[RWBY] RWBY Shorts

[AJ_Talon]

Whiter Rose: Quiet Hours

Atlas never really slept. The lights outside the Schnee Manor stayed on all night, cold and steady against the snow. Ruby had found a corner of one of the smaller sitting rooms where the windows faced away from the city, and she had been sitting there long enough for the tea in her hands to go cold.

Whitley paused in the doorway when he saw her. She didn't look up.

He stepped in anyway, quiet on the carpet. "You're not usually this still."

Ruby let out a breath that wasn't quite a laugh. "Yeah. Weird, right?"

He sat on the other end of the couch, not too close. For a while neither of them said anything. The only sound was the low hum of the manor's heating.

"I keep thinking if I just move fast enough," Ruby said at last, voice small, "if I just keep going, then none of it will catch up to me. But I'm tired. I'm really tired. And I don't know what the right next step is. Everyone keeps looking at me like I should already have the answer."

Whitley studied the dark window. "I used to think if I stayed quiet and useful enough, my father would stop looking at me like I was a mistake he hadn't fixed yet. It never worked. I still hear him sometimes, when the house is this quiet."

Ruby turned her head. Her silver eyes were bright, but not glowing. Just tired.

"I don't know how to help anyone if I can barely keep myself together," she admitted. "And I hate that I'm scared of that."

Whitley nodded, once. "I don't know how to be anything but what he made me. Even now. I keep waiting for someone to tell me I've done it wrong." He glanced at her.

"You don't look at me like that. It's… strange."

Ruby managed a weak smile. "You're not doing it wrong. You're here. That counts for something."

"So are you."

They sat with that for a moment. Outside, wind moved across the snow. Inside, the old house creaked, but it felt farther away than usual.

Ruby shifted the cold mug in her hands. "Does it ever get easier? Talking about it?"

Whitley considered the question. "I don't know. This is the first time I've tried."

She nodded like that was enough of an answer. After a second she leaned sideways, just enough that her shoulder rested against his. He went still, then carefully didn't move away.

"Thanks for sitting with me," she said.

"Thank you for not telling me to go away," he answered.

They stayed like that until the tea was long forgotten and the lights of Atlas kept burning outside, steady and cold, while the quiet between them settled into something a little less sharp.

 

[digcat]

Jokes aside i don't think Weiss could be happier than for Ruby to get with Whitley.

 

[Fusion Blaster]

I think it depends on when it happens... if was Beacon era Weiss.. i thihnk she'd be more likly to freak

 

[digcat]

Weiss after teams RWBY and JNPR destroyed the white fang.

Spoiler

 

[Hahoalki]

While you're right, there's also that little issue of "if everyone is special, then no one is"—if everyone ends up with an amputation, it also undermines the story's credibility.

Furthermore, even though the injuries involve different limbs, it would still feel quite repetitive to have both Yang and Pyrrha in such similar situations—but then again, that's just my take on it.

Click to shrink...

Then there are other options.

If Yang dies instead, Blake finally has to face consequences for her actions. And that's probably a good thing.

But maybe that's too extreme for you.

For options involving both Yang and Pyrrha surviving, we can take into account the fact that "full arm amputation" and "severing the achilles tendon" are two different kinds of injuries.

The treatment for the latter involves an initial surgical procedure followed by 6 months to a year of physical therapy before the individual in question can get "back in action."

The treatment for the former (in Remnant) involves a mechanical prosthesis.

The way I see it, Yang's issues would be mostly PTSD and depression related, whereas Pyrrha's would probably have more to do with her finding where she fits in a world that sees her as a killer and has-been. The story arcs are different enough that it wouldn't actually feel repetitive.

There's also the possibility (probability) that she'd be in Argus during volumes 4-6. The issues she's dealing with (interpersonal problems and self-image issues) are, again, fairly different from Yang's. And since things would only get resolved when JN_R arrive in Argus, we (again) have enough different plot beats for this to be worthwhile as its own thing.

And at the end of the day, Pyrrha being alive allows for more interesting things than Pyrrha being dead. So if none of this is satisfying for you, maybe you just need to bite the bullet and accept the repetition for the sake of a better story.

 

[Sift Green]

Something that I like about the whole Tablebreaker consept is just how off-base the people of Remnant are about the actual true history of their world.
The lion-jesus religion is not what actually happened, and there was no actual divinity involved in any of it, while the actual divinity that created their world and shaped history is viewed as just another fairy tale.

In some places, The Tale of the Two Brothers might have evolved into something where they were just two regular humans/faunus, who build a whole bunch of things, and one got yealous and created the Grimm, with no diety or divinity ever getting involved (or possibly the one brother making a deal with the "devil" of the local religion to create the Grimm).

The religions of Remnant are way off on what the actual dieties were like (in canon very close to greek mythology with how the gods had massive flaws and egos that caused constant conflict), and even the fairy tales they have that are close to the truth are off (The Tale of the Two Brothers portrays Light as the good one, while in actuality he's a selfish basterd who set up the rules with his brother in his favor, etc).

Click to shrink...

