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penny-anna · 5 years ago

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A Strange Mirror

“I suppose it wouldn’t do to be leaving little witchers around the place, would it.”

“Witchers are sterile.”

“Hm?” Jaskier glanced up from his notes, doing a startled double-take. “What, all of you?”

Jaskier learns something new about witchers.

(on AO3)

The air in the room was thick with the smell of rain from their damp clothes drying by the fire. Their hosts’ voices carried from downstairs, muffled by the walls and the sound of the beating rain. Jaskier sat upon the bed, already changed into dry shirt and breeches and humming to himself as he scratched away in his notebook.

The farmer and his wife had given them a bed for the night and invited them to supper. Geralt didn’t used to get invited to supper. The last few months it had been happening more and more.

“Don’t suppose you could kill something more interesting next time.” Pausing in his scratching, Jaskier glanced up at him and added, “no offence.”

“Interesting?” said Geralt.

“You know,” said Jaskier. “Something a bit sexier than drowners, so I can make a song out of it.” He went back to his notes.

Geralt paused in the act of unlacing his damp shirt. “What kind of monsters do you think are sexy?”

Jaskier drew a line under a significant word in his notes. “Wyverns are pretty sexy.”

“They are?”

“Basilisks,” said Jaskier, gesturing with his quill. “Very sexy.”

Geralt looked at the darkened window. “The fuck are you talking about?”

“Just offering some constructive criticism.” Jaskier took in Geralt’s face and said, “alright. Point taken.” He went back to scribbling, his tongue poking out the corner of his mouth. “The daughter was making eyes at you.”

“I noticed.”

“She’s pretty.”

Geralt grunted. He’d noticed that too, but he wasn’t about to encourage him.

“Not your type?”

The window rattled in the window. Geralt threw his shirt over the rack by the fire and turning away began to unlace his breeches. Behind him Jaskier’s pen scratched away.

“You must get a lot of that,” he said. “With your whole – thing.”

“A lot of what?” He stepped into his dry breeches.

“You know.” Jaskier drew a meaningful circle in the air with his quill. “Beautiful women making eyes at you. Throwing themselves at you. Terribly grateful to you for –”

“I don’t,” said Geralt, “do that.”

“Right.” Jaskier cleared his throat. He went on writing.

Geralt shrugged on a dry shirt, and laced it. “I’m careful about who I bed,” he said. “Have to be.”

“I see,” said Jaskier. “I suppose it wouldn’t do to be leaving little witchers around the place, would it.”

For a foolish moment Geralt couldn’t grasp what he meant. Then it struck him, and he didn’t know what to say to it. People’s knowledge of his kind was – patchy, and unreliable. It was hard to predict what a person might know, or not know. He had assumed Jaskier knew this. Jaskier did not know this.

He said, “witchers are sterile.”

“Hm?” Jaskier glanced up from his notes, doing a startled double-take. “What, all of you?”

“It’s by design.” He reached for his boots.

“Oh,” said Jaskier. “Oh – I see.” He fidgeted with his quill. His posture, which had been so idle, one leg crossed over the other, one foot drawing lazy circles in the air, was suddenly tense. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know.”

Lacing his boots, Geralt didn’t reply.

“I’ll not bring it up again.”

In truth, he didn’t care if Jaskier brought it up again, or didn’t. There were few subjects in the world that had the power to hurt him and this wasn’t one of them.

He said, “hm.”

The kitchen was too full of people, too warm and too humid. The family was large enough without two extra bodies crammed in. They were too poor to pay him for clearing their well, so they did their best to make up the debt by filling his belly.

He wasn’t about to complain. He was grateful for Jaskier’s presence, for his keeping the conversation going while he ate. The farmer’s wife and her oldest daughter doted on Jaskier, the whole family hanging off every word of his stories. It was easy for them all to forget who the guest of honour actually was.

When the meal was over and the plates had been cleared, the youngest of the children scrambled into Geralt’s lap, babbling at him cheerfully, eager to tell him all about the farm, to tug on the ends of his hair. The farmer and his wife shot each other nervous looks. They said nothing.

He excused himself early.

Though it was barely nightfall Jaskier came up to bed not long after him, stumbling a little on the stairs and cursing to himself, fumbling with the latch.

“Oh,” he said as he stepped over the threshold, stretching out his arms in an exaggerated yawn. “Oh, it’s been a long day.”

“Hm,” Geralt agreed.

Jaskier was a little tipsy from dinner. His cheeks were pink and he smelled faintly of wood smoke. Stripped down to his shirt, he climbed into bed. He lay alongside Geralt, propped up on one elbow, regarding him intently and clearly not meaning to sleep any time soon.

“Go on, then,” said Geralt to the ceiling.

“Hm?” Jaskier’s eyes were big and innocent.

“You’ve been chomping at the bit all evening.”

“I haven’t.”

“I’d rather you ask than lie there all night making faces at me.”

“I’m not making faces,” said Jaskier, though he was. “And I don’t want to pry.”

“Just,” said Geralt, “ask.”

Jaskier shifted uncomfortably on the bed. “When you say it’s by design,” he said. “What do they do, exactly?” Before Geralt could answer he went on, “I mean, do they – do something to you?”

“Depends what you mean.” He’d lost track of what Jaskier was driving at. Do they do something to you. Of course they did something.

“Well, do they –” Jaskier broke off with a sigh. “Is it a.” He motioned in a way that meant nothing at all. At Geralt’s blank look, his eyes flicked anxiously to his crotch, and it hit him what he was trying to ask. “Do you – have everything you’re –”

“I’ve got all my parts.”

“Oh thank the gods,” Jaskier said in a rush. Geralt snorted. “Don’t you laugh! It’s been worrying me all evening.” He smacked Geralt’s chest by way of chastising him. His hand lingered there, resting on his sternum.

“And it all,” he said after a moment, “works as normal?”

Geralt grunted.

“Is that a yes?”

“Yeah.”

“Well.” Jaskier patted his chest. “That’s splendid.”

“I don’t see why you care,” said Geralt.

“Why wouldn’t I care?”

“They’re not your parts.”

“I suppose I just don’t like the idea of a man having his parts tampered with,” said Jaskier. “Is that so wrong?”

“No. I suppose not.” Jaskier was still looking at him, his gaze no less intent for having got an answer to his burning question. He wasn’t used to people looking at him the way Jaskier looked at him. Sometimes the way Jaskier looked at him made him feel stripped bare.

He didn’t hate it.

“So, um,” said Jaskier. “What is it they do, exactly?”

“It’s a by-product of the mutagens.”

“I see,” Jaskier said. “But an – intentional one?”

Geralt grunted an affirmation.

“Now, if you want to stop talking about this, do say so.” Jaskier sat up a little more. “But – I don’t see why.”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Not – not really. No.”

“Witchers are mutants,” said Geralt. “Any children we had would be mutated. It wouldn’t be pretty.”

“Well, when you put it like that it does sound reasonable.” Jaskier sighed to himself. “But it doesn’t seem fair.”

“How so?”

“People ought to have a choice in these matters,” said Jaskier. “Oughtn’t they?”

“No-one chooses to be a witcher.”

“No,” said Jaskier. “I suppose not.” He clucked his tongue. “Just seems like a pity.”

“Hm?”

“I just can’t help thinking you’d be a good father.”

Geralt turned to look at him, incredulous. “What?” Jaskier shrugged, as if to say, isn’t it obvious? “No. I wouldn’t.”

“I think you would,” said Jaskier.

He wondered, not for the first time, what it was Jaskier saw when he looked at him. He didn’t think Jaskier saw the hero he put in his songs – he was sure Jaskier knew that much of what he wrote was bullshit. But he didn’t think Jaskier saw the truth either. He saw something between fantasy and reality. Jaskier’s eyes were a strange mirror to look into.

“You can’t have a child on the path.”

“Well – leaving the witcher thing aside for a moment –”

“You can’t leave it aside,” Geralt snapped, in spite of himself starting to grow heated.

“Say you could,” said Jaskier, unfazed.

“No-one would want a witcher for a father.”

“Why not?”

You know why, he wanted to say. But Jaskier was pretending not to know. “Witchers are monsters.”

“Oh – yes,” said Jaskier, drawing his brows into a stern mock frown. “You are a truly terrifying monster.”

“Jaskier –”

“I quake in my boots at the sight of your hideous countenance, for you are such a fearful beast and I am so very afraid –”

“Maybe you should be.”

Jaskier cocked his head. “Why?”

So very many reasons, he thought. “I could tear you apart if I wanted.”

“Ah, but you haven’t.” Jaskier patted his chest warmly, as if he’d made a conclusive argument. “You’re in a mood,” he pronounced.

“I’m not.”

“Yes, you are,” said Jaskier. “A gloomy one.”

“I’m always gloomy.”

“Untrue,” said Jaskier. “You’re often gloomy but sometimes grim and I’ve known you to be grumpy.”

Geralt grunted at the ceiling.

“Anyway,” said Jaskier, “children aren’t afraid of you. That little one tonight loved you.”

Geralt thought of the way the farmer and his wife had looked at each other when the child had crawled into his lap. “Children aren’t old enough to know better.”

“Or, alternatively, one might say that they’re too young to have been taught to be afraid,” said Jaskier.

“It makes no difference.”

“It makes all the difference.” Jaskier’s hand shifted, sliding up his chest to his shoulder. He took a lock of Geralt’s hair and began idly to twist it around his fingers. “Anyway. I feel safe with you.”

“Do you?”

“Completely safe,” said Jaskier. “What else could you want out of a father?”

“A lot of things.” Geralt looked at Jaskier, bewildered. “Are you trying to say you think of me as a father?”

“What?” said Jaskier. “No. What – no.” Dropping Geralt’s hair as if it was hot he sat up. “Absolutely not. No. Don’t say things like that.”

“Why not?” It seemed a reasonable enough question to him. He’d never got the impression Jaskier thought of him that way – didn’t like the idea of Jaskier thinking of him that way – but he couldn’t imagine what else he might be driving at.

“It – upsets me,” said Jaskier. “It just does. And this conversation has got wildly off track.”

“Was it ever on track?”

“Briefly.” Jaskier lay back down. “Anyway, please don’t ever suggest that you’re like a father to me again.”

“I wasn’t,” said Geralt. “I thought you were suggesting it.”

“Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know,” said Geralt. “I was confused too. What were you trying to say, if not that?”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Jaskier vaguely. “Look. All I’m trying to say is how sorry I am that that was done to you. It’s not fair.”

The thing of it was, Jaskier wasn’t the first person he’d had to explain this fact of his biology to. He’d had to explain it now and then, mainly in whorehouses, and the reaction, even when not explaining it to women anxious that they might end up carrying a mutant child, had been one of relief or understanding. He’d never had someone express their condolences at the loss before.

He said, “hm.”

Sighing, Jaskier shuffled in closer to him. He draped an arm over his chest. “I wish things were different.”

“If things were different you’d never have met me.”

“True.” Jaskier yawned, a genuine yawn this time. Long minutes passed, and were it not for his breathing Geralt might have thought he had fallen asleep. In the grate the fire was burning down low.

At length, Jaskier said, “what they did to you. Did it hurt?”

Geralt breathed out. “No,” he lied.

#the witcher #geraskier #infertility cw

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psyga315 · 5 years ago

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"What if Volume 7 was about Post-9/11?”

This is another V7 rewrite of mine, but rather than just tweak scenes, these are gonna be full on alterations, with the overall aim being to make it more clear cut at Ironwood’s dictatorship, but also showing a half-full view of his actions.

See, until we get a commentary on what the intent was for Ironwood, we’re of two camps: One, RT always intended Ironwood to be a dictator who lost his grasp on reality or two, they meant for it to be one of those “you guess who’s in the right” but people instead memed the “RWBY’S ALWAYS RIGHT/WRONG” angle too much.

However, a Twitter post by Ruby Rose talking about how people despised RWBY for being too political has got me thinking: “The problem isn’t that RWBY is too political… The problem is that RWBY isn’t political enough”.

Okay, let’s take a look at this: Ironwood has a whole 1984 angle going with TV Screens showing his face everywhere, androids recording people, and the ability to declare martial law when he feels like it. The problem is that we don’t really get to see enough of that angle. It’s a set piece to show how bad Mantle is and nothing more.

While that would have been okay back in the day to convey how dystopian and how much a dictatorship is for Atlas, the problem is that with the ease of access to information, we actually see just how much more they could have went. Even rumors how bad certain dictatorships are manage to be much more threatening than “cameras, cameras everywhere”.

And this is supposed to be the reason why Ironwood isn’t to be trusted with Salem’s immortality truth bomb. At first glance, I see where people are coming from, but looking closer, it just feels wonky. “You want to keep an eye on people in case things go horribly wrong and want to unite the world against Salem? Too bad, you’re not getting any info outta me” and it makes Ruby come off as an entitled brat than a paragon.

And so, I propose this solution:

What if Ironwood wasn’t aiming to unite the world against Salem? What if he really was freaking paranoid at the sky falling? What if, instead of re-enacting 2016 like some people have joked, we dial the clock back fifteen years and instead re-enact 2001. Some of you may see where I’m going with this, but for those who don’t, I feel like these two words will manage to convey the intent I have for Ironwood’s character:

Patriot Act.

For those who don’t know or need a refresher, back in 2001, there was a terrorist attack involving the destruction of the Twin Towers that killed almost three thousand people which placed the USA in an ongoing state of national emergency that still goes on to this day. Sound familiar?

