#when fear attracts grimm

[caddeter]

The Grimm are attracted to negative emotions yet society has done nothing to curb them.

what's the piece of rvvby worldbuilding that lives in your brain permanently because it's just so godamn stupid

for me it's that two faunus of a different animal type can inexplicably produce a different random animal type

bull + wolf = maybe a snake ??? are you fucking sure???

[epic-arc]

My take on Absolute Jaune

Well these days I have been following the new saga of the ''Absolute'' universe where it is a universe created by darkside where he modified the origin of certain heroes but they continue to be good but with some different traits so with the help of @howlingday I'll be doing Absolute jaune while he does absolute ruby, so check out his post when it comes out.

History.

In this world salem would be a global knowledge and everyone would be afraid of it and the grimms, however there are still hunters and schools that teach people how to fight against the grimms, However as the world is sinking in fear the criminal world is more dangerous and to be accepted In this type of school it is much more complicated. Jaune would do the same in canon and wear armor and crocear mors but when he went to beacon his registration would be rejected for being false but he wouldn't leave the valley because of that and would do some jobs in the city like cleaning up small groups of grimm or of criminals, however, because he does this type of service, he ends up attracting Ozpin's attention, giving him a chance to enter the beacon.

Personality and Characteristics.

This Jaune would be a little similar to the original, but he would be more closed off because he was bullied wherever he came from because of his personality of helping others because in this world people who have ''hope'' or are good are seen as weak. He would already have his aura unlocked because in this world parents would already do this to their children for safety. He would already have knowledge about fights, not much advanced, but it would already be something for him to defend himself.

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

Well that's my idea for absolute jaune, I hope you liked it!

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

I wonder if the Grimm were specifically altered to be an anti-revolutionary force after the God of Darkness wiped out humanity. Before that, they were directly under his control: they didn't respond to Salem's grief and anger, but attacked the God of Light when he prompted them. (Which makes sense: they were patterned on the Jabberwalker which went out of control.) But after he sees a group of angry humans try to defy him, he tweaks them a bit. Sets them to make sure any group of angry people gets attacked immediately in his absence.

You can't get together to discuss your problems, because that's negative and attracts Grimm. Faunus living in fear and our hatred of them brings the Grimm, so clearly the Faunus are at fault for making us angry. And God help you if you cause a riot, that's just Grimm catnip. Democracy is a lot of angry people in one building, so keep it to kingdoms, maybe a small council if properly managed. Civil rights movements? Will probably attract the Grimm. Better to give them a ghetto and go over there to be happy and alone.

People still do these things, because that's part of being a person and these emotions are a part of us, like it or not. But the premise for civilization becomes silence, not peace, because peace requires justice and justice requires ugly feelings and ugly feelings bring the Grimm. To be a good person, to avoid bringing the Grimm, you must suffer silently and alone.

If you suffer silently and alone, the Grimm won't get you and the people you love. So don't go getting into big groups and getting ideas.

[bestworstcase]

something smth

"what is perhaps even more unsettling is the basis of their attraction; the creatures of grimm are lured toward negative emotion"

salem illustrates that like ->

not fear, not panic. violence. anger. hatred.

her narration in this episode relays the modern scientific view of grimm held by humankind; she says that it’s "panic" that brings in more grimm after an initial wave is repelled. but she also says "negative emotion" and illustrates that as one man killing another with a rock. look at the imagery

the strongest emotional attractant is violence; we see this again and again. the ursa is interested in cardin (fearful) but seems more curious/investigatory than anything but immediate extreme aggression when jaune (angry) attacks. the gryphon swerves out of its flock to eat torchwick because he’s furiously beating ruby. grimm literally follow the branwen tribe around to scavenge behind them. the leviathan is drawn to argus by cordovin’s little power trip and all the atlesian soldiers cheering her on.

(this is also—aside from salem like, existing—the main reason faunus ended up culturally associated with grimm in the first place: humans hunted them, and grimm flocked to that violence and attacked the humans [anger, violent hatred] rather than faunus [fear]. to the humans doing the killing this looked like grimm turning up to protect the faunus)

which is not New. we knew this. but i am. once again. putting my head in my hands and muttering derangedly abt the Grimm Lady’s name meaning. peace.

[itsclydebitches]

Sometimes the negativity attracting Grimm thing makes me think of questions like, how did slavery exist for so long? It wasn't abolished until the great war and we are told how Mistral and Mantle both used it a lot.

Like in a world where monsters literally seek out negativity to kill people and this causes mass damage and such..

How the heck could any version of the slave trade, a brutal system built on pain, suffering and humiliation exist in remnant? Let alone having been a widespread system for 2 successful kingdoms?

This. The longer the show has gone on the less that part of the worldbuilding makes sense. It's a cool idea, but as always RWBY doesn't put in the work to keep it cohesive.

I vaguely remember thinking about this years ago when I was first watching the show. Not in relation to slavery/the general oppression of the faunus, but wondering where the line was between "Average amount of negative emotion that doesn't attract grimm and therefore allows a society to function" and "Amount that tips the scale and results in a coordinated attack." I can distinctly recall first watching the attack on Beacon and going, "Oh, so having a whole stadium of people reacting to a girl being killed - not to mention the reveal that she's secretly an android - is enough to attract most of the grimm in the surrounding area. That makes sense. Plus, this was all orchestrated by Cinder who knew that would happen. Great villain plan!" (This was back in the day when RWBY had a lot more going for it.) Even so, that kind of excessive negativity obviously exists in a kingdom where slavery exists, yet grimm aren't factored into issues like the faunus revolution, or even on a smaller scale like Cinder's abuse. There's no acknowledgement of excessive attacks as a result, or why people would continue such industries when it poses such a threat to everyone in the area. I mean, people frequently do things that are dangerous/reckless/stupid for a number of reasons (money being one of them...), but the show still needs to grapple with that, even if it's only in an offhand way. Where are the self-serving "revolutionaries" that oppose faunus enslavement not because they care for them, but because they fear the grimm their torture might bring? Where are the people who look to the lack of grimm in their well-to-do areas - a result of Atlas' defenses and the richer homes being further from the walls - and use it as "proof" that the faunus actually love working in the mines? Clearly if they didn't we would have been overrun by grimm by now!

By working with your worldbuilding rather than just dropping it until you need an excuse for a non-villain fight, RWBY could actually add a lot of realism and nuance here.

[thevindicativevordan]

Since you read all of Ultimate Fantastic Four, what do you think of the series?

Gave me an understanding of why shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians are popular. Something about following trashy people can be oddly compelling and entertaining. Ellis and Millar’s sections were the strongest of the run, with Carey only getting good towards the end. Ellis spends a lot of time “realistically” explaining how the powers of the Four work, and used that same approach to the Ultimate takes on Doom and the Negative Zone too. Millar in contrast is throwing out cool ideas to see what sticks (zombie F4, everyone gets superpowers, spiders that eat time travelers, Doom pulls a Superior Spider-Man on Reed) and doesn’t particularly care to explain in depth how any of it works. His is the most entertaining section of the UFF and the one where the premise really shines. You get to see the potential of a less squeaky clean F4 in terms of what stories can be told, all of the Four get character focus even if in the case of Sue and Johnny it only makes them more unlikable.

I already talked about Reed but regarding the other three:

Ben is more or less the same as his 616 counterpart. Pissed at Reed for his transformation, angsts over it and is terminally depressed, but when his team or world needs him he brings the clobbering. Thing’s best moments are ironically in the President Thor arc where he has no powers. Scene at that end where he beats the Super Skrull to death for genociding Earth is peak Thing. Ben Grimm rules no matter the reality.