To add on to what AJ_Talon has already said even if you're having The Two Brothers be actual real deal Gods in your take on the setting there would still be room in the cosmology for a deity like the Tablebreaker to fit in, because The Two Brothers aren't the end all be all divinity even in the original show; you just need to consider the implications of the inclusion of The Blacksmith as the mother/creator over-deity of The Two Brothers.

Giving the creators their own creator raises the question of who created their own creator, and did that creator in turn have their own creator? If you follow this logic to its ultimate conclusion you have a lineage of creator deities stretching back from one generation to the next onwards and onwards until you reach the foundation of eternity. In this rendition The Two Brothers would simply be members of the most recent generation of gods, meaning there would be plenty of other gods out there in the cosmos that could see value in saving a few souls from a world members of the youngest generation have abandoned as a failed experiment.

Now if you put your foot down and say The Ever After actually is the foundation of eternity so The Blacksmith is the true end all be all of Divinity that still doesn't preclude the possibility of a Tablebreaker style god saving souls on Remnant. The Blacksmith is a creator that's still actively creating, so what's stopping her from making more gods after The Two Brothers? The Two Brothers' backstories in the Ever After don't allude to any unique element to their creation that would prevent The Blacksmith from making more gods after them. On top of that the Ever After's flexible relationship with time means that a god not yet created in the Ever After could still have a profound impact on Remnant's past, so you can't say the absence of such a deity during Jaune and Team RWBY's time in the Ever After is solid evidence against the possibility.


In other words the existence of The Ever After's Blacksmith blows the doors wide open for including gods that aren't The Two Brothers into the setting of RWBY, even if you aren't reworking that part of the backstory in your own personal take on the setting.

 

[Hahoalki]

Other points to highlight: Weiss, Nora and a few of Hyrule's scientific minds figure out how to use Elemental Chu Jelly as a substitute for Dust.

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I really like this.

I've recently been developing my headcanons for Ren and Nora, and one of the things I realized was Magnhild is terrifyingly complex for a weapon that was almost certainly built without the resources that someone who attended a huntsman training school would have.

Nora is every bit the techie that Ruby and Weiss are - and perhaps even more so in some respects.

I cannot readily conceive of reasons to keep her around that benefit Team RWBY's story more than they tax and encumber it.

Click to shrink...

The trouble is that you're focusing on Team RWBY. Team JNPR always had more narrative potential, IMO, at least once the conflict between Blake and Weiss is resolved at the end of Volume 1.

Which is why, even in Beacon, and even in stories principally about Jaune, I see them still as a narrative obstacle that I have to circumnavigate or surmount.

I know when and where I should logically be writing them, but for me, writing them is frustrating, exhausting, and cannot reach beyond surface level tolerability because I cannot think of an expedient and plausible way to get them out of the way or reorient the course of the story such that it doesn't run into the wall.

Click to shrink...

Then try making them the main characters rather than Jaune.

I've explained who Pyrrha is supposed to be at length on prior occasions, but we can run through that stuff again if you like.

For summaries of Ren and Nora, I'd say this:

Ren is on a quest for revenge against the Grimm that destroyed his village and his life. His big flaw is that he tends to "bottle up" his emotions rather than dealing with them - partially as a defense mechanism when he was in the wilds and letting himself feel his grief would have probably killed both him and Nora.

Nora, having started out as a homeless orphan, is mainly looking for a place to belong. Since Ren was the first person to meaningfully bond with her in a positive way, a lot of that search for belonging is focused on him, specifically. Her big flaw is a little less straightforward than Ren's, imo, but it exists for similar reasons. While Ren tried to keep them alive by suppressing his emotions, Nora tried the opposite - she attempted to become a beacon of positivity. Her cheerful optimism and quirky antics? Mostly a facade. And not even she knows who the person behind the mask actually is.

Once you have a major goal and flaw for a character, it shouldn't be too difficult to sort out how they can fit into a narrative.

 

[Bommel]

Which is how it should be. If the answer to What is God? in your universe is that they're a pair of asshole children... That's rather disappointing, isn't it? Better to keep it a mystery.

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Not necessarily.
Again coming back to the Greek gods, the people who worshiped them knew exactly how much petty immature assholes they were, but that caused a crapload of drama (and sometimes comedy), and the Greeks absolutely loved both of those in spades.
Despite all the negative aspects of the Greek Gods, they also had plenty of good points, because the Greek gods were a reflection of what was true, not of what was ideal (in contrast with the Abrahamic god, who is a paragon).

We in the western world are primed to think of gods as good guys, and in many cases "perfect", but in several other religions they're often much more human-like and flawed.
Personally I'm not a fan of the ultimate all-loving omnipotent good guy interpetation. Because the world has too much unnecessary pain and suffering in it for such a good-guy god to be the case, or for me to respect if they claim to be such (see Steven Fry's statement on god and bonecanser in children).

The pair of petty asshole brothers can work for a story, and I think that it could have worked for RWBY if they didn't bodge the execution (which might have been cause they followed Monty's plot guidelines, but he unfortunately died to let it be portrayed well).
I do hope they will eventually get punched in the face at the end of the canon story (or at least get what is comming to them in some way, preferably in some ironic way).

