#waffles complains about stuff she likes and then convinces herself she can make it better

[wings-of-waffles]

the nightwing bacteria mouth thing does not make any sense if you think about it, at least not to me.

okay, so they're on this volcanic death island, and there's very little food available. it makes some degree of sense that they'd only have access to and consume carrion that's been dead for a few days.

so why were they written to be biting their prey, infecting it with the bacteria in their mouths, and eating it after it spoils when they could, theoretically, be eating actual fresh meat?

is it a tactic to break people's spirits as part of the suspiciously cult-like rhetoric? if so, then why does Morrowseer (one of the dragons on top of and behind all of this, he can basically do whatever he wants) comply with this policy? how come nobody thinks to break this rule in secret if it's as easy to get around as pretending to bite and leave prey to die while actually eating it fresh?

is it a reference to real-life komodo dragons, which nightwings are based on instead of bats for some reason? if so (correct me if i'm wrong) why is it a bacteria in their mouth rather than a toxin, like actual komodo dragons have?

my rewrite/headcanon replaces this whole unnecessary and convoluted detail with this: there is very little prey available for the nightwings to catch, and in their starved and disease-riddled state, this becomes even harder. there is sometimes fresh prey, which they aim to catch if possible, but 90% of the time they end up settling for carrion, which they build up the antibodies to safely consume. in ideal conditions, the nightwings are actually an omnivorous and culinarily inclined tribe, but these skills and behaviours had to be left behind when conditions on the island worsened.

alternatively you could make nightwings scavengers to begin with and represent a misunderstood and underrepresented ecological niche, but that's not the direction i'm personally interested in taking them.

[artificialqueens]

Come Home to My Heart, Chapter 5 (Lemyanka) - Plastiquedoll

read on ao3 ✨| previous chapters

A/N: remember when call me maybe played on the radio? also, when I was writing this I found myself missing Denali a lot so I included her in the story from now hehe & after this chapter, there are no more time skips, now we are at the “present” part of it Enjoy & thanks for reading <3

-5-

At the age of twenty-two, Priyanka felt like she was invincible.

She was living in Toronto where she went to college with a broadcasting major. She worked in a record store downtown and rocked it as if she was the main character of High Fidelity. She still had the car she bought in her teen years but it worked perfectly and she couldn’t complain. She also shared an apartment with Scarlett who turned out to be a better roommate than expected.

Yeah, life was good. Finally, things had fallen into place.

Now she was on her way back home to spend the first proper vacation with her family she had ever had since moving out and although she loved her new life, she found herself missing the old times when everything seemed simpler.

Scarlett had returned a few days before Priyanka but they had agreed on meeting with the entire group to have some shots as soon as they all were there.

The sun was bright and yellow in the sky when she arrived home. As soon as she set a foot in, her nephews and nieces pounced on her. She spent the whole day playing with them –Priyanka liked to think she was not a regular aunt but rather a cool aunt- and ended up so tired that she went straight to bed after dinner –and for goodness sake, she had missed homemade food.

Going back to her old room was weird. It felt wider now that her sister lived in Australia and spent most of the year touring with a great orchestra. Most of Priyanka’s stuff was in Toronto and the remaining ones were inside boxes somewhere in the basement; the walls were empty and there were marks where the sticky tape was on gluing posters and photos, same old curtains, and even the same lamp on the nightstand. Her luggage was untouched, clothes folded –kind of- inside it. She’d unpack in the morning and until then she would put on whatever she found on the drawer as pajamas. Luckily, she had a Totally Spies! old t-shirt with a hole in one of the sides that would do just fine.

Before turning off the lights, she saw the picture of her graduation, smiling while she hugged her friends and a good feeling invaded her body.

The moment her head touched the pillow she fell asleep.

It wasn’t until the morning after things went downhill.

Priyanka didn’t know yet, she had a great morning drinking coffee and catching up with her mother before getting a text from Kiara asking if she’d like to have brunch with them –don’t judge her, a mimosa sounded delightful- plus they mentioned something about waffles discounts.