Ultimate Johnny is a moron. A well-meaning moron with a (small) heart of gold to compensate for having no brains to be fair. He has some good moments like clueing Reed in that Sue likes him at the start of the series, and being willing to give up his powers if it means curing Ben as an apology for an incredibly asshole “joke” he plays on Ben earlier. But he remains a shallow fratbro for the entire run, with only the death of his father at the end of the series (thanks to Ultimatum) pushing him towards bettering himself. Bendis’ usage of him in USM is superior to how he’s used in UFF imo.

Another unintentional foreshadowing here that I loved. Sue goes on a mission to Siberia alone after Reed alienated himself from the rest of the team because he was obsessed with shooting the Cube. Sue gets shot down and Johnny blames Reed for it, threatening to burn Reed to death if Sue dies. Follows through on that threat after Reed DOES hurt Sue in Ultimate Doom! Within the arc itself Johnny comes across as an unstable prick, but people probably feel more inclined to side with him knowing what Reed will become. I however saw how you could feasibly make Johnny a bad guy, imagine a world where Sue does die and Johnny is the one to go off the deep end. Can’t see 616 Johnny ever breaking like that, but this guy could have.

Sue… is much, much worse than her 616 counterpart. Most writers, even great ones like Hickman, don’t know what to do with Sue. At best she’s the “mom” and that’s her entire character. She takes care of the kids and nags the rest of the team. Ultimate Sue being unmarried means that they can’t fall back on that so instead they make her whole personality being a woman. Mole Man and Namor are sex pests towards her, she gets kidnapped because one villain wants to use her to resurrect his wife and the other villain wants to steal her powers because she thinks they’re wasted on Sue. Everything about her revolves around the men in her life, even breaking her and Reed up merely leads to a new permanent relationship between her and Ben.

Sue’s biggest fear is becoming her mom, who is a selfish asshole who abandoned the Storm family because she valued her career more than them. Suppose that means she’s attracted to Reed initially because her mommy issues made her think she could get Reed to pick her over science where she failed with her mom. She’s constantly showing off skin to titillate the readership. Arcs focused on her were the worst of the run, and that breakup scene at the end of UFF: Requiem managed to make her shooting down a marriage proposal at her dad’s funeral unsympathetic. All these legit reasons to break Sue and Reed up for good, and they went for the one that makes Sue as unlikable as possible. Yeah how dare Reed not prioritize saving you over saving the planet!

If UFF exists on a spectrum with Reed being morally sketchy even prior to his breakdown, and Ben essentially being the same as his 616 counterpart, Johnny and Sue are right in the middle with Johnny edging towards the heroic side and Sue leaning towards villainy. People have forgotten this but Ultimate Sue had two evil futures where she broke bad. One where she becomes Kang which was Fialkov trying to justify Reed’s transformation into Maker, and the other in a completely forgotten F4/X-Men crossover where she becomes an evil dictator in an alternate future after Johnny gets killed in Ultimatum, with Reed opposing her. God that entire story was a fever dream, on its own it’s mediocre as hell but every goddamn reveal hits ten times harder when you know what’s coming.

Damnit this was a punch straight to the gut. In said future Reed becomes Nihl, no matter what it seems he was destined to emulate one of the Four’s foes. Biggest takeaway from UFF for me is that I could buy Ultimate Reed, Sue, or Johnny breaking bad. All three are shitty people with poor emotional control and narcissistic elements to their personalities. Reed simply had the misfortune to be the one Bendis chose to shove into the deep end.

Ultimate X-Men is the only Ultimate series I haven’t read yet but right now I rate UFF as the weakest of the ones I have. It’s not bad by any means! Actually I quite enjoyed it depending on the arc. Unlike USM and Ultimates however I don’t think UFF does anything better than the mainline FF book. Tellingly that while MCU adaptions of Spider-Man and Avengers borrowed a lot from their Ultimate counterparts, the FF seem to be drawing entirely from 616. UFF works better as a contrast with the mainline rather than as an entry point to the franchise for new readers.

[canidbld]

The Ethereal Unknowning of a Ghostly Hound

Trigger warnings: mentions of suicide and trauma

Word count: 1.6k

— An entry to Sol's November Writing Challange (aka @who-is-page)

I recently only came to understand the way I see myself and the way I see the world would fit under the definition of therianthropy only in March of this year.

It's currently November now, a good seven months spent on researching and introspection and trying to understand this label and identity within context to myself. I've read so many essays of others' personal experiences thanks to the grey muzzles from the 90's and to the archivists who collected their stories and the few academic papers and published books about therianthropy.

Right now I feel much more equipped than I did when I first awakened in March. Regardless that doesn't mean I still don't get confused and I still doubt my experiences and myself a lot especially when one of my kintypes is and was a ghostly spectral watch dog.

When I first awakened, I knew I was a canine, which was contrary to the common experience of researching your theriotype for months to years before understanding you are that animal. However I still put myself through that process because I actually did cycle between wolves to foxes to a bunch of other canids. I comfimed to domestic dog within a week. What was boiling under the surface, however, was another kintype that was extremely similar to my domestic dog theriotype but had a more otherworldly essence to it.

It's hard you see, being a primarily psychological therian. I don't have any memories or past lives to validate my experience and I'm a chronic overthinker by nature so it was hard enough to come to the realization that I was a dog but it was another thing entirely to process that I was more than just a dog.

Except, not really. It made entire sense when I rationalized it and looked back and cross-referenced my experience with other things it was just my nature of being a self-critic that made it so hard.

So then, why a ghost dog? And what did that mean, like, really? How could I be a supernatural dog when I have never experienced a supernatural thing in my life? Why was I something like a ghost dog when I don't have a spiritual bone in my body?

I like to think of myself as a grounded individual despite my anxiety, making me feel mentally disoriented and disconnected from reality at times. I thrive in the material reality.

At the time of awakening and after a grueling self critical and overthinking period (which never really stopped to be honest), I went from thinking I could be a potential hellhound to confirming being a black dog from folklore. Think Black Shuck and Church Grimm.

I mean, my entire identity as a canine itself (even if, according to my memories of this life, I was somewhat always a canine) originated from persistant traumatic events so questioning a hellhound kintype was just an amalgamation of all my habits and behaviors developed by trauma visualized into a dog. It was almost logical, really. You know, the imagery of a feral dog was very attractive to me when I felt so weak. But calling myself a hellhound didn't feel right, I had tried to do that via creating a hellhoundhearted blog (aka this one) and adopted the otherhearted label but when you are confused about a potential kintype and weather it's something you actually are then the next thing you do is research.

So I did. I tried very hard to look deep into the internet to hunt and dig up the most obscure articles and youtube videos about hellhounds to try and compare the way I felt about myself and realized that it was specifically the angry energy hellhounds exuded and how they were portrayed in certain myths and legends that I couldn't see myself as. Hellhounds were brave and strong despite their sinister mythos but I felt more cowardly and fearful. And black dogs were different from hellhounds, at least from my perspective. To me, hellhounds were violently angry. They were loyal for sure but they had a strength to them. They were fire red and burning screams. They were the fight response instead of the flight. Black dogs on the other hand had slightly more variety in its legends with some ghost dogs being neutral to benevolent. They were watchers. Observers. Inquisitive but also unpleasant and unwanted.

In my head, the amalgamation of my trauma was calmer. Quiter. Distant. Lonely. Tired. It had it's hot red fire moments for sure but my dissociation tendencies was pretty much how I coped the most with what I was going through.

So I came across the mythology of Black Shuck and all the other spectral canines that went under the same category and knew that this was what I meant. This was how I saw myself. A ghostly apparition on the moor, blink once and it dissappears at the slightest movement. Uncanny, unpredictable but not always hostile.

