#they put that embargo in for no reason i fear

[adimouze]

Daniel’s literally shooting Las Vegas promo and you’re telling me this is his last race like okay babes sure go to bed or something

[sequinsmile-x]

Physical Touch

He usually loved when his wife touched him, but it was slowly driving him crazy.

Part of the Love Languages series

-x-

Hi friends!

Well...I should have expected that the smut fic would win the poll by a landslide and here we are haha

I really hope you enjoy this <3 it's soft, smutty and full of Aaron just...pining for his wife. What more could you want on a Thursday evening?

Please let me know what you think <3

-x-

Words: 3k

Warnings: Smut, 18+

Read over on Ao3, or below the cut

He’d known she was tactile long before they got together. 

Aaron had watched her for years, always ready to place a comforting hand on someone’s shoulder or pull them into a hug. More than once he’d found himself wishing she’d do the same for him, the embargo they’d seemingly placed on physical contact between them a two-way thing, something they both upheld, as if they knew it was a line they could not cross. 

He’d held her hand once before they became them. It was when she was in hospital, before she was stable enough to be moved to Bethesda. She’d still mostly been out of it, pain and medication rolling through her in a way he was also familiar with. He’d held her hand, squeezing it tightly as he wore the suit he’d worn to her funeral, a bitter taste on his tongue as he apologised to her. She’d told him since that she thought she’d dreamt it, that she’d pulled him out of her imagination, the warmth of his hand around hers something she’d made up in some strange attempt to self-soothe. 

He’d always known she was tactile, but being in a relationship with her was a whole other level he hadn’t been anticipating. She touched him all the time, ranging from subtle moments, like her fingers trailing over his when she passed him a coffee or a case file, or squeezing his knee under the table when they were at Dave’s for dinner, to more obvious moments. She was a snuggler, something he would never have put money on before their first date. She would wrap herself around him like a vine whenever they were alone, her arm linked through his and her head on his shoulder as they sat on the couch, or she could lay half on top of him in bed, her hand sneaking under his t-shirt as she sought his warmth from the source, falling asleep to the comfort of his heartbeat. 

He loved it. He loved that his wife expressed her love that way, that she’d push his hair out of his face as she told him he needed a haircut, that she also loved their children in the same way. It’s one of the reasons he knew Jack and Violet always sought her out for comfort, her embrace was his place of safety too, something so calming about something as simple as her cheek against his shoulder that he wondered how he'd ever lived without it. 

He usually loved it, but it was slowly driving him crazy. 

He’d dislocated his shoulder in a takedown of an unsub two months ago. The injury had torn his rotator cuff and he’d needed surgery, a simple relocation of his shoulder joint not enough. He could still remember the fear in Emily’s eyes when he’d come round from surgery, how she was barely holding herself together, her grip on his wedding ring that he’d had to take off so tight the imprint lasted for hours. His shoulder had been immobilised with strict instructions on how to make sure he healed properly, and the only time his wife ever paid attention to medical advice to the letter was when it was for him or one of the kids, which had led to one, unfortunate, side effect. 

Aaron hadn’t had sex with his wife in two months. 

He missed her. She was right by his side, but he missed her. Missed the intimacy that had always been an important part of their relationship. Every tiny thing about her was getting to him the longer they went without having sex. Her beauty was bordering on obscene, as it always had, and his breath would catch in his chest whenever he looked at her, or if she walked by and he caught a sniff of her perfume, the scent he knew was simply her always following just afterwards. Even watching her with Jack and Violet, watching how good a mother she was filled his gut with want, with the desire to have more children with her as soon as possible. 

The touching was, however, by far the worst. Every time she touched him he felt his skin fizz, sparks set off just by the feel of her skin against his, and he was close to losing his mind. 

He hears a knock on his office door and he looks up, a smile immediately breaking out across his face when he sees Emily standing in the doorway, her arms crossed as she casually leans against the door frame. 

“Hey honey,” she says, stepping into the office, “Are you ready to go? We, and by we I mean you, promised Vi we’d pick up some dessert on the way home.” 

He chuckles as he thinks about his 2, almost 3, year old daughter. She was a mini Emily through and through, right down to the big dark brown eyes he couldn’t say no to. He stands up and starts to put some paperwork in his briefcase, and he raises his eyebrow at his wife as he looks up at her. 

“You say that like you can say no to her,” he quips, stepping out from behind his desk and walking over to her, quickly stamping his lips against hers.

She hums and kisses him again, her hand hooking around the back of his head, making him shiver as she scratches lightly at his scalp, “We both know I’m the bad cop at home, baby,” she says, kissing him once more before she pulls back, “One of us has to be.” 

He laughs, the sound dying in his throat when she reaches out and places her hand on his chest, rubbing gently at the lapel on his jacket. He can feel her touch through his clothes, her skin somehow burning him through his jacket and his shirt, and he tenses before he can control it. Emily frowns at him, her eyebrows pinching together as she pulls back. 

“You had some lint on you,” she explains, pressing her lips together as she looks him up and down, her eyes slightly narrowed as she tries to figure out what's wrong, “Aaron are you okay? Is your shoulder bothering you?” 

It’s not a lie, not really, because his shoulder was sore. A now familiar ache that got worse throughout the day, radiating outwards from the new scar he bore. It was easier than explaining to her how he was feeling, less embarrassing than admitting he wanted her so much he was thinking about pushing everything off his desk right here and now. 

There were still two weeks until the doctor’s initial advice would run out, and he knew it was going to be the longest two weeks of his life. 

“Yeah,” he says, smiling softly at her, rolling his shoulder slightly, “It just aches a bit.” 

She hums and places her hand on it, her concern deepening when he tenses again, “How about when the monsters are in bed I give you a massage?” 

He falters for a moment, sure that would be his undoing, but instead, he nods and decides to deflect as he places his hand on her lower back and guides her out of his office. 

“Why do you get to call them monsters, but I don’t?” He asks, knowing exactly what her answer is going to be. 

She scoffs playfully and looks up at him, her eyes narrowed, “Because one of them came out of me.” 

___

By the time they get the kids to bed, he thinks she’s forgotten. The evening had passed them by with homework, bath time, and bedtime stories, a wonderfully normal evening they both once thought they’d never get. 

He walks into their bedroom to find her kneeling on the bed, wearing one of his t-shirts and a tiny pair of shorts sticking out from underneath, with a bottle of lotion in hand.

She smiles at him, popping open the lid on the lotion as she beckons him over, “Come on, honey,” she says, “I promised you a massage.” She sees the slight hesitation before he walks over, and she hides a smirk by clearing her throat. He sits on the edge of the bed and she rolls her eyes, placing the lotion on the bed before she runs her hands over his shoulders, her fingers meeting at his neck as she starts to undo his shirt buttons, “This works better if you don’t wear your shirt.” 

He nods and helps her get his shirt off, grateful that he’d slipped his tie off when he got home earlier, and he lets the shirt fall to the ground. She puts some of the lotion into her hands and rubs them together before she touches him, warming her palms and the lotion at the same time. 

It’s only when she starts spreading it on his skin, her touch firm but gentle as she pushes her thumbs into his bad shoulder, that he realises she’s using her lotion. One that had a slight spice to it, a scent of cinnamon that followed her everywhere that was now permeating into his skin. He groans, his teeth clenched as he breathes her in, widening his legs as his pants get tighter. 

She frowns, ready to pull away just in case she is hurting him, but then she looks over his shoulder, her lips pressed together as her cheeks flush when she sees the tenting of his pants. She makes a snap decision, wiping her palms on her shirt to get rid of the excess lotion before she climbs out from behind him. 

“What are you doing?” He asks, his eyebrow raised as she kneels on the floor in front of him, her hands already on his belt, undoing it quickly. 

“Come on, Aaron,” she says, unbuttoning his pants and moving them and his boxers just far enough to free him, “It hasn’t been that long,” she says, smiling in a way that seemed far too innocent for where her hand was, “I’ve seen how you’ve been looking at me,” she says, pumping him up and down, “Let me help.” 

He nods, not needing any convincing, and his eyes drift shut as she leans forward and takes him in her mouth. He wraps his fists around the sheets of the bed so tightly he thinks they might rip. 

“Fuck, Em. You’re so good at that,” he says, unable to stop himself from thrusting into her throat, the pressure that had been building him in for weeks threatening to blow, “So fucking good.” 

She leans forward until her nose briefly presses against his pubic bone before she pulls back, sucking in a breath before she moves in again, bobbing her head up and down, his chorus of groans her reward. She has to press her thighs together for some friction, so turned on by seeing and hearing him like this that she briefly forgets why it had been so long since they’d done this in the first place. She can feel him start to lose control, his thrusts getting messier, but he stops her, his hand on her shoulder as he encourages her backwards, a desperate look in his eyes. 

She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, getting rid of the spit that had connected her lip to the tip of him and she tilts her head, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he says, pushing his hands through her hair that he’d clearly messed up, unaware that he’d even grasped it, “I just want to be with you.”

She smiles devilishly, her tongue pressed into her cheek, chasing the taste of him from it, “You are with me.” 

He rolls his eyes at her. He’d missed this too, the ease that came with being with her like this, the familiarity to it. It could be rough, passionate. Tearing each other’s clothes off. Or it could be soft. Full of love and hands pressed together as they showed each other how much they loved each other. 

“You know what I mean, sweetheart,” he says, and she smiles and nods, standing up from where she’d been kneeling. She pulls his pants off the rest of the way and then stands up, ready to straddle him, her desire making her dizzy. It’s only when she leans in to kiss him, her gaze briefly lingering on the new scar on his shoulder, and everything comes back into sharp focus.

“Wait,” she says breathlessly, pulling away from him, “We shouldn’t do this, your doctor-”

“Sweetheart,” he cuts her off, barely recognising his own voice because of how thick it is with desire, rough and gravelly as he stares at her, “You started this.” 

She scoffs, “I started this? You’re the one who got an erection when I just barely touched your shoulder.” 

In any other circumstance, he’s sure he’d laugh. It was so like her to try and start an argument in the middle of sex it made him fall in love with her even more, a feat that always seemed impossible until it happened. He pulls her closer, grateful not for the first time this evening that it wasn’t his dominant shoulder that had been injured, “Because you’re so fucking gorgeous I couldn’t take it anymore.” 

She swallows thickly and looks him up and down, desire sparking under her skin. It had been a long two months for her too, her frustration at not being able to have him so intense she’d yelled at Derek twice in the last week alone when he hadn’t deserved it. 

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she admits, her voice cracking slightly.  He smiles softly, the pent-up, overwhelming, need for her fading for a moment as he reaches out and cups her cheek, tucking some of her unruly hair behind her ear.

“You never could.” 

She thinks about it for a moment before she nods leaning forward to stamp her lips against his before she briefly gets off the bed, dropping her shorts to the ground, “Lean up against the headboard.” 

He does as he’s told, and she pulls a pillow from her side of the bed and slots it between his bad shoulder and the headboard, smiling softly when he stamps a grateful kiss against her lips. She sits on his lap, groaning as she notches over him, a noise he returns when he feels just how wet she is. 

“Fuck, Em,” he says, his hands on her hips as she pulls her t-shirt off, “I’ve barely even touched you.” 

“Yeah, well” she breathes out, rocking her hips over him, “You’re not the only one who’s been missing this,” she says as she wraps her hand around him to guide him into her. 

They both groan as she sinks onto him, the familiar stretch making them both breathless for a moment. 

“Oh fuck,” she says, her eyes rolling back as her head falls backwards for a moment, her hands on his thighs as she clenches around him, the breath stolen from her lungs as she adjusts to him, “God you feel so good.” 

“You do too, sweetheart,” he grunts out, encouraging her closer, tugging at her until they are chest to chest, bare skin pressed against each other as he rests his forehead against hers, “You feel so fucking good.” 

She cups his cheeks, her hands on either side of his face as she keeps her forehead against his and starts to rock her hips against his, a sound she could only call a relieved chuckle escaping her as he meets her thrust for thrust. 

They fall into a familiar rhythm, a sense of desperation woven through it, their eyes locked together as they both move, lost in the feel of each other. Eventually, he feels her hips start to stutter, and her thighs tremble around him. He reaches between them with his good hand and rubs circles on her clit, smiling as she mewls at him, the sound close to obscene as she buries her face in his neck, just about able to remember their children were sleeping down the hall.

“That’s it, sweetheart,” he says, increasing the pressure on her clit, feeling his own orgasm within reach, “Come for me. Let me feel it.” 

She clenches her teeth tightly as she comes, stopping herself from screaming out as her hips buck against him. A spark goes off in her belly and spreads through her entire body, every nerve ending on fire as it washes over her as she moans his name. He isn’t far behind her, the way she clenches around him as she comes the final push he needs, and he buries his face in the top of her hair, her name lost in the dark locks stuck to her with sweat. 

They fall into silence, just the sound of their heavy breathing surrounding them. She’s the first to pull back, smiling lazily at him as she kisses him quickly before she pulls back to look at him, checking him over as if she’s looking for damage. She looks at the scar, placing her hand over it as she still tries to catch her breath, “I hope we didn’t make it worse.” 

“It’s fine, baby,” he says, kissing her temple and then her cheek, encouraging her to turn her head so he can capture her lips in a kiss, “Besides, since when were you such a stickler for doctor’s orders?” 

She playfully narrows her eyes at him but doesn’t pull back, not wanting to put any space between them yet, “I don’t know what you mean.” 

“Right,” he says jokingly, stamping a kiss against her lower lip, stuck out in a pout she’d always deny, “So it wasn’t you who I caught trying to drive to the store less than two weeks after she had a c-section? My mistake.” 

She blows out a breath and shakes her head at him, her cheeks somehow flushing even though the blush from her orgasm had never gone away, “That was totally different.” 

He chuckles and kisses her, properly this time, and he smiles as he pulls back, “Sure, sweetheart. Whatever you say.” 

-x-

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[ultravioletqueen]

Hey...does anyone remember iole?

She was one of the wives of Heracles in Greek mythology, she was a beautiful princess daughter of King Eurytus of Oechalia, who had offered his daughter's hand in marriage, however he had rejected Heracles as his daughter's husband due to what had happened to Megara and his children, what did Heracles do? Simple, HE LOATED HER CITY, KILLED HER FAMILY AND TOOK IOLE AWAY BY FORCE, their love story was not an enjoyable one for Iole.

It doesn't help at all to see that in the artistic representations of iole she never looks happy and even looks a little scared, she was in a highly dangerous situation with a man who ripped her away from her family and took her as a trophy, and He did not settle with her and in that same period of time he began to court Deyanira😒

Now why am I talking about this character that almost no one remembers? Because I think it would have a lot of potential for Hades, specifically the second part where we meet Heracles personally.

We know that Heracles, being favored by the gods, can leave the underworld, and I imagine that at this moment there could be two paths for Iole:

1) she is alive and trying to rebuild her life: in mythology she left home with the eldest son of Heracles but I prefer to think that here she would stay single or with another man, this is the possibility that most favors Iole.

2) she is dead and with her family in the underworld: here comes the guilt that Heracles could feel upon seeing her again, she would be afraid of him and her family would have contempt for him, this is my favorite since it puts bad actions on the table of Heracles and shows the consequences it had on third parties.

I imagine that in both cases, as a sign of solidarity, Heracles would try to avoid running into Iole because 1) he recognizes the fear she must have of him and 2) he knows that he doesn't deserve to be near her after everything he put her through

Something else that I found interesting about Iole is that at no time did Deyanira try to get rid of Iole, she being the reason why Heracles stopped paying attention to her, knowing what jealous wives are like in Greek mythology, I was surprised not to find a story where Deyanira takes revenge on Iole or treats her badly.

My vision is that Deyanira is a girls girl and had no resentment towards Iole because she saw how sad she looked being with the murderer of her family, probably thanks to this she thought that if she made Heracles only love her she would leave Iole in peace or I would let her go at best.

The thing that make me believe this is the myth where iole makes heracles wear women clothes and she wears the clothes of the hero, heracles only wanted to flaunt his great deeds but deyanira told him to not keep talking and accept his place(i know that the most popular version is that the queen onfale did that but i like this one too bc iole in this version avenges her father's death)

What if we made iole and deyanira kiss?

(Español)

Oigan...¿alguien se acuerda de iole?

Ella fue una de las esposas de heracles en la mitología griega, ella era una princesa hermosa hija del rey eurytus de oechalia, quien había ofrecido la mano de su hija en matrimonio, sin embargo había rechazado a heracles como esposo de su hija debido a lo que había ocurrido con megara y sus hijos, ¿que hizo heracles? Simple, SAQUEO SU CIUDAD, MATO A SU FAMILIA Y SE LLEVO A IOLE POR LA FUERZA, su historia de amor no fue una disfrutable para iole.

No ayuda en nada ver que en las representaciones artísticas de iole ella nunca se le ve feliz e incluso se le ve algo asustada, ella estaba en una situación altamente peligrosa con un hombre que la arranco de su familia y la tomó como un trofeo, y no se comformo con ella y en ese mismo intervalo de tiempo empezó a cortejar a deyanira😒

Ahora ¿porque hablo de este personaje que casi nadie recuerda? Porque pienso que tendría mucho potencial para hades, en específico la segunda parte donde conocemos personalmente a heracles.

Sabemos que heracles al ser favorecido por los dioses puede dejar el inframundo, y me imagino que para este momento podría haber dos caminos para iole:

1)ella está viva y tratando de rehacer su vida:en la mitología ella de casa con el hijo mayor de heracles pero prefiero pensar que aquí se quedaría soltera o con otro hombre, esta es la posibilidad que más favorece a iole.

2)ella está muerta y con su familia en el inframundo: aquí entra la culpa que heracles podria sentir al volver a verla, ella le tendría miedo y su familia le tendría desprecio, esta es mi favorita ya que pone sobre la mesa las malas acciones de heracles y muestra las consecuencias que tuvo sobre terceros.

Me imagino que en ambos casos como muestra de solidaridad heracles trataria de evitar toparse con iole porque 1)reconoce el miedo que le debe tener y 2) sabe que no merece estar cerca de ella después de todo lo que le hizo pasar.

Algo más que me pareció interesante acerca de iole es que en ningún momento deyanira trato de deshacerse de iole siendo ella la razón por la que heracles le dejo de dar atención, conociendo como son las esposas celosas en la mitología griega me sorprendió no encontrar una historia donde deyanira toma venganza en iole o la trate mal.

Mi visión es que deyanira sea una girls girl y no tuviera resentimiento hacia iole porque veía lo triste que se veía al estar junto al asesino de su familia, probablemente gracias a esto pensaba que si hacía que heracles solo la amara a ella dejaría a iole en paz o la dejaría ir en el mejor de los casos.

Lo que me hace creer esto es el mito donde iole hace que heracles use ropa de mujer y ella usa la ropa del héroe, heracles solo quería alardear de sus grandes hazañas pero deyanira le dijo que no siguiera hablando y aceptara su lugar(lo sé, la versión más popular es que la reina onfale hizo eso pero esta también me gusta porque iole en esta versión venga la muerte de su padre)

¿Que tal si hacemos que ellas se besen?

Me rn at the thought of deyanira x iole/yo pensando en deyanira x iole

[ladysophiebeckett]

If Michel had never shown up at Ecomoda,how do you think Armando and Betty would have reconciled? Tbh I find it hard to imagine that she would give him another chance while still in Ecomoda and with Marcela around. We know that Marcela and Margarita only resorted to telling Betty the truth to keep Armando from leaving, but they would have probably never done so without that threat looming over them. At this point she also believes he is after Alejandra, turns out his over the top flirting drove her even further away from him. Would the Cuartel tell her that he didn’t do anything with her and that she was gone already without Michel’s presence? With Ecomoda out of debt and Betty refusing to remain the president, would Armando be given another chance by the board committee? I think that in this situation the only way I can see them working out is with Betty out of Ecomoda because it would give them the opportunity to rekindle their romance in a different setting away from the toxicity of the workplace and his family and Marcela (who still had hopes of getting back together with Armando), but curious to know how you think it would have played out.

I'm answering this but I fear I am not answering this, perhaps the way it was expected of me. And I wanna apologize to you, anon, in advance. So. Beware of that.

Before I continue, I want to state that i am using this as an excuse to talk about why canon events are needed and why fics that undo Important Canon Actions fall flat.

Sometimes we as viewers will ask ourselves 'why didnt X character just do (rational action)?' And its because the story needs irrational action\irrational thinking that actually moves the plot forward. We're not looking to solve the plot quickly because that isn't entertaining.

You go into any tiktok comment section that's ysblf related and you will almost immediately see someone call Betty the villain because she chose to have an affair with Armando. But if she doesn't decide to do that, then there's no story. If Betty wasn't naive, if she wasn't so loyal, if she had a reason to be suspicious of Armando--she would quickly put together that he was trying to start an affair with her right after the embargo happened. And if it played out like that, then there would be no room for Betty to grow as a person. If Betty doesn't make this decision then she doesn't change and neither does Armando.

Another example, one that I see in fics a lot is the Cartagena Arc where Armando doesn't get back together with Marcela. Viewers hate that and I get it. So they have him not do it, but they don't take into account why he needs to do that. Armando is a mess and he hasn't put himself together yet, so he goes back to what's easy and familiar. He can't not go back to Marcela just because he's in love with another woman. He needs to end his relationship with Marcela for himself. And that why those kinds of fics fail. Because they're trying to skip a hundred steps of character development.

Now that I've established that, let's get into it:

You asked:

If Michel had never shown up at Ecomoda,how do you think Armando and Betty would have reconciled? Tbh I find it hard to imagine that she would give him another chance while still in Ecomoda and with Marcela around.

I am first and foremost a romantic and I have to believe that they get together no matter what. But, we're exploring the removal of plot points that push characters into doing things....

We know from canon, before Armando knows of the significance of Michel, that he has a conversation with Mario about getting Betty back. He himself says that he knows it's going to take a long time, and a lot of patience, he knows she's still hurt but that he's going to take the time to show her that he's changed.

Armando here is trying to make a rational choice. He's trying to be normal. He's attempting to give Betty the space she's asked for multiple times.

Again, Michel is not arriving in this situation.

Now we have Betty, who's being tortured by the cuartel, who will not get off her ass about what Armando could be doing and with who. On top of that, she's confused about Armando's actions towards her. His behavior towards her at her lanzamiento disarms her. She wants very badly to believe that his affection is real but she doesn't trust it.

The reason the cuartel is so damn annoying in the last ten episodes or so, is because they need to motivate Betty's desire to leave. Michel showing up with a job offer (plus romantic interest) is Betty's getaway car. If we eliminate Michel's appearance, we are left with an annoyed, unhappy and dissatisfied Betty who's being told by said cuartel--specifically Mariana--that she needs to make a decision. But she's still under the impression that Armando is moving on with his life.

If Michel doesn't show up, Betty and Armando are in limbo. They won't do anything. He's going to leave her alone and she's going stew unhappily in her office. Marcela is still going to be there and the promise Betty made to her will still be in motion. Even if was only Betty using Marcela to keep Armando away from her. (Personally I think that promise is void if Armando dumped her. But I digress.)

All three of them are stuck in Ecomoda Limbo\Hell.

We know that Marcela and Margarita only resorted to telling Betty the truth to keep Armando from leaving, but they would have probably never done so without that threat looming over them.

Yeah, this wouldn't happen at all unless Armando had the motivation to leave. However---I believe in the cuartel. The cuartel saw him show up everyday looking like shit. They don't mention it to Betty when she comes back bc it wasn't a priority. But if they see Betty and Armando in some kind limbo-slow burn hell where Betty is left indecisive....Let's table this for a second, bc I wanna talk about this:

At this point she also believes he is after Alejandra, turns out his over the top flirting drove her even further away from him.

Yes, she does. But he wasn't 'over the top flirting' with her. All he really did (which is the same thing that Betty did with Michel) was walk around Ecomoda with Alejandra. He was seen with her, yes, but he was truly just being friendly and giving her a tour. Was she interested in something more? Yes (So was Michel). Could he have started something with her? Yes (So could Betty with Michel). Does he? (No). Because he's in love with Betty. The Alejandra situation is what motivates Armando to choose Betty. He could try and move on with a clean slate with someone else that doesn't know him or what he did, but he can't and he doesn't want to.

But unfortunately, Betty doesn't know this and it doesn't matter because all she needed was to see them together to make her own hurtful conclusions.

Would the Cuartel tell her that he didn’t do anything with her and that she was gone already without Michel’s presence?

Okay, going back to the cuartel---YES, they would. I believe this in my heart. If they see Betty and Armando in Limbo-Slow Burn Hell and it's been going on for weeks?? Yes, they would tell her the Alejandra thing never happened. Betty wouldn't care, bc she'll say 'if its not her, it'll be someone else'. I think that eventually one of them would mention what Ecomoda was like when she was away but this hinges on someone making a mention of Armando and that would have to motivate Betty's curiosity to know.

Remember that outside the bar when Armando seeks her out, he says 'and all the harm I did to myself'. So Betty would have to be motivated to remember that and wonder it meant. But yes, I think the cuartel would use this information it would just take them awhile.

(Nunca se ponen las pilas a tiempo)

With Ecomoda out of debt and Betty refusing to remain the president, would Armando be given another chance by the board committee?

If Michel never arrived, and Betty and Armando are in Limbo-Slow Burn Hell AND they manage to get Ecomoda out of debt---Armando would still not want the presidency back. Armando's stays on to help Ecomoda bc not only was it his fault, but he couldn't let it all fall on Betty. He even says he had stayed to regain some honor and to support Betty during her presidency. Michel's absence doesn't hinge on that.

