Fanfic / The Second Torch

Art by Mysterywhitefire

Roman was washed-up, at an all-time low, reduced from a gentleman thief on the front page of every newspaper to a glorified thug beaten by a 15 year old girl. Well, no more. Roman is going to reclaim his glory and prove to everyone that this old dog still has what it takes to be the best, or die trying! Poor Neo just wishes her adoptive father would pick a safer mid-life crisis.

— FanFiction.Net summary

The Second Torch is a How the Mighty Have Fallen fanfic by Coeur Al'Aran about the notorious gentlemen thief Roman Torchwick collapsing under the weight of the knowledge that his prime as Vale's #1 thief is over and he becomes determined to regain it again.

The Second Torch contains examples of the following...

• Adaptational Backstory Change: Rather than the canon backstory, Coeur goes with his original backstory of Roman being an ex-Huntsman-in-training and Bartholomew Oobleck's former partner who became jaded and turned to a life of crime after the rest of his team was killed in the Mountain Glenn disaster.
• Adaptational Dumbass:
  • As part of the fic's comedy, Roman Torchwick is significantly goofier and less self-aware than his conniving, street-smart and vicious canon self. He acts like a bumbling dad to Neopolitan, most notably in his solution to her being under the weather: feed her a cocktail of every pharmaceutical drug he could nab under the assumption that one of them would do the right trick. Roman never clues in that Neo's subsequent "gestures of adoration" are frustration-fueled attempts to throttle him.
  • Team RWBY are portrayed as reckless idiots who rush into situations without thinking and inevitably make things worse, similarly to some of Coeur's previous fics.
• Arch-Enemy: Much to his chagrin, Roman realizes that Ruby Rose has cemented herself as his and he's just going to have to make the best of it.
• Attention Whore: Roman Torchwick isn't just a thief, he's a gentleman thief who laps up any chance he gets to make the news with his heists. His attempts to revitalize his floundering reputation form the backbone of the story.
• Adaptational Wimp: Banesaw, the White Fang Lieutenant in canon. In the show, he was able to defeat Weiss on the train and would have killed her if not for Blake's rescue. In contrast, here his Aura remains locked and his chainsaw can't penetrate an enemy's Aura.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: When Perry asks about how Neo can be discreet with her distinct appearance, Roman says she has a trick up her sleeve. Right as she eagerly prepares to show off her Semblance, Roman reveals the trick is that she's too short to be seen in car windows. Cue comedic anger.
• Bank Robbery: To gain back his prestige and help his ego, Roman's first solution is to rob Vale Central Bank. It goes hilariously pear-shaped; not only does he lose Melodic Cudgel to a metallic shutter, but the money he gains is lost after he and Neo crash their getaway car into the water.
• Butt-Monkey: As Roman works to reclaim his lost fame/infamy, Neo ends up suffering a lot of comical abuse without him intending to. From coming down with a sickness after an ill-fated bank heist to being force-fed a bunch of pharmaceuticals, Neo does not have it easy in this fic.
• Could Say It, But...: Knowing he's on a time crunch and that there's no possible way the captured and demoralized Ruby could get all the information naturally, Roman all but spells out the White Fang's plan and his own motives by angrily taunting her that she'd never figure out that they planted bombs on a train to attack Vale, never figure out the exact steps to take to stop them, never expect specific obstacles that would need to be dealt with to stop the plan, and definitely never consider that the whole plan is totally out of character for a fame-seeking thief so there must be something else going on above him. For all that Ruby is portrayed as naive here, she does get the message.
• Corporate-Sponsored Supervillain: When Roman begins to garner press attention again, tobacco company Huntsman Silver Cigars notices that he's no longer smoking their product while committing crimes and query through a fansite he runs whether he's quit. When he explains that he's simply run out, the company drops off an entire crate of its cigars at a location of Roman's choosing in exchange for brand exclusivity while performing his criminal acts.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Roman's bank robbery begins with attempts to elicit an appropriate response from the bank teller to his presence, ultimately culminating in him exasperatedly telling her he's robbing the place, leading her to trigger the bank's security measures and inadvertently catching his weapon Melodic Cudgel's tip in the steel shutters (which weren't something banks had when he started out). When he orders the bank's customers to get on the ground and hand over their valuables, one of them points out that he, with his weapon stuck, has nothing to threaten them with, allowing them all book it. He manages to free Melodic Cudgel from the shutters so he can use it on the vault door, but fails to consider how the pressure of the bulletproof shutters may have damaged it; sure enough, the Dust round explodes in the barrel where the shutters had warped the metal. Roman then tries to blow up the vault door by using the remaining Dust in Melodic Cudgel as an improvised explosive, from which the vault door emerges unscathed (as it wouldn't be very good protection if a relatively minor