#regardless of how off the mark nora was like i know she did that by pure fucking accident

[hella1975]

no bc like. trk is SO hard to read. like. Thanksgiving. That SceneTM. boy. i read aftg in a single week when i was fifteen and i regret doing it at that age so much bc MAN that was a hard couple scenes to read

right?????? and there's nothing inherently wrong with writing scenes like that i just always think nora misses the mark with how it's handled. like even AFTER that reveal in trk about What Happened To Andrew And Why He Acts The Way He Does, he still gets treated as some soulless maniac? and that's so damaging to any victims reading that also - god forbid - dared to respond to that trauma in a 'bad' way

[lambourngb]

a skeleton of something more [2/6]

previously here. malex wip fic. a short serial leading up the premiere.

spoilers for the trailer and promo, will be instantly AU. If I’m going to the trouble of writing a malex fix-it for the season 3 opener, why not fix 2x13 too?

**** THEN **** 

After Alex closed Tripp’s journal, he met Michael’s gaze across the table at the Crashdown. 

His golden-brown eyes were heavy with pain, the reminder of how his mother’s story had ended was still fresh between them despite the span of months since the fiery end of Caulfield. What had resulted in being the fiery end of them, even though Alex hadn’t known it at the time. The look of sleeplessness in Michael’s face reminded Alex, that outside of this small piece of Nora, he had the weight of Maria still in the hospital recovering from the pathogen Flint had released. The press of the Deep Sky ring in his pocket warred with the hesitation to place one more burden on Michael, would the abacus of their fragile friendship balance out?

He flashed to that last argument in Michael’s bunker, a disaster of his own making, thinking he could believe in his father, but thankfully harm was averted at Crashcon. That recent memory was motive enough for Alex to decide. Whatever happened next, he needed Michael on the same page with him.

As Isobel moved to leave the table, explaining to Michael that she needed to check on Max, Alex held Michael’s gaze deliberately. Then he folded his fingers down, until the last three fanned out in a downward W. 

“After what happened with Maria, maybe you should come with me, Michael. You can help me shake some sense into Max,” Alex heard, tuning back into Isobel’s voice. Her eyes moved back and forth between them, a crease of suspicion wrinkling her upturned nose, as she stopped on him. “It’ll be a good distraction.”

Without looking at Isobel, Michael’s eyes remained trained on Alex’s hand. “No, thanks, I’m good here. I’ve had my fill of stubborn ass people who don’t want to listen to sensible advice from me, so I’ll catch up with you later, Isobel.” 

She made a dismissive huff but did not argue, leaving with the barest semblance of a polite goodbye to Alex, but that was typical Isobel Evans. Michael waited until his sister was on the other side of the door, before speaking quietly, his gaze finally moving up from Alex’s hands to his face. “I haven’t seen you flash that sign to me in years.” 

“Glad to know you haven’t forgotten it.”

“You, making the ‘wait for me, I want you now’ signal? Nah, that’s been burned into my brain over the years.” Michael said it with a faint trace of bitterness. “I guess news travels fast, Maria only dumped my ass this morning.”

Alex winced and looked down, swallowing the surprise and spark of hope that welled in his throat at that disclosure. It was better to concentrate on the unique talent he had of stepping on landmines around Michael, than wonder about what had happened with Maria. It looked like he was still good at causing harm without intention, judging by the stung bite in Michael’s voice. “Fuck, I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have-”

“No, I’m sorry,” Michael cut off his apology firmly with a wave of his hand, calling a time-out. Alex waited, his teeth pressed into his lower lip as Michael rubbed his eyes with a weary half-smile. “I’m being an asshole right now, and that’s not fair to take it out on you. It’s been a shitty day already, and — anyway, … you definitely know how to get my attention, Alex.” He tilted his head, self-deprecation on his face, “for better or worse, you’ve always been good at that.” 

It had been the sign they had developed whenever their paths had crossed over the years while Alex had been on leave in Roswell, but it had started that summer after high school. After Michael’s hand had healed poorly from Jesse, the last three fingers had been left frozen in a claw, it had been a shared fuck-you to his dad to use it to form their own secret communication. A three-fingered W, turned upward meant it wasn’t a good time, and he would find Michael later; turned downward, well, that meant it was safe to approach him, and it had often ended in a hurried blowjob in his car. Perhaps he should have used more care in using it now, but Michael wasn’t the only one running on the fumes of insomnia and stress. “Sorry, I needed to talk to you, and I wanted to make sure you didn’t leave with Isobel-”

“It’s fine, really. It’s not a bad memory either, remembering that we had our little secret language.” Michael wiggled his fingers in reassurance, his left hand still wrapped with a bandanna. “I can make that signal a hell of a lot easier now, too. But anyway, what did you need?”

There was still a voice inside Alex’s head that said ‘you’, no matter how long it had been. He shoved that down deep, along with his curiosity about Maria, and concentrated on his purpose. “Your advice on something, and then if it’s not too much to ask, your help.”

“Anything.” 

Alex blinked, nonplussed by the easy acceptance. 

Michael gestured encouragingly, “seriously, anything, just tell me what’s going on because the way you’re hemming and hawing, it is freaking me out.” Suddenly, all expression washed out of Michael’s face as a horrible thought occurred to him. “Did you get deployed or something?”

“Not exactly, not how you’re thinking,” he winced at the earned glare from Michael as he continued to stall while the words still tripped and fumbled around his mouth, heedless to the mounting frustration between them both. He sighed, and regrouped. Pushing the closed journal aside, Alex dug into his pocket and laid the signet ring on the table before Michael. “Let me start at the beginning, I found this in my dad’s things.” 

“Jesse never seemed like a jewelry kind of guy to me.” Michael picked up the ring, examining it closely with a sarcastic smirk. “Other than parading around town with that wedding ring, when everyone knows your mom left him back during the Bush years, Dubya that is.”

“My father is all, was all, about appearances.” Alex placed the photo of the group on the table, sliding it over to him. “That ring marked his membership in this paramilitary group called Deep Sky. Every man in that photo worked at Caulfield, at one time or another.” He tapped his finger over the face of his father, then moved it to the right. “That’s my dad, and that is Ricky Long.”

Michael frowned, pulling the picture closer to squint at the faces. “Wyatt’s dad?”

“No, Forrest’s.”

“Nazi guy? Seriously?” He rubbed at his chin, the stubble longer than usual painting his jawline. Alex dragged his eyes away with effort as Michael considered that information. There was a reluctant understanding in his eyes, having recalled that Forrest Long wasn’t just ‘Nazi Guy’ to Alex, but someone who had expressed interest in Alex. Personal interest. “I guess that’s something you guys have in common then, dirtbag dads.” 

He didn’t look thrilled to admit that to Alex, but it was a mark of how far they had both come as friends that Michael had said it anyway regardless. It was kind of him. It was the same type of empathy Alex had extended toward Michael, when he had expressed interest in Maria. Cut open, bleeding under his skin from all the ways he had squandered his own chances, he had said something similar to Michael once upon a time. That was what love was all about. Then he had kept saying it, until he believed it most days because wanting Michael to be happy was the easier ask.

It was a gracious sentiment that was entirely wasted by Michael when it came to Forrest Long. 

“It would be, uh, something to bond over, if I hadn’t noticed that Forrest wears the same ring now.” 

Michael’s eyes sharpened. “Family heirloom or do you think he worked at Caulfield?”

“I don’t know, but he is an ex-Army vet.” Alex tapped the photo of the members gathered together, “That was part of what I’ve been looking into, identifying everyone who worked at Caulfield right until the end. As for Deep Sky, I don’t know if it’s military service, Caulfield, or a family legacy that ties every member together, I just know that Dad kept in touch with those who were involved at the prison.” 

“Makes sense, Jesse was able to get a hold of the atomizer and pathogen that Charlie developed from somewhere. For all of his strutting around at Crashcon with a uniform on, that didn’t look like it was an official use of government property.” 

“Right, it definitely wasn’t, and before you tell me to leave it alone-” Alex began, remembering Michael’s response to the investigation into 1947. He had considered Alex’s actions back then to be an act of futility, something that could only hurt by being revisited. The past being the past, unable to be altered. 

This time Michael cut him off, “No, I was wrong about that. I, um, I finally realized that just because I don’t see you connected to that place or the rest of your family, doesn’t mean you don’t. And while I wish that you didn’t, Alex, if digging into this gives you some sort of peace over it, then do it.”

Alex looked down, feeling the weight of relief that Michael understood. After his father’s body had been removed, after the questions and lies had been spun, he had spent the entire night sleepless over having been made into an effective weapon to force Michael’s compliance. Helena had known where all the weak spots were thanks to Flint, and had armed herself with a depowering agent. Once Flint was recovered, there was nothing stopping him from employing a similar tactic in the future.

“If anyone’s going to destroy me, it might as well be you.” Michael had once declared with a bold carelessness that had infuriated and terrified Alex at the time, but that was nothing compared to now having a lived experience to back it up. His mind had easily used the memory of Maria’s collapse after the faintest exposure at the Crashcon and had exchanged her with Michael, being torn apart molecule by molecule, by an invisible threat.

Give him an enemy that he could see any day, especially one that bled. 

“I’ve been fighting so long, I don’t know what peace looks like anymore.” Alex held out his hand for the ring, and Michael gently laid it in his palm, brushing his fingertips over Alex’s skin. A lifetime of controlling himself kept the reaction off his face as he rubbed his thumb over the raised emblem of Deep Sky. “But I have learned recently that when something seems too good to be true, it is.” 

Neither of them mentioned Jesse and his performance from the last few months, but Michael frowned again, “Wait a second, you think Forrest targeted you on purpose?” 

“A member of a secret paramilitary organization just happens to ask me out after I was involved in the destruction of Caulfield? You really think that’s a coincidence?” Alex raised his eyebrow skeptically at Michael, before looking out the window to watch the pedestrians on the street. 

“I think you’re the hottest guy in Roswell, so I’m not surprised he asked you out.” Michael flushed a little when Alex turned back to stare at him in surprise over the flattering comment. “Seriously, you’re a catch, but I will agree, it’s not a good look that he’s got that ring. But maybe it’s crap he wears because of his dad, and he’s got no idea he’s parading around?”

“You’re being awfully generous.”

“Isn’t that what you want? Because last time I checked, you were the one telling me that I should have faith in people, even if they give me no reason to.” Michael flattened his hands on the table, drawing Alex’s attention to the bandanna on his hand again. That damn fight kept echoing between them to Alex’s dismay, but Michael didn’t let him linger over it, “While I stand by what I said about Jesse, ‘cause he messes us both up, all I know about Forrest Long is that he is way too interested in Nazi history and he has good taste in guys.” Michael wetted his lips, nervously to tack on, “I also know that I trust you, and your instincts, so if you say there’s something not right about him, then I believe you.” 

“There’s something not right about him,” Alex repeated seriously.

“Then I believe you, so what do you need me to do?”

“He wants to get close to me for some reason, probably related to what I know about aliens, so I’m going to let him. And I need you to back me up in case something goes wrong, and maybe use that lock pick you have in your brain?” Alex waited until Michael nodded in agreement, feeling the swell of gratitude at his support. Anyone else would probably think he was being paranoid, or that this was a delayed reaction to his father trying to kill them, but Michael, for all of his previous counter-arguments, had never truly believed in the good of humanity. Maybe in a few days, Alex would feel guilty in relying on that. Maybe in a few days, his suspicions about Forrest would be eliminated.

“He’s involved in running the open mike night at the Wild Pony with Maria, so I thought maybe I could perform a song or something? He drives a Prius, and while he’s listening to me sing, you could slip out mid-song and insert this into the code reader of his car.” 

On the table was a small device that mimicked a thumb drive, small and black. It was the type of technology that Alex had used in the Air Force, tracking terrorists abroad. It had taken a fair amount of searching to purchase the equivalent stateside to have on hand. Michael picked it up curiously, turning over his hands.

“It’s designed to download the GPS history of his car,” Alex explained, before rubbing the back of his head in thought. “That’s how I uncovered what my dad was up to, first by tracking his movements. If I let Forrest take me home, I can gain access to his laptop and phone.”

Michael furrowed his brow in concern, “You’re really willing to go that far? And what if he is involved in something shady, what then?”

“My father and brother both used me to get to you, there’s really nothing I wouldn’t do to keep that from happening again and if it means playing along with this guy, letting him lead me to the members of Deep Sky? Then I will.” If anything, his words only deepened the concern on Michael’s face, but Alex had been committed for a long time. Since the red level threat. Since the short ride to the recruitment office. Maybe as far back as his guitar going missing in the music room.

“I’ve slept with guys for worse reasons.”

CONTINUED HERE

[mystaracrosstheuniverse]

Last Piece: JB

title. Last Piece pairing. GOT7′s JB x Reader genre. slice of life, romance, attempts at comedy, angst warnings. cursing, jb being a cute cat dad, brief mentions of bullying and anxiety summary. As an English teacher from abroad, you get a lot of perks. One of the best ones is that you live in an apartment for free. Another perk seems to be the elusive, attractive man who lives two floors above you… Though his cats seem to find their way to you a lot. And so does his mail, which makes you travel to his place pretty often regardless of whether he wants to see you or not. new beginnings masterlist. part one. out of [undecided]

______________________________________________________________ You never wanted to see another box again. Or a suitcase. Or anything involving packaging goods. You were done with moving, but as you looked around your new apartment, you couldn’t help but be proud.  Finally, you were here. In Seoul, South Korea, beginning your lifelong dream of being a EFL teacher and returning to the city that had captured your heart when you came to study abroad years ago. The past few weeks had been overwhelming, trying to reconnect with old friends, connecting with your fellow teachers, and getting ready to start teaching at your school. But as you took out the last of your recycling, you could finally say you were settled in and ready for the year in front of you. On your way back up, you ran into one of your neighbors, a kind older woman who welcomed you in the first weeks of you arriving.  She smiled at you, “Hello dear! All moved in?” “Mhmm! Finally. I can’t wait to actually find out more about this building. I feel bad that I’ve only met you and not anyone else I’m living next to.” You admitted, rubbing the back of your neck. You hadn’t really prioritized getting to know more about your neighbors or the building; you were too focused on getting your apartment together. “If meeting people your age is your goal, I’d go to the rooftop,” The older woman suggested, “There’s a community area there and I’m sure I’ve seen some young folks heading up there every now and again.” Well that was interesting. You found yourself following her suggestion after thanking her and bidding goodbye, hopping off the stairs to reach the roof. And you couldn’t say you blamed people your age for coming up here once you reached the top. It was really pretty, with a great view of the city and comfy seating and a fire pit. You could see yourself and your friends cozying up with blankets and a few drinks up here.  You’re almost too busy admiring the view and seeing if you can pinpoint some places to visit on your weekends to dismiss small mewling sounds coming from the door of the stairwell. The unfamiliar noise caught your attention and you went over to check it out.  Sure enough, there was a small cat looking up at you with big eyes, meowing never ceasing. You leaned down to let the cat smell your hand, eyes immediately drawn to the red collar resting around its neck. “So you’re not a stray... Where’s your owner, little guy?” You asked softly, not wanting to spook the cat sniffing at your hand. Deciding you were okay, he snuggled up to your hand, allowing you to bring him into your arms and look around the stairwell.  The thought to go to the front desk and ask about who owns pets had barely crossed your mind when you heard a male voice call out from the stairwell below.  “Odd??? Odd?? Where are you??” Based on the way the kitty perked up at the voice and name, you figured you found the owner of the little guy. So you followed the voice, and not even a full set of stairs down were you faced with a very distressed, erratic looking young man.  At the sight of the cat (Odd, was it?) in your arms, the relief that visibly took over his form was almost cute. You took the time to take in the owner’s features. Monolid eyes with a couple of distinct moles, piercings, and a dark mullet with shoulders as wide as you’ve ever seen before, he didn’t seem like the type to be cooing and currently chastising over this small cat. “How’d you get out?” He wasn’t even talking to you, fully focused as he leaned down to quietly talk to Odd. It was... a little awkward and so you carefully pushed the cat towards his own arms, finally bringing his attention to you. “Oh sorry,” He took Odd from you, holding him like a baby, “Thanks for finding him, his siblings were worried. I was worried... obviously...” His expression turned sheepish, once again surprising you at how awkward this man seemed to be despite his appearance. You loved animals, so you couldn’t help but ask, “Oh? More pets?” At the mention of his other animals, he smiled. “Yeah, four others. They’re all trouble makers.” “If this one,” You gestured to Odd, “Is anything like the others, I’d say you have your hands full as a cat dad.” “They keep me on my toes for sure... But they’re my kids so I put up with it.”  The two of you stood there in silence for a little while, not meeting each other’s eyes. You cursed yourself for being so awkward with the first potential friend that wasn’t a fellow teacher.  “So, uh.... yeah.” You wanted to hit yourself. “I’m... Y/N, by the way. I just moved here.” “Jaebum.” He nodded, careful to keep Odd in his arms as he bowed. You returned the gesture before deciding the awkward atmosphere was too much. “It was nice to meet you, Jaebum. I’ll see you around?”  He nodded, waving you off as he went back to his hall and you returned down the stairs to your own apartment. Once inside you banged your head against the wall. You always struggled with making friends because of your anxiety, and not everyone was as kind or patient to you as Jaebum had been in that first encounter.   You were determined to show him that next time, you weren’t awkward and he could be your friend.                                    ______________________________ As it turns out, you didn’t show him. A week or so goes by and you fall into a routine of going to school, planning, and sometimes visiting friends. Occasionally you catch Jaebum getting mail or walking out at the same time, but each time you keep clamming up and unable to do more than exchange small talk. Which, judging by his barely concealed grimances, he hated. But he was polite and you honestly were just hoping that you’d pull yourself together and be able to hold a conversation that wasn’t laced with uncomfortable awkwardness. You got your chance, though, when getting your mail after school. Your eyes lit up seeing the package, only to frown and pout when you saw it wasn’t even for you.  It did, however bring you a little excitement to see it’s for Jaebum (with JB in big English letters next to his name, you guessed a nickname) and you saw the apartment number listed in the address. You considered it for only a moment before going up the stairs. After all, he’d want his package right?  Coming up to the door, you hear music from his apartment. You briefly wondered what kind of genres he liked the most before knocking, trying to be a good neighbor (and hopefully friend after this). There wasn’t a response so you knocked again, a bit louder in case he couldn’t hear you over the music.  “I’m coming, can’t you just be patient Yug-- Oh. Y/N.” Jaebum swung open the door, looking a little irritated and tired. Headphones slung around his neck, traces of stubble from not shaving recently, and the bags under his eyes only confirm your suspicions that he hadn’t slept.  “Rough night?” You meekly offer, only to want to throw yourself off a cliff a moment later. Really? That’s what you decide to open with? No wonder he’s not your friend. He rolled his eyes at your question, but nods and gave you a look that clearly said “What do you want and why are you here?”. You certainly didn’t need to be told twice, even with body language.  Barely missing a beat, you held up the package in your arms. “So, uh, I don’t know if this will help, but here! This got delivered to me by accident.”  The second he saw the postage label his eyes brightened and a grin overtook his face as he grabbed it from your arms. You managed to ignore the small jump in your chest at the sight of his genuine smile.  “This must be from Mark! He’s my friend, he lived here for a long time but now he’s back in the U.S... I really miss him but I know he’s doing well.” Jaebum rambled, his eyes focused on the package but once flicking up to you, as if to see if you were paying attention.  Is he... initiating conversation? With you? “I’m glad you can keep in touch this way, I understand how it feels to miss friends far away...” You managed to get out, and his smile turned to you. Oh... He has a nice smile. You wondered if he did it often with friends. You hoped to find out.  A small meow captured your attention, and you look down to see Odd and this other fluffier cat coming to inspect you and what their owner was holding. Just as you were about to ask Jaebum about Odd, the other cat swatted at Odd’s face and pretty much pushed him out the door towards you. Ah... You see how he got out now.  “Nora Stop! You can’t do that to your siblings!” Jaebum immediately put the package down, picking up Nora to scold her. You stifled a laugh, seeing him be such a dad with his cats. He wasn’t joking when he called them his kids. Odd didn’t even try to go back inside, meowing loudly and coming up to you, rubbing himself against your leg as if to gain sympathy. It worked. You picked him up gently, rubbing his ears and letting him relax in your arms. When there was suddenly no scolding, you looked up to see Jaebum looking at you intensely, making you shift a little as your anxiety spiked. Did you do something wrong? “Odd really likes you. Huh.” Was all he said, a small half smile coming on his face as he looked at you. Suddenly the walls felt like they were way too close and you needed space immediately.  Putting the cat down, you made sure he went back into the apartment and cleared your throat, trying not to make eye contact as you said, “Okay! Sorry to bother you, I’ll just leave it at the door next time --”  You’re already making your way down the hall when he calls your name, making you pause and count the seconds before your fight or flight instinct forced you to run to the safety of your apartment. “It’s not a bother. If my cats like you, I like you. See you around, Y/N.” He waved, his voice almost gentle as he closed the door to his apartment. Maybe... he didn’t hate you after all.

[hamliet]

So about your (very deep) RWBY analysis you said there were a few plausible ships in consequence, could you write on that too? I'm curious to see what those are if we follow that analysis

Sure! Firstly, thanks for reading that lol.

