#then the order of who got picked off kept changing. it was either atlas or castor as the final one
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hgh wanna overhaul a main element of starfall again
#vague spoilers ig but its about how asha gets stranded again#i swear ive had a lot of iterations of it bc its like. convoluted ill admit that#the result is usually the same- she gets separated from atlas and castor and quinn- but the how and what happens#is all over the place#at the beginning of this iteration her parents were forced out of the pmd dimension by [redacted] and asha hatched slightly after#so was born into the situation. then all got picked off til only she was left#then the order of who got picked off kept changing. it was either atlas or castor as the final one#and currently its atlas#but then i changed it so that they all get stranded when asha is a bit older so she knows who [redacted] is personally#and gets more time with quinn before she disappears but everyone still got picked off#and now i kinda wanna remove everyone being picked off and replace it with JUST asha getting stranded#as in [redacted] happens and asha loses all 3 at once. really going into just how much it shook her world#and adds to the mystery of where everyone went maybe?#but also everyone being picked off adds some paranoia..... shes paranoid thats an aspect of her character#and this isnt even getting into the mess that is skylar rn. skylar's backstory is a mess#and how they get there worries me bc i think itll be confusing#sometimes im tempted to just. separate asha and skylar and have skylar come in later#but bc of spoilers idk how itd work#and i love them as a trio#but everything just... feels sooo uneven rn and i kinda hate it#its why u havent heard much abt starfall itself tbh i dont like where its at rn#i might honestly have to just tear out a lot of what i have but idk where to start in making it feel good#echoed voice
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I’ve been seeing an uptick in “anti-RWDE” posts lately — which is a phenomenon I’d like to comment on at a later date — but for now one of them (quite unintentionally) made me realize something about the finale that I haven’t seen others discuss yet.
So RWBYJNOR saves everyone, right? Let’s just put aside the animation for a moment — which didn’t show any army members making it out — as well as the forgotten side characters — Maria, Pietro, Qrow’s group isn’t forgotten, but still left behind — and take things on good faith here. We’ll read the finale through the thematic intention: RWBYJNOR saved “everyone” in the Kingdom of Atlas in Volume 8, deliberately contrasting them with Ironwood who was willing to sacrifice a chunk of the Kingdom in Volume 7. Forget all the messiness and just accept that regardless of the consequences — like a destroyed Kingdom and a “dead” team — the heroes are heroic because they didn’t give into a “lesser evil” thinking and managed to save everyone.
Now, how was that possible?
Let’s go back to the beginning of the seventh episode of Volume 8, “War.” Salem’s grimm have just burrowed through Atlas’ defenses and taken them out. The shields are gone. She flies Monstra into the fields and releases an army of darkness that immediately heads for the city. What’s the very first thing Ironwood does?
Soldier: Yes, sir?
Ironwood: I am evacuating all citizens to the subway. Prepare Manta Squad Omega, and dispatch to every part of Atlas.
Soldier: But sir-
Ironwood: Now!
He evacuates the people, with “the people” meaning all the Atlesians and however many Mantle folk got to the city prior to Salem’s arrival. When this episode aired I mentioned being confused as to why the soldier was so hesitant. Why wouldn’t you want the people to get to safety when a grimm army is heading their way? Fans against Ironwood took the soldier’s side, claiming that Mountain Glenn proved that any underground evacuation is a death sentence and thus he obviously doesn’t really care about the peoples’ safety. Fans in support of/neutral towards Ironwood pointed out that this is a pretty big leap, no one is coming up with a better idea for what he should do instead, and that within these circumstances it reads like the soldiers is illogically against this idea simply because everyone is against Ironwood now. The show wants characters criticizing his decisions and making him out to look like a crazed dictator... even during moments when it doesn’t make any sense to be upset with him. Shooting the councilman yes, trying to keep the people safe no. Basically, this small exchange was a mess, but the rest of the volume proved that this was a sound call. The subway never collapsed and no grimm ever made it to that enclosed space to pick the civilians off like fish in an underground barrel.
So, why didn’t that happen? Well, one answer is because Oscar and Ozpin destroyed the whale. But how did they have time to do that? Without the people dying while they were being tortured, talking to Hazel, escaping with Emerald, fighting Salem, etc.? A lot happened between Salem starting her attack and Oscar ending it, so why wasn’t 2/3rds of the Kingdom’s population decimated during that time?
Because Ironwood sent his army out to keep the grimm occupied.
Outside of Ironwood’s cartoon villain actions — random murders and bomb threats — which get the most attention due to how deliberately, over-the-top horrific they are, these are the two actions that get the most negative attention from both the story and the fanbase. The soldier seems horrified by the order to evacuate. Marrow is devastated that young adults are fighting in this battle. The fandom is disgusted by both aspects of Ironwood’s character: giving orders that, as general, he expects to be obeyed and having an army that follows those orders. Putting side that cartoon villainy, this is what supposedly makes Ironwood the antagonist here. These are the qualities that have existed since Volume 2, resulting in a “he was always a bad guy” interpretation. These are the qualities that have resulted in anyone who likes his character being labeled as a “bootlicker.” We know these qualities make the fandom hate him because otherwise, more people would be confused as to why a presumably heroic character randomly shot Oscar. Orders, armies, and general military associations are at the heart of Ironwood’s presumed villainy.
So let’s remove them.
Ironwood has no evil army. Ironwood gives no evil orders. Power and control lies solely in the hands of our non-military heroes. Everything is better!
...well, no. Because we saw in Volume 8 precisely the choices our heroes made when the attack started: half of them focused on saving a single individual (Oscar) and the other half kept to the sidelines. At no point did our RWB group act after sending the message and prior to securing the Staff. AKA, during the attack of Salem’s army. We got a very explicit moment in which Ruby looked out the window at the battle going on and turned away from it, continuing to discuss ethics instead of joining the fight. The people of Atlas (which, again, includes many Mantle citizens) had no one but Ironwood and his army because a third of the group was trying to rescue Oscar (they never even had a plan to blow up Monstra — that was also Ironwood), a third of the group was up in Amity, and a third was sitting in the mansion. They did nothing to help the people of Atlas being attacked by grimm.
Thus, if you remove Ironwood’s actions, everything goes to hell. There is no longer an order to evacuate to the subway. Maybe some people go there anyway. Most probably don’t. They run in a panic wherever they can. Hide wherever they can. Go back home for some semblance of safety.
There’s no longer an army. Either it doesn’t exist because we’ve determined it’s simplistically bad despite RWBY’s grimm-specific context, or Ironwood likewise never gives the order to protect Atlas’ border. Salem’s army moves unimpeded through the city, killing countless people as it goes. How do we know? Because they’re civilians who can’t defend themselves and there’s literally no one else to help. Remember: Ironwood is not giving orders, there is no army, RWB is in the mansion, YJOR is in the whale, Penny is out of commission, the Happy Huntresses are in Mantle. Those in Atlas are entirely alone. In time, Oscar destroys the whale, but by then it’s too late. There’s no concrete way to theorize how many have died, but it’s inevitably a lot. Everyone else is scatted across the city, trying to survive.
So this scene
no longer exists.
When the group gets the Staff and creates portals for “everyone” to escape through, Mantle is ready to go. They’ve gotten everyone into the crater and can funnel them straight to Vacuo. Atlas, however, is in chaos. When Jaune enters the subway there’s only a few people there, many of which may be wounded or dying. He’s right back where he started, in Mantle at the beginning of Volume 8: needing to go door-to-door to find where people have hidden themselves, trying to convince them all to follow him (remember Oscar commenting to Ozpin about how difficult that was?). Except now, he and Nora are the only ones trying to get people to safey, the city is filled with far more grimm, a significant amount of time has passed for people to be killed or injured (making evacuating them even harder, both due to injuries and an unwillingness to leave hurt/dead/missing loved ones behind), he’s trying to convince these panicking people to go through magic portals, not just walk to a crater, and he’s aware that there’s a very short time limit for this task.
Jaune returns in a panic of his own, explaining how difficult it will be to get that 2/3rds of the Kingdom to Vacuo. How many are already dead. Barricaded. Missing. Closeup on Ruby looking horrified, but then she rallies. They can do it. Atlas is falling, but residual dust gives them just enough time to find, calm, and evacuate those people. They’re heroes after all. Beating the odds is what they do.
Then Cinder attacks.
Suddenly, the group can’t evacuate people because they’re trying to keep themselves safe from her. Maybe Cinder gets the powers because Jaune was off looking for civilians, leaving Penny without a mercy kill. Maybe Nora dies because she’s still trying to help people on the city that plows into the one below. Regardless of how details might change, they’re not getting a spread out, decimated population through those portals before Cinder changes the wish and makes them disappear.
In this version, the story starts with Ironwood wanting to sacrifice 1/3rd of the population to save 2/3rds and the future of the war. It ends with 2/3rds of the population dying instead.
This is what I mean when I say the majority of the fandom wants to view a very complex situation through a ridiculously simple lens. The fandom wants to denounce every bit of RWBY’s fictionalized military, the context issues of that aside. The story wants to paint RWBYJNOR as the only heroes, in part because they succeeded in saving everyone (“everyone”) in the Kingdom when Ironwood gave up.
But they only managed to save everyone because of Ironwood. Because he kept fighting for his people to the bitter end. This is why, though his horrific actions obviously exist in the story, they make no sense (he’ll threaten to kill his people so he can... save his people?) and mess up what little is working in the finale. The story wants us to celebrate the group for evacuating Mantle and Atlas, but the Atlas evacuation would not have happened if not for Ironwood’s actions — the actions that are ignored in favor of having Winter blame him for everything and then killing him off. The rescue of “everyone” was very much a joint effort. RWBYJNOR’s win is not actually a contrast to Ironwood’s intended sacrifice, for the simple reason that their win depended entirely on Ironwood’s actions.
If we’re going to celebrate the group getting everyone to safety, we should probably also celebrate the guy who got them all to an easy evacuation point and ensured they weren’t eaten before then. Does that mean Ironwood never did anything wrong? Of course not. As established, the story went out of its way to make him into a villain. Rather, it means that other parts of the story failed to maintain that black and white view, complicating the heroism of RWBYJNOR in the process. If we want Ironwood to be incapable of heroic action, always the bad guy, nothing good to say about him whatsoever... then we likewise need to accept that the group is rather unheroic in many regards too. That, on their own, they would have failed to save everyone, just as Ironwood’s plan failed to save everyone at the end of Volume 7. Because they chose their friend over a kingdom. Because they sat around in a mansion. Because by the time they took action again and tried to escape, without Ironwood’s help they would have lost a larger majority than they originally insisted be saved.
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Magnificent Scoundrels- Battle on the Citadel
Shenanigans. Hopefully some cool battle scenes. I will try to have the second part of this story out as soon as possible. Enjoy. “He was just a rookie trooper and he surely shook with fright,
He checked off his equipment and made sure his pack was tight;
He had to sit and listen to those awful engines roar,
You ain’t gonna jump no more.” -Blood Upon the Risers, paratroopers song
The air swirled as the shuttles touched down. The acrid scent of coolant wafted through the air at the Turian and C-Sec lines in front of the Citadel. Now designated with the unimaginative title “Command Post Alpha,” this was the main spot where shuttles would touch down to disgorge their contents of soldiers ready to take back the Citadel. Engines whined, and hydraulics hissed as various shuttles, bearing their precious cargoes of soldiers and supplies, touched down. Sharp and angular Turian ones, the Omen’s large and boxy troop-carriers, the Normandy’s sleek, yet rectangular ones, the Apocalypse’s heavy gunship carriers, and the distinctive three-winged transports of the Galactic Empire. All these touched down, soldiers disembarking rapidly, and took off immediately to allow the next in line to land.
Shepard, Vir, Quill, Cooper and Drake stood around a portable hologram projector as the various troopers milled around in organized chaos behind them. Captain Viter of the Turian Hierarchy stood off to the side, urgently conversing with someone over his encrypted communications gear.
“So we have the beginnings of a pretty sizable army here. What do we do first?” The question was addressed to Shepard, seeing as he had the most experience with the geography of the Citadel.
“We should probably just do a general push throughout the Citadel to take the entire thing back. Make sure there aren’t any hidden pockets of resistance. We also don’t know who precisely is attacking or why, so we want to make sure there aren’t any hidden plans we’re missing.” Everyone nodded their acceptance to this. Cooper turned and looked back at the groups of milling soldiers.
“First we have to get this mess in order,” he said.
“Oh boy,” muttered Quill sarcastically.
“Okay. How do we do this?” asked Sheaprd, looking at the mixed group.
“Get whoever’s in charge of each group and send them here for a tactical briefing,” suggested Vir.
“Sounds good to me,” replied Drake. “Saul! Garang! Rilgaldis! Over here.” He waved over the commanders of his armsmen. The three marched over, the large lizard-like Rilgaldis wearing a set of ornamented armor, Garang wearing a massive suit of heavy beige and grey power armor, increasing her height by at least four inches, and Saul wearing a suit of black combat armor with strange metal bracing throughout. They nodded at the Scoundrels and rechecked their weapons as the group commanders were called over.
Maverick of the Omen’s marines and Captain Detoi of the Valhallan 597th followed, Maverick wearing a typical urban camouflage patterned suit of combat armor and Detoi wearing an Aquilia emblazoned set of grey-blue flak armor.
A raven-haired woman, wearing an extremely tight, form-fitting black and white suit walked over to converse with Shepard; Vir recognized her voice as that of Miranda Lawson, Shepherd’s Executive Officer. She was followed by Garrus Valkarion, lugging Drake’s gift of an Exitus Rifle. Captain Viter gave him a weird look, then followed him over to the projector.
Gamora appeared behind Quill, startling him. Last to arrive were two figures wearing the white and black armor of the Imperial Stormtroopers and Death Troopers, respectively.
“First off: who are you two?” asked Vir, gesturing to the two latest arrivals.
“You can call me Commander Blaine,” responded the white armored Stormtrooper.
“DT-997731.” Emotionless. Cold, dark, and blank. As a Death Trooper should be. Not making him any friends, though.
“You can all introduce each other when you get in your groups. For now, let’s just get this started,” cut in Drake.
“Fine,” replied Shepard. “Here’s the Citadel,” he said bluntly. “Here’s where we are.” A glowing dot appeared next to the Citadel Tower, located in the center of the massive station. “We need to clear the entire station.” He turned to the rest of the individuals huddled over the projector. “Cooper, you’re fast moving recon. You’ll be by yourself.” Cooper nodded his consent.
“That’s how I operate best.”
“Good. Now…” Shepard paused and looked around, calculating precisely what he would need. “Vir and I will be taking a large strike force up the center area to the Promenade. My ground team, Vir’s Marines, the Drev clan, and both sets of Imperials; Galactic Empire and Imperium of Man will be coming with us. We get there, take out what is likely to be one of the largest groups of resistance, then split up as necessary. Quill and Drake will be taking their own selected teams the other way. Understood?” A chorus of affirmations greeted his words. “Good.”
“I’m picking my team,” interjected Drake. “Second and Third squads of my armsmen are going with Shepard and Vir. First squad with me. Oliver, Mark, and Muelka with me. Kraiker with them.” Cooper and Vir glanced at each other as Drake got a sudden malicious gleam in his eyes. He broke off from the group around the projector and went through the various huddled soldiers, and started to select specific individuals.
“You and your team.” Captain Federer, the 597th demolitions officer and his squad of engineers dutifully followed.
“You.” A short woman, covered in tattoos and wearing nothing except pants and two carefully placed straps over her chest stepped out from Shepherd's ground team. Shepard gave an apprehensive glance to Drake, who was grinning maniacally at this point.
“You.” An older man with battle-scarred armor from Shepard’s team.
“You and you.” Ramirez and Maverick from Vir’s marines. Vir had a very good idea what Drake was doing.
“Aaaannd… you.” Rocket Raccoon from Quill’s team. Drake turned back to the other Scoundrels at the projector. “Okay! I’m good to go.”
“I recommend staying outside a general kilometer radius from that particular team,” muttered Vir.
“I thought you said you didn’t want to blow up the Citadel,” Shepard deadpanned. Drake shrugged.
“Times change.” He wheeled around and gestured for his team to follow. “Come my glorious minions! Explosions, violence, and general tomfoolery are to be had by all!” Quill shook his head as Drake’s team filed out.
“He’s taking my guys so I’ll take his. His Second squad and Captain Viter’s Turians are with me. C’mon. I have no plan, so we’re just winging it. As per frickin’ usual.” Viter shot Shepard and Vir a quick apprehensive look before being dragged away by Quill.
Cooper gave a nod to the two remaining Scoundrels, before pulling on his helmet and jogging towards the area of attack.
Shepard and Vir looked at each other again, somewhat lost.
“Okay then,” muttered Vir. “Blaine! Detoi! Get over here! Let’s go!”
Approximately Five Minutes Later
Shepard ducked and dodged as fire spilt upon his kinetic barriers. He rolled, then tucked forward as a grenade went off behind him. Two Valhallans were tossed in the air, screaming. A combat medic slid up to them and started to tend their pulverised legs as bullets whizzed through the air.
Kinetic barriers. Very useful devices. They had kept him alive through many a firefight, blocking shrapnel and shell alike. He grimaced as a Death Trooper let loose with a fully-automatic barrage of blaster fire. A Cerberus trooper across the massive open gardens area screamed as he died, his torso filled with burning holes. Too bad kinetic barriers wouldn’t stop energy weapons.
Not that he particularly minded in this instance, he thought as he unslung Drake’s gift of a plasma gun. He let loose a stream of molten plasma bolts, melting away a group of traitor C-Sec agents along with their cover.
He sprinted forward, then slid into a crater next to Vir and Detoi. The wreck of an ATLAS mech stood nearby, the very thing that had caused the massive dent in the Citadel before being brought down by armored piercing missiles. Shepard had originally thought the mechs to be exceptionally large and terrifying; one of the few two legged things that actually frightened him. That was before he’d seen Cooper’s much bigger and heavily-armed Titan in combat. Still, they were nevertheless powerful, and one of the reasons the assault on this massive hotel had bogged down in the gardens in front.
Vir poked his head over the edge of the creator and fired his rifle indiscriminately at the machine gun positions located on the hotel’s second floor. Detoi was busy chattering on a bulky radio set with an unknown party.
“Last time I was in a war this intense it was just a bunch of bugs,” grumbled Vir. “They didn’t put up machine gun positions like this.” The three occupants of the crater flinched as an ATLAS mech heavy cannon tore up the ground only meters from their position. “Damn. They didn’t have those, either.” Detoi hung up his radio receiver.
“We aren’t going to be able to push through this without armor or air support. I talked to Cain and Cooper. We’re getting Titan and Scion support. They also talked to one of the diplomats, apparently, and-” the ground shook as the heavy mech took a rocket directly to the engine compartment and blew up with a six meter high fireball. “-shit. Anyway. There are drop troopers coming in behind the hotel to cut off their retreat. So we just huddle down here, and wait for the right moment.”
Above the Citadel
The incessant drone of gunship engines whined in the background as the elite soldiers of the Tempestus Scions checked each others’ weapons and grav-chutes one last time. They stood against the grey metal interior of the back of the craft, ready and waiting for the ramp to deploy. Deep, midnight blue armor covered their bodies and faces. Red helmet lenses glowed menacingly in dim interior lighting.
“One minute!” came the pilot’s voice over the intercom. One of the Scions, armor much more ornate than his fellows, stepped to the side.
“This is a hot drop onto a centrifugal-force gravitational space station,” he shouted over the engines’ racket. “Nothing’s going to go wrong, though, because you’re the best. All hostiles are to be purged. No non-hostile xenos are to be harmed. Inquisitors’ orders. Elimination protocols sanctioned. The Emperor protects.” He gave a nod to his squad.
“The Emperor protects!” replied a gravelly chorus.
“Fifteen seconds!” came the pilot’s voice once more. The Scions shuffled forward in the dim lighting, looking at a single glowing red light on the near the end of the space. The ramp at the end of the gunship lowered, allowing the group inside to see outside, onto the arms and artificial sky of the Citadel. At the very edges of the view were the other Valkyrie gunships of the squadron, deploying the full contingent of the Watch Eternal’s Scions onto the Citadel.
“Three! Two! One!” The red light turned green. The two closest to the ramp took two steps and launched themselves into space, followed by the rest of the squad, then their commander.
It should be noted that grav-dropping into a hot LZ is against the laws of common sense and warfare. It should also be noted that Tempestus Scions don’t care what filthy xenos or heretics think.
Aboard the UNSC Fifth Winter
Clean black surfaces glimmered with the blue and white lighting common aboard UNSC starships. Groups of soldiers, wearing green combat armor, chose, checked, and looked over weapons from a huge, hallway-spanning armory. Some made jokes to each other, others complained over the fact that they were deploying in what was supposed to be a comfortable diplomat protection detail.
Quiet footsteps sounded as the groups of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers were called to their pods. They strode over the black grated metal walkways to banks of sleek drop pods. Clambering in, they pulled down metal restraints and strapped themselves in.
Small screens on the sides of the pods lit up with the images of two blank helmeted ODST’s.
“We are dropping in behind the hotel shown in the briefing. We are to stop any hostile forces from escaping. Make sure you don’t fire on any friendlies,” came the curt voice of the ODST commander.
Heavy claws roasted the pods into position. Through the front windows, the troopers inside could see down to the Citadel. The black void of space mixed with the blue of the massive station’s artificial sky. No problem. This is what they all trained for. It was in the name.
“Ready for drop. Three. Two. One. Drop.” The pods were fired from the carrier, and the ODST’s began their descent to the surface of the station.
On the Citadel
“These guys are fucking insane!” exclaimed Shepard. Throughout the battlefield, the firing did not abate, but Vir was sure people on both sides would be looking to the sky. Shepard pointed at the Imperial gunships, spilling troopers out of them. “They’re doing a sub-orbital drop onto a space station with centrifugally-generated gravity!” he continued. Some part of Vir had to agree.
However, the vast majority of the esteemed Admiral Adam Vir was almost squealing with delight. He was leading Imperial Stormtroopers, for God’s sake. From Star Wars. A childhood dream come true. Then there were the reinforcements. He looked up again. The meteor-like streaks of ODST drop pods and the contrails of Valkyrie gunships shone clearly against the sky. He knew about the Halo video games. Hell, there were copies of a lot of old Earth games in the Omen’s recreation room, Halo included. So, while he was inclined to agree that this was fucking insane, it was also fucking awesome.
“And those guys,” this was accompanied by a finger pointing to the drop pod streaks, “Are doing a full orbital drop.”
“They know what they’re doing,” said Detoi, though he looked apprehensive.
“They’re insane,” repeated Shepard. “Too bad I’m not up there with them.” Shepard grinned over to Vir. “Oh, man! Can you imagine that? N7 Special Forces doing an orbital insertion like that? You pilot, we drop?” Vir grinned back.
“Sounds like we have something to do after this mess is over.” He was cut from his thoughts by Detoi.
“I’m no expert, but they’re… cutting it kind of close, aren’t they?” Sure enough, the Scions were still in arms-outstretched free fall much lower than they should be.
“Yeah, they are,” muttered Vir. He couldn’t do anything about that other than just watch and hope the Scions truly did know what they were doing.
The falling troopers started to approach the height of the tallest buildings on the Citadel, and, just as Vir was certain they had judged it too late, the Scions flipped from belly forward, arms-outstretched postures to feet first. Blue jets appeared on their packs, and their descent abruptly slowed. The ODST’s drop pods started to jink and thrust, avoiding ground fire and coming into a perfect trajectory to crash behind the back of the hotel.
Ignoring the heavy weapons chattering over their heads, the Scions hit the ground hard. They rolled forward, and immediately started a pattern of fire-and-advance. Reddish orange lasers flew through the air, impacting against the architecture of the hotel. Vir moved up in the crater, but Detoi held out a hand to stop him.
“Wait one. We have heavy armor support incoming. Then we’ll crack this place open like an egg.”
Question: What is a grav-chute? A grav-chute is basically like a jetpack, except instead of boosting someone up against gravity, it merely slows someone’s descent into safe levels.
And, that’s that. If you have any comments, criticisms, questions, requests, or concerns, feel free to contact me. Enjoy your day.
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Motion Sickness Chapter 51
The Schnee-Shinra analogue is already there so let's let the good times roll. You'll find that Monty did most of the work for this crossover for me, at least in the now, phase.
pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq
My friends were in Atlas after less than a day. It had hurt to be thousands of miles away from them. I waited out on the landing pad for them with Penny. She'd been overjoyed with the news that Ruby was on the way.
The plane set down and my friends came waltzing out.
"Penny?!" Ruby called. She dashed forward and the two met in an enormous hug. I felt a touch snubbed but only a touch. Penny had been killed after all. Ruby was right to worry after her.
"It's so good to see you again, Penny. I thought you were dead!"
"I was!" Penny chirped. "My father rebuilt me."
"Just like that?"
"It wasn't that easy. They are limits to it. But suffice to say I'm back and more combat ready than ever!"
Penny hovered in place on jets from her legs, spinning once, before she landed again.
"That's incredible, Penny."
"My father worked very hard on my new body. He didn't want me hurt again. But enough about me. How have you been Ruby?"
Ruby's face fell.
"Ruby… is something wrong?"
"Yes. A lot." Ruby croaked out. I took that as my cue. I walked forward and put a hand around Ruby.
"You heard about Jaune didn't you, Penny?" I inquired.
"The turncoat?" Penny asked.
Ruby let out a noise of protest.
"Penny, Ruby and Jaune were together."
Penny raised both hands to her mouth. "Oh no. That means..."
"She's still recovering," I said. "It was a short time ago."
"Don't worry, Ruby, I'll help you anyway I can."
"Thank you Penny. And Weiss, how were things up here?" Ruby asked, desperate to move on in the conversation.
"They were fine. The whole operation went smoothly. How were things in Argus?"
"We were attacked by these three girls. They were after the relic."
"The relic…? But…" I trailed off.
"We don't know either. Ozpin says it's enemy disorientation."
"You're all alright though, aren't you?"
"Yes, the fight was short and they were focused on their objective. So we all made it out okay."
"But if the enemy doesn't know that they already have the relic what does that mean?" Penny asked.
"It means that they don't really have it," I realized. "They don't know where it is."
"That's what Ozpin thinks too," Ruby agreed. "He's just not sure what to do about it."
"Maybe General Ironwood will have an idea," Penny said. "Here he comes now."
"James," Ozpin greeted. "It's good to see you again."
"And you as well old friend. I have to confess that I feared the worst when Beacon fell," the General responded. He looked visibly relieved and at ease. More so than I'd seen him when I'd delivered the news of Ozpin's return.
"I think we all did," Qrow said.
"Qrow…" the General walked up and looked like he wanted to embrace the raggedy man. Qrow pulled a flask and eyed the General back. The General did a double take and stepped back and looked Qrow up and down. "What happened to you? You were injured. Your legs..."
"I picked a bad fight and got saved by some kids." Qrow rolled a shoulder and looked away. "It happens."
"Well it's good to see you in one piece." Ironwood acknowledged with a nod of his head. "All of you."
"This is a warm reception and so on but I'm afraid there is much for us to discuss. The relics and the maidens, I take it Ms. Schnee filled you in on our end but what about yours. Is the staff safe? And what of the winter maiden? When you sealed the country's borders I feared the worst for you. I thought you may be slipping as Leo did."
"Yes, come with me. Conversations like this are best handled behind closed doors." Ironwood agreed. He led the way off the airstrip.
We followed him into Atlas Academy and to the headmaster's office. The academy was all cool blues and greys laced with silvers. As much of Atlas was.
It was as though the entire city had formed a coalition and which colors they wanted to convey to the world and this was it. The cityscape was laced with those same colors in primary. If my friends thought it was just I and Atlas Academy which embraced them, they would be sorely mistaken.
"Ah here we are." Ozpin said as we entered the headmaster's office. It had a scenic view over Atlas and notably not over Mantle. "Let's start with the winter maiden."
"She's safe. She's in a bunker not far from here. The current plan is to transfer her power to Winter Schnee. The only person Fria is allowed to see each day is Winter," Ironwood responded. "I considered using the same process we were going to use with the fall maiden but this seemed more elegant."
"Very good James. Well done. That means that the relic of creation is safe?"
"It is. And I have more plans. Some for getting communication back up and running between the kingdoms. I plan to use Amity as a satellite. I've already begun to modify the colosseum for this purpose. Using dust supplies to keep it airborne, I believe we will be able to restore communication between the kingdoms."
"Incredible James. This is what you've been working on? You've been very busy."
"Yes. It has been difficult. Listen to me complain like I was the one who was killed. I'm sure you have all had a rough time of it. Ms. Schnee implied as much."
"No more than you," Ozpin disagreed. "This plan of yours is incredible. I couldn't ask for more, except of course…"
"Except what?"
"Opening the country, James."
Ironwood sighed. "I needed to keep her agents out of the state."
"This won't stop her agents. They'll find a way in. The only thing the embargo does is escalate tensions."
"After Amity goes up I'll lift the embargo and open the borders."
Ozpin tapped his staff. "Good enough. I won't press you. When will the satellite launch."
"Four months is the target deadline."
"James you've done so much. I was wrong to put you in the same category as Leonardo."
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We were put to work by General Ironwood. I had been right when I said there was no shortage of jobs coming our way.
We worked closely with another group. Ace operatives they were called.
Weeks went by and I watched Ruby get better. The missions were good for her. She grew strong again. And I found myself in love with it. My heart ached for her so much my chest hurt. I knew it would be too soon for her but I knew at some point I needed to tell her how I felt, lest I start avoiding her. She would be able to tell something was off with me.
She had a sixth sense about such things.
Her short hair was cropped to one side in a wolfish fashion. Her hood was done lower on her corset. She was beautiful. Tragedy had turned her into a woman just as I saw it had once turned Jaune into a man. Or whatever it was he became. My feelings about him were obtuse and deeply confusing. I imagined it was worse for Ruby so I kept my mouth shut about it.
I still could see the laughter in his eyes that early morning in Mistral. How could I forget it? Sure he had a harder edge to him but underneath it he still seemed soft.
I knew what Blake thought. I even knew what Yang believed. But even so… even so…
"What's our mission today?" I asked in the briefing room. My older sister was there staring at a data pad.
"You've all been doing great work…" Winter began.
"Here it comes," Yang said.
"So the General believes it's time you had a break. Take the day off. Do whatever it is people your age do to relax. It's as important as fighting the Grimm."
"There it is," Yang finished. She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. She had a thicker jacket on than she used to wear and longer pants, too.
"What about you? Will you be getting any R and R?" I asked.
"Not today. A prisoner break just occurred and it requires my attention. A new face in Atlas our soldiers identified as a 'Cloud Strife.'"
"Never heard of him," Ruby murmured.
"Well he's working with another person of interest. Neapolitan."
"Her we do know," Yang's eyes narrowed. "I fought her once."
"You did? You are certain?" Winter was surprised.
"The umbrella girl? Sure did. Back when she worked for Roman Torchwick," Yang said. "She nearly killed me. Could go for some revenge." She punched her fists together for a resounding clank .
"Well she's working for someone new now. She has a new boss. This Cloud Strife character. I don't want you to worry about it. It's becoming my responsibility, however." Winter tapped away at the pad.
Working with my older sister has been a good experience so far. She always shared the big mission details with me where she could and no one was hiding things from us which was a nice change of pace. We were persons of interest too. Just for the good team. It was nice. It was where we belonged. Doing the most good possible.
"If you say so," Blake mumbled. She'd cut her hair as well. She also changed her outfit to better match the cold of Solitas.
"I do. Go out and relax. Hit up a club and dance or visit one of our movie theaters." The words seemed awkward coming from my sister's orderly lips. But orders were orders. If they wouldn't assign us a mission then we had little choice.
"I might just stay in tonight," I said. I might bathe or find a good book and light some candles. Maybe both.
"I'll join you," Ruby murmured. "If you want my company, that is."
I nodded in her direction. I'd been dodging her a little but I did always want her companionship. Besides… this might be my opportunity to talk to her. I had to tell her how I felt at some point. My heart raced a little. Out of a combination of excitement and fear.
"I might go out and dance. I heard of a club some of the men sometimes hit up when they have the day off," Yang said. Yang was used to that kind of life. I remembered she used to go clubbing back in our Beacon days and before.
"I'll go with. If that's all right. I'm not much of a dancer, though." Yang nodded at Blake.
"I can show you some moves. Pretty girls like us just need to avoid moving our arms around like idiots and we look fine," Yang told Blake. "I'm sure you'll look good."
Blake looked away, a tad embarrassed. She rubbed her neck with one hand as she sat in one of the briefing room chairs. "If you say so."
"I do, just relax and enjoy the ride. You're on the Yang train now."
"Can I get off or…?" Blake trailed off. There was a laugh in her voice, however.
"Would you want to?" Yang challenged, a little red on her neck and in her cheeks.
"Perhaps not," Blake blushed. Yang offered her a hand and pulled her out of her seat.
I watched them with a contented feeling in my heart. I'd seen them dance around each other with a small amount of trepidation. They were my team. It was my place to worry about their feelings. Looking at them now I realized I had little to be concerned about. They were approaching the other with care and a little respectful fear.
They would be alright. They were taking their time in exploring each other. That was better than fine.
I just wanted the same to be able to be said for me.
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I washed at my neck with a wet, warm cloth and sighed. True to myself I'd lit some candles and was sitting next to the bath with my scroll, just dipping my feet in the warm water while I washed my bare back with the rag.
I was wearing my loose nightgown and had my hair still back in its braided ponytail.
I moaned as I dipped the cloth in the water and rubbed at my shoulders. It was good. I held my scroll in one hand and read on it. I knew Blake would say something about an analogue page having superiority but I was a digital girl. That is how I liked to read and it's the hill I would die on.
I moved the cloth against my stomach and shuddered a little as I read from my scroll. It was waterproof so there was really no risk. I even showered with the device everyday to sanitize it. Scrubbing it down with soap like any other part of my body.
Lavender candles were blooming around me. Just two or three. Enough to set the atmosphere while I worked the cloth against my pale skin and let out little noises.
I dipped the cloth in the water and ran it up my long smooth legs. I let out another tired groan.
"Ah…"
There came a knock at the door.
"Weiss it's me…" Ruby's voice came in soft and mellow.
I was decent so… "Oh? Come in Ruby."
She did, closing the door gently behind her. She was in her night clothes too, and she looked like a treat in them.
I turned away and went back to washing myself down with the textile. I felt Ruby watching me for a long moment as I eased it against the skin of my shoulder and back where I could reach.
She sat down behind me and stuck her fingers against my scalp. "R-Ruby." I partly protested.
"Yes, Weiss?" She asked. She slowly started to undo my braid with deft fingers.
I leaned back into her touch as she worked gently against my skin. She was sitting with her body in contact with my own. I could feel her aura. A soft red which matched the tips of candles and the far reaches of her bangs.
I set my scroll down by my side, the device slightly forgotten as Ruby worked undoing my braid.
"I used to braid Yang's hair when we were younger. I've got some practice with long hair. Your hair is so pretty, Weiss," She said, her voice came in low, soft, and sensual.
