#rwby bertilak

[rocknroll7575]

Rising Dawn - Chapter 4: Knight, Snake, Orphan, Arrow

Jax and Bertilak ambled through the weathered entrance of the diminutive ancient temple, its timeworn façade a testament to the passage of ages. Restored under the careful eye of its recent custodian, the temple bore signs of rejuvenation amidst its age-old architecture.

As the duo ventured further into the temple's depths, the guardians stationed within ushered them towards a secluded chamber, hidden away from prying eyes. With each step, the air grew heavy with anticipation, a palpable sense of intrigue guiding their path.

Upon crossing the threshold into the chamber, their gaze fell upon an unexpected sight: their elusive "investor" reclining in a bath, the scene juxtaposing the solemnity of the temple's surroundings with an air of casual luxury.

In the depths of the tub, Vermillion Raddock reclined, his demeanor exuding an air of serene detachment. A rouge Huntsman by trade, he had once called Mistral his home, yet now found solace amidst the shifting sands of Vacuo. Renowned as a figure of both dread and awe, his name reverberated through the annals of Southern Vacuo's history as one of unparalleled notoriety.

Throughout a decade, few could rival Vermillion's prowess in the art of death. His hands, stained crimson with the blood of countless adversaries, bore witness to the extent of his lethal capabilities. But it was not merely his physical prowess that inspired fear; it was the manifestation of his Semblance that truly set him apart.

In his undertakings, Vermillion consistently veiled himself behind the guise of a boar, concealing the essence of a seasoned 50-year-old man beneath. With a complexion weathered by years of life's trials, his brown skin bore scars, a testament to the harshness of his existence.

Atop his head, a close-cropped mane of red-greyish hair spoke of both maturity and resilience, complemented by a rugged array of facial hair. But it was his eyes, a vivid crimson reminiscent of freshly spilled blood, that captivated onlookers, while a scar etched defiantly across his nose hinted at battles fought and conquered.

Despite his age, Vermillion remained undeterred by the passing of time. As a seasoned warrior, he had weathered countless battles and witnessed the depths of human strife, rendering him an intimidating force whom none dared to challenge.

"You wanted to see us, Vermillion?" he inquired, his voice laced with authority.

Vermillion, reclining in the tub with an air of nonchalance, lifted his head at Jax's address. A sly grin danced across his lips as he met Jax's piercing stare. "Ah, the illustrious king graces us with his presence," Vermillion quipped, amusement coloring his tone. "And how fares the expansion of our forces under your esteemed leadership?"

"They are my forces," Jax corrected sharply. "You may fund me and my organization, but make no mistake, they are my people, I brought them together with a singular purpose: to defend Vacuo,"

"Is that so?" Vermillion's tone was laced with disdain as he eyed Jax with a mixture of skepticism and amusement. "Do those followers of yours, who grovel and worship at your feet, realize that you're not cut from royal cloth?"

Jax's gaze hardened, his resolve unshaken by Vermillion's barbs. "I may lack the lineage of a true king, but Vacuo is in dire need of leadership if it is to withstand the looming threat," he asserted firmly.

Vermillion's expression shifted, a flicker of genuine interest dancing in his eyes amidst his lingering smirk. "Oh~? And what manner of peril do you believe threatens our beloved Vacuo?" he inquired, his curiosity piqued by Jax's proclamation.

Jax's derisive snort echoed through the chamber, a tangible manifestation of his frustration. "Even a blind man can see the writing on the wall, someone's tearing through the kingdoms like a rabid beast," he declared with a note of urgency. "Vale's already fallen, Haven's been hit, and Atlas? They're cowering behind their walls like scared children! If we want to come out of this alive, we need to stand together under a leader worth a damn!"

Vermillion regarded Jax with a quirked eyebrow, amusement dancing in his eyes. "And ya fancy yourself that leader? The "savior" of Vacuo?" he prodded, his smirk widening.

Jax's chin lifted defiantly. "Damn right," he shot back without hesitation. "Isn't that why you threw your weight behind The Crown? Because you saw in me what Vacuo needs?"

A smile played at the corners of Vermillion's lips, though it held more cunning than agreement. "You catch on quick, kid," he conceded, a glint of mischief in his eyes. "You're exactly the kind of leader Vacuo's been yearning for," he assured Jax, the truth of his intentions hidden behind a mask of false encouragement.

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"Ever stop and think about all the shit we have to put up with?" Carmine grumbled, slamming back another shot.

Perched on stools at a local watering hole, Jaune and Carmine found respite from the rigors of their latest mission, a routine Grimm extermination commissioned by Gillian to safeguard a Crown-protected town.

Jaune arched an eyebrow, a wry grin tugging at the corners of his lips. "By "shit" you mean the endless stream of missions Gillian keeps throwing our way while Jax and Bertilak cozy up to their mysterious benefactor?" he teased.

Carmine's response was a vehement nod, her frustration palpable. "Exactly!" she exclaimed, her voice edged with exasperation. "Why is it always us getting the short end of the stick? Why does that guy get to tag along with Jax while Queenie saddles us with these mundane tasks?"

Jaune chuckled, shaking his head in amusement. "I wouldn't go as far as calling them mundane," he replied, amusement dancing in his eyes. He decided to steer the conversation toward a more intriguing topic. "Speaking of that benefactor, ever crossed paths with them?"

Carmine shook her head, her expression thoughtful as the bartender refilled her glass. "Nope, but it's always struck me as odd," she admitted, swirling the contents of her drink. "Some creepy figure bankrolling us, fully aware of what we do, It's... unsettling, to say the least,"

With a weary sigh, Jaune raised his glass to his lips, savoring the warmth of the alcohol as it spread through him. A sudden buzz from his pocket interrupted the moment, prompting him to retrieve his scroll and check the notification, revealing a new message from Gillian.

Carmine tossed back another shot, her gaze locking onto Jaune with a raised brow. "Gill?" she inquired, her voice cutting through the ambient noise of the bar.

Jaune nodded, a flicker of annoyance crossing his features. "Yep, wants our asses back as soon as possible," he confirmed, his tone resigned.

With a swift motion, Jaune stashed his Scroll away and swiftly drained his glass, mirroring Carmine's actions as she knocked back another shot. Rising from their seats in unison, they prepared to depart.

"Who's footing the bill this time, me or you?" Jaune quipped, fishing through his wallet with a playful grin.

Carmine flashed him a mischievous smile. "It's my turn," she declared, producing a handful of lien and laying them on the bar's counter.

Exiting the establishment, the duo stepped back into the bustling streets of the town. However, their departure was abruptly halted as a commotion caught their attention.

In front of them, a young girl was unceremoniously thrown from a passing cart, landing in a heap on the sandy ground. Clad in nothing more than a tattered, gray garment that scarcely passed for clothing, she appeared to be no older than ten. Her pink eyes, olive hair, and dark complexion stood out starkly against the backdrop of the dusty street, but it was the sight of her busted lip that caused Jaune and Carmine to freeze in their tracks, concern etched into their expressions.

"Thief!" The cry echoed through the bustling street as the cart owner emerged from the rear of his vehicle, brandishing a single-edged knife. "Dirty little thief!"

The man lunged toward the young girl, his accusatory finger pointed like a dagger. But before he could make good on his threat, Carmine intercepted him, her stance firm and unwavering, while Jaune extended a helping hand to the trembling child.

"Put that knife away, you fool, or else!" Carmine's voice sliced through the tension like a whip, her eyes ablaze with righteous anger.

Recognition dawned in the man's eyes as he took in Carmine's imposing figure. "Y-You're the Rattlesnake of the Sands! Carmine Escolados!" he stammered, his voice trembling with fear.

Carmine nodded, her expression steely. "Damn right, now tell me, what's going on here?" she demanded, her voice brooking no argument.

The cart owner hesitated, his gaze shifting uncomfortably to the young girl cowering behind Carmine. "That thief there stole some food!" he accused, his voice quivering with indignation. "She's been plaguing my business for days, swiping goods whenever she pleases! Today, I finally caught her in the act!"

Carmine's gaze flicked over her shoulder to where Jaune tended to the girl's injuries, wiping blood from her split lip. Turning back to the cart owner, her features hardened. "How much did she take? What's the value?" she demanded, her voice cold and clipped.

"About 20 lien," the cart owner responded, his tone defiant.

Carmine's glare deepened, her jaw clenched in frustration. "And what punishment did you have in mind for her?" she pressed, her words dripping with contempt.

"I was going to cut off the little thief's hand!" The cart owner's words hung heavy in the air, sending a shiver down Carmine's spine.

Jaune shot to his feet, his fists clenched, and his eyes ablaze with fury as he glared at the cart owner. "You were going to mutilate her over 20 lien!?" he roared.

The cart owner met Jaune's enraged gaze with a defiant stare. "The punishment for theft is the removal of the hand that committed the crime!" he retorted, his voice dripping with self-righteousness. "It is the law, and if you are ignorant of the law, then you must not be Vacovian... what are you?" he demanded, a sneer twisting his lips.

"Valerian," Jaune spat back.

Disgust twisted the cart owner's features as he recoiled from Jaune's declaration. "What is a dog of Vale doing here!?" he spat, his voice laced with disdain.

Carmine stepped forward, her presence commanding attention as she inserted herself between Jaune and the cart owner. "He's with me," she stated firmly, her tone brooking no argument. "That a problem?"

Realization dawned in the cart owner's eyes, his demeanor shifting from hostility to panic in an instant. "N-No!" he stammered, his voice trembling with fear.

