#still i love penny she gets like three shots at the beginning of combat

[littlemissgeek8]

Would you believe this picture is like, two years old or so? I meant to upload this AGES ago, but my memory for uploading is incredibly busted these days. So, here's one of my current D&D characters, the half-elf gloomstalker ranger, Lady Penelope Liayra Emma Collingsworth, or Penny for short.

She's heavily based off Lara Croft (obviously) with the design a combination of all three eras. Her name, however, was borrowed slightly from Lady Penelope of Thunderbirds fame. Backstory-wise, I leaned most heavily on the Survivor era, since it gave a good level of pathos to her. She's even gotten her trademark twin pistols since it's a higher tech level game!

(Bonus, a fun little puzzled face from a very early session)

[that-scouse-wizard]

Sightseeing Part One

A/N: Hello everyone, welcome to this little one-shot of mine. I love the friendship between David Willows and Judith Harris that I and @judediangelo75 have developed. So, here’s a tale of David showing Judith around Liverpool, his home city.  Originally, I’d intended to show both the muggle and wizarding side of the city but then it got longer than I thought it would and didn’t want it to be a slog. So here’s part one to briefly show the muggle side, part two should be coming soon to show off the wizarding side.

Context: This takes place in the summer between second and third year so David and Judith are about thirteen here. Also my first time writing David’s mum, Rue (should be mentioned, her face claim is Fiona O’Carroll). Some mild spoilers for my ideas but I hope you all enjoy especially you @judediangelo75!

Word count: 2867

MC friends: Judith Harris ( @judediangelo75 )

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5th of July, 1986

Judith Harris hated the summer holidays, some people would be able to enjoy it, likely going to somewhere abroad with their family but that simply wasn’t an option for her. For Judith, leaving Hogwarts for several weeks meant being stuck with her mother. 

She tried keeping her head down but living under the same roof meant little chance of escape from being constantly subject to her mother’s judgements and cruelty. The tension at home was always so suffocating.

Recently though, she had received a letter from someone she knew, David Willows. The younger brother to Jacob Hall, a friend of her own brother, Jamal. Both of them had gone missing in their search for the Cursed Vaults, she supposed it was fitting for their younger siblings to get acquainted. 

First impressions when they had arrived at Hogwarts, David was stand-offish, sharp-tongued and short-tempered. He wasn’t afraid to go for low blows in a verbal spar or physically fight people much bigger than him. Oftentimes, they had stayed out of each other’s way. She never tried to pick a fight with him. Although, unlike most of their peers, he had never been unkind to her. 

Their friendship was a fairly recent development, only beginning at the start of their second year when they tried out for the recently vacant positions as Beaters on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. Practice together meant more interaction especially as they both came under the mentorship of Erika Rath, Slytherin’s top Beater. It was during these practices that she had seen a different side to David.

Though he was aloof, they shared a remarkably high number of mutual friends, the most prominent of which were Penny Haywood and Rowan Khanna. When Judith had asked the two about their fellow Hufflepuff, both had spoken fondly of him. If they vouched for him, he surely couldn’t be that bad? 

Though he was snarky, that tended to be when he was aggravated by someone he didn’t like, he had a tendency to give his friends good-natured ribbings. Judith had happily returned the teasing, especially when it had come to her own and David’s respective crushes on Orion and Erika.

Though he could come across as aggressive with a foul temper, it took specific things to put him in such a mood. Namely... rumours about Jacob, especially so if someone dared to openly compare the two brothers. His ferocity wasn’t just to defend himself either, he had very nearly started a fight with an older Hufflepuff when they had made a derogatory comment towards Judith. A fight would have started if professor Sprout hadn’t intervened. They had barely known each other for a month at that point yet he’d still stuck up for her. Of course, she could handle herself but the sentiment was appreciated.

Other than that, Judith and David shared a love of art. Drawing together in silence, maybe occasionally asking how the other’s sketch looked, a peaceful respite from the stress they were under. They quickly gained a reputation on the Quidditch pitch as Hufflepuff’s star Beaters after their team handily defeated both Ravenclaw and Gryffindor 

Their titles as the ‘Heroes of Hogwarts’ had only served to connect the two further after conquering the Ice Vault. 

All in all, the two of them had formed a decent relationship.

Still, it was a surprise when Goliath, David’s eagle owl had arrived with a letter inviting her to come visit Liverpool for a week. An opportunity she had practically leapt at. Thankfully, the owl had found her bedroom window first. Judith shuddered to think how her mother would have reacted if she found out she was receiving letters from a boy, no matter how platonic the nature of it was.

Keeping that fact about her friend a secret from her mother was definitely the only reason she was currently making the journey. She was sure David would agree to making plans in advance if they wished to do something like this again, lest she risk her mother’s ire.

She had purchased muggle train tickets as soon as she could, sending Goliath back to his owner with the day and time she was expected to arrive. Though expensive, it was the swiftest, and most direct mode of transport between London and Liverpool.  

At least the weather had been nice with hardly a cloud in the sky. It had been relaxing, watching the landscape go by slumped back in her seat as the train had weaved its way through both city and countryside. Though it wasn’t nearly as hot as it could get in Barbados, it was still warm enough to justify her current attire, a yellow sundress with matching sandals. 

“Now approaching, Liverpool Lime Street.” The automated voice of the train echoed. Judith stood up smiling at the announcement as she retrieved her suitcase from the overhead luggage area. That was her stop, the end of the line, it would be nice seeing David again.

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

Liverpool Lime Street was a large station, two cylindrical dome roofs made up of mostly clear glass and metal provided cover for all train platforms, giving it a tunnel-like appearance. Archways made of stone and mostly filled by windows supported the upper half of the building from the front. Great, red pillars held up the right side, creating a pavement for both foot traffic and a road for vehicles into the station’s car park. 

David paced about, unable to keep himself from showing excitement. Wearing a plain grey tee shirt, denim jean shorts and black sandals for the hot weather. Occasionally looking around watchfully through the throngs of people going about their business. 

His letter to Judith had asked for her to find the car park at the station and she would be sure to run into him. From where he was, simply turning left after arriving at one of the train platforms, then continuing straight would assure it. 

It was about quarter past eleven, the time Judith said she was likely to arrive in her letter back. This would be the first time he had invited a friend around in a long while. 

Frankly, although he was excited, he couldn’t help but feel nervous about the whole thing. Though he and his mother Rue had reconciled somewhat, she had tried to persuade him into inviting someone other than Jamal Harris’s little sister. She assumed they were just Quidditch teammates who happened to share a history with the Cursed Vaults and that was it. 

It was only when David had told his mother the full story of their delve into the Ice Vault that she had relented. The curse had begun its most dramatic transformation midway through their match against Slytherin for the Quidditch Cup. Ice conjured by the vault had begun encompassing the school, threatening to overcome it entirely. 

Together, they, alongside Bill Weasley and Penny Haywood had made their way to the vault. Breaking the seal on the door had caused Penny and Bill to become trapped by the cursed ice; as well as unleash its guardian, an animated suit of armour held together by ice and frost.

In the midst of the Ice Knight trying to carve them up, Judith had used an Incendio that had briefly drawn its attention from David after he was cornered. Whether his mother liked it or not, Judith had saved his life. An invitation to his hometown was the least he could do for her.

He had initially wanted to face the vaults on his own. Though, that plan seemed doomed to fail before he had even set foot on the castle grounds after he had bumped into Rowan. Now, Judith was a part of an ever-growing circle of friends that David was slowly building up, an addition that he was glad for. 

He hadn’t thought much of her when he first arrived at Hogwarts. She had made no effort to seek him out, which was just fine for David at the time. Playing Quidditch with her though had shown him there was more to Judith Harris than first met the eye. 

Underneath her quiet exterior, she was fierce, witty and a hell of a lot stronger than she looked. The first time they sparred together, David hadn’t been expecting her to use a back kick on him. While she had at first been worried she overdid it, David had shrugged it off despite the sizeable bruise it had left on his stomach. If anything, it had just convinced him it was a good idea to spar with her further. Nothing would keep his own hand-to-hand combat skills sharp like fighting an experienced opponent.

A splash of bright yellow caught his eye, quite distinct amongst a sea of other colours. A dark-skinned girl about his age with long, brown-black locs tied back. Her gold eyes looking around at the unfamiliar surroundings before finally landing on David, getting a beaming smile from her. There was no mistaking who it was.

“Judith!” He called out enthusiastically, grinning back. 

“It’s good to see you David.” His friend answered, walking up to him and giving him a brief hug. One that he returned.

“Same here, welcome to Liverpool.” He replied, grandly gesturing to the outside of the station.

Judith rolled her eyes playfully, giving a brief scan of the view. There was a busy junction that ran alongside the station, vehicles coming from at least three different directions. A Neo-Grecian-style stone building and a white tower tipped with a room with blue windows dominated the view. Impressive in its own right but it would definitely be better to explore the city with David to really see what it had to offer.

“Thank you for the invitation, shall we?” Judith’s implication was clear to David, time to head off.

