The Vale Voice - Commentary - Ch. 5-6 (Patreon)

Back again with another commentary!  I’m always surprised when it’s time to write another one, but it means that we’re steadily making our way through yet another story.  I told you this one was slow paced!  Like, really slow paced.  But we’re already over a quarter of the way though, so there will be a little more action soon.

I use ‘action’ lightly since this is a story about a newspaper…but you probably know what I mean!  You can kind of feel it already, right?  There’s been more interactions between Yang and Blake, which is really about all we want to see.

Expect plenty more to come!  They’re about to be spending a lot of time together.

But I wanted to point out another couple - well, not official couple - who are spending quite a lot of time together.

Have you noticed that every time Velvet leaves, Sun seems to be running out after her?  They also walk into work together, and are always chatting?  Well, I’m not going to say that they’re into each other because I actually haven’t decided if they are or not.  What I’m saying is that if you wanted to think of them as more than friends, it...might not be inappropriate to do so.

They’re definitely not dating or anything, seeing as how Sun’s constantly asking Blake on dates.  But he spends an awful lot of time with Velvet too.

I’m a big Crosshares fan, but Coco isn’t in this story.  And Sun’s a nice guy!  Velvet deserves a nice guy.

But right now, nice guy has asked Blake out about fifteen times...

Anyway...keep an eye out for all the times Sun’s chasing after Velvet!  It happens with surprising regularity.

Something else playing out in the background?  Victor sneakily teaching Blake new words (and, by proxy, teaching us new words!).  I actually did some google searches for ‘most complicated words’ then created a list on my phone to pull from whenever Victor showed up.  I learned quite a few new words on my own just by doing that!

Don’t think too hard on how the words would fit into a single article though...I considered making them actually fit with some sort of political context, then I decided that I’d rather just keep writing.  Lazy author syndrome strikes again!

You know who’s not lazy though?  Yang.  Poor Yang.  All she wants to do is be helpful, yet her new boss judged her from the second she set foot into the office.  She’s making the best of it though, right?  I definitely consider her to be a really hard worker, and someone who will hunker down and work super hard if/when needed.  

In this case, her hard work is paying off because Blake notices it and is impressed by it.  It’s just ironic how Blake phrases it - impressive for a human.

Blake is basically walking irony in this story, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise to us.  I found it especially funny that everyone else sees it.  I’ve mentioned before, but it’s actually kind of fun to make the main character so in the dark about themselves.  That’s one of the things that made writing from only Blake’s POV so rewarding.  She can’t judge herself correctly at all, and we don’t even get Yang’s POV to help us see what everyone else sees.

Instead, we just get glimpses through the words and actions of everyone else.  For example, we have Velvet mouthing ‘be nice’ when Blake offers to show Yang how The Voice is printed.  There’s also the awkward silence when the two of them walk out of the office, where Yang is basically trying not to say something that accidentally makes Blake upset.

Then Yang comes right out and says what she feels - that Blake thinks she’s a horrible person.  Can you imagine?  She’s been there all of one day, and that’s how she’s interpreted Blake’s behavior towards her.

On the other hand, Chapter 5 gives us some glimpses into how other people view Yang.  Blake is obviously still hesitant and guarded, but that’s not at all how the rest of the world treats Yang.

I just realized how much of a shock this must have been for her then.  She’s beautiful, friendly, and open-minded, yet none of that matters to Blake.  Blake just looks at her and is like, “Hmm...nope.  Bad person,” and Yang’s too-big heart cracks a little bit.  Which probably explains why she’s trying so hard?  She’s determined to prove that she’s not who Blake thinks she is.

In the meantime, going to the printer brings a little bit of normalcy back in her life.  Mainly, she gets hit on by random Faunus boys.

Ah normalcy…

Blake’s reaction to Vince’s hitting on Yang was funny but also kind of...sad.  Especially when she thinks this:

Part of that surprise might be because it seemed like Yang lived an exceptionally fortunate life.  Why would she make it difficult by adding a Faunus to it?

Then she admits that she’s never considered dating a human because she doesn’t think a human could ever understand her.  Obviously, being understood is something she desperately wants and needs.  Especially when she’s such an intellectual - can you imagine her trying to date someone who couldn’t ‘get’ her?

At the same time, she’s kind of annoyed that Vincent is being ‘shallow’ and flirting with Yang just because she’s pretty.  Blake has no problem admitting that Yang’s pretty, at least!  She’s still off-base on basically everything else though, including when she says that the two of them spending time together outside of work would be “uncomfortable for them both.”

Well, maybe it would be uncomfortable for them at this point in time, though I’m pretty sure that Yang would’ve made it work.  Maybe Blake would have even had some fun!  Something that’s sorely lacking in her life at the moment…

As a little sidenote, I had to watch videos to figure out how printing a newspaper works, which is why we have a little bit of detail about the process.  I’ve said before that normally I just spitball my way through things like that, but I discovered that I knew nothing about what it would even look like.  That’s what YouTube is for, right?  Watch a three-minute video, then I’m a pro!

Also, continuing the irony of very minor side characters having more meaningful names than more important OCs, I named our two printing experts after painters!

...why didn’t I name them after the guys who actually invented/modernized the printing press?  What the frick?  I went with painters??

Forget what I said about their names being meaningful…

I could’ve named them Martin and Johannes!  Well...next time, I guess...

Moving on to Chapter 6, where our doom-and-gloom situation finally happens - Brand returns from his vacation!  Blake is very, very worried about how Brand will take Yang’s presence (project much, Blake?), and we see a little bit why.

