#mistral trading

[iingezo]

@mintenochian YAAA MISTRAL IS WAYY WAY UP IN FAVE BESA RANKS FOR ME if only the rest of that family wasn't so hard to draw I really want to repaint Mistral in particular for myself again — selective-reading kidbrain never originally put together the "baby" in the Baby Bella series and I always thought her card art was grown (just stylized) ;; BUT I COULD PAINT HER GROWN AND MAJESTIC they are so cute tho as is ; o;;;

@missbaphomet my greatest pride w besa scribbles is these sleeper-agent esque reactions>: ) @ghostlythunderbird | @eyeimagery EEEEE best of luck re/collecting !!: D hope old cards safe ! I want to get back into completing mine one day but leftover gaps are becoming trickier finds </3 I miss trading in general tho (lmk if you're on the lookout for any: 0 there's also a v sweet wiki / fan community about)

[evenmorefatallyobsessed]

Manami Aiba/ La Brava AU Concept

Manami Aiba was alone… She had been for a long time, born small and stunted little had been expected of her. Though despite that, her intellect was not to be shrugged off, her skills less so. She had what it took to be someone great, Atlas had made her multiple offers when she was still in middle school and up until she dropped out of high school all those years ago…

So why had she… Love, love was a powerful, but cruel force for Aiba, it drove the young and older, experienced and naïve alike to do foolish things. She was no different, she fell in love, he wasn’t anyone special, not really, but to her that boy had been the world. She could hardly remember what it was that drew her to him anymore.

She had wanted to know him to be closer to the person that made her heart beat so fast, that lit her soul with joy and desire. She’d followed him, learned about him… Stalked him, she was young, naïve… Dumb. Of course he would notice, and unfortunately for her, he would not view it positively.

Creepy, freak, midget psycho, those were a few word he tossed out, and then those became her titles to the entire student body… People avoided her, and in turn she begun to avoid them in kind.

She denied her scholarships, she pushed away teachers, her parents and anyone, everyone else. Eventually she left it all behind, leaving Mistral to go to Vale, but nothing truly changed, every time she was outside, she felt people stare, heard them call her names…

She didn’t want anything to do with people anymore, after all, the rejection had crushed her, not simply because it broke her heart, not because it ostracized her… But because it denied her very soul, her semblance, she had aura, her parents opting to awaken it when her dwarfism had been identified, hoping aura would help her growth which given her more capable state it had.

But with it came the manifestation of her soul, Love, the power to amplify every facet of a individual’s capabilities, the sole limits being that she can only activate it once and that the only person she can use it on is the one she loves….

Could it be blamed for her powerful emotions, for her need to know the person she felt love for, did she stalk and obsess over that boy because of her semblance, or did she use her semblance as a excuse to do so. Was she sane, or desperate, pathetic or pitiful. She didn’t know, she didn’t want to know, because she refused to fall in love again.

So she avoided it, avoided the world, the outside whenever and however she could.

She used her talents to secure a stable living. She was a hacker like no others, able to break through any firewall, or program to secure what she needed.

She sold info, to the highest bidder, made false documents, traded information for favors. The Xiong proved a valuable client. That was how she secured her life, as a cyber sleuth, a hacker with the alias, LA BRAVA.

And that was how she lived her life, alone, there was no Gentle Criminal in Remnant who became her light in the dark. Nobody would come and pull her from her loneliness, she would live this way forever, committing cyber crimes to survive and sustain her isolation…

Junior then contacted her with a request, to falsify some Transcripts into Beacon, she may have been criminal, but Manami was not without morals. She wouldn’t just pave the way for anyone to access Huntsman level training. It was such a person who had done so for the Branwen twin several decades ago and even Mistral still suffered under the hands of the bandit queen.

So she requested info on the individual, she would commit her own background check on them, and then decide.

His name, was Jaune Arc and he was… Handsome. He was from a village outside the kingdom, there were few records past his birth certificate. Not nearly enough, her heart beat with every picture of him she saw. She requested more information, Junior didn’t have much, so she dug deeper, found out where he was living at the time. It was just for her to decide…

She… She left her home, her small apartment, the Arcs weren’t to renowned but to those in the know they were taught the familiar were as honorable as they came, knights outta fairytales. So why was her here, asking to fake his way into Beacon, she had to know.

She almost was able to ignore the stares on her, the pit in her stomach being in public caused, she felt dizzy, she wanted, no needed to go bac-

“Are you okay?”

And then by sheer coincidence she met him, Jaune Arc kneeled before her, a worried look on his face. Things happened rather fast, she found herself walking beside her target, the boy so friendly, so open to talk to her. Not making a huge issue of her form, of her condition, but also not ignoring it.

He slowed to walk with her, but never once drew attention to her size, and when someone not noticing her bumped into her he defended her. Made them apologize… When asked why he approached her, it wasn’t a painful excuse or cruel misunderstanding like that he thought she was a lost child or that he wanted to ask directions.

“You looked sad, so I figured I’d try to see if I could fix that.” He smiled, it was bright, kind and inviting.

“After all, if I wanna be a Huntsman I should be able to at least cheer up a pretty girl right?” Her cheeks flushed, her chest tightened as he went on with his silly simple but honest words.

That time couldn’t have lasted though, people approached her, junior’s men, they didn’t recognize her, couldn’t have, they’d never met in person after all. Everyone back away as they did, it made sense, junior liked to be in the know, and she was a new face he’d never seen.

Despite how it looked everything should’ve been okay, would’ve been okay, but Jaune didn’t know that, and stepped between.

He wasn’t skilled, not huntsman level at least, but he was strong, she was sure he could kill grimm, even without aura. It shocked her seeing that, seeing him bleed, but he stood tall and strong, defending her until police showed up. But she could see it, the despair in his face, he must’ve realized they were Hei’s men. That he’d thrown away his chance to go to Beacon…

Or so he thought, but she thought different, because despite all that he prioritized her, his friend, one he said didn’t matter that he just met because.

“Strangers are just friends you haven’t met yet.” She’d said it on reflex.

“Love you…” If he hadn’t burst into a dazzlingly, blinding white light he might’ve heard her instead of freaking out. She had to explain what Aura was to him, what it meant, and then convince him to not give up… She, she might’ve told him he shouldn’t sleep at his hotel, that Junior’s men might try to hurt him. They wouldn’t, not so soon, but he didn’t need to know that.

He hadn’t cared until he thought they might go after her… She, used that to have him stay with her, to keep him in Vale. Hacking Beacon was easy, falsifying transcripts easier, they looked more legitimate then the actual ones. Jaune, her friend would be a Huntsman, she’d make sure of it.

Several weeks he stayed with her, cooked for her, and spent time with her, they talked, they grew close, he, he was so amazing, so nice and kind… And hot, he was beefy under his hoodie, like a actual farmboy.

But it all had to come to a end, he thanked her, and promised to visit, to call and made her promise to do the same.

And then he left, but she wasn’t done, hacking Beacon’s security cameras she watched their Initiation saw him partner with a celebrity, a tall, leggy celebrity, but even then he talked about her. About his best friend in Vale, which made his best friend in Beacon, Ruby Rose Jealous.

Then the Grimm attacked, he charged a giant Death Stalker, and her heart froze in fear, she didn’t hesitate, knowing it’d activate.

“I Love You!” She said it with desperation, and even so far away it activated, and the world exploded with bright pink light as Jaune was amplified by her semblance. Moving faster then the Rose Girl, hitting stronger then the blonde, red-eyed bimbo or the ginger hammer wielder. He was confused but not still, determined to act.

Every swing of his blade tearing trough he thick armor and flesh of the Death Stalker alike it’s claws, tail and then legs before he cleaved it in twain. And then… He jumped into the air, not thinking for his safety, or about what he’d do if the power disappeared.

