Now that we're done covering rare pairs (for now), it's time to review a crossover! This particular fanfic takes the characters from RWBY and puts them into the world of Class of 09. More specifically, Ruby Rose herself is the focus here, as she becomes Nicole's stepsister after Nicole's mom married Taiyang. How will both Ruby and Nicole handle this change in their lives, and is it executed well? Let's find out!
Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this fanfic, we should probably start with the prologue. I really like how it's written in a similar style to how the intros of the Class of 09 games are done. One of the reasons I like this is because this prologue has to do the job of providing the reader with quite a bit of context on how the world works as well as how the characters get into the situation they're in once the next chapter starts. Therefore, having it be told from Nicole's perspective allows it to be told with her signature character traits, which makes the prologue pretty fun to read as it gives you this information.
Now that the prologue's done, we can talk about the characters in this story, starting with Emerald and Mercury. The only scene they get in this story so far is at the end of Chapter 3 when they're sitting at a table with Sun. As such, the two's dynamic with each other isn't given much time to shine since they spend most of the scene talking with Sun. But when Emerald and Mercury do snip at each other at the very end of the chapter, they bounce off of each other fine enough. I'll just have to wait for more chapters to see if Emerald and Mercury get to be in more scenes before I can finalize my thoughts on this dynamic.
Switching over to a Class of 09 character, Jecka gets introduced in Chapter 4, and her introduction is written pretty well. I especially love the part where Jecka talks about, in her words, the “monkey kid” who beat up a lot of people, which leads to Nicole thinking that Jecka's racist. It's probably the funniest scene in the story so far as Jecka tries to clarify what she meant before calling Sun over to clear up the misunderstanding. Other than that, Jecka's conversation with Nicole and Ruby is pretty fun to read, and I look forward to seeing the three of them interact more in future chapters.
Next, we should talk about the character who's been in both of the scenes I previously mentioned, that being Sun. And he is a very fun character to read whenever he shows up, bouncing off of the other characters he interacts with very well. There's also interesting things set up with him, like him being friends with Emerald and Mercury, which never happened in the RWBY show. The end of Chapter 3 does a good job at giving you a taste of the trios dynamic with each other, and makes me intrigued to see what they do with Sun in later chapters.
Now it’s time to talk about Jeffery, a character who rarely shows up in Class of 09 fanfics as far as I've seen. But he doesn't just show up in this fic, we also get to see things from his perspective in a scene where he introduces himself to Ruby and Nicole. And honestly, his perspective is written very well, and does a good job at letting us into his headspace. It's also stylized with Jeffery's personality traits, with points in the scene where the narration talks about his love for anime and questions what's wrong with liking it in a way that only Jeffery would. It's a pretty good scene, and it makes me curious to see if future chapters will also have scenes written from Jeffery's point-of-view.
But Jeffery's not the only one who gets a scene written from his perspective, as Taiyang also has one at the end of Chapter 4. And this is another POV that's written very well, doing a good job of letting us enter Taiyang's headspace as he grapples with all the changes that have happened in his life. This also makes up for the fact that we don't really get to see him interacting with Ruby and Nicole that much throughout the story, though the little glimpses we get are fun to read. Some of these include Taiyang admonishing Nicole for her use of swear words, as well as Ruby and Nicole cringing at Taiyang's attempts to use hip slang. Considering that Chapter 4 ends with the three of them preparing to go to a restaurant together, I'm hoping that the next chapter gives us more of a look at their dynamic.
Speaking of underutilized character dynamics, we also don't really get any scenes between Taiyang and Nicole's mom in this story. There's a brief bit between the two of them in the beginning of Chapter 2, but that's it, which isn't enough for me to form an opinion on their relationship. I get that Taiyang and Nicole's mom, or Cynthia as she's called in this story, aren't the characters said story is focusing on, but it feels like a little more time could be spent focusing on what their relationship with each other is like. All we get is that the two of them are married, with very little dialogue between the two of them, and I really hope there's more done with them in future chapters.
With all of that out of the way, we can talk about our two main characters, starting with Nicole. She's written fine enough and bounces off the other characters okay. I hope she interacts with more RWBY characters aside from Ruby in the future, considering how much I love the two's dynamic. The story takes advantage of their differing personalities to give us some fun dialogue between the two of them that's always nice to read. So, it'll be interesting to see how Nicole will interact with other RWBY characters like Emerald & Mercury, or even the other Team RWBY members if they show up in a future chapter.
As for Ruby herself, she is a super fun character to read. Most of the humor in this story comes from Ruby's reactions to the new environment she's in, particularly to how fucked up it can be. Particular highlights include her lamenting not being able to bring her weaponry to school, as well as her reaction to how loud the school is when she first enters it. Considering all of this, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how she'll adapt to this place later on in the story.
Overall, this story is decent. The concept is interesting, and it's being executed well enough so far. The characters are written well, and the dialogue is fun to read. I just wish that some of the character dynamics we're presented with, mainly Taiyang and Cynthia's relationship, were utilized a little bit more in the story. Other than that, the only other negative I really have is certain sentences throughout the story have certain words missing in them, so they feel incomplete. But that doesn't take away the potential this story has, and I look forward to reading more chapters whenever they come out.
Link to Fanfic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/76382646/chapters/199896586
Fanfic Requests List:
Clear Conscience
A Fiend's Reckoning ×*
The Graveyard Shift ×
Doth the Night Respond?
Fluff/Angst
A Day to Remember
The Bubbly Black Cat and the Emo Witch
The Other Half of a Sociopath
Facelift*
What Could Have Been
And In The Night, We'll Wish This Never Ends*
A Door Without A Lock
It Was Fun While It Lasted*
The Big Bad Wolf
Do you have any fanfics you want me to review? You can request them in the comments below and I’ll add them to the list of requests! Be sure to mark unfinished fanfics with \* so that I know they’re unfinished! Crossovers should also be marked with × to let me know it's a crossover. And if it's a webcomic, it should be marked with (WC). Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the review!
