#where’s Ruby she needs to comfort her wife asap

[sirazaroff]

Train station reflections

#fooze #rwby #rwby fanart #weiss schnee #rwby weiss #she makes me so sad. poor baby #I like to think she was like not ok at the station #like the scarf was doing more than keeping her warm you know #nearly dying aside. babys been through a lot that arc #where’s Ruby she needs to comfort her wife asap

[elixir448]

Good Girls 3x04 and 3x05 Disorganised Monster Post

Apologies in advance for the absolute mess this is going to be. I’ll start with 3x04 and try to keep it organised but it just...won’t be. And yeah, I made all the Dean sections about Beth and Rio. Bite me.

Mick

I. Am. In. Love. With. This. Man. I’m sorry but when he rolled down his window and said “good morning”, my jaw hit the ground. His voice is unreal. Does everyone in Rio’s gang have an amazing voice? Is it a requirement for joining? What is this sorcery?

I also get a kick out of the fact that he is so polite and charming with people that he doesn’t really know, just like Rio. I can’t help but think that they must have grown up together to be so similar in that way. Also, Mrs Karpinski and Mick. I would like to see more of them.

Beth and Dean (Did I make this section all about Beth and Rio? I may have.)

I think @pynkhues has already mentioned this and I totally agree with it. That Dean just works as a character so much better in humourous scenes, like when he’s purchasing a gun. I think the last time I laughed so much at a scene with Dean in it was at the end of 2x07, when he’s interacting with the krav maga instructor.

The moose analogy was hilarious and, I’m not gonna lie, I hope Dean sticks around in the story just so we can get more outsider POV of Beth and Rio’s relationship, because it is genuinely one of my favourite things in the show and to read about in fanfic. And Dean, Rio does not “have his way” with ‘your wife’; she wouldn’t be such a pain in his ass if he did. He did this in 3x05 as well, where he referred to Beth as “something you love”. She’s not an object that people can love or have their way with.

I am convinced that Dean’s gun will be utilised within the story at some point, although whether it will be used by him is up for debate.

When he walks into the house with the gun and ignores Beth’s questions about about it, only answering when she becomes more insistent, I was struck by the childhishness of Dean’s character.

Let me articulate this for a second.

Let’s compare this scene to the way Dean acts in 2x07, when he refuses to watch the kids after Jane’s dance show and immaturely lashs out at Beth saying that he’s going to book club. It’s not even about putting her in her place. It’s simply petty and it’s childish because their is no goal aside from temporarily annoying her. Just like in this scene. He walks into the house with a huge gun on his shoulder, in a clear attempt to seek attention but then ignores her questions and it comes across as petty and childish; in both scenes, he is akin to a child who can feel that the attention of their parent is wandering and so seeks attention by being as loud and annoying as possible.

There is no back and forth in Beth and Dean’s relationship at all. When Beth dumps cash on Dean and tells him that he doesn’t know her in 1x06, when she ignores his questions at the beginning of 1x07 and tells him to take the kids to Disneyland, she was putting him in his place because, really, he deserved it. When she took away his power in the dealership and he became a house-husband, she was putting him in his place after finding out about his multiple affairs. When Dean takes her kids from her, he was trying to put Beth in her place, essentially saying See. I know you. You’re nothing without our children. 

This is all very different from the back and forth in Beth and Rio’s relationship. Importantly, even though Beth and Rio are always trying to get a leg over each other (metaphorically and often physically haha) and even though they do try and sweep the rug out from one another, it’s less about wielding power over the other person than it is about wielding power over each other (I know what I mean in my own head lol). It’s that they enjoy it when the other person gets a leg over them, they enjoy the heated looks and even enjoy the gleefulness from the other person. It’s all a part of their process. Even when Beth and Rio seek attention from one another (Beth taking the pills from the cars and Rio mailing her body parts), it’s less about the end result of having the other person’s attention focused on them or having power over them; it’s more about imagining how they they will look, how they will feel, how they will react when they find out. All of it’s important. It’s all foreplay.

Also, it was one bullet Dean. Not a full clip.   

Before Dean kisses Beth, he says “We were so good with him gone.” Honestly, that line felt like the 100th nail in the coffin haha. Dean just doesn’t get Beth and he doesn’t understand that there is a lack of emotional intimacy in their relationship. He hasn’t picked up on the fact that she’s actually experienced a regression on a personal level; she’s wrapped herself up in the comfort of her familiar life, with her kids, her house and her husband only after Rio’s death. The only reason he felt they were good was because they were having sex, even if it was for all the wrong reasons on Beth’s part. Even then, he classes it as good because it was sex with him.

The reality is that all this matters less than the simple truth, which is that Rio isn’t gone anymore. He’s back. And Dean knows, as stupid as he is, that it’s only a matter of time.

As for the scene where Dean kisses Beth. Here are all the ways it contrasts Beth and Rio’s kiss in 2x09 (all the ways I can think of anyway). Sorry. Not sorry.

I’d like to point out that Dean walks exactly 3 steps towards Beth, before stopping and taking her jacket from her. The same number of steps that Beth took towards Rio in her bedroom. The same number of steps that Rio took towards Beth. And notably, the same number of steps that Beth did not take towards Dean in this scene.

Yes, Beth kissed Dean back and participated in the kiss itself. But she did not participate at all in the lead-up which is, arguably, just as important. When Beth kissed Rio, the mutual nerves, tenderness and affection were a huge part of the scene. In other words, the lead-up was just as important as the kiss itself. That was very much lacking here. I suppose one could argue that this is not Beth and Dean’s first kiss but it certainly is their first on-screen kiss and presumably the first kiss they have shared in a long time. For all intents and purposes, it should be like a ‘first kiss’ because it’s their first kiss after all the betrayals, lies and disdain.

This scene, like Beth and Rio’s, takes place in daylight but, it’s different in basically every other way. Dean grabs Beth and sort of positions her head to directly face him. When Beth leaned in to kiss Rio in her bedroom, he angles his head just right and very slighly inches his head closer. For her. Beth doesn’t even do that for Dean. He leans in and kisses her and she doesn’t actually do anything to make that easier for him, nothing to indicate that she wants him to.

The music also sounds very...young, for lack of a better word. Almost high school. I think that was a very purposeful choice, given that this is the first on-screen kiss between Beth and Dean. In this scene, I definitely saw them more as they probably were when they were in high school, before they got married. There was a notable lack of any music in the scene where Beth and Rio kiss. Honestly, the scene just didn’t need any.

Christina was amazing here. After Dean releases her, her head kind of just disappointedly falls away and she opens her eyes and looks a little bit...defeated. Perhaps because she didn’t feel more or enjoy the kiss. Because it was Dean. And god, then the scene cuts to Rio coming into Paper Porcupine and the most sexually loaded, non-sex scene in the history of television....although every one of Beth and Rio’s scenes feels that way to be honest. The fact that the episode ended here, on a climactic note when Rio scrutinises the money Beth finishes making, says a lot.

The Hills (including 3x05)

I LOVED this storyline. It’s such a great way of exploring the way that Ruby’s guilt over committing crimes has gradually transitioned into a lack of guilt for the crimes that she has become ‘used to’, i.e: robberies, lying. It’s also such a great callback to a common theme in this show, “All this stuff you think you’re keeping from them. You’re not”. The fact that this was said by Ruby in season 1 and is once again coming full circle is peak writing. Also, this means that another one of my hiatus wishes has come true, that the kids would find out more or be suspicious of their parents. I wondered if it would be Kenny, Sadie or Sara who would catch on. Looks like it’s Sara. Lidya Jewett was the perfect one of the children to explore this through because she is such an amazing actress and Sara’s already had an introduction to this arc, due to Stan being arrested in the last season and her having to grapple with the fact that he did indeed commit a crime.

And look, I am the last person who wants to see Ruby and Stan fight. But I think it’s such an important arguement for them to have. Not the fact that Ruby’s committing crimes but the fact that she seems so comfortable with it now and that this is potentially becoming a model for learned behaviour for their children. The only people they love more than each other are their children.

Lidya Jewett did such a great job portraying the audaciousness and the brattiness of a teen when they are confronted by a parent calling out their behaviour. The tit for tat between Sara and Ruby was amazing. Like nuh uh, you may be right about the shady ass stuff I’ve been up to but I’m still the queen in this house. So now you owe me.

I also love the idea that Beth and Ruby have learnt so much from crime-ing. In 3x02, Beth taught Annie a lesson about how they had to deal with the mover ASAP or all the criminals in Detroit would know that they were pushovers. In this episode, Ruby teaches Sara that when you lie once, you need to know that you’ll be lying a dozen more times just to uphold your original story. It’s never over.

In 3x05, I was like why u do dis? I love this storyline and I don’t think that Stan will leave Ruby but god, the idea that Ruby is so terrified of it in Beth’s van, and for good reason, is actually scaring me. The stills from 3x07 and the hints Reno gave that we would find out how Stan feels about Beth have me shaking. I’m so excited but scared at the same time.

Annie

This is probably the first episode where I felt as though Annie’s therapy storyline really found its feet. I’m going to ignore the fact that retinoblastomas mainly only occur in children. Aside from that, it really found its feet haha.

I also just loved the humour of Annie’s scenes in this episode. Mae Whitman is amazing and her delivery is always fantastic. I genuinely think that her long-winded speech in the pawn shop about how she spent her night is one of my favourite comedic moments of the season so far. What a great callback to Annie’s gazelle run when she’s chasing down Mary Pat!

Oh god. When she was asking Dr Cohen about what was going on between them, I was physically cringing because I knew she was going to smash into a brick wall. It was painful to watch. Stop gal, stop.

It was also painful to see Dr Cohen ruthlessly lay out Annie’s psychological coping mechanisms in front of her, partly because it was coming from a place of genuine concern and care and she knew it.

Beth and Rio (Will I ever write a reasonable amount in this section? Nope.)

Gosh, the entire scene leading up to Beth and Rio in the bar and that scene in itself was peak television. Suspenseful, intense, a good back and forth between characters with unbelievable chemistry. I genuinely think that this is one of the scenes in the show that best depicts the ‘dark’ in dark comedy and the ‘drama’ in dramedy, which are usually the genres used to describe the show.

I don’t know what everyone else views as their favourite ‘dark’/’dramatic’ moments in the show? Their are many scenes which I feel really capture the themes above but some of them are:

1. 1x04 - When the girls hear a thump from the bedroom Eddie’s recovering in and they run upstairs only for him to confront them with a gun.

2. 1x06 - Boomer plants drugs in Annie’s locker, Beth dumps bags of cash on Dean.

3. 1x07 - Rio and his boys confront the girls in Beth’s house.

4. 1x09 - Beth and Rio’s first break-up scene in 1x09.

5. 1x10/2x01 - “If you wanna be the king, you gotta kill the king.”

6. 2x07 - Beth and Rio argue in the alley.

7. ....you get the point. Maybe I should write a separate post all about this?

Now this bar scene (3x04) and the entire sequence with Rio, Lucy, his boys and the girls at paper porcupine and outside the van (3x05) are included on my list of amazing ‘dark’/’dramatic’ scenes.

I’d also like to acknowledge the piano music in this scene, which is also present during the scene in Paper Porcupine in 3x05, while Rio waits patiently for Lucy to complete her counterfeit money design. It’s a stunning piece of music and it adds so much suspense to the scenes. I hope it’s released at some point!  

