#ozpin's fault au

[novankenn]

"Ozpin's Fault AU"

Ozpin has spent eons making mistakes, and trying to correct them, but what happens when his most recent "accident" sparks chaos even the Brother Gods would be hard-pressed to control?

A Morning Surprise : Part: One / Two / Three / Four Headmaster has a Headache Combat Class Chaos : Part: One / Two / Three Questions... and Nora Recaps Oz's Hazardous Encounter Jaune-napped : Part: One/ Two Birth of GoldenKitsunneGoddess: Part: One / Two The Search... ...The Rescue Mistakes were Made... Early Morning Mayhem : Part : One / Two Calls & Conversations Discoveries Impending Doom

[bafflement]

Deaged Oz AU - Shopping [extended]

Oz snarled up at Qrow in frustration, the latter snickering in amusement.

"It isn't funny, Qrow! You said the dye you gave me would be temporary!"

"It is, Oz. The red washed out. Mostly." Qrow, to give him his due, really was trying to stop laughing. Not that that was easy when Oz's normally silvery hair had a definite pink tint, like candyfloss from a local fair.

"It's PINK, Qrow. Just... tell me it will wear off, at least?"

"Well, yeah. Probably. If nothing else, it'll grow out. I'm sorry, Oz, you know I'd never do that to you deliberately."

"Then why did you tell me it was brown to start with?" Oz asked, sounding grumpy.

"Because I thought it was?" Qrow sounded defensive. "They're very similar shades."

"Please don't do that, Qrow? For what you did to my hair, I am allowed to be angry with you. In fact..."

"Aww, don't be like that little Oz! It's adorable!" Nora cooed. Oz turned to glare at her hotly.

"You're not helping, miss Valkyrie, not to mention that comment was highly inappropriate. I was your headmaster a few short months ago."

"And now you're not! You're just a cute little boy that needs a hug!"

"Miss Valkyrie. Desist. Now."

"Hmm. No. I don't think I will. You're too serious for a little boy!"

Oz sighed in frustration, turning to look at the others in the room who seemed to be mostly holding in their own laughter at his hair. Only Oscar really met his eyes, though, looking sympathetic.

"At least they won't recognise you with that hair? Especially dressed like we are?"

"... that's a good point, Oscar, thank you. Qrow, we'll need your scroll."

"Wait? What? Why would you need my... Oz, what are you up to?"

"Oscar raised a good point. Neither one of us is dressed for a long trip, but we will probably have to make several. I'm not too sure the clothes we are attired in will last that long. Besides, I need to find a more economical way of shading my eyes from the light."

Qrow sobered at that. "Of course. I'm sorry, Oz, I forgot. I thought the goggles we found were helping, at least?"

"A little bit, but not really enough. The headaches have been steadily getting worse over the last few months, so I should probably fix the issue in question."

"And I assume ya want me to pay for this?"

"Also the clothes, yes. For Oscar and I both. It's really the least you could do considering I have no idea just how long I might have to live with the consequences of that hair dye."

Qrow groaned, but held out his scroll anyway. "Try not to bankrupt me, you two."

"Qrow, I know how much you make, there's no way we could do that even if that was the intention and it isn't. We just need a few things."

"A few things. Right. New outfits and a pair of glasses?"

"About the size of things, yes. At least we should hopefully both be more comfortable? Besides, this way it will be easier later on, we won't need to stop again for awhile. We'll be in Haven for at least a few weeks, it is the perfect opportunity."

"I already said yes, pocket sized. Go, both of you. Be careful!"

"P...pocket sized?" Ruby interjected, voice shaking with amusement.

"Oscar's a pipsqueak, Oz is even smaller. He needed a smaller nickname..."

Scowling, Oz led Oscar out into the street. He didn't really wish to hear the rest of that conversation, he suspected.

The first few shops they passed were general stores, but they ended up in the clothing district soon enough, helped by the fact that Oz was not unfamiliar with this city. The further they walked, the more noticeable his limp became, but the wooden sheath that held Long Memory was more than up to the job of supporting his weight. Besides, it all helped with the image of a pair of harmless boys out doing some shopping. Haven wasn't somewhere that they were particularly likely to be attacked, especially not in this district, but he kept alert anyway, trying not to wince at the brighter shafts of light.

Oscar darted into one of the shops, pulling Oz along with him, going to stare at the racks of orange themed clothing. Oz sighed and started looking around himself. He knew what he would have wanted to dress in, but he also knew that a fully green outfit probably wasn't a good idea, so he was rather torn...

A gentle cough sounded behind him and he span, eyes wide, to meet the gaze of a motherly looking shop assistant.

"Hello, dearie. Having a few problems?"

"Perhaps. I'm not too sure what sort of clothing style I should be buying. My brother's over there..." He gestured towards an Oscar who was happily engrossed in his own clothing selection. "He seems to know but I'm... uncertain."

"That's just fine dearie. That's what they pay me for, to help! Although, aren't you two a little young to be out by yourselves, where exactly are your parents?"

Oz let himself blush, looking down and biting his lip. If it was possible, the shop assistants eyes softened even further.

"Never mind, then. Tell me, do you at least know the sort of colors you're after?"

"Well, I quite like green..."

"Oh no, child. Or not predominantly, not with that hair! Soft golds or white, perhaps, but green would look just ghastly against that pink."

Oz groaned. "The hair was an... accident. It isn't meant to be that color. I have been informed that it will wear off, but I'm uncertain as to when."

"Best to tone with it until it fades. Your brother appears to be gravitating towards oranges and reds, why not go with a similar color scheme. Similar, not identical, though. What works for him would just wash you out. Hmm... I think I might know something. Wait here for a minute, please."

Oz sighed and did as he was told. Oscar looked over and winked at him. He, at least, seemed to have an outfit, though what he wanted with that many belts was anyone's guess. The jacket he'd picked out for himself was a bright orange and red combination that he suspected only Oscar could really wear comfortably, but he was happy, which had been one of the main points of this trip.

The assistant came back, smiling brightly. She carried a simple white shirt, dark trousers and a long coat. Shaking it out, she offered it to Oz with a flourish. True to her earlier statement, it was mainly a soft golden hue, but there was dark green embroidery at the hems and trailing up the sleeves. Oz grinned, happily. Well, it looked like they both had clothing now.

"Thank you!"

"You're very welcome, young one. Would you need anything else?"

"Sweaters, maybe? I'm uncertain where we'll be travelling next, but there are quite a few of us and warmth is probably a good idea? We were told to buy the necessities after all."

The woman smirked knowingly and led him across to a pile of jumpers. "Pick out the ones you think will fit you and your friends the best. Be mindful of the sizes, though!"

"Yes ma'am." Oz murmured, one hand already stroking the edge of one of them, considering. By the time they had travelled far enough to need them, his hair would have either faded to its original hue or grown out. He could indulge his love for his favorite color here, at the very least. There was also a copper orange that would work for Oscar, a deep red for Ruby, dark blue for Jaune...

True to their word, they only bought clothing at the store, though the total was slightly more than they'd anticipated. Ah well, Qrow's accounts could easily stand the drain and by buying a warm woolen sweater for each member of their party, they might even be saving themselves some problems later on. They were probably going to need to travel to Atlas at some point after all, and everybody knew Atlas was very, very cold.

"Oscar? There's something I need to do for a few minutes, if that's alright with you?"

"Oh! Right, the goggles... sure. Want me to wait here, or?"

"Probably not the best idea to seperate. Luckily I think there should be somewhere near here that should be able to help?"

The man in the shop blinked as a pair of boys wandered in, the younger seemingly very focused on the far wall where the racks of glasses were displayed.

"May I help you two?" His voice was soft, yet carried strangely in the small, slightly dusty shop. Oscar shrugged, looking to Oz who sighed.

"Hello. Yes, I think I could probably use some assistance. I have a medical issue, my eyes tend to be overly sensitive to the light. I had some glasses but they... broke."

"Ah, right. Yes, I believe I should be able to help, young man. I assume the goggles you're wearing are less than ideal."

"Indeed. I..." Oz took them off, sighing. The man glanced briefly into each of his eyes before nodding to himself, obviously deep in thought.

"Yes, I think tinted lenses would help you best. Why not go and pick out a set of frames you think you'd like? Your companion may be able to help you there. Thankfully, tinting them will be easy enough to accomplish. Do you have anywhere else to be today, or would you rather wait until they have been completed?"

"I think waiting might be the better idea? I tend to get headaches the longer my eyes are unshielded, lately they've been happening with increasing frequency."

Oscar had moved to the back, scanning the frames.

"Hey, Tip? I think these might work." He held out a pair of rectangular silver frames that looked nothing like his last set. Oz nodded, the more differences there were between the two appearances, the harder it would be to realise the similarities.

"You might want to try them on, first, young one." The man suggested, gently.

Oz slipped them on and gazed into the mirror. The frames seemed to alter the shape of his face slightly, but he was pretty sure they suited him. He took them off again and nodded.

"These, please, sir."

"Of course. They should take half an hour to complete, so you can wait here or you can come back later. Up to you."

An hour or so later, they walked back towards the house they were staying in, both of them dressed in the new outfits, Oz's new glasses securely on his face. The headaches were unlikely to fade so soon, but he fancied he could already feel them helping.

"Qrow's going to murder us, isn't he?" Oscar asked, glancing at the bag with the multicolored sweater selection in it.

"He knew that this was likely to happen. He never thinks about contingency plans, but they'll be useful later on. Besides, this way we got something for everybody so nobody can complain that we got special treatment."

"Well we... kind of did?"

"Perhaps, perhaps not. We are now all on an even field clothing wise, at least."

When they got back, Qrow glanced up at them, happy that they at least seemed far more comfortable than they had done previously.

"Looking good, kids. Uh, what's in the bag?" He sounded suddenly suspicious.

"If you're right that Leo is... not acting under his own power anymore, we might have to make a detour to Atlas sooner rather than later. Atlas is very cold, though, and with the possible exception of Miss Schnee, we are none of us really prepared for it. Thus, a warm sweater for each of us. Just in case."

Qrow sighed but accepted it. The others, suddenly excited, crowded around the two boys, eager to get their hands on their new sweaters. Oz, grinning, passed them out, saving Qrow's until the very last.

"I got you one, too. As said, none of us are that used to the cold."

Qrow scowled down at the cheerful looking deep red jumper. It had a crow on it.

[pilot-boi]

For the tans winter maiden jaune au, think we can get a snippet of him meeting with Nora? Does he start using she/her pronouns by then or is he still mostly repressing everything and using he/him?

First of all, it’s not a repression thing. I cannot stress enough that Jaune’s pronouns are he/him. Being a woman doesn’t change that. Like I said before, it took this long for his egg to crack because he feels no discomfort in using he/him to refer to himself. He is a bisexual girl who uses he/him

That being said, I’ll do my best :]

Fair warning, I got VERY carried away

Jaune’s been acting weird since he got back.

Well duh Nora, of course he’s been weird. He’s been trapped in another dimension for gods know how long with nobody to talk to. And he’s apparently a fairy tale character, from a book popular enough that even HER mom had time to read it as a bedtime story before abandoning her.

Good times.

He’s the Winter Maiden.

She’s the Winter Maiden. He? She? They? Do the rules of that even apply anymore now that even Ozpin doesn’t know what’s going on and her family met the mother of the gods?

And how did it even happen? All she knows is her leader is back with flames from blue eyes and Jaune refuses to talk about it. So does the rest of RWBY. Well, to an extent.

The death of the Winter Maiden was something that got brought up immediately, especially since no Penny came through the portal and Winter showed up with Qrow and the Ace Ops. Everyone assumed that Penny was dead, but nobody knew who got the powers.

And then RWBY returns from the dead with a flame-eyed Jaune and an impossible story. They all dance around the question in meetings. It was Cinder’s fault, they all say, and Nora believes them. But they also all glance at Jaune whose hand is tight on the hilt of Crocea Mors.

Nora is many things, but she’s not oblivious. A ditz, sure, over-exuberant, definitely. But unobservant she is not. Jaune was involved in Penny’s death. How, she doesn’t know, but she recognizes the haunted look in those eyes from dark nights in Mistral. No amount of years could dull that.

Ren has taken his turn looking through their leader, and apparently Jaune is fine. Or at least as fine as can be expected. And Nora trusts him. She trusts him more than he trusts herself these days.

But there’s still something. Something in Jaune’s eyes when they land on her, a flicker of something she can’t recognize. Or wishes she couldn’t.

Blame. Guilt. Pain. Emotions that have never been directed towards her from Jaune. Flames from blue eyes, twenty years alone, a trauma she knows nothing about.

She doesn’t know who Jaune is anymore.

And it’s that realization that pushes her to find Jaune and talk in person.

“Jaune? Can I come in?” Nora knocks on the door. The Nora-Of-Before would’ve just barged in without thinking. There’s a lot of things Nora-Of-Before wouldn’t have bothered to think about.

“‘Course, door’s open.” Jaune is sitting on the bed that’s shared with Oscar, adjusting the straps on the shoulders of the armor. “Hey, Nora. Did you need something?”

“What do I call you now?” Wow, great going, Nora. Just blurt it out.

Jaune blinks and looks up at her, visibly confused. “Um… Jaune?” Blue eyes glance over her face. “Unless something changed that I don’t know about?”

Something did change, she wants to scream. You changed. You changed and you can’t even see it because it happened when nobody was around to point it out. You were alone and vulnerable and it’s all my fault.

“Can I sit down?” she asks instead. Jaune slides over immediately, shoving the armor onto the pillow to make room for her. “Jaune, we need to talk.”

“Okay. Shoot.”

“I need to get something out of the way first of all.” She looks her leader straight in the eyes. “What do I call you now?”

“Jaune. Nora I don’t-“

“No no not that,” she waves away. “Not your name, I know your name.”

Jaune chuckles. “You’d be the first.” Short, sweet, ladies love it. The whole world knows them now. Not as much as Ruby, but still. Nora can’t fathom how Jaune deals with the world knowing the fairytale title more than the name from the broadcast.

“It’s just… So much has happened, and you don’t have to tell me all of it or any of it-” The words are tumbling out of her before she knows it, before she can stop them. “-but clearly so much has happened and you’re like family to me, and I’m sorry about what happened, I’m so sorry, but-”

“Woah woah woah, slow down.” Jaune grabs her hands. Dammit, she was rambling. This is about Jaune being hurt, and here she is rambling. “C’mere.” Jaune slides her over and plops a head of white streaked curls down on her head. She can feel Jaune’s voice rumble. “You can talk to me. What’s wrong?”

“I just… I don’t think I know you anymore.” And dammit why is her voice so small. She’s supposed to be the strong one. Gods, how does Jaune do this?!

Jaune doesn’t answer for the longest time, and for her it’s like having her worst fears confirmed. You’re right, you don’t know me, her leader’s silence seems to say.

“I don’t think I know myself anymore,” Jaune says eventually. “I was the Burning Knight. I still am, I guess.” There’s a pause, and Nora leans into the ratty sweatshirt Neptune lent. “I don’t really know who I am without the fairytale. It’s hard to explain.”

I don’t actually know who I am without Ren. “No… I think I get it,” Nora says. “Ren and I have been spending time apart since you…” Died. Since you died, and we buried you, and I couldn’t bring back help. But Jaune isn’t dead, she can feel the tickle of blonde curls on her forehead and the warmth through the hoodie. “I wanted to figure out who I am. I’m still working on that, but I think I get it.”

Jaune hmms.

“I’m the Winter Maiden.” It’s so matter of fact that Nora had to remind herself that Jaune’s had decades to get used to the idea. “but I still feel like Jaune Arc. I think… I think I’m a girl, but I still feel like a man.” And Nora has to admit, she’s shocked by how quickly Jaune admitted that. Other dimension therapy must be bonkers.

“So who are you?”

Another chuckle, this one failing to hide the hurt. “If you only knew how many times I failed to answer that question.”

