if you ever do a rwby chibi comic or word doc with Grimm and Jersey (plus other ocs) what would you think be the main part of their running joke for each one?
Team Arthur Ideas
Grimm-eating anything; like a chair or in a eating contest winning with no prob
Jersey-either him accidentally burning something with fire breath or getting his antlers stuck.
Kairo-being a centaur he'd accidentally knock stuff over or being that he was the smartest of the team would be the precious nerd he is.
Sphynx-while hes blind im picturing that common trope where people try to mess with him but karma backfires them majorly.
And hes laughing cuz he is well aware but acts oblivious to it.
Or him pulling a toph making jokes about his handicap
Grimm and Kairo were rather close. Growing up Kairo got picked on alot by other young centaurs mostly males due to him preferring to read books rather than act as a brute.Grimm more often with her brother and Sphynx would chase his bullies away and supported his love for books. As they grew Kairo used his knowlegde from what he read to master martial arts and was Team Arthurs medic as well.
*cough* also he was in a relationship with Grimm *cough*
The Neverending Story, Chapter 2 - Atreyu's Mission
(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Neverending Story, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)
In which I go on a rant or two about anti-Indigenous bias, conscious or otherwise.
Because(1) of their special importance, deliberations concerning the welfare of all Fantastica were held in the great throne room of the palace, which was situated only a few floors below the Magnolia Pavilion.
499 of the best doctors in all Fantastica have all examined the Childlike Empress, and are discussing their findings. The 500th enters, after spending several hours with her.
A tangent is made to describe how the many doctors are varied in species, and not all of them are "conducive to good health."
A second tangent is taken to describe how the Childlike Empress doesn't precisely rule Fantastica, but her existence is so critical to Fantastica's existence somehow(2) that every creature owes their existence to her, so her health is of concern to all.
Off of that tangent, Bastian takes one to think about when his mother died in hospital. How, afterward, even though he had every thing he could have asked for, his relationship with his father was never able to heal.(3)
We return back all the way up the tangent chain to the doctors, discussing how the Childlike Empress (henceforth CLE when I remember I can do that) shows no traditional symptoms. The 500th doctor, Cairon the centaur,(4) stills them to silence by his very presence. He wears an amulet everyone recognizes: a light and a dark snake twisted together into an oval, biting each other's tails. The A U R Y N,(5) the symbol of the CLE.
Bastian notes that this must be the same symbol as is on the front of the book.
Cairon reassures them that he's only wearing the Auryn until he can locate the intended bearer. The CLE's illness requires a hero and a Great Quest,(6) and the CLE herself has entrusted to Cairon the locating and bestowing of such. He says the hero's name is Atreyu, and says where Atreyu lives, and tells them that's "all there is to know" and leaves. The doctors have no idea who this Atreyu might be.
Bastian hears the great clock strike 10. He's surprised at how fast the time is passing(7) compared to when he's in class.
The people of the Grassy Ocean behind the Silver Mountains are known as Grass People or Greenskins, for their olive green skin. They have blue-black hair, often worn in long pigtails by men and women. Several more paragraphs are spent describing their lifestyle, and how news of the CLE's illness and the horrors happening elsewhere haven't reached them yet.(8)
Cairon arrives, exhausted from his journey, and tells them he needs them to retrieve Atreyu from the hunt. The people are reluctant, but an old woman recognizes Cairon, and a young girl volunteers to go find him. When she's gone, Cairon faints.
When he wakes, Atreyu has come, and he's just a boy. He complains that Cairon has interrupted his manhood ceremonial hunt and he can't be a man now for another whole year, and demands to know why. Cairon asks if there's another Atreyu, someone older, but Atreyu says no, he's the only one. Cairon says the CLE's choices are "hard to fathom" and if he'd known this would be a child's journey he'd have refused to find him.(9)
Cairon says Atreyu must choose whether to accept this quest now, but it is a true choice, and he's sure the CLE will find someone else if he rejects it. Atreyu asks what the mission is, and Cairon says, to find a cure for the CLE. Atreyu is shocked that she's sick, so Cairon explains, and they talk well into the night.
Finally, Atreyu accepts the Great Quest, and Cairon transfers Auryn to Atreyu's neck.
'A U R Y N gives you great power,' he said solemnly, 'but you must not make use of it. For the Childlike Empress herself never makes use of her power. A U R Y N will protect you and guide you, but whatever comes your way you must never interfere, because from this moment on your own opinion ceases to count. For that same reason you must go unarmed. You must let what happens happen. Everything must be equal in your eyes, good and evil, beautiful and ugly, foolish and wise, just as it is in the eyes of the Childlike Empress.(10) You may only search and inquire, never judge. Always remember that, Atreyu!'