To add on to what AJ_Talon has already said even if you're having The Two Brothers be actual real deal Gods in your take on the setting there would still be room in the cosmology for a deity like the Tablebreaker to fit in, because The Two Brothers aren't the end all be all divinity even in the original show; you just need to consider the implications the inclusion of The Blacksmith as the mother/creator over-deity of The Two Brothers.

Giving the creators their own creator raises the question of who created their own creator, and did that creator in turn have their own creator? If you follow this logic to its ultimate conclusion you have a lineage of creator deities stretching back from one generation to the next onwards and onwards until you reach the foundation of eternity. In this rendition The Two Brothers would simply be members of the most recent generation of gods, meaning there would be plenty of other gods out there in the cosmos that could see value in saving a few souls from a world members of the youngest generation have abandoned as a failed experiment.

Now if you put your foot down and say The Ever After actually is the foundation of eternity so The Blacksmith is the true end all be all of Divinity that still doesn't preclude the possibility of a Tablebreaker style god saving souls on Remnant. The Blacksmith is a creator that's still actively creating, so what's stopping her from making more gods after The Two Brothers? The Two Brothers' backstories in the Ever After don't allude to any unique element to their creation that would prevent The Blacksmith from making more gods after them. On top of that the Ever After's flexible relationship with time means that a god not yet created in the Ever After could still have a profound impact on Remnant's past, so you can't say the absence of such a deity during Jaune and Team RWBY's time in the Ever After is solid evidence against the possibility.


In other words the existence of The Ever After's Blacksmith blows the doors wide open for including gods that aren't The Two Brothers into the setting of RWBY, even if you aren't reworking that part of the backstory in your own personal take on the setting.

Click to shrink...

I do like the idea that some other gods showed up after the Brothers stormed out.
For that to make sense though they'd have to be minor gods who are much weakers than the two original creators of Remnant, and while they're trying their best, they're unable to really change much of the status quo (like removing the Grimm alltogether, or fully bring magic back like there once was).

Like the big furniture smashing lion-god could be real, and could be a very good and decent person, but they and the other gods aren't powerful enough to actually change the fucked up game the Brothers set in place (both intentionally and unintentionally).
So they help the best they can, and it's up to the mortals of the world to actually make sure they get the good ending, so that the actions of the characters of the story still matter (rather than them all being the meaningless entertainment for the gods, who can decide who lives and dies, while their own choises don't matter).
They can't stop the Brothers if they return, they can't remove the Grimm or Salem, but they can help the heroes be a little bit lucky when they really need it (even if that luck takes the form of some bigass thunderstorm).

 

[Maximize]

I Think Team RWBY Are Poor Protagonists, but Ruby Had Potential

This might be a controversial opinion, but I honestly think Team RWBY are rather poor protagonists as a collective. The problem isn't necessarily that Weiss, Blake, and Yang are bad characters or that they don't have interesting backgrounds. It's that, as the main protagonists of the series, I don't think they work particularly well. RWBY struggles to give all four members a meaningful role in the overarching story, and their individual character arcs often feel disconnected from one another. Rather than feeling like four characters whose stories naturally contribute to a central narrative, they can feel like four separate characters competing for limited screen time and development.

I think this is one of the biggest problems with RWBY's storytelling. The series introduces four main characters, but it never really manages to balance their importance or give them equally compelling journeys that consistently contribute to the larger plot. Weiss has her family and the Schnee Dust Company, Blake has the White Fang and Faunus discrimination, and Yang has her family and relationship with Raven. These are all potentially interesting storylines, but they often feel like separate character arcs rather than parts of one cohesive narrative. Once some of those personal conflicts are resolved, it's also difficult to see what their ongoing role in the central story is supposed to be.

Ruby, however, is a different matter. I actually think she could have been a very good protagonist, perhaps even the best choice to carry the series on her own. She has a clear motivation, an understandable worldview, and a natural connection to the central conflict through her Silver Eyes and desire to become a Huntress. Her optimism and idealism also provide plenty of room for character development, particularly when confronted with the realities of Remnant and the increasingly difficult decisions she has to make.

The problem, in my opinion, is that the series never fully capitalised on that potential. Ruby should have been the character through whom we experience the world, learn about its history, understand the conflict with Salem, and explore what it actually means to be a Huntress. Her ideals could have been challenged, her understanding of the world could have evolved, and the contrast between the person she wanted to become and the person the circumstances forced her to be could have formed the backbone of the story. Instead, her role as the central protagonist often feels surprisingly underdeveloped, especially considering how important she is supposed to be.

I don't think this means Weiss, Blake, and Yang need to disappear or become unimportant. They can still be major characters with their own storylines, development, and contributions to the overall plot. I simply think the narrative would have benefited from having a much clearer central protagonist rather than trying to distribute that responsibility equally across all four members of Team RWBY.

As an additional thought, I'd also consider making Jaune a second protagonist alongside Ruby. I think the two could complement each other quite well, with Ruby's idealism and established connection to the larger conflict contrasting with Jaune's more grounded perspective and gradual development from an inexperienced student into a capable Huntsman. However, this is more of an additional idea than something I think is necessary. Ruby could absolutely carry the story herself.

