#[ —rest in pieces qrow.

[etruatcaelum]

[ @qrowings // for salem ]

"Let them go, they have nothing to do with this."

Salem does not remove her hand from the side of the wagon as she meets the frantic gaze of Ozpin’s most faithful spy. Terror hemorrhages out of him, soaking dark and red as blood into the leaf mold, as his vermillion eyes flick from her to the girls: one curled up in the wagon, fast asleep, the other sitting in a dirty, tearful heap at Salem’s side.

The blonde child—Yang, isn’t it?—scrubs at her face with a grimy fist, mumbling, “Uncle… Qrow?” in a voice muddled by utter exhaustion. And then, with another darting, uncertain glance at Salem: “What’s going on? You– you know my uncle?”

“Only by reputation,” Salem says, without breaking eye contact with Qrow. Softly, she adds, “You should take better care to watch over your children. There are far worse things in these woods than I.”

[flightofaqrow]

tag refresh, relationships ( ‘+’ is platonic, ‘x’ or ‘ship name’ is romantic/sexual, ‘branwen twins’ is face value lol )

[swapauanon]

Having finally seen Volume 9, and I think it's important to point out something: A lot of people have claimed that Ruby's "Isn't that why we're here? To make things better?" is evidence that she was ALWAYS taking personal responsibility for everything that goes wrong in the world...

But I'm going to be frank, that misses the entire point of the scene with the Herbalist.

When Weiss, Blake, and Yang confronted their past selves, they confronted who they were at the start of their arcs, in their respective trailers. Each of them has grown into a stronger, more mature, healthier person since then.

Ruby's character arc began with her chat with Ozpin in "The Badge and the Burden". That's when she started taking on more and more responsibilities, to the detriment of her mental health. You'll notice that her mental health REALLY starts to nosedive when Ozpin, Qrow, and Cordovin all wind up letting her down in Volume 6.

Every time someone she looks up to fails her, Ruby starts taking more and more personal responsibilities on. All the while feeling personally responsible for every failure, both real and perceived.

Ruby Rose at the start of the series was a healthier, happier person than Ruby Rose was when she met the herbalist in Volume 9. If she had ALWAYS been that unhealthy, her past self would've acted VERY differently in that vision.

She started the series as a realist, and slowly became a suicidal cynic as more and more of the adults in her life let her down and betrayed her trust.

Where her friends grew and matured, Ruby chafed and regressed.

She underwent NEGATIVE character development, but not in the sense of becoming a villain protagonist as most other examples of this kind of character arc would, but in going from a functional human being to a broken shell. The rest of her arc will have to be dedicated to picking up the pieces.

[rwby-imagines-and-headcanons]

Team RWBY - Childhood friend Reader goes Missing

(So I tried to respond to the actual ask but Tumblr glitched out. So I'm doing it like this instead, apologies!)

You're so sweet thank you so much!! This prompt hits so well for me, you have no idea. I wasn't sure whether you wanted EVERY girl from the series or just Team RWBY. For this one I'm gonna do just Team RWBY, but if you want me to do the rest of the girls in the series, just send me a message and I'll write those up eventually!

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Ruby Rose

You and Ruby were two peas in a pod the moment you met. It was like two puzzle pieces made perfectly for each other. You both were into similar things and your personalities mashed super well. Not only did you have a similar sense of humor, you were one of the few people that actually enjoyed her over the top antics and affections. Ruby would often ambush you with a hug while you walked around campus, sometimes leading to you two falling in a pile of giggles. Every week you guys had plans. On Tuesdays you both liked to have Debate Nights where you both defend your opinion on something (often roping in the rest of your friends to be the jury). There wasn't a dull moment with you two, every day was full of laughter and joy. You were each other's first school friend and that friendship has lasted for years. After the Fall of Beacon, you were split up like most, but found each other fairly quickly. You were a great support for her and would always listen to her issues. She felt connected to you deeply on a different level. Even after the rest of Team RWBY came back, Ruby found herself strangely attached to you more. Being reunited with her sister and friends was one of the best feelings in the world, but the moment you and her found each other again takes the cake in her heart. It became incredibly clear that she was in love with you. Looking back on it, she did have a habit of making excuses just to talk to you in private. Ruby didn't know what to do with this information, but it will come up at the right time

One day at about 5 am, Ruby was awoken by Qrow with a somber look. Apparently during the night you went missing. No one saw or heard a thing. You were there sleeping in your bed and then you were just… gone. The thought of you being missing was terrifying, but Ruby tapped into her abundance of optimism and quickly got dressed and headed towards the town. You couldn't have gone far, right? You probably just went through the city and got lost, no big deal! For the next week her routine remained the same; Wake up early, gather friends to look for you, take break for lunch, keep looking alone, head back, sleep. At the start she was hopeful, but everyday just wore her down until the 7th day when it broke her. You've been missing for a whole week, where were you? Yang held Ruby as she cried, eventually passing her to Qrow when it came time to go to bed. He did the best he could and was as supportive as possible, but he knew Ruby needed space to process it herself, and brought her to her room. With a hair ruffle and weak smile, Qrow wished her a good night and left her to rest

Ruby was awoken the next day early in morning yet again, except this time there was a knock at the door. When she opened it, her heart stopped. You stood on the doorstep, clothes torn and bloody. There were no major external injuries but it was clear you were heavily shaken up. Hobbling in with a limp you entered the house and sighed at the warmth. Ruby was at a loss for words, only able to muster out a vague question of what happened.

Apparently when you were going to sleep last week, you decided to throw out the trash as well beforehand. When you exited the house to take it out, you were suddenly ambushed by multiple Grimm and dragged deep into the forest. Since you were going to sleep, you didn't have your weapons, scroll, or any protection at all. You were completely vulnerable. For the past week you had been both fighting for your life against various Grimm and trying to navigate your way out of the forest labyrinth. Just when you were about to collapse, you finally found the opening into the town and limped all the way back to your home

It hurt like a bitch, but you tried to smile as big as possible. You could tell Ruby was feeling awful about this just looking at you. Before you could say another word, Ruby lunged at you, pushing you both onto the couch behind you. You let out a loud hiss as your leg bent at an odd angle and your hip twisted. Her arms were wrapped tightly around your neck, her head buried into your chest. As you gained the strength to question her, Ruby cut you off

"Oh my god I'm so happy you're okay! I love you so much, I don't know what I'd do without you! I can't lose you!"

Hearing the absolute heartbreak in her voice and the way her breathing staggered between sobs pushed you to shed your own tears. In the forest, all you could think of was getting back to Ruby, the girl you loved. The fact that the whole time she felt the same sent you over the edge. You tightly hugged her back, ignoring the pain you felt from your injuries. Both of you just went back and forth saying how much you love each other over and over again to the point of it becoming unintelligable. Tired from being overworked physically and emotionally, you fell asleep together on the couch in each others arms. When everyone woke up in the morning they helped patch you up, with Ruby holding your hand the whole day

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Weiss Schnee

Weiss never expected to like someone so much. She was cold and abrasive, especially at the academy. But for some reason you just… stayed. And it wasn't annoying like it was with Ruby, instead whenever you knocked on her door she could feel her heart skip a beat. She'd still scold you for interrupting her and tell you to leave of course. Every week you pushed a little further, giving her space at the same time as to not overwhelm her. Weiss took notice and appreciated it deeply. She never had someone who took her interests at heart and it was so foreign. Your friendship took awhile to start, but once it got going it veeeery quickly turned into a closeted romance. Maybe it was due to her sheltered upbringing, maybe it was due to you not judging her for her family name, she didn't know. But something about you melted her heart and she fell hard. And it was super obvious, she is not good at lying. It got to the point that basically everyone knew of her crush except you. Ruby and Nora kept trying to get Weiss to confess to you already, but she managed to avert the conversations elsewhere. She'd tell you, but now wasn't the time

Weiss quickly regretted that decision when she came back from a mission to hear you never returned from yours. At first she thought it was a prank and got angry, but when she realised it was true, she started freaking out. She pretty much interrogated everyone who interacted with you that day and started slinging accusations. Emotions got heated and multiple arguments broke out. Ruby and Jaune tried to organize a search party for the next day but that didn't do much. The day ended on a sour note, and Weiss instantly locked herself in her room. She spent the whole night crying, trying to contact you through your scroll

While on a mission, the whole group got a message that you were found alive. Badly hurt, but alive. Weiss basically abandoned whatever she was doing and got to the location marked on her scroll as fast as possible. On the way she went on call with Blake and learned what had happened. Apparently SDC protestors learned of your appearance and relationship with Weiss and grew enraged. A Schnee didn't deserve to find love, and you loving her just made you complicit with her family's crimes! They took their chance while you were alone and approached you, asking for help. When you followed them to the abandoned building, you instantly knew it was a trap, but they bashed you on the head and kidnapped you. They spent the last few days interrogating you about the SDC and Weiss' "secret plans". No matter how many times you said you didn't understand they wouldn't take that as an answer. You got incredibly lucky when Ren saw a shady person enter the building you were kept in and decided to call backup and investigate

The whole travel her anger grew and grew, a flurry of emotions clouding her head. She doesn't even remember traveling to you, she became concious again when she saw your beaten, bloody face. You had a black eye and bruises all over your body, but other than that you were in good shape. The moment your eyes met, Weiss stormed over and began yelling at you. She screamed about how foolish you were to follow strangers, how stupid you were for being so naively kind, it all just fell out of her mouth. Rant lasting awhile, it all accumulated in her confessing what she had been holding for years,

"Why can't you just understand that I love you and don't want you hurt?!"