Atreyu says he will be worth of Auryn, and Cairon tells him to say goodbye to his parents and begin immediately. Atreyu has no parents, they died when he was small, and the whole village raised him, which is why he was named the word for "Son of All".
Bastian reflects on how he can relate. Even though his father is still alive, he's so distant that it feels as though Bastian has no one raising him at all. He's glad to have this much in common with Atreyu, because otherwise they have nothing similar except being on Great Quests.(11)
Atreyu asks where to begin, but Cairon says from this point, no one can advise him until the Great Quest ends.(12) Atreyu bids Cairon farewell, and goes to mount his horse, Artax, and explain the Great Quest as best he can, since Artax is a sapient horse.(13) Then, they ride off into the darkness.
In another part of Fantastica, unnoticed by anyone, the darkness condenses, takes physical form, four legs with eyes of green fire and a "huge shaggy head." It sniffs the air, finds the scent it's looking for, growls, and takes off after its prey.
Bastian pretends to be Atreyu on a gym horse(14) until he realizes he's being childish and someone could hear him. He almost starts eating his packed sandwich lunch, but decides to save his food, as he's not sure how long it will have to last.
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(1) The B illumination is someone, I think Atreyu, and the centaur.
(2) Since she's fallen ill at the same time that Fantastica is disappearing to nothing/Nothing, it only makes sense the two are related in such a fantastical world. (Subtlety is for cowards, give me the tell with the show.)
(3) At the risk of overexplaining, I think the implication here is that Bastian's mother was as essential to his and his father's ability to exist as the Childlike Empress is to Fantastica, and the loss of her changed them both. Though, I think the fact that Fantastica is disappearing into nothing, while Bastian still has a chance with his father, is the unspoken hope.
(4) You may recognize "Chiron" more readily. Centaur son of Cronus, and the greatest healer of all time (exaggeration), among other things.
(5) Yes, that's how it's stylized in my book. No, I will not type it like that again outside of direct quotes.
(6) Would it even be a children's fantasy book without a quest?
(7) The side effect of this sort of commentary deep read is that I have to take my time, which is how it's been 5 pages and with distractions and lethargy from the heat, I've been at this almost an hour. So, time is not going fast for me at all. In fact, in a great divine irony, I have so little in common with Bastian that I find it difficult to relate to or feel eager to keep reading his part of the story in anything but an academic sense.
(8) I knew this was going to deal poorly with some issues, it's inevitable in a book so old, but this is sure feeling pointedly like bad stereotyping of Indigenous people, especially after the smoke signals bit in the intro. Many Indigenous people have what humans have termed olive toned skin, but making them "olive green" feels more like trying to reverse the old and racist way of calling us "red", possibly (in the way authors still do) to try and dodge accusations of racism. I know some of that is just me being cynical, but unfortunately it's something I have to try and get out of my system here so I don't keep harping on it in my commentary for the rest of Atreyu's appearances in the book.
(9) There's something so paternalistic about this in context of (8). Oh no, we couldn't possibly rely on such a [slur here] child to save the world. (And again, I know that's probably not really how it's intended, nor how most people would read it, but I can't help but see what I see through my experiences.)
(10) I'm saying this as an adult with my own baggage on the subject, but this seems like a really junk form of government, just so we're all clear. (Not acting is allowing the status quo to continue, with all its injustices. I'm not a fan.) But, I can remember it feeling so idealistic as a child who didn't know better.
(11) What does Bastian think his Great Quest is? Running away from home to hide his thievery?
(12) Again, this feels like bad advice to suggest that children might want to follow ever.
(13) The word's not used in the text, but it's a pet peeve of mine when people call intelligent conversational creatures "sentient" because the way I learned it, that just means has senses. Most, perhaps all animals are sentient. Sapient is the word for thinking, like homo sapiens. (I am also fully aware that common usage is what defines a word, not a dictionary, which is meant to reflect common usage and not define it, and my argument is petty. That's also why "and I" is becoming acceptable grammar in all instances even when "me and" would be the grammatically correct sentence fragment if you removed the other person/people from the situation, which is how we used to be taught to tell the difference. Something something my hypothetical lawn.)
(14) At first I got confused, and had to flip back to the introduction. Indeed, he remarks on gymnasium equipment and then horse, separate from the stuffed animals, so it must be the gymnastics routine sort.
