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rachetmath · 8 months ago

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Jaune More MC Ruby?

Ruby: That’s why I’m the MC and you're the side character.

Jaune: So because you have silver eyes you’re special?

Ruby: Yep.

Jaune: Even though I cheated Beacon.

Ruby: Yep.

Jaune: I was bullied.

Ruby: Yep.

Jaune: My partner is dead. And because I let my guard down, Ozpin died, and Oscar had no choice but to come on this journey. You know, because of me.

Ruby: Yep.

Jaune: And because Cinder, who works under Salem killed my partner, I have beef with the main villain and her whole crew.

Ruby: Yeah.

Jaune: Salem, who I have way more in common with than most people, the deemed goddess I’m defying her, just like she did with the brothers over a loved one's death. Are you following me so far?

Ruby: … Yeah…

Jaune: Hazel, who mind you, lost his sister. He lost his sister because of the world Ozpin had created, like I did, with Pyrrha.

Qrow: She had a choice.

Jaune: A few days' choice which turned into minutes when Beacon was attacked. Then discovering how bad the situation is, you know with Salem being immortal, I almost hurt if not killed Oscar, making me at the spur of the moment, just as bad as Hazel. And mind you I was willing to fight you on that.

Ruby: Uh… yeah…

Jaune: Tyrian, has the opposite to my semblance. Wasn’t he more interested in me than you? And you were his target.

Ruby: Mmhmm.

Jaune: Let’s talk about Cinder again. Cinder had two stray kids who followed her. I have Ren and Nora. Neither have parents. Also, we both want power but for different reasons. We even have different views on destiny.

Ruby: Oh damn.

Jaune: Atlas. Oscar did Ironwood not act like how I did in Argus but worse?

Oscar: Yeah he did. Jaune even saw Salem in person before you did.

Yang: So did we. You saw her face to face.

Oscar: I’m Ozpin. What is that supposed to mean?

Ruby: Oscar, not helping.

Jaune: Neo. We both lost our partners. The difference is that I have friends while she has none. The cat, him, and I almost have the same ability except he manipulates your soul or takes it. He might as well have been a devil version of me.

Weiss: O. Dear lord.

Jaune: Watts. … … �� You know what no. He-he was no. Like he could have done better, he’s an example of being smart yet making the dumbest choices.

Weiss: True.

In the Twilight

Watts: What?! My decision was understandable.

Ironwood: No. No, they were not.

Penny: Like you could have logically put your two weeks in and left for another kingdom. Or country. Like Vale. Mistral. Anywhere. You could have helped where you could've been needed. Which would have made you better than my father.

Watts: I wasted my life.

Back to Remnant

Ruby: Um….

Jaune: You know what I have to ask this question. What is the moral of the story and how does your character fit into this?

Ruby: Well my-

Jaune: Let me retort. I lied. I was bullied. I had no idea about anything in the hunting world. I needed a teacher. I lost someone important to me. I have beef with the main villains. I train to get stronger to be of use to others.

Ruby: So?

Jaune: Okay. No one believed in me. But I still went to chase my goal. I lost the best thing in my life. I still moved forward. I had to kill someone. Still moved forward. I’m an old man trapped in a boy's body. Still moving forward. Fighting the odds that are stacked against me. I have seven who no one knows about. Yet your family is more interesting.

Ruby: Your point?

Jaune: The moral of the story is that no matter your circumstance you can always be better. Never allow destiny or grief to influence your entire life. No matter what odds that stand before you, you can ultimately change your fate. And no matter the darkness a simple soul can light up the night and unite everyone against a greater evil. Even when the whole world is against you, you are never alone to endure it. If we stand united and look past our differences only then the wor;d would be a better place.

Ruby: Well my mom died at Salem’s hands.

Jaune: And?

Ruby: It's still relevant.

Jaune: You're right. But how many times has your mother been mentioned and you bothered to get information about her?

Yang: I-

Jaune: Bitch shut the fuck up. You were looking for the deadbeat mom more than the mom who stepped up.

Ruby: Well um… um…. Damn. Oh, but I-

Jaune: You weren’t the sword. I may not have known Penny as long as you, but the fact, that I could've saved her proved her death hit harder than Pyrrha's. I’m close to walking in Raven’s path.