Now would the board give him another chance? No. Marcela would be advocating for him and he would refuse it.

If Betty refused it, Armando would ask her to stay. He would talk to her like he talked to her the night of her lanzamiento. And this is where I'm a romantic and can't picture them not ending up together. I think that in this Limbo-Slow Burn Hell scenario, Armando would still offer to leave so that she could stay. If he tried his hardest to show her that he's changed and it still wasn't enough, he would still do what he did in canon except he wouldn't be so dramatic about it.

I think that in this situation the only way I can see them working out is with Betty out of Ecomoda because it would give them the opportunity to rekindle their romance in a different setting away from the toxicity of the workplace and his family and Marcela

Ecomoda is so important. It's like their child.

(They have 3 kids, Ecomoda, the Furby, and Camila).

Okay, jokes aside. Ecomoda is where they fell in love. It's where they met. It's where some of the best and worst things happened to them. It's what keeps them together by force when Betty comes back from Cartagena. Ecomoda is what blurs the lines between them. It's so fundamental to the origins of their romance. I can't see them, in this non Michel arrival scenario, being able to rekindle their relationship without it. If they fell in love during a terrible time for Ecomoda, they can rekindle Limbo-Slow Burn style while getting Ecomoda out of debt.

Marcela being there is not a deterrent because Armando broke up with her and she wouldn't be able to manipulate him. (A visible sign to Betty that he has changed). Yeah, she would beg him to stay as president if Betty were to leave once the company was out of debt and once again he would be like 'Girl, no. It's over.'

If that would be motivation enough for Marcela to tell Betty supporting evidence about his bar time suicide attempts, that's up in the air. We need Margarita's interference for that to happen and I dont think that exists in this Limbo-Slow Burn scenario. I think Betty would have listen to what the curatel saw day to day and then think about what Armando said to her and be brave enough to make a decision on her own. To ask Armando about it and trust that he's telling her the truth.

For Betty it would be a leap of faith.

Unfortunately, in this this Michel-less scenario the diary scene doesn't exist bc Armando doesn't have the motivation to go into her office and look for the photo of them. So there is no him finding out that Betty was in love with him way before the plan. Also, there is no scene where Armando and Mario have their break up friendship fight.

We take Michel's arrival out and the last 9 (long form) episodes fall apart. The plot needs him to motivate certain actions to fall into place. Betty needs a getaway car and Armando needs the motivation to run after her.

So yes, I believe they can still rekindle their relationship (BECAUSE I AM A ROMANTIC) but it would take longer because of inaction.

Again, I apologize if I didn't answer this the way you wanted me to. But this is what came out.

[compacflt]

hey! seeing your post about iceman and hamilton reminded me of the 1812 au that you had posted about previously - do you mind sharing any of your thoughts on that, specifically Ice & Mav's reactions to the politics of war back then, before the US military and Navy were such huge institutions (in today's standards)? EDTS Ice & Mav are decidedly anti-war (more Ice than Mav I think), but would that same sentiment be true for them back then & how would Ice feel about war hawks like Calhoun & Clay? there's obviously a pretty big role that war plays in forming national identity, especially in early US history, and with external forces like impressment & embargoes & all of the international relations nightmares that came w/ early state building, I'm really interested in how that may have an impact on how Ice and Mav view military service and duty. I would love to read this fic if you're still planning on writing it (really I love to read everything that you write tbh) - also hope you are doing well!! 😊😊

hiya!! i hope you are also doing well!! I am not sure if im ever going to post the 1812 au to be honest—i would really love to but i think it would be so long it would have to be my first priority for a few months, and I’m not sure when I’d have time to do that. but i have it all planned out at least, so maybe we can compare notes.

So here are my notes.

IF i were to complete my 1812 AU… It would not be about Ice at all. Which is how I’d be able to stomach writing about Ice’s death. AND the characters would be very very different from the characters i wrote about in EDTS (i.e. confessed their love for each other way back in the 1770s). And what I want to tackle in this AU is exactly what your ask is about—duty to your fledgling country! Im interested in a version of TGM maverick who had to be away from the love of his life, on his deathbed, to serve the national interests of his country. *questionable* national interests, in TGM’s case, or *forgettable* national interests in the War of 1812’s case. The War of 1812 is sort of America’s forgotten war—its causes were nebulous & hard to rally around/understand today, and there were no real heroes until the end, unless if you count Andrew Jackson as a hero (i really try not to). So this would be a direct attack on the heroism we are presented with in TGM: what is mavericks mission really accomplishing in the grand scheme of things? Using the 1812 war, itself forgotten and largely irrelevant, as a meta backdrop for that question of heroism.

So—this version of Ice & Mav are: actual factual war heroes. Revolutionary war heroes who were genuinely educated & truly believed in the American experiment of representation & freedom from tyranny. Fighting the British 36 years apart. (Something i really really like & will take advantage of… the 36 years between 1776 and 1812 exactly equaling the 36 years between 1986 and 2022… it was meant to be.) They’ve spent their whole lives together in the romantic sense, in a world where they couldn’t live openly together but at a time when sexuality was also understood completely differently. But they have to be apart when Ice is dying because Maverick has been handed a mission, a duty, by the USG that he has to take care of. (Part of the reason I’m stalling on this project is because I don’t really know what that mission would be… something something naval warfare, something something Captain of the “USS Dagger…” but im a better romance writer than an action writer… idk how to come up with those plots at all. And I’m not super well-versed in EARLY naval warfare [I prefer wwii navy stuff] so idk how ships like sailed clippers & schooners etc actually work. That’s a completely different wheelhouse for me & is integral to a story like this, and fundamentally im kind of a lazy person who doesn’t put a lot of effort into research if I don’t have to)

the AU would be written in two parts—the warm summer of youth vs cold winter of old age. Confronting my own fear as an author of getting old & dying, tbh. What does it mean to be a hero and die of old age? Shouldn’t you want to die WHILE being a hero? Part one: 1776-1782 is… ice & maverick falling in love and dealing with goose’s death together and cementing their hero status in American naval history (like they do in the original top gun). Then part 2; 1812/1813… ice is retired from being the first USN commodore/secretary, but he’s dying and maverick has to choose between being with his de facto husband in his last days VERSUS being out at sea, serving his country, but for a war that he (a bit metaphysically, to serve my metaphorical aims) knows will be forgotten. He can be a hero or he can be there for the love of his life but he can’t do both. Duty & sacrifice. Ice persuades him it’s time to let go, maverick goes out to sea, and then ice dies while he’s at sea. & the 1812 war was kind of forgotten, and their love will never be known by history because they were two men, so what was that sacrifice really for? Shouldn’t he have been home with ice?

Which leads me to: I am also slightly interested in an interpretation of the TGM mission as a possible su*cide attempt on mav’s part, post-ice’s death. Trying to die a hero. So, there’s that. That would be in it as well.

Some issues: that’s pretty simple & i submitted a 4k short story with this exact premise (1776 war hero has to choose between one last shot at heroism in 1812 vs staying with his male lover at the end of his life) to one of my writing workshops last semester and they loved it. But, by god, does it get 10x more complicated once you add Bradley to the mix. It’s ALWAYS made it more complicated & it’s why I’ve had so much pain trying to edit EDTS over the last 8 months (as you know). Because LETS PLEASE BE REAL TGM did NOT give me much to go on there. Like the emotional turn that is I think SUPPOSED to happen in the scene where ice and mav talk in TGM—I don’t understand it & I think that scene was only written for fanservice because it serves no purpose in the story and I’m not sure what emotion we’re supposed to take away from it. Maverick says “please send me ice, don’t ask me to send someone else to die,” (is he asking ice’s permission??) and ice DOESNT actually answer that request, doesn’t even acknowledge it; he says, in a COMPLETE AND UTTER NON SEQUITUR, “It’s time to let go.” Maverick says, “yeah I know,” so what does that actually mean? Who is he letting go??? Bradley??? Goose??? ice himself??? Is ice giving mav permission to go or not???? It’s so vague it means absolutely nothing, and i have no idea what ice’s emotional/story purpose in TGM is except to bail mav out of sticky situations and nostalgia purposes, and don’t even get me STARTED on how out-of-character it was for MAVERICK (guy who hates having his papers pulled from the Academy) to pull Bradley’s papers from the Academy in TGM, both of which are why ive struggled so much trying to fit Ice into the mav/Bradley narrative of betrayal & loss etc. And in a two-shot piece where all those years in between are kind of skipped over… idk. I feel like I would sort of have to sacrifice the Bradley storyline for the overarching icemav duty-sacrifice-heroism theme. With WWGATTAI, i was KIND of able to do both, but only after MULTIPLE rounds of very very intense editing & like 50k words of rewrites and even then it’s kind of awkward so… idk. For a quick two-shot like this I’d have to pick. I don’t have the energy to write another 50-100k reinterpreting that story all over again lol

So to answer your question it would be way less about the actual weird politics of the 1812 war and more about providing a place for me to get into mav’s emotions dealing with ice’s death and the historical implications of a mission like that, kind of glossed over in the movie … though this ice & mav are veterans of the XYZ affair / battles with the Tripoli pirates, so that probably affects how they see things… but mostly, duty is still duty & orders are still orders, but sometimes following orders means sacrificing what little time left you have with your family… following the TGM timeline where ice only has about 2 weeks left to live from Mach 9.

So, pros of the 1812 au: lots of the purple prose poetic writing i shamefully really like. Icemav open and honest with each other from the very start ❤️. Dealing with the themes and emotional consequences of ice’s death finally. Focusing only on mav instead of only on ice. Penny & sarah in a lesbian relationship. Some discussion of the cyclical nature of queer history (i.e. we’ve always been here making history and we always will be). Mav finding reasons to live after ice is gone.

Cons of the 1812 au and why I’m hesitant to really get invested in writing it: don’t know much about pre-diesel naval warfare so can’t come up with the technical action elements of the plot & too lazy to do that much research. I have a sailing license, so I know like… knots and rigging and mainsail vs jib/genoa/spinnaker and sloop vs schooner etc, but i do NOT know anything about THAT kind of sailing. Warship sailing, tactics, “dogfighting” equivalents, etc. Also: would probably have to sacrifice the whole “getting Bradley kicked out of the academy-equivalent” storyline, just to make the story less complicated. Not sure how much of the original ice and maverick the story would retain as a result. Also: i know wayyy more about the early national period (1776-1800) than anything after about 1808, but even then the last time i was really into this period of history was my freshman year of high school, so i can’t necessarily claim to know what im talking about when it comes to the intricacies of the early American state (as i think is pretty obvious here). Also too lazy to do that much research.

But, here are some notes/snippets etc if you would like. they’re solidly 6 months old now & unedited & largely unresearched, just throwing words on the wall in writing phase one, but whatever

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

The theme of Ironwood not caring about the people of his kingdom only further takes on a grimmer tone when you realize that what he really cared about was the STATE of Atlas, the backbone of his POWER.

All he truly cared about in the end was the power Atlas had given him to enforce his will on others. The technology to silence others. The obedience and culture of worshiping him as its dictator.

But the cruel irony is in the parallel to how Jacques' power with the SDC was ultimately stoppable once the State of Atlas turned against him and kept him from being able to do anything with the embargo, so too does Ironwood's power vanish once the people decide to abandon him.

Ironwood only views the power of Atlas in terms of the State, the big broad picture of his country. But he refuses to recognize that the only reason Atlas had that power to begin with was only because of the people who enabled and enforced its culture. The technicians who kept the place going. The geniuses like Watts and Dr. Polendina who designed the machines. The people who brought commerce and lived there maintaining it's economy. The people who put their lives at risk being soldiers and huntsmen, and those who served under him. The people of Mantle who toiled and suffered to keep their sister city alive.

But all of those things meant nothing to him, because he believed that being at the top meant that he had absolute power over them, and was willing to silence or discard anyone who dared to challenge that image. Never truly understanding how brittle and fragile his position of power really was, or how easily it could be taken from him if the people, or some people had enough of him.

And tellingly, once he lost his power, he stopped being a threat to anyone except those closest to him (figuratively and literally), because he was at the end of the day, just a man. A tiny, self-important little man who thought himself a giant, while eroding the very foundations of the monolith that gave him the power to begin with.

And once that was gone, all he could do was fall.

Of course, the State of Atlas is not entirely gone yet. It still lives with those who have survived the Fall of the Kingdom. The question remains is what they plan to do about it. Will they repeat the same mistakes and allow a new Ironwood to come into play, or will they make the choice to finally change and forge a better destiny?

All of the above. And the killer is....he never realizes it. Power is his motivation but he never admitted that to himself even at the very end. It was always something bigger, something greater, the abstract idea of Atlas....but Atlas always seemed to require what he wanted, with all of his biases and fears, rather than anything related to the people or even the state. Too often, an abstract greater purpose is just what we want but are unable to rationalize claiming for ourselves.

And yeah, there is no way they're gonna drop a bunch of Atlesians into Vacuo and expect it to all be hunky-dory. Salem might have lost the Crown as her catspaw but Vacuans hate Atlesians and barely have enough resources as is, of course they aren't gonna welcome refugees when they could barely handle extra students from Beacon and Haven, and of course the Atlesians will use that as a pretext to try and take those resources by force. I don't think she'll pull off the complete victory she plans here, because RWBY and co. are about to come in on the z-axis and tear her foundation from under her by rendering millennia of acquired knowledge obsolete, but I wouldn't be surprised if Atlas and Vacuo end up going to war and she manages to grab the Relic in the chaos.

[its-an-echo]

Yo I’m so hyped to see whatever you come up with next for your fics! I’m about to dive into the fic you did for the secret Santa and noticed it’s once again SMPEarth based. I adore how you do SMPEarth things (it’s one of my personal favorite series) and was wondering also were the sort of inspiration for your stories comes from? I’m so excited to dive into this new fic and thanks for sharing your stories with us!

ah, hello hello, raveniant!

i just wanted to mention that your comments always make me smile! it's so cool to see what parts of the story you point out, and i adore seeing you put the pieces together, so thank you!

also, i wanted to thank you for sending an ask. to me it seems a little nerve-wracking so i wanted to say thank you! i can't offer much, but i can offer a teaser for an upcoming chapter in AEaTNA, one that doesn't have a set release date yet :)

(psst this was only a recent decision so those who have sent asks already, message me and i can give you a bit <3)

:

Eyes wide, he took in the large spruce desk in the middle of the room, perfect for laying out multiple trade documents and comparing intricate details, and the towering bookshelf along the back of the room, perfect for keeping previous trade arrangements and accounts of the imported items from past years if he needed to study any particular trends. A soft white rug lay beneath his feet, covering most of the room, and perfect for when Tommy needed to pace while he thought of potential new partners. Along the left wall, a light blue chaise lounge sat, perfect for when Tommy needed a quick nap or if he worked too late in the night and didn’t want to try and traverse back to his room. A large window allowed light to stream in, perfect for if Tommy needed to ever look out if he was bored.

It wasn’t at all like the tiny dirt room he had back at Business Bay for an office, where he was forced to use crates as tables and hunch over in fear of causing the ceiling to fall in.

It was perfect.

:

okay, you opened up a massive can of worms by asking that lovely question, so i'm putting it under the cut haha

ahhhh, yes SMPEarth! a wonderful sandbox that i love to my heart's content; you are right that my Secret Santa still utilizes that sandbox as well haha, just in a different manner (i do hope you enjoy the ss! it'll be different than AEaTNA, but tommy will still be his fiery little self :), just this time the bunny name isn't just a nickname haha)

so. SMPEarth. the thing that started it all for the little blockman family that i have grown so, so fond of. i'll admit, the reasons i more use that sandbox than DSMP are two main points:

1. dsmp is so, so messy, especially in regards to sbi, what with canon and non-cannon, and all the other characters with their own personal dynamics to the sbi (i.e fundy being wilbur's son, sally the salmon, etc) it's complicated, and hard for me to work with when i really only want to focus on wilbur-tommy-phil-techno. also in order to make some type of saving relationship i gotta change like half of canon (what i'm doing in ss, sigh) and i'm a bit lazy, sue me

2. political drama is right up my alley. i love, love, LOVE battlefields that become personal, conflict that's between two people that have to take entire countries into account, all of it. you could do that with L'Manburg vs Essesmpii, but again, not super sbi based, and i'm lazy, lmao. but Business Bay vs Antarctic Empire, an sbi focused war that i only need to change it up just a bit (not using Pete and adding Wilbur in) to make it work, where tommy is also the underdog? sign me up :D

i've always been fascinated by smpearth (i wasn't around for it, sadly, but i've watched a lot of the videos about it) and i loved the idea of boy king vs gods among men

before AEaTNA, i actually had another idea for an smpearth story, one that had a Business Bay that conquered the earth through cut throat trading deals and embargos on the entire ocean forced to deal with the empire that holed themselves up in the artic, contain to own all things covered in snow. it would be sbi politely knocking on business bay's door, politely (with their entire army behind them) reminding the other empire that yes, you may own most of the world, but that's only because we let you, and yes you can have the ocean, but waters that hold icebergs? that's AE territory. it's a more cold war-esque story that involves sbi being forced to stay in the bay while they work out an actual treaty w the annoying and cold leader, Red, who wears a mask all the time and seems almost immature in the way he refuses to compromise. luckily, each of them found their own saving grace while in the bay to keep them from strangling Red and each other. Phil found a small gardener, Theodore that only works at night and on a small bed of roses, who is content to just sit in silence and listen to his stories. Wilbur found a spitfire street boy named "Gunk" who could care less about his rich clothing and only wanted a partner in crime to have some fun with (only on weekends, sadly) while Technoblade found a librarian, who said his name was Theseus with too cheeky of a grin for Techno to question, who works in a library that no one ever seems to go to, only opened in the early morning and seems to house only books that date to when Business Bay had been only a friendly small trading port. w tons of secret identities and tensions rising as compromises can't be made, this was going to be a heck of a slow burn.

but then i got distracted by political hostage scenarios and siren enchantments hoo-hee-haw

a lot of my inspiration just stems from again, political dramas haha. i was a big fan of Madame Secretary as a kid, and i loved the idea of fighting battles more with your wit than a sword- violence can only get you so far, me thinks lmao

okay, i have no idea if i even answered your question (ACK) but i fear i have rambled too much lmao.

thank you again for the lovely ask and lovely question! your support is so very much appreciated <3

as always, thank you again, and have lovely day!

[dragynkeep]

They gave this man a whole ass theme song describing his level of devotion to his nation and perseverance regardless of whether people like him, fears that they might be right bout him and still moving forward nonetheless, desperately wanting to protect those he can, freaking titles it 'Hero" only to backslide on all that and have him start to buckle. They did too good a job making him likeable and reasonable and neglected to show really anything to make you think he's on a slippery slope.

That’s really one of the biggest problems that I have with how they wrote Ironwood. If they wanted him to become an antagonist by the end of it, they should’ve done a better job showing:

1. Actual villainous acts. So far, what Ironwood has done can be morally ambiguous, but there’s perfectly valid reasons to do them. 

The embargo? Beacon was infiltrated for months by Salem’s forces and Ozpin was none the wiser. By closing the borders to his kingdom, you would have a much harder time getting spies inside. Sadly even with that, Tyrian and Watts were still able to get in, but the embargo was not a bad decision tactfully.

Bringing his army to Beacon? People deride him for that, including Ozpin, but the army actually helped when they were needed. When the city was under attack by Grimm that RWBY failed to stop, the army made short work of them. Ironwood could’ve never thought that Salem has Watts who could easily hack into them, and the whole reason he had robots for an army in the first place was to save the lives of soldiers.

Keeping secrets from the council and the world? We’ve seen on Ozpin’s end that telling people about Salem makes them give up. Raven did, Leo did, and for a while, even our protagonists were ready to just get the Relic to Atlas and go home, and there’s no shame in no longer wanting to fight when you realise it might be in vain. Not everyone has the strength to dedicate their very lives to fighting an impossible foe. Ignoring that there was no one in the whole of Mantle that realistically shit themselves when finding out about Salem, Ironwood was right in that the past has shown when people find out about Salem, they stop fighting. 

2. The protagonist’s side being easier to accept. If they wanted to write Team RWBY being hypocritical in lying to Ironwood, they should’ve had consequences to it. All we had was Ruby be sad, Yang questioning it twice before being pulled back in line, and Ruby saying she might not be any different to Ozpin but Qrow acting like it’s different cause she’s the pure and simple soul.

On top of making Ironwood’s descent more believable, they should’ve made the other side an easier side for the viewer to take. So far, it’s not working.

3. Have Ironwood not completely trust RWBY. Because he was so accepting and trusting of them, to the point of giving the Relic back, we have no foot in the argument that RWBY were in the right of keeping secrets from him, but then trusting ROBYN of all people, someone they don’t even know.

During the volume, people in the FNDM were theorising that Ironwood secretly bugged them, that he was showing a front to lure them into false security and find out their secrets because he had no trust in anyone anymore, but then it turned out that no! Ironwood was putting his complete faith in them, and they STILL lied! Well done CRWBY!

After the demonisation of Ozpin, Leonardo being a coward with hardly any likeable traits, and Qrow turning into a giant pissbaby who’s alcoholic story was thrown into the trash with Yang’s PTSD, I wanted one member of the Pod Squad to not be trashed on because RWBY now wants to send the message that adults are shit and kids are great, even though without the adults, all the kids would be dead or stuck at home still.

But I guess why bother putting work in when you can just demonise the disabled war veteran because you hate the military :/// 

[lore-of-the-silvereyes-rwby]

The Hero that was never meant to be

I’m going to ask you guys a quick question. Think back to the volume 2 season finale in 2014. Or before Salem's debut. Once all of the antagonists are defeated and you're now left asking; Who's going to be the next antagonist for the series?

Before we proceed with this inquiry let's take a look at what exactly distinguishes a hero, from a villain.

Hero/Villain/Anti;who knows?

Below are multiple examples/definitions and meanings of heroes and villains as well as their anti sub groups.

Hero

a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.

the chief character in a book, play, or movie, who is typically identified with good qualities, and with whom the reader is expected to sympathize.

“a person of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his or her brave deeds and noble qualities." Heroes come in many forms in life, ranging from one's family and friends to athletes to movie stars. A person's heroes can change over time.

Villain

(in a film, novel, or play) a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.

 a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel. 

a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot.

Anti-Hero

a central character in a story, movie, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes.

is 'a central character in a story, film, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes'. These missing attributes include idealism, courage, and morality. Anti-heroes can sometimes do the right thing, but it is usually because it serves their interests to do so.

Anti-Villain

is the opposite of an Anti-Hero — a character with heroic goals, personality traits, and/or virtues who is ultimately the villain. Their desired ends are mostly good, but their means of getting there range from evil to undesirable.

Now that we have some measure of clarity about this let's get to the point.  Basically Ironwood is a Anti-Villain character

If you think back to the things we have learned throughout the series, all the people we have met, you will find that all of Ironwood’s traits align better with Salem, Cinder, Jacques, and Adam.  All of them have this hunger for power and/or control, all of them are trying to protect themselves and increase their control.  

All of them use a level of manipulation and none of them really cared about the damage it would do to others.  Ironwood might be a little better because, at first, it was something he kind of thought about.  Kind of. He had trouble relating to the idea that protecting more was better than protecting less, and it seems that he had been struggling to find his heart since the beginning. 

Ironwood is a well intentioned and desperate man who wants to protect Atlas against Salem, but he can reach extreme means to do so. By the end of Volume 7, he's willing to abandon both Mantle to die and throw away humanity's best chance of survival by leaving Amity Tower; he also falls far enough to shoot a teenager for comparing him to Salem.

Going hand in hand with his Never My Fault tendencies. Ironwood hates anyone bringing up how his ways don't work, with extreme annoyance being the best reaction possible. It doesn't matter if someone is simply stating the objective tangible negatives of his actions, he will not hear it. He gets into a shouting match with Nora when she calls him out on how much damage he's doing to Mantle and only stops when she points out his proposed solution to deal with the current unrest (martial law) is just going to cause far worse problems if he goes through with it.

While he demands complete loyalty from others, Ironwood has repeatedly betrayed the trust of others in the name of the greater good. If someone is an obstacle to accomplishing what he believes is necessary, he will use political or even military power to enforce his will.

Ironwood has helped Ozpin fight Salem for years but they disagreed over the best way to defend Vale; Ironwood secretly convenes a meeting of the Vale and Atlesian councils to report Ozpin's behavior, resulting in Vale removing Ozpin from overseeing the Vytal Festival security in favor of Ironwood. Qrow later tells Ironwood that he has a strange idea of showing gratitude if he responds to Ozpin bringing him into the fight against Salem by betraying him. Even after being confronted, Ironwood insists that he had no other choice.

Ironwood spends most of Volume 7 promising that the Kingdom of Atlas is safe and that Mantle can count on him to protect them. However, when he discovers Salem is arriving in person to attack Atlas, he decides to abandon Mantle to the Grimm in favour of raising the floating city of Atlas higher in the atmosphere where the Grimm can't go. When Ruby tries warning her allies about Ironwood's plan, he disables her scroll, and has Teams RWBY, JNR, Oscar and Qrow arrested.

Ironwood's a man with good intentions, but he seems to believe the best way to handle any sort of situation is if he is in full control of it. This is seen as early as Volume 2, where he both brings a large fleet (composed mainly of machines) along with students for security and later has the Vale and Atlas Councils transfer security control of the Vytal Festival from Ozpin to himself. 

After the Fall of Beacon, James continues to tighten Atlas' defenses with a Dust embargo and closing of its borders, and by the time the heroes arrive in Mantle, there are broadcasts of the general practically saying that as long as they cooperate with his laws, he can and will keep them safe. 

