Fanfic Idea for RWBY (Patreon)

First a fic sitrep. Despite being home not being as conducive to working on fics as being in a nice, calm, library, I have finished ATP, sent it off to the editor, and should get it back in a day or so. I have finished Sword and sent it off to the editor, no ETA on that. FILFy has been posted after a day of going over it via Grammarly – a boring, slow process I needed frequent breaks from LOL.

On to more amusing news: this was an idea I came up with this past few weeks. It is mostly to do with the fact I recently found a few really good RWBY fics and wanted to work on Semblance of Hope, but it didn’t win the small story poll. Seriously. Even if I had put all six hundred of my votes on it it wouldn’t have won the poll, which annoyed me. Still, the fics were fun, and made me want to come up with something on my own. 

Astonishingly this idea isn’t about a crossover. It’s also probably not going to be a harem. And, it must also be stated there is no chance of me actually writing this story for quite a long while, if ever. Still, with my muse forcing me to write this outline up, and the Coronavirus and all, I thought I would once more share the fruits of my ADHD mind.  I also have to admit to coming at this with three different thoughts. 

One: Beacon’s education is pathetic in terms of actually training people to face Grimm. Port is pathetic, too much about himself and not the actual topic. Glynda’s classes are centered around making gladiators for the circus that is intended to fool people into thinking that everything is fine and humanity isn’t an endangered species. Peach is nonexistent, Oobleck pathetic. Ozpin… PATHETIC as a teacher/educator/human being. 

Two: Jaune was not ready for Beacon as he was, in part, I feel because no one in his family supported him in any way as far as I know – only watched the first two seasons and have NEVER regretted not going beyond that point. But, as a few fics have shown, he might have had other skills.

Three: Pyrrha was abysmally treated and set up for the choppy chop from the get go in a myriad of ways and needs more screen time. This should come as no surprise given how I’ve treated her in Semblance of Hope LOL.

Anyway, here we go: 

Jaune Of All Trades

Premise: Early on in his life, Jaune realized that his mind worked kind of different than anyone else’s. He wanted to learn, to know how things worked, and whereas most kids outgrow the ‘why age’ as his mother called it, Jaune never did, he just targeted it on the things most important to him. First came his family: He learned how to help his sisters young and old anyway he could. He learned how ot help his mother, and his father as they looked after the kids and guarded their caravan. He then turned all this energy, this need to learn why on the Grimm. In this he ran into a problem: no one understood the Grimm, beyond the obvious, that they are attracted by negative emotions, and they hate humanity. Nothing else. Where do they come from? How do they think? Where do all the types come from? 

When his family’s caravan is attacked by the Grimm and his father injured, their wondering days end in Vacuo. Jaune, of an age to go to Beacon, travels to Vale to try to take the initial testing only to not get in, because he had trained exclusively to fight Grimm, and the initial test put him against a humanoid android. Annoyed by this seeming stupidity he doesn’t even bother to try and take the written portion, which would have allowed him in if he had passed with a high enough grade. Deciding he cannot go back to his parents and become just another mouth to feed in a house that’s already struggling, he asks Melanie And Miltia Malachite, two of his older sister’s best friends, for advice on what to do, and they hook him up with Junior, who loans him the money to open a massage shop.

{Yes, I know this has been done before, but the actual massage aspect of the fic will be much smaller than in the fics that trope is used in already. Its just a way for him to interact with the rest of the RWBY characters without going to Beacon.}

Things this fic will contain:

1. Massager Jaune.  This means there will be a few scenes of him setting up his shop, dealing with customers, and finding out that he’s not charging nearly enough for his services. This will also allow me to slowly introduce canon characters a few at a time.

a. Meanwhile, Jaune will continue his quest to learn about Grimm. This will be shown by talking to his Hunter clientele, libraries, even seeking help from the so-called criminal element. And of course, going out on solo missions. 

b. Ninja Jaune. Thanks to what he’s already learned of Grimm, he can control his emotions to a certain extent, and has learned how to actually sneak around and hunt rather than simply fight the Grimm. All the better to observe them.

c. Jaune is still Jaune. In his eagerness to learn about how to learn about Grimm and how to hide from them, Jaune has severely neglected his in-your-face type combat skills. He isn’t hopeless, but he isn’t all that good at it, and all his training has been to fight Grimm, not humans. 

d. Alternate tactics. The Grimm are, for the most part, animalistic. So there are a lot of different ways to fight them other than straight up slogging matches. Especially if you learn to predict how the different Grimm will act, how groups of different Grimm will act when combined, and that sometimes their animal instincts overcome whatever essential Grimm thought might be driving them.

e. The use of flashbacks. I don’t want to get bogged down in a huge intro chapter before Vale and the rest of the story is introduced. So I will use small flashbacks scattered through the first several chapters to show Jaune’s background, how it’s different from canon and everything else.

f. Shenanigans. Duh. This includes innocent Jaune, not so innocent girls/women, dishabille moments galore and more.