More silence. Less stifling.

“I think… I think I’m still me.” And Nora can hear the relief. How long has her leader been dealing with identity and self all alone? Did it start in fairytale land, or did she just miss the signs? “I’m the Maiden, and I’m a girl, but I still feel like a guy.”

“Oh yeah?” Nora shifts so she can look at Jaune’s face. Blonde hair streaked with white over blue eyes. The eyes are still the same. “So you’re a woman? Like May?”

Jaune grimaces, thumps back down on her shoulder. “Girl feels right, woman doesn’t. I don’t feel… grown enough for woman.” Nora nods. Young, then old, then young again. Enough time has been stolen, it makes sense that Jaune’s had enough of being grown.

“So you’re my sister now, not my brother?” Nora asks.

She feels Jaune curl around her, long arms holding her like a teddy bear. “I don’t think I know who I am if I’m not your brother. Or Ren’s. Or Ruby, or Oscar’s.”

Who is Nora Valkyrie if she isn’t part of Ren and Nora? “It’s just a part of you,” she murmurs. How many Winter Maidens is she going to lead down this path before she reaches the end herself? “Don’t forget about the rest.”

“The rest of me feels like a guy,” Jaune replies immediately. “Not a man, not a hero just… just a guy. Or a girl. ” She can almost hear the smile behind the words. “A friend.”

“So, what do I call you now?”

“What do I call you?” Jaune shoots the question back at her. “Who are you?” And that’s not fair, ‘cause she hasn’t had two decades to work on this, she’s only had two months. And most of that time was filled up with grieving.

Although, with the white-streaks in blonde hair and the haunted look in blue eyes, Jaune probably spent the two decades similarly.

“I don’t think I know,” Nora admits.

“Me neither,” Jaune sighs. “I should probably talk to May about this. She’s the expert.”

“Probably.”

“Who do you want to be?” And the way Jaune says it, the question clearly means something. Something locked up in fairytale land and the lost years spent there.

But it’s an interesting question.

“I want to be someone who’s there for her friends,” she says. A golden portal and knuckles and throat bleeding under the force of desperation. “Someone whose friends know that she’ll fight the battles they can’t, and laugh and cry with them afterwards.”

“Sounds like you want to be Nora.”

It does, doesn’t it? “Who do you want to be?”

“I want to be someone who can help people,” Jaune says. A gleaming shield and a shattered blade, glowing hands meant to comfort and heal. “The kind of guy who can say “Everything’s gonna be alright, I’m here to help,” and people believe him.”

“Sounds like you want to be Jaune,” Nora quips back at her leader, and receives a weak laugh in response.

Him. Jaune said him.

“Do you still want to be a him? You’re a girl who feels like a guy.” She leans back against Jaune’s chest, snuggling into the warmth there. “Whatever you say, I’ll still love you.”

Silence. Nora feels Jaune shift awkwardly, sees calloused fingers pull at borrowed hoodie sleeves in front of her. “Is that like… allowed?” Theres a shocking amount of vulnerability in her leader’s voice. Like her answer will decide the rest of the future.

Oh Jaune.

There’s an immortal witch trying to kill us, time travel is apparently real, and you’re a fairy tale character. Who cares what’s allowed? It’s what she wants to say. It’s what she’s thinking. But cradling Jaune’s bleeding heart in her hands, and knowing better than she knows her name how important the opinion of her leader’s friends are, she stays quiet.

Nora looks up. Blue eyes, full of shadow and doubt. But still Jaune’s. “It’s very allowed.”

And his smile is like the sun.

[softly-potter]

White Rose in Bloom Event - Day 1

Day One of Whiterose week🌹Hope y'all enjoy!

@whiterose-fans-blog

Day One: Western AU (Cowgirl and Land Baron)

Word count: 2,626

Warning: injury

-

“It’s not enough.”

“But… that's how much it was last month.”

Rent day is a day Weiss always dreads, the fear of not having enough to cover her farm and land creeping up her spine everyday like a parasite, biting into her nerves and spreading. Her fear is warranted. Land Baron Rose was no laughing matter. 

Every second day of the month, she showed up on her black and white steed, dark red cape on her shoulders with a red fabric covering the majority of her face, demanding payment. Weiss knows it isn't’ really Baron Rose's fault; it’s Ozpins. Head of the Land Barons, if his companies didn’t return with the correct amount, they paid with their life. At least that was the rumors.

“Prices change,” Baron Rose says, shrugging slightly. Weiss can’t see her eyes due to her being saddled on Crescent Rose, the swift horse she was always seen with. “If you can’t pay, you best look extra hard in your sock drawer.”

Weiss swallows thickly. “Please, ma’am I…” She flounders, tries to think of something, anything she can barter with. Glancing around the small area of her home, she rings her hands. “M-my sister is coming. Tomorrow. She has the money. If you… if you wait until tomorrow, I'll have it all.”

Baron Rose’s eyes tighten, and she shifts in her saddle. “You and I both know there's no leeway. You’ve had all month.”

“Markets been slow,” Weiss says, her throat dry. “The herbs and oils haven’t been selling well. My sisters bringing me seeds to try vegetables.”

Baron Rose snorts, looking to the side of the house where Weiss keeps her garden. She’d been to the house enough times to know its layout, and Weiss follows her gaze. 

Beside the vines, a small chicken coop sits with three hens inside, Weiss’ newest purchase. The eggs had been helpful, and she’d been able to make throat-soothing jams with them that she also sold at the market.

“New chickens?” Baron Rose asks and Weiss nods. From her horse, Baron Rose glances back at her. “You should get more than just one. Chickens get lonely.”

Weiss gives her a confused look before turning her head to the coop and finding sure enough, only one hen is settled inside. Weiss feels her blood become chilled and she shakes her head slowly. She can’t afford to lose those hens, they had cost her several vials of ointment and coins; how would she replace them?

“T-they, i-” Weiss says, before Crescent Rose suddenly whines and takes several trotts back. Baron Rose clicks her teeth, tries to calm her animal and it isn't until Crescent Rose raises to her hind legs that Weiss see’s her hens sprinting around the horse. Their feathers and squeaks scare the horse who whines again, rearing up, and Baron Rose curses, pulls on the reins.

 Weiss darts forward, trying to catch the manic chickens but the race from her grasp, looping around the horse that whines and bucks in fear. The Baron yanks on the reins again, but Crescent Rose leaps, darting to the left unexpectedly and the Baron is tipped off.

When she hits the ground, Weiss whines at the sickening crunch that echoes on the dirt farm floor and Baron Rose lets out a scream. Crescent Rose darts forward, kicking up dirt and pebbles as she runs off, her screaming rider long forgotten and Weiss drops to her knees beside her, eyes wide.

“Let me!” Weiss demands as the Baron tries to swat her hands away. With a shaky breath, Weiss leans over the Barons leg and her insides flip. The bottom of the woman's ankle is clearly sprained, the skin already swelling and tightening within the confines of her boot.

“Let's get you inside,” Weiss says, trying to keep her voice gentle. “And get that boot off.”

The Baron scowls, only her eyes visible and they’re laced with pain and frustration. “Fuck off. I need to find Crescent.”

“She always comes back, right?” Weiss tries, and Baron Rose stills. “Well you can’t walk like this. Your ankle’s clearly damaged, and lucky for you I can help. But you have to let me.”

Baron Rose is quiet for a moment before she lets out a soft sigh, and nods. Gritting her teeth, Weiss slips an arm around the girl's waist and slowly helps her stand, taking the brunt of the weight as they slowly enter her cabin.

Placing Baron Rose at the small dining table, she rushes to her med kit, unfolding the leather and carefully selecting her tools. She ties her apron around her waist before shoving her braid over her shoulder and placing the tools in the aprons pocket. When she turns back to the table, she pauses. 

The baron has removed her brimmed hat, revealing dark red hair cropped short. It’s spiky at the edges, and Weiss believes that fits her personality perfectly.

Kneeling, Weiss carefully grabs Baron Rose's leg and places it on the table. The Baron winces but says nothing and Weiss purses her lips. “I’m going to remove the boot and your sock first, to assess the damage. Hopefully it’s just a sprain, and no real break. If it’s a sprain, I'm completely capable of treating you.”

The Baron stays silent and it’s then that Weiss realizes the girl has silver eyes, piercing as they stare.

Swallowing, Weiss grabs a pair of sheers from her apron, and begins to slowly pierce the leather of the boot. She’s careful in her movements, feeling the Baron's eyes on her as she works, and when the boot is shorn on the seam, she’s able to remove it completely without a sound.

Dropping the leather to the floor, Weiss glances up. “This might hurt, just a bit. I’ll be careful.”

Face still mostly covered by her red fabric, the Baron nods once. Inhaling, Weiss cuts the seam of the sock away, and lets out a relieved breath as she slowly rotates the ankle and finds that the bones had not pierced the skin. The ankle itself is swollen, the skin already red and purple and green and Weiss smiles.

“This is good,” she says, glancing at the Baron before looking back at her ankle. “No pierced skin, so no way of infection.”

She wipes her hands on her apron before going to her sink and washing her digits. Opening her cabinet, she explores her options of oil before reaching for a vile, and uncorks the screw. She dabs the contents onto a clean rag and returns to the injured ligament. 

“This is a family recipe,” Weiss says, and she hopes her bedside manners are decent. “It’ll help calm the swelling, so long as we keep it raised.”

“Smells like dandelions.” Baron Rose says and her voice makes Weiss jump.

“Well, it um, contains crushed dandelion petals,” Weiss replies, and begins to lightly dab the rag on the swelled skin. They’re quiet as she works, her movements percisse and eventually, she nods in satisfaction.

“There,” she says, placing a hand on her hip. “Give it a few days and the swelling will drop and we can fit you for a splint while it heals.”

The Baron blinks, her eyes dropping to her propped up foot. “How’d you know?”

Weiss shrugs, rubs her slick hands on her apron. “My mother was a believer in natural remedies.”

“She taught you?” the Baron asks, and Weiss nods.

“Everything I know.”

Baron Rose hums, silver eyes still trained on her ankle and she flexes her toes the smallest bit before raising her hands behind her head, and tugging off the fabric from her face.

Weiss isn’t sure what she was expecting, maybe an ugly scar or yellow teeth, but the face that greets her is anything but ugly. With large cheeks and a button nose, the Baron is… cute. Pretty. 

Her complexion like snowfall that had been caressed with sunset. Weiss realizes she is staring and looks away, dropping her eyes to her hands as she gathers her tools and places them in the sink to be washed.

“How long til I can walk?” The Baron asks, and Weiss shakes her head before dipping her hands into the pail bucket of water.

“Not for several weeks,” she says regretfully. “You’ll need assistance getting back to the main town… I- my sister, she comes tomorrow. She could… take you.”

Weiss washes the tools, keeps her eyes focused as the Baron offers no response. She lays out the damp tools on the counter, allowing for them to air dry and she turns back around, presses her backside to the lip of the sink.

“You can stay here, until she arrives.” Weiss offers, and the Baron frowns, brows furrowing in quiet frustration. 

“I suppose I don't really have a choice,” She scoffs, looking away. “Do I?”

Weiss runs her tongue along her bottom lip and glances outside her window. The sun was in the middle of setting, golden rays stretching across the barren land like fingers and casting shadows that created the spooky stories her mother once used to tell her.

Don’t go out at night, princess. The Grimm come out of their dessert caves when the sun is no longer there to scare them.

Shaking her head, Weiss pushes herself off the sink. “You hungry?”

“No.” the Baron says stiffly, and Weiss rolls her eyes.

“You need to eat,” Weiss counters, pulling a folded sack from her pantry. “Your body needs fuel to heal the hurt appendaged.”

The Baron grunts and Weiss takes that as an answer. She unwraps the sack to reveal a loaf from yesterday's baking, and she cuts a couple of slices before plating it. She adds dried apples before scooping three spoonfuls of corn dodgers and gives the food a satisfied nod. Grabbing both plates, Weiss sets one in front of Baron Rose, and sits quietly beside her, the chair scraping as she sits.

“Thank you.” the Baron says quietly. Weiss pauses before nodding and picking up a corn dodger and taking a bite.

“How's your pain?” She asks, and watches as the Baron picks up an apple slice and place’s it atop the bread, taking a bite. “Sorry I don't have any butter or cheese… I don't have a good cooling system.”

“S’alright,” the Baron answers, chewing slowly. “And the pain is… nothing I can't handle.”

Weiss frowns before she stands and removes a mug from the cupboard. “Give me a moment, just going to fetch more water from the well.”

“What for?” the Baron asks as Weiss opens the door. Weiss nods at her and smiles.

“For tea, Baron Rose.” she replies, and closes the door behind her. 

The expanse of land is nearly dark as Weiss pumps the well lever, glancing around her as she works. She doesn’t necessarily believe in the Grimm, but she does believe in robbers, and to her, those can be worse than the dark creatures of fairy tales.

Water sloshing, Weiss presses into her front door before closing it with the heel of her foot. At the table, Baron Rose has finished most of her plate, her jaw working as she glances up. Measuring out water and herbs, Weiss quietly makes a cup of healing tea, and holds it out. 

“This should help the pain,” Weiss says softly, ignoring the tingle in her hands as the Baron's fingers brush over hers when she takes the mug. “Allow you to sleep and rest.”

Baron Rose nods, and takes a tentative sip. Weiss sits down once more and pops a dried apple slice into her mouth. 

They sit quietly as Baron Rose finishes her tea and Weiss finishes her plate, quickly cleaning up the dishes before she pulls out her extra sleeping blankets. She makes a makeshift bed on the floor beside her own small bed, and holds out a hand to the Baron.

Grimacing, the Baron allows Weiss to help her to the bed, letting out a sharp breath when she sits. She looks at the makeshift bed in confusion before glancing at Weiss' face.

“You take the bed,'' Weiss says, leaning down to grip Baron Rose’s ankle. “You're injured and a guest, it’s only right.”

The Baron opens her mouth to protest but a sound of pain echoes as Weiss places both ankles on the mattress. Falling to her back, the Baron pants in small, agonized breaths.

Standing straight, Weiss tidies the house, the whole while feeling Baron Rose's eyes on her back. She tries to keep herself busy, tries not to feel her stomach flip at the thought of sleeping so close to someone. It had been so long since Weiss had shared a bed, much less a space, with someone who wasn’t family. 

Her brother and sister visit, but Weiss had never truly been lucky in the relationship department. Sure, there had been boys. Her first kiss had been at age twelve with a blonde boy who didn’t even really like her, he just wanted some practice for when he finally got up the nerve to talk to his real crush, a red head with bright green eyes in the grade above them.

 Weiss hadn’t minded; he had been good practice. But it had given her a skill she’d never used, and never thought she would.

Shaking her head, she pushes in the chairs of her dining table, straightening the flowers that adorn it and she hears a cough.

“Are you going to sleep anytime soon?”

Weiss turns, feels the embarrassment seep into her cheeks, and she laughs nervously. “Sorry, I just, hah, neat freak.”

“I see that.” the Baron replies in a low tone and Weiss swallows.

“Do you, um…” Weiss tries, and then blinks hard. “Do you prefer sleeping with candles on or out, Baron Rose?”

Sitting up on her elbow, the Baron cocks her head. “Out.”

Weiss nods and begins to blow out all the candles except one that she grabs. The room is engulfed in mostly darkness, and she haphazardly makes her way to the makeshift bed, settling on her knees and looking over at the Baron's ankle.

“Looks good,” she says softly, almost to herself. “Swelling has definitely stopped.”

“Mmm,” the Baron replies, and Weiss offers her a small smile. “Anything you need before we turn in, Baron?”

Baron Rose gives a muted, half-grin before she shakes her head. “Nah. Got a western magician helping me out.”

Weiss blows out the candle to hide the red in her cheeks and settles down against the blankets. She puts the blown out candle by her pillow before flipping to her back and tugging the covers up around her. “Western cowgirl, actually. I know I don't look it but I actually ride horses as well.”