She worked quietly. Unfastening the bobby pins that held my braid tight one by one. I shuddered as she worked. My head slowly became less and less taut. As she toiled she'd place the bobby pins on the counter by the bath with soft metallic clinks .
I could smell her aura. Roses and a touch of something sweet like cinnamon. I breathed it in deep with the scent of the lavender candles. It made me feel light headed, even more so than my hair becoming less rigid and unbound did. Or maybe it was the combination of the two.
Soon my pale hair was all hanging free and the pins I used to fasten it we're all in a small pile by the bath. Her task complete she took the rag out of my hands and dipped it in the water.
She rubbed it against my back softly, in all the corners I couldn't reach. Under my shoulder blades. Near the clasp of my bra. I felt her work her way under the string of it and let out a noise I was partly ashamed of.
"Oh…"
I felt my face flush with heat. I knew a rosy pink would be coloring my cheeks and the beginning and end of my neck.
She rubbed at the back of my neck with it and I pressed back against her.
"I missed you Weiss. You've been so far away from me lately."
"I missed you too Ruby," I choked out.
I couldn't help it. I turned around and took her face in both my hands and kissed her with temperature.
I think she was surprised for a moment but then she gave in and leaned in with a tired drawn out moan.
"Mmmhmmm...mmhmm...Weiss..." She whimpered.
She whispered my name against my own lips and it lit something in my chest. I brushed one hand against her hair and grabbed the back of her head right with it.
Do it again.
I thought by degrees.
Moan my name again.
For a moment her tongue brushed against my lips. I let my own out a little and where they touched they burned like fire.
"Ruby…" I purred.
I felt her aura flare up and my own did too. I wondered briefly what my own resonance felt like. Her's felt good. Really really good. It touched mine all over and I leaned in a little more. Her aura dazzled against my own flesh and essence. Blazing against my skin and the very heart of me, it was like nothing I'd ever felt before.
A rose petal fell from her aura and landed on one of the wax candles. It burnt up.
My hand touched the inside of her thigh.
"Weiss wait." She broke it off, the burst of the petal burning seemed to be the trigger for it for her. That or my touch. "I'm not ready. I'm not there yet."
I knew she wasn't. I'd made my move anyway. I looked away with some shame.
"I will be. I promise I will be," she tried, hurriedly. Like it was her fault.
"I know you will Ruby. I just wanted you to know." I whispered. "Whenever you are ready I'll be there. And even when you're not I'll still be there for you."
"About Jaune…" I said nothing, just waiting for her to finish. "I-I never thought I'd have to experience life without him. But I feel that way about you too. I don't want to imagine my life without you. I'm just so worried about him."
She was crying a little.
"I understand," I told her.
"You do?" She sounded shocked. Like she was sure I wouldn't have been able to get it.
"I do," I promised. "I think I know how you feel. You were-are attracted to the both of us," I corrected mid-sentence.
"Yes." She whispered. She wiped her eyes and I helped her. "I'm just so confused. Especially with what happened to him."
"I was a little confused as well," I confessed.
"You were?" She sounded incredulous. "But you never liked Jaune."
"I told you I started to see what Pyrrha and you were on about towards the end. He was so hard, yet soft in the center."
She laughed. An honest sound.
"You saw it too, then. What made him so great."
"I also see what makes you so great." I wiped her tears away and kissed her cheeks without passion. "I was… confused a lot. Especially when you told me you were both having sex. I still am confused."
"We'll figure it out." Ruby whispered. "Together, you and me. I just need more time."
"Whatever you need, Ruby."
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-WG
#ruby rose#rwby#ff7#ffvii#cloud strife#jaune arc#cloud!jaune arc#sephiroth!jaune arc#weiss schnee#james ironwood#Oscar Pine#ozpin#qrow branwen#yang xiao long#blake belladonna#ruby rose x jaune arc x weiss schnee#war of the roses#white rose#whiterose#whiteknight#white knight#lancaster#bumblebee#bumbleby#yang xiao long x blake belladonna#motion sickness#penny polendina
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Red Carpet
Stardom! It’s a thing that runs rampant all over Remnant. Dozens of heroes, legends, leaders, and rising stars get noticed almost every day for one remarkable reason or another. However, not all stars are the same, and that couldn’t be more apparent than the night of Remnants red carpet event. A gathering of only the finest of stars and their guests were invited to this prestigious event in order to partake in awards, premiers, and anything else the year had to offer. As usual, people and paparazzi came in droves to get glimpses of their idols; all of them anxiously waiting for first timers and veterans of the event. It was the one time to get so many celebrities together. The one time people get to see all the Schnees together. Or at least in the same area…
Valerie sat in a limousine, anxiously waiting for the moment she would have to leave the comfort of it and face all the flashing lights, which wasn’t an entirely new experience. The freshman had gotten used to that sort of thing from being an up and coming athlete, but a stadium was a far cry from anything of this magnitude. This was where the big fish were, and Valerie wasn’t even one of them. She was a plus one. The girl rubbed her fingers through her fresh pixie cut and took another look at the positively pink, shimmering dress she was wearing that stopped just above her knees. In reality, Valerie thought she looked exactly like the name of her hair cut. Even the pink flats she wore looked right out of a fairytale book. She wasn’t one for makeup up, but that wasn’t gonna fly today. Her mother had given the girl a bit of blush and lip gloss to add to her beauty. The only thing that wasn’t touched was her beautiful turquoise eyes. Those gems were fine all on their own.They would probably distract people from the orange studs in her ears. She was certainly dressed for the event but the butterflies in Valerie’s stomach kept her nerves on edge, unlike her date.
Across from her was the very person who gave her the plus one ticket, resting their eyes as if this was some kind of field trip. Oh how the other half lives, but that’s always how Nicholas Schnee has been. Valerie has probably seen him in formal attire way more than regular clothes at this point. His trademark pure white blazer, shoes, and dress pants looked as flawless as ever. The splash of color this time around was an orange tie that matched Valerie’s hair and pink undershoot to go with her dress. Nick’s messy head of snow white hair was slicked back for the occasion and a very expensive looking watch on his wrist looked like ice itself. All in all, the young man looked like every bit of the heartthrob the media made him out to be. Nick’s eyelids lifted slowly, revealing his icy blue eyes that immediately met Valerie’s. It was completely unfair for anyone to look that good waking up, it was one of many things that made people call him a modern day prince.
“How was your beauty sleep? It’s not like you to doze off.”
“I always try and rest before these things since they can drag on.” His voice was still a little low from waking up. What was it about boys that made their tone feel entirely different after waking up? Between that and the usual tiredness around his eyes gone, Nick was liable to be the centerpiece of this event. Something that made Valerie let out an exhausted sigh.
“Are...you okay?” Nick asked. “You’ve been this way since I picked you up.”
“Oh it’s nothing. I just can’t believe I was roped into this. Actually, scratch that, being roped in implies I had a chance to resist. I had the rug completely pulled out from under me.”
“Oh don’t be like that. You wanted to go here anyways.”
“Yeah well I was expecting to have my own invitation and to be with the rest of our family.” Valerie crosses her arms and huffs. “I mean I know freshmen don’t get too much attention from the public but I’ve been putting up some really strong numbers in multiple sports. I mean I’ll be representing Atlas in the fighting tournament for crying out loud!”
Nick looked at his childhood friend get cartoonishly pouty about such a thing. “Don’t forget, it’s not like I’m entirely here on my own merit either. I don’t believe many people are lining up to see me because I got gold in ice skating. Status got me here, everything else reinforces my validity. Next year will be a little different fortunately. That’s when we’ll start gaining real traction; think of this as your test run.”
“Yeah yeah…” It sucked how much Nick was right sometimes.Valerie had taken a few minutes to turn on the mini tv in their ride. The event had started a little while ago, but showing up early or in a group wasn’t in the plan from the get go. The Schnees had a certain way this event had to be tackled. Valerie’s attention shifted back to Nick to ask why that is, but was mentally derailed by the boy staring at her with a gentle that made Valerie thankful for the blush on her face. “Can you quit it already?” She said, with a hint of embarrassment.
Nick let out a small chuckle and raised an eyebrow. “Quit what?”
“Staring, you dummy…”
“But you look so gorgeous.”
Valerie squinted at him for saying such a thing. Nick quickly raised his hands in peace, caving into laughter.
“Wait, I promise I’m not trying to make a move or anything. I just can’t help but look at you. It’s like I’m looking at some kind of magical fairy. I can’t look away!”
Valerie couldn’t help herself. She covered her face and turned towards her window. “Yeah? Well….thanks. I forget how nice you can clean up as well.” Calling him handsome was too much for the girl, but he definitely knew that’s what she was going for by the cheerful expression on his face. Damn him! Valerie knew she was being read like a book. “Can you not look so cheerful while I’m freaking out?”
“What’s there to freak out about? Paparazzi aren’t anything new. Neither is a crowd or flashing lights.”
“I know that, but…” Valerie felt a knot start to form in her stomach. A glimmer of guilt started to fill her heart, as well as show in her eyes.”People might-”
“This doesn’t change anything between us.” He cut her off. “Yes, the media will probably try to insinuate something but it won’t be anything we can’t dismiss later on. Nick casually leaned against the car door, his eyes on the tv. Dozens upon dozens of rich people were still arriving with their family, including kids. Kids that were his age. “Girls always try to approach me during these things, asking for favors and trying to hassle me. You going with me means less of that happens. My family is so important that we have no choice but to arrive at different times and locations so we aren’t overwhelmed. It also forces the cameras to spread out.”
Valerie watched the boy’s face get a little tired just thinking about it. Almost every facet of Nick’s life was like its own personal battlefield with him as a general that was constantly making a plan to survive. Then there was her, worrying about rumors. Some friend she was.
Valerie reached for his hand and held it tight. Nick was immediately snapped out of his trance and was greeted with the soft smile he loved so much.
“Just leave things to me tonight. Focus on enjoying yourself.”
Nick’s heart nearly flew out of his chest. He doubted Valerie was using her ability on him and yet she made him feel so at ease. He gave her a confident nod and the two of them went back to acting more of less like their normal selves.
“I have to say though, it’s pretty telling one of your biggest complaints is too much attention from girls.”
“Well maybe if they were interesting or actually wanted to get to know me then I’d complain less. Being beautiful doesn’t mean much when that’s all you have going for you. If more girls were like you or Veronica, well actually, yeah there would be chaos. Never mind.”
“Hey! Don’t lump me in with that stuck up princess. My brand of chaotic is way more appealing.” Valerie said, puffing out her chest.
Nick could only laugh. “That’s the part that annoyed you?”
“Listen, I’m well aware I’m also a bit of an acquired taste for people, but she’s literally ten times worse! Speaking of the demon, why not pick her as your date. She’s here with her parents right?”
“Not exactly.” Nick smiled mischievously. Valerie was about to ask why when a sudden cheer from outside and the tv got louder than the rest.
“Ladies and gentlemen, there she is! Atlas’s favorite teen idol!” Cried a reporter, giving the answer to Valerie’s question.
xxxx
Flashing lights went off every second on the carpet like if they were the grand finale of fireworks. All for the chance to get the most elegant shot possible of Nicholas’s twin sister, Summer Schnee. Like her brother, the young singer had walked this carpet before and knew how to work it. If the stage was her home away from home, then this place might as well be her castle, and Summer had no problem giving her subjects the most regal display possible.
The girl wore the most beautiful flowing dress that went down to her ankles that twinkled with sapphire blue and piercings white flakes that looked like crushed crystals. The long sleeve dress itself started off blue at the bottom but as got to her waist, spiraled into an angelic white; making the right side of her torso and sleeve white, while the left remained blue. Her usual ponytail was abandoned and her waist long hair flowed like a river silk while her ears showed off dangling gems. One diamond and one sapphire that were on the opposite side of their respective color on the dress. Despite it all, no blue matched the deep blue of her eyes, proof of her relation to her dear father.
The people were going crazy for her. Everywhere she waved, a person asked her to smile. Summer had no problem with the attention but it’s not why she enjoyed this event. What made her day was the little girls and boys that were scattered just behind the carpet line with their home made signs. She gave a little boy a wink and his entire face turned red before hiding it behind his sign. Vanity pictures could happen any time, but making a kids day like that? That’s what made tonight worthwhile in her opinion.
“Summer Schnee in the flesh everybody, and looking stunning! This star was nominated for a few awards tonight. May she get all that she deserves.” The reporter ran up to her to ask a question. “Ms. Schnee! Over here!”
“Please, Summer is just fine. I may look like my mother but I think I’m still a bit too young to be called that.” Summer laughed.
“Okay then, Summer. If you don’t mind, where’s your plus one? We’d love to get a few photos.”
Internally, Summer let out the longest sigh of agitation. She knew full well this was gonna happen. It always does! Her face gave no such reaction to her thoughts however. As far as anyone who wasn’t in the loop could tell, Summer gave a genuine smile of excitement and joy. “No problem!” She pointed a little ways behind her in the direction she came from. Multiple people turned their heads like if they were trained animals. More camera snapping continued and even the reporter lit up when she found the target of so many eyes.
“Oh! Ms- ummm should I call her Ms, or use her name?”
“Don’t worry I got it. Hey Vee Vee!” Summer tried not snicker. Veronica hated that nickname, but what was she going to do? They might not get along but they know better than to fight in front of so many important people.
Summer’s voice reached the cat ears of her “date” despite all the noise and Veronica turned around. She almost forgot where she was and thought about flipping the girl off for using that nickname. That would’ve been a disaster for sure. Veronica overall wasn’t getting as much attention from the media as Summer, but definitely left more people speechless. She had decided to wear a slimming, strapless black dress that stopped a little about her knees and showed a little of her back since the dress was cut in a ‘v’ shape from behind. Her luscious black and blonde hair had been curled fabulously while her amethyst necklace complimented her eyes, nails and lipstick. The girl looked like a whole damn model! Even the way she walked in her black, four inch heels made Summer more than a little jealous. It was hard not to wish she had the body of a gymnast instead of a petite ballerina. Genetics were cruel like that. To top it all off, Veronica’s tail wrapped around her own waist to give off the look of her wearing a belt of some sort.
“You called?” Her hand wrapped around Summer’s waist instinctively. People loved seeing the girls so close. Summer did her part by slightly leaning on the taller girl.
“Oh people just wanted to see Atlas’s fledgling singer and Menagerie’s child of unity in some photos together.”
Veronica smiles at the cameras and waved to the people with Summer by her side. The female reporter beside them seemed to genuinely be moved by the sight. “You okay?” Veronica asked.
“It’s just very moving to see you two be a shining example for our youth. Humans and faunus being friends like this is still a pretty big deal.”
“Don’t I know it? As the daughter of a human and faunus, acceptance is the number one thing I look for in any place I visit. Both of my mother’s are very active in easing tension between our races. With one of them being the leader of an equal rights movement and the other being an accomplished huntress that serves the people, spreading fairness is in my dna. As a half breed, I like to believe I have a certain obligation to do the same.”
Summer was surprised. Veronica handled that topic like a pro. Summer knew that the aspiring fashion designer has had to make several speeches and attend rallies in the past in place of her mother Blake, but speaking as effortlessly as Veronica just did about a heavy subject was still impressive for their age. “I think you’re surpassing that obligation.”
Veronica was caught off guard by the compliment. She knew Summer wasn’t being rude or sneaking in any jabs. It was just an actual compliment. Veronica supposed that she could let that nickname incident slide, just this once. “Well thank you. Now then, I believe we should be moving along a bit. People to see, hands to shake. Nice meeting you Ms…..?”
“Lavender.” The reporter said, shaking Veronica’s hand.
“A pleasure, our parents should be further back or on the opposite side of this auditorium building. I’m sure they’ll love any questions you have.” Veronica didn’t wait for a response and casually pulled Summer along. “The nerve of some people.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know right?” Summer sighed, “She pretended as if she didn’t know who my plus one was when I'd announced it for weeks. I think she was about to ask about my family’s troubled history with faunus.”
“Or bring up any other awkward questions. Bringing up politics when parents aren’t around, I hate reporters.”
“Especially when they pretend to be emotional.” Summer looked at Veronica and the girl did the same. Both of them sighed in unison. They had intent on arguing tonight. All their energy had to be saved for people like Ms. Lavender. Tonight was gonna be a long night.
xxxx
“I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY ARE SMILING TOGETHER!” Valerie cackled, “Is this how you get decent photos of them!?”
“It’s the only way! I can’t get those two that close to each other without arguing on a regular day” Nick made sure to screenshot the pictures of the two ladies so they can see them later. He had to get some kind of entertainment from tonight.
“I honestly can’t believe Yang was okay with her showing that much skin.” Nick commented, “Makes me wonder what Blake and her are wearing. They’re into themes”
“Are we going to be the last to arrive? My parents just met up with yours.” Valerie showed him the text.
“Yeah, everyone else drew straws apparently on what entrance and what order to go in. We are the very front entrance, so be ready for all those lights going off in your face.” He half joked. No one could be ready for that mess.
Valerie grabbed the remote and started flipping through different news outlets. “I bet we can find the rest of our family on a different station.”
“Go to seven, It tends to get the business people.”
“Roger that.”
xxxx
“Woohoo! Hello party people!” Yang shouted into the crowd. Her approach to these events were always the most laid back, but that didn’t mean she didn’t dress the part. Yang left the crowd speechless with her all black attire. Dress shoes, pants, and a killer blazer she wore three fourths open; plenty of breathing space to let everyone know she wasn’t wearing a shirt underneath it. Yang’s nails were painted yellow to match her hair and her favorite aviators were on her face so the camera flashes wouldn’t irritate her. As the fifth ranking huntress in the world, member of the esteemed team RWBY, and wife of the leader to the biggest faunus rights movement, there wasn’t a soul who didn’t know who Yang Xiao Long was.
“Hey Blake, you think Veronica is doing well?” Yang turned to see her wife in the middle of answering a couple of questions. Considering the reporter didn’t look like some corporate stiff in a suit, Yang can only guess the questions were either about her outfit or how the woman was doing. Either one would be a very good question.
The raven haired beauty had on a fiery orange and yellow dress that shined as bright as her smile. The right side of the ankle length dress had a slit that went up to the middle of her thigh and her open toed wedge heels matched both the dress, as well as her black nails. Blake spared no expense. She even let her hair grow to shoulder length for the event. She had gotten tired of the bob cut. Yang managed to sneak up behind her wife and make lovey dovey expressions, as if she hadn’t seen Blake look so beautiful before. It was enough to get a laugh out of the reporter and make Blake turn around to see her goofball of a spouse. Yang tilted her shades down so her playful lilac eyes could meet the snarky amber eyes of Blake.
“Mind if I drop in on this interview?”
“I think you already have.” Blake said, her voice carrying a bit of teasing in it. She got pulled into Yang’s arms from behind and they both smiled at the young man who was now interviewing two people.
“So what question did I interrupt?” Yang asked.
“I was just asking your wife how the long trip from home was treating her. I’d say pretty good considering she’s all smiles tonight. How are you doing, Mrs. Xiao Long?”
“I’m great! I like this event, it gives me reason to come up here and say hello to a bunch of my friends.”
“Ah yes, the other half of your team live in Atlas, and then some. Have you gotten the chance yet?”
“Unfortunately my little sis was never one for dress up so I’m sure I’ll have to come knocking. I’m sure Ruby will have an opinion or two when she sees my outfit.” Yang let a chuckle. She hadn’t mentioned her clothes for no reason.
“Speaking of outfits…” and the reporter fell for it perfectly. “You both look wonderful! Who made these?”
Blake and Yang grinned cheekily. Events like these have a way of giving other people and topics more spotlight then they usually did. It would be foolish not to give a boost to the person they love most. “Our daughter Veronica Belladonna made these!” They said in unison. The girl was way too far away for her to possibly hear them, but they knew she was gonna flip out later.
“Well your daughter has quite some talent. I gotta say, you both just might be the most popular couple here tonight.”
That put a bigger smile on Yang’s face. “Thank-”
“OH MY GODS! IT’S RUBY ROSE!” A voice cried out from the crowd before Yang could finish her thank you. All the attention the couple had gotten had suddenly vanished as cameras and people turned towards a long white limousine with the letters ‘SDC’ on the side of it that had just pulled up.
Blake knew that vehicle anywhere.It was the favorite ride of the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company. “That’s Whitley’s ride. There’s no way he actually got Ruby to- oh he did!” Blake said, shaking Yang and leaving her jaw dropped. The cat ears are never wrong, and she definitely could hear their leader amongst the excited crowd.
Yang stood on her toes to get a better view. What she saw was a sight to see indeed. “That little stinker.” Yang smiled, impressed and feeling challenged in the looks department. Sure enough, the number one huntress in all of Remnant was walking with her husband down the red carpet in absolute style.
There wasn’t anybody around who wasn’t taking in the sight of Ruby wearing a stunning silver dress that stopped right above the women’s knees; showing off her toned legs for once and doing it in heels nonetheless! They matched her dress perfectly which also made her silver eyes pop out more surprisingly. Probably due to her red and black hair that was pulled back into a ponytail, except for a long bang that went across to the right side of her face. Though this outfit wasn’t in her favorite colors, Ruby was still plenty on brand. A red rose corsage rested comfortably and her nails were red, with one on each hand being black. Yang wasn’t sure from her but it was entirely possible her little sister might’ve even opened up a makeup kit before showing up. Her complexion was perfect!
Ruby’s appearance might’ve been the most shocking thing to happen at this event, but it was only elevated by being at Whitley’s side. Like Blake and Yang, the couple had the bright idea to swap color schemes. Whitley wore a dark red blazer with pitch black dress pants that matched the buttons on him. His undershirt was black with an intensely red necktie and his black shoes were strung up with red laces; a completely different look for the white haired and blue eyed man. His hair was slicked back like his nephew. Just like Ruby, he retained a splash of his typical colors but pinning a white rose on his suit. Blake didn’t know how, but Whitley made it work.
He was the first to notice the two of them staring while Ruby was busy throwing out peace signs to the people that were more than thrilled to meet her. The reporter interviewing Blake and Yang might’ve ran to her as well if Ruby hadn’t been slowly making her way over to his direction for obvious reasons. Ruby continued greeting people with a smile until her eyes found Yang, now the antics started. Ruby signaled Whitley with a wink and he couldn’t help but chuckle at her childishness. He wrapped his arm around her waist and the two started walking with more poise and smiles that oozed confidence, as if they were on a runway. The crowd went absolutely crazy. The clothes, the style, the attitude, they were…
“Blake! They’re trying to out couple us!” Yang said, shocked by the declaration of war that her sister had thrown their way.
“Ummm, don’t you think you’re a bit paranoid? I think they’re just putting on a show for the crowd.”
“I know my sister. She’s trying to take me down a peg or two for old times sake.” Yang put a hand on her hip and boasted the same confidence her sister did, sly smirk and all. Yang had to admit that she was very proud of Ruby. This was one hell of a way to say hello. It wasn’t long before they were face to face with Whitley and Blake looking at them. They loved their wives but boy were they a lot to handle sometimes. They doubted that the sisters realized the people around them anymore.”Well look who got all dressed up!?”
“Oh you know, gotta act my age every now and then.” Ruby snickered, “Is what I’d like to say, but I’m here to steal a little spotlight.”
“I knew it!” Yang blurted out.
Blake felt like she got whiplash from that confession. “Ruby!”
“What? I was reading a magazine and noticed how many pages the two of you got. Whitley told me it was because people lived seeing couples together and I wanted him on the cover of an issue, so…”
“For the record I told her I don’t care about being in the magazine.” Whitley added.
Ruby turned to him and poked his chest repeatedly. “Don’t try to act all cool now. Your face lit up like a Christmas tree when I said I wanted to go with you.” Ruby watched her husband’s face turn a little red. She’ll always love making him embarrassed. All these years and he still felt awkward about getting all mushy in public. That’s a Schnee for you. Cold on the outside, absolute softies on the inside.
“Is it bad that I like to spend time with my wife?” He said meekly, trying his best to act cool. He’s sure it didn’t come across as that, but it got Ruby to blush, so that’s a win in his book.
“I have to say, we’re a pretty good looking bunch right now.” Yang boasted, “who’s gonna top this?”
Whitley grabbed Yang by the shoulders and turned her forward. “Can everyone in this direction please make an opening and look behind you!?” He shouted.
Surprisingly, the crowd did it seamlessly. There was brief confusion before more chattering and flashing lights erupted. Yang slouched over in defeat, “And here I was thinking I’m the only woman who was gonna wear a suit?”
“Her entire clique is in suits!” Ruby shouted with peak excitement. She put her thumb and middle finger at the edge of her lips then gave one hell of a whistle. “Qrow, Winter, Sparrow; way to kill it!!”
The oldest Schnee sibling heard the chant from across the street. The plan was to sneak inside the building with minimum detection, but those plans were dashed. Winter immediately shot a look at her little brother. “Darn him,” she thought, “he knows I hate these things. What’s the point of drawing straws if he’s gonna sick the paparazzi on me? At least they’re far.” Winter refused to give people the luxury of seeing her in a dress unless it was absolutely necessary. The general of Atlas’s military had chosen to wear an icy blue women’s pant suit. The blazer was left open to show her white shirt she wore off that was cut fairly low for her. Qrow must’ve convinced her to show off a bit more. That’s not the only convincing he must’ve done either. Winter lives and would die with her hair in the same bun that has a right sided bang if she was given the option to. Through what had to be a miracle, her hair was set free from that style, finally free to be wavy and run down her back. Nick felt bad because he knew Summer wouldn’t have her hair down if she knew her aunt did the same thing. No one could compete with Winter’s hair. Her heels were pearly white and so were the actual pearls around her neck. Winter had her hands in her pocket and walked with an unbothered attitude. She really didn’t want to be here.
To her right was her adopted son, Sparrow. The twenty year old had come back to town just to be her plus one. Unlike his mother, Sparrow was having a blast! He also chose not to button up the blazer of his burgundy suit to show his black shirt, or wear his golden tie tightly around his neck; instead it was loosely hung near his collar bone. He didn’t even shave the brown rift of peach fuzz on his chin! Sparrow wasn’t completely crazy though. His flowing mane that he called hair was put in a man bun. These days the former navy sailor was looking more and more like a pirate, tanned brownish skin and all!
“You know you can at least try and look happy mom.”
“There’s no amount of money in the world that could do that.” Winter bluntly stated.
On her left was her husband Qrow. The veteran huntsman didn’t get his own invitation but was acting as Winter’s paid bodyguard. It wasn’t uncommon for people of status to higher one for security when attending these events. Winter was doing it to cheat the system, meaning Qrow still had to dress up. He went a step further than his son and flat out didn’t wear a tie or button up the top two buttons of his gray long sleeve shirt that was covered by his dusty red suit vest. No one could tell his socks matched the vest because of his black slacks and dress shoes. For once he was the only one who didn’t have to change their hair. It’s always pushed back, makes the grays blend nicely into the black. Winter forced him to shave unfortunately.
The red eyed man looked at his coco brown eyed kid and nodded mischievously. Both of them hooked an arm through one of Winter’s then proceeded to escort her across the street.
“What the!? What are you two-”
“Gotta treat social royalty with the utmost respect on a special day like this right?” Qrow said through Winter’s stuttering.
Sparrow nodded, “General or not, tonight you’re a gorgeous socialite.”
Winter’s face became a brazen red and a smile crept its way onto her face. “Very well, I have no problem being escorted by my two handsome men.” Yep, all Schnees are soft.
Sparrow took his time waving to onlookers and soaking in the sights. “Home hasn’t changed too much around here, that’s good. It’s also strange that this place isn’t completely flooded with people. I guess this dispersing plan is really working huh?”
Weiss nodded, “We let a little bit of our plan leak to news outlets so they knew to spread out. Besides the entrance Whitley and the others are going through, there’s an eastern entrance that should be packed because of my sister, as well as the actual main entrance. Your cousin Nick gets that one.”
“Where is the little guy anyways? He’s usually first to...well everything.”
“We purposely made him go last. This way he had more time to rest since he’s been extremely busy as of late. The crowd won’t be as rambunctious after seeing a majority of their favorite people too, so he has that benefit too.”
“How nice.”
“Anything for family.” Winter exhaled. She meant it, but boy was she counting the seconds. “I wonder how Weiss is? This is definitely more her speed.”
xxxx
“There is way too much happening right now!” Weiss cried out to Jaune.The middle child of the three Schnee siblings was the one who was most used to the fame and glamour because of her magnificent voice. However, it had been a little while since Weiss had been thrown into the thick of it like this. The joys of a slightly more humble and day to day life had firmly sunk its teeth into her, and these days she found cozy sweaters and early morning Sunday tv far more her speed than the hustle and bustle of being hands on with stuffy events. Being a huntress, mother of two twins, and wife was a full time job in itself. That didn’t mean she had forgotten how to wow a crowd, not by a long shot. Weiss wore a white cocktail dress that spread outward and stopped above her knees. A blue sash wrapped around her waist and tied into a bow in her left said, while her wedged calf high boots matched. Weiss had the splendid idea of copying her big sister by braiding her hair and wrapping it into a bun with a right bang. Weiss was never gonna outgrow imitating her big sis. Weiss did make sure to differentiate herself from both her and Summer though by going with ruby red earrings to add a pop of color. Weiss Schnee certainly looked the part, but she was having a bit of sensory overload. All the noise and lights were starting to hurt her head.
Jaune couldn’t do much about the noise, but the lights were a different story. The leader of team JNPR signaled for Ren and Nora, his other two teammates on the red carpet, to come over. The three of them spaced themselves around Weiss in an upside triangle formation as the four of them proceeded forward. It wasn’t often that Weiss liked being five foot even, but this was an exception. Having a tall husband and friends meant their bodies blocked some of the lights. It definitely helped her eyes.
“Thanks, you three.” She said, rubbing her eyes in hope that it would help them refocus. “Forgot how intense this could be when you’re at a main entrance.” Weiss grabbed ahold of Jaune’s arm lightly. The man opted for a simple black tux and yellow bow tie. He never was the fancy type. It was part of his appeal. All he did with his blonde hair was pull it back into a short ponytail. Weiss may have seen him as a prince but there was still plenty of pauper in his style. “Sorry if I wrinkle your suit hun.”
“I think you being able to see takes priority.” He chuckled. Jaune looked down to his left to see her blink a couple of times before looking at him and smiling. “Better?”
“Much better.”
“You know the crowd probably thinks we’re doing this because you’re such an ice queen.” Nora laughed, her hands waving happily to as many people possible from behind Weiss. Nora had chosen a very similar outfit to her daughter. The only differences being Nora’s ability to walk comfortably in heels and a cover up that was navy blue and only went down to her back. She only really wanted it to have sleeves. Nora has put so much work getting Valerie ready that her orange hair was only blushed down to give a more formal appearance. Not exactly the amount of effort people might want to see from a key representative in the state of affairs for the city of Mantle, but hey, her looks had nothing to do with her ideas to keep the city on its feet.
Ren went old school and decided on a traditional Tang suit. The jacket was a natural leafy green and buttoned all the way up while his cotton pants were black with a pink stripe down the side like the highlight in his jet black hair that he chose to put in a bun. He did this to show off the stitching on the back of the jacket that created a beautiful picture of a lotus flower. Clearly the most fashionable while still being a functional huntsman here. Ren wouldn’t be surprised if a kid asked him to break a board with a single chop before the night was over. He reached for his phone that started buzzing in his pocket and started spending his friends along.
“Woah, what’s with the sudden rush?” Jaune asked.
“If we drag our feet any longer then the kids are gonna beat us inside. Nick and Valerie are about to pull up to the front any minute now. Who knows if Summer and Veronica are wrapping up theirs?”
“Oh no, our babies!” Weiss and Nora said in unison.
“Double time Weiss!”
“Yeah!”
Jaune and Ren quickly grabbed their respective wives.
Ren let out a sigh, “I know you’re eager but shouldn’t we be keeping up appearances?”
Weiss and Nora looked at each other with an embarrassing smile before a confident nod, raising a hand and pointing ahead. “One point five speed!!!”
“That’s not what I-”
Jaune rested his hand on Ren. “We both know this is as good as it’s gonna get.”
“Yeah.” Ren smiled weakly, “Yeah….”
xxxx
It had been a decently long car ride, but it was finally time for Nick and Valerie to join the fray. Their limousine slowly rolled up to the very front entrance of the massive building where many speeches, awards, and dances shall take place. But before that was the long red runway to the front door surrounded by the press on both sides.
Nick stretched his arms out and clapped his hands together. “You ready for this!?”
Valerie took a deep breath to calm her mind. “No different from a sports audience, right?”
“That’s the spirit! Just remember, don’t look directly at the flashes. Cameras aren’t necessarily trying to get a photo of you with your attention on it, they just want a decent photo of you in general. Even if someone wants you to look their way, you can focus on what’s behind them or on their face.”
The fact that Nick had a secret to surviving walking to a door was both a little comforting and terrifying to Valerie. He was treating this like a battlefield! “I’ll follow your lead.” Valerie gave a convincing smile, but her stomach was having the same feeling a person gets standing in line for the tallest roller coaster.
“Guess that means I’ll head out first.” Nick grabbed the door handle. Normally someone outside would open it but he had to escort Valerie anyways, so playing the role of celebrity and guide seemed appropriate. He slowly pushed the door open just wide enough to slip one leg out. The squeals of what sounded like dozens of girls filled the air in that moment. He looked back at Veronica sheepishly, who wasn’t particularly happy at the noise.
“So am I about to hear the sound of excited pigs all night?”
“No, but you’ll be running a lot of interference for me. Good thing you’re good at defense.”
Valerie corrected him,“I’m great at defense, and keeping the ball for as long I need to.”
“Then I’m in good hands.”
Nick opened the door wider and stepped out into madness. The inside of the car lit up like strobe lights and the squeals only got louder now that the crowd saw their dear “prince” arrive. Valerie sat patiently until Nick stuck his hand back into the car to take hers. Valerie took it without delay and was pulled into his world, the world where eyes were always watching. It’s true that she’s been a part of it since forever, but this felt different. She wasn’t here because her parents this time, and her own merits hadn’t paved the way yet either. Nick had simply asked her to join. He’d offer a taste of what’s expected on the other half of society, and despite the confusing feelings she had about it as a whole, Valerie couldn’t be happier. After all this time, it was still the two of them acting like a dynamic duo. She had to admit that there was a comfort in that.
“There he is folks! The young heir to the Schnee Dust Company, up and coming ice skater, and a representative in the King of The Hill tournament; It’s Nicholas Schnee!” A random reporter stated. “And it looks like he’s brought a lady friend!”
Valerie overheard that comment and felt her face heat up a little bit. A piece of her wanted to say something about it but then she got a glimpse of multiple girls on the carpet and behind the velvet rope looking their way as they began walking. She’s never seen such intensity focused on her and Nick. Val noticed a couple girls taking a few steps and all her previous thoughts stopped mattering. Nick let out a tiny yelp as he felt himself be pulled closer to Valerie’s right side. She was basically hugging his arm and interlocked their hands.
“V...Val?” Nick said, his face getting a little red. She didn’t respond. Valerie was busy watching the other girls back off. “Valerie?” He said again.
