12/16/17 - It's been way too long! Thanks for your patience. Lots to say in the end notes, but for now, please enjoy!
Chapter 8: Huntsmen and Hoods
(later that night)
"A huntress, huh?" repeats Taiyang thoughtfully, leaning back with his hands on his hips. His eyes drift upwards from Ruby's gleeful gaze for a moment, but they close as his mouth twitches into a contented smile before adding, "Just like your old man!" He puffs out his chest, pointing at his sternum with his thumb.
"Like Unkie Qrow!" responds Ruby, swinging her feet with wild abandon from her chair at the kitchen table.
Taiyang visibly deflates, casting an annoyed look over her shoulder at Qrow – who raises his hands defensively and shrugs from the corner by the sink. "Hey, don't blame me, it's her choice," he casually responds, "but I suppose it makes sense that the only working huntsman around here would be the most inspiring." He tilts his head to the side with a characteristic smirk. "Oh yeah, and don't forget that your other kid has been filling her head with stories of all kinds of heroics since before she had a full set of teeth."
Yang, who is sitting across from Ruby and continually trying to get her sister's attention back to her vegetables whilst finishing her own dinner, turns to see Qrow still looking at her dad with his teasing smirk. If she understood correctly, she is pretty sure he is talking about her, and that he didn't mean that last bit as a bad thing – but the doubt causes her to pause halfway through chewing her carrots.
Yang then watches Dad straighten up again as he visibly gathers his confidence. "I'm going into town tomorrow to take care of some business. It's very important, but it's also kind of a secret," he announces hurriedly, before seeming to realize that he might yet be able to win back the adoration of his youngest and adds, "like a secret mission!"
To Yang's dismay, Ruby had been about to take another hesitant bite of her own carrots (which were thoroughly mashed up at this point due to idle forkplay), but at mention of a secret mission drops her fork dangerously near the edge of the table in order to dramatically pound both fists down on it in incredulity.
"SECWET MISHIIIN?!" she screams, which seems a bit counterintuitive to Yang but is no less endearing to witness. Ruby immediately looks up at their dad as if seeing him clearly for the first time, and he revels in the shift in the limelight. Yang makes eye contact with Qrow briefly, sharing a knowing grin with eyebrows raised, before also turning her attention to Dad.
With his ego already boosted, he proudly declares, this time at a more measured pace, "That's right, girls, your pops is gonna be busy on a secret mission tomorrow, in the town of Patch! But it might be dangerous, so you'll have to stay here with your uncle while I'm gone."
He almost sounds like he expects them both to complain or cry out in protest, but to his easily discernible chagrin, Yang and Ruby share a happy glance at each other, enthusiastically exclaiming "Okay!" in unison.
Qrow chuckles, and pushes off of the countertop to make his way over to the table. "I think they might need a little more convincing, Tai." Yang clearly recognizes the… what was it? Sar-chasm? Sar-cat-stick? in his voice (Qrow hadn't bothered to correct her pronunciation after he first explained it to her).
Desperate to keep his audience, Taiyang ignores Qrow's comment and adds, "I'm going to need some help before I leave, though. This is very important!" He looks sternly at both of them, as if preparing to tell them the most secret-est part of his mission. The sisters watch his intense blue eyes with curiosity. "Ruby, you want to be a huntress on your birthday, right?"
Ruby nods emphatically, careful not to break eye contact.
"Good. That already helps me a great deal."
Ruby grins with pride.
"Okay, Yang, I need your help now."
Yang is a bit confused by his line of questioning but her suspicions and curiosity have her similarly fixated on his eyes. She nods slowly, offering a hesitant smile.
"I need to know… what you want to be for Halloween."
She looks down pensively. Two seconds pass before she puts it all together. Confident that she now knows the nature of this secret mission, she looks back into his intense stare to deliver her answer, only to realize…
I don't know.
"What do you want to be, Yang?"
Her smile fades. Ruby was so sure of herself, so confident in her own ambitions already, but Yang…
"Uhmmm…"
I don't know what I want to be.
