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aspoonofsugar · 3 years

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Jaune: Zero to Hero

Pyrrha: It's not about why; it's about knowing. Understanding dark and light helps us manifest our Aura. Everyone has some of both.

Knowledge, Creation and Destruction all lead up to Aura. This is just another way to say that they lead up to individuality, which is something Grimms lack:

Pyrrha: They are creatures of Grimm, the manifestation of anonymity.

Individuality is conveyed through Choice. This is why Choice is the most important and final gift. It is symbolic of self-actualization, which is what our characters are pursuing in their coming of age story.

Jaune’s personal arc comments the group’s collective journey and marks each stage very clearly.

In which way does it happen? And what do these stages mean for Jaune’s growth as an individual?

THE IGNORANT WARRIOR

Pyrrha: Jaune, do you... know what Aura is?

Jaune: Psch! Of course I do! Do you know what Aura is?

Jaune is introduced as inexperienced and ignorant. He lacks combat experience and knows nothing about key concepts like Aura, Landing Strategy or Semblances.

His journey starts because Pyrrha shares her knowledge with him:

She awakens his aura, his very soul and later on trains him, so she helps his body get stronger:

In other words, Pyrrha is the one who puts Jaune on the right path to become a true “hero” and a “warrior”.

This is Jaune’s objective since the beginning, but he initially pursues it in the wrong way:

Jaune: I don't want help! I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!

He is fixated on an idea of hero which is outdated and has its root in toxic masculinity:

Jaune: Cause this is always what I've wanted to be! My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes! I wanted to be one, too. I was just never good enough.

This is why symbolically Jaune wants to be like his male ancestors. He wants to grow into “a real man”:

Cardin: Let's see how much of a man you really are...

And this is conveyed also through his Weapon:

Jaune: It's a hand-me-down. My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war.

Jaune did not forge his own Weapon, but he inherited it. Crocea Mors initially represents the legacy he wants to live up to. However, this legacy, instead of driving him, slows him down because he can’t grow until he remains in his ancestors’ shadow. Jaune needs to develop his own individuality instead.

In order to do so, he needs to grow not only as a figther, but as a person too.

As a matter of fact, Jaune’s ignorance is not only limited to the world he has stepped into, but also to the people around him:

Jaune: That's easy for you to say. You've probably got guys clamoring over each other just to ask you out.

Pyrrha: You'd be surprised.

He is so self-focused that he does not notice others’ feelings and hurts them unintentionally.

However, Pyrrha teaches him once again:

Pyrrha:Tell her exactly what you said. No ridiculous schemes, no pick-up lines. Just... be honest.

It is thanks to her that Jaune manages to become a better man:

He is even able to call Neptune out the way Pyrrha did with him:

Jaune: Then just go talk to her. No pickup lines, no suave moves, just be yourself. I've heard that's the way to go.

And as a result, even Jaune’s relationship with Weiss gets better:

Weiss: You said you were embarrassed at first. What made you come talk to me?

Neptune: You're looking at him. You got some good friends looking out for ya.

Because the girl realizes Jaune is not only after her money or her romantic attention:

Weiss: All my life, boys have only cared about the perks of my last name.

But wants to genuinely be a good friend to her.

In short, Jaune starts the story as immature both as a fighter and as a person to the point that he is considered unfit and annoying by other characters:

Glynda: I don't care what his transcripts say. That Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat.

However, thanks to Pyrrha, he is given the chance to mature.

Not only that, but while other characters see a weakness and a nuisance in Jaune’s ignorance and inexperience, Pyrrha sees it as a possibility:

Weiss: Jaune, is it? Do you have any idea who you're talking to?

Jaune: Not in the slightest, snow angel.

Weiss: This is Pyrrha.

It is specifically because Jaune is new to Pyrrha’s world that he is free from bias:

Pyrrha: That's what I like about you. When we met, you didn't even know my name. You treated me just like anyone else. And thanks to you, I've made friendships that will last a lifetime. I guess, you're the kind of guy I wish I was here with. Someone who just saw me for me.

This is why Pyrrha feels she can forge a genuine bond with Jaune. What is more, the girl has faith in his potential:

Pyrrha: It's all right. I used my Aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you now is your own. You have a lot of it.

She sees in him what others do not and helps him develop both as a man and as a warrior.

This is well highlighted by the metal motif the two characters share.

As @hamliet explains here Rwby has several characters linked to the seven metals of alchemy.

The goal of alchemy is to create gold thanks to a process of refiniment that purifies the metal and has it go through several transformations.

The seven metals are nothing, but a scale that goes from the heaviest and most raw metal (lead) to the most purified (gold) passing through the others (tin, iron, copper, mercury, silver).

For a story, it simply means that a character goes through a process of change that leads to self-actualization.

In Rwby this idea is conveyed through specific characters embodying a metal (Ironwood, Penny, Mercury) or even thanks to metal motifs commenting a specific part of a character arc.

For example, Yang is associated with gold:

I am the golden one Who burns just like the sun

But Adam takes her arm away and has her regress in the scale of metals to iron. This regression is not simply physical, but psychological as well:

However, Yang re-affirms herself and moves forward. The first step of this process is to symbolically make her new arm “gold” again:

When it comes to Jaune, I think that he may be the character associated with lead aka the “prima materia” that needs to be molded into gold. Even if this is not true, metal is at least definately still a motif in his arc, as it is in Pyrrha’s. This is why both characters wear metal armors, differently from others.

Pyrrha is already close to her self-actualization and she reaches it in the climax of the Vale arc, where she completes her (tragic) arc and dies a Maiden.

This is why her armor is gold, while Jaune’s is white and gray. Pyrrha is at the top of the metal scale and close to the end of her journey, while Jaune is respectively at the very bottom and at the very beginning.

He is the embodyment of the prima materia that has potential for greatness, but only if he is rightly guided and if he himself works hard.

Pyrrha takes over herself the duty to help Jaune mold himself.

This is underlined also by Pyrrha’s semblance:

Pyrrha: Well, Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs. My Semblance is polarity.

Pyrrha can control and bend metals and she shows her power for the first time when she helps Jaune against the Ursa, so that he can overcome his self-issues.

So, Jaune starts the story as the lead and is going through a path of self-refinement which will lead him to become gold, so more similar to Pyrrha herself.

Pyrrha offers him the basic knowledge to start this journey, but unluckily leaves him too soon and now Jaune has to move forward on his own.

THE CREATIVE AVENGER

Pyrrha: I want you to know that I'm just happy to be a part of your life. I'll always be here for you, Jaune.

Even after Pyrrha’s death, this stays true:

Blacksmith: That was some fine metal you brought me. Accents the white nicely. Where'd you get it from?

Pyrrha has become a part of Jaune.

This is a recurring motif in Rwby:

Penny: I won’t be gone, I’ll be part of you.

It is the idea that grieving is a process that leads to acceptance, but also to integration with a lost one. It is a way to have the deceased keep on living through the survivors.

In Jaune and Pyrrha’s case, this is conveyed through Pyrrha’s metal being used to enrich Jaune’s Weapon.

As stated by Ruby:

Ruby: Just weapons? They're an extension of ourselves! They're a part of us! Oh, they're so cool.

Weapons are symbolic of the self, just like Semblances.

What is more, Weapons and Semblances are also a declination of the dychotomy of body and soul, presented by the series.

Weapons are wielded by bodies, while Semblances are a materialization of the soul.

In other words, Pyrrha’s gold becoming a part of Jaune’s Weapon is symbolic of Jaune’s first step in a painful process that will lead him to overcome his partner’s death and to inherit Pyrrha’s legacy.

Jaune must keep on learning from Pyrrha and become more like her. As noted by @hamliet, this is symbolized also by Jaune’s design aquiring more golden details as he goes on in his journey:

Jaune: Guess I was going to grow out of it eventually.

Ren: A sign of progress.

Jaune: Progress.

That said, grieving is not easy and Jaune must struggle with much pain and negative feelings.

This is why the changes he makes to Crocea Mors are finalized to increase its attack power:

It is because Jaune feels anger over Pyrrha’s death and wants revenge.

In the Battle of Haven he gives in to his fury and tries to kill Cinder. He is trying to superficially imitate Pyrrha’s sacrifice:

Jaune: If I die buying them time, then it's worth it. They're the ones that matter.

However, he is not doing it out of bravery or necessity, but out of recklessness and self-hate. This is why his actions lead to this:

Once again, Jaune risks to lose another loved one:

Jaune: No, no, no, no, not again! Weiss, c'mon, please!!

However, this time he is able to save Weiss thanks to his Semblance:

Jaune: My Semblance?

Nora: How else do you think you're healing her, dummy?

Jaune gives up on using his Weapon to fight and chooses to use his Semblance to cure. He chooses soul over body and Creation over Destruction.

At the same time, Jaune’s activation of his Semblance is meaningful on two levels:

Jaune: No. I don't think I'm healing her. Our Aura heals our bodies. It feels... it feels more like I'm using my Aura to amplify hers!

Nora: Wait, aren't you worried about running out?

Jaune: Pyrrha once told me I've got a lot of it. I still believe her.

First of all, Jaune’s Semblance is rooted in the idea that people heal themselves. His power is not to cure others, but to amplify others’ auras, so that they can become stronger and can heal. It is about bringing out the best in others. It is a power fit for a leader, but also an ability symbolic of Jaune’s own process of healing. He can heal himself through helping others to heal.

Secondly, Jaune’s Semblance is in itself a nod to Pyrrha. Pyrrha used her own aura to awake his and Aura Amp is simply an evolution of this idea. It is not about activating others’ auras, but it is a power that lets Jaune share his. It also makes good use of something Pyrrha noticed immediately aka Jaune’s huge quantity of aura.

In other words, Jaune ends up acting like Pyrrha in the Battle of Haven, but not because he fights Cinder, but because he shares his gift with others, just like Pyrrha did with hers.

Pyrrha is a part of Jaune both in body (Crocea Mors) and soul (Aura Amp), but Jaune must still truly understand what this means.

He makes progress in Lost:

Red-Haired Woman: She understood that she had a responsibility... to try. I don't think she would regret her choice, because a Huntress would understand that there really wasn't a choice to make. And a Huntress is what she always wanted to be.

This is the essence of Pyrrha’s sacrifice. Jaune comes to understand it and chooses to make a similar choice together with his team:

Jaune: I think... I think she knew she wasn't going to win. That she might not come out alive. But... she also knew she was the only one that could try.

Ren: So she did.

Nora: Maybe we should too.

Jaune: Yeah, we should.

In this way, it will be as if Pyrrha were fighting together with them:

Nora: Pyrrha may not be by our side anymore, but we can fight like she is.

Jaune: And in a way... she will be.

Jaune tries to overcome his anger and his sadness for Pyrrha’s death in order to keep fighting like she did.

So, once again he chooses this:

Ruby: I wanted to protect my friends.

Maria: Precisely! It is the desire to preserve life which fuels the light inside you. And to make no mistake, it is light. Preservation is an extension of creation, or, at the very least, an enemy of destruction. The Creatures of Grimm were made by the God of Darkness, but your light comes from his brother.

He chooses to protect life and this is the essence of Creation.

Once he confirms this choice, he is free to explore Creation’s potential and he does so in the land of Creation itself, Atlas.

He strengthens his shield instead of his sword:

And he trains his Semblance:

Oscar: Nice, your recovery is getting faster.

This all leads him to become stronger psychologically:

Ren: Him on the other hand... There's no fear at all. I can see it, he believes we're going to get this done.

That said, Jaune starts meeting limits to his new found strength rooted in Creation:

Jaune: Ah, sorry. No matter how much I boost you, they won’t go away.

Jaune: Did... I stop the virus?

Penny: No. It’s still there.

Jaune’s way to move forward is to heal himself through healing others. Still, what to do when this is not possible?

THE DESTRUCTIVE HEALER

Penny: No… there’s not enough time to heal me…

Penny: But there is something you can do…

What happens in Atlas is an inversion of Haven.

Penny pushes Jaune’s Semblance away and touches Crocea Mors.

Jaune is asked to give up on healing her and to speed up her death instead. He is asked to choose his Weapon (body) over his Semblance (soul) and Destruction over Creation.

This marks the characters entering the Destruction phase:

Leaving Creation (Penny) behind.

For Jaune, this means that his own self image that he has worked so much to build and to make his own:

And that has been enriched in Anima thanks to Pyrrha...is shattered:

At the same time, he is once again put in a similar spot as Pyrrha:

They both become unwilling agents of Penny’s death because of Cinder (and Emerald and Mercury in the first case):

Pyrrha: Ruby, I... I'm so sorry.

Ruby: Me too. But it wasn't your fault.

Jaune: She's right. Whoever was on that microphone... they're the ones that did this. And we have to make sure they don't take anyone else.

So Jaune’s journey to integrate with Pyrrha, to understand her and her struggle continues.

What now?

It is too soon to say because we have yet to properly start our journey through Destruction and what it is about.

That said, there are two things that are worth highlighting. The first is a motif Rwby is following, while the second is a general theme found in many stories.

1) As @hamliet has stated in many metas and as I have written here, Rwby is an alchemical story. Alchemical stories are usually marked by three important deaths. Each death is symbolically linked to a color. They are usually black, white and red. However, sometimes there can be yellow instead of the white or the red. This is the case here, where a resonant death is the yellow death aka Penny’s.

It is a death that happens while the characters are surrounded by yellow:

And it happens through a weapon called “Yellow Death” (Crocea Mors’s meaning). So, it is really not subtle. Penny’s death is meant to mark an important passage for our protagonists, just like Pyrrha’s one (the black death).

2) It is common in stories that deal with healers to explore the concept of death as well.

The basic idea is that a healer is a person meant to cure. That said, they will meet people impossible to cure and that will die on their watch. This is an unescapable truth a true healer must live with.

Let’s highlight this theme is found in works very different for genre and culture.

Let’s have two examples.

Scrubs aka an American comedy about doctors deals with this theme multiple times. In many episodes the characters must simply accept they can’t save a life, but must still not lose hope and keep on living themselves.

Yosano from the manga BSD says so:

Her backstory explores the link bewteen life and death further since it is shown that a power that cures fatal wounds can be used to cheapen life itself:

It is too soon to say if Rwby will explore a similar theme, but the fact that Jaune, (the healer) is the one that has to speed up Penny’s death might be a very powerful and poignant choice. This is true especially because Rwby does not refuse Destruction (and so does not refuse death), but presents it as a principle equal to Creation (so as a part of life).

THE CHOOSING HERO

Jaune’s arc is about living Pyrrha’s death over and over again with different scenarios and outcomes. This happens so that in the end he can finally overcome it.

So far, it has happened three times and each time has been in the climax of an important battle.

The Battle of Beacon has him witness powerlessly to Pyrrha’s death (lack of knowledge and passivity).

The Battle of Haven has him saving Weiss (creation).

The Battle of Atlas has him killing Penny (destruction).

What is more, every time Jaune becomes more proactive and conscious of what he is doing.

In Beacon he has no idea of what is happening. He works with little information and things happen to him without him being able to do anything.

In Haven his actions lead to Weiss being in danger, but he manages to save her. That said, he does not do it consciously. He unlocks his Semblance because of emotional stress. It is an unconscious choice and not a conscious one.

In Atlas he makes a specific conscious choice, but it is a choice that is forced on him because of external circumstances. It is also a choice that is meant to challenge and temporally break him.

In other words, he is slowly and painfully approaching Choice aka self-actualization. Right now, he has to face the consequences of Penny’s death, but this will probably lead him to finally enter the Choice stage and to complete his arc by becoming a “hero” aka gold (probably).

At the same time, this final choice will also be about healing and overcoming grief. It will be the final integration with Pyrrha and him being able to honor her legacy.

After all, we have been told from the beginning what Pyrrha’s fate would have been. We’ve just failed to notice:

Pyrrha: For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee.

June and Pyrrha’s bond is eternal and she is meant to be the key character in Jaune’s arc. It is only through confronting and finally overcoming her loss that Jaune can finally self actualize and become the person Pyrrha has always known he could be. Pyrrha will symbolically be with him in this struggle. Her memory will protect and inspire him.

#rwby #rwby meta #jaune arc #arkos #rwby arkos #pyrrha nikos #tw: penny's death #jaune x pyrrha #my meta

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ecoamerica · 2 months

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i-love-hobbies · 3 years

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Eda's reckless behaviour and overall mental health

Summary

Eda is a genius, but is very emotional when making decisions (not anger, but fear, stress ect.)

