[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.
[Oscar responds quickly, and honestly, the relief he feels is far stronger than he expected it would be. Waiting for him to reply was killing him, letting his thoughts spiral in what was already just absolutely paranoid and scared and mad. He needed to get his shit together or this conversation would go terribly.]
[Anxiety is still buzzing in his chest while he debates his words. He's silent on the other side for a moment.]
I'm at home.
[Let's get that out of the way first. After a moment, he tries again.]
Oscar I need you to tell me everything, and I mean everything. That secret you were keeping- the one you asked me to give you time for, especially. Your time's up, dude. I need you to be honest with me.
[It was like having a stack of heavy books slam down on him from above. Hazel eyes widened in surprise before looking off screen in apparen discomfort. Oscar knew he was going to have to tell one day-- but he needed time to think of the best way of explaining.]
... Maybe we should have this conversation in person, [He suggested quietly.]
I'm not comfortable putting it all on the Fluid. It's... a lot
[Dipper's expression, on the other hand, is piercing. He's watching every single twitch, every shift in his expression, his body language. Anything that might give him away. ]
I'd love to have this conversation in person, but there is literal murder mist outside. We're just going to have to risk it.
[Because regardless, Oscar will not be getting out of this talk, Dipper will see to it.]
[He'd risk the murder mist, if not for the fact that at the moment he was lacking in any defensive capability. Until Oz returned to Deerington (in his own body!) Oscar was cut off from their powers.
They were Ozpin's, after all. And Salem had spoken the truth:
Oscar wasn't Oz. Not yet.]
...Let me just say this first, Dipper. Whatever it looks like and sounds like, please understand that neither of us had a choice in this matter. The only one who had any real choices here was Salem.
She chose not to accept reality. She chose violence.
Oz was asked to stop her, and he had no idea that it would be impossible.
[Dipper would strongly suggest he reconsider going out into the murder mist, if he dared to voice such a thought. If Dipper isn't willing to risk it, then Oscar shouldn't either, magic be damned.]
I'll be the one to decide what it looks or sounds like, Oscar, but I need to know what it is before I can come to that conclusion.
[His voice softens a bit. He's mad but he doesn't want to be actively nasty at Oscar. He's just ...really shaken up. He wants Oscar to reassure him in the only way he knows he can be. With the Truth.]
[The truth was easy-- and yet, it was a barrier that had caused him much frustration, complications, and actual danger both within Deerington and back in Remnant. Oscar heaved a deep, steadying breath and regarded Dipper with a tired expression that did not belong on a kid that had just turned fifteen.]
I'm not sure if I told you the story about the immortal witch and the wizard that must reincarnate in a different body everytime he dies until she's stopped.
[Oscar began, lowering his gaze.]
I told that tale to so many people here already that it gets mixed up. But, I wasn't just speculating when I mentioned that the fairy tales in my world are closer to the truth than any history book.
They're real... and in my head. They're all told by the same person, and the different things he experienced in his many lifetimes-- as a warrior who ventured into the woods, as a king who had to make an impossible decision and drove himself mad over it.
It's all the same because that ancient wizard is made to jump between bodies instead of being given a new one every time he dies. The two souls become one before either realize it, and eventually their personalities merge until no one can tell the difference anymore.
...That wizard's last lifetime was the former headmaster of Beacon Academy, a prodigy named Ozpin. He died a few months before my last memories on Remnant, in a disaster that ruined the school. There was fire...
Then I woke up from a nightmare, went about my work in the fields... and found a voice talking to me in my head by the end of the day.
[Dipper is quiet almost entirely until Oscar gets to that last little part. The part that finally completed the puzzle that he had scattered around in his head over Ozpin and Oscar. It was one thing to be the host of some weird reincarnating wizard, but the implication- no.]
[No, Oscar was very blatant, there is not implication here. It's stated outright. Ozpin and Oscar are meant to merge together until their personalities are the same. Until they're one being. Does that mean Oscar is meant to just be absorbed into Ozpin? Or is it the other way around?]
[Oh, he hates this. Like, utterly and completely. Something awful is rising up in him, something angry and upset that he struggles to keep a lid on. Oscar was telling him with all this gentleness in his voice, that he was going to lose himself to that blinding green eldritch aura and that was that?]
No, this is nothing like Bill. Bill stole bodies, but he never touched the souls beyond shoving them out or making them ride shot gun. This is worse!