“I don’t like the way they look at you. Like some sort of target or stepping stool.”
“Oh, it’s no big deal. Don’t feel like you have to do anything drastic.”
“I won’t. I’m just making it clear that you’re my date.” Valerie blushed, “Only look my way okay? I’ll do the same.”
“Ummm, then how will we see in front of us?”
“I wasn’t being lit- I’m saying you have my full attention!”
Nick’s eyes widened, “Oh… I give that to you anyways. You’re always on my mind.” They continued their walk to the door. Nick could feel Valerie’s heart race but he assumed it was because of what they were doing. It didn’t cross his mind that he did it to her.
“Yeah well, so are you.” Valerie thought to herself. She was so busy ensnared by his words that she didn’t notice the reporter had mentioned her by name, as well as listed a few of athletic accomplishments. Including her being a fellow representative for the tournament. That didn’t matter in the moment, just Nick. Her date on the red carpet.
Inside of the building was immaculate. It was almost set up like a conversation center, but for the rich and important. Multiple floors with multiple rooms dedicated to specific groups and awards, with the bottom floor being a ball area with plenty of food. The entryways and reddish brown walls were outlined with decorative lights that made the burgundy carpet match nicely with the intricate vine like golden design running along it. Valerie hadn’t even been inside for ten minutes and she could’ve sworn she already saw at least three fountains. Plenty of people were mingling and there were significantly less cameramen.
“There you two are!” Summer shouted from above.
Valerie looked to the second floor to the girl chewing on shrimp and standing next to Veronica who was not happy to see how close Valerie was to Nick. Valerie picked up on that and only leaned more into him, sticking her tongue out in the process. Being in a no fighting zone was the best.
“I wonder where our family is? Awards don’t start this early.” Valerie said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if someone convinced them to take a giant group photo. We’ll probably end up in the same boat the minute we find them.”
“That would be correct.” A feminine voice said in the distance, catching Nick off guard. It got both him and Valerie to turn their head to see a blue haired girl with twin tails walking towards them. Her shoes and dress were the same deep blue shade and stopped at her calves. It didn’t fall straight but was more bell shaped when it got to her waist. Her golden eyes held no deceitful smile, rather they showed indifference. “My father convinced your family and a few others to take pictures for prosperity. At least that’s the reason he gave.”
Valerie looked at the girl from head to toe. She looked their age. Actually, Valerie had definitely seen her before. “We...go to the same school, right? It’s Elizabeth right?”
“Eliza Marigold.” Nick corrected. “Daughter of Henry Marigold, another socialite. That’s about it though.”
“Well we all can’t be as elite as a Schnee.Yes we’re pretty low on the totem pole compared to you, but we’re still pretty well known.”
“Oh I meant no disrespect. It’s just that the only other thing I know about your family is how much your father and my mother hate each other’s guts.” Nick said with a smile.
Valerie suddenly realized there was some obvious tension here. “So you two are well acquainted then?”
Nick shook his head, “We’ve actually never spoken before. My interaction with her has only been an apology letter.”
“A poor one at that. You purposely threw a party on the day of my birthday bash and rob me off all my guests, but all you can manage was three sentences. Not even an invitation to the amusement park that was supposed to be rented out for me.
Valerie remembered that party, it was amazing! Summer sang and everything as fireworks went off. She had no idea the venue was stolen. “You ruined her birthday.”
“Oh you me, someone talks trash about Summer or my family and I find myself getting a little petty.” He scratched the back of his head, he talked like if he was a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar. Eliza clicked her tongue in annoyance and directed her attention to Valerie.
“Who are you, girlfriend?”
“I am his date.” She said confidently. “Who happens to be a girl, as well as his closest friend. Yes…” Valerie wasn't proud of that delivery but that’s what came out. “My name-”
“I’m aware. Do you mind giving the two of us space? I have words with him.”
Valerie didn’t like the sound of that. “Whatever you can say in front of him can be said in front of me.” She put more bite in her tone.
Eliza raised her eyebrow. She wasn’t expecting that level of attitude. Then again she was talking to an athlete. “Intriguing, here I thought you were some mindless fangirl Nicholas sweet talked into doing his bidding. Guess I was wrong, or at least...half wrong.”
This no fight zone was about to be null and void. Valerie clenched her fist and scowled angrily at Eliza, prompting Nick to hold her arm to keep her from swinging. “Wanna run that by me again?”
Nick thought it best to go a step further and stand slightly in front of Valerie. “Now, now, let’s not do anything crazy. Can’t we be civil?”
“I’d be more inclined to keep my mouth in check if you stopped with the phony smile. You aren’t fooling me with a stunt like that.” Eliza put her hands on her hips and waited for a response.
Nick responded by folding his arms and swapping that peacekeeping smile with a more analytical one and a gaze that sent a chill through Eliza. He watched her indifference turn into shock, before a spark of excitement went through her eyes while she smirked. “What’s that look for?”
“You’ve peaked my interest, that’s all. I’ll keep this brief. I don’t like your family that much and I specifically do not like you. I also don’t intend on putting on an act around you. All I wanted to say is that I qualified for the tournament and look forward to knocking your family down a peg.”
“How bold of you.”
Valerie chimed in, “Not to mention completely ridiculous.” Her statement got both of them to look her way. “Even if by some miracle you were to beat Nick, you’d lose against me. You’re fighting for second place at best. If you can even make it that far.”
The three stared at each other after that, the declaration of war now set. It was more of two vs one, with Eliza being the odd one out. She opened her mouth to retort but promptly closed it. Nick watched that spark in her eyes die instantly and the girl grabbed the sides of her dress to curtsy.
“Excuse me.” Eliza said, walking past them towards a man that could only be her father by the color of his hair. Eliza took note that she walked past Summer and someone else, giving them a quick look before going about her business.
“Who was that?” Veronica asked after he met up with Nick.
“Someone as insufferable as you,” Valerie answered. Once more, Nick stepped in between the opposing sides.
“It was just a fellow tournament participant,and then some.”
“Oh great, more obstacles.” Summer sighed, I swear you make enemies as easy as you do coffee.”
“This one is different, she’s cool.” The three girls looked at him questionably as he shrugged. “What? It’s not everyday I meet someone so straightforward. It’s like talking to you three, she doesn’t hold back.”
“Or know oh to be polite either.” Valerie said bluntly. She gave Nick a look. “You better not lose to her. Kicking your butt is reserved for me and me alone!”
“Gee, how touching” he scoffed.
Nobody knew it yet, but that wouldn’t be the last time all five of them were so close to each other. In a years time, they would be seeing a lot more of each other; as well as share an experience crazier than any red carpet event.
#rwby#rwby au#rwby twin snowflakes#ruby rose#weiss schnee#blake belladonna#yang xiao long#jaune arc#nora valkyrie#lie ren#winter schnee#qrow branwen#whitley schnee#rwby whiteknight#bumbleby#renora#rwby wild rose#rwby snowbird#nicholas schnee#summer schnee#val valkyrie#veronica belladonna#sparrow branwen#eliza marigold#i will never make so many outfits ever again
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Fix Me (doctor/soulmate AU) {4}
Summary: Getting to know Grayson Dolan and his field of expertise, Y/N finds herself growing closer to Ethan despite her initial reluctance.
Warnings: angst, fluff, SMUT, swearing, drinking, possibly triggering end
Word count: 7000+
Fix Me (doctor/soulmate AU) series Masterlist
A/N - heavily inspired by Grey’s anatomy, my own experiences and thoughts, but also by songs: Birdy - Not about angels, Bear’s den - Fortress, Matthew and the atlas - Out of the darkness, Harry Styles - Falling, Kodaline - Wherever you are, Isak Danielson - Love me Wrong, Dove Cameron - Remember me, Tom Odell - Can’t pretend, The XX - Angels.
I really hope you guys like it! Feedback is always wanted and appreciated, no matter how small or big it is!
If you want to be tagged for future parts, reply down below.
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Pulchritudinous (adj.) – having incredible physical beauty
Pink. Pink walls, pink scrubs, pink down to her underwear - that's what gynecology felt like to Y/N. Everything and everyone's just so...PINK. And she doesn't have anything against the color, in fact it reminds her of the most beautiful sunsets she's ever seen or the luscious lips she recently kissed, but there is such a thing as too much pink and this was the perfect example of that.
People smile so much she wondered if their faces are stuck like that and while she appreciates the kindness and acceptance they bestowed on any intern joining them, Y/N feels like she's stuck in a cotton candy machine cartoon. Yet she can't blow this.
It is absolutely imperative she does well and convinces Ethan to stop giving Grayson anymore of the interns because she never wants to be back on this ward in her life because the happy-go-people are driving her insane.
"Morning little princess! Had a good night?" Grayson snickers at his own hello and its was the first of many hints he had given her about what he coaxed out of his brother during morning coffee.
"A better night than this morning." She grumbles, looking up at Grayson in suspicion. Maybe he's always so smiley or his hair is always so nicely combed to the side, but something told her his curls are wilder than Ethan's and she got to experience them once upon a time. She nearly had a repeat just the night before and while she wanted to let go and give into Ethan, she stopped herself just in time.
Being around his twin certainly didn’t help her rid of Ethan from her thoughts or memories and no matter how hard she tried to lock the memories of his gentle touch, there was no denying he sunk his claws deep into her and more she tried to fight it, she fell only further.
“Sounds like you had a very interesting evening then.” Grayson quipped, his smile painfully ineradicable and unreadable, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling he could tell there was something between her and Ethan. Would Ethan tell his brother? Would she be comfortable with Grayson being let in on their forbidden kiss?
“You could say that.” She forced a smile before clearing her throat awkwardly.
“So, when am I supposed to be useful around here?” Changing the subject, she quickly glanced at the half empty rooms with lips pressed together, hoping she’d get to pay her dues and be done with it because if there’s one specialty she was sure she wasn’t fit for, it was definitely gynecology.
“There’s only one woman in the maternity ward, she should give birth sometime during the night. Until then, we’ll do a couple of check ups to follow progression of the delivery, mainly to make sure the baby and mama are well. The rest are all here due to risky pregnancies, but I don’t expect anyone to have their baby this week.” Briefing Y/N, Grayson was sure she would roll her eyes or at least make a remark on the slow day ahead, but he was surprised to see her nod along and make a few notes for herself.
“Alright. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to start rounds myself and I can fill you in later?” She smiled and Grayson frowned ever so slightly as if he was lost in his attempt to read her. And he was. People are usually open books and Grayson loves being able to anticipate what they will do or say, but this girl was hard to read and it frustrated him…especially when he wanted more information on how she feels for his brother who is a besotted fool. Aside from her beauty, Grayson found herself wondering why Ethan fell so fast for her because he wasn’t the cloudy, twisty type and Y/N looked like she possessed darkness Grayson couldn’t fathom.
“Doctor Dolan?” After losing patience, Y/N reminded Grayson she was still there and waiting for confirmation and while she could stare at his perfectly symmetrical face all day and admire the way his eyes are hazel in this particular light or his extreme beauty all around, she really wanted to make a good impression and prove she can do more than just surgery and most of all, she wanted to prove to Ethan that she can take orders outside of bed too…when she wants to.
“Oh, yeah. Sure. Page me if there’s trouble.” Grayson instructed with a small smile, rubbing his chin as she walked away from him, leaving him more confused than he had ever been in his entire life and all he could hope for is his own soulmate being easier to understand than Y/N otherwise he’d be in deep shit.
Orphic (adj.) – mysterious and entrancing, beyond ordinary understanding
“How is she doing?” Ethan appeared before Grayson without any warnings in the attendee lounge, nearly scaring him to death as he choked on that sip of coffee he thought of as his saving grace just moments before.
“You can’t just jump people and expect them to be forthcoming”, Grayson coughed once more and Ethan took it as a sign to pat his back…a little too hard for comfort or to earn a proper thank you from his brother, but he did receive a dirty I want to kill you look for his efforts.
“I didn’t jump you, I asked nicely as any brother would. Now, would you be a good brother and tell me you didn’t scare her away?” Ethan insisted, his eyes bright and curious, his hands clasped together before his chest in a tiny prayer of sorts, as if it would ever work considering Grayson’s meddling nature can only be stopped by death and that was certainly not happening any time soon.
“You literally came out of nowhere!” Grayson exclaimed before shaking his head in annoyance only to sit back on the couch and take a deep breath. “She was as enthusiastic as she can get, I supposed. Pretty sure she’s just itching to get this rotation done with so she can finally be back by your side.”
Eyes widening, Ethan’s lips twitched as he fought a smile from appearing because he knows that any time he gets any hope, Y/N disappears and he’s left to lick his wounds. This time, he would take it slow and let her mystery unveil itself on terms she’s comfortable with because whenever he pushes the matter, she runs, but the moment he slows down and patiently lets her know he’s not going anywhere, she opens up and every time he gets insight in all her beauty, he is left entranced. She’s not for feeble minded people, there’s no doubt about it in his mind and if anything, Ethan was more determined to love her because of it. She tested him in every way possible and while it was stressing him out, Ethan wouldn’t give up on her. She’s hard to understand to ordinary minds, but Ethan isn’t ordinary and he was ready to face the challenge.
“You didn’t tell her I told her about the kiss, right?” Deciding to check, just in case Grayson really wanted to anger him, Ethan tilts his head to the left ever so slightly, just enough to make sure Grayson knows there is only one right answer.
“No, but I did tease her with a few hints I’m sure she didn’t pick up on.” Chuckling, Grayson winks at Ethan before leaning in and whispering: “Don’t worry, she said she had a great night.”
“I swear, if she realizes you know I will never tell you anything again.” Cracking his knuckles, Ethan leans on the couch too, resting his head on the back of it with a heavy sigh leaving his lips.
“She won’t! Dude, relax and go with the flow. The connection you two share can’t be erased by anything and she will realize that too. I just hope my soulmate situation ends up being easy peasy lemon squeezy, cause I don’t think I can handle the stress you’re dealing with.” He barely finished the sentence before Ethan cackled, clapping his hands before turning to his brother.
“I hope I’m alive when you meet her because I have a feeling you’re going to be worse than I am.”
“Shut the fuck up.” Grayson’s words only sparked more laughter from Ethan who had tears in his eyes whenever he realized karma is a bitch and Grayson would likely get a woman that will drive him crazy too or he will drive her crazy because as much as he loves his brother, Grayson isn’t an easy man to deal with either.
“I hate you so much.” Grayson’s pager went off just in time and while he had more than enough to say to his brother for psyching him out about his soulmate, Grayson flipped him off and rushed toward his ward because Y/N’s just a newbie and he couldn’t let her deal with emergencies herself even if he wished he could. Grayson loves his job dearly and out of all the specialties he could have chosen, gynecology and neonatology were his first love and that’s why he became a double certified surgeon.
“Where’s the fire?” Still out of breath, he watched the rather calm Y/N with a raised eyebrow and he definitely had to hold himself back from taking his frustrations out on her.
“Just wanted to let you know the patient demanded epidural and I need you to handle it since I’m just an intern and I can’t exactly summon the anesthesiologist myself without your signature.” Finishing the last of the papers she was working on, Y/N looked up at the almost heaving, red in the face, sweaty Grayson who looked like he was about to have a stroke considering the pulsating veins in both his neck and forehead as he kept a tight-lipped smile to pose as a front of calmness and serenity.
“You good?” She asked with a slight frown, wondering if she should page some help in case the giant before he decides to crash on the floor, but he quickly nods, placing his hands on his hips.
“I’ll call them now. Thank you for paging me.” Despite the polite tone used, Y/N could tell Grayson wasn’t quite happy with her but then again, she had to call him before the poor woman’s time frame was closed and she had to endure all the pain of a natural delivery even though it’s her right to ask for medication. Shrugging, she just smiled and went on her break without sparing Grayson a glance, figuring she’d only get a death stare if she dared to look back and she wasn’t in the mood for anyone’s anger.
“Delivered any babies?” Alex asked her as they passed each other in the hall and Y/N had to fake a smile as she realized she’s waiting on one woman to pop while the rest of the interns are all in the OR. Anger of her own bubbled up to the surface as she walked into an on call room, her eyes stinging with tears she absolutely hated. Most people break things when they’re enraged, but she cries. It’s contradictory but that’s exactly who she is – a breathing contradiction of nature.
Querencia (n.) – a place from which one’s strength is drawn, where one feels at home; the place you are your most authentic self
“What’s wrong?”
And there he is again, finding her even when she’s looking for solitude, offering his hand to hold and shoulder to lean on even when she least expects it. The worst thing is that she’s actually becoming dependent on his help and that scares her most of all, because what is she supposed to do when he decides she’s not worth it and goes back to whoever his soulmate is? It’s always going to haunt her – who is his soulmate and what is their story? Why would he be kissing her if he has a soulmate?
“It’s stupid and I didn’t know you were in here. I’ll let you rest.” Mumbling so fast, Y/N stood abruptly, wanting to leave Ethan behind and find a quiet, vacant place to release the pent up emotions and confusion so she could handle faking some perkiness for Grayson for the rest of the day.
Grasping her hand in seconds, Ethan didn’t hesitate to pull her back toward him, refusing to let her walk away when she’s so clearly upset. Their eyes meet in an instant, the closeness forcing them both to hold their breath and look at each other silently. Ethan’s free hand gently moves along her arm, finding its rightful place at the side of her neck, touching her skin so tenderly she felt on cloud nine and it reminded her of that night where he unraveled her, made her scream his name in pleasure she never found before or after than night again. There was no denying it, Y/N had a weakness for his hand on her neck and his words in her heart, neither of which she had any willpower to refuse, especially not when she couldn’t breathe when he looked at her with such longing, shameful lust and indisputable passion. And still, she never felt more at home nor did she feel more herself than in Ethan’s arms.
“It’s not stupid to me. I won’t make fun of you, I promise.” Ethan assures her, speaking first in hope of having her walls break down and he released her hand only to wrap his arm around her waist, bringing her closer than ever, close enough to smell the cherry chopstick on her lips.
“I just miss surgery and everyone’s doing their thing while I’m waiting on one woman having a baby and it’s frustrating. But you’re right, I have to learn to be a team player and to be more patient with you and believe your experience and knowledge that is vast comparing to mine. But I still miss it.” The timid look in her eye made his heart clench so painfully, that Ethan could hardly stop himself from kissing her to relieve the hurt. His soulmate is a willful woman, fierce and independent that it made him feel guilty for seemingly beating it out of her in this particular moment.
“I see you learned the lesson. If it’s worth anything, I miss having you around too.” Ethan smiled, his lips nearly touching upon her soft ones, the proximity playing with his senses and driving his self-control up the wall. There is nothing in the world he wanted more than to kiss her again, but this time around Ethan decided to let her make the move. She is tender, but fierce. To understand a woman like her, one must realize that the former is who she is and the latter is what life demanded of her – a caring heart that has seen too much pain.
“You miss me or you just want a repeat of our night together? Is this emotion or physical attraction?” Wrapping her arms around his neck, she wets her lips in thought and he can’t help but think this is a well-designed trap for him to say the wrong thing and for her to use it as excuse to put distance between them rather than face her own desires and he was almost certain those desires included him.
“Why can’t it be both?” Opting for a rather neutral response, Ethan bites the inside of his lips in anticipation of her pushing him away and storming off, but even as he waits, he feels her hips press closer to him as if she’s telling him he won’t be left alone. Not again.
“Physical attraction is nothing more than chemical reactions in your brain. Can’t trust them. They’re not real.” She quipped, seeing a cocky smile appear on his lips, noticing the tiny wrinkles around his dark eyes as he holds her gaze bravely, unwavering even when she hardens.
“Isn’t the whole universe a chemical reaction?” Ethan raised an eyebrow, holding her captive with just his eyes, as if his arms posed no threat comparing to the power of just a look.
“Do you trust that?” He continued as a tiny bead of sweat formed on his temple.
“The heart we’ve been working on in the OR, this connection we share that makes us unable to walk away? Feels pretty real to me.”
Biting her lower lip, contemplating the right move, Y/N couldn’t fight him on it. Her heart knew he was right for it wouldn’t be screaming at her to kiss her and those butterflies in her stomach felt more like killer bees as the need to feel him inside her had taken over every thought she generated.
One hand caressing his lean cheek, Y/N forgo all rational thought as she slammed her lips against his and Ethan’s own heart leapt inside his chest. In the force of a passionate kiss, he pushed her against the door, remembering to lock it just before he slipped her lab coat off. His burning lips had only been fueled to stay on hers forever, his tongue lining her lips before they part. The kiss deepened; desire and passion palpable as their souls stir, itching to be as one.
Breaking apart just to take their scrubs off, they were sure they broke a record in undressing as they clashed again. Ethan chuckled as she nibbled on his bottom lip, her right palm falling over his chest down to his abs only to stop at his boxers, pulling at the waistband with her own lips spreading into a smile.
Their gazes locked. They were both breathing rapidly, both totally focused. She studied the sight of Ethan’s bare body, his abs on display and his heart visibly beating in his chest, her eyes travelling down to his happy trail and to her reluctant hand that already slipped a few fingers inside his briefs and she pauses not because she’s unsure about wanting this but because for an instant, she is aware of the throbbing in her blood, of the beat that seemed to vibrate about them – something only Ethan could ever make her feel.
“You really sure about this”, but Ethan worried she’s backing out and she had to make sure she felt safe to say no if there was any doubt in her mind about it happening. Little did he know the only doubt she had was tied to becoming a dreaded Grey’s anatomy cliché.
“I followed all the rules. Drew inside the lines. Where did it get me? I’m done being the good girl, Ethan. I want you. ALL of you.”
As his fingers passed the point between her breasts, and moved lower, she drew in a shuddering breath. And closed her eyes. “Please.”
Ethan heard the tremor in her voice, his lips following as they tremble before attaching to her neck, palm sliding possessively around her hip, fingers sinking into soft flesh as he drew her to him. He took her lips, her mouth—a second later, he felt the shudder that passed through her, her achingly sweet surrender.
He felt her fingers at his nape as they slid into his hair. Her lips are soft, pliant, eager to appease and he feasted, on them, on her mouth, on the warmth she so freely offered him, no struggle and no stress. She pressed herself closer to him as he slid his hand down her back, to stroke, then cup her bottom, growling possessively as she giggles, breaking up their kiss into a few quicker pecks.
“You’re driving me crazy.” Ethan manages to whisper, smiling as her giggles make his worries subside, casting all fear aside as he rests his forehead on hers, walking her back to the lower bunk and while he didn’t expect their second time to be in an on call room on a bunk-bed, he realizes it’s not the place or circumstance but the person he gets to hold close to him.
“Good. That’s the goal.” She mumbles as he unclasps her pink bra with one hand, helping her take it off before his fingers grasp the pink panties and rip them on the sides as if she won’t need them for later.
“Pink, huh?” He kinks his eyebrow as that smirk of his reappears and she can’t help but roll her eyes at him.
“Your fault. Gynecology, remember?”
He caught her hand and towed her the few steps to the bed. He sat, then took her other hand too, and pulled her to stand between his knees. She watched, her breathing ragged, as he took in her body fully for the first time. The first time they barely took time to look at one another, missing those birthmarks and scars life had left on their skin as a road map to what they’ve survived. This time he had no intention on missing anything, including the scars she had from her surgery or any other intervention her body suffered.
Ethan drew a shuddering breath and reached for her. His burning palms sliding over her back, urging her forward, broke the spell that had held Y/N. On a gasp, she let him pull her near, grasping his shoulders to steady herself. He looked up, the invitation in his eyes very clear, one she took in an instant as she bent her head and kissed him, longingly, openly, giving all she had to give.
She was his and she knew it. There was no reason she couldn't indulge him, and herself, in this way. No reason she couldn't let her body say what she struggled to say in words.
After a long, lengthy, satisfying kiss, his lips slid from hers to trace the curve of her throat, to feel the blood pulsing just under her skin. Y/N tipped her head back to give him better access; her fingers sinking into his shoulders as his tighten on her hips as he takes full advantage. He held her steady as his lips drift lower, over her breasts. Struggling to breathe, she murmurs appreciatively when his lips press more firmly to her breasts, her murmur ending on a gasp as his teeth grazed one nipple before taking it into his mouth, and she felt herself melt down to her bones. One of her hands convulsively clutches his hair as he adores her breasts, teasing her, pushing her to her limits, soothing one moment, then tantalizing the next, easing her back one minute, then whipping her to an excruciating peak of pleasure he delays.
“I need you.” She whispered in shaky breath, but he didn't answer. Instead, he trailed lingering hot kisses down her quivering belly. And into the soft curls at its base. As it came, a kiss so intimate she could barely cope with the shattering sensation. He followed it with more, not ruthless but relentless, not forceful but insistent. Ethan smiled up at her, teasingly as he watched her struggle to keep herself standing before allowing his tongue slide between his lips first and then between hers. His tongue slid lazily across the sensitive bud, making her bite her tongue to hold in a moan that would surely alert the nurses to knock on the door and he wanted to tell her to let it out, to allow him the mercy of hearing her beautiful moans once again but even he knew it wouldn’t be sensible.
She clutched closer to him, and lost any hope of pretending the truth was not real, that she wouldn't be his, be anything he wished. He filled his palms with her, cupped her and supported her, held her steady as he tasted her. Explored her with his tongue, teased and tantalized her until she found herself almost sobbing.
“Is this not real?” Reminding her of the argument she made before, Ethan had a licked his lips clean of her, watching her admit to the truth in her dire need.
“It is. The most real thing I’ve ever felt so don’t you dare stop.” She instructed, still bossing him around even though he is in charge and they both knew it. But he gave in, pushing his briefs down only to pull her onto his lap, her knees onto the mattress, sliding along on either side of his hips. He knew her body was ready, yearning to be as one, to feel him inside once more.
“Good. Now promise me you won’t pretend this didn’t happen.” He plays dirty because when he’s doing it by the book, Y/N is always there to remind him she doesn’t follow rules. This time, he’d make sure she did.
“I won’t. I promise.”
As her thighs slid past his hips, he grasped hers pulled her down. He sank into her and saw her eyes close, lids falling as her breath left her in a soft, long-drawn sigh. Her body stretched, her softness accommodating his hardness. He wanted to close his eyes too but he feared missing a single second of her beauty. Then she shifted, pressing deeper, to take more of him, to fill herself completely. For one fractured second, he thought he'd lose his mind. He certainly feared losing all control.
He lifted her, then lowered her and she quickly caught the rhythm, realizing she could move herself. He eased his hold on her hips, let her have the illusion of setting the pace when in reality, he never let go, but counted every stroke, gauged the depth of every easy penetration. After all, in a way, she was still a virgin and he the one with experience.
It’s timeless, without restraint, their bodies joined as she buried her face in the crook of his neck, her nails digging into his back as her breathing is heavier and her moans are harder to muffle. He gave her that - unalloyed sensual joy, pleasured delight beyond description under his subtle guidance, she gasped, swayed and panted as he filled her, thrilled her, pleasured her to oblivion. He gave her all, and more, he gave her himself. And as he neared his end, Ethan finally lost control – pulling her onto the mattress, laying himself atop as he pushed deeper, faster, forcing her to bite into his shoulder as her toes curled, eyes rolled back and tears fell from her eyes from the pleasure. However, in the last moment, Ethan pulled out, pumping himself till the finish until he came on her stomach.
“I’m so sorry.” He whisper shouted, reaching for the panties he ripped off her, cleaning her stomach in a slight panic as if she cared at all.
“You should be. Why didn’t you finish inside?” She challenged with a lazy smile and genuine confusion. “It’s not like I can get pregnant, Grant.” She chuckled, using the name she always reverts to eventually, especially when they get close and they certainly got close this time. But it also reminds him she’s completely unaware they’re soulmates and that she could in fact get pregnant with him.
Swallowing thickly, he fakes a smile before tossing the panties back on the floor, satisfied she was no longer covered in sperm though he wouldn’t mind it one bit if they were home and she had a proper change of clothes and a shower.
“I forgot.” Ethan lies through his teeth as he looks at her messy hair and smiles. “You look beautiful.” Complimenting her, he leans in to press a kiss on her lips, allowing her a taste of herself inadvertently.
“I look like I had sex and the only reason why I look beautiful to you is because I had it with you.” She chuckles, shaking her head as she moves to her side to let him take up more room as he’s bigger than she is.
“You always look beautiful.” Ethan retorts, his hand pushing back her hair and while he intended to be sweeter and cuddle, her pager went off and ruined the magic.
“Damn it.” She grumbled as she scrambled to get dressed, hating the one paging her with burning passion. After all the time she had denied herself the pleasure of Ethan’s company, her pager is the one that ends it prematurely.
“Great, now I have no underwear.” She exclaimed, sending Ethan a quick glare he responded to with a low chuckle and a striking smile.
“That’s hot. I’ll make sure to stop by and give your ass a nice little tap if it gets too breezy.”
Rolling her eyes at him, she managed to hook her bra before looking at the incessant pager with a disgruntled scowl, trying hard to hide her trembling legs as her body is clearly unfit to function just yet.
“Tie your hair to hide the sex hair.” Ethan adds in good measure only to get her frown and scowl directed at himself and if looks could kill, he’d be a dead man. Raising his hands in mock surrender, Ethan struggled to keep a chuckle in. “Or don’t. I’m not ashamed of what we did here.”
“Think your brother might feel differently. He’s the one who cut this short.” Sticking her tongue out, she put on her scrubs and coat, adjusting the stethoscope before rushing toward the door, her hands already working on creating a bun to hide the ‘sex hair’ as Ethan put it.
Falling back on the mattress, Ethan exhaled loudly, rubbing his hands over his face in disbelief. It felt like a dream, as if they were in their own world – a bubble no one was allowed inside, until Grayson ruined it.
“You’re so gonna pay, Gray.”
Mirifical (adj.) – wondrous, amazing,
“You’re slow, Y/L/N!” Grayson reprimanded her as she rushed into the delivery room, freshly gowned to make sure there isn’t a way for any infection to put the mother at risk.
“I was on a lunch break. Why are we doing a C section?!” Y/N frowned, quickly putting on sterile gloves with the help of a nurse, her mask attached by another as she didn’t expect it to be a surgical procedure.
“Baby’s stuck, now come over here and let me show you what gynecology is made of.” Grayson raised his voice ever so slightly, but the mask muffled the sound enough for it to seem like he’s still talking in a calm fashion.
Y/N stood beside him, following his instructions carefully, stealing a few glances his way. Even with sweat rolling off his forehead and worry lines etched into his flawless skin, half his face covered under a mask, Grayson looks absolutely breathtaking and it didn’t stem from any physical beauty but the sheer power of will and fire his eyes held, something she recognized in Ethan as well. In that moment she found admiration for the younger Dolan, and even for the pink scrubs he sports with pride.
“Wanna do the honors?” Grayson interrupted her thoughts, beckoning her to be the one to finish the section that lasted exactly 3 minutes and she couldn’t help but smile and take him up on the offer, finishing the vital part of the surgery and to everyone’s relief, the baby cried instantly.
Grayson cut the cord immediately, but Y/N was frozen in time. Holding this little baby, a tiny miracle in her hands as it wailed simply for being taken away from its mother, knowing she brought this life into the world – it swelled her heart and softened her immensely. She had no idea that this day would end with a baby in her arms, one she was forced to hand over to the nurses to wash and clean and do the proper vaccination and prophylaxis and all the necessary blood tests so it would be ready for the mother when she wakes.
“You good, Y/L/N?” Grayson questions, aware the birth had hit her hard, perhaps harder than he anticipated and it worried him. It’s the first time she could tell Grayson Dolan isn’t smiling or being his happy self.
“Yes, just never held a baby let alone one just born.” She shrugged it off, swallowing thickly as she wondered if she’d ever have one of her own. If she stays with Ethan against all odds, they would never be able to conceive like soulmates do and while she never saw herself as someone eager to have children, the thought alone had nearly broken her.
Yet, she returned to Ethan that night, to the same bed she lost her virginity in and she didn’t stop on one night, nor did she ever plan on stopping at all. Ethan had become a drug of choice she wasn’t sure she’d ever be rid of, even if he asked her to. And as weeks passed and months followed, Ethan and Y/N had been careful enough to hide their liaisons from prying eyes.
Y/N experienced all specialties, every surgical OR and every possible teacher but no one could substitute Ethan nor Grayson for that matter. The week she spent on his ward turned out to be quite an adventure and when he asked for help again, she wasn’t opposed to it either. And while she got closer to Ethan, she was close enough to talk to Grayson as well, close enough to ask the questions she feared to ask Ethan because the answers might be far from what she wants to hear.
"Do you feel your soulmate?" She asked softly, worried Grayson might find her question too personal but he just nods, a faint smile playing on his lips. After the long day they had, this talk coming after midnight wasn’t such a surprise.
"I've always felt my soulmate." Biting his lip, he saw the slightest of smiles finally break through the cold surface she put on and he quite liked the way that small gesture lit up her face so perfectly.
"It's like having two hearts, isn't it? Like you have two hearts in your chest, beating, calling out for you and while you feel it, it isn't really there. Yet it pulls you in different directions, tears you up inside. And I've always felt that maybe the pain comes from the other person. Maybe we feel their emotions as well?" Swallowing thickly, she dropped her gaze to her feet, feeling guilty over her overwhelming, undeniable desire for Grant when her possible soulmate felt so torn and maybe they are looking for her while she's getting involved with someone else.
"I don't know how people ignore that feeling. How do you?" Looking back at Grayson, she saw his smile erased and his shoulders slack. This is the second time she saw Grayson Dolan serious without his usual smile on display.
"I'm not ignoring it, I just feel my soulmate is doing her thing. It's a girl, that much I feel is real. And I believe that once she's done, she will find me and it won't be planned and it won't include me chasing a ghost around the world. It will be as it is meant to be. Perhaps she's not ready to meet me? Or she's trying to figure out who she is and how to love herself before she can love me completely. Either way, I'll wait ‘till she's ready because she felt when my soul came to this world and I know she feels me every day. I can wait. I will wait." Grayson shrugged, a sad smile back on his face but it's a smile nonetheless.
"It's refreshing to be around someone as honest as you. You always seem like sunshine, the guy who is always happy positive and spreads that emotions to all who come in contact. You seem warm, like the guy who never gives up on people."
"I'm not the sunshine brother." Grayson stops her, his smile wider as he scratches his chin. "You got it all wrong, princess. Ethan is and always has been the sunshine between the two of us. What you described matches his personality and only some of mine. You'll see that in time." But she did know it in a way. Ethan had always been her warmth, her own sunlight she basked in and she was completely drunk on him. Grayson is more of an ocean – calm and peaceful but can become turbulent and temperamental in an instant.
"You know, don't you?" She couldn’t deny it, not after the initial hints he made and even less after he had caught her leaving Ethan’s apartment last week.
"I'm his twin. I know everything."
And with a shrug, she nodded in acknowledgement, fully aware that her secret is no longer a secret and she still found herself at Ethan’s place that night.
She shuddered, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip ruthlessly as Ethan’s breath caressed her skin. It felt so right, too right to resist his advances. She lived for those nights with Ethan, those thick with lust and romance and wine and naked kisses. It wasn’t meant to be anything but friends with benefits, at least for her, so imagine her shock when Ethan’s heart spoke instead of his mind just as the two were coming down from their high.