So I’ll just come out and say that I don’t fully trust the writers in this aspect, but the main ships that I see set up for in the alchemical sense are, of course, Yang/Blake and Ren/Nora, but also Ruby/Oscar and potentially Emerald/Mercury and Jaune/Weiss. (I will touch on Pyrrha/Jaune, but I don’t think Pyrrha is going to or should come back so... :( ) This all depends on how they stick to the alchemical structure, but just to reiterate: it’s extremely unlikely an alchemical story with a fairy tale basis is going to end with most characters single. It could and could do it well, but I’m skeptical lol.

Just to add a disclaimer: this is all theory and speculation; I honestly do not care about ships in this series besides Ren and Nora and hence am not emotionally invested. I could be wrong, and I’m fine with it. Please don’t come for me. 

Let’s begin by going over what romance is in alchemy. I talked about this in my previous meta, but the key principles of an alchemical work are the solar king and lunar queen. So who are they? What is their role in alchemy? 

Behold, the symbol for the philosopher’s stone:

Or more clearly: 

The large circle is the macrocosm, or universe as a whole. The triangle is body, mind, and heart (originally it was body, soul, and spirit). The square is the four classical elements (fire, air, earth, water). The smaller circle is the microcosm, wherein the two people inside are the Solar King and Lunar Queen, opposites conjoined in harmony. Together two conjoined opposites (yes it’s related to yin/yang, but eastern alchemy focuses more on the Elixir of Life rather than the actual stone and there are five elements, not four) create the philosopher’s stone. 

I talked about this in the past meta, but we know Ruby is a philosophical child because her father’s name literally means sun and her mother’s defining trait thus far is her silver eyes. She’s the stone itself, but also team RWBY is the stone, and other characters are on their own journeys to becoming philosopher’s stone. Things overlap. 

I didn’t come up with those designations of silver=moon on my own, though. Generally the two principles that are combined in a philosopher’s stone are marked by one (or more) of the following: 

Male: Sun, Sulphur, fire and air, hot and dry, Red, gold, heart.

Female: Moon, Mercury (or quicksilver), earth and water, cool and moist, White, silver, mind.

Don’t read too much into the genders, because that tends to matter the least and plays into antiquated views. Obviously. Characters rarely meet all the marks as well, but if marked with one should be paired with someone from the opposite marking. 

Let’s talk the obvious ones first: Ren and Nora, Blake and Yang, and Jaune and Pyrrha. 

Ren and Nora are pretty perfectly matched. Ren is mind, earth (“Lie” means “plum tree”) and water (“Ren” means “lotus,” a water-based flower). Nora is heart (her shirt, plus her brave qualities), fire (Thor and the association with electricity, plus “Nora” means “light”), and air (she flies, and a Valkyrie is a mythical flying creature in Norse mythology). 

Yang and Blake are also a good match. Yang is sun, gold (her name), fire and air (”Xiao long” means dragon), and heart. Blake is moon (Belladonna is a nightshade), earth and water (think of where her home village is), and mind. Blake was also a match for Sun Wukong, however, and this is why I’m skeptical about the writing of ships in this series--because they teased Sun/Blake for little reason (and I remember being confused). However, they did know that Blake’s partner needed to be her opposite, so Yang or Sun could work, and I think it’s clear that Blake/Yang is endgame and I like it. 

Pyrrha is red (her name), gold (her outfit), heart and mind, and her shield had a sun on it. 

Jaune was white (the dress he wore to the dance), body (differing from the norm, but fit because Pyrrha was both heart and mind; a body character tends to be either lusty or cowardly, the latter of which was Jaune in the first season), and moon. Look at Jaune’s shield, which so happens to match the silver/moon symbol in alchemy: 

However, Pyrrha has now died, and I’m still sad about it. However, also of note: fitting with the characters they are based off of, Team JNPR are have reversed gender dynamics from the alchemical norms. Again, I would bet that was done on purpose. 

Onto my speculations: 

For Ruby... well, I said she was the philosopher’s stone. 

In some ways, Ruby and Weiss are the philosopher’s stone together, but I think this is more platonic than romantic (it’s a lovely ship though and I see why people ship it). The reason for this is because while Ruby is Red, air, and Heart, and Weiss is White, water, and mind, Ruby and Weiss are both silver. They don’t compliment each other in this, which is why I don’t see it as a likely endgame romantic ship (but, like Frodo and Samwise Gamgee, I do see them as alchemical partners who help stop Salem together). 

But her romantic partner should be someone who is also both sun and moon, who is white where she is red, gold where she is silver, earth where she is air (she flies), mind where she is heart. Ideally they would also be a philosophical child. There’s one character I can think of who is marked as sun and moon, white, mind, and earth, and that’s Oscar Pine. See: Ozpin’s cane, which Oscar uses on his own quite a bit (that’s a sun and moon motif):

Additionally, in the scene where Ruby and Oscar meet for the first time, the paintings on the wall are a sun (fire) with distinctive air around it and a crescent moon over earth and water. 

If Weiss ends up in any ship, it will be with a person marked as heart, red, fire, and gold to her mind, white, water (ice), and silver. Neptune is water too, so this one is unlikely. Sun seems like a possibility on paper, but they haven’t interacted significantly at all (maybe they will in Vacuo?) But the most likely option to me is actually Jaune Arc--but a lot depends on the coming arcs (heh).

Wait, you said he was white! Key word: was. Jaune was never mind and will never be mind, but he has become brave as opposed to his initial fear, and I’d go so far as to say he’s heart now thanks to Pyrrha’s influence. Since Pyrrha’s death as well, he’s started incorporating gold and red into his outfit in a likely homage to Pyrrha. (It is actually possible for someone to shift markings; Daenerys in A Game of Thrones is white and moon, but becomes red and fire and all that by the end of the novel). 

Jaune’s arc of grief over Pyrrha is unlikely to end with him being forever alone, and while there are plenty of ways to show this that don’t involve him in a relationship with someone else, it’s the most obvious way to show this. It also fits from a narrative perspective that the only way Jaune could ever be with Weiss is through integrating with Pyrrha’s traits and qualities. We’ll see, though, because as of now he’s still marked as moon, and he’d need to become sun or fire. Cinder also directly compared Pyrrha and Weiss, and immediately after this Jaune unlocked part of his soul to heal Weiss, playing the role of the prince in Weiss’s fairy tale (Snow White). However, as Cinder’s own story shows us, not all princes in their retellings of these fairy tales are romantic. So this might not play out, but it has the set-up to do so. 

Lastly, Emerald and Mercury I think are alchemical partners regardless of whether or not they end up together romantically. Mercury’s name says it all, and Emerald’s eyes mark her as red. He’s mind, she’s heart. I’m adding this to the questionably romantic ones because I’m curious about the fact that Emerald and Mercury are now separated in the current season, just like all four of the above ships I mentioned. 

Also to keep in mind: sometimes writers say eff the tropes. See: Harry and Ginny, who are both red and air (but Ginny’s name also marks her as white, so). 

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Strings”

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

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

(I recommend reading the reviews.) 

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

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

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

It’s something to think about.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

RIP a great character.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until Winter betrays Ironwood, of course. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Am I surprised? No. Disappointed? Always lol.

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

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

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

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

No Winter this episode

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you then! 💜

[elriell]

Book Rec’s

Going to try and add a lot of less known books that are amazing and not enough people talk about, this would be too long if I talked about each one in depth, so I am going to leave my fav quotes as that tends to give me a feel for books and whether I will like them and I will link the GR page for more info! Happy reading:)

Fantasy Vibes

From Blood And Ash by Jennifer L Armentrout    (CLICK THIS TOO)

“Death is like an old friend who pays a visit, sometimes when it’s least expected and other times when you’re waiting for her. It’s neither the first nor the last time she’ll pay a visit, but that doesn’t make any death less harsh or unforgiving.”

“Fear and bravery are often one and the same. It either makes you a warrior or a coward. The only difference is the person it resides inside.”

 “You're an absolutely stunning, murderous little creature.”

Storm And Fury by Jennifer L Armentrout

“What are you going to do if it does get worse?�� he asked. “Maybe I’ll get myself a seeing-eye gargoyle.”

(HONESTLY BADASS GARGOYLES. SO UNIQUE AND AWESOME)

Demons At Deadnight by A&E Kirk   

“I launched into a graceful ninja-like front roll, then stood my ground to face the monstrous heathen, fearless in my determination to vanquish the deadly foe.

Nah, just kidding. I bolted, discretion being the better part of not getting dead.”

“We are killers,” Matthias said. Bad news. 

“Not girls. We don’t kill girls.” Good news. 

“She’s no girl.” Insulting news? 

“What? Of course she’s a girl.”

 “Want me to check?” 

“Shut up, Blake,” the rest of them chorused.”

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black   

“If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.”

“If you hurt me, I wouldn't cry. I would hurt you back.”

“I am going to keep on defying you. I am going to shame you with my defiance. You remind me that I am a mere mortal and you are a prince of Faerie. Well, let me remind you that means you have much to lose and I have nothing. You may win in the end, you may ensorcell me and hurt me and humiliate me, but I will make sure you lose everything I can take from you on the way down. I promise you this is the least of what I can do.”

MM Romance

Him by Sabrina Bowen & Elle Kennedy

“Our mouths fit together so perfectly. Every time we kiss, I fall even more in love with him, and it has nothing to do with sex or lust. It's him. His closeness and his scent and the way he soothes me.”

“I…” He clears his throat. “I’d let you do it, though.” My hand freezes in his hair. “You would?” Wes nods. “I’d let you do anything to me, Canning.”

Misfits by Garrett Leigh (Poly romance, its just so perfect ala herongraystairs!)

“Learn something. Read a book. Explore someone. Anger is just a hole where your life could be.”

In The Absence Of Light by Adrienne Wilder

“The light is a funny thing, Grant. We think it shows us what we need to see, but in reality, it blinds us. That’s why I brought you here. I wanted you to see me.”

“Morgan may be autistic, but he is a normal man with a mental condition, not a mental condition who is a man.”

HOneStly JUST READ IT

The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic

“It’s not the world that’s cruel. It’s the people in it.”

“I'm not a math problem." "But I'll still solve you."

“Is your learning curve a horizontal line?”

“Who said 'please' that made you hate the word so much?"  Andrew gazed at him in silence for a minute. "I did.”

“I didn't think I was a personal problem. You hate me, remember?" "Every inch of you," Andrew said. "That doesn't mean I wouldn't blow you." 

EVERY QOUTE IS ICONIC TBH 

Vampires, Angels & Greek Mythology

Bloodlines by Michelle Read

“The greatest changes in history have come when people were able to shake off what others told them to do.”

“Takes a lot of tries before you hit perfection." He paused to reconsider that. "Well, except for my parents. They got it on the first try."

“No, thank you," said Adrian. "These hands don't sully themselves with fighting.”

“Everything's about my personal entertainment. The world is my stage. Keep it up- you're becoming a star performer in the show.”

Angels Blood by Nalini Singh

“Some things were worth the dance with danger.”

“You do realize this makes your wings even more unique." "Are you saying you shot me as a cosmetic procedure?”

“You ask a lot of questions for a dead woman.” “What can I say? I prefer to die well-informed.”

“You don't fear me," he said now. She wasn't stupid enough to lie. "I'm petrified. But I figure you didn't make me come all this way just so you could push me off the roof.”

Dark Lover by J.R Ward (warning OTT vamps if thats not your jazz either skip)

“Some bridges you crossed on your own, no matter who drove you to the edge”

“Vengeance was one hell of a roommate.”

Half-Blood by Jennifer L Armentrout

“Two people see each other across a room or their skin brushes. Their souls recognize the person as their own. It doesn’t need time to figure it. The soul always knows… whether it’s right or wrong.”

“It’s just words and words mean nothing. Only action does.”

“People do the damndest things when they’re in love.”

“There is a difference between love and need. Sometimes, what you feel is immediate and without rhyme or reason.”

Assasin-y Goodness

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

“When one consorts with assassins, one must expect to dance along the edge of a knife once or twice.”

“I comfort myself with the knowledge that if Duval ever feels smothered by me, it will be because I am holding a pillow over his face.”

“Surely He does not give us hearts so we may spend our lives ignoring them.”

“There is no shame in scars, Ismae.”

Daughter Of The Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller

“I am me because I choose to be me. I am what I want. Some people say you have to find yourself. Not I. I believe we create ourselves to be what we want.”

“Lass, you've the face of an angel but the tongue of a snake.”

“Everyone has something dark in their past. I suppose it's our job to overcome it. And if we can’t overcome it, then all we can do is make the most of it.”

“Waiting. Not waiting. One lover. A hundred lovers. There should be no judgement either way. A woman is not defined by what she does or doesn‘t do in the bedroom.”

“Even a man who’s spent his whole life at sea has reason to fear her when she’s angry. But not I. I sleep soundly. Listening to her music. The sea watches over me. She protects her own.”

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

“No mourners. No funerals. Among them, it passed for 'good luck.”

“It's not natural for women to fight." "It's not natural for someone to be as stupid as he is tall, and yet there you stand.”

“I will have you without armor, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all.

“The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true.”

“Kaz leaned back. "What's the easiest way to steal a man's wallet?" "Knife to the throat?" asked Inej. "Gun to the back?" said Jesper. "Poison in his cup?" suggested Nina. "You're all horrible," said Matthias.”

The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson

“It can take years to mold a dream. It takes only a fraction of a second for it to be shattered.”

“Taking another life, she had whispered, even a guilty one, should never be easy. If it were, we'd be little more than animals.”

“Maybe there was no one way to define it. Maybe there were as many shades of love as the blues of the sky,”

“We all have our different skills. You’re patient to a fault, which sometimes doesn’t work to your advantage. I, on the other hand, have the patience of a wet cat. Only on rare occasions does that come in handy.”

“Maybe there were a hundred different ways to fall in love.”

Circus Vibes

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

“Every person has the power to change their fate if they are brave enough to fight for what they desire more than anything.”

“She imagined loving him would feel like falling in love with darkness, frightening and consuming yet utterly beautiful when the stars came out.”

“Some things are worth pursuit regardless of the cost.”

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

“You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows that they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.”

“Secrets have power. And that power diminishes when they are shared, so they are best kept and kept well. Sharing secrets, real secrets, important ones, with even one other person, will change them. Writing them down is worse, because who can tell how many eyes might see them inscribed on paper, no matter how careful you might be with it. So it's really best to keep your secrets when you have them, for their own good, as well as yours.”

Six of Hearts by L.H Cosway

“Note to self: Never try to out-trick a trickster.”

“So why not live with the magic? Be a kid again and believe in the fantastical. Life is more fun with a little smoke and mirrors.”

“We all have thoughts that we would never, ever vocalise. And people who say they don’t are liars.”

“I once read that people who have imaginary friends never reach out to touch them. There’s some part of their brain that subconsciously knows it will break the spell. That’s what it feels like with Jay.”

Amour Amour by Krista & Becca Richie

“We all traverse in and out of people’s worlds, leaving footprints. Some larger, some smaller, but there is always a mark. We can’t sweep it away.”

“Life is a rollercoaster with no volunteers. We’re all forced to take a seat and ride it out.

“I’m average. I’ve been average most of my life, but there are moments where I feel extraordinary. Invincible. Able to conquer any fear and step outside any box. There is no illusion, no fantasy. I can climb a forty-foot pole. I can fly eighty-feet in the air. I can be taller than tall. It’s a dream that I’m living. Every day. With him.”

More M/M Romance

The Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller

“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”

“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.”

“He is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget it. You can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature.”

“He is half of my soul, as the poets say.”

Axel’s Pup by Kim Dare  (Shifter Romance & BDSM FYI if thats not your jazz)

"I want to screw you, and tie you up, and make you writhe from-you know all that. But I want so much more. I want the whole thing, not just a quick scene. I want twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I want you to be mine. I won't take anything less."

Aristotle And Dante Discover The Secrets Of The Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

“In your dream. You were looking for me.""I'm always looking for you," 

“He was funny and focused and fierce. I mean the guy could be fierce. And there wasn’t anything mean about him. I didn’t understand how you could live in a mean world and not have any of that meanness rub off on you.”

“He looked like an angel. And all I wanted to do was put my fist through his jaw. I couldn't stand my own cruelty.”

“One of the secrets of the universe was that our instincts were sometimes stronger than our minds. Another secret of the universe: Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere.”

Shattered Glass by Dani Alexander

"Tell me something good about your life," I whispered, needing to hear that he wasn't as broken as I thought him to be.[...]"You." It was so quiet I almost didn't hear it.”

“Is he my competition?” I asked. “Everyone is your competition.” Peter lifted his hand to his eyes and began lowering it incrementally. “It goes normal human beings, crazies, republicans, my hand, imaginary characters, corpses and then, in a moment of lustful psychosis, you.” By the time he was done, his hand was below the table.

Romance 

Kiss The Sky by Krista & Becca Richie

“You’re not a pit stop. You’re my finish line. There’s no one after you.”

“People hope to touch the sky. I dream of kissing it.”

“I love the way he’s staring at me. It makes me feel more than just beautiful. I feel like I’m his. Like no one else could possibly compare to me. He doesn’t even have to say the words. I see it in his eyes. I can practically read it in his mind.”

“I’ve wanted so many things in life,” he says softly, “but you’re the one that has meant the most to me.”

Translation: I love you.”

Wallbanger by Alice Clayton

“You know those moments when everything is exactly the way it was meant to be? When you find yourself and your entire universe aligning in perfect synchronization, and you know you couldn’t possibly be more content? I was inside that very moment, and fully conscious of it.”

“The right woman for you wouldn't want you to change anything about your life. She wouldn't rock your boat, she'd jump right in and sail it with you.”

“It breaks my heart the way young girls pick themselves over, never thinking they're good enough. You make sure you always remember, you're exactly the way you're supposed to be. Exactly. And anyone who says otherwise, well, poppycock.”

Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

“Ugly love becomes you. Consumes you. Makes you hate it all. Makes you realize that all the beautiful parts aren't even worth it. Without the beautiful, you'll never risk feeling the ugly. So you give it all up. You give it all up. You never want love again, no matter what kind it is, because no type of love will ever be worth living through the ugly love again.”

“Some people they grow wiser as they grow older. Unfortunately, most people just grow older.”

“Sometimes the spirit of a man isn't strong enough to survive the ghosts of his past”

“My grandfather used to say the placement of a birthmark was the story of how a person lost the battle in their past life. I guess you got stabbed in the neck. Bet it was a quick death, though.”

On Dublin Street by Samantha Young

“Gentlemen are gentlemen in bed. They make sure you're having a good time." "I'll make sure you're having a good time, and that you're okay with everything. I just won't be well mannered about it.”

“In truth it’s difficult to describe a broken heart.”

“Sometimes words aren’t needed for you to know a change has come upon you.”

Romance Series

Paper Princess by Erin Watt

“My skill, if I have one, isn’t dancing. It’s my ability to believe that tomorrow can be a better day.”

“My life is mine. I live it. I control it.”

“but a clean knife still makes a painful wound.”

“Fate is for the weak--those people who don't have enough power or will to shape life into what they need it to be.”

Foreplay by Sophie Jordan

“I’m not going to lie to you and convince you that I’m someone good and shiny like your guy that’s going to be a doctor.”

“You can’t even see it. I’m the safest thing you’ll ever find”

“That's what I wanted. Something to enrich me, to make me feel better about the things in my life that I could never change."

Wait for You by J.Lynn.  (AKA Jennifer L Armentrout) 

“You are really…” “Amazing? Awesome?” He paused, brows raised. “Astonishing?” “I was going to go with bizarre.” “Well, hell, if I had feelings that might actually hurt.”

“As long as the sun’s shining, shit can’t be that bad.”

The Deal by Elle Kennedy

“Sometimes people sneak up on you and suddenly you don’t know how you ever lived without them.”

“I want to murder him in his sleep, A. No, I want to murder him when he’s awake so he can see the joy on my face when I do it.”

“And the most important lesson I learned is that I’m not a victim—I’m a survivor.”

Romance w/ Epic Plots

The Unbecoming Of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

“This was the boy I loved. A little bit messy. A little bit ruined. A beautiful disaster. Just like me.”

“You could start a fire with the heat between you two.""You're mistaking bitter animosity for heartfelt affection.”

“You're supposed to say, 'All I want is your happiness. I'll do whatever it takes, even if it means being without you.'""Sorry," Noah said. "I'm just not that big of a person.”

“I’ll walk forever with stories inside me that the people I love the most can never hear.”

“We are far too screwed up for a goddamned love triangle.”

“You will love him to ruins.”

The Winners Curse by Marie Rutkoski

“He knew the law of such things: people in brightly lit places cannot see into the dark.”

“Isn’t that what stories do, make real things fake, and fake things real?”

“The Winner’s Curse is when you come out on top of the bid, but only by paying a steep price.”

“The god of lies must love you, you see things so clearly.”

Obsidian by Jennifer L Armentrout (are you getting the idea I love everything she writes? because I do!)

“I've always found that the most beautiful people, truly beautiful inside and out, are the ones who are quietly unaware of their effect."

