The Rest of Season One

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The Jaundice arc and first half of season one was intended to mark a significant departure from canon in terms of direction. It was to raise the stakes early on and show the vulnerability of Jaune as a ghost- that he can't be killed conventionally, but that he can still fall. Cardin's expulsion itself wouldn't cause a divergence, but it serves to bring in the wider threat of the exorcists. Finally, the main problem of the story plot shifts away from 'Glynda is trying to get Jaune expelled' and more towards 'How will Jaune survive?' The question of a long-term survival strategy for Jaune becomes paramount as Jaune's aura usage becomes critical.

Some other significant changes occurred as well, though some were brushed over. Blake revealed herself as a faunus, which represents a divergence. Jaune started dipping into people's dreams, with adult connotations. And, of course, Ruby and Jaune are much closer.

The rest of the story was nowhere near as tightly planned as the above, and would have been written as it went along. Everything that followed was sketched out on the go over a week, as I was writing this Halloween treat.

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Season One Continued- Of Bodies and Brides

The post-Jaundice arc is a period of recovery and general reconciliation. Everyone's forgiven each other, but the aftermath shows in various ways.

To start, Jaune has grown up, ditching the irresponsibility he'd picked up before and no longer being so flippant or irresponsible. Realizing how his action, and reputations, can still have consequences despite being dead, Jaune matures a bit and even makes a peace of sorts with Miss Goodwitch by taking classes much more seriously.

The group as a whole is closer together as well, as the incident brought up secrets and shared trusts and everything else. Jaune is closer with everyone, obviously, and everyone who fell for Cardin's tricks feels guilty as well, but there's more to it than that. Team JNPR is tight- with Nora's past revealed, Pyrrha's resolve to stop Jaune before he went too far much appreciated, and Ren's stepping up to purify him and then hold Cardin to account tying it all together. Jaune and RWBY are closer together as well- Jaune and Ruby herself are almost inseparable as they repair their friendship, but Blake's insight was crucial, and Jaune's presence in their dreams has helped there as well. Everyone's closer with Jaune, and Jaune's closer with everyone.

But there are also some other concerns as well. Blake's reveal of why she trusted Jaune- her reveal that she's a Faunus- comes back into play once the dust has settled. For the most part, Blake's faunus-nature is an awkward thing that doesn't get addressed, as everyone's too uneasy on how to address it. Instead they focus on Jaune's now much-shorter afterlifespan, as the friends are concerned just how much he has left.

The new arc- call it coddling the Arc arc- revolves around everyone's attempts to find a solution so that Jaune won't run out of ambient aura. Since Jaune's dream/regret keeping him from passing on is that he wanted to become a Hunter, ie. graduate, he needs to survive long enough to finish Beacon. Jaune's not allowed to exert himself to any real degree as they try different ideas and theories, to various (comedy-filled) effects. The ideas focus between getting Jaune a new body that won't use up residual aura, or getting him a new source of aura to use.

The body idea is the first and foremost. After Jaune has possessed something enough times, he leaves behind enough residual aura that it's 'his' and he doesn't need to expend anymore to possess it. Right now, that includes a teddy bear Jaune uses as a proxy-body. Weiss and Ruby lead an effort to make Jaune a new body- a robot body- for him to call his own but can also act without him expending energy. Using old droid parts, Jaune attempts to possess robots, to mixed effect. He can possess them, but tends to blow out the speakers and so can't speak. Jaune's robot body becomes an ongoing project, and joke, as every time Jaune encounters a new robot body it inevitably gets brutally destroyed. This replaces the flesh-and-blood gore of the Initiation arc with nuts and bolts (or, with his doll-body, getting the stuffing knocked out of him).

Ren, Nora, and Blake focus on the idea of trying to restore his defiled body in some way- namely by reading up on ghost lore in the library. Blake joins in, more to avoid her team and questions of faunus. Nora reads about homunculi- artificial humans ghosts could posses- but they seem like just a myth. en tries to research how to undo Cardin's defilement in order to restore/preserve what aura they still can from Jaune's body. Blake reads old horror and gothic literature- and finds tales of old faunus covens of witches who consorted with Ghosts and Grimm, married the dead, and had their dreams haunted by their spirit-spouses.

