a couple of RWBY short stories and jokes that I'm actually kinda proud of and really like mixed in with a lot of rambling, nonsense and poorly written RWBY short stories and jokes. Apparently a big Whiterose shipper.
I was originally going to post this on my other blog I actually still use (occasionally) but it feels like it belongs here. It's also turned out pretty long so TLDR I had a thought that ironically the overall high quality of the music in especially the early seasons of RWBY ended up hurting the series by helping to build a cast which was too large and too interesting to do justice to in the available screen time, leading to a consistent sense not that things were bad or wrong but underwhelming which slowly eroded my interest.
I recently watched a only vaguely related Youtube video talking about the use of music in tv/movies and it got me thinking again about the music in RWBY because it's a weird case where I think especially in the early seasons it was done really well but also is kind of a part of my problem with RWBY. Full disclosure I fell off RWBY around season 6 and haven't kept up with it since so some of this may be dated but probably my favorite thing about RWBY was the fight scenes put to songs specifically written for the show, that just let the music and choreography rock. It's a thing I'm strongly of the opinion isn't done enough in all audiovisual mediums, there's a reason it's called fight choreography your action movie is a musical whether you like it or not. Embrace that, choreograph the fights to some badass bangers, bring the music to the front and let the whole thing kickass. I don't really like the actual plot or any of the characters in Baby Driver, it's still one of my favorite action movies, they should all be written that way except most should actually write their own music. RWBY does this so well. The fight scenes were awesome and expertly timed to fit with the music which slaps and which was extremely relevant to characters and/or the plot. Which ironically I think was one of the shows biggest problems. There are actually too many too interesting characters and not enough screen time to do them all justice. I fell in love with the idea of Ruby as this complex outwardly very bubbly girl that holds a lot of trauma relating to her mother's death. There's an incredible paragon character built from this notion and the exchange she has with Blake about life not being a story book but isn't that why we're here to make it better. Add in the learning to be a leader stuff and the silver eyes and you've got a good 6+ season of extremely Ruby focused story easy. RWBY then adds Blake and the white fang, Weiss "daddy issues" Schnee, and Yang's trauma. Any one of which you could build an entire independent series around and that's just from the titular characters. There's a dozen other characters who, even if they don't have enough going on to justify being a lead in their own show, beg for substantial side arcs to really explore the character. The end result being that many of these characters and stories, at least IMO end up feeling underwhelming and underdeveloped. Not bad, in the sense of doing something that I actively disliked or didn't think worked but just not as good as I was hoping for, as I felt it easily could and even should have been. Music alone is of course not to blame for this but going back to the Ruby example, the show doesn't actually do that much with her relationship to her mom on screen. There's some certainly, but the emotion and distress expressed in Red like Roses part 2 is never really addressed on screen. I wouldn't say it's counteracted, the song always feels like it "fits" Ruby but it's just a bit of background. Background you could frankly take away from the character without really changing her and which feels like a bit of a lost opportunity since it is there. Ruby and Red like Roses I think is probably the strongest example of this but I think you see it to some greater or lesser extent with most of the character themes and several of the other themes which seem to suggest ideas which rarely if ever completely fail to manifest but do serve to hype up something which never has the time to fully develop resulting in a disappoint which wouldn't exist if the idea had simply never been raised. To be clear this isn't a "here's why RWBY is terrible actually" take but no piece of media is perfect, and I think this is one of RWBY's flaws and to be honest a big part of what lost my personal interest in the series
Ruby: I poured this milk to make chocolate milk but were all out.
Weiss: Just use the hot chocolate.
Ruby: You can’t make hot chocolate with cold milk that would be cold chocolate and that's just chocolate! Besides they use a different powder and taste different.
Weiss: True, but you could still make it you just need a name for it maybe iced chocolate, like tea. You can have hot and iced tea maybe you can have hot chocolate and iced chocolate.
Ruby: But iced hot chocolate is a thing and it’s called iced hot chocolate
Weiss: Well that’s just stupid.
Ruby: Maybe it is but it’s still what they call it! Besides iced chocolate sounds like it’s just chocolate with ice or maybe just really cold chocolate...
Weiss: and there's another problem often people just say tea they don’t specify if it’s hot or iced but you can’t do that with hot chocolate. No one’s ever going to think you were just eating some tea leaves but if you said you were having chocolate everyone would assume you meant you were eating it not drinking hot chocolate.
Ruby: Cocoa!
Weiss: What?
Ruby: It’s also called hot cocoa! and like tea nobody just eats raw cocoa, so you can have cocoa or hot cocoa or iced cocoa!
Yang: *hearing the commotion and coming to see what's going on* what are you two getting so excited about in here
Weiss: Oh me and Ruby were just deciding that it should be called hot cocoa and not hot chocolate and that anyone who calls it hot chocolate is obviously an idiot and a fool.