2. ‘Why’ is my favorite question Jaune. he has the bad habit of speaking his mind in very awkward situations, and asking questions best left unanswered about people.  This is especially true when he questions sweeping statements, emotion-laced world views, and, occasionally, personal actions.

3. Possible different weapon Jaune. I don’t know why, but I just think that eventually he might decide to use a different weapon. Maybe a sniper rifle that changes into a long hafted warhammer or something.  He’ll still have Crocea Mors, but this Jaune doesn’t want to be a knight or even a hero. He just wants to help people as much as he can.

4. Pyrrha Wanting to make a difference, but wanting out of the spotlight.  In canon, it was very obvious from the start that Pyrrha has both a severe case of People Saving Thing (Harry: Oy, get yer own phrase, yank! Pyrrha: I’m Sorry!), and an almost crippling lack of personal self-worth and social skills. Perfect hero fodder in other words. So what would happen if someone came along and told her that to be herself, she needed to both stop being a doormat for the public, and that she might do more good if people didn’t know it was her doing it? 

a. A Pyrrha who is slowly taught to say not only no but fuck no. An expansion of the above idea, Pyrrha learns that it is not only good to say no to her fans, but to other people who want to use her in various ways.

b. Pyrrha as a secondary protagonist. The whole nine yards. Self-explanatory. In fact I might try to keep the entire story to just Pyrrha and Jaune POVs. Not certain.

c. No longer holding back. This means that she will make her opinions better known as the story goes on, and will stop holding back in combat class. Honestly, if the Mistral regional tournament was as big a deal as it was supposed to be, why in the world would Goodwitch think that pairing her with other freshman is a good idea? In a tournament setting? Which she knows by heart? - “WHY THE HECK ARE WE EVEN LEARNING TOURNAMENT STYLE ANYWAY!!!?” 

5. OC Pyrrha partner.  This is sort of an obvious one. I think that unless I decide to screw up with the teams in a very big way, that I will have to stick Pyrrha with an OC. I won’t make him as abysmally obvious a poor excuse for a human being as I’ve seen in one of the fics that sparked this concept (Mending the Knots, great fic, go and read it). However he will be something of an antagonist too, just far more subtle about it, aiding in isolating Pyrrha from the rest of her peers for a time, trying to get Jaune out of the way, and eventually trying to make a play for her in a big way.

6. Unhappy homelife… to a certain degree. By this I mean both Pyrrha and Jaune, although none of this will be given in one large allotment, but come out gradually through discussions.

a. Jaune: his family never wanted him to learn about Aura or fighting Grimm, thinking it a fool’s quest. Most of his sisters and parents are certain that being Hunters means to be morons. They dislike the idea that Jaune wants to be one, and basically attempted to sabotage his dreams in various ways. Some of these ways helped him grow stronger, but others have made his combat skill well below where they should be. The only exception will be his eldest sister, who will be the Vacuo equivalent of Miltia and Melanie – a bodyguard for a bigtime criminal leader.

b. Pyrrha will, in a way, have the exact opposite problem. The instant her talent in combat became known, her parents piled on the idea of her destiny, of her needing to use her powers to become the best, to never be beaten and to always be in the spotlight. They of course also use this to their own advantage, but not as much as other people. They have however stamped on anything else she might have been interested in, always pushing the fact she needed to grow stronger, to become a better warrior. As such, at the start she very much doesn’t have any idea of what normal people are like, and very low self-esteem outside of combat since she has been taught that all her self worth is based on that skill. Moreover, they are very against her being in Beacon, believing she should have stayed in the Tournament circuits instead of becoming a Hunter. And don’t get me started on her manager, who used to be just the father of her best friend. Who instantly became her enemy because of that.

7. More Traditional City-State structure. In Semblance, I have indicated that Vale etc are countries named for the largest cities within them. In this fic they would be city-states, with very little beyond their walls being property of the named four city-states. Instead they would be connected by large swaths of Badlands. Not an original idea, but still a good one. Caravans, trains and ships are the primary means of travel, since flight technology hasn’t gotten into the realm of bulk transportation. Hunters are routinely employed as protection, even going so far as to become part owners. But there are never enough Hunters around, since Aura awakening only works in one out of every hundred people at most. And many of those who have Aura choose to become simple tournament fighters or other professions that call for combat instead. 

8. Sister from another Father Yang. I might use Yang to start the process of introducing Jaune to other Beacon-centric characters. He will laugh at her puns, care for her hair and be amazed by her gauntlets. In return she will help him with the books of his shop, get him some training manuals, and actually make peace with the Twins because of him. They’ll also share recipes, Yang and Ren being the only She’ll be flirtatious at first, but only mildly because she loves his reactions, not because she’s interested in him. If anything she, Blake and Sun might become a threesome. 

