Fanfic / Abyssal Infinitum

"What do you know of Monsters?"

The Abyssal Infinitum shared universe by WolfPrincessSarah is an Alternate Universe fanfiction that's almost a Pseudo-Canonical Fic in places, primarily focusing on RWBY. It has original fiction aspects, convoluted and exceedingly-detailed worldbuilding and a slowly-building Myth Arc spanning centuries.

"Phase 1" of the AI-verse is comprised of three (for now) main subfics:

• Before the Whims of Fate (Ongoing, following the Canon Characters and a few OCs)
• While We Fall (Ongoing) (OC-Centric, with Pietro Polendina and a few other Atlas characters having Early-Bird Cameos)
• Apocalypse State of Mind (Cancelled, Retained as Broad Strokes Canon) (OC Team-Centric)

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This AU provides examples of:

General Tropes

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Hard Light Dust is used for this purpose on occasion, producing two distinct types: Fire-Enhanced Hard Light, and Nanotemnusuan Hard Light blades. Otherwise generally subverted or hand-waved with Aura and other exotic materials.
• Adaptation Name Change: Mostly applied to the Faunus specifically, who now have shared clan names as well as personal/family names in a rather convoluted application of last-name-first, similar to Scars.
• Arc Symbol: Inverted triangles appear all over the AU, mostly inserted directly into the text to signal the presence of Freeze-Frame Bonus material. The meaning of it has yet to be revealed.
  • A second, minor arc symbol is the Laconic Crown which is an important religious emblem related to Aris, the moon of Remnant.
• Arc Words: The recurring line, "What do you know of monsters?" is set up as a Driving Question, repeated across the universe, and the reason for its presence may trace back to the Dark God himself.
• All There in the Manual: There is an absurd amount of fluff material, including character profiles, background worldbuilding and more, combined with thorough author's notes.
• An Adventurer Is You: Along with its alignment system (see below), the AU also has a character class system in the background to categorize characters with, also partially inspired by Mass Effect.
  • Fighters are mundane fighters that don't have a great deal of Aura or special abilities to them, but are gifted in more reliable, albeit mundane fighting tactics and often preternaturally strong even without Aura.
  • Techies are focused around using Dust-Tech and other indirect methods of dealing damage. Some of them use combat drones while others act like traditional Squishy Wizards.
  • Virtuosos are focused around Aura power itself, including their Aspect, Semblance and defensive barriers over other more mundane skills.
  • Then there are various Hybrid archetypes that fall between these three, such as Warsmith, Soulblade, Sentinel, and True Hunter, which is a hybrid of all of them.
  • Notably, characters rarely stay in one category, with one notable OC starting off as a Virtuoso and eventually evolving into a Soulblade.
• Bizarre Human Biology: Being a faunus in this AU is seemingly far more than being cosmetic alone, with secondary traits like Cute Little Fangs, differing temperature tolerances, and other things mentioned.
• Beware the Superman: There's a clear power disparity in Remnant between Huntsmen and regular folk. A few minor characters address just how terrifying they are, and it's implied that part of the reason the Hunter Academies exist is to keep these super-empowered individuals pointed away from civilians.
  Hei "Junior" Xiong: You two are young. You've never fought a Hunter. Their strength is something you know nothing about. I once saw a Huntsman, barely a year out of Shade Academy, crush a man's skull with his bare hands in a fit of rage.
• Broad Strokes: The 'Verse pulls events from the RWBY comics and even a few ideas from the Manga, such as the Geist that Weiss fights being some sort of experiment by the Schnee Dust Company, while also incorporating its own elements and twists.
  • Notably it's even Broad Strokes with itself, as the events and characters of Apocalypse State of Mind were later rendered only semi-canonical for Before the Whims of Fate when the characters were moved to it, but with some modifications to the characters and their ability sets.
• Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Frequently. Remnans call atoms temna, and their temperature scale (similar to Kelvin) is called Engel-Deviations, abbreviated as EDv.
• Cast Full of Gay: Across the entire main cast, OCs and canon characters alike.
  • Among Team RWBY: Blake is Bisexual, Weiss is a trans lesbian, and Yang is a closeted sapphic. Ruby herself implies she's pansexual.
  • Among the original characters, Inigo Hellebore is canonically asexual, Tilly Primrose is a closeted lesbian, and Louve is bisexual. Verdant is a homoromantic asexual.
  • The self-insert protagonist of the side-stories set in Atlas is explicitly bisexual (to a rather absurd degree) and a trans woman.
• Character Alignment: The AU has its own alignment system, used in character profiles and occasionally referenced that's inspired by Mass Effect's alignment system, but tweaked to suit Remnant.
  • Paragons are described as fettered Ideal Heroes.
  • Renegades are described as Nominal Heroes or Well Intentioned Extremists.
  • There are also two hybrid alignments for Anti-Heroes, Paragade and Renegon.
  • Mostly irredeemable villains are classed as "True Monsters".
  • Later, the author also added a few minor alignments: Paramours and Predators.
• Easter Egg: On AO3, disabling WolfPrincessSarah's creator theme reveals some... interesting morsels setting up future revelations, to an almost spoilery degree.
• Painting the Medium: Used liberally, most commonly in the form of unique scene dividers for each character, but there's also Aura meters inserted into the text during fight scenes, which seem to glitch out as the character takes more damage.
• Peggy Sue: Ozpin, in the very first chapter of Before the Whims of Fate, is established to be living through one of these, which is one of many changes to the setting.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Aura is expanded upon here, with explicit strength ratings, devices (developed by Atlas, mostly) that can measure its strength, and even passive abilities granted by a person's Aura called Aspects. Then, there's downsides to using Aura like still being able to feel pain that are expanded upon and given thorough description.
  • Dust is similarly reworked and expanded on, with four basic types aligning to the Four Classical Elements, and two tiers of "hybrid" types created by mixing those four in different ratios. This is combined with borderline Technology Porn descriptions of Dust-Tech.
• Myth Arc: Notable for having a deeply ingrained one, spanning across universes and centuries.
• Original Character: Even the main fic has use of them, but they almost never overshadow the canon characters or play minor roles. They generally fit in rather well.
• Translation Convention: Generally, English is used as a stand-in for the languages most of the Multinational Team are actually speaking (typically Valoisi), and this isn't made clear in-universe until Weiss shows up at Beacon, who's the odd woman out for only speaking Atlesian (English, In-Universe) and some Old Mantlean.