Carmine's nod conveyed a sense of finality as she addressed the cart owner. "Good! Now then, we'll cover the cost of what she stole and handle her punishment accordingly," she declared, her tone firm and authoritative. "Understood?" she questioned, her gaze piercing.

The cart owner's head bobbed in rapid agreement, eager to comply with Carmine's directives.

"Good, now buzz off before your face pisses me off more," Carmine said.

With a nod, the cart owner retreated, his steps hurried as he made a hasty exit back to his cart. Jaune observed the man's departure, a mixture of contempt and relief flashing across his features as the cart owner vanished from sight.

Turning his attention to the young girl, Jaune approached her with a gentle expression, lowering himself to one knee to meet her eye level. He searched her face for any signs of injury, his concern evident in his gaze.

"Are you okay?" he inquired softly, his voice laced with compassion.

The girl nodded, her eyes obscured by a curtain of hair.

Jaune offered her a reassuring smile and nodded in return. "Good," he replied gently. "Do you have a name?"

Again, the girl nodded, still remaining silent.

A playful glint danced in Jaune's eyes as he leaned in slightly. "Could you tell it to me?" he asked, curiosity coloring his tone.

Instead of verbalizing her name, the girl simply pointed at Jaune.

Jaune's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You... want me to tell you mine first?" he surmised, his amusement evident.

The girl's affirmative nod prompted a smirk from Jaune as he reciprocated the gesture. "Alright," he replied, his tone warm and welcoming. "I'm Jaune Arc."

Carmine sidled up beside Jaune, draping an arm casually over his shoulder. "And I'm Carmine Escolados," she interjected with a grin, punctuating her introduction with a thumb pointing toward herself.

A chuckle escaped Jaune's lips at Carmine's theatrics. "Now it's your turn," he prompted, turning his attention back to the young girl.

Clutching the hem of her dress tightly, the girl hesitated before speaking softly. "A... Aurora," she revealed, her voice barely above a whisper.

Jaune offered her an encouraging nod, his smile genuine. "That's a beautiful name," he remarked kindly. "Do you know where your family is?" he inquired gently.

Aurora's gaze dropped to the ground, a shadow crossing her features. "I... don't have one," she admitted, her voice tinged with sadness.

Sympathy softened Jaune's expression as he regarded Aurora with compassion. "I'm sorry to hear that," he murmured. "Do you have somewhere to stay?" he pressed, his concern evident.

Aurora shook her head, her demeanor resigned.

Jaune closed his eyes briefly, a heavy sigh escaping him before he met Aurora's gaze once more. "Would you like to come with us?" he offered tentatively. "We have food, and I'm sure we can find you some clean clothes."

Carmine's brow arched inquisitively as she shot a glance at Jaune, silently questioning his decision. Jaune felt her gaze on him but remained focused on Aurora, his resolve unwavering.

"R... Really?" Aurora's voice quivered with disbelief, her eyes wide with astonishment.

Jaune offered her a reassuring nod, his smile warm and genuine. "Yep," he affirmed with a hint of excitement in his tone.

Aurora's nod was swift, her face lighting up with a mixture of excitement and gratitude. Jaune rose from his crouched position, extending a hand toward Aurora, which she eagerly accepted.

As Jaune and Aurora prepared to depart, Jaune caught Carmine's gaze, silently conveying his intention to explain his decision later. Carmine returned his look with a nod of acknowledgment, trusting Jaune's judgment as they made their way back to the town's small inn to collect their belongings.

Once they retrieved their gear, the trio hastened to the stables where their horses awaited them, Aurora's eyes widening in wonder at the sight of the majestic animals.

"Horses!" Aurora exclaimed with unrestrained excitement. "You ride horses here!?"

Carmine nodded with a grin, her enthusiasm mirroring Aurora's. "You bet, little lady!" she affirmed. "Our base isn't too far from this town, so we use them to get around," she explained, patting the flank of her horse affectionately.

Aurora's smile widened, her eyes sparkling with joy at the prospect of riding a horse. The sight brought a small smile to both Carmine and Jaune's faces, their spirits lifted by Aurora's infectious enthusiasm.

With their horses saddled and luggage securely fastened, Jaune and Carmine prepared to depart from the town.

Jaune lifted Aurora onto his horse, ensuring she was positioned comfortably in front of him to avoid any discomfort. "You ready for your first ride?" Jaune's voice was gentle, laced with anticipation as he glanced down at Aurora with a warm smile.

Aurora's eager nod was met with a chuckle from Jaune.

"Alright, but I won't be going too fast. Don't want you taking a tumble," he reassured her, his tone infused with care.

Carmine's playful banter interjected, her grin mischievous. "Aw, and here I was hoping to race you back to the base," she teased, a glint of challenge in her eyes.

Jaune's grin widened. "And exhaust the horses before we're halfway there? Not happening," he retorted, his playful tone tinged with amusement.

Carmine rolled her eyes in mock exasperation, but her smile remained. "Tch, you're no fun," she teased in return, shaking her head.

Jaune chuckled at Carmine's antics as he gently urged his horse forward with a light squeeze of his legs. The animal obediently fell into step beside Carmine's mount, the trio setting off from the town at a leisurely pace, the open road stretching out before them.

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About a mile away from their base, Carmine and Jaune continued their journey homeward, the rhythmic motion of their horses' steps lulling Aurora into a peaceful slumber. Jaune held the reins of the horse with one hand, his other arm wrapped protectively around Aurora to ensure she remained securely seated.

As they rode, Carmine cast a concerned glance at Jaune, her expression troubled. "Gillian isn't going to be pleased that you brought a kid back with us," she remarked, her tone tinged with apprehension.

Jaune's response was resolute, his gaze fixed ahead on the path before them. "I understand, but what choice did I have? Leave her behind to face the consequences of theft?" he countered, his voice unwavering.

Carmine shook her head, her brow furrowing in contemplation. "No, but did you consider the ramifications of bringing her along?" she pressed, her concern evident in her voice. "Our line of work isn't exactly child-friendly."

"I'm aware," Jaune replied, his tone tinged with determination. "But if we're going to make a difference in Vacuo, maybe we need to ensure that kids don't have to grow up on the streets, starving and thirsty."

Carmine's response was tinged with bitterness. "Like how I grew up," she retorted, a hint of pain in her voice.

Jaune's expression softened with empathy. "Exactly," he affirmed gently. "But that doesn't mean others have to endure the same hardships,"

Carmine nodded in acknowledgment, sighing softly as she recognized the weight of Jaune's decision. "Look, Jaune, I'll support your choice," she assured him, her tone softer. "Just be aware that this adds another layer of responsibility to your already full plate,"

Jaune accepted Carmine's words with a nod, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips. He understood the gravity of the situation and the challenges that lay ahead. 'If I could help Mom and Dad raise my younger sisters, then this should be manageable, right?' Jaune thought optimistically, his determination undeterred.

After a long journey, the trio finally reached the base and hastened towards the stables nestled comfortably in the shade. Jaune and Carmine dismounted their horses, Jaune passing Aurora into Carmine's care while he began the task of unloading their belongings and removing the saddles from the horses before leading them into their respective enclosures. With gentle hands, he freed the horses from the reins.

Amidst their chores, a distant shout pierced the tranquil air, prompting both Jaune and Carmine to recognize the familiar voice.

"Oh boy..." Carmine muttered under his breath.

Approaching the barn's entrance, Gillian emerged, her gaze sharp and accusatory as it locked onto Jaune and Carmine. "You brought a child here!?" Her voice rang out with a mix of surprise and frustration.

Carmine exchanged a glance with Jaune, then attempted to defuse the situation. "Queenie-"

"It was my decision," Jaune interjected, cutting Carmine off, his tone firm.

Gillian's glare intensified as she directed her fury towards Jaune. "What were you thinking!?" Her voice echoed with disbelief.

Jaune remained silent as he hung the reins on a nearby hook, his lack of response only fueling Gillian's anger. Marching towards him, she seized his shoulder and forcibly turned him to face her.

"My room. Now," she commanded, her words laced with authority.

Jaune met Gillian's glare with a steadfast gaze, his jaw clenched as he slowly nodded in acknowledgment of her command.

Without a word, Gillian pivoted on her heel and strode out of the barn, her departure marked by a resolute silence that hung in the air, leaving Carmine, Jaune, and Aurora in its wake.

As Gillian vanished from sight, Carmine cast a sideways smirk at Jaune. "How you haven't got an arrow in your eye yet is beyond me," she quipped, her tone lightening the tension.

Jaune released a weary exhale through his nostrils. "Take Aurora and my things to my room, will you?" he requested, his voice tinged with resignation.

Carmine nodded, her smirk widening. "No problem," she assured him, her tone playful. "And try not to piss her off more, or else I'm gonna have to find a new drinking buddy," she teased.

"I'll try," Jaune replied with a wry smile, the corners of his lips twitching faintly.

With a nod of agreement, Carmine took charge of Aurora and Jaune's belongings, her steps echoing against the stable's floor as she made her way out.

Meanwhile, Jaune exited the barn and proceeded towards the heart of the base, his path leading him directly to Gillian's chambers, notable for their grandeur compared to the modest quarters of the other occupants. With each step, his mind churned with a mixture of frustration and self-recrimination. He cursed himself inwardly for failing to ascertain the identity of the Crown's benefactor, a critical piece of information that he and Theodore desperately needed.

