Standing alone at a palace party held by her father, Weiss stood alone with a drink in hand. She wore a belted pale blue-and-white sleeveless dress that fell to her ankles and matching boots, her long white hair in a braided side ponytail. She was back to being the masked princess in her kingdom, the mask on her face sparkly and pale blue. She had sang for the guests earlier and was in a foul mood. She didn't want to be in Atlas right now. She wanted to be doing something that mattered with her friends, and although he had chosen Pyrrha over her, she missed Jaune.
Her mood was made worse by the fact that she had read the Stumblr post made by Caleb Brown, former vice president of the Pyrrha fan club, going on about the vile thing he wanted done to Cinder during the pre-kill stage of the Hunt. It was a controversial post that was making headlines. It was a sickening request that Weiss doubted he would have made if Cinder weren't a woman, something that had never been allowed in the Hunt. Weiss was glad to hear that he was removed as VP of Pyrrha's fan club- Pyrrha had hated The Hunt, and would never support what Caleb had wished upon Cinder happening to anybody as punishment. But apparently Prince Chad of Mistral had reacted to Caleb's post by rewarding his behavior: he'd sent him free tickets to The Hunt, which Caleb had bragged about on social media.
Weiss had just put Henry Marigold- her father's second choice of a husband for her- out of the party for an offensive remark when a random blonde lady's voice interrupted loudly from several feet away.
"Did you see the interview with Cinder Fall's half-sisters, Dria and Staci Gold?"
Weiss noticed that everyone seemed to have agreed upon using Cinder's new last name, Fall, instead of her original last name Gold. It was as if people wanted to avoid the sympathy Cinder's original name invoked- they needed to separate the woman whose torture they were calling for from the pregnant child who was once brutalized before their very eyes.
The blonde lady continued. "Well apparently, according to Dria, Cinder was trash from the start. She was the product of their father's affair with some hooker from Mistral. Remember how Cinder was already knocked up at 15? Dria said that the father of her child was a faunus! What a skank! Is it any wonder she grew up to be the mess that she is today?"
Weiss's blood was boiling while the crowd laughed. The lady went on. "For all we know, that filthy faunus boy she seduced could have arranged for his buddies in the White Fang to take her and the baby out so he could avoid taking responsibility. What those animals did to that girl was bad, but we've got to start teaching our daughters what happens when you lie down with dogs. Poor Mrs. Gold, .! She and her daughters Dria and Staci are the real victims, to have to put up with this troubled tramp dragging their family name through the mud, then and now. Based on the girl's behavior now, it would have been better if the White Fang had just succeeded in killing her then! But it looks like The Hunt will take care of her now."
Before she could stop herself, Weiss shouted, "SHUT UP!"
All eyes were upon the masked princess. Scrolls were pulled out to record. Weiss knew she was making a scene, but she didn't care. She'd meant to address her followers about Cinder and The Hunt anyway.
"How do you know it was some 'faunus boy she seduced'- not that that would make the cruelty toward her ok either?" Weiss challenged, knowing she had to be careful how she revealed information about Cinder- no one could know that her friend Ruby was in contact with her. "I heard a rumor that it was a predatory grown faunus man who saw a child who couldn't take the abuse she was getting at home anymore and decided to take advantage of her. Did any of you ever stop to think about that- that Cinder could have already been a victim of different kinds of abuse before she was attacked? Perhaps if her so-called saintly stepmother wasn't abusing her, she wouldn't have been targeted by that creep in the first place!"
The lady seemed to want to backpedal. "Your majesty, I-"
"Faunus are not animals," Weiss interrupted. "They were originally humans just like us, but developed animal features from a virus that wiped out a lot of humanity centuries ago. They're people, and it's tragic that we allow them or anyone else to be put in The Hunt. By the way, the fact that someone is a faunus doesn't mean they have buddies in the White Fang whom they can call to hurt or kill whoever they want. Nor does it mean girls who get with them- or get victimized by them- are trash. Stop being ignorant!"