Her reckless behaviour and apple blood problem in my opinion are her ways of running from reality.

In season 1 she made a bit of progress on this issue. Then the finale happened. Then she made again progress and s2ep7 did a complete reset. And she is making progress now again.

Eda's intelligence

She's been a criminal for thirty years. She has been in the shady business for an extremely long time. Yes magic definitely helps but you also have to find a way to be on top of the game, so you can survive.

Remember Tibbles' shrinking potion. She can't really use a lot of magic if she is shrinked or poisoned and dead, can she? Not to talk about her enemies which you'd think would attack her now that she is magicless.

They haven't on screen, yet. The only ones that tried are Adegast and Tibbles and they both died without her using any magic (or close to nothing).

Now we know that she doesn't make plans a lot on screen. In s2ep3 especially she just let's Luz make the plan but that's because she is her mentor.

In s2ep6 Luz used sleeping needles which is wild magic so no, it's not knowledge coming from Hexside. Also the pickpocketing Luz mentioned.

Teachers don't do the tests instead of students.

She teaches her everything that isn't glyphs. I wouldn't be surprised if she has told stories to Luz about her best "outsmarting everyone in the room" moments.

Now we have seen some of her problem solving on screen. One of which was in ep.18 fight only using her channelled magic trough the staff (im not taking credit for noticing this, have no idea who did though) and used the bridge.

Also if she can telepathically talk to her staff. Owlbert saving Luz was probably her idea.

She had her impact on Raine's rebellion as well, without having magic or turning into a harpy.

"You are not our mom!"

"Wow, we actually helped people this time!"

"Bye, mommy Eda!"

In the back of her head she knows exactly what to do, everytime something happens.

Eda's mental health

Eda's curse and the nightmares it causes. The father incident. The fact that she probably thought Lilith was scared of her.

Lilith's hidden guilt and her taking her father's eye out don't mix well together. I wouldn't be surprised if they barely spoke even if they lived in a house together.

Her losing Raine.

Her faith in the emporer being broken.

She has seen a lot of death, that does impact people.

Season 1

At the beginning of the series she was making a lot of bad choices which don't aline with her experience.

The series starts with her getting caught by Warden Wrath. Instead of just sneaking, they were just walking comfortably in the corridors.

They are kids, one from another dimension, but her... She doesn't know better? And for a paper crown that she can replace by stealing from someone else.

Next episode we are introduced to her morning drink later on confirmed to be for adults only. And that drink didn't get a mention for the rest of the season. In that episode she is also not the most clear-headed. She didn't try to sneak, she didn't use potions. Didn't try to plan.

A list about her being impatient can go on and on.

So when does she think. When she realises it's dangerous (aka when it's right in her face). Literally in the first episode the moment she started doing stuff is when she got caught and spat on the warden's face.

In episode 2 she didn't do that because she didn't know if Luz was alive and had a hard time bottling her feelings. Like if Luz proved to him to be hard to keep tight up he could have killed her, the girl that came back for her and her son yesterday. And she proved to Eda that she is a little dangerous the previous episode with her fireworks.

Eda was rational again, after she was with both King and Luz.

As the series went on though she started to calm down a bit.

Firstly, the fact that she was so focused on fixing her card problem, after Tibbles scammed her, that she trew them away in another dimension.

I was wondering how she overcame it so quickly.

It also shows her knowledge of how to handle this type of problems which brings up a question. How did she learn it?

Secondly let's compare the first half of the season to the second.

1. Everything I already pointed out and was hiding the curse. The stuff that happened in ep.5. Her refusal to be parental in ep.7. Body swapped.

2. She gets scammed again (this time though, how do you expect that someone was digging their own grave). Didn't use a sleeping spell on the slitherbeast immediately instead was just standing there. Got caught by the fun police. Worsened King's stage fright.

In ep.15 because of her ignorance Luz and Amity almost die. Except that is not the full story. She had at this point a lot of faith in Luz and this was her friend's mind.

For Amity it's not that she hated her. Amity actually saved her in ep.12. It's because she wasn't that important for her to realise. "Omg Willow is at the very least extremely mad at her."

It's again a refusal to think, but for a stranger and not really on purpose. It was just a habit of hers.

Episode 18 and 19

At the beginning of the episode. Eda hid the curse, again.

When she learned that Lilith had kidnapped Luz. She didn't try to make a plan. She just revealed herself in all her glory while her magic was disappearing.

Shot the staff in a wall while she was having no idea, what that was supposed to accomplish.

Luz showed up and she finally started thinking.

Afterwards Lilith said we all know what and for the first time Eda's anger was the leader of her choices and Luz almost fell on to the spikes.

So then, for the very least a night, she was stuck in her mind with something, that was chasing her. She woke up to Emporer Baby the B*tch, who was telling her, he was about to go after Luz.

And no she didn't believe in Lilith, but was so overwhelmed. It was insane. So she begged. After some more running, she woke up to Luz in the Comformatoriam.

Next, she was about to get petrified and for awhile this was the calmest things have been since she got caught. Then Lilith shows up (ah yes she existed).

King jumped "She was trying to help!". Wait King was there.

Petrification beam go.

PURE PAIN!

Then she got the idea for all of them to fly away. Lilith shared the curse making the confusion even bigger. Then her magic is gone (that was a thing). She learned that the portal is destroyed. Now she was living with Lilith and might have starved to death with everyone else in the house.

After all of this she not only tried but HAD TO pretend that she was mentally stable, so they could survive this mess.

Season 2A

In episode 1 she told Luz not to go after big bounties and then tried to steal from a coven's ship.

At this point her emotions are the only thing that made decisions while they were also getting hidden. Don't get me wrong she did help and should, especially Luz but it's ALL feelings. She didn't think about consequences, which sometimes are good.

She didn't attack Lilith cause it's just not the time, she's scared from her own anger. Plus she can't really stand being with the roller coaster of emotions, that came with being in one room with her.

This didn't mean she didn't work with her and hadn't listened to the backstory, though.

The episode ends with her and everyone else not being close to dieing. Finally!

So now what? She tried to think about Lilith? Yeah, she probably preferred not to.

Then her glyph almost kills King, but Lilith showed up and helped. This is probably a familiarity she missed. So again she decided not to process it, but it definitely sticks.

She also didn't notice Luz being hurt.

Next episode, we saw Eda taking a shower which means she has healthy coping mechanisms, at least one, self-care and is not yet a workaholic.

Luz's apple blood joke is concerning.

After the events of episode 3. Luz probably told her that Lilith stayed with her and King, instead of just leaving them, get killed by Jean-Luc.

Then Eda still isn't certain where she stands about everything and Lilith just left, with her final act being, giving King mental issues.

Throughout this whole thing her mom was there with her cures/annual accidental attempt to kill her favourite daughter.

In this episode, Eda fell for apple blood signs. Rationality is out of the window.

In ep.6 she decided to help, with students getting palisman. Again not thinking about all the trauma, but finally doing something against her first instinct.

In ep.7 she heard King's "Le-" and refused to fully process, where the heck is he gonna go.

She also punched someone, cause this is gonna work?

Now she has reconnected with Raine having no idea should she even think of a romantic relationship again? And decided to be useful at least for something since she "can't raise kids".

She was helping and being very good at it, but it came from fear of loneliness.

Then she heard that Belos has a plan and just is overwhelmed. What if the kids get hurt, is she powerless?

Oh, look! Raine might be dead!

Next episode she overworked herself.

In between ep.8 and 9 she was trying to scare the beast into transforming. (She is losing her sanity. Literally the previous episode told her not to do that.)

In episode 9 again it's all emotional. She wants to feel better and be stronger, so she told King to blast her (almost blasting Amity), hit fool's blood even though Amity said the lake is further ahead.

Luckily she showed progress too.

She ate voles, which was against how she was feeling.

In ep.10 she was scared of letting Luz in the portal. I'm not saying she wouldn't have before, but I don't think it was easy.

Right now, after s2ep10, I think she isn't the most mentally stable. But she is definitely working on it.

#toh #the owl house #eda clawthorne #toh eda #eda the owl lady #edalyn clawthorne #the owl lady #toh lilith

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tsunflowers · 3 years

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this is the sewer freak romance novel we have all been waiting for but that I will never actually write

Ok so the setting is in what used to be America in the aftermath of what was probably a nuclear war but no one ever goes into it and they just call it The Blight. Humanity rode it out by living in underground bunkers but within living memory they’ve finally been able to build habitat bubbles on the surface and fill them with breathable air so they can at least see sun again. There are several bunkers which maintained digital contact the entire time and while they were underground they built tunnels to each other so they could trade but they’ve had to seal off the tunnels and now you have to travel the blighted landscape to reach other habitats. Bc years back a bunch of people were like “we’re not waiting for your pussy habitat bubbles we can hack it on the surface right now” so they went out and got irradiated and the bunker people wouldn’t let them back in. So they started living in the tunnels and became sewer freaks. The sewer freaks are known to eat people and everyone is convinced they’re just biding their time until they can storm the bunkers and take over the habitats so they have to take the overland path even though it’s objectively more dangerous. The habitats are largely self-sufficient but there are some specialty parts that can only be produced in one habitat… and they just ran out. Enter our heroine

She’s named Ticonderoga bc lots of people are named after silly things from the old world but she goes by Ty. She has pcos or another condition that makes it very unlikely that she’ll ever be able to give birth which makes her uniquely expendable among the young women of the habitat. There’s this huge push in the community to expand the population now that they have the habitat bubbles but she knows she can’t be a part of that and people actually warn the boys her age away from her bc she won’t be able to have kids. Bc in a closed society like this everyone’s medical status is everyone’s business. This combined with the fact that she doesn’t have a job lined up for when she turns 18 bc her mentor died and The Council silently got rid of the job completely means that she’s selected to join the expedition to the other habitat. Btw the job is the storage and maintenance of physical artifacts and documents from the habitats history and from before The Blight. Everyone else has relied on technology for so long that they’ve forgotten the value of Real items and they’re like “didn’t we digitize that ages ago? who give a shit” but ty is Retro and she knows that holding something in your hands gives it a totally different feeling. She also likes to draw by hand. I kind of want her mentor to be a cool lesbian but she does die. Wait I had a great idea I’ll get back to this later

The rest of the expedition team is like older guys who’ve done this before and they’re kind of hazing her and telling her scary stories about sewer freaks. The general vibe is like “if you can’t keep up why are you even here :/" and she’s like it’s not like I asked to be here fuckers. But she’s actually kind of enjoying it in a weird way bc there are all these mutant plants that she’s never seen records of before bc the habitat bubble people ignore the outside world as much as possible. One morning while the guys are breaking camp (she tried to help at first but they were like “don’t chip a fingernail girlie”) she sits down to sketch a mutant flower. Which is hard bc she’s in a hazmat suit but she wants to record it somehow. And when she looks up she realizes the guys left without her. It’s not like they left her for dead bc she has a gps and radio communication. She could call them up and be like “hey fuck you guys.” But it was seriously a dick move and she’s really upset about it. She turns off her comms to kind of process and figure out what to do to catch up/how she’s going to confront them when she does and then suddenly….:.. a sewer monster appears on the surface!!!

We get like two full pages describing the sewer freak’s physicality at this point so as a reader you’re like ok she seriously wants to get hot and heavy with this sewer monster. He has, you know, smooth translucent skin and huge dark eyes and delicate long-fingered hands and he might be bioluminescent although she probably can’t tell that during the day. And he is definitely like cut also. He is one ripped sewer freak

Ty has this emergency signal she’s supposed to set off if she’s separated from the group and something happens to her but she’s not exactly in the mood to get rescued by a bunch of guys who just ditched her for fun. And besides her analytical brain is whirring at the chance to see and interact with a real sewer freak. So she tries to greet him. They have some trouble interacting bc sewerspeak (the language of the sewer freaks) diverged from English some time ago but they manage to communicate that he thought she was hurt but it’s only her feelings that are hurt. Btw sewer people can sense radio waves or some shit so he got concerned about her when he noticed hers cut off bc he knows habitat people always have radios on. So he thought maybe her suit stopped working. He acts like he’s gonna leave and she’s like “no wait!!” bc she wants to make a tangible connection with him bc that’s her thing. So she gets him to stay long enough for her to sketch him. He’s clearly super impressed by the sketch so she hands it to him and he indicates that he wants to borrow her pencil. He adds his own sketch on the corner of the page, a stylized drawing of the flower she was just drawing. She’s like “oh you draw too?” but he points to the flower drawing and then to himself and she understands that it’s a glyph representing him and he’s named after the flower. (This means the habitat people are named after relics from the old world while sewer people are named after things from the current world. Do you get it) They trade names and then he leaves. She’s like wow! Maybe everything everyone said about sewer freaks was wrong, bc clearly some of them are kind of sexy and intriguing. So she heads off to meet up with her party with a spring in her step. The party actually felt guilty and turned around for her bc they saw her gps signal didn’t move at all and she disappeared from comms but when they see her they’re like wtf why is she is such a good mood?? but something tells her she should not brag to them about her freak encounter so she pretends she encountered mutant wildlife and scared it off and they’re a little bit impressed

I just realized if they’re so paranoid and their technology’s so good they could probably invent some vehicles to go between habitats so they wouldn’t have to walk it. Pretend I have an explanation for that one

She gets to the habitat with the group. It has the exact same layout as her home but she can’t stop noticing all the things that are subtly different. They have different slang, and the food they grow and cook is different bc of the backgrounds of the people in this one, and stuff. Also the pregnancy thing is probably more intense compared to her home. Like in her habitat there’s social pressure but here it’s a civic duty. She sees a lot of really young moms and people who clearly don’t want children. She realizes that her infertility actually gives her more choice and autonomy than most women in her society and it’s an uncomfortable realization. Can I have uhhh, unsubtle grappling with conflicting feelings about motherhood as a prerequisite for adulthood using a sci-fi setting for 600, Alex?

Ty wants to get Out Of There and maybe see that spicy little sewer freak on the return trip but there are all these protocols and rituals they have to observe. They have to formally trade. They have to spend the night. They have to accept a meal and travel provisions. Since I guess this is the shitty evangelical Christian habitat the meal is probably like, unseasoned chicken and green bean casserole or something

Idk if Ty has any friends back in her home habitat. I kind of want her to have a gay guy friend who shares her reproduction related struggles bc he’s like “can I live openly as a gay man knowing that people will judge me for not Doing My Duty? even if I go to the medical center and donate sperm am I comfortable fathering children I will never actually be a father to?” so in that way her mentor could be a mentor to him as well since she’s an example of an adult lesbian in their society, and maybe that’s how they met. So she’s also like "man I wanna get back home and hang out with my bff again"

when shes home her parents are like omg we were so worried about you out in the Blighted landscape. while you were gone The Council gave us some of your mentor's stuff that she wanted you to have. and it's like a very tender handwritten note about how much she meant to her mentor that makes her cry and also some blueprints of the now-sealed tunnel opening?? basically her mentor left a coded message telling her to go down to the tunnel opening. she and her bff figure it out together and he's like Uhhh I dont want to go down to the tunnel with the sewer freaks??? but she tells him she met a sewer freak and not only did he not eat her he was smokin hot. if the sewer freaks are like cave dwellers they probably shouldn't have hair but I can't. I need them to have hair. sorry it's not Scientifically Accurate. so anyway she's like "listen it's not like we're going into the tunnels. we're just going Next to them. it's fine"

so they sneak down into the tunnels. it's kind of sad down there. ty's been down there before to cross-reference documents and just to see where her ancestors lived but it's totally different to be down there with just one other person and confront the reality of living in cramped quarters underground. kind of makes her empathize with the sewer freaks as well. when they get to the location the mentor marked they realize that there's a sealed hatch with a broken lock and inside it are mysterious items that were deposited by the sewer freaks! their mentor must have been in contact with the sewer freaks all along and she knew they weren't evil monsters! some weird shit she said starts to make a lot more sense. if ty kept the drawing she puts it in the hatch to try to make contact and if she gave it to him she sees it in the hatch as an attempt at contact

so ty and the sexy sewer guy strike up a gift cache based friendship. they don't meet in person but every time she manages to sneak away to the tunnel he's taken her gift and left something new. she's having to train in a new job that she's not that interested in but knowing that she'll have sewer presents makes her everyday life exciting. this goes on for a while and then one day she receives a drawing of a person crawling through the hatch and she's like omg. I could crawl through the hatch. there's also a drawing of a sunrise so she's like does that mean I should do it at sunrise...? will he be there....? and she decides to fucking go for it. her friend stays behind bc he's scared and also she needs him to cover for her but she has a radio. she wiggles through the hatch as early as possible in the morning and who is waiting for her but the handsome sewer freak!!

he brought a light bc he knows habitat people need them but he personally can see in the dark. she sees his bioluminescence for the first time and is like Wow.... and on his side he’s like amazed and totally hot for her once he sees her out of the hazmat suit bc he wasn’t 100% sure she was human until then. All the adults say habitat people are like humans under the suits but he had never seen one in real life so in the back of his mind he kind of doubted it. Both sides have the thing where they’re like “we’re the only People.” But actually he knew she was a People the moment she drew for him bc spontaneously creating art and then freely giving it away is such a uniquely human gesture

he takes her down through the tunnels and she sees that they've been decorated and added to and the sewer people have a whole civilization down there. they can also go onto the surface freely but they get sunburned real fast so they try to limit it. but the tunnels are now dotted with surface exits and that's how he seemed to appear and disappear when she was on the surface. they just kind of explore for a while bc she's so curious but he clearly wants to lead her somewhere. they get to a large but cozy room full of bioluminescent moss and mushrooms and a ton of sewer freaks just hanging out and who is there but... her dead mentor?!