She had grabbed the first thing her hands picked from her suitcase, a pair of grey sweatpants, sneakers, and a tank top; the morning was still chilly so she put on a light jacket and tied her hair into a ponytail.

She texted Denali as well; she was a friend Priyanka met one winter she came to town from Alaska for a skating competition and ever since then, she would visit once in a while to hang out with them and practice with one of the local coaches. They got along instantly because Denali was fun to be around, she was also a very talented skater and a great drinking buddy to have next to her any night.

She replied shortly after, something about meeting them there.

It was nice to be in her hometown again, driving around with the same car she bought there, knowing exactly where to turn and where to go. Call Me Maybe played in the radio on repeat and she let it be, even sang along with her windows down.

She passed by Lemon’s old house -the one where she lived before moving to New York- her parents had sold it a few months after splitting up and a new family lived there already, Priyanka sometimes saw little kids playing around and couldn’t help but think of them sometimes. Those days most of her memories with Lemon were nostalgically tinted more than angry like the day she left.

Lemon’s father had re-married a couple of years ago, he met a French-Canadian woman in one of his business trips; she had an older daughter called Rita that Priyanka had met a few times in town. Although she had never spoken to her, according to her friends, she had a charming accent and funnier than she looked in her classy exterior.

Lemon had returned for the wedding that time but their paths didn’t cross.

They hadn’t met in seven years now.

When Priyanka arrived, the dining was flooded with people and waiters going back and forward with pots of coffee and flying orders. She quickly found her friends among the crowded tables and made her way to the table without bothering other customers.

“Hello, ladies!” She smiled widely. “Missed me much?”

Scarlett shook her head. “I saw you like three days ago, you clingy bitch.”

“I wasn’t talking to you.” Priyanka hugged Kiara and then Juice who were sitting on the other side of the squared table.

“Well, I did miss you.” Juice said.

“See? Even your girlfriend is happy to see me.”

“Again, we’re not dating…”

“Yeah, yeah… we’ve heard it before.” Kiara complained and Scarlett crossed her arms on her chest. “Anyway… have you eaten yet?”

“No, I had coffee with my mom and now I’m starving.” She perused the menu and finally set her mind on the cinnamon waffles. “We should wait for Denali to order, though.”

“Priyanka…” Scarlett called her name with a particular tone.

Very particular.

She suddenly took a closer look at her friends. They all seemed secretive; in possession of some valuable knowledge, Priyanka wasn’t. Juice avoided eye contact, Kiara continued fidgeting and Scarlett was nicer than ever.

It had to be bad.

“What’s going on with you guys?” She was a little scared of asking.

“I think we should wait for the food…” Juice scratched the back of her head.

“No, we have to do this fast and effectively, like ripping off a Band-Aid.” Kiara disagreed.

“Uh… guys, you’re freaking me out. What the hell is going on?”

Scarlett followed Kiara’s advice.

“Lemon’s here.”

Priyanka was perplexed and for once in her life didn’t have a witty comeback. She had gone blank.

“Is she broken?” Juice waved right in front of her trying to catch any movement in her eyes.

“Give it a moment, let it sink…”

Priyanka looked at her roommate. “When you say she’s here you mean…?”

She pointed at Kiara.

“Okay so, she’s still close with some of the girls… you know, Boa, Tynomi…” Priyanka nodded, mechanically. “I bumped into Tynomi the other day and she casually mentioned that Lemon’s in town for a few weeks.”

“Weeks?!”

Great. Just great.

“What is she doing here?” Kiara opened her mouth to reply but Priyanka shushed her. “You know what? I don’t wanna know… I don’t care… I couldn’t care less.”

It didn’t make sense. Lemon hadn’t been back in five years since the wedding and she chose that particular summer to make her triumphal returning. Priyanka was starting to believe she’d become a ghostly memory of her childhood days but somehow she was there in flesh and bone.

Her hands were sweaty.

