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supersaiyanjedi14 · 1 year

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RWBY COMBAT ANALYSIS: MERCURY BLACK

“I'm sorry you didn't have a mommy that loved you, but I had a father who hated me! He never went easy on me! Every day of training was a beating. And when I unlocked my Semblance, he stole it with his! ‘This is a crutch!’ ‘This makes you weak!’ He told me I could have it back when I was strong. So I got strong, but I never got it back! I've had to work harder than anyone to get where I am. You may not like it here without Cinder, but I think I'm right where I'm supposed to be!”

PHYSICAL

Aged in his early 20s, Mercury Black is a human male hailing from the kingdom of Vale, the son of the noted assassin Marcus Black. The young Mercury lived a life of violence and abuse, his early combat training colored by physical beatings and verbal beratement. In the Black household, natural strength and personal achievement were all that mattered, with Marcus going so far as to strip his son of his Semblance to force him to develop the hard way. Despite his utter failure as a parent, Marcus did succeed in crafting Mercury into a highly capable and ruthless combatant, making it only appropriate that he fought and killed his father roughly a year before the Fall of Beacon. Immediately afterwards, Mercury was approached by Cinder Fall, who recruited him as one of her primary agents in service to Salem. Though born as a typical human specimen, Mercury’s legs were amputated right above the knees at some point prior to the attack on Amber, necessitating a pair of cybernetic replacements. The legs were strong enough to endure a sustained blast of fire from Amber’s staff and likely possessed superhuman striking strength, which his fighting style fully leveraged. Given that he was able to attack Amber at range despite clearly not having his weapon attached, it is entirely possible that the legs were outfitted with wind Dust cannons, reinforcing his combat evasions.

Above the knees, Mercury was a baseline humanoid, standing at 6’2” and distinguished by his gray hair and eyes, pale skin, and slim athletic build. An exceptional athlete, his primary physical attribute was his remarkable agility, leveraged through his dynamic fighting style and intense yet nimble acrobatic jumps and lunges. He has dodged lighting strikes from Amber, evaded gunfire from Coco Adel, tagged Ruby Rose while she was using her Petal Burst (head-on I might add), and has casually kept pace with the likes of Pyrrha Nikos and Yang Xiao Long. Though seemingly excessive and flashy, Mercury was nimble enough to perform intricate contortions and spins while balanced on his hands alongside his parkour amid his combat sequences, fighting as a bizarre mix of freerunner and breakdancer. Though he favored kick-based martial arts, rarely employing punches, Mercury possessed sufficient dexterity and reflexes to leverage his hands for close-quarters defense, redirecting Yang’s punches during the Vytal Festival and holding off Emerald Sustrai in a fist fight. The only time Mercury’s mobility failed him was when Tyrian Callows pounced on him in Salem’s castle, and even this example was because he was caught off-guard. Mercury’s physical strength varied depending on which of his appendages he is hitting with. With his legs, he has staggered even heavily armored opponents with the force of his kicks and was able to shatter the arena floor with a single strike during his battle with Yang. With his arms, however, he had nothing to write home about, and in fact has been overpowered on several occasions, albeit only from dedicated heavyweights like Yatsuhashi Dachi and Yang.

Hardened by years of physical abuse, Mercury was all too familiar with pain and injury and knew better than most how to take a hit. Despite his laid-back sarcastic attitude, he possessed the martial discipline to roll with the punches and would break before he ever bent. Against Amber, he soaked up several elemental attacks that forced him to his knees, yet still maintained his composure and was still vital enough to escape from Qrow Branwen after the fight. Though he was manhandled by Yatsuhashi during the Vytal Festival, Mercury recovered quickly and continued to fight with no visible drain on his performance, digging deep and managing to overcome Team CFVY’s juggernaut. In his subsequent battle with Yang Xiao Long, Mercury had to be pounded into submission, taking the full brunt of Yang’s Burn-enhanced onslaught before going down. Even after his Aura was broken, Mercury was able to regain his feet and trick Yang into seemingly attacking a defenseless opponent, enduring the pain of her point-blank Ember Celica into his right leg and only needing cosmetic repairs before getting back on his feet the following evening. At Haven Academy, Mercury worked through a rematch with Yang and endured a headbutt from Ruby, and by the end of the lengthy battle was spry enough to retreat with only minor signs of fatigue. At the end of the day, I think we can agree that there is a reason why Salem paired Mercury up with the only one of her lieutenants able to reliably overcome him quickly when she dispatched him and Tyrian to Vacuo.

As he operated primarily as an assassin and infiltrator, Mercury’s MO was to be inconspicuous rather than imposing, blending in and striking unexpectedly. Accordingly, he favored simple clothing that minimized encumbrance and allowed for casual appearance. When he was dispatched to Vacuo with Tyrian Callows, he wore an orange trimmed blue shirt underneath a double-breasted gray leather jacket, accessorizing with gray vambraces with fingerless gloves, black cargo pants, and an orange keychain. Though they were typically concealed beneath his clothing, the durability of Mercury’s legs allowed them to function as built-in armor, providing a margin for error for his fancy feet.

RANKING: Tier 1.5, Partially Augmented Human

Mercury’s youthful athleticism is easily equal to or greater than the most capable human Huntsmen, and even though he only specializes in a single arena, he is still well-rounded enough to function in any role required of him, balancing forceful aggression with dynamic flexibility. His capabilities are further augmented by his cybernetics, his legs providing extremely durable bludgeons in combat and functioning as natural armor. Where Yang Xiao Long’s prosthetic was limited to only her right arm, Mercury’s paired set offers him greater protection and more leverageable options in combat. Though not enough to classify him as truly superhuman, he still has a literal leg up on your standard human.

MARTIAL

Mercury Black was armed with Talaria, a set of black metallic greaves outfitted with built-in firearms. Approximately 15 inches long, each greave was equipped with a circular drum of ammunition, while the metal plating extended to about halfway between his ankles and knees. The weapons appeared to be based around similar technology to the Ember Celica wielded by his rival Yang Xiao Long, with the obvious difference being that the triggering and reload mechanism was built to accommodate kicks rather than punches. By the time Salem’s forces arrived in Atlas, Mercury had added a set of sharpened metal wings to the heels, though whether these held combative purposes or were purely cosmetic is unconfirmed.

With every day of training being a beating in practice, Marcus Black taught his son how to be a fighter at a very early age, emphasizing physical conditioning and hand to hand combat. Despite amounting to an alcoholic thug of a human being, Marcus’s reputation as a combatant was well-known, and Mercury clearly benefitted from his father’s training, demonstrated when he narrowly defeated him in the burning ruin of their house. It was there that Cinder Fall found him, recruiting him as her primary enforcer and assassin in the leadup to the Fall of Beacon. Mercury served Cinder faithfully during that year, where he cut his teeth against the Fall Maiden Amber, acquitted himself well in a sparring match with Pyrrha Nikos, and fought evenly with Yang Xiao Long during the Vytal Festival. Despite his young age, Mercury was a hardened killer and utterly ruthless, his skill gaining the appreciation of his peers and even Salem herself. Like his rival Yang, Mercury was an unarmed martial artist first and foremost, his weapons being a literal extension of his body. His physical moveset was powerful yet fluid, alternating between an array of kicks and leg sweeps to trip up, stagger, and bludgeon the opponent. Highly mobile, Mercury often employed flying acrobatics to add power to his strikes, best seen when he slammed into Fulcrum at full force during his battle with Yatsuhashi Dachi and later an overhead scissor-kick when squaring off with Yang, in addition to nimble evasions to avoid injury. Despite this brutal offensive stance, Mercury also utilized his flexibility for disorientation and defense. He favored breakdancing-like spins and gyrations to distract the opponent while he slipped in counters, executing his kicks with great precision when necessary. When he adopted more grounded stances, Mercury used these same maneuvers in the form of sweeping roundhouse kicks, staggering the opponent and setting up for a powerful follow-up. His control and finesse was further expressed in his marksmanship, turning his upright hammer kicks into projectile volleys that he has used for both focused takedowns and to create his Dust whirlwinds. This sophisticated yet vicious style was reinforced with hand-based defensive parries, intercepting upper body attacks with deft deflections and light punches, setting up for counters while their attention was taken up.

“Raised” by a murderous assassin, Mercury Black had little regard for honorable conduct or the well-being of others, a callousness that was reflected in his tactics. He favored ambush and surprise, catching the opponent with their pants down and hitting them where it hurt most. His use of psychological warfare was emphasized by his tendency to interrupt the opponent and kick them while they were down, messing with their concentration and preventing them from bringing their full might to bear. In pitched combat, he used his erratic fighting style to blindside the enemy and keep them guessing while giving himself an opportunity to bypass their defenses. When the situation allowed for hit, he employed verbal taunts to distract and provoke, keeping you off balance by being a sketchy asshole. Subvert and overwhelm. Though he was silent during the attack on Amber, Mercury still kept the Fall Maiden on her toes by rushing in to blitz her when she least expected it, forcing Amber to lean heavily on her Maiden powers to compensate. When sparring with Pyrrha Nikos, Mercury’s stronger core technique allowed him to bully through her standard sword-and-board technique and disarm her, though Pyrrha turned the tables by leveraging her Semblance to deflect and repel him, prompting a forfeit after he took her measure. During the Vytal Festival, he and Emerald Sustrai went up against Coco Adel and Yatsuhashi Dachi in the Doubles Round, and they proceeded to turn the battle into a guerrilla ambush. They opened by slipping into the grasses and goading Coco into focusing on that while they slipped away. They followed this up with Mercury blindsiding their opponents from the sky, expertly pinballing between the two in close quarters while leaving Coco vulnerable to Emerald’s BFR yank. Though Yatsu managed to gain ground and nearly overpower him, Mercury recovered his momentum and squared off evenly with the giant before kicking him into an environmental hazard, leaving him open to a finishing kick. Arguably Mercury’s greatest display of skill as a martial artist was his duel with Yang Xiao Long in the Singles, fighting evenly with RWBY’s heavyweight and overbearing her several times, only losing when she used her Semblance to brutalize him. While it is true that Mercury threw the fight as part of Cinder’s plans, this does not change the fact that the two were clearly on equal footing and pressuring such a talented up-and-coming fighter is no mean feat.

Mercury was devious and tricky, but he was often afflicted by his own cocky attitude. He tended to go too far with his taunts and get careless, which has given many of his opponents chances to rally from setbacks and fight back before he wised up. Though Yang’s Semblance may have granted her the win regardless, Mercury let his guard down immediately after kicking her to the ground, making their final bout a series of hits he didn’t need to take. During their rematch at Haven Academy several months later, Mercury pressed his advantage, exploiting Yang’s shock of Weiss Schnee’s impalement, but his and Emerald’s attempt to encircle her was interrupted by Ruby Rose, who rushed in to defend her sister. In the ensuing melee, Mercury managed to disarm Ruby, but chose the moment to mock her for her supposed helplessness, leaving him exposed to a retaliatory headbutt, a failing made even more egregious given Ruby’s middling unarmed combat skills. While Mercury continued to acquit himself well, fighting through the eventually arrival of Blake Belladonna and escaping with the others, this incident demonstrated how careless Mercury could become when his success went to his head, especially against opponents ostensibly below his own level. Furthermore, he himself was vulnerable to psychological taunting, especially when the comments were directed towards his deep-seeded issues regarding his father. His brief exchange with Emerald saw him angrily berating her for her blind loyalty to Cinder, yet a few choice words from Tyrian Callows were enough to set him off and leave him flat on his back. Mercury preferred to keep things close to the chest, preventing his opponents from digging their psychological hooks into him even as he tried to hook them himself. In his fights with Yang, Mercury drew a fine line between messing with Yang’s head and actively provoking her, the anger he stoked in her putting him on the hot seat against a level of force he wasn’t prepared for. Mercury was at his best when in his comfort zone, his fighting style and tactics allowing him to off-balance the opponent while dismantling their defenses. If the opponent refuses to be provoked or can work through his interference, he can get in trouble very quickly, the leg Yang blasted at the Vytal Festival being an uncomfortable reminder of his oversights.

RANKING: Tier 3, Standard Mastery

Mercury’s training, technique, and feats speak to a highly skilled martial artist who is, at worst, still comparable to the great masters of his day. His core fighting style balances out dynamic energy with deft flexibility, while his tactical outlook tempers his vicious aggression with ruthless pragmatism. Mercury Black’s priority is always to come out ahead, without a thought to being elegant or nice. He will take you down however he has to and if he doesn’t have to fight fair, he won’t. However, his success is predicated on his control, and if he is confronted by an opponent who he can’t overpower or undercut, he can get into trouble very quickly, while his arrogant posturing makes him prone to tactical blunders. Though given his parity with the likes of Yang and Pyrrha, getting Merc into that kind of trouble will still be an uphill battle.

SPECIAL

The day his son unlocked his Semblance, Marcus Black used his own to steal it, telling the young Mercury that it was a crutch that interfered in the way of obtaining true strength. Regardless of whether Marcus was expressing his personal philosophy or simply being a manipulative bastard, these words would be taken to their natural extreme when Mercury killed his father before he had a chance to restore his powers. As a result, Mercury Black spent his entire career without a Semblance, a factor that made him extremely unique among his peers. Though his lack of special abilities left him somewhat handicapped, Mercury was not helpless and had learned, or rather been forced to learn, to work within him limits. Like his former associate Roman Torchwick, Mercury primarily compensated for his lack of a Semblance by dedicating himself wholly to his mastery of physical combat, to the point where he was able to contend with more powerful adepts by dominating them and preventing them from bringing their full power to bear. Against Amber, he simply evaded her lightning strikes, powered through her flame burst, and endured the flurry of frozen leaves she threw. Against more conventional Huntsmen, he dialed up his precision and control, aiming for critical strikes that would screw with their attempts to use their Semblances. When confronted by Ruby Rose during the Vytal Festival, he intercepted her Petal Burst and kicked her back, delaying her long enough to allow Pyrrha and Penny Polendina’s duel to escalate. Ruby only got around Mercury by dodging around and generating an exceptionally powerful burst of speed, but by then it was too late.

Though Mercury lacked a Semblance, he was not completely lacking in the supernatural plane. Like many of his contemporaries, Mercury readily incorporated Dust into his primary loadout, using elemental gunpowder to weaponize nature itself. In his case, steam Dust, crafted by mixing fire and water, was his weapon of choice, outfitted into Talaria to create instantaneous smokescreens with just a pump of his foot. When choosing to resort to a more direct approach, his preferred tactic was to fire a volley of Dust projectiles into the air, often used in conjunction with grounded gymnastics, to create a whirlwind of area-effect power. Furthermore, I believe that wind Dust was also a component in Mercury’s arsenal, enabling his fine control over his storms by directing the air currents. This extended to being able to direct his shots to specific targets, a possibility glimpsed when two shots against Yatsu and Coco took on almost heat-seeking properties. Also seen in the Doubles Round of the Vytal Festival, Mercury closed the distance by unleashing a contained tornado before condensing it into a dense fog, using the cover to ambush his targets and providing Emerald an opening to ensnare Coco. Additionally, this Dust-augmented attack could be used for offensive purposes as well, concentrating the blasts into a steamy blitzkrieg. During his fight with Yang, Mercury encompassed the brawler with his storm, distracting her and leaving her open to a surprise kick before immediately directing the bursts to target her once she hit the ground, briefly pummeling her into submission. Otherwise, Mercury has been seen using his Dust for tactical support and improving his acrobatics, using the bursts to propel himself around the battlefield. The best example of this was in his battle with Yang, where he used a burst of air to save himself from falling out of the ring, turning a flying takeoff into an acrobatic recovery.

Despite his limited special abilities, Mercury was intelligent enough to utilize what he had effectively, working around his lack of personal powers by overbearing the enemy in physical combat and blindsiding them with elemental force to enable his treacherous ambushes. However, much like his general tactical outlook, Mercury was at his best when he had the element of surprise, and his tendency to let success go to his head had sometimes prevented him from utilizing his tools effectively. Despite their distraction, Coco and Yatsu were still able to maintain their composure and intercept his follow up strike, and it was only Emerald’s sneak attack that properly separated them. Furthermore, even though Dust is incredibly powerful, it does not always bring the exact power needed to overcome the enemy. When Mercury threw that storm at Yang, she was briefly disabled but unimpeded, using the hits to power up her Semblance and pound Mercury into the mat.

RANKING: Tier 5, Limited Combat

Mercury Black’s special abilities are wholly tied to his use of Dust, his lack of a Semblance meaning that he has nothing to bring to the table in turn. Like Roman Torchwick, Mercury owes his success to mundane countermeasures and external forces he can manipulate, though his regular Dust armament means that he has a step above the crime lord. As visually spectacular as Mercury’s Dust storms are, they clearly aren’t powerful enough to decisively end the conflict, instead owing more to tactical support and just another way to shoot a gun. Dust Ammunition is easily the most limited combative application of Dust, with Mercury’s success determined by his creative uses rather than his destructive might.