explosion could break it), and only manages to get in because the surrounding walls were less sturdy then the door. Upon entering, Roman and Neo discover only a few thousand lien in cash, because most banking is now done online and the vault is more of a prop to impress customers. When the police pursue the pair during their getaway, he decides to make things more glamorous by exchanging gunfire with his pursuers while leaning out the window, telling Neo to take the wheel, overlooking a) she's currently buckled up in the passenger seat and not in a good position to take the wheel and b) when she does manage to clamber into the driver's seat, her 4'10" (in heels!) frame leaves her too short to simultaneously see through the windshield and reach the pedals. The chase ends with Neo driving into the ocean and their ill-gotten loot lost.
  • Roman goes to the pharmacy to get cold medicine for Neo, forgetting that his presence in public will attract police attention owing to the bank robbery he just pulled and took public credit for. When law enforcement shows up, he repeatedly attempts to grandstand rather than escape, both forgetting he no longer has a weapon until he tries to lean on the late, lamented Melodic Cudgel and almost falls over and attempting to engage in charming banter with the no-nonsense police tactical unit that proves distressingly competent.
  • As explained in detail in other entries on this page, Ruby ends up captured by the White Fang due to a bad case of this.
• Disappointed in You: During his lecture to Ruby about how badly she fumbled in getting caught by his White Fang "allies," Roman expresses this sentiment, refusing to believe that his most persistent nemesis could make so many mistakes... with Ruby actually feeling chastised as a result.
• Enraged by Idiocy: If there is one thing that both Roman and Neo can agree on, it is that idiots are able to get on their nerves. And being saddled with a bunch of incompetent terrorists like the White Fang are getting on their nerves and then some.
  • Roman in particular is infuriated by how stupid Ruby was being when she let herself get caught: not only did she not take her weapon with her when she left her group in an area filled with Grimm, she didn't even use her Aura to tank any hits from the White Fang, and didn't even think to turn on her Scroll's tracker so the others could find her more easily. As he puts it, she's his nemesis now, so she has to be smarter than this, as he will not tolerate an idiotic nemesis.
• Failed a Spot Check: Roman doesn't notice the staff and customers of the pharmacy fleeing the store when he enters nor the large police presence that arrives shortly thereafter until he is ordered via megaphone to surrender. Everyone save Neo interprets his oblivious shopping in the lead up to the confrontation as insousiance in the face of danger.
• Fanboy: Perry reveals himself to be a fan of Torchwick upon meeting him, much to the thief's amusement and Neo's dismay.
• Fashionable Evil: As much as Neo is annoyed by Roman's flamboyance, she privately acknowledges he has good fashion sense, noting that her own ensemble was selected by him. Part of Roman's distate for the White Fang is that, in addition to being poorly-trained, loose-cannon fanatics, their gray-and-black aesthetics are boring.
• Felony Misdemeanor: After robbing the Vale Central Bank, Roman and Neo end up pursued by police in a massive car chase. However, the cops don't know they've robbed the bank; they're after the duo because their vehicle is untaxed. An already stressed Neo, unhappy with the shambolic robbery and Roman's emphasis on theatricality over pragmatism, starts weeping from the ignominy of it all.
• Glory Seeker: Roman has always been this, with Neo even musing he is more of a performer than a hardened criminal. His realization regarding how far he's fallen from fame merely exacerbates this trait of his and causes him to go to any lengths reclaim his infamy... regardless the cost to him (or Neo).
• Gentleman Thief: Roman portrays himself as a well-dressed rogue who looks more at home in posh society than robbing store, at least when he was younger.
• Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Penny Polendina has vibes of this; as an Atlesian gynoid she is both rather clueless to to her new friends' squeamishness and operates according to the Atlesian military's more ruthless rules of engagement.
  Roman: Oh look! The whole gang is here. Finished murdering faunus who wanted nothing more than to fight for equality, have we?
  Blake: Murdered? We didn't—
  Penny: (cheerfully) I have neutralized the terrorists who tried to escape! In accordance with Atlas military doctrine! Atlas does not negotiate with terrorists. You're welcome, friend Ruby!
• Hollywood Mid-Life Crisis: The dawning realization that he is aging is, and that his glory days may be behind him, is the catalyst for Roman to try to recapture the limelight and prove he still has his youthful vigor.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Roman reflects on how much notoriety he had in the past when he made his Gentleman Thief debut, he was on the new constantly, his name was well known and women swooned over his rouge-ish smile and good looks. At the time of the fic, Roman Torchwick's legacy is in the dirt with his infamy so forgotten that he could walk into a heavily surveilled bank unchallenged and had to announce it was robbery.
