#and even tho emerald clearly likes her for who she is (for some reason) cinder cant trust her and uses fear to keep em by her side

[constantvariations]

After playing Baldur’s Gate 3, where there's several situations where ascension is continuing a cycle of violence and abuse, V9's ascension plot is somehow even dumber and ickier than before

[the-hate-keeps-me-warm]

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at writing more seriously for a while so here’s how the Salem Oscar meeting might go

Oscar awoke in a bed one made from stone sheets and blankets had been layered over it to presumably make it comfortable He was confused the last thing he remembered was sitting on the hover bike with ren no that wasn’t right there was something else ren yelled for some reason ren never yells but Oscar couldn’t quite remember why he decided to sit up as soon as he did waves of pain shot throughout his body the room was dimly lit and he could almost make out someone standing in the dark he almost calls out to it but Ozpin interrups

We need to leave I’m not sure where we are but I can tell she’s close

Do you mean sal-

Yes now can you stand

Oscar can tell he was afraid he didn’t even want to speak of her

Oscar attempts to stand but what he hears stops him dead

“No stay she says too”

The voice falters like someone not sure how to say a word they just learned or a shy child talking in front of people they don’t know

He looks to the figure it takes a step forward silently and comes into the light as soon as he sees it he recoils back remembering exactly what happened he stares at it his mind couldn’t come up with words to describe it but Ozpin knew exactly what to call it a monstrosity Oscar stared at the creature it had no eyes and so many teeth Oscar hadn’t had too many encounters with Grimm but he knew they did not talk was this someone’s semblance maybe emeralds trying to scare him where was he was he captured were the others all right his mind began to race with the possibility’s

Calm down you if that is a Grimm it may attack if you don’t control yourself and I don’t feel long memory on our belt

“Yes yes the cane where was it” Oscar thought he reached for his belt it wasn’t there he could feel the fear coming from Ozpin at that fact

“She will be here soon”

The voice emanating from the Grimms teeth saturated mouth spoke once again

Oscar could feel oz start to panic the fear of Salem was one they both shared

Oscar suddenly felt more calm when others panicked he always did manage to feel more at ease because if they were panicking too that means the threats real and he can do something about it so he decided to speak

“Where am I”

The Grimm stayed silent

He heard the creek of a door light shone throughout the room blinding Oscar he strained his eyes he recognized her by her figure alone and was relieved it was cinder

“Get up she wants to talk to you” her voice was cold but behind it he could feel the furry he shakily got up from the bed when he did he noticed his coat was gone and over his arm was a bandage that rapped several times around it “hurry up she doesn’t like to be kept waiting” Oscar shuffler tworads cinder keeping an eye on the Grimm he couldn’t decide who he was more afraid of the Grimm or cinder but he knew who probably would kill him if he turned his back and that was cinder so he decided to go with her

She led him down a long hall way decorated with black lamps so everything was so dim you couldn’t really see anything but all you could make out where figures and shadows but compared to the light of the room he was in before it was almost blinding his whole body hurt so maybe that was why his eyes hurt too his body telling him that whatever he did to end up in this much pain to never do it again and he got the message loud and clear they reach a set of double doors cinder opens them and he follows the room was beautiful in a strange sort of way it’s architecture looked natural and unnatural at the same time but what he was more concerned with was the woman siting at the end of the long table in the middle of the room cinder led him closer and closer he could almost hear the fear coming from Ozpin his desire to run away and hide grew by the second they were only a few feet from her now he could see her face clearly now and her expression took him back it wasn’t one anger or malice more like pitty cinder pulled out the chair next too Salem and said “sit” so he did he could hear cinder walk behind him and leave now alone with the woman he could feel his hands staring to shake he grabbed his left with his right to try to make them stop but for some reason he could not look away from her ozpin had gone silent now oscar could feel noting from him

“You don’t have to be afraid child”

Her voice was sweet it almost reminded him of the one his aunt would use when he was little and he was afraid

“I am not going to hurt you If you give me what I want”

“A-and what do you want”

“How do I use the lamp I know you know and please don’t try and lie”

Oscar stayed silent he knew she had the lamp but knowing and being told it by her are two very different things

“Your probably wondering what do you get out of this I’ll tell you I can separate you and ozma so that you can be your own person”

What she said can’t be true Ozpin said they were one now that there souls were bound together

“You seem suprised he might not of known that he can be separated from his host but he can he’s done it with the maidens so why couldn’t it be done with him right now he’s probably telling you I’m lying or that I’m tricking you but I’m not I am no lier”

“He hasn’t told me anything he’s quiet now”

She leans back in her throne “that doesn’t surprise me he always was a coward hiding in the body of a child doesn’t come as a surprise to me anymore tho It does break my heart that he would do that take someone’s whole life away”

“But he doesn’t get to choose”