OVERALL RANKING: TIER 4, EXPERT HUNTSMAN

Mercury Black’s final placement is determined by his exceptional performance levels as well as his practical shortcomings. Mercury has all the trappings of a great master-level fighter, his combat feats and elevation within Salem’s inner circle speaking for themselves, but he is severely limited by what his father stole from him. Physically, his cyborg legs put him a cut above most adversaries, but his athleticism can still be challenged by normal humans with similar training. His martial skills are versatile and deadly, more than enough to contend with the best of the best, but his arrogance and pessimism have on occasion undercut his otherwise capable tactical skills and gotten him in over his head. And with his Semblance stolen, all he is bringing to the table is Dust ammunition, an exhaustible resource with limited capabilities. To be fair Mercury’s use of his Dust is very creative and flexible, making it a very valid tool in his arsenal, but its ability to decisively end the conflict is restricted. Due to his Semblance being stripped away, Mercury’s success in combat is tied to his supremacy as a physical combatant and the mundane countermeasures he has adopted. While he deserves a great deal of credit for what he has been able to accomplish despite his disability, he does have significant limits.

Despite his similarities to his rival Yang, I actually find Mercury’s more direct analogue to be his late contemporary, Roman Torchwick. His cyborg legs provide him with a similar anatomical edge to Roman’s physical hardiness, both are high-performance and treacherous martial artists who can operate well in both general and single combat, and both get around their lack of ethereal powers by undercutting and countering the powers of others. Even their tactical outlooks are superficially similar, teaching them that the best way to score a win is to fight dirty. However, where Roman’s loftiness led to him growing complacent and simply being good enough, Mercury’s drive to prove himself and rise above what his father thrust upon him allowed him to stack the building blocks of greatness, coming into his own as one of Salem’s direct subordinates and even casually walking away from Cinder Fall’s direct orders. Mercury Black has more than escaped from the shadow of Marcus Black as a warrior. All that remains is to see if he can do the same for his soul.

*originally posted on RoosterTeeth Community page on 05-31-21*

*all images taken from RWBY Wiki *

RWBY Combat Analysis

#rwby #rwby combat analysis #mercury black #rwby mercury #salem's faction #partially augmented human #standard mastery #limited combat

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fadedneonzzz · 2 years

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I wonder if Cinder’s Vacuo outfit will have elements of her Vytal Festival outfit.

This is probably her most underrated design, and it gives me that desert explorer vibe (even though she claimed to be from Haven/Mistral).

#rwby #cinder fall #i think this is the most casual outfit cinder has #which is pretty interesting

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claralaclarividente-fics · 3 years

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Life is Dream: A Rosegarden story

Chapter 1- Once Upon A Time

Ruby’s eyes watered as the crisp air breezed in front of her face as she fell.

She had watched as her two teammates swooped down the void, only to be swallowed by a golden glimmer. By then, time had slowed down, and she thought about what could happen. Only to be eclipsed by the thought of her sister alone, wherever she might have ended up, waiting for her.

The battle had been arduous, and she had had a hard time tracking down her friends’ whereabouts during most of it, but when it had all quieted down, when Nora had placed a hand on her shoulder with a million questions in her blue eyes, the roar of the answer thumped in her ears.

Penny had understood right there and then, hugging her friends one by one- ‘do what you have to do.’

Jaune nodded gravely, thinking that if he were in their position, he’d do anything to bring his teammates back. ‘We’ll take it from here on out.’

There was no guidance, no certainty of what could happen, of what laid beyond the darkness. But Blake was trembling, her grasp on Gambol Shroud whitening her knuckles. Weiss held on Blake, afraid she might jump alone.

The decision had been made.

A tingling sensation distracted her thoughts, and with a rueful wonder she realized golden shimmers began to dance on her skin.

‘This is it, then.’ She barely had the ability to think before lighting gold consumed her. She felt herself fall asleep and tiredly closed her eyes.

Oscar opened his eyes at the insistence of Emerald. She had probably been trying to shake him awake for a while now judging by the tender expression she tried to conceal with fake annoyance.

Sitting up on his bed, he noticed that the quarters he shared with the rest of his team was empty.

The sunlight streamed harshly through the willowing blinds, telling him that it was way too late to be sleeping.

“Should have woken you up earlier but you nearly fell asleep on your dinner last night, so we thought it would be better to let you sleep in a bit more.” She explained as she slid open her Scroll, checking the itinerary for the day.

Mind still heavy with sleep, Oscar placed his bare feet on the cold floor. The frigid clay under his soles roused him enough so he began mentally preparing for the day.

“What have we got today on the agenda?”

Emerald rolled her eyes and thrusted a paper bag into the teen’s hands.

“Breakfast rolls with honey. Seriously Oscar, you barely ate last night and now you’re insisting on intermittent fasting? This is why even Little Red’s taller than you!” She jeered at his sudden bouts of sleepiness over the past month.

Oscar smiled, pained. Everyone up until now had been walking on eggshells regarding team RWBY, hushing down when they mentioned them, fearing guilt and sadness. But Emerald, who in her pragmatism did what had to be done, and said what needed to be said, did not care too much about being gentle with expectations.

It was weird. A month had passed since the exodus from Mantle and Atlas, and the remaining members of team JNPR were crestfallen, yet tried to ignore the growing negativity stemming in their hearts. They treated Oscar with care, trying to ignore the four missing links in their lives.

Surprisingly, Emerald and Penny were the only ones keeping hope.

Penny was hopeful and reverent. She had been made of alloy, bolts and dolts. But now she wore shoes, sand was annoying, and she could taste food. Anything was possible in this wide world of theirs.

For Emerald, it was more about seeing impossible feats of ancient wonder, something in her ears whispering that there were more incredible feats of magic to be revealed in her time alive. She felt that third chances in life were rare, and thus, grasped at its stray hairs strongly.

So they stuck by Oscar as the task of repatriation began at dawn and ended at dusk.

It had been a grueling month at Vacuo, nobody was happy to have the Atlesians in their land. The citizens of Mantle fared better, they had been humbled when they huddled close together back at the crater in the Motherland. But the Atlas elite? They could not wait for Mistrali ships to come in hoards to get them to colder ground. They revolted, nothing was up to their elevated standards.

But Theodore was nothing but pragmatic, as all Vacuans were, and a night off in the deserts shut the bunch of them up. The ones who made it back that is.

“Alright, I’ll stuff my face with honeyed bread rolls and spiced tea if it makes you happy.” Conceded Oscar after he tied up his boots and threw on the airy cotton cape on his shoulders. He had decided on a lighter fabric for his stay in Vacuo, the gauzy green tunic emboldened with red and white trimmings, and his loose cotton pants were good enough for the mighty sun that beat on the roofs of the deserts.

Emerald smiled despite herself. She and Penny had taken on the big sister role whenever Nora wasn’t there to mother Oscar to hell and back. It had taken some time to get used to, but for anyone that was not privy to the Fall of Beacon, Emerald was just Oscar’s older sister, who emerged at the Fall of Atlas.

Over the course of the weeks she proved herself, as a true Vacuan, and as a true ally.

“C´mon then. There’s a bunch of convoy ships from Argus and Vale willing to take in some snooty idiots in exchange of supplies. Don’t make Nora wait for you more, she’s missed on her hugging quota for the morning.” With a pat on his head, Emerald walked Oscar to the door, and off they were.

The day blurred by Oscar’s eyes, now and again stifling an inconvenient yawn, but nevertheless, persisted during the course of his workday.

Every day there were less Atlesians to send off, and less Mantle citizens who wanted to leave. Like May tended to say, Mantle knows how to show their teeth.

The migratory system they had built recorded every single citizen that wanted to leave or stay under Theodore’s watchful eye. The controls were harsh since there was no way to know if Neopolitan had blended into the crowd at all. Given that Emerald told Theodore and every staff member in Shade that they were to expect Tyrian and Mercury sooner rather than later, security had been the top priority these days.

In between tending to the wounded and sick, delivering supply packets to the tents of refugees, and breaking up fights, Oscar was beat by dusk.

By that time, Theodore insisted Oscar to keep their sparring sessions until he felt that Oscar moved and fought with more fluidity than the day before.

“Squirt,” Theodore would say, “I know Oz has taught you some things, but he was a dandy and thought that battle was graceful matter.” The rippled headmaster would flex and show him how merciless battle was.

Under the strongman’s tutelage, Oscar’s body ached and grew. With Ozpin’s mentoring in his head, his magic grew and he felt something inside of his soul bubble to the surface.

But at the end of the day, when Jaune was sitting right by his side, and Nora was babbling a ten miles per second into his hearing canal, he felt his shoulders drop their tension. He shot a thankful glance at Ren, who was casually conversing with Emerald, but still kept an eye on the youngest of their group. Penny and Nora, two ginger parakeets with insurmountable force and joy lulled his thoughts, until he sagged forward and faceplanted in his tomato soup.

The resounding splash alerted Jaune who quickly pulled Oscar’s face from the cold soup by grabbing him by the collar of his tunic. Oscar’s lack of reaction, and his fluttering eyelids greeted the blond huntsman, flooding him with worry.

The chatter died.

Nora leaned the boy to her side and grabbed his tanned cheeks, wet with stock, and panicked at his quivering eyelids.

Semi-conscious as he were, Oscar saw the motions at the table like photographs forming a standstill gallery inside his mind, the sounds dull and his feeling numb.

Nora and Emerald crowding over him, worried expressions marring his face.

Penny and her cold hands framing his cheeks, her confused expression.

Jaune’s golden aura around his vision as it tunneled.

Lastly, Theodore’s frown before he closed his eyes and tumbled into sleep.

__________________________________________

Ruby tumbled out of bed confused.

Her heartbeat alert and scared, her eyes darted to the four walls surrounding her. Sweet and spices reached her nose, the colourful walls held handmade tapestries and idyllic paintings. The rug that had cushioned her fall was fluffy, and the blanket tangling in her legs felt like a familiar hug.

“Where am I?”

Ruby struggled to stand up, and once she did, she gasped at herself.

In front of her, a mirror held her image. But it was all wrong. She wore a frilly white dress, with white stockings, red lace and ribbons, and her hair was tied in two tiny pigtails. She looked adorable.

And she hated it.

“Where’s-“ she looked at the nearest wardrove, and opened its doors as fast as she could. Rifling through the cutesy dresses, she was taken aback by a familiar skirt.

Holding the black dress with the black combat skirt, she wondered how her Beacon outfit appeared in the room she was in.

She stopped dead on her tracks.

“I’m not in Atlas anymore, am I?”

Clutching the dress to her chest, she slid down to the carpeted floor. She felt a bubble of panic come over her as she remembered the last events of her life.

“Right, Neo struck Yang, and Yang… She fell. We fought Cinder. And she died. I think. Then we…jumped.”

Ruby looked her hands over, turning them this way and that, as if they were given to change at any moment now.

“And-“ Ruby wheezed, close to hyperventilation. She trembled as she remembered flashes of the fight against Cinder, how Blake evolved her Semblance and fought as three copies of herself, about Neo striking the wrong Blake, and being fallen by the original one. Cinder taunting how she used Jinn, revealing their plans. Penny fell to the golden plateau, and then in a fit of rage, silver.

No more Cinder. Probably.

Her heart running like a wild animal under her chest, she took deep breaths as she tried to calm down. She rubbed the black fabric between her thumb and pointer finger, the texture was light to the touch. In the bottom frill, she found her name embroidered by her own hand. It was supposed to be comforting, but it only fueled her confusion.

A few tears threatened to spill, but then several knocks on the door startled her.

“Darling! Breakfast is ready!” a familiar voice called out to her outside the door.

In a haze, Ruby stood up and let the dress fall from her hands. She marched to the door and opened it in a swift motion, scaring the poor woman in front of it.

“Little Red! What sort of behaviour is this!?” An old woman that looked and sounded like María Calavera chided her, hands on her hips as she glowered annoyed at the teen.

“María! It’s you!” Elated, Ruby swooped in to hug the woman, who patted her back confusedly.

“Oh dear, now you’re calling your grandma by her first name too! Did you hit your head when you woke up this morning? What’s wrong with you?” Not-María held Ruby at arms length, checking her head for any injuries.

“Huh?”

Not-quite-María tutted, before guiding Ruby by the hand to the kitchen area of the cottage they seemed to be in.

“Little Red, you seldom ever visit me, and now you’re calling me by my name! Your mother hasn’t been disciplining you as she should!”

More confused than ever, Ruby sat on the stool offered by Not-Really-María.

The old woman sighed before plopping a plate of sausages, beans with crema and tortillas in front of her.

“Repeat after me, Little Red: Abuela María. Ah..Boo-Eh-Lah. Abuela.” Ruby looked at Abuela María in mild shock.

“Abuela?”

The Abuela María nodded satisfied and patted her hand.

“Now, after we finish mending that cape of yours, please give this basket of goodies to your mother for me. Oh! And thank her for the nice fabrics she sent with you, will you?”

Still starstruck, Ruby stared at Abuela María, not yet understanding anything that was happening in front of her.

“My…mother?”

Abuela María nodded, quite exasperatedly at her not-quite-granddaughter. She flipped her gray-haired braid over her shoulder and began repairing the red cape as she mumbled about ‘youth these days’.

“Yes, dear. Summer Rose. My daughter, your mother.”

More confused than anything, Ruby brought her hand up and mercilessly slapped her cheek. Abuela María looked at Ruby curiously, halting her sewing for a moment before resuming.

“But-but!” Ruby stuttered, holding her stinging cheek under her palm. “We don’t look anything alike!”

“My dear!” began Abuela María. “Silver eyes run in our family! Look!”

Abuela María removed her thick rimmed glasses and pointed at her eyes.

But all Ruby could see was a puckered red bruise, swollen and hurt. It slashed from her right temple to her left, there was not much to be said about eyes, as there were none.

Feeling not quite in a dream, but more in a bizarre nightmare, she stood up, the wooden stool clattering behind her.

Abuela María, with her glasses still removed and acting normally, bit off the last thread on the eye of her needle and folded the red cape neatly, offering it to Ruby.

Smiling sweetly, but with her disturbing red scarring across her visage, she gifted Ruby a basket filled with fruits, cheeses and breads, and pushed her through the cabin’s threshold.

Ruby looked petrified at the old lady that looked like her mentor but was nothing like her.

“Take this basket to your mother, will you? Be careful of the Big Bad Wolf, don’t let it bite you!”

Laughing merrily, the old woman closed the door on Ruby, leaving her alone in the cabin’s porch.

Jarred and perturbed, Ruby walked away from the cabin thoughtlessly, and into the winding roads that crossed the forest.

Only once she reached a small ravine, did she sit on the forest floor and pushed to her face the cape that smelled like home, like Yang and Qrow and Weiss and Blake and everyone she knew, did she weep.

For the longest time she cried, but after a while she felt her tears dry up, her shoulders stopped their heaving, and her heart dulled to a somber beat.

Ruby wiped her tears with the cape and splashed her face with the cool water from the ravine. She looked at her reflection, and disliking the pigtails pulling the hair at her nape, she tugged at the elastics and ruffled her hair. She bunched the skirt in her fists.

Annoyed at her dress, she looked down to it expecting to see white ruffles on white lace, she was caught off guard when she found herself wearing a black version of the dress she had woken up into.

As much as she marveled at this feat of reality writing itself, she feared it.

Taking one last look at her reflection, and tugging on the hood on her cape, she trudged into the deep forest, following the map she was given and hoped for the best.

#rwby vol8 #rwby #rosegarden #rosepine #rwby bmblb #rwby bmblby #ruby rose #oscar pine #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #weiss schnee #nora valkyrie #lie ren #jaune arc #emerald sustrai #penny polendina

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berrynarrybanana · 3 years

Text

Mrs. Styles - Honeybee Extra

A/N: I would like to let you all know that I don’t know what happened here. I started writing at the beginning of my shift and I just didn’t stop and then bam, this happened? I have links to the outfit and other things mentioned in the fic below. I hope you enjoy the visual trip and the journey of this fic as it is a whirlwind ride. Please let me know if you enjoy this and please tell Harry to stop trying to kill me if you see him, kay? I love you all and I’m here if you need to talk!

Rental House | Outfit |

Word Count: 3k+

Warnings: Daddy kink, impreg!kink, roleplay

November 2020

The second the photos broke, I lost it.

Harry wearing a wedding ring on the set of his new film sent me reeling in a pit of lust and wanting unlike any other. I spent my entire afternoon clenching my thighs together and avoiding small talk with coworkers. I was meant to fly out on Friday afternoon to visit him for the weekend, but I was struggling to hold it together. The wedding band on his finger was taunting me from two thousand miles away and I was caving. Anna had no problem with me disappearing a little early, so long as I had my laptop with me and my articles submitted.

My flight was switched for Thursday morning instead of Friday evening as originally planned. I had to jump through some hoops to ensure no one actually saw me entering JFK or leaving LAX. Having pap photos taken of me would certainly ruin my surprise. I spent too much time hatching my plan for a group of sleazy men with camera’s to ruin it.

“Why are you dressed like that?” Harry rubbed at his eyes, his voice scratchy and his brain groggy due to the early hour. “You look like you’re going on a run.”

