#its been a long time since i posted rwby fics on tumblr

[midnightechoes]

A Bridge Chapter 2 of 2

A Bridge is the third part in my post-RWBY volume 5 STR-Crossed Lovers fic series, Kintsugi. It was originally posted on AO3 back in February 2023.

Kintsugi Part 1, A Visit, taking place immediately after v5 and written by me, can be read on AO3 and Tumblr.

Kintsugi Part 2, A Dream, part flashback, part sequel to A Visit, was written by my friend @shera-dnd and can be read on AO3 and Tumblr.

A thick layer of clouds almost completely covered the sky, with just a few specs of blue peeking out here and there. There was a coolness to the air, the kind that signaled that hot summer days were beginning to give way to cool autumn evenings.

The dirt road crunched under the wheels of Tai’s moped as he sped down it at a brisk pace. The mostly orange machine vibrated as it carried its owner through an unremarkable forest, trees whipping by on either side of him. 

Tai was dressed mostly as he always did, but he was currently wearing a bucket helmet that was strapped tightly around his chin, and an old-fashioned pair of racer goggles fastened over his eyes. The other notable difference in attire was a new bandana that was wrapped tightly around his right bicep. It was red and had a black-and-white patterning that made it look just like the bandana Raven had been wearing in her hair.

It had been almost two hours since he had passed the last semblance of civilization, a quiet little rest stop on the side of the road, which meant that he was getting close to his destination. Sure enough, before long he was upon the clearing he had been looking for. Tai slowed down and turned into the clearing, following the faint trail for a few hundred yards as it led into a thicker part of the forest before giving way to another open area. The moped rumbled to a stop less than a hundred yards from a large wall made out of twenty-foot-high tree trunks whose ends had been cut into spikes. In the center of the wall was a wooden gate, currently closed and being guarded by three people.

One was a man with long, scraggly blonde hair and a long, unkempt face. Another was a woman with a gray, leather eye patch and brown hair that appeared to have been thrown up into a ponytail without consideration. And the third was another man, his curled black hair kept short, allowing the two scars running down from cheek to chin to be his most prominent feature. All three were carrying relatively simple weapons and wearing outfits that looked like they were pieced together over time.

Powering the moped down and popping the kickstand, Tai dismounted, a smile on his face as he pulled the helmet and goggles off. “Hey there,” he cheerily called out to the trio, slowly making his way towards the gate.

Within seconds, a bullet was flying past Tai’s head, not grazing only thanks to his semblance, Juke, which allowed him to slide out of the way in time.

“Not another step,” the scraggly blonde man called out with a grizzled voice, his handgun pointed directly at Tai. “That was a warning. Now I suggest you get back on that tiny bike and turn around while you can.”

“Look, pal,” Tai responded, a look of smug confidence on his face as he set down his helmet on the seat of the moped, then continued taking a few steps towards the trio guarding the gate. “This is a misunderstanding, I don’t think you know who I am,” he said with his hands raised as a show of peace.

“And I don’t much care,” the blonde man barked back. He tried rattling his gun at Tai in an attempt to intimidate him, a move that did not seem to be working. “I’m warning you! Take one more step, and you’ll be sorry,” he yelled.

Tai stopped in his tracks at the threat. His expression had devolved from smug to annoyed, his blue eyes squinting at the man. He thought about the warning for a second, then exhaled a deep breath out through his nose, and took another step forward.

“Get him!” the scraggly blonde man yelled as he tried to steady his aim at Tai. The other two guards sprung into action as well: the woman charged forward with a basic axe, the kind usually used for chopping wood, while the other man took a few steps back and drew up his simple hunting rifle. All three were scowling, and all three were utterly unprepared for what was about to happen.

In the blink of an eye, Tai activated his Juke semblance, allowing him to move laterally at such a speed that he seemed to leave a trail of afterimages of himself. He zig-zagged forward, crossing the distance to the guards in barely a second. When he came to a stop, he was directly in front of the woman, slamming her with a punch to the gut before she even had time to react, sending her stumbling backward. He juked again, crashing his elbow right into the man with the rifle, getting him off-balance enough for Tai to flip him over his shoulder.

Taking out the man with the rifle had put Tai behind the scraggly blonde man, who had been struggling to keep track of the intruder.

It was about this time that a “kraa-kraa” could be heard echoing softly in the clearing as a blackbird passed overhead.

The blonde man was able to get focus on Tai long enough to fire off a shot at him, one that Tai easily juked out of the way of. Suddenly the huntsman was inches in front of the man. A quick strike to the elbow followed by a chop to the wrist sent the blonde man’s gun flying. Tai elbowed him in the chest, creating just enough room to wind up and slug the blonde man so hard in the face that he pirouetted in place before falling to the ground.

“That’s enough, Tai,” a voice called out. Tai looked up to see Raven standing just in front of the gate, her arms folded and an amused grin on her face. She was still wearing the same orange tank top and black pants with gold seams that she had during karaoke, but now she was missing the red bandana she had often worn in her hair.

“Look, he started it,” Tai chuckled before relaxing his posture and taking a step back from the fallen guards.

Raven strolled up to the scraggly blonde man, towering over him as he lay on his back. “That’s not surprising, this one here loves to start problems he doesn’t know how to get out of.” Raven let out a laugh and shook her head at the man on the ground. “Honestly Shay, is it your mission to get your ass kicked by my entire family?”

“Sorry, ma’am,” Shay weakly groaned.

A hand appeared in Shay’s field of vision. He latched onto it, allowing Tai to hoist him to his feet. “Hey, Shay was it? No hard feelings.”

Shay grunted. “You’re just lucky that the boss lady got here when she did.”

The statement made both Tai and Raven burst out laughing. “Sure I am!” Tai chuckled.

“Alright, enough fun,” Raven commanded as she recomposed herself. She turned to the two other guards that had just regrouped from their beating. “If you would open the gates so my ex-husband can wheel his little bicycle inside.”

“Um, it’s a moped, we already went over this!” Tai huffed.

Raven turned to Tai for just a second before walking into the camp. “Yes, because that sounds so much more impressive.”

Tai grumbled under his breath as he collected his helmet and walked back to his moped. As he wheeled the bike forward by hand, pushing it forward by the handlebars, he caught Shay snickering under his breath.

“Got something to say, pal?” Tai flatly asked. Immediately Shay straightened up and went quiet. “Good man,” Tai added as he strode past.

The Branwen Tribe camp was bustling with people going about the business of breaking it down. Most everything was being packed into the back of six beat-up old pickup trucks that had all seen better days and were in desperate need of paint jobs. There were a couple more trucks and vans designated for passenger transport parked off to the side of the camp. Tai quickly wheeled his moped over to them and parked it.

“Starting to wonder how helpful I’m going to be,” Tai mused as he made his way back to Raven, who had been waiting for him in the center of the camp. They continued on slowly through the mostly barren camp towards her tent, one of the few standing structures left.

“You insisted on coming,” Raven chuckled. “Your help is appreciated, Tai. We’re behind schedule, every extra hand will be helpful,” Raven added, her tone becoming more somber.

“Behind schedule?” Tai gasped. “Looks like everyone’s working their hardest, Rae.”

Raven came to a stop and turned to the man next to her. “It’s been a week, we should already be on the road. But, it took a few days to procure all the vehicles we need, plus I haven’t been here the last few, and… we did lose a day mourning our fallen.”

“Right,” Tai nodded. “That girl that Cinder killed… V… Virginia?”

“Vernal,” Raven flatly corrected. “Her name was Vernal,” She added, never breaking stride as they marched towards her tent.  

Once they reached their destination, they both stood there for a moment, taking it in. It was the same tent that the Branwen Tribe leader before Raven had used, as well as the leader before them. Like many things in the tribe, Raven’s tent was something that had been used and reused and passed down for generations, and at the moment, the old canvas fabric that draped down to make its walls was the only thing separating Tai from the last part of Raven that she had left to share: her history, and all the messy, ugly parts of it that she had hoped she’d never have to tell Summer and Tai about.

Raven took a deep breath.

“Sure is modest and welcoming,” Tai blurted out, making sure that every letter was dripping with sarcasm. Raven let out a chuckle despite herself. She looked over to the man next to her that was smiling brightly.

“Come on, it’s not going to break itself down,” Raven said, leading Tai through the opening of the tent.

Tai took a look around once they were inside, and let out a little hum. “I’m glad we didn’t let you furnish our bedroom.”

“Oh please,” Raven scoffed. She walked over to the large chest in the corner and cracked it open. “Summer would have loved this.”

“That she would have,” Tai agreed as he made his way to Raven.