“Hey! Sorry, I’m late,” Denali’s voice took them out of their bubble. “Wow… you all look… somber… Should I come back later?” You didn’t need to be an expert to perceive the environment.

“No, it’s not…” Priyanka shook her head.

She wasn’t letting her ruin her vacations.

“Sorry. Hi, Nali…” She stood up and hugged the girl tightly. “Remember everyone?”

“Hi everyone,” She greeted the girls one by one and then sat next to Priyanka. “Seriously, if you need me to leave…”

“No need.” Priyanka assured.

“Then what’s going on? Cat got your tongue? You’re usually the loudest table wherever you go.”

“Priyanka’s first crush is in town.” Juice filled the blanks.

“Aw, that’s cute… are you meeting her soon?”

“Not if I can help it…” She muttered.

“She’s also her former best friend…”

“Oh…”

“…Who hadn’t seen her in the past seven years. It’s like her own Envy Adams.”

“Oh, no… Okay… that’s… I’m going to sit here and pretend that I’m reading this interesting menu…” Denali covered her face with the said item.

“Don’t bother, Nali. You have nothing to worry about.” She put her hand over her shoulder. “I’m totally fine with it.” Priyanka sounded convinced.

“Yeah… about that…” Kiara started. “Did we forget to mention she’s in this establishment right now…?”

Priyanka almost choked. “I beg your pardon?”

“She’s here… here.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

“Well, that’s…” Priyanka was feeling dizzy. “Would you excuse me for a second? I need to use the bathroom.”

“Pri!” One of the girls called her name but she didn’t turn back.

Priyanka locked herself in the first free booth she found.

She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t imagined this moment before, years ago when the wounds were still fresh and her heart had been broken, but now… after all that time, she wasn’t prepared. Her mind refused to let the memories go away but she had managed to live a life without Lemon, a life that was good and where she achieved everything she wanted. Now she felt like she was walking back to a place where she was overexposed and it was too much to handle.

She took a deep breath. No.

She wasn’t that little girl anymore, she had endured worse and by no way, she’d give all that power to a single person that wasn’t even part of her life anymore.

Priyanka lifted her head and heard the sound of the water running from the sink diverted her attention. She couldn’t see the reflection in the mirror but that silhouette, a hint of blonde hair and a floral dress, the pastel nails shaking the water drops…

It had to be…

She grabbed a paper towel and tossed it in the trash before leaving the bathroom.

Priyanka’s blood was rushing and some type of instinct made her open the door and get out of the bathroom.

She had to know.

Her eyes traveled around the dining, trying to distinguish among those faces but she wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

Priyanka returned to the bathroom as if the sugar rush diminished and threw some cold water on her face. The reflection on the mirror stared back at her, her cheeks were flushed and her eyes looked bigger than ever. She took a deep breath before going back to her table with her friends; they’d get worried if she stayed there any longer.

She walked back, shaking the feeling with every step, she only slowed down when she started getting closer and saw her. She saw her right in front of their table; her hand touching the top rail of the chair where Priyanka was sitting, her frame was still petite but she wasn’t either a sweet little girl or an adolescent teenager, she was a young woman now.

She had curves and toned ballerina legs, her hair was longer and blonder than before and it looked silky and wavy, even her posture was different, relaxed, matured, she was lively talking to her friends even laughing at something Kiara said.

What had happened there?

Juice spotted Priyanka right behind, the others did too and suddenly all the eyes of the table were on her.

Lemon turned around.

She was wearing a buttoned dress with short sleeves and a daisy design in white, yellow, blue, and green; her hair had two pins holding away from her face and there were rosy hints on her features, the tip of her nose, from her cheekbones to her cheeks; her lips in perfect pastel pink lip gloss, her lashes had mascara on and her signature eyeshadow had the right amount of spark to make her eyes pop –Lemon had worn contact lenses since she was sixteen because she was practically blind without glasses, Priyanka knew.

She blinked a couple of times and then smirked.

She smirked.

