#she was warned she would not be getting the same Salem (not my real name)

[hoeforcheol]

Talked with the ex today. I don’t think she knows how to handle this when I’m not being a psycho like I was last time. I’m proud of the way I’ve been able to behave tho. I’m still sad but I’m in a way better place than the last time this all happened. I just wish shit could be easier. But she said bye when she left so…progress?

[n7punk]

“Make Me a Monster” Fic Notes

MMaM was pretty short and this will be too but this fic has some Backstory and I wanna talk about it lmao.

Playlist:

Warriors (AJ Michalka version)

heavy. — Au/Ra

The Creeps — Garbage

LIFE AFTER SALEM — Lil Nas X

The Heartless (original rock version) — PVRIS (kind of hard to get. Was only available on their PARIS EP which isn’t available for streaming last I checked)

Waking Up (Acoustic) — PVRIS (from the acoustic version of the PARIS EP, which is available on youtube)

chaotic — Tate McRae

Hate myself — Tate McRae

R.E.M. — Mothica

Shatter — Against The Current

Frankenstein — Rina Sawayama

My Limb — Hayley Williams

Epilogue Life:

It takes awhile and I could never write this fic in a timespan where it’s complete, but Adora does come to accept her new prosthetics. After the revelations about She-ra and the Heart, she comes to realize this version of them is the most ideal she could get purely because they don’t need maintenance, removal, cleaning etc and she can care for them the exact way she can the rest of her body, which makes them feel a lot more like her body. Her sense of touch isn’t 100%, still losing some texture differentiation and the ability to really feel light touches (she wouldn’t feel a bug walking on her arm for example), but as shown in the epilogue she learns to adapt, and eventually she stops covering up so much either. When she starts to wear her jacket less is when Catra knows she has made real progress. Her prosthetics are magic and never need intervention, which helps.

On Catra’s part, her guilt also takes a lot to process, as does her trauma from her time chipped, which only feeds into her guilt because she feels like she inflicted that same dehumanization on Adora. She comes to focus her energy on “fixing” things instead though, which does lead to some unhealthy burnout, but the worry her friends show for her then does a lot to help her internalize that no, they really don’t hate her.

It’s one of those cases where they take longer to get to a healthy place than in canon, but they do eventually reach it. They get through the worst of it early on, but those effects echo for a long time.

Chapter 1:

⦁ I was pretty worried going into this how people would feel about this, mostly because it’s an incredibly complex situation. Prosthetics are often helpful, but they tend to not be as effective as people hope and even when they are, that still doesn’t mean people don’t look at them and see what they lost sometimes. This situation in particular, where the prosthetics were largely unnecessary and completely forced on her, was painful. Adora is struggling not just with that, but with the very familiar process of trying to get back where she was before an injury/disability, but sometimes that’s just not possible. She’s seeking every piece of functionality and feeling she gets with her prosthetics, but that doesn’t mean she is less for having lost something either. I was worried about people thinking that attitude she has is ableist, when it’s really just a part of the disabled experience. Some people never have it, but I’m definitely someone who has struggled with trying to get things back while knowing I’ll never get it all. It… really sucks, and even when things seem good, there can be a bittersweetness to them. That’s the kind of attitude I was approaching this fic with. There was also the medical abuse angle with her prosthetics. Despite her impossibly advanced prosthetics, this is a very real thing I actually saw conversations about when TotK came out, which is what gave me of the exact phrase for that trigger because I was having trouble naming/describing it in the content warning before that.

⦁ Hordak was working on prosthetic limbs in the event that his deteriorating state made it impossible for him to keep working, using Adora as his guinea pig to test their effectiveness. Shadow Weaver kind of thought there was a chance She-ra could regrow them entirely even if that wasn’t what she was banking on. She actually thought the second accident was a mercy, because Hordak already wanted to test out the set on Adora at that point, so making it “necessary” was supposed to be easier on Adora. Her empathy meter is broken.

Chapter 2:

⦁ Catra just can’t “get” why Adora stayed, but it was kind of impossible for her to leave before that. Part of her already knew Shadow Weaver would be back for more, but she couldn’t let herself do it because it was the “wrong” thing to leave Etheria to the princesses. When she realized the Rebellion wasn’t actually monsters, it was all so much worse because she realized everything — her arms, Catra’s punishments, the horrible way they grew up that she didn’t even really have perspective for — had been for nothing. Catra was right all along. They should have runaway. So she did

⦁ I didn’t intend to title the chapters of this fic since it was so short, but then the “You promise?” line came up and I wanted to make that the chapter title for clarification purposes if nothing else, so I added them in.

Chapter 3:

⦁ I know I’m kind of the “let’s talk about traumatized Catra” person but tbh I still don’t think we give enough weight to having your body literally puppeted while you watch and undergo nightmare hallucinations. Like how the fuck was she functioning after that. So yeah on top of Adora being extra traumatized in this (and Catra additionally having extra trauma from watching that happen), I wanted to go a bit into the echoes of having been under Horde Prime’s control for Catra too. (Other members of the Princess Alliance who were chipped definitely deal with nightmares from this too, but I have a feeling the nightmare scenarios were mostly unique to Catra, especially considering the green pool wasn’t used on the others and by the time Prime had the others under his control he was dealing with a lot of chips and conjuring up nightmare scenarios for them all doesn’t make sense.)

⦁ In this AU there was a lot more immediately obvious awfulness from Shadow Weaver, so even after the portal Glimmer did keep her confined to her room, not that it helped Adora’s mental state much. She was a lot more hated and shunned in Bright Moon and when they were on the run. Catra and Adora still cried watching her die, but after the fact their general attitude is a mixture of “good riddance” and “how could she do all that to us and then just die without ever acknowledging it?” They take her sacrifice as the closest thing they’ll ever guilt to an admission of feeling guilt.

⦁ The thing about Adora never being able to tell if her sensation is back to “normal” is a very real thing when it comes to disability. I remember at one point telling a friend that I couldn’t tell if I wasn’t in pain or was just shouldering it because I didn’t remember what not being in pain felt like anymore.

⦁ If you know my poll, this was “in the engine room.”

Chapter 4:

⦁ In this AU, they have no idea the First Ones Virus could infect She-ra with just the sword since it seemed “obvious” it spread from the robots, to the sword, to her prosthetics, which somehow caused everything to go haywire. Because she was working with her original set that was less advanced, the virus was legitimately latched onto She-ra itself, which also explains why it went away with she reverted the transformation. They just thought changing “bodies” let her purge the virus when she transformed back. The corruption from the First Ones… worm, thing, corrupted Adora’s limbs similarly to how the virus took over her, only with green instead of red, completely changing the colors of her arms and legs and then slowly creeping up her veins. It was gnarly.

⦁ Entrapta just has a better connection with Catra and was looking to her for an answer, but a small incline of the head was their signal back in the Horde that she should really just agree with whoever she’s talking with. She almost never paused to notice it, but Catra was trying her best (and failing) to keep her out of trouble.

Original Outline:

Originally this AU was supposed to be longer, starting when Adora first lost her limbs, then skimming through scenes throughout the series, until finally landing on Darla. That was just an extra 2-3 chapters probably, but 1) god that’s too much angst. It kept me from writing it for like 9 months because I didn’t want to do it, 2) the balance just wasn’t there? Everything got “minute-to-minute” once they were on Darla, with entire chapters dedicated to it, where as the previous chapters were scattered moments taking place over literal years. This did mean I lost some ideas that were supposed to take place in the war and such (the princess prom scene, for example), but it’s still better for it.

I started to write that longer version of it back in 2022(!) but only worked on it for two days to about 2k before I was like this is not vibing and dropped it. When I picked it back up with the shorter timeline in mind, I wrote 70% of this fic in one sitting back in September, but then I got kind of stuck on their reconciling conversation and I think it was just a little too much angst for me then so I didn’t come back to it the next day. I’ve opened it occasionally since then to glance over but it just wasn’t clicking until this week. I edited what I had and wrote the rest of the fic in two days once I was there, though. I am proud of this fic but it’s definitely a very emotional one so it kind of has to happen in bursts like that. I’m glad to have finally gotten it out now, as rocky as getting from idea to completion was. I had the idea November 14th 2022, wrote most of it September 4th 2023, and finally finished it March 9th 2024.

Upcoming:

Start Your Engine ;)

[princeblack]

Her fingers on his chest feel good, making his head light and his body warmer, looking down at her with softened green eyes as she touches him. He likes the way her hand moves, as if she owns him already, tracing his chest seductively. He’s never seen anyone so sexy before and it doesn’t feel real that she’s looking at him like this, biting down on her lower lip. Regulus tries to be nice to his clients, not treating them any differently from the other ones regardless of how unattractive he finds them. But this is different, because just her touch sends a rush of heat through him, overtaking his body with the strongest desire for anything he’s ever had. Even just her gaze does something to him, liking the way she had boldly stared at his cock as if she wanted him already. It turns him on in a way that feels like natural instinct, as if he was made to be drawn to her and love her. He hates that she’s getting married, because he can’t imagine taking his eyes off of her ever again. “My place is to be yours,” he answers her. And it’s true, isn’t it? He was hired to pleasure her, but even more than that he feels like it’s his calling– like he was made to do whatever this beautiful stranger asked. She doesn’t even know his real name yet, but with her pretty blue eyes, she’s already winning his heart.

“I’m not ‘trying’ to make you feel special, I’m admiring that you are… There’s a difference,” he answers. It is part of his job, sure, but he’s being completely honest in how he speaks about her. He’s never gotten an erection from a customer before, and his attraction to her is unlike anything he’s ever experienced. He’s had sex before, but it was casual, almost thoughtless. He can’t imagine anything being thoughtless with Salem– she has divine beauty, the kind that makes you remember life is worth living because at least you got to witness the sight of her. She belongs to someone else right now but he wishes he could change that, and the way she talks to him feels like an indication that maybe he can. “If she gets jealous again, you can take care of her like you did before..” he shrugs. “You seem like you have it handled. But you’re the sexiest bodyguard I’ve ever had and I’d hate for it to go unpaid, so maybe I want you to play with me,” he purrs, holding her eye contact. “Will you play with me, Salem?”

She seems to have doubts about if he can handle her, warning him about his generous offer. “You don’t believe in me?” he asks teasingly, with a fake pout. “I can handle anything you want to do to me… I’m not as fragile as I look.” He’s not scared easily, or at all, really. And besides, if she wanted him to worship her for the rest of his days, he would happily do so. A smile tugs at the corner of his lips as she continues on to tell him that she didn’t want him for only one time. “Then I’m yours for as many times as you wish, beautiful.” His voice softens again, flirting more than what’s recommended. After all, homewrecking wasn’t in the job description. It just so happens that he really wants to do it and can’t stop thinking about how good it would feel, having the most alluring girl he’s ever met in his arms as his own.

She asks if he’s all hers, because why else would he have an erection only for her? It’s fair that she wonders, because he wonders that himself. What did it mean, that this is the first woman he’s ever been so attracted to? Why didn’t he get frequent boners, like the other men? Perhaps his taste was better and his standards were extremely high, because Salem is the most beautiful person he’s ever laid eyes on. She says the same thing about him, which makes his heart race a little. “All yours… and I want you to do dirty things to me.” He’s never wanted a customer to touch his cock before, but he’s already picturing what her pretty little hand would look like wrapped around his. It makes him salivate, imagining how good it would feel to be jerked off by her.

“I don’t make promises I don’t keep… I want to give you everything you want,” he answers softly, even softer than before because she seems to really want him. He has no idea how he got so lucky, but he’s not about to look a gift horse in the mouth, either. He desires her and he means it; he has a connection with his rescuer that he’s never felt before and all he’s done is look into her pretty eyes and hear her rich voice.

So when he’s dancing over her, his hands on the back of the couch, he gyrates against her like he means it, shivering a little as her fingers touch his bare chest again. He wishes her hands would wander more, because it’s the most intoxicating thing he’s ever felt. As if obeying his need, her fingers slowly move down until they’re just barely brushing against his cock, but they don’t move enough for his liking, so he grinds into her hand eagerly, a soft moan slipping from his lips. “No, he doesn’t deserve you, but I do. I-I’ll do anything, just touch me… I’m yours, Salem...” He utters her name like a prayer, moving his hips to grind his cock against her fingers, shifting into her so his body is brushing against hers as he sways back and forth.

flirting isn't new to salem, often times flirting is how she got the things she wanted just by flashing a charming smile and batting her eye lashes, even despite the fact she had never been truly interested in those she caught in her web. this was different and almost unexplainable because the tension in the air between them made it harder to breathe, her chest pounding in place of where her alleged heart was. often salem treated flirting like a game but with leo it all felt so serious and intense, she saw heaven in his eyes and it was a place she wanted to go and for once feel a way shes never felt before. she can tell his eyes are on her too, looking at her cleavage as if he had the right to do so. salem was never an insecure person when it came to the way she looked, some might say she was even a little cocky which to some people is a bit of a turn off but why deny what she is just to make others more comfortable with their lack of self worth? she liked the way she looked and even more so she liked the way leo was looking at her, sure it was his job to flirt but it wasn't his job to stare at her with such a look in his eyes that told her she could make him hers.

there's a soft chuckle leaving her at his teasing, right brow arching at his confidence as arms fold over her chest for a moment. "and what is your place exactly?" she teases back, curious to know what he might say but before that she giggles again but this time has to capture it by biting down on her lower lip and looking up at him for a moment. it's wrong really, she's here to celebrate the coming of marriage or whatever the fuck was the point of these parties which seemed a little ridiculous now that she thinks about it, it always seemed like an excuse to put your relationship to the test this way and honestly salem really had no interest in staying loyal to her precious fiancé, in fact she'd much rather see theo dead on the ground and as for the red haired beauty in front of her....she wouldn't mind seeing what was under that piece of fabric, having him spread out on her kuromi bedset and seeing what kind of faces he makes when she goes down on him. "are you trying to make me feel special pretty boy?" she purrs, hand coming up to trace her finger against his chest, he did say she could touch him after all...as eyes flicker down to the bulge in his pants for a moment. "careful leo, your not-so little girlfriend might get jealous of me playing with you." referring to crepy tammy she chuckles a little, stepping back so she can make eye contact with him again.

"you really shouldn't say stuff like that...how do I know you'd be able to handle 'anything I'd like?' hmm? when I get what I want I tend to be a little bit persistent to put it nicely. " truth be told she can already feel the obsession coming on, it's kind of disorienting, like taking a drug...he was dangerous which made her dangerous because she didn't like to share and she also didn't like the idea of this only being a one time thing. she's a bit scared of herself knowing if she gives into her urges she might not be able to let them go as easily, the desire to kill a woman he didn't even want was bad enough but what would she do with the rest of the people here who might look at him and decide they wanted him too? "who said I wanted you only one time? like I said you're too pretty not to be worshiped."

she smiles however when he confirms she's the only one he's ever been this attracted to, bluntly telling her that he's even hard inside his thongs just by looking at her. "so what you're saying is you're all mine?" she says teasingly. "because you just might be the most special boy I've ever laid eyes on."

no one has ever had this kind of effect on her, she's never been shy before or blushed at something someone said, the feeling is so strange on her cheeks because of how excited she was just from the thought of being alone with him. it's worse then he's whispering in her ear. "that's a shame, I think we could make really pretty videos together..." she teases back, humming softly with a smile. "and are you going to give me everything I want?" was this club flirting or was he serious? for a second she's actually not sure because what if she told him she wanted him? what would he do?

it's for that moment that she even forgets why she's here and that theo even exists until leo speaks up again, taking her hand which fits perfectly in hers as her fingers interlock with his and guiding her away from the rest of her party. she only glances back for a moment to check on her friends, making eye contact with pansy who is already looking back at her with a smirk as if she's very much aware of what's about to happen, silently cheering salem on. they walk through the crowd, lights almost blinding as shadows of bodies move and loud music makes it hard to hear the chatter, all to cover up what a shit hole the place probably really was. he takes her to one of the private rooms and closes the door behind them, it's a little quieter in here and she finally has him away from the rest of the world, just the way things should be because she hates sharing.

she sets her bag on the table before following to where he gestures her and she takes a seat on the big sofa before the taller figure is straddling over her. there's a moment she loses herself, every thought in her mind disappears as the smell of his cologne fills her space making her shiver a bit, his body is perfect, skin pale and not a flaw on it just a few pretty tattoos, he cages her in with his arms and starts to mvoe his body in a manner one could only begin to describe as pure art, making that heat between her legs feel all the more hot. it's certainly no wonder tammy wanted him so badly, which for a moment makes salem think about driving a knife through her skull but it's hard to focus on that for long because she can't pull her eyes away from the male in front of her, fingers brushing up against his chest exploring his beautiful body silently as if to drink it all in as his already hard cock brushes up against her bare stomach, it's just for a moment before he's telling her she can touch it and salem only smirks in response, lifting her face up and tilting her head back just enough that her face is just inches away from his. "darling, I don't give a shit about my fiancé...the only thing I deserve is figuring out how to make you mine." fingers glide down his skin until it's over the fabric of his tongue, coming down to brush against his tight bulge. "nobody else deserves this."

