[RWBY] RWBY Shorts

[AJ_Talon]

Jaune Arc sat hunched over his desk in the councilman's office, the glow of multiple holoscreens casting eerie blue light across his tired face. Stacks of briefing notes for tomorrow's big debate on the Beacon Academy and Valean Defense Force funding bill surrounded him like a paper fortress. His friends were scattered around, lazing about or trying to help.

He was trying—really trying—to do his homework. That meant watching clips from his fellow council members' past interviews.

He clicked play on the next one and immediately regretted every life choice that had led him here.

On screen, Prunella Glocken stood in a lavish studio, fur collar fluffed dramatically, delivering what she clearly thought was a heartfelt apology.

"My ancestors did skin Faunus. This was of course inhumane and awful. Especially since the leather from Faunus skin is totally inadequate for any kind of garment. Or umbrellas—they leak. So it was both horrific from a human rights perspective and from good, practical fashion."

Lisa Lavender cleared her throat then spoke, sounding like she was questioning her career choices. "…Thank you, Councilwoman, but we were asking about income tax."

Prunella waved a gloved hand. "Oh. We'll be cutting it, and it will be far easier to cut than human or Faunus leather, believe you me."

Jaune stared. "She… she went there. On live television."

Pyrrha, perched on the edge of his desk in her usual elegant posture (though her secretary skirt was riding up just enough to make Weiss glare from across the room), leaned over and patted his shoulder. "At least she's consistent?"

Next clip. A burly man with a handlebar mustache and enough military medals to sink a battleship filled the screen.

Sigmund Saur slammed a fist on the table. "The answer to everything in life on Remnant is simple: Guns. I gave my wife a gun on our first date instead of flowers—we've been happily married for forty years. Someone tries to steal your car? Gun. The government tries to take away your house? Gun. Your kid's teacher tried to give him an F because he was a smart aleck? Gun. Grimm? Guns. LOTS of guns!"

Yang, sprawled on the couch with her boots on the coffee table, snorted so hard she nearly dropped her scroll. "Okay, I like this guy. We should invite him to training sometime."

Ruby's eyes went starry. "He sounds fun!"

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose. "He sounds like a walking war crime."

"War crimes don't count against Grimm!" Ruby protested.

Weiss groaned.

Jaune just kept clicking, morbid curiosity taking over.

The next interviewee was a cheerful, baby-faced man in a pastel suit covered in candy patterns. Craig Horner beamed at the camera like he was admiring his reflection in the lens.

"Hello, I'm Craig Horner of the Horner Sweets and Candy Corporation Horners. We make amazing pies and candy, don't we? It's awesome. Anyway, I'm on the Council because I think it will make my dad respect me and I can make Vale very sweet indeed. But it's mostly a lot of boring meetings that cut into my fun time. Anyway, your question?"

Lisa Lavender's sigh was audible even through the recording. "What are your thoughts on the recent scandal involving your company bribing people?"

Craig blinked innocently. "Bribery? Hey, I was taught to always bring enough sweets for everyone! Because I'm rich! Though I did have to take that police chief's sportscar away because it was 'illegal'. He liked sportscars and so I just wanted to make him happy! Is that a crime?"

An assistant leaned over and whispered in his ear. Craig blinked, and then shrugged.

"…Oh, I guess so."

Nora cackled from the floor where she was doing sit-ups with Magnhild balanced on her shins. "I want his job! Free candy forever!"

Ren, ever the voice of reason, deadpanned, "He would bankrupt the treasury in a week."

The screen switched again. This time a confident cat Faunus woman with black hair, pointed ears, and an outfit that somehow managed to be both professional and deeply inappropriate leaned toward the camera with a sultry smile.

"As a small business owner and a prolific porn star, I too know what it is like to be the one woman in a room full of men. But I also know just how to navigate such a precarious environment, and still come out on top! That's why I'm hoping to be re-elected to the High Council next year! Vote for Fuschia Nightshade! No matter how hard it gets, I like it harder!"

Blake, who had been sipping tea, did a full spit-take directly onto Weiss's pristine white jacket. Her amber eyes were wider than dinner plates.

"AUNTIE?!"

The entire room went dead silent for half a second before exploding.

Yang burst out laughing so hard she rolled off the couch. "Your aunt is a porn star?! Blake, you never told us your family was that interesting!"

Blake's ears flattened so hard they nearly disappeared under her bow. "She is NOT— I mean— she's my mother's sister and she was always the 'fun' one but I thought she ran a lingerie boutique, not— not—!"

Weiss dabbed at her ruined jacket with a handkerchief, muttering, "Of course the Belladonnas would have a porn star in the family. Why am I even surprised anymore?"

Jaune wisely chose not to comment and clicked onward.

Rufus Winchester appeared next, his face redder than his thinning hair and gesturing wildly with a tank model on the table in front of him.

"Look, all I'm saying is that letting sick kids at the hospital ride around in a tank and fire the guns is great for everyone's morale!"

Lisa Lavender sounded like she was one bad answer away from quitting journalism forever. "You're fine with children operating weapons of terror?"

Rufus puffed up. "They're not weapons of terror! They're weapons of war! That means they actually kill your enemy! And only with proper supervision!"

Yang grinned. "Cardin's dad is growing on me."

The final clip featured a nervous, twitchy man who looked like he might faint if someone sneezed too loudly. He adjusted his large glasses, nearly shivering under the power of Lisa's gaze.

"Councilman Penny? Councilman Henny Penny? Sir?" Lisa prompted, very gently. It still made the man cringe.

Penny clutched the arms of his chair like it was a life raft. "Th-The simple fact is that the world is a very dangerous place and I vote for whatever will make it less dangerous. Like blowing up Grimm. With lots of bombs. Far away. Or big walls."

Lisa leaned in. "And subsidies for your companies?"

Henny flinched so hard he nearly fell out of his seat. "AH! DON'T HIT! I BRUISE EASILY!"

Yang stared at the screen. "…How did he get elected?"

Jaune sighed, rubbing his eyes. "He does actually do great at getting investment into his province… Mainly because people feel sorry for him."

Blake, still recovering from the Auntie Fuschia revelation, muttered, "It has to be an act… right?"

Jaune shrugged. "If it is, it works really well…"

The last clip was from Jaune's own recent presser. Lisa Lavender's voice rang out, sharp and amused.

"Mister Arc, is it true your older sister is a bloodthirsty malevolent psycho who murders the innocent for profit?"

Jaune, on-screen, didn't even blink. "You'll have to be more specific. I have four older sisters."

His friends erupted in laughter. Even Weiss cracked a reluctant smile.

Pyrrha turned to Jaune, her emerald eyes warm and sincere. "You know… for all the chaos, you're really not like them, Jaune. You're not crazy."

Jaune stared at the frozen image of himself on the screen for a long moment. Then he let out a tired, slightly hysterical chuckle and leaned back in his chair.

"Me? Not crazy?" He gestured vaguely at the pile of clips, the funding bill notes, the stack of angry letters from Prunella's supporters, and the half-eaten bowl of Nora's victory pancakes. "I stayed in office, didn't I?"

Pyrrha opened her mouth to protest, but Yang beat her to it, slinging an arm around Jaune's shoulders and pulling him into a side hug that pressed entirely too much of her against him.

"Exactly! You're just crazy enough to fit in, Ladykiller. That's why we love you."

Ruby bounced over and hugged his other side. "Yeah! And we're gonna crush that funding debate! Beacon's getting all the coffee and robots it wants!"

Weiss adjusted her ponytail with a sniff. "Provided you don't let Rufus talk you into letting sick children test-fire artillery."

Blake, still faintly traumatized, muttered, "Or Fuschia offering campaign 'endorsements'…"

Nora pumped her fist. "If anyone tries anything weird, I'll hit them with the squirt gun strategy!"

Ren simply sighed, yet the wry smile on his face was filled with fondness.

Jaune looked around at the absolute circus that was his support staff slash harem-in-denial slash security detail, then back at the screen where Lisa Lavender was still frozen mid-skeptical-eyebrow-raise.

He smiled, small and exhausted and strangely fond.

"…Yeah. Politicians in Vale are all crazy."

He paused, then added with a shrug, "Guess that makes me one of them now."

Pyrrha leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to the top of his head. "A very handsome, very tired one."

 

[AJ_Talon]

The training hall was empty except for the echo of Ruby's boots on the mats.

She had been waiting twenty minutes. Crescent Rose sat assembled beside her, polished and ready. Yang had promised—promised—they would run partner drills after dinner. Just like they used to back in Patch. Just like they had every night during the first weeks at Beacon.

Yang had not shown.

Again.

When the doors finally banged open, Yang strode in wearing her usual after-hours grin, hair still damp from a shower, a protein bar half-eaten in one hand.

"Hey, Rubes. Sorry I'm late. Got caught up with—"

Ruby didn't look up. "You said seven. It's seven-fifty-three."

Yang's grin faltered. "Okay, yeah. I know. I just needed—"

"You needed time to yourself." Ruby's voice was small and tight. "That's what you said last time. And the time before that. And the time before that."

Yang tossed the wrapper into a bin harder than necessary. "It's fifty minutes, Ruby! I've been training all day. Combat class, extra sparring with VB, helping Weiss with Dust theory because she asked. I'm allowed to breathe, Ruby!"

"I waited." Ruby finally stood. Her silver eyes were shining. "I always wait. Because you're my sister and you said you would."

Yang's temper, already frayed from a long day, snapped.

"I've taken care of you all this time," she said, louder than she meant to. "I packed your bags. I made sure you ate. I stayed up when you had nightmares about Mom. I deserve some time to myself! I don't have to hold your hand all the time, damnit! I shouldn't! You're a Huntress-in-training now, deal with it and stop-stop dragging me down!"

The words hung in the air like a live grenade. Yang's eyes widened, as though the words finally registered.

Ruby's face crumpled.

"I didn't ask to be admitted two years early!" The shout tore out of her. "I didn't ask Dad to send me here! I didn't ask to skip Signal! It's not my fault I'm here! It's not my fault you had to keep looking after me!"

Yang's mouth opened, then closed. The color drained from her face.

"Ruby, that's not—!"

"You wish I wasn't here." Ruby's voice broke completely. Tears spilled over. "You wish I was still back in Patch so you could just… be Yang. Without the little sister you have to babysit."

"That's not what I said—!"

"It's what you thought!"

Ruby snatched Crescent Rose and bolted.

The door slammed hard enough to rattle the weapon racks.

Yang stood alone in the sudden silence, fists clenched, heart pounding with the sick realization that she had just said the one thing she could never take back.

---

Jaune found her first.

He had been heading back from the kitchen with leftovers when he heard the shouting. By the time he reached the hall, Ruby was already gone and Yang was sitting on the mats with her head in her hands.

He sat down beside her without asking. Years of seven sisters had taught him the value of just being there.

It took her some time, but she finally broke the silence-Barely.

"I messed up," Yang whispered.

"Yeah," Jaune said quietly. "You did."

She let out a wet, humorless laugh. "Thanks for sugarcoating it."

"You don't need sugarcoating. You need to go after her." He nudged her shoulder. "I've said worse to my sisters. Stuff I didn't mean when I was tired and frustrated."

Yang wiped her face with the heel of her hand. "She thinks I don't want her here."

"Do you?"

"Of course I want her here." Yang's voice cracked. "She's my baby sister. I just… I've been her mom for so long I..." She lowered her head. "Maybe... Maybe I forgot I was her sister."

Jaune stood and offered her a hand. "Then go be her sister."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that," Jaune said gently. "She loves you. She just wants to be with you. It's not that complicated."

Yang looked at the walls of the gym.

"Then why does it feel so complicated?" She muttered.

Jaune shrugged.

"Maybe it is... But you can solve that stuff later. Right now, you just need to resolve this. And you can resolve it."

Yang sniffled, and tried to hide that she was wiping her eyes. He handed her a handkerchief anyway. She scowled.

"You always carry one of those?"

"Comes in handy more often than not," he said with a shrug. He then offered her his hand. "You ready to find her?"

Yang paused, then took his hand. He pulled her up.

---

Pyrrha found Ruby on the roof.

The youngest Huntress-in-training was curled against a ventilation unit, hood up, Crescent Rose clutched to her chest like a stuffed animal. Her shoulders shook with quiet, hiccupping sobs.

Pyrrha sat down a respectful distance away, red hair catching the moonlight.

"She didn't mean it," Pyrrha said gently.

Ruby sniffed. "She said it."

"People say things they don't mean when they're scared and tired and trying to protect someone they love." Pyrrha's voice was calm, patient. "Yang has spent her entire life being the strong one for you. Sometimes the strong one forgets that the person they're protecting is allowed to be strong too."

Ruby peeked out from under her hood. "I just wanted to train with her. Like we used to."

"I know." Pyrrha smiled softly. "And she wanted that too. She just also wanted one evening where she didn't have to be the big sister who has everything under control. Both of those things can be true at the same time."

Ruby's lip trembled. "I hate fighting with her."

"I know that too."

Footsteps sounded on the roof access stairs.

Yang appeared, looking smaller than Ruby had ever seen her. No grin. No fire. Just her sister, pale and apologetic.

"Ruby…"

Ruby didn't look at her.

Yang crossed the roof and dropped to her knees in front of her little sister.

"I'm sorry." The words came out raw. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it. I never wished you weren't here. I just… I got tired and I took it out on the person who least deserved it. That's on me. That's all on me."

Ruby's voice was tiny. "You sounded like you meant it."

"I know." Yang's eyes were wet. "And I'll spend as long as it takes making sure you never hear that from me again. You're not a burden. You're the best thing that ever happened to me. Even when you sneak cookies and leave rose petals everywhere and wake me up at 3 a.m. because you had a new idea for Crescent Rose."

A small, watery laugh escaped Ruby.

Yang opened her arms.

Ruby launched into them.

They stayed like that for a long time—Yang rocking her little sister the way she used to after nightmares, Ruby's face buried in her shoulder.

From the stairwell, Jaune and Pyrrha watched in silence.

Jaune whispered, "Told you they'd figure it out."

Pyrrha smiled. "They always do. They just needed a little help remembering how."

When the sisters finally pulled apart, Yang wiped Ruby's cheeks with her thumbs.

"Tomorrow," she said. "Seven o'clock. Partner drills. I won't be late."

Ruby nodded, still sniffling. "You'd better not. I'll tell Dad."

Yang snorted. "Low blow, kiddo."

Ruby managed a real smile. "I learned from the best."

 

[GraveyardShift]

Put me down!

"Look all I'm saying is Weiss is that you REALLY should get Myrtenaster checked for lubricant maintenance."

"No Ruby, I'm not letting you take apart my weapon."

"PLEASE??! PLEASE WEISS I'M BEGGING YOU!"

Yang watched with mild interest as Ruby tried once again to let Weiss 'examine' her weapon. Which to Ruby meant complete disassembly of all parts and studying every tiny mechanism which could take weeks before Weiss would have to take the entire thing in a bag to Forge and have it professionally reassembled because Ruby wouldn't pay attention the first time too caught up in the excitement of a new weapon.

As much as a weapons fanatic and mechanical genius her little sister was, she did have a tendency to get overexcited to forget small details. Yang had to go five months with only one gauntlet the first time she made the mistake of letting Ruby 'examine' Ember Celica.

The weaponsmith when Ruby finally admitted defeat was livid and forced Ruby through two weeks of detail-oriented tasks when Tai finally took it back for assembly. Old Brunz was NOT amused even if he was fascinated how a 9-year-old had managed a clean disassembly without resorting to 'percussive deconstruction'.

"It's just a little weapon's maintenance... I promise I'll be careful!"

"Myrtenaster is a one-of-a-kind Mastercraft assembled by the best professionals in Atlas. You're not even Basic Armorer certified!" Weiss snapped at Ruby.

Yang watched hoping for something more entertaining, but this was old hat to her at this point and she was quickly becoming bored.

But then, as if answering her prayers, one Jaune Arc marched up behind Ruby. Too invested in convincing Weiss she'd be 'extra careful' and return it the same day, Ruby was not prepared when the blond noodle suddenly seized her sister under the arms.

"Eh?"

And then hoisted her from the bench of the lunch table carrying her off.

Yang perked up now curious. She wasn't the only one as Blake peered over her book having tuned out the argument. Weiss also unused to be interrupted in this manner watched confused.

Ruby looked over her shoulder and up. "Jaune? What are you doing?"

"Settling a debate."

"Okay...? Can you put me down?"

"No."

Jaune marched right up to Cardin before lifting Ruby up and thrusting her into his face. Both teens looked at each other bewildered.

"...Hi?" Ruby said nose to nose with the bigger boy.

"Look!" Jaune said referring to Ruby. "Is she not only a girl but also a CUTE girl?"

Ruby's face went red. "Heh?" she squeaked.

Cardin shifted sideways away from Ruby while also gently trying to push her out of his personal space. "...be cuter with bunny ears..."

"What'd you say?"

"I said yeah Arc, I can agree she's cute."

"And as men, do we or do we not like cute girls?" Jaune shoved Ruby back in Cardin's face who squirmed uncomfortably with what was going on.

"Jaune can you put me down?"

"Not until he admits it's manly to like cute girls!"

Steam started coming out of Ruby's ears as she stuttered.

"Alright Arc! It's manly to like cute girls! Now stop shoving Rose in my face!"

Jaune pulled Ruby to his chest making her squeak loudly and turn further her namesake. "So you agree then that it is manly to like cute things!"

"Put me doooooown!" Ruby wailed wanting desperately to flee the situation.

"No."

"Alright Arc you win! It's manly to like cute things! But only if they're cute girls! Jeeze!" Cardin grumbled. "Now piss off and get a room if you're going to make out with Rose like that."

Jaune snorted vindicated and walked off still carrying Ruby.

"Put me doooooown!" Ruby wailed again.

"No."

Jaune sat down in Ruby's former seat with her in his lap still wrapped up in his arms.

"Okay Vomit Boy what the hell was that?" Yang asked unsure if she should be teasing them or punching out Jaune.

"Cardin tried to emasculate me by saying it was unmanly to like cute things. I needed something cute to prove to him he was full of bullshit."

The girls aside from Ruby made a collective noise of understanding and nodded in agreement.

"Why not Weiss?" Yang asked. Weiss shot both her and Jaune a glare that could have frozen the sun.

"Because Weiss is the definitive definition of classical beauty and grace more then she is cute thought that is not to say she ISN'T cute, but her beauty rates higher than her cuteness attribute and wouldn't have satisfied the debate."

The glare instantly melted. Weiss turned away huffing trying to hide her pinking cheeks.

"Ruby on the other hand is universally considered Beacon's cutest freshman."

Yang nodded. "I find no error in this assessment. You have chosen wisely."

"Can you put me down now?"

"No."

The bell rang signaling the end of lunch and everyone stood up to move to their next class. Jaune picked up Ruby carrying her off.

"Put me doooooown!"

"No."

"Put me doooooooooooown!"

---

Had to do it. This thing was infesting my head and needed to get it out. Lancaster if you squint, I suppose. Jaune finds Ruby cute and refuses to put her down.

 

[GraveyardShift]

GraveyardShift's Award Winning "Why Bumblebee was not Planned."

I figured that. Things seemed to be set up that way. Especially since I have a suspicion that Blake's original pre-volume 4 backstory was street rat that grew up in the white fang and not Princess.

I Know that he was kinda set up as a pair for her, or at least a possibility. I Just have a hard time figuring out how it would work.

Click to shrink...

Like I am ready to accept that Blake and Yang were planned from start, but then why do Blake and Sun get an entire volume together, fighting side by side and Blake overcoming her past with her abusive ex.

Sun even met her parents.

Click to shrink...

I haven't forgotten about you two. Simply had to sleep on it.

I am awake now.

Alright the first thing I have to introduce is the smoking gun that kills Bumblebee dead before it even gets to the starting line. The one that supporters of that ship always sidestep and pretend does NOT exist because if they DID acknowledge it, it shatters EVERYTHING they have 'carefully' built up.

All students are in the Great Hall. Many are already in sleeping wear and the sleeping bags are laid out.

Ruby is scene lying across one and writing a letter to her friends at Signal.

Yang: *offscreen* "It's like a BIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-" *flops onscreen onto her sleeping bag next to Ruby* "-IIIIIIIIG Slumber Party!"

Ruby: I don't think dad would approve of all the boys.

Yang: I KNOW I DO!

*Camera pans over various teenage boys doing typical teenage boy flaunting. Nearly all of whom are shirtless. The entire line up is nothing but males.*

Yang: *offscreen Voice Over* rrRRRRRrr!

Click to shrink...

As early as THIS in Volume 1 Episode 3, Yang is confirmed to be Heterosexual and attracted to males. (Potentially confirms Ruby as well since that's the first thing out of her mouth on an automatic thought given she's occupied with writing the letter but not enough evidence to cement it like Yang.)

To kill the "Bisexual until otherwise" argument, Yang has never once until Volume 7 with Blake, EVER shown this kind of attraction to ANY OTHER GIRL.

Even if you take Ruby out of the lineup, there's still Weiss, Pyrrha, and Nora to 'flirt' with aside from Blake. You can even toss Penny in there since Yang doesn't know she's a Robot until Pyrrha 'kills' her during their match. She just sees Penny as a 'weird girl'.

That is in-universe TWO YEARS to go without demonstrating any kind of attraction to girls. And by the time she does, CRWBY has firmly entered their "only the current volume is canon" phase. This means they change up the rules and ignore all previous evidence as long as it lets them do their dream scene in the current volume. Thus disregarding continuity. Argument for bi or any other kind of sexuality other than Hetero invalidated.

Now that I've killed Bumblebee, let's look at Black Sun.

Blake's archetype, other then the "Idiot Activist" is the 'Kuudere' or "Cool-dere" type. Cool and aloof (but not Ice Queen level like the Tsundere) on the outside. Sweet goober on the inside. Hence introvert.

So that means that Blake tends to keep her personal thoughts to herself. Much like Ren, she doesn't speak unless she feels it necessary.

So when Blake is outted as a Fanus and as a former White Fang operator, she runs away. Sun catches her in the courtyard by the statue when we get the ear reveal.

The two go into Vale and Blake, for the first time, practically spills her heart and secrets out TO SUN. The walls she's built up come down around SUN.

Not YANG. SUN.

If an Introvert does this to you, they've basically already declared themselves married to you.

I mean the entire setting is basically a first date for them.
Just the two of them in a cozy cafe? Check.
Both of them talking about themselves? Check.
Learning things about each other and clarifying who they are? DOUBLE Check.

This is what an actual date used to look like. Two people getting to know each other to find out if they still like each other as opposed to whatever 'idea' they've built up in their heads about the other person as a romantic partner.

And so far, neither of them seem disgusted or opposed to what they are presented with.

They have a SECOND date to the Beacon Dance and Blake is shown laughing having a genuinely good time dancing with Sun. The walls are coming down around him. She's comfortable around him and doesn't flake out the same way she does with team RWBY.

Then you get to Kuo Kuana and they have a THRID date where Blake talks about how she categorizes people before she brings him home to meet the parents.

Blake does NONE of this with Yang. There are no dates. There are no deep discussions baring themselves to each other to break down the 'romantic ideal' of each other. Hell for the entirety of Volume 4-5, Yang genuinely seems to HATE Blake for pulling a Raven and would probably attack and kill her onsight for that. Trust once broken like that is not easily regained.

And Blake broke Yang's trust three times over in the first three volumes.

Sun however, kinda has Blake somewhat figured out and her issues don't bother him as much as they do Yang. He's broken down far more of her walls then Yang has ever scratched and he doesn't hate what he sees. Yang however is practically spitting venom when Weiss tries to bring Blake up in Volume 5.

 

[GraveyardShift]

The thing about romances is that we always get the romance started in Beacon.
What if Jaune was ALREADY someone's boyfriend when he gets to Beacon?

Thus I present to you:

*Squeak!*


Lancaster:

"Don't think Dad would approve of all the boys." Ruby Rose, Super Awesome Huntress in Training, remarked to her big sister Yang Xiao-Long as she penned a letter to her old friends at signal.

"I know I do!" Yang said shamelessly ogling the various shirtless boys flexing and wrestling with each other to show off. "Rrrrr!" she purred.

Then one boy strutted past in a baby blue full body onesie.

Yang recoiled. "uUUUulgh!"

Ruby looked up from her letter at Yang's sudden shock. "Hmmm?" Looking around she spotted the boy in question who paused looking their way. She broke out into a wide grin and started waving at him. "Jaune! Jaune! Over here!" She bounced.

Jaune, spotting the girl also broke into a wide grin and hurried over. Ruby bouncing up to her feet and tackling him in a hug.

Yang watched from where she lay on her sleeping bag with equal parts interest and confusion. Ruby tugged him over and Jaune plopped himself down on Ruby's sleeping bag.

Then Ruby, instead of plopping down next to him, proceeded to drop right into his lap.

THAT caused Yang to raise an eyebrow. "Whoa. Moving a little fast there little sis?"

"What are you talking about Yang? This is normal." Ruby said wrapping Jaune's arms around her.

"Ruby I have never seen this person before and you are NEVER this cozy with someone who's new."

"He's not new."

"He is to me."

Jaune looked down at Ruby. "You didn't tell her?"

Ruby tapped her fingers together. "I was gonna..."

Yang's eyes narrowed. "Tell me what? ...wait..." Her eyes widened in shock as she sat up. "RUBY ROSE! YOU HAVE A BOYFRI-"

Ruby launched herself from Jaune's lap tackling Yang and covering her mouth with both hands. "SHHHH! SHHHH! Yang not so loud! Everyone will hear!" She hissed.

People in the room turned to look at the commotion. Some watching the exchange curiously.

Yang easily freed herself from Ruby. "How? When? Why didn't you say anything?" She hissed.

"I didn't say anything because I didn't want everyone to act all weird about it." Ruby hissed back before poking her fingers together again. "Last year at the comic convention is where we met. We were next to each other in the X-ray and Vav line."

"You were together that long?"

Jaune spoke up. "No we only started going out 4 months ago. We were doing stuff together long before that. We met up again at the release of Issue 357 of Owlman Forever." Ruby crawled back into his lap. "We exchanged numbers and started talking about comics and video games. Started going out monthly on new release day." Jaune extended a hand as Ruby pulled the other one around himself. "Jaune Arc. Ruby's said a lot about you."

"Oh? She talk about how kickass and awesome I was?" Yang asked shaking it.

"Naw, more about how you hog up space. Like the shower in the mornings. The couch after school."

Ruby twisted trying to cover his mouth. Yang cackled. "Oho so it's like that is it sis? Worried your big sister is going to steal away your man so you made me look bad?"

"Shut up!" Ruby hissed.

"Well good to meet you finally then Jaune. Meanwhile little Rubaby GOT SOME 'SPLAIN' TA DO. when DAD hears about this."

"Yang! No! Please!" Ruby whined. "Jaune's really nice and he treats me well!"

"As he should." Yang cracked her knuckled. "Now look Jaune I'm gonna be cool with this because Ruby coming out of her shell like this is a good thing. Don't abuse it. Oblatory big sister protection threat."

Jaune nodded. "Understood. Seven sisters."

Yang blanched. "SEVEN?"

Ruby nodded. "I met some of them once when Jaune and I were on one of our bi-weekly arcade dates."

Yang narrowed her gaze. "Is THAT what those trips into Vale were about? Oh dad is going to lose it."

"Can we at least wait until we graduate before we tell him?" Ruby pleaded.

Yang tapped a finger to her lips. "Hmmm... make it worth my while. I'm not sure you two are together."

Jaune decided to solve that problem by gently turning Ruby to face him before he leaned down to kiss her.

"*SQUEAK!*"

Yang fell backwards laughing as Ruby's face turned her namesake. "Oh this is gonna be the best year ever!"

---

Dragonslayer:

"I know I do! RrrrrRRRrr!" Yang Xiao-Long, kickass Huntress and punner extraordinaire purred as she ogled the boys on full display.

Then one boy in particular crossed her field of view strutting past.

And sudden there was an increase in brightness as Yang seemed to literally light up on spotting him. Shooting upright and waving frantically with megawatt grin and blonde locks glowing slightly. "JAUNE! JAUNE OVER HERE!"

The equally blond boy glanced over curious before face morphed into an equally bright grin as he hurried over.

Yang flopped back down patting her bag next to her which Jaune took up before she backed into him. Jaune flopping an arm around her waist.

Yang with a mischievous grin pushed it further up her ribcage.