When she realized what she said she fell quiet and put a hand over her mouth. For the next minute it was pure silence. You could hear a pin drop. It took you a bit to fully process so you just stared wide eyed. Weiss's face dropped as she looked to the ground solemnly. She blunted said you should have just exposed her so you could go free without harm. With that you broke out of your trance and instantly pulled her into a hug, letting out a small hiss at the pressure on your ribcage. You instantly let her know that it was worth protecting her, and when you confessed you felt the same into her ear, Weiss melted into your embrace. As you hugged she just kept calling you an idiot over and over again, threatening you to never get kidnapped again. Meanwhile everyone in the vicinity did a sigh of relief and thanked the gods you were finally a couple

---------

Blake Belladonna

At the start Blake didn't really like people much, that was obvious. But unlike Weiss who was more abrasive and combative, Blake preferred to ignore or dismiss. Even after you became friends with the rest of Team RWBY Blake was the last one to warm up to you. But things changed when you saw her reading a book from your favorite series. Shocked you knew of it, she inquired about your interest and you two spent the whole time talking about the plot and it's history. After that day Blake found herself intrigued by you, and was happy to find someone to enjoy books with her. Everyday she grew warmer. You noticed she would slowly start to approach you herself and actively start conversations. It was cute. Soon she realised that she was falling in love again. Blake tried so hard to fight those feelings off. Her relationships have always been plagued by tragedy and she doesn't want you involved in that. But every time she heard you laugh and saw you do cute little dances, it got nearly impossible to not fall for you

Although your friendship had been pretty steady, you knew Blake was hiding things from you. You tried to pry information from her to no avail, she kept being vague. Tensions just kept rising and rising until tt all came to a head when she finally spoke up. Blake told you everything, all about Adam and the White Fang. She even opened up about what happened with Yang and how she ran away from her team. It was… intense, to say the least. It was so much to process at once you couldn't really wrap your head around it. She was in the White Fang? Yang lost an arm for her? This Adam guy is still out there? The more she tried to explain herself and her history, it just made you more confused and overwhelmed. Your brain became overstimulated with emotions that you just blew up at her. She started silent, but eventually raised her voice as well. It was an intense back and forth argument between you two that ended with you both angrily retreating to your respective rooms. Blake layed in bed awake all night, thinking about your whole argument. It was wrong for you to blame her and yell, but she absolutely understood why you did. This situation is tough and multi-faceted. As she finally drifted to sleep, Blake made up her mind

The next day Blake emerged from her room to confront you and apologize, but found you were gone. Everyone else saw you leave the house in the early morning but haven't heard a thing from you since. Blake's heart instantly dropped. Remembering your last interaction made her imagine the absolute worst and made her heart race. Without a word she ran out and went looking for you. She didn't even have a game plan. Normally she is very levelheaded and able to control her emotions, but this time it was impossible. Adam was still out there watching, waiting. He already went for Yang multiple times, there is no doubt in her mind that he would target you too. Every possibility played in her head of him kidnapping you and hurting you

Blake scanned the streets and forest paths desperately, and after what seemed like hours, she finally found you. No hesitation she called your name, catching your attention. As she dropped in front of you, before you could say anything she grabbed you roughly by your shoulders. Voice quivering, Blake asked you if Adam touched you at all, tears in her eyes. You shook your head confused, gaining a desperate sigh of relief from the Faunus. She explained how you just up and left with no notice and how scared she got considering your fight. But you responded that you left behind a note telling her you were just going for a walk to cool down. You two spent the next couple of minutes clearing up misunderstandings and eventually got the full picture. And awkward silence fell upon you two, which you broke by apologizing for your outburst. Blake was silent at first, but responded in kind,

"I'm… sorry for not being upfront and honest with you. I always try to hide and run, because I'm afraid my past will come back to haunt me. Adam knows when I get close to someone, he knows when I…

I try to rationalize it by saying it's for your sake, but that's not fair to you. I can't do that to someone… someone that I love. I promise from now on there will be no secrets between us."

Her words shook your core, and made your face instantly flush. She was being the most upfront and genuine she's ever been, and you couldn't help but lose your breath. Gulping, you quietly tell her you feel the same, making her ears perk up. On the way back to your home, you both gently locked hands

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Yang Xiao Long

Yo, you didn't become friends, it's more like Yang kidnapped you and you got Stockholm Syndrome. Obviously I'm joking, you were actually a friend of Ruby's and happened to be Yang's age, so everytime you visited Ruby you two would get to talking. After a couple conversations, Yang deemed you to be fucking cool and constantly tried to talk to you and chill. It got to the point that you started hanging out with Yang more than Ruby, causing the latter to pout. Your interactions devolved into playful flirting and teasing. She would always call you "cutie" and make flirty puns at you, gaining a blush and sigh in response. As much as you guys messed around, Yang started to realize that it wasn't just jokes anymore. Over the years you've known each other the atmosphere changed. Subconciously she had been trying to give you hints about how she feels. It took her talking to Blake to really come to terms with her feelings and figure out what was going on with her

The next morning Yang happily slammed your door open and brightly called for you to get up. All of her happiness stopped in it's tracks when she saw your empty bed. With no hesitation she began asking everyone where you were, with varied answers. Nora and Ren ate breakfast with you, Oscar saw you watch tv, Weiss had an argument with you about beverage choices, etc. Blake was the only one with a solid answer, stating you were heading to the out of town store to get groceries. Yang could feel herself getting slightly annoyed, but appreciated the response and happily went to go meet you there. She hopped on Bumblebee and started the drive

While she drove, Yang tried contacting you through your scroll but wasn't getting a response which was odd. You were usually really attentive and always answered, at least sent a text message or something. After a couple more times she was about to put her scroll away, until you picked up. Yang happily spoke into the scroll, playfully scolding you for making her call so many times, but got no response. She listened closely and could hear the faint voices of two men yelling. They were clearly not friendly and were throwing threats all over the place. It was already giving her a bad feeling, but when Yang heard gunshots and the sound of you screaming in fear, she put Bumblebee in overdrive and beelined towards you

When you left the house, all you intended to do was get some bread and pasta for tonights dinner. You even went to the far off store that had the high quality noodles. But about halfway during your shopping the doors slammed open and two men stormed in holding guns. They began threatening the store and it's patrons. The old Shopkeep tried to tell them to leave but quickly backed down when they shot 3 bullets at his feet. One of the men chained the door shut and closed the blinds, while the other went around and gathered customers to the center of the store. Adults and children were herded onto the open floor and promptly restrained as to not intervene. Your scroll, thankfully on silent, kept telling you Yang was calling. You knew you couldn't respond to her, but you accepted the call to let her at least know what as going on. After a couple of gunshots you closed your scroll and shoved it in your pocket. As the other man got closer you looked around and found an opening behind the freezers. Before he approached you quickly slid behind and held your breath. No one noticed your escape, and went along their way. For the next 10 minutes you sat there in horror as you heard the store get ransacked and customers terrorized

The front windows suddenly shattered as a yellow and black bike got thrown through, ramming into one of the men. Yang quickly followed, eyes red and hair burning. She started to tear apart the store trying to find you, breaking shelves and display stands. You name was called but you could barely hear due to the freezers. Upset at the sudden entrance, the men tried to intimidate her, but she didn't even flinch. Knowing you were somewhere in the building, possible hurt, made her go blind with rage. With ease Yang defeated and apprehended the criminals with excessive force. A few extra punches and kicks and head slams are fine, right? Shopkeep thanked her and called the police, leaving Yang to find you. Now that the room was quieter, you could hear her desperate cries and called out for her, crawling out. You were barely off the floor when Yang nearly tackled you and hugged you tighter than before.

"I love you so much, I'll never let this happen again. I'll never let you get hurt."

In that moment Yang didn't even care about the fact she just confessed her true love to you, all she cared about was the fact you were in her arms unharmed. You didn't say it back, but you reciprocated her hug in a way that made her understand. The hug lasted for a couple of minutes, both of you just breathing together and calming yourselves. Once your heartrates dropped and your minds' settled, Yang gently helped you up and lead you to her bike, hopping on herself. Wrapping your arms around her waist, Yang quietly drove you back to the house in comfortable silence. That night Yang slept in your room with you due to anxiety and paranoia of you getting possible hurt. But even after those fears quieted down, you guys kept sleeping and cuddling in the same bed like the lovebirds you were

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This was so long but so fun to write??? I hope these are alright!

[bestworstcase]

Could you elaborate more on if Summer and gylinda (sorry if that's spelled wrong) were narrative foils? That sounds really interesting!

right so from what little we know about what glynda’s been up to since the fall of beacon is that she is, to all appearances, the ONE member of the inner circle who took a deep breath after ozpin died and kept her shit together. the others:

lionheart, already a traitor, continued to ask how high when salem said jump

ironwood exacerbated the global crisis by withdrawing his troops and closing the borders, thus inflicting deep economic pain on mantle and eroding international trust

qrow imploded and had to crawl back up from rock bottom after his faith in ozpin was destroyed

theodore refused to act until it was almost too late to prevent the crown’s coup because he was preoccupied with the more distant threat of salem

but glynda? she took point on the effort to reclaim beacon academy from the grimm and whenever she wasn’t doing that she was personally rebuilding vale. the last we see of her in v3, she’s on the brink of collapse working herself to the bone in vale. but in ‘after the fall’ she’s holding things together, even if just by her fingernails; she’s on top of it enough to have team CFVY’s academic transcripts and a letter of recommendation ready for them when they decide to apply for transfer to shade. in v4, half a year after beacon fell, port and oobleck seem optimistic about the situation at the beacon (“there is still much work to be done at the school” says busy and difficult, but the mood isn’t dire). and when we glimpse her again in v8, it’s apparent that normalcy has been restored in downtown vale; the dust shop is open for business and the streets outside are not overrun by grimm.

glynda had a hellish nightmare situation thrust into her hands as the de facto new headmistress of a fallen school and the person all of vale turned to for protection and guidance in the wake of this horrifying tragedy, and within a year she managed to pick up the pieces and restore peace and safety within the city, even if she couldn’t take back her school. that is astounding, and especially striking in context with the rest of the inner circle crumbling.

what made her different?

this is speculative. but i think that glynda, like summer rose, is a true believer in the ideals that huntsmen are supposed to uphold: compassion, mercy, cooperation, striving for peace, defending those who cannot defend themself. she trusted ozpin, but unlike the others, her loyalty was not for him but for the things he claimed to believe… so when everything fell apart and the burden of leadership landed on her shoulders, she acted in accordance with those ideals. reached out, brought people together, trusted in those who offered their help, and kept widening the circle until the great burden had been shared between many hands. and after salem razes vale? she does the same. goes to find help.

