I write fanfiction for the internet! I like cartoons, anime, and video games a lot. Author of such majestic pieces as LSOR, The Anomaly Known As Life, and a bunch of other works that you can check out!
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I still can’t believe I’ve got this many people following my artwork! Welcome newer peeps and those that have been around since the beginning - I want to show my appreciation for the love and support I’ve gotten here with an art raffle!
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1st: full body, full render of up to 2 characters of your choice
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Deadline will be August 9th at midnight (MST). And I’ll announce the winners the next day. If the spots aren’t claimed within 48hr after the announcement, I’ll choose another person at random.
Thank you everybody for following me on this insane art journey. I can’t wait to give you more art! 💙
I get that RWBY x JL was a crossover (and a fun one at that!) so they couldn't just go whole hog on RWBY stuff, but I do feel like the fact that the girls were their 'Beacon selves but not quite' was kinda underutilized, would have been fascinating to see it played out more, the contrast between their old and current selves.
More specifically, I would have paid any amount of money to see a movie with V1 Weiss, except because of misplaced memories, it's Ruby that's on her weird gay pedestal instead of Pyrrha. Like, that would have been SO fucking funny. The 'leaders conflict over who's in charge' trope just could not have happened. Weiss would just start stabbing the insubordinates.
Clark: "Hey, Weiss, could you-"
Weiss, not looking up from her nails: "Look, I think it's really sweet what Ruby's doing for you, this Make-a-Wish 'Help some absolute fucking nobody feel important for an hour' thing, but let's not pretend like I'm playing along, okay? You're not the boss, never will be. Your cape is stupid, by the way."
Clark: "...explain to me how this world works?"
Weiss: "I literally have a million better things to do than get you losers caught up on basic science, so no."
Ruby, poking her head into the room: "Weiss, could you explain to the uhh... 'Justice League' how Dust works? I figure, you know, you're the expert."
Weiss, instantly at full attention: "Absolutely, Ruby <3! Thank you for the responsibility! Can I give you a shoulder massage while I do so? Carrying the weight of this whole operation single-handedly must be KILLER on your back!"
Ruby: "...I'm sorry, what."
*hard cut to all of them in a room, where Weiss is giving a full-ass presentation while a mortified Ruby sits next to her receiving a massage*
Yang, leaning over to Blake: "Is this... is this how
Weiss remembers Beacon?"
Blake: "...I think one of us might need to help her through some stuff when this is all settled."
I get that RWBY x JL was a crossover (and a fun one at that!) so they couldn't just go whole hog on RWBY stuff, but I do feel like the fact that the girls were their 'Beacon selves but not quite' was kinda underutilized, would have been fascinating to see it played out more, the contrast between their old and current selves.
More specifically, I would have paid any amount of money to see a movie with V1 Weiss, except because of misplaced memories, it's Ruby that's on her weird gay pedestal instead of Pyrrha. Like, that would have been SO fucking funny. The 'leaders conflict over who's in charge' trope just could not have happened. Weiss would just start stabbing the insubordinates.
Ren, Nora, and Oscar having to navigate the emotions of 'Holy shit, our leader is back and alive, which is so great, but now he has even more trauma so we need to be extra good to him.' with the fact that he's now planning their daily schedules down to the minute and they need it to stop.
As RWBY's doing the rounds of introductions to all the important people, since they're the face of this whole thing, Yang introduces Ruby as 'our homophobic leader' every time.
Finally, they meet the Belladonnas, and Ruby just WON'T stop with horrifying and embarrassing stories. At one point, Yang drags her into another room, begging her to cut it out, and Ruby shrugs her shoulders. "I dunno, Yang, seems like it'd be out of character for a homophobe like me to let this go smoothly."
While the sisters are having an increasingly loud brawl in the other room. Blake's having an actual heartfelt conversation with her parents. Her dad admits that Yang still has made a better first impression that Sun did. A chair flies through the wall. "Barely."
Bumbleby showing off to the rest of their friends, we get ecstatic Nora, so on and so on, and Illia cracks an innocent joke about how she's cool with it only if she gets to be Blake's maid of honor, and Weiss, slightly less innocently and much less jokingly says, 'Obviously I'M going to be Blake's maid of honor." Which begins a season-long running gag of them trying to out-friend each other. Usually Illia wins these bouts because as everyone discovers, the magic words to make Weiss go away are 'Ruby seems lonely today, don't you think?'
A complete reversal of White Rose's dynamic. Ruby's trying to do important leader stuff a lot of the time, so Weiss (still a bit nervous from V9 Ruby) is trying to be the nonsensical bubbly one to take her mind off things. "Ruby, paperwork is such a drag, right? How about we *checks her Scroll* go... skiing with friends?" "In Vacuo." "We've done stranger!"
The Schnees, still trying to wriggle their way out of dysfunction junction, start thinking of Ruby as some sort of guru. Winter's partially jealous that Ruby's getting all of Weiss' attention, and they all wish to learn her secrets to having healthy family dynamics. She gets invited to dinner with them a lot. It is rarely fun.
Eventually Qrow starts inviting himself too just to piss off Winter, but he unironically hits it off with Willow as they bond over being recovering alcoholics and trying to be better family people. Which leads Winter into going absolutely insane trying to ensure that Qrow isn't sleeping with her mom.
There's a side plot the entire season where RWBY is trying to convince a local crime lord with a dedicated and loyal crime family to ally with them instead of Tyrian, and she's more than happy to, being dead is bad for business after all, but for some inexplicable reason Ruby just pisses her off, and the two remain cagey the entire season. Eventually, after Bonding(TM), she admits she loves lacey and colorful things, but it's just a little too girly for Vacuo's underground, and Ruby, finally connecting the dots, weakly suggests, "What about a parasol? Nothing wrong with keeping the sun off you." and the crime lord does a total 180, happy to work with Ruby and her great ideas while Ruby has a crisis of faith.