Ruby: *grinning from ear to ear and nodding emphatic agreement as Yang stares in utter bewilderment*
So I recently discovered this really cool and fun tool Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator and I’ve been playing with it and I made this “realistic” Remnant. I don’t know how realistic it really is but the generator takes into consideration things like mean temperature at the poles and equator, geography and prevailing winds to determine biomes and then fills in populations and cities based on those biomes and other factors like rivers and likely trade routes. I tried to build the geography based on the handful of full map shots I found on the Wiki and the temperatures and wind you have to set so I chose values that created Biomes at least similar to what has been seen in show but there was only so much I could. That's the first image. You can also manually set biomes but I was having fun playing with the auto-generation features. In any case I then started playing with the borders. The next image is my idea of where the traditional claimed borders of the Kingdoms are but I also have this AU in my head I haven’t really done anything with but kinda like where the grim start to decline in strength and the Kingdoms start to expand with large safe “civilized” zones that are completely free of grim and then “wild” frontiers which are still occupied by grim. In any case that's what the last six images are. Most of the “weird” things like the island that should probably belong to Vale but instead belongs to Atlas or Mistral’s sorta weird shape are to accommodate the auto-generated population densities I tried to give each kingdom a roughly equal physical size and population except Menagerie which is intentionally smaller. Like I said I was really mostly just playing with and learning the map generator but I do think it’s really cool and thought these were pretty neat.
So after seeing this I thought of this and then I decided to try and do something a little different to try and give a bit of a sense of position and movement with the text since I can’t draw to save my life but then I couldn’t figure out how to keep the formatting when I copied it to Tumblr so now its a picture and also probably not worth the effort but I already did it so here it is
Weiss had been surprised by a number of things today, the first was when Ruby asked if she could paint her. She simply would never have guessed the energetic younger girl would have an interest in a hobby like that. When she thought of painters, or artist in general, she imagined the somber, dignified museums and galleries in which their work was displayed or refined masters focusing intently for hours on end to create the perfect masterpiece. She was pretty sure she had never seen Ruby focus on anything for more then half an hour and anything further from her idea of a refined master then the dolt was hard to imagine. Which is why Weiss hadn’t been surprised when Ruby added only a moment later “I’m not very good but I still like doing it” the image of a painter in Weiss’ mind had shifted suddenly at the comment from a classical master to something more like a child covered in its own finger paint. That was probably an unfair description, despite her tendency to act like one Ruby wasn’t really a child and Weiss didn’t really think of her as one, or at least not most of the time. The imagine which had truly formed in her head had been quite vividly of Ruby herself slashing energetically at a canvas with a brush, paint splashing everywhere as she did. After a moment, the phantom Ruby had leaned back revealing a smock which at some point had been white, but which now was thoroughly besmirched with paint of all colors. As this false Ruby considered her work, she moved her brush absent mindedly to her chin and then blinked in surprise as she accidently left a bright green splotch on her face. Weiss had suddenly found herself trying very hard to suppress the smile her own mental image had created before shrugging and agreeing to let Ruby paint her
It had turned out Ruby looked nothing like Weiss had imagined. She had remained in her usual clothes and while her brush strokes were on occasion faster than Weiss would have imagined from one of those “refined masters” they lacked the grand, if she was honest comic, flair and fervency of her imagined Ruby. On top of all of which the entire process was quite tidy, without the mess of paint she had been certain would define Ruby’s style. That had been the second surprise, although after she thought about it she realized it shouldn’t have been. For one this was hardly the first time Ruby had proven herself to be more skilled then Weiss first imagined and for two, and probably more importantly, Weiss realized her mental image had been entirely unrealistic, with grossly exaggerated motions and truly absurd quantities of paint.
The third surprise she was just becoming aware of as she felt her neck getting stiff. She had imagined when all this started that it wouldn’t take up that much of her time. It wasn’t the first portrait she had sat for so she was familiar with the kind of time it could take for a professional artist but surely Ruby wouldn’t put that much detail into her painting, beside certainly the energetic dork would get bored and lose interest before then. Unfortunately, she had been wrong, and she had already been here for at least as long as the last portrait she sat for. In some ways she didn’t really mind, she didn’t have any other plans and Ruby had chosen a pleasant spot for her to sit and do the painting. Beside she had agreed to let Ruby paint her and she at least should have known what that meant but still…
“Ruby?” She decided to ask trying not to sound too impatient “are you done yet? My neck is cramping.”
Ruby’s response came as the next surprise “NO!” she had answered forcefully “Perfection takes time. don’t rush me!”
Weiss blinked taken aback by the anger, no, she realized slowly, not the anger but the frustration in Ruby’s voice. She hadn’t been paying much attention to what Ruby was actually doing but she did now, and she found the younger girl was doing a lot of glancing back and forth between her easel and Weiss with a scowl on her face and very little painting. “Ruby?” she asked again “I don’t mean to be rude, but it doesn’t look like you’re doing much painting. And” she added quickly as Ruby’s angry face appeared suddenly from behind the canvas “it doesn’t look like you’re having much fun, which I thought was kinda the point of this.”
“oh Ruby I’m sure it’s fine, besides like they say it’s the thought that counts. Just let me see.” Weiss said trying to sound as reassuring as possible.
