Conflict of Interest - Commentary - Ch. 21-22 (Patreon)

Welcome back to another commentary about Conflict of Interest!  And whatever pops into my head...but mostly Conflict of Interest.  We're nearing the end of the story, so most of what I'll be talking about is how cute Weiss and Ruby are.  Before we get into the gushing though, I have a writing update!

Surprisingly, I've been taking a decent writing break.  Of course, you wouldn't know it if you're following my writing journal on Discord.  Technically, I’ve been writing almost every day, but I've only been working on some oneshots or this crazy Resident Evil Village idea that I'll probably never finish.

What's been great about it is that I haven't been writing as long every day, so I've been able to relax and do some other things like play games or actually read (It’s such a luxury to have someone else write for you!  I never appreciated it as much as I do now).  I'm discovering that oneshots feel like a break because they take up less mental space than longer stories do.  There isn't a long, complicated plot to keep in mind at all times, nor am I obsessively thinking about it even when I'm not at my computer.  Basically, my brain has been blissfully (and sometimes maddeningly) empty for the past couple of weeks.

Recently, I've been using my time to learn how to structure a legitimate book, with the intention of trying my hand at it sometime soon.  A couple of things have prompted me to finally move forward towards that goal.  First, I think that The Lie is the closest thing I've written to a “traditional” book in terms of size, plot, and flow. That got me thinking - hey, maybe I can actually do this.

Also, my daytime job hasn't been the greatest recently, so I would love to be able to do something else.  Whether that's writing or not, I’m not sure yet.  I know it's incredibly difficult to make any money writing, but I should at least try, right?  Maybe it will make me appreciate my boring-but-stable regular job.  I would still count that as a win!

Over the next few weeks, I'll learn as much as possible then try it out for myself.  I have about two years of RWBY stories stockpiled, so it won't impact your weekly chapters anytime soon.  And who knows, maybe I won't enjoy it.  Or maybe I'll enjoy it a lot, in which case I'll figure out if that's something you'll also want to read and how to get it to you.

It’s exciting but really daunting to even consider moving away from fanfiction.  I've been so content writing about these four girls for a long time now, it will be strange to write about anyone else.   Ultimately, they're just collections of character traits though...so any original characters I create might be similar in some ways but also different in others.

It will be interesting to create a character where I can change anything or everything about them, which isn't the case with RWBY.  I could change a lot with RWBY characters...but there’s a limit to how much people will accept before they’re “out of character.”

Also, apparently I should be aiming for a 70k word story, which is just bonkers to me.  That means that Oh God...She's Hot is actually closer to being a legitimate novel than any of my other stories.  Can you believe that?

I'm hoping that it's actually easier to write such a short story once you get the hang of it.  I’m crossing my fingers because I don't know if that's true or not.  Brevity is quite difficult.  It's much easier to just keep adding words.

Kind of like how it's easy to just keep talking and talking about random things rather than getting to our story!  Let's talk about Conflict of Interest now, shall we?

Chapters 21 and 22 are the best chapters because Ruby and Weiss finally accept their feelings and communicate them to each other.  Ruby got there first, of course, but that shouldn’t surprise us at all considering she's been more in tune with her feelings this entire time.

Weiss would argue that she knew all along, but she was definitely trailing Ruby in the acceptance department.  One might even say she was a little obstinate about not having feelings.  Because she couldn’t have feelings and therefore didn’t.

By now, you probably realize that we're not going to see the events leading to Dream Theory in this story.  I wanted to show Yang meeting Weiss because that would have been a lot of fun, but Dream Theory already established the timeline where Yang didn't meet Weiss until after Blake “died.”

I seriously considered putting that moment in this story, but it would drastically change the tone.  Just imagine if Weiss and Ruby are having their cute little dates and then this tragic event happens.  Ruby would be a mess because Yang would be a mess, and I'm not sure how Weiss would deal with it at this stage in their relationship.

I added another reminder in Chapter 21 that Yang is so close to proposing, but never gets too.  Her idea - reenacting how she and Blake met - is a reference to the moment in Dream Theory where Blake does the same thing for Yang.  In that case though, Blake is proving her identity, not proposing.

I'll talk more about the events between Conflict of Interest and Dream Theory in the next commentary.  For now, I want to focus on how utterly cute Weiss and Ruby are.

They’re so cute together!!