Ruby: Shit.

Jaune: And back to your mother. She was a silver-eyed warrior. But Salem is still here. Do silver eyes work on her?

Ruby: Um.

Jaune: Because Salem is still both the brothers' creation. The old humanity. She can't be phased by the black liquid even though everything they touch decays.

Ruby: She's immortal.

Jaune: Yeah but again when Maria told you her story didn't she try using her silver eyes on humans and it didn't work?

Ruby: Cinder.

Jaune: Grimm arm.

Ruby: The hound.

Blake: Silver-eyed person too but only stunned them.

Ruby: Blake.

Blake: What a minute he had animalistic ears. Should I be concerned for my people?

Jaune: Yeah… we’re not getting into that. The point is if you go see Salem and your silver eyes don't work then your mom died for nothing.

Ruby: Oo. Um…

Jaune: And let's get back to the other villains. Besides Emerald, Mercury, and Tyrian, some of them have valid reasons to join Salem.

Ren: Jaune!

Jaune: Ren, your village got destroyed.

Ren: Nevermind.

Me: Hold up. Let me start. With Cinder, a huntsman saw what she was going through and didn't bother to help her. She was alone. The world abandoned her.

Jaune: So Hazel was right. In fact, Raven had a point.

Oscar(Ozpin): Mr. Arc I-

Jaune: Motherfucker Hazel had every right to be angry. Dude shadow missions involve us going with experienced hunters. Yet his sister died and Ruby could’ve died. Shadowing them. Following their lead. Does that not show how bad the hunting system is? Not just that we got hunters who died in the line of duty. Not to mention how some were sexually harassing the girls. And some of them are just plain crazy or assholes. Not to mention Blake, Qrow, and Raven. You let them in. And to make matters worse you chose Pyrrha, a first-year student, to be your maiden.

Oscar(Ozpin): She was my best option.

Jaune: So Glynda wasn't on the table? A high-ranked fourth-year student wasn't on the table? Man, at least you could have chosen Ruby considering she has silver eyes and is a young upcoming prodigy. That would have made her more important. Like Ozpin Ruby off the bat was better than Pyrrha.

Qrow: Hey, I would have stopped that.

Jaune: O, so… it was okay with Pyrrha… but not your niece. I see. Hypocrite.

Qrow: Damn. Set myself up for that.

Jaune: Watts, despite his stupidity, had a point. James would abuse any source of technology just to have some level of control over something. Why did you think he wanted your sister instead of Penny? Why do you think he wanted Amity up as quickly as possible? Why do you think he hacked into Penny? Everything was always about control.

Weiss: Well our lives weren't easy.

Jaune: That I won't deny. Yet we are all still bad people.

Yang: Jaune my mother -

Jaune: Raven and Summer left you. Summer no one cared enough to talk about. Raven doesn't matter at all. Willow waited until her children were teenagers or young adults to start dealing with an abusive father. And Kali… yeah she should have slapped some sense into her daughter.

Weiss: Well your mom doesn't love you.

Jaune: Don't care. Back to Jacque though how does he and James know each other? Why do they have beef with one another? Unless… o. Oh no. Don't tell me. Did James set Jacque up with Willow? And in return, he helps James rise to power. Or did James love Willow but because of his career he couldn't marry her? Could Winter be-

Weiss: Please stop. I do not need those theories in my head.

Jaune: Fine. The point I'm trying to make is… … well how about you explain.

Me: It's crazy how Jaune fits the main character role better than Ruby.

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rwbyrg · 6 months ago

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A Rosegarden by Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet

AKA Reasons Why Rosegarden is Canon #015: Ruby and Oscar's Multiple Shared Allusions to Other Fairytale Love Stories

Typical disclaimer that while all characters within the RWBY narrative have a main allusion, they often have secondary allusions that apply to the roles they fill in relation to other characters stories. Like how Yang is Goldilocks on her own, but becomes the Beauty to Blake's Beast when paired together.

The first, most notable example for Rosegarden is, of course, The Little Prince (expanded upon here). Oscar's primary allusion is of a boy who grows up on a planet "scarcely bigger than himself, who was in need of a friend", and one of his most influential relationships is that to a rose with whom he loves. They spend much of the story separated from one another, while the prince wanders lost in a desert, pining for a way to reunite with her back home.