9. Actual hunting/warfare. Far too little of the original is about learning about Grimm, how they act in the wild when they aren’t attacking people, and there are few offensive operations even mentioned, let alone shown. I would like to see more scenes showing the Grimm being observed, being stalked, tricked, manipulated into traps etc. Not so much RARGH combat! Regardless, Jaune will be figuring out the Grimm and taking the war to them. 

a. World exploration. Literally. Part of what Jaune will be doing will be exploring the world beyond the city-states and the used roads through the Badlands. 

b. Who were those masked men?! - Jaune’s self-chosen missions will eventually be found out by Pyrrha, and she will insist on helping when she can’t talk him out of them. Enter the Red Ranger and the Green Ranger LOL.  Both of them will have to conceal their identities in various ways when dealing iwht other people while on the job, up to and including Pyrrha needing to bun her hair like Glynda and putting it under a helmet. But in this fashion, Pyrrha will learn that she can do a lot of good in the world without being mobbed. (Pyrrha: Well, I think that’s just grand!)

c. Batmobile. The intrepid duo will need a bullhead to get anywhere, and I can totally see Jaune pulling a Yang and fitting it out to the nines because why not. 

d. Shifting Priorities: At first, Jaune will just want to learn about Grimm in order to better protect the world, however he can. Pyrrha will want to protect everyone she can, to put her skills to best use, to stop being just a symbol but an actual shield for the people. Their goals will remain the same, but eventually they will stumble on the whole Salem/Ozpin thing, and will be forced to wonder what to do about it. 

10. Slow trickling of Characters. I want the emphasis to be on Jaune interacting with small groups of characters or even one on one with other characters in a non-scholastic setting or in combat situations. So most characters will come and go, without becoming main characters as Pyrrha and Jaune are. That doesn’t mean he won’t have an impact on them though. 

11. Slow, Deep, Arkos Loving. I intend for this to be one of the main thrusts of the work. It will be much slower than in most of my fics to shift from friendship to interest, it will be awkward, full of hiccups, fits and starts, blushing and all that because let’s face it, neither character is really able to even think of the word romance without becoming adorkable.  But I hope that I can do the pairing justice and build something beautiful.

12. Ozpin/Beacon Bashing -yes this includes Glynda, even if she will feel bad about it. Beacon to my mind is not about training Hunters, or even training soldiers. It is about training flag bearers, kissing up to the powers that be in the Vytal Festival, and generally making people who are better at being flashy than doing their job. Yes, they hone their combat skills, but they would do much better honing both combat skills and mental skills, not mixing combat skills with a regular high school experience. They have the basis to do this, but the classes are subpar at best, perhaps because of the teachers, perhaps because of the material. As for Ozpin, no. He’s just awful as a leader and as a headmaster. Seriously, what is it with that position in anime/books? I am uncertain how I would portray him, but I would certainly not be kind to him. Although I have to say I have more fun imagining how people will react when it is Pyrrha who starts rocking the boat at Beacon LOL.

13. Because being a criminal doesn’t necessarily mean the same as evil. Miltia and Melanie as characters. Neo, Roman possibly. I’ve seen this done before, although the fics that do seem to forget that he can be a bit of a sadist. Neo too. So while they will be characters that won’t necessarily mean that they’ll be on the side of the angels.

14. Cinder Striking Out. Through a series of Jaune-created seemingly random events, Cinder, Emerald and mercury are going to see some severe setbacks, forcing Salem to pull the plug on the idea of using Cinder to gain the Autumn Maiden powers and overthrow Beacon or doubling down.

a. Mercury the douchebag. Self-explanatory. If I had to say more, I would say that he, and the OC that will be Pyrrha’s partner, will be the main human foils for Jaune’s growth. And main enemies too. 

b. Emerald the evil thief. In Semblance, I’ve taken the idea that Emerald is a Cinder-follower, rather than actually evil. Not so much in this fic, if for very different reasons than I’ve seen before.

c. Tyrian getting a time out. Of all the characters that follow Salem, I could see Tyrian being one of the first to be sent to see what the bleeps happening to the Grimm populations around Vale as they are subtly hunted to extinction. This could mean a confrontation between Scorp-boy and Jaune and Pyrrha. 

15. Other Pairings include… They will be there. They will mostly be in the background, sometimes important, sometimes not. I just have no idea what they might be, beyond the aforementioned Sunny Bumblebee. 

Anyway, hope you all liked this view into my ever-churning imagination, and if you did, please tell me what you think. Beyond that, stay healthy, stay safe, and read more fanfiction!