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY: Ice Queendom

Hello, everyone! I know I'm a little behind the RWBY rumor mill, given the leak and all, but I wanted to wait for the official announcement of The RWBY Project—now confirmed to be RWBY: Ice Queendom (a clear play on Weiss' "Ice Queen" nickname from Beacon) before I tried to make a post about it. Fair warning though, this is going to be a pretty disorganized musing, partly because our information is still ambiguous and partly because, to be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about a lot of this. 

Let's start with the easy stuff. The project's website launched about 45 minutes ago (at the time of me starting this) and it's admittedly hard to navigate. That could simply be because the whole fandom has been waiting for any new RWBY news—thanks, hiatus—and the influx may be too much for the servers to handle. It’ll likely fix itself in a day or two. Right now though, many of the linked pages only load sporadically for me, or don't load at all. At least two of the pages, "Movie" and "On Air" are still coming soon, but with a bit of patience I was able to get into the story-specific stuff. Frankly, I was surprised by what I found. Given our initial introduction to the project, this picture of Weiss

I don't believe I was alone in assuming, fairly confidently, that this would be an AU of RWBY proper. However, what little info we've been given paints a different picture. The introduction is, on the surface, an exact recreation of RWBY's basic plot: Ruby and her sister Yang attend Beacon academy, team up with Blake and Weiss, until their schooling is interrupted by a "horrifying threat." Though I haven't read through every entry yet, the terminology index is likewise familiar. There's dust, semblances, magic (its own separate thing), the Schnees, the White Fang, even the Maidens. We've also still got very specific details like the "single (albeit damaged) moon." I did notice two interesting differences—well, interesting to me, anyway—but at this point in the franchise's history I suspect there's no real meaning behind them. The first is the claim that “For a time, victory by the Grimm seemed all but certain, if not for the heroism of those sworn to protect humanity – Huntsmen and Huntresses." In our original, Episode One opening Salem says that survival came about because of dust. It was only later that people began to use their skills to defend the people in an organized manner as Huntsmen and Huntresses, as seen in "The Huntsmen's Children," but notably that story revolves around them using their semblances to defeat grimm, not dust. RWBY seems to have dropped the idea of dust being that significant (something that will perhaps be exacerbated now that the Schnee dust company is gone). The second difference isn't as significant, though it still caught my eye that the introduction says that "team RWBY studies to become the greatest Huntresses the world of Remnant has ever known" when, in the main webseries, that's not really anyone's goal. Each of them is using the Huntress position to achieve other goals—excitement, equality, bettering their name—with even Ruby just having the general motivation of wanting to help people. Though I admit, as someone following in Summer's footsteps, she comes the closest to really wanting to be a Huntress, specifically. However, I personally wouldn't describe any of them as wanting to "become the greatest Huntresses the world of Remnant has ever known." None of these girls are Izukus in terms of their motivation. So, are these distinct AU elements—dust no longer holds the same place in Remnant's history, the girls have slightly different life goals—or are these just unintentional divergences, perhaps compounded by this being a translation from Japanese? We can't know for sure yet, but I'm inclined to say it's the latter. 

To get back to my original point though, reading through the website there seems to be very little to distinguish this story from RWBY's original. Indeed, on the main page the project is described as the "official anime" and "another ‘RWBY’ presented from Japan” (though I'm not touching the "Is RWBY anime?" debate with a ten-foot pole). It sounds like a reboot, something that would admittedly be odd to get while the original still aired. However, the images tell a different story. As said, we have that confirmed image of Weiss as well as the character page where the girls' original Beacon outfits are presented alongside new looks that make them appear like entirely different people. So, my next thought was that this was still an AU, but one where the "real" Beacon students somehow end up in a different, likely darker universe where they meet their counterparts. Hence why Weiss has that Schnee dictator-esque look, Ruby appears to be an ordinary girl in snowboarding clothes (unless that snowboard is a scyth lol), Pyrrha is almost priest-like in those robes (are Maidens worshiped?), and Blake, most notably, appears to have a tail now. However, the exception to all this is... Jaune. 

Why is it always Jaune? 

Look, I swear I'm not complaining because we don't know anything to complain about yet. However, it's a little weird that every character—or rather, every RWBYJNPR character. Ozpin interestingly doesn't get an alternate look at all, perhaps implying that he doesn’t travel with them?—is designed not just with a winter outfit like we got in Volume 7-8, but an outfit that significantly alters their personality in some way. Ruby no longer looks like a huntress. Blake appears to have a different approach to her faunus heritage, only wearing half her bow and cat paw gloves. Weiss is straight up dressed like a fancy general, including sunglasses hanging from her shirt that I'm sure will look appropriately intimidating when worn. Even if all the characters don't come across as significantly different people in their getups—Yang, for example, still looks like Yang, though I am complaining a bit that she still isn't given proper winter clothes like the others—they are at least in an obviously new getup, with details like Yang having her hair pulled back still slightly implying a change in personality. Jaune, however, is wearing a hat, gloves, and mittens. 

That's it. Otherwise, his outfit is exactly the same. He’s the only one whose design doesn’t imply a counterpart, but rather implies... Jaune. Beacon Jaune. In a hat, gloves, and mittens. Beyond the fact that I don't think he looks good in orange, what does that say about his role in the story? Meaning, why is he singled out in this manner? Again, I'm not complaining because we have no context for this yet, I'm just wary of any RWBY story highlighting Jaune as different, especially compared to our title team. The difference may not be good (Jaune fans may be disappointed not to see him in something cooler), but it's still a way of drawing attention to him simply by virtue of standing out. And like, I get it. It's almost meaningless given how little we know and on some level it is a ridiculous thing to latch onto. It's even kind of funny. I'm already seeing "The only difference between Jaune and AU Jaune is a hat" takes that drew a good chuckle out of me. But I just can't shake my worry after Volume 8, with possibilities like, "This is an AU and Jaune is the only original team member who goes to this universe, hence the same outfit just warm stuff slapped on" dancing in my head. 

Which I suppose is as good a segue as any into the second half of this post. Namely, the question of whether this project will be any good. Now, obviously there's no way to know that until it's released—with "good" still being a judgement every fan will have to make for themselves—but that hasn't stopped the community from speculating wildly, to the point where we are, once again, more focused on hurling accusations than examining the material itself. I've seen people proclaim that this will be a so much better than RWBY and they can't wait to rub it in other's faces. I've seen people proclaim that this will be a complete disaster and they can't wait to rub that in other's faces. There's a sizable chunk of the tumblr community that is already stating—not worrying about, not hypothesizing, but stating—that this will be filled with every anime failing in history, from panty shots to, as I just brought up, making Jaune the real protagonist—and we should be ready to drop it the moment it shows its true colors. Most significantly for my pocket of this community, many in the fandom have already set up a lose-lose situation for anyone connected with RWDE (with, notably, "RWDE" equated with "HTDM" and "HTDM" equated with everyone an individual fan has ever spoken to who they didn't like or didn't agree with. These terms rarely refer to the actual posters in the tag, but are instead a convenient way to attach blame to a single, but actually non-existent, group). If we end up really liking the anime, it'll be proof that we couldn't handle the original, innovative story where the women take charge and development is more important than flashy animation. You dudebros were just waiting for your "real" shitty anime to stan. If we end up not liking the anime, it'll be proof that we can't handle anything in the RWBY IP. No matter what lovely things RT gives you, you'll never be satisfied, huh? Just leave and let the real fans enjoy the show. It is, as said, a lose-lose with some people already admitting that they can't decide whether they want the show to fail or succeed because each would lead to a really fun way of rubbing the "HTDM"'s nose in it. Obviously, from a practical perspective the answer here is to block people like that and move on. Realistically though, I'll admit that I'm just tired. RWDE pockets get so much hate for, presumably, not engaging with RWBY in good faith, but from what I've witnessed the last two days, a lot of non-RWDE folks are more interested in how this show will let them attack other fans than they are interested in, you know, the show itself. We've known for a long time that the RWBY community is, to put it mildly, less than welcoming a lot of the time, but it speaks volumes that after such a long hiatus the announcement of new material has garnered as much glee over the prospect of trolling "fake" fans (which don't exist) as it has glee over the prospect of "real" fans (which also don't exist) watching a cool new RWBY installment. 

Of course, it wouldn't be a proper RWBY day without the drama, both inside and outside the fandom. As many of you already know, just a few hours after the project was leaked fans realized that the lead writer, Tow Ubukata, has a history of domestic abuse allegations, information that gained more traction after Arryn made a (rather cryptic) comment about it on her twitter. In an effort to be as honest and forthcoming in this post as possible, I'm not going to pretend like I have any easy answers to this kind of dilemma. That's partly because I was ignorant of this issue until just a few hours ago (I’m not going to make broad statements about something I know so little about), but even if I had a more confident handle on all the facts, I still wouldn't know what to tell people. Does it matter to you that these charges happened back in 2015? Does it matter to you that Ubukata’s work on the anime is likely already done? Does it matter to you that RWBY as a franchise is already immersed in various types of abuse and harmful behavior? The "to you" is the key bit there because I sure as hell haven't figured it all out yet. Oh, I certainly know how I feel. My knee-jerk reaction of, "I'm not supporting a story connected to that" remains as strong as it always has, but as I've gotten older and as more information about our favorite media continually comes to light, it gets harder to respond to a seemingly straightforward moral issue with a straightforward reaction. It may feel like I'm exaggerating, but some days I look around and wonder what I can watch, read, and play that isn't tainted (or that won’t become tainted once I’ve fallen in love with it). I'm no stranger to beloved franchises financing and implicitly supporting heinous behavior—Hey there, Disney. Hey, Harry Potter—and though ideally I'd enjoy nothing more than to cut anything deemed problematic out of my life, I'd also like to get through this pandemic, alongside a number of personal issues, with some enjoyable escapism once in a while. So, I suppose what I'm trying to say is that even if others believe it to be a bad take on my part: I'm not here to judge you and I don’t think others should be judging you either. You need to ignore and/or boycott this anime due to this reveal, or you decide to do so later if (heaven forbid) anything else comes to light? Do so. You need to watch this anime because you love RWBY and jesus god we're all surviving a pandemic? Do so. Tumblr is a website very concerned with social justice and that’s fantastic, but the downside of reducing activism to bite-sized online takes is that it gains the veneer of these complex issues having black and white solutions. I can't tell you how many times I've seen (almost daily!), "If you really cared about abuse survivors/women/trans folks/black folks/disabled/folks/etc. you wouldn’t watch/read/listen to/play/interact with this thing. It’s really not that hard 🙄" as if the majority of popular IPs don't have skeletons in their closets (and the ones that appear pure simply haven't had something revealed yet, or have yet to age badly). All the biggest fandoms have something that someone will point to and say, "You're a bad person if you engage with this” but no, you're not. There's value in engaging with problematic media to better understand how harmful messages are spread. There's value in finding positives alongside horrific negatives so that others can't mislead you with flawed, simplistic arguments about how Bad Things are always Bad Things and you can spot the Bad Things so easily so if you didn’t you’re just a Bad Person. There’s value in pirating media to avoid financially supporting those involved. There’s value in paying for media to financially support those innocently involved. There’s value in boycotting something because it’s just the right thing to do. There’s value in not boycotting something because you realize it won’t make a practical impact. There's value in deciding where you're going to put your emotional energy and activism, choosing what you want to take a stand against and what you're willing to let slide for the sake of your own sanity. There's even value in just saying, "For this, right now, I'm choosing entertainment over moral obligation because I'm a human being living in an insanely imperfect world and I can't fight every battle all the time." 

I suppose what I’m trying to say, in my usual, long-winded manner, is that we need to do better. That’s not a new message around these parts, but it’s nevertheless true. In light of new RWBY content, the ambiguity of that content, the fandom's response to it the last 24 hours, and another case of morals bumping up against entertainment, we all need to strive to be a little more patient with one another. We're not going to succeed all the time, but if even one person reading this decides not to send that anon hate, or walk away from a heated conversation, or chooses to enjoy (or not) the new anime on their own terms, then that will absolutely make a difference in the community at large. We've still got a long hiatus ahead of us and we'll all weather it better if we put more focus on what we're doing and what we, as individuals, want out of RWBY, rather than concerning ourselves with others' choices. 

[secret-engima]

Tomorrow is looking up to be - absolutely terrible. Can I beg you for some RWBY or FFXV snippets, please?

Of course! I know it is the "tomorrow" you speak of but lemme see what I can dig up-

Team Gremlin:

There was silence for a long, long time. Nothing but Ruby’s sobbing and Yang’s pounding heart and the fear that pressed down on them from all around. Formless, but not nameless. Then she heard the stairs creak and for one moment Yang was sure that “Salem” was coming upstairs to get Ruby.

But then the door opened and Yang saw Dad’s boots, “Girls? It’s okay. Come on out.” Yang didn’t move, Ruby just sobbed a little louder and clung tighter to her. Dad sighed and bent down to peer at them, “You heard all that didn’t you.” He looked … not mad, but stressed. Maybe scared, and that made the fear worse for Yang. Yang clung to Ruby, her precious baby sister with silver eyes that no monster should be able to get to, and nodded. Dad’s face pinched, then he gave a smile that even she could tell was fake, “Come on out, girls. It’s okay. I promise. That was all just- that was adult talk okay? You don’t need to worry about that until you’re older-.”

“Ruby’s eyes,” Yang bit out, “R-ruby has Mom’s e-eyes.”

“It’s okay, Yang, Ruby, I promise. We’ll take care of it-.”

A creak of wood behind Dad and he frowned before straightening up and turning to face whoever was there, “I’ll be down in a minute, just let me-.”

“Taiyang,” Professor Ozpin sounded weirdly calm, more calm than Dad did, “may I speak to them?”

“…I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

A sigh, “I am well aware of your opinion on this matter, Taiyang, and I respect it. But they have already heard enough to be terrified. Telling them to forget it now is not only impossible but potentially worse than talking to them. You made your stance on this matter very clear, but that does not apply to your children if it will put them in danger.” Professor Ozpin’s voice softened, “Either I speak with them or Qrow does, but please. Let one of us help.”

Dad didn’t move for a long time, then his boots made for the door, “Fine. But don’t drag them into this more than you have to.” A deep breath, “Girls? I’m going downstairs to check on your mother, if you need anything, just shout, okay? Professor Ozpin is going to talk to you for a little bit. He’ll be very nice.” The last bit was said in the same voice he used when warning Zwei not to dig holes in the yard.

Dad’s boots disappeared and fancy black shoes came closer. There was a pause, then, “Would you prefer to stay under the bed?” Ruby whined and Yang glared without a word. She didn’t know what was going on, but Dad seemed mad at Professor Ozpin and everything was scary and so yes, she wanted to stay under the bed. The tip of his fancy cane tapped the floorboards a few times, then there was a hiss and a whirr of gears like from her parents’ gear and the tip disappeared. With a grunt, he knelt down and then lay down on his stomach like even Mom rarely did. He pillowed his chin on his crossed arms and it was so strange seeing a fancy, famous person lying on his belly on the floor of Ruby’s room that Yang snorted despite herself.

Professor Ozpin’s face crinkled into a faint smile and it looked real and warm, “Hello there. You must be Yang and Ruby. I am Professor Ozpin, I’m a friend of your uncle and your mother. Can I safely assume you heard the most important parts of that conversation? The Grimm and the silver eyes and,” the briefest hesitation, “Salem?”

Ruby finally pulled her face away from Yang’s shoulder to whimper, “I-is she gonna take Mom away and m-make her a Grimm? Is she gonna t-take me?”

“Ah. You have silver eyes,” Professor Ozpin murmured, then his face fell back into that faint, warm smile, “Your mother is alright now, and now that we know what is going on, we will be much more careful. I promise, I will do everything in my power to keep your mother and you safe. But to do that … I would like to tell you a story, and you must both promise me to never tell it to anyone. For the safety of you and your mother.” They nodded, hesitantly, even though Yang certainly didn’t want to hear anymore scary things today. But if it would help keep Ruby and Mom safe-.

Professor Ozpin’s smile faded, but his eyes were still warm, “Once upon a time,” he began, and they listened intently as the man with white hair slowly outlined a story that sounded right out of a fairy tail.

...

Always I Dreamed verse:

Summer had no idea what Professor Ozpin had been thinking, making her the leader of Team STRQ. Then again, the only other real option would have been Taiyang, and as much as she enjoyed his company and was coming to think of him as a good friend and teammate, he wouldn’t have been able to handle the Branwen twins.

Not that Summer was much better at handling the Branwen twins.

They hadn’t done anything to get the team in trouble, but she didn’t know how to deal with them. Taiyang made sense, even if he had a few oddly adorable hangups on things like “modesty” —they were two guys and two girls living in the same room, she didn’t really see what modesty had to do with anything when they weren’t out in public—. Taiyang understood her when she tried to … bond with the team, tried to get them to be more than just four strangers living under the same roof and tackling the same assignments in class. Raven and Qrow on the other hand…

Every time she suggested a group activity, they watched her like she was going to bite. Like they couldn’t fathom the point of learning more about or bonding with anyone outside themselves. Taiyang had suggested it was an out of kingdom thing, but Summer had lived outside the kingdoms until five years ago, and she had never acted like that. Her family hadn’t either. That feral behavior, wary distrust and eerie staring in the middle of the night like even the room wasn’t safe to sleep in without a watch wasn’t anything like what Summer and her family or neighbors had grown up with. The only ones who had acted even similar had been-.