“I’m doing a bunch of errands for Anna today, so I decided to dress casual.” I shrugged, shifting around in my private lounge seat at the airport. “I’m waiting for a friend of hers to get off their flight before I take them into the office.”

“Thought you were hopping on your flight a little early to surprise me.” He pouted, his eyes shining under the dim lighting. “Made my heart race a little.”

“I wish I could, darling.” I said softly. “I miss you so much already and it’s barely been two weeks.”

“I know, it sucks.” He inhaled sharply, shaking his head. “Only one more sleep and then we’ll be together for the weekend.”

“I can’t wait, squid.” I said softly. “I’ll talk to you later today, okay? Don’t be upset if I can’t answer a text or anything, I’ll be so busy with Anna’s errands-”

“S’alright, honey.” He gave me a reassuring smile. “I’ll be on set so I might not be able to text as often either.”

“Alright.” I said. “I love you.”

“I love you.” He blew a kiss to the camera and I caught it, pressing my fingers to my cheek with a soft giggle. “Have a great day, honey.”

“You too, squid.”

After I hung up with Harry, I jumped into planning mode.

I already had the address to the rental house and a copy of the key. Harry had sent it to me the moment he got one himself just in case I ever wanted to come visit. We both knew that flight times and his filming schedule might not line up perfectly, so it didn’t hurt to have a key just in case I had to drive from LAX to Palm Springs on my own. I planned on stopping at the Malibu house to steal Roxanne from the garage. It would take me two hours and a half hours to get from Malibu to Palm Springs once I finally started my solo road trip.

As I switched over to a calming playlist that Harry made for me on my birthday, I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths.

I knew that it would be a fun trip, but I could only hope that Harry really liked his surprise.

****************************

The sun was beating down on my bare legs as I leaned against Roxanne.

I anxiously twirled the set of keys around my perfectly painted fingernails. I picked one of the most infamous shades from the 1950’s to match my hair, makeup, and outfit. I rubbed my painted lips together nervously, taking a shuddery breath as I watched the gate of the production set carefully. I thought that it was going to open four times before, but no one had stumbled off set yet.

They were all set to do a two hour lunch break today and that gave me plenty of time to do what I wanted with Harry back in his rental home. I spent most of my time getting ready there, following several tutorials on vintage hair and makeup before I dressed in my adorable outfit. It was something I saw on a show about a female comedian in the fifties. I adored her style throughout the whole show, but I really loved this outfit on me.

It was a pair of black and white check shorts with a matching, three quarter sleeve blazer. I went through Harry’s closet, in search of his ivory silk shirt that I’d seen him wear in a pap photo years ago, to add a little special touch to the outfit. It had his last name stitched on the pocket to compliment the fake wedding ring I’d slipped on my finger.

That was the part I was nervous about.

I didn’t want him to think that I was insane for finding a piece of costume jewelry to match his own fake wedding ring. I got the idea on the flight over from New York, my mind racing with ideas and scenarios to play out. I ultimately decided that if he could torture me with a wedding ring, then I could torture him with one.

The gate finally opened as I started to contemplate picking my nails, a loud screeching sound pulling me from my thoughts as I gripped the keys to the benz in my hand tightly.

Florence was the first out, and while I was delighted to meet the girl who was spending so much time with my boyfriend, I didn’t care to meet her just yet. I watched her turn back, letting out a charming giggle as my boyfriend followed suite behind her. Olivia Wilde was next, a bag on her shoulder and a wide smile on her face. A few other familiar faces trailed out after Harry, and suddenly, my nerves had skyrocketed. A lot of famous people were about to see me in a classic fifties get up with a car scarf around my curls and my legs exposed.

My nerves were soothed for just a moment as I looked at Harry’s freshly cut hair, slicked back in a style that I thought I would hate on him. As per usual, he looked like a daydream. My breath caught in my throat when he looked over at me, his eyes growing wide and a smirk pulling at the corner of his lips. Florence caught on to his line of sight, following his gaze until her eyes landed on me. I gave him a quick wave as everyone else turned to look at me and I felt my face grow hot. He pressed a quick kiss to Olivia’s cheek and then Florence’s before jogging my way.

“What the hell is all this?” He gripped my elbow gently, leaning down to press his lips to mine with a wide smile. “Beatrice, you look so good.”

“I know.” I hummed against his lips, brushing my fingers over his cheek. “Hi.”

“Hiya, honey.” He cooed, wrapping his arms around me. “Fuck me, you’re gorgeous.”

“I thought I’d do a little something to surprise you.” I wrapped my arms around his neck, tossing my head back when he pulled the scarf from my head. “Harry!”

“You did your hair and makeup, too?” He kissed my cheek. “Come on, I want you to meet Olivia and Florence. They’re going to love this.”

“I don’t want her to think I’m mocking her movie.” I glanced down at Harry, causing him to frown slightly. “I did it because I knew you would love it and I had a lot of fun dressing up, but I don’t want to offend her.”

“You won’t.” He reassured me. “She’ll probably make you an extra.”

“Shut up.” I rolled my eyes as he pouted. “Fine, I’ll go over there.”

“Thank you.” He set me down, grabbing my hand before tugging me along.

“Olivia, Florence,” Harry glanced back at me with a giddy grin. “This is my girlfriend, Beatrice.”

“Hello,” I stuck my hand out between us and they both went for a shake. “It’s really nice to meet y’all.”

“You too.” Florence beamed back at me with a smile that was almost as bright as the sun. “I just want to thank you for letting me borrow your boyfriend. He’s such a lovely person and a dream to work with.”

“Try baking with him, you’ll change your mind.” I squeezed Harry’s hand, letting out a soft chuckle. “He’s like a toddler when he gets in the kitchen.”

“I can’t imagine him in an apron.” Olivia laughed. “We have to see that.”

“I have pictures, I’ll make sure to give him a framed one for his trailer.” I pressed my lips together as Harry squeaked out.

“Alright, I didn’t think you’d all gang up on me.” He said playfully. “I wanted to show you off and here you are, teasing me for baking.”

“I’m teasing you because you steal the batter on a spoon, not because you’re baking. I love baking with you.” I bumped my hip into his, smiling up at him. “But I’ve got to keep you grounded, don’t I? Your head will inflate and I’ll have to tie a cinder block to your foot to keep you from floating off.”

“Haha, you’re so funny.” He scrunched his nose up and I tossed my head back, letting out a loud laugh. “Anyways, what do you think of her outfit?”

“Oh, Harry, don’t-”

“It looks great, actually.” Olivia said. “Did I see that on the set of the Marvelous Mrs. Masiel?”

“Yeah, you did.” I nodded. “I love that show and all of her outfits so much.”

“It looks adorable on you.” Florence said. “You work for Vogue, don’t you?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I did a piece with one of your Little Women co-stars not too long ago, actually.”

“I thought you seemed familiar.” She exclaimed. “You came on set one day, didn’t you?”

“I did.” I nodded. “It was an honest to god, out of body experience for me. I loved Little Women so much as a girl. I seriously wanted to change my name to Josephine after reading it.”

“And then the film was so bloody amazing!” Florence exclaimed. “Harry, why have you kept her away from us for so long?”

“S’not my fault she has a job.” He rolled his eyes, chortling playfully. “I tried to convince her that being a housewife was much more fun, but I think she read the script and decided against it.”

“Yeah, I sure did.” I laughed softly alongside Olivia and Florence. “We should do dinner or something this weekend. I don’t know if you all have plans, but Harry’s rental house has a table that seats like, eight people.”

“That sounds wonderful.” Olivia said. “Just let us know the details and I’ll pass it along to the other main actors.”

“Sounds great.” Harry said. “Well, I’m going to steal my girl away if you don’t mind. I’ll see you in two hours?”

“See you then, Harry.” Florence waved before she took off in the direction of her car. “Bye, Beatrice!”

“Bye, Florence.” I waved back at her with a giggle before turning to Olivia. “It was really lovely to meet you. I’ll make sure to get him back in time.”

“Thank you.” She laughed. “Have a great lunch, you two.”

“Thanks.” Harry and I said at the same time.

When Olivia was gone, Harry looked down at me with a smirk.

“Do I get to fuck you now?” He asked, his dimple popping out.

“It depends.” I said slowly. “Would you, by chance, like to partake in a little role play?”

“It depends.” He said back. “What do you have in mind?”

I walked forward, smoothing my hands over his t-shirt covered chest. I pressed up on my toes, bringing my lips as close to his ears as I could get them.

“Do you still have your wedding ring from set?”

********************************************

“Honey!” I heard Harry’s voice from where I was lounging on the sofa, a magazine draped over my thighs. “I’m home.”

I smiled, flipping through my magazine without actually paying attention to it.

I heard Harry’s footsteps moments later, his dress shoes tapping along the concrete floor of the house. I tilted my head up when he moved in front of me, his eyes trailing over my body.

“You look comfortable.” He said, reaching for my magazine with two fingers. “You didn’t answer when I called out for you.”

“Sorry, darling,” I hummed out when he pressed his lips to mine. “I was invested in an article.”

“You and your articles.” He breathed against my lips. “It’s been ages since I’ve seen you. Are you just going to sit there?”

“I was planning on it, sweet pea.” I brushed my thumb over his bottom lip. “I’m relaxing my feet.”

“Now, I’ve been gone on business for six days, honey. I would like the chance to properly greet my beautiful wife.” He smirked, setting his briefcase to the coffee table behind him.

“Mr. Styles,” I twisted my legs off the couch, standing up between the furniture and Harry. “I don’t know what you’re insinuating, but I’ve got far too much to get done today. I’ve still got grocery shopping to do and well, I have to call your Mother.”

“I have a better plan, doll.” He roughly gripped my hips, his fingers digging into my sides harshly as he yanked me against his chest. “How about we sneak off for a little afternoon delight?”

“Harry Styles, I don’t think so.” I mocked offense, swatting his shoulder. “I’m far too busy.”

“Make time for your husband, honey.” He cooed, brushing his knuckles against my cheek gently before he gripped my chin. “Make love with your husband.”

“Mr. Styles, you do drive a hard bargain.” I whispered, my breath catching in my throat as our eyes connected in a lustful gaze. “I do have something I’ve been wanting to show you.”

“Mrs. Styles, what have you been up to while daddy’s been away?” He hummed out as his lips brushed against my red painted lips. “Have you been naughty?”

“No,” I smirked. “I’ve been an angel.”

“Prove it.” He whispered moments before our lips collided.

He kissed me just like they did in the old movies, his body wrapping around mine. I moaned against him when I felt his tongue slip over my own, giving me a taste of what I had been craving for two weeks now. I let out a giggle and then a squeak of surprise when I felt his hands under my bum, lifting me up into his arms. I wrapped my legs around him, holding on tight as he walked us from the living room towards the bedroom. He dropped me on the bed before grabbing my right ankle, holding my leg up as my ankle rested on his shoulder.

“These heels…” He started to fiddle with the clasp, finally pulling the strap loose before he slipped it off. “They’re new.”

“Just bought them.” I gripped the duvet under my fingers. “Do you like them?”

“Yes.” He kissed my ankle before gently resting my right leg on the bed. “Did you buy them with daddy’s money?”

“I did.” I bit my lower lip as my core clenched, my walls fluttering at his tone. “I bought them for you.”

“You didn’t even ask daddy before you bought them.” He tutted, reaching for my left ankle. “You’re getting bold.”

“I just wanted to surprise you.” I said.

“I’m very surprised.” He gave me a soft wink, one that let me know my Harry was still in this version of him that we’d quickly created in the car.

A business man with a daddy kink in the 1950’s that wanted to knock his wife up after a long business trip. It was a simple plot, but it combined quite a few kinks into one scenario, so we didn’t really mind. I giggled when he reminded me that daddy was a common nickname in that time period, something girls called their husbands in a provocative setting.

When both of my heels were off, Harry brushed his hands up my bare thighs until they landed on my hips. He gently guided me towards the center of the bed before kneeling over me. I lifted both hands up, cupping his cheeks as he leaned down to kiss my lips.

“Mrs. Styles,” He hummed out. “I’ve been thinking?”

“About what, Mr. Styles?” I pressed my lips over his cheek, sliding my fingers towards the back of his neck.

“I think it’s been quite lonely around here.” He said. “I can’t imagine you’re enjoying all of this time alone when I’m away on business.”

“I get by just fine.” I said softly, dropping my head back to the mattress. “Do you want to get a dog, Harry? Is that what this is about?”

“I don’t want to get a dog, darling.” He chuckled, brushing his nose over mine. “I want a baby.”

“A baby?” My eyes grew wide. “Isn’t it a bit soon, darling? We’ve only been married for five months.”

“That’s more than enough time, doll.” He whined. “I want us to have a beautiful little baby to love and to dote on. I want to show her off in front of my friends and my family-”

“Oh, Mr. Styles.” I sighed, shaking my head. “Don’t you know I’d do anything for you, darling.”

“Is that a yes?” He smirked, his eyes lighting up.

“Yes.” I gasped out when he rutted his hips forward. “Please.”

He wasted no time, stripping me from my blazer and then my tiny shorts. He tossed them aside carelessly, his hands falling to the buttons on the silk shirt that I had stolen from our closet.

“S’this mine?” He glanced up at me with a confused smirk. “Haven’t seen this in ages.”

“S’yours.” I nodded, holding the lapel to the side to show off his name. “S’got your name on it and everything.”

“Cheeky girl.” He cooed out, dropping his head to press a kiss to my stomach. “It’s our name.”

I let out a low whine in the back of my throat, shifting my hips as Harry made it to the last button towards the top of the dress shirt. I watched his face carefully as he pushed it to the side, his eyes scanning the black, vintage set that I had purchased for today.

“You’re trying to kill me.” He gasped out as his fingers brushed over the skin of my stomach to my breasts. “Fucking….I can’t take this anymore. I need to be inside of you.”

“Then get inside of me, Mr. Styles.” I lifted my legs, spreading them apart slightly so he could see the cut out area on the crotch of the panties. “You don’t even have to take everything off.”

Harry’s eyes were on mine, burning a dark shade of emerald as he licked over his bottom lip. I giggled when he started to unbuckle his trousers, tanking the zipper down before he tucked his hand in. He pulled his cock out, giving it a few firm strokes before he hovered his body over mine. Seconds later, I felt the stretch of my walls around his cock, causing my body to tense.

“There’s my girl.” He grunted out, pushing himself in as far as he could possibly go before pressing a few, sloppy kisses to my face. “So snug around me, aren’t you?”

“Harry.” I dropped my hands to his back, digging my nails into the cotton of his shirt as he pulled out slowly. Seconds later, he was pushing back in and I was gasping for air. “Fuck, that’s nice.”

“Mrs. Styles, you have such a filthy mouth.” He smeared his lips over mine before both of his hands found their home by my ears. “Who taught you to talk like that?”

“You.” I let out a breathless chuckle that quickly faded as the tip of his cock massaged my g-spot.

“Yeah?” His eyelids fluttered shut as he continued to work his hips in a steady rhythm. “No other blokes have been hangin’ round here?”

“None.” I shook my head as my nails drug down to his lower back and eventually to his bum. I pushed my fingers down his pants, digging my nails into the flesh there. “Just you.”

“You’re my girl.” He gritted out as a single curl fell to his forehead. “Only mine.”

“Only yours.” I whimpered, biting at my lower lip. “You feel so good, Harry.”

“Can’t wait to see you pregnant, honey.” He let out a whine of his own, clenching his eyes. “It’s gonna be so beautiful, seeing you round and full while you carry my baby..”

“I want it so bad, Harry.”

“And after this baby,” He let out a strangled moan, delivering another sharp thrust that had me gasping. “I’m gonna put another one in you, and then another.”

“Please, I want it.” I nodded, sliding my fingers back up his back. “Want you closer.”

He pressed his body into mine, his hips moving in desperate thrusts and his pelvis applying pressure to my clit with each move. I tossed my head back, silently asking for his lips to press against my throat. I felt him latch on as his thrust started to get sloppier. I knew that he was close by the little whines pulling from his throat and the puffs of air hitting my skin.

Harry’s hand slipped between our bodies in no time, rubbing my clit with an urgency that I’d never experienced before with him. I felt my body flush warm and my walls tighten around him as he delivered three final thrusts. We both cried out when he spilled into me, filling my walls with his cum until it dripped out onto the black panties still settled onto my hips.

“You bought yourself a ring?” our chests were both heaving, his body still pressed into mine.

I tried to let out a giggle, but he was heavy against my body and it came out wheezy.

“It’s costume jewelry.” I brushed my hand over his back. “Just thought it would be fun after I saw you wearing that ring on set. I saw the pictures online and they nearly killed me.”

“Mhm, you’re just trying to seduce me into proposing earlier than I planned.” He lifted his head, pressing his lips against mine in a sweet kiss. “Hello, honey.”

“Hiya, darling.” I lifted my hand, tugging gently on the curl that fell over forehead with a fond smile. “I love you.”

“Love you, too.” He whispered. “I love you and everything you do for me. I don’t tell you enough how much I appreciate you for being the best girlfriend out there.”