Only about killing the second Grimm, tackling into the giant Nevermore and shooting straight through it. He fell hard but survived given his already immense aura being multiplied several dozen fold.

And it was over, and he called a hour later, people celebrating behind him as he told her the good news, unaware she’d seen it all. The only misunderstanding being that he thought her power was his semblance. He thanked her for unlocking his soul and promised he’d visit her that weekend.

Only for someone to visit her only a hour later, someone she knew, but solely by reputation, the man in charge of Jaune’s fate. The headmaster of Beacon academy, something about having a good grasp of detecting Aura and it’s sources… Then pointing out how while Jaune’s transcripts were flawless, his history was not.

She expected her life to be over but instead.

“Manami Aiba, I believe Beacon could use someone of your particular set of skills, how would you feel about assisting our Stealth and Security Professor Ann Greene? You are around the age of a fourth year. I’m sure we can… Work something out.”

I think their ship name should be 'Amour' (French for Love)

[rwby-encrusted-blog]

How does Team RWBY react to counter JNPR?

I cannot get all of JACC in one post without it being miles long. I will get to the other three in time.

Dawne: Hey Cutie~ That's a cool weapon you got~

Ruby: *Gasp* Thank you! *she unfurls Crescent Rose* It's A Scythe and a High-Impact Customizable Sniper Rifle!

Dawne: Huh?

Ruby: It's also a gun! My uncle helped me design it's first iteration ...

Dawne: *Zoning Out*

*tap Tap tap*

Dawne: ?

Yang: She's Fifteen.

Dawne:

Yang: *Grabbing his shoulder* Nope! You started this conversation, and you're gonna finish it!

Dawne: *scoffs*

Dawne: So it's Chambered in .50?

Ruby: Yes! Yes She is! But enough about my baby, What's yours like?

Dawne: Oh, you mean- *He brings out a silvery longsword, it's blade splitting along the spine to let the barrel be seen* Horizon Line?

Ruby: Ooooh~ .308?

Dawne: Yes, yes she is~ A Longsword and Designated Marksman Gauss-Rifle!

Ruby: Gauss? Why Gauss instead of traditional firing mechanisms?

Dawne: Well ... I dunno ... I thought the trade off of easier maintenance was worth the initial cost and the necessity of Electric dust to fire it.

Ruby: I can see how that'd be useful! You're ... you were another tournament Runner, Yeah? Like Pyrrha?

Dawne: Yes. Like Pyrrha.

Ruby: Ah, W-well ... with all the funds you got from it, I can see how'd it'd be worth it! Don't need to worry about something failing as often!

Dawne: *Wasn't expecting to have an actual good conversation with anyone* I ... yeah! Plus, I can attach my Scroll to it for data - Thermal detection, bullet counting, aura level remaining ...

~~~~~

Dawne: What's Cookin' Good Lookin'!

Yang: ... Hmm.

Dawne: What? Speechless~

Yang: Well, way too many people are comfortable getting touchy before the first word. Thinking of giving you a chance since you kept your hands to yourself.

Dawne: Oh, giving me a chance would be the worst mistake for you romantic prospects in the future! No one will ever compare~

Yang: And there's the other shoe. I don't like being played with.

Dawne: Aw, Come on! I don't play with people, I make them sing~

Yang: Alright you've got your point across. Leave.

Dawne: Come on! I'm Dawne Angeles, One of the Top Tournament fighters of the Mistral League~ You have no Idea how lucky you are-

Yang: I told you to Back off.

Dawne: *raising his hands defensively* Okay! Okay! ... Fine. No Flirting. How about a drink? Just a drink and I'll be out of your hair

Yang: ...

Yang: *sigh* Fine. One Drink. You fuck up again, and you leave, got it?

Dawne: Sounds like a plan, Fireb-

Yang: ?

Dawne: ... I don't think I caught your name!

~~~~~

Dawne: H-

Weiss: If you're going to flirt with me, turn around and leave, or else I'm freezing you solid! I get enough of that junk from you're brother. and if you believe I'll entertain it for one second, then you're sorely mistaken.

Dawne: ...