“Of course, mum is waitin’ for us in the car park. Just a heads up, she can be a bit... intense.” David warned.

‘Oh joy.’ Judith thought sarcastically, hoping David’s mum wouldn’t be an exact copy of her own...

She wouldn’t have long to wonder, moving along a pavement that ran parallel to the train platforms, towards the car park, separated from the rest of the station by a wrought-iron fence. A few cars were in it, without their owners of course. All except one.

In front of a silver Ford Escort stood a woman. Pale-skinned with shoulder length dark brown hair. She was dressed in a grey pinstripe suit, a pale pink shirt under it being the only other colour. Curiously, a small, sharp and serrated tooth was hung around her neck by a black thread. She held what appeared to be a red snakeskin handbag.

Brown eyes were fixed on the pair as they approached her, though especially on Judith. Clearly David had his mother’s eyes, ones that were intent on analysing Judith for their first meeting. Watching her warily in silent judgement, a stoic expression not giving anything away.

Judith could see what David meant. She didn’t like being watched ordinarily, it made her feel like she was being judged. Under Rue Willows’ gaze though, she couldn’t help but feel a nagging sensation at the back of her head, one that commanded attention. Not cruel exactly but not friendly either, it made Judith squirm. 

“I-it’s nice to meet you, Ms Willows.” Judith greeted quietly, anxious to see if there was any change in the woman. Receiving nothing but another glance over.

“Ahem.” David coughed, trying to defuse the tension. 

It worked, Rue finally spoke up after that prompt, “A pleasure to meet you too Judith.” She replied curtly, her accent making it clear she was from Ireland. She turned her attention to her son, taking a large pouch out of her handbag that clinked as she moved it before tossing it to David. “I was thinking, David. Maybe you could show Judith around the city centre? Even show her Under Mersey. Just be back by five, if you can.”

David’s eyes widened both at the statement and the amount of bronze, silver and gold staring back at him as he looked inside the pouch. Sure, they had talked about loosening the tight restrictions that had troubled their relationship since Jacob’s disappearance but something like this so soon was unexpected.

“Thanks mum.” David answered, sounding grateful for it.

Rue’s features softened slightly as a smile tugged at the corner of her lips, “You don’t want be carrying your case everywhere you go, do you Judith? Let me take it while you and David are out.” She asked, holding out her hand, sounding just a bit friendlier with her offer. Though despite it being phrased as a question, there was clearly no room for argument.

Judith handed her case over, “Thank you, Ms Willows.”

Rue only gave a nod of acknowledgement and a quick “Have fun.” as she put Judith’s case into the boot of the car before driving off.

“I see what you mean, intense is certainly a word for it.” Judith stated, “Question though, what’s an ‘Under Mersey’?

“Well, y’know how Diagon Alley is in London?” David asked as he started walking, getting a nod from his friend, “In every major city across England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, there’s a place for wizards to go to, Under Mersey is Liverpool’s.” Judith hummed in understanding at that, she had never been to a wizarding community outside of London.

“But, how about a brief tour of the muggle side first? There’s a couple of iconic places in walking distance from here. Any other bits of history, I can just tell you about.” David suggested.

“Whatever you want David,” Judith shrugged, “This is your city, let’s see what it’s got.” The two friends stepped out onto the streets of Liverpool catching the scent of the sea on the wind. The general style reminding Judith of the inner city of London. Buildings being tightly packed together, only allowing roads through. Little to no space for alleyways turning the city centre into a maze of roads.

David grinned at her statement, “Well then Miss Harris, on your right you will see St George’s Hall. A big concert venue, mostly for dead posh events.” He said, making a show of it as he pointed out the stone building Judith had seen previously, “However, if you fancy more modern tastes, to your left you’ll see Radio City, Liverpool’s local radio.”

Judith chuckled at her friend’s showmanship, “Are there any music venues we could go to?” She asked as the two of them crossed the junction, content to follow David’s lead.

“Closest one to us is the Cavern Club. Mostly does local bands, Jazz, Rock and Roll, R&B, that sort of music.” Judith grinned, that was the sort of music she could get into, David wasn’t done with his little tour as they began walked through the streets, “Though it’s only open on a Thursday nowadays. It’s not the original, that was the cellar of a warehouse on Matthew street that got filled with cement when they were goin’ to construct part of an underground railway but it didn’t happen in that part of the city. They tried excavating the place to reopen it but there was too much damage to the structure. So they just built a new one on the same street.”

Judith’s brow furrowed at that, it was definitely an interesting piece of the city’s history but in retrospect it seemed to have been a waste of time.

“But Liverpool itself has been around since 1207, though it didn’t gain much prominence as a port until the 17th century.” David explained before pointing off further in the distance. “Up that way is the Pier Head, used to be where a lot of the goings on at the docks were handled earlier this century. More recently though, Liverpool produced one of the most famous bands in the Muggle world just over twenty years ago. They performed in the original Cavern Club, speaking off, we’re coming up to Matthew Street, right now.”

David suddenly turned onto Matthew Street, Judith following close behind him. It was clear to see where he was heading with the street being devoid of any foot traffic.

The Cavern Club.

Judith cocked an eyebrow at this, “I thought you said this was only open on Thursdays?” She asked as they now stood in front of the black archway, the doors of the club very clearly closed and likely locked tight.

“Oh it is,” David confirmed, “But this also the only way I know of to get into Under Mersey.” He continued, stepping beneath the neon sign of the club into the archway. 

“How do you do it?” Judith asked, giving him a slightly sceptical look.

“Take my hand, brace yourself, and you’ll see.” David said, offering his hand to her. Judith took it tentatively, joining him at his side. David tapped his foot six times, the first two beats were slower than the next quick four before he then said, “Hey Jude.”

At first, Judith thought he was addressing her, though she only managed to get out a “Wh-” before she felt her stomach lurch as she and David fell through the pavement beneath them.

[rwbyconversations]

Why I think some people don’t like Jaune

Jaune Arc. Jauney boy. You make very hard to like you sometimes. 

Jaune Arc is almost certainly the most discussed character in RWBY, even more so than the titular four girls. This is not a very good thing. Since the early days of Volume 1, Jaune has been derided and mocked by portions of the community, often dismissed as a poorly planned out audience surrogate, a writer-insert and/or Miles shoving in a cliche shonen protagonist into Monty’s tapestry of art. That last one is hyperbole, for the record. But regardless, Jaune is far from unanimously loved by the fandom- just go see how many RWDE posts are about him. I tried reading some of them and after I finished washing my eyes out with bleach, I found myself mildly disagreeing with their contents. 

(sidenote if anyone ever convinces Dudeblade to learn how to use italics, bold or underline to emphasize something instead of random capitalization like Baby’s First Word Doc I will actually pay you in pesos)

But while the reasons people give for hating Jaune are many, some of them have little basis in reality. Others, meanwhile, are quite painfully true and have incredibly valid criticisms that can be applied to RWBY as a whole at the core of their message. So today, I’d like to explain why I think some people hate Jaune, why some of the reasons don’t hold much weight, and why a few are quite valid.

Reason 1) “Jaune’s a Self/Author Insert!” 

Perhaps the most common and damning criticism of Jaune, especially in the earlier volumes, were claims that Jaune was just an insert character for Miles to fawn over. Miles and Kerry have themselves said that Miles has had very little to do with writing Jaune in the show proper since Volume 1, and that most of Jaune’s larger scenes were done at the behest of Kerry or Monty. Quote:

In the first few Volumes, if Jaune was in a scene it was almost always because either Monty or myself wanted him in a scene. From the very beginning, Monty was very big on having that archetype of character be fairly prominent in the show. Miles has always been incredibly hesitant to insert Jaune into scenes, to the point where he's voiced before that he wishes sometimes that he didn't voice him.

That said, this only came out in early 2018 after Volume 5 had already wrapped. In the years before then, many a fan was utterly convinced that Miles was behind most of Jaune’s more limelight-hogging scenes in Volume 1 particularly. This wasn’t helped by some quotes of Miles that got taken out of context, primarily that he based Jaune off himself as a younger teenager (the quote is in fact referring to Jaune’s voice).

Fandom also plays a purpose in Jaune gaining the inglorious title of self-insert. Jaune’s lack of a semblance, conventional attractiveness, age that put him close to the girls and vague backstory meant it was very easy for fanfiction writers to appropriate Jaune into whatever they needed, which at best included harem comedies and at worst...

Well, hell on earth. Fandom has had a large impact on RWBY, and I believe the “self-insert” accusations regarding Jaune are perhaps the most clear example of this. Some people do still believe to this day that Jaune is an SI, but I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the writing team and assume that no, any intent was not maliciously planted and it was an accident.

Reason 2) Jaune’s an audience surrogate

This one actually has basis in reality since the crew have actually said Jaune’s purpose in the early volumes was to be the audience surrogate (see above, second bolded part). To explain the term the audience surrogate is a character, usually found in fantasy or science fiction stories, who is new to the setting and its more complex rules. Thus, when someone tells this character how the system works, it doesn’t feel weird for the audience to have this information. We learn with the character, drawing us further into the setting. On the surface, an audience surrogate is not a bad storytelling device, but what it comes down to is execution, and here is where I feel that RWBY falls flat on its face in handling Jaune.

