#plus as the story is at this very moment I like jaune more than yang. cannot believe I’m actually saying that but I am | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shirorozutriea · 4 years

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Moments in Time

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Day Six: Moments

Moments in Time

For couples, there were instances that they usually share a couple of personal belongings to them. Shirts, shorts and even the cliché part of everything. The sharing of hearts to one another.

And there’s the sweetest of sweet of everything couples share to one another. The physical touch. Holding hands. Forehead touching. And to the most intimate. But nothing can beat the touch of lips(besides the most intimate) as they keep it sweet and chaste.

Of course, Ruby and Weiss already had their fair share of kisses in their relationship, both before and after their declaration of closeted feelings. The first kiss that they had, was initiated by the heat of the moment celebration of success. It was a chaste and short peck on the cheek by none other than Weiss Schnee.

It was already nearing the time of dawn and our resident runner and fencer are still wide awake in the confides of their room. Both are busy on their work of art, the making of their joint project in the engineering class. They were paired, and albeit both of them accept it reluctantly, they manage to cooperate into making their work. But not without any complications. Bouts and bouts of arguments and touch lashing was done by the two. And inevitably coursing to the point of abandoning one another to make their own, if not for the threat hidden behind their professor’s words they would have already been done on their own.

The two were not exactly the best of friends in their group. In fact, both abhor hatred and rivalry towards the other. In terms of academic and extracurricular activities, both strive to outshone one another. Although at first, Ruby was a bit more understanding on the fencer’s side, the amount of tongue lashing and comments had been enough to sever the little amount of patience she ever had for Weiss Schnee. And it went downhill after that.

But today, and only for today, they both set aside their differences and rivalry. They couldn’t afford to get bested by anyone in the class just because they couldn't stand each other’s presence. They were about to prove everyone that they can work with each other despite the seething anger they have for the other.

“Rose, how’s the Hand working?” Weiss asked as she tinker the base of their work. Ruby grunted. “Bolts. Screws. I need them.”

Weiss handed her the tool box near her and the brunette muttered a ‘thanks’ and began to finish the hand on her side, as Weiss holds a soldering iron in her hands, melting a piece of iron.

“Schnee, want me to paint this?” Ruby asked as she marvel the finished product of her side of work. “How's the base and attractor working.”

“Marvelously, if I do say so.” Weiss replied as she took a step back and looked at the Hand. “Skin tone paint?” Ruby grabbed a spray paint and shook it. “And?”

Weiss took a step near the former and leaned in to see the Hand. “Do you mind if you put our emblem in?” Ruby perked up and snapped her fingers. “Good idea, Schnee!”

After a few more minutes, the finish product was ready to be presented. Weiss smiled proudly at their work, while Ruby grinned, oil and paint decorating her face and clothes.

“A working prosthetic arm. Might a bit farfetched, but not for us.” Hummed Weiss. Ruby chuckled and clapped her hands. “I'd say it’s perfect. You did a great job.”

Weiss felt an immense pride and overwhelming happiness dawn on her. Then her body moved on her own, in the heat of the moment, kissed a shocked brunette on the cheeks.

“You did great too, Rose. As expected of my partner.” Weiss compliments. Ruby, still in the state of shock, could only nod at her.

After all that, in that same day, they passed the project in flying colors. As expected of the two. And though Weiss must have dismissed the heat of the moment reaction, Ruby didn’t and the scene lingered for a long while.

But then, by some miracle of art, the two became exceptionally close. The two were often seen to quiz each other. They often partner up in different projects that requires two individuals and their works were highly praised. For all the remainder of the second semester, the two became completely inseparable. Always seen together, whether it would be going to school and/or eating in the cafeteria. Students swore that they saw the two hang around the plaza and malls. Others suspected that they were actually together. But the two were oblivious.

Then the day of the dance came in. Both prodigies were now in the grand hall of Beacon. First years up to six years were all wearing glamorous dresses and fine tuxes and dancing on the beat of the music. It was a grand ball for everyone attending the academy. The only grand ball that happens after every six years.

Now, if you are wondering what our two prodigies are wearing, well then, take a guess… and if you guessed right, bravo to you.

Ruby was leaning on a post next to a table filled with various delicacies. Her arms crossed above her chest as she observe her sister awkwardly dancing a certain bookworm. The brunette couldn’t help but smile at the sheer adorableness of the two. She had all prepared for the two, down to their clothes up to these dance all by themselves, no interruptions whatsoever.

Ruby then began to adjust the tightening tie on her neck. If no one knows her, she might be mistaken for a guy in a stylish tux. She was wearing a white long sleeved polo with a red vest on top and a white tie, a black suit with red linings paired with black trousers and a pair of black leathered shoes. She looks absolutely dashing leaning on that wall, with girls swooning as they pass by in front of her. But she paid no attention, merely looking up ahead while grabbing a glass of champagne.

“May I join you?”

Ruby looked at the familiar face and she smile, nodding in reply. The girl stood a step beside her and grabbed their own glass. “If you don’t mind me asking, how come you're not dancing with anyone right now?”

Ruby gave her a quizzical look. “Actually, I don’t have a partner. And I doubt anyone would want me to be their partner. Plus, I’m only here to play matchmaker. How about you, Schnee? Any partners?” Weiss quipped, as if telling her that there was no one able to reach her league.

Ruby's eyes roam at the girl in front of her. Weiss was wearing a light blue long gown that hugs her figure perfectly. There were snowflake designs at the hem of her dress and a pair of light blue stilettos matches her entire figure. Ruby noticed the latter’s face were sparkling as if there were glitters in her makeup(which there is). Weiss then took her turn to look and smirked.

“My, aren’t you dashing, Rose.” Said Weiss, Ruby’s cheeks were dusted in pink and averted her gaze. “Same to you. But not dashing… gorgeous.” Weiss blinked at the compliments and smiled shyly, mouthing a ‘thanks’.

Ruby began to feel a little bit bolder, assuming it was the champagne’s effect, she gently took the white haired girl's hand. She looked her in the eye and leaned in to give the slender back of her hand a kiss.

Weiss eye’s widen at the action and Ruby couldn't help but smirk. “And since you don’t have a partner. May I take you to the dance floor, princess?”

Weiss ignoring the nickname, nodded in agreement while clasping her hand on the brunette as she felt herself being gently taken to the dance floor.

The night ended like a wisp of air and a bubble pop. Fast and short. But with good results. Ruby's sister, Yang and her now lover Blake had their night well-spent, as you can see. Ruby and Weiss had their night ended with them feeling more for one another without them noticing. But not until game night of drunken stupor.

Their group had a sleepover during the summer break. Their second year had recently ended and all of them planned a sleepover before they went home to their respective houses outside Vale. The place was on one of the Schnee’s summer house in Vale.

The day went on slowly until it was already night time. The group had decided to spend the night awake until they passed out. And of course, what kind of sleepover is these if there was no games and most of all… alcohol.

Yang and Nora was already on their drunken glory, spouting nonsense and profanities around while holding a bottle of vodka. Ren was already a bit tipsy, but otherwise ready to pass out. Jaune was all and about, sprawled around the floor mumbling on his own with Pyrrha poking him in the stomach. Blake was still up, spouting story ideas, mostly not for children to hear, no doubt it was the alcohol’s influence. While Weiss and Ruby are looking at the bunch with an amused look. Although both are a bit tipsy and already in the influence of the alcohol. Though, out of everyone they are the ones who are sober enough.

Yang looked at the two and grinned mischievously. “Hey, Weissy poo.” She slurred. Weiss looked at her in confusion as Yang hiccupped and draped an arm on her shoulder. “Wanna play a game?”

Weiss blinked slowly. “What game?” She asked. Yang bellowed laughing. “Why truth or dare of course!”

Nora perked up at the statement and shook Blake who’s right next to her muttering her mantra of nsfw plots. “Truth or daaaare… COUNT ME IN!!!” She yelled, her words slurring.

Ruby poked Weiss’ shoulder and the latter looked. “Fair warning, Weiss. Those two are a huge darer. Just, fair warning.” Weiss chuckled. “How bad could it be?”

Bad. Very bad. Weiss ended up drunk and now slurring and dancing to Hakuna Matata. Yang whistled and howled, cheering her on, then began to join her dancing in a conga line.

Ruby, in her tipsy yet sober mind, took a video of the two and began giggling at the sheer dopey scene unfolding in front of her. Who knew Weiss had the guts to dance around like cheery wonder child. Only drunk Weiss would. Once the two was finished dancing, both of them fell on the floor giggling like madmen in a killing spree.

“One last dare, Weissy.” Yang slurred. Weiss grunted in reply and the blond laughed. “Kiss Ruby!!” The person in question guffawed at the dare.

Weiss blinked and stood up grunting in between her teeth, her gaze falling on Ruby who squirmed and fidget nervously at the girl. Weiss took a step forward and Ruby jumped upward, preparing to run away from the white haired girl. Weiss launched at the brunette who yelped and ran away from the latter's clutch with Yang hitting her knee while laughing, enjoying the scene playing in front.

“Ack—Weiss! No, stop!!” Ruby screamed as she ran to the sofa, before falling on the floor crawling as she stood up. Weiss then tripped on the fallen body of Blake Belladonna and took a hold of Ruby’s legs, earning an ‘oof’ from the brunette. Weiss giggled. “Gotcha..”

Ruby visibly gulped at her impending demise.

Weiss crawled towards her in a seductive manner as the runner watched and shudder. Weiss then fall on the brunette’s stomach and nuzzled at her. Ruby stared at the girl. “Uhmm… Weiss?” Her clouded mind began to sober up since the run.

“Warm…” The girl muttered. Ruby blinked at her. She then felt the girl crawl on top of her and she stiffened. The fencer gazed at her in a haze of alcohol stupor.

Weiss then grinned and pinned the poor brunette in the floor. “I have a dare… hic.. to finish..” She slurred. Ruby’s eyes widen and squirmed at the girl's hands to no avail.

A girl in a corgi t-shirt and shorts stole her first kiss.

Ruby gaped at the now passed out figure of Weiss Schnee. The same Weiss Schnee that she used to dislike. The same Weiss Schnee who just stole her first kiss because Yang dared her to.

Ruby didn’t get a wink of sleep after that.

Then the morning came and Ruby went out from that room looking like a stressed panda. And as usual, Weiss doesn’t remember what happened and Ruby was out there gripping her hair in distress. And that was the same day Yang swore to herself to not drink while playing truth or dare, or any other games with her sister around because she swore that she almost got herself skinned alive by her sister.

The year went by peacefully like it supposed to be. They were in their fourth year and everything is the same, well… almost the same. You see, during the duration of their third year, some things just came into light. Just like how Ruby described it, it was like, poof! There it was!

And what changed? Oho, I’m sure you know. Yes, you guessed right.

“I swear there’s something fishy going on with those two.” Said Yang to Blake, as she stared at her sister and friend, Weiss. Blake's ears twitched at the statement and looked at the two. “What do you mean?”

Yang huffed. “Just look at ‘em! You can see the awkward silence and look—there! That distance between them… what is that?” Yang gave the two an incredulous look that had gone unnoticed.

Blake shook her head and observed the two. Okay, maybe she noticed it. But that doesn’t mean it’s that really unusual. She knew that both of them had a rough past, but now that Yang had said it, there really is an awkward silence looming around them.

She looked at Yang and said. “Okay. I noticed. But isn’t that normal, the distance I mean.” Yang looked at her in realization. “Of course.” Blake gave her a confused stare. “Those two are inseparable, at least when they're together.”

Blake pondered for a minute. “Want to talk to them?” Yang grinned at her and gave her a peck on the cheek. “You took the words out of my mouth, Blakey.”

The two approached the awkward athletes. Yang asking Weiss to help her to look for something, and Blake telling Ruby if she would like to run with her. The two were confused, but nonetheless agreed at their friend's request.

Blake and Ruby reached the locker room and grabbed their p.e clothes and changing in the stalls. Beacon’s p.e clothes consists of white shirt with linings of whatever color you wanted, the same with shorts. So now, Ruby walked out from one of the stalls wearing a white t-shirt with red linings and a red short, likewise with Blake, but her shirt had black linings paired with black shorts.

“Ready to go, Ruby?” Asked Blake. Ruby nodded and they went to the field and do their stretches.

Though Ruby is a runner, Blake wasn’t exactly one, though she sometimes participates in the runs of Beacon’s track and field team, with one or two of their members trying to persuade her to join. But Blake was happy running for sweats and exercise.

Blake looked at Ruby as they jogged in a slow pace, cleared her throat before speaking. “Are you alright, Ruby?”

Ruby looked at Blake. “Yeah? Why you asked?” Blake blinked at her, stopping herself from raising a brow. “You are awfully quiet.”

Ruby blinked at her wide eyed, before looking ahead. “You think so?”

Blake let a sly smirk rest on her lips. “Yeah. I could see the awkwardness from a mile away.”

“—and what makes you think Ruby and I are awkward?” Weiss asked as she looked up from a bush. Yang grinned at her and she looked away, realizing her mistake. “I didn’t mentioned any name.”

Weiss scoffed at her and rolled her eyes. “Yang it’s obvious.” Yang continue to grin. “So you did noticed.”

Weiss sighed in defeat and brush a hand in her hair. “Yes, I did. As you would likely put, it can be seen from a mile away.”

Yang smiled at her, before a frown took place. “If you noticed, why didn’t you make a move?”

Weiss leaned back and straighten her body. “Move? What move?” She saw the blond roll her eyes at her, but she ignored it. Yang then sat on a nearby bench and huffed. The ‘thing’ they were looking for long forgotten.

“Why didn’t you try to talk to her? You know, try to ease the awkward tension.” Yang stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“—partially because I don’t know if the awkwardness was coming from her or from me?” Ruby proposed and Blake quirked an eyebrow.

“Coming from you?” She asked. Ruby stopped jogging and her chest heaved a deep sigh. “I don’t know—I don’t know if I can face her…”

Now that caught Blake's attention. She observed how the brunette’s face scrunched in frustration, her eyebrows knitting together and her teeth biting her lower lip. Blake was now curious.

“You know.. you can talk to me, right?” She cautiously replied. Ruby took a glance and sighed, rubbing the back of her head.

“Listen…” She started. “I don’t know.. when this started. It could be on that project we made, or the dance… or—or the sleepover last last year, I don’t know. But I started to notice something… anything and everything from her.. like, she just draws me in… hiss.. I don’t know, Blake..”

Blake listened and Ruby continued. “At first, it was the way she moved around. Did you know that when she’s in a good mood, she would tip her toe when she’s standing, and then back and tip toe again, that kind of stuff. Or when she’s stressed, her fingers would unconsciously drum a tune.” Ruby then walked, trying to clear her thought. Blake followed beside her.

“Then… it turns to noticing her moods in every subtle way. When she’s nervous… she would brush her hair, then she would—”

“—bounce her knee when she’s getting impatient.” Stated Weiss, her gaze rooted in the grass behind Yang. “And more often than not, that knee would hit the table and chaos ensues. I swear the amount of coffee wasted is going to be the death of me..” Huffed Weiss, but a smile was on her lips.

Yang just blinked at the girl in front of her. Never did she once saw this side of her. It was new. And probably, rare. Yang opened her mouth. “Do you like my sister?”

Weiss stared at the blond, though her face was motionless, her ears are bright red and her left eye twitched. That's all that Yang needed for an answer. She mentally smirked at how Weiss was being obvious with her attraction towards her red tipped hair of a sister.

Yang stood up and encircle her arm on the latter’s shoulder. Weiss’ ears turns beet red as she noticed the smirk dancing on the blond brute’s lips. But Yang just gave her a thumbs up and a pat on the back before walking away. Weiss didn’t know if that was a good thing or not.

Weiss followed Yang. The walk between them was silent. Though she took a side glance at the blond and still sees her grinning like she had won a lottery. She was nervous.

And she had the right to be.

In between the conversations that was happening between the two group, Yang and Blake were chatting and devising a plan to get the two closer. And they decided to leave them on a secluded area on Beacon and just hide their way out. And that’s what happened.

Weiss and Ruby found themselves alone in the area without any trace of the two matchmakers. Ruby was nervous. Her toes curling on her shoes. She just observed the white haired girl and she noticed the reddening ears as the time pass by.