As Salem's forces continue to sow discord and increase his paranoia, and when he discovers that Team RWBY has consistently hidden important information from him, Ironwood decides to invoke martial law and raise Atlas out of Salem's reach, under his control. When Ruby warns the others of his plans, he shuts off her call with his own Scroll.

Ironwood is noted for being a man who never gives up pursuing his vision of how people should be protected. When his attempts to convince Ozpin that they're on the wrong path fail, he convinces the Atlesian and Vale councils to override Ozpin's authority and give him direct control of protecting the Vytal Festival Tournament. 

In Volume 7, he is willing to pursue his goal of protecting the Kingdom of Atlas against Salem no matter how bad his public reputation becomes with the citizens.

To be clear Ironwood is an Anti- Villain type character in the RWBY story. He may have good intentions but it is unknown as to their extent of what they are. His methods to achieve those methods have only made things worse.

I couldn’t let you breath, cause I didn’t wanna Die

We all say we would die for something but do we actually mean it?

“I would die without regret I offer up my life”

It is hypothetical but not in the way you suggest. The difference between using would or will is not about whether the speaker is being disingenuous about their offer, it’s about whether the speaker knows if they are ever going to be in a position to fulfil their promise

It is hypothetical because the speaker does not know whether there will ever be a situation where they would be in a position to give their life to save you. If they were to use will, it implies they are anticipating that they will be in a position to give their life to save you 

When someone says “I would die for you if you need it,” is it just a hypothesis that's never going to happen,  the subject doesn’t want to die at all, otherwise they’ll use “will” instead of “would”?

Kill or be killed

All the weapons in rwby appeal to the audience as they have options when it comes to fighting. Ironwoods does not. His weapon is only designed to kill as a reflection of his inability to see reason. As opposed to other characters that show that when they kill it would be a last resort option.

(Think of the Jedi's preference for lightsabers instead of blasters)

Ironwood has a revolver  -  reliable, never jams. high attack power, similar to his mentality on robotics in general and how he values them focusing on the characteristics of the revolver is the important part, and you see it in another Atlesian character--Weiss Myrtenaster is a Rapier and a Revolver as well, and revolvers are still used nowadays because of their reliability. They'll never jam, and when it comes to a gun all that really matters is hitting the target on a pragmatic mindset at least, and ultimately in the show the weapons used by characters say a lot about them. For example;

Qrow has a scythe - not a weapon, a farmer's tool, alluding to the scarecrow. The actual weapon would be the sword mode, and is inspired by the grim reaper, who uses a scythe because he reaps souls like one would reap what was sown(or harvest)

Jaunes shield and sword are both offensive and defensive weapons which offers a variety of options as to handle conflict

Ozpin's cane symbolically conveys the message that it's okay to be weak and its normal to accept help and support from others

Yang's gauntlets are basically Bruise but don’t kill type weapon as such they give her  more control of the damage that is inflicted on her opponents

As ruby put it the Weapons in the show are an extension of the characters. The extent of Ironwoods weapon is that it conveys his blunt, and cold methods that he can’t or won’t embrace alternatives solutions or anyone else's ideas to problems

This can also be seen with his use of militarized Huntsmen and the use of mindless android soldiers. As I stated in I am power Ironwood’s personnel combat abilities are mediocre to non-existent with his true power stemming from the consent of the people to die for his cause instead of him since it's guaranteed that he will die instantly due to his lack of unique or special combat abilities. 

(Pretty self explanatory considering he had to sacrifice an arm to beat a nerd)

Fear of death is basic human instinct

Ironwood believes that he is this chosen savior and can’t die and he believes his life is more important than others and would instead sacrifice everyone else instead of him if it would mean victory

Now you're probably asking why does Ironwood not want to die when he said he would? As stated before he doesn’t trust anyone but himself to do the job right. His narcissism and ego prohibit him from trusting others and having faith that people besides him can win. 

This has been hinted as early as his debut in V2 where he asks Ozpin;

“Do you honestly believe that your children can win a war?”

Because of this and his Nihilism for rejecting the truth, he believes that he is the most important piece on the bored and everyone should listen and die for whatever he needs if it would mean victory

Ambitions and desires of a broken kingdom

A character without motivation is a really boring character as opposed to one who does. But to realize what their motivation is or what it is truly is another. Ironwood is no different but what exactly is his personal motivation that is unique to him one must wonder?

That's just it, he has no real personal motivation. Like what does he have to lose? What does he have to gain? What is so important that he is willing to go to such lengths that clash with the ideas of Ozpin and the heroes? To answer Atlas. After all, what is Ironwood without Atlas?

 It is important to know the effects of a characters home and origins to better understand a character's personality. Ironwood's plans have always been in line with Atlas, whose intentions are that of Ancient Mantle. Now what exactly are the intentions of the former capital that would live through Ironwood.

Atlas as I stated before is more or less a Technocratic Conservatives society led by Authoritative totalitarians with a focus of becoming an Extreme Militaristic Oligarchy that had originally started out as a Resource driven Empire out of necessity and without restriction 

To clarify, Ironwood is a byproduct, and enforcer of Mantle’s(later Atlas) Philosophical Ideology and Culture. The effects of one's origins can have a very lasting impact on one's life. Ironwood’s life has been heavily affected by his homeland to the point that he will die for it, and sacrifice whatever he deems necessary for it. 

Because of this Ironwoods alignment is that of Lawful Evil because of his Atlas ideology

A Lawful Evil character is an evil character who either tries to impose or uphold a lawful system on others without regard for their wishes, and/or adheres to a particular code. They believe in order, but mostly because they believe it is the best way of realizing their evil wishes.

In other words Ironwood will always be the loyal son of his Kingdom and will do anything to save it.

Now that clears his main motivation and the scale of what he is willing to do to achieve it but what motivates him personally?

Well that's just it there is none. His primary motivation is pretty shared by most of the heroes and main characters and as is the common clause of save the world stories everybody knows they can’t let that happen as peter quill would say;

“Why do you want to save the Galaxy?”

“Because I'm one of the idiots who lives in it.”

So with that in mind what's in it for him that he can’t lose or let the world be destroyed?

You overstepped your boundaries

To help understand his character it is important to understand what exactly his role in the plot was originally and how he ended up biting off more than he can chew when he broke away from it.

Essentially Ironwood was meant to be the overseer and guardian of the relic of creation as well as the trainer of the next generation of huntsman/huntresses. Meaning the only position of power that he should only have is Headmaster of Atlas academy. As I stated in I am machine Ironwood's heroism stems from a lack of trust and in doing so has burdened him with more responsibility than he can handle.

The catalyst 

All of the events and conflicts that plague remnant at the shows present can all be traced to Ironwood. An argument can be made for Salem but to me she seems more of an opportunist instead of an actual evil master mine. Being the opportunist she is she needs ammo for which she is otherwise incapable of making on her own. Thanks to Ironwood she has plenty of it to enact her plans and reach her goals 

Below is a list of events and conflicts as well as characters that have been affected by Ironwood

(Whether Directly or Indirectly)

The Schnee Dust Companies Immoral and shady practices

I know Jaques is mostly to blame for all of this but one must ask; Why didn’t anyone stop him before V7? 

It's already been established in the show that the S.D.C. and Atlas Military have a corporate alliance to mass produce Weapons and ammunition. The most prominent weapons to come out of this alliance was the paladin assault mechs. Now how important was this alliance to Ironwood?

In short, they are the best choice to provide for his needs for war. As long as he gets weapons and all that he needs to sustain a war he doesn't care what the giver has to do to meet his demand. As such Ironwood had enabled Jaques and allowed him to continue his immoral ways so long as he gets what he needs. On the other hand Jaques seems to be at least a decade older than Ironwood so there is a possibility that the corporate alliance has already been there long before Ironwood ever came to power.

But I ask again why didn’t Ironwood who was aligned with a man like Ozpin didn’t stop him? As the Volume 7 commentary stated Ironwood doesn’t care for Ozpin's rules and sees being efficient is more important than being morally good. Because of this Ironwood had been more focused on starting a war first and caring about people second thus he has only spread misery by enabling Jaques’s greed just to have his war. The crimes of the S.D.C. are also Ironwood’s 

The family strain of the Schnee family and Winters abandoning

While we’re still on the subject of the Schnee's let's talk about how essentially Ironwood made Winter the Blake to his Adam

As I stated before in “You had me with your words”  we don’t exactly know why Winter would be so loyal to Ironwood to the point of saying that her life doesn’t matter in V7 and why she would be so against her family to the point that she makes no effort to see Weiss, and Whitely included and only bothering to be apart of Weiss’s life only because she seems to be following the same path of defiance against their father. In other words she only chooses to interact with her sister only if she is rebelling against their father. If she is not, then Winter wants nothing to do with her. 

Now who or what exactly would cause Winter to have this unhealthy mindset in regards to her own personal existence and relationships?

The answer being Ironwood. 

If we were to consider Jaques words being serious than it is more than likely the truth. Ironwood did steal Winter, not just from her father but from the rest of her family. I don’t know what exactly Ironwood said or did to turn winter away from her family but it wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart. He did this  just to have a loyal subordinate with incredible power( her hereditary semblance) & status( her grandfather's legacy and accomplishments) just to give his power and status more legitimacy.

By doing so Ironwood made Winter  believe that her family as well as herself is beyond redemption due to the actions of her father thus leading her to abandon them and only believing Ironwood can redeem her hence why she values her life so little and is willing to die for whatever Ironwoods says.

I understand that winter joined the military to get away from her dad but she had options besides the military and like weiss she could have went to the other academies to get away from her dad but she didn't which i consider Winters greatest flaw is that she has no idea of an actual healthy relationship

The White Fang

This is also speculative but not unlikely as the show has clearly shown; Faunus and Atlas don’t mix. 

Same thing with the S.D.C. this can really be seen as indifference on Ironwood’s part and lack of care  but still Ironwood didn’t do anything to settle the racial inequality in Atlas even though he is allied in a secret circle that's supposed to keep the peace.

Especially when that inequality was being used to help legitimize a terrorist organization that can be used as a disposable army for Salem which it did.

Watts’s Defection & the P.E.N.N.Y. Project

Ironwood commissioned 5 scientists including Watts and Pietro to make Weapons for war.

Even though Watts is an egotistical bastard it really makes you wonder how someone as smart as him would work for a literal demon lady hell bent on conquest. The same can also be said about why he chose Penny instead of any other actual and practical projects ideal for war.

One thing to note is the possibility that Ironwood did not tell the 5 about the real reason as to why they’re making these weapons in the first place. For example would Pietro really want Penny the closest thing to an actual child that he may have had to be used as one of Ironwoods militarized assets?

We’ve seen what Pietro is like and that he really cares about Penny and if it were his choice Penny wouldn’t be in the situations that Ironwood would place her in. Ironwood had basically taken and drafted Penny without her or Pietro's consent and made her a tool for war and much more.

In semi canon sources(Amity Arena) the general consensus is that the Paladins were Watts’s idea and project. One of the misconceptions is that it was a contest for whose idea would be made but since we see both the Paladins being used and Penny that's not the case. All 5 projects were going to be used but only 1 would take top priority first before others and that project was Penny. 

This might actually explain why the paladins were ugly and incomplete in V2 as opposed to their slicker and finished versions in V3. The Penny project took both praise and priority first before the others. Once penny was finished the other projects would begin that may also explain why the Paladins weren’t first revealed until the events of V2 even though Pietro said that the commissions for the projects including the Paladins were almost a decade ago as of  V7 ep 7 

To Watts he felt insulted that his (to him) practical project was being postponed for a sad man's personal self indulgent pet project. This and due to not really knowing as to why these projects were going to be used for. Because of this and Ironwood’s lack of concern for people He had essentially driven Watts to Salem and made him one of her most valuable assets that she ever had. Salem herself even states that she should have employed his services years ago that alone tells us how valuable an asset Watts was and Ironwood discarded it. Which led to the fall of Beacon and the civil unrest in Mantle With Watts out of the way let's move to the next question

Why the Penny Project?

We all know at this point that Penny is the Pinochio for Pietro’s jopedo. So why would Ironwood approve a project that seems the least efficient and effective for war? There have been many theories as to why but two of them stand out the most; Potential vessel for the maiden powers and Espionage

It has been made clear that Ironwood has been readying for war against other people Salem specifically but how does one go about that? The first of which can be explained as Ironwood trying to make the ultimate artificial warrior with incredible power. As Ironwood has more faith in machines than people he would see Penny as the ultimate super soldier that he can use in his war

The second theory as to why he chose penny could be for spy and espionage purposes. As stated by cinder in volume 3 where this theory originates from; why would Atlas make a robot look like an innocent little girl? We know why Pietro made Penny look human but why would Ironwood go along with making a T800 complete with realistic skin and hair?  Besides Pietro there was no logical reason to make penny look as humanly as possible. Like the Terminators who were designed for infiltration and assassination missions and Ironwood being a paranoid individual who sees the world as one of two things; you’re either an asset or a threat / Penny or similar models would have been used to spy and eliminate potential threats in the other kingdoms. With the possibility as to what Ironwood would use penny for before her reveal in V3 clear let's move on to the last part of this bullet point

Why didn’t Ozpin know about Penny?

Prior to the truth of her origins being revealed via her death by Pyrah the only people who knew she was an android are cinder’s team, Ruby, Pietro, and Ironwood. The villains knew that truth after being fortunate enough to have Ironwoods scroll infected by the virus and Ruby found out by accident from penny. 

So officially the only people that were allowed to know the truth about Penny were Pietro and Ironwood. Winter and the Ace-opts don’t count as Volume 7 confirmed that they were brought into the fold after the fall of beacon along with penny so by the time of the fall of beacon they had no idea about salem or that was the sole purpose as to why penny was made.

 The same can be said for Watts too since Penny was still an idea being developed along with being assumed dead and not seen in atlas for years. Thus Watts never even knew what penny looked liked. Had he known i'm pretty sure he would’ve revealed that to Salem who would have given it to cinder for use in her mission. But as V3 shows Cinder finds out after getting access to Ironwood's personal scroll. Meaning that Ironwood kept Penny so secret that he never even bothered or considered to tell Ozpin.

By the end of PVP Ironwood sounded like a terrified child who got caught while trying to explain to a pissed off Ozpin about Penny only to be coldly told in a threatening tone to use the army that he brought to clean up his mess or else. That alone is proof enough from Ironwood that he never told Ozpin about Penny and was scared of what Ozpin would do to him for catching him on his secrets and lies.

So why didn’t Ironwood tell Ozpin about Penny? Short answer Ozpin would never approve the use of Penny. It was already established in V3 ep 6 that Atlas has been doing unethical experiments with Aura. Ozpin and most of the inner circle don’t really approve of such practices but can tolerate it  and use it if they have to. But most likely not to the extent of using it to make artificial living beings just to be soldiers.

This would be a similar moral dilemma as the clone troopers from star wars who were bred and mass produced at an accelerated rate to fight  in a war that they didn’t even understand or have a choice to fight in with the mindset and innocents of a child. The Umbara arc from season 4 of the clone wars series perfectly depicts the unhealthy amount of abuse the clones faced and the length of being taken advantage they were forced to endure

Now apply that to an army of pennies with the same childlike innocence and naivety and sentience being deployed into combat without much preparation and are expected to die just to buy time for the real heroes to win.

Now who is more likely to use a clone army without concern for the morality and ethics about making it let alone not care for the well being of those clones

A key important factor to remember is that until V7’s end Ironwood was pro war as he thought he could win against Salem if he had the largest army at his disposal. Penny was no exception and Ironwood only saw her as a potential part needed for his war machine. Because of the war centric views of Volume 2 & 3 Ironwood and lack of concern for the safety of others Ironwood had set the stage perfectly for volume 3’s finale

The Fall of Beacon

The points above actually help validate and contribute to the Fall of Beacon, but it's true Beginning for its fall started when Ironwood arrived at Beacon in Volume 2. As stated by Oz in Ironwoods first appearance Headmasters don’t usually attend the vytal festival with their students. Given what we now know about the importance of the academies, Ironwood pretty much abandoned his post and risked the safety of the relic under his charge.

All in what appears to be an effort to make a power grab against Ozpin and promote Atlas.(That’s probably speculative but not far off the bat given Ironwoods doubts and actions by the end of V2).Ever since his debut Ironwood has always been a character that contradicts the main characters that are suppose to be the heroes

He seems to only believe the best way to handle any sort of situation is if he is in full control of it. This is seen as early as Volume 2, where he both brings a large fleet (composed mainly of machines) along with students for security. Ironwood has helped Ozpin fight Salem for years but they disagreed over the best way to defend Vale; Ironwood secretly convenes a meeting of the Vale and Atlesian councils to report Ozpin's behavior, resulting in Vale removing Ozpin from overseeing the Vytal Festival security in favor of Ironwood. 

 Volume 2 also has Ironwood reveal to Glynda that he thinks Ozpin is hiding something from them. Glynda points out that he's part of the inner circle that's hiding things from the rest of the world and that he needs to stop talking about trust and learn how to trust others. Ignoring her advice, he secretly collaborates with the Vale Council to strip Ozpin of his control over the Vytal Festival security, then tells Ozpin to trust him.

This also brought up the possibility that Ozpin would be removed as Headmaster of Beacon academy. Not only was Ironwood willing to depose the leader he was following from his position of power but also remove an important ally from safeguarding one of the most important and crucial places in all of the world that also holds probably the most important relic of all of them(The Crown of Choice)  

I already talked about how Penny’s secret had contributed to the fall so I’ll be talking about how Watts contributed to it since I forgot to include in the last bullet point. Its a very small Easter egg but on Cinders scroll as she was rigging the vytal tournament for CVFY’s match and discovering Penny’s android nature there is a small cursive W at the corner of her scroll. The small W that Watts uses as a holographic icon when he calls Leo in V5. RT has said that they had WTCH in their back pocket for years until they were revealed taking that into account it is clear that the virus that infected Beacons CCT Ironwoods scroll and forcing the droid army to commit order 66 was made by Watts.

The virus and the cyber warfare aside the next final contribution on Ironwood’s part was the imprisonment of Roman Torchwick

It's pretty much been clear that Torchwicks' imprisonment was an improvised plan on the villains part to get an inside man aboard a warship. Basically it was like Heath Ledger's joker in the dark knight; he wanted to get caught. Torchwick himself said that he is where he wants to be to Ironwood at the end of V2. As V3 showed Torchwick and Neo took over what can be assumed to be Ironwood’s personal flag ship and used it to destroy the rest of the air naval section that was brought for the Vytal security team. 

This could have been avoided had Torchwick not been released into Ironwood's custody or at the very least kept somewhere else that should he escape he couldn’t have done so much damage. The Airships aside it was also possible that Roman had used the onboard artillery on the city as well that means that innocent civilians weren’t just being mowed down by hacked robots but being carpet bombed as well increasing the death toll at the fall of Beacon.

The Dust embargo and closing of borders

Since the fall of Beacon Academy, Ironwood has become increasingly unstable and paranoid, making more and more ethically questionable decisions that he repeatedly justifies as the greater good; by his own admission, he will do anything it takes to stop Salem. 

This however does not fare well with the rest of Remnant though.

As Atlas is the primary location for most of Remnants Industry as well as having a monopoly on Dust; Remnant’s most crucial resource that everyone needs in order to survive, the other  kingdoms rely heavily on Atlas for technology, resources and weapons. By placing an embargo he has cut off everyone in the world from their most valued resource. Though he did this to stop the enemies chain of supply he is still letting people suffer and die by with-holding the one thing they need to live and survive. 

Which brings us to the borders

Though it could have eased tensions after the fall of Beacon it just lasted too long as well as the fact that Ironwood had essentially turned his back on the world and refused to help the other kingdoms in their time of need. In the CFVY book spin-off all of the Beacon students either went to Haven or Shade academy to finish their training. As well as the Vale refugees going to other kingdoms as well. But due to Atlas closing its borders none of the students or the people went to Atlas for help. Basically due to Ironwood’s orders the Kingdom of Atlas was forced to not help the other kingdoms when they needed it the most.

And it has only gotten worse due to the events at Mistral in V5 as not only are the students of both Beacon and Haven going to shade, putting a strain on the academy but leaving the entirety of the worlds largest kingdom unguarded and undefended as it now lacks able huntsmen to protect it due to Ironwood’s refusal to help 

It should also be noted that when Ironwood closed the borders he had failed to inform any off his subordinates of who can and can’t enter the kingdom especially in regards to allies like Glynda or Qrow who again are allies against Salem and Ironwood made little to no effort in keeping contact with the other Oz members. This is made evident in V6 when the Argus soldiers refused to believe Qrow about being an ally to Ironwood. you could say that he was waiting on the amity project to make contact with the other members but  he had to have realized that they needed to get into atlas at some-point. But did he make it easy for them or any other ally to reach him? No he did not. 

The Mistral Huntsmen Genocide and the Battle of Haven

Second verse, same as the first, he had put them in a hearse. Another example of Ironwood’s indifference and hypocrisy that led to the death of allies and innocent people.

Due to the events of the Fall and it being broadcasted the enormous state of panic had spread throughout all of the kingdoms. The negative emotions in mass had attracted the Grimm and caused much havoc and loss throughout all of them and the worst to suffer from this mass hysteria was most likely Mistral due to its larger population and territory.

In V5 Lionheart had confirmed that Mistral losses were heavy and many of the local huntsmen including the Professors from Haven were killed in the initial grimm invasion that plagued Mistral following the fall of Beacon. After the initial panic had settled down the Mistral council had been employing Huntsmen in mass and restricted their activity to crucial and vital missions in high profile areas to ensure the safety and stability of the Kingdom.

Now the real question comes in where was Atlas?

In the world of remnants shorts  its confirmed that Mantle and Mistral have an alliance that eventually carried into Atlas. With that being said, where was Mistral’s ally during the fall out and what were they doing. We know in V5 that all Military Assets were recalled within the month prior to the battle of Haven. I know that the kingdoms are weary of Atlas at this point but given the state of the world after the fall, Mistral needed all the help they could get. As such Mistral would have to call upon the old alliance and have them honor their word and offer aid. 

Or at the very least transfer some assets over to Mistral to use it as needed. We have the base in Argus sure but that was just a forward border control base  that didn’t really help anybody. Prior to the recalling Ironwood had Winter gather intel on potential activity that would lead to a second fall of a huntsmen academy and he chose to do nothing. This is further proof of his hypocrisy and arrogance. Ironwood at this point is reading the military for war and with holding aid and support that was actually needed. 

His V4 self is a stark contrast to his V2&3 self as that version of himself was willing to manipulate and intervene in the affairs of other nations under the assumption that the ends justify the means and would see himself above the rules so long as it's for the greater good and stop the threat before it can escalate. That was exactly what Ironwood did at the end of V2 by stealing power from Oz and tried to enforce his own set of rules if it would prevent a disaster.

Now why did Ironwood not do the same thing with Mistral and try to prevent the potential fall of its academy regardless of the bad publicity that it would warrant? It's already been said by Ironwood that he doesn’t trust Leo to handle the situation at Mistral and based his dissection to close the borders on Winters report and decided to prepare for an potential attack on Atlas rather than sending a small task force to handle the threat at Mistral. 

Taking into consideration his plan for Amity it's quite possible that he wanted Leo to fail and Mistral to be ready to eat from his palm. In other words unless there is something to gain and benefit from he’s not going to do it.

Ironwood all the way till he was told the truth about Salem in V7 had a War is the Answer mentality and was hoarding everything and anything that would help sustain a long campaign as well as increasing the size of that force with the intent that  that the large numbers were enough to intimidate Salem and her faction into surrendering and eventual destruction. The only problem is that the people he needs were born in a time of relative peace.

Because of the 80 year age of peace that followed the Great War the Modern world of Remnant has had zero to no conflicts as large or damaging since that one war. There were small conflicts sure like the faunus war, the White fang terrorist cell, and the criminal underworld but they weren’t that much or a threat or concern to a majority of remnant it wasn’t until the Fall of Beacon that the foundation of this peace was shaken so intensely that the cracks started to show but it was still together if only held by a thread.

With the Peace in mind and the peoples faith still with the huntsman as their distrust for Atlas Military lingers no one in the world of remnant outside of Atlas would have any motivation or desire to mobilize for war let alone a war for a foreign leader of a foreign land that has recently come under suspicion. Ironwood was never going to be able to unite the Kingdoms and mobilize their people for his war after the fall of Beacon with Atlas being painted as the bad guy. Unless the situation went from worst to extreme.

Like if another academy were to fall with the same or greater results like Beacon. Then maybe people all around the world would consider following Ironwood’s lead and wipe out the threat before things can get even worse.

Because of this Ironwood had allowed Mistral and possibly the other Kingdoms to exhaust themselves so much that they would be unprepared for the next major Grimm invasion should they come after the next major hysteria induced panic. Panic like Ironwood’s original plan to unite the world and tell them about Salem causing the kingdoms to fall into further disarray only to be saved by the flying grace of Ironwood and his Military. And the only repayment for his help is that you join his fight.

I know this is all speculative and you can say Lionheart was the one who was responsible for mistrals problems after the fall, but remember Leo was the only Faunus on the council of a racist kingdom and only had one seat over the huntsmen and can only give out and approve mission assignments that would get them killed thus he had no real authority or power in Mistral  besides siding with the majority and even if he tried to talk the council into refusing Ironwoods help their racism wouldn’t listen to Leo and they would do the opposite and call for aid. 