It turns out The Council actually tried to kill her mentor for being pro-freak!!! They were like “see how much you like those sewer freaks when they’re eating you!” and left her for dead in the tunnels. but since she was friends with the freaks they did not eat her, they took her in and healed her using sewer freak blood and now she has some powers and she’s married to a lady sewer freak

The eating people thing IS true but listen. It’s hard to get protein as a sewer freak ok?? So they’ve been practicing endocannibalism all along (eating the dead members of their community). And they’ve eaten some habitat people who they killed in self defense, and maybe way back in the first few generations of sewer people they did kill and eat habitat people for no reason. But they don’t do that anymore and they feel really bad about. Actually they don’t even do endocannibalism anymore bc they raise cave fish and hunt surface animals but it’s ceremonial

so ty is like whoa i can't believe it, but I do believe it, and her mentor is like "you can't tell the habitat people. they're not ready to accept it. but you can change that. your generation needs to be open minded and accept the new earth and the new people and I think that you are a special girl and if anyone can change minds you can" and she returns to the habitat bubble with the gears in her mind turning over and over wondering how she can possibly accomplish this mission...

I said she would my fair lady the sewer freak but maybe thats book two. and I decided while writing this that the sewer freaks do have their own culture so it's not like he needs to be taught to be human. but I still want her to dress him up in normal clothes and take him home to her parents

#sewer freak romance

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lilyclawthorne · 3 years

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Separate Tides Thoughts

HAPPY SEASON 2 PREMIERE DAY!!

This is literally just a bunch of very stream of consciousness writing, from pretty much every time i had a thought about something while rewatching the episode so it may be messy/all over the place

my immediate concern about these videos luz is sending that aren’t going through, is what if the emperor does manage to even briefly open a portal?? would all of her messages suddenly go through only to not be able to contact again?? and maybe that’s why it kinda looks like a detective/conspiracy board behind camila in the trailer because she has plenty of information from luz herself that she now needs to piece together.

completely unimportant detail but i figured lilith’s gem was like eda’s, in how eda’s gem seems to be a part of her, but we can see in luz’s video that it seems to be attached to lilith’s old dress so just what the fuck is up with eda having a gem in her body

also the fact that they decided to be bounty hunters was odd to me, but it’s clear they really need the money. it was also clear later on that not only did eda not want luz to go after the selkidomus to keep her safe, but also because it was an innocent creature. part of me can’t help but wonder if internally a part of eda didn’t want to go after bigger bounties because having once been the biggest bounty herself, she knows that if the emperor wants them that badly then they may actually not be bad at all

i hate that last season everyone was cheering for eda to be freed, but now without magic they’re very willing to take advantage of her and talk about her. it’s mean and i expected public gossip to happen more for lilith for being a traitor, but then again people may not know about her magic yet so maybe they do still fear her a bit. all of this kinda tells me though that people bought belos’ crap about eda being stripped of her magic because she’s a wild witch, so they’re all judging her again

i love how bitter lilith is about the golden guard. also teen? kinda curious if any of our teens would’ve known him when very young or if he was raised specifically for this role

i like the detail on belos’ statue where there’s a crack over his eye around the same spot luz broke his mask

love how much eda cares for luz and puts her needs first and buying her the only foods she can digest and likes. such a mom. it’s also very clear that she’s struggling and doesn’t want luz to worry about it at all. also side note, love that lilith was asking about apple blood, pls let these sisters get drunk together.

it does not surprise me that eda likes to bring up the curse pretty casually as a retort back at lilith. it seems very in her nature to use it like that, but i can’t help but wonder if she’s avoiding actually addressing it. and if she keeps joking, will that affect lilith into like, idk a breakdown that forces the two of them to talk about it.

LULU?? BESTIE?? thanks hooty i hate it

Luz you’re doing amazing sweetie, show them you’re no sea squirt.

okay so now we can clearly see lilith’s magic is on it’s last legs. almost got herself fucking killed by some fire bees. that being said i’m very concerned about her whole “who am i without magic? without a coven?” i think she kinda misses the structure, and is still used to only knowing what to do simply because she had a leader to follow.

“I AM A WITCH, UNHINGED” i think she’ll be adapting to the chaotic nature of the owl house crew in no time though if she keeps acting like this

“some kind of weird bird worm” i mean she’s not wrong....

“you have no idea what im going through” dramatic emo ass bitch

it does not surprise me that after pardoning eda, the coven would jump at the first opportunity to arrest her again. pretty sure she’ll be a wanted criminal again in no time.

golden guard very much concerns me. villains that go from really fun to intimidating or threatening as fast he seems to do here are ones i worry about. it kinda feels like he enjoys scaring people?? idk im not sure how to describe it. anyways threatening to hold them over the boiling seas where even the steam will give them third degrees feels really fucking cruel but maybe im empathizing here because at the time of writing this im still suffering from second degree burns i got three weeks ago so third degree sounds horrifying rn

love how excited lilith is seeing hooty at work when she’s not the one getting beaten up.

I’m glad luz and eda are talking about luz’s guilt and that eda knows what she’s been carrying around now. i didn’t want to see luz carry around all that guilt for so long she’s too good for that AND its misplaced guilt.

i do love though how at the beginning of the episodes we see the lengths eda will go to by prioritizing food for luz first and doing everything she can to keep the girl safe, and then we come back full circle to seeing the lengths luz is willing to go to for eda as well

“my life is pretty great because i’m friends with luz the human” brb im CRYING.

Luz is SO clever. This girl is so smart and creative and her solution for helping the selkidomus is just wonderful. And also look at that fake selkidomus she made!! That is amazing!!

pls the raspberry Luz gave the golden guard was adorable

i LOVE the parallel between eda doing her first light glyphs and when luz did her first ones. i’m also glad eda didn’t struggle with the glyph like i’ve seen some people worry could have happened

just occurred to me that eda mentioned the gris will sell at the night market. its probably nothing but does make me concerned about them becoming night market vendors instead.

HOOTCIFER? thanks lilith i hate it. also combine it with lulu and you get lucifer.

it’s hard to hear but as we go further into the scrying potion and see the emperor, and the very end of the “what are we eating” conversation that’s fading out from the owl house we hear lilith say “i’m fine with whatever, things are starting to feel right again” and idk if she means since she left the coven or for the first time since she was a kid but either way im so glad to hear it

also my brother pointed out belos is probably saying “knock knock human” because he knows he’s being spied on by the owl house with the potion and i hate that because if the emperor takes any action because of it, it’ll probably be another lilith fucked up moment because she didn’t think it through.

also, one other thing i couldn’t help but do in this episode was notice some parallels between luz and lilith! they’re both going out of their way to try and do something for eda, and are both insistent that they have to do this alone. but also lilith’s line about “you have no idea what im going through” really did make me think perhaps underneath everything she has a dramatic personality, and luz does too at times for fun and wouldn’t it be cute if they got along over something like that.

also this episode? great for pictures of lilith with messy hair, of her screaming, or general annoyance, so, enjoy:

pls i love this face and the noise she makes at this moment as well as her little ear twitch ^

this is my favorite messy hair screenshot simply because it looks SO fluffy here and i want that for her ^

this particular screenshot ain’t about lilith, it’s about the face eda is making here and how cute it is!! ^

#the owl house #toh #owl house #separate tides #posting before my job starts and I end up busy until 6 pm 🙃

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the-melting-world · 3 years

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The Empress | Side A: “Depth Over Distance”

Art by @markmefistov

~ In which a cheerful mage navigates uncharted waters…

The Trio Appearances: Kipling | Khleo | Ozy

Arcana LI appearances: Asra | Nadia | Muriel

Track Origins: “Depth Over Distance” by Ben Howard

Not sure if this is the right track? The full album can be found here: The Empress

cw: none

~ 1.4k words

***

To put it simply, the Doors were gateways to a very entangled maze. Through time. Through matter. Oz’mandias had opened every Door. He had not, however, entered every Room. Some were too dark, their floors too loose to bear his weight. They rumbled with cosmic horrors. Monsters without names or faces. He made sure to mark these Doors that led to these unnavigable Rooms. He was an umbra, not Beowulf. Someday he would figure them out.

Ozy learned through his discovery of trapdoors that all Rooms were connected. The entirety of the cosmos – or at least the knotted sliver of it that the Doors chose to reveal to him – balanced on a shifting framework. There was no way he could explore it all. True, he had located all the Doors that faced outward, but it hadn’t taken him long to realize that there were Rooms within Rooms. One Door could lead to multiple Rooms. The walls of which could shift, dissolve, reflect, and stack itself. Then you had Quasi-Rooms and Beta Rooms. Fractional Rooms and Microscopic Rooms.

It was impossible to know them all.

And yet, Ozy strived to do it. Because how could he ever ignore every secret a Door protected when he could see the outlines of each and every gateway? They glowed for him whenever he passed by, whether he activated them with his gauntlets or not.

At the moment, Ozy was desperate to get Kipling to see a single Door.

Thankfully, she knew how to meditate. How to concentrate. Ozy held his breath as he watched Kip’s third eye flutter open. Of course, he was the only one who could see this. To Asra and the three familiars that cavorted around in the Palace Conservatory, nothing was going on in the center of Kipling’s forehead right above her eyes.

But even after all that fluttering with potential, Kip’s third eye would always give up and return to its state of rest.

Ozy stifled a frustrated sound as he sat back and rubbed his palm over his eyes and the bridge of his scarred nose. He didn’t know what it was. Kip was definitely trying. It wasn’t like she didn’t possess the willpower.

So what was missing?

“Coz?” Kipling sounded dizzy. “Can we take a break? I think I’m starting to get a migraine.”

Ozy wanted to keep going. He had an urge to hold out as long as they both could. He wanted to really study Kipling and process this thoroughly. He wanted to think.

Still, another part of Ozy – one that stemmed from maturity and experience – insisted that no good would come of that. Kipling had done her best. She had reached her limit. If Ozy were to demonstrate impatience with her now, it would be the same as erasing all the progress she had made.

“That’s enough for today,” Ozy sighed, reaching over and patting Kip on the head. He expected her to swat his hand away, but when he didn’t, he fixed her with a look of concern.

“You’ve been really patient with me, Ozy,” said Kip, “but I don’t think I’ll be able to see the Doors as well as you can in just a few days.”

Ozy folded his hands in his lap. “You don’t need to see all the Doors, Kip. Just the glyphs on the ones that you intend to open.”

Kip chewed on her lower lip. “It doesn’t sound all that complicated.”

Ozy smiled. “It’s not.”

“Then why is it taking me so long?”

Ozy didn’t know. Not yet.

The grey mage gave the gardener something else to think about for the rest of the day. Some breathing exercises. They wouldn’t be all that helpful in this case, but she didn’t need to know that. Then the two umbras parted ways.

Kipling left the conservatory hand in hand with Asra, his snake familiar curled about his shoulders. Taro took a little longer to bid farewell to Abaco before scurrying after Kipling and hitching a ride in the crook of her elbow.

Abaco flitted over to Ozy and followed him back inside the Palace. Ozy’s mind was still going, trying to pinpoint what was causing Kip’s block. He barely made it inside long enough to hear his soft soles echoing against the domed mosaic ceilings when he was approached by a familiar face.

Ozy offered a tired smile in Nadia Satrinava’s direction. When she asked him if he wanted to soak the afternoon off in a private, isolated bath chamber, he of course accepted. He had yet to enjoy the Palace baths.

When Nadia followed up with another question, he didn’t think anything of where it was coming from. Or what it might mean.

So he just said yes, of course.

Moments later, Ozy was stepping into the softly lit bath chamber wearing nothing but a thin robe. Standing directly across from him, stooping a bit to test the temperature of the water was the Countess. She was also robed with her hair completely undone. Her feet were bare and she was without makeup or adornments. It was then that Ozy realized that there was something potently vulnerable and private rising in the air.

“Ozy, I need to ask you an important question.” Nadia shook the water off her hand and straightened up. “Would you prefer us to bathe with our robes on or off?”

Ozy didn’t have an answer for her. He was thinking, trying to make connections to this moment and back in the days when he was right on the cusp of adulthood.

“Ozy? It’s okay. Just tell me what you want. If this is making you uncomfortable–”

He blurted, “I don’t want to say the wrong thing.”

Nadia gathered her robe a little tighter around her as she approached the grey mage. Worry and concern clouded her features. She wanted to tell him that there was nothing wrong about being honest about how he felt in the moment, but Ozy was already rattling off faster than she had ever seen from him.

“I’ve declined invitations like this before and afterwards my companions stopped talking to me.” His eyes didn’t meet hers as he kept going. “They avoided spending time with me. As if I had declined our whole relationship, but I hadn’t. It was only a moment that I had said no to. One instance in time. There would be so much more, but for whatever reason, they couldn’t see it. And the times when I’ve accepted… everything seemed to happen so fast. It always started out nice, pleasurable even... but I always seemed to be a disappointment towards the end.”

“Ozy,” Nadia cut in. “Oz. Look at me.”

He did.

Nadia paused to inhale. Then softly, she said, “Let’s start from the beginning. Would you like to take a bath together?”

Ozy nodded with sincerity. “I would like that.” This time he meant it. Until now Ozy hadn’t realized how much he had been relying on the presence of the Countess to steady his nerves while he navigated uncharted waters with Kipling and her handle on grey magic.

Nadia cracked a small smile and moved one of Ozy’s beaded locs out of his eyes.

“If you want to keep the robes on, I will not take that as a rejection. If you want to take them off, we can move as slowly as you want. Just tell me what you decide. And if you ever want to change your mind at any point, I would never hold it against–”

Nadia’s voice became muffled against Ozy’s unexpected kiss. Her skin shivered under the robe as his arms snaked around her middle while his other hand coasted up her back and folded around the nape of her neck.

“Thank you,” Ozy said without breaking the kiss. “Your patience, your perception, your understanding – it’s so rare and wonderful that I’m often left feeling a bit overwhelmed.”

Ozy had no idea how overwhelmed Nadia herself was in that moment, what with him locking her against his strong, lean frame and muttering into her mouth, his gold ring, snug against his full lips, constantly taunting her to deepen the kiss.

But as much as Nadia wanted to move things forward, Ozy was still in a vulnerable place. She wouldn’t push him until he got everything that he needed out in the open.

“... always afraid that I’ll come on too strong. People might confuse the things that I’m genuinely curious about with…”

“Oz?”

“... for the longest I couldn’t understand why that would always happen…”

“Oz.”

“... easier to be alone sometimes, but I told myself that couldn’t be true. Not all the way at least. Not–”

Nadia pulled back. “Ozy. It’s okay.”

Ozy blinked owlishly, as if he had no idea just how long he’d been rambling.

Nadia’s ruby gaze softened. “You don’t have to explain yourself.” She leaned in and placed a tentative but lingering kiss to his slightly parted lips. “I hear you. Now…”

She withdrew and gestured to the depression of steaming water behind them.

“Robes on or off?”