“More books." His eyes went wide. "You have, like, them books you just said you haven't read." "Doesn't mean I won't get more books."

Angelfall by Susan Ee

“I never thought about it before, but I'm proud to be human. We're ever so flawed. We're frail, confused, violent, and we struggle with so many issues. But all in all, I'm proud to be a Daughter of Man.”

“Sometimes, as we're stumbling along in the dark, we hit something good.”

“I knew from the start that your loyalty would get you killed. I just never thought it would be your loyalty to me that would do it.”

Unique Reads

Dont Look Back by Jennifer L Armentrout

“I was stuck in a life I didn't remember, squeezed into the shell of this girl - this Samantha Joe Franco - and the more I learned about her, the more I was starting to hate her.”

“Things aren’t perfect. They are far, far from it,but they are getting there, and I wasn’t looking back. Not when there were so many good things in the future.”

Verity by Colleen Hoover

“I wasn’t heroic. I wasn’t simple. I was difficult. An emotionally challenging puzzle he wasn’t up for solving.”

“A writer should never have the audacity to write about themselves unless they’re willing to separate every layer of protection between the author’s soul and their book. The words should come directly from the center of the gut, tearing through flesh and bone as they break free. Ugly and honest and bloody and a little bit terrifying, but completely exposed.”

“No one is likable from the inside out.”

“Find what you love and let it kill you.”

Painted Faces by L.H Cosway

“We all paint on a face to show the world," Nicholas replies philosophically. "For some of us, that's quite literal.”

“I love him because he makes me laugh when I don't feel like laughing. I love him because he challenges my view of what a man is. I love him because I know I shouldn't love him and that he'll break my heart. I love him because he's a complete and total anomaly. I love him because I want to kill the sadness inside him more than I want anything else in the world.”

“You saw me, changed my life, made it better, and I’m completely fucking in love with you.”

Sorcery of Thorns by Margret Rogerson

“It was always wise to be polite to books, whether or not they could hear you.”

“Knowledge always has the potential to be dangerous. It is a more powerful weapon than any sword or spell.”

“When terrible things have happened to you, sometimes the promise of something good can be just as frightening.”

“You belonged in the library, as much as any book.”

“You unmanageable, contrary creature. You have made me believe in something at last. It feels as wretched as I imagined.”

Obviously not every book is going to suit everyone, everyone has pet peeves, and things that they won’t enjoy but hopefully this gives you some variety and I personally loved them all at some point! Pls feel free to come to my ask/chats to discuss any of them  that would make me so happy <3 this took 4 hours damn

[aloy-and-jaana]

_____

Jaana caught herself glancing up at the skyline for what had to be the billionth time that day. The werak runners who had come through to purchase odds and ends from her shop all muddled together in an uninteresting buzz of noise. The sun was sinking lower in the sky. She caught herself looking up again. Things were starting to bode poorly. The Nora girl, she hadn't returned. Aloy.. Jaana finally turned her eyes from the horizon to begin the arduous task of closing up her shop. She folded the cloth of the signal balloon with a small smile when she remembered how Aloy had complimented her work. Why this girl had left such a huge impact on her in such a short time was beyond her. What was the big deal? She saw new faces and met an array of strangers every day with her travels taking her to nearly every corner of The Cut. Why was this one any different? Jaana found her eyes wandering back to the horizon before she chastised herself. No, there was no need to be so nervous. She had seen the machines that were defeated at the hands of the Nora. Although, now that she thought of it, she hadn't seen that fight take place. Jaana didn't know the Shaman's Path personally, but she had heard the stories. The caverns created a dangerous maze winding up into the unforgiving cold of the mountain. Jaana hadn't known Aloy long, but she was sure she'd known her long enough to know that Aloy wasn't going to fall to the mountain so easily. Still, it was getting much later than she'd anticipated. Jaana rubbed her hands together nervously while she pulled everything neatly inside the tent to close up. Why was this weighing on her so heavily? Jaana was sure several young shamans had lost their lives attempting the same path. It just happened.. right? The mountain was unforgiving. Only the strong Banuk survive. Jaana scowled in disgust. She was really trying to push problematic Banuk beliefs on herself now? This was silly. She had spoken to Aloy once for two seconds. She would likely never see her again regardless of whether or not she made it back down the mountain. Aloy was meaningless to her- just some girl. She was already forgetting what that irrelevant redhead looked like. Absolutely nothing, a meaningless, forgetful-

"Jaana!" The voice rang out.

"Aloy!" Jaana spun around excitedly, a huge grin lighting up her face as she rushed toward the other girl as fast as her legs would carry her. It would seem she betrayed her own mind. The embarrassment froze her up for just a moment. Then she noticed what Aloy was riding.

"Aah! That's a charger!" Jaana jumped back in fright before she saw the docile blue light coming from the machine as Aloy slid off its back with a laugh.  

"I told you I unlocked the secret to overriding some machines! I don't know how I would have made it back down the mountain without him! Besides, forget that! I brought you something! Check this out!" Aloy too appeared overjoyed and filled with excitement as she proudly displayed her offering. Jaana opened her hands to a large machine lense, the kind of which she had never seen. It was enormous. Jaana's eyes sparkled curiously, a familiar curious. Aloy was so happy to see it again. As soon as Jaana glanced back up at her, that expression changed entirely. 

"Aloy! What happened up there?! Are you alright?" She could see the tousled look in the outlander's hair and clothes now, visible marks of scrapes and bruises lining every bit of visible skin. This kind of attention seemed much more unfamiliar to her, as Aloy shrugged hurriedly. 

"I'm fine." She changed course before Jaana could continue. "There are definitely new machines appearing, bigger, meaner ones! I saw one up on the mountain. A frostclaw! It proved to be a bit of a challenge but I brought it down! I thought you'd enjoy this part more than anyone else." Jaana's face felt a little hot as Aloy smiled. "I thought maybe you could use it to finish your… project." She had remembered. Jaana smiled at her gratefully, but she was eager to pull the conversation back a little. 

"Hey, you look exhausted and you shouldn't leave any of those wounds open. Where are you lodging tonight?" She put her hands on her hips. Aloy cocked her head a little. Yeah, this was definitely unfamiliar. 

"Uh, well I just have my travel pack here with me.."

"Aloy that thing isn't thick enough to keep out the chill up here! That's a travel pack for Nora land!"

"Hmm. I guess I didn't think everything through. Think there's  lodging I could pay for in Song's Edge for a reasonable price? I carried back some more parts I harvested from the frostclaw." Jaana rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, before offering,

"Hey, I actually have a fairly sized residence inside Song's Edge. You could… stay with me if you want." She could see the discomfort on Aloy's face, so she added, "for more rare and exotic machine parts.. you know, as payment." She desperately hoped that the discomfort she found was due to accepting help and not at the prospect entirely. Her heart was pounding in her chest as the silence set in. 

Finally, "you would really do that for me?" Jaana glanced up. The discomfort had to be because of her offering help, even with the flimsy guise of harvesting machine parts. Aloy seemed to have no trouble leaping into harm on account of other people, yet accepting help herself was alien to her. Jaana touched her arm gently. 

"Of course. You've already done so much." She glanced nervously back at the machine standing at Aloy's heels like a harmless puppy. It was truly bizarre. She narrowed her eyes a little at him with distrust. "Although I don't think Sparky here will fit in my tent." Aloy let out a laugh. 

"Fair enough." She smiled. Despite the absence of a face, Jaana swore the machine had a look of high offense. She wagged a finger at Aloy before tying her shop tent closed tightly.

"Come on now, let's deal with those scratches." She nodded.

As the two of them marched back through Song's Edge amidst the Banuk fighters and families turning in, Jaana could see how genuinely worn down the Nora hunter was, despite her best efforts to conceal it. "So, I have to ask: did you end up finding Ourea up there after all?" This brought a smile back to Aloy's tired face.

"I did! She has some kind of relationship with a.. spirit. I'm not quite sure of all the pieces yet, but something very strange is going on here with the daemon and the machines, and I'm convinced the answers lie at Thunder's Drum." She gave a dramatic little shrug, "and I somehow got roped into fighting Aratak for the werak in order to solve the mystery of the daemon." She kept her voice a little low revealing that last bit.

"You what-?!" Jaana cried out before she caught herself, lowering her voice to a whisper. "You what? That's insane!" 

"It does present quite a challenge. Ourea suggested making my name more well known around,  overriding the daemon's trees, clearing bandits- ah, and she mentioned someone here in Song's Edge named.. Sekuli. She said that was a good place to start." 

"I know Sekuli! I can take you there tomorrow if you like." Jaana offered.

"Would you? Thanks so much for everything, I hope I don't interfere too much-"

"Are you kidding? This is the most excitement I've had in forever! I'm all yours!" She caught herself quickly, embarrassed at her choice of words. She cleared her throat. "Well, here we are. It doesn't look very big, but I keep all the goods in my various shops and sleds around The Cut, so there's plenty of room for two bed roles." Aloy smiled at the cozy little tent. 

"It's perfect." She insisted. Jaana felt the tension fade with a relieved sigh. Though she was fairly well endowed, she had never really felt the need to invest in anything more fancy than the quaint little tent before them. "Wow. What a view!" Aloy stepped out on the wood ledge overlooking the wilds off the mountain. The sight of the incessant fire and smoke pouring from Thunder's Drum was very domineering against the skyline. Aloy discarded the roll of her travel pack by the entrance of the tent and she sat solemnly on the edge of the wood ledge. Jaana gave her a sympathetic look, silently sitting alongside her, before reaching over to help dress a deep scratch on her arm. "It's a serious responsibility." She sighed quietly. "I need to be strong enough to succeed." 

"I'm not sure it was fair of Ourea to put so much pressure on you." Jaana said honestly. 

"I accepted it. I wanted it. it's just something I need to do. Nobody else should have to die fighting that daemon."

"That includes you!" There was a hint of frustration in Jaana's voice. Aloy seemed so bent on saving everyone around her, she was willing to risk her own safety. "You should think of yourself too." She could see there was no sense in trying to talk the stubborn redhead out of it, so she tried a different approach, "looks like you'll need me to keep you out of trouble." 

"What? No, no. You really don't have to- I'm much faster on my own-"

"I want it. It's just.. something I've got to do. You understand. Someone's gotta make sure you stay alive to finish your mission."  Aloy raised an eyebrow at her with a smirk. It seemed the stubbornness too was a level of familiar that was tantalizing. She shook her head in defeat, giving Jaana a grateful smile as she finished treating and wrapping up a few more open wounds in the quiet.

"Thank you, Jaana." She said sleepily. 

"Hey, come on, let's get some sleep. Looks like a busy day awaits tomorrow." Aloy was happy to hear true excitement in Jaana's voice. Maybe she did need some help. At least for tonight, she didn't have an objection left in her. As Jaana closed the snug Banuk tent behind them, aloy stretched out on her sleeping mat with a sigh. It was certainly much less roomy than the Nora sleeping lodge. This level of companionship felt strange to her, but she found a comfort in it she wasn't sure she'd ever known before. As Jaana nestled down in the second sleeping mat alongside her, she worried that maybe Aloy wouldn't be comfortable enough, that the house wouldn't feel safe, that she would be uncomfortable and unaccustomed to being so close to someone else in such a strangely intimate setting. She rolled over onto her side to glance at her anxiously, only to find that Aloy had already fallen deep into a dreamless sleep. Jaana smiled. She couldn't be entirely certain about what it was exactly that was driving her forward on her mission with this strange, wonderful girl, but she felt a true sense of fate and anticipation buzzing under her skin.

_____    

[joaquinwhorres]

I HAVE to know what "the scene" was for The Fool! This is a matter of national security, thank you for your cooperation.

I’m taking you back to March 2007 back in my angsty secondary school years.

Before Deathly Hallows was released.

Before JK R*wling outed herself as trash.

Before I participated in any writers workshops or creative writing classes and developed all of my author-ly skills by taking part in Harry Potter roleplaying websites. 

The scene that drove me to write this fic is actually a scene that’s no longer in the fic because I got better at writing and realized the story was better without it. It’s the scene in which Wren kissed George--which originally was Fred.

It is too cringey for me to post the original, so I’ll post the most revised draft before I scrapped it (which is still cringey because it was written in 2015).

*Also, i just want to note that “the scene” that revived the story is actually coming in two chapters. I’ll mark it.

Ludo Bagman was a pretty good commentator, but nothing could beat Fred and George's commentary on the commentary as well as the game. Wren attempted to watch along with her Omnioculars, playing with the dial to speed things up and slow them down, to read the various plays that were being made, but she soon found herself too engulfed with playing with the Omnioculars than actually watching the game. So, when her mother asked to borrow them, Wren gave them away without an argument.

Troy scored the first goal and immediately Wren grabbed George's shoulders, who she was sitting behind, and used them as leverage to jump up and down. He handled it well, only making a small comment about how he was unaware that he'd been turned into a springboard, to which Wren remarked that he was a rather good springboard and might consider it as a career should school not work out.

When Krum pulled a Wronski Feint on Lynch, however, Wren went completely ballistic and started using very foul language to describe both Krum and his mother. Of course, being as vocal as she was, and given the fact that the Bulgarian Minister of Magic was in the box, Wren's mother promptly began scolding her equally loudly, which caused Fred and George to oscillate between fits of rage of Krum and fits of laughter over Wren being admonished.

Things really began to spiral after that when Ireland was awarded a penalty after Zograf's stunt on Mullet, and that caused the Veela to angrily dance again which led the referee to act very strangely indeed, and he had to be knocked out of it by a Mediwizard. Things got very dicey from there when the referee attempted to send off the Veela from the field and Volkov and Vulchanov landed arguing with the ref. From there another penalty was awarded to Ireland, followed by two more penalties for a grand total of four, and that is when Wren got to witness one of the most amazing sites she'd ever seen. The Veela transformed into angry bird-like creatures and began to shoot fire from their hands in a fight against the leprechauns.

"Now, this is what Hogwarts is missing!" Fred called, and Wren laughed before noticing the Quaffle up in the air.

"Look! Moran's got it! He's going for it! He scores!" Wren now shook Fred's shoulders for good measure. She did not let go though because in the next minute Quigley broke Krum's nose with a bludger. "I BLOODY LOVE HIM!" She screamed, her hands digging into Fred's shoulders who flinched and attempted to move away. Wren released him and was surprised that her mother didn't scold her again, but she was too busy jumping up and down. "You boys learn to play like him, and I guarantee I'll marry you. I'll marry you on the spot," Wren said. "But until then he'll always be the best. I LOVE QUIGLEY," They didn't even try to look offended, they just laughed at her. And then Wren caught sight of Lynch. The Irish Seeker had gone into a dive and Krum wasn't too far behind.

"Go! Go! GO!" Wren screamed, grabbing Nora's arm and squeezing it. Nora's own fists were clenched as she waited in eager anticipation.

"Come on!" Fred and George leaned over the railing. Nora was now jumping up and down in anticipation. Lynch ploughed into the ground, and Krum rose up higher his fist held high with a glint of gold in between his fingers. Wren had no time to be upset.

"WE WON!!!" the twins yelled, hugging each other before doing a little dance.

"Ireland! Ireland!" Nora chanted as Wren pulled her into a hug. Wren could faintly hear Aunt Kathleen's flag, and Nora broke away to hug her mother. The twins turned around and Wren held out both her arms in excitement.

"We won!" she screamed before leaning over the chairs and grabbing George's face between her hands, pulling him into a kiss.

To be clear, it wasn't a full out snog. It was akin to a moment that any muggle would recognize from the movies, when a girl or guy says, "I could just kiss somebody!" and then goes ahead to kiss the person closest to him or her regardless of gender. It took until Wren pulled back and stared into George's surprised face that she was still holding between her hands for her to realize what had just happened. Quickly she let go, pushing past Nora and her parents, and over to her own mother, leaving George standing there next to Fred, probably absolutely clueless as to why a girl he'd only properly met a few hours ago had just kissed him. Wren felt absolutely mortified, but if she wanted to play it off as if nothing had happened, she couldn't acknowledge that anything out of the ordinary happened; she couldn't even apologize. Wren threw herself into her mother's arms upon reaching her, hugging her and kissing her on the cheek, and then moved over to her father who took her hands and spun her about. Wren stayed nestled between her two parents, a good distance away from Fred and George, as the players from Bulgaria filed into the box.

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 1 Review/Rundown

This volume is off to a STRONG start if I may say so myself. No big action scenes, nothing to get the blood boiling or freezing over yet, but this is just the first chapter and we have a lot of dreadful stakes and danger ahead of us. This is a setup premiere, and it promises us pain and stress like nothing before. And we’ve all been conditioned to the point that we actually look forward to that. What we got is plenty good, so why not dig in to this succulent appetizer?~

Right off the bat, we get something we knew we wanted but never quite realized how much we needed... A young black haired woman on her knees scrubbing a wood floor. Bandages on one of her fingers and right wrist, modest clothing, and so very little soul to be seen in her amber eyes. Ladies, gentlemen, and that technicolor rainbow in between, we are getting our first look at Cinder’s troubled Cinderella-style past. It’s just this one floor washing scene for now, but we see present day Cinder’s Grimm fingers scratching into the chair in front of her with the same rhythm so we can be pretty confident it’s really her. Hopefully we will get more as the volume progresses, especially with the opening showing her seem to be having trouble controlling her powers. Neo is flying an airship directly up to the giant whale, whom I will continue to nickname Monstro. Concerned by all the other Grimm flying around it, she nevertheless flies along its side and we find there are handily carved out landing pads for ships. Guess Salem modded this beast to be her mobile base. As Neo apprehensively follows Cinder up a staircase, we see these modifications include a throne which the Grimm queen is sitting in awaiting their arrival. This is Neo’s first time actually seeing the woman behind the dark curtain, and I don’t think she was expecting this. What she may have expected even less was that the prideful psychopath Cinder would actually bow down to this woman. Yet bow she does, and Salem greets her with smug condescension, asking if she’s lived up to the responsibility expected of her as Salem’s vessel for the maidens. Has she done as asked and brought a worthy gift for her goddess? Indeed she has, she’s brought her the Relic of Knowledge... and claims she acquired it all by herself, throwing all of Neo’s hard work out the window so she can have all the glory. [Neo will remember that...] But certain poisonous arachnids are unimpressed, as Tyrian emerges from the shadows to say that taking anything from Ironwood is less of a show of Cinder’s skill and more a sign of the General’s incompetence. With a dig pointed seemingly at both Cinder and Neo, he points out that James was not the first person to be outsmarted by Team RWBY and their friends. But unlike Volume 4, Cinder has her voice and claps back at Tyrian, reminding him that according to the Atlesian military radio chatter he too was outdone by Ironwood’s allies. So was Watts, for that matter, and which of them managed to get away unscathed again? Certainly not the good Doctor, and Tyrian agrees that he was a... necessary sacrifice. Speaking of, he sees Cinder brought a fresh face that could be kindling for the fires of their crusade. Salem finally acknowledges that yes, there is someone here she didn’t recruit herself, and she demands an explanation from Cinder. The Fall Maiden of course explains that Neo has powers that will be very useful to them, but refers to her only as an asset, not even a subordinate or teammate. [Neo will remember that...] 

And speaking of the “tools” Cinder has collected, in come Emerald and Mercury in fresh new outfits! I think they both look pretty good, and I especially like Merc’s new jacket with his winged boot emblem on the left side. Emerald looks quite fashionable and I like the necklace, but there’s still a lot of exposed skin for being in Atlas... Of course, some things never change and she excitedly rushes to Cinder’s side, only to be shut down with a single gruff word. Speaking of gruff, Hazel is here with a new look too. His hair’s been shortened/combed back and he has what I can really only describe as a tank top with the sleeves torn open all the way down to near the waist, that shows off the muscles and scars on his arms and up the sides of his torso. It’s a tough look, but again not very winter weather savvy, and I miss the wild man look he had before. Regardless of the new looks, Tyrian has the same old criticisms of Emerald’s loyalty to the ever so incompetent Cinder. He and Watts rained hell (and very cold snow) on Mantle and threw Atlas into chaos, while Cinder merely fixed her mistake from Haven instead of getting new Maiden powers here in Atlas. She blames Penny for that setback, and mark her words she will be going back to rend her limb from mechanical limb to get the Winter Maiden powers... except she won’t be. Salem has decreed no such action, and it seems clear she won’t be doing so for a good while. Cinder tries to object, but Salem exerts her control over Monstro merely by touching her throne and sending a glowing pulse through the entire throne room. Cinder needs to be reminded of the big picture and her very small place in it, so Salem makes a window. This is a game of chess, and Cinder should count herself lucky to even be considered above a pawn. She is still a tool for Salem to use in her own victory, and the only thoughts she should have are how to achieve what Salem tells her to do. Cinder seems to resign herself to this fate a bit, and says that she is indeed nothing without Salem’s help. In a sense, you do have to sympathize with Cinder’s situation. Clearly her childhood had her in a situation where she was forced to do as told and not given much praise or appreciation for it. She probably sided with Salem because she was promised more power than she could have ever dreamed, but now she’s back being stuck in a position of servitude and abuse. And she does what she can to feel strong and in control: pass on that abuse to her own minions. And poor Emerald does not deserve it. At least Mercury has enough self confidence to know he wants to be his own man in all this, and he seems to have the ambition to try and work his way up the ladder for more earned respect. Still, back to Cinder, she’s clearly conditioned to fear any reproach from Salem. Quieted at a raise of her hand, as if knowing that the witch could take away the maiden magic in an instant and she’d be left with nothing again, and just as easily dismissed with a passive wave. To be fair though, that was for everyone, and the others know what she can do to people who piss her off so they scram too. She ominously turns to take the lamp somewhere, but we’ll check in on that at the end. 

