Light 'Em Up / Uma Thurman / Novocaine / Alone Together
The LUNAverse
is a series of fan fics and fan art created by by DeviantArt member Lightning-in-my-Hand.The story takes place at the same time as the main canon of RWBY, but follows an OC team, LUNA, composed of Lucian Bianc, Krysten Upsdellia, Natalia Florence, and Igniallite Amberstay. Much like the main series, the LUNAverse is divided into volumes, the first three collectively titled The Moon Over Beacon. The fourth volume, and the first of the Blood Moon Rising arc, is currently being published during 2017 to coincide with RWBY Volume 5.
On December 28, 2018, Lightning-in-my-Hand announced that LUNA would conclude prematurely, as their disappointment in RWBY's story had resulted in Artist Disillusionment, and they had stated that they did not wish to continue creating OC content for a show they did not enjoy. This may categorize the LUNAverse as an Orphaned Series. However, on October 18, 2020, Lighting-in-my-Hand on Twitter hinted at the possibility of a Continuity Reboot for the characters.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- The Ace: Lucian quickly proves himself to be this early in the story as he takes on all of team MDAS alone and wins.
- An Arm and a Leg: More like a TAIL! Lucian's tail, to be exact. Adam Taurus cuts off Lucian's tail near the end of Volume 3 while his teammates and mother watch. Nat manages to save his ears, though he's rendered unconscious for the rest of the Battle of Beacon.
- Animal Motif: Most member of LUNA have an animal allusion in some form.
- Lucian is associated with Wolves. He is a wolf faunus (complete with ears and tail), his symbol is a wolf's head with teeth bared and his design incorporates a lot of white, which is typically associated with wolves.
- Krysten takes inspiration from birds, specifically Swallows. The design of her clothes, specifically her coat, is very birdlike (with the coattails resembling a birds tail), her symbol is that of a bird in flight and, like a Swallow, Krysten is not a very strong or durable fighter and instead relies on speed and agility to stay ahead of her foes.
- Ignia is somewhat associated with spiders. Her symbol is a spider trapped in amber and her semblance paralyzes people, a trait often associated with venomous animals such as spiders.
- Subverted with Natalia, who holds no association with animals and instead draws inspiration from the Italian Renaissance.
- Art Evolution: The CG's for each chapter, if put together, shows the artist's progression from 2015 to 2017
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Shu and Aurum during Chapter 8.
- Lucian and Natalia also do this in Chapter 11 while fighting the White Fang.
- Bilingual Bonus: Lucian's last name means "White" in Italian.
- Most of team VSVS is this.
- Boring, but Practical: Sirena Atlantyk's weapon is a plain Kampilan, without any gun function. Subverting the usual RWBY formula.
- Bow and Sword in Accord: Natalia's weapon "Spina" is this; A longbow which can transform into dual scimitars when needed.
- Clothing Damage: Both Natalia and Diamond suffer this during the Fall of Beacon, Diamant from a bullet graze, and Natalia from using Yang's Ember Celica
- Color-Coded Characters: As per RWBY tradition, each member of LUNA is associated with a particular color; Lucian is White, Krysten is Red, Natalia is Orange and Ignia is Yellow.
- Combat Clairvoyance: Lucian's semblance grants him a form of this, allowing him to predict and react to enemy attacks before they happen.
- No Conservation of Energy: Averted with Lucian literally fainting after his fight with MDAS since he uses up so much energy and Aura.
- Creator Thumbprint: The LUNAverse creator's screenname is Lightning-in-my-Hand, and Lightning is very prominent in Ignia's battle scenes.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Black Fang is a guerilla army made of both Human and Faunus civilian volunteers dedicated to protecting the defenseless from the chaos the White Fang creates.
- Dark Secret: Maruna Bianc reveals to her son that the Bianc family was not only a family of dictators but a family of bloodline purity obsessed dictators who engaged in inbreeding which resulted in mutations like Lucian's multiple faunus traits and Maruna's heterochromia.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Diamant seems to have taken a liking to Lucian after seeing how much he cares about his friends. They're even on first-name basis by volume 4. Not so much with Krysten and Marigold, as their continuing rivalry leads Vulcania to try and mediate their problems.
- Elemental Powers: Many of them, but special mention goes to team VSVS who each represent one of the four classical elements. Notable examples include;
- Blow You Away: Shu Hedj's semblance.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Sanriku Ishi-Mazu's semblance.