First of all, we have Beth and Dean lying in bed. Everything about this screams that Dean is intruding, from his loud snores, to the way he’s leaning so far into her side of the bed, to the way that Beth is looking out of her French doors, away from him, and clearly thinking about what she’s going to do with regards to Rio. I spoke about this in my 3x02 thoughts post but ever since Beth and Rio began orbiting around one another, ever since their fascination with one another began (god, basically from the beginning), Dean has been consistently displayed as intruding on their relationship, despite the fact that he and Beth are still technically married and he’s always ranting about how Rio is wrecking and ‘intruding’ in on their lives. Beth and Rio have always had a tangible intimacy that’s unbelievably loud in their relationship, even before they slept together. It always feels like any voices aside from their own, any person besides them is an intrusion when they’re together or thinking about eachother.

Beth lies in bed, next to Dean, and thinks about Rio before running away from her husband and her house to see him under the cover of darkness. It feels intimate and loaded with implications. It’s absolutely driven by fear and her desire to survive but the set-up of the scene is inherently romantic. It’s akin to someone sneaking out to see their lover whom they’re having an affair with.

I could wax poetic about how much I love this scene in its entirety. When Good Girls is good, it’s fucking good. The way that Beth is frightened and then annoyed with Mick for saying something behind her when she’s the one running around at ridiculous o’clock, the imposing figure he cuts as he smokes, the way he considers her. Just. All. Of. This. I love all of Beth and Rio’s scenes, including the ones that take place during the day. But gosh, there’s just something about the scenes that take place in the dark that I find dangerous and addictive.

Rio walks into his bar, briefly nods at the bartender and greets Mick. But as soon as he sees Beth, he can’t look away from her. He doesn’t look at Mick as they clasp hands, his lips part and stay that way as he looks at her AND if you look closely, for a brief second, he stands taller and very slightly pushes his shoulders back before walking towards her.

While they are sitting at the bar together, Rio is depicted as exhausted and conflicted. This shot is stunning:

Their conversaion is so well done. Rio sceptically eyeing Beth’s finished drink and only suggesting that she slow down when she asks for a shot of tequila, his hand gently coming down on top of hers, the way he looks at her as he waits for an answer. It’s such a stark contrast to the way Dean treats her. Even now, after everything.

“One for my baby daddy here too.” SCREAMS. OMG BETH. I adore her.

God. The acting. Beth’s face when she looks at Rio after saying “I lost it”, a sort of confused and hesitant realisation that he looks affected by it, by her words. I still waver on whether or not Rio believed that Beth was indeed pregnant. To sum up what I think is going through Rio’s mind in this scene:

1. He has no reason at this point to doubt the words of Rhea’s OBGYN. In other words, it’s entirely possible that following the appointment, he grappled with the idea that Beth was pregnant with his child, conceived during an encounter fraught with emotions in her bedroom and before she shot him three times. It’s possible that he forced himself to be pragmatic, process it and accept it, only for Beth to suffer a miscarriage. There’s a feeling of mourning in the way that Rio regards Beth with his hand over his mouth, the quiet, sensitive way in which he asks when it happened, the way he looks at his palms on the bar counter, the way he tosses back the shot of tequila.

2. The loss of the pregnancy ultimately means that he’s lost the one reason, the single excuse he had to keep Beth alive. I don’t doubt that he could have killed her in the moments when he first saw her again, after the time he spent simmering, plotting and remembering. But now she’s under his skin again. God, she never even left but now she’s probably curled up somewhere inside of him all over again. It’s so obvious in the way that he says “nothing good” that he doesn’t want to kill her, that he’s tired and doesn’t want to even think about it anymore.

Following this, the writers did an amazing job with the back and forth between Beth and Rio in this scene. Beth is desperate and yet so audacious in suggesting that Rio needs money, that he should take another chance on her. I love her when she’s like this, when she’s clawing and doing her best to survive. And the way that Rio huffs an unamused laugh through pursed lips, almost as though he’s thinking, shit I’m doing this again aren’t I? I’m letting her talk? Except we all know she’s not talking him into anything. He’s just looking for an excuse. If anything, to me, he seems unamused with the traitorous part of himself that is listening to her for the sole reason of avoiding the necessity of killing her.

“You couldn’t afford it.” What a backhanded compliment. Rio can’t place a price on Beth’s head because even he struggles to deal with what her personal worth is to him, what she actually means to him, so I love that he ultimately just caves and throws out an arbitrary $100K which is much less than he has previously requested from her. I also love that Beth just focuces purely on the money and ignores the true implications of what he’s saying because it’s too much, it’s too loaded and neither of them have ever been able to contend with whatever’s between them, this thing that is indescribable.

As for the final scene of the episode. I don’t know if I can rationally articulate my thoughts on this but I’m going to do my best.

First of all, I love the idea of Beth and Rio watching each other when the other person isn’t aware of it. So when Rio enters paper porcupine and slowly walks towards her while Beth is rifling through items, unaware that he’s behind her, it just does something to me. I love it.

Also, I love the way they almost circle one another until Beth stops on the other side of the table in between them. They are so often depicted to be standing across from one another. Forever waiting for the day where they stand side by side against a common enemy.

When Rio alludes to Beth doing some custom-printing for him and she immediately catches on, she looks at him with her big, blue eyes and her voice is so feminine when she says “I don’t know what you’re talking about”. God, you can’t convince me Rio isn’t into that.

I’m not going to talk about the music too much just because this is getting too long and the fandom is already obsessed with the song anyway. The lyrics are a complete revelation and the song was, of course, purposefully chosen. I loved the entire song and the implications for Beth and Rio’s relationship but one part I particularly love:

“Though we sleep in different beds You still keep me up at night”

God, Beth lay awake next to Dean, thinking of what she was going to say to Rio, before running away to see him. There’s no way Rio doesn’t lie awake at night and think about Beth. I. Just. Can’t. This is already getting too long.

The youtube video that went up for this scene sums it up pretty well. Rio really does look pretty mesmerised by Beth in this scene. She looks at him apprehensively because she’s afraid of him and fearful for her operation but she keeps doing it because he makes her nervous, because she likes looking at him, because she likes it when he watches her, because she feels something for him and it’s all just too much because he’s watching her, just like he always has but she’s never gotten used to it. GAHHHH.

I also just love interpreting this scene after watching 3x05, when Dean says twice that Beth is “something you (Rio) love”. Beth refutes that at the end of the episode, saying Rio loves money. But here we have all three things, Beth, Rio and money in one scene. And yes, Rio’s watching Beth make money but he also can’t look away from her.

Just look at this shot. Beth and Rio facing each other, as they often do, at equal heights, with the money symbolically positoned between them. It’s not just something that separates them though. It’s something they share if that makes sense. It’s something they both care about but you can care about more than one thing.

And looks like Rio found another excuse to keep her alive. I mean, he had already found one, by demanding 100K but this is now something he can directly participate in and benefit from. Something long-term that keeps them tied together, rather than a one-off payment. He just can’t help himself, can he? They can’t let each other go.

I don’t know where else to put this. But seeing Beth wearing glasses was...life-changing.

Moving on to 3x05.

The Opening Scene and Mick

STOP SAYING GOOD MORNING AND STOP TALKING. DON’T SAY ANYTHING. I CAN’T DEAL WITH YOUR VOICE MICK.

Ahem. We also met more of Rio’s boys which means another one of my hiatus wishes came true. I’m really curious to meet Rio’s bosses, who Manny has said we will learn more about in this season, and what the debts he needs to repay are, which he alluded to in the sneak peek from 3x06 (THE ANGST). I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that we was out of the game for so long or maybe because people have found out that he fed Turner names, or both?

I love smart Beth. Taking the plates used to make the counterfeit money as a precautionary measure was really important but also just...kind of tragic. I’m going to talk more about this later (see Paper Porcupine and the Shooting).

Also, how freaking loaded was that scene where Beth tries to pay Mick to buy more time? When she said “what if I made it up to you?”, my jaw dropped. Not even exaggerating. And when he said “it’d be a huge order”, I straight up scream-cackled. This 100% backs up the idea that Beth is legitimately the most oblivious person in the world and would totally get into a bunch of awkward situations just because she’s misunderstood somebody else or because she’s said something sexual without even realising it. I. Require. All. That. Fanfic.

I completely agree with @foxmagpie here. I just don’t think that Mick has or will betray Rio. 100K is a relatively small sum of money, given the context. We know that Rio only asked this of Beth because it was an excuse to avoid killing her. For Mick, this is nowhere near enough money to risk his life or his position as (presumably) Rio’s right hand man. And let’s be honest, in the crime world, who are you going to place your bet on? Beth or Rio? I know who I would choose.

Annie 

I freaked when I saw Kevin again because I didn’t expect him to show up after 3x01 but there you go! I genuinely love this though because I didn’t think he was homeless and it just shows you that you really can’t know what’s going on in someone’s life until they tell you. It really hit me hard when he said “I’m experiencing homelessness” because it could happen to anyone. It really reminded me of a news article I read about, about individuals who are homeless but aren’t necessarily sleeping on the streets; instead, they are couch surfing or sleeping in their cars but they feel as though they have no stability, no place they can call their own and as though they have been forgotten about by society.

This show is so good at introducing tertiary characters!

Dean, The Fish and “Something you love” (Did I make this about Beth and Rio again? You’re goddamn right I did.)

So, I’m assuming the three dead fish are symbolic of Beth, Ruby and Annie. The fact that Dean was responsible for killing them is, I feel, more symbolically indicative of the consequences of him breaking the plate in this episode alone. I actually think that when Beth says “How much did you feed them?” and Dean replies “Too much”, this is more indicative of the over-arching plot for the season and really the whole show. The idea that greed, money, and for Beth, the rush, are going to be what ultimately hurts them and potentially lead them to their ruin.

Dean really pissed me off in this scene. I was clutching my head and cursing him. Every little thing pissed me off, from the way that he slammed the drawers shut, to the way he held the plate higher up, to his slighted masculinity when he said “he didn’t waste any time, did he?” Even though he knows that Beth has been willingly involved in crime, he continues to completely underestimate her. He just assumes that Rio offers up opportunities and Beth can’t resist. He cannot wrap his mind around the concept of Beth coming up with ideas and executing them; if anything, it’s Rio who can’t resist.

I gasped when Dean said “something you love”. I think this has been very controversial in the fandom. @foxmagpie answered an ask and wrote a brilliant analysis here, which I would highly recommend reading. Following the season 2 finale, I answered an ask here about Beth and Rio’s feelings for one another and I feel a little bit vindicated write now, not because I think I’m right (their feelings are so complex and completely up for interpretation at this stage) but because I agreed with my initial assessment.

I think some people might be tempted to write off what Dean said as inaccurate, simply because it’s Dean who said it. Dean is often an unreliable narrator when it comes to Beth and Rio’s relationship. His view is tainted by jealousy, misogyny and the need to take ownership over Beth as his wife again. However, he did manage to catch on to the fact that Rio treats Beth differently (Rio flaunting the relationship he has with Beth in front of Dean in 1x10/2x01), that Beth slept with Rio and was using him as a poor replacement (2x06), that Beth and Rio have a relationship that is more than just sex (before Beth brutally emasculated him by saying she just really likes having sex with Rio in 2x11). In season 2, he did eventually see that, fundamentally, Beth and Rio are addicted to one another. So, I don’t think we can write off what Dean is saying in 3x05.

As for whether or not I think Rio is in love with Beth.

I need to explain the way that I view love, in the capacity that we use it to describe the feelings that an individual can have for another person. I find myself consistently surprised by the number of people around me who talk about emotions as being incredibly complex but then act as though you either love something or you don’t or, when it comes to romantic relationships on screen, if it isn’t love then it can only be lust or desire or an obsession. Personally, I view love as a spectrum emotion and I actually think most people view it in the same way, that you can feel varying degrees and intensities of it. It sounds obvious and that’s because it totally is. As an example, I think it’s absolutely possible to be a little bit in love with someone.