Ultimately, my main issue is that I don't think Team RWBY works particularly well as a collective group of protagonists. Ruby had the potential to be a genuinely compelling lead, and I think the story would have benefited from recognising that and building its narrative around her. Whether Jaune is included as a second lead is another discussion entirely.

 

[digcat]

Jaune's brides

Spoiler

 

[Bommel]

I really like this.

I've recently been developing my headcanons for Ren and Nora, and one of the things I realized was Magnhild is terrifyingly complex for a weapon that was almost certainly built without the resources that someone who attended a huntsman training school would have.

Nora is every bit the techie that Ruby and Weiss are - and perhaps even more so in some respects.

Click to shrink...

Maybe it was build in multiple iterations?
Like the first Magnhild was literally a grenade/bomb taped to a sledgehammer.
One end of the head was for regular smashing, the other was for if something really needed to die quickly, but at the cost of destroying the weapon (and taking a chunk of the wielder's Aura in the boom).

Then try making them the main characters rather than Jaune.

I've explained who Pyrrha is supposed to be at length on prior occasions, but we can run through that stuff again if you like.

For summaries of Ren and Nora, I'd say this:

Ren is on a quest for revenge against the Grimm that destroyed his village and his life. His big flaw is that he tends to "bottle up" his emotions rather than dealing with them - partially as a defense mechanism when he was in the wilds and letting himself feel his grief would have probably killed both him and Nora.

Nora, having started out as a homeless orphan, is mainly looking for a place to belong. Since Ren was the first person to meaningfully bond with her in a positive way, a lot of that search for belonging is focused on him, specifically. Her big flaw is a little less straightforward than Ren's, imo, but it exists for similar reasons. While Ren tried to keep them alive by suppressing his emotions, Nora tried the opposite - she attempted to become a beacon of positivity. Her cheerful optimism and quirky antics? Mostly a facade. And not even she knows who the person behind the mask actually is.

Once you have a major goal and flaw for a character, it shouldn't be too difficult to sort out how they can fit into a narrative.

Click to shrink...

Really like this dude.
Not just the opinion, but also the analysis and suggestion.

 

[Leo 123]

I Think Team RWBY Are Poor Protagonists, but Ruby Had Potential

This might be a controversial opinion, but I honestly think Team RWBY are rather poor protagonists as a collective. The problem isn't necessarily that Weiss, Blake, and Yang are bad characters or that they don't have interesting backgrounds. It's that, as the main protagonists of the series, I don't think they work particularly well. RWBY struggles to give all four members a meaningful role in the overarching story, and their individual character arcs often feel disconnected from one another. Rather than feeling like four characters whose stories naturally contribute to a central narrative, they can feel like four separate characters competing for limited screen time and development.

I think this is one of the biggest problems with RWBY's storytelling. The series introduces four main characters, but it never really manages to balance their importance or give them equally compelling journeys that consistently contribute to the larger plot. Weiss has her family and the Schnee Dust Company, Blake has the White Fang and Faunus discrimination, and Yang has her family and relationship with Raven. These are all potentially interesting storylines, but they often feel like separate character arcs rather than parts of one cohesive narrative. Once some of those personal conflicts are resolved, it's also difficult to see what their ongoing role in the central story is supposed to be.

Ruby, however, is a different matter. I actually think she could have been a very good protagonist, perhaps even the best choice to carry the series on her own. She has a clear motivation, an understandable worldview, and a natural connection to the central conflict through her Silver Eyes and desire to become a Huntress. Her optimism and idealism also provide plenty of room for character development, particularly when confronted with the realities of Remnant and the increasingly difficult decisions she has to make.

The problem, in my opinion, is that the series never fully capitalised on that potential. Ruby should have been the character through whom we experience the world, learn about its history, understand the conflict with Salem, and explore what it actually means to be a Huntress. Her ideals could have been challenged, her understanding of the world could have evolved, and the contrast between the person she wanted to become and the person the circumstances forced her to be could have formed the backbone of the story. Instead, her role as the central protagonist often feels surprisingly underdeveloped, especially considering how important she is supposed to be.

I don't think this means Weiss, Blake, and Yang need to disappear or become unimportant. They can still be major characters with their own storylines, development, and contributions to the overall plot. I simply think the narrative would have benefited from having a much clearer central protagonist rather than trying to distribute that responsibility equally across all four members of Team RWBY.

As an additional thought, I'd also consider making Jaune a second protagonist alongside Ruby. I think the two could complement each other quite well, with Ruby's idealism and established connection to the larger conflict contrasting with Jaune's more grounded perspective and gradual development from an inexperienced student into a capable Huntsman. However, this is more of an additional idea than something I think is necessary. Ruby could absolutely carry the story herself.

Ultimately, my main issue is that I don't think Team RWBY works particularly well as a collective group of protagonists. Ruby had the potential to be a genuinely compelling lead, and I think the story would have benefited from recognising that and building its narrative around her. Whether Jaune is included as a second lead is another discussion entirely.

Click to shrink...