For now, we go down down down to a shanty town in Mantle. It’s clearly the slums for Faunus mine workers in the crater, and among them we see a familiar face. Oscar!! He’s sitting by a fire staring off in deep thought, until an old man with badger hands pushes a bowl in his direction and wordlessly indicates for him to sip some. Idk if it’s a hot soup or something, from the view inside we get it looks to just be water but that could be unintended, but Oscar is thankful. No sooner does the old fella walk away than Ozpin pipes in to tell Oscar to be on guard. An airship swoops in overhead, and most of the faunus scurry away (no pun intended). Oscar stands defensively, but the door opens to reveal Ruby!! She and Weiss came to get him, though I don’t know how they found out where he was, and Maria is flying. He gets onboard and we get an aerial shot of snowfall over Mantle followed by a much less pleasant sight. Sabyrs are still getting in through the holes in the wall, and Manticores still swoop through the skies. Oscar berates himself for thinking Ironwood would listen to reason, for so many of his choices ending up being wrong ones, and he clearly blames the current situation at least partially on himself. We see that current situation as people on the streets below continue to huddle around burning trashcans and wood piles for warmth. Ironwood seriously still hasn’t done anything to try and get Mantle’s heat back? Of course he hasn’t, he’s going to abandon them, what was I thinking? Ruby reassures Oscar that he did what he thought was the right thing, they all did. What’s important is that he’s still here. It might just be how hyped up for a certain posse of do-gooders a certain Miss @kdinjenzen has been getting a lot of us over the last few months, but I was genuinely excited to see Joanna Greenleaf come out from around the corner of a building and gesture Maria to land. She rushes the group inside a building and shoots down a camera drone that was about to turn around and spot them before heading in herself. We see sooner than hear May Marigold, coordinating civilian transportation efforts over comms while leaning over a kitchen stove. She’s sending Fiona to transport some folks from one of the sectors on a map we don’t get to see... to the crater. Oh boy, that’ll be something to get into in just a minute. Our girls and boy walk past her into a restaurant dining room. Guess non-essential services really were shut down due to this crisis... okay yeah that’s too topical. The other half of Team RWBY, as well as JNR, Penny, and Pietro, are sitting around tables idly waiting until they hear the doors open and their friends return. All eyes are on the farmboi, and Nora is the first to rise from her chair with a small smile. Oscar braces himself for an energetic tackle hug, or whatever he thinks Nora would be likely to do, but she just walks over and give him a gentle embrace. The poor kid definitely needed that. Ruby and Weiss smile from the sidelines, one of the only shots the two of them share much to my aching shipper’s heart. But it’s fine, this is a time from group joy and union. Blake voices the concerns everyone had for Oscar’s fate when he had run off to confront Ironwood alone, how they feared the worst. Weiss of course is the one to ask how in the world he got all the way down to the slums, but he avoids the question by saying its a long story, and clearly not the only one based on Penny being with them. Internally, Ozpin questions him on not telling the group that he has reemerged in his mind, but Oscar says the two of them have more to discuss first. Instead, he notes the absence of a certain sobering up bird, and that puts a frown on most of the group’s faces. Ruby says they don’t know, last they heard he was with Robyn, but beyond that no news apparently reached them. Clearly they fear he’s dead, and cannot begin to imagine he’s been accused of murder. We only infer this of course, because the convo is cut short by Joanna coming into the room to talk shop. They’re all reunited, now its time to put the group to work helping the people of Mantle. No heat, no military help, just Grimm hovering over the city in a horde unlike any they’ve seen before. Those people need help, and they are huntsmen and huntresses with the skills to provide that help. Ren is the one to question “How?” Ironwood’s not letting people up into Atlas anymore, and Salem’s forces around the perimeter have made escape from the city impossible. Joanna’s solution is to look down, to the crater right under Atlas. It’s not safe, but it’ll be warm and they can better protect everyone if they’re all gathered in one place. The teens seem hesitant, I might even say incredulous, but she assures them that May will send them where they are needed and with their skilled numbers it will be that much safer for the civilians. Their priority needs to be getting everyone into the crater by nightfall, because she believes they’ll stand more of a chance in the slums. As Joanna heads out the door, Weiss gripes that they’ll never sleep again with how busy they’re going to be, but Joanna retorts that you’re either helping or you’re baggage.

I have... some thoughts about the Happy Huntresses’ plan. Yes, evacuation of the cold city seems like a great idea, and getting everyone in a single easy to defend place is sound strategy. But there’s some Atlas sized problems with their choice of location to evacuate to, and I do realize they may not even be aware of the potential genocide they’re setting up. Salem wants the staff, which is currently in use holding up Atlas. If she takes it, as she so clearly intends to do, Atlas will fall. Atlas will fall back into the crater it rose from, where thousands of people are gathered. That is a big SQUISH that I really don’t want to see happen. I get that Joanna, May, and Fiona may not know about the Relic, I doubt even Robyn knows. But we the audience do, and that dramatic irony has us all wincing prematurely at what grim future we hope will not come to pass. Hopefully it won’t come to that, so let’s go back to what conversations are actually being had.

Yang steps up and says that they need to get out there and help the people of Mantle, but Ruby objects and says they need to do what they can for the sake of everyone. Her first thought is on getting Amity launched like Ironwood had initially planned, so the whole world can be warned about Salem being on the attack. They need help, cuz as it stands Mantle and Atlas do not have this handled. Blake, somewhat surprisingly, agrees with Ruby rather than Yang. The Happy Huntresses have a plan for Mantle’s evacuation, they’ve got that under control while these folks worry about the bigger picture. But, Yang points out, Amity isn’t actually finished and ready to be launched. Ruby considers that and turns to the smartest man in the room for an estimate on what it would take to launch Amity at this point. I’m unsure if she means send it up in its incomplete state or power through the process during this crisis to get it 100% complete before then also launching it in the midst of this warzone. Pietro admits they had made some strides in terms of construction and collecting fuel, “all potentially manageable”, so maybe that means it’s close enough to the completed product they had first planned that it can get done as things are now. Or maybe it means that with what they’ve already done its just good enough that they could probably send it up and it’d be okay? Either way, the biggest problem is actually launching it. They need it to be granted clearance from Ironwood’s terminal before it can be launched, such was the nature of its design. Yang rightfully points out the General isn’t about to give that clearance willingly, so this is a fools errand. But Ruby is thinking outside the box about the specific phrasing, and realizes they don’t need the man’s approval, just access to his terminal so they can grant the clearance themselves. That too would be suicide, requiring getting back into the academy... or does it? Pietro reveals there’s another useable terminal, within the main Atlesian military compound at the base of the city. You know, the very bottom of this floating fortress city, surrounded by airships and security drones. Even once inside, there’s a lot of hoops to jump through, more than the good Doctor can wrap his head around in this moment. Oscar notes how this is very convoluted for apparently being the easier option, but Yang rebuttals that it’s straight up impossible and pointless, not to mention they can’t guarantee any help would even come upon hearing the message. This is more than Ruby can take, and she snaps back at her sister. It’s not pointless if it’s warning the rest of the world that Salem will be coming for them next. They need to send this warning.

This is when Yang gets... personal. She brings up the rest of the team’s decision to defer to Ruby’s leadership once they got to Atlas, and how things took a real nosedive soon after that. It’s clear that she’s implying Ruby’s decisions were the reason for their situation being as bad as it is, and you can see the pain on Ruby’s face as that hits her. Some upset looks on the others’ faces show they may have thought similarly but never would have actually said so. Ren steps up and says that helping the evacuation in Mantle is a feasible action they can take here and now rather than a longshot hope. We had seen a short sequence of Yang running through the daylit streets of Mantle on this mission to evacuate groups, and now Ren is in the scene at her side to signify which mission he’s going to take. Likewise, his face visibly saddens as we hear Nora take Ruby’s side about this not just being a matter of helping Atlas, it’s about warning the other three kingdoms so they can prepare for what’s coming. And with that we see her on the rooftop with Ruby where she had been looking up at the base of Atlas. Jaune is thankfully a neutral voice of reason who says they have the numbers to be able to do both, but Ruby is really worried that being divided like this is what Salem wants. Oscar has gotten wiser from his time with Oz in his head, and points out that the division Salem really wants is emotional, not always physical. Disagreements and arguments like this are what she wants, so they need to realize they can be a united group of cooperating minds while still splitting up to accomplish different goals. Penny... has a depressing third option. Let her deliver the Staff to Salem now and hope it will make her leave Atlas before things get worse. Oscar says they really can’t trust Salem to actually do that, and that as soon as she uses it to create anything else... down drops Atlas. Yang acknowledges that at the very least they can all agree turning Penny over to any other forces will not be happening.

Ruby resigns herself to leading a small squad instead of the full team, and asks if Pietro can help them get up to the terminal. He acknowledges they WILL need someone to bypass security, but Penny is the one to offer. I’d like to note that this whole time she’s been almost lifelessly facing away from the group and staring directly forward, and her voice has been bereft of any emotion or enthusiasm. For the cheerful person she normally is, this is heartbreaking to hear. Pietro tries to raise objections, saying she’s too valuable for them to risk anything happening to her, but she looks over her shoulder and firmly repeats herself, Maiden fire burning around her eyes. I get why Pietro is a bit overprotective of his daughter, she was destroyed once and emotionally scarred during Volume 7, plus she now has powers they absolutely can’t afford to lose the use of. But she is her own girl and needs to be able to make her own choices. Coddling her like this won’t help, especially now. Yang accepts this decision with a sigh and heads for the door to start getting down to business. Blake watches her go with a rather pained look, and we see a similar one on Weiss’ face as Yang passes behind her. Team RWBY is splitting up again, and they’re worried. Understandable. Pietro stops her at the door and tosses her a set of keys, which we transition to seeing in that same hand as she’s back in the daytime alleyway with Ren. We pan over to see Jaune and Oscar decided to go with them, and hear Pietro explain there’s some new tools back at his pharmacy that he had been working on for them before the crisis. From the promotional clip we got a few months ago, we know this means the hover bikes.

Heard but not seen is Ren asking Nora where she intends to go, and she affirms she’s sticking with Ruby. Of all people, she had been the one who was the most passionate about helping Mantle, so he asks her about it now, but she says that she’s absolutely saving Mantle. Because she actually believes Ruby’s plan can be done, and so we go back to seeing her on the roof, now joined by Weiss and Blake. Blake reassures Ruby that the group hasn’t been divided where it counts, but Ruby has concerns. Maria chimes in on comms to affirm that she’ll be taking Pietro up to Amity to finish what he can, but that leaves RWBNP without a way up to Atlas. Weiss starts to say she’s got that covered, but is interrupted by someone’s Scroll ringing. Blake, Ruby, and Nora all check theirs, but it turns out it’s Penny who’s getting a call... from General Ironwood. She hesitantly answers, and as soon as Ironwood’s voice comes through Nora starts scowling. Ruby seems rather neutral, but as Ironwood goes on with his very evenly toned request that Penny tell him where she is because he’s worried for her safety and wants to come pick her up, her eyes narrow. She’s been in an abusive relationship before, she recognizes gaslighting. Ironwood says that Atlas needs Penny since Salem is here. Before she can say anything, Ruby comes to her side and puts a supportive hand on her shoulder as she takes her Scroll. Penny’s not going anywhere, she says, not until Ironwood sees the error of his plans and change his mind about helping Mantle. It was a longshot, but at least she went for it. Ironwood starts losing his cool as he berates Ruby for still being hung up on saving Mantle when Atlas is the last hope Remnant has at salvation and Salem’s gathering forces are primed to destroy it. Unless Penny comes back and helps send it high into the sky. If she doesn’t, and Salem gets through their defenses, what comes next will be Penny’s fault. THIS is straight up psychological torment, he is manipulating her and dodging all blame for his actions by pinning them onto a poor girl already going through a crisis of identity. What absolute fucking garbage you are, James Ironwood. Penny retreats into Ruby’s arms, and she embraces her sympathetically. 

But enough of these poor suffering kids, let’s get some poor suffering adults. In an Atlas medical facility, what’s left of the Ace Ops are looking at the corpse of their leader lying cold and pale on a mortuary slab. Marrow is the only one who seems genuinely sad, Elm and Harriet just grumpy. To be fair, that anger could be pointed inward cuz they’re mad they weren’t there to help him in his time of need. Or maybe Ironwood told them that apparently Qrow did it, and they’re pissed they can’t kill him in revenge. Across the hall, Ironwood is watching them from Winter’s hospital room. The doctors have her left arm in a high tech looking cast, maybe it can speed up the healing beyond our normal medical science? Or maybe it’ll boost her strength so she can power through the pain and keep on fighting for the General and his crusade? I was initially worried they replaced the whole arm, given Ironwood’s tendency to substitute cyborg tech for his own human flesh in the event of great damage. Case in point, his burned up hand got the Skywalker treatment. But no, I think this really is just a cast. As Ironwood inspects his new sleek black limb, and the doctors test what Winter is currently capable of with her arms in the condition they’re in, a guard arrives to tell them some prisoners have arrived and are being processed in Stockade B. As the doctors test her right wrist for any tendon pains, and indeed there are some pains, she asks if the prisoners are in fact Robyn and Qrow the soon to be jail birds. He asks the doctors to leave the room, which they do, and Winter assures him she’ll be fine, though her inability to make a fist without pain says otherwise. As someone who got tendonitis in my wrist after a bad scrape on my bicycle, I know that pain. Ironwood thanks Winter for her dedication, and confides that faced with such unprecedented Grimm numbers he wouldn’t know what to do without her. Their hard light shields will hold the Grimm off, but only temporarily. FIRST OF ALL, you have enough money and resources for Hard Light Dust, the rarest and most expensive kind, to be shielding the entire kingdom... but not enough money to give Mantle a decent heating grid that’s not dependent on the SDC????? Or literally anything else that might have helped them now???? Eat the rich and defund the police, folks. Speaking of hot-button political statements, before he can answer Winter’s question about what he plans to do his musings are interrupted by his fellow council members Sleet and Camilla barging in demanding to talk to him. Mass evacuations, declaring martial law? They have several very pressing questions for him, but Ironwood has gone into tunnel vision and says he will be doing everything he can to defend the kingdom, no matter the cost to him or those around him. And he makes that abundantly clear as he strides out of Winter’s room and wordlessly shoots Sleet for daring to call him scared. Judging from Camilla’s screech and the looks on Elm and Marrow’s watching faces, it was fatal. This man is straight up executing his critics, but we kinda already knew this was gonna happen after he shot Oscar off the cliff. Clearly, Camilla will be too scared for her own life to speak up against Ironwood ever again. As the General strolls away, Winter and Harriet share a look through the open door. Harriet seemed shocked, but almost resigns herself to this. She’s in too deep, and as long as she’s loyal she’s got nothing to fear. Winter, on the other hand, let her sister go out into the world as Ironwood’s enemy. Not only is she worried Weiss will be in her boss’s crosshairs, but if he finds out she let her get away with the Winter Maiden then she might be executed for insubordination.

Finally, we get the tearing dripping shot of a portion of Monstro opening to reveal Salem holding the Lamp. Looking into it, she muses how she has questions she wants answered, but she needs the key to how to ask them first. To that end, she holds the Relic out in front of a mystery Grimm that emerged from the fleshy cage she just opened. It gets a good smell of the Lamp, and she instructs it to bring her the man who can show her how to get what she seeks. Oscar is in serious danger...

And so that’s it for Chapter 1! A strong start that doesn’t fill me with despair just yet but is definitely setting up some ways for me to really feel the aster down the line. I won’t review the opening much, because those are usually really abstract and vague about what’s actually gonna happen. We see there may be another encounter between Weiss and Winter now that they’re on opposite sides, and Watts seems to still be up to trickery. Ren and Nora miss each other, and things look particularly bad for Team RWBY. Also we get serious “Penny getting hacked and going evil” vibes, and I really don’t want such a horrible thing to happen to that mecha cinnamon roll. Looks like Oscar really will get captured, and maybe Salem can change her form a little since she has big cool bat wings as she looms over him. The song will take some getting used to, but it slaps hard and Casey is giving it 100% so that’s good enough for me.

Thanks thanks thanks for bearing with me for this long ass post, but I hope you got some joy from it.

[skadventuretime]

hello @herstrayskies, i’m your secret santa! this is so much shorter than i intended because things got Rough this month, but i hope you enjoy this spoonful of yatori regardless. <3 happy holidays and may everyone have a happy new year!

Yato never dared dream it’d turn out this well. His father defeated, Yukine reclaimed, Nora welcomed into the life she should have always had. Bishamon was awake and terrorizing everyone but Hiyori, but he couldn’t really blame her for that. He still can’t believe he’s alive, that they’re all alive, and that now they have a future to build.

A wisp of brown flickers in the corner of his eye. Hiyori, all the more beautiful for being alive and unharmed, sits on a cushion at the far corner of Kofuku’s table, deep in conversation with Bishamon. There are wounds yet i healed with her for what he and Kazuma did, but so far she hasn’t tried to gut him, or avoid him, or put him into too many extra headlocks. Yato takes it to mean all will be well.

And speaking of the future...

Hiyori’s journal. He’d read it, of course, before returning it to her. It was wrong of him to invade her privacy, he knows, but he’d succumbed to the weakness of wanting one final image of her branded in his memory in the hopes that some of it might survive his reincarnation. There was a line about Kofuku tying their plaques together buried between narrations about his whereabouts and actions, something that filled him up in a strange and heady way if he thought about it too much.

The plaque line stuck with him, though, and he’d resolved to talk with her about it after he dealt with Father. It was a coward’s bargain because he never thought he’d survive, never thought he’d be gifted with more time, but here they are and here he must go.

A firecracker explodes to his right. “Oopsie!” trills Kofuku, ends of her hair singed while Daikoku clicks his tongue and wipes a bit of soot from her nose. Yukine rushes over to see if she’s all right, eyes wide with concern and the slight fluster* he always gets when he’s not sure what he’s supposed to do, and Yato’s heart aches with how much he’s happy to be alive. Here, with his family.

Like a compass seeking true north, the word has him scanning the room for Hiyori. He finds her looking back at him and time seems to skitter for a moment, the past and present blurring into an indefinable future that is at once infinite and nonexistent beyond the point of Hiyori’s natural life.

It’s time. Yato gestures upstairs and begins to head up while Bishamon fends off Kofuku’s increasingly drunken attempts to sit in her lap.

A page of Yukine’s newest homework sits open on the small table by the window. There are a few differently colored marks where he and Hiyori had begun teaching Nora what Yukine was learning. Nora is still hesitant, still prone to watching them sleep in the night in case they tried to pack up and leave her. But she is learning, Yato thinks. They all are.

“Yato?” Hiyori hovers by the doorway, the hand on her chest giving away her uncertainty.

“This won’t take long, I promise,” Yato says. He wipes his palms on his tracksuit. “It’s uh, it’s about your journal. I know I shouldn’t have read it and I’ll never stop apologizing for it but there was that one part about Kofuku tying our plaques together and—“

Hiyori, beet red, stutters, “Y-you actually read all of it?”

Yato feels his own face heat up. “I—well yeah, but that’s not the point. You meant the plaques during Kannazuki? The matchmaking plaques?”

“Yes. Kofuku tied them, but what does that have to do with anything?” Hiyori comes into the room at last, hands gripping the sleeves of her sweater.

“I was just um, wondering what you thought about it.” Why does his brain melt whenever he tries to be honest with her?

“That was during matchmaking, so — oh! Oh no. Oh no no no.” Hiyori seems to realize the significance all at once and starts to pace. “Oh no, and Kofuku herself tied them, no no no. Yato, has she ever tied anyone else’s plaques before?”

Yato thinks back to the 80s and cringes. “I try not to think about it.”

Hiyori makes a sound somewhere between a whimper and a laugh. She’s radiant like this, moonlight shining in her eyes. “So does this mean something awful will happen to us?”

A fair question, one Yato has been deliberating himself. “I don’t think so! I mean, technically anything’s possible with her, but this hasn’t been done before that I can think of, a god and a human being tied. Maybe it will cancel out.”

Hiyori still looks miserable. “When I was sitting there after you’d left, I realized how important you are to me and how much I don’t want to lose you. Ever. I’d been so caught up in the external dangers that I forgot something like this might hurt us, too.”

That warmth is back in Yato’s chest, but this time it travels up his throat and down his stomach until he’s sure he’s on fire. “Don’t worry,” he says, drunk on this searing courage. “So what if the goddess of misfortune tied our plaques? I’ll become an even greater god of fortune and cancel it out! You’ll always be safe with me, Hiyori, as long as you want me.”

There’s a moment of stillness in the room, the only noise the sounds of merriment from the floor below bleeding through.