Dawne: Snow ang- *Frozen*

~~~~~

Dawne: Well if it isn't my lucky day~

Blake: *Reading*

Dawne: I mean, most people think black cats are bad to come across, but I don't think they've been the ones lucky enough to even lay their eyes upon a beauty such as yourself~

Blake: *Still Reading*

Dawne: ...

Dawne: I can't help but notice that we have similar palettes! Why we almost look like to parts of a pair-

Blake: Like Siblings?

Dawne: ...

Dawne: Great. Thanks for that mental image. Really appreciate it.

Blake: Not a problem~

[bestworstcase]

How likely is it do you think that there are/have been Grimm-based cults? I can't imagine there's Never been Grimm cults, and I'm particularly interested in the idea of there being Grimm cults or even just organizations who Actually Understand the Grimm and safely live alongside them. I think it's such a fascinating idea, I'm very tempted to come up with a mysterious faction that respects/admires the Grimm (like how people did/do respect forces of nature in religion) and (mostly) safely lives alongside them. Any thoughts?

two obvious paths. whether the second is viable depends on how well you trust my basic reading of the grimm as sapient beings who reflect back what they’re given—dark mirrors—but the first is textually sound without any extrapolation required.

#1: the grimm as gods of war

these are the salient facts:

the grimm follow groups of bandits around to scavenge in the wake of their raids

criminals in mistral sometimes use captive grimm to execute members of rival gangs

grimm are more strongly drawn by violent anger and hatred than by sadness, fear, or other negative emotions.

it’s possible (per ‘before the dawn’) for one side of a conflict to "ally" with the grimm in battle if the other side is, er, tastier

ok. imagine you have a region where most of the people live in small nomadic groups—perhaps a steppe or a desert, their subsistence base is herding—with smatterings of fortified towns and villages around the edges of the region where there’s arable land enough to support a larger sedentary population. the nomadic groups can’t produce their own weapons/armor (mines, smelters, and forges aren’t portable), so they’ll need to either raid or trade with the towns for that. and conflicts between these nomadic groups over territory and other resources are inevitable.

how do the grimm figure in this region?

well a) the grimm are going to be following the nomadic groups around, with more warlike groups attracting more grimm, and b) grimm will fight alongside people against a common enemy if their "allies" are calmer or otherwise less appealing.

this is like… a perfect storm for the nomadic groups to start venerating "their" grimm as war-gods, in tandem with fostering warrior-cultures that prize tranquility or joy and mercy in battle; there is no honor in hatred or rage or taking pleasure in killing (our grimm turn against those warriors who lose themselves to bloodlust), so a good warrior must be calm, decisive, and swift, and never prolong a fight unnecessarily. but it’s also beneficial to make one’s enemies fearful and angry, or provoke them into hatred.

all it takes is one or two warriors who kept a cool head in battle noticing that the grimm ignored them to go after another warrior who went berserk and then interpreting this as a moral judgment. historically, we know grimm were thought to be the vengeful or corrupted spirits of animals, or animals possessed by demons; both are understandings that encourage this sort of thinking. these are animal spirits that cannot rest because someone killed them without giving due respect, and now they seek to punish those who commit such wrongs… so we’d better take care to treat our adversaries in battle and the animals we hunt with honor and mercy.

and oh, we should pay our respects to the grimm, too. perhaps make some offerings. they eat the corpses of the slain after a battle, so… a) we mustn’t be wasteful when we hunt, it isn’t respectful, and b) we should consider the grimm in our funeral customs.

this is a very basic. BASIC human impulse. humans will try to propitiate the fucking sky because we’re so good at pattern recognition and also anthropomorphizing things that we’ll find patterns and read meaning into the most random coincidences. take that and add it to the fact that it legitimately is possible to form alliances with grimm… fgrhjsv

under these conditions grimm-worship probably tends to look something like:

warrior cultures that prize moderation, calmness, efficiency, and clever mockery or intimidation of the enemy in battle,

funeral customs that ritualize feeding the dead to grimm, and/or ritual sacrifice of captured enemies,

grimm viewed as battlefield psychopomps and/or patron spirits of warriors, whether as a class or as individuals or both, and

incorporation of grimm-like designs or motifs into armor and clothing of warriors, to intimidate enemies.

with wide variation in the details and elaborations. the reason for this common set of foundational practices is that religion is practical. it’s not arbitrary. it isn’t pretend. prayer and ritual are things people do because it works, or it’s believed to work, and the right methods are figured out through trial and error long before they coagulate into tradition. so with something like grimm, whose behavior really can be meaningfully influenced, similar patterns will emerge across different cultures because whether a given practice does or doesn’t work is a) more than random chance or coincidence, and b) extremely easy to identify because if it doesn’t work the grimm will attack you.

& #2, the grimm as nature gods

these are my presuppositions, based on extrapolation from the text:

the grimm have a physiological need for aura, which they can get by siphoning; they eat their prey in order to extract aura from the remains.

grimm attraction to emotions is akin to our attraction to the aroma and taste of food; strong emotions herald deep auras or excite aura so it’s more "nutritious" for the grimm, so they hunt by following emotion.

because aura/soul separates from the body at death, siphoning aura from a living person is much more efficient than killing and eating; grimm will prefer to be fed aura by someone alive over hunting if possible.

because aura can be channeled outward through tools, clothing, etc, it can also be channeled into a repository and stored for a while; this seems to be how the grimm lures in arrowfell work.

grimm are intelligent, emotional, social creatures who can learn to recognize certain groups of people as 'safe' or as friends/allies, without salem.

grimm reflect back the emotional energy they’re given; they’re not "attracted" to anger or pain per se, they just mirror it. bristle and draw your weapon at a grimm, and the grimm will charge at you. remain calm and retreat slowly, and the grimm will keep its distance too.

if all of these presuppositions are true, you can propitiate grimm by saturating an object with aura and leaving that out for the grimm on the regular. i imagine that organic/living things that naturally have aura would work best for this purpose; sacrificing an animal or a portion of your harvest is intuitive, and if fervent religious belief alone isn’t enough to infuse something with aura, then priests or religious officials whose auras have been unlocked and trained will do the trick.

if aura-saturated offerings aren’t possible, then you’d need someone with aura training to channel aura to the grimm through, like, a stick, or bare-handed if they were brave enough or confident enough. this is a more uncomfortable option (like physically) but we have a canonical example of a character doing it: she found it disconcerting, but not painful, and it’s implied that the grimm didn’t attack her at any point during. so a) it probably doesn’t do any more harm than having one’s defensive aura break, and b) stopping the flow of aura to the grimm by moving away won’t provoke the grimm to attack.

as unpleasant the prospect might seem, if it clearly worked to reduce or eliminate grimm attacks on the community, people would do this. people would absolutely do this. the big hurdle lies in discovering that this is possible—like you’d need someone to willingly approach a grimm, lay a hand on it, and channel aura into it without knowing what will happen, and the kind of person who would even think to TRY that is very rare—but once it was known? religious belief motivates people do all sorts of unpleasant, uncomfortable, or even outright painful and harmful things to themselves. fasting. self-flagellation. hermitage.

like… waves hands. if it’s a known thing in a community that grimm won’t attack anyone if a few people go into the wilderness every morning to stand there and pour aura into grimm who pass by until they’re tapped out for the day, lots of people will be fully willing and able to do that. far more than are willing and able to become huntsmen: it’s not dangerous or difficult, it’s just going to tire you out on your assigned days. and if you have say, a village of a hundred people of whom ten are able to do it, you can rotate so no individual has to do it more often than thrice a month. NBD.

and if nothing else except the emotional mirroring thing is true, then you can… more or less propitiate grimm by doing whatever, because in this case what makes propitiation effective is community belief that it works: if you and everyone else around you believes that wearing pendants carved in the likeness of grimm and pouring a libation of wine outside the village gates to entreat the grimm for safe passage through the wilds is effective in making the grimm leave you alone, then no one’s going to panic or raise the alarm upon seeing a grimm wandering around in the barley field, and the grimm won’t freak out either.

