Conflict of Interest - Commentary - Ch. 1-2 (Patreon)

Sal-u-tations everyone!  Now that Star-Crossed is in the books, we’re moving right along to a new story - this time, some long-awaited (by some people at least) White Rose.  Not just any White Rose though.  This is the same White Rose seen in Dream Theory, who other people seemed to love just as much as I did.

You know how side characters are sometimes so good that they get their own show?  That’s what happened here!  Except I really hope this doesn’t go the way of duds like Joey (what a disappointment!) or That 80s Show (never watched it, but it sounds like a bad idea).

As I mentioned before, while writing Dream Theory I couldn’t help but imagine Weiss and Ruby’s story a little bit.  How does a sharp, ambitious defense attorney end up hopelessly in love with a sweet-as-could-be tech genius?  That was a story I could get behind - and obviously did, since you’re now reading the result of that effort.

When I started writing Dream Theory though, this wasn’t going to happen.  Weiss was actually going to be a prosecutor - that way she, Ruby, and Yang worked on the same side of the law.  I think this is how I often do it so they’re all on the same ‘team,’ so to speak.

Then I got to thinking...prosecutors don’t make much money.  Would Weiss, without Ruby’s influence, really seek out a job like that?  Under certain circumstances, sure.  But, since she wasn’t the focal point of Dream Theory, I didn’t want to change her base character too much.  That meant she kept the wealthy upbringing, influential family, and drive to succeed.

Essentially, she’s closer to V1 Weiss than anything else.  And would V1 Weiss accept a low-paid prosecutor’s job?  Or would she strive for something way more lucrative with the chance to make a serious name for herself?  (I think this is similar to asking if V1 Weiss would choose Jaune or Pyrrha as a partner.)

Defense attorney fit her so much better, so that’s what I gave her.

Thinking about it now...was it easier to create a forbidden love story or just explain that she and Ruby met in school so Ruby influenced her to join the police?  That’s probably a wash in terms of difficulty.  In terms of excitement, however…

And that’s how we ended up with Weiss and Ruby on opposite sides of the law.

As you noticed from the first two chapters, we’re going to have both POVs in this story too!  I briefly considered only writing Ruby’s because I don’t think I’ve written a full story just from Ruby’s POV yet.  That’s why the first chapter is Ruby’s POV!  (Interesting - I hardly ever think about why a certain character should get POV for the first chapter.  That’s something my brain decides without consulting me.)

So I was all psyched up to - finally - write an entire story from Ruby’s POV.  Unfortunately, someone named Weiss Schnee exists, and Weiss Schnee happens to be my favorite character to write.  How could I possibly leave her out?  Especially when I loved the Dream Theory version of her so much?

Plans for an all-Ruby story were quickly abandoned.  And, honestly, I can’t see myself ever writing an all-Ruby fic anytime soon.  Unless forgoing Weiss’ POV played a large role in a story, for some reason…

Let’s not try to come up with a way to do that.  Let’s move on!

Since we’re still at the very beginning of the story, I don’t have a whole lot to point out yet (or can’t point it out without spoiling something).  Something I’m excited for people to see is how this story connects with Dream Theory, especially as we see Yang through Ruby’s eyes and see Ruby’s work through Ruby’s eyes.

I adore Ruby’s attitude in both of these stories.  She’s older, more mature, and confident.  As we see in Chapter 1, she’s basically reached the point where she’s so good at her job that she’s bored.  We know from Dream Theory that she does some incredible, cutting-edge stuff with those computers of hers, but from her point-of-view...she’s bored.

How could that possibly be?  Just how smart is she?

One of Ruby’s life philosophies in this story is something I really believe in: “She knew she could accomplish whatever she set her mind to if only she had infinite time.”  While I don’t feel that to the extreme Ruby does, I do believe that we can all accomplish amazing things if we dedicate the time and put our minds to it.  (Obviously, there are exceptions - like if we don’t have the resources.  I could be smart enough to send myself to Mars, but I kind of need the money too!)

I gave this mentality to Ruby because I think it fits where she’s at and who she’s become perfectly.  She can learn anything she wants to - there’s just a lot of things she doesn’t want to.

Random note because I didn’t really highlight in the story - but Ruby wears a glove to help her interact with her computers faster.  I threw this into Dream Theory as a nod to What Defines Us, where she created Thorn to help her compensate for losing strength in her hand.  Left hand, I believe it was?  Or maybe her right hand, since she’s left-handed?

When I can’t remember details like this, I try to think of what I’d do today if writing the same story.  Would I take away Ruby’s ability to use her dominant, left hand?  Or would I show pity and have it be her right hand, allowing her to write, eat, etc. but knowing it will still be impossible for her to swing Crescent Rose?

This is a hard one.  Today, I think I would show some mercy.  Given what I remember of WDU though...I probably didn’t.  Plus, whenever I imagine Ruby putting on the glove, she’s pulling it onto her left hand.  Is that just my brain feeding me wrong information?

I’m going to assume I was more evil then than I am now, and say it’s her left hand.  Final answer.  (If someone wants to check me on that, that’d be great XD)

It’s interesting to have a story where everyone already knows the ending.  You’ve actually seen their ‘epilogue,’ in a sense, by reading Dream Theory.  If Conflict of Interest is letters A through E of their story, then Dream Theory could be J through M or something.  That means there’s still a gap I needed to bridge between what information is provided in Conflict of Interest and what we already had from Dream Theory.