Important to note this isn't the only time Ruby has been a Rose for another fairytale. She also slots in as the Rose Red to Weiss' Snow White, she acts as the successor to her mom as The Last Rose of Summer, and she also stands in as the Enchanted Rose to Bumbleby's Beauty and the Beast given how it's a "true loves kiss will break the spell before the last petal falls" situation... and BB kisses two episodes before Ruby Rose "dies".

The second notable allusion for Rosegarden is the Warrior in the Woods (expanded upon further here), a canon RWBY fable from The Fairytales of Remnant. The very first story within the book is about a village boy who becomes a huntsman after being inspired by a huntress he meets in the woods. A huntress, I might add he fell in love with the moment he saw her silver eyes.

Something to note about both of these examples, is that they are each stories with a focus on caring for someone else in unique ways. With The Little Prince, the Rose is vain and has many demands and asks the prince to tend to her; while in WitW, the warrior works tirelessly without thanks to protect a village. When the boy meets her, he starts looking after her for a change because he figures that's the least he can do to repay her. Both of these tie in well to RG's dynamic of Ruby carrying such heavy responsibilities alone, with Oscar making a conscious and active effort to help her shoulder those burdens.

The third, more subtle allusion, is their respective ties to The Wonderful Land of Oz. Oscar's first confirmed allusion before the Little Prince reveal was originally to Princess Ozma/Tip, the heir to the Kingdom of Oz given his proximity to Ozpin as the man behind the curtain, as well as to fit a "genderbend" character within the framework of team JNPR.

How does Ruby tie into this one? Well, we have to work backwards a bit. Ozpin's initial four lieutenants were all linked to the original cast of Oz:

Qrow as The Scarecrow without a mind (travels around as a crow and is regularly inebriated)

Ironwood as the Tin Man without a heart (his multiple cyborg prosthetics and character development in Atlas)

Lionhart as The Cowardly Lion (his fear overtakes him and pushes him to join forces with Salem to save his own skin)

Theodore as Dorothy Gale (donning ruby gauntlets instead of the traditional red slippers)

But RWBY is a story about legacies and breaking cycles. With the new generation of huntresses in Oz's inner circle, they replace those who came before them.

Blake takes Lionheart's place (cat faunus that ran out of cowardice, only to become brave and return to the fight)

Weiss as the Tin Man (aka Ice Queen, who's heart melted as she became kinder and grew more attached to those around her)

Yang the Scarecrow (no longer blindly following orders, but making an active effort to question the words and intentions of those around her)

Ruby as Dorothy (her little dog Zwei and the red - or silver, depending on movie or book adaptation - slippers that lead them all on their journey)

Why bring up Oscar as Princess Ozma and Ruby as Dorothy? Well, according to the original books and not the movie, "Dorothy and Ozma are each other's closest relationship" as illustrated here:

Very good friends. Just gals being pals. Sharing the responsibilities of leadership with one another. Smooching in the palace gardens. Dorothy as the only one who's allowed in Princess Ozma's rooms without an invitation. #BFFS4EVA

These are all the canon ones that are easy enough to parse, but there are some similarities to others famous stories that can be found with a bit of squinting that I will also share just for fun.

The first is how Ruby's experience in the Tea Party acts as a near perfect display of Romeo and Juliet's ending. For those unfamiliar with - or who have forgotten - the bard's infamous tragedy, it is a story about two star-crossed lovers very much doomed by the narrative. It ends with Juliet faking her death without telling Romeo. So when her prince charming comes across what he believes to be her corpse, he drinks a vial of poison and kills himself out of grief. When Juliet wakes and sees he has left her, she takes his dagger and stabs herself so they might be together.

In the tea party, Ruby fills the shoes of Romeo and Oscar of dear Juliet. Oscar is "killed" by Ruby's blade, but it is an illusion. He's not real. Like Juliet, he's not really dead. However, the vision is still enough to push Ruby into drink a vial of poison (the tea that takes her to the tree), giving up in the face of her grief, just as Romeo does.

