rwby-roman-red

[rwby-roman-red]

[RWBY: Roman Red] Chapter 1 ~ Criminal Business as Usual (Part 2)

The night before the start of the Vytal Festival, Roman and the White Fang get to know each other better with a bonding exercise - some light robbery! IN THIS PART: It turns out the back door is a very convenient way to enter a building, and Roman meets an old friend.

[RWBY fanfic, canon-compliant alternate timeline. Character focus: Roman Torchwick, White Fang Lieutenant. Chapter and poll under the cut.]

[Previous Part] [Next Part]

Roman turned on his heel, pointing to the White Fang member who’d spoken up about the back of the building. “You, with the talons. What’s your name?”

“Uh-” The Kite Faunus was taken aback for a moment. “Chili. I’m Chili.”

“Chili, Chili, Chili.” Roman slowly walked over, throwing his arm around the Faunus’ shoulders. “I’m a big man, I can admit when there’s a better plan. You’re absolutely, one hundred percent certain there’s a loading door out back?”

“Y-Yes?”

“That didn’t sound very confident.” “YES! Yes, there’s- definitely a loading door behind the building.” Chili replied, shaking out of Roman’s grasp. “I’ve seen it when walking past.”

“Cool! Then we’ve got a plan.” Roman noted. “You brought the duffel bags?” One of the henchmen quickly held up a duffel bag filled with folded duffel bags. “Perfect, perfect~ Let’s make our way to the target, then. See you folks there!”

Before anyone could stop him, Roman danced his way to the edge of the building and casually hopped off. Melodic Cudgel caught on the edge of the building, holding him momentarily and killing his momentum, before Roman pulled his cane up and caught it on a drainage pipe on the underhang of the building. Using his foot to steady himself, he casually slid down the side, using a 90-degree turn in the pipe to catch himself at ground level and casually hop off. With a smile, he tugged down on his hat to cover his face as he moved into the alleyway of the street, making his way towards the rental building.

All things considered, this job was a steal - in more ways than one. Over the past few heists, Roman had bled the Commercial District dry - and in so doing, turned it into a hub for the fuzz. There were only four notable Dust storage sites left in the city that hadn’t already been robbed. One of them was in the Commercial District, another was right next to the freaking police station, the third was all the way in the Residential District and the fourth was in a warehouse all the way in Forever Fall. Fortunately, that fourth had now become a fifth - the products of the hidden forest warehouse now brought to the seaside for a prime sale. It was a wonderful opportunity for Roman, making it so much easier to get that quota filled.

…y’know. Assuming he could fill the quota. There were days Cinder ran him like a whipped horse. And what even was all the Dust going towards? She still hadn’t explained that part…

Roman came out of his reverie upon reaching the back of the rental building. A small parking lot was set up behind it, part of it sectioned off specifically for trucks due to the presence of-

“Well, would ya look at that! A cargo door.” Hooking Melodic Cudgel on his forearm, he lightly clapped as he walked into the parking lot. “And like that, you folks have already proven yourselves much more confident than the last guys I had to work with.”

“The compliment is appreciated.” The voice of the Lieutenant spoke up. The White Fang had seemingly just appeared behind him. Roman didn’t feel like questioning it. They understood the assignment. “The door has a simple chain lock.”

“Yeah, figured they’d be cheapskates like that.” Roman replied. Moving over to the lock, he lifted up Melodic Cudgel before slamming its end down onto the lock, breaking its shackle. The chain almost instantly dropped, only for the Lieutenant to catch it and begin leading it through, the clicks of the moving chain against metal much quieter than it would have been if it had simply dropped. Once the entire chain was removed, Roman and Chili both bent down, grasping the door’s handle and lifting it open.

A small whistle as Roman entered the building, plucking a flashlight from his pocket and flicking it on. The light danced around various display cases and shelves, each holding Dust of all kinds. Some were canisters of liquid Dust, but most were the raw crystal form, processed and unprocessed alike. Lifting his flashlight to his mouth and holding it between his teeth, Roman turned to the White Fang member with the duffle bags and snapped his fingers. The signal was received, the group quickly getting their duffle bags distributed among them.

“Right!” Lifting the flashlight out, Roman turned to the group. “Elder, Chili, with me. Everyone else-” With Melodic Cudgel, he gestured to the display. “-smash and grab.”

The White Fang were naturals. One of the group elbowed the glass of a display case, plucking out a Dust crystal between each finger. Another got to work unscrewing the liquid Dust canister itself instead of bottling the Dust individually, and the third pulled over a chair to get at the high shelves. It almost brought a tear to Roman’s eye. He really was working with professional Dust thieves…

“What are we doing?” Chili asked.