“Do you mean that?” Hiyori says at last, voice serious and hopeful all at once. “You want to stay, you don’t want to run off somewhere else?”

It hurts to hear the fragile hope, already bruised by his carelessness. Never again, he tells himself. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be,” he says, and on impulse tugs her close.

Her hands slide around him until it’s him being pulled in, her hair tickling his nose as she buries her face in his neck. “Good,” she says, lips near his pulse. “This is where I want you. And you know, I believe you. I believe you’ll become the greatest god of fortune yet.”

So Yato holds her, throat thick, and thanks all the gods he knows by name and all those he doesn’t that he has had the chance to grow in her light.

[prettywordsyouleft]

Through His Eyes - Part 13 [Final]

Summary: Losing your sight after your accident was traumatic, and Jaebum’s guilt of knowing it should have been him instead creates an intricate bond between you both, as you overcome adversity and try to find your way in life again.

Genre: angst / romance

Characters: Im Jaebum x female reader

A/N: This story is emotional and raw compared to some of the content on my blog. It is in no way an attempt to glamourise or undervalue the lives of those who suffer from something similar. This story is purely fictional.

Index:  Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13

Jaebum was unable to relax.

Over the last year of your relationship with him, he believed he had mellowed out considerably. You had found yourself when you were apart and only continued to flourish at his side. If anything, you called the shots more than he did.

Which was rather refreshing.

Sometimes he didn’t agree with some of the choices you made, and since both of you were stubborn, it had led to a lot of arguments. Only to end up back in each other’s arms, apologising, compromising, reconnecting.

Jaebum had been adamant about refuting one thing you wished to do, however.

“Come on, like it’ll happen again,” you whined, and he groaned loudly, reaching down to fill Nora’s food bowl and then turning to the breakfast dishes pointedly.

Your arms slipped around his waist soon after, and he paused in scrubbing the plate, your lips finding his bare skin easily. After a series of kisses that led up to his ear, you sighed into him, Jaebum not needing to turn to see the pout now upon your lips. “Just one time, please?”

“I’m not relenting on this,” he announced and for three months, he had successfully stuck to this vow. He couldn’t fathom having you in the same situation as you had been that day. Even if you both agreed that your accident had to happen for you to be this in love with one another, Jaebum still wanted your eyes to see the world that he did. He knew in some sense, you did. Your artwork had been recognised and now you were being offered the opportunity of holding an exhibition. You spent just as many hours working as he did now, sometimes your schedule was fuller than his was. Your paintings and sculpts littered his apartment as much as your own, taking up as much residence as you did in his home.

Not that he minded, he loved whenever you stayed over with him.

But he had to admit your world had grown considerably larger and you weren’t struggling to keep up with it. And that was one of the reasons why Jaebum had eventually been overruled with his protective stance. There were only so many excuses he could use that you couldn’t refute. With the growth of your business-like mind, your tact and articulation exceeded his, presenting him with even a list of reasons why he shouldn’t hold you back from what you wanted.

With the last line of, ‘if anything were to happen, I know you’d be right there’ as a reminder, he had caved, allowing you this one visit.

Jaebum knew that if this went well, you would request more opportunities and that was what accompanied his nerves as he got his makeup done, the realisation that you were dynamic, able to achieve anything you wanted, regardless of how much he tried to ground you.

Once you had taken flight, there was no stopping you.

“It’s going to be fine,” Jackson assured from the seat beside him and Jaebum half-smiled, still unable to accept those words. He had chanted them since waking up this morning, and still, they held no true belief in his mind. He knew he needed it to be fine, a perfect execution with your safety paramount. Sure, onsite accidents had decreased since new regulations came into place after your loss of sight. His company held stringent checks on all places their artists performed now, and Jaebum had been relieved that the concert hall passed all safety checks the day before.

His nerves didn’t dispel, no matter how many reassuring hugs Mark gave him, or firm squeezes of his shoulder that came from Jinyoung. And when you stepped into the bustling environment with the help of his manager, Jaebum’s movement faltered, his eyes holding onto your approach and checking everything that surrounded you as fast as his brain could process.

Why had he agreed to this?

“Noona!” Yugyeom cried as he leapt off the stage towards you, and you grinned, hugging everyone who came your way before slipping into Jaebum’s arms.

You tensed only for a moment, your head snapping up to his, shooting him a reproachful look. “Are you seriously this worried about me?”

“He’s been driving us insane all morning with how anxious he is,” BamBam announced, and Jaebum glared in his younger friend’s direction.

Youngjae chuckled. “I’m convinced you are the most important person in his world after today.”

“Is that right?” you murmured, unable to hide your elation. Jaebum flushed with colour, which you managed to pick up on, allowing him the chance to bury into you. As everyone else moved off, back to their positions in the rehearsal, you gently rubbed circles on his back, soothing his wired body.

Jaebum was exhausted, and he had not even performed yet.

“Relax for me, hm?”

“Easy for you to say,” he retorted, stepping back just enough to look down at you. Now that you were here, Jaebum was conflicted. He felt your effect relaxing some of his physical reaction but his mind was still concerned for your protection.

“If you’re not relaxed then how can I enjoy your performance? You forget how easily I can hear when you’re out of tune or offbeat now. I’ll only be disappointed in myself if I’m the cause to all your fans having a sub-par performance from you.”

He gaped at you. “Y/N, are you playing the guilt trip on me now?”

“No, of course not,” you responded sweetly, a giggle soon escaping you. You patted his arm and then ushered him off. “I’ll be right here, listening on and expecting a good rehearsal from you.”

With a final grumble and farewell, Jaebum headed back up onto the stage, looking out to where you had taken a seat with some of the other staff. You were already animatedly conversing something with his stylist and Jaebum smiled, it was just like you to find a place in any setting these days.

Rehearsals continued for the majority of the afternoon and by the time the last song ended, Jaebum was in a different element. He was no longer fretting about your appearance on set; instead, it had propelled him to put on a better show. The reactions you gave were genuine. He watched all your emotions that you openly showed for each of their songs, laughing with the playful moments in the segments and then rendered speechless with the powerful way he and the six other members performed. Even if it was a dry rehearsal, you were impressed and Jaebum was feeling accomplished because of it.

He knew that taking you on tour now would be something he would no longer fear. Even if something were to occur, you could both face it together.

It was how you had come thus far as a couple, after all.

He didn’t allow himself to focus too much on you when the show actually began. Sure, he would look towards your seat next to where the members’ family sat now and then, grinning when he noticed how bright you looked and the way you fondly held onto his mother’s hand throughout. Jaebum focused on putting his all into his performances, not just for you, or the fans, but for himself as well.

He hadn’t felt this at home on stage since your accident. It was as if having you present could allow him to finally reach for his passion and share it around the arena all night long.

He had been exhausted earlier in the day, but after stepping off stage, he was full of energy.

It was you who was wiped out from the experience.

“I didn’t expect it to take that much out of me,” you admitted as you departed ways from the small gathering after the concert, leaning into his side as he slipped into the driver’s seat of his car. Jaebum glanced at you, leaning in to kiss your head softly. You sighed, your hand moving over his waist and holding him tightly. “It was a success.”

“You told me not to worry,” he reminded you and you sighed, not lifting your head up to face him.

“I’m glad you stopped and allowed me to in your stead.”

He grinned; he had noticed now and then you would slowly look around during the rehearsal, jumping when someone would start banging on something in the stage setup. It would be just like you to take on the universe and ensure him to leave it all to you. He nudged you lightly, starting up the ignition. “Next time, don’t try to take on so much.”

“I’m exhausted mostly because of how many emotions I faced due to your music, not because of that,” you stated, pulling away from your position against him, avoiding the vibration of his chuckles.

Yet you held his hand all the way to your home.

When the car came to stop in the parking lot, neither of you moved to get out of the car immediately, savouring your time together. Jaebum knew your mother would want to have you home tonight. Her concern over you would not always be at ease, even if you were proving to be a capable young woman despite your life changing almost two years ago. It was a mother’s right to worry for her child and in your case, she always would. Allowing you to come out to the concert had been a big thing for her, especially doing so without chaperoning. It was up to him to deliver you back tonight, safe and sound.

That much he would do.

He just didn’t want to say goodbye just yet.

And neither did you.

“What if I went up there, said hello and then came back?”

Jaebum chuckled, shaking his head. “I’ve been with you for most of the day; let your mother have your final hours before bed.”

“If I make an hour, I’m so tired.”

“See, so it’s better you just go home and unwind with her before sleeping. I can come around for breakfast tomorrow,” Jaebum suggested and you let out a small huff of air. He knew that you had conceded, even if you weren’t openly happy about it.

“My bed has space for you,” you attempted and Jaebum leaned over to draw you into his arms, uncaring of the gearbox between you both. “Come stay with me. Mum won’t mind.”

“Not tonight.”

“Why?”

Staring at you, he brushed the hair away from your face tenderly. He couldn’t wait for the time when you would fall asleep and wake up in his arms every day. You stayed over at his whenever he was home, sometimes going an entire week before you trudged back home, albeit with a delighted greeting for your mother when you saw her. You really did love the woman, even if you protested leaving his company every time. It was why he made a point of taking you home even when he didn’t want to let you go.

Jaebum knew your mother had been hinting at putting a ring on your finger lately, her not so subtle answer to allowing him what he craved. Only when you were truly bound to him would she allow you to leave the nest he had first found you within. Back then, your wings were unable to fly to his house, and she had nurtured you more than he could have.

It meant a lot to him that your mother was allowing him the ability to be that strength at your side now.

That’s why he made sure you spent as much time alone with your mother presently. When you moved in with him, he might not be as willing to let you stay away from him.

“You know you have a really bad habit of overthinking and not giving me an answer, Im Jaebum.”

He snapped out of his thoughts with a smile, which you reached out to touch with your thumb. He pursed his lips into you, kissing your hand softly and then undid your seatbelt. “Come on, let me take you home.”

You obliged despite his lack of an answer, swinging your linked arms softly with every step you made together. Soon you were standing outside your apartment and turned to face him, attempting to shoot him a luring smile. He laughed. “I’m not coming in.”

“No? Your loss then,” you tempted and he stepped up to you, hugging you warmly and kissing your forehead. “I’m going to go to bed and dream of someone other than you.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes,” you informed, though you were smiling too much for it to be effective. “Since you don’t want to be at my side tonight, I’ll choose someone else.”

“Suit yourself, Nora will be all too happy to take your spot anyway.”

You huffed again and he laughed. For a moment you were both jovial and then his smile faded, his eyes searching yours.

Even without sight, they were beautiful. The colours, the depth, he had fallen in love with them. In the hallway lighting, he spotted your faint scarring, the lines he had traced upon your face many times over. He had come to love them too.

All of you.

Yet the question remained on the tip of his tongue and he rocked back on his heels, unsure if he should ask it. You placed a hand on his cheek, rubbing it gently. “What is it?”

“Do you ever miss it?”

“Miss what?”

“Seeing the world,” he admitted, watching as you blinked slowly.

And then you shook your head. “No. I don’t any more.”

“Really? Wouldn’t you love to see what’s around you? View the things you haven’t in so long? What about the people you hold dearly in your life now, do you crave to see them at least once more?” Jaebum wondered, holding you back in his arms again. He was confused; he had thought there would be a small part of you that would long for vision of some sort. Some times, on your better days, you could make out vague shapes for moments at a time. That was the extent of your recovery. The doctors had ruled you wouldn’t perform some sort of miracle and gain your sight back.

Smiling again, your hand still on his face shifted, feeling along the strength of his jaw and up his cheekbone. Your fingers lightly dusted over his eyelids that, with instinct, he shut upon your touch there. When you stopped, he reopened his eyes, gazing at you and anticipating your answer.

“I already see enough of the world through you. Why would I crave anything more?”

Leaning into kiss you, Jaebum allowed the tears to fall from his eyes. He never knew what to expect with you sometimes.

But he would take care of his sight as best as he could.

Since he knew you would look through his eyes forever.

 The End.

_________________

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[fc5holidayexchange]

FAR CRY 5 HOLIDAY EXCHANGE 2019 FIC

FAR CRY 5 HOLIDAY EXCHANGE 2019 FIC “Made For Me”

Nora Williams/John Seed. Nora finds her soulmate.

For @farcry5-obsessions

“I honestly had such a fun time writing this. I hope I was able to do Nora justice and I really hope you like it. <3”

Soulmates are a funny thing. There are all sorts of movies about people finding the person they were meant to be with and yet very rarely did it happen. It was hard to find someone with the exact same freckles as you. There were entire websites dedicated to matching distinct patterns together and still the number of people who actually found their other half was less than a million.

Nora had never understood how it all worked when she was little, if she was being honest she still didn’t totally understand it but at this point, she’d accepted it. Her skin reflected her soulmate’s: if she scraped her knee they got a scar; if they broke their nose she woke up with her’s a little crooked.

She wasn’t sure when the first scar had appeared, her mother was never specific but Nora always suspected some of the smaller ones had always been there. Silvery speckles decorated her palms, presumably from where her soulmate had fallen over and over again, causing the wounds to scar over.

If she compared pictures of herself through the years she could see the evolution of the markings across her body. Her nose had got a little crooked when she was 11, a paper-thin scar had appeared on her cheek when she was 8.

She never thought much about it at first, what the collection of injuries implied. It wasn’t until her stepsister had gasped when they’d been changing that she realized the scars were probably something wrong. A smattering of lashes were scattered across her back. It wasn’t too hard to figure out they were the scars from being beat with something like a belt or a whip, though her dad said belt seemed more plausible based on the pattern.

The first tattoo appeared when Nora was 15, a cross on her left wrist. She hadn’t noticed it at first, it hadn’t been until her 4th period when someone asked about it that she realized it was even there.

When she was 18, Nora got her own tattoo, a small black plane on her collar bone. She’d always liked watching planes fly by her house when she was little so it just felt right. The next day there were two more planes alongside it, the trio forming a “V” formation. It’d brought a smile to her face to see her soulmate adding on to what she’d started.

After that, the tattoos came in waves. She’d wake up to five new ones, then nothing for months. There were more planes over the years, lots more planes. She contributed her own occasionally, a crescent moon on one arm, the next year a dove. Her soulmate had added on to that one, surrounded the bird with a halo of leaves and a cherub reaching for it. Just like with the planes before, the addition warmed her heart, she saw it as an unspoken appreciation and solidarity.

They had been the biggest factor in the decision as to what she should major in, of course, there had been other factors but in the end, it came back to her soulmate. No one helped them when they were going through hell so she wanted to do her part and help someone else.

Two weeks before her graduation Nora had woken up to find her knuckles covered in scars. Some of them were barely visible but others stuck out, evidence towards the severity of the injuries she deduced. That same day she’d gotten a peacock feather tattooed on her arm. A symbol of protection, in hopes that her soulmate, whoever they were, might learn this and know that she cared. She couldn’t do much but if she could give them even a sliver of hope she would try.

• • • •

Nora woke up to a heavy throbbing behind her eyes, she didn’t dare open her eyes. Icy water lapped at the side her face, mud and silt soaked into her hair and clothes, covering her arms. The bliss in her blood made her limbs heavy and the world around her sound like her head was underwater, maybe it was. Someone shouted, the sound melding with the rest swirling around her head. The voices grew louder as the drugs from her mind cleared.

When she finally did open her eyes, it was to a dark sky, stars poking out from behind wisps of clouds. The air smelled like pine needles and rain; if it weren’t for the cultists prowling around the edge of her vision like vultures on a carcass she might even say it was peaceful.

She tried to lift her head but the head still spun a bit, her stomach doing flips when she even considered sitting up. A cultist crossed her vision, drawing her attention to another body on the ground near her, she was certain there would be more if she could just look around.

“This one?” The cultist asked, his voice reached her like he was a thousand feet underwater.

“No,” Another walked in front of Nora, his finger pointed at her. She suddenly realized the stars weren’t just in the sky but also swirling and twirling all around her. The man kept eye contact with her as he passed.

“Don’t seem very worthy.”

“It is not for us to judge.” A pause, the cultist above her swam in and out of focus. “Deliver her unto the waters. The Cleansing begins tonight.”

Nora’s eyes fell closed again as she was lifted up, her head slumping forward. The thought alone of trying to keep her head up was exhausting. It felt like a million tons of brick had made itself at home in her skull.

She must have blacked out, for when she came to again it was to muffled preaching and her lungs screaming for air. She opened her eyes to a rippling face above her holding her until ice-cold water that threatened to fill her lungs as it worked to numb her body. Now she wasn’t sure what were the effects of the leftover bliss pumping through her heart and what were side effects from the river’s attempt to freeze her.

“We must wash away our past. We must expose our sins.”

She’d been in harrowing situations before, this should be nothing new. She had been trained for situations like this, well maybe not this exactly. She was supposed to keep a level head, think through the situation rationally, use what she’s spent years learning to find a way to get herself out of this.

Instead, her mind shut itself down. Maybe it was a vain attempt to protect herself from the horror she was living. Perhaps she’d just been through too much too fast and the stress had finally broken her. Regardless, her mind was empty, her body taking over as panic filled her chest and she wailed, her voice lost before it reached the surface of the water.

“We must atone…”

The hands gripping her shoulders pulled her up, her knees threatening to buckle. Nora took a shaking step forward, the cultist holding her up.

“For only then may we stand in the light of God and walk through his Gate unto Eden.”

She looked up to see a pair of lights far off, maybe a car’s headlights, she wasn’t sure. A man, her brain was functioning well enough to recognize his voice as John Seed, stood feet from her. His body obscured one of the lights and the fuzzy, swaying of her vision made it look like a halo around his head.

She was walked forward slowly, her eyes never leaving him as he blessed the newly baptized and spoke passionately from the text in his hand. Each step felt easier until she was almost striding forward only stopping when she was in front of John. He closed his book, looking her in the eye with distrust and contention. She couldn’t say she blamed him, she’d been wrecking hell for the cult and he likely thought it was her fault this had all happened. If Joseph was to be believed it was all her fault.

Nora spared a second to looked down, her eyes catching on the word ‘sloth’ carved into his chest and crossed out. Her heart clenched and a hand involuntarily went to her own chest to cover her own marking, currently concealed by the shirt she had on.

“Not this one,” John spoke, his voice cold, and his arm darted out to stop the man leading her. He took a sure step forward as he handed off his book. His eyes dropped momentarily to glance at her hand before meeting her eyes again. “I’ll deal with her personally.”

“But—“ John cut whatever the man was going to say with a wave of his hand, the other wrapping around her arm and pulling her forwards towards the cars.

Nora was lifted into the backseat. John didn’t speak a word, silently waving off the people that offered to come with him.

“We’re fine. Finish up here. This one needs my personal attention.”

By the time John pulled the car to a stop again, Nora’s world had stopped spinning and the stars in her vision had gone away. John remained silent as he opened her car door and lead her into his ranch. Now that she wasn’t drugged to hell or on the verge of drowning and her brain decided to start working again she only felt confused.

“What am I doing here?” She questioned as the door clicked shut behind her. John’s back was to her and she heard him sigh before he turned back around.

“Those marks on your hand, your tattoos, did you get them yourself?”

“I— no. What’s it to you?” Her confusion turned into distrust, she tried to cover the hand in question with her other only to quickly realize she was putting those marks on display as well.

“Your soulmate’s?”

“Yes…?” Her heart fluttered with anxiety at the direction the conversation seemed to be going in.

Wordlessly, John nodded and reached up to unbutton his shirt. He kept his eyes locked with hers as he dropped the crisp blue material to the floor.

Her heart clenched at the sight, the same marks that hard disfigured and decorated her own skin were perfectly reflected on his. He took a deep breath and she watched the Eden’s Gate symbol on his stomach swell and the trio of planes below his collarbone rise as if they were flying. The scar on his ribs stretched and she didn’t hesitate to reach out, her hand connecting with warm skin and covering the old wound.

“Can I?” John asked after what felt like 10 minutes of silence. Nora nodded and pulled her own shirt over her head so she stood in front of him in her bra. He looked as amazed as she’d felt at the sight. His hand reached out and ran along her arm, thumb rubbing slow circles over the peacock feather there. The other came up to rest over the ‘sloth’ in her skin.

“I’ll be honest, I never expected to meet you.” His voice was quiet, his eyes filled with a cascade of emotions as he met hers once again.

“Neither did I, but here we are.” Nora smiled and for what seemed like the thousandth time in the last five minutes her heart clenched as he returned her smile.

“Here we are.” He repeated, unable to keep the joy from his voice. His composed mask slipped and he pulled her into a tight embrace. He clung to her like she might disappear at any moment and if she was being honest, Nora did the same.

When they finally broke apart enough to look up at each other, Nora raised a hand to cup his jaw. She ran her thumb against a long healed scar on his cheekbone and smiled at how unreal this all felt.

She didn’t wait a second longer, pushing herself up to capture his lips with her own. The two moved in perfect sync until they had to break away again to breathe, their foreheads pressed together.

“We’re soulmates,” John said aloud, a light giggle on the edge of his voice. Nora nodded, her forehead bumping his with each moment.

“We are.”