The Fall of Beacon has a few comparisons to 9/11, namely how it was charged by terrorists of, at the time, undeterminable origins (which translates to RWBY as multiple fronts attacking Beacon at once), was responsible for a lot of deaths and destruction of at least one tower, and punted the world (namely the heavily militaristic one) in a state of panic. You could even interpret the Atlasian Soldiers being hacked as a nod to the accusations that the USA planned 9/11, but that’s a bit of a stretch.

During the fallout, the USA, in response to this and an ongoing anthrax attack at the time, decided to, almost as quickly as 9/11 happened with a month and some change in between dates, passed a very lengthy Patriot Act, which, to put it to the simplest of terms, allowed the government to have due process in searching through people’s information with the intent to put a stop to terror attacks before they even begin. However, this is how it’s used in practice. In execution, its uncertain wording and possible violation of the base Amendments caused the bill to garner skepticism or outright criticism.

And what do we see in Volume 7? Ironwood quickly passes a system that enables him to keep a closer eye on the people of Mantle and tighten imports and exports, as well as people going in and out of Atlas, not unlike how the Patriot Act was potentially harsher towards immigrants. So, we have this source of information to draw from now, make parallels and basically show this controversial subject through the lens of your Saturday morning cartoon that put on the big boy pants a couple of years ago.

So, with that in mind, let’s go back to Volume 7, Episode 1, and change up what exactly we see that would make RWBY and co go “this is horrible!”

By the point where RWBY and co get to Atlas, the border patrol shouldn’t be the first sign of danger. Weiss was there when she overheard Ironwood’s plans for increased security and they had to steal an aircraft because of said tight security. Nor would they react to Ironwood’s “Go Home. Stay Home.” speech.

What they would react to are the Paladins forcing people back to their homes, with one threatening to open fire when one of them tries to resist. Cries of “this isn’t right” are uttered when they see a human instantly attack a Faunus right after they see them and accusing them of being part of the White Fang. The moment a cop gets involved in abusing the Faunus, that’s when Blake blurts out that the city is awful, much to Nora’s chagrin.

Weiss throws the cop into the trash bin as we hear a sickening crunch (as he has no aura) as Weiss just looks in remorse. Already we get a good idea that this place is pretty fucked up without looking at a screen of someone saying “we are here for your safety” and going “this is awful!” and it evokes feelings of the racially-charged attacks that followed 9/11.

The rest of the show follows like normal, but the moment everything changes is Episode 2 when Ironwood tells them all why he’s called everyone back. It’s clear that the video has Ironwood at his strongest. As his beard is patchy and his hair greasy now comes the “you look tired” comments. Ironwood has no plans to stop Salem. The reason for his embargo and calling back his troops is to stockpile Dust and men and prepare for the inevitable war, not knowing that Vale and Mistral are hardly equipped to take on Atlas and Vacuo is… Vacuo.

He’s also paranoid that Salem will strike next. Without any reports from the other Kingdoms, he’s effectively put his head in the sand. He’s not even thinking of counterattacking, just staying and believing the best offense is a good defense… Or so RWBY assumes… Ironwood reveals soon that, as he dwelled upon the failings of Beacon, he came to the conclusion that Salem couldn’t be beaten. The most that Ozpin did was put her at a stalemate and even then, all it took is one bad night to change the tide. He is scared.

He finds a small semblance of hope in seeing Oscar and the Lamp, but he assumes that the questions are used up or if there were, the team used it to ask if Salem could be beaten. Ruby neither confirms nor denies it. With his mind clearly submitted to despair, he tells RWBY that the Winter Maiden is spending her twilight years in isolation to protect her from the villains after what happened to Amber. Weiss asks if this is a little much, only for Ironwood to snap and remind her how Cinder was able to destroy Beacon and kill Pyrrha thanks to Ozpin’s poor handling of Amber. The comment stings Jaune, since he partially blames himself for what happened. He then asks RWBY to wait until the Winter Maiden passes on so that the fresher Maiden can handle the Vault and chuck the Lamp in.

That’s when Ruby brings up the Relic’s Grimm-attracting properties. The sooner it’s in a Vault, the better. This does not bode well for Ironwood and he tries his best to compose himself with this bombshell, then permits Ruby and the others to keep the lamp, as they’ve managed to handle it on their own. RWBY then come across the Ace-Ops, who apologize for their antagonism. Weiss raises an eyebrow as she has never heard of the Ace Operatives before and Marrow jabs on about how they’re a secret police force before Harriet shuts him up with an elbow to the rib. Note that he doesn’t call themselves “the best of the best”. If anything, the name is to harbour goodwill, since anything alluding to a shadow police would just send fear and panic.

Of course, the implications of there being an Atlasian secret police flies over Ruby’s optimistic head, but the others start to feel a little suspicious with them. Clover, realizing this, tries to ease tensions by offering the rest of his team to train RWBY and JNPR. Instantly, Ruby accepts, seeing as they scraped by their victories by the skin of their teeth, glancing over to Yang’s broken arm. Clover takes note and says he’ll commission Pietro to construct upgrades for their equipment.

Episode 3 is a simple, light-hearted episode that lets us breathe from all the crazy stuff that went on. It’s also a bit more serious, though, as the gang confront Ruby on omitting the information they learned to Ironwood. Unlike my previous tweaking of Volume 7, this time everyone, Ruby included, feel like they should at least tell Ironwood something, especially after Weiss compares his attitude to when they were affected by the Apathy.

However, they have no good news to share. Even the news of having the Relic of Knowledge comes with the weight of having to tell him how they got the Relic, with Yang feeling just as guilty for omitting Raven’s Spring Maiden powers. Seeing something is off, Clover decides to have the team test their mettle against the Ace-Ops in good fun. When asking if he’s to join in, Clover decides to stay by the sidelines. JNR choose to stay out too. Qrow asks Clover, if he’s the Ace-Ops leader, why doesn’t he join and that’s where we have him casually reveal his Semblance, which causes Qrow to admit that he has the opposite kind of Semblance. Clover chuckles and ponders if being next to each other would cancel the Semblances out.

To make a long story short, the Ace-Ops defeat RWBY, even with their upgraded weapons, but it’s clear they only did it through brute strength and not through teamwork. Regardless, Ironwood is brought out of his shell and sees the battle unfold. He has the common decency to tell RWBY that they shouldn’t spend what may be months cooped up in a house (both a jab at V5 and a poorly timed joke for 2020), he graduates them on the spot so that they can do missions. Ruby takes this time to tell Ironwood that they can beat Salem, though doesn’t she clarify if this was something she learned from the Relic. It leads to Ironwood assuming that she had and is elated. The episode ends with Robyn and her Happy Huntresses having saved a Faunus from getting lynched before they notice Ironwood making an announcement, his beard and hair now trimmed and combed.

Episode 4 begins with Ironwood telling Mantle (and Atlas) about Beacon being attacked by a faceless coward and declares that Remnant will be defended. He doesn’t announce any plans, but the first thing he immediately does is lower the amount of guards in Mantle, something that gives them room to breathe. The episode introduces us to Robyn’s team and gives them some sort of depth in contrast to “is just a background character who sometimes will have a tweet telling us info like J.K. Rowling doing a Harry Potter info dump”.

Only one of them gets flashback, though. Fiona sees some kids being escorted by Jaune Arc and remembers back when she was a teacher, reading a book to the kids before they were told of the Battle of Beacon and its subsequent fall, sending the kids into fear and panic and summoning the Grimm. We don’t see the end result, but Fiona’s thousand-yard stare and hyperventilating are a clear indicator that it did not end well.

May comes across Henry, who was taking advantage of Mantle’s lower economy to buy groceries on the cheap, and we get confirmation that not only are they cousins but that May had a transition as Henry fails to recognize her. True to form, as soon as he finds out, he has a bit of a freak out before he’s decked by May.

Joanna is the first to encounter Ruby and Weiss, who are out on a routine mission to help stabilize the barrier with earth Dust (remember that’s a thing?), though questions Weiss’s presence. It’s here we get some infodump on what Jacques was up to during her escape. Willow had leaked a recorded video of Jacques hitting Weiss, which earned him some much needed bad press and sinking the SDC stock down to where other Dust Companies are vying to buy it out. It sets up a small character arc for Weiss that’s hopefully more fleshed out than V7’s: should she rescue her father and save the SDC or leave it to crumble and forge her own name? Eventually, she’ll decide on a middle path, preserving the SDC with the help of Ironwood, but making Whitley the one who takes it over, realizing that she can’t worry about the SDC when the world’s at stake.

But more on that later. As for Joanna herself, she speaks with an odd whistle lisp and a smile reveals that her two front teeth had been broken. When Ruby asked what happened to her, she shrugs and says that “I got a dose of reality from a former friend.”. A later scene of her helping out the Faunus gives a bit of an implication that she was one of the kids that Ilia was friends with, namely the one who got the broken teeth.

The biggest character depth moment comes when Robyn sets up a rally, only for hecklers to come and joke at her insistence for Mantle to be its own Kingdom without Atlas watching over them, having had enough with Atlas’s jackboot. One of the hecklers gives a reason that shows a darker side to Atlas: When Mantle lost the war, a chunk of the continent decided to levitate itself away to disassociate with the nation and that chunk became Atlas. It became unanimous that Atlas would rule over Mantle as punishment for causing the war.

Robyn’s desires to make Mantle its own nation once more invites a lot of skepticism and accusations that she’s a Neo-Mantlean, wanting to take away all forms of expression and burn art. Robyn wants none of it and asks Joanna to boot the heckler out, which only solidified his views. Nora sticks around to listen to more, as does Forrest. A small scene also happens where Clover and Qrow experiment with their Semblances before Clover realizes Qrow can’t control his. He then tries to work with Qrow and train him to be able to control it, something that isn’t going to be fully realized until the endgame. We then end the episode on Forrest being killed in the dead of the night, but we don’t see who kills him, just a hint that it may be Tyrian.

Episode 5 is a Weiss-heavy episode. After training with the Ace-Ops, Weiss is called by Winter for a special one-on-one. In reality, she wanted to tell Weiss that Jacques has fallen ill since she left and Willow has had one too many blackouts from her drinking. The Schnee family is falling apart and she gives her the ultimatum of either staying in Atlas to properly take over the SDC, bringing up that she and Ironwood can prove Weiss is sane enough to keep her title of heiress, or stay with RWBY and let the SDC be taken over by a third party that will ultimately be revealed to be Robyn and her Happy Huntresses (i.e. stealing from the rich to give to the poor).

Weiss asks why she doesn’t take it over, to which she reveals that she’ll be the Winter Maiden. Weiss is a little uneasy, remembering what Jaune had told her about Pyrrha (he’d probably either tell her off screen like everything else or bring it up when arguing with Ironwood about keeping the Maiden under lock and key) and asks if she’s okay with it. Winter give her a deadpan look and tells her “if I wasn’t, my name wouldn’t be Winter, now would it?” revealing that this was a name she picked herself and one that had been used for so long, that Weiss has no memory of what Winter’s real first name really was…

But I’m just gonna roll out the charming plot twist and say it’s Whitney. She joined Ironwood before Willow gave birth to Whitley and so he got her name, albeit masculinized.

We cut to Jaune and his team as they go on a mission to help the Ace-Ops clear out a cave. Blake and Yang join too, if only to showcase their new weapons in more detail, with Blake’s weapon upgrade actually having something to benefit it beyond just gorilla glue. Namely, the golden strip is actually a dust crystal and can be used for electrical attacks as a tribute to Ilia. We could even have a small flashback that has Blake specifically request this. It’s kinda ironic, as they’re in the mines where Ilia’s parents died in.

This is the third episode of RWBY basically, though it ends with two scenes. Qrow and Clover talk about the recent killing of Forrest and how Qrow brings up that this was the third person who spoke against Ironwood that had died in a row, having done research on the news when he arrived. They both believe that someone is setting Ironwood up, but Qrow mentions that what’s unnerving him more is his removal of troops. The last time something like this happened, he moved them all to Vale and caused fear for people. Clover says nothing, but reassures Qrow that Ironwood is making a big play.

We end the episode on the air patrol, now with notably fewer ships. One flies towards them. We see people at air control seeing a blip on their radar and just as they’re about to call it out, it disappears. They pass it off as a glitch as we cut to the plane in question…

It’s Watts and Tyrian, the former of which chuckles and notes that, while Ironwood has made an effort to change the code, it just took a bit more brute force on his part to crack and that, with a few more crackings of the code, it’d be easy for him to hack back in. They then notice a second plane flying in. It doesn’t take long for Tyrian to notice that the plane feels “off”, as though this plane isn’t “normal”. Watts just shrugs and hacks the system to let the plane in. As the second plane flies in, we get a zoom in through the windshield and see Neo and Cinder, smug as hell in thinking their disguise was foolproof.

Episode 6 focuses on Ruby and Penny. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but it’s basically the much neglected “hey, Penny, you died. I cried. I missed you.” Bit. Ironwood has recovered much better and he’s looking like he did on the videos now. He even gives the crew a night off, to which Yang and Blake get an invite from FNKI.

Things start to take a turn for the worst when Ren, of all people, asks Ruby how they’re going to beat Salem. Ruby confesses to Ren that she just told Ironwood that to give him some hope. Ren just gives Ruby a cold warning that the man had lost everything, even the will to keep fighting. Giving him hope, only to take it away would only destroy him. Nora can’t help but agree, comparing his situation to how they were given hope of beating Salem only to be told that she’s immortal.

RNR are enroute to a rally: the anniversary of the Fall of Beacon, just to fuck with the fans keeping timelines. I’d play it safe though and say it’s a two-year anniversary. It doesn’t matter, it’s basically to commemorate the fall of Beacon and honor those who have fallen. However, the rally is run by Robyn of all people and Robyn has quite a few things to say about Atlas’s handling of the situation, things that the public would rather not want to hear. Things like how they plotted to attack Beacon once Penny won the tournament but had to accelerate their plans once Pyrrha killed Penny, or how they created the White Fang for the explicit purpose of having a scapegoat.