[Is Oscar just not seeing what the problem here is? Or has he just utterly resigned himself to this fate. He isn't sure what he hates more. The more Dipper talks the clearer it is though, that while he's mad sure, he's way more distressed, visibly upset.]
You not having a choice in this doesn't make this any better! You're telling me that you're okay with this?! What happens to you when this merge completes?
[Is Dipper going to have to watch someone else he cares about make the choice to sacrifice everything they are? For ...for what? To what end? Holy shit this sucks.]
[Truthfylly: no one but Oz knew, and Oz said that he still considered himself 'Ozpin.' He had no idea where the lines were drawn, but there was one variable that he could not deny:
His family would not recognize him anymore.]
That's why I'm breaking my egg, Dipper. I want to stay away from Remnant. As long as Oz and I are both here, we don't need to play the God of Light's game.
It's not like that task has any chance of succeeding.
[I don't know. What and awful answer to that question, and it makes his chest hurt with a sort of dread and anxiety he only really gets when something terrible is so wildly out of his control.]
[Helplessness. That's the feeling, and arguably, its the worst feeling in the whole fucking multiverse.]
[He was far from helpless so long as he could decide his own actions and remain himself. It was his promise to the others back in Argus-- that he would help for as long as he could. But, with this world falling apart and his own theory that a version of Remnant would carry on regardless of their decisions...]
I believe so.
As long as we don't have to go back to Remnant, we will have a chance to just be ourselves.
[The last thing he wanted or needed was pity. He wanted support.
He wanted someone to be at his side as long as he was himself.]
[No. It isn't pity that Dipper is feeling. He's upset on his behalf, but he's upset, too, that all this is happening to someone he cares deeply about. And what can he do? Is there anything he can do? God, what can he do?.]
[Support him. Maybe that was always the answer. It doesn't feel like enough, like a lot of things lately, Dipper has felt like he's come up short.]
[He's quiet for a very long moment while he thinks it over. He doesn't bother to try and compose himself, he's not going to make himself look like he's not as affected as he is.]
Okay.
[he takes a deep breath, gets his voice back under control.]
Thank you. For ...telling me the truth. It's a shame Ozpin couldn't do the same.
[The grim, defeated look on Dipper's face was the last thing he wanted to see- but Oscar knew it was the price that came with the truth. He had offered warning that it wasn't kind, that it would be upsetting.
Seeing others react the way he did at the beginning hurt.
Suddenly, he had a greater understanding of Oz's lies.]
[The truth hurt, but that didn't mean Dipper would shy away from it. He got what he asked for. It's fine, maybe he could figure out some way to help them later, after the reach the other side of Deerington, whatever that might be.]
[No, Dipper hated being helpless, and he hated yielding to a problem he couldn't solve, so. For now, he would put a pin in it, but like hell was he going to give up that easily. He would find a way to help the person he had feelings for, one way or another.]
[Ah, but, now it's Dipper's turn to explain. That grim determination of his turns into something much more unpleasant.]
Ozpin respawned in my uncles body and he did probably the worst thing he could have done while being in there.
[The flatness of his tone suggested that Oscar was not surprised. This had, after all, happened before within Deerington.]
I'm going to take a couple of guesses, so tell me if I'm wrong. Last time he returned in the head of someone he cared about-- in that case, Ruby. I'm also going to bet that he didn't disclose everything that he can do while riding shot gun. So, he probably ended up in Mr. Ford and either got too deep in his memories or felt he had to take the steering wheel for whatever reason.
I told you. It's not Bill, but it probably looks like it is.
[Great, so Oscar knows exactly what happened here. At leasyt Oscar isn't trying to apologize for him or justify it. That would have made Dipper really fly off the handle.]
[The salt flows freely now, because Dipper never made it a secret he did not like or trust Oz. It's only particularly frustrating for Dipper, because for a moment, he was starting to come around, he was giving him a chance. Ozpin apparently chose doused it in gasoline and light it on fire, instead. Fucking wizards.]
Yeah, it's worse than Bill! Bill had rules he had to follow! He couldn't just run off with a body unless the person in question gave permission, manipulated or not!
Ozpin went against my Uncles wishes and seized control of his body, knowing that he had a history of being manipulated by something like Bill. So, yeah, we're all pretty mad at him right now!
