Inbox for Deerington

[justoscar]

TBD

Comments

Text: UN - IceCream

[threelayers]

[Yoohoo, hello there farm boy. Did you miss her?]

Hello there, Oscar.
It is Oscar, isn't it?
I just want to make sure I got your name right.

[She thinks she's soooo subtle. Blame Emerald for this one.]

[justoscar]

[This was... a surprise.]

You did.
I hadn't told you because I was always warned about getting too friendly with strangers. You're not friends with Ruby, so I didn't want to accidentally make more trouble.

[Then, after a moment:]

What's going on? There's a reason you looked me up like this.

Text: UN - IceCream

[threelayers]

Oscar, are you around?
And perhaps more importantly are you actually willing to speak to me?

I would understand if the answer is no.

[She didn't have the guts to approach Penny just yet. Laser eyes were a thing.]

[justoscar]

Neo.

Of course I'll talk to you. You said yourself that you didn't want everything to happen... why WOULDN'T I talk to you>

[Truly, he was more surprised that Neo had approached him at all. In light of her rivalry with RWBY, he didn't factor in at all in those affairs.]

text: un: trienemybest

[droptheious]

So, I noticed Ozpin has shown up. Hard to miss when he's trying to get students to leap off the edge of a building.

Are you holding up okay?

text: un: pinecone

[justoscar]

Yeah, it was kinda hard not to notice that, wasn't it? I tried to tell him that his normal lessons wouldn't work here... but he's hard to argue with.

I'm fine. Mostly. It's tiring to think about...

But thanks for checking, Varian. It's been a while, what have you been up to?

[Text; unTheDoctor]

[borntolove]

I have bath salts that could aid in your recovery. Are you interested?

[Text; un pinecone]

[justoscar]

Bath salts?

Doctor, I don't understand. Any store has bath salts.

Video | Locked | unThe Doctor

[borntolove]

Hallo, you're welcome to come on over on Christmas Day if you'd like.

Video | un: pinecone

[justoscar]

[This, frankly, took Oscar by surprise.]

I don't know much about the holidays from earth, but isn't this a time to be with family?

Thanks for asking, Doctor. I just don't know what's normal for all this. Is... is this okay?

Action; no reply; December 24th

[borntolove]

[Left outside the house is a dark blue basket. Inside is an associate of tea, chocolates, a box of lemon drops, a Toy Robot and a copy of Charles Dickens, Christmas Carol. A blue Tardis-shaped card attached to the basket says, 'Santa' in silver marker.]

25 December- delivery

[droptheious]

[On Christmas Day, Oscar will receive a wrapped box containing an intricate hanging lamp. With it is a note:]

Happy Christmas, Oscar. Back home we have these airships that can go just about anywhere, so long as you have enough fuel to keep the fire going, you can go as far away as you like. I thought you might appreciate at least the concept of freedom while I work on making something less metaphorical for you.

- Varian

Dec 25

[laminae]

[On the 25th Oscar will find a gift has been left outside his door! According to the tag it's from Fern, and inside the meticulously wrapped package is a set of hand-carved spoons: a bird, a horse and a flower.

Merry Christmas, Oscar!]

End of December video; unThe Doctor private

[borntolove]

[The Doctor beams wearing his new scarf.]

Thank you! Thank you so much!

[Then a pause]

Havef I ever told you - one of my faces use to wear a scarf?

Video -- cw: possible torture references

[justoscar]

[It was with hesitation that Oscar opened up the video feed, tired and worn with heavy circles under his eyes and fading bruises on his face. He didn't want to burst The Doctor's bright bubble, but he also knew that the man was likely both worried by his absence on Christmas and his following silence.

Each breath was like a knife. Breathing wasn't supposed to hurt...

But he tried to summon a smile regardless. It was good to see the man happy.]

Really?

[He asked in a voice that lacked his usual energy, but still was interested.]

I didn't know that. You just seemed like you're the type to get cold in the winter.

[Delivery]

[laminae]

[A few days before Valentine's Day Oscar will find a package at his door.

It's a box of chocolates! And it comes with a handwritten note:]

Hey,

I just learned about this rad human holiday where you give people stuff if they're important to you, so I hope you like chocolate!

And if this isn't how the holiday works, sorry. I'm trying my best here.