But again Ironwood prior to the fall was willing to stop the threat at its source regardless of politics. But after the fall he had put all of his focus on preparing for war instead of helping people that needed his help at that moment. This may be due to his semblance(still dumb BTW) but ultimately he was focusing on his own needs first than the needs of others. Because of this he had ignored the issues of Mistral and failed to see the truth of what Lionheart was doing and had allowed Most if not all of the well trained and experienced huntsmen of that kingdom to die leaving the kingdom defenseless and unprepared for any conflict that would come.

 Like the Battle for Haven for example. Had Ironwood not recalled everyone back and had Winter and whatever Atlas personal that were with her its quite possible that the battle may never had happen, the truth about leo would have been discovered sooner and the genocide of Mistrals huntsmen wouldn’t have been as bad had Ironwood actually chose to help, Instead he  started to fall back and focus on the Amity Project and Atlas instead of spending any resource outside of them, due to a narrow focus to and putting everything on it just so he can have his Victory.

The Civil unrest in Mantle

A loved and respected leader will die by the side of his people: A feared and hated one will die by their hand. Short term closing the borders cloud have helped ease tensions between Atlas and the rest of the world but long term it had made things worse

Due to the fall of Beacon it's quite possible the initial attacks that came after can explain why Mantle's defensive wall was so destroyed and ruined by the time of V7. That means that potentially for almost over a year that wall has had no repairs or maintenance  and has had the bare minimum leaving the citizens in a state of constant peril and danger since the fall of beacon

This is further made worse when Ironwood closed off the borders and cut off the chain of supplies and trade not only to Atlas but also to Mantle as well making the kingdom suffer more than it had to. As the original capital, the rise of Atlas reduced Mantle to a shadow of its former self. Streets are run-down, technology is old, security defenses haven't been updated in years, and smog from the mines hangs heavy over the city. People struggle to eke out an existence, depend on dangerous mines for work and experience regular Grimm attacks that the city increasingly struggles to repel. Meanwhile, Atlas hangs in the sky above their heads; a constant reminder of the wealthy elite that is failing to share the wealth that Mantle creates, and a target of Mantle's growing resentment and anger at having been left so far behind.

Ironwood who is again allied with and a member of a secret circle that is supposed to keep the peace and prevent any social unrest that can cause a conflict.  Thus he should have tried to ease the tensions and made the conditions of Mantle better in order to maintain peace. Now I know it's not solely Ironwood’s fault for the state that Mantle is in as he hasn’t been in a position of power for long but still he should have focused on the people instead of preparing for a war that may have never come. A stark contrast to Ozpin’s way of preserving peace and handling threats

Because of his narrow focus and indifference he made things worse as he was only focusing on potential threats that have yet to come instead of focusing on the issues and preventing them before they escalated. After the fall, the embargo and closing of Borders Ironwood concerned himself with preparations for an assumed winnable war instead of trying to restore peace and keep the people on his side. Which is ironic as he was doing this to rally a large force and stop the threat but did not consider that he may have been pushing away potential troops and allies that he would have needed. And only stoked the people's frustrations 

This is mostly due to Ironwood never giving an estimate of time for how long the embargo and the borders would last as well as not giving a clear and believable reason as to why he was doing all of this in the first place. I know he was going to tell Mantle and the world about Salem eventually and he did in V7 but that was only because he was forced to and used it to take out potential threats by baiting them. This is also added with the fact that he really didn’t have any solid proof that would make the people believe him about Salem as well. Due to the frustration of the people it would just sound like made up propaganda and Ironwood shifting blame onto a fake enemy to drive people's attention onto something else. And yes the people believed it but remember they were being evacuated so i don’t think they were buying Ironwood's statement but were just glad that they were being saved.

And in the end it doesn’t even matter as ultimately Ironwood caved in to fear and decided to leave Mantle for dead. Which could have been avoided had Ironwood focused his attention to the needs of people rather than the needs of war. One of the constant themes of the show is that victory is not in strength or in mass numbers but within the small and willing hearts of those that will fight no matter what.

In conclusion Ironwood had played a pivotal role in contributing to all of the conflicts that plague the world of Remnant at present, even if it were minor role he nonetheless helped set the stage for the villains and Salem   

The reason why I say that; as stated in earlier sections: Despite all of his talk about the greater good for the world he really means the greater good of Atlas and by extension himself. He is prioritizing his kingdom above all else at the expense of the other kingdoms and exploits of their people for his kingdom's own personal gain. As well as with holding beneficial technology that could actually benefit and improve the living conditions and way of life of the other kingdoms.

Ironwood’s inability to trust and have faith in people and others to keep the peace ultimately led to him intervening in affairs that he had no right to and with his own belief that his way is what is best had caused the Fall of Beacon and the events and conflicts before and after it.

It was over before it started

Now the Question must be asked what was Ironwood’s plan?

Ironwood throughout the series believed that he could win against Salem, and by the end of volume 7 he still believed that he could win, but in reality he had already lost the moment he tried to start a war.

To quote Ruby as she asked Ozpin: what was Ironwood’s plan to stop Salem if he ever had one to begin with? As far back as Volume 2 to Volume 7 Ironwood’s ideas and plans to handle Salem seemed to be; gather a large force, blitz run her stronghold, and destroy her with WMD’s. Most of his plans stem from an appeal to force and intimidation tactics via large numbers with heavy armament. In any other circumstances this could have worked had it been a different kind of villain that wasn’t immortal. As V6 has revealed Salem can’t die through traditional means such as modern warfare thus making Ironwood’s plans and solutions moot and pointless. Once he is told the truth in V7 he still continues down the same path of thinking that has not only failed but enabled the villains goals as well. So it must be asked why does Ironwood not see that his way is flawed and that he was never going to win if he continues down this path?

 Ironwood's numerous conflicts throughout the series occur because he feels he does not need to follow the standards he sets for others; He demands people trust him while showing them none in return. He forces others to sacrifice much for the cause while giving up very little in return. He insists on loyalty when he has turned on others solely because they disagreed with him.

As Volume 7 progresses, he becomes willing to commit increasingly dubious actions in order to oppose Salem. He starts off by imposing a military embargo on Mantle despite the economic hardships said embargo is causing for the civilians on the ground and diverting resources that Mantle needs to rebuild its infrastructure to build a comm tower at Amity Colosseum. By the end of the volume, he's degenerated into declaring full martial law, abandoning Mantle to die, and either attacking or having arrested anyone who opposes him.

Salem and her faction were a tumor that can only be handled with the surgical precision of a scalpel not with the bulk of a fleet or large armies. The Huntsmen were that scalpel and to be specific the Huntsmen that Oz had chosen as they were meant to protect all people and prevent conflicts without personal bias or desire. Ironwood only acted in the self interest of Atlas and the benefits that he would gain from it

Ozpin’s priority had always been the people, no matter where they came from. However, I think he was once in Ironwood’s shoes.  I am pretty sure he tried everything, including the same things Ironwood did, and saw it fail horribly. Ozpin or at least the soul, has had centuries to millennia's of experience in fighting Salem and managing the world. The delicacy of the human mind and heart are something he is well acquainted with, and I think he already knew what type of person Ironwood was, or at least was becoming.  Near as I can tell, the big reason he kept Ironwood on at this point was because Ironwood had the resources and technology he needed to keep his plan moving forward and wouldn’t relinquish them.

Ozpin worked hard to maintain the peace and goodwill of the people.  Ironwood, so far, has not.  Having robot sentries on every corner without the concept of morals and stopping trade for a kingdom that can not easily generate its own resources, as well as hoarding those resources and preventing necessary repairs and aid to those people–those actions all show that he is not keeping this important aspect of leadership. He is not making sure that the people are on his side so when he needs them because he does not consider their needs as important unless they are in line with his own

Even with the Knowledge of the truth of Salem’s immortality he is still sacrificing everyone and everything else for nothing just to keep up the illusion that he is the hero and to keep his source of power high in the clouds away from anyone who really needs it

I may have been a little harsh on Ironwood for his actions, especially V7 and I understand the circumstances that led to escalation by the end of the volume.  He was making dubious decisions but he was trying to do better, he listened at times and tried to show an extension of trust, the kids with giving them the lamp back, and later with Robyn at the dinner. These were due to the positive influences of Oz.  He just fell back to old habits hard and turned to extremes when it became clear he had non control of what was happening by V7 end. He was struggling with old habits and opening up and was doing better that first part of the night a prime example of what the creators meant if Ironwood had been more open and trusting of others but when everything went down he was pushed over the edge in the latter half of the night cementing his fall and decent into an antagonist further making the problem worse as he has always done. This is mostly due to his primary source of influence; Atlas (which we can agree has been the biggest source of conflict in the show so far) and probably his lack of understanding and planning for what comes after all is said and done.

What did you think would happen?

The question must be asked; What happens after Salem? The fandom has pretty much each their own idea of what might happen after Salem is finally defeated. But do the characters know what happens after the war especially Ironwood? As the end of the hero’s journey goes; Nothings the same after you become a hero. And given Ironwood’s behavior and actions before his fall in Gravity, Ironwood seemed to have ambitions and plans in the works for the long run after Salem was no longer a threat. As stated before in I am Machine no one is truly altruistic to the point that they do something that doesn’t benefit them. So what exactly did Ironwood want after Salem was gone to the point that most if not all his actions and decisions were in the effort to reach and make those plans come true?

As stated in Broken Kingdom Ironwood doesn’t really have any personal desires or motivations that aren’t related to Atlas or the Heroes common goal to stop Salem. As far as we can tell Ironwood has no current family members at present and there's very little that tells us that he has anything in mind outside of either Atlas or Salem ,so what does Ironwood have to gain from this conflict?

All hail the conquering Hero

Ironwood’s biggest issue is that he has to be the center of everything, that he has to be in control. First he’s going to try and gain control with his army, while trying to wrangle anyone else back under his control. Then, when it becomes clear that anyone who has a plan that better and could work, he’s going to get competitive, come up with new and crazy superweapons to throw against the enemy in an attempt to prove that he can defeat Salem before the heroes can gather allies from across Remnant. He believes that He is strong, that He is brave, that He doesn’t need to run to anybody for help! He believes that he is the hero and is letting his self entitlement cloud his mind and it has gotten the better of him

 An In-Universe example of this false belief comes from RWBY: Amity Arena as it  gives bios to every character in the game compiled by the In-Universe developers. While many try to be objective, the ones representative of the Atlas Elite tend to demonstrate a notable bias, most prevalent with the General's. His bio is very defensive of him, calling him the "hero of our time" and that he wears the burden of the world on his shoulders, talking him up as a Hero with Bad Publicity. The bio goes as followed;

General Ironwood. The hero of our time and Atlas' greatest protector. Under the general, we have advanced to incredible heights, discovered new technologies, and created the world's first artificial intelligence. Though horrifyingly revealed at Amity Arena, Penny is our proud foray into sentient AI, and Ada is the culmination of the machine learning we have long developed in our labs.

As reviled as he was for his misguided attempt to protect Vale, how can the world fault our General when the culprits are out there? How can the victims be blamed for the sins of the perpetrators? Is incompetence somehow a greater sin than premeditated evil? Our General may have failed to protect Beacon, but he's not the one that hacked our weapons into hurting the innocent.

Yet... he wears that burden on his shoulders like he is alone in the world...

Ozpin, missing. Lionheart, dead. Theodore, uncertain. We say Atlas is the greatest, the mightiest... the city in the clouds, but what is first place when there is no competition? Yet, our kingdom and our General... we're the best chance that humanity's got... which scares us to death.

Menagerie?

...what about it?

After reading that you can probably see through the propaganda, hypocrisy and ego that are written in the bio. A key factor to note is that this was possibly made after the main heroes arrived in Atlas and before the election night. And since there's been no contact or travel between the kingdoms and Ironwood was aware of Leo's status by worst case scenario  it tells us that the heroes have shared everything with Ironwood in regards to those events concerning Haven.

 Since Ironwood is looked up to as a god by his subordinates and since he was the one of the only few to have known about them as well as to have the status to make any key choices since the app is made by atlas scientists contracted to the military. Thus Ironwood had used it and the blind loyalty of his loyalists to make propaganda and shift the blame from himself to something else as well as try to emotionally manipulate the people by making them sympathize with him while ignoring the truth.

He is not Remnant's only hope nor is he the best choice.

This is another example of his never my fault montra and he does things right and its further shown in the bio as it not only continues to discredit the other Headmasters(I am well aware of leo) but ignores all the good and actual heroism of other people like the Faunus of Menagerie as they are to the primary reason as to why Haven didn’t become the next Beacon and as stated before in an earlier section the opportunity for the Battle of Haven was in a way created by Ironwood who had chosen to flee and protect his city instead of preventing an attack like he had originally intended with Vale.

It may also show how much Ironwood believes in his own hype as it does paint him as some sort of de facto king of Atlas. Again he views himself as the chosen savior of the chosen people and that it is his destiny to rule and change the world as he sees fit. Or as Watts puts it the Giant that stands above all

I’m the Captain now

I think it's safe to say that almost everything he does is a twisted version of Ozpin's ways as well as to place himself as Remnant's ultimate leader as he believes he is the one that can ensure a safe and secure world. Ever since his debut he has undermined everything that Ozpin has done and stood for because he believes his ways aren’t efficient ( Or beneficial) to him and has been systematically taking power and control away from him and placing himself as the new big good.

He wants to be the New warrior king and change the world as he sees fit as he only sees Ozpin as either a failure or a hindrance to him and his plans. Combine that with his Atlas ideology and a lot of things make sense. I mentioned in the False chosen one that Ironwood may have been influenced and tried to emulate the Warrior king as to better rise and gain power and correct the supposed mistakes of Ozpin. Even though that he has claimed to be doing it for the greater good of all of Remnant but  he really means only Atlas and himself

A world Reborn in my image

A major factor to consider is that Ironwood is a by-product of Atlas that was a by-product of Ancient Mantle. Ironwood is essentially a living mouthpiece for Atlas. He pretty much the living embodiment of the kingdom if it were a character. That's the sad truth of Ironwood is that he is simply an extension of this toxic environment and tricked into believing that its this ideal society when  in truth it never was.  In other words a legacy of tyranny lives on through Ironwood

We’re all aware of the origins of Atlas and its rise to prominent power. It started out as Mantle that began with a handful of people that prospered by adapting to the harsh conditions by making advanced technology faster than the rest of the world. It eventually formed a trade  alliance with Mistral trading tech for food. A grimm  incident occurs and Mantle thought being cold emotionless robots was a perfect solution. It tried to force its toxic ideology onto other civilizations and was met with mixed results. The Great war happens they lose and all of their resources are spent forcing it to rebuild its economy that eventually gives way to Atlas

Now how does this affect Ironwood?

Well Mantle through its alliance with ancient Mistral possibly adopted their ideals of imperialism and expansion as Mistral was the world's largest territorial economic empire of its time. When it comes to the rise of an empire and the type they are as well as their need for expansion it can be summed up to these 3 

Economic empire

Ideological empire

Territorial empire

Due to Mantle's lack of essential resources like food and energy, its early days were more or less focused on establishing a strong economic trade empire in order to get the essential supplies needed to sustain life in solitas. After its great depression period after the War the kingdom's economy began to grow at a rapid rate that by the time the kingdom shifted to Atlas it had Remnants largest economic empire.

This is also an important factor to consider since the sad truth of it all is that as long people can make a stable income and support themselves, they are more than likely to turn a blind eye to any shady or immoral activities so long as there's something to gain. What does this have to do with Ironwood you ask? Well as his bio card said Ironwood has pretty much been proclaimed as the kingdoms benefactor for its prosperity. This may have been due to his Corperate alliance with The Schnee’s since it was Mostly Nicolas and Jaques as far as we know being the most prominent reason as to why Atlas has prospered. 

When Ironwood formed that alliance with the SDC it gave him at least half of the power and influence of the company that was truly responsible for the kingdom's wealth and claiming it as his own. Once he had gotten some control over the economy it was time to move onto the next step and increase the empire from economic to Ideological or Political expansion.

Empires change and adapt in order to satisfies their needs now that Ironwood is the de facto head of that empire and given what we know about him and Atlas it is quite possible that he has been indoctrinated to have this desire to create an empire for Atlas as the politics and ideologies of its people have given it a false sense of entitlement and need to have everything under their control.

When looking at it from V1 to V3, it looks as if Ironwood was trying to occupy without resorting to force then you're left asking the real questions like "Why is ironwood selling the people of Vale on Atlas military Technology?" "Why is it that when a breach happens in vale, Atlas Bots rush in?" "Why did Ironwood make a power play to become the security of the Vytal Tournament?" It all seems to point to the same thing, Ironwood wanted control over Vale

A section of Lyrics from the song “When it Falls” may help reveal Ironwoods true intentions since his introduction and to be honest they seem relevant only to him and given his actions this is mostly likely the truth as they go like this; 

“They play the part of allies

Claiming peace their only goal

But once the fight for power starts

They'll eat each other whole

Their iron gloves point fingers

They'll wage a war of blame

And mankind will wilt in pain”

As of V7 aren’t those words mostly relevant to Ironwood? After all, what has he done recently? He claims to be an ally with intentions of peace but he’s really trying to control those who buy that lie and escalates the situation to the extreme for no logical reason other than to set the stage for the next part in relation to the lyrics.

After all is said and done the fight for power will start and he wants to win and consume everyone before they can consume him. And as things go wrong he points his metal hands blaming everyone but himself as he tries to gain control and power, the world suffers.

Ever since his debut he has been trying to amass  Political power which would lead to a territorial empire under Atlasian control. Playing into the theory that he does want to be a better version of Oz he wouldn’t make the same mistakes that he assumed the king  did by letting the kingdoms remain independent instead of being under the control of one.

A king has his reign and then he dies

To continue on with the theory that he is essentially a bastardized version of Oz, Ironwood may have been trying to find ways as to make himself immortal 

Another reason as to why he would see Ozpin as inferior is due to the fact that for all his power he can’t stop himself from dying, or at least maintain the same amount of world power and status from his last life. This may have given Ironwood ideas and ambitions to pursue any methods that may yield results that may make him a true immortal version of Oz hence why he most likely authorized the research and development of the aura transfer technology as a means to artificial reincarnate till proper immortality was achieved.

This could also be another reason as to why he may have chosen the Penny project. As it could lead to a way of extending his life as a means of transhumanism; immortality through technology

To reiterate Ironwood doesn’t trust anyone to do things right so he micromanages everyone under his control and makes them dependent on him. This is best seen with Winter and Clover as Winter would side with a madman as opposed to siding with her sister and clover’s inability to think for himself led to his death. 

Due to his lack of faith in people Ironwood makes them less independent and make them rely on him as  he may believe if everyone is dependent on him then the more control that he will have over them as to better determine who is a threat as the people he controls are more or less robots now without a conscious or sense individuality and are less likely to commit evil acts. Similar to ancient Mantle’s anti life policies before the war.

If he believes that to be the case and since he only trusts himself to see it through he’s going to try and find ways to make him live as long as possible until his methods become autonomous. Because of his lack of faith for others Ironwood doesn’t understand or refuses to understand the fact that he is going to die one day and everything that he has ever accomplished will be undone by the ultimate victor; TIME.

This is sadly the likely outcome as everything changes through the passage of time. As time moves so does the advancement of decay upon the world. Ironwood is already dying by aging and all that he has achieved will be undone or outdone by others that will come after him. The same thing can be said for everyone else in the show as they already lost. 

Ruby, Oz, Cinder, even Salem herself have already lost to time. Everything they have or will achieve will be undone as well and one day they will all die. It’s just a matter of how and when. 

To better explain let's take a look at Epsilon’s final speech from RVB season 13;

“There are so many stories where some brave hero decides to give their life to save the day, and because of their sacrifice, the good guys win, the survivors all cheer, and everybody lives happily ever after. But the hero... never gets to see that ending. They'll never know if their sacrifice actually made a difference. They'll never know if the day was really saved. In the end, they just have to have faith.”

Does Ironwood have faith in anyone that's not under his control? 

People only do wrong when the perceived benefits outweigh the cost in that moment. Ironwood doesn’t just see an opportunity to stop Salem he also sees an opportunity to bring the world under Atlasian control with him at the top. Since he has amassed so much power and authority he sees himself above the rules that everyone respects and follows. Because of this Ironwood tries to hold unto that power because without he is nothing and would become a lesser and weaker being which would be an affront to his perfectionist ideologies

If your nothing without it then you don’t deserve it

Take away Ruby’s Silver eyes and what is she? Someone that will continue to fight no matter what

Take away Atlas from Ironwood and what is he? Nothing but a broken man who had this coming for a long time.

As I stated in I am power Ironwood by himself has nothing to contribute to the fight against Salem. Let's face it the only thing that he had going for him was the fact that he lead the Military and as we later find out that Military isn’t going to be useful against Salem since the key concept of the show since V1 was that there is no victory in strength but in the simpler things in life that start with simple and honest souls. 

How does this concern Ironwood? 

Well that's just it Ironwood was never going to win with his methods and he was never going to get the benefits that he wanted if he followed someone else with theirs. Again Ironwood had plans and ambitions after Salem that saw him as the ruler of the world instead of her, and controlled it so that a threat like her or any threat to his power would never come again. This is probably what he thought would happen before being told of her immortality. 

Now with the knowledge that he can’t destroy her and that she’s coming he decides to cut his losses and settle with ruling the city instead and leave the rest of the world in her mercy instead of accepting the fact that he is wrong and relinquishing power to someone that can handle the situation better. Remnant doesn’t need Ironwood to survive. This is the biggest problem with Ironwood that he thinks he is the hero so long as he is in control of Atlas. Because without it he is truly nothing and has defined his whole existence around it. And will continue to make whatever plans to keep himself in power and is willing to pay the price at the expense of others.

“What if all the plans you made,

Were not worth the price they paid?

Even with the lives you stole,

Still no closer to your...

Goal.”

He never cooled the fire but he still incites the crowd for he can't see what he has  become a crown with no kingdom

Ironwood had only played to win and he would laugh at the ones who lose while millions are shouting out for him to stop but he Still lit the fuse

He says he wants to fight but Then he always runs because he doesn't want to die yet he Still shoots the loaded gun escalating things for the worse

His refusal to see the faults in his own actions. Ironwood continually defaults to and relies on methods and actions that have repeatedly been proven to not work because he refuses to see the error in using said methods to begin with.

This isn’t your story James

One of the important aspects to remember is that this isn’t Ironwood’s story. His entire character and story revolves around the main protagonists and how he interacts with them and more importantly what role he played in it. Ironwood started out as a side character that ended up getting a lot of focus because the story of  Team RWBY and the show in general is to show how the last generation can fail the next and how that generation has to learn and grow so it can avoid the mistakes of the past. 

Before we delve further into Ironwood’s true character in the show let us explore whether or not he was an antagonistic or protagonistic force in the story. Keep in mind these terms are different from hero and villain. Below are several definitions and meanings for the 2 narrative characters types;

Antagonist

a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something; an adversary.

a person who is opposed to, struggles against, or competes with another; opponent; adversary. the adversary of the hero or protagonist of a drama or other literary work

Protagonist

the leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text.

an advocate or champion of a particular cause or idea.

In modern literature, the protagonist drives the story forward by pursuing a goal. 

The protagonist of a story is sometimes called the main character. 

Since this is RWBY’s story and to an extent Oz’s, Ironwood(and Atlas to an extent) was always meant to be an antagonistic force in opposition to the show's true ideals of  heroism and saviors. 

The antagonist is the principal source of conflict for the protagonist. Often, the antagonist is a bad guy, a villain, but he doesn't necessarily have to be. He may just be someone who has a different agenda. Antagonists might be one person, a group, or even an animal.

Due to the beliefs that his methods are for the best even though they contradict the intentions that were thought to be shared by the heroes Ironwood was always going to become an Antagonist for the series at some point

Volume 7 slowly sees him fall into this, as his paranoia and determination to stop Salem cause him to perform increasingly questionable decisions for the greater good. While Qrow, Oscar, and Teams RWBY and JNPR support Ironwood, they increasingly debate the merit of doing so, given how concerned they're becoming with his behavior. When Cinder breaks into his office and plants a black queen, Ironwood sends Winter to forcefully take the Winter Maiden's powers, and he begins to question every decision he's made and speculate whether he's played right into Salem's hands. His confrontation with Team RWBY over their decision to leak intel to Robyn triggers the appearance of a Seer Grimm, forcing him into a verbal confrontation with Salem. With the discovery that the conflict with Watts and Tyrian distracted them from realizing they'd lost long-range sensors and that Salem is already on her way to Atlas, Ironwood snaps. He orders the arrest of Qrow, Oscar, and Teams RWBY and JNPR, and decides to abandon Mantle to die in an effort to prevent the two Relics and the Winter Maiden from falling into Salem's hands. Volume 7 ends with him and the protagonists actively opposed to each other, as his refusal to acknowledge that his methods are flawed and his opposition towards anyone who might stand in his way solidifies him as an antagonist.

The events of Volume 7 slowly but surely tear away at the positive aspects of his character as he succumbs to fear and paranoia, and questions whether Salem's strength comes from her ability to strip away her humanity. By the end of the volume, he has degenerated into a paranoid tyrant who abandons Mantle in favor of saving Atlas, is willing to kill a dying Winter Maiden to protect the Relics from Salem, and arrests the heroes for disagreeing with him. At the end of the volume, Oscar even points out that Ironwood's actions and current mentality make him no better than Salem.

