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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 2h

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 20 teaser Ruby and Weiss visit Ms Fairburn. Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“How big is Patch exactly?”

Weiss looked off the road to the rows of cultivated trees they were passing. The copse didn’t let much sunlight in at all, and she could see patches of mushrooms alongside a simple footpath twisting through the trees. As they twisted around the path, they came to a clearing featuring a stretch of several houses sitting on large sections of fenced off short grass with several stone footpaths with piles of long wrapped bundles of harvested grass.

“Bigger than the villages we saw in Anima, I guess it’s a kind of town?” Yang frowned and looked around. “I don’t know. It started as a bunch of individual settlements that just sort of grew together.”

“So, I guess that’s why it’s called Patch.” Blake walked between them as they worked their way around the road.

“I mean… Vale was built into a mountain vale, so… yeah, it’s a running naming pattern.” Yang shrugged and smiled. “Okay, the restaurant is up here.”

They’d been to restaurants that included an outdoor section, but from what Weiss could see the entire eating area was outdoors here. She could see hooks along poles and after a moment, recognized them as places to attach tarps if the eating area needed to be sheltered from rain, but those weren’t needed at the moment. A rope hanging between the two poles closest to the road suspended a wooden shingle reading The Threaded Skewer.

“What’s a threaded skewer?” Blake apparently had the same question that Weiss did.

“I think it’s just trying to match with the inn.” Yang shrugged and pointed to the side of the restaurant.

Right next door was a long, two-story building with thick wooden walls and several small windows. Above the double door entrance into the building a swinging wooden sign depicting a threadbare patchwork quilt and the words The Frayed Patchwork Inn.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 19 teaser Ruby and Weiss visit Ms Fairburn. Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“Huh.”

“What is it?” Weiss asked.

“Dad did say they’d only been here about a week right?” Ruby asked, reaching up with her right hand to scratch the back of her head. “Because it looks a lot better than it did the last time I was here.”

Weiss looked at the house and tilted her head. A lot of the wood looked like it was dry and needed replacing. Windows were missing glass. It looked only barely liveable.

“It looked better than that?” Weiss gestured.

Ruby nodded, looking around at everything but the building. “Yeah, look at the grounds.”

The grounds didn’t look weird from what Weiss understood. The grass looked very green, which may have been odd for autumn here. There was a tree with brown and golden leaves surrounded in a blanket of similar leaves and a few nuts. There was a garden around the base of the rundown house.

“It looks normal to me.”

Ruby nodded. “Yeah, I know, right?”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Why is that weird?”

“Oh, right. Sorry.” Ruby held up both hands with index fingers up as she collected her thoughts. Then her left hand was back under her cloak and she was straightening up. “Last time I was here, there were weeds everywhere, almost no grass… I thought that tree was dead.”

Weiss turned to look at her. “How long ago was that?”

“Uh, About a month before going to Beacon.” She shrugged. “Not that long ago.”

“Ruby, that was almost two years ago.” She paused. “No, wait, it was more than two years ago, because it was months after I met you before your sixteenth birthday.”

“Really?” Ruby blinked. “Huh. Wow, I didn’t realize it was that long ago.” She paused. “Wait… that means we’ve almost been dating a year! Is our anniversary coming up soon?”

Weiss stepped over and wrapped her arm around Ruby’s shoulders. “It’s over a month away, don’t worry.”

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

Watching an old video of @jacobburgess.bsky.social and @bengineeringtv.bsky.social playing Vampire: Rivals and remembering a char I still want to play more. Inspired partially by Demi Moore's character in The Juror. I'll post her art and explain more in the ALT. Eloise Weaver, runaway Lasombra

Eloise was a mortal receptionist that learned she had "won" a free escape room experience, unaware that she was one of several people that was invited to make the prize seem legitimate.

A Lasombra vampire had been hired to kill someone and lured them into a death trap this way, with the other participants basically camouflage and tossed in as collateral damage.

However, Eloise managed to survive the night and escape... which intrigued the Lasombra assassin and he began to stalk her.

Over the next year or two, he tested her repeatedly, her attempts to go to the police didn't help and eventually got her listed as a suspect in several things.

Eventually she decided to run and when she realized that she was being tracked by some thugs again (still didn't know her stalker was a vampire) she made the decision after losing them to track them to where they were and successfully killed them all, though she got beaten up in the process.

With Eloise making the deliberate choice to kill his minions the Lasombra decided she'd past enough tests to embrace her and tracked her down a soon after she'd sloppily dyed her hair blue. (as a result, as a vampire she looks perpetually looks like she was recently in a vicious fight and her hair reverts to sloppily dyed blue each night regardless of what she does... she locked in that look.)

Anyway, turns out Eloise is unbondable, and the Lasombra slackened enough that she escaped with next to know knowledge of vampires. Until she was eventually picked up by some Anarchs who gave her the basic education.

Also, note, Eloise is inspired by Demi Moore's character in The Juror. Her sire is inspired by Alec Baldwin's. He has a good mask, but he's on the verge of losing all control.

He embraced Eloise with no permission from anyone... so she's walking evidence of a death penalty worthy crime for him. The one session I got with her, my GM and I talked about it taking him some time to learn she was with the Anarchs.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 18 teaser Settling in to the cabin and then the team gets some news. Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“Thank you for your hospitality, Mr. Xiao Long.” Weiss smiled as she set the prosthetic care kits into the drawer along with Ruby’s grav stands. “I know we just sort of dropped on you.”

He shook his head and waved the concern off. “This is Yang and Ruby’s house as much as mine. It would be nice if you were back here for a visit rather than on a mission. But I’ve been there.”

“It’s a longshot, so this might turn out to be just a simple visit in the long run anyway.” Weiss walked to the bags.

“You and Ruby keep your kits together?” He asked, pointing to the drawer.

She looked up and turned back to look at him. “Oh, yeah, we’ve made it a habit to do maintenance together since she got her arm, so it’s just convenient.”

Taiyang watched as Weiss moved from one bag to another pulling out travel bags of toiletries then carrying them past him and across to the bathroom. “It gets like that, yeah.”

Weiss looked back at him and then looked to where she was setting the bags out. She flushed and cleared her throat. “Yeah, I suppose at some point I did stop thinking about it.”

She turned at the sound of feet coming up the stairs down the hall to see Yang and Penny hit the upper floor highway. “Okay, so Ruby and Blake are heading into town to pick up blankets, pillows, and things.”

Taiyang frowned. “What about the spares in the barn?”

“The seal on the storage trunk was compromised.” Penny explained. “And the blankets within were full of holes.”

Yang looked from Penny to her father. “Looked like there was some water damage and some silverfish got into the storage.”

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 17 teaser A trip into town for supplies turns into an emotional date. Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“So, what do you farm?”

Ruby turned to look at Blake with a confused look on her face. “Huh?”

“Raven called one of your mom’s spouses a ‘farmer’.” She shrugged and glanced back down the path toward the cabin they’d just left. “I figured that was your dad.”

“Ohh.” Ruby nodded and gestured around. “Oh, we kinda cultivate a lot of the forest around here. Berry bushes,” she gestured one direction, “fruit trees,” she gestured another. “Manage the local wildlife and game. Make sure there’s food plants for the deer and rabbits, stuff like that. But everyone does that a little bit here.”

“Huh. I thought Vale was more about crop farming.”

“That’s more on the mainland, where they have a lot more space and room to build walls and stuff.” Ruby shrugged. “If we built a farm here it would get torn up in weeks.”

“So kind of like Menagerie then.”

“Oh no, no, no, no.” Ruby turned and waved her hand back and forth. “Nope. You guys have full-on orchards, kelp farms, and stuff.”

“I mean that you’re making best use of a dangerous space.” Blake smiled at her. “So what does your father do then?”

“He teaches at Signal.” Ruby looked in that general direction. “Qrow used to but then he went back to wandering around Remnant and doing stuff for Ozpin.”

The cabin fell away out of sight behind them, cut off by the curve of the path through the forest, leaving them surrounded by the tall trees mixing brown leaves with scattered evergreens and pines. A faint breeze rustled through the trees with faint birdsong and what sounded like bells or chimes.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 16 teaser Team RSPBY arrive at the Xiao Long cabin. Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

Chapter Text

The cabin had been remarkably, painfully silent for nearly two years. Ever since the leavetaking of one of his daughters unexpectedly became the leavetaking of both. There had been a certain anxiety to that, knowing the nature of the occupation they were both taking on.

The actual events since then had been a monumental test of his heart.

A test that was slightly helped by the regular tasks of maintaining the cabin and surrounding forests plus the occasional forays into the town proper. It was helped much more by the occasional scroll call he received from his girls.

Except when it carried the news of what he worried about.

He stretched awake as walked down the stairs, running through the checklist of tasks for the day. Then he heard the scrape of his door across the floor and tensed up. This far out of town it wasn’t unheard of for a Grimm to stalk close in…

The next steps he took were soft and quiet as he kept his eye trained in the direction of the sound.

“Dad?”

He blinked. There was no way that he had heard that, right?

“I told you that we should knock.”

“But this is our house.”

He quickly stepped down the stairs and pushed forward into the front room to see his daughters and three other girls he’d become familiar with on the occasional phone call. Rushing forward he collected both of his girls up in a hug and then set them down.

“What are you doing here?” He asked. “I talked to you a couple of days ago and you were still in Mistral!”

“Well, then we told Uncle Qrow what you said about Raven…” Ruby reached up with her right hand to scratch the back of her hand, as she chuckled nervously.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I'm offering freelance services as a GM-for-Hire, Fiction editing, TTRPG game writing, or audio transcription work. ko-fi.com/thrythlind35... #GMforHire #TTRPG #WritingCommission #writing #transcription Projects worked on attached as graphics, details in ALT text.

Slayer's Survival Kit and Hunter's Journal

Source books for Monster of the Week TTRPG through Evil Hat.