(i don’t think she told anyone about salem, but rather she put her faith in humanity’s capacity to pull together rather than try to shoulder everything herself. this is in contrast to qrow during the haven arc and ironwood, who bring new people into the loop but see the world as hopelessly divided and riven by distrust.)

if i am right about this and also on the mark with regard to summer rose, this would position them as reflections of each other: both huntresses who believe in and embody the true ideal of what they are supposed to be, both guided in their choices by this staunch moral conviction. summer discovers that she is complicit in enacting a horrific injustice and without hesitation turns around to stand with the victim against even her own family; glynda weathers a catastrophic tragedy and stands tall while every other pillar of ozpin’s circle collapses because she puts herself among the people and inspires them to keep pushing with her. both of them Do What’s Right.

which makes it very narratively compelling to juxtapose them with each other, because they are opposites—fighting on opposite sides—but they are also the same.

furthermore, summer has been holding beacon academy against glynda’s siege for the last year-and-a-half or so; either summer has been able to avoid notice during this time, in which case glynda is due to be hit by a freight train of a moment of realization, or glynda has seen her and knows that her opponent is summer rose—a woman who may once have been her student or her classmate, depending how old glynda is supposed to be, and certainly someone she knew and worked with fourteen years ago when they both believed in ozpin.

if that isn’t grounds for a very personal enmity in the vein of cinder and winter or qrow and clover, i will eat. my. hat. summer was there the night beacon fell—she’s the one who left ruby alive when she scraped cinder off the tower—fighting on the side of the grimm. she’s the one who’s been steadily drawing grimm to the school on salem’s behalf! that is glynda’s home! those were her students who died that night! and in reverse, it is almost certainly glynda who knows the secret of the vault’s location, glynda who remains steadfastly loyal to the divine cause of subjugation-or-annihilation, glynda who upholds the system summer fights to tear down. DO YOU SEE MY VISION… the disciplinarian and the revolutionary…

[spadilled]

get to know the author behind the blog hehehe

BASICS.

name: nev/nejvamin/nevward/nevington/whatever u want really age: 24 whole years old pronouns: they/he/she in that order of preference gfhjghjf years of writing: uhhhh since i was in primary school really so like. 18? years? oh god... that sounds like so many years wth

REFLECTION.

why did you pick up writing? i hate to say it but it was when i read the warrior cats books for the first time. i started writing my own bits and pieces surrounding my own warrior cats literally in bed at midnight in a tiny little like a6 notepad i'd been given for a birthday or something when i was six years old and it just snowballed from there. i found a warrior cats forum to rp on when i had my own pc and then i found my way to deviantART and all of the many rp groups on there! then it was tumblr and discord and the rest is history! i've been on tumblr for a While now (either unfortunately or fortunately depending on what way you look at it) and i've since had a Lot of thoughts about trying to write my own novel but i'm still debating on that with myself lmao do you have any writing routines? honestly? none at all. it all depends on whether i have the energy or thought process to get any words down. it's a lot harder at the moment with balancing my job and a horse but i'm hoping to get back into the swing of it sooner or later when my hours drop back down at work again! the most i do is i slap a playlist (or my current brainrot song) on and i pick threads at random depending on which ones i can think of a first sentence to reply with. what's your favorite part about writing? exploring characters and their actions. i really found my stride when i started writing more introspective responses to people. the idea of being able to get into a character's head and know what they're thinking (or not thinking) about is just something that i honestly can't get enough of. another thing though is the creation of a scene as a whole? i tend to 'see' the pieces i'm writing as movie scenes i'm directing, rather than a piece of writing. it makes life hard sometimes but it's just so fun to get to put what i'm seeing down on paper

THREE THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOUR WRITING.

i. oh jeez.... my dialogue? i like to think that the dialogue i use fits my character's voice as well as physically possible? i have pages and pages of dialogue written out for my ocs and otherwise as a fun writing exercise so i'd like to think i'm pretty good at it by now and changing it to suit what muse i'm writing. speech habits are a fascination of mine so i'd like to think that shows through in my writing ii. i try to match my style to whoever i'm writing with? if my writing partner uses more flowery language then i try to match them and vice versa. it's a good exercise for me specifically because i tend to fall into some repetitive habits so i do my best to avoid that iii. bruh this is so hard actually. i'd like to think that i'm quite good at describing emotions? i try to make them as visceral and physical as possible and i think it adds another layer to my characterisation when you can read about how they feel their grief or their joy

A QUESTION FOR THE NEXT PERSON.

what was the first character you ever picked up to start rping? why did you gravitate to them? qr/ow bra/n/wen. i always find myself drawn towards the characters that show their affection in different ways - the tough outer shell and the soft heart. qrow was and is still fascinating to me because he's been through so much in his life and he refuses to let it get in the way of how he treats his nieces and their friends. yeah, he's rough around the edges and comes across as gruff and rude but he genuinely and completely cares about the smiles on his kids faces and that's something i just can't get enough of in a muse. i love cracking open a character and exploring who they are beneath what they show the people around them QUESTION: what keeps you coming back to tumblr rp? what do you enjoy about writing with strangers/friends on the internet?

tagged by: @forbelobog THANK UUU tagging: @finalism, @reasoncore, @vulpesly, @wingspiked. @dreamweaved, @deathsmaidens, @dreamweaved, uhhh idk who has and who hasn't done this im sowwy lmao just steal it if u want to and say i tagged you!!

[howlingday]

In the Jaune is Hades AU will Jaune ever tell his team and RWBY he's a god? And what exactly can Jaune do while on Remnant?

"DAMMIT! DAMMIT!" Jaune ran as hard as he could towards the tower. Towards where he last saw her. At this moment, nothing else mattered. Not the White Fang. Not the Grimm. Not the innocent souls he would have to sort. The only thing that mattered was her.

'Don't worry.' Weiss' voice played in his head. 'We'll help her.'

How could she? How could anyone? Nothing escaped death. Not even Ozpin could.

He reached the tower, and a shade slowly crept towards it. Jaune held out his hand, and the entity stopped. With a wave, the shadpw retreated back to the burning city. Back to where the rest of hell waited for him.

Jaune sat himself down against the stone wall and let out a deep breath. His true form, invisible to mortal eyes, stood above his corporeal disguise. Reaching out to the top of the tower, he lifted himself high, higher and higher into the air until he reached the ruins of what was once Ozpin's office.

He watched in horror as his worst fears were confirmed. He could see Pyrrha's soul, his best friend's soul, the soul of the woman who threw herself upon him only moments ago, and it was fading. Her time was running out.

"Do you believe in destiny?" Jaune's fist tightened.

"Yes." In a foolish attempt, Jaune ran forward, hoping to stop the deathblow.

But even gods bent to their laws.

"No..." Jaune's voice broke, reaching for Pyrrha's fading soul. The least he could do was bid her good-bye. Welcome her embrace into his and guide her to the afterlife that she truly deserves.

But this was not to be.

Pyrrha's soul splintered, fracturing into smaller pieces. Like embers of a dying flame. A hand reached through his body and he watched her blow away. He barely caught her dying words as she soul faded.

"Jaune...?"

Everything went white around Jaune.

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

Jaune awoke from his trance, shaking his memories of that horrible night free from his mind. He had spent most of the morning "training" with Ruby, Nora, and Ren. Said training consisted of video games, exercising, and cooking new Mistrali recipes, respectively. Meanwhile, Qrow lay across from him on the couch, a flask of alcohol Jaune wished stayed empty.

"What time is it?" Jaune looked to the clock. Four in the afternoon. Almost time to get things ready for dinner. Standing with a stretch, he walked towards the kitchen.

But stopped when he noticed something. Someone.

There was a knock at the door. It was small, feeble. A child's knock. Jaune felt his mouth go dry as Qrow awoke and answered the door. To the partially sober man, Qrow saw a young teenager who looked barely old as Ruby. To the god of souls, Jaune saw two souls living inside one body. And one of them was too familiar.

"What do you want, kid?" Qrow asked. "You lost, or somethin?"

"Um, h-hello, sir." The boy's voice cracked. "Um, my name is Oscar and, uh, I was told to come find you."

"Oh, yeah? By who?"

"Who is it, Uncle Qrow?" Ruby called as she descended the stairs with Nora.

"An old mentor." The voice changed. "And an older friend."

"Wait, is that-?" Nora began to ask, but didn't finish as a blond blur rushed past Qrow.

"YOU BASTARD! YOU SICK, EVIL, INSANE BASTARD!" Jaune roared at the man guised as a child. "YOU SWORE YOU WOULD NEVER DO THIS! YOU GAVE ME YOUR WORD!"

"HEY!" Jaune turned to see Qrow pointing his gun at him, with Ruby and Nora behind him, looking on in fear. "Put. The kid. Down."

Jaune set the boy down. Ozpin dusted his body off and let out a sigh. "My apologies, Mister-"

"Lord Jaune." He growled. "You don't get to use that name anymore."

Ozpin nodded and walked past, retreating to the house. He could feel their eyes on him, but none made an effort to approach him. Instead the door shut behind him and he heard the lock latch to keep them all safe.

He couldn't blame any of them.

He never flew into such a rage before. Not once in Jaune's existence has pushed him to a point where he would physically attack someone. Leave it to Ozma to push said boundaries. But even so, his rage was justified, wasn't it? Before, Ozma's vessels had all been adults, mortals who had married with children and spent their lives dedicated to a craft to the benefit of their community.

Ozma swore to the god that he'd never inhabit the body of a child. And oaths to divine beings were never to be taken lightly.

"Jaune?" He turned to find Ruby standing next to him. "Are you okay?"

Jaune looked at her. Her silver eyes cut into him, thinking back to a distant time when he last met a silver-eyed warrior. More than 200 years ago. And yet she was the first he met since. He needed to learn the truth about what happened to the others, but to find this truth, he need honesty. And honesty, was a two-way street.