I've thought for a while that Weiss, Blake or Jaune would make for better protagonists than RWBY. I had the idea a while ago of ditching Yang, Ruby, Nora and Ren to make a team with Weiss, Blake, Jaune and Pyrrha instead. You'd have to make adjustments to the story and what order things happen in so people get the character development they need, but I don't think it's entirely unworkable. They do drive the majority of the plot and any plot given to the removed characters can be given to someone on this team. It would cut down on cast bloat too, you only have 4 main characters to start with, not 8. Just have to not add more characters later, or at least don't give them more screen time than they need.

 

[Sift Green]

Personally I'm not a fan of the ultimate all-loving omnipotent good guy interpetation. Because the world has too much unnecessary pain and suffering in it for such a good-guy god to be the case, or for me to respect if they claim to be such (see Steven Fry's statement on god and bonecanser in children).

Click to shrink...

So the climax to The Book Of Job is a very lengthy conversation between Job and God that can be oversimplified as God saying to Job "I need you to understand how radically different my perspective on things is from yours."

That difference in perspective between the mortal and the divine is frequently brushed aside whenever people want to debate how good an omnipotent and omniscient being can be.

Consider death. It's inherently tragic to us because it is a permanent separation that cannot be reversed. Now consider the standard platitudes used to comfort people who've lost someone to death; "They're with God now" is near the top. But have you spent any time thinking about the implications of that platitude? Especially if taken at face value.

Death is not a separation to someone in God's position, making the ordeal inherently less tragic to someone with that perspective because it is an arrival instead of a departure.

If something as fundamental as Death would look so different to somebody in God's shoes then everything else a mortal goes through would also look different.

When God and Job's conversation ended God did not deny his part in Job's suffering, for while Satan was the one who actually acted against Job it was something God could have prevented. God then takes full responsibility for not stopping the bad things that happened to Job instead of shifting the blame onto Satan by proceeding to act responsibly by restoring and doubling Job's good fortune, with hints towards heaven as the book says God doubled the number of Job's children even though Job only had seven more children meaning Job's dead children were still counted towards Job's estate in God's eyes.


The so-called problem of evil hinges on the idea that a good deity cannot be responsible for anything bad, but God's claims to be good are never claims of irresponsibility. Christ's great sacrifice entailed taking responsibility for everything and everyone after all, and so taking responsibility and bing responsible are the things that make a God good, not bearing no responsibility for the bad things in the world. The fact that the bulk of the recompense happens in heaven instead of mortality is honestly the real thing people take issue with, which brings us back to God's conversation with Job that can be oversimplified as "I need you to understand how radically different my perspective on things is from yours."



So that's why I don't have any problems with an ultimate all-loving omnipotent good guy interpretation of the divine. Bad things do happen, but that doesn't mean god won't take full responsibility for them.

 

[GraveyardShift]

This might be a controversial opinion, but I honestly think Team RWBY are rather poor protagonists as a collective.

Click to shrink...

Controversial? That is the most milquetoast take ever that preaches to the choir. RWBY has long since been more the "Jaune and Blake show." Jaune being the actual underdog who learns what it means to be a huntsman and Blake driving the plot for FIVE volumes with her White Fang obsession.

This is literally what every RWBY critic ever has said needs to be done and any fixit series tries to do when they're not leaning hard into the original Knightshade premise to mock the show.

You're among friends here with that take.

So the climax to The Book Of Job is a very lengthy conversation between Job and God that can be oversimplified as God saying to Job "I need you to understand how radically different my perspective on things is from yours."

Click to shrink...

The trope for this is referred to as "Blue and Orange" morality.

For beings that exist outside our 3D perception and whose minds are so alien and utterly incomprehensible, we cannot even begin to understand it and trying to apply a human perspective doesn't work because nothing about it is 'human'.

For all we know, the Great Old Ones of Lovecraftian horror very much like humanity and wish to preserve and safeguard it. But their thought processes and methods are so inhuman and alien that we can't even begin to fathom what that actually looks like to them. And so their very nature inspires dread in humans because it's unknowable.

The greatest thing that humans ever feared. The Unknown and Unknowable.

 

[Sift Green]

I think this is one of the biggest problems with RWBY's storytelling. The series introduces four main characters, but it never really manages to balance their importance or give them equally compelling journeys that consistently contribute to the larger plot. Weiss has her family and the Schnee Dust Company, Blake has the White Fang and Faunus discrimination, and Yang has her family and relationship with Raven. These are all potentially interesting storylines, but they often feel like separate character arcs rather than parts of one cohesive narrative. Once some of those personal conflicts are resolved, it's also difficult to see what their ongoing role in the central story is supposed to be.

Click to shrink...

You're right about this being the biggest issue, and this is a big issue because these stories shouldn't have been disconnected. Weiss's story with the SDC and Blake's story with the White Fang are different sides of the same story. Half of what's wrong with Weiss's life can be connected to stuff the White Fang did to the SDC. Half of Blake's worldview was shaped by what the SDC did to the White Fang in response.

And so you have two living embodiments of this conflict at the same school and on the same team, having to live in close proximity and get along. The dorm room is now microcosm of the SDC/White Fang war, Weiss and Blake's efforts to make peace between them shadows of what would be needed to make peace between the SDC and the Fang.

But we didn't get that, and the show suffered for it.