The implications weighed heavily on Jaune's mind. If someone was clandestinely aiding the Crown, it hinted at a pattern reminiscent of the chaos orchestrated by Cinder in Vale—the Fall of Beacon, and the assault on Haven—all orchestrated by shadowy forces. The prospect that Shade, their sanctuary in Vacuo, could suffer a similar fate gnawed at Jaune's resolve.

Jaune stood outside Gillian's imposing chamber door, apprehension mounting with each passing second. He rapped his knuckles against the wood, the sound reverberating in the corridor, only to have the door swing open abruptly, revealing Gillian's furious face glaring daggers at him.

"You wanted to see me?" Jaune taunted.

Without a word, Gillian gestured for him to enter. As Jaune stepped inside, the door closed behind him with a definitive click. He turned to face Gillian, who stood before him, arms crossed, her intense gaze fixed squarely on him.

"You're right," Jaune began.

Gillian's eyebrow arched in surprise. "Excuse me?" she prompted, her skepticism evident.

"I said you're right," Jaune affirmed, his voice resolute. "I shouldn't have brought her here, instead, I should have left her to fend for herself—starve, steal, risk losing a hand, that's what I should have done," he admitted, his words heavy with criticism.

Gillian let out an exasperated scoff. "For the love of Oum! Will you quit being an ass?" she exclaimed, frustration lacing her tone. "That's not what I meant and you know it,"

Jaune met her gaze squarely. "You did mean that, because that would have been the consequence if I hadn't brought her here, Gillian," he retorted, his voice firm.

"And bringing her here was the better option!?" Gillian's incredulous expression betrayed her shock.

"No..." Jaune conceded, his voice softer now. "But she's safe here at least,"

"Safe... why do you care if she's safe? How long have you even known this girl?" Gillian's voice held a mixture of curiosity and skepticism.

Jaune's gaze dropped to the ground, his expression sheepish. "I... just met her today," he admitted quietly.

Gillian's disbelief was in full effect. "Today!? Are you fucking mental!?" she exclaimed, her voice tinged with incredulity.

"Look-" Jaune began, but Gillian cut him off with a sharp shake of her head.

"No, no, you don't get to have a say right now," she seethed, her frustration simmering beneath the surface.

Jaune fell silent, waiting for Gillian's next move. Yet, she remained still, her gaze fixed on him for a long moment before she closed her eyes and released a heavy sigh. "Are you going to take care of her?" she asked, her tone softer now, tinged with concern.

Jaune met her gaze steadily. "I will," he promised earnestly.

Gillian nodded, a hint of relief coloring her features. "Will you be teaching her how to fight?" she inquired, her voice betraying a trace of apprehension.

Once again, Jaune nodded. "I have to... there's no other way for her to survive here, right?" he reasoned, seeking validation.

Gillian nodded in agreement. "Right," she affirmed. "She can stay."

Jaune's brow furrowed slightly, surprised by Gillian's relatively swift surrender. A realization dawned on him that perhaps this situation wasn't as dire as she had initially portrayed it to be. "You're not angry about this at all, or at least, this isn't the only thing stressing you out, is it?" Jaune ventured, sensing there was more beneath the surface.

Gillian's eyes fluttered open, her gaze meeting Jaune's before she offered a quick nod of confirmation.

Jaune's curiosity piqued. "What else is there?" he pressed. "The meeting with the benefactor didn't go well?"

Gillian shook her head in response. "No, it went fine, Jax and Bertilak should be back soon," she assured him.

"Then if it's not that, what the hell could be stressing you out so much?" Jaune inquired.

"Nora Valkyrie," Gillian replied abruptly, her words sharp and decisive.

Jaune's heart skipped a beat, his entire body tensing at the mention of the name. "How did you get that name?" he demanded, his voice tinged with urgency.

Gillian met his gaze with a solemn expression. "She's been traversing most of the southern towns, asking for you... Who is she?" she questioned, her curiosity matching Jaune's intensity.

"She's no one," Jaune replied briefly, his tone defensive.

Gillian let out a soft chuckle, her demeanor unwavering. "She's not "no one" if she's looking for you," she countered. "Who is she, Jaune?" she pressed, her tone insistent.

Jaune clenched his jaw, his fist tightening at his side. "She's... She's my ex-teammate," he confessed, the words heavy with unresolved emotions.

Gillian's eyes widened in surprise. "She... She was a part of your team?" she echoed, her disbelief evident in her voice.

Jaune nodded, his mind racing with the weight of Gillian's revelation.

Gillian let out a weary sigh, her shoulders slumping slightly. "This... this makes things complicated," she confessed, her voice tinged with frustration.

"Why?" Jaune queried, his brow furrowing in concern.

Gillian ran a hand through her hair, her expression troubled. "Because... Jax has given the orders to kill her on sight," she divulged, her words hanging heavily in the air.

Jaune recoiled in horror, his eyes widening in disbelief. "WHAT!?" he exclaimed, his voice laced with shock and disbelief.

Gillian took a step back, startled by Jaune's sudden outburst. "She's asking about us, looking for us, we can't have that," she explained, her tone firm.

"So what!? You're just gonna kill her!?" Jaune's voice cracked with a mixture of anger and desperation.

"No, we aren't," Gillian clarified, her gaze unwavering. "You are."

Jaune's eyes widened in disbelief as he staggered back, the weight of Gillian's words hitting him like a physical blow. "W... What?" he stammered, his voice barely above a whisper.

Gillian's expression softened with sympathy as she met Jaune's gaze. "I... I know this will be hard, but you need to get rid of her," she urged, her voice gentle yet firm. "She's looking for you, so, in our eyes, this is your problem that you need to fix."

Jaune's head shook slowly, his expression wrought with inner turmoil. "No... No, I... I can't do this," he protested, his voice heavy with uncertainty.

Gillian fixed him with a determined stare. "You can and you will," she asserted firmly. "I'll be making sure of it, since now I'll be the one going on missions with you," she declared, her tone leaving no room for argument.

"You can't-" Jaune attempted to interject, but Gillian cut him off with a resolute shake of her head.

"I will," she insisted. "This is where you prove yourself, understood?" she demanded, her gaze piercing.

Jaune's glare bore into her, his anger simmering beneath the surface.

"Understood?" Gillian reiterated, her tone unwavering as she raised a questioning brow.

Though his gaze remained fixed on her, Jaune slowly nodded in reluctant submission.

Gillian nodded briskly in response. "Good," she affirmed. "Now go, take care of your... daughter?" she inquired, her voice tinged with a hint of skepticism.

Without a word, Jaune brushed past her, his footsteps echoing against the floor as he exited the room, the door slamming shut behind him with a resounding thud.

Left alone, Gillian sank onto her bed with a heavy sigh. "I need a drink," she muttered to herself, the weight of the situation bearing down on her shoulders.

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I wonder what Vermillion is doing here? Wonder why he's helping fund the Crown? So mysterious! Jaune's officially adopted a child! As for why, we'll find out soon, however, now he's tasked with killing Nora!?

Oh boy... I wonder what is going to happen next?

The next chapter is going to be more focused on Jax, Gillian, and more on Jaune, and trust me, Jaune and Gillian's relationship will further!

Anyway! Stay tuned!

[thesoulbonder]

The Knights

Hey peeps!

Here are my designs for Carmine Esclados & Bertilak Celadon!

Ever since I saw Carmine’s official design I’ve wanted to redo it, because her original design is a crime against humanity and it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen

So I redid Carmine using her description in the book, and figured I’d do Bertilak, too, since the poor guy got literally nothing after the book was published

I really wanted to lean into both of their allusions to the Red Knights & the Green Knight respectively, so I gave them (specifically Carmine) a bunch of different armor pieces, and now they kinda match with their silver colors, albeit Bertilak’s is rusted

I also wanted to highlight them being described as total opposites outfit-wise, since Bertilak is described to not even look like a Huntsman because of his outfit, whereas Carmine is clocked as a Huntress with one glance from Coco

Anygay, that’s them <3

I guess I’ll do Team SSSNN next, but that’ll be after I finish reading Before the Dawn lol

Individual Designs under the cut <3

[rwbyazre]

how would you rank dr watts faction from your least favorite to favorite members?

Obviously Watts is at the top, he's one of my favourites in the whole Salem faction overall and he easily gets top spot in this ranking too.

2# would be Carmine.

I love her design, I loved writing her personality and her character, especially her motivations in why she's working for someone like Merlot. She was undermined and underpaid in Atlas, even as a Huntress, and was suffocated in that environment so she left and became a trafficker. She's driven by money and I like that.

Carmine knows what she wants fr.

3# would be Merlot.

He's great, and I liked his potential in Grimm Eclipse, which is why I kept him for AZRE. Yeah, he could've been merged with Watts, but I like that there's so many pieces in Salem's arsenal. It makes it feel more lived in and expansive rather than just five council members and no one else.

But Merlot specifically is interesting in his views on Grimm and how unique that is. Others show interest like Watts with the Seer Grimm, but no one goes as far as Merlot and I think it just opens a lot of different storylines to go with.

4# would be Teumessian.

She doesn't have much going for her, which is why she's pretty low, but I think her friendship with Carmine is sweet and her design is really cute to me. She also isn't completely heartless, despite the fact that, no matter what she thinks, she will go through with evil acts for herself and the group.

When the trafficker group gets more in the sequel, I'll have more of an opinion on her.

5# and last would be Bertilak.

I don't... dislike him, but I'm not overtly fond of him either. He's just there, kinda like a boring Banesaw in his fighting and personality, and the longer I look at him, the more I just don't like his design.