“Here,” Raven began, pulling out a few sheets of heavy cloth and shoving them into Tai’s hands. “See the tea set over by my bed? Wrap it up before we pack it.” Tai nodded at the command. While he was occupied with that, Raven began taking down and rolling up the various maps and notes that had been pinned up to the back of her tent. In the middle of it, she stopped, taking a moment to look at one of the notes. It was a report of the security measures of one of the villages that weren’t too far from the camp. Raven let out a sigh. There was a familiar tug-of-war in her heart. One that she had felt long ago until fear and panic let one side win, leading her to make a choice that she’d done everything in her power to never question.

That was until Yang showed up at her door. It had taken all of Raven’s fortitude to keep up her guard in front of her daughter. Something made harder by the realization that Yang wasn’t even there for her. Raven was nothing more than a means to an end.

It hadn’t actually hit Raven until that moment that her family had completely, and successfully, excised her from their life. She should have been happy about that, after all, it was what she had claimed she had always wanted: no attachments to that world, the side that had lost the tug-of-war. But there was Yang, staring at her like a stranger with nothing but demands on her tongue and contempt in her eyes.

Raven had gotten what she wanted.

And it had been killing her ever since.

Until finally, after defeating Cinder, after confronting Yang, and returning to the tribe to mourn Vernal’s death for a day, her heart led her back to a dusty cabin in the woods of Patch, to the one member of her family that didn’t currently, and rightfully, hate her…

… To the man that apparently just dropped one of her teacups.

A crash rang out in the tent, pulling Raven out of her stupor. Wet eyes sought out the source of the crash, and quickly found Tai kneeling over a small pile of ceramic pieces.

“I’m so sorry, Raven! I was trying to be careful, I swear, I—” Tai was blurting out, trying to collect the pieces up into one of the cloth towels he had been using, until a gentle hand touched down on his shoulder, stopping his sentence.

When Tai looked up, Raven was kneeling just next to him, her hand on his shoulder, a soft, sad smile on her face. “It’s fine, Tai,” she assured him. Her free hand reached down and picked up one of the bigger pieces. She turned it over and over between her fingers, seemingly studying as her attention was drawn to the jagged dark-blue piece of ceramic that had one flower painted on it. After turning it over a few more times, she shifted her attention back to Tai, her smile brightening as she took in his sad puppy dog expression.

“This can be fixed,” Raven murmured to him.

The assurance seemed to ease something in Taiyang, whose expression softened. He took the piece from Raven and put it with the rest on the cloth before returning his focus to her, a warm grin forming on his face. “Yeah, it can.”

From there, it didn’t take long for the duo to finish breaking down Raven’s tent. Within an hour, it was empty, with everything that had been in the tent packed away in a large chest, and after two hours, what had been Raven’s tent was now nothing more than a large, open wooden platform. While Tai was loading the chest onto one of the trucks, Raven remained on the platform, taking in the progress of the camp breakdown.

Besides the built-up walls enclosing the camp, one would hardly know that an entire tribe of people had called this place home for the last few years. In fact, there was only one tent left. The tent was one of the larger ones and sat less than a hundred feet away from Raven’s. She couldn’t take her eyes off it.

“Hey, everything okay?” Tai’s concerned voice called out from just behind Raven, making the woman jump.

“Gods, Tai! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?” Raven huffed, twisting around to slap him in the arm.

“Right, because we all know of my exceptional stealth skills,” Tai chortled. “Your head was somewhere else, Rae. What’s up?”

It was almost disconcerting how quickly the two had become able to understand each other again. In many ways, the eighteen-year gap remained this raw, overwhelming presence hovering over them, but in some ways, they had picked up right from where they left off. Raven still wasn’t sure how she felt about letting someone that could so thoroughly read her back into her life, but she had to accept that some part of her had craved this, had always longed to get this back.

Plus, Tai was already there, his dopey, sincere, concerned half-smile on his face as he stood in the middle of her bandit camp. She had passed the last exit to turn back days ago.

Raven turned back to the tent she had been staring at. “I have to break down the last tent,” she muttered, dread dripping from her voice.

“Huh? I thought you said that it was everyone’s responsibility to break down their own…” Tai’s sentence trailed off as the reality of the situation set in. “Oh.”

A heavy arm found itself slung around Raven’s back, pulling her into a side hug. “Hey,” Tai cooed, “you don’t have to do it yourself. I’m right here.”

They gave each other a nod. Then, after Raven took a deep breath, they slowly made their way over to the last tent. Raven stopped briefly at the entrance, taking a second to compose herself.

Even with all the mental preparation, the flaps to the tent felt heavy, as if the fabric was made of steel rather than thick canvas. Once inside, Raven immediately reached for the lamp that was sitting on the crate just a couple of feet inside the door, near the center of the tent, and lit it using her maiden powers.

Tai entered just after and found Raven standing next to the lamp, slowly surveying the space around them, her shoulders slumping more and more as she did. He made his way towards her, clearing his throat loudly this time before speaking. “Rae?”

There wasn’t an immediate answer. Instead, Raven simply continued staring down at the items scattered around the room, a sneer growing on her face as she did.

“She should be here. She should be doing this. She…” Raven’s words trailed, leaving them there, standing in silence.

“Vernal was special to you,” Tai whispered, giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

Raven set her gaze on a neatly stacked pile of clothes that was sitting on the bed. “Vernal trusted me, and she was a fool to do so,” she spat out, her body shaking slightly.

“Rae…”

The soft call of her name made Raven snap her focus to Tai, but there was no anger on her face. Instead, there was a look of anguish, her lips quivering, her eyes half-lidded as tears were forming in the corner of her eyes. “She trusted me, and it got her killed. I was supposed to protect her, but I couldn’t, I let her die because I was a coward. If I… If I was braver she would still be alive. And I… I can’t help thinking that leaving was the best thing that I ever could have done for Yang.”

By the time the first sob escaped Raven, Tai was already pulling her into a hug. He held her tight, his hand gently stroking her back while she broke down in his arms.

It was a few minutes before Raven settled down. Eventually, she got control of herself, and simply leaned into the embrace, resting her entire weight against him.

“I think you’re blaming the wrong person, by the way,” Tai mused. The statement made Raven shift around in his arms so that she could glare up at him with a perplexed look on her face. “You didn’t kill Vernal, Rae, that Cinder chick did. Same person that terrorized our girls when they were at Beacon. She’s the reason Vernal’s dead. And Salem’s the reason Cinder did any of those things, not you. They took Vernal from you, they took our wife from us.” Tai released Raven from the hug and took a step back, his hands still firmly grasping her shoulders so that he could look her dead in the eyes when he said “And someday, they’re going to be the ones who pay for what happened to the people we care about, not you.”

A slight, sly smile came over Raven. “So, focus on revenge instead of guilt.”

“Err,” Tai stammered as one arm fell to his side while the other reached up to scratch the side of his neck. “That’s not exactly the point I was trying to get at.”

“I know,” Raven said, letting out a bellowing laugh before patting Tai on the cheek. “I just love watching you squirm, Xiao Long.” Tai joined in the laughter as it cut through the mood of the tent. After it died down, Raven turned back to the bed where Vernal’s clothes were still laid out. “Come on, we have to get this done… I’m not going to leave her behind.” Tai walked up to her and nodded as the two of them began breaking down Vernal’s tent.

---

At daybreak the following morning, the Branwen tribe’s motor caravan pulled out of the little patch of land, and began their journey south, away from the capital of Mistral, and into the vast wilderness of the continent of Anima. Tai’s moped rumbled along at the front, along with a handful of other motorcycles that were leading away. Raven scouted ahead, her bird form allowing her to get a clear view of potential perils and dangers.

The first two days went smoothly, making good time through the rugged terrain, and avoiding any conflict. The third day presented a bit more of a challenge, being forced to confront an unavoidable pack of Grimm. Raven, Tai, and a handful of the tribe’s strongest fighters were able to deal with them, allowing the caravan to pass through with only a few scratches.

That’s how it was for the rest of the week, a good day here, a challenge to avoid trouble there. Luckily there was only one dust-up with local law enforcement. Tai didn’t feel great about it, but he knew what he had gotten himself into, and agreed to it when he insisted on accompanying Raven on this journey. Even still, he did all he could to get the tribe out of the situation with no one getting hurt. But when push came to shove, Tai stuck with the tribe, something Raven appreciated, even if she hadn’t found a way to voice such sentiment. For her part, Raven made sure that the tribe focused on evasion and avoiding conflict instead of violence.

Overall, they were making good time, all things considered. During that week, Tai managed to bond with the tribe. At first, it was slow, mostly finding common ground in everyone’s mutual love to complain about Qrow, but over the days he worked at forming friendships with his fellow travelers. As he did, he began to gain a new perspective on Raven, because to these people she wasn’t a teammate, or friend, or spouse, she was their rock. A guiding light that they all looked to with reverence and respect. For so long Tai had only known what Raven had run from, and how much it hurt to lose her, but his time with the tribe gave him a chance to get to know what she had run towards, and why. In many ways, they were as much her family as he, or Yang, or Summer had ever been.

