's no way he could keep this to himself if he knew, not to mention he'd ask for rides constantly."

Natsu snorted, Sting would definitely be excited by this development. He was only one level below Natsu in regards to his love for anything dragon-related. He'd probably nag him incessantly to teach him the "spell."

"Alright, you have my promise," Rogue said solemnly, "I will keep this between us, for now."

"Thank you," Natsu said gratefully, "We should get started."

Rogue climbed back atop Happy, and both dragons took off in the air, Natsu explaining to Happy how to secrete the substance in his saliva so that he could eventually mark as well. Rogue tried to hide his disgust as he mostly watched Natsu spit at things for the next four hours while keeping an eye out for any danger.

o-o

Gray and Lyon walked toward a refugee camp. Lyon had been giving Gray sidelong glances all morning but hadn't said anything, and it was driving Gray crazy.

"If you have something to say, just say it," Gray finally snapped, not being able to take much more of the silence.

"It's nothing, I'm just wondering why Natsu would want to keep your relationship a secret," Lyon looked straight ahead.

"He never said he did, we just haven't had a chance to discuss anything yet. He's just being careful," Gray reasoned, "We've barely been together a day."

"I suppose. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like Natsu well enough, it's just the dragonslayers are," Lyon searched for a word that explained what he was trying to say but came up empty, "different from us. I don't want to see you get hurt," He put his hands in his pockets.

Gray laughed even though he was touched by the concern, "Are you trying to be the protective older brother?"

"I'm doing no such thing," Lyon scowled, "I just know you've waited for this for a long time."

Gray had indeed been waiting for this moment for a very long time, and although he was well aware that they still had a lot to work through, he refused to let that tarnish how he felt. Just thinking about the way Natsu's lips had pressed against his was enough to put a smile on his face.

"Everything's going to be fine, Lyon," Gray assured his brother, "Now let's focus on our task."

They'd stopped at the first camp on their list as they talked and now they were looking at it in surprise. Even though it was a sunny day just about everywhere else, there was a rain cloud hovering above the camp, completely enclosing the tented space in rain showers.

"Get out! We don't want you here anymore, it hasn't stopped raining since you arrived!"

Gray and Lyon shared a look and promptly ran into the camp to find the source. They followed the yelling, which was getting more and more abusive, and now they could also hear pitiful sobbing.

"But Juvia has nowhere else to go, all the other camps have already sent her away. Please!"

Gray tried to find who this Juvia was that they were fighting over, but all he could see was a young blue-haired girl crying while a much older man was throwing what seemed to be her possessions at her with others goading him on.

"What is the meaning of this?" Gray demanded in outrage. He positioned himself in front of the crying girl getting himself drenched in the process.

Muttering could be heard among the refugees, spreading as they got a good look at Gray and Lyon, "Look at their uniforms, they're from the Village Guard."

The man who had been yelling at the girl stepped forward, "The Village Guard, thank goodness! You should arrest this girl."

"Oh?" Lyon replied, his already squinty eyes narrowing further in interest, "On what charges exactly?"

"I don't know! She's making it rain," The man explained," It never ends, everything we own is soaked through. We can never get warm, and people are starting to get sick. We took her in from another camp, but they didn't tell us this would happen."

"I think we can help you with that," Lyon smiled, remaining polite although Gray could tell he was angry at their treatment of the girl, "The war is getting closer to our borders, and we have been sent here to recruit both magic users and fighters willing to fight for the town that has so graciously offered you a place to stay. We will train you, of course, and you will be paid for your trouble."

While Lyon talked to the others, Gray turned around to get a good look at the girl. He offered her a friendly smile, trying to calm her down from the tears that seemed to have no end in sight. She studied him with big blue eyes.

"Why did you stand up for Juvia?" The blue-haired girl asked through her tears. "No one has ever defended Juvia before."

"Are you Juvia?" Gray asked, keeping his tone of voice soothing.