“I love you.”
Y/N’s heart stopped as she sat up, grumbling sheets before her naked chest to hide what he knew better than she did. The words were enough to drive her mad, but what truly scared her is that what was between them is now spoken.
“But you have a soulmate and so do I. That’s not possible.” She managed to say as her teeth chattered, oddly enough she wasn’t cold yet her entire body shook with Ethan’s confession.
“I know and I want to explain.” He tried, desperately reaching for her but she wasn’t ready to hear it. He knew it when she pulled away and started looking for her clothes all while hiding her body from his sight. He had to calm her down, but there was no saving the night.
“Nope. I’m leaving and you need to figure out your shit or this is over.” She continued, managing to put on some clothes while Ethan ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He grabbed his own clothes as quickly as possible, running after her in fear of losing her – something he never got over. But it took him five minutes to catch up, only to find her standing on a bridge.
“Loving the wrong person is like self-harm.” She whispered, more to herself than him as she stared ahead at the river, aware he’s there without even looking his way. She wasn’t going to jump, but she thought about it. She thought about what would happen if she made that one little step and fell to her death. Would he miss her? Would he grieve for her? Or would he move on with another and forget about her miserable existence? She wondered if Ethan would be better off without her and maybe, just maybe she is a disappointment to him. He never talks about his soulmate yet she feels there’s something he hides about her that is there to hold them back, to stop her from fully admitting her feelings for him.
“You really think I’m the wrong person? That I’m killing you? Because you’re killing me! When all is said and done, you will destroy me and I’ll ask for more.” Ethan shouts, his heart torn to pieces as it’s been ever since he met her and he knew he was saying the truth – she would be the death of him.
“Maybe it’s you know needs to sort her shit out because I have nothing to sort out. I told you I love you and you basically told me I’m an idiot and left. If I’m not enough than be honest and say it but don’t think of me as a fool.” And this time, for the first time, it is Ethan who is walking away.
Little did he know that come next day, he would be hating and regretting his choice.
“You look like you didn’t sleep much.” Grayson notes, noticing the dark shadows under her eyes that matched his brother’s far too much to ignore and neither of them were happy nor shy about it, so it wasn’t hard to realize a fight broke out and the two didn’t part on best terms.
“Thanks for noticing, Captain Obvious.” Sassing back without even looking at him? That felt more like the old Y/N – the one too confused and too afraid to go after what she wanted which differed greatly from the woman she’d become ever since her secret relationship with Ethan began.
“Ouch. I just wanted to offer a sympathetic ear.”
Blaring alarm interrupts their chat, the sliding door closing shut on their own and while Y/N would usually ignore it, she couldn’t help the fear that crept up and formed a cage around her heart.
“What just happened?” She grabbed Grayson’s forearm inadvertently, still staring at the door and the sudden quick pace everyone had taken, feeling a growing lump inside her throat as all the pagers went off. Taking a quick look, Grayson paled.
“Code Silver? What the fuck is Code Silver?” Y/N’s voice trembled as she pulled on Grayson’s coat but he was quick to pull her close to his body and push her in the nearest room.
Fighting his strong grip that would surely leave a bruise, her panic only grew as Grayson’s heavy breathing started to alert her even more. And whether she liked it or not, she wished she could be stuck with the other Dolan twin – the one that is calm and collected and always knows what to do as if his middle name is Google, not Grant. She already missed the safety of his arms and even more so, hated herself for not staying in his bed and convincing him to take a day off.
“Let me go! Grayson! What the fuck is going on?!”
He gestured for her to get down and put his hand over her mouth to quiet her before they’re both silence otherwise.
“There’s a shooter in the hospital.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Tags: @beinscorpio @peacedolantwins @heyits-claire @dolandolll @godlydolans @dolanstwintuesday @ethanhes @iwastornsincethestart @graydolan12 @fxkthatdairy @zeusgrayson @libradolan @justordinaryjen @pineappledolan @graysavant @voguekristens @imayoutubere @livexdolan @shadowsndaisies @maybgrayson @dolans4lyfe @mendesficsxbombay
Anyone crossed out wasn’t able to be tagged, probably an issue on Tumblr’s side, sorry.
#dolan twins#grayson dolan#ethan dolan#ethan dolan x reader#ethan dolan fanfic#ethan dolan x you#ethan dolan au#ethan dolan fanfiction#ethan dolan fic#ethan dolan fluff#ethan dolan smut#ethan dolan angst#ethan dolan doctor soulmate au#ethan dolan doctor au#ethan dolan soulmate au
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Post canon, do you think Azula would regret her actions during the war? As Azula is someone who’s very single-minded when it comes to success, I don’t see her regretting anything. War is war for her. But how can she change? I don’t think she would regret her actions just because people didn’t accept her actions or think what she did was bad. She would need a logical explanation. What do you think?
Uh… that really depends on how a writer chooses to carry her character forward. While Azula didn’t commit any of her worst war crimes in my story, she started out being every bit as remorseless about the Fire Nation’s actions as you’d expect from canon Azula. It has been, of course, an insanely long process, but she has grown to understand the harm her nation did, enough that she even works to fix what little stuff she can nowadays.
As usual, this got long, soooo…
TL;DR: show her the flaws in the Fire Nation’s system, make her bond with new people (preferrably either Team Avatar or other people from other nations), and after a FAIRLY long time she’ll come to understand where the Fire Nation went wrong and regret some of her actions, to some extent.
Now, if you want a full breakdown of what I mean by all of that, feel free to keep reading:
First things first… I’d think Azula needs to see how the war damaged her own nation. The Painted Lady featured the floating town of Jang Hui in the most polluted river the entire franchise had given us so far. ATLA did deal with subjects relating to environmental damage before, but never quite to that extreme: common people were living in the worst conditions because a weapons factory that was operative since Azulon’s time had been dumping their waste in that river for over a decade, if I recall correctly.
Neither Zuko nor Azula ever saw this, only the Gaang did: how would they react if they did, though? How would they feel upon finding their people are facing such dire consequences for the warmongering of their forefathers? You may be inclined to think Azula might not care, these are means to an end, but I’d like to think an Azula who has been developed to some extent would think otherwise (I can outright tell ya’, I’m bringing this up because I literally wrote Azula confronting this specific reality in Gladiator’s 82nd chapter :’DDD).
This without going into the subject of the death toll: how many of their soldiers were sacrificed and how much people have had to die at a war that has lasted 100 years. Efficient, effective Azula would most likely be disturbed to realize how many resources have gone to waste, how much work has been invested into operations that went nowhere because, let’s be real, if the Fire Nation had been effective all the damn time, this war wouldn’t have dragged out as long as it did. Add to this that Azula is outright the most competent Fire Nation antagonist we ever saw on the show, and it’s obvious the Fire Nation armies would leave a lot to be desired for someone who’d expect nothing but the best from her own people.
Point and case being: show Azula the flaws in the Fire Nation systems, and she’ll start opening her eyes to the reality of the Fire Nation’s internal mess. If they’re striving for greatness, wouldn’t they be above such flaws? Shouldn’t they be better than this?
Now, how would she regret her own actions? That’s a taller order to fulfill yet. But, as tall as it may be, it’s not impossible.
For starters, one of the things I dislike deeply about the comics is that Azula doesn’t feel like herself to me because she’s dead-set on the throne as her endgame even though anyone can tell it’s never going to be hers. Why do I dislike it? Because this is the same girl who, upon being thwarted constantly by Team Avatar in Book 2, kept changing her strategies and even changing the battles she was fighting so she could obtain a “big win” and make her father happy. Can’t catch Iroh and Zuko with a Royal Barge and a full firebending procession? Switch to a smaller team with a train-tank. Can’t find Iroh and Zuko yet, but found the Avatar? Try to capture the Avatar. Failed to capture the Avatar? Off to capture Ba Sing Se instead. Failure to capture the city? Again, switching to tracking down the flying bison to find the Avatar: found the Kyoshi Warriors, found a method to infiltrate the city, captured Zuko and eventually Iroh, “killed” the Avatar, conquered the city: AZULA WINS!
But why did she win? Because she changed tactics. Because she was NEVER static, never hung up on a single goal. She needed to be victorious, and she was in the end, but not for a long time: she literally doesn’t win a single violent confrontation until she fights the Kyoshi Warriors. As epic as she may be, I ALWAYS bring this up because it’s part of her character as well as everything else. In the comics, though? She may change tactics on occasion, but the endgame of her plans never really changes: she wants the throne at all costs, like that’s the only thing in the world that she could ever want. And I find that difficult to understand in a character like her because she lost EVERYTHING in Sozin’s Comet, the last we saw of her she was crying desperately after knowing she had been defeated. This, paired with the mirror scene, showed that Azula was shattering inside. A character who went through trauma of that magnitude can react in countless ways… but the way that I would have thought suited her best would be having a severe belief crisis instead: why did her brother succeed when he had always been the failure while she was the perfect child? Why does he have friends who will fight beside him while hers abandoned her? Why, when everything came to a head, she was completely and utterly ALONE?
The interpretation of the comics is that she decided those questions all could be answered with “Hallucination-Ursa brainwashed them all!” and “I must take the throne and my entire life will be fixed again!”, something that still makes me shake my head to this day. When having the opportunity to explore complex subjects through Azula’s character, they picked the most simplistic route possible to deal with it and obsessed her with a throne she only showed outright interest in during… what, four episodes of the original show? :’D
Sooooooo, as far as comics are concerned, I honestly don’t think they’re taking a route to make Azula regret what she’s done. Other people have a different take on the subject, they’re free to disagree, but unless the new writer treats Azula more seriously than Yang did, it’s hard to imagine they’ll actually touch onto the more complex aspects of the character.
Therefore if we went through the route I expected her to take, meaning, Azula trying to figure out why she failed without dumping all the blame on a single hallucination, I can imagine her touching the surface of the fact that something about her methods, something about her actions, couldn’t have been right. The Ursa hallucination already suggests that Azula knows, on some level, where she went wrong: she feels forced to justify why she handled everyone through fear, claiming “fear is the only reliable way”. It’s not so reliable anymore, though, is it? All the people she thought she’d intimidated and frightened are thriving now, while she’s in an asylum, of all things. Something in her methods was wrong, plain and simple. A perfectionist like her wouldn’t like accepting this, but she’d have no choice other than doing it: otherwise she’d NEVER have ended up in the situation she’s in.
Just like with the previous item, begin to touch upon the failures, the flaws, the problems… and slowly, Azula’s concepts of the world would unravel, and she’d be forced to make sense of it all again, only, now she knows and understands it better than she did before.
Of course, changing her understanding of the world would be far more successful with the right help than by having her work out everything on her own. And by the right help I mean… Azula can’t be helped the same way Zuko was. It’s that simple. You can’t have her open up to Iroh, or learn better through him, because she thinks he’s a failure as well and she has as little respect as possble for him. Likewise, she’d most likely be too proud to learn any better from Zuko, who, let’s be real, has a long way to go still in terms of growing and ESPECIALLY developing enough patience to deal with Azula. While everyone wants him to do it, and hell, I agree that him helping her would be the right way to bring his character full circle, the way Ehasz described it, but I can also see it being a REALLY messed up journey, with more hardships than I think Zuko can endure as he is by the end of ATLA. He’d need a much stronger hold on his emotions than he ever displayed, and we know Azula is one very sore spot for him. Therefore, while it would be thematically great? It would take longer than a Gladiator-length story to do this properly, with both Azula and Zuko being IC enough as compared to where they left off at the end of ATLA.
On top of it all… my most honest take? I don’t really want anyone from Azula’s old social circles, be it friends or family, being part of the start of her healing process. Why’s that? For one thing, what I said above about Zuko and Iroh. For another, her relationship with her mother is radioactive trash even without factoring in The Search. Lastly, bouncing back from a betrayal like Mai and Ty Lee’s would take her AGES, and I don’t think she’d realistically ever fully trust them again after that, especially seeing how neither of them seem to want to be friends with her again anyhow in the show, not even touching upon how much they seem to hate her in the comics. Therefore? I’d like it better if Azula either started to have her own adventures with Team Avatar or found new friends of her own, as she did in Smoke and Shadow.
… Only, and this is why I’d favor Team Avatar, Azula needs influences who AREN’T Fire Nation. All her life that’s all she’s known. If you give her common ground with any of the other five members of the Gaang, you could actually create an interesting dynamic that involves Azula exchanging experiences (rather than trampling over) with someone with a completely different culture than her own.
For example, she can bond with Aang over being bending prodigies, something she doesn’t have in common with anyone from her old circles. She can bond with Katara over having older brothers who drive them crazy. She can bond with Toph over the same thing as with Aang + they’re bound to share some degree of their sense of humor and they’d likely have a competitive streak about who’s the better bender in their respective element, not to mention they’re both highborn who most likely can relate to each other’s family problems. She could bond with Suki over leadership, over warrior training since youth (of course, because of their bad blood I find this one the more difficult angle but it’s far from impossible). And if you really want me to get started with how much stuff she could bond over with Sokka I’ll be writing this ask until tomorrow, so have this link instead.
All this I bring up also under the logic that Team Avatar has forgiven people who wronged them before :’) no, it hasn’t been easy, and no, I wouldn’t expect her to become instant friends with anyone, but it’s hard for me to fathom that all of them would be 100% against being anywhere near Azula forever and ever. Set up grounds for them to have to work together for one purpose or another and you’ll get somewhere with developing Azula’s friendship with any/some of them before you know it.
The core point of having Azula bond and talk with them, though, is for her to undergo the same epiphany she does in Gladiator: shameless self-promoting time!
“What we used to have was separation, definitions, boxes with labels where you could throw each person depending on what they were. And you and me? We don’t share any of those boxes, do we? We’re opposites in practically every regard. Yet why is it that nobody else who shares my boxes has resounded with me in the way you do?”
“We’ve had our clashes, it’s true” he whispered “We really didn’t start off well. But… I guess that comes with balance too, doesn’t it? We were too different to understand each other right away, but in time…”
“We found a rhythm. A way to coexist without destroying each other” said Azula, smiling “Despite it all… fire and water might not need to snuff the other out of existence”
It only took me 107 chapters to get her to this point :’) realistically speaking, I have a hard time seeing a full-blown development of Azula taking a short time, especially if it means tackling even more problems than I needed to in Gladiator, seeing as it’s an AU where she didn’t really get to join the war.
Point being, once Azula finds common ground and solid friendships well outside the Fire Nation (be it Team Avatar or even other people from different nations), she’ll start to feel empathy for them, even if she doesn’t intend to at first. Their lives will matter to her, their struggles… she will find herself realizing what kind of hardships her new friends have undergone because of what the Fire Nation did. And as much as that means she’ll start caring only about one person at a time, that can be expanded into her opening her eyes fully to the horrors of the war she never cared about before.
I honestly doubt she’ll come to fully regret her successes, such as taking over Ba Sing Se or stopping the Invasion force. But she can regret having stood on the side of the conflict where she did, despite she really had nowhere else to stand during ATLA’s time. I’d think, if given proper time to grow, learn better and understand people who are, in essence, different from her despite sharing so much in common with her, Azula would eventually close the door on her past and begin to work towards a future where she won’t have to fear she’ll lose everything again, a future where she’ll have stronger bonds, where she won’t end up alone and abandoned by everyone she ever cared about.
#anon#azula analysis#man I thought my analysis days were over#can't lie this can be fun to do still#however long it gets
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Fanfic ask: 1, 5, 11, 14 for Precipice and any other fic you feel like sharing for, 18, 27, 33, 34, 38, 41, 44, 49 (sorry for asking so many, I just really like these questions!)
Hoo boy! This’ll be fun :D
::cracks knuckles::
1) How old were you when you first starting writing fanfiction?
Ten or eleven, when I first figured out it was a Thing. (Somewhere, buried in my boxes of Old Papers, there is baby!shadowsong’s attempt at writing something involving Padme turning up at Yavin but with the serial numbers very badly filed off, before I learned it was possible to just...write fanfic, lol.
5) If you had to choose a favourite out of all of your multi chaptered stories, which would it be and why?
Oh, Lord, why must you do this to me. XD
I mean, I like all of them for different reasons? Writing Precipice is almost like coming home, I’ve been living in that AU for so long; The Devoted was delightfully self-indulgent and a fun exercise in worldbuilding and I do plan to put more in that AU at some point, I swear; These Three Remain also had some super self-indulgent bits and some sweet cuddly fluffy bits and yep; Distaff is so much fun to work with Anakin’s characterization and her (in said fic) relationship with Padme; I have some WIPs that I’m super excited to get out...even going back to old fandoms, HoTM and Cartography!Verse and The Promises of Angels and Serenissima (ish; we were posting it as a series of vignettes rather than one long novel) and For Sorrow Sung and all my AtLA fic, and...
...yeah, I’m bad at picking favorites XD
11) Have you ever amended a story due to criticisms you’ve received after posting it?
Not really? I’ve added extra notes and when I was a baby in the LOTR fandom I actually took a fic down because I got pounced on by a Canon Purist, but I...don’t usually change what I do have planned out in response to criticism? Sometimes I add in some filler/explanation, or comments inspire me to add thing, but...
I don’t plan things out in a whole lot of detail, but I do usually have a few Major Plot Points worked out, and I tend not to change them because criticism. I usually don’t go back and edit, either.
14) How did you come up with the title for the xxx? - You can ask about multiple stories.
I think I actually talked about this in detail last time I did a similar meme to this...aha, here we go: https://shadowsong26fic.tumblr.com/post/186756818127/a-and-i-for-fic-ask
18) Do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them?
Yep, a few. Mostly, I abandon WIPs because I drifted away or otherwise left the fandom (i.e., most of my SPN fic), or otherwise got stuck on a plot point (For Sorrow Sung, which I might rewrite, I got stuck on because I wasn’t sure how to write Roslin; Distaff has stalled because I have to do a Monster chapter next because I did some things out of order; etc., though I actually do intend to get back to Distaff at some point, and am considering rewriting For Sorrow Sung or getting back to some of my other BSG fic...). ...on that note, there are several Stalled WIPs that I don’t consider abandoned, I just get sidetracked by other things even if I intend to get back to them At Some Point (Auxiliaries, Masks, a few others.)
Also, a bunch of miscellaneous self-indulgent things that I never really intended to share outside a small circle of friends that I wander away from when my attention gets caught by a similar shiny self-indulgent thing I don’t really intend to share outside a small circle of friends...
27) Do you make a general outline for your stories or do you just go with the flow?
Moooostly go with the flow. Then again, I don’t formally outline most things, but I generally have an Idea of the Main Plot Points I’m working towards? But those are usually Super Major Things (i.e., with Precipice, when I was going into it, I had most of Arc 1 planned out ahead of time; I knew when and how Lavinia was going to be introduced; I knew most of how Rex got brought in and at least when Ahsoka came in; I knew Ahsoka was going to be Leia’s primary teacher; I knew when and how Specter was going to die; I knew that the reunion (and the attempt to kidnap Lavinia) were going to happen (though actually I was originally planning for Saw to be behind said kidnapping before realizing that didn’t make sense); I knew when Infernalis was going to be introduced and then die; and then some Spoilery Stuff for the next several arcs :)
So, yeah. I usually have a general notion of where things are going (...most of the time; I mentioned Distaff above, and I’m waffling on how I want things to end for that one...) but a loooooot of white space and things are in flux along the way.
33) What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten?
Honestly, probably the one I kept in my inbox to reread the most often was on The Promises of Angels--I got a very long comment about the things I’d done with both the focal character and other side characters and the way I’d handled the established lore (and places where canon had fallen short, re: ex-vessels and so on), and then saying they were going to rec it to other people. I’ve gotten other very nice comments since then, (Precipice gets a lot of comments, some of which are lovely, some of which are infuriating), but I think the reason that one sticks with me is because I worked on that fic for so long, and it was a 100k gen epic about a tertiary character who (at the time) had been dead for five seasons. So, a very niche-appeal fic, especially in a fandom that tends to be very shipping-focused, so the fact that it had that much appeal outside of my own brain meant a lot.
(Also, just...the fact that so many people have read and liked Precipice means a whole lot to me????? Was not expecting that for a long wandering genfic epic, lol. ...again, because the fandom I was most active in prior to that is very ship-focused; Star Wars tends to be more gen-friendly, at least that’s been my experience thus far.)
34) What’s the harshest criticism you’ve gotten?
Maybe not the harshest overall I’ve ever gotten, but I mentioned earlier that I took down one LOTR fic because a Canon Purist complained about it to me--I mean, it might not have actually been that mean if I were to get it now that I have a thicker skin, but I was Little Shadowsong at that point and it hurt enough for me to take the fic down, and it does kind of linger in the back of my mind as my Worst Comment Experience.
38) If you could collab with any other writer on here, who would it be? (Perhaps this question will inspire some collabs!) If you’re shy, don’t tag the blog, just name it.
...to be honest, I don’t do a lot of collaborations overall, and most of the ones I do tend to be with people I’ve been friends with/RP’d with for a Long Time.
That being said, I’m possibly open to trying? Right now I have a lot on my plate, both fic and IRL wise, over the next couple months, but if anyone’s interested, hit me up and we’ll see if we can work together!
41) What’s you favourite minor character you’ve written?
In Star Wars? Probably Bo-Katan. I really do wanna finish/start posting our faces like a mirror before the Mandalore Arc actually airs (not that I care about jossing so much, but it’d be nice to Officially lock my canon there so I can point to it if anyone does the whole ‘but canon says!’ thing at me, lol). Also, I love writing Beru, at least the way I write her in Precipice.
If we expand to other fandoms...Nick in SPN, at least before canon brought him back wrong; for BSG...well, most of the ‘minor’ characters I like are really secondary and/or Major in one arc or two--i.e., D’Anna, Gaeta, Ellen Tigh is a lot of fun; in AtLA, I personally mostly wrote major characters and OCs (though some of those were...people who had definitely Existed, but were not named or explored in canon--i.e., Lu Ten’s mother), but my primary RP/writing partner and I worked a lot with Haru and Song and Teo and the Dai Li, among others...but said partner mostly handled them.
44) What is the last line you wrote?
((With an additional line for context; also this is subject to change.))
“True,” Sabe said. “...are you sure you’re ready for this?”
“No,” Padme admitted, after a moment’s thought. “But I think if I wait much longer, I’ll...I’ll either start climbing the walls until I run out and do something righteous and half-planned and stupid, or I’ll...or I’ll never be able to figure how to start, and I’ll just...”
49) Can you remember the first fic you read? What was it about?
I cannot, sadly. But it would’ve been 15-20 years ago, and probably either Star Wars or Harry Potter. Maybe Dragonlance or DBZ or Sailor Moon.
Ask me a fanfic writer question!
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Vacation - Jacksepticeye Drabble
Summary: In which Anti has to bribe Henrik to get a small break from the stress of having to take care of the entire Septic Family. Fandom: Jacksepticeye Universe Characters: Antisepticeye, Henrik Von Schneeplestein, Sean Mcloughlin, Mentions of other Egos Genre: Fluff, Family Warnings: Soft!Anti
He’s not a coward.
A brown haired glitch demon warred with himself as he stood in front of a certain doctor’s office. When the Septic HQ was established after the egos started popping up one after the other, Henrik commandeered the spacious room on the ground floor that had a great view of the main staircase and the entrance hall just in case any of the other egos tried to sneak past the doctor when they were sick or injured. None of them fought with him over the room especially when he wore that gleam in his eyes that said if they even tried to fight him, they will lose.
Angus and Jackie were the guiltiest of the sin of trying to hide their injuries from Henrik due to their adventures and heroic escapades. The duo would often attempt to scale the HQ’s walls to sneak in via the window of their rooms. While it was an open secret that Anti and Marvin would either teleport or glitch directly into their rooms to avoid the fussy doctor.
However... all of those tricks were merely temporary solutions. The trouble children already lost count of the many times they woke up to Henrik menacingly hovering over them with a syringe filled with an ominously glowing liquid in his hands.
Much to the chagrin of the Septics, Henrik was born with a bullshit radar that would tell him if anything’s wrong with any of them. Anti asked Sean once why the fuck he’d give the doctor that talent and his Other would just shrug and answer that they all needed a nanny that’ll make sure that they were all healthy.
A loud crash disturbed Anti’s thoughts and he eyed the door warily when he heard muffled German curses coming from the owner of the room. Anti really didn’t want to face the dragon but his neck wound reopened itself in the middle of the night. He woke up to his neck feeling raw and sore with some itchiness that he resisted to scratch since Henrik would bitch about him making the wound worse.
He could technically handle the wound being open but the blood kept on staining all of his shirts and Marvin’s one step closer into committing fratricide if he kept ruining his outfits. The stylish man never stopped giving him the dirty look when he wore his infamous black shirt and ripped jeans for an entire week.
The door was suddenly ripped open and Henrik stood in front of him in all his grumpy and motherhenning glory.
“Well? Are you coming in or not?” Henrik demanded and glowered at Anti before spinning around and storming back into his office without waiting for a reply.
Seeing Henrik’s current temperament, Anti doesn’t care if the others called him a coward. He doesn’t want to be the one to bear all of the man’s foul mood.
/Pussy./ Sean oh-so-helpfully jeered through their connection.
\You’re the one who’s been playing the game of Hide and Seek with the Doc for the past few weeks since you don’t want a check up, Sean.\ Anti sneered back and slightly smirked at the telling silence from his Other.
Outloud, the glitch warily addressed Henrik, “Seems you’re quite busy Doc. Maybe I should come back later…”
“Oh no you don’t! You’re not getting me to hunt you down again.” Anti winced at the loud clatter of medical equipment being slammed on the table.
Henrik glared at him and pointed towards the seat in front of him.
“Sit.” The doctor’s eyes flashed, practically daring Anti to disobey.
A part of the demon—the part that’s bristling at the nerve of a human ordering him around—told him to turn his back on Henrik (that has got to be the stupidest idea his mind ever came up with since Henrik is fully capable of stabbing him with a sedative in the back) and walk the fuck away. But the part of him that has any semblance of self-preservation told him to just get this over with before Henrik actually snapped.
He decided that he didn’t want Henrik to kill all of them in their sleep tonight.
Anti kept his eyes on the doctor who raised an eyebrow back at him as he sat himself down on the seat. Once Henrik saw that Anti wasn’t going to make his work hard, he started fussing over him, checking his neck wound here and there while asking with a semi-gentle voice if this hurt or if he felt anything wrong compared to the usual regarding his wound. Anti obediently answered all of his questions and patiently sat still as Henrik started cleaning his neck. He hissed when the antiseptic stung as the doctor carefully dabbed it all over and inside the wound with a gentleness that you wouldn’t expect from the grumpy man.
“Why did it even open this time? You were not fighting with Dark or the other dark sides again, are you?” Henrik tutted while he got out the sterilized needle and string. “Don’t answer that. You’ll get blood in my white sheets again.”
The glitch demon rolled his eyes and gave the younger ego an unamused look. He wasn’t stupid.
Henrik then began complaining to him about how he wished he and the others took better care of themselves while he started to stitch the wound close again. Jackie keeps getting hurt on his missions for his reckless bravery and has the gall to hide them from him even though Henrik has been warning him about making his injuries worse than if he just told Henrik. Marvin tries to hide some of the bad effects of spells gone wrong and keeps on drinking experimental potions that could mess him up. Angus needs to be more careful in his adventures and needs a constant check up after each of his ventures because the man might have forgotten to apply first aid on his injuries. Shawn needs to go to therapy for his trauma and to stop cooping himself up in his room. For that matter, Jaques also needs to stop hiding in his room and remember to take care of himself since he often forgets to eat or rest when he’s deep into his art.
Robbie needs to take better care of his zombified body since it’s so easy to dismember him and to stop forgetting his routine checkups. Chase has made massive progress on being sober for six months and has been maintaining his meds and therapy but he’s just as much of a workaholic as Sean and loves doing dangerous trickshots that leaves Henrik frazzled. Jamie is a good man but that one loves bar hopping and getting into fights along with Wilford!
Henrik breathed in deeply and finished the stitching with flourish. Anti reached up and gingerly touched the stitches before looking up at the younger ego with furrowed brows.
“Doc…” Anti paused because what else can he say to the entire thing?
“And you! A-and Sean!” Henrik gritted his teeth as he glared at Anti who was by now frowning. There was a soft clatter from when he dropped the dirty needle in the metal tray. “You two need to learn to come to me when you’re both feeling unwell! I… I—!”
Suddenly, Henrik just lost steam in the middle of his tirade. He shuddered and dropped down to the nearby bed exhaustively. He held his head in his hands and Anti thought he looked like Atlas carrying the entire world on his shoulders.
/… We’ve been making everything far too hard on Hen, huh?/ He could taste the guilt comin from Sean’s side along with his own.
Anti sat down beside his younger brother and wrapped an arm around his waist in a one sided embrace. The younger ego leaned on him and the demon could feel some of the tension leave his body at Anti’s quiet support.
“I just worry about you all too much,” whispered Henrik with a weary chuckle.
“You do,” Anti agreed as he stared up at the ceiling. “But that’s what keeps us all alive and kicking.”
Henrik snorted. Anti was glad to hear a hint of amusement in the sound.
“You would all kill each other or would have burned this entire house down without me.”
“What can I say? You’re the holder of one of the remaining three brain cells in our crew while I have the second and the others are sharing the last one between them.”
“Ha. You think too highly of yourself. I for one believe that Chase has the other one and you’re sharing the last one with the others.”
“Wha— Chase? Really?”
“That man can herd all of you in far better than I or Sean can with just a disappointed look… He’s also been the one feeding all of us.”
“... I hate to say this but you’re absolutely fucking right.”
“Of course I am. I’m not sharing a brain cell with all of you, remember?”
“Rude.”
“You’re the one who admitted it.” Anti could feel Henrik rolling his eyes at him.
“Anyway,” Anti decided to change the subject before the doctor started to pick on him again, “you’re really stressed, Doc. You should rest or even have a vacation.”
Henrik’s head whipped up at that. The glasses had embedded marking on the doctor’s face and while it amused Anti a bit, he braced himself for the inevitable protests.
“I can’t do that! You’ll all die!” Henrik exclaimed.
“Oi. Give us some credit. Chase is still here, he’ll make sure we won’t die while you’re gone for a while.” Anti’s face twisted down as a thought entered his mind. He can’t believe he’s about to suggest this.
/I mean… Technically, you’re the eldest along with Angus. While you don’t think so, everyone really does respect you Anti./ Sean dryly commented but the sincerity of his belief in his words carried out through the connection.
\Hush you.\ Anti absently sent back but he couldn’t deny the flash of pride and happiness at Sean’s words.
“I’ll help Chase control our bunch and keep them all alive and safe while you’re on your vacation,” said Anti with a grimace on his lips. “I can’t bother Dark for now anyway. He said he’s gonna gut me if I showed my face within the next two months.”
Technically, that still wouldn’t have stopped him and the Doc’s incredulous look showed that he didn’t quite believe that excuse either.
“I’ll drag Sean over for the check up if you have a few days off.” Anti figured he might as well sweeten the deal.
/Hey! You can’t just toss me underneath the bus like that!/ Sean cursed, his ire making Anti smile.
\It’s for the greater good Seany boy~ We want Henrik to be better and you also need to take better care of yourself and as your Other, it’s my duty to uphold that. So… It’s a win-win situation for all of us!\ Anti cheerily sent back as if one of the reasons why he dragged Sean down with him isn’t out of spite.
/Bull-fucking-shit./ His Other called him out.
Anti tuned him out with brighter spirits to see Henrik’s calculative look. The doctor was smart enough to not immediately deny the deal that was offered to him. If there was anyone who could force Sean to take care of himself, it’s Anti.
He resisted the urge to smile.
“Two days.” Henrik bartered.
“A week and I’ll drag Sean, Jackaboy, and Marvin in.” Anti shot back and didn’t resist the grin this time as Henrik’s eyes sharpened.
Gotcha~!
“... Fine. I will go on a vacation.” The doctor grumbled as he reached up and checked the stitches. “That does not hurt, right?”
Anti scrunched up his nose at the tiny twinge from the poking.
“Nah,” he dismissed the doctor’s concern, “just a bit sore but it aint that bad.”
Henrik nodded and stood up. He reached for the clean towel and started carefully wiping away the dried blood from the stitched up wound. Once he saw that Anti’s neck was fully clean, he offered a hand to the seated demon who took it graciously and allowed himself to be pulled up.
“Do make sure not to kill each other and burn the house down while I’m away,” Henrik wryly told Anti who was already making his way out of the office to change out of his stained shirt.
Anti didn’t even turn and instead just raised a hand to wave nonchalantly and said, “Yeah, yeah, just make sure you actually relaxed during your vacay and rest.”
“Thank you Anti.” It was quiet and only Anti with his increased senses would have heard it.
The only indication that Anti heard was the small pause that lasted for no more than five seconds before he closed the door behind him with a bang.
Henrik allowed a smile to pull up at the corner of his lips. Anti, the eldest ego who have been with Sean far longer than any of them was definitely sharp around the edges but he dulls them only for their Creator and the other Septics. He was definitely the subtle kind of fussy older brother to all of them and only those who actually knew him would notice it.
The doctor turned back to cleaning up the medical instruments he used to fix up Anti, he was absently already planning out what he’ll need to prepare before his vacation so that Anti and Chase’s jobs are going to be so much easier while he’s gone.
Anti was walking back to his room, mind already formulating plans to wrangle the other Septics. He wasn’t doing this for the Doc (lies). It would just be annoying if the main caretaker was gone or indisposed far longer than the vacation if he got sick from overworking. If that happened then no one will make sure that the idiots are taking care of themselves.
/Just admit you’re a sap for all of us and go./ Sean was rolling his eyes at him, he just knew it.
\Shut the fuck up, bitch.\
#writersofjack#jacksepticeye#antisepticeye#henrik von schneeplestein#fluff#writers of jack#soft!anti#family#platonic love
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RWBY Remarks: A Squiggle Meister’s Stance on the RWBY V6 Finale and RWBY as a whole.
Someone asked “Ngl squiggles I’m really disappointed with this finale. It seems to have split the fandom to its core. So many people are dropping it and while I’m tempted. It started off so well but derailed into v5 territory. What are your thoughts?”
explodingcarr0t asked “Got to say, I was quite disappointed with the finale. They had all this stuff set up and just, dropped it. “A giant grimm is coming towards a city with a horde of flying grimm and it breaks through the walls. Oh nevermind Ruby essentially one shots it and they leave.” With how much they hyped it up, the whole VRV thing saying, “It will change how you see RWBY.” and it being “huge” made this a let down. The volume started strong, but fell short after they got to Argus in more ways than one. ”
Someone asked “I have no words for that finale”
Squiggles Answers:
I know V6 ended last weekend and I’m sorry this response post came so late. I had a very busy week. But alas, here’s my answer:
To the two anon-ninjas and @explodingcarr0t who left their questions and opinions in my inbox:
I hear you guys and if I’m being completely honest, I don’t blame you or any other FNDM fam for their disappointment regarding last week’s finale episode. During my viewing of the last episode, one comment I kept making was that people were going to be pissed. I knew off the bat that fans were going to more than a little peeved by how V6 C13 played out. It’s not to say that the episode was bad though. On the contrary, personally, I enjoyed the last episode. It wasn’t bad. However…
Similar to its predecessor, V6 gave us another finale episode where not a lot happened. Since V1, the RWBY volume finales usually ended in a fight which pinned the forces of evil in an epic clash against the forces of good. A finale battle scene has usually been part of the climax for every volume and that’s been the rule of thumb since the first season by my recollection. However that stopped being the case after V5.