“No he doesn’t but he does get to choose what to do once he’s bonded he could stay quiet and not ruin people’s lives but he chooses to do so and I’m sorry that he chose to do that to you my offer isn’t a lie I can separate you from him you could be free to live your life again I’ve been told you were a farmer with an aunt don’t you want to go back to her she must be worried did you tell her where you were going when you left leave a note perhaps”

“I-I left a note”

He doesn’t know why he told here that there was no point in telling her that but he for some reason felt so relaxed around her even tho he was scared moments before all the fear he feels is coming from oz

“Now that just isn’t fair is it she took care of you when your parents passed and you just left without even a goodbye”

“How did you know that”

“Oh watts knows a lot about computers and after we found out who you were I decided to have him do a little research find out who you were before Ozma”

Oscar could feel the fear returning if they knew he his aunt was they could find her have they hurt her maybe worse

“Did you did you hurt her”

“No we haven’t laid a finger on her but we have been watching her she’s struggling without you she’s getting up in years and can’t do a lot of the field work on her own if you were separated you could go back you could go back to growing food and living a simple life a happy life and I’ll even have someone take you there with enough lien to last a life time and we will never bother you again”

What happens if I refuse your offer

“I may have to use more drastic means than polite conversation”

Can I have some time to think

“Yes of course child”

Her voice dripped in sweetness he felt as tho it could be a front but desperately wanted it to be true he wanted her to be the Salem oz remembered the woman so fierce in combat she scared him at times but the same one who was so soft after the battle the one who held him as he wept for the old world after there second meeting the one who held there children in her arms with the brightest smile the woman who’s sass knew no limits and her love even less he felt the sadness from Ozpin and tears began to well up in his eyes he looked down at his hands away from her for the first time sense sitting down

“It’s ok if you want to cry child”

Oscar couldn’t hold the tears and let them fall holding back the sobs she places a hand on his shoulder he feels as though he should be afraid and pull alway but he doesn’t

“I understand it is hard having so much responsibility thrust upon you at such a young age it must be hard being away from everything you know on top of that”

Oscar not only couldn’t hold back the sobs but didn’t want too anymore the woman Ozpin had told him was the ultimate evil was patting him on the shoulder and telling him it’s ok the woman so many of his past lives had dreamt of holding in there arms the woman who was wronged by the gods for loving someone and not wanting to be alone this was the first time he had let himself cry in a long time

“I’m sorry the gods wronged you This way I know how it feels I promise you never asked for this”

I hate him too he didn’t let me say goodbye to her because she would try and stop us

“It’s ok let it out then we can talk more”

That’s the end it was supposed to be way longer but I lost half of it and honestly couldn’t be fucked to rewrite it all so sorry this was my first public work and honestly I know it’s not great just trying to toss an idea around that what if Salem is kind to Oscar when they meet

[gothfield-official]

Who Neopolitan is Based on (UPDATED)

Ok so a while ago my friends and I came up with this theory and I feel the need to update it with more proof. If you haven't read the original theory then strap in bc it's kind of wild. (Also I tried to upload this to r/rwby but evidently I’m still shadow banned for no reason so guess I’ll die?)

So everyone in RWBY has some sort of fairytale/classic literature ties to them. Obviously there's Ruby as Red riding hood, Weiss as Snow White, ect. Some of the connections aren't very deep, for example Roman's connection to Romeo Lampwick seems to be only in character design and the basic characteristic of being a criminal. However, there are a few characters who's fairytale backstory we don't know yet. And among them is Neopolitan.

Before I go into this I want to make it clear I'm not going to consider the "Neo is Mary Poppins" Theory. It's pretty much only predicated on the fact that she has an umbrella and many people seem to think this has been confirmed. The only thing Neo is, in canon, based on is the ice cream.

So, if she's not based on Mary Poppins, then who is she based on?

Frankenstein's Monster.

Now, I know Frankensteins monster is about the furthest thing aesthetically to Neo, but the connections are there.

But first, a bit of background for reference: Let's go back to the episode in volume 3 where we're introduced to how Cinder got her motley crew. Pay attention to who's introduced. First we hear Cinder, then we see her recruit Emerald, then Mercury, then Roman (albeit we only hear her recruit him). We even see her forcing Adam to join her and he's not as closely linked to her group as everyone else. But who do we not see? Neo. This leads me to believe that Cinder never recruited Neo, or even had the need to.

In addition to this, while Neo is almost always seen with/associated with Roman, in the first episode he doesn’t have her with him and has to hire second rate mercenaries to help him rob the dust shop. Granted, it’s a small job but considering how much we see Neo with Roman afterward, it is odd for her not to show up. It's especially odd since Cinder shows up to help at the end of the fight, which is the role Neo fills in all other battles. I speculate that Roman didn’t find Neo, nor have they known each other for a very long time (they met some time after the events of episode 1)

Then we have Neo's connections to Frankenstien's monster, which, as I said before, seems as aesthetically antithetical as possible. However, that's only if you get caught up in the big discrepancies.