Ruby watched all this happen in confusion before her face turned suspicious with a narrowed gaze before hissing "Yang! We're in public."

Yang just gave her sister a smug grin. "I know."

"Hey Ruby." Jaune said. "Small world."

Yang looked between the two. Returning Ruby's suspicious gaze. "And how do YOU know my boyfriend?" She questioned.

"When you abandoned me! and left me to explode!" Ruby accused puffing up.

"Yikes. Meltdown much?"

"No she literally exploded." Jaune answered. "I found her in a crater and everything."

"Oh my Aslan you actually exploded..."

"You!" Ruby gestured to the pair. "This! Does dad know?"

"I was gonna tell him next semester."

"If he lasts that long." Ruby muttered before turning to Jaune. "Sorry Jaune. She goes through a boyfriend like ever three weeks."

Jaune nodded. "I know."

"You KNOW?"

"Open communication is important in any relationship." Jaune went on. "It builds and maintains a healthy foundation to build upon."

"And unlike you, he knows a good pun when he ears it."

Jaune chuckled. Ruby groaned and tried to smother herself with her pillow.

"See? That was good one!" Yang complained.

"I've got a better one." Jaune grinned at Ruby. "How is Yang like a mouse?" Ruby peeked out from behind the pillow while Yang shot him a look that warned him he was on thin ice.

"Because she's cute and sounds like this." Jaune suddenly rolled Yang toward him and kissed her firmly on the lips.

"*SQUEAK!*"

Ruby chuckled. "Okay that was pretty good."

---

Knightshade:

"HELL-OOOOOO~!"

Blake Belladonna, former member of the White Fang and prospective Huntress-in-Training froze before cautiously peeking over her book...

...and spotted the one thing she dearly wished she was imagining.

An approaching extrovert.

Oh dear Horned God please let that be going to someone else... No No NO NO NO NO...

Blake quickly ducked her eyes back down. If she didn't make full on eye contact then they would ignore her....

...no such luck. Just keep reading Blake...

A throat cleared. Blake looked up again. Damn it...

A few awkward starts that Blake answered in short one-word sentences. Get the hint... go away...

She bristled at the 'lost cause' insult but they seemed to finally get the message.

"Oh I wouldn't say lost cause. Just shy."

Blake's ears shot upright as another person approached them. This one a far more welcome sight. YES! PROTECT ME! SHIELD ME FROM ATTENTION OH BLOND SAVIOR!

The boy came to plop himself right next to her. Blake quickly snuggled into him hiding behind her book again. Jaune started scratching the top of her head gently at the base of her ears causing her to lean into him and murr approvingly.

"Jaune Arc." He introduced himself. "This dark beauty is Blake. She's not trying to be rude. She's probably all socialed out. Sorry it took me so long love."

"Mmmm... keep petting and you are forgiven."

Jaune engaged the two girls taking attention away from Blake. She relaxed into him in gratitude. The blonde one, Yang, seemed overjoyed at the idea of having found a couple. Stupid teenage gossip no doubt. Shallow things that didn't matter in the long run to Blake.

"...What's it about?"

Blake blinked looking up at the younger one. Ruby. "Your book." Ruby asked.

The side conversation stopped as attention turned back to her.

Blake paused for a moment then shrugged. She could handle this. "It's about a man with two souls."

"I love books. My mom used to read to me every night."

Blake noticed the shift in mood instantly. Something she was good at. Something wistful came across in both girls. Jaune nudged her slightly.

Blake softened. These two had lost someone precious to them as Ruby talked about the stories of heroes and their deeds.

"Sounds nice. Sadly not everything in the world can be like a story."

"Oh I disagree." Jaune said drawing attention back to him.

Blake gave him a flat look. "And pray tell what exactly is like a story?"

"Those romance novels you have me read to you."

Yang lit up at the prospect of more juicy gossip. Blake flushed pink. She socked him in the arm. "Are not!"

Jaune tilted Blake's face toward him gently by the chin. "Challenge accepted." He pressed his lips to hers in a kiss.

"*SQUEAK!*"

Ruby covered her mouth turning red. Yang couldn't stop grinning. "I think he won that one Blake."

---

White Knight:

"Do you mind! Some of us are trying to-"
"OH NO NOT YOU AGAIN!"
"OH NO NOT YOU AGAIN!"

Weiss Schnee, Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company and soon to be Top Rated Huntress of Beacon was tired, grumpy, surrounded by useless posturing plebians, and somehow expected to sleep amid all the ruckus. She stomped over to a particularly loud group to demand they silence themselves and go to sleep at a respectable hour... only to find out that said group contained the dolt who had exploded a quarter of her dust and the loud blonde bimbo who looked like she'd rather be at a rave then a respectable institute.

Weiss grit her teeth and prepared to lay into the big titted bitch when someone swept up behind her and scooped her up. Stunned she instinctively looped her arms around the individual's neck trying to figure out what just happened as she let out a dignified yelp.

"Okay Snow Angel calm down. You know it's not good for your complexion to go to bed angry."

Weiss turned pink as she came face to face with her boyfriend. Jaune Arc. "Unhand me at once!"

"No."

"Unhand me!"

"No." Jaune simply adjusted his grasp on her preventing her from wriggling free... not that she fought him at all. Being picked up and carried like this as if someone's priceless treasure was one of her guilty pleasures. "Sorry about this." Jaune apologized to the other girls. "Weiss has come a long way from Atlas and she's had a bit of a rough day. She gets grumpy when she doesn't go to bed on time."

The other blonde pivoted from irate to glee. "Oh ho ho ho! Now I see why you wanted to talk about boys Ice Queen. Wanted to show off your own?"

"Why YOU-"

"WEISS." Jaune fixed her with a firm glare causing Weiss to immediately quit struggling to strangle the harlot. She shrunk further in on herself. "Good girl." Jaune praised her causing her to turn a deeper shade of red. Jaune turned to the other girls. "Nice meeting you all! Hope to see you in initiation. I'd better go put this one to bed so she'll be a little nicer tomorrow. Won't you dear?" Jaune fixed her with a stern look.

Weiss gave a tiny nod. "Mmm..."

"Good." Jaune leaned down to kiss her as he turned to bring her back to her own bedroll.

"*SQUEAK!*"

The two left behind a snickering trio as her darling knight went to put his princess to bed.

---

Arkos:

"And naturally it only makes sense that the two most prestigious Huntress of their generation pair up to ensure compatible excellence." Weiss stood before Pyrrha Nikos who was check the last of her armor. Pyrrha gave her a smile. "That sounds... grand Weiss." She said gently. "But I kind of already have a partner in mind."

Weiss mentally broke. "H-h-have a p-p-partner?" she stuttered.

Pyrrha nodded. "But if there's room on a team I'm sure we wouldn't mind having you. For that was planning on... letting the chips fall where they may. But I have a partner in mind already." She clasped her hands together bowing slightly. "Sorry!"

Weiss inhaled regrouping and rallying. "I see. They must be exceptionally indeed if you were looking to partner with them. I wouldn't say no to more exceptional individuals of course. Who did you have in min-"

Weiss froze as the tall lanky blond boy slipped up behind Pyrrha. His hands grabbing her by the waist and hoisted her into the air.

"OH!" Pyrrha started as she was gently tossed up and spun before coming back down being caught by someone. As her emerald eyes locked onto blue ones her gentle thin smile exploded into a genuine megawatt grin. "JAUNE!" she laughed as he held her before putting her back on her feet facing him.

"Gotcha!" Jaune grinned.

Pyrrha's eyes glittered mischievously. "You certainly did."

"EXCUSE YOU!" both turned to face Weiss who laser focused on Jaune. "Who are you to manhandle Pyrrha Nikos like that!" She moved to separate them standing between them. "You obviously know who this is!"

"It's Pyr-Pyr." "Jaune!" Pyrrha blushed at the use of her pet name.

"It's PYRRHA NIKOS!" Weiss advanced on him jabbing him in the chest. "The Invincible Girl! Four-Time National Champion of the Mistral National Circuit! Favorite to win the Vytal Tournament!"

"You forgot girlfriend of Jaune Arc."

"Girlfriend of Jau-GIRLFRIEND?!?!" Weiss went ramrod straight.

Pyrrha stepped around her back into Jaune's embrace. "We... don't advertise it. You understand right? Could you keep it quiet?" She asked.

Weiss just stood there spluttering. "There is... there is no way... you and him... no way..."

Jaune sighed. "Guess I have to prove this the fun way." Without warning he swept Pyrrha off her feet dipping her and kissing her on the lips.

"*SQUEAK!*"

Weiss went mentally dark. Pyrrha just hung limply in his arms with a goofy smile and unfocused eyes. "FiVe MoRe Of ThOsE tO gO pLeAsE..." she slurred somewhat drunkenly.

---

Ugh... this was a LOT more fun in my head and also included a lot more origin stories of how Jaunex(Girl) met but was an absolute slog to actually sit down to type out which wasn't as fun...

Jaune likes to make his girlfriend squeak. It's cute. Maybe I'll come back to this.

 

[GraveyardShift]

What if someone tried to create a Grimm/Human hybrid?

Click to shrink...

A Daughter's Vengence

The woman stood there with stark white hair pulled back in a feathery ponytail that triggered something in Jaune's memory but he couldn't get his mind to cooperate at the moment to recall. Porcelain white skin with black and red markings reaching into her face along her temples, cheeks, and jaw.

Most striking however were the eyes.

Black sclera ended in glowing green irises in emerald. The same color as the moon staring down at them.

"Hello Mother." she snarled the second word. Acid dripping from the tone.

Click to shrink...

So someone makes a Grimm/Human hybrid. Top secret lab. Speed grown.

RWBY and JNPR with Oobleck investigate this lab, where the staff has mysterious disappeared, leaving one surviving scientist... And a strange little girl.

A little girl who knows nothing beyond a cell in a laboratory. Who has undergone torture and horrific experiments.

And now... She is starting to hear a voice in her head. An older, female voice...

Click to shrink...

And what, pray tell, are you...?

"Hu-Who's there?" The girl fled for the corner of her cell looking around desperately for the voice.

She had been enjoying the silence. The first in ages.

Don't bother looking with your eyes child. I am not there. At least not physically... though even that is a matter of debate considering what your signature is returning. Strange. Very strange indeed.

"Who are you?"

Of course they wouldn't see fit to tell you. *tch* I am your progenitess. Your origin and beginning.

"Yu-...you're my mommy?"

I did not give birth to you so technically no. But given the manner of how you came to be from my flesh and blood I suppose we should nail down exactly what we are to each other. You were born from the remains of my flesh. Cut free during an encounter with a rather nasty Bounty Hunter. From that waste my genetic material was isolated and replicated. Cloned if you will. And from that you were created.

"I... I don't understand."

*sigh* Forgive me. I forgot what I was dealing with. Someone cut my arm off.

The girl looked at her arm.

Yes. That. It grew back. Don't worry about how at the moment. And no that arm you're looking at is yours. Not mine. You were created from it's remains.

"S-so you're not going to cut mine off?"

Goodness no. I've already grown mine back. There's no need for me to go cutting off a perfectly good arm just to try and replace it with a child's.

"You're... you're like me then. They cut me. But it keeps growing back. It always grows back." She curled up tightly in a ball.

*sigh* Of course... bloodly sadists... though sometimes you have to brute force the science... right, so you were created from the remains of that flesh which means you are my clone.

"...I'd rather have a mommy..."

...

"Could... could you be my mommy? Could you take me away so they won't hurt me anymore?"

Well since you're my clone, that makes you ether my twin sister or my daughter and frankly I have enough trauma to deal with regarding sisters. Mine were taken from me and tortured so probably for the best I see you as just another daughter.

"So... you are my mommy?"

I suppose given the context... yes, I'd be considered your mother. Now the question is what to do with you...

"Take me away! Take me out of here! I don't want to be hurt anymore! Please make it stop!" she begged.

The voice was silent for a moment. She feared it had all been another trick. Another torture.

Then the groan reverberated in her skull. It hadn't been a trick.

Alright. To be honest I should just kill you and be done with it. But there's a slight chance. Slight. That it wouldn't stick. Given you're already growing back limbs or whatever else they're cutting off you. And honestly this has never happened before. You're the first successful clone ever created. I'm curious about what you would do. In over six thousand years you're the first new thing in a long time. Long time... I can't even tell if you'd have The Spark.

"...What's that?"

The Spark. True Magic. Humanity is but a shadow of its former self save for two people. Though technically I was born during the Second Era and so I suppose I'm technically Second Era Human even if the circumstances of my birth and my own ability to do True Magic makes me First Era. It's a lot of guesswork.

"...You're smart."

I should hope so. I've been around long enough.

"You're as smart as I'd wished you were. I bet you're pretty and strong too."

Alright. Alright. No need to flatter me further. So here is what's going to happen. I'm going to break in and wreck the place. You are going to run.

"Run where?"

Anywhere. Doesn't matter.

"But how will I find you?"

You'll know the way Home. All you have to do is Believe.

"O-okay... Just believe and I'll find the way Home."

And one last thing before I get started. Clearly my voice is stronger than hers, but she WILL notice. She will try to get you to call her Mother. She is NOT your mother. She is your grandmother. Do NOT trust her. Her words will sound sweet but they are poisoned honey. Your grandfather is no better. You will come to know them as Salem and Ozma. They will lie to you. They will manipulate you. They will sound sweet and kind but know that they care more for their feud then your wellbeing. Do. Not. Trust. Them. Understand?

"Yes mommy."

Good.

The room suddenly shook as an explosion sounded somewhere deep outside her cell. Loud alarms started blaring. Shouting began outside.

More explosions. More shaking. More alarms. More shouting.

Suddenly the cell door was torn open by an invisible force. There was nothing on the other side.

Run.

She ran.

In truth. She had no idea where she was going. She ran this way. She ran that way. She dodged around the adults who were unconcerned with her and more concerned with the other test subjects.

Horrific abominations that made unholy noises and ran around in complete madness killing and scrambling around.

With each one she touched them mentally like she'd been able to do. Look away please. Don't see me. Leave me alone.

And each one would turn away from her. But none of them were able to talk back. Not like the true Grimm.

She could hear them on another level.

The adults shouted and fought back. Their scary weapons exploding and turning everything into noise. Screams.

She kept running.

She burst into the food room. Something she'd only seen in passing.

And that's where she first saw The Stranger.

The Stranger wasn't dressed like the rest and didn't have the same weapons. The Stranger gutted one of the Mean ones with the guns before rising to her feet and turning to look at her.

Both of them stood there staring for a minute at each other. The Stranger wearing a cloak with an empty face. Only two glowing green orbs present where there should be eyes. The same emerald green as her own.

A shout drew the attention of both of them. The Mean ones with guns were running toward them.

The Stranger flicked their head.

The door slammed shut.

Then the door just vanished.

The Stranger looked back at her. The orbs had vanished. Instead a long pearly white smile at her.

Another jerk of her chin. This time the wall burst open followed by six more behind it.

"Run little one. Find your way."

She didn't hesitate long before running down the opened path.

"See the world! Find your place in it! And remember that if you need to, just Believe and you will Know the Way Home!"

She stumbled looking back in surprise just as another test subject leaped at her from behind.

"Mommy?"

"GO!"

She ran.

---

The blast doors sprang open, then slammed shut, then slowly opened again with a screeching noise before jamming open.

"HA! SUCK IT WEISS! I TOLD YOU I COULD GET IT OPEN!!" Ruby Rose cheekily did a victory dance around her partner and super awesome bestie Weiss Schnee.

"Yes yes. Fine. You were right. Now stop being so smug about it." Weiss rolled her eyes at Ruby dancing around her.

One Doctor Bartholomew Ooblek led the way in with a light in one hand and his thermos which he aggressively sipped from in the other. "Capital work Miss Rose. Engineering should never be looked down upon. Now let's see exactly what this mysterious place of ours was up to."

Beacon Academy in Vale had recently received a rather strange signal from somewhere deep in the Emerald Forest. Which was strange because there were no marked settlements out that way. It was a generic SOS Beacon but on a security band that had almost been missed had it not been caught by one of the third year students who had a hobby of listening in to radio broadcasts.

So Ozpin dispatched teams RWBY and JNPR as they were the only available teams on standby and this should have been a routine search and rescue.

This was turning into anything but.

At least Ozpin had seen fit to send Professor Doctor Ooblek with them. (He didn't earn his PhD for fun you know!)

The troupe marched inside spreading out as they observed the wreckage.

"What... happened to this place?" Yang Xiao-Long asked out loud.

"What happened... clearly took out the entire facility." Blake Belladonna noted. She knelt down to the floor feeling it near a body. "Quagulated. This is at least a day or so old."

"Right so... Grimm attack maybe?" Yang guessed.

"Oooh! Oooh! I know! This is a secret government lab where they were running unethical experiments until one of them got loose and set off a chain reaction where the whole place went crazy and everyone started killing each other!" Nora Valkyrie theorized before looking around wide eyed. "And one of those experiments is in the room right now with us!"

Everyone just looked at her. Someone coughed.

"That is definitely not what happened." Jaune Arc said shaking his head.

"That is totally too what happened!"

Someone coughed again.

"Students! Silence please!" Ooblek deployed his thermos into its flame staff form. "We are not alone..."

Everyone else pulled their weapons fall back into formation.

Another cough.

Ooblek wordlessly gestured.

Pyrrha Nikos slowly advanced. Milo poking out at the pile of debris nudging it aside.

"...Help..."

"Survivor!" She announced holstering her weapons and starting to dig aside the pile.

What they found was... not expected.

"Good heavens!" Ooblek exclaimed.

A badly wounded scientist curled up tightly around a child barely alive. "...Help... us..." She croaked. The child was unconscious.

But the most damning thing about the child was the skin coloration. Pure bone white. But with red and black markings.

Like the Grimm.

"HAH! I WAS RIGHT! PAY UP!" Nora cackled in glee.

Lie Ren sighed. He would be making so many pancakes later for this....

---

How far do the labs reach and what secrets do they contain?

Who is this child and will she survive meeting the future Huntsmen and Huntresses of Remnant?

Who is her mother and what is the Way Home?

AJT set me off one morning so this was particularly a Spite Writing but eh. I think maybe it's something I can do with in the future.

 

[GraveyardShift]

I know Blake deserted her team only a couple of times: when she tried to take on White Fang at the docks on her own and when Beacon fell. Were there other times Blake abandoned them? I think I forgot, or I don't know.

Click to shrink...

The Crimes of Blake Belladonna:

"Black Trailer": Blake Belladonna is an active member of the terrorist group 'White Fang'. Which she then abandons.

Volume 1: Blake Belladonna conceals her identity (badly) before outing herself as White Fang. She then abandons Team RWBY to try and 'redeem' the White Fang by proving they aren't working with Torchwick knowing full well they're a bunch of criminal Faunus.

Volume 2: Blake decides to abandon her team AGAIN by obsessing over the White Fang and refusing to care for herself. To the point where Yang had an intervention to force her to socialize with the team and reconnect with them so they wouldn't have another docks situation where Blake runs off to do something stupid. This results in her team following her into doing something stupid resulting in two fights that damage critical city infrastructure. That being the Highway and 'The Breach'.

Volume 3: Blake is the odd woman out. Actually, standing AGAINST Yang when Yang is framed for the 'crippling' of Mercury. She then abandons the fight in the middle of the battle of beacon to go challenge Adam to a 1v1 she knows she can't win resulting in Yang having to chase after her and lose an arm to save her life. Or at least distract Adam so she can save them both. And of course, Blake runs off after the fall.

Volumes 4-5: Blake then spends two seasons isolated on Menagerie and shows no indication of wanting to return until the White Fang try to burn down her home and kill her family and friends. She is instantly forgiven despite Yang having demonstrated acidic levels of hatred and vitriol whenever Blake is brought up.

Volume 6: Blake AGAIN draws off Adam into a 1v1 requiring Yang to come rescue her AGAIN instead of drawing Adam toward Yang.

Volume 7: Blake convinces Yang to side with the LITERAL CRIMINALS who are stealing civic resources and betray Ironwood's trust in them by disregarding strategic secrecy to keep the Amity Project concealed until such time it could be properly revealed when it was too late to be sabotaged. This has the knock-on effect in Volume 8.

Volume 8: Blake actually sides with Ruby AGAINST Yang over a completely pointless argument between the sisters designed to drive drama despite the fact they have the numerical ability to freely split up and achieve both their stated goals with no need for a drama-based split. And this is on top of their numerous lies and betrayals coming to light against Ironwood resulting in his mental break.

Ironically this also causes the failure of the Amity Project. As a result of Cinder chasing Penny and Ironwood being forced to prematurely reveal Amity, the communications satellite is damaged and isn't able to make it to space. Penny keeps it up high enough for just long enough for Ruby's completely pointless message to get out begging for help when it's too late before Penny, having sustained too much damage in the fight to drive off Cinder, fails to keep Amity aloft and it crashed back down to Solitas.

Yes I was surprised too when I finally watched it for the first time after dropping the show in Volume 6 after the closure of RT. Turns out Pieto and Maria DON'T die in space alone but somehow survived a crash and that's why Amity shows up in Volume 9 in Vacuo.

Though it does baffle me how the hell they got it there when Atlas has been destroyed along with all the manufacturing at the bottom of a giant lake.

So Blake does in fact have a documented tendency to go 'off the rails' and abandon people at the wrong time for the wrong reasons.

 

[GraveyardShift]

Eh... a couple more

Blake's Hypocrisy

But to be fair, just how hypocritical was Blake throughout the series—from Volume 1 to Volume 9?

Click to shrink...

Volume 1. She straight up sasses Weiss for being a rich bitch who mistreats people... all while being the Secret Faunus Princess and former White Fang terrorist. Then she has the gall to argue that the White Fang wouldn't work with human criminals and can't be held accountable for their actions because humanity was so much worse in their racism. Again trying to White Knight LITERAL TERRORISTS WHO KILLED WEISS' FAMILY AND FRIENDS per Weiss herself which caused Weiss and her siblings to be socially isolated in fear of being collateral damage or even turned into targets by the White Fang just by association. (This is downplayed by the writers.)

Volume 2. Blake practically kills herself desperate to put a stop to the White Fang because 'only I have the power to stop them'. She insists that the proper authorities are useless and won't do anything. Ironically the best thing Blake can do is actually cooperate with and give Ozpin and the VPD her insider information that would actually let them DO SOMETHING but she refuses because it's 'her responsibility'. And yet it abundantly clear that Blake can't fight a GLOBAL ORGANIZATION by herself.

Volume 3. Blake turns on Yang because she reminds her of Adam in the moment she attacked Mercury. Despite the fact that Blake and Yang have been partners for the better part of a year. They have lived together. Fought together. And survived together. It's made abundantly clear that Yang and Adam are significantly different people. And if the Wasps are to be believed, Yang and Blake are starting to have budding feelings for each other at this point which the rose-tinted glasses should ensure that Blake would overlook this incident and insist that Yang was innocent. (Point against Bumblebee being 'planned from the start'.) To further add injury to insult. Blake has made multiple promises now that she'll trust her team and stick with them. By the end of the volume, she breaks them all and runs home.

Volume 4. An exasperated Blake explodes on Sun that she is 'too tired to fight' and just wants to rest and recover at home. However that very same day not more than 4 hours later chronologically speaking, the White Fang knock on her front door in the form of the Alban Brothers and she's already back in the fight. To say less about 'The Slap' in which Jaques slapping Weiss is supposed to be a travesty but Blake slapping Sun is meant to be a comedy.

Volume 5. Sun finally calls out Blake on being a selfish little brat constantly trying to run away from her friends to keep them from getting hurt. Reminding her that 'it's our choice to fight for the people we care about. and we accept what comes when we do. you don't get to deny us that choice'. Not to mention Blake choosing to believe Ilia having 'second thoughts' and walking into an obvious trap with no weapon and no backup when Ilia publicly spoke out against her that very morning. If Sun hadn't chased Blake down that night, Blake probably would have wound up an actual prisoner of the White Fang while they killed her parents.

Volume 6. Blake trying to overcompensate for the harm she's done to Yang. Then trying to fight Adam alone making Yang chase her down AGAIN. To save her from Adam. AGAIN. and the whole retarded speak about 'not protecting each other but protecting each other'. I'm dead serious when you parse that whole declaration out, that's what it sounds like.

Volume 7. Blake is a former Terrorist Operative. She should know about proper operational security. First thing she does? Spill military secrets to a known and confirmed criminal who is actively and proven to be stealing military supplies. Supplies that was paid for by Atlesian taxpayers for a military operation that would restore global communications to ALL sectors, military and civilian alike. Apparently Blake still romanticizes criminals and crimes against society despite being next in line for rulership of Menagerie. (Assuming that's how it works.) She is actively working against critical global infrastructure that would benefit the entire world not to mention their fight against Salem just so she can feel good about sticking it to Ironwood.

Volume 8. After undermining Ironwood and disrupting his plans resulting in him being caught on the backfoot resulting in a poor showing against Salem, Blake then sides against her supposed 'girlfriend' to get a message out to the world after sabotaging the very project to get that message out in the first place. Then hides like a coward in the Schnee manor sipping tea while civilians are dying in a LITERAL WAR outside.

Volume 9. Surprisingly, this is the first time Blake is not a complete screw up at anything. Probably helps there's no Authority to overthrow, injustice to fight, or cause to champion. The only thing she's guilty of is being part of the most toxic mainstream lesbian ship to ever be held up as the 'gold standard'. That's not really hypocrisy on her, that's more on CRWBY and the FNDM.

 

[GraveyardShift]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV8Lpn29BhY
This is a scene I would love to see - either by my own words, or someone else - Fleet Admiral Thorn, giving Yang a private guided tour of his gallery of art collected from various bandit and pirate tribes he has battled across his career, as an offer to teach her about Raven in a way the woman herself was incapable of.

Click to shrink...

But I can probably do something with that prompt between Thorn and Yang.

Click to shrink...

Culture - The Turning Point of Civilization

Yang eyed a painting and tilted her head sideways trying to make sense of it.

The group was experiencing a moment of down time between missions of securing the Amity Launch site and training. This being Atlas, Weiss had insisted on taking Team RWBY to an Art Museum. "To add a touch of class and sophistication to this team." she argued.

Ruby had been all for it and had followed Weiss around like an excited puppy. Blake was keeping with Weiss who was acting as a tour guide for the group but kept getting sidetracked by Ruby when the concepts kept flying over her head and Blake occasionally snarking Weiss about the overrepresentation of human pieces compared to Faunus ones. Blake had gotten much better since Mistral about the whole racism issue but some habits were dying harder then others. Weiss bit back at Blake but gently. This kind of thing more reaffirming their bond over old habits then any real argument.

Yang on the other hand was hanging back from all this. As pretty as some of the art was, it wasn't really her speed. She was a punch fast and party hard type of girl. The atmosphere a little too slow and stuffy for her.

But she came anyway wanting to support the team after the whole separation of last year.

As Yang trailed behind the group, the creak of a door caught her attention.

A door behind one of those velvet barriers had come unlatched somehow and came open.

Yang watched it a minute. She looked around as if expecting someone to be watching her.

A moment of rebellious mischief took her. An unsecured door blocked off by a barricade that was easy to bypass?

Yang grinned to herself as she looked around to make sure no one was watching before she slipped under it and edged carefully through the door. A little trouble to spice up this trip was just the rush she needed. The thrill of almost getting caught being somewhere she shouldn't have been.

The thrill wasn't quite to last though, as the wing was simply more of the same... until she spotted it.

One of the paintings was vandalized.

Yang approached curiously.

Under the surface, the painting looked like any other ordinary painting in the museum. One of those boring drab pieces that Weisscream would drool over and go on about some kind of subliminal meaning of life.

But layered on top of it was a bunch of bright spray paint markings. Symbols more akin to gang graffiti and defiling. One of the people in the image had the childish crude horns and devil tail.

Yang looked over it carefully. The casing surrounding the painting was intact. So clearly it had been preserved in this manner and there wasn't some kind of art vandal running around. Shame... she could use a good work out to wake up.

But her curiosity led her to pay more attention to the rest of the room. It was there that she realized that a lot of these paintings were of a similar slant. A lot of the other works were also much cruder in design then the gentle slopes and professional shaping of the statues and other things in the main room.

Yang ventured from exhibit to exhibit. Her mind now cataloging the stark differences between this closed off area and the area that Weiss had been leading them.

She stopped taken in by a fairly large portrait that was clearly a centerpiece. It was not vandalized in the slightest.

