The Makings of Team CRME
is a series of RWBY Fan Fic stories written by Snarky_SilverHaired_Sociopath. As you can tell from the title, it details the origins for Cinder, Roman, Mercury, and Emerald as well as tells the story of how they became allies in their quest to take down Beacon Academy.
The first four stories are origin stories about the individual members of the team. The final story is the lead-up to their introduction to the series.
The stories in the series are:
The series provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- Cinder's mother, Brigit Stark, was incredibly abusive towards her.
- Both Marcus and Melanie Black abused Mercury in different ways.
- All Abusers Are Male: Brigit and Melanie beg to differ.note Cinder also starts abusing Emerald in CRME.
- Anachronic Order: If you read the stories in the order they're listed, the series will have this effect.
- Anyone Can Die: If they have a name and they aren't Saved by Canon, it's open season on them. Many named characters die in this series, so maybe try not to get too attached.Those who do die... (Spoilers obviously)
- Dark and Troubled Past: The only person who hasn't suffered one is Roman.
- Darker and Edgier: The Black Hearts is described as the darkest story in the series by the writer.
- Domestic Abuse: A recurring theme in many of the stories.
- My Name Is Cinder: Cinder is being horrifically abused by her mother Brigit. And Brigit also manipulates her husband's depression to make him kill himself.
- The Black Hearts: Marcus physically abuses both Mercury and Melanie. And Melanie verbally abuses Mercury.
- CRME: Cinder emotionally manipulates Emerald and slaps her when she starts becoming jealous about Mercury being brought onto the team.
- Freudian Excuse: One is given to Cinder and Mercury's is explained in more detail.Mercury: We’re both products of our fucked-up childhoods.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Salem is still the overarching Big Bad in this universe even though she currently plays no direct role in any of the villainy.
- Harmful to Minors: All of them with the exception of Roman have been through experiences that have left them scarred or completely broken.
- Hotter and Sexier: CRME features the most sexual content in the series. It has two almost-sex-scenes and some scenes of nudity. It definitely has more sexual content than the show. An Emerald Unearthed was also later edited with some more sexual content, bumping up its rating from Teen to Mature.
- Knights of Cerebus: Marcus and Melanie count for the series. They make Mercury’s story the darkest one of all of them. Even more so than the other major antagonists.
- Lighter and Softer: Roman's Empire doesn't have a major tragedy element to it and has more humor compared to the other stories. Even though it is a story about organized crime and does include some tense moments, it is still more uplifting than the other stories. (Especially the one preceding it.)
- Mundanger: The things that the main characters have to deal with in the series are things like abusive parents, loan sharks, professional killers, and mobsters. By the fantastic standards of the world that they live in, these things are relatively normal. In fact, the only solo story to extensively include the fantasy element of RWBY's world is My Name Is Cinder.note The others only have pieces of it, but their plots are rather mundane. It's not until CRME that the fantasy element becomes significant again.
- Odd Name Out: The Black Hearts is the only solo fic that doesn't feature the main character's first name in the title. (It has Mercury's name, but it's his surname and represents his whole family, not just him.)
- One-Steve Limit: Accidentally averted. In Mercury’s backstory, his mother is an Original Character named "Melanie". However, the writer had admitted that they didn’t realize that one of the Malachite twins was also named "Melanie" on the show before naming her and only noticed after her arc had concluded. This is mentioned when the twins show up in Roman's Empire.
- Parental Abandonment: All the stories have involved either one or both parents being out of the picture at some point.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: Cinder's arc in this series just shows her becoming a progressively worse human being. And we all know where this leads...
- Pseudo-Canonical Fic: It's clear that the series was intended to fit within the bounds of the show's universe as best as it can. Especially considering that there are many scenes from "Beginning of the End" referenced in CRME. Up until about Chapter 9 of Volume 6, everything in the series did fit with canon. It was after that chapter when the series was slowly becoming
Outdated by Canon. - The Sociopath: Aside from the canon characters that become sociopaths (Cinder, Mercury, Roman, and Adam), each of the solo stories has at least one.
- Brigit Stark from My Name Is Cinder is a wholly selfish Gold Digger who intends for her husband to kill himself so she can attain his fortune. When Cinder tries to expose her, she manipulates her siblings into hating her and horribly abuses her after her husband dies.
- Randall Silva from An Emerald Unearthed is a ruthless Loan Shark who only cares about making money for himself. He'll even murder loved ones if the people he cons if they fail to pay up.He'd kill someone with a smile and go off to have lunch in twenty minutes. Wouldn't even ruin his appetite.
- Marcus and Melanie Black from The Black Hearts. Marcus is literally called a psychopath by Mercury and the writer has said that Melanie has sociopathic tendencies. The fic more than proves it for both of them.
- Violet Kincaid from Roman's Empire is a ruthless mobster who rules through intimidation and violence. However, she can still be charismatic and win people over with words. Roman even calls her "a greedy, violent sociopath."
- Start of Darkness: Obviously for Cinder and her associates.
- Switching P.O.V.: Each story is told in first-person. There's a new perspective in every story before going third-person omniscient in the final story. Salem gets some small sections in My Name Is Cinder.
- Villain Protagonist: Most of them will either be criminals or villains by the end of their solo stories. The most explicit case of this is Roman who was already a mobster from the beginning of his. They are basically this in CRME.
