182.1 diesel

[-]

Scheduling shenanigans

"Weiss!"

Weiss looked up from the collection of trading cards she was sorting to see Pyrrha stalking towards her from a newly cut rift in the air.

"Pyrrha!" Weiss called back waving. She took more pleasure than she probably should from seeing the rest of the unAwake BY, JNR and AceOps gaping expression at seeing a dead woman cut her way from the afterlife, clad in radiant golden amour that made the room feel cold and dark.

"Weiss!" Ruby piped up from across the room as things dissolved into pandemonium.

Ignoring the chaos and sudden realization that the dead were pouring out of the thereafter from the still open rip, Pyrrha slammed a familiar piece of paper on the table in front of Weiss. "I tried to follow the ridiculous weekly psychologist schedule you wrote up," Pyrrha said accusingly, "and no one would follow it. There was nothing to talk about when they did, nothing to go over and all that happened was that I ended up annoying people."

Weiss blinked. "Why is that surprising?" she asked, honestly confused, "Even in normal situations sessions are set up as needed and asked for, sometimes with sessions done after traumatic events to see how people are coping or every once in a while to touch base. No one here really needs sessions even once every ten thousand loops, most of the time they end up being gossiping sessions or end in a game."

"Then explain this," Pyrrha gestured to the paper.

"Hyper-focused mild insanity that lasted for a dozen or so loops that everyone played along with as it either amused them or found it easier than arguing," Weiss said with a shrug. "I then got sidetracked by an interesting variant and went back to normal. The same as everyone does when they go through a flanderized stage. I was made to stop a few loops after that when I was... yet to fully go back to normal. Though I was on the mend."

Pyrrha narrowed her eye and gripped the glowing spear harder, seemingly indifferent to the shrieks of the damned and cursing as the Huntsmen in the room attempted to chase possessed cutlery and furniture, and the panic as Cinder sauntered in, got up on a table and started singing 'Meet my Friends', a Hub D&D song about the spell 'animate item'. "Then why did you mess with your files and give me this if you were on the mend? I asked for your normal schedule, you're thorough enough that you couldn't have done it by accident."

"I decided to be petty and wondered how long you take you to work it out."

Pyrrha closed her eyes for several seconds, a blob of ectoplasm hitting her in the face as she did so. "You were annoyed about being told you had to."

"I'm still annoyed." Weiss smiled and started packing away her cards. "It was never the number of sessions that was the problem, it was a multitude of things. And even if I tried to, forcing mental health sessions is counter productive at worst, useless at best."

Shaking her head, Pyrrha gestured, banishing the ghosts back through the portal before sealing it, dropping down in the cafeteria seat opposite Weiss and taking a doughnut.

"That was mine."

"Was."

[-]

182.2 Luna 2

[-]

Round the bend

An unawake Neo, disguised as Nora, rounded the corner after fighting Jaune…and narrowly stopped herself from running straight into a wall of Lego bricks.

She turned back just in time to be hit in the head with a giant Lego croissant, which had boomeranged around the corner, shattering her aura and knocking her out cold.

"I thought we said no enhancements?" Ren queried as he and Jaune walked around the corner, followed by Nora and Oscar.

"I didn't," Jaune lifted his hands in a placating way, "Have you seen how dense that food is normally? Just give it enough regular strength and speed in your throw and It'll break through almost anything."

[-]

182.3 Luna 2

[-]

Never trust a Bunny

[RWBY x Hoodwinked]

Ruby Woke up, absorbing her Loop memories and surroundings as she pinged, getting several responses.

She was Red Puckett ('analogue of Little Red Riding Hood – huh, original'), sitting on a sofa in a little house in the forest, next to her granny, a large woodsman wearing lederhosen, and an anthropomorphised wolf.

And all of them, including her, were in handcuffs and they were surrounded by police, who were also a mixture of pigs, deer, birds and a bear. There was also a frog dressed in a suit, Nicky Flippers, who was about to interrogate them.

Her companions on the sofa (or the chair in the wolf's case) all looked at her as she pinged, various raising of eyebrows or sighs implying that they were Awake but waiting for her lead.

'Wow. Ok. I can work with this,' she thought. 'I wonder what line to use for my opening…'

And then one of her loop memories in particular caught up with her and she suddenly froze as she processed it.

"Mr Flippers," Ruby said with a very serious expression on her face.

"Yes?" the Frog replied.

"I'm sorry to derail your plan to question us all individually, but, I think there's something critically important which we have to confirm here, and that I can unravel this mystery a lot more quickly if you will briefly allow me to ask two combined questions to those sitting here. If you're not satisfied with the answers then you may, of course, continue with your questions after that."

Nicky Flippers was genuinely intrigued by this turn of events, and so motioned her to continue, the police officers leaning in to hear what was said.

"First question. Please give me the first word that comes to mind when I ask you if you are 'Anchored' and what is your role in this drama?"

"Loopy", replied the wolf.

"Awake", replied the woodsman.

"Cashews", replied the granny.

The others looked at her quizzically.

"What?", the granny (Maria) spoke up. "Why be generic? And my role is as the apparently defenceless granny who is really an extreme sportster, who does everything from snowboarding down exploding mountains to paragliding – both of which happened today when I was being chased by people who work for the Goody Bandit, whoever that is, trying to steal recipes."

"And to continue the theme of appearances being deceiving, I'm an investigative reporter who just happens to be a wolf, who investigates cases, and was looking into the Goody Bandit – for some reason I thought it was you, which was why I came to this house and disguised myself as your Grandmother… obviously. And Nora perfectly fulfils the role of my hyperactive…squirrel sidekick…" the Wolf (Ren) added with a completely stoic expression.

"I can't seem to ever escape being typecast as a woodsman or lumberjack in Loops like these", the not woodsman/lumberjack (Ironwood) added with a sigh. "Even though actually in this case I'm supposedly an aspiring actor, who sells Schnitzel from a truck as a day job. Even more embarrassingly, my motivation for acting is that I really want to travel the world singing with the 'Happy Yodellers'. So, my truck was robbed (they even took the tyres), and I happened to be thrown into this cottage after running away from a rolling tree I had been cutting down in order to find my 'inner woodsman' for a callback audition.", the actor/woodsman/Schnitzel man (Ironwood) finished.

Nicky Flippers and the police around him were desperately trying to keep up with these revelations.

"Ok," Ruby continued. "Second and final question. Think very carefully. Did a small talking rabbit play any role in your story today? I think that he's the one who opened the doors of the cable car causing me to fall to the forest floor, and he was looking at me in an evil manic way as he did it." She shivered slightly as she recalled it.

"He was at the extreme sports event asking for my autograph," Maria answered.

"He was nearby when my truck had everything stolen," Ironwood added.

"He also gave me a shortcut to get to Granny's house," Ren pointed out.

Ruby's eye twitched violently as her face contorted.

"Bunnies," she started sniggering, as little bolts of electricity began visibly arcing around her.

"Ruby?" Maria asked in a concerned tone, as the other two backed up slightly, worried looks on their faces.

"It's always the bunnies." The room began to glow, pieces of furniture levitating, the officers stepping back as the little Red-hooded girl's body began…dissolving and changing shape, the handcuffs falling to the floor as lightning bolts surged around.

"I knew we should've brought in the cage!" one of the officers yelled.