“Harry-”

“Don’t deflect or play it down,” He said sternly. “I mean every word from the bottom of my heart, Beatrice. I...no one else on set has had a spouse or partner come visit them on the weekends. No one else had flowers sent to their trailer or daily facetime calls and inspirational messages. You make me feel so loved and so special on a daily basis and that means the world to me. So thank you for being you, honey. I love you with all of my heart.”

“I love you, too.” I sniffled, blinking rapidly as a few tears fell down my temples, into my hair. “I hope you liked your surprise. I didn’t want to freak you out, but I thought it would be fun.”

“It was.” He brushed his nose over mine. “It was a lot of fun, actually. I think we should mess around like that more often.”

“Not too often, though.” I chuckled. “One of these days, I’ll actually end up pregnant.”

“Wheat’s wrong with that?” He hummed out.

“One step at a time, darling.” I patted his shoulder. “Oh, just so you know, we won’t be having a girl first.”

“Excuse me?” Harry hissed when I pushed at his shoulders, causing him to slip out of my walls. I guided him to his back before I climbed on top of him, pressing my palms to his tummy. “I don’t...what?”

“You said ‘her’ earlier, but we’re having a boy first.” I said casually. “I know it.”

“How do you know it?” He chuckled as his brows creased. “Did you make a deal with Stevie at one of her witch things?”

“I didn’t need to make a deal, I just know it.” I patted his cheek. “Gonna name him Ellis.”

“Why Ellis?” He tilted his head to the side. “Where did you hear that?”

“Ellis Island.” I smiled. “We took our first vacation together in New York and the ferry to Ellis Island was one of my favorite parts of that trip. It’s a piece of our history.”

“I love that.” He said softly. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” I giggled, leaning forward to press my lips against his. “Round two?”

“Why, Mrs. Styles, I like the way you think.”

#harry styles smut #harry styles writing #harry styles blurb #harry styles fic #harry styles X ofc #honeybee #extra

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kitkatopinions · 3 years

Note

Hey how's about Neptune for the asks? :)

Alrighty, Neptune is the last character ask I have in my inbox. If anyone is interested in hearing my thoughts on any other character, feel free to send them in!

My top three ships for the character

Neptune/Jaune is probably my favorite ship for him, I think they could be cute and they’d have a good relationship, and I think he’d help Neptune loosen up and stop trying so hard to be cool. Neptune/Sun is my second favorite ship for him. Although I see them as best friends for life, I also think they could be really nice together and there is some very cute fan art of these two. Also, Ren/Neptune could be really cute, if Neptune has done some maturing, I could see them connecting in Vacuo. (Honorable mention to Weiss/Neptune, who would’ve made this list, if their ‘love triangle’ hadn’t been done with so much cringe.)

My three least favorite ships for the character

Neptune/Ruby is kinda... Weird, just because of how young Ruby often acts. Neptune/Blake. I don’t think Neptune and Blake would ever have feelings for each other. And Neptune/Ilia. Even putting aside the fact that she’s a lesbian and I headcanon Neptune as gay, she’s clearly uncomfortable with his advances and he apparently has no awareness of when to back off, so... Yeah. This one feels kinda icky to me.

My biggest criticism for the character

I was going to talk about how some of the humor surrounding him is cringe as it is with Sun, or how he and Sun don’t ever get new outfits, but guys, I have to talk about the flirting. The flirting with Weiss? Not a problem, Weiss is clearly receptive, she and Neptune do have at least some level of chemistry, Weiss shows no signs of being uncomfortable. Even his ‘what a woman’ line with Yang is (imo) totally fine, they’re both casually flirty and Yang didn’t seem uncomfortable with Neptune at all either, and there’s nothing wrong with casually flirty characters. But Neptune flirting with Team NDGO and making sexual innuendos and making advances on Ilia when she clearly looks uncomfortable... These were obviously not well received and Neptune just kept flirting. That’s bad. I love Neptune, but this writing is jacked. Men wrote him to make women uncomfortable without it being treated as a real problem his character overcomes (while we’re on that subject, Jaune has the same problem with Weiss and just because he ‘moved on’ to Pyrrha when he thought Weiss had ‘chosen Neptune’ doesn’t mean he was ever shown on screen to realize that pestering women who make it clear they’re not interested is wrong.) I love Neptune, but if they weren’t going to make him a bigger character who had an arc and learned to not make sexual innuendos to women suggesting they’re going to try and use a professional fight to assault him and then wink at them when they show clear displeasure with his gross attempts at ‘flirting’... Then they should’ve just not done that! Because it wasn’t funny, or cute, or cool, or playful like the RWBY writers had clearly thought it was.

My favorite thing about the character

His friendship with Sun. I honestly love the fact that Sun has this dorky, intellectual, tries too hard, ‘super cool’ friend. Neptune seems to hold Sun back some and doesn’t seem to take things as serious as even Sun does, letting his (if what I’ve heard from the books is true) very valid phobia impact his performance and even impact whether or not he goes with Sun to Menagerie. But at the same time, those flaws don’t mean he isn’t a good friend. We see from the start that he’s a good listener, he’s supportive and understanding and loyal, willing to follow Sun (as he follows Blake) into crazy adventures and up onto ledges. They joke around, they get each other, and the fact that they’re independent and can survive without each other only makes them a healthier dynamic. Also, Sun clearly opens up to him and is very comfortable talking to Neptune about his feelings towards Blake in volume 6 and they had a good scene together there. Gosh, I miss these two. (Honorable mention to Neptune’s hints of anxiety and how stressed he can get. I’m very easily stressed out and anxious myself and it’s nice to see a character that seems to be incredibly stressed himself while still being a cool character who is friendly that people like.)

A headcanon I have about them

Blake knowing about Neptune’s fear of the water makes me think that she had hung out quite a bit with at least Neptune. I love the idea of them being friends themselves, connecting and sharing a lot of similarities even if they seem totally different from first glance. They totally spent hours talking Sun’s ear off about various books while he just tried to follow along because he loves them and wants to share their interests.

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

I’ve been thinking a lot about Neptune lately and how I’d change him. First off, I’d keep him casually flirty, but throw out him going too far since it makes me uncomfortable. And I think I would feature him in Mistral and have him reconnect with the mains. I think that for what the show was in Volumes 1-3, Neptune having a more comical, casual character was fine and fun and didn’t throw off the tone, but that he’d need some adjusting to fit into RWBY in the future, and I also think Mistral needed to be more fleshed out and that RNJR and Oscar/Oz needed more time and more to do there. If Team RNJR had met up with Neptune and the rest of his team (though obviously Sage and Scarlet wouldn’t be very featured) and heard from them about the shady things going on in Mistral, that could be good. I’d have the mains spend some time ‘working under Lionheart’ as he tries to get rid of them before Cinder makes her deal with Raven and that would include them doing missions with Neptune. He would be more serious and mature than before, telling them Sun is with Blake in Menagerie, and tell them about how bad things have gotten in Mistral which they would see themselves as they take missions even when none of them are licensed (which they would see as a good thing, but would be clearly framed as a bad thing with Neptune not doing well and clearly not ready and the others also clearly not ready themselves.) Then when everyone starts meeting back up, Weiss and Yang are pulled into things. Neptune could be part of the Haven fight and then reconnect with Blake and Sun when they return. A part of me really would want them to join the group permanently and accompany them to Atlas... But I think I would have them go to Vacuo to continue going to school, and just meet up with them again in the Vacuo arc.

What I I think of their character allusion and what (if anything) I would change about it

Neptune was the Roman god of water (originally springs, lakes, and rivers only before eventually expanding into the primary god of the sea) and horses, and also may have been the god of rain and cloudy skies before that function was given to Jupiter. His Greek counterpart, Poseidon, was the god of the sea, storms, and earthquakes, and was a protector of seafarers. Like most gods, there is a lot to go off of in terms of characterization and very little that’s definitive to make a concise character. However, Neptune is mainly gimmick based, with a weapon that doubles as a trident and in the show canon, only has something to do with water. Although it’s interesting to note that Poseidon had worked with Apollo (the god of the sun) in mythology at least once. It seems like there isn’t a lot there. Even including his semblance in the show proper would go a ways towards making his allusion to Neptune/Poseidon feel less gimmicky.

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itsclydebitches · 4 years

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Hey Clyde! Love your reviews on RWBY. My question is about Ozpin. If he survived fighting Cinder, would the events of volume 4-6 still happen? I believe the only reason team RWBYJNR treated Ozpin that way was because he was with Oscar who basically looked like a kid to them. However, if he was still in his adult body, would they have been more respectful?

Hi, anon! Thank you! I’m actually super glad you asked this. I’ve touched on how Oscar’s age and looks have impacted how others perceive Ozpin a bit in other asks, but haven’t had the chance to compose a substantial meta about it. I will attempt to fix that here!

FYI, it’ll get decently image heavy from here on out.

First, as a general response to the question of whether the events of Volumes 4-6 would have changed if Ozpin had survived: absolutely. If only because Ozpin as a figurehead would have still been around to lead both his inner circle and function as a symbol of strength for the rest of the world. Unless he was completely incapacitated from the fight or something (like in a coma), the expectation is that Ozpin would have begun rebuilding his school. Glynda wouldn’t have been left alone to try and deal with a frozen Wyvern attracting grimm. Ironwood wouldn’t have been left to figure out where to go from here. Qrow wouldn’t have been sent on a mission to return Ozpin’s cane. The whole world (including Atlas) may have been less likely to panic with Ozpin there to provide perspective and support. Lionheart presumably would have been less inclined to betray him, at least so soon and so overtly. An Ozpin who will reincarnate at some unknown point is a future Lionheart problem, and therefore far less intimidating. An Ozpin who still lives and commands his inner circle is way more of a threat and Lionheart would be more likely to get caught. Remember that even Salem was surprised by how quickly Ozpin reincarnated and dove back into the game—all the baddies were banking on more time. So yes, a ton would have changed. The group’s focus is now more along the lines of, “So is Ozpin going to fix things and can we go back to school?” and less, “Ozpin is dead as a door nail and no one is able to fix things for us. Might as well go hunt Cinder ourselves.”

But onto the meat of the ask. Is the group treating Ozpin like they are at least partly because he’s in the body of a kid? That’s also a resounding ‘yes.’ Human beings, including the humans and the faunus that we write in fiction, are incredibly judgmental (for better and for worse) based on how someone else looks. If you’re able to see then you tend to prioritize that information over other aspects of a person. We create markers that we then learn and assume mean something when, much of the time, they don’t. Or, to put it another way, we create stereotypes. We can think about this in terms of gender presentation: a masculine-looking person giving orders is seen as the “boss” whereas a feminine-looking person giving orders is seen as a “bitch.” We can complicate that with race: we’re more likely to view a white woman giving orders as “assertive” when compared to a black man giving orders. That’s “aggressive.” From giving a girl long blonde hair when you want to cue people into the fact that she’s (supposedly) dumb, to making a man skinny when you want him to seem vulnerable, our media is chock-full of those markers, subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) encouraging us to read characters in particular ways. There’s a reason that Yang, the go-getter, is blonde whereas Blake, the bookworm, has black hair. There’s a reason that Cardin wasn’t designed as a twig and Jaune is a couple inches shorter than him. There’s even a reason why the sap the group collects is red rather than, say, yellow, orange, blue—literally any other color. Only red sap makes it look like Cardin is covered in blood when he attacks Jaune, thus increasing how much we read him as a threat. The characters’ designs matter.

What does all that have to do with Ozpin? Well, at the start of the series his markers all point to authority and wisdom. He’s a white man, for one. He dresses in a formal suit. There are nods towards his age (a cane, white hair) that tell us, despite his baby face, that he’s someone who has been around a while and thus has a great deal of experience to draw on. He’s also, significantly, tall. Take a look at how his talks with Ruby read visually.

Ruby is incredibly small compared to Ozpin. He towers above her and she’s constantly in a position of looking up to him, mirroring the ways in which she figuratively looks up to him for advice. Her mannerisms are also younger and don’t carry much confidence. Crossing her arms and sulking. Wringing her hands while asking if she’s made a mistake. The way Ruby moves contrasts Ozpin’s own very still, very composed mannerisms. Body language and facial expression is one of the primary ways that we communicate and the slightest change can carry a world of meaning. For example, compare these two shots of Yang from Volume 1 and Volume 6:

On the surface they appear quite similar, but provided there isn’t something impacting how we read these moments (such as some people with autism), we learn that these poses mean two very different things. Two hands on your waist is a relaxed pose; one hand on your waist is an arrogant pose. At least when combined with an angry expression. One arm, the placement of her eyebrows, and suddenly Yang’s attitude towards Ozpin has radically changed. We went from casual respect to defiance, and most viewers wouldn’t need to know anything else about RWBY’s story to read that here. Her body language alone tells the story.

Ozpin’s body language with Ruby then cues the viewer into the fact that he (supposedly) has the answers here, simply by virtue of him exuding a confidence that Ruby doesn’t possess yet. Who do you look to in a bad situation? The person screaming and running around in panic? Or the person who calmly announces that they can help, getting everyone else to calm down by keeping calm themselves? This sort of characterization is partly why the fandom grew suspicious of Ozpin early on. It’s not simply that he (on the surface) is modeled after the shady authority figure trope, but that we’ve learned from real life experience that a person’s ability to keep calm and speak eloquently doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re right. Sounding authoritative is a skill and it’s why the likes of cult leaders and dictators are so dangerous. If you just sound and look like you know what you’re doing, people have a tendency to believe you. And if you’re inclined towards critical thinking, you might be wary of the person whose demeanor is a little too polished.

Even when Ozpin is being playful he maintains a certain level of dignity. His clothes, his physical looks, and the controlled movement of the mug—he’s not jumping around like Nora might—all remind us that Ozpin is the headmaster here and thus, though he’s making silly jokes about popcorn right now, he deserves a certain amount of respect. Even his posture speaks volumes, one arm still tucked behind his back and shoulders ramrod straight. It’s a posture that speaks of training and discipline. There’s a reason that the general (Ironwood) is always animated as standing tall with hands neatly folded and the presumably less dependable drunk (Qrow) is animated with a constantly hunched posture. How Ozpin stands is a quick and easy way to tell the viewer, “This guy is in charge. He’s powerful. He’s wise. You can rely on him.”

All of this changes dramatically once Ozpin is thrown into Oscar’s body. Moving chronologically, it’s significant that the group is not introduced to this new Ozpin as a dignified individual.

This is what we get later. Note the crossed legs, still good posture, even the ‘adult’ way he holds a mug. In contrast, someone younger and more childish in terms of their personality, like Ruby, tends to hold a drink with two hands and chucks it all back in a manner that would never fly at a dinner party.

Rather than a dignified Ozpin knocking at the door, the group first encounters Oscar, someone who, like Volume 1 Ruby, can be incredibly timid and lacks in self-confidence. This isn’t the body language of a leader arriving to provide you with all the answers.

Oscar’s slouched posture, downward gaze, wringing hands, and fearful expression all paint him as the weak one here. Made worse by the fact that he asks to see Ruby and ignites (an entirely understandable) suspicion in the group. Their first interaction is characterized by perceiving him as both a potential threat, but also one they can easily handle. We don’t like that he’s asking about Ruby, but we can take him in a fight no problem.

And yes, this first impression makes a difference. Knowing something about someone on an intellectual level usually doesn’t trump the emotional response we have to the physical markers we’re faced with. As a non-RWBY example, let’s say you were introduced to these two characters.

Ignoring for a moment that we’re comparing a villain and a hero, let’s say for the sake of argument that you’re told—and are provided proof—that each of these characters are morally sound, powerful adults and you should afford them with the respect they deserve. Being told that simply can’t outweigh what we see. Who are you more likely to respect? The woman who looks like a literal child named Baby Doll in a cutesy outfit, or the very old looking man in badass robes, literally named the Ancient One? All the, “But I am an adult” in the world isn’t going to convince people to read, and therefore respond to, Baby Doll in the same way they would the Ancient One.

That’s the situation Ozpin is in now. He’s told the group that he’s Ozpin, he’s managed to prove it, but there’s always going to be a part of Ruby and the gang that doesn’t quite believe it. Not in Jaune’s literal sense of, ‘He could be lying about who he is,’ but just in a more instinctual, ‘He says he’s our headmaster, but all I see is a fourteen year old kid.’ What you see makes it really easy to ignore what you know, particularly when those two things contrast. Those markers Oscar brings to this new version of Ozpin are simply too influential and yes, that opens the door for the group to treat him with far less respect than they would in his adult form. We see it right from the start when, despite having been told that this is also Ozpin, the group coos over him in an overbearing, disrespectful manner.

This continues even after Ozpin has taken control and is doing everything he can (those dignity markers) to regain some level of trust and respect. Even while seated and attempting to command the room as Headmaster Ozpin, Nora nevertheless undermines that with “Cute little boy Ozpin!” She has chosen to emphasize his looks over his status and notably no one listens when he says, “Please don’t call me that.”

Ozpin has, in this moment, literally been labeled as a child. A “boy.” Though we can’t be sure about what age all his hosts were when Ozpin arrived, based on Jinn’s vision it doesn’t look as if reincarnating into teenagers is common. This may even be the first time.

