#the first one was the last line of the rooster one-shot i cried for fucking a day straight

[compacflt]

did i cry myself to sleep last night after writing a scene where maverick and sarah talk about ice when he was a little kid while listening to ‘tommy’ by leith ross on repeat? well i could tell you but then id have to kill you,

#It’s classified #process poasting #only the second time ive cried while working on this project which is shocking #both times haven’t been sad just cathartic #the first one was the last line of the rooster one-shot i cried for fucking a day straight #but dude where am i gonna post all these little extra redundant scenes #that only make sense within the confines of #my little top gun alternate universe?? #tommy. jesus. #tom iceman kazansky #you motherfuckers got me thinking about sarah last week #this is your fault.

[getoutofthewater]

@dbhrarepairs Friday Day 5: Unexpected Rescue

[Tina/Chloe]

Rating:  T

Warnings: None

Words: 4,101 [AO3 Link]

Notes:  Sailor!Tina / Mermaid!Chloe AU

To say that nobody had wanted her to do this was an understatement; her father had told her that if she went and did such a thing he didn’t want her to shadow the step of his house ever again, while her mother and sister cried. Tina felt very sorry for them, especially for Amy. Her younger sister had been the perfect child to their parents, always did what she was told to, even when she was told to marry some buffoon only because it was a good match to push forward their Dad’s trading business.

Their Dad had gone to Tina first, being the eldest, but Tina had put her foot down on that, and her father had too much sense to push it, let’s his eldest daughter offend the head of the Wang family and ruin the professional and personal bonds he and his wife had been cultivating so carefully for years

“Anyhow” Mrs. Chen had told her husband “Amy is prettier, younger and a better cook, Enjie Wang really should be glad you are offering her hand to his son, Yifei looks like a diseased penguin”

Amy had married the diseased penguin, but who had helped her sister through her very frightful first pregnancy? Who had held her during her morning sickness, and gone to the shops no matter how late because she wanted something to make her feel better, it had been Tina.

Yifei, had done nothing, he never did anything around the house (not even watch after the children), just like their father; while Amy wasted away with pregnancy after pregnancy, and Tina did the chores (cooking, laundry, cleaning) none of it was good enough for their father and Amy’s husband however.

Tina had no intention of staying around, when Gavin had told her he was going to go work in the docks, with the hopes of being a sailor, she’d envied him so much. Why could he go and have adventures while she had to stay home? Where her parents expected her to marry some other selfish, ugly man Tina would have to have ugly children for and pick up after him just as if he were another child, one she’d never be able to get rid of until she grew old, tired and bitter and she outlived him out of spite.

She’d told Gavin she wanted to go with him, she could do anything he could do. He hadn’t laughed at her, as anyone else would have done, or screamed at her, as her father would do.

“You watch my back, I watch yours, Chen!” Gavin said with a smirk

She’d told her father she wanted to live with Gavin at the docks, because she was a truthful daughter if nothing else. Her parent’s first thought went to her virtue, which was never safer than when she was with Gavin, since Gavin didn’t look at women that way, and Tina didn’t ever notice men more than she was forced to; the fact that Gavin was the saving grace of the sex in her life seemed to point at some really great flaw within the entire human race.

“I’m not eloping with Gavin” Tina said “I want to work at the docks with him!”

That’s when her father had told her if she did such a thing she didn’t have to bother coming back, and so she hadn’t.

At first she pretended to be a man, Gavin cut her hair, got her clothes she fixed to fit to her short height by herself, William Tayloring it all around the place had been easy enough, until they were expected to live all on top of each other like the rats in the ship with the other seamen, still they had gone almost two years like that until she’d been discovered and taken to the Captain. Gavin barked so much about it he’d been taken with her, an accomplice, when he could have just kept quiet and wash his hand off her mess.

“You can’t sack us you dick!” Gavin was shouting as soon as they entered the Captain’s cabin “Chen and I do more for this piece of crap ship than 10 of those other useless pricks”

“Yeah!” Tina said, although she wasn’t in any way a jaw-me-down like Gavin was, they had to pull together right now “I have been doing everything Gavin has for years, why can’t women be sailors too?”

“Most seamen are superstitious men” One of the High Officials said to her, his pale blue eyes cold and steely “Women in ships are bad luck, they anger the sea gods, they say”

“The figurehead of the ship is a woman!” Tina argued

“A topless woman can appease the seas“ Master Allen said matter of factly

“I wonder who made that up!” Tina said, not that Tina didn’t enjoy looking at the beautiful, full figure and ample bosom of the figurehead, but her point still stood “And unless you think sea gods are as easily tricked as mortal men, they haven’t seem to mind me being here”

“Having the crew be… distracted would be dangerous in itself, on top of any superstitious hysteria she may cause” Master Allen was really Tina’s least favourite crew member

“Who would be distracted by Chen?” Gavin said in honest disbelief “Look at her! If there’s a girl less like that figurehead it’s her”

“Yeah!” Tina agreed

“Am I to understand there’s nothing between the two of you?” Captain Fowler inquired

“For fucks sake!”

“Over my dead body, disgusting!”

Gavin and Tina said looking at each other like they had not seen anything more repugnant in their lives

“And it’s not like I want anything from any of the rest of them either,” Tina said firmly “I have seen them in the nude and throwing up and pooping, the smell of the sleeping quarters is something else, They have showed me some pretty nasty stuff, rashes and boils in their, you know, ‘roosters’”

“Miss Chen!” Allen said in a tone that perfectly replicated that of Tina’s mother

“I feel sorry for all their wives, quite frankly,” Tina continued “and by the way, I think Kayes should really be seen by the doctor”

“Ugh, yeah, what the fuck’s that” Gavin added “eggs or what?”