Co-authored with Mike Sands (creator of the game) and Marek Polonka

Errant Hope fantasy novel written by Damien Jennison, aka Kikoskia.

I was the first pass editor for this book and the as yet unpublished book two.

Double Spiral War Saga

Battlefield Press obtained electronic rights to this property based on the books by Warren C. Norwood and I had several parts on this project.

First, I was the one who retyped the books onto an electronic document for making an ebook.

I did not do the ebook formatting.

Then I was responsible for writing the lore elements of the TTRPGs originally for Savage Worlds and my text was carried over for the Traveller edition.

I also wrote up the NPC blocks for the Savage Worlds version of the TTRPG.

Divine Blood is one of my self-published properties that currently consists of one novel, a Fate-based RPG with one supplement, and 12 short stories. The picture above was the supplement's cover art commissioned from renown comic artist Rod Espinosa.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 15 teaser A PennyWeiss talk and a phone call home. Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“Why don’t Penny and I take the bags up to the room?” Weiss suggested, stepping in close beside the red-head. “And you three can get us something to eat.”

“Oh! Right!” Penny nodded. “You should take it easy and let us handle the porter-duties.”

“You seem to do that a lot, Weiss.” Yang stopped as Blake elbowed her in the ribs.

“Thanks for the help, both of you. I’ll be up to tell you when the food’s done.”

Yang nodded in recognition then. “Right. Take your time.”

“But all they have to do is bring the bags…” Ruby stopped and blinked. “Oh… uh, right. Yeah, don’t worry about taking too long.” She smiled and winked.

Penny tilted her head in confusion but then shrugged and gathered up bags to head up to their shared room. Weiss let her enter first and closed the doors behind them as Penny set the bags down against the wall. The taller girl turned back, hands on her hips and a smile across her face.

“All right, task completed.” She looked past Weiss. “Why did you close the doors.”

Weiss started to hesitantly look back over her shoulder but then shook her head. It was best to be straightforward with Penny. “Because, this was an excuse to be up here alone with you for a few minutes.”

“Oh.” Penny nodded. “So, is this for cuddling purposes or is there another reason.”

Weiss bit her lip and nodded before gesturing at one of the two beds in the room. “Let’s sit down for a moment.”

Penny frowned in confusion but did walk over to sit down as Weiss walked over and sat down beside her, the faunus adjusting her anxiously swishing tail to avoid it being crushed under her, and slowly straightening her posture and turning to Penny.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 14 teaser That's so Raven CW: gaslighting, neglect Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“This is a very weird situation.”

Weiss shook her head as she perched on a tree limb, tail helping her balance as she looked out over the land extending out from the village. It was mostly forests to the south, east, and west, with the mountains north of them, including the path that led up to the village they had originally arrived at for the contract.

“Oh? How is that so? Is it because we let them go rather than keep them prisoner?”

She looked down to where Penny was walking the ground underneath her and stepped off the branch to land next to her.

“I think that’s more because they’re not fanatics like the Red Talons.” Weiss shrugged. “And this way we don’t have to struggle with managing prisoners too. No the weird thing is, we’re hoping that they come back… with their boss.”

“I can see where that is an unusual situation, however, I am eager to meet this person myself.” Penny nodded. “I have only met half of Yang’s biological parentage.” She paused for a moment and turned to Weiss. “Do scroll calls count as meeting?”

Weiss smiled and leaned over to kiss her on the cheek. “I think it does. However, I am definitely looking forward to meeting Mr. Xiao Long face to face.”

Weiss thought back to the first couple of days in Menagerie, sitting in the study with a book in her hands reading about the foundation of the White Fang in the house of the founders.

“And this is my amazing partner, Weiss!”

She’d been shocked enough by the sound and the hand that clapped on her shoulder that she’d tried to stand, ending up tumbling out of the chair onto the floor.

“Sorry, Weiss.” Ruby had grimaced.

“Ruby!” Weiss had gasped. “Warn people before doing that?”

“Don’t you have super hearing?” Yang’s voice had drawn her attention to where the blonde leaned against the door frame.

“I was reading..” She reached over to grab the book and saw where her claws had cut into the pages. “Now I’m going to have to buy a new copy for Blake’s parents.”

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 13 teaser Team RSPBY send a message. Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“Okay. first of all…” Qrow crossed his arms “... there’s no guarantee these bandits are the Branwen clan. It could be another clan entirely.”

“Or it could be the Red Talon.” Weiss pointed out.

Qrow sighed, nodding, and turned to look at the white-haired hunter. “Or it could be the Red Talon.” He turned back to Ruby and Yang. “Even if it is the Branwen clan, you’re not likely to get Raven to pay attention to you.”

“Are you going to back us taking the contract, or not?” Yang walked up to him and crossed her own arms.

“I just want to make sure you don’t expect anything out of this.” Qrow moved his hands to his hip and looked down into Yang’s determined face. “You got it?”

“We got it, Uncle Qrow.” Ruby stepped in between her sister and uncle. “It’s a shot in the dark. We know. Somebody still needs to do something about the bandits anyway, might as well be us.”

“All right. Well, let’s talk through what you’re going to be doing…”

------------------------

There was no need for a falling strategy as they came into the town this time. The aircraft settled down just outside of town, the engine settling down before the ramp opened up. Ruby walked down the ramp ahead of them and Weiss looked past her to see the group that was waiting for them.

At the center of the group was a woman with a white streak in her hair dressed in rustic robes and standing beside an antlered man in layered linen armor with a White Fang armband around his upper arm. The two next to them looked like siblings, or maybe cousins, a man and a woman with fair quality clothing that had seen better days.

“Hey, you put a contract up about bandits?” Ruby waved with her right hand as she walked up, smiling.

Weiss bit her lip and noted the way Ruby was still draping her cloak over the prosthetic left arm and she drifted back to the prior day while Blake and Yang were out.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 12 teaser Bumblebee takes a chance to talk about some things bothering them. Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

The faunus turned back to the hunter board. “I’ve got my list of suspicious contracts, you?”

“Back to run them by Uncle Qrow.” The blonde rolled her eyes. “I’m going to be really glad when we have our full licenses and don’t have to run contracts through a school or veteran hunter.”

“I am definitely looking forward to that.” Blake stepped around in front of Yang and wrapped her arms around Yang’s waist, leaning her forehead into the blonde’s. “We’ve got some time before Qrow’s back with JNPR.”

Yang smiled and wrapped her arms around Blake, pulling her in tight. “Yeah. Let’s find a nice restaurant with dark corners. Give the others some time to…” She paused.

Blake closed her eyes and nodded. “Get Ruby through her first maintenance without Mr. Polendina.”

“Yeah. Sorry.” She leaned back and kissed Blake’s forehead. “Come on, food, dark corners.”

Blake chuckled and bit her lip, looking up into Yang’s eyes. “Warm kisses.”

There was a groan and a sigh, drawing their eyes to Trifa sitting behind the clerk’s counter. “I get enough sitting through that sort of thing already in my off-hours, maybe you can take it out of my work place?”

“Wait?” Blake turned toward the the undercover spider faunus with a smile. “Are you saying Ilia and Emerald …”

“...all over each other?” Yang finished.

Trifa groaned and held out her hands. “Please don’t do the thing where you finish each others’ sentences.” She shook her head. “Seriously, they’re pretty quiet about it. But it does get me feeling a bit like a third wheel sometimes. If you meet any hot guys for me to bite the head off, tell me, all right?”

”Uhh.”

She leaned forward and looked around for any coworkers nearby. “It’s a spider joke.”

“Oh, got it.” Yang nodded.

Blake laughed and then also looked around for the nearest city official that wasn’t an infiltrating White Fang. “Let’s leave before someone overhears something they shouldn’t.”

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 11 teaser A trap is turned on its head. Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“Baramori sits in a valley past some high mountains.” Trifa explained. “There’s a CCT tower built on the peaks above, so it sits in network coverage, but travel time is weeks unless you go by aircraft.”

“Okay, it’s isolated.” Qrow crossed his arms. “How does this present an opportunity for us?”

“The hunter boards just received a contract request supposedly from the Mistral Trading Company to go and clear it out of Grimm.”

“That isn’t unusual.” Weiss shrugged. “I know my father hired hunters to clear Grimm out more often than he hired hunters to protect a mine.”

“That makes a certain amount of horrible sense.” Blake turned to look at Weiss.

“How often did your father spend money to open mines that had been tapped out?” Trifa asked. “The MTC pulled out of Baramori ten years ago. The town was finally abandoned three years ago.”

“Okay, that is a little bit on the odd side.” Qrow nodded.

“And I’ve confirmed, the MTC did not send anyone to place the contract.” Trifa smirked and then grimaced. “About ten minutes after I heard from our contacts there… the network reset happened.”

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 10 teaser A conversation with one teacher and the leave-taking of two others. Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“We’re back.” Ruby called out as they stepped into the house ahead of the team.

“Everybody looks safe.” Weiss turned to see Oscar at the far end of the room.

“There weren’t any Red Talon ambushes this time.” The fox faunus agreed. “Just Grimm.”

“We made sure that we took the contract officially.” Blake shook her head. “Wherever the leak is, we should have been picked up by it.”

“Ehh, maybe next time we’ll get the villains we want.” Yang shrugged.

“Huh.” Oscar’s brow furrowed. “That’s … a weird thing to be disappointed about, now that I think of it.”

“I do not think so.” Penny shook her head. “We are attempting to deal with the extraordinary problem first and foremost. So it makes sense to be disappointed that the proper villains did not make an appearance.”

“I know that. Just…” Oscar shrugged. “I never thought of Grimm as a thing to be so normal as to say you were disappointed by them in any form.”

Weiss thought about that. “Now that I think about it, at some point it stopped being noteworthy to see a beowulf or creep.”

“On the farm if we saw any signs of a Grimm we’d reach out to hire a hunter.” Oscar shook his head. “And I guess now… they’re going to be a daily part of my life.”

“I wouldn’t say daily.” Ruby scoffed. “Weekly maybe.”

