Moving this from the old story to here so I can safely delete it. Carry on.
Hello, everyone! The next chapter is still in the works. Thanks in advance to MewShadowfang and ColorMeBerserk for agreeing to help out a bit! In the mean time, I thought I'd make a sort of 'developer commentary.' Hope you all enjoy, both this and the next chapter!
Now as you all know, this is my third version of this story. The first one, for those who remember, was horrendous. The main four characters were Malina Aulnoy, the team leader who was basically Weiss in personality and Blake in appearance in this rendition; Eli Newman, the boomerang-throwing demoman who could turn invisible; Darien White, the strategy-less arguer who could take a chunk of his health bar and beat you across the head with it; and Rebecca Wisteria, the silent ginger who, in all honesty, was written in as a love interest for Darien. This version got pretty far- 3 volumes of 12 chapters each. However, after taking a short hiatus, I looked over the story with a much more critical eye and decided I hated it. The romantic subplot was awful in almost every respect, up to and including chemistry; the main villain and savior of the series, Schadel, had turned good and, by extension, boring; the fight scenes were poorly written; and the story was honestly a mess overall. So, I deleted the story.
After what I believe was no more than a month, I had begun work on a reboot of the series, though this version would undergo some changes. For one thing, Rebecca Wisteria was no more, now unceremoniously replaced with Haskelle White, who, for those unaware, isn't related to Darien, but rather simply shares a surname. She had a bit more developed of a personality than Rebecca, largely due to her possessing more than ten lines per 20 chapters. Malina and Darien were reworked as well, with their semblances changing from bubbles of darkness and aura constructs respectively to a flashbang effect and basically being a Silent from Doctor Who respectively. Eli also got a semblance that changed between chapters 3 and 6. This version promised to bring back Schadel, this time much earlier in the story. But this version of the story had its own problems.
For one thing, Eli and Haskelle were less characters and more bodies, designed to fill the four-man quota any academy fic requires. It didn't help that Haskelle was a worse version of Eli was a worse version of Darien. This basically meant that the only unique member of the new team, which wasn't the best-named team on this site (MHDE for Myrtle?), was Malina. And while she was certainly better this time around, what with her new backstory and characterization, she was one of the only two good things the story had going for it, the other being Darien. The final chapter of that version was the legendary sparring match between Malina and Darien, written by Pixelmancer. Never before had my story attained such a level of quality, and I feared it wouldn't again with me at the helm.
After foolishly waiting a month, I asked Pixelmancer if he would adopt these characters of mine in order to tell a better story than I ever could. Of course, since I had waited, he was now busy with a story of his own. I didn't want these characters I'd made to have nowhere to go, of course, so I had 'rented them out' to another author for a cameo in his story, but I wasn't quite satisfied. Before I deleted the story, I read it one more time. I wanted to try and find what I'd done right, to see if I could do it again next time. But one of the ideas from that story evolved suddenly, and instantly I had my basic premise.
Near the 'end' of the last version, Ironwood, along with a professor whose name I forget, had designed and tested battlefield technology similar to the gravity lift, power drain, and bubble shield from Halo 3. The kink with the Bubble shield device, the name of which I also forget, was that it used small amounts of aura taken from multiple people in order to generate a force field that would stop dust-based projectiles, while still allowing people through. I read this and thought, 'well gee, that seems a bit of a waste. You could put the aura into the students to make them stronger.' And thus, the third version began. I deleted that version as I started the third, though this time I made a few major changes.
I looked back at the previous two versions of the story, wondering what each had done well. I noticed the highlight of each story was Schadel and the Malina vs Darien sparring match, and I knew what to do. In this version of the story, I would, firstly, get much more help from others. Schadel had been created by MaximumSalt, which meant that the best moments of my stories were the parts where I had gone to others for help. So this time, I went to one of my biggest critics, MewShadowfang. Malina and Darien would remain, but the other two had to go, with Haskelle having never accomplished anything and Eli having overstayed his welcome. So the first thing I asked for help for was characters. Mew, being the awesome person she is, sent me a reference sheet for OCs she'd made for one of her stories, and I chose two to complete my team, and another four for each of their seconds. (That's what I call the inherited auras, by the way.)
The first character I used, who is also the first to replace Malina as the leader of the team, was Laura Thrush. For her, I was given a weapon, personality, semblance, and even a character trailer to use as inspiration, which has made writing her difficult and easy at the same time: yes, I had a concrete personality to work with, but simultaneously, I didn't want to break it, and I feel as though I've done a good job of that so far. I was later complimented by Mew for incorporating the themes from her trailer into the first chapter rather nicely, which was a very much appreciated compliment. Aside from her being a bird faunus, I did have to design her appearance, which consists of a short blue combat dress and golden brown hair reaching to her shoulders. Spoiler alert- she will be the only member of team LMND to get a chapter only featuring herself, maybe even two.
Malina and Darien are virtually unchanged from the last version of the story, though Malina has the added character point of having never met a faunus before Laura, which has influenced her opinion of them for the better. Darien had a backstory that wasn't explored in the last version, but hopefully will be in this one. His personality has also shifted from the first version; instead of having no strategy, he now creates one incredibly quickly, albeit with variable quality.
The other character I borrowed from Mew was Nyan Zaffre, and this one was a bit trickier. You see, besides a bit of a personality, semblance, and a description of one part of her appearance, I had nothing for her. She had been planned as a very minor character in Mew's story, so she didn't have an established weapon yet. Drawing back on past versions of the story, the one weapon I remembered the best was the white fang sergeant's motorcycle. So, after giving her an outfit to match, I had my fourth character.
In addition to the last two characters, I have also frequently bounced ideas off of Mew for future antagonists in the story, and am hoping to give each of the main four a nemesis. In the meantime, the biggest help I've gotten from her- and hopefully more down the line- is the Guest Author System.
As far as I am aware, I do a couple of things no one else- at least in the RWBY section that I'm aware of- does. The first is basing my story in Atlas and Atlas Academy rather than Beacon. The second is the aforementioned Guest Author System. Basically, what I've gone and done is reach out to fellow authors on the site, asking if they'd like to write a scene. The procedure scene and the assignment of the first mission were both written by MewShadowfang. The third is a trick I invite other authors to use- the intro. See, I avoid exposition dumps by writing an exposition dump separate from the body of the story. I borrowed this trick from Star Wars myself, and I'd recommend it if you're having trouble with that sort of thing.
Sorry if this whole thing seemed like I take myself seriously, because I really don't. This is fanfic, after all, and my story still has loads of issues, but hopefully you all can see what has gone into this. I have the first volume planned out, and plan to release the next chapter soon. I hope you've enjoyed, and I'll see you all in the next one!