"Jaune?"

"I'm a god."

[bug-the-chicken-nug]

spitballing the idea of Qrow's Semblance being modestly reworked to still basically do the same thing, but now the effect like, has a directly visible, quantized "vector"/"carrier" for the sake of making it less vague and easier to pin down.

like now he continually generates levitating black "feathers" made of Aura. "Misfortune" then specifically happens to things or people that these feathers have touched and then merged into, imparting their "unlucky aura" in the process (multiple feathers can also interact with the same thing to compound or prolong the effect. A single feather only stays in effect for a moment, and can typically only cause small misfortunes, unless a larger effect was already only a small nudge away from happening on its own.)

People can easily be caught unaware by this, as although the feathers are visible before merging, you can't "feel" that you've been affected. People's Aura barriers do not stop them.

On the other hand, Qrow *also* doesn't "feel" anything when they merge with something, making it all the more important (and stressful) for him to keep a close eye on them.

Qrow can control it in terms of directing where they go, or making more of them, or dismissing some of them. With difficulty, he can also stop them from merging into things until they've touched a desired target. In theory, someone who trusts him enough could safely touch and carry one around without being affected, although Qrow often doesn't trust *himself* enough to let anybody try.

After all, he can still never quite *fully stop* his Semblance. His ability to keep the feathers from merging with things is finicky, and the feathers are frequently at risk of "slipping away from him", especially if he's emotionally distressed or has made too many of them at once. At any one time, there are always at least a few idly floating near him, the exact minimum being dependent on his current mood and well-being. (when he reaches his minimum, trying to dismiss the rest causes replacements to materialize just as fast as they're dismissed... which in turn often irritates him enough to make the minimum actually *increase* instead.)

At the very least, as they aren't "real", just pieces of condensed Aura, they naturally disintegrate when they're more than ~20-ish meters away from him.

[bridgyrose]

As Qrow continues to wear the skirt, Taiyang realizes he has fallen for his teammate. What starts as a prank becomes a crush, and what becomes a crush becomes interesting relationship between the two men.

Summer and Raven just watch the whole relationship drama unfold with popcorn.

“You know you dont need to wear the skirt anymore, right?” Tai asked Qrow as he sat down. “It was just a prank and doesnt have to be part of your wardrobe.” 

Qrow shrugged and glanced down at his legs. Sure, he figured it had been a prank after the first day, but after getting used to the skirt, three weeks later, it was still one of the few pieces of his wardrobe he kept wearing. “Why not? It feels comfortable.” 

“Yeah, but… guys dont wear skirts.” 

“Maybe I’m not a guy.” Qrow smirked a bit as he caught a blush run across Tai’s face. “Maybe I’m just a menace.” 

“A menace to the school, maybe,” Taiyang said under his breath. “If you’re going to keep wearing the skirt, then why did we go through all that effort to get you a new uniform with pants? I thought that’s what you wanted.” 

Qrow paused for a moment, his eyes catching a quick glimpse of his reflection against the metal railing along the wall. Of course he wanted pants at first, but after a few hours of wearing pants, he realized the skirts gave him a bit more freedom, less restrictive, easier to fight in. And while a kilt was an option, it just didnt feel right to wear one. Though, part of it may have been seeing the way Tai looked at anyone in a skirt, catching his glances and part of him wanting to be looked at the same way. “Yeah, but… skirts are definitely more comfortable.” 

“Then we can talk to Ozpin about getting you a kilt.” 

“And if I dont want one?” 

That managed to cause Taiyang to pause for a moment as he thought things over. “You… dont want a kilt but you want to wear a skirt? Dont you think you might be taking things just a little too far?” 

“Or maybe I’m not taking things far enough,” Qrow said quietly as he kept looking at his reflection. He shook his head for a moment as a small thought made its way in, one he thought he was done with a while ago. His body tensed up for a moment as he caught the way Taiyang looked at Summer and Raven, his own heart pounding in his chest, desperately wanting Taiyang to notice him the same way. He slowly tried to focus on his textbook again as the professor walked into the class. 

“Today we’ll be learning about the mighty Ursa and how to efficiently defeat it,” the professor said as he walked in. “But first, rolecall.” 

Qrow gave a quiet “Here,” as he heard his name called, still trying to take his mind off Taiyang. Though, nothing seemed to work as he kept glancing at Taiyang throughout the lesson, almost daydreaming of being held by him. 

Class ended almost as abruptly as it started, Qrow nearly jumping out of his seat as he heard the bell ring. He quickly shoved his textbook into his bag and started to make his way out of class, only to be stopped by Summer putting a hand on his shoulder. 

“As much fun as it is to watch this, I think you need help,” Summer said. 

Qrow paused. “What do you mean?” 

Summer smiled and started to walk. “You and Tai and the way you dance around your feelings. Either way, Raven and I know what you’re dancing around and I want to help you.” 

“You think you can help me… get with Tai?” 

“I do.”

“And what makes you think that?” 

“How about a bet? If I can get Taiyang to go for you, then you have to admit that I know what I’m doing.” 

“And if you cant?” 

“Then I do your homework for the rest of the semester. So, what do you say?” 

Qrow smiled. “Alright, its a deal.” 

“Great!” Summer took his arm and started to pull him. “Then we need to get you a new wardrobe!” 

“W-wait, now?” 

“Of course. Cant leave him waiting.” 

[rocknroll7575]

Jaune: Look, Ozpin what's me to help Qrow with something very important, are you sure you guys can handle Salem?

Yang: No problem VB, it'll be a piece of cake!

Weiss: Yes, how hard can it be to take care of a little girl?

Jaune: *looks slightly nervous* Y-Yeah, b-but look, if you need help call CFVY, either ask for Velvet, those two are kind of the only ones besides me here who'll she'll listen to.

Nora: You know fearless leader, you never told us how you already know a team who are a grade above us?

Jaune: Long story, look just call Velvet if you need help, despite how shy she is and how scared she is around Salem, she knows what to do.

Pyrrha: Don't worry, Jaune, We'll have everything under control.

XXX

LS!Salem: *floating in the air with magical energy surrounding her* I WANT MORE DINO NUGGETS!

*BRP was hiding behind a desk, while Yang blasted through the window, a Nora and Ruby-sized hole in the wall and Weiss was hiding under the bed.*

Blake: *Looking toward Weiss* You couldn't have just given her the rest!?

Weiss: She already ate the amount of serving for one person! Besides, why are you looking at me! last time I checked It was Ren who gave her that disgusting drink!

Ren: It isn't disgusting it's healthy! And she wanted to try it! And besides, she started getting mad when Pyrrha was the one who stopped her from playing with her dolls!

Pyrrha: It was time to eat and she couldn't have them at the cafeteria table!

Blake: *Sigh* I wonder if Jaune is doing any better tonight?

Meanwhile with Jaune and Qrow:

*A bullhead crashed just outside of the city, and both Jaune and Qrow were in the pilot's seat, and behind them, strapped tightly in their seats was a roughed-up Deery*

Qrow: *Takes a few breaths before smirking at turning to Jaune* Another happy landing!

Jaune: *Glares at him* Remind me... to never... fly with you again!

[dowhatteverer]

Pyrrha redesign! This started out as an idea for a different AU where Pyrrha survives the fall and Jaune dies and after Ruby's silver eyes defeat Cinder they're both taken to Atlas and Atlas gets an entire revamp because it was kind of disappointing in the actual show- but then I realized that I don't have time to work on two Ruby AUs because I have a original book I'm supposed to be writing and decided that this would just be Pyrrha's remnant city design because I thought the more tomboyish look for with my new "everything on team JNPR is a tomboy/tomgirl because it was weird that they weren't when their entire concept is because their character allusions crossdressed" thing.

Ok so Pyrrha has gotta be one of if not my favorite designs in the show. Her outfit is only practical in some parts while the rest was clearly designed because sexy warrior makes weebs swoon, but the color composition, the leg armor, the head piece? Just generally being a very gorgeous character? Perfection! I wanted to keep all of my favorite elements in this design but change it up a bit so she's more protected and not as sexualized, but still very beautiful.

The leg piece as you can see is a mobility aid. I thought that since I'm letting Yang keep her prosthetic arm, I might as well give Pyrrha a limp from a damaged foot (because this was originally for a completely different AU where her leg got injured and she lived) and this is a transformable brace that she uses during combat, but it's very taxing on her knees because it makes her legs uneven and it attaches to her calf so it won't put pressure on her foot, which can get sore very quickly. So whenever she's not in combat, she uses a cane. Yay for more disabled characters!

Team JNPR aren't going to be super important to my AU because I want to focus on Qrow, Ironwood, and Penny and having team JNPR still be the B team would be just too many characters to keep track of. But I still want them to be present in the story.

[citadelofmythoughts]

Apologies to anyone who already figured this out. But I was in my Ruby angst era thinking of all the edits I could make if I knew how to do them and thinking of the show songs. Thought about red like roses, mostly the score of it. But then thinking over the lyrics. And it’s taken me ten years to fully piece together that in the first song we ever hear in this entire series Ruby isn’t even talking about herself.

White is cold and always yearning

Black descends from shadows

Yellow beauty burns gold

But Red? Red, like roses, fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest

The intro to the goddamn show and Ruby (who I always thought of as the singer to the song and is now confirmed bc of part 2) can’t even talk about an aspect of herself. The intro of the show is saying how she’s haunted by the death of her mother, the red that in her nightmares is the blood of her lost and fallen mother

Our happy can do normal knees best girl From The Start has had issues. And it’s not like I didn’t see it happening but man. When they said watch V1 and 2 to prepare for V9 I did not anticipate all this hurt like. This is not a huge revelation and ppl probably put it together once we got RLR 2. But Ruby never talks about herself!!! Never not even the beginning of the show!! It’s weapons and other ppl and how cool THEY are but HER intro is “Despite being so young when my mom left the thought of her death follows me All The Time teehee” LIKE SHE HAS NEVWR EVWR BEEN OK

Ruby has probably NEVER gotten to be Ruby. Her upbringing was, I hate to use this word but...it was tainted by Summer's ghost.