It was a woman dressed in black leaned back almost enticingly on a sofa. A hood pulled up shadowing her face.

One side gave the hint of a closed lip smile. The green eye barely visible to the pale skin but the color shone out brightly. That half of the woman carefully painted out in elegance and beauty.

A clear split had the other side of her face encased fully in shadow. Bright white teeth shone out of pitch-black almost mockingly compared to the gentle smile on the other half. The 'eye' little more than a burning green dot even having licks of fire on one side of it compared to its more natural counterpart. The shadows jagged and squared as if to prick or hurt anyone that tried to touch it.

Yang just stood there a moment captivated by the duality of the portrait. It's eyes seeming to pin her in place with a kind of elegant superiority. Her knees shook a little as if wanting to bow down.

"Supposedly that's the Charlatan Queen herself having willingly posed for this piece as a reward of sorts."

Yang yelped whirling about cocking one fist back to strike at the surprise.

Standing next to her also staring up at the paining was a man in an Atlesian military uniform.

A man with blue skin.

"Most people doubt the tale. That the most powerful kingpin of the underworld would lower herself for such an act... personally I believe it to be true meaning the artist was one of the few to capture the Queen on canvas and live to tell the tale."

He turned his head to look at her, body still facing the artwork head on.

"What say you Ms. Xiao-Long? Do you believe this is an authentic portrait or an artistic inspiration?"

Yang lowered her fist giving the man an up-down before looking back at the piece before back at the man. Then back to the painting. "Uhhh..." She scratched at the back of her head. "...I mean... it's fancy I guess... feels kinda... snobby the way she's looking down on us."

"Hmmph." The man gave a one noise chuckle as he looked back at the painting. "Part of why I believe it to be authentic then artist interpretation. With an interpretation there's a kind of deadness to the eyes. But an authentic portrait often captures that essence of life within its subject. Someone as powerful as her looking down on us imperiously as if we were lesser then her. And we feel that weight as intensely as the artist did as it was fixated on him when he translated it to canvas."

They both stood there. Emerald green eyes looming down on them.

Yang shuffled uncomfortably. "So uh... just to be clear mister, I didn't break in here. The door was open so I just kind of figured... yaknow... and then I saw that one painting that was vandalized and thought there might be some mischief going on and well uh..."

"Entirely intentional Ms Xiao-Long. The painting was found that way when I had the Skullsplitter Gang in Vacuo crushed. I left it as I found it as a reminder."

"...So it's supposed to look like that?"

"No. The Sunny Day in a Grassy Park was done by a respectable artist before it was stolen from Vale by an Art Thief and eventually thought lost forever. It's clearly changed hands a few times and traveled around quite a bit. I left it as was found as a reminder of what it is people lose when they turn to banditry and anarchy. Much like your mother."

Yang's eyes went red and her hair started sparking gold. "Summer Rose was an upstanding Huntress and a hero to all! She'd never turn to crime like that!"

The man simply regarded her quietly a moment. "Ah. My apologizes. I was referring to Raven Branwen."

"That BITCH is nothing more than a cowardly egg donor and that's all she is." Yang snarled.

"Quite." The man turned back to the portrait as Yang reigned herself in. Controlling her breathing. Pulling back in the rage and anger.

The sparks faded and red was swallowed by lilac with a blink.

"What would some Art Snob in a fancy suit know about bandits anyway?" Yang groused, her anger slipping control.

"You'd be surprised what one can learn from art." The man replied. "Culture shapes life. Culture shapes art. Therefore, lifestyle and habits are often translated into physical expressions of the feelings of people. Honesty can be found more with the stroke of a brush or the scrape of a knife rather than words from lips."

Yang gave him a quizzical disbelieving look.

The Atlesian chuckled throatily before offering her a hand. "Admiral Thorn of the Atlesian Navy."

"Huntress-in-train... no, Fully Licensed Huntress Yang Xiao-Long. Patch."

Thorn raised an eyebrow with an amused smile. "Is that the new Atlas title we're giving to our Hunters?"

Yang turned pink but puffed up in defiance as she gripped his hand.

After releasing said hands, Thorn turned away. "Walk with me Huntress Xiao-Long. Let me show you what I mean..."

---

The first thing the two of them approached was a wooden effigy held up inside a case. "The first thing you'll notice is how mundane this piece is compared to the regal piece that was The Charlatan Queen. What do you think that says about the one who made it?"

Yang studied it a moment before shrugging. "It's just a piece of wood. Why bother?"

"A vaild question Ms. Xiao-Long. Why bother indeed? Why create anything? Why create something? The first question that comes to mind when facing the dregs of society. Shouldn't they have other concerns?"

Yang frowned. Slightly frustrated she scrutinized the piece harder. Eventually she gave up before throwing her hands up in the air. "I don't know. Shouldn't they be out robbing someone or fighting to the death somewhere instead of wasting time with wood that would be better thrown in a fire?"

Thorn nodded. "In the first days of humanity. The priority was 'survival'. Everything was functional. There was no place for useless fluff pieces. But on the topic of survival, I ask you. How would these people communicate?"

Yang looked again at the wood. She blinked. Then leaned in closer. She tilted her head before slowly moving to the right. Her eyes widening in realization. "Wait... holy shit is this some kind of MARKER?"

Thorn nodded. "Just as animals would leave some kind of marker of specific territory, so too would the early humans also make markers themselves. Things to signal safety. Danger. Resources. Direction. Distance. Location. Things that would help them navigate the world. This particular effigy was a tribe of feral humans from a lost settlement that eventually started raiding and cannibalizing their neighbors. It was to mark the edge of their territory. Serving as a warning to outsiders and a sign of safety for the raiding parties. Note the crude structure as opposed to modern signage we used today which is an evolution of these early markers."

"And this is... art?"

"Of a sort. Look carefully. I see your attention is drawn to the shape and patterns. Things your brain recognizes as abnormal in nature but draw the eye anyway. What does it look like to you?"

"It's... unsettling actually. I see... I think it looks like some kind of head. Something like paper. And... an arrow?"

"Skulls are often an unsettling reminder of our mortality. Hence why they're often used to signal death and danger. The paper in question is actually something more akin to skin. This particular group worshiped the skin. Human skin in particular was highly prized. It features prominently amount their society. I believe they may have referred to themselves as some kind of 'Skinflayers'."

"Okay... so what does THAT mean?"

"It mean Ms. Xiao-Long. These particular savages sought to capture their prey with as little damage to the skin as possible. Preferring traps that include nets and poison darts. Things to avoid damaging the skin during the capture so that it can be prepared for the processing phase. They do not actively hunt something unless it's for food. Wanting the skin in as pristine condition as they can get it."

"Huh... that's... actually a lot of information out of a crude piece of wood."

"Indeed. Remember that things like this are for that specific purpose. Functional. To pass on information. It also speaks to a society that does not have its basic needs met. Everyone must work toward the survival of the Tribe."

"Survival of the fittest..." Yang mused as she considered the wood.

Thorn let her stand there lost in her thoughts for a few minutes before he gestured onward. "Come. We have more to consider."

---

"...How is a flag 'Art'?" Yang asked very confused by the series of flags along one wall. The cloth having seen better days but preserved in their cases.

"You tell me Ms. Xiao-Long." Thorn said.

Yang considered them for awhile. "They're.... signals right? I heard something once in school about boats using flags as signals. Sema... sem-something."

"Semaphore Ms. Xiao-Long. And entirely correct those these particular flags aren't used for that purpose. But they do speak to actually being used as signals. To identify specific individuals. Much in the same way that land armies used banners. As for what makes them Art, take a closer look. What is different about these flags compared to the effigy?"

"They're..." Yang peered closer. "They're of better quality. Someone actually took the time to make these and ensure they could be properly seen. Guess they wanted to ensure they could properly Flag down someone eh?"

Thorn raised an eyebrow.

Yang chuckled nervously.

"I suppose so."

Yang tugged at the collar of her jumpsuit.

"But consider what that means. These ocean-going raiders had the means to ensure their survival. They had downtime. Downtime they could use to ensure the quality of their signals and banners. And that speaks to Order. Of organization. People have a system because the system is efficient. At turning a job from a taxing endeavor to a simple chore."

Yang blinked turning back to the flags. "Like Weiss keep organizing our schedules trying to ensure 'efficiency'. To ensure we have the time to do our work and then have extra time to spare."

Thorn nodded. "Precisely. A system to ensure the flow of small tasks are completed. Even if it's dull drudgery to you at your age." The man gave Yang a thin smile.

Yang snorted. "Only issue is that Weiss wants to use it for more work. We earned that downtime! We should be able to goof off and have fun!"

"Ah. A good segue into our next set of works..."

---

To the left, Yang could immediately spot the clear Atlesian origin of the painting. A simple hallway devoid of color.

The right on the other hand was a loud cacophony of clashing colors and shapes with no rhyme or reason to them. She couldn't identify the origin and... frankly it hurt her eyes to look at. Turning back to the Atlesian work was a much-needed relief.

Thorn chuckled seeing Yang avert her gaze. "Yes. The Atlesian Nightmare is something of an acquired taste and getting used to it takes time." He said facing the loud discord on the right. He considered it a moment before glancing sideways at Yang. "Which do you think came first Ms. Xiao-Long?"

Yang pointed at the hallway. "I'd wager that one. Probably The Atlesian Dream if the title is anything to go by."

Thorn smirked. "Ironically no. The Serene Path was actually in response to The Atlesian Nightmare. Two rival artists, the Nightmare from Vacuo while the Path was actually of Valish Origin. Though the Valish artist was 4 generations from immigrants from Atlas to Vale. The family I believe was escaping persecution from Atlas as a result of 'The Suppression'. They supported the existence of Art in a society that was oppressing it and had to flee. The Vacuian Artist creating the Nightmare as a mocking statement of Atlesian culture of the time. The Valish one in response to his rival to demonstrate the beauty of simplicity. The gentle appealing shapes in a pleasing order as opposed to the sharp loud cacophony of screaming chaos. I suppose to a society like Atlas that finds peace in Law and Order, the Nightmare is just that. While the Path represents the serenity in calm organized fashion."

Yang looked back between the two wincing at the Nightmare again. "Yeah Thorny, I kinda have to agree with that. Patch is kind of rustic and we're all about loud self-expression in Vale but that just hurts to look at. It's like they just took random paint and splattered it wherever."

Thorn nodded. "An interesting admission Ms. Xiao-Long."

"Don't get me wrong. I don't see how this applies to Weiss giving us extra work ahead of where we were at in Beacon."

"Consider the difference between the two cultures. Ms Schnee is Atlesian. We prize efficiency. The truth being is that we teach our children a strong work ethic first and foremost. The thing they need to learn afterwards is rest and relaxation." He gestured to the Path. "The very thing the Path's Artist was trying to convey to his audience in addition to a message being sent to his rival."

Yang blinked in surprise. "You mean you military types aren't all work and no play?"

Thorn chuckled. "At one time perhaps. But humans are not automatons. Even machines need to be switched off and have maintenance periods. The maintenance of the human mind is a different procedure but no less crucial. There's a philosophy in Mistralian culture specific to the Pathist sects down there in regard to their work ethic. I believe it goes: "Work hard, Study well," but the latter half I say with emphasis goes as: "and Eat and Sleep Plenty. The Pathists understood that the human body requires downtime for proper maintenance. Rest-" Thorn gestured to The Serene Path. "-is just as crucial for the well being of the body and mind. No matter what my or your collogues would argue. Your upbringing argues that rest is necessary but the thing you need to learn as you grow is that too much rest or 'Sloth' need to be brough to heel and a proper work ethic needs to be established. Just because you live in a society with Plenty does not mean the work stops completely."

"Farmers still farm because they have to and people rely on them for food." Yang mused. "Even if they have machinery to help them."

"Correct." Thorn acknowledged. "But these systems only work when people contribute to them. What happens when people stop? Walk with me and we shall see."

---

They returned to the vandalized painting.

"The Sunny Day in a Grassy Park right?" Yang asked.

"Formerly. Given its state I have given it a new title. The Loss of Humanity." Thorn glanced at her. "Why do you think that is?"

Yang pondered quietly. Thorn let her be. Both simply staring at the desecrated work. "You said you got it from a criminal gang right?"

"Recovered might be a more applicable term but yes."

Yang tapped her lips. "A group of people who don't contribute anything to a society. Formerly out of one with plenty but then reduced to an early state where survival is dependent on taking from those with too much." She turned to Thorn. "But wouldn't it just make sense to just ensure that everyone got what they needed if there's so much?"

"Remember the flags compared to the effigy and everything we've seen so far compared to The Charlatan Queen." Thorn nodded toward the portrait in the distance. Still looking down on them even this far away. "Time and effort spent to create quality. The more spent, the better quality the final product. The better quality the resources also spent, the greater the end." He turned back to the vandalized painting. "It is well known that handouts and things received for free often aren't treated with the same reverence and care as things that were earned through time and effort. Consider your own work Ms Xiao-Long. Would you be a Huntress for free?"

"I mean. That's kind of the whole point of being a Huntress right? We're the Defenders of Humanity. We're the good guys."

"And while I'm sure good feelings and goodwill are necessary. Will they sustain you? Can you eat them, so they nourish your body and replace the energy you expend on said efforts to protect your fellow man?"

"No... but I can charge fairly for it!"

"Indeed. Even if it's but a single lien for all the Grimm on Remnant, that alone shows that you value your time and have respect for what you can do. And people are more likely to take you seriously. Consider this painting and the vandalization. The amount of care and effort that went into A Sunny Day in a Grassy Park. Do you think the previous owners after it was stolen respected any of that?"

Yang opened her mouth to snap. Paused for a moment. Her jaw clicked shut. She studied the work more closely. Thorn seemed to approve the pause to truly consider her answer before answer the same as she would have instinctively. "...No."

"And why is that?"

"Because they got it for free. They stole it without a fair trade."

"From a system built on efficiency to provide plenty and ensure people had time to create works such as this one to a system that barely better then early feral humans because they felt the need to rebel. Rebel against a system they felt they were incompatible with. In a way that defilement is its own message. We reject what makes us human."

"The strong take from the weak." Yang mused. "The way animals do. The Loss of Humanity...." her eyes widened and she whirled on Thorn. "That's why you call it that!"

Thorn simply nodded. "They many speak like we do. Use tools like we do. But their way of life. Their culture, is radically different from ours. To understand that is to better understand ourselves."

"But not every culture is bad!" Yang argued. "I mean look at the Faunus in Atlas and how they're treated!"

"Quite." Thorn agreed. "I personally do not see any of the cultures of the Four Kingdoms as inherently bad. But being able to separate those who agree to live by a Code. Live by Law. Live by a set of rules. An understanding of how to behave to participate. Separate them from those who refuse. To better understand who needs to be fought. Who need to be protected and who needs to be challenged."

"...Like Raven. She doesn't understand how to live by rules other than her messed up law of the jungle where she doesn't care about anything but strength. Not even her own family... something Dad gave freely... was... was Dad wrong for that?"

Thorn shook his head. "Contrary to belief. Relationships are transitional to some degree. Your father offered his attention, companionship, and ability to provide resources. In return, he'd gain similar from Raven in return. And after all your conception required participation from both parties." He offered a wry smile to Yang's flush and averted gaze. "To anybody else, it was a good trade. The kind that has kept humanity going even in the face of Darkness. Raven apparently didn't see the value in the trade if she just thinks she can take what she wants for free."

Yang nodded relaxing. Dad wasn't wrong. Raven was just a stupid subhuman bitch for not upholding her end of the deal. The way her REAL mom. Summer did. She saw what Tai-yang had to offer and returned in kind. Giving them Ruby too.

"I think we've viewed enough today." Thorn said leading them back to the wing entrance. "The thing about proper lessons is that the brain needs time to digest and process the information if it is to retain it. "But if you retain anything today Ms. Xiao-Long..." Thorn held aside the velvet rope for Yang to pass through. "Art is only useless to those who do not understand the Culture underneath it. To view art properly is to gain an understanding of the lifestyle and culture that created it." Thorn ensured the door was closed properly before turning to Yang. "I believe this exhibit will be open next week. Do come again Ms. Xiao-Long. Art is meant to be appreciated after all."

Admiral Thorn turned and strode off.

"Yang! There you are!" Weiss stomped up grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her off. "Stop goofing off! We're going to look at some Kalendros works! The contrast between the watercolor and acrylic paints is something that isn't usually done. The difference between the two mediums..." Weiss continued to ramble on.

Yang tuned her out. She had a lot to think about. Maybe this day at the museum wasn't such a waste after all...

---

Gotta be honest, this was a little difficult given Bandit cultures generally don't do art other than to steal it from societies that have the time and resources to produce it. *shrug* Hope it's appreciated anyway.

 

[GraveyardShift]

The only shortcoming I see is that I was hoping Yang could have stepped away with a more nuanced appreciation for bandits, rather than seeing them as 2D subhumans.

Click to shrink...

For that kind of viewpoint, Yang would have to approach the bandits themselves or someone in a position of power who does that kind of balancing act to make the bandits a kind of 'necessary evil'.

Click to shrink...

Culture II - "The Eye that wears the Crown"

Yang pushed her way through the main doors of the Art Museum she'd been to a week prior. Hot on her trail were the other members of her team.

"You wanted to come BACK?" Weiss seemed aghast at the rather abnormal behavior for Yang.

"Isn't this what you wanted?" Blake shot at her

"I mean... I'm not complaining that SOMEONE is getting in the spirit of things. It's just... Yang of all of us? It's a surprise."

"I'm lost too." Ruby said as the three bewildered Huntresses followed their teammate who was clearly on a mission directly to the information kiosk.

"Oi! You lot? You seen an Admiral Thorn in today?" Yang challenged the worker.

"Admiral Thorn? Ah! He's in the Southeast Wing with the new exhibit he's sponsored opening today. I believe he's playing host to some foreign dignitaries."

"Where?"

Yang marched off following the directions outlined by the worker with the kind of single-minded direction developed over years of giving and receiving verbal directions.

"Yang! Slow down!" Ironic considering it was Ruby.

Ignoring her sister Yang zeroed in on a familiar door she crossed last week. However the velvet barricade was gone. The door wide open. And voices reached out from inside.

Yang marched through and stopped. Eyes searching the crowd.

"Seriously Yang. Why in such a hurry? And how do you know Admiral Thorn?" Weiss asked as the other three caught up.

"What even is this?" Blake asked taking in the room. Everything Yang remembered being there. From The Loss of Humanity, to The Serene Path and The Atlesian Nightmare. The flags along one wall in their own section. The various effigies of feral tribes mixed with other works. All of which overseen by the dominating portrait of The Charlatan Queen.

"Did... did someone vandalize these?" Weiss seemed shocked looking at some of the various paintings. Vandalized in the same way The Loss of Humanity was.

Yang spotted her target. The blue skinned man along one wall watching four others. Two of which were in deep discussion.

"YO! THORNY!" Everyone except the two women in discussion turned to face Yang as she marched over.

"Ah. Huntress Xiao-Long." Thorn did not raise his voice at the approaching girl. He simply nodded. "Welcome back. And I do see you brought some friends along."

"They kinda just followed me."

"Well when you march off the way you did I think we have some right to be concerned." Weiss stepped up offering her hand. "Weiss Schnee of the Schnee family."

Thorn took her hand and bowed shaking it gently once before turning to Blake. "And Blake Belladonna of the Belladonna family in Menagerie. Founding family of the White Fang. You might be interested in some of the pieces we have here surrounding them."

Blake winced. "We're turning over a new leaf. Going back to the old ways." She defended.

"Quite. We'll see how long that lasts." Thorn said nothing more turning to Ruby expectantly.

"Oh uh... Ru-Ruby Rose... of the Rose family?"

Thorn tilted his head. "I consider myself well informed of the Great Families of Remnant. I do not recall a 'Rose' family among that significance."

"A-ah." Ruby shrunk on herself. Yang stepped between Thorn and Ruby taking his attention onto her. "Look are you busy? I've got more questions."

"Over what we discussed last time Miss Xiao-Long? I would be happy to entertain you when I have more free time. Alas today I am entertaining two very important individuals." he gestured to the women engage in debate. "Warlady Duchess Kyinaye Artic and Her Royal Majesty Queen Arturia Pendragon-Arc of Albion."

"Former Queen of Albion Agrippa." The blond and silver woman broke off from the bluehead to correct him.

Thorn gave her a thin wry smile. "I sincerely doubt anyone here believes there is any such thing as a Former Queen Your Majesty." He countered causing the accompanying bluehead and white-haired man next to Arturia to chuckle while Arturia grumbled. The man leaning over to kiss the top of her head. She kicked him in the leg.

"Ah! Be gentle My Queen." he purred causing the grumbling to intensify though the woman went pink. Kyinaye openly laughed at the display.

"I can wait." Yang said crossing her arms making it clear she wasn't going anywhere.

"Pash!" Kyinaye barked. "See to the girl Thorn. Arturia and I will be at this for a bit."

Thorn inclined his head. "If you are agreeable your Grace." he turned fully toward Yang and the rest.

Yang took that as her cue. "If there are scum out there that are so bad..." she waved toward The Loss of Humanity, "...why do we even let them exist? Why not stamp them out? The Branwen tribe for one could use eradicating. I even know where they went."

Thorn nodded his head. "I am of like mind Miss Xiao-Long but that is Mistral and this is Atlas. There are rules to be observed in order to maintain Order less we descend into the same barbarism that governs said tribes. I cannot simply sanction a raid unprovoked into Mistralian territory without repercussions."

"So we go to the Mistral council."

"They're complicit." Blake cut in. "Everyone knows the Mistralian council isn't so much elected as installed and controlled by the various 'Families' of Mistral. They'll do whatever is best. It's probably why the Branwen tribe resides there."

"So a whole kingdom just gets away with letting human scum like that go free? Why would they do that?"

"Many reasons." Kyinaye spoke up. "The lawless are still as much subjects as the law abiding."

"You're Vacuian Warlady. Vacuo is just as corrupt as Mistral." Weiss accused.

Kyinaye half shrugged not denying it.

"Half of what we've been through has to do with criminals and terrorists!" Yang argued. "You ought to just stamp them out and be done with it."

"And what of free will?" Arturia spoke up. Voice even and imperial causing team RWBY to just freeze up and listen. "Would you be content to live subservient to a will that isn't your own directing and controlling your life?" She pointed at Blake. "This one already knows the answer. Born of a movement not content to remain under the yoke of human masters though such hasn't been the case for centuries now."

Silence from the girls as they squirmed under Arturia's words.

"Most people don't see the world from the perspective of those made to rule." Kyinaye crossed one arm to rest in the crook of her elbow as she gestured with the other. "Not even Thorn here has the complete picture though I'm sure he has his private thoughts on the matter. Though I think we'll spare him having to voice them aloud."

"My gratitude your Grace."

"But speaking as one such head that wears the crown and does so actively, understand that while outlaws are not necessarily a positive thing for one's rule, there are certain benefits to them."

Arturia made a hollow laughing noise. "This should be rich coming from the woman sheltering the phony with the accurate name." She jerked a head toward the painting lording over the wing.

"And how many privateer writs were graced by your hand?" Kyinaye shot back eyes flicking momentarily toward the wall of flags. "Some of which are still passed down in Freeport."

"Our sniping aside." Arturia turned back to team RWBY, "there is a certain principle that comes with a modern society with specialized disciplines."

"What have you done for me lately?" Kyinaye said.

"Communities often have milia, the farmers, carpenters, menial laborers, and such. They take up arms and fight if their community is in danger. But they are not as skilled as those who dedicate their lives to the craft of combat. Warriors. Soldiers. Knights. Huntsmen and Huntresses. But to devote their lives to such craft, they do not then contribute anything of tangible benefit."

"We defend humanity!" Countered Yang.

"And does any of the other kingdoms aside from our current hosts have a standing formal army?" Kyinaye brought up. "People below the ruling class tend to value material things more the services. Things that can be physically produced. Touched. Seen. Experienced with the senses." She waved her arms throughout the gallery. "Such things as these over intangible services that are not needed on a daily basis. The famer will be lauded and celebrated their entire life as every day they work to feed the community." She lowered her arms. Because everyone needs food. But does everyone need defending from harm on a daily basis?"

"A community that regularly finds itself under attack will most certainly value it's defenders. Consider here in Atlas though. How many people do you see walking around without a care as if they've never seen a Grimm?" Challenged Arturia.

"Thorn there works hard to ensure they can live such peaceful idyllic lives free of such concerns of danger." Kyinaye pointed to the man in question who inclined his head. "Guarantee though many such people do not actually consider him of any real importance and think him a waste of taxpayer money. They'd much rather cut his salary and see that money spent on government handouts to the needy so they can feel good about themselves. All because they don't feel the very threat he works every day to eliminate."

"What does this have to do with criminals?" Yang asked.

"What is the other threat besides Grimm that soldiers and warriors face out there?" Kyinaye asked.

"They make for excellent fodder for training up your own soldiers and getting them blooded before asking them to fight the Grimm in overwhelming numbers." Arturia offered.

"They also act as a bulwark against outside threats." Kyinaye supplied. "Some beekeepers actually keep a hive of wasps in the area of their apiaries to act as guardians against wild wasps and other things that prey on beehives. So too will ruling individuals keep around certain groups and tolerate them if it means they'll serve as deterrents and guardians against their own kind. Most criminals don't like competition set up in their territory and will fight off other criminals. The Devil you Know."

Arturia sighed. "I'd rather be suffering a rash of thieves, pickpockets, and highwaymen then deal with murderers and rapists running rampant. If the thieves and pickpockets can deal with them so I don't have to, I supposed that's a trade I can live with."

"It's all about trades." Kyinaye nodded. "You cannot stomp out crime entirely. The people will make demands of you to outlaw things based on their perceived safety. You will make laws against things for their own safety. But in doing so you will create a need. A vacuum. Something that someone enterprising enough and willing to risk your wrath for riches and gain. Once again, material goods valued higher than services."

"And I suppose even you make use of such services in times of crisis and need." Arturia directed at Kyinaye who nodded. "I'd be a fool not to."

"That's all well and good but then you've got scum like the Branwen Tribe." Yang tried to raise again.

"Kingdom renewal." Kyinaye countered.

"What?"

Kyinaye shook her head. "This is going to be one of those uncomfortable truths that only Rulers understand and deal with. It's not something we generally share with the peasantry such as yourselves. Mostly because of how distasteful you find it." She fixed Yang with a hard look. "Sometimes a settlement absolutely needs to be wiped out. Something changed in the region, and you need to build something new but the people there are resistant to change. I've had tribes in the past too deep in their own traditions and other culture that they ended up being incompatible not just with Shar'vel, but Vacuo as a whole. Therefore they had to go. It's much like forestry. I'm sure you're aware of Vale setting fire to its own forests."

"Forest Management." Weiss spoke up. "I read about that. They cut down and burn the brush to renew the forests in order to prevent even worse wildfires from burning out of control."

"I inherited such a kingdom." Arturia said. "Fractured and corrupt. Burning out of control in a metaphorical way. I had to cut and burn out the rot. I did things I regret. I killed people who stood in my way. Some good. Some bad. But all in the name of ensuring that Albion would eventually still be standing on the other side of the crisis."

Shiro moved closer and pulled the woman into him who leaned into him with a sigh as he comforted her.

"And when something like that must be done. Sometimes the only people you can turn to are those with no morals at all." Kyinaye finished. "When that happens, having a group of raiders on hand can be a necessary evil. No matter how vile and distasteful it is." She crossed her arms fixing the girls with a look. "These are decisions that is made by those who wear the crown. We cannot allow ourselves to rule completely as moral and ethical. There are some decisions we MUST make to save the rest. We will be condemned for those decisions. Even if history paints us in a better light when the long-term implications come to light."

There was silence across the entire group. Finally Shiro spoke up. "Kyinaye it's been grand seeing you again but I think my wife needs a moment after this."

Kyinaye nodded. "Of course. Arturia it was wonderful seeing you again dear. We can pick up this discussion another time. I should go find my daughters before they wind up adding more vandalized paintings to his exhibit anyway. Ruru, come." The silent armored behemoth that had been completely missed by the group tromped after her smaller liege as she exited the wing.

Shiro smiled at the group as he led Arturia toward the door. "It's nice to meet you all. Jaune's actually said much about the vaunted team RWBY. Tell him hello from us and he should come see us in person."