#arcana albums: the empress #arcana albums #the arcana #the arcana fanfic #the arcana fic #the arcana fanfiction #kipling the apprentice #ozy the grey mage #asra #asra alnazar #nadia #nadia satrinava #my writing #asra the arcana #nadia the arcana #ozadia

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ecoamerica · 1 month

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youtube

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

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sepublic · 4 years

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A dynamic I’ve been thinking about lately it Amity’s relationship with magic

Bc if I was in her position I would prolly hate doing magic

Her parents are elitist assholes bc of it- said parents control her life over it - not to mention that it separated her from her one true friend growing up: Willow

So what if Amity grew up resentful of magic that she still did everything as perfect as possible due to her parents but hating every second of it

So what if Amity went to the human world for a summer tried to live a life without magic and she realized that yes, she can be so happy without magic that she can experience so many wonderful things but that magic isn’t always bad

After dealing with these feelings Amity realizes that Magic can also be beautiful and make her happy as well

The way I see it, I think Amity IS someone who legitimately enjoys learning about magic, and even the process of teaching others… She’s genuinely interested in magic in-part because of The Good Witch Azura and is inspired by her role model, and Amity clearly enjoys reading books to kids! Not only that, but…

…It’s not exactly canon, but there was this one DisneyTVA post that showed a cardboard cut-out of a sad and lonely-looking Amity! The caption explained that she pitched an educational series to the Disney executives but was rejected!

My read on Amity is that she DOES like to learn, and if allowed to self-actualize, would probably enjoy becoming a teacher actually! But because of the way she’s been taught, Amity has confused/associated learning with school as a system and an institution; That these two are synonymous, that if you like to learn, you ALSO like school and its environment! She sees the two as one and the same, a package that comes together, and I don’t think Amity realizes that you can still enjoy learning, while hating the school environment!

For me, I think the pressure and standards that the Blight Parents have put onto Amity have ‘ruined’ her hobby and interest for her, as now she’s turned Magic and learning from a passion into yet another means of social advancement; Which means Amity can no longer unconditionally enjoy it and constantly has to measure her decisions by which one attains the highest grade for her, VS just having fun and being casual with her mistakes!

I headcanon Amity as someone who initially started off as a Gifted Kid and did very well, enthusiastically enjoying Magic and having a natural talent and passion for it… Hence why the Blight Parents were so insistent on Amity not being ‘dragged down’ by Willow and her late-blooming, in addition to their own classist attitudes of course! But as Amity got older and poured all of her energy into doing well in school, eventually she got burnt out… She began falling behind on her past successes, as top scores came a lot less easily to her, and Amity’s passion for school began to dwindle.

And, it’s another reason why Amity is so frustrated and critical of herself- Because in the past she used to ace school effortlessly and barely had to put in effort, why is it so hard and difficult for her now!? Why is she becoming so anxious over this, it used to be so easy, is there something wrongwith her? And now Amity is afraid of having built up her parents’ expectations, only to have secretly ‘lied’ and thus will let them down… In addition to ‘falling behind’ the development of characters like Willow and Luz!

Of course, Amity would NEVER be against her friends being stronger than her, but she’d definitely internalize this into self-loathing as an example of how she needs to be better! Because she used to be at the top, so why is she falling behind? Was she really never meant for greatness, is this some cruel joke by the universe? And it’d be difficult for her to get back into learning magic, because now it’s just a constant reminder of her own inabilities and alleged failings…

As you suggested, I can see Amity getting away from her parents’ abuse, and initially trying to unlearn it by rejecting the concept of school and learning in general… But as she goes cold-turkey from this, inevitably she’s still gonna be less happy; Happier than she was before, because no more abuse and more love from Luz and the others! But admittedly, Amity won’t feel completely fulfilled, she’ll find herself missing the idea of learning more about magic, and she’ll be confused, because wasn’t school an abusive and unhealthy environment for her???

So in comes Eda. To me, Eda and Amity are both alike in that… I see them as characters who actually have a huge love and passion for learning, but the specific structure of school as an institution, as well as the pressure to succeed by the Coven System, ruined this hobby for them. And I think Eda is well-aware of the distinction between learning and education, VS school as an institution and a system meant to make kids orderly and pressure them to succeed… So I can easily see her explaining to Amity that there IS a divide between the two, that there is a difference!

And just as Eda rediscovered how to love learning about magic on her own terms, by getting away from the oppressive school environment and doing things her own way, amidst her own recent lessons with Luz about Glyphs… I can see her helping Amity rediscover that same passion, either by having lessons with Lilith at the Owl House and/or attending school again, but this time without the pressure to succeed and be the best!

I think it’d be beautiful, seeing Eda, Luz, and Lilith help Amity reclaim her love of learning and education that was taken away from her and ruined by the Blight Parents! Helping Amity get back to learning about things unconditionally, doing it on her own terms and converting it back into HER choice, rather than those of her parents…

Amity can rediscover how to learn about magic simply for the sake of it, and not just to attain some other goal! Luz in particular legit loves magic and is intrigued by it, I could see Luz’s ramblings and passion helping Amity as the two begin to collaborate, as Amity’s negative memories with learning are replaced with the positive ones she has with Luz, Eda, and Lilith…! Luz’s enthusiasm for magic is likely bound to get contagious, and remind Amity of why got interested in the first place, amidst both girls enjoying The Good Witch Azura together and continuing to be inspired by it, and one another!

If I had to guess? I think that in a scenario where Amity was allowed to figure out who she was and what she wanted to do… I think she’d be happy with being a teacher! But specifically, one fixated on her curriculum and lessons prioritizing the enjoyment of students, a teacher who cares about helping kids really get to know Magic and actually appreciate it up-close, with less regard for trying to get high grades!

I think Amity would work on her lessons to encourage students to really think about and engage with what they’re learning, instead of just reading it out of a textbook or something… Less blind memorization and recitals, or filling people’s heads like an empty box; And more inspiring thought and creativity, like tending to a living flame! And I can see Amity working to change the school system to be more geared towards honest education, instead of simply indoctrinating and preparing kids for their roles in the Coven System!

I like your idea a lot, @imamwolf, it makes sense with what this show has to say, and I know I’m literally just regurgitating what you already told me, but still! This show has a lot to say about the relationship between a student, education, and a teacher, and how a teacher fulfills their role!

#the owl house #owl house #the owl house amity #amity blight #the owl house eda #edalyn clawthorne #speculation #ask

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tokutenshi · 4 years

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“Though the Darkness Comes Upon Me”, part 1 “I Shall Embrace the Light”, chapter 14: “Harrowing”

Ebrisa opened her eyes, her hazy vision slowly focusing on a broken pillar across the floor. She pulled herself up and took a good look at her decrepit surroundings, trying to remember where she was or how she got there. The last thing she recalled was sitting in the isolation cell after finally being given fresh, new clothing. Orsino and a small squad of templars took her to a spacious room in a section of the Gallows she'd never been in before with large wards engraved into the otherwise smooth floor. It was filled with more templars and the knight-commander, all of them standing around a glyph and watching her expectantly. Orsino had said something, something important, and directed her to a glowing basin. She touched the liquid, and then... then she...

“This is... the Fade?” Ebrisa's voice carried further than she thought it would, cutting through the silence and echoing back to her with an eerie reverb. Everything looked wrong somehow, distorted, and she wondered if it was normal to feel so disoriented in the Fade. This was not the Fade she knew – far from it – but this wasn't a dream, this was her Harrowing. The mage pushed aside the uneasiness and tore her eyes away from the small islands floating in the yellow sky. She focused on the cracked tiles beneath her feet and followed them away from the collapsed ruins she'd woken up in.

The path degraded into loose cobble stones, twisting around strange statues and climbing over hills. She had no idea what she was supposed to do, where she was supposed to go, and that was part of the test. The Harrowing was a carefully guarded secret and Ebrisa couldn't help but wonder if that meant each was different and suited to the specific mage, or just too trying and unpredictable to recall correctly later.

There were rumors, or course, whispered horror stories from an enchanter that someone knew from another Circle or recorded in a journal an old roommate had found or some other impossible to confirm source. Demons lie in wait to kill the apprentice or possess them. Templars will kill you if you take too long. If you get lost, you are stranded in the Fade forever. It seemed the only thing no one knew was how to successfully complete the Harrowing and return to the waking world.

“My, oh my,” a rich, feminine voice called out from above. Ebrisa jumped in surprise and shot her eyes upwards. A glowing figure sat atop the capital of a column, too far and bright against the sky to make out. “Oh, forgive me.” The being floated down from her perch and dimmed her shine, reducing her form to something more solid, though still vague.

Its entire being, save its deep violet eyes, was a soft lilac. The arms and legs fanned out like the fabric of an elegant gown, ridding the figure of defined hands or feet. It had long, flowing bangs that twisted to the side and floated gracefully around her head as she moved. “This is better for mortal eyes, yes?”

“It, um, yes.” Ebrisa blinked at the figure, its presence not entirely unexpected, but still rather surprising. “Thank you.”

It smiled sweetly. “I am a spirit of love, and you are no dreamer.”

“I...”

“Oh, do not fret over me, sweet child,” the spirit giggled. “I've seen many of these tests over my long existence.”

Ebrisa chewed on her bottom lip, knowing she should be cautious but also knowing she needed a little direction. “Can you tell me what I'm supposed to do?”

The spirit studied her for a while, watching her shift uncomfortably under her dark eyes. It grinned widely, nodding once. “I sense a great capacity for love in you, sweet child. It would be my honor to aid you through this task so you might return and spread that beautiful nature.”

“Oh, you needn't bother yourself,” Ebrisa awkwardly tried to refuse. “A simple point in the right direction will do.”

“Nonsense,” the spirit chuckled as it floated down the path. “Allow me to be your guide, as I have assisted so many before you.”

The mage rubbed her forehead and took a slow breath. She had read about goodly spirits of the Fade – they were the Maker's first children, after all – and surely a being of love could be up to nothing malicious. With a soft hum, Ebrisa followed the spirit down the path.

“You should know that once you entered this place, a demon caught your scent – so to speak – and will be hunting you.” Love looked over her shoulder to frown in concern. “It is something that always happens and is part of your test. This demon you must defeat. Once you do, you pass.”

The idea of facing a demon all on her own was intimidating to say the least and Ebrisa's stomach twisted into nervous knots. When she faced demons in Feynriel's dream, she had merely provided support to Hawke and the others as they took down a dozen at once. They had made it look so very easy, but what could she do on her own?

This was a test designed to gauge her strength of will and aptitude for the arcane, not battlefield strategies and war tactics. The spirit had said there was a demon hunting her. Just one. It was possible to defeat a single enemy by herself, right? Ebrisa had defended the Harrowing to Hawke before, claiming the Circle wouldn't test mages just to watch them fail. The instructors must have seen something in her that made them confident enough to put her through the Harrowing. Why else would they do this now?

But Orsino had not taken her from her room, he brought her from isolation. Isolation she was in because of Quentin's twisted magic infesting her.

#fanfic friday #Ebrisa Trevelyan #Cullen Rutherford #cullen x trevelyan #cullen x ebrisa #templar!cullen #harrowing #toku writes

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paperanddice · 4 years

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Smaragdine Golem

Smaragdine is such a bizarre sounding word, and most people would be entirely justified in thinking it’s some completely made up word. What is a smaragdine golem made out of? The actual answer is emerald. Smaragdine is a real English adjective relating something to emeralds, by material or color, so Tome of Beasts used it as the name for an emerald construct. Or at least one that’s the color of emerald, they’re mostly green glass.

In terms of purpose to say why you would use a smaragdine golem over any others (besides looking for a specific level), they’re even more dedicated to anti-magic. Fifth edition got rid of the 3.5 and earlier idea of golems being outright immune to magic and replaced it with resistance, making them a bit less of a puzzle creature than they were before, and the smaragdine doesn’t break from that, but they have an extra bit of power when set against spellcasters. They get a bonus action ability to target any ongoing magical effect near it and attempt to cancel the spell. It functions pretty much like dispel magic, except if the golem succeeds it also absorbs the magic and can release it as an action to deal damage in an explosion centered on itself. Unlike a lot of other features in 5e the effect changes based on the level of the spell absorbed, not only getting more powerful but also increasing in size with higher level spells. For a lot of lower level spells, the damage output isn’t optimal to take up an action, but getting a bonus action to attempt to rip away some of those high level buff or debuff spells the party has cast can be exceptionally useful. Ending a hold monster spell, or blade barrier, haste, or even something like foresight at the end of high level campaigns can change the course of a battle in a significant way. Absorbing a haste spell might only deal an average of 21 damage per target in a 30 foot radius, but getting that spell off of a barbarian can be a massive benefit.

While I still think that golem is a massively misused term by now in D&D and fantasy gaming in general, and the constant book filler of “it’s a construct made of [x]” is dull, at least this one has a unique and interesting feature to make encountering one a memorable situation. Just find a better name.

The Kerith Empire has very strict rules against unregistered spellcasters. Any reports of illegal spellcasters are investigated by the emperor’s anti-mage corps, well trained and conditioned counter-mages, and in the worst cases a smaragdine golem that strips away the criminal’s magical defenses to leave them vulnerable.

Protecting important leaders from magical influence is a constant process. One powerful merchant council has developed a new strategy of using a smaragdine golem as a centerpiece to their meetings. The golem is controlled by an independent committee and constantly patrols the room, using its ability to absorb magic on each council member in turn constantly through any discussion in order to ensure that no spells have been used on any of the members. The sight of the golem beginning to glow indicates something has gone wrong, and results quickly in a lockdown and further sweeps for magic.

An exceptionally famous and prolific tomb robber owes a big portion of her success to the smaragdine golem she purchased several years back. Many of the tombs and crypts she explores have all kinds of magical traps in place that she directs the golem to strip away, rendering ancient glyphs of warding and symbol spells inert and useless and redirecting the absorbed power into the more active defenders.

#D&D #DnD #Dungeons and Dragons #5th edition #D&D5e #Tome of Beasts #Kobold Press

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reflectionsofacreator · 4 years

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So like. I kinda sat down to write about this one, and I feel like I don’t know what to write about. There’s a lot to write about, but like... [scrubs face] it’s like, there’s a lot of emotional (sledge)hammers with this one, and it’s hard to pick apart so I can actually talk about it. Paralyzed by there being so much, you know?

God writing this one was like pulling teeth, tbh.

Buckle up lads, this one clocks in at over 2k. Mobile users I’m so sorry.

I think the first thing I’m gonna tackle is the name of this one. It’s called The Truth, but in the context of Clay, that previously had an incredibly specific meaning. “The Truth” wasn’t so much a phrase as it was referring to the real truth of the Precursors and the nature of Eve and Adam, and the truth of humanity as a whole. Historically, every mention of “The Truth” around Clay refers to that specific idea, and now we have a new thing that uses the same name. It’s kind of interesting too, because the Truth that Clay shared was very explicitly something he was giving to other people, after learning about it for himself. And in this case, this is Truth that he’s being given, either about his situation, or the situation of his successor.

This memory opens up with a doctor and Warren Vidic talking, after the episode that Clay had with the Bleeding Effect, and the doctor makes mention of Clay having been here a year already. He administers a medicine that’s actually an anti-psychotic, as a way of trying to stabilize Clay’s deteriorating mental state. There’s no guarantee that it’ll actually work, is the issue, mostly because the Bleeding Effect isn’t exactly a well known mental condition, and what everyone knows about it is simply what they’ve found out via the Subjects. Which is a very small group of people. I do wonder, though, about the Bleeding Effect as a .. hmm, genetic thing? It’s seeing the memories of your ancestors superimposed over your own perception of the world, and it’s implied that it’s because of the Precursor DNA that you can even have that happen, because it’s linked to Eagle Vision. Or at least, that’s what I’ve gotten so far, I could be completely wrong.

The conversation with the doctor gets shooed away in favor of a conversation between Clay and his father, and like. I really wonder at the timing of it, if it’s supposed to be a conversation that Clay had while he was in Abstergo. It’s possible that it was a conversation that happened before Clay got sent in, but he sounds too resigned and weary I feel like, to have it happen outside of his imprisonment. Another reason why I feel like it’s after is because the last conversation we heard with Clay and his father was during the Bleeding Effect, when Clay was telling him about the Assassins, and things dissolved into a fight when Harold made it about money. This conversation feels like it’s a while after that, after Clay’s resigned himself to not being able to really convince his father of anything.

Before Clay dives into the mainframe, there’s another glitch, which causes your controller to rumble. The screen goes noisy, and what shows is an exit at the end of a long walkway. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen glitches or hallucinations, but it’s freaky literally every time.