Before the Whims of Fate

"What you took for granted as the truth was never 'exactly' what it seemed."

— The Dark God

Ozma failed and was given a second chance with all his knowledge intact, but the world changed around him, rendering some of that knowledge useless. Ruby is a Wolf Faunus. Weiss has something extra too. Blake is a guilt-racked survivor. Yang, she's as fiery as ever, and has some serious abs. This is the story of a somewhat different Team RWBY, set in a universe altered—sometimes in small ways, sometimes in larger ways—by the machinations of the Gods of their world.

This story contains examples of:

• Bad Future: The story opens with an alternate version of the events of Volume 7 that had Gone Horribly Wrong, up to and including a Colony Drop from Atlas itself.
• Bilingual Bonus: The Valoisi nursery rhyme set to the meter of Red Like Roses that Rubi sings in Chapter 2 isn't exactly the same as Red Like Roses, instead being inspired by The Last Rose of Summer:
  Approximate English Translation:

  Red of roses, in my dreams

  And brings me to the place of rest.

  Last rose of summer,

  Abandoned to her fate

  I hope I will follow

  The new flowers in this world
  • There's also in-universe languages and characters that speak them sprinkling Bilingual Bonuses all over the place, even if the point is generally gotten across through reaction, and when it's not obvious there's usually diegetic translations. Most of the English in this story explicitly is actually a stand-in for Valoisi, at least until Weiss shows up.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Some important antagonists that aren't going to be relevant until after the Fall of Beacon appear in the first chapter.
• In Medias Res: The opening chapter is set up like this, where it starts off with the events of Volume 7 (in the original timeline's Bad Future), then ends at exactly the same moment in the new timeline, where it's implied some things have gone better (possibly better than canon, as Atlas is still floating in the sky, albeit at a lower altitude).
• Lemony Narrator: In places, and often implied to be Ozma himself breaking the fourth wall, and his personality in this AU is painted in this way.
  • Most egregiously used in Chapter 12, with a blatant fourth wall break urging the reader to put the story down and go hug their life partner.
• Peggy Sue: Ozma, as established in the very first chapter, setting up the premise and cause of the many differences between this and canon.
• Song Fic: Almost always done in a diegetic way, starting off with Rubi singing a nursery rhyme in Valoisi, and other characters singing songs to themselves, like Ozma occasionally singing a sea shanty to himself.
• Switch to English: Upon Rubi and Weiss meeting in Chapter 13, she quickly switches to Atlesian to chide her for not knowing Valoisi.
• Mythology Gag: In the second chapter, Rubi's singing a nursery rhyme to herself that's essentially a French version of Red Like Roses. That same nursery rhyme makes an appearance with "Blind Idiot" Translation (in a meta gag, the original version of the nursery rhyme before the author found a language consultant) in Yang's chapter as part of what's presumed to be an EDM remix of the original nursery rhyme, which she's not amused by.
  Yang: By the brothers, they've butchered it.

While We Fall

"I'm sorry. I know you're probably confused right now. I know you're cold and frightened, but it's going to be okay."