“My young friend, this building has three floors.” Roman replied. “We’re headed upstairs. Lieutenant-!”

Elder raised a leg, kicking down the door to the staircase. No key needed.

“Well, that works.”

Jovially, Roman and his two companions made their way upstairs. As expected, the second floor was far less organized. It was mostly filled with shipping containers and pieces of furniture that didn’t fit into the display, many branded with the Schnee Dust Company logo. He heard the audible hiss made by the Lieutenant as the crates came into view. A radio seemed to be positioned on one of the crates as well, giving off some idle tunes. Country music, it sounded like.

“There’s probably some Dust they’re keeping in reserve.” Roman noted. “It’d be bad business to put everything out front on the first day of a month-long festival. Might be more than we can take, but see what you can grab, yeah?”

With that, the three moved out to the boxes. The Lieutenant threw one open, scooping crystals into the bag. Chili managed to get his hands on a case already filled with Dust, holding it separately from the duffle bag he was filling. As for Roman… He walked a bit further in than the others. Walking towards the radio, he saw one of the cases was half-open, more than a few pieces of Dust present. With a smile, he flicked the case open and started scooping the Dust crystals into his bag. He smiled at the size of the chunks he was pulling out, lifting a piece of snow white Dust up to eye level to inspect it and see how it caught the light.

…hold up. Within the reflection of the Dust crystal, the side of the radio showed something Roman hadn’t seen before. A name written on the side… Roch?

Roman had milliseconds to spare as he rolled out of the way, the end of his hat grazing against a row of spikes. The blade carved into the wooden box he’d been right in front of, grunts coming from the hands Roman could barely see holding onto it with his flashlight rolling across the room.

“CHILI, HIT THE LIGHTS!” Roman ordered.

“Okay?!” The confused Faunus replied, quickly running to the light switch and flicking it to life.

As the second floor’s cheap lamp fixtures hummed, Dust triggering to spark illumination into the room, the jagged end of a staff retracted as it reduced to half size, a sharp three-pronged claw visible on its other end. Stepping out from behind a makeshift hiding place of several empty boxes placed together was a man adorned with long silver hair and a messy, unshaven fuzz-beard. His gray sleeveless shirt was torn in several places, his belt held many pockets, his loose-fitting pants ran down to steel-studded combat boots and his eyes were filled with hatred for the man he saw in front of him.

“Roman Torchwick.”

“My, my!” Climbing to his feet, Roman spread his arms jovially as he paced back, giving himself some more room as he moved to not have his back against the wall anymore. “If it ain’t the Szalt of the earth. How’s it going, buddy?”

“I ain’t your BUDDY!” The man yelled out. The Huntsman-turned-mercenary practically flung himself towards Roman, the serrated end of his staff aiming to cleave off a limb. “You… YOUUUU can’t stay out of my LIFE!”

Grabbing onto the end of Melodic Cudgel, he hooked its handle around Roch’s staff’s length to force it to the side as he slid past him and back towards the White Fang. “I’d argue it’s more that you keep taking jobs for the types of bastards I like stealing from, but hey, blame me for your incompetence all you want, ex-Huntsman.”

Roch Szalt’s eyes flared. He leapt forward to smash Roman with a punch - only to have an empty box thrown into him, knocking the man to the back of the room.

Lieutenant Elder stepped to Roman’s side, crossing his arms. “Missing some context here.”

“That sad sack of a human being-” He pointed to the recovering Huntsman. “-is Roch Szalt. Tried to stop me on my first bank heist in Vale, got his rear end promptly handed to him and destroyed more of the bank than I did in the process, getting himself fired as a Huntsman. Tends to take on defense gigs for people with money to spare. Typical braindead human muscle.”

“Hm.” Elder’s mask tipped slightly. “Shall I step in?”

Now, that was a thought. As much as Roman was willing to make fun of Roch’s sad existence, it was true that their second fight had left Roman with a torn-open left leg and bruises from a ten-feet fall. All over… coffee. (Shame that scheme hadn’t worked out for particularly long.) Some help would probably be appreciated, especially considering Neo was busy becoming a Haven transfer student for… whatever Cinder’s greater plan was. The Lieutenant seemed more than qualified, and could be an easy helping hand.