Ruby morphed into a crimson tornado of energy, only her wildly distorted face remaining visible for a few moments as her voice echoed like thunder, deafening everyone in the room. "NEVER. TRUST. A. BUNNY!".

With that utterance, her face disappeared into the swirling mass as she surged skywards, smashing through the cottage roof and shooting towards the cable car terminal.

[-]

Boingo the rabbit (secretly the Goody Bandit), had returned to his lair with the recipes, and was about to confer with his 3 evil ski team minions, when suddenly a red vortex formed round the building, howling with wind and lightning.

Ruby gathered enough of herself together to form a disembodied head, floating in the middle of the room, smiling maniacally, her eyes shimmering.

It was at that moment that Boingo knew…he'd messed up.

[-]

The whole group had gone outside from Granny's, and now looked in the direction of bright crimson explosions lighting up the night sky.

At which point a supersonic squirrel ran up to them, knocking Ren over and sitting on his chest. "Ren! This is incredible. When I drink coffee in this form it makes me feel SO ALIVE! It's like in Chibi Form only different! Also, I'm talking even faster than normal! Also, I'm a squirrel. Can you believe that? A SQUIRREL! And you're a wolf. I mean. Who would've thought it? WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD REN?! That just doesn't have the right ring to it! Has Ruby found the crazy bunny who tried to kill her yet? Oh she's gonna be so mad when she works that one out. We should probably take cover from that. We could hide in my Pocket, or I've got the nuclear-powered shovels so we can build a shelter or run to mountains, except we're already in the mountains, but there's a singing goat out there who's really well prepared and all he does is sing until you're practically wanting to take the shovel and..."

"Nora." Ren pointed in the direction of the lights in the sky.

"Oh. So, she did find out."

While the rest of the gathering were either concentrating on their new arrival, or still staring at the sky, Maria sidled over to Nicky Flippers and nudged him.

He blinked and looked at her.

"Look. You have Government Agent written all over you. So, I'll get straight to it - we'd all probably both have an easier time of it if you could make it so that this never happened."

Nicky Flippers looked thoughtful for a moment. "What did you have in mind?"

Maria produced a large bag of diamonds from her pocket and handed them to him.

"The stolen recipes were found after an anonymous tip. The bandit blew himself up to evade arrest. The police get commendations and bonuses to keep quiet. The henchmen, if they survive, along with any witnesses, get therapy and witness protection. The cable car, my house, and whatever else was damaged, get rebuilt. And tonight. Never. Happened."

Nicky picked up one of the diamonds and looked thoughtful for a moment. "Some might think it a strange way of ensuring a Happily Ever After ending. But, under the circumstances, a very reasonable one".

[-]

182.4 Luna 2

[-]

What's in a name?

"You know. I hate having to slowly hop around or roll everywhere, but I guess inanimate object loops are not always…toootally bad…" Ruby offered, looking down at her body, which was an actual ruby this Loop, with eyes and a mouth. "Don't you think so, Weiss? Cinder?".

The block of ice sitting next to her was just glaring silently at a nearby tree.

The small, brightly glowing cinder (Cinder) was just muttering and occasionally flaring up. She looked over at the nearby brightly coloured vanilla and chocolate ice cream in a cone. "And you can wipe that smirk off your face!"

Neo just stuck her tongue out.

"I think," Penny spoke up, looking in a mirror at her shiny circular form before rolling over alongside Ruby, "that the pun-based humour of being turned into an object based on your name does help you to reflect on the meaning and value of it more?"

"Well, in some places…you are what you steal," Emerald sighed as she eyed her green reflection. "I've been worse".

"You think you have it rough?" Mercury looked up at them from the floor, a puddle of liquid metal.

A multicoloured tie (Tai) spoke up from nearby. "Pretty sure I've seen a hub meme about me naming Yang in one hand and a tie in the other. Guessing that's the reference here?"

The iron with a wooden handle nearby silently bemoaned the lack of creativity on the part of whatever line of code had turned him into this.

A crow, a raven, and a small sunny golden dragon stood off to the side, towering over the rest.

"With a name like mine and this form," Qrow piped up, "I've already been subject to whatever the Tree can throw at me in terms of being a bird."

The dragon (Yang) said nothing.

"Aren't you being remarkably self-controlled about this?" Raven look quizzically at the dragon.

The dragon turned to face Raven and smiled. "Letting them get used to it for a moment. Timing is everything with pun-loops."

"Why does this always happen to me?!" (the) Sun (in the sky) whined loudly.

[-]

182.5 Shimmer712

[-]

Diversion Competition Drama

"What are you two up to?" Qrow asked Remnant's Anchor and Remnant's Second.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Ruby is obsessing over possible new loopers and the potential drama again," she explained. Ruby pouted.

"I know at this point, if we were getting new loopers from the expansion, it would have happened already," she huffed. "But Maria and Mercury didn't activate from expansion so we might still get new loopers. Besides, it gives me something to focus on during lonely loops."

Qrow's expression softened and he ruffled Ruby's hair. "Sorry I can't be there for you, kiddo."

Ruby smiled up at her uncle. "It's fine," she chirped. "Anyway, with Willow, the biggest issue would be her drinking and I think she might be depressed thanks to that moron who manipulated her into marrying him."

"If she loops, I could try to help her out," Qrow offered. Weiss gave him a small smile.

"The Ace-Ops, that would be a mess, what with how everything ended, especially with Clover. And that's not bringing in the shipping drama," Ruby continued.

"Any shipping drama would be on his end," Qrow interjected. "Me and Winter have had plenty of time to work things out and we've got it sorted. What about the possible drama between Raven and Robyn?"

Ruby paused. "I didn't know there was any shipping between them?"

"There's not," Qrow shook his head. "But Robyn's motif is Robin Hood, who was basically a bandit chief. One who benefited people outside his band but still a bandit chief. Easy to see her looping into Raven's place and my sister can be pretty competitive at time."

"So there could be competitive drama!" Ruby's eyes took on a gleam. "Over who is the better bandit leader! Oooh, we could score them and everything if it happens!"

"Better by what criteria?" Weiss asked. "More successful raids? The tribe having more supplies? More members? Fewer losses during raids?"

"Does their Unawake leadership count or would you limit it to what they pulled while Awake?" Qrow wondered.

"So it could be judged based on a specific length of time," Ruby mumbled to herself, scribbling something down. She looked up and beamed at her uncle. "That's a new project for lonely loops! Thanks, Uncle Qrow!" She clapped her hands together. "Maybe I could compare how people do when they loop into each other's roles or something too?" she wondered. "Like if Dad and Glynda swap their roles as Signal and Beacon teachers and stuff?"

Weiss sighed. "I'm glad you have something to occupy yourself with your next lonely loop," she said, patting Ruby on the arm. "Now, weren't you going to meet up with Penny for a date before her match with Pyrrha?"

"Actually, we're having a double-date with Jaune and Pyrrha," Ruby corrected. She glanced at the clock. "Although you are right about me needing to go. Bye!" With that, she zipped off.

"So...Bandit Chief Robyn Hill?" Weiss raised an eyebrow at the man.

Qrow shrugged. "Can you tell me you can't see it happening, with or without her actually looping?" he asked.

Weiss hummed to herself. "All things considered, it is plausible," she decided. "In fact, now that you've mentioned it, I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet."