Yang did her best to give her a normal childhood but Summer was always there, Yang grieved for her, Tai shut down, I'm sure Qrow was full of stories about her and I'm sure the comparisons to her mother were always there.

And then she grew up, wound up being put in charge of a team years before she should have been, Told how exceptional she needed to be.

In V4 Weiss, Blake and Yang all had a chance to process their traumas, at least in part and re-discover themselves.

Ruby went on a quest but not of self-discovery but to seek justice.

Who is Ruby Rose?

I'm not sure even she has an answer.

[flightofaqrow]

tag refresh, ships

(reminder that ‘+’ denotes platonic dynamic)

[supersaiyanjedi14]

RWBY COMBAT ANALYSIS: JAMES IRONWOOD

"You can label me whatever you'd like, but the fact of the matter is I was right! The minute I softened, let my guard down, that's when Salem had her opening. All excellent philosophical points that won't matter if Salem wins. […]  I am done letting others' inability to see the big picture get in the way of doing what's right. Robyn, the council, this Kingdom... even you.”

PHYSICAL

A human male, General James Ironwood’s exact age during the events of the series is unstated, though as a peer of the likes of Qrow Branwen, Jacques Schnee and Arthur Watts, I’d estimate him to be in his late 40s to early 50s.  By the time of his death, two years after the Fall of Beacon, Ironwood had spent the bulk of his career as part of the Atlas Armed Forces, raising in the ranks to eventually become commander in chief of the Atlas army and later headmaster of Atlas Huntsman Academy.  These joint positions earned him an unprecedented two seats on the Atlas Council, a factor that flavored the rest of his controversial life.  However, while he represented the standard to which Atlesian Huntsmen and soldiers were compared, Ironwood was far from a conventional specimen.  His most defining trait was his extensive cybernetic implants, his chosen treatment option for the multitude of combat injuries he sustained over the course of his life.  By the end of the Atlas crisis, Ironwood had replaced both of his arms, his right leg, and the entire right half of his torso with robotic prosthetics, while an additional implant was installed into his forehead to link up the cybernetics with his higher brain function.  While the full extent of Ironwood’s torso cybernetics in relation to his biological body has never been explored, I believe a good frame of reference would be those of the Star Wars antagonist Darth Vader, who was outfitted with various replacement organs to supplement his respirator and artificial bones and ligaments to reinforce his skeleton.  However, where Vader’s reconstruction was restricted by the severity of his injuries and the need to preserve as much of his living flesh as possible, most of Ironwood’s cybernetics were merely a treatment option rather than lifesaving necessities, and he was all too willing to sacrifice his physical form in the name of continuing the fight.  As a result, Ironwood’s prosthetics were both far more intrusive than was standard and designed to be combatively reliable, James’ ultimate goal being to become something more than human in order to combat the horrors of Salem.

While Ironwood’s willingness to discard his body for metal boded poorly for his restraint and principles, their practical benefits more than made up for it, making him one of the most physically powerful combatants of his day.  Standing at a towering 6’6”, Ironwood’s cybernetic proportions closely approximated the muscular athletic build he no doubt sported as a young man, further distinguished by his graying black hair and beard, blue eyes, and pale skin tone.  The most visible advantage of Ironwood’s metallic body was his incredible physical might, taking his already heavy-handed approach to combat and augmenting it with the benefits of robotics.  He has casually manhandled high-caliber Grimm with his bare hands, lifted and thrown adult humans with an outstretched arm, crushed stone in his grip, and even smashed his own tactical console to pieces with a pair of slammed fists in a fit of anger.  Given that his Aura was depleted when he lifted Arthur Watts over the Amity Arena lava pit, I feel comfortable saying that Ironwood’s baseline strength level was superhuman, his prosthetics specifically designed to surpass what his “weaker” flesh and blood could achieve.  Compared to his peers, though few of Ironwood’s adversaries were particularly domineering, I think it is only reasonable to assume that only similar heavyweights could realistically challenge his strength.  The only instance of Ironwood lacking confidence in his muscles and servos was against Penny Polendina, a designed and built combat drone far beyond mortal athleticism, motivating him to draw Due Process’s energy cannon instead.  Despite this heavy emphasis on strength, the general’s other attributes were also polished.  Though he favored grounded footwork and postures, rarely employing acrobatics, Ironwood was still quick on his feet, covering ground with power jumps, combat rolls, and running charges.  While they appeared to be nimbler, neither Watts nor Lie Ren appeared to have any meaningful speed advantage over Ironwood, who kept up with them in close quarters and even overpowered them.  While Winter Schnee was conclusively faster than him, this is no sign of weakness given her status as one of the most accomplished acrobats in the setting, and even then, his stalwart foundation and footwork allowed him to keep up with her.  Furthermore, Ironwood’s reflexes were still polished enough to avoid point-blank gunfire, and he was skilled in the use of combat propellants to enable more dynamic maneuvers, freely using the gravity Dust in Due Process’s black half to launch himself across the battlefield.  While the metal fingers of his cybernetic arms likely hampered his fine dexterity, Ironwood was still able to execute controlled technique-based attacks in battle, expertly wielding his guns as bludgeons on multiple occasions and easily keeping up with Lie Ren in a fist fight.

As has already been stated, Ironwood was a lifelong veteran soldier and Huntsman with a history of severe injury, the extensiveness of his cybernetics pointing to the amount of punishment he has had to endure.  Between his prosthetics functioning as natural armor and his own incredible will to fight, Ironwood possessed an astronomical tolerance for pain and injury.  During the Fall of Beacon, Ironwood endured a shuttle crash when his hacked AK-200 drones turned on him, and despite his clothing getting ripped apart, indicating an at least damaged Aura, he powered through and went on to demolish scores of drones in the battle.  During his confrontation with Watts, Ironwood was regularly battered against the anti-gravity biome’s walls, was struck by several of Watts’ standard and Dust bullets, and finally broke his Aura when he tackled Watts off a platform and struck the arena floor.  When Watts trapped his arm in a hard light barrier, Ironwood endured the agony of burning off his own skin to escape, sacrificing his arm before beating the scientist into the dirt.  Even his defeats have only come from overwhelming force.  At Atlas Academy, Ironwood was only brought down by the combined might of Team JNOR, Emerald Sustrai and Winter Schnee, subjecting him to a kick to the face, a flurry of thrown ice shards, multiple hits from the Long Memory, a direct hit from a charged Magnhild, getting run down by a charging Summoned Manticore, and finally a slash across the abdomen before he went down.  Winter only defeated Ironwood when she assumed the power of the Winter Maiden and deflected a shot from Due Process’s energy cannon back in his face, bringing him to his knees.  However, while Ironwood’s cybernetics allowed him to maintain his output in the long term, his overall stamina was surprisingly lackluster.  By the time the Watts fight reached its final bout after only a few minutes, Ironwood was visibly fatigued, displaying labored breathing and less crisp transitions in his style.  While the force he was up against at the academy was far greater than anyone could ever deal with, Ironwood still burned out fast, and it is worth noting that the general is one of the few characters who has actually lost consciousness when his Aura broke.  Furthermore, despite his military discipline, Ironwood’s unwillingness to back down has led him to bite off more than he can chew and ignore dangers, needlessly subjecting himself to injury to force his way to victory.  Accordingly, his ultimate fall was a long-term grind, his composure whittled away by his growing paranoia and his body beaten to the point where he couldn’t even regain his feet, dying under the crushing weight of Atlas itself.

While Ironwood almost certainly wore combat armor during his early years as an Atlas soldier, even continuing to own a pair of pauldrons for emergencies, his role as Academy Headmaster and a member of the Atlas Council meant that he was rarely deployed into active combat.  As such, his usual choice of wardrobe was the Atlas Military Dress Uniform, though like other high-ranking Atlas operatives, his personal set was heavily personalized.  During Atlas’s last days, Ironwood’s uniform consisted of a dress shirt and tie underneath a double-breasted white jacket, military style trousers, steel-toed boots, and a heavy white overcoat.  He accessorized with a belt, bandolier, and a pair of white gloves, though after losing his left arm, he deliberately left the black prosthesis bare.  With his cybernetics functioning as built-in armor, Ironwood’s wardrobe could afford to emphasize mobility over protection, leaving him free to leverage his mechanical physique to its fullest.

RANKING: Tier 1, Baseline Superhuman

Cybernetic enhancement generally affords significant practical advantages in physical combat, but their general limitedness often prevents them from drastically elevating physical performance level, and most cyborgs are merely squishy meatbags with slightly less squishy bits.  However, James Ironwood’s extremely extensive cybernetics push him far beyond the standard, his prosthetics serving as both remedies to hold his body together and a preemptive measure to prevent him from breaking again.  Ironwood is inarguably one of the toughest and strongest combatants in the setting, demonstrating physical might far beyond a mortal man’s and an absolutely inhuman tolerance for injury.  Considering that James was perfectly willing to burn off his own arm, there is no telling how far this man will go to achieve victory.  Ironwood’s only real limitation is his poor sustainability, indicating that he does have a limit to his performance and made all the worse by his refusal to cut his losses.  Fatigue, both physical and mental, is James Ironwood’s biggest handicap, but pushing the general to that point will be an incredibly uphill battle, given that he is, quite literally, built like a tank.

MARTIAL

James Ironwood was armed with a paired set of heavy pistols known as Due Process, an ironic name if there ever was one. Combining aspects of both a revolver and semi-automatic pistol, each gun appeared to be about a foot and a half long, 5 inches thick, and designed with floral patterns engraved on the slide.  Each pistol featured a secondary trigger that enabled it to fire specialized ammunition alongside standard rounds.  The primary weapon was silver colored and loaded with explosive rounds, the yield strong enough to knock an alpha Beowolf into the air and reduce entire squads of AK-200 combat drones to shrapnel.  The second pistol had a black finish along the slide and grips and was loaded with gravity Dust bullets, capable of generating shockwaves powerful enough to propel Ironwood through the air.  Given that Ironwood was prepared to immediately execute Marrow Amin with the black pistol after the Faunus went AWOL, it is entirely possible that the Dust rounds were powerful enough to either break or penetrate Auras with a solid direct hit.  Furthermore, the pistols were durable enough to be used as bludgeons in close quarters combat, one of Ironwood’s favorite tactics being to grab the weapon by the barrel and use it as a club when out of ammo. Overall, a simple yet reliably lethal weapon set, perfect for Atlas’s perfect soldier.