The Baron chuckles in the dark, the sound breathy. “Oh yeah? Y’know, I could see that actually.”

Weiss giggles, presses her fingertips to her mouth. “Well you are the first, so… Goodnight, Baron Rose.”

The covers are itchy but Weiss doesn’t mind, and makes a mental note that the guest covers need a wash. She pushes some hair out of her face, lets her eyes drift shut.

“It’s Ruby, by the way.”

Weiss blinks, the Baron’s voice bouncing around the darkened cabin like an acorn fallen from its branch. “What?”

There's a few more seconds of silence before her low voice cuts the silence. “My name. My name is Ruby Rose. Not Baron. Barons just… the title.”

“Oh,” Weiss says softly. She tries the name out on her tongue, lets it fold over her tongue and between her teeth. She decides that she likes it, that it fits the girl with red hair in her bed and that it is truly the only name that makes sense. “Goodnight, Ruby.”

“Goodnight Weiss.”

[bestworstcase]

Tbh I don't think anyone's saying that Oz has Never Done Anything Wrong Ever, or at least, personally, that's not my belief.

While personally I believe that Oz hasn't tried actually destroying Salem or erasing her from anyone knowing about her at all, I ALSO believe that Salem Is Not an irredeemable monster. I do believe she's trying to overthrow the gods rn, and that she hates the sword of damocles that is the mandate and has been trying to keep Oz from summoning the gods up until now (bc yknow, why wouldn't she try keeping the Relics from him??).

Plus, her fear wouldn't be unfounded (I still believe Oz was gunning for the task for a long time), and the narrative of "Salem is right" can still easily happen. Plus it's not like Oz is innocent; 1. He lied to Salem for their entire marriage 2. He decided to gun for the task Light gave him 3. Hasn't even tried communicating with Salem and 4. Has demonized her in his mind and to those in his circle. Both and neither are at fault imo. Oz fucked up big time, and he knows this, but the belief Salem hates him and his own self hate is keeping him from Actually Doing Anything. I think this also goes for Salem, fear and possibly self hate keeping her from communicating.

I just come from the perspective that both fucked up, Oz a bit more than Salem ofc. I just think that Oz isn't nearly as bad as people make him out to be. Like, this probably sounds really rude so I'm sorry in advance (/gen), but I feel like Oz being paranoid for No Reason and constantly trying to destroy Salem or erase her from public knowledge and demonizing her for No Reason beyond his own paranoia and unwillingness to change makes him seem... almost cartoonishly bad. Like it makes him sound like an abusive husband 100x worse than Adam and Jacques combined. And beyond that, it makes Salem seem completely innocent pre-war, that she was just dealing with her Abusive Husband who's delusional and paranoid.

To me, it doesn't feel nuanced, or at least as nuanced. I DO like the idea, but only as an AU. Not only that but I feel like it'd be really unfriendly to casual fans, people who don't do analysis n stuff, bc unless you bother analyzing every 2 second scene, you won't pick a lot of this up. And this is in terms of the writers, not you lol. Rwby IS meant to be analyzed, but not a lot of people will bother, and those who do haven't exactly picked any of this up.

I do think they're good theories to have though. Really it just gives me an excuse to re-analyze scenes and see if my thinking is flawed. I mean, if it's straight up Confirmed that your theories are right, then I'll be like "Oh, huh, I was wrong". I figured I'd just give insight to what people are probably saying bc I haven't seen anyone say that Oz is an innocent uwu wet paper bag. Cause he's NOT innocent, but I just don't think he's as bad or evil as people insist he is. And I do my best to analyze without any form of bias. I *did* come to the same conclusion about Salem lol.

Anyways sorry, this got long dhchvj. I hope I don't sound rude, I'm really tone blind (autism), I'm just doing my best to give insight to what people think. Cause trust me, it annoys me just as much as you to see people try to claim that Oz is innocent or that Salem is an irredeemable abusive witch. Cause obv neither is true lmao.

I hope you have a good day :] /gen

you’re fine. 

the core issue i have with the reasoning laid out here is that it demands a presupposition that oz is… well, a miserable spineless cowardly fraud who’s spent untold millennia pretending to believe in a pointless cause that he knows he will never lift a finger to advance in any meaningful sense. because it’s made quite clear that ozpin’s inner circle believes that they’ve been at war with salem for decades, that the huntsmen academies are fortresses oz built not to merely defend the relics but specifically to "stop salem"—that’s the language qrow uses in V4 and oz echoes it in V5—and that this is what oz has been doing for centuries if not   thousands of years, fighting to protect remnant from salem. 

the way qrow discusses the great war in both WOR and V4 insinuates that the conflict was really a proxy war between oz and salem, glynda chides ironwood by telling him "ozpin has experience the rest of us lack," in V3 the inner circle tells pyrrha "we are the protectors of this world" and "our group was founded [hundreds of years ago] to protect both mankind and the maidens" by "remov[ing] the maidens from the public eye, allowing their existence to fade away into legend." or as qrow puts it in V2, "we’re the ones that keep the world safe from the evils no one even knows about!"—i.e., from salem—"[which is] why we meet behind closed doors, why we work in the shadows."

now, while ozpin’s difficult relationship with the truth means we do need to be skeptical as to the veracity of these historical claims… the inner circle is circumspect on the details, but they’re not lying or misrepresenting the purpose of their group. they earnestly believe these things because this what ozpin told them, and in V5 we see oz recount the same general narrative to team RNJR: "i am the combination of countless men who have spent their lives trying to protect the people of remnant […] this curse was bestowed on me by the gods because i failed to stop salem in the past, but we must stop her now."

so there is no ambiguity at all about the story oz tells his closest allies: he is trying to protect the world from an ancient hidden evil called salem, who defeated him once in the distant past but can be stopped now by keeping the relics out of her hands, and in order to do that it is essential to keep the relics and the maidens secret (lest world rip itself apart in wars to claim this incredible power) and likewise to ensure that salem’s existence remains hidden (lest everyone panic and be wiped out by grimm). oz and his inner circle frame this as an secret struggle that has been ongoing for centuries, if not thousands of years. 

his inner circle had no reason to disbelieve what ozpin told them prior to jinn’s tale. and even after the lost fable, no one questions the narrative that oz has been fighting salem for a very long time. "ozpin believed that the best way to fight salem was to do it in secret," says ironwood. "ozpin spent his whole life, many lives, keeping this secret," says qrow. later in V7, ironwood describes salem as "an ancient and terrible evil," and in V8 ruby says "this isn’t some new enemy or invading kingdom, this is a force we’ve faced before, for centuries… salem."

for the moment we’ll just accept the presupposition that salem’s war against the huntsmen academies began with the attack on amber following perhaps a decade of planning and careful preparation, incited by whatever happened when she met summer rose, and that before that time salem was not actively participating in shadow war. 

if this is taken to be true, the question with regard to how ozma has spent all this time becomes: do we believe that he’s been doing what he says he has—trying to "stop salem" by guarding the relics and keeping all these secrets—or not? because it is undeniably true that this is what ozma CLAIMS to have been doing for centuries if not millennia. when ozpin tells people this story about who he is and what he’s spent lifetimes trying to do, is it because he genuinely believes that he and salem have been embroiled in a secret cold war all this time, or… is he just lying?

why would he lie about that? 

consider the things he definitely did lie about. why didn’t he tell anyone that salem can’t be killed? he feared they would fall into despair and give up, lose all hope and the will to keep fighting. why did he lie about his personal history with salem? he believes loving her is his greatest mistake ("the hearts of men are easily swayed" etc) and he feels ashamed, guilty, regretful, desperate to make amends yet certain she will never forgive him and terrified that even if she did it would doom the world—the truth is messy and complicated and he’s convinced that what he wants is evil, so he buries it. 

why, then, would he pretend to still be fighting her when he actually isn’t? if ozma had, at some point, resolved this inner turmoil on the side of "salem was right, the god of light is wrong, i am not going to fulfill my task and will instead dedicate my existence to insuring that the relics are never brought together, the best way to protect remnant is by rejecting the gods and their redemption," why would he lie about that? why would he continue to promote faith in the two brothers and the final judgment he foretold long ago (ozpin includes this story in his anthology with notes urging his readers to believe in it and to act each day as if the gods will return tomorrow)? why keep telling his closest allies, his friends, life after life, that he was sent to remnant by the gods themselves to stop salem from changing the world? 

why wouldn’t he change course?—and i want to be very clear that i’m not asking why he wouldn’t seek reconciliation with salem, because emotionally that’s quite a lot harder. but if he decided the divine mandate was bullshit and he wasn’t going to follow it any longer, why would he not… er… stop telling people that the brothers are the Real True Gods who left behind these divine relics which he is put on this world to keep safe until the final judgment? 

ozma strove to keep salem and the relics a secret for lifetimes—and ozpin was stridently opposed to revealing the truth, we see him and his inner circle balk at the idea time and again explicitly because ozpin insists that secrecy is essential to stopping salem, so we have no reason to doubt that he really did feel strongly that keeping these secrets kept people safe—so in the event he changed his mind and came to believe that the brothers were enemies of humanity who must be kept at bay… surely he would shut his mouth. 

but the brothers and their final judgment aren’t a secret! ozpin published that story in a book of fairytales with a commentary telling his readers to prepare themselves to be judged! after jinn’s tale, nobody freaks out about the divine threat of execution should mankind prove unworthy because they already knew that part; it’s the mainstream doctrine of a well-known religion that exists all around the world, which qrow and ozpin had already told them was real and true. 

oz is not a bad person. he certainly isn’t some sort of craven charlatan who’s spent thousands of years exhorting the world to believe in and follow a creed he secretly opposes—even if he still believed that salem was dangerous and needed to be stopped, it would be so simple to cast the gods as dangerous adversaries who must also be prevented from ever coming back. 

like, he wants people to live. he wants the world to be safe, even if at the cost of his own happiness. that is always what ozma is trying to achieve—even during the ozlem kingdom, he sacrificed the happiness he’d found with salem in their little cottage to try uniting the world with her because he truly, genuinely believed his happiness came at the cost of humanity’s salvation. 

it follows that the reason ozpin tells his close allies that it is his god-given task to stop salem by keeping the relics out of her grasp whilst striving for unity and keeping all this a secret, he does so because he truly, genuinely believes that it’s the best way to protect the world. likewise, when he uses his public platform as the headmaster of a prestigious academy to publish an anthology of tales, including the one about the two brothers that articulates the divine mandate exactly, upon which he comments this: 

We have a fragile peace, and in some ways, we are more divided than ever. Even if the gods aren’t real, even if they don’t return to judge us for our deeds, we should act each day as though they are arriving tomorrow. In the end, we will be the arbiters of our fates. We will either create a beautiful, peaceful world and live in harmony together or destroy ourselves and our planet, and the gods will judge what we have chosen.

ozpin really earnestly does believe that proselytizing the brothers, imploring everyone to live as if the gods will return for the final judgment tomorrow, while keeping salem, the maidens, and the relics secret, is necessary and the best way to keep people safe. he wouldn’t be doing this if he thought it didn’t protect people!

so the story he tells his inner circle about WHAT he does—his purpose, his methods, his strategy—is true. it must be true because it would be both reprehensible and beyond foolish for ozpin to convince his allies they’re fighting in a war he knows isn’t real for a cause he doesn’t actually believe in, and ozpin is neither reprehensible nor stupid.

it follows that ozpin a) believes he has been fighting a protracted covert war over the relics with salem since the ages, and b) can be taken at his word when he says that insuring the relics and salem’s existence remain secret is an essential part of his strategy, especially because without fail he prioritizes secrecy above every other concern throughout V1-6 so he’s very much putting his money where his mouth is in that regard.

in V3, the inner circle makes the claim that their predecessors ("this brotherhood"), centuries ago, chose to "remove the maidens from the public eye, allowing them to fade away into legend." while i do have my doubts about the historical accuracy of that claim—a) the nature of the maiden inheritance rules would make it very difficult to keep the maidens under wraps and b) i think it’s more likely that ozma always intended for the maidens to act covertly, didn’t know what would happen when the first four died, and only pieced it together after a few centuries had gone by and he started to hear stories about young women blessed with magical power and went "…ah."—i don’t think there’s any reason to doubt that the maidens became a fairytale because ozma decided they should be kept secret. 

neither oz nor his inner circle make an exactly equivalent claim about salem… but. the situations are quite similar: the maidens were once "common knowledge," and when ozma first reincarnated he traveled around for years hearing tales of "the witch" wherever he went. some time long ago, ozma and his allies undertook to suppress public knowledge of the maidens, and in the present the last trace remaining is an old fairytale that no one could believe holds any real truth. as for salem, no one knows about her anymore either, and "ozpin spent all his life, many lives keeping this secret." 

the existence of the relics, similarly, is a secret because ozma chose to keep them secret—although the crown seems to have passed through at least a few pairs of hands before ozma tracked it down, hence the fairytale. (this is a subject for another post, but i actually don’t think 'the indecisive king' is about ozma—ozpin’s commentary on it is VERY impersonal and perfunctory compared to what he has to say about 'the infinite man,' 'the girl in the tower,' 'the story of the seasons,' or even 'the grimm child.' i think the original inspiration for the tale was some other person who had the crown before ozma found it, and he included the story because, as he says, he thinks it has an important message.)

so, basically, in the present ozpin and his inner circle are hiding three big secrets: the maidens, the relics, and salem. it’s stated outright that the maidens are secret because ozma and his allies chose to hide them from the world. 

of the relics, three are entirely unknown and one is the subject of a single fairytale of which the reliability is unknown (although my bet is on "the real crown isn’t that straightforward and may not actually work like that at all"); oz has been in possession of all four for at least fifty or so years. we know he found the lamp first, thousands of years ago, that he used both the sword and the crown to end the great war eighty years ago, and ozpin raised atlas using the staff. it’s very likely that he found the other three much earlier. the fairytale inspired by the crown suggests that one might have eluded him for a while.

in any case, once he had them all (and a few centuries had gone by to allow the story about the crown to be forgotten as anything but a fiction), ozma would’ve had nearly absolute power to decide who knew about them—salem being the only other person who could tell anyone, and at the time she didn’t know anything more than "there are four relics of some kind, somewhere in the world, that will call the gods to remnant to judge humankind if they’re ever brought together."

so the relics, too, are secret because ozma decided to keep them secret.

this leaves salem. before the rise and fall of the ozlem kingdom, she lived on the fringes of civilization and knowledge of her existence was widespread. (her decrepit house sat at the end of a paved, well-maintained footpath—she was within walking distance of the nearest town and did not make herself remotely difficult to find.) thousands of years later? nothing but fairytales that are, like 'the story of the seasons' and 'the indecisive king,' either believed to be entirely fictional or (in the case of 'the grimm child') about a real, if very rare, phenomenon unrelated to salem herself. 

this is not something that could have happened at all if salem hadn’t withdrawn from civilization as far as she did—which is one of the core reasons i think she hasn’t been at war with ozma all this time—so she tacitly allowed it to happen. but why did she withdraw so far? 

here is the part where it gets murky and highly speculative because we just don’t know what happened or where she went or what she did in those first few hundred years after the ozlem kingdom fell. it is plausible that salem just ran and kept running until she’d gotten as far away from people as it was possible to get, and stayed there in self-imposed isolation until, well, now—in which case ozma’s effort to suppress the knowledge of her existence would have mainly entailed not telling anyone about her and maybe destroying bits and pieces of the historical record. 