A few things are positive, don't get me wrong. I do like that there's some form of a personality with his code and loyalty, even to people that he admits he doesn't trust or even particuarly like, but it's minimal and not enough to make me overly care.

[swapauanon]

People seriously think Bertilak is one of Salem's minions?

He's just some racist thug who wants to sell people to make money.

How hard is that to understand?

[neopoliitan]

RWBY Evermorrow Ep.7 Director's Commentary (or something)

The newscast segment was a late addition, we decided it was best to move a scene to a later episode for a better sense of narrative. I even already animated that whole scene so we don't need to worry about it!

We were gonna use Lisa Lavender here, but decided it was better to use Cyril due to availability of existing cast members as the scene was kind of last minute. We see it as Cyril being the guy in the studio, and Lisa being the reporter in the field.

Khaki's prison number is funny if you can decipher it.

Originally this episode was a big ol scene of RWBYCRDL recounting the mission to Oz and Glynda, then the punishments being dished out, but I was having such a dull time writing it that we decided it was best to cut the recap of the immediate previous episode and hope the teams' reactions did the work. I think it was for the best, a glorified recap episode seems like it would've been a waste of production; if it wasn't fun to write it wouldn't have been fun to watch.

It was a good time to bring in Glynda as she's always been Beacon's voice of reason around Oz's more whimsical tendencies. She's to-the-point and will make no excuses, which sells the teams being reprimanded more. Plus the added questioning of what exactly Ozpin is saying to Cardin offscreen is an interesting question in the viewer's mind.

(Also our Ozpin VA was kinda unavailable but for a very good reason lol)

Let's talk Dove. You've probably noticed he's very much the reasonable one on EM CRDL at this point, which is very intentional as going in I wanted to make them more interesting than Cardin and the Cardins. CRWBY once said Dove was the most skilled of CRDL, which is an interesting angle, and Doves are a symbol of peace which inspired me to make him the """nicer""" one, albeit a bit embittered by his lot in life. This episode has a montage of the moments in ep5-6 that really lay it all out that he's a little better than the others on his team, which is why Ruby vouched for him.

There was going to be a decent focus on family in this episode, but eventually we whittled it down to just Russel's and Dove's. Being like "oh and here's a character's parent being funny and mad" worked twice, but three to eight times might have gotten old lmao

Why did I pick Bertilak for Russel's guardian? Green. Mohawk. Moody. Not a big Faunus fan.

Okay so that's only part of it. Russel has been consistently portrayed as a bit of a doormat in EM, following Cardin's orders or deferring to the next biggest fish if he's not around. His actions around Bertilak imply that the latter is the source of all that behaviour.

Dove offers Ruby an "Olive Branch". I don't know if I can get more unsubtle than this.

Don't ship them they literally feel nothing about each other. That's canon.

Why did I pick Shopkeep for Dove's grandpa? Closed eyes, and Shopkeep is everywhere. That's literally the joke.

Pyke Rite from The Grimm Campaign.

There were a few characters I really wanted to get involved sooner. Can you believe it took us till Ep7 for Ren or Nora to say anything? It felt good to have all of JNPR and OP(A)L fully animated in the same scene, and was fun to set up dynamics like Oscar being a fanboy, Alyx being a little shit and the two teams generally getting along.

In comparison to 6 this episode was a lot calmer and a lot more talk-y, but hopefully we managed to make it fun. The animators and VAs did amazing as always (the former has basically eclipsed my efforts at this point), and I'm looking forward to ep8 very much! Bigger and better!

If you have extra questions about this ep you can shoot me an ask, I'm always down to self-indulge lmao

[madman479r]

This was it. For decades Jaune had longed for this moment, the time he would finally leave the Ever After and return home.

It honestly seemed sureal. Every now and then, Jaune feared he would awaken and be back in his cabin, ready to start a new day of keeping the Paper Pleasers safe and failing to find a way back to Remnant.

But no such soul crushing reality came.

He... he was really going home.

Jaune watched as team RWBY stepped through the portal and made to follow them until the voice of the Blacksmith stopped him.

"One last thing, Knight." Jaune turned as the Blacksmith came towards him, her larger form towering over him, but not in a form of intimidation.

"The Tree watched over you, saw what you did, how you put your own life at risk to save the Afterans. Such nobility, such heroism." Despite the Blacksmith's encouraging words, Jaune only frowned in disagreement.

"Nobility? Heroism? No. I was selfish, I forced the Paper Pleasers to live in such frail bodies. I played the hero just for the rush, the feeling of being the hero because I could never be one back home." Jaune was no hero. He was, and always will be a fraud.

The Blacksmith only shook her head. "You thought you were saving the Paper Pleasers because you come from a world where death is the end with no new beginning. You became a hero because that's what the Afterans needed. For all you've done, the Tree has decided to repay you."

Now Jaune was confused. "What do you mean "repay me"? I already have my youth back and I'm going home. What more could I need?"

"The gift of youth was from Alyx. The Tree has her own gift for you, she sees potential within you. The same potential your partner saw. Untapped power."

Jaune nearly choked. "Pyrrha?" What was she talking about? What did Pyrrha see in him? What untapped power?

"This gift will be given to you when the time is right. The unlocking of your true potential."

Now Jaune was baffled, but figured it was another Ever After strangeness he had come to expect. With a grateful nod, Jaune bid farewell and left through the portal.

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

Jaune gritted his teeth as his shield took the brunt of Cinder's fireball, the force of the blast pushing him back a few feet but he remained standing.

Damnit, this was bad! He and Winter were on patrol in Vacuo, having received a mission about a few bandits attacking a settlement. That's where they met Carmine and Bertilak, a pair of veteran hunters and members of The Crown.

The Huntsman and Winter Maiden then found themselves ambushed by a new ally to the Crown, Cinder.

Winter was currently occupied with fighting off the veteran hunters, their combined skills and coordination giving the magic wielder a challenge, leaving Juane to fight Cinder alone.

Cinder smirked smugly, fire dancing in the palm of her hand, though she also had a twinge of respect in her eye. "I must admit, you certainly have gotten stronger, a better warrior altogether in such a short time. But it's still nothing compared to the power of a Maiden." Cinder then aimed her hand at Jaune and shot forward a wave of fire, completely engulfing Jaune.

Jaune put his shield up for protection but the fire came over him like water, simply crawling over the shield and directly into him. He felt the intense heat all over, his Aura working overtime to try and keep him safe but even his Aura had limits. His vision was becoming blurry, black spots clouding his eyes and he felt his body losing strength.

This was it. He was going to die. At the hands of Cinder no less.

It was a shame, he never got to avenge Pyrrha or Penny's deaths. Now he could at least join them in the after life.

But a voice called to him, one he never expected to hear again.

"This gift will be given to you when the time is right. The unlocking of your true potential."

And then Jaune saw a bright, blinding light.

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

Cinder felt satisfaction killing the annoying knight. He had been a bigger thorn in her side then she ever thought he'd be. Especially when he denied her the Winter Maiden powers, but she'd have that power soon anyway.

Though she did feel a little disappointed, he didn't even give an scream of anguish in his final, fiery moments. Maybe she shouldn't have done it too hot, it completely evaporated him before he could even feel any pain.

Cinder's eye then widened in pure shock as a golden pillar of pure aura came from the flames, where the fraud stood in the blaze of heat.

Cinder was too focused on the sight, not noticing how the Schnee, Carmine and her partner also stopped in the middle of their fight to see the light.

Her fire vanished yet the pillar remained and a silhouette stood in the centre. The light then disappeared and the silhouette became clear.

It was a tall, and powerful looking Knight with rusty armour, complete with a helmet that showed only two glowing blue eyes in the darkness of the visor.

Cinder stood in disbelief. What... what was this? Was this the fool? What was that light?! What was this?!

The Knight, with Aura practically flowing out from his body, took a step forward and readied himself for a fight.

Cinder growled in frustrated rage. Why wouldn't this idiot just die?!

"Come on." Cinder used her magic to hover in the air before shooting at the Knight like a javelin. "What now?!" She screamed and shot her hand forward, directly into the helmet as a fireball formed, exploding on impact. The explosion was powerful enough to send dust, rocks and debris flying away, even the other combatants were pushed back slightly.

When the smoke cleared, Cinder expected to see a smoldering, melted mesh of metal and flesh but her heart dropped when the smoke parted, revealing the fraud to still be standing without so much as a scratch!

Cinder looked up and saw the blue glowing eyes glaring down at her, making her feel like the weak, helpless child she once was all those years ago.

Before Cinder realised what was going on, Jaune pulled back his fist and delivered a devastating haymaker right to Cinder's cheek!

The blow sent Cinder to the sandy ground, the force behind the punch made her bounce up only inches from the sand the before falling to the ground again. Cinder lay there dazed as her head shook, her eyes came unfocused and her ears rung, her disoriented mind needing a second to register the pain, only then did she also taste the bitter iron taste of blood in her mouth.

Jaune looked at his own hand, seeing the familiar rusted armour now in place. He could feel strength unlike anything he felt before coursing through his body, through his skin, his muscles, his veins and bones. He also saw what looked like gold vapor coming from all around his form. Was that his Aura, was it literally pouring out of him?

"Huh. Thanks, Tree. That gift came in handy, and not a moment too soon." Jaune clenched his fist again as he finished admiring himself before focusing on Cinder again. His determination saphire eyes meeting her bewildered and angry fiery eyes.

"Alright. Now the real fight starts." Jaune, the Rusted Knight said and launched himself at Cinder.