Any of these past reincarnations would have been able to command more authority, simply because they’re adult men not dressed in dirty farm clothes. If this Ozpin had shown up in Haven,

we would have gotten a very different volume. Age matters. How we perceive age matters. We saw this right in RWBY’s second episode wherein Weiss calls Ruby out on attending Beacon.

It’s Ruby’s looks and Ruby’s looks alone that encourage Weiss to come to the conclusion, ‘You shouldn’t be here.’ The same thing has now happened to Ozpin. You look younger than us and are inhabiting a body that physically couldn’t beat us in a fight? You shouldn’t be here. You definitely shouldn’t be giving us orders.

The group had control of Ozpin’s safe house. They were poised to interrogate him for showing up at it unannounced. Now they emphasize Oscar’s age and characteristics over his, which is ironically the only time that they emphasize Oscar’s individuality over Ozpin’s. In short, they’ve created an environment where a part of them truly believes that they’re older and more knowledgeable simply because of how Ozpin now looks, even though technically they know this isn’t true. It’s a new dynamic and with that comes the confidence to treat him like the fourteen year old stranger he “is”. I don’t believe for a moment that Yang would have ignored Ozpin’s direct questions, shot out irrational accusations, and then demanded a promise from him if he still looked the way he did at Beacon. Especially as someone who came to Haven later and therefore missed the initial proof, Yang simply doesn’t read Ozpin as Ozpin. We’ve seen how other characters interact with him from a student-teacher dynamic and it’s far more respectful.

As this shot demonstrates, there’s also that issue of Ozpin’s size. Where as a headmaster Ozpin commanded authority by being taller than almost everyone else around him, Ozpin as Oscar immediately loses authority by being the smallest in the room. As I mentioned with Jaune and Cardin, size is an easy way to emphasize vulnerability. We quite literally couldn’t have gotten this scene if Ozpin was still 6'6" and looking twice Jaune’s age.

In this scene Jaune honestly thinks this might be Ozpin. He’s accusing him of lying again, of claiming to leave when really he’s spying on them, or just pretending to be this kid called ‘Oscar,’ whatever. The point is that Jaune is working under the assumption that he’s interacting with his headmaster, yet that knowledge obviously doesn’t give him pause. Because Ozpin’s new look outweighs everything else Jaune knows about him. He’s angry and now suddenly Ozpin isn’t an intimidating huntsmen capable of defending himself, Ozpin is a teeny-tiny kid with no training. Jaune becomes Cardin through the realization of, “Oh. If I’m bigger and more powerful than this person, I can do whatever I want to them.”

Ozpin’s size is an ongoing reminder that, despite possessing his own skill as well as magic, he’s in a vulnerable position. He needs to stand on the furniture in order to recreate his students literally and figuratively looking up to him, but now it just reads as a joke.

This isn’t the first time RWBY has used size this way. Cordovin is an excellent example of how a small, non-dignified looking person is unable to maintain authority in the way someone with another appearance might. Her white hair just makes her look old rather than wise and her short stature is so extreme that it invites humor. It’s not just that Cordovin is a racist, or that her guards act like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Her appearance immediately gave the group another excuse for why they shouldn’t listen to her. Look at this tiny old woman trying to tell us what to do. Yeah right, lady. We could probably punt you into the sun so step aside.

This is a look that makes guards release prisoners in three seconds flat.

This is a look that encourages laughter and, by extension, a lack of respect.

The extreme camera angle in order to make Cordovin look ‘imposing.’ The fact that she looks like a literal child next to Weiss… none of it encourages the group, or the audience, to take her seriously. Rooster Teeth made a conscious decision when they decided to animate Volume 6′s “bad guy” as an old woman with sagging breasts and an extremely small stature.

The only time when someone that small is re-characterized as authoritative is when they’re standing up against unimaginable odds.

Ignoring that this scene in reality is Ruby refusing to take responsibility for the crimes she is currently committing, what Rooster Teen wants this shot to do is function as an example of extreme heroism. That’s accomplished by taking our second smallest character and situating her in front of a larger-than-life mech. Ruby’s refusal to back down in the face of something so much bigger than her is (again) supposed to be inspiring. She’s standing up to Cordovin’s “bullying” in a way Oscar was unable to do with his own mech: a bigger and more threatening Jaune.

(I really cannot express how awful Volume Six was wow).

All of which brings me to my final point. Namely that, by virtue of his age and size, Ozpin as Oscar will always look ridiculous when attempting to make use of his former markers. Using a cane?

Headmaster Ozpin’s age and height makes it look distinguished. Ozpin at Oscar’s age and height makes it look silly. What’s the fourteen year old doing with a cane nearly as tall as he is? (Acknowledging that this is an ableist assumption. Some fourteen year olds do need canes, but most viewers are going to question this in a way they never would with the white-haired adult). What’s the kid doing with such a fancy looking cane when he’s literally covered in dirt, bandages, rags, and badly mended clothes? That’s a silly contrast.

Headmaster Ozpin fighting? Totally badass. One of the shortest and yet most talked about fights in the show.

Ozpin as Oscar fighting? Still badass… if you’re willing to work for it a bit more. But really, the kid swinging a cane around just will never have the same feel as a grown man who looked like Ozpin did.

Ozpin himself is a dignified person, but anytime he adopts those mannerisms now he looks silly at best, arrogant at worst.

I think his look is largely why so many fans read the snow scene as him talking down to the group. He no more talked down to them here then he did when he conversed with Ruby, or Pyrrha, or the team while heading off to Mountain Glenn. The only difference is that the previous Ozpin commanded all that authority, so his warnings and criticisms held weight. This Ozpin not only doesn’t look the part of an authority figure, half his time is spent being Oscar, someone who defers to and scurries around the rest of the group. So when Ozpin tries to take charge here, everyone is far less willing to listen. People are inclined to read him as arrogant, patronizing, talking down to others, etc. because it looks like a small child giving orders to a more older, more powerful team. Even though it’s not.

It’s the combination of everything above that leads to moments like this. Where Ozpin is smaller, more vulnerable, looks too young, too naive, where the group towers over him for once and hurts him both physically and emotionally because now they can.

Tl;dr: Yeah. Oscar’s looks and Oscar’s personality changed things irrevocably. If Ozpin had still looked like Ozpin the group wouldn’t feel half as entitled to this behavior and gaining their respect—from ‘Please don’t address me like that’ to ‘Please understand why I kept secrets’—would be far, far easier.

#Anonymous #rwby #ozpin #mymetas

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amuletrebel · 4 years

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Cindered Shadows Made Modern

I’m shit at drawing so instead I’m just going to put down what I think the Ashen Wolves would dress like if they were in a modern AU. Time for some fashion, baby!

Balthus = He always looks like he’s about to hit the gym. Basketball shorts and muscle tees are his jam. Or really any tight fitting shirts, just to show off how often he works out to have earned those muscles. He’ll sometimes wear sleeveless jerseys too. And you can’t tell me this guy has at least one t-shirt that says “I’d flex but I like these sleeves.”

Hapi = Girl wears a lot of crop tops. Length of sleeves depends on the season. She even has one with “Beast Mode” printed on it. She also were a lot of skirts and jean shorts to match. Her favorite shoes are boots of course, the ones that go to the knee. She finds them most comfortable. And depending on the weather, she’ll where a hooded jacket more often than not. She’s a girl who keeps it simple.

Constance = She’s into more classic fashion vibes. Long skirts, ruffled blouses, chic lace. She might also be seen in a poodle skirt and ascot like she jumped out of the 50′s. She owns a lot of different headbands too so they can match with her outfit of the day. And you know any shoe she owns must have at least a 3-inch heel.

Yuri = This stylish son of a bitch. He would honestly look good in a leather jacket or suit & tie, but he’s not up for that if he doesn’t have anywhere important to be. He’s more towards the androgynous clothing when going casual to highlight his feminine features. But you KNOW this guy can pull off casual blazers like no one else.

Now that that’s out of my system, I’m going to go play my game some more.

#fire emblem three houses #fe3h #fe3h dlc #yuri leclerc #constance von nuvelle #balthus von albrecht #hapi

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alloveroliver · 4 years

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Obey Me! OC Char Sheet: Ezrah

Picrew edited by me

Blank sheet.

Name: Ezrah

Age: 127

Height: 5′1

Race: 1/4 Naga serpent, 3/4 Human

Gender: Female

Birthday: Sept 1

Star Sign: Virgo

Hair color: Yellow

Eye color: Gold

Skin tone: Pale

Personality Traits: Stubbornness, Voice for the quiet, Would die for her friends. She acts indifferent but has very strong opinions that she keeps to herself know they would cause augments.

Background: Mother was half naga creature father was human, she was let with just the teeth and the occasional dry skin XD

Why were they chosen for Devildom?: Mythical creature chosen to attend the school.

Hobbies: Painting trippy art work

Appearance: Natural yellow hair that she likes to wear down and long. Golden brown eyes. Pale skin and lots of random piercings.

Casual Clothing: Likes bright colors and color blocking outfits. Wears chokers and wears large body jewlry as a statement.

Top: Tank tops or tight fitting shirts.

Bottoms: Dark colored shorts and skirts. Doesn’t like pants, especially skinny jeans

Shoes: Anything unreasonably chunky. Thick platform boots are her go to.

Accessories: Tongue ring, chokers, large earring, mens section watch with a giant face, chain or clear belt.

Glasses: Mirror aviators

Uniform: Jacket to cover her shoulders, untucked shirt and pleated skirt.

Any alterations to their uniform? As many random accessories she can get away with from day to day

Family

Mother: 1/2 naga mystical creature, 1/2 human. Was the result of a one night stand and was rejected by the naga people. Forced to live with the humans where she found her husband.

Father: Just a human dude trying to get by. Met his wife at a bar and they proceeded to travel the world together. Eventually they had Ezrah but continued their worldy travels with her.

Siblings: Nope

Pets: A dinural mini Weasel named “Cinder” Cuz he’s a lil brown boi

How many friends does your Mc have? She collects as many as she can like shes picking flowers. Anyone and everyone that is kind hearted is her friend. Anyone that is a blast to be around and treats others with respect is her best friend.

Past relationships

Has your MC had a relationship before? Yesss

Have they been in love? Yeah, but it’s been so long she forgot what it was like. She cherishs her friendships and treats them just as importantly as a partnership.

How easy do they gain crushes? She feels neutral to everyone until someone says something that catches her off guard. Then she can’t stop thinking about them

Do they believe in love? Yes, but that it’s rare

What’s their type? Kind person that doesn’t let people walk all over them but still goes out of their way to help others. Fit and fun to be around.

Sexuality: Bisexual

Which one of the 7 brothers does your MC like the most? BEEL

Why? Cuz I’m self projecting her crush Because he’s always kind but doesn’t let people walk all over him. He’s funny and always has something interesting to talk about. Also he’s tall and she wants a piggy back ride from him.

General

Favorite food: Cherry flavored candy

Least favorite: Anything with a soggy consistency

Favorite topic in school: History, shes 127 but thats still young for a naga type. She has lived through a lot and likes to listen to how others have recorded history.

Least favorite topic: Math. Fk math

Favorite color: Blue

Least favorite color: Purple

Do they like to be sociable or are they more of a recluse? Very sociable

Favorite movie genre? Action

Do they read a lot or no? Not really, but she will read a book every now and then if it hooks her in.

Favorite animal: Weasel cuz they are soft and cute

Favorite genre of music: Lofi

Least favorite genre: Jazz

Do they like sweets? OH yes, more than anything

Do they like spicy food? Yes!

Do they like school? Loves it, that’s where she gets all her social action

Pet peeves: People that are mean to others and degrade them. People that judge her before they get to know her. Nuts in cookies

Thank you for reading! I love this OC so much!!!!!!! I must protecc herrrrrrr!!!!!!

#obey me #obey me oc #ash oc

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sociopath-analysis · 4 years

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Sociopath Profile: Cinder Fall

Pictured outfits: Volumes 4-5, Volumes 1-3, Current From the animated web-series RWBY (2014-present[Valid as of early November 2019]) Voiced by Jessica Nigri (EN) and Yuko Kaida (JP)

Cinder serves as the major antagonist for the first three volumes of the series. She’s a very ruthless woman who will do just about anything in the pursuit of power. And she doesn’t care who she hurt in order to get it.

[SPOILERS BELOW]

One of the main components of her plan is to attack the Fall Maiden and steal her powers for herself. Already, this is attempting to kill a person who uses the power for benevolent reasons and use them for her own personal gain. And the fact that she is hiring terrorist organizations, assassins, and professional criminals to do the jobs shows what lengths she’s willing to go to for power. Not to mention joining with a being like Salem.

Manipulating others is something she’s pretty good at. Lying about being a student at Beacon Academy is only one example. (A more benign one at that.) There’s also her plan to lure the Fall Maiden into a trap using Emerald’s semblance. Her main plan to cause the fall of Beacon mostly involves driving a rift between the separate factions and kingdoms of Remnant in order to draw more of the Grimm beasts in. With the ensuing chaos, she goes down to uncover Ozpin’s cover up for restoring the Fall Maiden’s power.

Another lesser-known aspect is her eyes. She has a very intense stare when making eye-contact with others. This is most noticeable when she and her team run into Ruby in Beacon (or rather Ruby ran into them). Cinder stares intently into Ruby’s eyes and doesn’t break eye-contact with her even as she starts leaving. As if to forge a connection with her to only break later on. While it could just be Cinder being sinister, that sort of thing is one known trait of the disorder.

Nothing really fazes her. She is eerily calm in almost everything she does. Casually endangering lives or even personally murdering someone doesn’t really change her demeanor. Most notably, when she kills Phyrra. Her only reaction is to Phyrra asking her if she believes in destiny. Her answer is a simple “yes” just before shooting her with an arrow. And when the Grimm beasts are destroying the kingdom, she only tells Mercury to make sure he’s filming it.

The only times when she doesn’t have that same demeanor is when things aren’t going her way. When Ruby uses the power of her silver eyes and disfigures her, she is completely flabbergasted just before it happens. And she is noticeably more agitated when she has to deal with insults from Salem’s other lackeys since she can’t talk without a lot of effort and possibly a lot of pain (and even then, it’s more of a harsh whisper). And if she wants to say half of what I think she wants to say, she will need that effort.

However, she is certainly selfish. She admits that she is in the pursuit of power. Most of her interactions show a strong desire to dominate others. Either through obtaining abilities and becoming stronger or being sadistic and tearing down others. She often demands obedience from her underlings and will punish them if she doesn’t get it. When Emerald complains about taking Mercury under her wing, she slaps her for it. Her attempt to recruit the White Fang also shows this. After Adam’s initial rejection and her acquiring some of the Fall Maiden’s power, she came back to slaughter Adam Taurus’ faction just to get him to cooperate.

“I want to be strong. I want to be feared. I want to be powerful.” - “Beginning of the End” (Vol 3, Ch 7)

“Don’t think. Obey.” - to Emerald in “The Best Day Ever” (Vol 2, Ch 1)

Speaking of sadism, she shows traits of being a sadist as well. As mentioned before, she seems entertained while watching the Grimm beasts tear up the city. Even stating that it’s “wonderful” before having Merc record it. And she uses an incendiary arrow to burn Pyrrah from the inside-out. And after being disfigured, thoughts of burning Ruby is one of her motivations to become stronger.

And her conversation with Salem in Chapter 2 of Volume Five shows that this hasn’t let up. She’s still bent on killing Ruby and everyone else standing in their way and is frustrated with Salem’s insistence on keeping them alive. Even Raven notes her rapidly growing egomania and Watts notes her current impulsive behavior.

It shows that underneath the calm and collected facade is a host of rage and impulse issues that are coupled with a sense of superiority over others. And it’s Salem, of all people, who needs to reign her in and remind her of the usefulness of others. (It may suggest where she got her manipulative skills from in the first place.) In “The More the Merrier,” she completely goes off on Jaune when he manages to nick the mask over her eye. This causes her to intentionally harm Weiss just to get a reaction.

And when she believes Vernal has the Spring Maiden’s powers, she remorselessly double-crosses her and Raven by impaling Vernal with her Grimm arm to suck out the power. She’s distressed to learn that Vernal was a decoy for Raven, the true spring Maiden. It is analogous to substance abuse in real cases of the disorder since the power is what she’s addicted to more than anything.

Everything from her first moment on-screen shows her to be absolutely ruthless. Even with her return in Volume Six, the first thing she does is kill an innocent woman who finds her after she thawed and kills her for her clothes and her money. And she’s still out to get Ruby. She hasn’t changed a bit. And she’s now trying to manipulate Neo into doing her dirty work to keep her from getting in trouble with Salem.

Female Sociopath List

Remnant Sociopath List

#Cinder Fall #RWBY #sociopath #character analysis #profile

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shadows-twilight · 4 years

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RWBY Volume 7, Chapter 1

What is up, FNDM!!! At long last we are back with an all new volume of RWBY, and thus I am back to gush about it! Let's just jump right in with my thoughts and opinions on Chapter 1 of RWBY Volume 7, "The Greatest Kingdom"

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW:

I swear, the moon gets prettier and prettier every volume. This opening shot is incredible.