Oscar looked at her. “Until recently, I’d never seen more than five Grimm in my entire life. And not all at once.”

“Somebody has to do it.” Yang shrugged.

“Just look at everything we’ve seen. Everything that would have happened if a hunter hadn’t stepped in to stop it.” Ruby waved her arms around. “All the Grimm in the cliffs over Kuo Kuana. The attack on Vale.” She walked back to the door and looked out past the city in the wood mountains beyond. “And look what’s happening in Mistral with all the hunters gone. So many empty villages…”

Blake stepped over to hug her and kiss her forward. “It’s not your fault.”

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 9 teaser Salem's people discuss their strategies and Hazel carries out his tasks. Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

Chapter Text

“We seem to be down two gleeful murderers. What are you doing over there?”

The speaker was a thin man with a bushy mustache that wasn’t thick enough to conceal the smug smile underneath. Turning toward the screen on which he appeared was a man that would have made Ghira Belladonna look small. He crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes but kept his silence. Other people were more than willing to bluster in his place.

“We’ve killed most of Mistral’s active hunters. What have you accomplished, Watts?” Cinder sneered at the screen and shook her head.

The giant man turned to look at Cinder and then away, choosing not to mention that she had not been part of that hunt. She had her own task after all, but he didn’t particularly care if she wanted to take credit for his and Tyrian’s work.

“I am well on the way to sinking Atlas into a chaos that will force Ironwood to expose both the Winter Maiden and the Artifact of Creation.” The man responded with a shrug.

“Casualties are to be expected in war no matter how careful you are.”

Everyone froze and turned to the image of a red-eyed albino woman with blackened veins covering her skin.

“What matters is that we must persist in moving forward.”

Her image was held within the bulbous orb of a floating jellyfish like Grimm with dangling tentacles. Given the way Watts turned aside to look off the camera of his screen, it was clear that he also had one of the creatures near him.

“How does the search for the Spring Maiden go?”

“Qrow Branwen s…suspects that his sister encountered her at one point.” Everyone turned to look at the cringing form of a bearded lion-faunus with a long tail.

“This is not new information, Leonardo.” The voice sharpened and the lion faunus flinched away from the seer Grimm.

“We reached the site where their main camp was supposed to be.” Cinder crossed her arms. “But it was abandoned. From the looks of things, they decided the Red Fangs were getting too close.”

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Not who I ever dreamed of being - chapter 8 teaser A Schnee sister conversation. CW: blood quantum, anxiety, body dysmorphia Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“What’s weird?”

“I first thought, maybe I’d try the tail and ears for a day, maybe two.” Weiss took a breath. “And then probably just put the plugs into the connectors to keep the phantom sensations down and that’s it. And then I thought…. Maybe I’d take the tail off to sit on a couch or go to bed…” she turned to Winter and smiled. “It can be awkward to sit on or lay on it.”

“I can imagine.” Winter’s smile briefly widened in a silent laugh. “When was the first time you took them off.”

“The first time I needed to do maintenance.” Weiss looked back into the mirror. “And now… this looks wrong. It feels wrong… but it doesn’t feel strange. It’s familiar.”

Winter nodded and closed her eyes, placing a hand on her sister’s shoulder.

“I just wonder…” she turned to look at Winter. “Did I always feel like this? Just my whole life and never realized it?”

Winter reached over to hug her sister, patting her back before releasing her and stepping aside. “I don’t think that’s something that you’ll be able to easily answer. Let’s go sit somewhere away from the mirror.”

“Probably a good idea.” Weiss shook her head and turned away pointing to a table before taking her scroll out and typing a text. “Yang was getting us some coffee and snacks so that’ll be a good place to wait for her.”

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 7 teaser All of Frosensteel is technorganic CW: Body horror (sorta) Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

The first thing Weiss noticed was Winter with her arms crossed and a glower on her face. Her look scanned over to Sienna and the handful of White Fang with her as a mix of bodyguards and to go in and make sure that there was a space set up for Polendina to do his work. Behind her she could see Qrow stepping forward to say something.

“Salutations!” Penny rushed past everyone up to the walking chair to hug her father. “Thank you for visiting! I know you do not make many trips outside Atlas and Mantle.”

“Well, the circumstances demanded it.”

Weiss wasn’t watching their reunion much because she had followed behind almost immediately to reach Winter and hug her. “Winter! I didn’t realize you’d be coming too. You should have told me.”

Sienna laughed as she walked up. “Jimmy doesn’t trust me with his geniuses and sent her to make sure I behave.”

Winter gave her a sideways look and shook her head before turning back to her sister. “She’s correct, but ignore her. How is Ruby?”

Weiss stepped back and turned to see where Penny and her father had turned to the conversation. “She’s been a bit… frustrated. But she’s keeping up a good face.”

“She has been much better recently and her arm has healed as much as it can.” Penny looked over and nodded.

“Ah, so where is she now?” Mr. Polendina asked. “I should probably talk her through things a little more.”

“Ruby’s inside with her sister and Blake.” Qrow strode forward. “Pacing a trench into the floor.” He looked at Sienna and Winter. “And maybe the rest of us should compare notes while they’re taking care of that.”

020

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 6 teaser Back to when Ruby built Twisting Thorn CW: physical disability, anxiety Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

Ruby looked at the table in the middle of the room and tilted her head left and right. She walked over to it and reached down to pull on the edge of the table, wincing as she heard it scratching across the floor. She stopped and bent down to angle the table up onto its side and then started to pull it again and stopped at the scratching noise again.

Biting her lip she set the table back down and slowly let go of it, making sure it wouldn’t tip over and fall. Then she stepped over to the couch and grabbed one of the pillows. Then saw the table starting to tip over and rushed back over to it, dropping the pillow and catching one of the table legs before it gained too much momentum.

Sighing in relief, she looked over to the pillow and almost reached for it with her left arm, then stopped herself and instead, while holding on to the table, reached out with a stretched foot, to hook the pillow and drag it over to where she was holding the piece of furniture, angle it up and place the cushion underneath before moving around to the other side and start pulling again.

This time there was no sound of the floor being scratched up and she carefully leaned the table against the wall before walking back to the wide empty space on the floor she now had available.

“Okay. Plenty of room now!” She smiled, placing her hand on her hip and ignoring the lack of a symmetrical sensation. She closed her eyes and frustratingly bit her lip. “Now to clean the floor.”

030

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 5 teaser A Witness needs to be talked to. CW: food safety Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“Are you sure walking around with that is the best way to go?” Ilia pointed to the crest on Weiss’s back.

Weiss turned to look at her. “We’re not in Menagerie anymore. I’m not ceding anything to Father here.”

“It’s going to attract a lot of attention to us.” Emerald frowned. “And where’s Little Miss Hero?”

“Ruby’s finishing up her new weapon and then getting some practice in with it.” Blake paused a moment to look behind them and then started up again. “Where’s Trifa?”

“She said she wanted some air clear of couple-antics.” The green haired thief smirked.

Ilia shook her head and rolled her eyes at her partner. “As a new hire at the Mistral council’s hunter administration office, she’s been delegated the thankless task of fielding calls and messages from the outer villages.”

“What does that mean?” Weiss asked.

Blake turned to her. “She’s controlling the flow of information from the people calling in to those in charge. Is that where we got this lead?”

“Oh no, this person avoided official channels. We tracked rumors.” Ilia looked up at one of the signs over the intersection and then pointed. “Our witness is this way.”

Weiss set a hand on the railing and looked over the edge down into the lower levels of the city and then turned her expression back to the path ahead of her. “Zelenko Weapons is around here somewhere.”

“You know the place?” Emerald turned and narrowed her eyes as she watched Weiss.

“Ruby purchased a bunch of weapon parts there earlier in the week.” Weiss turned to look at them “Why?”

“Because that’s where we’re going.” Ilia stopped and gestured down the path to the shop Weiss recognized from her last excursion.

As they passed through the alley up to the door, the younger Zelenko looked up and caught sight of Weiss. “Hello there, how’s your girl enjoying those parts?”

“She’s building her weapon right now.” Weiss smiled and stepped forward.

000

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 4 teaser Movie night again... and it's Pyrrha's turn Mature due to themes of mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

Chapter Text

“So, what’s this all about?” Oscar asked as people gathered into the room.

“We started this back at Beacon.” Weiss settled herself in next to Penny on the couch. “Because… I had a bad day and Nora was a bit lonely.”

“So far it’s only something we’ve done three times.” Yang settled down on the floor in front of them and Penny crossed her legs to give her space. “Well, two times with JNPR.”

“Did anybody call Ilia and Emerald about this?” Blake sat down beside Yang.

“They’re doing something tonight.” Ren handed Nora a bowl of popcorn and ignored her as she eagerly grabbed some up already. “They said they’d catch the next one.”

Blake nodded and adjusted her position for Ruby to sit next to her. The dark-red head frowned and turned to look up to where Weiss had her tail curled around over her lap. “Are we crushing your legs?”

“If I’m uncomfortable, I’ll say something.” Weiss reached over to ruffle Ruby’s head.

“Oh, is it okay for people to rest against your legs?” Penny asked.

“Depends on who it is.” Yang looked up from where her arm was trapped between Blake’s shoulders and Weiss’s legs.

“And who else did you have movie night with, hmm?” Nora asked, teasing. “Besides Penny.”

“Well, Ilia and Emerald, Sienna Khan, Blake’s parents…” Ruby counted out the names on her hand and then looked over to the rest of the people in the room.

“Excuse me a moment,” Qrow walked into the room and crossed his arms. “You sat down and watched movies with the High Leader of the White Fang?”

“Yes. She chose the films.” Penny nodded. “They were very interesting.”

“I’m… I’m following Sienna Khan’s movie selection?” Pyrrha looked pale as she walked in with the bag of her rentals.

