Fanfic / Roman's Empire

Okay. So, here’s the deal. My name is Roman Torchwick. You’ll wanna remember that name because someday, I’m gonna be somebody in this world. You can bet on that.

Roman's Empire is a RWBY Fan Fic by Snarky_SilverHaired_Sociopath. It tells of Roman’s rise in the criminal underworld and how he made a name for himself in organized crime, along with his eventual rivalry with his old mob boss, Violet Kincaid.

It is the fourth in the series The Makings of Team CRME after The Black Hearts. The next one in the series is CRME.

This fic provides examples of:

• Adaptational Early Appearance: Neo wasn’t implied to be anywhere in the first season, but she shows up in Roman’s backstory.
• Atrocious Alias: A man named Stacy Greene insists on being called “the Stace,” something that is continuously lampshaded as being an incredibly stupid name.
• Ax-Crazy: Neo isn’t noted to be one of the sanest of individuals. She openly enjoys violence when Roman permits it. He even says she’d be a serial killer if she wasn’t working for him.
• Big Bad: Violet Kincaid, Roman’s old mob boss. Roman may be bad, but Kincaid is worse.
• Bittersweet Ending: Roman defeats Kincaid and finally becomes the head of organized crime just like he wanted, but he and Neo end up getting arrested while he allows it to happen.
• Breather Episode: After The Black Hearts and the other stories having some Dark and Troubled Pasts, the fact that this has more humor and less tragedy and the only definitive victory for a protagonist makes it a refreshing change of pace.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Kincaid’s preference in her ladies. She is also an example since she’s pretty busty herself.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: Roman thinks nothing of Kincaid’s threat to kill Reed’s family just to make a point. Chloe is also very familiar with what Roman’s job entails.
• Continuity Nod: Kincaid mentions that they’ve been stealing Dust from the Schnee Dust Company. Even lampshading Jacques’ more unethical practices.
• Cute Mute: Chloe loves how adorable Neo is. Even Kincaid notes that she’s cute.
• Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!: For Roman and Kincaid, the mob life is pretty sweet. At least when they’re not trying to screw each other over in the third act.
• Dark Action Girl:
  • Even in her sixties, Kincaid can still put up a fight.
  • Neo is insanely competent as a fighter. Nearly to the point of being OP.
• Designated Girl Fight: Justified in the climax. Kincaid fights Neo and Dwight fights Roman. However, Neo and Kincaid are the best fighters in the story. They are on each other's level as far as combat goes. Neo would absolutely destroy Dwight and Kincaid would be able to beat Roman in a fight. This setup is the only way in which things would be fair.
• Dirty Old Woman: Kincaid is in her late fifties in her first appearance and is in her sixties after the Time Skip. She is also unapologetically sexual since she flirts with attractive men and women and actively tries to sleep with Roman (a man who is about thirty years younger than her).
• Dirty Coward: Brick Cordovan traffics black-market Dust behind Kincaid’s back for months. The moment Roman and Dwight show up on her behalf, he’s scared shitless and begging for forgiveness as she tortures him.
• The Dragon: Roman worked as Kincaid’s enforcer along with Dwight. Later, he gets his own in Neo.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him:
  • Chloe’s death comes out of nowhere and just after Dwight negotiated with Kincaid to keep her alive.
  • Dwight also dies in a rather abrupt manner.
• Electric Torture: What Kincaid does to Chloe. She soaks her in water and puts her bare feet in a tub of water with a crystal of Lightning Dust.
• Enemy Mine: Dwight really doesn’t want to work with Kincaid again, but they both think Roman needs to be taken down a peg.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Dwight ends up betraying Roman when he starts going too far.
• Establishing Character Moment: We see Kincaid flirting with a girl in her office and then going to flirt with Roman. Shortly after, she takes Roman and Dwight down to torture Cordovan.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Roman shows genuine protectiveness over Neo. Despite his otherwise sociopathic nature, he does care about her. And the feeling is mutual. He’s angered when Kincaid threatens to take her for herself and then mutilate her just to punish Roman.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Dwight is appropriately horrified when he realizes that Kincaid is really going to kill Reed’s family. Equally so when Roman suggests the same for the new police commissioner. It’s one reason he leaves Roman’s organization.
