#and clover just keeps shooting while he tries to explain himself

[vonaegiremblem]

One of the more interesting things about the genocide route in Undertale Yellow is that depending on your choices, you can absolutely play and interpret Clover as having a sort of code of honor. Now, admittedly the game does not encourage this at all, but the basis for this interpretation is there. This idea of an "honor bound" genocide run first occurred to me while I was thinking about the fact that Clover willingly lowers there gun once Martlet surrenders, which I thought was strange. Why would someone who is trying to get revenge on the monsters for killing those five humans willingly let a monster go, especially a member of the Royal Guard? I then realized that while Clover does intimidate and threaten monsters throughout the run, they never actually attack any monster that doesn't initiate in some capacity. They tolerate the long elevator ride with the anxious miner monster, and they don't fight Dina because she acknowledges that she would absolutely lose in a fight. In the second encounter with Martlet, while Clover does pull the gun on her, they wait to do so until their other intimidation tactic doesn't work and still don't fight her, even though they know she's a threat, because she backs off. They even hold off on killing Flowey despite their obvious frustration towards him until he lets slip that he wants to betray Clover and take the humans' souls for himself.

As the player, you also get to influence how Clover behaves throughout the run. While the game absolutely encourages you to act in a dishonorable way, you don't have to. Stealing is completely optional. Money is, for the most part, worthless since shops are mostly unavailable and you'll get plenty from killing monsters. You'll definitely miss out on the various 50HP and full heal items, but you can still buy six items from Mo and there's plenty of food that's been abandoned or discarded to be found. Speaking of Mo, robbing him in Steamworks is also optional. If you encounter him, you can just let him go and it doesn't drop you out of the genocide run. The most prominent place the game tries to get you to act dishonorably is in the "dual" with Starlo, where you are able and encouraged to shoot him before the draw. You can wait, though, and do the duel normally. On a side note, Clover also notably does not just shoot Ceroba while her back is turned with Starlo. They wait until she rushes them down to fight.

Now, I'm not sure how well this interpretation of Clover's character truly holds up to scrutiny, since I may have forgotten some things, but I think it is still an interesting thing to analyze

[stuckwith-harry]

cried out to you alone

“It becomes a part of who you are”, Harry says, some sort of clarity coming to him. “Death, I mean. Grief. It doesn’t have to swallow you whole, but there is a little bit of it in every part of you.”

Impossible, is the only thing Harry can stand to think. That there is still sunlight in the world after everything.

Still, it pours out over the Burrow’s kitchen table in bright, luminous yellow, warming the veined wood. Harry and the Weasleys watch it creep over the tabletop, sitting elbow-to-elbow. Molly and Arthur are touching shoulders and brushing through hair as they pass around steaming mugs of tea, as they pour milk and stir in spoonfuls of sugar, the bags under their eyes swollen and purple like figs.

When Harry tries to open his mouth, to offer help, Molly quickly shakes her head at him; pleading. Like she wouldn’t know what else to do with herself.

So Harry stays, cramped between George and Ginny, and lets her place her palm on his back as she places his tea in front of him. Through the open window, a sweet-smelling breeze comes pouring in, the smell of warm soil and flowers and summer rapidly approaching, which seems impossible, too.

Tomorrow morning, they’re going to get out of bed and make breakfast. They’re going to feed the chicken in the yard, do the dishes and read the newspaper. Still, the sun is going to come up.

For a moment, he catches Ron’s gaze; Ron, whose face is oddly contorted and whose eyes are glassy and bright red. Harry can’t bear the sight of it: he stares at the old mug in his hands, examining the faded red dots, hand-painted. Anything that soothes.

Poppies, he realises. On the inside, near a chip at the rim, he can make out the small letters spelling out Ottery St. Catchpole, and below that, half-drowning in sweet tea: Flea Market, 1988.

A memory, then. One he wasn’t a part of, but one he can envision, anyway, the bright red summer day, the bustling and shuffling of the little village, the shrieking of children, strawberry ice cream rapidly melting and dripping on bare knees; a younger, happier Ron –

The scraping of a chair yanks him back, as Ginny abruptly gets to her feet and walks out without a word. No one tries to stop her, and the small, pathetic sound of her bedroom door closing from atop the stairs sounds down to them as though she slammed it.

After that, only silence. No pots stir in the kitchen sink, no footsteps thunder from several floors above, and no chatter, no yelling, no laughter holds the walls of the house together. No explosions sound from the twins’ room.

Death is an awfully quiet affair.

One by one, as the stripes on the tabletop grow long and orange, the Weasleys crawl into their hiding places. Harry knows he’s intruding, so he wanders outside, following the soft clucking of the chicken pecking away at the dirt behind their wooden fence, the only things alive and making a sound.

The solitude is a relief: he has never wished to flee the walls of the Burrow so desperately, only stayed long enough to change out of the black funeral robes and into an old Quidditch jumper. Then he pushed Ron’s bedroom door open far enough to slip out and disappear, and mercifully, Ron didn’t try to stop him, either.

The jumper is Ron’s, technically. It feels like being held, Gryffindor red and worn and entirely too large for Harry. Somehow that only makes him feel worse.

The Weasleys did not hesitate to take him home with them after the battle, because that was their way. They put up the old camp bed in Ron’s violently orange bedroom like they always had, and Ron silently handed him a pile of hand-me-downs so Harry would have something to wear other than the clothes that still reeked of the tent, of sweat and of blood.

Harry props his elbows up on the weathered fence and buries his face in the soft sleeves, breathing deeply. For a while, he simply listens as the hens, who do not know or care about anything, cluck away happily, as the urge to slip under the invisibility cloak, to disappear and never make a sound again, keeps on rushing over him.

“Hi.”

His heart jumps painfully into his throat at the quiet greeting and the sound of footsteps on dry grass that preceded it, and when he turns around to face it, he’s looking at Ginny. She’s changed out of her black dress robes, too, back into worn-out denim dungarees and a striped t-shirt. Scarlet and yellow. Her hair has come out of the braid from earlier and falls wildly to her collarbones again, no longer to her belly button, like it used to.

“I couldn’t stand the silence anymore”, she says, voice oddly throaty.

Harry wants to say, you don’t have to explain, but before he can, she pushes out: “And then I was in my room and it was just as fucking quiet, and I just – I didn’t know what to do with myself.”

She looks older, Harry thinks wildly. He hasn’t let himself look at her, not really, doesn’t even know why, just that he’s been avoiding her most of all. Ever since May 2nd, the quiet between them has stretched and stretched over miles and oceans and continents of wasteland. Harry knows it’s his fault, that he should say something, but he has no words, no words at all.

The first morning after the battle, when he came stumbling into the common room and found her there, they just held each other, and he had no words then, either. There was sunlight there, too, he remembers suddenly, poking through the shattered windows and lighting up every particle of dust floating around the empty room.

“Can we go somewhere else?”, she asks, pulling him out of his thoughts. “Anywhere else?”

Harry nods, mouth dry. For a moment, her eyes seem to linger on him, but then she turns away without another word, and he follows her lead without question or objection. They don’t speak again until they reach the old broomshed, and Ginny suddenly turns to look at him again, face unreadable.

“Any chance you wanna go for a fly?”

“Wh-What?”

She shrugs. “Do you?”

It’s a strange time capsule, the shed. Ginny pushes the wooden door open and sends flurries of dust into the air, catching sunlight; Harry, who is standing behind her, catches a glimpse of Arthur’s old Muggle trinkets and the old brooms lined up against the wall. Ron and Ginny’s are closest to the door; the twins’ brooms are up on a shelf opposite the square window.

For a moment, Ginny is perfectly still, and Harry knows she is looking at them, too. Then she reaches for her broom and silently pushes past him. Harry grabs Ron’s and closes the door of the shed behind him, and together they wander away from the Burrow, over the hills that surround it, where wild poppies are peeking through the unkempt grass and weeds.

Harry thinks he knows where she’s going: their makeshift Quidditch pitch hidden between gnarly old trees from summers long lost, where they used to chuck apples and tennis balls at each other, during all those afternoons spent playing Quidditch two against two.

Tall, sweet-smelling yarrow brushes along their bare shins as they walk, and pink clover, the soft heads bending back to the earth under the weight of bumblebees passing by, thick dandelion leaves spread all across the ground amidst the weeds; and everywhere poppies, peeking through the tall grass, the paper-thin petals fluttering in the breeze.

Tucked behind another hill, Harry remembers, a few minutes on foot further north, is the lake where they whiled away happier summer afternoons than this. The image comes to his mind in bright, sunny colours, Ginny’s wide, toothy grin as she sneaks up on Ron, the thundering splash and Hermione’s piercing shriek, and Ron, emerging, spluttering and yelling, his sopping hair plastered to his face.

But that was centuries ago, and their full-bellied laughter seems miles and countries away already. Here, only silence. Harry wants to ask, are you okay?, or say, it’s going to be alright, but what good would it do?

The poppies are early: they’re not supposed to bloom for another month. There’s no end to them, no matter how far they walk, a sea of red stretching out all over the soft hills. Harry can’t tear his eyes away until the first beech trees they used to climb, black pines and yews throw cool shadows over their heads.

Strange, that it looks the same. The leaves up above their heads rustle softly as they mount their brooms, and Ginny shoots into the air, a quiet cannon. For the better part of an hour, they zoom in circles through the rapidly cooling air, chucking an old Quaffle back and forth at each other. Ginny’s throws are hard and unrelenting: they’re not keeping score, but she’s playing like it’s the last game of the season, like the House Cup depends on it, so Harry lets her exhaust herself. By the time they sink back to the ground, the sky over the meadow is dotted in shades of pink and red.

Ginny hits the ground with such force her knees buckle under the impact and hit the dry grass. Harry gasps, but she is already getting up again, brushing off the dirt without comment.

They find a spot at the outer edge of the pitch and slump into the tall grass with their backs leaning against an oak tree, where they can see the sunset falling on the soft hills and the Burrow in the distance, bright red like poppies. Ginny’s hands are uselessly holding her ribs, her warm eyes staring off into nothing.

“Feel any better?”, Harry asks after a while.

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

She shifts next to him, tucking her scraped knees to her chest. They look like she’s spent all summer climbing trees and rolling down the grassy hills around the Burrow and crashing her broomstick into her brothers in a spectacular grab for the Quaffle.

“At least I feel a little less like I was buried with him”, she mutters.

I’m sorry, Harry wants to say, but that seems useless, too.

“I wanted to leave, too”, he says finally. “It was so quiet in there.”

“I hate it”, Ginny says softly. “It doesn’t feel anything like home when it’s like this.”

“I’m sorry”, he says despite himself, for what feels like the thousandth time since everything. “I shouldn’t be here.”

Ginny's brows furrow slightly, as if to say, yes, you should. “If you weren’t, I’d still be shut up in my room right now. Going mad, probably.”

After a short pause, she adds: “I wouldn’t know who to talk to.”

It strikes Harry like lightning: she was looking for him.

She looks over at him as though searching for something. Her brown eyes glow golden in the warm light, like honey, her whole face painted in reds and oranges and pinks.

“How do you do it?”, she asks finally, voice quiet, but steady, as the soft breeze continues to rush through the trees. “How do you lose everyone you’ve lost – and go on living? How do you live with the dead?”

Harry looks at her, the way she sits cross-legged and hunched over in the grass next to him, arms hugged to herself, and it sinks in, what she’s searching for, what she’s asking of him.

“It’s not the same”, he says softly.

She scoffs quietly. “How is that not the same?”

Harry looks around their hiding place. Maybe it’s the creaking of old branches around them, almost a murmur, the smell of the trees, that brings them back: his parents in the Forbidden Forest, walking towards him, Sirius’ bright grin, Dumbledore at King’s Cross Station.

The thought of them cuts through him, every beat of his heart sharp and stinging as they remain dead and he does not.

“Your speech”, he says finally, and watches her jaw clench. “I couldn’t have said anything like that about my parents – or Sirius …”

“I can’t believe I wrote him a fucking eulogy”, Ginny mutters, staring at the weeds to her feet, the patches of moss creeping across the earth under the wild, entangled grass. “It makes it feel so fucking final.”

“You did really well”, Harry says. “It was beautiful.”

She merely shrugs, and he doesn’t blame her.

“I’m glad I got to say something, I think”, she says after another stretch of silence. “But, Merlin, he was walking and talking and making jokes just a week ago, and now he’s six feet underground and I’ve written a double-sided page on how sorely he’ll be missed.”

She wipes her nose on the back of her sleeve.

“Up until today, I really thought he might jump up and laugh it off and make fun of us for falling for it.”

You made it feel like that today, he wants to say, but doesn’t.

“I’m so sorry, Ginny.”

She read it out with a completely steady voice, both fists clutching the slip of paper in her hand. She did not bother to find a silver lining this time, or to look for meaning at all; but every word seemed to bring Fred back to life a little, even earning a few teary chuckles from the other Weasleys. Every anecdote and every prank she recounted was a testament to the fact that Fred Weasley had been alive, that he had mattered, that he had left an impact on her, on all of them.

“You know my Mum had brothers”, Ginny says suddenly, looking over at Harry’s hands. “Fabian and Gideon Prewett.”

She points, and Harry realises what she’s really looking at: Fabian Prewett’s battered old watch on his arm.

“They died in the first war. Bill, Charlie and Percy say they remember them a little, but the rest of us just grew up hearing stories.”

She picks at the shallow wound on her knee, where droplets of bright red blood have pushed to the surface through the cracks in her freckled skin. “It’s why Fred and George are named after them. A little bit, anyway – you know, Fred and George … Fabian and Gideon … Mum was pregnant when they died.”

Harry swallows. “I didn’t know.”

Ginny smiles sadly. “I liked the idea that they got to live on in the twins a little. I never thought to ask Fred and George how they felt about it, actually. I can’t imagine … how Mum feels.”

Harry watches her wrap her arms around her legs, watches the strawberry blond hairs on her shins stand on end as the air cools around them. She looks tired, but her eyes are dry.

“I never made that connection”, he says softly.

“I don’t know why I’m telling you”, she says. “It seemed important.”

Even over the rustling of the trees, the chirping and creaking all around them, he can hear her clearly, her voice steady, unwavering.

“Do you miss him?”

“Yes.”

She looks around at him. “Do you not miss your parents?”

“I don’t know how”, Harry mutters. “Your speech … it was full of memories.”

She doesn’t respond, understanding silently. Then: “What about Sirius?”

Harry shrugs. “He never really got to be my godfather, did he? Not the way he was supposed to, anyway … there wasn’t time. And I don’t remember when my parents were alive – I’ve never known anything else.”

He looks at her, the way she’s quietly watching. “I’m sorry. I know that’s not what you were hoping to hear.”

Ginny dismisses it with a half-hearted gesture, lost in thoughts somewhere else.

“Do you think grieving someone is the same thing as missing them, then?”

“No … do you?”

She seems to consider it for a moment, then shakes her head.

“I just – I just want to talk to him and tell him what’s going on, and I think about how long it’s been since I’ve talked to him and how much I wish he were here and how I’m not gonna get to talk to him –”

She pauses mid-sentence, as though looking for words, and doesn’t find any.

“And then I think about the fact that he’s dead. That his life is over. And that I helped bury him today. And they’re both – awful, but it’s different, I guess.”

Harry nods, more to himself than to Ginny this time.

“And now, I just – I need to know what to do. So it doesn’t swallow me whole.”

Harry is still watching them walk towards him before his inner eye, his parents in the Forbidden Forest, his mother’s hungry face.

“I forget, sometimes”, he says. “For a moment, I think I forget they’re gone. Or I’m – I don’t know, distracted, and I’m not thinking about it – it slips away, and then it hits me again.”

Ginny’s teeth dig into her bottom lip. “I … honestly can’t fathom it right now.”

Harry looks over at her, the way she sits next to him, curled into herself, her hands still uselessly holding her ribs. Like it is physically hurting her.

“I dunno. Maybe forgetting is the wrong word. But when it happens, it always feels like it’s happening to someone else, like I am someone else.”

Ginny watches him intently as he stumbles to the end of his sentence: it feels pathetic already, having said it out loud like that.

“Like you are who you would’ve been if they hadn’t died?”, she asks, in that quietly remarkable way of hers, where she doesn’t treat him like something delicate, but she doesn’t ask for more than he can give, either.

“Yeah, I reckon. But I don’t recognise him at all.”

Ginny hums in understanding. She leans back against the bark of the tree and pulls her knees to herself again. “You would’ve been happier, anyway.”

Harry turns away at that, suddenly not trusting himself to speak.

“I know it doesn’t make sense or anything –”

“No, it does, Harry.”

“I mean, I know they couldn’t have lived. Everything would have to be different. We probably wouldn’t be here.”

Ginny sits in silence for a while.

“Do you ever wonder?”, she asks finally. “What you would’ve been like?”

“I guess … more like them. In ways I can recognise, anyway.”

He gestures helplessly at nothing, and Ginny takes that as a sign to push no further.

“I don’t recognise Ginny a week ago, either”, he hears her say, and the muffled sound of her voice tells him she’s wiping her nose on her sleeve again. “Every time something terrible happened, I guess I didn’t. It’s like remembering an old friend. One whose address you lost or something.”

“It becomes a part of who you are”, Harry says, some sort of clarity coming to him. “Death, I mean. Grief. It doesn’t have to swallow you whole, but there is a little bit of it in every part of you.”

“Cheery”, Ginny says in a hollow voice.

“It gets less all-consuming”, he says softly.

“Good”, she mutters. “Right now it’s pretty fucking all-consuming. It’s there when I wake up in the morning, and it’s – in my tea, and on all my clothes, and it’s in everyone I talk to and everything I say.”

Harry stares at the sky overhead, the red rapidly paling. Still, there is that whispering in the treetops, the feeling of being transported back into the Forbidden Forest. Still, his parents, reaching out for him.

“I’m sorry”, he says truthfully. “That’s all I’ve got.”

Ginny shakes her head. “It’s all I needed.”

He watches her tug at a poppy near her feet, struck by how long he’s managed to stay away from her, when her company is so comforting. The resolution comes to him all on its own, that he’s going to tell her everything. The Forbidden Forest. King’s Cross Station.

“Do you want to head back yet?”

Ginny looks at him, and she seems calmer somehow. For the first time since they got here, she doesn’t seem to be searching for anything – just looking.

“In a little while”, she says.

Harry looks back at her, really looks at her, and for a long time, neither of them speak, having arrived at some quiet understanding. Still, there’s a murmur in the trees around them, but they pay it no mind, and they don’t turn to look.

[artzychic27]

I have a Teen Titans AU. In it, Nath is Robin, Rose is Starfire, Kim is Beast Boy, Max is Cyborg, and Juleka is Raven. Got any headcanons?

Nathaniel The Boy Wonder

Sidekick to the greatest detective duo ever known... Beetle Woman and Catman

Prior to that, he was raised by a famous artist duo and inherited their skills

During an unveiling for a mural his parents painted, a gangster attacked the event and killed both of his parents

Beetle Woman and Catman investigated the crime, and as their alter egos, billionaires Marinette Dupain-Cheng-Agreste and Adrien Agreste, adopted Nathaniel, brought the mobster to justice, and made him their sidekick

He’s trained in several forms of martial arts, intimidation, acrobatics, and he’s an amazing detective

People call him Illustrator because he uses spray paints in his fights

Wears a hood since his red hair gives him away sometimes. His costume is similar to Robin’s but with a purple, black, and white color scheme

Always spray paints his signature on villains’ clothes whenever he’s done beating them up

There was one villain he could never catch and beats himself up for it every time. His name is Reverser. He’s a powerful sorcerer who can reverse anyone’s personality and bring heroes over to his side

Illustrator doesn’t know how how he does it. One minute, he’s fighting Reverser, the next, he blacks out and wakes up with black and white lipstick all over his face and neck. It’s so weird

And Beetle Woman, Catman, the servants, Tikki and Plagg, are always giggling and whispering whenever he talks about Reverser

One day when the detective duo decided he was old enough, Nathaniel was able to start his own team of heroes to protect a neighboring city

After a run-in with a blonde alien, a short cyborg, a jock who could turn into any animal on earth, and a goth witch, he persuaded them into forming a superhero group called the Teen Titans

Rose The Alien Princess

The alien princess from the distant planet of Fragrencia

Her powers are similar to Starfire’s, only the beams are a bright pink and she can control villains by shooting a pink mist from her hands

She has two siblings- A younger brother named Clover, and an evil older sister named Ivy

Clover was sent away in an escape pod after an attack on Fragrencia. Rose was crushed, but Ivy was thrilled

Ivy sold her into slavery to another alían race in order to bring peace to their war-torn planet. (Really it was just to get rid of her)

She landed on earth after using her superhuman strength to escape from an alien ship

While attempting to remove the handcuffs, she ended up destroying parts of the town and eventually ran into four teenagers whom she would soon fight crime with

The mysterious goth girl wearing the cloak was the one who talked her down and removed her handcuffs... Right before Rose kissed her so she could communicate with her

Rose is the most emotional of the team since her powers are strengthened by her emotions

She has a huge crush on Juleka but is a little intimidated by her to act on her feelings

It isn’t rare to see the two girls meditating together or sleeping in the same room in the same bed

Her favorite of Kim’s animal forms is a kitten and she can never resist his dough eyes

Kim The Animal Morpher

Superhero name: “Teen Beast”

A former member of the Xuppu Squad

He was raised by his geneticist parents and was always traveling the world with them. But he was never really interested in the stuff; he wanted to be a swimmer

One day, while they were exploring a jungle, young Kim was bitten by a rare green monkey and caught a serious illness

To save him, his parents gave him a serum with odd side effects- His skin, hair, and eyes turned different shades of red

After a boating accident his parents died after falling over a waterfall, but thanks to his swim training, he was able to make it out

Later, he sought out a superhero team called the Xuppu Squad and became their youngest member

Feeling alienated due to one of the more harsher members, he left and found himself in a new town

There, he met four other teens and assisted them in liberating an alien Princess

He’s become close friends with Max and often assists him with his projects

The others often tease him about it, but he doesn’t know why

Soon, he fell in love with Chloé Bourgeois, the former princess of Markovia who had the bower to render people immobile

He falls out of love with her after he betrayed him and his team by joining Hawkmoth, and he soon realizes that he has feelings for Max after he risks his own life to save him

His two favorite forms are the monkey and miniature horse. As a monkey, he’s able to pick things up with his feet, and because a horse is Max’s favorite animal

Max The Cyborg

Max Kanté was at the top of his class, had a bright future ahead of him and several academic scholarships... Until the accident

He was on a train that his mother was conducting when there was a crash that kill her and horribly injured him

The injury was so awful that his father replaced 99% of his body with cybernetics to keep him alive. This caused him to be shunned by everyone in his life, so he ran away

One night, he went for a walk out in a hoodie when he ran into a group of teenagers fighting a rather violent alien princess

He teamed up with them to fight the princess’ captors and together, they formed a team to battle villainy

He constructed their base of operations and its systems from a landing ship from the aliens sent to take Rose

He serves as the chief technician and constructs all of their gadgets and vehicles... With some help from a certain muscular boy

He has a... Slight, tiny, barely even noticeable crush on Kim and was heartbroken to find out he liked Chloé.

Max is a little self-conscious about being 99% cyborg, so Kim will often comfort him when he’s having one of “Those days”

After saving Kim’s life when Chloé betrayed them and almost risking his own, the two started dating

Juleka The Half Demon

Daughter of Anarka, Juleka was chosen to be the daughter of the demon known as Jagged, and succeed him with her new brother, Luka

Anarka was soon taken in by the pacifistic disciples of the Temple of Reflekta, a group from another plane of existence who forsaked life on Earth

In their world, Anarka gave birth to Juleka, who, like Jagged and Luka was born with the ends of her hair a different color

Fearing she would bring about evil, a magistrate tried to cast her into limbo, only to be destroyed himself

A spiritual leader named Roaar took Juleka under her wing and taught her how to submerge her emotions to ward off her father and brothers’ influences while perfecting her powers

After her teacher’s death, she had a dream where Jagged died and Luka took his place.

He explained that when she reached the age of sixteen, he would come for her and make her his ally so they could destroy the earth together as brother and sister

(He’s also really overprotective of her and went ballistic when she started fighting villains)

Fearing this, Juleka fled to earth where she ran into three teenagers fighting off a rather cute alien princess

Seeing her reason for rampaging, Juleka was able to remove her handcuffs without any trouble, and nearly died on the spot when she princess kissed her

Despite her insecurities, the other invited her to join their new superhero group

Juleka is terrified her own emotions, worried that if she feels something so strongly, that she’ll end up like her brother

As much as it pains her to do so, she distances herself away from Rose emotionally

Eventually, she’s able to express her love for Rose, just at a more muted level, and the two soon start dating

Her powers include teleportation, flight, astral projection, and she can make clones of herself

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

How would have a hypothetical "Ironwood redemption arc" have gone in your opinion?

That is a....complicated question anon. Because the way initially Volume 7 set up things James didn’t really need to be redeemed in any sense. Is leaving behind citizens in Mantel a good thing? Of course not. But James didn’t just leave everyone for giggles and shit or because he hated Mantel. He was in the middle of evacuating Mantel when he found out Salem was coming and was massively triggered and his trauma induced flight response kicked in. He was scared, more scared then we had ever seen him before, all he could think to do was run with what they had as fast as possible, and the question on whether that was the best choice is an interesting moral dilemma but not something either side would need a redemption arc for. Both RWBY and James where justified in their beliefs on both sides but at the time technically by defying James and actively trying to stop him that put RWBY more in the wrong.

The issue is the writers said they wanted a complex moral dilemma in volume 7 but then too many people agreed with James so they decided to backpedal and make James a monster rather then continue the compelling and complex moral dilemma they created. The way V7 was set up neither side was necessarily in need of redemption. They could have learned to work together better and James could learn that sometimes it’s worth it to take risks to save more lives and RWBY could have learned sometimes they can’t save everyone but that doesn’t make them bad people, it just means the bad guys are that, bad people who are willing to kill innocent people and sometimes they cause too much damage for them to save everyone but it’s not their fault or the fault of anyone trying to save those people when not everyone is saved. Sometimes they can do everything right and the bad guys still win.