Obviously, all of these are pure bullshit to which Ruby calls out. The one thing she can confirm is true is the hacking of the robots. While the crowd cheered at Ruby calling Robyn out, they go quiet when she talks about the robots. She makes it clear that it was a third-party that hacked the robots, but it didn’t stop the crowd from trying to get her off the stage. Robyn takes her to the backstage and asks her to shake her hand and tell her exactly what happened at Beacon. Ruby painfully recalls the Fall before shedding tears, though her words ring true for Robyn’s Semblance, prompting to ask about whether Atlas planned on attacking Beacon and being truthfully told no. Robyn has a moment of clarity, but that is halted by screams from the rally.

Meanwhile, Ren and Nora bicker about what to do regarding Ironwood. Nora wants nothing to do with him while Ren just wants to help him the best they can. This eventually goes into the conclusion that Ren has been emotionally distancing himself since they found out about Salem’s immortality and Nora tries to kiss him, only for the lights to go out and the massacre to begin. People try to take out their phones but are quickly taken down. Penny rushes in to try and fight, but she gets out maneuvered, and Marrow also tries, but the assailant purposefully avoids him. By the time Robyn and Ruby get involved, the massacre is over and the lights turn back on as its revealed to be Tyrian, claiming the responsibility for the killings under the White Fang’s name. Before Robyn can attack, Tyrian scurries away and announces to the surviving public that war is coming. Panic maximum is hit as Grimm attack.

Episode 7 is kinda like the Episode 7 of my other rewrite, Grimm attack interrupts FNKI and there’s a large angry mob, but this time, it’s more akin to pandemonium. Not only does the Huntsmen have to fight the onslaught of Grimm, but stop the crazed civilians from lynching the first Faunus they see: Blake and Neon. This leads to a bit where one of them tries to brand Blake with an SDC branding stick and Yang snaps, kicking his ass and, thanks to his lack of aura, crippling or outright killing him. People suddenly remember who Yang is (remember, the whole world saw her injure Mercury) and so they team up on her, beating her up and stealing her metallic arm.

Similar outbursts happen with the other Huntsmen, showing them the worst of humanity encapsulated in a single night and reacting negatively to it. The only person who is above it all is Weiss, who learned her lesson after she snapped at that Trophy Wife, and, as a nod to that, she summons a Boarbatusk when she sees someone making off with Yang’s arm and has the Boarbatusk not gore the person, but take the arm from them and bring it back to Weiss.

I don’t want to make it as dark as the other rewrite’s V7E7 where Penny gets torn apart limb from limb, but I do want to at the very least show just how desperate humanity is when the chips are down, so perhaps crippling Neon with a gunshot to the leg. Just as things are about to get worse, Ironwood personally intervenes with his army of robots as he quickly handles the situation by having those robots subdue the rioters. At first, it seems like he’s being the reasonable authority figure that we all know and love… Then he looks to one of the rioters, the drunk man that Weiss would have tossed into the bin, and tells him “With all the negativity you’re showering onto others, the Grimm are only interested in you right now.” Then, as coldly as the robot he commands, says “Cast these rabble out to the cold.” They comply, much to Ruby’s dismay, as some of the robots throw about a dozen people out of the wall and lock them out. They beg to be let in as we end the episode with a person looking in horror as he sees a Manticore swoop in and we get one of those shots where the monster eats the camera.

Episode 8 begins with a long, silent moment with all the members of RWBY, JNPR, the Ace-Ops, and Qrow in Ironwood’s office. It’s obvious what has to be said, and Nora is the one to say it.

“You sent them out there to die.” She grumbles.

“The longer they remained in Mantle, the longer they caused trouble.” He replies.

“That doesn’t mean you should have killed them!” Nora shouts.

“Would you rather I had my robots shoot them right there? In front of everyone? I’m a general, not a dictator.” James said.

“Well, you certainly acted like one back there.” Nora retorted. We see Clover is a little unnerved with Nora’s replies.

“One of my highest-preforming Huntresses is unable to walk without mechanical equipment because of them and if I had let them stay any longer, I feared that I wouldn’t be able to save her or anyone for that matter. I shouldn’t have gone lenient. Because of that, we now have one of Salem’s minions hiding out in Mantle, ready to strike again and make everything worse.” Ironwood says.

To make a long conversation short, he orders the Ace-Ops track down Tyrian and execute him on sight, along with any other suspected members of Salem, as that’s what they do. Meanwhile he confesses that he hasn’t been truthful to them about something out of fear that the plan would be leaked. He plans to have a satellite built on Amity Arena and hoist it up, using it to reactivate the CCT. There, he will tell the world what Ozpin neglected to tell them: the real cause of the Fall of Beacon is Salem and they must unite to kill her. He labels it as Operation Unifying Freedom. The crowd goes pretty silent as Weiss asks if this would even work, as people may believe it to be a lie. That’s when Ruby gets the idea to bring Robyn into the picture, as she realizes what her Semblance can do.

Ironwood explains that Robyn refuses to work with Atlas and he fears that her stance against Atlas would only make things worse. While he has a point at first, he then continues to spout off how Robyn can’t be trusted in a manner that screams paranoia, thinking that she too could be a spy for Salem without realizing that she has nothing to gain from rallying the citizens of Mantle with conspiracy theories they don’t believe. Oscar calms him down and asks him about Atlas’s Relic, since he wonders how it can be involved in OUF. Ironwood complies and we’ll get a later scene.

From here, we have people assessing the newly found situation. Ruby and Jaune talk about whether she should tell Ironwood about Salem not being able to die. Jaune is pretty insistent that they do before Ironwood steps into matters he has no idea about, reminding her that Pyrrha never found out about Salem when she died.

Ren and Nora confront each other about Ironwood, to which Ren explicitly spells out that they’re doing jack and shit while Ironwood is trying his hardest to help. Nora brings up her “you’re not the one struggling” speech, but with a heavier coding that implies she knows more about Mantle than Ren realizes. Ren ends the conversation by guilt-tripping Nora. “The sooner we beat Salem and place her back in the sludge from which she came, the sooner we could prevent another Kuroyuri from happening.”

Blake visits Neon in a hospital bed, who is bummed out at being told she’ll never walk again with her injury. They have a touching heart to heart where Blake tries to take the blame for the bad things that happened to her, saying that she should have helped improve relations everywhere, only for Neon to tell her that she’s done enough. While at first, it comes off as rude, Neon explains that Blake can’t just change the world on her own, especially with something as deep-rooted as racism. The most she can do is make a change in her area. Neon cites herself as an example. Before, no Faunus were allowed at Atlas or if they did, they have to hide their traits. Neon gave them the middle finger and wore what she wanted, though this earned Ironwood’s respect enough to use his two seats and allow more Faunus in. Marrow comes in as well and we have what we’re going to get in V8, now without the awkward “but they’re enemies now” moment.

Weiss talks to Yang about her family and asks her what to do about it, as she knows too much about abandonment issues from both parents. Yang sits Weiss down and tells her that even though Taiyang didn’t raise her and Ruby for most of their lives and Raven was too busy murdering innocent people to care, they’re still her family. She’s this close to revealing that Raven is the Spring Maiden, but stops herself short. Unfortunately, Weiss hears enough to draw her conclusion later on.

Ironwood and Oscar talk about the Vault and its Relic of Creation.

“So… What? Can it create stuff?” Oscar asks.

“Ozpin knows more about the relic than I do. The most I know is that we can’t use it.” Ironwood said.

“How so?” Oscar asks.

“Because the person that came before Ozpin used the Relic to hoist a chunk of Solitas in the air. He says it’s to be a beacon of hope…” Ironwood then takes a moment to remorsefully look down at the floor. “If only that were true.”

Oscar asks what he means and as we see Weiss go to her father’s house, Ironwood goes into more details about what happened. After the Great War, the people deciding on the Vytal treaty wanted to blame Mantle for kick-starting the war and as such, charged them with repaying for the ten years of damages and severely cripple their military to prevent another war from happening. It was unanimous, but before the charges could apply, the King struck a deal with the nobility of Mantle that, provided they share their newfound technological knowledge with the rest of the world, he would create a loophole by making the Kingdom of Atlas and prevent them from getting caught in the inevitable punishment of Mantle.

Oscar’s clearly distraught that Ozpin would do something like that, since this meant that the real people who were responsible for the war got away and let innocents take the fall. Ironwood, however, sees it as a chance for Mantle to start anew. “Besides, I can’t do anything about it now… If I were to remove the Staff, then this entire place comes crashing down…” We end with Weiss entering the house as Ironwood reveals that one of the nobles who fled punishment were Gele and Schnee, Jacques and Willow’s ancestors respectively. We see that Weiss isn’t alone, as she had brought RBY with her.

Episode 9 is another Weiss-centric episode, as she is brought up to speed as to what happened. Klein got fired and replaced with Faunus servants (if you want to go the extra mile, all of them are rabbit Faunus). Weiss is found by Willow and they have a small chat about the situation at hand. Willow has sobered quite enough, but the damage to her liver is done and she doesn’t expect to live long. Jacques had it worse though. The bad press and subsequent embargo have stressed Jacques out so much that he’s shortened his life expectancy to about a few months, now on his death bed.

Fiona is there too, having an arm in a sling after surviving a lynching from a mob. When asked what she’s doing here, she explains that she’s to oversee the transaction and ensure Robyn has full ownership of the SDC. This puts the cast at an uncertainty because, while they might fully trust Robyn, it’s clear that the supply of Dust that the SDC can provide would bolster the project by tenfold. Penny is also there, since Winter has been her partner since she was rebuilt and thus, is welcomed into the family.

Knowing that she can take over the SDC, Weiss goes in to confront her father. It’s clear that he’s seen better days. His body is bony, his hair is now a full-on toupee, and he’s coughing irregularly as a monitor beeps, acting as a timer for his remaining life. Jacques sees Weiss and glares at her at first, then melts into a serene glance. Weiss doesn’t buy it, but they have a pretty deep conversation about what happened since Weiss ran away, paired with a piano medley of all of Weiss’s theme songs, starting with “The Path to Isolation”, then both parts to “Mirror Mirror”, followed by “It’s My Turn” However, there’s no “This Life Is Mine” anywhere during the chat…

Jacques reveals that business has plummeted since the embargo, though leaving out that smaller tier dust companies that he hasn’t bought out managed to flourish and keep the minimalist economy of Mantle afloat. He talks of all the people he ruined with his practices, starting from recent cases where he reduced people’s wages to the point where they’re working with less than minimum wage, but then dialing back to before the events, where he talks about the unfortunate explosion that claimed Ilia’s parents as well as “a rowdy Faunus I personally had to deal with… I had a hot branding iron, Weiss, normally to brand my property… And…” Blake instantly knows what he’s talking about and runs off. It’s clear that Jacques is having death bed confessions and while Weiss is ready to tear them down, she can’t. She realizes what Yang meant when she said that they’re still family.

However, Jacques then goes back to his old self and calls Weiss out for being the reason his company went under, practically going all “why did you make me hit you” and the harassment causes Weiss to yell at Jacques, telling him that he is everything that’s wrong with the SDC and that the world would be better off without him. She then runs off and Yang tells Ruby they should go, but Ruby insists on staying with a cold expression that scares Yang. She leaves as Ruby just gives him the business.

“You struck my partner… You turned someone into a monster that maimed my sister and haunted her partner… You’re responsible for these radical attacks from Faunus… And yet you never once thought that it’s people like you that are to blame for the problems of the world? Another Great War could happen very soon and you care more about your bottom dollar than the well-being of others… And yet, I’d rather you live, to see us turn the world you and everyone else have corrupted into a better place than what anyone had thought of 80 years ago. I want you to live and see your daughter take your company and use it in ways you can never imagine…”

“… Well, I hate to disappoint you then…” He coughs and flops onto his bed, having gasped his last, the long beep confirming his death. Ruby is shocked as Weiss comes in and sees this. This is where a somber piano rendition of “This Life is Mine” plays, as Weiss breaks down into tears. She wanted this to happen for so long, to take over the SDC from her father, and yet, this wasn’t what she had in mind. Ruby comforts her, but then says this:

“He told me what he could never muster the strength to tell you… He loved you, truly, but he had a funny way of showing it and he apologized for all the pain and torture he inflicted onto others…” She says it in a way that convinces Weiss, but Yang leaves the room, being very shocked with the fact that Ruby straight up lied. Before, telling Ironwood that he could beat Salem and not telling him about the immortality was acceptable since she never once said he could kill Salem and they all understand that delaying her plans counts as “beating”. Now? She pretty much lied to Weiss’s face about what her father said and the worst part is, she can’t properly call her out on it.

Blake and Yang then have a chat about whether this was for the best as the piano song shifts to “Nevermore”, with Yang breaking down and telling Blake: “I lied too! I lied about the Spring Maiden!” However, Blake doesn’t get upset with this, namely because she has no idea what the Spring Maiden fiasco was all about. She notes that they have changed since the Fall of Beacon and this is where Penny comes in, escorting Winter so as to help comfort her when she inevitably sees her father’s cadaver. However, Winter insists she’ll be fine and goes ahead as Penny joins in on the conversation, only to be told by Yang that, no. It will not be like Beacon again. It will never be like Beacon again. They’ve changed so much from the past few months/year that they are barely the same person. Blake even confesses to having taken a life. Penny begins to cry, yet she doesn’t understand why yet, though it’s implied that she is the only one of the characters that hasn’t “grown up” due to her situation.

