[RWBY] RWBY Shorts

[AndrewJTalon]

The dim glow of Dust crystals lit the abandoned manor's war room, maps and scrolls strewn across the table like the entrails of a failed plan. Cinder Fall stood with her arms crossed, one eye narrowed in irritation as Adam Taurus paced before her, Wilt resting casually on his shoulder. Her minions were elsewhere as she worked with the leader of the White Fang... But it was already testing her patience.

"Power," Adam said, voice low and deliberate, "is not merely force, Cinder. The ancients knew this. The Five Rings teach us that to master the sword is to master the self—ground, water, fire, wind, void. Balance in all things. Even tyranny must be tempered by understanding-So were the Faunus Empires before the rise of Man."

Cinder's fingers drummed against her arm. "Fascinating. And how exactly does quoting dead men help us kill Ozpin?"

Adam ignored the barb. "Miyamoto of the Rings wrote that the warrior who knows only victory is doomed to fall. One must appreciate the natural order—Confucius of Yan spoke of harmony through hierarchy, yet harmony demands justice. The Faunus have been crushed beneath human heels for centuries. My path is to wield power not for its own sake, but to right that wrong. Tyranny, yes—but purposeful tyranny."

Cinder's eye flared orange. "Power defines reality, Adam. Whoever holds it decides what is right, what is wrong, what is true. Philosophy is the luxury of people who have time to waste. We take the Maiden powers, we burn Beacon, we win. End of discussion."

Adam stopped pacing, turning to face her fully. "And when we win? What then? A throne built on unchecked ambition crumbles. I admit my bias—vengeance drives me—but even vengeance must serve a greater creed. Without it, we are no better than the humans we despise. What purpose is your power beyond yourself?"

Cinder's patience snapped like a brittle bone. "I am not here to debate ethics with a masked idealist. Power is reality. That is the only creed that matters."

"But what will you do with it once you have it?" Adam posed.

"Anything I want!" Cinder spat. Adam shook his head.

"To have such power, such ambition, induce such fear... And to have such a boring motivation. I will serve you, Cinder Fall... But I will have to do all the work for it."

Cinder seethed. She swept past him in a swirl of black and flame, the door slamming behind her with enough force to rattle the windows.

Adam stood alone in the sudden silence.

He stared at the maps, at the plans that suddenly felt... hollow.

"Free will," he murmured to the empty room. "Do I choose this path? Or has the injustice chosen me?"

His fingers tightened on Wilt's hilt.

"I miss Jaune."

The admission slipped out before he could stop it—soft, almost ashamed.

"He understood. The clash. The ideals. The drama of it all."

Adam exhaled, slow and weary.

"Perhaps... I am the one in chains."

He wrote that down. It would be great when he next fought his rival. He was sure Jaune would love it.

Unlike his so-called "ally"...

- - -

In their private quarters in the manor hideout, Emerald Sustrai found Cinder standing at the window, arms wrapped around herself like a child denied a toy.

"I am not stupid, damn it," Cinder muttered, voice tight.

Emerald approached carefully. "Of course not. Adam's just... stuck in his head."

"He thinks quoting scrolls makes him profound." Cinder's reflection in the glass looked almost vulnerable. "Power is simple. Take it. Use it. Win."

Emerald hesitated, then rested a hand on Cinder's shoulder. "You'll show him. You always do."

From the doorway, Mercury Black leaned against the frame, smirking. "Yeah, real philosophical powerhouse in there, Boss. Very straightforward. Totally winning their cooperation."

Cinder's eye flashed. A fireball the size of a Dust crate erupted from her palm and rocketed toward Mercury's head.

He ducked with practiced ease, already sprinting down the hall. "LOVE YOU TOO, BOSS! OW—HOT! HOT!"

The fireball exploded against the wall, leaving a smoking crater.

Cinder grumbled.

"I am not stupid... I just simplify things! It's not like I want to debate morality while fighting!"

"Of course Cinder!" Emerald said.

"It's all very simple! Everyone in my way must burn!"

"Absolutely!"

"I am NOT boring!"

"Nobody said you were!"

Cinder growled, but there was no real heat in it.

- - -

Mercury jogged toward the White Fang mess hall, rubbing the back of his neck where a stray ember had singed his hair.

"Food," he muttered. "Normal food. With normal people who don't shoot fireballs or simp for the fireball thrower and—"

He pushed open the doors.