(i do think he’s made an active effort to keep her secret all this time, regardless: that is his first priority at all times until jinn spills the beans in V6, and if he can’t keep the world safe by destroying her then making sure the world doesn’t know she exists is the obvious Plan B. if nobody knows about her, no one can piss off the gods by siding with her. it’s really more a question of whether she put up a fight.)

hooowever. salem is a character defined by loneliness and longing for freedom, which to her explicitly means connection with others. love. companionship. this is why the gods punish her by making her immortal—separating her from the one she loves forever—and then when she overcomes that by going out into the world and turning her immortality into a gift that brings her closer to people and allows her to form new alliances and friendships, rather than a curse imprisoning her in isolation, the gods just. kill everyone. and leave her alone in the ashes. 

and as i said, even when salem is miserably isolating herself before ozma, she isn’t that far away from civilization—she’s living by herself but close enough to somewhere that she could walk into town, and her presence there was not only well-known but welcomed enough that people built a road right to her doorstep. this during a period of her life when she was so profoundly depressed that her house was rotting and falling apart around her! 

the point is that while salem does inarguably have self-isolating tendencies, i… don’t think hers are anywhere close to being as severe as ozma’s. his rendition of himself in 'the story of the seasons' may well be more poetic than literal ("So cold was his heart that the lands around him were covered in snow, the trees were bare, and animals and Creatures of Grimm alike avoided him. For centuries, no one dared disturb his peace…"), but at the time ozma certainly would have had the magical power to freeze all the land for miles around to keep people away from him, and even if it’s only a metaphor for how he felt then the implication is that he hid himself away in total solitude for possibly multiple consecutive lifetimes…

…whereas salem, at her absolute lowest, in the darkest depths of her self-isolating depression, lived by herself a short way from the edge of some town whose residents were probably rather wary of her (she’s not exactly friendly, nor human, and everyone knows she’s a witch) but nevertheless accepted her as a member of their community (because salem certainly wasn’t the one bothering to take care of that path). 

the way things ended between her and ozma, his deception, the deaths of their children, their kingdom collapsing, all of this was extremely traumatic for her and haunts her to this day just as ozma; i have no trouble at all believing that salem would flee to the edge of the world in the immediate aftermath. 

but i find it a lot more difficult to believe that she would stay there for thousands upon thousands of years if the only thing preventing her from returning to the margins of civilization were her own guilt and self-hatred. the gods punishing her by murdering the whole world, being completely alone for hundreds of millions of years, grimming herself, and the way humans would have treated her in an era when faunus were hunted down and caged like beasts wasn’t enough to drive salem into exile. i don’t believe her self-loathing, by itself, is strong enough to overpower her desperation to be free for very long.

i also really doubt that ozma would just, for lack of a better word, trust her to stay gone. especially not if—as jinn implies—he believed salem kept finding him somehow and sending grimm after him, which probably wasn’t true (her command over the grimm seems to be restricted to the ones she makes, and the incarnations we see in this part of the lost fable were not at all significant persons easily identifiable as ozma), but it isn’t an unreasonable fear for him to have? given how badly things ended between them. 

we know salem doesn’t like, obsessively devote her time to scrying until she’s found ozma again (because she doesn’t bother to do that after ozpin dies, she’s caught completely off guard by oscar—and if she doesn’t do so while she is actively waging war against him, it’s unlikely that it ever crossed her mind to try it at all, or else her scrying just doesn’t work that way), but ozma doesn’t have any way of knowing that. we know salem doesn’t control every grimm in the world, and oz seems to have figured that out eventually, but in those first few centuries before he found the lamp? he had no idea what salem might be capable of, what powers she might have hidden from him!

like it isn’t that ozma has No Reason to be paranoid. he knows that he hurt her really badly and that when salem gets hurt she lashes out, often in extremely vindictive and extremely violent ways. (he has no way of knowing that salem has spent these thousands of years clawing her temper under control, and no reason to think she would try.) he probably had no idea to what extent salem being grimm might be influencing her thinking—that’s where all the really deep distortions start to take root, ozma anxiously second-guessing every little thing like were there warning signs i ignored? was he right? did i let infatuation blind me to what she’d become from the very start?—by the time he finds the lamp, assuming jinn didn’t skip over any lives, he’s on his fourth life since the end; that’s a span of like, at least two to three hundred years depending how long he lived and how much time it took him to reincarnate each time. 

that is plenty enough time to convince himself she’s nothing but an evil monster who needs to be put down before he finds the lamp, and then he immediately uses his three questions for that lifetime so it would be another full century after that before he had the opportunity to ask jinn anything about… what salem is doing now, or what she lied to him about, or if she told him the truth after all. which is a terrifying prospect to even consider after a) multiple centuries marinating in an inescapable anxiety torment nexus echo chamber and b) hearing she can’t be destroyed, period. like what if the truth turns out to be "yeah the pool of grimm destroyed her soul and also she wants to burn the world to the ground and eat your heart now because you ruined her FOREVER!!! and there is nothing you or anyone else can do to fix her. you stupid fuck." like his cursed haunted brain keeps screaming at him 24/7?!

so.

we don’t really know anything about this period of time before ozma went after the lamp, except that "no matter where or how he lived, her presence was always felt." jinn combines that with a memory of two beowolves attacking ozma’s town to insinuate that salem kept sending grimm after him, or at least that ozma believed as much. 

but. but—"during his years of travel, he heard the same frightened whispers that spoke of a terrifying sorceress who commanded dark powers in the wilds, among the beasts and monsters. ozma was convinced that this woman was salem, and decided that he needed to see what she had become."

"but no matter where or how he lived, her presence was always felt. if humanity were ever to stand a chance at being united, one thing was clear… [he had to destroy salem.] knowing he could never rid the world of her through any mortal means, ozma sought out the power of the relics: armed with my knowledge, he believed he could fulfill his promise to the god of light."

<- these are parallel statements. everywhere he travels, he hears stories about a witch; no matter where or how he lives, her presence is always felt. ozma was convinced that this terrifying sorceress was salem; ozma grew convinced that he had to destroy salem for humanity’s sake. he needed to see what she had become; he needed to find the lamp to guide him. see the repetition? the echo?

i don’t think salem just vanished into the wilderness. i imagine she ran pretty fucking far, but remnant is a big world and there are people all over—there have even been people living in the southern region of the now-uninhabited continent where salem presumably lives, based on the map shown in WOR: vale. 

(the markers for those settlements are red in color; all the other markers are color-coded to the kingdoms, orange for vacuo, green for vale, while for atlas, blue for mistral, yellow for menagerie and what i assume are a couple of faunus settlements in southern anima, with tracks with the white fang’s headquarters being located vaguely in anima. in the blood-splattered map in the great war episode, there’s a fire burning in the southern peninsula of the uninhabited continent—implying battles were fought there and possibly that some of those red settlements existed as recently as eighty years ago. 

i turn this over in my mind a lot. it doesn’t make any sense to me to think that salem could have been remotely present in civilization anywhere within the past century, but rwby is so particular about color that the only reason to choose red for the now-defunct(?) settlements on the continent where salem lives would be to imply some degree of association with her, and if a WHOLE KINGDOM had been destroyed i think that would have been mentioned so these were probably just free towns and villages—possibly with a loose connection to vacuo? it’s sort of the logical place for displaced peoples from vacuo to wind up after fleeing their conquered kingdom. and in that case their "connection" to salem might be nothing more than her having taken pity on a bunch of refugees with nowhere else to go and kept the grimm off their backs until the great war…happened. but i would like to know.)

…the point being, i think "her presence was always felt" because salem, after some decades, maybe a century, hating herself deep in the wilderness, crept back to lurking on the periphery of civilization because a) ozma was gone and she had no idea where, when, or even if he would ever come back again and b) no matter how determined she is to punish herself, she just isn’t capable of wallowing in abject misery forever, even when she was the only person alive with absolutely no hope she kept moving until she found something to try.

so naturally people would have kept gossiping about the terrifying dark witch who lives in the woods among the beasts and monsters, and ozma would have known it was her. imagine if he’d reincarnated for the second or third time, wound up on a different continent altogether, and immediately started hearing the exact same sort of frightened whispers as before? even if it was pure unfortunate coincidence and salem did not have the slightest idea he was there, how terrifying that would be? and if salem didn’t want him to find her because she was scared or ashamed or angry or all three, then she couldn’t stay in any one place for too long—so this sort of indirect crossing paths oh-gods-she’s-already-found-me nightmare scenario could conceivably happen more than once.

(frankly, even if salem wanted nothing to do with him and was trying her level to avoid him without just never being able to come within sight of another person again, i think her not vanishing forever makes ozma’s intense paranoia so much more understandable because like. very literally, no matter where he lived, her presence would always be there—rumors, frightened whispers, everywhere. of course he’d start seeing her in the shadow of every grimm!)

i don’t think they’ve ever actually come face-to-face since that night—maybe glimpsed each other from afar across a battlefield, but if they’d met or spoken to each other i imagine it would have been necessary for jinn to show it happening. BUT i do think it’s likelier than not that there were several centuries when salem was legitimately an inescapable presence dogging ozma through life after life because she was just sort of… wandering around in a miserable traumatic haze on the very, very edge of civilization. and people talked about her.

so he went for the lamp, and fell into the depths of despair when jinn crushed whatever passed for his hope at that point. that is, almost certainly, what pushed him into his hermit era. 

now! if the fairytale’s centuries of eternal winter isn’t a pure fiction—if there is even the smallest kernel of literal truth in there as to ozma using magic to force people, animals, and grimm to stay far away from him, then. if salem was not already living in exile, this would have been when she began to hear rumors about him. yes? this is the first thing he does that would rise to the level of local legend salem might possibly hear. 

that his seclusion ended with "and then i met four young women who reminded me how to be a person so i gave them my magic" as opposed to "and then salem turned up with thousands of grimm to murder me and salt the earth" suggests that if she wasn’t living in exile at this time, her interest was probably more in avoiding him than vengeance.

and if that’s so, what does she do upon finally discovering where he is? er, probably travel as far away from the Cursed Wizard Forest as it is geographically feasible to go and decide that this is fine, that’s his continent and this is her continent and they can just stay on opposite sides of the planet until the end of time and never have speak to or see each other again. amen. 

if we take the fairytale literally, several centuries pass. lifetimes. enough time for salem to find somewhere to, if not quite belong, at least become a constant because well she’s been here since before granny was even born and no one knows who or what she is because she doesn’t really talk to anyone, but she’s not hurting anyone either, and legend has it that a goliath once attacked our town and the witch just walked out of the woods and exploded it with a glare, and that’s why grimm never come here, so she’s our witch. maybe enough time to send someone halfway across the world to check on the Cursed Wizard Forest to reassure herself that yes ozma’s still there, he’s not going to come after her and he must have come to his senses about the gods so she’s. safe. ish. as long as no one ever finds those relics. 

the fairytale ends with the hermit dividing his magic among the four maidens, and then he says: "My rest is over. It is time for me to resume my journey and work as well."—they didn’t just resuscitate ozma’s will to live, they restored his faith and his commitment to his task. maybe the world can be saved! maybe he can really do it this time, now that he’s found people willing to help him shoulder the burden!

(i do firmly believe that ozma told the original four maidens about his task and salem’s sworn hatred of the gods and the danger she could pose to the world if he emerged to try again, before offering them magic—as we see in v8, he isn’t naturally predisposed to lie or manipulate people, that’s a pattern he only falls into when he feels hopeless and scared. so i think he and the original maidens planned to gather the relics and get to work on uniting humanity, and the vague fairytale ending is an obfuscation.)

aaand i think that’s when he went after salem, because he emerged from his Cursed Wizard Forest after multiple lifetimes rotting in solitude, filled with new hope and ready to try again to complete his task, immediately tripped face-planted into rumors about the witch in the woods AGAIN and panicked. 

he can’t kill her, he can’t get rid of her… she can’t be stopped but, as oz says to hazel, she can be fought and someone has to try. doesn’t he have to try? if he believes the world can be saved, isn’t it his duty to try?—he knows she’ll never, ever bow to the brothers, she made that excruciatingly clear, and as long as she’s present in the world, as long as people might listen to her about the gods, remnant is doomed. so he has to make her go away. somehow. he has to try.

i think for salem all it would take is once. one time. if she still tried after everything to do what was right, leave him alone and not hurt anyone else and pick up the pieces as best she could. because the thing is, salem blames herself for getting her daughters killed in her anger—that’s why she tries so hard to keep her temper in 6.4—she hates herself for lashing out that night as much as ozma hates himself for the same. that self-blame would counterbalance her anger at ozma: yes he lied to her yes he tricked her yes he attacked her but she attacked him right back and now her children are dead.

how much of a temptation is vengeance with that clawing around in her head?

but if her mindset was like, "that was the most horrible thing that has ever happened to me and the worst thing i’ve ever done, and i don’t understand why he lied to me but i just want it to be done, and he’s over there and i’m over here and we can just. leave each other alone forever," and she found a place for herself where she started to feel maybe almost kind of ok again and then ozma violated the truce she’d invented in her mind but never thought to communicate to him by appearing out of the blue to attack her, completely unprovoked as far as she could tell, and whatever little town or village or even just one single person who’d been kind to her got destroyed in the resulting fight?

that’s an injustice. that’s i did nothing to deserve this, how dare you do this to me. 

and… that’s also, i think, the one thing that would compel salem to willingly cut herself off from all civilization and remain in exile for thousands and thousands of years (because she’s impossible to kill and too powerful to force her out if she decides she’s not going to go gently into the night). her fear of collective punishment. if she thought there was even the smallest chance that ozma might start doing what her father did or what his gods did to anyone close to her, i think she’d go and stay gone until she felt absolutely certain she could take him down forever.

(also theres a certain narrative elegance to the idea that they had their horrible mutual-incineration duel where they were equally matched in every way… and then ozma rotted in isolation while salem tried really hard to be okay and convinced herself they could just stay peacefully at a distance forever, until he found a spark of hope that ignited all his desperation so he went after her and she was blindsided by this truly awful and unfair and egregious thing that he did… and then she rots in isolation and ever-mounting desperation while ozma tries really hard to fix everything and pull the world into a semblance of peace until she finds a spark of hope and blindsides him with this brutally ruthless charge for the relics. 

they explode each other, fly in opposite directions—downward spiral vs picking up the pieces—then reach critical mass and explode again so hard they fully reverse positions and do the whole ordeal again. so it’s both a journey of learning to understand each other and a vicious cycle they can only escape by inversion of the first exactly-equal fight that exploded out of nowhere from a seemingly happy partnership, i.e. both reaching out unexpectedly in the midst of a seemingly inescapable conflict. it’s about symmetry)

This Has Been A Very Long Post Sorry About That. but—all speculation about the details aside—i do strongly feel that the most compassionate reading of ozma is that he is completely sincere about whathe’s trying to achieve (uniting humanity without committing genocide or turning salem into a scapegoat so everyone can be saved including her!!) but has absolutely no idea how to make it happen and has only just, in his second-to-last life as the king of vale, accepted the reality that it isn’t possible, and thence the whole building a replica of salem’s father’s castle to put his office in her tower-prison and hucking his emotionally tortured anthology of fairytales out the proverbial window (you know, like the girl in the tower who writes herself out of danger, coming from mr. fairytales this is a tornado siren of a cry for help) so forth. 

thus what he and his inner circle say about his efforts both past and present is true—he has been actively working to keep salem a secret for as long as the maidens have been hidden if not longer. as long as salem cooperated by not wandering around letting other people see and/or talk to and/or run away screaming in terror from her, what "erasing salem from public knowledge and keeping her existence secret" means, practically speaking, is tracking down any texts that clearly describe her as a real person (not a fairytale) or artistic depictions of her from the ozlem kingdom and destroying Those, and perhaps muddying the waters of all those folktales by inventing new nonsense out of whole cloth or mixing stories about her with other stories that definitely aren’t about her to a) blur the details and b) make it look to future scholars like the witch-in-the-woods was a loose folkloric archetype encompassing a huge variety of different beliefs and superstitions as opposed to one very specific kind of story about one very specific witch. 