Most of that information, I discovered, has to do with how they keep their relationship a secret.  You might see little hints scattered here and there, like this one:

Once her information cleared the protocols she’d personally written, he waved her through the body scanner and nodded when it didn’t make a sound.

Ruby’s so smart, she’s essentially, kind of, in charge of writing security protocols.  She must know the Justice Center inside and out.

The end of Chapter 1 is their first meeting!  Well, not really.  That’s also an interesting part about this story - they already know each other.

They aren’t introducing themselves for the very first time.  They’re actually already pretty familiar with each other - at least with each other’s work.  This means that they already have pre-conceived notions of each other that are more heavily-ingrained than ‘Yeah, I’ve seen her around sometimes.’  They’ve more than seen each other around sometimes; their paths could have crossed countless times over the 3+ years Ruby’s worked at Vale PD.

If we say they see each other maybe...once a week...that’s still nearly 200 interactions so far.  Can you think of someone you’ve had 200 interactions with, even if it’s just a short conversation or even hostile in nature?  At that point, I think I would have a lot of opinions on that person - and such is the case here.

What I really liked about Ruby being an expert witness and Weiss being the defense attorney is that they can both ‘win.’  If Ruby was a member of the prosecution, one of them would have to win or lose every single case.  Because Ruby’s only one part of the case, however, she can totally nail her work, do an awesome job, be amazing...and Weiss can still win.

That’s what happens in Chapter 2.  Ruby ‘schooled’ Weiss on the tech side of things, but Weiss still wins the case because she’s better than the prosecutor.  Of course Ruby would like the police department to win every case, but she accepts that can’t always happen.

Weiss, on the other hand...is a little less accepting of the idea she can’t win every case.  Actually, she’s not just unaccepting of the notion - she wouldn’t even consider it.  Is 100% a possibility?  Of course.  Otherwise, why would it even be an option?  And if it’s an option, she can do it.

Honestly, I can’t adequately describe how much I love Weiss in this story.  I love her attitude, I love her inner monologue as she puts down almost everyone in her path, I love how full of herself she is - I love everything!  She’s successful, smart, wealthy - she knows it, and she’s not afraid to say it.

I can just imagine her sitting in her fancy car - probably something like a silver Tesla - listening to classical music, being driven to work like a princess while the rest of the world falls apart outside the window.  Remember from Dream Theory that most people in Vale don’t drive anymore because cars are too expensive and space is limited; they take trains or walk instead.  This is just one way that Weiss sets herself above everyone else in a clear, obvious way.  She’s earned it, right?

The first chapters for both of them serve as introductions to their lives.  We see Ruby’s work and her relationship with Yang.  Then we see Weiss’ work, and her relationship with her...colleagues.  I guess that’s a good term for them.  (Weiss would probably call them idiots, simpletons, or a blight upon society.)

I used OCs for Weiss’ coworkers for the same reason I usually do - I wanted them to be blank slates versus RWBY characters we already have opinions attached to.  That doesn’t mean we have to have good opinions about these OCs though.  Some OCs are meant to be disliked!

Weiss told us in Dream Theory that she works with ‘sharks,’ and made it clear on several occasions that she’s not fond of them.  Well...now we get to see and experience exactly why she doesn’t like them.

Her life philosophy is very different from Ruby’s.  She thinks more along the lines of ‘I can win anything’ versus ‘I can do anything.’  From this first chapter alone, I think we all get a sense of the type of person she is - the one who’ll refuse to concede any argument even if they’re clearly on the losing side.  She never loses.  She just doesn't win right away.

But she also has the intelligence to back it up.  I bet she’s convinced more than a few people to walk away from their side of the argument even when they were winning, because they didn’t realize they were winning.

I wanted the first two chapters to show that Weiss and Ruby are both exceptionally bright and successful in their own right.  They’re at the top of their fields, respected (or feared, in Weiss’ case), and have great careers.  Yet...something’s missing in their lives.  I wonder what (or who) that could be…

I’m really excited for you to see how they start changing each other, and how they ultimately become the awesome couple we read about in Dream Theory.  Mostly, I’m just excited for you to see more of these really fun versions of some of our favorite characters.

This story is 23 total chapters, clocking in at about 110k words.  We have a long way to go yet, so get ready for some White Rose hijinks!

One last thing before signing off for the week - in case you haven’t seen on Tumblr, Discord, etc., a friend of mine recently started White Rose/RWBY fandom podcast, and I was lucky enough to be on one of the episodes.  If you’d like to give it a listen, here’s a link:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1JjTWs2LoUZooKTy7Ab7Vo?si=MUCK5574Ts61iaRN83pLSA

It was a lot of fun, and maybe I can do some other things like this in the future!  An audio recording gives my hands a break from typing, at least, and that’s something I could really get behind.

Last thing for real this time - writing update!  I’m about 1 chapter away from finishing this Dirty Little Secret story.  Remember when I said it should be short?  75k words is short for me, I guess, but it’s taken longer than expected.  All the smut scenes...they take so long to write.  When I get back to some regular fluff and romance, I’m going to be flying through chapters!

I’m thinking I’ll write a few oneshots next, perhaps.  Give my mind a little bit of a break?  And then...dare I pick up Queens of Remnant again?  I’d love to see that story completed one day, but there’s still such a long way to go…

By the next commentary, I might have an answer.  Or I might still be languishing through smutty Bees (languish is my current ‘it’ word, by the way).  Either way, I’ll be talking to you soon!

Until next time,

Miko