if you believe that a grimm is a being that can be appeased and you cross paths with one in the woods, you’re going to do what you believe will keep you safe; for a huntsman, that’s "draw a weapon and attack," but for you that might be "hold up your grimm pendant and recite a prayer to politely wish it well and ask for its blessing in return," which—if the grimm just reflect your emotional energy back at you—will probably make the grimm pause and look at you for a moment before continuing on, which confirms and reinforces your belief that this is the correct way to deal with grimm. This Is How Religion Works.

so all that to say, as long as i’m correct about at least one of these presuppositions—the one with the strongest textual evidence, no less—then propitiating the grimm will reduce their aggression dramatically if not stop it altogether. and if that’s the case then i’d imagine grimm-worship is quite common and also varied in more remote regions where human-grimm encounters are frequent.

the shape of that worship will evolve out of how people in a given community figured out that you can do this with grimm. if one person tries a certain thing and it works, and then more people try the same thing and it works for them to, then that is going to become known as the Thing That Works and it will be gradually refined and elaborated on from generation to generation. and on the other side of the mountains they might be doing the same process but with a completely different thing that also worked the first time.

so you might have a village making huge ritual productions of preparing a feast for the grimm with a portion of the harvest, orchestrated by a coterie of priests who fill the offerings with aura… and in the hinterlands a few hundred miles away you might have a group of nomadic herders who leave the bones of every sheep they eat for the grimm and also have elaborate coming-of-age rituals where you go into the wilderness to prove yourself to the grimm by baring your soul… and up north on the coast you might have a whaling town where sailors pray to something like the leviathan or the feilong as a sea-god because their ancestors happened to stumble into a symbiotic relationship with a giant grimm that preys on whales and realized these little guys in boats make better hunting partners than they do snacks. etc.

basically if you accept a presupposition that the grimm aren’t "soulless evil monsters whose sole purpose is to kill humans" and consider them as beings that have some rhyme or reason as to when they’re aggressive and when they’re not, and the rhyme or reason is something humans/faunus could plausibly figure out how to accommodate and/or influence, there are a lot of ways to build a grimm cult. ’cause religion is at its core humans trying to understand the world so we can keep ourselves safe, healthy, and comfortable; worshipping grimm is just a cultural framework for a threat management program.

think about it in those terms, and take however you think grimm work and ask "what could people Do to lower the risk of grimm attacking them?" and "what might people Do that doesn’t really have an effect but seems like it maybe does?" and then start to elaborate from there with "okay, what stories do people tell to explain why they do these things and how they learned to do these things? how do they conceive of the grimm and their relationship to grimm? how does this shape the social and moral values of this religion?" etc.

praxis comes first, belief second. and the praxis develops through trial and error with the basic goal of "how can we make the grimm leave us alone?" so things that clearly don’t work will be discarded. (with ‘clearly don’t work’ meaning "we did this and grimm immediately attacked us"; people will tend to take "we did this and grimm didn’t attack us for two months" to mean "it worked! we should do it every other month!")

[itsclydebitches]

Sometimes the negativity attracting Grimm thing makes me think of questions like, how did slavery exist for so long? It wasn't abolished until the great war and we are told how Mistral and Mantle both used it a lot.

Like in a world where monsters literally seek out negativity to kill people and this causes mass damage and such..

How the heck could any version of the slave trade, a brutal system built on pain, suffering and humiliation exist in remnant? Let alone having been a widespread system for 2 successful kingdoms?

This. The longer the show has gone on the less that part of the worldbuilding makes sense. It's a cool idea, but as always RWBY doesn't put in the work to keep it cohesive.

I vaguely remember thinking about this years ago when I was first watching the show. Not in relation to slavery/the general oppression of the faunus, but wondering where the line was between "Average amount of negative emotion that doesn't attract grimm and therefore allows a society to function" and "Amount that tips the scale and results in a coordinated attack." I can distinctly recall first watching the attack on Beacon and going, "Oh, so having a whole stadium of people reacting to a girl being killed - not to mention the reveal that she's secretly an android - is enough to attract most of the grimm in the surrounding area. That makes sense. Plus, this was all orchestrated by Cinder who knew that would happen. Great villain plan!" (This was back in the day when RWBY had a lot more going for it.) Even so, that kind of excessive negativity obviously exists in a kingdom where slavery exists, yet grimm aren't factored into issues like the faunus revolution, or even on a smaller scale like Cinder's abuse. There's no acknowledgement of excessive attacks as a result, or why people would continue such industries when it poses such a threat to everyone in the area. I mean, people frequently do things that are dangerous/reckless/stupid for a number of reasons (money being one of them...), but the show still needs to grapple with that, even if it's only in an offhand way. Where are the self-serving "revolutionaries" that oppose faunus enslavement not because they care for them, but because they fear the grimm their torture might bring? Where are the people who look to the lack of grimm in their well-to-do areas - a result of Atlas' defenses and the richer homes being further from the walls - and use it as "proof" that the faunus actually love working in the mines? Clearly if they didn't we would have been overrun by grimm by now!

By working with your worldbuilding rather than just dropping it until you need an excuse for a non-villain fight, RWBY could actually add a lot of realism and nuance here.

[lipeg]

The JNR team was gathered in a cafeteria.

Jaune: Tell me again Nora why are we even here

Nora: REST!

Jaune: We are in a crisis situation

Nora: We need to relax and rest!

Jaune looked at Ren.

Jaune: How can you handle this Ren

Ren: Inner peace

Jaune: Zé ruela

Nora: You look like a very boring old man JAUNE!

Jaune: But I'm old, I'm 60

Nora growled in anger.

Ren: Nora want to make up for lost time Jaune, you spend a lot of time working

Jaune: Mistral threw all her hunters to Vacuo, Vale no one has news, Atlas destroyed. I need some help.

Ren: That's why you sent Ruby to work manufacturing and repairing weapons

Jaune: Exactly

Nora: ENOUGH OF THIS! Let's talk about something more important!

Jaune and Ren: The what?

Nora: THE LOVE!

Jaune and Ren: Oh.... Nothing relevant

Nora: Ren, shut up! Jaune you may not live the rest of your life alone

Jaune: Yes, yes I can

Nora: No you can not! How about... Ruby, you two would make a great couple

Jaune: I'm not so sure

Nora: Why no!

Jaune: Ruby and I had some disagreements about certain events. Two immature people getting into a relationship would not be very good, Besides, we became just friends, not great friends anymore

Nora: So WEISS! You had a crush on her

Jaune: Well maybe, but she was just a little.... A little

Ren: Sociable?

Jaune: No

Ren: Friendly?

Jaune: Maybe but no. She's still too proud and I can't handle all that pride. Another issue is that she is too low

Ren: Unfortunate is true

Nora: Jaune, you wouldn't date Weiss because she's too short!

Jaune: Yes.I mean, if I married her and we had a family, my kids would be bigger than her sister

( Art of Seshirukun )

Nora covered his mouth and started laugh.

Nora: OK you win

Nora: So Yang?

Jaune: I don't want this woman even for free!

Nora: Why no?

Jaune: When they were coming to Vacuo, the girls decided to play truth or dare, they forgot I was with them for some reason.... I heard things that I didn't like at all

Ren: Blake?

Jaune: She already had a boyfriend but the relationship didn't work out, Sun tried to win Blake's heart but it didn't work and she is lesbian

Nora: what a problem, but that would be a great drama

Jaune:I have no idea and besides, I barely have a conversation with her, I only know that because they decided to play truth or dares

Ren: Complicated situation

Nora: So stay with whoever you wanted

Jaune: Pyrrha

Nora was surprised and lively.

Jaune: I mean Pyrrha was beautiful she had a nice body you saw it yourself Nora

Nora: It's true she had a great body

Jaune: Pyrrha is the perfect balance of power, beauty and kindness. She helped me a lot, even after her death leaving tips on combat. Well I mean, can you compare Pyrrha to a sports car that doesn't give you any problems, do you trade a good car for a car that's fallen apart?

Nora: Who would be the car falling apart

Jaune: Team RWBY

Nora started laughing uncontrollably.

Ren: Would you have the courage to say that to their face?

Jaune: I barely talk to them anyway, whether or not we lost the friendship doesn't matter to me