A mix of dread and panic creep into her stomach. Distressed by her inability to respond, her current bite of carrots is suddenly horribly unappetizing. She stares back at her father with growing fear, as his intense expression softens to confusion, with growing concern. The silence awkwardly persists as no one says anything, until-
"You wanna be hunchiss too, Yang?"
Yang looks over at Ruby, whose head is tilted well past a forty-five degree angle, and whose dangling feet can be implicitly seen swaying casually under the table thanks to the carefree side-to-side motion of her tiny upper body. The smile on her face is so relaxed and unassuming that Yang's discomfort melts away almost instantly.
"Iss'okay! We can be a team!" adds Ruby, smiling more broadly and swinging more vigorously.
Yang can't help but smile back. "Okay, sis. Let's be huntresses."
Deep down, what little remains of the doubt from earlier seems to coil up and hide from this resolution. It is not gone, but something about this decision intimidates it into submission for now.
Something about agreeing to be a huntress with Ruby just feels safe, and maybe even… right.
"You want me to what?" asks Qrow with mock incredulity. He sits sloppily in a simple wooden chair between his niece's beds, leaning back with both feet propped up on the end table between them.
"Pweeease!" Ruby begs, sitting upright at a perfect ninety degree angle, clutching and twisting the hem of her bedsheets at her stomach in anticipation.
Qrow's eyebrows, which had been raised comically high, relax into his typical mellow, mischievous expression. "You sure you won't get scared this time?"
The tiny girl, outfitted in her favourite red pyjamas, hesitates before shaking her head vigorously. "Nope!"
Yang, returning from the bathroom and overhearing part of the conversation, picks up on Ruby's anticipation as she turns into their room. "Halloween story?" she asks loudly, unable to contain her own building excitement.
Qrow had been reading to them both these past few nights, substituting for Yang's impressive but sometimes clumsy efforts to read the most heroic tales she could find in the tiny library of their room. It was a welcome break, and Yang enjoyed it almost as much as Ruby. Just hearing a real live (working) huntsman recount past adventures and share stories of his own was often more enrapturing than the content of their own library.
For a moment Yang catches a faint wisp of a memory of Taiyang and Summer cuddling up with them both, reading from the same books lining their shelves now. She feels a wave of emotion rising up as Qrow leans his head back over the chair, stretching out and balancing dangerously on two of its legs in order to see her. The chair creaks in protest but he persists nonetheless, and the noise causes her nostalgic moment to dissipate.
"I suppose, 'tis the season, after all. Just…" Qrow returns to a roughly upright position, and the chair falls silent as all four legs make contact with the carpet once more, "…give me a minute. It might seem pretty simple but Halloween has a complicated history mixed with all kinds of legends."
Yang scrambles up onto her own bed, tucking herself in up to her chin, patiently awaiting tonight's oration. Is he gonna tell the same story as last year? What if it's even more scary? What if it gives Ruby nightmares again?
Meanwhile, Qrow plants his own legs on the floor, leaning his elbows on his knees, face towards the ground. There's something mournful about his posture, and Yang can tell he's thinking hard. Too hard. Maybe it's a different story? Maybe it is scarier?
As if hearing her silent questions all at once, he rather suddenly looks up at Yang with a startled expression. She locks her lilacs with his dull reds, and is made uneasy by his stare, as if he's just come back from a memory of his own, albeit a less pleasant one.
A beat of silence passes between them. Yang's mouth is suddenly dry, and her skin tingles – "goosebumps", she remembers Summer calling it – and wants to blink away this increasingly frightening pause, but something about his gaze has her frozen, until-
"Whoa, sorry, sorry…" he says drearily, tearing his gaze from hers. "Lots of information to sift through. When you have my kind of experience it tends to blend together at times. Plus…" he straightens up again, returning to his trademark grin, "…I don't want to scare you too much tonight." He follows with a dark chuckle, smoothly transitioning from his earlier daze into his ominous-storyteller mode, and alternates sideways glances at them both as if daring them to commit to this experience.
What was that?