“Right?” Tina said “I swear I saw them move”

One of the officials laughed, a warm, fatherly laugh “Jeffrey, I never took you for a superstitious man” he said with familiarity

“All sailors are superstitious, Hank”

“I say we take a shot at it,” Hank Anderson insisted “It’s true that Chen has been doing an excellent job, I would be really sorry to lose her, I have had my eye on both Chen and Reed for a while”

“What if the men get rowdy over her?” Allen said

“We throw them overboard” Anderson said with a shrug, “Just as we would if anyone tried to harm a fellow seaman, wouldn’t we, Fowler?”

“That’s sounds sensible,” Captain Fowler said, while Allen looked as if he had just drank something really sour “These two are your problem now, Anderson” the Captain said dismissing them with a gesture of his hand

“Out of here, then” Anderson said to them “You have work to do… I’ll send our good doctor to see Kayes too”

“And I better not hear you calling my ship a piece of crap again, Reed” Captain Fowler added “Or I’ll be throwing you overboard personally”

“Captain” Gavin said with a nod

“We’ll make the Chicken Feed proud, Captain Fowler!” Tina said as they left the Captain’s cabin

“How drunk was I exactly when I took on your suggestion for the ship’s name, Hank?” the Captain said sorrowfully  

Tina heard Lieutenant’s Anderson’s laugh and felt like she could conquer the world,

“We’ll make the Chicken Feed proud” Gavin mocked her “Always the teacher’s pet, Chen”

“Shut up, Reed” She said bumping against his side.

Her fellow seamen took it better than expected, some apparently with extreme relief. She slept just as usual with Gavin right by her side and if anyone held any sort of resentment or ill will towards her they kept it to themselves. Nothing changed really, except she felt lighter being able to go about her duties as herself, not having a secret to hide, she felt she really could serve in the ranks of the Chicken Feed until her final days.

That good will among her fellow mates lasted only one week, when their ship found herself near huge chunks of ice, they hadn’t been expecting that, nor the stormy clouds that seemed to close over them as if attracted to the ship, the men looked darkly at her then, as if all of it was somehow her fault.

“You okay, Chen” Miller asked

“Yes, of course!” Tina said confidently “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Chris was a gentleman and as such he now worried over her, but Tina didn’t hold it against him, he really had done so even when he thought she was a guy, always trying to help her just because she was smaller than the rest, ‘Don’t try to prove yourself just because some of them are assholes, alright?’ he’d told her with the tone of an older brother ‘the sea is dangerous and unforgiving, better alive than dead on some stupid dare’

Chris smiled at her with that same older brother warmth now “We’ll weather the storm and everyone will forget about silly superstitions, I for one wouldn’t have anyone else by my side than you and Reed, if things are going to get a bit ugly”

And they did get ugly, the storm hit them close to midnight, the waves the biggest and angriest Tina had seen in all her travels yet

“Chen! The sails!” Lieutenant Anderson shouted at her,

She nodded and went deftly up the mainmast. She was the lithest of the crew, she was always sent up the mast because she was the fastest and most agile, she could get it done in half the time of anyone else on the ship. She climbed just as usual, not expecting the wind to be this strong and cold. Somehow her numb hands slipped off the rope, she lost her footing, and the next thing she knew was that she was falling, she didn’t hear anything, only the air rush deafening her ears, something hit her and then she was in the water.

Her first instinct on hitting the cold icy sea was to breathe in, she was in pain, and the blow of the waves had hurt more than whatever part of the ship her body had collided with. She was drowning and she couldn’t tell up from down to get to the surface. Nice legacy this was going to be, she thought vaguely, she was shutting this line of work for women everywhere. Tina Chen would go down in the archives as one of the women that confirmed sailing with the fairer sex on board was a cursed endeavor.

Something tugged down at her leg, dragging her even deeper into the water, Tina turned wildly in the dark sea trying to see as the last bubbles of oxygen went out of her lungs; was it something that had gotten tangled with her leg when she fell? Was it a sea creature? But what she saw made no sense.

There was a girl, the loveliest girl Tina had ever seen, she’d never seen anyone that beautiful not even in paintings. The girl’s silky, blonde hair floated around her, her skin was almost translucent, and her blue eyes twinkled like stars made of the clearest aquamarine. It seemed like Tina’s brain really knew what she’d want to see last before everything went dark forever.

Their eyes locked for a moment, and the girl seemed to gasp in surprise, at least that was her expression, Tina couldn’t hear anything but the water in her ears. The girl let go of her leg swimming upwards to grab Tina by her shoulder instead. Only then did Tina notice the fish tail.

Tina’s head broke the surface of the wild sea; she coughed and gasped for air, breathing in half air and half sea water from the stormy waves, only managing to steady herself enough thanks to the girl… fish… mermaid creature.

“Tina!” She heard Gavin’s voice calling for her and was surprised at how distant and faint it was; the sea had already taken her hopelessly far away from the ship.

“What in the world are you doing, Chloe?” said the beautiful but angry voice of a redheaded woman breaking the surface near them “Just drown him already!”

“What’s all this fuss about” Another just as equally beautiful woman asked, wet blue hair cascading down her shoulders, and the next second yet another appeared behind her, wrapping her arms lovingly and lazily around the shoulders of the bluehaired one, Tina wondered if she was actually dead and in heaven, it felt suspiciously cold and painful, but other than that, being surrounded by beautiful women was very much her idea of otherworldly bliss, nevermind the fish tails

“I’m starving!” the newcomer said “why is our dinner still breathing?”

“That’s just what I was asking, Chloe” the redhead said reproachfully

“North, look at her,” Chloe said, “she’s not  a man” she still held on to Tina with a grasp that hurt but Tina appreciated, it was only because of that she wasn’t being thrown around by the waves like a rag doll

“Don’t be ridiculous, men keep women away from the sea, at least living ones” North said, swimming closer to Tina, taking her face and turning it this way and that, not in any way gently. North whistled “Would you look at that, you really aren’t a man”

“Of course I’m not” Tina said, sounding much less firm than she did in her head; that with her teeth chattering because of the cold and the coughing because she kept breathing water in

“Did they hurt you?” Chloe said with concern “Did they throw you off on purpose?”