We watch as Clay starts to hack through Abstergo’s systems after that, and the actual design of “going into” the mainframe is covered in a dozen different firewalls. It’s a neat sort of visual way to show just how hard Clay’s hacking is, as well as how many firewalls there are, because if he gets caught, he can get killed.

Right before he goes in, on the right side of the “mainframe” is a code cipher.

This is a Caesar cipher with an alphabetical shift of 3, and it reads "Lucy, she Is aLways behind You." The capital letters spell out LILY -- traditionally lilies were associated with death. Now, you could interpret this as “Lucy’s got his back, she’s his teammate.” Which like, maybe. But with the addition of the word lily, and knowing that Lucy betrays him... nah. It’s more like she’s a threatening presence that needs to be watched.

Clay snoops through Vidic’s mainframe and learns that Vidic is specifically after Desmond. Now, we know that this is at least over a year of Clay’s being here, and that Desmond was captured September 1st. What I’m really saying is just how long did Abstergo know about Desmond, and what lengths did they go to research him before they took him? Another question I have is like -- I know ac1 said that Abstergo found him via his fingerprints for his motorcycle license, but just how would that give them access to his genetic profile. Granted, that’s probably some early installment weirdness of ac1, but. (That being said, I remember reading a fic where they made mention of Desmond donating plasma for cash, and that’s how Abstergo found him, which is more believable than fingerprints....)

I also can’t help but wonder like -- what’s going through Clay’s mind as he realizes that the Desmond Miles that Juno spoke of during his Bleed is the next Subject, and his successor? Or is it that he was completely unsurprised because Juno gave him a look into the possible future with the Calculations?

Anyways, Clay finds out what Vidic wants, and excitedly says that they can leave, and we follow the path to see what looks like a broken stone circle at the base of two beams of light.

(The wireframe is just the gameplay mechanic) I have... no earthly idea what this is, or what it could possibly mean. I think this is the only broken structure you see in all the memories, Desmond or Clay’s. It’s vaguely reminiscent of a broken film wheel, but I’m not sure if that’s what it’s supposed to be. But like, it’s so goddamn conspicuous because it’s the only broken structure we find. ls it supposed to symbolize a broken trust, a loss of faith after witnessing the “play” unfold?? .

Speaking of the “play”-- what the fuck. What the actual fuck. Is it supposed to make me uncomfortable? Because by god it did that. The sharp departure from how the rest of the narrative has been told is jarring as fuck, especially because it’s so like, proper. I swear, all that’s missing is like, a slightly off-key oldtimey music track and you’ll have a full blown horror segment. Maybe I’m just being dramatic, but like -- finding the broken wheel when that’s already something weird, having the camera forcibly taken away from you so you can watch this performance. And like, just listening to Warren monologue at Lucy is disturbing as well, for reasons that are hard to articulate.

It’s like -- Meta wise, I know why she’s not talking. Her voice actress, Kristen Bell, had left and didn’t renew her contract (as her contract was only for 3 games), thus not being able to voice Lucy for any further appearances. IIRC, this is actually why Lucy was written to die, instead of simply recasting her, and then they had to scramble to make the “She’s a Templar!” twist work. Jury’s still out if it did or not, but like -- I do appreciate them trying to explain why she defected during her undercover years, but like... Ugh. It still leaves such a sour taste in my mouth, because it’s obviously a writing scramble and not a cohesive narrative that was plotted from the beginning.

For a comparison, Clay’s story and ultimate fate feels complete, it feels alright. Yeah, it’s arguably a worse fate than Lucy, he died twice over, but like. We knew he was dead from the first moment we saw him, we knew that there was only one way that this could really go, a tragedy. There was a clear progression of his story, and the fact that you know how it ends. That being said, I do wonder about Clay’s death as a Subject in ac2, before the plotbeats of Lucy being a Templar were set in stone for Brotherhood. I know that the 20 glyphs in ac2 did talk about how Lucy was there when Clay killed himself, but I kinda doubt that it was in the same context of “she was supposed to save him but deliberately betrayed him due to her loyalties”. I guess what I’m getting at is that Lucy’s story feels terrible due to the writing surrounding it, while Clay’s feels deliberately terrible because that was the point.

Back to my original point of “Lucy not talking”-- while there is a meta reason for it, I kinda want to ascribe a narrative reason, despite the meta outweighing the narrative.

Lucy is characterized by almost never showing the full extent of her feelings or motivations, leaving you to wonder what’s actually going on in her head constantly. Sure, she leaned on Desmond a lot, but there’s also an undercurrent of a power imbalance there, and we always got the sense that she kept more to herself than she revealed. By having Warren talk at her, we’re further kept from knowing just what she felt about all of this, and instead we’re given another glimpse of the strange relationship that Warren and Lucy had.

Warren was her boss, but also her superior in the Templar order, and the man who saved her life from his own company. Back in ac1, Lucy recounts to Desmond how she was attacked in the middle of the night, going to be silenced by Abstergo so she couldn’t talk about the Animus, only for Warren to save her life by telling the men to stand down. The assailants were people that she interacted with every day, even ate lunch with. This is after she’d been with Abstergo for a while, and finally feeling like she was being taken seriously with her work (as well as her undergrad thesis/work) she was going to be killed to keep quiet. We don’t actually know why Warren saved her, but it’s my firm belief that that’s when Lucy changed alliances to the Templars.

However, I do wonder about the confrontation between Lucy and Warren at the end of ac2, during the credits. I know, I know, her being a Templar wasn’t really a thing in ac2 (I think), so therefore you have to take it all with a grain of salt, but like. The conversation here brings attention to it, where Warren tells her “Make sure you look very upset. You need to be convincing.” And I can’t help but wonder if Warren and Lucy ended up trading insults that hit way too close to home in order to further the deception... It wouldn’t be hard to pretend to be hurt if she actually was hurt by what he said, y’know?

I think the last thing about Warren’s speech that really bugs me is like -- he tacks on the whole “Oh, yes. Once inside their hideout, perhaps you might ask the Assassins why they left you alone for so many years.” And like. That just gets under my skin in a lot of ways because like-- he’s got a point, the Assassin’s methods are Rather Horrible™ with how they completely cut her off for a deep cover mission at seventeen (no I will not ever be over that), but the way he says it just. He’s clearly manipulating her to entrench her further onto his own side, and I just. Ngh. I kinda wonder if the delivery of the line was intended for the audience rather than Lucy herself, because she already knows all this, and for him to bring it up feels like an insult to her intelligence. It feels kinda slimy in a way that I can’t really describe. Or maybe it’s just because I just do NOT like Vidic.

There’s also the question of like, how did Clay see this -- this is all dramatized for the sake of us, the audience, but did he watch this via video feeds or something??? The thought of him watching Lucy and Warren talk about his successor is kinda jarring tbh. Also this throws a wrench into the ending of ac1 (though tbh what DOESN’T throw a wrench into ac1) where they were going to dispose of Desmond only for Lucy to intervene. Is it because Warren and Lucy were operating on their own project that wasn’t exactly approved by the Templar higher ups?? Or something??

This whole memory says that Desmond was their goldmine for the amount of genetic information he held, so why would the higher ups -- wait. Unless the whole thing was a ploy by having Lucy speak up in “defense” of Desmond in order to get him to trust her some more.... Hrm.... Granted that fits, it’s just a sort of way of re-contextualizing the ending of ac1...

Waves hand anyways Clay finds out about this plan for Lucy to gain Desmond’s trust and give them the data, and then we finally have control again. There’s this sort of distorted error noise, and the red blocks start to fill up the room, threatening you as they force you closer and closer to the screen, which only shows a picture of a door with a strange symbol on top of it.

This is the symbol for 3 Juno, an asteroid in our solar system that’s the 11th largest, and contains 1% of total mass of the asteroid belt. It was discovered September 1st, 1804, by Karl Ludwig Harding, and initially considered to be a planet, along with a few other asteroid/dwarf planets at the time. It was given this symbol, ⚵, like how Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter all have their own symbols.

Aside from the obvious “hey that’s Juno, she’s the big bad of this shit”, there’s a couple things that stood out to me. The date of discovery, September 1st -- that’s the same date that Desmond got captured by Abstergo, gives me pause. I’m not sure if it’s something that was intentional on the dev’s part, or if they were just looking for a symbol that would represent Juno. Either way, that’s enough of a coincidence that it makes me feel unsettled, the same way that Lucy was bothered by the date of the satellite launch being 72 days away. It might just be an honest coincidence, but considering that this is Clay we’re dealing with... nah.

Another thing that the AC wiki told me is that this is also the symbol for the Instruments of the First Will, an in-universe religious organization that worships the Precursors, and specifically Juno. Now, this organization doesn’t actually appear until at least ac4 Black Flag, and continues on all the way through Syndicate. This is more like an early bird cameo than a full blown reference, as we still have to get through ac3, But it’s still interesting to point out and look at, and wonder what’s going on with it all.

Anyways, the door itself is actually part of the screen, and impassible, and it stays that way as the bricks come closing in, chasing you. It’s really tense tbh, with this feeling of claustrophobia on top of the revelations you were forced to watch. It also doesn’t help that like. You had control wrenched away from you so you could watch the conversation, and the speech was long enough to lull you into maybe putting your controller down to watch, and then with a rumble you suddenly have control again and are being chased towards a door that doesn’t open.

The picture of a door becomes an actual door after the blocks get closer and closer, and we break through into the light, and onto memory 7.

If you like what I do, or want to see any other sort of analysis, consider buying me a ko-fi!

#Lucy Stillman #Clay Kaczmarek #Assassin's Creed #fuck it this goes in the main tag cause i'm proud of it #i'm so fucking sorry mobile users #motherfucker unlimited #creator plays ac rev #creator plays ac lost archive

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thedinanshiral · 4 years

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Magic, mages and more

If you’ve played the Dragon Age series you’ve probably noticed some differences here and there. Origins was heavy on tactics, something Inquisition lacks considerably, and Dragon Age 2 allowed for blood magic, which Origins had little of and Inquisition barely mentions. All lore aside, we can experience magic in Thedas more closely through our mage companions in each game ( or your character if you chose the mage class).

First, i’ll discuss briefly how magic spells have changed throughout the games, then i’ll analyse a mage pattern and how it broke. And finally i’ll entertain some future over the top possibilities.

Origins and DA2 were designed primarily to be played on PC, and we see this more clearly on Origins through its tactics-heavy gameplay. Spells in Origins are more suitable to a carefully planned combat strategy, with passive and status-inducing spells presented in a variety that didn’t survive into the following games. DA2 also allows for tactics but the combat system is more dynamic, it’s not necessary to pause/unpause 5 times per second, one can do battles in real time and as a result spells were considerably reduced, prioritizing active/offensive spells, and almost entirely eliminating status-inducing and supportive spells.

Unlike its predecessors, Inquisition was way more console-friendly and all but eliminated the tactics system from Origins; now combat was fast, direct, with a tactical screen capable of basic commands and overall limited, and spell trees were reduced to the bare minimum, with elemental attacks, and very few defensive spells, having completely eliminated healing.

So, in short, summonings disappeared after Origins, as did most of the Creation, Spirit and Entropy trees. By Inquisition, none of the glyphs or hexes survived. Some spells icons from DA2 reappear in Inquisition, but most from Origins never made it past it, and some spells changed name or spell tree between games. There’s a gradual simplification of spell trees from one game to the next, adjusting combat to a more straightforward style, with less support or status-inducing spells and an increasing concentration of active spells with enhancing passive ones. On the other hand, Healing all but disappeared from Inquisition spells, “spirit healer” not even surviving as a specialization, with the only healing spell available being Revival which as the name implies you can only use on an already fallen party member. Surprisingly, Dispel made it through all three games staying in the same spell tree, Spirit, and elemental spells remained the same across all games, with minor changes.

Now let’s take a look at all our main mage companions.

In Origins we have Morrigan (apostate, shapeshifter), and Wynne (circle mage, spirit healer, vessel for spirit of Faith). In DA2 we have Merrill (dalish, blood mage), and Anders (former circle mage turned apostate, healer, vessel for spirit of Justice/Vengeance). In inquisition however we get three mages: Dorian (Tevinter pariah, pyromancer, necromancer), Vivienne (circle loyalist, icemancer, knight-enchanter) and Solas (apostate, electromancer,rift mage).

Just in case the pattern isn’t clear enough..In both games we get an apostate and formally educated and trained mage, a mage who lived in the wild and a mage who lived in cities, a mage who dwells in obscure or forbidden magic used for offense and a mage dedicated primarily to healing and support, a mage who deals in dangerous magic but remains their own and a mage who despite dealing in safer magic harbours a spirit within (by Chantry dogma, an abomination).

This pattern is broken in Inquisition; while we still get an apostate and a circle mage, we also get a mage that while not from the circle still isn’s technically an apostate (Dorian), we also get no healer but we do get a mage that specializes in obscure magic (necromancy), and we don’t really get a mage that has lived in the wild but one who’s lived outside of Thedosian society (Solas, being who he is and having recently woken up from the longest nap ever). And instead of getting a mage sharing their body with a spirit of the Fade, we get an ancient elf who secretely is an elvhen god and the creator of the Veil. Solas breaks the pattern (as well as everything else, apparently).

I’ll focus on Inquisition from now on and leave Solas for last.

Auto-level evidences the default element of choice of each mage. Solas is an electromancer, Dorian is a pyromancer, and Vivienne is an icemancer. Dorian preferring fire makes sense as a Tevinter who constantly complains the South is cold, implying his homeland has a warmer weather he sorely misses. Vivienne choosing cold spells goes perfectly with her personality, presenting herself as an ice queen.

Here is where it begins to get a bit tricky: Specializations.

Dorian’s is Necromancy, which would make a lot of sense...if he was Nevarran. Being a Tevinter it’d make more sense for him to be a Blood Mage. But Origins and particularly DA2 already exposed blood magic, painted it in all its evil colours, made it pretty clear it’s the wrong kind of magic to use for all the dangers it entails. By the time we get Inquisition, we face an actual Magister Siderial and Tevinter is painted as this degenerate empire full of evil blood mages, so getting a blood mage specialization was out of the table. Therefore our Tevinter ally got the next most questionable line of magic, necromancy. Because nothing says “almost evil” as raising up the death to fight for you and draining lifeforce from your enemies.

Next we have Vivienne who specialises as a Knight-Enchanter (KE). She’s a Circle mage, a Loyalist at that, and KE is a path reserved for Circle mages allowed to engage in combat when requested. But we learn from Solas that the powers used by Knight-Enchanters have their origin in the Arcane Warriors of the ancient elves. Vivienne has no known connection to anything elven, so her being able to become a KE is just another example of the cultural appropriation of elven elements and knowledge done by humans and the Chantry.

None of the specializations are entirely new, as already stated KE takes from Arcane Warriors, much of the Necromancer tree comes from the previous games’ Entropy trees, and the Primal and Force trees lend some spells to the supposedly brand new Rift tree.

Then there’s Solas, who is the default Rift Mage once specializations become available. The Rift spell tree is a post-Breach occurrence, as it was developed by mages studying the Breach and resulting rifts that appeared all over Thedas. It should have unique spells yet it recycles old ones: Stonefist no longer deals physical damage as it did in Origins and DA2 when it was in the Primal tree and meant hurling rocks at the enemy, but spirit damage as it now involves summoning a boulder directly from the Fade. Similarly, DA2’s Force spell Fist of the Maker and subsequent upgrades, Maker’s Hammer and Maker’s Fury, described as “slamming enemies into the ground” with some invisible force became Veilstrike in the Rift tree of Inquisition, there described as “smashing nearby foes to the ground” by “recreating your own fist from from the essence of the Fade”.

Knowing what we know about Solas, his specialization makes sense, he’s responsible for the Veil’s existence so of course he’d know how to manipulate its properties. He’s Fen’Harel, after all.

Still with me? Good, because this ride is about to get bumpy.

As the default Rift mage he can use Veilstrike, recreating his “own fist from the essence of the Fade”, but Veilstrike is actually a rename of Fist of the Maker…So what Solas is really doing whenever he casts Veilstrike is casting the Fist of the Maker. By recreating his own fist..It’s all in the name. Fist of the Maker pre-dates Rift magic, but its rebranding as Veilstrike is post-Breach and named after the Veil and not the Maker, possibly because the one who introduces us to this particular spell now is not Andrastian but the ancient elvhen god and creator of the Veil. Technically speaking we could say Solas, having created the Veil ages ago and therefore being the one responsible for the present reality of Thedas, is then, in a way, its maker. It’s a wild idea, I know, and there are some bits of lore scattered around that could support it, but i’m not jumping into that abyss yet-

In addition, let’s go back to his auto-leveled spells. At first sight there’s no basis for Solas being an electromancer. But like his Rift specialization, his magic preferences are lore/plot oriented. To consider:

Solas prefers the Storm tree. Skyhold is, by its very name, the place from where the Veil was installed. Some codices found at Skyhold mention electricity being used in unknown rituals at Skyhold’s location. Solas was responsible for creating the Veil.