-Fern

text | un: pinecone

[justoscar]

[A reply comes later in the day, via the fluids. The last month or so had given Oscar a lot to think about and, while he didn't know much about Earth holidays, he foubd himself in increasingly shakey states regarding his feelings of being accepted as himself by the people around him.

Having a reminder... Was nice]

Hey.

I don't know anything about Earth holidays, but thanks. It really means a lot, knowing that you feel that way.

You're important to me, too.

We're all trying our best, don't worry about it.

Thank you.

-Oscar

2/23, not here

[clocktowers]

[ He's being soft again.

It's louder than usual, this time: at least on the scale of that late night in February. One thought leaks through in perfect clarity:

It's a date. ]

[justoscar]

[Despite the uncertainty he had in his own Self that clouded his mind since the Portals fell, Oscar found himself smiling. Despite everything... It seemed as if something good had happened after all.]

'A date? How many centuries has it been?'

[He asked along their shared headspace, the warmth of his amusement palpable with the words.]

2/26, not here.

[clocktowers]

[ For much of the night, Ozpin is having a genuinely lovely time. His happiness is a pleasant buzz in the back of Oscar's mind.

Then: oh. Things veer sharply uncomfortable. And they do not recover.

There is a long, distracting stretch of frustration, confusion, and impatience from Oz's end of the mental connection. It drags on for some time. As he shuts the door behind Ford at the end of the failed evening, clear thoughts bleed through:

Well. Not exactly what I'd hoped for. ]

Headspace chat incoming

[justoscar]

[Oscar had been on the verge of an exhausted sleep when the buzz shifted from the equivalent of crickets chirping to the droning of unhappy cicadas. A thought that wasn't his flitted through-- and like that understanding dawned on him.]

Bad night at the movies?

[He asked gently, in a tone that was perhaps wiser than he had any right to be.]

mid-late march, not here.

[clocktowers]

[ Since his escape from the Lab, Ozpin has kept the connection tight-closed. It is the stab for privacy he makes when he is up to something Oscar really shouldn't see, but there is never such fervent emotion behind that. There is never such desperation held barely at bay.

Ozpin is panicking, and trying to hide it. It does not last long— maybe an hour, maybe an evening— before it spikes suddenly to emotion so tight and agonized he cannot contain it, and his voice appears in Oscar's head.

He is watching the group chat. Emerald has delivered her news. There is no more hoping he'd imagined it, now, nor that the spectre of that young woman was an illusion. It was her, just as real and present as them.

Salem has come to Deerington. ]

Oscar. I... take it you've seen the news.

[justoscar]

[His hands were shaking while he stared at the chatter in the group chat, quietly having his own breakdown that he was doing his utmost to keep a lid on. Oscar knew he needed to be strong-- for everyone's sake, but hearing and feeling the desperation that Oz had so carefully kept tucked away made that resolve crumble.]

I have.

[He confirmed quietly, in that instant wanting nothing more than to curl himself up in a ball underneath his woolen blanket with only a flashlight and get lost in the pages of some trashy novel.]

There's no good answer for this, is there?

I just hope Ruby and Glitch are okay.

Right around March 31st [1/?]

[ghostharasser]

Hey man. My uncle just gave us the heads up on who's here from Remnant. Haven't heard from you so I wanted to make sure you were okay. text me back ASAP.

A day later

[ghostharasser]

Oscar? Getting kind of worried, dude. You can just send an emoji! lmk.

text: un: trienemybest - Start of April

[droptheious]

You've been weirdly quiet lately. I half expected to see you at the dance. You should be glad you didn't go, by the way, it turned out to be awful like literally every other party in this place ever.

You okay?

text | un: pinecone

[justoscar]

[Oscar was already well on the road to recovery by the time the text came to his device, but with the roads torn apart by the desert shift that had overtaken Deerington, they had yet to figure out the best means of safely transporting him back to his home with Ruby and Yang. He had been staying at Ozpin's mansion in the interim, and had watched the festivities from the window overlooking the school in between chatter from close friends who had descended upon the mansion the night before.

This was a message he had been dreading-- but the cool touch of the safety pin he had insisted Gerry leave dangling from his ear while their bathroom piercing job healed was a small reminder of reality.

Life was pain, but it didn't have to consume you.]

There's been problems lately that have hit a lot of people close to me. Remnant problems.

I didn't want to get you to get involved, because Glitch already is. I don't need you running off and getting yourself hurt because you want to help us.