And if we need any more evidence for this one, can't hurt to bring up the infamous quote of Juliet wherein she likens her love to an oh-so-familiar flower:

What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet;

A line that Juliet says to proclaim that if her Romeo weren't a Montague, then she would still love him regardless, but through which implies that it would be easier for them to be together if he were not himself. And within V9, Ruby's cited motivation to go to the tree is because she doesn't want to be herself any longer.

And last, but certainly not least, is how a lot of ships within RWBY seem to have fairly direct parallels to the myth of Eros and Psyche. It is a classical tale about the trials of love, putting the protagonists under multiple tests of loyalty and attachment before letting the two lovers unite at the end. Both love stories within Beauty and the Beast and Snow White and Rose Red pull inspiration from the myth, and we see it in CRWBY's approach to writing romances throughout the show thus far.

Blake and Yang being separated, breaking and rebuilding trust, before coming together in V9; Ren and Nora going through trials and conflict, currently apart now so they might discover who they are on their own before re-uniting with one another again; and Rosegarden having constant reunions, separations, and trials with strong focuses on their attachment to each other. Another common archetype they use from Eros and Psyche is that of the "Animal as Bridegroom", wherein at least one of the partners undergoing a transformation that is often monstrous in nature.

Bumbleby is self explanatory

WhiteKnight has the issue of Jaune being lost to time and becoming an Old Man, who's curse is reversed by magic. It alludes to his role as the Prince within Snow White and Rose Red who was initially turned into a bear via a curse

Rosegarden, has this instance for both characters. Oscar as an Ozcarnation (becoming something he doesn't want via a curse they are trying to break before time runs out) and Ruby's future fate should she be captured by Salem (being turned into a Grimm by the wicked witch - or eaten by the wolf - like her mother before her).

All of these line up with the myth's structure as well as Monty's foundational philosophy on love stories that we see in his quote from many years ago:

A lot of these all have really tragic endings so uh. Good thing RWBY likes to subvert the stories it's telling, right? They're going to get a happy ending, right CRWBY???? 😰

#hehehe #rwby #ruby rose #oscar pine #rosegarden #rwby rosegarden #ship parallels #rwby ship parallels #meta #analysis #rwby meta #reasons why rosegarden is canon

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spahhzy · 7 months ago

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Neo smirked at her handiwork, and now once Ruby gets here, she can despair at her Lil blonde friends death... before she ends Ruby for good. Speaking of death, it was time to kill him.

She walked over, hush in hand, and as the blonde knight just sat on his knees looking at the floor, there was no light in his blue eyes.

She smiled cruelly and raised to stab him behind the back - only to be hit by a small bolt of lightning, which sent her flying back.

Jaune wasn't even phased as suddenly C.C. appeared before him in his vision.

C.C: Oh Jaune, you've been through so much.

Jaune: ...

C.C: It's hard trying to do the right thing...having to live with the guilt and pain.

Jaune visibly recoiled as Penny's face flashed before his eyes...he could make the difficult decision...to do that, but..

C.C: How many more dead friends do you want on your hands? First, it was Penny... but then it could be anyone from Team RWBY or any of your other friends you've told me about.

Jaune's blank eyes widened. He didn't want that...he couldn't ever live with the fact that he could possibly get Nora, Oscar, or Ren, Blake, Yang, Weiss, or Ruby killed by his foolishness.

???: It's no use, Jaune... you've had a good run.

Jaune felt the air leave his lungs.

He moved his head to the side, and he wasn't sure if it was Neo or his mind playing tricks on him but their staring at him with an ARROW still lodged in her chest...was his partner Pyrrha.

Pyrrha: It's time to finally admit that this was too big of a task for someone like yourself...it's time to stop and let someone else take over, like Ozpin...I'm sure he'll lead Nora and Ren to safety.

Jaune swallowed the lump in his threat as he felt Pyrrha lay a head on his shoulder.

Pyrrha: You did good, Jaune, but good only gets you so far.

Jaune felt tears sting his eyes.

She's right.

He was in over his head. His weakness cost him Pyrrha, and now Penny...who else was next? He...he didn't want that anymore.

He didn't want to be this anymore.

Being Jaune only leads to disappointment, suffering, and pain.

He...he didn't want to be Jaune anymore.

C.C: Your poor rusted broken hollow heart can only take so much...

C.C. climbed up Jaune's chest, laying a paw on where his heart would be.