Thorn turned to the group. "Well my schedule seems to have opened up. No harm done. They'll be back I'm certain. Would the rest of you like the tour?"

As Ruby, Weiss, and Blake were led through the wing on the same journey Yang had been taken on, Yang just followed along lost in her thoughts...

---

And that shall do for now I believe. I think I've got one more installment to make on this, but we shall end it here for now.

 

[GraveyardShift]

Okay. Last one for today. For real. I promise.

Men only want two things...

Blake: Men only want two things and they're DISGUSTING!!!

Thing 1:

Jaune and Adam are piloting giant robots. Both are already heavily damaged and barely functional. As the sun begins to set, the rumble of thunder and dark clouds choking the stars begins to form.

Jaune: How fitting that our final battle takes place at the death of the day. Just as the sun sets over Remnant, so too will it set on one of us.

Adam: Indeed. It has been a long road my adversary. We have clashed many times but this time? This feels like the last. Tonight we end it.

Jaune: Your reign of terror ends here Adam! Tonight justice for all the innocents you've harmed will be carried out!

Adam: Justice? I fight for the freedom and equality of all Faunus Jaune. To break them free of their shackles and shape them into swords so that they may rise up and fight for their own future!

Jaune: Through what means Adam? You terrorized good innocent people who might have sided with you into compliance! Now that fear has turned to anger! You turn people into the very monsters you claimed to fight!

Adam: And yet we're not so different you and I are we? Both of us championing those who cannot fight for themselves. Who fight as proxies on behalf of those in power too cowardly and stubborn to fight their own battles.

Jaune: We're nothing alike Adam! I don't target innocent civilians and paint my enemy as the worst monster alive to instill fear in my own side to take up arms to fight!

Adam: Search your feelings Jaune! You've seen the aftermath of our fights. Experienced the callousness of your masters who send you to fight pointless battles in the hopes that you die so that one day you won't turn on them. We've fought so many times I know you almost better than I know myself. I've come to look forward to our duels. I... I could almost call you... my brother.

Jaune: ...I could say the same the same of you Adam. I truly believe that somewhere in there you believe on some level you know what you do is wrong. No one who fights as honorably as you in our duels could truly be such a monster. I wish I could spare you... my brother... but I must face you and see justice carried out.

Adam: Then let us end it now... brother... our final clash. Words alone will not decide who is right and who is wrong.

Jaune: *levels a sword toward Adam* Indeed... brother. Let our swords carry our ideals and prove who's is stronger in this, our last hour.

*Thunder cracks and booms above. Rain starts to fall and ping off the metal. The two mechas slowly rise to ready stance and stare at each other as the rain comes down harder until the mechs are barely visible to each other in the sheets of water. Then they charge.*

Jaune: RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Adam: WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Both: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

*They strike at the same time with Lighting striking and illuminating every clash of blades. The ringing metal and explosions of missiles drowned out by thunderous booms of thunder. The exchanges are numerous, furious, and epic. Finally they dash apart and circle before lining up for a final pass. Lighting flashes at the instant of contact blinding everything with thunder muting the exchange. The two freeze having just crossed paths.*

*Nothing happens for a moment. Jaune's mech collapses to one knee. Then Adam's mech suddenly radiates smaller secondary explosions before collasping completely flat*

Adam: *coughing as smoke fills the cockpit with the computer warning him the reactor core is going critical and to evactuate. But the emergency evacuation system has also malfunctioned trapping him inside* Its *cough* seems Brother...*cough* Your ideas were stronger this *coughcough* this day.

Jaune: Adam... are you sure this is what you want? I could save you now!

Adam: *cough* No brother. *Coughcough* This is a good end to a *cough* good fight. *cough cough cough* This is my *cough* escape from *cough* from this war.

Jaune: *nods solemly pointing his sword toward Adam* ...To the best enemy I ever had... brother...

Adam: *forces a thumbs up* I *cough* will be waiting for you *cough* brother. *cough cough* to continue our battle *cough* on the other *cough* other side. *he forces the mech to raise up to watch the sun finish setting* Ah *cough* The best view *cough* at the end.

*lighting flashes one final time as the mech goes super critical and explodes in bright light with no sound taking Adam with it*

*Jaune exits the mech and turns his face skyward as the sun vanishes consumed by the horizon and the rain. Was this victory even worth it? He would be hailed as a hero by his superiors and the people. But when the moment passed... would any remember or understand him like the man, his adversary of a thousand battles, his... brother in arms would? The rain would wash away the blood. But not the bitter taste of being truly alone. This was no victory to celebrate...*

Thing 2:

Yang: *wearing nothing but an apron* Welcome home loverboy! I made you a sandwich! Aw you look like you've had the hardest day! Come here! That's it. Lay down in my lap while I lower my top. You can enjoy your sandwich, then snuggle into my nude bosom and forget alllll about your terrible horrible no good very bad day! Shhhh... that's it. *tenderly strokes hair* You are safe. YOU ARE LOVED.

Blake: Well? What do you FILTHY DISGUSTING PERVERTS think about that?

Jaune & Adam: *clinging to each other bawling their eyes out* BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! *Sniff* ISH! *Snort* ISH SHO *hic* ISH SHO BOOTAFUUUUUUUUUUUUL! BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

Jaune: DATSH EGSHACTLY HOW IT WUD GO DOUWN!

Adam: *hic* YOU *Hic* YOU *HIC* YOU MEAN IT? YOU'D SAY ALL THOSH THINGSH WURD FER WURD?

Jaune: I WOULD. *holds up hand* BROTHA!

Adam: BROTHA! *claps hand firmly with solid sound and bulging arm muscles*

Ruby: *is breathing heavily with heaving chest and broken smile with a massive DOUBLE nosebleed at an epic mech fight*

Blake: YOU. YOU. YANG! CLEARLY YOU OBJECT BEING OBJECTIFIED LIKE THAT!

Yang: I mean I dunno Blake. Use what you got and I... *crosses arms lifting chest grinning* got a LOT to use. It honestly sounds more like you're jealous of my Smokin' Sexy Stylish Feminine Charms.

Pyrrha: *tapping index fingers together* ...I could make sandwiches in a naked apron and sooth Jaune with my naked boobs too....

Weiss: *pffft* Of course YOU would resort to such appeal Xiao-Long.

Yang: Don't be jealous I got more to hate Ice Queen.

Weiss: WHA- I COULD EASILY SOOTH JAUNE WAY BETTER THAN YOU FAT BIMBO!

*Blake watches in despair as Jaune and Adam begin eagerly discussing what an Adam victory and dialog would be like with Nora eagerly interjecting to add more explosions which is just as eagerly accepted by the boys. Ruby starts giggling between heaves and looking like she's about to pass out from her own 'epic explosive finisher'. Yang and Weiss start bickering about who would be better at soothing an emotionally drained protagonist with Pyrrha timidly trying to insert herself as an option*

Blake: Oh Horned Animal God... why hath thou forsaken me?

Ren: *gently touches her arm* In an era that demands complexity and a desire for the material, it is good to see people so passionate about simple pleasures.

---

Men only want two things in life. A worthy adversary and a loving life companion.

 

[Quietview27]

This wouldn't have happened if the mods on SB had spent some time outside in nature, worked out, read some proper books, and eaten some meat.


Anyway. What would Yang's reaction be if Ruby got herself a boyfriend before she did? Either dating Jaune or Whitley or anyone else suitable. Would Yang feel a little insecure? After all, Ruby used to hide away in her shadow, now here she is at Beacon in a healthy, loving relationship, while Yang is a virgin who hasn't kissed anyone yet, let alone got into a serious relationship.
Or after Beacon if this is taking place after the Vytal attacks, Jaune and Ruby could have started dating on the road to Haven too. Or Ruby x Jaune / Whitley in Atlas.
Would Yang get insecure? Feel like she wants to start looking for a serious relationship of her own? Or just be happy for her sister and try to support her?

Now that I think about it, Ruby and Jaune start dating on the road to Haven, so when Yang next sees her sister, it's like she's all grown up now. I think you could do a lot with that. After all, Yang still isn't back to 100%, and here she is back with the team and everything is different. Ruby isn't a baby anymore and if Yang tries to disapprove of her dating Jaune, she'll have a pretty serious talk with Yang about what is and isn't Yang's business. The kind of talk the shy, less confident Ruby would never have had with Yang a year ago. Or even a few months ago when Ruby left Patch for Haven with Jaune, Ren and Nora. That scenario adds a second layer on top of just Ruby getting a bf.

(No, I wasn't thinking of a harem/throuple situation, that would avoid the interesting character stuff by making most problems not a problem. I'm sure Yang can find someone someday, even if they're not in the named cast. Itanoverse Remnant is supposed to have a billion people after all.)

Click to shrink...

Yang liked to consider herself a good big sister to Ruby. Most of her thinking stemming from her basically raising her after their dad spiraled. She tried hard to let her grow up without interfering, but alas her protectiveness tended to blind herself to the fact her baby sister was only 2 years younger than she was.

Like right now.

It'd been months since her sister, Vomit boy, and Ren and Nora began a journey to reach Haven. She'd mostly caught up because uncle Qrow gave their location. But now that she was there with them, she noticed how- close Ruby and Jaune were.

Right now she was sitting on his lap, and okay little weird but it was probably a friend thing. Then they gave each other a look, and alright maybe they were having some weird friend shared thought thing.

"Man Yang you should've seen Jaune!" Ruby waved her arms excitedly, "He stopped the Nuckelavee in its tracks! It was so cool!"

"Me? Ren was the man of the hour then! He was doin' a lotta cool stuff!"

Said young man waved them off, "Please, no. I'd been blinded by anger, if it had not been for you all... I'd have joined my family that night."

Ren felt Jaune's hand pat his shoulder, the blond giving him a fond look.

"Well you're stuck with us I'm afraid," he grinned, "Can't go losin' my brother from another mother anytime soon you hear?"

Ren smiled, and nodded.

"Yeah!" Nora suddenly pulled Ren into a hug, "Team RNJR's still gotta kick lotsa butt!"

"Yeah!" Ruby cheered as Jaune returned to the chair they were sitting on, lifting her onto his lap, "Ahh, my throne had returned."

"Oh I'm sorry, what throne?" he asked as he began to lightly poke her sides.

"Nohohohoho stop that!" she squirmed from his attack, "I'm sorhohohory!"

"Better be," he grinned before kissing her.

That had been when Yang rose, walking over to Jaune.

"Alright Vomit Boy watch it," she growled, cracking her knuckles, "Unless you forgot who's little sister you just put your lips on."

"W-wha- Yang no!" Ruby tried speaking, "Jaune is-"

"Hush sis. I've got a punk to give a lesson."

"NO!"

Yang flinched at her sisters yell, and was shocked when she stood defiantly before her. Not a fleck of worry on her face.

"Now you listen to me," Ruby began, "Me and Jaune we're- we're together alright?"

".....WHAT!? Since when!?"

"W-well it didn't start out quickly. But, after traveling for so long together, I don't know I just felt so- so happy seeing him beside me. Then I saw some village girl being all cutesie with him, and I got annoyed and then I kissed him!"

"What!?"

"Hush! After that we- we talked, and then began to date- kinda, was a little hard given we were mostly in the woods, but whenever we went to town we went on dates."

"True!" Nora half yelled from her spot, "Me and Ren would give em privacy every time they did!"

"Indeed," Ren nodded, "Though they didn't state as much, me and Nora didn't miss the growing connection they had."

"B-but- why didn't you stop em?! Ruby's-!"

"A girl who just wanted to be happier alright?!" Ruby yelled again, frown deeper than before, "Jaune makes me happy. We like the same things, we've fought Grimm side by side, we've talked about everything! Why is it so hard for you to remember that I'm a person with feelings?"

Yang stepped back a bit, her anger replaced by panic, and worry, "R-ruby I- I just-"

Her sister sighed, "Look Yang, I know you care about me. You wouldn't have gotten angry at Jaune kissing me if you didn't, or act like a mom when we were little. But I'm not baby Ruby anymore."

She held her sisters hands, "I'm Ruby. Older, stronger, smarter-ish Ruby. So please, let me be older Ruby."

Yang tried arguing, but her sisters words were making her hesitate. So, she instead glared at Jaune.

"You really love my sis?"

He nodded, no fear or apprehension in his actions, "I'd put the moon back together for her if she asked."

She simply stared at him, red looking into blue, before she blinked and her eyes returned to lilac as she sighed in defeat. She gave her sister a sad smile.

"So do I call you Big Ruby now sis?" she tried joking.

Ruby returned her smile, "Nah. Just Rubes."

With that, the sisters hugged, and while Yang wouldn't instantly start to view her sister as fully grown completely yet, luckily she had her friends to smack sense into her and remind her. Still took Nora bear hugging her when she saw Jaune and Ruby go on a date though, but small steps.

 

[Frankly Tired]

The Queen & The Raven

My Very First Threadmarked Short from SB
(Sword Teacher doesn't fully count, it was only half of a full)

~~~~~~
"You..." Raven snarled "Why are you here?"

"To congratulate you, Child." Salem smiled, "You, and your little tribe, are the last Humans on Earth."

Raven huffed, "If that is all you have to say, then leave us!"

Salem Chuckled, "Oh no, with everyone Strong enough out of the way, and you all being the very last, I figured that I should gloat. I did so with Ozma and his little Silver Eyed brat, the "Heroes" of this world. I decided I would do so with the last survivors of Cowards."

Raven tightened the grip on her sword and her frown deepened at the Grimm Queen's emphasized words, "Speak, then leave us."

The Queen smile dipped a little, "Hmm, very well. Tell me, how will your tribe survive now that the land is desolate? I've noticed through my Seers that not a single one of you can farm. And the Wildlife have long since died out, that I'm sure you've noticed."

Raven didn't respond.

"Provisions perhaps, rationing your so called Canned Goods? I suppose that would suffice. But for how long, I wonder? Do keep in mind, once you leave these walls, and reach a certain distance, my Grimm will hunt your people."

"We will survive, we are strong."

"Oh, are you? Forgive me, but I believe it was you who ran away, while Summer Rose continued to fight me."

She gritted her teeth, "You're immortal, there wasn't a point, She kept fighting like a fool. Playing your game."

"And yet out of any Mortal, Silver eyed or not, She did the most damage to me. I dare say, had you to committed yourself. You'd both would have killed me. Perhaps not for long, mind you, but for just enough that Remnant would have lived without me for quite some time."

"Bullshit! Summer's brat barely hurt you when she and her band of misfits fought you."

"Hmmm, true, but she never really had any training. Summer Rose, however had discovered a lot by herself. Ruby Rose would have learned quite a lot about her powers had Summer lived. Certainly after my defeat. Of course, had you stayed."

Raven narrowed her eyes.

"She was still alive after you left you know. Though from what I know about your semblance, you must have known. Oh my, the amount of negativity she radiated I could barely keep my Grimm in check. we both did wonder why you never came back for her."

"And walk into the trap you would have placed? I'm not a fool."

"No, you really are. As I said, I was quite injured during the fight when you fled. Summer Rose was unconscious, and I was using what power I had left to keep my Grimm from breaking in and shredding her in to little rose petals. For those few minutes I was quite powerless. I had plans for when she woke up, and all through out, she always insisted you'd come for her. Even when I took her eyes, after I took her legs and arms, during my little experiments, and just before I submerged her in the Grimm pools. Oh, how she declared you'd open a portal right then and there, swipe my head from my neck, and steal her away."

Once again, Raven said nothing but glowered at Salem.

"But you never did, and oh how sweet her despair and heartache was as she slowly sank into the pool."

She scoffed instead, "Is that all, to gloat about the death of Summer? Summer Rose was a fool, and she died the way she lived."

"Yes, Yes, and You & Yours are cowards who will die cowards. We've long since established that, even the dead know."

"A coward would not have lived till the end of the world. It takes strength to live this long!"

"Raven, you wouldn't know strength even if it wiped away all life on this planet. You are a child who believes running away and hiding under the blanket covers is the most powerful thing to do against a monster. And yet, here we are. I, at your doorstep, and you still hiding. You've long since known my goal Raven, tell me what was it again?"

No response.

"It was the death of all life, Dear. Tell me, what makes you think you get special treatment? What made you believe I would simply leave you alone? Could you even stop me now, as I order my Grimm to surround your walls? How long will your little tribe of Vagrants and Vagabonds last when I command them to tear down this silly little wooden defenses? Who will help you and yours now that it is just us? You ran away from me Raven at your Peak, what makes you think your strong enough now?"

Salem paused for an answer but received none.

"You believe hiding behind a wall of wood, in tents of cloth, is strength? Very well Raven, let us see how strong your people are!"

Grimm of all shapes and sizes closed in and circled the Tribe Walls. Some of the defender, frightened, took shots as they closed in.

"You lived a coward's life, here is your Reward! Instead of waiting for your people to leave for mine to hunt, as they scrounge for what scraps of food there are left, now they never shall! How long will they last when you run out of ammunition, your blades dull, and your Aura expended? How strong will they be when you're water has run out, and your food eaten up? Will you turn on each other? Cannibalism, perhaps? It matters not. I have time Raven Branwen of The Branwen Tribe, you do not."

The defenders' faces, beside Raven, filled with dread.

"And I will sit here, watching, waiting. I've done so for millennia, what's a few more months? And when the last of you remain, I will reward my Grimm for being so patient."

 

[Frankly Tired]

Pyrrha Event
~~~~~~

Reaction Fics, and some shorts usually write Pyrrha's Jealousy as a Murderous Burning Rage:
"How dare that bitch flirt with Jaune!"

She has no social skills, do you know how embarrassing it is to reveal your true emotions like that? She couldn't do that no matter how Mad.
That, or because she has no actual social skills, outside of her sponsor events and Fan Meets, she's more Jealous that someone is taking her time from him, because she knows he's more dense than bedrock. and has mini tantrums.

both are good.
~~~~~~

But I like to think its a more of a "Killing Intent with a Smile", as her semblance rages for her:

Ruby: "Hey Pyrrha, did you see that girl talking to Jaune early today? They look like they know each other."
Pyrrha: "Oh, Is he? That's good, I'm... Glad he has so many friends."

Nora cleared her throat.

Ruby: "Yeah, but it's kinda odd they're all girls though."
Pyrrha: "Is it Ruby? I haven't quite noticed that."

Nora lets out a cough, her corset feels a bit tighter than usual today. Must have been the pancakes earlier.

Ruby: "Oh yeah! Just the other day, these group of girls were crowding him at the comic store. I thought they were looking for books behind them, but they really were there for Jaune!"
Pyrrha:"Really? that must have been an odd sight. did they say anything about him? Perhaps they were from his hometown."
Ruby: "See I thought so too, but they kept calling him Cute and Handsome, which is like two wildly different spectrums of boy."
Pyrrha: "Were they now?"

Nora felt more of a squeeze. That is definitely not the pancakes!

Ruby: "Yeah, and then Jaune called them beautiful in turn!""
Pyrrha: "Did he now?"

Nora is desperately trying to remove her Corset, because of the Integrated Metal that was used to conduct electricity for her semblance is now Backfiring, and slowly crushing her! Mayday mayday!

Ruby: "But get this! When they asked who was most beautiful in the room-

-Creaking was heard, as Nora finally successfully removed her corset, just as it was immediately crushed into a ball. 'Phew'-

Ruby: "He glanced at a Pumpkin Pete poster, and said 'Pyrrha Nikos'!"
Pyrrha: "He did what?!"

The creaking stopped. However, Nora's now removed corset Exploded! 'Why?!'

Ruby: "It was so funny, because technically, you were in the room, you should have seen their faces! I have to go tell Yang, she's gonna tease the heck out of him! Maybe it'll distract her long enough so I can sneak some cookies- oops!- You didn't hear that! Bye, I'm going to go do the thing I didn't say I wasn't going to do!

Pyrrha didn't hear her.

Ruby stopped for a moment, and noticed the crosses on her skirt are now little hearts.

Ruby: "Why does this always happen!?"

Pyrrha finally responded, after Ruby long since left.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!"

The Now Fragmented Corset, which was collected in Nora's hands, reformed into a metal firework, shot into the air, and exploded into even smaller Metal Confetti fragments all over area. 'Oh, Come on!"

Pyrrha: "EEEE- cough cough, No-Nora!? When did you get here?"

Nora gave her a flat stare.
~~~
Nora would later work with Ruby to make her corset "Push-of-a-button" removable in case of more "Pyrrha Events."

 

[Frankly Tired]

Penny's Friends List
I Am Biased And Correct.
~~~~~~

Specialist Winter's Surprise Report:
Report On: Penny Polendina's Friends
(Teams RWBY & JNPR)
~~~~~~

Ruby Rose: a Naive girl, if not for Penny's body being built to resemble a late 17 year old girl and not a younger child. Ruby Rose would have been the perfect 15 year old best friend, and Role model. Due to Penny's Unconventional upbringing and her collection of knowledge more suited for a scientist with multiple degrees, Ruby Rose has taught Penny how to be a child. Though a Huntsmen Child does have it's own trade offs, far more battle hungry than normal children, and -as stated before- Ms. Rose is a Naive girl, a child herself (regardless of the Huntsmen Adult Law.*), who believes that even the most heinous of criminals only need a simple beating and a "time-out" in jail.

Weiss Schnee: I am biased, She is my own sister after all. She is intelligent, Kind-hearted, and can occasionally be humorous**. However, I do not disagree that Weiss can be "Difficult" when she is forced into confrontations and moments not normal to our lives in Atlas. And Penny gets into a lot of New and "exciting" confrontations and situations, that I believe Weiss herself won't enjoy, or wish to explain. Weiss too lived in a life dictated by our father, and doesn't have much experience in the wider world. The two would certainly get along, but I do not see them being close friends

Blake Belladonna: I will not lie, Weiss has informed me of her past. I cannot make a much of a judgment on her character as a whole, as regardless of what I read about Ms. Belladona, I will likely be biased. However, I can say such a pervert, who openly reads erotica, should not be near Penny, and especially shouldn't be anywhere near her during Penny's Book club. The Ace Ops nearly died of heart attacks when she recommend we read one of those Filth books, herself unknowing to the contents.

Yang Xiao Long: No. At least she has the decency not to "teach" Penny uncouth behavior when others are around. Penny didn't understand why she had to eat soap after her report on her Test Playdate***. For every 1 thing decent Penny learns from Ms. Xiao Long, she learns 9 things that her she shouldn't. She's on par of That Drunk her Uncle, and needs to be watched closely

Jaune Arc: Through personal digging (back when Weiss complained of a boy constantly harassing her for courtship) I learned quite a lot about Mr. Arc. A boy who thinks himself a hero, someone who will get people killed. however reports from friends and family on Dustnet and word of mouth, also paint him very favorably. The Test Playdate was successful, very successful, far more successful than even Ruby Rose's. Jaune Arc treats Penny carefully despite her reinforced frame and Aura, and teaches her all kinda of material a child her age should know without ridicule, even common sense advice Ms. Rose wouldn't know, Such as paying attention where one walks****. He's patient with her, if it wasn't for Doctor Polendina's aversion to the very concept of procreation*****, one would think him her older brother. If it wasn't for the nature of his teammates, and his loyalty to them, Project Staff would have Recruited him immediately.

Pyrrha Nikos: [Pyrrha Nikos is not to step within Six Feet (6') in the direction of Project P.E.N.N.Y. for no Longer than 3 minutes. This decision is non-negotiable. Instructions are to separate them when possible if either gets too close. -Signed; General James Ironwood, Doctor Pietro Polendina, Specialist Winter Schnee]******

Nora Valkyrie: No. Ms. Valkyrie's Semblance passively outputs energy into the air, which Penny's body that automatically absorbs the minor electrical currents in the air, also picks up. One hyper Ginger is enough, thank you, and so while we will continue to allow the two to interact, we will keep contact to a minimum (Prolonged Physical Contact is a No.) She does however match Penny's enthusiasm and make her more confident.