 His character deconstructs the mindset of the Necessary Evil character archetype. He declares his willingness to sacrifice his reputation and humanity for the greater good by forcing others to sacrifice for his cause. Characters constantly question the morality of his choices and his own actions create consequences that later bite him in the ass. His lack of concern over his image and the negativity his actions generate serve only to assist Salem's plans and increasingly alienate him from the heroes. He appoints himself the judge of what counts as the "greater good", he neglects Mantle's security and makes it increasingly vulnerable to attack by viewing it as less important than Atlas. Oscar lampshades the deconstruction by pointing out that being willing to sacrifice all of Remnant just so "a few can live" is making him just as dangerous a threat as Salem.

In a way Salem and Ironwood are also foils to each other as they appear to be dark lords from their respective genres 

Ironwood being the syfy equivalent clad in white to convey the false message of order and peace while masking evil intentions and crimes 

Salem being the Fantasy equivalent clad in black to emanate a sense of Mystery and fear of the unknown while using it to her advantage

Discussed between Ironwood and Oscar. Ironwood spends Volume 7 utterly haunted by how Leo's fear of Salem destroyed him and endangered Mistral and Haven. He is so determined not to end up like Leo, that he doesn't realize what mistakes his own fear of Salem is causing. While Leo completely submitted to Salem and became her puppet, he has full self-awareness and knows exactly how far he's fallen and why. Ironwood cannot accept that he has any fear of Salem at all and interprets the problem as possessing "humanity". He believes Salem is a threat because she has none and speculates that the solution is to become the same. He becomes increasingly controlling over his kingdom and his allies; regardless of how much suffering his methods cause, he persists in believing it's for "the greater good". While Leo is willing to give up the Relic of Knowledge and his kingdom's Huntsmen, Ironwood is so determined to prevent Salem getting the Relics, his Huntsmen and the Winter Maiden, and thereby avoid Leo's mistakes, that he travels in the opposite direction, becoming a dangerous authoritarian instead of a spineless coward.

Ironwood has made it clear that he will use whatever means necessary to defeat Salem. When Team RWBY calls out his decision to raise Atlas out of Salem's reach, he calmly says he's aware that he is essentially damning Mantle to her wrath. He later tells Oscar that he is done letting others' opinions hold him back from doing what he thinks is right. The boy warns him that he'd become as dangerous as Salem herself like that; the general simply nods to himself but doesn't deny it.

This is who he has always been. The only difference is the more desperate he becomes, the more extremes he goes to to maintain the illusion he is strong and in control of the situation.

During Ozpin's speech, notice how this unique line of dialogue is purposely inserted over Ironwood's last scene of  Volume 7.

“Or will the person staring back at you be the very thing you should have feared from the start? I suppose we all find out... sooner or later.”

As the other parts of the speech are relevant to the other characters shown in the montage This specific line cements the Truth of Ironwood's character being a threat that was planned for a very long time. Going with the show's themes of Grey morality and the balance of light and dark, we are to learn of the possibility that with the potential to do great good also comes with the potential to do great evil. 

As we were focused on the obvious threats in the show like the grimm, the white fang, Cinder, and Salem we are tricked to neglect the obvious signs of evil intent that are hidden and growing  among the heroes. The real monsters of the world aren’t the ones with fangs and red eyes hiding under your bed, No the real monsters of the world look just like you and me. After all if we assume everyone is like us then how can we tell who the real monsters are, that are hiding in plain sight. 

Ironwood’s evil nature and antagonism  was subtle and growing under the skewed perception that he was the hero and that he was right. But this comes down to the fact that he is only in it for himself and what he has to gain from it. 

I understand that James Ironwood was a tragic character even from his introduction, and the seeds for his volume 7 turn were planted in volume 2. I eventually recognized that RT was setting up this pivotal plot point way back in the day and now they are harvesting what they had sown.  

Ironwood didn’t snap when he found out RWBY lied to him. He was content, even after he defeated Watts. He snapped as soon as he saw Cinder’s present. The Queen piece. He unraveled immediately and, sure, the discovery of RWBY’s lies didn’t help,  but it wasn’t the cause for Ironwood’s descent.

 He genuinely means well in opposing Salem and her forces, but his severe paranoia complex, exacerbated by the stress of being one of the only ones in the know about Salem and having to explain his actions to the skeptical populace and council, cause his decisions to degenerate over time. By the end of Volume 7, he becomes willing to abandon everyone in Mantle to die, violently lashes out at anyone who opposes him, and manages to undo all of the hard work he's accomplished by second-guessing his own actions.

James Ironwood is undoubtedly a fascinating character that has this certain appeal to most people. I  can understand Ironwood's viewpoint but it is not the same as forgiving or condoning as good. Sure, I thought him intervening in affairs that he had no right to was a skewed perception, but I understood where he was coming from. I thought him ignoring the concerns and advice of people was reckless, but I also kind of understood  his limitations and his upbringing. But in all honesty I was neutral about Ironwood ever since he debuted and didn’t think he had much to contribute to the story besides being the guy with an army along with the pride and arrogance that comes with.

Because of that Ironwood was always an antagonistic force in RWBY with ideals and plans that contradict the established ideals and motivations that are already shared with the world of Remnant. He just simply couldn’t fit in and when he tried he didn’t like it. When he tried to change it and take charge he only made things worse. Ironwood had potential to be good and a proper hero due the influence of Oz but his pride and ego that he got from Atlas got the better of him and now the show's true heroes will have to fix the problems that he has caused.

Summary

[buckstaposition]

I cling to your lips like gloss (3)

a Javier Peña x OFC story

also on AO3

author: @youhavereachedtheendofpie  👋

tags&warnings: spoilers for season 3, wonky timelines & odd pacing, drinking, swearing, mentions of sex work, mentions of canon-typical violence, Miss Salome is back!, some mild domesticity, partial nudity, a lil’ bit of sexual & romantic tension, soft&protective!Javi today tomorrow and forever

words: 8906 🙃🤡🙃🤡

summary: “The United States government is buying you a dress because you being at that party is of strategic importance to this investigation.”

Author’s note: Thank you SO SO much everyone who read, reblogged, and commented! It means so much to me and I want you to know that I read those comments and reviews at least every other day 

Also this chapter was originally going to feature more as I was planning to move into the actual plot of the season, but then it just got longer and longer and I wanted to keep it under 10k words so that has all been moved to the beginning of ch4 instead. Anyway, remember it’s okay to take breaks in between, stay hydrated, and enjoy!

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Tag list: @keeper0fthestars @opheliaelysia @dindjarindiaries @fromthedeskoftheraven @shikin83​ @cinewhore​ @maddoggrahaml​

(message me if you want to be added to the list)

beautiful moodboard made by @huliabitch​ 

Masterlist

Prologue • Chapter 1 - The Informant • Chapter 2 - A Wedding and Four Funerals

Chapter 3 - Swallow Pride and Anger

He made a habit of checking in with Miss Rivas regularly, usually on Wednesday evenings. It was late enough in the week for her to have gathered something to tell him, and for him to need interactions beyond dealing with pissy bureaucrats and the chorus of 'yes boss'es from his agents. That and he made the conscious choice to never bother her on Thursdays, seeing as how often she'd come back from a work day in the double digits, only to rise again with the sun on Friday mornings for her frequent trips back to Medellín. 

On this Wednesday, his self-imposed cigarette embargo inside his office combined with a slow and frustrating day had led him to go back to his apartment at an uncharacteristically early hour. He threw his jacket, wallet and keys down on the table, then loosened his tie and grabbed a beer from his fridge. He took a slow pull from the bottle, allowing himself to slump a bit against the kitchen counter. This apartment, while never what he would call a home, was still a sanctuary of sorts, even if most days he only came here to sleep and change clothes. He finished about half the bottle before clicking the bent cap back on haphazardly and placing it back in the fridge. He checked his watch and decided that a shower would, if not make him feel better, at least wash off the stale dryness of the embassy complex's aircon. 

His hair still damp, he exited the bathroom about half an hour later. He padded across the floor barefoot, shuffling around the few rooms a bit, pulling on a clean t-shirt and preparing a small meal in the kitchen. He didn't have much except for the usual staples, chosen by how easy they were to prepare and by how effectively they would fill his stomach, rather than for any considerations of taste. The only thing he allowed himself to indulge in was the selection of fresh fruit he picked up at the street market down the road. By the time he'd gotten something in his stomach it was nearing seven. Javier reckoned she would be home by now and would have had enough time to settle in. He grabbed his fruit plate and trudged over to his wall-mounted landline phone. After placing the plate on the low side table, he dialled the satphone's number and waited for the line to connect. 

"Agent Peña, good evening!" The sound quality was much better than with those tinny phone cells. It allowed him to hear how pleased she sounded as she greeted him, and how slightly out of breath. 

"I hope I'm not disturbing you, Miss Rivas. I can call back later?" It occurred to him that she might be in the process of making dinner herself. 

"Oh no, it's alright!" He heard the shuffling of steps and the hum of music in the background. "Hang on, let me finish on the landline, then I'm all yours." She must have set the satphone down right next to her stereo system. He could hear music more clearly now, still distant like not all of it survived the transmission, but distinct enough to make out a string section paired with electric guitar and words in an unfamiliar language. 

"Interesting music selection." He mused as she came back on the line.

"Huh? Oh yes, Angelika let me borrow some of her tapes. Newly historical contraband from behind the Iron Curtain." She laughed quietly, and Javier thought of how for some of his former CIA colleagues, that might have been reason enough to drag her in for an interrogation. He sneered at the notion, glad it was no longer relevant. "Not that I understand anything, but that's why music is called the universal language, I suppose."

"Your German friend." Javier hummed thoughtfully. He'd had to look up what that Stasi remark meant, embarassingly enough. Despite the added information included, he'd been made to change it to 'Calí KBG' in his preliminary report on the matter. 

"Yes. I'm sorry I couldn't convince her to help more. It's half the way she was brought up and half fear. I guess the thought of going up against a powerful drug cartel and helping the American government at the same time is just a bit too much. And with her and Julio now trying for a baby she just really doesn't want to risk it, you know?" 

"It's okay." Javier said reflexively, allowing himself to sit on the floor by his phone, his back against the wall. Angelika Florez-something-long-and-German-with-lots-of-umlauts that he wasn't even going to attempt to pronounce worked at the Calí phone company and would have been an invaluable asset, but then again she'd already placed herself in danger by allowing Diana to relay what she knew. Javier wasn't going to force anyone to become an informant. "Anything new on your end?" 

"New corner office." 

"Nice." 

"Oh, very."  He heard more soft rustling over the line, as if she was moving around, and then some light clicking noises that might have been a large window or door being opened. "Miguel Rodríguez did stop by yesterday. Unannounced, of course. Cut into my lunch break." 

Javier straightened, the hand with a piece of orange sinking back down from his lips. "Oh? What did he want?" Unfortunately it was nothing he could be nailed down for. The Rodríguez brothers did own that bank and had every right to be there, every once in a while. 

"Wanted to talk about the tax evasion scheme I devised. I swear, there's nothing rich people hate more than paying their taxes!" Her huff made him laugh softly, despite everything. "Nothing of substance to report, sadly."

"We'll get them." Javier promised. "With your help, they'll go down like a bag of rocks in water."

She hummed, tapping her nails against the phone casing absently. He could hear the light click of it over the line. Javier let himself enjoy the reprieve this unassuming silence offered.

"I've been wondering," she started again after a moment, pensive, "how you met Gabriela. Was it when she was still at the brothel or after?" 

Actually screw reprieve. Javier felt like all his blood was now rushing to his ears and neck. "Umm..." he said, eloquently. "W-why d'you want to know?" And hadn't the other woman told her that detail, since they apparently shared everything? He had made it until now in forcibly not dwelling on what exactly this 'everything' would entail. 

"Sorry no, that came out wrong. I was just wondering if she'd ever been in any way involved in your... work. I'm sorry, this isn't... I just- I worry."  

Javier exhaled slowly, thinking back on the night he'd chanced upon the stunning redhead at a bar. He hadn't planned on it becoming a regular thing, and then before he knew it, the sporadic nights he spent with her were the only thing removed from the stress of his job. "No, never." 

"Dammit." 

That was... not what he'd expected. He frowned a moment before it dawned on him. 

"You're worried that by involving her when Maritza asked you for help you put her in danger."

"...Yes." She sounded glum now, not pleased and at ease enough to attempt to joke with him like before. He hated it. 

"Hey, it's alright. Nothing happened to her." At least to her. At least one person had come out of that nightmare mostly unscathed. It was something to be grateful for. "They're gone now. Escobar and his men are gone. She's safe." 

"Thank you, Agent Peña. I just-" Her voice sounded so small, suddenly. He frowned, plate of fruit long forgotten. "I couldn't bear it if I lost her, too. And while I didn't live in Medellín for all of it I ...you hear things." 

Unbidden, his mind flashed to the brothel on 23rd street in Envigado, all the women executed, La Quica putting bullets through their brains because one of them had been brave enough to call the Search Bloc and DEA on him. He thought of Helena. He thought of the dozens more who had the violence in their lives compounded tenfold because they'd dared to defy the narcos' terror. And often enough, through him. Sometimes the guilt ate Javier alive. 

"Hang on a moment." He said, already heaving himself up and striding over to the kitchen, grabbing his unfinished beer from the fridge, then doubling back over to the bar and grabbing a glass and a bottle of whiskey. Mixing the two was probably not a good idea. As much as drinking in general. He didn't care right now. Javier tried to be a better man than he had been, but there were times when he slipped. 

He poured himself a glass of the liquor as he sat back down and snatched the phone receiver back up from where it swung against the wall. 

"I'm back." He announced simply and took a swig. 

"I shouldn't have brought it up." She sighed long and drawn. "I'm sorry for... I suppose I just wanted to make myself feel better. That if something had happened to Gabi it wouldn't have been my fault, too. I didn't think- I cannot begin to imagine, Agent Peña-" 

"It's alright." Javier said, reflexively. The beer bottle was just one generous sip away from being empty now. His fingers played with the rim of it absently as he stretched his legs out in front of him, the tumbler of whiskey at his side. 

"It's not alright." Miss Rivas insisted, sounding even more distraught. He hated that, too. 

"Maybe. Maybe not. It is what it is." He scrubbed a palm over his face, rubbing at his burning eyes. The alcohol was beginning to swirl through his bloodstream. It helped, he supposed, that there was a sort of artificial distance through the telephone line. Otherwise the next words would likely never have left his lips. 

"Can I tell you something?" Javier Peña wasn't a religious man, but there were times when he saw the sense of a confessional. 

"Of course." Her voice was just the slightest bit shaky. "Should I get myself a drink, too?"

"If you want." He threw back the last bit of beer, following it up immediately with a gulp of whiskey, then pressed the still cold bottle against his flushed neck. He hesitated a moment, listening intently to the shuffling and rustling on the other end of the line. He felt his shoulders tighten and draw up, let his head fall back against the wall with a soft 'thud', his fingertips tracing the rim of the glass until he heard her soft affirmative. 

This was not a time to let shame hinder him. Hell, the fact that he paid women for sex was the first thing she ever knew about him. 

"You should know that I have a kind of... reputation." Javier began slowly. Like she didn't know that already. Like she couldn't guess. Like maybe this illusion where he could make this a confession instead of a confirmation was somehow more dignified. 

He'd gotten the idea a few months into coming down here. Or rather the idea had found him in the shape of a lovely, doe-eyed brunette who'd introduced herself as 'Aurélia'. And Javier had been hungry and lonely, his shame at his ruined wedding fresh and the frustration of running after leads into empty corners even fresher. And he doesn't even remember how he ended up inside her room, and while under no illusion that what was about to transpire was merely a business deal, a service rendered and compensated for, he'd found himself talking. Javier wasn't a talker, but she'd been so sweet in the way she carded her slender fingers through his hair and let him ramble on, probably wasting her time. 

"That's who you're here for?" Javier remembered still, with such distinct clarity, how her fingers had stuttered against his scalp. Javier had lifted his far-too-heavy head from her comfortable bosom and peered up at her, wondering whether disclosing all this had been a mistake. What kind of idiot walks into a brothel in Medellín half drunk and says he's a cop looking to take down Pablo fucking Escobar plus associates? 

"They come here sometimes. Those sicarios I mean." Aurélia had said, resuming her caresses. Sweet girl. Sweet, sad girl who kissed so softly. 

"Oh yeah?" Just his luck. "Not tonight though, hopefully." Suddenly he wasn't quite as drunk or tired anymore. 

"Not tonight, no. At least not that I know of. Anyway, it's not- I shouldn't tell you this." She'd tilted his head up and pressed a lingering kiss to his lips. That girl could kiss like she was in love with you. 

That was that. Four days later he'd come back, with a proposal wrung from his superiors. Any information that could lead to the capture of one of the Cartel's sicarios for a generous chunk of solid American cash. 

"Aurélia?" Miss Rivas asked in a voice as if she was running calculations. "With curls or with a birthmark?"

"Umm, birthmark." A mole on her left cheek, just under the eye, like a rococo lady in every period piece about the French, except real. 

"Oh! Catalina Vasquez!" 

"You know her?" Of course she knew her. Apparently Medellín was actually a damn village and not a city of millions. 

"Yeah, the family lived just down the street growing up. I used to babysit them sometimes, her and her younger sisters." 

Javier hummed, unsure of how to reply. He pinned the receiver between his head and shoulder and shoved the freed hand up under the collar of his shirt to rub at the tension in the back of his neck. 

"Sorry for interrupting, do go on." 

It had taken some convincing. A whole lot of planning, too. But by the end of it he had one of Gacha's sicarios in custody. A large, brutish man who'd nicknamed himself 'Cobra'. Low-level and not especially bright, as it turned out, but not completely worthless. Javier had gone back to the brothel that night to give Aurélia her reward, and then he'd come back again the night after, when the high of success had worn off and he'd craved being kissed again like it meant something. Only, she'd been gone. Left without a trace, her erstwhile colleagues unwilling to divulge the whats and wheres and whys. Frustrated and anxious and in no small part betrayed, he'd drowned himself in a willing bottle blonde who could do extremely interesting things with her mouth. And that was that, the start of a career and a reputation. Not that he ever expected to be 'serviced' when he was there in a professional capacity. But when they offered, he found himself too weak to refuse. And they almost always offered. For whatever reason. 

Professional pride perhaps.  

"What happened to her?" It had been years but he had to ask, just on the off chance. 

"She took your money and cut loose, moved to the coast and got a job at a baker's. Last thing I heard she was married and had another baby on the way." 

"Good. That's ...good." He'd wondered, all these years... "Thank you."

"I didn't do anything." 

"For listening. For letting me ...unload." For lifting a bit of guilt and uncertainty off of me. "Just... you don't have  to do that. So thank you."

A short rustling, the squeak and groan of a chair, then: "I will listen to whatever you want to tell me, Agent Peña." 

Javier released a sigh, deep and weary, and set aside his glass and the bottle that was significantly lighter than it had been. His mind was somewhere in that soupy stage now, floating aimlessly on some sort of thick fog. It dulled the creeping pain in his back that told him he was too old to be sitting on the floor now. He mumbled something indistinct, rubbed his eyes and shook his head in an attempt to clear the haze. 

"Well, in any case, now you know." He'd only need to tell her about Lorraine, Helena, and Carillo, and he'd have shared all of his major sins. Huh.

"What are you asking for?" 

Absolution. "A verdict?" 

"I have no intention of judging you, Agent Peña. Not for this. You acquainted yourself with all the working girls in Bogotá and Medellín, and I married a man I did not love and stayed with him for years." 

"That's hardly the same." 

"Isn't it?" Her voice was soft and rueful, brimming with words not ready to be spoken quite yet. He sensed it, and agreed, and therefore decided that it was time to cut this heart-to-heart off here for both their sakes. 

"Hell, I don't know. Maybe, in a way." He was way too drunk for this. He shouldn't have drunk this much. Where had his threshold gone? It's like he'd spent years tempering his liver for nothing. 

"Well then, I'll let you know whether or not it'll be worth for you to come down to Medellín next weekend. Sleep well. And drink some water before then." 

Javier glanced at the clock mounted on the oppsite wall. When the hell had it gotten this late? No wonder his ass was numb and his back was killing him. There was a moment when the strangest words were just hanging on to the tip of his tongue, ready to plummet off. That it would always be worth it to see her. Even just to take a turn about a park with her and the kid. Javier swallowed thickly. Gathered his professionalism and detachment. 

"Until then, Miss Rivas. Good night." --- --- --- The phone rings insistently in a way that tells him it's been at it a while. Javier sighed while sliding the glass door of his office shut behind him. He hadn't planned on being all but ambushed by one of Stechner's CIA stooges under the guise of 'inter-agency liasing', and that was after getting caught up with a lenghty presentation one of his newly transferred agents had prepared for him. Feistl, he'd said his name was. The presentation was full of good ideas, too, just too involved. Javier had told the guy as much. If you can get your point across with ten words there's no point using fifty. 

Javier picked up the receiver, one hand rubbing at the dull throbbing that was just starting to build in his temple. 

"Peña."

"You're still at your office? It's past eight, you should go home." He smiles despite himself, and the chiding tone. 

"Got delayed." He offered by way of an explanation. She harrumphed softly. 

"Not that I'm not delighted to hear from you, but what's the occasion?" She rarely called him, he usually called her. She certainly didn't call on Thursday nights because when she wasn't preparing to drive up to Medellín she was usually exhausted enough at this point in the week to turn in early. 

"I hope you're sitting down." 

Javier perched himself on the edge of his desk where it wasn't piled high with reports and mind-numbing paperwork awaiting his signature. "I am." 

"They're having a party and I've been invited. Friday next week. They'll all be there; Santacruz is apparently coming down from New York for it. The chief accountant, the money launderer, everyone. And their wives, or other-" 

Javier's foot slipped a bit where he'd foolishly leaned a significant percentage of his weight on it. He caught himself as the desk gave a loud groan, slipping a bit on the linoleum floor. He righted himself quickly, sitting more firmly on the edge of the desk. 

"What do you know?" 

"Apparently there's going to be some sort of important announcement, but no one knows what it is, not even Miguel. Gilberto called it. All I know is that all four of them will be there, as well as everyone important in the organization. And then some. Likely every politician and law enforcement official in their pocket. Other cartels, too, but I don't know who exactly-"

"Miss Rivas, stop." Javier said firmly. Her voice had gotten that rambling, frantic quality that wore thin its natural pleasant rasp. "That's plenty. This is..." he twisted around and fished for his desk calendar, grabbing the nearest pen to circle the day, "This is huge. It could even be just the break we need."

She was silent for a moment, only her long, deliberate breaths crackling over the line. "You think so?"

"I think regardless of what it is, if it's important enough for a gathering this big, then yes."

"I don't suppose you could raid the party and arrest them all just like that?" She mused. 

"Only in my dreams, Miss Rivas." He allowed himself a second to picture it: surroundig what was no doubt a very large and fancy property, riding in like the cavalry, the dumbstruck faces as the Gentlemen of Calí and their associates realized their luck had run out, clapping the handcuffs on them - he'd want to do it himself, hear the gratifying click of metal on metal that would wipe the self-satisfied smirks off their faces. 

The warrants for the Calí godfathers existed, that wasn't the problem. The problems started with finding the location, circumventing their no doubt expert security, getting the lot of them without anyone escaping... Then there was the trouble of getting a search warrant for the property, even if they did know the address, and it was going to be a whole lot more complicated if the guy who signed those warrants was at that party himself. Then there was the fact that for all the valuable intel Miss Rivas had provided already, it wasn't nearly enough to nail the godfathers beyond what their army of slippery attorneys could weasel them right back out of. What they really needed was for someone to talk. Someone who had been there for longer and knew the operations of the cartel more intimately than Miss Rivas ever could (or than he would want her to, if Javier was being honest). The mysterious money launderer perhaps, or the chief accountant. Either would be good, both would be better - then again, the immunity deals that usually came with these kinds of cooperations didn't sit too well with Javier. 

"Hell, I don't even have a plus one. Do I really have to go? I could pretend to be sick." She sighed and scoffed, and muttered something about not having anything to wear. 

"I think you know." And if these people didn't know his face (and would put a bullet through it on sight) he'd gladly offer to be her plus one, if only to keep her safe. He hated knowing she'd be all alone there, among the wolves. It didn't make what he still had to ask of her any easier.  

"Yes, I know. Miguel called me the 'third corner of their finance trifecta'." A bitter laugh, not that Javier needed that cue to know. He could tell from her voice alone how much she despised it. "In any case, now you know, so you can make whatever arrangements you need. I'll see you tomorrow?" Ah yes, about that. 

"I'm afraid I can't make lunch. Urgent meeting called by the ambassador." Urgent and useless, but when the new president and minister of justice wanted a briefing he had to oblige. "Sorry."

"That's alright. Dinner then? My aunt will be in the hospital overnight." 

"I'll see what I can do." There was just one more thing. "Miss Rivas?"

"Yes?"

"Would you be willing to wear a wire? To the party?" 

"Well, I was thinking a cocktail dress would be more appropriate-" 

Javier scoffed. "You know what I mean." He could picture her grin on the other end of the line, pleased at her little joke. 

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I suppose I might as well, seeing as I'm not getting out of this-" 

"Thank you."

"Best bring the necessary ...equipment with you. I need to go dress shopping this weekend." 

He promised that he would. He promised to call as soon as he knew when he'd be in Medellín. And he promised to go home for the day as soon as they said their good-byes.

He intended to do just that; he only needed to file away some things first. 

"Boss?" Another one of the new transfers poked his head in after knocking. Why was he still here at this hour? Javier struggled to recall his name. 

"Yeah, what is it, uh..." He did feel bad about it, too. A little bit at least. 