On the other hand, this was about earning the White Fang’s trust as much as it was about them earning his. If Roman showed weakness here, it could compromise that first impression and make it harder to work together. By the same coin, if he beat Szalt single-handedly and bought more time for the others to get the loot, it’d make him more respectable as a leader and business partner…

There was a choice to be made here.

#mechanist gamma #roman red #roman torchwick #rwby #rwby fanfiction #roman holiday #white fang elder #white fang lieutenant #white fang #roman red chapter 1 #roch szalt

[rwby-roman-red]

[RWBY: Roman Red] Chapter 1 ~ Criminal Business as Usual (Part 1)

The night before the start of the Vytal Festival, Roman and the White Fang get to know each other better with a bonding exercise - some light robbery! IN THIS PART: Roman vents about his previous hires and everyone has their own idea for how to break into a building.

[RWBY fanfic, canon-compliant alternate timeline. Character focus: Roman Torchwick, White Fang Lieutenant. Chapter and poll under the cut.]

[Previous Part] [Next Part]

The Thursday Night prior to the 40th Vytal Festival’s Beginning.

The sun was down, the lights in most buildings were off and most people were off the streets. Just how Roman liked it.

A puff of his cigar mixed into the salty sea air of the docks. Roman was firmly seated on top of one of the buildings in the Industrial District, looking out to the westernmost point of the City of Vale. He couldn’t help it - the ships caught his eye. A variety of vessels all coming in from Vacuo (or Patch, he could see a few ships were docked there for the night), all for the event of the year - the Vytal Festival. A celebration of unity where saps from across the world came by to partake in the festivities and have their best students beat the crap out of each other on live television. A sigh escaped Roman’s mouth. Part of him wished he was still just a run-of-the-mill thief at a time like this. Oh, how many hapless pockets could he pick?

The approaching footsteps snapped him out of his reverie. No more dreaming of picking pockets when the job was to run the target dry. Roman allowed his cigar to simply fall out of his mouth, crushing it under his heel as he stood up and turned.

“Well, about time you all showed up. What, needed to grab some catnip for the road?”

The White Fang clearly weren’t amused by his remark. He didn’t need them to be. Roman wasn’t quite used to working with these folk yet - Cinder putting him in contact with the group in the first place in order to buy Dust off of them was a surprise and a half - but that was the point of the mission. A local White Fang leader stood across from Roman, a full-face mask hiding his features. Four grunts stood behind him. The leader wore metal vambraces but a sleeveless top, a black tattoo pattern visible on his left arm.

“I was told you were a man of jokes.” He crossed his arms.

“Sure am!” Roman threw open his arms. “For example, I thought hiring Junior Xiong’s goons for Dust heists would be a smart idea when they couldn’t so much as land a hit on a little red girl.” No, he totally wasn’t still bitter about that failed heist, what would ever give you that idea? “I just love… jokes. But there’s a problem with them.” He walked closer to the White Fang members, pulling down on the brim of his hat as he did. “You get to know enough comedy, you lose out on sincerity. And when you’re a businessman… that can be a problem.”

“Get to the point.” The man scowled.

“Alright, alright!” Roman held his arms up defensively as he backed off. “Let’s be clear here. I’ve worked with some hired goons recently that leave me concerned about their reliability. You White Fang, well… I know for a fact you’re better than Xiong’s men, at least. You don’t earn a reputation like yours from doing nothing. But I can’t help but be worried that we may not work well together!”

Which would be very, very bad for all parties involved. Roman didn’t say that part out loud, but he was fully aware of just how displeased Cinder would be if he couldn’t cooperate with the White Fang. While he still wasn’t sure just what Cinder had at her fingertips, her connections concerned him. If nothing else, Roman knew she was a dangerous woman - and he wasn’t quite ready to take a bet against her unknown potential.

“So here’s the deal.” Roman tapped Melodic Cudgel in between himself and the White Fang members. “Tonight, we’re doing this Dust heist together. Consider this a test of sorts to see if we’ve got workplace chemistry, yeah?”

The grunts were now on the back foot. They clearly hadn’t been informed they’d be working with a human. Their leader, however, stepped forward. “I have orders to cooperate with you, Torchwick. They had better not be mistaken.” The man put his hand forward for a handshake.

He hesitated for a moment due to the opposite man’s firm grip, but eventually clasped the opposite hand and shook. “Pleasure doing business with ya. Let’s make this a good one, mister… uh…” He released the handshake, scratching his head. “Actually, I have no idea who you are.”

“Lieutenant Elder.” The Faunus replied. He crossed his arms once again.