Juvia nodded, and Gray offered her his hand. When she took it, he pulled her to her feet. He called on his magic and created a large ice umbrella to keep them from getting pelted by the rain. She looked at his creation with surprise, her face turning crimson as she peered down at their joined hands. Gray noticed and immediately let go, not wanting to give her the wrong idea.

"I don't like bullies," Gray shrugged his actions off as routine. "My name is Gray, I'm one of the Village Guards," he explained, "We're looking for magic users like you to join us."

"You want Juvia to join you?" Juvia's face had once again become flushed, and Gray looked around for Lyon to help get him out of the somewhat uncomfortable situation, but his brother was still busy talking to the others.

"We'd like you to join the Guard yes, "He made sure to place special emphasis on the word we but it didn't seem to make any difference. "We could help you learn to control your magic so that this doesn't happen." Gray pointed to the rain that surrounded them.

"Juvia would like that," Juvia attempted to smile, but it was clear she wasn't used to it, so while it was sweet, it also looked incredibly awkward.

Gray tried to ignore the admiring looks Juvia gave him as he helped her grab her soggy possessions. He'd offered her to stay at the barracks knowing Erza probably wouldn't mind.

The rain had stopped now that the rain woman appeared to calm down some and Gray dispelled the umbrella. Gray wasn't sure how to handle the situation, so he remained silent until Lyon finally returned with a small number of men and women, all of whom looked at Juvia with distaste.

They decided to go try one more camp before heading back to headquarters to begin training.

o-o

Gray hurried towards the field, the sky had already begun to deepen, and he didn't want to be late. He was looking forward to seeing Natsu again, especially after having to spend most of the day with Juvia fawning over him. Sting's amused expression at his predicament when he'd dropped her off for training hadn't helped improve his mood any.

He felt an urgent need to reassure himself that Natsu was his to love and touch, and last night hadn't all been some sort of dream.

He'd expected Natsu to already be there, what he hadn't expected was to find a large blanket laid out on the ground covered with copious amounts of food and drink. A bouquet of red roses lay over a floor cushion. Torches were staked all around the area emitting a soft light as Natsu went around igniting them with his flames. To his surprise, Natsu looked nervous as he lit them all.

"You got me flowers?" Gray blurted out feeling slightly amused but also touched by the gesture. Natsu startled and turned around, hand still alight. Gray's eyes widened as he saw what Natsu was wearing and immediately felt underdressed. He hadn't had time to change out of his uniform.

"What are you even wearing?" Gray had never seen Natsu in anything but his guard gear, or his usual open black vest and white pants. He was wearing dark slacks with a belt and a light grey long-sleeved button-down shirt which complimented his pink hair. His scarf was wrapped around his neck as usual, and Gray couldn't help but think that Natsu looked incredible.

"I made the mistake of asking Erza what to do on a date after we finished patrol," Natsu sighed, his expression revealing the trials he'd endured. "She wouldn't stop talking about it, then she dragged me all over the village to get stuff. When we were done, she tells me she's never even been on a date, this is just what she'd always dreamed of. She never even gave me a chance to explain it wasn't for a girl," Natsu whined, even as he rolled his eyes at Erza's antics. "Then she and Anna took me shopping for clothes."

"I'll make sure to tell Lyon, you know in case he ever gets the nerve to ask her out," Gray laughed, he could easily imagine Erza getting carried away, pulling Natsu behind her and taking him to all her favorite places. It was probably a good thing too, she'd been pretty upset earlier in the day. He wondered what she would think if she knew Natsu's date was with him.

"Anyway, I hope you like it," Natsu smiled shyly, his features softened by the dancing flames of the torches and Gray's heart soared. All the stress of the day evaporated as he walked over to Natsu and hugged him.

"It looks great, and I was starving, so this is awesome! Did Erza happen to say anything about feeding me?" Gray teased as he pointed to some table grapes, just to get a rise out of the dragon slayer.