It was Ruby’s turn to blink in surprise and her expression softened as she did “Fun?” she asked “I guess kinda but it was also… well I wanted to make something for you. You know something that was I don’t know fancy or whatever, but I think I messed it up and I don’t know how to fix it.” The disappointment in her voice was palpable and Weiss smiled warmly touched by the sentiment.
Ruby looked as though she were going to refuse for a moment but then her shoulders sagged, and she said “Ok” gesturing for Weiss to come stand beside her and look at the painting.
Weiss stood preparing herself to pretend like she liked whatever she saw, she didn’t want to hurt Ruby’s feeling especially since Ruby was trying to do something nice but she wasn’t sure how convincing she could be after all they didn’t call her the…
Her thoughts cut off suddenly as she stepped around the easel and caught sight of the painting. “Ruby it’s…” she paused sheer shock at the greatest surprise yet rendering her speechless. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting but it hadn’t been something so “incredible” she finished the thought out loud.
“Don’t tease!” Ruby huffed back “I was trying to be nice.”
“I’m not!” Weiss answered the words came out in a far more confrontational tone then she had really intended, and she forced herself to pause and continue in a far sweeter voice “Really, Ruby this is fantastic.”
“Yeah, right, sure I know sarcasm when I hear it.” Ruby continued grumpily
Weiss rolled her eyes and let her frustration show this time “Apparently you don’t, dolt. Why can’t you just take a compliment!”
“Because you don’t mean it!” Ruby screamed back but then fell back and continued quietly “how could you? I mean look at you and look at that.” Weiss didn’t know how to respond to that and silence hung between them for a moment before Ruby continued “I should have known better you’ve probably been painted by some famous professional potraiterist who made you look as pretty as you really are and me...” she simply plopped sadly down on the ground instead of finishing the sentence.
“Ruby” Weiss hummed sweetly as she crouched down next to her “You’re right you know, I have, or my father at least, had a professional paint my portrait before, I don’t know that he was all that famous but he was very well paid and I can say with full certainty and honesty that I like yours much better.” And she thought as she stood to look at the painting again I really do mean that, the professional’s might, and I mean might, be a little technically better but I hated that painting I looked so stiff and lifeless and in this..
“You look ridiculous!” Ruby protested jumping up next to her and pointing at her painting “Look at your smile, I made you look crazy.”
“You made me look happy, you dork!” Weiss retorted half laughing, and half frustrated
“but it doesn’t look like you” Ruby insisted refusing to give up
“You know if Yang were here, she’d probably say something like that’s just because I never look happy.” Weiss countered but Ruby didn’t look amused “Ruby, I like it! Wasn’t that the whole point. I mean look I’m smiling right now do I look crazy to you?”
Ruby tried hard to stay upset and grumpy but her folded arms loosened and a smile crept across her face “Well…” she started and Weiss was delighted to hear a playful note in her tone “Yang does have a point, you aren’t ever happy…”
“Ruby Rose” Weiss said trying to sound intimidating while stifling a laugh “Are you saying I do look crazy?”
“Maybe not crazy so much as unnatural and unnerving, and only when you smile.” Ruby teased back.
“Just you wait till next we spar, I’ll show you unnatural and unnerving!” Weiss retorted and they both laughed before turning as one to look again at the painting.
“You really like it?” Ruby asked one last time
“Do you really think I’m pretty?” Weiss asked in response
“what?!” Ruby stammered out in surprise “I said..? umm see what I meant was…”
Weiss just laughed back and interrupted
“I love it, Ruby”
This fic was inspired by this I’m not so sure this is actually anything at all like the sort of scene the artist was portraying but it’s where my mind went after seeing it
Weiss: see the thing you have to understand about Ruby is she is simultaneously the person who will say "gross" and make faces at something like Yang and Blake holding hands or generally being cute in public but she will also smile uncontrollably like the giant dork she is at every single little cute couple moment in every show she's ever watched.
Yang: which she only knows because everytime Ruby does it she stares at her and it makes her smiles like the dork she is.
Weiss writting letters home to Winter during her time in Beacon and doing a total 360 on the way she talks about Ruby like
In the first letter:
...which brings me to my so called leader, an excessively young woman, a mere girl really, who has proven to be entirely insufferable. She has shown some fleeting signs of characteristics of merit but those signs are overshadowed by an overabundance of those qualities which in myself I might call self-assurance and maintenance of aim but which in the young woman I can only refer to as obnoxious, not to mention wholly unwarranted, arrogance and pig-headed stubbornness. I will write again soon and while I'm not hopeful perhaps I will have better news.
Sincerely,
Your sister,
Weiss Schnee
In the last letter:
...Oh and of course I have to end by telling you about Ruby! She taught me this really fun game last week maybe I can show you sometime or maybe Ruby could come too and we could both show you! I just can't wait for you to meet her! she's strong and passionate and just a fantastic leader and friend and we spend all our time together. I hope you'll really like her too! she means so much to me.
So I did that thing again where a drawing gets stuck in my head and I just had to write a whole scene about it. This time it was this post. check it out and thanks to the artist for the inspiration.