“Well, that’s my cue to leave.” She smiled at the people sitting at the table. “It’s nice to see you, guys. I hope we can hang out sometime.”

It was like a slap on Priyanka’s face who had said nothing yet.

Scarlett’s eyes were playing ping-pong, going from Priyanka to Lemon non-stop; Juice was nervous but she kept smiling, Kiara was still in disbelief and Denali hid behind the menu again.

She walked next to Priyanka like a breeze.

Now the anger built over the years had resurfaced and made her blood boil under her skin.

“Hello to you too.” Priyanka spat loudly enough for her to hear.

Kiara mouthed oh shit.

Lemon stopped and looked at Priyanka over her shoulder.

“Oh, so you can speak now…” She nodded.

Her face remained inscrutable it was annoying. Priyanka had her nails pressing the inside of her palms so hard, her knuckles were turning white.

“If that’s it…”

“It’s not.” Priyanka was fuming.

“How unfortunate because it is for me.” She walked away with the last word, leaving Priyanka behind.

She followed her figure until she was out of the dining and then felt the hand of Juice grabbing her wrist.

“Pri…?” She tested.

“It’s fine… I’m fine.” She sat back on her chair but the image of Lemon’s fingers touching it didn’t help.

She internally thanked the waitress that approached to take their order because she didn’t want to talk about it.

Priyanka didn’t want to admit that even after all those years, her heart kept running wild in her presence and there was nothing she could do. All those years of being apart hadn’t done a single thing for her hopeless, stupid little heart.

[longroadstonowhere]

yeah, okay, so what if rwby was still rwby but ruby’s partner was blake and weiss’s partner was yang

(this is ridiculously long and also really just barely touches on what i’ve been thinking about, but it’s been sitting in my drafts without being touched for at least a few days now so i might as well publish now)

obviously everything up to initiation is the same, but when we get into the forest, blake ends up closer to ruby than yang, so she decides to follow the girl whose optimism seems more motivated by grief than naivety, but she’s not able to sneak up on ruby at the end of a fight - instead, a grimm forces her out of hiding and she has to fight alongside ruby for a few monsters

they meet eyes and ruby waffles between rambling and telling herself to shut up, which prompts blake to laugh a little and tell her to relax, she doesn’t bite before walking off all cool-like - ruby just sorta sighs because she feels like she’s already messed up

meanwhile, weiss is facing off against her own group of grimm, who she’s actually doing pretty okay against, only to have her perfect form set off course by a grimm thrown through the woods by yang, who apologizes but calls her princess or ice queen or what have you in the process, which gets weiss mad but the middle of a grimm fight is not the time to argue with someone else so she just blows way too much dust to freeze the remaining enemies

yang’s kinda impressed, but in a ‘i didn’t think you could actually fight’ sorta way, which just pisses weiss off more, so she tries to leave yang behind, only for yang to mention she’s going the wrong way, and they get into a fight about it that gets interrupted by jaune’s scream (because yeah, all the jnpr stuff would still go like normal)

blake and ruby make their way to the temple no problem, but also no talking - ruby tries to start a few conversations but they’re all shallow enough for blake to give single word responses (maybe a short sentence here or there), so when they get to the temple ruby zips ahead excitedly to grab an artifact, only to get beaned by jaune as he falls from the sky

weiss and yang end up meeting pyrrha getting hunted by the death stalker and they try to help her take it out, but their styles keep getting in each other’s way and all three of them just run a fighting retreat in the direction pyrrha saw jaune fly

everyone meets up at the temple, where they’re able to temporarily halt the death stalker long enough for everyone who didn’t have one yet to get an artifact, but weiss and yang are still pissed off at each other and they attract the nevermore

ruby kicks into leader mode, directing jnpr to handle the death stalker while rwby takes down the nevermore, a fight which basically goes the same as canon probably, except i might would have blake give a shocked look at how capable ruby is under pressure, which yang would see and just be like ‘hey, if you’re her partner, you better make sure you appreciate her skills’

