in conflict with my heart

I know I tagged DDNE to warn you about the tags, but I do say I really mean it. My take on Atlas is a dystopian hellhole of inequality that’s just left of The Handmaid’s Tale in a lot of ways. If you are sensitive to these topics, please choose another story. This is going to be thoroughly unpleasant and difficult to read. Things will not be hidden behind metaphor nor sugarcoated. You WILL see abuse of all sorts, racism, sexism, misogyny and everything listed in the tags. The characters are not going to be very pleasant to read either. And this isn’t because I’m a “hater” for RWBY. I don’t enjoy canon anymore, but if you take one look at my profile, you’ll see just how much I’ve written for the series. It comes from a place of love and simply adding onto the worldbuilding. And yes this is a genderbent universe, at least as far as Weiss and Winter are concerned. I haven’t figured out what I’m doing for Ruby and Yang yet, but that’s a long time off. I have a genderbent Blake. This story starts when “Weiss” is about 12 years old, so long before canon. The majority of the cast will be OCs. Wermund is Winter and Willifrid is Weiss. No, I do not invoke the color naming rule here just because it’s slim pickings when you’re trying to actually follow some sort of language rules.

***

Willfrid sat in the car, looking down at the scroll in his lap. Today was the day where the rest of his life began, really. He was going to St Ebonac’s Academy of Excellence. He would return home every night instead of boarding. His father insisted that he attend the academy but not board there. He wanted to know what Willifrid was learning and how it’d impact him. It was an hour-long drive one way which was exhausting when it was so early in the morning, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. He wasn’t sure if his father would really approve of what he was doing or not, but there wasn’t much choice. Wermund had missed out on a lot of networking due to having private tutors up until he’d gone into the military for service a couple of years ago. It was up to Willifrid to pick up the slack where his father had accidentally introduced it.  He stepped out of the car and stretched in the cool fall air. He really didn’t know what to do with himself. He was before his social introduction, so he hadn’t really spent much time around other boys his age, let alone girls.Then again, St. Ebonac was more for boys than it was girls. He would be trained in the ways of manners, combat, networking, business management, and more. He wasn’t the heir to the SDC fortune by any means, but he would likely still have a very important place in the company once Wermund took over. Learning about these different aspects of how the real world worked would be incredibly important. He smoothed over his uniform and walked into the school. Young men and a few young women around his age and older teemed and swarmed the hallways. Even he could see the cliques that formed. Some groups here, others there. There were clearly strict divisions in the way the crowd moved and undulated. He wondered if he would make any friends here or not. He’d had groups he met up with to learn about how to be a young Atlassian man, but he wouldn’t really consider them friendsby any means. It’d be interesting to see if he met anybody that he could consider a friend. Then again…were there truly friends in Atlas? The upper class was all about alliances and making them strong. People had close allies, but they could stab somebody in the back at a moment’s notice. Maybe he would luck out and find a small handful of people that he got along with and could be true friends with them. He pulled up his schedule on his scroll and looked at the map. The school was well laid out with a grid-like arrangement of classrooms that would make finding everything pretty easy. First years got the first floor, second years second, and so on. The exceptions were the large practice rooms and gymnasiums that were separate out-buildings due to the fact they would take up too much room in the main building. They were at least connected by walkways which would be a boon during the winter. He couldn’t imagine having to walk outside like that during the winter… It didn’t sound appealing to him at all.Schnee manor was cold enough as it was. He didn’t quite understand why it was so cold in his manor compared to others he’d been in, but it was what it was in the end. He was used to the cold, though the Solitas cold was far worse than what was in his manor home. They pulled up to the drop-off area and he grabbed his messenger bag, slinging it over his shoulder as he stepped out of the car. He straightened his coat and grimaced as the wind practically blew through him. It would be some time before he had his aura activated; combat at St. Ebonac’s didn’t start until the second year. Nobody wanted to feed an aura user in Atlas until it was well and truly time to do so, so he just had to deal with the cold in the conventional way. At least it wasn’t a long walk until he got inside, still shivering. Aura would’ve protected him from the cold quite