"Van Ness, sir." 

"What is it, Van Ness?" 

"Duffy just faxed this over." Van Ness leaned further into Javier's office, holding himself steady on the doorframe, and handed him the flimsy sheet of paper. "They've gotten a lead through Cornerstone." 

--- --- ---

Dinner instead turned into an apologetic phonecall during a meeting break and then a red eye flight out to Medellín. Then there's another meeting at the Search Bloc home base with Colombian National Police representatives and the only high point of it is that he briefly sees Hugo Jr who looks well. So by the time Javier finally starts out to Envigado it's lunchtime again. He makes it there just slightly after. 

He walked up to the small house, past the flowerbeds on the windowsills, and knocked on the door. That side of the house was south-facing and it was a hot, cloudless day that has him sweating in his suit in no time. He's just about to knock again, thinking perhaps the first time he'd been too soft to be heard so as not to disturb the aunt who must be resting after her overnight stay at the hospital, but then he hears the quick tap of feet and the door is yanked open by an out-of-breath Diana. "Hey." 

She was wearing a wide smile and cut-off denim shorts with a simple blue cotton blouse and her hair was loose and much longer than when they'd first met. It seemed like no time at all had passed since then when in reality it had been close to a year now. 

"Hi," Javier breathed, "Sorry for the delay." 

She waved it off. "Come on in, I saved you a plate." She turned and walked back the short and narrow hallway. Stop gawking at her legs.

"That's not necessary." He tried to deflect, toeing off his shoes near the door and loosening his tie and shirt collar, just the top button. 

"Nonsense, unless you've eaten?" She looked over her shoulder before turning into the small kitchen. 

"I haven't, no." Javier conceded, following behind. It wasn't exactly spacious, a round table squished to one wall with just enough space for three chairs. Little Salome sat at one, drawing with an array of colorful crayons. She acknowledged him silently before going back to her drawing and Javier sat down. 

"Coffee?" Diana asked over the hum of the microwave, already pulling two mugs from a cupboard. 

"Please." Javier stretched his legs out as far as he could without becoming a tripping hazard. "How's your aunt?" 

"Resting now. She's been better recently, but overall she's been declining so I don't know-" She gave a helpless shrug, then brought over the mugs, shortly followed by the steaming plate which she set in front of him. He'd learned a while ago that even the most minute resistance was futile anyway. Besides, he actually was really rather hungry. Catering wasn't a priority for the CNP. 

He waited until she sat down in the chair opposite to start eating. They talked quietly, not exactly smalltalk, but nothing too heavy either. It was strange sort of almost-domesticity if one looked over the fact that he was being snuck in like a teenage delinquent boyfriend whenever the aunt was out or asleep (which was fine by him as he had no desire to meet the woman whose only daughter he'd gotten killed). 

"So how does that whole wire situation work in real life?" Diana asked after she'd cleared away the dishes (and physically slapping his hand away when he moved to help). 

"Well it's... there's a literal wire, a microphone on one end, and a recording device on the other. And a battery." Javier began haltingly. 

"And it needs to be concealed under the clothes, obviously." 

"Obviously." 

"Hmm, I see. How big?" She sat back down again, brushing a hand through Salome's hair affectionately. "And how do I secure it under the dress? I need to know these things so I can pick out one that'll cover it all, you see." 

Javier nodded. "Did you want to leave soon? Because I was thinking it's probably easiest if I just came along." 

At this, she seemed surprised, but recovered quickly. "You sure?"

He sipped the last of his now tepid coffee and nodded again. "Yeah, let's go buy you a dress."

"There's no need to buy me a dress, Agent Peña." He recognized that tone by now, how testy she got at any allusion of charity. It was an ingrained reflex that he knew better than to be irked by. 

"The United States government is buying you a dress because you being at that party is of strategic importance to this investigation." He stood to put the empty mug in the sink before she could beat him to it, then returned to the table, standing behind the seat he'd previously occupied and gripping the back of it. "Besides, more of American taxpayer money is spent on worse things." Like Stechner's salary, he thought. She gave him a look that said they'd have more words on this, probably when they reached the checkout, then stood, saying she'd go say goodbye to her aunt. 

Javier nodded, watching her leave. A little noise caught his attention. Salome still didn't speak much, but she knew how to make herself known nonetheless. "What is it, Miss Salome?" Javier stooped to get closer to eye level with the kid. She looked up at him with her big brown eyes and held up a scrap of the paper she'd been drawing on. 

"Oh, what's this?" She shook the paper insistently in her tiny fist, an adorable frown creasing between her brows, as if miffed that he was being slow. And it's... he's gotten more relaxed around the little girl by now, but it still always lingers that he's part of the reason she's an orphan, and traumatised into a selective mutism that apparently even the average counselor or child psychiatrist doesn't quite know how to deal with to boot, that leaves him with a lingering apprehension that manifests in the kind of awkward hesitation that now has her scrambling off the chair and patting his leg as she holds the paper up for him to take. 

"Want me to take a look?" He bends and takes it gently. Is answered by a sort of long-suffering sigh. The scrap is barely the size of his palm, covered in colorful blobs of red and orange and yellow and blue, pink and green and purple swirls in between. 

"Very pretty." He decrees and attempts to hand it back just as Miss Rivas is poking her head back the room. 

"Can you please grab the car seat?" 

"Huh?" It's not very eloquent, but then again he's engaged in a game of impromptu reverse tug-of-war with a toddler. "She's coming with?" She's also pushing the paper back at him again, pouting. 

"Yes of course she is. The car seat? It's on the shelf behind you." There is no argument to be had with the women in this family, so he doesn't even attempt it, just straightens and looks for the car seat which is indeed in the described spot. "And that drawing is for you so just take it." 

"For me?" It's still clutched in his hand, and Salome is heaving a huff as if to say 'Duh. Idiot.' His throat feels tight all of a sudden. "Well, thank you very much." He makes a show of tucking it very carefully into the pocket of his suit jacket, then turns to retrieve the car seat. Together they make their way out. It takes a moment to set up the car seat in the back, another to wrestle the stroller into the trunk, but eventually they're on their way downtown.

--- --- ---

They have entered a world of ruffles. And sequins. For a moment Javier thinks he's having flashbacks to Lorraine's endless sessions discussing bridesmaid's dresses all those years ago. He exchanges a look with Miss Rivas, her expression stony and tense. 

"Alright, quick in and out. If at all possible, I want to be out of here again before Salome wakes up." Javier nodded, tightening his grip on the stroller handles. Salome had dozed off in the car on the drive over and was now out cold, not even stirring throughout the transferral from car seat to stroller. Javier eyed the sea of satins and gulped, then turned to the woman at his side. "What's your plan?" 

"I'm going to find a shop assistant." She narrowed her eyes, gaze flitting over the masses of racks. 

"Good plan." Javier mumbled. He had an inkling that they'd be here forever if they attempted to brave this ocean of dresses alone. 

"Right, you can..." she trailed off as her eyes fixed on a woman some feet away, her head just bobbing up from between two racks where she was rearranging some very bright red and very small garments, "...um, wait by the changing rooms?"

"It's fine." Javier replied, starting to push the stroller in that direction. If nothing else he figured he could function as a temporary clothing rack or something. On instinct, he scans the perimeter while Miss Rivas elucidates to the shop assistant what she is looking for and the younger woman, perhaps in her mid- to late twenties, snaps her fingers in triumph before announcing that she has 'just what you're looking for' and starts marching away. They follow her like ducklings from rack to rack, and a good ten minutes later they have an armful of cocktail dresses of varying lengths, cuts, and colors. It's the kind of brutal efficiency that even Search Bloc could only dream of, all in the petite shape of this eager retail employee with a side pony.

"Let me know if you need help." She chirps as she deftly deposits them in the changing room area before returning to her other tasks. 

It's an almost enclosed space, five curtained cabins in an open half-circle arrangement with a long-ish bench in the middle and some tall mirrors on the spaces between. He wheels the stroller beside the bench and sits a moment later, so that the both of them are facing the changing room where the shop assistant had hung up the dress selection. Shrugs off his suit jacket, then drapes it carefully over the sleeping child to block out the light and muffle the noise of shoppers. Miss Rivas looked at him expectantly, one hand on the curtain that was half drawn. 

"What?" 

"You're gonna have to show me how to put on the wire thingy." She jerked her head towards the changing room. Javier gulped, the implication dawning on him. Looked at the stroller helplessly. There was nothing but an effectively timed baby snore and a twitch of one little ladybug-socked foot. 

"Come on, the sooner we get this over with the sooner we can leave." As previously stated, there is no arguing with the women of this family, especially when they're right, so he resigns himself, dives for the case that holds the machinery, and stands. Miss Rivas stepped aside, drawing up the curtain after a furtive glance around. "We're both adults." 

"Yeah." Javier agreed, his throat tight. At least these cabins were decently sized or they'd be squished in there like sardines in a can. 

Javier turned away to give her some privacy, fiddling with the wire instead, pretending it had gotten more tangled than it was. At her soft confirmation that she's ready he turns around, making a conscious effort not to look... anywhere really. At least she'd only chucked her top; the shorts are still on. 

"Agent Peña, I would assume that you have seen women in their underwear before." She sounded amused, and clearly more relaxed about this than he could ever pretend to be. He gives a terse nod, making his eyeline give a wide berth until his gaze lands squarely on her face where a bemused smirk just barely masks something more uncertain. 

"Sorry, there is a real dearth of female agents or this would be much less awkward." Javier stepped closer, holding the wire in his hands like the world's flimsiest shield. She's right of course, the sight of a woman's brassiere hasn't been new to him since he was a teenager sneakily perusing clothing catalogues in his bedroom after dark. Hers isn't even... it's... functional, off-white, unwired and unembellished, and reveals just the edge of a tan line, something he quickly drags his gaze away from. The problem is of course, that the path his eyes take is further down her body, suddenly snagging on a raised line down at the very edge of her ribcage on the left side. 

"What's this?" His thumb drags across the raised skin instinctually. It's a thin, straight line of scar tissue, around half the length of his index finger and sitting right on the lowest rib. Diana gasped softly and he snatched his hand away like he'd touched one of the electric fences back on the ranch. "Sorry." 

"It's fine, it's just a scar." She took a steadying breath and retraced the path his finger had just taken on her skin with her own, pensive. "I got caught in a shootout on my way home when I was home for summer from university once. It's just a graze." Just a graze that would have been more than that if it had hit just a few inches to the side. Javier felt faint at the thought. 

"Do you have any?"

"Huh?" His brain is lagging on something, hence the eloquent reply. 

"You said you get shot at a lot in this job. Ever been hit?" She ducks her head a little, looking up at him through her lashes from where she's leaning back against the wall. "Come on, I showed you mine, you show me yours." It's clearly a joke, and one she obviously regrets as soon as the words are out, judging by the pained expression that comes right after the statement. 

"Just one." Javier said, tapping his leg about a handwidth above the knee. "Went right through. Apparently missed the main artery by less than half an inch." 

"Hmm, " she hummed, "Looks like we're both lucky then." 

"Yeah," Javier agreed, his voice soft and low, "lucky." 

The changing rooms really were not cramped, but with two fully grown adults inside, they were just about spacious enough. They stood barely an arm's length apart, mirror to one side and thick faux-velvet curtain to the other. Javier felt heat prickle from the base of his neck downwards, and he wasn't even the one with half his chest out. He'd only rolled up his shirtsleeves to his elbows, leaving his forearms bare. 

Her hand brushed over one gently, curling around his wrist and startling him out of whatever feverish reverie he'd zoned out into. 

"So," she trailed her fingertips further down, over his knuckles and the wire slung around them, before tapping against the small black cylinder that housed the recording device and battery, "does this thing get hot?" 

Pull yourself together and be fucking professional! "It shouldn't." 

"Right, well let's get it on then." 

He handed her the microphone end first. Explained ideal placement, the closer to the face the better. This was a modified necktie bug, small and discreet, secured against the skin with tape if necessary. She took it, pinned the mic to the strap of her bra, high up on the shoulder. The wire itself was long enough to wind around her torso once with some slack. The slim casing that held the battery and recording device she tucked into her bra for now. Listened intently as he explained how to turn the device on and off. 

"I'll keep this on for the rest of the day, just to get used to the feeling." Her smile was a bit wobbly as she spoke. 

"Yeah, that's ...uh, a good idea." Javier fidgeted a moment, not sure what to do with his hands. "Right, I'll leave you to your-" 

She gripped his hands just as he was about to turn and leave. Alarmed, he stilled. Watched he lip wobble and the rims of her eyes redden under furrowed brows. "Hey, what is it?, What's wrong?"

She heaved a deep and shaky breath that ended in an even shakier laugh. "I'm sorry I'm just... I'm scared."

"You don't have to do this if you don't feel safe." Javier was quick to offer. "You've helped us so much already."

She swallowed hard. "No, I do want to! Do this, help you. I want to bring them down! Besides, I'm going to be there anyway, so it would be a waste not to-" 

She was trembling now, unaware of her own body's reaction until it was brought into sharp relief by his large warm hands on her shoulders. 

"Hey," he said, thumbs rubbing gently at her collarbones, "It's going to be alright. I won't let anything happen to you, okay?" 

She knew, realistically, that there was only so far he could carry a promise like that, but her nerves calmed nonetheless. It was silly, really. This relationship was just a professional alliance, no matter how many deep secrets they'd shared with one another. Officially of course they couldn't ever be associated, at least as long as any of the 'Gentlemen' of Calí still roamed free. And yet, she trusted him.  

"I know. I'm sorry." She babbled, nerves imploring her to externalize her anxiety through words. "I came to you; I wanted this... want this. I'm in. I'll try to be brave."

He squeezed her shoulders gently. "You're one of the bravest people I know." And that was the crux of it, wasn't it? Because deep down he didn't want her to be brave. Helena had been brave too, and what did it get her? 

"I'm just… I'm tired of being afraid." She steadied herself on him, hands gripping his biceps now. 

"Sometimes being afraid is what keeps us alive." He murmured, bringing one hand up to tilt her face to meet his gaze. "Listen to me. I will do whatever it takes to make sure you're safe, okay? Whatever I can, I promise. I can't have you on my conscience as well." The last part was whispered so softly that she barely caught it, but she nodded, pulling herself together and schooling her breathing.  

"Thank you." She squeezed her hands once and let go. Javier searched her face for a moment longer, thumb brushing over her cheekbone absently, before he remembered himself and drew back.

"You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "yeah I'll be fine." 

"Okay." Javier breathed, straightening, hand going for the curtain. "I'll wait outside."

Her answering smile was still shaky, but not quite as much so.

When Javier ducked out of the changing room his first glance is towards the stroller, where Salome is still napping peacefully. His second glance is directed towards the shop assistant sorting through the returns rack, directed there by the woman's disapproving huff. It's not the same one who helped them pick out dresses, but a slightly older woman, one who carries the gravitas of authority derived by experience with her. 

"Did your wife need help?" She quips while untangling garments from hangers. Out of all that's happened over the past quarter of an hour or so, this is what really makes Javier's ears burn. 

"Yes, with the um... zipper." He stutters, wishing for the first time that day since leaving the base that he could have a smoke. 

"Hmm," the shop assistant resumed her folding, "You would not believe the kinds of things people get up to in there." Her disapproving stare moved to the stroller where Salome was still blissfully asleep under his blazer. He snatches the garment away guiltily, but Salome doesn't even stir, just slumbers on cutely. At last, the woman's eyes soften. 

"Yes, well... call me or any of my colleagues if you need further... assistance." 

"Thanks." He clears his throat and sits as she sails off with an armful of clothes. Miss Rivas poked her head out not a second later. 

"I'm sorry, your what?" 

At least she was laughing again, even if her eyes were still slightly red-rimmed and watery. 

"Sorry, next time I'll be sure to clarify that you are my confidential informant and we're taking down the world's biggest drug cartel together." He retorts, and she breaks out into a wide grin accompanied by a snorty burst of laughter. 

"Well, if you put it like that it sounds almost romantic." Now it's his turn to snort. "I do actually need help with this zipper, though." 

She stepped half out of the little alcove, clad in a floor-length, wine-red halter gown with intricate beading all over, and a slit so high it makes his brain short-circuit. Which causes him to just stare at her dumbly for a long moment, even after she's already turned to present the high back of it. 

"Agent Peña?" She throws over her shoulder, somewhere between amused and slightly concerned. He jumps and strides over, fingers fidgeting with the zipper tab until he gets a decent grip and starts to pull it up the rest of the way. 

"Uh, no I meant down." Her voice is as strained as he feels. He pulls the tab down, desperately trying not to focus on the skin being revealed as he does. She releases a relieved breath when he's done and turns, stepping back inside the changing room. 

"Thanks."

"This one good?" He asks with a non-committal shrug, nodding towards the dress without really looking at it. 

"No, I think I do need to be able to breathe. And also I'd like to be able to walk without flashing everyone. I do work with these people, after all." She smiled, one hand on the curtain ready to draw it back shut. "I'll be quick with the rest, but you can take Salome for a turn if you want, maybe have a smoke outside? We can meet back here or by the registers." 

They both look at the little girl's sleeping form simultaneously, watch her eyes move rapidly under her lids as she is lost in dreams. 

"Thanks, but it's alright. I can stay in case you need further...help."

It really isn't long after that. She hurries, but they also make light conversation while she tries on another five or six dresses. She doesn't come out with most of them but narrates all their flaws very entertainingly. Javier once again enjoys how forward she is, not censoring herself in the least as she complains about everything from odd sizing to itchy material to unfortunate placement of embellishments. 

"Okay, last one." She announces and then draws back the curtain with a flourish and Javier... just gapes. The dress is midnight blue, so dark it looks almost black until light hits the silky fabric and reflects off of it. The color compliments the deep bronze tan of her skin like it had been chosen specifically for her. It's slim-cut, body-hugging and high-collared with thin spaghetti straps and subtle beading on the bodice. A tasteful slit goes to just above the knee and the hem brushes just over the tops of her feet. 

"I think this will work." 

'Oh it definitely works.' Luckily Javier's mouth is currently too dry for these words to slip out, so he just nods, clearing his throat awkwardly. 

"Great! Let me change back real quick and let's get out of here." 

He's just adjusting his suit jacket to lie over the still blissfully sleeping toddler like a blanket when Diana steps back out, back on her shorts and top. 

"Looks like the American taxpayers are in luck. It's discounted." She said as she read the tag, then draped the blue dress over the top of the stroller. "Twenty percent. Not bad." 

Javier snorted. Took the other dresses and hung them up on the returns rack. Grabbed the stroller handles and gently set the vehicle in motion. Salome stirred a moment, then bunched a chubby hand in the fabric sheltering her from the chilly air-conditioning and settled back down. Diana's gaze is soft upon her niece, and soft still when she raises her eyes to meet Javier's. 

They make their way down to the registers, walking from the top floor of the department store downwards, weaving around racks and shelves and other shoppers. Javier is pushing the stroller, Miss Rivas at his side where possible, her hand loosely hooked into the crook of his elbow again as she likes to do. It's two floors down, as they traverse the men's section, that she suddenly sidetracks, half disentangling herself, half pulling him over to a wall display. Neckties. He raises a questioning eyebrow. 

"Since we're here already." She shrugs, like that explains everything. It doesn't. The eyebrw remains up and quizzical. 

"Explain." 

There's a dangerous glint in her eye as she lets her fingertips glide over the assorted fabrics. 

"Gabi said you only have ugly ties." Has she now.

"She's only seen two!" Javier protests without heat. She eyes him critically, eyes the tie he put on this morning at the asscrack of dawn for his damn meetings. He has half a mind to argue that he didn't feel like dressing up all pretty for some pissy general at half past four in the morning. 

"Was this one of them?" Though truth be told perhaps his tie selection is a bit... outdated. This one is several brownish tones in a very 70s pattern, if he's being honest. 

"No?" But this one was also one of the old ones that had been gifts from Lorraine he'd never gotten rid of. 

"Then you have three ugly ties." There is no arguing with this woman. So, he submits. "You'll have to make announcements on national television sooner or later; you'll need to look decent." 

"I'm not arguing, am I?" He figures what's the point. What's the worst that could happen. And she knows she's won, too. Gleefully starts peering through the selection before them. 

"Is this revenge? For this?" He motioned to the dress still draped over the stroller, his meaning clear between them. Is this for making you go to a party with the world's most powerful drug bosses with a wire up your boobs.

"No." She lied, picking up a solid charcoal tie and holding it up to his collar. "Of course not." 

She picks out four, two solid and two patterned.

By the time he parks the car back on a side street in Envigado Salome is awake and very grumpy. A snack of peach slices and crackers mollifies her somewhat, but just enough to get her in the house and distracted by her toys before throwing a fit. Javier carried in the car seat and then the stroller, after Diana's signal that the coast was clear, and lastly he grabs her shopping bag and stuffs the last item on his itinerary for this visit inside, before he forgets again. 

"Another coffee?" He wants to, he really does, but if he ingests any caffeine now he knows he won't sleep until well after midnight. So he shakes his head, apologetic. He's tired, sure, but he'll power through until he reaches his hotel (and then promptly collapse on the bed there.)

"I have one last... I brought you something, just in case." He hands her the bag, and she looks at him quizzically. Until she looks inside, that is. 

"What's this?" She holds the garment up in question, turns it in her hands a a few times. Javier clears his throat.

"Bulletproof vest." 

She gulps. Pales imperceptibly, eyes flitting between him and the vest. 

"You really think this is neces-"

"Just in case." He insists. It probably wouldn't- it's a newer model, thinner and more discreet than the tac vests they use out in the field, but likely still too bulky to be hidden under her normal work clothes, even though she favors looser cuts. He takes it from her gently, motions for her to put her arms up so he can lower the vest over her head and do it up at the sides. Explains how it needs to be secured tight to the body so it doesn't shift. 

"It won't work under my normal work clothes." Miss Rivas frowns, hands smoothing down over the front of it, calculating. Probably going through her wardrobe mentally. Doing an admirable job of not letting fear grip her again like that earlier hiccup. "It's too bulky."

"No, you're right." Javier conceded, hands still at her sides where his fingers are hooked into the clasps of the vest. "You should still take it. Who knows when it'll come in handy."

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

Author’s note cont’d: this is the song Javi is hearing over the phone in the first scene btw

learn about bugs and wires here (though I do admit that I am playing a bit fast and loose with this here ;)

this is what I based the first dress on:

and here’s the final dress: 

and yes, I hate about 90% of the ties they have him wear in the show and that is how that bit came about. Sorry to throw Lorraine under the bus a bit there but I’m sure they were fashionable at the time :/

Next Chapter

[bmblboop]

Several people have already pointed out that Ironwood’s ‘Tin Man without a Heart’ Allusion does not negate him from emotions. If anything, he is the most single-mindedly emotional person in Atlas, framing all this decisions as logical due to the state of mind that fear has put him in.

But I would like to analyze this a bit further - because ‘lacking heart’ or ‘lacking humanity’ can be interpreted as more than just lacking emotion (which again, he does not).

TLDR; I believe what James Ironwood is lacking, his ‘missing heart’ in his Tinman allusion, is empathy.

When he tells Ozpin in Volume 3 that his army is there to symbolize strength and deter the enemies,he is taken aback when Oz mentions that armies are also symbols of conflict and that a fleet of this size indicates a similarly large foe. (The thought of which will not inspire hope).

He stands up for Weiss at the Fundraiser Afterparty, echoing her point of view that the Atlesian upperclass isn’t doing anything worthwhile to help Vale. However, it was Jacques who escalated the argument into Weiss summoning the Boarbatusk, and after killing it, thanks Jacques for hosting the party, and leaves.

Then, throughout all of Volume 7, Ironwood tells us that he is painfully aware of his unpopularity, but reiterates that he has to do it anyway, “I will push through, no matter how I am despised, to deliver you from harm” as summarized by Hero. Most dramatically by the finale “I won’t let let others stand in the way of doing what’s right.” Yes, his intentions are good - the same way bringing his army to Vale was good - but there is something to all these actions that he is neglecting to consider:

The thoughts and feelings of others.

Allow me to serve the dish:

The non-personal scientific advancement and study of Aura - a person’s soul, which is a deeply personal and immeasurable* thing. Considered controversial in universe. (V3C6 - Fall)

*debatable, known to be measured in percentages for Aura shielding of damage

The large army occupying another kingdom, notably the same kingdom and army that started the Great War 80 years ago on an anniversary of the end of said war. (V2 and V3)

After getting Ozpin into hot water with the Vale Council. “I will keep our people safe, you have to trust me... You brought this on yourself.” (V2C12 Breach)

Recognizing Weiss is uncomfortable at home(?), mentioning to her that she will always be welcome at Atlas Academy, but then not standing up to Jacques when he grabs her by the wrist in public when she was speaking the truth? And leaving immediately afterward? (V4C6 - Tipping Point)

Your restrictions on Mantle are making people hate you. “It’s a price I’m willing to pay”. (V7C2 - New Approach)

Telling the world about Salem will spark Grimm attacks everywhere. “Atlas is willing an prepared to assist [fight the Grimm].” (Weiss and Winter say this but Winter is his right-hand woman so it’s clearly an intrinsic part of his plan)

3 murders in Mantle (over the past WEEK) of people who speak out against Ironwood. “Not really worried about my public image, but it is causing unrest.” (V7C4 - Pomp and Circumstance)

Gee, maybe the embargo wasn’t a good idea, it’s making people jump to blaming you. “I know, things in Mantle have been... hard to manage lately.”