Oh.

Now that’s an idea.

...

Blood of My Blood verse:

The next one was a whole month after Grandma Crepera had first appeared and only a week after the scary man with the mace, but three times was enough for Dionysus to be able to immediately tell what was happening when he blinked his way to awareness in a dream. He looked around uneasily, afraid of being yelled at by someone again, but … there was no one scary nearby. He was in a small little building inside a big, unfamiliar garden. The building was just a roof and little pillars holding it up and a stone floor to stand on with a little table inside and-.

A woman.

She was sitting at the table, working on something, but instead of it being paperwork like Grandpa or taking care of a sword like Uncle Cor, she was … spinning mud? She was making mud spin and pulling at it with her hands, changing its shape with her fingers, and Dionysus hadn’t realized he’d drifted into the gazebo to watch her in awe until she glanced up from her work and smiled at him. She went back to watching her mud, and when she spoke, her voice wasn’t echoing and scary, “Hello. Would you like to join me? I have enough for both of us to use if you like.”

Dionysus watched the spinning-spinning-spinning in awe, but shook his head and tucked his hands behind his back, “Iggy says I can’t play in the mud cause I’ll get dirty an’ it’s unb- unbe- bad for a prince.” He blinked up at her, “How come you’re playing in the mud? Iggy says old people don’ like mud.”

The spinning slowed to a stop as she stared at him and he wondered if she was going to get mad. But then she started laughing, an old, deep sound that felt nice, all the way to his bones, “This is not mud, Cheeky Prince, this is clay. People use it to make things like mugs and teapots and vases. Come, come sit and I will show you how.” She waved her muddy hand and set down a chair next to hers in a flash of magical rosy-blue sparks. So she was family, just like the last ones had been. Dionysus hadn’t known he had so much family before. Then again, he was pretty sure they were all dead, and that’s why they were talking to him in dreams rather than when he was awake —and a part of him wondered if that should scare him, but it didn’t, so as long as they didn’t act scary, he didn’t bother trying—.

Dionysus climbed onto the chair and watched her in curiosity. It still looked a lot like mud to him, but it was a different color from mud, so he supposed it could be something else. The woman was spinning her clay again, fingers deftly shaping and pinching and rubbing, “My name is Nyssia, though some once called me the Just.”

Dionysus thought of the Hall of Arts and all the pictures and statues in it, including some of Grandma Crepera, and wondered if she was one of the pictures in the Hall, “Just like Grandma Crepera?”

An amused twitch of her lips, “Yes, I am like Crepera. We are both related to you, but we are older than King Regis.”

He tilted his head, partially mesmerized by what she was doing with the spinning clay, but curious despite himself about other things. She was like Grandma Crepera and the others, but she hadn’t used a scary voice at all, “How come?”

She hummed without looking away from her work, “How come what, Cheeky Prince? I cannot read your mind.”

Dionysus pouted at her, because wasn’t it obvious what he was asking? But then he said, “You don’ have a scary voice like they do.”

Now she did glance up at him with a look like Grandpa had when he said something silly, “Oh, don’t I?” Dionysus jolted in his seat, startled, but not … scared. Her voice had echoed just now, deep and layered like when Grandma Crepera or Leon had spoken, but it didn’t make him feel like he needed to go hide. It reminded him oddly of the big, booming bells that hung from old church in his favorite movie, loud but mellow. He kind of liked it, but he was still glad when her voice went back to normal as she shrugged, “I merely thought you would not like it if I used that voice. So I did not.”

[thatsjustrwde]

For the RWBY character prompt thing: you gotta tell me about Ironwood for sure! And if somebody already asked, how's about Qrow? :)

OH BABEY A DOUBLE (I’m gunna put Qrow in a separate post to avoid making this too long) thank you so much!

Warning: This is a PRO IRONWOOD POST. I also go into team RWBY taking responsibility for their abuse towards Ozpin. Don’t read this if you don’t like it. You’ve been warned

My top three two ships for Ironwood

1) Ironqrow (Ironwood x Qrow) {Volumes 3-7}

I have loved the idea of these two since the fall of beacon. When they first interacted, I wasn’t too sure about them because it seemed like they didn’t really like each other.. but that scene where all the robots were turning on beacon and Qrow spotted ironwood, ran at him with his scythe, only to jump over him and save him from a Grimm, sold the ship to me. It was clear that they didn’t actually despise each other. Qrow wasn’t quick to point fingers; he knew that what was going on wasn’t James’ fault, and he even tried to add a little bit of comic relief to the scene. (When ironwood’s ship fell, and Qrow smirked “well, it won’t be much of a walk”)

My love for the ship was reinforced in v6 (yeah I know it was the fan service volume but I’m rolling with it anyway). Qrow knew that they HAD to get to ironwood in order to complete their goal. He trusted James, and he knew that he was a smart and capable leader who would know what to do (ah,, the good old days ;;)

And then in the early episodes of v7, their bickering that we once saw in v3 was non existent. They were happy to see each other, and James even initiated a hug. He was just so relieved to see him ;; it made my heart melt, I remember posting about this moment so much, all over instagram and tumblr. I loved them so dearly.

2) Ironwood x Glynda (idk if they have a ship name)

God,, I always loved them. that scene in v2 with Ironwood and Glynda standing together in the dead of night looking over the city of vale was so special to me. I love Glynda and her character, she is so dynamic. that scene with her and ironwood showed to us that she truly respected and cared for him and his well-being. She was worried for him as well. I just wish they had more interactions before his death. they would have been very sweet and POWERFUL together.

My three least favourite ships for Ironwood

1) Ironqrow {Volumes 7-8}

Oh boy. RT really knows how to take something good and just, ruin it huh.

I feel as though I don’t need to dive too deep into this (as I’ll be covering Ironwood’s fall from grace later) but yeah... The fight with Qrow and Clover was.. unfortunate. Everyone seemed to lose their braincells in that scene, and the moment it was over, Qrow was dead set on killing Ironwood for some reason even though he was the one who decided to side with a literal murderer, but go off MKEK you really did something there...

Yepp this absolutely killed the ship for me in canon (though I stilln love thinking about them out of the canon setting), I was an absolute wreck after this scene. they deserved better.

2) Ironwood x Winter

don’t worry I’m not about to pull the “IRONWOOD WAS AN ABUSIVE FATHER FIGURE AND GROOMED HER CAREERRHYUGGHR” no.

I always saw Ironwood as a POSITIVE father figure to winter, even before v7. We knew that winter was one of his best soldiers, and was most likely one of his students before then. I believe that Ironwood gave winter a chance at something great, to leave her actual abusive father and hone her skills as a soldier instead of becoming the heiress to a company that she did not want to be tied to. I believe Ironwood was a stellar father figure and role model to her, and that is the reason why I do not ship them. their relationship was so much deeper than that. it was found family.

3) Ironwood x Salem

What the fuck. Like actually what? This was a thing? What is it with this fandom and glorifying abusive relationships... I remember seeing a lot of people trying to justify it like “awh salem was so sweet with him she just wanted him to stop fighting. She would leave him alone after!!” Thats manipulation honey, we don’t fuck with that here. no. Absolutely not

My biggest criticism for Ironwood

See: the reason I made this side blog

It’s no secret to us in the RWDE community that his fall into the role of the villain was POORLY WRITTEN AND WE ALL HATE IT SO FUCKING MUCH. where the hell did this even come from? oh I know! TEAM RWBY LYING TO HIS FACE AFTER HE WAS NOTHING BUT KIND AND GENEROUS TO THEM. god I’m heated already.

I’ve talked about his stupid semblance before but it doesn’t even matter because his semblance wasn’t the cause of his descent anyway. We were all HOPING that it was but nope! it was him “losing his humanity” because he lost his other arm. How fucked up is that.

Shitty writing aside, I know James had flaws even before the shitshow that was v7-8, but honestly there was nothing he did that I can criticize harshly. He was a good and honest man with good intentions and a pure, big heart made of gold. Of course he made mistakes and of course he wasn’t perfect, but he was always trying to do the right thing to protect the people. He was a good man until MKEK decided they needed a reason to kill off another headmaster.

My favourite thing about Ironwood

his MUSCLES

His willingness to sacrifice himself to save others. During the fall of beacon he told the students that they didn’t have to stay, even though he could have used the help greatly. But he KNEW that they weren’t ready to handle a crisis like this, and he didn’t want to force them into a responsibility that could have left them emotionally/physically damaged, or worse.

During the Ironwood and Watts fight, IRONWOOD MANGLED HIS OWN ARM TO CAPTURE WATTS. He was so headstrong and brave and he wanted to do everything he could to prevent Salem, even if that meant hurting himself and losing another part of himself. God I miss him so much ;; I’m tearing up a little writing all of this...

A head canon I have for Ironwood

I love creating head canons for characters, it always makes them feel more real to me. one of my biggest head canons is that, in a peaceful world setting, he would enjoy sleeping in on the weekends. ;;. He is a headmaster AND a general which means he has to follow a strict schedule all the time. Maybe this is coming from my desire to take care of him and make sure he is happy and healthy and not stressed out.. But yeah, lazy Sundays, sleeping in late. pls let him sleep he needs so much sleep. What I would change about Ironwood if I were making a rewrite

Strap in kiddos I’ve been thinking about this for a very long time. I’m sure that someone has come up with a similar concept, but I will share my ideas anyway (: I am going to preface this by saying that for this rewrite to work, we need to have Winter receive the Winter maiden powers from Freya in V7.  To start, we will have to go back all the way to v2 when Ironwood was first introduced. I would have Ozpin and Glynda share their concerns to each other about Ironwood bringing all of his ships to look over the festival, but I would take that time to thoroughly explain his semblance. His semblance is stupid, so I would make some changes. To start off, I wouldn’t make it passive. The way it is now is just,, a weird way to give him a mental illness without actually giving him a mental illness. Activating it would have to be a decision that he made if he knew that he had to make decisions that would be hard for him. This way if his semblance caused him to do something actually horrible, he would be directly accountable for it, instead of blaming him for something that he couldn’t control. Semblances are a representation of the user, so with time and with more stress put onto Ironwood, I could see him falling victim to his own semblance if he were to abuse it too much. This will help as we lead into a better way to write his fall from grace. 

From there, I would keep pretty much everything the same until we get to v7. Team RWBY arrives in Atlas and gets arrested and brought to Ironwood just as they do in canon. This time, however, we have Oscar explain EVERYTHING. No lying. Salem cannot be killed. Oscar explains that Ozpin shut himself off after team RWBY forced the truth out of him, and while the truth is a lot for Ironwood to handle, he understands why Ozpin kept it a secret. He shuns team RWBY for their methods and explains why their actions were unnecessary and abusive, but agrees to help them anyway since he knows that they all need to come together if this is going to work. Hence, his arc kind of goes backwards. Instead of team RWBY having his trust from the beginning, they will need to work to gain it back. 

He takes Oscar under his wing to try and draw Ozpin back out. He greets Qrow, they fall in love, he also formally introduces the team to the Ace Ops. The Ace Ops take an IMMEDIATE backseat in the story. We don’t need more characters. For the sake of this rewrite specifically, they are barely around. We are focusing on Ironwood and his growth/relationships. I would explore more times to show the deep connection between him and Winter. As I said earlier, I see him as a healthy father figure for her, so I would definitely focus on that for a bit. At this point, Winter would not have received the maidens power yet, so we could have a scene of him assuring her that she is a perfect fit for the role, and encouraging her and just,, you know, solidifying that he wasn’t pressuring her into doing it. 

Carrying on with the main plot, instead of being left in the dark for the whole season, Ironwood is already aware that Salem cannot be killed. This gives him and the rest of the team a lot of time to work on a new plan to defeat her. They spend lots of time training, Ironwood takes care of them, offering his resources to them. Overtime the team do start to gain his trust little by little again, but this will all kinda fall apart when Salem arrives. 

With stress levels higher than ever, he activates his semblance. Team RWBY and friends KNOW about his semblance and they understand why he is acting irrationally. Maybe they have different ideas than him, but they would not directly oppose him. This completely fixes him from becoming a cartoon villain. Team RWBY and friends would work WITH Ironwood at a distance to fix amity and get global communications back up safely. From there, Ironwood could deliver a message to the world about Salem. Since people know who he is, it will make the message more impactful. Just like he did with his message to Mantle.

Qrow and Winter are positives in his life. They keep trying to ground him and bring him back to reality, but he will not deactivate his semblance. He is too scared of what’s to come with Salem. They support him in this, and do not turn their back on him. 

Winter receives the maiden’s power, and is told to open the vault to obtain the staff and raise atlas further into the sky to save his people. Winter agrees, why wouldn’t she? They have already evacuated most of mantle to atlas anyway. In situations like this it’s impossible to save everyone. RWBY could whine and bitch if they wanted to, but there is nothing they could do in this situation because, for the sake of this rewrite, they wouldn’t be as stupid as they are in the canon proper. 

The vault is open and the staff is vulnerable. It is in this moment that the ACTUAL VILLIAN comes into play. Watts took advantage of the security from behind the scenes, giving Salem the exact time that the vault was open. And thanks to him overhearing everything, he knows that all she needs to do is use the staff, and Atlas will fall. Salem appears in the room, and the big finale battle would occur. They weren’t ready yet. They hadn’t finalized the plan to stop her without killing her. Team RWBY Oscar and Qrow would do their best to keep Salem distracted while Winter and Ironwood speak to the staff. Meanwhile, Neo could breach Ironwood’s office and retrieve the relic of knowledge for Salem. 

The battle plays out, she keeps coming back, the team gets tired, Salem loses her patience and just PLOWS through them to get to the staff. She enters the realm and the mystical world around them begins to shatter and break. With that much concentrated evil in this place coming up out of nowhere, it would be sure to shift the balance. 

She goes head to head against Winter and Ironwood for the staff. She knows that using the staff will cause Atlas to come crashing down, so that is exactly  what she does. Since he is already out, she just gives him a command. It doesn’t matter what it is. Atlas starts to fall. She strikes a lethal blow to Ironwood (Keeping the theme of her killing headmasters) and flees with the staff. Qrow runs to his side, he and winter are crying, Team RWBY is upset, OZPIN IS UPSET. With his aura broken and his semblance down, he smiles at them all, says that he is proud of them for their work and he knows that they will find a way to defeat her. He tells them to get out and save themselves, save as many people as they can. They do that, but for further angst, Qrow stays with him, holding him and crying against him as Atlas falls. Team RWBY use the gravity dust keeping Atlas falling slowly to their advantage. They get as many people as they can into airships and send them to mistral. They then make their own way to Vacuo... Since global communications are back up, the world would know about this. This would give Shade academy a good chance to prepare. (damn I could write a fic)

What I think of Ironwood’s allusion and what I would change.

It’s dumb the way that CRWBY has portrayed it. In the story of the Wizard of Oz, the tin man doesn’t have a heart, but learns to love overtime. I used THIS aspect for helping my rewrite of Ironwood. He was hardened at the beginning, but managed to trust again and eventually smiled and said that he was proud of team RWBY and friends in his dying moments. It’s just more impactful that way I think. 

[littlemisssquiggles]

...Sooo...about RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 12...

I’m not going to lie to you guys. I don’t know how to feel about this episode. Again, it wasn’t a bad episode. It’s just that I’m still processing a lot of elements to this episode that stood out for me. At best, it seems that it’s finally concluded Penny’s Arc. Like for starters, did the showrunners just make Penny a real girl?

[SPOILERS AHEAD. NUFF SAID]

Cause that’s what happened, right? Penny became a real girl. Penny is a real girl now, right?

I can’t believe the showrunners found a way to “cheat” keeping Penny longer in the story and making her a real person. Even though the spirit of the staff said that he couldn’t be used to create life, they found a loophole. They found a way to make Penny a real girl by using the staff’s power to give form to the part of her that’s always been the true Penny---her aura. This…actually isn’t bad at all. I just wished that Pietro Polendina was also there to see his daughter literally become human. Become real. Speaking of, where the fudge are Pietro and Maria? Seriously, I hope the Staff made a portal for those too as well because I don’t wish to think the PLOT forgot about them, right?

Anyways, going back to Penny---yeah, it may seem that Penny is now a real girl…I think. Her robot side which succumbed to the virus and terminated itself is now dead and all that’s left is her soul. I’m still in shock by this. I’m still in awe that the Staff can be used to do something like this.

Speaking of---hey wait a hot minute. If the Staff could be used to make Penny “human” by separating her soul from her machine half then…does this mean that the Staff of Creation could ultimately be used on Oscar as well? I mean…the Staff was used to separate the human part of Penny from the robotic part of her. So…doesn’t this mean that the Staff could be used on Oscar the same way?

We all know that Oscar doesn’t want to merge with Oz. This has been said at least twice for this volume.

If Penny is an exemplar of how successful it would be to use the staff to separate something with a soul from it’s inorganic parts so long as the method could be explained…couldn’t this not be used on Oscar? To separate him from Oz so that way, Oscar can be free to live his life as he wants without the fear of losing himself?

This is what I’m wondering now because if the staff can do that then what’s stopping it from being used on Oscar next?

As for the spirit of the staff---I didn’t quite catch his name but I really like him. I REALLY, REALLY love his personality. When Oz said he’s quite the character, he wasn’t kidding. He is quite the enthusiastic creative guy and I love him already. I hope to see more of the staff’s spirit.