Lie Ren: No. I don't know how, but after she received poems from Mr. Lie due to her curiosity on the subject, Penny somehow contracted Depression. The Entirety of the Project P.E.N.N.Y. Division had to pitch in to cheer her up and return her to normal. (Further investigation into these poems reveal that Mr. Lie pours in his trauma from his time during the Kuroyuri disaster, and Penny was able to read between the lines and see the meanings, each Poem regardless of how flowery and positive is filled with remorse regarding events in his life his deceased parents are missing.) Penny is Not to receive any poems from Lie Ren, and the two can only be in the same room if Nora Valkyrie is accompanying him. Having 2 hyper ginger's is a risk Scientists at Project P.E.N.N.Y. are willing to make. No wishes to see Penny like that ever again.

~~~~~~

* Thank Dust, shop owners have enough sense to deny her purchasing items suited for actual Adults, like alcohol. Likely Beacon's Headmaster Ozpin's doing through a meeting with Beacon Sponsored businesses.
** She inadvertently made a joke regarding The General during her last call, I still do not think she knows. I was surprised at myself that I was able to hold a straight face till her call ended. General Ironwood was reportedly quite confused when I had abruptly ended the the video call the moment I met his face as to not laugh in his face. I acted shameful in front of my superior, It was very embarrassing moment.
*** She hiccupped bubbles!
**** The amount of time's I've watched Penny and Ms. Rose collide into people because they were to engrossed in their conversation was pitiful. Agent Clover ran a betting pool to ascertain how often those two would walk into something, lucky as he may be, I walked away with 50 lien (67 times they walked in to a person, a wall, a lampost, and once, a truck)
***** Doctor Polendina disagreed that he had an aversion to Procreation, he then made a joke how, because he made Penny, he was a "Pro at Creation". I didn't Laugh. No one on staff laughed. I think Penny herself cringed. I didn't know she could, I don't believe Disgust was an emotion she knew. And I've seen her eat from the garbage bin when she was a prototype!
****** At least when Niko's semblance forced Penny into an 'Impromptu extended Hugging Event' Niko's felt uncomfortable enough to no longer be with Penny alone.

 

[Sift Green]

Continuing on with copying posts from SB:

This actually has a lot of potential, since fanon has Pyrrha and Arslan as rivals, so Arslan may have an inferiority complex regarding Pyrrha.

So now Arslan catches feelings for Jaune, and is seemingly making progress with him. Pyrrha, however, is not going down without a fight, which makes Arslan panic because she has never been able to beat Pyrrha.

Now Arslan is afraid Pyrrha won't just be victorious on the battlefield, but as a woman as well.

Click to shrink...

Pyrrha, after seeing her actively pursue Jaune, finally registers Arslan as her true rival, with Weiss being a close second.

Click to shrink...

First thing that came to mind, and it really stuck when I realized Pyrrha's a dead ringer for Dolly Parton's description of Jolene:

Nikos, Nikos, Nikos, Nikos,
I'm begging of you please don't take my man
Nikos, Nikos, Nikos, Nikos,
Please don't take him just because you can

Your beauty is beyond compare
With flaming locks of auburn hair
With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green
Your smile is like a breath of spring
Your voice is soft like summer rain
And I cannot compete with you, Nikos

And I can easily understand
How you can easily take my man
But you don't know what he means to me, Nikos

You could have your choice of men
But I could never love again
He's the only one for me Nikos
I had to have this talk with you
My happiness depends on you
And whatever you decide to do, Nikos

Nikos, Nikos, Nikos, Nikos,
I'm begging of you please don't take my man
Nikos, Nikos, Nikos, Nikos,
Please don't take him even though you can

Just needed to swap out the name and cut the lines about sleep-talking and it just fits the idea presented here.

I really like this scenario.

Like the first weekend after she arrives at Beacon Arslan goes to volunteer at some church related charity event and it just so happens that Jaune is also volunteering at the same event. She hits it off with him without even realizing he's Pyrrha's partner. When she realizes Jaune's a student at Beacon she asks if he could show her around campus and maybe hang out some time, and Jaune agrees because hey new friend.

They hang out after class a couple of days and Arslan finds herself drawn to Jaune, so she asks him out on a proper date that Friday night. Jaune's taken aback but he says yes because how often do attractive girls ask the guy out and it's not like he was getting anywhere with Weiss anyways.

The date is a success, and at the end of it Arslan has fallen for Jaune and she's fallen hard.

It is only after the date that Arslan finds out Jaune is partners with Pyrrha, it just never came up before then and unrelated shenanigans kept her from meeting Jaune's team until after the date.

The new couple go on more dates, and during the first week after the first date Pyrrha manages to hide her devastation from the two of them well enough. Nora tries to comfort the crimson haired spartan by pointing out that Jaune and Arslan literally just started dating, it's not like they're getting married or are even engaged at this point; they could easily break up at some point so she shouldn't give up hope just yet. Pyrrha mules that over in her head for a bit and the little devil on her shoulder whispers that she could make them break up.

Pyrrha finally gets proactive with her feelings for Jaune. She stats to actually flirt with him, subtly at first but she gets more and more blatant as the weeks go on. Jaune is in a state of disbelief regarding Pyrrha flirting with him in part because of his own denseness and also because the idea of Pyrrha being a deliberate home-wrecker conflicts too much with the image he has of his partner and friend, so he keeps looking an explanation for her behavior that isn't flirtation.

Arslan is annoyed with Pyrrha's actions, but she ignores it at first because Jaune isn't taking the bait. Yet as Pyrrha's flirtations become bolder and more and more blatant Arslan's inferiority complex when it comes to her chosen rival begins to show its' face and she starts to grow more and more fearful that Pyrrha will succeed in taking Jaune from her.

Things build for a little while, with Pyrrha becoming more and more desperate to catch Jaune's eye and Arslan becoming more and more terrified that she'll succeed. Eventually things can't build any more than they already have and a confrontation occurs between the two young women without Jaune being present to defuse things.

They agree to take their confrontation someplace that isn't public because neither of them want Jaune to stumble across this and see what's about to happen. Once they're alone Pyrrha prepares to lay into her rival, only to have her furry derailed as Arslan collapses to her knees and desperately begs with her entire being for Pyrrha to not take Jaune from her.

Arslan weeps and wails and is a blubbering mess as the inferiority complex breaks through her composure. And there she is, her whole soul laying bare and broken at the feet of her rival, completely at the mercy of the other woman.

Pyrrha stands there frozen. All the little fears and terrors that had compelled Pyrrha to act, to do everything in her power to get the love of her life away from her rival can be clearly seen in Arslan's eyes. Her rival is at her mercy with all of her defenses stripped away, and all Pyrrha can see is her own reflection in the woman she came here to destroy.

The moment seems to stretch on forever as Pyrrha stands at a total loss as to what she should do.

Where do things go from there?

 

[Sift Green]

Living a life wandering the frontier with her best friend had given Nora many life experiences few who lived in the big cities could even imagine. At the same time there were several things about life in a proper city that Nora had never experienced. Sure she and Ren had visited and even lived in different towns and villages that were prosperous enough for a layman to consider them cities, but even the biggest of those settlements tended to lack something or other that you could find in a proper city.

Like paintball.

Nora had never had a chance to play the game before, and she was having a blast! Jaune-Jaune and Sun had organized the whole thing and invited a bunch of other students to tag along. They were even getting some extra credit for this after Sun and Jaune managed to frame the whole thing as a day of 'low risk tactical exercises' to Professor Goodwitch! All they had to do was let her watch from the facility's camera room.

In any case this game offered the high octane action Nora craved, and her heart raced as she rushed down the hallway of the maze the paintball place had set up. She fired behind herself to keep her opponents from pursuing as she relocated to a more secure position, turning the corner just in time. She only had one or two more shots in the gun, meaning she needed to be out of the line of fire immediately.

Paintballs wizzed past the space she used to be and Nora fired her last shots back around the corner to discourage pursuit. She then kept a weary eye on that corner as she felt around her belt for more ammo.

A door just a little bit behind her was kicked open, and Nora quickly glanced over her shoulder. It was Ren.

"Renny! Cover me! I need to reload!"

"Got it," Ren confirmed as he dashed past her and fired a few shots around the corner for her.

Nora spent a few moments fumbling with the unfamiliar loading mechanisms, and she had just found the latch when Ren abruptly stopped firing.

"Wait a minute," long haired boy muttered, "We're on different teams."

"Wut," Nora eyes snapped up to the brightly colored armband Ren was wearing. She glanced to the brightly colored armband she was wearing, and then back to Ren's armband.

The two armbands were obviously different colors. They were on different teams.

Ren slowly raised his paintball gun in her direction.

"Whoa!" Her eyes widened in panic, "Wait, Wait, WAIT!"

Ren unloaded on her point blank.

As Nora fell back with her front completely covered in paint she could see a camera on the ceiling tracking her fall, and she could already hear the lecture Professor Goodwitch would be giving her about situational awareness...





Just a little bit inspired by this:



View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nu3RPb-8TY

 

[GraveyardShift]

Dodgeball

Prompt: Inspired by Disney's Recess

It is gym class.

The game is Dodgeball.

It is boys vs girls with Team RWBY vs CRDL with JNPR split between them.

The girls expect an easy victory.

No one expected Jaune to be a Secret Dodgeball God formerly known as Le Faucheur de Dodgeball. AKA The Dodgeball Reaper back home.

And as Jaune blows the steam off his fingers like a gunslinger blows the smoke from a barrel after singlehandedly wiping them out, the thoroughly defeated girls suddenly find a need to beat a hasty retreat back to the dormrooms for a quick change.

Pyrrha is unable to speak properly for the rest of the week. No one knows if it's the shock of being so throughly humilatingly defeated or if she's achieved some new level of desire for Jaune. She's not the only one who's suddenly submissive toward and craving Jaune.

Entry written by: zMADLAXz

Ruby:......

Yang:........

Weuss:......... Eh?

They all turn around 180 with their heads creaking as they see Pyrrha ass over head tea kettle with the ball embedded halfway into the Padded and concrete wall of Sports center.

The Boys team stare at Jaune as he stands there staring at his fingers, they are smoking and Ren could even swear he saw burnt flesh with bleeding wounds.

Jaune clenches his fists, his eyes pitched with Dark intent as power sparks in them.

Jaune: I need more..... This isn't my limit.

Jaune's aura flashes a brilliant gild, rebuilding his skin and muscles over the wounded area.

His eyes Lock onto Ruby, as the primal fear common in all living beings catches her heart - Death.

Boys team slowly back off as Yang activates her Semblance, ready to teach him a lesson and she shoots the ball as if a Dragon breathing unholy fire.

Jaune' Palm stops it as if a commandment from God himself and in split second returns the favor to her, and Yang shreiks and joins Pyrrha.

The Girls team surrender but the Boys team cannot think to celebrate, they needed to get the fuck out of here fast, and as soon as Glynda shakingly declares them victors, Jaune's neck slumps forward and the haze lifts his face and he says.

Jaune: Great Match guys! ..... Eh? Where is everyone?

My response to this excellent post:

Boys team slowly back off as Yang activates her Semblance, ready to teach him a lesson and she shoots the ball as if a Dragon breathing unholy fire.

Jaune' Palm stops it as if a commandment from God himself and in split second returns the favor to her, and Yang shreiks and joins Pyrrha.

Click to shrink...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WCc3mU_iTY

Jaune: Great Match guys! ..... Eh? Where is everyone?

Click to shrink...

XD Take this Internet. You win today.

 

[GraveyardShift]

Funny idea I wanted to share:

Back when Jaune decided to serenade Wiess, instead of an acoustic ballad, he pulls up with an electric guitar and sings...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuK6n2Lkza0
​

How does everyone react when Jaune genuinely rocks?

(For the record, I do believe Weiss would still turn him down, but would be begrudgingly impressed at the performance.)

Click to shrink...

Are you gonna be my girl?

The teams trouped into the room taking a seat as they did so. Jaune had texted them asking them to meet him in the common room. A seat clearly marked.

"So what do you think VB wants?" Yang eyed the oddly placed drumset with curiosity. The instructions had been vague. For everyone to come down and take a seat on the couch placed in the middle of the room.

"Not sure." Ruby shrugged. "He didn't say anything to me. Though he was muttering under his breath about acoustics."

"I swear if this is another-" Weiss was cut off as the Artic Twins entered the room and approached the drumset. Iella Artic took her place next to it while Iessa Artic stood nearby wearing an electric bass. The two bowed formally before Iella sat down and Iessa proceeded to plug in.

"Oh my." Yang grinned as Iella tapped on a nearby tambourine before Iessa started picking at the bass strings.

A cough sounded from behind them.

"Oh NO." Weiss groaned. As Iella picked up on the drums.

Suddenly both stopped playing as one Jaune Arc suddenly slid across the room into the band from some unseen corner, electric guitar blaring announcing his arrival.

"GO!"

This prompted the Twins to start back up as they played accompanying Jaune.

Weiss groaned. Yang and Ruby laughed. Nora cheered. Ren and Pyrrha just watched on in mild interest and horror respectively.

Blake actually lowered her book with a quizzical look watching the performance.

The band paused as Jaune belted out,
"So a ONE TWO THREE Take my hand and come with me
Because you look so fine that I really wanna make you mine"

Another cord was played before another pause.

"I said, YOU LOOK SO FINE that I really wanna make you mine!"

Jaune rocked out stopping before the couch in front of Weiss.

"Oh a FOUR FIVE SIX Come on and get your kicks!
Now you don't need that money When you look like that, do ya, honey?"

Weiss went completely red though from embarrassment or indignation, no one was quite sure yet.

The song continued as they proceeded through the chorus.

"Big white boots,
Long white hair
She's so sweet with her... GET BACK STARE!"

Yang fell over into Blake's lap laughing.

Jaune continued undeterred.

"Well, I could see!
You home with me!
But you were with ANOTHER MAAAAAAN, YEAH!
I know we ain't got!
Much to say!
Before I let you GET AWAAAAAAAAY, YEAH!"

The band continued to play until they let the song taper off and Jaune drew up to Weiss.

"I said... are you gonna be my girl?"

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" Nora cheered.

The song repeated a second time.

"So a ONE TWO THREE Take my hand and come with me
Because you look so fine that I really wanna make you mine
I said, YOU LOOK SO FINE that I really wanna make you mine!"

Pyrrha simply shot Weiss a jealous look as Jaune and the twins continued to rock out.

"Oh a FOUR FIVE SIX Come on and get your kicks!
Now you don't need that money with a face like that, do ya?"

Weiss tried to get up and leave but Yang, Ruby, AND Nora forced her back into her seat for the second rendition of the Chorus.

"Big white boots,
Long white hair
She's so sweet with her... GET BACK STARE!"

Weiss proceeded to hit Jaune with that EXACT kind of look even as she continued turn puce.

Yang, Ruby, and Nora joined Jaune for the second round of the Chorus.
"Well, I could see!
You home with me!
But you were with ANOTHER MAAAAAAN, YEAH!
I know we ain't got!
Much to say!
Before I let you GET AWAAAAAAAAY, YEAH!"

Another pause before the expected question.
"I said.... are you gonna be my girl?"

"WHOOOOOOOOO!" Yang and Nora encouraged.

"Oh yeah!
Oh yeah!
Come on!"

Jaune poured his heart and soul into the final chorus.

"IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII COULD SEE!
YOU HOME WITH ME!
BUT YOU WERE WITH ANOTHA MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN, YEAH!"
I KNOW WE AIN'T GOT!
MUCH TO SAY!
BEFORE I LET YOU GET AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY, YEAH!"
UH BE MY GIRL!
BE! MY! GIRL!
ARE YOU GONNA BE MY GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRL YEAH?!"

Jaune had slid across the floor in front of Weiss waiting there expectantly.

Weiss reacted predictably.

"NO!"

She rose and quickly stormed off. Ruby raced after her. "Wait bestie!"

Jaune deflated.

"Aw cheer up VB." Yang said socking him in the shoulder. "Weiss is probably the only person who could resist the Power of Rock by sheer virtue of being so Weiss Cold. I bet ANY other girl would have said yes."

Pyrrha's head nodded so hard it was wonder she didn't snap her neck. "Absolutely. ANY OTHER GIRL." she emphasized.

Jaune gave them a weak smile. "Thanks guys." he turned to the twins. "Thanks for helping out. Even if it didn't work..."

"No bother at all Jaune." Iessa gave him an easy smile. Iella grinned. "I had fun! We should do this again!"

"Hell yeah!" Yang agreed giving Jaune a megawatt grin of her own. "You rocked HARD VB! Where'd you learn to shred like that? We should get you to play for the Beacon dance!"

Jaune went pink at the praise. "Oh... my sisters said that girls liked guitar players and well... there was this one cute cat faunus back home who was into rock and roll..."

---

Ruby easily caught up to Weiss. "Aw come on Weiss! It wasn't THAT bad was it? I thought it was really good."

Weiss huffed and turned away from Ruby. "It was loud! Rude! Completely improper!"

Ruby grinned. "Buuuut you liiiiked it!"

"I DID NOT YOU ABSOLUTE DOLT! I DID NOT L-L-L-LIIIIKE IT ONE BIT!"

"Maybe you just need to give it another try Weiss! He was REALLY good!"

"I W-Wooouuld... Nnnnnnnnnot. be opposed.... to... maybe.... another... try. Just to confirm for sure that... THAT NOISE.... is not REAL music!" Weiss strained.

Ruby grinned already plotting to get Weiss to listen to another song.

NO ONE could resist the power of Rock and Roll!


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDPestjIxNo

 

[GraveyardShift]

I know I'm on a bit of a Knightshade kick. I blame Coeur for that. But nothing is wrong with some good ole Black Sun. So to celebrate that I give you...

Long Cool Woman (in a Black Dress)

"Yang I can walk on my own!" Blake grouched as she was steered and pushed into the room.

"And if I let you, you're going to walk on your own right back into the library. Stop being such a Sour Puss and come spend time with us." Yang said as she maneuvered Blake into the common room. The secret Faunus had been obsessing too long over the White Fang to the point she wasn't sleeping and it showed.

Blake was forced into the middle of the couch and pinned between Nora and Yang as Ruby, Weiss, Pyrrha, and Ren were crowded around the couch.

"What do you think Jaune wanted to show us this time?" Ruby asked eyeing the drum set that had been there since he'd tried to woo Weiss with a song.

"So long as it's not another attempt to ask me to the dance." Weiss grumbled before lifting her nose to the air. "Neptune already asked me and I agreed." She said Imperiously.

"Speaking of, Blake you're going." Yang informed her.

"No."

"You don't get a choice. You're going."

"No."

"Blake."

"N-"

She was cut off as three individuals shuffled forward taking their places.

Much like last time, Iella and Iessa Artic strode into view taking their places. Iella standing next to the drum set with Iessa wearing a bass. This time however, Jaune was with them and he just walked into view. The twins taking their customary bow as Jaune did some last second tuning to his guitar.

"Shh! It's starting!" Nora hissed.

First there was silence. Then Jaune started playing alone.

Spoiler: Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfpXP7vw7ms

This went on for a few seconds with only Iella adding in a few beats. Eventually both twins kicked in alongside Jaune.

As the trio started playing... one Sun Wukong strode in with an exaggerated strut bobbing to the rhythm before he turned to face couch and looked right at Blake.

Everyone's eyes went wide.

"Noooo..." Blake whined.

"OH YES." Yang and Nora chorused at the same time.

Sun inhaled and started belting out.

"Saturday niiight I was DOWN TOWN!
Woooorkin' for the EFF BE EEYYYYYEEE!
Siiiittin' in a nest of BAD MEN!
Whiiisskey bottles pilin' hiiiIIIIIIIIIIGH!"

Weiss blinked. "Huh... Wukong isn't half bad.

"I know right?" Ruby cheer clapping along.

"Booootleggin' booozer on the WEST SIDE!
Full'a people who are doing wrooooooong,
Just about to call up the DEE AYE MAN!
When I heard this woman singing a sooooooongHOOOOOOONG!"

Everyone looked at Blake.

"Do you sing?" Nora asked.

"Nooooo." Blake whined trying to hide behind her hands.

"A PAIR OF FOURTY-FIVES MADE ME OPEN MAH EYES!
MY TEMPERATURE STARTED TO RIIIIiiiiiIIIiiiiiIISE"

Sun pointed directly at Blake.
"She was a long cool woman in a BLACK DRESS!
Just a five nine, BEAUTIFUL, TAAAAAALLLL"

Blake started to turn pink as she squeaked causing Yang and Nora to both start making scandalized siren noises.

Sun dragged a hand over his face deforming it slightly for the next line before letting go.
"Just one look I was a BAD MESS!
'Cos that long cool woman had it alllllAAAALLLLLLL!"

Jaune at this point went to play an instrumental solo.

"Sun please staaaaap!" Blake begged him. "This is embarrassing!"

Sun instead completely ignored her as the solo ended doing a mid-air jump split.
"WOO!"

Nora completely lost it falling over into Blake's lap laughing and keeping her pinned as Blake tried to escape. Yang grinning as she seized onto her partner.

"I saw her heading to the TA BLE!
Well, a tall walking big black cat."

Yang grinning like a mad woman went to tug off Blake's bow. Blake responded by throwing her arms protectively over her head letting everyone see her burning face.

"When Charlie said," Sun whirled pointing at Jaune who sung the next line. "I hope that you're able, boy!" before Sun jumped back in.
"Well I'm telling you she knows where it's at!"

The lights in the room suddenly cut out before going red and flickering in a way that made them seem like they were spinning.
Sun continued on unphased.
"Well, suddenly we heard the SI RENS!"
Sun mock jogged in place.
"And everybody started to run!"
He turned back going the other way with a jump and a roll."
"A-jumping under doors and TA. BLES!
Well, I heard somebody shootin' a guuuuuunHUUUUUN!"

The light cut back to normal in the room. Sun came over and extended his left hand. Yang took it grinning as Sun shook it heartily.

"Well, the D.A. was pumpin' my LEFT HAND!"

Sun then let go and switched hands on the mic before taking one of Blake's
"And a-she was a-holding my riiiight"

Blake shook free but Sun simply leaned in to caress the side of her face with said hand.
"Well, I told her, don't get scared
'Cos you're gonna be spared!"

More scandalized noised from the other girls rose up as Blake started going from pink to red. Amber eyes trapped in Sun's blue ones. Mouth agape.

"I GOTTA BE FORGIVIN' IF AH WANNA SPEND MAH LIVIN'!
With a long cool woman in a BLACK DRESS!"

Sun tucked a loose strand of hair behind Blake's human ear.

"Just a five nine, beautiful, tallllll."

Blake expired on the spot as a steam puff erupted from her head. Pyrrha pouting at Jaune unnoticed.

Sun dragged a hand over his face again.

"Well with just one look I was a BAD MESS!
'Cos that long cool woman had it allAALLLLLL!"

Iessa and Jaune bobbing back and forth as they played the outro.

"Had it allllll,

Had it alllllllAAALLLLLLLL,

HAD IT ALL!

HAD IT ALL!

Had it all!

HMMMMMM Had it all!

She had it all..."

The band faded out as Sun held that pose with a winning smile. His abs on full display.

Blake covered her face with her hands again before erupting. "FINE! YES! I WILL GO TO THE DANCE WITH YOU!" Before Shadow Clone jumping free of the couch and rushing out of the common room.

"Shopping trip!" Yang declared before rushing after her partner grinning in total victory. She spun giving Sun the double finger guns. "I'll make sure she's ready! Just make sure to wear a tie or something!"

Sun double finger gunned her back as she left the room before turning to the band. "Thanks guys! Appreciate the help!"

"Ugh... no accounting for taste." Iella groused.

"Don't blame us if you wake up with fleas in the morning." Iessa said. "You can't trust those Menagerian Harlots."

Jaune held up a brofist that Sun returned. "Good luck at the dance Sun."

Weiss just sat there flabbergasted before turning to Ruby. "...WHAT. WAS. THAT?" she gestured wildly. "Blake was so adamant to skip out on the dance and then Sun just does... THAT and she changes her mind!"

Ruby put a hand of Weiss' shoulder. "That Weiss..." She said solemnly which freaked out Weiss even more. Ruby was NEVER this serious. "...that is the power of Rock. It compels all who hear it..."

The gears started to turn in Weiss' head...

 

[GraveyardShift]

And now for an all new, BRAND NEW, completely original entry into the Rocker!Jaune series!

Paralyzer

Ruby grinned, fangs on full display as the young Huntress turned Vampire for the night surveyed the party. As was tradition in the Rose-Long household, Ruby's birthday was celebrated early before the hours of trick-or-treating got started on Halloween proper.

Some of her friends growing up had asked her if she felt overshadowed sharing a birthday with a major holiday. Ruby never felt that way.

Double the sweets!

Double the cookies!

Double the festivities!

It was like the world celebrating her birthday! One big party and everyone was invited!

Yang, in her mummy costume (which Ruby was certain she was wearing ONLY the bandages and little else) had helped strongarm their more reluctant Beacon teammates into the party.

As for their sister team? They'd only had to mention the word 'party' in earshot of Nora and the Chaos Incarnate Orange shortstack had rough roughshod over her team dragging JNPR into the festivities. Especially since she got to become the Sloth Queen for the night. She'd tried to make it a whole team theme thing with Pyrrha as her Sloth Princess and Jaune and Ren as her Sloth Knights.

While Ren had simply accepted his fate, Jaune had vehemently refused stating he'd had other plans and showed up Jean Cinnamon of M.O.U.T.H. facepaint and all. Both Nora and Pyrrha had seemed slightly put out. Nora had had plans to get Sloth Knight Jaune 'betrothed' to Sloth Princess Pyrrha.

Blake and Weiss had been a little more resistant. Until Ruby revealed this was her birthday party. Weiss had immediately done a 180 and now Ruby and Yang had to hold her back though Ruby had quite liked the idea of an entire festival in Beacon's Courtyard. They'd managed to talk Weiss down into a smaller affair in order to get Blake on board and Weiss had thrown herself into it.

It had helped that Team SSSN had also showed up. Sun wanting to get in on the party and Neptune looking to try and pick up girls... of which sadly the ones invited knew of his proclivities so he spent the night sulking in the corner hoping the party after this would have better prospects.

Weiss maneuvered the room as the self-designated hostess. She'd gone all in on the whole 'Snow Spirit' deal and drifted through in a shimmering almost ghostly fashion. The uptight Heiress actually seemed relaxed and enjoying herself.

Blake who'd shown up as a Zombie was currently blind folded and stumbling slightly with Yang, Nora, and Sun shouting encouraging word as she tried to pin the furry brush on a cutout of a Beowulf.

All in all, Ruby's Sixteenth birthday was shaping up to be in the top five best ones yet!

Blake finally struck the Beowulf to the laughter of the Party Posse and pulled off the blindfold to reveal... she'd pinned it to the Beowulf's spine.

"Well that's an interesting mutation!" Yang quipped. Blake scoffed muttering about how if it had been 'slay the Grimm' rather than 'pinned the Grimm' she'd have gotten a perfect kill.

Nora had immediately agreed with Blake about the change in rules and tried to argue Yang to let her use her Hammer on the cutout for her turn.

Suddenly a metallic squawk drew everyone's attention.

Jaune had broken out his guitar. The Artic Twins, Iella and Iessa had somehow slipped into the room and had taken their places with Iessa on the bass and Iella at the drums.

"...How on Remnant did they slip THAT in here?!?!" Weiss screeched having ensure that no such setup had been in the room since she entered.

Iella wearing the classic 'Bedsheet Ghost' looked at her. Her grin hidden under the costume but making enough noise to be heard. "We're THAT good." She retorted.

Then Jaune started to play. A metallic strum before Iella went to work on the drums.

Spoiler: Paralyzer - Finger Eleven

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF18NehJxos

The three of them, Jaune, Iella, and Iessa started filling the room with the sound of Rock.

Cheers erupted from half the occupants and the room mostly congrigated around the improptu band.

Iessa paused as Jaune took over the vocals

"I hold on so nervously,
to me and my drink
I wish it was coolin' me."

Iessa came back in with the low base as Jaune continued.

"But so far has not been good,
it's been shitty
And I feel awkward as I should"

"Aw come on! It's not that bad!" Nora yelled back at Jaune who continued despite the heckling.

"This club has got to be
the most pretentious thing
Since I thought of you and me"

"Boooo!" Yang yelled. "Justice for the club scene!" Jaune continued.

"Well, I am imagining
a dark-lit place!"

The band picked up in crescendo.

"OR YOUR PLACE!
OR MY PLACE!"

Both Yang and Nora suddenly gasped covering their mouths. "Oh snap! Did Vomit Boy just go there? Is someone getting propositioned?"

Jaune walked forward and strode right up...

...to Ruby.

"WELL I'M NOT PARALYZED!
but AYE SEEM TO BE STRUCK! by yooooou..."

Everyone froze in that moment. Ruby went full on red and tried to hide in her hood of her cloak. Jaune continued undeterred dancing around her.

"I wanna make you move...
BECAUSE YOU'RE STANDING STILL!"

Nora broke the stillness first. "YOU HEARD HIM TINY RED! DANCE!"

"If your BODY matches what your eyes can doooooo...
You'll probably move right through.
me on my way to you!"

Jaune and Iessa paused letting Iella carry the song as Jaune returned to his place in the band.

"I hold out for one more drink...
before I think...
I'm lookin' too desperately"

"Booo! Yang your sister can't dance! This is her song and she's not dancing!" Nora challenged. Iessa cut back in to join her sister as Jaune continued to sing.

"But so far has not been fun...
I should just stay home...
If one thing really means one!"

"RUBY ROSE! You are NOT going to take that lying down! I REFUSE to acknowledge my sister can't have fun!"

"This club will hopefully... (will hopefully)
be closed in three weeks (three weeks)
That would be cool with me!"

"Not until Ruby dances it doesn't!" Yang growled. "Come on Ruby! This is your Party! You have to PAR-TAY!" Jaune cut back in to join the Artics in ramping up to the next chorus.

Well, I'm still imagining..
A dark-lit place!

"Come on Ruby!" Sun encouraged. "Jaune's dedicating this one to you!" Jaune came down to meet with Ruby again.

"OR YOUR PLACE!
OR MY PLACE!"

Ruby took a breath and started a tentative shuffle next to Jaune.

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Yang, Nora, and Sun cheered her on. The reaper giving a tentative smile as Jaune shuffled next to her matching the awkward vibe like master dance partner he was ensuring Ruby wasn't dancing awkwardly alone.

"WELL I'M NOT PARALYZED!
but AYE SEEM TO BE STRUCK! by yooooou..."

Ruby started grinning openly and started to step more confidently along with Jaune who gently lead her as they stomped around each other in a circle.

"I wanna make you move...
BECAUSE YOU'RE STANDING STILL!"

Sun snatched Blake's hand and dragged her out to the impromptu dance floor. "Come on Blake! You're standing still! Move with the groove!" "WOAH! SUN!"

"YEAH! COME ON RENNY!" Ren simply lifted a hand and let himself be flung along with Nora.

Yang shoved both Pyrrha and Weiss into the fray. "Come on you two! We're hot and we're dancing!"

"If your BODY matches what your eyes can doooooo...
You'll probably move right through.
me on my way to you!"

The band played out the instrumental as the dance party took full form with Scarlet and Sage being dragged in while Neptune remained on the edge trying salvage his 'Too cool for school' image against the wall.

"WELL I'M NOT PARALYZED!
but AYE SEEM TO BE STRUCK! by yooooou..."
I wanna make you move...
BECAUSE YOU'RE STANDING STILL!"
If your BODY matches what your eyes can doooooo...
You'll probably move right through.
me on my way to you!"

"GO RUBY! GO RUBY! GO! GO! GO RUBY!" the people around her chanted as the power of Rock compelled Ruby to dance her heart out openly among her friends laughing even as Jaune moved with her still playing the song.

"NOT PARALYZED!
but AYE SEEM TO BE STRUCK! by yooooou..."
I wanna make you move...
BECAUSE YOU'RE STANDING STILL!"
If your BODY matches what your eyes can doooooo...
You'll probably move right through.
me on my way to you!"

"You'll probably move right through.
me on my way to you!"
You'll probably move right through.
ME ON MY WAY TO YOU!"

As the song ended, everyone cheered wildly for the birthday girl.

Embolden Ruby bounced up on her toes and kissed Jaune on the cheek. "Thank you..." she sottoed.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" went the scandalized siren of the crowd. Ruby snapped back to reality and turned bright red. A burst of rose petals as she zipped to the nearest hiding place... under Yang's hair.

"AH! RUBY! NO! NOT THE HAIR!"

 

[Sift Green]

-Blake has an ear infection in her cat ears but she's too proud and afraid to admit it. Jaune though notices it and tries to convince her to let him treat her problem. Hilarity ensues.

Click to shrink...

It was a beautiful day, Sun thought. The breeze, the shade of the tree, the buzz of distant bugs and the twittering of the birds made this the most relaxing napping spot he had found at Beacon.

Or at least it would have been if Jaune wasn't standing there first, waiting for him.