Now, Ruby doesn’t know what to do. Her mind was short-circuiting every minute as she stare at the white haired beauty. Maybe she just needed a push. And as if the gods had seen this rather awkward and painstaking moment, a wind passed by and Weiss’ hair flew in front of her face, her ponytail loosing.

Ruby couldn’t help but giggle, then she looked at her and noticed that she was actually close to the latter which shook her. How did she—? Then she noticed how Weiss was struggling to keep her hair away from her face, the wind still blowing. Ruby snorted a laugh and raised her hand to sweep away the snow-like hair, her fingers making way to the tresses and then tucking them with her hand on her neck. Now, both of them are gazing at each other's eyes.

Ruby didn’t know what urged her to do it. But she did it anyway. She leaned in for a soft, chaste kiss. It was… magical. Yes, sounds cheesy, but that’s the only word her mind can eloquently form. It felt like a bunch of fireworks exploding and tickling her insides. But of course, like fireworks, it was short-lived. The two broke the kiss.

“I—I…”

Weiss ran. Ruby was dumbfounded.

Ruby groaned and face palmed herself… hard. “Oh come on. Not again…” But her heart was knocked back from her chest.

Now, Weiss didn’t know why she had ran away. She felt stupid. And embarrassed. But mostly stupid.

Her feet dragged on the dirt as she slowed down her pace and ultimately stopped at the center of the school. She took a sit on the fountain and lamented the fact that she had made a fool of herself by running away from her crush—or was it just a crush? No it wasn't, she knew. Well at first she thought it was a crush, but the more she thought of what it was, the more she knew what it really was. And she was glad! Really, she were. She hasn’t expected it to be her, but it was what she had always expected. Someone who can level with her and actually had patience with her.

Weiss sighed deeply and groaned as her hands met her face. She briefly wondered the sheer idiocy of her actions, leaving the poor brunette alone, probably confused and disappointed—she felt really bad for everything. She just hoped the brunette would find her and kiss her senseless.

“Weiss!”

Speak of the devil.

Weiss stood up as she saw the running figure of Ruby Rose. A pang of guilt etched its way to her heart and she met the latter halfway. The brunette met her gaze as she stopped running, her eyes darting everywhere.

“I-I’m so sorry, Weiss! I—I know.. what I did was wrong. Entirely wrong! I… I wasn’t sure if you even feel the same way.. BUT! I don’t care if you don’t, maybe I do but…” Ruby looked up at her, her eyes glistening. “I don’t want our friendship to fall so soon just because I kissed you and I fell for you because if I’m being honest I already had my eyes on you since the very start and you’re just so gorgeous and also very pret—”

Weiss didn’t let her linger any longer and planted her lips to the other. It wasn't as chaste as the first kiss. It was filled with passion… a much more burning fire being fueled by the thought of feeling themselves closer.

Her hands snaked the taller girl's neck and fumbled with the hair under. Ruby, likewise, slide her arms down to the shorter girl's waist, planting her hands in place as she returned the kiss. Ruby's breath hitched as she felt the slender hands of the girl in her arms tug the hair on her nape. This courage the white haired girl to bit the bottom of her now-lover's lip, the reaction was immediate. Weiss let her tongue intertwine with the other, no sense of dominance in the play, just pure passion. Ruby took her chance to explore the former, and—oh my god she’s kissing her… with tongue!

The two broke their what seems like an eternity of a kiss. The two stared at each other and Ruby chuckled. “I—wow… that was..”

“Amazing?” Weiss suggested. Ruby giggled and pressed the fencer’s body flush to her. “More than amazing.”

Weiss smiled and gave her a peck, before pulling away but the runner followed her for another kiss. Ruby pulled away and smiled. “So… what now?”

Weiss rolled her eyes affectionately. “I believe this is the time for you to ask me out.” Ruby grinned and kissed her nose. “Would you like to go out with me?”

Weiss chuckled and hold the latter’s elbows. “I did kiss you. Which should be an aftermath of the date, but yes, I would love to. To go out with you.” Ruby giggled and hugged the latter. And they stayed like that for a bit longer.

And if you’re wondering if their date went well. It went along swimmingly. And the aftermath of their relationship? It went without any problems for the rest of that year, and only for the rest of that year.

Complications starts to rise. By complications, I mean countless of misunderstandings. Weiss and Ruby both decided to keep things steady by not informing a lot of people about the changes in their relationship. The only individuals who knew about their relationship was Yang and Blake. None of their other friends knew what’s going on between them, and they would like to keep it that way. But as always. Things didn’t go the way they both expected.

During the first two weeks of their fifth year, that was the start. Out of the two prodigies, Ruby was the most popular because of her personality and Weiss was considered, more or less... a bitch. Weiss knew that. The amount of back stabbing was enough proof for that. But it all grew worse when she and Ruby became exceptionally close. She knows that Ruby had quite a fan base, and all of them, well not really all of them, but most wants to just get on her pants. And seeing that she’s so close with her despite being someone that they don’t exactly like, well then, here comes the hate.

Every mail box, her locker, her phone, her desk… and even her bag, was filled with; “Don’t come near Ruby or I will see you in the dumps.” That’s the pg-13 and translated everything, but I will tell you. It's all graphic. Down to the bone, literally.

But she paid no mind. Because, why? If she paid attention and get all riled up, then that means they got into her. And Weiss doesn’t want any lever of interest to be unfold just to get the reaction they wanted. However, all ends when it gets too personal.

You can tell her everything and anything. Be it may profanities or straight up bullcrap. But never, and I mean never, bring her parents up and attack her loyalty to her friends. Needless to say, this got her pretty bad. And what’s worst of all…

“You don’t deserve Ruby's kindness you brat.”

“How could a bitch like you, get accepted by Ruby? That’s ridiculous.”

“Ice Queen. Don’t get your hopes up.”

“Maybe she’s just there because she doesn’t want you to feel alone and sad. I pity you. She's too pure for you.”

“Those friends? Are they really your friends? Or better yet, you, do they deserve you.”

…she believes them.

There was a ring, then none. This got Ruby worried. Weiss never had not answered her calls, nor her friends calls. She looked at Yang, worry was etched in her face. Then, the thunder cackle and lightning flashed.

Ruby made another call.

“The number you have dialed is currently unattended. Please try and call lat—”

“She’s not answering my calls.” Said Ruby. Ruby felt her heart clench in worry. Yang hold her shoulder and comforted her. “She'll be okay. I know she will.” But it did no effect.

They heard heavy and rushed footsteps coming from the stairs. The two sisters looked at the raven haired girl holding a bunch of papers with a frantic look on her face. Blake panted, her chest heaving and she looked at Ruby.

“Weiss.. is.. not okay…” Uttered Blake. Ruby stood in alarm and her hand clenched tightly, her palm paling. “Blake.” Her voice was stern and hard.

Blake panicked and Yang looked at her worried. She never have seen the girl this worried and panicky. Blake's eyes flickered to and fro. Her hands clenched unconsciously on the papers in her hands.

“They.. hurt her. Sent her… this many notes and letters.. I-I should've known… I see the signs and yet..” Blake sobbed. Yang ran to her side and hugged her. “I don’t know… where she went.. but its raining... we have to find her.”

Ruby didn’t need to be told twice as she bolted out of the door, out in the heavy rain. Yang set Blake down in the couch and envelope her with blankets and kissed her, telling her that she will help her sister to look for the white haired heiress. Blake nodded stiffly.

Ruby found herself outside her home and into the rain. The rain felt like knife in her skin as her eyes searched the blurry landscape. Her voice rang, shouting her name, all the while her voice cracking. However, she paid no attention. Her mind is clouded with the thought of her girlfriend hurting while she had no idea of everything that is going on with her.

She searched around, her feet taking her to Oum knows where. Still, there was no sign of the white haired fencer. Her worry increases tremendously. Her eyes began to sting from crying. Her throat becoming parched from shouting. And yet, she still couldn’t find her.

But by some miracle in disguise, she heard her voice.

“Ruby?!”

Her head did a whiplash at the sound of her girlfriend.

“Ruby!!”

Her eyes strained at the blurred image of a girl running with an audible white umbrella in the gray world she is in. She ran.

In a flash, the white umbrella was thrown in the haste and the rain puddles splashed around. Droplets seeped in through the fencer’s clothes, giving in on the chilly breeze, but she paid no mind.

“RUBY!!”

A gasp and splash rang.

The two found themselves sprawled in the asphalt road, the heiress sobbing in the runner's arms. Ruby was also crying. Her heart beating so fast and her breathing gone ragged. She held the shorter girl in her arms tightly, the rain forgotten. The loud rumble of the sky was buzzed out. The lightning dimmed low. But her sobs was clear in her ears.

“Weiss, you’re okay. Shh… it’s okay..” She cooed. She felt the former’s body tremble in her touch. She heard her gasp. “R-Ruby… I’m so.. sorry.” Her stomach churned.

Ruby held her even possibly tighter. “No. No. It’s okay… I should be the one saying sorry..” Weiss pulled away and looked at her with red puffy eyes. Ruby kissed her eyes and tears ran once again as she choke back a sob.

“I felt… defeated.. miserable… but most of all, I felt like.. I don’t deserve any of you.. that I don’t deserve you.” Ruby saw red. She saw the exhausted look on her girlfriend's face and she almost growled. How could they? How could they hurt the most wonderful person that had come into her life? How?

“Don’t be.” Whispered Ruby as she took a hold of the latter’s face. “We love you. I love you. And that won’t ever change. You are the most wonderful thing that happened in my life. You are a miracle that I didn’t thought I would get. Weiss, I love you.”

Weiss bit back a sob and gave her a genuine smile. Ruby was almost blinded at the sheer genuineness of her smile. It was tight lipped, but the end curved upwards. Her eyes crinkle showing her, her own love.

“What did I ever do to deserve you?” The fencer asked. Ruby smiled and tucked her hair on her ear. “A lot, Weiss. A lot. And allowing me to love you is one of them.”

A kiss blossomed under the gray sky. And the sky parted out, light raining through them. The blue skies gazed upon them and the sun blessed them with its rays.

Yang, now with Blake in tow spotted the two kissing under the sun’s rays. Blake smiled at the picturesque scene in front of her. The scene was a sight to behold. Like it had came out from a book or from the movies.

“Are we watching a live-action movie schnee-n?” Yang commented. The two broke away after the comment and looked at the two. Blake rolled her eyes and jabbed the blond. “Don’t ruin it.”

Ruby and Weiss blinked at them and snickered. The bumbleby couple looked at the two in confusion as they laugh, their voice ringing everywhere, and pretty soon they joined after them.

The days after that went pretty chill for them. And the note/letter sending ceased—no doubt Yang had something to do with that. Weiss though, still observes the side glances and glares coming from the Ruby fandom, but other than that, there were no more. Ruby became slightly protective… okay, subtly more protective to her and she noticed that. There were times that the brunette would see the glances on her way and she would glare coldly to those people. Can’t say that she didn’t like that side of her girlfriend.

And everything went smoother than silk after all that. Their relationship strengthen even more and they opened up their relationship with everyone they knew. And by everyone, I mean everyone. Their group of friends were happy for the two couple, and the student body also cheered for them, well, except Ruby's fans of course. But Ruby handled them very well—let’s just say that Yang and Nora were very happy to break some legs.

And of course, Papa Schnee, Jacques, found out their relationship. At first, Weiss was terrified when the two of them were requested to meet the man and Ruby was there to comfort her. And by the time they met him, he just gave them a smile and a nod. Weiss was happy. She literally jumped from where she stood and launched herself to her father's arms. Ruby smiled at the two and promised the father that she would make his daughter happy with everything she have.

Then their graduation came, the two both graduated atop from their peers and Weiss declared their unending love by kissing her wonderful girlfriend full on the lips with everyone cheering and howling on them. The after party though, was another thing. It was their first intimate moment. And up till now, it’s still deeply engraved in their minds.

“Weiss, I love you.” Said Ruby as they sat on their sofa. Weiss blinked at the sudden declaration. It’s been years since she heard those words for so many times, and yet, it never ceased to make her heart do somersaults and her face turning into lovely shades of red.

“What’s with you all of a sudden?” Weiss asked, kissing the crown of her lover. Ruby sighed in contentment. “I just want to say it. I love you.”

Weiss’ heart starts to beat faster once again and she bit the urge to squeal. “And I love you too.” She stated. Ruby looked up to give her a chaste kiss and smiled sweetly. “I know.”

Notes:

Boy, that was long. And I definitely improved a lot from my early works. This, made my day. The amount of detailed describing that I made just to give every moment a feel of what they should feel… I am very proud.

My first thoughts for the prompt was, “Kiss, Kiss, fall in love.”

As you can see, I kinda experimented and explore the depths of writing that I can reach. I did my best.

I want to capture the moments. To give you the feel of it. I hope I did a good job.

So, brief explanation of little tidbits, they first met when they were starting their freshman year in the lab. Since you all know they are pretty smart, they did good on chemistry but someone left a glass tube on the floor and Ruby tripped landing on Weiss. Needless to say, chaos ensues and since then Weiss disliked Ruby. Next, the project was asked by Professor Port, he’s the one handling engineering classes. Duly note that this all were in the course of two semesters of their first year. They spent six years in school. Ruby had a crush on Weiss on the duration of the first week of the first semester, then it all vanished when they became rivals. On game night, there she realized her feelings for Weiss. Weiss realized hers on the duration of their third year. Due to the fact that she’s cold, people call her, not Ice Queen that was Yang, bitch.. they call her a stick in the mud, bitch. And yes, there were death threats. Taiyang knows their relationship since he ship the two, he found out when he caught them kissing once in Patch. Jacques is good, distant but good, he makes amends for the three siblings.

This is the prequel of the Day 5: Nap Time and/or Cuddles. The last moment were in the same timeline as Day 5 before they fell asleep.

#wrw2020 #white rose week #rwby white rose #otp: thank me later #day 6 #bees are still here #moar smooches #KISS KISS FALL IN LOVE #so much fluff #i told you to prepare

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razorblade180 · 4 years

Text

Rosebud part 14

Some days go by fast. Other days go by incredibly slow. For Ruby, it was the ladder. Deep in the woods of Anima she sat on the porch of Ren and Nora’s orphanage with kids around the age of ten circled around her in amazement as she told them stories of her adventures. Each one more amazing than the last until the Sun was setting on the crisp winter day. Funny, she’d never particularly loved the cold but lately it was so inviting. Most likely because she was in comfy sweatpants and being pregnant made her body feel like she was a furnace. The phrase bun in the oven never felt more real. Soon it would be over though. In fact, it would be considered a day over cooked right now.

Ruby:Ok, story time is officially over.

Children:Awwww!

Little girl:But I wanna hear more about the food fight!

Little boy:Yeah! Also how do you ride a locker. I wanna try!

Ruby:Hehehe, now, now, I gotta save stories for later. Plus I bet Ren is almost done with dinner. Don’t wanna miss that now do we?

Children:Okay….

They all slumped down with puppy eyes. Ruby wasn’t naive. She’s seen this tactic; she might as well be the inventor of it. Yet it was working on her!

Ruby:Tell you what, wanna hear the song I sing to my baby? It’s practically one of the few I can actually sing well.

Children:Yaaaaay!!!

Ruby:*clears throat* Dream of anything. I'll make it all come true. Everything you need is all I'll have for you. I'm forever, Always by your si-

The front door opened and Yang came walking out with baby Kovu in her arms. The little guy has gotten pretty big in just about a year. He was wearing a black onesie and enjoying being swayed.

Yang:Ren says dinner is ready for you little ankle biters. You have five minutes to get to the table if you want dessert.

Terror spread on the children’s faces before they ran inside.

Yang:Wash your hands!

Ruby:Look at that. You have one kid and now you know how to master them all.

Yang:I think you’re forgetting who helped raise you. If anything, you’re my first child Ruby. It’s actually very comforting seeing it like that.

Ruby:It’s also emotional and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make me cry. I’ll need all the energy I can muster when this little procrastinator decides to be born.

Yang:Like mother like daughter.

Ruby:Ah! I don’t remember giving you this bedside manner when you were blown up like a balloon. Kovu, your mom is being mean to your aunt.

Kovu does nothing but giggle and wiggles his ears.

Ruby:Fine, take her side.