Yang, still not fully convinced by his quick recovery, simply nods, a wide-eyed but otherwise neutral expression on her face. Ruby appears to vibrate as she eagerly consents, though after a moment she begins to draw the covers up further.
"Alright… as you know, the common tradition on Halloween is to put on a costume and go knocking on doors to get candy. Sounds simple, and pretty fun, right?" begins Qrow, looking to them both to confirm their curiosity. "Well, it hasn't always been about dressing up and trick-or-treating, as some might call it. Let me tell you how this all came to be-"
"Bad guys?" interjects Ruby, clearly impatient to get to the good part where a legendary hero saves the day in the nick of time.
"Sort of, yeah, but just wait. We're not quite there yet." He waits a beat, as if to demonstrate the need for patience.
Yang feels nearly as anxious as Ruby to get to the exciting part, but has a suspicion that this telling might be a little different than what either of them were expecting. She sits up against the headboard and begins sifting through her shoulder length golden yellow tresses, a subconscious fidgeting of sorts that she has recently begun to find relaxing.
"As I was saying, modern Halloween traditions, at least for those who still celebrate, are… a little more complicated to explain than you might expect. Basically, it's a mix of everything that came before it," Qrow explains, pausing to eye Ruby warily as she stifles a yawn. "And before you get bored and nod off, I promise that there's at least one legend of sorts that lives on in our celebrations, and it's not all about fun and games… well, nothing so innocent, anyhow."
This has Ruby's full attention, but she opts to remain silent to hear more this time.
"First and perhaps most importantly, the end of this month coincides with the end of the harvest season in most places in Remnant. It's a time at which fall is working her- its magic," Qrow corrects himself swiftly, and Yang wonders briefly about his choice of words as he continues. "Most crops are done growing and need to be harvested before the cold sets in and ruins all that hard-earned food. And if you're trying to raise a family on a farm outside of a city, you're gonna need all you can grow."
Yang feels a modicum of drowsiness pull on her eyelids, and she realizes she is no longer playing with her hair. A quick glance over at Ruby tells her they're both losing interest in this lecture, fast. What is it about adults that makes them so interested in such boring details?
Qrow, seemingly oblivious to their waning interest, perseveres. "See, long ago, the largest cities of Remnant were little more than scattered villages and private homes spanning vast countrysides. Vale, or whatever it was called at the time, was a small farming and fishing community for generations. No walls, no automated defenses, and…"
He pauses for dramatic effect, and it works – the sudden break in dialogue grabs the girls' attention again.
"No huntsmen."
A much more potent silence fills the room. Qrow looks at the sister eerily, and Ruby is the first to breathe again, and then whispers with trepidation, "No hunsmin?"
Yang finds her breath again and can't help but wonder if the mere thought of a Remnant without huntsmen might just be the scariest thing her sister might ever encounter. For herself, while concerned and now very much gripped once more, she has to know…
"How long ago?" she voices her thought, surprised at her own meekness.
"Ten year?" inquires Ruby, whose whisper rises in pitch with each guess. "Fowty-ten? Niney-ten?" She gasps, as if afraid to even dare to guess any higher. "Hunjid-ten?"
Qrow looks straight at her, leaning forward slightly, his eyes narrowing. "Even longer," he growls.
"Whoa…" Ruby's eyes widen, no longer exhibiting any signs of fatigue.
Qrow continues, a hint of bolstered ego in his voice and his crafty smile. "Hundreds, maybe thousands of years ago, long before the Great War that shaped the kingdoms as we know them today, long before cities and territories were even large or strong enough to be part of a kingdom, and long before generations of people trained specifically to become huntsmen and huntresses all over Remnant… all people had to rely on were their strongest and healthiest villagers, who would take up spears and pitchforks and torches only when they needed to in order to defend themselves… which, unfortunately, was pretty often."
Clearly anticipating Ruby's next question, he interjects himself to discourage her from vocalizing it, "and there were no guns or bombs or Dust crystals… well, nothing accessible, anyways. That… that all came much later." He breaks his pace on a somber note.
