The Fire Within Wasn't Hotter Than The Oven Around

[natsu-tigre]

The Curious Case of the Cracked Clock

You know, what sticks out to me when it comes to questions of like "Hey, when did The Girl Who Fell From The Sky happen?", and "How long ago were Alyx and Lewis in the Ever After?", is how their answers have next to nothing to do with each other.

The Ever After is on a timeloop, because there's a tree with a clock on it anyone could just pluck the fruit from to rewind time, and we have no idea how many times this has happened, how long it should've gone before Jaune cracked the clock, the timescale before this latest loop is unknowable.

And how long it's been in the Ever After since Alyx's story…

What interests me is that Jaune looks the exact same age in the flashback from when Alyx and Lewis arrive as he does now, right down to the white streaks in his hair-

-Which are missing from his ever so slightly less than guaranteed to be completely factual 2D flashback on what happened in the fairy tale.

There's no other suggestion of time passing in the Ever After, the Red King is the Red Prince because of Ascension rather than anything related to age, the Herbalist getting rundown from overwork could have been the case by the time Alyx and Lewis showed up, nothing tells you time has had a tangible effect on anyone but Jaune.

Except.

Weiss: He's adorable!

Blake: And a lot older than I remember from the book...

Jinxy being older than the fairy tale depicts, which would be weird to assume is another lie of the story, since what would anyone gain from it being one?

So, Jaune got as old as he is before Alyx and Lewis arrived, and Jinxy got as old as he is after Alyx and Lewis arrived, and they're the only characters who signify time has happened at all in the Ever After. What's the connection?

…Hey, isn't it a funny coincidence that the clock fruit Jaune broke-

-is in the same jungle Jinxy scavenges for shit to sell off?

Almost as funny a coincidence as the Curious Cat's little quips towards Jaune, like:

"Jauuuune! Oho my, it has been an indeterminate amount of time hasn't it?”

"A lot of good that's gotten you after, oh, how many years?"

"I think ol' Jaune's maybe a few sandberries short of a picnic these days, wouldn't you say?"

What's especially provocative about the last bit is how the rest of the maze's reflections never actually show the person in their view, only still images of their regrets and loses (Jaune's were Penny and his old self, Weiss's was Atlas).

But only Jaune's transforms, to reveal the person he was before the Rusted Knight, as his perception of the world is questioned.

The only thing remotely similar to this...

...Is Ruby becoming Summer without noticing, which certainly rhymes, in the sense of her and Jaune trying to paper over their identity issues by trapping themselves in roles they don't know how not to fail, like they always have.

So, what does this all amount to?

I think Jaune spent a couple of years to a matter of months in the Ever After, and aged on this beach almost as fast as the scene transition took because he literally broke time, and Jaune has not a fucking clue because he sat on a beach alone, depressed, waiting for something that would take forever to happen because of his mistakes, and straight up got rusted and wrinkled while he wasn't paying attention.

Jinxy got a hold of the busted clock fruit (because grabbing one fresh off the tree would've restarted the timeline all over again) and it made them a senior citizen some point afterwards, and the Cat has spent the majority of their relationship putting up with Jaune's time blindness, either unable to, or unwilling to bother with correcting his delusions (exposition is terribly boring after all).

TL;DR: Sorry gamers, Jaune is embroiled in agefaking discourse, Weiss will have to find another Dilf to be cringe thrist over.

[theseerasures]

Pyrrha is a hole that JNR refuses to replace, but that means they’re still left open.

They fight together by covering the gaps when a teammate gets taken out: Nora comes in after Ren comes in after Oscar comes in after Jaune. It’s a constant assault and switching of styles that actually mirrors how Pyrrha fought, and it’s so drastically different from how they fought back in Beacon, attacking in concert with one another and covering the backs of a teammate.