But okay I know that’s not technically the ask but it’s hard for me because if I had my way so much of volume 8 would not have even happened so theirs nothing James would needed to have been redeemed for. Sure he might have learned that sometimes it is worth it to risk everything to save everyone but that’s not a redemption thing that’s a learning and maybe kind of recovering from severe trauma deal. For at least everything RWBY was willing to condemn him for (remember they told everyone James was untrustworthy when all he’d done that they where aware of was try and escape Salem with everyone on Atlas and leave those he couldn’t evacuate behind. Really James could argue at that point that he had a plan and no one else offered a better plan that was viable and he would be right. No one tried to come up with a doable plan and just threw a hissy fit when they told James to come up with something better and he couldn’t. This man is going through a major PTSD induced panic attack and is being triggered to hell and back all he can probably think to do is run he’s not in a mental state to come up with something better but it’s what everyone is demanding of him and are getting pissed when he can’t. But okay to make things simpler I’ll look at Volume 8 James in his complete OOC nonsense for a moment and work with that, but even so for a redemption arc to work their needs to be some major changes to the volume. (Beneath the link because I have a lot to say lolz)

So one issue I have with the idea of having to redeem James is that no one ever tries to reach out to James and give any sort of viable option to save everyone, they just tell him he has to save everyone and throws a hissy fit when he says he can’t. For this all to work instead we need to see the girls trying to reach him and talk to him and beg to stop for a moment and let them think and come up with something but James refuses insisting they have no time and can’t wait to come up with something or everyone will die.

In this version James would not kill Sleet, shoot down the SDC ships or threaten to bomb Mantel. Instead he arrests the council and tells them once they’re safe from Salem they can do with him whatever they please as long as everyone is safe. After Oscar blows up the whale James tells the team he has a bomb ready to drop on Salem when she starts t reform but the team realizes that dropping the bomb would likely kill civilians close to said bomb but in James’s mind it’s what has to be done to buy them time to escape but everyone refuses to go along with James’s plan.

I’m torn on James hacking Penny because I think it would violate her autonomy in a way I feel like James wouldn’t want to do but at the same time if he’s really set on doing whatever needs to be done to save the many he might do that so I guess the hacking Penny thing is a little up in the air for me. If we want to push James further into darker morally gray he would hack her but if we want to keep him from going to far he wouldn’t. If he does hack her his justification would be he needs the staff to save people and Penny is the only way he can get the staff. (Regardless Penny would not be turned human because that is BS).

When Ruby sends the SDC ships Grimm would instead tear them down and James would recuse to send ships to help because in his mind it would be a pointless waste and he can’t lost what few ships he has left to protect Atlas as it’s fleeing Salem so the Grimm destroy the ships meant to evacuate people.

After Atlas falls have him survive and be desperately trying to find any survivors and completely falling apart as he slowly realizes no one survived and everyone is dead. Have him break and when he’s found by the ace ops and Qrow he’s inconsolable.

Qrow wants to blame James for everything that went wrong and James just doesn’t care anymore, he’s broken and just wishes he had died as well because it’s what he deserved in his mind. All he had done every morally questionable thing he had done to save everyone only wound up killing them all. Have him loath himself and tell Qrow to just kill him and get it over with, have that be what finally snaps Qrow out of his anger and make him realize he also abandoned James and that at least some of this maybe could have been stopped if he’d actually been supporting. James the whole time. Have them both apologize to each other and accept that they both made mistakes and they both failed. Have them all make their way to Vacuo with James swearing to do better and do so.

When they reach Vacuo Winter and co not trust James and want to arrest or even kill him and have Qrow and the ace ops defend him and tell them they can trust him and that they are also to blame for Atlas and that they can’t just throw all t he blame on James, have James apologize for the things that crossed the line that he did, have him tell everyone about his semblance so they understand what happened so they can hold him accountable and catch him before he gets to far in the future.

Have James be in the streets doing whatever he can to help people, have him push himself to his limit trying to keep going as long as he can before completely crashing. Have him doubt and second guess himself every time he makes a decision wondering if he’s making the same mistakes again but Qrow is their to assure him he’s not.

But even this scenario isn’t really ideal I think it would be so much more interesting if it’s RWBY that needs to be “redeemed” for lack of better words. This would bring a lot of changes to volume 8 but I think it’s some needed changes. The girls have been just doing whatever they feel like the entire series and not really ever facing any consequences. Have that finally catch up to them. We would cut the whole James shooting Sleep, trying to bomb Mantel and him hacking Penny nonsense. Instead have James arrest the council explaining that he has no choice and they can do what they see fit to him once they’ve escaped Salem and everyone is safe. Have him when Oscar blows up the Whale have him try and reach out to them and tell them that they bought Mantel time and when the girls send the SDC ships have Grimm attack the ships instead and James is trying to help defend them but he also lost a lot of ships and firepower in the attack and he can only watch helplessly as the ships that would have continued evacuations get destroyed along with the few ships he had left. Have the girls think he intentionally let this happen and refuse to speak to him. Except for Penny who is torn on what to do but everyone is telling her not to trust James but she doesn’t know what to think anymore.

Meanwhile James is in Atlas trying to figure out what to do, he doesn’t want to leave people behind but with no ships left to evacuate and the girls refusing to speak to him so he can’t use the staff he doesn’t know what to do. Qrow escapes and goes to confront James because he’s broken about Clover dying (Qrow doesn’t side with Tyrian in this version) and wants someone to blame he can actually do something about and while fighting James is trying to reach to Qrow who has a breakdown and hates himself for Clover dying and hates his semblance and thinks he’s a curse and James has to remind him he’s not a curse and it’s not his fault and Qrow asks if the same applies to him but James just can’t respond because he does blame himself for how things have gotten and the girls not trusting him and Qrow realizing that it’s his fault because he didn’t stand up for James and he apologizes for letting the girls lie to him for so long and not saying anything. Have James apologize for not trusting others more to help and come up with ideas and trying to do it all on his own.

After this they try and contact the team again but the girls all think Qrow is being manipulated by James and refuse to listen and do their plan of tricking James and arresting him only this time Qrow is also arrested again. The whole portals thing can happen same as in the show with the show actually showing a lot of people died and didn’t make it through and James again survives because of Mettle and Qrow survives because he turns into a bird and flies away but comes back trying to find any survivors and finds James. After realizing their are no survivors they decide to go to Vacuo because that’s where Salem will go next and they find what remains of the survivors. Winter and co are exhausted trying to keep everyone safe on their own and they’ve lost a chunk of the few that made it through the portals.

When Ruby and co make it back from their vacation I mean the island they expect to find people thanking them in Vacuo but instead they’re met with anger. People who lost loved ones who would have survived with James’s plan, people who now have nothing and Vacuo is straining for enough resources and people are dying slowly because their just isn’t enough to sustain everyone.

I know the show would never go this route I just think it would have been interesting and then facing some consequences for their actions is long overdue at this point. I have a more realistic au I want to eventually do but that’s all in a different post.

So long story short, I just do not think James should have ever even gotten to the point of needing to be redeemed with our so called Hero’s RIGHT THEIR. They should have reached out to him and stopped him from spiraling out of control but CRWBY knew that if anyone reached out he might not have spiraled but the girls couldn’t have been the sole hero’s of the story and we can’t have that so they did....volume 8 instead not realizing the girls could have been the hero’s and James not screwed over if they actually tried to write a good and compelling story but just decided it was too much work.

Sorry this is long and rambling but I don’t have a computer right now and I don’t know when I’ll have it so I’m doing this on mobil (also app crashed and I lost my first draft of this so I may have lost some stuff that was in the original version rip)

[ephemeralstark]

Hang In There

Summary:  Peter is swinging to see Tony after school when the weather causes an accident and he falls.

AN: includes blood and injuries descriptions, proceed with caution if this bothers you at all.

Whumptober Day 1: prompt - hanging. 

Peter was not having a good day.

It had all started when he’d woken up fifteen minutes after his first class had started - and it just had to be the day he had a big unit quiz - but despite waking up late he was determined to make it there in time for second period, which he would’ve if the subway hadn't stopped for forty whole minutes because the signal to the tracks had been lost. It was just typical.

Not only that but by the time he did make it in, he was met by the principal and the promise of detention at the end of the day. Naturally, it was Thursday which meant that the detention would be cutting into his workshop time with Mr. Stark, and seriously ? Why was he so unlucky?

So, once he’d finally finished his detention, in which he was forced to listen to that damn pretentious video that the school seemed to love with Captain America lecturing them, seriously? Didn't they know the man was now classed as a war criminal? Did they really think it was appropriate to keep showing that to children? He shot May a quick text to let her know he was going straight to Mr. Stark’s and wouldn't be home.

Which took Peter to the present, where he was swinging in pretty significant winds and trying his best to put all the bad luck behind him. He was going to work with Mr. Stark and have a nice evening, he was sure of it.

“Peter, I would advise walking the rest of the way,” Karen said, “the winds are worsening and it’s becoming unsafe.”

“When is swinging ever completely safe?” Peter retorted, having no intentions of landing, it would take forever to finish his journey if he did, especially since people liked to stop him and ask for photos and autographs - which he’d normally love but today wasn't a normal day for him, “there’s always some kind of risk involved.”

“Risks that I am here to try to reduce,” Karen reminded him, “and walking, or even running, would reduce that risk significantly.”

“Come on, K, live a little,” Peter said with a grin that he wasn't entirely sure she could pick up on.

“I am an artificial intelligence, I can’t ‘live a little’,” she told him.

“Come on, don't make me hack you to improve your humour.”

“That was funny,” Karen argued, “it was witty, sarcastic, and related to the current situation.”

“If you have to explain it that much then you didn-” a sudden gust of wind caught Peter just as he was about to change his direction, “woah!”

“Is this an appropriate time to say I told you so?” Karen asked.

Peter, however, was unable to reply as he was frantically trying to right himself in the air, but unfortunately, everything was in the wrong place and when he tried to shoot webs, they would never land where he wanted. The ground was growing closer and closer until suddenly, it wasn't.

“No, no, no,” Peter muttered desperately as his enhanced eyesight turned into a curse for him and he could see the path he was following, he could see where he was going to end up and he was one hundred percent sure that he didn't want to be there.

“You appear to be-”

“I know!” he yelled, and then he hit the spikes.

The scream that left him was bloodcurdling and Peter was sure there wouldn't be a hearing person in the five-mile vicinity who wouldn't have heard his shout… or he had been sure, but as he was left hanging, his body suspended in mid-air by the three spikes that had impaled themselves into his left leg.

“Calling for help,” Karen said calmly, knowing that this wasn't the situation to ask for permission.

“Oh,” Peter whimpered through his tears that were annoyingly falling down his forehead thanks to his upside-down position, “oh god, I can't.”

He could feel the dampness on his leg spreading and part of him wished he’d lost consciousness, maybe he still would, maybe if he lost enough blood then he would finally get some reprieve from the agony that was radiating through him.

“Ah, ah, Ka- Kar’n,” he panted out, struggling to force his mouth to form the words due to the pain, “how… long?”

“Help will arrive in approximately four minutes,” Karen informed him and Peter thought he would die on the spot hearing that.

Four minutes didn't sound like a long time, after all it was shorter than five minutes which wasn't as long as an hour, but four minutes when he was hanging upside down, body suspended due to impaled metal in his leg, was a lifetime.

“I-” he broke off with a choked sob,” K- Kar’n, I c’n’t do i-it.”

“You can, other than your blood pressure dropping from hypovolaemia and sustained tachycardia as a result of the same issue and the influence of pain, you’re doing great,” Karen said and Peter couldn't even muster up the energy to respond to that.

Would May be disappointed in him for going out in such terrible weather as Spider-Man? Would she forever be angry at him for dying this way? Because he was pretty sure that’s how this was going to end - he was going to die, strung up by his leg like an animal in a slaughterhouse, but even they were killed with more dignity than he was.

“Less than a minute, Peter,” Karen said, “open your eyes.”

When had he closed them? And why should he open them again? He was so tired, hadn't he held on long enough? Wasn’t this good enough? Why should he force himself to continue on through unbearable agony when he just didn't want to? He wanted to go to sleep.

If only he was at home, in his bed, falling asleep to the sound of May humming to herself as she cooked up an abomination or combed through one of her favourite dog-eared books that she would mumble the words aloud from while she read, a small smile painting her face as she didn't even realise she was doing it.

“Peter…” a small smile danced on Peter’s lips as he gave himself permission to leave his eyes shut, “come on, Underoos, not now! Not today!”

The voice sounded concerned, that was unfortunate, Peter briefly toyed with the idea of reassuring them before he was pulled under the tempting blanket of sleep. It was warm and effortless, and ultimately - pain free…

…

Waking up was not effortless or pain free.

He came around to the steady sound of beeping and the smell of antiseptic burning his sensitive nostrils, although along with that there was something shoved up them with was tickling. He clumsily reached up to try and move it, only to have his hand gently guided back to the bed, by a larger, warm one.

“Gently there,” a rough voice said, so familiar, “May, he’s waking up.”

“Peter?” May. “Oh, honey I was so worried.”

“M’y,” he murmured.

“That’s right, how are you feeling?” she asked him.

“H’rts,” he slurred out, his tongue feeling strange in his mouth, “c’n’t talk right.”

“You’re on some strong opioids kiddo,” the rough voice said again - Mr. Stark, “and they had to put you under to operate on your leg.”

“Th’y stole m’ leg?” Peter asked, eyes finally opening so he could display his shock effectively when his words were failing at sounding anything other than tired.

“No,” Mr. Stark laughed, but he seemed mostly relieved that Peter was waking up and the humour didn't reach his eyes, “no, Kiddo, but you’re going to be benched for quite a while I’m afraid, even with those freaky Spidey powers.”

“Huh, that’s-” he broke off so that he could yawn widely, not making an attempt to cover his mouth, “that’s, yeah.”

Even May laughed that time, “ why don’t you try and get some more sleep?”

“No,” Peter mumbled, despite silently believing that that was a fantastic idea, “w’nna know wha’ happened.”

“Are you sure?” Mr. Stark asked.

Peter nodded his head - the movement was unco-ordinated and jerky but it seemed to get his message across, even if it did make his head spin briefly and nausea swirl in the pit of his stomach.

“You fell while on your way here,” Mr. Stark said slowly, potentially watching for signs of distress so that he could stop if need be, “you fell on some jagged spikes that were coming out the side of the building and they got caught on your leg in three places.”

“You’re lucky the force didn't cause an amputation,” May muttered, Peter was almost certain - judging by her tone - that he wouldn't have survived that.

“By the time I got there you’d lost so much blood, I had to act quickly and cut the metal so I could focus on getting you here.”

“They took you straight into surgery,” May said, taking over, “they promised to do whatever they could but stressed that there was no guarantee you’d keep the leg.”

“But I did,” Peter mumbled.

“Yeah,” Mr. Stark said, “but this isn't over yet, Buddy, you’ve got a long road ahead, you need to let yourself heal, you’re going to need physiotherapy, you may struggle with many things you used to find easy and you will need further operations.”

Peter nodded, not realising that a few tears had escaped.

“We’ll go through it in more detail later, Kid, you should really rest,” Mr. Stark said, “we won’t be going anywhere.”

Peter nodded; he was tired, but just before he slipped back into sleep he mumbled a single question, “will it hurt like this forev’r?”

And the darkness took him once more before he could hear the reply.

Tag List: @joyful-soul-collector @thatavengersbitch @spider-child123 @iron-loyalty @thespydersargon @clover-roseee @spidey-reids-2003

[theonceoverthinker]

Oh Gods, They ARE Roommates! (Fair Game Week Day 1 Submission)

Summary: When a leak springs in Qrow’s bedroom, Clover offers to share his room in the Ace Ops’ suite while the repairs are being done. Follow the shenanigans they and their friends get into as they navigate a scenario that just about everybody but Qrow and Clover themselves swear is straight out of a romcom and see if Qrow and Clover have such an ending in store for them. 

AO3

A/N: Here it is! My Day 1 Submission for @fairgameweek2021!!!! I figure a roommates story gels pretty well with the dual themes of sun and moon so here we go!

Shoutout to @drbtinglecannon who I’ve been screaming about this fic with for months now and who requested it as her gift for her 400 HC sweepstake prize!!!! I know it took nearly 100 days, but here you go!!!!

()()()()()()()()()()

CHAPTER 1

A leak.

A gods damned leak.

And a leak that he’d later learn only hit his room on top of it all.

Bad luck semblance or no bad luck semblance, that just wasn’t fair.

But regardless of whether or not it was fair, what it was was real and Qrow needed to do something about it.

From what Qrow gathered as he simultaneously observed the situation, got dressed, and tried to salvage anything previously left on the floor, the leak likely started last night while he was sleeping. Qrow slept right through its start and only realized it the next morning upon rising from his bed and feeling the very odd sensation of cold water greeting the heels and balls of his feet on the now wet ground.

Qrow was fortunate that most of his personal belongings had been spared the unwanted water’s wrath and those that were hit could be salvaged easily enough with some towels and just good old-fashioned sunlight. It still didn’t make the matter of his room flooding good though, just a bit more tolerable.

He couldn’t live like this.

Well, he probably could, but he sure as hell didn’t want to.

Qrow had slept in damp or even flat-out wet beds before under worse circumstances, and the smells of mold and mildew were not ones he ever wanted to make repeat appearances in his nostrils again.

Besides, it took forever to get the grime out of his hair.

No, Qrow needed a new living arrangement, and he needed it fast.

There was only one man he could go to to get that particular job done -- or at least get it done quickly -- and Qrow had no reservations whatsoever about paying that man a visit.

What a day this was shaping up to be...

It was a shame -- Qrow was actually getting used to his personal little corner of Atlas Academy. It was a comfortable enough space, not to mention private. He actually had a bit of space from the kids and while he enjoyed their company to some extent -- or at least, that was all he was willing to admit to anyone apart from himself -- after traveling side-by-side with them for weeks on end, the privacy that he gained from having a room to himself a little ways away from them was more appreciated than it wasn’t.

Well, maybe he’d get lucky and get a similar living situation again.

Of course, he often knew better than to hope for such things, but hey, he was trying to embrace optimism.

His nieces must have been rubbing off on him.

Perhaps someone else was, too.

Qrow found a custodian down the hall from his room and informed him of the leak on his way up to one of the academy’s elevators. An almost imperceptible movement jostled below Qrow’s feet as the elevator made its way up to Atlas Academy’s top floor.

Faces of varying degrees of familiarity met Qrow as he left the elevator and approached the likely location of his intended target. Qrow did what he could to starve off his own grouchiness, but by the time he had just one corner left to pass, the desire to do so had eroded away like footprints in a sandstorm.

And just in time to meet that grouchiness, James Ironwood was exactly where Qrow figured he would be.

James stood in the hallway right by his offices’ door, presently speaking to a couple of his soldiers. Whatever they were talking about, based on his slightly less rigid than usual posture and tone, it didn't seem like it was very important and probably wouldn’t keep him busy for too long.

That was good for the both of them, because Qrow intended to fill that void of business as soon as he could.

Qrow stayed by a nearby corner of the hallway while they continued talking, but the moment that the soldiers left James’ company, he struck. James gave him a small smile upon taking notice of Qrow, though it didn’t last long once he saw what was likely to Qrow a still very annoyed look on his face.

“Qrow,” James said, hesitantly, yet not without that professional tone he wore like a suit. “Always a pleasure.”

“Speak for yourself,” Qrow grunted. “A leak sprung in my room.”

A beat passed. James’ right brow raised.

“Bad?”

“I wouldn’t be here if it was good.”

“Fair enough,” James said right before releasing a sigh. “Come inside. I’ll see what I can do for you.”

Qrow nodded, and followed James as he led him into his office.

Once inside, James brought up on his projector a cubic holograph-like projection of Atlas Academy. From the other side of the hologram, Qrow could see that each and every room was outlined in a minimalistic way, with letters and numbers along the tops of them and the cube’s top and bottom squares greyed out. Qrow watched as James’ eyes surveyed each visible room on the square of the cube closest to him, muttering things to himself that were too low for Qrow to hear. Once done with the first visible section, James swished his hand so that the hologram would go to the next square of the cube, and then the third not long after it, and then the fourth not long after that. However, James' expressions and the tone of his muttering didn’t change at all across the four sections from what they were during the first one.

Honestly, Qrow couldn’t help but find that just a bit concerning.

When he was at last done, James moved his finger so that the second square on the cube he visited was brought up. While there was a look of unease on his face, Ironwood gave the screen a decisive nod.

Finally, frowning and seemingly just a tiny bit nervous, he turned to Qrow, took a deep breath, and spoke.

“There are no other single rooms right now, unfortunately,” James said. 

Looks like Qrow’s instincts were right again.

He frowned. Qrow had expected as much, but the news was still annoying to hear all the same.

“So what are my options?” he then asked, coming out more as a sigh than a question.

“What I can do is place you in one of the dorms, like where the kids are staying. You won’t be alone though. You’ll be with some of my other Huntsmen, but it’ll only be for a couple of weeks, at most.”

Great.

Two weeks rooming with up to -- and, knowing his luck, likely -- three of Ironwood’s men, hearing them go on and on about Gods knew what, dealing with the small dorm room’s litany of smells, and never getting so much as a moment to himself.

And there was, of course, always the chance that they could figure out the truth of his semblance.

Qrow hadn’t told that particular truth to a lot of people in Atlas, and though those he did hadn’t given him a hard time about it, he frankly was hoping the number of those who knew wouldn’t increase. However, Qrow knew it inevitably would come up sooner than later -- it always did, especially with Huntsmen -- and he was decidedly not looking forward to the reactions from his roommates over it, nor their treatment of him afterwards.

Wasn’t that just the perfect cherry to put on this pain of a sundae?

Still, Qrow reminded himself, it was something, and something was better than nothing. 

Qrow was about to begrudgingly accept the offer, but was interrupted before he could do more than open his mouth by the sudden sound of a man’s clearing cough from behind him. 

There was no need to wonder who it was -- the voice had become to Qrow as distinct as the feeling of the sun in the sky, and honestly, about as welcoming of a sensation.

Qrow turned around and lo and behold, just as he expected, there stood Clover Ebi -- bravado, charm, cheery disposition, and all.

Why did Qrow always seem to find his soul suddenly starting to feel just that smallest bit lighter these days whenever he showed up?

Eh, that was a question for another day.

For now, Qrow just wanted to know what it was he had to say.

If nothing else, it would at least make his day a bit more interesting rather than just the irritating mess it was turning out to be.

“Ah. Good morning, Clover,” James greeted.

“Good morning James, Qrow,” Clover said, walking up to them and shooting Qrow a tiny, yet kind glance as he did. “Sir, if you’ll allow me to interject, I don’t think that a dorm’s the best option for Qrow. Those beds are fine enough for the kids and some of our younger soldiers to be sure, but they’re none too kind on the back after a certain age, and I don’t think I need to tell you that like it or not, that’s an age we’ve all hit as well as surpassed by now.”

James sighed, giving Clover a slight nod. “You’re not wrong. So, what do you suggest we do? I’ve no other rooms to put him in.”

“That’s true, but thankfully, I do.” 

James’ brow furrowed for a second, clearly puzzled, before settling to something of a reserved curiosity. 

Clover gestured towards the holographic model that James visited a few moments ago, as if silently asking permission to use it. James nodded, and Clover took to the model, zooming in on one of the upper floors of the cube’s second square. Finally, he pointed his finger at one of the larger rooms.

“The Ace Ops’ suite has two beds per room,” Clover went on to explain, “and the bed across from mine is empty. They’re better built than those in the dorms, a bit larger in size, and I think Qrow will appreciate the privacy of only having one roommate as opposed to three. So, Qrow can stay there, if he wants, that is.” Clover then turned to Qrow. “What do you think?”

Qrow paused for a second. As Clover posed to Qrow his offer, Qrow heard a small, but unmistakably present twinge of hesitance in Clover’s voice. However, Qrow couldn’t figure out for the life of him why it was there. Whatever was the reason, it definitely wasn’t regret on his part about offering the room to Qrow -- James had clearly either forgotten or never heard of Clover’s extra bed, and Clover was more than smart enough to know that if he didn’t want to share his room, he wouldn’t have had to breathe a word about it, let alone offer it to Qrow, but he did.

So then what was the deal with the hesitance?

Well, there was one way to find out, and that opportunity was presently standing right there in front of him.

Besides, it didn’t take a genius to see that compared to three strangers, rooming with one Clover Ebi was a far better option.

It didn’t hurt that he was a pretty decent guy either.

“Yeah,” Qrow finally said. “That sounds good.”

Clover smiled. That bit of unease was still there, now in his eyes, but Qrow could tell that the smile itself was as genuine as it ever was and hard not to look at because of that.

“Great!” Clover said. “Why don’t I help move your things from your room to mine and we let James get back to some slightly more pressing matters?”

“That would be preferable,” James chimed in, answering for Qrow and smirking back at Clover.

“Always a pleasure,” Qrow snorted, calling back to James’ initial greeting as he followed Clover’s lead out of James’ office.

As they headed towards Qrow’s room, Qrow noticed that as it often happened, by this time of the day, much of the hustle of the morning had settled down, now just a student or a soldier here or there making their ways to their respective classes and drills.

Qrow liked the Academy at this part of the day for that, but always felt the least bit unsettled by the quiet of it. There was this weird echo the hallways had as they carried the sound of just his footsteps for just a second longer than he felt they should have.

Clover’s presence alleviated things somewhat, as if a bit of noise somehow subconsciously radiated off of him like heat off of a fireplace. He turned to Clover who gently met his eyes with his own while sporting an easy smile.

“Thanks, by the way,” Qrow said, “for the offer.”

“Happy to help,” Clover said.

“How’d you hear about it anyway?”

“I was walking by your room to see why you didn’t come down to grab your morning coffee, and saw a custodian working there,” Clover answered. “He told me what had happened and from there, I figured that you’d probably gone to speak with James.”

“And so you came to save your boss from a cranky old Qrow?” 

Qrow smirked, both at his comment as well as its underlying meaning. Maybe one day, he’d tell Clover the truth about his other form, but that would be on a day when he had so much as a single clue as to how to even start that conversation.

Then again, given the very nature of that confession, that might be a long time’s wait, though it was time that Qrow couldn’t help but feel like they had.

“And to save that Qrow himself,” Clover responded. 

Qrow’s smirk melted into a snarky smile as they entered the elevator. 

“Should I be swooning and calling you ‘my hero?’” Qrow nudged his head in Clover’s direction, clasped his hands together, and batted his eyelashes a couple of times just for good measure. 

“If you’d like,” Clover said, punching in Qrow’s floor number just before letting loose another one of his winks, winks Qrow was simultaneously well-used to by now but still caught off guard by. “I certainly wouldn’t object.”

The elevator door closed and the two of them started laughing. 

Clover’s laugh was infectious -- deep, attractive, casual, yet spirited -- and it made Qrow’s last a little bit longer than it otherwise would have for a joke like this.