"Uh, hey Jaune, what's up?" The monkey faunus tilted his head in confusion.

That confusion doubled when Jaune marched up to him, grabbed him by his left arm and started frog-marching him across campus. Sun allowed this to happen because he didn't actually need the nap and could always take one later.

It didn't take long before the two of them arrived at an empty classroom where the rest of Jaune's team was waiting, along with most of team RWBY; Blake was noticeably absent.

"I found our next delivery vector," Jaune announced to his fellow hunters in training.

"Delivery vector?" Sun asked.

"Blake has an ear infection," Ruby explained, "And she's refusing to take her antibiotic."

"So that's why she's been wearing a different bow this last week," Sun snapped his fingers with realization, "To put less pressure on her ears!" Then he frowned, "She's not taking her medicine?"

"She's insisted it will pass normally, but then it got a lot worse," Yang elaborated with a high degree of annoyance. "So we tricked her into taking her medicine yesterday and the day before by sticking the pills into tunafish sandwiches, but this morning the pill crunched in her teeth and she spat it out."

"Alright, so how am I the new delivery vector?"

"You remember that trick you showed us a couple weeks ago, with the cherry stems?" Jaune asked.

"Oooooh, okay," Sun picked up what the other blond guy was implying. "What's the plan if that doesn't work though?"

"Pyrrha and Nora pin her down while Yang pills her, the rest of us hemming her in so she can't get away." Ruby answered, "If she's going to act like a stubborn house cat she'll get her medicine like a stubborn house cat."

"Well, my semblance would be useful for both hemming and pinning, so I'll stick around and help if this doesn't work."

-----------------------

Blake sat on a bench in one of Beacon's many courtyards attempting to read. The throbbing pain in her upper-left eardrum was unfortunately distracting enough that her eyes kept finding themselves at the start of the same paragraph again and again. She hadn't turned a page in more than ten minutes.

But she could endure. This was just a little infection. She didn't need any antibiotics or any other medicines to deal with this. It'd go away on its' own in a few days. She just needed to grin and bear it, and hide her weakness from those who didn't know for just a little while longer...

"Well hello there pretty lady," Sun's voice broke her out of ineffectual reading. She looked up to see the monkey faunus boy hanging from the tree above the bench just a little to her right, his upside-down face level with her own.

"Hello Sun," Blake greeted him with a small smile. "What brings you- mmph!"

Sun's lips crashed into hers in a passionate kiss that completely blindsided her. Her shock at Sun's sudden boldness allowed him to deepen the kiss, and soon his tongue was probing at her lips. Blake found herself melting into his enthusiasm and allowed him entry, and soon her own tongue was wrestling with his.

After a few moments of this Blake suddenly felt a solid object at the back of her throat, which she swallowed reflexively. Sun withdrew with a satisfied smirk on his face.

"What was that?" Blake asked with a strangely flustered panic in her voice.

"People often offer to kiss something better, I decided to make that offer true," Sun's smirk grew smug and smoldering.

Blake's jaw worked up and down as inarticulate squawking spilled past her lips, a blush growing on her face in spite of her indignation...

 

[Sift Green]

As a strong contender in Mistral's tournament scene Arslan Altan was no stranger to corporate sponsorship deals. Sure she hadn't gathered the kind of attention an athlete of her caliber could normally expect, but with the Invincible Girl Pyrrha Nikos sucking up so much of the audience's attention it was understandable. Unavoidable even. The fact that Arslan always lost to Pyrrha and was sometimes referred to as The Eternal Runner Up by some of the more crass commentators also hadn't helped with the sponsorship and endorsement side of her fighting career, but she still had some. Mostly from companies that couldn't land a deal with Pyrrha, but there were still a handful of sponsors that they shared.

Those shared sponsors presented an opportunity, a solution to the problem Arslan had found herself in.

The trouble had stared a few days after she had arrived at Beacon Academy. During a formal meet and greet involving all team leaders Arslan had found herself drawn to Jaune Arc, a young man as hansom as he was humble. She had gone out of her way to speak with him during the meeting and found him easy to talk to and she enjoyed his company.

Her next meeting with him was coincidental; Arslan had found a flyer asking for volunteers to help out at a local orphanage for a job that would take up most of the weekend and decided she would help. When she arrived at the orphanage Jaune also showed up at the same time and the two of them spent the next two days working closely together.

That time together, though brief, was enough for Arslan to know that Jaune Arc was exactly the kind of man she always imagined marrying someday. And so she approached Jaune on Monday to try her hand at flirting with him to test the waters, something subtle and low stakes. Her initial pass at him ended up being too subtle and was easily misconstrued as simple friendliness by her intended target, but Pyrrha Nikos saw it for what it was.

At that moment Arslan discovered that the Invincible Girl was also interested in Jaune, and things changed between them.

Back when both of them had been in the tournament scene Arslan had done what she could to foster a proper rivalry between herself and The Champion. At the time Pyrrha had been distant yet polite about it, polite enough that Arslan thought they had been on the cusp of becoming true rivals and friends in spite of how non seriously the Invincible Girl seemed to regard her at times.

Pyrrha was treating her seriously now. She had directly challenged Arslan to a fight at every socially acceptable opportunity, doing all she could to flex her martial superiority over Arslan in front of Jaune. Those fights had been exhilarating, pushing Arslan to her limits every time as she actually made Pyrrha sweat for her victories. On the combat side of things it was everything Arslan had ever wanted in a rivalry...

...But everything else about the rivalry was unhealthy and the exact opposite of what Arslan had hoped for. True rivals weren't supposed to hate each other, and it didn't take a genius to realize Pyrrha was starting to hate her over her interest in Jaune.

The Golden Lion of Haven Academy now stood at a crossroads. She could either back off from Jaune, abandon the pursuit of romance with the boy who was shaping up to be her ideal man in an effort to cool things down and preserve the possibility of the friendship with Pyrrha, or she could go all in on Jaune and abandon all hope of being one of Pyrrha's closest friends.

Neither outcome was ideal. She had been pursuing a friendship with Pyrrha since the very first time the two of them had clashed in the arena, to give that up was something she could not do. Jaune had been so kind and sweet to them during all of their posturing around him in spite of his apparent obliviousness to the fact that they were squabbling over him. He was so earnest and perfect that Arslan could no longer imagine being in love with another man.

Caught in what looked like a no win scenario Arslan had prayed and mediated long and hard in pursuit of a third option, and one of their joint sponsors had just given her a wonderful opportunity to make one.

"Good morning Pyrrha," Arslan called out when she saw the redhead in a mostly empty hallway.

"Arslan," Pyrrha acknowledged her greeting in a polite yet cold tone, barely hiding a frustrated sneer. "What do you want?"

"I'm sure you're aware that Magnolia Makeup is coming out with a new product line soon." Arslan pressed on undeterred by The Champion's poorly concealed hostility.

"I am," Pyrrha tersely replied.

"My sponsorship contracts stipulate that I won't endorse anything that doesn't work as advertised," Arslan explained. "As such I've been sent several samples from the first production run so I can personally test them before any photoshoots or filming can be scheduled."

"I see," Pyrrha frowned. "Why are you telling me this?"

Arslan looked around the hall as if she was making sure nobody was listening in, and then gestured for Pyrrha to lean in so she could whisper into the redhead's ear. Pyrrha rolled her eyes and complied, figuring Arslan had some kind of propriety information concerning the new products that could only be shared with her as she'd likely hear about it when Magnolia Makeup's add team inevitably contacted her mother.

The Golden Lion of Haven Academy whispered into the Invincible Girl's ear, and Pyrrha's annoyed expression froze. That wasn't proprietary information. That wasn't proprietary information at all. Her frozen expression slowly morphed into surprise as Arslan's whispering continued, and by the end of Arslan's whispered sales pitch Pyrrha's face was covered by a luminous blush.

Arslan pulled back and saw the impact her words had on her chosen rival, a triumphant smile gracing her lips as she could see the idea working its way through Pyrrha's mind.

"I take it you're interested in my proposal?"

Pyrrha took in a deep breath as her eyes refocused. "I... uh... I... yes." She managed after a moment. "Do you already have all of them?"

"I have all of them, and I have a room prepared," Arslan confirmed. "Should we go get Jaune?"

"Yes... Yes, let's go get Jaune," Pyrrha fully regained her composure as her eyes became steely with determination.

---

Jaune stared at the changing room mirror taking in the absolutely bewildered expression on his reflection's face. The reason for that bewilderment was readily obvious to any observer: the young man was on a couch firmly wedged between his partner Pyrrha on his right and fellow team leader Arslan on his left. The right side of his face and neck were covered in lipstick marks in various crimson shades, the left side of his face and neck covered by golden lipstick marks.

As Arslan wiped her lips with a wet washcloth Pyrrha gently grabbed Jaune's head and turned him to face herself, planting a kiss on a yet unmarked portion of his forehead. As she pulled away a new lipstick mark was clearly visible from where her lips had touched his skin.

"Oh dear," Pyrrha fretted as she prepared to wipe her lips with her own washcloth, "Fifty-five different tubes of lipstick and not a single one has been smear proof."

"It can't be helped," Arslan sighed as she finished applying a fresh coat of golden gloss to her lips, "We'll just have to keep testing them until we find some that actually work."

With that Arslan pulled Jaune's face towards her own and planted a kiss on his temple. As she pulled away she quickly took stock of the remaining lipstick; twelve more before they reached the ones that were actually supposed to be smear proof. And those actually smear proof lipsticks would also have to be tested vigorously, just to be sure.

Arslan rarely endorsed the entirety of a product line, but with how swimmingly this was working out the entirety of Magnolia's lipstick collection might just get her seal of approval.

 

[Sift Green]

And of course this one was originally posted on Jaune's birthday:

Happy birthday to Jaune Arc-The closest thing to a fully realized character this show has.

Click to shrink...

"Thanks for helping us set this up guys," Nora said as she looked around the room taking in all of the decorations Team SSSN had set up.

"Don't mention it," Sun replied as he got down off of a ladder, having just finished putting up a banner that read Happy Birthday in a loud font. "Jaune's a stand up guy and we're happy to help!"

"How much longer until Jaune's back?" Ruby asked as she made some final adjustments to the pile of presents.

"Renny sent a text a little bit ago saying they just boarded the Bullhead back to Beacon, so we have like fifteen minutes, twenty tops," Nora answered. She looked to the door impatiently, "Which means we're cutting it close on the cake..."

The double doors swung open letting Coco and Velvet come into the room. The two of them then held the doors open for the boys on their team and all the boys of Team CRDL to come in holding a cake so massive it required all six of them to cary it safely.

"Why is that cake so huge?" Weiss asked in confusion. "That's way too much for all of us to eat!"

"That's because this cake has a hidden chamber for a lady to hide in and pop out of once we finish singing Happy Birthday," Nora explained as she pulled a skimpy costume out of a bag and handed it to Pyrrha.

"Oh. Oh my," Pyrrha's cheeks became as crimson as her hair as she took it all in.

Yang looked the costume up and down with a calculating glint in her eye while taking Pyrrha's stunned state as hesitation. Sensing an opportunity of sorts she sauntered forward.

"Well I believe the tradition actually involves a blonde bombshell popping out of the cake, so why don't you just hand that over Cereal Girl and I'll-" Yang's pitch came to a halt as Nora clamped a hand on the brawler's shoulder.

"Pyrrha's my present to Jaune-Jaune this year," Nora's tone brokered no argument. "If you want to be my present to him you need to get in line."

"There's a line?" Yang asked incredulously.

"Yep," Nora confirmed. "May's going to be next year's present, and Ruby's already volunteered for the year after that."

"WHAT!" Yang spun about to look at her sister.

"I'm letting May go before me because it will take two more years for me to be legal in all jurisdictions," Ruby explained.

"THAT WASN'T MY QUESTION!"

Meanwhile Pyrrha had started giggling like a loon while Coco and Velvet helped her get into the cake and change into her costume.

 

[emileano154]

well since people are starting to bring their favorite posts from the other side here is mine

He has come to see us


Team JNPR and RWBY have come back to Beacon after a week on the frontier patroling grim. Team RWBY enters their dorm room only to discover it completely destoried.

Yang "who trashed our dorm?!"
Blake "It must have been the demon you and Ruby insist on keeping in the room he must have done it"
Wiess " this is too much damage for one dog"
Ruby "And Zewi is with our dad right now"

Team JNPR opens their door to find two drunk men half naked just getting up cause everyone on the floor heard the screams from RWBY. A tall one in gray is barly standing "my head what's with the all the noise" before falling to the ground. one in his underclothes sits up and rubs his head "where the fuck am I?"
Jaune "I know that voice uncle henry?" Jaune looked down at the hungover swordman. Henry "Jaune I come to visit you but please excuse me" Henry pull out a bottle with a dog painted on the side and drank it then drank one with the picture of marigold flower and handed two bottles to Qrow for him to drink and both men were now more awake and steady.

Henry "apologies everyone I came here to visit Jaune but ran into an old friend" Yang butted in "and you know drunkle Qrow how?" FLASH BACK Qrow and Henry are in a bar drinking FIVE MINUTES LATER they are in an alleyway puking TEN MINUTES LATER Henry has Qrow in a head lock punching him in the face and both men were screaming SEVEN MINUTES LATER police show up and try to arrest both men Henry breaks free and starts running "NEVER YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE" he tries to cross the street as everyone is shouting for him to stop and then a speeding truck hits him dead on and sends him flying.

Henry is covered by a white sheet and the police made Qrow sit next to the body much to his displeaser as the cops were writing thier reports and talking to the truck driver. one cop is radioing in "dispatch we have two drunk civis one of which is DOA". another cop is calming down the truck driver "he just came out of nowhere I hit the breaks but this thing does not stop on a lien card" cop 2 "sir its okay you are not going to get charged for anything" while the cops were busy waving away people and filling out reports the white sheet that covered Henry shuffled and a pair of hands was lockpicking Qrows cuffs.

Dead Henry? "Qrow focus you bad luck semblence and we will both run when they are distracted" Qrow did as ordered and a cop car had its siren blare louder and louder before bursting into flames and when everyone was scared by the sudden fire both men disapeared. A few minutes after that a report was made about a bulhead hijack heading towards Beacon. Qrow "how did you survive that impact?!" Henry laughing "Ive been beaten up by 10 men coming at me at the same time and fallen for a mile high cliff and i lost count the number of times I've been shot stabed and ambushed and I do not know HOW TO FLY THIS THING!!!" Qrow rushes to the controls but to late the bull head crashes into the head master office.

Henry "Me and Qrow have been on huntsmen jobs countless times before and have saved each other multple times so much that we are practically brothers now" Qrow looking around for his pants "yeah Henry is a one man army and his decoctions and potions have always helped in the middle of a fight" Yang narrows her eyes "so uncle Qrow what is his full name?" Qrow freezes and starts to sweat before Jaune takes over " Henry Skalitz Argentum Arc my father basically adopted him into the family after his hometown was pillaged and burned by bandits he basically went on revenge rampage on every known bandit clan before being thrown from a cliff surviving by landing ontop of the bandit he dragged down cause the leader did not care her own men and my father and mother found him and mom patched him up and taught him how to fight and patch himself up his potions are all his own invention". Qrow is now sweating more intensly before Henry angerly goes "That so called bandit queen who not only lead the assult on my home village, killed my parent and tried to kill me multiple times was Raven Brandwen" before he slowly remembered why he tried to kill Qrow last night.

Qrow with his hands in front of him "I hate that bitch of sister but I do not know where she is" Henry is just still as tension climbs "Everyone I must apologize but please excuse my exessive use of force KURVA REVENGE RAMPAGE!!!" as Henry launches himself in a flying tackle which propels the both of them back into RWBY's room . Qrow tried to dodge but his bad luck causes him to lock up and they land on remains of Weiss's bed before the ropes holding Ruby's bed snap and the bed falls on the both them. after a second the bed is suddenly thrown into the ceiling and both men are in rolling fist fight before another hit of Qrow's bad luck throws both men out the window. Ruby sheepishly "uh we are like on the 20th floor are they are going to be okay right?" both RWBY and JNPR hear Henry go "you shall die with me" before hearing a splash and Miss Goodwitch about to rip a man's skull out of their head so she could beat them to death with it.

Yang Ruby and Jaune "NOT AGAIN"

 

[Sift Green]

Continuing copying from SB:

So during October of last year I made the following post:

Alright so something I've been thinking about over the last several months: The logistics of Salem's Castle Evernight.

So Evernight is a castle located deep within the Lands of Darkness, which is presumably somewhere in the dark dragon shaped continent that no kingdom claims. Yet in spite of this incredibly remote location Evernight is not just a well maintained structure fit for human habitation, it possesses facilities and amenities that seem to be quite modern.

This raises the question of how things are being maintained, and how the facilities are being furnished. It's obvious the Grimm aren't doing it; most of those creatures lack the anatomy and the brainpower necessary to maintain a building. And while I suppose it'd be possible for Salem to use magic to keep everything running I'm not sure she'd want to waste her powers on such menial tasks.

So that leaves us with human or Faunus servants doing the scuttle work, but those servants increase the supplies necessary to keep the castle properly furnished.

In other words Evernight needs a lot of supplies to remain a livable place for Salem's inner circle and any other mortal servants she may have. So where do they get those supplies? They can't get them from the major or lesser kingdoms because Oz would be able to discover such a supply line and cut it off, starving out Salem's mortal servants and leaving her with only Grimm to work with.

Quite the conundrum, is it not? So how do we solve the logistical issue?

I'd say the solution is to go bigger:

I say Evernight shouldn't just be a castle; Evernight should be a proper city that's self sufficient in terms of industry and population growth. A dark reflection of the capitals of the Four Kingdoms.

I mean Salem worshiping cults have been a thing for most of Remnant's history. It wouldn't be difficult for her to grab a starter population or two of those most devoted to her to bring back to the Lands of Darkness and establish a city around her home. Have her give those followers a few artifacts connected to her power to keep the Grimm non-hostile as they work and then Salem would have a city to provide her home with all the supplies and servants it needs to be maintained.

Do this far enough back in the timeline and the City of Evernight could rival any other major city on Remnant, making Salem the Queen-Goddess of a secret Dark Kingdom that she could potentially levy for a conventional war against the Four Kingdoms.

What do you guys think?

Click to shrink...

And now I'm going to try expanding upon it a bit.

Through A Mirror Darkly: Exploring The Cities And Peoples Of The Dark Kingdom

By Lore-keeper Manuel Goldstein

Introduction:
​

It is common knowledge among the citizens of the Four Kingdoms and most of the more developed Aspirant Kingdoms that the interiors of The Dark Continent are incredibly hostile to both human and faunuskind. A mysterious miasma permeates the air of that place that gets thicker and more oppressive the farther one goes from the coast. This miasma somehow dims the light of the sun and only the sun through a process modern science does not yet understand, making the brighter of the two great celestial bodies appear dimmer than the full moon even at high noon.

Consequently the stars don't disappear with the rising of the sun and the sky remains midnight blue twenty-four hours a day. As a result of this endless night the temperatures of the continent's interior rarely rise above those of the late autumn or early spring you can find in other lands with similar latitudes, with most of the continent's warmth carried in from the sea by powerful winds.

The greatly reduced sunlight and lower temperatures combined with the powerful winds caused by the temperature imbalance means that only the hardiest of flora and fauna can survive. The few plants native to the region have leaves and bark so dark they are practically black in order to absorb as much of the little existing light as possible, making them almost indistinguishable from plantlike Grimm. The native animals are some of the hardiest and ornery to inhabit this world, well adapted to the harsh conditions the endless night brings.

On top of all of this is The Grimm.

In the absence of normal flora and fauna the Grimm take their place. Plantlike and fungal-form Grimm cover the earth while the more animalistic Grimm move through these false biomes in a parody of the ecosystems found elsewhere on Remnant. One could move through an entire forrest or jungle and never see a single real animal, plant or fungus as the presence of Grimm-life has squeezed them all out.

In light of all these hardships and the overabundance of hostile Grimm it should come as no surprise that efforts by the Old Kingdoms that preceded our current world order to colonize the Dark Continent all failed. Even on the coasts where more normal sunlight levels exist and non-Grimm life is at it's most abundant the Grimm of the continent remain too numerous to make longterm inhabitation more than a pipe dream. Even with modern technology setting up any outpost not intended to be evacuated and abandoned at a moments notice is a fools errand, and has only been done thrice in recent history as logistical support for search and rescue operations following the crashes of the White-Star Luxury Airliners Titania, Olympia, and Gigantic.

The films immortalizing how each of these pleasure cruisers were blown off course, crashed upon a mountain of the Dark Continent and the heroic efforts taken to find and rescue the survivors have cemented the image of an inhospitable wasteland where no human or faunus could survive into the popular zeitgeist of this age.

However, this understanding of the Dark Continent is a relatively recent development. One only has to go back a hundred years to find that most people believed some lost kingdom existed within the nocturnal interior. This belief was rooted in old folklore and traditions dating back to the dawn of recorded history.

Stories from the Age of Myths, the Age of Legends, and the Age of Sagas tell tales of fanatical armies of both humans and faunus sallying forth from the fabled Temple City of Evernight intent on burning down all other civilizations in the name of the Grimm Queen they worshiped. More than half of the evil witches and warlocks found in old fairytales were said to have learned the dark arts at the feet of Evernight's ruler, and more than one wicked princeling or dark lord is said to have escaped justice with their entourage by fleeing to that evil place.

Even today when one goes to the less developed parts of the world rumors of the Dark Continent's inhabitants coming and going where the Huntsmen and Huntresses that uphold the world order won't learn of their movements persist.

These rumors are true.

This is not an idle claim. My grandmother hailed from those lands, having originally come to the Kingdom of Vale to spy upon its people for the leaders of the Dark Kingdom. She faked her death and hid from her former masters in the countryside of Nova Quitalia where she met my grandfather and had my parents. Grandmother first told me of her homeland on an evening where she was deeper into her cups than normal, and then confirmed what she had said once she was sober the following morning.

When my curiosity could not be satisfied by her stories I resolved to go and see the interior of the Dark Continent myself. When she realized she could not dissuade me from this she told me everything I would need to know in order to travel there, navigate the cultures that lived there, and hopefully return.

I went.

I saw.

I took pictures.

Those pictures are included in the appendix of this book.

I spent two decades traveling those lands. I saw the major cities of the Dark Kingdom, from the imposing capital of Evernight to the Lost Migrating City of Ponya-Nigalya. I walked their streets, talked to their people, learned how they lived and what they thought of the world. I met a set of sisters who were curious about the sunny lands beyond their own shores, and when I escaped for home I brought them with me. They have helped me edit this book.

I publish this under a false name to make it harder for agents of the Dark Kingdom to track us down and silence us. I risk publishing this because the knowledge contained in this book is something the people of the Four Kingdoms and all of the Aspirant Kingdoms need to know.

For while our memories of them have faded into obscurity and myths that are dismissed as tall tales they have not lost sight of us, and they look upon us with envious eyes...








So how's that for an introduction?

I have some thoughts about how people can live in the Grimmlands, a few ideas for a couple of important cities and a few other things.

I don't know how quickly I'll get around to it, but if you guys want to see more I'll try and make it a priority.

 

[Sift Green]

Through A Mirror Darkly: Exploring The Cities And Peoples Of The Dark Kingdom

By Lore-keeper Manuel Goldstein

The Village of Schull:
​

After many long weeks of serious contemplation my editors and I have decided that the details of where I entered the Dark Kingdom, and more importantly where we left it, should not be shared with this volume as doing so might jeopardize those seeking to enter or leave the country without the ruling regime's knowledge.

And so all I will say on the matter of my arrival is that I met the sisters who became my editors for this work (hereafter referred to as the Sunrise Sisters) within my first week in their hometown. The youngest of them immediately realized my foreign origin and stepped in to cover a serious faux pas of mine. She and her sisters then took me in and became my cultural guides, allowing me to move through the Dark Kingdom without drawing undue attention to myself. The eldest of the sisters also had work that enabled her to move about the country as she willed, and to my good fortune the Sunrise Sisters allowed me to accompany them as they went form place to place. In many ways I would not have been able to travel freely let alone survive without their help, and a return journey home would have become an impossibility.

Now if we aren't going to begin with the first settlement I arrived at then I must also scramble the order of the various stops on our journey to further obscure the point of my arrival and the place of our egress. This naturally raises the question of where to begin this travelog. Do we start with Ponya-Nigalya where we spent the most of our time? Do we start with the capital of Evernight? The Dust mines of Naranjal? The trade hub of Victual?

In the end we decided to begin with the village of Schull, a midsized settlement built around the midway point of the overland rout between Evernight and Naranjal. We chose to discuss Schull first as it is fairly representative of the average smaller-than-a-city community one can find within the borders of the Dark Kingdom, allowing us to present a slice of the countryside while also explaining how people can survive so deep into the Grimmlands.

Schull was originally built upon a large and rounded hill that resembled a human skullcap from a distance, hence the name. The hill offers an excellent view of The Queen's Road which runs along the city's southern edge. The village is walled, but these walls aren't the impenetrable fortress quality one would expect from being constantly surrounded by the creatures of Grimm. The reason for this is simple: the walls are primarily there for the small handful of Grimm that aren't cowed by the village's Bloodspire Obelisk.

A Bloodspire Obelisk is a structure carved from normally bone-white stone, but while it is fully functional it is a deep crimson color. While it functions any Grimm that enter its' area of influence becomes cautious and adverse to confrontation with humans or faunus. In short they become less mindless engines of destruction and more like natural animals in temperament, capable of being managed in the same ways creatures like large bears or bison can be managed. Still a danger if you don't know what you're doing, but not an existential threat so long as you practice some common sense.

To those of you hoping I discovered some miracle solution the Four Kingdoms and the Aspirant Kingdoms can copy I must disappoint you. The Bloodspire Obelisks operate on principles that if they aren't dark magic might as well be. The name Bloodspire is not poetic; the device is powered by blood. Human and Faunus blood specifically. On the holy day of each week (Wednesday on our calendars) the priest and/or priestess of the community will feed the obelisk more blood. How this blood is collected differs from one community to another, some methods humane and others less so, but in all cases blood must flow.

If a Bloodspire Obelisk isn't fed sufficient blood its' crimson color will fade until it is white, at which point it stops working. The amount of blood needed to keep one working differs from one obelisk to the next, hinging on factors like the size of the area the effect covers and the size of the obelisk itself. If material factors like that were the only factors affecting the functionality of a Bloodspire Obelisk I'm sure some of you would still think it was worth it. Unfortunately a more esoteric factor is involved; loyalty to the regime in Evernight.

The rulers of Evernight have some way and means of adjusting any given Bloodspire Obelisk's required blood intake without even leaving the capital. If any given community is considered insufficiently subservient for one reason or another they can increase the amount of blood needed to keep the community's Bloodspire running, often to a point that community cannot sustain.

This has made rebellions against Evernight rare, as most communities cannot afford the highest blood price an Obelisk can require...

...though a handful can. They will be discussed later.

Schull's current Bloodspire Obelisk is located in the center of its' town square standing over five stories tall and affecting all the grim within a ten mile radius. This is a spherical radius, not circular, making the village safe from both flying and burrowing Grimm. The older and less impressive Obelisks that the current Bloodspire replaced have been moved to the edges of that ten mile radius, greatly expanding the space available to the villagers of Schull.

The Grimm that remain a problem even when the Bloodspires are operating at peak power are handled by individuals known as Grimm-binders. The art of Grimm-binding involves the use of two half-sphere gemstones of a peculiar construction; both half-spheres were originally part of the same crystalline ball with esoteric patterns carved into it, only cut into two exactly six hours before they are meant to be used. Then an aspirant Grimm-binder has one half of the gemstone permanently grafted to their skin while the other half is grafted to a captured Creature of Grimm.

If the ritual is a success then the gemstones will link the mind of the aspirant and the mind of the Grimm, causing the Grimm to consider the Grimm-binder to be an extension of themselves and allowing the Grimm-binder to direct the Grimm's actions. Interestingly this also causes other Grimm to consider the Grimm-binder and extension of the Grimm they are connected to, allowing them to move amongst the Grimm unmolested.

Successful Grimm-binders will patrol the area around their community with their bound Grimm, marking the territory and deterring unbound Grimm from approaching. If an unbound Grimm is still brazen enough to attack anyway the Grimm-binders will use their own Grimm to fight it off or capture it for use in a Grimm-binding ritual.

Not everyone can become a Grimm-binder, and most of those that can are only able to bind to one or two Grimm. Particularly exceptional individuals can be bound to as many as six different Grimm at a time, but binding any more Grimm beyond that to oneself is considered incredibly foolish thanks to the drawbacks of the binding.

It should come as no surprise that directly linking a mind as alien as a Grimm's to one's own mind would carry consequences. If the binding ritual fails the aspirant binder is driven irrevocably insane. Even if the ritual is completely successful the longer one is bound to a Grimm the more Grimmlike one's own thoughts become. Eventually you become hostile to everyone that isn't a direct blood relative of yours, meaning your family will have to constantly play babysitter for you in public once a certain threshold has been crossed. The more Grimm a Binder is bound to the faster this process becomes, with those only bound to one or two Grimm keeping their minds until their late fifties or early sixties while those bound to five or six Grimm becoming unruly by their late twenties or early thirties.