Then there is the point that the Staff said. The Staff’s spirit said… “Don’t fall”. What does he mean by that? I’m assuming this is what the V8 opening has been eluding to all of this time.

In the opening, we got the visual of the ground caving in underneath our heroes with Team RWBY falling into an eternal abyss never to see the light of day again.

Remember the theory that I shared before about…what if…our main heroes ended up “disappearing” off the face of Remnant, leaving humanity at the mercy of Salem and her army?

What if…I wasn’t too far off from being correct in my assumption?

Here’s what I think might end up happening. 

Right now…the Staff’s power is being used to create a magical means of aiding the People of Atlas and Mantle by transporting them safely to Vacuo, right? But at the moment the people seem to be caught between realms---between the reality that will guide them all safely towards Vacuo and something else that I’m going to simply dub as “the void” as in the void between creation and its polar opposite.

For part of this volume, the image of falling has been teased. It was teased in the opening and it was also teased when Oscar brought up the Remnant fairytale about the Girl Who Fell Through the World. I had a feeling that that fairytale may be a foreshadow to how this volume might conclude and the feeling that I may be correct is getting stronger.

What if…the reason why the Staff’s spirit warned RWBY about falling is because…falling would mean falling out of existence and ceasing to be in the real world?

What if…it’s something like that where whoever falls literally stops existing and can never return to the real world again because their presence would’ve been phased out of existence?

This is what I think the volume has been alluding to since the start. Either RWBY or just Ruby is going to end up falling and…something bad is going to happen to them because of it.

I think the reason why the question “Happy? Never Again” keeps repeating in the opening is because…that’s exactly what will happen in the end. Whoever falls---be RWBY or just Ruby alone--- won’t be able to experience happiness again because…they or she will be gone. Forever. They will no longer cease to exist. It will come as if the person or persons died since…they would be gone forever, no longer allowed to return?

At least, that is the vibe that I’m getting. I’m not sure if this will be the case but…I’m getting that vibe you guys. I guess…only the last two episodes will tell. We’re nearing the last inning stretch folks.

And based on the last shot of this episode, Cinder is going to show up to ruin everything. Because let’s not forget, while Penny may be a real girl now…she’s still technically a maiden. Her maiden powers are still a part of her since they are a part of her aura---her soul. So…dude...imagine how depressing it would be if RWBY went through all this trouble to make Penny human only for her to die for good this time because Cinder would’ve killed her for real.

Penny is human now. She no longer has the back up of being part machine with a robotic body that could easily be repaired. She is as vulnerable as any other maiden before her and…oof…it’d be interesting to see how things play out for the finale for sure.

But...I guess we’ll see soon.

~ LittleMissSquiggles (2021)

[kitkatopinions]

OZPIN

Ozpin for the RWBY character asks.

My top three ships for the character

Note: For these ships, I’m exclusively talking about gray-haired Professor Ozpin, and I’ve long written Oz to be at least somewhat affected by the age of his hosts, I’ve long written him to be around the same age as Ironwood and Qrow (I mean, he looks the same age and I missed Raven’s lines suggesting he was a teacher or headmaster when Team STRQ was in school,) and I’ve also long headcanoned that when he first hosted in Ozpin, the person he was hosting in chose to merge with him right away. So while he was Ozpin, there was no ‘Ozpin talks sometimes, Oz talks sometimes,’ or sharing a head. I’ve never done much shipping for Oz, but all that kind of lines up to at least make that version of him pretty shippable.

So yeah, Ozpin/Glynda could be a power couple of wholly devoted, tired, stressed caregivers trying to mentor sixty some kids at once. XD Ozpin/Amber has literally no real content, but they could look good together and she’s a non-character like Summer, but I see them as having had a lot of similarities in being kind and soft spoken. I also don’t mind Ozpin/Roman as a ‘once upon a time, Roman used to flirt with him all the time before anything went bad and Ozpin responded with amused tolerance and never really took it seriously, but a lot of their acquaintances thought they were seeing each other... Which would just make it hurt worse and be one more thing Oz blames himself for when Roman falls into a life of crime, 

My three least favorite ships for the character

Oz/Cinder, as previously stated, once someone kills someone, there’s no coming back from it. Also, he doesn’t need to get romantic advancements from any abusive manipulative magic girl who just wants to use and hurt him and abuses children on the side too. Oz/Hazel. Hazel is an abuser! He beat Oz! He blamed Oz for things that weren’t his fault and used him as an excuse for all his vile actions. Gross. And Oz/Salem takes the top spot for very obvious reasons. This one’s even more gross than Oz/Hazel.

My biggest criticism for the character

Honestly, the way he’s treated by the narrative of the show with much less sympathy than he should be. I love flawed characters, leaders that do their best but make lots of mistakes, but the narrative treated him as one hundred percent in the wrong, no discussion, and therefore deserving of Qrow hitting him (out of character moment!) and Team RWBY ripping his secrets from him forcibly, making him relive his trauma in high def, yelling at him and then being glad he was gone, and not wanting him back and then only begrudgingly and seriously accepting his apology (out of character, especially for Blake!) Especially since Ruby also didn’t have a plan and lied about potentially life saving information to an ally and then even when she made her broadcast to the world, she left out tons of information there too! Which, don’t get me wrong, is understandable for her, but the narrative should’ve recognized that she was doing the same things Ozpin did and they should’ve had her gain sympathy and understanding for him. And the narrative also gave credence to Hazel somehow, treating it seriously when he warns Oscar ‘no more Gretchens’ despite Hazel being a super abusive, murderous bastard who was trying to murder kids and making the world a worse place. I’ve had so many people tell me ‘Team RWBY are going to apologize to Ozpin and realize they were wrong to treat him the way they did,’ but it never happened. Because the writers wanted us to think of Oz as a morally gray person who had to be taught a lesson by Team RWBY, rather than an abuse victim who deserved some sympathy and understanding who shouldn’t have been abused again just for making a mistake. I don’t know why the writers thought pretending Team RWBY and Qrow were in the right would be okay, but I hate it.

My favorite thing about the character

I love Oz so much, but my favorite thing about him might be his dynamic with Qrow in seasons 3-5. Of course it all went bad in season 6, but I love a close friends, almost brothers dynamic where one does everything for the other and is wholly devoted to him, would die for him at the drop of a hat. And I love a mentor-father figure always throwing himself into protecting a kid and leaning on his shoulder while the kid is nervous, but excited and happy over it and wanting his affection and approval... And with Oz (and the headcanon that he’s affected by the age of his host,) I get both! There’s a lot more to love, but that’s my favorite thing. God, they flourish in fan fictions...

A headcanon I have about them

I already touched on some of my headcanons for him and his host, but also...‘Ozpin’ was that host’s last name, and his first name was actually Orpheus, but his team in Beacon and his inner circle only ever called him by his last name.

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

Okay, so hear me out, I’d still have people get mad at him for all his secret keeping and having no plan to defeat Salem, and I’d probably still have him temporarily retreat. But A. I wouldn’t have the punch, and instead, I’d have Qrow more ‘quietly disappointed’ than anything else and he’d regret it almost immediately and feel guilty about it (even though in that case, his feelings would be valid,) and B. Blake would be on Ozpin’s side. Seriously, Blake knows what abuse feels like, she knows it’s hard to trust after, she knows Oz has been through worse, even more than she can imagine. She should’ve been standing up for him, saying that even though he was wrong to lie, she gets why. And C. I’d have the people who have a harder time understanding and especially Ruby learn and grow and start to realize how much weight was on his shoulders while they make many of the same mistakes. D. I’d have Ozpin start coming back in V7, and apologize to Qrow in private (and have Qrow apologize back,) and then I’d have him mostly silent, ‘coming out to talk’ only really to James or Qrow and communicating through Oscar when the need calls for it, and he’d kind of step down and let James (and kind of, Ruby) make the choices for the group. Ruby at the very least would apologize to him by the end of the seventh season. And I’d totally still have him kidnapped and taken to Salem because I love that sweet sweet whump, but I’d have Hazel die like the unredeemed asshole he was and I think I’d have Qrow involved in the rescue somehow.

What I I think of their character allusion and what (if anything) I would change about it

Oz acts as both the Wizard of Oz and the Princess Ozma character merged into one allusion, and I honestly think some of it is really cleverly done. The Wizard of Oz had arrived in Oz and was treated as a god, and decided to lean into it due to Oz’s lack of current leadership and used his magician tricks to make it seem like he had magic (reflecting Oz agreeing to Salem making them seem like gods by using what was - in their world - perfectly ordinary magic, which Oz did in an attempt to grant leadership to a world he was tasked with improving.) The Wizard is treated as a king in Oz and is presented as a magic infallible solution to all of Dorothy (and her group’s) problems, only for that to be proven to not be the case, as he can only grant temporary pacifying placebos (reflecting Oz’s attempts to keep Salem back and present a false time of peace to the world while fighting a secret war that he has no plan to be able to end.) The wizard temporarily leaves the Land of Oz only to return to it later (like Ozpin dying only to come back,) and when he returns, he acts as a guide to Dorothy and dumps plot exposition about his origins (guiding the kids, the Lost Fable,) and is then permitted to remain in the Land of Oz by a magic girl who is the true leader (reflective of Ruby and the group ‘graciously’ letting him stay in their group.) Then, there’s Princess Ozma, the extremely benevolent and kind ageless fairy princess, descended from a long line of fairy princess’s, who is the rightful ruler of the land of Oz. Princess Ozma was friendly to outsiders and disliked violence, preferring peaceful solutions to conflict, and when she was first introduced in the books, it was while trapped in the body of a young boy named ‘Tip’ with no recollection of the life as Princess Ozma. I think all of that pretty obviously lines up with Ozma/Ozpin the RWBY character really well! I don’t mind this conjoined character allusion. I’m actually pretty dang fond of this one, I think this (along with Sun) is one of the few well done character allusions in RWBY.

[tanakavox]

Look into a the multiverse chapter 2

Inspiration:Spyro's Bad day.

The screen plays and Oscar was on the screen. He has small horns on top of his head and tiny wings on his back. He is currently chasing a sheep.

"Look,it's Oscar!" Ruby gasped.

"Aw, he looks cute with his little wings and horns" Nora cooed.

"Yeah he's really cute,just like our Oscar!" Yang said as she ruffled the Oscar in the theater hair. Oscar blushed at the treatment and slapped Yang's hand away, Yang grinning as he does.

Oscar kept chasing the sheep until he ran into a stone statue. The statue shook and broke revealing Salem looking human but she had also had horns and wings like Oscar, but bigger.

Ozpin looked at Salem with a bit of sadness. It hurt seeing his former lover like that compared to the more human looking version on the screen.

"Mistress is that you?" Cinder asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, a form I had long ago." Salem replied looking back at Ozpin. "But this version of me, like the boy, is not human."

"If they aren't human then what are they?" Mercury asked the group.

"Maybe their demons like Cinder and I were in the last one?" Jaune suggested.

"Thank you for releasing me Oscar." She said with a smile.

"Uh, I did what now?" Oscar replied, confused.

"Gnasty Gnorc has imprisoned the dragons across the many worlds, you're our only hope of saving us!" Salem continued like the smaller dragon didn't say anything.

"Dragons? Oh my god that is so cool!" Nora said with a grin.

"If they are dragons, why would Salem give Oscar, a seemly undeveloped dragon child, the task of saving all the dragons?" Ren questioned.

"I'm sure this Oscar is capable of handing this!" Ruby said

"Those are all well and good." Yang began, "But are we gonna ignore Gnasty Gnorc? What kinda name is that?"

"Are we gonna ignore the fact that this Gnasty Gnorc managed to turn EVERY dragon into stone? Blake stated

"Then why didn't little dragon Oscar also turn into stone like the other dragons." Emerald asked

"Perhaps he was considered too weak to be threat?" Cinder said with a smirk. Like the Oscar here."

"Hey!" Oscar shouted offended.

"Huh? You're kidding right?" Oscar exclaimed. "Dude I'm tiny!" He spreads his small wing to prove his his point.

"There's no time to explain!" Salem said waving off Oscar. "You need to take these!" She shoved the boy a dragonfly, a jar, and a bunch of gems into his arms.

"Just wait a second!" Oscar cried as the items where shoved onto him. Salem wasn't having it and picked up Oscar by the scruff of his neck and walked him over to a portal that said 'Gnasty Gnorc'.

"Come on, do I get a say in this?!"

"No." Salem replied with a smirk."

"Wow, Little dragon Oscar is just really thrown into this."Ruby said with a shake of her head.

"Yes,it's just like Salem to throw a child in the fray without warning and a laugh." Ozpin said bitterly. Salem fired a glare at the wizard.

"As if you're one to talk Ozma." She growled. "Or do I have to remind you of your little school?" The air seem to become more tense as the two glare at each other.

"Off you go!" And the older dragoness threw Oscar into the portal. He fell planted into the ground and drop the gems and jar he was holding.

"What's happening?" He asked to no one in particular.

"I'm with you, what is happening?" Oscar asked, feeling bad for his counterpart

"Who dares enter the domain of Gnasty Gnorc?!" A green giant wielding a big hammer that was apparently Gnasty Gnorc bellowed out.

"Huh?" Oscar asked lamely.

"That's Nasty Gnasty Gnorc?" Weiss ask her nose wrinkling in disgust.

"What a hideous creature." Cinder said her face filled with disgust as well.

"You! Punny little dragon child!" Gnasty Gnorc bellowed out before jumping down to Oscar.

"Yeah, ok apparently you did something and everyone's really mad." The dragon said with a nervous smile as the green giant stomp toward him. "So listen I'm sure you're a perfectly reasonable guy so I don't see why we could, put down the ham-" The dragon was cut off by Gnasty Gnorc swinging his hammer at him and sending him flying toward a table with a vase on it breaking it in half. "Yeah, ok cool." Oscar deadpanned from under the rubble.

The group had a little laugh at that. Oscar blushed and sinked into his seat a bit.

"You know I think I'm getting why no one likes you." He snarked as he get up and dodges the giant swinging his hammer down at him. He runs off with Gnasty Gnorc giving chase.

"I'M GONNA HANG YOUR HEAD ON MY WALL!" The giant screams.

"Oh yeah? Lets see you get a hang of THIS!" Oscar said with a smirk as he let a small breath of fire at Gnasty Gnorc knees.

"Such weak flames will do nothing."Cinder scoffed

Gnasty Gnorc falls over and then turn into ashes.

"Well look at that" Jaune said with a grin as he watch Cinder scowl at him. Oscar sat up a bit as his dragon counterpart beat Gnasty Gronc so easily.

"Huh, ok." Oscar looked surprised at how easy it was to beat the Green giant. "So, how do I get out of here?" The dragonfly that Salem gave him poked his head and turns his attention to a portal nearby. The dragon and dragonfly walked through the portal to see they were not in the realms of dragons. He looks around to see Sun, Velvet, and Professor Oobleck.

"Hey It's Professor Oobleck, Sun and the Velvet girl! Ruby exclaim.

"Judging from the fact that Oscar didn't go home they must have brought him here for a reason." Ren pointed out.

"Woah professor! Your portal worked!" Sun exclaimed in stilled lines.

"It's a real dragon!" Velvet said excitedly.

"What's your name young man?" Oobleck ask with a smile.

"I'm going home" Oscar stated, about to walk where he came from but a energy blast blew in up in his face covering it in soot. "Ok." The dragon mutter after sucking air from his teeth.

"Oscar sounds really mad now." Blake observed

"Well he didn't want to go on this trip to begin with and now his only way home got blown up. Yang repiled. "Who blew it up anyways?"

Adam is onscreen now holding a scepter that blew up the portal gate. He was on top of some kind of creature.

"Adam."Yang and Blake growled at seeing the red hair bull faunus.

"Who brought a dragon into Avalar?!" He demand an answer.

"HE DID IT!" Oscar shouted holding up Oobleck.

"I'm the professor" Oobleck said with a dopey smile.

The group had a another laugh at Oobleck dopeyness.

"Dragon Oscar was sure quick to throw this Oobleck under the bus." Emerald said.

" .DRAGONS!" Adam growled.

"I hate you more, what's your point?" Oscar snarked back with a scowl."

"Well, Oscar got really sassy." Yang said.

"Well his only chance to get home just got destroyed so i imagined he doesn't want to be nice to Adam." Mercury said "I'd be snarky as well."

"You better listen well boy." Adam began. "These lands belong to me. So as long as I'm around everyone will bow down to-" Adam was cut off by Oscar throwing Oobleck in his face. The red head grabbed his nose in pain as a little blood seep out, his face clearly had shock on it. "Did you just? He ask stunned.

"Whoa Oscar you didn't need to do that!" Jaune exclaimed looking at the Oscar in the theater.

"It's not me! I wouldn't do that" Oscar shout back. Everyone mirror Adam's shock at Oscar throwing Oobleck.

"I don't care, leave me alone." Oscar said.

"You're so mean!" Adam stated before smacking the creature he was on top of head. "Gulp take me home. I need a band aid. As Adam left he shouted to Oscar: I'll deal with you later dragon!

"I still don't care!" Oscar shouted back.

"Adam's right. This Oscar is mean!" Nora exclaimed

"I can respect his thought process. Just doesn't care about anything" Mercury grinned.