• Hypocritical Humor: As he makes his getaway from the docks, Roman taunts Team RWBY, Sun, and Penny that future foes won't stand around and let them finish their monologue. Neo considers this the most hypocritical thing Roman has ever said, as he has repeatedly tried to monologue throughout the story.
  • In the same chapter, Roman bails out of a damaged Bullhead falling towards the ocean with reporter Lisa Lavender (and, more importantly, her camera) and dashingly tells her he'd never leave a fair maiden to sink. Neo promptly breaks the surface of the water the moment Roman finishes this line, having been left behind with the rest of Lisa's news team when the aircraft went down.
• I Let You Win: Roman's poor showing in the Volume 2 train duel with Blake is attributed here to him being ordered to throw a fight like that if necessary as part of Cinder's plan to get him captured. To him it adds insult to injury that the plan that may ruin his reputation as a gentleman thief, by making him a mass-murderer, would also ruin his reputation as a competent thief, by making him get his ass kicked by a teenager.
• I Warned You: After the attempt to steal a large shipment of Dust at the docks ends in a fiery explosion, Roman is quick to gleefully remind Cinder that he warned her that working with the White Fang would go poorly, pointing out that the only reason they were caught committing the crime was due to someone specifically looking for the White Fang. He does, however, keep the fact that he set off the explosion in order to escape to himself.
• Innocent Innuendo: When Roman snarks at Sun Wukong to put on a shirt because just looking at him makes him feel cold, Sun ripostes with, "Then maybe you and I can keep one another warm." Sun means through the exertion of fighting, but an excited Neo interprets it differently and makes a lewd gesture.
• Insult to Rocks: Being forced to work with the White Fang really gets on Roman's nerves, not just because of the fact that they're terrorists, but because he sees them as rabid terrorists eager to burn everything to get what they want. He even compares them to animals, before taking that back as even animals are smarter than the White Fang.
• It Amused Me: The reason why Roman sics the unpowered White Fang terrorists on Huntress-in-training Blake despite them not having a chance against her.
• Lighter and Softer: In comparison to some of Coeur's more serious and darker words like Remnant Invicta, Raise, and Null, The Second Torch is much more light-hearted with an emphasis on comedy.
• Loser Protagonist: His infamy and reputation Deader than Dead, Roman starts the story as this with determination reclaim his glory (at poor Neo's expense).
• Monumental Theft: After realizing that Cinder plans to use him as The Scapegoat while attacking the Vytal Festival, Roman infiltrates the Atlesian workforce stationed at Vale and manages to steal Amity Colosseum completely unnoticed. General Ironwood faints from shock when Winter reports the heist and Cinder is stunned to speechlessness over how thoroughly her plans for Beacon were foiled.
• Morality Chain: In a weird way, Roman is this for Neo. Neo recognizes that she enjoys killing and doesn't need a reason to do it, but restrains herself because Roman disdains killing unless necessary (less for moral reasons than because he considers it gauche) and would be disappointed in her if she indulged too much.
• The Napoleon: Neo has a chip on her shoulder about being made fun of for her height.
• Nosebleed: Neo develops one when Sun makes an accidentally suggestive proposal to Roman.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: Roman and Neo are horrified to learn that the White Fang have left the keys to the stolen Atlesian Paladin's ignition in the mech while smuggling it with the idea of quickly piloting it if necessary (which would almost certainly cause catastrophic damage with an untrained pilot and attract Atlas' attention), leading the former to say this word for word.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: In spite of his quixotic attempts at recapturing his glory days, Roman is this. Neo muses that had Roman truly been an idiot, he would have been caught more often then he had been. When their lives are genuinely in danger, or if he's in a particularly bad mood, the cold-blooded criminal both capable of and responsible for murder beneath the flamboyance emerges. Roman just prefers to not display this version of himself very often, considering it his boring side.
• Oh, Crap!: Team RWBY has this reaction when they realize that their new friend Penny's interpretation of helping them means using excessive, lethal force against the White Fang on the docks.
• Only Sane Man: Both Roman and Neo see themselves as this when partnered with the White Fang, Neo more than Roman due to the latter's current glory hound tendencies.
• Opponent Instruction: Roman is deeply dismayed when Ruby is caught easily by the White Fang in Mountain Glenn, as this reflects poorly on him as her nemesis. He angrily points out the things she could have easily done to avoid her apprehension: not leaving Crescent Rose behind at camp when she stepped away to use the bathroom in the middle of Grimm-infested ruins, using her Aura to tank the kick from the unpowered terrorist that knocked her out, and using her Super-Speed to dodge said kick in the first place.
• Poverty for Comedy: The dire state of their financial situation and other circumstances lead to the sobering realization for Roman Torchwick that he's a washed up criminal now.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Neo fits this to a T, and is increasingly aggravated when Roman eschews efficiency and caution for reckless, headline-grabbing behavior.