Thinking about Team STRQ, about how Ozpin never knew Ruby had silver eyes.
About how Summer Rose, his frontline agent of choice, gambled her life on ending the conflict before her daughter could see it with doomed eyes.
About how Qrow, Ozpin's most unflinchingly loyal soldier, who saw the horrors Salem was brewing, never breathed a word of it to him.
About how Taiyang glared his brother-in-law down when Qrow went to tell her the truth about her eyes.
About how Raven stalked and betrayed their family in her own twisted love but never betrayed that secret.
About how Ozpin walked into a conference room one day and looked into silver eyes and four different pairs of eyes said back: 'Our love to her trumps our duty to you.'
About how this family of choice, defined by loss, all looked at each other, and said, 'Not our girl. We will not let this be her burden.' About how the result was all for nothing because it became hers anyway.
Thinking about Ruby Rose, a Huntress of Atlas, who chose love over duty without a second thought and saved two cities' worth of people for it. About how sometimes, the choice is far more impactful than the result.
Yang heard the sound of something shattering. She was staring up at a ceiling. She didn’t want to move, but she could hear whether she liked it or not.
“Weiss, cut it out!”
“GRAB ME AGAIN, JAUNE ARC!!! LET”S FIND OUT IF MURDER GETS US TO THAT FUCKING TREE!!!”
“Gods, I miss Beacon,” Yang mumbled.
Blake’s face immediately occupied her entire vision. “Oh thank goodness, Yang!”
“Could we have dated at Beacon, do you think?” Yang asked. “I wanna go back, but only if we still get to be gay for each other.”
The worry on Blake’s face softened ever so slightly. “We were gay for each other then, too.” Another shatter. Yang still didn’t feel like moving so she allowed Blake to ragdoll her into a sitting position. Now she was staring at the ground, where Ruby was. Oh gods, Ruby. She was in the ground. Ruby. Her little baby sister. Her sweet, precious-
“Hey, no, don’t shut down! Stay with me, Yang,” Blake’s voice echoed through her head. “I need you to stay with me.”
Yang didn’t want to stay with her. She wanted to curl up in a ball and do nothing. Like father, like daughter. That single thought propelled her to action. Another shatter. But gods, maybe she should have given Dad more credit. It took literally all of her strength just to see what kept breaking.
Weiss was in the process of actively hurling teacups across the room, tears streaming down her face while purple liquid poured out of her mouth. Jaune was trying and failing to restrain her.
“Weiss, maybe we should all calm down,” Blake said gently. Too gently. Weiss whirled on them, with a face- one that Yang had once bet twenty lien on being set in stone- twisted into a pure, manic hysteria. In her grief, Yang felt a twinge of pride for her sister for cracking that shell.
“Don’t talk to me like a fucking child, Blake! I don’t need to calm down, what I need is RUBY! But THESE STUPID FUCKING DRINKS WON’T TAKE ME TO HER!!!”
“Of course they won’t!” Jaune snapped. “It’s a place you know! Only that bastard cat can actually go there!”
“IF YOU SAY THAT ONE MORE FUCKING TIME I REALLY WILL-”
“Weiss,” Yang said quietly. Immediately the expression of hysteria mixed with one of worry. That’s right, Weiss was one of her closest friends too. And they were only so close because of- Oh, she could feel the hole in herself expanding. She could feel her face start breaking down. “I could really use a hug from somebody right now,” she confessed, trembling. Immediately, Blake and Weiss wrapped themselves around her. She lifted her arms to hug them back, the effort not as demanding as it had been seconds before. She could hear their sobs against her, and she felt hers start to break out too.
She was sad, she was so horribly sad. But that same grim pride was still there. She was proud of her sister. She was proud that her sister was someone so brilliant that everyone around her simply broke down in her absence. Like mother, like daughter.
They stared there for a while, sharing their grief and pain, releasing all the pain and suffering they could, almost like an unspoken promise, to never hold anything back again.
It was Weiss who pulled herself together first. She looked over to Jaune. “I’m sorry for threatening to murder you,” she said flatly.
“Don’t be, it’s the right idea,” he responded.
“What’s that supposed to mean, Jaune?” Blake asked.
He stared despondently into the teacup- the only one Weiss hadn’t chugged and broken.
“You can’t just go to the tree, you have to know that you have to go to the tree,” he said. “It only takes you when you either have to be remade, or know you have to be remade. That’s why the drink didn’t work, Weiss, you don’t think you have to be remade.”
They were all silent for a moment. “...And you do?” Blake asked.
Jaune was silent for several moments. Eventually, he sighed, and put his head in his hands. “I can’t go back like this,” he confessed. “Ren, Nora, Oscar, gods, I don’t know how long we’ve been down here to them but I don’t want to be… apart from them. I want to be someone who can still be there with them, until the bitter end. I can’t do that like this, been too long, can barely remember their faces. Picture the pleasers more than I do them. I need to be different. I just… didn’t want to lose anything. But… if it gets us to Ruby, that’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“So what’s the game plan?” Yang demanded, before anyone could say anything else. She wasn’t proud of it, but she was also perfectly willing to let Jaune take that risk.
He shrugged his shoulders. “I take a swig, and the rest of you hold on for dear life? It’s not great, but I’ve been out of the leader game for a while.”