V6 C13 ultimately boiled down to a nostalgic slideshow of some of the most memorable moments in RWBY and a small conversation between the heroes to set up the next volume.
The main climax of C13 was Ruby using her Silver Eyes against the Leviathan and admittedly, it could’ve been handled better. Again, not saying it was a bad episode. I’m just saying that this didn’t feel like the finale the CRWBY wanted to tell by my impression. My biggest gripe with C13 wasn’t that it didn’t live up to the hype of the FNDM but because members of the CRWBY and their promotional people (like VRV) chocked this finale up to be something that was mistakenly advertised to be grander but in the end, did not pull through.
Biggest finale with the biggest ending? Not counting the set up left behind by the after credit scene, the V6 finale wasn’t really a flop (at least to me) but…it wasn’t what it was made out to be. This is the second finale we’ve received for the Mistral Arc where the characters don’t fight at all in the last episode even though the set up was for a big fight.
I’ve noticed a pattern now. Ever since V5, the CRWBY have shied away from having the characters fight for the finale episode. Back in V5 a lot of the fighting moments was spread out during the 2-3 episodes leading up to the finale. However by the time the last episode finally debuted, there was nothing much left for the climax. Any remaining fights that fans were anticipating to see were either glossed over or boiled down to the characters just standing around and mostly talking.
And sadly to say, this is pretty much what happened in V6 too in a way. It boiled down to Ruby saving the day with her powers, after which she and the others are left free to go. After everything that transpired with Cordo between C10 and 12, the heroes didn’t face any severe repercussions for their actions.
I mean, while I expected Cordo to turn the other cheek and grant the heroes permission to go to Atlas after they helped protect Argus, this was not how I expected them to prove themselves. We didn’t even get to see any of the other huntsmen fight to defend Argus against the horde of Manticore and Sphinx. That was left to the Atlesian Military who you can actually see having a bit of difficulty against the Manticores and Sphinx during the shot where the JNR_QROWMBY’s airship is flying by unnoticed courtesy of Ren’s masking semblance.
Speaking of the Manticores and Sphinx. Now this is more or less a little nit-pick I had while reviewing the episode but…how is it that we have this full blown horde of Grimm and not one of them went after any of the Argus citizens who were just standing out in the open, making themselves very easy targets?
I thought the Grimm were drawn to negative emotions like fear. Surely the rising tension of the Argus citizens during Cordo’s mechazord rampage against the heroes must’ve been what attracted the Grimm in the first place, right? Yet none of the Sphinx and Manticores attacked any of the citizens of Argus who just stood there the entire time. Out in the open when any of the flying Grimm in the area can make easy lunch out of them. What?
That’s what I expected when I saw the Sphinx and Manticores again. That they were going to go immediately after the citizens, forcing our heroes to divide to try and protect as much of the people as possible.Yet not one Sphinx turned and made easy prey out of the very vulnerable people of Argus just standing there observing everything? Huh?
I’m sorry. Maybe someone else can explain the logistics of that scene to me because going off of what I know about the Grimm from the RWBY lore, this scene made no sense. I guess you can argue that perhaps the Atlesian Military invented some sort of technology that mimics the same negative energy that attracts the Grimm and that’s what they deployed in order to draw the Manticores and Sphinx away from the citizens to the oceans.
I mean if it was canonically something like that then cool, I can buy into it. However we got no scene to establish any explanation as to why the airborne Grimm chose to focus primarily on the Military as opposed to immediately going after the citizens. Seriously that scene bothered me because it’s almost a complete contradiction of what transpired in the very first episode of V6.
In V6 C1, Qrow became furious with Dudley for using the turrets. Despite the fact that the turrets were being used to defend the Argus Limited, its efforts only served to lure the Grimm closer to the very distressed passengers on board the train.
I guess you can argue that the Atlesian air force used their airship missiles to draw the Manticores and Sphinx out toward the waters. However…that still doesn’t explain why none of these Grimm went after the citizens. It’s not even to say there was a force field around Argus to prevent the Grimm from getting into the city. Sure we have the shield to stop the Leviathan but not the flying Grimm. The Sphinx and Manticores could have easily gone for any of the citizens who were all just standing there making themselves free targets for slaughter but…didn’t? Whaaaat?
I understand that the Grimm don’t necessarily need to feed on humans but…but…how did these Grimm not go after the exposed citizens. How?
Sorry for the small rant. I just found that moment to be kind of odd. And I’m sure this is not the only nit-pick I have from the finale. The truth is that this finale episode had its flaws. However I don’t want to focus on that too much. I want to focus on the good this finale served.
C13 may not have been the finale I was hoping for but at least it left off the story for certain characters that I liked. For starters, I like that even though we got Ruby grasping the mentality she needs to summon her power; she still has much MORE to learn about how to use her eyes. As highlighted by her failure to completely petrify the Leviathan, there is more to Ruby’s use of her eyes than just positive memories.
As we saw during Maria’s fight with the Nevermore in C7, the Silver Eyes are supposed to kill a Grimm immediately after petrification. But in the case of Ruby’s turn against the Leviathan, it didn’t work.
I’d like to think that the effects of the Silver Eyes are based on the…I guess I’ll call it…age of the Grimm. As in how long the targeted Grimm has survived on Remnant. I’d like to believe that the reason why Ruby was able to easily vaporize the Apathy versus the Leviathan was because…perhaps the Leviathan has survived longer than the Apathy. I’d like to think this massive Grimm has been dormant in the oceans of Argus for years and only resurfaced recently due to the uproar in the city. So perhaps the Silver Eyes only petrify Grimm that are older while younger Grimm get taken out instantly. That’s just my understanding of it.
I’d like to think that the effects of the Silver Eyes are based on the…I guess I’ll call it…age of the Grimm. As in how long the targeted Grimm has survived on Remnant. I’d like to believe that the reason why Ruby was able to easily vaporize the Apathy versus the Leviathan was because…perhaps the Leviathan has survived longer than the Apathy. I’d like to think this massive Grimm has been dormant in the oceans of Argus for years and only resurfaced recently due to the uproar in the city. So perhaps the Silver Eyes only petrify Grimm that are older while younger Grimm get taken out instantly. That’s just my understanding of it.
Either way, C13 showed that Ruby still has much to learn and understand about the silver eyes. Thankfully, C13 left Ruby not completely mastering her powers and I’m very satisfied with that ending. It means that V6 is only the first chapter in Ruby’s arc to becoming a full-fledged Silver Eyed Warrior and I’m very interested to see where this goes from here.
Since happy memories wasn’t enough to fully kill the Leviathan, what else is Ruby missing from her mind-set? This is a question I want answered and I hope we get to see it explored for V7.
Apart from Ruby’s arc, I’m very pleased with where the CRWBY Writers left things for Oscar’s side of the story. As a Pinehead, even though I was disappointed to not see Oscar actually fight for this finale, I am satisfied where they concluded his story especially concerning Ozpin. I already talked about how much I wanted the Ozpin Isolation and Forgiveness Arc to be pushed forward to the Atlas Arc and so said so done, we got it.
YES! I’m excited by this because it gives me the golden opportunity to potentially see that Oscar’s Choice potential subplot come to fruition. This development can spell Ironwood potentially approaching Oscar with the choice of separating him from Ozpin using Atlas technology with their aura experiments as foreshadowed since V3. We all know Oscar’s reservations about the Merge. Although he has accepted his fate, a part of me still calls mega ultra bullshit on Oscar being okay with everything.
Right now, Oscar is acting just as nonchalant about his fate as Ruby was about her emotions during the dojo scene.
V5 had Oscar calling Ruby out on her bottled up feelings over everything that’s happened to her since V3. I would love it if we got a parallel to the dojo scene where this time; Ruby is the one to call Oscar out on his indifference to just accepting the Merge.
The same way how we got Oscar bluntly asking Ruby how she was okay with all the trauma she suffered over the seasons, I want Ruby to pull up Oscar and ask him the same question. How is he okay with basically handing his life over to someone else? Especially a person who is now mistrusted by the entire hero team?
With Oscar still very much in control and with the heroes still having reservations about Ozpin, everything is starting to fall into place for an Oscar-worthy character arc. I like that Ozpin was still compassionate enough to help Oscar out when he needed it. I actually found it rather sweet that Oscar being in immediate danger was what brought Ozpin out of his isolation. Sure it was only for a few minutes enough for him to guide the boy but, he did come out. I also loved how Ozpin spoke to Oscar in that short moment.
“…Stay calm. It’s going to be okay.”
Ozpin sounded so fatherly to Oscar in that scene. I think this is the most caring we’ve heard Ozpin speak to Oscar since V4 and during all those moments where Ozpin felt truly remorseful of forcing Oscar into this predicament. Aah Oz. Even though I’m not ready to see you come back, I do miss you and Shannon’s amazing voice work as Ozpin’s voice in Oscar’s head.
Anyways, Ozpin only returning when Oscar is in perilous danger and is in dire need of help. Hmm…I smell a foreshadowing. Especially after the after credit scene.
Another thing I can see possible is Oscar and Ozpin reconciling and Ozpin returning through Oscar’s encouragement. But even though the two souls have reunited, things are still sour between Oz and the team and that will make things great in terms of Oscar’s part in this and his development as a character.
Imagine Oscar forming his own separate ties with Ozpin (as his other half) and the members of the JNR_QROWMBY. However Oscar still feels divided and completely uneased due the group’s resilient mistrust of Ozpin. Including Ruby.
Picture Oscar becoming so fearful of the Merge that he starts to suffer with nightmares of eventually disappearing. Picture Oscar suffering from nightmares that are actually memories of the past Wizards of Light, particularly Diggs (Ozma 2.0) who got burned to death by Salem and Ozpin who died in a similar fashion at the hands of Cinder.
Imagine Oscar dreaming these events as if they were his own memories---reliving them as if he were there as a sign that the Merge was starting to happen. There are so many ways the CRWBY Writers can take Oscar’s story from V6 and as I’ll state again, I’m intrigued to see where this all goes from here for my favourite farm boy.
The Storytelling of RWBY
If I had to give the Writers one word of advice as a member of the FNDM and someone who is going to continue to watch the show: Don’t bite off more than you can chew for the season finale. Pick one or at least two solid ideas as the basis for your finale. Spend the volume alluding to that one idea; slowly building up to it and let that one premise be the focus of the final chapter and the episodes leading up to it. .
What do I mean by this? As I’ve mentioned before, I did my own recap of RWBY during which I noticed a pattern the CRWBY Writers have adopted with structuring their finale episodes within the past and recent volumes.
Even if the CRWBY spent the majority of the season handling other subplots left behind from previous seasons, when it comes to finale they usually spend the last 2-4 episodes of the season building up to the main premise set for the season finale before giving us the big climax which; in the past, usually resulted in one big epic final fight to close of the volume.
For V1, the main premise of the finale episode was Blake being revealed as a Faunus and her past involvement with the White Fang which led to a confrontation between her and Roman Torchwick. Torchwick was leading the White Fang in an orchestrated theft at the docks which Blake learnt about during a stakeout with Sun. RWBY V1 had 16 episodes. Although Blake’s involvement with the White Fang was only brought in during C15, it became the focal point that drove the finale. Blake and the White Fang was foundation of the V1 finale episodes. One theme. Keep that in mind.
For V2, the conflict was Team RWBY again thwarting another orchestrated plan by Torchwick and the White Fang. The plan resulted in a runaway train blasting a path from Mountain Glenn to central Vale which brought an army of Grimm toward the city. The finale was Team RWBY and JNPR helping to defend Vale along with the epic arrival of Team CVFY.
RWBY V2 had only 12 episodes. Torchwick’s scheme was something that was alluded to all season but we didn’t get to see the plan be fleshed out until C8. Torchwick’s scheme to use explosives to destroy the underground caves in Mountain Glen leaving an open path for the Grimm to enter the seat was something alluded to whole season but didn’t see it fully come to truth until C8, leaving the last four episodes of V2 as the build up to the big final fight and Torchwick’s arrest. Torchwick’s scheme was the foundation of the V2 finale episodes. One theme. Keep that in mind.
For V3, the finale for the Fall of Beacon. While we had have several plot threats scattered through the finale such as: the huntsmen defending Beacon Academy against the corrupted Atlesian Paladins and robot soldiers, the Spring Maiden, Cinder vs Ozpin, Pyrhha versus Cinder, Pyrhha’s death, Ruby’s reveal as a Silver Eyed Warrior---these were all plot elements that were slowly alluded to and built up within the past two seasons so when you see them executed finally in V3, you feel satisfied.
Though RWBY V3 only had 12 episodes, the season was the one time where the foundation of the finale episode had more than one theme but it worked since it was the work of three seasons coming together to give us the most memorable finale episode in RWBY. The best conclusion to an arc trilogy.
Now let’s fast forward to the Mistral Arc. For V4, the finale was RNJR versus the Nuckelavee Grimm before finally making it to Mistral. RWBY V4 gave us 12 episodes. While V4 didn’t exactly sit well with the FNDM, at least its season finale kept the ole epic final fight routine especially since Ren facing his past and RNJR’s arrival in Mistral had been a focus of the season for their side of the story.
To me, the finale structure started to go south from V5. As of V5, I feel as if the Writers developed this habit of cramming all the good stuff in the episodes leading up to the climax while leaving the actual final episode of the season with a whole lot of nothing much to do. I have no idea how the production pipeline for RWBY works. However a thing I’ve noticed with the final episodes for V5 and V6 is that they both feel rather flat and boring compared to the episodes leading up to it.
I’d like to think the CRWBY is supposed to end their seasons with a bang but the past two finales have been underwhelming at best. Although V6 did handle its better than V5.
An improvement but still the same problem. V6 made me wish they didn’t introduce the Leviathan at all. If the Leviathan Grimm was truly meant to be the big bad of the ending then instead of giving us that whole Cordovin vs JNR_QROWM fight that stretched for three episodes, they should have brought that thing in as early as C10. Otherwise don’t bring it in at all. It’s annoying how underused the Leviathan Grimm was. We finally got a Kaiju-sized Grimm reminiscent of Godzilla and this thing was only brought in at the last minute just so that Ruby can show off her powers in admittedly, the most half-assed of ways. I know some fans really loved the moment where Ruby used her powers but...while I’ll admit it was very touching to see the heartfelt memories Ruby holds dearest in her heart especially the one of her beloved mother, it could have been done so much better.
Up until this point, Ruby hasn’t had much focus on her eyes since C8. I did not expect Ruby to master her Silver Eyes. I did not expect her plan to go all in on the Leviathan to work and if anything, C13 made Ruby seem very reckless in my opinion. There are moments in that finale where Ruby could have gotten herself and her teammates killed. But of course, the plot has ways to write around these obvious flaws. One being the use of Jinn.
While I’ll admit that was clever on Ruby’s part,…this could have been done better. That’s all I can say. Thing could’ve been better.
To me, the CRWBY Writers have always done better when they just picked one or two ideas and focus on that. The only time the multiple ideas worked was during V3. But even then, V3 is a special case since the plot threads that went down for its final episode were a culmination of a story three seasons in the making. You see where I’m going with this, right?
Keeping things small at first and save the bigger things for later in the trilogy after spending at least two volumes building up to it. The reason why I will always praise the Beacon Trilogy is because everything was developed nicely from the start. While V1 and V2 had their own finale subplots, both subplots contributed to the events that took place in the finale of V3.
Everything that went down in V3 was a perfectly executed trail of events that commenced as early as the first season. This is what the CRWBY Writers are missing from their storytelling. That structure. I’m happy that the animation and visual look of RWBY has improved and continues to get better and better as the series progresses. That’s phenomenal and major kudos to the CRWBY for their growth and hard work over the seasons.
All the Writers need to do right now is bring back that strong structure they had back when the story was in Vale. If I had to assume one thing about the writing process for the RWBY volumes right now, it’s that it seems as if Miles and Kerry are writing everything volume by volume and then trying to figure out how it all ties together at like the very end of last few episodes in the final chapter of the final season in the trilogy. Now; this is just my assumption and I could be very wrong about this. However, as an audience member, that’s the impression I get when I compare the Beacon Trilogy to the now completed Mistral Trilogy.
I don’t want anyone thinking that the only reason I praise the Beacon Trilogy is because it’s the seasons where Monty was still involved in the project. No that’s not it. I judge RWBY based on what I see and how much I can interpret from what I see.
I don’t like the Beacon story over Mistral because Monty played a part in its development. The Beacon Trilogy is great to me because it felt like a trilogy. It was a cohesive trilogy where every volume was just a piece to the much bigger picture that took place in V3.
When I look at the Mistral Trilogy, other than the setting being Mistral and Anima, this trilogy was disjointed. I’ve said this before in a past response post; the Writers started off decently in V4 but ran themselves into a wall in V5. A wall they did their gosh-darn best to overcome in V6.
Though I would praise V5 as a not-so bad season on its own, as a continuation from V4 and a prequel to V6, V5 did not do so well. As a matter of fact, V5 created more problems than the Writers benched for.
It’s why I’m going easy on V6 because, from the get-go, V6 was meant to be damage control.We know this. The Writers messed up in V5 and V6 had a lot of pressure on its neck since the FNDM community was looking at it to be the CRWBY’s return to form. The one to repair the proclaimed ‘mess’ left behind by V5
V6 was basically the CRWBY’s way of trying to salvage dinner from a meal that was already burnt.
People were looking at V6 to be the perfect plot lasagne that would fix the whole Mistral Trilogy. As good of a season V6 was, it didn’t fix the mistakes of the Mistral Arc. You can’t get lasagne from one season. A perfect plot lasagne is something that comes in layers. It’s something that has to be built from the ground up. A succulent course that takes at least three seasons worth of proper planning, great story structure and development to prepare. Not something that you can just throw together in one season and expect it to work.
Basically the point I’m trying to make here is…I went into V6 expecting it to salvage the Mistral Arc, not save it entirely. On its own, V6 was a great season. A massive improvement from V5 and a step in the right direction with the CRWBY renewing my believability in that the team hasn’t lost its edge as yet. The animation, particularly in the fight scenes worked wonders this season. For me, the only thing that still needs work is in the organization in the storytelling. While the writing for V6 was Miles and Kerry’s best for the Mistral Trilogy, in the end, it unfortunately still suffered from the same issues fans have complained about in past seasons. Particularly in the second half of the season.
This is the second volume where the complaint has been that the story started to go downhill after the second half of the season. I more felt like the second half of V6 was not the story the Writers wanted to tell. To me, things began to go awry from C9 and ya’ll know how I felt about that episode after C8.
You cannot tell me that the Writers deliberately planned for Oscar to go missing just to have him miraculously show back up in the very next episode as if the events of C8 never happened.
A part of me would like to hold out for the belief that the Writers had planned more for Oscar’s story this season that was supposed to commence in the second half of the season but it had to be cut and probably pushed for a later season due to time constraints and deadlines.
I would not be surprised if there was supposed to be an entire subplot for V6 dedicated to Oscar. Since V6 was originally meant to have 14 episodes instead of 13, I’m going to stand by the belief that there was originally meant to be an entire episode focused on Oscar following C8.
C9 felt so misplaced especially coming off of the ending of C8. I would not be surprised if C9 was initially meant to be an Oscar-centric episode which explained the events of what happened to him before we got his return back at the Cotta-Arc episode.
As sad as it would sound for me to imply that of the Writers cut out Oscar’s development episode, that’s the only thing that makes sense to me. Oscar was going to have his own full focus episode that touched on his past like Ozpin did in C3 but the CRWBY scrapped it for this season. But y’know, this is only my interpretation. Feel free to respectfully disagree with me if you will.
Anyways, whileV6 still suffered the same shortcomings that V5 in its final episode, it wasn’t enough to influence me to drop the show. For what it’s worth, I’m still a loyal passenger of the RWBY hype train. It’s sad to hear about people dropping the show especially after the CRWBY put out some of their best work this season.
But y’know, to each their own. I can tell the disappointed fans to stay on this train as much as I want but at the end of the day, it’s people’s choice whether they wish to stay in the FNDM or not. If dissatisfied fans wish to leave then it’s their choice. The only thing left to be done about that is to respect it. My only hope is that those same fans don’t become the type to dedicate their time to completely bashing the series while scolding the CRWBY’s attempts at continuing RWBY.
To summarize my thoughts: while there are things I didn’t enjoy about theV6 finale or the season overall, it wasn’t enough to deter my overall enjoyment of the volume or my loyalty as a fan of RWBY. I can’t speak for other fans. I can only speak for myself and this squiggle meister is still on this train.
I still love RWBY and what’s keeping me here is the devotion I have to seeing my favourite characters’ stories continued going forward for the full narrative (*ahem* Oscar’s arc). Moreover I’ve been a fan of RWBY since Day 1, Season 1 and although the series has suffered a few bumps along the way, like Maria Calavera after the Argus train crash, I’m still on this train.
Then there is the part of me that wants to keep believing in the CRWBY. Believing in the CRWBY Writers. While I may not always like what Miles and Kerry put out in the canon (*ahem* Oscar’s missing focus episode from V6), I still have major respect for these two fine gentlemen and the hardworking team of artists who are keeping this story going. Despite everything, these creative minds still have a story to tell and I frankly want to see them finish it.
I am invested in seeing the CRWBY finish RWBY regardless of what they have in store. RWBY has changed as a series since it first started. V4 was basically a renaissance period for the series. The series evolved after V3. Some of it good. Some of it not-so good and what I’m seeing now is a series with a story still left to be told. So it will keep doing its best to tell said story until the final episode of RWBY is made.
RWBY is not a flawless show. It has never been a flawless show and it will never be a flawless show. As a matter of fact, RWBY’s ability to thrive despite its noticeable flaws is what I appreciate about it. Even when the Writers take the story in ways that I might not like as a fan and audience member, they still manage to do the thing a good story is supposed to do. Keep me entertained and invested in the characters and story they’re portraying.
Sure V6 C13 might not have been the best episode of V6 or the best finale in all of RWBY but it did fulfil its purpose. It got me interested in V7. I want to know what happens next for RWBY and until there is a season where I stop caring about what’s to come, I shall remain a fan.
I don’t know about any other fans but that’s this squiggle meister’s mantra.
~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)
#squiggles answers: rwby#oscar pine#ruby rose#professor ozpin#rwby theories#squiggles talks: rwby#rwby remarks#rwby
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The Mark of Aphrodite
Troy and Greece are at war over Helen of Sparta’s beauty and Paris’ thievery. Remus, a Greek medic, and Sirius, a Trojan general, will fight for much more than another man’s pride.
part i
The Greek Camp
Remus only ended up in battle because the Greeks needed reinforcements. He should have been in the medicine tents, where he belonged, not strapping on metal that didn’t fit him. He was thin, with half the amount of muscle as most of the other men, but he was healthy and of age, and so he was called. Peter too, a boy a few years younger, sixteen maybe, was summoned to the battle that would start with sunrise the next day. He had been called second after Remus, and Remus had had to look away as Peter shied away from the order, a dishonorable cringe working through his round limbs. Remus had kept his head high, eyes ahead, and his trembling hands behind his back. His hands didn’t shake when tending to the wounded, but he had a feeling they might around a sword.
The Trojan nights were hot, but the coastal breeze that flowed up to the camps from the beach was cool and Remus had taken to sleeping just outside the medicine tents. The stench of blood and death was too thick sometimes to fall into Hypnos’ clutches, but that wasn’t why he wasn’t sleeping tonight. Tonight, he would watch the sunrise, and know that what came with it was a day that brought him death. He wasn’t a fighter, he had never trained, and the Trojans were merciless. He didn’t expect to survive, but couldn’t find it in him to run. He’d look like a coward.
His sleeping mat slide a little underneath him as Peter sat down heavily.
“I wonder if they care.” He said, “If they care that we know we’re going to die.”
Remus glanced his way, at his cropped blonde hair and sweaty face. Peter dealt with the heat worse than most.
“Probably not.” Remus picked up a piece of bread he had nicked from one of the food tents, tearing it in half and handing the bigger piece to Peter, “Or maybe they’re more optimistic than we are.”
“We’ve got Achilles, what do they need us for?”
Remus shook his head, chewing slowly, “Achilles won’t fight, remember? Because of the girl.”
“Oh.” Peter sighed, deep and regretful, “Oh, right.” They chewed in silence for a moment before Peter nudge him, “Do you think it’s true?”
“Do I think what’s true?” Remus was tearing small pieces off his bread, trying to make it last.
Peter sounded slightly excited now at the prospect of gossip, “About Achilles and his man, Patroclus. There are some men in the camp that say they’re lovers.”
Remus pinched his bread, molding it into a small ball between his fingers, focusing carefully on it, “Yeah?”
“Yeah. I mean—I think I see it. Not that I’ve gotten close enough to see it. But I think that… I don’t know.”
Remus looked out towards the horizon, heart jumping a little at the fact that it was starting to lighten, “Say what you mean, Pete.”
“I just think that…” Peter was quiet for a few moments, then, in a softer voice, “I think it would be nice, I guess. To have someone here. Someone who chose you. Who wasn’t taken and afraid.”
Remus looked over at him, at the way he was sitting with his head down, fumbling with his bread instead of eating it. He seemed to feel Remus’ gaze and continued.
“I’m not saying I don’t like all the girls, I do. I’m just saying maybe he’s lucky.”
Remus looked towards the beach again, towards Achilles’ tent and ships a little in the distance. There was a lamp lit inside and he could see two shadows sitting together, close and quiet. He thought of Achilles. The man was a bit of a mystery. A bit of a hot-head. But Peter was right. He had companionship. He had freedom, the freedom to choose his battles.
“Yeah.” Remus looked away and tossed Peter the last of his bread, suddenly not hungry, “Maybe he is.”
They sat quietly after that, watching dawn come.
~
Troy
Sirius wasn’t sure how he had ended up next to Helen. He hadn’t wanted to be next to Helen, and he was pretty sure—by the number of male narrowed eyes set on him—they were others who would willingly take his place. He had nothing against Helen, but Paris’ constant showers of affection over her were less than apatite-inducing. It did, however, give him time to inspect the beauty she was so known for. He’d been watching all dinner, blending in perfectly with the rest of the male company—an unusual feat.
He didn’t get it.
He’d never voice this opinion, obviously, but he just didn’t quite see what was different. Certainly not what was worth all this blood or the hundreds of Greek lords camped outside, dealing with the beach’s sand grains in every nook and corner of their beings. She certainly wasn’t worth all the sand.
She was beautiful, but not in any way that Sirius cared about. Her neck was lean and swanlike, her eyes were dark, as was her hair. Her skin was milky and her voice soft. She was everything a women was suppose to be.
Sirius’ eyes drifted from her, and onto Paris.
Now, Paris. Sirius thought he might withstand sand and blood for him.
He laid with Paris once, just once, before all of this. It was a around two years ago and he’d been young, maybe sixteen, still in training with the army. Paris was known for his broad tastes and extravagances and Sirius, being as he was, had been keen to play this known fact to his advantages.
He fought with sweat and sword to catch Paris’ eye, and it had worked much quicker than he had thought it would. He’d been in the middle of dinner with James and some other of Troy’s most promising, when a servant had come to collect him quietly.
Paris’ chambers had been ornate, like a woman’s, and his sheets and skin soft.
“You have the eyes of Athena.” Paris had said to him, stroking the skin beneath his gray irises, “The skills of a god.” Paris’ smile had been quiet but sharp, “Is that why you look like one too?”
The night had been long and hot, and Sirius had thought—maybe—
But he was woken early, before the sun, and ushered out. Paris had not even stirred, remained with his back towards him, sleeping on. He never looked Sirius’ way again.
So, why, Sirius asked himself. Why would he burn a city for him still?
Sirius took a drink of wine, holding the sweet liquid on his tongue.
He’d change it if he could.
“The Greeks,” Hector, whose command he was under, broke into his thoughts, “sleep just outside our walls. If we do not push back soon, they will think us weakened.” His voice was deep, and powerful. Sirius thought that was much nicer than Helen too, “They will see it as an opening for attack. I say we act before they have a chance to consider any option.” He looked around the room, finding Sirius and nodding at him, “I ask for my troops support in quick action. Sirius, son of Black, as general Albus was slain at the last battle, you are next in line for command.” He stared down the rest of the room, “I vouch for this soldier. He is brave, and fierce, and I hope none of you question this, despite his youth."
“You have my support, Prince Hector.” Sirius spoke up, raising his glass to his lips slowly, letting the eyes of the room linger on him. He knew that Hector was not simply giving him this position. A silent exchange had just taken place. Sirius’ support, for Hector’s authorization of an increase in rank.
“Tomorrow, then. Dawn.” Sirius raised his class, Hector following, a slight smile on his face, and the room following him. Sirius smiled back, “What is quicker than that?”
~
The Greek Camp
The leather and bronze of the armor made it hotter, and sweat dripped down along Remus’ neck and throat. Everything felt heavy and cumbersome. He tried to stand tall, in fact he rose just as high or higher than most of the other men, but his bronze breast plate felt like it mirrored Atlas, with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was walking, or more stumbling, to his death.
Agamemnon stood at the front of the troops, raised high in his glinting chariot, armor polished to perfection unlike the dented, dead man’s metal Remus had had thrust into his arms just an hour earlier. Agamemnon was speaking, shouting, rallying his men. Spears hammered the earth around him, calls of battle rang through the troops, and Remus heard none of it. He thought briefly of Peter, whom he had lost in the crowd, and sent a silent prayer up to Athena, or maybe Aphrodite, to keep him alive through this day. He thought about sending one for himself, but thought he might save it, thought maybe there might be a time when he needed it more.
“Greeks!” Agamemnon’s voice roared, spear and sword raised in each fist, “Fight with me for the spoils you deserve!” The crowd roared back, “For the Trojan blood’s sweet stench as it hits the earth!” Spears hammered the ground, “For the beauty of Helen of Sparta!”
Agamemnon’s weapons came down in a cross over his body, clanging the sides of his chariot and sending his horses into frantic action, galloping forward. And suddenly Remus was running too, it was either that or be trampled. He couldn’t breathe right, cornered by men driven mad by Ares, by lust for blood and beauty and gold—the three things promised to the victors of war. For a few moments, it was just breath, and cries, and dust.
And then Remus heard the first strike of metal on metal. He wasn’t sure where the Trojans had come from, but suddenly the ranks had broken as unfamiliar faces delivered chaos that battle promised. Horses wined and pawed the earth while their masters yanked the reigns and slashed at flesh. The air was gritty with sand and dust, and Remus coughed, fingers white around his heavy sword. He turned desperately, desperate to move for fear of being cut down, but bodies were pressed against him too closely. He found himself shoulder to shoulder with a boy about his age, but he had his sword rage with determination, muscles flexing and jaw set.
Remus, feeling completely alone in his fear, was unable to help the question from slipping out. He grabbed the boy’s arm, “How—“ they were jostled but Remus kept his grip tight, “how do we get out?”
The boy looked alarmed, annoyed, and opened his mouth to answer. What came instead was a spray of red, directly across Remus’ face. The boy choked, eyes so wide Remus could see his own expression of horror in them, and then he fell sideways, obscured and trampled almost as fast as he had died.
A laugh rang out above him and Remus’ head whipped up. A white mare, coat wet with enemies blood, held a dark haired Trojan. His grin was wicked, his tan skin speckled with red, his sword was wet to the hilt, and his eyes were fixed on Remus. They were grey and light with adrenaline. His sword raised, and only then did Remus find his prayer.
Aphrodite. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die, please—
Remus felt frozen, the sword was no longer raising, but lowering.
Aphrodite, I call to you, I call to you, I don’t want to die, I don’t—
The Trojan struck, Remus felt the blow of the sword, the metal against the skin of his neck. He gasped for breath, expecting there to be none, and choked when he got a lungful of dust and air.
The sword, and all its force, had added no new blood to its gore. It had simply glanced off Remus’ skin.
The boy on horseback blinked, thrown off balance by the rogue sword, and for a moment the battle dimmed.
“Not possible.” Remus heard the boy say, so softly that he shouldn’t have been able to hear it.
Then the boy’s eyes widened. A god, were the words his lips shaped.
“No.” Remus said softly, hand flying to his throat where the blade had ricocheted, “I’m not.”
“You—“
The boy’s expression changed, and it took Remus a moment to see why. His hand went to his side, clutching at where a sword had sliced through the leather ties of his armor and into his skin. Remus, without thinking, stepped out and caught him as he slid from his horse. He was heavier than Remus expected and he stumbled a little under his weight until the boy’s feet were on the ground and he was slumped into Remus’ chest. It was an odd sort of embrace, but in the context, it looked like one was stabbing the other.
Remus felt breath against his neck, “I don’t want to die.”
The words surprised him, out of place among the men charging at each other around them, screaming for one another’s blood.
The breath again, fainter, “I don’t want to die. Aphrodite…”
The boy slumped against him fully, and Remus stood, frozen, in the middle of a scene of death.
He looked around, his helmet obstructing much of his view, and again, asked the forbidden question of any soldier: How do we get out?
Because he is not a soldier. He is a healer.
And he shouldered the boy’s weight, wrapping his limp arm around his own neck, and started to push through the swords and shouts.
~
Remus found a grove, shaded from view and distant from the fighting, that rested where the beach’s sand was just starting to turn to Troy’s green grasses. Remus ducked under branches that slid along his helmet and swayed in the breeze. The boy’s feet dragged along the ground, and Remus did his best to set him down gently against one of the larger olive trees of the rather dense cluster they were in. He tore his helmet off, gasping for breath, and then knelt, pulling the boy’s helmet free too. It was gold and shining, with a large plume along the crest. So, he had status. A general, most likely. Remus frowned at the piece of armor, then at the boy’s face. He looked young, very young, for a position of that rank. But, then again, maybe they did things differently in Troy.
The Trojan groaned, coughing weakly, head rolling to the side. Sweat lined his forehead and cheeks making stray strands of hair stick to is olive skin. Remus stared for a moment at the sort of rough beauty of him. He was a warrior for sure, and had the graceful strength about him in the fine muscles in his hands and, as Remus saw when he unlaced his armor and shirt beneath, his chest. The cut was deep, but the blood had began to slow on its own. Remus took hold of the bottom of the boy’s tunic and tore, the fine fabric ripping neatly.
“Stop.”
Remus started, breath catching as his eyes was forced forward by the tip of a sword—his own sword—being pressed against his throat.
The boy had his cool, gray eyes fixed on him, steady, but hooded with blood loss, “Greek.” He said the word, not with the contempt that Remus expected, but with a sort of fascination. He looked to where Remus had torn his shirt, “That’s expensive.” His tongue had switched from his own to Greek. So, Remus had been right. High born.
Remus’ hands tightened around the fabric, “Kill me and we’ll both die here.”