“Pleasure meetin’, Elder.” The charlatan smiled. He lightly patted the Lieutenant on the shoulder as he walked past, striding through the group of White Fang. Reaching the end of the building, he pointed Melodic Cudgel’s edge towards a street below. “Now then, let’s talk shop! You see that building down there?”

The rest of the group followed Roman’s gaze. On one end, the street led to the docks - on the other, it led to a large three-story building. A curved roof covered beige brick walls, solid gray dividers outlining the split between floors. The top two floors held nothing apparent from the outside save for 3x3 blue glass windows. The bottom floor was the actual notable point. Two glass windows and a wooden double-door made up the entrance to a store front, a cloth awning shading them and covering the entry from rain. Two more gray dividers, vertical instead of horizontal, brought attention to the storefront by boxing it in. A large sign holder was attached to the top, but hadn’t yet been filled out.

“That’s definitely a new shop.” One of the White Fang members pointed out. “Doesn’t look like they’re even done setting up.”

“Yeah, the building’s a rental.” Another one mentioned. “I live in the area. Businesses usually rent the place out seasonally.”

“Correctamundo!” Roman interrupted the pair. “And this time, the rentee is an eager Dust dealer aiming to take advantage of all the innocent, naive shoppers coming in from afar.” He hunched down on the roof’s edge. “Some special sources are letting me know that this building is chock full of Dust ripe for the taking. Security shouldn’t be set up yet and the actual owners are in the Commercial District. Save for a night guard or two, this is practically taking candy from nepobabies.”

“What’s the plan?” One of the grunts asked, looking at Elder. He simply shrugged, pointing to Roman. “The human’s the boss for now.”

“Oh, the plan is simple.” Roman rose back up to his feet and walked away from the edge. “We’ll simply waltz on down, kick the door in and grab everything.”

Several seconds of silence. Roman looked back, confused, to see astonishment on the faces of his coworkers.

“That’s… the plan?”

“Sure is!” Pause. “Something wrong with it?”

“W-Won’t that have the cops on us in seconds?!” One of the members - a newer one, clearly - seemed to be very concerned about this plan of action.

Roman simply waved it off. “Nah, no chance. I’ve been scouting out the fuzz’s movements as of late. The closest dispatch would be on the other side of the river - we’ve got plenty of time to bail before they get here.”

“The new recruit has a point.” The Lieutenant spoke up. “It’s an unnecessary risk. The White Fang are used to striking from the shadows, not marching down the street. We should enter in secret.”

“We’re already on the roofs.” One of the members suggested. “Why not see if we can get into the building from above?”

“I’m pretty sure there’s a cargo door in the back.” The local White Fang member suggested. “We could try to get through there?”

Roman’s first instinct, of course, was to tell them to shut up and go with his plan. He suppressed it. No one in this town was stupid enough to try and get in his way at the sight of him (well, except for Red…), but the White Fang clearly lacked the same respect for him. Expectedly so, granted, considering he was a human. Going with one of the alternative plans could help to curry favor with the White Fang, potentially making future schemes easier… He’d have to consider this.

#rwby #roman torchwick #rwby fanfiction #white fang #white fang lieutenant #white fang elder #mechanist gamma #roman red #roman red chapter 1 #roman holiday

[rwby-roman-red]

[RWBY: Roman Red] Prologue ~ Faust at the Bargaining Table

After a successful bank heist, Roman Torchwick and Neopolitan's celebration is interrupted by a mysterious woman... calling herself Cinder Fall. She makes a tempting offer Roman can't refuse.

[RWBY fanfic, canon-compliant alternate timeline. Character focus: Roman Torchwick, Neopolitan, Cinder Fall. Chapter under the cut.]

[Preamble] [Next Part]

“I’m telling you, this was way too easy. Lifting a security card was really all it took? You’d think there’d be at least a little more to banks nowadays than tricking a scan…”

Roman Torchwick, notorious Vale criminal, punctuated his comment with a little laugh. His partner across the table smiled, stifling an inaudible chuckle with a dainty touch of the back of her hand to her mouth. The grin of Neopolitan - the crux in the successful theft - always lifted Roman’s own mood, whether she was simply playing along with him or enjoying herself just as much.

Once again, Roman and Neo had carried out a theft of one of Vale’s many banks, robbing the people of the city blind by simply disguising themselves as bank guards, using a stolen security card to access the vault, dumping as much Lien as they could get away with into a truck and driving off as if it was a normal transport. By now, the van in question was thoroughly torched and laying in the bottom of a river, leaving the thieves with a sizable portion of unmarked cash to use as they will. So why not rent out the private booth in the club of his former greatest enemy and have a date night with his partner? Roman saw nothing wrong with it.