"Woah, that's Adam. He's the bad guy" Sun said in a stilled tone of voice.

"Who's he and what's wrong with his mouth?" Oscar asked a bit freaked out by the guy.

"This is Sun and we don't know." Velvet responded, her face grimacing.

"I have a disorder!" Sun said cheerful, his eyes not looking straight.

"What's wrong with your boyfriend Blake?" Yang ask cleary teasing her

"One, he's not my boyfriend. Two, if the Velvet in that universe doesn't know why would I?" Blake said with a frown.

"Oh dear, it appeared the portal has been completely destroyed." Oobleck said with a sad look. He sided up to Oscar and wrapped his arm around the dragon child's shoulder. "Well, look like you're stuck here. You're going to collected all the things and defeat Adam!"

"No this is extortion! This is bullcrap!"

"Please Oscar? We don't want to try anything else." Velvet pleaded.

"Oscar doesn't want to help save the world? Why?" Ruby asked.

"They did bring him here against his will and are basically holding him hostage until he's done doing their bidding. I wouldn't want to help either." Jaune repiled.

Oscar plants his face into his hand and groans. A scene cut showing the little dragon collecting a bunch of gems and getting hurt over .

"Oh, boy. This seem like it's gonna hurt for dragon Oscar. Nora said bracing herself.

Getting eaten by a metal shark,

"Why is there a metal shark under the ocean?" Emerald cried out in horror.

"And what luck that it happened to be in the same spot Oscar was. Blake pointed out.

hit by a car,

"That guy didn't even slowed down for him, that was so on purosed! Ruby shouted in anger.

being frozen after trying to catch fish,

"Jeez, Did Oscar piss in someone cereal or something? Because this kid's luck sucks! Yang exclaimed. Who gets frozen while fishing?!"

blown up, electrocuted, the works.

Oscar swears he can feel everything that happened to the dragon Oscar on screen. All this to go home.

It wasn't long until Oscar collected all the gems.

"That's one tough kid. All that and he's going." Mercury mused.

"And it seem that aura doesn't exist in this universe." Salem said. "This dragon must be extremely during if could survive that and his only child by dragon standard.

The screen then cut back to Oobleck, Velvet and Sun near a fixed portal gate. Sun was babbling on with some story about helmets, with Oobleck not paying him any mind and Velvet looking annoyed. Oscar pushes up a bag of gems toward them, panting in exhaustion with cuts and bruises over his body.

"Alright, it's done. I got all the things. Can I go now?" Oscar asked tiredly.

"Oh no of course not. That would be too easy." Oobleck replied.

"What?! Oscar had got all the gems! What else is there for him to do!" Nora shouted.

"Great job Oscar! Adam's is at the top of this RIDICULOUS STAIRCASE!" Velvet said pointing at the aforementioned huge ass stairs."But that's no sweat considering you can just fly up there!"

"Yeah totally." Oscar lied. He couldn't use his wings to fly, he wasn't old enough for them to work like that. He could only glide, but he wasn't about to tell her that.

"That is basically Child labor you know?" Mercury realized. "Oscar is still a kid by Dragon standards."

"Yeah, You're right."Yang agrees. They basically made a kid go through all these jobs.

"What assholes," Nora said with a grimace.

"I've been flying all day so I'm just gonna climb the stairs and rest them.." The dragon then began his long tread up the stairs.

"Are you sure? Velvet asked, her tone full of worry. "Because there's a lot of-."

"YEP, I'M GOOD THANKS!"

"There isn't like an elevator or anything? Give the kid a break!"Emerald cried out.

The scene cuts to Adam sitting on the throne with a cellphone on his ear.

"Yeah, mom. I actually took over the place! All by myself it's great!" Adam's mother said that something that made his face go to shock. "No I'm not gonna kill all of them! That's not how you-" Adam's face was annoyed now. "You see, this is why I didn't want to call you."

"Adam's mom alive?" Blake asked confused.

"He's not gonna kill all of them? I'm surprised that he can hold himself back." Yang grumbled.

"OKAY!"Oscar screamed burning down the door.

"JESUS CHRIST!" Adam jump up in terror.

"Jeez!" Ruby jumped as well.

"It's seems Oscar is done with games now." Weiss said a scared by dragon Oscar bit as well.

A puff of smoke came out of Oscar's nose, his face full of rage as he stomps toward Adam.

"Now you listen to me!" The dragon began.

"Um…."

"I have been through ICE."

"Okay."

"I have been through the OCEAN."

"Right"

"I've spent two hours in a maze with snail elephants looking for a PENCIL!"

"What?" Adam asked confused

"Snail elephants?That sound cool?" Nora said imagining riding one into the sunset.

"Two hours in a maze looking for a pencil? Wow…." Jaune said in wonder

"The fact Oscar still has his sanity is something to behold," Weiss said equally impressed.

"I did this because I want to go home. And if I wanna go home, YOU have to go AWAY."

"And why would I do that" Adam smirk grabbing the specter. Oscar glared and shoved a gem into his mouth and spit a fireball toward Adam. He swung the scepter and smacked the fireball, but it splits in two and hits his minions behind him. Adam looked to the burning ashes of his minions and back to the growling dragon in front of him.

"Because now? I'm not asking anymore." Oscar simply states before torching Adam.

"Did he just kill Adam?" Blake asked bewildered.

"That last line was pretty badass though," Mercury said.

Oscar sighs and jumps down the staircase and ran into the portal without a word to the others back into the realms of the dragons. Salem was standing outside the portal and smiles when she sees the little dragon come out of the portal

"Oscar! How did your mission g- " She was cut off with Oscar spitting a fireball at the portal gate blowing it up, covering her face in soot.

"I'm going to the beach." The dragon child simply said and he walks off.

"Okay.." Salem said after sucking air through her teeth. And then the screen went dark after a scene where Oscar was on the beach wearing sunglass and sipping on lemonade.

"She had it coming," Ozpin said with a grin and Salem glared at him again.

"I'm just glad that Oscar got home. He deserves a break after all that." Ruby said.

"I just wanna see what's next," Yang said.

Everything in this part was done by me.

[conspirwbytheorist-inactive]

Some Cinder Thoughts

So I saw this post from @hoepunkausta a while back and was going to reply. Then I realized that this was the first time I’d actually sat down and taken a good look at Cinder and holy cow is there a lot to this character. Anyways, it got me thinking about Cinder's potential background and, while I've always seen her as a foil and tied to Ruby, I never realized how she could potentially tie in to ALL of team RWBY. Which is. . .pretty awesome from not only a narrative point of view but in regards to character redemption as well. Full take under the cut.

TLDR: If we assume Cinder’s backstory is in keeping with the popular version of the Cinderella tale, it ties-in to a lot of the our heroes’ traumas, giving each of them a reason to relate to her. Currently, Salem maintains control over Cinder by presenting herself as the fairy godmother, because were Cinder to see her as the stepmother she was, she would potentially leave. Were she to break away from Salem, recognizing her shared traumas with the members of Team RWBY could provide her with the connection needed to grow and heal as a person.

***Content Warning: Mentions of abuse/abuser tactics***

Intro

The post itself is pretty simple. Do we think Cinder came from an abusive background or do we think she came from a normal family that died under tragic circumstances before she met Salem? I’d always gotten the vibe that Cinder came to Salem searching for power after a life of rather horrific abuse similar to a more traditional Cinderella story.

The way she craves power, not just as a resource but as something she desperately needs for her own survival (her line about Pyrrha “taking her fate into her own hands” in V2 and the “I refuse to starve” of V7 come to mind), leads to believe that she came from a home that didn’t allow her much freedom or agency. She seems to know exactly what it feels like to not be in control of her own life and, now that she has found her escape from it (Salem), refuses to ever go back.

But how does this translate into ties to Team RWBY? She obviously has been foiled with Ruby, but the other 3? Kind of a big leap to make. Well, stick with me. Naturally, when thinking of a Cinder backstory, it makes sense to look at her main allusion, the Cinderella fairy tale.

A Cinder Story

Cinderella doesn’t start her story with an evil stepmother and step sisters. By most accounts she started out fairly privileged. With that in mind, imagine this woman, who we have come to know as a murdering power-driven villain, as a small child with seemingly everything she needed. A loving family, relative financial stability, decent social standing, etc. until one day, out of nowhere. Her mother dies. And suddenly she finds her world turned upside down. Her father remarries to a woman who loathes her and, who, after his death, does her best to control her, isolate her. Everyday she is told she is lesser than her sisters, meant to act as a servant. To cope with the difficult circumstances, she daydreams about a perfect place (in the main story, the ball/landed nobility but in Cinder’s case perhaps the opulence of Atlas) where if she can just prove herself good enough, endure enough pain, she can finally earn a happy ever after.

Now, what’s interesting here is that in just this bare bones outline of the Cinderella story, we touch on the key traumas of each of our four protagonists. Ruby and Summer’s death, Weiss’s isolation and molding under Jacques, Blake’s experience of racism as a faunus and abuse under Adam and Yang’s attempting to live up to Summer’s ideal to cope with abandonment. Which is really fricking cool because it means if ANY of this hypothetical backstory were to come to light, at least SOMEONE if not EVERYONE from the team has a potential point of empathy for where Cinder is coming from.

Something I love about RWBY is how it (for the most part) does its best to show how people are not inherently good or evil, but rather products of their circumstances and environment. So imagine the narrative and thematic potential of a villain for whom each of our cast could theoretically look at and think “Wow. That really could have been me” instead of “look at this monster”. A moment where they realize that, had things gone a bit differently, had they not been a position to cope with their traumas and actively choose to love instead of being engulfed by their pain and anger, they very much could have been this story’s villains rather than its heroes. A moment where, through Cinder, they concretely realize themselves as products of choice rather than destiny and, in that same vein, perhaps Cinder can see the same for herself.

Okay, but what about the Salem part? If we reduce “badness” all to a matter of choice ignores another key theme of RWBY: the importance of an awesome support network and team to back you up. At every point of the series our heroes have had someone to help them. Ruby had Yang and Qrow growing up before her team and JNR after Beacon, Weiss had Winter and Klein, Blake Ilia and Sun, and Yang had Ruby growing up and Tai after Beacon. But who did Cinder have to help her through her darkest times? No one. Except Salem.

The Case of the Fairy Stepmother

That brings me to the second part of the question: Is Salem the stepmother or Fairy Godmother? Honestly I think it’s both. The real question (and what I think will be the biggest obstacle for Cinder growing as a character) is how does Cinder see it?

In the Cinderella story, the Fairy Godmother and Evil Stepmother play opposing roles. Stepmother does all that she can to keep Cinderella underfoot and away from realizing her full potential as a person while the Fairy Godmother steps in when Cindy is at her lowest and uses her magic to give her all that she needs to get that “Happily Ever After”. In theory it should be impossible for one person to be both at the same time, but turns out it’s a matter of perspective.

Imagine Cinder at her lowest point. Maybe she was a no-name seamstress in Argus who daydreamed about being swept up into the glamour of the Atlas elite. Maybe she was a scared kid who saw becoming a huntress as her ticket out of poverty and into a life of adventure. Imagine her getting that wish of her own accord. Playing the game, doing everything right, biding her time until finally, she escapes - only to find herself trapped in a new way. (a Prince Charming who controls her as a plaything, a student not willing to be a child soldier, there are so many possibilities here). Only to see that the system was stacked against her in way where she could never escape it under her own power. That’s. . . a lot to process and a feeling of hopelessness that I think a lot of us can relate to (especially in our current world-state).

Then Salem comes in and not only promises Cinder the power to create her own destiny, but delivers it. Cinder goes from having almost nothing to magically receiving the means to accomplish anything she desired. All because of Salem. I see a lot of people question why Cinder is so loyal to Salem, but given this view, it’d be very difficult for her not to feel indebted to her savior in some regard.

Furthermore, Salem seems relatively fond of Cinder. She defends her from ridicule in Volume 4, goes out of her way to praise her strengths and, honestly, seems to have more patience with her than the rest of WTCH.  Given her backstory, I wouldn’t even be remotely surprised if what drew Salem to Cinder was the chance to give this angry young woman the power she wished that she had had prior to her curse. It’s almost. . . motherly. In a way I would expect a millennia old woman driven mad by isolation and Grimm Lakes and a very traumatized Cinder to view motherhood.

But, that doesn’t mean that the two have a healthy relationship. We as the audience see how Salem’s “love” comes at a price. She never hesitates to keep Cinder underfoot: oscillating between praise and threats of punishment, criticizing Cinder’s discomfort in Volume 4 as weakness, and making it clear that Cinder is only important to her insofar as her usefulness. The whole “Without you I am nothing” really illustrates how far out of her way Salem goes to make Cinder painfully aware that all that she has, all that she has accomplished is because of Salem’s magic. Salem hasn’t helped Cinder as a benefactor. A benefactor would let Cinder proceed to live her own life. Salem has instead taken advantage of Cinder’s lack of any support network and feelings of isolation to establish herself as Cinder’s sole source of support.

While we as an audience can see how abusive this dynamic is, Cinder can’t. Right now, she’s more or less fully embedded in Salem’s manipulation tactics - Salem’s narrative is her truth. And, even if she does come to see it (don’t think I missed the hints of resentment in the trailer), there’s nowhere for her to go. What can she do? Go rogue? The woman has an entire Grimm army! Turn to Emerald, Mercury, or Neo? They’re all either children or also in on all this! Just like the Stepmother, so long as Salem keeps Cinder feeling isolated, the chances of her escaping or changing remain slim.

Seeds of Support and Redemption

So, that leaves us with two things Cinder needs in order to break away from Salem:

Recognizing Salem as a controlling/toxic “Stepmother” figure instead of a  “Fairy Grimm-Mother” and that this is NOT what she wants out of life.

Finding connections/a support network she can go to after leaving

This is why Cinder having parallels to all of Team RWBY is so frickin cool. I’m still not 100% certain of a full Cinder redemption. Like, I love her as a character. But part of the reason I love her is that she is a hot mess who will go full ride or die no matter the situation. So getting her to even pause and go “is this what I want out of my life?” is probably going to take something pretty drastic to rattle her current convictions.

However, that being said, I find it really suspicious that the team would take a character that could be used to parallel the traumas of all four main heroes and just hang her out to dry. In a different show, I might think they could set her up with a death as a warning for our protagonists. But, that doesn’t make sense. Every possible warning I can think of motivating Cinder’s death is already being conveyed by another character. The dangers of falling to spite? Adam. Isolation causes only weakness and pain? Raven. Sacrificing humanity for the sake of power is a crap idea? Ironwood.

Instead, these seems like a great way to set up a situation where Cinder can find connection. After all, if our team could potentially look at Cinder and go “This could have been me”, what’s to stop Cinder from looking at them, seeing their pain and how they support each other, and going “Huh. Maybe this could be me?”. Especially if something radical has just happened to get her to want to break away from Salem for whatever reason. Maybe I’m just crazy, maybe I’ve been sitting on this too long, but I think that that would be really cool for a show about the power of love and connection to have its longest-term “villain” illustrate how, given support and humanity, victims of abuse can grow and find genuine connection with people.

[self-proclaimed-chaotic-good]

The Road Ahead | Adam Milligan x Reader

Words: 2279

Warning: None, except some typos and Adam not being in this one as much.

A/N: How does writing work again? What do you mean I have to type it out? I’m thinking of a series name for this to organize these continuous oneshots. No promises of regular updates. It’s only when I can.

Continuation of [True Winchester Fashion] and [Night at the Museum].

-

The museum director hummed softly to herself as her heels echoed through the empty halls of the building. The exhibit was coming along nicely and her contact had come through and found an actual grimoire. Finally, her years of searching were finally over. If only she had brushed up on her Latin, then she would have had no problem translating it herself. Her senior curator had fallen sick after a week of trying to translate the ancient book, which left the college student rookie to translate. She had kept an eye on you for some time now. She had seen the potential in you, the potential of witchcraft. It takes practice and intelligence to master it and she had only wished the matrilineal side of her family had kept on the tradition of passing down the defunct coven’s knowledge. No matter. Blood of the coven is thicker than water of the womb, as they say. You make your own family.

With each passing week of you translating the grimoire, more incidents had been occurring around town. She wanted to approach you about it, to help you control the power of the book, but it would mean revealing her intentions too soon. She had watched you run in fear when the growing number of creatures had reached the museum. Then, those damn FBI agents had to get involved. They stopped by the museum after you had reported the bodies of the security guards that night and she had to pretend to be a clueless director that had limited knowledge about the objects in the museum and the history they hold.

It would be a matter of time before the grimoire gets out of control.

Exiting the museum, she felt a cold presence behind her. She spun around and saw a woman with the reddest hair, palest skin, and radiating the most powerful energy she had ever felt. The woman’s red lips split into a smile, a chill running down the director’s back telling her that it wasn’t a friendly one.

“Who are you?” she asked, taking a step back.

“Oh, dear. Oh, sweet dearie. You dare mess with magic and not know who I am?” The woman chuckled, taking a step forward. “I’m Rowena, the most powerful witch that ever graced this horrible planet and… the current Queen of Hell.”

“Queen of Hell. You must be joking.”