“That’s what happened to me and Kara” the third mermaid said with sympathy “We were pretending to be men to be at sea, and they found us out, hurt us, pushed us overboard, we drowned though”

“Is that what happened to me? Did I drown?” Tina asked incoherently, because she was honestly losing it a little

Chloe laughed “Don’t be silly! I got you, didn’t I!”

“Do you want to go back to the ship?” The bluehaired woman asked comfortingly

Tina nodded “Yes of course, my friends will be worried about me”

North Scoffed “We aren’t taking her back right now; it’s dangerous to be in the surface with this much ice and the storm. Chloe, you take her down to the caves.” She ordered “Echo, Ripple and I will see if we can actually get some dinner tonight”

“I hope so!” Echo said, “I was so excited when she fell, fish is getting boring you know”

“My friends are on that ship” Tina said, she’d heard the word ‘dinner’ quite clearly this time  

“Men are no friends of ours” North said savagely and disappeared with the other two

Tina moved as if she were going to try to swim after them, get to the ship to make sure they didn’t hurt any of her friends but Chloe hold on to her

“Let’s hope none of your friends fall overboard” Chloe said, “You should take a very deep breath now”

Tina obeyed the best she could, and Chloe pulled her back into the sea with incredible speed. Tina closed her eyes to protect them, she was running painfully out of air when she felt herself breaking the surface again, she spluttered and coughed and took big gasps of air before she could see around her.

She was inside a pond in a big cave, her coughing echoed in it, and moonlight beams broke in from somewhere above, while the sea wind made strange, moaning, sorrowful sounds going through what Tina supposed were small tunnels all around her, none big enough for a person she guessed, but big enough to give her air to breath. The moonlight told her they were far away from the storm.

“You’ll be safe here” Chloe said “You can get dry, change your clothes, we have a ton of those!” Chloe added excitedly

Tina got herself on the rock, when her eyes adjusted to the dim light she saw Chloe was absolutely right, there were piles of clothes, men clothes, seamen clothes, all crunchy with unwashed, dried up sea salt. Tina changed hurriedly, piling up coat upon coat to warm herself, trying not to think who they had belonged to, and how they had ended up here. There were some trinkets in the pockets as well, some pocket watches, one or two spyglasses, a flasks, she tried her luck with that last one, gingerly at first, and then in one or two big gulps to help her body warm up.  

Once Tina felt like she wasn’t one minute away from dying, she turned to look at the mermaid creature, half expecting her to be gone, like a fever dream, but she was still there, sitting on the rock, humming to herself and splashing her fish tail in the water. Tina was struck again by how breathtakingly beautiful she was, the mermaid turned her head and Tina was caught staring.

“Are you warm now?” Chloe asked “If I remember right, humans are much more delicate when it comes to that”

“I’m fine, thank you” Tina said blushing, coming closer to her, slowly, cautiously, the mermaid laughed at this

“You aren’t afraid of me, are you?!”

“I– I don’t know” Tina said honestly “I’d never thought I’d see anything like you, I mean I had in story books, but never thought– You are very beautiful” Tina spluttered  

“Thank you very much” Chloe said prettily, just as if she were a lady in a tearoom, “I think you are very lovely yourself, how come you are a sailor? Are men coming to their senses at last?” Chloe asked

Tina smiled ruefully “I’m afraid not, it’s just like your friend said, I was pretending to be a man and then was found out”

“Did they hurt you?” Chloe asked again

“Not at all, they were willing to give me a chance, and then I fell overboard”

“Don’t worry” Chloe said “I’ll give you back as soon as the storm passes”

“How about you?” Tina said, not even knowing what to ask

“I don’t really remember” Chloe said tilting her head pensively “I think… I think… someone shoot me in the head, right here” she said pressing one of her pretty fingers softly to the center of Tina’s forehead

“That’s awful” Tina said, her eyes wide

“Isn’t it” Chloe agreed “I remember it like an almost forgotten dream, I don’t remember why, I remember… being sad, feeling…. betrayed?” she said with a faint frown on her pretty face “but then I woke up, and I was this, and I was with my sisters and nothing was ugly or painful anymore,”

Tina felt her face grow hot with anger, feeling furious at whomever had hurt Chloe in the past. This girl that was so petite, lovely and sweet, but knowing the world maybe she had been hurt precisely because of that.

“Oh! That’s an ugly, angry expression, it doesn’t suit you” Chloe said, fluttering her fingers over Tina’s face. “What happened to me was a very, very long time ago,” Chloe continued “I may not look it but I’m about the oldest of them” Chloe said proudly “I think only Amanda is older than me, but she’s really ancient, very wise. The newer they are the more clearly they remember, that’s why North is so angry all the time”

“I’m sorry– I wish I had been there to rescue you, just like you rescued me” Tina said lamely, feeling sick

“Thank you” Chloe said, leaning her head against Tina’s shoulder “You are the first ever to say something like that to me”

Chloe asked her to tell her stories about the things she’d seen and Tina complied, she didn’t know when she had fallen asleep, but when she woke up she was still in the cave, lying near the water, with Chloe cuddled up to her, only the very end of her fish tail still touching the water. Tina looked at her sleeping face, all cream and roses, Chloe opened her eyes then, smiled, and Tina leaned down to give her a light kiss. Chloe pulled her closer.

“I wish I could stay” Tina said once they broke apart. She felt almost as breathless as she had in the sea, but in a much more delicious and lovely way.

“Then my efforts saving you would be completely wasted” Chloe said, splashing water with her tail “And I will not have that, no m’am! A female sailor is too valuable for me to selfishly keep all to myself, no matter how much I’d like to”

Tina smiled, cupping Chloe’s face with her hand, when Echo broke the surface of the pond

“Oops!” She said playfully “Am I interrupting?”