C.C: Every difficult decision you've ever made...led to here Jaune, it led you to me, my hero.

C.C: I can fill that broken heart...I can mend the cracks in your soul.

Neo recovered from the blind side and looked at Jaune in anger. She ran with hush at the ready, poised for the kill.

C.C: Let me be...

Pyrrha: Let them be...

Jaune raised both his arms, encircling around the cat.

Neo was upon him. Hush held high. Ready for the kill.

C.C/Pyrrha: Your everything!

Jaune embraced the cat as he felt as shift happen.

Ruby: Jaune!

Team RWBY had just managed to arrive just in time as Weiss eyes widened in horror. The image of Jaune's body being taken over by the cat was on that was sure to haunt her in her nightmares.

As for Neo, the letter stepped back, looking on in gross horror at the action happening before her.

And as quick as it started...it was over.

For a brief moment, you could hear a pin drop before suddenly Jaune rose from his knees and stretched the movement almost akin to that of cat.

CCJaune: Ah, Team RWBY, you finally made it.

CCJaune began to giggle as he felt himself all over.

CCJaune: This is amazing, I always knew he was strong, but I could never imagine this ~

He felt a click of shoes behind him as he side stepped out of the way and caught Neo by the arm.

CCJaune: I must give my thanks to you...with out all this *points to the whole tea party* I wouldn't have acquired this~ *pats himself down*

CCJaune: So as a token of my thanks~

Team RWBY watched in shock as Crocea Mors sliced straight through Neo's aura before lodging into her chest , The criminal looked on as if not able to comprehend what happened, as a boot found her chest and CCJaune kicked her off his blade and then kicked her body to Team RWBY.

CCJaune: You're welcome, Ruby~

Ruby looked at the dying body of Neo, and than back to Jaune.

CCJaune: Hehehe~ oh yes, my Rusted Knight, I knew you'd do very well.

And then he turned his back to Team RWBY.

Weiss: Stop!

CCJaune: Hmm?

Yang: Release Jaune right now!

CCJaune: Release him? Back unto you all? No, thank you.

CCJaune: Besides... he gave himself to me, the only one who truly cares about him, willingly.

Ruby: No-no, he-he wouldn't do that...

CCJaune: Oh, I beg to differ. Everything he had been through was just too much for his poor heart to bear, but poor you right, Ruby?

Ruby couldn't say anything as she rememebr her last conversation with Jaune and how disastrous that was.

CCJaune: Well, as much as I loved to talk about who's right and who's wrong... I have a date with destiny...so...bye!

And in a flash of lights, CCJaune disappeared from their view, a trail that led to the tree was all that they could see as Ruby could only sink to her knees and scream.

Ruby: Jaune!

#jaune arc #neopolitian (rwby)#ruby rose #yang xiao long #weiss schnee #blake bellodona #rwby pyrrha

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aspennntree · 2 years ago

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i am so starving for content of my boy that the one like about him made me start crying of joy

I MEAN NOT ONLY WAS HE MENTIONED BUT IT WAS ABOUT THE MERGE OKAY LET ME HAVE THIS THEY DONT TALK ABOUT IT ENOUGH

i need merge content

and the cat is the ONE CHARACTER to acknowledge how uncomfortable it probably is for them

#rwby #rwby volume 9 spoilers #oscar pine #ozpin #curious cat #rwby v9 #rwby v9 spoilers #ozmosis #i’m sorry i’m like this #starving for merge content #i n e e d i t

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pilot-boi · 8 months ago

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Following the NR explanation of the Rusted Knight, could we get Oscar/Ozpins? I feel like most play it off as a joke with Oz saying he 'knew all along' and that's why he let Jaune into Beacon. If you don't mind, of course.

Oscar knows that his time is limited. Every time he uses magic (his own, theirs, Ozpin’s) he can feel the edges of himself and the consciousness in his head blurring.

Is he Oscar or is he Ozma, the farm boy or the wizard? And can he even mark a difference between the two?

For Oscar, feeling too old for his body is an uncomfortable familiarity at this point. He’s gotten far too used to looking in the mirror and feeling surprised to see his own face.

Is his hair supposed to be brown? He could’ve sworn that it was gray, blonde, darker, lighter. Are his eyes supposed to be hazel? Weren’t they brown, gray, blue, silver- And older, so much older than the face they sat in.