which is a bit obsessive and weird but given the fate-of-the-world stakes at play here and the plain unarguable fact that humanity cannot be redeemed if anyone sides with salem against the brothers, which is demonstrably something she can accomplish if given the opportunity, honestly pretty restrained. 

and so the million dollar question is: what does it take for salem to cooperate by staying in exile? is the fight in lost fable and her guilt over her daughters shattering enough to lead her to just give up and hide forever alone?—who knows, right now it’s purely a matter for speculation, but i think the circumstantial evidence suggests "no" more strongly than it does "yes." 

which is not to say that she was the pure innocent victim of an abusive revenge quest, but rather that i think the facts of the situation for her would, in the immediate aftermath, tilt her in a more positive direction (he did a horrible thing but so did she, and she’s survived many horrible things before, and she can’t exactly lay down to die instead so she has to do something, and she doesn’t ever want to see him because it hurts so much and she’s so angry but her anger killed her daughters so she cannot ever let it out again so she’ll just have to stay away from him and live with it) whereas ozma. yknow. Spiraled. and her being elusive but inescapably present in the world make that so much worse, which isn’t either of their faults, it’s just a terrible situation.

it’s like. short of literally stumbling into each other by chance and yelling at each other until it was all Out There. i think no matter WHAT she did, ozma was bound to snap and lash out at her sooner or later because he spent centuries. centuries!!! with all this trauma reverberating and intensifying in his head with no reprieve because there were stories about her everywhere he went.

and then as soon as he does that salem’s lifelong extremely traumatic history with collective punishment and her self-hatred and guilt are going to smash together and she’ll run the fuck away to alternately freak herself out and plot his downfall and tailspin while ozma, meanwhile, after a few centuries of her being gone and the endless rumors fading into just old folktales no one really believes anymore, finally gets the distance he needs to catch his fucking breath—his hermit era doesn’t count he was just ruminating for centuries—so he can focus on other things. and by then keeping her a secret mostly boils down to "don’t talk about her" lmao

his paranoia never really goes away, as we see in 9.10, although he does also get really complacent by ozpin’s time, and i think it’s irrational and grounded in a lot of very wrong conclusions he reached during those first couple centuries of Spiraling—but given what he did and did not know at the time i do also think the reasoning and inferences he made were fairly logical; it becomes irrational over time as the reality of the situation (salem avoiding him) increasingly doesn’t line up with his perception, but as we see in V2-3 ozpin is supremely, irrationally confident that salem is not about to unleash a major attack, which suggests that on some level he’s aware that his paranoid beliefs are unsound even if he hasn’t yet had the conscious realization. he’s right on the cusp. 

& then none of this precludes smaller scale, limited conflicts like e.g. salem assassinating a troublesome member of his inner circle or throwing grimm at people to intensify social conflicts and insure ozma never gets comfortable enough to invite his gods to remnant. i’m very sure that salem has made it a habit to check in on him at regular intervals and cause problems if it looks like he’s doing too well because she Does Not Want him to ever summon his gods. and that’s obviously going to be one-sided because i don’t think ozma actually knows where she’s hiding, and salem’s terror of collective punishment is her own seething bundle of irrational paranoia, because after he digs himself out of Spiraling ozma absolutely would not kill people just because they happened to be near her. 

[secret-engima]

Now that I’m getting back into RWBY a little bit I think back on the OC Ozcarnation I put between Ozymandias (the King of Vale) and Ozpin and laugh because he is very much the closest thing to a villain arc any of the Ozcarnations ever got.

Like it’s not entirely his fault considering the backstory I gave him but Osamu is the definition of that “aren’t you tired of being nice?” meme.

King of Vale landing in this feral adult’s head like “um ... hello?”

Osamu: *feral vibes intensify*

Ozpin on the flip side course corrects very hard the other way once Osamu crash-lands in his head and becomes the definition of Cheerful Malicious Compliance. So polite, so friendly, so skilled at finding and exploiting loopholes that he could probably make lawyers cry.

This isn’t to say Osamu isn’t kind, since he is still a likeminded soul, but kindness can take different forms and Osamu’s leaned very hard into the “this is for your own good” territory.

Which is, perhaps, one of the reasons in my aus why Ozpin insists on hearing verbal consent, even in situations like v3 with Pyrrha in the vault. Because he knows what it’s like to have silence taken for consent when it’s not. Because he knows that just because something is necessary doesn’t mean it should be forced onto the person who is going to spend the rest of their life dealing with the aftermath.

[diaryofamadsunwukongfan]

Search & Destroy at Mountain Glenn

•The episode begins exactly where the last one left off.

•"Professor Oobleck?" (ok I know this is his first time showing up in this au but just roll with the fact that the girls already know him).

•"Yes, I'm afraid those bags won't be necessary, girls, seeing as you've opted to shadow a Huntsman on what is now essentially a reconnaissance mission. I can assure you, we will not be establishing a single base of operations; rather, we will be traversing several miles of hazardous wasteland and making camp in any defendable locations we may stumble upon. I packed all of our essentials myself, plotted our air course, and readied the airship. And... It's Doctor Oobleck. I didn't earn the PhD for fun, thank you very much!"

•Weiss tries to speak, but before she can even get a word in-

•"Come now, children; according to my schedule, we are already three minutes behind! ...schedule!" the quirky professor declares before zooming up the Airship.

•After taking in their Prof... strangeness, Ruby decides to help lift her teammates spirits.

•"Well, alright, then! Looks like we're going on a top secret mission with Doctor Oooobleck- okay yeah when you say it out loud it sounds worse."

•"Top secret mission?" a voice repeats offscreen.

•Team RWBY turn their heads and find Team JNPR standing behind them, apparently having heard the entire conversation beforehand.

•"You're going on top secret missions without us?" Nora asks. "I'm hurt... sad... Maybe a little hungry? That last one's your fault, though, Ren..." Nora's boyfriend crosses his arms at her in response.

•"How did you guys get signed up for a secret mission anyway?" Jaune asks.

•"Oh, Headmaster Ozpin assigned us..." Ruby responds, while trying to not to give too much information.

•"Hey, so are we!!!" Nora excitedly responds. Her outburst gives Weiss, Blake, and Yang a look of shock and worry: why would Ozpin give out two dangerous missions to freshmen on the same day...

•"Headmaster Ozpin want us to retrieve the Gladius Regis; a Valish relic that was used by the King of Vale during the Great War. It's hidden away at the top of a mountain in the far South, and everyone who climbs the mountain...never returns." Pyrrha exposition dumps onto Team RWBY (note: Gladius Regis is not a Relic relic, it's just a relic, if that makes any sense.)

•"Pyrrha! Don't scare them like that!" Jaune chimes in, "Mount Brown is perfectly safe, my family used to go camping there all the time! Ugh, can't say the same about Mount Glenn though..."

•"Our Airship is ready to leave." Ren informs the rest of his teammates.

•"Darn it! Well, see you girls!" Jaune says. "Love you♡", "I fare thee well!", "... bye." The rest of Team JNPR say their goodbyes as they march offscreen.

•"Goodbye Jaune! Bye Nora! Bye Pyrrha! Bye Ren!" Ruby says goodbye to each of her friends.

•"I'd thought they'd never leave." Blake snarks. "Tell me about it." Sun, who is suddenly standing next to the girls, joins in.

•"AHHH!!!"

•"Ahh, wait, why are you girls screaming???"

•"Sun?! What are you doing- wait... are you spying on us, again???" Yang accuses him.

•"Not this time." Sage, who suddenly apppears behind Yang, answers her question.

•"AHHH!!!"

•"Ok, does anyone else want to just pop up out of nowhere!!!" Yang yells. That's when Neptune and Scarlet step out from behind Sage.

•"Look, we just wanted to ask you girls if you had time to go to the city with us before we head off on our missions." Sun finally explains himself.

•"Unfortunately we do not, but... thanks, Sun." Blake responds.

•"Worth a shot. Ok Team SSSN, time to roll out! Goodluck on your mission ladies!" Sun says before leading his team offscreen.

•"Goodluck Snow Angel!" Neptune says before following his teammates.

•"Goodluck Neptune!" Weiss calls out to him.

•"Four minutes, ladies!" Oobleck tells the girls before zipping back to the ship.

•"Wish us luck guys!" Ruby calls out to Team SSSN offscreen, with a pleading tone of voice.

•Scene change: About two hours have passed as Team RWBY and Oobleck are riding the airship to their destination.

•The five of them are having casual banter when the topic of Mountain Glenn comes up. Yang gives exposition to Weiss & Blake (& the Audience) about it: about 2 years before she was born, the Kingdom of Vale was building large scale new settlements in the face of an overpopulation crisis. The majority of these new settlements were just moving the city limits closer and closer towards the South Eastern mountains, but one settlement was made across the mountains: the Mount Glenn Project. The plan was to create a type of Mega city that would house the majority of Vale's population while also serving as a market center for the entire kingdom. The Project was the largest scale Dust building operation (as in, every building in the city was created using Quake Dust) the Kingdom of Vale had ever seen, and the entire city was created in one year and six months by a genius architect. In order to incentivize people to move there, the Council of Vale created an insurance program where families who sighed up to live in Mount Glenn would have all expenses paid! Hundreds of people flocked to the new city within days of completion! It was all perfect... too perfect. Instead of Huntsman, Mount Glenn was entirely protected by a Holo Dust dome that was generated by a machine on the inside. No one knows how it broke, 17 years after Mount Glenn fell. All that is known, is that that within seconds of the dome collapsing, the largest fraternity of Grimm the kingdom of Vale had ever seen descended onto the city. It's entire population, every man, woman, and child living in the city was believed to be killed within hours. Because the attack happened during nightfall, the council were slow to act, and every distress signal coming from Mount Glenn were cut short by the Grimm... it was the greatest failure the Kingdom of Vale had ever had.

•"If you know all of this, why are you failing my class" Prof. Oobleck asks Yang.

•"I said I had the papers, I just didn't turn them in yet!!!" Yang angrily responds.

•The rest of the girls have a laugh after that frankly disturbing story Yang just told them.

•The scene skips forward a few moments as the ship finally lands. Team RWBY + Oobleck take their first steps into the mountain as the ship rushes away.

•"Ladies! You still may be students, but as of this moment, your first mission as Huntresses has begun! From this point forward, you need to do exactly as I say! Do you understand?" Oobleck then turns to Ruby, who fummbling with her bag. "Ruby! I thought I told you to leave all of your bags back at school."

•Ruby tries to explain herself when Zwei bursts out of her bag.

•"We're here to investigate an abandoned urban jungle teeming with death and hostility, and you brought... a dog?"

•"I, uh-"

•"Genius!!!"

•Prof. Oobleck then explains the objective of this mission to the group: Mount. Glenn has recently been a hotspot for Grimm activity which suggests that a hidden human organization is operating out in the ruins, which tracks with Ruby's info on the CCT tower spy (cue Ruby sweating). By tracking the movements of Grimm in the area, the five of them can discover exactly where this hidden organization is.

•"So, how long do we track the grimm in this area?" Blake asks Oobleck.

•"It's uncertain. Hours, days, weeks. Why, Grimm have been known to stay isolated from humans for months - and there's a Beowolf pack."

•"What?" Weiss asks.

•"And now they've seen us."

•"What?!" Weiss asks again.

•"Girls, get your wrapons out now!!!" Oobleck shouts!

•TEAM RWBY VS GRIMM FIGHT SCENE!!!

•"Heh. Piece of cake!"

•"Do not celebrate yet, for I am certain this is the first bout of many. Shall we continue?"

•KILLING GRIMM MONTAGE!!!

•Yang eventually asks Oobleck why he isn't helping them kill Grimm, and he reminds them that this is a job they signed up for and he is their teacher grading them on this job.

•"Tell me, Yang: Why did you choose this line of work?" Oobleck asks the blonde.

•"Uh- well, to fight monsters and protect-"

•"No, that is what you do. I want to know why you do it. The honest reason as to why you want to be a Huntress."

•"The honest reason? I'm... a thrill-seeker! I want to travel around the world and get wrapped up in as many crazy adventures as I can. And if I help people along the way, then that's even better. It's a win-win... y'know?" Yang lies.

•"... I see."

•WaCkY mOnTaGe TrAnSiTiOn

•"And you, Miss Schnee? A girl born into fame and fortune such as yourself certainly doesn't need the extra work. So... why choose this over your singing carrer?" Oobleck asks Weiss.

•There's a pause before Weiss gives an answer in a monotone voice, "It's exactly as you said: I'm a Schnee. I have a legacy of honor to uphold. Once I gained my family semblance, there was no longer a question of what I would do with my life. It was my duty." Weiss lies.

•"... Interesting."

•WaCkY mOnTaGe TrAnSiTiOn

•"And what about you, Blake? You seem to carry yourself with a sense of purpose." Oobleck asks.

•"There's too much wrong in this world to just stand by and do nothing. Racism, Discrimination... Someone has to stop it." Blake tells the truth.

•"Very well. How?"

•"I-" suddenly Blake remembers that she has a secret to keep, "...don't have time right now to discuss..." she awkwardly lies.

•"Hmm." Oobleck hums to himself.

•WaCkY mOnTaGe EnDiNg

•Oobleck asks WBY to set up camp as he and Ruby secure the perimeter. Zwei tags along with them.

•As the three make their way around the perimeter, Ruby spots out massive black creatures in the forest below the mountains.

•"That, my dear girl, is a Goliath." Oobleck matter-o-factly tells Ruby.

•"Whooa." Ruby whispers. She then draws Cresent Rose, "Let's kill it!"

•"I'm afraid your sniper rifle will do nothing more than agitate a Grimm of that size."

•"But... What if it attacks us?"

•"Fret not, Ruby; those Goliaths are not concerned with us. Ruby, not every Grimm is mindless, or rather not every Grimm is still mindless. You see, the Grimm you see before you are so powerful, so superior to the Grimm you fought, that they've undoubtedly lived hundreds of years, and in that time between killing humans and attacking our borders, they have done one important thing: They've learned. They've learned that when they attack our borders, they're likely to die, and what we lack in strength, we make up for in will, and that killing one human will only bring more."

•"As Oobleck says this, Ruby turns to face the Goliath she spotted again an realizes that it's been staring at her the whole time, despite being miles away from her.

•Without breaking eye contact with the Grimm, and speaking in a low voice, Ruby asks: "Then why are they still so close to the city? What are they doing?"

•"Waiting." Oobleck responds to her.

•Suddenly, a loud sound thunders throughout the forest, the Goliath's heard calling it. The lone Goliath breaks eye contact and leaves... but Ruby still has the feeling that isn't the last time she will see it.

•Ruby breathes a sigh of relief.

•"Now then, Miss Rose, I have a question to ask you. Why-"

•"-did you become a huntsman?!" Ruby finishes Oobleck's sentance. "I asked first so you have to answer!" Ruby jokes.

•"Very well then... Look around and tell me what you see."

•Ruby looks around and says, "Lots of old buildings, uh, empty streets?"

•"I see lives that could have been saved. As a Huntsman, it is my job to protect the people, and although I am capable of doing it with traditional weaponry, I believe I can make a much larger impact if I do it with my mind. As a teacher, I'm able to take knowledge, the most powerful weapon of them all, and place it in the hands of every student that passes through my classroom. I look at this wasteland, and I see lives that could have been saved, but I also see an opportunity; an opportunity to study these ruins and learn from this tragedy, and therefore become stronger. I am a Huntsman, Ruby, because there is nothing else in this world I would rather be."

•Ruby and Oobleck (+ Zwei) continue walking around the perimeter.

•Scene change: back to WBY, the girls have set up a camp inside a surpisingly well preserved building that looks like the ground floor of a hospital. Weiss uses Shock Dust to turn on the building's lighting and heating and, to her shock, it actually works! Blake & Yang then lay they sleeping bags on and around the benches. Despite their relative success, the girls are all in a dour mood.

•"I can't believe we didn't find anything..." Yang loudly exclaims.