I'm sure everyone noticed that Weiss willingly agreed to reschedule her meetings for Ruby.  If that doesn't show you how hopelessly in love she is, I don't know what will.  She'll reschedule work?  For Ruby?  Who could have imagined the girl from Chapter 1 ever doing something like that.

Weiss doesn't half-ass anything though.  Once she commits to something, she commits to being the best at it.  In this case, Ruby is the lucky beneficiary of that commitment.  Weiss doesn’t just want a relationship with her, Weiss wants to be the best partner Ruby could ask for.

Ruby, meanwhile, finally found what she's been searching for.  Work might not be a challenge anymore, but she has someone in her life that occupies her mind and pushes her to be better in everything she does.  Her eyes have been opened in a way too, especially when it comes to other people's feelings for her.

She used to be pretty oblivious, wasn’t she?  She's getting hit on all the time but never takes it as more than friendly!  Thankfully, both for her and for Weiss' jealousy, she realizes that Jez has a massive crush on her.  And, in typical Ruby fashion, she comes up with a brilliant way to navigate out of that situation - bring in her sister!  Nothing says “we're just friends” more than inviting your sister to lunch.

Something else I really wanted to set up at the end of the story is that Ruby does make a new friend in Penny.  Penny isn't mentioned in Dream Theory, which is a bit of a travesty, but the two of them will make great friends.  Great, extremely intelligent friends.

Weiss will probably get jealous of Penny at some point...Weiss is incredibly smart too, but she has a different form of intelligence which might make her feel less smart compared to Penny.  I would love to see how Ruby reassures her that she's brilliant and the only one Ruby ever wants to be with...

Ruby must successfully convince Weiss at some point because Weiss in Dream Theory is extremely confident in their relationship.  That's one of the things I loved most about the two of them in that story. While Blake and Yang go through their relationship turmoil, Weiss and Ruby are on solid ground about everything.  (I’m sure Weiss isn’t proud about that at all.)

Ruby does get jealous when Weiss has to flirt with that sketchy rich dude, but I thought that was more humorous than anything.  Ruby wasn't worried about Weiss leaving her for this guy.  She was just pissed off that he was hitting on her girlfriend (that will forever be one of my favorite scenes in Dream Theory).

Ruby’s character arc in this story was much less dramatic than Weiss’, but I hope you still feel that she’s learned something about herself by the end.  She starts the story feeling remiss and looking for something to entertain her.  Most importantly, she spends most of her time at her computer.  Even after she starts developing feelings for Weiss, she’s using her computer to look up more information about her!

By the end of the story, she has a girlfriend, a new genius friend, and has stepped out from behind her monitors to join the real world.  She recognizes Jez’s feelings, but she also recognizes her own.  The great part is that she has an awesome teacher in Weiss.  Weiss is like...the expert on dealing with people - somewhat ironic considering Weiss hardly likes anyone.  But Weiss knows how to schmooze, how to read intentions, and how to get what she wants.  You can bet Ruby learns a thing or two from watching Weiss operate.

Weiss, on the other hand, has undergone an even greater transformation.  I honestly love her so much for how far she’s come in 22 chapters.  She started the story thinking everyone was beneath her or in her way (except for her wealthy, powerful clients and boss).  She tolerated people only if they helped her towards her goal of becoming a law partner.  If they couldn’t be used for that, she ignored them or worse.

Ruby changed her so much.  One of my favorite moments showing just how much she changed is the moment with the paralegal.  She freely offered advice without expecting anything in return, and admits that maybe she’ll offer more advice in the future.  Funnily enough, she’s happiest that she remembered Candace’s name since Ruby made such a big deal about Weiss not knowing any of the paralegal’s names.

Weiss takes just about everything as a challenge, doesn’t she?  Ruby teased her about not knowing their names, so she goes out and learns their names (one of them, at least).  She can do anything.  She just choses not to do a lot of those things.

She’ll do them for Ruby though, because she’s that whipped already.  I think Weiss’ greatest lesson here is that she can have positive relationships, and that those relationships aren’t necessarily with the wealthiest, most successful, or most powerful people in the room.

I really enjoyed developing Weiss’ relationship with her boss, Damon, throughout the story.  At the beginning, Damon is someone she holds a healthy amount of respect for - she even suggests that he might present a challenge in court (though she’d still win).  She wants to be him - rich, successful, respected, and one of the founding partners of the best law firm in Vale.