[citadelofmythoughts]

Personally, my opinion on Evermorrow is they seem to respect the original work, and there are interesting ideas there, so I'll let it cook despite not agreeing with all the ingredients. Granted I have a high tolerance so long as nobody's vindictive, and I see enough people claiming nobody consumed the supplemental stuff, yet here's Evermorrow with an opening from Arrowfell, a Bertilak & Pyke Rite cameo(?), and a reference to rwby x JL 2.

I saw enough to feel like it isn't for me but I'm not trying to deliberately trash it.

For myself, I'm not big on re-inventing the wheel.

[armenianwriterman]

So as you all have probably seen by now, in the other day during the RWBY Roundtable, CRWBY have mentioned that there is gonna be over 100 characters (!) in volume 10. Therefore, I have decided to list all the characters by how likely they are to appear here based on their appearances in the books or otherwise guessing.

Definitely: Arlsan Altan, Blake Belladonna, Bolin Hori, Cinder Fall, Coco Adel, Dew Gayl, Elm Ederne, Emerald Sustrai, Fiona Thyme, Fox Alistair, Gwen Darcy, Harriet Bree, Jaune Arc, Joanna Greenleaf, Klein Sieben, Lie Ren, Maria Calavera, Marrow Amin, May Marigold, Mercury Black, Nadir Shiko, Nebula Violette, Neptune Vasilias, Nolan Porifino, Nora Valkyrie, Octavia Ember, Oscar Pine, Ozpin, Pietro Polendina, Qrow Branwen, Reese Chloris, Robyn Hill, Ruby Rose, Sage Anaya, Salem, Scarlet David, Sun Wukong, Theodore, Tyrian Callows, Velvet Scarletina, Weiss Schnee, Whitley Schnee, Willow Schnee, Winter Schnee, Xanthe Rumpole, Yang Xiao Long, Yatsuhashi Daichi

Possible: Ambrosius, Argento Pocoron, August Caspian, Bertilak Celadon, Bianca Prisma, Camilla, Carmine Escalados, Ciel Soleil, Curious Cat, Edward Caspain, Flynt Coal, Ghira Belladonna, Gillian Austrias, "Green", Henry Marigold, Ilia Amitola, Ivori, Ivy Thickety, Jabberwalker, Jinn, Kali Belladonna, King of Vale, Kobalt, Little, Neon Katt, Neopolitan, Olive Gashley, Penny Polendina (Yep still got my clown shoes on here), Raven Branwen, Roane Ashwood, Rosa Schewin, Ruda Tilleroot, Slate, Summer Rose, Taiyang Xiao Long, Umber Gorgoneion, Zwei

Unlikely: Adam Taurus, Adrian Cotta-Arc, Amber, Amonico Glass, An Ren, Arrastra Skye, Arthur Watts, Asher Mora, Atlas Pilot, Bartholomew Oobleck, Bram Thornmane, Brawnz Ni, Captain, Cardin Winchester, Carmel Vanille, Caroline Cordovin, Clover Ebi, Corsac Albain, Dee, Deery, Dove Bronzewing, Dudley, Fenix Nemean, Fennec Albain, First Mate, Forest, Fria, Glynda Goodwitch, God of Darkness, God of Light, Hanlon Fifestone, Hazel Rainart, Higanbana Waitress, Jacques Schnee, James Ironwood, Jax Austrias, Jimmy Vanille, Junior Xiong, Leonardo Lionheart, Li Ren, Lil Miss Malachite, Lisa Lavender, Mata, May Zedong, Melanie Malachite, Merlot, Miltia Malachite, Nicholas Schnee, Nubuck Guards, Olive Harper, Perry, Peter Port, Pyke Rite, Pyrrha Nikos, Rhodes, Roman Torchwick, Roy Stallion, Russel Thrush, Saber Rodentia, Saphron Cotta-Arc, Shay D Mann, Shion Zaiden, Shopkeep, Sienna Khan, Sky Lark, Sleet, The Hound, Tock, Trifa, Tukson, Vernal, Vine Zeki, White Fang Lieutenant, Yuma

[foulfirerebel]

Pondering the status of RWBY Villains

Second verse, same as the first, but with our villains. Where are they? What're their status? Is it something to be concerned about?

Again, spoilers under the cut.

Alive/Active:

Salem: Still active as always, as she'll ever be. Last seen fleeing the smoldering remains of Atlas alongside Cinder Fall, Staff and Lamp in hand. No doubt she has plans for Vacuo, but what are they?

Cinder Fall: Active. Last seen in triumph in Volume 8, having gotten both Staff and Lamp and supposedly killed her competition. And having lied to Salem successfully. Shrouded in mystery, her future is.

Emerald Sustrai: Alive, defected to the heroes side in Volume 8.

Neo Politan: Alive, let go of her revenge plans against Ruby and is currently reinventing herself in the grasp of the Tree in the Ever After circa Volume 9.

Mercury Black: Alive, but in doubt over his place in the grand scheme of things as of Volume 8. An uncertain fate awaits the young man.

Tyrian Callows: Alive. Still. And laughing mad about it. Last seen headed for Vacuo. Will the scorpion taste his own sting and die from it?

Bertilak Celadon: Alive, presumably. One of the primary antagonists of Before the Dawn. Convinced to swap sides as his partner Carmine attempted to kill him. He decided to try hunting her down.

Carmine Escalados: One of the antagonists in both Before the Dawn and After the Fall. Last seen during a massive explosion in The Crown's hideout. Presumed alive, since Bertilak is convinced of her survival.

Jax Asturias: Co-leader of The Crown from Before the Dawn. Lobotimized, vegetative, but alive.

Gillian Asturias: Other co-leader of The Crown. Currently incarcerated alongside the rest of the conspirators, but alive.

Lil Miss Malachite: Still living. Still kingpin of Mistral, presumably.

Carolin Cordovin: Stopped during Volume 6, presumably still alive and on the side of the angels.

Ace Op Harriet, Marrow, and Elm: Three remaining Ace Operatives, Marrow confirmed defected to the good side. Harriet and Elm presumably saw the light too when Vine sacrificed himself.

Corsac Albain: Alive. Last seen being detained and imprisoned after failed assassination attempt on the Belladonna's in Volume 4.

The Dead (Warning, LONG):

Roman Torchwick: Deader than dead. Ate by a Grimm in Volume 3, blew up, resurfaced in RWBY Chibi in Volume 9 as an illusion cast by Neo. Stars in the prequel novel Roman Holiday alongside Neo.

Neo's parents: Both dead via their house exploding.

Beatrix Browning: Spymaster in Vale, trained Neo and other girls. Dead via explosion.

Hei Xiong: Dead. House explosion.

Arthur Watts: Dead. Killed either by flame or smoke inhalation, and if that didn't do it then crushed during Atlas' fall.

Adam Taurus: Definitely Dead. Stabbed twice by Blake and Yang during epic duel in Volume 6, fell off a cliff hitting every rock along the way into freezing cold water.

Hazel Reinhart: Defected in Volume 8, fought Salem off, burned himself to death and died presumably from that or point blank magic explosion.

Tock: Dead via Maria's blades.

Jacques Schnee: Dead via Ironwood gunning him down in V8 after being imprisoned in V7.

Clover Ebi: Dead via Harbinger through his gut via Tyrian circa V8.

Ace Op Vine: Redeemed himself via saving everyone from Ironwood's nuke in V8.

Rhodes: Dead via Cinder.

Cinder's evil stepmother and sisters: Dead via Cinder.

Chainsaw dude/Banesaw: Presumed dead during Mountain Glenn.

Leonardo Lionhart: Grisly death via multiple stab wounds via Seer Grimm in V5.

Fennec Albain: Death via entire balcony and then explosion from overloaded weapons.

Grimm:

Kevin the massive Grimm Wyvern: Frozen atop Beacon tower, still attracting Grimm as of After the Fall.

The Hound: Dead via Silver Eye blast and a statue falling ontop of it during V8.

Alpha Centapeedle: Killed via Ruby and Blake in V8.

The Queen Lancer: Dead via Knight summon from Weiss in V5.

The Apathy: Killed with fire and silver eye blast in V6.

The Leviathan: Killed via silver eye blast and giant drill in V6.

Monstra: Dead via point blank magic blast in V8.

Beringel: Killed via Ruby in V4 short.

Arma Gigas: Killed by Weiss in White Trailer.

Nightmare: Killed by everyone on Team RWBY as of Ice Queendom. Or at least sealed away by Shion.

Various Geists: 1 major kill via Team RNJR in V4, other via Ace Ops in V7.

The Nuckelavee: Killed by team RNJR in V4.

Sea Feilong: Killed by Blake, Sun, and a sea captain's massive ship cannon in V4.

The Chimera: Killed alongside its army of Manticores in V6.

Massive Army of Grimm (Megalioths, Sabyrs, Pteranadons): Killed via Atlas, Mantle, Team RWBY, and Ozpin magic blast.

Deathstalker and Nevermore: Killed during V1 initiation

King Taijitu: Killed via Ren during V1 initiation

One headed Taijitu: Killed during the Breach in Volume 2.

Unknown:

Bram Thornmane: Antagonist of Arrowfell. Status unknown after Atlas fell.

Dr. Merlot: Status unknown after his laboratory blew up. Secret ending/all artifacts ending of Grimm Eclipse point to him living.

Xiong Junior: Bouncer at club during Yellow trailer and volume 2. Status unknown. Last seen alive during volume 2.

Miltia and Melanie Malachite: Ditto with Junior. Background antagonists of Roman Holiday, Yellow Trailer. Last seen in Volume 2.