[calliecat93]

The kids are official Huntsmen/Huntress’ now! Yay!!! Ah, I still remember the days when Ruby was blowing up craters and Jaune was vomiting off of airships. Good times man, good times. But that was then, this is now. It’s been quite a long road to reach this point, especially in V7 alone so far. We’re only five chapters in, but it’s felt like a whirlwind. We ain’t done yet though, and now with our kids’ official Huntsmen/Huntresses, what are they going to get in to? Especially with so much going on with Mantle, Ironwood, and the Council elections? Well, let’s take a look and find out!

Overview

Penny has been assigned as Team RWBY’s alarm clock as she wakes them up for work. We get a nice montage showing the gang’s daily routine. It mainly consists of briefings, supply runs, and various other jobs like Grimm fighting or basic help around Mantle. Like Jaune escorting children to school, which the mothers greatly appreciate! And that ain’t an exaggeration! Oh thirsty moms joke, I knew that you would pay off~ They’re also training frequently with the Ace-Ops and Ironwood has taken Oscar under his wing in hopes of being able to jog out Ozpin. It’s a nice montage, all with a really rockin’ Jeff and Casey song! I couldn’t 100% make it out cause of the talking, but it’s all about after feeling so bad and like life has been in so much disarray, the singers are taking their lives into their own hands, making something happy out of it, and starting a new day. It is awesome and I love it~!

JNR and Oscar are training against, of all people, Team FNKI. Yep, Flynt and Neo are back and we get to see their teammates Kobalt and Ivori. I… didn’t care about FNKI back in V3 and still don’t, though Neon’s design is nice. But not much to say aside from Neon successfully pissing Nora off more than I think she did Yang. That is saying a LOT. Still, it’s a nice scene but JNR has to pass on lunch cause they’re still bogged down with work. Which makes sense, but we’ll talk about that in the review. But Ruby’s starting to feel the fatigue as she, Penny, Qrow, and Clover are en route to Amity Arena for a supply drop. Poor girl can barely keep herself awake, mainly cause of boredom but she’s gotta be feeling the exhaustion from so much Huntress work by now.

Penny though is as perky as always and happy that she can embark on an official mission with Ruby. You know, a friend! This gets Ruby’s attention as she asks Penny if she’s made any other friends since the Fall. Sadly, Penny’s been so busy since being rebuilt/made Mantle’s protector that Ironwood pretty much told ehr that she has no time for friends. Which is just… depressing, especially when you recall how Penny wanted friends back in V1 and wanted to stay at Beacon. When Ruby asks how she feels about it, Penny expresses how she wishes that she could both do what she wants and what she needs to do, which is relatable as Hell. In the back, Qrow and Clover are playing cards with Clover talking about how well-rounded Ruby and the kids are. Which makes sense since they had Qrow to look up to, though he shoots that down. Clover notices Qrow deflecting the compliment, and expresses how he shouldn’t do that since he still helped the kids get to where they are. Even more than he may realize.

Things come to a halt, however, when they reach a roadblock. The gate is closed off and being blocked by a pair of women. One is the lamb girl from the last episode, who the credits reveal is named Fiona Thyme. The other? Well, this marks the first in-person appearance of the long-awaited Robyn Hill. Why is she stopping them? Well, as it turns out, the military has been making construction equipment/sources meant for Mantle’s worn-down protections due to needing them for Amity Colosseum, and Robyn wants to know why. That little tidbit clearly has Ruby taken aback, but that’s another thing we’ll discuss int he review. But since no one can go into the real details about the arena, they give Robyn no answer. Just then, Penny bursts out of the van, telling Robyn to recall her girls that were trying to break into it. Robyn does so, allowing the van to proceed forward. But if Clover won’t directly give her an answer, then she’s going to find out herself…

Back at Atlas, Weiss is training with Winter, who critiques her Summoning in a way that only she could. But nevertheless, Winter is happy to see how much that Weiss has grown and that she successfully left their family name behind instead of clinging to it as she once did. She’s hoping that she’ll stay with Atlas, but Weiss is hesitant. While she’d be grateful, she still is unsure if Ironwood can be fully trusted and that even if he thinks that he is, he isn’t doing the right thing. Given Mantle’s current state and us now knowing that their resources are being pulled, it’s hard to not blame her. Winter does admit that Ironwood hasn’t handled things perfectly, but she still trusts him, and she believes that he fully trusts her. Why is she so sure? Well, she takes Weiss to, of all places, a hospital. They go to a heavily armed, monitored, and guarded area and Winter has Weiss watch from a window as she enters the hospital room of an elderly woman named Fria. The Winter Maiden.

Later, Winter tells Weiss of how Fria could die at any moment’s notice, and as such only she is allowed to see her. Weiss quickly puts the pieces together. Yes friends, Winter is being pegged as the next Winter Maiden and has been since the Fall of Beacon. Weiss is quite taken aback by how her sister has seemed to accept the fact that Ironwood groomed her entire military career for this, with WInter admitting that she wasn’t happy at first. But once she thought about it, she realized that with the Maiden powers, she could do a lot of good for Atlas. For Remnant. Is it ideal? No. Did WInter’s life get decided for her? Oh Hell yes. However, she’s ultimately decided to take it, and make it her own choice. She’s choosing to b the next Maiden, and to make that legacy her own regardless of how that legacy came to be.

Just then, Atlas broadcasts a live statement being made by Jaques. So… you think that you hate the man already? Think that there’s no way that we can hate him even more? HA! Jaques announces that due to the embargo affecting his business, he has shut down all nonessential SDC operations within Mantle. He won’t reopen them until he’s elected and able to lift the embargo. You heard that right folk, Jaques is robbing people in his employ of their jobs to essentially blackmail the citizens of Mantle into electing him. When the transmission ends, all Hell breaks loose. Weiss and Winter are stunned and the episode ends as we see riots break out all across Mantle. As Winter notes, the spark needed to burn the kingdom down has been ignited.

Review

Well, THAT took a turn fast!

Ho boy, where should we start? Well… let’s go with the Winter Maiden first. There’s been a LOT of speculation about her with the popular opinion being that it was Mama Schnee. I felt that wasn’t true because it would have been idiotic for none of them to tell Weiss that in Chapter 2, and it is now debunked. There’s some speculation that Fria is based on Freja, the Norse God of Love, which… well...who else in RWBY do we know of who are based on Norse mythology? Hmm? HMM? It’s still too soon to say, but Sam Ireland (Nora’s VA) DID say that some Nora backstory was upcoming, so if the theory is true… well… yeah, that’ll be a thing.

Not surprised about Winter being pegged as the Winter Maiden, and not just cause of the name. We’d all been expecting she either was or was going to be for a long time now. But it’s just… sad. While I like that she took her fate and is going to make it her own, in so many ways she’s in the same place that she tried to escape when she left Jaques. She had her whole career groomed for a fate that she got no say in. It’s like with Pyrrha, only with Winter having already gone through the acceptance process and not having nearly as short an amount of time to decide to go with it. And I not only get the feeling that she’s not gonna get the powers or not have it long), but that when she does make her own decision for her own life… it may very well be the final one. Pray that Cinder doesn’t get near her, is all I’m saying.

Okay, let’s talk about the growing Mantle problems. So we find out that resources needed to repair Mantle’s protections have been stripped for the Arena. This looks really bad on Ironwood for at least not putting something out to explain why. I know that he doesn’t care about his image, but due to that, he’s really making things worse for Mantle. The fact that Ruby is clearly surprised by this fact also means that he didn’t tell RWBYJNRQO this tidbit despite assigning most of them to help Mantle. It may seem minor, but this is the cause of many of the Grimm attacks swarming Mantle, So yeah, telling them that detail and trying to work out a solution should have been a priority. It just makes Ruby’s decision to not fully trust Ironwood yet all the more well-founded if Ironwood isn’t providing all the info, despite how he claims that he wants to be apparent with them.

But it’s not just that. Because of Ironwood focusing his armies on Atlas, Mantle has such weak defenses. The few soldiers in the city you can see run for it when the riots break out. Penny is the only one among those forces capable of doing something, and due to it, Ironwood has stripped her of ANY chance of a normal life. She can’t make friends. She can’t go to school. I doubt that she can see her father all that much. Ironwood is treating her as only a weapon, not like a person which is just horrible. Penny seems to have just resigned herself to it and put on an optimistic facade, though you can tell that she isn’t happy with her position when confronting Robyn. She isn’t happy with the situation at all. She knows that Mantle is suffering and is trying so hard to help in the limited capacity that she has, but it can only do so much. Penny may have survived Beacon, but she is in exactly the same place that she wanted to avoid. It’s why she had her plan to stay at Beacon that hee death went and screwed up. It’s just… sad to watch.

This spreads to the others as well. Through the montage, we see them working constantly. By the end, we see them tired and falling asleep at briefings and Ruby in the supply van. Ruby begins with her usual amount of high energy but is clearly worn down by the time of the mission despite her being the only one awake still at the end of the montage. JNR can’t hang out with Team FNKI or get lunch due to the frequent missions that pop up. All of their focus has to b on Amity Arena, the Grimm, and other random tasks due to the low number of forces to do those jobs due to being on standby. 

More or less, Ironwood is subjecting them to the same exhaustion that she’s subjecting himself and forcing essentially an army-sized amount of work on a small number of people, including recent graduates. Now Huntsman/Huntress work is demanding, but it’s just too much and eventually, it’s going to push them to exhaustion and not be at full strength. Which when the Salem info goes public, them not being at full strength is going to be very, very bad. At least they’re training, which will help them get stronger, but that’ll mean nothing if they’re too tired to channel it.

Mantle is in a very bad spot. For all his talk fo wanting to help them, Ironwood’s doing a shit job and his lack fo care about his image is going to make the people mistrust and hate him. THey’re not going to trust the military to protect them from Salem. Worst? Jaques has taken an even larger leap to being utter garbage and is now pretty much blackmailing the city to either vote for him, or be unemployed. It is a despicable act and has caused the city to break out into chaos. Ironwood’s likely not going to issue a statement or anything, so it only makes them hate him more and blame him for their predicament either alongside Jaques or even instead of Jaques, the person actually responsible. It matches so much currently going on in RL and it’s scary but accurate at least. Considering that the next episode is supposed to happen at a political rally, it’s only going to get crazier.

But speaking of, we FINALLY meet Robyn! Yay! So far? I like her! She seems like a confident, friendly individual though of course she’s not opposed to resorting to theft ala her inspiration of Robin Hood. She is fully aware of the problems going on in Mantle, but she, of course, is unaware of why. But she’s clearly Hellbent on finding out, and her pursuit of this along with her own push for Council are gonna be interesting to see. I can see her being a great opposing force to the heroes, though at least she seems noble. Her design, as well as the other Happy Huntresses’, look good and her being voiced by Cristina Vee (Marinette in Miraculous Ladybug)? Bless. I’m looking forward to seeing more of her, especially if she does uncover the truth. Now THAT will be interesting.

The montage was fun, especially with the badass Jeff and Casey song. The pacing was both fast and slow but balanced well, and it introduced a lot of good things. Robyn and her gang, the Winter Maiden, furthering the political problems in Mantle, it truly feels like we’re not in Act Two. Eddy’s knocked his episodes out of the park so far, especially with the beauty of the Thirsty Moms joke. I fully believe that he did that just to mess with Miles, and I am forever grateful~ WHile I don’t care about Team FNKI, it was nice to see them pop up and see the two that we didn’t previously. The training session was fun. The score was good, especially the instrumental of The Path to Isolation that played when Weiss and Winter talked. Nice talks between Ruby and Penny, as well as Qrow and Clover and the confirmation that Qrow indeed quit drinking makes me happy. Just a lot of good here. I like it~

Chapter Six Predictions

We’re probably gonna see more of the gang’s growing fatigue considering that the chapter is meant to give them a day off. It’s also supposed t take place at a political rally, so expect more chaos there. I imagine that the rally is for Robyn, who’s likely going to take Jaques’ recent order and use it to try and convince the people to elect her so that she can fix it. We know from the thumbnail that Ruby and Penny will be there and I’m hoping that means we’ll also see Pietro and Maria. I hope for the latter at least, God do I miss her.

This could also lead to the Robyn vs Tyrian fight that’s int he opening, or at least the beginning of it. Which heck yah! I am SO ready for that! Hard to say what else may happen though. Maybe we’ll see more of Ruby struggling with her decision to hide the truth, especially with Mantle only getting worse. Maybe we’ll see more of her and Oscar since we still don’t know how he took Ruby’s explanation, but I get the feeling that he is the one least happy with it. Either way, ti’s probably gonna be an insane episode… as if the others haven’t been XD

Episode Stats

Favorite Character: Robyn Hill and Winter Schnee Favorite Scene: Weiss and Winter scenes Least Favorite Scene: JNR+O vs FNKI, but only because I don’t care about FNKI Favorite Voice Actor: Cristina Vee (Robyn Hill) Favorite Animation: Neon’s updated rainbow effect Rating: 10/10

Final Thoughts

So far, this is my favorite episode! Great scenes and discussions, nice plot developments, good character intros, and another badass song. It was funny, dramatic, and just a fun watch. V7 has been fantastic across the board so far, and ho boy it doesn’t look like it’s going to drop the ball any time soon. There is so much that I am excited about due to this episode! Once again, Eddy knocked it out of the park and I think that he is a very welcome addition along with Kiersi cause this volume has just been great! Love it~!

[jess-the-vampire]

Sky And The Forces Of The Multiverse, Chapter 29

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"Judas?", Nora sat up in the gardens the next day, the concern in her voice was obvious as she spotted the tall young man, Judas looked stressed alright, in fact she wasn't sure he actually slept that night at all. His dark hair was messier then usual and all of his eyes were struggling to stay awake, but despite his appearance he headed towards her anyway. Nora's brows furrowing and wishing she had the time to make something that would help him feel a little better. Judas himself headed over and put his hands in his pockets, struggling to keep himself from toppling over as he tried to figure out how best to word this, he was so messed up he wasn't even doing he regular exercise or focusing on his coronation. He smiled at nora, trying to laugh off his current state but she didn't smile back, meeting him with shy and sad light green eyes. "Nora....thanks for meeting with me...listen....You're trying to help angel's mother...has.....she moved since you've been down there together...?".