It also reminded Qrow, as their barks of laughter settled down into rumbling chuckles, of how much Clover’s laughter contrasted that bit of hesitance in his voice he had at James’ office.

Well, Qrow figured that before they started the process of moving him into Clover’s room, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to clear that up.

“Everything okay, Clover?” Qrow asked. “Couldn’t help but notice that you seemed a little strange back up in James’ office.”

Clover's smile receded, not completely, but all the same into something more neutral. “By offering you the bed?”

“No, that was normal for you. I just noticed you just had this weird look in your voice as you were offering it.”

“I see.” Clover snorted. “You’re far too observant for your own good. You know that, right?”

A wicked smirk took over Qrow’s features. “Absolutely.”

Clover sighed. “I just didn’t want you to feel pressured into taking the room because it was me offering it or because James was there. I could only take a guess at what you wanted, but if I was wrong…” Clover seemed unable to continue, but able to tell that Qrow could understand his logic from there.

Qrow smiled at that bit of vulnerability Clover let him have. He’d received fragments of those bits here and there, and they had a way of sticking themselves onto Qrow’s heart like syrup on pancakes and feeling just as pleasant.

“You made a good guess,” Qrow assured, “and I appreciate it -- really, I do. Thanks, again.”

Clover’s smile brightened. “You know, you’re a lot better at giving compliments than you are at receiving them.”

“What can I say?” Qrow shrugged. “That’s just how I work.”

“Then I’ll just have to work that much harder to change that,” Clover challenged.

Qrow was starting to suspect that if anyone could accomplish such a feat, it would be Clover, and as they exited the elevator and continued towards Qrow’s room, Qrow realized that he wouldn’t have it any other way.

[rwby-diaries]

Happy birthday Ruby!

Our most adorable shooting star is up! Ruby was born on October 31st (kept from CRWBY canon)! She came into the world just a pink little thing, and she stole everyone’s hearts with just one look. Her family loves her so much and so do we!

Line Art by: @bosiphas

Colour by: @data-plays-viola

Ficlet by: @lameclub

Edited by: @bosiphas @yang-diary @data-plays-viola and @thetopazvulpix

Ficlet under the cut!

“Happy birthday Ruby!’’ Different voices all cry out in unison as Ruby stands there with her eyes big and wide.

“You guys shouldn’t have!’’ She says awkwardly - causing Yang tomorrow her eyes and smirk in her direction.  

“Jaune spilled the beans, didn’t he?’’

Ruby scoffs loudly, “Whaaat? How could you possibly assume that our good, kind-natured friend Jaune--’’

“You don’t have to defend me, Ruby. It’s pretty obvious,’’ Jaune says while scratching the back of his head with an embarrassed smile. Weiss rolls her eyes as she walks over, taking Ruby’s arm and leading her in the other direction.

“You can count yourself out of the next surprise party,’’ Weiss says with a pointed look back at Jaune. Ruby giggles before turning around to better keep up with her friend. They begin to approach a round table not that far from them - causing Ruby to let out a giant gasp.

The table is decorated with many different trays of sweets and baked goods - carefully placed in order of colour and type. Ruby turns back towards her friends.

“You didn’t have to do all of this!’’ she says with a big smile on her face as her eyes well up with tears.

Nora giggles, "Ren spent the last two nights making sure every cupcake was perfect, didn't ya buddy?"

Nora finishes the question with a poke to Ren’s ribcage and a smile. Ren looks down at her with a puzzled look on their face, "You only turn 15 once - I don't see why I should hold back." Yang shakes her head as she leans on their shoulder with a smirk.

“We aren’t making fun of ya bud! No need to be self-conscious about the amount you made.

“Anyways,” Yang adds with an even bigger smirk, “Nora’s bottomless pit she calls a stomach will probably eat half of this in like an hour.”

Ruby giggles as she takes a single cupcake and, without an ounce of hesitation, bites into it. The sweetness burst to life in her mouth, causing them to hum in appreciation. “Oh! This is so good Ren, maybe the best thing I’ve ever eaten!’’ She exclaims as she quickly devours the rest of her sweet.

Yang whistles, “That’s a bold statement - considering we grew up around the self-proclaimed 'Best Cook in all of Remnant' - Uncle Clover.’’

Ruby blinks for a few seconds before she laughs in response. “Listen, both are on the same level as the other - actually this reminds me of my 13th birthday,’’ Ruby says happily as she finds herself becoming more distant and lost in thought.

~~~

"Uncle Qrowwww!" Ruby shouts as she jumps onto his arms; he catches and holds her up with ease. "I can't believe I get to spend my birthday with both you and Uncle Clover!" Her eyes sparkle as her legs dangle back and forth mid-air.

"How was the ferry ride from Patch? Hope it wasn't too scary to travel on your own." Qrow questions with a head tilt which only causes Ruby to scoff in response.

"You're talking to a future huntress here, Uncle Qrow - a little boat ride wasn't gonna scare me," Ruby says with a big smirk on her face before she continues "Besides I barely ever get to see you guys these days and no way was I going to spend my birthday alone!"

Qrow chuckles as he affectionately ruffles their hair. "Oz decided to let me have a free weekend. Coincidentally, Mr. Tin Man  felt the same for Clover," he smiles as she jumps back down to the ground.

"Tin man?"

Before Qrow could respond to her inquiry - the front door swings open and another voice is heard. "So, our favourite lil' whirlwind is here already?" Clover says with a smirk as he leans on the doorframe. Ruby lets out a squeal as she zips across the front lawn and practically leaps into her uncle's chest, knocking the man back a couple of feet.

"Uncle Clover, it's been so long!" Ruby cries out as they hug him tightly and Clover smiles warmly down at her. As she drops back down and takes a step back, she can barely contain her excitement, frantically patting her legs. Clover takes a few seconds to recover from the intensity of Ruby's hug, then looks down at her with a proud smile.

"I swear you've grown an inch or two since I last saw ya!" He exclaims with a short gasp - inspecting them closely.

Ruby giggles, "It's actually just my new boots," she explains as she shows them off proudly which causes Clover to whistle into admiration. Ruby pauses for a moment and gestures for their uncle to come closer, the other doing just that, as they stretch up to his ear in a stealthy fashion.

"But if anyone else asks - I finally had my growth spurt." Ruby whispers.

Clover takes a second to process that before he snorts and stands back up, "Your secret is safe with me munchkin." He finishes with a wink and ruffles their hair.  Ruby let's out a playful grunt as she frantically goes to fix her hair back to the way she liked it just as Qrow approaches from behind them.

"I'm gonna pop these bags up to your room, squirt, and then I hafta check on your birthday surprise," Qrow explains as he easily picks up and carries in her assortment of different backpacks and cases. "Why dontcha join your uncle in the kitchen?" He suggests with a smirk towards Clover - who beams brightly in return. Ruby nods enthusiastically and takes hold of Clover's arm.

"Yesss come on Uncle Clover, time's a wastin!" They cry out as they tug Clover in the direction of the kitchen which has her uncle laughing warmly; allowing for his nibling to drag him in the direction she wanted to go.

"We'll see you soon babe - shoot me a text when everything's ready!"  Clover shouts back towards Qrow and the other nods in agreement.

As the duo separated themselves from Qrow - they enter into the kitchen. The whole room was rather neatly kept - totally unlike Ruby’s kitchen at home, which often fell victim to plates and dishes piling up, especially if it was just Ruby and her dad.

On the table in the middle, there was a variety of different baking utensils and ingredients - all neatly sorted and ready to be used. Ruby gasps loudly as they sprint into the room, admiring her surroundings with great excitement.

Clover trails in not far behind the other and chuckles softly, "I was going to have the cake and everything else ready for you, but I remembered how much you love to bake, so I waited to make the cupcakes."  He tells them while watching the young kid take in the sight before them with big eyes.

"Always! Just because it's my birthday doesn't mean I don't want to make badass cupcakes-" Ruby stops herself when she realises what she let slip past her mouth and clears her throat. "Doesn't mean we can't make awesome cupcakes," they correct themself with an innocent smile. Clover rolls his eyes playfully, choosing to ignore that in favour of wanting Ruby to enjoy her birthday.

"Anyways! We should get started - would you like to do the honours?" Clover says as he passes her the bowl of butter and Ruby nods in a dramatic fashion. As she dumps its contents into the mixing bowl before her, her uncle pours some casting sugar in before presenting Ruby with the whisk.

"Use it wisely, young one." Clover says.

Ruby gasps while taking it carefully and nodding, "I won't let you down good sir." She tries to keep up the serious demeanor but she couldn't contain the giggles that were building up deep down. As they begin to whisk the ingredients together, Ruby starts to ponder on a few things.

She was excited beyond belief about spending her birthday with her uncles - it was a rare sight when both of them could attend. But… there were small things that were nagging at Ruby and refusing to let go. Their sudden quietness immediately catches her uncle's attention, who then turns to face her.

“Something on your mind?” Clover asks in a gentle tone - completely surprising Ruby who lets out a tiny yelp. It didn't take her long to recover from that sudden question as Ruby looks down at the mix and sighs.

“I'm happy to be here with both you and uncle Qrow but… It's my first birthday without Yang.” Ruby speaks very quietly as she slows to a halt and their hair falls onto her face - hiding her true expression. Clover watches with soft eyes as he lowers himself down to her level.

"I know how hard it must be with Yang being on that school trip and your dad being busy," Clover starts in a gentle tone while pushing Ruby's fringe back once more, "but trust me when I say you're going to have a great birthday with the most awesome surprise."  He gives her a big smile as the words seem to do the job of cheering her up. Ruby's expression lights back up and they wipe their eyes

"Thank you Uncle Clover," she says with a lopsided smile. Clover laughs as he kisses her forehead and stands back up - the pair returning to their tasks.

"So uncle Clover - a birthday surprise huh?" She asks with a sly smile.

Clover glances down for a moment before chuckling to himself, "You got that right." He doesn’t elaborate further, simply gesturing for her to stop the whisking for a moment. As he adds a small tablespoon of vanilla extract, while Ruby's curiosity reaches an all time high.

"I wonder what it could be - maybe a mega awesome present-"

Clover laughs, "Ruby I know you have long figured out I'm the weak link when it comes to surprises," he says with a side glance down towards the kid.

Ruby giggles. "Yeah I found out when you accidentally told Yang that dad was considering the motorcycle license-"

Clover hushes them with a small laugh, "Which your dad never ever lets me live down."

"But I promised your uncle I wouldn't breathe a word of it - so will a simple reassurance that you will love it suffice?" Clover asks.

Despite the desire to know brewing deep down within Ruby - she understood this was something super important to keep a secret. With a sigh, she finishes her whisking and nods in agreement. Clover pats her on the head

"Not much longer now," he says while taking the bowl away.

"Now remember - 15 minutes in the oven or you'll burn them!" Ruby calls as Clover goes to fill the pre-prepared cupcake pan with the batter.

Clover scoffs,"You're talking to the 'Best Baker in all of Remnant' here Ruby. I ain't about to let these cupcakes burn on my watch!"

After the batch has been fully cooked and decorated, Clover's scroll finally dings on the counter loudly. Ruby's head perks up.

"Is that Qrow telling us everything is ready?!" They ask while frantically patting the table.

Clover laughs, "Let's see." He walks over and picks the device up. After being silent for a few seconds, the man looks back up and smiles. "We have to head out back."

Ruby follows behind her uncle enthusiastically - as he leads them down the hallway.

Excitement was thrumming all throughout Ruby's body as they got closer and closer to their destination. About a dozen different scenarios were rattling around in their head at once - but they just couldn't come to a solid conclusion. Was it a new cape? Maybe they're getting a super cool motorcycle too?! Clover stops before the backdoor and turns to Ruby.

"Close your eyes buddy," he tells her with a big smile. Ruby did exactly as she was told and soon after did they feel Clover gently take their arm and begin to lead her forward.

Ruby could feel the cool breeze of the outside world as they were continued to be led by her uncle - the shuffling of feet could be heard too. After a few seconds, Clover orders her to stop and she does just that.

"Can I open my eyes now?!" They exclaim, growing more impatient by the second.

Clover laughs, "You can now."Ruby's eyes flutter open. After taking a moment to adjust to the sudden sunlight - Ruby focuses her gaze right ahead of her, letting out a huge gasp at the sight before their eyes.

"Happy birthday Ruby!"

Different voices yell in unison, coming noth only from her Uncle Qrow, but also from her dad and sister, standing next to Qrow with huge matching grins. Ruby begins to bounce on the spot before jetting across the grassy garden.

"Oh my gosh!" They yell, tackling all their family in one swift motion, everyone being knocked to the ground by the force of it. Everyone laughs wildly as Yang and Tai embrace Ruby.

"You said you guys couldn't make it!" They say with tears in her eyes and Yang swiftly wipes them away, a soft smile on her face.

"You didn't think I'd miss your big birthday bash, did ya sib?"

Tai nods, "I decided to get off work early and Yang finished up her Huntsfolk Observation Trip quicker than expected." The trio finally stand back up and Tai his head tilts in Qrow's direction before continuing.

"Qrow managed to pull some strings to make sure we were all here," he says with a smirk.

Yang scoffs, "I had to make sure these old timers were doing your birthday right." She gives both Tai and Qrow a smug grin. Tai playfully jabs his daughter in the ribs and Yang snorts in response.

Ruby's face lit up - not sure how to react. Tai's face softens for a moment as he turns back around to pick up an item he dropped when they fell, picking up a small book with a pink bow neatly placed on top of it.

"I wanted you to have this. We all spent the last week getting all the pictures printed and organized." He explains in a quiet tone while placing the book into Ruby's hands.

Ruby stares at it, seeing the words 'Ruby's Birthday' printed on the top stirred emotions deep down. Everyone crowds around them with supportive looks which encourages Ruby to open the book, letting the pages fall open somewhere around the halfway point.

As Ruby looks down at the page, she could see Yang holding their baby self with the help of Tai, her older sister’s eyes wide with wonder.

"Yang insisted that she held you the moment she laid eyes on you," Qrow chuckles fondly.

Yang gives a quick snicker in response, "I just knew how awesome my baby sibling was the moment I saw them," she says while ruffling Ruby's hair and the other pushes her off with a smile.

"What is it with all this hair ruffling today?!" Ruby asks with giggles sprinkled in between words.

As they flip backwards to the previous page, they see two pages of Qrow and Clover holding them as a baby as well.

"Clover of course, had to make a luck pun," Qrow says with a smirk in his husband's direction and the other stuck his tongue out playfully.

"So nothing much has changed between now and then?" Ruby points out which causes everyone else to laugh alongside them. Ruby turns the page further back towards the front of the book, seeing a picture of Tai.

"I remember when your mother went into labour - I quickly ran back into our room to specifically get that shirt," Tai explains with a short laugh, pointing at the red ‘#1 Dad’ shirt in the picture.

Clover scoffs, "You were planning that gag ever since Summer became pregnant too."

Tai waves him off “I’m the embarrassing father - I have an image to maintain!’’ He laughs and Ruby snorts in response  - looking up at her dad with happy eyes. After a moment, Ruby’s attention once again falls back to the book before them - as they flip to the first page of the book and Ruby finds herself growing silent.

Tai looks down at them with sad eyes as he places his hand on her shoulder "She wasn't scared at all when she was pregnant with you - I was more frightened than her." That comment has Ruby look up to her dad with a sad smile as she let him continue.

"She did everything in her power to make sure you were brought into the world safely and surrounded by love," he explains as everyone around them watched on in a wistful way "Your mom loved you so much Ruby. Every moment she spent with you was everything she could've hoped for."

That was what brought on the tears - as Yang and Ruby both found themselves starting to cry. Everyone  then closed in for a group hug. Nobody moved for a few moments, just choosing to instead enjoy each other's presence in total serenity.

"One last thing," Yang says with a smile as she pulls back and taking out a small camera. "Every year me and Ruby take a picture together for their birthday," she explains as she gestures for everyone to squeeze together "And this is the first time we've all been together in a long long time."

Yang places the camera on the nearby picnic table and sets a timer "Everyone says cheese!" She cries out while rushing over just in time as everyone screams out that word excitedly. The camera clicks with a flash and everyone starts to giggle. Qrow gives Ruby a quick pat on the head.

"Now let's dig into some birthday cake, shall we?" He suggests and Ruby gasps loudly.

"Birthday person gets the first slice!" She exclaims as she zips over in a burst of petals.

~~~

“That’s such a sweet story Ruby,’’ Pyrrha says with a warm smile on her face and placing her hands on top of heart in a fond manner. “Would you like to take a picture with all of us?’’

That question easily catches Ruby’s attention as her eyes go wide, “Oh my gosh yes! I’d love nothing more,’’ they say while jumping on the spot and clasping her hands together. “It’ll show off our awesome costumes too. I dont have one good birthday photo in Halloween costumes, and I’ve almost always had a Halloween birthday.’’

Weiss raises an eyebrow “Ruby, you were born on Halloween, every year is a Halloween birthday." Yang hushes Weiss with a playful push.

“You can survive one night without making a sassy remark Ice Queen,’’ she teases which obviously irritates the other but after a moment, Weiss takes in a deep breath and seemingly composes herself.

“Does anyone have a camera then?’’ Weiss asks.

Everyone looks around at each other before shrugging and Nora groans, “Where’s Velvet when ya need her.” . Blake’s head perks up as she takes out her scroll and gestures to it.

“It’s not as traditional, but I think your scroll could work.’’ She says with a small smile.

Yang’s face lights up “Once again - Blake is here with the big brain,’’ she says with a wink which in turn causes Blake’s cheeks to flush red and she looks down at the floor with a tiny smile. Ruby takes out her device and beams brightly.

"Everybody squeeze in - I’m pretty short,’’ she says loudly and everyone begins to crowd in around them, all trying their best to get in level with the camera. With a bit of effort, Ruby manages to hold the scroll as high she possibly could and she gives a big smile.

“Everyone say cheese!’’ She yells and everyone screams that word at the same time.

A flash on the scroll lights up the room before Ruby lowers it down - inspecting the picture that was taken. As they look at the photo, tears begin to well up in their eyes and she sniffles lightly.

Yang glances down with a fond look on her face and pats Ruby lightly on the head, “All good Rubes?’’ Ruby wipes her eyes and nods frantically.

“It’s everything I could’ve hoped for.’’

[mobagehelllocal]

“dati” ver i - riddle, leona & azul

 A/N: This piece is something I was meaning to write and post after I open my ask box again... but I thought you all deserved some really good new fluff prompts from me! For this one, please assume that you, the Reader, is different from the actual MC of TWST! 

“Dati” is a pretty difficult word to translate, because it’s just one word but--it can mean so much.  For the sake of this story, you can interpret its meaning as “a long time ago”. 

Inspired by: 

“Dati” by Sam Concepcion, Tippy Dos Santos and Quest. (I encourage you to listen to it OR read the English lyrics.) 

“If You Can Dream” by the Disney Princesses. (I would link both but my posts dont appear if I do that ;u;) 

Please enjoy!

PS: I realized about halfway that I accidentally crafted the narrative for a female reader instead of a more gender neutral one. I do apologize.  PSS: This got so long, apparently I’m over word limit so I had to split it into two parts xD. The next part will come soon! 

Other versions: ver i (this), ver ii (kalim, vil, idia, malleus)

--

"--as you already know. We held a school-wide meeting about the week long exchange program with the all-females private school, Garden Academy. Professors Divus Crewel and Mozus Trein accompanied our delegates to Garden Academy this morning,” Dire Crowley peered at his students through his black mask, “while Professor Mozus Trein stayed with our delegates, Professor Divus Crewel escorted the delegates from Garden Academy to Night Raven College.” 

Excited whispers broke out in the crowd. Crowley cleared his throat once, then again--before everyone settled down. The Headmaster huffed audibly at that. 

“I’ll be using this morning meeting to introduce the delegates,” Crowley turned to the left side of the stage. He motioned at Crewel who was standing back stage with a Garden Academy professor and her students. “Now then, please give a hand for--” 

In the crowd, his eyes widened. 

--

In turn, you were pretty excited too. You had held off telling your friend about you coming to his school because you wanted to surprise him. 

All you girls had been assigned to a particular dorm, not to sleep in--but rather, to experience. Each dorm in NRC (much like GA), had their own unique culture. So, to truly experience the college meant you all needed to immerse yourselves in the different dorms and their cultures. You had to sneakily reconfirm with him what his dorm was, to make sure you got assigned to the correct one. 

And now that you were here...

“Alright ladies,” Professor Radcliffe said kindly, “we will reconvene here at 5PM to return to the dorm Headmaster Crowley so generously set aside for us.” 

“Yes Professor.” Radcliffe eyed all of you girls, before she sighed with an exasperated smile. You were all very excited, and doing very little to hide that. 

“Okay, I know you want to go--but one last thing,” you all let out loud, false and very unladylike groans that Radcliffe ignored. “Remember to be beautiful--” 

“At heart.” you all recited, familiar with your school’s motto.

“Go on then,” Radcliffe finally said, “the dorm heads and their assistants should be waiting outside for all of you.” 

With a cheer, you all parted ways. 

“Trey!” 

Riddle watched with wide eyes, as he saw your familiar form--dressed in the yellow colors of House Cosmos, the House of Optimism--jump straight into Trey’s arms. 

“Hey there.” Trey laughed, and he raised a hand to mess with your hair. 

“Ow! Hey!” you grumbled up at Trey. “If Professor Radcliffe saw me...” you muttered, as you raised a hand to fix your hair. The girls who had followed behind giggled at your expression. 

Riddle could only stare in surprise. 

Oh he remembered you. 

You had been introduced to him through Chenya and Trey during one of the last times he had managed to escape his house during his free time. 

“Chenya! Trey! There you are!” your cheerful voice had rung loud and sweet in the Clover’s Bakery. “I thought we were meeting up at the park--?” you had paused in surprise as you took in the sight of an additional boy with your friends. He flinched, his shoulders rose as he ducked into himself. Were you going to get mad at him for stealing your friends?

“Oh--um, hello!” your surprised expression quickly melted into a friendly smile and you hopped over to sit next to Riddle. He flinched again, and Chenya snickered. 

“Don’t scare him, [Name].” 

“I’m not trying too.” you pouted at Chenya, who only laughed louder in response. 

“Ah [Name]. This is Riddle Rosehearts.” Trey jumped in, “he lives in the house with the roses you like.” 

“Oh!” you brightened up, and he flushed red as you drew even closer to him. “Hi! My name is [Name]. Let’s be friends!”

“I--we just met?” he said, weakly. Chenya laughed again.

“I think you just got rejected, [Name]!” 

“Oh shut it Chenya!” you turned back to him, and beamed. “Silly Riddle, there are no rules when it comes to making friends, you know?” you offered your hand, palms up, to him.

He looked up at Trey, who gave him an encouraging smile. He slowly placed his hand in yours, and mumbled a soft--

“Okay.”  

Riddle never forgot you. 

He never forgot the words you had spoke to him that day. 

He remembered clearly how hurt he was when his mother grew even more strict and didn’t allow him to see his first friends. He remembered being angry at you too--you told him there were no rules when it came to making friends--

‘Then why had mother been so mad at me?’ He remembered thinking. “Was [Name] lying? Maybe there really are rules in making friends?” 

Looking back on it--his anger was misplaced. He had just been sad--caught up in his mother’s expectations. He had suffered so much for her ideals, that a part of him wanted to believe it was real or...

He would’ve given up on Chenya... Trey... and you... for nothing. 

While he had eventually reunited with Trey in Night Raven College, and Chenya (ever the sneaky type) had met him again during breaks in the school year--he had never seen you again. 

He never asked about you. 

Trey or Chenya never mentioned you either. 

He wondered if you had just slipped away from them. 

‘Or maybe you just didn’t want to see me.’ 

He shouldn’t be surprised.

He should’ve expected it.

After all, he’s pretty sure friends can’t be friends if they don’t see each other in years. (His friendships with Trey and Chenya--these were things he felt that he had just recreated.)

“Wait... Riddle?” He flinched as he heard you call his name. He looked up, only to give you a weak smile. 

“Hi [Name].” your eyes widened, you looked up at Trey then back at him before a smile spread across your face. “Riddle!” you cheered happily, as you wrapped your arms around him. He sputtered, and Trey smirked in response.

“It’s been a really long time! How are you?” you pulled back and cupped his cheeks in your soft hands. Riddle immediately felt his face heat up in response to your attention. 

You had always been affectionate--and Riddle, who had been so starved of social connections--never got used to it. He never had the chance to.  

“I’m... okay.” he managed, and he didn’t know how you did it--but your smile somehow brightened even further. 

It was that same sweet smile you would give him when you were children. A smile that made his heart beat fast. 

“That’s good!” you easily laced your fingers together with his, and he felt himself blush harder. 

“You--you aren’t mad?” he stuttered out in response, and you tilted your head at that.

“Why... would I be mad?” 

“Because... I just... stopped being a friend.” he hesitated, worried that if he brought it up--you would remember that he had never tried to contact you. 

“That’s silly Riddle.” you said, “It’s not your fault! My family moved away after you stopped coming to see us--so I wasn’t able to keep in contact with you. I was able to with Trey and Chenya but... neither of them told me they met up with you again.” you tilted your head in the opposite direction. “I’m partly to blame. I didn’t ask about you either, you know?” 

“That is...”

“And who says we stopped being friends? I told you right? There aren’t rules when it comes to making friends. So to me, I never stopped thinking of you as my dear friend.” 

Riddle was overcome with the desire to cry. 

“You don’t want our friendship to end right?” your smiled dimmed slightly. “Or... at least I hope so...”

“No...” his lower lip wobbled, and you leant forward to press your forehead against his. “I’m sorry about back then... it was because...” he hesitated, he wasn’t sure he was ready to tell you everything now--about his mother, about the overblot, about his resolve--

He began to panic, unsure how to go about this. 

“Take your time Riddle.” you told him, eyes soft with affection. “As your friend, I’ll wait until you’re ready to tell me.” 

“Thank you.” His eyes slid shut, and he moved to embrace you in full--which you gladly reciprocated. You let go after a few moments, and smiled at Riddle. The boy shot you a weak smile. You then chose to shoot a glare at your other childhood friend 

“Well then, Trey--you better explain yourself.” you threatened the third year, who raised his hands defensively. 

“I thought it would be a good surprise.” 

“Boo! So you knew I’d be coming here?” 

“I had an idea.” Trey smirked in response to that. You huffed, before you turned back to Riddle with a grin.

“Then, shall we catch up now? I want to know all about Heartslabyul, while I’m here! You’ll tell me, won’t you Riddle?” 

