#but he isn't even IN the tourney with DO he's just being their emotional support cowboy

[novankenn]

2am (Chp 5)

--== Table of Contents ==--

“Mommy isn't feeling very good right now. Az what would say to mommy to make her feel better?” Pyrrha choked, realizing after all this time, Jaune was still looking out for her in his own way.

“Feel better soon, mommy. I love you.” her daughter beamed at the camera.

She watched the saved video from her intervention. It had happened just over two years ago. She could remember Yang and Blake basically throwing her back first into the overstuffed armchair, set in the centre of two sofas in her mother's house. Seated on them with concerned expressions were her friends. She barely listened to their worries, concerns, and pleas.

It had been five years since Jaune had walked out of her life with their daughter, with her only having sporadic visits with her little angel during those years. She freely admits it now, that she was spiralling at that time. Two years ago, she had hit rock bottom. Skipping missions, drinking almost constantly, mixed with questionable relationships; some of a very violent nature; not to mention the pregnancy scares. Her sponsors cut her loose. Her licence was revoked. Everything had just collapsed in on her.

Now she was in the centre of a firing line. She ignored most of what was being said. Numbly nodding as she rolled her eyes. She remembered thinking how it was her choice. She could do what she wanted. It was her life. Then her mother played the video. The sight of her angelic looking daughter, seated in the very same chair she currently occupied. Looking up at the camera, the gap from a missing tooth prominent in her warm, loving smile. Long crimson trusses done up in the signature ponytail of her mother. Then came his voice. So soft and warm. It shattered her stubborn, misplaced resolve. Regrets flooded her mind. Missed holidays and birthdays. Warm and loving hugs from her little gift, and the one who had made Azalea a reality.

“Are you okay P-money?” came Yang's soft voice from her seat beside her.

“Just missing someone.” Pyrrha replied.

Even after a three month in a rehab program, she still held herself back from reaching out to Jaune. Even though her mother told her repeatedly that he wouldn't prevent her from seeing Az. She held herself back. Finding reasons to be absent during Az's twice-weekly sleepovers.

“P-money?”

“It's okay, just thinking about things that shouldn't have happened.”

“You can't keep doing that.” Yang told her, “You need to look to the future. You have a chance here, P-money. Don't fuck it up with that living in the past bullshit.”

Pyrrha nodded. She and Yang had just come from a rather informal meeting, with the Argus Cage Fighting Federation. It was a new sport that was starting to really climb in popularity, pushed by it being straight up no weapons, no semblance fights, between ex-hunters and other individuals with unlocked aura. With a fairly liberal sprinkling of theatrics. They had been gifted cage side seats, as a thank you for possibly of Pyrrha entertaining to signing on as competitor. To be honest, Pyrrha was really considering the choice. Having been blacklisted as a huntress, and the standard tourney circuit.

The chance to rebuild her reputation, and confidence, was tempting. Maybe if she signed on, she could feel worthy of seeing her daughter. Though, she was a little hesitant about the showmanship angles. Though the management did make it clear, quashing her fears; that they didn't care about her past troubles. Actually making the point that her climbing the ranks in the Women's division would make for the perfect redemption story.

So there she was, seated next to Yang, who was there as emotional support. Watching the fights, with some interest, and a practised eye. The gimmick of not being able to even actually use aura to boost abilities, or the use of semblances, was interesting. Aura was basically there to absorb punishment, and make the fights longer and be slightly more brutal, without a large chance for serious injury.

“Title match up.”

“Title match?”

“Yep. Light heavy championship. After that is the Heavyweight bout.” Yang informed Pyrrha as she looked at the match card she had picked up, a slick smile on her face. Pyrrha's eyes narrowed, Yang was up to something. She was sure of it.

The lights flickered, and the large video screen flashed to life, as “X gonna give it to ya [DMX]” blared over the sound system. The screen showed a slick promotional video for the fighter's gym and highlights from some of his past matches. The videos were a major "sell" point for the sport. Structured to not only promote the fighter but his or her backing gym.

“The challenger! Representing Gold's Fight Club... Weighing it at 168 pounds...” the announcer paused for effect, “NICKLE!”

Pyrrha had to nod. Nickle was a fine, and well put together, young faunus man. His dog ear trait proudly displayed. He wore nothing but yellow and blue trunks, with matching finger-less padded gloves; white athletic tape around his feet and ankles. His small entourage consisting of a young woman hanging off his arm, dressed in body hugging work out clothes. The pair was led to the ring by a rough looking deer faunus, who again proudly showed off his trait of antlers, and over his everyday clothes, a jacket with his club's name emblazoned on the back.

The cheers and adulation of the crowd for the fighter was unreal. The trio entered the cage, and moved to their assigned corner. The announcer prepared to make the next announcement only to be interrupted, “Bad Girls [NEFFEX]” start playing over the sound system. The crowd instantly went from adoration to hostile.

The video screen flickered and suddenly a very racy and sexualized gym promotional video started up. As a drop-dead gorgeous and glamorous woman, wearing high stiletto heels, and a red and black dress that looked painted on. She swayed her body in tune to the music before sauntering her way to the cage, and taking the mic from the ring announcer. Slowly, the music died away.