With this in mind it can be concluded that Solas has always been an electromancer, and even used his electric powers in some way to help put up the Veil in the past.

tl;dr Solas was originally an electromancer and is a Rift Mage because he created the Veil and knows it better than anyone else. Also, he may be the Maker. (loljk or am i)

Now what would you say if I told you Solas possibly also does blood magic? Too much of a stretch? Maaaybe..Except maybe not. He’s not against it, thinks of it as simply a means to an end, and doesn’t disapprove of it unless it’s done in excess for all the wrong reasons (as they do in Tevinter) or is used to limit freedom like when used to bind unwilling spirits or control people’s minds. It’s just an idea, but there must be an explanation why blood magic and lyrium (titan blood, so, still blood magic) can be used to tear the Veil open. The Magisters did it before, and a second time when Corypheus sacrificed Divine Justinia in a ritual that also involved...Solas’ Foci. That is, Fen’ Harel’s Foci.

From Tevinter Nights we learn Solas is after the red lyrium idol (again, titan blood) which he claims belongs to him and is a necessary element for the ritual he must perform to take down the Veil. A ritual for which he’s willing to destroy Thedas as we know it, regrettably causing the dead of thousands. For all we know, those deaths are a necessary sacrifice because they are part of a massive blood magic ritual, Solas’ own death may also be part of it. If the blood of a Divine could be used to open the Breach, what could the blood of Fen’Harel be used for?? Solas’ new powers as Fen’Harel are, frankly, terrifying*, and he’s decided to do whatever it takes to see his mission through, sadly.

And all this leads me to future possibilities..we can imagine with Solas actively trying to take down the Veil there will be places where the Veil gets super thin or begins to disappear. Pockets of space where reality no longer respects natural laws of physics or logic. The Fade is fluid, ever changing, with the right power it can be reshaped at will and i imagine some of that may begin to leak into the physical world, so we may get mage (or spirit! )companions with skills capable of taking advantage of that.

Lastly, i may add, right now and as far as we can see, Solas is OP as fuck*. He can kill you in your sleep from within your dreams. He can turn you into stone with just thinking of it, which means in a way he can bend the laws of nature of the physical world like he can do in the Fade, If in the future we get close to him,if we get our hands on artifacts or intel.. it won’t because we gathered the right people and resources, it won’t be because of clever tactics and espionage, it won’t be at all because we did anything right. It’ll be because he allows it, because he let us get that far.

If we stop him at all it’ll be because he wants to be stopped.

(Apologies in advance if some of this is poorly written, i revised it so many times words no longer look like words. Also half of this is just wild speculation on my part and nobody has to agree with me, after 5 years i may be connecting imaginary dots but hey, it’s fun! If you read this far...i am so sorry, thanks)

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #solas #spoilers #tevinter nights #magic #fen'harel

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shera-dnd · 5 years

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Remember Me

So this came from an interesting little conversation on the Glitra Discord and now I turned into a fic

I know the action itself isn’t very detailed, but I kinda just wanted to focus on the ANGST!!!

Also I’m considering what I should write next. Do I write the fluffier follow up to this or do I just write some good clitra? I’ll think about that later, for now enjoy this mess

They were tired of fighting, of arguing, of losing, of being alone, that is why they were being so nice to each other right now, that is why they were so open, why they were always touching, always so close, at least that is what Catra told herself. They were tired and alone and that was the only reason why. It didn’t matter how much she questioned herself every time she woke up clinging to Glimmer and feeling more well rested than she had felt in months.

It had started with a touch. They didn’t talk much for these first few days, all they did was cry in their own corners of the cell, until someone reached out to someone, until a hand reached for a shoulder. They still cried, but at least they didn’t cry alone.

Those first days had been difficult, but things had grown a little better by now. Glimmer may have lost her sparkly magic, but she still had Weaver’s spells. Catra may have lost...a lot, but she could still fight, they could escape this, they just needed a plan.

“New plan then” Glimmer offered for the nth time that day and Catra rolled her eyes, expecting another suicidal plan “What if we sabotage the engines and crash the ship into the planet”

“We would die” Catra sighed and shook her head, though she continue to lean against Glimmer’s side - she hardly left it these days - “Painfully” she added

“I can teleport us out” She remarked

“With what magic, Glimmer?” She asked, tired of having to be the voice of reason every time.

“Once I get in range of the Moonstone I should get my magic back and teleport us both out” She explained “I’m sure of it” Catra got up so she could look Glimmer in the eyes, but still refused to let go of her. As if she would disappear as soon as they stopped touching

“How?!” Catra asked, her voice louder this time and carrying more than a little worry “How do you know we won’t just get ourselves killed?” ‘get you killed’

“I just know it. Trust me on this okay?” She pleaded “We can make this work” She clung to Catra too and gave her a reassuring smile.

“Fine” Catra sighed, unable to argue with her “But we still have an army of hordaks between us and the engine room” Catra reminded her. They had used a spell to scout around the ship and no matter where they looked, Prime’s armies awaited in number.

Glimmer pondered this for a moment

“We need a distraction” she declared “One of us starts trouble and gets Prime’s attention and the other uses the distraction to sabotage the engines. Even if one of us gets captured distracting them, as soon as we get close enough to the ground I can just get us out of here”

“Yeah, one small problem there” Catra started, still not completely sold on this “Prime can read minds, remember. If he captures one of us the other is doomed”

Glimmer groaned. Another plan scrapped. At this rate they would have better luck just waiting for Adora and the other princesses to show up and save their asses, it was not like either of them had much pride left to take a hit anyway, but Catra still hated the feeling of having to be saved. There had to be a way to make Glimmer’s plan work, even if Prime got them, maybe if they got him to send his troops somewhere else, but how could they trick-

“How much did Shadow Weaver teach you again?” Catra asked, her voice and body tense now. She didn’t like this plan, but it could be their best chance.

“I got a hang of most of her spells” Glimmer answered, a little confused by the sudden question

“What about memory magic?” The words felt heavy in her mouth

“I’m not gonna just rewrite your memories like that, Catra”

“You just make me remember a different plan and then when Prime catches me he’ll send his troops a completely different way” Catra explained, she knew Glimmer would hate this idea as much as she did, but it was the best chance they had, so she left very little room for argument “it’s either that or hope your friends show up soon and save the day, but I’m pretty sure they got their hands full on the surface”

Glimmer took a deep breath. This was not something to be done on a whim

“Are you sure about it?” Glimmer asked, her voice was firm and her eyes looked deep into Catra’s. Catra flinched under the intensity of her stare, she was pretty sure of her decision a second ago, but now her uncertainties had returned full force. Still she nodded “You know that if I do this you…”

“I’ll believe you’ve betrayed me and left me to die” Catra completed, too aware of that fact “We’ll just have to live with it until you set my memories back”

“Catra, I can’t-”

“Yes, you can and you have to!” Catra interrupted, this was their best chance out of this shithole. She couldn’t just leave Glimmer trapped here forever, she had to do something “Just get it over with so we can both get back home” So Glimmer could back home, Catra didn’t exactly have one to return to anymore.

Maybe she could ask Glimmer to rewrite that too. Give her a childhood, make her life happy, make her a good person. That idea sounded more tempting than it should be. She had to focus on the plan, foolish dreams could wait for now.

“Fine, I’ll do it” Glimmer answered, sounding dejected. Glimmer approached Catra and held her face in her hands, it was soft and tender touch, yet it brought no comfort “Ready?”

Catra nodded.

___

Catra wiped away the stream of tears from her face. That was odd, she didn’t remember crying. Well, that didn’t matter, what mattered now was preparing for their big escape. Just book it to the escape pods. They didn’t have to know how to pilot those, just jump in, hit a button and hope for the best. It was a simple plan, but so much could go wrong. Catra had been stuck with a feeling of sinking dread as she considered more and more ways this could fail.

“Glimmer” Catra eventually called. This was a stupid decision, but not the worse she’d make today, she was sure.

“Y-yeah?” She asked, her voice weak and tired. Did Catra miss something?

“I…” Catra started, the words getting caught on her throat “If we don’t make it”

“We will make it, Catra” Glimmer assured her, holding her hands.

“But if we don’t” Catra began moving closer to Glimmer “I just want you to know that I-” Glimmer seemed to pale, visibly flinching back and letting go of Catra’s hands

“You can tell me when we’re out of here” She interrupted, too fast and too loud. Catra immediately regretted that stupid decision.

“Fine then” Catra sighed “Ready when you are, Sparkles”

In a few moments they were both running through the corridors of Prime’s ship, running away from all his clones, dodging lasers and doing a lot better than Catra expected. This plan could actually work. That was until Horde Prime showed up.

His presence seemed to make the clones more coordinated, her aim more precise, he issued no command and fired no weapon, but just by being there things had taken a turn for the worse. She dove around a corner to get some cover and landed on top of something very soft.

For a second it was if time had stopped. Laser bolts froze in the air as Catra’s brain processed how close she was to Glimmer just now. Sure, she had been close to Glimmer nearly every moment since they arrived here, but never like this, never with their faces this close to one another. It may have been the adrenaline or how fast her heart was beating or the risk of imminent death, but right now Glimmer looked almost mesmerizing.

“I’m so sorry” Glimmer said, holding back tears. Catra hadn’t noticed the hand against her chest and the glyph that had formed there. Next thing she knew she was sent flying right back into the clone army. A boot holding her to the floor as she watched Glimmer leave her behind.

No no no, please no. This can’t be happening, this can’t be real, not again, please! This has to be a dream, please let this be a dream.

She felt prime lifting her up, followed by the terribly familiar feeling of someone prodding through her mind. She didn’t care anymore, she was too stunned to fight back.

“Such a foolish little plan” Prime mocked “Take her back to her cell and send troops after the other one” He commanded.

Of course Glimmer had left her, Catra thought to herself, she just needed someone to use as bait for her plan, she just needed an emotional play thing so she could feel better about herself again. Catra was just a complete idiot for thinking Glimmer ever even gave a shit. Catra was just another fucking tool once again. Why did she ever believe otherwise?

Catra was flung back into her cell, making no effort to get off the floor. That was it, there was no way out anymore and no one would come back to save her, all she could to was lay there and cry, cry until there were no more tears, cry and scream until she forgot how to feel anything else but this misery and hate that filled her heart.

A bright flash of pink surrounded her and she clawed at it frantically. Glimmer was sent flying against a back wall, with a cut on her arm. Before she could react, Catra was already on her, wildly clawing at her.

“Why!? Why!? Why!?” She screamed, punctuating each word with a swipe of her claws.

“Didn’t-’” Glimmer began, but a cut to the face shut her up. Catra didn’t care why. She just wanted her to pay.

“I trusted you!” cut “I cared for you!” cut “I thought you were my friend!” cut, cut, cut.

“Didn’t know you had it in you!” Glimmer shouted and Catra stopped, memories came rushing back as the trigger phrase dispelled the magic in her mind. What had she done?

“Glimmer!” She called, jumping back at the sight of everything she had just done “I didn’t...I didn’t mean…”

“It’s okay” Glimmer assured her, even though she was shaking and her face and arms were now covered in bloody cuts “Nothing Adora can’t fix” She put a hand on Catra’s shoulder and in a flash they were back in the Whispering Woods.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry” she kept muttering as she held onto Glimmer. Still in shock after all that had happened. She knew now that her betrayal wasn’t real, that it was all an act, but it still stung, she still felt the pain of being thrown away by another person she loved.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. I promise” Glimmer repeated softly, with a shaky smile on her face and tears of pain in her eyes. Catra did this, the guilt adding to the turmoil of emotions inside her, she felt like she was about to vomit. Noticing the struggle on Catra’s face, Glimmer moved closer to hold her “Everything is gonna be fine. We’ll just go back to Brightmoon, Adora will heal me and everything is gonna be fine” She assured her.

“Please, never do this again, please” Catra pleaded, barely holding back her tears

“I promise” Glimmer said, holding Catra close. She flinched at the pain, but still held her as pink light enveloped them “I’ll never leave you again”

And with flash of sparkles, they were both finally home.

#glitra #catra #glimmer #spop spoilers #spop #shera #fanfic #ANGST

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rwby-grimm-guardians · 3 years

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RWBY Grimm Guardians Arc 2: Beacon’s Fragile Light Ch V

Hey guys! Welcome back! This is the fifth chapter of Beacon’s Fragile Light. This chapter marks the beginning of part 2 (which takes place during Vol. 2) of this fic and takes during Best Day Ever.

As usual, please enjoy and give constructive criticism.

ALSO, Arktis will be Willow’s MIDDLE NAME and will prefer to be called by said name until I share Separated Union. And since this is a canon divergent AU, she will be a Weapon Spirit, even when we get to Vol. 7.

Disclaimer: I don’t own RWBY or it’s characters.

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To say that a battle between the Weapon Spirits was inevitable was quite the understatement. Though, unlike their wielders, who were currently in the process of having a food fight against Team JNPR, the Weapon Spirits were having a battle royal as a part of training. Though, they did establish some rules, like not using weapons. That meant they would be fighting bare-handed...and obviously Ember was psyched about it.

Though...she wasn’t too pleased with getting her ass handed to her. “Your semblances are fucking O.P.!” She shouted, only for Summer and Gambol to shrug with their own smirks. Gambol just curled her index finger at Ember, as if telling her to attack the faunus. The blonde just cracked her knuckles, “You’re gonna regret that.” As the two fought, Arktis and Summer just watched, almost as if they were taking bets on the winner.

“Calling it. Gambol’s got this.” The white haired woman said, earning a nod in agreement. “Same.” Summer said, only to laugh as Ember flipped the two mothers off. “Glad to know you two are good teammates, assholes.” The blonde said, though not entirely serious. The red clad woman rubbed her eyepatch in deep thought. She wasn’t sure why the patch was there, though she knew that she felt much stronger when she removed it.

….Though, if it were dangerous, should she risk removing it in battle....?

Biting her lip, Summer hesitantly removed the patch on her right eye. Behind it, there was a black-sclera, silver-iris eye in her right eye socket. Taking a couple deep breaths, the red clad woman walked towards Ember, catching her fist as the blonde swung to punch Gambol. However, it was when she saw the other Weapon Spirits’ shocked reactions that Summer noticed that her speed felt almost instant. “How the hell did you do that?” Ember asked.

“I...just removed my eyepatch?” Summer said, a bit sheepishly as she had no idea that such a minimal action would cause a dramatic change. Though, it did feel...REALLY good. Summer gave the blonde a confident smirk, “You wanna spar a bit?” Ember returned the expression, “You’re on.” As the two collided their fists together, Gambol went over to where Arktis was standing and asked, “Any idea why she feels much more confident now?” The white haired woman shrugged, “Hard to say. All she did was remove her patch.”

The Schnee paused, before saying, “Though...her right eye is definitely that of a Beowulf Grimm.” Gambol’s jaw almost dropped, before looking at the two sparing women in a bit of panic, “Shit, this could be bad.” Arktis raised an eyebrow, before coming to the same realization, “Should we interfere?” The faunus shook her head, “Not yet. As paranoid as we should be, I want to believe Summer can control her instincts.”

“And if it gets out of hand?” Arktis asked. Gambol then nodded, “Then we’ll break it up. Though we should make sure we get that eyepatch back on Summer when we do.” Nodding, the Schnee summoned her weapon form and waited. As expected, Summer and Ember’s fight was getting more and more aggressive, mainly because the blonde was getting excited and the Grimm instincts were influencing the red clad woman.

The fists and legs of the two women clashed very violently, each of them countering blow for blow as the fight went on. After only a couple minutes, Summer and Ember had a few bruises on them. After a few more minutes, they had bloodied knuckles and noses and after noticing this, Gambol nodded. “Stop them.” She said as both her and Arktis went towards the duel that was further escalating.