"Monsters were at least as rampant and aggressive as they are today. You can bet that without unifying bodies of government, people were at each other's throats all the time – and so too, then, were these monsters: the creatures of Grimm."
Ruby emits a squeak of fear at the mention of the Grimm and furrows her brow with concern, which seems odd to Yang. They had read about them so often on their own that Ruby had begun playing along with her sister's reading by adding monstrous sound effects from time to time – a cute growl here, an adorable roar there, and so on. Yang chalks it up to immersion in Qrow's narrative, which certainly has her gripped now, too.
Their uncle pauses only for breath and continues, his own expression darkening.
"In fact, the ancient people had many names for them, but what they were called didn't matter when they believed their lives depended on the physical strength of their best warriors. It seems it took a long time for humanity to figure out the Grimm's attraction to negativity."
He releases the tension in his brow and leans back, looking pensively towards the end table between their beds. He inhales, ready to begin again, but is interrupted by Taiyang, whose head can be seen peeking around the corner.
"Well hold on, those warriors were sort of like huntsmen anyways, no?" He steps into full view and leans on the door frame with an eyebrow raised and a growing smirk to match it. "Even without fancy weapons," he says pointedly at Qrow, "these warriors still had the only weapon they needed – themselves." He flexes a bit and feigns some punches (complete with sound effects), prompting his daughters to giggle at his shadow-boxing.
Yang finds herself in complete agreement, strangely enough. While she had always admired her uncle's scythe-sword-gun, she knew (from experience) that it was heavy, and someone would have to be really strong in order to do anything more than just lift it. It followed, then, that a strong body was more important than any weapon.
Qrow groans dramatically, rasping out a complaint over the back of the chair with his head upside down. "Are you done, Papa Punchy? We were just getting to the good part."
Taiyang pouts in frustration as his daughters burst into laughter at his new nickname, and then sighs, his goofy energy seeming to drain completely from him as his posture wilts. He looks… tired, but also… something else that Yang can't quite place in her fading giggles. "Alright, just… don't keep them up too late, alright? G'night, girls." He looks like he wants to say more, but his half-lidded eyes travel in Qrow's direction and instead he just smiles wearily, turning to leave the room.
"G'niiight!" the girls chime in unison, still coming down from their laughing fit.
Qrow clears his throat, a sound which reminds Yang of the feeling of accidentally letting the rake stray onto the dry dirt in the clearing outside while trying to corral the falling leaves.
"Alright, now where was I… right, the Grimm. Well, as it turns out, eventually someone did figure out what kept bringing them to their doorsteps. This was an… interesting someone, with an equally interesting solution. What's unclear is whether they figured out the Grimm's attraction to negativity because of their idea, or were just responding to this newfound knowledge."
Ruby looks confused, and offers an honest "huh?" to express as much. Yang isn't sure she understands either.
"Remember how I told you that this time of year is a big deal because of the harvest?" He watches them nod curiously, and continues with a trace of a smirk on his face again. "Well, it was also believed by many people back in the day to be a time of great… spiritual importance." His smirk vanishes and his eyes are looking down at the carpet. Despite their obvious differences, something about his shift in appearance reminds Yang of Dad. Before she can place why, he continues, as if that moment had never existed, and Yang is left doubting her own perception.
"You see, people used to say that at the end of the harvest, as all the plants wither and die, the world of the living is brought dangerously close… to the world of the dead," he rasps, staring intensely at both of them in alternation with each breath. "The spirits of the dead – those souls who weren't given proper burials, or were otherwise disgraced at the time of their death – would sometimes cross over to our world and terrorize the living."
"Like ghosts?" Yang asks quietly. She feels herself trembling ever so slightly, and out of the corner of her eye she thinks she can see Ruby shaking much more visibly – but she has a determined look on her face that Yang has never seen before.
Not long ago this sort of thing would have been enough to make her tearfully plead Yang to stop reading, and then she would sleep fitfully until Yang snuggled up next to her. Yang would berate herself for having made a poor choice in reading selection while she whispered and hummed and sang softly into Ruby's ear, lulling her back to sleep over the following hour or so.