“Yes he will. After all Riddle is the dorm leader for Heartslabyul.” Trey chimed in, and you blinked before you turned back to him.

“Woah! That’s amazing! That’s so cool! As expected of Riddle!” you laughed happily, he blushed again. You easily kept your hand laced with his as he began to tell you more about Night Raven College and the Heartslabyul dorm.

Unconsciously, his hand tightened around yours. 

He was more than thrilled that you two had found each other again. He was determined to make sure that this time--

He would be a better friend to you. 

--

"Prince Leona!” Leona could barely stop the angry growl that came out of his mouth as you came to a stop in front of him. 

‘I should’ve known.’

“You.” he said, his lips curled downward. His ears and tail flicked in an irritated manner. 

“Me.” you leant forward, hand on your hips. “Why so hostile, Prince Leona?” 

“Stop calling me that.” He turned away, his ears twitched in annoyance. Beside him, Ruggie peered up at you curiously. You were a little taller than the hyena, dressed in the pale pink colors of House Peach Blossom--the House of Courage. He noticed that almost all students from Peach Blossom had their magic wands and sword at their waist--including you. 

“How do you know Leona?” Ruggie asked you, since he knew that Leona was likely not going to answer him.

“Oi, Ruggie--” Leona shot him a glare, but you didn’t seem to mind since you interrupted the prince. 

“That’s because he is my Prince.” you said with a grin. 

“What-!?” Ruggie sputtered, while Leona only groaned in response. 

-

“Prince Leona, you really should get up.” Leona’s visible ear twitched at the sound of your voice. He buried his head stubbornly into his pillow. “Come on, you have class soon!” 

Ever since you had arrived here, and essentially received permission to enter the Savanaclaw dorm--not even the dorm members could stop you from barging into Leona’s room. He had ordered them earlier to get in your way--not to beat you (he knew exactly how strong you were) but if there was one thing he could attempt to do--it was to delay you as much as possible. 

However...

“That’s because he is my Prince.” you had said with a grin. Ruggie sputtered, and Leona groaned.

“She’s a member of Afterglow Savanna’s Royal Guard.” Leona had to explain through gritted teeth. 

“Yes, hence why he is my Prince.” You say with such blind honesty and devotion that Leona could barely look. He chose to avert his gaze instead, his tail flickered in embarrassment. 

As someone who had trained to be a part of the Royal Guard since your youth--the students of Savanaclaw were no match for you. You had easily wrestled them all to defeat. Once his dorm members realized that there was simply no beating you, they had all given up (their prides were badly bruised at it was already)--and Leona had mourned the fact that none of them were willing to buy him time to sleep in. 

‘What a bunch of dorm members really...’ he grumbled to himself. ‘Not willing to help their dorm leader...’ he thought, sarcastically. 

“Come on my Prince,” you said in a soft tone, despite the fact you were basically engaging Leona in a tug of war with his blanket. “You have to go to class.” 

“Do you have any idea how surprised my classmates and professors are, now that I’m actually coming to class?” he grumbled. 

“Then I’m doing my job right.” you said in a very matter-of-fact tone. He lifted his head to shoot a glare at you. “You are a Prince of Afterglow Savanna! You must--” 

“Don’t talk to me about crap like that.” he hissed. “Did the King and Queen put you up to his? Perhaps the First Prince? Is my position in the school making trouble for the royal family? So much so they sent you--?” 

“Prince Leona, that is not true!” You frowned, “your family is just concerned--”   

“And where was this concern when they could hear the people talk about me behind my back?” he growled as he grabbed your arm, and you yelped in surprise. “Back then they weren’t there but--” 

‘I had you. You were the only who saw me and now you--’

‘Are you choosing them over me?’ 

‘Are you... just going to chose them... like everyone else?’ 

Leona’s heart twisted, and he ignored it to focus on his anger instead.

“Le--my Prince that’s--” 

“Stop calling me that!” He snarled, “You’re just doing this for Farena, aren’t you? If you do your task well, maybe he’ll notice you and make you his second wife? Wouldn’t you--” 

Smack.

“You... you think I chose to be a part of the Royal Guard... for Prince Farena?” 

He turned back to you, alarmed. In all the time he had known you--you had never sounded like that.

Your lips were twisted downward in a frown, the hand that had slapped him was now tenderly holding onto the forearm that he had squeezed earlier in his own hand. He could see that your skin had reddened from his tight hold. 

“A... are you an idiot?” you moved your hand onto your chest as your lower lip trembled. “I joined the guard for you, Leona. I joined because I believed in you, in Leona Kingscholar. Whatever role you might yet play—I believed in you! In your intelligence, in your capacity to understand people! I wanted to be there with you! I wanted to fight for what you believe in—because I believed in you.” You stepped back, and his mouth parted open in surprise.

“How could you say that? How could you even think that?” you asked him in a hoarse voice, “There’s no one I wanted to support as much as--as much as I wanted to support you. I--I always knew you were amazing Leona. I was only ever looking at you.” you sniffed, your eyes wet with tears. 

Leona realized that he was just about to loose the one person who ever acknowledged him.

“[Name]--” when he reached a hand out, you flinched, and he felt himself pale. 

When everyone else had flinched away from his powers...

You had always been the one who had--unfailingly--grabbed onto his hand without fear. 

“[Name]... I’m...” 

‘Come on--set your pride aside and apologize.’ he couldn’t help but hiss at himself. 

“I’m...” 

“You don’t have to say it Prince Leona.” you said, voice thick with emotions. “Your tail is giving it away.” At that statement, he shot you a weak glare as he stilled his tail. 

“How’d you know?” he asked. You looked up at him with an incredulous stare. 

“You were never good at saying sorry.” you muttered underneath your breath. “So I just figured it out from the way you acted around me.” you inhaled sharply, “just give me a moment... and I’ll be okay.” 

‘You... why...’ his fist clenched unconsciously. ‘Why do you have to understand me so well?’ He studied the way you ducked your head, the way you steadied your breath. ‘All that time you watched me... I... I know that what you’ve always wanted was an apology but--but I’ve always just taken all your forgiveness without trying harder.’

‘I don’t deserve you, do I? What have I done? That you--powerful, strong, fierce as you are--why have I let you think you don’t deserve an apology? Why have I let you think that it was okay for me to--not apologize?’ 

‘This is why I’m going to lose you.’ 

You always came to me... I--’

‘I never met you halfway.’ 

“I’m sorry.” your head shot up in response, and though you could tell from Leona’s expression that he’d rather be doing anything but this--he opened his mouth again. “I’m sorry [Name]... you got stuck with a selfish friend.” 

He began to panic inwardly when the sniffling that you had managed to calm down--rose again. 

However--you weren’t crying because you were sad--you were crying because you were happy.

All this time--a cruel whisper in the back of your head insisted you were the only one who cared about your relationship. Around you--people doubted your friendship with Leona. 

You tried--you did your best to ignore it, but sometimes in your lowest moments--it consumed you.

And Leona--unknowing, but effortlessly good and perfect as he was to you--always kept you afloat. 

He had been watching you too. 

Keeping an eye out. 

Looking on at you with some form of care--and dare you hope--love.

Because he had known that even if you told him you were okay--that you actually weren’t. That you wanted him to say sorry even if you pretended that you were used to it. 

“[Name]?” Leona was knelt in front of you--and you belatedly realized that you had slid to the ground. He studied your face, and hesitated to touch you after earlier. 

Kind. Understanding. Smart.

If people would just acknowledge Leona--they would see what you could see.

This is the king I know he is, the king I see inside. 

“Yeah, I’ll be okay. Give me a minute.” 

“When you get emotional, it doesn’t take you a minute.” he grumbled, but it was gentle, and your heart warmed as you recognized once more how much he knew you.

“Acting like a know-it-all already, huh, Prince Leona?” he winced at that.

“Why do you keep calling me that anyways?” he moved a hand to rub the back of his neck. “I don’t... like it.” 

“Because you are one, and my position in the guard...” 

“But not... not when it’s just the two of us.” he mumbled, and you blinked in surprise. “I want... I want you to remember that--when I’m with you I’m... I’m just Leona. To you I--I shouldn’t be a royal or a prince first I’m... I’m your friend.” You could feel your cheeks heat up at his statement. 

“Have you gotten sappy, my Prince?” you said--suddenly as you tried to change the mood. It was embarrassing. He bristled in response.  

“[Name].” he growled low, and you giggled. His heart eased at the sight of your smiling visage.

‘Good. I never want to see you cry again. If you were to cry then--let them be happy tears only.’ 

“Alright then... my friend... Leona.” your smile widened.

‘I have a lot to do. I have a lot to make up.’ he thought, but as he sees you smile at him--he knew that you were always going to be worth the effort. 

‘And perhaps one day you can simply be mine... and I can be solely just yours.’ 

--

“Azul!” you waved happily as the octopus mermaid groaned, and held his temples in his hands. A step behind him, Jade chuckled. 

“Why... why are you here?”

“Aww, did you not want to see me?” you peered at him. You were dressed in the brilliant orange colors of House Hibiscus--the House of Tenacity--which, to his mind, suited you very well. 

“You’re just here to embarrass me.” Azul groaned, and you smirked. 

“I can’t help it, especially when you pretend to act so cool.” 

“I hate you. I want my octopus pot.” He groaned into his hand. 

“I love you too~” His face flushed red at that, and your heart skipped a beat at how adorable he was. 

-

You remembered it like it was yesterday. 

You had gone out to the beach, your toes dipped into the water as you gazed out toward the expanse of the ocean as the morning sky cleared. You sighed--there was nothing more beautiful that the ocean at sunrise. (You didn’t know how your younger self did it, but you were often able to wake up early just to see the sight.) 

Then, all of a sudden, one of your toes was nibbled on. You blinked in surprise then looked down to see a little fish nibble on your toe. When it noticed it had your attention, it began to swim around in a circle, before going off into a certain direction. You just stared at it for awhile, until it suddenly came back and bit your toe as hard as it could--before attempting to pull you off into a certain direction.

“Oh! Ah--but my grandmother isn’t with me.” you told the fish sadly, “I can’t just use my magic to explore without her...” The fish only became more panicked, and you quickly got the gist of what she might be worried about.

“What? There’s a merman stuck in some nets?” you hesitated for a moment. It wasn’t the first time it had happened, and you had a dagger with you for moments like this--but you really shouldn’t be going swimming unsupervised...

“Alright, I’ll come, but we can’t spend too much time or I might blot...” you stood up, and closed your eyes. 

“[I am the Ocean].” You whispered, and in the next second you dove deep into the water. 

Your affinity with water magic was obvious because of your lineage. Your unique magic was different in that it allowed you to turn your whole body into water. At a young age, it was impressed upon you how important it was that you learnt your limits and refined your control. Not only were you battling against overblot, but you were also battling with the possibility that you might accidentally disperse yourself into the water, and be unable to turn back. 

You trained as much as you can, so at that point you had been able to maintain your magic for a couple of minutes.

Because your whole body turned into water, you were nearly invisible underwater--the only clue that you were there was because your clothes were still on you. 

You followed after the fish, and she took you past the reef, into a deeper part of the ocean that you hadn’t explored before. 

“--Hngh!” you heard a loud, crying sound and you immediately began to swim faster. 

“Admit it Azul,” the voice seemed to be talking to himself. “no one is going to come save you. Even the fish from earlier just turned on it’s tail and swam away...” As you turned the corner, you caught sight of an octopus mermaid--who looked about your age--caught up in a large net. 

“Huh? You’re back?” the octopus mermaid moved underneath the netting once he caught sight of the fish, then he scampered back once he saw your floating clothes. “Wha--what the? Did you bring a ghost to kill me?” the mermaid wailed, and you would’ve giggled if you could. You swam closer, and pulled the knife from your thigh. The octopus mermaid screamed in response, and moved away in a frantic manner--only to get tangled in the nets further. 

“You really want me dead?” the mermaid cried. 

You shot a desperate look at the fish, who began to chirp at the merman. 

“Huh? It’s a person?” the mermaid turned his head, his violet eyes squinted. “she can turn into water...?” you moved your hands into an ‘okay’ sign, but judging from the way his gaze didn’t move meant that he probably couldn’t see it. “So she’s going to use the dagger to cut me out...?”

You decided to reach forward for one of his hands. He originally flinched, but he let you lace your fingers around his. You tightened your hold briefly, and hoped that it was enough. 

‘I won’t hurt you. Not now, not ever.’ 

“T-Thank you.” he mumbled out, and you couldn’t help but smile. You then let go of his hand and began to cut through the rope. 

‘I hope I have enough magic to last...’ 

As you cut through the last of the ropes, you could feel the way your magic flickered. There’s a sudden gasp from the mermaid, and you realized that your hands were now visible. You clenched your jaw tightly, one of the ropes was particularly difficult, and the mermaid called out worriedly.

“Hey--will you be okay?” you ignored him as you worked through the last ropes, even if your vision dimmed. As you finally freed him, your hands shook, and your mouth slipped open. You gulped in a lot of water, and began to panic--and so does the mermaid.

“Oh no! Why--?” the mermaid cried, “what do I do?” you hear him ask the fish as you lose your consciousness. You felt his arms wrapped around yours as he tried to propel himself up to the surface.

“Come on Azul, you need to be fast for once!” 

-

"So, I definitely get a free meal, right?” you peered at Azul. “Best friend perks, right?” 

“... Fine.” Azul grudgingly said. You were--perhaps--one of the only people who Azul couldn’t say no to. You cheered happily in response, as your classmates called you out for being unfair. 

He couldn’t help the fond smile that grows on his face as you laughed happily. 

That day that you saved him--almost at the cost of your life too!--despite not knowing who he was...

Then the way you stuck around and befriended him, long before he had found any confidence in himself...

That you had seen him--at what he considered--was his most terrible state and thought nothing of it...

‘My debt to you is greater than even the ocean.’ he thought, however unlike any other time when thinking of his debts made him feel terrible--he was only filled with the desire to make sure he paid you back properly for all your kindness.

He had once told you about how much he owed you, but you dismissed it immediately.

‘Azul, you’re my oldest and best friend.’ you had told him, sincerity shimmered in the depths of your eyes. ‘You don’t owe me anything--besides back then, you saved me too, yeah?’  

You would have to agree to disagree.

Even if he had saved your life too--it could not compare to how you saved him.

You had no idea how much you actually saved him... how much your friendship meant to him.

-

Azul could feel his tears stream down his face as managed to get you onto the beach of the island that the fish said was your home.

“Stupid Azul.” he frantically murmured to himself, “of course you managed to hurt the one person who cared to save you.” When he leant closer, he couldn’t tell if you were breathing or not and he was beginning to panic. 

“Oh no, oh no oh no.” He sobbed loudly. “Please don’t die. Please don’t die. I don’t even know your name. I want to be your friend. I’ve never had a friend before--what do I do?” he cried. He heard irritated chirps, and when he turned his head, he noticed that the fish from earlier had followed him. 

“Shake her.” the fish said. He did so, but you didn’t respond. “Tilt her chin and head back.” He did, and he heard you sputter, as water escape your mouth. You began to cough roughly, and you wearily opened your eyes to meet Azul’s. 

“You... saved me...” you wheezed.

“Of course I did!” Azul wailed, “you saved me!” 

You let out a laugh, before you began to cough again. 

“Are you okay?” 

“Yeah, give... me a moment...” you wheezed. He gave you a moment to breath, his tentacles curled around him nervously. 

“Well, that was an experience.”

“Please don’t shake it off just like that.” he whimpered, “that was traumatizing.” 

“Yeah sorry. I didn’t mean it.” you said with a wince. “... So what do we do now?” 

“I... I don’t know.” Azul confessed. 

“Then... shall we be friends?”

“R-really? You want to be friends with a useless octopus?”

“I’d love to be friends with you.” you frowned at him, ��and you’re not useless. You saved my life. You couldn’t have done that if you were useless.” Azul wanted to argue, but you quickly moved on. 

“So what’s your name?” you asked him.

“A-Azul... Azul Ashengrotto.” 

“I’m [Name] [Surname].” you smiled as you stuck your hand out, pinky extended. “Let’s be friends for life Azul!” 

He looked at your hand then back up at your face. 

“What am I supposed to do?” he asked.

“You stick your pinky out, and...” you twisted your pinky with his, and his face flushed red at the sensation of your skin against his. Earlier, it had just felt like holding hands with a current moving the opposite way of the ocean...but your hand was warm. “Like this. We make a promise we can’t break!” 

“What promise?” he gulped, and you only giggled. His face reddened in response. Your giggle was cute.

“That we’ll be friends for life Azul!” 

“I... I’d like that...” he giggled too, and you beamed brightly.

“Azul, you’re finally smiling!” 

-

You leant your cheek against your palm as you watch Azul run Mostro Lounge. 

“Oh? You look deep in thought.” Your eyes flickered up to meet Jade’s eyes. 

“Hm. Just thinking about how much Azul has changed.” you said, a proud smile spread on your face. “I’m... really happy for him. I think he’s found the pace he should go at...and look at him do so well.” Jade turned to Azul, and saw him bark orders at a huffing Floyd. His lips curled up in response.

“Yes. He truly has changed a lot.” Azul turned his head to see the two of you eyeing him with identical smiles. His brow twitched lightly, before he approached you two.

“Jade, I need you on Table Eight.” Jade bowed elegantly, and shot you a quick wink before he walked off. 

“What were you talking about?”

“Just how amazing you are.” you said so nonchalantly, and gleefully watched his face turn red. 

“Y--you!” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Please do not lie.” You giggled in response, before you gestured for him. to sit beside you. Azul did so and as he turned to you--you gave him a gentle smile. This time when he blushed, it reached his ears.

“I wasn’t lying Azul... I’m really happy for you. As someone whose watched you for a long time... I’m happy for how much you’ve grown. It makes me proud of you.” you sighed as you laced your fingers, “it makes me feel like you don’t need to rely on me anymore... It’s a little sad.”

“No.” he replied quickly, and you looked up surprised. Azul wasn’t meeting your gaze, but you could see his pale skin turn a bright crimson. 

“I will always rely on you.” he met your gaze, “knowing that your eyes are on me... It makes me want to keep improving.” Your eyes widened, before they softened once more.

“Mhm. Then I’ll keep on being someone you can rely on.” You raise your pinky, and with a soft laugh he raised his hand to link his pinky with yours. 

“Promise?”

“Promise.” 

--

Extra A/N:

So... I had fun with this. I thought it would be much more interesting if I mixed and matched up the princesses and villains. 

Honestly, I genuinely got super into making the Garden Academy. I debated whether or not to include Alice, Nala, Megara, Anna and Elsa--but I chose not to. THOUGH I did end up giving them House Names and values haha. In the end, I settled with the Twelve Disney Princesses. Here’s a link to some notes I have for the Garden Academy and it’s houses! 

[psyga315]

Some Roses Will Never Bloom: A Rewrite Of Volume 8, Part 1

Never before have I felt so disappointed with the turnout of a RWBY Volume. It had the potential to be extremely good, but it chose mediocrity. Again. It felt like Volume 5 all over again.

I know I should probably wait for the final two episodes, but let’s be fucking honest here. Atlas is done. The plot is finished. These two episodes, if people are to be believed, are to hype for the next Volume and even then, given how RWBY did its “hype” and “payoff” in Volume 8… No, fuck that noise. Those last two episodes will get their own segment called the Volume 9 Character Short. If anything, only scenes with Emerald from those two episodes will be brought over to Volume 8 and if they’re big scenes, like her interacting with Cinder, I’ll make an addendum.

Before we begin, keep in mind that this is not a complete rewrite. If there’s a scene I haven’t mentioned, that’s because it’s good as is and can be left in. Length wise, I’ll try to aim for the same 14 episodes, but minutes wise… Who even counts these anymore?

So, let’s get into the meat and potatoes with a Meta-Rewrite. If this does not interest you, skip ahead to when I start talking about the episodes.

Grimm Expectations

Let’s rewind the clocks back to the hiatus of Volume 7-8. Rooster Teeth is proud to announce a new contest where Grimm entries are submitted and the winner would receive a prize. There was controversy the minute it began and it only got worse when the finalists were called.

So, let’s fix that. In this Meta-Rewrite, Rooster Teeth decide to instead broadens the prize pool to include five winners instead of the one, with no popularity contest to determine the winner. Of course, this doesn’t fix the contest results, which includes a controversial figure. However, because there is no voting involved, it instead becomes a flame war over the design that, let’s be honest, wouldn’t have mattered in the grand scheme of things.

So, yeah, RT uses all five Grimm winners, disregards any fucks that the fanbase has (again) and the only thing I could see happening is if the artist personally reached out to Rooster Teeth and requested it to be removed, to which RT will word it so that it doesn’t backfire in their face.

Alright, now let’s do it.

Divide

We’ll start right where the show left off, with Oscar witnessing the Whale arrive onto Atlas. However, curiously, it is stationary. Oscar asks what’s up with it before Ozpin cryptically tells him that’s what she wants it to do. We don’t need to see a huge montage of Oscar getting to the Crater, but just enough to know how he got there.

We cut to RWBY and co discussing what to do now, especially with Salem making good on her threat. Ruby tries to contact Qrow and Oscar, but she can’t reach them. Pietro and Maria pilot the aircraft down to the same discreet spot they parked in Volume 7. However, as they get off, they’re ambushed by soldiers. Just then, Johanna, May, and Fiona barge in and beat them with an ambush of their own.

“What the hell just happened!?” Johanna barked at Ruby. We’ll cut to fifteen minutes later where they all discuss what happened

“So, Ironwood’s finally lost it.” May mutters. They hear the news and see their wanted posters. Most notably, they see that Robyn and Penny are added to the list and that she and Qrow have a big “ARRESTED” sign over them. However, with Oscar, there’s a clear big red X over his face, causing Ruby to fret. Jaune gets upset and punches a wall, blaming himself for leaving Oscar behind on both occasions.

I don’t think Jaune would blame Ruby at this point, since 1) he, at this point, knows better than to point fingers and 2) it’s more his character to beat himself up rather than someone else.

It’d still be Yang, but she’d be joined by Ren. Yang brings up how Ruby’s leadership led them to this situation and Ren mentions how they destroyed Ironwood’s trust, not knowing what was really said up there back in “Gravity”. Ruby told Yang about how they not only went behind Ironwood’s back but also theirs by telling Robyn about the Amity Tower and thus burned their bridge with Ironwood, only for Blake to go on full blast and say what Critics have been saying for the entire hiatus:

“YOU GUYS ARE ACTING JUST LIKE THE WHITE FANG!”

She explains how they’ve done the exact same things that the White Fang had done, taking lives, stealing vehicles, but she adds the extra caveat of bringing up how they’ve also borrowed from Ozpin’s playbook. She confesses to being the one who planned on telling them about Amity.

However, Johanna breaks up the fight and tells them flat out: doesn’t matter what they did, they need to worry more about what to do. This is when they argue more about what’s important: Amity or Mantle. The team splits up the same way, since it is integral for their arcs to be like this and not go with the obvious “Ren cared about saving the world so he’s going for Amity and Nora cared about Mantle so she will help Mantle.”

Ruby frets more, since “this is what Salem wants”, only for Yang to retort: “well, she’s already getting that right now…”, which stings Ruby since she feels like it meant her splitting off with Ruby while she actually meant what happened with Ironwood. We’re not gonna do the “future” stuff. I feel like that should happen naturally instead of confusing people.

Just before they go, though, Ironwood calls Penny and tells her that Salem is here. Penny is about to answer when Ruby takes the phone away and tells him to fuck off, only for Ironwood to go “hey, people are going to die if you’re acting like a doofus about it!” Ironwood tries to talk more, but Ruby hangs up on him.

We smash cut to Ironwood growling in frustration, looking at the arm he lost in order to stop Watts. He gets a solemn look, pondering to himself about how far he must go in order to save the world. His arm trembles and thinks back to shooting Oscar. He begins to have second thoughts about what he had done, though they’re brief as the Councillors came in. During their rant, Ironwood grabs Sleet by the throat and drags his ass out to a window where they see the whale.

“YOU SEE THAT!? That is what we tried to protect the world from and now it’s at our front door. That’s why I’ve enacted Martial Law.” He then tosses Sleet to the guards and tell him to lock the Councilmen up. “You two have gotten in my way before. I won’t let it happen again.” As they get dragged away, he looks over to Winter and apologizes. Had he not arranged for her to be the Winter Maiden, she wouldn’t have been injured.

Winter reassures him and tells him that he was the only person who has given her purpose in life after her father ruined it. Ironwood is both touched and horrified with that comment, especially once the Ace Ops come, having done their grieving for Clover. Harriet also affirms her faith in Ironwood and tells him that Clover died for his Kingdom. Ironwood gives a moment to think… Closing his eyes.

“So… If I’ve led you all onto the path of hell…” He opens them as we see the light in his eyes disappear, followed by the sound of a loud, distinctive click. “Then there’s no other choice but to keep moving forward.”

And as we get our first official look at Mettle, the opening plays out.

Refuge

The villain scene from Episode 1 is moved over to here, but Cinder brings up why they haven’t made their move yet. Salem brings up that Tyrian’s report of the situation has confirmed that Ironwood has taken her bait and is now the greatest weapon they have. Let him destroy Atlas from the inside out and then clean up the mess. She then brings the relic to the Hound and has him sniff for Oscar’s scent.

The rest of the episode plays out like usual, with Ruby and Yang’s teams doing their thing, but with Oscar at the Crater, he’s not there for the scenes. He does still have his chat with Ozpin about how they’ll be one soon, however. He sees Yang, Ren, and Jaune arrive with people and he is elated to see them. He is elated to see them and asks what happened with the others. Yang sums up and then Oscar asks what happened to Qrow, Clover, and Robyn.

Cut to the jailbirds and Qrow saying how he wants to murder Ironwood. The Councilmen are tossed in while they extract Watts.

The Hound Scene gets changed somewhat, as we see it attacking Oscar in the middle of the Crater, bringing people to harm against the Hound. This furthers the reason why they couldn’t just shoot the Grimm, since the Hound threatens the lives of the refuges in the Crater. We end our episode there.

Strings

So, here’s where I think we’re going to make the big changes and axe a subplot. While the premise of Penny being hacked and her aura resisting it is good, I feel like, of the subplots that need to be cut, this would be the one. We can dedicate more of this time to her conflict with being the Protector of Mantle and now being the Winter Maiden, in other words being the Protector of Atlas.