This black dog kintype was emphasized by reasons such as:

Feeling as if I was often looked over or like I wasn't even there, mainly referring to when other people would just ignore me or barely acknowledge my existence

Feeling entirely disconnected and dissociated from reality in general, which made everything feel so muted and dull that it was geniuenly hard to feel anything emotionally and physically

The hypervigilant feeling of always checking and being aware of my surroundings trying to make sure my environment was safe (I was super sensitive to noises like footsteps and knocking on doors from strangers)

These reasons were also solidified by the behaviors I would exhibit such as walking around the neighborhood between the times of 12am to 4am much like the tales of Padfoot who would stalk towns at night. I'd feel so alive and ethereal in those moments as if I was in some sort of stagnant limbo which I think now was just me dissociating (By the way, in retrospect, this was completely dangerous to do especially since I was trans and a minor in those times.)

But the biggest thing that all supernatural canines had in common was their association to death. That was one of the biggest reasons why I saw myself as one. My justification being that I felt like I was always on the verge of death due to my suicidal tendencies and attempts as a teen. I felt closer to death then ever. I wasn't a messenger of death persay, but I felt acquaintanced with it enough that I truly believed that death was comforting to me, apart of who I am. I realize now that I truly just wasn't in a healthy mindset. I wasn't death's best friend, I was just a lonely kid that was suicidal and was trying to cope.

And that's pretty much how I can properly explain what being a mythic black dog kintype meant to me. It was a product of my trauma and dissociation personified in myself as a way for me to cope. Of course, when I realized this, I knew that never discredited this being a valid reasoning behind a kintype. However, the problem was that I no longer felt so traumatized anymore. I've grown and I'm still growing and learning and healing. I'm not suicidal anymore, and my dissociation isn't as bad as it was years ago, and now I live in a safe place with a good support system in my boyfriend.

I had actually talked to him about this earlier this month about my black dog kintype on how I believed I no longer identified as a mythic black dog due due to feeling as if I've healed mostly from my trauma so the need to cling onto this feeling of being and seeing myself as a ghost dog was no longer necessary to cope. It was sad though, I told him, because the black dog was a part of me, you know? Even if its identity was just my trauma personified, that black dog was there during my worst moments and comforted me when I had no one else. Admiting to letting go of that identity felt like I was losing a piece of myself. Because in those moments as a kid/teen/young adult and the time I awakened those several months ago, the black dog was who I proudly was. Heck, even this blog is modeled and focused on the black dog!

But you know, its a good thing I think, to acknowledge that you're sad about healing because sometimes negative emotions and feeding into negative urges and behaviors can feel comforting but being able to be aware of that and still let go and move on makes me feel accomplished.

Despite having that talk with my boyfriend though, sometimes I still feel that etherealness of the black dog in moments like right now, as I'm writing this post and my boyfriend is asleep and I'm watching over him, guarding him in the night as I stay up late and wait for him to wake up like an affectionate dog waiting for his owner to come home.

So I guess I'm always on my toes when it comes to my ghost dog kintype. Always constantly questing a kintype that is as incomprehensible to me like sand falling between fingers.

I think ultimately, from my current understanding, being and identifying as a ghostly hound is about perspective. Traits that I thought and believed were because I was a mythic black dog was just another symptom of trauma in someone else's eyes but the casual and calm and soft moments at night remind me that being a black dog wasn't just all about trauma and suffering.

[jeff-guy]

mm postgame hcs. extended info under cut. (some are slightly dark, so heads up)

Knight (Hornet went with the most neutral name possible)

-Loves the cold & by extension Kingdoms Edge -Fears the void & the Shade Lord -Fights in the colosseum for soul to sustain themselves -Deeply shameful of their existence but desperately craves admiration & affection -Very slow to regain mobility. But a blink in the eye of them & their immortality spent in the temple. -Communicates in sign language. The Radiance 'gave' them a throat & mouth, but it sealed as they healed. -Horribly scarred & permanently lost half their body mass to the Radiance.

Lace (We don't really know a lot about her, so this is just tiny details)

-Very much not a natural bug. -Horrifyingly attractive by bug standards. Close to the Uncanny valley. -Glows a pale gold ambient light. -Big into wedding motifs. (Kind of canon due to the bells & roses in Pharloom) -Has no mouth & emanates sound from her horn hat headdress thing. Voice like a million bells from a long distance.

Hornet (This doesn't capture half the thoughts I have about her btw)

-Immortal unless directly killed. Dealing with it poorly & has an ongoing existential crisis in relation to her semi-divinity. -Slightly corrupted by void by being in extended contact with the Pale King's void-related experiments. Only made her body pitch black & ice cold. -Big, buff, hairy tarantula & can easily intimidate mortal bugs with little effort. Also has the most toxic venom in Hallownest. (excluding the orange infection juice) -Deeply resentful & regretful of her role in the preservation of the stasis of Deepnest & Hallownest. The final death of Herrah was the tipping point where she decided to assist Ghost to end Hallownest & kill the Radiance. -Can partially see into the dream realm, enough for its inhabitants to hurt her, but not enough to do anything. She saw the Radiance during Ghost's battle & was nearly mortally wounded by Her. It was fairly traumatic on her body & mind.

Grimm (fucked up bat thing my beloved)

-Separate consciousness from the Nightmare Heart, but heavily influenced by its will. Not malevolent, but seeking to preserve his god by any means possible. Same Consciousness is preserved throughout the cycles. -The Nightmare King is the Heart's projection of itself in Grimm's mind & is kind of the final confirmation of the ritual when it is defeated. Its defeat kills the current incarnation of Grimm & brings the next Grimmchild to Troupe Master status. -The Grimmchild starts as sewn-together parts of perished mortal Grimm Troupe members & with a mindless, feral brain. As the ritual progresses, Grimmchild's body morphs into a more effective vessel for the Troupe Master's mind. -Very polite & courteous to those who like his ritual; physically & verbally roasts anyone who doesn't -Thinks that Hallownest is by far the most interesting dead kingdom the Troupe's visited. - Would like to find Hornet in Pharloom.

Damn that was a lot. These are just my hcs but i have thought too much about these freaky bugs.

[artist-issues]

it's really sad people will keep on defending the terrible little mermaid movie cause they wanna cry racism and other movies cause of crying racism. honestly I'm tired of it, the original little mermid is better, original snow white is better, everything orignal is better. but since disney want to get political, their stocks are failing and their losing money. disney is crashing and burning, they can't make anything original anymore.

Yeah, true.

I think the idea of "original is always better" isn't 100% true. The truth is, Disney used to do retellings better than anybody.

Snow White's original fairy tale, in the Brothers' Grimm version, is very good. It's all about pure innocence. But Disney came along and made a bigger, more fleshed-out version. In Disney's retelling, the Dwarves had personalities instead of being cave-dwelling blank slates, and the Prince actually met Snow White while she was dressed in rags and still loved her instead of seeing her asleep and dressed beautifully for the first time.

Those changes that Disney made to the "original" fairy tale for their movie didn't ruin the original. They just deepened the original. They complimented it.

Audiences back when the first fairy tale was being told may have understood that Snow White's beauty = purity and innocence, but Disney knew that audiences in the 1930s would need more information to understand, and enjoy that message. So

The Prince is interested in Snow White before be even knows she's a Princess, and before he even sees her beauty, because he hears her singing about love genuinely. It's her pure innocent love that attracts him.

The Dwarfs all have personalities, but the one thing they have in common is their fear of new, potentially uncomfortable things. It's not until Snow White and her genuine, selfless love comes into their lives that they start being selfless and brave, too.

The Queen dies the same way she lived: trying to bring harm to others because she only looks out for herself (even though in the original fairy tale I believe she faces capital punishment instead of her own jealousy destroying her.)