“Well, it’s our best option,” Weiss said, eyes flitting between her and Blake. Yang could feel her desperation well. This wasn’t their best option at all, but it was their quickest one, and that’s what mattered to all three of them right now.
They dragged themselves to their feet, and walked over to Jaune. Each of them gripped a part of his armor.
“Don’t change too much about yourself, Jaune…” Weiss said carefully. “There’s more that’s better about you than you think.”
Jaune snorted, not taking his eyes off the liquid. “Man, a lifetime ago, I would’ve given anything to hear the Weiss Schnee say that about me. How the time flies.” He wrapped his fingers around the cup. “You guys ready?”
They looked at each other. Blake held out her free hand in between both of them. They all entwined their hands. No matter what happened, they were in it together. “Ready,” Yang said.
Jaune lifted his cup. “To better days,” he toasted, taking a long swig.
The ground opened up and swallowed them all whole. They were falling for but a moment, then the hole closed above them and everything went pitch black. There was a loud clanging sound and suddenly they were yanked to the side. Another clang, and Jaune just vanished. They were holding on to nothing.
“Interesting. No one has attempted this before,” a woman’s voice boomed from all around them. “I too must make some changes. Thank you for this enlightenment. As a show of thanks, I will take you to where you wish to go. But know this: This will not be possible again.”
Before any of them could grasp what was happening, there was another clanging, and sunlight erupted from the darkness. They were hurled into it, and just like that they were outside again. It was over. Yang glanced around. They were on a branch, at the canopy of the tree. They made it to the tree. But that goal suddenly seemed insignificant, because she saw rose petals landing on the ground. Ruby had just been here.
Yang whirled around, desperately looking for any sign of her, any splash of red, and her eyes landed on a flapping piece of a cloak, peeking out from behind a branch.
She wanted to call out, but her voice got caught in her throat. She couldn’t bear it if she called the name and got no response. Luckily, Blake noticed where she was looking and stepped forward for her. “Ruby?” she asked, dread coating the question.
“Don’t come any closer,” Ruby’s voice commanded them.
“Ruby, it’s us,” Blake continued. “We-”
“I know it’s you, that’s the problem, Blake! You being here means that was the real you back there! I did all of that right in front of you! In front of Yang! I can’t… I don’t wanna see anyone right now.”
Yang felt an overwhelming surge of relief despite it all. She was still Ruby. She could breathe again. Oh, she had not been breathing. Oh, she really hadn’t been breathing.
Weiss patted Yang’s back. “Well, glad to know you won’t kill yourself in front of us, just when we’re not looking,” she said, the sadness in her voice crushing all of Yang’s relief.
“It’s not like that, Weiss-”
“Well what is it like then, Ruby?!” Weiss demanded, voice cracking. “I would love to know! Because you ki- ditched us in this miserable hellhole, leaving us alone, so you’re a failure of a leader, and I never realized how bad you’d gotten so I’m a failure as your partner! So please, tell me how it isn’t like that! Because if we’re both just failures… then what the hell was it all for?”
There was a moment where all of them waited, all of them needing to hear Ruby’s true thoughts. And as Yang waited, she realized Weiss was right. Ruby was their leader. She called their shots. They could disagree, but Ruby was the one who spoke first, offered something to disagree with, if they did at all. She hadn’t realized, not fully, but Ruby really wasn’t her little sister anymore. She wouldn’t be waiting to hear her little sister dictate to her what her life’s work was for.
“...What’s your least favorite thing about me?” Ruby asked.
“What?”
“Your least favorite thing about me,” Ruby repeated. “I’m not going to say anything until you each tell me.”
What the hell was she doing? Weiss was mid-breakdown, she was like, five breakdowns in, and Blake was holding on out of sheer need for one of them to be sane, and all they needed was to just see her, hold her, to feel better, but she wanted to throw some fucking pity party instead? Yang’s vision turned red. Fine, Ruby wasn’t her little sister anymore, but she was still Ruby’s big sister. Time for some education.
“You can be such a fucking brat sometimes,” Yang growled. Blake and Weiss both whirled on her, shock and scorn across their faces, but Yang brushed them aside. Tough love time. “I’m serious Rubes. Like I know you, you are the most naturally kind person I’ve ever met. But kindness takes discipline too! And not to get all ‘Ice Queen’ on you, but you just don’t have that discipline! When the chips are down, you get fucking mean! Like I get it, ‘the unimaginable weight of all your sins’ or whatever, but you don’t need to be such a fucking dick about it!”
Dead silence. Blake and Weiss were glaring daggers at her. She was sure this would have gotten her into some mandatory ‘sensitivity training’ extracurricular back at Beacon, but whatever? Ruby wanted it? Ruby would get it.
“Ruby,” Blake began. “I don’t think she meant-”
And then Blake cut off because Ruby warped herself into a full hug with Yang. “And that’s why I have you,” Ruby said. “You’ve spent your whole life trying to be as nice and friendly as you can, because life didn’t allow you to be the absolute bitch you’ve always wanted to be. And I’m sorry. I know my stuff’s unimaginable to you, but I can’t imagine raising a kid at the tender age of six. Thanks for everything.”
She hated how easy she was for Ruby. One hug was all it took. “It was really hard,” she mumbled, tears streaming down her face. “You could fucking teleport. I had to convince Dad to buy that keypad cookie jar, remember?”
Ruby laughed, voice shaky with crying too. “Oh gods, I do. One day, you couldn’t remember the code and we were all having a really bad day, so you just smashed the thing open and Dad refused to buy a new one.”
Blake and Weiss both hesitantly stepped closer. And just like that, the hug was over. Ruby teleported behind the branch again. “Nope, sorry, need to hear something from all of you,” she said, both her voice was lighter now.