[Oscar listened patiently, knowing that this was the exact reason why he had held of on speaking his truth for so long. He had wanted a chance to strategize with Ozpin about matters, but apparently life had it's own plans.]
I'm not saying this to defend him, [Oscar started quietly,] but he didn't choose to be in there. Last time this happened, he had delayed and taken a longer stay in Death before deciding whether or not he wanted to return.
He did, eventually.
It's not an excuse.
[He sighed.]
I know exactly what you're talking about, because he did it to me. I'd allow him sometimes to explain things to Ruby and the others, but he would leave me in weird positions-- like with my hand on someone's shoulder, or about to fall off a chair..
There were times he took over without my permission, too. When there was something dangerous, usually. I wasn't good in a fight at all at that point, so I'd probably be dead if he hadn't taken over.
...It's still frustrating. I passed out after the first few fights, too.
Maybe he didn't choose to be in there, but he did choose to rip away my uncle's agency, and hurt him in a very deep, personal way, Oscar.
[Dipper shakes his head.]
That's such crap, why does he think he can just puppet people around like they're toys. Does he have any concept at all of agency? Or boundaries, or free will? Or does he think he's above it all and can do what he likes?
[Dipper finally bites it down, letting that anger flood out of him. He's furious at Ozpin, and he's upset for his uncle's sake, but at the end he feels betrayed, because he wanted to believe in Ozpin, and he was let down. When he speaks again he sounds ...tired and miserable.]
Great Uncle Ford says ...that we shouldn't trust him or you anymore. Not Qrow or Gerry, either.
[Oscar said nothing when faced with the outburst. There was nothing he could say that would make any of this better, that would ease the pain and frustration or repair the broken trust.
He didn't know that circumstances-- but he did know that Oz knew better than to lie to people he wanted to trust him. ]
... Maybe he's right, [Oscar said quietly.]
Qrow can only turn into a bird because Oz gave him the power to do so. He and I have both been working on helping Oz with these problems for months. Gerry, though...
I don't know his story. He's not from Remnant. He does have some kind of arrangement with... An entity, I guess. I don't know the details, though.
[No, it really is just best to let Dipper get the hurt out, lest he bottle it up or something. Nothing was going to make it so he wasn't mad at Ozpin, not when what he did was so personal.]
[Oscar's reply gives him pause, though, and for a moment he isn't sure what to say. He didn't expect him to agree, and suddenly the anger quells to make way for something else. Dread? Worry? Something like fear grips him suddenly.]
Do you really think I shouldn't trust you anymore?
Oscar knew this fact intimately. 'Like-minded Souls' meant more than having similar values and beliefs, he had learned. It suggested a greater similarity in beliefs and patterns-- both in their morals and behaviors. ]
I want to trust you, Dipper.
[He stated objectively, drawing from the well of still waters he knew existed deep in his soul. Sometimes, the easiest methods were the simplest, the softest... ]
And I want to see Gravity Falls. But, I can't make you trust me if you don't, and I won't ask you to either.
... He did the same thing to us, you know.
[Oscar added-- sounding tired and small.]
We had to force the truth out of him. I wrestled with him for my body, and found the keyword for the Lamp. We asked Jinn for the truth he was hiding... And, when confronted with the reality that his secret was out, he buried himself away.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
5/14
Oscar we need to talk. ASAP. Call me.
5/14
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?
no subject
[Anxiety is still buzzing in his chest while he debates his words. He's silent on the other side for a moment.]
I'm at home.
[Let's get that out of the way first. After a moment, he tries again.]
Oscar I need you to tell me everything, and I mean everything. That secret you were keeping- the one you asked me to give you time for, especially. Your time's up, dude. I need you to be honest with me.
no subject
... Maybe we should have this conversation in person, [He suggested quietly.]
I'm not comfortable putting it all on the Fluid. It's... a lot
no subject
I'd love to have this conversation in person, but there is literal murder mist outside. We're just going to have to risk it.
[Because regardless, Oscar will not be getting out of this talk, Dipper will see to it.]
no subject
[He'd risk the murder mist, if not for the fact that at the moment he was lacking in any defensive capability. Until Oz returned to Deerington (in his own body!) Oscar was cut off from their powers.
They were Ozpin's, after all. And Salem had spoken the truth:
Oscar wasn't Oz. Not yet.]
...Let me just say this first, Dipper. Whatever it looks like and sounds like, please understand that neither of us had a choice in this matter. The only one who had any real choices here was Salem.