Yang:He knows better than to upset his food supply. Soon you’ll be on straight solids mister and I can be free.

Kovu looks at Yang for a moment in silence. She’s a bit stunned that he might’ve understood that. Then Kovu starts tugging on her tank top and Yang’s eyes squint at him while Ruby chuckles.

Yang:I don’t think he likes that idea.

Ruby:He’s a simple boy. Boobs are his life.

Yang:Don’t lewd my son or I’ll make fun of….whatever gender your kid is. Why can’t you be a normal person and know ahead of time.

Ruby:I like the surprise. Nora knows but that’s because her and the nurse here have done basically everything. I’m surprised she hasn’t told Jaune.

Yang:He still on patrol with the others? He should really be right by your side.

Ruby:I wish he was but we agreed keeping these woods safe is top priority. Can’t afford to get careless; not this time.

Ruby rubbed her stomach slowly as she remembered a time very similar to this. Hard to believe it’s been three years. Even so, the ache still felt somewhat fresh. Yang reached out and rubbed her shoulder. A comforting smile eased Ruby’s worries and she returned the smile genuinely.

Yang:Now is the time to look forward. Wouldn’t want your anxiety to harm the baby. Aren’t you the one usually preaching about hope?

Ruby:Yeah, the curse of being a good leader strikes again. All my advice coming right back at ya.

Yang:Gotta bring it up all the good ones so you’ll remember it for your little one.

Ruby:My little one had to come out first! I’m tired of being pregnant Yang.

Yang:Yeah I went through something a little similar. Due date was coming soon and this little guy stopped being as active. I started eating ice so the cold stirred him up. Ghira even tried spooking me into labor. Oh! Let’s try that. Kovu, scare your cousin.

Ruby:You’re so ridiculous sometimes.

Yang crouches down to Ruby’s belly and holds Kovu to it. His tiny hand reaches out and starts tapping it.

The two sisters laugh at his attempt.

Ruby:Sorry Kovu. Good atte-

Yang:Ruby?

Ruby:Yang...go get the nurse and Nora.

Yang:*eyes widened* Really!?

xxxx

Out in the woods, Jaune makes his rounds around his designated area like the others. The only thing distracting him from the cold was the thought of his wife. This was all for her safety and peace of mind and for that reason alone, he’d put up with anything.

Jaune reached for his scroll and brought it up. He checked on his friends' aura levels. Still high; little to no fighting has happened then. That’s all he could ask for.

Jaune:Everyone okay?

Blake:Yep

Weiss:Naturally.

Qrow:All clear.

Raven:Not so much as a beowulf on my side.

Tai:Really? I’ve killed like five.

Raven:Stop worrying about everything and they might stop seeking you out.

Tai:Mmmm nope. I need the exercise anyways.

Jaune:You need any help?

Tai:I’m just fine. Don’t worry about me for one second.

Qrow:Says the worry wart. Besides, I think you have something coming your way kid. Can you see the sky?

Jaune jumps on a branch to see above the treeline. What he saw was plumes of black smoke and the sight of birds fleeing the scene. ”Someone’s killing grimm? In my area?” He said, confused. ”Who could be out here besides-”

His heart sank to his stomach and he gripped his tight. Without a moment of hesitation, Jaune darted towards the scene. “I’m checking it out now. Everyone be ready for the worst.”

“Roger!” They all said with conviction in their voice.

It didn’t take Jaune long to get where he was headed. Each step he took brought growls and the familiar sound of metal striking bone armor. ‘It’s not them, it can’t be them. We took every precaution.’ He kept telling himself as he slowed down and crouched into the shrubs. ‘Relax Jaune, don’t get impatient. Observe and go from there.’

He took a deep breath and parted the plants in front of him. There was a forest clearing. Dozens of Ursa laid fading away while a massive one stood on its hind legs and roared. Below him was a figure in a cloak. Jaune could only see his back but it was easy to see how worn out the person was.

The cloak was all covered in dirt and their shoulders rose and fell with an intensity that could only mean deep breathing. Still it looked like they remained calm. Their stance low and poised as their hands ready their cane to the side. Wait, Jaune recognized that cane.

The Ursa slammed its weight to the ground and a shockwave blew cloak back along with the person. Jaune popped up from his hiding spot. “Ozpin?” The figure turned around. Yep, it was him.

“Hello Mr. Arc. How-“ another roar interrupted the headmaster and the Ursa charged. Ozpin was caught off guard.

“Look out!” Jaune screamed as he cloaked himself in aura and rushed over there almost as fast as Ruby. He slammed his shield right into the Ursa’s head; making it stumble back. He kept up the momentum by spinning forward and chopping the head off in one swipe.

Ozpin:Nice form. Oh how far you’ve come.

Jaune:Oz, what are you doing out here?

Ozpin:I thought that was obvious. Killing grimm like the rest of you. She’s almost due, right?

Jaune:H...How did you know we were here in the first place? This was supposed to be tight lipped.

Ozpin:It is. The only one who was supposed to know I was here was Mrs. Rose herself but as you can see, things got a bit messy.

Ozpin took a knee and held his head down with his cane supporting him. If it wasn’t for the eye and white hair, He’d looked exactly like how Oscar did after training.

Jaune:How long have you been out here?

Ozpin:Not too long. About a month.

Jaune:A month!?

Ozpin:Yeah. That Ursa Major was number 257 by the way. All the office work is making me rusty.

Jaune:You know if the other’s saw you here then they might have some choice words with you right? I appreciate you being there for Ruby but your agreement-

Ozpin:I’m well aware. It’s why I’ve been trying to remain inconspicuous. This isn’t me trying to build good karma and I have no intention on asking anybody for anything. If anything this should be my way of thanking you all for your years of service and making sure you can continue living life the way you want. It’s the least I can offer. Besides some advice.

Jaune:I think I’m a little old to be your student.

Ozpin:Hardly. Humanity might as well be kids compared to my age. You’re never too old to learn regardless; you’ve all taught me many things for example. I’m grateful for that.

Jaune:....Fine, lay it on me professor.

He sat down in front of his old professor to humor him. Oz couldn’t help but smirk as he stood up like he was about to give a lecture.

Ozpin:This part of Anima is known for slow moving grimm that are spaced well enough apart that the success rate of a traveler running away is pretty high in comparison to other places. I imagine that is one of the reasons why the orphanage was built here.

Jaune:That’s right.

Ozpin:Not a bad idea. When I arrived, I killed thirty grimm at most in my first week. Next week they were more agitated and mobile. Makes sense; Mrs. Rose was here and so were you. Childbirth is an anxiety filled event that happens by nature. However, the grimm kept showing up by the dozens and I got very busy as you can see. Which means...

Jaune:More people showed up? I knew that. Practically everyone is here by now.

Ozpin:Yes but you have to think a bit bigger than that. More people showing up isn’t the problem. It’s everyone who showed up is on edge and attracting the grimm; you all are causing the dangers that you’re trying to prevent. No doubt you could handle them together but if it wasn’t for me then at least half of you would be needlessly exhausted. That would be a real problem if a grimm of frightening destruction showed up, or a rogue maiden out for blood.

Jaune felt his heart stop for a moment. Oz was right. He’d been so caught in his head that instead of being proactive like he thought he was being, he was actually just reacting to his own fears. The only reason the plan was working was because everyone was more than skillful to handle most problems.

Oz walked over to Jaune and got him on his feet. He put away his cane and rested his hand on Jaune’s shoulder.

Ozpin:Strength and diligence are very important but not the most important right now. You all have that in spades. I bet there’s a million things on everyone’s minds right now. All valid fears no doubt. Give them a chance to get it all off their chest. A leader protects the mind along with the body. Just you do as a husband, and just like you’ll do as a father. *smiles*

Jaune:You think that highly of me huh?

Ozpin:Well you are the one who has done the most growing. Then again, that’s only natural seeing how you were….let’s say a late bloomer.

Jaune:That was almost a complete compliment.

Ozpin:Hehe, my fault. You know, I never had a son but looking at former students like you and Ren really makes me feel like…

Oz’s words trailed off and he stopped speaking. Instead he stood right in front of Jaune and examined him thoroughly. Hair, clothes, frame. He’d really grown from his first day. Jaune looked a little embarrassed and confused as Ozpin nodded and smiled with what seemed to be pride. Then, he walked off. Jaune said thank you and got only a wave goodbye. Class was dismissed.

Jaune almost wanted to call out to him but stopped; his scroll ringing nonstop like an alarm. Everyone was messaging him. Yang most of all. ‘How have I not noticed this?’ He thought answering Yang’s call.

Jaune:Hey what’s-

….

Jaune:RIGHT NOW!?

xxxx

Yang:Yes right now! I know we had this system in place but I think you should be-

Ruby:AAAAAAAHHHH!

Yang:I think you should be here for the birth!!!

Jaune:I’m on my way! We all are.

Yang:What about-

Jaune:I’d Cinder wants to show up then that’s her death wish. We’ll handle her together.

He hung up before Yang could even respond. The girl sighed to calm herself before looking over at her sister. Ruby was sweating bullets on a hospital bed they have gotten earlier. The nurse was going back and forth with clean attire for the baby and making sure Ruby’s vitals were okay. She’d been healthy all through the pregnancy but better safe than sorry. Natural births could get tricky sometimes.

Nora had the honor of actually being the person delivering the baby. She’d done it more than anyone around and it was showing. Her face displayed laser focus on the task at hand and she was dressed in proper hospital attire except for her hair which was pulled back into a bun. Truly she was the rock Ruby needed right now.

Nora:You’re doing great Ruby! Keep it up!

Ruby:Agh, you...you’d think this would be easier the second time. Hehehe….

Yang:*grabs her hand* Jaune’s on his way. All of them are by the sound of it.

Ruby:That’s good...wouldn’t mind some more happy faces in here.

Nora:Then let's make them really happy by making them to the party. How about they see you with a beautiful baby in your arms? Ready?

Ruby:*tightens grip* To get back to a life of combat skirts? You bet.

Nora:*smiles* One...Two...THREE!

xxxx

‘Almost there. I can’t believe this is actually happening.’ Jaune thought as he sprinted through the forest. Jumping over tree roots and gaining speed along the way. The man didn’t miss a step.

The sounds of his boots going across the floor began to get drowned out by other footsteps. With each passing moment a friend came into his peripheral that joined him in the journey back to Ruby. Weiss was the first, followed by Blake, and then Tai.

Blake:You nervous?

Jaune:Hell yeah, but it’ll all work out. I have you guys. I don’t know how far I would’ve made it otherwise.

Weiss:Think nothing of it. This has always been a group effort.

Jaune:Not Just with this. I mean everything. School, adventures, regular life problems, you’ve helped so much in so many ways. I couldn’t ask for better friends and family.

Tai:That goes both ways you know? We’re thankful for you just as much as you are for us.

Weiss:We love you, you dunce. I can’t imagine anything we wouldn’t do for you or Ruby honestly.

Blake:And we know it’s mutual. Now and forever, we’ll watch each other’s backs.

Jaune:Thanks guys. *smiles*

Tai:Hey, where’s Qrow and Raven?

On que a bird flies right past them and gains some distance. “That’s totally cheating” Weiss pouts as she can feel the heels of her shoes getting a bit worn. The bird flies around a tree and transforms back into Raven. “Need some help you slow pokes?” She grabs her sword and opens a portal. The group smiles and happily jumps through it. They come out the other side in front of the orphanage with Qrow leaning against the door waiting.

Qrow:Good thing I looked so you all could just leap. What if I was inside the house when Raven made that portal?

Tai:Sounds about on brand really. The kids would’ve had a good laugh.

Jaune:Never mind all that. Is Ru-

“Waaaaahhh!”

A cry from inside was heard loud and strong. Jaune’s eyes widened. It could’ve any kid. From the small kids to Kovu, but somehow, he knew it wasn’t. The cry, it belonged to someone new.

Jaune said nothing and walked towards the door. Everyone fell in line behind him with cheerful smiles on their face. They gave him space. It was his moment more than theirs after all. Ren stood with a child in his arms when he noticed them coming in. He gave his best friend and leader a smile then pointed upstairs. Jaune nodded then went right towards them; the crying getting louder as he got closer until it reached its peak with him right outside a wooden door. His heart felt like it was about to fly out of his chest. Jaune grabbed the door knob but felt too anxious to turn it. A fire in his chest that didn’t frighten him, but made this moment surreal. Then, a voice cut through it all.

“Don’t worry, I got you. Nothing will ever harm you…”

Without anymore thinking, he walked in. From that moment on, the winter night felt incredibly warm. There she was. His closest friend. His wife. Holding their newborn child in her arms with such grace and gentleness that it took his breath away. Despite what Ruby would probably think, Jaune doesn’t think he’s ever seen her look this angelic. She hasn’t even noticed him yet. Her attention focused on soothing the baby with the same song she used all pregnancy; the same song for Dustin.

“I’m close by, I’ll stay here. Through all things I will be nea- Hmm?” Ruby finally felt the presence of multiple eyes and looked up. It was a pleasant surprise to see so many loved ones staring in awe from the door while. Then there was Jaune. Speechless in front of her bed with tears in his eyes. Ruby had already been crying for several minutes and smiled back at him. Though she hadn’t realized just how happy he was; why they were all thrilled. It wasn’t just the baby. It was Ruby herself. Jaune was looking at deep pools of silver that shined like the moon’s reflection on a still lake. For the first time in a long time, Ruby finally looked like herself again.

Jaune:H...Hey…

Ruby:Hey there stranger. Looks like you were right this time around. Come say hello to your daughter Carmine.

Jaune’s smile grew even bigger. He’d forgotten all about that silly wager from long ago. Slowly he walked to Ruby’s side and she held the little one up so he could see the new addition to their lives. What he saw was beautiful. Carmine had come out with already a full head of blonde hair that grew darker and red at the tips. Her cheeks were all rosy; he’d assume from crying but he hoped that maybe she had a natural blush.

Regardless, what really captured him was when she opened her eyes. Purity couldn’t describe them. They were eyes that stole his heart in an instant. Maybe it was because he was already so emotional. Or maybe, it was because it was because they were just as captivating as Ruby’s. An intense silver that showed him anything possible.

Jaune:Hey Carmine Arc Rose. Welcome, to the best family ever.

Part 13

#rwby #rwby rosebud #ruby rose #jaune arc #ruby x jaune #rwby lancaster #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #taiyang xiao long #raven branwen #qrow branwen #lie ren #nora valkryie #ozpin

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bssaz97 · 4 years

Note

One of the Lancaster kids travels through time and tries to prove to the team that they're Jaune and Ruby's kid.

Rowan’s Trip to Beacon (Sorta...)

-Beacon Academy (Volume 2 time)-

Ruby and Jaune sit down by a tree as they talk about the

Jaune: Man I can’t still can’t believe your team actually stopped a mad scientist.

Ruby: Yeah Merlot was really a nut case but I sorta feel bad for him. He seemed so convinced that his research was the key to Remnant’s advancements. Even if I don’t agree with his actions and the way he went about it, it’s hard to not understand where he was coming from.

Jaune: Well maybe you just try to see the good in everyone. Not a lot of people in the world can. That’s what makes you good person.

Ruby: Yeah I guess so. Thanks...Buuuuuut I did manage to snag this though! *pulls out a metal cylinder with blue circuits*

Jaune: WHOA! What’s that thing?

Ruby: Shhh! Someone could hear you. *whispers*

Jaune: Ohhhh. Why are we whispering? *whispers back*

Ruby: Because I don’t want people, particularly the professors or Weiss to know I have this. *whispers*

Jaune: What is it? *whispers*

Ruby: It’s.....I don’t know. But it looked cool when I saw it in Merlot’s lab. *whispers*

Jaune: Wait you took that from Merlot’s lab?! Isn’t that like evidence or something?!*whispers loudly*

Ruby: Not if they don’t know I have it. *whispers*

Jaune: I take back what I said earlier, you’re a devious little gremlin in disguise. *whispers*

Ruby: Oh come on where’s your sense of adventure? *whispers*

Jaune: Your ‘sense’ of adventure often gets me in trouble. *whispers*

Ruby: Come on please! I’ll owe you big time! *whispers*

Jaune: ‘sigh’ I really don’t have a choice now that I’ve seen the evidence. Ok, so what do you want to do with it? *speaks normally*

Ruby: Well my plan was to try to open it but -Hrgh!- it’s a little -Grh!- hard to -Nnne!- open!