Ruby rolled over and smiled as she saw Weiss sitting in front of a mirror combing at the ponytail she wore even now. A corner of Ruby’s mind marveled at how she had found herself here because the thing was, she didn’t really know. It had all happened so suddenly and so… wonderfully. The previous night was a blur of passion and joy. She and Weiss had spent the whole previous day together, and it had been full of so much fun, so much laughter and so much love that it had passed by in an instant, before Ruby really even knew it had happened. Then at some point they had returned here, to Schnee manor, and the next thing Ruby knew she was waking up in Weiss’ bed in nothing but her underwear, while she stared lovingly at the back of a head belonging to a woman who only a few short years ago had been the coldest, cruelest being she had ever met.
So I've always wondered and have been rereading some old things trying to remember how I did this fic writting thing and now I have to ask, is it as obvious in this fic as I feel like it is that I know nothing about make-up?
I found a song tonight and I had to make this. I wish I could draw anything better then stick figures but I can't so I borrowed these from post in my likes.
“You know” Yang said as she jumped back, resetting her stance and letting the grim before her fall dead “this sorta thing is exactly the reason I was so surprised Weiss didn’t insist on coming along to keep an eye on you.” She finished as her next foe charged at her
“Why?” Ruby asked glancing down at Yang from the tree she had perched herself in before returning her eye to the scope of Crescent Rose and picking away at their adversaries as she continued “It’s not like this is the first time you and I have come looking for baddies without her and she had other things to do today.”
“well sure.” Yang answered then paused to punch a Beowulf in the jaw “but that was before… well you know…”
“No” Ruby answered as she briefly stopped firing to reload “I really don’t know. What are you talking about?”
Yang somersaulted over the nearest grim, kicking it into a grim which had been behind her and dispatched both with a pair of shot gun blast which gave her enough space to put her hands on her hips and look up at Ruby “I thought you two were like a thing now? Weiss was planning to talk to you after she found out you liked her, I just sorta assumed…”
“Wait.” Ruby said dodging out of the way of a flying grim which had dived at her before swinging down beside Yang “Weiss knows I like her?”
“Uh yeah.” Yang answered as she shot a blast which knocked the grim which had attacked Ruby out of the sky “Remember that “anonymous” Valentine’s day card you left? She recognized your handwriting immediately.”
“Oh.” Ruby answered as she turned to face what was, hopefully, the last wave of grim coming after them.
“Are you really just learning about this” Yang answered as she swung at the first grim to reach them “I would have expected you to freak out a little more”
“Well” Ruby answered as she deflected a blow and riposted “We’re kinda in the middle of something.” She slew the beast attacking her giving her a second to breath and reply with a light smile “I like to have my mental breakdowns with as few distractions as possible, you know so I can really savor them.”
“Fair.” Yang answered before both turned their full concentration to the fight. It went on for a few moments longer, it had been the final group of grim in the area and it had been smaller and weaker than those which came before it. As the last grim fell and began dissipating the sisters fell immediately back into a defensive stance, standing back to back Yang with her fists up and Ruby brandishing Crescent Rose before her but as it became clear no more of the monsters would attack them Ruby sheathed her weapon and said “Guess that’s all”
“Looks like it.” Yang answered with a stretch “another job well do-ohn?...” the last word barely stumbled out as she turned to find Ruby practically hanging off her shirt and interrupting her with frantic questions
“Oh my god, Yang! How much does Weiss know? What did you tell her? what did she tell you? Did she seem happy when she found out? Has she said anything about me? Why has she talked to me if she said she was going to? what about….?” The questions continued coming an onslaught far more fearsome, or at least more rapid and never ending, then the grim they had just slain. After a brief moment of shock Yang shook her head with a smile and turned to head back toward town answering Ruby’s questions as best she could on the rare occasions when she could get a word in between Ruby’s panic.
So I play this fun little rpg called Wildermyth which is kinda weird in that it's sorta role-playing focused but in a weird way, characters have this fairly extensive list of personality traits and each trait has a value and you personally do fairly little roleplaying but a big part of the game is all the many different ways these characters interact and react based on their personalities. That's a less then ideal description but it gives the right idea for this story, anyway by default the game randomly rolls characters traits both physical and perosnalities but at least for your starting characters you can adjust them and in my last game I tried to make a Ruby and Weiss. The results were pretty hit and miss a couple of interactions were pretty in character and a couple very much were not but the point of all of this rambling is one line which I thought was almost perfectly Ruby.
One last little bit of context the party is trying to figure out what the bad guys are up to and one of the characters, Weiss, is pretty sure she's figured out they're trying to find a relic to help raise an army...
Weiss: think about it. if you were trying to raise an army, what's the first thing you'd do?
Ruby: hmm I'd... throw a magic feast! Like a big giant feast for everyone but instead of serving turkey I'd serve... magic-turkey?...like some kind of umm.... mind-control poultry?... Yeah! Mind control poultry!
