Conflict of Interest - Commentary - Ch. 13-14 (Patreon)

Welcome back, everyone!

I wish I could say I was prepared for two weeks to fly by, but I really wasn't.  Sometimes, I think these commentaries should be every three or four weeks, but then I realize there would be so much to cover if I waited that long.  So...two weeks it is!

You'll probably be happy to hear that my hands have felt much better recently.  I've been taking small (tiny) breaks and making an effort to reduce my typing time.  The weirdest but probably most helpful change is that I'm very rarely typing on my computer when using Discord - I mostly use it on my phone instead.  You wouldn't think that would have such a big impact, but apparently it does!  And I'm writing this commentary using voice-to-text again, which also helps.

I don't know if I could ever use voice-to-text for an actual story though.  Something about it just doesn't connect the same way typing does.  It almost makes it harder to think, if that makes sense.  It's hard to explain, but if you've ever used voice-to-text yourself, I'm sure you know what I'm referring to.

But for commentaries it works really well!  They don't have to be quite as nice and concise as I like the stories to be.  I still have to go through and edit quite a bit though because apparently I use a lot of superfluous words when I talk!

Overall, it might take more time to use voice-to-text.  But if it helps my hands, it's a worthy trade off.  I need my hands to write more stories!

As another Queens of Remnant update, I have nine chapters to go now.  Single digits!  The end feels so close yet so far...I'm hoping to finish it in another 4 to 5 weeks.  As soon as it's done, I want to start that What Defines Us oneshot.

I've made a bunch of notes for that oneshot but have resisted writing it so far knowing that it will take me out of the Queens of Remnant universe.  I'm really excited about it though!  I'm looking forward to revisiting that story after so long.  I really haven't done anything with it for years now, I think.

I'm also looking forward to finishing Queens of Remnant so that I can write a few unrelated oneshots.  I'd also like to maybe take a break, but we all know that's unlikely to happen.  I'm aiming for oneshots in hopes that I don't immediately start another long story.  (Again, we all know that's unlikely to happen.)

I know the story I want to write next, which makes it even more unlikely that I can stay away from it for long.  I'm already itching to write that one too...

This always seems to happen towards the end of the story.  Since Queen of Remnant is almost finished, my mind wants to move on to newer, less finished stories.  That's where all the fun is - in building and creating these new worlds, not tediously seaming together events you've already created.  But I’ll finish QoR soon!  I have so many carrots dangled at the end of this finish line...I just have to reach it.

Moving on to Conflict of Interest though - we have the fallout from Weiss' ill-fated decision in Chapter 13 followed by one of my favorite chapters in Chapter 14.  I'm sure you all know why Chapter 14 is one of my favorites, but I'll get into more explanation later.  Let's go through Ruby's heartache first!

Chapter 13 two-word summary: poor Ruby.

She thought she made a new friend!  And she was excited about making a new friend.  Then she realized Weiss was just pretending.  (We all know Weiss wasn't fully pretending, but her hidden intentions make it appear that way.)

I keep saying it time and time again, but I love how brilliant this version of Ruby is.  Part of what makes her most upset about what Weiss did was that she didn't see it coming.  This is someone who’s smart enough to create new technologies on a whim.  Being taken advantage of without realizing it makes her feel stupid, and she really doesn't like feeling stupid.

She comes right out and says that she isn't stupid, letting us know that she understands exactly how smart she is and has the confidence to say as much.  I love that she has that subtle confidence.  I think it gives her character a different element than the versions I've written before.

Her reaction to the situation is pretty healthy, I think:

She couldn’t solve Weiss, but she could adjust how Weiss made her feel.  Somehow.  There had to be a way to trick her mind into feeling different things, similar to how she tricked a program into giving the feedback she wanted.

She takes what she knows, technology, and tries to apply that logic to real life.  That's her comfort zone, so of course that's what she falls back on.

Wouldn't it be funny if the end result was Ruby creating some crazy new technology that modifies people's emotions?  I mean, she could do it.  We know that she could.  She just needs the time and  determination to do so.

That wouldn't be a happy ending though.  Also, Ruby likes a challenge, and adjusting her emotions isn't tackling that challenge head-on - that's just circumventing it so she doesn't have to deal with it again.  So, rather than Ruby fixing breakups (a multi-billion dollar industry, I imagine), she decides to throw herself back out there.

You have to admire her tenacity.  I don't think I know anyone who's that willing to push themselves out of their comfort zone.  But she's gotten a taste of what it's like to experience those feelings and that type of connection with someone, now she really wants more!

Ruby's decision to put herself back out there should make sense for her character and the mindset she's in right now, but I'll admit that I mostly added it as another point of angst.  Weiss already added her drama to the story, now Ruby has the chance to respond.  She's obviously not thinking about it like that, but I did!