“Certainly, you are!” Chloe said in the same playful tone splashing water to her

“Sorry, it was that or risking North’s wrath” Echo said “She says we can take you to your ship now, the storm is over” she disappeared under the water as suddenly as she had arrived

Tina didn’t want to say goodbye to Chloe, but she also knew she couldn’t stay. She got into the cold water gasping, Chloe threw her arms around her neck

“You know what the best part of being a sailor is?” Chloe asked with a lovely smile

“What?” Tina said bumping her nose against hers

“I’ll tell you later” Chloe replied playfully “Ready?”

Tina nodded taking her deep breath

Chloe swam slower, letting Tina look around the depths of the now calm sea, they took a few breaks for Tina to breath, but only a few. The sea may be calmer but it was just as cold, soon enough there was the ship right above them; Chloe cupped Tina’s face with both her hands and gave her the sweetest kiss, salt and bubbles, before letting Tina float to the surface as she herself sank deeper into the water.

“Hey!” Tina called out breathlessly once she was in the surface “Hey!!”

“By old Nick and all his ungodly demons,” Kayes shouted “It’s Chen!”

“Someone fetch Reed and Lieutenant Anderson!!” Chris was shouting as he and Kayes threw her a rope

She climbed it easily, and before she knew it she was being crushed in Gavin’s bear hug

“Fuck you, Chen” Gavin said

“Where were you? Did you hold on to the ship?” Chris asked with awed curiosity

“Impossible, I would have fucking seen her” Gavin rebuked him, they had had to restrain him for him not to jump into the water  

“A lady doesn’t kiss at tell, Miller” She said with a wide smile, as Anderson put a coat over her shoulders

“Let’s warm you up, Chen” Anderson said leading her away from all the other awed seamen

“You have to tell me” Gavin said “I saw some shit that night you won’t believe, I thought I was fucking losing it!”

“Mermaids?” Tina whispered to him and chuckled at the look on his face.

“Your clothes are looking very particular, son” Old Collins said, he’d kept on calling her son even after her secret had been revealed “Looks like something my grandfather used to wear”

Nobody on the Chicken Feed ever dared question Tina’s right to belong on board again, she had swam her way back from the very jaws of the unruly, freezing waves, you didn’t mess around with someone so in cahoots with the strangeness of the sea.

 “What’s the best thing about being a sailor? –”

Tina asked Chloe, many, many, many years later. After Tina had been the Master of Captain Reed’s Ship for decades, after her hair had become the color of sea foam instead of its original coal; when her routine disappearances from the ship were starting to become the stuff of legends, never confirmed but much believed  – “In the middle of the sea, puff! She wouldn’t be anywhere” They’d say for as long as anyone who met her lived “by my word Master Chen was a sea witch!”–

“ – You never told me”

“Why, silly!” Her lovely mermaid wife laughed “They marry the sea!”      

#dbhrarepairsweek #Tina Chen #RT600 chloe #tina x chloe #dbh chloe #mystories

[renaroo]

The Search (13/16)

Disclaimer: Red vs Blue and related characters are the property of Rooster Teeth. Warnings: Language, Canon-typical violence, Psychological manipulation and trauma Rating: T Synopsis: [Canon Divergence - Alternate S15] The Reds and Blues saved Chorus, but it has been a year and they are still missing. A motley crew has been gathered with the common goal of finding the war heroes, though the road is more troubled than anyone seems to realize.

A/N: I’m sorry for the late but we’re so close, guys! Just a few chapters left and this one... well I’d say you guys are finally going to get some satisfaction but I think you’ll find it comes at a cost ; ) 

Special thanks to @secretlystephaniebrown, @analiarvb, MKDemigodZ-Warrior, DisneyFreak-Lover, zowiaki, and Yin for the comments and feedback!

The Final Countdown

Her head was splitting, but as disoriented as she was, the only real question to ask was pounding into her head. As much as she hated to have to ask it at all.

Did she really let some two-bit mercenary take her by surprise again? Did she really not see the fact that he would have enhancements as much as she did surprise her?

They might have been the type of questions that, ordinarily, would keep Carolina up at night, but in that moment they were the far of queries of a mind that really had another agenda entirely. Figuring out what the hell Kaikaina was screaming about so loudly that it was rousing Carolina from unconsciousness by sheer volume alone.

“They can’t kill us! Killing us would be the lamest thing they ever did! Do you know what kind of lame things are on their records of lame? It shouldn’t be possible for them to be more lame! This is fucking stupid! Dexter Grif, if you try to kill anybody over here I’ll personally kick your ass! If you kill me I’m going to kick your ass and punch you! Twice!”

“Private Grif, please calm down, you may trigger something,” Doctor Grey’s more soothing tone said, closer to Carolina than Kaikaina’s.

It was enough to fully bring Carolina into the moment as she opened her eyes. She was being held up, or at least her head was, in someone’s lap. There were cracks in her helmet, her HUD broken for certain, which meant that she was only seeing what her eyes could. There was no feedlot from her suit, all instinct driven.

Doctor Grey was not looking down to her but instead toward the rest of the circled up group, all of which were standing behind Washington. With his arms and legs out, Wash seemed to be trying as desperately as he could to spread himself out as a wall covering all of them. But most concerning of all was that his battle rifle was holstered against his back. He had no weapons drawn whatsoever. Which, by Carolina’s estimates, usually did not spell out well for them.

“They haven’t shot us yet,” Dylan Andrews said in a flat tone, still looking around and assessing the situation herself. “Despite the order. There may be some semblance of control for them still. They might be preventing themselves from attacking.” She then turned her head suspiciously toward Li’l Grif. “Assuming that no one else triggers some sort of response from them.”