Same thing with Cinderella, and even with The Little Mermaid. The fairy tales weren't invented by Disney: the animated Disney versions were retellings. But that's the difference:

Retellings - Stories that change some details about the original, but never change anything that strengthens the important themes of the original. They're not exactly the same, but they're faithful to everything that the originals stood for.

Remakes - Stories that change the themes of the original: erasing everything that the original stood for and trying to re-write what the characters should stand for for modern audiences.

And that's the problem. Disney used to do faithful, complimentary retellings of timeless stories. Those stories were worthwhile, and Disney did them justice. Disney reminded modern audiences of the themes and values in old stories.

Now that's not true anymore. Disney doesn't remind people of the original, timeless values of old stories. It tries to rewrite those values, and in doing so, it says "those values were never timeless, or even fit to be called values."

That's the painful thing. Disney used to be the best name in retellings. Now it's the worst name in retellings.

[bluegekk0]

would the adults in the family smoke/drink/take drugs? if not now, what about when their trauma was really bad?

Putting it under a read more because it's long, and because of the subjects mentioned which some may not feel like reading. Warnings for use of alcohol, drugs and sexual topics (I'm adding that last one because it is very relevant to this topic for Grimm specifically)

Grimm and Vyrm drink together from time to time, and sometimes Hornet joins them as well, though she doesn't like the taste of most drinks. Holly and Zote don't drink, as do the kids, naturally (though I imagine there are some non-alcoholic drinks they could sip on). Alcohols like mead and wine are especially popular during town celebrations, and there is also a tavern in the town that Grimm occasionally visits with Vyrm or the Troupe whenever they celebrate a successful performance. I don't think anyone smokes, and when it comes to drugs, there is the substance found in the beasts named Squit, which has some drug-like effects. Vyrm is occasionally under its influence if he ends up hunting for them in Greenpath, and while it can help him relax, it often has an opposite effect and for that reason he rarely consumes it outside of those hunts. Aside from that, I wouldn't say anyone else does any kind of drugs.

---

Now, in the past, things were a lot different for both Grimm and Vyrm. I'll start with Grimm, since he's the one who really experimented with this stuff. I don't think he ever smoked, but he attended many social events and parties where alcohol and other substances were plenty, and he definitely didn't spare himself any of it. He would get drunk and sometimes start fights in taverns for fun, and even during more sophisticated events he liked to drink and mess with everyone if he felt bored. During many of these events he also hooked up with strangers, so very often you'd see him leave the main event and disappear with whomever he wanted to have some fun with. He was definitely a party animal, so it's no surprise that he would drink a lot and do other things.

Things took a different turn after he met Vyrm. He didn't stop attending events and enjoying himself, but he tried to visit Vyrm as often as he could, and as his feelings for him grew stronger and stronger, he found himself thinking more about that than some of his more wild activities. Because of his new focus, he would also drink less. Getting to know Vyrm had an effect on his chaotic life, undoubtedly, he was already slowly in the process of settling down and leaving that life behind, even if he had no guarantee that he'd end up in a relationship with him.

Unfortunately, after Vyrm disappeared, Grimm didn't take it too well. He didn't attend as many parties as he had no energy for them, but he still drank a lot, more than ever, in hopes it would numb the pain of his heartbreak and all of his guilt. It was a period where he indulged in anything that would make him temporarily forget, which for him was primarily alcohol and sexual encounters. Divine and Brumm's intervention helped him from falling completely into the pit of despair, but he still drank a lot whenever he was by himself.

After Vyrm came back, Grimm was able to overcome that habit, certainly made it easier by the fact that he was replacing his physical body periodically (which meant that the effects of his drinking thankfully weren't nearly as destructive as they would be otherwise). Instead of reaching for wine whenever he felt down, he had a partner to find comfort in. He still struggled with the sexual part of his old habits, he would seek that frequently, often just to make himself feel better, which back then made him worry that he only saw Vyrm as another sexual partner. Which, of course, wasn't the case, he truly loved him, it wasn't just sexual attraction. These days, he doesn't deal with those fears nearly as often, he's a lot more confident in his feelings for Vyrm, and their private encounters are rooted in their genuine passion for one another instead of being framed as a form of escape. As for drinking, he was able to stop doing so to cope, and instead only drinks occasionally as a form of celebration, to mentally set the acceptable boundary and not fall back into his habits.

---

When it comes to Vyrm, he didn't outright have a problem with alcohol, smoking, or anything else that could be seen as addictive (like sex in Grimm's case). Well, almost anything, though he wasn't aware of it for most of his life. It was soul, the magical substance found at the center of his powers. He consumed it in liquid form in place of eating actual food, and he would rely on it all the time to heal any ailment he had through focusing it. At the beginning of his rule, things were perfectly fine, but as time went on, the lack of proper nutrients and calories had a bad effect on his body. Instead of eating, he would constantly rely on soul to keep him going, which inevitably put him in a spot where he was basically addicted to it. Any attempts at eating food were unsuccessful for as long as there was a source of soul nearby, as he was too terrified of embracing his instincts, especially after the Xero incident.

The reliance on the substance was slowly killing him, and only when it was stripped from him and when the hibernation messed with his knowledge of soul magic, was he able to leave it behind. It wasn't smooth at all, granted. Right after waking up from hibernation, he experienced what can easily be compared to withdrawals. Nausea and vomiting (inevitably also connected to the fact that his stomach had to adjust to proper food intake), insomnia, heightened anxiety, tremors, he had an absolutely terrible time for the first few weeks of not relying on soul. All of the symptoms were made even worse by his guilt, as well as the wound on his head that slowly became infected, which would cause him all kinds of pain and side effects.

Eventually he reunited with Hornet, Holly and Grimm, and while he had the opportunity to heal, he did struggle with the symptoms for a while. He would still experience tremors and anxiety, nausea became less frequent but it still sometimes bothered him. Luckily for him, soul wasn't a commonly found substance outside of the White Palace (in the AU, it works a bit differently; only a soul-based higher being can extract it from living beings, which disqualified Vyrm, and I see the soul totems found all over the in-game world as a gameplay only thing; meanwhile, the hot springs are filled with water without any soul in it), so he had very little chance of getting back into the harmful habit. Besides, he could not use any of the spells anymore, the hibernation erased his memories related to them, so he would have to re-learn it all to utilize soul.

The first year or two after his return were a healing period for him. As he found comfort in his new partner, and focused on eating to gain weight and heal the damage his body suffered throughout the years of relying on soul, his withdrawal symptoms softened. These days, it's all behind him, and while he does sometimes worry that he might relapse if he ever comes into contact with soul, his acceptance of his instincts and the gained love for food guarantee that whatever would happen, it wouldn't be nearly as bad as it was back in the day. Soul nearly destroyed him because he was scared of eating, which isn't the case anymore. That said, he still avoids it, as he's comfortable not using any magic and being an equal to those around him.

[rose-of-oz]

🐰 + Sebastian?

Thanks so much for this!! Also gonna tag @auxiliarydetective, @ginger-grimm, @dancingsunflowers-ocs, and @ginevrastilinski-ocs!! <3

Their berserk button: He kind of… doesn’t have one? He can certainly get annoyed, but there isn’t really anything that can really make him explode.

Why their name was chosen: The name Sebastian means revered, which his father thought would be a perfect name for a prince.

Their favorite 2020s song: “Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan.

Their biggest fear: Disappointing the people he loves.

One turn-on of theirs: When somebody isn’t afraid to be “cringy” or weird around others - it’s super attractive to him when someone isn’t afraid to be themselves, no matter how odd it might seem to others.