I couldn’t just let Weiss get away with what she did without any repercussions!  Obviously, Ruby was far too willing to forgive.  And if Ruby had any inclination that Weiss would apologize, we know that she never would have asked Yang to set her up.  But I knew what would happen, and I knew Ruby would easily forgive her, so I wanted to...right the scales, so to speak.

If I wrote this story again, I don't know if I would still go this route, or if I would let them dwell in this angst for longer.  I do wish that I'd written one more chapter where they're still not talking to each other, but I ran into the same issue where I couldn't add one chapter without adding two chapters because of the dual points of view.  And I wanted the reconciliation to be from Weiss' point of view so that we could feel her desperation to fix her mistake.

But wouldn't it have been fun to see them suffer a little longer?  Maybe they see each other at work again and Ruby gives Weiss the cold shoulder?  Maybe Weiss sees Ruby having a great time with her date?  Or maybe Weiss has to cross-examine Ruby again?  That would have been extra fun.  I bet Weiss would struggle to keep her argument straight while Ruby would be super professional.

Oh what could have been...

Instead, Ruby asks Yang for a bit of relationship help.

As a side note, I thought it was pretty funny to imagine Ruby crushing on some unknown computer hacker online.  That just fits her to a T.  Of course, now she's the one with tons of people crushing on her.

Also hilarious is the idea of Ruby dating five people at once.  I'm sure she would develop some sort of scheduling system for them.  She would want it to be fair, after all.  Of course, not all time is equal, so she would also need some type of calculation to make sure everyone had a truly equitable share of her time.

Those would be the five luckiest girls in Vale.  I'm sure Ruby would find a way to keep them all happy.  She might end up cloning herself in the process, but that’s a reasonable solution!

In other good news, Blake finally appears in the story!  She was a little hard to get in here seeing as how she doesn't work with Yang and Ruby.  Having her stop by to grab lunch with Yang seemed like a casual way to loop her in, and she arrives at the perfect time to add some rational thinking to Yang's excitement at her little sister asking to be set up on a date.

Did you recognize one of Yang's suggestions for Ruby?  Did the name Lyla ring any bells?

I'm not sure if I should explain it or not because I know some people haven't read Dream Theory, and it's definitely a spoiler.

But Dream Theory has been out for a while now...if you haven't read it by now, you probably won't?  Or you should probably expect to run into spoilers somewhere.  Isn't there a generally approved time limit for spoilers?  A year or something?

Okay, if you don't want Dream Theory spoilers, skip in the next few sections. Look for ****  to start reading again!

****

For those of you who are caught up and/or don't mind spoilers, you might remember that Lyla is Blake's co-worker and fellow dream theorist.  She’s also incredibly smart and talented when it comes to crafting dream environments using her well-above-average imagination.  We also know that she went a little haywire and villainy when she realized she could control other people by manipulating their dreams.

This makes it pretty ironic that Yang suggests Ruby date Lyla then talks about Ruby potentially dating a criminal.  And Ruby expressing interest in learning how a criminal's mind works!

Honestly, I think Ruby and Lyla would work pretty well together.  Ruby would work with basically anyone though.  She's easy to get along with, smart, beautiful, successful -  who wouldn't want to date her?  If she and Lyla started dating, I don't think the events of Dream Theory would ever happen.

One of two things would happen - Ruby would figure out what Lyla was doing and stop her.  Or, the option I personally like better, Ruby's positive influence would steer Lyla away from that path.  Just by Ruby being Ruby.

We know Lyla has that chip on her shoulder because she's disabled, but Ruby could help her get past that.  Same as what she did for Yang's arm, she would start creating things to help with Lyla's leg.  And we know Lyla’s cane would be tricked the hell out.

Of course, Ruby can't date Weiss if she's dating Lyla, so...sorry Lyla.  Sorry Blake and Yang too.  That would have made your lives much easier.  Although then they’d never learn the lessons they did and form an even stronger relationship than before!

****

Besides Dream Theory references, Yang finally points out the obvious - Jez has a crush on Ruby.  Don't you just love Ruby’s “but we’re just friends” response?  She’s a clueless genius.

Blake gets it though. Did you notice what she said?

“Ruby doesn’t need our help finding someone.”

She knows that Ruby is a catch. Yang can't see it because Ruby's her little sister, but Blake is fully aware that Ruby is well sought-after and will have no problem finding someone.

Another Dream Theory character makes an appearance in this chapter, but this one isn't really a spoiler.  It's more an easter egg I used to give Ruby an excuse to be standing in the hall for an extended time.  If she's not talking to anyone, why would she be loitering in the hall?  And if she's not loitering in the hall, how can Weiss walk past her?  (The true ouchie moment of this chapter.)