When we heard his one line in the trailer, I was blown away with how little I could tell that Qrow had a new voice actor, even though I was listening for it. Now that we get to hear more of it, the differences are admittedly starting to stand out a bit more. That being said, I don't think it will take long at all to get used to it, andJason Liebrecht is still doing an amazing job. I certainly look forward to his performance moving forward.

Looks like I was right in the finale in that the lower area is Mantle. I must say, it looks amazing. Everything about it just looks so dirty and industrial, definitely what I would imagine for the slums of the technological giant that is Atlas. Major kudos to CRWBY for this setting design.

Ooh, both Ironwood and Winter get new outfits. They look good, though something about Ironwood's beard looks off to me. Maybe I'm just not used to it, but something about the shading makes it look photoshopped on. Maybe it'll look better in the future.

Decided to pause on the newsboard that the purple haired dude is looking at, and I must say, while there isn't a lot there, what can be made out is...foreboding. The bottom middle headline I believe says "Outer Wall Damaged" which certainly seems like it will be important later, while the one to its left seems to be an opinion piece on the dust embargo. The standouts, however, are the top two. The first on the left talks about a journalist being found dead (always a good sign in politically charged climates) while the one on the right talks about an upcoming council election. Specifically, it talks about a "Mantle Hometown Hero" (whom I am assuming to be the woman on all of the posters that looks like she wouldn't look out of place in The Dragon Prince) going up against an "Atlesian Tycoon." Five Lien on who THAT could possibly be. Are Team RWBY and Friends going to have to go up against Jacques in a political arena? Because that could get pretty interesting.

I'd say that drone was too cute to die the way it did, but quite frankly it was far too funny for me to muster up that much compassion.

Yeesh, our first look at the Faunus Dust Miners, and it is not a pretty sight. Or maybe it's just the drunk asshole spouting casual racism. Either way, it's an ugly sight.

Thank you Weiss. We were all thinking it, put the trash where it belongs.

So did the drunk with the blue beanie know who they were? I feel like that was what he was trying to say before he decided to eat shit.

I don't know who the mouse Faunus girl was that exited the clinic, and we'll probably never see her again, but she was adorable as hell and I feel like that deserved mentioning.

Hmm, a robotics technician that resides in Atlas, has similar hair style and skin tone to the guy we cut to when Penny died, and is currently wearing a pink bow tie? Yeah, no idea who this is.

I love his chair. That is all.

"Days Since Last Nonsense: 0" I like the added touch of 'nonsense' being written down the side where room ran out.

If we never get to see Nora try Pietro's dancing shoes, this entire volume will be considered a waste.

So, seeing how incredibly obvious it is as to who this Pietro guy is, did anyone else perk up a bit when he referred to his daughter in present tense?

Hehe, convenient-reveal-delaying Grimm attack is conveniently-reveal-delaying

I see the Atlesian are as useless as always.

This score sounds like it's based on a song we'll be getting later, but even if it isn't I am loving it all the same

Even though his pose was completely different, when Oscar stabbed the Sabre Grimm in the head, it reminded me of Scrooge Mcduck's pogo attack in the old Ducktales game.

And there it is. The major even that they have been teasing us about for months, the big Vol 7 premiere surprise, the one, the only PENNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am so excited to see our precious robot girl back! Now all we need is Pyrrha and I will be happy once more

Let's face it Ruby, any other greeting simply would not have done this reunion justice.

Plus side, the status of RWBY redheads just got a lot less endangered.

"We have so many things to catch up about" Oh, Penny, you have no idea.

Dangit, Qrow, you had to jinx it, didn't you. I mean, I guess that's pretty on brand for you, but still.

These Ace-Ops guys certainly seem...colorful (despite most of them wearing the standard boring Atlas white color palette). I'm particularly interested in who I'm assuming is the leader, who the credits name Clover Ebi. I don't know who or what his character allusion is, but I feel like him being covered in stereotypical good luck charms is a sign.

Woohoo! New intro time! Just like last time, there's a lot to unpack here, so let's get into it

-The opening silhouettes remind me a lot of the original trailers, and quite frankly I love it for that. Not sure how I feel about the more pastel color pallet, though. -The shot of Team RWBY flying through the sky and shifting throughout all of their main outfits? A stroke of genius. -They seem to have updated Yang's semblance effect from the Bees vs Adam fight. It looks amazing and I love it. -Ironwood alone in a dark war room certainly doesn't seem ominous-Hmm, now the Ace-Ops guys get there own silhouette portraits? I am certainly interested in getting to know these guys. -When we zoom out on Watts's computer, alongside the Ace-Ops we see something to do with Mantle's security network as well as an election map. This election is definitely looking like it's going to be a main focal point of this volume. -Nothing too special here, just a few character shots, a silhouette of Tyrian looking creepy, Ironwood looking angry and sad (though the effect of the snow and ice consuming him is interesting), Jacques and Whitley looking smarmy, Weiss and Winter looking at each other (their facial expressions are certainly telling of what their relationship is going to be like this volume), Pietro and Maria, a group shot of Teams RWBY, Team JNR, and Oscar, and of course, Penny looking adorable. -Now that we're getting to see it in motion, I must admit that Jaune's new haircut doesn't look too bad. Also, I noticed his shield now incorporates hard light dust. I wonder if it just widens his shield a little or if it will manifest in other ways as well. -When the Mantle citizen threw a rock at the hologram of Ironwood, it briefly flickered to Jacques. That's concerning. -The action scenes are a lot of fun, with Oscar training with Ironwood, and Weiss and Blake in the dust mines, but the really interesting one is the Mantle Hero and Qrow going up against Tyrian. I wonder if Qrow knows her. -The group shot at the end is very My Hero Academia and I absolutely love it. -Wow, even Qrow gets a new outfit. It only took him twenty years. -Ooh, a brief look at the Relic of Creation. I admit, I was hoping that the relics would each have different color schemes, like having all of them be gold is fine, but I was slightly hoping where the Relic of Knowledge was blue, the Relic of Creation would be maybe green and the Relic of Destruction would be red, or something like that. Still looks cool though -There was not a single hint of Cinder or Neo in the opening, and that somewhat worries me.

Hehe, credits humor "Drunk Mann played by Joel Mann" Ah, once again, RWBY shows that it knows how to come out the gate swinging. They've set up a lot of interesting things in this first episode, and I can not wait to see how it all plays out.

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby spoilers #rooster teeth animation

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wordsablaze · 5 years

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All Sorts Of Enough

(tlcsw pt.2) Thorne is being his flirtatious self as part of their plan but it doesn't quite work out and Cress decides to put an end to it, written for prompt 'cresswell enough' in tlc ship weeks 2019!

A/N: Too late to be fashionably late but I won’t let this fade into my drafts so here we are :) Please be kind about the mistakes this probably has x

Cress has officially had enough of this dumb plan.

She can't figure out why on Earth or Luna they couldn't find a more sensible plan that didn't involve sacrificing the integrity of her relationship.

As Thorne casually flirts with the brunette Iko had told them to approach, anger burns in her stomach.

If Iko's girlfriend needs to get evidence for a revenge plan aimed at the girl who's cheating on her oblivious brother, surely there was a way to do so without using someone already in a committed relationship?

But she hadn't complained; she'd trusted Thorne to know what he was doing and anyway, their squad - as Iko had taken to calling them - obviously wouldn't endorse anything that was problematic anyway.

That's what she keeps telling herself as she watches him guide their target across the room to where Cinder and Scarlet are acting as the bartenders.

Oh, and they're in a club.

Of all places for something to go wrong, this is the one that holds the most risk.

“Hey, are you doing okay?” Kai asks from next to her, having appeared from amidst the crowd without warning.

She jumps, accidentally nudging him, but he doesn't mind, only smiles and puts an arm around her comfortingly.

“It's painful to see people flirting with your significant other, isn't it?” he asks, as if abbreviating words is illegal or something.

It takes her a second to wonder how he can relate to her situation but then realises that his girlfriend is probably the subject of many tipsy attempts at seducing the bartender for a variety of benefits.

“Way more painful than it should be,” Cress agrees, leaning on him to try and get away from the mass of people swarming around the dance floor.

He's not the type for parties and crowds either but he's much better than her at pretending he is, probably a side effect of being the Emperor.

She's far more comfortable being behind a screen where she can control how many people see her and how many people she needs to interact with but she's not about to leave Thorne in a place like this without supervision. Not that she doesn't trust him or anything but for her own peace of mind.

Still, everything goes alright.

Except that it doesn’t.

Everything goes alright until she loses sight of Thorne.

Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be much of a problem but, considering the circumstances, she doesn’t want to risk anything and losing sight of her favourite human after having put so much effort into keeping track of him for hours is nothing short of a crisis.

She catches sight of Kai’s lowkey pretentious velvet jacket and makes her way over, poking his shoulder rapidly.

“Ow- Cress? What’s wrong?” Kai asks, concern laced in his voice as he looks at her worried expression.

“I’ve lost Thorne,” she mumbles and, for the briefest moment, she doesn’t even know which kind of lost he is, but then she takes a deep breath and remembers the conversation she’d had with him before. “He said to just keep his eyes on me but I don’t know where he went.”

Kai takes a moment to process this before nodding firmly. “Don’t worry yourself, Cress, we’ll find him. Don’t forget that Wolf is tall enough to see over just about anything, right?”

She finds a small comfort in his word and nods gratefully, taking another deep breath as he guides her along to where Cinder is looking at them with confusion. Once they reach the bar, Kai leans forward and easily murmurs something to Cinder - much to the irritation of two oblivious and hopeful guys - before winking at her and leading Cress into the middle of the crowd.

“What are we doing?” Cress all but squeaks, but she realises his plan before he has to answer: Just like the way being connected directly to the server that’s hosting hundreds of users makes it easier to get an overview of what’s going on, Kai wants to stay in the centre of the mass to see if they can spot Thorne.

“Keep an eye out, okay? You know him best out of all of us,” Kai almost shouts as they start moving, but it’s effectively whispering with how loud the music is and, anyway, shouting isn’t really how anyone would describe his speech.

On the other hand, she’s ready to shout the place down if it means Thorne might hear her.

Without warning, Wolf appears beside them and whispers, “He’s not in this room, look for anything of his he might have left behind.” Then he’s gone, dissolved back into the crowd.

So Cress looks over the men somewhat gracefully stumbling around, the women happily weaving through the dancers, and everyone else in between who’s just here for a good time. Her search comes up with no results and she’s ready to yell in frustration because this is all going so wrong and what if-

There.

“Thorne’s coat, on the vase to our left,” Cress reports, surprised by the steel in her voice.

He’d never leave his coat anywhere if it wasn’t to send a message; he loves his outfits far too much sometimes and she occasionally wonders whether she’d be annoyed by it if she didn’t appreciate how handsome they make him look.

Kai grins at her, deftly manoeuvring them towards the vase in question, exchanging polite smiles with the people around them while Cress stares at Thorne’s coat as if it can be prompted into revealing its secrets.

Cress grabs the coat as soon as they reach it, not really thinking before putting it on, instantly comforted by the strange scent of mint and vanilla Thorne seems to carry around with him.

Within seconds, Cinder is stood at her side, placing a hand on her arm as a promise to help and an apology at the same time.

“It’s okay,” Cress replies to that, and neither of them dwells on it as the three of them move forwards.

“That’s his tie, right?” Cinder asks after a while, gesturing to the fabric item currently dangling from the low chandelier above them, “I’d recognise that ridiculous thing anywhere.”

Kai jumps up and grabs it, then draping it around Cress’ neck with a soft smile. “Your boyfriend’s pretty good at leaving breadcrumbs.”

Cress beams, ignoring her panic for a moment, nodding her agreement.

“We’d better not find his trousers next, I’m not sure you can wear those,” Cinder mutters.

Kai clears his throat to hide his laughter and glances at Cress apologetically. “I’m sure he’s not far,” he says reassuringly.

As if on cue, there’s a bright blue of two figures across the corridor, from one room to another, and the three of them are moving immediately. When they follow the aforementioned blur into the room, all three of them stop, slightly confused.

Thorne and Iko’s girlfriend’s brother’s disloyal girlfriend are glaring at each other, both breathing heavily.

“You took your time! What else did you need, a lock of my hair?” Throne huffs, but his gaze softens when it lands on Cress. “Hey, darling, I’ve missed you.”

Cress blushes as the disloyal girl hisses: “Darling?”

“Does the name Iko ring a bell?” Iko hisses back, somehow just appearing from behind them, as if the other girl opening her mouth was somehow enough of a signpost to where she is.

The other girl pales, opening her mouth to say something before sighing in defeat. “This is about that guy, isn’t it?”

“Sorry, ‘that guy’? Do you mean the one who loved you?” Kai asks, clearly a little offended on behalf of said guy.

“Loved?” The other girl echoes, her brows furrowed in confusion.

Thorne raises an eyebrow at her. “He sure as aces isn’t going to stay stuck with you now that he knows your true colours.”

Iko huffs to emphasise his point, then marches up to the girl with a glare that could rival even the most draconian of world leaders. “If you even go near him again, you’ll find that things get so bad, you’ll have no choice but to flee the country, savvy?”

Cress doesn’t hear the girl’s reply and nor does she pay attention to Cinder gently pulling Iko back so she doesn’t cause any damage; her eyes are glued firmly to Thorne.

“Are you alright, love?” Thorne asks gently, cupping the side of her face with one of his hands, the other resting kindly on her shoulder.

Cress nods, then shakes her head. “Can we go home?”

Thorne pulls her into a warm embrace and kisses the top of her head apologetically. “I’m sorry,” he says, nothing but sincerity in his voice.

Smiling properly, Cress pulls back and lifts the tie off her shoulders, placing it around Thorne’s neck as carefully as she can before smiling and reassuringly saying: “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t know that.”

The grin that makes its way onto Thorne’s face is worth her previous fear, and, judging by the love in his eyes, she can tell he’s thinking the same about her own matching grin.

“Alright, lovebirds, wrap it up,” Cinder says loudly, even though her hand is now entwined in Kai’s and the two of them are both a little flushed.

“Make us, hypocrite,” Thorne retorts, slipping his hand into Cress’ and starting to follow them anyway.

Cress doesn’t even know they manage to assemble everyone every time but, sure enough, Scarlet and Wolf join them, the whole gang - sans Winter and Jacin since they’d been handling something in court - then piling into Scarlet’s minivan to get as far away as possible.

Thorne puts an arm around Cress, carefully running his fingers along her skin, tracing out random shapes as she rests her head on his shoulder and sighs contently.

“I think I’ve had enough of clubs,” she mutters, bordering on grumpy and not even caring.

“Perfectly understandable,” Thorne replies quietly.

Cress lets herself melt further into his warmth and closes her eyes, her earlier panic having exhausted her entirely. “Thank you,” she hears herself whispering.

She can sense Thorne smiling above her as he chuckles quietly. “Go to sleep, my brave damsel, I promise I’ll make sure you get enough rest.”

Regardless of her exhaustion, she knows that’s his way of saying he’s sorry and that he loves her, and that knowledge is more than enough to convince her heart to smile and to convince her brain to let herself fall into the most comfortable rest she’s had in a while.

like/reblog but don’t respot, thanks!

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rwbyremnants · 5 years

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=Chapter 4

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Weiss squirmed as Pyrrha parked in front of the dilapidated-looking building. They had been given directions to a restaurant previously known as “Shopkeeper’s” for whatever reason, that now served as the main headquarters for the Dragons. She knew they had the right address, because the ink was still emblazoned across her palm from that morning. At the same time, knowing it was the right address didn’t allay her every fear, so she couldn’t expect it to do that for Pyrrha, either. Sighing, she adjusted her pink cardigan and turned to the tall girl behind the steering wheel.

“We’ll never know unless we go in there, right?”

“It’s such a rough neighbourhood,” she whispered, glancing around warily. Her own outfit was a little more conservative, a grey jacket covering the top half of her long dress that fell all the way to her ankles. “A-and they terrify me. But if you’re sure they won’t hurt us…”

“I don't think they will. I mean, we’re no threat to them in general, and Yang is… a genuinely good person.” Saying it sounded so true that she knew examining that was futile. “So she won’t let anything bad happen, anyway.”

Nodding, Pyrrha turned off the engine and adjusted her ponytail. They almost looked like they were trying to be twins, given that their hairstyle and outfits were so similar. “My parents would ground me for a thousand years if they caught me doing this…”

“Don’t you want to live a little?”

“No!”

Laughing, Weiss got out of the car. Pyrrha could be such a stick in the mud sometimes - and that was coming from a real prude such as she.

The inside of Shopkeeper’s was actually fairly well-maintained, even if the outside and the entryway were filthy and gutted, the windows blacked out. It was dimly-lit but as tidy as the bar Yang had taken her to previously. Several round tables littered the main space, but some of the dining floor had been cleared away for the purposes of dancing, and one corner now played host to a pool table. A jukebox played softly in another corner, even if the multicoloured lights along its surface flickered now and then. No one was smoking; that seemed to take place outside, as with many restaurants, even though the purpose of this one had clearly changed. The bar was well-stocked, and an older woman with multiple tattoos tended the drinks as the denizens relaxed.