The piano medley returns to “This Life Is Mine” as Weiss and Winter, taking time to set up an interview, attempt to announce that Weiss is to inherit the title… Only for Weiss to refuse. She makes a speech on how she needs to improve the world and that she will do it more as a Huntress than she would as the owner and so respects her father’s wishes for Whitley to take over the SDC and having Ironwood financially back the company in trade for helping them with a project to reboot the CCT. Ironwood sees this and has a freak-out when she reveals the plans for the CCT, telling Clover that she’s leaking plans.

We see people react to the news unfolding as the song becomes much more sinister and twisted. Cinder and Neo don’t give two shits, but Cinder decides to figure out a means to take this to her advantage. Watts just smirks and mutters that there’s no use as he cracks the code to Mantle’s heating grid and shuts it off. People then begin to freak out as Robyn sees the notification that the SDC will not be bought out by the Happy Huntresses. As May asks Robyn if that’s a problem, she sees people go into a riot before she smirks. “No, no I don’t think it will.” As she says that, the piano makes a full transition to “When It Falls” as we see people raid shops, throw trashcans at TVs, set up huge fires, and toss the robots into the fire, all while Grimm begin to raid Mantle.

Episode 10 kicks off with a large raid alarm as RWBY, JNPR, and even the Ace-Ops and Happy Huntresses try to stave off the raid. This is where things mostly stay the same with the exception of no Ironwood telling everyone his plans. However, Ironwood does take his weapons and goes to the Amity Arena, knowing that at least someone would interfere in his plans. He expresses a bit of shock that it’s Watts who is there, but he doesn’t mind it one bit.

“Thought you died.”

“I did.” He gives a smirk and doesn’t give much detail until…

Episode 11, where a battle causes Watts to get injured and reveals that he’s a robot with his aura implanted into it. “I finally saw what the fat bastard was talking about when he talked of preserving life.” The fights remain the same, but the change begins when Watts has the last laugh, taunting him that his attempts to stop Salem will be fruitless and that he finds using the CCT to rally the world together will only end in pain. Ironwood, determined to stop Salem, drops Watts into the pit of lava, though not before Watts deactivates his robot body and turns it into a conduit to hack into Amity Arena and thus hijack the CCT built inside.

Tyrian is soon beaten and it’s discussed what they should do with him. Robyn wants him to stand trial while Clover wants to execute him. Robyn protests, calling Clover a bootlicker for doing what Ironwood has told him to, but Qrow shuts her up and tells her that Tyrian is a dangerous fucking serial killer that has done far more harm than good. Robyn scoffs, then leaves as Clover prepares to execute Tyrian with his fishing pole (the first time he actually reveals his weapon) and as we see the bob and hook, people might be able to connect the dots…

However, before then, RWBY, having evacuated the people of Mantle (save for the few stubborn ones that they can’t do anything about) and Weiss seeing a homeless Klein and almost sacrificing herself to save and evacuate. Robyn sneaks aboard while RWBY and the Ace-Ops report back to Ironwood over the chess piece he found. Unlike in the original, he is a lot more stable with how he handles it, telling RWBY to go track down Cinder while he prepares the transfer to Winter. This makes Weiss upset though, since this means killing Fria. Ironwood tells them they have no other choice in the matter, since they can’t risk Cinder taking another Maiden power. Ruby manages to convince Ironwood that, they wouldn’t need to do the transfer if they find Cinder first and take her down. He gives them that benefit of the doubt at least.

Meanwhile, inside the craft, Robyn tells the people that this is exactly what Ironwood wants, to corral Mantle and make them dance under his strings until they do what he wants. This actually gets through to the people who are finally fed up with Atlas stomping on them and Robyn enacts a full-blown revolt. Making matters worse is that Salem uses the hacked CCT (in which the virus is basically a digitized Seer) to broadcast herself onto Atlas and Mantle. This is where the scene where Salem appears comes in, but recontextualized because here, she’s talking to everyone, not just Ironwood and RWBY.

She shows just how real she is by commanding some of the Grimm to stop attacking Mantle and return to the tundra, saying how she’ll make the Grimm never bother Mantle again provided they give the Lamp and the Staff to her. Ruby interrupts using her phone and tells her that they’ll beat her, with Ironwood adding that they will destroy her. Salem just laughs, knowing that Ruby has slipped that she knows about Salem. Gives her the famous “your mother” quote, but with the added quote of “None can really kill me… Isn’t that what found out from dear old Ozpin?”

“What is she talking about?” Ironwood asks Ruby, she stammers.

“I… I mean what I said. We can beat Salem-” Then Yang interrupts her.

“But we can’t kill her. We don’t know the full extent but… Ozpin in a past life asked if there was a way to destroy her and he was told that he can’t. So…” Yang looks to Ruby with a disappointed look in her eyes.

Ironwood slumps into his chair as Salem broadcasts her intent to invade Atlas to grab the Relics and that they’d make things much more pleasant for themselves if they handed them over. She gives one last parting remark before she logs out. Now, we can have Ironwood react one of two ways, which would impact the rest of the story.

Either he nuts up and decides to go nuclear on Salem’s ass, stubbornly believing that there has to be a way to destroy Salem and goes all in on having Winter become the Maiden so they can have Atlas go down rather than up. With people comparing this scene to Sokovia, might as well just go all in with the plot, right? Ruby and the others protest that this would end the world with the force Atlas would have, Ironwood goes “with us or against us”, Ruby makes an announcement and calls him a bitch ass motherfucker, and we get the same conclusion as before where the Ace Ops turn on RWBY.

He sits calmly. Ruby can see the lights in his eyes fade as the Ace-Ops panic. Even Weiss and Blake are afraid. Ruby then tells Ironwood that they have to do something, only for Ironwood to smile and say “Ruby… There’s a solution here you’re not seeing…” Before he pulls out his white gun and puts it at his head, ending the episode with a literal bang.

Either way, the Ace-Ops turn on RWBY, either by following orders or because they blame Ruby for filling Ironwood with false hope, with Harriet calling it a disease and that Ruby spreads it around like a plague.

If we don’t end the episode with Ironwood’s suicide, then we end with Tyrian musing and commenting on how Ironwood has picked a new attack dog. Qrow is confused at this before he remembers all the murders that were caused. At first, he suspected it to be Tyrian, but as Clover looks on, he puts two and two together and asks:

“… No… You didn’t…”

“Sometimes, you have to pull a few bad weeds to keep your clover patch alive…” He coldly says.

Episode 12 picks up right where the last episode would leave off, with Clover and Qrow having a stand off, with Clover explaining that the Ace-Ops aren’t called that because they’re the best, far from it, but because they’re willing to do the things no normal person would do, and that includes killing certain people to keep the system alive. Qrow tries his hardest not to fight Clover, but unfortunately for him, Clover concludes that he is to die alongside Tyrian, who has healed. Like in the previous fixing Volume 7 thing I did, the fight becomes more of a proper melee a trois where Clover, Tyrian, and Qrow battle each other equally.

Tyrian, in the middle of this, says how he used to be Ironwood’s attack dog before his destructive nature caused Ironwood to fire and arrest him before said behaviour stings his metaphorical froggy ass (remember that old fable he’s based off?) and notes how Clover takes after him with how the bob and hook look eerily like a scorpion stinger, hence how he put two and two together. The fight gets pretty brutal before Qrow ends up finally managing to control his Semblance by figuring out where to target. He ends up targeting Clover and cancels out the good luck he has, putting him on an even level, then slipping the bad luck over to Tyrian to trip the both of them up. It ends the same, with Qrow punching Clover’s aura. Clover tells Qrow that he’s willing to die for his Kingdom and asks if that’s something Qrow would do. Tyrian stabs Clover, leaves as he hears the cops come, and Clover, in his last words, just tells Qrow “you and your entire team… you killed us all!” Qrow then closes his eyes and cries, saying “Yeah, I know…”

Like in the previous rewrite, we have Neo take the relic from Oscar, but she’s stopped by a mob of people that are raiding the base. JNR find Neo and Oscar decks her in the face, but it’s clear they’re outnumbered… Only for the mob to remember the four and help them, one of them telling Neo that if they mess with one with them, she messes with all of them.

RWBY vs the Ace-Ops… goes the same. But now we don’t have the “they’re the best of the best but then they trained RWBY” BS.

Episode 13 has the crowd mess with Neo, but even so, she outmaneuvers them and kills a few of them. In the chaos, she takes the Relic of Knowledge as guards come in and gun down the crowd. Jaune runs, only before seeing one of the kids getting shot as well. Jaune just freaks out, then rushes in and kills one of the guards. A robot catches footage of this and he’s suddenly on the wanted list. He tells Ren and Nora to run with Oscar as he holds off the guards. Robyn helps Jaune out in taking out the guards last minute.

Everything with Penny, Winter, Fria, and Cinder are the same. The ending, however, depends on what happened to Ironwood.

Ironwood Lives Ending: He orders every intruder to be killed on sight, prompting RWBY, Nora and Ren to flee to Mantle. Oscar stays behind and talks to Ironwood before he gets shot and Ozpin comes back. This is the most in line to V7’s ending.

Ironwood Dies Ending: The crowd easily overpower the military and take over, but now have crippled themselves as Salem’s forces arrive. Robyn does not care though, as she tosses Ironwood’s corpse out the window and towards the icy depths below before taking over his position. “Headmaster Hill… Has a nice ring to it…” RWBY and JNPR reconvene as they bare witness to Salem’s forces arriving. Blake asks Ruby:

“What do we do now?”

To which Ruby replies:

“Now? Now we save the world.” Before we end with her cocking her rifle.

The Stinger would be Ozpin coming back to Oscar and telling him that the fate of Remnant is not for him and his faction to decide on anymore. That it now rests in the new generation. He passes on and it’s Oscar who becomes the dominant as all the memories of Ozma’s lives come back. Oscar is now filled with determination.

And with that, that’s how I’d do Volume 7 if the Mantle subplot was more akin to the post 9/11 environment than it is 2016 Elections, with bits of modern-day politics and even a bit of Stalinism involved. The Penny Subplot can either be in this Volume unaltered or to be decided upon next Volume.

#RWDE #Rewrite #RWBY Rewrite #RWBY

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raendown · 7 years ago

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Pairing: MadaraTobirama Word count: 3810 Summary: Shattered by those they trusted, Madara and Tobirama bring the jagged pieces of themselves together in the practice of kintsugi. What once was broken is brought back to life with an unexpected appeal.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

Chapter 2

A number of different things demanded an equal amount of urgent attention the very moment Madara rose back in to the land of the waking. Or rather, the land of the living. He very seriously questioned whether or not he was currently crawling his way back from death – or possibly sliding down in to it.

His mouth tasted like the bottom of a garbage heap, made twice as disgusting by the lack of moisture on his tongue. A massive headache was doing its best to crack open his skull, radiating out from the center of his brain to cause stabbing sensations in his eyes where the sunlight filtered through the cracks in his lids, and the sounds of birdsong from the window caused physical pain with every note. The muscles in his body ached and his skin was tacky and itchy in some very suspicious places.

Most telling of all, his ass was sore. He hadn’t bottomed for anyone in more than two years, not since he began seeing someone who had never topped and had no desire to. As much as he had missed it he simply couldn’t see Yuuto changing his mind so that left very few options for why he was currently feeling the aftereffects of rough sex in that particular area.

Soft breathing down the back of his neck painted the picture of his worst fear right before the memory of why he’d had the opportunity to bottom last night returned to him.

It took several minutes of breathing through the pain before Madara was able to open his eyes and face the world, a world in which he’d caught Yuuto underneath another man and ended the longest relationship he’d ever had, the one he had started to think would last a lifetime. Apparently he was single now. Or he would be once he confronted that asshole at some point today. Maybe tomorrow. Whenever his head stopped pounding.

Knowing that he had gone out to pick up someone for a bit of good old fashion revenge sex helped calm a great deal of the instinctual panic but not all of it. There was still the matter of who exactly he had picked up. His memories of the night before were patchy at best and for some reason all he could picture was the image of himself riding Tobirama, of all people.

Had he had kinky henge sex? In fairness to Tobirama, he was quite an attractive man physically. That just seemed like a very strange choice for a henge when he could have asked whoever it was behind him to look like anyone in the world.

Carefully lifting his aching head and peeking backwards, Madara felt his stomach swoop and bolted from the bed even as his mind tried to process what he was seeing. Evidently it hadn’t been a henge. And in other news Senju Tobirama looked disturbingly peaceful while he was sleeping off a night of drunken debauchery. That seemed wrong to him for some reason but Madara admitted that in the midst of throwing up in his own toilet was hardly the best moment for him to make sense of the world.

When he stumbled back to his bedroom Tobirama was sitting up and blinking around with confused, faintly nauseas look on his face.

“Did we–?”

“Yes,” Madara answered decisively, not allowing him to continue. His ass clenched in memory and he really wished he could at least remember if the sex had been worth it.

“Huh.” It looked like his unwanted guest was still a little bit drunk, if that floaty quality of his voice was anything to go by.

Looking at him, Madara weighed some pros and cons before mentally tossing both hands in the air and deciding that he really didn’t want to deal with this at the moment. He crawled back in to bed, fitting himself in to the same cocoon of warmth he had bolted away from, and firmly closed his eyes. The world could wait until he was ready to face it.

He nearly jolted back upright when a hand snaked around to press itself against him forehead. All that kept him from biting it on reflex was the soothing sensation of healing chakra which flooded in to him, extracting an involuntary moan of sheer pleasure. The headache faded rapidly under Tobirama’s ministrations before the hand dropped away and skidded down to drape over his waist. When he peeked over his shoulder again, Tobirama had once more fallen in to unconsciousness.