a bit, but he had a top-of-the-line coat that helped keep out the cold. Still, it didn’t make it any easier to deal with the extreme cold that accompanied him when he stepped outside. He followed the map to his classroom and found his seat which was labeled with his name—Willifrid Schnee. As expected of Atlas, everything was neat, tidied, and ordered. He liked that. He’d studied Vale a bit and there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to how they handled things. Vale was suchan inferior culture to Atlas and its greatness. People helping each other? That was an asinine way to handle things. People that had done things on their own merits should rise above while those that had come before and given their families means should be able to provide for them years down the road. His grandfather had founded the SDC, so why shouldn’tthe family gain from it years later? He didn’t understand why Vale was so against generational wealth. It helped better Atlas on the whole, so why not allow it in Vale as well? What a closed-minded lot of idiots. He took off his coat, hat, and gloves, then placed them on the back of his chair. He took out his compact mirror and fixed his hair as well as straightened his uniform. He was here early so that way he could make sure he was well and truly ready for the day. The first thing was uniform inspection and he was notgoing to allow anybody to see that a Schnee was out of place and out of line. No, he was a good boy and would do whatever his father said. It was the way of things. It was how Agat had formed the world. Men were in charge of everything and women subservient. Those abhorrent creatures called Faunus had no souls and had no place in the Atlassian upper class aside to serve those they were well and truly meant to. He raised an eyebrow when he saw a girl trudge in through, her head hung low and body language retracted. What was a girldoing here? St. Ebonac’s was a school for men to make political connections, not a school for girls to come and be frivolous at. Her hair was a soft, pale blue and her eyes a light green color. Her clothes were clearly that of the upper class as they were well fitted and made of high-quality materials. Still… It didn’t make anysense that a womanwould be here. The school was technicallyco-ed, but girls weren’t good enough to make the cut most of the time. They were inferior creatures and should be kept at home, locked up and away so they couldn’t use their wiles and charms to tempt men away from their chastity.  He went over to her and stood in front of her, arms folded. “What are youdoing here?” he asked, glowering. “A girl at St. Ebonac’s? I’ve never heard of such a ridiculous thing. Shouldn’t you be at home, doing needlework and learning to paint?” His tone mocked her and she looked down even further. He couldn’t even see her eyes with how deeply inclined her head was. “I know it’s unorthodox, sir, but my father sent me here. I’m Christel Oberst.” Ah, the Oberst family… That made sense then. For some reason, this girl’s father had never been able to have a son. He’d been through numerous wives and even mistresses to father a child. This girl was the only heir to the family, so it fell on her to do everything that a normal male heir would do. Sad for her. She would never make the same connections a male heir would. She was lesser and always would be.  “Willifrid Schnee. You better remember your place while you’re here.” His blue eyes set hardin his face while he stared at her. Her body trembled slightly but she nodded. She needed to remember that she was here onlybecause she didn’t have any brothers. If she tried to go above the men, then that would call for immediateattention from her father and get her beaten to remind her of her place. His sisters were treated as all Atlassian girls were: put in their rooms, beaten for infractions, and not educated. They were only meant to be wives and mothers, nothing else. They were barelyhuman. More human than Faunus, but barely. They had souls but only because the Holy Father had willed it. Otherwise? They were inferior to men in everyway and didn’t deservea place at a school like St. Ebonac’s.  He went back to his seat and sat down, pulling out his tablet to start reading before the Doctrine to Order and uniform inspection. He couldn’t be behind or be seen as dillydallying. Idle hands were always a bad thing as far as Atlas was concerned. Free time wasn’t something that should be applauded and allowed. Study, discipline, and momentum were the most important parts of any Atlassian upper-class boy’s upbringing. He couldn’t afford to flag at anypoint.  