deercountry | Catch-all for July and August

[...This was new.

Given the circumstances, 'new' wasn't always the same as 'good.' The last thing he had recalled before this was being partnered with Paul by some whim of the Pthumerians. He knew Mariana was angry-- however, it had been well over a week since he had died at the hands of Chara during that bizarre battle at the beach, and he wanted nothing more than to just be home.

This? Wasn't home. He just didn't know what 'this' was.]

Woah! Hey. Hi.

[He hasn't experienced this sensation since getting stuck in Chicken's body back in the Spirit Realm. But here he is, the equivalent of backseat driving in another bird's body. All in all, though, Vyng's taking it remarkably well.]

Nice view. What're we going?

... he could hear the sea.

It felt like an eternity had passed, but somewhere in his core Oscar became aware of the clock ticking once more. He could hear the sea-- he could feel the sea-- he could--

In an instant the boy popped up into a sitting position, still dressed in the same clothes he had worn a month before and his hair, sticky with brine, loose around his neck. The sun was too bright for comfort. He felt chilled from his extended stay the endless depths of the sea. But--

He was here. He was himself.

Heart racing, Oscar Pine pressed a hand against his chest in a reflex, as if checking for signs of remaining injury. Nothing. From there he shook his arms-- still two-- and stretched his legs-- still one, the other shorted at the knee, the prosthesis decidedly uncomfortable... But that was expected.

He was himself.

Despite everything, he cried out in joy.

He was himself.

He could go home.

[It's been a bit since this particular display name on the network contacted Ruby-- and when she answers she'd find One (1) Oscar Pine holding the camera close and pushing his sticky bangs now in mismatched colors back from his face. He looked damp, dirty...

But uninjured.

And Alive. ]

Hey, Ruby? I need a pick up at the safehouse on the edge of Prufrock. I think. What's with the flooding in town right now?

Edited 2022-08-08 14:47 (UTC)

[Don't mind the Clockhouse Refugee in the kitchen at 3am with a bowl of chocolate batter in his arms.

Or-- do. Oscar Pine, stuck with a nocturnal sleep-wake cycle, was taking advantage of the relative quiet of the night to make a batch of brownies. Or, several batches. Promises of food had been a bargaining chip over the last month, and he didn't want anyone to accuse him of not keeping his promises.

Even if it meant he had to sneak around to try to avoid the crowds... which he knew probably wouldn't succeed.

If you're already awake and hear unusual sounds, feel free to investigate. If the smell of warming chocolate awakens you, also feel free to investigate.

Oscar was making extra, anyway. The people that lived in the fancy, sparkling house on the other side of town were extended family at this point, and Oscar wanted to thank them for helping his own found family during a crisis.]

Edited 2022-08-09 22:29 (UTC)

Um. Hello?

[There was no warning, no knock, nothing. Oscar Pine just let himself inside.

Having spent the better part of July in and out of Paul's head, he had learned a few things about the layout of the refitted warehouse he had tried to egg earlier in the season. That being-- he knew how to get in.

He decided to put this knowledge to good use.

Promises had been made over the course of July in order to buy some peace and quiet while he sorted through his own affairs and found his way back to his body (with a little help). After a few weeks of finding his feet once again, he was making good on that promise... and, with kind words and a hushed voice, he led the large, black stallion he had met during his first month in the Dream around the back and through a rear entry.

...Yes, there's a Horse in the Dojo. One with an imperious demeanor-- but also one that kept snuffling at Oscar's now mismatched fringe while the skinny teen started unpacking the bag he had tucked against the saddle. Chuckling at the horse, he pulled out a sugar cookie to distract his long time companion and set to work.

Tray after tray of brownies were pulled out and lined up on one of the tables in the corner, along with a massive jar of maraschino cherries that had a little note attached that read: For Sensei Johnny in large, neat letters.

Ignore the stray bits of glitter on the trays and the excess of sprinkles. He had help.

But, mostly...

He was glad to be just himself again.]

Edited 2022-08-09 22:20 (UTC)

For General Bone House Residents and Guests

...There is an owl circling around the building.