  • Roman has his own moments, however; he doesn't try to fight Ruby for very long when she interrupts his robbery of the Dust store because he doesn't think he can beat her without killing her, which would make him the target of every Huntsman and Huntress in Beacon (though Ruby's skill certainly played a role, something he's in denial about). He also later instructs Neo to not use lethal force against Team RWBY and Sun at the docks and vetoes Banesaw's proposal to execute Ruby on video for this reason, as well as partly in the latter case because being a child murderer doesn't fit the image of charming rogue he's going for.
• Refuge in Audacity: When Roman discovers Cinder's plans for him during her infiltration of Beacon, he gets back at her by informing her that he plans on committing a big, dramatic heist to divert attention from recent events with her permission, using this excuse to infiltrate Amity Colosseum, and stealing the entire stadium from under everyone's noses before televising it for all of Remnant to see. The theft utterly crushes Cinder and General Ironwood (and delights Neo) once they find out.
• Saying Too Much: Stressed by the heat the White Fang has attracted after their battle at the docks and Roman's needling of her over it, Cinder inadvertently reveals to the master thief that she's infiltrating Beacon Academy. Until this slip, Cinder had been very careful to only give Roman as much information as he needed to know to perform his immediate tasks.
• Shoot the Hostage: Roman and Neo hitch a ride on a Vale News Network airship to escape the battle on the docks. When Roman gallantly insists that Lisa and her news crew aren't hostages, Penny takes this to mean they are aiding and abetting his escape and opens fire, ultimately downing the vehicle.
• Shout-Out: Roman informs Team RWBY, Penny, and Sun that the difference between him and the White Fang is "PRESENTATION!" before igniting the Dust around them.
• Slave to PR: Ozpin is forced to relinquish Roman and his weapon The Long Memory in exchange for Ruby after Neo takes her hostage, even though Neo has been deprived of her own weapons and can't actually do anything to harm Ruby. But because the hostage standoff is happening before a crowd of civilians, unaware that Ruby isn't in real danger, all they'll see if Ozpin refuses is the famous headmaster of a prestigious institution valuing an object over the life of his student, a teenage girl.
• Sneeze Cut: While Neo isn't ecstatic about working the White Fang on a Dust heist at the docks, she is pleased that the operation is supposed to take place covertly, giving her a break from Roman's dramatic antics. She's confident that nobody will ruin it. Cut to Blake Belladonna sneezing in the midst of her quest to prove the White Fang isn't responsible for the Dust robberies.
• Suppository Gag: Among the medicine Roman forces Neo to take is a big, oddly shaped "pill." When he describes it later to Junior Xiong, the latter awkwardly explains that that was a suppository, much to Melanie and Miltia Malachite's amusement.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Roman considers the terrorists he's now been saddled with by Cinder to be nothing but angry imbeciles, and Cinder herself just as stupid but dangerous enough that he can't ignore her. Meanwhile, Neo sees Roman as only a bit less of an idiot than everyone else around them both.
• Their Own Worst Enemy: Roman observes to Neo that the White Fang's actions only serve to foster and exacerbate bigotry towards Faunus and encourage humans to think that the attempt to forcibly relocate all Faunus to Menagerie was the right idea after all. Later, he notes that this deliberate on the part of the White Fang's leadership; while they genuinely want to end racism towards Faunus in the long term, in the short term part of the reason for their terrorist tactics is to incite indiscriminate retaliation against Faunus for the purposes of alienation, radicalization, and recruitment.
• Troll: Roman is very unhappy to be working with the White Fang, and makes it known by needling them at every opportunity. When Blake interrupts the Dust heist at the docks, Neo questions why he's sent the unpowered White Fang terrorists against Blake, who clearly has Huntress training. Roman shamelessly admits it's because it was hilarious.
• Unwanted Assistance: Ozpin is handling his battle with Roman and Neo quite well up until Team RWBY, with the best of intentions, joins the fray, and are oblivious to their professor's increasingly exasperated requests they fetch Glynda Goodwitch.
• Verbal Backpedaling: During their fight on the docks, an irritated Ruby snaps at Roman that her name is Ruby, not "Red," at which point her new friend Penny proceeds to destroy a Bullhead with people still onboard. Ruby quickly tries to retract her last statement.
  Ruby: You tricked me! And it's not Red, it's Ruby! Ruby Rose!
  (Penny blows up a Bullhead with a huge laser)
  Roman: Daaaamn. That your lot, Ruby? Because, yikes, you just scored yourself a higher body count than me. Congrats on that one.
  Ruby: It's Red! Not Ruby. Who's Ruby? Not me. Ruby is in bed because it's her bedtime. She isn't racking up a kill count.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Neo becomes very excited at Sun's suggestion to Roman that they "keep one another warm," forcing the mortified hero to explain that he didn't mean it that way.

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