As the head of the Atlas Military and a professional Huntsman, James Ironwood obviously possessed the standard training background of his contemporaries, likely graduating from Atlas Huntsman Academy before enlisting his talents in the Special Operatives Division just as his later subordinates Winter Schnee and Clover Ebi did.  Accordingly, he was familiar with the various ways to dispatch the creatures of Grimm and trained in the use of various military grade weapons and advanced hand to hand combat.  A hardened soldier, his talents as a marksman and martial artist were built up through rigorous battlefield experience, and while his role as academy headmaster and government councilor meant he was rarely seen in the field, he clearly stayed on top of his training.  By the end of his life, Ironwood stood as one of the most skilled and tenacious martial combatants of his day, effectively setting the mold for what Atlas Academy expected of its students.  Ironwood’s personal fighting style was extremely physical, taking full advantage of his cybernetics to deliver a devastating offensive barrage, launching everything he had at the enemy and refusing to give an inch of ground.  When at a distance, Ironwood relied on his exceptional marksmanship to dispatch opponents, alternating between single shots and dual wielding bullet swarms.  Though he could expertly chain together sporadic bursts of gunfire to force opponents back, he overwhelmingly favored single shot takedowns.  Against single adversaries, he homed in on his target and sought to destroy it with a precise killshot, nailing direct hits on Arthur Watts twice during their battle at Amity Colosseum.  In group engagements, Ironwood switched over to explosive rounds, clearing away large groups of enemies with a single blow, as seen when he destroyed large squads of AK-200s during the Fall of Beacon.  When forced to close the distance, Ironwood relied heavily on brutal close quarters combat techniques to overpower his enemies, wielding his guns as extensions of his body.  His pistol whips were swift, powerful, and decidedly lethal, even when utilizing heavy ordnance analogous to Due Process’s energy cannon.  When completely unarmed, Ironwood fully leveraged his cyborg strength through devastating punches, kicks, grapples, and tackles intended to subdue the enemy as directly and efficiently as possible.  Despite this blunt offensive stance, Ironwood was not some mindless brawler flailing around. His unarmed skills were in fact quite sophisticated, clearly holding a dominant edge over Watts and fighting evenly with Lie Ren despite the latter having access to his weapons.  If forced to defend, Ironwood’s policy was “endure and power through”, holding his ground and shrugging off hits before resuming the offensive.  He employed deft evasions and sidesteps when dodging bullets, and when in close quarters he used his armored limbs to block attacks before manhandling the opponent to force open their defenses.  Additionally, Ironwood’s understanding of his weapons’ functions allowed him to leverage the recoil for practical purposes, regaining his stance by blasting himself back to his feet.  He bolstered his focused offensive technique with his Semblance and Dust loadout, striking with absolute commitment and intensity while adding more power to his attacks with elemental fury.

Ironwood was a reasonably capable military strategist, clearly understanding the value of his army’s strength and building his approach around leveraging this as fully as possible.  However, Ironwood was no planner, his strategies mostly boiling down to building up his foundation to make an instrument that could overpower virtually any challenger while also being nearly impossible to overpower in turn.  He expressed this both in preparing his forces and training his own students, investing heavily in the development of the Atlesian Knight drones and enjoying regular sparring matches with Oscar Pine.  When commanding armies, he deployed his heavily armed and armored troops in as great numbers as possible, bringing down the hammer with an unstoppable force of offensive might.  This approach proved successful at the Breach and in the early stages of the Battle of Atlas, the Atlas troops’ superior weapons and equipment allowing them to steamroll the various creatures of Grimm while also halting their advance long enough to develop a devastating counteroffensive.  When he was personally fighting, Ironwood used these same tactics to turn battles into slugging matches where his cyborg strength and heavy guns could dominate.  When confronted by the Alpha Beowolf at Amity, Ironwood rushed in and attacked directly, bracing up against the beast’s charge before shooting an explosive round into the ground, blowing it off its feet and allowing Ironwood to more easily manhandle it before shooting it in the head.  As seen in his battle with Arthur Watts two years later, Ironwood was an expert at alternating his offensive abilities to keep up the pressure.  He would propel himself with his guns’ recoil to close the distance then rapidly switch between standard, explosive, and Dust ammunition to hammer the target’s defenses.  In close quarters, he employed the same methodology with his unarmed skills and pistol whips, each strike aimed at staggering or subduing the enemy in one fell swoop.  His confrontation with Team JNR at Atlas Academy showed his ability to apply his tactics to group engagements, managing to overmatch the attacks of Jaune Arc, Oscar Pine and Lie Ren by seizing their arms and weapons and forcing open their defenses.

In all things Ironwood showed an emphasis on overwhelming power as a solid general-purpose solution, dominating his opponents rather than undermining or subverting them.  Appropriately, his ultimate trump cards were the most devastating weapons he could get his hands on.  Against Salem’s army, Ironwood used his troops to stall for time as he prepared a Dust warhead to obliterate the Monstra.  In personable combat, Ironwood literally pulled out the big guns by outfitting Due Process with a large cannon.  Less wieldy but more powerful, the cannon fired massive bolts of green energy capable of destroying heavy machinery and overpowering advanced ethereal defenses, punching through a hard-light Dust prison cell like wet paper and later overwhelming Winter Schnee’s black glyphs.  Even with the extra heft of the cannon, Ironwood was still perfectly capable of swinging it around as a bludgeon, demonstrating the intensity and commitment that Ironwood brought to all of his skills.  However, Ironwood’s tactics also demonstrate his serious weaknesses as a tactical thinker, weaknesses worsened by his pride and fear.  Because his entire approach was built around leveraging strength and power for maximum effect, Ironwood was ineffective against more defensive and subversive opponents who could prevent him from bringing his full might to bear, while his overreliance on offense left him exposed to retaliation and tunnel vision.  Despite being a physical lightweight with minimal dedication to physical combat, Watts was able to contend with Ironwood by maintaining a slippery retreat through the anti-gravity biome, forcing the general to chase after him while he chipped away at him from a distance.  Ironwood was either unaware or unconcerned that he was being baited, continuing to come after Watts and getting his arm caught in the ring trap for his trouble.  A similar fate befell him at the academy, his focus on each of his opponents individually leaving him blind to the various counters they levied against him, wearing him down.  While Ironwood has displayed clever maneuvers in the past, such as when he outflanked Watts and Amity and surprised Winter with a pistol whip, these displays were a major exception to the rule. Whenever his preferred methods were questioned or his plans fell apart, Ironwood doubled down and fought harder, essentially forcing problems to become a nail for his hammer.  

Ironwood’s tactical tunnel vision was most visibly demonstrated in his grand strategy blunders, stubbornly maintaining a military presence at the Vytal Festival and continuing the Amity Project while ignoring the concerns and protests his actions sparked in Mantle.  Ironwood was at his best when his blunt approach was tempered by his more moderate allies, deferring to Ozpin’s subtler methods on multiple occasions despite their disagreements.  When leading the charge, however, his stubborn persistence was his greatest undoing, allowing Salem and Cinder Fall to exploit and manipulate him on several occasions and essentially do their work of dividing humanity for them.  When Cinder infiltrated the academy, Ironwood, convinced that Salem’s forces were with her, decided to abandon the Amity project and use the Staff of Creation to raise Atlas further into the atmosphere, abandoning Mantle to the Grimm.  While Team RWBY’s attempts to talk sense into Ironwood fell on deaf ears partially due to their previous withholding of information, Ironwood’s flat admittance of the severity of his decision showed his commitment to a decision regardless of the consequences.  Between ordering RWBY and co.’s arrests, murdering Councilman Sleet, attempting to execute the defecting Marrow Amin, and finally deciding to drop the Dust warhead on Mantle, Ironwood demonstrated an increasingly severe disregard for outside input or the questioning of what he and he alone saw as what was best for others.  This arrogant short-sightedness directly contributed to his inability to anticipate the actions of his adversaries, underestimating Ruby’s resolve to save both Atlas and Mantle and being caught completely off guard by JNR’s ambush.  When Watts disabled Ironwood’s cell during Cinder’s orchestrated chaos, the general emerged as a vessel of petty vengeance, murdering Jacques Schnee out of sheer contempt and triggering a pointless confrontation with Winter in the Relic vault to claim the Staff.  While the two were able to fight on even footing, Ironwood’s brutal offensive allowed him to bully through Winter’s more delicate style and overpower her, proving that his martial might was extremely formidable despite its straightforwardness.  Unfortunately, Ironwood was finally confronted by someone he could not simply overpower when Winter received the Maiden’s power upon Penny Polendina’s death, blasted into a crater by his own deflected shot.

RANKING: Tier 3, Standard Mastery

James Ironwood’s track record demonstrates a powerful, flexible, and ruthless martial combatant, capable of operating in just about any combat scenario with similar levels of comfort while bringing overwhelming force in all areas.  His solid general-purpose weapon complements his fighting style and provides him with a solid array of offensive options, while his perseverance under fire allows him to keep up the pressure even in the face of staunch resistance.  However, though certainly not unintelligent, Ironwood’s demonstrations also highlight his inability to think outside the box, failing to subvert his opponents or control the fight in a broad sense, and more disastrously, failing to prevent the opponent from doing the same to him.  While political controversy obviously does not factor heavily into combative effectiveness, his ineffectual leadership in the crises of Volumes 7 and 8 does offer insight into his tactical failings.  His only recourse to any situation being to throw brute force at it and keep it up until the enemy finally breaks, and he has nothing to fall back on if sheer strength fails.  Still, this does not make Ironwood’s method ineffective or crude. His power and skill is undeniable, and anyone who opposed the general would be in for a whole Kingdom of pain.