•"We've always been fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time. I guess we can't always have luck on our side." Blake attempts to calm her down.

•"I lied." Weiss says.

•"What?" Blake asks.

•"Earlier, about... upholding the legacy. I couldn't tell him the truth..." Weiss explains while looking far away.

•Yang responds, "Yeah... No, me too. I mean... I don't know."

•"I don't know, either. I know what I want to do, but how can I do it when I'm hiding myself?" Blake responds.

•"Well, it doesn't matter." Yang says. "We know why we're here. Right?"

•The three girls sit in silence.

•"Ahh wonderful, you found a perfectly opperating Hospital!" Oobleck shouts as he walks into the room.

•"Indoor heating!!!" Ruby screams as she bursts into the room along with Zwei. "I missed you... so much..." she whispers to the building.

•"Very good! Eat your dinners and hurry to bed. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow and we'll need you to take turns keeping watch over our temporary abode. Any volunteers for first watch?" Oobleck asks.

•Team RWBY look amongst themselves. None of them want to.

•Ruby then stands up, "As team leader, I'll do it so they don't have to!" Oobleck then rushes off to his lookout point and Ruby begins to walk off when Yang stops her.

•"Hey, did Oobleck ask you why you wanted to be a Huntress? I mean... what did you tell him?"

•"Hmm... actually, he didn't. Weird. Oh, well; good night, guys!" Ruby says as she leaves.

•WBY then lie in the room waiting to go asleep, each one thinking about their troubles: Weiss thinks about the gilded cage her father trapped her in as she willingly defends him, Blake thinks about the warpath she helped to set the White Fang on that she isn't sure she can stop, and Yang thinks about her reason to even be there... the woman that gave birthed to her and left.

•The End?

Part 2

•The episode begins with Ironwood standing over a balcony at Beacon Academy, looking over the city in the dark of night. After taking in the city, he breathes out a heavy sigh. That's when Glynda walks up from behind him.

•"I know you like to be the first one up in the morning, James, but this is a little-" before Gylnda can finish her jab at Ironwood

•"My side's acting up." Ironwood responds. This changes Glynda's mood from lightly annoyed to melachonic.

•A moment passes, and Gylnda walks closer to Ironwood before asking "What's really on your mind?"

•"I trusted Ozpin even after he made me a Tin Man... and now I worry that something worse will happen to Vale's people."

•"Are you serious!" Glynda snaps at Ironwood, "Oz saved you're life after that incident but you're still soo hurt that now you're questioning if he can even be trusted!!"

•Suddenly, Ironwood turns to face Glynda and asks in a low voice "Do you trust him, Glyn?"

•This question shocks Gylnda into silence because she doesn't fully trust Ozpin anymore. She's been questioning his actions ever since he allowed Ruby into Beacon.

•"I... I..." Glynda then turns her head to the city before continuing, "Ozpin has experience that the rest of us lack. And I think that's something worth remembering."

•Ironwood, sensing Glynda's real feelings, leaves the balcony in a huff while Glynda stays behind. She then gazes at the city herself, and takes in the sounds of children laughter...

•Scene change!

•In the abandoned hospital, WBY are arranged in a circle of sleeping mats underneath a single yellow lightbulb, Weiss laying on a row of chairs while Blake and Yang sleep on the floor. In a side room, Ruby is aiming at a Beowolf a mile a way through a broken window. Just as it looks like she is about to pull the trigger, she looks in the direction of her sleeping teammates, and rests her hand. Outside the building, Oobleck is marching around the building and stops at a broken window to look at the three slerping girls... they are not sleeping.

•"Blake, are you awake?" Yang asks.

•"Yeah"

•"Why do you think he asked us about being a Huntress? Like, what was he trying to say?"

•"Interogating us, relaying information back to Ozpin." Blake coldly states.

•"You think?"

•"What other reason could he have?"

•"Weiss, are you awake?" Yang asks.

•"Of course I'm awake! You two are talking. And I think he... When I said I wanted to honor my family's name, I meant it. But, it's not what you think. My father forbade me from becoming a huntress because he didn't want me to leave him like my sister. He forced me to be a stupid teen idol as a distraction! And I'm fully aware of what my father has done with the Schnee Dust Company. Since he took control from my grandfather, our business has operated in a... discriminatory way."

•"That's a massive understatement." Blake snaps at Weiss.

•"Which is why I need to make things right. If I had stayed a pop star, it wouldn't have changed anything. My father was not the start of our name, and I refuse to let him be the end of it!"

•"All my life, I fought for what I thought was right. I had a mentor named Adam. More of a partner, actually. He and my foster mom always assured me that what we were doing would make the world a better place for Faunus. But of course, their idea of a perfect future turned out to be not perfect for Humans. I joined the Academy because I wanted to prove them wrong, that some Humans can and will fight for us. But I never really thought past that. When I leave the Academy, what will I - how can I undo so many years of oppression?"

•"I'm sure you'd figure it out. You're not one to back down from a challenge, Blake." Yang tries to reassure her partner. This causes Blake to explode.

•"But I am! I do it all the time! When you learned I was a Faunus, I didn't know what to do, so I ran! When I realized the White Fang had become a monsters, I ran! Even my fighting style! The first technique I ever learned was the ability to leave behind a shadow of myself; an empty copy that takes the hit while I run away!"

•"That's nonsense Blake." Weiss calmly tells her. "You stood up to Cardin and me, ignorant humans with political clout. You're braver than you think." Weiss tells Blake. This causes a single tear to fall from Blake's eye.

•"At least you two have noble goals." Yang tells the two girls. "I'm only in this to the woman who left me. And I'm ok with that, anyone in my place would want answers. But what about after I find her? I wanna be a Huntress, not really because I want to be a hero, but because I want to travel the world looking for my mom and ask her why. Being a Huntress just happens to line up with that. I'm not like Ruby, she's always wanted to be a Huntress. It's like she said, ever since she was a kid, she'd dreamt about being the heroes in the books. Helping people and saving the day, and never asking for anything else in return. Even when she couldn't fight, she knew that's what she wanted to do. That's why she trained so hard to get where she is today."

•"Well, she's still just a kid." Weiss says dissmissivly.

•"She's only two years younger." Blake corrects her, "We're all kids."

•"Well, not anymore. I mean, look where we are!" Yang stands up and gestures, "In the middle of a warzone and armed to the teeth!"

•"It's the life we chose." Blake says.

•Weiss then stands up and says, "It's a job. We all had this romanticized vision of being a Huntress in our heads! But at the end of the day, it's a job to protect the people! And whatever we want, will have to come second."

•Outside, Oobleck smiles when he hears what Weiss says and then goes back to his patrol.

•Time skip!

•Yang is now standing in the side room Ruby was in, having taken her place. She then hears a twig snap, and jumps out of the broken window to investigate off screen.

•Ruby, who is sleeping on Yang's mat on the floor, is woken up by Zwei barking at Yang. Zwei then walks out the front doors while sniffing the ground.

•"Huh? Zwei get back here, it's not safe!" Ruby whispers to her dog so as not to wake the others. It doesn't work.

•Ruby then tip toes out of the building and follows after Zwei, who has walked far away from the abandoned hospital and into the ruined streets of Mount Glenn.

•After a while, Ruby spots Zwei behind the corner of a building and uses her semblance to catch him.

•"There you are you-"

•"Who was that?" An unfamiliar voice from the dark calls out.

•Ruby quickly covers her and Zwei's mouths and ducks down.

•"Who are you talking to?" A second voice calls out. "I thought I heard someone." The first voice says. "Instead of thinking, you should be working. Lets get back to base already." the second voice says as the two walk away.

•Ruby quickly looks around the corner and sees who the voices are, White Fang grunts.

•Ruby then trails the grunts to their base: a large abandoned shopping mall.

•"We have to get back to the others, now!" Ruby says to Zwei. While carrying the dog, she runs down the ruined city streets to get back to the base.

•Suddenly, the road underneath Ruby cracks open.

•Ruby tries to use her semblance to move out, but she only reaches piece of broken rebar that she grabs onto with one hand, Zwei's tail in the other. Ruby quickly throws Zwei onto the rest of the road.

•The rebar Ruby is holding onto breaks, and the girl falls into darkness as she screams...

•When Ruby wakes up, she realizes that she is in no ordinary cave. Underneath Mount. Glenn is another city just as vast. Ruby then realizes that she is tied up.

•"You're a long way from home, little human." a White Fang grunt standing behind Ruby tells her as he bends over her. Ruby then spots another grunt to her side.

•"Our human is gonna want to see this one..." the other grunt says before she kicks Ruby's head hard, knocking her out.

•At the abandoned hospital, Yang walks back into the building to wake up Weiss for her turn patroling only to realize her sister is missing. The other girls wake up and wonder why Ruby disappeared.

•Suddenly, Oobleck walks into the building with Zwei in his arms. "Grab your weapons! Your leader may be in trouble!"

•Back underground, Ruby awakes to the two White Fang grunts who caught her dragging her by both arms through the underground city. All around her, grunts are at work, piloting Paladins to carry large shipping containers. Suddenly, a bomb like sound goes off.

•Ruby then shakes off the two guards dragging her and runs away in the other direction. Just before she is about to use what little Aura she has left to use her semblance, she gets shot in the back.

•"Tsk tsk tsk, you won't be getting away that easy, Little Red." Roman Torchwick's voice calls out as he reveals himself.

•Above ground, WBY + Zwei + Oobleck have arrived at the hole in the ground Ruby fell in.

•"Oh my. Of course! Of course, OF COURSE, OF COURSE!" Oobleck begins to chant.

•"What is it?" Blake asks.

•"Mountain Glenn! Yes, an expansion of Vale that was inevitably destroyed by creatures of Grimm! Previously home to hundreds of people! People traveling to and from the city, the main city! Developed a subway system to the inner city! Grimm purged the city! Population in danger, now desperately searching for shelter! City evacuates into the metro tunnels and what do they find? The southeast quadrant of Vale is known for jungles and deep caves!" Oobleck rants.

•"Doc, what are you saying?" Yang asks.

•"My dear, we're not just looking for an underground crime network, we're looking for an UNDERGROUND crime network!"

•"They've been working in caves?" Blake asks?

•"No, no, Mountain Glenn was Vale's first serious attempt at expansion. It worked for a short period of time, thanks to an Holo Dust based perimeter defense, and unique transportation; the city developed an elaborate subway system to carry citizens safely from the new territory into the main Kingdom! Sadly, without the many natural barriers Vale had to protect its borders, Mountain Glenn was doomed from the start! As the end drew near, the citizens of the territory made one last attempt at survival: They took up shelter beneath the city! In massive caves that they had cleared out for the subway!"

•"An underground bunker?" Yang asks

•"In a matter of speaking, yes. A safe haven. Until... the Grimm found their way down to the tunnels. By that time, the Kingdom officially sealed off the tunnels, creating the world's largest tomb. If Ruby is down there, we must find her..."

•Not The End.

[melonishus]

Have a fun little AU for you:

Graduated Team RWBY finally put Roman behind bars. However, Ozpin orders for RWBY to be arrested for working with Roman. His reasoning: how else would they know where he'd be every time he came up?

Ruby - End of the line Torchwick

[Ruby slams the door]

Ozpin - Yes ….it is [walks in the room] But for more than Mr Torchwick here

Ruby - What are you

[Team JNPR draws their weapons]

Yang - You sure you want to do that ? [eyes flash red]

Ruby - [holds out arm] Yang hold on …. [turns back] What’s going on ?

Ozpin - It’s a little suspicious that you have been at the sight of so many of his arrests Ms Rose. And that you and your team has handled his arrests every time he has escaped

Weiss - I’m sorry , is it OUR fault that Vale jails are so unsatisfactory ?

Jaune - Ruby , just come with us and we can work out how to fix what you all did

Ruby - WE DIDNT DO ANYTHING

[Nora steps forward ]

Blake - This is ridiculous, you’re railroading us for doing our jobs ?

Ren - I’m sorry , but we all need to be held accountable for our actions. Even you four

[JNPR prepares for battle]

Ruby - Fine ….[takes out Crescent Rose] But remember , you asked for this beating

_________ Enchanted Rose AU Writing Requests are OPEN

[scipiosmith]

9, 10, 18 for the AU ask name

10 - Is there a character you wish you could've included, but couldn't? Why?

Well, there are a couple of answers to this; the answer as it confirms canon or semi-canon characters, is that yes, there is a character and I wish I could have included, and it's the Remnant version of Wonder Woman from the first DC crossover comic, the one who was created out of dust by the elders on a faunus island. I love the idea of that, and of the possible interactions with Blake, but also with Pyrrha as well. If I had done it, and I had plans to do it, then Pyrrha would have become Diana's guide to the 'world of men' as it is in Wonder Woman, and she would have served Pyrrha while she figured things out.

I didn't include her because by the time that it occurred to me to do so it felt like it would be a little late, because the story was so big, and because there just wasn't the time or space to do it justice.

I also would have liked, as part of turning the Grimm Eclipse/Merlot part of the story into a full-on The Tempest riff, to have included versions of Miranda and Caliban from that play; the idea that I had was that Miranda would fall in love with Jaune as the first man she had ever seen, and that Cinder would liberate Caliban from his enslavement by killing Merlot (thus becoming a more competent version of Stefano and Trinculo). I didn't do it because, when I actually tried to write the meeting between Cinder and the Caliban character I just couldn't find a way to make it work. Why would Merlot have a servant, why wouldn't he just kill him and get robots to do everything for him? It just wasn't vibing for me so I dropped it.

I suppose as well, I kind of wish that I had included Team CFVY a bit more; not in major roles or anything, but at the moment I think it's... Velvet is in Volume 1 as Cardin's victim, and then they disappear for hundreds of thousands of words until Coco and Velvet show up for one scene in the V2 Interlude and then in the most recent chapter the entire team gets its arse handed to it by Arslan (after they've taken out the rest of Team ABRN, true, but that's little consolation when they get soloed by the one member of Team ABRN that they left to last). With the benefit of hindsight I would have seeded them in more in between those points, as the top tier second year team, as Ozpin's other favourites, etc. I just... I didn't really like them, to be honest, based on what I'd read in the books, so I didn't want much to do with them, but it might have been better to have set them up a little more.

9 - Is there a scene you wish you could've included, but couldn't? Why?

The reason that I answered 10 before 9 was because it kind of answers that question, at least partially: there are scenes that I wish I had included, with characters who I couldn't fit into the story, because the story is already so big and so sprawling that there just wasn't room for more characters and more stuff and more allusions etc etc.

Outside of that, though, a scene that I wish I included somewhere, and I suppose I still could include, would be something between Cardin and Skystar to close off their arc. I haven't because, basically... there's a difference between saying 'there should be a scene to close off that arc' and knowing what that scene ought to be, and I haven't gotten to the latter position yet. It would feel wrong, at this point, for Skystar to take Cardin back; regardless of why he said it or the ethics of Sunset releasing the recording of him saying it to the Remnant equivalent of Gawker, he said some pretty egregiously racist things and she's under no obligation to forgive that whatever his motivations or whether he's changed or anything like that. On the other hand, while she's quite within her rights to tell him to fuck off - as she did - it doesn't feel like a satisfying ending, either for Cardin or for Skystar, or indeed, for Sunset whose fault this all is. It feels like something needs to happen, or be said, to tie a knot in it... but I have no idea what. I just don't know.

18 - Is there any theme or motif in this au that isn't in the original work?

At the risk of sounding incredibly pretentious, I would say: the clash between the capital R-Romantic ideal and the practical reality of what that entails, particularly when it comes to death.