• Eviler than Thou: Roman notes that no matter how bad he may be, Kincaid is still much worse. He tells this to Dwight when he sides with her against Roman.
• Evil Old Folks: In the present day, Kincaid is in her sixties. It’s downplayed in the beginning since she’s still in her fifties.
• Evil Redhead: Roman obviously, but Kincaid has red hair as well.
• Evil Versus Evil: Roman goes up against his old mob boss, Kincaid, in a struggle for power.
• Fantastic Racism: Roman holds some less-than-positive feelings about many of the Faunus working for him.
• Faux Affably Evil:
  • Roman is quite the charmer. He’s always offering sarcastic comments and can try to win over people with his words. However, if he can’t, he’s all too happy to use force as well.
  • Kincaid can be quite witty and charming and is able to build relationships with the underbosses. However, she’s still a sociopathic mob boss who will gut you like a fish if it’ll get her what she wants, you double-cross her, or she just feels like it.
• First-Name Basis: Roman gets these privileges with Kincaid. Even calling her “Vi”.
• Flipping the Bird: Roman does this to Dwight after implying that he should be thankful Kincaid is hitting on her.
• Gayngster: Kincaid is an unapologetically bisexual mob boss who was even introduced flirting with a girl in her office.
• Gender-Concealing Writing: In the first chapter, Kincaid isn’t revealed to be a woman until the very last paragraph of the opening scene. Roman finally uses a pronoun that confirms her gender. Up to that point, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Kincaid was male. Even after that, her gender is still obscured until she is formally introduced. It’s Common Knowledge In-Universe, but it takes a while for the readers to get in on this tidbit of information.
• Graceful Loser: Roman simply accepts being arrested in the end because he knows he’ll make it out of there.
• Ignore the Fanservice: Roman repeatedly declines Kincaid's attempts to sleep with him.
• In Medias Res: The story starts with a cold-open of Roman and Dwight on an assignment for Kincaid. He doesn’t explain his backstory until after they take Cordovan.
• I Take Offense to That Last One: While she’s not genuinely offended, this exchange between Kincaid and Roman has an example.
  Kincaid: Oh, come on now, Roman. You’re gonna go breaking my heart.
  Roman: You’d need a heart to break first, you old pervert.
  Kincaid: Pssh. I’m not that old.
• Kick the Dog: Kincaid kills Chloe when she realizes that all of Roman’s records were in a safe. Eliminating the need for her to be alive.
• Kick The Son Of A Bitch: With how horrible Kincaid was, it’s hard to feel bad about her dying.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In Chapter 3, Roman mentions that it has been a while since he has talked to us after the Time Skip. In real life, the writer took almost three weeks off from this story to take care of stuff in their personal life and work on other stories before the chapter was uploaded. Before this, the series was usually updated pretty quickly.
• Lighter and Softer: As much as you can for a story about organized crime. It still has some dark and gruesome moments. However, compared to the outright tragedies in the preceding stories (especially the last one), this one is a less depressing change of pace. There are more moments of humor and wit in this fic and even at its most serious, there will still be something you can genuinely enjoy. And this story features the closest thing to a happy ending for any of the solo stories.
• Love Is a Weakness: Kincaid firmly believes in this, and it’s a lesson that Roman took to heart. Despite this, he does grow to be attached to Neo and Kincaid attempts to use this against him.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: Roman expresses a fondness for it. Kincaid also notes how much she likes hearing adults scream. (Children get annoying after a while.)
• Meaningful Name: As Roman notes, purple is the color of royalty and it is often referred to as “violet.”
• More Deadly Than the Male: The two most powerful characters in the fic are Kincaid and Neo. Both of them are the best fighters and are universally feared. And Kincaid is the prevailing mob boss in Vale. She is only taken down by Neo.
• Mrs. Robinson: Kincaid is a shameless pervert and frequently goes after partners that are at least twenty years younger than her. She regularly attempts to sleep with roman who is about thirty years younger.