Jaune’s primary purpose in the first half of Volume 1 is largely to serve as the vehicle through which we discover Aura. Aura, the resource incredibly common in-setting and able to be tracked to an exact percentile in tournaments. In fact, Aura is so easily tracked, Remnant’s smartphones can track other people’s Auras no sweat. Most audience surrogates usually only need lore explained to them when it’s a rare facet of life, hence why it’s often seen in fantasies with magic to get the reader caught up on the rules. 

For example, in the Mistborn series, while Vin is aware of burning metal, she unlocks her Mistborn powers at the beginning of the trilogy and then has to learn about the other metals she didn’t know she possessed, and gets further training on the one metal (brass) she could burn that she thought was just her luck. As well, Vin infiltrates high society, so alongside learning about the different metals, we also use Vin’s inexperience to learn how high society works under the Lord Ruler.

For Jaune to have no clue about Aura, despite the commonality of it in-setting, is almost unthinkable and essentially requires his parents to have locked him in a basement for his entire life. While surrogates aren’t meant to know everything about a setting, it is expected that they at least know the basics- again, see Vin from Mistborn as an example of this.  Therefore, I will not deny that Jaune is an audience surrogate. However, I do believe that Jaune is a bad audience surrogate who breaks the internal rules of a character alongside the logical rules of the setting.

Reason 3) Jaune’s a cliche shonen lead

Let me rattle off a quick idea for a story, like I’m giving an elevator pitch.

Our story is about a young boy (usually with spiky hair) who goes to join a magical academy so he can slay monsters. He’s not proficient in the art of combat but he has a big heart and genuinely tries most of the time, so through outside circumstances he manages to enroll in the school. Immediately, he gets pegged by the headmaster for special reasons and develops a crush with an cold-hearted young woman who rebukes his advances. All the while, he develops a close friendship with a shy girl who is holding a candle for him but he doesn’t see her desires until it’s too late. In the meantime, he continues to train to prove himself a great hero.

Now, who did I describe. Jaune Arc? Or half of the shonen genre? There’s a reason for the popularity in the stock shonen hero cliche- it’s pretty easy to get right on the first try, makes for a mostly likable hero who the audience can get behind and root for as they aspire to become a Pokemon master collect the Dragonballs win the Battle City Finals become the greatest hero who ever lived. Jaune hits a lot of the cliches of the Stock Shonen Hero in early RWBY, and this set off alarm bells in the minds of many of RWBY’s more anime-conscious fans. The moment Jaune fell for Weiss and she shot him down, the early fanbase were on-edge about Jaune. RWBY had been advertised as four girls fighting monsters and kicking ass with great choreography. And here comes this blonde wannabe in a hoody trying to insert a love triangle into all of that? Yeah, no thanks. Again, this was likely something Monty intentionally pushed through since the AMA says Monty was big on Jaune’s archetype being in the show.

Though Jaune, in my opinion at least, did step away from these trappings later in RWBY, becoming more sullen and less focused on traditional shonen ideals, the early days played no small role in defining why people loathed Jaune in early RWBY. And once the label of “shonen lead” was plastered onto Jaune, it would prove nearly impossible to remove. 

In all honesty, this is one of the smaller reasons for people’s dislike of Jaune, but notable in that it set the groundwork- people already dismissed him as a cheap shonen lead, and that principle latched onto Jaune like gum onto a shoe. 

Reason 4) Jaune’s stealing scenes and where it hurts characters

Though Jaune has had a significantly reduced presence in RWBY since Volume 1, it seems that his primary scenes in Volumes 4 and 5 had a very unintended consequence of taking away from other characters. One of the often-cited scenes of this is Volume 4 Chapter 10, Kuroyuri.

The scene is set for Ruby to finally confront the trauma bubbling beneath the surface that had been eating at her since Volume 3- Penny and Pyrrha’s joint deaths and the Fall of Beacon, her Silver Eyes and how no one was willing to talk to her about them. And yet who does most of the speaking in this scene? Jaune. Jaune indirectly hijacks the scene away from Ruby so that instead it can become a scene of, quite frankly, platitudes that ring hollow. Despite supposedly being a scene where Ruby is being built up, despite supposedly being about Ruby,  and how inspiring she is, the active character in the scene, the one with agency and prevalent on-screen characterization... Is Jaune.

Volume 5 Chapter 11 is the other standout example of this, in what is now an infamous string of events. Jaune basically hijacks not one, not two, but three active character arcs- he again strips Ruby of her agency by going after Cinder, who also has her sub-plot of hating Ruby curtly kicked out a window because of Jaune hogging her attention, and then Weiss takes a frankly insulting dive so that Cinder has someone to spear so we have a cheap cliffhanger so dramatic tension can die onscreen so Jaune can have an excuse to pop his Semblance’s virginity. And let me stress, Ruby has about as much agency as some belly-button fluff for the rest of the Battle of Haven and by extension the entire Volume.

This is a reasoning for disliking Jaune that I fully understand and can get behind. Through a mix of tragic circumstance (the Volume 5 scene is effectively the one time Jaune takes relevance in the entire volume) and some mind-boggling creative choices, Jaune now twice in a row stripped Ruby of agency she has desperately needed, interrupted a two-year in the making subplot with Cinder, and indirectly killed RWBY’s dramatic stakes. Did you really think they’d kill Weiss in Volume 5? Exactly, no one really thought they’d go through on it, Weiss and the rest of RWBY are basically safe until the last two or three volumes. Regardless of whether or not Jaune is meant to be seen as a main character or a side, his focus scenes have the tragic mishap of constantly coming at the expense of someone else being undermined.  

Reason 5) He’s... not actually that good a strategist.

Jaune is a crap fighter, he’ll readily admit to being much weaker in direct combat than anyone else in the heroes side. So instead, he adopted the sub-trope of shonen leads, the strategist/quick thinker. Be it Izuku in My Hero Academia or many of the protagonists in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, shonen has a long history of heroes who fight as much with their minds as they do with their fists.

Here’s the problem with that. Jaune’s really bad at being a strategist. In fact, despite not even doing it since Volume 3, Ruby has displayed far more tactical acumen than Jaune.

JNPR vs BRNZ isn’t won through tactical skill beyond just throwing Nora at the problem after Divine Cindervention (compare this with how effortless RWBY make taking down ABRN look). Jaune even rips off Ruby’s idea of code-names but his attempt fails due to insufficient practice. Meanwhile Ruby says “Checkmate” in Volume 5 and despite not having trained together for months, Blake and Weiss immediately jump into action.   

Jaune explicitly quotes one of RNJR having said "you're the strategist", and is the character that gets to come up with a plan for taking down the Petra Gigas. And even though the way his plan is phrased initially gets played as humorous, his dumb strategy ultimately gets vindicated by actually working.

“Keep moving, run in a circle” is pretty poor advice (in fact, Ren had already been trying this strategy when Jaune said it and the Nuck still landed a blow on him), but in-universe it’s treated like gospel. Nobody points out how weak Jaune’s strategies are because from a meta perspective, the only way Jaune is able to stay relevant in fights in Volume 4 is to shout inane “strategies.” The issue with this is that (yet again) it comes at the expense of other characters, including (again) Ruby, who in Volumes 1 through 3 was shown as far sharper when it came to using her team and their strengths. Everyone else on the hero side has to take an intellectual dive so Jaune can take home a glorified participation trophy. 

Jaune using his greatsword for a stabbing attack when it’s built for slashing in the Haven battle. I brought this up in my “What went wrong at Haven?” post, but I thought it was worth repeating that this is a massive blunder.

Reason 6) General misc stuff

I couldn’t make full points of these, so I made bullet points for some of the smaller reasons Jaune is disliked

The Weiss obsession. There’s no real nice way of sugarcoating Jaune’s actions in Volume 2, no means no. That this came about from some glorified improv and the idea that it would be a funny idea makes my stomach churn. 

The bully arc taking so much time. Thanks to how Volume 1 cut some episodes, Jaune’s arc with Cardin took four weeks in real life to complete. This only exaggerated the issues people took with Jaune, and had RWBY not immediately come back with the fight-scene Renaissance piece that was Blake and Sun vs Roman, I can’t imagine how many people would have dropped the show thanks to an after-school special that got wedged in their fighting anime.

Jaune looking away and letting Cinder shoot Amber. Ignoring that Cinder’s Semblance can let her shoot around targets, which she does in the Pyrrha fight, Jaune never stood a chance against Cinder, and no matter what, most friends would be distracted by their friend’s agonized screams and would likely turn around in despair.

Jaune hating Qrow in Volume 4. Thanks to Jaune being the one member of RNJR willing to call out Qrow for his and Ozpin’s parts in Pyrrha’s death, Jaune got some flack from Qrow’s notable fandom. Ironically enough, people began to dislike Jaune more when he refused to ever act on these feelings after Ozpin’s return in Volume 5, with Jaune only ever calling out Ozpin after Yang did it with the Birds Reveal (I’ve written a piece before about why that reveal fell flat). His out of nowhere tepidness in approaching Ozpin regarding Pyrrha’s death was so out-of-nowhere that people were begging for Jaune to have screentime again, that’s how random it was.