Their go-to sleepover activities: Watching cheesy rom-coms and doing crafts while binging on candy and other junk food.

What candles they’d get at Bath & Bodyworks: Anything with notes of vanilla, it’s his favourite scent.

A moment where they reached their breaking point: When Uma, Gil, and Harry were temporarily forced to break up with him after being threatened by some other Auradon kids. They made him believe they really didn’t feel that way about him anymore, and after going so long having so few people he really felt like he could belong with and having found that with the three pirates, only to have that pulled out from under him, Sebastian was really broken up about it for a while.

Whether they’re organized or slobby: Surprisingly organized for someone as absent-minded as he tends to be!

Their favorite feature about themselves: His compassion.

send me 🐰 + an oc!!

[razielwritesstuff]

Obey Me! Headcannons ~

I have never and will never hide that I dislike Luci

BUT

I do have thoughts

This man is just constantly sipping a caffeinated beverage he needs it to deal with these mfs

He's a single mother of all 6 of his brothers

I think all demons have sharp teeth. His are the least sharp of the brothers and he is PISSED ABT IT TGURBODFK

Fav song is probably by Mozart. Basic ass.

I discussed how the om! chars would deal wirth being in mlp (pls dont ask) and Luci and Luna give me an evil grinch smile

I feel like he'd curse when angry

Idk.

Gay ass

Smells like pine trees or something

I think he'd have a fear of mascots

Like. character mascots.

Don't ask me okay

Smells like axe bodyspray and SADNESS

Am I WRONG????

We all love mammon but that man.... we know he uses axe...

Befriends the local crows.

There is so many he could be carried off

They all give him shiny shit to sell

Did everyone remember how he's canonically a model

He's attractive. Canonically.

Anyways, second-sharpest teeth of the bros

This is cannon (TO ME) but Mammon is just attached to MC like glue

"STOP FOLLOWING ME!!" "LET GO OF MY HAND THEN????"

He once tried to steal and sell some of leviathan's games

The cast took a while to come off :)

Fav song is something CUNTY ik it

Most girlypop aside from asmo (YTO ME!!!!)

He's great :D

He is so trans to me as a transmasc.

He has a main twitter and an alt twitter. Nobody knows abt the alt so he uses it to doxx ppl he doesn't like

I love Leviathan but I swear to God I don’t think he knows what deodorant is

“man for a guy who sleeps in a bathtub you really have no concept of hygiene”

How many Henrys has he had??? who tf knows.

Fav animal is SNAKES

Loves pokemon. his fav would be gyarados

He will assume anything except romantic intentions at all times

Autistic. As approved by my friend with the 'tism

He would be a brony

Lovable but a Bit Cringe

Has tied Mammon to a chair and forced him to watch stuff before

EXPERT at pirating shit

Would play Undertale.

Speedrunner !!

Would spend like the better part of a month to discover EVERY SINGLE glitch, bug, and exploit in a game to use it to is advantage

Has a sims 4 cc folder that's like 80 terabytes

He's my malewife and he's everything to me.

Would make a shiny living dex on every single Pokémon game

He has multiple cardboard cutouts of his waifus

Satan has an Ao3 account. He writes exclusively on his fav characters

His Ao3 tag has something to do with Sherlock Holmes fight me

He tweets in perfect grammar

He'd kill over a board game

Would cry over a cute cat video

WARRIOR CATS NERD

HE'S COME UP WITH WARRIOR NAMES FOR EVERYONE HE KNOWS AND THE CAT HE THINKS IS MOST SIMILAR

Lucifer got assigned as Tigerclaw LMAO

He would get into Leviathan's fandoms but only bc Leviathan forced him. He comes out liking the thing.

His favorite disney movie would be Aristocats

Loves Luigi

He became a cat person specifically because Lucifer is a dog person

He'd also be a brony

The one that can analyze media properly

His brothers use him to spellcheck their essays

He either watches video essays on YouTube or he makes them

Likes reading about witchkraft from the human realm, he finds it interesting

The one that taught Leviathan to make cardboard cutouts

Knows about 50 stray cats and has named them all

Constantly brags about how he has sharper teeth than Lucifer

Smells like a different scented candle every week

Has that stereotypical gay accent

He's zesty

He's girlypop but we all knew that

Listens to Ayesha Erotica

Goes like "GIRL you would NOT believe what Solomon did!!"

He spills all the tea all the time

King shit

He'd wear a dress in a heartbeat and he'd ROCK IT

He would cry over broken nails but not because of the pain it might cause, only because it looks ugly asf now

"I NEED TO CRY BUT MY MAKEUP WAS 40 GRIMM"

The one who painted everyone's nails

Will threaten you in order to paint your nails, but he will do a color you like

King at make up

Absolutely loves Ru Paul

Keeps trying to get Dia to set up a drag race, he's unsuccessful as of now

Strawberry is his favorite flavor

He's very physically affectionate but would absolutely respect boundaries i will kill you if you think otherwise

He would HYPE. YOU. UP.

Has gum on him 24/7

Also has tampons on him so he can give them to the homies who need them (like Leviathan)

IDK man I didn't used to like him that much but he's grown on me

VERY GOOD COOK because of course he is

Loves giving piggyback rides

Tall enough and beefy enough for you to sit on his shoulders

Would also let Belph sleep on his shoulders

He's a golden retriever. We knew this.

Surprisingly good at Just Dance

Not a dog person not a cat person but a secret third thing (he thinks cows are adorable)

Always spares bugs and spiders when he finds them

Cannot watch cooking shows, he's tried to eat the TV before

Loves going to movie theaters, will pay just for the overpriced popcorn

You can tell he genuinely loves you if he shares his food

Like he shares his food with MC and all the brothers are like "W. WHAT??"

Would INSIST you look great no matter what you look like

You will cuddle with him and Belph this is an Order

Smells like food-scented deodorant

He would be too scared to roughhouse with anyone, boy is too strong

Likes just picking people up and carrying them off

He's done this with Satan once and it actually calmed him down

Favorite show is Bluey probably

Favorite animal is a maned wolf or something

Would kill for a klondike bar

Sharpest teeth out of the brothers + bites as a love language

Every time he bites Leviathan it results in Leviathan squealing higher than able to be heard by humankind

Talks in his sleep. It is adorable thank you for asking!

Smells like Lavendar, vanilla deodorant, and a little bit of "hasn't showered in 2 days" hidden underneath

Drinks a lot of milk

Blueberry is his favorite flavor

Lucid dreams a lot

He does not believe dreams have meanings his are always either incomprehensible or if they did have menains have ones he really doesnt like

Would drink monster energy but he hates the taste of caffeine (he just like me forreal)

Gummies are his favorite snack

He gives off trans energy but i honest to diavolo can't tell if he's transfem or transmasc or neither i CANT TELL

He's girly pop in his own unique way

His DDD's ringtone is Emo Boy by Ayesha Erotica

He's neurodivergent to me i just dont know how

Chews on everything for sensory reasons

Spoiled. Because he's the youngest sibling ofc he is

Every time he drinks hot cocoa he puts marshmallows in it

He considers "barging into your room and scooching you over in your bed to cuddle" a sleepover

Alternatively he'll get Beel to bring you to their room

Hey everyone remember how he's canonically a yandere-

Anyways he's cool :)

[mattress-ing]

What about gunmetal stuck out to you to where your writing a multi chapter fic about it? Just curious

Contains spoilers if you’re not caught up on riptide

Give or take ten episodes, I’m not double checking right now

Might be faster to name all the things that didn’t lol

We have my usual pulls; mlm ship, side characters with a lot of “offscreen” time, nontraditional relationship dynamic, and the fact that they’re both so interesting. Also, if I don’t write down my headcannons I’ll just go crazy sitting in a room going no one knows them like I do

So: why I ship them.