[supersaiyanjedi14]

RWBY COMBAT ANALYSIS: VELVET SCARLATINA

"Most people don't know what it's like on the battlefield. I mean, even experienced fighters can get scared and start seeing things. If it happened to Coco, it can happen to anyone."

PHYSICAL

Born in Vale to the human engineer Will and the rabbit Faunus Meg, Velvet Scarlatina was a 20-year-old female during the conflict with the Crown, roughly a year and a half after the Fall of Beacon.  As was common among such mixed-race unions, Velvet inherited her mother’s animalistic traits, in her case a pair of long rabbit ears protruding from her scalp.  Aside from her mother’s physical traits, Velvet also inherited her father’s mechanical expertise, a summer in Atlas ending with the construction of her Anesidora camera prior to her enrollment in Pharos Academy, setting the stage for her rise as one of Beacon’s most accomplished students.  Like many other members of her species, she possessed greatly enhanced vision in low lighting, while her ears provided her with greatly enhanced hearing.  Combined, these traits provided Velvet with exceptional spatial and environmental awareness, allowing her to track and follow disturbances in restrictive terrain.  Notable examples of her superior senses were seen when she detected survivors in the Lower Cavern caves and later finding the sleepwalking Edward Caspian in the middle of the night in Vacuo.  However, Velvet’s ears also held significant limitations, as their long length made them easy targets while also being highly sensitive to touch, a trait that made her a regular victim of Cardin Winchester’s racist bullying when he manhandled her ears.  

Beyond her ears, Velvet was a conventional humanoid, standing 5’6” with brown hair and eyes, fair skin, and a slender build.  During her tutelage at Pharos and Beacon Academies, Velvet grew into a formidable athlete, easily keeping pace with her teammates on Team CFVY and shouldering the physical demands of a Huntress.  To accommodate for the versatile nature of her chosen fighting style, Velvet built up a balanced array of attributes that she could emphasize based on the situation, weapon, and opponent.  Despite this balance, Velvet was decidedly speed-oriented in her approach, her agility and dexterity being the crux of her physical component in battle.  She incorporated elegant acrobatics and nimble footwork on the battlefield, while her well-developed dexterity enabled her multitude of weapon proficiencies.  Though she missed the landing, she was still able to grapple between the trees during her initiation with ease, and during the Fall of Beacon, she casually outmaneuvered the hulking Paladin mech, dodging around its weapons while striking at its weak points.  Her dexterity most clearly expressed itself through her Confusion-Fu fighting style, suddenly and seamlessly alternating between the various weapons on her camera to shift between radically different weapon types on the fly.  Her strength was sufficient to heft Yatsuhashi Dachi towards a mole crab, as well as enable heavier hitting fighting styles such as Nora Valkyrie’s.  Despite this, Velvet was not a heavyweight, overpowered by Nebula Violette during a sparring match at Shade Academy and often deferring to her teammate Yatsu to do the heavy lifting.

Despite being regularly kept to the sidelines as the team’s ace up the sleeve, Velvet still found time to get her hands dirty and has soaked up her fair share of punishment, only being subdued by catastrophic hits that immediately disabled her.  She fought through the Fall of Beacon alongside her classmates and single-handedly dispatched an Atlesian Paladin, though she was later struck from behind by a second one leaving her with a noticeable limp to the point that Coco kept her bedridden after the battle.  In Vacuo, she maintained her performance during a long trek through the desert and in battles with the Blind Worm, Carmine Esclados and Bertilak Celadon, and not only persevered, but was able to hold out long enough for help to arrive.  Though overpowered by Nebula, Velvet was still capable of continuing the fight, and I think there is a good reason why the brainwashed Xanthe Rumpole insisted on Nebula continuing to beat on her until she was conclusively defeated.  At the same time, Velvet’s self-confidence was often her greatest hinderance, the mounting trauma of failed missions and the loss of many friends during the Fall of Beacon leaving her regularly anxious, to say nothing of her regular discrimination for being a Faunus.  But more often than not, Velvet was able to steel her nerves and persevere, unwilling to back down from the demands of combat even against overwhelming odds.  She may be sensitive, but she’s not even remotely fragile physically or mentally.

Given her extreme skill-based approach to combat and need to keep her body free, Velvet adopted light combat gear to enable her style while still providing a measure of protection.  On a day-to-day basis, she was garbed in a simple brown jacket and shorts over what appeared to be a skintight bodysuit with light shoes. Her armor consisted of a pair of pauldrons and bracers, providing a minor margin for error, while her camera box was secured to a gold belt.  Lightweight and practical, but only providing moderate protection.

RANKING: Tier 2, Peak Human Fitness

Truth be told, I debated long and hard about this one, and this ranking is only by the slimmest of margins.  While I typically rate Faunus with anatomical advantages higher, Velvet’s ears are afflicted with major shortcomings that, in the right hands, can significantly counterbalance her enhanced senses.  While grabbing Velvet’s ears obviously won’t be debilitating enough to put her out of commission a’ la an untrained Saiyan’s tail, anyone who does so is still going to have her head on the end of a line.  At the same time, Velvet’s senses are still a major advantage, and can potentially allow her to anticipate and avoid attempts to manhandle her ears.  Otherwise, Velvet is a highly capable athlete with solid performance levels, but nothing she has is truly exceptional when compared to other trained fighters of her caliber.  While Velvet can compensate for her few physical weaknesses and has strong anatomical traits that bolster her tactical viability, raw might is definitely not her ballpark, and she relies almost wholly on armed combat.

MARTIAL

Velvet Scarlatina’s personally crafted weapon, Anesidora, was nothing less than an engineering marvel.  Outwardly appearing to be nothing more than a simple digital camera, it was in truth a sophisticated computer database connected to a hard-light Dust projector, the latter concealed in a simple wooden box held at her hip.  Pictures taken by the camera could be uploaded into the generator, which used its Dust loadout to create a wire frame energy construct of the subject, specifically weapons.  These projections could vary considerably to account for the functions of the weapon being created, ranging from sharpened blades to blunt objects to flexible cords to high caliber projectiles.  The only limitation of these constructs were their lack of longevity, as the projections could only last for a brief period before dissolving, and the individual pictures of weapons could only be used once.  Velvet’s concept were so advanced that General James Ironwood, head of the most technologically developed military in Remnant, was impressed by the designs when her father showed them to him.

Like the bulk of her peers, Velvet’s training began with an intermediate combat school, passing her exams at Pharos Academy before being accepted to Beacon Academy.  Thanks to her father’s connections with the Atlas military, Velvet was able to procure the resources to build her state-of-the-art weapon, designed specifically to accommodate the practical benefits of her Semblance.  In her initiation, she was paired with the Mistral native Yatsuhashi Dachi, the two escaping a pack of Boarbatusks before joining forces with Coco Adel and Fox Alistair to slaughter eight Ursai, the subsequent Team CFVY coming together through a masterful tactical retreat.  After two years of formal study and sanctioned missions, Velvet and her teammates rose to become one of the school’s most capable units, pulling their weight in the Vytal Festival and the defense of Beacon.  Fortunate enough to survive that hellish day, the team transferred to Shade Academy in Vacuo, where they continued their training and served on the front lines during the conflict with the Crown.  Well-trained and highly experienced, Velvet stood as one of Team CFVY’s heavy hitters, though also a secret weapon due to her preference for a low profile and the nature of her weapon.  Addressing her personal combative capabilities, Velvet’s Photographic Memory and the properties of Anesidora provided her the means to learn differing fighting techniques on the fly after only seeing them once, as well as employ any weapon she has taken a picture of with incredible proficiency.  To put it simply, Velvet’s personal technique was the attack katas of dozens of different martial arts and weapon types plugged into a random number generator, executing radically different fighting styles within seconds of each other.  She has been seen employing polearms, several kinds of swords, staves, bludgeons, firearms of all kids, thrown projectiles, knives, whips, and even flamethrowers when utilizing Bartholomew Oobleck’s Antiquity’s Roast.  Having spent her free time taking pictures of her classmates’ weapons, Velvet had one of the largest pools of skills ever seen in her time, bypassing the need for specific training by memorizing sequences.  Consistent elements regardless of the weapon being used were her regular use of acrobatics to drive her physical component, especially helpful when utilizing more strength-based techniques by putting her full weight behind the blows.  Outside her weapon, Velvet had some skill in raw hand to hand combat, subduing an Ursa during the Breech with her bare hands, though she was overcome by Nebula Violette during a sparring match where they were deprived of their primary weapons.

The best way to describe Velvet’s strategic outlook is “Adaptation through Rote Response”.  With her extremely expansive pool of techniques, Velvet had the means to comfortably function in just about any combat situation by pulling out the most appropriate style to suit the situation, combining rapid reaction time with breadth of skill.  Though a gentle soul, Velvet did not pull her punches and was more than prepared to step up when problems boiled over, going for the throat to end the conflict as efficiently as possible.  Due to her camera being one-use-only for individual pictures, Coco Adel typically kept Velvet in reserve on the battlefield, saving her arsenal for when they needed it as opposed to throwing away all her tools in the early fight.  Though she played support during the Vytal Festival, when the Fall of Beacon escalated, Coco let the bunny cut loose against a rouge Paladin-290 mech suit.  Velvet opened with Ruby Rose’s Crescent Rose and cycled through several different weapons to subvert the mech’s defenses and attack its vulnerable joints, ultimately destroying it with Penny Polendina’s Floating Array.  In single combat, Velvet used this same mentality to adapt to her opponent’s fighting style.  Come at her with a knife?  She pulls a gun.  You’re best at close quarters?  She keeps you at range.  Action, reaction.  That being said, Velvet was not simply a reactive fighter and would take the initiative when need be.  When operating this way, her fighting style was more erratic and unorthodox, suddenly switching to different fighting styles in the middle of a fight before the opponent could get a bead on her.  She would typically open with a single weapon or fighting style to get a feel for the opponent, then abruptly change styles to catch them off guard once they were set into a comfortable rhythm.  Despite her kind and earnest demeanor, Velvet also made ready use of psychological warfare tactics to undermine her foes.  She would downplay her threat level to trick her opponents into underestimating her, making them thinks he was a timid little bunny before she abruptly unleashed her prowess on them.  This combination of martial versatility and unexpected tricks made Velvet dangerously unpredictable and lethal on the battlefield, particularly when accounting for her combat experience.

