[X] Get Blake to help. Have her repeat Urdr's steps back to you while you do everything or vice versa. Maybe she's just standoffish because no one's approached her. That's how it works, right? Weiss was just an outlier.
 
[X] Just get Russell to be doing something. Have him repeat Urdr's steps back to you while you do everything or vice versa. At least that's better than nothing.
 
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A higher order of Grimm, seated comfortably around the median links of the food chain - Beldam. Those monsters that approximate the shape of wizened old women, and visit all manner of terror and torment on human settlements unless appeased or slain.

Y'know it's kinda interesting, we don't actually know where Shadow sits on the power scale beyond "upper mid-tier, can chow down on some scary shit but will never in a million years get close to the Sea Witch" but it seems that how human a Grimm can act/the behaviors it can mimic roughly correlate with the complexity and power. And more than that stronger Grimm are all but drawn to civilization. The Groom suffuses it and is kinda this ugly underlayer but Bosenwolves try and disguise themselves, try to figure out how to fit in by knocking out the socially isolated. And now the Beldam who can be bought off and are deliberately geared towards squeezing fear and loathing out of communities.


Shadow's probably some shit tbh.

Everyone else seems to be doing more or less okay. Pyrrha, Ren, Weiss and Blake in particular seem to be writing like machines.

This sorta slipped by but: you'd expect Pyrrha and Ren and Weiss to have it well in hand. Pyrrha's really in synch with hers and doesn't seem to have any hangups with using it, Ren's basically been hotboxing in his after drawing on it during a traumatic event, and Weiss is a corporate princess with a demanding dad and legions of tutors (even if the answers she's giving aren't necessarily the right ones she's got this well figured out). But why Blake? The White Fang hasn't been mentioned at all thus far and you'd think that either Roman or the detective would be organic exposition pieces for that. And Torchwick actually has a lot of fauni in his organization which makes sense considering that they're a set of second class citizens in Vale. And if they're not around then it's not like Blake could be an activist-turned-terrorist-turned-schoolgirl as per canon and her backstory's already really different now that I think of it: her parents being missing in the Schnee machine and her being a colony kid.

Which means that her having a really well developed Semblance is weird.
and h
It's cramped enough that there's a struggle getting everyone through the door, and the walls and ceiling seeming to loom oppressively over you. Jaune thinks it must be some ancient, blood-soaked dungeon only recently converted into more classrooms. The detective figures that it was probably always like this - you store your Dust and derived munitions somewhere it won't take half the building with it if someone fucks up bad enough.

Ngl I really just love the juxtaposition of viewpoints from having these minds bobbing around in our shadow-well or whatever. They're both surprisingly informative wrt the characters (the detective is fairly well informed, practical, and pragmatic and his mind immediately goes towards "weapons and weapon storage") while Jaune is more naive and kinda in love with his own daydreams.

'Aha', you say to yourself, 'this is the perfect opportunity for Pyrrha and I to split Nora and Ren up so we can work on getting to know them better'.

In the time it took you to have that thought, three groups have formed already without you. It's a very nostalgic feeling for Jaune.

oh no group work

too fucking real

"Would anyone like to know how to make a pipe bomb?" Urdr asks sweetly.

Ngl I kinda wheezed a bit at the idea of a kindly grandmother handing out explosives like hard candies.

"Once extracted, the ore is refined into either cut crystals or a fine powder, depending on the circumstances," Verthandr explains. "At this stage it becomes safe to transport en masse. Highly toxic when ingested, but very powerful. Just one of many reasons why Dust is a semi-controlled substance, and shipments are closely guarded. And why I would recommend that none of you taste-test your Dust."

Russell shifts uncomfortably beside you.

Aha! More exposition on dust-shit. In its natural form Dust is apparently super unstable making its extraction probably dangerous work (and I can't imagine Schnee is providing its laborers with reliable gas masks and all that jazz). Once processed it's still gonna fuck you up but it can be further diluted and "aspected" into alchemical brews, industrial and military applications. This actually sheds some light on how Dust-abuse works in a pretty low-key way. Enhancers are specific and therefore expensive but Dust itself is just about everywhere and toxicity is sorta related to strength. So addicts either drink down stuff that's not at all suited for them and get hit with something worse than just a stomach ache or they get reckless and try to get purer and purer concentrations and fuck themselves up.

Whiiiich Russel does seem to have some experience with.