They both have the ability to really go wherever they want, but since our introduction to each of them, they lose their “purpose” or their main tie to a place or a plan. Alphonse is freed and gryffon kills Grimm. Now they’re both kind of aimless and *cough* adrift *cough cough* and have to find what to do with the rest of their lives. Both took what looks to me like the easy option of just follow the nearest people with a plan concepts of a plan

With Gryffon, I was drawn to him referring to himself as cuddly at one point. I wanted to explore how he balances or doesn’t balance the warring aspects of bounty hunter who is clearly comfortable killing and feeling like he’s soft and cuddly on the inside. I wanted to see him coping with what we can infer is the loss of his entire race, and pinpoint what drives him to keep going after he got his revenge. Is it hope? Spite? Blossoming attraction? Fear?

I think Gryffon sees Alphonse as more naive than he is, and wants to protect him while also harboring guilt for feeling a romantic connection there. Whereas Alphonse sees Gryffon as emotionally stunted and wants to draw him out of his shell and feels frustrated and confused when he is met with shell wall in situations he thought they already got through.

And finally, intimacy. Alphonse can’t register touch in the same way that humans do. And it drives me crazy. For him, intimacy is something entirely his own. And since he enjoys building I figure he’s drawn to mental connection more, emotional honesty, a knowledge of building. He likes having all the pieces of someone in his mind. I think even more than that, he enjoys solving puzzles. And Gryffon gives him many opportunities for that. His arm. His general demeanor.

Gryffon being the last of his kind means the loss of language. Both spoken and intimate. Imagine no one knows what a hug is, or a fist bump, or a kiss. How many displays of companionship or affection that he experienced as a child haven’t been performed in a decade? How does he go about explaining meaningful gestures to people who’s bodies aren’t genetically programmed to have that gesture release oxytocin? And what if that person can’t feel touch anyway? Gryffon has to teach everyone else how to love him in a language only he speaks. But first he has to trust someone enough to accept their love. And he hasn’t been able to let his guard down for a decade, that doesn’t come off in the wash.

Then the ship fiasco.

(A brief aside to say; while I think it was horrible for the characters to do this to their friend, it was a comedic bit that got turned into canon. Just because I’ve decided to take it in a serious manner doesn’t change the fact that the show is there for fun and for laughs (we’re on the piss on the poor reading comprehension site, I’m covering my ass))

Alphonse becoming the ship was such a “woah this guy is getting essentially enslaved by his friends” and he seems almost resigned to it in canon portrayal. So I wanted to figure out if I could explain to myself why he is so resigned about it.

I think Alphonse, who is finally finding his passions, choosing to sacrifice himself for this child and then being brought back into a body he isn’t in charge of, is a web of emotions so knotted together that its hard to pull one string without tightening the whole thing.

Gryffon sees these captains he respects treat a crew member like he’s only there to serve their goal. But he also sees them bring him back from death. Should he feel horror or relief?

Does Alphonse feel indebted for this third chance at life, two of which he received from these same captains? Does Gryffon worry about leaving Alphonse behind if he leaves to spare himself a similar fate?

TL:DR I have a lot of questions and I’m not accepting answers that aren’t mine because I’m a control freak about my scrunglies

[rwbyuser24]

Was Ironwood out of character during volume 8?

Now, this is going to be a bit, wild. This subject have been talked already, but, I think I can give my grain of salt. Let's start. 1. No, he always was sinister.

Since the beginning we could have say that we saw his paranoia. Bringing his army just because a message of Qrow.

"The queen has pawns".

That despite the fear that would bring Grimm. "It's the Vytal Festival. A time to celebrate unity and peace. So I suggest that you not scare people by transporting hundreds of soldiers halfway across the continent."

Even during the Vytal Festival, Ozpin mentions again that that fear would bring the Grimm. "And fear will bring the Grimm. A guardian is a symbol of comfort. But an army is a symbol of conflict. There's an energy in the air now, a question in the back of everyone's minds... "If this is the size of our defenses, then what is it we're expecting to fight?""

So, he doesn't care about the Grimm attacking Vale civilians.

Other matter. We can say he doesn't care about the faunus. He have two seats in the council and never did anything to stop Jacques Schnee and his faunus oppression.

"So, our kingdom's greatest minds, in cooperation with the Schnee Dust Company, are proud to introduce... the Atlesian Paladin!"

He cooperated with them. And never attempted to stop their exploitation. He have 2/5 of the political power in the kingdom.

Nor he have stopped the SDC colonization of Vacuo. This is not something that happened before the Great War, this is something recent as the SDC was created by Nicolas after the war, and since Jacques assumed power, the things have gone even worse.

And even Marrow admits that the law is not equal.

"The law isn't perfect, you know. It's certainly not equal."

"Trust me, I'm well aware."

Later, we have also the fact that he didn't cared too much about Mantle.

The Grimm entered in Mantle during the first episode. And the defenses weren't enough. This is something even pointed out by the characters.

"I guess the city defenses aren't doing much."

"Somehow, that doesn't surprise me."

This wasn't only done by the writers to make a fight scene where Ruby's group show off. It establishes a fact, that ironwood doesn't care about its people.

Think about it, he left them to die.

He also put the close of borders and the embargo, even when that only provoked discomfort in the kingdom.

There is also the fact that he didn't upgraded the security network in Mantle. Consider that the Atlas technology have been previously hacked, so he really needed to upgrade the system.

"Well, if we're dealing with the same enemy from Beacon, hacking into Mantle's system would be easy. Fortunately, the rest of Atlas is running on an upgraded network."

There is also the fact that he haven't been acting legal all this time.

"Yes, which is exactly why we have checks and balances."

"We're supposed to, but lately you've been running roughshod all over them, making unilateral decisions without us."

And let's no forget about how he was willing to declare the martial law. Let's consider that it would only bring more negativity and therefore attract Grimm. Yes, it was to unite the world and restore global communications, but it was at the cost of Mantle.

"What's more important? Establishing communications, unite the world? Or appeasing a few city blocks?"

He only refers to them as "a few city blocks". Nothing more, nothing less.

That and the fact that he was willing to left Mantle to die during As above, so below.

"What we need is to start evacuating Mantle. If it's completely overrun, it's not going to be safe anywhere. Use the fleet to get--"

"If I move the fleet, then Atlas is vulnerable. I… I tried to keep the kingdom safe. And now we're losing everything."

He could have used the fleet to evacuate Mantle to Atlas, but initially he refused because he prioritized Atlas. The city was without heating, and the Grimm have launched an invasion. If he didn't do something, everyone were going to die. Ironwood was already ready to left them to die.

And let's not forget about how he outright admitted that he would be leaving Mantle to die.

"But we're nowhere near finished evacuating everyone! You'd be leaving Mantle to die."

"Yes… I would."

So, if he was already willing to leave Mantle to die, why would it be weird that he threaten to nuke Mantle? Is so different leaving Mantle to die and nuke it?

2. Yes, he was originally a good person.

Despite Ozpin's claims that bringing his army would attract Grimm. At the end, the citizens of Vale weren't afraid, and no Grimm was attracted to the city. I mean, there were Grimm attracted to the city, just not because of the Atlas military... it was because of Cinder's plans and actions.

And, what's more, he used his army to protect the citizens of Vale. He later bring even more troops because he wanted to protect Vale. Of course, he didn't know his army was going to be hacked.

Even during the battle of Beacon, he and his troops fought along the students against the Grimm and the hacked atlesian robots.

He later closed the borders and made the embargo because he needed to make sure no one infiltrates inside the kingdom.