SPECIAL

James Ironwood’s Semblance was an ability he called “Mettle”.  A passive power, Mettle allowed Ironwood to strengthen his resolve and hyper-focus on his chosen goals, blocking out interference from both the world around him and his own reservations in order to drive him forward.  When using this ability, injuries, odds, and even morality were non-issues to the general, turning himself into a deliberate machine of war who will achieve his goal or die trying.  Unsurprisingly for anyone who’s been with the show since this Semblance’s reveal, the exact nature and effect of Mettle is not clearly defined, especially since its properties are so heavily tied to Ironwood’s personality and character arc.  However, I do believe that Mettle’s specifics can be reasonably inferred based on what we do know.  A common element whenever this power is shown or heavily implied to be in effect is Ironwood’s calm, borderline soulless, demeanor, even if the instance is shortly after a strong emotional outburst.  When he decided to bomb Mantle, Ironwood was collected and relaxed (at least in a general sense) despite having smashed his tactical map to pieces in a fit of frustration not a minute earlier.  As such, it is my belief that Mettle, in practice, serves as a naturally induced stress relief agent, numbing Ironwood’s nerves to help him regain and maintain his composure, a critical asset for a soldier in the field.  To reference Star Wars again, Mettle has a lot of elements in common with the Expanded Universe power known as Battlemind, an inwardly directed telepathic mediation that Force-sensitives used to improve their focus and composure in combat.*  Battlemind is also known to enable users to dispel negative emotion and telepathic attacks, and the former seems to be precisely how Mettle seems to work.  With this power, Ironwood could essentially induce a state of mind where he could power through any obstacle, injury or distraction by simply ignoring it, homing in on his goal and pursuing it with all the unrestricted power he could bring to bear.  Unfortunately, this factor also contributed heavily to his tactical limitations, so focused on his given objective that he was often blind to outside factors.  Narrowing your focus might be a good call when you’re throwing hands with a rabid Beowolf or sniping someone, but trying to do the same in a tense political situation or a cunning trickster will leave you unable to see the forest for the trees.

Outside of his Semblance, Ironwood also incorporated Dust into his standard combat equipment, specifically gravity Dust bullets incorporated into the black half of Due Process.  While most of the information here was already brough up in the Martial Arts assessment, the nature of these rounds still demonstrate an additional combative layer to Ironwood’s abilities.  Black or purple in color, gravity Dust could affect gravitational fields to generate fields of force to either propel or attract outside objects.  When used by Huntsmen in battle, gravity Dust often functioned as a form of limited telekinesis, manipulating the trajectory of weapons or projectiles for sustained or directed flight or generating powerful concussive shockwaves.  In Ironwood’s case, the use of Dust in his pistol rounds was based around the latter application.  The most obvious advantage of this feature, like most Dust ammunition, was enhancing the power of the projectiles, drastically enhancing the stopping power.  Though seemingly a conventional power, Ironwood has utilized this property very inventively, particularly regarding the recoil.  Similarly to Ruby Rose’s own use of Dust ammo in Crescent Rose, Ironwood utilized the shockwaves created by the gravity field to propel himself though the battlefield, functionally flying through the air.  With only a few shots, he was able to reach Watts’ high ground position while also evading the scientist’s own attacks, and when he was caught in a geyser, Ironwood only needed a single bullet to arrest his fall and return to the platform almost immediately.  Given that Ironwood is obviously not being blasted back into walls every time he shoots the black gun, it is likely that he incorporated technology into the pistol to enable some degree of control over the energy level, adjusting the intensity for different purposes.  Where the full-powered blasts were enough to launch him up to great heights, a direct hit from one of the more controlled rounds sent Watts tumbling across the platforms but otherwise did not harm him, appropriate given Ironwood’s objective in capturing Watts rather than killing him.  Furthermore, Ironwood’s attempted execution of Marrow Amin with the black Due Process leads me to believe that the Dust rounds could penetrate, or at least damage, passive Auras when used at the higher levels.

Ironwood’s Semblance and Dust loadout served as direct supplements to his martial methods, elevating his ruthless offensive with artificially induced focus and intensity and elemental warfare by way of his special ammunition.  Leveraging Mettle has led to some of Ironwood’s most compelling accomplishments, powering through seemingly impossible odds to achieve his chosen objective regardless of what happened in the process.  At Beacon, he charged the Alpha Beowolf head-on and was able to cooly overpower the creature in the bind.  Against Watt’s, Ironwood’s determination allowed him to eventually close the distance with Watt’s slippery retreat and eventually overpower him, responding to the doctor’s subversions and traps as mere speedbumps rather than distractions.  Even his own pain and injuries were able to be overlooked in this manner.  However, therein lies his weakness.  Despite these advantages and his range of applications, Ironwood’s special abilities fail to truly diversify his loadout, as all of his options are merely another tool to allow him to overpower the opponent directly rather than control the fight in a broad sense.  More severely, they in fact contribute to his lack of tactical foresight.  Where other combatants with metaphysical semblances, such as Qrow Branwen and Maria Calavera, have been able to adapt their powers to help control the flow of the engagement, Ironwood simply leaned on the basic properties of his abilities to force his way through situations.  While a combination of Mettle and his own iron will allowed him to escape the ring trap and defeat Watts, Ironwood still subjected himself to unnecessary injury in order to attack Watts directly, throwing away his arm in pursuit of victory.  Even beforehand when Watts caught his ankle in ice, Ironwood’s decision was to shoot it free so as to continue his pressure regardless of the tool he was taking.  As Ironwood continued to slip into madness, his intense focus made him shortsighted and blind to other threats, his decision to bomb Mantle and complete unwillingness to budge on the idea alienating the last of his allies, up to and including the previously loyal Winter.

RANKING: Tier 3, Specialized Combat

Even if my theories of how Mettle works are wrong, there is no denying that James Ironwood’s special abilities elevate his fighting style into something greater than the sum of its parts.  With Mettle’s hyper focus and his Dust’s devastating power, he brings his already domineering approach to battle to new heights by focusing his intensity and empowering his attacks.  Despite this, Ironwood’s use of his abilities remains in a very narrow fashion, simply relying on the mind-numbing properties of Mettle and the power generated by his Dust to continue battering the opposition with brute strength.  Ironwood has certainly mastered his traits and capitalized on their benefits, but his mastery functionally amounts to a one-trick pony.  Instead of using Mettle to improve his laser focus where and when he needs it, Ironwood constantly spammed it so that he could ignore all distractions while he overpowered the opponent directly.  Rather than providing him with options and versatility, Ironwood’s powers were just another club in his hands, and his use of them was ultimately devoid of subtly or tactical considerations.  Instead, James Ironwood’s special abilities followed the mindset of “Once I see you, I’m going to beat the crap out of you.”

OVERALL RANKING: TIER 3, ADVANCED HUNTSMAN

As an overall combatant, James Ironwood serves as a quintessential example of the best that can be achieved through the direct application of power.    Between his cybernetic enhancements, masterful marksmanship, expert unarmed combat skills, hyper focusing Semblance, and powerful Dust ammunition, Ironwood possessed all the tools he needed to overpower nearly any potential challenger, be it a battle of body, arms, or spells, all brought to a pint by an obscene will to fight.  The problem is that this is all he can do, and his straightforward tactics mean that he doesn’t have the means or willingness to adjust his approach to different situations.  Despite his superhuman physique, Ironwood’s capabilities are not so overwhelming that less physically able opponents cannot contend, and it ultimately does not drastically offset his more consistent standing as a martial artist or ethereal combatant.  Like many other Tier 3s, Ironwood is flexible but not to the point of actual versatility, all his offensive options being ONLY offensive options.  Given how his fighting style is built upon fully capitalizing on his physical capabilities, it is only appropriate that Ironwood’s body is the perfect metaphor for his strengths and weaknesses.  Ironwood is trying to be the strongest piece on the board that can stand up and defeat any potential threat, just as he adopted increasingly intrusive prosthetics to make himself stronger than any other human.  However, just as no one person can fight a war on their own, Ironwood’s body is too weak to shoulder all the demands he is placing on it in the long term.  Just because you can fight to the death does not mean you need to fight to the death.  Ironwood will ignore injuries and continue fighting until he is dead, but as a result, he’s burning his candle from both ends by forcing his way through hits he doesn’t need to take.  Rather than building himself into an unstoppable juggernaut, Ironwood is a gas guzzler that can only go one way- forward.

For all his power, James Ironwood ultimately failed to become the mighty hero he believed himself to be, both because he was operating way out of his area of expertise and because he was afflicted by an overwhelming hubris.  Despite his military mindset, Ironwood has spent the past decade or so prior to Volumes 7 and 8 as a peacetime politician and academic administrator rather than a frontline commander.  While his snap judgements and demands of unwavering obedience are viable on the battlefield, where questioning the commander always leads to disaster and death, his attempts to apply that same mentality to grand strategy and government policy left him with an increasingly ruthless need for control.  Ironically similar to Adam Taurus, Ironwood believed that he and he alone could bring about the success of his mission, and anything that challenged this perspective was a threat to be quashed. To Ironwood, if one did not approach the war with Salem with his views and strategies, they were ineffectual, naive, or simply too weak to do what had to be done. And rather than take in input from others, he simply surrounded himself with blindly obedient followers who would lay down their lives in service to him, all while insisting that others be grateful for his “hard decisions” even as they suffered for them.  James Ironwood was a powerful warrior, but he was overly aggressive, bull headed, short sighted, and dare I say it, tactless.  Instead of seeing Salem as the deceptive chess master she was or Ruby as a source of valid concern for his actions, Ironwood only saw more nails for him to hammer.  And by the time he realized his hammer was broken, it was too little too late, having burned all his bridges fighting his friends rather than uniting against his enemies.

*originally posted on RoosterTeeth Community page on 12-10-21*

* images taken from RWBY Wiki *

RWBY Combat Analysis

*(Wookiepedia article on Battlemind)

[miss-writes-a-lot]

Ozqrow Week 2023 Day 2

(Still going strong for @ozqrowweek with day 2! Let's see how long this lasts!)