The mess hall was packed.

Every table was covered in scrolls, books, and hastily scribbled notes. White Fang lieutenants argued passionately over bowls of stew.

"—the void ring clearly represents acceptance of impermanence!"

"No, you idiot, it's the emptiness from which all strategy flows!"

"Confucius would say hierarchy is natural, but justice demands we invert it!"

Mercury stopped dead in the doorway.

A young recruit looked up, eyes bright. "Hey! You're human—wanna join the debate on whether power corrupts or reveals?"

Mercury stared.

Then stared some more.

Finally, he turned on his heel and walked straight back out.

"Why," he asked the empty hallway, "is everyone in this goddamn organization a fucking nerd?"

From the mess hall, someone shouted, "—and that's why the warrior's path is inherently tragic!"

Mercury kept walking.

He was getting takeout.

From literally anywhere else.

 

[AndrewJTalon]

King Edmund's Meditations on the Shadows of Remnant

Book III: Of the Creatures of Grimm and the Darkness Within

Chapter 1

1 O Thou Divine Spark, who didst once dwell in the heart of a traitor boy and yet redeemed him through the breaking of the Stone Table, I, Edmund, once enslaved by the Ice Witch's delights and now a steward of Thy mercy, sit in the quiet of Aelia Paravel's halls and ponder the Grimm that prowl beyond our walls. These formless horrors, black as the void and crimson-eyed, neither eat nor sleep nor breed as beasts do, yet they multiply in the wake of despair, hatred, and sorrow. Whence come they, O Lord? Are they Thy creation, or the fruit of rebellion? In the stillness of this meditation, I seek not to accuse Thy providence, but to understand how even these shadows serve the light of Thy redemption.

2 In my youth, I knew darkness intimately. The Delight upon my tongue was sweeter than truth, and in my betrayal I invited winter into the hearts of my kin. I became, in small measure, a vessel of the same negativity that draws the Grimm—pride, envy, wrath. When the Witch's blade was raised above me upon the Stone, I felt the chill of her power, a power that fed upon the brokenness of souls as the Grimm now feed upon the brokenness of Remnant. Yet when the Table cracked and the sunrise came, her dominion ended, and with it the endless winter. The Grimm did not vanish that dawn, nor have they ceased their assaults in the centuries since. This teaches me, O Spark, that they are not mere remnants of Jadis alone, but manifestations of a deeper wound—the wound of sin that lingers in every heart not fully yielded to Thee.

3 Consider their nature: the Grimm have no fleshly need, no soul, no spark of the Divine as humans and Faunus bear. They are drawn irresistibly to negativity, dissolving when hope and courage rise, repelled by the Aura that flows from souls aligned with Thy will. As I wrote to the Quitalans, "For the mind that is set on the flesh is death, but the mind that is set on the Spark is life and peace" (Edmund to the Quitalans 1:34). The Grimm, then, are outward signs of inward death—visible privations of Thy goodness, much as cold is the absence of heat and shadow the absence of light. They are not beings Thou didst fashion with delight on the first days, but echoes of the great rebellion: the corruption wrought when Jadis and her fallen allies—the Brother Gods and their ilk—sought to mar Thy creation. Where Thy Spark brings order and growth, their rebellion brought dissolution and destruction, and the Grimm are the fruit of that dissolution, voids given fleeting form by the negativity that sin releases into the world.

4 Yet even in this, Thy wisdom shines. The Grimm serve as a mirror and a goad. They reveal the darkness that still lurks within us: when a city falls to strife, when a heart harbors unrepented wrath, the shadows thicken and the hordes descend. Thus they compel us to virtue—to forgiveness, to unity, to faith. Without them, would we grow complacent, forgetting our need of Thee? In my own treason, I learned that sin unchecked invites destruction; the Grimm teach this same lesson to every generation. They drive us to the Church, to prayer, to the disciplines of the Stone Breaker Order, that our Aura may burn bright and our souls remain anchored in hope.

5 Moreover, they testify to Thy ultimate victory. No Grimm could approach the Table Breaker in his ministry, for no shadow dwelt in him. When he rose from the Stone, the Witch's power shattered, and though her lesser allies scatter illusions still, their strength wanes wherever faith spreads. The Grimm rage most fiercely where unbelief reigns—in the godless halls of Mistral's elite, in the forsaken wastes—yet they flee before the humble prayer of a child who trusts the Divine Spark. This is proof, O Lord, that they are not eternal foes, but doomed echoes soon to be silenced in the paradise of growth Thou dost prepare, where neither sorrow nor negativity shall give them form.