Ren: So tell me, which one of the girls you meet would you ask to go to bed?

Nora stopped laughing and looked at Ren.

Nora: REN!!!

Ren: What?

Jaune placed his left hand on his chin.

Jaune: Velvet

Nora and Ren looked at Jaune.

Nora e Ren: Really?

Jaune: Yes.It's because of one of my uncles really like Faunus women, his favorites are the rabbit Faunus. He said if you scratch the back of the rabbit's ears they move one of their legs and my uncle did this during sex.

Nora was left open-mouthed.

Jaune: My uncle said the following: or you think it's weird and you're not excited, or you think it's cute and you're not excited. or you think it's cute and you get even more excited

Ren: oh Jaune

Ren pointed over Jaune's shoulder.

Jaune turned around.

The CYFV team is behind him.

They heard everything.

Jaune: You better get ready for tonight Velvet, you're going to call me of daddy later tonight

Velvet's face turned red with embarrassment and anger.

Velvet: Excuse me! I won't sleep with you!

Jaune: Ok what do you know, There are always fish in the sea

This time, a rabbit Faunus woman passed by outside the cafeteria.

Jaune: This phrase has never been more true

Jaune went after that rabbit Faunus.

Velvet: WAIT!

[cyberhai]

How Gay Are MGRR Characters (IMO)?

DISCLAIMER. These are my personal headcanons. I will not tear your head off for having different ideas than me. Do you see every character ever as gay? Do you see every character ever as straight? Cool beans. Sparkle on. Putting this as a disclaimer because some people in this fandom are ding dongs and I hope to not be mistaken for one of em.

Raiden

Unpopular opinion but. I think this man's straight. I think the stereotypically gender nonconforming character being a cishet with a wife and kid is top tier.

Mistral

Bisexual. Split about 75/25. Leans more towards men. Canonical dilf hunter(same girl). But also mighta dated a girl or two before.

Monsoon

Gay-ish. Not opposed to women but he's a man liker by trade. Also possibly somewhere under the ace umbrella? Demi perchance? He is an enigma. Ever shifting ever evolving. Like his detachable ass.

Sundowner

That's a gay fuckin man right there. But the species of gay man that evades gaydar like a stealth bomber. Nobody has ANY idea he likes dudes until one day he casually mentions something about his husband's truck always breaking down and everyone's like wait. You've got a what now?!?!?!

Jetstream Sam

Bisexual. I headcanon a lotta characters as bisexual don't I? Leans towards dudes. Side note I also feel like he's the typa guy to get along with girls n' gays and straight gym bro types equally well. Everybody loves Sam.

Armstrong

He SAYS he's straight. He's also a politician. So definitely has or had one of those faceless "M 48 DL) grindr accounts.

[silvers-smuttery]

Commission: Bribing with Bodies

Ruby finds out Oscar has a magazine featuring her and Penny on the cover, the result of a wild night out. To what lengths will they go to have him keep it a secret between them?

How did it come to this? Ruby was panicking. Her semblance carried her from one corner of their Atlesian Quarters to another in the blink of an eye, muttering how her life has been ruined over one silly moment of weakness. Oscar could only watch Ruby's episode in shocked embarrassment. He really didn't mean for this to happen while he packed his bags to go on this adventure. But really, Ozpin could have warned him when he chose that one exact obscure Mistralean smut magazine to take with him on his journey. But honestly, how could he know? He bought the damn thing way before he ever met either Penny or Ruby. And with trade between kingdoms taking a massive hit after the Fall of Beacon, the magazine was never even distributed anywhere outside of Mistral.

Months ago, when the Vytal Festival had just started, Ruby took her dear friend and very real human girl Penny out for a night in Vale. They had a great time in Junior's club, dancing and laughing and singing. But dumb mistakes were also made that night, such as drinking a bit too much alcohol. And maybe wearing a bit more revealing clothes than what was appropriate. And of course, the biggest dumb mistake, taking a "reputable" photographer up for his offer to do a photo shoot for some extra cash, as the two of them had spent theirs already. To be fair, he DID take their pictures in his studio/loft, and the way he touched them afterwards did feel good - really good -, but the two of them had barely a way of knowing that the photos were going to be published in a magazine. At least the sleazeball had the decency to censor their faces. Or rather their eyes. The girls' very distinctive hair was still fully shown, along with Ruby's perky breasts, and Penny's curvaceous figure.

The hair was the main giveaway for Oscar to finally recognize the two of them, when they reunited in Atlas, making him blush crimson when he realized not only did he buy the magazine, but was actually carrying it in his backpack. A little later in the Atlas dormitory the teams would be stationed in, and after a small accident causing the contents of Oscar's bag to spill, the cat was finally out of the bag. Before Ruby's and Penny's feet laid the result of their night out. "Thiscan'tbehappeningThiscan'tbehappeningThiscan'tbehappeningThiscan'tbehappeningThiscan'tbehappening!!!!", Ruby muttered, face flushed as crimson as her cape, all while spilling rose petals everywhere.

Oscar only stood frozen, unable to move or even say anything while his blush matched Ruby's in intensity. What should he say? Should he explain that he brought it even before getting to know them? Or why he even brought it along?

Penny was the only soul in that room who remained calm about the situation, even picking up the magazine. "I do need to say, this gentleman really captured your appeal friend Ruby!", Penny giggled, though her friend wasn't listening.

"You! Can! Not! Tell! ANYONE! OKAY?!" Ruby's fluster finally dissipated enough to direct it at a target, Oscar, as she grabbed the collar of his shirt and shook him violently. "BURN IT!"

"Now now, friend Ruby. It is clear Oscar finds great enjoyment in this magazine. If you demand he get rid of it, you should offer adequate compensation!", Penny chimed in from behind Ruby. The magazine showed signs of wear and tear, but was still in excellent condition. Obviously he cared for it, taking it this far to boot.

All movement in the room came to a sudden, abrupt halt when Ruby and Oscar realized what Penny had done. The android had reached around her friend, clutching her corset dress, only yank it down and reveal that Ruby's breasts had a perky bounce to them. Ruby's face lit up in the color of her namesake whole Oscar's complexion darkened even more with a pink tint. "PENNY! WHAT THE-" RRRIIIIP

Ruby's cry was cut short by the loud tearing of a pair of pants echoing off the walls of the dorm, followed by another round of silence. Ruby felt a heat between her legs. She felt it lift her skirt, smacking right against her covered pussy, only to be held there by her instinctively clutching her legs closed. Sweat formed on her brow. If she hadn't kept her eyes locked with Oscar's, her gaze would have been drifting downwards to stare at…

"Oh my, that is quite the erection. I had no idea you were a Horse Faunus, Oscar", Penny broke the silence in her usual voice. It usually conveyed innocence and naivety, but in this context, it just sounded like a girl excited for a big, meaty cock. Penny's synthetic hands grasped the flared cockhead poking out from Ruby's skirt, inadvertently rubbing it along Ruby's throbbing mound. Her actions elicited a moan from both the dumbstruck teens still gazing into each other's eyes.

In the blink of an eye, Penny had swept the two of them off their feet. Ruby now laid on top of Oscar, rubbing her pussy along his ever hardening shaft. For a moment still, the two only let out panting moans, before Ruby spoke up. "So uhm…think we could do something to make you… forget about that magazine?"

"Uh-hUH!" Oscar's plea was accompanied by a splash of precum erupting from his dick, splashing onto Ruby's skirt. Another twitch of the hard rod was enough to soak her entire back in hot, gooey liquid, which she simply decided to ignore. If she even looked at this massive horse cock, if she as much as acknowledged that it was there and as abnormally huge as it was, there was no doubt in her mind, she'd get second thoughts and chicken out in the end. So she ignored it. Not that Penny was much help in that as Ruby stood up to line the tip of his cock up with her pussy.

"Golly, that was a big load. I take it you haven't released your seed in quite a while", the Android mused as she dove down to his crotch, cradling Oscar's balls like a kitten playing with yarn.

"You're not helping Penny!", Ruby said through gritted teeth, just before the gynoid slipped the reaper's panties down. Ruby's pussy was met with the wet heat of both their genitals meeting and mixing, pulsing through her body and no doubt his as well. Ruby kept looking at Oscar's face, panting as she ground his flared tip against her soaking pussy, trying to slip it inside. The boy clearly saw her struggling and interjected

"R-Ruby, you really don't need to fo-HOOOH!" Just as he tried to plead to her to go easy, Ruby managed to finally fit it in her cunt. The wide head stretched to the entrance of her womb beyond what she could have possibly imagined.