In fact, Roman was in the middle of drinking some of the most expensive booze on Junior’s menu when there was a knock at the door. He let out a sigh, slumping back slightly into his chair. “Can’t a guy get a minute with his date?” Roman asked rhetorically, putting his glass down and lifting himself out of his chair.

Neo’s face was touched with a light frown at the interruption, but surely it wouldn’t last long. They’d be out in no time, and… She had a bad feeling. Through the open glass wall of the room, her eyes landed on the raised DJ’s stand. DJ Deadb3ar was mixing like normal, but he was talking to a strange individual. A young man, looking to be in his early 20s like her. Silver hair… Eyes looking towards the private booth…

Her attention snapped back onto Roman as the door opened, a familiar face in a stark white dress visible at its entrance.

“Roman.” The woman crossed her arms, clearly not happy to be here.

“Little Lil Miss Malachite.” Roman crossed his own arms in a teasing manner. Ever since he’d learned that the Malachite sisters - Brat #1 and #2, as he used to call them - were hiding from their mother by bodyguarding Hei Xiong Junior - Lil Miss Malachite’s enemy - he’d held it over their heads. It was his way of getting back at them for all the bother they’d put him through in their childhood. Oh, and that time they tried to kill him, but that mattered less than the annoyance from having to babysit the girls in their teens.

“You’ve got a visitor.” The Malachite replied.

Melanie’s voice was dry and bored. Roman could tell she couldn’t care less… but he could. The only ones aware of his presence should be Junior, the staff, himself and Neo. Roman typically went to great pains to keep himself off the radar - after all, now that the police weren’t working for the Xiong family, they had proper incentive to actually do their jobs. Getting sloppy was always a risk for the crime lord… one that had cost him more than a few nice hotel rooms. Having someone track him down to Junior’s wasn’t a good sign. Whoever this was, they were either waiting for him or tailing him, and neither option made him particularly comfortable.

Of course, it helped that his potential stalker was a sight for sore eyes.

“Well~ Hello, gorgeous.”

As Melanie stepped to the side and descended back to the club itself, Roman took in the features of the woman before him. She had stark black hair, cut short and covering her left amber-touched eye. A red short dress with gold embroidering resembling an arrowhead on its front was held up by a strap crossed and circled around the lady’s neck, matching separated sleeves leaving the shoulders uncovered and connecting to her middle fingers. He didn’t allow his eyes to dance any lower than her midsection, but Roman could guess just what wasn’t covering the thighs and below. Her skin was a soft and warm complexion, touched by a light smile, almost feeling like a warm campfire…

Oh, she was dangerous. Roman already had his guard up.

“You’re Roman Torchwick, yes?” The woman asked, lightly touching the back of her right hand to her chin with a slight sway of her hips.

“Depends on who’s asking.” He replied, leaning against the doorframe.

“A potential…” She sat on the word for a brief moment. “Business partner. I have ambitions for Vale, and I thought it would do me well to put in a word with the boss around these parts.”

From her high position, Neo smirked at the sight of Junior at the bar, scowling for no discernable reason.

“You thought right.” Roman gave a little smile himself. Turning on his heel, he casually walked back into the booth, extending a hand for the woman to take. “Neo, drop the blinds, will you? We’re talking business.”

With a light nod and a smile as if playing the role of a flight attendant, Neo rose from her seat and moved to the blinds, closing the shutters of the room as the woman shut the door behind them. Roman walked back to the table in the center of the room, plucking an extra chair from its edge and placing it next to Neo’s chair as he did. Quickly relocating their drinks, Roman and Neo took seats right beside each other - the woman sitting at the other end.

“So, you know my name, but I seem to know nothing about yours.” Roman inquired. “Just who are you, beautiful?”

“Cinder.” She replied.

“Cinder~” Roman looked back to Neo with a teasing tone, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Neo lightly pouted, making a show out of not liking the attention Roman was giving this other woman. Roman lightly poked her on the nose in response, giving off a light laugh before turning back to the mysterious woman. “That’s a nice name. Nice dress, too. So what exactly are you coming to me for? You seem to have an idea of my reputation.” “That I do.” She smiled. Cinder’s face shadowed, still keeping the same warm smile on her face. “Roman Torchwick, come all the way from Mistral. You and your partner not only pulled one over on Lil Miss Malachite, but took Hei Xiong out at the same time. How impressive. That was - what - a few years ago? And they’re still crippled in Vale thanks to you.”