[private; video untheDoctor] cw identity trauma

[borntolove]

I know what you and Korra told me. And I do appreciate that you and Korra support me... But -

[A deep inhale]

Another me showed up. And I do change my face but I don't want to change my face.

[Whine, whine, pout]

[justoscar]

[This was a surprise-- and Oscar was totally bowled over by the sheer Panic he heard in the Doctor's voice and read in his eyes.

He cast the Doctor an understanding look.]

Yeah, that's part of the Problem we have, isn't it?

I'm sorry you don't find a way to break the cycle you're in, at least this time around. But, at least the cycle continues and a part of the You that you are today lives on...

... Do you want me to come over for tea?

5/07, mind link.

[clocktowers]

[ He has had the Crown since October, and has not spoken a word of it to anyone.

He has not needed to. The note that accompanied the item was very clear: it will show him an outcome of his actions, and it will guide him down the best possible path. But there will be toll.

When he'd been young— very, very young— he learned the hard way what such a toll can look like. He still tells the story of the Indecisive King as a reminder to himself, and in the honor of the woman who'd saved him from his own mistake. That is not one he cares to repeat, and so when Deerington offers him a crown with uncannily familiar abilities, he locks it in the basement and then the burned-out tower. He leaves it alone.

But he begins spending more time in the tower, once she arrives. Once the mist rolls in and traps them all together. There is an unkindly pointed irony in it, Ozpin caged into the tower by her presence, while she roams his home unaware of how she's trapped him. If she comes back to herself, she may yet find it funny. She will certainly think it deserved.

Either way: when the eggs come, he holds them in his hands and looks up. The crown, gathering dust but still faintly glinting, looks back.

They need the information. What more can Deerington do to him? What wouldn't he deserve?

He takes the crown from its dusty resting place, and lowers it onto his brow. And he asks it his question.

And in the aftermath, his first thought is: Stanford will want to know.

It's only minutes later, when he is in the mist— alone, without his coat or glasses, feeling blinded and buried in damp heavy white— that he hears the slick sounds of something out here with him, and realizes the gravity of his mistake. The crown is not so heavy upon his head, really. It feels like having antlers again, as March had briefly granted him. The weight is almost a comfort. ]

Oscar.

[ There is something in his tone— a wariness, a weight. It is the sound of a man realizing that he has taken a wrong turn into the darkness, and that he may not be coming back out of it. ]

I have something to tell you about the choice before us.

5/07, mind link.

[justoscar]

[The weight of the choice before them weighed heavily on everyone, from the bright eyed Jaune Arc who had just recently arrived to the ever compassionate Ruby Rose. Oscar was no exception, and had taken to regarding the eggs that had been thrust into their care with the same uncertainty and wonder that he had regarded the skies around the family farm in Mistral with. Even with the mountains surrounding them, the sky seemed limitless.

Likewise, the eggs had unlimited potential.

But the ping via the mind link, laden with worry, broke his reverie.]

Ozpin.

What's going on?

backdated to 4/14, mind link.

[clocktowers]

[ In the aftermath, it takes a long time for his emotions to settle from a furious, anguished pitch, and then from the miserable ache of guilt and duty.

The pressure of a wall between them lessens, and Ozpin's presence is again clearly felt in the back of Oscar's mind. ]

I take it you heard that.

[ Not in words, perhaps. He made an effort to shut Oscar out. But he knows when the emotions are so visceral as to bleed through. ]

backdated to 4/14, mind link.

[justoscar]

It was Salem again, wasn't it?

[The question was quiet, yet firm. While he didn't agree with the strategy, he knew that they had no other choice. She was a force that was impossible to stop and equally impossible to negotiate with.

She had lost her humanity.]

Or James. Or the both of them.

Ozpin, what happened?

5/14

[ghostharasser]

[It's around noon, maybe, when Oscar gets this text. Simple, yet ominous.]

Oscar we need to talk. ASAP. Call me.

5/14

[justoscar]

[That was... A helluva message to receive late in the afternoon, when Oscar was literally counting the days until Oz's return with hopes that there were no screw ups this time around. Sodder had a strange sense of humor at times, and it didn't help when there were promises on the line.

He had asked Ozpin not to run-- and, although his heart beat faster at the urgency of the short sentence, Oscar chose not to run.

He called.]

Dipper?

[Oscar's voice wavered in his uncertainty.]

Dipper. What's going on? Do you need help?