Jaune: Want me to try?

Ruby: No, no, I think I ggggooooo-!

*TSSST!*

Ruby: ‘huff!’ Got it!

The tube starts to hum and shake violently in Ruby’s hand as both leaders look at said metal tube.

Jaune: Say you wouldn’t have I don’t know, taken a copy of that things manual did you?

Ruby: Nope.

Jaune: Mind if I take a look at it?

Ruby: Sure. *gives him the tube*

Jaune: Thank you. *turns it around*

*O’ Fortuna plays*

“0:11...0:10...0:09...”

Ruby: It’s a bomb isn’t it?

Jaune: Looks like. *nods*

Ruby: And I activated the countdown by messing with it didn’t I?

Jaune: Most likely.

Ruby: We’re gonna get in trouble for this aren’t we?

Jaune: Oh yeah definitely. *nods*

Ruby: ...bring it on. *takes the tube back and throws it as far she could*

“0:03...0:02...0:01...”

As the tube explodes, a large blue orb of pure energy illuminated the courtyard in the middle of the day. Lightning currents flowing outside it and burning parts of the courtyard.

Ruby: ‘sniff’ Jaune. If we somehow live through the punishment we get from Professor Goodwitch, you’re a good friend.

Jaune: You too Ruby, you too.

Ruby: ... *holds his hand*

*BOOM!!!*

The light from the explosion lessens and leaves the courtyard a mess almost beyond repair. Both leaders uncover their eyes and view the aftermath of the tubes detonation. Not even a few seconds more, their teams come racing towards them.

Weiss: Ruby are you-..... What. Have you done....

Ruby: Oh. My. Gods. Goodwitch is sooo gonna KILL us.

Jaune: Yep. *whimpers*

Blake: Wait what’s that? *points to the center of the crater*

From the outlook from them it looked like a person sprawled out on the floor.

Ruby: ‘yelp!’ Was someone there before?! I could have sworn there wasn’t anyone there an second ago! OH NO! *petal bursts ahead*

Jaune: Ruby hold on! *chases after her*

Jaune along with the rest of their teams decided to chase after Ruby and hopefully get away before any of the teachers (particularly Goodwitch) discover the destroyed courtyard. Ruby arrived at the center of the crater and takes a look to see who was caught in the blast. At first glance the boy looks much younger than a student, maybe a year younger than her....... This was not good.

Ruby: Oh No, I Killed A Kid!

Jaune: Ruby what’s wrong? What the-Is that a kid?!

Ruby: *cradles the young boy* What do we do Jaune?!

Pyrrha: I’m... I’m not sure we could do anything for him. He looks so injured.

Ruby: Oh no! ‘sobbing’

????: Mmmm who’s at?

Everyone: Huh?

The two leaders plus teams look down to see that the young boy is starting to wake up, blinking his eyes as he looks at the two of them in particular. He turns towards Ruby with the most confused expression on his face.

????: ...Mom?

Ruby: Eh?

Jaune: Hey there, are you ok? Are you hurt?!

????: ........ *eyes widened then faints*

Ruby: DON’T DIE!!!

????: Was at?! Oh I’m sorry Mom. I had this weird dream where I saw... *looks at Jaune again and then faints again*

Ruby: LITTLE BOY!!!

Jaune: *scratches his hair* The heck is going on?

????: Eh?! What the-? *looks around* This-This isn’t a dream is it?

Ren: Dream? Why would you be dreaming? Nevermind that are you hurt?

????: Hurt? ‘hiss!’ Oh yeah, I’m definitely hurt. Mr. Pine must have accidentally used his semblance again.

Ruby: Mr. Pine?...

Weiss: Again?

????: *moves to stand* It’s ok, this isn’t something I’m not used to experiencing.

Pyrrha: Hold on! You shouldn’t push yourself!

????: Don’t worry I’ll be ok. Just give me a moment. *breathes in*

Suddenly the boy starts to glow a bright golden glow that surrounds his entire body. In under a minute all of the boy’s injuries started healing themselves and soon the light faded.

????: *breathes out* Boy, I feel much better! Guess it helps when you have a semblance like mine.

Ruby/Jaune: Whoa...

????: *looks over to them* Hey I’m sorry to bother but do you mind if I ask who you two are?

Ruby: Oh. Well my name is Ruby Rose

Jaune: I’m Jaune Arc.

????: .....oh boy Rowan. What did you do now? *mutters to himself*

Yang: Are you sure you’re ok kid? We don’t know exactly what was in that explosion so maybe we should go get you checked out.

????: Wha? Oh no you’re here too Auntie? Oh man this is just gets better and better... *scratches his hair in distress*

Yang: Auntie? *very confused*

Pyrrha: Are you sure you don’t require assistance, perhaps you’re still fatigued.

????: Oh that won’t be a problem, I’m completely fine now. It’s more ....well, I have no idea how I got here in the first place.

Weiss: What exactly do you mean?

????: But more importantly than that, my name is Rowan. If you were wondering.

Ruby: Rowan... Huh. That’s a nice name.

Rowan: Thanks.

Nora: So what’s the story are some kind of space kid trying to conquer the world? *says in a spooky voice*

Rowan: Nope. I’m just a normal kid learning to be a huntsman.

Nora: Oh. *says flatly*

Ren: I don’t mean to pry but what exactly did you mean you didn’t know how you got here?

Rowan: Oh that. Well.... How to say this? Have any of you ever heard of time travel?

Ruby/Jaune: ...yes?

Rowan: Ok good that makes this explanation much more simpler. Ok so you see the problem is I’m from the future and I must’ve accidentally been sent back in time by Mr. Pine’s semblance. He’s a friend so you know.

Ruby: ....sent back in time?

Jaune: The future?....

Weiss: That’s preposterous! Such a thing is impossible and defies the logic of space-time!

Rowan: Not if you’re Mr. Pine and your semblance allows you to accidentally sneeze somebody into the dark ages. Hehe.

Weiss: .....I do hope you’re joking.

Rowan: Yeah I know it sounds crazy but it’s true. I really am from the future. And.....also I’m kinda Ruby and Jaune’s son.

Everyone: HUH?!

Rowan: Look I know this may be asking a lot but could you mind taking me to Headmistress Goodwitch? I really should talk to her about this.

Yang: Hold on? Do you really expect us to believe you just because you claim you’re their son?! How do we know you’re not lying?!

Rowan: Ohhhh you need proof. *slams one hand on his other palm* Right, I shouldn’t expect you to believe me so quick. Proof, um... let’s see. Hmmmm. Oh I know! *takes out his scroll and shows them a picture* Here’s a picture of my family!

Ruby and Jaune look at Rowan’s scroll while the others peek over them and are surprised to see the picture was indeed of a family. What surprised them more was that the mother in the image looked like an older Ruby alongside a blonde girl the same age as Rowan, but had the cerulean eyes like Jaune. Rowan then changes the image to show one of an older Jaune and Ruby with a bigger than normal belly.

Weiss: This is impossible! Those images are clearly photo edited, and therefore can’t be real.

Rowan: WOW. Mr. Whitley was right you did scream a lot when you were younger.

Weiss: Wha-? How... Mr. Whitley? I knew it! This is a prank of his isn’t it?!

Rowan: No it’s not a prank I swear. Look what must I do to prove you believe me?

Ren: Well physically he looks very much like Ruby but appears to bear some resemblance to Jaune. But looks can be deceiving.

Blake: Ren’s right. Rowan, if you really who you say you are. What is something only your ‘parents’ would know about?

Rowan: Something only mom and dad know,? Ok. Let’s see........... Oh, I got it! The way you two met was when Mom blew up a crater in this courtyard after Auntie Weiss sprayed aroma veil of Dust, in which moved Dad to come help Mom out of the crater. There was also this one time where you all were at a dance, but then Dad went to talk to his partner and while Mom was waiting, she took a sip from his punch!

Ruby: How could you possibly know that?!

Rowan: Auntie Yang told me. *points to Yang*

Yang: WOW way to throw me under the bus kid!

Jaune: Wait Ruby did now?

-Fin-

Let me know if you guys enjoyed this one. My plan is to post the next chapter of RWBY Ancestries next, but after that I’ll start finishing some of the asks some of you have sent me. Hope you have a good day and be good people.

#rwby #jaune arc #ruby rose #reblog #rwby lancaster #lancaster #yang xiao long #lancaster child #rowan rose #anonymous asks

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Witch”

Happy Saturday, everyone! Well, it's perhaps happier provided you didn't watch today’s episode lol. Getting through these 18 minutes felt like watching an extended version of a CinemaSins vid. I heard a little 'ding!' every time something nonsensical, contradictory, or just downright stupid happened. My mind became a pinball machine.

Which, in the interest of being fair as opposed to just snarky, only matters if you're looking for something resembling emotional depth in this show. RWBY, for all its faults, is enjoyable as a mindless spectacle. It's when you expect — or simply hope — for anything more that this very fragile house of cards comes tumbling down.

If it’s not clear already, today’s recap contains copious amounts of salt. Fair warning.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s dive in. Episode nine is titled "Witch," which is fitting since many members of our group go toe-to-toe against Salem herself. The narrative issues inherent in having your heroes fighting their final boss years before the series is meant to end might have been avoided if it weren't for Oscar's ridiculous, sacrificial attack... but we'll get to that.

We open with a sweeping shot of the Atlas battle, as hundreds of dead soldiers segue into endless grimm. Hold onto that image for a bit. At the end of this carnage is, of course, the mouth of the whale. We cut to Jaune, Ren, and Yang already safely inside.

"Well," says Yang, "that was harrowing."

I'm on the fence about this choice. On the one hand, yes, it's good that RWBY knows it can skip over extraneous scenes. We have NINE characters to keep track of and develop, fourteen if you count Ozpin, Maria, Winter, Ironwood, and now Whitley. Plus villains. There simply isn't time to show every insignificant moment... but was this insignificant? Obviously finding Oscar and escaping Salem's clutches is the true hurdle of this mission, but that doesn't mean getting through an entire army of grimm is in any way a cake walk. I'd be more willing to ignore this time skip if it weren't likewise presented as such a challenge for Winter's team. They have to "clear a path" to the whale, but our trio got there unscathed and unnoticed? The obvious implication here is that Ren just masked them the whole way — supported by his aura breaking later in the episode — but it still feels like we missed an important chunk of this task.

I'm nit-picking though. As said, I’m straddling the fence on this one and, given that, I'm inclined to settle on a, "Good job, RWBY. You're keeping the writing tight," if only because I don't have much else to praise about this episode. Throw the poor, struggling show a bone lol.

Now that they're inside, they realize they haven't the slightest idea how they'll find Oscar. “Like finding a needle in a giant…whale… why did we think this was a good idea?!” Because you and your friends are idiots who no longer bother to think about a situation before throwing yourself straight into it? This isn't me being mean to Yang, she literally says as much later on. Our heroes no longer get by on intellect, strategy, and skill, but rather plot armor and a staggering number of coincidences. For example, Ren.

Yang: Wow, it sure is lucky for us that on our way to this incredibly dangerous mission Ren inexplicably developed a new part of his semblance. Now he can not only mask peoples' emotions, see the true emotions that someone is feeling, pull thoughts out of their head about what they believe about a situation, but can also track someone across long distances through their emotions alone. Even that doesn't actually help us find Oscar, we just got lucky again when, in this maze of a whale, he ran right into us!

Me: So what were you going to do if this meta-world stopped giving you the most contrived solutions in Remnant history?

Yang: Die gloriously, I guess.

What Yang actually says is, "Okay. That's new!" and they enter the literal belly of the beast wielding a shield of convenience.

Jaune is also being awkward again because remember, RWBY doesn't know when to incorporate humor and when to treat a situation seriously. He reminds Ren not to "drain [himself]," he'll help him, and it's clear the scene is hinting at their earlier fight. There's a lot to unpack there, but I want to save it for the second conversation.

For now, we cut to Oscar, curled up in his cell, repeating stories to comfort himself. Yeah that's fine. I could use a broken heart right before Valentine's Day.

“She brushed off her bumps and bruises, for nothing hurt worse than the loneliness in her chest." It's a line from The Girl Who Fell Through the World, which Ozpin recognizes given that he's "lived through" a fair number of fairy tales. He immediately asks how Oscar is holding up — because he's a caring person! — and Oscar admits that he never understood why the girl of the tale was sad upon reaching home again. Now he does: she wasn't the same person anymore. I don't think the fact that Oscar has had both a metaphorical fall — leaving his farm to 'fall' into this war — and a literal one — falling through Atlas to unlock his magic — is lost on anyone. This is a nice allusion to our themes. Yang's speech to Salem later on? That’s something else entirely.

Storytelling done, Ozpin says he thinks "this plan to divide might have run its course” and it's time to try and find a way to leave. I'm sorry, I love my farm boy, but what plan? He didn't do anything. At least nothing that could remotely be termed an intellectual plot. Oscar convinced Ozpin to try and turn Hazel by telling him the world would end under Salem's rule and the only reason that worked is because the story decided to chuck out Hazel's entire character. You know, the one that hates Ozpin above all others, wants the world remade into a non-Academy horror show, can't understand that people make their own choices, is terrified of Salem, and has no reason to trust a prisoner he's currently torturing. Oscar's "plan" hinged on his writers erasing a great deal of work to build a new story that fits said “plan.” He didn't even get Emerald involved, she just — again, conveniently — eavesdropped outside their door at just the right moment.

To be clear, I'm not against a story being written to work in the hero's favor. Of course things are going to be convenient in a happy-ending tale. Someone manages to hold out just as long as they need to, a sword is lying just within reach, you, yes, happen to run into the one person you're desperate to find. This kind of stuff is reassuring, telling its audiences that sometimes things do work out for the best. It's enjoyable... but only provided the hero's entire success doesn't hinge on fate being shockingly kind to them. That's what RWBY has become. A world where Salem doesn't attack Mantle, Amity Tower is suddenly finished, the group can charge into any deadly situation they want to and bank on destiny twisting around itself to ensure they come out of it safely. A hero finding a convenient weapon nearby to defeat their enemy with is only reassuring after we've seen them implement a brilliant attack, struggle, nearly win, but then suddenly be faced with failure, necessitating that little push from coincidence. They earned it. The hero doesn't get to run in blindly and find a Defeat Bad Guy plot point gift wrapped for them at the first sign of trouble. They just die.

RWBY used to be a better written show because that's precisely Pyrrha's story. She charged a Maiden unprepared, without a single plan or hope for success, and she died. That's what happens in a dangerous, internally consistent world, but RWBY has since lost the second half of that formula.

I'm harping on this because this entire episode is built on that foundation of coincidence, something that shouldn't be happening at all, but especially not when you're pitting the heroes against Salem herself.

So yeah, it just gets worse from here.

Back to Oscar. Without the cane magic is the only weapon they have at their disposal, but he's reluctant to use it because every time he does, they merge more quickly.

They... do?

Okay, there are three major problems with this announcement:

I'm pretty sure we've only seen Oscar use magic once: creating that barrier to survive the fall through Atlas. That was the point of his near death experience, to unlock something that had previously been unavailable to him. Yet if he's only used it once, why is he so sure that it hurries the merge along? What's this "every time" business? This confusion could have easily been avoided if the show had just let Oscar use his magic this volume, tackling some other questions and gaps in the process. Let him use it to fight off the grimm in Mantle, giving him the opportunity to admit to at least Jaune, Ren, and Yang that Ozpin is back. He could have used some magic against the Hound with Ozpin's encouragement, answering the question of why he was entirely silent while the two of them got their ass beat. Give us a moment where Oscar uses his magic against Hazel, nearly escaping in the process, but is captured again at the last moment. Basically, his line makes it sound like magic has been this ongoing resource with an established downside when... it hasn’t.

Coinciding with all of the above, how is it that Oscar can suddenly use magic at will? Yeah, yeah, he unlocked it during the fall, but really? You open up the magic gates and from then on out it's as natural as breathing? This is the same issue with Ruby's silver eyes. The story gives these characters incredible powers, but never has them talking about how they work, let alone training them. They just exist, perfect in execution, as soon as the plot needs them. (See: the final shot of this episode.) At least Weiss had to practice her summoning for multiple volumes.