 

[SirNameV]

A little something that's been in my head for a while now, and perfect for Halloween. A little late, but it's also appropriate for All Saints Day:

Cowboys of Remnant AU: Cursed Part 1

Isabel's entire world at that moment was the low hum of machinery and the rhythmic beat of a heart rate monitor. The room, a windowless emergency room in Arc-en-Ciel Hospital reserved for extremely sensitive cases, was dark, with the only lighting kept purposefully dim, so as to not disturb the very special patient in the hastily modified incubator. Her son, her seventh child overall, but her only boy. Born... far too soon. Late enough to not immediately be a still birth... but still too soon for his tiny body to handle all the complex processes of life unassisted. Hence the modified incubator. A jury rigged mess of different life support systems, Neonatal Intensive Care procedures, and her own extensive knowledge of prenatal human development. Her Semblance, after all, allowed her to control her body down to the individual cellular level, and she had made sure to develop the knowledge necessary to fully take advantage of that (so how the hell did she not stop this from happening in the first place?).

The creak of the door and a surge of harsh light caused Isabel to raise her head from her hands and turn toward the source, a harsh glare shining through her bloodshot eyes. A man she did not recognize was standing in the doorway, one hand still on the doorknob.

"Oh, sorry. I'm a bit lost. Didn't mean to disturb anything."

The man had a pale hue and a complexion and set of wrinkles that suggested moderate age. And that was it. Those where the only notable features that seemed to stick in Isabel's mind. Everything else about him was plain and unremarkable, the kind of features that anyone would expect from the earlier descriptor.

"You're Dr. Arc, aren't you," the stranger suddenly asked, "Forgive me, I'm an investor, of sorts. I was here for a meeting with the board. You weren't in attendance," he elaborate, before his eyes slid over to the incubator that she was sitting next to, his tone taking on a clipped and somber quality, "I was informed why."

Had she missed an investor meeting? Isabel couldn't remember one scheduled recently, but given that she was currently operating far beyond her highly optimized body and mind's already reduced sleep requirements, she couldn't exactly trust her own memory. She had already lost track of what day it was.

The man closed the door, entering the room properly. He walked over to the incubator in the center of the room, the sharp thump of a cane echoing throughout the dark, isolated room. He came to stand next to Isabel, his eyes transfixed on the incubator and the little life within, pity clear in his gaze.

"It's a shame," he murmured out consolingly, "A real shame." A beat of silence passed before his voice echoed through the darkness again. "You know, I might be able to help."

"How?" Isabel suddenly spoke, for the first time in... a very long while. Her voice rough from disuse.

The man raised a hand in a placating gesture, "As I said, I'm an investor. Your hospital would hardly be the first in my portfolio." He explained. "Hospitals with advanced pediatric programs, research institutes on the cutting edge of medical science," he listed, as if thinking more to himself than speaking to another. "You see, while I call myself an investor, I also have been known to operate like something of a fixer, someone who specializes in connecting people with what they need to fix their problems." The man looked at her out of the corner of his eye, "I could arrange for something that might help your boy."

Isabel felt like she had just had a transfusion of ice water into her veins. The rhythm of the heart rate monitor, still far to slow and weak even after exhausting every possibility she could think of, seemed to echo within her skull. To suddenly have someone offer the possibility of a solution? It was too good to be true. And yet, it didn't stop the desperate hope blooming in her chest.

The man opened a brief case that she had failed to notice earlier, and pulled out a sheet of paper. "I tend to keep some general contracts on me for just such an occasion. You see, my little side business tends to rely pretty heavily on favors, and I've been... burned one time too many by informal agreements." The man almost seemed to chuckle while saying that last part, for some reason. "So I have a general policy not to 'work my magic' without a formal contract." He handed the sheet of paper to Isabel, alongside a pen.

Isabel stared at the paper, pen clutched tight between her fingers. The words seemed to bend and float on the page. She was an intelligent and educated woman, she knew that even considering signing a contract when she was too sleep deprived to even read it was a terrible idea, one that she would never normally entertain. Unfortunately, sound judgement and impulse control tend to fade away long before the ability to read under sleep deprivation.

Isabel blinked, and she was staring at her son, an unsettling pale with a blueish tint and far tinier than any of her other children had been at birth. She blinked again, her eyes now on the contract, a series of squiggles, her signature, now added to the bottom line. Blink, nothing. The contract was gone. The hand with the pen empty. The man, gone. As if he had never existed in the first place.

Isabel raised a hand to her temple and rubbed, not for the first time deciding that she needed to find a nurse to take over for her while she grabbed a quick power nap. Like every other time she had that thought since she finished her surprise labor an unknown amount of time ago, she did not get up, and instead continued to sit there, staring at her baby.

Within the next day or so, Jaune would miraculously stabilize, and Isabel would quickly forget all about the odd waking dream that her over tired mind seemed to conjure. Or at least, she would for several years, until a certain incident would force this memory back to the forefront of her mind, as well as the realization that it had not, in fact, been a dream.




I have more to write, but I am really out of practice when it comes to narrative writing. I'm already concerned enough that this section may not have turned out the best, and I definitely want to reevaluate and how I've been writing the next section, since it's supposed to include both RWBY and JNPR, and I'm a little concerned about my current ability to juggle multiple potential speakers in a scene.

