A/N: Well…it's time.
The poll is closed and the results are in…let's take a look, shall we?
…
…
…
Wow, nearly 400 of you voted. That…that really makes my day.
In any case, let's start with the one with the least votes….
Simply discontinue it: 2 votes.
To be honest, I'm glad this didn't win, but I a little disappointed that two people actually voted for this choice, but I'm sure they had their reasons.
Alright…now for second place.
…
…
…
Persevere and find a way to continue it: 141 votes.
Wow, guess a good lot of you really liked how I portrayed Winter, her portrayal being before she was introduced in the show, but still. Then again, from what I read in the reviews, I can assume that all of you enjoyed my portrayal of Winter.
However…it appears that the choice with the most votes was none other than….
Reboot using canon Winter: 246 votes.
Wow…to be honest, I'm kinda glad this choice won, because I'm not sure I would've been able to continue this story had the "persevere" choice won, but I had to be fair.
So…guess this story's getting rebooted.
I don't want to leave it off as it is without some form of ending, so I decided to outline what I would've hoped to have happen in the rest of this fic had I gotten past my writer's block:
Outline
- Jaune is forced to invite the rest of his team and Team RWBY to his 18th birthday party.
- Winter meets Jaune's family.
- Jaune's father is over-exaggeratingly proud that his son nabbed the finest woman any man can ask for, not to mention an older woman, resulting in him getting hit over the head with a frying pan by Jaune's mother.
- Jaune facepalms.
- The sisters grill Jaune about how he met Winter and how it's been going so far.
- RWBY, JNPR, and Winter respectively get into shenanigans at the carnival, such as Winter not being able to hit a single mole in Wack-a-Mole, resulting in Jaune snickering and Winter chasing Jaune with the mallet from the game. He climbs a pole to get away, but Winter convinces him to get down. He does, and she bonks him on the head with the mallet.
- The party is over, and RWBY, JNPR, and Winter take their leave. As they do, Jaune's father shouts for him to have many grandchildren like he did, preferably 8.
- Jaune and Winter are embarrassed, and Jaune's father is bonked on the head with a frying pan by the mother.
- The ball comes, and Jaune is in a suit. He (obviously) ogles Winter and her attire.
- They arrive at the ball and mingle a bit. Winter knows how to talk to these kinds of people, while Jaune doesn't, yet manages to get by with the oh so very little Arc luck he has.
- There is gossip among the crowd about Winter's choice in men, and Jaune is discouraged while Winter is furious.
- A surprise comes about, and Weiss is shown to have been told to come as well by her father. Her guest…Pyrrha.
- Obviously, they are crowded as well, but are eventually left to enjoy themselves.
- Pyrrha asks to speak to Jaune in private.
- Pyrrha confesses her feelings to Jaune.
- Jaune…is obviously sorry that he's been a dense idiot this whole time…but is even more sorry that he cannot return her feelings.
- Pyrrha is heartbroken, but she understands.
- As the ball continues, the White Fang make their move and attack.
- Many people die, and Weiss, Pyrrha, Jaune and Winter fight off the White Fang.
- Adam shows up and readies to finally exact justice upon the "vile" Schnees.
- Weiss and Pyrrha double-team him, but they are no match and are beaten.
- As Adam makes to kill Weiss, Winter intervenes and does battle with him.
- She, too, is defeated.
- Adam makes to kill the elder Schnee sibling, but Jaune intervenes and prepares to fight Adam himself.
- Jaune lasts longer than he would have had he not gotten Pyrrha's training, but even so…Adam is easily bored with the boy.
- He depletes Jaune's Aura to zero and knees him in the gut, making him crumble to the floor.
- Adam leaves to finish off Winter and Weiss.
- Jaune summons the last of his strength and charges Adam a final time to stop him.
- Adam severs Jaune's arm (the one holding the sword), then delivers a fatal slash that cuts deep and causes a lot of blood to gash out.
- Seeing this angers Winter and gives her enough strength to go a second round. The same goes for Weiss and Pyrrha.
- It is a close fight, but in the end…well, as the old saying goes: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". And Adam scorned three woman by hurting Jaune.
- He was defeated…but he decided he would not fall alone.
- He speeds past the three woman and attempts to take Jaune's life…but Jaune wasn't out yet.
- With the last of his strength, he is able to use his still-attached arm to lift his shield and bash the katana aside.
- Winter speeds up and impales Adam with her blades.
- Adam's final words: "D-Damn…you…Schnees…."
- Adam slumps to the floor, dead.
- Jaune loses consciousness due to blood loss.
- Jaune wakes up in a hospital, his right arm now a stump.
- Winter is their when he wakes and hugs him.
- The Schnee patriarch happens to visit and wishes to speak to Jaune alone.
- Winter (begrudgingly) obliges.
- The father thanks Jaune for coming to his daughter's aid and gives him an offer: a cybernetic prosthetic arm (like Ironwood).
- Jaune accepts.
- The father leaves…but has one final thing to say:
"Take care of Winter."
- He leaves.
- Sometime later, Jaune is better and able to use his new prosthetic arm in battle, and his relationship with Winter is better than ever.
- They even…do it. (Yes, I would've eventually made this rated M)
- An epilogue would feature an older Jaune and Winter with their big happy family…emphasis on big, because they had 16 children.
- Somewhere out there, Jaune's father is shedding a tear of joy that his son surpassed him, which results in him getting bonked on the head by his wife.
And that's it. I know I didn't make mention of Cinder and her cronies, the Maiden's, the Silver-Eyed Warriors, or Salem, but this was an AU and before most of that, so none of it would've made the cut...probably.
In any case…now I've got to decide how to go about with a reboot using canon Winter. I have ideas, but I need to flesh them out and make sure they can be legitimate stories before I can safely announce the reboot.
I can either wait until I watch Volume 4 to see how Jaune acts in it so that I can have a better idea as to how to pair him and Winter together, or I can simply do an AU that takes place between Volume 3 and 4, or an AU that involves Jaune meeting Winter during one of the previous Volumes in some way or form.
Hell, I could do an entire AU where Jaune meets Winter before canon and gets training from her or something.
Like I said, these ideas need to be properly fleshed out before I can implement one of them.
Now, I will update this fic one final time in the future to announce when I publish the reboot. I'm not sure how long in the future it'll be, but it'll happen.
I may have lost the motivation to continue this fic, but I still have the motivation to write the ship itself.
I'm not about to let it sink and die.
It shall continue, whether in the form of the reboot, or in some one-shots I'm thinking about doing.
Shame I couldn't continue this. I think this fic had the potential to reach over 1000 follows.
Guess I'll never know.
Still…736 follows, 665 favs, 244 reviews, over 78,000 views, and can be found in 6 different communities.
Heh, not bad for a "crack" ship, huh? I'd consider it my most successful story had I been able to properly finish it rather than end it like this.
Damn it….
Then again, this story isn't my pride and joy. I enjoyed writing it, but it isn't my main story. That would be my OC story…what? I can't help it if I like the OC's I created!
In any case, thank you all for the reviews and for giving this story a chance. What started out as a simple one-shot grew into something huge, yet unfortunately unfinished.
Makes me wonder if it should've stayed a one-shot in the first place….
Then again, had I done that, you all wouldn't have gotten those other chapters, or the omakes.
Oh well.
While I flesh out my Jaune/Winter ideas (both reboot and one-shots), I'll be focusing on my other stories, specifically my self-insert story My Turn….
Yes, I've written a self-insert. Sue me.
Once again, thank you all very much, and I'll see you all again in my other stories, and/or in the final update for when the reboot is up.
Take care.
LATERS!