Finally, the question of how Oscar instinctively knows how to use magic could easily be answered with, "Well, he's kind of Ozpin now," but that would require the story to actually explain what the merge is. "We merge faster," Oscar says, but what does that mean? The Ozpin and Oscar we see in this scene are fundamentally indistinguishable from the Ozpin and Oscar who existed at his aunt's house, four whole years ago. They're still separate people, with one controlling the body and the other existing as a consciousness he can talk to. Nothing has changed. The show keeps insisting that Oscar is going through this deep and painful arc of losing himself to Ozpin... despite the fact that he has yet to lose a single bit of Oscar-ness. Has he changed? Well of course, but anyone going through these experiences is going to change. Remove the "merge" aspect and Oscar's confidence or power up is likewise indistinguishable from any of the other characters' developments. Nora is becoming more of an individual this volume. Ren is becoming more powerful in his semblance. Neither have an Ozpin to force that change, it just happens on its own. So what separates Oscar from every other character going through a formative experience? When is “I’m not the same person anymore” due to unnatural magic vs. just growing up?

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy our boy is getting more screen time — and that the cast is actually being kind to him now — but overall his arc is objectively terrible. He bought some clothes, told Ironwood he was as bad as Salem, told Hazel how to access the Relic, and then asked him not to be a villain anymore. Somehow these things are presented as significant moments of growth while the real questions surrounding his merge go unanswered.

“Honestly, I think you’re doing just fine on your own," Ozpin tells him, but he's not. God knows our boy is trying, but this is a moment where Ozpin's self-hatred (and the story's insistence that the younger generation is intrinsically better than the older) is blinding him to the situation. Oscar has made terrible decisions lately, in as much as he's been able to decide anything at all, and now he's rejecting escaping captivity because he's terrified of a concept he doesn't even understand yet. None of that is fine. Reassurance is one thing, but painting this situation as Oscar making better choices than he would with Ozpin's input is insane. He literally just decided to keep them in Salem's clutches indefinitely because something something magic is scary, I guess. Oscar doesn't need a, 'You're better than me' speech, he needs a reality check so they don't both die. Remember back in Volume 5 when Oscar, a brave but idiotic 14 year old, insisted on fighting someone entirely out of his league and Ozpin was like,

then saved him from getting his head crushed in like a cantaloupe? We need more of that. Our teenage heroes need guidance, but because RWBY keeps insisting that every adult they encounter is corrupt or incompetent, that hasn't happened in three volumes. They're just aloud to decide things like, “Let's tell our captor the Relic's password because UwU ~trust~” and then the story bends over backwards to make that work. Instead we could, you know, let characters learn that they can be wrong.

The snow scene was the beginning, but RWBY really went off the rails the day it let Qrow warn the group against stealing from and attacking an allied city, only for them to call him an idiot for doubting them. Now, Ozpin doesn't even get to warn Oscar about stupid decisions, he just agrees with them, reassuring and passive. Never mind the complication of whether Ozpin is even emotionally capable of providing guidance after they labeled him the worst thing to ever happen to them.

Why does RWBY keep ruining my faves 😔

Anyway, we’ve got to stay on track. Oscar has decided to just lie there but, luckily for him, Hazel's redemption — I use that term so loosely — has begun. He drags Oscar out of his cell before we cut to Winter.

She's leading a portion of Ironwood's army, trying to get things ready for when the bomb arrives. Neon and Flynt are a part of her team, sharing scared glances and trying to remain optimistic. It's a legitimately hard-hitting moment, striking that balance between horror and hope. Funny though, I wonder that RWBYJNOR would think of their friends fighting for evil Ironwood...

Marrow, continuing the tradition of insisting that our heroes be both adults and kids simultaneously, looks sadly at the soldiers heading into battle and goes, "But... they're just kids." I would like to remind everyone reading that Ruby is younger than them. Anyone who thinks that these teenagers shouldn't be fighting grimm — the thing they have been training to do as their professional career, during an unprecedented attack on their home — should not simultaneously be looking to the girl who is two years younger as his savior. (Something that, while not overt yet, is very much where Marrow is heading as he continually doubts the Ace Ops and looks to RWBY's group as his new, moral leaders.) I'm glad that, for once, this perspective is firmly called out. Elm arrives to tell him point blank that he needs to figure out his personal ethics later. It doesn't matter because there's an army of grimm out there and monsters aren't going to spare anyone, adult or child. Quit philosophizing and kill some already.

Back to Hazel where we get the doorway shot from our trailer. He's taken Oscar to the Relic, because of course he has. Do I really need to list how convenient this is too? Apparently, "the moment we move that thing, this place goes on high alert," but there’s no alarm for when Oscar is taken from his cell, they enter the Relic's room, or when they use it. What does a movement alert matter if someone can just waltz in and waste the last question themselves? Put some of those endless grimm in the room to guard it, Salem!

Just assume that I am, at any given point in this episode, letting out the longest sigh my lungs are physically capable of.

Emerald shows up, demonstrating both the convenience of everyone arriving when they need to, and the very real danger that Salem herself could come in and discover what they're up to. Hazel has Oscar summon Jinn, only to immediately say that “Actually, I think all my questions are answered now.”

I'm sorry, how does this answer any of Hazel's questions? His driving question was not, "Is the Relic actually a magical object capable of doing magical things?" but rather "Are you telling me the truth about Salem's plans to summon the Gods and destroy all of Remnant in her quest to finally die, thereby changing who I'm going to support in this war?" Seeing a naked, blue djinn does not answer that question.

Hazel's "redemption" is non-existent. He — we — learned about Salem's death wish despite how that contradicts previous lore, then he trusted Ozpin despite that contradicting his entire character, now he joins the heroes because, literally, he sees Jinn floating there. It’s bad enough that Hazel goes from clear villain to sacrificial hero in a matter of in-world hours, but we don’t even get a reason for why that change occurred.

Oh, there's also this:

So Jinn doesn't come out of her lamp unless someone intends to ask a question, but does it for Ruby because she's special, yet still reiterates that this won't happen again. Then Oscar summons her without intending to ask a question, she comes out anyway, confirms that none of them seek knowledge from her, and happily pops back inside her lamp because eh, it’s whatever.

If RWBY had any courage the three of them would be cursed now for toying with a powerful, magical object. Remember the days when Jinn was a little terrifying because it felt like she was warping her answers and we had no idea what she might do to someone who used her carelessly? When she felt like a djinn? Good times.

Or better times, at least.

So Good Guy Hazel and Good Gal Emerald promise to get Oscar out. Never mind all the horror they caused, the people they killed, and that for Hazel, at least, this defection is coming out of nowhere.

Anyone remember that Emerald orchestrated Penny's death? No? Just me?

As they leave it turns out Neo was camouflaged against the wall, because she was also precisely where she needed to be. Does everyone just periodically pop into the Relic room to see what’s going on? At least this time it's not working in the heroes' favor. Remember when I said it's beyond idiotic for Oscar to just hand out the Relic information to known enemies currently holding him captive and torturing him?

Yeeeeaah.

So Neo's got the Lamp. Funny how all of this could have been avoided if Ruby had just put it in the vault like she came to Atlas to do ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We return to our trio where Jaune and Ren need to rest because their aura is giving out. Good! These guys fought a battle, fought Neo, fought more grimm, fought the Hound, traipsed through the tundra, presumably fought through more grimm to get to the whale, and have been using both their semblances to look for Oscar. It's about time their reserves started to falter.

Jaune decides to scout ahead a bit, leaving Yang and Ren to talk about nothing of importance. I mean that seriously. Remember a few days ago when I spoke about how, if the snow conversation does come back up, Ren's points would be entirely ignored for a nonsensical “I’m glad we’re friends” speech? Remember how I also spoke about how every emotional beat now is entirely generic and you could replace any character with another and not a single thing would change? Yeah. This is both those arguments in one. Nothing is said about the points Ren made. His problems with how the group has been acting lately and the very real, very deadly consequences it has had are flat out ignored. We went from

"But these aren't the kinds of decisions we should be making because we have no idea what we're doing!"

"Forward, no matter what!"

in a matter of hours, with precisely zero insight into how Ren went from one perspective to the exact opposite. Kind of like Hazel. Because see, RWBY doesn't write arcs, it just writes one thing until it decides to switch it up for something else, with the opposite idea presented as a “resolution” or a “twist.” Our creators writes scenes they know the fandom is begging for without considering how to get a character to that place, let alone how to get them out of it. That's all Ren's speech was, the equivalent of moral fan service. Here's a glimpse of actual character depth and a morally gray situation... now forget it ever happened because we're back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Instead of working through the laundry list of issues Ren raised, Ren instead accepts Jaune's aura help — something they've been doing since Argus — and tells Yang it's okay to be scared. These moments are meaningless and, as said, could have been between anyone in our cast. Ren could have told Nora she doesn't have to use jokes to cover up that she's scared. Jaune could have reminded Ruby that she can depend on him. Yang could have tried to keep Blake and Weiss' hopes up. This scenes ignores the individuality of the characters, like the fact that they just fought over very different world views, to instead favor any dime-a-dozen moment of support. The number of times this volume has rejected the conflict and resolution the group needs for bland, generic reassurances staggering.

Also, apparently Jaune isn't scared at all? I don't think that's as good a thing as Ren seems to think...

Then Jaune immediately rounds the corner, terrified lol.

One of the seer grimm is on its way and he tells Ren to mask them. Apparently he had been masking them before — one of the reasons he's so tired now, trying to do two things at once — but it's only here that they go black and white again. Ren manages to keep it up for a little while, but his aura breaks before the seer passes and they're spotted.

Hark! A consequence!

That was well done. It makes sense and it adds to the stakes. We've seen the insane amount of fighting the group has done since Volume 7, we just established that they're at their breaking point, and then Ren's aura fails him right when he needs it the most. Add this to the miniscule pile of things that were well done this episode.

Salem runs into Emerald and Hazel, the former of which is acting very suspicious when asked if he's made any headway with Oscar. The seer's alarm interrupts them though and... okay. Was I the only one who cackled during this moment? Between Salem's voice acting and the fact that she just yeets herself down the hallway, it came across as really funny to me.

Either way, it is a bad situation. Our trio is trying to figure out what to do, to which Yang responds, "Do what we do best… charge blindly into danger!!”

Ren's aura is broken. Jaune barely has any left and it’s unlikely he could heal right now even if Ren had any aura to amplify. If Ren takes a single hit anywhere important he is dead.

Me, on my knees, surrounded by the ashes of the Hound, the last bit of serious storytelling we had: "For the love of God, the kingdom is on fire and simultaneously dying of cold. There's a grimm army decimating hundreds outside. Half their group is missing and they're wandering lost inside a devil whale, about to have the most powerful being Remnant has ever known personally try to kill them — can we please have their attitudes reflect that?"

The answer, in case you were wondering, is no.

Back to the bomb. Whatever scientists were given this task have completed it and Marrow watches as it's flown out towards the whale. "Come on, Juan" he whispers and I'm all, "Juan?" Apparently it's a callback to last volume when Marrow couldn't remember Jaune's actual name, but it took me hopping onto the RWBY wiki to remember that.

As death via explosion inches closer, the trio runs into Hazel and Emerald. Turns out though that Hazel is really Oscar, disguised through Emerald's semblance. Nice trick! Jaune immediately drops both weapons to hug Oscar and, while that's nice and all, it's also the stupidest thing he could possible do in enemy territory. Also, Oscar has been beaten up by the Hound, tortured with magic, and likewise beaten bloody by Hazel. I was hoping for a tender hug like the one Nora gave him, not a giant squeeze for more comedy purposes. It just feels like RWBY has no idea how to manage the tone of this volume, let alone the torture of a child...

There's the obligatory, "Why should we trust you?" from Yang regarding Emerald joining the team, to which Ren responds, "Because she's scared, just like us."

That doesn't prove anything. Literally everyone is scared right now. There is a war going on. I really cannot emphasize enough how RWBY throws out Deep™ sounding lines that are, upon inspection, absolutely nonsensical. Nora reminding Penny that there are different parts to her personhood, Hazel saying that all his questions have been answered, Ren announcing that Emerald is scared... it's all worthless chatter that has no bearing on their problems: How do I keep from being hacked? How do I know you're telling the truth? How do we know you're trustworthy after you spent years trying to kill us? But of course, because it's RWBY, Ren's announcement is treated as some sort of secret truth that everyone accepts. Emerald joins up.

As they head for an exit we return to Marrow who, frankly, is getting on my last nerve. I know the fandom loves him because he's clearly leaning towards Team RWBY, but does anyone actually listen to what he says? He starts yelling at Winter for sending in the bomb because the trio might still be alive in there, despite:

Seeing for himself the hundreds of soldiers that have fallen trying to keep Atlas safe

Knowing and hearing again from Winter that the only way to stop this carnage is to take out the whale. Given more time, the whole city falls

Sadly announcing to the world that children shouldn't have to fight in a battle, rather than just joining the fray and helping to keep those kids safe

How does Marrow think those kids are going to be able to stop fighting? How does he think he'll get a city to return to? It's no wonder that he's drawn to Ruby because both characters stand around twiddling their thumbs, mourning that things are bad, and blaming others for imperfect solutions rather than doing something to make the situation better. Marrow's disgust at Winter over the bomb is precisely the same as Ruby's disgust at Ironwood over Mantle: how dare you not have a plan that results in both victory for us and zero sacrifices? They want perfection which, yes, is an admirable trait, but their problem is they refuse to do anything until that perfection appears. They’re paralyzed, a trait that’s particularly dangerous when your story insists that perfection will never appear: it’s not a fairy tale. So they just continue to get mad at others for the fact that they live in an unfair world. You want that perfect solution? Think it up yourself. Otherwise, stand aside and let those coming up with something do what they can to make things better.

Marrow goes so far as to drag Weiss into things, trying to guilt Winter with the knowledge that she'll have to relate the death of her sister's friends back to her. Winter, because she's a badass who isn't in denial over the situation, tells him that yes, she will shoulder that responsibility. To Marrow's credit he backs off then, but man. RWBY has legitimate moral questions here — when is holding out for a few worth risking the many? — but they go about exploring it in the most frustrating way possible. I personally have no respect for the guy who wants to announce that Children In War Is Bad instead of, you know, using the power he currently has to protect those kids already neck deep in a battle.

Because John Mulaney remains relevant:

"There shouldn't be a horse in the hospital :( "

"We're WELL PAST THAT."

Marrow is the one going, "There shouldn't be kids in a war :( We shouldn't have to kill a few to save the whole kingdom :( " and everyone around him is like, "No shit, dude! But this is the hand we were dealt! You going to help us, or what?"

Literally all of these characters could have been so much more than what they currently are.

Except Winter. She's doing great.

Now for the final scene. Our group nearly manages to escape the whale, but is incapacitated by some sort of screechy power that Salem employs.

She contorts her body, stretching out her arms to snag Emerald, and the others have a brief, but intense skirmish. Jaune manages to block a blast of magic aimed at Ren with his shield — nice — and Yang dots Salem's face with a bunch of bombs before blowing her sky-high — double nice. Oscar shoots out some magic of his own because, yeah, I guess he can just do that now? It really feels like it came out of nowhere after eight episodes of being the punching bag.

Of course, Salem immediately reforms. She traps the group with grimm arms that come out of the whale, interrogating Ozpin about why he bothers to keep coming back. There's a very sad answer there of, "I don't," referring to his lack of choice in reincarnating to fight her.

Yang interrupts their little tet-a-tet to throw the question back in Salem's face, calling her out on her choices. A great idea but, as always, execution: "because something bad happened to you once upon a time? No one gets a fairy tale ending."

I’m sorry, but that dialogue had me cringing. Like I said before, way too on the nose. There's keeping with the fairy tale theme, and then there's shoving the viewer's face in it. More of Oscar's musings on how he relates to the protagonists of fairy tales, blurring the lines between storytelling and reality, which in turn encourages the viewer to consider how they see themselves in the RWBY cast. Less... whatever this is.