As it turned out, there were a few more Dragons than they realised. Not many, but the girls Weiss saw in the halls of Beacon High weren’t their full complement, as she had wrongfully assumed. Most of the new faces were older faces. Three ladies that were at least old enough to be her mother sat around one of the tables, laughing and slapping their thighs as a younger girl with brown hair, buzzed nearly down to the scalp, delivered them another round before heading back to the bar.

“Well… fudge,” Pyrrha breathed. “There are so many!”

“It’s okay,” Weiss whispered to her as they shuffled very slowly into the room. More than ever, she felt self-conscious in her saddle shoes and skirt; they definitely didn’t suit the atmosphere. But trying to wear anything else would have been a less than authentic representation of who she was. “Just… act natural.”

“You owe me for this, Weiss. I mean… a huge hot fudge sundae.”

Just then, a voice cried out, “The princess has arrived! And she brought a snack!”

As a few of them laughed, Cinder Fall approached from the wings, hands on her hips and stepping lively. This time, she was wearing black jeans and a red top that covered next to nothing. She had left her leather jacket draped over the back of a chair.

“H-hello again,” Pyrrha offered with a hopeful smile.

“Who asked you to come? The invitation was for one.”

“And I appreciated it,” Weiss cut in before Pyrrha could be too upset by the summary dismissal. “But I thought my friend might want to come see what this place is like, as well. That’s not a big deal, is it?”

“It is.”

“Oh.”

“Whatever,” Cinder sighed, waving for both of them to follow. “If Salem kicks you out, that’s it, but she probably won’t care. Bringing in extra men is what typically boils her oil.”

Just as they arrived at the table, seeing that Emerald and Coco were absent but Blake was relaxing with a beer, Weiss asked, “So… is Yang here? I thought she said she would be.”

“What’s your hurry? She’s in with Salem, kissing her boots.”

“Oh? In a back room or something?” When Cinder only shrugged carelessly and dropped into her chair again, Weiss nodded and took one of the other chairs. “Ah.”

“Don’t worry,” Blake assured her with a less cruel smile than her companion. “It won’t be long. Since Yang’s our leader at the school and on certain turf, she has to report to Salem and compare notes, stuff like that.”

Something confused Weiss. “I thought she was the Dragon. And the leader. So… if she’s not the leader, and this Salem is, then why…?”

Cinder sighed, sipping at her martini. Weiss noticed Pyrrha looking horrified that girls their age were drinking so heavily, but at least she was making no comment. “You really don’t know, do you? Might want to ask her yourself. But let’s just say Yang’s not the first Dragon; she’s the current one.”

“Ah,” Pyrrha spoke up at last. “So it’s like being class president?”

Both of the Dragons just stared at her.

Luckily, they didn’t need to elaborate or segue into another topic. A door creaked open some distance from them, and out walked Yang with another gangster at her side. This Dragon had mottled patches of skin and a long red-brown ponytail, and standing next to Yang, she looked quite short. They exchanged a few words, and then turned in their direction.

“Oh boy,” Blake sighed.

“I think it’s cute,” Cinder muttered, though that was all she said before the two had arrived at their table. “Welcome back, Boss. Ilia.”

“You made it,” Yang said with a slight smile. Of course, she was back to being a little more gruff now that she was around her gang again, but that was fine; Weiss expected as much. “And… who… the hell?”

“This is Pyrrha,” Weiss said, gesturing toward her and pausing while she bowed her head slightly. “I needed a ride, and thought this might be a good opportunity for my friends to meet.”

“Ooh, ‘friends’,” Cinder mocked, and Blake snorted. “What an ice cream social we’re having here.”

“Down, Cindy,” Yang sighed, which did actually shut her up post haste. “It’s cool. But if you bring any more people, it might be wiser if you ran it past me first. But Pyrrha seems okay.”

As Weiss was sighing in relief, the short stranger moved to sit in a vacant chair next to Blake. “Um, so is there anything I can get you?”

“I’m good,” Blake said casually.

“You sure? I think Kali is cooking today, a-and she’s a pretty fantastic cook.”

Blake just stared at her for a minute. “You know that’s my mom, right? I’m fairly aware of how good her cooking is.”

Instantly, Ilia was beet red and looking down at her fists where they rested on her knees. Cinder let out another chuckle into her glass as she drained it, and Yang rolled her eyes.

“Okay. Sorry, I’ll… get back to work.” Flashing an awkward smile, Ilia peeled herself out of the seat and hurried up to the bar. Weiss felt awful for the girl, but it was also none of her business, so she kept silent.

“Never mind her,” Yang said as she plopped down on Weiss’s other side. Luckily, they were sat in the two chairs that would normally be reserved for Emerald and Coco, or the table would have been very overcrowded. “She’s new and still tries to kiss up to the seniors. Doesn’t know her place yet. But I think she’ll do alright.”

“I don’t recognise her from school,” Pyrrha said. “But she’s about our age, isn’t she?”

“Goes to Signal High,” Blake grumbled. She definitely didn’t sound thrilled to still be talking about this. “On the other side of the tracks. Sad when joining the Dragons is a step up.”

“Shut up,” Cinder snapped, standing to refresh her martini on her own. “The Dragons are the best thing about this godforsaken town.” Then she was gone.

“Wow,” Weiss breathed. “What’s getting her goat?”

Yang shrugged, snaking an arm around Weiss’s back. The presence did make her feel a little less nervous about this entire situation, but now she felt more nervous about other people seeing them be affectionate than about the affection itself. “Who knows with her? Always crabby.”

“Not always,” Blake said. “Just… almost-always.” Then she turned to Pyrrha. “So what about you? Decathlon star, or something, right? Why would you come down to our rathole?”

“To give Weiss a ride,” she answered.

“But you’re still here. I mean, were you hoping to get a look at how the wrong half lives?”

Pyrrha’s already-strained face became further saddened. “Please, don’t think that. My parents donate every year to the Restoration Project.”

“Great,” Yang put in, leaning back a little more. Weiss felt the draw to slide sideways and rest against her shoulder, but resisted for the time being. “All we need is someone coming in, trying to bulldoze Shopkeeper’s. Then we’d have to find a new spot.”

“Oh… I’m sorry, I didn’t- well, they’re just doing their best to-”

“We know,” Blake cut her off. “And I do know a couple poorer families who have a nicer place now because of that project. Just… doesn’t always work out great for everyone, that’s all.”

Now Pyrrha looked thoroughly depressed, and Weiss felt it was her own fault. So she put in, “Yeah. Helps a lot of families. And anyway, at worst they would probably just demand you get this place up to code, not tear it down; it looks solid enough.”

“Maybe,” she conceded with a small chuckle and a smile.

“Let’s grab some grub,” Yang grunted, pushing to stand. “Blake, you want anything? We both know how you hate to bother her while she’s working.”

The Italian Dragon gave an indifferent shrug, but her eyes said something else entirely. They were almost embarrassed, but if Weiss were to give it a name, she would call the expression concerned-yet-annoyed. But all she said was, “Fries.”

“Got it. Keep my friend entertained.”

“Sure,” she snorted with a glance over. Pyrrha gulped.

It didn’t take them long to cross the restaurant and push their way through the swinging doors into the kitchens. A few Dragons were in there, though none of them wore leather jackets while working on the food orders. An olive-skinned woman who forcibly reminded Weiss of Blake was reprimanding one of them on her burger-forming technique as they watched.

“Is… everyone here a woman?” Weiss asked Yang in an undertone.

“Yeah. Kind of our thing, right? Though guys aren’t technically banned; we just make them feel so unwelcome they choose to leave on their own. Not even on purpose.” Her arm looped around Weiss’s neck and dragged her along toward the chef. “We’re just sooooo hospitable.”

“Why, hello,” Kali Belladonna said as she smiled across at them, hands clapping in front of her ample chest that was outlined all too well by her thin shirt - and lack of anything underneath. Weiss tried not to glance downward, but they were just out there. “Who’s this we have here? Fresh blood?”

“Nah, not really. Kali, this is Weiss Schnee.”

Her eyebrows went up a little higher. “Not the daughter of the Schnees? Wow, you really don’t have any idea where you are right now, do you?”

“I’m perfectly aware.” A half-beat later, she remembered her manners and added, “But it’s nice to meet you.”

“Sweet young woman. Even if she’s eyeing my tits like a death row inmate.” When Weiss flushed and looked away, she chuckled and turned back to Yang. “What’ll it be?”

“Some fries. Oh, and you got any of that barbecue pork left?”

“All gone, I’m afraid. Right now, we have… burgers coming up, a pot of minestrone, and a big chocolate cake in the fridge.”

“What do you think? Burgers again?” After a heartbeat of silence, she snapped her fingers. “Yo, Weiss!”

Blinking rapidly, she stammered, “O-of course! Though I… wouldn’t mind trying the minestrone.”

That choice seemed to please Kali. She had a feeling that if Blake smiled more often than once in a blue moon, the family resemblance would be more obvious. “If I’d known someone with actual class was coming, I’d have made my garlic tortellini. But alright, I can fetch you a cup of soup.” In an undertone, she told Yang, “Hang onto that one.” Though she didn’t trouble to keep her voice down, and sent a little wink at Weiss before turning back to the stove.

“Awww, she likes you,” Yang teased the red-faced girl. “Maybe you’ll get a better look at her tits later if you play your cards right.”

“Quiet, you.”

Soon enough, they were heading back to the main area. Yang had a fairly large hamburger that looked good, but different from the one at Junior’s; a larger patty, no sesame seeds on the bun. Weiss’s cup of soup was steaming and in the middle of a plate with oyster crackers ringing the cup itself.

The table was a little more crowded when they got back to it. And Weiss was rather shocked at the activity taking place there.

“Isn’t this better?” Cinder was asking, arm looped around Pyrrha’s shoulders to hold her in her lap. The grey jacket was now on the back of the chair and Pyrrha seemed to be wearing a Dragon instead. She looked as if she wanted to expire on the spot; Weiss honestly couldn’t tell if she was flattered or horrified by the attention, because the polite girl looked so concerned with not doing anything that might upset the insistent woman.

“Y-yes, of course. Thank you.”

Sighing, Yang plopped into her chair from before. “Go home, Cinder, you’re drunk.”

“I can’t. I’m showing this tall sweetheart a good time. Aren’t I, sweetheart?”

“You’re certainly trying,” Weiss’s friend laughed nervously.

“You know,” she went on, her other hand drifting up to let the back of her index finger graze along Pyrrha’s now-bare bicep, “there are a few… private booths in the back room. Normally, we can’t use them; that’s for the elders only. But Salem likes me. We could get better acquainted.”

“No, thank you.” When Cinder’s eyes flashed, she added, “I, um… I’m happy here, getting to know all of you!”

“Yeah, Cinder,” Blake put in, also a little tipsy but clearly with more pure intentions than those of her fellow thug. “She likes all of us. Don’t hog her all to yourself; let her hang out.”

Shrugging as if it didn’t matter to her, Cinder settled in again and pet up along Pyrrha’s neck. “Is there anyone at school you’re interested in a teensy bit more than others, perhaps?”

“Well… if you mean do I have a crush, I don’t, really. Though…”

“Though?”

Pyrrha gulped, and she shivered from the touch. Weiss was beginning to get angry, even if she was also curious what kind of reactions her friend would keep having if this went unchecked. “Th-there is this boy, in my algebra class; he’s k-kind of a square and not very good at math, but I can t-tell he’s trying his best…”

“Oh,” she sighed in disgust, withdrawing entirely to her own personal space and grasping her martini glass. “A straightie.”

Though the word was flung like a curse word, Yang chuckled, “Why are you surprised? Most of the girls at Beacon are straight. You tested a lot of them yourself.”

“Sue me. Tall, leggy pin-up goddess like this one is wasted on men.”

Whereas the physical attentions had seemed to turn Pyrrha into a nervous wreck, those words did a lot more to bring an honest blush to her cheeks. “Goddess? Me?”

“Sure,” Cinder purred, turning bedroom eyes in her direction that made Weiss feel less comfortable, even without being their target. “Have you ever seen yourself in the mirror? Not just those legs, either; pretty big honeydews.”

“H-honeydews?” It was Blake who reached over and poked a single finger into Pyrrha’s breast, and she instantly shrank in on herself. “Oh… I… oh.”

“Hey,” Yang spoke up, just as Weiss had been about to. “Maybe ease off her a little, huh?”

“Why?” Cinder demanded. “She’s in our space. She needs to learn how things work here.”

“They work by making everybody uncomfortable and like they don’t have any right to say ‘no’, huh? News to me. I thought we were the Dragons, not the predators.”

This time, her eyes smouldered in a completely different way as she glared at her leader. “Dragons are predators.”

“Actually, Komodo dragons are cannibals. You want me to eat you?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” she muttered with a slight smirk. But in this case, it was clear the forceful woman was entirely joking; she had no such designs on the Dragon herself.

“Um…” Pyrrha held up her hand. “I would like to not be eaten at all?”

Though Weiss had been afraid the comment was going to annoy the others, instead it made them laugh. Blake leaned over and pounded Pyrrha on the back, which finally got her to titter along with them. Weiss relaxed and began to dig into her soup.

--------------------------------------

The night wore on. Though Yang did kiss the side of Weiss’s head a few times, she made no more forward overtures than those; they simply enjoyed each other’s company. Once the newness of Pyrrha and Weiss’s presence wore off, the others began to talk of internal Dragon matters that weren’t so secret they minded outside ears hearing them, and other casual topics of conversation such as the weather, local sports, and who was dating whom.

Other Dragons drifted in and out. Ilia came back and buzzed around Blake’s ears for a little while, and the other girl tolerated the attention fairly well, but Cinder ran her off with a few snide comments. That time, Pyrrha spoke up on her behalf but was largely ignored. Emerald showed up a little later, having had dinner with her family. The other server, whose named turned out to be Vernal, dropped by and chatted with them a little, though she didn’t seem to much care for Weiss or Pyrrha and went back to serve the others soon after.

At some point, Salem emerged. Weiss never got a decent look at her, because she was wearing an actual cloak - like something out of a movie. She spoke with the bartender for a moment, then slipped out the back door and into the night. No one else remarked on this, so she didn’t feel comfortable doing so herself.

Then things took a turn for the more depressing.

The instant Coco showed up with a friend in tow, the atmosphere shifted. All focus was pulled to them, and though the jukebox continued to play softly, no one spoke as the two approached the table in the corner. The way the smaller, meeker girl at her side was sobbing and being cradled by both of Coco’s arms had everything to do with that budding tension.

“Shit,” Cinder whispered.

“What is it?” Weiss breathed to Yang. But Yang only held up a hand, lowering it again as they finally got close enough to speak.

And it was Coco who did. “They’re moving.”

“Oh no,” Blake breathed. The others didn’t speak, merely tensed.

“I t-tried to talk them out of it,” the mousy girl whispered, long brown hair swishing as she shook her head violently, fat tears glistening on their way down her cheeks. She had an accent that Weiss couldn’t quite place right away, but she sounded British. “They say it’s f-for the best. That I haven’t been d-doing that well in Vale, anyway… I… I don’t want to go back!”

As she broke down completely again, she turned and shoved her face against Coco’s shoulder. Emerald and Blake stood to pet up and down her back, offering what comfort they could.

“What’s happening?” Pyrrha whispered to Cinder.

“Shh,” she said, but it was devoid of her usual bite and nastiness. The concern was only for one of their number who was suffering.

When they had the two sat down in another booth a little ways off, Emerald and Blake staying with them, Yang explained, “Velvet’s from Australia, and her parents want to move back. Uh… and we’re pretty sure it’s because they know she’s going with Coco, even though they don’t have any proof.”

“Fooling around with all of us,” Cinder grunted. “I’d have kept my hands off if I knew it would lead to this.”

“We don’t know that for sure. Just… they’ve been dropping hints.”

“That’s awful,” Pyrrha whispered. “Do they really think changing locations will change who their daughter is?”

At that, Cinder looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. “You’re not going to start talking about God? About His plan for us, how we’ve strayed? Leviticus and whatever? Your father’s a preacher, if I’m not mistaken.”

“He’s a parishioner. And my father doesn’t believe in focusing on all the fire-and-brimstone parts of the Bible; he says focusing on negative things is not God’s way, and it’s not his way.” Then she shrugged her shoulders, self-conscious now. “Though… I don’t know how he’d feel about me hanging around with…”

“With what?” No response. “Go on, say it. With bulldykes.”

“I would never say that.”

Cinder chuckled harshly. “You really wouldn’t, would you? Might be biased, but there’s not a mean bone in your body. The Dykey Dragons would swallow you whole if you keep coming back here.”

“Hey,” Yang said, and this time her sharp tone conveyed everything she needed to say. Even Weiss flinched, simply because she was so close to her. Cinder’s lips tightened for a second, but then she went back to drinking, no longer needling Pyrrha about her parents and their beliefs.

But eventually, Pyrrha surprised them by speaking up. “It’s alright. I… don’t understand much about what I’ve seen today, a-and what Weiss has been telling me. It’s only right that I listen, to try to understand.”