“I don’t trigger people, I’m a fucking social justice queen, bitches!” Kai snapped back.

“Kaikaina, not now!” Washington hissed.

“Yes, now, officer! My brother has a gun trained on you! and Junior’s kidnapped by his dad. Do you know how fucking weird that sounds? But it’s what’s happening, because everything that happens to us is effing weird,” Kai continued loudly. “I shit you not, one time I got naked for Doc. That’s how weird things are. Doc saw my vagina, and he’s like the fourth last person I’d want in this room right now to see the twat!”

At first Wash seemed to have finally learned to let Kaikaina’s crudeness go by unhindered, but then he tilted his head over his shoulder just enough to look her way. “Who are the three before him?”

“Are you actually asking that question right now?” Andrews demanded.

“Completely out of line, Agent Washington!” Grey squeaked out.

“Agreed,” Carolina said groggily, finally pulling herself up into a sitting position out of Grey’s lap.

“Carolina! Are you alright?” Wash asked, still not moving.

“I got my ass kicked by a complete prick. No, Wash, I’m not okay, I’m fucking pissed!” Carolina seethed.

“Awesome! Well, we’re all about to die right now so you’re in, like, super great company. Just saying,” Kai announced, hands on her hips.

“”You never answered my question,” Wash pointed out to Kai.

“You’re such a closet pervert, it’s kinda hot. For a cop,” she answered, head tilted in amusement. “It’s Sarge, Caboose, and Grif, by the way. So watch out. The crotch is still an option for you.”

“I was hoping I was on the list, not—“ Washington began to argue before freezing up at the sound of crunching boots. He turned just as Carolina and Grey got to their feet in unison, shocked as Sarge, Caboose, and Grif stepped forward, weapons high. “Damn it, Kaikaina!”

“Dude, what the fuck, you asked me the question!” she cried out.

Barely able to breathe, Carolina searched her mind for any way out of the situation at hand and she focused on Wash’s holstered weapon once again. “Wash! Take out your gun and shoot them in the legs so they are out of commission!” she ordered.

“No!” Wash angrily snapped back. “I’m not fighting my family, are you mental? We did not come all this way for me to take a close range shot at them, possibly shatter bone or tear open an artery — just no, Carolina! I won’t do it. Not even for myself. Not anymore!”

“You overdramatic fuck, we could just take them out so they don’t kill us and stay zombies forever!” Carolina yelled in return. “Are you literally trying to tell me it’s not worth that risk at the very least?”

Before they could continue to argue, however, Carolina gaped as she saw that Caboose’s finger was on the trigger. And that was not Freckles. And it was definitely aimed directly at Washington’s head.

Without HUD guidance, all but going in blind, her body still rigid and sore from her unconsciousness, Carolina leaped between her first step and her second to go into super speed. She could feel her armor reacting, but the speedometer, the braking controls, everything she relied on for safety were gone. Only her instincts driving her with a HUD and without an Epsilon.

But instincts, apparently, were exactly what she needed because only a few steps into the run, she was already tackling Caboose to the ground and sending his gun shooting toward the ceiling.

The rest of their group began screaming in surprise but Carolina’s full attention was on wrestling the behemoth that Caboose was away from his gun.

There was a near serene sound next of what seemed like clattering glass. But as Carolina looked up she saw that it was not glass but the icicles that formed in the doorways where the remaining Reds were all standing still without orders. They were going to fall right onto them.

“Simmons! Donut! Doc! Step forward!” Washington yelled out with quick thinking.

Just in the nick of time, Donut and Simmons stepped forward before the large icicles came crashing down where they had been. Doc stood in place until the icicles hit him mainly in the helmet. He let out a cry and collapsed to the floor, helmet falling off after being severely broken.

Everyone flinched for him.

“Sorry, I didn’t know his last name,” Wash muttered in partial embarrassment.

Kaikaina, again who had known him the longest, only tilted her head in confusion. “Doc’s name isn’t Doc? What the eff.”

“Ow… what happened?” Doc groaned from the floor, reaching up and grabbing his head. “Ugh. I need some adderall so I don’t freak out again like I did in the operating room. Boy was that a difficult movie to watch in one sitting.”

“Wait what,” Dylan Andrews said, having proven the true danger of staying around their group too long. “He’s speaking like he’s his own person again. The helmets are somehow responsible for the control—“

“HYAAHHHH!” Doctor Grey screamed, just before there was a loud THUNK and Carolina jus saw Sarge’s bright red helmet flying across the floor just in front of her.

Carolina looked back and saw that Doctor Grey had managed to roundhouse kick Sarge’s helmet off of his head, making the old colonel sway in place, holding onto his forehead. “What in sam hill…” he muttered, not realizing he was standing right over Carolina with a shotgun aimed at her head.

“One of your doctorates was in mixed martial arts?” Dylan asked, impressed.

“Oh, silly, no. I just have a black belt like every other multitasking super genius,” Grey assured her.

Without wasting another moment, Carolina turned back to Caboose and grabbed onto his helmet, viciously ripping it off his head to free him from its control.

The big Blue just blinked a few times before squinting at Carolina. “Agent Caro-lady? You came to prison for us?” he asked tiredly.

“Caboose, I’d come to hell for you,” she breathed a sigh of relief.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want you to do that,” Caboose responded, still sounding exhausted. “Church used to say we should go there, but if you went there you wouldn’t find us there yet. So I’m glad you found us here. Wherever this… cold dark… scary wet cold dark place is. It definitely helped you find us faster than going to Hell.”

Carolina looked at Caboose in simple amazement for a moment before her shoulders began to shudder and her eyes blurred. She couldn’t help herself, she began to laugh, a real, genuine laugh, and possibly the first one she had had since the Reds and Blues had disappeared. At least, there had not been one with so much warmth and relief in her chest as she gave it. Even as the sobs came through.