- Extra-ore-dinary: Marigold, Aurum, and Sylver all have semblances that relate to gold or, in Sylver's case, silver in some way.
- Gemstone Assault: Diamant Bluhart semblance allows her to cover her skin in diamond.
- Making a Splash: Vamei Azraq's semblance.
- Playing with Fire: Vulcania Xaga's semblance.
- Shock and Awe: Ignia Amberstay is shown prominently using her semblance for this.
- Soul Power: This is revealed to be Lucian's true semblance in "Blood Moon Rising", which allows him to manipulate aura and copy semblances.
- Energy Absorption: Ignia's semblance "Vampire" is this; She can absorb the aura of other people, paralysing them in the process, as well as the energy from Dust.
- Mr. Fanservice: Guld Garrison.
- Flash Step: What Krysten's Semblance looks like to most people.
- Floral Theme Naming: Natalia's last name is Florence (Granted this is also the name of the Italian city she's based on), her weapon is called "Spina" meaning Thorn in Italian, and her Lily emblem is called "bloom".
- Foil: Lucian is this to the rest of team LUNA, and they to him. While he shares many traits with his teammates, Lucian thinks ahead, is meek, isn't reckless, and gets into far fewer unnecessary fights. However, they are more confident, outgoing, and undeniably physically stronger than he is.
- Gilligan Cut: Lucian confidently saying that unless they're paired up with someone extremely skilled or extremely overpowered in the tournament, they have nothing to fear. The very next scene has Lucian dropping half an f-bomb when he realizes that his team has to fight exactly that, Pyrrha Nikos and Nora Valkyrie.
- Healing Hands: What Viridia's semblance is revealed to be.
- Heroes of Another Story: The entire LUNAverse is this to the main canon characters, running for three volumes alongside the canon events of RWBY
- Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted as he does survive. But Lucian telling his team to escape while Adam has a sword to his neck can be considered this.
- Hot-Blooded: Krysten often acts this way. Especially regarding Marigold
- Intangibility: Natalia's semblance grants her this, as well as making her lighter and faster. It's important to note that energy and some dust based attacks can still harm her.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: New readers might wonder why Lucian's tail is missing in Volume 4's character art.
- Light Is Good: Lucian Bianc's name has roots that essentially mean "White Light" and he is certainly on the side of good.
- Meaningful Name: As per RWBY tradition. Most character names have this in one form or another.
- The penultimate chapter of Volume 3 is titled The Night Is Burning, The Sky Is Falling, which is a reference to an Ed Sheeran song about a dragon attacking a town. In this chapter, the Grimm Dragon attacks Vale and destroys the CCT.
- Multinational Team: LUNA and VSVS. Lucian is based on Greco Roman mythology, Natalia, and Vulcania are based on Italian locations (Florence and Vesuvius), Natalia is based on a Jewish figure (Jesus Christ), Ignia is based on Greek mythology, Vamei on Arab, Shu on Egyptian, and Sanriku on Japanese culture.
- Named Weapons: The very first thing Team LUNA does after getting their new weapons from Reed is to give them names.
- The Paralyzer: As mentioned above, Ignia's semblance comes with a paralyzing effect when used on other people.
- Plague Doctor: Viridia's design carries a heavy plague doctor aesthetic.
- Pun: Lucian and Ignia get thrown out of the tournament ring by Pyrrha sending a wall of concrete and rubble their way, and they fall to the rocky ground. Ignia's response? "Looks like we've hit rock bottom, huh?"
- Renegade Splinter Faction: The Black Fang is this to the White Fang.
- Royal Inbreeding: Allegedly the reason the Bianc family line before Maruna practiced inbreeding was to preserve the purity of the Bianc bloodline, but in reality, it's just an excuse. The true purpose was to preserve the hereditary family semblance of being able to replicate any other person's semblance
- Ship Teasing: Quit a bit of it. Most prominently is teasing Lucian with the other members of Team LUNA
- Lucian x Natalia is fairly prominent.
- Wham Episode: Chapter 20, a given since it is set during the Fall Of Beacon. The biggest wham moment being Adam Taurus mutilating Lucian by cutting off his tail.
- Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Natalia's reaction to witnessing Lucian's mutilation at the hands of Adam.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Krysten gets disowned and banned from her hometown because she ran away from her father's mercenary organization to attend Beacon, creating this trope.