Key ingredient for a good spirit marriage? Heart. Literally, though any cannibalism will do in a pinch.

(Blake keeps that book a secret.)

The fate of Jaune's body is some busy work. Because of Cardin's actions, most of the body needs to be destroyed in fire to be cleansed- losing most of the aura, but ending the spiritual corruption that could taint Jaune again if he comes into contact with Grimm ash again. After stripping the meat and cleaning the bones, the remains of Jaune's skeleton are given a funeral ceremony to honor, rather than dishonor, the corpse. It's a morbidly weird affair, with Jaune not only being late to his own funeral but bringing gifts for his friends. These gifts- relics made from his bones- are given out during a post-funeral BBQ hosted by Blake out of the kindness of Jaune's heart.

Everyone from both teams agrees that Blake's special recipe is the best and want more, but Blake has to demur. She's run out of her special ingredients, and store-bought just isn't the same. It's a shame, but that's that. The BBQ and the Funeral is a success, purifying Jaune's body and soul while bringing everyone together. From then on, Jaune finds that he can enter the dreams of all the friends, even the ones of Team JNPR he hadn't previously been able to.

As for his bones-

Jaune's skull is preserved and secured deep within Beacon by Ozpin, where it serves to the last of his body's ambient aura. If Jaune runs down to that last aura, he and his skull will be sent back to his family. Until then, Jaune is dependent on the Crocea Mors reserves. The rest of his bones are re-purposed. Zwei steals a few chew toys, but other parts…

In order to negate the desecration, Jaune's remains get turned into relics by Glynda Goodwitch. These little mementos of him are given to each member of the teams to be treated with care and carry small bits of his residual aura. The idea is that every member of the Sisterhood who Murdered Jaune will carry a bit of their favorite victim with them, protecting his body going forward. Even if one of them falls Jaune won't fall victim to another Cardin, while as long as any of them survives Jaune will have something to retreat into to sustain himself. It's just another ritual that brings the coven- as the Sisterhood who murdered Jaune is called by Glynda- closer together, binding them to Jaune in the process.

The Relics, covered later, gradually manifest some supernatural powers of their own. Jaune can sense/'see' the glimmer of himself even from far away, so that he can always know where they (and thus his friends) are. They become lode stones for guiding Jaune's ghost to them from long distances away. And they give each person a special ghost-power appropriate to them. Pyrra, for example, gets a bone-compass that always points towards Jaune, helping her find her partner even though she can't see or hear him.

Before and after the funueral, Yang and Pyrrha work on training Jaune to be more efficient with his fighting and use of ghost powers, trying to figure out what works and how to make it more efficient. It's after the funeral that Yang and Jaune discover that he can possess her berserk form and displace her soul, turning Yang into a ghost herself in an out-of-body experience.

The Yang ghost mini-arc consists of Jaune living as Yang and Yang playing the ghost. Comedy results when Yang actually refuses to go back into her body, having fun playing a perverted/trickster ghost while Jaune deals with her life (while also getting to remember the pleasures of the flesh… like dealing with Yang's cramps and cycle. And eating cake. So much cake.). Jaune and Yang both being outside her body leads to ghost-on-ghost interaction, as the two ghosts can touch and even wrestle with each other,but Yang refuses to go back into her body because she's having so much fun. Without her or Jaune in it, Yang's soulless berserk form is, in the words of Weiss, indistinguishable from the original- brutish, unthinking, and driven by base instinct.

Shenanigans happen, comedy is involved, but danger happens when Yang's body gets lost and can't be found. Because her body's still 'alive' Yang lacks the residual aura to survive as a ghost for long. Yang starts going through what Jaune will when his aura runs out for real- and excruciatingly and painful drawn-out perma-death. While ghosts will phase out of existence when they're low of aura but they still have a source to recharge from (like Jaune at the end of initiation), running out of residual aura entirely is something else- a painful, incapacitating experience like a mix of starvation and withdrawal symptoms. Ghost-Yang is incapacitated with pain, and the friends race to find Yang's body so that she can return. To heighten the tension, Yang's body is found by the remainder of Team CRDL, who are more than willing to take their revenge against Yang's body, making the search a race against time in more than one respect.