She could see in her periphery as Kai ripped off Grif’s helmet and immediately pulled him into a confused hug and as Wash took the duty of removing both Donut and Simmons’ helmets.

They were all being released. They were all being brought back to them piece by piece.

“What’s going on here? Why is my sister on one of our stupid fucking adventures?” Grif shouted out, even as he hugged his sister back.

“It’s an incredibly long story and it’s not over yet,” Wash informed them all.

“Yeah, fortunately we’e got some kinda storyteller with us, right, Dylan?” Kai shouted only to turn and see what Carolina and the rest of them were only beginning to realize at the same time. “Dylan? Miss Andrews? Where’d she go?”

“To do something we’d do,” Carolina said out loud, eyes widening in concern. “Something very stupid.”

Journalistic integrity and ethics were something of the defining features in Dylan Andrews’ life. They were what made her literal bread and butter. They were what got her involved with the unraveling story of Project Freelancer and ominous Reds and Blues. It was also how Carolina and Washington came across her.

And part of being an investigative journalist happened to be objectivity. Happened to be the ability to stand down, to step back, and accept that inserting herself into the narrative was dangerous to the vitality of the report.

Dylan Andrews lived and breathed being a journalist, but in the moment, as she raced through the chilled halls of an alien temple on a planet she probably wouldn’t have been able to pronounce, she was a part of the story. She was involved. She was subjective. She was—

She was likely to be doing something very stupid, but it was most likely the the right thing to do.

Which made it all the more shocking and breathtaking when she at last reached the end of the hall and heard for herself the instruction of Malcolm Hargrove ordering the death of a child.

“No,” Andrews gasped, trying to run faster.

Only steps away from the room, Dylan had to slide into a halt, scrambling into the shadows as she saw that Siris, the man in black from before, was standing at the entrance with his gun in tow. Dylan was more than ready to tackle him, maybe wrestle his gun free from him, when he surprised her by stepping forward.

Lavernius Tucker stood with his gun coldly trained on the shuddering Junior.

“Hold it,” Siris barked at Tucker. He then looked toward Hargrove. “This is not the right move.”

“Siri, I have no idea why, compared to your colleagues, you have such a difficult time comprehending this simple fact, but I will remind you that you are not hired for your morality, you are hired for your lack of it!” Hargrove snapped angrily. “I have no need of a useless loose string, and so long as this creature is alive and refusing to cooperate then that is precisely what it is.”

“You don’t know that there’s no use for the kid yet, you just know that he’s acting like a scared kid. And even if he doesn’t turn on the towers, he still holds value to the UNSC,” Siris said plainly. “My colleagues suggested me for your employ. That doesn’t mean I take my day job any less seriously. Especially when you’re willing to do something stupid enough to restart a war and get the whole human race killed. What good is that to me? I get paid more than I’ll ever need so I can Scrooge McDuck it and die on mountain of money I’m diving into? That doesn’t sound like a deal to me.”

“Mercenaries and your paydays,” Hargrove snarled. “Very well, then. I hear your point.” The businessman turned to face a large alien construct then glanced over his shoulder toward Tucker. “Shoot him.”

Before the mercenary was able to react, there were three ringing shots and the man was sent falling backward in a grunt of pain, hitting the floor just in front Dylan. She looked at him wide eyed as he clutched at the holes in his armor beginning to bubble up crimson blood. “Fuck you, Har…” he looked at Dylan for a moment, breathing heavily. “What the…”

Not sure what else to do, Dylan tried to hold a finger up to her helmet to silence the shot man.

Hargrove, though, wasn’t done yet. “Now, Mister Tucker, I do believe you’re free to shoot your abomination.”

Realizing that staying in the observer’s seat wasn’t going to help any longer, if it ever had, Dylan lunged into the room to get between Tucker and his son. Junior let out a shocked honk before clicking his jowls together in a way that Dylan was sure the rest of their shipmates would pretend was meaningful. But for the moment her heart was pounding too hard and she was shaking in her knees. Still, she stood firm.

“Tucker, you can’t do this,” she said seriously. “You don’t know who I am, and I’m sure there’s a lot of confusion because you’re being mind controlled by a chip in your brain that’s being controlled by something weird they did to your helmet and I can’t even begin to pretend I understand the logic behind any of it. But the one thing that I do know, from all my work and all my research is that you are one thing for certain in every story, in every record, in absolutely everything I can find.”

Hargrove looked somewhere between angry and baffled. “Who the devil is this?”

Dylan ignored him, seeing that Tucker’s full attention was on her instead. “You’re a pervert, Lavernius Tucker. Ini absolutely everything I have learned about you, and judging by the very little I understand of your son’s language, you definitely are sex obsessed. Ad it’s a little bit sad. But it’s offset by all the other records that say you’re a good father. The… kind of father that would not be able to resist a chance to use a catchphrase. Which is why I knew if I came all this way, if I could get to you before you were forced to do something terrible and wrong and against your character, I could maybe have a chance to tell you something you needed to hear. That even though we have been searching on a very dangerous journey and I probably will have to file for unemployment when I get back to my life…” she took a deep, heralding breath, holding on the pause enough that even Junior was leaning in some out of curiosity.

Exhaling sharply, Dylan tilted her had back up to look Tucker in the face. “I’m glad I came.”

Tucker’s body flinched awkwardly, his head tilting as a snort came through the filters of his helmet. “Bow…Bow Chicka Bow Wow!”

His finger laid off the trigger and his shoulders rolled back into a more comfortable, natural position as he swayed on his feet, a little dazed. “What… How… Who—“

“Oh for the love of god, if you want something done!” Hargrove snarled, grabbing the gun from Tucker’s unguarded hands and immediately firing at Dylan.

She stood in shock for a moment before feeling an unnatural warmth pooling out at her side. She reached for her waist, looking down to see for herself that blood was beginning to seep through her kevlar mesh, torn through much easier than the hard, battle ready armor the mercenary had been wearing. Then she fell to her knees, feeling shaky and cold.