“Who is that?” Pyrrha asked leaning to her right in order to address Ms. Jade Primrose, one of ACFF's talent scouts, who was assigned to Pyrrha and Yang to address any questions they had.

“Ms. Cinder Fall. Runs the Fall School of Combat Arts.”

“Not very liked.”

“She's a headhunter. Has a small stable of really talented fighters, including our current Light Heavy Champion. Took him out from under Gold's Gym.”

“Let ME introduce the LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION! Representing the Fall School of Combat Arts... weighing in at 170 pounds...” she gave a pause, allowing her lips to curl into a seductive grin. “The Golden Boy... JAUNE ARC!”

Pyrrha's heart froze. She felt Yang's hand touch her shoulder and give her a gentle squeeze; but she didn't react, instead was totally focused on the figure stepping out from behind the entryway curtain.

“Hungry [The Hustle Standard]” ripped over the sound system, as the video screen changed, playing a blistering series of match endings. In the background, she could hear the roar of displeasure rising through the crowd. She was completely focused on the black zip-up hoodie wearing figure. She could see he was in a pair of thigh length black and red skin tight trunks. A set of matching coloured finger-less gloves on his hands' while his feet and ankles were wrapped in black athletic tape. Around his waist, a large leather belt with golden plates.

“You're a fucking traitor, Arc!” someone shouted from behind her, and for a split second Pyrrha wanted to whip around and physically shut his mouth.

As he made his way towards the cage, she saw the blood-red symbol of his sponsoring gym on the back of his hoodie. At the side of the cage, Jaune met up with Cinder; she removed the belt, draping it over her shoulder; before she very sensually took her time to strip him of his hoodie. Free of the black cloth, he exposed his well-defined body to the crowd. Pyrrha's breath caught in her throat. He looked good, the moustache and goatee giving him a mature look; but the sight of her emblem tattooed over his heart really did a number on her.

“Holy shit, VB looks good.” Yang commented.

The match flew by in a blur to Pyrrha. The action fast, hard and brutal. She barely heard the comments from Yang or Jade as she just focused on Jaune. He was good, no more than just good. He was a natural, as he attacked and defended with fluid precision. She blinked and it was over. A replay on the video screen showing Jaune landing a vicious Superman Punch to Nickel's head, scoring a knock-out.

“Hungry” started up again, as the crowd rained abuse down at the cage. She watched as Cinder sauntered her way up to him, the garish title belt draped over her shoulder. She leaned forward and gave Jaune a peck on his cheek as the ref held his left hand in the air. Pyrrha's stomach fluttered, as she could see Jaune was happy. He looked content, and satisfied.

#2am #jaune arc #pyrrha nikos #azelea arc #No Fall of Beacon #jaune and pyrrha had a child #implied PAST arkos #jaune arc x reese chloris #skater boi

[loregoddess]

Since I can't get enough of Triangle Strategy...

Benedict Pascal for the character ask!

oh nice, with this I’ll have written about 50% of the protags

First impression: I came into the game having watched all the trailers, 100% certain I was going to piss Benedict off to the point of him trying to kill Serenoa, just based on like, he seemed interesting but I am very much not an "end justifies the means" kinda person, and all the trailer stuff showed him offering suggestions that I thought were terrible. My first impressions after starting the game were a bit warmer, if cautious, since he's not too outrageous at the start of the game, although his voice acting is the most flat out of the four protags, and that left me uncertain how to gauge his character.

Impression now: Unsurprisingly, I did end up choosing the route which started with Benedict trying to kill Serenoa. That said, like all the other endroute betrayal battles, Benedict's fight with Serenoa gives an amazing amount of insight into his mind, and despite outright betraying him I ended up feeling really bad about doing so because by that point in the game he had actually grown on me a lot. I still think that 99% of his suggestions are terrible, and combing through the text from other routes revealed to me that this guy has even more baggage to unpack than Roland, but I also find him fascinating as a character. Like, if I had the time and energy, I'd want to go through the entire story script with a fine-toothed comb just to try and figure out what the hell is going on with Benedict. Also, in-battle he ended up being one of my favorite unites bc of how good his support skills were, especially Dragon's Shield once I got a hold of that.