While the friends race off, ghost-Jaune stays by ghost-Yang's side, trying to help her. When things get real bad, ghost magic happens when Jaune begs/pleads to share the Arc-family aura reserves with her.

Things get surreal when Crocea Mors itself talks back and refuses. Floating on its own without Jaune's assistance, the Arc blade speaks and explains that the Arc Aura reserves built up within Crocea Mors are only accessible for members of the family. Crocea Mors says a strange thing in which he claims that Jaune and Yang are already in a 'spirit marriage,' but dismisses spirit marriage as 'something anyone even a little hungry can do.' The Arc Aura reserves are for family, so unless Yang is a member…

Jaune says she is, and when challenged swears she will be. Crocea Mors has to accept it, but only if Yang goes along with it. The spirit of the sword officiates an 'official' ghost marriage between Jaune and Yang, questioning them in the frame of wedding vows with ghostly twists like 'at death do you start.' Once they affirm their vows to care for each other 'in sickness and death,' a spiritual link is formed between Jaune and Yang in the form of a red string. The red string- visible only briefly to Yang- allows Yang to start feeling the residual aura flowing to her from Jaune . As she stabilizes, Yang can see a number of other paler red strings connected to Jaune. Jaunce can't see them at all, and Yang later wonders if she imagined it, but what she does see is another six strings stretching into the distance. Yang stabilizes, and Yang and Jaune's ghosts hold on to each other, weak but undead, until the friends come back with Yang's body. Yang's body is fine- having been berserk and so easily crushing Team CRDL before anything bad could happen. Yang returns to her body, safe, and after reassuring Ruby she's fine she passes out promising to thank Jaune later.

That night, when Jaune floats into Team RWBY's room to checks on Yang, he's abruptly tugged into Yang's dream by a force he can't resist. It's like falling into a dream, only he's tugged by his finger, and when he comes in Yang he finds in a wedding dress and clearly embarrassed to be. Yang's as confused about the apparel as he is, unable to change it in the normally malleable dreamscapes, but maybe Jaune can help her out of it? She promised to thank him, and wouldn't dream of going back on her word...

Yang wakes up the next morning a bit sore but in good cheer… and very embarrassed to realize she needs to change her sheets. She's caught by Weiss and Blake, and 'Jaune Dreams' become a running inside joke amongst the Sisterhood.

The follow-up of the arc is that the next day, after some awkwardness between ghost-Jaune and an almost literally glowing Yang, who's aura is shimmering despite being a bit lower than usual. Jaune is brimming with energy- and aura that's not his own. Ren is able to see that Jaune now has a bit of Yang's aura surrounding him, which is being used instead of Jaune's own when Jaune uses a power. Yang and Jaune admit they shared a dream, and Jaune brings up what Crocea Mors had talked about yesterday about sharing aura. It works both ways now- at least a bit- and Ren and Blake's reading suggests that anyone who shares dreams with Jaune should be able to do the same.

Jaune Dreams end up being the stop-gap for Jaune's aura-loss, as whoever's dreams he enters can 'loan' some aura to Jaune for the next day. Jaune can't store it, and it comes at a cost of taking aura away from whomever, but it saves Jaune from having to use up his own energy. Jaune's residual aura still gets tapped into if he has to do serious ghost powers, but Jaune Dreams prove to be the stop-gap to cover his day-to-day existential needs.

(The question of Jaune's sword speaking is posed, but unanswered for now as Crocea Mors doesn't respond to Jaune or anyone else's attempts to talk to it. Ren can see any foreign spirit inside it either- just the aura of the Arcs.)

Sans some pertinent information, the arc ends with everyone very happy at the discovery on how to help Jaune's energy rows. When Ren volunteers to help, Blake fantasizes. When Nora and Pyrrha volunteer as well, Weiss is uncomfortable. And when Ruby tries to volunteer, only for Yang to vehemently reject that… Yang is left to explain why when Jaune flees and leaves it to her to explain.

(Spoiler- dirty dreams are actually optional for mana-sharing. Fate/stay night this is not.)

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The final arc of Season One is finally the Blake Arc.

Blake's faunus heritage has been recognized, but not really addressed while everyone was focused on Jaune's issue. Now that Jaune is stabilized- with everyone taking turns on who he'll borrow energy from each night- attention turns back to Blake.