CW for angst, crying, brief mentions of Summer Rose

Ozqrow Week 2023 Day 2: Accidental kiss

Qrow returns to the clocktower late at night to find it an absolute mess. 

The few pieces of furniture that are in Ozpin’s office are knocked over and are dragged off to the side. Papers and books are scattered across the floor, some of those pages ripped to shreds. The alarm bells in Qrow’s head immediately begin going off.

These books are - or, were - decades worth of notes and findings on whatever information he could gather on Salem. He wouldn’t just throw it all away like it was nothing. Someone was in the clocktower.

Someone got to Oz.

 The avian man draws his weapon and slowly leaves the safety of the elevator to enter the rest of the office. He scans the perimeter, searching for any sign of life or remaining intruders. He perks up when he hears the sound of quiet sobbing coming from one of the corners. He whips around, Harbinger at the ready to strike when he sees him.

Ozpin hides behind one of the pillars closest to the window. His hands are buried deep in his disheveled silver hair. His clothes are ripped and ragged like his breathing. 

“Oz,” Qrow says.

He sheaths Harbinger and runs to him, sliding into a crouch in front of him. Ozpin doesn’t react when Qrow grabs his shoulders.

“Oz - Hey, Ozzy. Talk to me. What happened, huh? What happened? You hurt?”

Ozpin shakes his head, sobbing, “It’s all my fault, Qrow. It’s all my fault!”

“What is, Ozzy? What’s your fault?”

“All of...Of this!” he gestures out to the room, revealing his red, tear stained face, “This! You and Raven and - and - and Summer! It’s all my fault!”

Qrow leans back. The gears in his head start to turn. He takes another look around the office again. The ripped pages, the scattered books full of research, Ozpin talking about...her. Qrow sighs through his nose, releasing Ozpin from his grip.

“No, Oz. It’s not.”

Ozpin sniffs loud, “It is, Qrow. All of it is! I’ve wasted years researching and going on missions and - and sending you all on missions to find nothing! We have nothing and she-”

“Ozpin, no,” Qrow says firmly, “This isn’t all on you, okay?”

“But I-”

“No,”  Qrow scoots closer to him, his calloused hands slowly moving to Ozpin’s with a soft touch, “Sure, you asked us to help you with all this. But you gave us the choice. You didn’t say that we had to do it, right? You asked if we could. If we wanted to, and we did. We knew the risk; loud and clear and we still wanted to run into fire with you and we did.”

“Qrow, I-”

“We knew the risk,” he brings Ozpin closer until the foreheads touch, “We all knew the risk, even before Salem. I know it, Tai knows it, Summer knew it. We’d all have had to be idiots to jump in without knowing that we might not make it home or something.”

His hands move to hold Ozpin’s face, “You’ve been dealin’ with this all by yourself. Yeah, you fucked up a couple of times, but now, you’re not alone. This stuff isn’t useless. We haven’t lost yet. There’s still a chance we can find something to take her down. We still have Amber. We have Jimmy’s tech and the Nikkos girl comin’ from Argus, right? We still have a chance, so don’t give up on all this just yet.”

Ozpin stares at him with his red, puffy eyes, searching for the lie. Or maybe an answer that’s more concrete and that could end this all. When he doesn’t find one, his face twists and he buries himself in Qrow’s shoulder, heavily sobbing a chorus of ‘I’m sorry’s’ between heavy, ragged breaths.

Qrow cradles his head in one hand while the other travels up and down his back. “I gotcha, Ozzy. I gotcha.”

Qrow sits with him, the man who usually towers above him some days now the smallest he’s ever seen him, as he cries into his shoulder blade. He doesn’t say a word the entire time. He’s just there. He’s there the same way Ozpin had and has been all these years since they started walking down this path together. He holds him in silence because he knows the last thing he wants is to keep hearing Qrow rattle off all the ways this is supposed to work out somehow in the end. 

He knows that Ozpin just wants him there, so he’s going to be there for as long as it takes.

It’s only until Ozpin’s sobs dissolve into small sniffling does he look down at his companion with the beginnings of a smirk tugging at his face. “You doing okay there, Ozzy?”

Ozpin nods.

“You wanna look at me so I can make sure you’re okay?”

The silver haired man shakes his head, tightening his hold on Qrow’s jacket. 

“You sure?”

“Don’t...want you to see me like this,” Ozpin murmurs.

Qrow scoffs, “You’ve seen me in worse condition than this. I can handle whatever you’ve got for me.”

Ozpin hesitates. He slowly lifts his head to look up at Qrow. His cheeks are blotchy and red. There are noticeable tears stains streaked down his face to his chin and his hair’s a mess, which for Qrow, was just another Tuesday night for him.

“There he is,” Qrow says softly.

“I’m so sorry for this, Qrow,” Ozpin rasps, “I didn’t...I didn’t want you to see me like this.”

“So you’ve said.”

“I...I’m glad you came, however. I...I don’t think I could’ve braved this night alone.”

Qrow smiles. He leans in, brushes back Ozpin’s bangs, and pecks a kiss to his forehead. “Anytime you need me, Oz. I’ll be here.”

Qrow pulls back to Ozpin’s eyes wide as saucers staring at him. Qrow quirks a curious brow, wondering what got him so spooked until he realizes that he just kissed Ozpin.

Ozpin, his friend who is definitely not his boyfriend and has not kissed like that before - or ever. 

He feels his face burn several different shades of red. “U-Uh, that was an accident! F-Force of habit with my nieces, you know?”

“O-Of course.”

“Ye-Yeah, you get it, right?”

“One hundred percent.”

“Good.”

“Great.”

“Fantastic.”

They continue to stare at one another, their faces redder than Ruby’s cape. Qrow stands, hands awkward situated on his hips in an attempt to seem casual. “Welp! I gotta get going! Unless, you know, you...need me to stay with you and help you with somethin’?”

“Well...I could use a hand fixing this place up? Maybe you can help me piece my notes back together? Make sense of the scribbles again.”

“Uh...sure. I can - I can do that,” he replies.

“Could you...also help me stand up? My legs aren’t, uh-”

“Oh, yeah! No problem!”

Qrow reaches out a hand. Ozpin grabs him by the forearm and Qrow lifts him onto his shaky legs. Ozpin steadies himself against Qrow, which sends his heart rate skyrocketing. 

“Think you’ll be good?”

“I should be. Should we get to work?”

“Yeah, let’s.”

“Oh, and Qrow?”

“Yeah Oz?”

For the first time tonight, Ozpin smiles. He geniunely smiles. He seems so intent on putting Qrow in an early grave all by himself. “Thank you. I needed this tonight.”

Qrow smiles back at him, squeezing his hand. “Anytime, Oz. I’ll be here for you anytime.” 

[bestworstcase]

If watts is from mantle like you say that honestly makes him even more of a bastard, because much like cinder or Adam he took what was a slight against basic compassion as a personal attack against him specifically, and was perfectly happy massacring his fellow mantle citizens to get his petty payback against ironwood,

At the end of the day while he may have come from humble beginnings, he’s still an egotistical self obsessed prick

so anyway another thing about watts is the narrative conspicuously separates him from the volume eight tussling over what salem really wants. the reason that interests me so much is that watts is extremely comfortable around salem—man swans up to her teleconference grimm to obnoxiously knock on its head and heckle cinder, immediately after lionheart quaveringly promised not to waste her time. he’s indirect and dramatic about telling her qrow found the spring maiden (“a little birdie told us”) and salem’s reaction, of turning to lionheart and telling him to explain, suggests that watts is just like that. in volume six his response to her implication that cinder survived is to scoff and say “you’re joking, how could you know that?” and the only reason he backs down is because tyrian flies off the handle about it.

the only time salem herself reprimands him for any of this is when she tells him off for being cruel to cinder, which she handles rather politely (“dr. watts, do you find such malignance necessary?”). QED, watts does not modulate his shitheel behavior with salem whatsoever because he knows that she 1. doesn’t care, and 2. will calmly tell him when he’s crossed a line with her. there is a level of casual trust here that no one else in the inner circle exhibits.

watts is also the only one of salem’s cabal whose personal goal is obfuscated in, frankly, much the same way that salem’s is; he hates atlas but there is no specificity as to his emotional motivation for wanting to proverbially burn it down. the narrative lines up enough pieces to suggest he’s from mantle, slips in the fact that he faked his own death to get out of the atlesian military, and then brings out his fury over ironwood’s exploitation and disrespect to underscore the point. the fandom focuses on “you chose that fat imbecile over me!” to the exclusion of everything else in order to confirm the pre-existing feeling that watts is just a petty, arrogant asshole, but the picture rwby is actually painting here is of a man who violently ripped himself out of the proto-fascist machinery of the atlesian military and dedicated the rest of his life to getting rid of it completely. the penny project is merely the focal point. a singular concrete incident that has become an emotional shorthand for everything else.

anyway the point is, i don’t think watts knew precisely what salem intends to do with the relics, but i do think he had a fairly accurate understanding of who she is; his irreverence and casually obnoxious antics come from a place of recognizing that she doesn’t give a flying fuck—that she will, at worst, calmly push back if he does something she is unwilling to tolerate and that a certain show of deference is occasionally necessary to placate her deranged assassin—and likewise his scrupulous loyalty and respect feel considered in a way that the rest of the cabal’s do not.

hence the necessity of removing him completely from the plot point about how nobody really knows what salem is after. watts is kind of the anti-tyrian in that he is every bit as dedicated to her cause but his reasons for being so are wholly unexplained to the audience even though it is entirely obvious that he does HAVE ironclad reasons—which leaves the sort of people who refuse to ascribe agency or interiority to villainous characters unless it’s spelled out in bold print grasping for the wildly silly reading that watts is being led around blind by a petty grudge and actually salem doesn’t respect him or his contributions at all, never fucking mind that disrespect for him and his work is exactly his grievance with ironwood, and never mind that out of everyone in her cabal, watts is clearly the one salem holds in the highest regard