#ruby's grimm life

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I could be working on my WIP or be making memes about it.

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My RWBY Stuff

What do you know? I've written enough of these to catalog.

Short Stories (mine)

Effort, Gods and Monsters

Under the Same Moon (AO3 link)

Nine Days of Lancaster 2026 (AO3 link)

Day 1: Teaching Ruby How to Flirt / "This isn't what it looks like"

Day 2: Sharing A Blanket / Snowed In

Day 3: Double Date / "Lancaster From Other's POV"

Day 4: Patching Up Injuries / "I need you"

Day 5: Knights and Nobility AU / Dance

Day 6: Soulmate AU / "I love you"

Day 7: Accidental Confession / Marriage Pact

Day 8: Epilogue Elopement / Beach Vacation

Day 9: Lancaster Punderstorm / Dealer's Choice

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Short Stories (from asks; asks open)

Weiss Meets Summer

Rosetta Arc

Weapons and Hunters (AU), Lancaster Weapons, Greek Fire Weapons

Yang does something drastic, Yin and Jeanne

Evil Nora and Ren

Bleue Glace

Unbound Roses (AO3 link)

The Whole Team is Evil Now

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Ruby’s Grimm Life (ongoing, asks open)

There's something different about Ruby Rose. Something old, hungry, even primal. Something... Grimm.

The Premise, The Cast, The difference from canon, Ruby's relationships, Pyrrha as a Faunus

Blood Moon (non canon comedy): Part I, Part II, Part III

Alternate AUs: Everyone's a Grimm with these ones.

Weiss' Grimm Life

Yang's Grimm Life

Nora's Grimm Life

Blake's Grimm Life

Grimm Yang and Nora Share a Moment

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Absolute RWBY (ongoing, asks open)

In a Remnant where being a Hunter is akin to a curse, we get the characters stripped of their iconic elements but not of their identity. Inspired by Absolute DC.

Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V

Absolute RWBY Apocrypha: short stories based on asks from other people.

Jaune and Pyrrha

The Knight and the Cat

The Shaman Knight

Red Like Cinders

The Orphan of the Sea (continuation of The Knight and the Cat)

Guardian Grimm (shares setting with Red Like Cinders)

The Hunters' Guild (continuation of Guardian Grimm)

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The Ballad of the Huntress-Knight (asks open): From so little sleeping and so much reading, Jeanne Arc convinced herself she's to be a knight. A Huntress Knight, if you may.

Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V

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Wolf Faunus Weiss AU (finished): The OG one, where Weiss wakes up one morning with wolf ears.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 0

Omakes

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RWBY: Their Kingdom Come (on hiatus): The sad post-future of RWBY.

The World, The Characters I, The Characters II

Chapter 1

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RWBY Hellspawn AU (on hiatus): Ruby is Spawn. Jeanne is Doctor Fate. I'm not sure what I was going with, but I enjoyed writing the dialogues.

Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3

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List of things changed in my forever WIP RWBY fanfic:

Ruby has a Grimm infection: When she and Yang were attacked by Grimm, one of the Beowolves bit her. Up to Beacon, it was nigh invisible, unless you looked at Ruby's silver irises, crowned by a slim red line. She also loves almost-red meat and is a bit more temperamental.

Weiss is a trans girl: She came out that fateful 10th birthday dinner from canon. Jacques 'allowed' her to transition, on the condition to be stealth (pretend she's cis). This is partially the reason she can't use her Semblance to its full range; she's hiding her identity, hiding part of her soul.

Blake and Yang stay the same: Honestly, I really like how their character arcs went through the series, and the slow burn romance. No notes (Blake ties Yang down).

Jeanne is trans: The Arc family says 'trans rights', no questions asked. However, they also said 'Jeanne is too delicate to be a Huntress'. So, there's a double layer of gender roles and expectations in her decision to go to Beacon.

Nora is trans, out and proud: In canon, her original costume has the trans colors. In my version, that's intentional. She's a caring person, and wants to be a Huntress to care for others. So she wears her colors to show it's safe to be out. Or she will make it safe with her hammer.

Pyrrha is a fox Faunus: Mistral is the racist continent. This includes smaller combat schools, like Sanctum, prohibiting Faunus from studying there. But Pyrrha saw being a Huntress as a mission, so she tied her sash in a way to cover her tail, and kept it like that the four years before Beacon.

Ren is as unhinged as Nora: Surviving Mistral as two orphans was harsh on Nora and Ren. They had to get used to violence, and quick. Nora became explosive, but Ren became accepting of nearly anything. He's ready to accept the craziest stuff, cup of tea in hand.

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Thoughts on Pyrrha as a Faunus

The base concept

So, I'm my WIP, Pyrrha is a fox Faunus. Argus prohibits Faunus from entering combat schools.

I know that Marrow and Neon disprove Atlas from doing that anymore, and both Sun and Lionheart indicate that Haven academy accepts Faunus students. But Marrow also points out he is in an oppressive system, and well, Haven is also where we got the 'No Faunus' sign at a bar. So, segregation like that doesn't sound implausible in the smaller cities like Argus.

So, Pyrrha ties her sash to the back instead of to the side and sews the fabric to act like a 'pocket' to hide her fox tail when in Sanctum. She stays hidden the four years, with the intent of revealing herself once safe at Beacon.

But once there, she's too used to hiding and too afraid of the fallout to actually do it.