Then he promotes stupid Jeff over her and asks her to take the case of his murder-y friend (no thank you, sir).  Now, the mirage has shattered.  So she does what she does best - viciously, but silently, drags him for the lousy human being he is:

Did she really want to become like him - an old, wealthy has-been divorced three times with children who hated him?

She’ll be young, wealthy, happily married with children who love her.  Although I haven’t thought about whether she and Ruby would actually have kids...I usually don’t get that far in any of my stories.  Probably because I can’t imagine having kids, so I can’t imagine the characters having kids.  Looking far in the future though...I guess they might have kids!

Can you imagine this version of Weiss and Ruby as moms though?  Holy moly.  That kid is both not getting away with anything and getting away with everything.  If they inherit Ruby’s skill with computers and Weiss’ strategizing/people skills, the world better watch out.  That kid could take over the government without even trying.

Ruby:  “Weiss, what do we do?  They just created a new government.  Legitimately.”

Weiss, eyes sparkling with pride:  “I know.  It’s completely legal.”

Fortunately, that’s a problem for the future.  Right now, Vale only has to worry about Ruby and Weiss combining forces to become one unstoppable couple.

One thing that makes them such a great couple in Dream Theory shows up in Chapter 22:  Weiss being ultra protective of Ruby.  In this case, she subtly but not-so-subtly tells her boss that Ruby can’t be recruited, so leave her alone.  You can bet if Weiss catches wind of someone else trying to recruit Ruby, they’ll get an earful about why it’s a stupid, futile idea.  She knows now that Ruby doesn’t like the recruitment attempts, so you can be sure that she’ll do her best to make sure they never happen again.

In return, she just wants Ruby to love her unconditionally for the rest of their lives.  That’s a fair trade, right?  (Ruby seems to think it is.)

I’m so happy that Weiss finally figured it out.  ‘It’ being that she doesn’t have to be someone she doesn’t want to be.  She doesn’t have to make herself miserable just so she can get back at her father.  Honestly, her father will probably be more annoyed seeing her happy than seeing her successful (although successful and happy is the ultimate combination).

Dream Theory showed us that they were already successfully hiding their relationship from everyone, so I thought ending this story on that decision was the best way to go.  This is where it officially begins.  This is when they decide that they’ll accept the risk of losing their jobs.  They’re willing to throw it all away for each other.

Even if they get fired, that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.  It’s already been well established that Weiss is plenty wealthy already.  Besides, she could easily get another job - maybe not as a defense attorney, but definitely as a prosecutor or...corporate lawyer, perhaps?

Ruby also has plenty of money (thought not nearly as much as Weiss), and has far more marketable skills.  With her technology know-how, she could literally do...anything.  She could sell one of those inventions she keeps giving away for free, make a gazillion credits, then retire.

We have one chapter left - the epilogue!  It will illuminate their immediate and long-term future even more.

Now, I kind of want to re-read Dream Theory just to see them together beyond this story.  Of course, I wouldn’t mind reading about this version of them for...ever, possibly.  They’re smart, witty, and play off of each other perfectly.

I can’t tell you how tempted I am to write a sequel to COI...or a sequel to Dream Theory...but I don’t think I’ll do either.  It would be a little hard due to the timing of everything.  Plus, this type of futuristic fiction isn’t my favorite thing to write (I like writing boring ol’ romance!).

In the next commentary, I’ll go into more detail about what I think their future looks like.  That way you’ll have a good idea of what happens next and I won’t have to write the whole thing.  That sounds like a win-win in my book!

In the meantime, I’m going to return to reading about writing (ha) and figure out what the heck I want to do next.  If I didn’t have two years worth of stories already written, I’d probably be stressing out right about now.  As it turns out, that backlog comes in handy!

Hopefully in two more weeks I’ll have a clearer picture of my next objective.  Or maybe I’m still writing random oneshots and taking it relatively easy.  It makes me a little anxious to imagine another two weeks passing without starting a longer story, but that probably means I need to relax.

I’m going to take a chill pill (or several) and hopefully find peace with whatever comes next.  Also, I’m going to extend a huge thank you for your support!  I love writing these stories for you, and I really want to write even better stories for you in the future.  That’s going to take some effort and learning on my part, but I happen to like learning and putting effort into things.

Another win-win, right?  I get to learn, you get better stories.  That’s definitely a solution I can get on board with!

Until next time,

Miko