anyway, team creation ceremony happens, ruby is named leader, they go through their first day of classes, and weiss is still pissed at how unleaderly she sees ruby being, but instead of complaining to a teacher about it, yang pulls her aside for a sparring session

they have a fight-talk about giving people chances, weiss complains that ruby’s still a child, yang reveals summer’s death and says she’s happy ruby can still be so child-like because everything in the world says she shouldn’t be, she wins the sparring session against weiss and is like ‘don’t think everyone else has had an easy life just because you have’, to which weiss is like ‘that is not true but i understand the point you’re making, i’ll try to be nicer’

meanwhile after her chat with ozpin ruby goes to the library to try and cram knowledge into her brain to be a better leader, where she finds blake, who assumes ruby’s there to find some comics or novels or whatever, but ruby reveals her plan and asks for blake’s help

blake is actually surprised by this request, but she asks what kind of leader ruby wants to be, when ruby’s confused she explains ‘do you want to be someone fearless and strong, who’s followed by those with the utmost faith in your infallibility? do you want to be the wisest, followed because your words can move even stone? or-’

and ruby just says ‘i want to be the kind of leader you can trust to have your back no matter what’, which blake didn’t actually expect to hear because she still thinks ruby would only have immature concepts of leadership, but she rallies herself and says ‘you’re well on your way, then’

i think weiss and ruby still have their nighttime reconciliation as well, just maybe a little different based on the circumstances leading up to it

all the jaune stuff is basically the same, nothing interesting to change there

and you know, i think blake’s identity reveal mostly goes the same as well - pretty much the only difference i can imagine is when penny’s asking about blake, ruby mentions she’s her partner as well as her friend, and maybe blake’s dialogue with sun changes a bit as well

the fight against roman goes as before, but after the fight you get more of a scene between ruby and blake where blake tries to start explaining but ruby just hugs her and is like i don’t care about any of that you are my partner so i am ride or die for you and i’m so glad you’re safe, which blake takes a second to like compute being hugged? but then she accepts it, and that’s when weiss shows up and they get their moment of reconciliation

i think in second season, the only thing i’d really change is burning the candle (as much as it pains me to change it because it’s such a good episode as is)

so while weiss and yang are focusing on the dance, ruby sits by worrying about blake, yang offers to try and talk some sense into her but ruby says ‘she’s my partner, i’ll take care of it’

so instead of the laser pointer bit, ruby just puppy dog eyes blake into a private conversation, and i think we get more of how ruby felt after her mom died - ‘yang thinks i was too young to remember or understand, but i remember dad shutting down for a long time, yang having to take care of me, qrow poking his head in but he never stayed for long’, moral of the story is sometimes people leave your life long before you expect it so do your best to enjoy the time you have? something like that

that hits blake hard because she’s the one who’s done the leaving thus far, she tries to hold onto the outrage but ruby just holds onto her hands and says please, and blake gives in

so yeah, the rest of second season goes as canon, the campfire conversation might have some minor differences but the heart of it is the same - big thing is raven still saves yang, but i don’t think we’d have a conversation with yang before this time where she reveals that raven was her birth mom, so it’s more of a mystery who she is

so we swing into the third season, which again i think would stay mostly the same - like if it was getting animated the fights might be different because the partners are different and so their strategies might change, but the big events still happen as they did in canon mostly

when winter arrives, i think yang might be with weiss instead of ruby because, you know, partners, and besides weren’t they going to talk about their second round strategy.... weiss where are you going

so when qrow and winter’s fight gets stopped, yang greets qrow happily but mentions ‘i have to talk to you when you’re done’, which like he doesn’t understand but oz is still waiting for him so he goes ‘okay firecracker’, weiss rolls up like ‘he explains so much about you two’ and yang is just all ‘you’re just mad cuz he was wiping the floor with your sister’, and they bicker happily