Pyrrha and Blake

Pyrrha 'clocks' Blake first, and offers all the support she can. Nothing straight out, like going together to a Faunus rights protest, but making sure to include Blake in activities like a shooting competition with Ruby or just being there to talk when the other members of RWBY-JNPR are busy with shenanigans.

Also, Pyrrha would expose herself first. I'm still figuring out how, but the base is her hero complex kicking in and her revealing she's a Faunus as a way to fight the racism of people like Cardin.

So, it makes her a foil to Blake too.

Pyrrha as a symbol

After being exposed, Pyrrha's sole existence defies a lot of prejudices. She's the Champion of Mistral, the Invincible Girl, and a Faunus. So, claims about Faunus not being as good as humans, or being dangerous are disproved by her existing alone.

Of course, it can backfire spectacularly if she's considered 'one of the good ones' or her hiding her Faunus heritage is considered her lying and cheating her way through. So there's that to work with too.

One of the good ones

I usually don't like overplaying Weiss' racism, since in canon itself she didn't cling to it that much either. It was a taught thing that didn't survive too long past meeting actual Faunus like Blake and Sun.

With that said, I can't help but imagine Weiss considering Pyrrha 'one of the good ones', and that being devastating to Pyrrha. Because of her hero complex, she would want to be an example of how good can Faunus be, both as a person and as a Huntress. But Weiss, a representative of the high society, considering her exceptional instead of exemplary throws all of that to the ground.

Up to The Stray/Black and White, Weiss is this reminder to Pyrrha that she can be a champion or a Faunus, but not both. No matter how much work she puts into, and how far she gets, she will be either be denied her humanity for being a Faunus or denied her identity as a Faunus.

So, there's also a parallel development in Pyrrha stopping trying to be the exemplary of Faunus and Huntress (stepping down of that metaphorical pedestal), and in Weiss learning to stop seeing people as 'the thing' they're supposed to be and instead the person they are (not too different from her arc in Ice Queendom).

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More thoughts on Ruby's Grimm Life: Ruby's relationships.

Weiss: This one is rockier. Weiss does not trust having a partner and team leader who's literally infected by Grimm. But, she also has empathy for Ruby's condition, so she really tries to be a good partner despite her conflicts.

Blake: A practical inverse of Weiss (God, I love RWBY's foils). She trusts Ruby because, between the SDC and her former partner, Blake has seen what monsters really look like, and Ruby doesn't compare. She just sees a girl with a condition who needs support.

Yang: Basically unchanged from canon. Yang is Ruby's surrogate mother, and whenever the Grimm infection causes something, she's the first one to take the lead around helping her sister.

Jeanne: Another nigh-canon one. Jeanne deeply cares for Ruby as her first friend, and even admires her. The Grimm infection does scare Jeanne, but not enough. She wants to understand Ruby, all of her. Including the Grimm.

Nora: Nora is force of positivity and 100% ride or die for her friends. If Ruby has a Grimm infection, Nora's only concern is that Ruby is okay. She will hug the girl in the red riding hood until she feels better, no matter what walls need to be smashed for it.

Pyrrha: Definitely more defensive of the people around her. Similar to Nora, Pyrrha ignores the infection and cares for the girl. She's also a great listener, ready to sit down and hear whatever Ruby or the others may need to speak out.

Ren: He's everyone's buoy of calm. Silent like in canon, but due to the changes around him, willing to open up sooner. There isn't much Ruby-Ren talk going on, but he makes it clear that, if she needs it, he will come to help, calming green tea in one hand and loaded weapons in the other.

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Grimm: Ruby can feel the Grimm with her. She first heard it when she was little, still recovering from the Beowolf that bit her. It always says only one thing, but Ruby can never really understand what it is. So it's just background noise.

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Me: Sure I love actually writing my WIP instead of adding new background details.

Also me: Finding that early concept art where Ruby has white hair and red eyes.

Myself: Trying to figure out if to add a white stripe or white highlights to Ruby's hair.

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Should a transfem Weiss also be blind of one eye?

Sure, both things can coexist.

No, too many changes.

Voting ended onJun 12, 2025

So, one of the main things about Ruby's Grimm Life AU is identity. Both in terms of self-identity, as well as expectations and expression.

One of the characters hit hard by this is Weiss, who in this version is a trans girl who was forced to go stealth (pretend she's cis) by her father, Jacques, as a way to keep appearances.

The character arc I have planned for her goes around THAT idea.

However, I've been thinking about her eye scar, the one she got in the White Trailer in canon, stated to be a test by Jacques she had to go through in order to be allowed to attend Beacon.

And I can't help but think about the idea of her being blind of that eye too. Both as a physical manifestation of that trauma, but as well as a take on disability.

Weiss is still the second/third most competent combattant in the main group (behind Pyrrha and rivaling Ruby), and while she can't help but wonder if she could do better with a full sight, but she's also proud of what she's accomplished either way.

But I'm not entirely sure about that second layer overlapping with the trans story. Plus the old 'ship of Theseus' thing where I'm changing a character so much, it stops being the same character.

So, well, I'd love to hear a second opinion. Or just vote in the pool. That helps too.

Really, if you just read this, thank you for your time.

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I'm heavily considering having Tai and Qrow be a full-on couple, matrimonious style, in Ruby's Grimm Life.

Like, at first Qrow is afraid his Semblance will make their lives worse, and Tai still afraid of starting a relationship.

But after Yang and Ruby almost die to Beowolves, Tai reassures Qrow that any back luck thrown in their way is nothing compared to Qrow's own resolve, and Qrow reassures Tai he will always come back home, carrying Yang and Ruby if needed.