Which, he thought, was probably for the best. If they could hardly deal with each other sober then dealing with each other half drunk and hungover probably wasn’t the greatest idea. He closed his eyes again and followed suit.

Neither of them woke again until several hours later and they barely managed to stumble their way through a very awkward and slightly panicked ‘this never happened’ agreement before Tobirama gathered his clothes and bolted, leaving behind nothing but a dirty towel in the corner of the room and an ache in Madara’s backside. It was pretty much what Madara had figured would happen so he didn’t really understand the cold, empty feeling which struck him the moment he was alone in the house.

Or, he did, but Madara and denial were old friends. He had lived alone before and he would survive doing so again.

The next few weeks were painfully awkward for them both. Madara ended things with Yuuto as coldly yet calmly as he possibly could, not wanting to give the man even the slightest impression that he had been hurt by what happened – and he made certain the other man understood that he knew what happened. It occurred to him too late that not showing his emotions well was probably what had brought this entire situation upon him, though that was no excuse. If Yuuto had a problem with the way he expressed himself then the idiot should have at least tried to speak to him about it before spreading his legs for someone else.

Rumors reached him quickly that Tobirama had also ended his own relationship, although the story went that their breakup had been much more violent. Madara reluctantly applauded his old enemy from afar and did his best to head off as much gossip on the subject as possible. He felt honor bound to support anyone going through a situation similar to his own, even if only in small ways like that.

When Hashirama found out the truth about the end of his little brother’s relationship his reaction was both spectacular and utterly terrifying, Madara gave some serious thought to revealing his own similar situation, just for the satisfaction of watching the same retribution be visited upon Yuuto, but in the end he kept his silence. There was no need to air his personal business so publicly when he was already hearing whispers that Yuuto had decided to leave the village for some ‘unknown reasons’.

It took a month for Madara to cross paths with Tobirama again in any significant way and although he should have been able to predict how things would end up, he truly did not see it coming. Patterns will continue but this was not a pattern he had expected this particular Senju to fall in to.

“Never thought I’d see the day I found you drinking on the job.”

Tobirama didn’t look especially surprised to see him down in the bowels of the interrogation tower at two in the morning. All he did was take another delicate sip of his liquor and straighten the pages in front of him, returning his eyes to where he had left off reading.

“Since my shift officially ended several hours I’m not technically on the job right now. And what I do in my spare time is my own business, isn’t it?”

“Pour me a drink and I won’t tell your brother.”

It was a pleasure to watch Tobirama shudder in revulsion at the idea of how Hashirama would react to such knowledge. He reached inside the bag on the seat next to him and produced another cup, wiping it out perfunctorily with the corner of his shirt before emptying a bit of whiskey in and pushing it across the table.

“Since when do you drink whiskey?” Madara demanded after pounding back most of the glass in one gulp. He was curious to see Tobirama hesitate.

“Picked up a taste for it after I drank half a bottle of yours.”

“A-ah.” Not knowing how to respond to that, Madara turned his head away and took a more delicate sip.

He was a little thrown off that Tobirama would so easily allude to that night after how emphatic they both had been that they never speak of it again. Even more surprising was that he would allow the memory to influence him in any way, such as giving him a craving for a new type of drink. Madara himself had been doing his best not to think of what happened at all.

That didn’t stop the recurring and disturbingly pleasant dreams from happening but sometimes even one’s best efforts do not succeed. It was at least a pleasant failure, all things considered.

“More?”

“Yup.”

Tobirama didn’t bother to look up as he lifted the bottle of whiskey to pour a splash more in to Madara’s glass. It took a moment of narrow-eyed study – during which he questioned his own sanity for being even the slightest bit curious – but Madara was able to make out the tiniest hint of color on his companion’s cheeks and he nearly toppled over sideways in shock. Was the man with a heart of ice actually blushing? He never would have thought Tobirama capable of such a thing. It was a surprisingly pleasing image, if he were honest with himself.

Fiddling with the glass in his hands, Madara spoke before his brain could scream at him not to.

“You thinking about it?”

“Shut up.” Tobirama’s cheeks stained another shade deeper and Madara licked his lips anxiously, striving for a casual air.

“Pour me another and I’ll let you fuck me over the table.”

He supposed he should have been smug about how fast Tobirama’s arm shot out to snatch the bottle and fill his cup but he didn’t really have time between the wash of hot pleasure in his belly and the body that appeared behind his own rather suddenly. Madara didn’t bother to fight the hand guiding his own up to bring the cup to his lips, opening his throat to the whiskey at the same time Tobirama attacked his neck with sharp teeth.

Fingers were already sliding around his hips and loosening the knot holding his robes closed by the time he finished swallowing the drink. Madara licked his lips again to catch a lingering droplet and let his head fall, let his body be gently pressed down until his hands were propping him up on what he dimly recognized as the proposals from the Merchant’s Coalition. It had been a month since he’d had sex, a month since his body was reminded of how much he enjoyed being filled by another man, and only now did he finally allow himself to admit he had been craving it this entire time. It wasn’t love but it was some form of human connection and he was at a point in his life where he was willing to take what he could get.

When his robe finally loosened and fell to hang from the crooks of his elbows, Madara arched under the broad hand that skimmed down the length of his spine. He was already stirring inside his trousers and it wasn’t going to take very much to bring him to full hardness; it seemed he had lost a lot of the stamina he used to have, all the patience for withstanding lingering touches instead of driving straight to the heart of the matter. Already he was half-contemplating demanding that Tobirama move faster and they had barely even started.

It seemed he didn’t have to, however. After a moment of quiet rustling Tobirama’s hand came in to view to deposit a small tub of weapon oil on the desk next to the papers, an herb-based oil that Madara happened to know made a very effective and very safe lubricant for certain sexual purposes. He moaned low in his throat as his pants were tugged down over his hips and the hem of his robes hiked up above them.

Tobirama didn’t bother with words as he coated his fingers and traced them around the outside of Madara’s hole, putting his mouth to better use nibbling a line across what bits of shoulder were not covered by unruly hair. He bit down harshly at the same time he pressed a single finger inside, sending Madara up on to his toes. Then he waited until Madara came back down to slide his finger deeper and slowly draw it back out, repeating the motion over and over in slow, steady strokes.

“Fuck off,” Madara breathed. “I’m not s-so breakable that you have to be – this slow!” He closed his eyes under the vibrations when Tobirama hummed against his neck.

“You are incredibly tight, though. I don’t enjoy hurting my partners. Not even you.”

“More, you pompous bastard!”

“Like this?”

Tobirama’s smug question was accompanied by a second finger joining the first and sliding in deep until Madara’s arms trembled, threatening to send him crashing down on to the table’s surface. While that wasn’t exactly an unpleasant image in his mind, he was enjoying the warmth of another at his back just a little bit too much to give it up just yet. He pressed back in to both sensations, feeling the brush of something hard against the side of his thigh and catching his bottom lip between his teeth just to keep any embarrassing sounds from escaping. Moaning and gasping were fine, obviously nothing the other hadn’t heard before, but he wasn’t about to start spilling his guts about how much he had missed a bit of friendly human touch.

“Just like that,” he choked out instead before biting down on his lip again, eyes rolling back in his head when Tobirama curled his fingers and found his prostate. “Gods just like that!”

“Mmm.” Tobirama’s body covered his like a blanket in his half-hunched position, tracing the shell of his ear with a warm tongue.

Eventually he added a third finger, then a fourth, and Madara was closer to begging than he was prepared to admit by the time Tobirama deemed him stretched enough. Judging by how sore he had been after the last time he supposed he should have been grateful for the care being taken with his body. Gratitude, however, would have to wait until after he was stuffed and sated. At the moment all he could feel was impatient.

His hole fluttered with loss as the fingers inside of him were drawn out and Madara keened, hips twitching with need until a large hand took hold of them to keep him still. His knees almost collapsed when he felt something blunt and thick pressing against him but he locked them in place and pressed backwards perhaps harder than was advised.

A gasp escaped him, half pleasure and half pain, as the head of Tobirama’s cock breached him all at once.

“Fuck, Madara.” Tobirama grunted and pinched him reprovingly in the side. “Don’t do that!”

“Then do me!” he ground out, already rapidly descending past the point where he had the mind space to be ashamed of his own desperation.

He missed the warmth immediately as he was shoved forward over the table but Tobirama didn’t give him any time to protest. As soon as his chest touched the wood, presenting his ass in what he smugly thought must have been a very tempting manner, Madara felt two hands on either side of his hips and then his partner was thrusting forward. His voice broke on a sharp cry. By tomorrow morning he was likely to have ten little bruises shaped like Tobirama’s fingers but he cared less and less with every inch he was filled.

What he did care about was when all movements paused for a few seconds as soon as Tobirama bottomed out, the skin of their pelvises flush together. Wriggling did nothing but earn him another pinch.

“Just let me have this,” his partner rasped.

The sound of Tobirama’s already deep voice turned even more gravelly by sheer lust had him hardening impossibly. Staying still right at that moment was quite possibly the hardest thing he had ever been asked to do yet he was reaping the benefits of obeying before half a minute had passed. Madara’s entire body shook under the glorious sensations as Tobirama slowly pulled out, inch by inch, then pressed back in just as slowly.

Impatient by nature, he could count on one hand the amount of times he’d gone through the effort of forcing himself to slow down during sex. Usually he preferred the rush and the freneticism of what could only be called fucking. What they were doing now was still a far cry from lovemaking but it was doing a damn good job of convincing him of the benefits therein – especially when Tobirama found the perfect angle almost effortlessly on the next thrust and paused to grind himself against that brilliant spot deep inside.

“Slow,” he gasped stupidly, fingernails leaving tracks in the table. “S’good. S’really good. Don’t stop.” He opened his mouth to say something else only to choke on a shattered sound instead when Tobirama dragged across his prostate again.

His partner hushed him, murmuring encouragements before falling silent again and allowing the small room to fill with Madara’s helpless sounds. They bounced against the stone walls and echoed back in his own ears, somehow only serving to increase his excitement and embolden him to moan louder. Even the simplest things drove him higher and higher: strong hands caressing him, the cold table underneath him in contrast to the hot body behind, every involuntary gasp that blessed his ears. All of it worked together to leave him nothing more than a mass of frayed nerves sensitive to the slightest touch and it felt as though Tobirama were the only thing keeping him from flying apart.

The speed of Tobirama’s thrusts increased so gradually he hardly noticed at first. Pleasure crashed over him in wave and wave, turning his brain to mush, and he only realized when one of the hands stroking his skin slid around to take his weeping cock in a firm grip.

“Aaaahhhh.” Instinctively clenching his ass only served to remind him of how wide he was spread open at the moment. “You – close – I’m close. Harder. Fucking…harder.”

“Think you mean – nnh – ‘fuck me harder’.”

“Yes! Fuck me harder!” Madara dropped his forehead against the wooden table and closed his eyes, rocking in to the fingers fisted around him and then grinding backwards, again and again until he thought he might go mad from sheer pleasure. Sparks erupted in the base of his spine when his pleas were answered, Tobirama fucking in to him with enough force to bruise his hips.

He didn’t even have time to warn his partner he was about to hit his peak. Nirvana crashed in to him and stole his breath before he’d made it halfway through the thought and Madara came in to Tobirama’s hand with a sound that tore at his throat, barely aware of the way the other man stiffened behind him with a helpless grunt. It felt as though his orgasm lasted forever but by the time it had faded to shivery aftershocks they were both collapsing down in to a messy heap of quivering limbs and gasping lungs. Madara did his best to stay as still as possible, enjoying the weight on his back for as long as he could.

Rather than seeming in a hurry to move, Tobirama settled further against him with a final twitch of his hips, dropping his forehead down between the shoulders blades in front of him. The hand he had reached around Madara now cupped the inside of one thigh, smearing cum across skin, although neither of them paid much attention to that part.

“We are spectacularly bad at forgetting things, aren’t we?”

Madara hummed in to his own arms, amused. “Shut up, nothing happened.”

“Nothing?” Tobirama nipped lazily at his skin to make him squirm. “Careful, Uchiha, or I’ll feel compelled to give you something to remember out of sheer spite.”

“If that was meant as a threat it was a poor one.”

“Why, because you might enjoy it?”

Spluttering indignantly had very little effect when bent over a table with a softened cock still buried in his ass while his hole slowly leaked cum down both thighs but Madara refused to let that deter him. He stopped quickly and shivered at the rumbling sensation of Tobirama’s body laughing against his own.

When was the last time he’d made someone laugh? Despite having been together for more than two years, he couldn’t recall when he had last done anything to make Yuuto laugh or paid any special attention to the man. Their relationship had been falling apart right under his nose for a lot longer than he’d been willing to open his eyes and see.

Yet here was Tobirama chuckling in to his skin as easily as breathing, amused by nothing more than his natural reaction to something. Seducing him had been an easy decision, a powerful draw that he couldn’t resist, but making him laugh somehow felt like a much bigger accomplishment. The smile on Madara’s face lingered as he listened contentedly to the sounds of happiness and wondered what he could do to hear them again – also doing his best not to think too deeply about why he wanted to. Getting attached to Tobirama would clearly be a terrible idea but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have anything at all. It wouldn’t make him less lonely but at the very least he would not be alone.

Rolling his head, he peered down the length of his own body and watched the fingers absently caressing his inner thigh, following the nonsensical patterns with his eyes. As long as it didn’t mean anything then what harm could there be in having this again?

“You know most sane people would have sought their beds by this hour,” he murmured, smirking when the fingers on him passed before slowly drifting up to cup his sticky length again.