Red is Casey's patrol officer partner, nicknamed after his red hair.  In Dream Theory, Yang comments on how he never talks, which Casey refutes by saying that Red talks all the time, just like he does here.  Either both of them are in on this ruse, or Red just doesn't talk to anyone other than Casey.

It’s the latter - Casey is genuinely confused why everyone keeps asking him why Red never talks.  Red’s more of a listener, not a talker though. (He probably listens to Casey gush about Yang all the time.  Poor guy.)

Chapter 13 shows us that Ruby's miserable, but Chapter 14 shows that Weiss is almost more miserable.  She brought this on herself, but I might have piled on a little bit to make sure she understood the gravity of her actions.  What better way to do that than to throw her into the shark-infested waters she hates so much?  Nothing says ‘agitated Weiss’ better than forcing her to spend some quality time with her coworkers.

But that girl needs an epiphany, and I wanted to give her one.  What better time for an office party?

Of course, no one wants to go.  Does anyone ever want to go to an office party?  Unless there's great food or prizes or something, we see those people more than enough as it is.

Weiss' boss knows this.  That's why he makes it clear they’re expected to be there.  Because we all know that if he didn't, no way in hell would Weiss show up.

I really, really love this chapter.  I think it serves as the inflection point for Weiss, where she finally realizes the type of person she's become versus the type of person she wanted to be.  Before we get to that revelation, however, we see how unhappy she is.

She can't let it go.  She's let so much go in her life already, but she can't let that moment go.  She views it as a failure, and she hates failure just as much as Ruby hates feeling dumb.

She reveals that she did some background research on Ruby of her own.  She might not have hacked into bank accounts, but she did find some basic information about Ruby's family.  How kind of her to provide a brief synopsis for us now.

Yang and Ruby have made references to Summer in previous chapters, but Weiss is the one who explicitly tells us that Summer died in the line of duty.  This was a driving force behind Yang and Ruby joining the police department, and one of the biggest influences in their determination to help others.

Weiss comes to the conclusion that Ruby won't leave the police department because of her mom.  Because it's her life's calling and she would never abandon that.  We'll see later that Weiss' conclusion isn't entirely accurate, but it's close enough for now.

Imagining this office party gives me the serious heebie-jeebies.  You have the older, wealthy boss ready to have his ego pandered to.  You have the ladder-climbing coworkers more than willing to pad that ego.  You have people trying to one-up each other, subtly insult each other, or sleep with each other.  And you have alcohol involved.  It's a recipe for a lawsuit.  (Good thing they know where to find a good lawyer?)

The worst part is that Weiss says tonight she isn't in the mood.  Implying that at certain points in the past, she participated in this type of situation.  Yuck.  I feel bad that I even implied she ever did.  Thankfully, I didn't write it, but poor girl.

Then I made it even worse by bringing up her family.  I honestly felt like crying when I proofread this part of the chapter yesterday.  I just felt so horrible for her.  She had a rough childhood, but she decided that she wanted something better for herself.

You have to admire how hard she's worked to get where she is, especially knowing that her father probably went out of his way to interfere.  She doesn’t tell us how, but you can bet he tried to get her fired, or not hired, or something, while she was still getting on her feet.

She’s become this amazing, intelligent, successful young woman despite him, but also to spite him.  She spells it out pretty succinctly for us:

One day, the tables would turn.  One day, he would get himself into a situation he couldn’t buy his way out of.  One day, he would need the best and brightest mind in the city.  One day, he would need her to save him.  And when that day came, she would take great pleasure in telling him to go to hell.

Honestly, I thought this was pretty badass.  And it will happen.  I’ve thought about it, but I haven’t decided where in the timeline it would happen yet.  But Jacques will get himself into trouble with the law, and he’ll come groveling to Weiss.  She meets him at the police station like we saw her meet that other new client, and she greatly enjoys telling him that he’s going to prison.

Then she breaks the golden rule - she talks to Ruby about work.  In this extraordinary circumstance, she asks Ruby to let her be involved and let her poke holes in the prosecutor’s argument before the trial.  Whatever subpar attorney Jacques hired is already sunk, because Weiss made the police department’s argument foolproof.

Weiss: 1
Jacques: 15-20 years in prison

She’s gotten so caught up in that retribution that she’s lost sight of some things.  This chapter is her reawakening!  This is the beginning of the attentive, loving, devoted Weiss we see in Dream Theory.  I’m so happy to see that version of her again, even if it’s just barely peeking through at the moment.