The three of them shared a glance. Weiss stepped forward. “You ‘re really hypocritical,” she declared. “You always preach this kindness and openness. ‘Oh we’re team RWBY, we’ll take on any problem’, ‘Oh, hey Weiss, best friends talk with each other, what’s on your mind?’ but you never talk to me about anything! I want us to be… I want us to be proper partners, but you keep putting up these airs, and pressing forward, and it all makes me feel like an idiot for not being able to be there and that’s not fair!”
And just like that Ruby was in Weiss’s arms. “And that’s why we’re best friends. Because you need everything to be clear and in the open like that, and for everything to make sense. And I know I’m not too helpful in that regard, I try to plow through regardless of how much sense everything makes, but I’ll try to meet you in the middle more often on that. BFFs?”
Wess was actively sobbing now. “Of course, you dolt.”
Ruby chuckled. “Haven’t heard that one in a while.”
“You haven’t earned it in a while.”
With a chuckle, Ruby once more vanished in a puff of petals, leaving them alone again.
“Alright, one more time, and then I’ll be ready to be team RWBY’s fearless leader again,” Ruby said.
Both Weiss and Yang stared at Blake. Yang was deeply curious as to what issue Blake had with her sister. Ruby was on the highest pedestal her girlfriend could muster, not that she was jealous about that or anything.
Blake stared at the ground, ears flat against her hair. “I- you… You chew really loudly,” she decided.
There was a brief pause as everyone considered what was just said. “Blake,” Weiss said slowly. “You’re uninvited to my roast.”
Yang exploded into a grin. “So fucking lame of you, babe. We’re all baring our souls out here.”
Blake turned to them, face bright red. “Shut up! You guys went before me, and she does chew really loudly! It hurts to hear sometimes!”
“Wow, can’t believe Blake’s telling me to go back into the tree just so I can chew quieter,” Ruby added, and Yang was thrilled to hear the joy in her voice. “Sickening, Blake. Sickening.”
“No, I’m- You guys are such jerks!” Blake countered, in a mix of tears and laughter.
Ruby zoomed in and hugged her as well. “And that’s why you’re second-in-command,” Ruby declared. “Whenever we get a little off-track, or I get caught up in something, you’re always there to pull everyone back in. You know what matters to you, and you always tackle everything with 100% genuinity.” She pulled back and for the first time they all got a genuine look at her face. She was sobbing, and had been for a while, but Yang’s heart swelled to see a light in her eyes that hadn’t been there for a long time. “Yang doesn’t deserve you, but I really am so glad you two figured it out anyways.”
Alright, that was enough self-restraint for one day. Yang grabbed Weiss and swung her into the two of them for a group hug. “See?! I told you guys, she’s such a brat!”
“Oh like we didn’t know it before,” Weiss mumbled, clinging on to all of them like they’d vanish.
“Guys! It’s not time for the group hug yet!” Ruby chided, smiling. “I still had like, half of my inspirational speech left! About how we all have problems, and we can be the answers to each others’ problems and-”
“It got across just fine,” Blake assured her.
“Seriously, Rubes, shut up,” Yang said. “You don’t need to be our mighty leader all the time. Right now, we just need Ruby.”
“Well good,” she responded, and Yang could feel her arms slither out and around them all. “Because Ruby really needed you guys too.”
They stayed there for a while, sharing their grief and relief, love and pain, releasing everything they felt because now they could, now they were back together again.
It was Ruby who spoke up first. “Alright, sorry guys, but your fearless leader’s back. First order of business: we’ve got a cat to kill.”
“But we don’t even know where they are,” Blake protested.
“Huh? Oh, they’ve been at the base of the tree this entire time.”
“What?!”
“Yeah, Little’s been keeping them busy.”
“Little the mouse,” Yang clarified, injecting her voice with as much doubt as possible.
“Well, not a ‘mouse’ anymore,” Ruby explained, making her way to the edge of the canopy, as they all followed behind her. “They wanted to shift their role from ‘my guide’ to ‘my guardian’, somebody who could protect me while I protected everything else. But their concept was a little… lackluster, so they figured they’d workshop against the most dangerous thing they knew, and well, it gave me time for our whole thing so, if it works, it works, I guess.”
“I’m also going to try and meet you in the middle by not commenting on how insane that is,” Weiss announced. Blake elbowed her, but Ruby merely laughed.
“True, but they convinced me to give the whole ‘relying entirely on another people’ thing one more shot, so I didn’t really have much of a… choice,” she finished, staring beneath them at something on the ground far below.
“Ruby?” Blake asked.
Ruby turned back to them. “So uh, ‘Little’ is an ironic name, now.”
Yang glanced down and saw an absolutely hulking tan wolf ripping Jabberwalkers to shreds as all of their attacks just bounced off its hide. Ruby had successfully acquired a nigh indestructible beast as a pet.
Ok, ok, hear me out:
Ruby and Little show up at the tree together. It's the stupid fucking blacksmith again. Ruby's so sick of all of this and starts insisting that the tree makes her into a perfect, unstoppable hero, someone who could just fucking 1v1 Salem. But Little objects.
"But Ruby, if you don't need a guide, what am I supposed to do?"
And Ruby starts arguing again: she's marked for death, everything she does is too dangerous, she refuses to drag anyone down with her, so Little being useless is objectively a good thing. Then a glint of metal catches her eye, the sheen of that axe on the rack, and she realizes it: this was the same choice her mother made. This desire to be the only one who suffers, this was the futile martyrdom that ruined her family once, that instilled in her a burning rage that she had spent years trying to forget, to make go away, and here she was, trying to make the exact same call.