"This is normal! This is normal! This is normal!", Ruby winced in a breathy high pitch over and over, her legs and muscles locking in shock. Fingers twitched and toes curled as her body got his with her first climax, sudden like a lightning bolt hitting her. Was she really this turned on already? No time to think about that, this was for Oscar after all. As soon as her legs could move again, she started descending more, filling her birth canal to the utmost limits. Slowly and bit by bit, did her pussy grow accustomed to the size she was accommodating. More moans escaped her the further down she went. This felt so good, and watching Oscar writhe underneath her in pleasure was making her smile as well. Especially when he began to grip her thighs to help her bounce.

Soon Ruby could take him halfway inside her pussy. His flared tip kept hitting her womb while her lips kissed down on his medial ring. The moment was perfect. There was nothing else left but the two of them in unison. The sound of their breaths and moans and whimpers, the pumping of his dick in and out of Ruby's pussy, the rumbling of his balls churning with cum, ready to flood Ruby's womb any moment now…

"Ru-Ruby, I haven't… cum since I left on my journey…", Oscar admitted through his whimpers of pleasure.

"Bu-but that was like, two months ago…", Ruby retorted, finally shocked enough to look over her shoulder at his balls. Aside from Penny kissing them, sucking the leathery skin, Ruby was shocked at the sheer size of the sack, rivaling grapefruit with its girth. The reaper couldn't deny the flutter in her stomach when imagining this cum factory unleashing its load into her womb, but rational thought still won out as she started sliding the dick all the way out of her. "O-okay, I'll just finish you with a handjo-"

"Nope. You have to give it your all. Or would it be, 'take his all'?", Penny declared with a firm grip on Ruby's waist. Both sex partners grew a shade paler when they realized her intent, but could do nothing to stop it. Penny pushed down with a force Ruby's wobbly legs could not hold up against, buckling and yielding as Ruby got slammed down. The medial ring forced its way inside her cunt, Oscar's back arching from the sudden jolt, which only drove his hips closer to Ruby's. Her womb shifted in her stomach, driven further up by the immense, hard length inserted in her.

The moment her pale ass smacked against his olive lap, the seal on his balls shattered, unleashing a torrent of virile, thick spunk into the reaper's core. Ruby threw her head back when the scorching flood hit her womb, pumping it full. She clutched her stomach, feeling the distortion of it growing every second. Every pump of his dick seemingly added another month of apparent pregnancy to her bulging belly, until she looked like she might pop out triplets any moment. And then it stopped.

Oscar and Ruby both were frozen in the bed, too sensitive to move, too meek to try and do anything on their own, until Ruby finally collapsed backwards. Oscar's horse cock finally slid out, letting the sweating pair catch their panting breaths for a moment while cum streamed out of the reaper's gaping hole.

"Oh my, that was quite the load", Penny chimed in off to the side. The android let her hands roam over the pair, from Ruby's inflated stomach to Oscar's cock and balls, still hard and full. "This is nothing compared to our night with the photographer, but I am glad I got him to take those pictures so I could witness this."

Ruby's breath stopped when Penny's words hit her ears. Tearing her eyes open, something in Ruby clicked. Penny was an Android. A Robot. She couldn't really get drunk. Did Penny know from the beginning what that smut journalist would do? No, she just admitted to convincing him to use the pair as models while Ruby was off her rocker. A primal rage filled the as she leaped upwards at the ginger, seemingly undeterred by her heaving stomach.

"Get her, Oscar!", Ruby ordered, as she pounced on Penny, smacking her cum-stiffed cunt right over the android's mouth if she liked it or not. Her hands shift to Penny's bare tits. She had no idea when the gynoid undressed, but it didn't matter, as she dug her fingers and nails into the synthetic boob flesh. "Punish this foul witch! Make her pay for her transgressions! Punish her with your mighty horse staff, AND GIVE HER EVERY INCH!", Ruby cried out as Oscar's cum seeped into Penny's maw. Slaps resounded off the walls as Ruby let out her burst of fury by smacking the robot's fun bags, pulling them, stretching them like dough. L

Oscar of course didn't object, in part from Ruby's intimidating aura, in part because he was simply too turned on to turn down the offer of sticking his dick in the other girl featured on that fateful cover. Too turned on that none of them noticed their respective teams coming back through the door and witnessing the obscene display.

"Let's give them some more privacy."

Despite Ruby's intentions of punishment, Penny seemed to relish in slurping Oscar's cum from Friend Ruby's snatch. Moans reverberated not just through Penny's mouth into Ruby's pussy, but through the entire robotic body, down to Oscar's oversized horsecock. The sensation was divine.

Oscar had thought about using onaholes before, though never found an acceptably priced one to suit his needs, but never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined the kinds of pleasure these two girls were giving him. For his first time to boot. "Ruby, come here. Right now!" Overcome with passion, Oscar grasped Ruby's shoulders, pulling her in for a deep kiss. His partner accepted his tongue in her maw without question, yelping and shaking from too many things stimulating her at once.

"I think grunt I'm close again", Oscar moaned out in between breaths while making out with Ruby. Not once did his hips stop hammering away at the redheaded android though.

"Waitwaitwait, not like this!", Ruby yelped out as she shoved the horse boy away. Her stomach had deflated significantly by that point. Apparently, Penny had cleaned her out well so far, but now it was her turn. "Get up, slut. Now you get the filling!", the crimsonette grinned as she sat Penny up. She shoved her fingers carelessly between the ginger's teeth, prying her mouth open for her man to stick his dick deep inside her throat. Oscar understood and complied right away. Without a natural gag reflex, Penny could take all of him down without issue. It was only a matter of if her mouth could stretch that much around him. And it did. Ruby watched with sadistic glee as Penny's throat distended to the horsecock shoved in and out. Artificial spit flew everywhere, while Oscar kept thrusting away at her face, harder and faster with every beat until his balls could no longer take it. The dam broke, Oscar's dick exploding with another sea of orgasmic jizz, right into her stomach.

"Wow, she's… really good at it…", Oscar huffed and puffed as he drew each sensitive inch out of Penny's maw. To him, the girl looked beautiful, sloppy and slimy with synthetic lubricant and cock juice.

"Of course she is!", Ruby couldn't help but chime in. Still, a little anger dwelled within her. "She was probably made for this. Why else is her whole body so lewd and fuckable? It's like she's just a living sex d-"

Looking back at it, Ruby was glad she couldn't finish that sentence, given Penny's complexes about being a real girl. She was grateful to her friend for shutting her up at the right moment. Even more so since it happened by method of another loving tongue deep down her throat. Ruby's protests were short-lived as her eyes rolled back into her head, lost in blissful madness induced by the android with the ginger locks. "Stoooop~ I'm trying to be mad at yoouuu~~~", Ruby protested, but Penny only kissed her harder, her heavy, synthetic tits squishing against Ruby's more modest pair while their cunts mashed against each other.

Oscar felt like he was in a fever dream. Like the sight in front could not be real. But instead of running from it, trying to make sense of it, the horse boy simply threw himself at it and indulged himself. Seeing Penny's phat ass jiggle and sway, he grabbed them, fingers sinking into the fake, bouncy meat, giving one a swat and the other a backhand, grunting either way. Penny certainly didn't mind, not when she only raised her ass more at him. His dick throbbed, ached to use that back door of hers, as he watched Ruby spread Penny's cheeks apart. "She is an android, this should be nothing!", He had to tell himself as the flared tip of his cock pushed up against her puckered asshole, soon to be swallowed and gobbled up with one more push. Penny couldn't help but scream into Ruby's mouth, but still dropped her ass down further on that dick.

It was madness. Between screams and moans of pleasure and the senseless smacking of flesh, the entire room devolved into a debaucherous scene aiming to drain as much cum from Oscar's pent up balls as they could. Another climax approached for each one of them. Ruby's voice hit another octave, grinding on her friend. Penny was the only one mildly aware of the fact that they had neighbors just on the other side of the wall, but her circuitry was too busy firing sparks off in all directions to mention it, let alone stop. Oscar's balls clenched again and again, swelling up, before he blew his biggest load yet into Penny's ass. The hot seed traveled up inside her artificial intestines and bloated her stomach, squeezing it tighter against her friend underneath her as his dick plugged her ass tight. But Oscar wasn't stopping his thrusts, and neither was his orgasm. His equine equipment kept firing his hot load until it eventually traveled up Penny's throat. Ruby let out another shriek of surprise when she realized the sticky surprise oozing from her best friend's mouth, but quickly shut up as she tasted Oscar's seed again, shoving her tongue even deeper into Penny's throat to lap up as much as she could.