He wasn’t exactly thrilled, was he?  

I think what’s most fascinating though is that he appeals to Blake ‘as a kindred spirit’ because he knows that she shares some of his ideals.  But he’s also, in ways, more reasonable than Blake is.  He agrees to be professional because it’s a workplace, and I have no doubt that he might have been terse but helpful as needed.

Of course, none of that was needed because he and Yang have a common friend - his daughter!

So this twist was something I couldn’t do with Adam.  Adam continued hating Yang no matter what she did or how much she proved herself.  It was a really angsty and depressing idea to follow.

With Brand, however, I found another opportunity to show Blake that the world isn’t how she sees it.  Here’s the man who she suspects to be most upset about Yang working with them, and he becomes a big teddy bear as soon as he learns that Yang coached his daughter’s little league team.

Grizzell actually wasn’t his daughter’s name until right before I started posting.  Originally, I used Hazel.  I think it’s such a cute name, and I loved it!  Then someone pointed out that it’s the same name as one of the RWBY villains...which is such a bummer!

I considered using it still, but I couldn’t use a villain name for a cute little bear Faunus.  I really loved the nickname “Zel” though, which is why I settled on Grizzell in the end.  It let me keep the nickname, although with an additional  ‘L’, and is somewhat connected to grizzly, as in grizzly bear.  

Win-win, I suppose.  But villains shouldn’t get cool names!

Anyway, I like to think of Chapter 6 as a bit of a turning point in how Blake thinks about Yang.  Her stance is softening a bit, don’t you think?  First, she admits that Yang’s pretty organized, then she even tells Brand that Yang is ‘a nice person.’

Baby steps, but it’s progress all the same!

Another interesting (to me, at least) part of this chapter is how Weiss is approached by both Yang and Blake.  Obviously, you know that this is a Bumbleby story, so you aren’t expecting Weiss to be any sort of love interest (also because you know I wouldn’t write something like that).  

Blake, however, doesn’t know this.  So to her, the comments Yang makes about Weiss come off as super friendly or as two people who are ‘close.’   How close is something Blake’s starting to wonder about, as we see in this chapter.  

Yang, meanwhile, is putting in some good words on Weiss’ behalf.  I think I mentioned before that Weiss in this story is basically...further along in her maturation/already living with positive influences.  That’s what makes her and Blake so different right now, as Blake hasn’t yet found that influence for herself (gee, wonder who that will be…).

Through Yang’s comments, we see more of the type of person Weiss currently is.  She’s basically post-story Weiss already - i.e. she’s already learned all her lessons and become a better, more philanthropic person.  She’s paying little league teams to get jerseys, she’s giving The Voice a chance even though Blake was a little rude…

But, as Yang puts it, “she’s not what anyone thinks of her.”  This implies that other people mistakenly think of Weiss as being difficult to deal with, which seems to be a perception Yang hopes to change.

I think the most important part of all the little comments is what Blake takes from it: 

[Weiss’] actions didn’t mesh with the image in Blake’s mind, but it was the same person...just seen through different eyes.

The lesson here being that people can be different depending on how well you know them!  From her five-minute meeting with Weiss, she drew certain conclusions about the type of person Weiss was.  Yang, however, has a much different view of Weiss because they’re close.  She’s been able to see what Weiss says and does under different situations.

At the moment though, the ones who need to get to know each other better are Blake and Yang.  Yang’s getting to know Blake a little better, right?  She knows that Blake likes tuna sandwiches, and that she hardly eats in the office, and that she’s memorized all of her coworkers’ lunch orders.

And that she doesn’t like having humans in the office, but hopefully she can change that perception after not too long.

Before we wrap up, there was a teeny, tiny What Defines Us reference in Chapter 6.  Tiny!  Like, so tiny that I might actually be wrong in calling it a reference.  So...you can fact check my memory.  Here it is:

“It was awesome.   Although, she ate like three things of cotton candy and nearly puked on the spinning teacup ride...but, other than that, we had a blast.” 

According to what I remember of WDU, Yang and Ruby go on the spinning teacup ride when they go to the carnival with Weiss.  Now here’s where my memory gets fuzzy...I think that Weiss doesn’t go on the ride due to a rather unfortunate previous experience where Ruby might have spun the teacup too fast.  Right?  I think I’m right.  

The other option is that Ruby was the one who got sick on the ride, but she doesn’t remember so willingly goes on it again with Yang.  Weiss, who clearly remembers, opts not to repeat that moment.  She’s trying to make her way back into Ruby’s life - puking at the fair probably isn’t the early impression she wants to have.

Although, that would earn her quite a bit of Ruby’s loving, affectionate energy in a heartbeat.  If Weiss got sick, Ruby would definitely forgo the rest of the carnival in favor of making sure Weiss got better.  Can’t you just imagine them sitting there talking while Weiss’ stomach settles down?  And Weiss is like ‘why, god, why’ while Ruby assures her that it’s no big deal?

Kind, supportive Ruby for the win!

I kind of miss that story now…

Anyway, we’ve reached the end of this commentary, but there are more chapters and stories to come!  We have what I refer to as the ‘White Rose kisses’ story going on Wednesdays in addition to The Vale Voice on Saturdays now.  I’m currently working on my entry for White Rose Week, which is another story connecting the seven different prompts for the seven days.  After that...I’m not really sure what I’ll work on!  Finish zombie story?  Pick up Queens of Remnant again?

I guess we’ll see when I get there!

Until next time, 

Miko