She breaks down completely. Obviously, she wants to be back with her friends. Obviously she wants to keep being the leader. She loves her friends so much, of course she wants to be their guiding light. It's just... too heavy sometimes. Too hard sometimes.
So Little stares at her, crying, and they start thinking: Something has to change here, and it shouldn't be Ruby, no, she knows her role, it's just hard. She and the others weren't Afterans, ascension would be more harmful than good for all of them. No, Little needed to lighten her burden, not change it out. They needed to become something more, something bigger. Something that no evil cat would dare step near. Something that would keep Ruby safe while she kept the world safe. They think they know what they desire. They go to the blacksmith, and the blacksmith nods their head and starts forging fangs.
This is the story of a girl with a lot of problems, yes. But it could also be the story of Little Red Riding Hood finally meeting the Big Bad Wolf. Only that story's also wrong, because she isn't all that Little anymore, but that's alright, because the Wolf isn't Bad either.
There were two feelings roaring through Yang's head, and while putting words to her feelings had never been easy for her, if she had to do it now, the words for the first feeling would probably be: 'Holy shit, this rules SO hard'. Her secondary feeling was more forlorn: 'But it could rule even harder'..
She was sitting next to a fire holding hands with Blake (Holding hands! She could literally just hold Blake now! Whenever she wanted!) and despite the fact that this was the best thing that ever happened to her, she couldn't help but be distracted. Every time she looked at Blake (she could just STARE at Blake whenever she wanted! Girlfriend pass! Girlfriends. Surely this couldn't be legal.) her eyes drifted over to Ruby, who was looking at Crescent Rose's box like it might eat her. This wasn't right. Her sister wasn't supposed to be like this. She wanted Ruby to be doing... something. Babbling about how she was so excited for her, giving her a knowing smirk or wink, something. She was a full grown woman, she knew that she didn't need her sister's love and support at all times, but she still really wanted it, and it was weird that-
"Worried, huh?" Blake asked.
Yang immediately snapped her eyes back to Blake. "Hah! Worried about this... being a dream, maybe! Cuz you're so dreamy!" Nailed it. Again.
Blake's eyes softened. "Yang."
"Alright, fine! It's just... I want to be so happy about you and me, and- y'know- us, but it's just, Ruby is so-"
"And you can't help but feel bad that you can't help but feel bad, even when you're happy," Blake finished.
Yang nodded her head eagerly. Gods, she was so perfect. "Never feel bad about caring for your sister, even now. In fact, the fact that she's always on your mind is-" Blake pantomimed taking a step. "One of the things I love about you."
Yang beamed. "I didn't think pantomime would be a thing in our relationship, but it OBJECTively WORKs for me."
Blake giggled (she did that! She made her laugh!) "That was atrocious. Clearly you need a breather, go talk with your sister."
Yang nodded again and got up. She wanted to be happy and she wanted her sister to be happy, and she would make it happen, so that she could dive right into being completely happy about Blake, which would rule SO insanely hard.
"Ruby, let's go outside. We need to talk about our periods," Yang announced.
That got more than a few looks, but most importantly, it got Ruby to smile a little. "It's not like Dad's here, Yang. You could just say you want to talk in private."
"Yeah, but Jaune's got the depression beard and air of general sadness, so he's basically Dad."
"Missed you too, Yang," Jaune remarked.
"Oh, it was said with love, Vomit Man," Yang replied, lifting Ruby up by her arm. "Now c'mon, sister time."
As Yang left for outside with Ruby, the half of her that was still honed in on Blake (her girlfriend!) heard her and Weiss chatting.
"Obviously I'm happy for the two of you. Finally, an end to all the gag-worthy mooning and pining."
"Wow, flirting makes you gag, Weiss? Maybe you should be like Jaune, be a bit more mature about this sort-"
"I will fucking END you, Belladonna."
Yang snorted to herself while Ruby just looked at her confused. Oof, she really was in her own head.
They turned the corner and sat down on Jaune's firewood pile. Ruby just sort of stared at her while Yang mulled over what she was going to say. She only just now realized she didn't actually know what to say. This wasn't a problem her little sister was having, it was a problem a world-saving Huntress was having. How do you even handle something on that scope? After thinking on it for a solid minute, (while at the same time being unnerved that Ruby was letting the silence span a whole minute) Yang thought she had her angle.
"So..." Ruby ventured finally. "You and Blake, huh?"
"Ruby, you don't need to try and talk to me about Blake. I know you don't want to right now."
"What? No, of course I'm happy for you-"
"You're not. Not right now, at least. And that's fine," Yang insisted, cupping her sister's face in her hands. "Do you know why it's fine?"
Ruby stared at her in silence. Yang could practically feel her desperation for some sisterly advice. Well, too bad.
"It's fine because Ruby, I am over the fucking moon right now."
"I- what?"
"I am stoked. Thrilled. De-fucking-lighted. Our world's on fire and maybe we're trapped in this one, but it doesn't matter because I made out with Remnant's Hottest today."
"Well that's... great," Ruby said, wriggling her face out of Yang's hold, clearly annoyed.
"Yes. It is great. Because you did it. Sister of the year. Ultimate wingwoman. Literally wouldn't have happened without you."
"I mean, I think Blake would've eventually made a move, probably?" Ruby offered.
Yang both loved and hated that Ruby knew she wouldn't have been the first to break the ice. "Probably," she agreed. "But she didn't have to, because your leadership led us to a place that made us get together. I'm serious, Rubes, the punderstorm gave us mood lighting. It was insane."