She cares about Ruby, so she cares about what Ruby thinks of her.  I thought the best way to show how much she’s unwittingly changed was by giving her a couple situations for that trademark sass to come out.  Jeff gets a good dose of it, then a random drunk dude gets doused in a Schninsult (I tried to make that work, I don’t think it did).

But she feels bad about it.

Weiss doesn’t realize it, but she’s having a substantial life crisis right now.  She doesn’t want to be a bad person, what I’ve been saying all along, yet she’s suddenly confronting the idea that...maybe she is?  Or maybe she’s just as selfish and self-centered as her coworkers, who she so readily and willingly puts down.

This is one of those moments where I feel so proud of them.  Look at them growing!  Learning about themselves.  Accepting their flaws.  Trying to be better.

Ruby has become vital to Weiss’ success again.  This time, however, it has nothing to do with Weiss’ job.  Weiss needs Ruby’s forgiveness as a sign that she isn’t a lost cause.  She’s not like her coworkers.  She can be better than them in the courtroom and better than them out of it.

What if Ruby had trapped Weiss in the elevator though?

Obviously, I considered it because otherwise Weiss wouldn’t have worried about it.  That would’ve been one way to extend the angst another couple of chapters!  Weiss tries to apologize, Ruby stops the elevator, Weiss has to wait for the fire department to come get her, takes the hint, and goes home.

That’s not a cold shoulder though.  That’s a block of ice to the face.

I imagine Ruby freaked out a bit when she saw Weiss’ car pull up in front of her building.  There must have been a moment of, “Wait.  That looks like -” followed by rapid confirmation that it was Weiss’ car.  You can bet Ruby’s heart fluttered, then she scolded her heart for fluttering, then she tried to decide what to do.  She doesn’t want to talk to Weiss, but she also wants to.

She doesn’t want to want to.  She knows that she should be annoyed and refuse to talk, but she doesn’t stop the elevator like she briefly plans to do.  No, that would be rude, so she won’t do that.  She’ll let Weiss use the elevator however she wants - it’s Weiss’ decision what she wants to do!

But when Weiss knocks on the door, Ruby’s resolve fades.  Now she can hear Weiss’ voice, and Weiss sounds so genuine and beseeching.  Ruby can’t just leave her standing out there, can she?  Also, she really wants to hear what Weiss will say.  She can’t help hoping that this was all just a big misunderstanding.

She does get to show a little of how upset she is though.  She literally started a timer and put Weiss’ feet to the fire trying to apologize in under two and a half minutes.

This was one of the earliest scenes I came up with for this story.  I wanted Weiss to put her foot in her mouth first by saying ‘let me make my case,’ reminding Ruby of work.  Then I wanted her to experience a few moments of panic thinking she’d lost Ruby for good.

Fortunately, she unwittingly stumbled upon the one thing Ruby thought about most.  Ruby mentioned it just last chapter:

More than anything, she fell for the idea that Weiss understood her.  That they were kindred spirits, in a way.

That’s what I’ve been saying, right?  They’re so different yet so similar.  Then Weiss says this:

“I like spending time with you,” she admitted.  “I really do.  You’re so smart and kind and funny and...I love talking to you.  It feels like you understand me, somehow, in a way that no one else ever has-”

This is when Ruby realizes that she’s not dumb.  She’s not crazy.  What she felt was real.  Weiss did understand her, and felt the same way in return.

If you’ve been keeping track of my upcoming stories, you probably noticed the easter egg I dropped in about Super Zombie Slayers.  Not only did I slip in that reference, but Ruby told you what to expect from that upcoming story!

“It has terrible acting, horrible special effects, and basically no story.”

She also calls it dumb later.  But you’re one of the stars, Ruby!  How could you say that about your own story?

One of my other early ideas for this story was Ruby’s in-home concession stand.  She’s such a dork, I swear.  She set that up for when Yang comes over to watch movies with her.  She thought it was funny, Yang did too, so she keeps it around!

Weiss thinks it’s adorable, of course.  Here she is, about to watch a movie with a literal genius, and that literal genius spent the time and effort labeling snack foods with pretend prices.

“Five credits for popcorn?  How much for your hand in marriage?”

That’s what Weiss should be thinking.  She’s a little busy being all heart-fluttery, but she’ll be back on her game soon.  There is that small matter of Ruby’s upcoming date, but she’s not dwelling on that at the moment.  She’s too happy that Ruby forgave her to think about much else.

Don’t worry though.  She’ll definitely get to fret about it later.  That’s an opportunity too good for me to pass up.  (You know you want to see it too, don’t lie!)  But for now...their friendship has been restored, and Weiss has decided that having Ruby in her life is important.

The ball’s back in Ruby’s court.  What will she do with it?

That depends on what type of ball it is.

Slowly backing away from extra sagacious signoff...

Miko