"I needed to ensure Salem couldn't infiltrate Atlas. And I wanted my military here, protecting my people."

His plan of Amity wasn't only to benefit Atlas city, but also to unify the world and joined defeat Salem. He also planned to use his military to help the rest of the world.

"But everything will fall apart. Grimm will be everywhere!"

"You're right, but Atlas is willing and prepared to assist."

According to this card of RWBY Arrowfell, Ironwood is someone willing to help all of the world, not only Atlas.

Other characters have also mentioned about Ironwood's willingness to help the whole world.

"A new communications tower. He's trying to help... everyone."

"I used to think you were hiding something to protect yourself. But I can tell there's something much bigger going on here. Now I think it's to protect something else. Us… Atlas, maybe even all of Remnant. And you're afraid of what might happen if you tell the truth."

There is also the fact that he attempted to protect Mantle. He put soldiers and Atlesian knights. Forces in charge of defending the city. They, along the small manta ships and Penny. Penny isn't there just because she is a robot, as there are also human soldiers there.

He also acknowledge the problems in Mantle and wanted Ruby's group to help down in Mantle.

"No. No, you're right. Things in Mantle have been... hard to manage lately. I'm not blind to its issues. In fact, that's what I want to talk to you about. With the launch of this mobile communications tower and tensions down in Mantle, I think there's a lot of good your teams can do here."

And, there are some missions on the mission board to help Mantle.

"We need someone to escort children to pre-primary school down in Mantle. There's not actually any danger, but the parents fret, and that attracts Grimm."

"A massive Sabyr is loose in the Mantle sewers! We need two brave warriors to flush it out!"

The military, and Ironwood since he is the head of it, was worried about Grimm being attracted to Mantle, and Grimm being a threat to the people of the Mantle.

Later, Ren and Nora were assigned to protect the wall on Mantle.

"Diverting all construction resources to Amity Tower means there are going to be gaps in Mantle's defenses against Grimm. They'll need help on the perimeter."

"But there's still plenty to do in Mantle itself."

Yes, they are helping because of the lack of Mantle defenses. But, they were there ALSO because the military wanted them there, not only protecting Amity tower.

Ironwood also was someone willing to participate in the debates of the council. Of course, it made him mad, but at the end, he was willing to comply.

"I swear if I have to sit through one more council meeting like that…"

"Actually, I've already informed them. As this is now the site of a classified military operation, it didn't even require a vote."

"My father's first act. We've all been invited to dinner where the General will be defending his seat on the Council."

Ironwood was anyway willing to go to a meeting with the council, instead of simply shooting everyone who opposed him.

We also have the fact that, despite initially not being willing to use his fleet to evacuate Mantle, at the end, he was willing to help them.

"All we can do for the moment is what we can to save Mantle. That's what's in front of us."

Ironwood was willing to help Mantle and even focus on it, even after knowing that Salem was immortal. At the end, while he was willing to abandon Mantle, it was because he thought that Mantle couldn't be saved. And that even Salem wanted him to evacuate Mantle to Atlas.

"How do we know they didn't want us to bring people into Atlas by the thousands?"

"We are saving who we can." So, if Ironwood did care about Mantle, but only abandoned the city because he thought that it was Salem's plan... Then, it doesn't makes sense that he later tries to nuke it. Even when he already left Mantle to die. It's different abandoning the city than being the one who pulls the trigger. He was willing to help Mantle till he thought he couldn't anymore. 3. In conclusion. There are two perspectives about it. I think that both perspectives have their pros and cons. I'm not here to tell you which interpretation is correct.

Whether the volume 8 was well written around Ironwood's character, or not. Some might consider his fall into villainy something natural, while others would see it as something out of character. But, I'm not the one with the final word, what do you think? Comment it and leave your opinion!

[bestworstcase]

How likely is it do you think that there are/have been Grimm-based cults? I can't imagine there's Never been Grimm cults, and I'm particularly interested in the idea of there being Grimm cults or even just organizations who Actually Understand the Grimm and safely live alongside them. I think it's such a fascinating idea, I'm very tempted to come up with a mysterious faction that respects/admires the Grimm (like how people did/do respect forces of nature in religion) and (mostly) safely lives alongside them. Any thoughts?

two obvious paths. whether the second is viable depends on how well you trust my basic reading of the grimm as sapient beings who reflect back what they’re given—dark mirrors—but the first is textually sound without any extrapolation required.

#1: the grimm as gods of war

these are the salient facts:

the grimm follow groups of bandits around to scavenge in the wake of their raids

criminals in mistral sometimes use captive grimm to execute members of rival gangs

grimm are more strongly drawn by violent anger and hatred than by sadness, fear, or other negative emotions.

it’s possible (per ‘before the dawn’) for one side of a conflict to "ally" with the grimm in battle if the other side is, er, tastier

ok. imagine you have a region where most of the people live in small nomadic groups—perhaps a steppe or a desert, their subsistence base is herding—with smatterings of fortified towns and villages around the edges of the region where there’s arable land enough to support a larger sedentary population. the nomadic groups can’t produce their own weapons/armor (mines, smelters, and forges aren’t portable), so they’ll need to either raid or trade with the towns for that. and conflicts between these nomadic groups over territory and other resources are inevitable.

how do the grimm figure in this region?

well a) the grimm are going to be following the nomadic groups around, with more warlike groups attracting more grimm, and b) grimm will fight alongside people against a common enemy if their "allies" are calmer or otherwise less appealing.

this is like… a perfect storm for the nomadic groups to start venerating "their" grimm as war-gods, in tandem with fostering warrior-cultures that prize tranquility or joy and mercy in battle; there is no honor in hatred or rage or taking pleasure in killing (our grimm turn against those warriors who lose themselves to bloodlust), so a good warrior must be calm, decisive, and swift, and never prolong a fight unnecessarily. but it’s also beneficial to make one’s enemies fearful and angry, or provoke them into hatred.

all it takes is one or two warriors who kept a cool head in battle noticing that the grimm ignored them to go after another warrior who went berserk and then interpreting this as a moral judgment. historically, we know grimm were thought to be the vengeful or corrupted spirits of animals, or animals possessed by demons; both are understandings that encourage this sort of thinking. these are animal spirits that cannot rest because someone killed them without giving due respect, and now they seek to punish those who commit such wrongs… so we’d better take care to treat our adversaries in battle and the animals we hunt with honor and mercy.

and oh, we should pay our respects to the grimm, too. perhaps make some offerings. they eat the corpses of the slain after a battle, so… a) we mustn’t be wasteful when we hunt, it isn’t respectful, and b) we should consider the grimm in our funeral customs.

this is a very basic. BASIC human impulse. humans will try to propitiate the fucking sky because we’re so good at pattern recognition and also anthropomorphizing things that we’ll find patterns and read meaning into the most random coincidences. take that and add it to the fact that it legitimately is possible to form alliances with grimm… fgrhjsv

under these conditions grimm-worship probably tends to look something like:

warrior cultures that prize moderation, calmness, efficiency, and clever mockery or intimidation of the enemy in battle,

funeral customs that ritualize feeding the dead to grimm, and/or ritual sacrifice of captured enemies,

grimm viewed as battlefield psychopomps and/or patron spirits of warriors, whether as a class or as individuals or both, and

incorporation of grimm-like designs or motifs into armor and clothing of warriors, to intimidate enemies.

with wide variation in the details and elaborations. the reason for this common set of foundational practices is that religion is practical. it’s not arbitrary. it isn’t pretend. prayer and ritual are things people do because it works, or it’s believed to work, and the right methods are figured out through trial and error long before they coagulate into tradition. so with something like grimm, whose behavior really can be meaningfully influenced, similar patterns will emerge across different cultures because whether a given practice does or doesn’t work is a) more than random chance or coincidence, and b) extremely easy to identify because if it doesn’t work the grimm will attack you.