The boy nodded at the cloth, “Then continue.” He did not lower the sword.
Remus narrowed his eyes, “I am helping you at my own risk. Do not expect me to do it beneath your sword.”
The boy smirked, “It’s your sword.”
Remus blinked, taken aback by the smile, by the humor, and even more so by the sound of the sword hitting the earth. The boy leant back against the tree. “You’re not a fighter anyway.”
Remus sat a little straighter at that, a hard task when one was kneeling and leaning over a wound, “What makes you say that?”
“Well, you armor’s practically hanging off of you, firstly. And look at you,” Remus glanced up at the tone. The boy raised a hand, “You’re as fair as a woman. You’ve never seen a day’s training in the sun.”
Remus pressed the cloth to the line of blood. The boy didn’t even flinch, just kept the same lazy posture up, “A medic, I’d guess.”
“I’d sound a little more pleased about that if I were in your position right now.”
“I never said I wasn’t.” The boy leaned forward compliantly at Remus’ motion, and suddenly they were very close, almost chest to chest, as Remus reached around him to circle the make-shift bandage around his torso. When he spoke next, his voice was right in Remus’ ear, “Are we going to address the real question at any point?”
“Why I didn’t let you die?”
“No—“ The boy cut off with a hiss when Remus—maybe not so unintentionally—roughly tightened the bandage. He blew his hair from his eyes, narrowing them at Remus, “Why I couldn’t kill you.”
Remus looked down, adjusting the bandage just so, staying quiet.
“You’re not a god. I can see that now, so there must be some explanation. Have you won one’s favor somehow?”
Remus’ fingers stilled. His mind flew to his own desperate words, the ones that had entered his mind in that split second of terror.
Aphrodite, I call to you, I call to you, I don’t want to die.
Aphrodite.
“You prayed.” Remus looked up, sitting back on his heels, “I caught you when you fell and I heard you.” Remus swore he saw the boy’s jaw tighten, “You prayed to Aphrodite for life. Why?”
Sirius pressed himself into a taller sitting position, wincing and trying to hide it, “It is in her clutches that I feel most alive.” It was said with a cheeky but obviously strained grin, “Nothing gets my heart pumping quite like she does, don’t you agree?”
Remus felt his cheeks flame.
The boy smirked, “Or maybe you don’t know. Medics wouldn’t be the ones getting much of the women down there at camp, would they?”
“You’re about to die and you pray for lust?” Remus shook his head, but his heart was racing.
Had they both prayed to Aphrodite? Had she heard them?
“You still didn’t answer my question.” The boy was picking gingerly at the new bandage, and pulling his tunic back over his head. Remus tried not to let his eyes linger as the tan strips of skin disappeared, “I struck with full intention to take you’re life. No godly work came from my side.”
Remus swallowed.
Aphrodite, I call to you, I call to you, I don’t want to die.
“I don’t know.” He picked up his sword, edging it behind him now that the boy seemed in better fighting condition. His motion didn’t go unnoticed.
The boy’s smirk was back, “Scared I might try again?”
“You are a Trojan.” Remus said shortly, “Merciless.”
“Oh, is that what they say about us? How nice.” They stared at each other for a few moments, for long enough that Remus wondered if they were ever going to move.
“Here.” The boy said finally. He picked up his helmet and held it out. It gleamed in the sun, “I may be a merciless Trojan but I know when a debt needs to be payed. Take this for your spoils, I doubt you have many.”
Remus hesitated. He didn’t need a helmet, especially not a Trojan one. He didn’t want to be mistaken on the field, if he ever had to fight again. But, he supposed, if people started asking where he was, if anyone even noticed, it would be nice to have something to prove he had been there at all. Maybe even something that would offer the idea that he had taken a life. He took the helmet.
“You should trade it for food. Maybe become something other than skin and bones.”
Remus glared, “I’ll do with it what I like.”
They stood. Remus didn’t help him up this time but the boy didn’t seem to need it. He strapped his armor on with only a little difficulty, and then they were left with nothing to do but face each other.
“Do you often save enemy lives?”
Remus placed his own helmet on his head, and cradled the other beneath his arm, “I don’t often get close enough to an enemy to get the chance.” He took a step back, “You should clean that, when you get back.”
And then he turned and went.
~
Sand, Sirius thought. He would deal with the sand for that Greek.
(A/N: NEW FIC! Hope you guys enjoy :)
#wolfstar#sirius x remus#remus x sirius#wolfstar!au#trojan war#iliad!au#harry potter#harry potter fic#hp#soldier!sirius#healer!remus#sirius black#remus lupin#the marauders era#writing#The Mark of Aphrodite
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All the Steps
Yang couldn't help but smile, watching her girlfriend fidget out of the corner of her eye. Seeing the typically calm and poised Specialist Winter Schnee genuinely nervous already made for a peculiar sight but add to that the way she kept smoothing her hands down her pant legs and picking nonexistent lint from the fabric pushed the situation from concerning to amusing for the blonde.
"You're freaking yourself out, you know," she said, failing to keep the smile from her voice as the woman jolted in the passenger seat of her sporty little coupe. Yang hadn't put up much fuss when Winter insisted they leave Bumblebee behind but being asked to do the driving raised a red flag or two. She didn't mind, of course, seeing as she got a kick out of driving itself- two wheels or four, didn't matter. However, her girlfriend preferred being in control when it came to the car and only ever abstained when she wanted to make especially clear that she trusted the blonde fully or when her thoughts tended towards the heavy side. Given the quiet ride, she had the distinct impression it was a bit of both this time. "It's going to be fine, Winter. We've made it through much worse than this."
"I know that but I've never done this, Yang." The woman sighed, catching herself combating imaginary wrinkles and instead curling her hands into fists atop her thighs to stop the anxious gesture. "It's a big step. Comparatively speaking."
"Really?" She glanced over, cracking a smile before returning her gaze to the road. "First date, first kiss, first time sleeping together- and not in that exact order- those were the small steps?"
"You know what I mean." Despite the lack of laughter, the woman seemed to relax a little. "Before, the only opinions that mattered were our own. This invites others to give theirs, and that's not something to be taken lightly."
The blonde hummed, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the point. Three years ago, she might've laughed at the thought of someone's opinion having any real bearing on her, but then Beacon fell and she lost her arm trying to protect her best friend from a madman. After wading through a pit of despair and pulling herself together enough to get back into the fight, Yang had a much firmer grasp on the detrimental impact a few choice words could have on a person. The past year of their relationship, free of the struggle to keep that demon witch from plunging the world into darkness and shadow, had strengthened her faith in the Atlesian, so she didn't fear that today might bring an end to their relationship; at the same time, no reason to burn those bridges if they didn't have to, though keeping their relationship low key had become a burden in recent months.
"You think they won't like me?" Yang kept her tone light despite the small tendril of concern worming its way into her heart. Weiss hadn't spoken of her family- save Winter- with much fondness over the years, so she had some idea of the lions' den they would be entering. She'd come to terms with the idea that following through on the assurances she'd given to her teammate years ago would never come to pass, or at least not in the same manner; while she doubted the sisters would hold it against her, punching their father straight in his face didn't seem like the best way to make a first- or subsequent- impression.
A hand appeared on her wrist, gently pulling her hand from the steering wheel so their fingers could interlace. "It doesn't matter if they do or do not, Sundrop. We make each other happy and that's what should matter." The woman sighed, giving her metallic hand a reassuring squeeze. "I just... would greatly prefer if they see you the way I do."
"As a drop dead sexy, hilarious bombshell, you mean?" The blonde flashed a smile while slowing down for a red light.
"As a caring, compassionate, strong and vibrant companion who makes me very happy," Winter replied, raising their joined hands to brush a kiss against the prosthetic, somehow making her blush slightly as the car came to a complete stop. The sensors weren't quite that sensitive- she certainly couldn't feel the light pressure or the texture of her girlfriend's lips- but it never failed to make her heart skip a beat when the woman treated her artificial limb as though it was real. Not to say that she ignored the prosthetic's presence, of course, but she didn't show favoritism to either hand the way others tended to, either falling on the side that found artificial limbs disturbing or those who found them a bit too... interesting. "Plus all those other things."
"Aw, you think I'm hilarious?" Now in no danger of causing a wreck, Yang leaned over and drew her girlfriend into a proper kiss, their lips sliding together with practiced ease. Even after the kiss broke, they stayed close, foreheads touching as they looked into each other's eyes. "See, this is why I Schneed to keep you around. You're great for my ego."
Xiao Long are you going to keep this up?" The woman raised a brow, a smile curling her lips. "You keep me around for more than just your ego's sake, and we both know it."
"Well, you're quite the Specialist when it comes to making me happy." She managed to sneak another kiss before the light changed and her attention returned to the road, though their hands remained clasped on the arm rest between them. "You're strong, stubborn, perceptive- I could keep going, but you're especially confident in your decisions, and you decided to stick with me. Anyone who truly cares about you will respect that." She paused. "Unless I screw this up somehow. Then, they'll help you with an air tight alibi and a six foot ditch."
"Morbid, but not untrue," Winter said, a sigh slipping past her lips. "You're right. I'm worrying over nothing. This meeting changes nothing no matter how it goes; it's just a polite formality and everything will be fine."
"That's the spirit," she said as they pulled up to a fancy restaurant in downtown Vale, the sleek coupe left running as valets came to open both doors. The duo split their time between a small, cramped officer's quarters on Winter's assigned base in Mistral and an apartment near the newly reconstructed Beacon grounds. On occasion, Winter went back to the Schnee estate in Atlas on her own while the blonde went to Patch to see her Dad, and they hadn't quite decided on where to dettle down when the time came. They agreed moving between two or three kingdoms wouldn't be good in the long term, especially for little ones, but Winter's position in the military only offered so many opportunities for stabilization, and there weren't any open in Atlas or Vale. For the moment, they'd agreed to table the discussion until they tired of the traveling or their feelings on the matter dramatically changed, but Yang found herself itching to bring the topic up again soon. She might still be five years shy of the big three-oh, but with that milestone coming up next year for her girlfriend, the idea of starting their own family seemed... well, appropriate. She thought, anyway. Tearing her thoughts away from that tangent, lilac eyes traced over the marble facade of the building, letting out a low whistle. "Man, this place is classy, huh?"
"It's the best restaurant in Vale that serves traditional favorites, even those little desert cakes you love. I thought it appropriate." The woman stepped up beside her, offering an arm. "You deserve the best."
"Guess that's why I have you," she replied, linking their arms together with a bright smile. "I love you, Snowdrift."
"And I, you, Sundrop."
After exchanging a quick kiss, they proceeded up the steps with Yang's off hand lifting the hem of her dress just a little. Although she didn't share her sister's disdain for 'lady stilts', the blonde still didn't wear dresses or heels often enough and enjoyed the excuse to trade her typical Huntress attire- perfect for just about any occasion, as it greatly mimicked Winter's military uniform nowadays, with white lining the edges of her coat- for a simple yellow sundress and a bit of jewelry. Nothing fancy, just a chain around her neck and some nice earrings, but she'd put in effort to at least look not entirely out of place among plush carpet and marble columns, soft strings and hushed chatter.
However, with the blink of an eye, her mind suddenly shoved a memory forward- from when they'd returned to Beacon's ruins, had trekked down the very road outside the restaurant and seen with their own eyes the damage wrought during the Fall, and suddenly that imagery became her reality. When she opened her eyes, she tensed, unsure how the broken walls had suddenly rebuilt themselves, the restaurant's trademark no longer in smashed pieces across the foyer but hanging above the host's stand on display, and the pristine white carpet beneath her had lost its blood stains. A lance of hot pain shot through her right arm, making her fingertips tingle- except, she hadn't had proper fingertips in years, but that didn't stop her wince.
"Yang? Are you alright?" Concern colored her girlfriend's voice, white brows pinching together while she soothingly rubbed at the skin just above her anchor with her right hand, the woman's left arm seeming ready to quickly wrap around her if need be.
"Yeah, I'm fine." She covered gentle fingers with her own, a tight smile on her lips. "Just some phantom pain, that's all."
"Did you bring your medicine?" They stopped short of the podium and Yang wouldn't put it past her love to turn them around and head back to the apartment to retrieve the pills in a heartbeat.
"Left it in my jacket," she replied, anticipating the lecture she was sure to receive for that oversight. In her defense, she'd never liked carrying purses and her scroll had been built into her arm since the third iteration, so she didn't exactly think to carry anything with her usually. Had she worn her usual outfit, this might've been avoided, but catching their reflections in a mirror set in the entryway- Winter in a crisp pantsuit, tailored jacket accenting her figure while the white and gold made blue eyes pop, beside her, a soft dress coupled with hard won muscles and the gleaming metal of her prosthetic- reminded her that a little inconvenience was worth it. Besides, the episodes passed quickly enough, and already the images had faded from the front of her mind. "It's nothing, I promise."
Her girlfriend frowned, concerned blue eyes flicking over the blonde's form before she sighed. "I should've reminded you. I usually do, but I've been so distracted recently." She leaned over and pressed a kiss against Yang's temple. "We can always reschedule this. We can leave right now-"
"Snowdrift," she said, a chuckle escaping as she leaned into the woman's side, forehead brushing against Winter's cheek. "I'm fine. It's just a bit of bad memories touched with phantom pain, nothing worth stressing over. And this is just lunch; if it gets worse, I'll let you know, okay?"
Although reluctant to do so, her girlfriend ultimately relented with a soft smile and drew her into a gentle embrace. "Promise me you'll say something before it gets too bad. I know you like to tough it out, but you really don't have to today, okay?"
"Okay." Yang smiled as lips pressed against the top of her head. Sometimes, she really couldn't believe how, after all the pain, she'd done enough things right to warrant this happy outcome. "On the plus side, if things get awkward, we have an excuse to leave."
She both felt and heard the woman's chuckle. "Indeed we do."
The soft clearing of a gruff throat, however, reminded both of them that they weren't alone, though neither seemed in a hurry to break the embrace. Still, Yang did her best to marshal her thoughts now that they'd arrived at the moment of truth, her posture stiffening every so slightly. Thankfully, it seemed like her girlfriend didn't mind the interruption, no little bit of anxiety shooting through her as she remained relaxed and content, even while moving to acknowledge the newcomer. Gathering her courage, Yang turned and did her best to hide her surprise.
She expected Jacques, the forceful, controlling, downright lovely bastard who considered himself head of the Schnee family- or at least, he did up until a few years ago. Weiss had managed to back the man into a corner after Salem's defeat and reclaimed the family business, estate, and name, much to his bitter disappointment. Between sisters, she'd yet to hear a kind word said about the man; out of all the things that could happen today, the blonde had promised herself that causing her girlfriend's father bodily harm wouldn't be one of them. At least, she would try.
So, to say Yang was surprised when she turned and found, rather than the bitter old man she'd yet to meet, a distantly familiar face proved to be a massive understatement.
"Thank you for coming, Sir," Winter said as she stepped away and offered her hand.
"I wouldn't miss this for anything." General Ironwood, the block jawed military man who'd detained Yang during the Vytal Festival what felt like another lifetime ago, took the woman's hand and gave a gentle tug, his other arm wrapping around the woman's shoulder. "And we're both on leave and out of uniform. Until we're back on duty, James will suffice. It's good to see you, Winter."
Before the woman could reply- though she didn't miss the little smile on her lips at the familiar address- another man approached. He was a bit on the short side and balding on top with gray eyes, wearing a smart suit that spoke of class rather than power, so definitely not Jacques either. "Speaking of leave, the time off is doing wonders for you, my dear." James released her and stepped back, allowing the man to wrap Winter up in a hug without hesitation. "This is the happiest I've seen you in years!"
"There's good reason for that." Blue eyes fell on the blonde, her smile beaming and proud. "Allow me to introduce my girlfriend, Yang Xiao Long. Yang, this is General James Ironwood, my superior officer, and Klein Haskoff, who raised Weiss and I."
Snapping out of her confusino, she smiled at the men and shook their hands- initially reaching forward with her left before switching to the right when the General seemed to wordlessly insist. Klein didn't seem the least bit concerned about which hand she used. "Pleasure to meet both of you. Properly, anyway."
"Indeed, and I'm glad this time is under better circumstances." James offered a smile.
"Absolutely charmed, my dear." Klein nodded towards the host. "But a strapping young woman like yourself is probably hungry, no?"
Winter chuckled fondly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You're on vacation. Let someone else worry about everyone's well being for a change."
"She's right," the General said, waving a hand. "But I think we're all ready for a good meal and the majority of us are supposed to be relaxing. Let's all go sit down." As James led the older man towards the awaiting host, he bent down, though he did a poor job of lowering his voice. "If we're lucky, we might hear her laugh again before the meal is through."
"Ah, it's a good sound to hear!" The shorter man sighed. "Between her and her sister, I'd begun to worry they'd forget to laugh at some point. It's good to see them both so happy now."
As everyone began following the host, Yang looked around, slightly confused.
"Is something the matter, Sundrop?" Winter made her inquiry with a soft voice as they both dropped back a bit, allowing the two men to talk between themselves.
"Well, not really, it's just..." The blonde sighed, opting to bite the bullet. "Where's your dad?"
"Still in prison, thankfully," her girlfriend replied, a slight furrow to her brows. "His appeal failed."
Made sense; Jacques had racked up quite a few charges by the time Salem fell and Weiss' evidence against him proved too damn good. However, she hadn't expected the Atlesian judicial system to take such rigorous measures as sticking to the initial sentencing- by this point, she would've expected house arrest or something of the like. "And your mom?"
"If I was to hazard a guess, I'd say drunk in a garden at Schnee Manor." She frowned. "Thank you for bringing that up. Although harmless, I've been meaning to talk to Weiss about that. It's far past time for her to quit drinking. Perhaps I could enlist Qrow's assistance; he just reached his one year mark, did he not?"
"Yeah, he made it, got the pin and everything. Still sober, too." She blinked, more confused with each answer. "What about your brother?"
Winter came to a dead stop and looked at her then, absolutely baffled. "Who?"
"Whitley? Your brother?" The blonde raised a hand to just below her collarbone. "This tall, kinda a huge douche, I called him 'Shitley' to his face for the whole celebration after we beat Salem?"
"You said you were drunk."
"No, I said I had a few drinks; I knew damn well what I was doing." Yang sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I thought that's what had you so stressed out when you brought up introducing me to your family. Figured it'd be kinda hard to win them over but I was going to give it a shot."
"I neither want nor need their approval; as I said, my... hesitations-" the woman rolled her eyes at the pointed look shot her way "-my anxieties, stemmed purely from the idea that my personal and public life will now be intertwined. I've been very good about keeping them separate since I left Schnee Manor to attend Atlas Academy. This is an adjustment but one I'm more than willing to make."
"Still, what about your blood relatives?" Yang bit her lip and offered a small shrug. "We're going to have to cross that bridge eventually, too. Right?"
Winter remained silent for a moment before speaking, her voice soft. "I've found that blood can mean many things. It can give life, bind people together, and even signal death. What it is not, however, is an excuse. My father and brother turned their backs on Weiss when she needed them most and mother was never there for her to begin with." Her lips drew into a tight line, the only sign of her anger she would allow. "Just because they share a blond bond with me doesn't mean I must forgive them their transgressions or include them in my life." Blue eyes darted towards the reserved table the host had brought James and Klein to, menus being placed on the settings as a waiter brought over a pitcher of water. The man continued talking to each other, obviously aware of their absence but making no move to acknowledge the hushed conversation. "These men have been better parents to me than Jacques and Willow." She sighed, a slight groan slipping past her lips. "And don't tell him I said this, but Qrow's been a better brother than Shitley ever was." Yang did her best to stifle her giggle, causing her girlfriend's expression to break into a soft smile. "Weiss and I made our decisions shortly after Salem's defeat. All of Remnant is rebuilding- replacing the old and destroyed with new and better. We did, too." She reached out then, guiding the blonde's arms to wrap around her waist, one hand lifting up to cup Yang's cheek while the other rest on her anchor, two fingers on flesh and two on metal. "We will fill our lives with those who care for us and for whom we will go to the ends of this world and the next to protect. Our family are those who supported us in our darkest times, our friends are those who fought beside us against unimaginable odds, and our loves are those who holds our hearts so dear. You are my love and my friend, Sundrop. So, come, meet the rest of my family."
Yang smiled, tears stinging at her eyes. "Yeah. Okay." She leaned forward for a kiss, squeezing the woman's waist a little. "I love you, Winter."
"And I love you, Yang."
They stayed like that for a moment more, locked in a gentle embrace, before the blonde reluctantly pulled away, taking her girlfriend's hand and threading their fingers together. "Let's go."
They joined the two men at the table, all of them smiling as they struck up a conversation that veered between pleasant remarks about Remnant's rebuilding efforts and shop talk regarding either the military or the Academies, and she didn't miss the few, vague inquiries into whether or not Winter would be renewing her commitment to the Atlesian military and the equally vague assurances that she hadn't decided yet. All the food was delicious- though Yang was willing to bet she could cook a better steak- but the company even better, and they stayed for a good two hours before opting to head out. Apparently, Klein had a little sight seeing he wanted to do before heading to Menagerie to having dinner with Weiss; apparently, both sisters had decided for a 'meet the family' meal that week, though Klein had spoken with Blake many times over the past few years.
Yang couldn't help but laugh at that, finally aware of why her partner seemed so on edge recently, likely thinking along the same lines she had. However, rather than give away the surprise, the blonde promised not to mention it, and gladly joined her girlfriend on giving the man a tour of Vale from one who'd spearheaded the recovery efforts, right alongside her sister. After a quick scroll message, she even managed to get a private tour of Beacon courtesy of Ruby, who seemed absolutely ecstatic to meet Klein in person.
All in all, when they settled down for bed that night- her prosthetic laying on the bedside table and Winter's arm wrapped around her waist, Yang had to smile to herself.
Maybe it was time to invite Winter back to Patch, introduce her to Taiyang properly- they'd talked via scroll a few times, but one of the three of them always seemed to be needed elsewhere any time they tried meeting before.
And, maybe... it was time to go a little further than that.
The following night, Yang sat at her makeshift workbench in the little study- tinkering with Ember Celica's attachment to her prosthetic and trying hard not to curse as her left hand wasn't very good at doing such fine, detailed work- when her scroll began to ring. Reaching over, she tapped at the answer icon without looking at the ID. "Yello?"
"Yang." Blake's voice sounded... well,a mixture of things, like she was confused, overwhelmed, lovestruck and, ultimately, completely in awe, all at once. While the Faunus herself was enough to pull her attention away from her work for the moment, Yang found herself more interested in what, exactly, would prompt that before she remembered lunch from the day before.
"So, how'd meeting Weiss' family go?" She smiled wide, looking at the screen to see that her partner looked exactly like she sounded, expression frozen in something akin to shock but with that little tilt to her ears that only seemed to occur around Weiss. "He didn't give you a hard time now, did he?"
"You knew?" Blake blinked. "Of course you did; he came from visiting you, didn't he?"
"Yup." Yang laughed, shaking her head as the gears continued to spin without catching in her friend's head. "You're really that surprised? Klein's a nice guy, Blakey. And, ya know, James wasn't so bad either. He's actually a lot more chill than I would've thought when the world isn't being threatened by a being of nigh pure evil."
Her friend looked confused at first and then even moreso. "James?"
"Oh, right- I mean General Ironwood."
"The Faunus' ears perked up. "You two are on a first name basis now?"
"When he's off duty." She glanced at the clock, noting the late hour. Her girlfriend had to run to the outpost to file some report or other- a minor emergency she'd not been happy about before she left-and should be returning soon. "I got to spend a little time with him. He treats Winter like a daughter, and I think she looks up to him as a dad, just like Klein. The four of us had lunch together yesterday and talked. It was nice."
"Just the four of you?"
"Yeah, why?" Her gaze came back to the scroll, brows furrowing. "Who all did Weiss introduce you to?"
"Well, Klein for one." The confusion and lovestruck came back in full force. "Then she introduced me to my parents." Yang snorted; in hindsight, they both probably should've expected that. Team RWBY had enough reunions in every kingdom due to their differing paths after Salem's defeat that Yang had become just as familiar with Mama and Papa Belladonna as the others, the Faunus always welcoming to their daughter's friends and thankful to them for bringing the whole team back intact. "And then she introduced me to Taiyang."
She couldn't help but blink. "... uh, what?"
"I'm not even kidding, Yang." Blake's expression morphed back as a little bit of fear crept into her voice, clearly overwhelmed by what she was about to say. "Your dad showed up and it really got me thinking."
Snapping out of the momentary breakdown of synapses in her brain, the blonde shook her head and refocused on the screen. "About what, partner?"
"I really don't think I can go back at this point. Weiss is... she's part of me now."
"Yeah..." Lilac eyes scanned the room, military order somehow juxtaposed with her own messy tendencies rather well- a half empty bottle of wine from the night before still sitting on the table while the glasses were drying on the rack in the kitchen, Winter's desk kept nice and clean while Yang's workbench had smudges from oil worked into the wood, a single bookcase with technical manuals, military training aides, and a few books of fiction that one, the other, or both enjoyed. Imagining her girlfriend's part of the room taken away, erased... she honestly had a hard time picturing it. "I know what you mean."
"Mom and Dad already call her their 'other daughter' and I think... it's time to make that official." Amber eyes turned hard, just like whenever the Faunus made a decision that she would see through to the end come hell or high water. "Seeing everyone together tonight- it really drove home how we've banded together and made this... little communal family of our own between everyone. And I know everyone can take one look at our kids and know that Weiss and I are their parents but... I want more, and seeing everyone together- thinking of how all our individual bloodlines come together, it just drove the point home. I love Weiss like no one else. It's time everyone knew that." She nodded, more for her own benefit- or perhaps to be appropriately dramatic, tough to say- before continuing. "I'm going to propose. At this point, the White Fang can survive without my direct supervision and I can turn my focus to personal matters. I don't want to keep going through life, saying I'm going to eventually do it; that time's come. I'm going to ask Weiss to marry me." Her ears and shoulders fell slightly. "Which, actually, brings me to why I was really calling, aside from thinking you had something to do with this- are you free any time next week? I need to go ring shopping."
At that, the blonde couldn't help but bark out a laugh. "You need to go shopping?"
"Look, I might've known I was going to eventually marry her for a while but-"
"But, you and her are workaholics who only pry yourselves away from your jobs when Ruby and I break out the crowbars, like the excellent friends we are," she said, getting up from the workbench. "Hold on one sec."
Yang shouldered her way through the study's door, heading for the living room. The apartment wasn't much- two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen/dining room- but it had only just started to feel too cramped. Of course, any talk of moving would bring up the whole 'where do we actually want to settle down' thing, which she still hadn't touched yet, wanting to savor the majority of Winter's leave for the moment. Plus, she knew the woman would prefer a little time alone to really think things through and process, especially something as huge as deciding where to stake their claim. Atlas and Vale were strong contenders, but Winter had grown fond of Mistral during her time stationed there, and even then the specific location would vary, like Patch or Vale proper.
Kneeling down by the couch, she lifted it up and set the edge on her shoulder, not even bothered by the timing of it all and more than practiced at doing so for a variety of reasons, the main one ensuring that her little hiding spot wasn't uncovered. After recovering the little box from a carefully made rip in the bottom of the couch, the blonde set down the furniture with a dull thump and went back to the study. Using her mouth, she pried open the box and sat back down, turning it so the contents were on display for her scroll.
Blake's eyes went wide. "You... how long?"
"I picked it up last year," she said softly, turning the box back around to admire the ring inside. Inlaid with diamonds so it could be worn under the woman's gloves but also with a thin chain, to be worn around the neck. It also had precise carvings in the band- a dragon and a wolf, hearkening back to a joke she'd made when they first met- a glittering sapphire in the wolf's eye and an amethyst in the dragon's as they touched noses to the big diamond in the center of the ring. "The guy who made it does good work. Took a bit to save up the money but... it's worth it."
"And you haven't asked yet?" The Faunus looked concerned, lips turned down in the corners.
Yang laughed. "Look who's talking!" She set the box down on the table and waved off the reply she could see her partner preparing, a teasing smile on her lips. "You honestly think Weiss would've let you live it down if I proposed first?" Her expression softened. "We've had a lot going on the past few years. Even if I'm sure, it wasn't the right time. Too much going on, not enough space to think- I went with my gut." She glanced down at the ring box. "But now? I've had time to think it through, and I'm definitely sure. This is what I want. She's... everything to me." Shaking her head, the blonde looked at her friend with a wide smile. "Anyway, I didn't drag this out for bragging; I still have the guy's number. Think you can whip up a design?"
"Yeah, I can do that." Blake chuckled, reaching up to tuck a lock behind her lower ear. "We're... really going to do this, huh?"
"Hey, Ruby doesn't have a monopoly on chasing down fairytale endings." She closed the box, smiling at the screen. "Drop by anytime next week. Winter leaves to go back to Atlas on Saturday and classes don't start for another month, so I'll be free."
"Deal." The Faunus smiled just as wide, her feline ears twitching erratically. "I'll make the arrangements tomorrow."
"Sounds good, partner." She waved. "I'll catch you later."
Yang got up, heading back to the couch to replace the ring when she heard the telltale sounds of a key being slid into the lock on the front door. She immediately shoved the ring box into the pocket of her pants and prayed the baggy, around-the-house wear would keep it from being obvious as Winter pushed through the door.
"Oh, good, you're still awake," the woman said, quickly shedding her jacket and tossing it towards the coat rack- an abnormal action, to accompany her odd statement.
"Yeah, it's hardly- mmph!" The blonde found her reply cut short by lips pressed against hers, eyes falling shut as she fell into the embrace like a comfortable bed, relishing the restrained embrace that accompanied it, like it took conscious effort to keep her girlfriend from squeezing too hard. When they parted, she felt a bit lightheaded and couldn't help but laugh. "Well, someone's in a good mood. I guess everything went well with the report?"
Winter opened her mouth but stopped, eyes flicking about as she seemed to grasp for an answer. Finally, her gaze fell on the anchor. "You're likely in the middle of your routine but... do you think it can wait a while? The explanation is a bit... long and involved." She paused. "Perhaps it would be better to wait-"
"Nuh uh, it's not often you're this excited." Yang laughed, grabbing her girlfriend by the hand and pulling her down onto the couch, absolutely unsurprised when she found herself pulled into the other woman's lap and lips pressing against her neck and collarbone. Reaching up, she lightly pulled at the pins keeping Winter's hair in its strict bun, the whole thing becoming looser until she could unwind it entirely, depositing each bobby pin on the coffee table behind her while hands roamed over her back, tracing along the tense muscles that had started to knot from an hour spent working on her prosthetic. Once freed, she ran her hand through silky white strands, smoothing out the waves and kinks that developed from being tied up in a severe bun all day. "So how long you gonna keep me in suspense, hmmm? Or do I get to guess?"
"I don't think you could." Her head tilted up, trailing kisses along the blonde's jaw for a moment before pulling back enough to look in each other's eyes. "Mainly because I wasn't entirely truthful about the cause for my absence."
She raised a brow. "So, there wasn't a report that needed to be filed?"
"Not exactly. Headquarters finally made their decision on my options." Winter's hands settled on her hips, smiles coming to both of them easily. "My window just opened up, so I can put in for a new contract with the Atlesian military. They sent me the options I have available and it's... better than I could've hoped for."
"Did you get that promotion?" Yang did her best to keep her excitement in check, not wanting to guess incorrectly and sour the woman's mood.
"No, but I'm glad for it." She leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the blonde's cheek to soothe her. "There's six positions to consider and I'd like your input on which I should take." Before she could object, a finger pressed against her lips. "All of them are roughly the same- I'd be doing essentially what I do now- but some have some... special assignments I wouldn't be opposed to undertaking."
She mulled the thought over. "So, what's the difference, then? How long they last?"
"No, they're all the same commitment length." Winter paused, some of her excitement sliding away as she turned serious. "I know we've opted to avoid discussing long term living arrangements for a while now but... that's where the difference lies. Each position is largely the same, but differing locations. Well, except one, which is considerably different, but something I specifically requested."
Although she couldn't truly know what reaction her girlfriend expected, the wide smile that spread across the blonde's face probably wasn't it. However, she also couldn't hide her excitement at being confronted with the very topic she wanted to address; seems like an all too perfect coincidence. "Well, we're not going to get much farther talking about anything until it's all laid out. Hit me with what you've got." Before the explanation started, her girlfriend captured her lips in another kiss, reaching up to gently cup Yang's cheek. When they parted, she let out a breathless laugh. "You're really trying to butter me up, huh?"
"I'd like to think I'm setting a suitable baseline." Slowly and carefully, fingers carded through golden strands. "Some of these suggestions you might not like, so think of how happy you are right now. Whichever options gets closest to this or surpasses it, that's the one I should take, correct?"
"Oh? So this is just based on me?" She leaned their foreheads together. "What about you?"
Winter inhaled deeply, letting her breath out slowly. "I've opted to take a break from focusing on my career for the time being. At this stage, I can linger in my current rate without suffering ill effects, I make more than enough lien to cover my expenses, and I enjoy the work I do. It means no more promotions in the near future and I'm perfectly fine with that." Her voice lowered slightly. "So, realistically, any option I take will suit my needs. What matters is how they affect you and us, and your assistance is instrumental in determining that."
"Alright," she replied, sneaking a little kiss of her own. "Lay it on me."
"There's a position at Atlas military headquarters, in the heart of the capital city. There's one at an outpost in western Vale, near the Vacuon border, and another on the coast just outside the city. There's also one at a small island off the coast of Menagerie." The woman paused. "Those, obviously, are mostly instructor positions, where I would be overseeing integrated training between Atlesian and local forces. Except the first- there, I'd be coordinating those training posts."
"Well, that's four." Yang wanted to jump ahead and cast her vote for the coastal Vale position but refrained by the barest margins. Either her girlfriend had saved the best for last or the worst. "What about the other two."
"Well, one would be taking an instructor position at Atlas Academy. It's a nine-to-five position, for the most part, with rotating duty on the nights and weekends." Winter licked her lips. "The other is the same schedule... but at Beacon Academy."
Her eyes widened, mouth popping open in surprise. She probably looked like a fish out of water but the blonde managed to snap out of it quickly. "Wait, really? That last one? You- you can-"
"James finalized the possibility of a transfer yesterday after we had lunch." A hint of smugness infected her expression, one brow raising. "And did you honestly think my airship got delayed four hours? I interviewed with the Beacon Headmaster the first day of my leave."
"Beacon Hea- you mean Ruby knew and she didn't tell me?" Yang feigned offense, leaning back and putting a hand to her chest. "My own sister and employer would keep such secrets?" A small pause. "Actually, I'm genuinely surprised she managed that."
Her girlfriend's laugh was bright and clear. "It wasn't a for sure thing until yesterday, when everyone agreed to the terms. But, I still haven't accepted-"
"Well, why not?" Her lips stretched into a wide smile. "We'd have the same schedule, mostly, and we could be together more outside of work." Lilac eyes darted around the room. "Plus, this place has started feeling a little... small, recently." She looked at Winter. "I actually wanted to talk to you about that. Seems like good timing, huh?"