Rowena stared her down and the director suddenly felt her knees giving out. “I have been told that I have a grim sense of humor, but I do not joke about this. And you, missy, must think that witchcraft is a joke. What was it? Some kind of soul searching, finding out who you are from your family tree? Think you could feel close to them if you get a fancy old book and a cauldron?” she said mockingly. “What’s your name, sweetheart.”

“Joana Faith,” she gasped as the weight on her shoulders lifted.

Rowena hummed. “You. You need to fix this mess. As much as I love chaos, I love organized chaos and I’m not going to let some amature run around with a powerful grimoire like she’s in Harry Potter. You watch yourself, because I will also be watching you, Joana Faith.”

“Alright, alright.” Joana slowly picked herself off the ground. “And what about those FBI agents that have been snooping around? How is all of this going to be explained?”

Rowena rolled her eyes, a mix of irritable fondness in one gesture. “Those boys. They probably already know by now. As long as you set things right, you don’t have to worry about them. You do know how to stabilize that grimoire, right?”

“Well…”

Rowena rolled her eyes again.

-

Adam felt Michael’s presence in the back of his mind, asking to take over. “I can help,” the archangel said. Adam nodded, taking a step back and allowing Michael to take control.

“I don’t know what to do,” you moaned, clutching your head between your hands as eerie figures began to crowd around the windows of your apartment.

Your eyes landed on the grimoire, the leathery surface and crispy pages drawing you in like a magnet. Heat radiated off of the old padlock as your hand drifted closer. There were ancient powers in that book, power to change things, to manipulate them, and to end things. And the grimoire chose you.

You could hear Adam’s voice, but it sounded like you were under water. You couldn’t catch what it was, but you felt your heart pick up in panic. This wasn’t right. This was something that you don’t know about… but maybe you can learn to.

Firm hands gripped your shoulders as you were yanked away from the grimoire. Adam’s hazel eyes were looking down at you, but it didn’t feel like Adam. You still couldn’t understand what he was saying. He frowned, pressing two fingers onto your forehead. Heat spread through your head, brightness filling your vision as if you were pulled out of the ocean.

“Sam and Dean will be coming to deal with the monsters outside, but I need you to focus.” He paused, watching as your eyes still drifted down to the grimoire. “That thing doesn’t call to just anyone, you know.”

As you calmed yourself, so did the noises outside, the dark shadows disappearing from view. Your eyes snapped back to him. “What does that mean?”

“It means, my dear, that you have a gift and a curse,” came a Scottish woman’s voice.

You spun a head around and saw a red haired woman and Joana who looked haggard. The red haired woman rolled her eyes at her.

“Oh, please, you want to be a witch and you can’t even handle teleportation,” she chided. She looked over at you and Adam and smiled. “Hello, Michael. Fancy seeing you here. Playing college student, I see.”

“Rowena,” ‘Adam’ said with a curt nod, “You’re here for the book.”

“Of course I am. Even if the Winchesters deal with those monsters outside, there’ll be more coming if we don’t get that book under control. You,” Rowena sauntered over to you, “How much of the book you’ve read already?”

“Almost all of it,” you said sheepishly.

She hummed, looking almost impressed. A grimoire would be difficult for a beginner, but for someone who had no experience to make it that far into the book is a feat in itself. Maybe you’d be useful to her in the future, or maybe become a potential apprentice.

“Well, you two are glad that I’m here. Listen up, I’m about to give you a Witchcraft crash course and I expect you to pay attention. You wouldn’t want me to visit you when I’m upset. Michael, help those boys outside while I sort this out, would you?”

Adam stood up and gave her a look of warning. “Make sure (Y/n) is safe-”

“Or else what, dearie?” she smirked. There wasn’t much use arguing with the Queen of Hell, especially if it was Rowena Macleod.

He glowered before turning to you. “It’s going to be okay,” he assured you.

You watched him disappear with a small gust, strands of your hair flying out of your face and loose paper flying off the table. “What do you mean by Michael?” you asked Rowena.

“Oh, he didn’t tell you? Your boyfriend Adam is the vessel of the archangel Michael,” she said nonchalantly, “but we’ll unpack that later. We’ve got work to do.”

-

There was an energy that coursed through your veins that you never knew was possible. It was invigorating, like you could fly or punch through a wall. Rowena warned you about becoming too power hungry.

“Ambition is good, but too much can kill you,” she said, then added with a smirk, “Unless you find a way to cheat death, I suggest you know your limits first.”

After the incident with the grimoire, everything seemed to go back to normal. Your friend, who the Winchesters had saved from the vampire den also had no recollection, convinced that she was drugged and kidnapped while your other friend was not so lucky in getting out. The two of you mourned all the same, but only you knew how she really died. No one in town even remembered what happened with the disappearances and the killings, except for you and Joana. You now see her in a different light, knowing what her main goal was in creating the Salem witch exhibit. Her talk with Rowena seemed to humble her and she regarded you with a little more respect than she used to. The exhibit was still ongoing, but this time, no dangerous objects for display. No, that grimoire stayed with you after Rowena helped the two of you contain it. It was now imprinted with you and under your care. You didn’t know where to start.

Adam had disappeared that night and no one remembered him, either. It was as if he had vanished along with everything that was unnatural, like some weird fever dream. Rowena had said that he was a vessel to an angel, the archangel Michael of all things. In any other circumstances, you would have had a hard time believing it, but with the grimoire and the monsters and witches that came with it, it was just another piece to the universal puzzle found. Now you know the truth. The things in stories like the werewolves, the vampires, the witches, and even angels and demons, were all real, and there were people that dealt with them within the shadows. They come and go and only a few even notice them. They save lives without any recognition or reward. Hunters, they were called. The Winchesters.

After graduating college, you weren’t sure what you wanted to do. There was the museum library, but it was no longer what you wanted to do. Now that you have discovered witchcraft, you wanted to know what you could do. Maybe you could help people, too, like Adam and his brothers.

You cleared up your desk at the museum as you snacked on the brownies that a senior curator had brought in for your last day. They were sad to see you go, but you told them that you had applied to a museum in the city and wanted to see where you went from there.

“You are always welcomed back here,” one of them said as they hugged you.

Your last stop was the cemetery where your friend had already left flowers. She didn’t talk to you all that much, saying she needed more time with her family and had sought professional help to cope with your mutual loss. Maybe it was for the best. You still blamed yourself for your mutual friend’s death after all.

You turned to leave and was immediately faced with Joana. She had dropped her perky and enthusiastic mask that she had kept up around others and offered a sympathetic smile instead.

“I’m sorry about your friend,” she said, “I didn’t realize that an old leathery book would cause this much trouble. I’m sorry.” She looked around, eyes squinting as the summer sun beamed down on the two of you. “I heard you were leaving town. Good for you. I… there’s another thing I should apologize for.”

It was then you realized that she had a small book tucked under her arm. She pulled it out and handed it over to you. It was worn from constant use, scribbles and rough sketches on every page. Flipping through them, words like wendigo, werewolves, and revenant, stood out.

“It had been left on your desk that night when… the whole thing with the grimoire had been put to rest. I got curious and… I might have borrowed it. I realized it must have been left by those hunters that had helped us,” Joana explained.

“Possibly by Adam,” you muttered, closing the journal.

“Adam. Rowena said that he was a vessel of an angel. Is that true? Did you know?”

You shook your head. “Not sure how much from the Queen of Hell is true but I wouldn’t be too surprised anymore if it was. There is a lot out there that people don’t know about. What about you? What are you going to do now?”

She shrugged. “I could dabble here and there. I think I want to use it to protect this town, though. After everything that happened, I realized the impact of one thing could have on a whole community, especially when it involves things that people don’t believe existed. If those hunters hadn’t come here, hell, even if Adam hadn’t decided to go to school here, who knows what would have happened.”

“Yeah. Makes you think about those that weren’t so lucky. I’m going to try to learn more about this… this whole business with supernatural things. If I have a gift, I should use it, right?”

Joana nodded before stepping back. “Well, good luck. Come back whenever and tell me about what you’ve found. I’m curious, but I don’t think I’m cut out for venturing.”

“I’ll be sure to do that.”

As you walked towards your car, there was the bittersweet ache in your chest. You had never lived away from home before, the town was practically all you knew. Yet, there was something inside of you that felt that you had the potential to do more and be more than what you were now, and it wasn’t going to change unless you stepped away into something new.

The road ahead was dangerous, but it was better than staying in one spot forever. Maybe one day, you would even run into Adam again.

[snowe-zolynn-rogers]

Pairings: None Yet

Word Count: 1,583 Words

Summary: Maria and Mercury tell stories of the pasts.

Warnings: Self-Deprecation Mention, Abuse Mentions, Child Abuse Mention, Amputation Mention, Death Mention, Weapon Mention, Food Mention, let me know if I should tag anything else.

Shadows Are Made Of Light: Chapter 3

Mercury was amazed while Maria was telling the story of her past. The most powerful Silver Eyed Warrior and someone he looked up to as a child, he respected her. But the story also infuriated him on her behalf. How dare they take her eyes like that? Is that what Salem would do to him if she found him?

"But I wasn't. I went into hiding soon after." Maria explained.

"I can't believe it. You. You're the Grimm Reaper. You were a legend. And then you disappeared." Qrow looked startled, shocked, appalled. It all made Mercury nearly laugh at him. He behaved like a obstinate child in front of his idol.

"How exactly does a legend disappear?" Oscar asked.

"You never used your name, never showed your face. Lots of us thought you were just laying low. Eventually we came to accept that you were probably dead. But the stories about you, I based my weapon off of yours. I wanted to be as good as the Grimm Reaper." Qrow spouted.

"Well, I'm nothing but a disappointment. So you're well on your way." She announced with a huff.

"How can you say that?" Blake asked. Mercury shook with rage. His idol, sitting here, criticizing herself.

"Child, a huntress is supposed to protect others to the bitter end. But after I lost my eyes, I only ever looked after myself. Even after my surgery, I was too afraid to fight, afraid someone would find me again, finish what the others started. You shouldn't aspire to be like me, especially when some of you are clearly stronger already. It's comforting seeing that your generation seems up to the task of inheriting this world. I'm just sorry I didn't do more to leave it in better shape."

Maria wistfully looked out over the ground they were passing over. Mercury felt rage subside slightly, she was scared, he understood that. That was exactly why he'd run after Beacon, run away to hide in Mistral only to find out that Lionheart was a traitor and he had to run again, to a place with no primary headmasters like Argus.

"When I was thirteen, I found a little girl when my father took me on one of his missions. Pretty young, a baby no older than her first few months, couldn't even walk yet. I named her Chrome because she didn't have a name. Father called her my sister but I cared for her more like a parent to a child, she was my daughter by all account. He didn't like my attention being drawn off elsewhere besides him so he only got worse toward me and her." Mercury looked at the pitying looks on the faces of team RWBY and Oscar and Qrow, even Maria looked sad.

"One day, I decided to run away from him with her. I managed to get to the next town over and I gave Chrome to a group of training huntsmen that were visiting the town from Atlas who promised to take care of her and I and take us to Atlas, since they were returning to their homeland that night. I knew he couldn't get to Atlas, so Atlas was the safest place to put her. That was until his friends found me and dragged me back home. He took my legs that day for defying him and getting rid of his only chip left to bargain for my obedience. He eventually got mad after about a week that I could no longer act as his personal maid enough that he gave me metal legs to replace the ones he took but, when he did that, I ended up killing him." He kept his composure. After all, Maria hadn't lost her cool when she was explaining.

"I would have hid too, probably found Chrome again afterward if Cinder hadn't found me there, looking for him. I would have run away and hid just like you did if she hadn't threatened me with knowing about Chrome. Because there's nothing wrong with hiding after something bad happens. It doesn't matter what you promised or who you promised it to. When you're hurt or scared and you want to hide, you do it because the person you need to save also has to be yourself sometimes."

He refused to look at the pity on their faces anymore. But he could feel the tension in the air loosen somewhat. Maria gave a little laugh.

"Thank you, Mercury." She looked at him smiling.

"Thank you for sharing something that personal, Mercury." Oscar whispered.

"I also have happier stories if you depressing bastards want something happier." He smirked.

"I think we could use happy after stuff that heavy." Ruby told him.

"Well, there was this one time Chrome decided to braid my hair as practice for her own. My hair was in tiny braids for over a week while I tried to get them out." He laughed.

"I can imagine that, that's the worst part." Yang cackled from the front.

"The great Mercury Black with dozens of tiny braids in his hair for upward of a week." Ruby chuckled. And, even if they were laughing at him, he was happy that the tension was gone now. The heaviness left in the air from those nightmares in Brunswick Farms was finally gone.

"Oh, I was thinking, Maria. Maybe you could teach me to use the Silver Eyes the way you did?" Ruby asked.

"Given I'm already training Mercury here for that same thing. It shouldn't be hard. I've always looked for other Silver Eyed Warriors to train, to teach the next generation of Silver Eyes and give hope back to this world." Maria smiled.

"You have Silver Eyes?" Ruby asked.

"How did you think we got out of that basement?" Mercury asked.

"I thought it was me?" Ruby seemed confused.

"You did the first one. The one where it got those nightmares away from Blake. I did the second that gave us time to get out." Mercury told her.

"Silver Eyed buddies then." Ruby lightly punched his shoulder.

"Hey, don't go stealing my metal limb buddy." Yang joked.

"I'm not. I'm not." Ruby stuck her tongue out at her sister. Then Ruby's scroll beeped and she brought it out. "It's Jaune!" Yang even stopped her bike.

"How?" Yang asked.

"The city?" Ruby asked. "Wait." She took the scroll from her ear and looked toward the direction that Yang was driving to find a path that led up a mountain. Argus. Yang made quick work of getting up the mountain to announce they'd arrived in Argus. Finally, this nightmare was over. They were safe.

Once there, Yang locked Bumblebee in a storage garage for vehicles. While the others waited for...something. Mercury didn't know what. He was just hoping they'd planned out a place to sleep at.

"Cute boy Oz!" Mercury looked toward the sound only to see a streak of pink as something tackled Oscar, though he helped steady them from falling on the ground while everyone else greeted team JNPR or, well, JNR. Mercury got a pang of guilt again. He had been part of the plan orchestrated that resulted in Pyrrha's death.

"Wait, who is this?" Nora asked.

"Mercury." Yang smiled proudly.

"WHAT!?" Jaune snapped.

"I've defected. I ran away. Salem would have killed me."

"Why would she kill a henchman besides you being expendable?" Jaune took out Crocea Mors, intending to use it against him.

"Because I have Silver Eyes. She kills people with Silver Eyes so I ran away and hid in Mistral. I left on the Argus train after Haven Academy was shut down." He told him.

"Why should we trust you?" Jaune asked.

"I have a daughter in Atlas. I'm trying to get to her. She should be turning six in a week." Mercury told him.

"You have a kid? A real kid?" Jaune asked, putting Crocea Mors away but laughing in his face.

"Yeah. I have her picture if you don't believe me." he angrily snapped.

"Yeah sure." Mercury pulled up the few pictures of Chrome he'd managed to get over the time he had his scroll.

"She looks just like you." Jaune hummed.

"I know, surprising considering she's adopted." He smirked.

"Alright, we can keep the stray you guys found." Jaune told them.

"Hey!" Mercury wanted to feel insulted but, honestly, it was kind of funny being referred to as a stray like he was some cat they'd found on their journey. They went onto the transit and Mercury just followed them around to Jaune's sister's house.

Mercury would absolutely not fawn over the baby Saphron had. He totally wasn't. Nope, not at all. He absolutely wasn't and no one had any proof that he was soft toward children, no sir. Mercury did take the food offered to him by Nora.

"C'mon, eat up. You can't be passing out on us." Nora shoved the sandwich into his mouth to stop his argument. It was then he realized he was actually really hungry.

He listened to their discussion this time while he ate. He wanted to know what would be happening. He wanted to make sure he could help at least. Mercury had a bad feeling, like something bad would happen to impede their journey like those damned nightmares.

"So we kinda already tried that and it didn't go super great." Jaune admitted.

"Come on, it couldn't be that bad." Yang laughed. Mercury had a feeling that she would regret saying that.

[shierajones]

Agnes Analysis

As previously stated, on Valentine’s Day my husband and I did a rewatch of all the WandaVision episodes thus far so that I could take the time to do a deeper analysis on Agnes and explain why she is suspicious and good. I need to amend my thoughts and say that she is suspicious and not the villain.

I don’t think she’s good necessarily…but she’s not bad. She’s naughty as they keep telling us and naughty is playful. I do think she’s 100% Agatha Harkness, but Agatha isn’t a villain despite what you may hear in some circles.

Look at her name Agnes. Agatha Harkness. Maybe she’s named that as a misdirection, but I doubt it.

 Moving on to the series and my nonsense analysis:

 When we start the series, it seems clear that the “show” is already running and there are episodes that we, the audience, have not seen. However, we don’t get to view the situation until Agnes returns to town. Yes, the episode starts with Vision and Wanda in their home, but they are the main characters so of course it would. Still, our first episode is her first episode.

 When Vision leaves for work, Agnes appears and says, “I’m Agnes, your neighbor to the right. My right, not yours. Forgive me for not stopping by sooner to welcome you to the block. My mother-in-law was in town, so I wasn’t.”

Right off the bat, Agnes is suspicious. These lines are suspicious. Specifically, “My right, not yours.” I don’t think she’s referring to the actual location of her house (Herb lives to the left of them and he is not her husband). I think she’s referring to her place in this story. She’s been placed there by her right, not Wanda’s.