Finally, Tai saw Raven for what she really was: a woman torn in two, pulled in opposite directions for most of her life. For so long Tai had barely dared to dream what Raven coming back into his life might look like, but in those times that he did, he had always envisioned pulling her away from her life as a bandit. And truth be told, a part of him still wanted to help her get away from a life of crime, but his time with the tribe made him realize that he’d have to give a little too, that if he really wanted this to work this time, if he wanted them to work this time, it couldn’t be an either-or choice. Accepting Raven Branwen meant accepting everything about her, from being a fiercely loyal teammate to being a bandit leader.

This was the thought that Tai found himself dwelling on as they sat around a campfire in the middle of the woods on the evening of the ninth day. It had been a quiet day, and everyone was finishing up the stew that had been made for the night. Raven had been busy while everyone else ate, securing the perimeter, and making sure that everyone was aware of their guard duty rotations for the night. Finally, after just about everyone was finished and most people were turning in to get some rest, Raven sat to have a bowl of stew just next to Tai.

She got a few spoonfuls in before stopping and turning to face him, a look of mild annoyance on her face.

“Is there something you wanted to say to me, Tai?” she huffed.

For his part, Tai’s expression immediately softened, a warm smile growing on his face. “Um, no, why?”

Raven let out a sigh. “It’s just, you’ve been watching me since you sat down.”

The statement made Tai blush slightly, which, luckily for him, was mostly washed out by the orange glow of the fire. “Have I? Sorry! It wasn’t anything bad! It’s just… I don’t know, I guess I’m a little in awe of how you can command the tribe so effortlessly.”

Now it was Raven’s turn to blush. She quickly looked back down at her stew, the warmth of it seeping into her lap. “Oh.” She had another scoop of stew to buy her a few extra seconds to think of how to follow up on that. By the time she had gulped it down, a warm thought had settled in. Raven let her eyes become lidded as they drifted to the fire, a half-smile forming on her face. “Let’s be honest, everything I know about being a leader Summer taught me.”

Tai scooted closer to her so that he could rest his hand on her knee. “She’d be proud of you,” he murmured. In response, Raven leaned over, resting her head on his shoulder.

“Think so?”

“Yeah,” Tai responded. The two of them sat there, wordlessly enjoying their time together until it was time to turn in for the night.

---

The following morning was like every other one since hitting the road, everyone quickly breaking down the makeshift camp, disposing of any evidence that there had been a camp, and lining the convoy up to depart. Tai had done his part just as he had every other day, and was currently buckling his helmet on as he waited for the caravan to rumble to a start. Suddenly, Raven swooped in, standing in front of Tai’s moped, but not looking at him.

“Tribe!” she barked at the top of her lungs. “Get a move on, I’ll catch up!”

With her command, trucks and vans and motorcycles roared to life and began lurching forward in unison. Tai watched in confusion as everyone drove away from the campsite except him, who sat there on his moped, Raven’s hands planted firmly on the handlebars.

“Um, Rae, what’s going on?” he asked, taking his helmet back off.

Raven finally turned to face him, and her face immediately betrayed her, a look of deep sadness painted all over it.

“This is as far as you go, Tai.”

“Hold up!” Tai yelled as he jumped off his moped. “You’re ditching me now?!”

“No, Tai, it’s not like that,” Raven sighed, doing her best to retain her composure.

Tai did his best to let his initial anger pass over him. He took a deep breath before taking a step toward Raven. “Then what is it? I don’t understand, things have been going well.”

“Yeah,” Raven answered. She let go of his moped and closed the distance between them, leaving maybe a foot between them. “Things have been great,” she agreed. “But I can’t let you go any farther with us. We’re going to be hitting the arid lands of Anima soon and it’s going to be extremely dangerous out there.”

“Which makes you leaving behind a huntsman make no sense,” Tai huffed. His arms were crossed as a very annoyed look came over his face.

“Yes Tai, but you’re not just a huntsman.” Raven reached forward and placed her hands on his crossed arms. “You’re also the father of my daughters, and I need you to be safe for them. We’re running from Salem, and if you came with us… if she found out that you know where I am…” Raven gulped down a sob and used all her willpower to keep herself together. “I will not lose any more of my family to that woman.”

There was a beat of silence that felt deafening in the small clearing they were standing in. Finally, Tai let out a quiet hum. “Daughters, huh?”

Raven let out a chuckle, taking comfort in it. That was something she always admired about Tai, his ability to lighten any mood, to be able to focus on the upside of things.

“Well, someone recently pointed out that despite not giving birth to her, Ruby is just as much my daughter as Yang is… Not that either of them would think much of me as their mother.”

Tai unfurled his arms and wrapped them around Raven, pulling her into a tight hug. “They will, you just have to make the effort,” he whispered into her ear.

“I’ll get the tribe to its new home. Then I’ll come back. I’ll put in the effort,” Raven leaned back so that she could stare into Tai’s eyes while cupping one side of his face. “I’m not going to abandon our family this time.”

“Promise?” Tai blurted out almost before he could even think about it. As soon as he did he regretted it, but before he could focus on the regret, he found himself pulled down into a deep, searing kiss. Their arms unconsciously wrapped tight around each other, their bodies craving the warmth and contact of each other, a connection so familiar, yet it had remained dormant for years. Tai found himself lost in that connection just as he always had been, as if every kiss erased another year of separation.

They were both panting when they finally pulled apart, doing so more out of the need for air than want.

“I promise,” Raven replied through red, plump lips. She reluctantly pulled herself from his grasp and took a few steps back. “I promise,” Raven repeated before spinning around and darting off, transforming into her bird form after just a few steps.

Tai stood there, watching as Raven slowly drifted out of view beyond the treeline, all the while with a smile on his face. Raven had made a lot of promises to him over the course of their relationship, and he had to admit that she didn’t have the best track record in keeping them.

But in that clearing, at that moment, watching her soar through the sky, his heart had no room for doubt.

After she was gone, Tai hopped back onto his moped. It rumbled under him as he spun around and began driving back the way they had come. He only got a few yards before he stopped, and took a moment to look back over his shoulders in the direction that caravan had gone.

“I’ll see you soon, Rae.”

[crazywolf828]

please go outside and cleanse your mind from writing weird ass porn. think about it. you badically write teenage cartoon porn on a basis. (rwby) you obviously have an obsession and need to stop thinking of these fictional characters bedding eachother. all these, 'kinks' and 'tropes' youre writing for is really harmful and honestly really offending. i truly truly hate all of what youve wrote. ive read a few, and unsurprisingly your interpretation of blake and yang are also ass. it makes me laugh so hard. im sorry. like, i dont think you realize how ooc you write them, and it annoys me because its not the hot shit you think it is. you need more substance in your stories. literally all you write is cock, balls and pussy. like, i feel like everytime i try reading what you've posted on ao3 i want to rip out my eyeballs and forget all of it. im being a hater right now but honesty is my best trait. your booty fics flood the bumbleby tag here on tumblr AND on ao3 jesus im sick of seeing your cornball ass name. go find something else to do, or maybe, just delete yourself from the internet and stop posting fics.

Oh wow it's been a hot second since I've gotten hate this long, fucking hilarious. So first off, they are adults. In the show by the time they get to Atlas, they are adults. I am not, and will not write nsfw of underaged characters. Second, yeah I know it's ooc for a lot of them but like also, how do you know? It's hard to write kinky shit for characters when you've never seen them in that situation and you don't know how kinky they are. As for the tags... I suppose I could ease up for kinktober, a fic every few days is rough I can see that, but also you can just block me on ao3 and Tumblr! Curate your experience instead of bitching about it! Or, I tag every fic on here with 'my fic' and 'don't mind me' so block both those tags too like? And like why do you keep reading them if you've already established you don't like them??? So wild.

EDIT: I'm also realizing you've probably only read my kinktober fics which, tbf are supposed to be kinky. Go read my packer fics, or my transmasc yang fic, or the body worship fics, or the multiple multichapter fics that have actual plot. Like hell, one has over 600 kudo's (which is still wild) so yeah I do have plenty of plot based fics, you just didn't look for them. Literally look at my pinned post if you want to see them. They're right there.

I mean, I did well enough that a person who hates the bees loved my angst band oneshot so clearly I'm doing decently enough.

Anyway "cornball ass name" and "delete yourself from the internet" are terrible insults, try better next time! :)

[i-write-fanfics-to-procrastinate]

Rosegarden Week: Celebrate

I committed myself months ago to doing Rosegarden week, and then in the midst of Naluween I forgot that it existed. Tsk, what a fool I am. Well, here’s a bit for the prompt ‘Celebrate’ and there’s more to come. This piece is closely connected to my fanfic “Daydreams to Certainty” about Glynda and James, which you can read HERE. But you don’t have to read it in order to enjoy this little oneshot. :) Happy reading!