None of them knew the time when any of them could no longer go on. Nor could they say how long any of them slept, or how they got neatly into bed. Eventually, one after the other simply collapsed from exhaustion, only to wake up to the teasing glares and snickering laughter of their companions.

[palushiemalis-fr]

dergtober -- day 17 -- Lost

Sabrathan’s tail flicked to and fro as she craned her neck over the window ledge, the rest of her long body reclining lazily on the chamber floor. She shook out her antlers, they tinkled with the small bells and the festive streamers she had tied to it for the celebration. She sighed, she was beginning to tire of them now.

She watched her clan mates fly and twist in the cloudless sky to the tune of ecstatic horns, flutes and drums below. The sun was setting on the last days of the Mistral festival and soon they would return to the light territory. Sabra didn’t feel ready to leave.

She glanced at the satchel she had brought over, once heavy with sunbeam fig treats, dried sour strawberries and pelagas bark tea. She had brought a lantern fashioned from painted paper and filled with glowing Reedcleft Sparklers. There had been golden tortoise shells and ferret pelts strapped to to her bags that had clinked and flapped the entire flight over. Now all traded for scrolls.

She had read every one of them as soon as she could; poems, treatise, hatchling doodles and all sorts of wonderful insights into the Cloudsong’s ways. Yet she didn’t recognise a single one. No poems about abandoning hatchlings or apology letters to her directly. She was a fool. All she wanted, she had to admit, was two words. Just two words. ‘Moon Road’.

“Scuse’ me.”

Sabrathan lifted her heavy head to see a little Spiral fledgling tugging at her mane. She smiled, it was one of the little ones of the Wind clan who were hosting them. She was covered in swirling colourful face paints and smiling with a toothy grin.

“Yes? Can I help you?”

“Ondran said that Lea said that Amble said you had sticky june bug sweets.” She handed over a scroll smudged with facepaint, “Can I trade you for some?”

“Of course you can!” Sabra laughed and pulled out a small bag of dried june bugs coated in toffee, “Here you go...!”

The Spiral beamed and immeadiately began crunching on it before scampering out the chamber, returning only to pop her head through the chamber door to thank her and scurrying away again.

Sabra idly toyed with the seal on the scroll; maybe it was better to leave them unopened, she thought, she wouldn’t leave on a disappointed note. She looked out the window and saw the spiral now clumsily flying through the air, sharing out her toffee bugs to her nest mates. She gave her a wave and Sabrathan chuckled.

What’s the festival without trying to take a chance and have a bit of fun?

She broke the seal and unfurled the bamboo paper. No doodle or spring haiku, just a map. She furrowed her brow as she read over the blotchy green ink, it wasn’t easy to parse but the location wasn’t that far off from where she was staying. She checked her compass, South-West on an Islet in Singer’s Brook.

She strapped on her satchel and jingled her antler bells again for good measure before leaping from the window into the air. Soon a small party of her clan mates and hosts joined her as she sailed in the air. The face painted fledglings looped around her until they waved her off. What better way to get into her home-flight spirit than take off on an adventure...?

After she had left the Cloudsong, the melodies and drumming became distant and she could only her the gentle tinkling of her bells. An hour or two passed and the sun had sunken into twilight. Reedcleft sparklers lit up her descent, disturbed from their perches but the gust from her large wings.

“Here we are...” She whispered to herself.

The islet felt like a whispering place. A place didn’t demand quiet, but inspired it.

Statuettes of spirit guardians sat on the edge of the brook that forked around the islet. Frogs, axolotls, cranes and kitsune, all eyeing her in the luminous nightfall. A small shrine lantern covered in moss sat nearby, long abandoned and worn. She ought to leave an offering before she took off, she thought. She curled up under a willow and caught her breath from the journey. Its fronds hung over her and formed a little shelter, it felt cozy under the dimming skies.

She wondered if there was anything special about this islet, other than the fact it was as serene as it was. She laid her head down, perhaps flying out so late wasn’t the wisest idea. But she could lay down to sleep in this unclaimed territory until morning.

The Moon rose over head and the stars began to wink into focus. Then, a fwoosh. A blue flame woke in the shrine lantern. Sabra almost jumped up before she noticed another then another all lighting one after another. She hadn’t noticed the other lanterns encircling the islet, some were broken and half sunken into the moss. Yet they lit up all the same.

She got up and wandered to check on them, perhaps this was a sacred place and she ought to move on with an apology to the spirits. Then, she spotted the tomb stone. An upright stone, covered in chickweed and sandcreeper. Perhaps she could make amends by clearing it from its face to allow it to be legible.

She pulled off the foliage gently with her claws, trying to mind the stone beneath.

- Tomb of the Moon Road Clan - Our Souls rest before their journey into the stars, carried on the Great Singer’s winds...

Sabrathan’s mouth fell open. The silence that had haunted her life where her family should have been wrapped around her in that moment. Every prayer for a memory of understanding beyond the words left to her as a young hatchling, ‘Moon Road’, had been answered by the silence she was engulfed by.

She read the names by starlight. Of course, she recognised no one, she had been so young after all. To be found carried on a storm to the Hewn City ruins, the only words she knew was ‘Moon Road’ she had parroted until she was ready to learn to read.

She had her answer now. A heavy, thudding, painful answer, a heavy burden to carry home. She wept, throwing herself at the bottom of the tombstone. She sobbed until the crickets stopped singing. Sabrathan finally ran out of tears and heaved a rattling sigh.

She didn’t feel heavy at all. Something had lifted from her chest, and the journey home would be the easiest it had ever been...

[jacubesilvora]

In the bustling port city of Kuo Kuana, Blake Belladonna stakes her claim on the meandering politics of Menagerie with an ambitious scheme: An intercontinental trade network with the new Kingdom of Vale. But Vale is not a peaceful place, and though Yang Xiao Long, Blake's counterpart, tries to put their new deal together other forces move backstage.

In the north of Vale, Cinder Fall establishes a new base of power that threatens the fragile stability of the entire continent. In Argus, the Kingdom of Atlas asserts itself as the rulers of the port city and soon the rest of Mistral. In Atlas itself, Winter Schnee is given a task to watch over political radical Robyn Hill.

Blake and Yang set to creating the ties that will bind their two families together and protect them from the dangers that surround - but the world of nobility is fickle, and nothing is as simple as it seems. Only together can they protect what they love most, and together, against all odds, they might just stand a chance.

Chapter One of the Trade Network AU! It's finally here!

[polarisbear]

there’s a process i like to go through every time i sit down and commit to drawing something more than once (detailed image and text id under the cut)

[image id 1: a sketch page of all of the octopath traveler 2 travelers. there is a row of small full body sketches and a row of bust shots.

image id 2: a sketch page focusing on a small ochette redesign and figuring out how to draw partitio.]

[image id 1: a set of sketches of the playable cast of octopath traveler 2. at the top are a row of small full bodies of the travelers. below are busts of them. agnea bristarni is clapping her hands together with a smile; she has sun-kissed skin and freckles. ochette is excitedly running to the right. throné anguis has her arms crossed as she frowns. castti florenz looks off screen with worry. hikari ku’s hair blows in the wind as he looks upset; he has an olive skin tone. partitio yellowil is giving his best smirk as he winks with his hand on his chin. he’s black, referencing his concept art. temenos mistral has a hand on his chin as he gives a mysterious smile. osvald v. vanstein looks disgruntled and like he desperately needs sunlight.

image id 2: a sketch page mostly focusing on ochette and patritio. there is a sketch of ochette’s back as she stretches, there are also small drawings of other beastlings. there is a simple reference sheet of ochette as she poses, her design slightly altered. her hair turns black at the tips, and it’s put up in loose twin tails. her clothes have a more “finished” look, and all of the leather material has been refined. there is more beading detailing on her. the right side of the sketch page is just partitio headshots with different face angles and hairstyles.

text id: “What if. Jacked.” “fluffy face :)” “beading! Important Toto’haha craft” “She re-dyes her dress periodically” “Beastlings can look like any canine/feline Can live anywhere” “Toto’haha is known for impressive leather-working (bc of all the animal hides they have)” “Stripes break up form -> harder to follow” “Claws. bc cool” “Recent trading = metal weaponry is pretty commonplace” “gladiator sandals but fr” “becomes black at the tips” “didn’t notice the eye shape went down (looks extra smiley lol)” “dashing young man (… phoenix wright”)” “silver rings from home” “High pony for w/o hat” “Low pony for hat” “double pony layering trick (from Agnea!)”]