 Important note: her anniversary is June 2nd…Salem Witch Trials. Agatha Harkness confirmation.

 To the episode, Wanda turns to Agnes for assistance and she leads her down the wrong direction. Perhaps how Agatha leads Wanda down the wrong direction in seeking help prior to the start of the Hex…

She is also the one to make Wanda start questioning her marriage and her reality because of their lack of song, anniversary and rings.

 We get the first “You’re so naughty!” in this sequence.

 Another thing I noticed in the first episode is that every time Agnes appears to apparently help, things get more complicated and the “ingredients” meant to aid Wanda, bring her more chaos.

 Moving on to episode two, Agnes is in their house in the intro while everyone else is outside. Because she is in the inner circle. Still, she is noticeably alone even though she is apparently married. Suspect husband.

 In the episode, she says “Look, it’s the star of the show,” and pretends it’s about the rabbit but I think it’s a slight test of Wanda’s awareness of the Hex and this odd sitcom. Agnes is testing Wanda’s reaction.

 We also get another nod to Agnes as Agatha with her rabbit’s name Senor Scratchy like Agatha’s son Nicholas Scratch.

 Then we see that strange exchange with the mailman which makes him suspect as hell too! And once again, Agnes tries to help Wanda by warning her about Dottie, but instead makes her nervous about the situation that turns out poorly because of the pressure.

Important lines to note in this scene:

“The devil’s in the details Bev”

Agnes “That’s not the only place he is.” Interesting.

 For the rest of episode two and most of episode three we see less of Agnes and I think that’s because of Geraldine (Monica)’s presence. For reasons Agnes doesn’t understand, Wanda quickly grows fond of “Geraldine” and she steps into the role Agnes is supposed to play in her life.

 Agnes and Herb question her existence because she doesn’t belong, and she’s being invited into the inner circle. It seems that Agnes is worried that “Geraldine” will lead Wanda down the wrong path or at least the path to the truth she’s trying to hide.

 Episode four doesn’t have much development in the WandaVision fake series but we do see that Agnes’ identity is not known. They have no real name for her and she doesn’t appear to be a New Jersey resident like almost every other relevant character.

 In episode five we see that Monica’s exit leads to an increase in Agnes’ role again, “Auntie Agnes.” Also, with Monica gone, Agnes solidly knows that Wanda is aware of the illusion. She continues to play her part, but she addresses Wanda directly when things start to move off script. Despite being in front of Vision, she brings attention to Wanda’s control of the world. I think she’s moved on from Wanda and is now trying to wake up Vision.

 Strange note: the babies stop crying when Agnes breaks character. Wanda’s magic doesn’t work on them but somehow their cries are tied to the sitcom narrative and Agnes’ actions.

 “Kids, you can’t control them. No matter how hard you try.” Weird line. Is she referring to Wanda trying to control them or her?

 Later when she claims to have seen the dog from her kitchen window I again have to question how. She is not next door! How can she see into their fenced in yard from the view of her house?

 We finally see outside of her Bewitched styled home—Agatha Harkness nod—and I say again, she is not next door to them! Earlier in the scene in the kitchen she says, “Let’s just hope this dog stays the same size,” and then he dies eating bushes at her house thereby forever staying that size. Creepy and suspicious.

 Her face, however, in this entire interaction that follows is why I don’t believe she’s bad. She has genuine concern on her face when the kids say that Wanda can bring back the dead and a wave of relief passes over her when Wanda says, “Some things are forever.” Watching Wanda and her children, Agnes looks like she’s relieved that Wanda is growing and willing to accept death and wants her children to do the same. It’s the first time she shows true vulnerability and I think (or maybe just hope) that’s because in her own strange way she doesn’t wish ill on Wanda.

 Fast forward to episode six and once again we see less of Agnes because of the introduction of a new character. The fake Pietro.

 When we finally see Agnes, dressed as a witch fully confirming her identity as a witch (given that all the other main characters are dressed in nods to their true identities Herb is dressed as Frankenstein’s monster and the concern that brings me is big) she is somewhat frozen but not fully. Just as she is somewhat under Wanda’s control but not fully. Her lines here are vital!

In this trance-like state she tells Vision that she “got lost, took a wrong turn.” Pointing to the narrative of this story. She and Wanda are lost, and things (like the apparent resurrection of Wanda’s dead brother) have taken a wrong turn. She’s lost. She doesn’t understand her purpose here anymore. She’s on Ellis Ave trying to escape but she doesn’t really know if that’s what she’s doing. When Vision “wakes” her, she immediately clutches at her neck/chest seemingly in search of her broach. The necklace she usually wears could have been the thing keeping her out of Wanda’s control but Pietro’s appearance (and the strange necklace he now wears) have taken that from her. She asks Vision if she’s dead. In the comics Wanda does kill Agatha, but we’re not there yet. Probably. But she asks because Vision is dead and then she screams dead over and over again as if he’s not the only dead thing around. Look back at my thoughts about Herb. He’s dressed as Frankenstein’s monster and if we can apply the same logic to his costume as the other relevant characters, that could be pointing to the fact that he is a reanimated body. SO CREEPY! SO SUSPICIOUS!

 Agnes name drops Wanda where Norm didn’t when he was taken out of the trance. I don’t think this is just to place the blame on Wanda and take the focus away from her. Agnes is still trying to wake up Vision so she’s giving him answers where Norm had none, but I also think she is speaking to her position. Wanda’s magic is growing and she has finally taken control over Agnes where she was limited before. 

There are holes in her story to Vision that Wanda is behind it all, but she’s still hiding a significant truth. She’s probably protecting her “husband” the real villain of this story.

[rambling-procrastinator]

Hey, so I’m no writer, but RWBY volume 8 was sooo bad, and volume 7 was so good, and I feel like there was a lot of potential that went out the for that I wanted to try my hand at rewriting it. Or rather, just tweaking a few characters so it isn’t so awful. Namely Ruby and Ironwood. I feel like if they only acted slightly different, this would have actually been an ok volume. Not great, but ok.

Let’s start with Ironwood. First change, don’t kill sleet. One complaint I have and have heard a few times is ironwood goes from nice guy to Saturday morning cartoon villain real quick, and shooting a background character really doesn’t help anyone. Instead, sleet and the other council person confront ironwood and accuse him of grossly misusing his political power. Ironwood arrests them and tells them they’re free to take him to court once atlas is safe. This shows that ironwood is actually breaking the law and why martial law is a bad thing. Like, martial law exists so the military can protect as many people as possible during emergencies like an invasion, so while it sounds scary, it’s not necessarily evil. Them accusing ironwood of corruption and him more or less agreeing paints it slightly darker but doesn’t push ironwood into maniacal laugh bad guy territory yet. It also doesn’t make winter and the ace ops look bad for blindly following a murderer. They’re supposed to be redeemed by the end, yeah?

The plot continues as normal until the cane blows up the whale. Rather than ask winter about Team ORJY and smiles at the thought of torture and blackmail, like a crazy person, he instead asks about the bomb and explosion. Learning that Salem is dead and they still have the bomb , he comes up with a plan. Remember how the amity tower plot didn’t matter and nothing came of it? Well instead, ironwood uses it for inspiration. Since they can’t get to the staff, they’ll explode the bomb under atlas to launch it to safety, just like the dust mines and amity tower. Winter or vine or someone points out that mantle is directly below atlas, so ironwood makes his announcement. Rather than give the ultimatum that penny needs to turn herself in or he’ll genocide everyone, he instead uses the announcement as a warning to mantle. It still comes down to “give me penny in an hour or I’ll blow it all up”, but he apologizes to the citizens and says that the fate of the entire human race is more important. Also, Grimm are the ones that take out the schnee rescue vehicles. This makes James look less like a genocidal crazy person and Harriet less like an idiot for going through with the genocide just because. Now she still thinks she’s saving atlas.

Next change comes soon after when marrow defects. Scene starts with winter asking ironwood if there’s any other way. Ironwood responds that Salem is regenerating as they speak and the military already lost, like, 80% of the soldiers or some other big number to hammer in how dire things are, and they need to act NOW with what little time they have. Marrow defects and the Scene plays out the same way, but instead of turning his back on the general, he draws his gun for emphasis. Winter still saves him from being blasted, but ironwood hesitates with his gun still pointed at the boy before letting them go. This highlights how on edge he is and makes winter look better for actually trying to talk James out of it, adding context to the line right before the ambush.

Everything goes the same, except when he kills Jacques it’s a bigger deal since this is the first time he’s killed unprovoked and it’s a character we know and who has a relationship with ironwood. Now he can be the big bad villain that shoots people since we’ve had a volume working up to it. Also, when he fights winter, instead of going “don’t blame me winter, I did all these good things and nobody likes me” and she goes “but you did the embargo, that thing I was cool with for four volumes and ultimately had very little negative consequences”, he goes “winter, Salem decimated our military in a matter of hours. Do you think vacuo can protect the staff? Protect our people?” To which she responds “I don’t know, but I refuse to harm those I was sworn to protect. L” Then he says something like “I swore to protect the world, even if that means killing you and ripping the staff from Ruby’s cold dead hands”. Fight happens the same, but now ironwood declared he will kill ruby and is full villain, but still thinks he’s in the right.

Last change for him would be instead of giving up after hearing checkmate, the scene instead cuts to black with a sound of a gunshot, just so we know that he didn’t give up and have it implied he was executed off screen, taking the ambiguity away from his death.

Ruby is a lot simpler to “fix”. First thing first, have her go with penny to amity tower. Have penny fly her there like Superman and Lois. The shippers will eat that up. Next while there, she and Maria fight of neo. This shows how dangerous neo is and highlights ruby beating her later in the bridge world. Also it makes more sense with the two of them fighting neo, since Maria already claimed back in volume 6 that qrow and team Rwby were better huntresses than she was back in her prime. How’s she do better than JNR? Maybe emerald can get involved this time instead of just standing there, but that’s not important. Things go the same way but ruby has to give the speech live instead of watching it on her iPhone drinking hot chocolate. Final change to that set piece is when penny falls, instead of burning up in the atmosphere(?) Ruby jumps after her. I feel this would fix a lot of plot holes like, how did penny end up at the manor despite falling miles and miles away from the city? Ruby helped guide her with her semblance. Why did Ruby go down so easily against the hound and was aura broken by a short fall? She was already banged up from saving penny. Yeah, we don’t get the Blake and ruby at the generator scene, but that scene sucked.

Final change would be in the bridge dimension. Simple fix, Weiss falls before ruby. This makes it so the team falls in reverse name order, YBWR, but also gives penny’s death more meaning, I feel, and also would soothe the FNDM’s hate for jaune. Either ruby is enraged by cinder stabbing her with her stretchy arm, so she rushes to attack and protect her best friend, or jaune keeps cinder busy so Ruby can be the one who ultimately offs her. Either way, it would be in character for Ruby.

With those small changes, I think it fixes my two biggest issues with the volume. Instead of ironwood being crazy and stupid, his decent into villainy is more gradual and paved with good intentions. And now when you ask “What did Ruby even do this volume?” Instead of the answer being “nothing really? She looked a cool grim” it’s “she saved penny from the fall and was a big part of her death”. Also the amity tower plot isn’t useless.

That’s my two cents anyway. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk

[ms-rampage]

Eden’s Gate: The Mother Chapter 15 - Guardian of Eden

Warnings: Some language

Word count: 2.3k

Where it all began. 

Summary: In the series finale, Mandy goes into hiding from the Cult when they find out about her betrayal. 

Guest OCs: 

Guest Characters: Metatron [Supernatural]

Note: I’m gonna post the next 2 final chapters of Aftermath today! So I can get started on posting the New Dawn series!. Thank you to those for reading my crossover crap!

_______________

“Did you really think I wouldn’t find out Mandeline?” he asks with that stupid smug smile on his face. 

“What did you do Metatron?!” Mandy asks angrily. 

“I can ask you the same thing” he responds, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”. 

She ignores his question, “Where’s Raphael??”. 

He scoffs, “He’s gone. Away. Not here”. 

Her jaw drops, “You killed him?!”. He chuckles, “No, no I didn’t kill him” he laughs softly. “I just sent him away. So he can’t help you”. 

“You bastard!” she mutters angrily. 

He rolls his eyes, “Yeah, yeah whatever”. He walks around the basement room. “You really think I didn’t see what was going on down here?!?” he asks her.

Ignoring his questions by not answering them. “Did you really think I didn’t see everything you were planning? The spell? Betraying Joseph? Betraying the Project?”. 

“What did you do Metatron??” she asks him, “What are you planning??”

He places a finger on his chin, thinking about what he’ll do, “Let’s see”. He walks around the room. 

“Well God doesn’t want to kill you. He might have the Project do that for him, he might give all the paperwork, and charges that you have in the glove compartment of your truck to Joseph, and he’ll know that The Mother is a double agent working for the FBI”. 

He tells her with a smug look on his stupid face that Mandy would love slap off. 

“Oh wait?. That’s right, you’re not a real FBI agent. That’s a charge against you Mandeline”. 

She glares at the scribe of God. “But none of that even matters because Joseph and all of his followers know who you really are, and what you have done”.

Her eyes widened, “You son of bitch!” she yells. 

“You did it to yourself. God gave you many warnings. He told you over and over what your fate would be if you go against his plan”. 

“I will fucking kill you” she growls, slowly stepping towards him.

He chuckles, “No you won’t. Not until the Project and Joseph get to you”. He disappears leaving her by herself in the dark church basement.

She knows she can’t stay there long, she has to get back to the Wolf’s Den, and to somehow avoid getting captured by the Cult. 

She grabs all her stuff, and gets the Hell out of the church, and goes to her truck. Speeding the dirt road, towards the Whitetail Mountains towards the Wolf’s Den. 

Knowing that Joseph, and all of his followers are gonna be looking for her. The radio in her turck plays static for a few seconds and she hears Joseph’s voice over the radio. 

“My Children, we have been betrayed. We have been misguided. We had a snake living in our garden. The Mother has betrayed our flock, she is the locust in our garden. Bring her to me and she will be given her punishment”. 

Trying to keep an eye on the rear view mirror and on the roads in case any of the Cult’s trucks tailgate her. 

She enters the Whitetails region and one of Jacob’s hunters spots her driving. They chase after her, shooting at the tires to her truck. 

“Fuck, fuck, fuck” she mutters, slamming on the gas pedal. Trying to avoid getting hit with Bliss bullets, or Bliss arrows. 

She hears Jacob’s voice play over the radio, “So it turns out we have a Judas in our family. I advise my soldiers to bring this traitor to the Father. We won’t let this person be free”. 

Feeling like she’s gonna vomit, she slams her foot on the gas pedal, not even close to being anywhere near the Wolf’s Den.

She hears Eli’s voice play on her radio, “Mandy get back to the bunker ASAP. Everyone in the Cult is after you. Get here now!”. 

She answers the radio, pushing down on the button, “Eli it's me. I’m on my way to the bunker”. Pretty sure him and Tammy can hear the panic and fear in her voice. 

She prays out loud, “Raphael where are you?? I really need your help right now!”. 

Like douchebag Metatron is messing with her, she gets a Bliss bullet in her shoulder. 

“Fuck!” she cries out in pain. Trying to fight the urge to pass out. She gets hit with a second bullet, and it makes her driver her truck off the road. Going down a hill into the water. 

She can hear the yelling out Jacob’s soldiers as she slips into unconsciousness. Trying to crawl out of her truck, falling into the shallow river. The footsteps of peggies behind her, the cocking of rifles. 

The last thing she sees when she passes out is the bright sun in her face, and everything goes black.

****

Several hours later, Mandy wakes up in a cage. Laying in mud, her head feeling heavy and in pain. After what felt like hours, she finally recognizes her surroundings. 

She’s in Joseph compound, seeing the white building that is the church, the small houses with sins in Latin.

Seeing everyone, all of Joseph’s followers, or his children. Glaring at her, giving her hateful glares. Looks of betrayal, looks of backstabbery.  

Everyone goes silent, and Joseph steps out of the church. He looks around, not even looking over at Mandy, or in her sense of direction. 

“My children!” he shouts, “We have the traitor, and she’ll be sentenced to death for her treason”. 

They all cheer, and hollar. Feeling like a witch in the Salem witch trials. 

“We will not be made to look like fools” he continues. She looks around, fear and panic. No words can explain the fear she’s feeling. 

Knowing that this is how she’s gonna die. She’s not gonna see her daughters ever again, she’s never gonna see them grow up.

“Raphael where are you??” she prays in her head, “I’m in danger and I need your help”. 

She keeps praying, hoping any Angels can hear her cries for help. Her concentration is broken when one of Joseph’s followers opens the cage she’s in, and grabs her. Manhandling her, aggressively, and forcing her out of the cage. 

He shoves her to the ground, aiming his rifle at her. In tears, looking around at her final moments on Earth. 

Her hands tied behind her back with several zip ties. 

“The traitor!” he says loudly, looking around to his followers “We have given her everything, and she repays us with betrayal”. 

He glares down at her, anger in his eyes. “The ultimate sinner” he mutters. Taking a few steps closer to her.

She shakes her, “Joseph you don’t have to do this!” she mutters, begging him for mercy. Pleading with him.