Weiss: *seemingly ignoring her* you'd find a symbol to rally people behind. *goes into speech about the relic*
“There you are! What are you doing now you big dolt” A voice said just before the head that voice belonged to appeared hovering above Ruby. A white pony tail pointed down at her from the left side of that head and as Ruby rolled her own head back the rest of its owners body came into view. It appeared to be standing on the ceiling of the world and falling into the endless night sky from this angle and Ruby simply smiled up at it in spite of its chiding words, the hands resting tartly on it’s hips or the frown staring down at her.
“Hi-ya, Weiss” She answered brightly as if the other woman’s greeting had been as friendly as could be “I’m watching the stars”
The same frowning face stared down at a Ruby for a few seconds more before at last its owner sighed rolled her eyes and tossed her shoulders back in an exaggerated shrug.
“Of course you are” Weiss said with an exasperation which was even more dramatic then the shrug “why what else would you do on a frigid night like tonight except come lay out on the bare cold ground and stare pointlessly into the sky while you wait to catch a cold, or worse!”
“Exactly” Ruby chuckled back “well except the part about it being frigid and me catching a cold”
Even Weiss had to know she had been exaggerating pretty heavily to call this night frigid it was a bit on the cool side sure but only enough to add that crisp sense of… of… something! Ruby wasn’t quite sure what to call it but the coolness against her skin, not so much to be truly uncomfortable but enough to constantly remind her it was cool, added something surreal to the experience. Or maybe, she thought, it was the exact opposite maybe that something was not a surreal-ness but a reminder, as constant as the cool air against her skin, of just how real it all was, that she was really here in the midst of the cool outdoors staring up at real stars and not warm inside somewhere looking at a picture. It didn’t really matter, she decided, whatever that something was she knew she felt it and that’s all she really cared about. As her thoughts wandered, Ruby had looked away from Weiss and returned her gaze to the vast clear sky and she was surprised when Weiss reappeared not behind and above her but right next to her on the ground.
“Well If you insist on laying out here foolishly”she started sternly as she appeared and moved to lay next to Ruby “you can at least let me lay here with you, just to keep you warm and make sure you don’t freeze to death of course” she continued her voice softening suddenly as she moved to wrap one arm around Ruby and snuggle up against her.
“Of course” Ruby agreed looking away from the stars twinkling above her to smile into the eyes twinkling beside her. Weiss smiled back but neither said anything more and after a moment they returned their attention to the night sky.
They lay silently that way for a long time before at last Ruby spoke, softly and without turning her head or looking at Weiss “Do they tell the tale of the lovers in Atlas?” She asked “ it’s not exactly the most common fairytale even in Vale and I’m not sure if you would have heard it.”
“I’m not sure” Weiss answered honestly “there are a lot of stories about a lot of lovers you’ll have to be more specific”
“they say” Ruby started and her voice was soft almost dream like as she told the story without ever looking away from the stars “that there was once a noble woman more beautiful than any other and with her beauty came offers from every nobleman in the world promising wealth, power, happiness and everything in between in exchange for her hand in marriage. But for all they offered, for each man who had come to her to show what wonderful people they were, and many of them were good people, who really honestly wanted to earn her affection, she hadn’t found a single one she could love. Until one day a young common born guard happened to glance in her window at just the right moment. Their eyes met and they smiled at one another and instantly they fell for each other. The noble woman invited him in and they spoke briefly before he had to return to his duties. From then on they both found every excuse they could to be together and before long the endless potential each had felt in that first lucky glance turned into a love greater then either had ever imagined. The love was not to last however, the noble woman’s father saw what was happening between his only daughter and a mere foot soldier and became furious he locked her away in a tower until he could arrange a suitable match for her and he sent the guardsmen off to war.” Ruby trailed off, at first Weiss thought it was a dramatic pause but it lingered a little too long and Weiss began to wonder if that was the end of the story.
It seemed like a rather sudden and unhappy ending but… her thoughts were cut off suddenly as Ruby spoke again. Her voice had changed it was suddenly rushed and the younger girl had looked away from the stars for the first time since the story began, actually rolling over slightly to speak directly to Weiss
“ok I know the beginning is a little cliché but it gets better and…”
“Hush Ruby!” Weiss cut her off, her tone revealing none of the smile which crept across her face as she recognized the self conscious worry in Ruby’s voice. It was so like the dolt to start head long into a story and only realize halfway through that maybe Weiss wouldn’t like it. In fairness to Ruby there was no reasonable way for her to tell how much Weiss had been enjoying it. Weiss had never looked away from the sky above her and she doubted that even now staring right at her, Ruby, from her side profile view, recognized the smile plastered across Weiss’s face. There’d been even less evidence for Ruby to gauge Weiss’s reaction with when she’d still been staring up at the stars herself. None of which really mattered because she was enjoying the story. How could she not? The calm quiet night, the beautiful black, light speckled canvas unfolding before her, the cool not quite cold breeze which made her appreciate Ruby’s warmth against her side that much more, all of it helped build the perfect atmosphere. Perhaps Ruby’s story had been a little cliché and a little predictable but there was a reason such stories had become cliché and just now, with Ruby at her side, all Weiss wanted was to hear it’s simple tale of love, told with the passion, an unusually quiet and serene passion for Ruby but passion none less, with which she told it. “just keep telling the story” Weiss finished a moment later letting her soft voice reflect the longing she felt for Ruby to continue.