Yang goes on to talk about how many people Salem has taken from her, which upon reflection makes a certain amount of sense if you toss in all the people who are here, but changed somehow due to Salem's influence, as well as acquaintances who died as a result of her meddling: Raven is scared off, Tai suffers as a result, Pyrrha dies, Penny dies, Yang loses her arm and her school. I think the dialogue could have been revised to reflect that better though because what Yang implies is that Salem has killed countless of her loved ones, yet what she says is, "Summer Rose. My mom." Honestly, for the few seconds this exchange was happening my thoughts weren't even on Summer. Yang calls Salem out for killing loved ones and my brain went, "Pyrrha??"

That's how little they've done with Yang and Summer. I know in the past I've argued that RWBY has a "better late than never" situation going on, that I would praise them for making the right writing choices even if they arrive years too late... but now that we're here, I find that it's a hard problem to overlook. Summer is Yang's mom? When's the last time we heard that? Volume 2? Whenever the conversation with Blake was. Since then Yang has called Raven "Mom," focused on that emotional connection (or lack thereof), was excluded from the conversation with Qrow, comforted Ruby after she was blindsided by Salem's taunt, and otherwise hasn't mentioned Summer at all. There is no foundation for this accusation except a few lines about getting cookies as a child and the fact that we're tossing references in now makes me worried that we'll indeed get a grimm!Summer reveal. Better remind the audience that she exists before the twist arrives! Honestly, as much as a part of me wants to praise RWBY for trying to get things back on track, moments like this just ring hollow now. They waited years and now it’s too late. It doesn't help that this is the episode where we shrug off Ren's speech. What will Yang's cutting admission amount to based on this trend? Probably nothing. Summer will become Yang’s mom again in another six seasons.

Salem, obviously, doesn't care. The real Hazel arrives and she orders him to take Oscar back to his cell. Instead, he gives him his cane with a whispered, "No more Gretchens, boy."

Behold, another meaningless line. Hazel hates Ozpin for "forcing" Gretchen on a mission and "getting" her killed. The whole point of his villainy is that he doesn't understand the concept of choice and that bad things can happen to good people with no one able to prevent it. Not every loss has a responsible party attached (outside of, you know, Salem/the grimm). So what is he even demanding here? No more huntsmen schools? That's what you wanted Salem for. No more "forcing" people to fight for you? Ozpin never did that in the first place. Or is it just a strange promise that no one else will die here? RWBY seems to be under the impression that they can just name drop dead family members — Summer, Gretchen — and that's that. Emotional depth created, never mind a lack of buildup or clarity.

Then Hazel punches Salem across the room and she releases every single hero from their bonds. See the theme of this episode: convenience. Hazel shoves a whole bunch of dust crystals into his shoulders and yells that he's doing what Gretchen would have wanted, clearly sacrificing himself so that the others can escape. The battle between him and Salem is pretty decent. I enjoyed the dust vs. magic creativity and the sheer damage Salem can take before reforming. This fight really showcases how not human she is.

It does, however, bring into question Hazel's reveal about her needing an hour to heal at the longest. I mentioned how unlikely it would be that our heroes would get the chance to "kill" her multiple times, yet here we are, just a few episodes later. They got that opportunity and... does it matter? Salem's reforming doesn't appear to slow down at all, despite her head getting obliterated at least three times, so at what point does she need longer than a few seconds to heal? If this was meant to be a potential weakness the group would eventually exploit, we needed to see it here, both for that setup and to keep it consistent with Hazel's story.

Regardless, they fight and at first it looks like a pretty straight-forward sacrifice on Hazel's part, giving the group their chance to escape. Except... Oscar.

"She'll just come after us," he tells Jaune, turning away from him to fight.

I need a list for this:

Of course she's going to come after you. This is not some shocking revelation. At no point has anyone thought that escaping the whale is the answer to all their problems, it just creates one less problem to deal with. Namely, the problem of "Our ally is captured, being tortured, and may give up important intel to the enemy. Oh, also he's about to be blown up with a bomb." Salem coming after them doesn’t matter. What matters is making her plans as difficult as possible as you work to come up with more solutions of your own. This is just a smaller version of the Ironwood conflict: “Well, Salem will just follow Atlas into the sky so it’s useless to attempt escape, or to buy ourselves time.” It’s really not. I know I’ve used this ridiculous comparison before, but if you’re ever chased by a horror movie serial killer hell-bent on your destruction and your reaction to this problem is, “Why run? He’ll just chase us. The only possible choice is to fight him with a 99% chance of our death,” then I beg you to re-evaluate things.

What was the point of coming to rescue Oscar if he was just going to stay behind? The whale is about to be blown up by a bomb and the trio risked their lives ten times over to get to him. If I were them I would be pissed. We went through all that to get you out and now you’re refusing to leave when we have a chance? Thanks for that.

Same with Hazel. Not that I care about the guy, but if I was sacrificing myself for others to escape I'd be pretty annoyed at them randomly deciding not to do that.

What does Oscar even think he's going to do? Kill the immortal witch? The entire point of our series is that they can’t do that (yet).

However, if he is able to do something significant via Ozpin's magic, why didn't Ozpin do that generations ago? Somehow I don't think a younger Ozma closer to the height of his power was in a worse position to attack Salem than a tortured, aura-less kid who unlocked his magic yesterday. The more RWBY reveals about Salem, the more I go, “Okay, but why didn’t his happen [insert any number of years] ago?”

Did Jaune actually leave? I assume he's just grabbing an airship or something before coming back to drag Oscar away, but seriously where did he go?

There's no way I can approach this scene without throwing up my hands and going, "What? WHY?" Which is a real shame because we finally get to see a bit of what the cane does and it’s... precisely what Ozpin's magic has always done? I mean, we saw that green shield five years ago and now there's a giant white beam. Okay.

If the beam just hits Salem with Generic Magic Power then there was never anything secret about the cane, it’s just, you know, Ozpin’s weapon. If the cane does something significant to hurt her we're left with the question of why it took literal generations to use it. Nothing is making sense to me and the only way I can think to salvage this scene is if Jaune runs back in, snags Oscar like a sack of potatoes, and runs out yelling about how he's clearly suffering from a concussion because what are you trying to accomplish here?

It doesn't help that this moment feels... final. Hazel has managed to hold Salem in place. Oscar has unlocked his cane and lands some mega hit right before Hazel passes out and looses his hold. Not only does this feel like a scene that should be at the end of the volume (we've still got five episodes), but also the end of the series. RWBY is building Salem into an unbeatable enemy by giving her more and more powers, and simultaneously eliminating the stakes by having our currently weakest character (in terms of exhaustion/injuries/aura/training) landing a shot like that. Why would you nerf Salem's threat level like that in the middle of a volume? Especially with a tool our group has had available from the start? If the cane does damage, maybe lead with that in the, “Here’s why we should stay and fight” office conversation.

I assume that Oscar's hit will obliterate Salem to the point where both he and Hazel have time to escape, or he obliterates both of them (“Do it”) and that's somehow presented as a better choice than just running while Salem is captured, or the bomb will interrupt things somehow... but it's just so shoddily done. At the very least, if they were going to have Oscar refuse to let someone fight alone, have it be an actual friend he's staying to assist. Having Oscar refuse his own rescue to help Hazel has more than one problem attached to it. We can say what we want about RWBY's themes of forgiveness, but this guy was torturing him just a few hours ago while serving Remnant's version of the devil. Just let him sacrifice himself and move on.

And that's where we end. Oscar powering up, the cane getting all magic-y, and him shooting a crazy big blast that engulfs both Salem and Hazel. I can't believe how not excited I am about my farm boy doing something badass, but here we are.

Overall I think this episode was way worse than last week's. We absolutely had problems in "Dark," particularly when it came to the Hound and the group's blind devotion to Ruby, but at least those moments were cushioned by an otherwise decent episode. "Witch" felt like I was watching something closer to a parody of RWBY, one deliberately poking fun at the fandom's desires: erase all conflict for awkward silly times, your favorite villains are instantly good now, the heroes go toe-to-toe with the main antagonist because why not, throw a bunch of magic in there for good measure, and wrap it all up in some over the top "this isn't a fairy tale" lines. I can see the pieces of a much better episode here — Emerald sneaking Oscar out with her semblance, Neo snagging the relic, Flint and Neon, Hazel attacking Salem — but it simply didn't come together.

I know I said this last time, but I have no idea what we're going to do for another five episodes. Salem slowly reforming from bomb damage as the group tries to keep Penny from opening the vault? The grimm attack halted with the whale gone so Qrow can go after Ironwood? The longer this volume runs, the more I think it was a mistake for them to introduce Salem as a fightable antagonist now. RWBY doesn't know what to do with her besides have her inevitably fall in the final season, so until then she's left being stupid (Relic), passive (Mantle), or, likely, written out of the story temporarily so the heroes can turn their attention towards smaller conflicts and weaker foes. They literally can’t beat Salem yet, but they can’t focus on other problems when she’s around without coming across as negligent, so if you have to find ways to erase her to make room for that... what was the point of bringing her here in the first place? We could have established that Salem is bound to her realm and had her send the Hound and whale to attack Atlas. There, all the fun parts of the volume without her complicated presence.

Well, the next five weeks will certainly be interesting, at the very least...

Until next time 💜

[Ko-Fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #rwby witch #mymetas #rwby recaps

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jace-the-writer-guy · 4 years

Text

Braid

///A little story I wanted to do based off of this adorable comic here drawn by @puresnowyfurball Nothing major at all in terms of spoilers for those that haven't seen the new episodes yet///

Sitting in front of the mirror in the dorm team RWBY had been given in Atlas, Weiss couldn't help but let out a sigh. She had gone through so much to get out of Atlas months ago, and put Klein in danger of losing his job and now she was right back in the floating city, right back under her father's nose. It wasn't something she expected to happen so soon, but here she was, and she had to face it. But, what made her smile a bit was the knowledge that she had her friends to back her up against her father. She knew none of them would put up with her father's abuse of her if and when he discovered her presence in Atlas, and she loved them all for it.

Weiss looked at herself through the mirror and could see the smile on her face. It always felt good to be able to genuinely smile, and with all the friends she had made in Beacon and the friends that stood with her now, those smiles came more and more often even through the situation she and everyone else were in. There was a lot of bad things going on in the world now since the fall of Beacon, and even before the fall, but Weiss could find solace in the presence of her team, Ren, Nora, Jaune, and even Qrow and Oscar. They were all like one big team, and Weiss knew she could be safe with them all. She just wished Pyrrha could be there with them.

Soon, she remembered just why she was sitting in front of the mirror and she ran her fingers through her long, platinum hair. She saw that Ruby and Blake had restyled their hair, and she knew Yang would never do that, so she wanted to do something new with hers too. Plus, she really needed to brush it again anyways now that they had finally found a bit of time to relax. Weiss reached for her brush and took hold of it, but then it was gently taken from her hand. Caught up in her thoughts about her friends and her hair, she hadn't noticed that someone came into the room and when they stood behind her, Weiss could see through the mirror who exactly it was.

"Your hair has gotten longer since we've last seen each other," Winter said softly and began to run the brush through her sister's locks, "You've always loved letting it grow."

"O-oh, hello Winter," Weiss greeted the elder Schnee. She truly didn't expect her to come visit, "Shouldn't you be working with Ironwood?"

Winter chuckled a small bit. "I took a short leave with his permission so I could come see you. No training, no missions... I just want to spend time with my little sister again."

Hearing that made Weiss' heart warm up from the cold of being back in Atlas. "Thank you, Winter," She felt her shoulders slack a bit in relaxation as the brush slowly went through her hair, "I've always missed how you brushed my hair."

"I have too. I remember your hair used to only reach the middle of your back. Now..." Winter trailed her fingers through Weiss' hair right after each stroke of the brush, always sure to lift her hair up and brush through to the tip as well, "It's so long and beautiful, just how you've grown to be a beautiful young woman."

Each moment that passed by with Winter brushing Weiss' hair, the younger Schnee felt more and more relaxed. Each time the brush and Winter's fingers passed through her hair, she hummed lightly. She looked at herself in the mirror and looked up at Winter's face, and she could see a small smile formed on her lips. It was a smile of happiness, one that Weiss could barely remember seeing from Winter. Soon, Weiss couldn't help but begin to smile too, and her eyes closed in happy contentment. An hour seemed to fly by as Winter just continued to brush her little sister's hair. There had been no more words shared between them. Both of them were happy to be able to spend time together like this once more for the first time in forever, and it filled them both with joy and gave them both a much needed morale boost.

Eventually, Weiss felt the brushing stop and then she felt Winter playing around with her hair. She was curious about what Winter was doing, but she was perfectly okay with keeping her eyes closed. It was so relaxing that she could fall asleep right then and not have a care in the world about it, but she wanted to spend every second she could with Winter. She then felt Winter begin to slowly braid her hair, and she remembered that Winter had always loved to do that when they were little. To be able to look back on her childhood in such a happy way filled Weiss with absolute joy. It made her completely look past the hell they were both going through because of their father. Those were some of the only times Weiss and Winter found happiness as children, and those memories were what Weiss clutched onto in this moment she shared with her big sister once more.

"There," Winter said after a few more minutes and Weiss slowly opened her eyes to see what Winter had done, "What do you think?"

Weiss pulled her braided hair in front of her and she looked over it, and her smile grew. "It looks really nice. I love it. Thank you, Winter. I... needed this."

Winter smiled softly. "I did too, Weiss."

Weiss stood up from her seat and turned to face Winter, and she hugged her once more. Winter didn't hesitate for a single moment before returning the embrace, hugging her sister tightly. "Be careful, Weiss... This is a very dangerous thing you've involved yourself in."

Weiss scoffed a bit. "Anything is better than being locked up at home."

Winter couldn't hold back a short, low laugh. "That is fair."

"You be careful too," Weiss said to the specialist, "I never want to have to hear that you've been killed in action... I don't know if I could bear it..."

"If that day comes, then I know you can," Winter said gently, "You're stronger than you know."

Weiss stayed silent for several moments. "How much longer until you have to return to duty?"

"I have a few hours still. I'm not going to let this time slip away. I want you to know that whatever may come in the future, I will always love you, Weiss. You're my sister, and nothing will ever change that."

Weiss hugged tighter. "I love you too, Winter."

#weiss schnee #winter schnee #rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby 7

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tahnex · 4 years

Text

Road to Graduation

Hi, so this is the first chapter of a new RWBY fic. I’m stuck in quarantine with time on my hands, an idea, and decided screw it, let’s write a RWBY fic. A very quick bit of background, this is canon-compliant until after the Volume 7 finale, then it goes its own way. The first two chapters are mostly setting the scene and giving some background for the following story, so apologies if they’re a bit long, and a little heavy on dialogue and exposition, but there’s a fair bit that needs to be explained.

(Also the title is currently temporary, I’m pretty bad at titles and this was the first idea that came into my head that sounds decent enough).

Anybody who wants to be like a beta reader or give any reviews or anything is REALLY welcome to do so! I don’t have one at the minute, so it might be a little rough around the edges. Any, click below for the actual chapter!

It’s been a month since they fought Salem. A month since Ozpin had taken over Oscar’s body and, with a little help from Ruby’s silver eyes, wounded Salem enough to force her into the Winter Vault, with Penny sealing it, and Salem, away. Tyrian had been recaptured and, whilst in a fury at Salem being sealed, was goading the Ace Ops with how many people he had killed in the fight, and accidentally let slip he’d also killed Clover. Robyn Hill had used her semblance on both Qrow and, under heavy restraints, Tyrian, proving Qrow’s innocence and his release. The CCT towers are slowly being set up again, and a message was sent to Vacuo to make sure they didn’t try to open the Summer Vault, along with a promise to Beacon that the Atlesian Military would send help to rid Vale and Beacon of the Grimm that were plaguing the city and old Academy grounds, including the Wyvern Grimm clinging to Beacon Tower. Once the two kingdoms worked together, and nearly the full might of the Atlesian military was brought to bear, the Grimm surrounding Beacon were forced back and Beacon returned to the way it was two years or so ago.

Following that, a rather awkward conversation took place in Atlas tower, involving the now General Winter Schnee, Team RWBY and JNR, and with Professor Goodwitch on call from Beacon.

“What do you mean our licenses were revoked?!” Yang slammed her hands down on the table.

Winter sighed, “Former General Ironwood revoked your licenses when you declined to support his plan to save Atlas. I’ve…”

“You mean when we refused to let him sacrifice the whole of Mantle and the people in it.” Blake retorted, glaring at Winter.