"No, she's not supposed to be able to....judas...is everything ok? I-If it's about me helping angel instead of you i'm still working with the notes you gave me from your dad, his mom is just.....so...we don't know much time she might have...so i've had to put so much focus into her...I don't mean to-". But he shook his head, "No no, it's ok...I'm not mad about that, i've been dealing with waiting for cures for 17 years, a little more time can't hurt as long as...something else doesn't happen...". He took a deep breath, "Nora....we're worried she's...the masked person....". Nora raised an eyebrow at that, before her face shifted and she became instantly scared, "But...that would mean...angel and his father would know she wasn't sick and doing this and...". Judas nodded, putting his hands carefully on her shoulders, "Angel's spells returning, angel's weirdness lately...globgor sighting her around their kingdom, the fact they're a magic user, that they paused when they saw me...because angel's parents love me....the fact they targeted the three of us's kingdoms specifically! Sky brought this up to me a few nights ago and I can't let it go....especially if she's staying right inside the castle..". Nora was wordless, completely still in fact. "Nora i'm not trying to scare you....but.....i'm worried and i want help....we need definitive proof if we're to know for sure...", nora tugged at her slimy hair in response and took a seat on the nearest bench, processing the whole thing,"I-I wanted to help because I almost lost my mom...and now i'm being told his mom might have been the reason I almost lost her...". Judas suddenly felt a little guilty, maybe he should've gone easier on nora about something like this. Though Sky didn't exactly make this idea easier on him either. "I just...I can't sleep with the idea she could just....hurt you or sky...it's unsettling for me and....I can't be sure without more evidence...". Nora seemed to understand just fine, but she was at a loss for words, though she did seem to manage to pitch out something. "But...if she's not sick....why would she take my book? That book was all my medical research and everything...but she has no use for it if she's just fine right?". She did have a good point, seems there was a little more they had to be missing in terms of what they were up to, the demon clamping his hands together and hoping for everyone's sakes his arm didn't get any ideas. "I think we should confront angel about it...". "Confront him?". "Me, you and Sky, together....angel sucks at lying so we should hopefully get an answer from him but...I think we need to talk to him and see what he knows. We know her's been around his kingdom, there's something fishy with him regardless....we just...if something's happening we need to ask him sooner then later...i don't think....I don't think he wants to be apart it if he is...but....she has attacked all of our kingdoms, we should be the ones to confront him about this...". "You're suggesting going up to him and asking him to spill? Maybe you should talk to your parents about it first-". "I wish that was an option but if we told our parents, and we turned out wrong...we'd be in serious trouble on many different accounts....at least in this case if we confirm it with angel we don't have that risk and if we are on as good terms with him as we feel we might have an easier time getting him to talk...", he wasn't wrong, accusing a sickly queen of not being sick and robbing kingdoms, not to mention using her own son for this to plan out is pretty heavy. "So.....how exactly are you going to do it....judas....are you sure you're ok?". His shoulders sagged, hands wiping over his face, "No...I don't think so...I think everything is getting to me more then it used to...my dad told me what happened to me, then I hear from landon something....important, and now i'm being told my friends could be at risk? I can't help it, there's so much being thrown at me and i'm trying to be cool about it but instead i feel like i'm on the urge of falling apart.". Nora placed a hand on his shoulder carefully, "Judas...". "I'm supposed to be a leader and to handle everything maturely and right now i'm just....i don't know who to trust....I just know i want to make sure no one gets hurt...", he instinctively touched his right arm, "I-I've been thinking too much about how my arm....attacked that suit or armor...there were...bite marks....i've never seen my arm bite anything before....but it bit it....somehow....". Was he...shivering? He desperately tried to calm down as nora pat his backside. "Judas....maybe me and sky should talk to angel, or bring sunny....you don't have to-". "I....Sky wanted me to spend some freetime resting and relaxing...but....how can i relax with this...step back from my friends being in possible danger? I'm having a hard time relaxing nora, i can't just step away and take a break...there's always so much going on and it always puts more and more on my shoulders...", she removed her hand off him as he continued, "You have expectations from your parents and your own set of issues but you didn't have to worry about your arm attacking you or the risk of your friends not being as trustworthy as you thought...these things are just....really important to me...". "Judas...". "And i'm not trying to hurt you with that! It's just a situation i don't think is easy to solve for me...it's pretty hard to find someone who knows how i feel...". Nora sighed before leaning against him, head on his shoulder and she almost felt tempted to move it straight away, but judas seemed perfectly content with this. "I'm sorry nora....there's so much happening and I'm a little out of sorts but...I'm not backing down...we have a hunch and it's a good hunch....we should take advantage of it and at least question angel. If he knows more then he's letting on like Sky said he was, then we owe it to confirm that for sure...especially now...". "But we've spent so much time with him recently and nothing...he acts like he normally does....doesn't he? It could be a false lead judas..like the ones pointing to sky". Her green eyes blinked up at him and as she peeled away from his shoulder she felt embarrassed at the residue from her hair now coating his neck and shoulder, not that the demon minded. "Well as far him acting normally, We kinda think he is.....but recently he's been a little more sickly then he used to be, there's something up he's not telling us...but...we need to do something...". "Angel is more open...?". "Angel kinda never feels the need to usually lie to anyone, he usually kinda is open about how he feels on anything and everything, he kinda says how he feels to your face and means it. Then again, we can't speak as experts on him...it's just how he's always been around us...", she nodded before standing up, making the demon wonder if he said anything wrong. "Maybe then...this could all be a coincidence? Her might've been around his kingdom but it doesn't mean she knows angel, angel could be sick but maybe he's really sick....angel's species might be getting their magic back but maybe it's the doing of the high commission or something...". "It all feels like too many coincidences for it to not have some merit....we gotta try nora, don't you wanna know for sure who attacked your parents? I don't think it'd be easy to sleep in the same room with her if you weren't sure...", he stood up as well and nora turned to face him, "Ok....I'll help....but....just be careful, you might make him upset...his mom seems to just...mean a lot to him...". He nodded, giving her a reassuring pat on his shoulder and looking around the garden, "We'll try...". She faced towards the ground, her shoulders sagging, "Judas....whatever's wrong with your arm, I promise you...i'll figure it out....". Shy hesitated, before quickly pulling him in for a quick hug, much to judas's surprise, though he seemed more relieved by it then anything else, "You won't have to deal with this much longer...I promise...". - "Oh, why Luna, it's good to see you!", eclipsa smiled as she finished cleaning up her tower, the blonde crossing her arms as she entered. "I hear you're becoming quite the knight of this universe aren't you? I mean i don't think you were intending to draw this much attention to yourself but at least you're doing a good job-", but luna grumbled, "I'm here to talk about that necklace you gave me when i passed out that day, it repents dark magic....right?". "Well of course, I mean,well more specifically it wards off magic from controlling a specific something or someone but-". "You KNEW something about that and said nothing, why?". Eclipsa paused at that, fully facing the teen and twiddling her finger together, "Dear it's not something against you, believe me...but it was something better left off not saying. When people around here think of that kinda magic, they tend to point fingers towards me, so i thought it was better left as something me and globgor handled ourselves untill we have enough evidence to prove it hadn't come from me, besides...we don't trust the commission to not point fingers without evidence...regardless of if they're supposibly changed or not." "But you knew what we were doing and still said nothing...". "Says the one who was under the impression it was my fault...". Luna gave her a stern look, but eclipsa still smiled. "Dear....come now, you're not exactly the easiest person for anyone to get along with, even back where you come from it seems...". oh right, eclipsa has seen into her thoughts before, any and all privacy she had with the others was completely lost on this woman as the blond hugged her shoulders. "You....didn't spill anything to the rest of them did you? I value my privacy and i would prefer if the others didn't know me from head to toe...it's already bad enough i spilled to sky about ashton..". "And you didn't wipe her memory? I thought you were all about that?", was eclipsa mocking her now? She was wasn't she? She had that kinda voice, almost as if she took great joy out of the girl's stress and misery. And boy was luna not happy about it, having a slight edge over the others made her life so much easier, even back home no one went into her mind and learned her most personal traits, but eclipsa? She never felt so peeved with anyone since she arrived here. "Look i was too caught off guard i didn't even think about it, though pulling my wand out in public wasn't a good idea either..."., she took a seat on eclipsa's sofa, still not impressed, "As long as she doesn't look too much further into it hopefully she'll forget, judas's knack for being well....judas might keep her away.". Eclipsa was still smiling, taking a seat in front of her and clapping her hands together, "You two seem to open up well to each other....don't you?". "He's got a good head on his shoulders, we seem to connect easier in most places then with a lot of the others, celeste and landon are frustrating, galexia doesn't listen, sunny is....nevermind, judas is the only one i've been able to properly work with....". The former queen snorted, "Frustrated to have been seemingly outmatched by someone younger then you? Oh come now, even in your timeline it seems star was still a master of magic at a young age...". "I've been practicing endlessly and preparing to become queen since i first came into this world, it took me years to master so much of the magic I do, and this silly younger girl is able to do better then me and i just don't understand it...she's not like my mom, she's....much stronger it feels like...", Eclipsa shrugged and relaxed in her sofa, sighing, "Being the perfect queen isn't all it's cracked up to be dear, you seem to really strive for perfection but well...seems perfection has made things harder for you...". "Not back home, back home i'm well respected and a top fighter...". "Judging from the outburst at sky, doesn't sound like it.....not to mention you and your moms....". "That's none of your concern...", she was starting to lose her temper now if she hadn't before. "No but, honestly you probably should open up and talk about it...because seems like it's making this mission for you more difficult, hard to stay in the shadows when you want so badly to impress your own mother you are the most recognizable knight on her team.", luna stood up, "Don't talk to me about my mother...you wouldn't understand, I did everything back home to impress my parents, i promised them  to be the best queen they'd ever see and reach measures no queen has done before..". "Perhaps, but did you ever consider that maybe your mothers just wanted you to be a child, their daughter, just a little longer....?". Luna froze. "Dear, you push yourself too hard for their love...when they never needed you to push so much in the first place...they just wanted you to be with them. You're too stiff, you seem to turn everyone away, your parents, ashton...". She gave her a knowing glare, "You lie to the others, you say mean things, it's no wonder everyone's having a hard time with you....sweetie, this isn't your timeline, I know this is far out of your comfort zone but you can't expect to be in charge and control everyone like back home...". "You are not from my timeline, don't pretend to know me...". "I'm not pretending, seeing into your mind just kinda.....makes it easier to understand a person, sweetie, my mother was like you...strict and strong....but she was also loving and caring despite everything she was and...", she looked off to the side, "..did...". The blonde was still mad but her shoulders eased, "I can't be vulnerable like that, back home they need me back there and i can't imagine what a mess it might be without me around to help...". "You care sweetie...as much as you try not to..". "I care because it affects me, I...I need to get back home and this entire situation and these people are not making that easy on me....I've never had this much trouble in my entire life, and i spent a year practically tracking down two teenage thieves who lived in the woods and had no magical powers whatsoever!", She threw her hands up in the air and sighed before summoning her strange wand from it's disguise. "This is no joking matter to me eclipsa, I do truly need to go home...". "And i don't doubt that, but you seem utterly miserable being here, these girls technically are your sisters, no telling if you'll see them again when you hopefully return....and i kinda think they wish you'd get to know them before that happens...". the older girl tossed the wand in her hand, flipping it with ease, "You're trying to guilt me eclipsa, c'mon now, you don't think in my dimension we don't know about you...or that you like to get in people's heads....do what you want them to do?". "Yes, it's called helping you become a better sociable person, luna you don't just want allies...you want friends...you need friends out here, people you trust like judas. Dear, I only care so much because i've had to deal with the responsibility of being queen before and how tough it made my social life, being pressured into marriage, not being with who i loved...having the world turned against me. You're going to lose the trust of everyone whose ever cared about you and it won't be pretty....the tensions you have at home are already bad enough.". "No, stay out of my business...do not mention my parents, ashton, any of them to me again....", she pointed her wand threateningly at the old queen, her gaze was stone cold and most of those who had seen it would trembled at their feet, eclipsa was not one of those though. If anything she seemed disappointed with a sigh, "Well, if that's how you feel, luna dear....just be careful, at the very least think about your actions from now on, i'm sure you're trying not to have another slip up aren't you...". Luna growled. "Oh and for the record, that boy is a looker, i hope things work out between you two", she winked as luna put down her wand and have her a grossed out looking face before practically storming off, only stopping at the door as her wand transformed back into it's ring disguise. "Whatever is happening here, someone is using some dark magic, we need to take serious action if that's the case, especially if something like this happens again anytime soon...", she glanced at eclipsa with her shiny blue eyes, her gaze sharp enough to pierce through a heart. "I always get my target and i always complete my mission....this is my objective and i have to focus on it, there is no point in getting too attached to people i won't see again when i have people back home who need me, you tried...but let me be and do me a favor...when someone almost gets possessed, tell us that's what almost happened!". She headed out fast, leaving the queen to watch her her direction and sigh to herself at the girl's stubbornness. "You tried boo..."., globgor lifted up eclipsa's hat and looked off to where luna left, "I don't think you can parent every single one of these girls, that one especially seems too much of a pain to deal with. I don't think you'll be able to convince her much of anything....". Though the queen didn't seem to mind as much, "Give her some time, she might get it eventually, just between you and me though, i think she's my favorite of sky's new sisters...she's fun.". "You think she'll do anything irrational?". "Oh yeah, we should make sure she doesn't do anything awful...she hasn't gone off the rails so far but if she does....well we don't need meteora situation...". The couple exchanged looks before smiling, knowing exactly what the other was thinking. - "Hello Fae...", The small demon turned her head away from her work to see the appearance of celeste landon and....a small demon girl who was practically standing on her tippy toes from how giddy she was. Celeste growled as she looked around the stable, watching for any onlookers as landon stepped forward and sighed, "Sunny wanted to come and talk to you herself, we were going to get an update by ourselves but she's...kinda convincing...". Fae's eye traveled to focusing just on the excitable demon girl, who chilled herself down and placed her hands on her hips. "I'm always just happy to meet new people! Plus you seem really cool!". Fae's pretty neutral expression didn't change, a horseshoe falling down nearby during the awkward silence. Landon just decided to step in and get to the real meat of the situation however, "Anyways we wanted to talk more about the note you got asking for advice....is there anything you can remember about it?". "Actually we just came to see if you've heard anything through that grapevine of yours...", the prince mumbled, "Sunny was the one content to know more about the note despite me saying it might be a lost cause, celeste did suggest time travel but the likelyhood father time lets us use that wheel is minimum since the last time he used it led a thief down there and made things WAY worse. So yeah, look, just let us know if you found anything out and i guess if you wanna help sunny...". "What brought this up?", her eye directly looking at the girl about her age. Sunny stepped forward, nervously messing with her hands, "Well, i mean, you mentioned to them about what was on it, but we- I was hoping you maybe knew what it was made from or what it looked like because well...we got a few suspects and we kinda wanna narrow it down, the note is just kinda too good of a clue to overlook...". She gave the girl a sweet smile that fae snorted at, "It's been awhile since i saw it, the paper was just...kinda parchment...could be from anywhere...and i don't remember the handwriting all that much...it was fancy looking i guess...". "You guess?", the brunette stepped forward, next to sunny, "C'mon, you found a huge chunk of evidence, we kinda need you to remember something about it if we're going to get anywhere with any of this, we've been in circles long enough. Like sunny spent hours hanging out with that creepy spider prince to investigate him or something and found nothing, you say you're super unlucky but so much of what we could use just drops into your lap". The mention of the spider boy made the demon turn back to sunny, "The spider prince? Prince Angelus?". "Is there another one?". "Everyone in the underworld always mentions how much of a trouble maker he has been for years, why is he suddenly hanging out with you all? He's pretty much banned almost everywhere and doesn't queen butterfly hate him or something?", the blonde quickly intervened, trying to explain, "There's a lot going on up on the surface but angel's really not that bad i promise, he just needs help, look it's uh....there's a bit of a target on his back kinda and-". "Oh so you all think he did it." "Well...". Fae stood up, brushing off her dress, "I mean, that kinda makes sense but you all have also told me the culprit has amazing magic skills, knows about the tunnels probably, has the power to posses others, and all kinda of nonsense...does someone like that prince seem able to do all that? Like doesn't he know one spell? If you ask me the culprit sounds more like a demon then anything. Everytime i hear things on him I hear about how useless he is and how he's just a pain overall, like why would anyone suspect him of anything?". "We sorta have someone who saw her around his kingdom?". "Yeah but people have seen them everywhere, the woods, mewni, the underworld....what if they stole from the arachfords? You guys seem so eager to convict the dude, i mean, he's a pain but like....isn't everyone you know a suspect kinda? You need more solid proof, like if you wanna know the truth, dig it out of him or something, that's what my family tends to do...if we demons accused everyone for every random thing and decided they were the culprit the underworld would be in more destruction then it is...". "Is this because-". Fae gave landon a dirty look, "Look, i get blamed a lot, usually because it's easy to blame the girl with bad luck on anything bad that happens, which is an easy out for anyone trying to get out of a situation. Oh, did you break something expensive, it was clearly because of me! I'm sorry i don't have the note to help you out but maybe if you guys are suspicious you should go to his kingdom yourselves somehow, or like...find out if he's hiding anything? Like his family doesn't have the gulls to go after you, Queen and King Lucitor would destroy them on the spot". "Well it is a common idea that maybe they're working with someone and not on their own, i mean, we did see him and that lady in the same room before, so he'd most likely have to have a partner, but that would still mean he was responsible for a lot of this so....well it's kinda the same thing.", fae looked between the three of them and sighed, "Fair enough, but honestly who in their right mind would use him as an ally? He seems too wishy washy honestly...especially considering he isn't allowed anywhere...". She quickly snapped her fingers and sighed as a notepad appeared in them before shoving it in the prince's hands, "Here, write some ideas down, maybe it'll help you brainstorm or something....like write down a list of suspects, what you know and don't know, or just burst in on the dude and get answers...i dunno. Like if you were asking for any updates on anything i don't know anything else so...yeah...", she started heading off, leaving the three in the dust as she got back to work as sunny reassured them with a grin and followed the girl through the stables on her own. The blue demon ignoring her entirely. "Hey I uh....i get it if there's not much you can tell us about the note, i'm sorry if we're pushing you...truthfully we just need help. Everyone's paranoid and you've been kinda a big help and we just want to know what's going on...", the demon stopped in her tracks, "I personally don't really care about that spider prince, but people like us monsters are pretty easy targets to blame when something happens or goes wrong. I'm 13 and every time i go to the butterfly kingdom it's super weird half the time because no one's still used to accepting monsters all the way...not even half monsters". "It's not everyone...", sunny mumbled, "It's only a small few from what I've seen, and i promise it's not because of anything like that. We just want to get down to the bottom of things and...truth be told being in a universe that's different from my own, even slightly....it's weird. I think angel is cool, he needs help, i'm not trying to accuse him but we need to know for certain if he's actually on our side or not, I want to help prove if he's innocent or not....it's just the kinda stuff I do at home. Is there anything useful you could tell us to help? Anything at all...?". "Ugh, i dunno, maybe you should just convince him to tell you what's going on? I'm sure he's not that hard to convince.". "Well, what would you recommend? I know him ok but not so well....he has a hard time opening up..". "A truth potion?" "We don't have a truth potion on standby, but it's a good idea....!". Fae grumbled but she turned around and her orange eye stared at the floor before heading to the demon, "His mom is sick right? I mean if the guy has any serious motivation and doesn't actually want to hurt the lucitors and butterflys, and didn't actually hurt the spiderbites....maybe you should give him what he wants? Like, i know it's complicated, with a disease that no one has been able to find a cure for....and i'm not like a medial expert or anything but doesn't Prince Mason have a fantastical garden full of plants of all shapes and sizes? Everyone in the underworld talks about it and the plants in it, maybe it's possible something in there could help? I've seen medicine made from demon plants cure a lot of folks down here, my mom works in the medical bay herself...". "You think it would help?". "Well i mean, it's something, if you got a cure then maybe he'd spill...like bribery..but with a dying mom involved...demons do stuff like that all the time, or you can be vanilla and just cure her and see what happens...if you know your target your best bet is to sorta have something you can use against them, it's how my family's been able to keep ourselves out of any more serious trouble. If that's all he wants, and he took a medical book so he could be using it to cure her...then there you go...". "Uh well, that's a good idea fae....though the bribing thing sounds a little...messed up and maybe we should go about it the second route instead if i'm being honest, but yeah maybe we should shift our focus into helping his mother, like nora's doing!". It wasn't a bad idea, angel wasn't a bad person after all so appealing to his wants and preventing him from wanting to cause trouble was a safe way to help, not to mention bring the kingdoms together after such a mess. That made fae freeze, "Wait....the spiderbite princess.....is helping the archford family? Aren't they like...bitter rivals or something? Or did Queen Butterfly make them sign some kinda peace treaty recently? Hope it's not an arranged marriage deal because the last time we had something that serious one of our own got killed....", sunny laughed awkwardly as she tried to explain carefully, "No no, she just wants to help, work things out, but with this info maybe we can figure out a cure sooner! If we can figure out a cure we'd be in his good graces, and the whole kingdom's! Then we can figure out how angel possibly got us here!". "I mean, i'm not an expert, it'd still take time...but....i guess it's an idea, if you got a spiderbite on the job and access to a number of potential materials for a cure you might be able to do something...don't quote me on it though i'm just making suggestions right now...especially since there's not much else i can help with. If you want my advice about knowing for sure it's him, get him to trust you or bribe him, he doesn't sound like he could turn that down...". "I just never thought about mason's plants that way, everyone thinks his garden is impressive but so many demons seem to hate going there so much there don't really get as familiar with the plants, and a lot have special properties right? Maybe we've been too busy focusing on convicting and investigating angel when we should've been focusing on helping him, my mom always says during these times it's better to have more friends then enemies...I mean it's still a longshot, curing a fatal illness? It could be a lot of time being put on something when there's a simpler way of handling it, all we want is to prove if he's involved, but then again if we found a way to help...I'd want to help...". Then fae shifted, turning around as some boxes fell nearby and she suddenly seemed more down and upset then before as the boxes revealed someone behind them. Sunny's three eyes widened at seeing who was behind them as some other workers nearby rushed over, "Prince Mason! Are you ok dear?". The sheepish young boy looked embarrassed beyond belief at being discovered, fixing his hat and almost trying to hid himself behind his giant wings as he awkwardly waved to fae. Fae gave him a not so amused look. "Prince mason...". The servants started to brush the boy off as he quickly tried to explain himself, "Sorry Fae, i wanted to come see you later but then i couldn't just wait and then i heard you talking about my plants and I was super curious and uh....Hi?". Sunny blinked at Mason and then back to fae, processing the situation before smiling and waving to mason, "You uh....you two know each other? You never mentioned you knew mason personally, i thought you hadn't properly been in contact with any of the princes before landon....". "After prince mason got punished and wasn't allowed in his garden till further notice, he went down here to see the skeleton horses...apparently his brothers are so busy he's been talking more and more to me about....whatever.....he...won't seem to leave me alone...". Mason got out of the hands of the workers who quickly shuffled away from fae as the prince approached the two girls, "Sunny! What are you doing down here? Are you here to see the horses too?!". He looked as enthusiastic as usual, even if he was a little embarrassed. "Oh! Um....not exactly, I actually came down here to see fae, I didn't know you both knew each other! Uh sorry....but that's pretty cool!", she had not been expecting this at all, mason knew fae? He came down here where he could easily listen in on their conversations with her? Sunny hadn't even seen Mason too much lately outside of dinner these days, a side effect of everything going down, so this was the last thing she'd been expecting today. Mason seemed to read the room a little though, noticing the girls looking rather....anxious. His expression drastically changed, his wings faltering and his smile fading, "Oh uh....i'm sorry, I'm interrupting something right? You guys look upset with me?". His sad expression made sunny react quick, trying to ease him before something went wrong. "Oh no no no, sorry, we're not upset with you, I'm just surprised to see you....I didn't know you were coming here!". She started to head off by sunny grabbed her arm. "Hold on....mason, you know a lot about the plants in your garden, have any of them been used for healing? As in, has anyone used them for purposes besides food?", mason only took a moment to process this, "What? No, not a lot of people down here even bother to get invested in plants, considering we can barely grow any that aren't already native to the underworld, all the plants i keep were always looked after by me, until now that is...i've never tried stuff like that with them...then again, no one was invested...". "Angel's mom, she has memory issues, she can barely move, she's lacking strength, are any of your plants good for helping with any of that?". The boy blinked at her though, "I'm only 13, I don't know a lot about how healing and bodies and stuff work...just about the complexities and and knowledge of plant based life all over mewni and other various dimensions!". The blue demon blinked at him enthusiastically, "Ok, you're both hopeless, mason go talk to nora...the spiderbite princess, maybe your weird plant knowledge might help her studies and find a cure sooner, if her family's on board...and then sunny can use it to cure the queen only after bribing info out of angel, got it? got it.". "Wait...bribe angel...? Why are we bribing angel?". Oops Sunny tensed before quickly stepping in front of fae to dismiss her words, "What? No no no, we're trying to help him....it's nothing like that i promise. We just want to help him, that's all...". Mason tilted his head though, "Bribing him with his mother's life sounds.....awful, like it's his mama, why would you even want to bribe him in the first place?". Seems like maybe they didn't update fae on everything as much as they should, and it only got worse as landon and celeste started heading over themselves. Maybe hanging around a bad luck demon WAS a bad idea. "Landon?". "Mason?". "W-what are you doing here....?". "I like coming down here....you and judas have been so busy with other people and i lost access to my garden i went looking for something else to do....so i come down here now to play with and see the horses...but uh....are you guys...going to hurt someone? What's this about bribing angel?". Landon quickly shoved his notebook away and celeste looked like she was silently panicking, "What? No no...", he shot a look at the girls, wondering what they said in front of the small boy. Sunny stepped in, "Mason, no it's cool, we just know fae as well and we all came here to ask for advice. Fae was just messing around...". Mason seemed a little skeptic though, slightly backing up in steps, "Is that why you've been isolating yourself from me so much? To go after angel....or are you and judas fighting again? Every time you fight with each other you wander off and separate and is this what you do? Does judas know you're doing this?". "Mason...calm down...". "Why would you wanna hurt someone's family....or does family not mean anything to you?". "Mason, wait, no....look we're not trying to hurt anyone...". The boy sniffled and landon immediately broke through the crowd to approach his brother, "Mason, no no...c'mon....i don't know what they said but...that's not true....c'mon...please look at me..". Judas was way better at talking to their younger brother when a fight happened or any tragedy in the family happened at all, but this was all up to landon this time. Guess with everything happening, with bernard, and the investigating and the disputes, they really hadn't spent a lot of time with mason. Landon and Judas were kinda sorta working together, something typically strange for them, and for once mason was the one on the outs. Landon shot the rest of the group a look and they quickly backed away as he attempted to handle the situation as best as he could without making it worse. He went back to facing his brother, "Hey hey, we're not gonna hurt anyone I promise...and I'm not.....I'm sorry i haven't been spending much time with you...after you lost your garden I guess i should've taken into consideration about trying to kinda cheer you up... instead of ignoring you mostly outside of dinner...". Mason was still sniffling though, prompting landon to say something else. Though before he got a chance, mason was heading out of the stable through another exit, a trail of tears following him. Landon only panicked for a moment before quickly following the boy, with the boy's wings, he had an edge over landon. They left dust in their wake, almost blinding the demon who went after him. If he didn't catch up and find him Mason could spill what he and judas had been up to, or even make their already strained relationship even worse. The servants still working in the stables almost seemed to panic as they saw the boys pass by. Getting out of their way as landon tried to catch up with his little brother, calling out to him as he followed him out to the warm depths of the underworld. "Mason? C'mon, wait up....let's just talk!", but mason didn't stop, his wings were picking up more speed and lifting him further and further into the air and despite landon's attempts to fly with fire, mason was faster. It didn't take long for the boy to fly away, sending a moment of panic for the boy, thought as if luck was finally on his side, something green fell down next to him. He knew that pom pom anywhere, mason's favorite hat, he wore it everywhere. The gears turned in his head and he immediately teleported where he needed to be, startling a giant shape who had previously been sleeping in the room, still gripping the hat. Lucy immediately stood up to the boy who held out the green fabrics for her to sniff. "Hey girl, I'm sorry i'm not here to give you treats this time, but we gotta find mason....fast..the underworld is crazy out there and who knows what could happen to him if he doesn't know where he's going...", her three heads looked at him sympathetically before sniffing the green hat, the dog whimpering at it. "It's gonna be ok girl, we just need to find him, and who better then the best tracker on mewni?", he reached out to pet one of her heads and she quickly licked his face in affection with one of her large tongues. "Ew lucy....", he smooched her head before making his way up on her back, "Alright girl, we gotta find mason...quickly...". And quick as the wind the dog was, practically bounding it's way outside as landon watched her nose go, before pulling out his compact. He ran out on the girls back there and boy when he saw them again he was probably going to get mad at their carelessness around his younger brother but maybe for now it's better they know why he entirely vanished from the stable. One text to celeste and bumpy ride later he found himself in the outskirts, far out to where mason was allowed to actually be. He must really be that upset if he flew all the way near mount boom, their volcano. Not that he was close enough to risk being in danger, but still. He was crouched over, still processing the information when landon got off the cerberus, mason didn't even react to him. Not even when landon walked over behind him, and not when landon put the boy's favorite hat back on. He must've expected this from landon. Landon was a bit of a shut in and a bit weird when it came to most of his family, but he wasn't the type to just abandon them and risk them getting hurt either. Of course he would go after mason, find him, and talk to him. Though despite knowing he would mason didn't try to run any further, in fact he seemed to give in more then anything. Landon was more then relieved right now but mason was not coming back to their castle unless he talked to him and sorted this mess out. "Mason, don't do that again, you had me worried! You could've been hurt!", though his voice quickly changed pace, this was his little brother and he should be a bit more gentle with the kid. Rubbing his face and looking for the right words, "I-I meant what i said back there, ok? Look, i get it....judas is the better brother...he's always trying to make everyone happy if he can...I-I should've been there for you too during all this...I know I kinda suck but I didn't mean to hurt you or anything....I...". He scratched his head, tussling his dark pink locks. "This is all probably too much for you to deal with, even in the past our family has never been well....this worried about our future, and look, maybe we should've told you things were a little different behind the scenes then it looked...we're just worried ok? Nothing's gone right for any of us much these days......I wish you didn't stumbled upon this like this....we would've preferred to talk about this with you and....I know you would've preferred we did as well", mason's ear twitched, implying he was listening rather well. He still said nothing though, only making landon's stomach sink, had he really hurt his brother that bad? He felt himself start to shake and whimper, "Mason i'm sorry........". His eyes closed and he waited, hoping for his brother to respond, not even noticing as mason finally turned around and stood up, "I'm sorry, I was just mad....I should've let you explain...I've just been.....you know how you always feel like no one cares about you and you're always alone? I've never felt like this before but....it just feels like...". "Mason....it's complicated with everything happening, but...it's ok....i promise...". Mason wiped his tears, his wings settling, "You sure?" "Look, me and judas may or may not be busy these days with things and we aren't trying to ignore you...it's just...these are things we don't think you're ready to be involved in....we promise it's not as bad as you think", mason blinked, "Is this more about you crushing on bernard and not wanting me involved? Cause judas talked about that with me already...". Landon turned red, "Ok, at this point who doesn't know I like him? Is it really that obvious i like him or-". Only to make his brother laugh, his wings flapping open, "It's that obvious." But then mason bit his lip, "Wait, but fae and sunny were talking about angel...do you also have a crush on-". "No.", landon was quick to snip that one in the butt, but happy to see his brother was returning back to normal. "Does judas have a crush on-? Wait...no...does sky? but wait.....they mentioned nora too...", the older boy huffed, "I'm not invested in their romantic lives so i don't know but look mason....i'm not....I don't hate judas and i don't hate spending time with our family...it's just...complicated...look, i'm taking care of things and I promise when it's over we'll make things up to you ok? We'll do a game night or something...just...I'm sorry it got to this point with you...". He pulled the smaller boy in for a hug, which was a lot harder with the giant wings but he still managed. Yeah, now he thought about it, when was the last time they hugged like this? Feels like forever honestly? Landon never seemed much for hugs, but mason relished in them. They always seemed to put the boy at ease and calm him down, he could feel his heartbeat slow down and his breath fully go back to normal, landon felt a incredible relief. "Do you guys really wanna cure angel's mother?". The question made him shut down, so much for that relief. Landon felt himself freeze as he held his brother, "Uh...well...uh..". Mason still mumbling into his brother's shirt, "I don't know a lot about healing but maybe i could help out, i know my garden better then anyone...and...I'd like to go back inside it again soon....maybe there is something there I could use....or someone else can use...". Curing angel's mother? Hurting someone? What in the heck were those girls talking about when mason stepped in? "We'll get back to you on that...just...if you wanna hang out talk to me or jude....ok?". "Ok....". He was still hugging his brother, nuzzling against him. "Have you really been coming down to the stables since you lost access to your garden?", the boy nodded, holding his brother tighter, "I don't know what to do with myself without it, sometimes i play games but games aren't fun when everyone is busy...you and judas are busy, our parents are busy, the girls all seem busy...so i met fae and she's a good listener! And since she's all by herself, that means i can talk to her without others listening in or overcrowding me...it's just....I like having someone my age to talk to...". He wiped away his tears and removed himself from his brother, "I'm not sure she likes me though....". Landon watched his face fall again, and to be fair, fae didn't seem like she was the best with social skills in the slightest, if you didn't count them in terms of getting demon gossip. "I just didn't want to feel alone, i'm sorry.....", he was giving him some serious puppy dog eyes right now if only to adds more to landon's guilt, "Mason, c'mon, you're the most likable of all of us...you're adorable and accomplished the most at a young age, you're cool. She's missing out if she doesn't like you...". "Am I doing something wrong landon? Am I turning people away now that i don't have my garden anymore?". "No, c'mon mase, you're more then your garden....you're our little brother, you're fun at games, you wear that silly hat all the time just to play with the pom on top. You're not turning people away, everyone's just had so much happening.", mason twiddled with his fingers, "You guys don't think I should be involved.....I want to be with you....I don't wanna be.....ignored.". Geez, he wished judas was here to help, or better yet, he wished they hadn't practically told mason they were working on some secret mission at all. Telling THAT to judas would be pretty uncomfortable. "Mason, it's....we want to keep you safe....we don't want you to get hurt and you could...this is something you have to stay out of ok?", though the small boy persisted, "But you guys are doing it, if you guys want help, I should be able to help shouldn't i?". Mason turned away, "Whatever it is you're doing, you sound like you could use help....and...what are you really doing? Why are you guys putting yourselves in more danger?". Landon sighed and mason's eyes widened, "Wait..are you....are you trying to catch the scary flying person?". "Mason...". "That's why you wanted to listen in to Queen Butterfly's royal meeting when...the spiderbites were in danger...and you think...angel's the scary flying person...". Seems mason had been paying a lot more attention to all the stuff going on then landon or judas had previously thought. "No no, we...we he's a guess but...". Mason stood there in shock, his mind clearly now processing this new information and sliding the puzzle pieces together and things suddenly made more sense. He almost looked broken and his face was in a permanent surprised look.  "Mase It's.....we think we can maybe catch them ok? We're all sorta kinda looking for clues and picking out suspects, we kinda maybe even at one point used the all seeing eye but that didn't end up sorta working...". This didn't seem to ease mason's worries. "Mason.....look, it's ok, we're ok...we just wanna help...". "I wanna help...". "What?". Mason turned around, "I wanna help..."., landon felt his heart drop, "W-what? Mason, no no no, we promised to keep you out of this! You shouldn't even know about it! Look, just stay quiet about the situation and don't get involved, It's better we don't risk putting you in anymore danger...". Mason shook his head, "That meanie ruined our fun sleepover and scared my family and brothers! I wanna help you catch them! I can keep this a secret, I wanna be with you two!". "Mason...". "I'm not a cute little kid landon! Everyone treats me like a baby but i can help too! We're all supposed to stick together and take care of each other right? I won't put myself in danger but....can i please help you? At least let me try..."., it didn't take much longer as the boy caved, "Alright, alright...but judas won't be happy, and please, whatever it was they were talking about, don't take it seriously, truth is, we don't know what we're doing, we swap notes and we just...investigate...". "Why don't you just make a truth potion for angel?". "Hmm?". "Y'know, slip some into his drink? I have all kinds of ingredients for that in my garden! That way, you can guarantee full blown honesty! No lying from a truth potion, mom's used it before on criminals in the past so no reason we shouldn't be allowed to use one!" Now that they thought about it, why hadn't they tried that before? "Wait mason, you had the ingredients to making a truth potion in your garden and never said anything about it before now?!", mason simply shrugged, "What would i have used it for? I think only mom has used it and knows about it, they like to get food and potion stuff from there sometimes, even if i'm not always ok with it....". Landon snorted, "I'm sorry I doubted you...that really could help us out! We should make one! That way we no longer have to worry about our suspects lying to us!". "You didn't take any of mom's stash?". "You think i wanna get grounded again?". "Fair point.". "Mason....", Landon said, sighing, "Welcome to the team..". Mason smiled and reached out to grab Landon's hand, shaking it. "This is going to be so cool! We're gonna be super heroes who catch the bad guy! We're gonna take this guy down and show them what for!", he started doing fighting moves and landon sighed,"I really don't know why those girls were talking about curing the queen though, we're not experts, we're a bunch of teenagers! We can't cure uncurable illnesses! Well, I guess nora could or something but-". "They wanted me to work with nora!". "They did?", mason nodded, "That's the thing about the spiderbites, they live in an environment surrounded by some of the best plants to be used for medicine! that's why they have some of the best rates in curing their sick, minus the whole "Spider bite" thing, but the slime monsters have helped a lot with that kinda stuff! I-I don't actually know a whole lot about medical stuff but maybe if i showed nora all the stuff and she got her family to help-". "Wait wait wait....why do you want to cure her? Like no offence but his mom being sick has little to do with our investigation and should be left to the professionals...and what about the truth potion?", mason excitably grabbed onto his brother's arms and shook him, "Landon lissssteeeennnnnn, we're gonna go make ourselves a truth potion and then you can weed out the suspects! But maybe, maybe! We could save a life! Imagine that? We save their queen!". "But-". "Landon, all we're doing is finding things to help, the spiderbites can try to cure her! Please landon! Maybe if we can do this, our parents might...they might trust me again to look after my plants...". Landon didn't seem so optimistic about that but it was hard to deny mason's expression right now, especially with his grip."Mason, we....don't be so hard on yourself if there's nothing you can do ok?",mason let him go and ushered him to come with him as he went over to lucy. "C'mon....we have no time to waste if we want to get started!". "Get started?". "Yeah, didn't I make it clear?", he said happily, his wings fluttering eagerly, "We're breaking into my garden tonight".