“You betrayed me. You betrayed God and you betrayed my family” he hisses at her. 

Pleading with him, begging him for mercy and to let her go. He ignores her begs and pleads. 

Jacob, John and Faith stare down at her with angry and disgusted glares. 

Feeling the anger radiating off these people become so unbearable to Mandy, that she feels like she’s gonna throw up. Tears streaming down her cheeks. 

On her knees, her hands tied behind her back. Being completely vulnerable that anything could happen to her, and she won’t be able to stop it. No matter what it is. Her only way out of this is her Archangel, and she has no idea what happened to him. Metatron did who knows what to him.  

Deafened her own thoughts and fears, she doesn’t hear Joseph’s last words to her. 

One of his followers hits her on the head, to get her attention. “What are your last words Mandeline?” he asks, putting so much poison in her name. His tone is completely different from how he usually sounds. Betrayed, and backstabbed by the one God had told him about, betraying him and his family. Being a double agent, that was getting dirt on the Cult.  

Trying to steady her breathing, and calm herself down a bit. She stammers, “I-I just. I just w-wanted”.

Unable to give him a proper answer, she hears the sound of a pistol cock behind her head. Tears pour from her eyes, knowing that this is the end for her. She’ll never see her family again, no one will know what happened to her. 

She looks down at the ground, watching her tears fall to the dirt. She closes her eyes, and waits for the peggie to put a bullet in her head. Killing her, ending her life.  

Then like someone heard her cries, several sudden gasps come from all directions around her, before that was the feeling of a slight breeze, and a loud fluttering of wings. 

The murmuring of the Cultists around her. She lifts her head up, and sees that everyone is looking, not at her but behind her. 

The Father and his 3 Heralds looking like they’ve all seen the Devil himself. Mandy turns her head to see who just made a sudden arrival, and came to her rescue, but is blinded by the early evening sun to see who it is. 

The peggies move in front of her, all of them standing behind and around The Father and the 3 Heralds. Confused, Mandy looks at all the expressions on their faces. The majority of them are looks of fear and disbelief. The figure that appeared out of nowhere with the sight of an angelic being.

They all aim their weapons at Mandy and whoever is standing behind her. She can feel an angelic presence but is unable to see who this angel is. 

Thinking it’s Raphael, and he came to save her.

“Raphael?” she whispers, her voice trembling. 

Several guns pointed at her, being ready to fire while some are infatuated by whoever is behind her. 

“No” a male voice commands them, and also answering Mandy’s questions. 

She doesn't recognize the voice, that somewhat deep, serious voice of an Angel, but whoever he is, his voice makes the Cultists jump, forcing them to take a few steps back. The whole time Joseph glares at Mandy. The other 3 siblings all have different expressions to the superior celestial in front of them. Jacob showing a look of concern, Faith a look of fear and John disbelief. 

“Who are you?” Joseph asks, his voice almost in a whisper. 

The Angel looks over at him, saying with power in his voice, “When they say my name, perhaps I will be remembered, not as the one who let the serpent in, but as one of the few who helped give Heaven a second chance” he responds. 

Their whole conversation was a complete blur to her that she couldn’t remember what exchange of words were said between the 2. 

Before she knows it, gun fire is heard, and the Angel shields her from the bullets by wrapping his wings around her. Protecting her from death. The sight of white wings protect her. Closing her eyes out of fear, when she opens them, she’s in the middle of a cabin. Her hands are free.

She hears footsteps behind and immediately stands up to see the Angel.  

“Gadreel??” she mutters, relieved to see him. 

“Hello Mandy” he greets her. The Guardian of Eden, Metatron's former lieutenant and 2nd in command.  

“What is happening??” she asks, trying not to panic “What happened to Raphael??”. 

He sighs, taking a seat on the coffee table, “I’m not sure, Metatron is upset, and so is Chuck. Raphael is missing, not dead but missing”. 

She sighs in disappointment,”What’s gonna happen??”.

“I’m not sure, but I wiped the Project’s memory, everyone’s memory of what happened” he tells her, “They won’t remember a thing, but their memory might get restored within time, or if Metatron or God restore it”.

Taking a seat on one of the beds in the cabin, and letting out a soft whimper. “But you’re protected, no one in the town will find you here. I warded it off from all beings, including humans”. 

“Am I stuck here??” she asks him. He takes a seat next to her, “Yes, unfortunately. I would take you out of here but there is some sort of God like warding that is keeping you from leaving”. 

She looks over at the former Guardian of Eden. “What happened to Dawana?? Her daughter Camille?” she asks. Giving him her sad eyes. 

He looks at her, with utter disappointment and sadness in his eyes. Seeing his answer in his eyes. She shakes her head, “No, no that. That can't be”.

“I’m sorry” he mutters, “Metatron got to them before I could save them”. 

Tears forcing themselves out of her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. Soft breaths escaping her lungs. Mourning the loss of her friend and her young daughter. 

Mandy spends the next several months, living in Hope County because of some warding God put up that is preventing her from leaving, and also the 2 tunnels in Hope County are blocked off by the Cult. Taking a plane out won’t do any good because of the warding. 

But God has some things planned, not for Mandy but for her daughters and their families in the years to come. 

They’re gonna need each other to help break this curse on themselves and stop whatever is gonna happen. The only way to do that is to stop the Cult. Bring them down, kill them, imprison them. Anything that will save themselves and everyone around them. Their friends, family and everyone that’ll get to know and meet before the end. 

[spcncershybrid]

Their the One

GIF IS NOT MINE!

Spencer Reid X Witch!Reader

Luke Alvez X Reader (Platonic)

(Summary: When a series of “witches” start dying in your hometown. You and the team try to solve it while keeping your secret under wraps.)

Word Count: 2.5K (i went off)

Warning: Swearing but like one word and crappy google translate Latin.

You walk towards the elevator seeing Luke holding it open. "Are you ever going to tell him?" He questions as you step into the elevator. "That is a secret that stays with us, Alvez. No one can know." You say sternly staring at him. "Look they might suspect something. From friend to friend, you need to tell him Y/N. Or someone might get the wrong impression." Luke says swaying back and forth. "Wrong impression how?" You question turning towards him. "They might think...you know." Luke says scratching the back of his head. "No Luke I don't. But whatever you do, this incident stays between us." You say stepping out of the elevator heading to your desk, Luke following. "My lovely little birdies don't get too comfortable. We have a case and it's a bad one." Garcia says walking up to us. Luke glances at you as he puts his stuff down in his respected place. "This isn't over." You say pointing towards Luke. He raises his hands feigning defense. "Shall we?" He says as we start walking towards the conference room. You spot your boyfriend Spencer and give him a peck on the cheek. "Missed you earlier." You say sitting next to him. "Sorry I was the first one Garcia called." He says sheepishly looking down at the file. "We are all headed to Salem, Massachusetts." Garcia says as she flips through the images on the screen. Oh my.

"These four women were found dead dressed in similar fashion to then the obvious witch trials." Garcia says. You gulp down the lump in your throat. "My guess would be the unsub thinks these women are direct descendants of the women killed back then." Tara says adjusting herself in her seat. You purse your lips together looking at the crime photos. Luke sighs softly as you glance over towards him. The glance doesn't go unnoticed by the room full of profilers. "These women were all killed in the span of a week from when they were abducted." Hotch says reviewing the photos. "So he abducts his victims and keeps them hostage for 3-4 days then kills them why?" Spencer says. "Maybe he believes he's found justice you know the ideas and beliefs behind witches." You say aloud to the team. "He could be living in a delusion that he is a witch hunter and these women are witches." You continue. "What were there C.O.D's?" Luke asks Hotch. "There were ligature marks found on the neck and ankles of the first two victims. The last two were stripped and found in water." Garcia says.  "Our latest victim Jeana Morris was found this morning our unsub can have his potential next victim. Wheels up in 30." Hotch says standing heading to grab his go bag. You stay and collect your thoughts as everyone leaves. "You okay?" Spencer says walking up to you. "Yeah Spence... this case just hits close to home. My family believes in witches but this unsub is on a whole other level." You say smiling softly at him. "I'll save you a seat next to me on the jet. JJ hogged up all of our talk between case time." Spencer says smiling heading out to the bullpen. You start collecting your things. "You okay with this?" You jump slightly hearing a voice come from the doorway. "No. I knew these women, Luke. We went to school together. Juliet told me last week to watch out and now she's dead." You admit to Luke. "Were they apart of your circle?" Luke says questioningly. "You mean my coven. No um our families do the do's individually but we talk amongst each other on the things we cast, say, or write." You say shoving your stuff in your bag and head out with Luke. You catch JJ's gaze over towards the both of you. You quickly look away continuing your conversation with Luke. "They each were powerful enough to stop him. I wonder what happened. Oh gosh what am I going to say to her parents." You exclaim towards Luke. "Nothing Hotch can't know you know the families that'll be a disaster." Luke says grabbing his go bag as we reach his desk. You sigh heavily grabbing your bag and head towards the elevator with the team and onto the jet.

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

The team talks amongst themselves about the case wondering what the unsub's stressors are. You glance out the window getting lost at the scenery not even focusing on the words exchanged by the team. You feel a large hand on your knee pressing in a comforting manner. "Hey." Spencer's voice snaps you out of your trance. He smiles softly rubbing your leg. "Hey." You sigh. "What's the deal with Luke you seemed tense when you guys were talking earlier before we left." He whispers glancing over to the team to see if they're looking. "This case hits close Spence. My family knew the victims families we all weren't close but it still is sad as they're near my age and from my town." You admit to Spencer only slightly lying. "When we land Luke, Y/N, JJ head to the crime scenes. Reid, you and Dave head to the M.E. Lewis and I will set up at the police station. Is that clear?" Hotch states as we all nod in unison towards him.

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Luke, JJ and you head towards the first crime scene. JJ takes the lead as you stay trudging behind with Luke. We examine the scene in front of us. "Poor Jean." You say as your stomach flips. "What?" JJ says turning back to you. "Nothing. The victim reminds me of my old friend named Jean. They look similar, they have the same hair and eye color, just different skin tones." You say quickly to JJ. She looks at your facial expressions and hums turning her attention back onto the body. You crouch down to the body and whisper "ostende vision." You shut your eyes as images of her death and blurry faces flash through your head like a movie. You open your eyes standing up nearly passing out. Just in that moment Luke's phone rings. "Yes Rossi. Okay we'll check now." Luke says moving his phone away from his ear. "Y/N check if she has a tattoo on her wrist. A crescent moon with a four pointed star." Luke says staring at the body. You crouch down and grab Jeana's wrist although you already knew the answer as you had the same tattoo. "Yep why do the other victims have it." You say to Luke as he nods in conformation. "Yes Rossi they do. I'll send the picture to Garcia." Luke say's into the phone before snapping a picture of Jeana's tattoos and sends it to Penelope. Luke pulls you to the side. "You have one too right?" He says. You nod slowly. This can't be good.

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We just finished giving the profile but Garcia is narrowing it down to find our unsub. You feel your phone vibrate in your pocket. You pull it out to see 'Magic computer woman' aka Garcia. "Yes Pen. Hold on I'm putting you on speaker." You say bringing the phone forward for everyone to hear. "Okay Sir with the info you have oh so blessed me with I was able to come up with our guy." Penelope says. "Mr. Wes Barber. Born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts went to high school with our precious Agent Y/L/N. His mother died when he was ten, when he went to give a statement on his mother's death- oh dear this is awful. He said he saw flames emerge from her feet and swore he saw an older woman do it saying some phrase in Latin. He never disclosed her name though. Afterwards he was in and out of foster homes due to reckless and violent behavior. Once he turned 18 he moved to LA and slowly made his way back to this town. He mentioned to his therapist 'Wanting to get revenge on the people who wronged him'." Garcia says. Wes is behind this. Oh gosh that means you're probably next. "Garcia, what is his connection to the victims." Hotch says. "High school mostly. Jeez I wouldn't want to cross this guy. I'm sending his work and home address now as well as an abandoned warehouse under his name. Go get our guy." Garcia says hanging up. "Y/L/N, Reid, and Alvez you go take the house. JJ and Lewis work address. Rossi and I take the warehouse." Hotch says as we all start moving out putting on our vests. Luke goes into the driver's seat immediately as Reid hops in the back with you. 

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We make it to the house and step out drawing our guns. You head towards the back as Reid follows Luke. They walk towards the front door. "Wes Barber! FBI!" You hear Luke say as he pounds on the door. No noise is heard as Luke kicks in the door. You enter the house through the back door. "Hello witch." An unknown voice says. You whip your head to the voice. Wes... "Excuse me?" You question not trying to give into his game easily. "I know your bloodline it's infested with evil witches who killed my mother!" He yells. "Jeana got what she deserved. They all did." He spat angrily. "Look buddy I had nothing to do with it." You say stunned at his words. "Liar!" He says reaching into his pocket and pulls out his gun. "Wes Barber put down your weapon." Spencer says standing next to you with his weapon drawn. "No they need to feel my pain. Remember the river Y/N. Huh? You and your little friends used to go there and perform all sorts of stuff." Wes says twirling the gun in his hand. You grit your teeth at his words. Spencer steps in front of you in a protective manner. "You brung back a mini bird with her. You moved twigs with your mind." Wes says directed heavily at you. "Does your team ever know?" He asks. "What is he talking about?" Spencer whispers. "Wes don't you dare involve my team. What happened was in the past." You say stepping towards him. Luke enters the room with his gun pointed towards Wes. "I want them to know I'm not crazy come clean and I'll confess my wrongdoings Agent Y/L/N. '' Wes says. "I will put my gun away Wes what do you want to see?" Spencer asks as he holstered his gun. "The use of her powers in the flesh. Pyromancy and Telekinesis." Wes says staring at you intensely. "Wes you are living in a delusion. Witches aren't real." Spencer says. You look over to Luke taking in his expression. Anger mixed with sadness. "She knows what I mean. Raise up her sleeve, she's one of them. She has their marking." Wes says. You look towards the floor stunned. You take a deep breath. "If I show you, you'll drop your weapon." You say stepping towards him. "I promise." Wes says stepping back unloading his gun. Spencer and Luke immediately step forward, going to arrest him. "Wait." You say as the boys look over at you like you've grown multiple heads. You look over to Wes' unlit fireplace. "Ignem." You say focusing your energies on the fireplace as it lit up immediately. "D-did you?" Spencer stutters whipping his head towards you. You nod uncomfortably. "Again." Wes says smiling wickedly, obviously enjoying the situation. "Ignis pila." You say flattening your hand as a fireball emerges from it. You flip it over making it disappear immediately. Spencer looks over at you shocked but mainly sympathetic towards the whole situation. "Now telekinesis." Wes says, stepping forward, smirking. "Gladly." You say mirroring his expression. "Motus." You say pushing your hands forward sending him flying into the wall. Luke and Spencer flinch stepping backwards drastically. You grab your handcuffs walking towards Wes. "Next time you decide to make me use my magic in front of my boyfriend and friend it'll be to snap your neck. As for sending you into a wall, that was for Jeana, Alice, Octavia and Juliet. My best friends who you killed for your sick and twisted fantasy." You say cuffing him and pull him up to face you. "I'm actually thankful they burned your mother. She was a sick bitch anyway." You say walking him outside towards the cops that have accumulated outside. Luke is the first to step out after you. "At least you don't have to hide it. Go easy on him." He says sympathetically. You chuckled softly at his words and nod seeing Spencer walking out of the house confused. You walk up to him and nudge his shoulder. "Hey." You say softly. He immediately brings you into a hug which is surprising as he doesn't necessarily give them.  You bury your head in his neck. "I wanted to tell you I promise I just couldn't." You say wrapping your arms around his waist. He steps back smiling. "It's okay you had your reasons but is it true he said you had a tattoo like them." He says grabbing your arm. He pulls up your sleeve revealing the same tattoo the victims had. "Can you do more things?" Spencer questions, smiling at you, his eyes lighting up with excitement. "Yes Spence. I can do a lot." You say as you open the door to the FBI van hopping into the back with him Luke again taking the driver's seat. "What could your friends do?" He asks sadly at the fresh subject. You smile sadly. "Jeana could move things like me. Octavia could control water. Juliet had premonitions mainly she was the one that warned me. Alice could summon these light balls of 'doom', which were basically mini explosives that she summoned, she used to call it her 'glow stick blow stick'." You say laughing at the last part. "As for the woman that burned his mother. In all reality it was a man, the old woman he saw was someone manipulating his reality to make him believe one thing but it's another. He probably found out and they told him actual witches in the town." You say staring out towards the window. "Luke you didn't seem phased by it. Are you one?" Spencer asks. “No. I may have magic hands but I am no witch.” Luke says laughing. You roll your eyes playfully as you guys head back to the police station and soon enough back to your now home in Quantico. 

Bonus:

“Hey babe!” You hear Spencer yell from your shared living room. “Yeah.” You respond yelling back. Receiving no answer you head down to see him fiddling with the fireplace. “Can you… um light this up?” He says scratching the back of his neck. “You are never living down this magic thing are you?” You ask grinning at Spencer. “After you popped popcorn with your bare hands I am never going near fire ever again.” He says smiling as you light up the fireplace with your hand. He walks towards you giving you a kiss mumbling thank you and guides you to the couch for your monthly movie marathon.