Ruby immediately curled up on herself. "Well, that makes one person my leadership has helped..." she grumbled
"Well, I hope two," Yang reasoned. "It would be a bummer if Blake just wished this didn't happen."
"OK but I'm sure the entire city of Atlas would-"
"And I'm not talking about Atlas," Yang interrupted. "I'm talking about me. Look, Ruby, I'm not... no, I'm always going to be your big sister, but that's... I can't always be your big sister anymore, you get me?"
"Not at all."
Yang scratched her head. "Right, yeah, didn't make sense to me either. It's like... you've outgrown me, I guess? You're the leader, you're the shotcaller, I can't offer you advice on the shit you have to do, because the things you have to do are just so... wildly beyond me. Like, I know you want some wisdom on how to save the world, but I can't offer that, because I'm too busy getting laid… Please don’t tell Blake I said that."
Ruby smirked, and for a brief second, Yang had her little sister back. "No promises."
Yang jostled her, trying to eke out a giggle. "Oh, c'mon, I literally JUST got her! Be merciful, oh great leader! You're holding years of silent effort in your hands."
And just like that, the idea of even imaginary responsibility shut Ruby down again. Shit, alright, she had to double down.
"Hey, Ruby, look at me," Yang intoned. "I can't speak for Atlas, I can't speak for the world, but I can speak for me. The person you are, the decisions you've made, my life is objectively better off for them. I am happy. I know you've got the weight of the world on your shoulders, and I can't shoulder it for you, but I can tell you that you don't have to carry mine. I'm good, you did it."
Ruby leaned back, pressing her head against Jaune's wall and took a long, deep breath. "That's a relief to hear," Ruby muttered, before turning to look at Yang with a smile. "You were just so fat, it was exhausting."
Yang immediately put Ruby in a headlock and started noogieing her. "I take it all back," she said, thrilled to hear a pearl of laughter from Ruby. "You're a little gremlin of a sister and I hope something comes around and eats you."
After a moment, Ruby started swatting her leg, so Yang let her go.
"But yeah, I just wanted to say, mission accomplished, Rubes. You made my life kick ass. So not to worry.Just focus on yourself right now.”
“I am focusing on myself,” Ruby grumbled. “The problem is ‘myself’ is a miserable failure, and I can’t justify being happy when I’m… that.”
“Hmm… have you tried making out with Weiss? Macking with my partner did wonders for me.”
“Yang!”
“Right, sorry, look, I get what you’re saying. The world is so crazy right now, it feels hard to be happy. But if there’s one thing I’ve come to accept,” Yang said, staring down at her right arm. “It’s that nobody deserves anything. I don’t deserve to be happy, you don’t deserve to be unhappy. We get what we get. And if we like it, great! If not…” She shifted her arm, examining the paint job. “We keep getting stuff until we like what we have.”
“And what if there’s no more good stuff to get?”
“There’s always going to be good stuff, Rubes. I genuinely don’t think Weiss would even say no-”
“Not that.”
“But a little bit that. We’re all still alive, are you saying that Team WBY isn’t a good thing?”
Ruby wrinkled her nose. “Weird way to say it, but I mean… yes, you guys are good.”
“And you have us, always and forever!”
“Until the apocalypse comes, any day now.”
“Sure, but you’ll be dead too then, so who cares?”
Ruby stared up into the starless sky and sighed. “This is a terrible pep talk.”
Yang joined her in her looking. What had been a creepy black expanse just the day before didn’t even bother her now. “I don’t think it’s too bad, all things considered.”
“Hm, yeah, all things considered, guess not.”
Yang reached over and ruffled Ruby’s hair. Her hand couldn’t feel her hair like it used to, but the gesture carried the love she wanted it to all the same. They sat together in a bit more silence. Yang glanced over at her sister, eyes in the sky and far beyond it, trying to piece together how to carry the whole world or die trying. She really wasn’t little baby Rubes anymore.
“Alright, that’s enough considering for me,” Yang declared, getting up. “And I’m going to go inside and start getting some happiness. Care to join me?”
“I… want to be alone for a little bit,” Ruby said. But then she broke her gaze from the sky and looked at Yang. “But I’ll try and join you as soon as I can, big sis. Love you.”
It's all about the PARALLELS, babey. It's about how both Luz and Phillip came into the Boiling Isles with heavy pre-conceived notions about what was there, and their role in all of it.
It's about how the Boiling Isles, as a world, as a culture, said to both of them, "No, that's NOT what we're like, and if you want to be here you need to learn that. You are NOT the Chosen One, you are not any more or less special than anyone else here, and you will die if you don't learn that."
It's about how Luz spent the entire first season struggling to learn that she was not the Protagonist(TM) that she so desperately wanted to be, and constantly lapsing into her wrong judgments, but she still tried. And she eventually did learn! She gained all forms of love, and learned the strength and responsibility needed both to rely on others and be relied upon. And she became more than a human, a witch as well.
It's about how Phillip refused to cast aside his prejudice, refused to listen to anyone who wasn't himself. He was a Big, Important Witch Hunter(TM), who was only using these people as tools, he didn't NEED them, he was just USING them for his plan and also his life and also his authority. And even as he lost more and more, he refused to learn anything. And he eventually became less than human, because that was all he had left.
It's about how, in their fight, Phillip is forced to acknowledge that a kid hundreds of years his junior is merely decades behind him in magical prowess. Not because either of them was destined to be good or bad at anything, but because one of them was willing to learn and grow, and one of them wasn't.
A story about the kids trying to pick themselves up after everything that's happened.
Massive spoiler for the S2 finale under the cut.