[X] Just get Russell to be doing something. Have him repeat Urdr's steps back to you while you do everything or vice versa. At least that's better than nothing.

It's really important to consider what we know from his backstory when approaching Russel: dude grew up a presumably poor faunus in a city where even the rich are rotting and people like Roman prey on the poor. He's thoroughly out of his element here (dude probably hasn't even had a fraction of the education that someone like Jaune has just passively absorbed) and starting off on the wrong foot. He's a bit warmer to Jaune than Blake is because Jaune Dark is...well he seems nice enough tbh? Blake's super standoffish. Jaune's mostly stood up for himself and put in a decent showing in the entrance exam, but he doesn't exactly ooze money or social station like Weiss or Cardin.

Basically what I'm saying is that while Russell might be kinda friendly part of that's anxiety and there's no real reason to expect that he'll react well to Some Dude He Just Met getting all touchy feely with him. I mean we might not know the particulars but we've been burned by Weiss already and we can assume that he didn't exactly grow up in an environment that rewarded emotional vulnerability or weakness. Just making him feel involved is probably going to get him to open up more than just bluntly asking. The latter's well intentioned but the dude's just had really different life experiences than either Jaune or the Detective.
 
[X] Just get Russell to be doing something. Have him repeat Urdr's steps back to you while you do everything or vice versa. At least that's better than nothing.
 
[X] Just get Russell to be doing something. Have him repeat Urdr's steps back to you while you do everything or vice versa. At least that's better than nothing.
 
Inserted tally
Adhoc vote count started by Pathetic King on Jan 16, 2018 at 11:15 PM, finished with 25 posts and 19 votes.

  • [X] Ask Russell what's bothering him. He's obviously uncomfortable about something, whether it's whatever happened in Gotthard's class or something more recent, and maybe if you help he'll do the work.
    [X] Just get Russell to be doing something. Have him repeat Urdr's steps back to you while you do everything or vice versa. At least that's better than nothing.
    [X] Ask Blake if there's a problem with the Dust or something. You get the pretty distinct feeling she knows more than she cares to let on half the time - maybe actually asking her will yield fruit.
    [X] Get Blake to help. Have her repeat Urdr's steps back to you while you do everything or vice versa. Maybe she's just standoffish because no one's approached her. That's how it works, right? Weiss was just an outlier.
 
[X] Just get Russell to be doing something. Have him repeat Urdr's steps back to you while you do everything or vice versa. At least that's better than nothing.

I'm curious about both of them, but Russel's got a bit more of a bandwagon behind him.
 
[X] Just get Russell to be doing something. Have him repeat Urdr's steps back to you while you do everything or vice versa. At least that's better than nothing.

It's group work, stop trying to have a meaningful conversation and just get things going.
Pretty sure us attempting the Chaos Dunk would kill just about everyone in Vale.
Which means that her having a really well developed Semblance is weird.
Eh, depends on the Semblance. They're like archetypes right? Well, if you're life happens to coincide with your semblance...
 
I wonder how far we can stretch the whole 'Pyre' thing.

I mean, what is a pyre, but a mountain of flame that consumes the dead, and leaves smoke and ashes behind? That's like, nearly half a dozen connections in and of itself: Pyre to 'Flame', 'Consume', 'Death', 'Smoke', and 'Ash'.
 
[X] Just get Russell to be doing something. Have him repeat Urdr's steps back to you while you do everything or vice versa. At least that's better than nothing.
 
Shadow's probably some shit tbh.
While Shadow doesn't really seem swole enough for this - and it kind of fits the Grimm in general - I've been thinking of him as The Monster In The Dark.

He outright eats and can regurgitate other Grimm, leaving him with no specific form to harass you with, he's the Thing inside your buddy that you never suspected, the Xenomorph in the rafters making you freak the hell out as it slowly but inevitably wastes your friends.

Then, before all that, he's a shadow that will just up and swallow you given the chance (See: Jaune, Detective).

It fits Shadow being maskless (or maybe more accurately, having a crapload of masks) and it's an incredibly broad archetype fitting Shadow's multiple options to eat d00ds. He just doesn't seem big enough for it. The serial killer with a particular MO and the lady who likes to make shady, unbalanced bargains are bigger then us. Maybe it's because Shadow really is just weaker and there's another, bigger, better example of what he is The Grimm as a whole! or maybe it's simply because humanity has less reason to fear what comes out when the sun goes down now.