"Key word: yet."

"True," Weiss agreed. Then snickered.

"What's so funny?" Qrow raised an eyebrow.

"If Robyn winds up in Raven's place, does that mean Raven would end up in hers?"

Qrow snorted. "Raven the politician. She would have no patience for any political bullshit. All the other councilors would hate her."

"If she doesn't just stab them," Weiss mused. "I know I've been tempted to way too many times and I don't interact with them often."

"Have you ever given into the temptation to screw them over somehow?" Qrow asked curiously.

"No one can prove anything. I have never stabbed any of the councilors or used sharp, pointy objects to assault them," Weiss smirked.

"That's specific. That only excludes stabbing and stuff," Qrow pointed out. "Not, say, hacking their accounts and draining their money out or something."

"What an oddly specific example," Weiss remarked.

"No one can prove anything," Qrow echoed her earlier words, grinning at her.

Weiss grinned back.

[-]

182.6 Luna 2

[-]

Chess-ophobia

A remote airstrip, crawling with terrorists and loaded with firepower. And he was a secret agent, intent on blowing the place up, after he had safely extracted the nuclear torpedo-armed jet fighter.

Ironwood smiled to himself as he Woke up. 'No Pocket and no powers. A chance to cut loose and be a film hero the old-fashioned way. Maybe just what I need right now.'

Then his radio crackled to life…at the same moment his Loop memories told him what his call sign was.

"White Knight. Come in White Knight."

Ironwood facepalmed.

[-]

182.7 Luna 2

[-]

Off to see the Wizard?

[RWBY x Wizard of Oz]

Qrow Woke up suspended on a pole in a corn field, quickly ascertaining that he was stuffed full of straw.

Ironwood Woke up, realising that he was frozen solid, or rather rusted in place, in the middle of the woods.

Glinda Woke up ('No, I'm Glynda!' she immediately thought) feeling the weight of a crown on her head and almost tripping over the large sparkly pink dress she was wearing.

Ghira Woke up, shaking the hair from his mane out of his eyes and swishing his… tail… his lion's tail.

They all individually checked. No Ping or powers. It was a null loop.

Although separated from each other, their vast experience led all to reach the same conclusion in their minds almost simultaneously.

'I hate Wizard of Oz Loops!'

Then, after a pause, Glynda looked over at the empty house which had flattened the Wicked Witch of the East (whom she had been fighting) and another thought crossed her mind:

'Hang on. If that's Dorothy's house, then, where's Dorothy?'

[-]

Elsewhere, 'Dorothy', who had already been surprised she was no longer in Kansas, became even more surprised when she Woke up, saw where she was, and consulted her Loop memories.

"What. What?"

Was it a Wizard of Oz type Loop? Yes, but, apparently, the script had got thrown out the window very early on, along with her!

'Dorothy' had been pulled out of her falling home when a green-skinned witch flew past on a broomstick, falling down (painfully) through some trees, likely in a completely different place from where the house had landed.

As such, she had not encountered any of the other characters yet. But what was more…surprising was who she…was.

"How in all of Yggdrasil does THIS CASTING make any sense?!" Cinder yelled, her pigtails a mess, her face and legs covered in cuts and bruises, and her blue dress and white shirt already torn from her landing and subsequent walk.

Then she froze in a moment of realisation as she reached the Yellow Brick Road. "Hang on. If I'm not the Wicked Witch, then that would mean she's…" Cinder's wide-eyed expression quickly morphed into a smirk. This could yet be interesting.

[-]

182.8 Luna 2

[-]

Putting the hammer down

"So. We're… here." Sun looked around.

Nora, Ren and Sun were in a Hub Loop, and, after travelling by plane and by bus, had just arrived at what appeared to be a small town in Mexico. The sign read "San Juan de la Vega".

Nora was smiling maniacally, her grin from ear to ear as she got out Magnhild in its hammer form, twirling it in her hand. "YEAH! WE'RE HERE ALL RIGHT. TIME TO GET THE PARTY STARTED."

Sun winced slightly at the volume, and at the sudden attention they were being paid by a group of the locals. Then, after a beat, they cheered and crowded round Nora.

Sun looked at Ren, puzzled. "You don't know why we're here. Do you?"

Ren looked at Sun with a flat expression.

"Honestly? I got nothing."

"It's the site of the Exploding Hammer Festival."

"…the…what?"

"There's a festival in this town where people attach explosives to the heads of sledgehammers and hit them into concrete. Therefore…the reason we are here."

Sun thought about it - that would explain why some of those people nearby were carrying hammers, and hitting the pavement with them, creating little explosions. "Wow. I, er…I didn't know that was a thing."

"Now you do".

"That can't be safe surely?"

"It's not. They have injuries each year. It's even less safe now that Nora is here. But the people of this particular Hub Loop town seem to be very much a) robust and b) attuned to her way of thinking."

"DO YOU WANT ME TO PUT THE HAMMER DOWN?!" Nora yelled to cheering crowds as she raised Magnhild high above her head.

Ren and Sun just had time to dig and dive into a small foxhole before a shockwave shattered parts of the buildings around them.

They emerged to find Nora being carried by the crowd, all of them unharmed and still cheering, away from a large smouldering crater in the road nearby.

Sun looked at Ren, uncovering his ears, barely able to hear himself say "You think she'll try and do this in Remnant?"

Ren stared blankly at him, clutching his still ringing head. "Please! Do not tempt her!"

[-]

182.9 Shimmer712

[-]

Beauty and the Beast? Not Really!

"This is so backwards," Qrow mumbled.

"You've already said that," Winter said placidly.

Qrow huffed in the direction of the currently invisible looper. "It bears repeating. I mean seriously, we are in a loop in the roles of a classic Beauty and Beast archetype and I'm the beauty? How are you a better fit for the beast role than me? Last I checked, I was the one whose baseline involves a lot of travel and limited access to showers and shit, which seems more of a beast than a beauty thing. And I'm the shapeshifter too. So how are you a better beast?"

Winter shrugged. "Yggdrasil just threw us into these roles on a random whim?" she offered.

"I guess that fits," Qrow sighed. "Who's the Anchor for this loop anyway?"

"I'm not sure. They'll probably show up sooner or later," Winter remarked. She reached out and poked Qrow, prompting him to start slightly.

"Shit, I have no idea where you are when you're quiet," he complained.

Winter snickered. "I think I'll have all sorts of fun with this loop," she grinned.

"At my expense, I bet," Qrow pouted.

"That's what will make it fun."

[-]

182.2 (con't) Luna 2

[-]

Round the bend

An unawake Neo, disguised as Nora, rounded the corner after fighting Jaune, and came face to face with… herself.

That made her pause very briefly. It was definitely a duplicate of her as herself, in her most recent outfit, but holding Nora's hammer, which didn't make sense.

Then the real Nora hit her from the side with Magnhild and sent her flying into a nearby wall.

"Ok. I guess this one's a joint effort. Seriously though…where did you even find a model like that?" she asked Oscar as Jaune, Ren and he rounded the corner.

"Oh. Just something I put together with Atlas Tech," Oscar laughed nervously. He didn't dare admit he'd built it in his Pocket when he was trying his hand at waxwork model-making. No one could ever know about that!