Junior let out a cry, grabbing Dylan’s shoulder and arm as she began to slump.

“You shot at my kid you son of a bitch!” Tucker roared just before there was a distinct, whisking sound of energy. It was odd enough to draw Dylan’s fuzzing attention toward it and she saw Tucker brandish the plasma sword she’d written about before in her articles.

“No! You idiot, don’t!” Siris roared from the hall.

But it was too late, Tucker stabbed his sword directly through the unsuspecting Hargrove, impaling him against the alien artifact behind him.

Then, just as surely as the life was draining from both Dylan and her shooter, the room began to rumble as a foreign, unnatural glow began to leak out through the inscribed words and lines of the artifact and into the room as a whole.

“It’s done,” Hargrove gasped with his last breaths. “You’ve…unlocked it…”

The man left Tucker standing in a room of injured, dead, and dying, and Dylan with so many questions — the kinds a journalist who hadn’t gotten too involved in her own story would have had time to ask.

#writing #RvB: The Search #rvb fic #Agent Washington #Dylan Andrews #Agent Wash #Kaikaina Grif #Emily Grey

[rerwby]

RWBY Volume 4 Commentary Play-by-Play

Chapter 1:

Kerry talks about how each episode had a ‘fuck you’ shot, which is a particular shot that was difficult to create across all departments.

I’d say the whole volume was a fuck-you shot to the fans but

In a little conversation about how much they’ve planned in the show, Kerry talks about how they’ve actually been hanging on to team WTCH (Watts, Tyrian, Cinder and Hazel) since the beginning.

I’m leaning towards believing this since Salem was one of the first things conceived for the show, so her team would follow. Makes you wonder if Miles was always gonna have his “crazy” Tyrian though or if that came later.

I doubt it because I don’t believe Monty would make characters as boring as Hazel and Watts right from the start.

Regarding Oscar and his story this volume, Miles and Kerry had more rewrites with him than with anything else in RWBY, trying to figure out the right way to present it. At one point, Oscar’s first major scene was going to be in chapter 7, instead of 4.

Yeah it’s not breaking news to say that they did the opposite of what would be a good idea.

Mentioned in the commentary, but in more detail in the special features, is the fact that CRWBY had a rough start to the volume due to the new production pipeline, which continued for several episodes.

According to Miles, the Petra Gigas was originally supposed to appear in the Emerald Forest during Volume 1. It was supposed to be a part of the giant nevermore/deathstalker fight, as was a giant Bourbatusk.

Wondering how they would have fit 4 whole monsters in that fight, but I guess that’s why they ended up splitting two bad guys between teams instead.

On that note, they talk about how incredibly different the original 4 episodes of Volume 1 were compared to what we got, and that Fennec and Corsac were originally Volume 1 villains.

Just saying that I believe this. They said that Roman originally played a smaller part in Volume 1? How was this possible? Insert more villains.

On the origin of the Geist, Kerry talks about how, at the time Monty was working on the White trailer, he and Miles were thinking of ways for it to make sense, and came up with the idea of a poltergeist Grimm. They say that particular Geist is called an Armor Gigas.

So Weiss fought a Grimm in her trailer it turns out. Idk how to feel about that. In a way it makes sense because, as we’ve seen with Winter’s summons, the Schnee summons are light versions of Grimm. It makes little sense though when you consider that the Geist inhabits inanimate things and therefore the armor isn’t a natural feature of the Grimm.

The crown on Jaune’s shield was first inserted by layout artist Rachel Doda when creating the storyboards. Kerry thought it was a perfect touch and decided to include it in the official design.

Iunno what fatal flaw to focus on here. Is it how this makes it sound like Jaune’s god damn weapon model design was THAT important that Kerry noticed? That it implies melting Pyrrha’s armor down was a last-minute thought? That the plot hole of Pyrrha fucking disintegrating and therefore leaving no armor or cape for Jaune was made entirely because Kerry liked how a shield looked?

Chapter 2:

In regards to the infamous map, Kerry mentions that in one version of the script, RNJR was going to lose the map in a fight of some sort. A similar was also supposed to happen in Chapter 6 involving Tyrian, but decided against it because of how busy CRWBY already was.

So instead of losing it for a reason they just lose it for the sake of it. Cool.

According to Miles, Jaques is loosely based on Jack Frost, something they try to hint at in the way he keeps his study.

The name kind of gave it away without any other hints.

Kerry says that writing the final scene of chapter 2 was the first time he cried while writing. Likewise, Miles said he lost his shit while performing mocap for the scene. Apparently everyone who worked on it had a pretty strong emotional reaction to this scene.

 Wow. The people working on this show were seriously so disillusioned that they thought Pyrrha’s relationship with Jaune earned that kind of reaction. Not even gonna mention how the existence of the recording makes no sense, especially since Pyrrha signs off on it. Why would she do that on a generic fighting guide. I can’t believe how attached these people were to the Alpha Hets.

Chapter 3:

On the topic of writing RWBY with multiple different storylines all taking place at the same time, Miles called it a ‘scary experiment’ but is happy overall with how it turned out.

I can’t say anything more than what’s been said on this.

I also have nothing to say on the technical stuff. I’m really not versed enough in it.

Miles talks about how they tried to have Salem feel a bit motherly, and not overly cruel, because she’s “better than that” and that she has a certain way of talking to each of her lieutenants.

She seemed pretty cruel to me lol. They need to have Salem do more before they announce these kinds of intentions, because now they’ve just given us a preconceived notion and they won’t have to write it that way.

Chapter 4:

Apparently Yang’s eye color was decided because of Taiyang’s and Raven’s eye colors. Red and Blue making purple.

This might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever read.