— Sarah Sable

A strange human woman finds herself suddenly transplanted into Mantle. Frigid, bereft of any support or resources, she sets off on a quest for answers and to find a place to stay before she starves, freezes to death or is eaten by a Grimm. With her own memories fragmented, it quickly becomes clear to her there is far more to this world—and even her story—than she knows. As the Fall races towards her, she's forced to choose between taking a chance to make the story she knows just a little bit better, or just watching what happens from a distance and trying to stay alive. Sarah Sable is just one woman—outnumbered, outgunned, and outplanned. But can she really just watch while they fall?

This story contains examples of:

• Alternate History: The timeline Sarah comes from is a little bit... off compared to our own history, and it's implied that things were going a little sideways, with offhanded mentions of a war between two major superpowers and civil unrest. Later on, during The Huntress, it's explicitly confirmed to be an alternate timeline, with the diversion point possibly being Henry Kissinger getting assassinated in Beijing in the 1970s.
• The All-Concealing "I": The first-person chapters often blatantly lie about Sarah's past, and what details that can be gleaned in between her rambling narration are often inconsistent. The third-person rewrite is a little more explicit at first... until it shifts back into first-person.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Subverted pretty hard in the new rewritten prologue. Chapter 2 shows her pristine and generally unharmed, but then in her next appearance in Chapter 3, she's being carried into the pharmacy, covered in wounds she presumably sustained on the tundra.
• Contemplate Our Navels: Sarah's narration is rather drenched in her whining and rambling, but most of it has a point. Lampshaded.
  Pietro: You have a habit of brooding a lot, don't you, Sarah?
• Continuity Reboot: Given a rather sweeping one that covered most of the events of the opening, that's still underway.
• Debut Queue: In the prologue, Sarah's Dysfunction Junction cast of alters and split personalities all make cameos, with Establishing Character Moments and Incoming Hams aplenty.
• Doing Research: During Part 1, Sarah frequently hits the library to learn all she can about Remnant, and because, at least until she starts working for Pietro, she doesn't exactly have anything else to do.
• Driving Question: As set up in the synopsis of the story, the question of whether Sarah can just stand idly by and watch while the Fall of Beacon happens, even if she's not empowered, much less ready to stare down threats like Adam and Cinder, nor does she even have the money to get to Vale.
  • Ultimately, the question is finally resolved during Liar's Gambit. No, she won't just watch. She'll break her own rules and betray the man who saved her life, sheltered her and gave her a job to get herself there.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Pietro's accent is almost entirely absent in earlier chapters, and Sarah's own personality is considerably livelier and less morose, especially in narration. Fixed after a rewrite, and the new opening is more consistent with both.
• Easing into the Adventure: The first part is devoted to Sarah establishing herself in her new universe and learning how the rules work. In the rewrite, this also includes the protagonist learning about who she is to a greater degree and recovering from the injuries she suffered on day one. Justified, as it's a Self-Insert Fic set in an Alternate Universe. As Sarah learns the rules, so does the reader. Part 2 opens with the events of The Breach and the story finally kicks firmly into gear.
• For Want Of A Nail: In the rewrite, which is basically Alternate Continuity for the original version of WWF, which still exists as a side-story. In the Prologue, what separates Rewrite!Sarah from her less competent and less wounded original counterpart is that she started off walking away from Atlas instead of towards it.
• Gun Porn: All over the place, and you'd think the revolver-packing self-insert was the worst offender.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: As this is a Self-Insert Fic focused on an Author Avatar and set within the author's Alternate Universe, she takes the time at a few points to poke fun at herself and the greater universe, as well as riffing on RWBY or literary tropes in general.
  Antigua: Now—to the color?
  Sarah: Black, like I like my coffee.
  Antigua (Chortles) Never heard that one before.
  Sarah: Well, I don't exactly pride myself on originality. But maybe it's the effort that counts?
• Orphan's Plot Trinket: Played with. The necklace that Sarah starts off the story with is initially just innocuous and played off as just a personal religious symbol, but with the reveal that it's eerily similar to an in-universe religious symbol, it's strongly implied the amulet is somehow evidence of Sarah's cosmic heritage.
• Painting the Medium: Whether it be dreams or intrusive dissociations, the text jarringly shifts at several points, depicting the protagonist's ... issues.
• Scenic-Tour Level: Two of them, both framed explicitly to show the sheer scale of the Remnant Sarah's found herself in. The first is somewhat short and occurs during a Bullhead ride up to Atlas, and then a second one takes place later, using an old tram system in a blatant Shout-Out to Half-Life. Sarah lampshades this.
  Sarah (to herself): Morning, Miss Sable. Looks like you're running late.
• Self-Insert Fic: The general basis, but deviates a lot from the usual formula by having a heavy emphasis on technological worldbuilding, lowkey Cosmic Horror, and being focused on a very low-powered heroine with a lot of issues.
• Ship Tease: Somewhat frequently, between the bisexual protagonist and a few other characters close to her age, including May and Robyn.
• Shout-Out: Many, given the protagonist is at least partially a modern-day human woman, but she's far from the only one.
• Shown Their Work: Mostly error-free research is done regarding firearms, chemistry, and a few other things, though in some areas this verges on Techno Babble.
  • Verification of Sarah's story is centered around 'Gap Elements' in Remnant's periodic table that haven't been discovered, but the specific alloy used in constructing her weapon has in it.
• Sliding Scale of Gameplay and Story Integration: In the rewrite, these elements are present from the very beginning, complete with a user interface with ammunition tracking and weapon fouling and item degredation, with the entire prologue acting as a sort of Justified Tutorial, introducing the reader to the game elements as Sarah re-learns how to survive. However, the mechanics are intended to represent real attributes, objectives and character growth rather than being a literal RPG Mechanics 'Verse.
• Stumbled Into the Plot: After being in Mantle for less than one hour, before she goes any further, she asks a friendly soldier at the wall to point her in the direction of Pietro's Pharmacy, setting the stage for more or less the entire story.
  • More or less literal in the rewrite, where Sarah sets off going in the wrong direction, running into a quickly-escalating series of threats. While she gets to show off her pre-existing skills in the new prologue, she's so injured by the end of it that she needs immediate medical treatment, and Mantle General is too far away. Cue her getting dropped off at the Pharmacy by the soldiers that rescued her.
• Tempting Fate: In the prologue, Ash Ederne boldly claims "Atlas is here to help, and his borders will never be closed to those in need." Come Volume 5...
• They Would Cut You Up: Occasionally brought up in narration, and mentioned as an anxiety that Sarah has. The fact that Pietro was willing to break the law to get her a legal citizenship strongly seems to imply this isn't an entirely unfounded fear.
• Training from Hell: The protagonist is subjected to this, courtesy of May Marigold. Combine this with being thrust into a Die or Fly scenario from the first second she woke up in Remnant and it's kind of no real stretch of the imagination that she takes several levels in badass.
• Unreliable Narrator: Due to the protagonist's questionable sanity, a great many of the things she says in narration or to other characters have to be taken with a grain of salt.