010

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 3 teaser Frosensteel go shopping for weapon parts. CW: Abelism, bigotry, night terrors Mature due to mental health and systemic bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

If there was anything to be glad of about the Mistral House, it was the existence of a room that could comfortably fit all five of them. The two beds were entirely different matters which is why there had been some adjustments, especially in the current situation.

Weiss woke up in the middle of the night at first sounds of muttering near ears. She’d figured out pretty quickly to wake up immediately even if Penny didn't reach over to shake her shoulder. She sat up and along with Penny wrapped Ruby up between the two of them, making sure to keep her still healing left arm isolated.

“Behind… behi…” Ruby shook in between them. “Faster… faster… “

“Shh, shh.” Weiss set herself near Ruby’s ear, one hand between her back and Penny’s chest rubbing the shaking girl comfortingly.

“It is okay, Ruby.” Penny whispered. “You may not be able to hear me but both Weiss and are here with you.”

The sound of shuffling elsewhere in the room drew Weiss’s attention to the nearby bed and two pair of legs swinging over to set on the floor and the people belonging to them standing up. “I’ll go get her ice and water.”

“Thank you, Blake.” Penny smiled broadly as Blake waved at her.

Yang walked to a cooler nearby and pulled out a rolled up cloth before sitting down beside where her sister was wrapped up and placed it against her forehead and dabbing around her face.

Ruby woke up with a gasp and a start as Blake was walking back into the room with two glasses in hand. One water and ice, the other just ice. The younger hunter blinked and looked around, catching her breath, eyes moving from person to person and calming down as she recognized each person.

“Oh, man.” Ruby sighed. “ I thought I was past it.”

“You woke before your aura drained even half-way this time.” Penny told her, encouragingly as they carefully pulled away from Ruby.

“That’s progress.” Blake handed over the glass of water. “The first time this happened back in Beacon you didn’t wake up until you burned out entirely.”

010

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 2 teaser Dinner is prepared, attraction is discussed... archiveofourown.org/works/927990... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

Weiss sat down next to Yang as she waved at Penny heading upstairs, then scooted the chair over so that their sides and legs were brushing comfortably against each other. Yang had just wrapped an arm around her and she had only just started to enjoy Yang’s heat when she became aware of the slight, rhythmic shake coming from her fiery girlfriend. The realization distracted her from leaning on Yang’s shoulder and she looked down to see the way the blonde was bouncing her knee.

She reached over and laid a hand on the bouncing knee, looking up at Yang as the bouncing stopped. “Are you good?”

“Huh? Yeah. Just…” Yang shrugged. “Worried about Ruby.”

Weiss tilted her head to watch Yang and then glanced around without moving her head before nodding. “She’s talking to Pyrrha right now. She’ll be down soon.”

Yang sighed expressively and nodded. Weiss pulled her hand back to Yang’s nearer leg, leaving it softly there as the other knee start to bounce again, but slower. Across from them, Qrow watched them and nodded.

“Yeah, I guess Pyrrha has some things to share with her after all.”

Weiss noticed Ren looking up from mixing a sauce of some sort and then look back down.

Yang shook her head. “So what’s for dinner?”

“Chicken stir-fry.”

Ren answered over his shoulder. He pointed to where Nora was finishing up cooking the chicken and starting to slice them into portions. Then to where Jaune was chopping up vegetables.

“We’re jussst cooking a few more portions.” Nora turned and winked. “Because of surprise guests and all.”

Weiss had already been smelling the chicken, but the confirmation that there was chicken coming for dinner and her tail wagging slowly up and down behind her. “That sounds good.”

011

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 28 teaser (finale) Not who I ever dreamed I would be - chapter 1 teaser archiveofourown.org/works/909115... archiveofourown.org/chapters/247... summary and CW in alt text on image #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

Chapter 29: Winter - Blood

Summary:
While Team RSPBY has been dealing with mercenaries, fanatics, and homicidal villains, Winter has been dealing with the SDC... so much the same really.

This is the end of the Menagerie arc. The Mistral arc will happen in Not who I ever dreamed I would be

Notes:
CW: Alcoholism, unlawful imprisonment passing as medical treatment, bigotry, blood quantum

Not who I ever dreamed I would be

(Fic) Summary:

We go to Mistral in the wake of a costly battle with Adam Taurus and Tyrian Callows to continue following Team RSPBY.

(Ruby+Schnee+Penny+Blake+Yang... or Rose+Schnee+Polendina+Belladonna+Yang)

Team Raspberry

Follows on immediately from chapter 29 of Not who I was expected to be

Chapter 1: Not as okay as she thought she was

(chapt)Summary:
The team arrive at Mistral house and Ruby has a sudden panic.

Notes:
CW: Anxiety, body dysmorphia, panic attack

“Another false flag operation.” Ironwood frowned as he set down the report on his desk and looked out the window.

“Yes, sir.” Winter reported, arms crossed behind her. “Blaming the White Fang seems to have become a popular way to conceal taking action against business or political rivals. Perhaps it is time to be public about this situation.”

Ironwood shook his head. “If we let people know that people are hiding their crimes this way, they’ll lose confidence in the companies and it will undermine much of our warnings about the White Talon danger.”

“All right, the same as before then?”

“Arrest them quietly, amend the public report. Offer them leniency if they confess without mentioning the ploy.” He glanced to the side. “But not too much leniency. We don’t want this to be a slap on the wrist.”

“Of course not,” Winter nodded.

He frowned and turned around. “This feels like too much of a coincidence. Why has the SDC suddenly decided to erupt into what is essentially civil war?”

“To be quite honest, sir?” Winter followed his motion as he walked around the desk. “Keeping them at each others’ throats has always been my father’s method of controlling his subordinates. The SDC has been a powderkeg for decades. He’s just usually been able to keep too many sparks from going off at once.”

The General nodded and frowned. “Something’s changed. Distracted your father. It could be the election but it could also be…” He grimaced.

“If I may, sir? Are you thinking about Sienna Khan’s suspicions?”

He nodded slowly. “I am. But if she’s correct, and it’s not some ploy to drive a wedge between us. There’d have to be a way that she has contact with him. An intermediary, some sort of bizarre Grimm. Something.”

“Maybe we should stop somewhere to eat first?” Ruby stared out the window at the approaching houses.

“What?” Emerald called over her shoulder and then focused back on the road. “You couldn’t have said that when we hit the edge of town? We’re already right there.”

“Sorry, I just thought of it.” Ruby chuckled nervously.

Weiss reached over to clutch her knee and look her in the eye. The younger hunter smiled back and waved at her.

“They have a pretty well-stocked kitchen.” Ilia turned to look at them. “I’m sure you’ll get a meal better than most restaurants.”

“Oh, are they aware that we are coming then?” Penny asked.

“In general…?” Emerald shrugged. “We told them it was your plan. Didn’t have chance to tell them you were on the way.”

“You do have scrolls right?” Yang looked between them.

“We’ve been a bit busy between investigating lost hunters and carrying out opportunity missions. Picking you up was a bit out of the blue.”

The white haired woman behind them looked away from the rear window and turned to face them a moment before going back on watching their rear.

“Not to be rude, but you haven’t introduced us to your teammate.” Weiss gestured toward her.

“My name’s Trifa.” She responded. “I can’t warp people’s brains or change my skin. What I can do is scale walls really well.”

“And secure prisoners.” Blake added, turning to Weiss and Ruby. “She spins webs.”

“Any size?” Ruby turned back to her.

Trifa smiled. “Catch targets just like flies.”

“Oh, you’re the one with hemoglyph blood.” Weiss nodded. “Okay.”

Trifa turned to stare at her. “There’s not many people that know what hemoglyph is. How did you…”

Blake turned back to Trifa. “She was asking about donating bloods to blood banks. I mentioned you as an example of the rare case one of us can’t donate blood.”

“Ah. Bad doctor experience.” Trifa nodded and went back to looking out the back window as they pulled up in front of the house.

030

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 28 teaser As I wrap up this arc, we conclude with another session of the team checking in with each other while in transit. CW: Phantom limb syndrome archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“This aircraft looks … familiar.” Weiss narrowed her eyes and looked around it. “I feel like I’ve been in it before.”

She shook her head and instead turned to look at Ruby sitting beside her. She glanced at the stump where Ruby’s arm ended at her elbow, and then back to her girlfriend’s face. The words stoppered up in her throat, but apparently made it anyway and Ruby leaned over to kiss her lips then sit back.

“I’m…” Ruby grimaced. “Well, I’m not fine. But I’ll be fine.” She turned to Penny then and kissed her on the cheek and then turned back to look at Blake and Yang. “All right, everybody?”

“Just…” Yang sighed. “Ruby, we know you don’t have the easiest time talking about things.”

“Yes.” Penny nodded. “I know it is not really comparable, but losing my limbs the first time was… significantly more bothersome than I initially expected it to be.”

Blake reached over to hold Ruby’s head and kissed her forehead and lips. “Just don’t pretend you’re fine. Can you do that for us?”

“If you can’t talk. Tell us you can’t.” Weiss reached over to look for her hand and instead gripped her knee. “Like you told me.”

Ruby bit her lips and nodded. “I will. But right now… I’m … I’m okay. Maybe I’m just compartmentalizing and it’ll come out later. But right now…?” she shrugged. “Is everybody else …okay?”

Blake bit her lip and looked down at her knees. “Weiss and I talked a little bit.” She looked up at Weiss. “She doesn’t think so… but… I shouldn’t have let that happen. I lost track of what was happening. I distracted everyone…”

Yang reached forward to hug her. “No, come on. You know that’s not it.”

“I told you before, we all let our guard down.” Weiss turned around, placing her knees on the seat and adding her own hug around Blake.

130

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Not who I expected to be - chapter 27 teaser Tyrian's here for Ruby and the team are all exhausted. CW: villain death, bigotry archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“Ice!” Blake started running as Weiss tossed her up a canister of ice dust and then summoned a haste glyph underneath her.