Ruby paused a moment longer, first to smile at Weiss then to look back up into night and let the peacefulness of the world around them reassert itself before she continued in that dream like tone “it didn’t take long, after only one short month word arrived confirming the woman’s worst fears her love had died in the fighting. Stuck in her tower and deprived of all hope she fell deep into despair. In her darkest moments she began to cry out and beg her guards to put an end to her misery. The gods saw this and were moved by the depth of her love, pitying her they gathered up everything she was and deposited her amongst the stars. Then they reached out again, found the soul of her lover and gave him a place in night sky as well. But even this would prove to only keep them apart, doomed to spend eternity staring across the horizon at one another.“
“Realizing this the woman broke down in tears once again and finally hope was found, the tears fell from her face and became a river of stars. A river which stretched out toward her love, perhaps in time it would reach him and she could cross it and at long last they could be together.”
A silence hung in the air as Ruby finished the story and Weiss found she was actually holding her breath afraid even simply exhaling might break the perfect stillness of the night. That silence couldn’t have lasted more then a few seconds but it felt much longer before Weiss released her breath whispering “It’s a beautiful story Ruby. I…”
“There look” Ruby interrupted pointing to a portion of the sky, her tone lacked the dream like, almost mystic, quality it had as she told the story but it was still much softer and more serene then was Ruby’s wont ”it took me a while to orient myself but see that’s the woman.. and there her lover and the river between them. It’s getting close isn’t it? I like to think it won’t be much longer now”
Weiss took a moment to examine the constellation Ruby had pointed out, and she smiled as she did because Ruby was right the “river” was close to reaching the “man” but even as she recognized that another thought itched at the corner of her mind. “That’s a pretty thought but..” she hesitated and frowned “well It’s sad really isn’t it because your right, Ruby, it is so close, they’re so close but they’ll still never be together, I mean the night sky never changes.” Weiss was a little shocked by how sad she sounded, how sad she actually was as she said that, she wanted those lovers to be together with a passion she would never have expected such a short simple tale to inspire.
“Maybe not to you and me” Ruby said and something in her tone told Weiss she’d thought about this before, “but to the stars? Who knows maybe our whole lives, hundreds of our lives are but a moment to them and really does it matter how long it takes as long as in the end, after everything, they get to be together.”
Weiss didn’t have an answer to that and that ever present silence reasserted itself as she tried to find one. “Maybe.” She whispered back after a moment. It was all she was able to come up with. Astronomy had never been a particularly important subject on Remnant and she didn’t know much about stars or their life spans, so she supposed it was possible Ruby’s theory was correct, at the very least Weiss certainly couldn’t disprove it but it was hard to imagine those little dots twinkling away in the sky unchanged and unmoving for centuries or more and yet able to grow and change, and if it were possible for that river of light to grow wasn’t it equally possible for it to go out? If the night sky did change after all, who said it could only get brighter maybe after all those years the river would spread only to find the lovers ripped apart once again as the light of one or the other dimmed and went out…
Weiss felt suddenly tiny and insignificant as she contemplated the eternity spreading out before her and strangely that tininess made her appreciate the night infinitely more. It was as if the recognition of her own smallness forced her to recognize those things which seemed small to her and she stopped to take it all in. The warmth radiating off of Ruby, the slight pressure of their bodies against one another, the rush of a cool gentle breeze against her skin and the indescribable peacefulness of the silent world around them, Weiss could have stayed in that moment forever and she closed her eyes and let herself melt into it. As she did she found she could suddenly feel individual blades of grass poking or brushing against her skin and the slow rhythmic pattern of Ruby’s breathing and then a stirring beside her. it was slight that stirring almost more imagined then felt and at any other time Weiss probably wouldn’t have noticed it but she felt it now and she opened her eyes slowly, gradually returning to the present and wasn’t surprised at all when Ruby spoke up a moment later.
“you wanna hear something even crazier?” She asked not quite laughing at herself
“What’s that?”
“The real reason I came out here was to see if the story was true.”
For a moment the comment didn’t sink in and Weiss lay smiling up at the stars and then she blinked and sat up suddenly. She looked down at Ruby with one eye brow raised in an expression which simultaneously questioned Ruby’s seriousness and her sanity and found that she couldn’t come up with a single word with which to reply to that.
Ruby snorted at Weiss’s reaction and a little at her own absurdity and continued “well ok I didn’t really think it was true but well I’ve been thinking it turns out a couple of the fairytales I heard as a kid, and always thought were nothing more then that, fairytales, are actually true or at least had some truth in them and so I wondered what other stories might have some truth in them. I always liked that story, although it wasn’t really one of my favorites growing up. I always preferred stories with action, heroics and monster slaying...” Ruby moved her hands in imitation of martial arts moves as she spoke and it made Weiss chuckle.