[boldausterities]

RP Stuff: “Spike” (Balmung)

The Basics –––

Full Name: Spencer Noah “Spike” Teague

Race: Hyuran Midlander

Gender: Male.

Sexuality: Bisexual

Marital Status: Single

Age: Thirty-something (he knows he’s old)

Birthday: Fifth Sun of the Sixth Astral Moon (5 Nov)

Physical Appearance –––

Hair: Dyed deep blue, naturally blond

Eyes: blue/green depending on lighting and surroundings (some people claim they can’t tell which...)

Height: Six fulms thereabouts

Build: toned, slightly muscular

Distinguishing Marks: A noticeable scar on the left side of his cheek

Common Accessories: While he always appears with some sort of accessories on, he usually carries a “book” on his person. He is also fond of hoop earrings

Personal –––

Profession: Researcher (what he’ll tell most people these days)

Hobbies: Reading, people-watching

Languages: Common/Eorzean (and whatever may be spoken in the “Far West”)

Residence: Teague Estate (Ul’dah)

Birthplace: The Sultanate of Ul’dah

Religion: Common beliefs in The Twelve, though open to other religions as a form of “research”

Patron Deity: Althyk

Fears: Losing control of himself, becoming desolate, dying alone

Relationships –––

Spouse: None

Children: None

Parents: Sabrina Joyce Teague (neé Johnston, mother, deceased); Norman Edwin Teague (father, deceased)

Siblings: Stephen Nathaniel Teague (younger brother), Nora Sophia Teague (younger sister)

Other Relatives: Several of Spike’s cousins are on the Johnston’s side (his mother) and he doesn’t care for them too much

Pets: he likes to refer to his “pets” as “elements” sometimes...

Significant other: none

Traits –––

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless (situation-dependent)

Patient / In Between /  Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information –––

Smoking Habit: Non-smoker

Drugs: None, see below

Alcohol: Socially. Spike can hold his alcohol rather well though he’d lose to most Lominsans.

RP Hooks –––

Arcanists’ Guild: Approximately 10-15 years ago, Spike (then a late teenager) ran away from home and headed to Limsa Lominsa to extensively study Arcanism. His foundation for the aetheric arts would be developed and grow here and he was shown to be very adept at it to the point where he even wrote his own tomes.It helps that he was once a student in the highest academy in Ul’dah and all the other kids wanted to be friends with him because he was actually smart and they were all lazy sons of bitches.

Marauders’ Guild: Around that same time, Spike took to the axe and became a Marauder just to spite his parents and to show how unhappy he was with the plan that did not coincide with his own. Despite that, he holds his own well but he knows and is quite aware that many of them are better at this than he is.

Ul’dahn connections: It’s likely that you’ve heard of the Teagues if you are in the “high society life” in Ul’dah. His mother, Sabrina, was an excellent seamstress and textile designer. His sister, Nora, is trying to follow in her footsteps but she seems to be more interested in having someone else make her dresses than she making it herself. If you knew of Sabrina, you likely knew of their kids and how their oldest is the biggest pain in the ass but cannot deny his academic prowess. His father, Norman, was a Captain in the Immortal Flames and wanted for his son to do the same but, as previously stated, it was not meant to be. If you were/are an Immortal Flames soldier, you’d likely have heard Captain Teague say what a huge pain in the ass his eldest son was before The Calamity took place.

Are you a traveler by any chance? Especially in dangerous places? If you have a character that somehow found their way to Carteneau (Carteneau is supposed to be closed off to the general public), you may have seen Spike there. Likely wearing some... kind of weird robe and a tome. Prior to his departure from Eorzea a few years back, he could have been found all over Eorzea. You’d have likely seen him in places such as U’Ghamaro Mines, Zahar’ak, Loth ast Gnath, and The Great Gubal Library.

Are you involved with The Sons of Saint Coinach? There was some sort of... inventory count discrepancy regarding relics they have discovered while traversing around the open area of Mor Dhona. Some special stone and several tomes have been left unaccounted for, for years. Regardless, Spike is known to have helped them on their excavations from time to time.

Riding the Aether: Because of Spike’s talents with the aetheric arts, he can easily ride the aether anywhere in Eorzea, including Gyr Abania once he ventures there. This allows him to be anywhere that he needs to be. (Within reason, of course.)

Contact Information –––

Tumblr: I can always be contacted here on Tumblr, either on this blog @boldausterities​ or on my main blog @rakuza​.

Discord: I can also be contacted on Discord. If you’d like to get a hold of me on Discord, shoot me a message here on Tumblr and let’s see what we can do.

Time Zone: I am in the U.S., Pacific Time. (GMT-8, sometimes -7).

My characters are mostly lore-abiding with some little bit of bending. It’d be great to connect with characters who follow with this as well. Too much lore-bending or stretching is cool but it’s not really for me.

I am up for most RP. Slice of life, adventuring, business ventures, open world, things like that. I am a huge fan of character development and it is precisely this that interests me. Let me set up a character and see how much they can grow, both good and bad. Spike is a “researcher”, which means he will travel. A lot. He can be just about anywhere if need be.

Formatting stolen from @thebaileymail with some cleanup. Thanks buddy LOL!

Also tagging @balmungrp and @ffxiv-crystal-rp (Balmung server) for visibility and for interest! Thank you!

[hypeathon]

Was MissHabit Partial Inspiration for Pyrrha Nikos in RWBY?

If you’ve stumbled into this post, chances are you seen the second video in my “Monty Oum’s Vision for RWBY” video project. In it, I referred to many of the sources of inspirations and concepts that would shape RWBY into being the type of show it would become. One of those inspirations was Monty’s interest in cosplay and the cosplayers he knew personally. Among those cosplayers was Amie Lynn, otherwise known as “MissHabit” and how I claimed she served as partial inspiration for not just the character Weiss Schnee, but possibly Pyrrha Nikos as well.

But how did I even come to that conclusion if Monty never explicitly said-so himself?

In case I did not drive my point home clearly enough in the video, I want to stress that this is all guesswork on my part. Monty did in fact state the based another character with MissHabit in mind besides Weiss but he never specified which one. He at most only teased how he got the idea for the character towards her. So nothing is really conclusive. But the assumption I made was not at all a shot in the dark. I spent time collecting certain sources, connecting dots and contemplating on my own. In the end, I’m not one-hundred percent certain. But I figured it would at least be worth sharing how exactly I thought this through.

First, let’s examine the following tweets from Monty himself:

Him claiming a character’s design was inspired by MissHabit

Him claiming how another character aside from Weiss was inspired by MissHabit

Him referring to how she wore a wig one day, a set of armor another day, and her smile

Him stating it was a secret

Him telling MissHabit that they’ll talk at Pax

One thing of note is the timing of those tweets. which were on March 11th, 2013. At this point, the Black trailer wouldn’t premiere until the 22nd of March. While one could argue that Blake Belladonna was the character Monty referred to, he then explicitly replied to both MissHabit and Linda Le, otherwise known as “Vampy-Bit-Me”, stating how the he had the latter in mind when designing Blake. So then, if it was not likely Blake, then maybe it was Yang Xiao Long instead since her trailer would not premiere until June 2nd. Well, here’s the thing, Monty explicitly stated that Barbara Dunkelman, the voice of Yang, was a big inspiration for the character, so much so that his pitch for casting her as Yang was simply put, “you should play Goldilocks”. It was kind of a no-brainer.

It obviously could not have been Ruby Rose either since her trailer had come out months prior to the above list of tweets and Monty was being very secretive about the matter. So then, if this other character was likely someone outside of team RWBY, who else could it be? Well, there are a few other clues that help narrow things down. For one, Jessica Nigri would end up voicing Cinder and thus would have likely served as a partial source of inspiration for the character as well. Then there’s that one tweet about how MissHabit wore a wig one day, a set of armor another and how Monty referred to her smile. The armor and smile aspect specifically does aptly describe Pyrrha’s character, though one could also state that maybe he was referring to Nora as well since she smiles a lot and has the braces around her torso in her volume 1-3 design. Then again, if say Pyrrha was the character in question, when Monty talked about how the supposed character was “designed with MissHabit in mind”, there’s a chance he’s referring to not Pyrrha’s final design from concept artist Einlee, but rather from Monty’s original design of her.

    He obviously didn’t elaborate on what kind of wig or armor Miss Habit wore, but one famous cosplay of hers is that of Lightning in Final Fantasy XIII-2. That character’s design and Pyrrha’s initial concept design do share a few similarities, but there’s definitely no confirmation as to whether he based the initial look off of Lightning at all. And Monty went on record to correcting people whenever his characters in RWBY were compared to specific characters in other popular works of fiction, so we’ll leave a question mark in that regard.

However, one last clue and is probably the biggest one is that of Misshabit’s own personality and experiences. In interviews and other videos, she expressed things about herself that stick out. In one of her Q & A videos on Youtube, she mentioned about how she wound up being the kind of person she is today (assuming she still is the same person years after that video). She mentioned how by the middle of her high school years, she became a more optimistic person and someone that wanted to help people and do the right thing. Also in that video and certain interviews like the one at Pax East, her interviewer assumed that she broke the hearts of guys as if her appearance and personality garnered naturally garnered such romantic attention. But her response suggested that she, at least at the time of the interview, never really got asked out by anyone. Sound familiar?

What I said before bears repeating, but everything stated is all guesswork and nothing more. I don’t know for sure if Pyrrha Nikos was the character Monty was talking about or not and we may never know. Given how MissHabit and Monty saw each other at Pax East 2013 (she cosplayed as Natsu from Soul Calibur 5 then), he seems to have shared some things. But it’s not even clear if he ever really brought up the other character that he claimed to have MissHabit in mind. And the cosplayer does have quite the supposedly quirky personality, so maybe it really could’ve been Nora instead. But even if my hypothesis could be proven wrong, that does not negate the fact that cosplay was a vital cornerstone within Monty’s ideas for RWBY and the various characters in them. Monty cared about seeing people cosplay his characters. Monty was close friends with various professional cosplayers. Monty was conscious about designing characters with pockets and pouches for cosplayers to put their wallets and phones inside when at cons. Monty still created characters like Melanie & Militia because certain friends of his requested a set of twins to cosplay as and Neo who was based off of a gender-bent Roman Torchwick cosplay. And if say, she was based off Pyrhha, that doesn’t change the fact Jen Brown was chosen to voice Pyrrha either and for all we know, she might have somehow served as a bit of inspiration for the character.

This one little thing, regardless of whether or not it’s true, is just a small aspect of the many ideas implemented into RWBY and its creative process.