“Are you inviting me in to yours?” Tobirama asked.

“I believe I am.”

Not getting attached was going to be the easiest thing he ever did. Him and Tobirama? Never.

#rae writes #madatobi #madara #tobirama #fanfiction #naruto shippuden

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pokemaniacal · 8 years ago

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Pokémon Moon, Episode 10: In Which I Am Recruited To A Cultural Revolution

Apparently, just like many Pokémon… Professor Oak has an Alolan form. He has dark skin, a mullet, and a Hawaiian shirt, his name is Samson rather than Samuel, and he claims to be a cousin of the Professor Oak I know from Kanto, but other than that he seems like exactly the same sanctimonious, incompetent, guilt-tripping whack-a-doodle that I’ve known for pretty much my entire life as a trainer. Even better, it turns out that this version of him helped to build the Rotomdex, so the aggravating little thing basically worships the ground he walks on. If he runs research projects anything like his “cousin” does, most of his data is probably gathered by unpaid teenage Pokémon trainers, so I thank my lucky stars he doesn’t seem to have any “requests” for me to take care of, then take my leave as abruptly as I can. As it turns out, I needn’t have hurried; Lillie has been held up, talking to that woman with the Mudsdale, Hapu, whom I met back on Akala Island. Still not sure what her deal is. She’s clearly powerful and makes a point of giving out help and guidance as she travels, but she doesn’t wear a Captain’s wooden clover-shaped insignia, and I don’t think she’s a Kahuna either. If anything, she acts a lot like Champions I’ve met in the past, but I’m not sure Alola even has a Champion. I briefly consider tailing her instead, but decide against it: Lillie could accomplish all sorts of treachery with the forbidden knowledge of the Malie Library. I sneak inside behind her, discreetly ducking behind a shelf of magazines as she heads up the stairs.

Once I’m upstairs, peering at Lillie from a distance with my face hidden behind an open book, it becomes clear that she is meeting a contact here. This slight, purple-haired girl, wearing a ragged, patchy dress, is named Acerola, and she’s wearing a Captain’s insignia. The conspiracy must go far deeper than I imagined! From snippets of their conversation, I learn that Lillie seems to be seeking a legendary Pokémon called Lunala – “the beast that calls the moon,” who appeared after “the empty sky broke asunder.” According to legend, Lunala “stole all heaven’s light,” forced the king of Alola to bow before it, and defeated all four of the Tapu guardians. Then there’s something about “bringing the dark,” “casting a pall on the line of kings,” and “marking the path for all finished things,” fairly standard doom-cult stuff, but then a reference to some sort of mystic union between the moon and sun, which brought new life to Alola. The line about the sky breaking asunder must refer to an Ultra Wormhole, and Lunala must be an Ultra Beast – one who conquered Alola in ancient times, cut off the entire region from the light of the sun, moon and stars, and ended a great dynasty of Alolan monarchs, forcing the new line of kings to worship it so it would spare their people. It’s worse than I feared! Lillie wants to summon a terrible legendary Pokémon to cover the entire archipelago in darkness and crown herself Empress of the Unfathomable Night! I must uncover more details of her plan, so someone who actually cares can stop her!

Or. I mean. I guess I could do it. If no one else will.

Lillie remains ensconced in the library, hunting forbidden lore, and once she stops talking to Acerola I can’t easily observe her activities without alerting her, so I quietly exit the library and head out of Malie City to explore. I’ve beaten two out of four Kahunas now, and according to Professor Kukui there’s another Captain up on Mount Hokulani, so I may as well go for it. I acquire a couple of new evolutions – the Alolan Ghost Marowak, the Alolan Persian (who has an odd, deformed-looking spherical head), and Steenee, the evolved form of Bounsweet, a ballerina-like fruit Pokémon who is fast shaping up to be this generation’s exemplar of “Grass Pokémon don’t get nice things.” South of Malie City, I also discover an entirely new Pokémon – Komala, a blue-grey Normal-type koala Pokémon. It doesn’t seem to evolve, and its stats are by no means exceptional, and it’s mostly interesting because of a peculiar ability: Comatose. Komala is perpetually subject to the “drowsy” status inflicted by Yawn, but never actually falls asleep; this effectively confers immunity not only to sleep but to all major status conditions. I eventually decide to head along the west road to the base of Mount Hokulani, where there should be a stop on the bus route to the summit. I notice as I approach the bus stop that there are two people waiting already… and then that those two people are Team Skull grunts; B, whom I originally met in Hau’oli City, and the same guy who was with him at the Ruins of Life. Well, this isn’t so bad; maybe if I can get to know them in a less antagonistic situation, we can build a rapport and…

…wait, are they… trying to steal the bus stop?

“What? You never see somebody take a bus stop to go before?” the second grunt asks bluntly when he notices me staring. “…honestly? No. No I have not.” The bus stop has no shelter or seats; it’s literally just a road sign, with a heavy concrete base buried in the ground to prevent… well, exactly this, as far as I can tell. Both Team Skull grunts are scrabbling in the dirt around the base, trying to dig it out so they can carry it off. “Um… do you… need some help with that?” B looks up at me, confused. “Hey, yo! You trying to steal our bus stop?” he accuses me. “Best go find your own, ya hear?!” “Yeah, fo’ shizzle!” the other grunt declares. “It’s on, yo!” He gets to his feet and calls out his Raticate. “Look, guys, I don’t… can we seriously not do this? I don’t care, I just- WHOA!” I dodge as the Raticate lunges at me, and send out my Dartrix, who makes short work of it with a couple of Razor Leaf barrages. “Dang, I lost?” He looks dismayed at first, but then perks up. “Then my homie’s gotta fight you! That’s just life in Team Skull.” B reaches for his Pokéball, and I turn towards him. “Dude, please don’t make me do this; I’d feel like I’m kicking a Togepi…” B stamps his foot angrily. “We stand up even to the strong, yo!” he shouts. “We stand up, even if it ain’t for long, yo!” I blink. That… actually sounds kind of brave. I mean… it’s a bit weird to take a stand like this over a bus stop, but hey, baby steps. I smile at him. “That’s the spirit. Game on!” I send out my Slowpoke. B throws his Pokéball, and a Golbat emerges. My smile broadens. “Huh; your Zubat evolved! Maybe we can make a half-decent trainer out of you yet!” B glares back. “Yo, we prattlin’ or we battlin’?” he demands. Well, someone’s got something to prove. I shrug, and our Pokémon charge into battle. Or, I mean, his Golbat charges in, and my Slowpoke kinda just sits there, because she’s a Slowpoke and that’s what they do. The Golbat flies circles around her for a while and gets in a couple of nasty Bites, but inevitably gets knocked out of the sky by a Psychic blast. With a defeated sigh, B recalls his Golbat, and slouches. “I don’t know if you care, but that bus stop weighs about as much as a Golem,” he says regretfully. “I’m sure it’s not that heavy,” I say kindly, then take hold of the bus stop with both hands and pull. It doesn’t budge. “…okay…” I say, panting, “okay, it’s pretty heavy.” “You really don’t care ‘bout us tryin’ to gank that shiz, homie?” the other grunt asks me curiously. “I… guess a little? But it’s just a bus stop; it’s not like you’re trying to steal Pokémon again.” I pause, and take another look at the bus stop. “…are you? This isn’t, like… some weird Alolan bus stop Pokémon. Uh… right?” I ask, glancing at the Rotomdex. “Zzzzzt! I’ll give you twooooo guessezzz, boss!” the Rotomdex answers. “Smart-arse.” “Yo, think about the bus drivers!” B exclaims. “If we take this bus stop, they can all chill!” “That’s…” I stop and think for a moment. “That’s actually kind of sweet.” B’s face reddens for some reason. “I mean, I don’t think public transport… really works that way, exactly? I’m pretty sure this would just confuse everyone.” “So you ain’t gonna help us either?” B asks. I shrug. “Eh. What the hell.” I grab the bus stop sign again. “Okay, guys, on three.” They both take hold of the sign too. “One… two… THREE!” All three of us heave with all our might, and slowly but surely, the heavy concrete base begins to inch out of the soil around it… until something gives way, and it all breaks free in an instant, sending us sprawling in a tangled pile on the ground. A shadow passes over the heap of knotted limbs. “…do I even want to know?” Professor Kukui asks. “Someone’s foot is in my face,” I answer calmly. I peer curiously at the shoe. “I think it’s mine.”

Once the Team Skull grunts have left, Professor Kukui and I wave down the next bus and head up to the summit of Mount Hokulani, the site of an advanced astronomical observatory that takes full advantage of the mountain’s isolation from light pollution. Despite its magnificence, Hokulani is only the second-tallest mountain in Alola – second to Mount Lanakila, visible off in the distance to the southwest. Lanakila is the focus of Kukui’s greatest ambition; the big contribution he wants his life to make to Alola. There, at its summit, close to the celestial realm of Alola’s legendary Pokémon, is where he wants to form an Alolan Pokémon League. Alola’s four Kahunas will appoint a Champion who will be recognised by fellow Leagues all over the world. Kukui’s plan calls for nothing less than a cultural revolution in Alolan Pokémon training, bringing the region into the 21st century – and Hau and I, the most recent trainers to begin the island challenge, are vital parts of his plan. Well, I guess as a foreigner, and a former title-holder myself, I am in something of a unique position to help him. It’s a more persuasive argument for completing the island challenge than Tapu Koko ever offered me, anyway. For that matter, modernising Alola’s traditions seems like something that would really annoy the Tapu without actually giving them any excuse to smite me.

Before taking on the observatory’s trial, I explore the mountain a little bit, fight some trainers, and discover another new Pokémon: Minior, a floating meteorite Pokémon with a gleaming gem-like core surrounded by a rocky outer shell that breaks apart when it takes damage. Despite not being a bird, not flying with wings, and not having any wind powers, Minior’s type is Rock/Flying, because clearly the Flying type made way too much sense in generation VI. When I return to the summit, Kukui introduces me to an old friend and travelling companion of his: a trainer named Molayne, who works at the observatory and was once its Captain (I’ve learned elsewhere that Captains traditionally give up their positions when they turn 20). By way of introduction, Molayne challenges me to a battle, and my Toucannon obligingly explodes his team of Steel-types – a Skarmory, a Metang, and… an Alolan Dugtrio, whose heads each sport a luxurious surfer’s mane of golden hair. I… still don’t quite understand why these are Steel-types, unless their hair is literally made of gold wire or something. In any case, Molayne decides that this victory proves I’m ready for the Mount Hokulani trial, and ushers me inside to meet the current Captain, Sophocles.

Wait, Sophocles? The grumpy-as-$#!t Cartman knock-off who runs the Festival Plaza?

…yeah. Turns out he’s totally a Captain. A very young Captain, who recently inherited the role from Molayne, his cousin, as a result of “unusual circumstances” that prevented Ula’ula’s Kahuna from appointing a new Captain when Molayne became too old. Sophocles is… well, doing his best, but clearly not ideal for the role; he’s nervous, awkward, doesn’t know how to talk to challengers, seems more concerned with his inventions and the Festival Plaza than with running the Hokulani trial, and isn’t particularly interested in doing things by the book. He doesn’t lead me to a special trial site; instead, he has a plan to have his Totem Pokémon come to us, summoning it with an experimental device that broadcasts ultrasonic signals from space (…or something). I am certain that nothing here could possibly go wrong.

Something instantly goes wrong.

Sophocles’ device broadcasts its signal, then immediately blows a fuse, taking out all the lights and triggering a lockdown in the observatory’s security system. Sophocles claims he can sense the Totem Pokémon’s approach, but we’re going to need to deal with the lockdown first – by passing an audio quiz. The obstinate system opens the lab’s doors just long enough to let in a wild Pokémon every time I successfully identify the sounds it’s making – the Pokémon Centre heal tone, the Rotomdex’s startup tone, Charjabug’s cry. My Pikachu successfully defeats the Grubbin and Charjabug that turn up first, and my Raticate handles a second Charjabug. At last, Sophocles’ Totem Pokémon arrives: Vikavolt, an ugly-as-sin but undeniably badass flying electrical beetle, whose aura, in contrast to the other Totems I’ve fought so far, buffs all of its stats. My Pikachu manages to hurl out a Catastropika and a Volt Tackle before being knocked out, and my Salandit follows up with Toxic. This whole time there’s a Charjabug assisting the Vikavolt with Mud Slaps and Thunder Waves, just to annoy me. Finally though, with Vikavolt weakened, my Dartrix finishes it off with Pluck. Meanwhile, Molayne restores the observatory’s power and deactivates the security system, releasing us. He and Sophocles reward me with not one but two Z-Crystals: Sophocles’ Electrium-Z and Molayne’s Steelium-Z. Molayne also hands me Professor Kukui’s Masked Royal lucha mask, which he apparently left up here, and asks me to give it to him at Malie Garden.