Meanwhile, Nora, Ruby, and Blake all have their doubts. Ruby and Nora are obvious, but Blake has trouble deciding if she made the right call in returning to RWBY. Weiss, in a Tsundere way, brings up how she is a very integral part of the team. Blake then brings up how, if it weren’t for her, then they wouldn’t have had a hard time getting to Atlas, blaming herself for both their rejection at Argus and how Adam ruined their plans in the hijacking.

Weiss, however, wants none of that. While this was Ruby’s plan, Weiss takes charge of the operation due to Ruby being emotionally compromised. She gets a taste of being a leader in this episode, one she had wanted in Volume 1.

During this, Ironwood discusses matters with Watts, where they talk about the possibility of hacking Penny. For this rewrite, I think keeping the ‘Watts is working with Ironwood’ angle, complete with Ironwood having guns pointed to him, would benefit Ironwood’s arc and show how low he’s going. Not just working with one of Salem’s thugs, but also holding them at gun point. Ironwood justifies it by saying that this is Watts’s ‘punishment’ for the crimes he’s done. Watts, however, plays it by ear and waits for the opportune time for a backstab. That and he wants to stick it to Pietro.

The rest of the episode plays out like normal, but we get that ‘made a deal with the darkness’ scene as Watts is dragged back to his cell, Harriet has a hissy fit, and Robyn is like ‘you’re looking for someone to blame’. As the Ace Ops and Guards leave, Watts brings Qrow’s ‘we kill the man who put us here’ idea back to him and says he’s interested in his offer.

Fault

We open right where we leave off, as Watts reveals that he’s only getting close enough to Ironwood to acquire the right tools to escape. He then proceeds to dangle the carrot in front of Qrow.

“We’ve all been screwed over by Ironwood in one form or another. He disrupted your business, abandoned your town, betrayed your Headmaster.” The last part gets to Qrow and he lashes out. “We all want him dead, so… are you in or are you out?”

“Preposterous!” Jacques, to Robyn’s surprise, beat her to the punch. “Let’s not forget that you’ve done your fair share of screwing. Believe me, I had my experience. I know better than to trust you.”

“You’ve trusted Ironwood, right? And look where it got you. All of you.” That comment hangs in the air.

“We wanted Ironwood out for some time, but not like this! Are you mad?” Sleet asked. Robyn is visibly horrified at what Watts is suggesting and is the next to speak up.

“Jacques has a point for once in his life. Why should we trust you when you’re the reason Mantle is in this mess in the first place?” Then Qrow raises his hand.

“I want to hear him out.” Qrow said.

“What? What do you mean? You realize he works with-”

“I know! But remember who we’re dealing with. This prison… It’s not like the kind of prisons I’ve seen, especially in Atlas. No other people but us, only the top of Ironwood’s army are allowed to check in, and I’m pretty sure the guards aren’t allowed to give you that shiner. No… This isn’t our holding cell. It’s an execution cell, and we’re just waiting for Ironwood to drop the axe.”

We end on that implication as we see the episode play out like normal. While I like to have Ren bring up Pyrrha, I think the “cheated into Beacon” thing is big enough and we’ll need to unravel that bundle of worms. Instead of the “yeah, Ruby” scene, we could have Yang ask Jaune what he meant and Jaune reveals his fake transcripts. He also reveals that, for a time, he blamed Pyrrha’s death on his inexperience and that he knew about Pyrrha using her Semblance on his shield some time later. Yang, however, isn’t really in a position to pat Jaune’s back.

Meanwhile, the group crash at Whitley’s mansion, but Weiss doesn’t immediately point a sword at him. She’s tempted to as Whitley complains about having to harbour criminals without an explanation as to what’s going on, but then she notices that… he’s afraid. She then remembers Willow’s words to her and calmly goes “If you’re willing, I’ll explain everything. Please. Just help her.”

And we end on the Grimm River.

Amity

This episode is mostly the same, but with two exceptions. One, Ironwood does not, in any way, try to interfere with the broadcast. This had been the thing he was working on the whole time and, albeit without the Ironwood could no longer be trusted bit (which he looks solemnly away to), is pretty much what he wanted. And two, Watts ‘fakes’ hacking Penny.

He later reveals to his coup that there’s no way to hack Penny, bringing up how they had her schematics back in Volume 3 but were unable to activate the virus for her. What he really did was force a reboot and lied out of his ass about how it was a failed attempt. He then reveals the broken phone and offers the escape plan one last time.

Midnight

Here we are. One of the biggest episodes in Volume 8. The big backstory reveal for Cinder…

And we’re instead going to make it about Hazel, so instead, it’s going to be…

Gingerbread

We open with twins, lost in the woods. The elder reassures the younger that everything will be fine. They were abandoned by their parents to line their bellies and forced to fend for themselves. There, they come across a house that looked like it was made of gingerbread, with eagled eyed viewers being able to spot a young Cinder being carted off.

A blind woman greets the kids and brings them into the house. We know the schtick here, though instead of fattening the kids up to be eaten, she toughens them up to be sold to wealthy people who use them as child labourers. Gretchen finds out about this but she gets captured and is about to be killed to be silenced. Hazel, in a fury, ends up awakening his Semblance and, using a Dust Crystal, sets the house ablaze as they escape.

A montage plays out of them surviving however they can, even joining some bandits and raiding towns. However, during one such raid, they’re stopped by a young Qrow and have them be brought to Ozpin, which plays out similarly to how Ruby got inducted into Beacon.

We cut to Oscar chatting with Ozpin about Salem’s plan and how it seemed to be working before getting the idea to do the same to her. As Hazel walks in and gets upset that Ozpin casually says hello, Ozpin asks: “Why? Why do you follow Salem?”

“You know why. Did you tell him the full story?”

We cut back to another montage where we see that Hazel and Gretchen are part of the same team and they were the best years of their life. Unfortunately, they go on a mission to Mountain Glenn where it just so happens to be the time a mad scientist was fucking around there. They try to stop the Grimm from overrunning it, but it seems hopeless. Hazel, as the team leader, pulls the team back. However, Ozpin gives them the order to not run away and to hold the line. Gretchen follows this to a T and sacrifices herself in vain.

This devastates Hazel and causes him to drop out of Beacon, bearing a grudge against Ozpin. Not only that, but it paints some parallels between Hazel, Qrow, and Jaune, as all of them had friends they lost to the orders of a Headmaster who they despised. Qrow teeters in the middle (he talks big about killing Ironwood but hasn’t committed to it yet) between Jaune (who accepted Pyrrha’s choice and lets go of his hatred) and Hazel (“OZPIIIIIN!”). It also presents a dark parallel to the current story, since Atlas and Mantle are currently undergoing a similar siege, but it’s Ruby who insists on holding the line.

Ozpin admits that this was just one of his many mistakes, but asks again why he decided to work with Salem because of it, when she was the one behind the Grimm. Hazel then answers the obvious:

“I tried to kill her.”

We then get to see Hazel beat her senseless in a flashback, only to reform from dust and taunt him. Eventually, he gave up as Salem comforts him before revealing that Ozpin has sacrificed people like him for one huge lie (as she does this, Sacrifice plays). He then swears his allegiance to her if it means there’d be no more Gretchens.

Ozpin cuts the flashback by retorting that she’s planning to bring-

Salem comes in. The show’s about to start.

Cut to Weiss as she enters Whitley’s room. She notices that he just finished calling someone and suspects he’s ratting out on them. Whitely denies this and calls Weiss out for being overtly protective. Weiss counters by saying that she grew up in a hostile home and can’t really trust any Schnee but her sister, which she begins to doubt.

Whitley brings up that she barely had it as bad as he did and talks of his turmoil of living with the parents alone while Winter was at Atlas and Weiss was at Beacon. Between his mother’s drunken rambles and his father’s angry rants, he barely had time to live his own life. He just lets Weiss have it for ditching him before he breaks down and realizes that, no, he’s just jealous because she got to be free while he was still stuck in the cage. Weiss remembers when she was grounded and stripped of her title and realizes “oh… shit.”

Then the doorbell rings and, surprise, it’s Klein. Whitely explains that they need a doctor for Nora and without Jacques, he figured to invite the person he fired just to further spite his ass. He and Weiss begin to rekindle an old flame that they never ignited.

Back with Salem, the scene plays out like normal, but when we see Cinder get tortured, we see flashes of Cinder having a shock collar, hinting to her big backstory event. Then Salem has a small speech.

“It would appear that we have been brought forth into the light as monsters and villains. So, why not play that part and show them why dear old Ozma had to keep me a secret for so long… It’s time.”

Suddenly, Beringels fly out of Monstra and Zerg Rush the shields while the Grimm River activates and rushes forth, destroying the hut that RJY were at and almost killing them. Jaune sends out a distress call with his scroll as they try to avoid getting washed away in the water. They see that it’s heading to Mantle and that the plan by Salem is a two-prong attack to further force the division between Mantle and Atlas by putting them both in peril.

During this, Ren tries desperately to activate his Semblance, but just couldn’t. He panics, he worries, he sees Grimm emerge from the River to try and kill them and he just can’t make his Semblance work. He asks why now of all times must this happen. He closes his eyes and tries to think… Then sees petals on himself. Before he has any time to figure out what happened, they see a plane arrive and blast the River, stopping it in its tracks. Just before Jaune is about to thank their savior, they see that it’s Winter and the Ace-Ops…

War

The Beringels break through the shields and invade, destroying much of Atlas and overrunning the city, killing people on-screen. The rest of the scenes play out, however, when we cut to RWB, we see Weiss is trying to restrain Ruby from running out there, saying that she could be arrested or killed and Ruby responds with wanting to do the right thing. May interjects and asks why they bother saving Atlas when all they do is laugh at the misfortune of others. She’s basically the “Let Atlas Fall” part of the fanbase.

And this is where RWB give their counter arguments.

Weiss says how, even though the elite are snobby twits, Atlas is not exclusive to just them. May and her were just born with silver spoons in their mouths but that doesn’t excuse them from leaving everyone else on Atlas to die, bringing up how the Mantleans they saved were also on Atlas.

Blake brings up that, yes, Atlas has done bad things in the past, but so did every Kingdom at one point or another, bringing up Mantle’s role in the Great War, so to say that Atlas deserves to burn is to basically say Mantle deserves to burn.

Ruby then uses her “there are no sides” bit, but also blurts out that the whole situation was her fault and that she’s at the very least trying to fix it. And that starts by heading straight to the Whale and beating Salem herself.

The whale scene plays out the same, as does RJY’s scene right up until they plan to blow up the Whale. Yang and Jaune argue against it while Ren vouches for Atlas, saying how this may be the only chance they have at beating Salem, proposing to Winter to go ahead into the whale to scout it. This leads to the argument about replacing Oscar which pisses Ren something fierce as he finally drops the Pyrrha bomb on their ass.

“You say that like we haven’t lost a team mate before!” Boom. In a flash of light, Ren could see clearly. While muted colors were around him, he can see the petals around everyone. Jaune has blue petals, Yang has red petals, and Harriet has burning crimson petals. He could hear what each petal represents. He hears crying when he sees blue, he hears screaming when he sees red, when looking at Winter, he hears a bunch of different things as he sees multi-colored petals.

He sees that most of the Ace Ops don’t have a consistent feeling. Not even Vine and Elm, who he can’t help but see himself and Nora in their places. Then he looks to his own petals. Pure white as he hears exhaling: calmness. He’s reached a zen state, making peace with what he had felt in Volume 7: A desire to stop Salem and prevent what happened to him and Nora from happening to other people.

Hopefully that gives a slightly better explanation at what his Semblance does without directly telling the audience. However, he doesn’t use this to basically read the script and tell the audience what people feel because, reading the dialogue, it just feels forced. “You’re going to be a good guy because I have magic petal seeing powers!” Instead, he plays therapist.

“I understand why you think people are replaceable. I guess it comes with the territory of being in the army.” “If you can’t even gauge what your partner is feeling, you can’t work as a full team.” “What did you hope to accomplish when you joined the Ace Ops?” “Who are you trying to prove yourself to?”

I feel like that’s a lot more in character for Ren. As for Winter, she doesn’t go “I outrank you” but rather appeals to Harriet’s blood thirsty nature by saying that they’re basically sentencing them to a trial by Grimm, even tricking Harriet into agreeing that, should they survive and free Oscar, that they’d be let go, kinda playing into how she’s the Hare.

Back at the manor, Weiss gets ready to accompany Ruby. Willow approaches her and they have a small chat about what to do now that Jacques is arrested. Willow brings up that Jacques was promptly fired from the SDC due to his treason and, as a result, his previous rulings are called into question, including stripping Weiss of her title. She lowkey implies that Weiss should return and become the proper heiress to the SDC once more, even resisting the lure of the bottle to prove that they can make it right.

Weiss, however, looks to Ruby and Blake getting ready, then says to her “thanks, but… I think I’d rather be a team player than a team leader.” The two have a small, proper mother-daughter bond before BOOM!

It’s Penny, and she says that she’s sorry.

And that’ll wrap up this half of the rewrite. There are a lot of unaltered or even minor altered stuff, I know, but the front half of Volume 8 was alright to say the least. I think the back half of Volume 8 will be where major changes for this rewrite will happen. So, tune in for part 2.

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 4 Review/Remix

A pretty good episode this time, and only 30% pain and despair so things are looking up! But when it goes mean it goes real strong with the mean. Lots to think about here, and boy oh boy do I wonder what we’ll see next week!

For a nice touch of levity, we open on Robyn telling a funny story about a time Joanna lost a fight to try and pass the time. Maybe she’s trying to cheer Qrow up too, but as someone who gets very bored at work pretty often I get the appeal of talking just to keep sane. She sees Qrow is too lost in his brooding about Clover’s pin to listen to the story, and Jacques is too busy fussing over a fly buzzing around his head (the Pence jokes write themselves). Tough crowd indeed, though her joke about Ironwood needing to pay for cell block entertainment does get a smile and a chuckle from the sad old bird. She takes this chance to apologize, possibly again and we’re just seeing this conversation now, for what happened with Clover. Many would argue it is really her fault for getting trigger happy back in the airship when Qrow was the one under arrest, but that’s an argument not worth having because the blame soup was being stirred by way too many cooks to make a clear verdict. Qrow, however, blames himself for deciding to team up with Tyrian, which was certainly a bad move. It was a heat of the moment thing, and he makes it clear he really would have preferred working with Clover to re-detain Tyrian again, but Clover just wouldn’t let up on his arrest orders. The real pain though, he admits, is that he had really started to let his guard down around this guy and thought her could actually make a partnership work again without his Semblance tossing 1,000 monkey wrenches into the mix. Feels like a fairy tale dream, vanishing like a rose petal on the wind, like every other friend. I of course added the part about rose petals, because you know he meant Summer and the unity of STRQ she probably represents in his mind. Robyn knows a thing or two about having a Semblance that impairs your relationships. Not many people like being around someone they can’t keep anything private from, and she can call out and mistruthing with a touch of the hand. Qrow has to admit he hadn’t considered someone else having that kind of personal trouble like he does, but their conversation is ended by Harriet coming in to toss Watts back in his cell. She’s pissy at Qrow and says he shouldn’t have Clover’s pin, but he retorts he has no reason not to have it since he’s not Clover’s killer. She still has a hard time believing that since Harbinger was the murder weapon, but Robyn finally raises a very good point. Miss Hill is a literal walking polygraph and all they would need to do to prove Qrow’s innocence is let her out of her cell and take her hand. But they won’t do that because they don’t want to prove what’s really true here, they want to cling to a convenient story so they don’t have to admit what really happened. Cuz if they put those glasses back on and face the facts, that means reevaluating what side their on if Clover died because he refused to help detain a serial killer before arresting a former colleague and that’s the real problem. Hare had already threatened that if she was gonna open the cell she wouldn’t use her hands for a friendly shake, and the dig at her allegiances and her ignorance towards Ironwood’s sins almost riles her up to the point of taking Robyn’s bait. But Marrow calls her back down to sensibility and she leaves in a huff. Robyn lays back and sighs at how there was almost something exciting happening.

Cutting to an actually exciting scene, Yang Jaune and Ren are outside the city chasing the Hound through a mountainous canyon on their bikes. It can fly while they have to navigate the rocks, and their bikes aren’t handling the cold terribly well. Yang laments that none of them can fly, but that inspires Jaune to pull out his shield and get closer to Ren. He’s gonna get his teammate up there, and Ren immediately understands how. Leaping off his bike and onto Jaune’s shield, he’s launched through the air by the burst of Gravity Dust in the crest and uses his grapple line blade to wrap around the Hound’s leg... and get dragged through the air like Curious George at the end of a bunch of balloons. Still, he’s weighing it down some and can climb up the line to get in close... when he’s not getting swung around against the cliffside. To further slow it down, he shoots his other line around a big rock that gets dragged behind them for about 5 seconds before the Hound flies higher up and the line comes loose. Ren gets knocked around even more while Yang finds an inclined path that gives her enough height to start shooting at the Grimm. It handles this fairly well, by dropping Oscar from its mouth into its hands and flying ahead of her with a loud roar. Apparently one of its Grimm for all Seasons abilities is to call for backup, because dozens of Centinels suddenly burrow up out of the rocks and ground around them and several Teryx swoop in above. Navigating becomes that much more difficult for the blondes, especially when one Centinel spits acid and hits the thruster of Jaune’s bike. He thinks fast and leaps off his bike to launch off another Grimm in front of him and flip onto a rocky overpass where he almost loses his balance and falls back down. Luckily Yang instead zooms by and pulls him onto her bike where they continue their pursuit. She does a great job of bobbing and weaving around the insects, but a Teryx lands in their path. Jaune tosses his shield grenade in front of a large rock and they drive onto it to tilt it into a ramp, launching over the avian foe into a spin between two more big bugs. They bump on a rock, but the Grimm cannot touch them with Yang’s driving. Unfortunately, they have a far more dangerous problem: They’re heading towards the edge of a massive cliff. Yang tries to make a quick turn but instead flips the bike over and launches both of them off to go tumbling off the precipice. Jaune tries to plant his sword in the ground as an anchor, but he doesn’t keep hold of it with their momentum and they both fall with a very believable scream. Big props to Miles and Barbara for this and the dramatic performances soon to come. Ren comes swooping in for a massive save and grapples Jaune’s sword with one weapon and the poor guy’s leg with the other. Jaune grabbed Yang by the hand so she’s fine too, but an incoming Teryx might soon negate it all. Luckily, Ren instead negates all their emotions with his Semblance and the Teryx passes them by. Less lucky, Ren being here means he’s not hanging from the Hound. He let it get away with Oscar to save his friends, and you know he’s kicking himself for it.

Shifting scenes from that tense gloom, we see Weiss decided the safest place to take Nora for the time being is her own damn mansion. Whitley answers the door and is about to try and berate Weiss for this but she is having none of it. She holds him at swordpoint and insists that they are coming inside. Whitley is very against the idea of harboring fugitives after the hit the Schnee family’s reputation has taken in the wake of its patriarch’s arrest for war crimes, and Blake is quite frustrated that this is what he chooses to complain about. The staff is all gone, Willow has retreated to her room and assumable to the bottle, you gotta admit Whitley probably feels more alone now than ever and is... coping in less than ideal ways. Weiss still seemingly carries a chip on her shoulder of wanting to prove that she is doing something actually important and she made the right move by leaving home to be a Huntress, so she insists that Whitley has no right to nag them because they are saving the Kingdom here. At least, that’s what my 2 semesters of psychology classes would tell me. Ruby plays intermediary between the Schneeblings and lays down their very minimal terms. Let them stay here a little while so Nora can rest and recover, and then they will leave him to his sulking and riches. Whitley begrudgingly accepts and asks what he has to do, and Weiss seems to relish this chance to tell him to go to his room. Finally flexing her big sister authority without Papa around to veto her in favor of his adoring son. But like Willow said last Volume, Whitley has been stuck in this house just like Weiss and Winter, and they could certainly try to treat him with a bit more fairness and sympathy. I’m sure it hurt him a little inside to have yet another authority figure bossing him around without a care for his desires. Still, he’s not giving much reason to make us sympathize so I say wait a little bit to see if he’s got any softer moments to come. Weiss directs May on where to carry Nora, and Blake checks on Ruby while they have this quieter moment. Possibly because she wants the chance to talk to her too, Blake suggests Ruby should try calling Yang to make sure things are okay, both between the sisters and in general. But that’s just it. She did it 35 minutes ago. Okay not really, but I wanted to toss a Watchmen joke in. Still, as much as Ruby worries how that half of the team is doing, she’s already trying to call them and it’s not going through.

We fade back to our three battered teens as Yang collects what scattered pieces she can from her bike, the only one they still have. But like I said, it crashed into a rock after they tumbled off and it’s in no condition to run anymore. So Jaune is trying to call for help and transport back to Mantle, but either Ironwood shut down all communication in the lower districts or they’re just so far out in the tundra that a signal just won’t reach. The latter would make sense, and explain why Ruby couldn’t reach Yang. Giving up on the call, the three instead trudge through the snow in the light of the setting sun back more or less the way they came. Jaune is dragging the bike along while Ren leads the way to an outpost he saw while getting dragged by the Hound. Yang notes how low their auras have been drained due to protecting them from the cold this long, and like a kid on a car trip asks how much longer it will be. Ren has no immediate answer so she asks again and he gives a snippy “I don’t know”. She can tell there’s something more bugging him and tries to coax it out of him after sensing the hostility in his explanation that he only got a glimpse of their intended destination before he had to abandon Oscar in favor of saving them. He refuses to discuss his deeper feelings because he thinks it’ll just waste time. This riles Yang up and she demands to know what his deal is, to which he insists she not worry about it. The argument keeps escalating from there. Things aren’t going smoothly enough for Ren? No, they’re not going smoothly at all, but boohoo Ren, that’s part of the job as a Huntsman. He doesn’t think it’s a job they should have at all, they weren’t ready for it or to make the incredibly damming decisions they’ve had to since taking that position. Sure, they had a few lucky breaks and near miss successes, but then they entered this losing streak that they can’t seem to recover from because the losses are too drastic and every choice they’ve made has been the wrong one. Yang refuses to accept such pessimism and insists that even if they haven’t done everything perfectly they still had to do something because inaction would have made things worse. But how could they be worse than they are now, Ren demands to know as they freeze to death out here. Salem has the Lamp and Oscar, and they have nothing but the cold winds. They may not have an army but they have the Maiden, Yang tries to counter, but because they haven’t let her to open the vault for Ironwood all of Atlas is just a buffet waiting to be chowed down on and it will all be their fault when that happens. Yang rightfully asks him if he seriously thinks letting Ironwood try and float Atlas away to safety will work out for him or for the people of Mantle he’s abandoning, but he argues that they shouldn’t even be the ones asked to make that call. He’s trying to spit the hard truths no one else wanted to face, but this is way too harsh and mean, especially for Ren. What are these hard truths, you ask? That Ruby is still too young to be a leader, that he himself is an orphan from a town that doesn’t exist anymore (which I guess shows how unimportant he is for someone thrust into this decision making role), and that Jaune, who by the way has been trying in vain to get the two to cut the shit and quiet down this whole time, cheated his way into Beacon. A damn low blow there, bro. Bringing back the deep wound from Volume 1. And you can tell he regrets it immediately, but to say that would mean backing down from his point. Jaune doesn’t even address the personal callout and just says alright, you don’t think we should have the job, good for you. I’m still gonna keep walking and get out of the cold because like it or not we were given a goddamn job to do. Maybe not in those words, but the meaning was there. Ren and Yang silently let him take the lead, probably feeling the hot wash of shame distracting them from the arctic chill. Yang still takes one last dig at Ren though by asking if it’s his goal to push everyone away, implying he’s being an asshole and not even Nora is sticking by him. Well... in so many words anyway.

We get another change of scenery with a dramatic violin stroke like something out of a murder mystery movie. Oscar is regaining consciousness, and he hears Ozpin try to reassure him to stay calm and that it’s gonna be okay. When he looks up, however, he sees Salem leaning in a shadowy doorframe staring at a smoky apparition in her hand and welcoming back her long lost Ozma. Judging by the childlike laughter and general shape of her smoke display, I think she was manifesting a memory of her and Oz’s dead daughters to try and reminisce about the days when they were still lovers. Oscar realizes he’s being held in the air from the Hound’s mouth and tries to struggle free as Salem notes how young and weak this new vessel is. She’s not even acknowledging Oscar, just talking through him to Ozma. It’s been what may have truly been centuries or even a millennium since they’ve last met, and dear Oz has nothing to say to his wife? Oscar does his best Ozpin impression to try and fake it till he makes it, but Salem knows her man better than anyone and sees through it to grab him by the face and call his bluff. But he really is still a separate person from Oz, so maybe he can be more cooperative to her requests than that old wizard. She still wants to know where the Relic of Choice is, since Oz clearly must have used an extra layer of deception to hide it opposed to the others, and she wants Oscar to reveal the trick. But that’s not a memory he has access to, and he tells her plainly that he doesn’t know. She believes him, knows Oz would hold that one close to the chest longest of all, so she asks an easier question. How does she go about asking the Lamp questions? She gets the standard coverup answer, the Lamp is out of questions so it’s futile to even try, but she refuses to believe that one. Instead she blasts the poor kid with an evil magic rainbow laser and lets him scream himself hoarse for a bit. His chest has scorch marks, or at least his clothes do, and he fearfully tries to pull away from her “loving” touch. Lying so easily about these things, he truly was reincarnated into a like-minded soul... but sooner or later one of the two in this battered body will break and Salem will learn what she wishes to know. He tries to insist he won’t tell her anything, but that’s why she has backup. Hazel comes in to literally gut punch this 14 year old until he coughs up his guts or the truth, whichever comes first. And he justifies it all by saying this is revenge for his defeat at Haven and from the still unforgiven death of his sister.

Salem doesn’t stay to watch the savage beating, instead walking the halls of Monstra with her lovely new pet. Cinder has been waiting in this hallway for a chance to speak with her Mistress, but is distracted by her immediate discomfort in the face of the Hound. Salem claims it is an experiment that she is quite happy with the results of thus far, and wants Cinder to get on with whatever point she had so she can get out of the way. Cinder wants to search for Penny, she thinks she can make up for the past blunder and claim the Winter powers for herself. But Salem just laughs at this. “She thinks, she wants!” It’s like hearing a cockroach tell you about its hopes and dreams. Mommy Salami does not give a fuck what Cinder wants to do, she has done nothing to earn Salem caring about that. Cinder, to her credit, does not take this dismissal lying down and tries to argue that they are doing nothing to further their plans when Cinder could be achieving a great victory for her Mistress by securing their way into the Atlas vault. Salem does not slow her pace, and says when it is time to act she will tell Miss Fall what she needs her to do. Cinder tries to argue, and is met by the snarling maw of the Hound turning on its heels to send her shrinking back. Salem has been pretty damn patient with this bratty girl, but she will not repeat herself again. You are not going the the ball, Cinderella, you are staying here and doing what your godmother tells you to because if you don’t you will learn just how easily you can be replaced and forgotten. Cinder gives up her case and assumes the position of submission, which is to say taking a knee and repeating her self-depreciating mantra that without Salem she is nothing. This satisfies Salem and she walks away with her dog in tow, leaving Neo to glare at Cinder as if wondering who is really the domesticated little pet in this place. 