"What?! Hell no, you can feed your own damn self! "Natsu protested, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Gray shrugged and laughed, grabbing a bunch of grapes from a bowl on the blanket. He pulled one off the vine and threw it in the air before catching it in his mouth. "Too bad, that could have been fun," Gray winked as he handed Natsu some grapes.

"Shall we?" Gray pointed to the floor cushions, "The sun is about to set."

"Oh, yeah!" Natsu agreed cheerfully, although he still seemed flustered, like a kid playing at dress-up, which in all honesty he sort of was. Natsu offered Gray his hand, and he deliberately brushed his fingers on Natsu's palm, relishing the touch before lacing their fingers together and giving a firm squeeze. Natsu squeezed back, and they walked together toward the cushions.

They sat next to each other, hands still laced together. Gray picked up the bouquet of roses and examined it, smelling the flowers before setting them aside. He looked up at the sky, watching it explode in hues of pink and orange as the sun went down behind the mountains.

He soon lost interest, he could watch the sunset any day, but it wasn't often he was able to watch Natsu to his heart's content. Natsu looked over at Gray and flashed him one of his dazzling smiles before turning his gaze back to the sky.

"I haven't done this in a long time," Natsu commented as he turned his attention back to Gray, "Just sat and enjoyed something for the beauty of it."

He noticed Gray was still gazing at him and added, "You know, the night sky always reminded me of your eyes. When I was younger, I would sit outside at the entrance of the cave and look up at it, just to remind myself that you were still out there. It always made me feel less lonely."

Gray found that inexplicably touching, especially since he had thought a lot about Natsu over the years too, "I'm not sure why you would have wanted to remember me at all, after what I did."

"Are we back to that again?" Natsu grabbed some rolls and warmed them in his hand before passing one to Gray.

"You said you were sorry, even back then," Natsu reminded him, "What happened to you was terrible, and I was too young to truly understand it."

He looked down at his hands and began to shred the roll he was still holding as he talked, "When I called you back from your nightmare, I had no idea what I was doing, I was just following my instincts. Even though it worked, I somehow managed to tap into your feelings."

Natsu stared at the mess he had made, and tentatively looked up to gauge Gray's reaction. "I felt everything you did, and it was too much. I'd never experienced such pain, and when you told me what had caused it, it went against everything I knew."

"Natsu, I--."

Natsu waved away Gray's response. "Let me finish, Ice Block," He stared deep into Gray's eyes, wanting him to accept his words as truth, "I was never angry with you for what happened. Even back then, my feelings for you were already strong, but I was young and stupid and said all the wrong things, and I managed to push you away from me. It was the exact opposite of what I wanted, but I was scared and didn't know how to fix it, so I ran away, and I regretted it ever since."

"So yeah, I thought about you a lot, all the years we were apart," Natsu admitted, "but we're here now, and you need to stop feeling guilty about it. That part of our lives is over. This one," he moved his eyes down to Gray's lips and leaned forward to capture them with his, eliciting a small pleased sound from Gray before he moved back, "this one is just beginning. Now, let's eat, there are way too many things on this blanket."

They managed to eat most of the food that Natsu had brought, feeding each other although not in any way that would be considered romantic.

"Somehow, I don't think this is what Erza had in mind," Natsu managed to get out in between bursts of laughter. They were both covered in bits of food that had not quite made it anywhere near their mouths."

"Probably not, but who cares?" Gray smirked, "She can go on her own date."

Natsu snorted at that. He put his arm around Gray's shoulders, resting his head on Gray's broad shoulders as they sat quietly, enjoying the night air and each other.

"How long do you think we have until the war gets here?" Gray's voice was anxious, and after a long day spent doing nothing but thinking about that very thing, Natsu had no desire to get into it.

"There's no sense in worrying about it, let's just make the best of the time we have," Natsu said adamantly. "Besides, this is a date, and I think we've had enough serious talk for one night."