Fortunately for them in this case, they DID have someone to watch their backs: Winter. But I think they will ultimately have to reconcile that gaining a new teammate does not mean replacing Pyrrha. Which I believe means Team JNR’s arc as a team will involve officially accepting Oscar (or Emerald or Penny, they’re spoiled for choice honestly) and changing their team name to reflect that choice.

that’s a FASCINATING read, and i really like the idea that to make up for Pyrrha’s absence they've all taken up a part of Pyrrha’s combat style that when combined forms some kind of JNPR Megazord.

but i actually wonder if--instead of your theory that they’re always in this state where they anticipate a teammate getting taken out--it’s the opposite? here i’m thinking about Ren hooking Ironwood right as he’s about to press his offensive on Oscar, and how when the camera pulls back we see Jaune and Oscar just kind of...waiting in the wings. or even with Neo, when Jaune came in at just the right moment with his shield to protect Oscar. it’s possible they’ve chosen to compensate by ramping “covering each other’s backs” to eleven, so that only one person is ever pressing the offensive while everyone else takes up the rearguard, to make sure that they never even approach anything like what happened to Pyrrha again.

that would make Winter not the aberration, but a mostly consistent addition to their playbook (not that i’m suggesting that Winter is going to be a teammate going forward, because that’d be...actually that would be hilarious and i’m all for it): she buffs Nora and Oscar, but also lets them do their own thing...up until the point Oscar’s about to get hurt, when she rushes in.

re: your second point about “officially” accepting a new teammate into their ranks: i know that’s the most popular and common read, but tbh i don’t really...get it? why do they have to choose among Oscar, Penny, and Emerald? Ozpin implemented the four-member team to make sure that no one is ever alone, and no one is ever forced to be someone else’s sole support system, but i don’t think the number four needs to remain like, this sanctified rule (very little in RWBY tends to stay sanctified anyway). JNR itself is proof that deviating from that number can still leave a good team, and i’ve always felt that the AceOps being a cautionary tale comes not from the number of people on their team, but the enforced hierarchy (Clover/Winter outranking everyone else) and denial of genuine emotional rapport.

my personal preference is actually that JNPR retains this sense of indeterminacy, where there’s never quite a point in which they declare themselves whole, or completely healed. that to me extends Pyrrha’s sacrifice to beyond recovering from a loss, and into making something entirely new: a new world with new rules. where you can overturn equivalent exchange by adding a bit of yourself. where one person can’t protect everyone, but they can protect everyone they love, and everyone they love will in turn do the same, and on and on it goes.

[natsu-tigre]

JNR will never stop being JN_R Who Were Once JNPR, but they’ll also never stop being RNJR, never stop being JNOR, never stop being RNBWPower, JOYRide, RJY, JOYRidE-with-the-E-Captialized, whatever horrid acronym you could plug Winter into-

-Jaune Nora and Ren joining Ruby’s roadtrip to Haven changed so much you know? RWBY’s awkwardness when Sun and Neptune offered support, “We don’t want to get friends involved if we don’t have to,” planning to ditch their first mission to head to Vale’s South-East until Ozpin bent the rules to give them teacher assistance, how they were all scattered during the Fall…

Ruby was such a lone wolf at Beacon, always a red bullet on the quick draw if it meant saving the day, even if it meant leaving behind everyone who couldn’t keep up, all the way up Beacon Tower where that just, wasn’t enough. And that could’ve put her on a much different path if JNR hadn’t followed after her team split.

Petal Burst certainly wouldn’t have developed its extra carry on ability during the timeskip if she didn’t have companions to keep close in that time, and that change in Semblance is more than reflected in her never going off solo since (particularly emphasized by Oscar being the one in need of a childproof leash nowadays, and more depressingly how terrified Ruby was of letting their differing goals at the beginning of the volume divide them).

(Just, the marked difference between her awkward lugging with Penny in V2 and full aesthetic integration with Nora in V4)

JNPR is the reason Team Remnant can’t be Team RRAYNBOW anymore, they got too many letters and colors from the sheer Momfriend Energy they exude.

[natsu-tigre]

So. Anyone remember this?

*Gestures to the Blue and the gold looped chains as their crowns and belts*

Yeah this uh, this continues to be a trend.