[-]

182.10 Shimmer712

[-]

Stupid Grimm (RWBY X The Grimm Adventure of Billy and Mandy)

Salem blinked as she caught sight of something. "Cinder? Did you recruit a third child?" she called.

The scarred woman looked up, frowning and shook her head.

"She only brought in Mercury and myself, ma'am," Emerald said politely, hovering over her mistress, ready to serve.

"So who is that boy out there?" the witch wondered. "Tyrian!"

"Yes, my goddess," the serial killer fawned as he slunk into the room.

"Go do something about that boy," she commanded. "Either bring him here or kill him. But try to find how he got here undetected."

"Of course, your Radiance," Tyrian bowed low before taking his leave.

Salem watched as the boy started running around, with his arms extended out to his sides. Probably making nonsensical sounds to himself.

She saw Tyrian come into view and start making his way to the boy.

Before the boy ran off a ledge and bellyflopped into one of the Grimm pools. A nearly-emerged Grimm turned and snarled at where the boy had vanished into the dark liquid.

"...What a careless brat," she commented to no one in particular. Tyrian made his way to ledge and stared down, probably utterly baffled at the sheer lack of survival instincts.

Salem placidly continued to watch as Tyrian turned to return and the surface of the pool started to distort as a new Grimm started to emerge. An appendage grabbed hold of the edge and was joined by it's partner before the pair started to heave their owner out of the pool.

"...Wait," Salem muttered. "Why does it have a huge nose and a red hat?"

As more of the strange Grimm started to emerge, the first one stumbled into another pool, resulting in the pool creating more of them instead of the Grimm she desired.

"What is this?"

Later, Ozpin resisted the urge to whimper to himself.

Billy-Grimm. This loop had started having Billy-Grimm appear. And somehow, they were worse than regular Grimm despite the fact they didn't bother to attack people. Ozpin wasn't even sure if the Billy-Grimm noticed people. Yet somehow, they managed to be worse than monsters who specifically hunted people for the sake of killing. Which didn't make sense, especially after watching one Billy-Grimm spend two hours walking into the same tree over and over, but it was still happening

He and Oscar had joined Qrow and Ruby with JNR while Yang and Weiss had also joined them, as per baseline and the group was in Leo's office. Qrow, Yang and Ruby were Awake. As was Oscar but he was refusing to have anything to do with the situation so Ozpin was in control of their currently shared body.

"Qrow Branwen." The clipped words made Ozpin look up to see his former wife standing in the doorway, looking sulky. Her followers were clustered behind her.

"Salem," he said flatly. "What have you done? WHY DID YOU CREATE BILLY-GRIMM?!"

Salem blinked, switching her attention from the Spy to the reincarnating wizard. "Ozpin? You've reincarnated already?"

"Just answer the question," he hissed.

"What do you mean by Billy-Grimm?" Watts inquired.

"Billy is basically stupid personified," Qrow informed him. "And somehow, we have a swarm of Grimm that are basically him." The shape-shifter's eye twitched slightly. "Maybe if we find and kill the actual Billy..." he mumbled to himself.

"We need to kill him anyway," Yang piped up. "He's a threat just by existing." The non-loopers in the room blinked at her.

"Is Billy a child with a big nose and red hat?" Salem asked curiously.

"...Yes," Ruby looked at her. "What did you do?"

"Nothing except watch him fall into one of my Grimm Pools."

The loopers processed that information for a moment.

"Fuck, all the pools are contaminated now, aren't they?" Qrow demanded. Salem winced and nodded.

"Whelp, sucks for you, Miss Immortal, but it looks like you're stuck with this mess where as we can get out of it via death!" Yang said cheerfully. "Since the world's gone crapsack, I'm just going go have some crazy fun and not give a shit!"

Ruby suddenly shuddered and swore.

"Kiddo?" Qrow looked at her.

"Are there Billy-fied versions of the Apathy?"

All the loopers cringed.

"Ah, death, I await your sweet embrace," Ozpin muttered. Oscar snorted but stayed in the back of their mind. No way was he dealing with Billy when he could avoid it.

Everyone was relieved when the loop ended and they found themselves Waking up elsewhere.

[-]

182.11 Shimmer712

[-]

Raining Cats and Dogs

"Okay, I know I haven't experienced this personally before, but surely someone here has," Qrow commented, watching as various cats, dogs, and faunus on the canine and feline varieties fell from the sky.

Ruby paused, thinking. "It's rained men before," she offered. "And a bunch of other stuff. But now that I think of it, I can't think of the phrase "raining cats and dogs" being literal before. Well, except for that prank Zwei and Neo pulled but I don't think that counts. Weird."

"Wait, really?" Qrow looked at his niece.

"I know, right? We've had all sorts of rain so you'd think this cliche would have popped up soon but it hasn't!"

"Huh. I always assumed that most if not all cliches figures of speech like this one had been taken literally in the loops," Qrow shrugged. "Guess I was wrong."

"Depends on if you're only going by our branch," Ruby pointed out. "If we cover the multiverse, then yeah, they probably all have been."

"Good point."

[-]

182.12 Shimmer712

[-]

Dirty History?

"Remember when we were in Ruby and Weiss' roles and had an Analytic History of Porn Class?" Qrow asked Winter.

"A what class?" James asked, ignoring the sound of the Vytal Tournament on the screen.

"The Analytical History of Porn, sir," Winter answered primly.

James rubbed his temples. "I'm not sure if I want to know more."

"I do," Ozpin said. "If only so I can try to figure out why a version of me would make that a thing."

"It was a fascinating class," Winter remarked.

"Winter?" James looked at her incredulously.

"Here." Rolling his eyes, Qrow Unpocketed a book and handed it over to the man.

The general flipped it open to the table of contents.

"Wha..." He blinked. "It lists chapters about different materials, dyes, the implications of what was used to make it, the subtext of the poses used... it doesn't sound like a pornographic book at all."

Qrow shrugged. "It talks about how if an area had a different amount of porn using materials that aren't local, it implies stuff about their trade and relations with other places. How the materials used can show that it was either made or commissioned by someone rich or if it was something for the lower classes. That sort of thing."

"There's also a chapter about the various imagery included, like candles," Winter added. "And the probable symbolism of colors too."

The two headmasters stared.

"So, wait," Ozpin asked. "Is this a porn class we're talking about or an archaeology class with a very narrow scope?"

"...Now that you mentioned, the second one is probably more accurate," Qrow considered. Winter nodded.

"So, if I got my hands on some ancient porn, you could probably tell me something about the people who made it?" James asked.

"We could probably make some educated guesses," Winter admitted.

"How did this relate to Huntsmen Training?" Ozpin wondered.

Qrow and Winter shrugged.

"Never did figure that out," Qrow answered.

[-]

182.6 (con't) Luna 2

[-]

Chess-ophobia

"Professor. Come quickly."

"What is it Elena?"

"The I.R.O.N.W.O.O.D supercomputer sir. It seems like it's screaming."

"Screaming?"

"It's spitting out lots of garbled data, followed by loud protestations that it doesn't want to play chess anymore."

"But that's why we built it…hang on." The Professor furrowed his brow. "If this is a joke by someone it's in poor taste…but…if not, then… could we be looking at self-aware AI?"

"Because it doesn't like chess?"

The Professor sighed. "Yes, you're right. That is too fanciful an explanation".

The I.R.O.N.W.O.O.D started flashing facepalming icons all over its screens.