Winter met Blake’s stare for a beat before continuing, “As I was saying, I’ve tried to reinstate the licenses, as well as issue you new permanent ones, however when he revoked the licenses he blocked all seven of you from being granted a license by anyone with Atlesian authority, including military and the council.”

Ruby turned to the scroll with Professor Goodwitch on, “Professor? Is there anything you can do?”

Professor Goodwitch’s voice came through the scroll, slightly crackly as the CCT system was not back up to its prior strength, “Atlas is the only country who can produce Huntsmen licenses without graduating at an academy. Without returning to an academy, completing your education, and then graduating, we cannot grant you your licenses.”

At this nearly everyone looked crestfallen. “So, despite everything that’s happened, there’s nothing you can do? We helped to defeat Salem! Surely that should count for SOMETHING!” Jaune yelled.

Professor Goodwitch sighed, “I appreciate your frustration Mr Arc, and the whole of Vytal is thankful for your assistance in defeating Salem…”

“Not that they’ll ever know about it” muttered Blake.

“Thank you for your comments Miss Belladonna, but considering the panic you all saw in Mantle and the amount of Grimm it brought, would you really wish that on the rest of Vytal when they learned of an immortal Queen of the Grimm that is trying to destroy humanity?” Professor Goodwitch replied sharply, “Even if she is sealed away, it would still bring panic and Grimm, leading to loss of life.”

Blake looked down embarrassed and Yang glared at the scroll.

“Back to your point Mr Arc, I’ve spoken to the council members in Vale, and informed them that your absence from all of the Academies was approved by Professor Ozpin before his death, and your recent efforts were part of an extended mission, watched over by Qrow Branwen. Fortunately, news of his mistaken arrest, which I WILL be speaking to you about General, did not reach Vale. I have convinced them that due to the success of your highly secret mission, your entire second year, for all of you, was passed.”

“Is that really all you can do?” Ruby said quietly.

“Yes Miss Rose. That is all I can do.” Even to most of the people in the room Professor Goodwitch sounded tired, and possibly even a little sad.

Everyone looked at each other, slightly unsure of what to do or say until Ren spoke up “So what happens now?”

“If you all still wish to graduate and become professional Huntsmen and Huntresses, you are welcome to return to Beacon to complete your training there, starting in your third year. I’ll give you until 5pm tomorrow to decide. Since the disaster of the last Vytal Festival the council is trying to keep a much closer eye on Beacon, so I have to tell them what is happening with you seven at their next meeting tomorrow.”

Ruby looked back to the scroll “And if we refuse?”

“Then you will not become legal Huntsmen and Huntresses.”

There were a few moments of silence before Winter spoke up, “You can go back to your rooms now to discuss this. It’s the best option you have.”

Taking her not so subtle hint to leave, the two teams left the room, but not before hearing Professor Goodwitch turn her attention to Winter, “Now, would you please be so kind as to explain not only why the hell you put out a warrant for Qrow’s arrest, but also why you then followed through with it?” Any further words were cut off by the doors sealing behind them. Ruby and Yang glanced at each other grinning slightly, they’d been on the receiving end of one of Professor Goodwitch’s scolding, more than once for Yang, and knew how bad it could be.

It wasn’t long before they reached their rooms and split into their respective teams.

Ruby and Blake sat on the beds, with Weiss and Yang taking chairs opposite their respective partners, Yang spinning hers round to sit backwards.

“Well Ruby? What do we do?” Blake asked.

Ruby looked to them all in turn, “What do you guys WANT to do? I know I’m the leader of our team, but I don’t want to force you to do something you don’t want to…”

Weiss was the first to reply, “Personally, my vote is to graduate and become a Huntress. My only other option would be to take over the Schnee Dust Company, but I don’t want to do that, in fact I want nothing to do with it. I’m done with Atlas; Ironwood was the last straw.”

Yang looked to Blake before facing Ruby “I don’t know Rubes, to be honest I’m not happy with the whole situation, if they do this to us now, what’s to say something else won’t happen again in the future? I’m not sure about returning to Beacon, but I want us to stay together as a team.”

Blake looked at Yang directly whilst saying “I want to stay as a team, so I’ll follow you guys.” Yang smiled in response.

Ruby looked down at the ground for a moment, “All I’ve ever wanted was to be a Huntress. To help people. If the only way to do that is to go back to Beacon and graduate, then I would do that. But being together as a team is more important. We got split up once before, that’s not happening again.” She looked at the time on her scroll “It’s getting late, we’ll sleep on it and see what we think tomorrow.”

The others nodded their agreement and got ready for bed. Across the hall, JNR was having a similar discussion.

“What happens now Jaune?” Nora looked to her team leader.

“I don’t know Nora, I don’t know.” Jaune sat down on his bed heavily.

“Me and Ren have nowhere else to go, we don’t have a family or home to return to, it’s just us three now. So, we’ll follow you where you go.” Nora looked to Ren for reassurance, slipping her hand into his, and he nodded.

“Thanks you guys,” Jaune smiled at them both, “To be honest, returning to some kind of, I don’t know, normal life would be good you know? Finishing school and actually having something to show for everything we’ve done would be good. Plus, I could kinda do with a bit more training,” he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“Then back to school we go,” Ren said quietly.

The next day they all met up in Winter’s office. Professor Goodwitch was on call from Beacon again, “Well, have you all come to a decision?”

Ruby and Jaune looked at each other and nodded. The two teams had discussed it over breakfast that morning. “Looks like you’re going to have to put up with our team again Professor,” Ruby smiled.

“And ours.” Jaune chimed in after Ruby.

“Good. Pack your things, you’ll be on the next flight to Vale, it leaves tonight.” Winter nodded at them all.

“Mr Arc? If you, Miss Valkyrie and Mr Ren could all remain for a moment, there is something we need to discuss with you three.” Professor Goodwitch said.

Jaune looked at Ruby and said, “Go on, we’ll catch up to you.” Ruby looked a little confused but nodded and led her team out the door. “Yes Professor? What is it?” Jaune turned back to the scroll.

Team RWBY reached their room and packed their things, Weiss double checking to make sure they’d left nothing behind, before heading to the landing platform, finding someone waiting for them. “Hey kiddo, looks like you’re hitching a ride back to Vale with me.”

“Uncle Qrow!” Ruby sprinted to give Qrow a tight hug. “I was worried about you” Ruby whispered into his coat. Yang came up behind Ruby and gave her uncle a hug as well, whilst Weiss and Blake stood back a little, not sure what they should do.

“I’m alright, just tired of this cold.” Qrow said, looking to the door as it slid open to reveal Winter standing in the doorway.

“Weiss. Come here.”

Weiss breathed out before turning to walk to her older sister. “Yes Winter?”

They walked to one side of the doorway and Winter stood awkwardly for a moment before replying, “I’m glad you decided to continue your education.” They were silent for a moment before she continued “Now that Father is in custody, and will never touch our family again, I will…see what I can do to help Mother,” she motioned to Qrow with her head, “If that alcoholic idiot over there can drag himself to sobriety, I will see what I can do to help Mother achieve the same.”

Weiss almost couldn’t believe what she was about say considering how he had treated her but… ”And Whitley.”

Winter looked a little surprised at Weiss.

“He was always closer to Father than us or Mother. He will need support as well. Especially as he is now the heir and will take over the company.” Weiss swallowed hard, wanting to say the words before she changed her mind.

Winter looked solemn for a moment, “Yes, we all neglected him, and Father took him completely under his influence. I will try to help him as well, but I suspect Klein will be better able to help Whitley than me.”

Weiss smiled at the memory of her friend and former butler and, seeing the members of Team JNR come out into the air said, “This will be goodbye then sister.”

“Yes, it will be.” Winter nodded, before Weiss grabbed her in an impromptu hug. Winter hesitated for a moment before smiling slightly and returning it. “Try to write or call more often too.”

“I will” Weiss smiled at her sister, before turning and walking back to her team.

Qrow looked up at her arrival, nodded curtly to Winter, then turned, slipped his hands in his pockets and walked up the ramp onto the aircraft. Winter sighed, shook her head, then stood to attention as the others waved goodbye and followed Qrow up the ramp and back to Vale.

Ruby lingered slightly before continuing into the aircraft, a little upset Penny hadn’t come to see them off, but the ever-energetic girl had left on a mission from Winter a week ago and wouldn’t return for a few more days. Sitting down with the rest of her team opposite Qrow and JNR she heard Weiss ask Jaune “What did Professor Goodwitch want to speak with you about?”

Jaune looked slightly awkward and Nora a little cross, whilst Ren remained relatively impassive as always. “She said when we arrive, we need to go to her office and speak with her straight away, just the three of us. She didn’t say anything else.” Weiss and Blake suspected something wasn’t being said but decided that the others would tell them in time, and for now, all they wanted to do was lean back and rest. Just before closing her eyes to sleep Ruby noticed Qrow leaning back, eyes closed trying to sleep, but with a glimmer of green in his right hand.

After arriving at Beacon, they all wearily climbed out the aircraft, Yang and Ruby giving long hugs to Qrow, before he walked off, raising a hand to say goodbye. The seven climbed up the steps to the main doors, not noticing there was someone standing next to Professor Goodwitch.

“Salutations friends!”

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sneezehq · 3 years

Text

Reunite

Two familiar faces make an appearance in Mistral. Part of my ‘Eye for an Eye’ series.

If what Qrow told them yesterday about the maidens, relics, and magic was hard to believe, everything that Oscar—sorry, Professor Ozpin—explains to them is almost impossible to take seriously. But once again, Qrow shows no sign that he's joking. And there are too many things that Oscar knows that can't be explained away by this being some sort of elaborate prank.

Jaune, Nora, and Ren express similar opinions of surprise and disbelief. It's a lot of information to take in in just two days.

Oscar—Professor Ozpin—starts talking about the steps that they'll need to take in order to be ready to fight Salem. Step one is to recruit more Huntsmen and Huntresses to their cause. Qrow claims to have it covered through his connections.

"And step two," Professor Ozpin announces. "Will be getting the four of you into fighting shape."

There's a moment of awkward silence following his declaration. Finally, Nora pipes up. "But we already know how to fight," she points out. "We just crossed an entire continent, fighting monsters all the way."

Faster than any of them can blink, Oscar's body lunges forward, his cane coming to rest just short of the redhead's throat. "I'm afraid you all have a long way to go before you're ready to pose any real threat to Salem and her forces."

Nora scowls. "He's right," Ruby says. "I've never been very good at fighting without a weapon, and I've got a lot of adjusting to do." She brushes her hair away from her face to reveal her scar to illustrate her point.

Professor Ozpin nods, frowning. "I see. Well, I suggest that you children get some rest. Your training will start bright and early tomorrow morning. And Miss Rose, I have some past experience that you might find useful."

Ruby nods. "Wait," Jaune says. "If Ruby's uncle is going to be out recruiting Huntsmen, who's going to train us?"

Professor Ozpin smirks. "Well." He pauses to do a rather impressive flip onto one of the chairs. "I believe I was the headmaster of Beacon Academy. Oscar will need to practice as well. He'll inherit my muscle memory in time, but he'll still need to strengthen both his body and his aura." His smile widens at their shocked faces. "I'll see you in the morning, students."

Oscar, unprepared to be shoved back in control, wobbles in his unsteady perch on the chair, before crashing to the ground. Ruby rushes over to his side. "Are you okay?"

"You've got to be kidding me," he groans. Ruby helps him to his feet.

Yeah, that just about sums it up.

And so, their training begins.

The six of them quickly fall into a routine. Every morning, Qrow heads out to meet with his Huntsmen contacts, while the four of them plus Oscar train in the yard and the dojo.

Training is . . . difficult, to say the least. Ruby spends most of her time getting thrown in the dirt, and ends each day bruised and exhausted. At least when they practice with their weapons she can rely on muscle memory, but hand-to-hand is a different story. Fighting without a weapon had always been something that she struggled with, and her new lack of sight on her left side makes everything much more difficult.

But even as she struggles, Ruby is immensely grateful to be fighting again at all. Maybe it's silly, but ever since she'd woken up with a scar where her eye should be, a small part of her had been terrified that her life as a huntress was over. It feels good to be back in action, even as Jaune knocks her to the ground for the fifth time in a row.

"You okay, Ruby?" Jaune asks, offering a hand to help her back to her feet.

She nods and tries to catch her breath. "I'm good. Let's try that again."

Jaune frowns at her. "Are you sure? Maybe you should take a break, let someone else give it a try."

"I'm fine, really," Ruby insists. Even if sitting down for a few minutes sound fantastic, she needs to keep practicing. She needs to get stronger.

Oscar turns around to face them, his green eyes glowing faintly. "Miss Rose, you're not going to improve by continuing to strain yourself when you're already tired. Rest for a few minutes and try it again when you're fresh."

Ruby grumbles, but decides not to keep arguing. Jaune pats her on the shoulder as she makes her way over to the bench. She blinks, suddenly feeling less exhausted and sore.

It takes far longer than she would like, but as they continue to train, Ruby can tell that she's making some progress. Ozpin advises her on how to use her other senses to make up for her blind spots and issues with depth perception. He also teaches her how to extend her aura and use it to get a sense for her surroundings. When she's not fighting, she spends a lot of time meditating with Jaune and Oscar, trying to strengthen her aura and expand its reach.

Even as her hand-to-hand skills improve, Ruby knows that she needs to work on her ranged fighting. Her sniping abilities were affected when she lost her eye, and Ruby isn't sure if she'll ever be able to fully regain what she's lost. She even debates making some adjustments to Crescent Rose—she'd definitely be able to find the parts here in Mistral—but she can't quite bring herself to do it. It would feel too much like giving up. Plus, she tells herself, it's much easier to relearn how to fight without making changes to her weapon.

So instead, she practices her targeting and accuracy until the neighbors complain and her fingers bleed. Maybe she should start wearing gloves.

Oscar seems just as determined as she is to improve his fighting skills, and often they're the last two left practicing after everyone else calls it quits for the day. Their conversation from the other night still echoes in her head. "You've lost so much already," he'd pointed out. "How are you okay with all of this?"

She hadn't said it then, but if she's being honest, she's not okay with any of this. But whether or not she's okay with it isn't going to change the fact that it's happening, so she might as well just buckle down and deal with it.

Ruby still has nightmares about Tyrian most nights, but the benefit of Ozpin's aggressive training program is that most days she's too exhausted to let her dreams keep her from sleeping. She's thought about talking to Qrow about it, but he's been so busy lately, she doesn't want to bother him.

The days pass in a blur, and soon three weeks have passed since they visited Haven Academy. Qrow has been growing frustrated with the local Huntsmen. He'd started his search on the outskirts of the city, where the council held less influence, but after a couple weeks of nothing but dead ends he'd been forced to start searching within the city.

Which is why Ruby finds herself in the kitchen helping Ren, Jaune, and Nora make dinner. Qrow had left to meet with a bunch of his contacts in the city this morning, so the four of them had decided to prepare a big dinner for when he returned with their new allies in tow. Jaune is setting the table while Nora chops (and eats) the vegetables. Ruby and Ren are manning the stove.

She's scowling at Ren, who's claiming that she's going to overcook the food (for such a quiet guy, he's so bossy when it comes to cooking), when she hears her uncle's voice. "I'm back."

"Be right there!" she calls back, before getting distracted by a large plume of smoke from the noodles she's supposed to be watching. That's not good.

"Ruby," her uncle calls again, sounding impatient. She decides to leave dinner in Ren's hands.

"I'm coming!" she says, grabbing a tray loaded with a teapot and cups and making her way out of the kitchen and into the living room. She wonders how many people Qrow has convinced to help them. Hopefully enough for them to go after the Spring maiden. What are they like? What kind of weapons will they have?

She focuses on the tray as she walks, not wanting to drop it and make a mess when they have guests. "So, we didn't know how many people were coming, so we just cooked all of it." Ruby glances up to look at Qrow and the new arrivals. Her mouth drops open.

The tray slides from her hands. The teapot and cups shatter on the floor. Ruby doesn't even notice.

Whoever she was expecting Qrow to bring with him, it wasn't Yang or Weiss.

For a long moment, the three of them just stare at each other. Finally, Yang takes a few steps forward.