The countdown had begun. On the wall above her a clock was furiously ticking, but her eyes never once left the screen in front of her. This is happening. Beacon Registration is open. This is actually happening. The minutes ticked by. Not one registration. Ruby dropped her head to the table, letting out a groan. This couldn’t possibly be how things ended, not after all the work she and Glynda had spent reviving the school. The twenty-year-old glanced up at the clock, and then down at her scroll again, kicking her legs back and forth under her tall chair. Behind her she could hear her friends talking. Yang was home after being gone for so long in Atlas on some sort of job. She was telling another one of her ridiculous stories. Something about an ursa…? Ruby groaned again, dropping her scroll on the table.

           “You might not get instant results.” Oscar. The eighteen-year-old was leaning against the doorframe from the kitchen. Just like Jaune had, Oscar had shot up in height. Now, he was a full head taller than Ruby, with ridiculously broad shoulders, and his dark hair pulled back into a small ponytail. He was wearing a dark green vest over a pale cream dress shirt. Ruby let out a huff.

           “You’d think people would be more excited about Beacon accepting applications.”

           “Don’t students have to take time to fill out the applications?” Oscar smiled. The way the corners of his mouth twitched in a smirk made Ruby furious. He was perfectly right, but it was aggravating.

           “Yeah, but… people should be more prepared,” she tossed her long hair over her shoulder and crossed her arms over her crimson sweater, then glanced at him once more, “Aren’t you glad Beacon’s reopening?”

           “From what I remember of my time at Beacon it was an incredible school,” Oscar whispered, seemingly trying to pull memories to the forefront of his mind. Ruby knew Oscar hid a wealth of knowledge in his head thanks to what Ospin passed on to him, but they were sometimes hard to obtain or separate out from the haze of memories he had inherited. “And it brought forth a lot of incredible huntsmen and huntresses… like you.” Ruby felt a blush come to her cheeks, and she ducked her head. “Plus, Glynda will make a very fine headmistress.”

           “I think so too!” Ruby nodded.

           “And you…” Oscar trailed off, his eyes locked on her face, his expression softened. “I think you will make a wonderful teacher, Ruby.” They were lost in each other, for a brief moment. Then, Ruby’s scroll let out a ping. She glanced down quickly.

           “Ah!!!” She shrieked, “An application is in!!!” She dropped her scroll, not even bothering to look at the name of the new student. She laughed, jumping from her chair. “We did it! We did it!” And then she flung her arms around Oscar, knocking him back against the wall in her exuberance.

           “Woah!” Oscar laughed, clutching her waist with one hand to steady them both. Ruby’s silver eyes locked with his green ones. Her heart was pounding with excitement, she was fueled with a sudden burst of energy, and in her dizzying joy she closed the distance between the two of them completely. Before she could fully process what she was doing, she was on her tiptoes, kissing him. She moved her hand to cup of the back of his neck, brushing through his wild hair, and he was rigid at first, stunned, but she felt him melt against her touch, his free hand pressed against the small of her back, pulling her closer.

           “Ruby?” A shout from the living room broke them apart. Oscar’s face was as red as Ruby’s sweater, his eyes searching for answers to a million questions, but she didn’t have any answers.

           “Yeah?” She called out, one arm still wrapped around Oscar’s shoulder, their bodies still pressed together, his hand still on her waist.

           “Did you just say you got an app in?” Yang. Ruby managed to peel herself away from the young huntsman, and grabbed her scroll, glancing down at the number of submitted applications.

           “There are five now!” She beamed. “That’s a whole team plus one!”

           “And it’s only been what?” Jaune frowned, entering the kitchen, followed by Ruby’s sister.

           “Thirty minutes,” Yang answered, crossing her arms. Ruby grinned.

           “I can already tell. This is the start of what’s going to be an awesome year!”

           “Well, that settles it,” Yang said, “We have to celebrate. I’m calling dad. We’re going out for dinner.”

           “Dinner?” Nora gasped from the living room, as Yang exited the kitchen.

           “Congrats, Ruby,” Jaune said. “Thanks to you and Glynda Beacon is finally back up and running.” He glanced down at his shoes, “Though…”

           “I know,” Ruby sighed, “The tragedy of the Fall will not be forgotten, Jaune.”

           “Thanks,” Jaune smiled. “She’d… she’d be happy for you.” He slipped away, leaving Ruby alone with Oscar once again. What in the world did I just do?! She had kissed him. Why? What did that mean?

           “Hey… um…” Oscar glanced up at the ceiling, his cheeks still cherry red. “Um… so…”

           “I won’t take it back,” Ruby said finally, filled with determination.

           “What do you mean?”

           “I kissed you,” she huffed, “And I meant it. I might have done it when I was acting all crazy and excited, but I won’t take it back.” Oscar stared at her, their eyes locked.

           “But, what… what does it mean? To us?”

           Ruby smiled, putting her hands on her hips. “I guess it means that what used to be a silly crush is starting to become something more?”

           “A… what?” Oscar blinked, “You…”

           “Yeah…” Ruby sighed, “It’s kind of embarrassing, isn’t it? I mean… You were two years younger than me… I mean… you still are, but now you’re like a giant…” She glanced up at him with narrowed eyes. “Why’d you get so tall anyways?”

           “To keep things out of your reach,” Oscar grinned.

           “Hey!” Ruby glared and then she let out another sigh, “But… uh… we were also basically in the middle of a war. And you had Ozpin in your head. B-but… I did think you were cute.” She glanced up at him with a big smile, “And funny. And you always found ways to make me smile or feel better about something. You always have. I guess what I’m trying to say is that… I really care about you, Oscar. I won’t take that kiss back because even though it was spur-of-the-moment and just celebratory, it meant something. And… it led to this. I’m finally… telling you.”

           “I care about you too,” Oscar whispered, reaching out to catch her waist with his hand again.

           “You do?”

           “Yeah,” His cheeks were still flushed, but he pressed a chaste kiss to her cheek. “I do.” Ruby felt faint, dizzy, and once again wildly excited. The school is opening. Oscar cares about me. Everything is happening today. Everything is perfect.

[itsclydebitches]

Please stop putting Rwde in the main tags holy shit. Blocked tags dont work on trending tags

Okay, today we're going to have a talk about curating your own content online. This isn’t the first time I’ve had an anon, somewhat angrily, demand that I stop using the “RWBY” tag and I’m sure it won’t be the last. However, my answer remains the same: No. Sorry. I’m not going to stop. Why?

Because my posts are about RWBY.

In case the above isn’t answer enough, let’s do a quick FAQs.

Why are you using the “RWBY” tag when so many of your posts are critical?

Because, as said, my posts are about RWBY. That’s the subject. I’ve been in the RWBY tumblr fandom for over five years now. I want all my RWBY content accessible in one place on my blog, not divided up between praise posts, critical posts, fanart, fic, etc. If an easy division between the first two is even possible (which it's not). It’s just all RWBY and, oddly enough, when I started reblogging and posting here, I tagged it with “RWBY.” Because that’s the show. My tagging system is far from complex, but I’m not about to re-organize or switch up 228 pages of content.

But we decided a long time ago that critical posts shouldn’t go in the main tag.

That’s ridiculous. People realize that’s ridiculous, right? I mean, I know we've all mostly agreed to observe this self-imposed rule, but that doesn't mean I haven't been raising an eyebrow at it since it first came up. I’ve been in a lot of fandoms and I’ve never seen another that insisted only praise could go in the main tag. When you come on tumblr and want to look up RWBY posts, you expect to get everything about RWBY—any post that deals with that subject. I would stake a great deal on the assumption that there are other posts in the main tag that you dislike, anon, simply because that's how people work. We all don't like the same things and, indeed, in a long-running show with a massive cast, there's going to be stuff we hate too. Ships you can't stand, takes you think are awful, that character you’re just so sick of seeing… yet we don’t exclude other, major subjects from the tag just because certain individuals dislike them. If we did, there would be no “RWBY” search because no one would ever agree on what is and is not allowed.

You have “RWDE” though.

We do! And as evidenced by the post you’re upset with, I use it when I think it's warranted. Here’s the thing about “RWDE” though: no one can agree on that either. Some fans think “RWDE” is solely for the angry, curse-laden posts. Others think it’s only for posts that are 100% critical. Others think it’s for ranting critical posts, not analysis critical posts. Still others think it’s for posts that say anything bad about RWBY, no matter if other parts of the post are complimentary or neutral—with "bad" ranging from "Actively insulting aspects" to "I didn't praise this enough to the individual's liking." It's so subjective as to be almost useless, to the point where "RWDE" posters are currently upset that others are posting critical takes about "RWDE" takes. Where do we draw the lines then? Your guess is as good as mine. But the one time I tried to post solely in “RWDE,” I was getting different anons going, “Omg stop posting in rwde this isn’t rwde!” So… my posts are apparently too critical for “RWBY” and, often, not critical enough for “RWDE.” Fantastic.