Cut to Cinder immediately rebelling against her given orders and heading for the airship insisting she just wants to go check on something and then they’ll come right back before anyone knows they left. Neo just floats along behind her because like hell she’s staying in the Satan whale when it’s this bitch’s fault she’s here at all. We get the last unseen shot from the trailer as Cinder looks out over Atlas and rationalizes that Salem doesn’t know Team RWBY like she does, she wouldn’t understand how determined they would be to try and save the world, and so it falls to her to check out Amity Colosseum again and see if they’re up to something. Neo seems annoyed and disinterested at Cinder’s petty little scheme, but they’re both caught off guard by Emerald arriving behind them and offering to tag along to help. She’s been getting better with her Semblance and asserts that she would be very useful. Poor misguided lass, searching so desperately for acknowledgement and praise you’re never gonna get... Cinder seems pissed that she was eavesdropping, but she’s not gonna turn down the assist. Time for an evil girls’ night out~

Back on the ground, night has fallen as JRY have found the outpost at last. Jaune hits a heater to get it running and prevent their freezing to death as Ren broods out the window and Yang is outside working on her bike. The leader takes this time to address the tension with his teammate. Yes, he did make a bad decision and cheat his way into the Academy. But when he found himself in that bad situation he realized he needed help and he asked for it. He turned his situation around and got better, became the strong person he is now. Holding onto this ideal that being strong means doing everything on your own? That was literally the issue Jaune faced in his mini character arc back in Volume 1, and he came out of it humbled and ready to accept support from his team. From Pyrrha. But she’s not here anymore, and Jaune is. Nora is, team RWBY is here for Ren. So Ren needs to understand that he can let them in, because the more he hides from how he feels the worse it’s gonna feel and hurt him inside. Ren goes outside to sulk under a streetlight, but Yang has come inside now to say that she’s found the part she needs to fix the bike so with a little more tinkering they can get it working and ride back into the city once they’ve got some R&R. Yang does take the time to say she’s sorry Ren said what he did because of her argument with him, but Jaune dismisses it for the time being as all three of them being under a hellish amount of stress. He’s been where Ren was before, he knows how much it hurts. Yang turns back to the tool bench to work on the thruster, but she’s got some inner turmoil of her own to vent about. She wants to know if Jaune thinks “She” thinks less of Yang for making the choice she did and staying to help Mantle instead of going to help fix Amity. Playing the pronoun game like this can be tricky, and Jaune fairly assumes she means Ruby since the two of them did have the verbal disagreement before splitting off, and Yang did question her leader’s decision making and leadership. He assures Yang that her sister will always love and believe in her even if they have squabbles like this. But it would seem Vomit Boy lost the pronoun game, and Yang was not actually asking about Ruby. Judging by the purple cannister she’s wrenching into the battered thruster, she was asking if Blake would think less of her because of these recent actions. 

A lot of people seem rather torn about this choice in priorities for Yang, but allow me to explain why I think it’s not that bad of a writing decision. If there is one thing that has been consistent in this Volume it has been the confidence of other characters that Yang and Ruby will endure this clash of ideals and remain loving sisters. Usually these sentiments have been given by characters who are siblings themselves and know the strength of that bond, like Weiss and now Jaune. We’ve never actually heard either sister personally express any anguish or regrets over that argument, but we can assume they’re both still a little sour about it. But they have been there for each other to a depth that few siblings have, as evident by Yang’s story in Volume 2 about how she had to step up in raising Ruby in a lot of ways after Tai went into grieving for Summer. They’ve been each other’s best friend and closest confidant for so long, I truly believe their bond is clad in iron and they know it too. Meanwhile, a lot of Yang’s recovery arc in Volumes 4 and 5 was dealing with being abandoned by Blake in a time of need and it continued into 6 as learning to accept her back into her life and find a way to make their partnership work again. Shipping or not, they do have a strong bond that has been renewed by dealing with their combined trauma and killing Adam. And when that happened they both promised they would stick together and back each other up, but now Yang has been the one to decide she wants to split paths and do something else. She has good reason to worry this might have upset Blake, and we the audience know Blake is worried about how she’s doing. So, when faced with a color that reminds her of her partner, it makes some sense that Yang would try and get an outside perspective of if she’s fractured their bond. And if you ship them, that more magnifies the interpersonal concerns than really changes the problems.

Regardless, Jaune realizes this is a problem he’s not quite equipped to deal with and decides he’s going to get some rest in one of the beds in the outpost. He gets the strong feeling he’s gonna need it cuz it feels like things will only get worse before they get any better. As we pan out past Ren, whom Yang promises she won’t let brood himself to death out in the snow, we see cracks start to form out on the ice. That can only bode poorly for these poor kids. Many folks think this is a frozen over lake with some scary aquatic Grimm waiting in the depths like a megalodon Grimm shark or the sulfur fish Grimm that apparently were the winners of a fan design contest this past year. Personally, I’m taking a note from the opening and saying it might be a cloister of Apathy since their gross grabby hands wrapped around Team RWBY when they fell through the ice at the end of the intro. But we will have to wait and see. Thanks for reading, hope to see you and your notes soon!~

Edit: this came out a week late and we did indeed see what it really was. Boy were we not ready for the truth...

[calliecat93]

The time has come at last everyone. After a very rough year and a very tense end to Volume 7, Volume 8 has arrived. I have no idea what to expect this time around except that it’s going to be all out war. I’m scared. You’re scared. We’re all scared. But this is still RWBY, so it can’t get too dark and depressing... can it? Well only one way to find out. I’ve done my post for the opening, but now it’s time to get to the meat. So for the first time this volume, let us begin by reviewing Chapter 1, appropriately titled ‘Divide’.

Overview

We begin with an image of a young woman. A woman who seems to be down on her luck, wearing tattered clothes and scrubbing at the floor by hand. It then cuts to Cinder, clawing at Neo’s chair in the same manor as she directs Neo towards the Whale Grimm. The two enter, revealing the Whale to essentially be a large battleship and waiting in her throne is Salem. Cinder presents the Relic of Knowledge, though she claims the credit for herself which does not amuse Neo. Tyrian is also there, who mocks her for getting outwitted by a bunch of kids to begin with. Salem asks about Neo, who Cinder merely calls a ‘useful asset’.

Emerald, Mercury, and Hazel are also there and with some new duds! Emerald is elated to see Cinder alive, but the Fall Maiden simply silences her. When Tyrian again mocks her for spending her time fixing past mistakes, Cinder is determined to track down Penny and get the Winter Maiden powers. Salem, however, makes it clear that she is not to do s. After all while Cinder is no pawn, she is NOT a player. She is playing Salem’s game, not her own. Cinder concedes, saying that without Salem, she is nothing.

We cut to the slums, where Oscar has taken refuse. But he isn’t alone for long as he is picked up by Ruby, Weiss, and Maria. Oscar feels guilty for trying to talk to Ironwood and how he made all the wrong choices, but Ruby comforts him, saying that all tried to do what was best. The heroes have taken refuge wit the Happy Huntresses, who are running their own operations from within an abandoned bar. The others are relieved that Oscar is okay, but they sadly still don’t know about Qrow. When asked how he got to the slums, Oscar simply says it was a long story, opting to not reveal Ozpin’s return until he has finished talking to him.

Joanna goes to the group, now fully expecting them to work to help Mantle. The plan? Due to the Grimm numbers and the heat being gone, the plan is to take the refuges into the crater below Atlas. It’s dangerous, but it is warm and will allow a singular location where everyone can be watched over safely. Weiss makes a remark about not ever being able to sleep again, a clear humorous quip, but Joanna makes it clear that it’s either work, or be branded as baggage. Yang agrees, saying that they need to help with Mantle. Ruby, however, argues that they need to warn the other kingdoms. Pietro confirms that while not finished, Amity did have significant process made to it. However it needs the green-light from a terminal and aside from the one in Ironwood’s office, the only other one is in the military compound.

Yang, seeing Amity as a lost cause and that not being guaranteed to get help, sticks to her plan. Ruby argues however that Salem is going to attack the other kingdoms once she’s done with Atlas and thus, all fo Remnant is in danger. At this point, Yang addresses that despite following her lead at the start, she feels that Ruby’s lead has... well, gone badly. In other words, she feels that Ruby has failed in her duty. Ruby is clearly hurt by this and Yang starts to explain further, but Ren interrupts, saying that helping Mantle is something that they can do now. Nora however sides with Ruby regarding the larger picture.

With the tension up, Jaune steps in. He suggests that they can simply divide up and do both. Yang and her group assist Mantle, Ruby and her group go and get Amity. Ruby disagrees as this is causing the divide that Salem wants, but Oscar says that working separately doesn’t mean that they are against each other. Penny, who has been quiet and to herself to this point, suggests that she simply give Salem the Relic. But no one believes that Salem will keep her word about backing down and all agree against this.

Thus, the heroes split up. Ruby has Weiss and Blake of course, but to Jaune and Ren’s surprise, Nora decides to also go with them. Penny also goes despite the risk to help the group bypass security. Yang agrees to it, but she makes to leave to do, as she says, what she can. A comment that clearly strikes Blake. Before she goes though, Pietro gives her the keys to the pharmacy so that they can get some of the equipment he had been developing for them. Thus we have Yang, Jaune, Ren, and Oscar in Mantle, while Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Penny, and Nora plan to get up to Atlas.

Ruby is still upset by the split up, but Blake tries to assure her that they are still united. Maria can bring bring Pietro to Amity once it’s retrieved and Weiss has an idea on how they can get to the kingdom. Before she can reveal it however, Penny’s scroll goes off. It’s Ironwood. he asks Penny to come back, claiming that he’s worried for her safety and he needs her for Atlas’ sake. Ruby takes the Scroll, refusing any cooperation unless Ironwood changes his mind and helps Mantle. Ironwood blasts at her for still caring about Mantle when Salem is outside Atlas’ doorstep and a threat to all of Remnant. Whatever happens, he says it will be on Ruby’s hands. Ruby hugs a clearly shaken Penny, but her expression conveys that the general’s words hurt her as well.

Back in Atlas, the remaining Ace-Ops are in a room with Clover’s corpse. Ironwood is watching form another as Winter is receiving treatment for her injuries. She’s given what looks like cybernetic armor pieces, and Ironwood himself has replaced his singed arm with a new cybernetic. He is informed of the prisoners being interrogated and thanks Winter for all she did, but is still tense due to the Grimm horde. When Winter asks what he’s going to do, Councilman Sleet and Councilwoman Camilla enter, demanding to know what Ironwood is doing with his recent actions. Ironwood says that he’s going to do what he has to... no matter the cost. As such, eh steps out and coldly shoots Sleet to death, horrifying not only Camilla, but the Ace-Ops and Winter. Harriet steps out and looks at Winter, but despite their shock, both more or less resign to the fact of this being necessary.

Back at the Whale, Salem has some kind of pod that she opens up. She has questions for the Relic, but first she needs the one who can reveal to her how it works. She holds the Lamp before some kind of slobbering, eyeless Grimm. Her orders? For it to find and bring Ozpin to her, bringing the first chapter of the volume to a close.

Review

Holy crap people... I was expecting tension, but.... damn guys...

Okay, we’ll start with the villains. So... that first scene, huh? Well after years of waiting for it, it looks like we may finally be getting some Cinder focus/backstory. We’ve been waiting a long time, huh? Her scene here really shows a lot. Cinder downplays Neo’s contributions, taking the credit for herself. She cruelly tells Emerald to be quiet, despite having not seen the girl in who knows how long. She still wants the Maiden powers, despite how she has continuously failed not counting the Fall Maiden. The usual smugness and power-hunger that we expect from Cinder is in full force here.

Yet we also have Salem’s words to her. Salem makes it clear that Cinder is a mere chess piece. Which isn’t what Cinder wants. She wants to the the chessmaster. She wants to do what she wants. She is constantly baffled by Salem’s choices. Yet, she continues to submit to the wicked witch. Considering she’s evil Cinderella, it really speaks a lot about Cinder’s mindset. She wants power. She wants control. But she continues to obey someone else in hopes that it gets her what she wants. These two mindsets can’t co-exist forever. I’m not convinced at all of Cinder being redeemed, she’s done far too many cruel things imo. But I do think that by this end of this volume, she’s going to decide what she wants for herself, and whatever it is the path to it likely won’t be pretty especially with how Neo is clearly getting fed up.

So now let’s do Oscar. I... do not like how they did him reuniting with the group. It’s another ‘Oscar is in trouble... oops! No he isn’t!’ psyche out and it’s getting real old. Especially since there’s zero build-up to it. Ruby and the others just... find him. Maybe he called them? I don’t know, there’s no clear indication. But after how dramatic the end of Volume 7 was, having him just reunite with the gang again feels very anti-climactic. I can only assume that they realized that with so much going on, they needed to get it out of the way and do it early, especially with him begin Salem’s target. But I don’t think it was handled the best it could have been.

But we do have Oscar deciding to keep Open’s return a secret. The reason being that he hasn’t finished talking to him yet. Yeah, Oscar’s clearly not 100% okay with what happened prior and wants everything set straight first before he reveals anything. But at the same time... this is Oscar keeping a secret back form the others. And secret keeping is not only what got everyone angry at Oz, but contributed to the current situation. It just... doesn’t come off as the best move to make in this situation. Then again, we don’t know if the heroes are in a forgiving mood, so... it’s hard for me to not understand his reasonings, at least. But it’s gonna have to come out sooner or later, especially since Oscar is short on time.

Then we have the conflict between the heroes. The theme of the volume seems to be division, at least so far. We have Ren and Nora still in conflict. Ren wants to be able to help now, Nora wants to save everyone in Mantle. Volume 7 set it up, and it seems that this one is going to push it even mroe. But then we have Ruby and Yang. While they don’t start yelling, ti is very clear that they are at odds. Same deal, Yang wants to do what can be done now as mantle is in danger. Ruby is concerned about Remnant and the lives of the world and wants to warn the kingdoms. Bit then we have Yang bringing up how things have gone downhill under Ruby’s lead. To be fair, she seems guilty for it and she does try to further explain before Ren interrupts her. But, in essence, it is her saying that she doesn’t trust Ruby’s lead. After putting her faith in her sister fully in V5, the recent events has Yang doubtful.

Not gonna lie... I have been wanting this for a long time. V7 had a lot of hints that Yang in particular was not on the same page as Ruby. She was the one who questioned her lying to Ironwood. It was her who proposed the plan to Blake about revealing Amity to Robyn, also expressing her doubts about Ruby’s choices there. But despite it, she still followed her. But now, with Ironwood’s descent, Yang’s faith is shaken. IDT it’s gone, but it is rocky. I’ve been critical of Yang and have had issues with her decisions, the Amity reveal to Robyn especially. However... I can’t fault her either. She has the right intentions, and her logic about Mantle isn’t wrong. There are people in danger right now. They have the ability to help those people. Saving the lives in immediate danger is important and is their job as Huntresses. I don’t blame Yang at all in her decision and her sticking to it despite Ruby disagreeing.

But I don’t think that Ruby is wrong either. She is right about how Salem will go against the rest of the world as soon as Atlas has fallen. Countless lives are in danger on a global scale. Vacuo, Mistral, Vale, Menagerie, Patch, every character that we have ever known will be at risk unless they are warned. Amity is the best ticket to doing so. Ruby’s drive has always been to save everyone. The Happy Huntresses have the situation under control, so why not focus on the larger picture? It’s the most stressed I think we’ve ever seen Ruby and it’s certainly the first time we’ve seen her upset at Yang like this.  There’s just... no good options really. Either way, someone suffers. War is Hell.

There’s also the fact that as the leader, whether it was directly her fault or not, the heroes failure does rest on her shoulders. She is the leader, that is her burden. it is the burden that she accepted. She was the one who made the call to hide Salem’s immortality to Ironwood. It was her who alerted everyone about the martial law, officially marking the heroes as enemies of Atlas. Now is it her fault? Not fully. Ironwood’s choices are not her fault, but one can argue that had she just told Ironwood the truth upfront, it may not have happened. Ironwood guilts her over this, claiming that whatever happens will be her fault. Now we all know that's bullshit and Ironwood is even more to blame... but the question is if Ruby knows that. Judging her expressions... I’m thinking it’s gonna haunt her.

Then we have Penny. Oh gosh Penny. The poor girl just seems so utterly broken. She’s quiet, to herself, and whenever she does talk it’s in a pained whisper. The girl got framed for murder, and then watched an old woman die and be given her powers. She clearly is at a loss of what to do. She’s ready to sacrifice herself to Salem to save everyone, that is how much n despair this girl is. Then we have Ironwood try88ing to manipulate her into returning to his side. He needs her for Atlas’ safety. he’s concerned for her. It’s all lies, but Penny is concerned about Atlas. She doesn’t want to fight like this. She’s conflicted onw hat to do with this divide. The poor girl just... needs a hug. A lot of them.

Then we have Ironwood. Oh God... Ironwood. I know that he had snapped, but for him to shoot Sleet like he did? With no emotion. In just one motion, he killed a man dead. Someone whose only crime was wanting answers for Ironwood’s actions. The council is in no position of power, they were no threat. Ironwood did it simply because he doesn’t want to deal with them anymore as he said at the end of V7. He’s going to do whatever he deems appropriate to protect Atlas. When all he’s doing is letting fear control him and further seal Atlas’ fate as dead. Like I said in the V7 reviews, Ironwood is at his point of no return. So far, he’s only cementing that position further. His fall was tragic, but now all that remains is a heartless soldier.

We also see the aftermath of Clover’s death and Winter’s injuries. It’s not much, but it tells us a lot. The Ace-Ops leader is dead. No one is happy about it, but especially not Marrow and Harriet. Marrow by far expresses the most sadness in his expression. God I am still hoping that he comes ot his senses. But then there’s Harriet. She is angry. She briefly growls even. She already feels betrayed by RWBY, now in her mind her leader was killed by Qrow. It’s only going to add fuel to the fire with her wanting to take them down. Then we have Winter. She’s in bad shape. She seems to be benched for now, but IDK if that’s gonna last. But to say I’m worried is an understatement. Especially with her noticeable horror at Ironwood killing Sleet. She internalizes it as she has been, but can she continue to do so as Ironwood continues to descent into madness? I’m really hoping not...

Finally, the end scene. So yeah... Salem is targeting Oscar. So it looks like Salem knows what the Relics can do, but she doesn’t know how to make them work. Makes sense, only Ozpin knew. Remember, Oscar found out through the mind-link and told the heroes. Plus of course Salem would want Oscar. After all, she hasn’t seen her former husband in quiet a long time, has she? And we know fully well that she’s going to rub his demise in his face. Oscar is not in for a fun time this volume... then again, is anyone?

There’s a clear seriousness here. Moreso than any volume. Weiss’ quit about sleeping is very quickly shot down. The stakes are at the highest they’ve ever been. It is outright war now. The heroes are on their own. Mantle is in a desperate situation. Ironwood is barley holding out against Salem’s invasion. People who should be allies are divided to the point of no return. While we know from some sneak peaks that the volume won’t be devoid of humor/levity, it’s clearly not going to be the light-hearted fun that we’ve had in the past. Not even Ruby and Penny, two of the most pure-hearted characters in the show, display any of those usual traits. This might as well be the equivalent of Order of the Phoenix, where the kids can only rely on themselves and where everting has gone to Hell. That ended on a bittersweet note and only got darker from there. RWBY works in a  similar ‘grow up with the audience’ approach as Harry Potter, so... yeah... prepare yourselves folks. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

Chapter Two Predictions

I think we’ll be checking in on Qrow and Robyn. Thus we’ll be seeing the interrogations go down (which we saw footage of in the trailer). We’ll also likely see Jaques and Watts. IDK i Ironwood will go to Qrow directly or any of the other Ace-Ops, but it won’t be pretty. Qrow is likely still feeling guilty for what happened, but I absolutely believe that if Ironwood confronts him, he’s going to give him the verbal lashing that he deserves. I’m not when they'll plot a prison break, but I assume it’ll happen sooner or later.

As for the heroes... it’s hard to say. My guess is we’ll be following mainly Team JYRO as they get the equipment from Pietro’s lab. So we might see that clip they showed at SDCC as well as the secret clip of them leading civilians tot he crater from a few weeks back. Which would also mean first fight scene of the volume, yay! We might see RWBNP as well, but I’m not sure. Maybe some villain stuff as well, like maybe we’ll get more hints about Cinder or something minor. Either way, the tension I think will continue forward.

Chapter Stats

Favorite Character: Cinder Fall Favorite Moment: The opening villain scene Least Favorite Moment: Oscar retrieval due to the anti-climax after V7 Favorite Voice Actor: Jen Taylor (Salem) Favorite Animation: The Blind Grimm Rating: 9/10

Final Thoughts

This was an excellent volume opener. The stakes are established right off the bat, along with the tension and character conflicts. This was so good that I didn’t even realize that there wasn’t a fight scene, the first time since Volume 5. Which honestly, we didn’t need one. They had more than enough to kick this volume off. This promises to be a very dark, very intense volume. I am terrified for whatever is coming, but like Hell am I missing it. An excellent start~!

[jadekitty777]

Love is Bold/Snow Day

Okay, today’s order of business? Posting up all my entries from the Shipwreckedfanzine (Read it here!)

I’m doing two in one for this post - my two Fair Game entries!

First up, the poem I wrote for front matter. I’m only going to enclose a link to Ao3 for this one, because tumblr doesn’t allow me to format it the way I want (and it looks really nice formatted properly).

Ao3 Link: Love Is Bold

Word Count: 156

Summary: A tragic love poem between a Bird and a Clover. [Hint: There's a gimmick to it, can you figure it out?]

~

Second up, is my fanfiction entry! I’m super proud of this one, so I hope you all enjoy it too!

Rating: K

Pairing: Qrow/Clover

Word Count: 2.1k

Ao3 Link: Snow Day

Summary:  Qrow’s having a bad day. Clover and Ruby might just have the solution to cheer him up.

☘~☘~☘~☘~☘~☘

The vials of dust jingled softly inside the case as it was set down beside the dozens and dozens of others that had made it here on the multitude of trips before it. Clover straightened up, rolling out the ache in his shoulder as he announced, “Alright, that’s the last one.”

“Finally.” Qrow’s response was distant in the hall. While he didn’t have a problem carrying some of the load into Amity Arena, he absolutely refused to go into what he called ‘an explosion waiting to happen’.

Penny clapped her hands together, looking positively thrilled. “Oh, splendid. I cannot wait to tell the general that we were 12.5% more efficient on today’s run.”

“I’m pretty sure all he needs to know is we succeeded.” Ruby offered as they all headed out of the room.

Qrow glanced at them from where he was leaning against the wall. “Nah, add it to the report. Bet Jimmy loves hearing about how his tin soldiers are becoming more efficient.”

A retort was on Clover’s tongue, but Penny beat him to it. “But I’m not made of tin. I’m made of 100% carbonite steel. See?” She hit her head, the hollow ring echoing almost eerily down Amity’s empty halls.

Clover almost couldn’t contain a laugh over the flabbergasted look on the other man’s face or the way he mumbled, “Not what I meant kid.”

He turned back to the door to set the security locks, before ushering his team on down the hall. As they stepped outside, he could see Penny’s calculations appeared correct. Usually, between the round trip, off-loading, and handling any Grimm encounters along the way, they didn’t get back until well past sunset. However, from the position of the sun, they were definitely going to be returning with some light still in the sky.

“Alright,” He turned to the team, “We’ll do a quick perimeter check before heading back. Penny, Qrow, go ahead and do an aerial sweep. Ruby and I will handle the ground.”

“Affirmative, sir!” Penny saluted before taking off, all smiles.

In contrast, Qrow just waved him off with a flippant, “Yeah, Yeah.” Before he burst into feathers and a bird took flight.

He watched him go, pursing his lips some before glancing at the smaller girl beside him. “He’s in quite a mood today, isn’t he?”

Ruby just seemed sympathetic. “Yeah, he gets like that. Dad used to call them ‘Uncle Qrow’s Grumpy Days’.”

He snorted softly. Yeah, that about covered it alright. “What do you say we do something about it?”

Mischievousness glinted in her silver eyes. “What did you have in mind?”

☘~☘~☘~☘~☘~☘

It was a fortunate thing that Ruby’s semblance was speed – as it was the only reason they were able to clear the perimeter in record time while also setting up for their ambush.

Clover had not made a snow fort since he was eight and it looked about as well-crafted as it had been back then, with uneven walls and a section on the verge of complete collapse. Meanwhile, Ruby was getting their snowball supply ready, stacking them up like firewood piles in every corner of their little fortress. Busy as they were, he almost missed the report of Penny’s rocket boots blasting through the air.

“They’re coming back!” Clover warned.

In a flurry of petals, Ruby was gone, already standing at attention in front of the truck. Clover hopped over a wall, jogging over to join her, both of them trying to take a casual stance by leaning back against the front bumper and taking on the air that they’d been waiting an excruciating amount of time. Ruby hammed it up even more when they landed, bemoaning loudly, “What took you guys so long? We finished forever ago.”

“I apologize, I will work on my speed!” Penny said with a nod.

“Don’t bother tin-can, you’ll never be up to this pipsqueak’s standards.” Qrow rolled his eyes, but it was hard to deny the absolute fondness of his tone.

“I am still not made of tin.”

“I- uh, nevermind.”

Clover pushed off the truck, cutting in, “Anything unusual to report?”

“Nothing to the east and northern sides for at least three miles.” The living android detailed.

Qrow’s was even more succinct: “Nah. We can move out.” before he slunk on by, heading for the back of the truck.

Clover shared a knowing look with Ruby. She nodded, speeding after her uncle and slowing his gait by getting in front of him. He took up the rear of their group, fingers twitching with anticipation as he waited for the moment.

“So, Uncle Qrow!” The huntress chirped, walking backwards as she spoke with him, all open smiles as if she wasn’t planning to utterly deceive him. “Yang was telling me this really good joke the other day, wanna hear it?”

“Sure kiddo, lay it on me.”

