The Wandering One
is an ongoing RWBY fanfiction series written by Apathetic Abstract Apotheosis started in 2019.
The story initially begins with the canon events of the show after Volume 1 with a crucial difference, Weiss is secretly a Faunus. Currently comprised of three stories:
The story follows Weiss through the general canon of RWBY with various changes made to accommodate her status as a Faunus and primarily focuses on her development and acceptance of her heritage as well as her relationships with the rest of her team and how society treats Faunus.
The Wandering One contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- As per canon, Jacques Schnee is bigoted and emotionally abusive to Weiss and is revealed to have been the one who first had Weiss' wings removed when she was only a baby.
- Neo's parents are revealed to have treated her monstrously when she was a child, resenting her for being unable to continue the family line due to being intersex and completely disowning her after an accident damaged her vocal chords beyond repair.
- Adaptational Heroism: Neopolitan, after joining up with Weiss during the latter's journey to Menagerie. Neo becomes one of Weiss' closest friends and eventual girlfriend, culminating in her killing Cinder and taking the Fall Maiden Powers.
- Animal Motifs: Weiss gains an association with birds as an albatross Faunus, particularly with how she often seems plagued by bad luck.
- Ascended Extra: Neopolitan again, becoming a main character from Exiled on Remnant Amid a Jeering Crowd onward.
- The Atoner: Neopolitan grows into this after initially being the Nominal Hero only out for vengeance against Cinder, wishing to atone for her role in the Fall of Beacon.
- Cast Full of Gay: To the point where the main cast jokes about how none of them are straight. On top of that, several characters have also had their gender identities changed.
- Closet Key:
- Ruby acts as one for Weiss early on in the story.
- Ren later becomes one for Jaune during the Mistral Arc.
- Crisis of Faith: Weiss undergoes one after learning the truth about the Brother Gods and how they left Remnant after annihilating the original iteration of humanity leading her to take after her mother and drown her sorrows at Brunswick Farm. Resolved for the most part after reaffirming her faith in the principles of her religion if not the gods themselves during a visit to a temple in Argus.
- Death by Adaptation:
- Cinder is killed both unceremoniously and off-screen by Neo during the battle of Haven, with Neo becoming the new Fall Maiden.
- It's revealed after arriving in Atlas that the recreated Penny does not consider herself to be the same person as the one who died during the Vytal Festival, thinking of herself as the original's sister and preferring the name Verdigris.
- Fantastic Racism: One of the primary themes of the fic. Throughout, Faunus are subjected to repeated harassment of various types including Weiss being assaulted by CRDL and generally seen as second class citizens. Becomes especially prominent after the Fall of Beacon for which all Faunus are blamed due to the White Fang's role in the disaster.
- Healing Factor: All beings with Aura have this, but Weiss stands out as her aura allows her to slowly regrow severed body parts, causing her wings to regrow after they were severed repeatedly.
- Internal Reveal: During the second round of the tournament Weiss is accidentally outed as a Faunus to all of Remnant on a live broadcast when the jacket she hid her wings under is destroyed
- Literary Allusion Title: All three stories' titles take their cues from works of literature related to albatrosses.
- The Weight Around Her Neck alludes to the albatross worn as punishment by the mariner in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
- Exiled on Remnant Amid a Jeering Crowd is derived from a line in L'Albatros by Charles Baudelaire.
- A Sadder and a Wiser Woman comes from the closing lines of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
- Nay-Theist: It's revealed during the Menagerie arc that many Faunus either take this stance or that gods don't exist, believing that if there were benevolent gods, then they would have intervened during the Faunus' period of enslavement.
- Not His Sled: Penny's death plays out as it does in canon, but her reconstruction in Atlas does not bring her back and instead creates her sister, Verdigris.
- Polyamory:
- Weiss and Neo fall for each other during their time together on Menagerie and start dating after they reunite with Ruby in Mistral whilst Weiss continues to date Ruby. Eventually, Ruby and Neo start dating as well after the Battle of Haven.
- Ren, Nora and Jaune enter into a triad whilst they are separated from the others on the way to Atlas, revealing their Relationship Upgrade when they reunite in Argus.
- Defied by Blake and Yang, who are uninterested in dating more than one person, leading to them having to gently rebuff a hopeful Ilia.
- Relationship Upgrade: A few happen over the course of the fics.
- Blake and Yang start dating after pining after each other for several months.
- Ruby and Weiss finally get together after Yang tells Weiss that Ruby is gay and has been in love with her since they met.
- After holding off until they could tell Ruby about their attraction towards one another, Weiss and Neo get together whilst staying in Mistral.
- Ruby has a Love Epiphany during the Battle of Haven after Neo gets impaled by Cinder and confesses her feelings shortly after.
- Religious Bruiser: In Exiled it's revealed that Weiss is a reasonably devout follower of the Brother Gods, the God of Darkness in particular. This leads to a Crisis of Faith when it's revealed that the gods wiped out humanity before and left Remnant as well as never being the progenitors of the Faunus
- Sleeping with the Boss's Wife: Weiss' biological father was Childhood Friends with Willow Schnee and was the butler to the Schnee Family during their affair.
- Take Up My Sword: Done literally by Weiss after she accidentally destroys Myrtenaster, taking up one of Penny's swords and naming it Penny Dreadful. Later this is revealed to be a part of Weiss' faith which teaches that carrying an item of a fallen friend helps to remember and honour them.
- That Man Is Dead: Neo mentions on occasion that she didn't used to be Neopolitan, but it's who she is now. It's later revealed that after the treatment she received from her Abusive Parents she wished to distance herself from her original identity.
- The Reveal: Winter is a Faunus too and was born from the same affair that Weiss is, leading to a brief falling out between the sisters for Winter hiding it.
- Un-person: It's revealed that Neo's parents did this to her after she was disowned, with her sister not even remembering her and believing that she was an only child