At this time, only Blake, Yang, and Weiss know of each other's dirty dreams with Jaune, as they're the only to have had dirty dreams, and that's what brings up the topic of Blake's heritage. Yang and Weiss realize how Jaune knew Blake's secret- it must be because Blake wasn't wearing her bow in a dreams. This brings up what else Jaune knows about them that others don't, and the subject of secrets and their dreams. They're all embarrassed for their own reasons- Blake's Jaune Dream was a Ninja's of Love self-insertion fantasy, Weiss's Jaune Dream way back before they realized what was happening had her dominating him and taking his virginity, and Yang's dreams since the last Jaune Dream have revolved around rings and wedding dresses. Embarrassed as they are, all three of them drop the subject for now, but the question of what other sorts of secrets they're hiding from each other is raised.

The topic of secrets haunts Blake, for understandable reasons, and comes up during a Jaune Dream night where Jaune enters her dreams to borrow aura. Once everyone realized that any Jaune in their dreams was quite possibly the real Jaune, most Jaune dreams aren't dirty but rather rare periods where the non-seers can see and interact with Jaune. Blake and Jaune got much closer after the Cardin incident, when Jaune hid Blake's secret and Blake helped him in turn, and it comes back around when Blake feels she needs to talk about the White Fang as well. Blake shares, and Jaune tells her to come out about (because, compared to being part of a murderous cult of cannibals, what's a little terrorism between friends?), and Blake appreciates the perspective and promises to try.

(Jaune doesn't actually know about the Cannibalism- no one does- so Blake's secret is safe until those who know how spirit marriages are actually started arrive.)

When it comes time for Team RWBY to go to the docks to see the incoming students, Jaune follows- joining in the form of his teddy bear body. It's Jaune's first time out of Beacon since his death, and so he wants to go along. Along the way they meet Penny- who is terrified of ghosts. In addition to Penny the group finds exorcists investigating the dust robbery. The exorcists recognizes them as Beacon students and stops to ask them questions about Jaune. The girls lie about Jaune, but the exorcists are clearly sniffing around.

The exorcist return is tense, as the Exorcists are immediately suspicious and interested in Jaune for not-friendly reasons. Their perspective is tainted by Cardin's side of the story, while they talk about Jaune as an inherent danger to everyone. One Exorcists in particular stands out- the apparent leader- and he has a presence that is professionally opposed rather than personally hostile. This Exorcist OC- a reoccurring character- is able to note that Cardin committed a taboo of their own by desecreating the body, something only a 'flawed' exorcists would do, but even so casts Jaune as inherently dangerous. The Exorcist OC takes special note of Ruby and Ren, but lets them leave without issue.

The exorcists become the argument link to the crisis point of the White Fang. Nora believes the Exorcists likely made more ghosts into bad ghosts, like how the Schnees made faunus into the White Fang, etc. etc. Blake is revealed, and when she runs away Jaune latches on with his doll to stow away, clinging to her rear. By this time Jaune has gotten enough control over electronics to speak using the doll's speakerphone, and so Blake is seen in public having two-way conversations with a talking stuffed bear. The weirdness factor for Sun goes up when he tries to help out the 'creepy but cute' Blake.

When Sun and Blake go on their stakeout, Jaune tags with, but feels a need to get help. Able to sense/'see' his relics with Team JNPR and RWBY from far away, Jaune is able to use them as Beacons to move faster than he ever has before. Jaune finds Ren first, asleep, and enters his dream to warn him about Blake plans. Ren wakes up, and goes to get RWBY, and Jaune returns to Blake on the stakeout. Blake takes a nap while waiting, and Jaune enters her dream for Significant Character Interaction. Jaune tells her what he's done, says Team RWBY is behind Blake and coming to help despite her doubts, and Jaune is sticking around to haunt her into better common sense in the meantime. Blake is cheered by the solidarity, even if she worries about Weiss in particular, and thanks Jaune. Blake's woken up when the docks happen.