“Knock, knock!”

“Oh gods.” He groaned.

“Uncle!”

“Okay, fine. Who’s there?”

“Snowball.”

“Snowball, who?”

Hearing his cue, Clover had Kingfisher out and extended in one swift movement, throwing its line towards their fort and, with just a little bit of luck, snagged one of the snowballs on its hook. With a hard yank, the ball went up and flying through the air – and perfectly nailed Qrow right in the side of his face.

Ruby burst into laughter as she pointed at him. “Snowball you!!”

Slowly, Qrow rose a hand to his face, wiping off the flakes of ice stuck to his cheekbone and hair. Then, with a predatory deliberateness, he turned on his heels, catching each of their eyes, and declared war: “You both are going down.”

Still guffawing up a riot, Ruby sped away for their fort while Clover hooked another snowball on his weapon.

“Wait, what’s going on? Are we fighting?” Penny asked in confusion.

“I’ll explain in a second kid, we got to find cover!” Qrow grabbed her wrist, ducking under his and Ruby’s combined fire as they ran around the truck.

He took the opportunity to join Ruby in the fort, the girl already hard at work at making more ammo. He took one from the pile, placing it on the end of Kingfisher. “Watch this.” With a flick to his pendant and a swing of his arm, he lobbed the snowball up and over the truck.

A second later they heard Qrow’s angry squawk. “HEY!!”

Ruby’s eyes lit up like stars. “We’re going to destroy them.”

He just laughed, readying for the retaliation.

☘~☘~☘~☘~☘~☘

The terrain had become a battlefield.

Ruby was a whirlwind of terror, zipping around Penny at high speeds, throwing volleys of snowballs in rapid succession before hurrying away for cover.

The android didn’t take the abuse lying down though, circling her swords in a windmill pattern to collect snow piles on their ends, before shooting missiles of snow in their direction.

Clover covered his head under the icy shower, racing across the field for his own target who was loaded up on snowball ammo. With a war cry on his lips and his fishing rod swinging low, he struck, but his attack missed completely as Qrow disappeared into feathers. He squinted against the sun as the other flew up high only to nosedive down, transforming again halfway down and pelting him from above.

“Ah, what?! You keep them between transformations? That’s unfair!” He cried, protecting his face as the other landed right in the path of his escape route.

“Better luck next time!” Qrow gloated in triumph as he continued his merciless assault.

Over his makeshift shield of arms, Clover could see the bright grin on his face and fell in love with the way it made his eyes light up like gemstones. He could have stared forever – but he had a game to win.

As Qrow’s ammunition ran low, he made his move, skirting to the left and plucking one of the flying snowballs on his hook. He spun around with all the grace of an ice skater and at the end of his full rotation, struck the other huntsman in the face with it. Another swing and this time, he had his ankle caught.

With a yank, Qrow went tumbling into the snowbanks, a breathless laugh leaving him.

The noise was so unexpectedly nice, Clover forgot himself as he allowed himself a moment to just listen – and quickly became the victim of one of Penny’s snowy waterfalls.

“Penny, you’re supposed to make them into a ball!” Ruby called from the only remaining wall of their fortress that had survived thus far.

“Oh, got it! Be right back!” She said before taking off towards the tundra.

“Uhhh, okay!?” Confused but knowing an opportunity when it presented itself, Ruby’s gaze slid to the only combatant left.

So did Clover’s, smirk growing.

Qrow blinked as the gravity of the situation fell on him. “Uh oh.”

They all scrambled for the snow, but the little huntress was the fastest, pelting her uncle with a fast ball to the gut and a curveball to the leg. He tried his best to retaliate, only to wind up tangled in Kingfisher’s line as Clover dragged him forward and cruelly shoved a handful of ice down the back of his shirt, drinking in his angry screeches. Then Ruby was there again, piling even more snow on his tattered cape and throwing it up over his head like a reverse poncho.

“Okay, that’s it!” The fishing line was suddenly empty as Qrow morphed out of it, somersaulting through the air only to land as a human several feet away, Harbinger in hand. He twisted it back, changing its form mid-spin, and burying the curving blade of the scythe into the snow. He swung it towards them and a wave of ice followed.

Clover ducked and rolled under the torrent, leaping forward to try and entangle the wild fighter while Ruby zipped around to get him from behind, her own weapon out now. He had just managed to hook Kingfisher into the hole near the base of Harbinger’s blade when a shadow darkened the area around them.

They all looked up, wary.

And then blanched.

“Snowball acquired! Targets locked!” Penny declared proudly as she effortlessly held the jet plane-sized ball above her head. “Probability of winning: 100%.”

“Uhhh-! Penny!” Ruby shouted futilely.

“Goodbye.” She smiled cheerily as she threw the weapon of mass destruction their way.

Clover saw Ruby dash one way.

Qrow the other.

He shut his eyes and accepted his fate.

☘~☘~☘~☘~☘~☘

Even with the heater going full blast, there was a lingering chill in the truck as they headed back home. Clover rummaged through the crate where they kept the supplies, pulling out the first blanket he could find and heading to the front so he could drape it over Ruby’s shivering shoulders.

“T-T-Thanks.” She said around chattering teeth.

As he walked away, he heard Penny ask, “So, was I a good combatant in the snowball fight?”

“Y-You were the b-b-b-best!”

Their words faded into background noise as Clover continued his search, shoving aside water bottles, unperishable food rations, clothes, flares and other items. “Oh.” He said once he’d hit the bottom of the box.

“Problem?” Qrow asked from where he was sitting back against one of the walls, rubbing his arms for warmth.

“Well.” Clover rose out the only blanket left as way of explanation.

One fine eyebrow rose. “You gotta be kidding me.” For a second, he thought he was bemoaning their circumstances – until he added, “You’re pulling that trick on me?”

He coughed down a laugh. “You’re giving me more credit than I deserve. Though,” He didn’t hold back a flirtatious smile, “Won’t complain about fortunate circumstances.”

The other huntsman rolled his eyes, fighting down his own smile. “Just get over here.”

And really, there just was no denying that command, was there? Clover settled down beside him, spreading the blanket between them. They had to press in close, everything from their shoulders to their hips touching with an undeniably tender warmth.

Qrow tugged his end a little tighter, lent a little more weight onto him. “You know what? I reject what you said.”

He looked down towards the head of black hair rested comfortably against his shoulder. “What do you mean?”

“About this being fortunate circumstances. You give your semblance credit for everything. But this one?” He pointed a thumb at himself, smug. “This one’s all mine.”

Clover’s mind tripped over itself to process what he’d just heard. In the rare instances Qrow would talk about his semblance, it was always with dejected contempt. But today, there was a hint of pride there. A sign that things were changing for the better.

“Yeah.” He agreed, taking a gamble and resting his own cheek against Qrow’s hair. “This one’s yours.”

When no protest came, Clover shut his eyes and smiled.

In more ways than one, things were changing.

[hutchingsb]

fake political trophy husband AU for diego & hutch 👌😉

Diego Rodríguez García is a young upstart and the name on everyone’s lips. He’s got connections, he’s got wit, and he has the ability to put a crowd at ease. He came out as bisexual two weeks ago to further his campaign, to the shock and awe of the public. But more than anything else, he’s got the polls on his side. He’s going to win.It’s all Momma needs, a martini clutched in her hand, to latch onto an idea.

She stirs her martini slowly as if it’s necessary and not that she’s buying her time to make this whole thing stick. Hutch doesn’t mention that it’s not strictly necessary to convince him, he knows he doesn’t really have a say in the matter. The Booth-Bakers’ image has been falling. Small scandals build up, and the gossip never really goes away. Momma needs something to change, her ambitions not yet sated. Her campaign is going well, but she needs that push. These are hard times, and no one is completely sold on Mrs. Booth-Baker’s reelection as governor, not now that she’s newly without her husband.

“Don’t you think Mr. García could use some additional funding?” 

Momma takes a sip of her drink through her smirk. Hutch sighs. He owes her, he knows. After the stunt he pulled when his father first left, he owes her something good; something she can use.

“When do I meet him?”

Later that night, while he lies in bed, he will think, ‘it doesn’t have to be real.’

                                                             - 

Momma moves quickly because there is no time to waste when you’re down in the polls. She reaches out to the García campaign, offers them a fundraiser – hosted, of course, by the Booth-Bakers, for the charity of Mr. García’s choice. They would be fools to turn it down, and Hutch does not take the up-and-coming congress hopeful for a fool.

The campaign’s formal reply is an immediate yes, and Momma makes the arrangements. The woman’s connections know no bounds.

Two days later, Hutch gets a text that Diego (and when the fuck did it become Diego, and not Mr. García) is interested in talking about a mutually beneficial “business” deal, and Hutch tries not to throw his phone across the room and go back to sleep. But there’s a knock on his front door a couple minutes later, and he knows it’s some immaculate suit that his mother has picked out because it will match the color of Diego’s eyes, or some shit. He begrudgingly opens the door. At least he can pretend to entertain himself with work before this hellish night begins.

                                                              -

The suit is perfect. For all her downfalls, his mother knows style, and Hutch feels like he belongs at this party. Like he, too, is a political player, and not just some research analyst for his mother. He holds his own for a while, drifting between senators, the senators’ wives, and journalists. They’re all waiting for something big and newsworthy. And Hutch sighs, because it’s not a something, it’s a someone. And when the door opens and Diego Rodríguez García finally steps through the door, the whole party halts, waiting.

Except for Momma. She waits for nothing.

She is by Diego’s elbow in seconds, handing him a glass of something and talking to him quickly, quietly smiling as she gracefully manhandles him around the crowd. The whispers begin and Hutch suddenly feels like downing the glass of whiskey that he’s had for hours now. 

It takes her some time, before his Momma makes her way towards him. But the buzz in the room starts to intensify, and Hutch does his best not to fidget.

“Mr. García, have you met my son?” Momma coos loud enough for those around to hear. She knows full well that Mr. García has not.“I can’t say I have had the pleasure.” Diego’s tone is pleasant, but his smile is genuine when he turns to Hutch with an outstretched hand. Hutch grabs the man’s hand and mimics his smile. Diego’s hand is warm and strong, and not even the least bit sweaty. His smile is perfect, white teeth and smile lines. His eyes are a dark brown and Hutch realizes that, once again, he was right. His dark navy blue suit compliments the future congressman’s eyes to a T.He truly hates his mother.

“The pleasure is all mine.” Hutch lets his voice be just loud enough to be heard. He may not be a player, but he knows how to play the game. Diego’s smile becomes guarded again as Momma lays a hand on the other man’s upper arm.

Hutch spends the evening by Diego’s side, at his mother’s demands. But he finds he quite likes it. He’s a quick study. Starts to pick up on when Diego’s tone gets a little too tense, or when his laugh almost sounds genuine. At the end of the evening, Diego slips Hutch his number and leaves him with a gentle squeeze of the arm.And Hutch cannot help but think oh God, I’m so fucked.

                                                              -

Diego texts him two days later, suggesting a lunch. Something public, in the middle of the daytime. Hutch likes the little bistro he’s recommended but doesn’t add that in his text back. Sends a simple sure, instead. Diego comes back with a time, and just like that, it’s a date.

                                                             -

The lunch itself sneaks up on him. He lets Clover parade him in different outfits through their shared apartment. She keeps snapping pics of him and texting them to Mar; loudly explaining that he has to look good if he’s going to be on the cover of whatever gossip rag his Momma sells this story to. He hates her because he knows she’s right. He says as much, and she smirks at him. When the outfit is sufficient, she snaps one last picture and shoos him out the door.

“Good luck! Remember you shouldn’t put out on the first date.” 

He flips her the bird.

                                                            -

The conversation is easy, the food divine. Hutch, for all his nerves and fears, finds Diego incredibly easy to talk to. They talk about Diego’s career, his family, his childhood best friend. Hutch laughs at a story of Diego almost getting set on fire.Diego asks him about his work; how it is, living with Clover; what’s the last book he read.

For a brief second, Hutch can convince himself that this is a date. That Diego is genuinely interested in what he has to say. Time passes quickly, easily, and Hutch begins to savor the moments he makes Diego laugh – but it isn’t long until it all comes to a screeching halt. They pay the bill – or rather, Diego pays the bill – and, as they exit the bistro, he slips his hand into Hutch’s. And it’s then that Hutch sees her. The photographer is well disguised, likely to not cause so much disturbance as to be kicked out. His heart sinks a little as he remembers why this whole charade started in the first place.

Diego turns to him, lifts their joined hands to his mouth and plants one quick kiss on the back of Hutch’s hand. His heart lurches as he realizes with surprise just how dangerous of a player Diego is in this game, why Momma’s so fond of him in the first place.“I had a very nice time with you.” Hutch tries to force down his stupid smile at Diego’s words. (Later, he’ll tell Clover it was for the camera when she flashes him a shot of him looking particularly starstruck.)“Yeah, me too.”

As he walks away, hand stuffed in his pocket as if trying to physically distance himself from the offending member, he realizes that this is going to suck.He’s going to fall in love with this man.Diego will break his heart.

                                                           -

Momma greets him with a hug and a smile, which means good news.She doesn’t have a drink in her hand this time, which means great news.

She ushers her son in, herds him into the living room and then further still into her office. It’s more full than it usually is, papers and monitors cluttering the way from the door to her desk. Raine throws up a hand in greeting before he’s pulled back into work by Eric. Eric doesn’t acknowledge Hutch’s presence, but that’s not anything completely new. He bites back a sigh as his mother, with all her grace, flutters back over to him, a tablet in her hands. Eva must have handed it to her from over the desk.

“Look at these numbers,” she coos at him, and Hutch just nods approvingly. He knows he doesn’t need to speak. Not really.

“And for Mr. García as well.” Eric is by his side in a second, brandishing a different tablet.

“Hello to you too,” he mumbles quietly, and Eric flashes him a smile that’s got too many teeth in it.

He is shown numbers until it all bleeds together: projected wins, voter statistics, who might prompt Mrs. Booth-Baker’s reelection. It’s enough for Hutch to get the memo – he’s doing a good job, and more importantly, he should continue to fulfill it.

He pulls out his phone when he thinks no one is looking and whips out a quick text.

>> Have I ever mentioned I hate my mother’s choice in data analysts??

He shoves his phone in his back pocket quickly, as Eva approaches with a smile and yet more data. His phone buzzes almost immediately and he smiles.

>> Yes.>> On multiple occasions.>> But please do let me know what the grievance is today, I’m on the edge of my seat.

Texting Diego makes the evening go by faster, somehow. Hutch pretends he doesn’t realize that he’s never texted the man for anything other than planning outings before. It feels too new. Eva, the saint that she is, doesn’t comment on his goofy grin every time his phone buzzes, but her eyes sport a knowing look.

                                                           -

They are in the back-stretch of the campaign, and the tension that follows is palpable. Hutch can see how stress lives in Diego’s shoulders, how he fights more to keep his face happy and charming. When they’re alone, Diego slumps more. Lets his eyes close as he breathes.Hutch hurts for him. For all the stress Diego’s under, Hutch can do so little to help.

“There’s a party,” Diego starts, shooting an already sympathetic look towards Hutch. They are alone in his office – Lola is the only one still in the building, and she’s more than busy managing what could be the next big PR scandal (but won’t be). Hutch just nods. He knows his part by now. He is Diego’s date, the little bit of joy that his followers can latch onto and root for. Because really, who finds love in the middle of a campaign? “We don’t have to stay long…” Diego says, and Hutch realizes he’s tuned out most of what Diego’s been saying. He smiles, pats Diego’s hand where it rests on his arm. “It’s fine.” It feels like that’s all he can say at this point. All he’s been saying, because it is fine. It’s fine because Diego needs him and he’s asked. “Maybe it’ll even be fun.” They both laugh, and Hutch’s heart clings to the sound.

                                                          -

For the most part, the party is in fact fine. Mostly, Hutch entertains himself by shooting pictures of incredibly drunk senators to Mar and Clover. He’s lost Diego thirty minutes ago after he ducked out to grab them another round of drinks, and the alcohol has already provided him with a warm buzz. He stands to the side snickering at Mar’s latest reply, without Diego next to him, and he is a nobody. No one gives him a second glance.

He looks up only to spot Diego, all fine-tailored edges and welcoming smiles. Hutch offers him his drink, places a quick peck on the other man’s cheek. Under the mask of professionalism, Hutch can see something is off. He presses in closer to him, wraps his arm through Diego’s.

“You must have some sort of plan, right, Mr. García?” Hutch drags himself away from studying Diego to listen to the conversation at hand. “The girl was from your district, was she not?” And suddenly it clicks.

“We are working hard to help the police in their search for miss Tarry.” It’s a canned reply, something Hutch has helped Diego practice. Hutch hears the strain in the other man’s tone. His heart lurches. The stranger opens his mouth to speak again, something more insistent, and Hutch acts before he can stop himself.“I’m terribly sorry, but I think I need some air.” The reporter’s mouth snaps shut, shifting to form a thin smile, but Hutch doesn’t let the sincere apology drop from his features. He turns and tugs Diego along with him. “Babe– if you don’t mind.” And before Diego even has time to react, Hutch is pushing him out of the ballroom and into the hallway.

“Are you okay?” It’s just the two of them, and all pretences can be dropped. Diego’s shoulder slumps forward, and Hutch pulls the other man to him as the tension finally rushes out of Diego in a wave.Hutch pulls him towards another door, opening it with the hand that isn’t clutching Diego, and pulls the pair of them into a coat closet. He feels Diego breathing against his throat as the other man struggles to retain composure, and Hutch wants to scream that he doesn’t have to. He cannot do much for all the stress and pain he knows Diego feels, but he can do this. Let me do this.

It is quiet for a long time, in the dark of the closet, Diego resting against Hutch’s chest until finally, he pulls away. There is a pain in his eyes when he looks up to meet Hutch’s gaze. A broken sob catches in Diego’s throat as he speaks.“I didn’t do enough to save her.”

Hutch doesn’t know more of the story than what he’s heard on the news. Doesn’t know the part Diego’s played in the case of the missing girl. He didn’t want to push. Didn’t feel like it was his place to do so. He doesn’t fully recognize this version of Diego, this broken version with too many self-sabotaging things on the edge of his tongue.

Diego opens his mouth to speak again, and Hutch pushes in. Closes the distance between them to let their lips crash. He feels Diego freeze underneath his touch, but as Hutch brings his hands to fist into Diego’s hair, he softens. His mouth goes pliant and willing, and Hutch takes. 

He cannot do much for this version of Diego, but he can do this. He’s always been able to do this.

Hutch cannot stop the little moan that follows when Diego licks into his mouth. He pushes at the shoulders of Diego’s suit jacket until the other man gets the message and lets it slip to the floor. Hutch closes the gap again, slipping between Diego’s legs to press as much of his body against the other. He lets his teeth sink ever so gently into Diego’s bottom lip and sucks, and the gasp that follows is worth it. He can feel it in his gut, a new warmth that spreads through. He can do this. “Let me do this,” he whispers, biting down at the spot where Diego’s jaw meets his throat, earning him another gasp.

Hutch drops to his knees and smirks at the groan that accompanies it. A hand comes to lay on his head and scratches down, and Hutch pretends the mewl that comes out of him isn’t at all embarrassing. He hears him swallowing thickly, as he lets his own hands dance over the waistband of Diego’s slacks. He cannot help the wolfish grin that finds its way to his face. He glances up, seeking Diego’s approval, and he gets it with a small nod and a sigh, and Hutch thumbs open the button on Diego’s pants and slides them down.

He mouths at Diego’s hip bone, nips his teeth against the skin; runs his hands along the newly discovered territory of Diego’s thighs. He lets his lips ghost over the fabric separating him from Diego’s half hard-cock. Diego’s hips stutter forward, chasing the feeling, and Hutch lets his forearm stop the motion. When he looks up, Diego has his head thrown back against the wall, and he cannot stop himself from relishing the sight.

In one, slow pull, he pushes down the boxers, emboldened by a rare-found confidence. He lets his tongue drag over his own lips, before he lets them catch around the tip of Diego’s dick. There is a stunted sound that happens above, and a sharp scrape of dull fingernails over his scalp again– and Hutch can’t stop himself, he sinks down in one quick movement taking all of Diego into his mouth. It doesn’t take long after that. He clutches at Diego’s hips to steady himself as he begins to bob his head, the rhythm growing faster, the sounds dirtier. Diego has his hand in his mouth, biting down hard to stop from making too much noise. And his breathing is ragged, broken; a beautiful contrast to the earlier heartbreak.

Diego’s hands slip to Hutch’s neck as he swallows, a calculated move that earns him the moan he was looking for. Diego’s hands move to Hutch’s head, pushing him slightly. It’s a warning, Hutch knows, but he ignores it. Takes him deeper still, lets his throat tighten and flex around the intrusion. Diego comes with a broken sob.The sound is even better, this time.

                                                         -

The drive home is quiet, but not painfully so. Hutch cannot bring himself to look at Diego, only manages to shoot sideways glances from under his eyelashes. Diego does not look at him, either. The car stills in front of Hutch’s house, and he moves to undo his seatbelt. A hand stops him, Diego’s thumb and finger forming a loose circle around his wrist. “Thank you,” is all he says, letting his thumb shift to the pulse point on Hutch’s wrist. His heart jumps and he wonders if Diego can feel it. Hutch nods, no words able to form when he cannot take his eyes off of the point of contact between them. Diego squeezes once before he pulls his hand away, and the skin on Hutch’s wrist burns. He excuses himself from the car.

It still burns as he stands on the sidewalk, his hand holding his wrist, as the car speeds away into the night.

                                                        -

The room is buzzing with it: they’ve won. Hutch isn’t sure when he started thinking of himself as so involved.

The only one still working is Evan, frantically putting the finishing touches on Diego’s victory speech, while the rest open a bottle of champagne. Lola shoots them all a look, a warning that speaks to the fact that they still have an event after this and that no one is to get too drunk. Hutch is silently amazed how much she can portray with just one glance. The twins have four glasses between them already, and Hutch tries not to wince when he sees champagne pooling on the floor. Even Grey has come out from behind their computer with a drink in their hand. They deserve it; they’ve worked hard for this.

He’s caught up in the thrill of it all, sipping on his second glass, already feeling lightheaded, when Diego grabs his hand and pulls him along. Hutch laughs freely and follows, the alcohol already making him feel light and loose. He lets himself be guided, their fingers entwined, and Diego smiles, bright and happy. He doesn’t stop pulling until they’re both in Diego’s office and he’s so goddamn happy it hurts.

“We did it–” The way Diego’s voice hitches like it’s only just now settling in makes Hutch’s heart stop and start.“You did it,” he agrees, nodding as he smiles. And he cannot stop smiling. He meets the other man’s eye, and it’s like a tipping point. Diego pulls him closer, wraps his arms around him and sighs into the crook of his neck. He freezes for a moment, before he lets himself fall, soften; clenches his hands at the back of Diego’s finely pressed dress shirt, the fabric clutched in his fists.

“I couldn’t have done this without you,” Diego whispers like it’s something for just the two of them. A confession. And for a second, Hutch believes him. Believes that Diego needed him, not just Momma’s money. “Thank you.” Diego pulls back, cups Hutch’s face with his hand. “Thank you,” he repeats, letting his thumb trail slowly over his cheek. Hutch tries not to gasp.

And then someone calls on Diego from outside, and he pulls away; out of the door and into the fanfare, and all Hutch can do is watch.

His traitorous brain supplies the rest for him. This is it, it sneers, this is the end of you being needed.

                                                       -

He’s still pining when Lola all but forces the group out of the door and into six matching Ubers. One day he’ll ask how she manages all this so effortlessly, but he knows he won’t get a true answer from her anyway. She’ll fix him with a look and a smile, maybe pat his arm.

He ends up sandwiched between Diego and Evan. They’re talking over him, pointing at the recently finished speech, and Evan has a pen in his hands. Diego keeps looking to Hutch for his consensus on something or the other, and all Hutch can do is nod and try not to focus on how Diego’s leg hasn’t stopped moving since they entered the car.

                                                      -

The speech ends to a deafening roar of applause, and Hutch has been smiling so damn much. But then Diego turns to look behind himself, searching the few members of his staff for something – someone. His eyes lock onto Hutch’s and he reaches out his hand, and Hutch is a fool because he takes it. Diego pulls him to his side and flashes those pearl-white teeth – and then he’s leaning in towards him, Diego’s lips finding Hutch’s own, and he parts his mouth and sighs into it, lets his eyes flutted closed; lets himself have this.

The hoots and hollers from the crowd amp up tenfold: he is the voice of the young LGTBQ+, now, and they came here in droves.

“And,” Diego turns to the mic, his face plastered with his Professional Smile, so different from the one he shared with Hutch in his office hours ago. “–I couldn’t have done it without this man.”

It’s the same sentiment from Diego’s officer earlier, but out here? For the consumption of these strangers? It feels wrong. It feels too much like an act. Hutch smiles, holding on to Diego for dear life, but his gut twists into something ugly and sad.

His parents played this game: Mr. Booth-Baker, the rock that stood behind Mrs. Booth-Baker; the two of them shining in their leading roles as a loving couple. But the world did not see them at home, his father, gone all hours, and his mother, drunk and crying when she thought Hutch had gone to bed.He told himself he would not become another pawn in this game. He would never let his mother use him as such. But it took mere seconds for Diego to unravel his resolve, and Hutch feels used. Raw. Broken.

And– fuck– in love.

The rest of the night goes on without much incident. But Hutch feels like he’s traveling through a fog. He feigns a migraine when Connor comments on his distance, and it’s easy enough – the champagne is already making his temples throb. He tries not to meet Diego’s eyes whenever the other man shoots him a quizzical look.

He excuses himself early, and doesn’t respond to Diego’s text.And if he curls into bed and tries not to cry, so be it.

                                                     -

Mar all but drags him out of bed. Clover must have called in reinforcements. Which is only fair, he muses. It’s been three months since Diego won his seat and Hutch has been useless ever since.Mar sits at the end of his bed scowling as he shuffles through his clothes, delaying the inevitable. “We’re going to The Last Drop, not your funeral,” she admonishes. She’s perfectly put together, but it looks effortless, as if she’s just rolled out of bed. Hutch has always been envious of her easy style.“I’m moving as fast as I can,” he whines, but it’s not believable.And, as if right on cue, Clover is at the door, “–No, you’re not.” She has her phone out in her hand. “I told Raine we would be there ten minutes ago, and if you make them wait I’m never forgiving you.” Hutch sighs and throws on a shirt Mar has tossed his way.