[-]

182.13 Black Omochao

[-]

Moximous Mercury

[RWBY/Yo-kai Watch]

Awakening to find himself back in his old childhood room, in a rather small body, Mercury released an annoyed groan. 'Great, now I've got to deal with the old bastard again… I guess I could just leave, maybe–' The physically young Looper's thoughts were cut off by the sound of a loud crashing coming from downstairs…

Moving over to the railings, Mercury glanced down at the room below, and wasn't sure what to make of what he saw.

"Who the hell are you!? What is this!?" Marcus Black (AKA: the 'Old Bastard') shouted in outrage, as a tan-skinned man, wearing a rather showy out, which included a cape, and a bright red and gold mask over his face, stood over him, keeping him down with one of his feet pressed against his back.

There was also a large hole in the wall; the stranger's apparent point of entry…

"Ha-ha! With love, moxie, and courage!" The strangely dressed man started to pose, keeping his foot on Marcus Black the entire time. "Moximous Mask! Invincible champion! Defender of all! The world is my friend!" He finished his pose, which looked like something out of a cheesy hero show. "Go, MOXIE!" A plume of orange smoke burst from behind him, which seemingly came from nowhere.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!? Get off me!" Marcus struggled to get out from under the stranger's boot but was unable to.

Mercury just kept watching with morbid fascination, almost certain that this intruder was a Looper, and wanting to know where this was going.

"My goal is a simple one; I am here to liberate young Mercury from your care, as it is apparent that you are unfit to provide said care to him!" 'Moximous Mask' declared firmly, still not allowing Marcus to escape.

"What, you want that brat!?" Marcus seemed outraged by that statement, though his anger didn't come from any love for his son. "You think you can just storm into my house, demand what's mine, and get away with it!?"

Mercury just shook his head. 'The old bastard's got no shot of even being able to fight this guy, if he even lets him get up; guy's clearly a Looper.'

"Your cooperation is not necessary, or expected!" the intruder stated cheerfully, before he leaned down and flicked Marcus' head with his finger, which immediately knocked him out. Stepping off the unconscious man, the masked stranger turned to look up at the spectating child, "Now come, young Mercury, let us be off!"

Mercury gave the Looper a blank stare, before he sighed. "Well, I've got nothing else to do, I guess."

About a decade later…

"So, basically, that's how I ended up following the old man around," a seventeen-year-old Mercury sighed, sitting in the Xiao Long-Rose home, speaking to the just recently Awake Ruby Rose.

"And that's why you're part of our family this Loop!" the Anchor smiled.

A crash sounded from elsewhere in the house.

"Dad!? What did you do this time!?" a peeved off, and alive, Summer Rose shouted from the kitchen.

"Moxie!" the voice of 'Nathaniel Rose' exclaimed from the same direction.

"And, also, Nathaniel's my grandpa this Loop!" Ruby giggled, before she gave the other Looper a serious look. "So, how do you consider this adoption to be? Is Nathaniel like a father to you? A grandfather? An uncle?"

Mercury gave the Anchor a strange look at the sudden line of questioning. "Is this for your 'family tree' thing…?"

Ruby glanced away innocently. "Maaaaaaybe…"

"Don't answer her, Mercury!" the voice of 'Nathan Rose' suddenly sounded from the nearby couch, before the eleven-year-old looked up and at the teenagers. "You'll just be feeding her addiction!"

"Hey! I don't have an addiction!" Ruby snapped at her little brother, before turning back to Mercury. "So, please tell me how I can consider this on the family tree!"

Mercury slowly got up from his chair, keeping his eyes on the girl as he started to back away.

"Don't you walk away from me!" Ruby growled, pulling herself up from the chair.

Nate sighed and shook his head, before plopping back onto the couch, a red cat curled up at his side.

[-]

182.14 Shimmer712

[-]

A Man's Home is His Castle

Tai blinked at his home. Instead of the modest two story house he shared with his daughters and Qrow, there was instead a castle.

"Wha..." He paused. Apparently this loop, once a house was considered a home, it somehow transformed into a castle.

Tai facepalmed. "I know they say a man's home is his castle, but seriously?" he groaned. "Yeah for space and storage but damn, keeping the place cleaned and maintained is just way too much work."

A beep drew his attention and he looked down. "Oh, hey, I have a roomba!" He paused then frowned, blinking. "With a knife attached. Wait, is that Stabby thing from the Hub internet a looper now?"

The roomba just beeped happily and rolled off.

"The tree is just messing with me, right?"

[-]

182.15 Shimmer712

[-]

Always High

"Last loop, Remnant was pretty messed up," Qrow commented idly as he watched a movie.

"What was so messed up that loop?" Tai asked as he cut up some carrots for chicken soup.

"The loop itself wasn't too bad, just one little detail that kinda impacted a lot of stuff," Qrow said.

"And that detail was?"

"Everything edible was a hallucinogen," Qrow answered.

"That doesn't sound-"

"Everything," Qrow stressed. "And people constantly had the munchies from being high. Ever seen a city designed and built by people stoned out of their minds? Or imagined what sort of weapon someone who is on a constant who could come up with?"

"Ooooh," Tai blinked. "Yeah, I can kinda see how that one thing can mess up everything else."

"Of course, it was pretty easy to steal from people since their perception of reality was messed up," Qrow continued. "Being high all the time was their normal. So I grabbed a bunch of weapons for Ruby's collection. Have no idea if she'll even be interested in them but hey, she can always dismantle them and make something else."

"Did you get anything else?" Tai asked.

Qrow shrugged. "Grabbed some art and some tech. Granted I have no idea what some of the art is supposed to be. There's this one picture that could be anything from a field of flowers to a couple on their wedding night."

"So, a lot of abstract," Tai clarified.

"Pretty much," Qrow agreed. "I also grabbed some fashion magazines and stuff for Yang since she likes designing stuff sometimes. See if anything catches her interest."

"Maybe, maybe not," Tai shrugged. "Hey, you think I should throw some garlic into the soup?"

Qrow shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

Tai turned his focus to his cooking while Qrow resumed watching the show.

"Just so we're clear, you spent that loop eating stuff from your Pocket, right?"

Qrow rolled his eyes. "Yes, Tai," he huffed... before muttering "except for that first part where I didn't know because I had just Woke up with some cravings."

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

[-]

182.2 (con't) Luna 2

[-]

Round the bend

An unawake Neo, disguised as Nora, rounded the corner after fighting Jaune, deflecting the shots from Ren's guns with her umbrella.

Ren made to strike with his blades. She switched her eye colour and made a Nora-like sad face, planning to trip him up… but suddenly found her lips locked in a kiss with him.

Neo's eyes widened, caught slightly off-balance by this, but her umbrella blade was already deploying, preparing…preparing to…to strike the…target why were her arms so…heavy…

Neo's eyes rolled to white as she fell over unconscious, Ren remained standing nearby.

The real Nora and Jaune rounded the corner, followed by Oscar, all having watched on a remote camera.

Nora's face was red, with embarrassment, or rage, or a combination of both. "WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU CALL THAT?!"

"Tranquilliser lipstick. I've already built up immunity." Ren sighed. "Sorry. It was a cold and empty experience, and only to neutralise her. Not like you at all Nora. Please forgive me." Ren gave her a sheepish look of genuine regret and worry.