Awards RWBY + JNR their Huntsmen licenses inside the coliseum that kick-started the Fall of Beacon and has the immense brainpower to say “And what better way than to celebrate here”. (Note, Ironwood is fully aware of the significance of the tower, and is mostly referring to it as a future-satellite in this conversation, but still man.)

If Robyn wins the election, maybe you can work together to get Mantle on your side. Get her to trust you! “The likelihood of that working- only if she's open too.” (V7C6 - A Night Off)

“Mantle has had to bear a lot of the burden yes, BUT-” “They’re bearing all of it!!”

“We HAVE to finish the Tower. I want Robyn Hill in custody. We can offer her a deal IF she gets Mantle to cooperate.” (V7C7 - Worst Case Scenario)

“...We have checks and balances.” “We’re supposed to, but lately you’ve been running rough-shot all over them.” “Councilman, I never intended-” “What people intend and what people DO aren’t always the same, General.” (V7C9 - As Above, So Below)

Aaaaand I’m gonna end with that line because it accurately sums up James’ whole character.

James cannot put himself in the mind of another, he seems unwilling or unable to see things from Mantle’s point of view. He appears to lack empathy.

Empathy = the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. 

Obviously he wants to save the world, lacking empathy does not mean that he is apathetic. The Tower is going to reunite humanity against their common enemy. It is going to be what restores communication for the betterment of all.

But the clearest sign of his lack of empathy is the finale of Gravity (V7C11). When faced with Salem’s arrival, he orders the murder of the current Maiden so he can move Atlas, orders the arrest of RWBY for daring to disagree with him, along with Qrow and JNR for good measure, plans to move the city of Atlas into the stratosphere to delay Salem’s arrival / inevitable success in conquering the planet while SIMULTANEOUSLY leaving half* the population of Mantle (*numbers unclear) to die to the Grimm and the cold.

In another way - empathy may also tie into his concerns about whether humanity, as a state of being, is a hindrance, and perhaps the reason why Salem keeps winning. Perhaps his concerns about feeling less human are because he lacks the ability to ‘put himself in someone else’s shoes and walk a mile in them.’ (BTW, I am not saying that no empathy = no humanity/not human. I am saying that I think that Ironwood might think that.)

[wildlyminiaturesandwich]

🏠 Tiny Living Stuff Pack Review 🏠

Thank you to the EA Game Changer Program for providing me with the opportunity to play with Tiny Living Stuff early!

I didn’t have a lot of time to play around with this pack because I had some real life obligations during the early access time frame and the embargo time was once again at a ridiculous hour of the morning for me (don’t get me started on that mess), but here’s what I did learn about the new Tiny Living Stuff Pack.

I feel like I need to say straight away that this is my favourite stuff pack so far. The reason I feel the need to say that is because when I sat down to go through the notes I’d made during early access and type up this review, the more I got into it, the more it started to sound... aggressively ranty 😬

I was going to try to tone it down a bit, but honestly there are already so many reviews out there that gloss over the glaring bugs that I figured I might as well just leave it. It’s my honest opinion of the pack, and what’s the point of doing a review if I’m not giving my honest opinion, no matter how ranty? lol

I’m gonna put this under a cut, because spoilers.

— What I loved —

🏠 Create-a-Sim:

I’ve been saying for a long time we need more comfy casual clothing for our sims and with this pack we finally got some! LOOK AT THOSE JAMMIES!

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting any CAS items with this pack, but we got some amazing clothing that I will no doubt use on literally every sim I make lol

The hairs are good too, and more options are always appreciated, however I honestly feel like we already have different variations of most of them.

The best part about the hairs is that every single one of them has been made available for kids and toddlers! Apparently one of the gurus found a quick and cost effective way to convert hairs, so hopefully we’ll see this happen more and more with each future pack!

🏠  Buy Mode:

The Buy Mode objects are 100% the star of this pack for me. I don’t think there is a single thing in the buy catalogue of this pack that I didn’t absolutely adore! Some of the objects have issues — and I’ll get into that in a bit — but overall I love, love, LOVE the general concept of everything.

[click for larger]

The objects in this pack were based off the Scandinavian concept of Hygge and I really think they hit the nail on the head! Everything feels so cozy and comfy, with a little hint of Ikea to the furniture and I just... I can’t even really put into words how much I love it all. I honestly can’t remember a single previous pack (expansion, game or stuff) where I have loved every item in the buy catalogue, there’s usually always something that’s like “Meh” or “I don’t like this at all” to me, but the objects in this pack are 10/10.

I also love that they combined so many things. Like the murphy bed with the couch on the front (though I do wish we were also given that couch as a separate couch as well) and the TV unit that’s also a bookcase AND a stereo. And I really appreciate that they went back and redid some of the old book ends to make them functional bookcases. 

— What I didn’t love —

🏠 Create-A-Sim:

I say it with every pack and I’m going to continue to say it even if no one is listening...

WHERE ARE THE KIDS, TODDLERS AND ELDERS CAS ITEMS!?

I know the kids and toddlers got some hairs but that doesn’t make up for the serious lack of CAS content that every age range besides young adults has and it’s getting really hard to make unique sims when there isn’t enough content to choose from.

🏠 Build Mode:

For a pack dedicated to Tiny Living, I was really disappointed to see literally only one door in the build catalogue. ONE. I was expecting some small windows, maybe some sliding doors, but nope; just one door. Hell I would have even been happy to have less CAS stuff in exchange for some build stuff!

I get why they haven’t added bunk beds and spiral stairs yet, those are a lot of work and I’m ok with waiting until they perfect them BUT this would have been the perfect pack to add ladders. We already have ladders in game that are fully animated (pool and island living ladders) it really wouldn’t take that much work to make ladders work between floors. I HATE the idea of having to put stairs outside in tiny builds and ladders are the ultimate in space saving “technology"; I feel like the team really dropped the ball on that one.

🏠 Murphy Beds:

Listen, I love the concept of the murphy beds and the design of them looks really cool but I can’t see myself using them at all as they are currently.

I was almost immediately disappointed with them when I realised they were remote controlled. I know that it makes it easier for the Sims Team so they don’t have to work so hard to animate them, but I really wanted sims to pull them down by hand. The reason I wanted murphy beds in the game was because they would fit better with small apartments and homes of sims who don’t have a lot of money, and to me a remote controlled murphy bed sounds incredibly expensive. 

Oh but don’t worry, because apparently the remote control is invisible?

Now, the version of the game that the Gurus were using for the stream didn’t have invisible remotes BUT they use a dev build of the game that isn’t the same as ours, and many other Game Changers are also saying its invisible for them too, so I dunno what happened but that’s just one of the things that needs to be fixed.

The other issue, which is the biggest deal breaker for me, is that the damn things constantly break! And I do mean CONSTANTLY. You know how when you buy a cheap stereo or sink it’ll last a few days/uses before it breaks? Yeh, not the case for the murphy beds. They break instantly, and they break often.

I was REALLY looking forward to murphy beds being added to the game and I thought if there’s one thing I need to do above all else with this pack, it’s test out those glorious murphy beds! Well... I managed to play for roughly three sim days and here’s what happened during that time:

Bed 1 (never used before) got stuck on first use and squashed Sim 1

Bed 1 got stuck on second attempt and killed Sim 1

Bed 1 got stuck on third attempt and squashed Sim 2

Bought brand new bed

Bed 2 pulled down without issue for Sim 2

Bed 2 broke at 11pm while Sim 2 was sleeping and squashed Sim 2

Sim 2 refused to sleep for 3 hours out of fear while Sim 3 was able to sleep in broken, sparking bed for that time without issue because they weren’t in it when it squashed Sim 2

Sim 2 repaired bed while Sim 3 continued to sleep

After 3 hours Sim 2 went back to sleep and Bed 2 broke again almost immediately

Bought brand new bed. Again.

Bed 3 got stuck on first attempt and squashed Sim 2

Bed 3 got stuck on second attempt and squashed Sim 3

Bed 3 pulled down without issue on third attempt for Sim 3

Sims 2 and 3 slept for another 2 hours before Bed 3 started sparking again but didn’t squash them

Woke Sim 2 up to repair bed and immediately sent Sim 2 back to bed (the fear moodlet only happens if they get squashed but the bed can break without squashing them apparently?)

Bed 3 broke again 3.5 hours later and squashed both Sim 2 and 3

I rage quit.

For the so-called “Hero” object of this pack, this is just unacceptable. The percentage for breakage REALLY needs to be turned down because in my opinion they’re not usable as they are.

And even if it weren’t for all the bugs, I probably still wouldn’t use them in tiny homes because I don’t think they’re space saving at all. They take up exactly the same amount of space as normal beds do; 6 tiles. You can’t put anything in front of them or around them if you want them to be functional on both sides, and you can’t even put dangling lights above them because I guess, realistically, the bed would hit them on the way down?

It’s especially annoying with the murphy bed that has the couch attached. It would have been really nice to add a small coffee table or ottoman in front of it but you can’t because then your sims won’t be able to use the bed. I really wish they had have made at least the little round coffee table and the ottoman from this pack inventory-able. Sims could have them out during the day, and throw them in their inventory when they need to use the bed at night, then place them back down in the morning when they wake up.

I think it’s this aspect — not being able to put things around/in front of the murphy beds — that actually annoys the most; the bugs will probably be fixed eventually but I can’t see this ever changing. I spent most of the three days we had for early access trying to work out how to fit a murphy bed into a 32 tile micro home without having it just sitting in the middle of an empty room and let me tell you, it’s not worth the frustration.

— The Verdict —

🏠 7/10 Would go Tiny again

As I said, this is my favourite stuff pack so far and I will get a lot of use out of the CAS and Buy stuff, but because of all the things I mentioned above I can’t give it a 10/10.

I do love the content of this pack, but right now I’m getting kind of fed up with the issues that keep happening with every pack lately. It’s all stuff that should have been caught by QA testing, stuff that is glaringly obvious to the average player, and stuff that would have only taken two minutes of gameplay to find out was a problem. I don’t know who tests these packs, but whoever it is needs to step up their game in a big way.

Overall I really do love the pack, but some major aspects fell a little flat for me. And the fact that that’s not at all a surprise, and that this feeling of “I like it, but...” has become the norm with new packs is really quite sad.

If you have questions about Tiny Living Stuff, feel free to drop an ask in my box, anon will be on right up until the release 😊

[esuemmanuel]

He querido escribir lo que siento, pero me he dejado bloquear por el temor de no encontrar las palabras que se ajusten a mis sentimientos... No es sencillo dejarse salir cuando se tiene por costumbre ser tan amante de lo perfecto... Me he colmado de un miedo irrazonable, de una vergüenza que se antepone al hecho de verme desnudo... Me estoy adelantando al resultado que no me atrevo a definir en la hoja blanca, la misma que me ha estado esperando con ansiedad, pues me he estado callando lo que nunca. Y no, no voy a meterme a hablar de lo que hacía antes, de todas esas palabras que vomitaba en el papel sin detenerme a pensar si estaba bien o mal hacerlo, si era correcto o incorrecto, si me ayudaba o no, si hería o no a quien me leyera... No, no voy a entrar en esas cosas que están fuera de mí, que ya no me pertenecen --y nunca me pertenecieron--. Estar aquí, ante el color blanco de una hoja que será borrada por el acontecer del tiempo, no es cosa simple para el que aprendió a tener miedo de expresarse... Si, me he llenado de temores que se salen de mi control, que han logrado ahogar a mi cabeza de negaciones, de obstáculos, de una inconsciencia que me arranca de tajo la raíz de mi amor por la palabra. He sido un loco amante de la escritura... he llorado, gritado, gemido, reído, odiado y amado a través de ella, ya sea al leerla o al escribirla, ya sea al degustarla por la superficie o sentirla en las entrañas de mi vida... Sin embargo, hoy... hoy me cuesta mucho trabajo dejarme salir y, aunque sé que esto me está matando, no hago nada por vaciarme. Este escrito es el comienzo, quizás, de la liberación que necesito... y la que sólo yo he sido capaz de quitarme, porque la libertad nadie me la puede robar (a nadie nos la pueden robar, eso es un hecho innegable). Haré a un lado esta sinrazón que me apresa al absurdo silencio y derramaré desde el sagrado cáliz de mi presencia la vid de mi existencia, esa pasión que me ha colocado la etiqueta de "Escritor", y la cual me prometí alimentar con el palpito de mi carne, de mi aliento y de mi eterno ser. Al final, al único que habré de responder la razón de mis encierros es a Mí.

Esu Emmanuel© , I have wanted to write what I feel, but I have let myself be blocked by the fear of not finding the words that fit my feelings... It is not easy to let yourself out when you have the habit of being a lover of perfection... filled with an unreasonable fear, a shame that takes precedence over the fact of seeing myself naked... I am anticipating the result that I dare not define on the white sheet, the same one that has been waiting for me with anxiety, because I have been keeping myself silent more than ever. And no, I'm not going to get into talking about what I did before, about all those words that I vomited on paper without stopping to think if it was right or wrong to do it, if it helped me or not, if it hurt or not whoever read to me... No, I'm not going to get into those things that are outside of me, that no longer belong to me - and never belonged to me. Being here, faced with the white color of a leaf that will be erased by the events of time, is not a simple thing for those who learned to be afraid to express themselves... Yes, I have filled myself with fears that are beyond my control, that have succeeded in drowning my head in denial, in obstacles, in an unconsciousness that rips out the root of my love for the word. I have been a crazy lover of writing... I have cried, shouted, moaned, laughed, hated and loved through it, either when reading it or writing it, either by tasting it on the surface or feeling it in the bowels of my life... However, today... today I have a hard time letting myself go out and, although I know this is killing me, I do nothing to empty myself. This writing is the beginning, perhaps, of the liberation that I need... and the one that only I have been able to take away, because freedom cannot be stolen from me (nobody can stolen it from us, that is an undeniable fact). I will put aside this unreason that captures me to the absurd silence and I will pour out from the sacred chalice of my presence the vine of my existence, that passion that has given me the label of "Writer", and which I promised myself to feed with the heartbeat of my flesh, my breath and my eternal being. In the end, the only one who will have to answer the reason for my confinements is Me.

[tarotagustina]

Pick a Card ♥ Mensaje del Universo para ti / Message from the Universe for you

Español:

¡Hola de nuevo! Esta vez les traigo una lectura muy especial, con la pregunta: ¿Qué mensaje necesitas escuchar? Un mensaje del universo, de tus guías espirituales, tus ángeles, Dios, tu Yo superior, de lo que sea que tú creas. Como siempre digo, estas son tiradas generales, así que por favor quédate solo con lo que resuene contigo. Si quieres una lectura personalizada, no olvides pasarte por mi página principal donde tengo la publicación fijada con toda la información. Toma un respiro, y elige la pila que más te llame la atención, ¡Sigue tu intuición!

English:

Hello there! This time I came with a very special reading. The question is: What message do you need to hear right now? This can be a message from the Universe, your spirit guides, your angels, God, your Highest Self of whatever that you believe! As I always say, this are general readings, so please just take what resonates with you. If you want a personal reading, you can go to the main page where is the pinned post that have the with all the info. Take a breath and choose the pile that calls you the most. Follow your intuition!

OPCIÓN #1 / OPTION #1

Cinco de espadas - El Sol - Tres de copas invertida

Mensaje del universo: No gastes energías en batallas que no valen la pena. Las satisfacciones superficiales y efímeras no te ayudarán a resolver tus problemas.

Está bien ser ambicioso para lograr tus objetivos, pero está mal que en el proceso entres en conflicto con todo el mundo. Algunos de ustedes se han tenido una actitud de “Yo vs El mundo” y eso les ha alejado de muchas personas. Probablemente lo hayan hecho para defender sus objetivos, lo que no está mal, pero no vale la pena que estés en conflicto con todos; el mundo no está en contra tuyo ni todo el mundo debería ser tu enemigo. Debes ser más flexible y relajarte; puede que te sientas satisfecho por tus victorias y sientas que este alejamiento de otros lo vale, dándote una falsa sensación de bienestar. Pero en el fondo, sabes que eso no es lo correcto y que realmente esa felicidad es efímera. Tengo la sensación de que muchos de ustedes han sufrido una traición en el pasado y también se han centrado en dejar de lado responsabilidades o personas cercanas (Amigos, familia) para vengarse de esta persona que les hizo daño o para centrarse en placeres mundanos. No está mal experimentar este tipo de placeres, el problema es que lo haces para evitar enfrentar el problema real y tratarlo: Tú.  Respira, deja atrás tu ego y empieaza de nuevo: Verás que tu sabiduría interna y un entorno amistoso te traerán mucha más satisfacción que una victoria a costa de otros. 

Five of Swords - The Sun - Three of Cups (Reversed)

Message from the universe: Don’t waste your energy in things that doesn’t worth it. The superficial and quickly satisfactions won’t take your problems away.

It’s okay to be ambitious for achieve your goals, but it’s not when in the process you enter in conflict with everyone around you. Some of you have been taking this attitude of “Me vs The World” and this this have took you away from many people. You probably did it to defend your objectives, which is not bad, but it isn't worth it if you are in conflict with everyone; the world is not against you and not everyone has to be an enemy. You must be more flexible and relax; you may feel satisfied by your victories and feel that this estrangement from others is worth it, giving you a false sense of well-being. But deep down, you know that this is not the right thing to do and that happiness is actually ephemeral. I have the feeling that many of you have suffered betrayal in the past and have also focused on putting aside responsibilities or close people (Friends, family) to get revenge on this person who hurt you or to focus on worldly pleasures. It is not bad to experience these types of pleasures, the problem is that you do it to avoid facing the real problem and treating it: you. Breathe, leave your ego behind and start again: You will see that your inner wisdom and a friendly environment will bring you much more satisfaction than a victory at the expense of others.

OPCIÓN #2 / OPTION #2

Caballero de Bastos Invertido - Sota de Bastos - Nueve de Espadas

Mensaje del Universo: Tienes el poder para manifestar todo lo que quieras en tu vida, pero no estás viendo tu potencial. ¡No te rindas!

Has estado gestando algo desde hace mucho tiempo, algo a lo que le haz puesto todo tu empeño y tu corazón, y puede que hayas sido un poco impulsivo debido a tu emoción. Es posible que se haya retrasado o hayas tenido obstáculos que te han impedido lograrlo; y ello te ha traído mucha frustración y enojo. Cariño, el universo quiere que sepas que si fallas es porque algo más necesitabas aprender; y que estás muy cerca de alcanzar eso que tú quieres. pero no lo estás viendo. Estos fallos del pasado te han desanimado y gracias a eso sientes miedo de no progresar y de volver a fallar; también te hacen dudar de tu poder y afecta tu autoestima. No dejes que todo esto te desanime, no ahora que estás tan cerca de llegar a la meta. Eres un ser poderoso, sólo tienes que recuperar esa confianza en ti mismo. Si es necesario, planifica un poco antes de pasar a la acción y verás como todo lo que deseas se manifestará. ¡Ánimos!

Knight of Wands (Reversed) - Page of Wands - Nine of Swords

Message from the Universe: You have the power to manifest everything you want in your life, but you are not seeing your potential. Don't give up!

You've been working on something for a long time, something you've put all your effort and heart into, and you may have been a bit impulsive because of your emotion. It's possible that it was delayed or you had obstacles that have prevented you from achieving it; and this has brought you a lot of frustration and anger. Honey, the universe wants you to know that if you fail it is because you need to learn something; and that you are very close to achieving what you want, but you are not seeing it. These past failures have discouraged you and thanks to that you are afraid of not progressing and failing again; they also make you doubt your power and affect your self-esteem. Don't let all of this put you off, not now that you're so close to reaching the finish line. You are a powerful being, you just have to regain that confidence in yourself. If necessary, plan a little before taking action and you will see how everything you want will manifest. Cheer up!

OPCIÓN #3 / OPTION #3

Caballero de Bastos - Rueda de la Fortuna - Rey de Espadas Invertida

Mensaje del Universo: Sigue tus instintos sin cuestionarlos. Aprende a confiar en las fuerzas que no puedes comprender.

¿Qué pasó, cariño? Parece que en el pasado nada podía detenerte, tenías una actitud decidida que te hacía avanzar por sobre todas las cosas. Sin embargo has tenido un cambio rotundo de actitud, y ahora en lugar de avanzar, estás estancado. Te has estancado pensando las cosas una y otra vez, pareces estar muy indeciso sobre cual dirección escoger o qué deberías hacer. Estás atormentando tu cabeza con tantos pensamientos. Estos no te ayudan, sino que te hacen tener más dudas.  Cariño, es momento que dejes de pensar tanto y simplemente actúes. Hay algo más poderoso que esos pensamientos: Tu intuición. Ella tiene la sabiduría infinita que te guiará siempre hacia la dirección correcta. Deja de buscarle la lógica a todo y simplemente confía en esa intuición y esas fuerzas que el razonamiento humano no puede entender. No es necesario que sigas deteniéndote en dudas y en miedos de tomar una decisión. El universo está contigo, es todo lo que necesitas saber.

Knight of Wands - Wheel of Fortune - King of Swords (Reversed)

Message from the Universe: Follow your instincts without question them. Learn to trust in the forces you can't understand.

What happened honey? It seems that in the past nothing could stop you, you had a determined attitude that made you move forward above all things. However, you had a resounding change in attitude, and now instead of moving forward, you are stuck. You have been stuck thinking about things over and over again, you seem to be very undecided about which direction choose or what you should do. You are tormenting your mind with so many thoughts. These don't help you, but they make you have more doubts. Honey, it's time to stop overthinking and just act. There is something more powerful than those thoughts: Your intuition: It has an infinite wisdom that will always guide you in the right direction. Stop looking for logic in everything and simply trust that intuition and those forces that human reasoning cannot understand. It's not necessary that you keep stopping in doubts and fear of making a decision. The universe is with you, it's all you need to know. You will be right!

[shinobirain24]

Water and Ice- Chapter 3: Jupiter is Alive?

Jupiter is Alive?

Neptune is now a full-fledged huntsmen after graduation from Shade Academy. Since Haven was being closed due to the attack by the White Fang. He went back to Argus after speaking to his friend, Sun about having some time alone after a disaster on a mission. When they are assigned to capture sea poachers planning to control the Sea Feilong. But it struck him when the team is supposed to be fighting him in the water. Only for Neptune to froze when he looked down from the militia ship of the Mistral Forces. So the rest of Team SSSNN have to take care of it. While he remained standing, shaken. But when he decided to join the fight, it knocked him into the water and he made another whirlpool, inadvertently. Thankfully, the poachers were caught, but the Grimm swam away. Sun understood this, and lets him take the time he need to sort this out.

So now he's back in Argus, where he was born in. There is standing in front of the falls, where the water flows almost the speed of the ocean's waves. It should be a start for him to touch the water in order to use his semblance. He reaches for it, only for his hand to shake in fear. He couldn't stand the sight of the wet substance. He pulls back after experiencing the series of flashbacks when he was his four-year-old self. "Why can't I do this? I'm a huntsman and I still cannot touch this stuff." He sighs. Neptune feels vibration in his pocket and pulls out his scroll, a text message from his friend, Sun.

Hey man, how are you doing?

Neptune replied back.

Totally, cool, man. Just having a lot in my mind.

The guys and I are worried, are you sure you need more training?

Yeah, I just can't get in the way of your missions if this involves you know what.

Alright, take the time you need, we'll be keeping in touch while we can.

If you, Scarlet, Sage and Nolan want to stop by, be my guests.

Alright, I'll be seeing you. Take care.

You too.

Neptune was about to put away his scroll. however it vibrated again as Neptune holds it up. This time it was from his older sister, Ceres.

Are you seeing this? She sent. Neptune is confused for what she is talking about, but it sounded urgent.

What are you talking about?

Oh, you didn't know. But there was a report about the Black Thunderbolts sinking the ships that loads the embargo of dusts, five days ago.

Okay, sent me the link. Hopefully there's a mission for this and I should take care of it.

There's more.

Ceres screenshot the photos of the rogues responsible for the attacks. Three males and a female. And one of the male rogues has blue hair, only all four have black visors and leather jackets that has the lightning bolt insignia that represents the Black Thunderbolts. The blue-haired man looked familiar to Neptune when he notices a scar over his left cheek. A scar that is similar to his thought-to-be dead brother, Jupiter.

Don't tell me, Jupiter's alive?

I'm not sure, but I think it's him.

Does Mom and Dad know?

No. Not yet, but I'll tell them.

Okay, I'm going to look for him.

No. It's too risky, I'll have the police involve to see if it's him.

Alright, I'll see you then.

Neptune hung up and puts away his scroll. Just looking at the picture gives him the chills of his past. He cannot stop looking at the pic, even if there were people in front of him whenever he's walking. Deep down in his thoughts, he wanted to just step into the rift and look for him. Throughout his youth, his parents never stopped looking for him or his team. But the marines found nothing, their bodies were never found and declared dead. Not even divers can find them. Every authority figure have gave up the search at some point. But no one can prove to the Vasiliases that Team ZRVT were dead without their physical forms. Despite that the news devastates his parents and siblings, they accepted it and moved on. But they never forgotten the beloved son and brother they know and loved. But hoping he would turn up and appear on their doorstep. But it doesn't work this way. Neptune couldn't forgive himself for unintentionally knocking away Jupiter. But his family assured him that what happened was just an accident.