Just create your own unique tag then.

On the social media website where we post specifically to have other people interact with our work? You may not like my posts, anon, but other people do. “RWBY” is useful in part because it allows like-minded people to find me. If I only used a unique tag, I’d never come up in searches. Besides, I already do have a unique tag: “mymetas.” Every critical RWBY post of mine has that attached. Thus, it’s your job to blog “RWDE,” “mymetas,” or me entirely.

I tried that though and tumblr’s blocking system didn’t work for [insert reason here]

I really am sorry to hear that, it sucks, but tumblr’s shoddy system is not my fault—nor my responsibility. And now we come to the part about curating our online experience. Sometimes it’s not just about blocking everything because the system itself is flawed. Often you have to go further by scrolling past.

I'm going to say that again because people really need to practice it more on tumblr: scroll past the content you don't like.

If you don’t like a post, don’t read it. If you start reading a post and realize you don’t like it, stop and go find something else you enjoy. Being a responsible fan online often means going, “Huh. I hate that” and moving on, not coming into the author’s inbox to demand that they—impossibly—ensure that you never have to see something you hate ever again. Anon, you spent more time with something you claim to dislike by coming into my inbox to write and send a message demanding that I stop using "RWBY" than you would have by simply ignoring my post and moving on. That tells me you care more about controlling others' online experience than you do managing your own.

But we don’t want to see critical takes in the “RWBY” tag! We come on tumblr because we love the show and it sucks to see people dragging it all the time. I just want to enjoy the show in peace.

A valid stance… and one that doesn’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to RWBY. Between the time I posted about the teaser and the time I saw this ask, two hours had passed and a hundred and four new posts had appeared in “RWBY." I know because I took the time to count. The RWBY critical community is absolutely miniscule compared to the rest of the fandom. There are maybe 2-7 new “RWDE” posts a day, max, and those are coming from a few key blogs that focus on analyzing the show. There is no scenario in which there are so many critical posts that it’s ruining your RWBY time on tumblr, simply because that amount of critical content doesn’t exist. And if seeing a single critical take from my blog—or even 2-4, because that's my own max per day—honestly upsets you to the extent that you can't just move on, you shouldn’t be on a website known for its diverse content and incredibly iffy blocking system. My posts exist in a sea of RWBY excitement, praise, and celebration. It is your job to scroll past, anon, not my job to play a subjective, rigged game to ensure you never brush past a single bit of seaweed in that massive, ever-expanding ocean.

What this argument comes down to is, “You’re not allowed to tag RWBY content with RWBY because I don’t like what you have to say.” Sorry, but that just doesn't work for me.

[dragynkeep]

Hi there, ironpines! (Love the name btw, I read a really good fic about ironwood being a father-figure to Oscar when RWBY and co. get to Atlas).

So this is probably going to be very long but I’ve really gotta vent about some stuff.

(Also, first ask. I honestly didn’t know how to do this for the longest time. Just got back into tumblr a bit ago).

1. I hate Jaune Arc (a lot of people do), but I want to know why. Do you think/believe he’s an author’s pet? Also, why the HELL did he kill Penny in the first place?!? Why not Winter, Nora, or Ruby? Why did he have to go to the island? Just- WHY?

2. In the first three volumes I really liked Team RWBY, but now….how did they get so skewed? What went wrong? How can Ruby be THAT arrogant that she point-blank says to Qrow: “we never needed an adult’s help.” Like- yes you did! If not for Qrow killing the Grimm in v4 they would have been continuously fighting Grimm. I’m the fight against Tyrian (one of my favorite characters and favorite fights) if not for Ruby getting in the way Qrow wouldn’t have been POISONED!

3. (This is the one I’m going to get cyber-ly killed for). (I also had just started RWBY when volume 5 was airing weekly.) The beginning of Volume 5, in my opinion was good. I liked the first five-six chapters, but when AU watched ‘Rest and Resolutions’ V5C7, I was so angry! Everything about the conversation between Ruby, Weiss, and Yang felt so out of character and out of place. It was so bad and the next episodes following that were not good either (only the raven v cinder fight was any good). The battle of Haven was a train wreck that I honestly have no idea how I even retained braincells after that. Like- why KEEP teasing Weiss v emerald if you aren’t going to do anything with it. Why tease Mercury v Yang if you’re not going to do anything new and interesting with the two (Mercury isn’t even a character anymore!)

4. I wish we got good rep. I really wish we didn’t get confirmation on LGBTQ+ characters from supplemental material (that’s not even canon). And I’ve gotta ask, why do you consider cannon? Cuz for me, the only things I consider actually CANNON to the storyline are the Red, White, Black, Yellow Trailers and the show itself (Grimm Eclipse just for the sake of more cool lore about Mountain Glenn and the fact of mutant Grimm). That’s it. I don’t consider the World of Remnants, manga (DC or otherwise, those were HORRIBLE!), anthologies, and the DISGUSTING novels.

(This is the last thing, I promise!)

5. I’m working on a quasi-rewrite RWBY fic and I didn’t know whether or not I should post the first chapter on my page or not. I just really don’t want the simps to come for my head (though it might happen anyway). But I’ve been writing this for about a year and a half now and I really want to post it but I’m so nervous about the reception and backlash. What do you think?

Thanks for answering me and indulging the fact that it’s okay to like something and still want it to be better (critics/the Rwde tag is my favorite because I can read opinions that I mused share but are too scared to put as a post).

Thanks, we picked Ironpines because we loved Ironwood and Oscar, and then our friends, being the good friends they are, immediately told us it was the ship name for them so now we can't have anything nice.

1) First off, yes, we absolutely think Jaune is an author's pet. We don't really go for self-insert anymore since everyone in RWBY was a self-insert, Monty clearly based them off his friends. But now, Jaune is absolutely an author's pet and has been since the start of the show.

Just look at Volume 1. Jaune literally had more of a storyline than Yang, one of the girls in the title. He then went on to have a dumb love triangle in V2, only to resolve it with Neptune without any input from Weiss, because why not, and then V3 was Jaune finally taking more of a step back for Pyrrha, who was long over due some character.

Until V4 where, rather than everyone mourning Pyrrha, we focused on Jaune mourning her instead. Nevermind that Pyrrha was Ren and Nora's teammate too, probably their only family since they're orphans, or how Ruby literally watched Pyrrha die in front of her. Nope, gotta focus on Jaune. Add that it stretches into V5 also, adding another storyline about his Semblance while Ren, Nora, and Ruby have to stand in the background and wait their turn, while Weiss literally loses all her braincells so she's injured for Jaune's development, how the confrontation with Cinder doesn't go to Ruby, the main protagonist, but Jaune.

Then we get that stupid statue scene in V6 that took over Oscar finally getting some development of his own. It's not even the whole team, because it's only Jaune that gets to meet the lady who totally isn't Pyrrha's mother, it's Jaune that gets the big teary moment, and how Ren and Nora have to stop and comfort Jaune because of course they have to.

I was glad that Jaune finally took a backseat in V7. I actually started to like him again, because he wasn't sucking screentime away from those who need it. But then V8 happened and now I want him dead.

I've said it countless times before so I don't wanna repeat myself, but Jaune is one of the last people that should've killed Penny. He shouldn't have killed her, he shouldn't have had the big tearful scene because another redhead died, he shouldn't have fallen into the void to join Team RWBY, but he did. Now there's no doubt in my mind that Jaune is a fucking author's pet, because the writers won't let him go into the background where he belongs.

2) There's not much to say about Team RWBY. They just suck now.

3) After watching V8, V5 is no longer my least favourite volume. That's how bad it was.

4) Yeah, RWBY's rep is absolute trash and it's because they keep putting it in supplemental material, and also because they look at the LGBT and only see L. The only MLM we have is Scarlet, and he's a catty fae gay stereotype that is so unlikeable and voiced by a creep. Nevermind the whole Fairgame queerbait controversy because this company can't stop themselves for five minutes.

5) I always say that, when you post work on the internet, whether its art of writing, you have to understand that you will get criticism back. It'll suck, especially when you've put so much time and effort into something, but that's the risk you have to take as a content creator.

The good thing is that AO3 has features that let you manage what you see properly. If people just want to hate without giving proper criticism, you can always remove it and ignore it, but I personally believe that people aren't entitled to criticism when it's only said nicely. Sometimes, people will get annoyed and say it in a meaner way, but that doesn't make the criticism any less valid.

Either way, decide based on how you think you'll react to it. If you don't want the stress of criticism, be careful, but if you think you can handle it? Then go for it, the world's your oyster.

[greekletters]

I should choose better titles.