Ruby flinches back, racked with the guilt that she's been suppressing for months. She braces herself to be yelled at. Yang is probably furious, and she has every right to be. Ruby had left her sister when she'd needed her most. No amount of apologies can fix that.

"Yang, I'm so sorry! I should have stayed, and I should have talked to you more, I just wasn't sure if you wanted me around and—" Her vision blurs with tears as she tries to find the right words.

She freezes when she feels strong arms around her. Yang is—hugging her? "I love you," her sister murmurs, pulling Ruby closer to her.

Ruby hugs Yang back tightly and lets out a small sob. She's dizzy with relief. Her sister isn't yelling at her. She doesn't hate her for leaving. "I love you too," she manages to squeak out. The tight knot of guilt and worry in her chest finally starts to ease a little.

Across from them, Weiss sniffles loudly, and Yang and Ruby gesture for her to join them. They stand there for a couple minutes, arms wrapped around each other, relieved to be together again. It's almost perfect.

Ruby wishes Blake was here.

"You look different," Weiss comments when they finally let go, ignoring everyone watching them.

Ruby stiffens. Is she talking about—

"Yeah, I'm digging the new outfit, sis," Yang says, elbowing her playfully in the side.

Ruby laughs to hide her relieved sigh. "You too!"

Dinner that night is rowdy. The six of them talk over each other as they attempt to share stories from their travels. There's a lot to catch up about.

"Its arm is a tree! Its arm is a tree!" Nora cries, mimicking Jaune's shouts of horror. "And then Ruby used her super speed and zoomed in so we could attack it together! She was totally awesome!"

"Who, me? Did you see Jaune in that fight? He didn't even have a weapon and he still helped us take that giant Grimm down like it was nothing!"

"Oh, please, I couldn't have done anything if Ren hadn't figured out it's weak point."

The six friends grin at each other as Weiss talks about the charity event she disrupted and Yang shows off her new arm. Before they know it, Nora is challenging her to an arm-wrestling contest and they're all cheering their respective teammates on.

Ruby doesn't mean to keep what happened to her a secret, especially not from Yang and Weiss, but right now feels like the wrong time to bring it up. They're having a good time, just happy to be reunited again. The last thing she wants to do is bring everyone down. She'll tell them later, when it's a better time.

"How is it possible for six kids to make so much noise eating dinner?" Qrow complains. Oscar is standing next to him in the doorway.

They all look up sheepishly. Ozpin clears his throat. "I think we need to have a talk."

The sun isn't even up yet when Ruby decides to get up the next morning. Despite the tense conversation last night, she's just excited to have her sister and her partner back. When it becomes obvious that she's not going to be able to fall back asleep, she decides to go to the training grounds to meditate.

It's still early when she's joined by Weiss and Yang. Apparently everyone is having a hard time sleeping. They sip their coffee and chat as the sun rises. Ruby sighs. It's so nice to have team RWBY back together again.

Well, almost.

The moment she mentions Blake, she wishes that she'd just kept her mouth shut. It's obvious that Yang is still hurt by her leaving—but she isn't the only one hurting. And if Ruby is being honest with herself, she's getting tired of being yelled at when she's just trying to help.

But that's a selfish thought, so she shakes her head and forces it to the back of her mind. She sits up and lets out a long sigh that blows her hair out of her face, bracing herself to go and try to talk to her sister again.

Weiss gets there first. "Is everything okay?" Ruby asks, carefully poking her head in to see the two of them sitting on Yang's bed.

"We're good," Yang replies, sounding much calmer. Ruby lets out a sigh of relief.

It's quiet for a moment, and Ruby studies the floorboards, trying to plan for training now that they have two extra people. When she looks up again, Yang and Weiss are staring at her in shock. "What's wrong?"

"Ruby," Yang says, her voice trailing off.

"What happened to you?" Weiss asks.

Too late, Ruby realizes that they're staring at the left side of her face. Oh. Well, this wasn't exactly how she wanted them to find out. She forces herself to smile and arranges her bangs so that they're covering her eye again. "That's a bit of a long story. Why don't we talk about it over breakfast?"

#rwby #volume 5 #ruby rose #eye for an eye #fanfic #my writing

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calliecat93 · 3 years

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Top 5 Things I Disliked About RWBY Volume 7

Well everyone, Volume 8 will soon be upon us. IDK about anyone else, but I’ve never been so anxious about a volume in the near seven years I’ve been watching this show. Not even V3 had me this nervous, and I knew by nature of it being a Tournament Arc that it was gonna be painful. But as we near the new volume, I want to reflect on the previous one. So I am bringing back my Likes/Dislikes posts… except this time I DON’T have to do twelve posts for six volumes in a week. Only gotta do one Volume for today and tomorrow. Phew!

While V6 remains my favorite volume,V7 was a very well done one and by far the best written thus far. It was honestly super hard to pick five things I didn’t like, and are all pretty minor honestly. Heck I expect V8 to address some of these since V7 was clearly the build-up. But I did manage to make a Top 5 Dislikes List. As always, this is just my personal opinion and you are free to disagree with me. Take everything here with a grain of salt. Anyways, that’s enough exposition. Let the countdown begin~!

#5. Too Many Characters/Lack of Focus

RWBY has a lot of characters. A lot, loooot of them. You can tell it’s an anime for that reason alone, haha. Volume 8 thought might be the winner in the amount of it’s cast. We have our main cast, which consists of nine characters already (ten if you count Ozpin and eleven if you count Maria), which is already a lot to keep up with. But in this volume we have Ironwood, Penny, Winter, the Ace-Ops, Pietro, Robyn and her Happy Huntresses, the Schnee Family, Watts, Tyrian, and the list goes on. And those are just the relevant ones.

To the show’s credit, the volume mostly handles the focus well. They make sure that ones like Ironwood and Penny get a proper amount of focus considering their importance in this volume specifically. They also do a lot to showcase characters like Robyn, Clover, and Marrow so that we understand what they’re like and care about them, which makes how things end up even sadder. That being said, it did cause some of cast I think to get the short end of the stick a bit. Characters like Maria and Jaune pretty much got barely anything, and Blake and Yang would have also been out of luck if not for their talk with Robyn in Chapter 7. Some of the Ace-Ops, like Elm and Vine, and the Happy Huntresses who aren’t Robyn also didn’t get a lot of focus and the latter especially only got bare minimum glimpses into their personalities. Even with characters I was happy with like Ruby, Weiss, Ren, and Nora I feel could have had more done with their arcs here (the latter two especially but we’ll get tot hat later) had there been less characters and/or more time.

This is Number 5 because not only is it a minor issue, but it’s kind of inevitable. Shows only get so much time and the characters we focused on needed that time. Ironwood’s downfall wouldn’t have been nearly as powerful if it weren’t center stage. It’s one of those hard choices where you want to see more, but the show just had other things that took priority for the sake of both production and the story. Ultimately, it was the right decision and at most just makes me wish there was more.

#4. Emotionally Draining

Again, minor. I wasn’t even sure if I should add this because really I think it’s more of a personal thing than anything. But I failed to come up with another option, so... gotta take what I can get.

As good as this volume was, it was a VERY emotionally draining one. It was probably the only time I was kind of happy when it was over because ie meant a chance to breathe until V8. There’s the whole political plot that hit way too close for comfort, Tyrian’s murder spree and Penny’s framing, Ironwood’s downfall, everything from the halfway point of Chapter 11 to the end. Heck eve the first two chapters, and even bits of 3 and 4, were super tense and on edge. We had plenty of light-hearted and fun moments in the beginning. But by Chapter 6, that came to an end (or I didn’t find funny, like JNR’s antics in Chapter 8, sorry guys) and it was V3 again, but somehow even more on-edge.

Like I said, this isn’t really a dislike and is on here because I couldn’t think up anything else. As I said, the writing was very strong and on-point. I was nervous, but I’m pretty sure that’s because the writers wanted the audience nervous. They wanted us to feel the tension and fear. hey wanted us to be as conflicted about everything as the characters that we were watching. It was effective too. But it did leave me relieved that it was all over. I didn’t watch V7 in full again until recently when I got my Blu-Ray copy to put into perspective how drained I had been. I was fine upon rewatch, but yeah... way to rise up my stress levels CRWBY!

#3. The Ren/Nora Conflict

This is related to the Number 5 section. I think we can all agree that Ren and Nora tend to get the short end of the stick compared to Jaune and the rest of the main cast. V4 was an improvement, but 5 and 6 returned them to minor supporting roles and even V4 did more for Ren than Nora imo, who to this day is imo the least developed of the main cast. But clearly they wanted to start changing that, and given Jaune more or less got closure last volume it seemed like an ideal time to give the two development, especially where their relationship is concerned.

While Nora was overall fine, Ren... not so much? They do a god job setting up the two’s conflict, albeit the cliché ‘girl compliments boy, boy ignores her as they’re in the middle of something else’ joke in Chapter 3 was dumb. But Chapter 6 made it clear that there was far more going on. Nora is pushing to help Mantle and in the following chapter we have her snap at Ironwood for forcing so much sacrifice on it, but not on Atlas itself. Ren however is closed off (more tha usual), focus more or less solely on the task, is clealry afraid of their uncertain battle against Salem, and even seems to side with Ironwood in Chapter 7. It’s the first major conflict between the two with Nora just trying to get Ren to talk to her. She even finally kisses him... and we all know what happens after that.

The main issue here is two things. One, we NEVER get any clarity on why Ren is acting so cold to Nora, the one person he was always open around (well... for him anyways). I mean I have a good idea why and I’m 99% sure that V8 is going to go into it, but without any clarity it just comes off as him being unfair to Nora who is just concerned for him. The other issue is there is no closure to 9it. We have the final chapter where Ren tries to fight Neo, but as she’s disguised as Nora it goes badly. The poor boy is tearful, snaps at Nora when she tries to calm him down, and it ends in the boy looking like he’s about to have a nervous breakdown. It’s heart-wrenching, but still ultimately leaves the conflict unresolved. Plus we had a pretty large gap between the Renora Kiss (Chapter 6) and that moment (Chapter 13) with some brief moments sprinkled in. Otherwise, Ren acted as we’d expect even with the goofy plan in Chapter 8 where he seemed unusually chill considering. So it just kinda feels like for a while they... forgot about it.

This is right in the middle because as I said, I expect Volume 8 to go more into this. They’ve outright said that if there was something we were confused by or felt didn’t go anywhere, Volume 8 was going to address. This was set-up, and it leaves me anxious to see how things will go with these two especially going off the brief lines we heard in the trailer. But it still sucked that we got no closure and didn’t go further into why Ren is acting like he is. I know I was unsure of how to feel when it was all over. But I guess we’ll see the final result soon enough.

#2. The Truth Revelations

If you were reading my Volume 7 reviews, you know that I REALLY did not like how Chapters 9 and 10 were done. Why? Because of the truth reveals. Now I now know why t was handled like it was, which actually saved it from being out at Number 1 on the list. But does that change me opinion of it? Nope.

First, I want to talk about how it more or less began. That being Blake and Yang revealing the Amity Project to Robyn in Chapter 7. While I DO like them taking matters into their own hands instead of being complacent, I STILL have major issues on how they didn’t talk to Ruby and Weiss about it. I’ve heard the arguments about it, but imo when we have Yang having major hang ups with lies and half-truths (it’s why she was enraged at Oz), her and Blake seeming to pull the same thing... doesn’t look good. There is zero on-screen indication that they let the other sin about it later, which had they done so then the group could have planned proper steps in helping the two sides which may have caused Ironwood to not jump off the slippery slope as badly. Will V8 mention this? IDK, but it does bother me and I would like it addressed especially concerning the themes of trust.

Then we get to Chapters 9 and 10, where my issues go into effect. Robyn drops the hostility and reveals her knowledge of the project, but wants to try and work with Ironwood. The heroes reveal everything to Ironwood and while understandably shocked, he otherwise takes Salem being unkillable well. Then the two leaders reveal this to Mantle, using Robyn’s Semblance to prove it, and... that makes the citizens okay. Yeah... even knowing what happens later I still have issues with this. Because even with that knowledge, there was NO GOOD REASON fo AY of this to go well.

Robyn may know why Ironwood was depleting Mantle resources, but it doesn’t change that he caused a LOT of damage to Mantle due to it. Ironwood, despite his expected reaction coming later, still took the Salem news far too well especially considering how on-edge of her he’d been at that point. The citizens of Mantle know about Salem, but not why ironwood was depleting resources. Plus it doesn’t change that he was a borderline tyrant towards them and he didn’t try explaining that part to them. The fact that THAT calmed them down so easily, even with Robyn’s presence, just came off as... too easy.

Which it was. All of this was an elaborate psyche out. We think that things are finally going well... then Chapter 11 happens, and it goes downhill from there. Can’t lie, they got me. Chapter 11 was a HUGE gut-punch for that reason. As such, I decided to put this at Number Two. But it’s only because of the psyche out. It was still done to make the shock effective and while it worked, it doesn’t change that it felt like things got downplayed far more than they should have. Still, it saved this form taking the top slot. So what DID make it? Well...

#1. Willow Guilting Weiss

For a character that only got one major appearance, Willow left one Hell of an impact. All we knew about her prior was an off-handed remark by Whitley in V4 that implied that she was an unhappy drunk. Here? We see exactly what Jaques has done to this poor woman. She’s a drunk, unhappy, and her expression just screams exhaustion and broken. She knows that she did nothing for her children once she broke, something Weiss makes very clear, but she does make some amends by giving Weiss her Scroll and the evidence needed to expose Jaques and Watts, She’s even relieved when We3iss confirms that she’s never returning for good. It’s a very powerful scene that in minutes makes Willow one of the saddest, sympathetic characters in the show.

I do have one huge problem, however. That’s when she leaves. She has one request for Weiss, and that’s for her to not forget about Whitley. While it’s been becoming more and more clear that Whitley is a scared kid who has been just as abused by Jaques as his sisters, he WAS still a cocky jerk to Weiss. He was never nice to her, and when he was it was for his own benefit. He had zero issue rubbing into Weiss her misfortune in V4 after the concert and how he’s the new heir. Of course Weiss wouldn’t like him and be justified in believing that he didn’t like her. When she points that out, this is Willow’s line:

Of course not. You left him here... with us.

Yeah, this really pissed me off and I think is a problem on the writer’s end. They want to have Weiss realize, like the audience is, that Whitley is like he is because unlike her and Winter, he can’t escape, has none of the abilities that they do, and is thus still a prisoner and under his father’s control.. He succumbed to it instead of fight or get away because that was all that he could do, and hating his sisters kept him in his father’s favor. It’s all very understandable and yes, having Weiss realize this and make an effort to try and help Whitley would show how much she’s changed and allow the Schnee Family to all break free form Jaques once and for all.

But the way the line is worded make it feel like Willow, and in turn the narrative, is gui9lting Weiss into not realizing this and not helping Whitley prior. Umm... no. Hell no. Weiss was under zero obligation to help her brother, who at the time portrayed himself as an egotistical snake to her. He rubbed his success in her face. he rubbed getting the title in her face. He was even trying to do so again in the very same chapter Willow was introduced. Weiss HAD to help herself. And unlike her, who as far as we know never hated Winter and the two always treated each other well, as far as we can tell Whitley never had that relationship with them and we don’t know if he ever tried. Jaques made sure that Whitley and his sisters would be divided, and Weiss shouldn’t feel guilty at all for not seeing this.

I get why some may get after Weiss and what Willow was trying to hint to her. We know that Whitley is a victim. We know that because he had no one, he became the way he is. He still has hope, but Weiss is the only one in any position to get him the help that he needs. I expect V8 to go into this, especially since Weis sis why Jaques is now in prison and took away the only figure that Whitley had (a HORIRBLE one, but still the only). However Weiss did what she could in her position, and doesn’t have the advantage of NOT being in the audience to everything. Do I expect her to realize all of this and try to get Whitley to as well? Yes, and it’ll be her character coming full-circle as well. But did she deserve to be guilted? Hell No. Don’t think it was intentional, but it still rubbed me the wrong way and I still don’t like that bit. Thus, it is the moment I dislike most in RWBY Volume 7.

Okay, that’s it for now. Tomorrow, I’ll post my Top 5 Likes. Which trust me, I got plenty of ‘em~! See you all then~!

#rwby #rwby reviews #rwby musings #callie reviews #top likes/dislikes

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