Returning to Malie Garden, I find Professor Kukui almost immediately, but he’s somewhat preoccupied, deep in a debate with none other than the two Team Skull grunts who were trying to steal the bus stop earlier. “You say you wanna make a Pokémon League?” B asks him incredulously. “You got rocks in your skull?” Kukui grins and holds up four fingers. “Four turns!” The grunts look at each other, confused. “Huh?” “I’ve been researching Pokémon moves, so I’m always ready! I’ll take you both on in a Battle Royal!” The watching crowd cheers. I allow myself a smirk as the grunts shuffle nervously. Suddenly, B notices me and catches my eye over Kukui’s shoulder. His expression goes stern and he balls his fists. “F-fine!” he blurts at Kukui. “You asked for it!” I widen my eyes and shake my head at B vigorously, dragging a finger across my neck. This is… not going to be pretty. Much as I hate to admit it, Professor Kukui knows his $#!t. As he prepares to battle, though, a murmur sweeps through the crowd. People chatter nervously, there are a couple of scattered ‘boo’s, and I hear a name repeated over and over: “Guzma!” The crowd behind the two Team Skull grunts parts as a young man swaggers up. He’s in maybe his late 20s, dressed in Team Skull black and white, with a shock of white hair, and shows off his team’s stylised S-skull logo in both a gaudy gold necklace and a pair of purple forearm tattoos. “Battle Royal, huh?” the newcomer drawls. “Nice idea there, Kukui. You can beat down three Pokémon at once?” Both grunts instantly adopt postures of total deference. “The boss has graced us with his presence!” “The hated boss who beats you down, and beats you down, and never lets up… Yeah. Big bad Guzma is here!” Guzma says, his voice rising with each phrase. He raises his arms into the air. “GREETINGS, COWERING PUBLIC! We have an exciting bout for you tonight! In the opposing corner, the Pokémon professor Kukui! And in this corner, the boss of Team Skull and the hardest guy around, Guzma!” Kukui thinks for a moment, smirks, and this time holds out both hands. “Seven turns.” Guzma growls at him angrily. “This move fanatic is getting me all riled up!” “Let’s see it then, Guzma,” Kukui taunts him. “Show me your moves and prove you aren’t all talk! If you can… right, Chris?” I blink a couple of times and hastily glance around, searching for some other Chris he might have meant, or perhaps a convenient bush to dive into. “Uh… what?” I ask lamely. Guzma frowns. “So you’re one of the kids on his island challenge? You don’t look like Hala’s grandson.” Where the hell is Hau? Why doesn’t anyone ever make him handle cr@p like this!? “This here’s Chris,” Kukui explains proudly. “He just moved to Alola recently. Discovery! Adventure! He’s loving every minute!” “Love is a very strong word,” I hastily clarify. “It’s… really more of a passive marinating process.” Guzma chuckles. “You’ve got a Z-Ring, huh, kid?” he observes. “Why even bother with the island challenge?” I shrug. “I’m gonna be honest, inertia is a pretty big part of it at this point.” He roars with laughter. “HAHA! You don’t even know why you’re doing it!” He turns his attention back to the Professor. “You see, Kukui? Here we are, fellow rejects who could never become Captains. We’ve got all these mouldy old traditions in Alola – the Kahunas, the Captains… it’s about time we cut out all that silly garbage and make something new for ourselves. Trust me, I get that. Don’t get me wrong though, Kukui. I’ve got no need for a Pokémon League. After all, everyone already knows who the strongest trainer is on these islands!” “Speak for yourself, Guzma,” Kukui begins. “Well, hang on, though,” I interrupt, raising my hand for quiet. “He’s sort of got a point.” Both men look at me quizzically. “I mean, I want to get rid of Alola’s whacko bird cults and volcano rituals and freaky voodoo $#!t as much as anyone. You could at least cut out the human sacrifices.” Kukui goes stony-faced at that. “How did you know about-?” “Didn’t. I was totally going off random guesswork and thinly-veiled racism. Until now. Seriously, dude!?” He looks sheepish. “But the point is, there’s no reason modernising Alola means you have to do everything like Kanto and Johto, with a Pokémon League and a Champion. I mean, have you met Kanto’s Elite Four? I have! They live in a castle in the middle of nowhere and they all hate each other!” Guzma guffaws. “I like this kid!” I turn on him. “And you! What do you think you’re doing, running a gang with all these… debatably innocent kids? I mean, these two? They wouldn’t hurt a fly. I’m not sure they could if they tried. How tough do you have to be to bully them around, anyway?” Guzma is fuming now. Meanwhile, B is now looking at me with his eyes wide, shaking his head, and dragging a finger across his neck. I just wink at him. Guzma looks back and forth between us a couple of times in utter confusion, then remembers his wounded pride. “Watch closely, Kukui,” he growls. “Someday I’m gonna destroy you. But first, I’ll destroy everything you care about! WANNA SEE WHAT DESTRUCTION LOOKS LIKE? HERE IT IS IN HUMAN FORM – IT’S YOUR BOY, GUZMA!” Guzma roars and hurls a Pokéball as I send out my Raticate. Guzma’s Pokémon is a hulking mass of insectoid chitin and muscle that he calls a Golisopod. Okay, I think to myself, it doesn’t look that fast, so- “First Impression!” “Wait what.” There is a sickening crunch, and my Raticate sails through the air past my shoulder making a mournful wailing noise. “…ah.” Well, that didn’t work. I send in my Salandit and command her to use Inferno Overdrive, which puts a dent in the Golisopod, but it strikes back with a Razor Shell that knocks her out immediately. Huh. I squint at the Golisopod, and realise what it is: the evolved form of that pathetic bottom-feeding silverfish, Wimpod! I WANT ONE. Secure in knowing what I’m dealing with, I throw my Toucannon into the ring and fire off a Beak Blast that flattens Golisopod. That seems to be Guzma’s strongest Pokémon; his only other is an Ariados, no match for a Toucannon. Guzma becomes visibly enraged as his Pokémon drop. “GUZMA!!!” he explodes. “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!? NOW’S THE TIME FOR YOUR VAUNTED TEAM TO LET LOOSE AND DESTROY EVERYTHING!” “Dude, chill,” I tell him. “Has anyone ever told you to get a hobby?” Guzma just growls unintelligibly, turns around and storms off.

As Guzma leaves, the two grunts linger for a little while, over by one of the garden pools. The second one jabs B in the side with an elbow and jerks his head over at me. B shakes his head vigorously and makes a couple of gang signs I still can’t recognise or interpret. His friend just glares at him sternly, points at me, then turns his back to me, folds his arms, and starts tapping his foot. B says something to him, but he just stands there, stony-faced. With a sigh, B slouches over in my direction and fixes his gaze on my feet. “Mmmsrrrrytrrrdt’stlllyrpkmmnn,” he mumbles. “…what?” I ask, genuinely confused. “M’mm sorry we tried t’steal y’rr Pokémon,” he mumbles again, this time just loud enough for me to make out what he’s trying to say. “Back on ‘mele Island.” “Oh.” I fumble for the words to respond, taken aback by the apology. “Well, I… um. Thanks. That can’t have been easy to say. I’m, uh… glad you felt you could do that.” “Listen,” he mutters, still looking at my feet. “Don’t mess with the boss, yo. You don’t want him to get serious. You’d…” He wrenches his eyes away from the ground and looks right at me. “You’d get straight messed up, homie.” I try to smile at him. “It’ll be okay. I’ve dealt with bigger, crazier whackos than Guzma.” B glances back at the other grunt. “Yo, I gotta split. See you round?” “Definitely.” As I watch them leave, Professor Kukui presses something into my hand, saying something about a signature move for Dartrix’s evolved form, but I’m not really listening. I think it’s time Guzma’s gang started standing up to him…

Ridiculous quote log:

“Our safe driving record will absolutely slay you!” …I think you may have missed the essential purpose of safe driving, Exeggutor Express.

The team:

Tane the Dartrix Male, Timid nature, Overgrow ability Level 33 Steel Wing, Razor Leaf, Synthesis, Pluck

Rhea the Toucannon Female, Lax nature, Keen Eye ability Level 33 Screech, Roost, Beak Blast, Brick Break

Ashley the Pikachu Female, Timid nature, Static ability Level 33 Volt Tackle, Hidden Power (Ice), Nasty Plot, Nuzzle

Hypatia the Slowpoke Female, Hardy nature, Own Tempo ability Level 33 Psychic, Yawn, Façade, Scald

Soot the Raticate Female, Hardy nature, Hustle ability Level 33 Crunch, U-Turn, Hyper Fang, Focus Energy

Joanna the Salazzle Female, Timid nature, Corrosion ability Level 33 Flame Burst, Nasty Plot, Dragon Rage, Toxic

#pokemon moon playthrough #pokemon #alola #lillie #team skull #sophocles #acerola #molayne #professor kukui #guzma #malie city #mount hokulani #lunala #steenee #komala #minior #vikavolt #golisopod

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steveparker3210-blog · 5 years ago

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Is it possible to give up sugar?

Many of us are addicted to sugar. Want to break the habit and get those no-good empty calories out of your life? This is how to conquer your cravings in 11 easy steps – even if you really, really fancy a Mars bar

1 Know thine enemy

It is droll to observe nutritional advice at the public health level; governments and their agencies always approach obesity as though it were a problem of information or – in the popular phrasing – "awareness". If people only knew how much sugar there was in a Twix, they would simply eat something else.

This knowledge deficit doesn't exist: you won't meet anybody on Earth more intricately apprised of calorie content than someone who is obese. The only people who genuinely don't know shit from sherbet are the authorities themselves, who make a mistake we can recognise from other spheres, viz, they conflate the problem behaviour – in this case, excess sugar – with the people they perceive as causing them a problem. People, for instance, who drink fizzy drinks (except prosecco). So they'll preach two behaviours that are near identical, nutritionally speaking, as the opposing pillars of good and evil. "Drink a fruit juice; do not drink a Lilt. Drink a smoothie; do not drink a McDonald's milkshake." Finally, some exasperated nutritionist will pop up and say, to be honest: "This is all sugar that doesn't fill you up and doesn't even slake your thirst particularly well." And everybody pounces on them and calls them a quack, even though they are right. Related Articles : https://www.sugarfreeblog.com

It is all sugar; it all does the same thing to your bloodstream, and it all begets an appetite for more of itself, as do fags and booze. Leaving aside the thumping idiocies of the Department of Health's Change4Life campaign, the only real fault line is: do you think of it as an addiction or not? If you merely think of it as a matter of self-control, something you like a bit too much and have to master, there is no more a need to excise it from your diet than there is to stop using Twitter just because it drains your time and means you'll never amount to anything. There is only one step necessary for you, the step of "less". If you do see it as an addiction, then cutting down won't be enough, and I refer you to steps two through 11.

2 Cold turkey

"But what if," I said to Frankie from Pure Package, a company that sends perfectly balanced meals, daily, to people with money, "you just really, really fancy a Mars bar?" I have been calling diet people (for work!) since Atkins was fashionable. There will be those among you who don't even remember the outbreak of war against wheat, who weren't even alive in a time before bread was the enemy. Think on that. Anyway, what always charms me is their presentation of preposterous alternatives. So you might say: "What I really love is a buttered crumpet," and they'll go: "That's easy! You can grind some cashew nuts into a sort of makeshift butter and spread it on some kale." That was my motivation in putting the Mars bar question to Frankie, but she wasn't biting. "The only way to stop sugar cravings is to treat it like an addiction and go cold turkey. There's nothing to soften that blow. If you really need to get sugar out of your life, you're going to have to go cold turkey."

3 Beware of fruit

Frankie again: "Fruit has been given a halo so we end up eating too much of it." In fact, there's nothing inherently great about fructose; I mean, you can get too far into these weeds and start sounding like a hippy. Sure, fructose is better than glucose because it comes accompanied by fibre and vitamins. But in and of itself, it is not better, and "should" (still Frankie), "be accompanied by seeds or nuts. The effect of that would be to slow down the insulin spike that the fruit brought to the bloodstream. Overall, it should be, not limited, but not seen as something you can eat all the time in any quantity." Generally, the higher the water content, the less the sugar hit, so oranges are better than bananas. Oranges are also better than mangoes. Oranges, it turns out, actually are the only fruit.

4 Also beware of (some) naturopaths

Some definitions: "dietitian" is the only term that is subject to professional requirements. Anyone can be a nutritionist. "Naturopath" is what nutritionists call themselves when they want to sound a bit more new-age than they already do. The middle term attracts the most scepticism, based on the presumption that just because your field isn't professionally accredited, you do not know anything and you can't process information. People make it about journalists quite a lot as well; this presumption is mistaken. That said, I interviewed lifestyle guru Carole Caplin once, and she asked me to do something the next day, and I said: "Unfortunately, tonight I'm going to get completely drunk, so I most probably won't want to do Pilates/circuit training/zumba tomorrow." She fixed me with a beady eye and said: "I try not to eat too much chocolate, but sometimes I go mad. The other day, I ate something like eight squares of Green & Black's. And afterwards I felt terrible, I had a headache, the shivers, I couldn't get out of bed. Whereas if I'd only had two squares, I'm sure my body would have coped with it." Here's the thing: I'm not convinced that really happened. I think she was using chocolate as a metaphor for booze, in an attempt to find some joint language that we would both understand.

5 Give up alcohol

Many drinkers think they don't have a sweet tooth; indeed, they are faintly derisive of people who do. In fact, they get all their sugar from alcohol and if they ever gave it a rest for even two days, they would realise they have an incredibly sweet tooth.

6 Gary Barlow

Gary Barlow. Photograph: David M Benett/WireImage You know that joke, "how do you know when someone has an iPad? Because they tell you"? This adapts very well to the Take That tax avoider. How do you know how Gary Barlow lost five stone? Because he tells you. In precis, he realised, after years of trial and error, "that he doesn't have the kind of body that allows him to eat whatever he likes" and thereafter, cut out sugar, alcohol, any solids at all after 2pm, and refined carbohydrates. I know! As if he couldn't get any more charismatic.

The point is that Barlow is now at the dead centre of the sugar-free, wheat-free eating crowd, and if you ever want to know how to make a cake out of hemp, Google "Gary Barlow" + "cake out of hemp".

7 Grain differentiation

Spelt, an ancient wheat. Photograph: Alamy The whole issue of carbohydrates and sugars has been maybe irredeemably muddied by people such as Sarah Ferguson eating spelt, and then going: "I went wheat-free and the weight fell off me," and everybody going: "Wow. That's some strange ju-jitsu, considering spelt is just a variety of wheat."