Turning toward this new threat, Weiss watched him dodge past Penny’s laser and attempt to get around Yang’s charge. She put a stop to that with gravity glyph summoned to shove him back into Yang’s flaming line of attack. He managed a block but still found himself catapulted back through Penny’s laser.

He chuckled and waved the charred remains of Ruby’s severed arm at them. “Well, you are some interesting children. I’d love to stay and play but Her Grace’s tasks take precedence.”

He tossed the bone aside and charged across the battlefield, moving along a bizarre and erratic path that brought him ducking past Yang, sliding under Weiss’s glyph and batting away Penny’s blades. As he surged forward, Blake turned to face his wild giggling approach, pelting him with bullets and switching to blade as he neared…

…only for her and Ruby both to vanish in a flurry of rose petals to be carried across the field again.

They landed near Weiss, Ruby crying out again as they landed and Blake turned to hold her tightly as the fox-faunus ran in front of them, Myrtenaster ready.

The man straightened up with a wild, ecstatic grin and cocked his head as he watched the villagers flee the rooftops then looked around at the girls.

“I guess I can play a little bit longer.”

He rushed at Weiss, juking one way and another as she tried to predict his path with columns of ice. On reaching her she prepared to thrust and instead was forced to raise a barrier to block the terrifying look stinger and only just barely block a swipe from his wrist blades, getting sent stumbling as she did so.

000

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 26 teaser Time for the rematch with Adam Taurus. CW: maiming, gaslighting, character death archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“Why would you possibly think we’d surrender? Weiss asked.

“Because you know what happens if you try to fight. Don’t you, Blake?” He focused on her, pretending to not even look at Weiss. “It didn’t have to be this way if you’d just behaved.”

“How was I supposed to behave, Adam?” Blake asked. “Just standby and let you kill people that didn’t need to die?”

“Yes!”

Adam snarled as he paced, watching Penny taking up a position that kept her on the edge of his vision unless he took his focus off Blake.

“You were supposed to stand by.”

His eyes snapped back to Blake and then flickered to watch Ruby moving in the other direction, brushing past Blake’s arm with a supportive nod.

“You were supposed to stand by me!.”

The raging murderrer eyed Weiss as she walked behind Blake, tracing one hand at the other young woman’s back as she moved.

“You weren’t supposed to go around telling everyone my business!.”

Twisting back to her, his fingers flexed over the grip of his blade one by one while he flung his other fist through the air. His eyes narrowed as Yang walked up beside Blake and gripped her hand with a nod before facing Adam beside her.

“It’s not just your business when you’re killing people that aren’t hurting us.” Blake gripped Gambol Shroud in anticipation as she stepped forward.

“When they don’t help us, they’re hurting us. When Sienna holds me back from ending them, she’s hurting us.” He shook his head. “When our people abandon the fight and get in my way, it hurts us. And it all started with you not knowing your place!”

Adam surged forward crossing the space between him and Blake in a flash. Wilt flew out of Blush’s scabbard form, slashing through the decoy image of Blake leaving the blade out of position for dealing with Yang already throwing a punch. He rose Blush up to catch the blow and grunted as he was shoved back.

141

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

#queerwriters Sunday (late): Line share day. Theme: leave RWBY fanfic (sapphic polyamory going on, no spicy, just cuddles, kissing, and blushing) #writingcommunity #lgbtqwriters

“No. It’s…I’m worried, but leaving Atlas was harder. So much harder.” She shivered. “I remember feeling like I’d explode. And I don’t understand why.”

She scrunched her eyes together and tilted her head, shaking it. Her tail behind her moved slowly and occasionally. “I have so many bad memories of the house in Atlas and so few good ones. But here…?”

Kali nodded and looked into the room. “You didn’t have a place to go when you left Atlas.”

Weiss turned to look at her perplexed “I was literally going to Beacon.”

“Yes, but you didn’t know what it was going to be like.” Blake’s mother told her. “And if things went badly, you knew you couldn’t go back to your father’s house. Not without losing so much…”

“I guess. But still, it’s not like I know what’s going to happen after this.”

“No, dear. But this time, you know you have somewhere to come back to if things go badly.” Kali placed her hands on each of Weiss’s shoulders and held her gaze. “We’ll welcome you back. Ms. Goodwitch in Vale will welcome you back and find a place for you. There’s places for you to go back to.”

“That’s true, I guess.” Weiss shook her head and looked back into the room.

“No guessing, Weiss. You’re welcome back anytime.” Kali told her. “This time when you going out into the world, you’re not going to be homeless. You’ll only be traveling. On campaign.” She smirked. “And believe me this family knows about being on campaign. Whether it’s protests or active resistance.”

She leaned in to give Weiss a brief, matronly hug that somehow felt as emotionally crushing as Penny’s hugs did physically. Then she sighed and pulled back, patting Weiss on the shoulder and nodding down the hall. “Come on, they’re waiting for you.”

040

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 25 teaser Team RWBY is prepping the village for defense against the Red Talons. archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

A man as bear-like as someone could get without having a faunus trait stepped forward with a rifle leaning against his shoulder and laughing uproariously, flanked by a blonde woman and a wiry brown-haired man.

“Well, we sure showed those Grimm a thing or two, didn’t we?” The bear-like man declared.

Weiss looked past him to the signs of Ruby and Blake’s battle against the Grimm scattered at every point through what she could see from where she stood. Then she turned back to look at the man rolling her eyes and grimacing.

“So, about that…” Ruby reached up to scratch the back of her head.

“What have you done to our town?!” They turned to look at the approach of the village headman, face shocked and looking around at the damage through the town. “Are you sure you weren’t sent to destroy our town?”

“Ah, Master Merlo, there’s going to be a bit of damage when there’s a fight.” The bear-like man called out jovially.

“A… a little destruction! Look at all this!” He gestured back to a destroyed well, a half-crumbled tool shed, and the gaping hole in a village storehouse.

“This is why we don’t take positions in the town.” Weiss sighed and shook her head.

Ruby cleared her throat. “Do you have any outer defenses? Like watch towers and things?”

“Well, no, we haven’t had much trouble with Grimm for a while, so we took them down for the space and to reuse the materials.” Merlo pointed out.

Blake nodded and turned to Ruby. “Until the Red Talons there were villages in both directions. Other settlements caught most of the Grimm.”

Ruby nodded and turned back to Master Merlo and the three local supporters. “You’re… going to have to build some new defenses. Because if you fight from the rooftops… uh, well…”

She gestured at the destruction.

020

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 24 teaser It's time to leave Menagerie. archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

This wasn’t the first time she’d stepped out of a room and left things behind in a room.

But it felt different.

They were traveling light, not quite as light as they had in Mountain Glen, but it still meant that the majority of what she’d purchased over the last couple of months was staying with the Belladonnas. She was currently staring into her closet at the clothes there and waiting for that pang she’d felt in Atlas, that pulling weight that thrummed in her ears.

But here, she was standing at the threshold of the room she’d been borrowing and staring at the open closet with the majority of her new outfits, the books on the desk (minus the two she was taking with her), and the room in general. And that feeling wasn’t coming.

She knew that this wasn’t going to be just a few days or even a week away and then be right back.

They were going to be gone for at least several months, maybe a year. Maybe more than that.

There was a tugging at her chest that made it difficult to pull away. But…

“Did you forget something?”

Weiss turned to face Kali and shook her head. “I don’t think so. I just…”

“Everything will kept safe for you,” Kali stepped beside her and gently laid a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll have to move it all into storage because the estate needs the rooms available for guests, but it’ll be here.”

“Of course, I know that. That’s not…” She shook her head. “I didn’t have time to think about it when we left Beacon. We were hurt, tired. Exhausted. Sienna had her people rush us onto the ship as soon as she could.”

“Ah.” Kali nodded. “And now you have the time.”

Weiss nodded. “The last time was when I left Atlas but this is… different.”

010

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 23 teaser There's one more date to be had for the entire crayola polycule to have had their couples time. archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

Growing up in Atlas, Weiss had mostly been used to buildings made of stone, steel, and concrete. She’d never seen many tools but understood they were mostly metal as well. Wood was a touch of luxury seen as panelling or furniture in homes like her family’s. Beacon and Vale had more of a mix given the access the kingdom had to both vast forests and high mountains.

Kuo Kuana by comparison mostly used stone for infrastructure and a few important public buildings like schools and the chieftain’s estate, though those still used a lot of wood in their structure and aesthetic.

The building in front of her was one of those larger stone and wood buildings with two sets of doors, thick wooden ones held perpetually open and beautiful glass ones that visitors to the building passed through as they entered and exited.

As she and Blake walked up to the entrance, they presented an almost monochrome appearance broken only by the touches of midnight blue on Weiss’s outfit and the royal purple in Blake’s.

The simple marquee over the entrance read “Menagerie Museum”.

“I thought that this should be a you and me thing,” Blake reached over to take Weiss’s hand and looked up at the sign with her.

Weiss nodded and turned to Blake. “How long have you been planning to bring me here?”

“For a while, stuff just kept happening.” She said quietly before reaching out for the door and pushed it open for her and Weiss to walk through.

The front room was a wide entrance hall. Photos covered the walls in a scattered, haphazard manner, sometimes alongside a toy, necklace, bit of clothing, or something else hanging from a nail hammered into the walls. Along the floors was a similar collection of items punctuated here and there by candles and flowers in vases or bouquets.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 22 teaser Ironwood appears and rubs everyone the wrong way. CW: bigotry, systemic inaction archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“Ah General Ironwood, what a pleasure to see you at one of my events.”

“I’m sure, Schnee.” The General towered over both her and her father. “Though I’m more surprised that you were able to make time given how many appointments you’ve had to reschedule the last few days.”

“Yes, well one has to make time for one’s children after all.”

Weiss had felt her father’s hand touch her shoulder with uncomfortable weight and grip. Above her, the general looked down at her briefly before looking around the room.

“I see.” He turned and caught one of the other guests by the shoulder. “Excuse me. Do you know what the occasion for this party is?”