To conclude, there are many reasons why people hate Jaune Arc, and the story doesn’t really help his case a lot of the time in all honesty. While some of the stated reasons are far from logical (I at least hope I’ve explained why I think he’s not a self-insert), Jaune unfortunately fails to set himself as a distinct character without it usually biting someone else in the ass. He fails to be a proper audience surrogate due to lacking essential knowledge about the setting. He has an unfortunate tendency to overshadow other characters and hijack their plots for his own scenes (poor Ruby), and he fails to even be that competent a strategist, leaving his supposed skills to be more of an informed attribute. Add in a variety of smaller reasons for his hatedom, legitimate or not, that have stacked up over the years, and Jaune unfortunately has several valid reasons to dislike him. While I still personally like the Noodle Boy, and I do hope that he can develop and grow stronger as a fighter, tactician and character in the coming future, I cannot deny that I fully understand why people would be turned off by Jaune. So much could have been done with Jaune, but much like a bad salad that comes before a great main course, you’ve already lost your appetite before the main servings arrive.

To surmise, Jaune-hate began because of a perfect storm of circumstances that would be impossible to make happen on purpose. He could have recovered from the flirting with Weiss, the Audience Surrogate/Shonen lead status, or being the main character in several drawn-out arcs, but all at once? Was too much for any one character to bear, and Jaune was unfortunately the character who had all of this lumped on him within a year of the show beginning.

Thank you for reading.

... damnit kid why do you make it so hard to like you sometimes I don’t like doing this

[askdacast]

Rant from an ex-fan: RWBY’s Volume 5 shorts are terrible

Quick warning: if you are a huge fan of RWBY, especially of the third volume onwards, I am going to be needlessly cruel towards the series in this post. Turn back if you don't wish to hear the ramblings of a jaded ex-fan.

So I used to love RWBY, or more specifically the first two volumes of RWBY. They were far from perfect, but I enjoyed what fun action and neat fantasy and tech ideas they had to offer.

Then Volume 3 came about, in its glut of sudden edginess and shocking twists, and I came down with a case of salt poisoning.

As you can imagine, I dropped the series harder than a slab of concrete and have been very hesitant to pick up the series again since. Then I saw in my YouTube Feed that Volume 5 of RWBY was coming out, and there were character shorts and teasers, one of which was of Weiss, being released as promotions. So I thought, "Fine, why not? I might as well see if they win me over once more."

I was not won over.

Problems that I had with the series when I dropped it were somehow encapsulated in 3.5 painfully long minutes, and after some mental testing out of my hair, I decided to do the following moment-by-moment analysis of the trailer below as follows.

Please keep in mind I have sworn entirely off Volume 4 and any details I do know about it are from my friend @randomnumbers751650 who HAS watched it. Nothing first-hand.

0:00 We begin with some abstract shots of totally-not-symbolism set to yet another generically sad Casey Williams song.

Okay look, I don’t want to hate on Casey Williams. She’s an amazing singer at the age she is, and she’s got great talent! I don’t hate her work at all. The problem is she’s in EVERYTHING RWBY RELATED. No, literally, everything. RoosterTeeth has shoved her into every single vocal song for the series and I’m getting tired of it. There’s no variety in any of the vocals unless they get Jeff Williams to do some screaming or Lamar Hall to do some okay-rapping in them. Even they seem to sound overused.

Not to mention sometimes I feel like they’re forcing Casey’s vocal chords to sing certain songs that really do not lend well to her vocals (*cough* When it Falls *cough). She’s a beautiful singer, but when you just churn out song after song with her, the songs lose their magic. I don’t even wanna get started on these lyrics, but let’s rant one thing at a time, shall we?

0:12 Hey look, the moon is still broken. We ever gonna find out what that means?

Now one compliment I guess I’ll give is that the art has definitely improved. The characters still move jankily (albeit more smoothly now), but the background art has really upgraded. The shot of the manor Weiss is fighting in, the ice fountain with the Schnee logo and the snowing effects in this are actually kinda pretty!

0:25 And now we meet best girl Weiss! Well, she originally wasn’t my best girl. It was first Ruby, but unfortunately she had no personality (despite being the main character). Then there was Penny, but she was.

You know.

Dead.

Thanks RoosterTeeth, I’m still not over that. You introduced a precious cinnamon roll and killed her off for shock value. And fan theories about her being rebuilt have not been acted on.

Uh-huh. Sure. I’m totally okay with that. Not bitter at all.

Anyway, just look at those expressions. Mouth movement still looks as awkward as ever. I think enough people have probably mocked the expressions in the Volume 4 opening so I won’t harp on it, but…yeeeeah.

0:36 Oh hey look ominous snow wind out of nowhere. That sure is whacky and wacky.

And listen closely to the lyrics of this super-duper-sad song.

“And in its place is nothing, just an endless empty hall.”

GEDDIT? BECAUSE WEISS IS LONELY! SHE’S SAD AND LONELY CUZ SHE’S GOT NO FRIENDS! WE’RE SO SUBTLE AND SYMBOLIC GUYS!

Jeff Williams, or…whoever did the lyrics for these songs, the instrumental is lovely on its own. You could’ve just let the emotions speak for themselves. You don’t have to HAMMER IN THE MESSAGE THAT WEISS IS OBVIOUSLY STILL SAD AND LONELY. I THOUGHT WE GOT THREE ENTIRE SONGS FOR THAT ALREADY. Or was Mirror Mirror just not subtle enough? >_>

0:45 Oh look. Ice Beowulves. How interesting and original.

And don’t tell me they’re a different species of Grimm or whatever, those models are clearly palette-swapped Beowulves! It’s like they’ve become the Goombas of Remnant or something.

You know last I checked, one of the bigger reasons people liked this show at all was because of the fantasy setting and how not just the heroes and their weapons, but the creatures of Grimm had all sorts of creative designs. I get that this is just a teaser trailer and the fight here doesn't have any actual plot bearing, but one on, you could've at least come up with something more interesting for an ice-based Grimm. Even better, give hints of new Grimm to be introduced later in the volume or something, I dunno! Just anything more than a freaking palette swap.

0:59 ...did...did Casey just say 'Weissolation?' I hope she didn't; that's a level of goofy I think not even RT would stoop to.

Also, still piling on that reaaaally subtle lyric-work about how lonely Weiss is! Ugh.

1:01 I dunno why but that shot of the Beowulf pouncing at her just looks so goofy. “COME AND GIVE ME A HUUUUUG!”

1:12 ...okay, I admit, the change in tempo and shift in instruments for this song and the ensuing fight made me excited.

If there's one thing Jeff Williams has always done well, it's his instrumental. I complain a lot about RWBY's vocals, but the way the songs mix hard rock and more classical music has always been amazing. It's the perfect blend of instruments to get you pumped up for a fight while still getting into the different moods and settings each fight takes place in. Even better is that they don't have to constantly rely on awkward dubstep or techno beats like most other shows nowadays do with their action scenes. All things considered, if you just changed the lyrics, I would totally replay this song in my free time.

Even this initial start of the fight isn't bad at all. The violins and Casey's vocals really match up to the angles, Weiss jumping on the glyphs, shots like the pan up to when she's standing on the ledge, and oh man, those melting icicles. That was such a neat touch!

1:31 That is an adorable Weiss happy face. Can we get more of that? Please? And not all the random depressing edgy plot points?

1:40 "Forced to conform" YES WE GET IT WEISS FEELS TRAPPED, MOVE ON CASEY

You remember how the original Mirror Mirror's lyrics were about Weiss' self-doubt and fear of what's inside her? Only 2012 remembers.

1:45 Once again, more of those awkward expressions. Her face is literally OAO in this moment. A second shot of it is passable. You hold it for longer than that though, not to mention in a close-up shot, and it just looks goofy.

This, however, is probably a good time to get to one of my major complaints of this trailer. Namely that this trailer could have been stuff like foreshadowing of plot points, a quick character insight into how Weiss has been doing since the end of the last Volume, a whole number of things. But instead, what do we get?

Fighting.

Just. Fighting.

Look I get it, RWBY is an action series, fighting is kind of what it's selling. But if you would humour me, let me take you back to 2012, when RWBY just became a thing and people were fawning over the awesome trailers. Let me remind you guys that the first two trailers shown, Ruby's and Weiss', were both consisting of nothing but -you guessed it- fighting. We didn't hear their voice actors at all, we didn't get a glimpse as to what their characters like beyond their small facial expressions and song lyrics (you know, like the incredibly deep revelation that WEISS IS LONELY), or their place in the plot.

As much as I loved the fighting choreography in those old trailers, when the show was finally released, the characters suffered for it. People were wondering why Ruby was a squeaky high-pitched now girl when she looked so stoic and badass in the trailer. People were wondering why Weiss was so snooty and insufferable when once again, the trailer painted a different picture of her. My point is the original trailers for RWBY tried pushing for its awesome action scenes at the expense of the writing of its characters.