So, there’s a diagram I remembered from one of my lectures and I think it’ll help me articulate the way I view Beth and Rio’s feelings for one another. The short answer is that I thought they were a little in love with one another in the second half of season 2 and I actually still agree with that but I think it’s been buried under an avalance of trauma and betrayal.

Of course, I’m not going to include the original image from my lecture (which depicts the spectrum and crossover of mood and psychotic disorders) but here’s a stock image that depicts a similar idea:

Now, I think the obvious way to look at this is to stick love on one side and hate on the other, as they are classically considered to be ‘opposing’ emotions, and then something neutral like indifference in the middle.

Personally, I agree with the idea that indifference is the opposite of love and so I’d like to place indifference on one end, hate in the middle and love on the other end, especially when it comes to considering Beth and Rio’s relationship. I’d justify placing hate in the middle because it is an intense emotion, whereas indifference is literally nothing and these two have never been indifferent towards one another, no matter how much time Rio spends on his phone when he’s with Beth. The way I see it, Beth and Rio rapidly slide up and down the part of the spectrum between love and hate and those emotions never have time to settle so that they can be acknowledged as one or the other.

(sorry this is so bad)

I guess what I’m trying to say is that, even at this point in their relationship, the majority of viewers cannot point to the middle of this spectrum and say that Rio definitively hates Beth or vice versa. Nor can we point at love and say the same. I don’t even think we could point vaguely in between. I’d personally be continuously sliding my finger up and down the spectrum between those two points.

I think Manny worded it perfectly in his interveiew, “They hate each other but want to be each other. They hate each other but want to be with each other.”

Lucy, Paper Porcupine and The Shooting

I’m going to just put this in here because this scene was so dark (and very well done in my opinion). But Rio is such a little shit! Look at his face after antagonising Beth:

God sake. Check yourself Rio. Your boys, Ruby and Annie are all watching and it’s so obvious that you’re like straight up thinking about your crush.

Even though I loved the fact that Beth thought ahead and took the plates, upon rewatching the episode it all felt so futile and painful. It really felt like so many of the Beth’s actions took Lucy to that moment. I know we’re all thinking the same thing, that Dean unknowingly triggered all of this when he broke the plate. But the reality is that even if Dean hadn’t broken the plate, it’s likely that Rio would have eventually gone straight to the source of the design. From the moment Beth chose to bring her into this, Lucy’s fate was sealed. It’s heartbreaking.

I absolutely agree with @sothischickshe when she said that Beth knew that something was going to go down. She looks at Lucy so much in this scene, with fear, with guilt but also with an almost intuitive grief. I don’t think she knew that Rio was going to kill her but I do think she had a feeling or a thought clawing at the back of her mind, that something terrible was going to happen to Lucy.

Rio orders Beth to go with Lucy, telling her to “be smart”. He still has Ruby and Annie with him and he knows that Beth would never abandon them. He makes her choose between Lucy and Ruby & Annie in this scene; when she chooses not to ask Mrs Harris for help, when she chooses to beg Lucy not to finish the plate rather than telling her to run out of the store, she is essentially choosing Ruby & Annie.

So much of this scene was about Rio punishing Beth for what she has done, by taking what she had built, ordering her to go with Lucy and forcing her to share in the responsibility of what was about to happen. Because he hasn’t been able to kill her and he knows he’ll never be able to. But I also think it was about proving a point to Beth and here’s why.

Beth shot Rio for many reasons but a lot of it was about the situation she had been placed in and the pressing need to just do something in the ‘heat of the moment’. She has never been able to kill any of her rotten eggs when she had time to plan how to do it. Even when she hit Boomer in the back of the head in 1x01, it is was in the ‘heat of the moment’. She is bound by the moral barrier that separates a murder (i.e: intent, sometimes premeditated) from voluntary manslaughter (i.e: when provoked, in the moment.) I know Beth shot Rio two more times after the initial thought and I may write another post all about that. But now is not the time. For all intents and purposes, Beth cannot kill someone after definitively making that decision in advance.

Something that I’m so struck by with the sequence in Paper Porcupine is how long it is. It’s obviously this long to build tension but it really highlights to me the length of time Rio had to consider his options and decide what he was going to do. Even the scene outside the van was long; he had time to back out of killing Lucy but, unlike Beth, he did not balk. And because of that, he proved to Beth that he can do it all.

He’s basically saying look, I can kill someone before they even have the chance to go rotten.

Obviously, we know that Beth is Rio’s rotten egg and Rio knows it too (that’s why he’s punishing Beth in this scene). But Beth has never allowed herself to believe it. She thinks it’s all about the money.

Oh god. Don’t even get me started on the implications of Rio grabbing Lucy’s hand to help her into the van and looking over at Beth as he says “ma girl”. Yes, we get it Rio. Beth’s your girl.

@pynkhues​  pointed out that Rio has a kind of honeytrap language that Beth is starting to recognise and you can just tell from the way that Beth closes her eyes that she knows the situation is escalating and that something is imminently going to happen.

This scene is so interesting when you stop and pause and just look at Beth and Rio’s faces. Because Beth is desperately trying to justify why Rio should keep them alive. She keeps looking at his face and then prompting Ruby and Annie to speak and answer her questions, so she can prove their worth. And then, at the very end, she sort of tacks Lucy on as an afterthought and it’s just tragic. It was over for Lucy already but, even so, Beth basically gave a speech about their value vs Lucy’s value.

And I totally agree with everyone else. Rio did not look like he was being convinced by what Beth was saying at all. I mean, he definitely had heart-eyes (haha, they’re both idiots) but he didn’t look like he was really considering what she was saying, rather he seemed more like he was impressed by what he was seeing, almost falling into the habit of staring at her as intensely as he always has. He was definitely just letting her talk so he could put a bullet in Lucy and deal with someone in front of his boys and the girls.

Rio

We already knew this but Manny and the writers have really doubled down on how charming, personable and downright sinister Rio can be as a character. His smiles come easily when he’s questioning the mover in 3x04 and interacting with Lucy, he jokes around with them and exerts an effortless control over both situations.  Perhaps even more importantly, his smiles are real in these moments. It’s become very obvious that Rio enjoys it all. It’s fun for him. Just like Beth, he gets a kick out of crime and is pretty unhinged.

As for him shooting Lucy, a completely innocent woman whom he knew Beth had dragged into this. Well, I agree with what a lot of people have already said; I think it was in character. I mean, this is the man who sat and messed about on his phone while his boys waiting on the order to kill the girls in 1x02. This is the guy who killed Eddie, somebody he presumably knew well considering the fact that Eddie only called his mum aside from Rio. This is the guy who shot Dean, who we as an audience hate but who really had nothing to do with Beth’s plot to have Rio arrested. This is the guy who didn’t just have Agent Turner killed but a slew of other FBI agents. Interestingly, of all these characters, the only one aside from Lucy who was unwittingly brought into the crime world was Dean and Rio still shot him. I don’t think this was an attempt on the writers’ parts to make us hate Rio because let’s be honest, the vast majority of us will continue to love his character and they know it. This is who he is and none of us can lie to ourselves anymore. I think that’s good.

The Ending

I loved it! Annie seeking comfort from the people they love, the people who support them. And Beth not being able to do that. God, she looks exhausted and two seconds from falling to pieces in that last scene and Dean is such a narcissist that he can’t see it. All he cares about is Rio, not the effect all of this is having on Beth.

When Beth says that she also really hates being around Rio again and Dean questions her, “really?”, it’s the only thing he can focus on when it comes to her. Like once Rio stuck his dick inside Beth, she wasn’t just her anymore, she was only a person with relation to Rio. Ewwwww Dean. Go away.

Also, it’s so telling that Beth couldn’t repeat herself when Dean questioned her. God, even after Rio ordered Mick to shoot Lucy, she can’t lie about it. She’s such a good liar but, in this scene, she’s so exhausted that she can’t even put in the effort.

God, Christina was amazing. Her watery blue eyes, her forced smiles and pained expressions. I felt like I had been stabbed in the heart when Max said “except for you” and that Beth was Lucy’s only friend. I feel terrible for Max and completely agree with Lucy! He is totally awesome.

#nbc good girls #i'm sorry this is so long

[razorblade180]

Rosebud prep 9

[Vale Hospital]

Today, today was supposed to be a glorious day. A day of laughter and new beginnings; the next chapter in Ruby’s fairytale. Unfortunately it wasn’t. The fairytale was over; the ending snatched away right from her arms. It was time to go back to reality. It’s been hours sense the incident. Ruby was finally awake again and sitting up in her hospital bed for roughly half an hour. Only the doctor had come to see her. She could only imagine why. Quietly she stared at the window and into the night sky with such a vacant expression. No one had to tell her the state of the situation. Deep down she already knew it wasn’t good. Knowing how bad it was would only serve to hurt her more is most likely why she left alone. Or so she thought. A click at the door brought her attention back to inside her room alarmingly. The shadow on the other side told her it was a man but it didn’t ease the anxiety. One too many people have walked through a hospital door into her room today that didn’t like her; anything could happen. Ruby slowly lifted her body off the bed a little as if to dive off of it and catch the person by surprise just in case. Her fears were put the rest though when the first thing to peel into the room was a crooked cross.

Ruby:Uncle Qrow....?

Qrow:*walking in* Hey kiddo. So you are awake? That’s good; I assumed the worst when Tai called.

Ruby:You spoke with dad?

Qrow:Yeah. He called as soon things calmed down. Thought I would want to head over ASAP. He wasn’t wrong....

Ruby:So.....what’s the situation?

Qrow:Ruby, I think right now you should focus on-

Ruby:I’m not a little kid anymore Qrow....

Qrow:....

Ruby:I need...I need to hear someone say it. Where’s Dustin?

There was a tremble in her voice. One born out of pain and pure frustration. Both hands gripped the sheets to the point her knuckles looked white. Ruby’s eyes met Qrow’s with nothing but vulnerability. His heart was breaking at the sight of it.

Qrow:He’s...he’s gone. We don’t know where Cinder and Neo went. Everyone is out looking everywhere and I do mean everyone. You have friends all over the world keeping an eye out. Even Raven is out with Tai searching Anima with Ren and Nora. Weiss went back to Atlas and having all bases sweep through the airspaces they can. Blake and Yang went to search all over Vale before expanding to a few miles outside the kingdom. Team SSSN has called earlier. Your house is just fine and nothing out of the ordinary is making its way through the streets of Vacou as it yet. Glynda assigned extra huntsman here. Oz himself is searching spots that are hard for most people reach and many more.

Ruby:....What about Jaune?

Qrow:He’s....processing. He tried to go off with Yang but we got him to help gaurd the hospital. Figured protecting you was more beneficial.

Ruby:Yet you’re the one giving me the news instead of him.

Qrow:Don’t think poorly of him. Jaune just couldn’t handle telling you the news. I barely can.

Ruby:I know. I just..... *tearing up*

......

Ruby:I’d like to be alone now please.

Qrow:Of course. I’ll keep you posted. *grabs knob* I swear to you Ruby, we’ll find him. Cinder won’t get away with this.

Ruby:Uncle Qrow...?

Qrow:Yeah?

Ruby:Don’t make promises you don’t know if you can keep.

Qrow:.....