*Gestures even more furiously at the leftmost child’s prominent bang and the specific pattern gold accents frame their torsos*

So. Two options. Either Oz imparted something of his kids on each of the Relics when he first activated them. Or the God of Light needs to turn on his motherfucking location in the motherfucking Afterlife.

[emedemabri]

[just-bx]

Just SCience

[brightchimeradragon]

IT TOOK ME TWO TIMES TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WAS GOING ON, HOLY FUCKING SHIT MY SIDES.

[prguitarman]

How Nyan Cat was born (and escaped )

[noodledog]

Owlbears are a lie to hide the existence of lycanthropy in scaled species, thanks for coming to my shitpost.

[noodledog]

This has been one of my most popular posts so I decided to celebrate it with one of my own Lycan Dragonborn in a doodle that got far out of hand. Give your lycans feathers!!!

[pwbi]

Hear me out:

Lycanthropes that go from furred / feathered to scaly

[mechecolomar-archive]

Ōkami (2006)

[jokerfan99]

Suns Out Guns Out by safetyofficerbarto

Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/safetyofficerbarto

[sailorbrazil]

not to be corny but some of you are so artistic and intelligent and it makes me so happy to see the world thru ur eyes like…. isk how to say it i guess im proud of knowing u people. feels like a privilege

[kaen-ace-of-diamonds]

How do you think Ozpin died at Beacon?

(just going to go ahead and count that as a writing prompt)

He is intimately familiar with the feeling of fighting a losing battle.

In his prime, he would have reduced this girl to a bloody smear on the floor in a matter of minutes, and then charged out to spend the rest of his surging energy smiting every last Grimm that dared threaten his students. 

But Ozpin is millennia past his prime, and his power has long since been torn into shreds to give away to others, and what remained left to weaken with age and incompletion. So here he is, stuck beneath the earth, feeling his strength beginning to fail him far too quickly.

On the other hand, the girl – Cinder Fall, of Mistral, of Haven, how did she get past Leo?! – seems to be just getting started. Sweat runs down her forehead, and the sound of her heavy breathing comes in time with his own, but she shows no signs of tiring like he is. Her eyes are alight with malice and bloodlust, like a hunting predator, and she bares her teeth like one, too. Sensing weakness and the end, her lips spread into a hungry grin.

“All your fame, all your power, all your pretense, and this is the best you can do. I don’t like to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I was expecting bigger and better from the man who drives my master to distraction. You really are just a sham, aren’t you?”

Ozpin can’t quite stand straight anymore, leaning hard on his cane, but he can still glare icy fury at her. 

“Do you know?” His voice rattles from his mouth, while blood trickles from its corners. “Do you know what she plans to do to you? To the world?”

To that, Cinder just laughs. Fire envelops her hands again, and runs across the vault floor towards him in four serpentine surges, hot enough to melt trails into the metal. The shimmer in her eyes as she dives into the air and races with it to finish him off is one he recognizes. The girl is high on her own newly complete power, allowing herself to be moved by the magic coursing so fiercely through her veins. Thought is not something she needs right now, only this raw strength. 

Ozpin does not allow himself to be bowled over, of course he doesn’t. He shifts his cane to a defensive stance, tries to bring forth another rippling shield. But it’s broken almost the second he casts it, and his hands are seared as Cinder’s body slams into his again. They grapple like lions for another few moments, trying to get at each other’s heads, throats, eyes, but only managing to clash cane against sword again and again…until one ferocious, molten swing sends his cane flying from his hands. 

It lands with a sharp clatter over thirty feet away from them, and, heart jumping, he reflexively jerks towards it, reaching out – 

Cinder body-checks him, with one flare at her feet to propel her lunge forward and another to arc forward and burn him from chest to face. He’s blinded for a second, and he hears himself cry out in pain before the back of his head cracks against the floor and cuts his voice off. 