It was hardly the first time Weiss had seen that imitation and considering how good Ruby herself was at “action, heroics and monster slaying”, it always amused her how bad of an imitation it was. Weiss shook the thought aside and smiled down at the goofball she had fallen in love with.
“Somehow, dolt, it doesn’t come as a great surprise to me that you like adventure over romance.” She said and somehow didn’t quite roll her eyes as she said it.
Ruby smiled impishly back “well okay, yeah but it’s not that I don’t like romance. I mean in all the best adventure stories the hero always saves someone and they fall in love and live happily ever after its just romance stories are always so mushy and boring.”
“By which you actually mean you always wanted to save the damsel in distress and just have her fall hopelessly in love with you and not have to deal with all the drama that’s in a good romance story” Weiss challenged.
“Well that is what happened isn’t it?” Ruby teased back
“Ruby Rose” Weiss answered in a dangerous tone “I will spar with you right here and now if you really think I’m some princess who needs you to rescue me!”
“Don’t be ridiculous” Ruby laughed “you’re not a princess you’re a queen! Her majesty the Ice Queen, slayer of grim and freezer of adorable girlfriends! Long may she reign!”
Weiss scowled at her a moment longer but the Ice Queen melted before her “adorable girlfriend”, she always did after all, and smiled as she responded wryly “You’re lucky we both left our weapons inside, it’s not worth the effort to walk all the way back to the house just to try and beat some manners into you, not since it seems to have failed all the other times anyway.”
“Oh, is that so? I think you’ll regret those words, Ruby Rose.”
“I think you’ll have to make me, Weiss Schnee.”
They held each other’s gaze challengingly until suddenly Weiss shrugged and then jabbed Ruby ruthlessly in the side with a finger.
“Hey!” Ruby protested wagging her own finger under Weiss’s nose “that’s not what I meant! Besides it was no fair I wasn’t ready”
“Well are you ready for this?” Weiss asked and promptly leaned in and kissed Ruby
“N…no” Ruby blushed a moment later but then her tone shifted “so I guess you’ll have to do it again, now that I am ready.” She smirked
“Why? What fun would that be?” Weiss answered with a teasing air of superiority
“well I think it would be plenty of fun but mmph…” Ruby started mumbling grumpily before being interrupted with another kiss “you’re mean.” She finished after the kiss but she was smiling almost as brightly as she was blushing.
“And just you remember that” Weiss said and laid back down beside Ruby. As she did Ruby moved to wrap herself around her, snuggling her as tightly as she could, and lay her head on her shoulder before closing her eyes and treasuring the embrace but then her eyes popped back open. “hey! You went and got me all off topic” She said.
“And what topic were we on exactly?” Weiss answered without moving
“Why I came out here!” Ruby answered in an offended tone although she didn’t make any more effort to break off the embrace then Weiss did.
“Oh I thought we settled that, it’s cause you’re crazy and trying to catch a cold.”
“NO!” Ruby answered and this time she did go so far as to lift her head and stick her tongue out at Weiss although she laid it right back where it had come from before she continued “it was because of the story, the one you said you liked”
“It was a good story…” Weiss answered thoughtfully
“See” Ruby smiled “I think so too and I’d been thinking about it a lot recently and the more I thought about it and those fairy tales that turned out to be true the more I wanted to come look at the stars again. I hadn’t done it since I was a kid and I don’t know I thought maybe with everything we know now I’d see something different maybe I’d find out there was some truth to that story too, I didn’t really expect to but.. well I still wanted to come look at them again.”
Weiss thought about that for a moment a decided it probably wasn’t quite as crazy as it sounded on the surface, no crazier then a dozen other things Ruby did regularly at any rate but then another thought occurred to her “I suppose that makes as much sense as you ever make” she said “but why that story, I mean like you said it wasn’t really one of your favorites growing up and why did you feel like you needed to tell me that’s why you came out here?”
“Well that’s because of umm.. you.” Ruby answered and it was clear she was feeling embarrassed “I just I really love you, Weiss, and when I think about you and… and things I always think about that story.”
There was something odd about Ruby’s tone something Weiss couldn’t quite place and then it hit her like a ton of bricks
“Ruby?” She asked softly cautiously “are you afraid you’ll lose me? Like the lovers in the story lost each other?”
“Yes” the answer came back in a tiny quiet voice as Ruby sat up slightly so she could look Weiss in the eyes, her own on the brink of tears “aren’t you?”
“I…” Weiss began but hesitated, trying to swallow down a lump which had suddenly appeared in her throat, “of course I am.” She continued “How could I not be, I love you too and considering what we do for a living, it terrifies me sometimes.” She fell silent and, despite the single tear which had broken free and run down her cheek Ruby seemed to take comfort in knowing Weiss felt the same way she did. She managed a sad smile which said she would be ok but said nothing before laying her head back against Weiss’s shoulder.