& #2, the grimm as nature gods

these are my presuppositions, based on extrapolation from the text:

the grimm have a physiological need for aura, which they can get by siphoning; they eat their prey in order to extract aura from the remains.

grimm attraction to emotions is akin to our attraction to the aroma and taste of food; strong emotions herald deep auras or excite aura so it’s more "nutritious" for the grimm, so they hunt by following emotion.

because aura/soul separates from the body at death, siphoning aura from a living person is much more efficient than killing and eating; grimm will prefer to be fed aura by someone alive over hunting if possible.

because aura can be channeled outward through tools, clothing, etc, it can also be channeled into a repository and stored for a while; this seems to be how the grimm lures in arrowfell work.

grimm are intelligent, emotional, social creatures who can learn to recognize certain groups of people as 'safe' or as friends/allies, without salem.

grimm reflect back the emotional energy they’re given; they’re not "attracted" to anger or pain per se, they just mirror it. bristle and draw your weapon at a grimm, and the grimm will charge at you. remain calm and retreat slowly, and the grimm will keep its distance too.

if all of these presuppositions are true, you can propitiate grimm by saturating an object with aura and leaving that out for the grimm on the regular. i imagine that organic/living things that naturally have aura would work best for this purpose; sacrificing an animal or a portion of your harvest is intuitive, and if fervent religious belief alone isn’t enough to infuse something with aura, then priests or religious officials whose auras have been unlocked and trained will do the trick.

if aura-saturated offerings aren’t possible, then you’d need someone with aura training to channel aura to the grimm through, like, a stick, or bare-handed if they were brave enough or confident enough. this is a more uncomfortable option (like physically) but we have a canonical example of a character doing it: she found it disconcerting, but not painful, and it’s implied that the grimm didn’t attack her at any point during. so a) it probably doesn’t do any more harm than having one’s defensive aura break, and b) stopping the flow of aura to the grimm by moving away won’t provoke the grimm to attack.

as unpleasant the prospect might seem, if it clearly worked to reduce or eliminate grimm attacks on the community, people would do this. people would absolutely do this. the big hurdle lies in discovering that this is possible—like you’d need someone to willingly approach a grimm, lay a hand on it, and channel aura into it without knowing what will happen, and the kind of person who would even think to TRY that is very rare—but once it was known? religious belief motivates people do all sorts of unpleasant, uncomfortable, or even outright painful and harmful things to themselves. fasting. self-flagellation. hermitage.

like… waves hands. if it’s a known thing in a community that grimm won’t attack anyone if a few people go into the wilderness every morning to stand there and pour aura into grimm who pass by until they’re tapped out for the day, lots of people will be fully willing and able to do that. far more than are willing and able to become huntsmen: it’s not dangerous or difficult, it’s just going to tire you out on your assigned days. and if you have say, a village of a hundred people of whom ten are able to do it, you can rotate so no individual has to do it more often than thrice a month. NBD.

and if nothing else except the emotional mirroring thing is true, then you can… more or less propitiate grimm by doing whatever, because in this case what makes propitiation effective is community belief that it works: if you and everyone else around you believes that wearing pendants carved in the likeness of grimm and pouring a libation of wine outside the village gates to entreat the grimm for safe passage through the wilds is effective in making the grimm leave you alone, then no one’s going to panic or raise the alarm upon seeing a grimm wandering around in the barley field, and the grimm won’t freak out either.

if you believe that a grimm is a being that can be appeased and you cross paths with one in the woods, you’re going to do what you believe will keep you safe; for a huntsman, that’s "draw a weapon and attack," but for you that might be "hold up your grimm pendant and recite a prayer to politely wish it well and ask for its blessing in return," which—if the grimm just reflect your emotional energy back at you—will probably make the grimm pause and look at you for a moment before continuing on, which confirms and reinforces your belief that this is the correct way to deal with grimm. This Is How Religion Works.

so all that to say, as long as i’m correct about at least one of these presuppositions—the one with the strongest textual evidence, no less—then propitiating the grimm will reduce their aggression dramatically if not stop it altogether. and if that’s the case then i’d imagine grimm-worship is quite common and also varied in more remote regions where human-grimm encounters are frequent.

the shape of that worship will evolve out of how people in a given community figured out that you can do this with grimm. if one person tries a certain thing and it works, and then more people try the same thing and it works for them to, then that is going to become known as the Thing That Works and it will be gradually refined and elaborated on from generation to generation. and on the other side of the mountains they might be doing the same process but with a completely different thing that also worked the first time.

so you might have a village making huge ritual productions of preparing a feast for the grimm with a portion of the harvest, orchestrated by a coterie of priests who fill the offerings with aura… and in the hinterlands a few hundred miles away you might have a group of nomadic herders who leave the bones of every sheep they eat for the grimm and also have elaborate coming-of-age rituals where you go into the wilderness to prove yourself to the grimm by baring your soul… and up north on the coast you might have a whaling town where sailors pray to something like the leviathan or the feilong as a sea-god because their ancestors happened to stumble into a symbiotic relationship with a giant grimm that preys on whales and realized these little guys in boats make better hunting partners than they do snacks. etc.

basically if you accept a presupposition that the grimm aren’t "soulless evil monsters whose sole purpose is to kill humans" and consider them as beings that have some rhyme or reason as to when they’re aggressive and when they’re not, and the rhyme or reason is something humans/faunus could plausibly figure out how to accommodate and/or influence, there are a lot of ways to build a grimm cult. ’cause religion is at its core humans trying to understand the world so we can keep ourselves safe, healthy, and comfortable; worshipping grimm is just a cultural framework for a threat management program.

think about it in those terms, and take however you think grimm work and ask "what could people Do to lower the risk of grimm attacking them?" and "what might people Do that doesn’t really have an effect but seems like it maybe does?" and then start to elaborate from there with "okay, what stories do people tell to explain why they do these things and how they learned to do these things? how do they conceive of the grimm and their relationship to grimm? how does this shape the social and moral values of this religion?" etc.

praxis comes first, belief second. and the praxis develops through trial and error with the basic goal of "how can we make the grimm leave us alone?" so things that clearly don’t work will be discarded. (with ‘clearly don’t work’ meaning "we did this and grimm immediately attacked us"; people will tend to take "we did this and grimm didn’t attack us for two months" to mean "it worked! we should do it every other month!")

[princess-of-the-corner]

Also I think something could be done if Lila is the team leader of the group. Felix and Fei need to learn how to work in a group while Zoe is tired of the spotlight and being alone. If we are willing to go with a tiny redemption arc for Lila maybe she could learn what it means to be a leader. Taking charge and hard effort instead of lies and threats to have others work for them.

Or maybe she doesn't and we have a foil of our main team looking disorganized but being a great team. While Lila's team looks great on the outside but having personal conflict while eyes are off them.

Okay so like.

Idk if any of y'all went back in the tag, but this AU was both nice and awful to Lila when we first made it.

Within this AU, Lila's lying habit came less from her inability to make friends, but instead Trauma™ from the Grimm.

Because the Grimm are attracted to negative emotions, Lila coped by telling stories to placate anyone's negative emotions. This snowballed from 'fantastical stories to distract her classmates when they were about to cry' to 'placating their fears with false promises to get them to calm down in the moment' to the more current 'if they love me and think I can protect them, then they don't have to worry!'.

Since Lila's goal is to cut down on negativity, she isn't quite as cutthroat when it comes to taking out people who see through her lies, because turning others against that person would cause more negativity.

But she does end up seeing these people as a threat to the overall safety of the group as a whole.