However, unorthodox does not mean unbeatable.  Despite her great skill and tricky tactics, Velvet’s fighting style had several significant holes coming from logistics.  While her Semblance and weapon could perfectly recreate a subject’s fighting style, they could not replicate their additional powers or their specific tactics, simply a mechanical recreation of someone’s physical moveset.  As such, while Velvet could wield her vast arsenal with the finesse of the original wielder, she could not wield it with the same proficiency due to not having actually developed that specific skill.  And because her technique was based around being able to do everything at once, it meant she couldn’t do anything particularly well.  Jack of all trades, master of none.  Velvet attempted to compensate for this by cycling through her various weapons over the course of a fight to keep the opponent guessing, employing all of her skills in equal measure and continuously changing the rules of engagement.  However, where other fighters like Qrow Branwen and Pyrrha Nikos mastered a balanced array of skills that could be adapted to the situation, their versatility coming from their nuanced applications of that flexible movepool, Velvet’s versatility came entirely from alternative weapon proficiencies, weapons that she could only use once and one at a time, making her paradoxically overspecialized and non-committal.  When forced to rely on individual skills, Velvet could be left scrambling.  When she and Nebula Violette sparred at Shade, armed with a simple staff and club respectively, Velvet was denied the chance to adjust her approach, allowing the slower yet stronger Nebula to leverage her superior unarmed skills to overpower her.  The only weapons that Velvet had regular access to were those of her teammates, and if she didn’t have a workable tool for the job, she had nothing to fall back on beyond her intermediate skill in unarmed combat.  Furthermore, Anesidora’s lack of sustainability and the growing expense of the Dust needed to power it meant that Velvet’s long-term viability could be capped if confronted by an adversary who can answer all of her skills.

RANKING: Tier 3, Standard Mastery

Velvet Scarlatina’s incredibly expansive skill set makes her one of the most versatile combatants in the RWBY setting, with the ability to effectively respond to nearly any combat situation with the most appropriate fighting style, allowing her to change the rules of the engagement at the drop of a hat while also adapting to changing situations.  At the same time, Velvet is heavily restricted by her need to alter her technique.  Because she is merely copying the fighting style of someone else, it means that she isn’t employing that style to the same degree of the original and cannot rely on any individual technique.  She compensates by building up a massive collection of weapons to choose from, resulting in a thinly spread skill set.  Despite this, Velvet’s track record demonstrates that she is an absolutely devastating combatant, tearing apart Grimm and Atlesian combat drones alike.  These weaknesses would only come up if she were confronted by an opponent of equal or greater skill, an especially small demographic indeed.

SPECIAL

Velvet Scarlatina’s Semblance is a Photographic Memory which allows her to memorize and replicate any fighting style she has seen.  Simply by observing another combatant’s moves and stances, Velvet can intrinsically replicate these movements herself with near flawless accuracy.  This power was the cornerstone of Velvet’s entire approach to combat, as it allowed her to build up a vast library of techniques and styles simply by memorizing the sequences.  Where most combatants may need months to years of training and study to perfect their techniques, Velvet only needed seconds, absorbing new fighting methods like a sponge to water.  The development of her weapon was specifically to make full use of this ability, providing her with the specific weapons of that style to elevate her combat performance to a degree comparable to the original.  Even without a weapon, Velvet was able to leverage her mental database by alternating stances and movements, seen in her battle with Nebula when she shifted styles on the fly to confuse and disorient her.  However, her eventual defeat highlighted how her proficiencies were limited if she lacked access to the appropriate weapons, with Nebula eventually able to overpower Velvet with her superior close combat talent.  While Velvet was perfectly capable of exploiting the raw physical component in battle, her reliance on her weapon suggest at the very least a slight lack of confidence in this method.  Furthermore, Velvet could only replicate the physical technique of a subject’s martial arts, and any abilities that were specifically tied to the subject’s Semblance or other abilities were beyond her ability to mimic. Sure, Velvet could use Ember Celica just like Yang could, but the power of her punches can’t match hers without Burn to amp them to their max.  Velvet’s approach was based around leveraging her library of techniques as fully as possible, getting around her inability to use a certain style to its nth degree by being able to unleash all of her styles, which are still highly refined, on a whim.

Aside from her Semblance, Velvet’s most visible special power came from her use of hard-light Dust as the primary feature of her weapon.  Typically utilized in the creation of defensive barriers, hard-light Dust is the rarest and most expensive variety of the substance, very difficult to procure outside of Atlas’s near monopoly.  Thanks to her father’s connections, Velvet was able to obtain a ready supply of hard-light Dust to make her weapon practical in the field.  She used this Dust to craft functional replicas of the weapons she took pictures of, molding it into anything from sharpened blades to ballistic weapons.  Depending on the weapon she was utilizing, Velvet could either be as precise as a scalpel or as destructive as a warhead.  Her use of a replicated Gambol Shroud allowed her to  restrain and disable the Paladin, while her recreation of Vega’s grappling hooks let her capably traverse the Emerald Forest.  Alternatively, her projectiles allowed her to sow massive destruction with her Dust.  While her gunshots and the faux flames from the Antiquity’s Roast were quite powerful, her greatest display of magnitude was when she recreated Penny Polendina’s Floating Array at the end of her bout with the Paladin, utilizing its energy cannon to obliterate the disabled mech.  However, strong as they were, the Dust weapons could not be maintained indefinitely, and would dissipate after a few hits, forcing Velvet to regularly switch up weapons and fighting styles over the source of a fight.  Though this has never been stated outright, I believe that more complex weapons require greater amounts of Dust to generate them, while also being more prone to burn out due to their mechanical demands.  As such, Velvet typically favors simpler and direct weapon applications, only breaking out the more intricate gadgets when needed, such as when she used Weiss Schnee’s Myrtenaster as a simple sword and only used Floating Array’s blaster as a last resort.

Between her photographic Semblance and Dust loadout, Velvet possesses the capabilities of an almost literal one-woman-army.  Her powers enabled her to answer any technique used against her by fighting fire with fire, while the Dust in her weapon provided her with a reliable means to take her collection of skills to the nth degree.  Instead of simply supporting martial combat with her superpowers, she blended them into one, using all of her attributes together in one package.  However, the nature of these abilities also highlight her limitations.  Velvet may be able to call upon any fighting style she has witnessed, but she cannot access the original’s powers and obviously doe not employ the same tactics.  In a sense, this reduces her myriad of proficiencies to a collection of one-trick-ponies, simply repeating mechanics of a core moveset.  The limitations of her Dust are more prevalent, especially in the wake of the Atlas Dust embargo.  With her supply chain reduced, Velvet began using her weapon far more sparingly to conserve her resources, only cutting loose when she needs to.  While an intelligent strategy, it means that Velvet’s ability to make full use of her powers is limited, at least when confronted with opponents capable of matching her in all the areas that count.  Velvet’s ability to fully utilize her Semblance is determined by the weapons her camera has access to, something that weighed heavily on her when utilizing the final reminders of fallen friends.

RANKING: Tier 3, Specialized Combat

Velvet Scarlatina’s combative applications of her special abilities easily represent one of the greatest hybridizations of physical and ethereal combat in the RWBY setting.  Her ability to memorize any fighting style she has encountered allows her to automatically build a vast collection of options that allow her to adapt to changing situations and undercut the enemy, while her Dust loadout elevates this by allowing her to fully utilize these techniques with the appropriate weapons.  The problems arise in how overspecialized she is, her subversions coming from shock and surprise rather than active attempts to bypass the opponent’s guard.  But to her credit, Velvet’s abilities are an incredibly dangerous package by their nature, and anyone who came after her would be in for a very rude awakening.

OVERALL RANKING: TIER 3, ADVANCED HUNTRESS

Velvet Scarlatina’s ranking in the Combat Analysis serves as a testament to her advanced skill while also highlighting the things she still needs to iron out.  Velvet is arguably the most dangerous member of Team CFVY, her unpredictable fighting style and Semblance making her an extremely difficult opponent to engage since she is essentially a dozen opponents coming at once.  Her balanced array of attributes, both physical and martial, are reinforced by her powers and abilities that enable her to leverage all of her skills on demand and extremely quickly, allowing her to function in any combat scenario while exploiting circumstantial factors.  As it stands, the only things preventing her from being a Tier 2 are her tactics and the logistical limitations of her powers and equipment.  Despite her amazingly broad skill set, none of these skills are advanced enough for her to dominate with, as she is simply replicating someone else’s technique rather than executing something she herself has elevated to the nth degree.  And rather than working to subvert the enemy through alternating her stance and technique, she simply switches from one to another to catch them off guard, the suddenness of the change being more important than what the change can deliver.  Velvet’s versatility and unpredictable approach give her the building blocks of a Master Huntress, but she still employs these methods with the mentality of an Advanced Huntress, wielding refined techniques as a blunt instrument and relying on her gadgets and powers rather than developed skill.