so while ruby and yang are hanging out with qrow playing video games, yang convinces ruby to leave for a second (grab snacks?) and she mentions ‘i think i saw my mom’, so now we get qrow and yang talking about raven (which yang still hasn’t actually told ruby about, so she thinks ruby doesn’t know, whereas qrow suspects she’s aware but isn’t sure and it’s not something ruby needs to know really? there’s something there in that regard at least) (ruby totally knows, she found the same photo yang did and realized just how similar raven and yang look, and she’d picked up on a lot of half-sentences the others had all been using around her, but she didn’t want to pry)

so things continue apace, yang has her fight against mercury that gets sabotaged by emerald, and afterwards blake still says ‘i want to believe you’, but it doesn’t hurt yang as much as canon because this is ruby’s partner, not hers, weiss has her back one thousand percent so yang is more confused than anything else, blake still gets yang to swear to her face what she saw, but before she accepts it she gives ruby a quick glance because blake trusts ruby’s judgment more than her own at this point probably

so then we have the fall of beacon, and i think everything still goes as canon - ruby goes after pyrrha on the roof, yang goes after blake in the cafeteria, but this is more a factor of who is where when locations get reported, because yang hears from weiss that blake disappeared into the school grounds before ruby makes it off the ship, so she tasks weiss with protecting her sister while she collects their lost teammate

so yang loses her arm for her sister’s partner, and ruby’s ascent is aided by a teammate, and she wakes up at home and learns about silver eyes

so here’s where the fun part starts happening - i don’t know if blake would run to menagerie at this point

i think she would feel guilty about causing yang’s injury (because of course she would still blame herself for that), but she would also feel guilty about not having ruby’s back when she needed it, and i don’t know if she could have left while ruby was still comatose

so i think, in this universe, blake secretly follows the family to patch, and the night after ruby wakes up, she sneaks into ruby’s room to make sure she’s okay, she thinks ruby is asleep so she just whispers an apology and turns to leave but ruby stops her, they have a long chat going back and forth about how much of what happened is blake’s fault and how much power they have over the world (blake thinks very little positive power, ruby thinks just enough), ruby ekes a promise out of blake that she’ll stay in touch before blake escapes, now determined to go home and rest

or maybe she wouldn’t - maybe ruby would be able to guilt her into staying, or at least into coming with her when she decides to leave for mistral; i’m really intrigued by the long break between the fall of beacon and the beginning of rnjr’s journey in canon, and it’d be interesting to examine that time period in closer detail

(side note, i just realized rnjr leaves patch in winter and we see them in mistral in spring - is the entire winter season spent in crossing the sanus continent? how have i never thought about this time period before? anyway)

the only other strong thought i have about this is that yang’s attitude toward blake would be way more simplistically antagonistic i think - she would be more likely to blame blake for adam being there in the first place (or at least, she would entertain the thought, as opposed to canon yang who couldn’t even imagine blaming blake for adam’s actions i think), but what would she feel about weiss being kidnapped? i’m not sure, honestly

okay, this is long enough for now i think - we’ll see if i have more specific post volume three thoughts later

[wings-of-waffles]

clay's siblings headcanon/rewrite

So the aging system in wings of fire kinda sucks. That's why i like to give all my dragons their equivalent human age when i write with them. The problem with this, is when a character's age is treated inconsistently within the series. This has forced me to resort to an increasingly random series of rewrites and headcanons, starting with this:

Umber, Marsh, and Sora are half-siblings to Clay, Reed, Crane and Pheasant, and are several years younger than the others. This would make them teens, an age that actually makes sense for them to be attending JMA (a middle/high school) while their brother is also actively working there.

The two clutches were merged because of the younger three's clutch being either a) abnormally small right out of the gate or b) killed off by either i) disease or ii) collateral damage from the war when they were younger.

I'm sure there are still continuity problems with it but it's better than the 18 YEAR OLD wanting to pursue a relationship with a 14 YEAR OLD because the author forgot how their own system works and just said "eh they're both teens, right? uhhhhh close enough"

This isn't meant to be hate towards the series/author, I still love this series. However I am very aware of how messy it can get in places because I have devoted so much time to writing and thinking about it.