He closed the door and left the room after that statement. She knew it came of cold but it was the truth. Hope wasn’t what she wanted right now. She wanted results. Payback; and she wanted it with her own two hands. Tears hit the sheets as she did everything in her power to hold back a scream of pure frustration. Cinder caught her when she was weak, defenseless, forgiving. Ruby wasn’t gonna make that mistake ever again.

xxxx

It wasn’t long before Ruby was finally able to be released from the hospital. The only person there to escort her out was Jaune. She didn’t mind; it meant everyone else was still looking. The two of them didn’t say anything to each other at first; not even a glance. What could you say in a time like this? No words could comfort either of them. Even so, Ruby reached for his hand and held it tight; almost as if she was afraid it would disappear too. He looked at his wife who still faced forward as she walked with tears in her eyes. He returned the handholding with equal force. Their love was still there, but so pain. Too much pain for anyone to deal with alone; yet too steep to truly let anyone in. They were together, but they never felt so lonely.

Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. Before anyone realized it, roughly a year passed. No sign of Cinder, Neo, or Dustin. Almost like they vanished into thin air. No one ever truly gave up but plenty still had to worry about their own lives constantly. As a result, more people took a passive role into searching. Ruby couldn’t blame them but she never stopped. Mission after mission she kept owning her skills in baited breath for the day she could end Cinder’s life. It was her ultimate goal if the worse had happened and her child was long since gone. Ruby didn’t even revel in the fact her old dream had come true. Most likely she didn’t realize it yet. Greatest huntsman of her time; of any time most people argued. Finally had she passed the status of of Grimm Reaper. Maria was proud of not sad at the circumstances. Most knew Ruby Rose by one of two very popular names. The Crimson Reaper; not for the color of her attire but for the sight anybody would see if a grimm or for challenged her. The other name was more inviting; a way to let the innocent know their lives would go on without meeting an unfortunate or unsatisfying conclusion by the hands of tyranny. They call her The Storyteller. There wasn’t a day that went by that she wasn’t focused on her goal. Not even today of all days; a special day that everyone took time off for. Everyone but her.

xxxx

There’s a lot of beautiful places in Anima. Each with its own unique charm and way of making the smallest moments feel like the most precious. In one specific forest there’s a meadow of flowers; a garden of peace where everything is graced with the appearance of spring even though it’s currently the middle of fall. Birds sing happily while butterflies dance their gentle wings on the warm breeze that pass through wind chimes to give off a feeling of tranquility. The perfect place for a new beginning. The perfect place for a wedding.

Two sets of chairs were set up perfectly in the middle with plenty of friends and family on both sides for the celebration; while a white carpet ran in between them. It led to a giant majestic tree that was filled with magnolia flowers. Under the tree was a very nervous but excited Blake who was dressed in a dark black tux that was accompanied with gold trim and bow tie. Every so often she would glance at her parents that were giving her the biggest thumbs up for encouragement. She tried not to laugh when attention was directed a few seats back to see Neptune holding a sign that said. “rock that dragon” with a tiny picture of Yang that had her hair glowing and spiky. Sun was behind her and tapped her shoulder which made her flinch. It was probably the tenth time today he had to remind her to breathe or else that suit would be a sweaty mess. Truly the easiest choice for a best man. Wouldn’t be long now. She hoped the brides maids weren’t giving Yang a rough time who was in a log cabin nearby getting ready...

Nora:All I’m saying is a little makeup on her wedding day would show how committed she is!!!

Weiss:She’s a natural beauty! Makeup ruins that!

Ilia:Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

Yang smiled as she watched her enthusiastic bridesmaids bicker in their teal dresses about the finishing touches. The bride to be turned around to look in the fool body mirror yet again to see if she thought she was truly bringing her best self out there to her beloved. Long hair that slightly curled? Check. A bouquet of sunflowers? Double check. Wedding dress?Triple check and stunning. Yang would not call herself a dress kind of gal but she fell in love with this one.

The strapless dress started of white around the chest area put will slowly go into a yellow that only got more intense as it went down. Right at her waist is where the dress spread out several inches before almost touching the ground below it; Yang joked many times over the past few months that she felt like she was showing up as a wedding bell herself. Silk gloves that followed the same color design went up to her elbows. The silky attire had a intricate lace kind of design at the bottom that matched the midsection. How her sister wore such complicated things like a corset she would never know. After all she didn’t show up to any practices, the bachelorette party, or anything. Not even a phone call. All she did was send a present.

As happy as Yang was to get married it didn’t seem right without her baby sister chanting for her along the way. Ruby was so happy about the proposal back when it happened; when she was expecting. It was two big news at the same time. No doubt she couldn’t think about the wedding without thinking about Dustin. Yang already made up her mind months ago not to hold this against Ruby. Still, right now there was a stinging in her heart where her sister’s smile should be.

Yang:No makeup....

Weiss:Ha!!

Nora:What!? You can’t be- Yang?

Yang:*tearing up* I would just ruin it, so no makeup.

Weiss:*frowning* Yang those don’t look like tears of joy right now.

Yang:I’m fine. Just feeling a lot of emotions right now.

Ilia:....Let’s give the bride a minute alone shall we?

Yang:That would be nice. I’ll be fine in a minute.

The three girls slowly walked out the cabin. Almost like they were waiting for Yang to stop them, but she never did. This day was almost perfect. Most things are in Yang’s opinion. She never believed in true perfection but if one thing could’ve changed that it would’ve been today. For crying out loud, her mother was here and was gonna walk her down the aisle with her father. “Let’s make this the most unconventional wedding there is!” They told her with a spark in their eyes she had never seen before. She prayed it would lead to some sort of mending between them. They deserved love and it was plain to see their love never truly died.

Yang:(Okay Yang, no more moping around. Despite everything, today is a beautiful day and you’re getting married. Perk up and everything else can be dealt with another day.)

knock knock knock

Yang:I’ll be out in a minute you three!

Jaune:Uhhh just one person.

Yang:!!!? Jaune? Is that you?

Jaune:Yeah. Can...can I come i-

Yang:*swings open door*

Its been awhile since she seen her blonde headed brother in arms. After a couple of months things got pretty hectic and everyone seemed to slip through the cracks when it came to actually checking in. It was something Yang really regretted. Jaune’s hair had grown to his shoulders and stubble was on his face. He greeted Yang with a small smile but she knew it wasn’t genuine. His eyes couldn’t hide how tired he was. Faint dark circles could be seen under them.

Jaune:Hey, been awhile.

Yang:Y..Yeah, sorry about that.

Jaune:Don’t worry about it. Things happened. You look beautiful.

Yang:Thanks. You look....

Jaune:Rough?

Yang:I was gonna say like my dad when Summer died.

Jaune:Ah, so worse; sounds about right. It’s been quite the year.

Yang:Wanna sit down?

Jaune:No I don’t wanna take up too much of your time. I just wanted to-

Yang:*pulls out a chair* Butt.....in the chair.

Jaune:*sits down* Sigh still don’t take no for an answer. You think I would know better by now.

Yang:*smiles* Don’t let this dress fool ya. It’s still me under all of this fluff. How have you been? No lying either.

Jaune:Yang I didn’t come here to bring down the mood. I just wanted to see you one on one so I can congratulate you before things got busy down there.

Yang:*holds his face*......

Jaune:.....

.........

Jaune:I haven’t been doing well. Slacking on missions, eating, sleeping......

Yang:How is Ruby allowing this?

Jaune:I barely see her.

Yang:What?

Jaune:All she does is take missions. Long ones at that. I see her maybe twice, three times in a few months. Even when she’s home it’s for a day at most and we don’t talk. Haven’t since...you know.

Yang:Do you know where she is now?

Jaune:*shakes his head* I never do. Ruby she won’t, she just won’t slow down; and I can’t keep up. That house *trembling* it feels so empty it might as well be haunted. Sleeping in that bed doesn’t feel the same. Then there’s his room.....

Yang:You can’t get rid of it, can you?

Jaune:I can’t even go upstairs anymore Yang.

He looks down at the floor before his head was brought up to see Yang looking at him with an expression that could only be described as pure empathy. Her right hand rubbed his face gently before taking both of her arms and wrapping around him in a loving embrace. Yang could feel the warmth of his tears land on her collarbone but she didn’t care. She just continued to rub his back as Jaune slowly started to wail.

Jaune:I....I......

Yang:Ssssshhhh it’s okay. It’s gonna be okay I promise. I promise....

Jaune:How do you know!?

Yang:Because I know you two. There’s nobody else I know who can go through so much and come out on top. You both are fighters and I’m sorry I wasn’t there as much I should’ve been. I think there’s a piece of that was little scared to. I mean what’s to stop some terrible thing from happening to Blake and I. The thought drives me crazy. Weiss too.

Jaune:You all have a reason to be. We were caught so off gaurd. So unprepared for all this. I don’t know how to recover from this. Not without help. Not without Ruby! *sniffling*

Yang:I won’t let you be alone anymore. Nobody will. It might take a little more time but we’ll think of something. Until then let’s focus on things one step at a time.

She finally lets go of him and helps him stand up. His eyes are now a bit puffy but she has no doubt that her eyes look exactly the same. Yang smiles at him and is given one back in return. This time it’s one that feels more real. There’s still pain in it but also an understanding. He’s not alone. Yang will never let him feel alone.

Yang:Care to walk this emotional mess of a bride to her mom and dad? I think everyone has been waiting long enough.

Jaune:*Nods* You’ve gotten pretty good at this whole comforting me thing. I owe you.

Yang:We’re family Jaune. The only thing I want from you is to see you happy. So after I get hitched why don’t we make that happen?

Jaune:I think you should enjoy your honeymoon as much as possible. Don’t worry about me. I can endure a little longer and lean on others for ideals.

Yang:Keep me informed?

Jaune:Always.

Yang:Good. Now then, hand me that ridiculously sized bouquet. Wedding time.

Jaune tossed her the flowers but did so a little too suddenly. Yang’s pinky didn’t even time to twitch before her face was full of petals and pollen that made her sneeze and hair light up. The two of them stared at each other silently before breaking out into a fit of laughter. All while never noticing the presence of someone else on the other side of the door.

xxxx

Days proceeded to blend together for those trapped in grief. Ruby had just completed another mission solo despite the warnings of of it being at least a three man job. It probably would’ve been for normal huntsman. She’d elevated above that a long time ago. That didn’t mean it was a piece of cake though. The young woman found herself tired as she walked through the sands of Vacou to her home; her only company being the moon shining above her. Much like Jaune, her appearance was somewhat altered since the incident.

It’s been a long time since she bothered to cut her hair. The majority of it reaching her shoulder blades and few strands that fell across her face to the left side of her chin. Her red cloak was tattered from constant battle yet the damage would make it seem like it was only three or four tough adverse that made Ruby strut her stuff. She had gotten really good at not being touched. Red thigh high socks ran up her legs and were only visible by a decent sized slit in a black skirt that went just below her knees. The frills on it made it look layered and flowed effortlessly in the breeze. Pregnancy did a number on her body but finally she was back to black and red corsets that had the pattern of thorny stems crawling towards the top from the side. Long gone were the days of feeling like a kid compared to most of her female friends. Ruby filled out nicely even if she was still a far cry from her older sister, she definitely wasn’t small anymore. The many eyes of men and women staring right above the corset line or paying way too much attention to hips on the opening some of her skirt told her that much. Anyone who tried anything would have the pleasure of getting to know her combat boots. She had gotten used to heels finally but they didn’t fair to well in sand. Lastly she wore her wedding around her neck. The ruby gem matching nicely while the silver band went with her exhausted eyes. At least she finally made it home.

Ruby:*opens door* I’m home.

.......

Ruby:(Guess he’s asleep. Makes-

Creeeeeeeek!!!!!