Nora went several shades redder, as her eye twitched, before she zapped forward like a lightning bolt, knocking Ren over with a hug tackle.

"Seriously. Why did we do this again?" Jaune piped up, as Oscar just shrugged.

[-]

182.16 Shimmer712

[-]

Rewind (RWBY x My Hero Academia/Boku no Hero Academia)

Qrow Woke up on a table with a creepy masked guy looming over him. With a scalpel.

...Nope.

Qrow promptly Unpocketed Harbinger and decapitated him.

"Now how am I going to explain this?" he wondered, going through his loop memories as he Pocketed his weapon. He vaguely recognized the loop. It was that place with the hero schools. He was replacing the kid that was rescued from the Yakuza by the local Anchor in baseline. Only instead of a horn, he had black feather markings on his right shoulder.

"And I just screwed over my in-loop grandpa," he muttered. "Whoops." Frowning, he looked around. "Now what should I do?"

He eventually decided to just leave the room and run off.

"Oh, hey! It's Overhaul's munchkin! Cute little thing! Get the brat away from me!"

Run off into another masked guy and some blonde girl.

"Aww, be nice, Twice," the girl grinned, crouching down. "Hi, I'm Toga. Wanna be friends?"

Qrow frowned at her. "I just wanna leave," he told her childishly.

Toga grinned widely at him, showing sharp teeth. "We can help with that!" she said cheerfully. "We'll muddy the waters a bit!"

"Sure!" Twice said cheerfully. "Hell no!"

"How are you going to help?" Qrow asked.

Toga pulled out a needle. "This will hurt a little," she warned before jabbing Qrow in the arm and pulling her mask up over her face. She gulped down the blood before she shifted forms, mimicking Qrow's appearance perfectly.

"My turn!" Twice pulled out a tape measure and measure Qrow before making four duplicates. Toga gave each of them a knife, her manic smile wide.

"Now..." Rubbing his hands together, Twice walked to the door and flung it open. "FLY MY PRETTIES! BE FREE! BE FREE AND WRECK SHIT!"

"RAH!" Toga and the copies charged out (Qrow wasn't quite sure which one was Toga). Qrow shrugged and run out as well.

He ran into a blond kid calling himself Lemillion who was quite happy to pick him up and carry him off. Although they did see one of Twice's Qrow clones attack one of the Yakuza men, screaming "DIE, COCKROACH, DIE!" It was obviously a clone as when the guy crushed it's head, it dissolved instead of leaving a body.

There was an issue with his in loop powers going nuts but some guy called Aizawa resolved the issues with his nullification powers.

"I wonder what's going to happen now?" Qrow mumbled to himself.

"Ah, don't worry," Lemillion assured him. "Everything will be just fine."

Deku shrugged sheepishly. "If you ever need an Anchor, I'm happy to help," he offered.

"I Woke up feeling loopy a while ago but thanks," Qrow answered.

Lemillion laughed. "Is that some sort of Yakuza slang?" he asked, beaming.

Qrow just shrugged.

[-]

182.17 Luna 2, Shimmer712

[-]

Honey, I'm home

"Honey, I'm home," Oscar Woke up just as he had barely finished saying his customary greeting while opening his front door.

He blinked as he rapidly started processing his Loop memories. Well this was different.

The first thoughts screaming at him, and staring him in the face as he looked around his hallway, were that he was living in an idealised image of 1950s American suburbia - he was a working man, a nice job (in an agricultural technology firm no less), a nice car, a nice 1950s house with a white picketed fence, a nice wife…

He paused at that thought, but didn't have the time to process it, a vision of a charming domestic housewife now emerging from the kitchen in front of him, wearing a stylish dress and blouse, and an apron.

And smiling radiantly at him, her immaculately styled pink and brown hair framing her face.

"Hello Oscar da-arling, how was your day?" Neo very deliberately elongated the second word and fluttered her eyelashes in an exaggerated way, much more than his loop memories said she had been doing before. "You look so tired. Almost like you need…" She put her finger to her mouth while pursing her lips. "…an Anchor?".

He pinged. One other ping came back.

"I'll admit, it was something of a Loopy day," he replied as he started smiling, "but it's good to be home".

Neo smiled back, then held up a sign which read 'talk later, right now we need to play along because of the children'.

His eyes widened at the thought as he heard noises in another part of the house. How had he momentarily forgotten that?! He guessed that they were unawake.

Then he winced slightly as other parts of his Loop memories hit, including the full history of his family life – and everything else it involved in this particular Loop.

'Well,' he thought as he put his hat and coat up on the stand, 'it's not exactly what I had in mind, but...I guess home is where the heart is.'

[-]

Ruby grinned at her classmate, her smile showing her missing tooth. "I'm not allowed in mommy and daddy's bedroom at night! That's when they play games!" she informed the other child.

"What do they play?" the other child asked.

The teacher, who had been standing nearby, stiffened, eyes going wide before raising their voice. "Who would like to hear a story?" she called out, distracting the two from their conversation.

Late that night, Oscar and Neo were in their bedroom after settling the kids in bed.

"Got any threes?" Oscar asked.

Neo smirked. "Go fish!"

[-]

182.18 Shimmer712

[-]

Unwanted Role and Common Similarities

"Uh, dad? How tender do you need that steak?" Yang asked as she watched her father pound the meat with a tenderizing mallet.

Tai paused and looked at what used to be a steak and was now closer to pulp. "...Not this tender?" he admitted. "Just unhappy about my last loop."

"What was so bad about it?" Yang asked

Tai pulled a face. "Basically, I was in Remnant in someone else's role."

"...Who were you in that loop?" Yang wondered.

"...Tyrian," he spat.

Yang blinked. "Wait, really?"

Tai huffed. "Really," he confirmed in a grumble as he fold his arms. "Seriously? Do I have anything in common with that nutcase?"

Yang thought for a moment. "You're both Remnant born males?" she offered.

Tai leveled a look at his first-born. "Every man on the planet has that in common with him," he said flatly, then considered. "Well, unless we have a visiting looper going stealth."

"He's got a point. I have more in common with that loon than him."

"Sun?!" How long have you been there?" Yang yelled through the window.

"Long enough," Sun answered cheerfully. "But yeah, in addition to the shared trait of being Remnant born males, I'm the same race and we both have tails as our faunus trait."

"By that logic, Marrow has more in common with him as well," Yang pointed out.

"...Has it been confirmed that Tyrian is from Solitas?" Sun wondered. "Since, you know, he was caught for the whole murder spree across Anima but was being shipped to Atlas. Because it has, then Marrow is the person who has the most in common with him."

"...I think that realization just broke my brain," Yang shook her head. "Marrow being the person most similar to Tyrian. It just seems wrong."

"...Yeah, I have trouble seeing it myself," Tai admitted.

"Well, we could say Adam is a lot like Tyrian," Sun offered. "Both are faunus, both are criminals, both are killers, both are fixated on a woman."

"Both are part of terrorist groups," Tai added. "Although I think you could agree that Salem has a cult."

"Yes!" Yang exclaimed, pointing at them. "That makes much more sense!"

"The cult thing or Adam being the person most like Tyrian rather than Marrow?" Sun asked.

"Both!"

[-]

182.6 (con't) Luna 2

[-]

Chess-ophobia

On Waking up, he immediately saw it.