My first and main piece of evidence comes from Neo's name itself. Neopolitan. Neapolitan is an ice cream made up of 3 different ice creams. 3 parts, one whole. Frankenstein is a monster made up of many different humans. Many parts, one whole. Admittedly this sounds really stupid but it also makes a lot of sense.

We also have the fact that Neo never speaks. In the first half of the book "Frankenstein", the monster cannot speak. Granted, the monster does learn to speak through observation and study, but putting that aside for a moment consider that the lack of speech as abnormal and an imperfection. Imperfect because the monster, and Neo, both were created by men trying to play god. Imperfect men with imperfect creations.

Going back to aesthetics, consider the fact that Frankenstein is, in almost all interpretations, stitched together, clearly abnormally looking from the outset. Now, consider Neo, with her two tone hair that's split exactly down the middle, her heterochromatic eyes that inexplicably change color, and her overall doll like appearance. Both are very abnormal, even in the context of RWBY, no one else has two toned hair like Neo's, or eyes like hers.

The prefix "Neo" means new. Frankenstein's monster is a "new" form of man. The fact that her name is often shortened to Neo puts emphasis on the meaning and it's importance.

Homunculi are very similar to Frankenstein's monster. Interestingly, homunculus means "little man" Neo just happens to be the shortest character in RWBY by far.

So Neo has clear connections to Frankenstein. The next question to answer then, is who created her and why? My answer is from a person who has no canon interaction with Neo so far. Watts.

We learned in volume 5 that Dr. Watts is a disgraced Atlesian doctor and scientist. I find it very telling that Watts was able to get himself booted from Atlas, considering we know their science gets very morally grey (see the soul transfer machine in volume 3). Ergo, Watts must have being doing so really fucked up experiments. Perhaps fucked up enough to grab Salem's attention.

Watts is the odd man out in Salem's group. Cinder, Hazel, Tyrian as well as Emerald and Mercury, are all capable and used for their fighting skills. Watts, meanwhile, has shojo legs. He's not exactly the fighting type, so why does Salem keep him in her inner circle? Experimenting. Watts is making Salem a weapon, a living weapon, Neo.

With all that in mind the theory as applied to the story goes like this:

Watts was most likely disgraced for doing human experiments, gained Salem's attention, and began to work for her and continue his own research in human and other unethical experiments.

Watts creates Neo. Admittedly im not sure who she’s made out of (literally or figuratively) but we speculate it could be Cinder, Emerald and Mercury, since her semblance includes parts of Cinder (illusion shattering to glass) and Emerald (illusions). Obv Merc is just a guess since we don’t know his semblance yet (I also say it's the 3 of them because there's 3 ice creams in Neapolitan, so 3 people would make Neo). I assume Salem’s dark magic is involved in some way as well. Her hair could also be a clue as to who she's based on, however we haven't seen any characters with bubblegum pink hair yet.

Watts may have also used the same technology behind the soul transfer machine to transfer people’s semblances into Neo to make her more OP. the whole reason they tried to use the STM in the first place was to transfer Ambers powers to Pyrrha, not her soul. It would make sense if Watts attempted the same thing. (It also makes sense that Watts would have been involved with the STM, considering it's an Atlesian human experiment and ethically dubious.)

On the OP thing, something I didn't mention earlier is that Neo’s has a lot of powers. Clearly she can create illusions, which have a physical presence seeing as how Yang shattered the one she used in V2 Ep4. Also, many people have noted that during the Yang and Neo fight, Neo’s eyes switch when she’s about to attack. Then there’s also her teleportation at the end of that fight once Raven shows up. Suffice to say Neo has a lot of powers, more powers than anyone else in the show save for maidens.

It makes sense if she got all her powers either through the parts of others that were used to make her (i.e: Em, Cinder, Merc), through the STM, or a combination of the two.

Salem gives Neo to Cinder, most likely to test her ability in combat as well as test Cinder's ability to control her. While it does seem like Neo would be an important asset to have as a human weapon, Salem still needs to test her, she and Watts could probably duplicate their results or literally stitch her back together if they needed to. Not to mention that Neo is a flawed prototype (remember, she can't speak) so Salem wouldn't see her demise as much of a loss.

So there you have it. I think it's a pretty good theory and leaves a lot of interesting paths for reintroducing Neo to the story and for the story at large. Lemme know what you guys think, and if you have any idea where Roman fits into this, bc admittedly I haven't figured that out entirely either tho my inclination is that he's like the fire prometheus gives to man that they then depend on? Idk but ill update this if I figure it out.