And now it's happening again.

Let me be blunt: when I first saw this Weiss short, and after the initial few cool shots of fighting, my brained tuned out and I IMMEDIATELY skipped the whole fight scene. I knew what to expect – another flashy action scene that has no bearing on the plot or Weiss as a character or what's to come.

You know guys, most of us who are anime fans safely say that most of us who enjoy action scenes and stuff like shonen anime is NOT just because of random fighting. I need to care about what I'm watching. I need to know the fight I'm seeing matters. And failing THAT, I at least want to see something new; new fighting techniques, new ways of attacking and reversing your opponent's moves onto them, rather than just the same old.

I remember when I used to enjoy the fight scenes in RWBY. It was cool seeing the fighting techniques, the crazy weapons and having some vague idea of how Dust worked. It was all fine and dandy back then. But RWBY hasn't evolved since. As much as I like Weiss, her simple sword tactics have always struck me as rather plain compared to the rest of the team. Clearly, she's designed less as a combatant focusing on power and more as the 'Mage', what with her glyphs (which we still haven't gotten an explanation of how her Semblance works btw) and her Dust usage. I could've gone for something simple like Weiss combining Dust in her attacks or something like that.

But no.

RoosterTeeth is just doing the same old action sequences over and over again. It's to the point where the fight scenes are just white noise! Congrats, RoosterTeeth. You guys made me think of an action scene as WHITE NOISE.

Mind you, I actually went to rewatch the trailer to try to see what I missed in the fight scene just to be fair, but even then I tuned out again. Nevermind the actual choreography or some weird wide-angle shots, everything just felt so generic. I honestly can't muster up any energy to even critique the fight.

So enough of my whining I guess, let's just get back to the trailer shall we...

2:48 And somehow despite Weiss being best girl, she still continues to have the weakest of the voice actresses. The way she screams Winter's name sounds more like annoyance rather than the actual fear she might have been feeling.

Also WAIT WHAT?! THOSE WOLVES WERE WINTER'S CREATION?!

...so not satisfied with giving us a dull action scene, this trailer decides to pull the rug out under us and render our investment into Weiss surviving this fight pointless. Fantastic.

3:04 Oh hey, Winter! One of the few parts of Volume 3 I actually liked!

Great to see you and your Icy Cool Big Sis self again! Boy, it sure was a good thing you...weren't important in the last Volume...or the second half of Volume 3...oh man was your great character totally utilized and not squandered in the face of the changing plot or anything...

3:15 More stilted Weiss voice acting. The way she says "I'll get better" is just so oddly rushed and lifeless.

3:26 And so we end this trailer with a reprise of Mirror Mirror, showing how even after 4 whole Volumes, Weiss has not grown as a character despite her trials with her barely-visible team, and she's still left alone with the insecurities and loneliness plaguing her, sending her back to square one!

Yay. RWBY is such a well-written satisfying show.

3:36 But ZOMG! This whole trailer was a flashback! And Weiss is still sad remembering old sad times!

...

BULL.

What was even the point of having that entire fight be a flashback? Narrative-wise, it's a slap in the face to the hope of Weiss growing as a character. Didn't she spend the last part of Volume 4 singing an entire song about how she's going to forge her own path and break away from her family? But her face when she remembers this memory of her old self and replaying Mirror Mirror in the background seems to imply this isn't the case. That she's still stuck in the same mental chains she's been in since the show started. If there's no promise of her truly overcoming herself, why would this flashback have any meaningful bearing on her arc?

Technicality-wise, this only confuses the viewer and short-changes the animators. Believe it or not, I was actually confused as to if Weiss in the trailer was from present time; thought maybe she just put on her old clothes again or something. But it's not; we are just seeing her old self fighting some of Winter's illusions. If we aren't seeing any cool new stuff about Weiss, what is the point of making this a teaser for Volume 5?

So with all that said and done, RWBY has once more proved that it’s just going to be nothing more but a swirling pot of wasted potential and eye candy with some irresponsible writers mixing it all into one big mess, and it’s only going to get more incomprehensible from here on out.

Wonderful.

Let me clarify one last thing: I did NOT drop RWBY in Volume 3 because it was ‘too dark and depressing’. I like a good serious story myself. The purpose of this rant is to show you all my real problem with RWBY: it does not handle its writing with any care whatsoever, or the responsibility to deliver a satisfying product to its audience. Volume 3’s out of nowhere shift, as much as it angers me, I feel is symptomatic of every other writing problem in this series.

It’s lazy. It’s half-baked. It’s popcorn entertainment in the end, sure, but even popcorn needs to be cooked well. I want the tastiest popcorn ever, not some cold barely-microwaved corn kernels left out in the open!

Ugh, if you guys will excuse me, I’m gonna go write my own action-packed fantasy story. With blackjack and hookers.

[mewmewchann]

RWBY: Y.v.S - The Fight

It’s finally time for the one-on-one finals. The intensity goes through the roof in the first match, but once the fight is over, everything goes horribly wrong...

(Here we are. The moment that kicked everything off.)

(I’ll finally be able to post the chapters in order after this! Yay!)

(If you have any questions about this AU, feel free to ask! Comments and feedback are appreciated!)

“Now, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for! The one on one finals!”

The finals had only just started, and the audience was already going crazy. After the intensity of the team rounds and doubles rounds, they were expecting an exceptional show from the one on one finals.

“Barty, why dont’cha explain the rules?”

“Ah, it's quite simple, Peter! Instead of a bracket system, the rounds will be decided IMMEDIATELY before the match takes place!”

Emerald, who was in an area of the audience with Cinder, looked uneasy.

“...Is this part of the plan?” She asked.

“Don’t worry,” Cinder replied calmly. “This is what they were going to do all along. Our little 'adjustments' won't be changed a bit.”

Cinder had access to the randomisation system of the tournament, so she had the entirety of the finals planned out. First would be a match between Yang and Mercury, where Yang will hallucinate Mercury attacking her (courtesy of Emerald) and attack him for seemingly no reason. This will cause negative tension in the audience, which will start to attract Grimm to Vale. Then would be the match between Penny and Pyrrha, where Pyrrha will see something which will make her attack with too much force (once again, courtesy of Emerald) and “accidentally” tear the robot girl to pieces. This will cause more negativity to spread, which will attract even more Grimm to the city.

This plan was perfect. There’s nothing that can stop it.

The hosts – Peter Port and Bartholemew Oobleck – continued their commentary.

“And what an exciting night we have ahead of us!”

The finalists were standing in the centre of the arena, waiting to be picked. Cinder could only remember a handful of names – Yang Xiao Long, Scarlet David, Pyrrha Nikos, Mercury Black, Penny Polendina and Crimson Foxx were the only ones she could remember. But the names didn’t matter – all that mattered was what was happening next.

“Indeed! After fighting through the qualifiers and doubles, these competitors stood out on top! So it's obvious that each team has picked the best of the best!”

“Let's begin the randomisation process, shall we?”

“Yes! Let's see who our first matchup will be!”

The randomisation system on the huge screens positioned at the top of the arena walls began to whir. Everyone was excited and wondering who the first matchup was going to be. All except Cinder, who was positive that she knew what was going on.

Then, after a few seconds of anticipation, the first matchup was revealed to be…

“Scarlet David of Haven and Yang Xiao Long of Beacon!”

“WHAT!?” Cinder leapt out of her chair in shock. This wasn’t supposed to happen, it was meant to be-

“Huh? Is something up?”

Cinder noticed that she had gotten the attention of another student – who just happened to be the girl that Emerald took out in the doubles.

“What? No, I’m just, uh, a little surprised with the matchup.”

The student – Cinder was pretty sure her name was Coco – adjusted her sunglasses and replied before walking off. “Well, duh. It's called a 'randomisation process' for a reason.”

Cinder sat back down in her chair. What the heck just happened? She was pretty sure that she rigged the matchup that afternoon…

Emerald had similar questions. “I don't get it! Isn't Yang supposed to be paired with Mercury?”

“Dammit!” Cinder muttered, before giving out an order in Emerald’s general direction. “...Go along with the original plan anyway.”

“What!?”

She nodded emotionlessly. “You heard me. Go along with the original plan.”

Emerald didn’t want to go along with the original plan, so she protested. “I can't! This 'Scarlet' guy – he isn't like Mercury. I can't hurt an innocent person!”

Cinder groaned angrily and clicked the fingers on her right hand. A small flame appeared above them. “Do it, or I WILL leave you on the streets to rot.”

Emerald had no idea what to say. She didn’t want to hurt someone innocent, but she didn’t exactly want to go back to living on the streets, either…

She finally made up her mind.

“...I will.”

“May all other combatants please leave the stage?”

Yang watched the other students leave the arena stage one by one – Penny held back a little to give her a high-five for good luck – and turned to face her opponent.

She had only seen Scarlet fight in the teams and doubles rounds, so Yang had never had the chance to fight him herself. Judging from his and Sage’s doubles round, this was going to be tough, but she never backs down from a challenge.