The man scoffed and chuckled. “As if you’re not here to cut a deal with our host, General. What other occasion could there be?”

The General turned to look at her father. “Your daughter’s guests are quite attentive.”

“Pfft.” Jacques rolled his eyes. “Certainly, Leroux, you remember that we’re celebrating my daughter’s birthday. Isn’t that right, Weiss?”

“My birthday was last week, Father.” He glared down at her. “I… I awakened my semblance.”

“Oh, of course, that was it. These things blur together you know.” He waved the hand not on Weiss’s shoulder around in the air jovially.

The General turned to look at her. “At such a young age? Is it your grandfather’s semblance?”

Jacques chuckled and stepped forward. “Why yes, it is the family semblance, of course. Why don’t you show them your glyph?”

Weiss nodded and closed her eyes focusing to slowly call a glyph into existence. She released the breath she had been holding and opened her eyes to view the slowly rotating white symbol hanging in the air.

The General nodded and half-smiled. “Good job.” Then he looked back at Jacques. “Now, perhaps we can discuss the contract…”

“But really, semblances aren’t more than a parlor trick these days.” Her father laughed and waved off at the air.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 21 teaser While Ladybug's away, Freezerburn and PennyWeiss shall play.... collaborative card games. archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

Weiss nodded and looked from her cards to the situation on the table. “I have a hand absolutely full of chip damage and debuff, but I think I can get enough plays to use it all. Can either of you give me a boost to get past the Raidmaster’s block?”

“I have enough plays to either boost you or protect the civilians.” Penny pointed to the set of cards marked by a variety of terms like “panicking citizen” or “well-intentioned nuisance”. Penny shook her head. “I do not think I can do both.”

“If we lose any more civilians we have to draw from the Grimm deck again.” Yang leaned back and narrowed her eyes. “I can make everybody that’s not us vulnerable, but I’m last in the turn order. And that’s… everybody.”

Weiss sighed. “Okay, use it or lose it, I guess. I’ll get as much damage as I can out, but it’s mostly going on minor threats.”

Penny nodded. “Well. I am manifesting… is that the correct term this time?” She looked to Yang and Weiss.

“Yup. Go for it.” Yang gave her a thumbs up.

Weiss shrugged and gestured with one hand. “I’m still find with her saying ‘play’.”

“No, no, you have to keep the flavor of the story.” Yang insisted. “Go on manifesting, Penny.”

“Okay. I manifest a Wide Spectrum to make Aura Shield affect a category of target and choose Civilians.” Penny smiled as both cards were placed down. “And now, civilians take no damage until the end of my turn.”

Weiss nodded. “Dash Chain. That triggers a play, so Cleaving Spin on these three. Nothing died so Dash Chain gives me a play. Scattering Lunge on Raidmaster, no damage but reduces his damage next round. Nothing dies so that’s another play…”

“This is the turn that never ends.” Yang sang along, drawing an affectionate glare from Weiss.

“... and I’m out of cards.” Weiss turned to look at Yang and leaned over to her. “So my turn… ends.”

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Just me having a conversation in the comments about how I started to think about being ace consciously while watching Sam de Leve characters on Geek and Sundry Though also it may be due to the number of ace-spectrum friends I have making me aware of it.

My reply to a wordy comment I don't have the char count for:

As it turns out, I (the author) am ace/aro. Also sex indifferent. I refer to myself as the "shipping goblin" variety of ace/aro. My interest begins and ends in fiction.

Commenters reply

You know it just occurs to me if eel like we had a similar conversation in previous comments section lol.

I'm asexual and panromatic. I feel quite the same way, at least in regards to the physical intimacy side of fiction. I've been trying to find more rwby Fanfiction with asexual characters. One of the ones if found, which is about Asexual Yang and her relationship with Winter, actually helped me learn what asexuality is and eventually led me to my own realization.

My next reply:

I think for me it was Sam de Leve on Geek & Sundry and AltHaven

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 20 teaser A faunus festival hosts a PennyWeiss date. archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

The festival took over a market place and most of the surrounding streets. An accordion driven polka currently dominated the auditory experience as a band of Valen faunus were set up on the bandstand in the center of the market place as Penny and Weiss entered and took in the strings of booths circling the market and stretching down the streets.

“Okay! This is my first street festival.” Penny clapped her hands together.

Weiss nodded and stepped in close beside Penny. “Mine too.”

The green-clad red-head paused and turned to look at Weiss. “Oh. I was going to defer to your expertise as to what to do first.”

“Hmm.” Weiss wrapped her arm around Penny’s and scanned the booths while Penny did likewise. “Let’s start over there. I think you’re supposed to do games at these things.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea!”

They picked their way through the crowd coming up to a booth filled with rows and rows of empty bottles. The raccoon faunus at the booth smiled as they reached the counter.

“Hello, would like to try your hand at this challenge? Simply toss these rings so that they land around the neck of the bottles to earn a prize.” He gestured toward the various stuffed animals, hand-fans, and other items. “Doesn’t that sound appealing?” He turned toward Penny. “Maybe you can win something for your…partner, sister, friend?”

“Partner, girlfriend.” Penny nodded. “And absolutely I would like to win Weiss something.”

“Excellent. One play gets you three weighted rings, the bottles are different point values and the rings get harder to throw accurately at a distance…”

Penny and Weiss listened to the instructions calmly at the end of which Penny lifted one of the offered rings and turned it over in her hand smile replaced by a thoughtful look. She turned to Weiss and smiled. “May I have my arm back?”

“Oh, right. Guess you’ll need that to throw with.” Weiss let go of Penny’s arm and chuckled once in embarrassment.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 19 teaser A look at politics in Atlas. archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

The “hometown hero” arched an eyebrow and then turned to another part of the crowd. “And maybe we should address the Grimm at the gates and talk about a military that currently holds two votes on the council.”

The blonde woman paced from one side of the steps to the other. “Maybe it’s time we asked why more funds are diverting to the military at the same time we see fewer guards on the walls. More inspectors diverted away to ‘other tasks’.”

Finding Winter again wasn’t difficult now that she knew what to look for, and she found the woman standing near a small cluster of people on the edge of the crowd. As she walked back in that direction, she glanced toward the slender blue-haired woman behind her and leaned her head aside then waved at the tall, muscular weapon on the other side of the stairs. Finally she tapped the small sheep-faunus with the curly white hair and gestured for her to follow.

“We’re being asked to sacrifice, but we’re not being told what it is we’re meant to be sacrificing for. And I guess that Ironwood is not satisfied with the observations from his security drones because we have an esteemed guest in the crowd, don’t we, Specialist Schnee.”

To Winter’s credit, she did pull back down her hood while the small cluster of people around her scattered. They had all left well before the cameras had scanned through the crowd to find Winter. There was a soft gasp to Robyn’s side and she glanced toward Fiona before turning back to Winter looking up at her face impassive.

“Would you like to stand up here and give your perspective on the situation?”

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 18 teaser A training milestone and some bitter feelings. CW: identity-crisis archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

Penny straightened up and smiled. “That means we hit the criteria of success for this exercise.”

“You are correct.” Sienna rolled her shoulder and stretched out. “Congratulations are in order.”

“Woo!” Yang called out. “Finally.”

“This seems… too easy.” Weiss narrowed her eyes.

“Yes, too easy. After costing you two teammates.” Sienna gestured toward Yang and Blake. “In controlled circumstances.” She gestured around the training ground. “In a scenario that you’ve repeated multiple times.”

Weiss grimaced and shared a sobering look with the rest of the team.

“But also Adam isn’t going to have Ilia and Emerald supporting him.” Ruby pointed across to the green-haired girl.

“But he does have a whole bunch of idiots in Grimm masks that’ll do anything he wants.” Emerald shrugged and then straightened as she realized that Blake, Ilia, and Sienna had all turned to look at her. “Well, I mean… I should know. I followed Cinder after all.”

The sound of footsteps coming up the trail drew Weiss’s attention to a woman with koi skin patterns wearing a White Fang tunic running up the path carrying an envelope in hand. The woman slipped between them and walked up to hand it to Sienna.

Sienna nodded and pulled the report out of the envelope to skim it. “It seems the time I have to give you is about to run out.” She looked up. “Enjoy the rest of the day.” She looked around at them and then at Emerald and Ilia. “Ilia, Emerald, I’ll be talking to you later. Congratulations, Emerald, you might be about to have your first mission.”

“What do you think it is?” Yang drank her soda as she read over the menu.

“Chances are it doesn’t have to do with us.” Ruby reached for a breadstick. “I mean, the White Fang does a lot of things at once, right?”

“If it didn’t have to do with us, she probably wouldn’t have talked to Ilia and Emerald in front of us.” Blake tapped her fingers on the table with a frown and looked deeper into the restaurant. “If so we’ll hear about it.”

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 17 teaser Weiss and Ruby sitting in a changing booth.... archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“Now, Weiss and Ruby please step off the training ground.” Sienna turned from them to the rest of the team. “And the rest of you will we’re going to have our normal end of day spar, with one exception. Ilia join Team RWBY.”

“What but I can fight just fine!” Ruby called out. “I’ve fought with worse injuries.”

“If this were a mission or something else where your life depends on it, sure.” Sienna turned to her. “But this is training, so the healing takes precedence. You and Weiss have a seat over by Emerald and watch. Just don’t distract her. Use it to think of tactics.”

“Okay, yeah, I can do that.” Ruby nodded then paused. “Or maybe I should try to use Crescent Rose one-handed.” She considered. “Or, maybe I should make myself a backup single-hand weapon just in case.”

“A holdout is not a poor idea. But, I would not let you on this spar either way.” Sienna turned toward Ruby and pointed toward the edge of the field. “Go, sit down and watch.”

“Okay. Fine.” Ruby sighed and started walking towards the side of the training field.

Weiss smiled as fell in pace alongside her partner and team-leader. “It’s only for a couple more days.”