Ironwood facepalmed. The horse he was sitting on facehoofed, making sure to keep its other 3 legs on the floor.

He was a White Knight, in a living chess game, the Board surrounding him, the Black Queen player standing in front of him, smirking, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Cinder.

Ironwood unpocketed some kind of hyper-powered supersoaker gatling gun, firing some rounds at the Queen in front of him, her smirk dissolving as she was knocked off her feet and drenched from head to toe. The whole board looked at him, startled, some with mouths wide open.

"You all have 10 seconds to get out of my sight before I start using this".

They all just stared.

The horse turned its head and gave Ironwood a flat look, which could have been interpreted as 'You might need something a bit more intimidating than that, boss.'

Ironwood smirked, "It isn't called the Skunk-soaker 5,000 for nothing."

Everyone began screaming and running for cover.

Ironwood just calmly rode his horse out of the auditorium he had been in and started heading along the deserted city streets into the sunset.

He looked at the weapon, which was, in fact, just a souped-up water gun. Even though he could, he just hadn't felt like doing anything more extravagant than that for some reason, so he had bluffed his way out.

"Alright Yggdrasil. I get it. I'll add some kind of chess-related therapy to the list of things I need to do." He sighed and looked thoughtful. "Maybe playing some unusual game versions of it with Penny might help?"

[-]

182.19 Black Omochao

[-]

War Corgi of Alberia

[Dragalia Lost/RWBY]

"The puppy seems… different this Loop," Notte commented curiously, hovering around the Anchor's head as they stood back, watching Elisanne begin her usual fawning over the puppy that she did whenever it showed up at the Halidom.

"It does seem different, kind of familiar…" Euden commented with a thoughtful look; the colors on the puppy were about the same, but there were differences… a different breed, and where had he seen this dog breed before…?

"I should think I would seem familiar, Prince Euden, as we have met before," the puppy suddenly spoke up, in a high-pitched voice, flipping up onto his feet, ending the belly-rub session (much to Elisanne's disappointment.)

Notte gawked at the canine. "Wowsers, did the puppy just talk!"

Euden's eyes lit up in recognition. Though last he had seen the canine it was in the form of a full-grown dog, rather than a puppy, it was now becoming clear to him just who he was looking at. "Zwei?"

"That's right, it is I; Zwei! War Corgi of Remnant!" the canine Looper announced proudly, despite his puppy-voice, before he waddled forward and bowed. "And, for the remainder of this Loop, at your service, Your Highness!"

Elisanne had hearts in her eyes as she watched the puppy bowing before her crush, paying no mind to the strangeness of said puppy talking, mostly because she found the voice too adorable to find strange.

"Happy to have you, Zwei, I'm sure you'll help us in stopping the Dyrenell Empire!" Euden smiled as he petted the corgi puppy on the head.

"Hey!" Notte suddenly spoke up, a critical look in her eyes as she glared at the Looping canine. "You're not trying to become our mascot or something, are you!? Because we already have one of those, and her name is ME!"

Euden chuckled, giving the Looping faerie a calm look. "Easy, Notte, he's not trying to take your place."

"My allegiance here is temporary!" Zwei added, jumping a bit, "My true loyalty will always be to Remnant, as well as my family, but while here I cannot overlook the tyranny of Dyrenell! It would go against my honor as a War Corgi to not assist you in putting a stop to them!"

Notte grumbled a bit under her breath, before nodding, "Okay…"

"Before we do any marching against Dyrenell, may I please do more belly rubs…?" Elisanne pleaded, staring at the puppy longingly.

Zwei looked to Euden, who nodded in approval, before the puppy waddled back over to Elisanne, who much enjoyed the chance to pamper the adorable fluffball some more…

[-]

"EVERYONE RUN FOR IT! IT'S NEW ALBERIA'S WAR CORGI!" a Dyrenell army general shouted in fear, with many of his troops screaming and scattering, before they were suddenly all rendered unconscious by a massive projectile impact.

When the smoke clear, Zwei was in the middle of the knocked out soldiers, happily panting, before he continued to march forward, a band of New Alberian soldiers following behind the War Corgi's path, apprehending the unconscious Dyrenell troops. Some couldn't help but externally question how the War Corgi could do such devastating damage, without killing any of his foes…

[-]

"Well, see-ya guys!" Chelle announced, waving casually as she exited the room of the castle, she and several of her siblings were currently in.

"Where are you going?" Valyx asked seriously, holding his axe ready. "New Alberia is marching toward the capitol as we speak, are you just going to abandon– "

"I'm gonna stop you there!" Chelle held up a figure, giving a condescending smirk to her armored brother. "I don't know if you've realized this or not, bro, but I hold absolutely no loyalty to this doomed empire! I only sided with Morsayati because it seemed like the best way to survive at the time, now that our little brother has that 'War Corgi' decimating all our forces, and marching this way, it's pretty clear now where the best chance of survival resides!"

Valyx expression turned to a snarl. "Do you really think I'll just let you walk out of– "

"BYE, VALYX!" Chelle laughed, a window blasting open, revealing her dragon; Cat Sìth, which she quickly jumped on the back of, and flew away with.

Valyx glared out the window, briefly considering Shapeshifting into Thor to go after her, before he shook his head, giving a sigh. "She is right though, this Empire is doomed, and even if I'll accept Euden becoming king after this show of power, I'm not sure he'll show me mercy after all I've done…"

"Oh, he will," Leonidas suddenly spoke up, walking over with a sneer on his face. "Our younger brother is a soft, weakling, even with the strength to overtake Dyrenell, do you really think he'd hold contempt to his own family, especially you?" The First Heir scoffed, turning to leave the room. "I will not accept his mercy though, nor will I surrender! I will face this 'War Corgi' with all my strength, and should I fall in battle, so be it!"

Valyx stared at his older brother with newfound respect, before he stood firm, axe ready, resolving to do the same.

However, before any good could be made on those resolves, the entire castle was decimated by the overwhelming force of the War Corgi's assault…

[-]

"It's over, Morsayati!" a large, golden scaled dragon, of a similar body type to Midgardsormr and Brunhilda, with many glowing crystal-like spikes trailing down from the top of his head, to the tip of his tail, and piercing blue eyes, spoke as he stood over the defeated 'Empress.' This was the dragon form of Prince Euden.

"You think it's over, what makes you…" Morsayati was finding it hard to speak, falling down a bit; not only had her forces been utterly decimated by that horrible 'War Corgi,' but this dragon form the seventh prince had somehow obtained had overwhelmed her in combat to the point of depleting her energy to almost zero…

"You clearly can no longer fight, while I have barely exerted my full strength!" Euden spoke calmly, continuing to glare down at the demon that was currently possessing his sister. "Leave Zethia's body, jump into mine, where I shall keep you contained, and you will be spared destruction!"

That offer had the possessed Zethia's eyes widening, before a smirk settled on her face. "You really think you can keep me contained…? You'll merely be giving me all that power to use as I see fit!"

Euden glared down at the fallen Empress, before a smirk appeared on his own draconic muzzle. "Well, if that's what you think, you have no reason not to take my offer, do you…?"

"I suppose not, foolish prince!" Morsayati laughed, getting to her feet as dark energy started to surround Zethia's body. Before long, the energy extended forward, and into Euden's dragon body, leaving Zethia completely, before she passed out and fell to the ground.