They lay silent for a time taking comfort in each other’s presence until at last Weiss spoke up again “I think I understand now what you meant when you said you wanted to see if maybe there was some truth in the story, even if you didn’t really think there would be. It’s the same reason I so wanted to believe you were right about the stars and the river because maybe, maybe if the story does have some truth and if the two lovers really will be together again some day then maybe we don’t have to worry. Even if one us...” she stopped unable to actually say the word “even if something happens” she said instead “if we just love each other enough then we know one day we’ll be together again, and like you said isn’t that all that really matters.” She paused again and took a deep breath “but just because I want that to be true doesn’t mean it is and it scares me, Ruby, more then I know how to say. I’ve fought monster and creatures and seen things which should only exist in nightmares and not one of them scares me as much as the thought of losing you and I would so love to be able to say look see look at the stars, at the lovers, they were okay in the the end and we will be too, but I can’t and I hate that I don’t know what to do or say to quiet my fears and I hate even more that you feel the same way and I don’t know what to do or say to help quiet yours either.”
“Maybe not” Ruby said and there was something almost like humor in her voice “but I think I actually might.”
“I shouted at my dad once” she started “I regretted it later and still do in some ways but I know he never held it against me because I was young and hurt and angry and he knew all that too. It wasn’t so long after my mom died, I was still just a little kid really and my dad, he was incredible. After all he lost he kept soldiering on, taking care of me and Yang and most incredibly he kept loving us. He would laugh and joke and we could feel how much he still loved us. One night when I really missed my mom I started crying and he saw how hurt I was and tried to comfort me to tell me that it was going to be ok and that he loved me and I called him a liar I still remember the exact words I said “you don’t love me or if you do you never loved mommy” he didn’t even flinch, or maybe he did and I was just to young and upset to notice but it doesn’t matter because what he did in response was ask me “ why do you think that?” And he wasn’t mad or upset he simply asked it calmly and seriously and I screamed my tiny little furry back at him “because you couldn’t, you couldn’t have loved her and still love me! Its not possible!” I bawled and he just smiled, it was a sad little smile I can still see it now, and he said “Ruby it hurts to lose someone you love, I know, Ruby, I know, it hurts and I did love your mom just like I love you I promise you that Ruby. But there’s a price that comes with love, to truly love someone to wrap so much of your happiness and your being into them, you leave yourself vulnerable, vulnerable to them and what they might do to you, vulnerable to others who might use your love for them against you and vulnerable to losing them. I won’t lie to you Ruby it never gets less painful every time you lose someone you love it’s like losing a little part of you. So you have to decide is all the happiness, the wonder of loving them in the first place worth the pain of losing them, I think it is, if I could go back knowing what was going to happen I would still choose to love your mother. The time we had together was infinitely better the eventual pain of losing her and I will always love you and your sister no matter how vulnerable that might leave me but not everyone makes that decision some people decide it’s better not to love, better to be on there own and not have to face that pain. I don’t think you’ll be one of those people I think your braver then that, stronger then that but in the end I can’t decide for you it’s a decision you’ll have to make for yourself.” I didn’t really understand at the time but the words have always stuck with me and I came to realize he was right, love, it is worth it. All the pain it could ever cost can never compare to how wonderful it is to have people in your life you love. I know that Weiss and have believed it for a long time. So when I say I’m afraid of losing you Weiss, I am, when I come out and stare at the stars because I want some tiny reassurance that maybe just maybe I don’t have so much to be afraid of, it’s because I do so desperately want something anything to reassure me it will all be ok but it doesn’t really matter because even when I don’t get that reassurance, even when I’m so so scared of what might happen. I still love you and nothing could ever cost enough, hurt enough to make me stop loving you. but there is one thing you can do to help and I hope I can to it to help you too and that’s what your doing right now, be here with me, so that I can experience that wonder, that happiness, that love and remember exactly what is I’m getting in exchange for that risk, because when I do I can’t imagine what more I could ask for.”
Weiss stared at the love of her life in wonder. It wasn’t the first time she had been amazed by Ruby Rose and she doubted it would be the last but it took her by surprise every time and made her lover her even more. “You’re right” she said when she found her voice again “love will always be worth the risk. I think I knew that before just never had the words to express it but you’re absolutely right, Ruby, love does leave you vulnerable but it is worth every ounce of that vulnerability, and I can’t think of a single thing I would rather do then be here loving you.”
Hi all, I’m not dead I just haven’t been excited about anything RWBY related for a long while. I’m not totally sure what happened, it’s not like there was anything that happened in show to make me lose interest and I was really excited for volume 7 but then I got super busy just as it started releasing episodes and the farther behind I got the more I felt like I needed a big block of time I didn’t have to sit down and watch them all at one. Then the next thing I knew it was June and I’d bearly thought about RWBY in months. Anyway I noticed whiterose week came and went and I read somethings and have been getting back in the RWBY mood. I still haven’t watched any of volume 7 but I’m going to shortly and in the mean time I wrote a fic. It’s lightly inspired by a leliana romance event in dragon age origins but changed and expanded upon pretty extensively and I’m going to post it right after this
can someone draw Blake and Yang asleep on a futon or something, that looks like a flower, holding each others feet and Ruby and Weiss looking on just really confused because seriously why would they sleep like that because I'd find that really funny as a response to this
A Man Without A Plan @likeanemployee - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