Without hesitation Ruby back stepped right back outside and whipped out her scythe. Any trace of tiredness left her body and was ready for a fight.

Ruby:Whoever you are, step outside into the light right now!

???:After all this time and you’re still kicking off with the wrong foot. I suppose some habits are hard to crack even for the most exceptional huntsman. I don’t have to tell you that though now do I Mrs. Rose?

Ruby:*tilts head* Ozpin? Is that you?

The man walked through the door way and onto the moonlit porch. The use to be farm boy and ancient hero wore his professor outfit as he twirled his cane casually. Much like Ruby, Oscar’s body had grown up nicely. A shame it wasn’t truly his anymore. Broad shoulders, significant height increase, his skin as tan as ever; no doubt women would’ve been crawling all over him. Especially with his hair. The white contrasted the rest of his design but it also seemed fitting.

Oscar:You can put that away. I thought we could have a chat.

Ruby:So you decided to wait in my house without the lights on?

Oscar:Of course. I don’t pay your power bill so why should run it up when I didn’t know when you would return.

Ruby:......I’m not in the mood for this. Just tell me why you’re here and- gasp! Did you find something on Cinder!?

The man looked at woman who’s eyes seemed to grow big with anticipation. Unfortunately he had to shake his head no; causing what little excitement she had to fade away as her body began to slouch.

Ruby:Should’ve known.....

Ozpin:I might not have come here with the news you hoped for but it is about the same topic. Ruby....I think it’s about time you’ve accepted the reality of the situation, and press on.

Ruby:*jolts up* Excuse me?!

Ozpin:What I’m saying is-

Ruby:I know what you’re saying! I just can’t believe you had audacity to say it! Press on? How could you think I could just move past this?

Ozpin:I never thought that, which is why I’m here now. It’s been over a year and not once have we found clues to where they went. I’ve personally turned Remnant upside down at least twice and never found a true lead. I can imagine how many times you’ve done it by now.

Ruby:What’s that supposed to mean?

Ozpin:It means I’ve been watching. Everyday I look at the mission boards across all the kingdoms. A high ranking job never failed to be crossed almost as fast as it appeared. Low ranking jobs seemed to come in go like the wind and almost all of them had your petals floating in it.

Ruby:A pro huntsman job is to get results quickly right. Of all people I thought you’d proud of my progress, or are you scared I’ll slip up and you’ll lose one of the most valuable chess pieces you ever had? Hate to break it to you but I distinctly telling you once before I’m not apart of your game anymore. No one has been since Salem was killed. Sounds like you’re the one who should press on.

Ozpin:*clenches fist* This has nothing to do with-....*breathes* There’s only one kind a person who gains so much recognition in such a short amount of time. Those who push everything else out. Do you even know where your husband is right now? Because I promise that he is not in that house.

Ruby:.....

Ozpin:It’s a simple question. Do. You. Know. Where. He. Is?

Ruby:*walks away* If you’re not gonna help then stay out of my business.

Ozpin:Jaune has been living in Patch with your father for almost two weeks now. Ever since your sister’s wedding. It was real shock when the maid of honor wasn’t the bride’s loyal sister all because she never answered. Instead she was chasing ghost for all she knows. Is this even about Dustin anymore?

Ruby:*stops walking*......

........

Ruby:Out of respect I will give you a warning; tread lightly Oz. Say his name again and I’m gunning for you.

Ozpin:Then start aiming. *readys cane* Du-

She vanishes almost instantly and appears behind him ready to slash his back but is blocked by a swift pivoting attack. Oz new better than to go into this thinking he had the upper hand. This wasn’t a Ruby he knew. This one had a years worth of anger behind her attacks. Ruby wasn’t deterred by the block. She charged straight at him; cross slashing and firing at him with every move she had. Constantly she kept her scythe spinning like a saw with each advance she made towards the man blocking attacks. Sparks flew with every collision of the two metal weapons trying to bully the other out of the way of their wielder. Ozpin had enough of skirmish and stopped Ruby’s next over head attack by grabbing each end of the can and slaming it upward. The vibration of the block rattled his bones and numbed his arms.

Ruby:Despite it all, Oz I don’t want to hurt you.

Ozpin:That goes both ways.

His cane drops to his side and pulls back before raming itself into each of her ribs and smacking her clean across the left side of her face. Oz doesn’t giver her a chance to breathe and springboards off of her chest; sending her right into the sand. Ruby hits the ground hard then vanishes into rose petals immediately. The wind kicks up the sand around Oz to mask her location in a tiny cyclone.

Ozpin:Recovery time like that comes with practice. Tell me, when did you figure out a skill like that?Maybe it was Tai’s birthday or Weiss’s? Better yet, it was probably Penny’s. You know she just knew you would show up. I mean even James took time out of his busy schedule. Why wouldn’t her best friend?

Ruby:SHUT UP!!!

A streak of red breaks through the sand and crescent rose hooks around Oz’s can. The sound of the trigger pulling back is enough warning to tell him to clench his stomach as a sniper round hits right above the man’s navel and simultaneously yanks Long Memory from his hands. Ruby charges right at him in a fit of overwhelming emotion. Each attack hitting nothing but air and scarring the ground as Oz continuously dodges the assault. He might’ve been an expert at fighting but he couldn’t credit himself entirely for his well time movements. Not when his opponent was too busy fighting the tears rushing to her eyes...

Ruby:Do you have any idea how much this hurts!? What you’re telling me to do!? Every night I have the same clip replaying in my mind over and over again! His face! The way he fit so perfectly in my arms. Those eyes....he had my eyes Oz! All I saw in them was a future filled with potential, but then I wake up and realize it’s gone!

Crescent Rose extends out and Ruby puts all her force into a thrusting attack that Oz side steps easily passed. The ground below Ruby betrays her as she tries to pivot back around. Landing the woman face down in the sand. A gentle breeze blows between them that brings a chill to their fighting area. Oz stands normally over his former student who is now on her hands and knees looking at the ground. He can see her entire body fidget and shake as the sound of her strained voice begins to finally cry.

Ruby:I never dreamed of being of mom; of having a family of my own. But the moment I held him in my arms I knew right then and then. This was it. This was the moment I’ve waited for. I’ve never been so happy in my entire life. *sobbing* Then they took it away from me Oz. They took my son. How am I supposed to live with that!? When does the pain stop!?

Ozpin:*kneels down*.....It doesn’t. Not entirely anyways. Kids, they take a piece of you with them the moment their born and all you ever want to do is protect them. When I lost my daughters I might as well died five times over that night. Salem left me feeling truly alone that day. Robbing me of her love and there’s forever. Till this day I find myself closing my eyes too and them hug me tightly before I wake up to a world where they aren’t around anymore. *tearing up* I’ve had blessing and curse to have lifetimes to cope with such pain; something no one else has. However, you have everything I wish I had when my world crumbled around me.

Somehow Ruby managed to lift her head and meet the eyes of a crying man starring right back at her in quiet agony.

Ozpin:There are people in your life right now who want nothing more but to help you grieve and put yourself back together again. There is someone who loves you more than anything suffering a very similar pain to yours and guarantee you that all he wants right now is his wife by his side; trying to heal and endure together. No one is truly going to stop looking for Cinder but you can not waste your life aimlessly searching for her to beat her. Don’t give her that power over you. Don’t be me. Be better. Learn to be happy.

Ruby:...*wipes tears* You....you really think they’ll forgive me? I missed a lot.

Oscar:They’d have to be mad at you to do that. Ruby, do what you do best. Keep moving forward.

He offers his hand to her and she takes it slowly. Ruby’s heart was still in shambles. Her mind in complete disarray from the wave of pain she’s been holding in. It should be one of the worst feelings imaginable and yet it wasn’t. Crying felt good; amazing even. Finally progress in something felt like it was being made. Even if it wasn’t in what she had hoped for, it was what she needed. Ruby was finally ready to take the first step towards her new ending. She had no idea where it would lead but she knew one thing as she held her ring. Ruby was going to keep her vows. The journey wouldn’t start without Jaune.

Ruby:Patch, right?

Ozpin:Yes if you leave now then you’ll probably make it by-

Ruby:Not yet...

Ozpin:Hmmm?

Ruby:I can’t face him quite yet. Not like this. There’s someone else I need to face first....

Part 8

#rwby rosebud #rwby #ruby rose #jaune arc #yang xiao long #blake belladonna #weiss schnee #nora valkryie #ilia amitola #qrow branwen #rwby ozpin #rwby lancaster #bmblb #bumbleby

[real-jaune-isms]

White Rose Week Day 2: Role Reversal/Body Swap

The Rose Dust Company held the monopoly on energy propellant and combat use elemental Dust. A fact that it’s CEO Taiyang Rose took very seriously. He married Summer Rose for this very reason afterall, he wanted nothing more than to make a name for himself... though he would be lying if he said he didn’t also love his wife. But their marriage came with baggage, as Taiyang Xiao Long was already a divorcée with a young daughter at the time.

Summer loved her new step daughter, she really did. But she wanted a child of her own, and little Yang would never fit the bill to be the heiress to the company. So Ruby Rose was born of their rocky marriage, and raised with the firm intention of being a proper lady who could inherit the massive company her father was doing his best to run smoothly. And he did so rather well.

Whereas some might have resorted to cheap cruel employment of the marginalized Faunus population, he offered anyone and everyone a fair and safe employment. It was still a dangerous job working the mines, that came with the territory. But working smarter was the best way to get where the company ultimately should be, he thought. The Faunus were still the majority of those who took the jobs, there was such a great need for employment that they couldn’t be picky. But Taiyang made sure to spare very little expense in housing them in relative comfort and making the work safe. And so the empire grew, its reputation mild but formidable for how quickly it took over the industry.

The company’s was not the only reputation that grew, as the daughters of its CEO made names for themselves as time went by. Yang understood that her parentage prevented her from taking up the family business, so she threw herself headlong into the second biggest industry in Remnant, being a Huntress and enrolling at Beacon Academy. Many wondered why she chose Beacon over Atlas, though her fiery personality and flashy manner of dressing discouraged all but the brave from approaching her to ask. Her name and status was able to afford her some luxuries however, such as entry to any nightclub she wished and the money to develop her own huntress weapons. She went with something a bit barbaric for what people would have expected however, guns built into a pair of gauntlets. Still, it got the job done just fine and she became quite the brawler.

Meanwhile the Rose heiress grew into a fine young lady in her own right. Her singing voice wasn’t selling out concert halls, but what did was her years of training with the violin. It was a great activity to keep her hands busy and her mind focused on a single action. And if it could entertain the masses, then why not put on shows? She had had pretty bad stage fright at first, but soon overcame it. But in the back of her mind, there had always been a passion to do more. Her mother would tell her bedtime stories about her own younger days as a huntress, before she had needed to settle down and run the company alongside her husband. But what adventures she had been on made for the best tales of danger and thrills, and Ruby very much wanted to see such sights and do more for the public than she could locked up in private studies or practicing her instrument. She wanted to spend her few young years of freedom from responsibility doing something to help everyone. She wanted to be a Huntress too. And it might have helped that she was so inspired by her half sister’s own exploits and their close bond. Ruby looked up to her sister just as much as her own mom, and she wanted to be just like them.

So she began enthusiastically and rigorously training on the side to wield a weapon and kill the creatures of Grimm. And she wanted to do it using her family’s Dust, so she used her natural technical know how and the mechanical training she had been given to help make sure she knew how the factory machines worked to make her own weapon, a giant mechanical scythe that shot Dust infused sniper bullets. Her training was a great success and her parents were very supportive of her pursuit. She made such great strides in fact that she was able to pass the admissions test to all 4 huntsman academies at the age of 15. She had her pick of schools... but she chose Beacon so she could fight alongside her sister and show the world what the Rose family was made of. Of course... growing up in this kind of family, with such privilege and expectation to be the best would make anyone a bit full of themself...