But this time is different. Ruby is staring back at Qrow with nearly equal intensity despite her obvious fear, and he makes no indication of stopping. He looks over to Yang, nodding in answer to her question, which locks up her wandering mind yet again as he continues.
"These spirits were supposedly pretty dangerous, but many different peoples had different solutions for warding them off. Some people used to claim that terrible things would happen to the families of those spirits who returned to their homes to find things not how they left them. Some people would build shrines honoring their lost loved ones, claiming that the dead would leave them alone if they could see they were remembered respectfully. Some people left offerings from the harvest on their tables – grains, bread, fruits, and so on – or even on their doorsteps-"
"Like pumpkins!" Yang exclaims suddenly, feeling like she's beginning to piece together some of her uncle's story that hasn't yet been told. She feels her heart beating faster and a smile growing on her face.
"Punkins," echoes Ruby quietly, although her expression remains tense.
Qrow is briefly surprised at the outburst but beams back at them, seeming to enjoy their attention. "Exactly. Supposedly, that's where that tradition started. Whether or not the spirits cared for them – or the eventual arts and crafts involved – is up for debate, because most people now seem to think all this spirits of the dead stuff is superstition to begin with. But back then… well, this is where things get even messier."
He cracks his neck audibly, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. Ruby still looks hyper-focused but Yang cannot see her shaking anymore. Relieved, Yang also feels herself relax a bit more.
"The Grimm were a pain in the neck for people year-round. But of those who bought into this spirits of the dead stuff, some chose to believe that the Grimm were these spirits – those of animals and men alike, distorted by their rage – and that they only came into the world at this time of year."
"That doesn't make any sense… the Grimm were- are always around," Yang responds, much more invested in this story than she had imagined she would be.
"You're right, it doesn't make much sense, but at least for a time, people just thought that was because so many of them came into the world at once that they just lingered all year, or longer. Turns out they weren't entirely wrong, because we do see some Grimm grow over time. But as for where they come from…" Qrow goes quiet again, an increasingly familiar dark look gracing his angular features momentarily, before he subtly shakes it off. "Well, no one really knows for sure. But these folks sure didn't," he chuckles softly, as if he had just told a clever little joke, rather than explained the naivety of early humanity in their plight against the Grimm.
His humour falling flat, he continues on, darkly serious once more, and softer. "Unfortunately, some people chose to believe that they could protect themselves by giving the Grimm exactly what they wanted."
"Huh?" It is Yang's turn to voice their shared confusion. The way Qrow looks at her then sends a shiver down her spine.
"Some people, even today, might tell you that the lives of the many outweigh the lives of the few. And there might be some logic to that, but… well, as huntsmen, we're supposed to do our best to help everyone. But it's not always easy… or possible." There is an immense weight to the delivery of his words that gives Yang goosebumps again. "Point is, some people believed that if the Grimm were so bent on destroying everything, so hungry for death, then they should give it to them, in controlled doses, in order to keep them from ravaging entire villages. They would sacrifice a few people to protect the masses, usually by casting them away as exiles to be hunted by the Grimm."
Ruby looks terrified, but to her credit, appears to be persisting – though her fists are clenched tightly around her blankets, her knuckles ghostly white.
Qrow sighs. "So, there's the harvest, and the Grimm, and the spirits, and the people who think the spirits are the Grimm… and the people who tried to ward them off with methods ranging from mundane to inhumane," he summarizes, and grimaces slightly at his rhyme. He takes a moment to gather his thoughts. "Then, there's the woman who supposedly figured out some amount of the truth, one way or another, and proposed a course of action that ultimately synthesized a lot of these beliefs in such a way that the Grimm, at least, became less of a problem – something that consequently relieved a lot of related concerns."
"Whossat?" asks Ruby quietly, with a bit of familiar awe returning to her expression.