On the whole, the story is incredibly tolerant of the romantic delusions. This kind of gets into another way in which the themes of the story diverge from the canon themes. Canon RWBY is, at least, going for a sort of deconstructionist approach to its fairytale influences. 'Life isn't a fairytale' says Blake, and although Ruby answers with a hopeful 'that's why we're here', ultimately the narrative bears Blake out: they're story isn't a fairytale, and the lyrics to the OPs continuously reference this idea that this isn't a fairytale, this isn't a story, this is real life, it's messy and people die and fail. You can debate how well done it is but that certainly seems to be the intent about half the time, at least. But SAPR is, or at least tries to be, much kinder to the idea of living in narrative: 'all our lives are made of stories' Sunset says at one (I'm pretty sure she does, anyway), and when she contemplates the upcoming Vytal Tournament Rainbow reflects on how the narratives that spring up around the tournament are as important as what happens in the matches themselves; 'who is the hero, who is the villain, who is the underdog'. How the fighters are seen by those watching is as important as who they really are or what they do in the arena.

But to return to Romantic delusion, there are certain characters who are given a great deal of grace for the fact that they act as though they are characters in a story. Cinder behaves as if she is the hero of a savage pre-modern epic, part Odysseus and part Achilles, and the narrative gives her a lot of leeway with that. Cinder, Pyrrha, Sunset, with their old-fashioned codes of behaviour, their portentous pseudo-shakespearean dialogue, the way in which they all do some pretty objectively stupid things when driven by notions of behaviour, of what is proper and honourable and expected which are derived from dusty old books thousands of years old, the way they act like antique heroes sprung to life, the story has a lot of time for that.

Until it doesn't. Until the moment when the bill comes due in the form of death. Because while RWBY argues that death is sometimes necessary, and that being necessary can rise to the level of heroic, SAPR side-eyes intensely the idea that you should ever do anything except Choose Life, even when your Romantic delusions would otherwise drive you to choose death.

Sunset and Cinder have a remarkably affable meeting in the circumstances, where Sunset offers up her sword to Cinder to wipe clean the stain of her having broken the truce by attempting to kill Adam, only for Cinder to return the sword to Sunset in a grand, chivalrous gesture? Fine and fun. Cinder and Pyrrha agreeing to meet in a duel to the death because Pyrrha has called Cinder in a bid to salvage her slandered reputation and Cinder is too proud and vain to refuse and be thought a coward? That's about the only time in the story that Emerald is allowed to call Cinder out on her foolishness, while Sunset is reduced to tears while she rages at the Mistralian values that put Pyrrha's life in danger.

The intolerance of sacrifice forms a brick wall, into which the indulgence which otherwise smiles upon Romanticism slams headfirst, a view that, as Rainbow declares, sacrificing your life is ultimately a rather selfish, self-indulgent action, and while the story has, on the whole, a lot of time for self-indulgence (not least because it's a very self-indulgent story), there is a hard limit that can be reached.

In a sense, whole chunks of the story are caught in this tension, between the admiration for the values of Pyrrha and Cinder, the values of The Iliad:

'Friend of my soul... but, as it is, ten thousand fates of death surround us, which no man can escape or avoid. Therefore let us go, and either die yielding glory to another or else win great glory for ourselves.'

And a more cynical, Falstaffian attitude that would it were bedtime and all well:

[howlingday]

tragic backstory (tm) au) jaune gets swarmed by thirsty milfs, somehow he knows this is all cardin's fault. there will be consequences!

pyrrha and the gang plot several murders.

Cradle Rockin' Blues

Cardin Winchester, that lovable scamp, that gorgeous rapscallion! He really pulled a gold one today! Under the instruction of Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy, he tricked Nora Valkyrie, the Bubbly Bomber of Team JNPR, into believing there was more to her leader's transcripts than she knew, which he already knew were fake. Oh, that admirable and handsome jester!

Now, with new information, he spread word of Jaune's long lost love, Scarlet Torchwick, who had died five years ago. Now girls were giving him awkward hugs, sympathetic cheek kisses, and emphatic tears that all made Arc uncomfortable. He snickered behind a wall as he watched a swarm of older women comforted him as he walked down the street.

Pyrrha: I'm going to kill them.

Ren: Now, now, Pyrrha. Envy is a green-eyed monster.

Pyrrha: And all I need is one shot.

Yang: Easy, P-Money; they're just offering sympathy. It's not like their going to lead him to a backroom, dance and undress for him, and then make him forget about his dead wife.

Pyrrha: ...

Yang: I made it worse, didn't I?

Pyrrha: (Loads and cocks rifle)

Nora: YUP!

Jaune: I appreciate the offer, but I don't think I need someone to escort me to the Dust shop.

Older Woman: Oh, nonsense! Do you know how many times that stores has been robbed? Who's to say this won't be another day like that?

Jaune: I guess, but do you really need to hug me every ten seconds?

Older Madam: Oh, should it be five seconds? I didn't want to impose, but if you think it's best.

Jaune: Oh no, please, you really don't have to.

Older Gal: You're in pain, but it will pass. There, there, dear.

Jaune: (Thinking) Where's my team when I need them?

Ren: (Struggling) Pyrrha! Give us the gun!

Pyrrha: No!

Nora: Ah, now this takes me back... To last Wednesday!

Ren: Nora, please!

Yang: I don't think anything could stop her now, or those ladies out there? I know I call him Lady Killer, but I didn't think it'd be like this.

Jaune: Okay, I'm here! Uh, thank you for escorting me. I think I can handle it from here.

Older Lady: And leave you alone to fend for yourself in this store? Oh, no, no, no! I think not! We'll be there every step of the way to help you heal.

Jaune: Heal from what? I don't understand!

Blake: There you are.

Jaune: Huh?

Blake: What took you so long? You said you would be here thirty minutes ago.

Jaune: Uh, well, you see-

Blake: And who are they?

Older Woman: We were just escorting this young man to this shop.

Blake: News flash, granny; my boyfriend doesn't need an escort!

Older Women: Girlfriend?

Jaune: (Blushing) Girlfriend?!

Pyrrha: GIRLFRIEND?!

Nora: I can't hold her back! The rage has taken her!

Yang: And she's taking us with her!

Ren: ...I should have stayed in bed today.

Blake: Yes, girlfriend, so go find some other boytoy to prey on, you cougars!

Older Gal: Hmph!

Older Madam: So rude!

Older Lady: I give it a week.

Older Woman: Be careful, dear. A pretty face always hides something. (Glares) Especially someone like her.

Blake: I said beat it, you fossil! (They leave, Sighs) I'm sorry you had to see that. I'm not the best at acting.

Jaune: Are you kidding?! That was amazing! You really had me thinking you were the catty girlfriend type! (Laughs) Where were you when my club was doing, "Death For Lien"?

Blake: Uh, probably in the White Fang.

Jaune: (Walks inside with her) Did you learn to act there, or does this go further?

Blake: W-Well, my family always went to this festival, and they always did a play about the God of Animals...

Yang: Phew! Crisis averted! Glad Pyrrha won't be charged with multiple charges of murder!

Nora: Yeah, not multiple...

Pyrrha: (Glaring) Kill...

Ren: (Sighs)

[bridgyrose]

AU where Ruby has braces and round glasses when she entered Beacon. Blake totally finds her adorable.

Ruby cleaned her glasses and sighed as she looked at the crack in the lens. She hadnt been on campus for longer than ten minutes and she already had to use her back up pair. Though, it wasnt completely her fault. She had been knocked over by Weiss and her glasses were run over by the luggage cart.

“Are you okay?”

Ruby quickly put her glasses on and turned to see the raven haired girl that had started telling Weiss off earlier. “Y-yeah, I’m fine. And thanks for earlier.”

The girl sat down and smiled at Ruby. “Ruby, right? I uh, caught your name as I walked off earlier.”

Ruby nodded. “I never caught yours.”

“Blake.”

“Its nice to formally meet you.” Ruby smiled a bit and showed off her braces. Once she realized what she was doing, she hid her teeth a bit. “And thanks for helping me with Weiss.”

“I’ve dealt with her kind before. Though, you do seem a bit out of your element here.”

“A little bit. Ozpin let me come early and well… part of me isnt sure I’m completely ready yet.”

“I think you’ll be fine.” Blake smiled a bit. “Its going to be rough, but… that’s life, isnt it?”

Ruby paused for a moment. “It… doesnt have to be.”

Blake looked at her curiously. “And what do you mean by that?”

“I mean, sure, we dont always get our happy endings, but that’s why we’re here, isnt it? To make things better for others?” Ruby took off her glasses and smiled a bit as she cleaned them. “I know I have my heroes I look up to and I try to do what I can to be like them. Or at least to try to be a hero like them. And the only way we can make things better is by setting an example like them, right?”

Blake shook her head and sighed. “You’re an optimistic one, arent you?”

“Someone has to be. If we’re doom and gloom all the time, nothing’s going to change.”

Blake paused for a moment and thought over Ruby’s words. “You have a point.”

Ruby smiled and put her glasses back on. She pulled out her scroll and adjusted them so they sat the same way Ozpin’s did. “Lets head to orientation. We dont want to be late.”

Blake stood up and started walking away. “I have a few things I want to do before orientation starts. I’ll catch up with you there though.” Blake smiled and looked back at Ruby. “Oh, and dont hide your smile. The braces are cute.”

[novankenn]

"Ozpin's Fault - AU"

A Morning Surprise (4/4) (529 Words)

(Tumblr exclusive "Remake" of Oops My Bad posted on AO3)

A thud behind him, told Ren, that at least one of RWBY had fainted, and he felt pretty close to doing that as well, considering Jaune's most recent disclosure.

"I'm going to class, and I'll take Weiss with me." Yang informed the group, as she reached down and pulled Weiss' unconscious form up over her shoulders in a fireman's carry.

"I think..." Blake took another looks around the room, and nodded her head. "Yeah, I'll see you guys in class."

With that, JNPR was once again alone. Ren looked at Nora, and then at Pyrrha, before returning his gaze to the closed and probably locked bathroom door.

"Jaune, we can't be late."

"Aunt Glynda will understand! Girl problems and all that! She used to be one!"

"Enough!" Nora snapped, and Ren stepped aside. "Pyr-Pyr the door."

"I'm sorry, Jaune. I really am!" Pyrrha called out before reaching out with her semblance and popping the simple lock.

"Let's go!" Nora growled as she effortlessly yanked open the door and stepped into the bathroom. Sounds of a scuffle, and several high-pitched squeaks, told Ren Jaune was attempting to resist, but it would all be in vain. Annoyed, Nora was a force of nature unto itself.

"Did you really?" Ren asked as he turned his gaze to the fidgeting champion.

"I..."

"Pyr, how would you have liked it if Jaune did that ..." Ren paused, noticing Pyrrha's depressed look brightening substantially. "Wait, don't answer that."

"Ruby BETTER have gotten us something to eat." Nora grunted as she walked out of the bathroom, with a squirming Jaune over one shoulder. "If you keep doing that, someone will see your panties."

"Eep!" Jaune squeaked before slapping both her hands on her ass, locking her skirt down, to prevent such an occurrence, with her fluffy tail falling flat to act as a second barrier to unwanted panty shots.

"Ren call the infirmary while we head to class." Nora then pointed at Pyrrha with her free hand, as her left arm was currently locking Jaune's thigh-high clade legs again Nora's chest. "You in the front, I don't trust you..."

Pyrrha nodded and shuffled out through the door, as Ren followed her, his scroll against his ear.

"Now, Jaune-Jaune I'll keep you safe from the thirsty wenches, I promise." Nora patted Jaune on her plump behind. "Just stop being so jumpy. We're your team, we'll take care of you and get this all straightened out."

"Can you let me down then?" Jaune asked meekly.

"Nope."

"But...?"

"NoPe." Nora popped the P for extra emphasis, as she proceeded to walk out the door into the hall, "Grab the door, fearless leader... my hands are kind of full."

Jaune sighed, removing her right hand from her ample behind, she grabbed the door handle and pulled it closed.

"Please? I promise..."

"Nope."

"But I was going to promise... and you know..."

"Normally, you would... but with all those new hormones and emotions swirling about inside you... you'd bolt faster than I can eat a stack of pancakes. So sit tight." Nora chirped as she made her way down the hall towards JNPR's first class, with Ren and Pyrrha in the lead.

[bafflement]

Deaged Oz AU - Cooking In Mantle

I haven't put anything up in awhile, so have something relatively short and funny... the next bits probably won't be.

Tip yawned as he came down the stairs. The house in Mantle they were using had been really rather useful, for all he still felt guilty at abusing the hospitality of Jaune's sister and her wife. It was early morning, he was pretty certain nobody else would be awake at this time of the day. Maybe he could make them breakfast? Just a little thing to thank them for welcoming them all with such open arms?

They'd sounded so reluctant, when they'd found out that Oz would be fighting, too. He knew a lot of that was down to his current appearance, but that didn't really make things much better. They all knew he was Ozpin, Had been, still was to a large extent.

But then, as an adult, he'd been hyper competent, or at least a reasonable facsimile of that. As an adult, he could look after himself.

It would be so nice, wouldn't it? When they stopped babying him?

Heading to the kitchen, he froze at the sight of Terra. He hadn't expected her to be awake just yet, but though he searched her features in slight alarm, she didn't seem distressed. Maybe she was just up early, ready to start the day? Maybe that meant he couldn't make breakfast, but surely they'd let him help?

Terra smiled down at the little boy. To her knowledge, he was an early riser, but she hadn't seen him down in the main rooms of the house quite this early before. But then, she had woken early, too. Maybe she just hadn't noticed him slipping downstairs? That worried her slightly, because although she was very aware that he had once been Professor Ozpin, he was also just a child at the moment. Even if the others hadn't said much about it, she knew he was a target.

That he could so easily slip away? That was probably not the best sign. She blinked for a second, trying not to think of her son in Tip's place. She shuddered slightly at the idea of that. Hopefully her child would never know that sort of danger.

"Hello, there, Tip. You're up early." She was proud that her voice was relatively even, making an effort to smile down at the tousle haired boy. It wasn't his fault that she'd thought what she had, after all.

"Well, yes..." Tip said, softly. He blinked at her, having noticed her odd reaction. Hopefully it was nothing?

"I was wondering if I could make breakfast for everybody? It's a way of repayment, you didn't have to take us in, after all..."

"Nonsense, Jaune is family and you're his friends. Besides, what would happen if we hadn't? You need somewhere to stay while you're in Haven! Helping me cook sounds like a lovely idea, though I'm not that certain I feel too comfortable letting you into the kitchen alone."

Tip flushed slightly at that, not seeing what the issue was. He was more than experienced enough to cook after all. Especially if it didn't involve a toaster.

"May I ask why?" He queried, a slight edge to his tone, Terra snorted.

"You're ten, what would you do if you needed to reach a high shelf?" She raised an eyebrow at him as she asked the question. He had aura, yes, but unless he was hiding a telekinesis semblance, she doubted he could do that easily.

"Well, I'd climb on a chair, of course..." He trailed off at the look on her face. He had the horrible feeling that might have been the wrong answer, but it wasn't like the fall could really hurt him.

"And this is why you're not allowed to cook alone. What if you fell onto something hot snd burned yourself? What if you broke something? You might not worry about yourself, but what do you think might happen to us if a child injured themselves in our home? You might not actually be a child, but it could be seen as negligence. You were a teacher, surely you understand that?" Her eyes were flashing and she looked very worried. They'd all come to care rather a lot for the boy over the time that he'd been here, though she rather thought his answer wasn't something the adult him would have said.

Not that the adult him would have needed a chair to reach anything high, but the thought stood.

Tip winced, acknowledging the point.

"Yes, well... surely I can at least help? Besides my aura..."

"NOT THE POINT!" Terra yelled, then looked shocked at the action. It was usually easier to think of Ozpin as something other than the child he appeared, but maybe she was just tired?

Tip groaned, accepting that helping cook would be the best he could do. He was quite good at climbing, it wasn't actually like he would fall... but in his mind, he could see actual children in the same scenario. He wouldn't have listened to their arguments, either.

"Alright. I promise not to climb on any of the furniture, just... let me help?"