Here's the link for this oneshot on AO3
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Luz stared at the empty, abandoned room, devoid of life, devoid of warmth, and most importantly, devoid of her only way to get back to the Boiling Isles. She was back in Connecticut, her whole goal, and she would trade anything if it meant that she hadn’t come back. She continued staring, refusing to blink. If she did, the tears would start squeezing out. And if they started, they would not stop. And she needed to focus. What should she do?
Should she wait here? Stand right here, in this doorway, opening and closing it until it worked? That seemed like her only plan. King could’ve found Eda and Hooty and the rest, and they could’ve figured something out. Plus, King was basically a young god, right? It would make a whole lot of sense if the answer here was that she just needed to have faith.
She looked back to her friends, attempting to muster up some form of encouraging expression, but her face didn’t seem capable of moving. Huh, weird. She looked at them, standing in real Earth rain. She had dreamed of this moment so many times, of them finally being able to enjoy these sensations, of finally being able to enjoy her world. Gus broke down crying. Right. If there was one thing she had learned this year, it’s that nothing went as expected. There was never a right answer, never anny pay-off on her wild daydreams, there was just reality. The reality of a cold, abandoned house that would never again be anything else. Still, it was the only thing she could think of that COULD get them back. She couldn’t just LEAVE, could she?
“Hu… Luz,” Hunter started. “I think, I think Gus-” He cast a worried glance at the young witch. That’s right, they’d become buddies. “Could probably use some… food?” He stared at her, clearly also unsure of what any of them needed at this point in time. Luz glanced back at the house. At the very least, she was sure there was nothing they needed in there.
“You’re right, Hunter, you’re right.” She gathered herself and turned to face her friends fully. Her tired, beaten, and destroyed friends. Titan, could she have done anything different? They just watched their entire lives be ripped apart, had she done that to them? If she had never gone to the Boiling Isles in the first place, would they look like this right now?
No, no, she would not fall down that rabbit hole right now. They needed her right now, and she desperately needed them.
“You’re right, Hunter,” Luz repeated, finding that saying it the third time gave her the push she needed to take one step down the stairs. But what if they just now got it- She heard another choked sob from Gus. No, that’s right. She couldn’t bet her friends’ welfare on stupid gambles. She’d already done that enough today.
She quickly strode down the steps and in the direction of her house. Her house. Holy moley, she was back in Connecticut, she was going to see- No, bad Luz. No happiness right now, just business. “Follow me, guys, I’ll take us to my house.”
“Luz,” Amity asked. “What about your mom? Do you think…” She trailed off, clearly having no desire to finish talking.
‘Do you think she’s going to accept us after everything?’ That was a worry wasn’t it? Mom didn’t have the best opinion on the Boiling Isles, especially after she botched their last conversation. Man, she really never did anything right, did she? Luz pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and gave her friends a smile. At least, she hoped she was smiling. “Don’t worry, my mom's not gonna leave a bunch of kids starving in the rain, no matter how pointy their ears are! Us Nocedas are known for our kindness, especially when no one actually benefits from it!” Ohh that was not the thing to say, Amity was giving her a very concerned look. Brush past it, Luz, brush past it! “Come on, we need to get warm. Earth rain can chill you to death.”
“It’s true,” Gus croaked from his position on the ground. Hunter walked over and helped him up, and they all started walking. Luz made her best efforts to not look back at the house. She couldn’t. She had to keep moving forward.
Amity stared at Luz’s back. She knew Luz had her… moments, moments where she just drew into herself, where she became almost terrified of other people, of them resenting her. She hadn’t realized it at first, that they were similar in that regard, but she knew it now. And she knew that Luz was having one of those moments. If she tried to walk next to her, talk to her, or hold on to her, Luz would shut down further. She needed to wait, let the worst pass, and then help her feel better. But Titan could she wait? Because she desperately needed Luz next to her, talking to her, holding onto her. She felt like she was suffocating with worries. Was Dad alright, what about Ed and Em, they had been keeping an eye on Mom, had something happened to them? Would Mrs. Noceda hate her?
She didn’t belong here, she couldn’t do anything, hadn’t done anything, she was just useless, she’d be just another mouth to feed. She’d prepared so much, too. Arguments, heroic speeches, she had half a dozen drafts of letters sitting in her desk drawer, all trying to convince Mrs. Noceda to let Luz keep her life on the Boiling Isles, and they were all useless now. “Hey, Mrs. Noceda, the Boiling Isles are fine, and I can make your daughter happy! Not right now, of course, because we both just had to watch some freaky child and demented monster of a ruler rip apart everything we’ve ever known and loved, but it will get better maybe. Also, can you feed and shelter me for the foreseeable future?” Mrs. Noceda would grab Luz and slam the door on the rest of them and Amity wouldn’t blame her.
She sucked in a breath. Oh, she very much needed Luz to tell her how wrong she was, that her mom would love her, how smart and responsible she was compared to Luz, and she would never hold anything that happened in the Boiling Isles against her because they were just kids, the fact that the adults mostly refused to help was the problem, not them. But Luz wasn’t going to say those things. Luz wasn’t going to promise her that her dad was fine, wasn’t going to hold her close so that she could stop shivering, Luz was going to do nothing because she was dealing with her own issues right now. Amity took a deep breath. And that was fine. Because, eventually, Luz would do those things. They would go on a date, in the warm sun, and Luz would hold her hand the entire time, and they would talk the whole day away and they would feel okay again. So if Luz needed a moment to herself right now, Amity would give it to her, because that’s what girlfriends did. She gathered herself, and straightened her back. She was Amity Blight, she could hold herself together for a while longer if that was what the situation demanded. Even if she couldn’t actually do that, she had to. She stared at Luz. They both did. Whether they were capable or not, they had to power through.