It is a small owl, barely the size of a grapefruit, and it's mottled brown and white plumage almost hid it amongst the trees in the orange glow of the sunset. The avian creature circled around once... twice... thrice more before vanishing amid the branches of a tree--

-- Where, a few moments later, a wiry teen dropped awkwardly to the ground. All awkward elbows and knees, and obviously favoring one leg while he moved, Oscar Pine righted himself in the yard of the very house he had avoided since the fallout of a certain party in the spring. The skeletal entities outside seemed to look at him, but no action was taken at that moment.

Oscar figured it would be safe as long as he didn't do anything foolish.

Hefting the bag that had dropped with him over a shoulder, Oscar knocked on the door. If anyone other than his confidant within those walls answered he'd ask: "Hi... can I see Pyrrha?"

To Pyrrha, he'd ask: "This is really dumb, but can you help me with something?"

He wouldn't elaborate on the matter-- but, those who had been observing him over the last season might have a few guesses. The bleached patch of white in his hair was new, and he wasn't all sunshine and smiles like he had been on previous trips.

For John

"Hi. Hello. Uh... Kia ora, right?"

He didn't want to do this.

He also didn't have a choice.

Oscar knew when he was beholden to the rules of someone else's game. Even if he didn't know the rules entirely, mimicry was usually a good, safe option. Although he was nervous enough that he was certain everyone in the vicinity could hear his heart pounding, Oscar dug into his bag regardless for the point of this visit.

Keeping his hands from trembling took an act of will-- but he offered out a neat little platter of brownies. They were plain, fudgey and moist. He didn't know what kinds of toppings the Necrolord Prime, the Kindly Prince, the Teacher would care for...

But, a pissed off John was the last thing he wanted to deal with. Especially now, when his home was a charred ruin and the whole of Trench was beset by flooding.

Taking a breath to still his mind, he carried on with his task.

"I'm sorry. I need you to help me fix something. Are brownies okay as payment?"

Edited 2022-08-10 02:24 (UTC)

Pyrrha smiled at Oscar, happy to see him whatever the professed stupidity might be. As a parent, it's always nice to be included from the onset, roughly. Even if it's just a heads up.

"Sure thing, kiddo," she agreed easily enough, a bit of a glint in her eye.

More seriously, because it was notable that he came over unannounced to the house she shared with John and Augustine, among others. Oscar didn't need to do that to meet face to face or to ask for help. "What's going on?"

"I'm gonna go see him."

He explained quickly, looking up at Pyrrha with the odd determination of someone that decided to follow through despite his own fears. It was a part of humanity's nature-- and he reminded himself over and over that it was his fear that kept him as himself.

Pursing his lips, he dug into his bag and pulled out a plate of brownies, iced and topped with colorful chocolate candies.

"I made a bunch of brownies over the last few days... For everyone who helped me last month. I've got some for you and the other guys here, too. And him."

He looked up, eyes wide as tea saucers.

"My people don't know I'm here, and they probably wouldn't let me if they did. If I don't talk to him now... I'm probably never gonna do it. I don't want to do this twice."

Edited 2022-08-10 02:58 (UTC)

This topic, with a different answer. Pyrrha knew John could help, knew that he could have helped at any point, and trusted Oscar's judgment that his friends—Paul, most particularly, at the time—wouldn't support this decision. Sometimes kids had to do things the hard way. They returned Oscar to his own body, a good step, but that clearly wasn't enough.

"Yes, I'll go with you," Pyrrha said, "for whatever support you want." That was implied, easily, as a request.

She accepted the cookies, rather aware of the giant eyes that watched her out of a young face, no matter the accent of color stripped hair. "As for the rest, if your friends realize you're here and they come to forcibly remove you, so long as you do not wish them to do so, I will not let them reach you," she said. Unspoken, the fact that as good as she was, there was the chance they would kill her among... other things. "He's home. You can talk to him now, and if you run away right now or mid-conversation and you want me to, I can bodily bring you back here to finish it."

Pyrrha motioned Oscar back first toward the kitchen, to put the brownies down. "Again, as you wish." As much as she thought it was the right decision, Pyrrha would only force him to do what he wanted and committed to in the end, no more no less.