Meanwhile, the Schnee family lived in the small island of Patch off the coast of Vale. Their patriarch was only barely so, a bitter jaded man who lost his wife to alcoholism a decade ago and took his frustrations out on his two daughters and his son. They had been a happy family once, yes. But after young Whitley was born, the postpartum depression hit Willow Schnee rather hard and she drowned herself in the bottle, so to speak. Jacques Schnee resented that his children were by no fault of their own responsible for the loss of their mother, so he avoided them far more than he should in favor of his job as a teacher and when they were all in the same place he very rarely spoke kindly of them. If they were going to keep existing in this world, they had better make something useful of their lives. Winter, the eldest, had a decade of fond memories of her mother and tried her best to act as a parental figure in her stead. She was kind and strict in equal measures when the situation called for it. Weiss had a few good memories to hold onto, mostly bedtime stories of fairy tale princesses who found handsome princes and fell in love and went of to live in fancy castles instead of little houses in the middle of nowhere. She quite liked the idea of that, but sometimes she wondered why it had to be a prince. Why not two princesses?

The youngest, poor little Whitley, knew very little about his mom but learned all that she had imparted on his big sisters. The three were all perfectly fine and happy children, but they were all certainly realists about how harsh the world could be. Winter enlisted in the Atlesian army as soon as she was able, claiming she wanted to make the world that much safer for her family and the population at large. Weiss likewise wanted to get out of the house and away from her father asap, but didn’t want to go too far for the sake of keeping an eye on Whitely should he need anything. So Beacon Academy was the best choice. Willow had apparently been something of a craftsman in her younger days, and had made two lovely swords that she left to her daughters. Myrtenaster was a rapier with the capability to use Dust in the blade, though there were certainly limited funds to buy enough different types at a consistent rate. But the three pooled their money, earned through hard work at various community odd jobs, to send Weiss off with enough Dust to fill the weapon for the time being. So off she went, to make a name for herself and give some measure of honor to the Schnee name. If only she had been watching where she was going as she arrived at the impressive castle-like structure of Beacon...

*CRASH* went the cart full of suitcases as Weiss tumbled into it and fell to the ground. “Ouch...” she muttered, before hearing a shrill yell. “Careful with that, you dolt! There’s enough dust in there to be worth triple what you’ll make in a lifetime!” Weiss looked up to see a girl in a rather formal looking red combat outfit, complete with a combat skirt much like her own. “I’m sorry, I was just taking in the view...” “Sorry wouldn’t mean anything if you blew up and cost my family thousands! Just trying to warn you, okay?” Ruby responded, being aware enough to see this girl was truly sorry and had no ill will, but still wanting to keep her property safe. “Well you could be a bit nicer about it, Princess...” Weiss grumbled as she wiped the dirt off her clothes and stood up, trying to help load the bags back on the cart. “This really is a lot of Dust though.. where did you get all of it?” “From the family mines of course. I AM Ruby Rose of the Rose Dust company of course~”

That got Weiss’ attention very quickly, and she spun back around to look at the quasi-celebrity. “Wow, I’ve heard a lot about your company! How you’ve revolutionized the market and all manner of technology for mining and using Dust! It’s so nice to meet you, I’m Weiss Schnee!” She stuck out a hand, and Ruby smiled at the praise she was getting and shook it. “Good to meet you too, Weiss. Sorry for the snappiness, just really don’t want any accidents with this stuff...” “I understand, I researched this stuff a lot in preparation for coming here. Why are you here though? I mean, a prodigy huntress and heiress to the largest company in the world, why go to school in Vale?” “Mostly? My mom.” Ruby replied with a shrug, neither girl realizing they were still holding hands. They soon did though, and let go with a blush. “Well... same here.” Weiss said with a bit of melancholy to her voice. “She’s... no longer with us and her dream was to make weapons that professional huntresses would use to protect the world. So my sister and I enlisted at academies and use our mom’s swords to do just that.”

Ruby smiled at that. “A noble ambition. My mom was a huntress before she got married, and my big sister wants to be one too. So I figured why not spend some time in the family business before I have to settle into... the other family business?” Weiss nodded. “Makes sense to me. So, should we go to the main hall for orientation?” “I think we should. I also think this is the start of a great friendship...” And indeed it was, though it would end up being so much more.

#white rose week #white rose #ruby rose #weiss schnee #white rose week 2019 #white rose week day 2 #day 2: role reversal/body swap #taiyang xiao long #summer rose #yang xiao long #jacques schnee #willow schnee #winter schnee #whitley schnee

[evilsnowswan]

Summary: [Rumbelle Mermaid!AU] based on this prompt by repeatinglitanies: “In a world where people are aware of the existence of mermaids, Belle is a mermaid who lives in the world’s largest aquarium along with other sea creatures. She enjoys looking at the little humans who come to visit, especially a floofy haired boy who comes every week with his father….” An injured Belle is captured and brought to Gold and Milah’s aquarium. Gold is a marine biologist dedicated to protecting the creatures there, Milah wants to turn a profit, and their son has his own ideas about how to befriend a mermaid.

Rating: G/Teen Link to full story: [Read on AO3] Previous Chapters: [Coverart][Chapter 1][Chapter 2][Chapter 3][Chapter 4][Chapter 5][Chapter 6][Chapter 7][Chapter 8][Chapter 9][Chapter 10][Chapter 11][Chapter 12][Chapter 13][Chapter 14][Chapter 15]

Current Chapter: 16/? Chapter Summary: Things are getting “steamy” ;)

Chapter 16

Maybe she should have listened to her father. Some of the things he told her were bound to be true. Apparently she had to learn that lesson the hard way.

Belle shivered and winced. Biting her lip, she rolled back her shoulders. Pain exploded across her screaming skin as the furs slipped down to her middle. She let out a breath and opened her eyes.

He hadn’t moved.

With his face this close to hers, she could tell that it was anger that made his smile hard and tight-lipped. Like ndweshi, his sharp eyes studied her, tracking her every move to anticipate the next. The intensity of his gaze stung on her burning cheeks and Belle was internally grateful that he wasn’t a leaping ndweshi and she no blue swallow, caught in flight and eaten alive; feathers, beak and all.

He sucked his teeth, giving voice to chagrin, and she cast her eyes down. Belle knew she had been reckless. He had every right to be cross with her. Her recklessness kept landing her in trouble and turbulence, and he had to come to the rescue time and time again and clean up her mess.

She raised her hands for an apology, but didn’t make it anywhere near her chest before the pain cut through her like a split rock.

She couldn’t help the yelp.

Even with her hands back safely at her sides, the aftershock hummed under her skin. With every flat note it felt less like hers; less like part of her body, and Belle had to keep still until the horrible song ended and she could breathe again.

She wouldn’t try that again.

She looked at her arm, taking in the angry red and watery white, and felt tears well up in her eyes. Predatory and merciless, the sun had turned her beautiful smooth skin to sand. Cool and salty, it now felt brittle and dead, threatening to rip open and spill out her boiling flesh for all to see.

“Indigo.” His voice was soft and gentle, but she didn’t want to check his face for contrast; didn't want to see if anger or worry had won out on his features.

He kept talking, voice low and reassuring, but Belle wasn’t listening.

She watched his hands instead. Strong and steady, they squeezed the eel-shaped object they were holding, kneading and rolling it back to front. The thing wasn’t alive, but squelched under the pressure and belched out a clear jelly-like substance.

The familiar smell hit her nostrils and Belle looked up, surprised.

Healer’s Breath.

Harvested from a rare plant, it could be used to treat cuts and bites, sores and boils. If taken with their food, it would help a sick mermaid or merman fight back chronic viral, nano-bacteria, and fungal infections.

That’s how powerful a plant it was.

Every mermaid knew how to spot the long, fleshy, narrow, light green leaves with whitish to reddish toothed margins. They knew how to cut open a plump leaf and remove the clear sap inside, carefully filling their empty shells to take them to the nearest healer.

If mixed with the right ingredients – flowers, seaweed, sediment – not only would it calm inflamed skin, reduce swelling, and fight infection, but also function as numbing medicine.

Only healers knew the recipes though. It was too valuable to have every fin and tail temper with it. Not that most merfolk would have tried. Most weren’t too fond of the strong odor and stayed clear of what they sometimes referred to as air-breather pus.

Belle took a deep breath, breathing in the peculiar smell from within the plant’s leaves and the main part of the plant. Bitter and musky, it put a soothing spell on her, and she felt the comfort of instant familiarity tug at the corners of her mouth.

When she looked up, he was smiling too.

His hand gently cupped the liquid medicine, his palm still visible underneath.

With her next breath she caught a whiff of something new, something more, added to mask the signature smell, but not completely covering it. He had added other components to the mixture, more pleasant fragrances, to make it sweet.

Belle hadn’t known this was knowledge they shared, but the realization made her smile grow wider. She felt her heart slow down and body relax. Her relief put her completely at ease and, when he raised his eyebrows in silent question, indicating he wanted to dip his fingers into the liquid and apply it to her arms, she nodded, never taking her eyes off his.

She allowed him to take her hand. Even when the pain got worse – (it had to get worse before it got better. She knew that much.) – she didn’t pull away. Weathering the storm, she let it flash through her. Her tail twitched and her teeth clashed, grinding up the squeaks she wouldn’t let escape, but she didn't let go.

When she came up for air, he had moved onto her other arm. As he worked his way up, her fingers fell into place with his, braiding them together.

She felt the cool, healing breath whisper on her skin, the sting and the burn that followed. He squeezed her hand, lightly, as if in response, adjusting the pressure to match hers.

Belle would have marveled at this new way of communicating without words, this strange language they had discovered and were speaking between themselves, had she not been so preoccupied with the fact that her eyes and cheeks just wouldn’t stay dry, no matter how hard she tried to blink the embarrassing blur away.

He must have added something to numb her pain, but when he reached her shoulders, neck, and back, it became intolerable again. Her back had taken the worst of it, so it wasn’t surprising exactly, but the pain still took her breath away.

Belle whimpered and blinked up at him through her tears. He gave her a moment to breathe, but didn’t step back.

He had placed her arms on his shoulders to better reach her back, not the least bit worried when she linked her hands behind his neck. So she had left them there, now letting her weight sink onto his shoulders as she leaned into the contact for comfort. Touching foreheads, she sighed; then rested against his chest for some shuddering breaths. He murmured into her hair, the warm reassurances tickling her scalp and coaxing the tension from her shoulders.

Belle concentrated on her breathing. The bitter musk, the sweetness – it filled her nostrils and airways, leaving behind something salty and unfamiliar; a scent, a taste that she couldn’t quite place. It wasn’t bad. A little strange maybe, or perhaps, the strange thing was how it wasn’t strange at all – and that made her dizzy.

The first thud out of tune was followed by a second, a third, a fourth, her heart beating out a fast rhythm against her rib cage like a wild seahorse. Protective little creatures, seahorses. Fathers protecting their children, raising them. Like merlings. Like airlings. Like this airling.

Her heart stuttered and Belle’s eyes flew open. She twisted her neck a little, watched him from behind the safety of strands of her hair. He had that look on his face. That look that said he’d be there, he’d protect her. No matter what foolish thing she did, she was one of his own now and he’d be there to protect her.

He was that kind of an… air...man. The seahorse kind. And Belle liked that about him.