Hey everyone! Recently, I found out that my pal @dedicatedseeker has a birthday coming up. So I asked if there was a prompt or anything I could write a fic for. And they sent me this pretty awesome fic idea, (all credit for ideas and discovery should go to @tdactyl and @maburito via this post https://maburito.tumblr.com/post/182471484722/tdactyl-alright-so-like-hear-me-out-a-rwby) and I decided to do my best and give it a go!

And since I'm very Tumblr challenged, I will post the first chapter below and end it with a link to continue reading on AO3. 

Thanks for reading, as always! : )

It’s All Downhill

Chapter One

“Yeah Ruby, they’re already here. Checked in like less than an hour ago. I made sure they got the nicest room available. For the whole weekend, yeah.”

The gentleman behind the check in counter of the resort hasn’t stopped talking on his phone on what seems to be a personal call the entire time you’ve been standing at the counter with Winter. 

“I can’t believe this place just allows its employees to take personal calls in a customer facing area such as this. Seems.. unprofessional.” You knew it would only be a matter of time before Winter decided to voice her concerns to the host behind the desk in front of you. 

“Sorry ma’am, that’s our resort manager, Mr. Arc. I believe he’s on a call regarding a guest issue. I apologize for the inconvenience.” 

“Being here is already enough of an inconvenience for me, what’s one more thing.” Winter rolls her eyes so hard you’re surprised they didn’t fall out and roll away. 

“It’s three days of mandatory leave. It’s basically a vacation. Just take it as a time for you to relax, and decompress.” You try to be as supportive as possible, even though you also hadn’t wanted to leave work and take a three day weekend. 

“If it weren’t mandatory and direct from General Ironwood, I wouldn’t even be here.”

“Yes. You made that incredibly clear the entire ride here.” You grab your room key from the host and begin to pull your luggage behind you, leaving Winter a few paces to catch up. 

You don’t know why you even bothered to come on this trip. You knew Winter was just going to complain about not being at work the entire time. But then would complain when you tried to do work on your computer. This is how any vacation the two of you had taken within the last ten years had gone. Someone was always working. And someone always didn’t want to be there. And sometimes, it was both. 

So the entire journey from the resort front desk to your regal cabin, that’s what happened. Winter complained about a vacation. You were over it already and you hadn’t even made it through the first twelve hours yet. 

“This is going to be a long three days.” You mumble to yourself as you scan your keycard against the reader, flinging the door open in front of you. 

The site that greets you on the other side of the door isn’t at all what you had expected. What you had expected was a gorgeous glass front cabin, facing the mountain overlook. What did you get? 

Two people, that weren’t you or Winter, already looking comfortable in the shared living area of the cabin. Two people that shouldn’t be there.

“Really? They told us this cabin was ready and it’s not even cleaned yet? This place is run by idiots.” Winter slams her bags down, clearly not pleased. 

“Wow.” One of the women with shorter black hair says as she stands up and wanders back into what you guess would be the kitchen. 

“Hey guys, uh. No offense. But who are you exactly?” The taller blonde woman asks, standing up from her seat. 

“Um, we are the people that have rented this room for the weekend. Maybe we are the ones who should be asking you that same question.” Folding your arms across your chest, trying your best to remain assertive. 

“Well, if we also hadn’t rented this same room, how would we have gotten keys and gotten into this same room?” The other woman had returned, with a cup filled with some kind of hot drink. “They probably double booked it.”

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Winter lets out the most exaggerated groan as she pulls her phone from her pocket and begins dialing. 

After about ten minutes, ten fully silent and awkward minutes, the gentleman from the front desk knocks on the door of the cabin. You let him in, mostly so he can declare the room yours and allow these other people to leave gracefully. 

“So, I double and triple checked the system. There seems to have been an error and we double booked the room. Unfortunately, we don’t have any other vacancies anywhere in the resort. Not a single room is available.”

The four of you look between each other, seeing which group would be the first to give. No one budges. 

“The resort cannot demand either booking be the one to leave, so it’s something I will leave you to settle amongst yourselves.” And with the swiftness of an olympic sprinter, he disappears. 

“Well that’s just great. This is positively ridiculous.” Clearly Winter’s mood hadn’t improved at all. 

“Positively ridiculous, ha.” The black haired girl leans back against the wall. 

“How exactly are we supposed to just decide who gets to stay and who has to go? This isn’t any of our error and it’s unfair that anyone be punished and sent away.” 

“Agreed.” You look up, surprised by the dark haired girl’s support. 

“I have an idea. Why don’t we just bet on it?” The blonde opens it up for discussion. 

“What are the stakes?” Shocked that Winter would even consider leaving something like this up to chance, you stare at her wide eyed. 

The blonde takes a few moments to deliberate with herself, moving her head from side to side like she’s weighing decisions in her head. 

“A good old fashioned arm wrestle sounds fair to me. You in?” She gestures to both you and Winter. 

“I will be doing no such thing.” Disgusted, you are honestly disgusted. What a brutish suggestion. 

“Typical, Yang. And I will not be participating, as usual.” 

“Winter?” You can’t help but notice her silence, and it unnerves you. 

“I’m in.” 

“Heck yeah.” The blonde, Yang, begins to roll up the sleeves of her jacket and prepare for battle. 

“You can’t be serious, Winter.” 

You catch the faint scent of lavender as the black haired girl crosses in front of you and takes a seat in one of the chairs facing opposite the couch. 

“She looks pretty serious to me.” She says as she raises one eyebrow before taking another sip from her cup. 

“What are the terms?” Winter asks as she removes her jacket and takes her place across from Yang. 

“Well I’m guessing that if you win, Blake and I pack up and go home.”

“Fair enough.”

“And if I win, we share.”

“What?” Winter’s voice is curt. 

“Excuse me?” You can’t believe this stranger has the audacity to suggest you share living space with them for an entire weekend.

“If I win, the two of you share the cabin with Blake and I for the weekend. It has five rooms and plenty of space for all of us. No reason someone has to leave.”

Winter squints her eyes as she stares Yang down. It’s the look she has when she’s assessing all the odds. It would usually strike fear in her opponent, but this blonde seems completely unphased. 

“Fine. I only have one other condition.”

“And what is that?” 

“We battle left handed. I stand no chance against an Atlesian prosthetic arm.” She gestures towards Yang’s right arm. 

“Totally understandable, yet still inconsequential. Seeing as how I’ll be winning regardless.” Yang sits down, places her elbow to the table, holding her hand up for Winter to take.

Before she takes her place at the table, you walk over next to Winter and quietly express your discontent. 

“You better not lose, because I don’t want to spend my weekend with two complete strangers, one of which appears to be some kind of arm wrestling barbarian. And if you do lose, don’t forget that this was your idea.”

“Oh Weiss, have a little faith.” 

As it turns out, your lack of faith was accurately placed. Because Yang wiped the table with Winter. The “battle,” if it could even be called such, lasted less than a minute. 

“Why don’t you guys take the rooms on the right side of the cabin and Blake and I will choose from the ones on the left? And then, if you ladies wanted, we can meet back here and have dinner? We should probably at least try to get to know each other a little since we will be spending the weekend here.”

“Sounds fine to me. But I recommend room service. I have no intention of cooking on holiday.” You say as you begin to pull your bag towards one of the open doors closest to you. 

“Ah, the request of someone that can’t cook.” Blake says as she disappears down the hallway opposite from you. “I’m cool with that, see you all in an hour.” 

Much to your surprise, dinner actually turned out rather pleasant. It was awkward at first, but Yang seems like one of those people that would talk to a rock and have a good conversation. And Blake seemed like the chill and calm balance to Yang’s over the top attitude. She was smart, incredibly well spoken. And very witty. She even managed to make you laugh a few times. Winter seemed to enjoy conversing with the other girls, which was a nice surprise considering she had been a stick in the mud up until then. 

When Yang suggests that you all “take the party outside” and make s’mores on the patio bonfire, you are shocked when Winter jumps at the chance to help her set it up. 

“Guess that leaves you and I to make the hot chocolate, huh?” Blake asks, motioning for you to follow her back into the kitchen. 

You quietly follow Blake into the kitchen, where she has already started to make preparations. Trying to be of at least some help, you start searching the cabinets for mugs to use. Finally finding them on the highest shelf. Try as you might, even on tiptoes, you can’t reach them. 

“I hate to ask, but do you think you could give me a hand?”

“Did Yang teach you that joke?” Blake laughs to herself as she steps beside you and reaches up to grab four mugs from the cabinet. When she stretches, you can’t help but notice the scar on her left side, as her shirt rides up. 

And of course she catches you looking. God forbid you be smooth at anything. 

“Sorry.” You look away. Not sure if you’re embarrassed for seeing her scar, or just because you got caught looking. 