Contrasting Velvet with her peers, I would argue that she represents a less refined version of Pyrrha Nikos and an inversion of Adam Taurus.  Both Velvet and Pyrrha operate with a rotating wheel of skill configurations that they cycle through over the course of the fight in order to adapt to and undermine the enemy, but where Pyrrha mixes and matches her skills to exploit openings and disrupt the opponent’s momentum, Velvet simply switches up her technique to get them back peddling in bewilderment.  Pyrrha was an opportunistic savant where Velvet is merely a random juggernaut.  As for Adam, he and Velvet have diametrically opposed skill sets, Velvet being far better armed and having a wider variety of skills to draw on.  However, where Adam focused on developing his core technique as a reliable foundation for any situation, Velvet relies on alternative techniques to give her style depth that her individual skills simply lack.  Velvet is spread thin between just about every proficiency in the book, and all the more dangerous for it, an unpredictable jack of all trades who could do anything at the snap of a finger.  As Coco Adel pointed out, “Velvet can fight like anybody, but nobody can fight like Velvet”.

*I wish to apologize for the delay in this profile. The biggest hurdle I had here was the lack of images of Velvet to incorporate into the final posting. While Velvet demonstrated a great deal in her one on-screen fight, I find her displays in the books more compelling and more indicative of her skill. Seeing as there are no images from the books, my choices were either fill it up with the same few shots from the Paladin fight or turn to fab art. I opted to sidestep the issue and only include pictures for the verdict sections, but if things change down the road I may update this.*

*originally posted on RoosterTeeth Community page on 11-5-21*

* images taken from RWBY Wiki and @rwbyrwby*

RWBY Combat Analysis

[rocknroll7575]

RWBY: What If...? (Pt.1)

Part 2/Part 3

Jaune sat over the sand dune looking over the camp that belong to his fellow fighters with him in the crown. Behind him and stitching up his wounds, was Gillian Asturias, co-leader of CROWN and future Queen of Vacuo, well, once they overthrew the council, she would be Queen.

"You know... there's no need to worry yourself, it was for my own sake that killed those bandits," Jaune told her. "It wasn't for you exactly," Jaune told her.

Gillian looked at the back of Jaune's head with a raised brow, "really?" She asked with a raised brow.

Jaune shrugged, "It's just my nature," Jaune told her. "I'd rather fight with my sword than run away,"

"So, that's the only reason?" Gillian asked, "You fought 30 men, because it's not in your nature to run away?"

Jaune turned to look at her and Gillian looked right back at him, they stared at each other for only a moment before Jaune turned away. "Yeah... pretty much," Jaune replied. "Besides, I owed their leader some payback, and my memory of things is a bit unclear, I got caught up in the swordplay," Jaune finished.

Gillian smiled, "You were pretty amazing out there, and don't let anyone know I said this but you were better than Jax," Gillian said.

Jaune smiled a little hearing such praise from her, but then he looked back down to the campsite and his smile slowly faded.

"However, before the fight, and maybe even during it, there was something I couldn't get out of my mind," Jaune told her. "Compared to what you, Jax, and the others are trying to do, me fighting 30 bandits means nothing, not a damn thing," Jaune said somberly.

Gillian looked at him a bit bewildered that he would say such a thing, to her he did something that no one in the entire CROWN could ever do, for him to say that was nothing, Gillian knew that something deep must have been troubling Jaune.

"You, Jax, Carmine, and Bertilak, you all have something that you can stake your lives on, and I think that's amazing, I mean it, but compared to that purpose, even if I fight 30, 40, 50, or even 100 men, just seems like a random act," Jaune told her, a smile gracing his face.

Gillian looked at Jaune with wide eyes, "Jaune... I..." Gillian began, but she could not find the words, any words that would ease his mind.

Jaune just continued to look down at the campsite and sees the many fires down there, but from this distance, they look like little glow flies, dancing in the night. "Some view huh?" He asked.

"Huh?" She asked

"Marcus doesn't thin he's suited for this life, but still wants to fulfill his duty, but once it's over, he says he wants to own a diner, like his father, and Celine was rejected by a woman who she proposed to long ago, so she joined us in hopes that she would become famous and find a lover," Jaune told Gillian, "It seems like everyone has a dream, and looking over them from up here, it feels like I can see everyone's hopes and dreams flickering in the fires.

Gillian looked down to the campsite and looked at the fires and when she did, she saw all their members and soldiers smiling, drinking, and talking, and she began to see what Jaune saw in the flames.

Gillian smiled softly as she looked down at the flames, "Like a bonfire of dreams," she said.

Jaune smiled, loving how she had put it, it was poetic and reminded him of how his mother loved stories and poems and how she would always express words beautifully.

[the-silent-hashira]

anyway new RWBY s/i is based off of Lord Bertilak from the Green Knight

[rwbyazre]

How big is the crown group? do they have like a dozen members or hundreds?

The Crown is the biggest organisation in Vacuo, and to get away with just how much trafficking and kidnappings they do, they need the forces. We may only see Carmine, Teumessian and Bertilak, but there's hundreds of agents that help their work; whether it's the heavy labour, the scouting, the spies, they're all needed to make the Crown work.

And it is expensive. Merlot pays them by using fences to hawk off the things the victims have.

[swapauanon]

Some Observations on Patterns in RWBY

Y'know how RWBY had Ozpin and Ironwood do some shady things, but from a "sympathetic" perspective so the audience doesn't notice the red flags until the two of them are at odds with the heroes?

Something to consider about the Vacuo novels potentially continuing this trend: Theodore has two people locked up without a trial, and while we know he was interrogating them, we DON'T know what tactics he used to do so.

But the two people he did this to were Carmine and Bertilak, human traffickers, horrible people.

Nothing to worry about!

Then Before the Dawn came out, and showed how quickly he could ruin HUNDREDS of lives when he turns Shade into a mini-police state overnight. And since he has no higher authority to answer to, the best our heroes can do is try to dance through his loopholes and hope he doesn't crack down even HARDER on them, and we suddenly get a very scary picture of what could happen to all of Vacuo if he ever cracked.

After all, the police are just as obedient towards him as the Atlesian Military were to Ironwood.

But Theodore came around in the end and set everything back to the way it was supposed to be, so the characters and readers don't end up sparing it any more thought, even though he just spent the entire novel showcasing just how terrifying it would be if he ever snapped.

Additionally, RWBY's expanded universe typically focuses on aspects of the world that we don't get to see in the show, and both CFVY novels have shown off different aspects of Vacuo's status quo in both city and village life, which is very weird to think about when you consider we'll be getting an entire arc set there.

Finally, Atlas and Vacuo have been treated as a matched set a lot of the time in canon.

Atlas the defeated Kingdom that rose to wealth, Vacuo the victorious Kingdom that fell to poverty.

Atlas, the authoritarian regime. Vacuo, the lawless anarchy.

Ironwood, the backstabbing schemer. Theodore, the ever-dutiful follower.

But in the end, both are desert Kingdoms (Vacuo a hot desert like the Sahara, Atlas a cold desert like Anarctica), both have a strong focus on rugged individualism that drive someone who couldn't fit in to villainy (Cinder in Atlas, Jax in Vacuo), both have Headmasters with an unhealthy focus on strength (military and political power in Ironwood's case, raw muscle in Theodore's), and both Kingdoms are lead by men with unchecked power (Ironwood because of his two seats, Theodore because the Council he should serve under was abolished decades before he rose to power).

Point is, given that 99% of the Atlas Arc's surviving cast was dumped in Vacuo, I would not be surprised if Vacuo simply ended up being more of a continuation of the Atlas Arc than a follow-up.

[neopoliitan]

Hey so I know you don't take requests but uhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I really really really REALLY like your Vacuo character designs, so I was wondering if you had more! The Asturias twins, Rumpole, Sunnybrook (I bet she's a Haven teacher), Umber, the three pigs thieves? I hope the Theodore reveal didn't dissuade you, and that this isn't an annoying ask!

So I have a few drawings where I've ended up drawing book characters

the volume 9 epilogue got me to draw the Asturias twins so they're mostly based on that, but I decided on their skin tone and stuff

And I designed some of the students (Elektra Fury, Olive Gashley, Rae Noire, Umber Gorgoneion) for RWBY Evermorrow

Finally I've drawn Bertilak Celadon, Carmine's partner in crime and local faunus hater >:(

The theodore reveal did dishearten me a little but only because I played myself by getting too attached to my design and now I have to find somewhere to put it lol (also I'm a bit scary of being called racist for not interpreting his skin tone right when it was never mentioned in the book, you know how fans are)

Not sure if I'll do more in future, but yeah here's these lol

[bobauthorman]

This dialogue is something I’ve always thought about. And after thinking on it, I wonder if Bertilak Celadon realized to some capacity the existence of the Ozluminati.

And I wonder what Oz’s actions must look like to outsiders. You see these teams get special treatment from the headmasters...and not just being selected for certain missions, but also receiving special priviledges. As Raven stated...

“-Turning a blind whenever we happened to break the rules and get into more trouble should’ve.”

And how would that make you feel? Just because they’re “A great team” they get let off the hook all the time. And yet, you must always pay the piper for your misconduct. Wouldn’t that make you angry and resentful?