Yang nodded a few times. “Pretty decent of you. Most of the people you go to church with would probably just shove us in a muddy ditch. Wouldn’t be the first time.”

“They wouldn’t! I mean… I hope they wouldn’t.”

“They would,” Cinder said very shortly, voice hollow. As if speaking from experience.

“I wouldn’t. And neither would my father and mother.” Her hand fell to Cinder’s forearm on the table top. “But I’m sorry if-”

Cinder jerked away, standing up and downing the rest of her drink before she went to the bar. Though Yang sighed, she made no other comment right away; only moved her leftover chips around on her plate.

“I’m sorry,” Pyrrha breathed.

“Don’t be,” Yang sighed. “Cinder’s always like that, especially when it comes to straighties. Religion and stuff. She, uh… she’s had a pretty crummy life until now. The Dragons really do mean everything to her.”

Weiss couldn’t help saying, “Then she might try being less rude to everyone.”

“Oh, she might,” Yang said with a slight smile. “I sure as hell try to loosen her up. But she’s just… yeah, real serious. I think she could be the Dragon someday, if I ever got out.”

“Got out? Are you leaving Vale?”

“No, not Vale. Just… the gang. But I don’t think I really want that; it’s just tempting sometimes.” Her smile turned a little wry. “Maybe I’ll marry you and we can play tennis all day.”

While Weiss was laughing, Pyrrha looked a little confused. “Marry? But you can’t. I mean, not legally.”

“Ain’t you ever heard of a Boston Marriage?” Yang chuckled. “Maybe we’ll move to Boston. I don’t know, maybe they don’t still do that.”

“I’m sorry,” Pyrrha whispered. “I didn’t mean to imply… well, of course you can live together. As friends, as far as anyone else is concerned.”

Propping her boots up on the table, Yang sighed and stared at the ceiling for a long moment. Then she whispered, “You think maybe, in the future, we’ll be able to get married? Weirdos like us, I mean.”

“Maybe,” Pyrrha said quietly.

“Not with Eisenhower in office,” Weiss grunted. “All he cares about is the Russians and his precious nukes.”

“That might not be entirely fair; he did sign the Civil Rights Act. So maybe…”

--------------------------------------

That topic kept them bantering back and forth for the better part of an hour. Eventually, Pyrrha began to yawn, so she asked Weiss if she wanted a ride back. Yang was so eager to offer to drop her at home herself that Weiss almost laughed, but she declined the offer.

“Awww, why not?”

“Because I think it might be smart if my father actually sees Pyrrha dropping me off for once,” she said as she dusted off her knees. Pyrrha was just finishing off the milkshake Kali had whipped up for her and sliding it to the middle of the table. “Since I’m using her as my alibi.”

Shaking her head, the tall ginger said, “I wish you wouldn’t put it that way; we haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Try telling my family that. Mother would probably just tell me to be safe before she poured herself another glass of cordial, but Father…” Deciding not to go down that road, she said, “And my big sister is away at State, learning how to be a congresswoman or something, but she’d probably box my ears, too.”

“Glad to hear I’m so likeable,” Yang said with a grin, though the tone was slightly bitter. Then she glanced at Pyrrha. “Where are you going?”

Freezing on her way to the other corner, she said, “Oh… I… well, I was going to offer my condolences to Velvet. Would that… not be welcome?”

“Nah, go on. She could use all the cheering up she can get right about now.”

With Pyrrha gone, Weiss turned and pecked Yang on the cheek. “Sorry we didn’t get much time to ourselves. But hey, at least we got to hang out for most of the day.”

“True,” Yang sighed, sliding her arm around Weiss’s waist as they watched Pyrrha approach the booth. Her pulse ticked up a few notches at their closeness, but that was getting a bit more tolerable now; she didn’t feel like it was a full-on panic attack every time Yang cuddled her anymore. “And your pal there is pretty alright. Reminds me of Velvet when she first started coming. A little of you, too.”

“Me? How so?”

“She’s your friend; you should know the ways you two are peas in a pod.”

Dipping her head, she laughed, “I guess so. But I like to think that none of us are this one thing or that one thing. I hate being boxed in.”

“Hey, you’re preachin’ to the choir, Schnee. Being a Dragon… it really cut me off from some things I wanted to do.”

“Like what?”

“Oh…” She shrugged, and Weiss could tell she was a little more nervous about continuing that topic. “Well, it was great for learning how to work on cars, being strong, stuff like that. And the girls have my back. But my grades are terrible. Like… I feel dumb every minute I’m in class. Most of the other Dragons don’t get that; Blake does, but it’s easy for her to do all her homework in class. I’m not that quick on the uptake.”

“Yang… we could, um… study together, if you want. Pyrrha’s an even better tutor than me. You don’t have to give up just because you’re a brute.”

The gentle emphasis made Yang smile, and she kissed Weiss’s forehead. She had to hum from the contact; it was sweet, intimate. Caring. When was the last time anyone paid her that kind of attention?

“Thanks, Schnee. I’ll think about it.”

#Princess and The Dragons #rwby fanfiction #1950s AU #freezerburn fanfic #yang x weiss #rwbyremnants

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team-aale · 7 years

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Austin Argento - Basic Info

So I should probably introduce Austin properly now that I think about it

Name: Austin Argento Aura Color: Grey Colors: Silver/Grey (primary), Gold (secondary) Emblem: A Scorpion Allusion/Inspiration: Susanō mainly, Auster/Notus and Hermes secondarily Semblance: “Striding” - Austin’s Semblance allows for near-instant movement (range of up to 3 meters upon joining Beacon), akin to a ‘shunpo’. To those unaware it may seem like teleportation, but given that it’s a dash, the movement can be stopped by obstacles in his path. It uses relatively low amounts of aura to preform, but rapid overuse can cause nausea and/or disorientation. I like to compare it to how Cinder’s running is masked in this scene in Volume 3. Weapon name: Jinsoku Ombra (Swift Shadow) Weapon: Detachable-Blade Daggers & Chains / Composite-blade Katana Physical Description: Lean, lightly muscular body (kind of a runner’s body type), and fair skinned. White-blonde/Ash-Blonde hair that reaches just barely eye length, and relatively straight (though usually worn somewhat messy). Good endurance and health. A few small scars around his body, one more noticable on the palm of his hands. Attitude: Upbeat, calm, and generally pretty optimistic for the most part. He’s caring and friendly to those both familiar and stranger, but likes to remain unnoticed when not otherwise necessary. An observant “sit in the back and watch events unfold” kind of person, though is willing to get involved if it’s a cause important to himself, his friends, or family. He’s often quite mischievous, and can be somewhat forgetful in the heat of the moment. Will almost always put the needs of his family above his own. With friends, he may be more melodramatic, and may allow himself to be a bit more silly. Being a thief for most of his life, he’s developed some almost impulsive habits; whether he needs it or not, he’ll often look for ways out of situations or ways around things, and opportunities to take things that don’t belong to him. He’s easily the most patient member of Team AALE, and while he’s known for being calm under pressure, there are certain things that can push him over the edge - though his anger is usually short lasted (and he doesn’t like it). Flaws: A bit impulsive and unpredictable Skills and Strengths: Faster than the average student and possesses fair acrobatic skill. Good spatial and situational awareness, and above average hand-eye coordination. Maneuvers well in both urban and rural environments. Knows parts of Mistral, and the streets of Vale quite well. Has an affinity for using wind and lightning dust types, but well versed in many after growing up with Lana and Astra. Trained mostly in light bladed weapons (Pre-chapters 3 and 5). A musician across many instruments.

TL;DR - Austin is the quick-witted and fleet-footed swordsman and second in command of Team AALE. He’s a calm and caring guy who’s not afraid to stand up for himself or his friends. However, once a thief always a thief; and some things stay with you.

More info to come! In the meantime, there’s an outfit description, and a few more details under the cut here.

Outfit: Austin wears a light grey medium-sleeved shirt with a nice leather tunic/shirt overtop, and casual slack style pants. Along with that, he bracers/vambraces on his arms, riding-boot style shoes, and a worn grey-brown cloak. On occasion or when required, he wears reading glasses, though not very often and generally not in combat scenarios. Some references here.

Accessories: He’s got a few pouches on his person for spare dust, throwing knives, and other supplies, and his bracers are slotted to be able to fit backup blades as well. If the need arises, he’ll wear a sling backpack. He bears his family’s crest, a stylized scorpion, engraved in his bracers and on the back of his cloak. He also has a more personalized emblem, which can be found on the arms of his glasses.

And here are more details about character inspiration and such:

- The allusions to Susanō and Hermes follow the overall allusion for AALE, Deities - One (or more) representative of his culture, and one (or more) Greek. His direct influence is Susanō, the Japanese god of storms and the sea, who made his family mad, was banished from his home, killed a giant monster of a snake-dragon, and found a legendary sword that controlled the wind.

• His secondary allusions are to Notus/Auster and Hermes; Notus is the Greek and name for the god of the South Wind, thought to bring storms and destroy crops, a parallel to Susanō. Auster is the Roman god of the south wind, more accurately, the embodiment of the Sirocco wind, Sirocco being the name of Austin’s weapon in a later part of the story. Interesting to note, Austin’s brother, Zephyr, alludes to the West Wind of Greek mythology, Zephyrus, brother to Auster. Also, Auster sounds like Austin kind of.

• Hermes is the patron god of thieves, merchants, travelers, and more. Hermes is also the messenger god, and well known for his winged boots, that granted him immense speed.

- Austin’s name can be broken into two halves, AU and Tin, AU being the chemical symbol for gold, and Tin being a silverish metal, both playing into his color scheme. Argento is Italian for Silver.

- The silver in his name color scheme plays thematically on how he tends to end up second, or in “second place” in life. He’s the second brother, the second in command for his team, the second child Astra took in, etc.

- Austin has a lot of inspiration drawn from mostly Japanese elements; the region he’s from, fighting styles and weapon, and his family structure being on the forefront of that. Even his backstory plays lightly on the ‘Ronin’ archetype.

- His semblance references a lot of older samurai movies and media, the idea of finishing off enemies in one quick movement and such. Pieces of his fighting style pull heavily from anime/game thematics and ideas, namely things like Soul Calibur, Katekyo Hitman Reborn, and more.

- In his original iteration, Austin’s knives were also flutes, to go along with his old noise-related semblance. After an overhaul to his character, that design was mostly done away with, though the concept of perforated blades became part of the weapon’s current design, used to distribute dust through the blades.

- Fun fact, his design and ultimately most of his initial inspiration comes from a custom character made in Soul Calibur

#RWBY OC #RWBYOC #Team AALE #AALE #Austin Argento #-B

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shadows-twilight · 5 years

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RWBY Volume 6 Finale

At long last, and yet way too soon, we are here. The big finish. The closing curtain. The are my various thoughts and opinions for the season finale of RWBY Volume 6, "Our Way"

SPOILERS BELOW:

You know, I think I'm really going to miss this opening. It quickly became one of my favorites. The song is really good, and the visuals are probably RWBY's best yet.

I love the nighttime scenes in the Maya engine. They are by far some of the most beautiful in the series.

Ok, I just want to point out how funny is that the character with the most variety of outfits on this show is the one played by a famous cosplayer. While it doesn't have the traditional color scheme, I do like Cinder's new look. Neo's is pretty dapper too. It's got more elements of Roman while also throwing in plenty of new stuff.

Woah, so Neo can extend her illusions to entire ships now? Not just a couple of people? Nice. Ok, fuck you Cinder. You don't have the right to make callbacks to Pyrrha.

It wasn't until Blake and Yang arrived on the scene when I realized...they missed everything. The last they heard, the rest of the heroes were just waiting for them on the cliff side. Then they come back from the battle with Adam, and suddenly there's Cordovin in a disabled giant ass mech and a horde of Grimm attacking Argus. And they thought their adventure was interesting.

I liked Cordovin's little breakdown. It starts off with her ranting at the heroes, but it quickly dissolves into her directing it at herself. Nice little moment.

Ok, I've been giving praise to the 2D effects up until this point, but massive kudos to the 3D crew here. Water is a very difficult thing to animate, and the way the water broke as the Leviathan resurfaced looked absolutely stellar.

You want to show someone just how far RWBY has come on a technical level? Show them the background characters in any of the first three volumes, then show them the background characters in the shot with the Cotta-Arcs. These designs are good enough to belong to central characters.

You know, whenever I see these Fence-Like hard light barriers, it did always bug me how no one ever thinks to go for the obvious generators. How messed up the the one that does is a mindless Grimm that didn't even notice the shield until it ran into it.

I don't know why, it's such a small thing, but seeing Ruby just casually refer to herself as a Huntress gives me a very warm feeling

You know, for declaring that the Atlesian fleet won't give the heroes any support, they're doing a pretty good job of giving them support.

Hehe, the way Weiss looked back at Ruby. "You're going to make me aid you in something stupid, aren't you?"

Holy shit, the 2D drawing flashbacks. They didn't need to go that hard. They could've just shown the original Poser shots like they did in Volume 5, and no one would have thought any less of them for it. Instead they did this. CRWBY, you are absolutely killing it this volume!

Aaaand of course they had to give special attention to Pyrrha and Penny. Because, you know, can't have a moment like this without ripping my heart off in the process.

Ha, using Jinn as a Clockstopper device. Nice. I realize there are probably better movies I can reference for comparison, but sadly that's the one that immediately jumped to mind.

I love Jinn's personality. Moreso, I love that she even has a personality. It would have been so easy for her to be an emotionless magic-AI, like the Oracle from Aladdin and the King of Thieves. Instead, she has a spunky, almost mischievous attitude that makes her quite endearing.

AAAAAAAAAAAHHH, SUMMER!!! I HAVE WAITED SO LONG FOR THIS!!! WE FINALLY SEE SUMMER!!! AND SHE LOOKS AMAZING!!! That's it, this is the best volume ever. Pack it up, people, we're done here!

Holy shit, new song! And it's amazing! God, the soundtrack for this volume is going to be on frikkin' fire. June can't get here fast enough.

Wait, so the petrification was only surface level? They can break free from that? Is that due to the size of the Grimm, or Ruby's inexperience? Does that mean Kevin might end up breaking free later down the line? That would certainly make for some pretty good end game material.

I was wondering if the mech might have had any other weapons (because lord knows putting all of their eggs into the giant cannon basket would have been the dumbest move ever on Atlas's part). The drill is a very welcome surprise.

Aww, Cordovin got a redemption moment. That's nice.

My heart warmed a little when Qrow decided against the flask. It was a small, but oh so wonderful moment.

Aww, Qrow's small smile after his talk with Maria. I imagine getting praise like that from my hero would give me the warm fuzzies too.

Ren, tone it down buddy. You almost showed some proper emotion geeking out about Ruby's crazy stunts. Gonna have to ask you to calm down there.

Ooooooh, so Ozpin can still see and hear what's been going on, and isn't afraid to lend a hand if the situation is in need of it. Interesting.

Woooaaah, so Atlas is a floating city? That's so cool! I imagine the part that's still on the ground is Mantle, unless I'm getting the scale and geography wrong. Now I really can't wait to explore this new Kingdom.

Well, the discussion about the battleship's formation isn't frikkin' foreboding at all.

I can't understand the lyrics well enough to be able to tell who or what the end credits song is about, but good gawd do I love it. I was kind of hoping that it would be a Weiss song, what with Volume 4's being a Yang song and Volume 5's Blake, but I don't quite think that's the case. In fact, listening to it again I'm thinking it might be Team RWBY as a whole. Still I really love this song and I can not wait to hear the full versions of the rest.

Ok, that after credits scene was just...wow. I guess we can say for absolute certain that Salem is the Wicked Witch of the West. I mean, flying monkeys? Really? That is about as on-the-nose as you can get, guys.

So...that was Volume 6. What did I think? Well, I will still say that Volume 5 was immensely enjoyable, despite what the YouTube community may try to say about it, but holy frikkin' HELL did this volume blow it out of the water. I mean, we got so much out of this volume, proper pacing, amazing action scenes, Salem's backstory, Neo, the statue scene, I could go on. This volume did so many wonderful things that I could geek out about all day, but the most important things they did is that they put the focus where it's needed to be for way too long now: Ruby. This was Ruby's volume, through and through, and it's about time. I may roll my eyes at a lot of the hate that people will give this show but one of the criticisms that I will freely give them is how underdeveloped Ruby has been compared to the other main characters, including JNPR. Hell, even in Volume 4, when all of the members of Team RWBY were given their own story line and their own focus, Ruby was pushed back almost to the point of being a side character in favor of Ren and Nora. Now, however, Ruby has finally been given her time in the spotlight and I have loved every bit of it. This easily rivals Volume 3 for the spot of RWBY's best volume yet, and I can not wait to see what Miles, Kerry, and the rest of CRWBY bring us next volume. Until then, I hear Rooster Teeth has a new show coming out. Some weird mech anime or something. I don't know, it hasn't gotten a lot of exposure or anything, but I guess I'll go check out. Until next volume, my friends.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 6 #rooster teeth #rooster teeth animation

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