There was only so much his people could do.

Between all of them, Willow and Vyng had been key players in his restoration. It was Ruby and Ange that had helped him when the floods washed him away from Ozpin, and Qrow and Break that had helped him feel like himself again. They were his family, and he trusted them with his everything.

However. He still wasn't certain about what the future held. He didn't want to be so far from his people again.

Following Pyrrha's suggestion, Oscar dropped a variety of decorated brownies off in the kitchen with a simple note that read thank you in large, neat letters. They were for anyone that wanted them.

"Thanks," he said to Pyrrha. "I don't think anyone will find out if I'm quick about it. And, I'm glad that you understand."

He smiled, a bittersweet expression that didn't entirely belong on his young face.

"We've had to make a lot of hard decisions together in the last couple of years. Sometimes I just don't want them to worry about me..."

Even though he knew they did. As the youngest in the house, worry was inevitable.

It would have been hypocritical for Pyrrha to say that Oscar should have been honest with his friends and done it anyway. She had secrets and had taken actions without consulting anyone plenty of times. Yes, sometimes professionally, as demanded by the job. Mostly, however, not.

"People can worry," she said, "we're people. It's an emotion. Pretending it didn't exist wouldn't help. But feelings and actions aren't the same thing. I disliked how long you were stuck in someone else's head. I worried, and I damn well wished you would simply get his help."

Pyrrha motioned around them. "I didn't use that worry to justify taking that decision away from you," she said. With a smile, she added, "Admittedly, I'm older than all your friends put together, I'd wager." They were still so young, making their own stupid decisions.

Quickly, she swept him up in a hug and ruffled his hair slightly. "All right, kid," Pyrrha's still pleased, "Ready?"

It was a surprise-- the hug.

Oscar froze for a second in uncertainty before his guard melted and he returned the gesture. This was a hug the was different from everyone else he knew, with arms and shoulders that carried far more strength in their tenderness.

"... Sorry,"

He commented after a moment, his voice soft.

"I didn't realize you were so worried. I kept going back and forth between the sea and Paul... But I couldn't just ask Paul to come after everything."

It would have thrown salt on too deep of a wound-- and ruined their trust.

"... We only just really met. I didn't know you cared so much."

Edited 2022-08-10 10:53 (UTC)

She extended the hug some, using that gesture as shield for her face. Oh she could have hidden it easily enough with nothing more than her will. Pyrrha appreciated a moment not to. Outside, beyond these walls, she's Duty far more than Pyrrha, even more reserved.

Oscar's explanation provided more information, something she didn't have the skills or knowledge to affect or help with. Still, drowning in someone's head and in the sea of death was familiar, remembered. "From what little I know, I get that," she said. Pyrrha hadn't forced that out of him before letting him and Paul be. What was the point? He only learned and grew making his own choices.

Pulling back, Pyrrha rested her hands on his shoulders, looking warmly at him and a little amused. "Guess you should know before you walk through those doors," she said, "As far as I'm concerned, and he knows, you're my kid."

She exhaled slowly and squeezed his shoulder. "No obligation on you. That's not how parenting works," Pyrrha smiled. "I get it if you just go 'what the fuck,' but you may as well have that card for this chat." Even if Oscar told her, nicely or not, she wasn't his family. He had his family, elsewhere. She would still look out for him.

That was a surprise-- and Oscar pulled back for a moment to regard her with new interest... As well we respect and concern.

"Why?"

He asked simply. There was no other thing he knew how to say in that moment, for he thought he had made it clear multiple times that he wasn't just some kid running around without supports there you help where he realized he needed it or not.

"I mean... Again, we only just met. But, it's not bad"

He pressed into that hug once more, tension loosing from his shoulders.

"We've gotta tell Ozpin, I think. It's...

"It's been a long time since I had a Mom."

The decision came out during that conversation with John, after Maul spent much of the day torturing him, but Pyrrha knew she'd decided earlier. Oscar was right; they'd only interacted a handful of times. Death made that more challenging. That distance, those limitations, were familiar to Pyrrha.