[sir-adamus]

in terms of like, visual story-telling, the characters in RWBY all having unique weapons is great short-hand for telling you about them

Ruby’s scythe - it’s big, over-the-top, loud, it showcases her exuberance and imaginative thinking because she has to accommodate for its size and difficulty to use, which is why she’s a good leader because she’s already good at thinking around problems and using what she has available to her advantage

or Jaune’s sword and shield - it starts fairly basic and he’s not good at using them because they’re not his yet, Jaune doesn’t know who he is, so his weapon is straightforward and generic. as he progresses and upgrades his equipment, the weapon changes to reflect him - the Mistral upgrades when he’s on a self-destructive spiral focusing more on brute force that ultimately proves to not be particularly effective, especially contrasting his Atlas upgrades, which allow him to finally address his lack of a landing strategy and expand the shield, showing him more comfortable in his role as support and protector. and then the Ever After degradation, showing how he’s stagnated because he’s not been able to move forward

and on the flip-side of that, the weapons that aren’t terribly unique also tell you a lot about the characters

Cardin has a mace. that’s it. it’s blunt, brute force and aggressive but it’s also boring as hell. he’s a one-note bully with nothing much to him once you get past the bravado

similarly, James Ironwood has a gun. and that’s it. his upgrades involve: more gun. and then bigger gun. brute force trading out for even bruter forceness. it demonstrates his complete lack of imagination and how he focuses solely on direct action (which is reflected in how every strategy of his is ‘swing my dick giant army at it’, and we see in volume 8 how being the leader of the world’s only standing military means jack shit when you’ve never had to fight a war, and for all he brags about how advanced Atlas is - because that’s all he cares about - he’s never thought to update their strategy for the new equipment. using formations meant for horses and muskets isn’t gonna do you much good with giant robots and laser guns my guy)

[rwby-heroes-of-light]

Seasons on Remnant

Credit where credit is due, @painting-plural gave me this idea on a call last night, so thank you, my friend!!

Remnant doesn't have proper seasons, most kingdoms being stuck in one eternal version of one of the seasons.

Vale is stuck in eternal fall, Atlas is stuck in eternal winter, Vacuo is stuck in eternal summer, and Mistral is stuck in eternal spring.

Because of this, alot of foods and dishes are very kingdom exclusive, especially being diffrent crops can only grow in certain climates. Some places have more vegetable based diets, while some other places (cough cough, Atlas, cough cough) have more meat based diets, being in some places it would be far easier to raise livestock then grow plants.

Of course, they have a trade system like any real world country, but you get what I'm getting at.

[bestworstcase]

general question that is not ... That ... deep (i think). do you think it matters where characters or their families are from in terms of cultural differences or like world events, like cinder's backstory reveal making the atlas arc more personal for her but also stuff like "sun's from vacuo, so of course he's going to show up in vacuo during that arc of the show" (i must admit i'm asking this because i have a pet theory that summer is from either mistral or atlas and that this informs her role as a paragon and also because when you start counting so many people are from mistral and it adds to the worldbuilding for me)

character origin is absolutely something that narratively matters and in rwby’s case these decisions are being made with imo a lot of intention. for example,

argus was founded prior to the great war as a client city of mistral, having been conquered with help from mantle’s military—thus sealing the alliance between these two powers. this political arrangement persists into the present day with argus still being a mistrali territory but under the protection of the atlas military.

one of the key sources of international tension leading into the great war was vale’s criticism of the mistrali-mantelian reliance on slave labor. from this we may infer that argus was probably built on slave labor and, because it served as a hub for trade between pre-war mantle and mistral, with mistral “providing goods [that were] unavailable in the frozen tundra,” argus was a central hub of the mistrali-mantelian slave trade. the vytal accords ratified by the four kingdoms after the great war abolished slavery worldwide, one of ozma’s greatest achievements; decades later, ozpin lifted atlas into the sky to serve as a shining example of his ideals to the rest of the world.

cinder fall is trafficked into slavery from an orphanage on the outskirts of what appears to be argus, based on the terrain. what does this tell us about cinder and the world she grew up in? slavery was abolished on paper, but mantle (now atlas) and mistral never enforced these new laws in any meaningful way—the industry went underground, likely mutating into new forms (indentured servitude, prison labor, child trafficking fronting as legitimate orphanages), and argus is still the central hub of the international slave trade. this reveals the weaknesses in ozma’s approach to social change (doing and saying things that look and sound right, but failing to actually stand for his notional commitments and allowing problems to fester out of sight rather than risk confrontation / unrest / division) and the rot behind the façade that salem alludes to when she calls this his “so-called free world.”

and so, cinder is in many ways the crowning achievement of ozma’s efforts since the great war—his gilded idealistic utopia, atlas, could only exist through the societal choice to accept the enslavement and torture of a child (and cinder is certainly not the only one, so in this narrative she symbolically represents a multitude of other victims).

<- this is why rewrites / “fixes” that either have her originating in mantle or being enslaved in mistral for all her life tend to lose thematic punch; the underground continuation of the pre-war order is fundamental to what the story is doing with cinder.

similarly, sun is not just from vacuo, he’s a vacuan faunus who went to school in haven, which is in mistral, which is notoriously the most overtly racist kingdom out of the four—token faunus headmaster or not. (mistral has anti-faunus sundown towns and in the CFVY books velvet is terrified specifically of people from mistral because in her experience all of them are virulently bigoted—this is a girl who spent a lot of her childhood in atlas, so her lack of aversion to atlesians says a lot about how bad it is in mistral). so when sun in v1 says stuff like the white fang are a bunch of cultish freaks who use force to get whatever they want, that’s an opinion he formed while living in the racism capital of the world and should be taken with several handfuls of salt, in the same way that blake’s view of the white fang in earlier volumes is clearly colored by her experiences with adam.

<- but at the same time sun functions narratively as a herald for the repair of this cultural problem and healing of the divide between mistral and vacuo, because he’s a vacuan faunus who went to school in mistral, unlearned that bullshit, and went home to vacuo to strive toward a better future.

personally my money is on summer being from either

vacuo (malik the sunderer -> sundered rose, sword of destruction + summer maiden -> summer rose being vacuan), or

mountain glenn (yang and ruby are well-informed on the tragedy, v9 called back to v2’s mountain glenn arc, and signs look pretty strong for the vacuo arc to confront the history with mountain glenn via the destruction of vale)

…both of which follow a similar principle to cinder’s backstory being reserved until v8, when it emerged to inform our understanding of the narrative events happening in atlas. (i know it was originally planned for v5 and time/budget considerations factored into the decision to delay, but narratively it ended up being the stronger choice to wait anyway). basically summer enters the story properly in the arc when her history carries the most weight.

[theelderscrollsarchive]

"Hello, impatient friend! You left before we could finish our business, but do not be worried. You are fitting right in, yes? In this, we are alike. But alas, I am a busy Khajiit. I have no time to uncover why the dead rise in the Temple of the Mourning Springs. Not why the Sea Vipers pick through smashed Dominion ships at Shattered Shoals. Perhaps you will know, one day soon. On that day, seek out the fine-looking Khajiit by the bridge to Mistral and I'll trade curiosity for coin. Your new friend, - Razum-dar

[moonlight-mistral]

hiiii I wasnt planning on opening commissions this month but I changed my mind! Three slots are available!

DM me on Twitter or Tumblr or contact me at mistralcomms@gmail.com if you’re interested!      

(Text version below the cut)

Pricing:

-          Bust: $35

-          Half Body: $50

-          Full Body: $60

-          Flat Color + $10

-          Full Color +$20

-          Extra Character +75% (max. 3 characters total)

-          Alt versions +$5-$15 (depending on complexity)

-          Background +$30

(all prices in USD)

Will Draw:

o   Fanart

o   OCs

o   Humans

o   Robots/mechs

o   NSFW

Won’t Draw:

o   Gore

o   Overly complex designs

o   Animation, Comics

o   Anything that makes me uncomfortable

Terms of Service

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