A young man with dark orange hair and hazel eyes approached Willifrid, a small notebook in his hand. Willifrid looked up and raised an eyebrow. “May I help you with something?” he asked, laying his tablet down on the table. He hoped the teachers wouldn’t think him idle for talking to another boy. Then again, networking wasan important part of St. Ebonac’s. There had to be some sort of balance between networking and seeming idle… What that balance was, he had no real idea. He just hoped that the idle section of his report card wouldn’t make it seem like he was being tooidle… That would be cause for repercussions at home. He knew how violent his father could be with her sisters as that was just the normalway girls were treated. They were lesser and needed harsher lessons than boys. The young man smiled. “The way you handled the girl… Excellent. Putting her in her place was good. Though I wonder, what made you approach her?” He twirled his pen around his fingers. It was a lovely fountain pen. Willifrid didn’t know a lot about fountain pens, but most men in the upper class favored them as they were classy and required a lot of precision to use correctly without causing splatter. Only pens were allowed at St. Ebonac’s to help improve precision. Willifrid was vaguely aware of the idea of pencils, but they were for the lower classes. He had only ever been allowed pens. Anything that didn’t increase precision was to be shunned. He personally preferred rollerball, but a lot of fellows his age had been trained on nothing but fountain pens or maybe even dip pens. Willifrid shrugged. “She simply needed to be reminded that she wasn’t welcome here and that she’s a woman.” He was pretty certain that she got reminded she was a woman allthe time at home, but here, she did need the reminder. The Oberst family was in a bad situation, not having any male heirs. Unfortunate for them. The Oberst family would have to marry her off at the appropriate age so they could have somebody that would actuallyrun their company well. A girlcouldn’t do anything like that. Honestly, it was a good thing that his father had taken the SDC from his mother; Willow no doubt would’ve run the company into the ground simply because she was a woman. She had no business sense or anything like that. He still didn’t understand why his grandfather hadn’t continued trying for a male heir, or at least had a second child. Heir and a spare was important even to this day. The boy took some notes and nodded. “Very good, very good. Women do need a reminder now and then, don’t you?” He flashed a brilliant smile at Willifrid then extended his hand. “I’m Eagon Graf. I can only surmise you’re a Schnee by your appearance?” Willfirid nodded and returned the handshake. “Willifrid Schnee. My brother’s going to take over the company.” He had no doubt that Wermund would run the company well. They had been raised carefully by their father to follow in his footsteps. Everything that Jacques did was just and meant for the betterment of the SDC. Nothing could everconvince him otherwise. Faunus were meant to be put in their place. They didn’t even have soulsby all accounts. Paying them less than human workers was nothing wrong. They didn’t need anything beyond what they were given. They were just half-animals, half-humans with a foot in both worlds. They didn’t deserveanything beyond pure basics. They were simply lesser. Agat hadn’t made them, so why should anyhuman bother with giving them more than they deserved? They didn’t even deserve food or clothes; they all should just curl up and dieso humans could fully take over Atlas. Bunch of entitled half-breaths, thinking they deserved the same that humans had. “What are the notes for?” Willifrid asked, looking down at his pen and notebook. “Oh, I just like keeping notes.” Eagon flashed another brilliant smile at Willifrid. He tucked his pen and notebook away after capping the pen. “First day too?” Willifrid nodded. “Yes. It did take about a year to get accepted here.” St. Ebonac’s had a long waitlist and the ability to get in was limited even for families like the Schnees. Though, with some clever handshakes and back-room deals, his father had allowed him to get in. It was just the way of things. Bribes were just a part of life unfortunately. Atlas required them to really do anything when it came to the upper class. Even something as simple as getting into a good school required a lot of greasing the wheels, so to speak, to allow someone to be able to get in. He didn’t doubt other families had done the same in order to get their sons (and daughters, apparently) into the school. The school was an academy of excellence,so it made sense it’d only allow the bestof the best to get in. Willifrid had long proven himself capable of surpassing most as he outpaced even his teachers to the point where he was allowed to self-study rather than be dragged down by teachers who tried to stick him to a certain pace. It would be annoying to have to follow a strict curriculum here, but there wasn’t much he could do about it unfortunately.   Eagon continued to smile at Willifrid. “Only took six months for me.” Willifrid frowned at that. How did he get accepted so much sooner? It didn’t make sense. Even the Schnee family took a year to get accepted here… “I’m sure you’re wondering, but keep in mind the Graf family is oldmoney unlike the Schnee family.” Anger prickled the back of Willifrid’s neck, but he didn’t say anything about it. The Schnees were the single wealthiest family in all of Atlas, but it was true they weren’t oldmoney. Their fortune had only come afterthe Great War. Still, to flaunt it in Willifrid’s face like that… “People are just interesting, so I keep notes on them.” “What kind of notes?” Willifrid raised an eyebrow.  