Apocalypse State of Mind

"What if all my talk about my weak Aura is just that—talk—and I really am nothing more than a delinquent lost cause?"

— Louve Hyacinth

Criminals. Outcasts. Underdogs. Team VILT (Violet) was called all of them, individually. By all rights, they shouldn't have been accepted into Beacon, and some of them shouldn't even be alive. In Ozpin's changed world, four people find their destinies rewritten by the whims of fate. They're each unstable ingredients, crooks and former thieves looking to build a better life. But as they're drafted into a war they weren't prepared for, they learn to put faith in something bigger than themselves. At the center of it all is Louve Lavender Hyacinth, a wolf faunus with a stunted Aura... and who every night, dreams of a broken world and a strange old man at the center of a story millenia in the making. Every night she lives in the past, and every day she lives in our apocalypse state of mind.

This story contains examples of:

• Anti-Hero Team: The protagonists, and explicitly intended by Ozma as such, as a deliberate counter to the likes of RWBY (though with the implication they're on a very short leash).
  • To sum it up, VILT is comprised of a wolf faunus hacker who's a delinquent charged with assault and data theft, a pirate girl who's the runaway heir for the most powerful criminal syndicate in the world, her butler/best friend who's a Gentle Giant, but has his own criminal past, and Verdant.
  • Symbolically, they retrieve the Black Knights in Beacon Initiation, mirroring Team RWBY retrieving the White Knights. A conversation between Ozma and Glynda makes this explicit.
• Conlang: Hiji'ko, a language spoken by the protagonist's Faunus clan behind closed doors.
• Cut Short: In a final update posted almost two years after the story had been started, WolfPrincessSarah explained that the work required to support Apocalypse State of Mind over the growing notability and complexity of Before the Whims of Fate and While We Fall wasn't really justifiable anymore. Despite that, she did promise that the characters and their future arcs would be integrated into Before the Whims of Fate, starting with their planned flashback trailer chapters.
• Dreaming of Times Gone By: The main character does this, and it's as yet unclear if it's a reincarnation arrangement or some greater power working behind the scenes.
• Lower-Deck Episode: Essentially one very long one for Before the Whims of Fate, and is set concurrent with it. Team VILT participates in the background of a few important scenes and there are occasional mentions of Team RWBY and their adventures, but background characters given no-to-little time in the main story shine here.
• You Wake Up in a Room: Chapter 1 opens with Louve waking up chained to a table in an interrogation cell, with the implication that an obscure legal justification was used to book her overnight after being caught cheating.
  • A scene with Ozpin in Before the Whims of Fate strongly implies that the headmaster of Louve's former academy has it out for the faunus, explaining why he chose to throw the book at her.