The Schnee immediately used her glyphes to summon an Arma Gigas, which immediately restrained the red clad woman. Gambol then put her arms around Ember, restricting her as Arktis put the eyepatch on Summer. In an instant, the Rose calmed down, before blinking and looking around. “Um, stupid question, but…. Did I...do something wrong?” She asked, completely confused as to why she was being restrained.

Arktis and Gambol’s jaws dropped. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?” The Schnee shouted, causing the other three women to jump. “You mean to tell me that you DON’T remember what you DID!?” Summer jumped and just nodded, “Kinda….? I...know I removed my eyepatch willingly. Then decided to train with Ember….” The three women waited for the elder Rose to continue, until she said, “And...that’s it.”

After a couple minutes of silence and letting go of the two Weapon Spirits, the elder Belladonna finally asked, “So, what now?” “Might want to make sure that I don’t remove my eyepatch....” The red clad woman started. “Or make sure I only do it under worst case scenario situations.” The other three women nodded, before leaving the room and hitting the showers. If they were lucky, then they’d be the only ones there.

Of course, it wasn’t that simple.

As soon as the four started to undress, their wielders and friends entered the female shower room, talking before their attention turned to the Weapon Spirits. “What the hell did you four get into?” Yang asked, only for Ember to smirk. The short haired blonde raised an eyebrow as she said, “Could ask the same thing, given your clothes covered in food and juice.”

“Ah, food fighting, right?” Summer asked, earning a slow nod from the six teens. The red clad woman then asked, “Was it epic?” Ruby and Nora grinned, with silver-eyed girl saying, “You better believe it was.” While it was faint, Arktis did notice Weiss’ smile and whispered to Summer, “I might tell Weiss the truth about me soon.” The red clad woman nodded with a smile.

“How do you plan on telling her?” The taller woman asked, as Ember and Gambol started explaining what the Weapon Spirits were up to. The former heiress shrugged, “No clue. I do want to do it when we’re alone, so it won’t be too awkward.” Nodding, the two women turned, only to jump in surprise when they noticed their respective masters were right in their faces. “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” Weiss practically shouted.

Arktis and Summer looked at each other as they each raised and eyebrow, before the former STRQ leader asked, “What do you mean?” The younger Schnee pointed at Gambol and Ember, saying, “Those two told us that you willingly removed your eyepatch and somehow went berserk!” The red clad woman’s jaw dropped, followed by Arktis sighing and her other fellow Weapon Spirits laughing when she shouted, “YOU FUCKING SNITCHES!”

Gambol just shrugged, “Consider it punishment for doing something as stupid as that.” Summer’s eyebrow twitched, before Rudy got her attention as she asked excitedly, “Can you please show us it next time?” Everyone turned to the younger Rose, followed by Yang, Summer, and the rest of Team RWBY and the Weapon Spirits paling. Summer cleared her throat, “Um, hun? Don’t you...think that might be too dangerous?”

The two mothers, along with Blake and Yang snorted and tried not laugh as Ruby pouted, “I didn’t mean now! Just when we go back into the field.” Summer nodded, only to laugh as the younger Rose punched her in the arm, “Don’t laugh! I was being serious!” Summer coughed through her fits of laughter, before finally calming down, “Alright. Alright.”

As the four Weapon Spirits, their wielders, and Pyrrha and Nora got washed and got into clean attire, Arktis continued thinking about when she should tell Weiss about her. She had been dead for a long time and now that she was back, she was honestly not sure of how her youngest daughter would react. Would she be happy or emotional like Winter and Klein were? Or would she be angry and hate her for leaving?

As the four women and six teenagers left the showers, Summer and Arktis left the group to see Ozpin, while Gambol and Ember decided to help out with the clean up in the cafeteria as the girls went to their classes. “You alright?” The elder Rose asked, receiving a shrug. Arktis sighed, “Are you worried about how your daughter might react to who you really are?” Summer went silent, before giving a slow nod, “Most of the time, yeah.”

“What should we do? I don’t want my youngest daughter to hate me.” The elder Schnee said, biting her lip and gripping her right sleeve. Summer wrapped her left arm around Arktis, giving her a small hug, “I don’t know...and I don’t want my daughter to hate me either. But I think we should worry about it when they start piecing the puzzle together.” While it wasn’t the answer she had hoped for, Arktis still felt comforted by the red clad woman’s words. It was like Summer was a sister she never had.

As the two reached Ozpin, they were greeted by a very unexpected surprise and guest. “Ironwood?” Arktis asked, only for said man to raise and eyebrow, before his jaw dropped. “A-Arktis Schnee….?” He stuttered, almost like he was seeing a ghost. To be fair, he...technically was. The two women sighed as they entered, before both each shook Ironwood’s right hand. “I’m sorry Ozpin has not told you that I was here.” The former heiress said.

“To be fair, none of us were expecting you.” The headmaster said, receiving a smile from Summer. Judging from the tone of voice, she assumed Evergreen was currently in control. “You are very observant, Summer.” The silver haired man chuckled. The former STRQ leader smirked, “I have to. I remember that I was very skilled in archery back in the day. Arktis needs some advice.“ Arktis just looked at the taller woman, almost to ask “What the fuck”.

“Well then, you came at a good time. How may I help you?” Evergreen asked, offering the former heiress tea. Sitting down and taking the tea, Arktis reluctantly began talking to the headmaster, while Summer began talking to Ironwood. “You’re...Summer? As in Summer Rose?” He whispered, earning a nod. “Yeah…. Brought back to life...somehow…..” She said. “I...need to talk to Qrow about it.”

Ironwood nodded, “Knowing that Ozpin said that you were very close to the Branwen twins…. That might be a good idea. He’ll be here sometime soon.” Nodding, Summer went over to the small fridge and pulled out to water bottles, before giving the general one. After a small cheers, the two drank from the bottles as they watched Arktis and Evergreen’s conversation.

Summer took note that Ironwood seemed unaware that Evergreen was currently in control...and that Arktis seemed glad with Evergreen’s advice.

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And that’s that for now. I leave you to speculate on what Ember and Gambol are going to do after they help with the clean up.

NOI’MTOTALLYNOTSHIPPINGMYOWNOCSOKAYITOTALLYAMBUTDON’TJUDGEMEPLEASE. Anyway, see you next chapter.

#rwby #rwby au #grimm guardians au #rwby fanfiction #rwby ocs #Summer Rose #willow schnee #rwby ozpin #general ironwood #Gambol Shroud #ember celica #yang xiao long #Blake Belladonna #ruby rose #weiss schnee #pyrrha nikos #nora valkyrie

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likeanemployee · 5 years

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The Texts

This all started with these posts check them out it takes places some time shortly after Weiss and Yang reunited with everyone in volume 5 shout out to @osiria-petals, @valasania-the-pale, and @tinybit92 I didn’t follow their comments exactly but the general idea came from them

“Ruby what is wrong with your scroll?” Weiss asked sitting in a nearby chair scrolling through her own device as Ruby’s buzzed incessantly behind her.

“I don’t know” Ruby answered standing to cross the room and check on her scroll “I kinda forgot about it because there was rarely any place to charge it while we crossed the continent and it’s not like I could have used it for anything anyway. So it’s possible, I might have only just plugged it in for the first time in weeks a few minutes ago” she finished grabbing the scroll from where it was charging.

“Only you dolt.” Weiss answered with a shake of her head “but that doesn’t explain why it keeps buzzing”

“I think I’m finally getting all the notifications from while it was dead.” Ruby answered “Nora set me a butt emoji, a text from Ren informing me dinners done, I wonder which dinner, and… wait that can’t be right. Weiss, this says I have over a hundred texts from you and I keep getting more”

The color drained from Weiss’s already white face leaving her a color even the purest of her namesake could only envy as she realized what those messages had to be “Ruby, give me that!” she cried reaching out to snatch Ruby’s scroll the color returning to her face with a vengeance turning her bright red. Ruby dodged back instinctively causing Weiss to narrowly miss her target.

Ruby held the scroll above her head and behind her out of the reach of her shorter partner. “Woah, hey! Weiss, Stop!” Ruby called as Weiss reached up practically climbing on her trying to reach the scroll.

“No Ruby! Those weren’t supposed to actually send just let me see…!” Weiss pleaded before being cut off as Ruby used her semblance to escape the corner Weiss had trapped her in and stopped in the doorway to the room they were in.

“Ruby.” Weiss said as she turned to face Ruby again and drew Myrtenaster pointing it at Ruby. Her tone was completely different it was hard, serious and threatening in a way Ruby hadn’t heard in a very long time. “Give me the scroll” she demanded. Of course, she had no intention of harming, Ruby but she was seriously considering casting a few glyphs and if nothing else the saber emphasized how serious she was. Ruby wasn’t particularly phased by the blade. It wasn’t the first time Weiss had pulled a weapon on her, one of the wonderful things about aura was it meant sparring could be done relatively safely without the need for training weapons which in turn meant that sometimes, especially for competitive individuals like Ruby and Weiss, play fighting could get somewhat…intense. What did effect Ruby was Weiss’s tone and she stared back shocked by the intensity of the demand. Then, suddenly Ruby’s scroll stopped buzzing and she turned it to view at the last message “you have no idea how much you mean to me. I Lo…” the short lock screen notification stopped there, and Ruby turned bright red as she looked quickly up at Weiss

“Ruby, wait!” Weiss called but it was too late Ruby disappeared in a rush of petals. Weiss lowered her blade and looked after Ruby in desperation before shaking herself sheathing Myrtenaster and pulling out her scroll. Her eyes went wide as she saw the last message she had sent “Ruby!” She called again already running after her. She barely made it out of the room before running, nearly literally, into Yang.

“Easy, Weiss, what’s the hurry?” Yang chuckled as Weiss came charging out of the room

“have you seen Ruby?” Weiss asked in a panic

“umm I don’t know I thought maybe I saw her run that way.” Yang said pointing down the hall “Why? What’s...? wait Weiss!” She called chasing after Weiss who went jogging down the hall in the direction she pointed. A moment later both girls found themselves at the entrance of the house. Ren, Nora and Jaune stood, staring out the open door. They turned with shocked expressions as Yang and Weiss arrived. Shortly behind them were Ozcar and Qrow coming to see what all the commotion was.

“What’s going on?” Nora asked loudly looking back and forth between the new comers and the open door.

“Ruby just came dashing by and right out the door. Where is she going? what happened?” Jaune asked with a worried expression

Yang turned to look questioningly at Weiss and the rest of the group followed suite. Weiss stared out the door after Ruby for a moment longer before sighing deeply and addressing the group “I uhhh I think I probably embarrassed her. Maybe something worse but… I’m sure she’ll be right back she probably just you know needed some space to uhh be alone”

“What are you talking about? What actually happened?” Yang asked taking a step closer to Weiss worry all over her face.

“It’s nothing!” Weiss answered defensively “I just… I really don’t want to talk about it ok it’ll be fine I’ll handle this.”

Yang and a few of the others looked a little rebellious but Qrow stepped forward “You’re sure it’s nothing?” he asked

“Yes.” Weiss answered with confidence

“Ok” he responded “Listen we’ve all got things to do. Let’s just let Weiss handle this and go back to what we we’re doing” he turned to leave and took a sip from his flask mumbling an exasperated “Kids” under his breath on the way

They all looked at him for a moment and then slowly started to disperse. Yang held Weiss’s gaze for an extra few moments before finally turning and walking away herself.

Ruby found herself under a tree surrounded by bushes just outside the house they were staying in. She had run about a block before she realized she had no idea where she was going. She also realized that if she wandered too far, she’d never find her way back in the unfamiliar city, so she had turned back. There were just too many people in the house though, there was nowhere she could be alone not for very long anyway and not with Weiss almost certainly looking for her. So, she had found this tree and well hid if she was honest. She wasn’t really sure what she was doing, in fact she knew she wanted to be alone and not much else. She stared at the lock screen of her phone afraid to open it, afraid to read whatever it was the rest of that message said, and what all the others might say. Her heart pounded in her chest with a fear like nothing she had ever felt before. It wasn’t that it was worse, nothing could truly compare to the fear she had felt at the fall of beacon. There was more then enough fear to go around that night, for herself, for her team and friends, and for all the innocent people but all of it was different from this fear. Her scroll buzzed again, and a new message appeared on the lock screen “Ruby, please come back. We need to talk…”. Ruby clicked the small banner in a hurry somehow the anxiety to read this most recent text overrode the fear and before she knew what she did her scroll opened revealing the full text. To her relief Weiss’s message was long enough to hide the previous messages and she ignored them to focus fully on this most recent addition.

“Ruby, please come back. We need to talk. I looked everywhere but I don’t know this city and I didn’t really know where to look. I’m back in my room now. I’m worried about you. Please Ruby just come talk to me I didn’t think you would actually get those messages. I wrote them in Atlas, I was lonely and didn’t really have anyone to talk to and it was just a way for me to vent about everything that was going on. I’m not sure why I sent them to you that way I guess I just missed you and the rest of the team and it felt just a little like talking to you again. But I didn’t think you’d ever actually see them. The CCT was down and you were halfway around the world and I didn’t know when I might see you again. I thought for sure those messages would never send that they would be deleted or disappear or something after all this time I had no idea my scroll would save them this long and I just I really didn’t think you would ever see them.”

Ruby read slowly and carefully taking in every word and then she read it twice more just to be sure she had got it all. Finally, she pulled open her keyboard and started typing

“Is it all true? Did you mean everything you said in those messages?”

She pressed send and closed her eyes leaning the scroll against her face. Time seemed to pass in slow-motion she waited for what felt like for forever before finally she felt another buzz she opened her eyes to see her lying scroll tell her Weiss’s response had taken only a minute.

“Well yes I guess so”

“Ok” Ruby said aloud to herself and took a deep breath before releasing an equally long sigh and scrolling up quickly, skipping right over the message she most wanted to read. It took her a few moments to simply reach the top of the messages she had received but she figured if she was going to read them, she should start at the beginning and there was no way she was stopping until she got to the one at the end.

Weiss pulled out her scroll and looked at the end of her messages once more

“well yes I guess so”

The same words that had been there for almost two hours. She had spent nearly half of that trying to come up with something else to say but there wasn’t anything more to add she had said all she had to say in the first message, and she had answered Ruby’s simple question in the second. She had expected a follow up something more, something she could expand on, but it never came and without it she didn’t know what else to say. Finally, she had decided to wait and watch for a response but no matter how many times she looked those same five words were all that looked back at her. Her thumbs hovered over the phone unsure what to do. It was starting to get late and she was getting really worried if Ruby didn’t come back soon, they would have to go out looking for her.

“Hey.”

She hadn’t heard her door open and she nearly jumped at the unexpected word but she turned in excitement shouting “Ruby!” but her excitement faded quickly, at first she had intended to run to Ruby and embrace her but she stopped herself “I was worried” she said instead “we didn’t know where you went”

“I was fine I was just outside” Ruby answered quietly “hiding under a tree. I just, needed some time and space to…read it all”

“I…” Weiss started but Ruby shook her head and actually laughed

“There were a couple of funny things in here” Ruby said holding up her scroll “You know you sent me something along the lines of “I hate Whitley” 15 times, I counted”

Weiss laughed back “That can’t be true you should meet Whitley he’s the worst it has to have been twice that many times.”

Ruby laughed again “I’ll take your word for it” she answered, and both fell silent smilingly lightly at each other. Weiss moved to sit on the end of her bed and gestured for Ruby to sit beside her. “There were some other messages I liked” Ruby continued nervously “There were a couple I miss you-s, twice you admitted I was your best friend at Beacon” Weiss looked embarrassed at that but Ruby continued “there was a lot about the fall of Beacon and your father, I tried to skip over a lot of that it felt kinda like reading a diary and that felt wrong if you want to talk about it we can but I tried to ignore the stuff that wasn’t actually about me. I almost stopped reading all together when I first thought about it as a diary, but I couldn’t I had to know what you said about me. I don’t know if that’s rude or selfish or what, but I had to know especially about one text, the last one” She opened her scroll and read the message aloud word for word “you have no idea how much you mean to me. I Love every member of team RWBY. You all were more like a family to me then my real family ever has been. I can’t stand it here. I can’t believe I ever could stand it here. I’m leaving, I’m going to come find you. I can’t wait to see you again, all of you.”

There was a pause as both looked at each other and absorbed the raw emotion in that text before Ruby asked “So?”