In blue eyes, she could see a little glint of something- humor, maybe- as the woman nodded. "Serendipitous, even. We could start looking for houses tomorrow, Sundrop." Her expression turned serious again. "However, if this position is the one we agree I take, we will conduct ourselves as professionals in front of students. I want to make that clear now."
Yang made a show of pouting. "So, that means no quickies in the faculty lounge?"
"I didn't say that." A wicked little smirk came to the woman's lips, voice hitting that special timbre that never failed to get her heart beating a little faster. "There's no students in the faculty lounge, are there?"
"Maidens, I love the way you think," she said, catching another kiss from her girlfriend's lips. It continued on for a good, long while before they broke apart. "So. Let me get this straight. You have the option to come here to Vale and become a Professor at Beacon, just like me. And we can get a little house of our own, maybe on the outside of town?"
"No more long stretches away from each other. Dinner together almost every night." Winter traced a hand up her side. "No packet deadlines or field reports. Just you, me, and a few hundred students. An improvement, I think."
"How long until the transfer goes into effect?"
"I have the message ready to send on my scroll. After I accept, I have two more months before the paperwork gets finalized and half a year after that before it goes into effect. I would start at Beacon next year, just before initiation."
"What are the downsides? I mean besides the ones you already mentioned." Her lips pulled into a small frown, trying to see past her own excitement at how everything seemed to be working out. "There's gotta be a reason this hasn't come up before."
"Typically, Atlas is quite insistent on maintaining their numbers. James agreed that it's time to move away from that mentality and be more cooperative with the other kingdoms, so this is the test of a much larger program." The woman tilted her head, a twinkle coming to her eyes. "Really, the only downside that exists is that you won't have any more long stretches of alone time while I'm off in Mistral or elsewhere." A flicker of nostalgia crossed her expression. "I will miss it, of course, but I think it's time for a change of scenery anyway."
"When it comes to alone time, you usually like that more than I do." Yang pointed out.
"True." She nodded, pulling the blonde closer and speaking softly. "But my feelings on solidarity have changed recently. The more time I spend alone, the more time I spend missing you." A soft kiss. "I've changed my mind about the whole 'lone wolf' routine. Grown out of it, one might say." A smile. "And I can always run off to the Emerald Forest if I need a reminder of why I did that."
They both laughed. "What about teaching at Atlas? Would that keep you in the system?"
"Yes, but, that would make seeing you almost impossible during the school year." She winced. "Personally, it's my lowest ranked option, but it would leave us relatively free during the summer months."
"The Vale posts would keep you in the system too, right?" Yang probed a little deeper. "They're also closer."
"That's true, but the training schedules can be erratic. It wouldn't be a sure thing like a teaching position."
"You're trying to talk me out of these other options, Snowdrift." The blonde narrowed her eyes, a smirk coming to her lips. "You already made your decision, didn't you?"
"I have my hopes but I do want to make this decision together." Her girlfriend sighed, dropping all pretense. "I pushed for the Beacon position because I thought that would be the best option for us. I still enjoy my work and this is a compromise; I've no doubt I'll be called upon for something or other by the military, but the majority of my time will be given to Beacon. That means a steady schedule and proximity to you- two things I want very much." She leaned forward, placing a kiss just above the hollow of the blonde's throat. "I've done enough for Atlas and Remnant right now. I want to be selfish. I want to be here, with you, but I understand if you'd rather us not share a place of employment."
Lilac eyes flicked over to where she'd hurriedly stashed the engagement ring. Apparently, they both had reached that stage of wanting more but tried to approach it as if they didn't throw themselves headfirst into every decision they made. Feigning caution when it seemed so unnatural for them; sometimes, they were so alike, it was funny. If Blake got her act together, she'd probably be proposing by the middle of the school year, and Yang wouldn't be far behind. Maybe wait until they'd moved in together officially, or after Weiss and Blake married. Then again, there wasn't a time limit on engagements; they could stay engaged throughout the younger Schnee's wedding process and set the actual date for themselves much later.
And that reminded her. "Have you talked to Weiss about it?"
"I did- when we were discussing Klein meeting our respective girlfriends, we talked about our near term plans." She paused for a moment, briefly debating with herself before continuing. "Act surprised when you find out but I'm quite certain she plans on proposing soon."
"Really?" Yang chuckled. "She already has a ring?"
"Not yet, as far as I'm aware."
"Well, just between us, Blakey's on the same wavelength." She shrugged. "We're going ring shopping next week. Promised I'd help her out." Her expression lit up as a beautiful idea crossed her mind. "Hey, what if we played both side of it and made sure they propose to each other the same night? How romantic would that be?"
A brow raised. "You think that sounds romantic?"
"Yeah!" The blonde chuckled, brushing their noses together. "I mean, think about it. Them both being nervous because of what they're about to ask, and then one starts, fumbling over the words, and the other clues in and gets ready. Then, one gets down on a knee and asks, and the other just blubbers and asks too- doesn't that sound like an adorable mess?" In her mind's eye, she could see Weiss being the first to actually getting the words out and Blake being overcome with emotions- relief and love and so much else- and the two of them turning into happy, teary eyed saps on the floor beside a candle lit table at some fancy restaurant while the wait staff pretends it's just another night. "Mutual proposals are those things that only seem to ever happen in the books Blake reads but, with our help, they could have that, ya know?"
"I suppose that sounds rather nice." Winter furrowed her brows for a moment, nodded, and then smiled. "Alright, then, Sundrop. They might be a little upset with us initially, but I can see how neither beating the other to the punch could work out rather well. I'll do my part and motivate Weiss to start looking for a ring."
"And I'll let you know of any engaging news to come from Blakey." Her girlfriend laughed and Yang beamed. It just seemed like everything would fall into place. Maybe it wasn't picture perfect but, damnit, it still seemed like paradise after the hell they'd walked through.
"Well, I propose that we make our decision and celebrate." The woman cast a glance over the back of the couch. "We still have some wine left, yes? We could order in from that Vacuon place you like, watch a movie, and cuddle up on the couch."
"Well, I've got no problem with you working at Beacon, and the whole 'living together in a bigger place' thing sounds right up my alley." Her eyes flicked back over to the ring box. "I mean, if you're good with it, I'm good with it... seems like that's already decided, right?" She smirked. "And I'm not hungry yet. Maybe we should... work up an appetite first?"
Winter chuckled, low in her throat as she leaned forward, lightly nipping at the blonde's earlobe. "What, my dear, do you mean by that?"
"You're smart, Snowdrift," she said, easing herself off her girlfriend's lap and heading towards the bedroom with an extra little sway to her hips. "You'll figure it out." Yang made it three steps before the woman swept up behind her, arms around her waist and lips against her bare shoulder. She couldn't stop the giggle that burst forth, her feet leaving the ground as Winter picked her up and spun her once before setting her back down. "Wow, you're really excited about this, huh?"
"Admittedly, moreso than I can articulate," her girlfriend replied, holding her and smiling against the side of her neck. "It just... seems like something a long time coming. A step we've taken in half measure before now but finally embracing fully. It's liberating, in a way." Yang reached up, threading her fingers through the woman's hair and smiling until it hurt, because Winter habitually moved her head to whichever side would be easiest for the blonde to reach and that never failed to warm her heart. "I'm looking forward to tomorrow. And every day after."
Now that the woman couldn't see where her gaze landed, lilac eyes fell on her temporary hiding spot as she spoke. "Yeah. Me too."
#Elderburn#Monochrome#this is based off a terrible joke I made so here#it's basically Yang and Winter being sentimental fluff balls for 8k words#TRR writes
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Kain: You Fought, You Lost
Summary: The Night of Fang and Fire took a toll on everyone, and Kain knew what he was signing up for when he stood (not for the order, never for the order, but those were his friend marching into battle). If he could take it all back then he would in a heartbeat, but it’s too late. The damage is done. He can’t go back. (In the same Universe as Out of My Depth, which is somewhere in my blog under the Legion tag) Words: So many. Too many. This was supposed to be a 500 word drabble. What the hell. Disclaimer: I’m not Julie Kagawa or HarlequinTeen or else I would have a nicer laptop and would be able to afford to buy a new scanner. So anything relating to Talon isn’t mine, I don’t profit, it’s very sad. I’m not a medic either. Don’t trust anything I say. I just have a laptop and determination. A/N: So... I kinda empathize with Kain despite him trying to beat up Garret, because if I were in his situation then I would be doing the exact same thing. And what do I do to characters I empathize with? I make them SUFFER. Sorry Kain. This was written entirely in his perspective so there are some less than nice thoughts towards Garret and Ember, but it’s not focused on that, so don’t worry. Mandatory Begging for comments/reviews: Plz help I live for validation.
He woke up to pain and confusion, red-hot pokers in his eyes and his throat stuffed with cotton seeds. Kain took a sharp breath in and flexed his claws— fingers. He was in his human form, lying on his back on the hard ground, the only comfort being a lumpy pillow and blanket pulled up to his shoulders. What had happened? Why wasn’t he in bed? Why couldn’t he see?
“N— Nadine?” He rasped, a thirst making itself known to him at his words. Where was that human? Maybe she had answers as to what happened, why he was on the ground and why his face hurt and he couldn’t see. What was the last thing he remembered?
Cobalt-Riley had called the underground together. Remy had told him about the St. George soldier that was walking in their midst. Some crazy chick had talked about talking to the genocidal asshats and then Cobalt-Riley threw him into a barn. Nadine had reprimanded him and then sent him off to his room, then Cobalt-Riley gathered them, and then… and then…
St. George. Kain had helped St. George, he had fought and it had been terrifying and the smell of blood was overwhelming and the dragons— they weren’t dragons. They couldn’t be dragons— had attacked them all without any mercy, and by the time Cobalt-Riley had called for a retreat a not-dragon had torn into his eyes and there was blood everywhere and he had to wait for hours before Wesley had been able to see him, and he said that—
“Wes!” Kain’s voice rose to a thready scream and he sat up, only making a headache from the pits of hell radiate everywhere and a pain travel up his flank. He couldn’t see. Everything was so dark, he couldn’t see, he knew that it had been bad, but he still strained his eyes for anything to pick up. There was nothing. He couldn’t see anything.
“Wes!” He screamed a bit louder. The noise hurt, moving hurt, but he tried to sit up anyways and strained his voice. “Please—”
“Kain…” There was a groggy voice and Kain snapped towards it. He knew that voice, but not by name. It was a dragon, though. That helped the panic rising in his chest with every heartbeat that passed in darkness. “You need to keep your voice down or else I’ll drop kick you out of this post office.”
“I—I— Where’s Wes? Or another medic? I need to— owww…” Kain dropped back onto the ground and clutched his head, feeling tight bandages around his eyes. Maybe that was all that was causing the darkness. Maybe if he took them off then he’d be able to see again. He needed to find Wes, he could tell him what had happened.
“He was with Sage last time I checked,” The voice said. Then sighed. “You stay quiet, I’ll go get him. But I swear if you wake up Atlas he will crawl over to your bed and punch you. And then I will. Shut up.”
The was a shuffle and creak of floorboards as the girl left. Kain felt over his face again, the bandages covering his eyes and stitches spanning over his cheek from where a dragon had latched on and tore at his face until it felt more blood than skin. They were like vultures, coming down on him and leaving him defenseless to try and fight them off. He had been relieved when a soldier— St. George, they had killed Isaac, they killed his best friend— had shot the thing off of him. He had been more relieved when Cobalt-Riley had told them to fall back and someone had realized that he couldn’t see through all of the blood.
What if he never saw again?
“Kain.” The thick British accent alerted him to Wes’ presence. “Get something to eat, Mason. Something other than Cheez-its. Bloody hell, Kain… you’ve bled through your bandages.”
“What’s wrong with me? Why can’t… you didn’t…” His hand trembled and Wes let out a long sigh, slowly getting him upright despite how much worse it made the headache. “You couldn’t… You can’t. That—”
“I explained what I was going to do before I put you under, Kain,” Wes muttered. “I tried to save as much of your right eye as possible, but your left—”
“No.”
“It had to come out, Kain. It had completely ruptured, there wasn’t any saving it.”
“No.”
“You’re right eye might still be functional, I did everything—”
“No!”
His eye had been removed. The darkness wasn’t just from the bandages.
He was blind.
**** **** **** ****
Cobalt-Riley decided to move them back to the Order Chapterhouse, a choice that Kain strongly disagreed with. He didn’t want to go back there. He didn’t want to be anywhere near the soldiers that had hunted him like a dog for three years. But Wes agreed. He said that they had better medical equipment, and that could mean the difference between life and death for Nettle and Sage. And the idea of either of them dying was even worse.
“Kain, we’re leaving now. I want to get you there fast, so you’re on on this trip,” Wes’ voice told him. “I’m going to help you up, okay?” A hand took his own and Wes got him on his feet, which made the headache worsen and a feeling of vertigo nearly cause him to fall over. The only thing that kept him upright was Wes’ hands on his shoulders. He slowly led him outside, telling him when to step down. Kain strained his eyes— eye— to see anything through the bandages, but the light didn’t change.
But it could change. He clung to that, Wes had shined a flashlight in his eye and he could definitely see the difference of light or dark. But at the moment, with someone having to guide his every step and him practically clinging to the guidance, if felt like a bitter condolence.
“You’re in the passenger’s seat,” Wes told him. He heard the car door open and a moment later Wes’ hand was on his back to help him into the car. “The moment we get Sage into a room and set things up I’ll ask the St. George medic if there’s anything else I can do for you.”
Kain let out a snort. “They’re going to help us? What type of backwards world did I step into?” There was a slam of the closing door and for a moment he couldn’t hear Wes, which sent a jolt of fear through him. Wes had been the person to tell him where everything was for the past few days, and losing track of him in an unfamiliar area was more scary than he wanted to admit. But less than five seconds letter the driver’s side door opened and Kain’s chest relaxed.
“A world, Kain, where there are two medics and around eighteen major injuries. Most of whom—” The car rumbled to life and Kain jumped, grabbing for his seatbelt until he made contact. “—Are bloody idiots.”
Kain winced. He couldn’t tell if he was referencing Hamsah trying to shit back into human form with a torn wing, Persephone trying to walk and nearly puncturing her lung in the process, or Kain himself trying to stand and find Sage the previous day before subsequently getting lost.
“Try not to fight any soldiers this time,” He said as they started moving. “These guys aren’t as welcoming as our St. George.”
Kain expected a surge of indignance at the way he spoke, or at least anger towards the soldier and his traitor girlfriend. But he felt nothing besides a bit of pain for bringing it up.
He hadn’t felt this way since Isaac died.
He nodded and rested his cheek on his hand, staring at where he knew the window was. He could imagine the desert passing around them, the sandy brown and cacti and tumbleweed that he had seen on his flight. Maybe if he focused enough on imagining, he’d be able to ignore that he wasn’t actually seeing a thing.
**** **** **** ****
He was sharing a room with and Jasper, Persephone, and Hamsah. He knew that it was because of wound intensity so Wes and Riley would be closer to the people who were less stable, but it still felt awkward and he couldn’t help but wish that he was in a room with Mason or Sage. Of course, Sage was unconscious, ribcage and spine broken apart, in the high risk room with Nettle. Mason was in the least risk room.
During the first night, Kain continued to strain his eyes to see anything. He was too afraid to move from his cot in case he got lost in the dark so close to St. George, but staying still felt even worse. In the end he stood and stumbled across the room, bracing his hands against the cold wall and shuffling until he found the door. He just needed to get out of the room. No further. He wouldn’t get lost if he was just outside his room.
The air was cool on the exposed part of his face and provided some relief for the bandages around his head. He closed the door and sank to the ground, hugging his knees to his chest. He hated the human body he was confined to, cold and weak and damaged, but if he shifted… that would be bad. For numerous reasons. He was in a St. George chapterhouse. He’d destroy a perfectly comfortable hoodie. He’d tear his stitches and just cause more damage to his face.
He’d still be blind.
Kain growled at himself and rubbed at the bandages, a movement that quickly turned to scratching and then tearing. They came off and the desert air hit him, cool and dry around his irritated eyes.
It was still so dark.
Kain rubbed at his eyelid, feeling something warm and damp come off his fingers. Wes had only taken his bandages off once to flush out his eyes and check for infection, but then he had been dousing them with water so he couldn’t have seen, even if he had still had his eyes. But now there was no denying it. He couldn’t see. He’d never he able to see again.
Kain started to shake, tremors travelling from his hands to his chest until he was a shaking ball curled against the door. He was blind. There was nothing he could do about it. And suddenly the hallway was an endless labyrinth that he couldn’t navigate and the world felt too large to survive in. He didn’t even know if he could make it back to his cot by himself.
“Kain?” A voice to his right made Kain’s head shoot up. “Bloody hell, Kain…” He heard a shuffle and then Wes’ feet walking towards him. Kain curled up further and tried to stop the tremors wracking his body. “Come on. I have a first aid kit in Riley’s room, we can patch this up.”
“Fuck off, Higgins,” Kain tried to growl. It came out a whimper. He heard Wes sit down next to him and considered hitting him until he realized that then he’d be even more alone. Wes had been doing his best to keep them all grounded. But he was the one that took his eye. But there hadn’t been any saving it. His thoughts were just making him shake harder until his teeth were chattering from the movement.
“Do you need me to get Riley?” Wes asked softly. Kain shook his head. “Alright. Need me to leave?”
At that Kain grabbed for Wes’ arm. He couldn’t be left alone, the hallway was too big and he was too small and everything hurt and he needed someone to make the world seem a little more manageable. It didn’t matter if it was Mason or Wes or Nadine or even that crazy dragonell who dragged them all into this. He couldn’t be alone.
Wes sighed beside him and Kain clenched his fists, fearing for a moment that he’d be left alone. A tentative hand landed on his shoulder, grounding him where he sat. And the world felt smaller, somehow.
“Before you go back to bed I need to redo your bandages,” He whispered. Kain nodded and bit his lip to stop the chattering.
“I— I rubbed at my eyes. I know I’m not supposed to,” He whispered.
“Bloody twat.”
Kain shivered and drew his legs closer to his chest. And Wes snorted. A second later he felt either a jacket or a blanket being thrown over his shoulders. It didn’t help much, but it was something to clench in his hands. There was a liquid dripping down his face and he tried to wipe it away before Wes grabbed his wrist. Kain growled.
“The more you touch your face the more I’m going to have to watch out for infection. Don’t do that,” He said. Kain pulled his wrist out of the his grasp and Wes sighed again. “Look, Kain. I’ve never been good with emotions, it’s not my job. But obviously… you need someone who is. And I can try my best if you need me to.”
Kain shook his head, lying blatantly. But Wes didn’t press him to speak or leave. He just sat next to him, offering a silent promise that he wasn’t completely alone. And before he could stop it, his mouth opened up and started to talk on its own accord.
“It’s so dark,” He whispered. “I can’t stand the thought of living like this forever, I felt like if I took the bandages off, then it would be okay again, that I’d be able to see, and— and—” He shuddered. “I can’t.”
There was silence from Wes, whose hand had returned to his shoulder and was rubbing it softly.
“I am sorry,” He finally said. “We— Riley and I should not have let you fight. But we did, and now you’re the one that has to pay the price.” He said. “But you’re strong, Kain. You’ve lived through… a lot. Enough that this isn’t going to trip you up forever.”
“You suck at this.”
“Well, it’s not my job,” Wes said. “But my point is that you can adjust. And you will… and Riley and I will be there to help while you’re at it.” Kain nodded. It didn’t help much. He couldn’t see, he wasn’t going to get better, and that fact still weighed heavily in his mind. But Wes was right. He would adjust. He always did, and this time he had people to help him.
It wasn’t much, but it was something. And he would take anything.
“I need to fix up your eyes before they get infected. You need help up?” He asked. Kain stood and leaned against the wall until the swimming in his head left him and let Wes take his forearm, leading him to a room that was a light grey rather than black. He tried to focus to see any shadows, a vague shape of the room, but there was nothing beyond the solid color.
Wes stayed right beside him the entire time, talking in a low voice. The sound told Kain exactly where he was.
It was something.
#The Talon Saga#The Talon Series#Julie Kagawa#Wesley Higgins#Kain#Inferno placeholder tag#Talon-Trash#sorry guys#I know that I shouldn't feel empathy for Kain#but I do#so I make him suffer#at least Wes is trying tho#right?
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K-12 Words
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1.1
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1.2
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2.2
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3.1
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3.2
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4.1
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4.2
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5.1
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5.2
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6.1
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prepared journey trade delicate arrived track cotton hoe furnish exciting view grasp level branches privilege limit wrong enable ability various moreover spoil starve dollars digest advice sense accuse pretty wasn’t industry adopt loyal suggested blow treasure cook adjective doesn’t wings tools crops loud smell frail wisdom fit expect ahead lifted deed device weight gradual respect interesting arrange particular compound examine cable climate division individual talent fatal entire advantage opponent wouldn’t elements column custom enjoy grace theory suitable wife shoes determine allow marsh workers difficult repeated thrill position born distant revive magnificent shop sir army struggled deal plural rich rhythm rely poem company string locate church mystify elegant led actual responsible japanese huge fun meat observe swim office chart avoid factories block called experience win crumple brilliant located pole bought conditions sister details primary survey truck recall disease radio rate scatter decay signal approach launch hair age amount scale pounds although per broken moment tiny possible gold milk quiet natural lot stone act build middle speed count consonant someone sail rolled bear wonder smiled angle fraction Africa killed melody bottom trip hole poor let’s fight surprise French died beat exactly remain fingers clever coast explore imitate pierce rare symbol triumph ancient cling disturb expose perform remote timid bashful brief compete consider delightful honor reflex remark brink chill conquer fortunate fury intend pattern vibrant wit
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capture remark western outcome risk current bold compare resident ambition arrest furthermore desire confuse accurate disclose considerable contribute calculate baggage literacy noble era benefit orchard shabby content precious manufacture dusk afford assist demonstrate instant concentrate sturdy severe blend vacant weary carefree host limb pointless prepare inspire shallow chamber vast ease attentive source frantic lack recent distress basic permit threat analyze distract meadow mistrust jagged prefer sole envy hail reduce arena tour annual apparent recognize captivity burrow proceed develop humble resist peculiar response communicate circular variety frequent reveal essential disaster plead mature appropriate attractive request congratulate address destructive fragile modest attempt tradition ancestor focus flexible conclude venture impact generosity routine tragic crafty furious blossom concern ascend awkward master queasy release portion plentiful alert heroic extraordinary frontier descend invisible coax entrance capable peer terror mock outstanding valiant typical competition hardship entertain eager limp survive tidy antonym duplicate abolish approach approve glory magnificent meek prompt revive watchful wreckage audible consume glide origin prevent punctuate representative scorn stout woe arch authentic clarify declare grant grave opponent valid yearn admirable automatic devotion distant dreary exhaust kindle predict separation stunt
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evade debate dedicate budge available miniature petrify pasture banquet pedestrian solitary decline reassure nonchalant exhibit realistic exert abuse dictate minor monarch concept character strategy soar beverage tropical withdraw challenge kin navigate purchase reliable mischief solo combine vivid aroma spurt illuminate narrator retain excavate avalanche preserve suspend accomplish exasperate obsolete occasion myth reign sparse gorge intense revert antagonist talon aggressive alternate retire cautiously blizzard require endanger luxurious senseless portable sever compensate companion visual immense slither guardian compassion escalate detect protagonist oasis altitude assume seldom courteous absurd edible identical pardon approximate taunt achievement homonym hearty convert wilderness industrious sluggish thrifty deprive independent bland confident anxious astound numerous resemble route access jubilation saunter hazy impressive document moral crave gigantic bungle prefix summit overthrow perish visible translate comply intercept feeble exult compose negative suffocate frigid synonym appeal dominate deplete abundant economy desperate diligent commend boycott jovial onset burden fixture objective siege barrier conceive formal inquire penalize picturesque predator privilege slumber advantage ambition defiant fearsome imply merit negotiate purify revoke wretched absorb amateur channel elegant grace inspect lame tiresome tranquil boast eloquent glisten ideal infectious invest locate ripple sufficient uproar
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apprehensive dialogue prejudice marvel eligible accommodate arrogant distinct knack deposit liberate cumulative consequence strive salvage chronological unique vow concise influence lure poverty priority legislation significant conserve verdict leisure erupt beacon stationary generate provoke efficient campaign paraphrase swarm adhere eerie mere mimic deteriorate literal preliminary solar soothe expanse ignite verge recount apparel terrain ample quest composure majority collide prominent duration pursue innovation omniscient resolute unruly optimist restrain agony convenient constant prosper elaborate genre retrieve exploit continuous dissolve dwell persecute abandon meager elude rural retaliate primitive remote blunder propel vital designate cultivate loathe consent drastic fuse maximum negotiate barren transform conspicuous possess allegiance beneficial former factor deluge vibrant intimidate idiom dense awe rigorous manipulate transport discretion hostile clarity arid parody boisterous capacity massive prosecute declare stifle remorse refuge predicament treacherous inevitable ingenious plummet adapt monotonous accumulate reinforce extract reluctant vacate hazardous inept diminish domestic linger context excel cancel distribute document fragile myth reject scuffle solitary temporary veteran assault convert dispute impressive justify misleading numerous productive shrewd strategy villain bluff cautious consist despise haven miniature monarch obstacle postpone straggle vivid aggressive associate deceive emigrate flexible glamour hazy luxurious mishap overwhelm span blemish blunt capable conclude detect fatigue festive hospitality nomad supreme
8.2
exclude civic compact painstaking supplement habitat leeway minute hoax contaminate likeness migration commentary extinct tangible originate urban unanimous subordinate collaborate obstacle esteem encounter futile cordial trait improvises superior exaggerate anticipate cope evolve eclipse dissent anguish subsequent sanctuary formulates makeshift controversy diversity terminate precise equivalent pamper prior potential obnoxious radiant predatory presume permanent pending simultaneously tamper supervise perceived vicious patronize trickle stodgy rant oration preview species poised perturb vista wince yearn persist shirk status tragedy trivial snare vindictive wrath recede peevish rupture unscathed random toxic void orthodox subtle resume sequel upright wary overwhelm perjury uncertainty prowess utmost throb pluck pique vengeance pelt urgent substantial robust sullen retort ponder whim saga sham reprimand vocation assimilate dub defect accord embark desist dialect chastise banter inaugurate ovation barter muse blasé stamina atrocity deter principal liberal epoch preposterous advocate audacious dispatch incense deplore institute deceptive component subside spontaneous bonanza ultimate wrangle clarify hindrance irascible plausible profound infinite accomplish apparent capacity civilian conceal duplicate keen provoke spurt undoing vast withdraw barrier calculate compose considerable deputy industrious jolt loot rejoice reliable senseless shrivel alternate demolish energetic enforce feat hearty mature observant primary resign strive verdict brisk cherish considerate displace downfall estimate humiliate identical improper poll soothe vicinity abolish appeal brittle condemn descend dictator expand famine portable prey thrifty visual
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stance vie instill exceptional avail strident formidable rebuke enhance benign perspective tedious aloof encroach memoir mien desolate inventive prodigy staple stint fallacy grope vilify recur assail tirade antics recourse clad jurisdiction caption pseudonym reception humane ornate sage ungainly overt sedative amiss convey connoisseur rational enigma fortify servile fastidious contagious elite disgruntled eccentric pioneer abet luminous era sleek serene proficient rue articulate awry pungent wage deploy anarchy culminate inventory commemorate muster adept durable foreboding lucrative modify authority transition confiscate pivotal analogy avid flair ferret decree voracious imperative grapple deface augment shackle legendary trepidation discern glut cache endeavor attribute phenomenon balmy bizarre gullible loll rankle decipher sublime rubble renounce porous turbulent heritage hover pithy allot minimize agile renown fend revenue versa gaunt haven dire doctrine intricate conservative exotic facilitate bountiful cite panorama swelter foster indifferent millennium gingerly conscientious intervene mercenary citadel obviously rely supportive sympathy weakling atmosphere decay gradual impact noticeable recede stability variation approximately astronomical calculation criterion diameter evaluate orbit sphere agricultural decline disorder identify probable thrive expected widespread bulletin contribution diversity enlist intercept operation recruit survival abruptly ally collide confident conflict protective taunt adaptation dormant forage frigid hibernate insulate export glisten influence landscape native plantation restore urge blare connection errand exchange
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feasible teem pang vice tycoon succumb capacious onslaught excerpt eventful forfeit crusade tract haggard susceptible exemplify ardent crucial excruciating embargo disdain apprehend surpass sporadic flustered languish conventional disposition theme plunder ignore project complaint title dramatic delivery litter experimental clinic arrogance preparation remind atomic occasional conscious deny maturity closure stressed translator animate observation physical further gently registration suppress combination amazing constructive allied poetry passion ecstasy mystery cheerful contribution spirit failed gummy commerce prove disagreement raid consume embarrass preference migrant devour encouragement quote mythology destined destination illuminating struggle accent ungrateful giggle approval confidence expose scientist operation superstitious emergency manners absolutely swallow readily mutual bound crisp orient stress sort stare comfort verbal heel challenging advertisement envious sex scar astonish basis accuracy enviable alliance specific chef embarrassed counter tolerable sympathetic gradually vanish informative amaze royal furry insist jealousy simplify quiver collaborate dedicated flexible function mimic obstacle technique archaeologist fragment historian intact preserve reconstruct remnant commence deed exaggeration heroic impress pose saunter wring astound concealed inquisitive interpret perplexed precise reconsider suspicious anticipation defy entitled neutral outspoken reserved sought equal absorb affect circulate conserve cycle necessity seep barren expression meaningful plume focused genius perspective prospect stunned superb transition assume guarantee nominate
10.1
install reticent corroborate regretfully strength murder concise cunning intention holy satire query confused progression disillusion background mundane abrupt multiple enormously introduce emulate harmful pragmatic pity rebut liberate enthusiastic elucidate camaraderie disparage nature creep profitability impression racist sobriety occupy autonomy currently amiable reiterate reproduce cripple modest offer atom provincial augment ungratefully expansion yield rashly allude immigration silence epitome exacerbate somber avid dispute vindicate collaborate manufacturer embellish superficial propaganda incompetent objective diminish statistics endure ambivalent perpetuate illuminate phenomenon exasperate originality restrict anxiety anthropology circumstances aesthetic manufacturing conventional dubious vulnerable reality precedent entity success term critical repair underscore stepmother republican hesitantly classic wary contents prediction immediate invoke notorious implicit excluding input skeptical foster element punish frank humanity profound dessert orthodox substance disappear encourage neighborhood elder superfluous naive ascertain complacent resilient deafening military tend prudent glare acceptance skillfully induce monster beam gullible conciliate vessel petty cantankerous disclose archaeology anecdote disdain electronics substantiate subjective tourism advisable joyful incredible provocative psychological ruins discipline condone indifferent misfortune judgmental industrialize tasty assume astute mission mar protective definitely escape oppress shocked virtual zealous endorse qualification hostile eccentric abstract disparate geographical scrutinize generalization tolerate activity claim dogmatic influential obsolete extol implausible subsequent resource chronic benevolent improve confidential ambiguous seriously dearth perplex hatred throughout dine contemporary evoke essentially economic flagrant obscure alleviate eloquent dreaadful clumsy sympathy victim condemn vigor condescend spontaneous quell reprehensible substantially sleeve equivocal ironic decry errand articulate progressive eradicate refreshments elicit aspiration recently exemplary bribery theoretical disingenuous partisan revere particle nostalgia self-aggrandizement debunk tyranny rhetoric hierarchy warning whimsical venerate commend assert miserable awful vibe constrain undermine explicit differentiate compliment scrupulous contempt erroneous ideal refute imply cynical rash presume insight revival vary delay renounce indignant offensive temperate circumstantial export peep logo advertise suppress distort chunk convoluted denounce overwhelming fertility rigorous acquire arrogant university antagonize profitable indulgent strategic breathing idiosyncrasy profession frugal discern accommodation adversary incredulous disturbance digress social belie roam smug continual pertinent voluntarily elite subtle blame sincerity lick horror censure involvement candid infer futile impetuous exploit bewilder sustain diligent sincere protect sealed musical empathy callous parenthetical insure acorn sarcasm seize sacrificially allege emphatic irrelevant progress diplomatic stunned improvise deride reconcile meticulous deject scientifically incontrovertible pressure justify gloomy depict supplant endurance analogous diary bolster slip contemplate pesticide glow religious advocate negligent creator lament fundamental embrace throne inherent inferior valuable thrive trivial pretense reserved capricious refresh refusal flight boost explanation coherent prevalent tenacious official royalty assassin rub poach delete
10.2
warrant circumscribed somewhat explosive optimistic mandate previously detract opinion intuitive feasible intimate persistent humble simplicity tempt deliberate painful unethical fundamentals discrepancy remorse pessimistic possibility conclusion acknowledge impregnate soberly creation paralyze suitability oblige tranquil medal arbitrate pacify illusory susceptible vibrate vengeance infection democratic stressful grave speculative sample identification stifle obligation revenge organization namely mediocre practical scream weaken consensus affectionate deficient treacherous console isolation ingenious memory melodrama despair awestruck composition regret recommendation celebrity decision devoid opaque ornamentation longevity participate dread restore interrogate aid accordingly mislead embarrassment optimism domestic apt funds virtue geography fundamentally thoroughly press despite horrible chilling rental esteemed disappointment innovative contemplation assign popularize haunt deafen serene percent estrangement suffer extravagant throng estimate comment priesthood mass dreadfully promote periphery animated saying relate clarity triple derivative succeed distortion register suicide improvement discreet inquisition probable curative incident praise convenience baffle covet dreadful genuinely weary undisturbed disgruntled humility renown nonchalant monopoly comedy vague decisive inconsequential announcement fabricated nevertheless vigilant scarce neglectful hushed attainment tedious explode snatch pslm agency sentimental tension adhere meanwhile sacred avert conformity likewise challenger accessible responsibility peril contact event roast fallible catastrophic competitor violate resolute deceive exaggeration discredit intolerable approve paste dimly novelist demeanor norm politician satisfaction obvious vehicle reservation defer involve restoration crush audible assistant backpack attain inanimate commemorate confrontation emigration parasite disperse quantitative laughter policy vulgar occasionally repay effective eulogy starvation empty therapeutic overall immortal encompass inappropriate opportune engagement illustrate turmoil observatory classification expression reminiscence comedian invention depress remedy protagonist gesture texture diplomatic election prolong conducive emotional invigorate curiosity expressive %
K-12 Words was originally published on PinkWrite
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Change Of Heart Part 5: End Of The Line
The Tower groaned, the Clockwork God stopped where it was on the table, Grey turned to the console and went to work, I felt a pulse of energy run through my mind and found my gun resting on the corner of the Table and a small box with a handle on it. Azel stood from his chair and walked over to pick up the box “What is even going on here?” “Don’t concern yourself with it, this is something I have to do” The figure in the shadows shifted, and seemed uneasy. “No Paddy you can’t just do that and not explain what’s happening” I sighed and walked over to him, taking my gun from the table with my left hand and the box from him with my right. “See these flowers?” I held up my corrupted arm. “These are not flowers but in reality an emotional parasite, they are the representation of something horrible that infests my mind and is the other god in here, the idea and it infects very specific people as it requires certain conditions in order to infect its host. These infect the world and at present can’t infect someone like you or the others. Understand these aren’t something good or bad, they are a representation of an aspect of someone’s personality and state of being and like all parasites it can entirely consume its host without the proper care”. I pulled the trigger in the handle of the box and swung it out beside me, it unfolded into a blade. I pushed forward the lock at the front of trigger and locked the blade in place with a satisfying click. I shifted it in hand grip a little and turned the dials in the hilt, the clockwork shifted and the blade elongated a little. It was a single edged long sword with a barrel of a rifle running along the other side of the blade, its firing mechanism and trigger contained in the hilt of the blade, the simple iron sights aligning with the hilt and the stock unfolding from the hilt as well, a slim hole in the body of the blade with a grip in it to allow for the rifle to be fired more accurately. My signature revolver in my left hand, the chromed body, black shock absorbent grip, the six chambers and adjusted iron sights, the second left hand side of the drum damaged ever so slightly from the synthetic discharge years ago, the hammer already cocked back and the dried blood stain on the inside of the mechanisms.