"A… spiritual leader of sorts, from an ancient tribe. Not really a woman of the people, like most of your heroes, but someone with just enough… imagination to see through the increasingly problematic superstitions that had become tradition. Most people agree that her idea involved openly celebrating, rather than fearing, the end of each harvest season – that instead of hiding in their homes with their goods waiting for the spirits to come and go as winter came along, they should share their bounties with one another in order to bring joy to each other and consequently the spirits, who might then take comfort in knowing their living relatives were safe and happy. She was bent on inviting the spirits in, rather than trying to avoid them. That didn't sit well with a lot of people at first – I mean, welcoming the spirits of the dead, or the Grimm? They must've thought she was crazy. But it was this shift in attitude that mattered, more than the action itself. After growing festivities were followed by diminishing Grimm attacks, people started to catch on. Her more devout followers began dressing up as Grimm and other scary, imagined spirits, in order to parody them – make something fun out of it all – and ultimately reduce the collective dread."
Another puzzle piece snaps into place in Yang's mind. "That's why we dress up!" she exclaims, feeling satisfied with her deduction, and subsequently validated when Qrow smiles at her.
"Apparently so. And it was an effective strategy – to name one's enemy is to reduce them to nothing but what they are at their core. Although in some cases, this worked a little… too well."
Caught up trying to understand the sudden words of wisdom, Yang almost misses her uncle's shift to a more stern expression.
"You see, just because you can name something and poke a little fun at it doesn't mean it's not still dangerous in reality. Some people lose sight of that – of reality," he almost whispers.
Another pause settles into the room, and Yang grows restless. "What was her name?" she asks with genuine curiosity, hoping to break the spell holding her uncle's thoughts captive.
"Hm? Oh, her… well, it's not clear what her real name was, but most people refer to her as Corvida, or simply the Hooded Lady."
Startled, Ruby pipes up. "Hood?"
Qrow smiles again. "Yeah, she was big on hooded robes, apparently. She lived alone most of her life and tended to hide her face from others – like I said, not exactly a people person. It was said that following the success of her unusual ideas, she was revered as a sort of seer, or in some cases feared like a witch. Some say she and her tribe hailed from just outside what is now Windpath, over in Anima. A few claims have been made about her once living just north of Vale. And others say she and her people flourished in the rich lands of Vacuo… long before Dust became more valuable than people's lives and the Schnees ruined the whole-" Qrow stops abruptly, looking up at his nieces, who are looking back at him worriedly – his tone had shifted from mysterious to intensely bitter remarkably fast. "Sorry, that's… not important right now. She's a bit of a mystery herself, and that's kind of the point. As I've said, so much of this is a mix of similar ideas with slight variations, all from different groups of people at different times."
Yang is slow to respond, her head spinning with all this information – she's pretty sure she's forgotten some of it already, although some of it seems oddly familiar. A quick glance tells her Ruby is at least as dazed, and close to dozing off again (though by no fault of their storyteller). Yang manages to identify one missing piece of the puzzle, though, and asks simply, "trick-or-treat?"
Returning yet again to his warmer smile, her uncle chuckles softly. "Yeah, that's right, I almost forgot. See, most of that is rooted in more ancient history – but the whole door-to-door candy-grabbing thing you kids like so much is the product of more recent generations oversimplifying the whole process. See, eventually the tradition of sharing the harvest goods turned into 'do me a favour and I'll give you something extra,' or 'sing me a song and I'll give you one more cookie' – tricks, if you will, for treats."
Ruby's eyes open wide again at the word "cookie," but it is a losing battle as her lids battle to stay open.
"Now it's just something people say, and everyone just gives you candy, right? No tricks. It's a shame, really… that's one tradition that should have stuck around. Had some interesting times while we were all together at Beacon…"
Yet again, Qrow's face morphs into a darker visage as his voice trails away. This time Yang thinks she has an idea of what has caused it – the crystal clear memory of a framed picture from downstairs burns in her mind – but she remains silent. Across the gap between beds, Ruby has descended into her blankets, finally having lost the battle with sleep. Yang glances at the clock, and in doing so registers the ticking sound with annoying clarity – and yikes, it is late.
She shifts in her blankets enough to drown out the ticking, and this thankfully gets Qrow's attention. Cautiously clearing his throat, he speaks up again. "Right, well, that's about that. Looks like we'll have to catch her up another time, hey Sunshine?" He manages a weak grin that betrays his own weariness. "G'night, kiddo," he says softly, the chair creaking rather violently as he gets up to leave.