“So, what?” Weiss asked confused

“You said you meant it all but what did you mean, really?” Ruby asked fidgeting slightly and nervously avoiding eye contact

“I don’t understand, Ruby. What are you asking?” Weiss answered cautiously. That wasn’t strictly accurate she had a pretty good idea what Ruby was asking. In fact she was almost hoping Ruby was asking what she thought she was asking because Weiss had meant what she thought Ruby thought she meant and if Ruby thought what she thought Ruby thought then… Weiss forced herself to stop that childish train of thought it didn’t matter anyway. It may not have been on purpose, but Weiss had already put herself out there first once today it was Ruby’s turn to make the first potentially embarrassing statement.

“Just all the, you know, the I miss you stuff and the best friend things and you love… team RWBY, like family. I guess, you said I don’t know how much I mean to you and I just umm what do I mean to you?” Ruby’s heart was pounding again so hard this time she was sure Weiss had to be able to hear it “Cause it’s just like it kinda sounds like… well that is I mean, I really like you and I think like maybe you know not just like but like, like and I thought maybe it kinda sounded like you meant that you uhh...”

“Ruby stop” Weiss said interrupting Ruby’s nervous rambling and grabbing Ruby’s hands drawing her eyes, which had been looking anywhere except at Weiss, to her. “That is what I meant. I was so upset this afternoon because I was worried if you read all those messages, you’d realize what I was really trying to say. What I was afraid to actually say even when I was sure you would never find out about it. But if you “like” me then I’m happy to say I like you too.”

Ruby stared at Weiss for a moment, still holding hands, as though she wasn’t sure she’d really just heard Weiss but then she made a loud happy screeching sound and tackled Weiss in a giant hug.

“you’re a dolt!” Weiss responded but her voice was a tone of pure joy and she hugged Ruby back as tightly as she could

“Nope!” Ruby replied “you said you like me. You really, really, like me and you can’t take it back!”

“I think I already regret it” Weiss teased “But I wouldn’t take it back for the world.”

#rwby #white rose #whiterose #rwby white rose #rwby whiterose #ruby rose #wiess schnee

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annoyed-galaxy · 4 years

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“I finally touched one of those strange crystals floating around this realm. When I touched it, my vision got blurred and a massive headache crashed over me. It was almost like I was suffering from Arcane Fever.

When I woke up, I was in some building. I went out of the room I was in just to see a bunch of people with robes. I approached one of them and asked where I was. She explained to me that I was in the Hall of the Vigilants. I asked her who she was. She said her name was Viranya and that she served Stendarr, the God of Mercy, in wiping out Daedra.

I was so confused.

I asked her if she was Aeterna because she looked like me: yellow-tinted skin, slanted eyes, pointy ears. She had no idea what Aeterna was or what that meant but said she was an Altmer, or High Elf. She looked at me strangely after that.

After I spoke with her, I roamed around the hall a little bit. The keeper gave me some supplies and asked that I be on my way. I guess they really did not like the fact that a random stranger just woke up in the middle of their sacred hall. Let alone one who asking strange questions like who was Stendarr or what were Daedra.

Stendarr is one of the Nine Divines, the religious entities of Skyrim (the land I was in) and Daedra are basically demons. So I know I’m not on Vyn anymore. Wonder if these entities are just powerful mages like the Light-Born or if they are actual divine beings. Who knows.

After leaving the hall, I went outside and I already hate Skyrim. I hate it so much that I’d rather go back to the Powder Desert in Enderal or even Nehrim!

It’s. So. Fucking. Cold.

I was confused as to why the keeper had given me lots of furs and a tent.

Then I understood as I walked further away from the hall. Nothing in my life has made me hate the cold more than this. I love winter, don’t get me wrong, but Skyrim is the definition of a fucking winter wonderland and I hate it. I barely made it that far away from the Hall before I had to try and set up a little camp.

It took forever to get a blasted fire running, but when it did, I felt better than I had when I first stepped out into this blizzarding wasteland.

As I sat by my fire, trying desperately to warm myself up, I realized that I could not cast magic. Well, the magic that I had known. I also did not have Arcane Fever. I tried casting a small restoration spell on myself and there was no headache involved or anything. I was actually amazed!

I slept through the night, shivering in my little tent, desperately missing Star City and Jespar. I met more people in my first hours in Skyrim then I will ever see on Vyn again. The notion was kind of heartbreaking.

As I woke up, I tried packing up and moving out. But it was so damn cold that I was freezing as I walked away. I tried hurriedly making another camp but passed out.

I woke up in a small camp where someone had a left note saying they stole some money off of me. I was a little irritated but at least they just took my money and not everything else I had from that special realm. Where I woke up, for a second I thought I was near Starling territory because the building I was near was similar to the architecture of Star City. It even had moving stuff and those big metal doors. I couldn’t get in though. It was still freezing cold and I made another large campfire. Then I went out for a little bit and found a fort. The fort, of course, was infested with bandits. Despite my lack of magic, I’ve always known how to use a blade so these guys were nothing compared to what I’ve seen.

Slaying bandits is easy. Trying to get back to my warm and cozy camp while freezing my ass off? Not so easy.

I passed out. Again.

Fuck Skyrim.

This time when I woke up, I was in an actual inn. Nightcaller Inn as it was called. I was in the town of Dawnstar. I managed to get some food, warm up, and relax a little bit. I asked the innkeeper about where I might be able to learn about magic. He explained that magic is frowned upon in Skryim and that the few places I could learn about were at the College of Winterhold (wherever the hell that is) or through court wizards.

Trying to understand magic in this world was more confusing and taxing than it has ever been for me in Vyn. Maybe that’s why all those Arcanists in the Order were jealous of me. Read a book and bam! Magic learned. When I went to the court wizard, she explained to me that reading spell tomes would take time, that I would have to analyze the glyphs and graphs and everything in between in order to understand a spell. Another thing was that I had to actually analyze spells themselves. What they were made of, how they were made, how they worked. The spells are constructed different in this world.

I asked her if anyone had ever suffered from Arcane Fever and she said that wasn’t a thing. The only thing close to what I described was simple mental exhaustion.

Taking this knowledge, I went back to the inn attempting to try my hand at learning magic the traditional way. I could understand most of these things a little easier since I already knew about magic. Part of me was wondering whether or not I should just stick to my sword and dagger. If one thing as Prophetess taught me, it was that magic was actually fun. I was determined to take advantage of the no-Arcane Fever penalty and have some fun. If I was going to be stuck here, I was going to at least learn some shit. Jespar might find it cool and interesting. That anyone can learn magic!

So far, this world has seemed a lot better than Vyn already (except for the fucking cold!).

Until I heard that nightmares are plaguing the poor people of Dawnstar. Unnatural nightmares. Caused by a Daedric Prince named Vaermina.

I swear...can’t I go anywhere without there being some dramatic ass problem and people reaching out to me for help?! I have my own issues. But...I know Jespar wouldn’t want me to turn my back on people who need help. Calia too. Tharael even.

So, once I’m rested, tomorrow I go with this Priest of Mara who asked for my help to Nightcaller Temple. Skyrim is becoming more interesting the longer I stay.

Wish you were here Jes. Would make the cold a little more bearable ♥“

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Frostfall makes trying to navigate Skyrim much more difficult, but a lot more fun. It adds for an entertaining twist to Clerissa’s journey through this unknown land. I’ll be posting a list of my mods since I’m pretty sure I finally have all of them finalized. Mods like Spell Research are making it more difficult to learn magic but interesting at the same time. It also adds spell crafting from Oblivion back but with a more immersive touch which I liiiiike.

On the next episode of DragonBall Z-wait shit wrong series...

Ahem

On the next episode of Lost Prophetess, Clerissa goes out of her way to find out why people are having strange nightmares. Is the Red Madness a thing even in this world? Or is it something completely different that she has no idea what to make of it.

#clerissa #clerissa the prophetess #clerissa dal'varek #Lost Prophetess #Skyrim x Enderal crossover #alternate universe #tesv #the elder scrolls skyrim #skyrim #enderal #G-S7ME

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razorblade180 · 5 years

Text

Patriarchal Prison

[Schnee Manor]

*the middle of the night*

Whitley:Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Klein:* bust into room* Master Whitley, what is the- oh my....

*room snowing and Whitley incased in ice. Ice rods from his arms connect to the ceiling*

Whitley:*Panicing* I can’t move! W...what is going on!?

Klein:Sir please come down. I’ve seen this before.

Whitley:You what?

Klein:*Walking away*

Whitley:Don’t leave! I need help.

Klein:Don’t worry, I know just what to do. Luckily your sister is home.

*five minutes later*

Weiss:*night gown* Sigh, Whitley what do you-oh! Well would you look at that. You’re sleep freezing *sees snow on the ground* bout time. Winter would love to see this.

Whitley:Sleep freezing? This is normal?

Weiss:Your semblance has finally unlocked. It happened to Winter and I when we awakened ours. It’s just proof you’re growing up.

Whitley:Well how do I get out?

Weiss:hmmm, Klein can you prepare two hot chocolates and bring my sword. Keep the hot chocolate on the stove.

Klein:Right away *leaves the room*

Weiss:*inspecting the him* Are these rods? Pillars maybe? I got to say you really did your room a number ; it’s freezing.

Klein:*hands her sword and leaves*

Weiss:Thank you Klein. *creates a heat wave*

*almost entire room returns to normal*

Weiss:That’s more like. *trying to warm up*

Whitley:*still trapped*Aren’t you forgetting something important?

Weiss:Oh I can’t unfreeze you.

Whitley:What!?

Weiss:*points to glyph under him* That glyph is keeping you like this. Fire dust won’t really work; also I don’t want to burn your room down.

Whitley:*struggling* Are you saying I’m trapped like this!?

Weiss:Until your aura runs out; I can unfreeze you then. But.....

Whitley:But what?

Weiss:You’ll freeze again next time you fall asleep. Only you can stop this permanently by stopping the glyph by yourself.

Whitley:Well aren’t you helpful?

Weiss:Hey, consider yourself lucky. Winter had to figure all this stuff out alone and had to get Klein to smash her jail bars when she went through this. She almost got frostbite bite until she figured it out.

Whitley:Jail bars?

Weiss:That’s what she kept making every night. A small jail cell with our crest on it. None of us made the same thing.

Whitley:What did you keep making?

Weiss:....A bird cage.

Whitley:That’s....random.

Weiss:Not really *somber* Our creations represent our mindsets; the way we feel about father.

Whitley:oh...so her jail cell was...

Weiss:Her way of calling her time here a prison. She only got out when she learned to move past that idea.

Whitley:*examines himself* (I know exactly what I’m in...) Wait, I get a jail cell. A bird cage though, that’s a bit strange.

Weiss:Oh, I guess I never told you huh? Figures, we’re only now starting to get on good speaking terms.

Whitley:Told me what exactly?

Weiss:....The reason I started to hate you.

Whitley:......

Weiss:*takes a deep breath* You may or may not remember this but either way you should know I’m in the wrong here.

Whitley:Okay.....

Weiss:Your fifth birthday was coming up and like any little kid you were excited. *chuckles* I remember Klein constantly had to tell you that lie about little boys who sit still get more presents.

Whitley:*small smile* I remember it didn’t work and I tried sneaking into cellar to see if anyone hid them down there. I also remember tumbling down though steps; hard.

Weiss:*Wincing* You scraped your knee really bad. I ended up picking you up and carrying you back up because “you thought it was shattered.” Always so dramatic.

Whitley:*red* Whatever....I was basically five.

Weiss:You kept crying and crying even after you got patched up. I finally got fed up with it and started singing you a song to distract you. It ended up making you feel better.

Whitley:It was the first time I heard you sing. You caught me by surprise. I remember wanting to hear it again so I- ...... oh

Weiss:When your birthday finally came around you only wanted me to sing happy birthday. I would’ve said no but father was there and you would’ve cried. So I sang Happy Birthday; in front of him, his advisors, and the rest of snobs trying to get friendly with him.

Whitley:That was the first time you ever sang in public wasn’t it?

Weiss:Yep, and they liked it just as much or more than you. I’m typical opportunist fashion, father saw how people adored the voice of Weiss Schnee. By next morning, I’m taking singing lessons everyday. Just so he can use my talent to gain profit; I was basically his little canary. Singing to draw attention.

Whitley:Hence the bird cage....

Weiss:For years I blamed you and your constant whining for things to go your way for my situation. It wasn’t right though; all you wanted was to hear your big sis sing and it’s not like he wouldn’t have found out eventually. I despised you for enjoying my talent like everyone else; I’m sorry.

Whitley:*sigh* I...can’t really blame you. I’d be pretty pissed too in all honesty. We’ll call it even.

Weiss:Even?

Whitley:Your tenth birthday; the fight between mother and father because you wanted him to show and he didn’t.

Weiss:I remember....

Whitley:That was the last day we saw any motherly love. I always blamed you for her phoning it in on us. Even though I probably shouldn’t have.

Weiss:You were eight; of course you’d be upset. I was so upset I even blamed myself over it.

Whitley:Geez, our parents really are something huh?

Weiss:If we can even really call them that.

*both chuckle slightly*

Weiss:I least we had Winter right?

Whitley:*reserved* Actually you had Winter. Too you young to really interact remember? She was already heading to Atlas by the time I actually started to matter to this house.

Weiss:And then I went to Beacon. I really left you all alone didn’t I? *rubs his face* some big sister I turned out to be.

Whitley:Eh I wasn’t exactly being the best younger sibling. This manor really is a prison though; I can’t fault you from leaving.

Weiss:Well I’m here now at least. *smiles*

Whitley:Yeah, you are aren’t you? *smiles* too bad you can’t do anything to help my current situation.

Weiss:Oh yeah, *pulls on Ice rod* still not budging.

Whitley:That reminds me, How’d you open your bird cage.

Weiss:Simple, Winter and my fans showed me something real important. Something you showed me on your fifth birthday.

Whitley:?

Weiss:It doesn’t matter if he profits off of me. I’m using my gift to cause real smiles; that’s something he can never take. Just like that, the bird cage faded.

Whitley:That simple huh? Just owning what you have?

Weiss:Winter realized she didn’t have to be bound by his rules, I took back owner ship of my talents, and you...*looks at him*

Whitley:.....

Weiss:When will you realize you’re not his puppet to control. *looks at the rods* those are supposed to strings aren’t they?

Whitley:It’s easy to reclaim a talent someone uses Weiss. What’s not easy is looking in a mirror and accepting just how much you look like the person you hate the most.

Weiss:.....

Whitley:Everyday is a constant reminder. No matter what I say or do it’s “Just like Jacques.” I can’t stand it

“You shouldn’t have to”

Winter: *walking in with the hot chocolate* People are always gonna judge and compare. It’s important to not let it weigh you down. Or bind you in this case.

Weiss:Winter!?

Whitley:Why are you here?

Winter:Isn’t it obvious? To make sure you don’t freeze. I took a job close to home cause I figured this would be happening soon.

Klein:She rushes over as soon as I called her.

Whitley:....

Winter:*looks around the room* to be honest I was really hoping that at least you would thrive in this house. Guess we’re all sick of his influence.

Weiss:He’s really stuck in there. The glyph doesn’t even look like it’ll stop anytime soon.

Winter:*staring at Whitley* It doesn’t have to. He’s gonna breakout right now. First try.

Whitley:Like that will happen. Even you-

Winter:You’re not me are you? You’re not any of us. You’re Whitley Schnee. You’re more intelligent than I was at your age and more in control of your feelings then Weiss was.

Weiss:She’s right you know? Most importantly though, your leagues better than Father. You might look like him but that’s the only thing. He doesn’t even have a semblance.

Winter:Or the humility to see his own faults. *sips out of mug* He doesn’t even like cocoa. *holds out a mug* what about you.

Whitley:....Honestly you two.... *reaches for mug; breaking the ice apart* who doesn’t like cocoa? *sips* it’s basically the best thing for a cold house.

Winter:See? Completely different in every way. Told you that you can do it.

Whitley:Thanks...both of you.

Weiss:Don’t sweat it. We’ve all been there.

Whitley:I’m guessing it’s time to actually call it night this time....

Winter:Well...I’m already over here and have nothing planned.

Weiss:I’m actually not tired anymore so... maybe we should just spend sometime together. Haven’t done that in years.

Whitley:Klein?

Klein:*smiles* I’ll make more beverages.

Whitley:Actually I was gonna say go rest. We can take of everything from here.

Klein:Why I do believe you can. *closes door* hehehe *looks at an old picture* I do believe you can indeed.

#rwby #whitley schnee #weiss schnee #winter schnee #schneeblings #rwby klein

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