There are six families in Schull that provided the village with Grimm-binders. In addition to patrolling the area around town Schull's Grimm-binders provide additional services to the townsfolk like escort to neighboring settlements or using some of their larger Grimm to perform certain acts of physical labor that Grimm could be useful for, such as using a team of Megoliaths to pull a vehicle out of the mud. Not every community's Grimm-binders are so helpful in day to day life, with many towns having Grimm-binders that only bothering themselves with the community's defenses and ignoring the concerns of commoners that can't produce Grimm-binders of their own.

Schull's economy is what you'd expect of a small town built along an important highway: the biggest industry is the service industry, providing a place for travelers to rest and enjoy themselves before beginning the next leg of their journey. As such Schull has an overabundance of hotels and entertainment establishments connected to those hotels.

Beyond that you'll find the farming any community of this size needs to feed itself. These farms are the typical farms common throughout the Grimmlands, which makes them atypical from the farms most of you would be familiar with.

You see in most places farming is ultimately about turning energy from the sun into food. Plants directly feed on sunlight and livestock feeds on plants while fungus feeds on the waste of animals and plants, so no matter what kind of produce the farmer deals in they are taking energy from the sun. This is incredibly difficult in the Grimmlands thanks to the strange miasma that dims the light of the sun to a level only comparable to the full moon, and as a result the staple crops of the Dark Continent don't rely on sunlight.

They rely on Dust, and not the typical Plant Dust some famers will use as a fertilizer.

While most methods of extracting energy from Dust result in its consumption a few varieties can be activated without that consumption taking place. The most obvious example you'd be familiar with being Gravity Dust, which can levitate rock formations of incredible size near indefinitely without loosing any real potency. The Dark Kingdom has invented a variety of Dust that can be used passively like Gravity Dust can to provide energy to the flora they farm.

They call this variety Fecundate Dust, and when properly tended to it diffuses an energy into the soil that plants can absorb in the absence of sunlight. In order to release this energy without consuming the Dust crystals a farmer must bury it in their fields where it will not be disturbed by the roots of their crops, yet also high enough to not be submerged by the water table.

As a result of this farmers of the Grimmlands will carve out chambers beneath their fields to place their Dust Crystals in, bricking these chambers up with specialized clay and sealing them with wax that will allow the Dust's energy to still permeate the soil without being disturbed by root or water. More developed farms have a complex network of tunnels running beneath them that allow the farmers to check on each chamber's integrity.

The creation of these tunnel networks often leads to the farmer branching out into subterranean farming, growing edible fungi beneath the ground.

The foods cultivated around Schull are the most common staple crops found in the Dark Continent. First is the Tooth Corn, a variety of maize whose kernels are bone white. Second is the Vukanović Gourd, a crimson colored squash that resembles a pumpkin. Thirdly you have Kidney Potatoes, a variety of potato that like its' name suggests looks like a kidney.

Moving away from plants the fungal cultures Schull's farmers favor is the Star-Capp, a black colored mushroom with many white spots that make it resemble the starry sky.

When it comes to livestock Schull's farmers once again raise the most commonly consumed creatures in the country. The Phaea Hog is a grey breed of pig somehow capable of consuming Grimm-matter, and even eats that substance before it will eat normal food. It's used to help keep fields clear of plantlike and fungal-form Grimm and can grow to big enough to weigh three hundred pounds.

The Weeping Cavy, named after the tearlike patterns around its' eyes, is a plump and quick breeding rodent that acts as a daily source of protein in most households thanks to how easy they are to breed and keep.

The Sar-lyk is a yak-like bovine that serves as the primary source of dairy in the Grimmlands, while its thick fur is the primary source of wool. Three specialized breeds currently exist, one optimized to have the most meat, another to produce the most milk, and the last to grow the most wool.

Two competing breeds of duck, The Bone-Mask and the Blood-Wing, are where the people of the Grimmlands get the bulk of their eggs and poultry.

Other livestock and domesticated plants exist, but they aren't really raised in Schull so they won't be discussed here.

The last thing of note about Schull is its' arena. Originally built as a place for the local Grimm-binders to advertise their protection services to travelers by showing off while honing their skills against one another it eventually expanded to being a place where everyone can practice combat. This expansion saw the area develop into a school that offered classes in foundational and advance fighting techniques of all stripes, making Schull's Arena somewhat comparable to the combat schools that prepare the aspirant huntsmen and huntresses of our Four Kingdoms for the Huntsmen Academies.

With that we have a general image for what the average Grimmlander settlement looks like, and it is time to move on to the real major players within the Dark Kingdom...












Some notes:

So Schull is like a dark mirror reflection of Patch, i.e. it's a smaller settlement that represents what normal life outside of the big cities is like for the Grimmlanders. It'd make a good point of origin for a "Hero" of Salem with humble beginnings, like a nega-Ruby/nega-Yang type character.

I called the blood red pumpkins Vukanović Gourds because a guy named Tatomir Vukanović is the first person we know of to have ever written about vampire pumpkins/melons. Seemed fitting for a creepy edible plant you could find in the Grimmlands.

 

[Sift Green]

Through A Mirror Darkly: Exploring The Cities And Peoples Of The Dark Kingdom

By Lore-keeper Manuel Goldstein

The Capital of Evernight:
​

When the Sunrise Sisters first described Evernight to me they waxed poetically about the city they hoped to visit someday. They shared with me stories from their childhoods, of how the first structure of the city was created when the Queen-Goddess Salem pulled many massive pillars of stone as tall as mountains out of the earth before hollowing them out and making her home inside of them. The Queen-Goddess named this imposing fortress of stone Evernight, and brought her most faithful servants to live within its walls and made it her home.

Having seen Evernight Castle with my own eyes I can say it is as impressive as their stories had made it sound. The citadel is indeed a rock formation that in many ways resembles a castle, towering over everything that can be seen on the horizon with a hight comparable to some of the largest skyscrapers ever constructed. The City's officials list the hight of the castle in The Goddess' Cubits*, which are roughly one and a half Valean Feet or Forty-Five International Centimeters. So if I've done my conversions right the 1,616 Cubit structure is roughly 2,424 Feet or 739 Meters tall.

Needless to say nothing else in the city comes close to the Castle's magnitude.

The amount of hollowing out this colossal rock formation has gone through is also mind-blowing. There are one-hundred and sixty-six floors above ground in the central pillar alone, with another sixteen carved out below ground level that regular citizens can access while rumors persist of even more floors going deeper into the ground.

In the ancient past all of this space made Evernight Castle a self contained city, but as the march of history moved forward even that much space inevitably became limited. This ultimately forced the growing population to build outside of the citadel's walls, and as the population continued to grow and grow the more important and influential families started to monopolize the living space Evernight had to offer.

And yet no matter how powerful and influential a family could be none could remain influential enough to keep their rooms in Evernight forever. One by one the great families were forced by circumstances to move out of Evernight Castle itself, often building stately manors in the surrounding plains.

Thus the city grew into a mega-metropolis equal to any of the capitals of the Four Kingdoms.

As history approached the modern era the few families that still lived within Evernight found themselves getting squeezed out by the encroachment of a force even their wealth and power could not hold back: bureaucracy. Be it the priesthoods serving the needs of the Queen-Goddess or the various ministries of the government the different bureaucracies that ran the kingdom sought to repurpose Evernight Castle into the administrative heart of the Dark Kingdom.

Today the floors accessible to the general public are the wings that have been converted into temples dedicated to different aspects of the Queen-Goddess, which hundreds of thousands of the faithful make pilgrimage to every year. Then there are the halls and offices where citizens can interact with their government. If you aren't part of the government or the sacerdotal class your odds of seeing anything beyond that is unlikely.

Yet in spite of this there are still a few residential floors. The top twenty floors are the personal residence of the Queen-Goddess Salem (said to be the same Salem that lived in ancient days, a claim I cannot dispute in spite of how outlandish it may sound and so will treat as fact for the purposes of this travelog) and her inner circle. The two floors beneath that belong to The First Minister's family.

The First Minister runs the nation in the Queen-Goddess' name, making Evernight's political structure superficially resemble that of the shogunates that have occasionally ruled the Fuujin region of Anima. The chief difference between the First Minister and a Shogun is that a Shogun's subservience to their sovereign is often polite fiction to hide the fact that the opposite is true, whereas the First Minister's subservience to the Queen-Goddess is an indisputable fact. Throughout Evernight's history Salem has often contradicted or countermanded the orders and edicts of that era's First Minister, and even the most powerful individuals that have held the office of First Minister have backed down once Queen Salem has spoken.

There have also been eras where Salem is a far more active participant in the governance of the nation than you would see in a true shogunate, with these eras seeing the role of First Minister reduced to handling the day to day minutia of the bureaucratic process and little more than that. Yet other eras exist where Salem and the First Minister act as if they are a duumvirate with power shared equally between them. However most eras have seen Salem only performing her ceremonial roles in the state recognized religions, giving the government its' superficial resemblance to a shogunate.

The office of First Minister also appears to be hereditary at first glance, giving the position another superficial resemblance to that of Shogun. However this is more of an artifact of how close the First Minister's family lives to the Queen-Goddess, giving Salem a chance to have a hand in raising the First Minister's children and shaping the next generation into her ideal civic servants. As a result the position of First Minister has only switched bloodlines a handful of times, twice through Salem's displeasure and thrice from the bloodline abruptly and unexpectedly ending.

The current First Minister, Mirafra Vortices, almost had her bloodline abruptly and unexpectedly end. Many of her children, nieces and nephews found themselves the victims of a plot to assassinate the First Minister carried out by those opposed to her modernization programs. Her son and presumed successor Rufous Vortices was among those killed in the attempt on Mirafra's life, with her granddaughter Lullula being her sole surviving progeny.

This tragedy lead to the event known as The Queen's Six-Month Walk, where Salem left her private sanctuary and personally visited everyone who would benefit from the modernization programs stopping. A few old families disappeared from the census. First Minister Mirafra resumed her modernization program with new zeal and vigor, while Lullula was taken fully under Salem's wing to be protected and cultivated into the next First Minister.

The purpose of the modernization program is to bring the Dark Kingdom into technological parity with the Four Kingdoms, as Evernight's isolation meant they were late to the industrial and computer revolutions. When it became clear that the technological pioneers in the outside world weren't slowing down and in many ways seemed to be speeding up Minister Mirafra began to fear that the tech gap would widen to unacceptable levels unless drastic action was taken. This lead the First Minister to draw up her modernization program, which required a massive restructuring of the nation's bureaucracies, the purchasing and reselling of massive tracts of land, and a complete overhaul of the tax code. Many people were upset as a result of this which lead to the assassination attempt that prompted The Queen's Six-Month Walk.

After the Six-Month Walk all opposition was too terrified to object further, and Mirafra's reforms went through at a rapid pace. When I first arrived in the Dark Kingdom these reforms were in full swing. I saw the new factories spring up all across the land, manufacturing new products only a few years behind the cutting edge of Vale and Atlas. Computers and scrolls went from rare commodities only owned by the uppermost classes to common place goods owned by the average joe on the street. Motorized vehicles went from being outnumbered six to one by beast drawn carriages to outnumbering carriages ten to one.

More concerning was the number of weapon factories that have been built, alongside the First Minister's rhetoric glorifying the ancient military expeditions from the ages of Myths, Legends and Sagas where the people of Evernight launched various jihads against those that didn't bow down to the Grimm Queen. It doesn't take much reading between the lines to guess that Mirafra Vortices main motivation for her modernization program was to gain the capacity to wage a modern war with the Four Kingdoms and those Aspirant Kingdoms that could one day be acknowledged as the Fifth.

Irregardless of her unsettling motivations First Minister Mirafra has managed to drag the nation kicking and screaming into the modern era, and the fingerprints of her reforms are plainly visible all over the wider city of Evernight, with many historical buildings in the shadow of the new built by her programs.

One of the few historical buildings not overshadowed by the new ones is the Calamitous Coliseum, a massive combat arena built during the Age of Legends under the order of First Minister Calamitous Corvid. This coliseum was originally built as a place where warriors could display their skills before Queen Salem and the people to aid in the selection of generals for Evernight's military expeditions beyond the Dark Continent. As such the coliseum was designed with more than one on one duels or squad level fights in mind, having enough room and modifiable terrain to simulate platoon scale skirmishes in a multitude of different environments so hopeful generals could display their tactical skill alongside their combat prowess.

When Salem stopped sending major military expeditions into the wider world near the end of the Age of Sagas the Coliseum managed to find a new purpose in entertainment. Battles were still held within the area, but over time they became scripted so skilled combatants didn't die in a way that didn't serve the community. It was kind of like the how our pro-wrestling scene developed when the owners of the various carnivals hosting wrestling matches realized they could hold more matches and thereby sell more tickets if the wrestlers were following a script. Now I want you to imagine all the wackiness and drama from one of our pro-wrestling matches but scale it up to a platoon sized fight.

If you can imagine that you probably understand why the Coliseum stayed afloat after it was abandoned by Queen Salem.

However in recent times only one fourth of the matches follow this scripted format. Part of First Minister Mirafra's reforms saw the return of highly serous true combat to the arena, as the First Minister hoped this would help Evernight produce combatants on par with the Hunters trained by Beacon, Atlas, Haven and Shade Academies.

And so the nation's most elite warriors gather to compete at Calamitous Coliseum. Major Grimm-binder families currently dominate the circuit thanks to sending members that have successfully bound multiple powerful Grimm to participate, but there are some non-Grimm-binder contestants that can still compete against the most dangerous team of bound Grimm and their handler. Some of these combatants aren't that different from the Hunters most of you would be familiar with, i.e. eccentric folk with custom weapons that are impractical below a certain level of mastery, while others are part of more standardized combat traditions like the Vertumnus**; aka The Seasonal Guard.

The Vertumnus were originally just a normal unit in Evernight's army, but when they managed to impress Salem in the Battle of Lonely Lake she took them aside and gave each member a personal blessing. The unit grew in size and continued to add more and more glory to its' name, each new victory seeing Salem grant them greater privileges and responsibilities. Eventually they became the most elite unit in the army, and then they became independent from the army as Salem made them her official Imperial Guard.

The Vertumnus are divided into four cohorts of intermittent size that perform different functions. These cohorts were named by Salem the Eiar** (Spring), the Theros** (Summer), the Phinoporon** (Autumn) and the Cheimon** (Winter). The Eiar act as the formal bodyguards of Salem, the First Minister, the family of the First Minister, and anyone else Salem deems worthy of her personal protection. The Theros act as the formal bodyguards of most other government officials and the important priests and priestesses of the officially acknowledged churches. The Phinoporon act as intelligence and counterintelligence, spying on the world and making sure the world cannot spy upon Evernight. The Cheimon are the Secret Police.

When not performing their regular duties it is not uncommon for members of the Seasonal Guard to participate in the combat scenarios of Calamitous Coliseum to keep their skills as sharp as possible, especially after the failure to stop the assassination attempt that killed most of the Vortices family. This failure brought them to the conclusion that they didn't face enough varied opponents during their normal training regime, and the Coliseum offered endless variety.

Another more informal group that frequently participates in the Coliseum's serious combat scenarios is the Society of The Sorcerous Staves, a group that blends modern Dust sciences with the older alchemical pseudosciences of ages past in the pursuit of becoming practitioners of true magic. Experts in creating a wide variety of different Dust mixtures they do a fairly convincing job of imitating what magic is supposed to be, especially if they're lucky enough to have a pseudo-magic semblance that pairs well with dust, though even the most skilled among them will acknowledge what they do is only a pale imitation of true magic like Queen Salem is supposed to posses.

The name for the organization comes from a group of uncommon artifacts known as Sorcerous Staves. These staves have a special chamber that a Dust Crystal can be slotted into, and once inside the chamber that Dust Crystal can be activated without consumption as many times as the staves' wielder wishes. By using the now unconsumable crystal an experienced member of the society can sling around Dust effects like they were an elemental wizard attuned to the element of the Dust Crystal used.

According to tradition these staves were tools handcrafted by Queen Salem herself and given as gifts to those who had her favor, which were then passed on to the receiver's descendants. As Queen Salem has lived for thousands of years and given Sorcerous Staves to multiple individuals each generation there are thousands of these things in circulation. On the other hand only sixty-six members of the society throughout all of Evernight's history have successfully copied Salem's work to a level where they could make Sorcerous Staves of their own, and each of them only managed to produce a handful. Because of this there's a limited number of them in circulation. Those within the society that are lucky enough to posses a stave are given the title of Dust Sorcerer/Sorceress, while those who do not yet have a stave but yet are skilled enough to be worthy of one should one become available are referred to as Dust Magicians.

First Minister Mirafra Vortices and her granddaughter Lullula are both Sorceress of The Society, as the Staffs of Office used by the First Minister and their successor (The Solstice Staff and The Equinox Staff respectively) are both Sorcerous Staves. Both of them are considered high level members of The Society even if they hardly ever have the chance to participate in its events and rituals in part because of their political office and also in part because their inheritable family semblance. This semblance, Dust Transmutation, allows them to transform any dust their aura is interacting with into any other kind of dust. This allows them to change the kind of Dust they are using without switching crystals, letting them resemble a wizard that's mastered all kinds of elemental magic when they cut loose.

The Society of The Sorcerous Staves own and operate a campus a few miles away from Evernight Castle's southern gate, know as Makila University. There they have several extensive Dust laboratories where they study Dust and teach the next generation the art of Dust mixing. Makila U. also contains the central Lodge where the senior most members of the society meet to discuss business. Several satellite campuses and lodges exist throughout the kingdom, serving to funnel the nation's best talent to the City of Evernight.

Other notable locations include Wayang Theater, a historical site focused on shadow puppet plays of a truly impressive quality and scale. The Hall of Horae is the largest public library in the continent, with over a two-hundred million items in their catalog and over three-thousand staff keeping track of it all. Mouseia Square is the musical heat of the city as many historic concert halls were built there that are still in use, playing the traditional music of the land to all willing to come and listen.

The last major location I will make note of at this time is actually several locations: The Grimm Pools.

Grimm Pools are like their names suggest pools filled with Grimm matter that somehow exists in a liquified state. When one watches one of these pools they will see the surface ripple at relatively regular intervals, and half the time these ripples proceed a newborn animal-like Grimm crawling its way out of the depths and onto the shore. Usually these Grimm are of the common varieties you'd find basically everywhere else in the world, but sometimes a truly rare and unusual breed will emerge from the pool.

It seems likely that pools like these are the ultimate origin point for most species of Grimm.

Pools like this can be found in several different locations across the dark continent, but most human settlements are built far away from them. Evernight City was built directly next to and around a great number of them. All of these pools are closely monitored by the cities different Grimm-binder families, because while the city's Bloodspires Obelisks are some of the most powerful in the kingdom they are less effective on literally newborn Grimm for a number of reasons. The most important of these reasons is that making a Grimm act like a normal animal is less helpful when that normal animal would be terrified to find itself in the middle of a major city with no experience navigating a space so alien to its' instincts. As a result it falls to the Grimm-binders to manage the Grimm Pools, calming and escorting the common Grimm beyond the city's walls while capturing the more rare Grimm to be used in future binding rituals.

Now that I've painted a picture of Evernight you might have an inkling of how many people live within the Grimmlands, which raises the question: Where did all these people originally come from?

That question is better answered with the story of the next city the Sunrise Sisters and I decided to focus on, the Traveling City of Ponya-Nigalya...












*Since Salem is an immortal woman with unchanging perfect proportions it would make sense that a bronze age system of "let's standardize our measurements using our ruler's body" would be a solution that would stand the test of time. So the Darklanders use the Cubit, which is subdivided into Palms, which in turn are subdivided into Fingers.

**Vertumnus is the Roman god of Seasons. Eiar, Theros, Phinoporon and Cheimon are the Greek names for the personifications of the four seasons. Three guesses as to why Salem named her Imperial Guard like this.




Anyways what do you guys think of this glimpse of Evernight City?

 

[Sift Green]

Through A Mirror Darkly: Exploring The Cities And Peoples Of The Dark Kingdom

By Lore-keeper Manuel Goldstein

The Traveling City of Ponya-Nigalya:
​

The story of Ponya-Nigalya is a story some of you may be familiar with, at least in part, especially if you're from Mistral or if you love lost civilization mysteries.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story of The Traveling City let me take you back in time to the continent of Anima, during the transitional period between the Age of Legends and the Age of Sagas. Back when the Old Kingdom of Mistral ruled only one half of the Lion's Maw Bay, the old kingdom of Taejo had just invited their own native writing system instead of borrowing Mistral's logograms, the First Shogunate of Fuujin began its' decline, the Hellenic League entered it's first age of exploration, Pathism first appeared in Pandu, the peoples of Jotunheim established their first true cities worthy of the name, and the nomads of Rostram became more interested in trade than raiding for a time, thereby allowing the Shah of the settled peoples to establish proper diplomatic relations with the other great kingdoms of the continent.

With this backdrop the story of Ponya-Nigalya begins. A community of faunus living in the border regions of Old Mistral and Rostram discovered a great vein of Gravity Dust. The leader of this community was a mighty warrior named Jianguo Gantulga, and he destroyed the Grimm nest guarding the Dust. Jianguo saw the naturally floating stone encasing the Gravity Dust as a good foundation to build watchtowers that could protect the land he had claimed for his people. And so he built miniature fortresses upon these floating rocks, while his more scholarly inclined brother Meng devised a series of sails and magnets that would let them to control the movements of the floating watchtowers allowing these mini-forts to patrol the valley they had claimed.

Jianguo's heirs were further inspired by the work of their father and uncle, and devised a way to work Gravity Dust into the foundations of all the buildings they constructed, from the humble grain store to the lavish manor. Soon all of the structures of their central community were held aloft in the air, safe from grounded Grimm and bandits. Meng's descendants in turn invented adjustable zip lines, retractable catwalks, kites and hot air balloons that allowed for easy transit between the floating buildings, making traveling to the ground unnecessary for a large chunk of their population.

They had become almost untouchable, and when that reality settled in they stopped sending taxes to the imperial palace of Mistral and declared themselves the independent city of Ponya-Nigalya. When the imperial court sent a small army to bring them back in line the mobile fortresses gave the Ponya-Nigalyans a big enough edge to rout them quickly, forcing Mistral to acknowledge their independence. This was cause of great celebration for them at the time, but unfortunately it inspired the next generation in many dark ways.

Their next ruler, King Jianjun Gantulga, was a man of great ambition who saw a quick and dirty path to untold riches and wealth. The mobile watchtowers and forts could be just as advantageous on the offense as they had been on the defense. They could bypass any army and circumvent any city wall. Why should his people descend and toil in the dirt when they could take the labor of those who were born to be grounded? It wasn't like the grounded people could stop them!

And so with a few impassioned speeches and some carefully drawn up plans King Jianjun directed the entire city to leave its place of origin, sailing forth on the winds to plunder the other peoples of Anima.

Like a plague of locusts the floating buildings of Ponya-Nigalya went from town to town and city to city, demanding tribute and sacking the homes those who refused to part with the fruits of their labor. From the southernmost tip of Fuujin to Argus in the north, from Polyphemus in the west to Rostram in the east not a single corner of the land was untouched by Ponya-Nigalya's reach. The Traveling City became rich and fat off of the wealth of Anima.

For almost a hundred years they traveled from region to region like a farmer rotating their fields, allowing each old kingdom time to recover before returning again to demand more and more. Yet this reign of terror could not last forever, for making enemies of all their neighbors had consequences; namely giving all their neighbors common purpose.

All of the different grounded peoples of Anima sent dignitaries in secret to Aelia Paravel, where they hammered out the framework of an alliance and brainstormed ways to strike down the Skylords that tormented them. These secret meetings evolved into official and public ones hosted by Mistral itself, and soon The Grand Alliance against the Skylords came together and mobilized against their hated foe.

After a decade long campaign the chief general of the alliance's armies managed to lure Ponya-Nigalya to the Himavat mountain range, and then further provoke the traveling city into following him into a valley pass between two of the world's largest mountains. Unbeknownst to the Ponya-Nigalyans the alliance had convinced the Lhotse people of the mountains to join their cause and had provided them with an absurd number of bamboo rocket carts and well as kites large enough to cary a fully armored Lhotse warrior. For once the alliance had the high ground, and they exploited it ruthlessly. Three-quarters of Ponya-Nigalya's buildings were destroyed or captured with the captured buildings used to pursue the survivors out to sea, where Ponya-Nigalya disappeared from history.

Once the alliance was sure the Skylords were not coming back the captured floating buildings were destroyed according to treaty, and the last evidence the Ponya-Nigalyans once ruled the skies of Anima was lost to the sands of time.

Most of you who have heard this story probably learned about it as an aside in lessons about Mistral's Mandate of Heaven, with an increasingly large number of modern scholars viewing the story as nothing more than a mythic epic devised to justify Mistral's political claims to all of Anima. Indeed many later Mistralian dynasties would use the fact that Mistral lead the alliance as the legal basis for making their neighbors tributaries, then vassals, and then fully integrated parts of the empire.

I won't bore you with the full details of the scholarly debate academia is currently having about the subject, going over the evidence for or against the existence of Ponya-Nigalya would be pointless for me because I know the truth of the matter. I walked the catwalks that connect its' buildings today. I road its' zip lines, I've flown on its' kites and hot air balloons. I've slept in their inns, broken bread with them and haggled in their markets.

Let me tell you the rest of their story.

The floating buildings that survived the battle in the Himavat mountains found themselves lost at sea, for their navigators too used to having clear landmarks on their horizons and were unused to navigating by starlight. They ended up at the mercy of the wind, and were soon blown across the sea and into the Grimmlands of the Dark Continent. There they found themselves herded by flocks and swarms of flying Grimm to the City of Evernight, where they found themselves the unwitting guests of Queen Salem.

Salem was fascinated with their floating buildings and all of the little inventions that made a city of free floating buildings truly livable. The thing that caught her eye the most was the warehouses and grain silos, as she could see their potential in bulk shipping.

The Queen of the Grimm offered them a deal: she would provide them with the Gravity Dust they needed to rebuild so long as they served as her royal caravan, carrying goods across her kingdom as she saw fit. Seeing no other option at the heart of her power the surviving Ponya-Nigalyans agreed to her terms.

Queen Salem then placed loyal Grimm-binders bound to flying Grimm amongst them, ensuring they stayed on task and wouldn't wander off.

And so the city of Ponya-Nigalya grew within the confines Salem had set, and as the generations passed the Traveling City became prosperous and wealthy enough that they stopped minding the constraints the Grimm Queen placed upon them. Today the city is highly loyal to the Queen, migrating between the other large settlements within the Kingdom of Evernight on a set schedule carrying goods and services from one city to another as a grand flying caravan.

As a trade caravan that spends months at a time on the outskirts of all the other important settlements of the Grimmlands modern Ponya-Nigalya has become quite diverse in its' genetic makeup, but the descendants of the original inhabitants are easy to spot as they are all faunus of some highly specific varieties; Red Pandas, Panda Bears, and Raccoons. As people from other cities joined their caravan these original families sought to make their nature even more obvious by making tattooing part of their coming of age ceremonies. When these ceremonies are completed the Ponya-Nigalyan will have a full body tattoo giving them a skin pattern that resembles the fur patterns of the animal they bare a trait of.

These ritualistically tattooed faunus make up three-quarters of the modern city's population, with most of the upper class comprised of Red Panda families, most of the middle class made of Panda Bear families, and most of the lower class made of Raccoon families. The non-ritualistically tattooed inhabitants of the city mostly find themselves on the same social rungs as the Raccoons.