"You were doing something pleasant with your lips this morning, something like this...," Natsu playfully tackled Gray onto the now cleared blanket and demonstrated what he meant. Gray let Natsu toy with him for a few minutes before turning the tables and pinning Natsu underneath him.

"No, I think it went more like this," Gray grinned as he nibbled on Natsu's lips, using his teeth to give them a gentle bite before dipping his tongue into Natsu's mouth when he opened it in surprise. Natsu groaned, his body quickly responding to Gray's attention.

Gray continued to play, slowly removing Natsu's scarf from around his neck and tossing it on the blanket, his teeth grazing on the sensitive area. He moved away, delighting in the way Natsu grumbled at his absence.

Gray moved his hands down to Natsu's chest, his fingers attempting to unbutton the shirt that was in his way as he continued to distract Natsu with kisses. Once he'd unbuttoned the shirt, Gray's hands began to wander, touching the rugged chest and feeling the hard muscle underneath.

He tweaked one of Natsu's nipples between his fingers, loving the feel of Natsu writhing in pleasure beneath him before boldly exploring the other with his mouth.

He couldn't get enough of Natsu, the smell of whatever cologne Erza had forced on him was driving Gray crazy, and he wanted to touch and taste everything. Natsu tried to reverse their positions, but Gray fought him off, not wanting to relinquish control just yet. His pants tightened around him as he thought of Natsu returning the favor, and a low moan escaped him.

Gray quickly moved his hands down past Natsu's abs all the way down to his belt. He was so intoxicated by Natsu's reactions that he was surprised when his hands were grabbed firmly, stopping their movement.

"Can you slow down?" Natsu's breaths were coming in deliciously ragged pants.

Gray immediately pulled his hands away and moved off Natsu, feeling a bit hurt by the rebuff. "I'm sorry, I got carried away."

"I know, and it's good," Natsu blushed profusely, "You make me feel good, but this is all new to me, and you're going too fast for me."

And while that was true, it wasn't the whole truth. Natsu hadn't been able to shake the feeling that his dream had been real and Atlas was going to come for him at any moment. It made him wary. He knew if something happened to him, Gray would be hurt, and he wanted to cause him the least amount of pain he could. He also knew that while Gray was trying, dragons were still a big issue for them.

Natsu had no intention of making a mating claim on Gray until he felt it was right to do so. Mates, especially new ones, needed to be near each other and if he ended up having to leave or Gray found out his secret and changed his mind, it could be devastating for both of them.

"It's new to me too," Gray said finally, not wanting to admit that Natsu was right.

"We have all the time in the world," Natsu told him matter-of-factly, "We're going to be together for the rest of our lives."

"Rest of our lives? Aren't you getting a bit ahead of yourself?" Gray was taken aback by how confident Natsu sounded.

"Well yeah, that's what our bond means," Natsu revealed, "We're soulmates."

Gray wasn't sure what that meant, but if it kept Natsu with him, then he was okay with it. They were too tired to make their way back to their homes, so they cuddled up and decided to spend the night together in their field.

A/N: Grammarly fought me tooth and nail while I was editing, so this chapter feels like an accomplishment considering it's rather lengthy. :)

A lot of things happened in this chapter and some of you who might be familiar with my other long multi-chapter stories are probably starting to realize right about now that if I'm writing this much fluffiness in Ch 13 of a planned 30 chap fic that means you're probably not going to like me soon. I can tell you that it won't have anything to do with Juvia, so there's no need to hate on her.

Ironically, the story as it was originally planned doesn't even start for another 4 or 5 chapters, I just got so enamored of the back story that it kind of took on a life of its own. I don't want to give anything away but just remember this story is meant to be a fairy tale.

#fairy tail #gratsu #gratsubingo2019 #ftlgbtales #fairy tail big bang 2018 #update #prompt: alarm

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