Neo didn’t like this.

Enough of playing the airheaded secretary. Shifting herself to place her back to Roman’s chest, Neo kicked her foot under the table, her heel catching the handle of Hush and pushing it into her waiting hand. The umbrella was in Cinder’s face in seconds, Neo’s hand hovering over the trigger to extend its blade and impale the crimson-garbed woman through the eye.

Cinder didn’t seem to be concerned.

“Alright, you’re clearly informed.” Roman’s voice had a bit of venom to it as he leaned in. “I’m not a fan of people I don’t know knowing my secrets. But… you did say you’re here for a business opportunity. Was that code for trying to blackmail a crime boss, or-?”

“How would you like to become the most notorious Dust thief in the world?”

Cinder’s words hung in the air. Silence for several seconds. Roman’s own words were cut off as his brain was running at the possibility, Neo glancing back to her partner with a concerned look-

Slowly, Roman pushed Hush to the side, removing the threat from Cinder.

An ambitious ember was in his eyes.

“...go on.”

NEXT: Criminal Business as Usual

#rwby #roman torchwick #neopolitan #cinder fall #rwby fanfiction #melanie malachite #junior xiong #mechanist gamma #roman red #roman red prologue #roman holiday

[rwby-roman-red]

The Preamble (FAQ)

Welcome to RWBY: Roman Red, a choose-the-adventure story starring a halloween-themed ne’er-do-well, a mute ice cream lady and lesbian Pinocchio! Jests aside, thanks for coming to check this out. I’m Mechanist Gamma, long-time RWBY fan and the writer of Roman Red. This story follows Roman Torchwick, Neopolitan and Penny Polendina in an alternate take on the events of RWBY, all stemming from a single change - two who would meet as enemies instead meeting first as friends. From the perspectives of Roman, Neo and Penny, you get to vote on where the story goes! What decisions will these three make, and how will it change their destinies in the ever expanding story of Remnant? Only time will tell.

Before we begin, some quick Q&A! This will be updated and added to over time as needed. Questions below the break.

If you'd rather jump straight into reading, here's the prologue!

Q: Finally, a RWBY story all about the best character! I can’t wait to see Roman become the actual hero of the adventure and- A: Stop right there. This is not a misinformed fix fic. I adore RWBY and where it went after V3, but I also consider Roman to be one of my favorite characters from the series. This is treated as not an alternative or replacement, but a side dish simply exploring an alternative to how things could have gone. The events of Roman Red will not be interfering with the core plotline of RWBY unless it makes sense to do so within the development of the narrative.

Q: If this isn’t a fix fic, what’s your aim with the story? A: On some levels, this is an experiment to see what happens by looking at Vale and the rest of Remnant from the eyes of the underworld. Roman Red can be treated as an unofficial followup to RWBY: Roman Holiday, the prime inspiration for this fic.

Q: Why is Penny involved? A: I’m sure you know that every RWBY character has an inspiration behind them, but did you know that Roman is based on Candlewick/Lampwick from Pinocchio? In the original tale, Candlewick is Pinocchio’s best friend who tempts him into sin in the Land of Toys and is ultimately exposed to a cruel fate as a result, Pinocchio eventually finding his old friend and helping him in his last days. The idea behind Penny’s involvement is to capitalize on that unspoken connection - have Candlewick lead Pinocchio into darkness, and just maybe have Pinocchio lead Candlewick into light.

Q: Roman and Neo are villains, but they’re being treated as the protagonists. Are you going to sanitize their characters? A: I have no intention of doing so. Roman and Neo are both bad people who do very bad things and may soon manipulate a teenage robot girl. That’s not to say they can’t improve, but I won’t be shying away from the nasty parts of these characters.

Q: What does it mean for this to be a "choose-the-adventure" story? A: The story of Roman Red will be written in portions. Every chapter will have several breaks midway through in order to end a chapter with a Tumblr poll which will determine where the narrative goes from here. This is inspired by the formula used for Quests, but dropping the gaming aspect in order to focus purely on the narrative.

Q: How will the story be presented? A: Roman Red will be posted in chunks here on Tumblr, but upon the completion of each chapter, it'll be posted to my Ao3 account. Tumblr users get to see the story as it develops and participate in the poll - Ao3 users get the story in full chunks!

I hope you all enjoy the story!

#rwby #rwby fanfiction #roman torchwick #neopolitan #penny polendina #roman red #roman red bonus content #mechanist gamma