Yang could already hear the rest of her team cheering for her from the audience, and it didn’t take her long to realise who was saying what:

“Break a leg, sis!” (Ruby)

*sigh* “Why does it always have to be a leg? Why can’t it be, I don’t know, an arm?” (Weiss)

“That’s...Just the way people say it, Weiss.” (Blake)

“Okay, Uh...break an arm, sis!” (Ruby)

“It seems the audience likes you already.”

Yang was so enveloped in listening to the rest of team RWBY that it took her a while to notice that Scarlet had said something.

“Seems so,” She replied with a quick chuckle. “You’d better not go easy on me.”

Her opponent replied with a condescending laugh. “Took the words right out my mouth!”

Yang double checked to make sure Ember Celica was loaded. It was.

“Three!” Port called down from the commentator’s booth. The fight was going to start soon.

Yang looked over to her team in the audience. Blake and Weiss looked hopeful, but Ruby looked extremely excited. Well, of course. Yang thought. Rubes loves these fights.

“Two!”

Scarlet looked over towards his team. Sun and Neptune also looked pretty hopeful, but Sage was a completely different matter. He looked very worried.

Scarlet clenched the handle of his cutlass. Don’t worry, guys. I won’t let you down.

“One!”

The audience went silent. The combatants were ready. The show was just about to start.

“...FIGHT!”

Yang started charging as soon as she heard the word ‘fight’. She jumped towards her opponent, right fist raised for first blood.

Scarlet, however, was prepared. He parried the attack with his cutlass, took out his pistol and fired a warning shot into Yang’s face.

“AGH!” Yang staggered backwards. Scarlet wasn’t using any of his dust yet, but that shot still would’ve blinded her if wasn’t for her aura. Speaking of which…

She checked one of the nearby screens. That shot caused her aura level to drop by 3 points.

So he managed to get the drop on me first… Yang thought. This is gonna be a lot harder than I-

“I’M NOT DONE YET!”

“Huh-!?” She felt a sting of cold steel strike her on her right hip and send her backwards. He was using her distraction as an opportunity.

Damn! I need to stop getting distracted… Yang thought as she recovered from the attack. She fired a few shots from Ember Celica to stop him in his tracks.

He managed to dodge almost all of them, his aura level dropping by 5 or 6 as a rogue shot hit his arm. The other shots went flying into the protective shield, some of the audience members crying out and running for cover when a shot hit an area in front of them.

Scarlet seemed unaffected by the attacks and retaliated almost immediately with a few shots of his own. This time, Yang wasn’t so lucky. She tried to dodge, but she kept getting hit and her aura kept dropping. -2 points. -3 points. -4 points.

Yang glared at her opponent, her usually lilac eyes now a glowering red.

“Nice colour, Xiao Long!” Scarlet said condescendingly. “You know, you suit red a lot.” He readied his blade. “Mind if I add some more?”

Yang was so tired of hearing his stupid comments that she charged straight at him. She grabbed his cutlass by it’s blade and was prepared to tear it straight out of his hands.

“SHUT UP!”

“So, you want to fight with semblances, huh?” He asked nonchalantly, gripping his cutlass tightly. “Well, let’s see what happens when I turn up the heat.”

The sword’s blade suddenly began to glow a hot red exactly where Yang was gripping it. Something on the sword was burning her hands to a point where they could catch fire, so she released her grip and tried to ease the pain. There was a quick, resounding gasp around the audience as Yang let go, and her eyes faded back to their usual lilac.

“Wh-” She started, confused. “What the hell did you do!? The...The blade is too hot for me to hold!”

The two commentators seemed to be answering her question.

“I think that the audience have been waiting for this for a while!” Dr. Oobleck announced from the commentator’s booth. “This doesn’t seem to be the work of any dust! It seems that Scarlet is finally revealing his semblance!”

“What!?” Yang started, but then all the pieces began to fly together in her mind. The rest of team RWBY realised this too, so simultaneously, they all exclaimed:

“HE HAS A FIRE SEMBLANCE!?”

Scarlet gave her a quick smirk. “You catch on pretty well. It’s a shame you gave up the red, though. You really suited the colour.”

Yang looked over at the audience. They were all either startled or excited by this new revelation, and were anticipating her next move.

She turned towards her team. Blake and Weiss were both shocked and impressed, but Ruby was ecstatic after finding out his semblance. If Ruby’s crush on Scarlet wasn’t obvious before, it definitely was now.

Yang didn’t realise that she was being distracted for too long until it was too late. A white-hot burst of energy struck her on the back.

“AAGH!”

Her aura level dropped by 8 points. It didn’t take long for Yang to realise what hit her.

Scarlet was using his fire semblance again. He was grinning maniacally and had a glowing red fireball in his left hand.

“Can you at least give me a few seconds to breathe!?” Yang called out desperately and breathlessly.

Scarlet shrugged. “No can do, Yang. Last time I checked, you personally requested that neither of us would hold back.” He spun the fireball in his left hand like a basketball. “Looks like you aren’t keeping your end of the bargain.”

Yang got up, caught her breath and charged at her opponent with her fist raised. “You god-damn son of a-!”

Scarlet dodged the blow with ease and elbowed her in the lower back. Hard. Yang managed to recover from the attack, but she realised that it was only to make her an easier target. The fireball that he was holding earlier was now flying towards her at breakneck speed.

Yang cursed under her breath and fired a few shots from Ember Celica to try and dissipate the attack. It took at least twelve shots before the incoming attack exploded into a blazing inferno. After the smoke cleared, Yang fired a shot directly at her target.

Scarlet managed to dodge it before it did any critical damage to his aura, but it still managed to scrape off 3 points. He readied his cutlass and flintlock pistol and tried to decide what to do next.

Damn…He thought. She’s going to be a lot harder to put down than I thought. My semblance is managing to do some damage, but it won’t hold her down for long. And besides, if what Ruby said about her semblance is true, then I’m done for. Unless…

He realised that there was still a sure-fire way to beat her.

What if I- No. Sage doesn’t want me to. Sure, it scored a victory last time, but it doesn’t just cause critical damage to the target. I’m hurting myself enough already. I can’t just- Oh, to hell with it! I can’t restrict my abilities forever! I have to do this for my team!

He gripped the handle of his flintlock tightly. It was already starting to hurt.

I’m sorry, Sage. But I have to win.

An icy-blue light spilled into the patterns carved on the pistol and Scarlet aimed it directly at his enemy. Yang was startled, but realised what he was doing a second too late.

HIS DUST! SHIT!

He fired a bullet from the pistol. It exploded out of the barrel in a shower of blue-white sparks and hit Yang hard in the stomach. The bullet dissipated, and freezing cold ice crystals began to form across the lower part of her jacket.

He’s trying to slow me down! I have to-

She didn’t notice that he was preparing an attack with his sword. He slashed a crescent-shaped fire attack towards her. Because of the weight of the ice, Yang wasn’t able to move away in time, and the attack struck her directly. It felt like having a red-hot slab of iron being forcefully pressed on the centre of her chest. Luckily, though, the heat of the flame attack managed to melt the ice weighing her down.

The attack managed to daze her, but she found the time to catch her breath and ready her gauntlets. She desperately looked around for her opponent, but found that Scarlet had seemingly vanished from the arena.

This is the same trick he pulled in the doubles round, She thought. I have to be on my guard.

She looked around for him. Then, suddenly, Scarlet reappeared and kicked her in the ribs. The kick sent her flying upwards, then he reappeared above her and kicked her downwards, sending her crashing to the arena floor.

“My word!” Port commented into the microphone. “This is probably the most brutal match we’ve had in the Vytal Festival Tournament yet!”

“Yes!” Oobleck seconded. “Scarlet is gaining the upper hand! Will Yang be able to recover from that combo?”

The audience applauded excitedly, and awaited the next move eagerly.

Yang tried to pull herself upwards from the floor and coughed desperately for oxygen.

He must be using gravity dust to gain that level of speed. He’s accelerating his own personal level of gravity to get to me quicker.

Scarlet walked nonchalantly towards her and readied his flintlock.

“Give it up, Yang. The fight’s over.”

She got up and gave him a red-eyed glare. “Sc- screw you! I’m not giving up!”

He laughed condescendingly and pointed his cutlass toward her, it’s blade glowing a white-green. “Thought so.”

A drill-like tornado suddenly started spinning around the blade.

He’s using wind dust…Yang thought.

After spinning around the blade for a few more seconds, the tornado suddenly leapt off of the blade and charged at light-speed towards Yang, the pointed edge spinning like a drill.

Yang tried to dodge it, but the attack struck her in the centre of the chest and refused to stop spinning. It sent her flying backwards and shoved her against the arena’s protective shield, forcefully drilling her body into it.

The audience gave out a collective gasp as Yang screamed out in pain.

“YANG!” Ruby, Weiss and Blake called out from their position in the audience.

Yang couldn’t do anything to stop the tornado-drill from spinning. The protective shield was starting to crack and her aura level was getting lower and lower.