"G'night, Uncle Qrow," responds Yang with a weary smile of her own as he closes the door.
Yang is overwhelmed with all this new information, and while she has difficulty processing much of it, she can't stop thinking about it all. Corvida…
One last glance at Ruby reveals she has already unconsciously moved into her deep slumber position (completely re-tucking the blankets into a pseudo-cocoon around her).
Yang curls up under her own covers and tries to make sense of her uncle's strangely gripping history lesson, but eventually she too loses the battle with sleep.
She glides down the stairs and turns on the television with a burnt toast remote.
The screen morphs into a dark white mirror as bandages slither through her fingers.
She watches herself, trapped in the void, tears melting from red eyes.
A flurry of wings whisks her glowing yellow hair in front of her face and blinds her.
Black ink splashes into the center of her blurred vision, spreading out to form a formless entity.
Ghostly hands pull back a black hood at the top of the diluted figure.
Feathery black hair flaps away from a pale woman's face and reveals fearsome red eyes.
Raven's mouth forms a familiar smirk, and Yang's sight swirls into oblivion.
Yang awakens to a dull cacophony of angry bird calls, somewhere through their windows, outside, in the dead of night.
Her pillow is damp, and her eyes feel swollen.
She lacks the willpower to rise from her blankets, too inundated by the weirdness of her most recent dream, and the apparent sadness it caused her. This was not the first in which she saw Raven's – her mother's – face since her adventure, and she had a feeling it would not be the last.
She gives up trying to make sense of anything and just listens to the squabbling in the forest. Gradually it subsides, and she fades into a dreamless sleep.
Hello again!
First, THANK YOU again for your patience with my unfortunate hiatus that has resulted in delivering the Halloween-themed follow-up at nearly Christmastime. This was one of those chapters that I just couldn't get right for the longest time, and then it grew wildly out of control, and I'm still not sure about it... but here's a part of it! The next bit is ready and waiting for a final review, and then I can finally move on, and much more efficiently as the long-term framework of this continues to take shape. I appreciate your continued readership – and if you're joining this story for the first time, thank you for giving it a chance!
Second, WOW Halloween is complicated. I wanted to give some RWBY flavour to it but lo and behold modern Halloween traditions borrow from so many different cultural traditions from centuries past that it's already similar to how RWBY borrows from everything, so what you have here is now a just a super-synthesis of select aspects of Halloween history. For the curious, look up "Fomorians" - remarkably similar in many ways to the Creatures of Grimm, prominent in Irish mythology with possible connections to Samhain, which is basically one of the main predecessors of modern-day Halloween.
Third, the entire month of November was basically a giant whirlwind of events and big adjustments for me. I'm now metaphorically "on the road" (actually on the water) for the next six months for work, so I have spotty connectivity but a relatively simple routine that I can work with to get some more writing done now that I'm settled.
Fourth, WOW Volume 5 has me breathless. So much incredible dialogue and emotional content. SO MUCH YANGST. I honestly didn't expect them to dig out the subtext of her suffering as much as they have, at least not so quickly, so I've been a little hesitant to write at times because they're actually doing everything I wanted them to do with Yang's story that they hadn't addressed yet after V4 (which inspired me to start this in the first place). For now I think my ideas are still within my minimum 90% canon threshold, so I'm satisfied that I can keep going in the direction I wanted while still adding my own flavours.
And finally, in my hype-induced craze and writer's-block-induced haze I became desperate to engage with the FNDM a bit more somehow, so if you feel so inclined, you can now find me on Tumblr as thomsenator-kms, or Reddit as 7homsenator. I look forward to sharing more of my interpretations and excitement with you all. Please leave a review/comment, especially if you notice any inconsistencies or other issues. I've been reviewing and editing these myself (some very minor technical changes have been made to older chapters) but as you're probably all too aware that often isn't enough to catch everything!
Until next time (much sooner!), cheers!
-kms