At least that part of his face always looks right.

Feeling too old for his bones is a fate he never would’ve wished on anyone. But then his family comes back from the grave- (They used to be friends. Did he only realize he thinks of them as family after they didn’t make it through the portal?) -and his big brother’s eyes are an echo of his own.

His wayward friends tell their tale, a story of quite literally fairytale proportions. Jaune looks surprised at his own voice and his own limbs and Oscar hates how it feels like looking in a funhouse mirror.

In the back of his mind, Ozpin is silent. Even without being able to read the old man’s thoughts, Oscar can tell he’s shocked beyond words. Oscar can’t tell if that’s gratifying or horrifying.

While Jaune talks to his team, Oscar loiters outside the door. It’s probably the last thing Jaune wants to do, but Oscar needs to talk to him, needs to assure him that it gets better. A quiet part of him whispers that he’s truly a like minded soul, lying to Jaune just to make himself feel better.

“You okay?” he murmurs to himself, to the voice in his head.

“I’m just… unused to the metaphorical shoe being on the other foot,” Ozpin responds eventually.

His voice is deliberately even. His presence has felt locked away ever since Ruby looked him in the eye (looked through his eyes) and asked “What’s your favorite fairy tale?” Oscar doesn’t know why that would make the old wizard shutter himself, but it clearly means something to him.

For his own part, Oscar can’t stop thinking about how he used to dream of living in the Ever After, how the idea of falling into another world sounded amazing. How naive he used to be.

“Out of all the stories in the world, I certainly wasn’t expecting that one to be true,” Ozpin admits, and Oscar can feel how that rankles him. The old man hates not knowing things, almost as much as he hates seeing people hurt on his watch.

“Yeah…” Oscar leans against the wall beside the door. His hands feel too small, too big. He shoves them in his pockets. “You didn’t know, then?”

“Not at all. If I had, then-”

The door opens and Jaune steps out. Only Jaune. He closes the door behind him and slumps against it, and he looks older than ever, younger than ever. He rubs a hand across his eyes and lets out a shuddering sigh, slumping in on himself even further.

Oscar shifts awkwardly, suddenly feeling like he’s intruding on something private. He’s never seen his big brother so vulnerable, and he’s quite certain that’s the point.

He clears his throat, and Jaune jumps, his sword in his hand and his arm pinning him to the wall before Oscar can react. His eyes are wild as a trapped animal, hard as steel, and looking at Oscar like he’s a threat. He’s Jaune, but he’s not Jaune, teeth bared and hands shaking.

Oscar realizes that Jaune is scared of him. Like his old barn cat, hissing and spitting and making itself look bigger to hide the fear inside.

And then the moment passes. And Jaune looks horrified with himself.

“Oh gods-” He drops his sword with a clatter and stumbles back as if burned. Oscar gasps for air and Ozpin murmurs comforts in the back of his mind. “Oh gods, Oscar. I’m so sorry, shit, I-” Jaune’s hands are up, hovering just in front of Oscar, wanting to touch, to comfort, but too scared of himself to approach.

“It’s okay,” Oscar interrupts. And really, it is. This isn’t the Jaune who slammed him into a wall in anger. (Against Oscar? Against Ozpin? Is there even a difference?) This is a Jaune terrified of what he’s become, and how could Oscar ever hold that against him?

“It’s really not…” Jaune mumbles, miserably. His hands are still shaking.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Ozpin asks, and Oscar nearly rolls his eyes at the old man’s mother-henning.

“I’ve had worse,” he reminds Ozpin, and Jaune winces. It’s been how long for him, and he still feels guilty? “No that wasn’t to you-“

“I know.”

“Oh.”

Jaune won’t look at him. His hands are shaking, and Oscar can’t help remembering how Jaune immediately started healing him as soon as he and the others found him in the whale. But now, not even a flicker of Aura appears on his brother’s hands.

Did the people in the Ever After even have Aura? If they got hurt, could Jaune even have healed them? Did he try? Did he fail? How many pieces of himself did he flicker away trying to help people he couldn’t?

How many pieces has Oscar lost the same way?