***

He should have listened to his gut feeling. Reasoning with it had never been a good idea. He should have ignored the little persistent voice in his head that told him he worried too much. (That voice that sounded surprisingly like his wife and told him he was a worrywart on good days and a bloody coward on bad.) He shouldn’t have left her in the care of a child. High school diploma or not, that's what she was, a child. It wasn’t Ruby Lucas’ fault. She was good with the animals, her heart was in the right place, but her mind was that of a teenager - and teenagers’ brains weren’t built for risk assessment and reason. She’d grow into it, learn, do better. Eventually.

Sunburn. On a mermaid. It would be funny if it weren’t so excruciatingly painful to watch poor Indigo suffer and wince in pain whenever anything or anyone touched her.

He tried to be as gentle as possible. The aloe vera helped some. But just as soon as he had taken care of one problem, another popped up. The aloe was good for the immediate burns, relieving some of the trapped heat, stopping it from doing any further damage underneath.

But once the heat was gone, came the cold. She needed to stay hydrated, needed to get back into the water asap, but the water was too salty, too hot or too cold. The sunburn covered most of her skin – her freckled cheeks, her buttoned nose, her slender neck, chest, arms and entire back – and it made it impossible for her to regulate her own body temperature, to keep her core temperature steady. She’d overheat, start to shiver, or wince from the sting of the salt particles. So the holding pool was out.

The spray bottle wasn’t an option either. He’d give himself Carpal tunnel before she was anywhere close to comfortable. The bathrobe scratched her skin and she’d shrug out of it and shake it off the second he tried to wrap her in it.

After a few moments of restless pacing – with Indigo watching him, doe-eyed and vulnerable – or maybe it was long minutes, ticking by on the large clock in the medical wing until his ears were ringing, he finally had an idea.

A good idea.

Official hours were over, visitors and most of the staff were gone. He knew he’d find Mrs. Lucas and her granddaughter at the diner, the Nolan family down at the shop, and Killian Jones in the cockpit – hopefully – catching up on overdue paperwork. He’d never understand why, but for some reason his wife had insisted on making the guy her deputy about a year back or so. Given how, at the time, she had hardly left her office anyway, he had chosen his battles wisely and agreed to keep the peace. Now that decision would be put to the test.

With a sigh, he picked up the phone and dialed the cockpit. Even with almost everyone out of the building, there were security measures to be taken if they were to do what he wanted to do next.

Killian Jones proved not to be useless after all, pulling strings and clearing their path.

David Nolan jumped at the opportunity to help – or to meet the mermaid his wife and daughter were, no doubt, raving about in stereo after this morning, up close and personal. He was strong and reliable, a real Prince Charming, and carried Indigo down to the spa area like she was a princess made from glass, rather than a simple girl wearing a glass slipper.

Jones had closed off the area to unauthorized personnel, which meant everyone but him, David Nolan, and Dr Whale. And Miss Lucas – as soon as she felt up for it. Her grandmother had informed him over the phone that Ruby was currently indisposed, having a heart-to-heart with the toilet. The old lady really didn’t sugarcoat things. Usually he found this quality refreshing. Well, you couldn’t have your cake and eat it too.

The spa area was in the back of the main building, a private part of the ground floor for staff to relax and unwind. It came with a heated indoor pool, a Nordic sauna, and a large Turkish bath. His wife had read somewhere that all the big corporations were doing it like this now, building indoor playgrounds – not for their employees’ kids, but the employees themselves – offering yoga classes, or hiring a private masseuse, on-call and ready to work out some knots in under five minutes, if need be.

He had wondered whatever had happened to the simple cafeteria, staff room, and nursery – the trusted trifecta that had worked just fine for years, but didn’t fight her on it. Bae liked the pool, he enjoyed the steam bath in the wee hours of the morning, and Milah did the books. If she said they could afford such an unnecessary luxury and that it would pay off in staff well-being, increased motivation, and better work ethic in the long run, who was he to argue her out of the idea.

Plus, the steam was just what they needed right now.

The big difference between a sauna and a steam room was in the type of heat that they provided. A sauna used dry heat, usually from hot rocks or a closed stove. Steam rooms were heated by a generator filled with boiling water and typically kept somewhere around 110°F. The key to the steam room’s unique health benefits wasn’t the temperature though, it was the humidity.

Moist heat improved circulation. Improved circulation could lead to lowered blood pressure and a healthier heart. It could also promote healing of broken skin tissue, which was what they were going for. The warm condensation would rinse away the dirt and dead skin and help Indigo heal without dehydrating her.

Steam therapy was also relatively safe in comparison to any alternative he could think of – as long as she was closely and constantly monitored. That, however, was the tricky part. With Miss Lucas out, there was no one else he’d trust to do the job, so he had to make lemonade, gallons and gallons of lemonade – both in the metaphorical and the literal sense – to keep himself hydrated for hours to come.

He had put on his wet suit and grabbed one of Bae’s waterproof stopwatches to remind himself to take a break about every fifteen to twenty minutes – to replace the lost water weight by drinking homemade lemonade to avoid dehydration. He had also taken the time to instruct Jones to make sure they kept the steam room running all night and to tell the guard dogs to start barking if anyone came within a few feet of the area and had no business being there.

Indigo had been a good sport through all of it, more bemused than bewildered by the commotion. She was trying not to let on in how much pain and discomfort she was, but the long, deep exhale, five minutes into steam therapy, told him everything.

Smiling, he shifted in his seat and rubbed at his wet suit.

He shouldn’t be wearing it. He knew that. Wearing a wet suit in a steam room was about as beneficial to your health as wearing swimming gear to the sauna. Probably less so.

Gold closed his eyes and tried to take deep, slow breaths. The hot, humid air burned in his nose and throat. He could already feel his heart hammer away in his chest and didn’t need a mirror to tell him that his face was the color of cooked lobster. Coming to think of it, that was exactly how he felt right about now. Live lobster sitting in boiling water, about to be broken out of its shell and eaten limb by limb.

Something touched his knee and he jumped.

Indigo had scooted closer and was looking up at him. The tiniest crease had formed between her eyebrows, her glistening lips halfway to a worried frown. She tapped his knee again, poked a finger at the neoprene skin, and cocked her head, looking quizzical.

He shook his head and she pouted.

The dim lights were making him dizzy and he was short of breath, which was why he didn’t bother swatting her hands away when she reached for the zipper and began tugging on it like a dog with a bone. She looked so adorable doing it, face screwed up in concentration and the tiny tip of a very pink tongue peeping out between her teeth, that he allowed her to push his suit from his shoulders.

Breathing became a little easier and he stopped her before she could roll off the bench and tug on the legs. He was wearing swimming trunks, so sitting in a pool of black neoprene wasn’t an issue, but he didn’t feel like taking it off completely.

She narrowed her eyes, ready for a battle of wills, and he pointed a finger at her determined face before breaking out in hearty laughter. The mind on that one!

“Okay, sweetheart.” He grinned at her. “You win.”

And, actually, why the heck not?

Leaning on the bench, careful not to break his neck on the slippery, hot tiles, he tugged on his booties, kicked them off, and pulled down his suit, sitting back down to take it off.

The sudden change in temperature and humidity gave him goosebumps and then a second round erupted on his thigh, when she took that inquisitive finger and ran it over his skin. He covered her hand with his and removed it gently, setting it down on the bench.

Indigo blinked, then bit her lip.

Curious little thing, wasn’t she? Maybe that was the problem.

Watching her, he leaned back, linking his hands behind his head. She was more relaxed in the steam room than she had been all evening, but he still had to make sure he wasn’t doing more harm than good by having put her here.

He cleared his throat, shook out his hands, and reached out to feel her forehead, making Indigo go cross-eyed in the process. She didn’t pull away, but wanted to keep his hands in view, which was understandable.

He pretended burning himself on her too-hot skin and she stuck out her tongue at him. They both laughed.

If she developed a fever or showed signs of distress or dehydration, he had to remove her from the steam at once. Sitting in a steam bath with a fever was extremely dangerous. He would not put her at risk like that.

Not again. Never again.

She tried to blow hair from her face, but the damp strands stuck to her skin. He brushed it aside for her and gently stroked her hair.

Indigo fidgeted beside him, inching a little closer and resting her chin on her hands.

When he tried to stop, remove his hand, she wouldn’t let him, making tiny sounds of protest and moving his hand right back with one of her own – pretty much like a cat or dog would – the gesture universal and immediately understood.

They sat for a while, breathing, relaxing, him stroking her head and shoulders, combing through her long, silky hair, and occasionally checking her temperature.

Not wanting to disturb the comfortable calm more than necessary, he tried to make the sittings longer, went to re-hydrate every half hour instead of the recommended fifteen minutes, and cussed under his breath every time the damn watch went off and startled her awake, until he turned the alarm off for good. He could keep an eye on the time himself. Indigo needed to rest. And that insistent beeping was annoying.

Time moved differently in the steam room. He had no idea how many hours they had spent on the tiled bench, breathing in hot air with their eyes half closed. He also couldn’t have said when or how exactly Indigo’s head had ended up in his lap, his fingers automatically taking to brushing out her hair and checking her temperature intermittently. He got up in silence to get a drink, carefully moving her and moving her back once he was done.

Outside the room, it was cold and hostile; the bright glaring lights stung his eyes, making them lose focus and the world turn blurry. Inside was definitely preferable. Pleasantly warm, calm, and peaceful. All he had to do was stay awake; not to fall asleep, dry up like an old fig, and die. Other than that, inside was great. Inside was perfect.

He awoke to someone drilling holes in his head, slowly and deliberately, one rotation of the damn drill head at a time. Before he had time to come to fully and wonder what sick being would do such a barbaric thing to another, the door to the steam room swung open and the cold light cut the steam in half like a guillotine, blinding him momentarily.

He blinked at the tall shadow in the door.

“Did you forget?! Jones said…”

He groaned and ran a hand over his face.

“Murchadh! I've been looking for you all over the freaking… Baelfire wants… and you’re taking a spa day! Spa… night. Whatever. What ––– Oh! You got to be kidding–”

Apparently, the sight in front of her had stunned his wife into silence. Sadly, the effect didn’t last long.

Milah recovered quickly, her mouth doing that thing between curling and smirking, before she half huffed, half laughed an exasperated “I don’t even want to know!” in his general direction, turned on her heels and stormed off, closing the steam room door behind her with feeling.

Great. Absolutely wonderful.

#rumbelle fic #rumbelle #mermaid!belle #ouat fanfiction #rumbelle au #my fic #fic: indigo

[swearronchanel]

Kicking off the hiatus with 5.04

A few people have requested that I continue my commentaries™ during the hiatus & after all the positive feedback, I couldn’t say no! But I expected to have an awful day & it actually went well so I thought I’d go ahead and do it now. You know since I’m going to avoid all my responsibilities anyway it might as well be for a good cause🙃

I watched a lot of shameless on Netflix today so it’s nice to watch something wholesome for a change of pace 😂

“The world was shifting on its axis in 1961, strides were being made, decisions taken, questions asked..” Vanessa’s narration is always on point like I wish I had the patience to post all her quotes 😭😂

Aw sister Mary Cynthia! I hope she’s in the Christmas special

My bby trixie looking flawless while riding a bike, goals

But who is this nun they’re having a service for lol ??