Favorite moment: Hmm, okay bear with me a moment. The entire "Defend the Roselle" arc, but specifically like, after the battle when all seems hopeless until the "key" to proving Hyzante's lies gets brought. Like, at this point in the story Benedict isn't quite so hell-bent on preserving House Wolffort's legacy and is willing to go along with defending the Roselle, but you can still tell he hates being in a situation where he doesn't have the upper hand. But when that "key" gets mentioned, and he lights up and demands to know more, it's like, all that manipulative cunning he has actually gets used to aid Serenoa's goal at this point in the story, like it was the first time in my first playthrough where Benedict and Serenoa's goals actually felt aligned. It was really interesting to watch Benedict scrape together a plan from the dregs of hope that had been all but lost at that point. That being said, I also managed to get the uh, bad ending to that scenario, and as much as I didn't want the bad ending, I actually really loved the writing for that scene too, especially Benedict's bc despite his "survival first" nature, he chooses to remain by Serenoa's side, and then when he goes to tell Anna to save herself and she tells him she plans to remain by his side, and he seems so genuinely touched by that gesture. I dunno, he doesn’t let a lot of emotion show despite emotion fuelling most of his actions in the story, so it’s interesting to see when it does get expressed. Also, also, on my second playthough I noticed that during the scene where Regna is talking to Serenoa before the tourney, Benedict does this little cough when Regna asks what “Serenoa’s father” taught Serenoa about being a lord, and knowing when I knew from my first playthrough I was like “oh, oh”. It was a nice little touch.

Idea for a story: My usual more character interactions, but specifically I want to know more about what the heck happened with Destra, Symon, Regna, and Benedict, since Benedict avoids talking about that, and Erador kinda skates over it too. Also it would have been interesting to see a proper conversation between Benedict and Geela, since she seems to initially side with the “utility” choices a lot in voting segments of the game, and it would be interesting to see how their ideas of logic and utility align and clash. If I ever did take the time to really comb through the text and try to figure out what’s going on in Benedict’s head, I’d love to write a fic about him and Anna, although it’d end up being more Anna-centered probably, about her life growing up. Given how important Benedict is to her story I’d still need to know a lot about him and maybe even have segments of the story devoted entirely to his perspective to expand the narrative.

Unpopular opinion: I don’t really have one bc the general consensus seems to be “Benedict is a manipulative bastard” which like, he is, even if he’s got a lot of depth behind that, and it’s part of what makes him so interesting as a character. However, I do feel that despite the game setting up Benedict, Roland, and Frederica as three major convictions which Serenoa has to choose between, I feel like from a narrative perspective that Benedict and Roland were meant to work as foils or at least mirrors to each other. This comes from the fact that both are driven in part by a sense of guilt and self-loathing (with a sizable dash of self-esteem issues to boot), but how they express or react to these is wildly different. Benedict does everything himself, with his own strength, and his entire arc is about control; whereas Roland constantly looks to anyone but himself for strength, going so far as to give up his autonomy and control entirely. We see both of them spiral into the worst versions of themselves in their endroutes, with Roland giving up everything to Hyzante and entirely loosing his sense of morals (that being he is horrified by the treatment of the Roselle earlier in the game, but stands by and allows their suffering to continue in his endroute), and Benedict’s extreme control leading to him losing his sense of utility (since Serenoa’s ability to rule as king is obviously lacking and only works so long as Benedict is pulling the strings, meaning the entire Wolffort rule will fall apart after Benedict isn’t around to control things). The parallels between Roland and Benedict also continue in the golden route where each undergoes positive character growth, in that Roland’s able to find his own strength and regain control, and Benedict’s finally able to rely, and actually trust, others to help him, thus loosing his direct control over things by trusting others to help him. It’s very neat, but I haven’t really seen anyone talk about it, possibly bc the game really does push the “these are the three paths” which is very different from “Roland and Benedict are mirrors/foils, and Serenoa and Frederica are mirrors/foils”.

Favorite relationship: I find his father-daughter relationship with Anna fascinating, but I wish the game had expanded on it a lot more bc again, there is so much baggage to unpack especially with the information from Anna’s second character story. His dynamic and history with Erador is really interesting, although I don’t really ship them bc well, lots of baggage again but of a different kind. Likewise, he plays a really interesting role in Serenoa’s life as the steward of House Wolffort, but also as almost a second father-figure to Serenoa, and yet--especially with how the story branches--this isn’t always a healthy relationship, which is really interesting. I would fight someone to know more about Benedict’s relationship with Symon and Destra, especially Destra, bc her fate seems to be the driving force of a lot of his emotion and guilt and self-hatred, and I’m like...this is very interesting, who was this woman and what was her dynamic with Benedict like to inspire such strong devotion from him?

Favorite headcanon: I really want him to talk things out with Anna about her birth parents, and for the two to become closer as a family for it. Also, I’d like to think that post golden route, he’s able to unpack and deal with a lot of his personal issues, and is eventually able to come to a sense of peace within himself (whether by himself or via some sort of fantasy therapy, I don’t care which this guy just needs to work a lot of stuff out). Also he gets that retirement he so desperately needs, and gets to lead a nice and peaceful life afterwards. Not to keep talking about his death bc I don’t actually think he’s that old (early to mid 50s isn’t that bad honestly), but I imagine Serenoa makes sure Benedict gets a place in the Wolffort graveyard since he is very much a part of the Wolffort family.

#alynnl #''I can fix him'' ''I can make him worse'' well I want to stick him under a microscope and figure out what the hell is wrong w/ him #anyhow I do actually love Benedict despite his being a bit of a bastard he really grew on me and his writing is so interesting #I can't get enough of Triangle Strategy either and I enjoy talking about it so thanks for the ask again!! #ask game #I still don't have an ask tag