Oscar wanted to know why, and in her home, only a handful of steps from John, Pyrrha couldn't say everything, just as she hadn't been able to with John. Fitting, though, that both these conversations happened in the same kitchen.

"People come and go in what feels like the blink of an eye," Pyrrha said. "We've both already died in that time. That'd be that if it weren't for what passes as normal here. I can be the wariest untrusting sort when I need to be, but I don't hold everything and everyone at a distance."

That experience running an intelligence division meant she could get a decent read on people. They could change or surprise her, sure, but her instincts were good. "We connected from the moment we met and understood each other. I knew right away it'd be likely," Pyrrha shrugged slightly. She knew herself. She simply hadn't known whether she were going to stay, at that first meeting.

"You do what you believe in, no matter the cost," Pyrrha continued. "Your hand. Your life. God-yes, John, that's you," she laughed, "you shot him in the face. Like mother, like son." She hugged him tight.

"You're like me. You're what I love in a person, a kid. I'm so glad I get to be your mom." She meant it. "We can tell Ozpin once you're done here." She hadn't forgotten his concern he wouldn't do it, if he didn't talk with John then.

"... You acknowledge your fear, but you don't let it run how you make decisions."

He had learned the hard way how to hold onto hope. Even a tiny spark of it amid the darkness of despair could make the difference between death by Grimm attack or actually completing a task.

"People like us... We don't really get that option, do we?"

To give up and sit with fear. To stop trying, and let the fear win.

Death wasn't the worst... the end for them. No, it wasn't the end for anyone here in Trench, but Oscar had ended up in someone else's head, not simply washing up on the beach like Pyrrha and John had. After ten thousand years like it, Pyrrha was glad not to repeat the experience. Oscar went through it much shorter, but he was much younger and hadn't known how long it would last.

"If it weren't a choice, it wouldn't say anything about us that we don't," Pyrrha said. "Being paralyzed by fear, letting it run its course until its end comes from an external source, it's a shitty option, it's one that doesn't make sense to us, but it's still an option."

Pyrrha squeezed Oscar tight, then stepped back and tilted his head toward her. "Even if our actions don't affect the outcome, the choice to do what is right is still ours. We always choose. That's what makes it hard. That's why it matters."

He was sixteen— almost an adult, or even 'adult enough' by certain standards. Age and the well of experience that he hadn't lived had not prepared him for the volleying back and forth between Paul and Mariana's sea that he had endured for the last month. Time with Paul was a unique experience... But, the lost time he could do without.

He was just glad to be back.

"I know," he commented, recollecting the weeks Ozpin had spent buried away in their collective, depression and fear overriding his everything in a single moment where all of his multitude of layers were torn away.

"And we keep doing it, no matter how often we need to do it."

He sighed.

"It's just tiring, Pyrrha. And, I don't want to be away from home for so long again."

Much as Pyrrha appreciated having someone who understood her experiences to some extent, as much as it had led them to bond, Pyrrha wished Oscar didn't have to go through it. Wishes didn't control what happened. That left supporting him and being there for him. Besides Ozpin, she was perhaps the best person at understanding what that was like.

"I know," Pyrrha said softly. She understood more than it was safe to recognize aloud. An issue, she knew. It wouldn't last forever, and she hoped it came from her lips, not anyone else's. "He can help with that." He would.

One deep breath then another. They had a lot of catching up to do. Mostly, it could happen another time, in another location. "You should know," Pyrrha said, in that parental tone that something serious and possibly not entirely to a kid's liking was coming, "I've made a bond with John. It was the right call for us, for him and me."

Catch-all for July and August | Closed

For Paul + Bone House Refugees + Cobra Eagle Fang Kai

For Qrow, Ruby, and the Clock House Refugees + Pandora House

Three's Company (Featuring Vyng!)

no subject

Early August

For Ozpin | Washing Ashore

For Ruby (and Ange!) | Video (for now) | un: diggs

Late August

BROWNIES!!

Pandora House

Cobra Kai (Eagle Fang?) Dojo + Bone House Refugees + Friends

Bone House

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