"YES, THIS POWER IS MINE!" Euden's eyes turned red, as Black Mana started to emit from the golden dragon's form. "THANK YOU SO MUCH, PRINCE EUDEN! THOUGH YOU FINALLY HAD THE POWER TO BE RID OF ME, YOUR OWN IDIOCY– " The dragon paused in its speech, a strange feeling starting to overcome him, with the red eyes sparking blue a few times. "Hold on, what's going on…!?" The eyes flashed blue a few more times, the aura of Black Mana dying down, before the beast started screaming. "What the–NO! NO! STOP, WHAT ARE YOU–THIS IS IMPOSSI– "Morsayati suddenly stopped talking, the dragon going limp briefly, before opening his blue eyes once more…

"Game over, Morsayati," Euden spoke in a satisfied tone, before his dragon form glowed, and he assumed his human shape once more.

"Erm, what happened…?" the voice of the Auspex questioned, as she started to regain consciousness.

"Zethia!" Euden quickly moved to his sister's side, helping her up.

"B-Brother…?" the princess questioned in a surprised tone, her blue eyes looking around in confusion. "W-What happened…?"

"It's alright Zethia, I'll explain everything to you," Euden assured, motioning for his sister to follow him. "But I assure you, everything is going to be alright from now on!"

[-]

And everything was alright from then on, for the rest of the Loop at least. With the fall of Dyrenell, Alberia was reinstated. Though, in a surprising move, Euden decided to name Chelle queen, while he went to continue ruling over New Alberia.

Harle, Leonidas and Phares were charged for war crimes, as well as general crimes against human and dragonkind alike, and were given life sentences in prison.

Valyx was demoted from his high-ranking position, to the position of a mere private; he accepted this with as much grace as he could.

And what of one of our greatest heroes in this story? What of the War Corgi, Zwei? Well, somebody needed to be given Valyx's old job…

[-]

"Hey! No slouching! We've got a lot of fiends to kill, and you lot are pretty responsible for releasing plenty of 'em, so I don't want any slacking off!" General Zwei commanded in his high-pitched, yet intimidating voice, as he led a bunch of former-Dyrenell soldiers, Valyx included, through a forest.

"I can't believe we're taking orders from a mutt…" one of the soldiers grumbled under his breath.

"Do not speak ill of your commanding officer, soldier," Valyx growled, prompting the soldier to shut up.

[-]

182.20 Luna 2

[-]

March of the Penguins

Robyn Hill was walking along Mantle's wall defenses, trying to gather evidence to reinforce her point that the defences needed…reinforcing.

So far, it hadn't led to much. Yes, there was obviously a breach she was looking at that hadn't been repaired yet, but she was being repeatedly assured by the guards that there were enough patrols to mitigate any threat.

Suddenly, there was a rumble in the distance.

'Grimm!' She instinctively shifted into a fighting stance.

Large clouds of snow and ice rose up. It looked as if the horizon itself were moving.

'Wait. Those are not…' Robyn's eyes widened as she took in the scene before her.

What looked like an ocean of penguins, of all shapes and sizes, was rapidly moving towards Mantle. Many slid on their stomachs across the ice, some wore skis or skates, some appeared to be driving snowmobiles.

There were even a few who were in an old bath, with a mast and sail.

In mere moments, the penguins reached the city walls and stopped, forming large neat ranks.

A figure in a glittery white dress and crown strode out in front of the ranks, turning to face them.

"My mighty penguin armies!" Weiss shouted.

As one, the birds saluted and stood to attention.

"For too long...the Humans and Faunus have heated your land, diverted your water, stolen your fish! But now. You shall be the ones to keep them safe from the Grimm. You will save Atlas and Mantle, and then, in gratitude, the people will submit to you as their new masters, under me, the Solitas Queen!"

The penguins all began clapping, nodding and squawking in approval.

"But first. They must learn your true power!", She drew her sword and pointed it at the city, "CHARGE!".

As one, the black and white birds donned small green metal helmets.

Some proceeded to surge through the breach in the walls nearest the wall section where Robyn was standing.

Others began scaling the walls, with a variety of ladders, grappling hooks and siege engines of ice that rolled out of the icy mist raised by the penguins marching/sliding.

Swarms of gliders and penguin-shaped airships emerged out of the snowy clouds, soaring over the walls, beginning to lock onto and board Atlesian airships, or to deploy penguin shock troops into key locations, the defenses seemingly remarkably powerless against this onslaught.

Robyn shook herself out of being dumbfounded, preparing to fight back as penguins leapt over the wall. But she didn't need to. The penguins ignored her, deliberately keeping beyond her reach as they filed past. Something made her hold back, almost instinctive, as the 'Solitas Queen' hovered up to the battlements, landing next to her.

"Greetings Miss Hill."

"What do you think you're doing?! Wait. How do you even know me?" Robyn snapped, pointing her crossbow weapon at the 'Queen'.

"You know that there's one way to confirm that." Weiss smiled as she removed an ornate glove and held out her hand.

Robyn hesitated, then reluctantly took the 'Queen's' hand in hers.

Weiss continued, "As you will see from the actions of my loyal followers, our only desire is a world where people and penguins can live in harmony. I will not tolerate casualties. We will not oppress the people. We will treat both Mantle and Atlas fairly and equally. And no-one will be harmed if they just co-operate. And as for you… I know that you care for Mantle and so I want you to help me let the people know they have nothing to fear."

A green flash signalled the apparent truth of these statements.

Robyn looked bewildered. Then she turned her gaze on the city.

As far as she could see, the penguins were only targeting military robots and ships, along with anything that fought back. They also seemed to be aiming to knock their targets down or capture them, rather than harm them.

Turning to the outside, she also saw penguin forces shooting down or carving up any Grimm trying to get near the wall (she couldn't quite fathom how they were doing it?).

Robyn thought for a moment, "I'm listening."

Weiss smiled.

[-]

Ruby wandered the halls of Atlas Academy, taking in the sight.

Penguins standing guard at every major intersection. Penguins walking alongside Harriet and Marrow, heading off to a mission. There were even penguins standing at stress relief stations, offering Academy students hugs or handshakes – she smiled as she remembered the sight of Jaune, Nora and Ren each trying it, and the relaxed expressions on their faces. Then there was the time she had seen Ironwood and Winter, standing in a room with over 100 penguins, briefing them on an upcoming operation. It was amazing just how quickly everyone had accepted it. She chuckled as recalled Uncle Qrow and Clover with 2 penguins joining their card game - she wasn't even quite sure how that worked in this case.

"So. This is a thing now…your Majesty?" Ruby nodded at the penguin guards who saluted her as she walked through the door and then curtsied with a grinning smile on her face.

Weiss, still wearing her 'Solitas Queen' garb, was perched atop a large, carved ice throne in Ironwood's office, surrounded by penguin guards.

"Yes," Weiss answered with a sigh, "This is a thing".

"Ok. The penguins are really…awesome (I was so not gonna say 'cool'!), and convincing Robyn to endorse you really helped win people over. So…you have plans for Salem and Monstro?"

"Giant penguin-shaped cannon," Weiss smirked.

Ruby's eyes lit up.

"Oh. Please please please tell me I can be part of that project!"

"I expected nothing less, General Rose."