The dock battle is different… because the docks are haunted, and not by Jaune. During the battle crates start levitating, ghostly influences start, and it's clear that there are angry spirits at work. Somehow the White Fang is working with Ghosts, and no one's sure how. Sun and Blake's weapons have no effect on the ghosts, putting them at a disadvantage. Fortunately Jaune, a ghost himself, is uniquely suited for seeing and dealing with the half-mad ghosts. In his hands, Crocea Mors is even able to affect them, and the Yellow Death starts to glow brighter with each ghost 'slain.' The battle is dramatic, and Teams RWBY and JNPR arrives in style,and Jaune's sword Crocea Mors even starts talking again... but mostly to warn Jaune to flee when the Exorcists from earlier arrive.

The Exorcists deal with the ghosts much more effectively than the friends was able to, especially since normal weapons go right through ghosts. Only Jaune can fight the ghosts evenly, though Yang has limited success when she goes ghost and her body goes berserk against the Whtie Fang. Even though the Exorcists can't see the ghosts, only their effects, they have anti-ghost techniques and use Dust powder to be able to track the ghosts (and Jaune). The Exorcists don't distinguish between Jaune and the bad ghosts either. They try to banish Jaune, and ultimately do confiscate and destroy the toy doll that Jaune had been inhabiting. It's another aura loss for Jaune, but the exorcists aren't total villains. The Exorcist OC, realizing what happens to Yang, seals her spirit back in her body and simply chides her for risking herself. After a tense negotiation/appeal from Ren, the Exorcist OC allows them all to leave. Jaune escapes by hiding in Ruby's cloak, while Weiss hides Crocea Mors rather high up her skirt.

Things resolve as the team reunites. Questions spread as enemies become clear- the White Fang is up to no good, but how are they involved with Ghosts? The Exorcists are a separate faction in and of themselves- not necessarily villains, but definitely no friend of theirs. Team RWBY is concerned, but gladder that Blake is back and safe. There's thanks for Jaune.

Afterwards, that night, Jaune is checking up on Blake in her dream and interrupts what could have been a steamy scene with dream-Sun. Blake dismisses it without regrets, though, and is pleased to see Jaune. Back with her team, Blake is able to admit that Jaune was right and she was wrong about the issue with her friends. More than that, though, Jaune stuck around and looked out for her and kept her secrets, like a… well, a diary, or secret keeper, or even her own personal guardian angel. Thanks for that. Blake promises to loan Jaune more aura more often, to make up for what was lost in the bear that was destroyed.

The dream fades to black with Blake tugging Jaune forward and binding him with a little red ribbon Jaune finds connecting them in the dream. Loaning aura doesn't require anything in particular, but if it's her dreams and their little secret, then maybe Jaune can keep one more and make up for what he interrupted earlier.

Truth is, Blake's a bit of a man-eater…

Season one ends with Blake waking up early to do her own early morning laundry, to the knowing eyes of Weiss and Yang. Blake smirks like the cat that caught a canary.

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End Season 1

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Author Notes:

It's not a harem, it's a coven of murderous man-eaters. Totally different.

I honestly thought Jaune Dreams might be more of a deal-breaker for some people than the gore and vore, considering the well-deserved bad reputation harem fics have. This wasn't intended to be a harem story though as much as... well, really outside the usual context. The focus of the story isn't on a comedic cast of love interests cutely crushing in a never-ending will-they-won't-they. Even calling it a relationship is misleading- it's more like an imaginary friend with benefits sort of thing. Jaune Dreams aren't even suspect in the first place (after the first few, before they realize what's happening), most are platnoic, and in those that aren't Jaune serves more as a participant than a target of fantasy. For this early story, it's just healthy growing girls and the ghost that occasionally haunts their dreams.

What's more important is the idea of spirit marriage, which is actually pretty important to the story. Spirit marriage isn't something inherently romantic and more of a spiritual bond, and that's what grows over the course of the story.

Otherwise, here's season one. Roughly six arcs (Initiation, Early Beacon, Cardin, Funeral, Yang, Blake) of shenanigans and establishing ghost mechanics on the grounds of inference rather than explicit explanation.

The second half of season one is where the story might have gone from a strong T to a soft M. While writing lemons wasn't in the plan, addressing sex-dreams definitely was. More implied than not, there would still be some quasi-lime/heavy stuff during some of the early dreams. Sex humor is best humor, especially when necrophilia can be thrown in.

(I swear, half the fun of initiation was to see just how much I could get away with on people who'd normally never read such things. The warning tag for this story would be epic and disturbing, and it only gets worse.)