Eagon just smiled. “None of your business. I just like to observe.” This boy was quite flagrant and annoying in Willifrid’s mind. Yes, observing people and keeping mental notes on them was good, but flagrantly saying he just…kept individual notes? That wasn’t great in Willifrid’s mind. Something about Eagon seemed a bit off even by Atlassian standards. Then again, was it really his place to say anything? He kept all sorts of notes and such on people; he just didn’t do it physically. That would be beyond suspicious in his mind. Why do it so flagrantly? It didn’t make a lick of sense to him. “I mean I think most of us do that.” Figuring out who to make alliances with was important in the Atlassian upper class was beyond important. There was no such thing as ‘friends.’ He had seen the concept mentioned in his studies on Vale, but the idea of it not being an alliance with someone for mutually beneficial reasons made no sense to him. There was no such thing as friends in his mind. No, everyone wanted and neededsomething out of another person. There was no such thing as altruism. People could not and would notsimply be in each other’s company simply because they enjoyedit.  “That is very true.” Eagon continued to smile. Willifrid had never seen someone smile so much; it was almost annoying. He picked his tablet up again and made a pointed effort to go back to his reading. Such a tablet was imperative for studies here. Everything was electronic at this point; paper was seen as inferior, bulky, and for lower classes. If one couldn’t afford a high-end tablet, there was no way they could be here at St. Ebonac’s. Eagon was annoying him and he didn’t want anything to do with him. Though an alliance with the Graf family wouldbe beneficial… Ugh.  He didn’t want to put up with Eagon’s continual notetaking, but the Graf family was old money and had strong ties to the military which could strengthen the Schnee’s ability to provide for the military. Wermund was decently high ranking for his age since he’d gone to a military academy that gave him a few ranks before he entered full service. Wermund had missed a lot of ability to make ties with people like the Graf family due to the fact that he’d been privately tutored most of his life until going to the Borealis Command Academy at fifteen. Strong ties to every facet of Atlas were imperative to make sure the SDC was strong and could provide for the family for generations to come. No matter what it took, both he and Wermund needed to make sure the SDC was strong and could continue to work as intended. The teacher walked into class and Willifrid put his tablet down. He ran his comb through his hair a few more times, making sure not a single strand was out of place. Any imperfection in the uniform could incur a report home which could be met with violent reproach at home. He straightened his uniform as well, making sure the buttons shone and everything was straight. The teacher and a few aides came around, investigating each and every single student down to their hair. A few students got a verbal reprimand for something being ever so slightly out of place. Thankfully, all Willifrid got was an approving nod. He let out a soft sigh of relief. He always paid close attention to his appearance, but it was especially important now, here at St. Ebonac’s. Anything less than perfection was to be mocked and derided by both staff and students. He could not and would notallow himself to be derided, lest it make a mockery of the SDC. With that done, they all sat down, then stood up in unison to recite the Doctrine of Order.  “I stand within the Order that was first spoken. I acknowledge Agat, from whom Law was shaped and by whom all things were set in their place. I pledge myself to Tyrhal, the will made firm, that I may know my station and keep it. I submit to the structure that precedes me, for Law existed before my name was given. I honor Kalen, the Heavens above, and those who rule beneath them, for authority mirrors the pattern of the stars and order flows downward, not astray. I uphold Vari, the Thresholds that divide, that I may know who belongs and where I stand, and that no chaos pass unmarked into the whole. I accept Nyvra, the virtue of silence, that my voice may not outrun my purpose and my thoughts may not exceed my place. I give duty before desire, obedience before impulse, and service before self. I do not question the Law, for Law is the shape of humanity and to resist it is to unmake the world. I labor while it is appointed, I rest when it is granted, and I endure what is measured to me. I live in the Light that sees and judges, I reject the Shadow that divides and conceals, and I walk the path set before my color unseen. By Order I am placed. By Order I remain. By Order I will be gathered when my light fades. Thus I affirm Agat, thus I bind myself to the world as it was made, and thus I keep the Order whole.”   With that done, they all sat down in unison and began their first lesson for the day.