Or maybe I'm entirely wrong and we're just an unusually coherent bubble of untyped fartgas, I'unno :V
 
Y'know it's kinda interesting, we don't actually know where Shadow sits on the power scale beyond "upper mid-tier, can chow down on some scary shit but will never in a million years get close to the Sea Witch" but it seems that how human a Grimm can act/the behaviors it can mimic roughly correlate with the complexity and power. And more than that stronger Grimm are all but drawn to civilization. The Groom suffuses it and is kinda this ugly underlayer but Bosenwolves try and disguise themselves, try to figure out how to fit in by knocking out the socially isolated. And now the Beldam who can be bought off and are deliberately geared towards squeezing fear and loathing out of communities.


Shadow's probably some shit tbh.
's fine man we just need to wait until we get to Shadows in our Grimmology Class, then boggle as we learn all about ourselves

Did you know that Shadows can be glued onto things with common bar soap? Nor did Jaune!

Honestly, it's stranger that our roomies didn't question why we spent so long alone in the bathroom, insisting no-one else could come in.
 
I going to assume that our associations are going to be like Skill trees in MMOs and while theoretically you could get everything, effectively we're going to have to focus in specific directions. I'm hoping we go with Pyre-Fire-Life.
Honestly, it's stranger that our roomies didn't question why we spent so long alone in the bathroom, insisting no-one else could come in.
Being entirely serious, they probably thought he was jacking it.
 
[X] Ask Blake if there's a problem with the Dust or something. You get the pretty distinct feeling she knows more than she cares to let on half the time - maybe actually asking her will yield fruit.
 
Being entirely serious, they probably thought he was jacking it.
That... was the joke I was making, yes.

Peter Pan famously tried to glue his shadow back on with soap. Translating this into RWBY's melange, I claimed that Shadows can be glued to things with soap. As this would lead to trouble in the bathroom, I made a further joke playing on Shadow's ignorance of human behaviour to imply he had already gotten stuck, and his team assumed he was, as you say, jacking it.

That's the joke in its entirety.
 
[X] Ask Blake if there's a problem with the Dust or something. You get the pretty distinct feeling she knows more than she cares to let on half the time - maybe actually asking her will yield fruit.
 
I wonder how far we can stretch the whole 'Pyre' thing.

I mean, what is a pyre, but a mountain of flame that consumes the dead, and leaves smoke and ashes behind? That's like, nearly half a dozen connections in and of itself: Pyre to 'Flame', 'Consume', 'Death', 'Smoke', and 'Ash'.

Building off of that there's the interesting idea implicit in your powers basically being a word cloud: namely that how your Semblance works can not only mature, but grow and change over time, in light of important life experiences or traumatic events or changes in personal philosophy or whatever. It's not just about how to wring every scrap of value out of a given ability and train it until it's big and muscly but it's about branching out and like-

Fr'ex Weiss's Semblance is "Authority". The shape of that can meaningfully change depending entirely what she believes Authority should be.

Honestly, it's stranger that our roomies didn't question why we spent so long alone in the bathroom, insisting no-one else could come in.

>Implying Nora gives a shit about personal space and wouldn't come in anyway
>Implying Pyrrha gives a shit about personal space and wouldn't come in anyway
>Implying Ren is capable of giving a shit

the shadow would glue his ass to a sink and just have to act casual while everyone walked around him
 
I mean.
There is a door, so unless they unlock it for shits and giggles...

>unlock

nora would kick that shin off its hinges and pyrra would walk over the splinters. we are trapped on a team with crazy people. granted cardin's is a sausage fest and RWBY is a rolling bitch tornado so i'm not sure if we came out behind but still.
 
>unlock

nora would kick that shin off its hinges and pyrra would walk over the splinters. we are trapped on a team with crazy people. granted cardin's is a sausage fest and RWBY is a rolling bitch tornado so i'm not sure if we came out behind but still.
I was gonna say that the sausage fest would probably be better but then I realized that Cardin is exactly the kind of guy that thinks spraying an entire can of Axe on yourself smells good.
 
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I was gonna say that the sausage fest would probably be better but then I realized that Cardin is exactly the kind of guy that thinks spraying an entire can of Axe on yourself smells good.
Cardin: Listen, it's designed to smell good, right?
Cardin: And more of a good thing is more good than less of a good thing.
Cardin: What I'm saying is, my decision to literally shower in cologne made perfect sense.
Cardin: It's reality that is wrong, not me.
 
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