She noticed the cracks in the shield and suddenly had a wild idea. Unfortunately – by tournament rules – it would prevent them both from using range attacks, but this was her only option.

With the last remnants of her strength, Yang aimed both of her gauntlets at the disintegrating shield and punched.

The shield shattered with a sound that someone could hear from as far away as Vacuo. The audience gazed on in shock as the barrier separating them from the contestants’ attacks disintegrated.

“What’s this?” One of the commentators announced. “It seems that Yang has broken the arena’s protective shield!”

Yang, still on a high note after getting rid of the barrier and finally gaining some space to breathe, completely forgot about Scarlet.

A thin wire suddenly wrapped around her left arm and brought her crashing back to the arena floor. Scarlet retracted the grappling hook from his pistol and walked up to her.

“Impressive.” He said to her mockingly. “You destroyed the barrier. But – here’s the catch – you can’t use range attacks, either. You’ve limited both yourself and your opponent. Do you really think you’ll win under these circumstances?”

Yang looked up to her opponent, with a menacing smirk and her eyes a blazing red.

“You dumbass,” She managed to say with only a fraction of breath. “Did you seriously forget what my semblance is?”

Her aura suddenly began to glow with a blazing heat. Scarlet backed away a little and raised his sword.

Yang charged towards him relentlessly, right fist aimed directly for his face. Scarlet managed to parry her blows with his cutlass. An icy blue light began to fill the patterns on the sword’s blade. Yang realised what he was doing and kicked the blade out of his hand. The cutlass went flying to the other side of the arena.

“DAMMIT!” He said bitterly. Before he could retrieve his weapon, Yang approached him again, her fist aimed in his general direction.

Desperately, Scarlet whirled out his flintlock pistol and fired it’s grappling hook at Yang’s arm. Yang managed to grab the wire and yank the gun right out of his hand, also sending it to the other side of the arena.

“Wha- SHIT!”

He’s unarmed. This is my chance!

Yang charged straight at her opponent and struck him with a flurry of direct punches. His aura was dropping bit by bit, and getting lower and lower. Scarlet managed to dodge one of the attacks, but Yang managed to retaliate with one last punch. She felt the protective shield of Scarlet’s aura shatter and dissipate. He crashed to the arena floor as the buzzer sounded.

“What a way to kick off the finals!” Port announced.

The audience suddenly exploded into an uproar of applause.

“After that brutal match,” Oobleck continued. “Yang Xiao Long is victorious!”

Yang, after the fight, finally got her breath back as her eyes faded back to their usual lilac. She raised a victorious fist into the air. “Yeah!”

“Yay!” Ruby called out from the audience. “You did it, sis!”

Yang sighed and turned towards her opponent.

“You were amazing out there, Scarlet.” She said, before starting to walk away. “Better luck next time.”

Scarlet was in pain and struggling to stand, but managed to give her his signature condescending smirk.

“...Yeah.” He responded breathlessly. “You were pretty good, too.”

Yang was satisfied with his response, and continued to walk away. Besides, she had a team to celebrate her victory with.

But, while she was leaving, she realised that Scarlet apparently wasn’t finished with her yet.

“But...” He said, stopping her in her tracks. “Who said we were done?”

Yang, now terrified, turned around. WHAT!?

Scarlet had somehow retrieved his cutlass, and was now charging at her with it.

Yang was in shock. The fight was over! You aren’t allowed to attack at the end of a fight! What the hell are you doing!?

So, without thinking, she immediately retaliated with a punch to his right arm.

SNAP.

“AGH!”

There was a resounding gasp across the audience as Scarlet fell to the arena floor, clutching his arm. The audience started crying out angrily and booing.

Yang looked down at him with a sliver of sympathy. Did I...Break it? She then remembered what happened and her look of sympathy shifted to a rage-filled glare. He attacked me first.

“My word!” A commentator exclaimed in shock.

His partner turned over to a member of staff and gave the order to cut the cameras.

Over in a far-away part of Vale, a Beowolf that was sharpening it’s claws on the remains of a building suddenly felt a strong surge of negativity from another direction. It turned around to investigate. A large knot of negative energy was radiating from a colosseum flying over the city of Vale. The other Grimm around it took notice of this and began to head towards the city.

The audience was in utter shock. They couldn’t believe what had just happened.

“Agh!” Scarlet clutched his now bleeding arm. “Why- Why did you-” He struggled desperately to stand, but the pain was too much.

Yang glared at him coldly. “THAT’S WHAT YOU GET, YOU LITTLE-” She was interrupted by the sound of multiple guns cocking. “Huh?”

She was surrounded by Atlesian soldiers. All of their guns were aimed at her.

“Yang Xiao Long! Stand down!” One of them ordered.

Yang looked at them, confused. They were supposed to be surrounding him, not her.

“What!?” She protested. “Why!?”

“SCARLET!”

Sage immediately arrived on the arena stage, rushing to Scarlet’s side.

“Wh- why did she do that!?” Scarlet’s eyes were now filling with tears. “WHY DID SHE ATTACK ME!?”

Sage desperately tried to comfort his teammate. He looked up at Yang and gave her a disgusted glare.

Yang, confused and scraping for answers, looked up to one of the screens on the arena wall to see the footage.

The screen showed her walking away from Scarlet like she had done – but at the part where he attacked her, Scarlet just nonchalantly walked up to her. Then, on the footage, she raised her fist and-

Yang, in horrified realisation, found out that he hadn’t tried to attack her. He wasn’t the one the audience were mad at. She was.

She looked over to her team, who were gazing at the arena in wide-eyed shock. Yang finally turned over to her opponent. Sage was desperately trying to get help as Scarlet had blacked out from his injury.

Oh my god...I’m so sorry...

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Keeper of the Grove (Part 31)

Ruby and Blake trekked back to Keeper's Hollow, a pole on their shoulders supporting a giant, seven-foot long, several-hundred-pound weight tuna; the latter had a content smile on her face, her stomach noticeably distended.

“We're home, and we brought tuna!” Ruby called out as they came to the foot of the elevator. “Well, just a tuna because Blake got hungry on the ride back, but she'll share with everyone! Except Weiss, sorry about that!”

Silence, not even the sounds of anyone heading out to the elevator.

Ruby frowned. “Uncle Qrow? Penny? Weiss? Zwei? Any of you guys home…?”

It was then that she noticed three figures sitting on the highest balcony of the house--”Qrow's Nest” as her mother used to call it, because of how fond he was of going up there alone. One was clearly Zwei, laying down and looking forlorn; the other two were sitting over the edge, nursing drinks in their hands.

Ruby sighed, her face falling. <Oh no...>

Blake frowned. <You need help with drunk duty?> she asked as they set the tuna down on the ground. <I'll help with Qrow, but Weiss is all yours.>

Ruby shook her head. <Nah, I got this; you get this tuna in the fridge, before the Weavers' spell starts to run out,> she said as she headed up the ladder on the side.

After the fish was safely cut up and stored, Ruby made her way up to Qrow's Nest. Zwei looked up from both Qrow's and Weiss' laps as she poked her head out of the hatch; he panted happily at her, before put his heads back where they were, anchoring them to the floor with his weight, eyes watching them both carefully.

Qrow turned around and waved. “Hey Ruby,” he said, slurring slightly.

“Hey Uncle Qrow,” Ruby said, trying to smile. “You're not both drunk, are you...?”

“Just buzzed, but Weiss is 100% sober,” Qrow replied, before he took another sip of his beer.

“It's impossible to get drunk on milk, after all,” Weiss grumbled, before she took a swig of her own drink.

Ruby blinked. “You're drowning your sorrows in milk?”

“Yes! Because apparently the fermentation process for all your alcohols involves so much bacteria it'll utterly annihilate my stomach as is, and your uncle here only seems to ever buy the shitty, beer-flavoured water than the good brands.”

“Well excuse me for being poor…” Qrow muttered.

“So, how'd the Job Gauntlet go?” Ruby asked quickly.

“Terrible!” Weiss replied. “I failed every single exam. Did you know I'm completely unqualified for any sort of job the Fae could offer me? I have printed evidence from the professionals to prove it, just ask Penny when she's done with her daily maintenance!”

“Did you try the Watchers like Elder Goodwitch asked?”

“She did,” Qrow replied. “The holo for her combat test's gone viral all over AoA.” He switched languages. <It's called 'Soft-Skin Schnee Gits Wrekt.'>

“Go watch it,” Weiss grumbled.

Ruby frowned. “I don't know, Weiss, it sounds pretty--”

“Just do it. The sooner all of you Fae watch it for the fifteen-hundredth time and collectively get sick of it, the better.”

“Shit, Weiss, that holo's going in the Hall of Fame!” Qrow said. “Hundreds of years from now, we're still going to be pulling that out of the Codex and thinking 'Man, you'd think this'd get old, but it just gets funnier each time!'”

Weiss scowled. “That's a very encouraging thought, Qrow,” she said through gritted teeth.

Qrow shrugged. “Just making sure your expectations are realistic! It's easier to just face your shit reality and do something about it now, than waste time and energy pretending things are going magically to become better. Trust me, sooner or later, the smell's going to be impossible to ignore.”