He have his goggles on to head to the port. Hopefully to see less of the water. And there were 16 huntsmen and huntresses including himself who have taken the mission to find the members of the Black Thunderbolts, a gang of former huntsmen who turned to the life of violence who despise society and authority. Using their semblance and weapons for crime. A ferry arrived and stopped by the pier. The huntsmen are either in teams or they're going solo. There were two huntsmen by the rails who're talking behind his back, Rick Argo. One huntsmen is a male redhead with a military patterned jacket with black jeans, and has straps that was from the upper left to the lower right corner of his shoulder and waist. The second has orange hair with a silver vest and a yellow t-shirt under and brown jeans, and two pistols on the side of his belt, Drey Brandwood. They glanced at Neptune when he was nearby, he wasn't familiar with the two. But they remembered him like it was yesterday.

"Hey, look who it is." Said Rick, nudging Drey.

"If it ain't the blue-haired fraidy-cat? What is he doing here?" Drey said in a taunting tone.

"I heard he killed his brother on a last mission."

"Either he's very brave or very stupid. It's his fault that Team ZRVT is gone. Not to mention he was led by that gullible monkey boy in Haven." Neptune is slightly provoked by the insults when it comes to his brother, friends or anyone he cared about. Clenching his fist in anger like he was going to put up a fight. "Any idea why?" Said Drey. "Maybe he's back to wash us out with his deadly cyclone." They burst into laughter.

"Or maybe he's back because Jupiter has been fed up with his job and fakes his death to join the Black Thunderbolts." The blue-haired huntsmen had enough and walked over to his rivals he finally recognized them as the boys who nearly dropped him to the water. Jupiter has defended him from them when he was younger, but now it's his tunr to give them a taste of their own medicine. His steps grew louder by the minute and land his fist on Rick's face. His head remained on the other side until he turned back to Neptune, as he saw his nose bleeding. He swiftly wipes the blood off. "What the hell, man?!" He shouted. Neptune glared at him, wanting to snap at any minute, at least not today.

"Mention my brother or my friend ever again, and I'll make you regret the day you two ever met me." He snarled pushing Rick hard before turning away and moved to a different spot. But Drey wasn't letting this go.

"Now you've done it, Vasilias!" He rushed towards him with his fist pressed to strike him. But Neptune kicks him on the stomach. Rick launched at him to swipe his feet under, unsuccessfully. But Neptune jumps over and headbutts him like how Sun taught him when he was teaching him combat. And it paid off very well. Until ice was crystallized on the two boys' ankles. "What the?!"

"Hey, who did that?!" They struggled to free themselves from the ice. But it was too strong. And the chills fill from their legs to their spine.

"Honestly, you two are acting like wild Grimm around here." A voice is heard when they turned to the right from the rails. Appearing before them is a young woman with white hair and light skin. Icy Blue eyes with a scar on her left eyelid. With a white dress that reaches her ankles, even a midnight blue coat with a sapphire broach on the left upper corner attached. One thing Neptune liked about women is that they can be serious at times. And he recognized the eyes anywhere.

"Hey, what gives, Lady?! This is between us and Vasilias!" Warned Rick. And Drey nodded.

"You two should've thought about holding your tongue before you trigger a fight. And plus, if anyone's completing this mission, it's going to be me." She remarked.

"Those cold eyes, and the hair color. I've seen you on the news before, you're Weiss Schnee." Drey said coldly.

"What's an heiress doing here? Trying to take the credit taking down the Black Thunderbolts by herself?"

"Ex-heiress, actually. And no, I am here to look for my sister, she happens to be M.I.A. I believe the Black Thunderbolts have something to do with it." She corrected.

"Probably her fault for not staying in Atlas. Especially when she left you sister-less in the name of militia loyalty by abandoning Mantle." Drey taunted, hoping to also provoke her to take him on, but she remained in her composure. It upsets him that nothing can make her angry no matter how much he threw at her. "Say what you want. My sister did what she thought was right, we have our differences. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you walk away from this mission and go home. Have a nice day." She smiled, leaving the boys in ice. Neptune then approaches her, but stops at his reflection of a window to fix up his and winked at himself. Then he nudged at Weiss, "How you've been, Snow Angel?" He grinned. Flicking his hair like he does to some other girls. But Weiss isn't falling for it like she had before in Beacon. "Hmph!" She gave him a cold shoulder. Even if she was standing for him, she is still mad at him for some reason, and he couldn't put his finger to it. Rick and Drey laughed at the sight. "Wow! Looks like someone's destined to get rejected." Chuckled Rick.

"Shut up." Sighed Neptune.

[ayfarag102]

Practical Steps to Liberate Falasṭeen | Sh. Usama RAA

Rabi’ al-Awwal 1430 March 2009 All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him and seek His aid and forgiveness, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evil in ourselves and from our bad deeds. He whom Allah guides cannot be led astray, and he who is led astray cannot be guided. I bear witness that there is no God other than Allah alone, without partners, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. As for what comes after: My Muslim Ummah: this talk of mine is for you, and concerns what must be done to help our family in the Blessed Land, because we have been late in helping them and that has hurt our causes and made them even more difficult and complicated. For how long must our family in Palestine live in fear, while we enjoy security – albeit a false, temporary security? For how long must the people of Gaza live under siege, while we live in comfort and luxury – at least for the time being? And for how long will we sit while their hearts burn for their children, who were burned by the white phosphorous bombs with the collusion of Arab rulers, which caused even brave and mighty men to cry, due to the enormity of the event. Their crying here is more eloquent and expressive than thousands of sermons about the magnitude of the calamity. And the stabbing of close relations is severer For a man than the blow of the sword It is no surprise that some of our mothers and sisters in Gaza died or almost died, not because of shrapnel or bullets, nor because of the blockade, for the blockade is nothing as long as the child is still there; but the blockade is the day he is lost. For a mother, the kings and all that they own are smaller in her eyes than her little one, but the American aircraft in the hands of the Jews bomb and bomb again, and snatch the little ones of the neighborhood, among them her little ones; and this is what makes our mothers and sisters tremble in fear, and almost die with every breath. Hearing isn’t like seeing, and only the one who has had his child snatched from him knows what it’s like to be bereaved, and only the one who has endured the bombing knows what bombing is like; and there is no Mu’tasim to take revenge from the tyrants. It must be pointed out that it is part of psychological defeat and betrayal of the religion, the Ummah and the blood of the martyrs to praise the one who colluded in killing them and describe him as “Gaza’s hope,” while its residents are noble and defiant people who reject that. Gaza’s youth died so it could live And praise of Kufr makes free ones burn with anger Peoples were liberated with their spears So how can they be enslaved with their spears? And the tragedies that have befallen you Have left deep wounds in my heart Nothing protects creeds like victims Nor brings rights near nor achieves them Those in power have sold out the causes And are slaves of the unbelievers Ask he who besieged your children Is there any difference between his heart and a stone? The hearts of our rulers are like those of the enemies Whether in Najd or in Egypt, they never soften Pharoahs who have returned after a time To humiliate the sons of Arabness and enslave them You have cooperated with the enemies against us So cutting your necks is a duty in the religion My Muslim Ummah: more than 90 years have passed since the occupation of Palestine, and during that time it has tasted the two bitterest things at the hands of the Christians and Jews. And despite the past efforts which have been made, including the repeated demonstrations and festivals, the occupation continues. So I ask of you – my Ummah – a few minutes for me to put in front of you practical steps for its liberation, to discharge the obligation and motivate the Ummah. This requires speaking the truth even if it be bitter, and it is also a must that it be applied to the weak as well as the nobleman, even if that be heavy; to do otherwise is the path to ruin, so beware! The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, “Those before you were ruined because when the nobleman among them stole, they would let him go, but when the weak one among them stole, they would execute on him the Hadd (punishment).” Agreed upon. My Muslim Ummah: from the bitter truth which must be declared is that despite our eagerness to rescue our family in Gaza and lift the blockade from them, there are those who are even more concerned for them than we are – and I mean by that our brothers in the rest of Palestine, including the West Bank – yet were unable to come to the aid of their family and relatives, for an obvious reason: their country is occupied, and the soldiers of the Zionists and soldiers of the Authority led by Abbas prevent them from helping their brothers there. This reason is the same reason which prevents us from helping our family in Gaza. The bitter truth is that our countries are occupied from within, and the Arab Zionists – the region’s rulers and our enemy’s proxies – and their soldiers are the ones who prevent us from helping the weak and oppressed there. So unless we realize that our countries are occupied in the interest of the rulers and those who appointed them, and that they are helped in that by both military as well as civilian armies, the latter being the most important and dangerous and led by the evil scholars and those of the educated class and media men whom they have hired; [armies which] lead the Ummah astray and spread the spirit of defeat in it and train it in every way possible to march behind the rulers, so they can continue to usurp government and strip the Ummah of its will through temptation and intimidation, in order that our Ummah become incapable of taking the initiative and moving outside the influence of the rulers and their men… Unless we realize this, and work to expose the truth about them and warn against them and remove them and liberate ourselves from their authority, we will never be able to liberate Palestine, as someone who doesn’t have something can’t give it, and we will continue to revolve in the closed circle in which we have been marching ever since the occupation of the Blessed Land. My Muslim Ummah: the one who examines conditions in Palestine sees that the necessary requirements for the Jihad to achieve its goals still need to be completed, despite the difficulty of that in occupied Palestine, especially with the embargo imposed on our family there, not to mention the “calming” agreements which are signed every now and then; and the situation throughout the past decades confirms that. This is why a sufficient force of Mujahideen must be formed to lift the blockade from Palestine so they can help our family there, because all the Arab cordon states have closed their borders with Palestine and are guarding them from the movement of the Mujahideen; and moreover, in regard to the part which had been excepted from the northern front of Palestine on the border with Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah and his party agreed to the resolution closing it: Resolution 1701, which calls for the entrance of thousands of Crusader forces to protect the Jews. And thus there is no difference in this issue between Hassan and Hosni and the rest of the Arab idol-kings who have besieged our family there. On the basis of the above, we must search for states outside the cordon states from which the Mujahideen can move out to open the borders by force, so that we can reach our family in the environs of blessed al-Aqsa; and the rare and valuable opportunity for those honest in their desire to deliver al-Aqsa is in backing the Mujahideen in Iraq with everything they need in order to liberate Mesopotamia. And with that they will have performed two duties: the defeat of the Zionists’ biggest ally, before they move on to Jordan, as it is the best and widest of the fronts, and half its residents are from the people of Palestine who were expelled from it in the past; and from Jordan, the second move will be to the West Bank and neighboring areas, and the borders will be opened by force to make up for the deficiency in necessary requirements, so that all of Palestine from the river to the sea can be liberated, Allah permitting. This, then, is the Shari’ah-compliant way and the practical and realistic way as well, far away from expending efforts in statements and actions the majority of which neither repel the might of arms nor inflict injuries on the enemy. So enough sitting and wasting of time and enough shirking of responsibility: the holocaust of Gaza in the midst of this long siege is an important and historic event and an articulate tragedy which affirms the need for detachment of the Muslims from the hypocrites. It is not right that our condition after Gaza be like our condition prior to it: rather, the order of the day is serious action and preparation for Jihad, to bring about truth and cancel falsehood. And we must declare ourselves innocent before Allah the Most High of anyone who colludes with the enemies against the people of Gaza. Disowning these colluders isn’t an optional act: no, it is one of the two pillars of Tawheed [Islamic monotheism]. Helping the unbelievers against the Muslims is major Kufr (unbelief) which expels one from Islam. Read the statement of Allah, the Most High: “O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: they are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them. Verily Allah guides not a people unjust” (5:51), and the statement of Allah, “Whoever disbelieves in the Taghut [the idol] and believes in Allah has grasped the strongest handhold which knows no breaking. And Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.” (2:256) So this event is a test for all of us: the one who follows the guidance succeeds in it, and the one who goes astray fails in it. We are in need of honest leaderships which do what is necessary to collect a sufficient amount of the Muslims’ energies in this field. The Ummah is suffering from a huge failure of leadership. Although many of its sons think that they have leaderships leading them to the shore of safety – if not at the level of the first tier of kings and presidents, then at least at the level of the second and third tier – yet the fact is, this is a major delusion and a primary hiding place of the defect, and Palestine remaining for nine decades under occupation, in addition to other [occupations], not to mention the spread of poverty, ignorance and disease despite the amount of resources, is a clear indicator of that. A ship, however large and pretty it might be, cannot reach the shore of safety if it doesn’t have a trustworthy leadership. We know the truth about the leaderships of the first tier and their subjugation to our enemies, but the worse and bitterer thing is that they have been able to train many of the leaderships which come after them. Unless the leaders of the second tier and those close to them change what is in them in terms of inclining toward falsehood and sweet-talking it, or are replaced, the Ummah will never make progress on the road to liberation of al-Aqsa, because they have become obstacles and barriers on the road taking the Ummah out of this wilderness. They are like a railroad, with the rulers’ train at the front and the train of the leaderships of the second tier and those close to them just behind them, and both of the trains have been stopped for years [blocking] the road to the liberation of Palestine. So the only way to get to al-Aqsa is to remove both trains from the road and leave them behind; but it will be difficult to do that unless many of the Muslims wake up and abandon blameworthy fanaticism towards homelands and individuals, whether they be rulers, scholars or leaderships of Islamic groups, and abandon their opposition to giving them advice and executing the truth on them. If they don’t do that, then their actions say that they are taking the path that ruined nations before us, and this is why the Ummah has been in a labyrinth of darkness for decades, and it appears that they haven’t understood the statement of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, “By Allah, were Fatima, daughter of Muhammad, to steal, I would cut off her hand” (Agreed upon). The spirit of advice must run in us in order for the march to be rectified, and [we must realize] that the truth is greater than everyone, and the health and safety of the truth is more important than the health and safety of homelands, individuals, parties and groups. Everyone’s words are accepted and rejected except for the words of the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said, “The religion is advice” (al-Tirmizi, al-Nasa’i, Ahmad). Yes, if we neglect it, we lose the religion, and our loss is due to that. So this is our reality, and Umar (with whom Allah was pleased) said, “We are a people whom Allah has honored with Islam, and whenever we seek honor in something else, Allah will humiliate us.” So take heed, O you who can see. Returning to the topic of leadership, the path to the liberation of al-Aqsa needs real, honest, independent, strong, trustworthy leaderships at the level of these massive events and well-versed in the Fiqh of current affairs and the Fiqh of the Shari’ah, who will set up an advice committee with branches all over the Islamic world which will strive to spread information and spread legal and political awareness among the sons of the Ummah, and it is then that minds will be liberated from ignorance and gullibility and spirits will be liberated from subjugation and submission to the rulers subjugated to our enemies. Knowing the dangerousness of this reality in which we live and the role the rulers and their aides play in it is the first step towards forming a self-motivating force which will move to change this dark reality; and here the Fiqh of the Shari’ah must be applied to this reality, and it is then that our movements will be regulated according to the straight path, to rectify the abominable conditions and lift the aggression from our Ummah. The members of this committee must also be protected from the interference of the rulers in their council, and must disown them all and beware of their infiltration of their committee by way of the evil scholars, as is the case with so many of the committees set up in our countries; and one of their duties is to disseminate the legal rules relating to these topics, like emphasizing that Jihad is obligatory until the sufficiency is reached, and emphasizing the fatwa published by some of the people of knowledge during the events of Gaza, which stated that he who helps the enemies against the Muslims is committing a nullifier of Islam and listed the rules that stem from that. I also place in front of the scholars and preachers some proposals in this field, asking them to make every effort to develop and perfect them. Among the most important of these proposals: First, the drawing up of lists which name the honest scholars, preachers, thinkers and writers who advise their Ummah, along with their most prominent works, and working to spread them among the Ummah’s masses. And the presence of some unintentional errors mustn’t be an obstacle: rather, these errors should be noted and advice given; otherwise, there will be no scholar left for us, not to mention those less than scholars. An effort also must be made to give prominence to honest leaderships which adhere to the methodology of Islam. Second, the correcting of legal concepts in the thought and life of the Ummah. Some beneficial books towards that include: - “Achievement of the Glorious” by Shaykh Abd al-Rahman bin Hasan Al Shaykh, which is a very important book which talks about Tawheed and warns against Shirk [polytheism], including the Shirk of graves and the Shirk of palaces. - Two books by Shaykh Muhammad Qutb, “Concepts Which Must Be Corrected” and “Are We Muslims?” - And the book “The Clarification of the Unbelief of He Who Aids the Americans” by the Mujahid Shaykh Nasir bin Hamd al-Fahd (may Allah free him from the prisons of al-Riyadh). There is a fifth book of benefit, which evaluates all the regimes in the Islamic world, even though its title is “The Saudi Regime on the Scales of Islam”; and many beneficial books can easily be read on the Internet, like on the al-Tawheed wal-Jihad website. Third, the notifying of the Ummah that there is a war under way to alter and put to death the legal names and terminology in order to commit what Allah has forbidden. That must be refuted and the legal names and words spread. Some examples of that: - The violation of the prohibition of usury, by calling it “interest” and calling usurious banks “merchant banks.” - When they wanted to violate the prohibition of wine, they called it “spirits” and other such names. - When they wanted to combat the summit of the hump of Islam, Jihad in Allah’s path, they labeled it “violence” and “terrorism.” - When they wanted to commit the nullifiers of Islam and ally themselves with the enemies of Allah, they put to death the punishment for apostasy and described anyone calling for the application of this punishment a “Takfeeri.” And there is talk of calling the unbeliever, apostate, Zindeeq, and hypocrite by the name “the other,” and they shun the use of legal terms. Similar are sophistries like “dialogue of religions,” “freedom of opinion,” “freedom of speech,” “peaceful coexistence,” “friendly states,” and the contracts for the provision of facilities to support the Crusader warships at the same time as the Jews and Christians carry out the murder of our brothers in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Waziristan, Somalia, Kashmir, the Philippines and Chechnya. So sophistry in names and terms is a wide-ranging field which must be watched and the truth about it and those who promote it revealed. Fourth, the drawing up of lists which include our enemies from the hypocrites and their media, especially information media like newspapers, books, magazines, radio stations and satellite channels, of which the most dangerous are the latter two, like the British Broadcasting Corporation and its sisters and the al-Hurrah and al-Arabiyyah channels. Also, the drawing up of lists of those whose efforts serve the interests of our enemies without them realizing it, like the rumormongers, deserters and morale-destroyers among the Muslims, in accordance with legal regulations, and disseminating the lists to the Ummah with all available means so that it can warn them, and accompanying those lists with documents and evidence from their statements and actions as proof of that, along with a refutation; and I mention here the statement of Allah, the Most High, “O ye who believe! Be steadfast in the cause of Allah, bearing witness in equity; and let not the hatred and animosity of a people to you make you transgress and abandon justice. Be just, for that is closer to piety. And fear Allah. Surely, Allah is Aware of what you do.” (5:8) Revealing the truth about the hypocrites is a Quranic methodology, and the scholars have agreed on the obligatory nature of revealing the hypocrites and innovators. Imam Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) was asked, “Do you prefer that a man fast, pray and perform ‘Itikaf, or that he speak about the people of innovation?” He replied, “If he prays and performs ‘Itikaf, it’s for himself, but if he speaks about the people of innovation, it’s for the Muslims, so this is better.” The Ummah is in dire need today – especially after this war against Gaza – of acquainting itself with the hypocrites on all fronts, to beware of them, then perform Jihad against them, as in the statement of the Most High, “When you look at them, their bodies please you; and when they speak, you listen to their words. It is as if they are pieces of timber propped up. They think that every cry is against them. They are the enemies, so beware of them. Allah curse them, how they lie!” (63:4), and the statement of Allah, the Most High, “O Prophet! Strive hard against the disbelievers and the Hypocrites, and be harsh against them. Their abode is Hell, and an evil destination it is.” (9:73) To summarize, then: there must be honest leaders, legal and political awareness-building, Jihad in Allah’s path, and exposure of the truth about the hypocrites and differentiation and separation from them, keeping in mind that separation is something already being implemented on the side of the rulers. They have security organs whose personnel number in the hundreds of thousands and which keep watch and spy on those who advise their Ummah, and draw up lists of them which are called “blacklists” to combat them in numerous ways: through temptation and cajolement, and layoffs and prison, and travel bans, and pursuit, and smearing of their reputations, and even murder, all in order to come between them and the pulpits of guidance from which they would advise their Ummah and warn it against their conspiracies; meanwhile, they and their ‘Ulama and media are able to freely engage in deceit and misdirection of the Ummah. And in regard to the lists of our enemies, and in view of time constraints, I will suffice by describing their senior leaders in our countries. In these events, people have been distinguished, especially the noblemen and chieftains, whether rulers or ‘Ulama; and it has become clear that some of the Arab rulers have colluded with the Crusader/Zionist coalition against our people: they are the ones whom America calls “rulers of moderate states.” The fact is, all states of the Islamic world from Indonesia to Mauritania without exception fall into one of two categories: crooked states and even more crooked states; and Islam is innocent of all of their rulers. It is no secret that what helped the first group at the outset of Islam to harden and strengthen so that it could bear the burdens of setting up the Islamic state were a number of things, most important of which – after proper faith and asceticism – was the distinction between the believers and hypocrites. The tremendous events and immense tragedies – particularly the wars and blows – shook the bad from the good and distinguished the honest from the hypocrite, as in the Most High’s statement, “What you suffered on the day the two armies met was with the permission of Allah, in order that He might know the believers and know the hypocrites, who were told, ‘Come, fight in the way of Allah, or [at least] defend’. They said, ‘If we knew of a fight, we would follow you’. They were that day nearer to unbelief than to faith. They say with their mouths what is not in their hearts. And Allah knows quite well what they hide.” (3:166-167) Among the disasters which befell the Muslims on the day of Uhud is that a third of the army submitted to the head of the hypocrites, Abdullah bin Ubay bin Salool, and obeyed him, and he betrayed them and ordered them not to fight the enemies. As for today, all official armies of the Ummah are under the command of the hypocrites from the rulers of the region, while most of the unofficial armies are under the command of the leaders of the Islamic groups, many of whom believe that these rulers are legitimate rulers whom it is forbidden to rebel against; so how can’t tragedies befall us one after the other?! This became clearly apparent in these groups’ desertion of Gaza and its people, as they awaited permission from the hypocrites before performing Jihad; so what sort of taking advantage of the youth is this?! Our duty is to distance the hypocrites and deserters from the fields of leadership and guidance, like the Companions did after the Uhud expedition; when Ibn Salool got up to give a speech to the Muslims like he used to do before – he was a chief among his people and he wanted to preserve his status by instructing the first group of Muslims – but the Companions tugged at his clothes from all sides and said, “Sit down, O enemy of Allah: you aren’t fit for that after you did what you did.” How many are the men who assume control of the pulpits of guidance in their various forms and deceive the Ummah to rally around the hypocrites who rule the region, and make them abandon combat to liberate Palestine. So how fitting it is for us to say to every one of them – face-to-face or over the phone – what was said to their first president Ibn Salool: “Sit down, O enemy of Allah: you aren’t fit for that after you did what you did.” What the Companions (with whom Allah was pleased) did with Ibn Salool was to expose him and remove him from the pulpits of guidance in the Muslim group, lest he do it again in another expedition and leave with a third of the army, for the tragedies to repeat themselves; and this is what we should do, because the hypocrites and deserters have been rerunning the disasters on us for decades. So these are some proposals which I hope are in the interest of the general project to rescue the Ummah and break and remove the shackles which many of its sons have been restrained with, so that they be liberated from them and there emerge from their midst a number sufficient to carry out the most obligatory obligation after faith: repelling the attacking enemy which ruins religion and worldly life. Opening one of the links of the thick chain placed around our necks will help us to take down and throw away the rest of the links, Allah willing. The opportunity is there today to carry out this duty in a number of the open fields of Jihad, especially in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and the Islamic Maghreb. So I ask Allah to guide us to help the religion and perform Jihad in His Path, so that we liberate the Muslim countries, especially Iraq, and set off from them to Palestine. In closing, I remind my Ummah of the importance of keeping our hearts close to the strengtheners of faith, and keeping them away from the places of temptation and hypocrisy, and what helps us in that is that our tongues be moist with the remembrance of Allah the Most High, and that we read daily a thirtieth part of the Noble Quran with reflection and contemplation, which clears the hearts and brightens the minds, and shows us the shared attributes of our enemies, the polytheists and hypocrites, throughout the ages; and read the statement of Allah, the Most High: “O mankind! There indeed has come to you an Exhortation from your Lord and a healing for whatever disease there is in the hearts, and guidance and mercy for the believers.” (10:57) I also remind you of the importance of reading the suggested books and accomplishing the booklets of lists and perusing and disseminating them, because they are beacons in the midst of the darkness of the domestic and foreign attacks on us. Finally, I exhort myself and my brothers with these verses: And our determinations ask me Why the cowardice and weakness When our worlds have been filled By Taghuts who have pictures To weaken our faith And in them lie the danger My brother, O superpower The path of Allah is your goal Do you fear death When death is your Paradise? The column of religion isn’t strengthened By voting and desertion Nothing but the sword benefits I swear, O youth of this age O Allah, show us truth as truth and guide us to follow it, and show us falsehood as falsehood and guide us to avoid it. O Allah, approve for our Ummah a righteous rule in which those who obey You are honored and those who disobey You are disgraced, and in which good is enjoined and evil forbidden. O Allah, our Lord, give us in this world good and in the next good and save us from the punishment of the Fire. O Allah, give victory to the Mujahideen everywhere and accept their martyrs and heal their wounded and free their captives. You are able to do all things. O Allah, punish the Crusader/Zionist coalition and those who help it. O Allah, we have no power nor strength except with You, so aid us with aid from You and give us victory over the unbelieving people. O Allah, send prayers and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and all his companions; and our final prayer is that all praise is for Allah, Lord of the worlds.