Weiss continued. "Speaking of ignorance, I heard that the White Fang were not even the true culprits behind the attack on Cinder. Humanity First members dressed up as them to hurt and kill that girl on camera to drum up hysteria about the faunus!"
"You're talking nonsense," the lady replied.
"I said shut up!" Weiss yelled again. "The way you're all talking about Cinder is disgusting. The way some of you are gleefully placing bets on how she will be killed and by who without even considering the possibility that she could be innocent. Where's all that compassion you people had for her when you thought she was beaten and murdered along with her unborn child by the White Fang? Does the death of Cinder's baby not matter now that you know her baby was a faunus? Was that compassion even genuine, or was it just about you having another reason to hate faunus? All this going on about whether Cinder was virginal enough to deserve sympathy in the first place is just an excuse to turn a blind eye to her being put in The Hunt! You tell yourselves that she'll get what she has coming to her at the end of The Hunt, but nobody deserves to be treated that way! People like you are sick!"
All of a sudden Weiss lost control of her semblance, and a grimm she had faced in battle before was summoned. The lady screamed as it ran after her, but then general James Ironwood shot it down.
"You're crazy!" The lady sob-shouted. "I see why you have the reputation that you do!"
...
By the time the night was over, Weiss's outburst was already making headlines. Her father Jacques Schnee showed her one online tabloid with the headline Princess Schnee- headed for breakdown? The princess of Atlas lashes out at a civilian with her semblance in diva rant defending Cinder Fall. The king was livid.
"Unbelievable!" He shouted. "Do you have any idea what your meltdown cost us? And don't think I'm just talking lien here. I'm talking about our reputation! Your absurd tirade defending Cinder Fall was not behavior befitting the heir to the throne. Honestly, the way this generation rallies around every girl with an abuse story is ridiculous. Maybe seeing an abused girl punished as the villain in The Hunt is exactly what's needed to teach a lesson!"
Weiss was surprised, not by her father's support of The Hunt (which he helped fund every year), but by his animosity toward abused girls. Where was this coming from?
"Are you saying it's wrong to support abuse victims?" Weiss asked, her arms folded defensively.
There was a pause before Jacques answered. "Abused girls and women are coddled these days. Being an abused female is not an excuse for bad behavior. I eagerly await seeing Cinder held accountable for her actions in The Hunt. I've got front row seats."
Weiss frowned. "It sounds like you want The Hunt to make an example of Cinder because of the abuse she suffered as a girl, rather than wanting a person to be held accountable despite abuse they face. The Hunt is not accountability. It's barbaric."
"Watch what you say!" Jacques hissed. "The Hunt is a traditional part of Mistral's culture. You're being ignorant and disrespectful. Cinder is from Mistral, and the queen and the prince of Mistral have the right to do what they want with their own. You need to let other kingdoms set their own rules and laws and stop playing Little Miss Atlesian Savior."
Weiss bristled. 'Little Miss Atlesian Savior' is exactly what he had called Winter when they were younger and she'd argued against the Hunt. Why was it that speaking up for victims in other kingdoms meant she was playing Atlesian savior?
"Why is it that you only seem to defend other cultures when they're doing something regressive?" Weiss countered. "When the prince of Vacuo briefly dated a faunus as a teen and when Blake Belladonna was allowed in Vale's Princess Trial this year, you weren't so supportive of other cultures. Mistral invites other kingdoms' opinions on the Hunt by opening up voting and viewership to people all over Remnant."
"We're not having this debate. I'm talking about your behavior today.
The urge to escape that had been building within Weiss became overwhelming.
"I want to leave," Weiss announced.
"I beg your pardon?" Jacques asked incredulously.
"I said I want to leave," she repeated. "I don't want to stay here in Atlas anymore."
"Young lady, I don't give a damn what you want. This isn't about you, this is about the royal Schnee family name and your apparent insistence on dragging it through the mud."
"I have done nothing but fight to uphold the honor of my family name. A name you married into."