                                                    -

“So, you’re still pining right?” It’s Raine that breaks through his fog-addled thoughts, and Clover is outright laughing at him. He grimaces at her before turning back to Raine. “I’m not pining.” He grits his teeth as Clover laughs harder. Raine’s face twists in confusion.“I thought you guys were in love or something,” they manage, and if Clover wasn’t already doubled over, she would be by now.“Oh, they are,” Mar responds. She doesn’t even look up from her phone. She’s texting her new boyfriend, Sam, who was meant to meet them here later. She doesn’t even dignify Hutch’s scoff of disagreement. “But our friend Hutch here is a big fuckin’ idiot.”Raine nods knowingly, an oh falling from their lips. He’s known the Booth-Bakers for a while, working for Hutch’s mother. They know that to be true.“I did not come out to be belittled.” Hutch huffs, slinking down into his seat more.“Then maybe you should tell your fucking boyfriend how you feel.” Clover has stopped laughing to look at him pointedly.

Hutch sighs and takes a drink. Pointedly doesn’t say anything about Diego not being his boyfriend, not really anyway.

                                                   -

By the end of the night, he’s almost having fun. Almost. 

                                                  -

It’s the last event on the calendar. Hutch has been dreading the day as it approached, faster and faster. It’s a simple wrap-up interview, something to solidify Diego’s success story. To make it consumable for the masses. It will have no mention of the Booth-Baker money that helped finance his campaign, but it will have many a mention of Diego’s heartstopping romance that made the man seem so goddamn human during the whole campaign. Hutch has to come as a show of support: the gossip rags have more than noticed his recent lack of presence in Diego’s life.

The magazine is not a gossipy thing, but a legitimate paper and the journalist is good – DeSouza, Hutch thinks his name is. Momma vetted them all and picked this one, so he has that going for him. And he starts the interview off easy, makes a few passing jokes at Diego, asks him to call him Romeo. Hutch tries to stomach the jealousy he feels at the easy conversation that he so dearly misses. He’s been responding to Diego’s texts more, guilt after his night of drinking with Mar and Clover, but it isn’t the same.

“And what about your man?” Romeo laughs at the foolish wording at it, and Diego joins him. Hutch’s heart lurches forward in his chest.

“There is so much to say.” Diego is still laughing, and Hutch cannot help but feel like he’s being cut open. This is fate’s sick joke for agreeing with his mother’s meddling; he’s sure of it. “He stood by me through everything.” Diego searches behind the lights for Hutch’s eyes, finding them and smiling, big and true. “He’s the reason I’m here.” Hutch closes his eyes, and breathes. Tries to stop the flood of emotion, but he can’t. Not here, not now.He runs.

Diego catches his hand before he can truly escape. He’s only made it so far as the hallway anyway. Diego looks hurt and confused and apologetic all at once like he’s not quite sure what Hutch needs from him – and all Hutch can feel is his manic need to getaway. “What’s wrong?” Diego is still too calm, even as his voice hints at the distress under the surface.It stops Hutch dead in his tracks.

“How can you lie like that?” 

He wants desperately to be angry, to throw it into Diego’s face, but he can’t. He’s tired and heartsick and all he can manage is something that sounds so desperate he wants to hide.Diego looks at him with confusion, and then deep, heartbreaking understanding. His face softens into a gentle smile, the kind Hutch has only ever seen when they’re alone. “I’m not lying.” He tugs on Hutch’s hand, and Hutch gives in. Because he’s a fool, but… maybe he’s not a fool about this.“You weren’t lying?” he parrots back, and Diego chuckles softly, bringing a hand up to cup Hutch’s face.“No.” 

It’s all he needs to hear, he pushes forward catching Diego’s next laugh with his mouth. And he sighs. 

He’s a goddamn fool.

[alexthegamingboy]

Toonami Weekly Recap 05/02/2020

Paranoia Agent EP#02 - The Golden Shoes: Yuuichi "Icchi" Taira, a formerly popular sixth-grade schoolboy, starts being bullied at school for his red hat and golden skates which strongly resemble those of Lil' Slugger. The only person he can confide in is his personal tutor, Harumi. Icchi comes to believe that Shougo Ushiyama, a fatter, less sporty pupil who is running against him for student council president, is the one masterminding the bullying. He accuses Shougo aggressively, but someone takes a picture of their confrontation and texts it to the whole class. Shougo defends him, much to Icchi's embarrassment. Meanwhile, the detectives continue to question Tsukiko, who is now witness to two attacks. They also question Yuuichi. Icchi's birthday comes, but nobody comes to his party except his mother and tutor. Shougo attempts to comfort Yuuichi who just gets angrier, hoping Shougo will be the next victim; almost immediately, Shougo is attacked for real. Eventually Yuuichi goes insane with egopathic delusions of reclaiming his fame before being attacked by Lil' Slugger himself.

My Hero Academia U.A. School Festival Arc Season 4 EP#85 (22) - School Festival Start!!: It's 9:00 AM, and Present Mic announces the start of the U.A. School Festival. As Hound Dog catches a scent somewhere in the forest, Deku faces off against a Love-powered Gentle Criminal to determine who will be able to make their dreams come true!

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind EP#24 - Notorious B.I.G: The group manages to secure an airplane after escaping Venice, with Abbacchio using Moody Blues to fly the plane by replaying its pilot. As they prepare to leave, a hostile Stand user named Carne approaches them on the runway, but Mista shoots and kills him. During the flight, Giorno discovers that Carne's Stand Notorious B.I.G, a flesh-eating blob, has activated after his death and has attached itself to Giorno's right arm. Mista shoots Giorno's arm off, but Notorious B.I.G, which tracks its foes by their movement and then absorbs their energy, attacks the Sex Pistols, severely injuring Mista. Narancia attacks with Aerosmith, but he too is targeted and injured by Notorious B.I.G. Deeming Notorious B.I.G to be indestructible, Giorno forces it to latch onto his remaining left arm, then manages to dispose of it by severing his arm and sending it out of the plane. Since Gold Experience's powers come from its fists, Giorno can neither fight nor heal the wounds of himself, Mista or Narancia. Bucciarati relays the attack to Abbacchio and takes the wounded inside the turtle. Alone, Trish is approached by Notorious B.I.G, which was chasing the quickest-moving object nearby, that being the plane itself. The Stand doesn't pursue her when she remains still, instead approaching one of Giorno's throbbing brooches, which is in the process of transforming into one of Giorno's hands. Trish realizes that Giorno had created a brooch replicating one of his hands before cutting his arm off, which when attached could allow him, Mista and Narancia to recover.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Functional Recovery Training Arc EP#26 Finale - New Mission: A few months earlier: Following Rui's death, Kibutsuji summons the remaining five Lower of the Twelve Moons. They enter a massive space warped and controlled by a demoness with a biwa. Kibutsuji has altered his appearance and aura to that of a woman, so they don't instantly recognize him. They kneel once they do. Kibutsuji declares he is disbanding the Lower Ranks, deeming them worthless. It is always the Upper Ranks who kill Hashiras and remain alive, while the Lower Ranks keep changing members and dying. He sets about killing them for various reasons: Lower Six thinks disrespectful thoughts (Kibutsuji reads his mind, an apparently new ability), Lower Four tries to pleas she isn't thinking about fleeing when she sees a Hashira (she refutes what he says), Lower Three attempts to flee in vain (Kibutsuji catches him), and Lower Two says he can do better if he is given more of Kibutsuji's blood (which is ordering Kibutsuji). He asks for the final Twelve Moon, Lower One Enmu, for his last words. Lower One considers it an honor to die by Kibutsuji's hands and thanks him for killing him last as he got to witness the agony of the other five. Deeming that the right answer, Kibutsuji infuses Lower One with a large amount of his blood to strengthen him and says he'll give him more blood if he can kill Tanjiro. Present Day: A Kasugai crow wakes Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke with an assignment - go west to the Infinite Train, where casualties are increasing, and slay the demon there. Tanjiro encounters Genya from Final Selection while walking, who has a larger and more muscular form, but Genya goes out of his way to bump into and then ignore him. Tanjiro visits Aoi, thanking her for helping him, but she tells him not to. She claims to have survived the Final Selection by luck, and that she was too cowardly to go into battle, but Tanjiro says it doesn't matter since she helped them and he'll carry her feelings into the battlefield, touching her. He also says goodbye to Kanao, who flips a coin to determine if she should talk to him. When the coin lands right, she tells him goodbye and explains she uses the coin to decide things she hasn't been ordered to do, since she can't decide for herself. Tanjiro takes her coin and says if it lands heads she'll listen to the voice in her heart and make her own choices and flips it. It lands heads. She asks how he made it do that since she didn't see him cheat, but Tanjiro smiles and says it just did and he would have flipped it as many times as he needed for it to land heads if it hadn't. Just before the boys leave, Tanjiro sees Giyū and thanks him for helping with Nezuko. Not sure how to talk with him, Giyū tells him to thank him by doing good work, which Tanjiro promises. The boys make it to the train station but Inosuke mistakes the Infinite Train as a beast and ruler of the land since it's so mighty, though Tanjiro says it may be a guardian spirit. Zenitsu calls them country bumpkins, telling them it's a train. They attract the attention of police and flee, deciding to hide their swords. Their organization isn't recognized by the government, which doesn't even acknowledge that demons exist, so they must keep a low profile. They outrun the police and jump onto the train as it leaves. Tanjiro has brought Nezuko, determined that they won't be separated again. On the train with them are Rengoku and the Lower One of the Twelve Moons.

Black Clover: Elf Tribe Reincarnation Arc/Vs. Word Soul Devil Zagred Arc EP#115 - Mastermind: Rhya has a flashback to the massacre. Rhya had allowed the elves to believe they were betrayed by Lumiere, the brother of Licht's human wife, Tetia, when in fact Rhya knew Lumiere was innocent but hid the truth so the elves would continue to hate humans. Ronne places the stone in the altar, revealing he was actually possessed by a Devil named Zagred that now rises from the land of the dead. He reveals to Patri that he was the one who convinced the ancient humans to massacre the elves. Yuno saves Rhya and Patri but his magic is useless against the devil that can use Word Soul Magic, meaning anything he says becomes reality. Asta and Mimosa arrive and while Asta and Yuno try to fight together they fail. Zagred reveals he was the one who cast the forbidden spell to resurrect the elves, not Licht, and the war between humans and the Eye of the Midnight Sun was all part of his plan to regain his original body. Asta and Yuno succeed in wounding him, but he heals instantly. He further reveals that when the owner of a four leaf Grimoire is filled with despair, as Patri now is, it transforms into a five leaf Grimoire. His first attempt created Asta's Grimoire 5 centuries ago, but he was prevented from claiming it for himself, but now with Patri's five leaf Grimoire in his possession he has the power to rule the world. Now filled with ultimate despair Patri transforms into a Dark Elf and randomly begins attacking everyone. Zagred departs leaving Patri to kill everyone for him.

Slightly Damned Page 961: https://www.sdamned.com/comic/961

[youngster-monster]

four leaf clover - lucky

Something explodes in the distance.

Razel reacts accordingly: he jumps to his feet, lifts his hand off the supplies he was rearranging, and says, “Didn’t do it!”

For once it’s more than a desperate attempt to avoid his supervisor’s wrath. Surely he’d have noticed if the crate of — he checks the label quickly — dehydrated fruit rations had exploded in his hands, and it sounded pretty distant anyway.

It turns out to be useless: no one is looking at him, accusingly or otherwise. All the other workers spur into action at the sound and Razel is left standing there like an idiot as they run around the docking bay, strapping crates of supplies to each other the way they do when they’re about to enter a planet’s atmosphere.

Another explosion, and this time the floor shakes under his feet. People yell in surprise, trying to hold the few unattached boxes in place before they fall on someone. Razel stumbles and almost collides with his supervisor, Lexi Kendall. She catches him by the sleeve of his shirt before he can hit the ground instead and shoves a gun in his hands.

“Make yourself useful,” she barks.

She strides away before she can see him fumble with the weapon. They both know he’s no good with guns, so he’s not sure why she gave him one.

Yet another explosion rocks the ship, loud enough to cover the sound of panic in the room. The lights turn red, alarms blaring. Through the chaos, a voice screams,

“Guard the doors!”

Razel looks down at the gun. Then up at the crowd of people rushing through the small hangar space. Back at the gun. He puts it down on a nearby crate. Better be unharmed than accidentally shoot someone — it’s happened before and he doesn’t fancy a repeat of that particular lecture. He replaces it with the crowbar he was using on the crates. Now that he can do something with.

Somewhere on the ship — above their heads, the mess hall maybe — there’s the sound of fighting, people running over metal floors. Silence falls on the room, or as silent as it can be with the alarms still screaming in their ears. Workers and guards shift uneasily, fingers tightening around their guns.

Then, as suddenly as they started, the alarms stop. It’s quiet enough to hear a pin drop… or the feet pounding outside the docking bay, coming to a stop on the other side of the door.

Razel takes a low stance, relaxes his shoulders and breathes out.

When the door is blown off its hinges, he’s ready.

Bullets rain over the singed gap left in the wall, but whoever was behind ducked for cover just in time. Kendall steps closer to the hole, her rifle held at the ready.

She collapses before she reaches it.

A second later enemies swarm the room, shooting down anyone who tries to fight back. They advance with ruthless efficiency but instead of uniforms they’re wearing mismatched pieces of armor, obviously stolen off other shipments, patched to hell and back.

Pirates. He’s never met those before! He’s a little excited, to be honest.

Razel jumps out of cover when one of the pirates walks by the pile of crates. He slams the crowbar into their head and grins when they collapse to the ground. A good kick sends their stun gun way out of reach and he moves to the next one.

It takes a second for the pirates to react. Whatever opposition they were expecting, a maniac with a crowbar wasn’t it. He gets a good few hits before they start shooting at him. He drops to the ground then, narrowly dodging a projectile. His slide takes him right into a pirates’ knees— and in the middle of the rest of them.

Think fast. Better: don’t think at all.

He throws the crowbar with all his might. It hits a pirate square in the chest — he was aiming for the head but alright. There’s a sound like something cracking, and he winces even as he scrambles back to his feet and jump over their fallen body. It didn’t sound pleasant.

Gunshot. Something collides with his back hard enough to send him back to the ground. He tries to cushion the fall with his hands but his body seizes up, muscles locking tight, and he hits the metal flooring face first. It hurts — might have broken his nose — but not as much as the burn of electricity through his veins.

Stun guns. Who would have thought.

He’s still seizing up by the time footsteps reach him, echoing sharply in the room, quiet again save for the faint moans of pain from the other paralyzed workers. The toe of a boot nudges him in the ribs before flipping him on his back with a light kick. He wrinkles his nose — the only protest he can muster in this state — and groans when it only makes the pain worse by jostling the possibly broken cartilage.

The pirate standing over him, a stun rifle held loosely against their chest, is the one they got in the chest. He thinks it’s a miracle they’re standing after that kind of blow before his eyes trail up to their face and he finds mechanical eyes staring back.

An exo. That explains it. Not much that can keep these down.

“Feisty, aren’t ya?” The exo says — a male, by the sound of it. He gives Razel something that might be a smile, internal light brightening as he opens his mouth slightly, and nudges him again. “A gun might have been more useful.”

The electrical jolts have calmed down enough that Razel can unlock his jaws enough to say, “Can’t shoot.”

The exo kneels next to him and drags him up into a sitting position, pulls his arms back and loops a long cord around his wrists. His voice sounds a little mocking when he speaks again, moving down to do the same thing to his ankles.

“And they hired you anyway?”

“They never told me I’d have to use a gun!” He pouts. “Not that I need one anyway.”

“You’ve got a good throwing arm on you, I can tell ya that much.”

Once satisfied with his knots the pirate steps away and to the center of the room, making a quick turn on himself to take a good look at the rest of Razel’s coworkers, all similarly tied-up. He clears his throat, if such a thing is necessary for robots.

“Good evening, good people of the Clovis Bray Corporation!” He makes a mock bow at them, opening his arms wide like a performer thanking the public after a play. His finger never leaves the trigger of his handcannon. “My name is Cayde-5, and my wonderful friends and I have decided to huh… appropriate the goods you are carrying. Stay calm, and we’ll be off before dinnertime!”

The rest of the pirates — most of them exos, he notices — don’t look half as friendly. Relaxed, yes, as they lean against walls and cargo crates, but the way they keep their guns pointed at the hostages doesn’t seem friendly to Razel. Their leader though… He’s fun. If he wasn’t holding him hostage, Razel thinks he’d like him.

It’s a little disheartening to see all his hard work organizing these crates goes to waste as the pirates start carrying them away to where one of their own is setting up a transmat zone. He sighs wistfully as they cart off the crates full of canned food. There are canned peaches in these that he’d kill for.

“Something on your mind, crowbar guy?”

He has to crane his neck to look Cayde-5 in the eyes from his position on the floor, and the movement isn’t made any more comfortable by the way his arms are tied behind his back. He manages a small shrug despite the tight bindings.

“It’s Razel, actually. And I guess I’m kinda bummed out,” he says. “If I’d known we were gonna get robbed, I’d have kept some of my candy stash for later. I was kind of resting all my hopes on those canned fruits.”

“Never put all your eggs in one basket,” Cayde-5 says wisely. “Sucks for those snacks though.”

He thinks about it for a second. “I have a chocolate bar left in my pocket actually,” he says, because he remembers shoving it there before Thomas could catch him in the act and steal it. “So it’s not too bad.”

There’s a second of quiet as both of them watch the pirates work. Finally Cayde says, “Gotta say I’m impressed, crowbar. You’re taking this really well.”

“Thanks! All the ships I get on end up getting robbed at some point so, you know, you get used to it.”

He can see Kendall glaring at him from behind the pirate’s back, probably because he’s chatting with the enemy, but it’ll be awhile before they’re done taking all their stuff so he might as well entertain myself. Cayde looks above his shoulder, and Razel thinks he somehow felt the weight of her glare on his neck, but he just calls out to one of his pirates instead.

“You heard that Mint? That guy survived… how many robberies was it?”

“Huh, I don’t know. About a dozen?”

“A dozen robberies Mint! How cool is that?”

One of the pirates stops, puts down the crate he was carrying and leans against it to reply to his boss. “Doesn’t sound all that cool for the one getting robbed though.”

“I know, but… dozen attacks, and he still has all his limbs! How lucky is that?”

Mint thinks about it for a second and concedes the point with a nod and an appreciative hum.

“It’s not so bad, after a while,” Razel feels the need to clarify. “I mean, once you’ve sat at gunpoint while someone took all your stuff once, it all starts to look the same, you know?”

“It is more fun when you’re the one doing the robbing,” Cayde agrees. He sits down on his heels and gives Razel a good hard look. He’s glad for it: his neck was starting to ache. “Tell you what, you give me that chocolate bar you’ve got squirreled away in one of these pockets and you can tag along, see how it looks from the other end of the robbery. How does that sound?”

A few pirates make noises of protest, though there’s not much energy in it, like they’re used to that kind of recruitment technique. Kendall yells something along the line of don’t you dare-

Razel them and takes a moment to think about it, really think about it. He looks at the pirates, who shakes their head at their captain’s antics and move on. He looks at Kendall, glaring daggers at the two of them, then at Cayde, who winks at him. He looks at the crate of fruit preserves.

“Okay,” he agrees. “But I call dibs on the canned peaches.”

“Deal.”

[glowwormsmith]

FC5 Week-Day 5

In which Layla notices an eyesore and gets some interesting history about her new community...

Warnings: implied violence, nothing of note

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

“Huh...” was all Layla could really say as she leaned against the doorway and looked out towards the mountains. When she had first arrived, under a cloud of family tragedy and the combined anxieties and hopes of moving, she had only taken in a small part of the natural beauty of Hope County. Being a native Montanan and having taken many trips into the wilderness also desensitized Layla to her surroundings, so it was only on her third day after moving in with her sister and nieces that she noticed the sign.

 “Hi, Aunt Layla! Whatcha’ lookin’ at?”

 Layla turned to smile at her nieces, Hazel and Fern coming towards her. She was happy to see Hazel walking about, her injured arm in a sling, but both girls looking clear-eyed and bright even after the recent badness. Hazel had been the one to address her, her younger sister looking at Layla with a curious glance and head tilted in wonder.

 “Oh, well, that. You guys know what that eyesore is all about?” Layla asked, jabbing her thumb outwards and looking back at it with a skeptical look.

 She saw Hazel and Fern’s looks turn into disgust, Hazel’s eyes rolling so far into skull Layla was afraid they would be lost while Fern sighed.

 “Ah, well, it’s a giant “YES” sign, for one thing...” Fern said. Hazel then interrupted bluntly, “Aunt Layla’s not stupid, Fern, she can read.”

 “It’s okay, Hazel, it’s good to see that it is a “YES” sign. What’s it for?”

 The girls looked at each other before Fern said, “Mom said it’s Mr. Seed’s type of preaching. The Power of Yes. It’s for the purpose of gathering new followers.”

“It’s sooo stupid! Like, he takes motivational speaking way too far!” Hazel added. “He even has dumb billboards all over the county. Nice way to show you have money to throw around when you’re not busy being a greedy lawyer, a-hole!”

 “Whoa, whoa, now I don’t have to unpack all of that, kiddos! Who’s “Mr. Seed” and why is he going around talking about “yes” so enthusiastically?” Layla said. “That doesn’t even sound like a real name, why am I only learning of this now?!”

Fern cleared her throat and Hazel fell quiet, though she gave an eye-roll at Fern’s excitement to explain. “Well, his name is John Seed. He’s part of these group called Eden’s Gate—they’re like Pastor Jerome’s church, but they follow their own doctrine, one that Mom thinks is not God’s true voice—and they’ve been here for a while. Mom tells us they’ve been here since I was maybe five, or six. They’ve really grown bigger and louder really recently, but John’s the loudest. Did you see the boards with his face on it while you were driving here?”

“I didn’t really notice. Was too busy worrying about Clover barfing in the car and having Grandma and Gramps micro-managing the move,” Layla said, a warm smile as she saw the girls chuckle. Always good to see them happy. If that poor excuse for a father was still alive, I’d kill him myself for ever hurting them.

“Well, we’ll point some of them out to you next time we’re on a drive,” Hazel said. “There’s some with weird symbols and phrases, but most here in the valley has John’s dumb smug face on it, talkin’ about how “we’ll love you and we’ll take you.” Good to know creeps are advertising their plans to kidnap people.”

“Anyways,” Fern said, her voice rising over Hazel’s, “John Seed is the “face” I guess you could say of this Project. His brother, Joseph, is the leader, but John handles all the finances. He’s kinda handsome.” Fern blushed a bit and rubbed the back of her head with a small giggle. “He’s also wealthy, too. If it wasn’t for Mom saying Eden’s Gate was bad, I’d say he’s like a prince.”

Hazel made a gag noise, but didn’t say anything. Layla said as her brows furrowed, “Your mom never talked about these crazies before, and she knows how much I love ragging on crazies like this. Why does she think they’re bad?”

The girls went quiet, with Fern shifting in her chair and looking away while Hazel bit her lip and narrowed her eyes. Hazel then spoke up.

“We always went to Pastor Jerome’s church, but it changed when Da-that bastard started going to the Seed’s services and talkin’ about how—how great they were, and how “The Collapse” was real, that Joseph was the only righteous voice.” Layla noticed how Hazel’s good hand clenched and unclenched at her side. The girl then spoke loudly, startling the two, “They’re crazy! They’re not good Christians like Pastor Jerome or Mom! Mom became frightened at even the drop of  their name when she got pregnant with Todd, and you know she’s not scared of nothin’! That bastard wasn’t the nicest, but he became downright looney and obsessed with Eden’s Gate, even ready to sell our home to John. And I hear things in town. About John buyin’ up properties, weapons being brought in, weird shit goin’ on in the Whitetails and to the east, people disappearing when they make Eden’s Gate mad. They even have a statute of that lyin’ prophet of theirs nearly complete out in the Henbane!”

“Wha—? A statue?! That can’t be legal!” Layla sputtered. What had I gotten into by moving here...and what has Tess not been telling me?

“They can pretty much get away with anything these days. Poor Mayor Minkler is cowed by these people and Sheriff Whitehorse has been overwhelmed by people quitting or...“leaving,” one might say,” Fern said. She then shivered. “Some of the members came to one of Pastor Jerome’s services. They stood outside and shouted how Jerome was a false shepherd, that the Collapse was coming, and the Father was the only path to salvation. Dad and a few others walked out to join them...Mom was very upset with him after that.”

“Don’t call him “dad,” Fern!” Hazel snapped, but softened up. “He wasn’t our “dad” for a long time, and he sure ain’t now after what he did. The fight, y’know, the one where he...he shot us and took Todd away and killed himself...it was about Eden’s Gate,” Hazel said, her voice low. The girls looked ready to cry and Hazel wanted to scream. “Eden’s Gate are evil. I just...get bad feelings from them, even if they had nothin’ to do with my family. They’re bad news.”

Layla then came to the girls and hugged them, rubbing their arms and a kind smile on her face. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. These people sound like every doomsday cult I’ve studied, but guess what?”

After a pause with her nieces who looked confused, Layla said with a sly smirk, “Your badass Aunt Layla is going to be a deputy with the Sheriff’s Department, and you know I don’t let any shit slide when it comes to BS, right?”

“Hell yeah!” “Language, Hazel, but you’re right, you are tough, Aunt Layla.”

“So, if John of Joseph, or any other Seed tries to come around and harass you or Tess, I’ll go and kick their loony-tune as—butts, alongside Clover, right Clover?” Layla’s dog lifted her eyes towards the trio, but she didn’t leave the couch as she let out a small gruff. “Darn straight! No one will mess with my family or their friends, so there’s no need to be afraid anymore, okay?”

Weak smiles returned to the girls’ faces as they looked a bit calmer. Layla then stood up and said, “Tell you what? We’ll go see your mom at the hospital, go to whatever favorite restaurant you like, and take some eggs along to hit any Johnny Appleseed billboards we see. Sound fun?”

“Oh my gosh, yes!!” Hazel said. “Fern, you up for it?”

“Yeah. Will you be okay?” Fern asked. Hazel let out a small huff and flicked her good hand.

“Pfft, I’m fine! I bet I can throw better with my one hand than you girls!”

“Oh, we’ll see about that, young lady!” Layla scoffed as the girls laughed and went to prepare. Before she walked off, Layla gave one last glance at the large white “YES” sign. Unease settled into her stomach, but she shoved the bad thoughts away for happier times with her nieces, to keep things good after all that’s happened to them.

She did allow one snide thought: I wish I had a grenade launcher to shoot that shit down. That would be awesome.