As they sat down one bench over away from Emerald, who turned to nod at them before looking back to look where everyone was letting their aura recover and talking tactics off to the side.

Weiss gripped Ruby’s hand, and leaned over. She cleared her throat. “While we’re not going to end the day exhausted. Would you like to go on a date?”

Ruby froze, eyes wide and her hand around Weiss’s gripped in. “Uhh… tonight?”

Weiss shrugged. “I think more tomorrow, so we can check with everybody today after training.”

“Yes.” Ruby nodded and smiled.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 16 teaser A brief look at what else is going on in the world. CW: murder archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“Mr. Schnee, do you have any comment on the recent attempted raid on Menagerie?”

Jacques put on a serious face. “I do indeed. I engaged Rosé du Lac Solutions in an effort to rescue my daughter from the nefarious forces that currently hold her.”

“So you outright admit to sending agents into a foreign nation.”

He turned to look at the reporter. “First of all. I hired Rosé du Lac Solutions but I do not dictate the manner in which they complete their contract.”

Then he laughed.

“And also…foreign nation? Are you serious? It’s Menagerie. They’re little more than an encampment we bribed them with seventy years ago. They’ve never been grateful. And what have they done with it? Little more than harbor terrorists and assassins to strike back at the hands that feed them.”

“Some of the prisoners have been identified as Atlesian military personnel and huntsmen. Do you have anything to say to that?”

Jacques shrugged and smiled under his mustache. “I rather think that’s a question for General Ironwood, don’t you? Now, if you’ll excuse me?”

The thin man tipped his hat with a slight bow and then pushed through into his offices as security barred the way to the reporters seeking to follow him. He strode calmly to the elevator where his assistant had already pressed the button and was holding the doors open for Jacques to step inside with his bodyguard.

As the elevators doors closed, his jovial expression immediately vanished. “Of all the impertinent nonsense. How many shares do we have in that man’s outlet?”

“He’s an independent journalist, sir.”

“Hmph, of course he is.” Jacques narrowed his eyes. “Have someone look into his credentials.”

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 15 teaser Weiss has interviews and appointments to take care of. cw: surgery, mostly implied; financial abuse archiveofourown.org/works/909115... forgot to change 13 to 14 in last post #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“You didn’t have to be here with me.” Weiss turned to the other seats in the waiting room. “We’re taking up a lot of space.”

“Hey, you’d be here if it was me.” Ruby smiled at her.

“You actually were here when it was me.” Penny nodded.

“I was here at the start, I’ll keep with you as long as I can.” Blake gripped her hand and smiled.

Yang stretched out her feet. “This means it will be both you and Ruby on light duty.”

Weiss half-laughed and half-scoffed as she rolled her eyes. Then she turned to smile at the blonde. “We’ll try not to fall too far behind.”

“Weiss Schnee?”

The name echoed, and she looked at the door where the nurse stood underneath the television, where an image of her sat in a chair, hands folded on her lap.

“Yes, that’s me. I’ll be right there.” She stood up, looked at her team. “Wish me luck.”

-----------------------------

Weiss kept her mask on in front of the interviewers, rubbing her claws together hidden underneath one of her hands. Sure, several people in the room could hear them scraping, but people watching the video wouldn’t pick it up.

“Hello. I’m sorry but I can’t exactly say I’m happy to be here, Ms Citrus.” Weiss adjusted her posture slightly. “This is not a very comfortable topic to be airing out in public.”

What the video would pick up is the blue jacket with the prominent Schnee crest on her right shoulder. She half-turned to calmly look at the camera placed specifically to make the crest stand out and then back to the the people across from her.

A broad-shouldered man with a tightly manicured beard and a woman with chin-length lavender hair and amber eyes sat either side of a woman with antlers and blonde hair with stray green strands peeking out at the edges.

It reminded Weiss of Ruby’s hair and the way the black would bury her red-hair until you brushed your hand through it.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 13 teaser A peek into Sienna's tastes in cinema. archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“I have not yet been a part of movie night.” Penny watched the process of Sienna looking through her discs.

“Oh, that’s right.” Weiss lifted her head up from Penny’s shoulder to look at her. “You were in the Atlas dorms when we were doing this with team JNPR.”

“So, you were holding movie nights while spying on us spying on you?” Emerald sat leaning into a corner of the couch. Ilia walked over with a bowl of popcorn to sit down and share it with her.

“You know it!” Yang smiled and winked at her, lifting a hand from Blake’s shoulder to give the illusionist a thumb’s up.

“We only really had two movie nights.” Blake thought about it. “The first one was a combination of Ruby and Nora spurred on by artistic snobbery.”

Weiss playfully smacked Blake on the shoulder. “Hey, I am not a movie snob. I am a cinephile. And Nora did…” she twisted her head. “Prove her point.”

“Gasp!” Ruby half rose from lying back into Blake’s lap and stared past her sister at Weiss. “And she’s not even here to hear you say it.”

“Leave her alone.” Blake reached out to ruffle Ruby’s hair. “She’s come a long way.”

Yang chuckled as Ruby lay back down into Blake. “Anyway, the first movie night was all Nora movies. The second was all Weiss picks.”

“Well, I hope you don’t mind some old fogey picks tonight.” Ghira noted as he sat near the back with Kali and turned to look at his daughter currently with one sister in her lap and the other sister with an arm around her shoulder.

Blake smirked back at her father and then looked past Yang to Weiss. “The most recent movie Weiss showed us was A Gifted Landing. And Nora’s picks ranged from fifteen to sixty years old.”

“Can we help it if we prefer proven masters?” Weiss asked.

“Okay, I stand corrected.” Ghira smiled.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 13 teaser So, Jacques's sent a "rescue party". They're probably going to need a rescue themselves. archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“Everyone remember, we have two primary targets and one secondary. Everyone else is unimportant.”

The speaker reached up to grip a bar overhead as the Bullhead flew through the air. He wore a dusty blue bomber jacket over an ash grey tactical vest and white shirt. A shotgun club of pristine steel hung off his belt as he spoke.

“All three of these kids are active aura-users with experience fighting Grimm, as are their team members. So do not take them lightly.” He pointed out the side of the vehicle to the shuttle that was wheeling around to land below and then the other direction to the second bullhead. “The plan is to overwhelm them with surprise and then bring them to the shuttle for quick transit north.”

“Are there any questions?”

As soon as he said that, a beam of bright green light sliced through the left wing of the shuttle turning its approach into a crash landing. Out the other side, the second bullhead’s engines were suddenly crackling with yellow lightning as they smoked out and that craft quickly lost altitude.

“Oh, bloody...” Someone said a moment before swirling circular symbols surrounded their craft and launched icicles into several vital parts of the craft.

--------------------------------------------------------------

The wind rushed through Weiss’s hair as she made herself a spear to reduce air resistance as she watched the tumbling air-craft below her getting progressively larger. As she came level with it and eyed the mercenaries struggling to get some sort of hold of the situation she summoned a gravity glyph and flipped to catch her feet on it. As she was launched outward, she saw Gambol Shroud wrap around the wing giving Blake an avenue to join her.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 12 teaser Team RWBY talks about communication and training. archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

Penny blinked and looked around at the interactions. “Are we still talking about the exercise?”

Weiss turned to Yang. “If this is about the other night, I encouraged you to go out. You all had fun, and I was fine.”

“Yeah, but there’s no real rush either.” Blake pointed out. “We’re busy for a week and have to wait, but there’ll be other chances. Besides, that’s just the most recent thing. I know I’ve let myself fall out of the group once or twice while we’ve been here. I think Ruby has too.”

“Sometimes, I just don’t want to be anybody’s problem.” Ruby bit the corner of her mouth and looked away.

Weiss turned to look at her and tried to think of the times she’d seen the other girl… and the times she hadn’t. “Ruby, no, you’re not a problem.”

Yang watched her sister and looked around. “Okay, we’ve been lucky the last couple of months that the only times there’s been a problem, we’ve been on hand to help out. But yeah, we’re not keeping checked in as well as we did in Beacon.”

“It was easier in the dorm.” Ruby stared at the piece of broccoli on her fork a moment before eating it. “We saw each other at the end of each night and could check in.”

Weiss considered that a moment and nodded. “The separate rooms might be bringing back… certain bad habits.”

Penny frowned as she thought that through and tilted her head as she looked at Weiss. “What bad habits are you speaking about?”

“Well I’m going to guess that Weiss is like and sometimes feels solitude is safer…” Blake let her voice trail off.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 11 teaser Sienna has her own things to deal with. archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“The mission has been completed, Madam Khan.” Trifa stepped forward and handed her a packet of files which she accepted.

“Ma’am is plenty good enough.” Sienna took the files in question.

“The intel you had for me was very good, Mada….ma’am.” The spider faunus commented. “And I don’t think I’ve seen forged identification nearly as good as these.”

Sienna smiled. “Don’t get used to them. If we make too frequent use it’ll mean undue risk to the asset. Give me your overall report. What did you learn as an intern?”

“The director hires and promotes primarily by means of nepotism.” She nervously licked her lips. “There are a few team members and one manager that predate her promotion. He is desperate to catch his boss in some manner of wrongdoing but he hasn’t yet learned that one of her nephews is currently embezzling money from the company.”

Sienna nodded. “Excellent work, some leading words at the right time and the embezzlement begins to look like bribery. Stealing they’d brush under the rug and handle quietly, but betrayal they will want to make a public example of. A few more things like this and we can get Jacques' inner circle to start tearing itself apart and leave our hands clean. How clean was your exit?”

“Oh, I insulted the director’s darling boy.” Trifa smiled. “I got fired.”

“Good, I’ll pass this on to other hands from this point. Get some downtime in while you’re here in Menagerie.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The woman half-bowed before turning around and leaving the room.

And with that, Sienna turned to another set of files. Charted routes and manifests submitted to the Atlas trade commission. Everything she needed to know which ships or flights to prioritize and where might be the best place for an ambush.