“When something becomes infested with the flowers it can go rampant and with the world in its new infantile state and the colony having moved and now The Garden being present throughout the tower I fear that this might be the end of the line” I cocked the rifle in the sword and turn to face Grey and nodded to her, she pulled off her coat and began undoing her blouse. Lyte looked over at her very confused “Wait the hell are you doing?” she undid the top four buttons and revealed a white water lily at the centre of her chest, right on the sternum between her breasts. She stopped and placed her left hand to the flower, a white glower growing behind it. Lyte got to her feet and put her hands to the edge of the table “It turned around” The Clockwork God was marching back toward The Tower. I looked over at Grey “We have a problem delay it” she took her hand away from her chest and the flower now twisted itself along her hand and fore arm, nowhere nearly as badly as me and the others but still there, a simple white water lily in her left hand, its vines and roots lightly wrapping itself around her arm, only a few of them, her skin still clearly visible. Azel went to the table, as did everyone else, Mark raised a hand as to conduct an orchestra and a number of tiny figures dug their way out of the ground on the table amongst the trees.
Shou turned to Lyte and nodded, they all fully understood what was happening here “Where can we find them” The tower groaned and the clockwork stalled for a moment. More figures appeared on the war table, a number of twisted shadows consumed by that same corruption, their whole bodies consumed by this corruption, figures of all shapes and sizes, humanoid, mammals, insects, birds, arachnids and so many more. I stood to attention and more of the clockwork soldiers clawed their way from the ground and set marching toward The Tower, two armies converging on us. “They are inside of The Tower, you all buy us as much time as you can, I am going to find where they are and I’m finishing this once and for all”. I turned and walked toward the doorway, Grey walked down from the console and took my side. I put my hand on the door handle and Atlas burst through the door bleeding and collapsed to the ground. I knelt down to check on him and he caught me by the collar panting out words between breaths “Rampant…Roof… Run…” He fell into unconsciousness however was still alive, his corruption writhing on his arm but not growing “Get him into his chair, he will recover, he isn’t dead”
I nodded at Grey, Azel and Shou lifted Atlas into his chair and went back to the war table, Lyte and Mark conducting the armies, Shou and Clara slightly altering tiny elements of the world to delay the approaching corruption and ease the approach of The Clockwork, Azel began arming The Clockwork in various fashions, creating newer and more varied version and editing them on the fly. I walked out the door and into the hallway a glow coming from nowhere in particular, no lights yet still perfectly visible. Grey lifted her hand and a burst of light exploded from her hand for a moment, her whole body begun to burn up ever so slightly.
I turned and her burning figure stare at me, a burning white silver erupted from within her clothes. Four huge burning silver moth wings protruded from her two above and two to her sides, a white flaming sword of that same unnatural metal that made up her Clockwork Throne in her right hand a shield ready in her left. Two eyes set into that burning silver figure, smaller versions of the Clockwork God’s eyes, identical in every respect other than size. I nodded to her and she nodded back.
It is not a very well-known that in Catholic biblical theology Angels are all made of fire or light, however in an Islamic faith the distinction between Angels and the beings known as Jinn is clearly drawn. I find that my infamous guardian angel is often quite literally a fallen angel, and burns a memory so bright this universe won’t forget it, for someone who has no religious faith I have a great deal of theological knowledge. Azel’s name is a reference to Azazel’s nature of teaching man how to fashion weapons and how to create make up and decorate one’s self to reflect their personalities. I hadn’t seen what he becomes quite yet but I could very well guess given his name sake. Burning Angels as the hands of lesser gods, marching by my side in search of a Rampant thought.
Several of the corrupted figures appeared in our path as we made our way through the hallways and rooms all of them humanoid, the groan of the clockwork and creak of the plants and trees. Each of the figures hissed at us and ran forward, only to stop and hold back at a certain distance, at the edge of the light the Grey was giving out. A number of them overcame the light and lunged once from their positon and were instantly cut down by Grey. Many more stayed in the shadows or just out of view, stalking us.
We made our way up the winding stair cases and through corridors, making our way to higher and higher up the tower. The clockwork becoming more and more tangled in roots and vines, the corrupted figures becoming more and more common, more and more aggressive. I turned a corner and was tackled to the ground my one without warning, I put my gun in its snarling mouth and unloaded a round into it. It quickly began to with and die, it was sent snarling away from me and lay on the ground like an apple rotting, drying up and disintegrating all in a matter of seconds. Grey simply walked around the corner and there was a flash of light from around it. I got to my feet and peered around the corner and found the whole hallways entirely devoid of life, everything had been burned to cinders. She stood there, leaning on her sword for a moment “We are getting closer”. She nodded and swung her sword onto her shoulder and held her shield at the ready.
I walked behind her and kept my sword at the ready and listened out for any signs of life, we were approaching the stairway to the roof, or rather the top of the tower, to get out onto the roof is nearly impossible but the roof does have a room inside of it so I expected to find her there. We reached the door to the stairs and were forced to stop, vines had entirely entangled the door, keeping it shut. The Tower shook, an explosion, the sound of The Clockwork God, the vibrations running through the Tower as it approached. Grey put her hand to the door and there was a flash of light, it disintegrated to ashes, several of the figures launched themselves from the other side and disintegrated on contact with her. A horde of them came around the corner from where we had arrived and rapidly closed the distance. “Grey we’ve got company.” She turned and lifted her shield, kneeling and blocking the doorway. Her voice like thunder came from a mouth I could not see and did not seem to move, came words that I could not understand and hurt every fibre of me to hear. One word I managed to make out in the midst of the thunder “BURN” She took several steps forward, slammed her sword against her shield with each step and then threw her arms out on either side of her. There was a flash of light and the corridor was engulfed not in fire but light for an instant.
She slumped forwards and the fire died down a little in her. Another stream of them came around the corner more wary this time. She lifted her head and they slowed their advance slightly, still twenty feet or so away from her. She waited for a few seconds till they could nearly touch her again and there came another flash of light and ashes and burns stained the walls, ceiling and floor. Once again she slumped forward and kept herself upright this time with her sword, the flames dying a little more. I ran forward and stood behind her, those four burning wings providing protection from the advancing horde. I put my pistol aside and lifted my sword in both hands, aiming down the sights, firing into the maw of figures, the bullets passing through one and he ones behind each of them, a hail of bullets cutting through them all like a hot knife through butter.
Their onslaught stopped, they all simply stopped and took the bullets where they stood, more rounded the corner and simply stopped at the edge of the light Grey was giving out. Snarling at us but refusing to advance, as one fell another took its place. I backed up, still facing them, Grey in front of me, she stood now, her sword out to one side and shield held tight against her chest. I turned from the horde of corrupted figures, the vast majority of them humanoid but occasional variants, husks of people, of ideas and discarded thoughts, warped into this onslaught of monsters. I turned and made my way toward the staircase, the clink of Grey’s sword and shield close behind me, her glow lighting the path. We quickly ascended the stairs and made our way onto the roof.
A huge hole in the actual tiled roof on one side, torn open during the battle long ago between two alien gods. The corruption here as well, none of the original walls were visible now, just walls of flowers, stems, vines, thorns and roots. She sat there, up her throne of flowers. It was her for certain, in every way it was her, entirely consumed by the corruption now, but it looked exactly like her none the less, a twisted abomination entirely consumed by whatever it is that gives us this connection, whatever that trait is that we all share.
I took a step forward and the vines instantly wrapped themselves around my ankles. She was still connected to the chair, physically entangled with it now. She smiled at me, not a smile of happiness or anything of the sort but rather a smile that hurt, a smile of hurt. I lifted my rifle in both hands and fired. It very nearly hit her but then was stopped by a branch of the chair blocking it. The bullet connected with the branch, it partially exploded into a hail of splinters and the bullet simply dropped to the floor. I fired again and again a branch collided with the path and exploded, and the bullet hit the ground. “I cannot allow this to continue” I snapped my fingers and there was a flash of burning light I felt the pressure around my feet release as the vines withered and died as they lost their connection to their host. I stumbled forward and felt perfectly fine as the pain passed. Grey stood in front of me, she hadn’t hit me with the light but instead fired it at Bella.
The bark of the chair burned on the outside, it had been scorched but the fires quickly went out. The branches had protected their host and now retracted from the shell they had quickly formed. I pulled my pistol from where I had fastened it to my belt and fired a round aligned straight for her head. A branch went to block it, however upon colliding with it, it did explode but this time entirely, the bullet passed through with ease and the host was forced to move. It collided with her shoulder this time and there was an ear splitting scream. Grey strode forward, figures forming all around us and advancing quickly on our positions. The Host began to reform, creating a protective shell, gathering more and more branches and taking shape. Grey continued to cut down the advancing figures, many of them burning up as they approached her, she still continued to cut down more and more to buy me time.
There came the sound of The Clockwork God and the shaking became more intense. I fired my remaining four bullets toward the forming shell and threw the gun aside. “I’m tired of this over dramatic bullshit” I strode forward and past Grey, cutting down any of the figures with a single swing or thrust of the sword. I felt a fire run through me, an anger and tiredness of this fight. “Enough this ends now” a large branch detached itself from the shell and swung itself at me, I took one swing and it shattered into a thousand splinters, another branch, and another, each being dealt with in the same fashion. “You dictate nothing anymore, your place here is forfeit now shut up and die” I approached the shell and lifted my sword, taking one swing and as it connected the branches all swung open and left the throne exposed sending me skidding backward. I slowly got to my feet, I marched forward, unloading the remainder of the rounds toward her. The branches blocked each of them. I reloaded and continued walking forward, burning through two more magazines before I reached the throne, a bullet had slipped through here and there, she was bleeding and was hurt. The Host wouldn’t let her go, she just sat there smiling at me. I didn’t say a word, she didn’t want to hear it, I walked forward and without breaking my stride took one swing and removed her head from her shoulders. The host screamed, she didn’t do anything. The host just screamed and began to wither.
Grey cut through the remaining figures, I turned on my heel and walked away. “We are done here, burn it all, I want nothing left” There was a flash of white light and I walked through the doorway back along the corridors and back into the War Room. They all turned to look at me as I entered Azel asked the question they all wanted to ask “Why do it yourself? Why not let Grey just burn it out?” “Because I had to do it myself, I had to make that judgement call, I made that choice and I had to be the one to put it into effect, because I wanted to feel something, I wanted to know if I would hesitate, I wanted to know if I could do it. I didn’t hesitate, I didn’t have to think twice. I had to do it for myself” “You’re going insane” “No this is just some lucid dream, this feels real, this is nothing more than a dream but it’s a continuation of it all. I can come here when I am awake and day dream here, this is my head, everything has a meaning and some kind of reasoning for being here…I wanted to feel something…see if it was something hard to do…it wasn’t…” I found my chair between the table and the console, and sat into it.
I sat there watching the table return to normal, the Clockwork God stood some distance away still. Turning and once again returning to its resting place. The Clockwork Soldiers all returned to their posts and buried themselves. I sat there and let out a sigh. The water still falling from the ceiling. I closed my eyes and felt a fatigue wash over me “End Of The Line”…
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A Hollowed Bond, Chapter 4: A Quiet, Uneventful Stroll!?
Here’s the next chapter!
It was the afternoon of the sixth day since Roland was summoned, and he was currently exploring the forest surrounding the academy. Classes had already ended for the day, and instead of taking reading lessons from Charlotte, he elected to get to know the surrounding area better. It was a bright-sunny day, but the light had difficulty penetrating the canopy of the forest, which gave the forest a darkened, morose feel to it. Strangely, there weren't any animals around.
He'd heard a lot of chirping and other noises coming from beyond the academy's walls the first two days he'd spent there, but they'd all started to die down since then, and were now all gone. The inactivity coming from the forest was off-putting for him, so he decided to investigate the cause. If something was killing or running off the animals in the forest so close to the academy, whatever it was could be a potential threat. That, along with his want to understand this new world, spurred him onward, and though it wasn't something he cared to think about, there was a third reason he'd decided to explore the forest that day, and she was right there with him, despite his warnings.
Charlotte was walking with him through the forest while leafing through a small book; her crooked catalyst was held in her off-hand. From what she'd taught him so far, he could tell the book was some kind of collection of short stories, but he couldn't figure out much else. The reading lessons she gave had been very helpful for learning how to read individual words, but he'd hit a wall with them as he realized that the syntax of their languages was completely different, which elucidated something about the Contract Familiar spell she'd cast on him.
It didn't implant any linguistic knowledge in him, instead, it seemed like it was a fast acting translation spell, in addition to the other effects she'd told him about, that allowed him to communicate with the people around him, which made learning the actual rules of her language all the more difficult, as he had to wrestle with the effects of the spells' translation. Though, he'd noticed that most other Familiars couldn't speak her language despite the spells' effect, he attributed that to the differences in their anatomy making human speech difficult for them.
Charlotte, having realized the syntax problem after Roland failed miserably to read anything in its proper order, redoubled her teaching efforts, which also resulted in longer-stringent lessons. This was the third reason why he'd decided to take a break from her lessons. He appreciated them, and realized the value of being able to read in a functioning society, but he found the way she taught to be incredibly boring, unlike the way most of her professors taught, which was the product of many years of teaching, and needed a break from it.
Come to think of it, now might be a good time to ask.
Roland thought as he turned to face his companion.
"Why have you been being so…" He began to speak, but paused when he realized just how many ways he wanted to end that sentence. He'd wanted to know why she treated him the way she did, despite some of the terrible things he'd heard about nobles from this world, and the way he'd seen some of them treat their Familiars, she had shown him consideration and respect, and while he appreciated it, it was still unsettling to him for a multitude of reasons. He'd wanted to ask why she was so damn quiet as well; he knew it was hypocritical of him to find fault with that, but given the boisterous personalities of her peers, and even her closest friend, it seemed odd that she was the only one who isolated herself to such an extent. He'd also wanted to ask why she'd been ignoring her peers' disrespect, despite the fact that it clearly bothered her, but he figured that wasn't a topic he should bring up without a good reason, and settled on waiting for it to come up on its own. He'd wanted to ask several other things as well, but in the end, he decided to ask the first thing that came to mind.
"Why have you been treating me like this?" His words elicited a confused expression from her, so he clarified. "Why have you been going out of your way to be nice to me?"
Charlottes' mouth bent into a small frown as she stood there, staring down at the pages of her book. She made no attempt to look at him as she considered how she'd reply to his sudden question.
"I know what it's like to be sent away from your home…" A sad expression covered her face as she spoke, still refusing to look at him, but it disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared.
Roland didn't like pity, and he wasn't misguided enough to mistake her sympathy for that, but her response still surprised him. He didn't think she'd tell him her reasoning, or at most, that she'd lie about it, but he got the feeling that she was being honest. Though, there was something else in her voice that he couldn't decipher. A sort of emptiness that belied the sadness she felt.
"So where are you from?" He asked the first thing to come to mind. It wasn't a question he really wanted or needed answered, since the answer wouldn't have changed anything for him. He was summoned by her, and even if it was different from the summoning he'd experienced before, it still meant he was tasked with protecting her, besides that, he already decided to stay with her for the time being, so he'd fulfill his duty to the best of his ability. Her country of origin was irrelevant in that regard, but letting the conversation end there didn't sit right with him.
"Gallia."
He recognized the name. She'd mentioned it when she asked about where he was from, and he'd seen it in the Atlas she kept in her room after he'd learned a bit of her language. From what he could tell of the map, it was the largest country on the continent, but didn't know much more than that. He knew that the Academy was close to the border between Tristain and Gallia as well, since it was located in southern Tristain, but he wasn't familiar with the units of measurement they used here, so he wasn't sure how "close" that meant it was.
"That's the country to the south… Why are you in Tristain? Do they not have magic schools in Gallia?" Charlotte shook her head in response to his question. It looked like she was considering saying something, but she kept quiet. Roland shrugged as he turned away from her.
"If you don't want to tell me the reason, then don't." He spoke as he surveyed the area in front of him. He'd been periodically looking for signs of the local fauna, or whatever had run it off, throughout their walk, but hadn't found either yet. It wasn't like he was an experienced hunter, but he had sharp eyes and a keen sense of hearing, so it was only a matter of time until he found something. "It wouldn't change anything for me if I knew."
She looked up at the back of his head when he continued, her face had retained its neutral mask, but she still seemed unsure of whether she should answer his question or try to change the subject.
"I looked for Lordran, Drangleic, and Lothric, but found nothing." She'd decided to change the subject for now.
"That doesn't surprise me." He responded as he scanned the canopy above them for any signs of movement, but saw none.
"Not even past the desert to the east, nor in any history book or myths." She continued.
"And?"
"I don't think you were lying." She spoke with an even tone as she looked over the rim of her glasses toward him; her face was still pointed toward her book.
"I wasn't." He responded plainly as he walked over to a few trees and started looking for any sort of markings that might give him some clue about what was happening in the forest. "This place, Halkeginia, it doesn't exist where I come from." He couldn't find any slashes or claw marks on the trees, but he noticed a few were missing bark in some places. "Sorcerers, or Magicians, as you call them, didn't need to inherit their power from their parents. Anyone, with a strong enough intellect, could cast or develop Sorceries." Upon closer inspection, he found several deep grooves in the exposed sapwood, like it'd been struck hard by something with a blunt edge. "There was only ever one moon." He examined the low hanging branches of the damaged trees. They reached around three or four meters off the ground at their lowest, and seemed undamaged. "The Fire faded, and with it, the very Light of the world diminished."
His tone was somber as he spoke about his world. Giving enough information for anyone to realize he wasn't talking about the world they stood in now. He had originally thought it would be better to avoid talking about where he came from, but he'd changed his mind. Maybe it was because of the way she'd treated him with kindness, rather than as a servant or "human" shield, or maybe Roland just needed to talk about it to stifle his doubts about whether the world they stood in was even real, regardless of what his reasoning was, he gave her a few telling details about his world. He still avoided talking about the Gods and Undead, but he decided he needed to bring up the Fire, if only to verify a thought that had occurred when he'd learned of the magic in this world.
He looked down toward the base of the damaged trees as he finished talking. Scattered around the ground were several small stones, unlike any others he'd seen in the forest so far. He picked up one of the larger ones, about the size of his palm, and began to look it over. The stone had a pale, purplish-blue color, and had a small burgundy-colored, vein-like line running through it. It felt warm to the touch, almost as if it was alive, but the air surrounding it gave off a terrible chill. Roland turned it over in his hand, it looked smooth on one side, but every other side was shaped jaggedly, like whatever it was attached to had been shattered by some powerful force. As he traced his fingers across it, he felt small ridges running along the smooth portion of the stone, and tendon-like threads, made of a similar material as the stone, entwined with the jagged ridges of the rest of the stone. Oddly, the stone seemed familiar to him, but he couldn't place where he might've seen it before.
"The fire faded?" Charlotte asked as she watched him bend down by a tree and pick something up, the book now in her skirt pocket. Her voice conveyed her confusion as she processed the information he'd just told her. The implication wasn't lost to her, but it was still hard to believe. She didn't get the impression he was lying, but the idea of there being another world besides the one she'd always known was difficult to accept, even for someone who delighted in reading about people and places that might never have existed. Still, she didn't think he was lying, but she couldn't just blindly accept what he was saying without any proof, even a child would be too skeptical to blindly believe in something so unorthodox.
"The Fire faded." He repeated her question definitively. "I take it that something like that means nothing to you?" He continued as he dropped the stone on the ground and looked for any tracks or signs that could lead him to whatever drove off the animals, and probably dropped those strange stones as well.
"No…" She responded as she approached him. When she reached his side she looked down at the strange stones that were scattered around the base of the tree, and noticed the indents in the sapwood he'd been studying.
"Figured." Roland walked toward a few trees in the distance whose exposed roots looked like they'd been crushed. Charlotte followed him, though she was on guard after having seen the depressions in the trees up close. Originally, she wasn't as worried about the sudden lack of activity in the forest, attributing it to the sudden influx of Familiars that'd arrived earlier that week driving off the local fauna, but the indents in the trees clearly weren't made by any Familiar she'd seen, and the strange stones littering the ground gave off a chilling-unnatural feeling.
"This world, everything about it is different from where I came from." He sighed as he bent down to get a better look at the roots; they were crushed by the weight of whatever stepped on them, based on the way they were mashed into the ground, rather than due to some sort of impact.
"Proof?" She asked as she turned around to see if anything was behind them. There was nothing there, but she continued to look off into the forest cautiously.
"You know I have none, but it doesn't matter. I don't expect you to believe me." He could hardly believe it himself. "Wait…" He stood up slowly as he noticed something. It was faint, but he could smell blood coming from deeper in the woods. "This'll probably be your last chance to turn back. Whatever did this is close by." He told her as he looked over his shoulder at her. She shook her head in response, and held her catalyst at the ready. "Suit yourself."
He skulked slowly toward where he thought the smell was coming from, being sure to keep a tree between him and his destination at all times. Charlotte followed suit, and snuck behind him as well, being careful to watch their backs as they progressed. She made a disgusted face at the stench of blood strengthening as they continued.
They soon reached the source of the smell, a clearing in the forest near a small hill. The clearing was riddled with the bodies of the local fauna and a few of the larger Familiars that he'd seen on campus the first few days he'd been there. The bodies themselves were mangled, beaten into bloody masses of crushed bones and exposed organs. Several of the bodies littering the clearing had been thrown into a pile opposite the hill haphazardly, but they weren't what drew Roland's eye now.
Just next to the pile, a large mass of brown fur had been shaking the entire time they'd stood there. Whatever it was, it was still alive, but he could see that its fur was matted down by the blood slowly draining from its wounds. He put his hand up in front of Charlotte, and motioned toward the mass of brown fur before walking over to it. Charlotte had been standing there, looking on in disgust and anger at the scene before them, but swallowed her rage and followed him, still watching their surroundings carefully, ready to start casting at any second.
As he knelt down to inspect the brown-furred creature he noticed the dirt underneath it had been displaced, like it had been trying to dig a hole to get away, though it didn't get very far. The hole it dug only seemed to be about a foot deep, and the creature seemed to have done its best to squeeze itself into the small ditch after being attacked, but it couldn't continue digging. As it sensed Roland next to it, its eyes opened in abject terror, as it assumed him to be its attacker, but it calmed down when it realized he wasn't what assaulted it. It looked up at him pleadingly as tears ran down from its blood-covered eye, but it didn't make a sound. It was either too weak or scared to vocalize its distress, but there was no doubt that it was afraid for its life.
Just then, a loud impact rang out through the clearing, followed by the sound of an agonized screech and tearing flesh. Whatever had caused it was on the other side of the small hill, opposite from the pile in the clearing. Slowly, Roland began to walk over to the hill, with his club and shield at the ready. With every movement he was careful not to make a sound, and watched for even the slightest bit of activity coming from his destination. Charlotte was behind him, moving towards some of the nearby trees to try and flank whatever was behind the hill. Roland stood just before the top of the hill now, and peeked his head over it to see what had caused all this.
He narrowed his eyes as the beast came into view, realization striking him, then lowered his body to avoid detection. The beast looked almost human from a distance, but he knew it wasn't. It was far too large to be a normal human. Its entire body was covered in tightly packed muscles, and some parts of it seemed to have jagged, bone-like rocks, jutting out of it. There was a stump where a tail used to be, but even that seemed to be made of some sort of exposed bone. The only clothing it wore was a roughly hewn pair of pants, secured to its body by a thin rope tied around its waistline. Though, the pants were in such a state of disrepair that they could have been mistaken for a skirt.
Burgundy colored veins had begun to show through its sickly purplish-blue skin, and its left arm had been completely shattered below the elbow, leaving the sharp remains of its exposed radius as the only remaining part of its forearm, but there was no mistaking it. In its one remaining arm, it held a large-hooked machete, and its head was a large, elongated skull, with two long horns protruding outward from both sides of its head, though one had been broken in half, and two faintly glowing eyes in front of each horn. It was old and dying, but Roland knew exactly what it was, he'd killed its kind before.
He looked over to Charlotte, who was standing behind a thick tree trunk, staring over at him. She'd seen the beast, but she hadn't made a run for it yet, so she must have intended on fighting it, or was too scared to move.
He pointed at himself, then the demon behind the hill and his club in turn, trying to convey that he intended on fighting it. He then pointed toward Charlotte and back to the direction they came from, trying to get her to run away, but she shook her head in response.
She pointed toward Roland, and then the beast, then made a small striking motion with her hands, indicating that she wanted him to attack it. She then pointed toward herself, and then her catalyst and the beast in turn, indicating she was going to give him magical support while he did.
This time, he shook his head, and pointed toward the demon, then her, and drew his thumb across his neck three times quickly, trying to get across how easily it could kill her, but she shook her head in response, and repeated the hand motions she'd used before, this time with more emphasis.
Is this girl trying to get herself killed?
He thought to himself as he quickly stuck his head up to see what the demon was doing. Its back was still facing them while it kneeled down, pinning an octopus-like creature to the ground using its shattered radius as it tore off its tentacles with its remaining hand. The large machete it used as a weapon was lain out by its side, but he had no doubt it would immediately take it up if either of them approached.
Charlotte had looked out from behind the tree as well, and saw what Roland had. When their eyes met again, she began to motion toward its weapon and her catalyst, and then flicked the air with her free hand. She seemed to be saying that she'd try to separate it from its weapon.
He'd seen her cast spells a few times before, in the first class he'd attended with her, and a few times outside of classes, and knew they always ended up acting the same way from observation and what her peers had said, with whatever she'd cast a spell on violently reacting to even a little friction. If she was going to do that, then they might be able to get the drop on it and defeat it before it could regain its weapon. He nodded at her, and prepared himself to rush the demon as she began quietly chanting a spell.
The beast couldn't hear her, likely because of how quietly she chanted, but it being so focused on its task, coupled with the sounds of tearing flesh, meant it probably wouldn't have noticed even if she barely hushed her voice. He waited for her to signal the completion of her spell, which she did by nodding, before jumping over the top of the hill and rushing the demon.
Upon noticing Rolands' presence, the demon quickly reached for its machete, but was momentarily surprised when it shot away from its hand, and imbedded itself into a nearby tree, as its fingers grazed the handle. Giving Roland enough time to close the distance between the two and slam his club against the back of its right leg. He struck it two more times on the same leg as it struggled to get up off its knees, then stepped a few paces back. He knew better than to just attack it mindlessly, and took the chance to regain his breath as he waited for another opening in its defense.
The demon turned to face him now, and didn't seem to notice Charlotte hiding behind a tree. The strange creature that it was pinning down was still stuck to its arm, so it swung the broken arm towards Roland, throwing the mangled carcass toward him. Roland quickly dodged underneath it, landing him less than a meter away from it, and held up his shield to block the incoming punch, which buckled under the impact, but didn't break, still, he could feel the force of the punch transfer through the shield to his arm, and grimaced at the pain it caused as the demon slowly pulled back its fist to strike him again.
This time he ducked under the punch, then slid behind the demon, striking its right leg again as he did. He reared back to strike it again, but was interrupted by its elbow slamming into his face, knocking him onto his back. It turned to face him while it reared back its shattered left arm, primed to skewer him where he lay, and as it stabbed the sharp radius toward Rolands' chest, a large rock rammed into the side of its head, coming from the direction Charlotte had been hiding.
Roland quickly rolled behind the decrepit demon and attacked its leg again, he struck it three times with his club, and as it turned to face him, he put all his weight behind slamming into it with his shield, in a failed attempt to throw it off its balance, before he was pushed back by another powerful punch. He managed to block it, but his shield didn't survive the second hit, and snapped in half, sending splinters of wood to fly off of it.
While the demons' focus was on him, he could see Charlotte moving behind another tree, it wasn't any closer than the first, but it was big enough to hide her whole body, besides that, not moving around would make it easier for the demon to find her if it decided to attack her. Though, he had no intention of letting its attention wander enough to go after her. Roland held the remnants of the shield above his head and made a small circular motion with it when he saw Charlotte looking over at him, with any luck, she'd realize what he was trying to get across and start chanting.
The beast bent its knees until its center was low to the ground, then it jumped at him, trying to skewer him with its exposed bone again. Roland quickly rolled underneath its jump, successfully dodging the attack, and turned to strike its leg from behind again, but missed as it turned to face him.
Shi-
He didn't even have time to think or move as its sharp radius pierced his neck, a fraction of a second before it did, a rock quickly flew past its head, missing by only a few inches. It slowly lifted him off the ground as he struggled to pull himself off its exposed bone, but couldn't, and after it lifted him as high as it could, it threw him down, into the small hill he'd been hiding behind before the fight.
Charlotte, who saw this from her hiding spot, watched as the beast walked over to its machete and wrenched it out of the tree it'd been imbedded in, taking a sizeable chunk of wood with it, and tried to think of something she could do as it approached Rolands' bloodstained body. He was still moving, if only barely, which meant he was probably still alive, so if she acted fast, she might be able to save him. Despite knowing she wouldn't be able to kill that monster by herself, she couldn't stop herself from acting.
Her body moved on its own as she picked up a few rocks and ran out into the open after she started chanting a spell. The monster had taken notice of her, but still approached Roland, so she threw one of the rocks as she finished chanting the spell. It struck the monster in one of its eyes with impressive speed, crushing the sensory organ as it did. The beast reeled back from the impact and pain, and then turned to face her. It was roughly six meters away from her, and began charging at her.
Just as it was about to reach her, it stopped itself, preparing to jump at her, which caused her to dive away from it before it landed. It turned just as quickly as it had with Roland and swung its machete down on her, the hooked end just barely missing her head as she rolled to her left, then right, as it swung its weapon downwards a second time. She scuttled away from it as she regained her footing, and positioned herself on the other side of a tree from it, giving herself some cover while she began casting again.
When it reached the tree she'd used as cover, she was shocked to see Roland running up behind it, and stopped chanting. He leaped up and slammed his club down on the monsters' right leg, causing it to fall to its knees, then he continued to mercilessly assault its leg until cracks could be seen forming around its knee. He'd abandoned the destroyed shield he'd been holding until then, and had instead been gripping his club with both hands.
He rolled past it, putting himself between Charlotte and the demon as he waited for it to stand up again. He jerked his head to the side, motioning for her to move, which she did, and he circled around the demon to keep himself between it and Charlotte. She quickly recovered from the sudden shock and started chanting her spell again.
The demon used its machete to pick itself up off the ground, and approached the pair slowly; small chunks of stone-like flesh began to fall off its cracked right leg as it moved.
Roland approached it cautiously, putting himself within the edge of its machetes' range, he wasn't even trying to hide his intentions as he waited patiently for it to attack him, and stepped backwards as it did. It flailed its machete wildly as more chunks fell from its leg. Roland began circling it, careful to only get within the edge of its reach as he baited more attacks from it, and made sure that he was still close enough to Charlotte to intercept the wounded demon, should he need to. Some might've thought it'd be a good time to charge in and start single-mindedly beating it, but he knew better. It was desperate to survive, so it would attack far more ferociously now than it had been before, even if it couldn't move around as quickly.
He baited out several more attacks over the course of four minutes, watching its movements carefully as it alternated between attacking and approaching him. Charlotte, who'd finished chanting her spell, had been waiting for a chance to fire it, but hadn't gotten a clear shot on her target, its right knee. Whenever it tried to move forward, its machete was placed in front of its right leg defensively, so she couldn't strike it then, and when it attacked, it flailed its machete in front of its right side, simultaneously swinging at Roland and attempting to keep its knee protected. She probably could hit it while it was attacking, but she didn't like the possibility of it deflecting whatever she threw, and held off for a better chance.
After baiting another attack from the beast, something neither of them expected happened, an arrow imbedded itself in one of the beasts' eyes, interrupting its attack and causing it to buckle under the pain slightly. Charlotte took this chance to fire her spell as she threw another rock at the demons' injured knee, causing the rock to pick up enough speed to shatter the knee completely, separating its lower leg from the rest of its body. Roland quickly ran over to it after it fell and began beating on its skull until cracks started to form. The beast had stopped moving when he finished, but he struck it a few more times to be sure, breaking off its intact horn and caving in most of the left side of its head.
Strangely, there was no blood coming from its stony cadaver, instead, a burgundy-colored marrow-like substance could be seen stuck inside what he'd assumed where its veins. Now that he was this close, he knew for certain that the rocks he'd found had been the petrified remains of the demons' lost arm, and sighed to himself. He'd have to look into how this demon was in this world, but there were more pressing matters to deal with at the moment.
He looked in the direction the arrow came from as Charlotte approached him, but he didn't see anyone there, either they were hiding or they already left. Regardless of which, he bowed slightly in that direction before turning to meet Charlotte's suspicious gaze. She didn't need to say anything for him to understand why she was looking at him that way, but she did anyways.
"How are you still alive?" She asked as she stared up at him, after confirming that the monster was dead. She saw him moving after he was thrown, but being able to get up and continue fighting after receiving such a deadly wound, it was an inhuman feat. This was made all the more apparent when she got a closer look at his neck. Where there should have been a gaping hole was nothing but blood-soaked skin, there wasn't even a scar to mark where the wound had been.
"We should head back to the Academy before we figure out why I'm still alive." He spoke, feigning ignorance to his curse, as he walked past her. She watched him walk several paces toward the small hill before following after him, still eyeing him with suspicion.
As they rounded the hill, his eyes scanned over the mangled remains of the local fauna and the few Familiars that'd been killed by the demon. The only one still left alive was the brown mass of fur in the ditch. He walked over to it, and put his hands on it gently. Initially, the creatures' trembling intensified, but when it noticed he still wasn't the demon that did all this, it began to relax slightly.
"It's dead." He told the creature. It gave out a small cry of recognition in response. "I'll take that to mean you can understand me." He moved his hands lower until they were just above the top of the ditch, causing the creature to tense up slightly. "Relax, I'm going to take you back to the Academy." Roland couldn't understand the creature, but he'd hoped its master would be able to. If whoever it was did, then he might be able to find out more about what that demon was doing in the woods.
He did his best to gently pull the brown-furred creature from the ditch, and once he had, asked for Charlottes' help getting it safely on his back, which she gave. With that done, they approached the Academy, brown-furred Familiar in tow.
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