It was true. Before he married Queen Willow Schnee, Jacques had been Jacques Gele, heir to the Gele Dust Company. When he'd married, it had become the Schnee Dust Company. Unfortunately, Jacques had only married Willow so he could be king- a fact he'd let slip during an argument when Weiss was 10, causing the queen to isolate herself and spiral into depression and alcoholism.
For her honesty, Weiss was slapped.
"This behavior of yours is incredibly disappointing. Until further notice, you are not to leave the palace grounds without permission."
Weiss's anger flared. "You can't treat me like a prisoner! I'm 18 now."
Her father's icy blue gaze met hers. "If you leave the palace, you will be stripped of your title and Whitley will be declared the heir."
Weiss stood there speechlessly as her father left her room with a smug grin on his face.
...
Needing to vent, Weiss picked up her scroll and called her aunt Brooke, Jacques's adopted sister. Despite her complicated relationship with her father and her father's strained relationship with his sister, Weiss was close to her aunt. Weiss told her aunt everything that happened that evening, including how it hurt her that her defense of Cinder was reduced to a "diva meltdown" by the tabloids, her dad's threat to strip her of her title and commentary on abused girls and women, and how uncomfortable she was with the public's violence toward Cinder.
"It's like The Faunus & The Knight, the way people are acting over her," Weiss said. The titular main female character of the series was an abused young woman written so viciously by a male author- both in the things she was made to do and the things that happened to her- that Weiss couldn't help but wonder if the character was inspired by an ex-girlfriend of the author. Weiss had initially been attracted to the knight character but was so disgusted by the treatment of Blaze Phoenix that she threw the whole series in the garbage.
"I don't know where all of Dad's anger toward abused girls comes from," Weiss added.
"I know where it comes from," Aunt Brooke said. "I know because of my semblance. When they adopted me, our parents rescued me from an abusive situation. I had a lot of trauma, and our parents showered me with love and attention- perhaps more than they showed to Jacques. All he wanted was for his family to notice him. Your father is working out his issues with me through Cinder- another abused girl. It's why he wants Cinder punished in the Hunt so badly. He wants Cinder harmed because of her abuse, not in spite of her abuse. And you'd better believe there are other people out there frustrated or angry about experiences they've had with imperfect victims wanting to take it out on Cinder too."
"Wow, your semblance is good," Weiss commented. Aunt Brooke's semblance was the ability to know why a person was experiencing negative emotions. "What should I do? If I leave Father will strip me of my title, but my heart tells me that I could really accomplish some good if I leave."
"You should listen to your heart," Aunt Brooke said simply.
So Weiss did. She left Atlas.
...
Across the sea in Mistral, another princess- fifteen-year-old Princess Felicia Kuro, to be exact- was trying to get her mother Queen Karen an her older brother Prince Chad to see the wrongness of The Hunt.
"I want The Hunt discontinued," the princess declared at dinner.
"You're being ridiculous," Prince Chad said casually. "The Hunt is a part of our culture."
"Then maybe our culture should change," Princess Felicia argued.
"Silence," Queen Karen commanded her daughter. "This year's Hunt is a special occasion and will not be stopped. The well-deserved suffering of Cinder Fall is a gift to your brother for his 22nd birthday. Be supportive."
Why can't he just go to a strip club instead? Why does my brother have to be supplied with a woman to suffer, be beautiful, and die for his pleasure? Felicia thought. She hated the way her brother seemed to believe that the women of his kingdom were his to offer up or have offered up to him- a mentality encouraged by his mother and the royal ancestors for a long time.
Felicia knew that her brother enjoyed female pain. Although he'd never hurt her, she'd heard rumors about his treatment of female faunus staff. She also remembered when she was little and he'd forced her to watch a scene in a horror movie where a murderer viciously cut a screaming and crying young woman's belly open and ripped her organs out. Felicia was forever haunted by that gruesome scene, and her brother's chilling words afterward before he pressed rewind to watch it again:
"She's beautiful. I wish this was real."
He had been fixated on Tawny Fox, last year's Hunt villain who was stabbed over and over.
And now he was fixated on Cinder Fall, obsessed with her pain.