• Ms. Fanservice: Kincaid is a very sexual person and is noted to be quite attractive. She’ll often be wearing dresses or outfits that emphasize her cleavage and loves showing off her good looks.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Neo, being as Ax-Crazy as she is, always responds by suggesting violence whenever Roman has a problem. She’s actually disappointed when Roman says she doesn’t need to kill anyone.
• Narcissist:
  • Roman was written with narcissistic personality disorder in mind and it shows.
  • Kincaid will find something to praise herself about at some point. Whether it be her beauty, her influence, or her fighting ability.
• Not in the Face!: Kincaid says she doesn’t want anyone messing up Roman’s “pretty face.” The biggest sign of her Villainous Breakdown is her hitting him directly in the face.
• The Not-Love Interest: Roman makes it very clear that he and Neo aren’t involved in that way. Especially since he was married.
• Offscreen Villainy: Kincaid states that she will murder (and possibly torture) Reed’s wife and two daughters. We don’t get intimate details of the act firsthand, but it is confirmed by Roman in the next chapter.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The biggest sign that Kincaid has lost it is when she straight up hits Roman in the face. Something she tried to avoid beforehand.
• Pet the Dog: Roman offers Dwight 150 million Lien when the latter decides to quit since he has stuck by him all those years. Considering how apathetic he has been to anyone who isn’t Neo and his self-centered tendencies otherwise, this is quite the grand gesture. Dwight, however, does not see it the same way. He sees it more as a pity hand-out since Dwight helped Roman build his criminal empire.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Neo makes an appearance in this fic and she is just as dangerous as ever.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Kincaid holds the parties to keep the underbosses sated and give them a chance to settle things peacefully. As much as she likes using violence, civil persuasion is also a useful tool. It’s the reason why she doesn’t approve of Roman approach of crushing everyone in his path while using Neo as intimidation.
• Precision F-Strike: Roman drops one in Chapter 3. And Neo signs one in Chapter 6.
• Pretty Boy: Kincaid thinks Roman is one and won’t hesitate to point it out to him.
• Sadist: Kincaid loves to cause pain.
• Shout-Out:
  • The writer mentions a Red vs. Blue shout-out in Chapter 3. For people who know the series well enough, it will be rather obvious.
  • Roman’s wife on the other hand (maiden name Chloe Price) was not a shout-out. The identical name was accidental on the writer’s part.
• Silver Fox: Even in her sixties, Kincaid is still a bombshell.
• Sleeping with the Boss: Kincaid tries her hardest to make it happen with Roman. He isn’t interested.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Roman in his early days. Even when he was still an enforcer, he had a seriously inflated ego.
• The Sociopath:
  • Violet Kincaid is a ruthless mob boss who will kill people to get what she wants and delights in causing people pain. She only cares about gaining a profit and maintaining power. While she doesn’t show any true empathy for others, she is incredibly charismatic and will often win people over with her wit or her charm. Her implied sexual behavior indicates her hedonistic tendencies. While she has an attraction to Roman that allows him to get away with doing stuff other people would get shot for, the attraction is purely sexual.
  • Roman shows signs of this with his conduct disorders at a young age and his ease of killing people. He has no problem roughing up people to get what he wants out of them and gladly throws people under the bus if he thinks it will benefit him. He only shows any true empathy to Neo.
• Stealth Pun: Roman calling a Faunus man with donkey ears a jackass.

• Torture Technician: One of Kincaid’s pass-times is torturing people. She even uses a curling iron to do so.
• Trophy Wife: Roman initially wanted to marry Chloe to have a queen for his empire. She later subverts this by becoming his financial manager.
• Villainous Breakdown: Kincaid goes through a massive one once Roman and Neo escape.
• Villain Protagonist: Outside of CRME itself, Roman is the only explicit case of this in The Makings of Team CRME. He spends his time in the story as an unapologetic mobster.
• The Voiceless: Neo does not speak verbally, so she uses sign language.
• World of Snark: In this mob story, there’s plenty of snark to go around.
• Would Hurt a Child: Kincaid casually mentions that she has killed a lot of children to get to other people. She does this as a show of power when Reed tries to defy her.

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