Hi. New People! Either wait for next chapter for me to properly greet you, or keep out of the author's notes. They're here for old folks. For now. Should change within a couple of chapters.

So I was supposed to have caught up on RWBY by now.

Whoopsie.

Also, can anyone confirm I'm being gaslit by google docs when it corrects "it's" to "its"?

Light surrounded the creature. Streetlamps, windows, scrolls… It was a city of light. But light wouldn't touch the filthy thing. Its core being was filthy, but it was king. And the king hunts, taking cards from dealers who know not of their role in the game. It approaches its target, a little girl cloaked in red. And so the royal hunter clad in black and white went forth and approached his prey.

Little Red muttered this and that. Chirping excitedly, naively unprepared for the danger her cards faced. And with his hands on his prey-

"Ow! Rude!"

A mistake. Its arms extended too far, and pushed Little Red to the floor. Leaving the hunter in plain view with his ill-gotten goods.

There was nothing to it, speeding away into the dar-

"MY WALLET! THIEF!" T'was proclaimed as his body met the floor, tackled by THISFUCKINGGIRL-

The thief barely broke his fall- the wallet sliding out of his grasp, onto the open concrete.

Augh… Painful as it were, he crawled to the wallet, grasping the rose-patterned-

"NO! MINE! N-NOT YOURS!" This thing's hand was not the only one grasping, hers pulling on the damn thing as well.

"KID! LET-"

"KID!? YOU LOOK LIKE YOU'RE THE SAME AGE AS ME!" He snarled at the childish response.

"I'M PROBABLY OLDER!"

"ONLY BY A YEAR, MOST!"

"THAT'S STILL OLDER THAN YOU!"

"THAT'S NOT OLD ENOUGH TO CALL ME KID!"

…The two locked eyes, glaring at each other… Before he looked away.

Her eyes were hostile. Just like everyone else's. The eyes they'd make when the disgusting verminstrayedintowhereitshouldnt…be…

It felt warm.

Not bad warm. Just… warm.

"...F-FINE! You can call me kid! P-please don't cry! I'msosorryokay!"

He blinked. She was… putting her arms around him.

Right, people would do this to, 'cheer them up'...

…

"...So," He wiped his face with the back of his sleeve, "Can I have the wallet?"

"NO!"

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes, unwilling to meet her gaze again.

"...please."

Her lip was trembling.

"..." Little Red groaned, and to his surprise, the thief found his view preoccupied with an outstretched hand full of lien.

Before the kid could second guess herself, he snatched the cards, getting to his feet and sprinting into the dark alleyway.

Again, it curled into the corner. Somehow, sleeping on the bed felt wrong. It was safer in the corner, where nobody looks. Out of sight, out of mind.

"...but this hunter's here to show that Vacuo is not all talk it seems-"

For a moment, the broadcast went quiet.

"...Fuck."

"I… It… looks like… warrior… to the next round in record time… They should… get…medics down… already…"

It was always another door.

Its hinges always rotten.

Its wood always moldy.

And the thing opened the door always.

Why did it care?

It wasn't its friend.

The little fox was never its friend.

Why did you care?

What he wrote was the least you deserved.

The girl in red strode grumpily towards her house, pushing through the door-

"You're home late," Her sister remarked, sprawled across the couch, "Hang out with friends?"

That earned a glare.

The blonde blinked back, "Uh, Ruby-"

"And who's fault is that!?" Ruby couldn't hold back the bite in her voice (Yang had promised).

"...Did I do something?"

She felt her shoulders slump, "Yang…"

"What- Oh. Shit," Realization crept onto Yang's face, "We uh… We were supposed to go to the fair today?"

"...Yeah."

"Why didn't you call-"

"I did."

"...Sorry?"

"It's fine."

"I'll… I'll make it up to you! We can go tomorrow!"

"Okay."

An uncomfortable silence settled on the two.

Ruby cleared her throat, "Uh, where's dad?"

Yang shrugged, "Dunno. Wasn't here to chew me out for coming back late."

"...Oh."

The older girl yawned and stretched out her arms, "G'night Rubes. Hug?"

She dove into her older sister's arms.

So I have a bad habit of forgetting to do things as I'm writing, and considering that half my writing will come up on the fly, that's not good. So here's a bigass author's note so I don't do several bigass author's notes. I even wrote it down in advance.

I originally didn't write some sort of intro separate from Ruby since I mean... Who cares? We don't know this mentally disturbed narrator, so who cares?

So why did I do it?

Well, I figured it might help in the long run to give the reader an idea of what his daily life looks like and his headspace without...

What the fuck, I literally just realized I could do that for the upcoming chapters instead.

Whatever.

My goals/spoilers I think you should read because I believe that some spoilers make the experience better:

I had Wynion hate Pyrrha. But I never really built up to it or made the explanation more satisfactory than a drunken excuse. I think it's still both interesting and do-able, so the way I'm building it up is that Wynion is less spiteful and more just jealous. Not that he'll ever admit it. Hold your reservations, it's gonna be interesting the way I do it. Promise!

Ozpin's introduction was a little pathetic. Okay, not that pathetic, it was fine. I just could have been a bit more graceful there.

I'm going to suck my own $*& here. I stand by my statement that the past me did poor writing. But he was a fucking ACE of tone, even if it was to the story's detriment. I would actually do read-throughs, timing how long it would take the average reader to read, and adjusting points so that the emotions would hit just right. I think that even if he wrote crap, he was on his A-game there. I don't think I'll be doing as much of that as before though. Some, but not as much. The story will still have an emotional voice (I mean, you did read the first chapter), but I'm not going to try to simulate the entire experience of a panic attack. Every time.

Ruby's POV is going to be far more significant this time around. This has actually caused one minor reveal I was going to do in the original, be forced to be done far earlier. Like, a few chapters later earlier. Their relationship at the beginning is also going to be a bit more antagonistic. And I'm probably going to change the dynamic just slightly, as one of the points to their dynamic- I just am not sure how to incorporate well… Maybe I'll keep it. Who knows?

And you may have remembered that scene in the park. You know the one. But here's the twist: that scene went on longer than I initially advertised.

You see, dear Wynnie is still a little hysterical. His emotions are all out of whack. And he just can't stop his mouth from moving. He starts giving reasons why Ruby should just go away and leave him alone. And then he starts confessing- not feelings, but crimes. Every single one he can remember, including one very memorable incident that happened only a few years ago. The same one he told Jaune. I still haven't decided whether or not he'll talk about his torture. I guess we'll see how things go.

Guess what our heroine does in response? She's silent.

Then, she unlocks his aura.

What a power move.

I'll give some more details as to what exactly it was supposed to mean to them in the original and now when I get there. But I don't think it's too hard to extrapolate why Wynnie followed her around like a dog.

By the way, that was the minor spoiler I was talking about.

Ciao!

-This lunatic writer