[makiruz]

I recently realized I never got around to write the climatic confrontation in the what-if-Ozpin-and-Hazel-were-brothers-AU. (First part here)

Okay, here’s the ground work: Ozpin and Hazel are brothers (half because they don’t look alike), Ozpin was born Greetje Rainart (pronounced “grayt-ja”) and the brothers were very close because they were orphans. Greetje trusted Hazel implicitly and told literally everything about everything, and Hazel loved his brother above all else; and their lives were sent into a tailspin when Greetje became the next reincarnation of Oz. When Greetje became the headmaster of Beacon, the King’s inner circle had him change his name because he’s distantly related to a War Criminal from the Great War and they didn’t want their prodigy to be associated with that person so he became “Greetje Ozpin”, the Merge finalized around the same time; now, Hazel didn’t like what the Merge was doing to his brother, didn’t like what he was changing into and when the Merge finished with his new name and all Hazel came to the conclusion that the Merge had killed his brother and he was pretending to care about Hazel to manipulate him.

All good? Okay, now the climax: It starts when a girl dies, a Beacon student killed during a training mission (yes, Gretchen); to Hazel this is the last straw, Ozpin uses people for his own goals, he manipulates them into servitude for a fruitless cause (remember Hazel knows Salem can’t be killed) and now he’s gotten a child killed, this will not stand he is gonna confront him now. Meanwhile, Ozpin is having a shit day because a student is dead; things went wrong quickly and he’s reviewing all available information to see if there’s something that could’ve happen to change the outcome, something he could’ve done to save this girl’s life and founds nothing, it’s extremely frustrating; but then Hazel walks into his office and Ozpin immediately relaxes, a terrible thing has happened but everything’s better now because Hazel is here.

Hazel is fucking fuming, but Ozpin doesn’t notice because he’s so goddamned relieved there’s someone here to talk; Glynda is great and all, but she hasn’t held him as he was lying sick, kept warm and hungry in the cold night, or protected him from bullies as he was defenseless, simply put she is not Hazel; she doesn’t know him like Hazel does, and he cannot trust her like he does Hazel, he can only be himself around Hazel; this is very important.

Anyway enough padding, Ozpin receives Hazel like “oh thank god you’re here, everything’s going wrong and I can’t fix it” but Hazel cuts him off like “a girl is dead”

“oh good, you already know. This is tragic, I know she made her choice but I wish I could’ve done something”

“you should’ve; this is your fault, she’s dead because of your crusade, and what for? We both know Salem can’t be defeated”

That was harsher than Ozpin expected

“But she can be delayed, kept at bay, give people the chance to live their lives”

“Shut up! This is what you always do, you lie to people, you make them thing they’re worth anything, but they don’t, they’re just pawns in your schemes”

Ozpin is taken aback, he has no idea where this is coming from, he did not see this coming; he absolutely should’ve, this has been building up for years, but he didn’t because he was blinded by love (recurring themes guys). He reaches out to Hazel, like

“Haze, listen....”

Ozpin looks so sad and hurt, like he never does around anybody else and it just makes him angrier. How dare he? How dare he use Hazel’s love for his brother like this? To look at him with Greetje’s eyes as if they weren’t stolen? To act as if he actually cared about Hazel? To call him that?

Hazel pushes Ozpin away.

“Do not. That’s what my brother called me”

Ozpin feels something inside him break, he looks at Hazel and speaks softly:

“Haze, Hazel; I... I’m still me, I know I’ve... changed, but I’m still me, I’m still your brother”

Hazel throws Ozpin against a wall

“YOU’RE NOT MY BROTHER, YOU’RE THE MONSTER WHO KILLED HIM! YOU ONLY WEAR HIS SKIN!”

Hazel is holding Ozpin against a wall by the neck, chocking him. Ozpin is like “Haze, please, don’t” you know struggling, but it only makes Hazel angrier and chokes him harder; until Ozpin, on instinct, pushes him away with magic.

Ozpin hasn’t even recovered his breath as he runs to Hazel’s side, apologizing, like “oh god, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you, are you okay? I’m sorry” but Hazel only hits him again and this is how the fight starts. Well, I call it a fight, but really it’s Hazel attacking Ozpin wildly and Ozpin defending himself, so naturally Hazel wins. Later he’ll say that he didn’t finish Ozpin off right there and then because he knew killing him would be pointless and he’d only be dooming someone else to Greetje’s fate, but the truth is that, when the dust settled and Ozpin was lying there, cowering and hurt, looking just like Greetje had had so many times when they were children, he just couldn’t; no matter how much he hated Ozpin for killing his brother, he couldn’t kill Greetje.

After Hazel leaves, Greetje Ozpin just lies in the floor of his now destroyed office, and wonders “how did this happen?” How did they come to this? How could Hazel do this? How did he not see it coming? How? Why? Why? Why? Greetje is hurt, Hazel was the person he loved the most in the world, he trusted him, more than he had anyone else in centuries, he told him the truth about Salem and Ozma because he couldn’t stand keeping secrets from him; and he turned on him, he turned on him! He was the person he trusted the most and he turned on him! Greetje is no stranger to betrayal, he’s experienced it a lot throughtout his many lives but this is different, Hazel was his brother, his only family, the only one he truly trust, and he turned on him; with heavy heart Greetje realizes he hasn’t felt this betrayed since Salem, and he cries. Oh god he cries. And wonders, he wonders, not for the first time, who is he? What has he become? Is he still Greetje? Is Hazel right? Is he just Ozma wearing another man’s face? But if he is, why does it hurt like this? 

This is the last time the brothers ever saw each other. The next time Greetje will see his brother is through the eyes of a child who did not deserve this anymore than he did

[itsclydebitches]

If you could choose any member of RWBYJNPR - including Pyrrha, let's assume an AU where she's alive - to replace Oscar as Oz's host, who would you choose?

Cool question! Having given it some thought, I think I'd have to go with Ren. For a bunch of different reasons that, when combined together, I think could potentially work well:

It's another guy host so we dodge the complications of slamming Ozpin into one of the girls' heads (something that, while compelling, isn't an issue I think RT should tackle)

But this time it's someone the fandom is already familiar with and, though a background character compared to Team RWBY, Ren is already well established while also being kind of a blank slate? Pre-revenge arc Ren was still pretty open-ended in terms of characterization while simultaneously having some basic traits that fans enjoyed. He seems like a good balance between someone the fandom feels like they know and someone whose personality we wouldn't mind changing a bit as a result of the merge

Immediate reason for why Team JNR is sticking around for the war/helping our primary protagonists when arguably the story should have left them behind by now

Interesting tension between Team JNR and Ozpin where they have to reconcile their teammate housing the man who (according to Jaune) is responsible for Pyrrha's death. Take the hints we got for that in the canon — anger at the fireside, accusing Oscar of being Ozpin in disguise, etc. — and expand it into an actual arc for Ren

Imo Ren is one of (if not the) most level-headed in the group. He's a good candidate for dealing with this kind of nonsense

On the flip-side though, tie that into his "My semblance is literally shutting down my emotions, so guess how well I'm handling the erosion of my identity? Not well, thanks!"

Back in Volume 4 Ren demonstrated an interest in souls, semblances, and how powerful skills reflect one's identity. Move that conversation back a bit and like Blake's book, it could serve as foreshadowing

Literal orphan whose entire family now consists of Nora and (to a lesser extent) the rest of the RWBYJNR team, so we're not left with any questions like, "Oscar just ditched his aunt and she's never mentioned again? Really?"

Also unlike Oscar who lacks long-term goals, Ren is established as wanting to be a huntsmen. Much like Pyrrha becoming a Maiden, this is (presumably) just a different way to achieve the primary end goal of helping Remnant, though the merge could be used to delve into the specifics of what Ren is looking for in his life

It's Ren who shows up on Ruby's doorstep post-Fall of Beacon, looking for Tai and Qrow so that Ozpin can get his cane and regroup. Handy that his new host knows the daughter/niece of two inner circle members! Cue Ruby eavesdropping on the conversation and deciding that she's going to get involved in whatever all this is

Perhaps an arc where Ren and Nora separate/don't officially get together because Ozpin has now made this into a trio. Personally, I like Renora as a couple and yeah, we saw in flashback that Ozpin has been in relationships before, but it's still different when it's the young adults in the flirting stage of the relationship managing their ancient headmaster as a third wheel. Nora still decides to figure out who she is without the both of them and ideally (for me anyway) Ozpin gets his own body/is released from the curse by the end of the story, giving them the freedom to come back together now that they're more mature, more experienced, and know that this is indeed what they want

Ideally Ren's Volume 8 views on them screwing up could be handled respectfully, with the added bonus of that being a very "like-minded soul" moment. Out of everyone thus far, Ren has displayed the most willingness to both accept fault ("I have made more mistakes than any man, woman, or child") and think about their actions on the large scale. Prior to being convinced that he was wrong, Ren is 100% the kind of guy who can step back, take stock of where his good intentions went wrong, and make changes moving forward

[dragonotaku-justineverything]

Jaune Sempai AU) Weiss was a spoiled brat for a good while at the beginning, not entirely her fault but still. She got a good reality check about leadership from Port, does the same thing happen here? Or does Jaune give chip in his few cents about leadership to the new teams?

Weiss was slowly walking through the halls of Beacon, thinking about the talk she had with Professor Port just a few minutes ago. 'Savor what I have? Be the best person I can be? I'm sure I could be an even better person if I was the leader of this team... I'd learn so much more and I could help more by giving orders rather than following them! A Schnee leads, never follows! ...But...' Weiss slowly came to a stop in the middle of a hallway intersection. With it being so late, not many students were traversing the halls so she didn't need to worry about being in anyone's way. 'Was the Professor right...? About me getting everything handed to me up until now...?'

"Ah, Weiss right?" The heiress was jarred out of her pondering by a sudden voice from next to her. She turned her head to see the blond third-year she met on her first night at Beacon. Jaune Arc, was his name she believed, was standing there with a cart in front of him holding snacks, drinks, and a projector. "It's good to see you again."

Weiss stood up straight and turned to face him fully out of respect. "O-oh Jaune, it's good to see you as well."

Jaune leaned forward, and rested his forearms on the cart's handle. "I saw how you did great during initiation. It was quite impressive that the four of you were able to take out a Nevermore of that size."

Weiss felt some pride swell in her chest at the praise from such a well known upperclassman. "Well thank you, it was a rather... interesting experience teaming up like that."

"Well, you can't force teamwork. At least, not the kind the four of you showed. That stuff has to pretty much come naturally, and it did."

"Again, thank you." Weiss' eyes landed on the cart of food and drinks in front of him. "W-what might all that be for Jaune?"

"Oh this stuff? Some friends are celebrating the new semester starting today and they invited me, so I decided to grab some snacks for us all."

"Oh! Well that sounds... rather fun."

Her distracted tone wasn't lost on Jaune. The third year leaned in a bit more towards her over the cart, getting a good look at her. And her aura. "Hey... Are you doing okay? You seem a bit... down today."

Wiess was surprised by the question. "Oh! I-is it that apparent?"

"A bit." 'Well no not really. But having so many sisters and being able to see your aura dampen helps quite a lot.' "So what's up?"

Weiss wasn't sure she should complain anymore than she already had. She'd already been given a new perspective, and a small telling off, by Professor Port. Did she really want to try it again?

Well... another point a view couldn't hurt right? "Well it's just that... I was really expecting to be made team leader. Instead, Headmaster Ozpin appointed Ruby as our team's leader. A-and Professor Port already told me to let it go and just be the best huntress I can be instead, but I just don't think she's right for it!"

"And you think you'd be a better fit as the leader?"

Jaune's straight forward tone made Weiss already regret bringing it up. "W-well no... at least not anymore. Like Professor Port said, I should focus on what I have and can work with rather than what I don't." Weiss put her hands behind her and looked off to the side a bit.

"Well he is right. You weren't made team leader, not much you can do about it now. I think the Professor was right though, what you should focus on is accepting it and moving forward. Focus on improving yourself for now and working to improve your team as a member, not a leader. You and all of your teammates are on the same team. You all add to it. One person can't suddenly contribute more help or more valuable.... uuuhhh... help than the other members just because they were made the 'leader', ya know?

"Yes... I suppose that is true... But all my life I've been taught to take initiative. By my father and my sister. Neither of them were just followers, they paved their own ways."

"Your sister? You said your last name was Schnee right? Wouldn't that make your sister Winter Schnee? The Atlas Specialist?"

Weiss was caught off guard by that completely. She'd thought he'd ask about her father with her family name, not her sister. "Y-yes, she is. Do you know her?"

Jaune stood up from leaning over the cart, chuckling nervously a little bit. "Aaaaah well... I've met her in the past a few times, but I wouldn't say I really 'know' her. She's pretty strong though."

Weiss beamed happily at hearing him talk highly of her sister. "She certainly is~! I actually used to train with her occasionally and she even taught me some things she knew personally."

"Well then I'd better be careful if we were to fight haha." Jaune laughed lightly at how Weiss talked about her sister. He could almost feel Weiss's admiration for her rolling off in waves. "But you realize she needs to follow orders too right? She may be a specialist and have a high rank in the military, but she still needs to follow orders from people above her, like General Ironwood."

Weiss looked like she realized what Jaune was getting at. "I-I suppose you... aren't incorrect."

Jaune smiled and nodded a little at her understanding. "Everyone has orders and people to follow, even people with the title of 'leader'. And if not orders, then rules they need to follow. And if not rules, then some other duties or obligations. All you can really do is try and sort out which ones are the right ones for you to follow and be the best individual you can be." Jaune's warm smile dropped a bit before the next sentence. "Besides... I think you lucked out not being made the leader."

Weiss looked back over to him as she heard his voice at the last sentence lack the same tone he'd had the rest of their talk. "What do you mean by that?"

Jaune looked a bit surprised. He didn't mean to say that for her to hear. "O-oh nothing. I-it's just... I think being a leader isn't all it's cracked up to be. You have to take extra classes, work out whatever problems or kinks form in your team, be responsible for all your teammates and their actions, and honestly it won't matter a whole lot once you graduate Beacon unless you all decide to stick together and take jobs as a group. A lot more responsibility for not a lot of reward hahaha... ha ha." Jaune's awkward chuckle at the end didn't seem to ease Weiss's suspicion, so Jaune decided to finish up his point. "Just... don't think so hard on what leaders are shown or talked about as. Think about what they really are. There could still come a time where you'll need to take the lead on something. And... Ruby might appreciate your support and help."

Weiss looked really thoughtful about everything he said. Her eyes glanced down a bit in thought. "T-thank you Jaune... Both you and Port have given me quite a lot to think about..."

"Y-yeah sorry... that was a lot all at once..." Jaune rubbed the back of his head a little sheepishly. "But don't let it overwhelm you. It's your first day as a student. You have plenty of time to figure things out."

Weiss smiled softly. He was right... she'd been putting so much pressure on herself and being excellent 24/7, she forgot that she only just started. "Thank you, again. That has put my mind at ease a little."

"Glad to hear it! Now you might want to get moving. Curfew is in a little bit and trust me, you don't want Professor Goodwitch catching you out past it."

Weiss's eyes widened. She had totally forgotten how late it was! "Right! Sorry for taking up your time, but I must be going!" Weiss gave a swift nod and continued walking down the hallway she was heading towards a few minutes ago.

"No worries! I enjoyed our talk Weiss!" Jaune waved off after her until she was a good distance away, then continued on his own trip down the other one.

As the sound of the cart wheels rolling and occasionally squeaking became the only noise around him, Jaune started to let his mind drift and think about what he'd said to Weiss just a minute ago. 'Not all it's cracked up to be... yeah... what an understatement. You dodged a bullet Weiss... you just have no idea what. I hope the same bullet misses Ruby too...'

Jaune left those thoughts behind after that and just focused on making his way to Team CFVY's dorm room to meet up with everyone.