“Did Ozpin know?” Jaune asks. And he doesn’t sound angry, not like last time, in Mistral. No, Jaune just sounds tired. “Did he know I’m the Rusted Knight?”

“I…” Oscar hesitates, registering the phrasing.

Not that he’d become the Rusted Knight, that he IS the Rusted Knight. Oscar wants to take him by the shoulders and assure him that he isn’t the fairytale character. But Oscar is many things, and a hypocrite is not one of them.

“May I?” The question comes and Oscar relinquishes control without a second thought, retreating to the back of their mind. He sees his posture straighten, his hands fall behind his back. “Hello again, Mr. Arc.” The voice that speaks from his mouth isn’t his own. (But it is, isn’t it?)

“Did you know?” Jaune looks wary, but resigned, like a man being led to the gallows. “Is that…” His hands clench at his sides, and he looks away. “Is that why you let me into Beacon, even though I lied?”

Jaune lied to get into a Huntsman Academy? It seems trivial in the face of immortal witches and the creators of gods, but from the swell of regret and understanding he feels from Ozpin, clearly this is something that weighs heavily on Jaune’s mind.

“No, I did not know,” Ozpin replies. Oscar can feel how hard that is for the old man to admit. “I knew of the fairy tale, of course, but I had no idea that it was true.” He chuckles. “Even by my standards, it’s quite fantastical.” Jaune nods, but doesn’t laugh, and Ozpin sobers.

“As for your second question, it’s true that I knew you falsified your transcripts. However-” Jaune tenses, bracing for a blow. Ozpin’s expression softens. “However, your drive to make a difference, the lengths you must’ve gone to and the ingenuity needed to acquire those transcripts… Not to mention the way you inspired and led your teammates during initiation.”

Jaune shrugs. “I mostly just got in their way.”

Ozpin smiles. “That may be so, but those traits are what convinced me to grant you entry to my school, and to make you the leader of your team. Your own bravery and drive. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Jaune nods, slowly. He doesn’t look like he believes him. Jaune starts to speak, and Oscar hates the familiar surprise at the sound of his own voice. "Would you have told me? If you'd known?" he asks, and Oscar can feel Ozpin hesitate.

"On the contrary, if I had known I never would've let you enter Beacon.” Ozpin’s voice is grave, and he meets Jaune’s eye when he looks up, clearly surprised. “I would’ve tried to convince you to spend more time with your family, to live life away from battle.”

“I have never claimed to be without flaws, but…” Ozpin’s hand rests on the familiar weight of his cane, and Oscar can feel a wellspring of guilt in the old man’s chest. “...if I had known, I would’ve tried to save you from the fate that was forced upon me, upon Oscar.”

Hazel eyes meet blue. Too old, too young, and Oscar hates the understanding that he sees in them. “To live beyond your years is something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy,” Ozpin says, “You deserved better than the cards you’ve been dealt, Mr. Arc, and for that I am deeply sorry.”

Blue eyes widen, suddenly bright with tears, Jaune’s breath hitches, and Ozpin retreats, relinquishing control back to Oscar. He rushes forward and then hesitates, remembering Jaune’s initial reaction.

But then his brother meets his eyes, (too young, too old, too familiar) and Oscar closes the distance.

So much has changed and would never be the same again, but Jaune’s hugs are still warm and all-encompassing. Even when he’s shaking with relieved sobs.

“I’m sorry I didn’t make it back to you guys,” Jaune chokes out.

“You’re here, aren’t you?” Oscar murmurs into his chest, and Jaune sobs. He’s here. He’s here. Oscar’s not sure if he’s convincing himself or his brother.

“How do you deal with it?” And neither of them need clarification of what he’s talking about. Feeling out of time, feeling wrong in your own body, feeling like you’ve lost time you’ll never get back.

Now faced with the reason he hung behind, Oscar doesn’t know what to say. A lie or the truth? Comfort or pain?

“By being with my friends,” Oscar replies, and he wishes it was more reassuring, wishes it was that simple. Lies and platitudes. Like minded souls indeed.

But from how Jaune nods holds him tighter, like a drowning man clutching a rope in a storm, maybe it is. Maybe it is enough.

#rwby #jaune arc #oscar pine #professor ozpin #mine #asks #my writing #officialgalaticdeliveryman #healing rust au

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