Burnie is apparently very invested in voicing Taiyang, and takes it very seriously. He would go over the script with Miles and Kerry before recording sessions and they talk about how Burnie will listen to Yang’s lines and efforts, and try and make Taiyang’s similar, as a way of representing how Yang was influenced by her Father. It’s also mentioned that Joel is similar when it comes to portraying Oobleck.

Wow! Joel and Burnie, two voice acting veterans who formed RT, are invested in their roles? Don’t get too shocked by actors who actually try, guys!

When it came to naming all the villages in Anima, they wanted to keep the theme of Mistral being heavily inspired by Eastern influences, so they named villages after the Japanese names for certain flowers.

Blah blah magical mystical Asia land

Originally, the inn and the pub were the same building, but were separated when they couldn’t figure out how to fit Raven into the scene.

Can you imagine if we had to see RNJR somehow not notice Qrow like twenty feet away from them? Thank god he sat in that pub across the street.

Chapter 5:

Miles says he cried while writing Blake’s reunion with her parents, and that the Belladonna’s are some of his favorite characters.

I mean iunno that scene didn’t scream emotional to me but I also have daddy issues so

Fennec and Corsac, as mentioned earlier, were characters originally conceived pre Volume 1, being the 2nd and 3rd Faunus thought about after Blake.

Makes you wonder if by the time of their conception, Faunus were a thing or if Monty was just making up furry OC’s.

Chapter 6:

In the charity scene, Koen says that there are around 100 different, unique people in the room, each with differing clothing.

Jfc guys went kinda overboard there. Didn’t look like 100+ when I watched it.

When describing Henry Marigold to concept artist Erin Winn, Kerry told her to draw a ‘posery, imposter Neptune’.

That’s about what I guessed yep. Now is there a reason for it to be Neptune? To show that Weiss grew past her affection towards him? Or because it was the first person who came to mind? Who knows.

Tyrian’s jacket, despite being one of Kerry’s favorite design aspects, was a real hassle for the animators and the rigging team, so much so that he was animated without his jacket on, and then would add it afterwards.

I remember when capes were in Kingdom Hearts. Then they realized they were too much work so they removed them to avoid continuity errors and such. It was a smart and humble move, because the capes looked cool. I guess Tyrian’s jacket was just really that awesome though.

Chapter 7:

The original plan with Ozpin was to not reveal him as having anything to do with Oscar until the very end of the Volume.

Just gonna keep reminding us of that huh guys?

This episode was the first time proper reflections were used in a mirror in any Rooster Teeth production. Before they would simply fake it.

well that is a legitimately very interesting fact

When it came to Tyrian swearing, some thought went into whether they could get around it, originally having him say witch instead. Ultimately, Miles and Kerry decided it was the right time for things to get a bit more mature.

Best decision they ever made, thank god.

I love the idea of Miles being all modest and going “ah yes time to be mature.”

Chapter 8:

Miles says the whole campfire scene was probably the most difficult thing in the Volume to write, simply due to how much they needed to cover. Also, Kerry says more people worked on this scene than any other in the Volume.

The RWBY writers struggling with exposition?

The two brothers was Miles’ idea, and his first major contribution to the series, obviously one of the first parts of the show that was conceived.

And it was made known that Miles conceived one of the worst parts of the entire story. And he just copied it from a Grimm Tale.

Miles was the one who wrote the majority of Blake scenes in Volume 4. When she’s slapping Sun, Miles only intended it to be soft slaps on the shoulder, so he was quite surprised by the end result.

 Isn’t this why you, like, direct your scenes? To avoid miscommunication like that?

Chapter 9:

Apparently there were several colour combinations the were tried with Ilia that “did not work”.

Apparently the animation crew’s passion is graphic design.

All the patches of mud on the ground were originally water puddles, but Kerry forgot that while the scene was being animated.

Again, directing.

Chapter 10:

In the scene with Nora being bullied, Miles jokes about that if you feel bad about it, those other kids likely died the next day. To follow that up, Kerry then mentions that they actually considered to have one of those kids lying face down on the ground in the background during the attack. Damn.

Idk how to feel about this but it is kind of disturbing that Miles would be so quick to make that joke.

According to Miles, they actually described Ren’s father in the script as “A handsome Hanzo looking motherfucker”.

guessed everyone who knows of overwatch’s existence

One of the ideas they had that didn’t make it into the episode involved Ren’s father going to see the mayor. Since he’s a hunter, and he had just returned from a hunt, Li was going to talk to the mayor about how they didn’t find any animals and it was almost as if they had been spooked away, and that they should get a Huntsman to come and investigate.

That probably would have made some sense.

According to Kerry, Jaune and Ruby’s moment was originally going to end with them hugging, but was cut due to time and Kerry not wanting people to “worry”.

So Lancaster gets shot down completely, cool. Cool thing of a creator to do. How dare we imply Ruby and Jaune are close after all they’ve been through.

Chapter 11:

Recording Tyrian’s efforts in this episode was a ton of fun according to Miles.

Yeah I bet Miles loved Tyrian.

Kerry’s “proudest accomplishment of this Volume” was having the photo of Whitely on Jacques’ desk be face down after Ironwood slams down on it.

Cool?

Kerry talks about Sun’s abs (as you do) and actually reveals that, contrary to popular belief, they didn’t remove them, but instead Sun’s model was made to be more muscular and they would be picked up by lighting and shadows instead.

Pretty sure Sun’s torso is a tube with the new models.

Chapter 12:

When talking about the fight, it’s mentioned there were several different versions of it. They don’t go into detail, but Kerry does mention that Qrow was originally supposed to do something, but Miles reminds him it’s something they can’t talk about.

God, what is left for Qrow to reveal? We got his weapon’s forms, his Semblance, his transforming thing, what else? Tbh my bet’s on Ozpin’s cane. They planned for him to use the cane but decided against it because of their artifact bullshit.

#rwde