Winter - Yes ? But let’s get down to business. Why did you call me Ms Rose

Ruby - I didn’t call you ?

[Penny throws open the doors, dressed in a stork costume]

Winter - Penny ?

Penny - Please stand by Friend Ruby , I am running an experiment

[Penny approaches a bewildered Winter and hugs her from behind]

Penny - [mumbles] Ok first is the special hugging and then the thing I learned from the internet

[She thrusts several times]

Penny - [like a cult chant] Ora ORA [thrusts again] Get PREGNANT

Winter - [shrieks a little] PENNY ?! [pushes away , face red]

Penny - I do not understand, was my stork costume not accurate ?

Ruby - Penny , I am going to need you to explain your process

Penny - I LOVE EXPLAINING :D [takes deep breath] My files say that the stork delivers babies through a process of "special hugging" which seems like a fiction my father created for unknown reasons. Birds do not have the physical or mental capabilities to comprehend the process of delivering babies. This made me assume that the stork was a symbol or somehow ceremonial, which led me to create this costume. The ritual was a little harder to predict, but i eventually found a cute little cartoon showing two girls special hugging from behind and conceiving of child

Ruby - I guess I can see that, but why do you want us to be pregnant

Penny- Because I love you both

Ruby - We can discuss pregnancy any time though ?

Penny- [sighs and sits down] Friends...I do not beleive i will live long

[Ruby and Winter sit at her side]

Penny - The same people who worked on me are working every day to make better models than I am, and I have seen what happens when atlas tech becomes obsolete

Winter - Penny [puts a hand on her shoulder] We would NEVER decommission you

Penny- You would not

Ruby - We wouldnt let anyone

Penny- Regardless [twiddles fingers] I wanted to give you both a piece of me, so you could remember me

[Ruby and Winter look at each other]

Ruby - We'll talk together about pregnancy together. As your girlfriends

[Penny nods]

I don't know if I can fully explain why, other than I just like how they contrasted each other

Maybe I'm being biased or misremembering, but it looked like Winter was only ever vulnerable around either Weiss or Penny

Other than being pissed about Jacques, at least

While I knew Scyllas on ancient Roman coins were common, I had no idea there were two tailed sirens on coins. But I found these two coins in a museum in Vienna today. Let’s take a closer look.

The first coin is a silver pfennig, made during the reign of Duke of Austria Frederick III the Fair or Handsome. He was from the Hapsburg family, before the family tree stopped forking. In addition to the coin from Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, I also found this one from an auction site, one from eBay, and one from an extensive study of European coins:

Two tailed siren on a silver coin. Made approx. 1314-1330 CE. Mint owner: Dukes of Austria Frederick III the Fair. Austria. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Coin Cabinet Inv. No.: 134889. Top left; top right is from an auction website. Orange background is from eBay.

Despite being quite worn, these sirens are in the classic pose, holding her tails to her ears. She seems to wear a crown, suggesting she could be connected to a heraldry symbol. It’s hard to tell if she was meant to wear clothes or had a leaf skirt around her waist.

The next coin is from Poland, and she doesn’t wear a crown, but she does have a leaf skirt around her waist and clear scales on her two tails. Her hair looks like it’s braided, and her exposed breasts are still visible:

Two tailed siren on a silver coin, a pfennig. Made about 1177-1194. Archbishops of Gniezno: Casimir. Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Coin Cabinet.

I’m actually curious if the date on this is correct. I’m not seeing an Archbishop of Gniezno named Kazimierz listed anywhere during that time period. I found a guy named Casimir II the Just, a Lesser Polish Duke of Wiślica, who ruled during the right time period, but not in Gniezno.

I’m also a little doubtful about the date of the coin, because two tailed sirens on churches didn’t start getting popular until the 1200s. In addition, two tailed sirens were most popular on Romanesque churches in Italy, France, and Spain, while Poland’s Romanesque churches lacked the truly weird interior sculptures that sirens were common in. However, since she's minted in Gniezno, I should mention this 15th century tile, discovered in Gniezno:

For more info on the tile, see this post.

I can't say much more about medieval coins, as these sirens snuck up on me and coins haven't been a big part of my research. I’m neither a scholar on coins nor Romanesque architecture. Still pretty neat, though.

Source

So Penny never actually got to see Winter choose to do the right thing in Volume 8 (although I'm sure she was aware Winter did because of the plan), and yet she STILL decided that the power should go to Winter instead of anyone else. Winter was the first person in her dying thoughts ANYWAY. Even after EVERYTHING

Pairing: Winter Schnee x Penny Polendina

Word Count: 1,096

Summary: Penny invites Winter to join her and her father for a ‘family dinner’.

Winter isn’t quite sure when she became part of the ‘family’ - or even what that word really means.

Written for @ceelisiowo as part of the @remnants-of-rwby-exchange. 💚

Tags: Family Dinners, Domestic Fluff, Introspection, Light Angst

Propaganda is below the cut.