She chose not to accept reality. She chose violence.
Oz was asked to stop her, and he had no idea that it would be impossible.
no subject
I'll be the one to decide what it looks or sounds like, Oscar, but I need to know what it is before I can come to that conclusion.
[His voice softens a bit. He's mad but he doesn't want to be actively nasty at Oscar. He's just ...really shaken up. He wants Oscar to reassure him in the only way he knows he can be. With the Truth.]
Just ...start from the beginning.
no subject
Okay.
[The truth was easy-- and yet, it was a barrier that had caused him much frustration, complications, and actual danger both within Deerington and back in Remnant. Oscar heaved a deep, steadying breath and regarded Dipper with a tired expression that did not belong on a kid that had just turned fifteen.]
I'm not sure if I told you the story about the immortal witch and the wizard that must reincarnate in a different body everytime he dies until she's stopped.
[Oscar began, lowering his gaze.]
I told that tale to so many people here already that it gets mixed up. But, I wasn't just speculating when I mentioned that the fairy tales in my world are closer to the truth than any history book.
They're real... and in my head. They're all told by the same person, and the different things he experienced in his many lifetimes-- as a warrior who ventured into the woods, as a king who had to make an impossible decision and drove himself mad over it.
It's all the same because that ancient wizard is made to jump between bodies instead of being given a new one every time he dies. The two souls become one before either realize it, and eventually their personalities merge until no one can tell the difference anymore.
...That wizard's last lifetime was the former headmaster of Beacon Academy, a prodigy named Ozpin. He died a few months before my last memories on Remnant, in a disaster that ruined the school. There was fire...
Then I woke up from a nightmare, went about my work in the fields... and found a voice talking to me in my head by the end of the day.
no subject
[No, Oscar was very blatant, there is not implication here. It's stated outright. Ozpin and Oscar are meant to merge together until their personalities are the same. Until they're one being. Does that mean Oscar is meant to just be absorbed into Ozpin? Or is it the other way around?]
[Oh, he hates this. Like, utterly and completely. Something awful is rising up in him, something angry and upset that he struggles to keep a lid on. Oscar was telling him with all this gentleness in his voice, that he was going to lose himself to that blinding green eldritch aura and that was that?]
Oscar, what the fuck.
no subject
[Oscar cut in quickly, already seeing the wheels turning in the shifts in Dipper's manner and demeanor. He had witnessed such before, with Varian.
It had ruined the possibility of Varian having a reasonable relationship with Ozpin.]
I told you. Neither of us had a choice. The only choices we got were in how we decided to act, and the person we chose to become in our fear.
no subject
[Is Oscar just not seeing what the problem here is? Or has he just utterly resigned himself to this fate. He isn't sure what he hates more. The more Dipper talks the clearer it is though, that while he's mad sure, he's way more distressed, visibly upset.]
You not having a choice in this doesn't make this any better! You're telling me that you're okay with this?! What happens to you when this merge completes?
[Is Dipper going to have to watch someone else he cares about make the choice to sacrifice everything they are? For ...for what? To what end? Holy shit this sucks.]
no subject
[Truthfylly: no one but Oz knew, and Oz said that he still considered himself 'Ozpin.' He had no idea where the lines were drawn, but there was one variable that he could not deny:
His family would not recognize him anymore.]
That's why I'm breaking my egg, Dipper. I want to stay away from Remnant. As long as Oz and I are both here, we don't need to play the God of Light's game.
It's not like that task has any chance of succeeding.
no subject
[Helplessness. That's the feeling, and arguably, its the worst feeling in the whole fucking multiverse.]
As long as you're here, the two of you won't...?
[Just so he's clear.]
no subject
I believe so.
As long as we don't have to go back to Remnant, we will have a chance to just be ourselves.
[The last thing he wanted or needed was pity. He wanted support.
He wanted someone to be at his side as long as he was himself.]
no subject
[Support him. Maybe that was always the answer. It doesn't feel like enough, like a lot of things lately, Dipper has felt like he's come up short.]
[He's quiet for a very long moment while he thinks it over. He doesn't bother to try and compose himself, he's not going to make himself look like he's not as affected as he is.]
Okay.
[he takes a deep breath, gets his voice back under control.]
Thank you. For ...telling me the truth. It's a shame Ozpin couldn't do the same.
no subject
Seeing others react the way he did at the beginning hurt.