6 Therefore, let the Grimm not breed despair in us, but resolve. As I once emerged from betrayal into kingship by Thy mercy, so may every soul turn from the negativity that summons shadows. Let us love our enemies, forgive swiftly, bear one another's burdens, that the voids may find no foothold. For in the end, the Table Breaker shall return, and every shadow shall flee before the dawn of his unending day.

7 To Thee, who turned even my treason into testimony, be glory everlasting. Amen.

 

[AndrewJTalon]

Now, something stupid and silly:

Velvet approaches Jaune with a scowl.

Jaune; "Oh, hey Velvet. What's up-?"

Velvet: "Why is he bullying you?!"

Jaune: "Eh?! Oh, you mean Cardin? I mean, I dunno, he's just-"

Velvet: "Why are you just taking it?!"

Jaune: "Well I-!"

Velvet: "He was bullying me before you! He even pulled my ears!"

Jaune: "I know, and that's wrong but-!"

Velvet: "I'M THE HOT BUNNY GIRL! HE'S GONNA BE MY TSUNDERE HUSBAND!"

Jaune: "I... Huh?"

Velvet: "Listen, you-you TWINK! He's mine! So you'd better stand up to him and make him leave you alone or I'll break your wrists! He's MINE, GOT IT?!"

Jaune: "I-I don't-I don't like him like-!"

Velvet: "GOT IT?!"

Jaune: "GOT IT!"

Velvet: "GOOD!" *She turns and storms off*

Jaune: "... Are all Huntresses crazy or is it just me?"

 

[AndrewJTalon]

After the Jaundice Arc, Cardin walks up to Velvet, with his team, in the Star Maiden Garden at Beacon.

Cardin: "Uh... Hey Velvet...?"

Velvet: smiles, expectant "Yes Cardin?"

Cardin: "Uh... Hey, listen. I'm sorry about the ear tugging and the name calling. I promise I won't do it anymore."

Velvet: eyes go wide "Wh-What?!"

Cardin: "It was wrong and-"

Velvet: "YOU'RE BREAKING UP WITH ME?!"

Cardin: "Huh?!"

Velvet: "WHO IS SHE?! WHO'S THE WHORE WHO STOLE MY MAN?! NO ONE CAN LOVE YOU LIKE I CAN!"

Cardin: "We were never— I was just apologizing! For being a jerk! I don't even— There's no one else!"

Velvet: "You tugged my ears because you secretly liked them! You called me 'animal' and 'rabbit' because those were your cute nicknames for me! We were supposed to have a bully and victim-to-lovers arc! Slow burn! Mutual pining! You were going to carry me bridal-style after I saved you from a Beowolf and then we'd share a passionate kiss in the rain!"

Cardin: "Wha...? N-NO! I was just pulling on your ears because I-I was an asshole-!"

Velvet: "LIKE FUN YOU DID! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY TELLING ME YOU PICKED ON ME AND FELT NOTHING BUT DISDAIN?!"

Cardin: bright red "... I-I do think you're... Really hot even though I shouldn't...?"

Velvet: "Don't lie to me! You can't just throw away our future like this! We were going to have a spring wedding with carrot cake and everything!"

Cardin: frantic "I love carrot cake!"

Velvet: Sobs "STOP TOYING WITH MY HEART!"

Dove: "Well damn."

Sky: "So that's why she hasn't snapped us all in half yet."

Russel: "I did kind of wonder..."

Cardin: "I'm sorry... I... Do like you. I mean, you're really hot."

Velvet: sniffles "... It's a start."

Cardin: "Can I take you to dinner?"

Velvet: "Will you yank my ears more and tell me I'm a filthy animal?"

Cardin: "All that you like!"

Velvet: "And-And put a collar on me?"

Cardin: "... Maybe save that for the third date?"

Velvet: "..." All smiles "Okay!"

Cardin let himself be pulled along, dazed and confused but oddly not hating it.

Team CRDL watched them go, jaws on the floor. Coco sidles up to them with a smug smirk.

Coco: "Ten lien says the collar happens by date two."

Russel: "... You're on."