Now with only that oversimplification to go off of one might think the Red Pandas and Panda Bears pit the Raccoons and the non-ritualistically tattooed against each other to maintain dominance. They don't for a few simple reasons. Firstly enough wealth flows through Ponya-Nigalya that those in the lower classes are actually pretty well off. Secondly anyone who isn't a good fit for the city can easily leave once Ponya-Nigalya makes landfall on the outskirts of another town and see if they're a better fit there. These simple realities remove a lot of the social pressure that can build up in the lower classes of most other major cities.

Of course offloading their less than content citizens on other cities doesn't always endear them to the other communities of the Dark Kingdom, but these antics are tolerated because of the raw wealth they bring with their bulk shipments.

I spent most of my time in the Dark Kingdom living in Ponya-Nigalya as the circuits it made across the Grimmlands allowed me to visit everywhere else that was important, and it helped me see that the story of Ponya-Nigalya is the story of every city and people living under Evernight's power.

In summary a group of people would find themselves on the outside of Remnant's proper societies either through their own dumb decisions or the prejudices of those proper societies. Eventually they become so alienated from their neighbors that their options either become extinction or to flee to the one place those they are alienated from will not follow: the Grimmlands. Once there they find themselves at the mercy of Evernight's Queen-Goddess, who will either find a place for them in her Kingdom or she will destroy them herself.

There is of course variation in these stories. The people who were with Salem for the founding of Evernight City were cultists that worshiped her as their Goddess, something that made them the boogeymen of the Age of Myths. Grimm cults from all eras of history followed those original settlers in their path of alienation, with a large number of them successfully reaching the Grimmlands and given a place to settle by Salem because they were already hers and alienated themselves from their neighbors by following her will. Others like the Ponya-Nigalyans managed to alienate themselves from their neighbors through their own initiative and were then found by Salem. And yet others found themselves alienated from their neighbors because their neighbors were the problem and they found themselves having to flee to the Grimmlands anyways.

Irregardless of how the alienation happened all of the different peoples living within the Dark Kingdom remember that it did. This colors their views of the rest of Remnant, and informs how they wish to interact with the outside world. Some simply want to remain in isolation away from those that hated them... but others look outwards dreaming of the day they can avenge themselves upon people long dead.

The people of Ponya-Nigalya have not forgotten the century where they were the de facto rulers of Anima, and many of them imagine a world where they can destroy and replace the City of Mistral as the heart of the continent. Fortunately their time as merchants has dulled most of their desire for revenge, as there's a hard limit to how much money one can make off the deceased.

In spite of Ponya-Nigalya's size and population it has surprisingly few unique facilities. This is because as a massive caravan they spend a good chunk of their time next to other cities, allowing Ponya-Nigalyans to take advantage of the theaters, arenas, and other cultural sites the locals have built. The travel time between different settlements is rarely longer than a week since all of the city's buildings fly. The raw wealth of even the low class citizens means that everyone's homes are well stocked with games, books and other means to stave off boredom during transit. For those where this isn't enough paragliding with massive kites is a popular hobby.

However this doesn't mean there are no points of interest unique to Ponya-Nigalya. For instance you have Sarangerel Hospital, a massive mobile medical facility that offers its' services to any settlement Ponya-Nigalya stops at that isn't big enough to have its' own hospital. Patients with severe conditions are frequently taken with the Hospital when the Traveling City moves on, returned to their home when the city passes by again after they are cured. Those who are released before the round trip is up are offered employment that can help reduce their final medical bill.

Another building to note is the Bilguun Library. This is a privately owned collection and a non-lending institution. However an old school printing press can be found next to the main lobby, so if you really can't take the time to read the book there the scribes the owner employs can print you your own copy for the price of materials and labor. These scribes are absolute maniacs when it comes to their jobs so they'll be done in only two days irregardless of the book's length once they get to your place in the queue.

There is also Jargal's Game Hall, a seven story structure with every kind of board and card game you could imagine available. Gambling is only allowed on the top two floors, meaning the lower floors are mostly reserved for the entertainment of families and younger folk.

Now as a caravan city one might ask what goods Ponya-Nigalya normally deals with, and the answer is normally bulk shipments. After the First Minister's modernization programs these bulk shipments include electronics and motorized vehicles, most of these going from the capital to the surrounding regions. You also have the traditional luxury goods like bundles of silk and other high quality fabrics, or boxes of spices and incense. Then you have the always necessary commodes of food and Dust.

Food is normally collected from trade hubs built along Ponya-Nigalya's normal rout that surrounding farming communities are able to gather at and then brought to the next big city on the circuit.

Dust mostly comes from mines of Naranjal, Evernight's biggest problem child, which the Sunrise Sisters agree we should cover next...






So I got Ponya-Nigalya from the Nepali term for Red Pandas, Nigalya Ponya, which the word Panda is ultimately derived from. Why did I name the Traveling City after Red Pandas?

Well do you remember the TaleSpin episode Last Horizons? If you don't the quick recap is Baloo sets off to find the semi-mythical city of Panda-La. Many explorers had reported seeing the city just on the horizon, only for it to disappear the next day when they would try to get closer. Baloo had seen the city once in his youth and wanted to prove it was real, and eventually he succeeds in tracking the city down and making contact. It's revealed that all of the city's buildings are actually the baskets of hot air balloons/blimps, and the entire city relocates itself from time to time.

Unfortunately the pandas living in Panda-La are only fake friendly with Baloo, because for all of their Chinese aesthetics they're more of the Mongol Raider types, with the various locations the city moves between being the homes of past explores that had successfully reached Panda-La that the panda's had plundered and burned to the ground with no survivors. They let Baloo go on his way, and follow him home fully intending to add Cape Suzette to their list of conquests...

Anyways I remembered it, and was inspired. Gives us a very different take on the Flying City concept from Atlas, with each individual building flying under its' own power instead of a singular floating plate the city is built on top of.



So how do you guys feel about this one?

 

[Sift Green]

Once again copying something from SB. Combining the first post with some of the later discussions into this post.

Original post:

One of the major complaints about Pyrrha (and many other characters) is that we get next to NOTHING when it comes to background for them. In this case, we use that as the core of the idea. Pyrrha Nikos came out of nowhere a few years ago, an incredible fighter, a prodigy beyond any who had come before her. What if she did, in a sense, have nothing?

She was a clone. Or an artificial human, I suppose, created with genetically identical sisters as living weapons. Perhaps based on a few existing Huntresses, their genes synthesized into the ultimate warrior. Pyrrha is just the public face, seeing what the reaction to her as an actual Huntress would be and testing her abilities in less controlled circumstances.

She has fake memories. A handler who pretends to be her mother to the public. But the more she interacts with others, the more Pyrrha wonders what's going on. Why... Why is she so strange? So different?

A few paparazzi photos of Pyrrha in places she doesn't remember being pop up. Pyrrha is concerned: Are these lookalikes or is she sneaking out with no memory of it?

Then perhaps at some point on a training mission that turns into a fight with the White Fang... Pyrrha runs into an Atlasian Specialist. One who gets her helmet knocked off... And Pyrrha is suddenly staring into her own face.

It would be more psychological horror than something gory but I like a bit of thinking man's horror.

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This is defiantly a good psychological horror idea that would be worth exploring. Through I will say I don't think Atlas should have a monopoly on morally dubious science or manmade horrors beyond the average bloke's comprehension: Doctor Merlot was from Vale after all and the four major kingdom's are on a rough technological parity even if Atlas is supposed to be on the cutting edge with everyone else trailing behind.

So I'd think this idea would work better as Mistral based shenanigans, perhaps from a plot primarily centered in Argus and the wider Hellenic League that's been headcanoned around it. I mean Pyrrha's supposed to be an allusion to Achilles, and who did Achilles lead in the Trojan War? The Myrmidons, a race of warriors who were noted for their insane degree of loyalty, ferocity and hardiness that they all owed to their unnatural origins as Zeus created them by transforming ants into people.

So why does this army of Nikoses exist? Well you've portrayed Mistral as being the Kingdom who's central government has the most internal strife and strained relationships with the various sub-kingdoms it rules over, to the point that Lionheart's able to pull strings behind the scenes and start a massive civil war between all the different sub-factions in Mistral once world wide communications break down after Cinder's big attack on Beacon.

With that in mind perhaps Argus and the Hellenic League have been building a secret 'clone' army in preparation for the civil war that may or may not break out within the next decade or so. They take the most promising member of the bunch and put her out into the public to gather fame and the love of the people, to become a champion that the common man would be willing to rally behind if war does indeed break out.

And if the war does start and the situation looks dire? Behold! A Miracle! The Hellenic Gods have graced their people with an army that share the blood of The Champion! Pyrrha Nikos and her Myrmidons will surely lead Argus and the League to victory over their foes! At the bare minimum the League shall gain its' independence from the central government of Mistral...

...But seeing how popular Pyrrha is across the Kingdom perhaps Argus and the League could "liberate" more lands from the evils of Mistral's government. After all the People's Champion herself is coming to save them from the horrors of war and the gathering Grimm! Surly the people can unite under her banner and discard the old and corrupt system that lead to the horrors of war in the first place!


Basically it's a scheme to create an artificial martial messiah in preparation for a possible civil war complete with a holy army the martial messiah will lead. The conspirators are going with this set up partially to play off the beliefs of their people for propaganda purposes, and if they can successfully play off the reveal of their surprise army as divine intervention then they can act like they weren't warmongers contributing to the creation of the conflict. You would of course also have conspirators believing they are acting as instruments of their Gods' wills by creating the God's Champion and the Myrmidon Army that Champion will lead.

(Why an all female army of The Ultimate Huntress Pyrrha's genetic sisters? The conspirators are looking at not just winning the potential civil war but what happens after when the army they're making has won the day and needs to stands down. They can't just get rid of them so they need to make a place for a significant chunk of them in the civilian world, but they're making millions of them so trying to integrate them into civilian life will be stressful. They figured having a massive surplus of fighting age females would be less destabilizing in the long term than having a massive surplus of fighting aged males.)


Now the conspirators are putting Pyrrha Nikos out into the world so she can gain fame and the love of the people. They want her to become a symbol the common man can believe in and it's best to let that process happen as organically as possible. They give her artificial memories because they want her to genuinely believe her role as Argus' Champion is the hand of destiny in play leaving no room for doubts that the events placing her at the head of Argus' armies are the mere machinations of mortal men.



So now why would Pyrrha catch wind of her doppelgängers before ultimately running into one? Well the simulators in the facilities creating the Myrmidons are top notch, but even the best simulations can't fully substitute real field experience. Thinking they can get away with the risk so long as they keep the Myrmidons far away from Pyrrha the conspirators send their best out into the world to test their abilities in real combat scenarios. Some of these Myrmidons prove to be so successful that they are sent on more and more missions and become crucial for advancing the more shadowy parts of the Hellenic League's agenda.

Eventually a mission in the City of Vale comes up that requires the skills of one of these Myrmidon teams. It's risky, but Team JNPR's scheduled missions are accessible by Pyrrha's handler so the Myrmidons should be able to avoid them and get things- Oops Team JNPR's doing off the books missions.

Pyrrha freaks out because she's face to face with a group of doppelgängers. The Myrmidons freak out because they've exposed themselves to the war goddess they are meant to serve before they're supposed to, potently jeopardizing the divine plan. A highly confusing exchange follows that leads to more questions than answers.




You could do all kinds of things with this setup. Pyrrha going through a psychological horror themed mystery that ends with her she learning she's the deluxe model of a mass produced product already numbering in the millions would be quite the mental blow. Even in the best case scenario she's going to have a lot of identity issues and self doubt.

It would probably do her a lot of good if at the end of everything she has people who can pick her out from a crowd of Myrmidons, so she knows she's not a replaceable toy soldier. Jaune, Ren and Nora plus most of the girls in RWBY are a good start, but I'm also picturing Arslan as being one of the people who can distinguish her from the rest of the Myrmidons.

I basically have this scenario in my head where Arslan forces a fight with Pyrrha shortly after her team transfers to Beacon for the Vytal Tournament, and then after the clash Arslan gets up of the ground with a relived "Thank the Breaker you're the real one." Then she reveals how her team ran into a doppelgänger of Pyrrha while on a mission and how Arslan knew this doppelgänger was a fake because she didn't fight like the real Pyrrha. Sure the doppelgänger was trained in the same fighting style as Pyrrha but there were enough subtle differences that Arslan could tell the doppelgänger wasn't the real deal...

...especially since Arslan managed to force the doppelgänger to retreat. And so Arslan forced the fight with Pyrrha to make sure she hadn't been replaced with a body double at some point. Team ABRN then joins Team JNPR and Team RWBY in the doppelgänger investigation.


So yeah this is a great idea to explore at some point.



Later Discussion post:

1. Now that I've heard about the "Myrmidon Cloning Conspiracy," it will probably be my next story after I'm satisfied with the pacing of "Truly Invincible" updates, and I would love to have your help with it.

2. It's worth noting that, in Prince Caspian, Aslan enlists the help of Bacchus and Silenus when attacking the Telmarine army. In that vein, it's possible that the Breaker faith (or at least some denominations of it) see the "old gods" as either having always been servants of the Emperor Above, or as having returned to His service after Aslan's ministry (either willingly or through conquest). I can see Pyrrha converting to such a denomination under Jaune's influence, dragging a bunch of clones along for the ride, and throwing a major wrench in the works for her handlers.

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Alright, some of the ideas I've thought about in relation to the Myrmidon Cloning Conspiracy (MCC):

First off I'm thinking that Pyrrha actually has a rock solid relationship with Athena and Peleus, who are still happily together in a MCC timeline. You see the conspiracy hired them to play the role of Pyrrha's parents, and because of how thoroughly Athena can get herself into a role they became Pyrrha's parents in all of the emotional ways that matter. After the conspiracy is uncovered? Well, Athena doesn't know who she is when she isn't playing a role; and after playing the part for so many years Athena thinks the role of Pyrrha's mother is more real than Athena is at this point.


Secondly I don't think Pyrrha should be the prototype of the Myrmidons nor do I think she should be from the first batch of them. The conspiracy's geneticists would probably still be working out all the bugs at that stage of things. Pyrrha should probably be the most promising member of the first, second or third "production run" after they've solved all the issues with their methodology. Maybe she was given special care during development making her a "deluxe model" instead of a "general consumer model" but the point is she shouldn't be the first.

I think the first successful prototype should be named Myrmex- after a woman in Greek Mythology who thought it was a good idea to claim an invention of the Goddess Athena as her own without giving any credit to the Goddess. Athena punished her by turning her into an ant, and Zeus would later take pity on Myrmex's insectoid lineage and used her colony for the ants he turned into the Myrmidons. So Myrmex is a good name for the first of the Myrmidons.

As a prototype Myrmex wouldn't be as perfect as Pyrrha; not in terms of raw power or combat ability but rather in terms of physical appearance. Not entirely sure what her flaw should be, but whatever it is it kept her from fulfilling the role of "Olympus'" Champion by virtue of failing to look the part. Perhaps a limb didn't grow correctly necessitating a cybernetic replacement. Maybe one of her eyes didn't form right requiring her to wear an eyepatch. Whatever it is she falls short of the physical perfection one would expect from somebody chosen by the Gods and Goddesses of "Olympus," with such maladies only being acceptable for one so chosen as scars from the battlefield. Myrmex therefore can't serve in the role of Martial Messiah... unless something seriously goes wrong.

Myrmex could play the role of Pyrrha's older sister or cousin and serve as one of her trainers as she grows up. She will not approve of Pyrrha being deferential to Jaune and will curse the fact that Ozpin didn't make Pyrrha the leader of her team. Myrmex's own purpose was to prepare Pyrrha to lead her Myrmidons, to shape Pyrrha into the destined hero Myrmex couldn't be herself. To see Pyrrha willing step back from her glorious purpose... maddening.

In the event Jaune and Pyrrha pull several Myrmidons out from under the conspiracy's thumb Myrmex will end up being the leader of those who remain loyal to their original purpose, acting as a kind of final boss for Jaune and Pyrrha for the story arc dealing with the MCC.

If Pyrrha dies during Cinder's attack on Beacon the responsibility of leading the Myrmidons will fall to Myrmex, because any potential understudy is far too unprepared to step up and they need someone right now because the war is happening right now instead of in a few years. She'll probably blame Jaune for Pyrrha's death, with predictable consequences for our heroes should they cross paths.


Most of the other successful experimental Myrmidons made before the first proper production run serve as additional teachers/sparing partners for Myrmidons in training. These experimental Myrmidons would be a small enough group for most of them to have received a proper name instead of a number like Myrmex did. Several of them also have minor physical flaws like Myrmex, i.e. things that don't reduce their ability in combat but do make it clear they weren't handcrafted by the gods or otherwise brought into existence by divine will.

As an example I'm currently picturing a Myrmidon that was born blind, and therefore uses the magnetic senses her variant of Polarity grants her in place of sight. Lets call her Tiresias after a blind seer in Greek Mythology who the gods kept repeatedly punishing by changing their gender, so the name works for a blind woman who can still 'see' thanks to a supernatural power. Tiresias' skill with magnetic sensing is so good that it lets her perceive things that you wouldn't expect magnetism to let her perceive, and in combat she looks like a precognitive thanks to this. She teaches the younger Myrmidons how to use Polarity to sense things, and perhaps she taught Pyrrha by posing as an older cousin.

Anyways these experimental Myrmidons can fill the mini-boss roles in support of Myrmex's role as a story-arc final boss.



In the first MCC post I touched upon Arslan recognizing that Pyrrha's the real Pyrrha because she can recognize all the subtle differences between how the Myrmidons fight and how Pyrrha fights. I also floated the idea of her being part of the doppelgänger investigation because of a fight she had with a doppelgänger while on a school mission. On further thought I'm thinking this fight was a targeted assassination attempt meant to kill Arslan.

The exact who and why they ordered the hit is something I'm still thinking about. On the one hand AndrewJTalon suggested that Leonardo Lionheart could have a squad or two of Myrmidons on loan to him as a "friend" and backer of the conspiracy, and with his modus operandi being the subtle sabotage of every student he can't mould into an agent loyal to him first and foremost he could decide he wants Arslan dead. The warrior nun is just too talented to undermine without it being obvious that's what he's doing and too genuine in her convictions for him to turn her, so Lionheart might think she needs to go.

The other possibility is the masterminds behind the conspiracy in the Hellenic League decide Arslan should be taken off the board. They were happy to spin her losses to Pyrrha as propaganda back when the two of them were part of the tournament scene: the Champion of "Olympus" constantly going head to head with a clear champion of the Breaker Faith and always winning? A few snide remarks from the right sports commentators and you can act like the results of the match have cosmic significance. They were less happy with Arslan's constant attempts to befriend Pyrrha via a rivalry, leading some in the conspiracy to want her removed less she give their champion funny ideas about religion.

The propaganda angle combined with the fact that anything that would guarantee a kill would be hard to make look like an accident kept those feelings in check, but now that Arslan's no longer in the tournament scene and is taking dangerous missions away from civilization? Well now something that can be blamed on Grimm or bandits can be arranged. The warrior nun will probably oppose them in the coming conflict anyways so why not deal with her now?

And then irregardless of who sent them Arslan beats the Myrmidon meant to assassinate her.

This shocks whoever sent the assassin because Arslan shouldn't have been able to do that: the Myrmidon is fighting with the exact same style and semblance and Pyrrha! A style and semblance that's easily overcome the Warrior Nun many times before! The Myrmidon had a type advantage!

The assassin's master may or may not end up contemplating the implications of Arslan facing off against Pyrrha in the finals of so many of the tournaments Pyrrha has won. Arslan has been refined against the Myrmidon the conspiracy has placed their hopes and dreams in, the cream of the crop, the elite of the elite, their Martial Messiah. The Warrior Nun has been learning to fight Myrmidons from the pinnacle all Myrmidons aspire to and are meant to follow; any Myrmidon that hasn't reached that pinnacle is a Myrmidon Arslan can beat.

In short Arslan is exceptionally skilled at fighting Myrmidons, because while all of the Myrmidons are highly dangerous and powerful combatants beyond the capabilities of most warriors to match one on one only a handful of them are close enough to Pyrrha's level to claim a lofty title like Invincible.

In the same vein Jaune is also really good at fighting Myrmidons. Pyrrha is/was personally training him, sparing with him basically every night they were/are partners. He knows how Myrmidons fight as intimately as they do.



Another thing that was discussed in the couple of pages talking about the MCC is how such a thing might be used as a way for Pyrrha to return from the dead should she still be killed during Cinder's attack on Beacon. Namely having Pyrrha's soul being drawn into a fresh off the printer clone that hasn't been programed or developed/been given its own soul and aura yet.

While that's an interesting idea it's not the method of revival I'd use if I was writing a MCC story where Pyrrha died at Beacon. Part of me wants to go into detail, but the rest of me thinks I should hold off in case I do end up writing it and it wouldn't do to spoil something that'd be that deep into the narrative.



In any case a MCC story where Pyrrha still dies during Cinder's attack on Beacon is a very different thing from a MCC story where Jaune and Pyrrha end up subverting the Myrmidons and taking them away from the conspiracy. I feel like that kind of story works best if Pyrrha doesn't die during the attack on Beacon, as having a death and revival adds another layer of drama to things that's unnecessary when you already have enough drama with a living Pyrrha and Jaune dealing with the conspiracy.



Second Later Discussion Post:

I have to agree that this story works better if Pyrrha survives the Fall somehow. At least that is my opinion. The heroes already have a lot of stuff to do and enemies to fight, so adding the MCC storyline just gives them a different enemy type to fight. Personally I generally don't like the idea of bringing dead characters back, especially in situations like Pyrrha's, so having the MCC situation just so you can bring Pyrrha back feels wrong to me.
In the case where Pyrrha survives though, the MCC is going to expand on her character a lot, which if you followed canon closely, won't give her much character at all. This would go a long way towards fixing that and also explaining why Pyrrha is so blank and hard to read sometimes.

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I can understand not wanting to bring dead characters back to life. A revival or resurrection ultimately has the same narrative weight as a death, so if you fail to give the resurrection the right level of gravitas you'll simply cheapen any deaths the story has. Like I'm sure the first time a main character died in DragonBall it had a suitable level of narrative weight, but collecting the titular DragonBalls eventually became a casual thing that can be done with an offhand comment by a side character instead of a multi chapter quest a main character has to undertake and as a result death lost it's narrative weight, becoming more like a Super Time Out instead of you know DEATH.

However just because resurrections have been misapplied in other stories doesn't mean a story featuring one can't have real appeal, since it can be done right. For example in the original Death of Superman storyline Superman's return was just as big of a deal as his original death, and as a result his original death wasn't cheapened by his return. It also helped that Superman's return had just as many consequences as his death, meaning his return wasn't some magic bullet that completely restored the original status quo.

And something like the original Death of Superman storyline is what I'd want to explore with Pyrrha's death and resurrection if I wrote a MCC story where Pyrrha still dies during Cinder's attack on Beacon. The entire conspiracy and the narrative that surrounds it is built around Pyrrha, what happens when there's a gaping hole where Pyrrha's supposed to be? How do people try to fill the hole? And then once the hole is partial filled we have a miracle and Pyrrha is back. How do all the things that were trying to fill the Pyrrha shaped hole deal with the fact that she's back and filling all of it?

And if enough of the Myrmidons blamed Jaune and company for Pyrrha's death her friends could have spent the better part of a year fighting enemies wearing her face. That could have consequences as she works to reconnect with her friends. Sure they're glad to have her back once they know for sure it's her, but that doesn't mean the fight or flight response won't be triggered when they catch her in the corner of their eyes when the don't expect her to be there.

Basically I think it can work if Pyrrha coming back from the dead causes as many problems as her original death did, and if the method of her resurrection has the right narrative gravitas.

Spoiler: The method I'm contemplating

You sure? Okay.

So I'm currently imagining one of the rank and file Myrmidons developing an obsession with avenging Pyrrha's death. Unfortunately she blames Cinder and Jaune equally, and takes every opportunity to attack them both. This Myrmidon is presumed dead after several of these fights, but she's a stubborn enough girl to survive and pull through things that should have killed her. This pursuit keeps up long enough for her to end up in the Ever After with our heroes, and she may or may not become an enemy of The Rusted Knight.

When she finally arrives at The Tree the Blacksmith places choices in front of her. She could be remade into something that's finally strong enough to avenge Pyrrha... or she could be used to bring Pyrrha back. Can she put aside her quest for vengeance to bring back the one she wishes to avenge? Is the desire for vengeance really about Pyrrha, or has it been about herself this whole time?

The Myrmidon is forced to look inside herself and grapple with who she really is, and once she's done that? She chooses.

So yeah a Pyrrha dies MCC story is very different from a Pyrrha lives MCC story, but I think both have enough interesting things to explore to make both worthwhile stories.

Pyrrha being the Solidus to the Myrmidons Solid and Liquid sounds like awesome idea as I just rewatched Clone Wars series, I could see some of them fighting over differences like how the disfigured clones are antagonized by the normies and vice verse. Myrmex and her advisors(maybe Jaune sometimes) keeping them civilised as possible.

For now, I picture some of weird looking Myrmidons as some members of Clone Force 99 with Myrmex looking like a younger genderbent version of 99 from Maintenance.

If Pyrrha is killed then in certain timelines, I'm pretty sure many would argue she did what she thought was right at the moment by her sisters. The part about Arslan and Jaune being professional Myrmidon destroyers sounds accurate since not only is Pyr the best of them, she's the more experienced of her sisters. I'm very sure she has lost some fights, learned from them and won more fights.

No offence to them, but sparring with a person who has close to the exact same fighting style to you leaves... much desired results.

I dunno, I just like the idea Jaune, JNR and RWBY in general being their Jedi Order, helping find their own identity than just weapons of the HL as whole.

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Having the experimental prototype Myrmidons as a kind of parallel to Clone Force 99 could work. The conspirators could have easily tried out various different specializations and enhancements as they were figuring out the best possible DNA and aura combinations for a mass producible soldier, resulting in some of the prototype Myrmidons being really good as some highly specialized work.

That said Myrmex's physical flaw probably wouldn't be something like the OG 99 had. 99 looks to have had a hunched back, a limp and a few other issues that would have interfered with effective soldiering. Myrmex's issue wouldn't be something severe enough to keep her from soldiering, or at least not something a simple medical procedure couldn't fix. Like at worst I'm picturing a clubfoot that's easily fixed via amputation and cybernetic replacement, or a cleft palate that was easily sorted by some plastic surgery that might have left a faint scar. You know the kind of stuff that shouldn't matter if your goal was just to produce a competent combatant, but would matter if your propaganda plan is to paint the leader and face of the army as a legit demigoddess of battle and daughter of Olympus shaped by the hands of the Gods and Goddesses of War. If that's your goal even something as innocuous as heterochromatic eyes could disqualify Myrmex from the role the conspiracy places Pyrrha in; the conspirators are trying to craft a messianic figure and in such an endeavor any blemish or scar not earned in battle would be a bridge too far.

Part of the reason I'm harping on this point is because of the role Myrmex would play in the wider narrative of a MCC story. In a Pyrrha lives story Myrmex has the potential to be the final boss of the story arc, staying loyal to the conspiracy even as Pyrrha and friends pull other Myrmidons out from under the conspirators' thumbs. As a result Myrmex needs to be a combatant that can give Pyrrha a run for her money, so Myrmex's disqualifying flaw needs to be something that wouldn't have mattered to an army recruiter.

Also if the flaw was genuinely something minor then the potential animosity that could build up between her and Pyrrha before the final confrontation could be quite potent. Pyrrha has been burdened with glorious purpose, purpose that could have been Myrmex's if one or two lines of genetic code had been edited differently. What is Pyrrha doing with this destiny? She's twisting it and subverting it away from the purposes of their creators! Destiny hangs in the balance, and Myrmex will not see Pyrrha throw away the thing Myrmex couldn't have...

In a Pyrrha dies story Myrmex would have to step up and lead because a purpose made replacement will never be ready in the time they have. To even attempt to fill the void Pyrrha left behind she'd again need to be close to Pyrrha's level. Myrmex could easily develop a severe case of impostor syndrome, believing herself to be a substandard replacement for the one hand crafted for the role in spite of how qualified she'd actually is. Once again if the disqualifying flaw is something that shouldn't matter to an army recruiter then the absurdity of this instance of impostor syndrome will be highlighted to the audience.