Ruby sighed quietly. “I'll just go do that, then...” she said as she climbed back down.

“Watch it on the HV!” Qrow called out. “It's better with big resolution!”

Later, Blake and Ruby were sitting on the couch, grilled tuna slices, cookies, and milk between them. They loaded up the holo, skipped through the technical details and the info that was for the benefit of the senior Watchers handling recruiting.

They watched Zwei come out from the cage. Ruby smiled, Blake frowned.

<...And for the purposes of this test: ZWEI on FIRE!> Nora cried.

Zwei was set alight with soul fire. Ruby frowned, Blake smiled.

As the giant, flaming, two-headed canine came bounding towards her, Weiss turned around and fled, arms in the air and screaming at the top of her lungs.

<… And our recruit is off, trying to put some distance between her and—oh, nope! Zwei caught up to her already.> In Nivian, “Cardio, Weiss, cardio!”

Weiss replied by shrieking in renewed terror as Zwei grabbed her in one of his mouths, bit down just hard enough to hold her steady as he shook her side-to-side.

“Use your sword!” Nora cried.

Weiss whacked the hilt on the side of Zwei's head.

“Use your sword as a sword!”

Zwei carefully tossed her away. Weiss went flying for several feet, rolling as she hit the dirt. She dropped her rapier as she scrambled back up to her feet and started running for higher ground.

“Wait, Weiss—you dropped your weapon!”

“I KNOW!” Weiss screamed, tears streaming down her face now.

Zwei stopped and looked up at Nora, conflicted and still alight.

<Go get her, boy!> she called out. <She's not going to pass if you go too easy on her!>

Zwei turned to Weiss over on the other side of the arena, sobbing and jumping up and down, trying to reach a handhold that was just slightly taller than she was.

Blake choked on her fish from laughing so hard. Ruby smacked her on the back as they continued watching.

“Turn around and shoot him!” Nora cried. “His vitals are getting low! Well, low enough for you to get a good score!”

Weiss turned around, held up her shooting arm, and fired. Because of the tears in her eyes and the absolute terror she was experiencing, most of the darts missed Zwei in spite of him being an incredibly large target that was only getting closer.

Weiss ran out of ammo, the repeater kept on spinning and whining as she held the trigger.

“Reload! Reload! Reload!”

Weiss started smacking the release lever, her hand missing several times.

“No, Weiss, point it away from your--!”

The empty canister popped out and flew into her eye. “GAH!”

“--Too late.”

Weiss groped about, dropping two of her extra canisters before she finally got a grip on the third. She was about to load it into her repeater when the bright glow of the Pit's floodlights were replaced by an ominous, green hue.

Zwei slowly padded up to her, both heads deep in thought, unsure of what to do.

Weiss screamed, threw the canister at him, it bounced harmlessly off his left head.

Zwei barked.

Weiss dropped to the floor and curled up in the fetal position.

The horn was sounded.

Birds came by and dropped cure water on Zwei, extinguishing the soul fire. An extraction crew came up, along with Penny and a Therapy Mender carrying a well-worn, much-loved limited edition Eluna plushie the Watchers kept on-hand for situations like this.

There was a final shot of Weiss hugging it and squeezing it to her chest as she was carted away, before the video ended.

Blake snatched up the remote, and pressed the replay button.

Ruby heard a door opening, turned around saw Weiss dejectedly walking back into their room, her milk exchanged for one of her bottles of bacteria culture. She picked up her dinner and went on after her.

She knocked on the door with her horns. “Weiss?” she called out. “Can I come in?”

“It's your room, you decide!”

Ruby frowned, and opened the door. She saw Weiss already lying on her side in her hammock, gently rocking back and forth as she hugged Winter's Eluna plushie, an empty bottle on the floor.

“You want some milk and cookies?” she asked as she held up her dinner.

“Already had way too many,” Weiss muttered.

“Okay,” Ruby said. She walked over to her nest, and sat down on one of her pillows. “So...”

“So, what am I going to do about my being a NEET?”

“A what?”

“It's an acronym: 'Not Employed, in Education, or Training,'” Weiss explained. “I guess it's the human equivalent of Moss.”

Ruby nodded. “Yeah, that. So, do you have any talents or anything? Song, dance, arts and crafts, maybe? I'm sure we can use your being a human as a gimmick while you're starting out and building a fan base—I'll even be your audience if you need someone to test an act out on!”

“I can sing, but I think I'll just sell my body to science,” Weiss replied. “If being a star with the Fae is anything like being a star with us humans, the competition's going to eat me alive by virtue of being able to talk with their fans anytime they want without needing a translator…”

Ruby frowned. “Weiss...”

“You don't need to come with me to the Chronicler's Grove,” Weiss said as she turned away from Ruby and to her other side. “Qrow and Penny are already overdue for a 'brain drain,' so they're taking me with them tomorrow morning.”

Ruby sighed and put her food down. “Weiss, you can't just give up like this!” she said as she got up and walked over to the other side of her hammock.

“And why not?!” Weiss snapped, glaring at her, tears beginning well in her eyes once more. “Let's face the facts here, Ruby: I'm completely, absolutely useless to all of you!”

Ruby blinked. “Well duh! I thought that was already pretty obvious.”

Weiss gritted her teeth. “You were supposed to tell me I'm not useless.”

Ruby frowned. “Why would I do that?”

“Because I was fishing for compliments!”

“Fishing for what now?”

“It's when we talk bad about ourselves so other people will try and make us feel better...”

Ruby paused, and slowly raised a finger. “Weiss, let me get off topic for one moment:

“THIS IS WHY I FUCKING HATE NIVIAN! 'THE DOVE DOVE,' 'THE KNIGHT RIDES OUT AT NIGHT,' THE ENTIRE CONCEPT OF 'SARCASM' WHERE YOU SAY THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU MEAN FOR 'EMPHASIS'!

“WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU EVER INVENT A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE FOR EVERYONE IN AN ENTIRE REALM WITH THE INTENT OF BEING MISUNDERSTOOD 90% OF THE DAMNED TIME?!

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU HUMANS?!”

Weiss stared up at her, stunned.

“Whew!” Ruby sucked in a deep breath. “Look, I'm sorry, but I had to get that out of my system!

“Anyway… Weiss, you're going to find something you can do to make yourself useful, and even if it's probably going to be just me and Penny, we're going to help you find it. We'll put you through a training regime, teach you Actaeon and all the other stuff you'll need to know, help you develop a skill than you can use to make something out of your life!

“There's a saying in Actaeon—something about every animal, from the smallest bacteria to the biggest monsters in the Timeless Depths being here in Avalon for a reason, all of them with a purpose in life, and because we Fae are animals too, that means we have those too!

“Maybe it won't be as obvious and instinctive as sheep existing to eat grass and get eaten by thunder wolves, who keep their population in check so they don't eat all the grass and everyone dies of starvation…

“… But you're not going to be useless forever, Weiss.

“Maybe now, yeah, you can't do anything right, but way back when, the Valley was just a big patch of wet dirt and swampland that happened to get shade from the sun because of the Twin Peaks, and retained a lot of the water from the Flood.

“But now look at it, after we Fae moved in and put in the work to try and make it better...”

Ding.

Weiss could see the light bulb go off in Ruby's head.

“… And I just got a great idea!”

“It's not going to involve faking my own death again, is it...?” Weiss asked warily.

“Nope!” Ruby replied, beaming. “Go to sleep, Weiss—you're going to need it!” she said as she hurried on out, stopping only to grab her dinner.

Weiss sat up. “Ruby, wait--!”

She was already out the door.

Weiss sighed, before she laid back down, and decided to just do as she was told and get some shut-eye.

Whatever it was Ruby had planned this time, it could wait till morning.

In the living room, Qrow and Blake were still rewatching the footage of Weiss' ill-fated fight, drinks laid to the side after one too many choking and spitting incidents.

<Uncle Qrow!> Ruby said as she zoomed up right to the back of the couch.

Qrow turned around. <Yeah, Ru--?> he dodged and avoided being accidentally gored with her horns.

Blake noticed, and paused the video.

<Sorry!> Ruby cried. <Do we still have dad's old tools?>

<Uh, yeah, they're in the shed, still on the old hooks on the wall—why do you ask?>

<Because, I've got a great idea to help Taiyang stay here!> Summer replied.

Qrow blinked, shook his head, and noticed Ruby frowning at him.

<A flash again...?> she asked.

<Yeah, don't worry about it,> Qrow replied.

Ruby sighed. <You should really go get your chronicle fixed, Uncle Qrow.>

<Not until that doesn't come with a mind wipe...> Qrow grumbled as he turned back to the HV. <Go get Penny to help you, I've stuffed a LOT of crap in there over the years, and I don't know what might have nested there since the last time I opened that door.>

<Will do, Uncle Qrow!> Ruby said, before she zoomed off once more.

<What was that all about?> Blake asked.

Qrow shrugged. <Who knows? Now unpause that holo, we're almost to the best part!>