 

[AJ_Talon]

I have more to write, but I am really out of practice when it comes to narrative writing. I'm already concerned enough that this section may not have turned out the best, and I definitely want to reevaluate and how I've been writing the next section, since it's supposed to include both RWBY and JNPR, and I'm a little concerned about my current ability to juggle multiple potential speakers in a scene.

Click to shrink...

... Ghost Rider?

Sign me the fuck up, I wanna see more.

 

[SirNameV]

... Ghost Rider?

Sign me the fuck up, I wanna see more.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, that's exactly where this is going.

I got stuck writing out the scene of Pyrrha going too hard in a spar, rendering him both in need of a stay in the infirmary and with his shirt open. Which causes her to notice the special mensa that he wears to suppress the Rider and, not realizing it's significance and defaulting to normal hospital etiquette, removing the jewelry from an unconscious Jaune so that it doesn't get stolen.

 

[SirNameV]

... Ghost Rider?

Sign me the fuck up, I wanna see more.

Click to shrink...

Mind if I DM the next section to you so you can work shop it with me when I'm done before posting it?

 

[digcat]

White knight costumes

Spoiler

 

[AJ_Talon]

Mind if I DM the next section to you so you can work shop it with me when I'm done before posting it?

Click to shrink...

Go ahead! You can also see me on Discord and we can talk it out there too if you want.

 

[Clleddyf]

Ghost Rider Jaune would be stellar. Then again, I just want him to burn Cinder's soul.

 

[DarthAtrox]

SNIPPET

Click to shrink...

My question is, who's soul was sold?

Did Isabel give up her soul for her son's health and life? Which was a trick in order to turn Jaune into the Devil's Bounty Hunter?

Or did Isabel agree to sell her infant son's soul to the devil, thus making him the Ghost Rider?

 

[Sift Green]

The trope for this is referred to as "Blue and Orange" morality.

For beings that exist outside our 3D perception and whose minds are so alien and utterly incomprehensible, we cannot even begin to understand it and trying to apply a human perspective doesn't work because nothing about it is 'human'.

For all we know, the Great Old Ones of Lovecraftian horror very much like humanity and wish to preserve and safeguard it. But their thought processes and methods are so inhuman and alien that we can't even begin to fathom what that actually looks like to them. And so their very nature inspires dread in humans because it's unknowable.

The greatest thing that humans ever feared. The Unknown and Unknowable.

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure "Blue and Orange" morality is the right terminology for the differences between the mortal and divine perspectives, as Blue and Orange morality implies an alienness that cannot be bridged. The fact that the gap is actually bridgeable is very important to every Abrahamic faith, Christianity especially.

Let's look at a gulf in perspective that you'd find our lives here on Earth. Let's look at a privately owned company that's achieved billions of dollars levels of success (privately owned because then it's much more likely for people on every level to be genuinely working with the company's best interest in mind).

So the perspective of a newly hired cashier at Waffle House is radically different from the perspective of the President of the company, but if the President visited that new hire's location and for some reason he had to cover the register for a bit he wouldn't be doing things radically different from how the regular cashier does it. Put the cashier in the President's job for a spell and they'd probably sink pretty quick, even though there isn't actually anything truly alien within the President's workday. But if you promote that cashier once they've gained enough experience, and then promote them again once they've mastered things at that level and so on until they've climbed the ladder as far as they can they would be able to comprehend everything that goes into the President's job, and probably wouldn't do things radically different from the President if they had to do their job for a day.

Now magnify that gulf in perspective as far as you can and then magnify it further, and then magnify it further again. Then do it again. And again.

With the gulf so wide as to be truly incomprehensible to somebody at the bottom the workings of someone at the top is impossible to put together. However if the person at the bottom were to be brought up layer by layer learning all they needed to know from each level they passed through they would not find any truly alien lines of logic at any of those levels, just things built upon the things from the last level.

Depth and breadth of experience can make your actions seem incomprehensible to those who lack that same level of depth and breadth. Small children have a hard time understanding the actions of grown ups because they lack depth and breath, not because grown ups are operating on a morality system with radically different logic from the child's. A real god by definition would have more depth and breadth than any mortal, they would not need different moral logic from mortals to be ineffable to mortals. A god can have the same black and white with a few shades of gray mortality system as mortals and still act in ways that mortals would have a hard time wrapping their heads around because the depth and breadth of the god's experience means the god understands the system in ways the mortals lack the experience to consider.


So that's why I don't feel like "Blue and Orange" morality is the right terminology to use here. The Great Old Ones of Lovecraft are incomprehensible because their thoughts are alien in shape. The God of Abraham as described in scripture and tradition is beyond mortal understanding because of the scope of his thoughts, not the shape of his thoughts.

 

[cavalal386]

First ff, then sb, and now this!!
What more will they take from us?!

Also Wattpad? Really? I haven't heard good things about that, are you sure you want to do that?

Click to shrink...

Edit: I found out what else they took from us.
Apparently you need an account now to read stories for "mature audiences" on webtoon.