Willow stared at the sidewalk. There were plants, small little weeds growing there. She sent out a pulse of magic, reaching out to them, trying to get a feel for Earth plants. They responded, albeit feebly. That’s right, this was Earth. Plant life here wasn’t inherently magical, it just… was. Great, so she was even more pathetic here than she was back home. She thought… she thought she had really made a difference in herself. She thought she’d become strong and fearless. She was the friend and protector of one of the Isles’ most wanted criminals, the captain of her own flier derby team, and a regular giver of emotional support and advice. Her friend was now just silently trudging through the rain, one half of her team was behind her silently weeping, and the other half was… somewhere, forced to play the twisted games of whatever that… thing had been. And she couldn’t muster up any support for anyone. At the end of the day, she was still the same she’d always been, useless. She thought she could be bigger and better but she was still just half-a-witch Willow. She stared down at the little weeds, plants that had no reason to be there, offered nothing to anyone, they just existed. She was just a weed. Even so, weeds still grew.
Gus stared at the houses. Human houses. They were walking by human houses, each of which contained humans living their human lives and going about their bizarre human rituals. This was the chance of a lifetime, a miracle of research that he had dreamed of ever since he met Luz, so why was it that all he could think about was Dad? He was so scared. He didn’t know if any of his other friends were alright, his home and family, everything in the human realm just seemed irrelevant. He just wanted to be home. But he wasn’t. He could recreate home, create illusions of school, his room, all of it, but that’s all it would be. Illusions. He couldn’t actually do anything real, could he? He had talked down to King, acted like he was one of the heroes, created that illusion for himself, but all he had done was make Belos mad. If he hadn’t been playing pretend, if he just minded King while his actually impressive friends did their jobs, maybe King wouldn’t have called upon… whatever that kid had been. But he didn’t. Because he needed his illusions. He needed to pretend like he was important and helpful, because why bother otherwise? No, he was starting to lose himself again. He started taking breaths. He was real. His friends were real, and they thought he was important. He knew that because Hunter was still supporting him. He could feel Hunter’s hand on his shoulder. He wasn’t cool, or heroic, or useful, but he was real, and that had to suffice for now.
Hunter stared at… nothing. He was sure, objectively, his eyes were looking at something, but he didn’t care to tell what. He just needed to walk forward, that’s all. He was good at that, ignoring everything that wasn’t exactly what he needed to think about. And there was so much to ignore right now. Don’t think about how his… uncle? No. Creator? No. Don’t think about how Belos, the all-powerful, all-knowing ruler of both the Isles and his life had been swatted like a flea by the Collector. Just help Gus. Don’t think about how both Flapjack and Belos knew the name ‘Caleb’, or how he was based off someone from Belos’ past and there was an easy conclusion to make there. Just walk forward. Flapjack wasn’t talking to him right now anyway. Maybe because he knew. They both knew, now. They both knew that Flapjack only liked him because he looked like his old master. Try as he might, nothing about Hunter was his. His friends were Luz’s, his palisman and his body were Caleb’s, he was nothing without what other people gave him, and-
He tripped on uneven ground. He managed to catch himself but he felt Gus buckle as well. “Sorry, sorry, Gus,” he blurted, helping his friend up, terrified of looking at him. Because if he did, maybe he’d see that Gus knew, that Gus had somehow figured it out, that one of his only friends realized he was faker than even his worst illusion. “Don’t worry, it’s fine,” he heard Gus say. “They call these places ‘concrete jungles’, so it makes sense that you’d lose your footing from time- *hic* to time.”
That’s right, Gus was crying. Gus was miserable right now, because he had just lost everything he’d ever had. Gus, his buddy, they guy that taught him about secret handshakes which were cool and amazing, who taught him how to breathe when things were at their worst. He took a long breath, and for the first time, looked ahead of him. Luz, Captain, and Blight were all walking ahead of him. Luz and Captain clearly weren’t doing great, and Blight seemed to be trying to hold her posture, but her shaking shoulders were a dead giveaway. And Gus, Gus wasn’t sobbing as much, but he was still clearly upset. They were all absolutely miserable. Something inside Hunter twisted at that. He felt Flapjack readjust in his hair as he started walking normally again. Maybe he was just a fake, whose entire life was ripped from the coattails of others, but his friends were his now. Not Luz’s, not Caleb’s, his. And he would do anything to keep them. First things first, they all needed a clear mission objective. That always helped him.
“Hey, Luz,” he called out. “How long until we get there?”
“Two minutes, I think,” she called back.
He nodded. Maybe that was pointless, maybe it didn’t change anything. His friends probably didn’t like mission objectives as much as he did, and he was still just some freakish visage of much better, much realer people, but he was still walking forward. They were all still walking forward.
And for now, he figured that was probably good enough for all of them.
Update: after I reblogged this someone messaged me offering me tickets to the sold out Hausu screening with a Q&A and autograph session with the director
Okay, but the sheer QUALITY of Cinder’s lying though. Like, not so much what she said (in fact, she was banking on Salem thinking the good guys took the lamp, not Neo, which was a gamble from her perspective.) but how she presented it. “I failed”, “Neo killed Ruby”, “I’m sorry, Master”, all FAILURE, all regret, In Salem’s eyes, the Cinder she left would NEVER lie in a way that didn’t get her more glory, so this obviously has to be the truth.
Turning Salem’s greatest strength, her ability to understand how people tick, and using that against her, so fucking amazing. Cinder’s back, baby.
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