“No, it’s fine. It’s not exactly a beauty mark.” She laughs nervously. After you fail to fill the silence, she continues. “Should I wait for you to ask? Or would you just like me to tell you about how I got it now?”

“Got what?” You say, dumbfounded look surely spread across your face. 

“The scar I just totally caught you staring at.”

“Oh, not if it’s personal. I don’t want to make you any more uncomfortable than I already have.” You shake your head. 

“It’s fine.” She waves her hand in dismissal. “It’s not that big of a deal anyways. When Yang and I were younger, we were in an accident. On the way to school, something happened with the bus. And it was horrible, some people died. Yang lost her arm, and I got some metal from the bus..” She pokes at her side. “Ya know.” 

“That’s terrible.” Your mouth hangs open in shock. 

“It wasn’t great. But Yang got the worst of it. I was very lucky. But the two of us have been inseparable ever since.” She shrugs her shoulders and you feel something sink down in your stomach. “Can you help me carry two of the cups? I only got two hands so I can’t get all four of them.” 

“Oh of course, sorry.” Quickly grabbing the remaining mugs, you follow Blake back outside. 

“Look who’s back! We were beginning to think the two of you ran off into the woods on us.” 

“Think it’s fairly safe to say that Weiss and I probably wouldn’t make it long in the woods.”

“Weiss can barely make it grocery shopping by herself, much less in the wilderness.” Winter laughs as Yang hands her a marshmallow on a stick. 

“I only want-“ 

“Just the marshmallow. I know Blakey. Chill.” 

Yang roasts a single marshmallow and points it towards Blake once it’s finished cooking. 

“You know me so well.” Blake gives a wide smile to Yang as she removes the lone marshmallow from the stick and eats it. 

“I should. We’ve basically been together forever at this point.” Yang says as she goes about her s’more making duties. 

“What do you all have planned for tomorrow?” 

“Well, Blake wants to go skiing but I have always wanted to go snowboarding.”

“I love to snowboard.” Winter says, and you look at her suspiciously. 

“You do? Since when?” 

“For a while now, you just never pay attention.”

“What about you, Weiss? Skiing or snowboarding?” Blake asks as she eats another marshmallow. 

“Skiing. I’ve always preferred skiing. It has a certain elegance to it that snowboarding does not.”

“You and I should go then.” Blake says. 

“What?” Maybe you misheard her. 

“Well, it seems like Yang and Winter want to snowboard while you and I would like to ski, so maybe we should split up. If that’s cool with you guys?” 

“Sounds like a plan to me, if you guys are up for it?” You highly doubt Winter would agree to this. 

“Seems like the most efficient use of our time here, I’m in.” 

You cave and agree to spend the following day skiing with Blake. You aren’t sure what is going on with Winter. The world must be tilting on some unknown axis or something. 

Later that night, while you and Winter prepared for bed, you take advantage of the seclusion and try to get some answers. 

“What is going on with you? This morning it was like pulling teeth to get you to leave Vale, and now you are agreeing to spend tomorrow with a near complete stranger.”

“There is absolutely nothing going on with me. I was given a direct order from my commanding officer to spend the weekend relaxing, and I am doing just that. And quite frankly, I’m the one that should be asking you. It’s obvious that you are interested in Blake.”

“I am not! And even if I were, she’s clearly in a committed relationship with Yang. They’ve ‘been together forever.’ And that is not something I’m looking to intervene in during a weekend vacation. Honestly, if I had anything to say about it, you’re being way too friendly with Yang.”

“I am doing nothing of the sort. See you in the morning, Weiss. Sleep well.”

“Whatever. Goodnight, Winter.”

As much as you hated to admit it, after hours of lying awake in bed, Winter may have been right. You had only known her for a few hours. But this complete stranger, this Blake whoever, was running circles through your mind and getting stuck in your thoughts. And the more you thought about her, the more disheartened you got. She seemed so amazing. So smart, so witty, so outstanding. Just when you thought you may have found someone of interest. It’s someone that already has a someone.  

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

Here is the link to the rest of the story, if anyone wants to check out the rest: https://www.archiveofourown.org/works/25129900/chapters/60886429

[lacependragon]

7, 17 & 18 for the fanfic author ask meme? (if that's not too many!!) Thanks!

*chose #13 after finding out #18 had already been picked.

Also this is really damn long. So it’s going under a cut.

7. What’s the fic you most want to continue (unfinished or no)?

Impact Zone is the one that most people (some people) know about. It got 15 chapters in before I pulled it. To this day, I still think about it, almost three years later. I want to start over and finish that fic. I want it to be the thing I created in my head.

Silver Rings has possessed me. I love it so much. I have written so much of it in the last few months and now we’ve hit the meat of the fic and I am excited. Also uhhh. I keep arguing with myself over how slow is too slow a slow burn, how far passed the slow burn to go, and whether or not I should speed up the slow burn to stop torturing everyone (and myself).

And there’s a fic I’ve been trying to write for literal years, one based on my love of superpowers, of BNHA, of A Certain Scientific Railgun, of comic books, and of RWBY. A fic that started after I finished Team Spirit. Four god damn years of trying, that fic. And I refuse to give up on it.

And I think. I think I finally figured it out last week. And I’m very excited to see if this time I get to write it.

17. In your opinion, what’s your most overrated fic?

Fucking COMMUNITY WELFARE. My BNHA chat/prose fusion fic. Hang on. Let me rant. Because this is a RANT.

I have not updated that fic in over a year. I stopped updating it because no one understood what I was trying to do with it. It’s popular, yes, and I am going to sound like an ASSHOLE, but despite its popularity, there was never any depth to its popularity. People liked it because it was well-written and in character. That’s cool, fine. But not one person. Not one. God. Damn. Commenter. Ever understood what I was doing. No one caught the depth, no one caught the foreshadowing, no one caught the way I shifted in and out of the chat messages and why. Most people saw the last posted chapter as coming out of left field.

And it was exhausting. I put so much effort into that fic. I worked so hard to code it, to format it, to build up mental health and relationships. And it felt like no one cared. It felt like people were just “yay fic!” which is FINE. Let me stress: that is fine. But I haven’t updated since October 2018 for a reason. And that reason is it feels like the amount of effort that fic isn’t worth it.

So yes, I recognize that I sound awful saying this, but I have had over a year to be angry about this fic, and over a year for someone to prove me wrong. And no one has. Plus, the anti fandom in that community got huge and I was writing some themes that they started attacking.

So I gave up. Don’t get me wrong, I love the world of BNHA, but Season 4 is something I cannot watch (at least, not this arc), and it’s really hard to be invested in fic when you literally cannot watch the gifs because the concept of the arc is so triggering that it makes you scared to open Tumblr some days! So how do I write fic when I can’t watch the show right now? How do stay invested when this part of the manga gave me nightmares?

Also, I was tired of being yelled at.

13. What’s the biggest change between your style when you started in fandom and today?

I started writing for fandom in 2007. Which is to say, before I understood writing. My grammar was shit, my characterization was worse, and everything was awful. The oldest fic currently available of mine for public viewing is Waning, which was posted in mid-2013 (and before shipping clones in star wars the clone wars became a HUGE DEAL worthy of anon hate! I don’t ship incest. I just don’t consider this incest because they’re literally all the same DNA and they’re so damn different and god I could write a whole rant on why shipping Clone Troopers isn’t the same as incest). So, if you want to know what six+ years of writing progress looks like, feel free to go read it.

Anyway, style changes. I suppose there’s a lot? Not just on a technical level or superficial level, but on a very deep, fundamental level. I moved away from very surface, light-hearted fluff (which is fine!) that was often humourous and out of character to having even my light-hearted stuff dive into people’s heads, root around in their insecurities, and haul out everything I could find, to put on full display.

I still love writing and reading surface fluff. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s some of my favourite stuff to read. But I stopped writing it as my main stuff.

I also got really into long fics. I did not write long fics, five years ago. I didn’t write any of my long fics before You and Me’s first chapter. At least, I think that’s the case. I know those two practically went up back to back. Before them, I didn’t write any long fics. It just wasn’t my thing. I couldn’t commit, and I didn’t want to write something I knew I wouldn’t finish.

Then, in 2016, I finished a few things. Namely: Smells Like Team Spirit and You and Me (and Everyone in Between). I truly believe that finishing these fics is what pushed me over into the next era of my writing. Which is pretty funny to say, considering I haven’t finished a long fic since 2017. However, that’s because of a) university and b) getting caught up in fndm drama. The former of which is no longer a factor and the latter of which... well, people love to come into my house and tell me I’m wrong. I’m getting better about ignoring them, and in trying not to care when people tell me that XYZ blog is vaguing about someone who sounds like me (which happens so very often. It’s wild.).