Almost all carbohydrate converts to glucose, except fibre; the less fibre there is, the more will be converted, until you get, like, a Greggs bap that's basically just a glucose tablet without the mysterious wet-dryness.

If you are unsure whether a carbohydrate is refined or unrefined, ask yourself – have I ever thought: "I could murder an X"? Sausage roll, yes. Pearl barley risotto, no. Buttered crumpet, yes. Kale spread with cashew butter, no. The intensity of your desire is an index of the glucose it will deliver. This means a) all refined carbohydrates should be treated as sugars, in your sugar detox, and b) to avoid sugars, you simply avoid all the things you really want.

8 A life without sugar

Coconut oil can be used in cakes. Photograph: Alamy What sugar brings is not, as you might think, sweetness, but texture. So if you have a cake that is wheat-free and sugar-free (there's no real point in being one without the other), it is possible to find alternatives, replacing the wheat with nuts and the sugar with fruit, coconut oil, agave, combinations thereof. The nuts bring clagginess and the fruit is too wet, so the result is soggy and mushy with a mouth-coating trace of clay, a sort of repulsive pabulum whose problem is not its flavour but its mouthfeel. It is better not to replicate your old life, in other words, but to find new hobbies, such as reading. Can Sugar Brain Damage Be Reversed https://www.sugarfreeblog.com/can-sugar-brain-damage-be-reversed

9 Paleo eating

Acceptable food in the Paleo diet. Photograph: Pal Hansen for the Guardian

The best catch-all diet to remove sugar without contravening the copyright of the Atkins diet, this involves eating like our ancestors – very little fruit, almost no grains, a lot of meat and a lot of exercise as you pound away at your treadmill, imagining yourself the predator of the steak you will later eat. Adherents point to the fact that our stone-age ancestors were much healthier than us, having no problems with obesity, cancer or any other diseases that beset our modern age. Pedants point out that the posthumous diagnosis of cancer was pretty patchy until the discovery of the disease in circa 1600BC (some time after the Paleolithic era); and, furthermore, that many ancestors were cut off in their prime by other factors (dinosaurs!), and it is impossible to tell how fat they would have become had they lived to our great age. I mistook this for Palio eating, and thought it meant eating like a jockey, which would be a mixture of chips, power bars and Viagra. 10 Sugar-free alternatives Sugar-free chewing gum. Photograph: Alamy Basically, the trajectory of a sugar alternative goes like this: is discovered; is lauded by all; becomes available in Holland & Barrett; there are suggestions that it is not as wonderful as it was cracked up to be; is abandoned in favour of something else, which has conveniently come along in the meantime. Take stevia – nutritionist Amanda Ashy-Boyd describes this once-wonder ingredient: "It's supposed to be a natural substitute for sugar, but it's not so natural in the sense that it probably goes through multiple chemical processes to be able to add it to the food."

11 Just stop eating it. What are you, a baby?

Or, more diplomatically put by Ashy-Boyd: "It's all about making sure you're eating a balanced diet, so you never get into a place where your blood sugar has dropped." This involves ceaseless snacking of foodstuff with a low glycaemic load, foods that are mainly hummus or things that remind you of hummus or things that are called "hummus" but aren't, in an attempt to appeal to people who only eat hummus (butterbean hummus. Seriously. How is that hummus?). You combine this with an oatcake, or something containing pumpernickel (note: not a German Christmas tree biscuit; these also contain sugar), and you ignore all the people who are looking at you and definitely thinking: "I wish she would just eat properly and not like some kind of idiot koala." "That's one way of protecting yourself," Ashy-Boyd continues. "The other thing is, if you are a big sugar eater, you have to be conscientious about it. Maybe allow yourself a couple of days to go without it. And then once it's out of your bloodstream, it's so much easier to combat that desire."

Cold turkey, see? It's all about the cold turkey.

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kitproject5 · 6 years ago

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“Forever / Now is a 10-week project. Does forever mean forever? Can we ever be in the now? Is everything we do left in the past and can we shape our futures? What are the key issues that shape our work and lives today? All of these questions address our theme Forever/ Now.”

My initial idea for my Final piece was to primarily focus on the idealistic themes of former and now, things that have been either been here long before us or since we evolved and concepts that are in the present either positive or being negative as such, the type of person that I am i focused more so on negative factors just as I believe they are the real day to day issues. There's no point highlighting the positives of the world in my opinion as the negatives are what are causing real controversial issues, people call me pessimistic but in my opinion, I’m just a realist I accept the true nature of humanity and effect that it has on our world and society that we live in. The themes i initially I planned on focusing on were themes along the lines of music, decay, pollution, equality, racism, passion, and gender. After a lot of extensive research, I decided to get rid of the idea of decay, pollution, and passion as I could link all of them together and was making it to hard for myself so I dampened my project ideas down slightly.

If I’m completely honest I didn’t stick to my plan or schedule at all as it's not really how I do things I kind of just do it as I go along which is something I’m sure I will grow out of this because it causes me more bother than needed. if I had followed a plan I probably wouldn’t have rushed the last part of my project. Nothing happened to stop me in my tracks to not follow my plan unless you could blame laziness or procrastinating as preventing me from following my plan. If I could go back i would have followed a plan because it makes me look lazy and that i don’t care when in fact I’m passionate about photography and love what i do.

In total for this project i did a total of six shots that seem to go to plan and quite well, one that i really struggled on was when having to paint two of my models in black face paint for the theme of nudity, as it would take so long to do and took so many layers and when photographing them it didn’t come out as well as i wanted due to the skin then looking patchy i wanted everything to be perfect, the shoots of painting my models and my friend dressing up in female clothes were taken at home as it was more private for them and felt a lot more comfortable in the space of there own home, to achieve the images i used a flash with a wired receptor on it and a defuser to try and cut done the shadows, that was the real battle of it as trying to cut out the shadows was a real ball ache and took a while but after much practice i seemed to get rid of most of them or dampen it down a bit. In the future, i will do this in the studio for lighting if i was to do it again. I had the same problem with the car park shoot i did but there wouldn’t be a way around this unless i had a more equipped portable studio. My final shoot took place in the studio at college which went very well i could have been more prepared but apart from that, i can’t think on any negatives as such.

I was able to generate so ideas from extensive research from but a lot of it just came from my head or knowledge that i have gained from being alive these past 19 years.

My final piece is all about the different themes of forever and now that i have explored through a series of about 33 images that consist of the themes of nudity, equality, gender, and music. I feel that these themes link with the title of forever and now as nudity is something that has been around since the dawn of time we started completely naked and vulnerable not just physically but also mentally as we were naked to thoughts and what the world was. So as the theme of nudity i painted my girlfriend ruby who i painted her in black face paint to act as if she actually had some form of clothes on but was actually in her own natural nature that people are so awkward about in this day and age although its something that has been a part of us since the dawn of time, i also painted the two models because i wanted create a shocking and dramatised scene to make people feel uncomfortable when they look at as they do a naked body or there own as so many of us are uncomfortable with there own body, which is to do with the now i guess this links to social media or vanity as people care too much which then leads to a variety of mental health issues. i feel that i got my point across in the image and the reasons why i did it, in my opinion, it makes sense. The lens settings that i used were F.stop 8 a shutter speed of 1/125 and an Iso of 200, i used this for both photos as it created the best lighting when using the flash. It could have been better if it had been done in a professional studio but this is not the end of the world. The theme of gender was achieved by my friend Boris dressing up in female clothes and having his make up done to make him look transgender, my reasoning is that gender has been a thing for many years and has been misunderstood for a long time now mainly in the last few hundred years but before that it was more understood, for example, some native American times were all for gender equality, if you male and wanted to weave baskets and cook you could and you weren’t ostracised for doing so and if you were female and felt that you wanted to hunt and go to war you could. But in this day and age a boy wanting to be a girl or vice versa they become the clown of the town which is disgusting because we are all as one. So for this shoot i wanted to make it seem as if the subject was depressed as they are isolated for what they want to do so i made it look dark and gloomy by angling the flash in a certain way to create a dark shadow over the face which i really liked and came out quite well, i also had the subject to represent the subject using booze or drugs to numb the pain which usually can be the case or much worse. In my opinion, i don’t think it could have been any better i was very happy with the outcome. If i could have done to it differently i would have done it in a proper studio, but it wasn’t up to me in this case cause my friend wanted to be at home to do it. To be frank, though there is something about having a homemade studio and being free to do what you want, i guess you could say I’m attracted to that rugged vibe. the settings i used for this shoot were the same as the previous one as it was on the same night. i tried to keep the rules of thoughts in mind and using split photography which was hard to achieve with one flash but its all bit of practice, my favorite image would have been the image of Boris with the split photography as i feel it empathizes most with the feelings that are trying to be portrayed throughout out the images.

The next shoot which was my final, that would be included in my series of mages was of my friend Boris again of him portraying a rock star or musician however you want to call it, and imitating the smashing of a guitar that many rockstars have seemed to taken part in as the performance comes to an end which i find quite ironic as smashing a guitar is the instrument that will give a rockstar wings and there kind of just taking thought wings away from themselves, until they buy a new one. In hindsight, this is a perfect example of consumerism at its finest, but i best stop there as i can’t have any hate on the music industry as its done wonders for me, apart from that chart rubbish we are causing are earbuds to drown in there own blood. Pretty Much i included music into my Fmp as music is something that has been around since the dawn of time and is what keeps people connected to one another whether they like it or not. Everyone can find some way to bond over through music which is a beautiful thing when you think about it. As it goes its more than likely the most powerful thing in the world, its been here since the beginning of time and will be the only content to remain even when we human beings have left this sickening world that we so call home. Music is everywhere you can hear and find it everywhere and that will always remain the case. Through my project i tried to show the passion of music through buskers on the street and how happy it makes them, but then also the intense passion it gives other people which i tried to tell a story of through the use of my friend Boris by getting him to act cool and collective, angry and sad to show the different emotions through music. My favorite shot was of the one where the subject is about to smash the guitar il like the angle of the body and the emotion on the face i feel like it dramatizes the image quite a bit, i also like the composition of the photo originally i wanted it to be a white background but i think the black makes a much better one as it toys with the image due to how music through time gives off somewhat of dark emotion as many musicians over time have suffered from a peace of mind which some don’t have the luxury of. I also wanted to smash the guitar but that didn’t go well as it was cheap and broke on the first hit, so if i was going to do it again i would buy a better guitar so it wouldn’t break as easy. but overall I’m happy with my final outcome.

My other section of the photo book is base on consumerism as it is a massive problem of the now and only relates back to a status threshold. I guess you could also say that consumerism has also been a thing since the BC times as many Romans relied on status and what the owned so they could make themselves look better than the rest of there bleak society, but there's was a tad different instead of having a nice car like this day and age it was more along the lines of how many slaves you could take with you to the bath house when you were having your weekly wash, i know its slightly drastic but it still follows the same guidelines. I wanted to try highlight how obsessed people are with consumerism in recent times and how most of us are all vampires sucking lives out of each other by caring more about what shoes you own or the new 1000 pound phone you just went and paid for which is not needed. I tried to portray this by photographing people on the street that look as if they suffer from this disease that we can’t find a cure for, so i managed to snap one of a couple where one is on the phone and both wearing expensive clothing which was a perfect example of the divide that people may have when in a relationship causing them to grow distant from one another due to the obsession f wanting to be better than everyone. I also got a snap of a different form of consumerism which was of a middle-aged lady that lives on my street who is seen walking around with a pram full of junk which goes to show she is clearly a hoarder, it shows that there's different form of consumerism and it really is an illness but some are worse than others, because its socially acceptable it be spending your money on junk if its fashionable or raises your status level but to be buying or collecting random junk that means nothing to other people then becomes frowned upon.

The way i have presented my work is via a presentation which i have made on InDesign which is a total of 40 pages and 30 images, i chose my sequence by putting gender together and chose the layout and buy trying to get my point across of the struggles of being transgender and the corresponding issues that surround it, i believe that it tells a story but i guess that's not up to me to decide its up to whom is marking my work. I then put equality next because i thought it links with gender and just makes sensei started off with the nudity section in that because i feel like its quite in your face and that's what i want it also tells a story of the equality amongst male and female of how we are the same but its frowned upon for a female to take there top off in public when its the same as a lad doing it there's no difference its exactly the same, i then incorporated race and disability into the rest of the equality series which i feel worked quite well i think maybe some of the images could be clearer on representing the theory of equality but i think it shows it depends how to deep you look into the images, i tried to work on the divide amongst race and culture by using objects that were in the viewfinder, I.e the shadow of the mixed-race man shoes a clear divide which is how it is in this day and age. I then went with consumerism next which i found hard to show because its to that easy to get a good shot of that particular theme as its everywhere so i found it quite busy and struggled to get good shots. The last section was music cause i wanted to finish with my best work in my opinion and go out with a bang i organized the studio work in that way to tell a story through the emotions of music which i have already mentioned earlier on in the evaluation don’t want to repeat myself i can be quite good at that is defiantly one of my vices.

Overall i really enjoyed this topic i enjoyed the theme and the range of photos that i came out with at the end of it, this topic had me quite engaged the hole way through. The only thing I’m not happy with is it may seem i haven’t got my point across to others but in my strange head, it works when i look at it, the skill i lack in is making my work easy for people to grasp. well, i may just be overthinking that part. What I’ve learned from this project is what I’ve learned from every other one i always seem to leave everything last minute and could improve on being in college more which i making an effort to do and being in college more would have benefited me for this particular project.

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