Suddenly, he had a greater understanding of Oz's lies.]
Believe me when I say he's actually doing better.
[He sighed-- then.]
Wait. What does that have to do with anything?
no subject
[No, Dipper hated being helpless, and he hated yielding to a problem he couldn't solve, so. For now, he would put a pin in it, but like hell was he going to give up that easily. He would find a way to help the person he had feelings for, one way or another.]
[Ah, but, now it's Dipper's turn to explain. That grim determination of his turns into something much more unpleasant.]
Ozpin respawned in my uncles body and he did probably the worst thing he could have done while being in there.
no subject
[The flatness of his tone suggested that Oscar was not surprised. This had, after all, happened before within Deerington.]
I'm going to take a couple of guesses, so tell me if I'm wrong. Last time he returned in the head of someone he cared about-- in that case, Ruby. I'm also going to bet that he didn't disclose everything that he can do while riding shot gun. So, he probably ended up in Mr. Ford and either got too deep in his memories or felt he had to take the steering wheel for whatever reason.
I told you. It's not Bill, but it probably looks like it is.
no subject
[Great, so Oscar knows exactly what happened here. At leasyt Oscar isn't trying to apologize for him or justify it. That would have made Dipper really fly off the handle.]
[The salt flows freely now, because Dipper never made it a secret he did not like or trust Oz. It's only particularly frustrating for Dipper, because for a moment, he was starting to come around, he was giving him a chance. Ozpin apparently chose doused it in gasoline and light it on fire, instead. Fucking wizards.]
Yeah, it's worse than Bill! Bill had rules he had to follow! He couldn't just run off with a body unless the person in question gave permission, manipulated or not!
Ozpin went against my Uncles wishes and seized control of his body, knowing that he had a history of being manipulated by something like Bill. So, yeah, we're all pretty mad at him right now!
no subject
I'm not saying this to defend him, [Oscar started quietly,] but he didn't choose to be in there. Last time this happened, he had delayed and taken a longer stay in Death before deciding whether or not he wanted to return.
He did, eventually.
It's not an excuse.
[He sighed.]
I know exactly what you're talking about, because he did it to me. I'd allow him sometimes to explain things to Ruby and the others, but he would leave me in weird positions-- like with my hand on someone's shoulder, or about to fall off a chair..
There were times he took over without my permission, too. When there was something dangerous, usually. I wasn't good in a fight at all at that point, so I'd probably be dead if he hadn't taken over.
...It's still frustrating. I passed out after the first few fights, too.
1/2
[Dipper shakes his head.]
That's such crap, why does he think he can just puppet people around like they're toys. Does he have any concept at all of agency? Or boundaries, or free will? Or does he think he's above it all and can do what he likes?
no subject
Great Uncle Ford says ...that we shouldn't trust him or you anymore. Not Qrow or Gerry, either.
no subject
He didn't know that circumstances-- but he did know that Oz knew better than to lie to people he wanted to trust him. ]
... Maybe he's right, [Oscar said quietly.]
Qrow can only turn into a bird because Oz gave him the power to do so. He and I have both been working on helping Oz with these problems for months. Gerry, though...
I don't know his story. He's not from Remnant. He does have some kind of arrangement with... An entity, I guess. I don't know the details, though.
no subject
[Oscar's reply gives him pause, though, and for a moment he isn't sure what to say. He didn't expect him to agree, and suddenly the anger quells to make way for something else. Dread? Worry? Something like fear grips him suddenly.]
Do you really think I shouldn't trust you anymore?
no subject
Oscar knew this fact intimately. 'Like-minded Souls' meant more than having similar values and beliefs, he had learned. It suggested a greater similarity in beliefs and patterns-- both in their morals and behaviors. ]
I want to trust you, Dipper.
[He stated objectively, drawing from the well of still waters he knew existed deep in his soul. Sometimes, the easiest methods were the simplest, the softest... ]
And I want to see Gravity Falls. But, I can't make you trust me if you don't, and I won't ask you to either.
... He did the same thing to us, you know.
[Oscar added-- sounding tired and small.]
We had to force the truth out of him. I wrestled with him for my body, and found the keyword for the Lamp. We asked Jinn for the truth he was hiding... And, when confronted with the reality that his secret was out, he buried himself away.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
1/3
2/3
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)