The point, I’m trying to make, is that my style changes are very vast, across the history of my time in fandom. I went from writing dialogue heavy oneshots that were mostly out of character, to writing descriptive fics with focuses on internal narratives, setting, and action, as well as dialogue. Now, if I shift to a scene that is mostly dialogue, it’s on purpose, instead of just a product of a lack of skill or effort.

I went from writing only unfinished nonsense to posting long fics that get a decent amount of traffic. And I went from preferring oneshots and writing one or two long fics to deeply preferring long fics. I adore the way you can build character in long fic, the way AUs become so much richer in them, the way you can foreshadow and twist and make it your own. I love relationship development, both romantic and non, and I love the slow build of anything in a long fic.

Speaking of which, I also got really into AUs. I mostly used to write canon verse for, well, everything, but I became super into AUs some time in early 2016, and I never looked back. Something about different concepts, about different worlds, about the thousand different ways a set of characters can fold together... It just calls to me. I still write canon stuff, mostly oneshots between episodes, but god if I don’t love AUs.

And, somewhere along the line, my favourite sorts of fics became the all lowercase titles writting (like this), with 20k+ words in one chapter. I wish I was better at writing them, because I have ideas that only work for them.

Some day. That’s my next goal as a writer. To get that sorted.

[arse-blathanna]

February 2018 Fic Roundup

For the month of February I am attempting to do the thing where I am punctual in posting my end of month roundup post. This got really long and I’m not sorry, but it’s all going under a cut anyways. It was a big month for me. 

If you want to know what’s coming in March, here’s my calendar. It’s up to date. I promise. 

Oneshots

So it was the month of February and that meant that the big driving force behind everything was Femslash. I wanted to really work with pairings that I hadn’t touched before, and there were a couple of events that I was more than happy to participate in. 

Freelancers Don’t Cry  - [Ao3]

Freelancers don’t cry- especially in the locker room where anyone can see them. South knows this, but Connie is new and could probably use a guide. South is happy to provide.

This is the fic that made me realize just how much I actually love Agent South Dakota and Agent Connecticut. it was just a lot of fun to write and I liked being able to weave in little bits of foreshadowing for how things would go in the future for our Freelancers. Also, South’s internal dialogue was fun as all hell to write. 

Hotter Than The Sun - [Ao3]

There are lot of things about Blood Gulch that are kind of awful. It's always hot and gross, and 90% of the people there suck.

The other 10%? In Kai's opinion- that's Tex, and she's always hot.

Have I ever mentioned that I absolutely love writing Kaikaina Grif? Or that she’s 100% the most fun character to write for? No? Well she is and I love writing her point of view because of just how much there is to play with in how she thinks and talks alone. This fic? I like this fic. I hope you guys like this fic too.

Bloom and Grow- [Ao3] [FFN]

With the ashes of war settled, Blake is finally able to come home. The only problem is that she has no idea what to do with her future now that she’s done fighting. Ilia can help.

Catmeleon week was this month! RWBY5 did quite a bit with Ilia and Blake both, and the plot involving Menagerie was actually pretty interesting. I was left wondering what things might look like for its future once everything in Remnant calmed down. There was conveniently a prompt for that. 

From Square One- [Ao3] [FFN]

Ever since the incident at Vale's docks, Weiss knows that she's been tiptoeing around Blake's presence. It's time to fix that, and some honesty is a good place to start.

You know what was also in the month of February? Monochrome Week! One of the periods in the timeline of RWBY that I never really knew how to deal with was that awkward time just following the ending of Season 1. It was a nice chance to dabble in that time period and play with some of the things that we see come later in Blake and Weiss’ canon relationship. All in all, it was a lot of fun to work on. 

Elegance- [Ao3]

Agent South Dakota is really the person least suited to go on a mission at some uptight party. Really, this isn't something that she belongs in at all. Carolina's better suited for the job. They just have to get in, get out, and try not to leave too much of an impression.

This should be easy.

This was probably my overall favorite fic that I wrote for femslash february. The story was one that was just stuck in my head for several days before I added it to my official roster and got started on it. I can genuinely say that there wasn’t a single moment where I didn’t enjoy writing the story or the way that things were coming out in the final product. I’m just really happy with it. 

Multichapter Fics

As far as February of 2018 has gone, the things that I’m working on in the multi-chapter category have been a little bit more than a surprise. The month ended up feeling like it was productive on an almost unprecedented level, even though my output was probably about the same. For all three of my multichapter fics, I saw them either closing their third acts, or major changes happening in their plots, or changes in structure or something which to me has been very real. 

So here’s looking forward to March. 

Evening Report - [Ao3] [FFN] [Fic Tag]

Blake Belladonna has one job in her life, and its to provide accurate information in a timely manner. A relatively mundane story is all that it takes to throw her into direct contact with Weiss Schnee, whose family secrets could make or break Blake’s career as a journalist.

Chapter 13/30: black and blues -  [Ao3] [FFN]

A quick trip to the airport and a sleepover help clear up a lot of the more fine points of Weiss' current arrangement.

Chapter 14/30: play the game -  [Ao3] [FFN]

A new player enters the game.

So the first thing that you might notice looking at this is that there is finally a stated ending point for this fic. The month of February kind of breezed by with this fic and I was mostly tying up loose ends where I was in the story. I finished writing the epilogue chapter last night! The update schedule will be staying the same. 

Published this month was only the halfway point for the story. There is still much, much more to come and my hope is that you all like where this goes and where it will eventually end up. 

Currently Writing: Nothing. This fic is in the editing and updating only stage of its existence.

Next Chapter: Chapter 15 - March 9th. Chapter 16 - March 23.

The Bones of a God - [Ao3] [FFN] [Fic Tag]

Once upon a time, monsters roamed the entire world, so plentiful that they needed countless numbers to fight them off. 13 years ago, that changed. Grimm died off suddenly and stopped proliferating. Now the few Creatures of Grimm that are left are too large and powerful to be taken down in “the old ways.”

That doesn’t make them any less of a threat.

The real problem comes when people decide it’s for the best that they start picking sides in a war starting anew

Chapter 33/?: Into The Woods - [Ao3] [FFN]

In the woods, anything can happen.

Chapter 34/?: Special Interests - [Ao3] [FFN]

Unexpected meetings occur all around.

I’ve talked about this fic to some extent and what’s happening with it, and there’s actually quite a lot that I need to go over in a formal setting. For simplicity’s sake, I’ve decided to present this information to you in the form of a numbered list. 

I am expecting to be finishing writing Bones Book 1 by the end of March, with it clocking in at around 50 chapters in total. The update schedule is going to remain the same until Evening Report finishes publishing. After that, the story will return to weekly status. 

The fic currently posted is going to be renamed at a later date to “The Bones of a God - Book One: Ichor” and will be made the first part of a series because this is going to be the best way to split the story up and will allow me to make some changes.

After Book One is finished, I am going to start writing a story that takes place 20 years before the events of the story’s start. This is going to focus on a cast of five characters when they were younger. Those characters will be the adult POV characters present in Book Two. Five chapters in total, will be posted after Book One is finished posting. 

I have started the planning of Book Two to some degree. Once I’m ready to start work on it, I’m going to do just that. 

Currently Writing: Chapter 47 out of what I’m expecting to be a 50 chapter fic.

Next Chapters: Chapter 35 - March 2nd. Chapter 36 - March 16. Chapter 37 - March 30

always at your six -  [Ao3] [Fic Tag]

The Mother of Invention went down barely a year ago, and the time in between has been rough for York and Delta. It’s been tough for Tex too, but she has information, and she needs someone to help her get some things before someone can beat her to it.

It’s a good thing York’s out of work.

Chapter 2/?: sympathetic - [Ao3]   Tex, York, and Delta move forward on their mission- starting with some grand theft..

This fic has been consistently a lot of fun to work on for me, and the first one with a soundtrack type playlist that I can actually listen to on repeat without getting bored with it. I’ve had to change a lot of things though on my end, so I’m currently writing the first interlude chapter for this fic. I’m considering amping up my update schedule to twice a month, but haven’t made a real decision yet. 

The main thing to know is that the scope of what this was supposed to be has gotten blown out of the water and also that I love Agent South Dakota. 

Currently Writing: Interlude One - South Dakota. To be posted after chapter 5 in the story. Main story has reached the end of Chapter 9. Will write Chapter 10 and Interlude Two after Interlude One is complete.

Next Chapters: Chapter 3 - March 22.

Prompts and Tumblr Only

The Scrap Blog saw its updates on the seventeenth of the month as planned. Chapters 3-4/20 in the Emercury Stripper AU “things in the dark” are now available for reading. The masterpost for that fic can be found here.

There was also an old North Dakota/York fic I wrote several months back posted there. Tristesse.

Arrowhead - A Pyrrha/Cinder Drabble that I wrote for... some reason. 

Locus/Donut Romcom AU Prompt

Ilia and Ironwood Meeting Prompt