Like it’s kinda irrelevant oops,  r i p & dios te bendiga but why do we care? at least I don’t

Isn’t this girl from something? She looks so familiar

i remember saying this before .. oh yea she’s from game of thrones I think. I don’t watch it though haha

“Angel? I could get used to that!” Aw my bby is so cute like yes trix ur an angel

yikes that cough lady, I have a stuffy nose rn and I’m hoping I don’t start coughing 😭cause then I wanna be in a coma cause I hate being sick

Aw he'a so excited! He got into university👏🏼 that was legit me though 😂 I’m so irrational and literally only applied to one university (well I filled out many applications but didn’t submit any others because you gotta pay so I tried to wait and see if I got accepted to where I wanted first😂) I found out in English while on my phone instead of doing work & I screamed and just ran out the classroom 😂 I went to my guidance councilor and told everyone in the main office and then called my parents who *were nervous I wouldn’t get in* but also were literally going through security in the airport on their way to Dominican Republic .. ah, I was full of excitement and hope. Look at me now 3 semesters in &I’m over it 😂😂 it’s so stressful and mentally/emotionally draining and sometimes I’m just like how do I become a trophy wife asap?

BACK TO THE SHOW THOUGH

My bby SHELAGH! 😍 she is so precious in her suit aww, but lets be real the navy suit is the best™ one she owns. But I still like her best in uniform at the clinic though 💁🏼

she’s over here giving a talk on giving birth at home & Im just like holy shit SHE JUST HAD A BABY IN THEIR NEW HOME, I STILL CANT BELIEVE IT😭!!!!

Tom’s so excited for Ian it’s so cute and sweet

And Tom is so cute and attractive ugh, he could get it

oh damn wait Mrs Cottingham has the baby with no limbs

aw yea and she wanted a girl

I agree though little boys are gremlins 😂😂 from ages like 7-14, get them away from me 😂

Ian all hopeful for their future and then boom he’s a dad. That went from 0 to 💯 real quick

Phyllis!! & lol sister W giggling

But damn why they all acting like Sister J is too old and incapable 😂 she wants to go to St Cuthberts, let her

Sister Monica Joan upset aw😭 don’t worry sister you’re Help is needed

Pats and Deels look cute “tanning” outside

“You want to see Anita Ekberg in that fountain just as much as I do”  Lmaoo 😂😂 for real though have u ever seen La Dolce Vita? Like Anita Ekberg was too hot to handle. I wish I looked that good damn

Trixie came to thirdwheel even though she isn’t unaware she is lol

But Trixie is serving summer looks™ I love it 😍

Damn though Patsy’s legs are pretty pasty 😂😂

Trixie wondering what the hell kinda magic bra Anita had on, literally same cause I want it. Always need good quality strapless bras for summer👍🏻

Patsy inviting Trixie and Delia gave the side eye omg 😂

Here comes Babs lmao

LOL DEELS IS SALTY OMG

ugh this is when Babs first got with Tom and they were annoying lmao, I got over it though

If I was Trixie I’d be lowkey mad too like that was her ex-fiancé but I’m glad they got over it and are friends despite that 💕 cause I know petty girls that would just cut the other off

WHY DO THEY PRONOUNCED SCHEDULE LIKE THAT? And honestly How?? Like I can’t even lol it’s hard. Oops is my American showing

Sister J out here

Ohh yea this matron is a bitch lmao, vete ya

What is the correlation between going to grammar school and getting pregnant ?? @ Ian’s mom

Lol Trixie’s just like pls don’t ask me

ugh get this nurse/matron or what ever tf she is off my screen before I smack her

I swear Jenny Agutter has such a relaxing voice, like she really can calm you down & tell you all will be well & you’ll just be like “yea you right”😭

Tom is so rational and sensible because if I walked in I’d immediately start screaming and all that like “calm tf down people" 

Pats and Deels sneaking around in a convent lol it gives me anxiety always thinking “oh shit u think someone will walk in?”

LOL OKAY TOM YOU TELL YOURSELF TRIXIE IS MAD ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE

Damn Tom you just made Babs feel like a rebound™

“Who’s to say we won’t carry on” ya will be fine & get married next year chill out

So Babs is only 23, how old are the other nurses *well how old do you think*??

WHEN WILL WE SEE A NONNATUN BIRTHDAY?? *I preferably want to see Trixie or Shelagh have one* but I’d take anyone really, like these people literally celebrate every other damn holiday/event but no one has had a birthday?? Except for Jenny and Chummy but they’re both gone lol

yikes emphysema, one of my grandfathers died from that. 70 odd years of tobacco smoking 😬 he did someone love to be 85 yrs old though. Idk how, he couldn’t breathe for so long

I love Phyllis just saying again for the millionth time

Aw Trix 💔 you will be happy soon💕😭

See! She said w/o Sister J she’d be screaming! Her presence is calming

Emergency c-section aye dios

Turn up at the pub

Lol funny how the dad gave Tom orange juice bc he’s a vicar but he was drunk af the night before his wedding 😂 drunk enough to have little memory and to be hungover the next day

we’ve all been there tho I don’t judge

Is it really CtM if there’s not at least one mention of babycham a series?

c-sections are wild omg

also I’ve never been under anesthesia so I’d be scared af

LOL & also I’ve never had a kid so that’s scary too duh

“Oh God another one” ahh omg

Do you think that was a doll ??

Again this show makes everything look real af so I never know

Is the doctor here the Mr Kenely that I hate??

They really left that baby there to die like o m g

Sister J praying/blessing the baby 💔💔 my freaking heart omg

again this nurse is on my screen and I need her to go, preferably to carajoland

“may the lord bless you and keep you”!! 💔😭

the third deformed baby and they didn’t report it??

“I’m not drunk” I mean you’re sitting on the floor in the bathroom so I’d think you were too 😂

Lol remember.. *cringes* no wait lets not

Tom worked in a record shop that’s cute

damn Tom do you really think telling them to just settle is the best way to comfort him

Aw sister J needs a hug😭😢💕

and yes prayer you’re right sister MJ

Sister MJ, Sister MC & Sister J comforting each other is so pure, all the they have scenes together wash my sins away for a second

wait where tf is sister Winifred lmao, did she just scadaddle after compline? snuck out to see a heathen movie i bet  jk jk I’m sure she only sneaks to quality films

but then I say dumb shit like that ^ or even worse/more inappropriate & the sins return😂😂

There’s my bby Shelagh! And in uniform, love it. 😭😍

Whenever Shelagh goes back to work next series I hope we see more of her being a nurse cause I love it

Wild that the hospital was just not saying anything about the deformed babies

Sister J coming to the best detective in Poplar, Dr Watson aka Shelagh Turner aka secret agent Shealgh Turnova™ 😂😂 *forever one of my fave lines of hers*

Lmao Tim helping out old ladies, being a good seed & too perfect of a teen

But damn boy comb your hair!

“I haven’t boiled any urine today, nice to have a change of pace” Lol Babs😂😂

oh no she’s bleeding 😢

I’m having flashbacks to Shelagh’s threatened miscarriage like lets not go down that painful memory lane  

Sister J told Ruby it was a girl bc she knew she wanted a girl ughhh 😢

Ruby thinks it was a punishment 💔 ugh my heart & ugh again makes me think of when Shelagh thought she was being punished/greedy when they told her she couldn’t have a baby 💔

Stop the sadness I say, stop it now

“We haven’t got a fairy godmother between us” WHERE IS PHYLLIS WHEN SHE IS NEEDED?

And Poor what’s her name 💔💔

oh yea it’s Linda omg how could I forget that’s my Gram’s name

But Shelagh and Trixie are interacting!!

It’s about a patient but at least they’re speaking right .. LMAO BUT WAIT ILL NEVER BE OVER HORMONAL SHELGH YELLING AT TRIXIE ABOUT THE FAMILY PLANING CLINIC ENTRANCE

ALSO: I’LL KEEP SAYING IT TILL I DIE, ALL I WANT IS A TRIXIE & SHELAGH FRIENDSHIP! 😭😭💕💖💖 they’re my bbys and I’ve been asking nicely

shit ¡¡ @beatrix-franklin wrote a damn essay as to why we need/want it !!

PLS LET IT HAPPEN @ HEIDI & OTHER WRITERS😭💔

Shelagh’s grey cardigan is actually cute *she just doesn’t need anymore lol*

“What the poor pet really needs is a good cry, a bottle of aspirin and a hug in no particular order..but the hug is of prime importance”  you see. We could’ve have a cute scene of Trixie visiting Shelagh in the hospital & a little parallel of when she visited her in the sanatorium

or Just give me Trixie hugging Shelagh and I’ll cry of joy 😭💕

omg wait

shit I forgot Ian put his head in the oven

Angela playing on the floor !! So precious 💖

“..Don’t think they’d thank you for that Patrick, they’re both younger than me”  Lol I always laugh at that, it’s kinda cute. I like when Shelagh has funny lines , why didn’t Patrick say anything back 😂 there could’ve been cute playful banter. Even this series we could’ve heard him call her an elderly primigravida is a joking/playful banter context ..BUT at least we know now Shelagh is 36!

Yea man those bombs impacted multiple generations

“So World War II is history now is it?” I seriously love these little lines of Shelagh’s lol. Also funny how she prob sees her self as old, and she was what, like my age, when the war needed?? 18 or 19 depending on her birthday (We’d know but nonnatuns apparently don’t ever have birthdays)

Shit. Wait..I feel. Kinda strange and scary to think my future children will learn in school the events I’ve lived through so far ??

okay lets not think about that

what’s the sluice? I know he washes instruments but what exactly is the sluice? The room ? Idk

Aw Angela crying, one of the the only times we’ve heard her make a sound lol

WAIT HE COULD BE SUED FOR BREAKING THE ENGAGEMENT WHAT??

“How long have we been broken off?” “A year. To be precise a year and ten days”  I know they weren’t really a good match but aw 😭 it was nice while it lasted

Trixie Bby 💔💔 happiness is coming your way I promise

“I never know when I love you the most. But I sometimes think these are the times I love you best..”😭😭 BYE IM DEAD AGAIN & MY HEART EXPLODED AGAIN😭💔💕💕

thinking about it though, they’ve never actually said I love you properly, have they??

See Patrick’s little med school anecdote, can Shelagh share one anytime soon? About anything from her past, I’m just curious.

Was that just a piece of “in the mirror” or is it playing in my head? Honestly it happens quite often, I’ll swear I hear a song and it’s actually in my head

alright Ian so why were you marrying her? you switching it up kid

I’m calling him kid like he’s not probably older than me lmao

Phyllis in her robe I love it

Trixie serving yet another look™😍

I’m so glad Trixie gave Babs her “blessing” & became good friends. So pure, we don’t need any more women being put against each other

“Fuzzy felt apostles” WHY AM I LAUGHING AT THAT? It’s not even funny?

Now the service for a nun we never knew, filled with extra nuns we will never know or care about.

I love that the nurses are at the service lol, like they probably don’t have to be but still there for fam

& Shelagh there wearin a mantilla, so sweet😭💕

“God hugs you” aw sister MC 😭❤️

You gotta admit even if you aren’t religious this show does make you feel some type of faith

“We knew so little then, in a world that seems so filled of opening doors and bright horizons. We thought only of what was new and better because it was new and better. And it would take us to places we had never been before.” VANESSA😭 she never fails with the narration, never.

Trixie helping Babs fix her bracelet bc there’s no hard feelings and she’s happy for them aw

“..We couldn’t see what was coming or understand yet what had already come to pass, yet so much still to learn”

Oh shit that foreshadow was heavy, especially because it ends with a shot of baby cottinghams body in the box.

I don’t think I picked up on that the first time ..                                     Anyway it’s 1:15am I should go to bed I have class in the morning 😭😂

The End.🙃

#my commentaries™ #call the midwife #who lets me do these lol #sorry it's long #oops #ya know I'm so extra™