 

[Gur40]

throwing my hat in the gods and legends ring
Blacksmith Brothers are like the THING from Ironlung see the world different not actively malicious but will respond
The idea of the Breaker being a MYSTERY with no clear answer and the Blacksmith herself saying there are powers above them well as SI!BS said it's a never ending chain of higher tier gods Gods GODS GODS GODS etcs and i like the open endedness
Brothers are glorified elementals on a higher tier and cause Ozma curse and Salem is a women child that wants to feel she is right and needs to die
God? Breaker? Budda? who knows?! After life is real and so is DC Blazblue Persona and what ever Night-in-Birth is does it matter? no let the mystery be a mystery powerscaling is boring unless it's part of the adventure hunters and huntresses ain't trying to kill the brothers just DEFEAT Salem weather it's sealing or banished to the Ever After a Win is a Win

---

HAPPY HALLOWEEN AND BIRTHDAY RUBY ROSE!

Spoiler: Stolen From TWITTER

from Reddit

Spoiler: more

---

Jaune learned Shield Bash

Spoiler: Bonk

it;s super effective

---

Jaune with RWBY at his sisters reception

Spoiler: fast

well after Ren and Nora we know who's next

---

Ruby Rose and Ruby A, Rose

Spoiler: Before and After Arc

---

meme

Spoiler: again?

and there responce

Spoiler: double tap

---

Nov 1

Spoiler: She Transformed

As Midnight Bell Toll THE BEAST SEAL IS UNDONE

 

[zMADLAXz]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN AND BIRTHDAY RUBY ROSE!

Click to shrink...

With my five days of ZZZ experience, I know only that Proxies help Hollow Raiders to navigate and get through the hollow, a very passive job normally, I don't think Ruby would like that kind of job.

Also Belle and Wise are built different when it comes to Proxy work.

 

[Gur40]

With my five days of ZZZ experience, I know only that Proxies help Hollow Raiders to navigate and get through the hollow, a very passive job normally, I don't think Ruby would like that kind of job.

Also Belle and Wise are built different when it comes to Proxy work.

Click to shrink...

With Out Spoilers Ruby fits Belle future prospects very well

---

Stolen From Tumblr

Spoiler: Champion Halloween

redheartedtramp 12h
Ruby: Halloween Skin! *bursts into a cloud of bats while wearing her black cape*

Weiss: Didn't we already do this bit before...? This feels familiar some-

Ruby then bursts over to Weiss and reappears holding a can of paint

Weiss: Wait, what-

Ruby: HALLOWEEN SKIN!

Ruby splashes the paint on Weiss. Instead of covering her in orange paint, it just colors her outfit orange with fishnets

Weiss: ACK! How did...that's not how...

Weiss: ...

Weiss: Why orange?!

Ruby: Because black would make you look like Bleiss.

Weiss: What?

Ruby: Nevermind. *bursts away in a cloud of bats*

Weiss: . . .

Weiss activates a Glyph and instead of the usual design, it's a jack-o-lantern.

Weiss: ...How?!

don;t Forget that most stores have left over Halloween candy at half off now

---

Math

Spoiler: Agree for Blake

arc-misadventures2 9h

Boobs For Brains

Yang: Gods! Weiss can be such a bitch at times.

Jaune: Did something happen?

Yang: She said I had more boobs than brains. She thinks I'm a big tit idiot!

Jaune: She's just jealous because she's flat.

Yang: What? What does that have to do with anything?

Jaune: Well... Weiss is a B-Cup.

Yang: Yeah?

Jaune: And, you're a Double D-Cup, borderline E-Cup.

Yang: I am... Wait, how do you know my cup size?

Jaune: And, the average female human/faunas brain weighs around 2.65 lbs. And, the average weight of a woman's breasts that are the size of a Double D-Cup weigh about 1.5 to 3 lbs. Per breast mind you.

Jaune: And, based upon your size, and bounciness, I'd say that they are at least 3 lbs per boob. Making your chest weight a total of 6 lbs. Meaning you have twice as much boobs to Weiss' brain.

Jaune: This is all based on bodily mass estimates. So in the end, Weiss is just upset because she's flat.

Yang: ...

Jaune: ...

Yang: ...

Yang: I'm pretty sure Weiss was calling me an idiot, not compensating for being flat. But, thanks. I guess?

Jaune: You're welcome~!

Yang: But, why do you know all of this?

Jaune: My sisters, and mom wanted to know why their backs hurt so much. The reason is that they are all front heavy.

Yang: Ah, okay...

Yang: ...

Yang: Wait, by this logic... Does that mean Blake has more ass than brains~?

Jaune: No. Blake is just an idiot. An idiot with a huge ass.

Yang: True.

Blake: What did you guys say about my ass?!

Yang: Uh oh.

Jaune: That you have a huge ass.

Blake: Oh? Thank you~!

Yang: And, that you're an idiot.

Blake: HEY?!

 

[The Brotherhood of Steel]

With my five days of ZZZ experience, I know only that Proxies help Hollow Raiders to navigate and get through the hollow, a very passive job normally, I don't think Ruby would like that kind of job.

Also Belle and Wise are built different when it comes to Proxy work.

Click to shrink...

Ruby i see more of being a member of HAND or NEPS