000

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 10 teaser Weiss stays at the estate while the rest of her team go on dates. archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“Are you going to be all right here by yourself?”

Blake and Yang stood at the door looking back at her. The both of them were dressed for dancing which was mostly their combat togs, but with Blake’s long white duster replaced with a windbreaker and Yang’s crop top traded out for a silk blouse.

“Yeah, we kind of should have double checked our plans with Ruby and Penny’s.” Yang scratched the back of her head.

Weiss smiled and waved them off. “I’m not here alone, Blake’s parents are here. We can have a threesome date later.”

Blake and Yang immediately started flushing and Weiss closed her eyes, holding out a hand, and giving her head a slight shake.

“Please forget I phrased it that way.”

Blake chuckled stepped up to Weiss side, hesitated for a moment, and then took her hand to lift it up and kiss her palm, the heat lingered and seemed to spread through hand and down her arm.

“I… “ she flushed. “I am definitely forgetting you said that.”

Weiss scoffed with an embarrassed smile while Yang laughed and stepped up to hug her and kiss her on the cheek and started another flush of heat. “Yep, not forgetting anything you said.”

“Mr. Belladonna is going to come down the hallway and hear us talking about that and glower.”

Weiss leaned in to kiss Yang’s lips and then turned to Blake, hugging the other faunus and kissing a patch of bare shoulder between her top’s straps and the jacket.

“Or Mrs. Belladonna will plan the wedding.”

Blake cleared her throat nervously. “No, I’m pretty sure she’d lecture us... and then picture the wedding privately.”

Then she stepped back and waved them off with a smile.

“Go, go. I’m fine. Enjoy your evening.”

She watched them down the stairs and through the trees before turning inside and closing the vast door behind her.

000

Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 9 teaser Meeting with Sienna and make-up for friends. archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

Weiss sat in a chair looking across Ghira’s office to where Sienna sat, hands and fingers folded together over her lap. Looking to her right, she saw Ghira sitting at his desk, arms crossed with Kali sitting next to him with a demure posture, but head turned to watch Sienna. Weiss managed her own straight backed posture herself and kept her mask up while letting her claws slowly rub together.

“Now, I fully expect you to consult with your…” Sienna smiled slightly. “Team, immediately after this, but I’m hoping to keep the number of voices down for the moment.”

“If we start to think this is getting too much for you, we’re putting a stop to it.” Kali turned to look at Weiss and nodded before looking back at Sienna. “Is that understood?”

“Absolutely. I have no intention of asking her to do anything she is incapable of.” Sienna turned from Kali back to Weiss. “And I know these wounds are still fresh.”

“And what is it you are asking me to do?” Weiss kept her voice and manner mild as she spoke.

“I’d like you to share your story. The true story.”

Weiss resisted the urge to swallow, but she did feel her heartbeat a bit faster and for a moment her claws had stilled.

“With Atlas?”

Her voice was steady, that was good.

“Primarily, yes. But eventually everybody.” Sienna lifted one of her hands and gestured out toward Weiss. “You’d only have to be involved once and most of what we need we can get from records. I believe Vale may still have records of your medical exams there. We’ll just need to navigate a few Grimm to reach the hard files.”

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

When art suggestions came up for #monsteroftheweek SSK and HJ from @evilhat.bsky.social I suggested a piece showing characters inspired by Elvira and Doll Parton for a move called Benevolence to show case that both light and dark can be benevolent #dollyparton #RIPDollyparton

blonde woman in a bright country-singer outfit next to a dark-haired woman in a black evening dress channel a power to drive away a host of monsters.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 8 teaser A bit of training and a conversation with a prior acquaintance. archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

Weiss stepped off the practice field, walked over to the vending machine to grab a bottle of water, and then found a seat. Looking up she watched the monitors above to see how her teammates were tackling the obstacle course, putting the worries about her father aside for the moment.

“Aren’t you that Schnee…”

Weiss sighed and turned around to look at the red-panda faunus girl seated a few seats down. “If you ask if I’m the Schnee heiress I’m going to….” she thought about it. “I’ll probably just stand up and find somewhere else to sit. Just please don’t, everyone asks that and it was never true.”

“Hey, I was just going to ask if you’re that Schnee faunus.”

“I apologize, things have been stressful lately.” She took a drink and turned back to the monitors.

Blake was about two-thirds of the way through her run, Ruby was not quite half-way through and catching up.

“Stressful? What did your allowance not come in?”

Weiss rolled her eyes and shook her head, turning to the other girl. “Do you watch Atlas TV?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Well, that’s a no.” Weiss scoffed and shook her head. “What’s your name?”

“Eme…Ember.”

She didn’t like to think she was turning paranoid, but that stutter bothered Weiss for a moment. Shaking her head, she waved it off. “Okay, Ember. You’re not a friend, or confidante, or anything like that. So, I’m not going to tell you anything more than ‘stressful’. Does that make sense to you?”

“All right, all right, I get it.” The girl held out her hands and shook her head. “I’ll leave you alone.”

“Thank you.”

She took a drink of water and scanned through the monitors to find the one showing the start of the course. Yang and Penny were standing back waiting for their turns. Someone else pushed away from the waiting area up to the start of the course.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Got some commissioned fan art from NilusArt www.tumblr.com/nilusart This is from near the end of the very first part of the fic: archiveofourown.org/works/88979401 #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“What’s going on?” Weiss snapped. “Will someone just tell me?”

“Blake.” Velvet said softly. “Um, Blake. It.. it might be better coming from you.”

The cat faunus nodded and gathered herself up. She stood and paced back and forth a couple of times.

“Blake for goodness sake, just tell us what’s going on.” Yang insisted.

The black-haired huntress turned around and nodded. She took a deep breath and stood back to avoid looming over her irritated teammate. “Umm… Weiss. You’re a faunus.”

Yang blinked and toppled off her chair while Ruby’s eyes widened and looked between Weiss and Blake.

Weiss stared and blinked a few times. “Excuse me? What kind of joke is that?”

“It’s not a joke.” Velvet leaned down and hesitantly reached for the white-haired girl's hands. “You have claws, Weiss.”

Weiss slowly pulled her hands out of Velvet’s. “I just drink a lot of milk.”

“Ruby, can you show her your hands please?” Blake asked.

“Umm… sure.” The younger hunter stepped over hesitantly and held out her hands.

“Look at those nails and look at yours,” Velvet pointed. “In fact, here’s mine.” The rabbit faunus held out her own hands next to Ruby’s and then looked over to Yang and Blake. “You too.”

Blake immediately stepped forward and reached in, placing her own hand next to Velvet’s and Ruby’s. A moment later, Yang was leaning in with her own hand. Four hands with simple nails compared to Weiss's tiny blades.

Weiss scanned the hands in front of her and then looked at her own, comparing the thick and sharp nails she’d had all her life. She’d never really thought of it before, if you weren’t looking for it there wasn’t much difference and the nail-polish made them fit in even more, but it was increasingly harder with each passing moment to accept that the difference that was there only came from drinking a lot of milk.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 7 teaser A particularly vile move on Jacques's part. CW: media abuse, public humiliation, identity-denial, gaslighting, identity crisis archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“So, it is with a heavy heart that we must report that the young Miss Schnee has fallen prey to some dire emotional manipulations.”

She gritted her teeth under her closed lips and narrowed her eyes and started to curl her hands in. Yang gave her a hand to hold and reached around her shoulders with the other, though that left her hand free. She consciously pressed the tips of her fingers against the heel of her palm so that the claws stretched past her skin and then refocused on the show.

“In retrospect, the delusion must have started fairly early.”

Her father was the picture of a remorseful father worried about a misled daughter as he sat on a chair in a blank room to speak to an off-screen interviewer.

“As soon as she was out of our reach and in the influence of… questionable sorts, it ramped up.”

The show shifted from her father into an extended piece discussing making Ozpin out to be a very shady individual. Honestly, Weiss couldn’t fault them for seeing Ozpin as shady, but running a network of hunters, world leaders, and hunters to combat a conspiracy that seemed to revere grimm was a far different sort of shady than what these people were painting.

“You’re already watching.”

Weiss turned away from a litany of Ozpin’s pro-faunus activities, made as sinister as possible, to see Ghira Belladonna walking into the room ahead of the rest of the group. Though Weiss recognized the burst of petals that was Ruby in a rush heading for the kitchen.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 6 teaser A look into some of Penny's perspectives and developments. CW: identity crisis, self-doubt archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

“Okay, how does it feel?”

It felt like it wasn’t her. That’s what it felt like. Especially after the engineer had had to scrap more of her body in order to reach a point where he could attach the interim limbs. She flexed the fingers of her new arm and tried to ignore how naked and weak it felt as she watched the interplay of levers and gears.

The legs weren’t any better. They held up her body weight… okay, but she could tell they were made for a real body, not a metal one like hers. There would be limits as to what she could accomplish without breaking either them or the replacement arm.

And it felt so… uncomfortable to walk around basically on her skeleton and nothing else. The new limbs lacked the artificial skin covering and had almost no sensory feedback beyond a very basic degree of proprioception.

It just didn’t feel like her.

“It feels great, thank you!”

“Good. Go ahead and walk around for a while to get a feel for it and tell me if there are any problems.” The engineer turned to his tools and started to clean them up.

“Thank you, sir.”

Penny smiled and walked to the door feeling like she was floating across the ground while getting poked by a spike of pressure up from the ground every so often. She reached out for the door with her preferred hand and did not like the feeling of that exposed metal skeleton gripping the handle. So she let the arm fall back and switched to opening it up with her arm.

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Thrythlind (He/Him/They) - Basic necessities shouldn't bankrupt @thrythlind.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Not who I was expected to be - chapter 5 teaser Awkward hammocks and blending flavors. archiveofourown.org/works/909115... #RWBY #fanfiction #RWBYsky #writesky #writing #WeissSchnee #FaunusWeiss

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