Once again, it’s over for him before he’s actually killed. He hears a thin rush through the air a split second before he’s impaled in every limb, through his kneecaps and elbows, by spikes of superheated black glass. His flesh and blood sizzle, and a scream is ripped from his throat. Before he can try to move again, there’s a click of glass on metal, and then the breath is forced from him with a hard stomp to the chest. His glasses were knocked askew when he hit the floor, so he looks up to see Cinder leering down at him in a dizzying blur. 

“She told me that you would be afraid.” He can’t tell whether the girl sounds more satisfied or fascinated. “If I did it like this.”

His body is different but his soul still remembers: lying sprawled on the ruined earth covered in dirt, ash, and his own blood; home and family in ruins around him; his ribs cracked under Salem’s heel. Even in the haze of pain he’d been in then – also not so different from the one he was in now – some part of him had been startled to see no pain or hurt at all in his partner’s eyes. Only loathing, contempt, and rage. 

We finally had freedom.

Even if this girl hadn’t been flinging fire around for their entire battle, he would have known exactly how she plans to finish him. 

Cinder can see the shadow of fear pass over his face, and she laughs at it. “I never thought very highly of you, but I didn’t know you were a coward. Could I convince you to tell me where the Relic is, in exchange for a painless death? I doubt you’ve had very many of those.”

He narrows his eyes in disgust. “Do you have any idea why Salem is collecting them? What their true purpose is?”

“The same purpose as mine, Ozpin. We are going to burn this worthless world to ashes,” she says, eyes blazing bright as the sun. 

A bitter laugh bubbles up from his throat. Foolish girl, he wants to snarl at her, foolish, egotistical girl, there’s no we when it comes to Salem, she’ll use you up and throw you away, there’s no new world waiting for you even if you survive…

But he knows it would be a waste of last breaths. For as long as Salem has brought her forces to bear against him, he’s never been able to decide which was worse: the ones that were clearly misled about her true intentions, or the ones that are perfectly aware and perfectly happy to follow her to oblivion with the rest of the world, their own lives worth far less to them than vengeance and destruction.

“Find the Relic yourself,” he spits. “If you can. And when you return aboveground empty-handed…I only hope I’ve taught my children enough to kill you.”

Cinder laughs once more. “I’d say they’ll all be with you soon, but…well. You get to keep going no matter how many of them die for you, don’t you?” 

A final shot of fire is building up in her hand. A piece of his own inborn magic – a piece of his daughter’s soul – stolen by this monster and twisted into a murder weapon. Just one of endless things he will never forgive Salem for. 

“Do us all a favor and just stay dead this time, won’t you? Everyone would be better off.”

Oh, how he would if he could. 

Spent and shattered, Ozpin has nothing more to say to this girl. He knows when his time is up. He tries to close his eyes and simply wait for the end to come; Cinder has a more important job to do and she’ll want to make this quick if not painless. But it does him no good. The few moments it takes for the massive stream of fire to engulf and incinerate his body feel like an eternity, and his dying screams are lost in the roar of the flames.

[juenavei]

suliformes best birds this means this is best pokemon, can’t prove me wrong, not taking criticisms, do not pass go do not collect 200$ don’t @ me

[ranranruru]

[lyoo-lyoo-deactivated20210625]

Karna vs Arjuna

[edarow]

アーチャー

[blackqueerblog]

I do not know this baby but I love this baby.

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

This is it. The singular most uplifting video I’ve ever seen in my entire life. When Sam said there’s good in the world worth fighting for he meant this.

[thuskindlyshescatters]

I needed to doodle to unwind last night and the 11 year old inside me just LUNGED out at the opportunity so.

RWBY ponies.

Sue me.

[natsu-tigre]

#some part of me is :( about it ending #cause it was an important part of my life

[latenightagain]

and now for something very silly to finish for today, please have some daft creatures assembled from dismantled anorith parts for fun, and a quick draw of the awful nightmare that resulted (edited to add a few more frankenstein anoriths) (edit + more reassembled mons)

(This just got flagged as adult content,  which one  was too sexy for you, tumblr bots?) last one added, spent forever on it, definitely not worth it 

[natsu-tigre]

emotionally this is too much to bear (taurusversant)

[hurricanesunny]

trickster’s best friend