bolstafir: (pic#14876412)
qrow branwen. ([personal profile] bolstafir) wrote in [community profile] deercountry2022-12-07 06:57 pm

[open] i may fall

Who: Qrow & various people
What: December catch-all
When: Throughout December
Where: Around town, in memories, Trench Silent Hill, etc

[ooc: starters in the comments! if you'd like something specific, pls hit me up on plurk or discord to plot!]
terriblepurpose: (020)

[personal profile] terriblepurpose 2022-12-16 05:27 am (UTC)(link)
"Yes. I'm Paul."

One hurdle out of the way, however many more left to clamber over. The sunshine does alleviate some of the worries that might otherwise cling to him - until he looks at the girls again, and recalls the many dangers that Oscar has told him haunt this world.

He's a Paleblood. He's more than capable of protecting these echoes of girls who are already grown by eliminating any danger at the source, and there is no danger, only its echo. His brow creases with worry anyway for a moment before he looks back up at Qrow.

"And you're Qrow. Usually Uncle Qrow, from the telling. I hope this isn't..." a hesitation, then couched words "...a bad time."
terriblepurpose: (035)

[personal profile] terriblepurpose 2022-12-16 07:49 am (UTC)(link)
Paul's shoulders unhitch at that, and the transition from poised readiness to calm stillness is a subtle but noticeable one. He looks younger and less sharp as he nods.

"Primarily," he admits, taking in their surroundings a second time with a less piercing eye, "Sometimes it's not so bad here. Or here. Remnant, yes?"

He knows the answer. Oscar has mentioned the lack of stellar travel in their world, so it isn't as though they could be anywhere else. Despite the ominous name, this patch of it is rather lovely. It reminds him of some of the southern islands on Caladan.

"How do you want to handle this?" He asks, pivoting back to Qrow. It's an unweighted question. This is Qrow's memory, and so it's his choice on how they proceed, or so Paul holds as a personal principle.
terriblepurpose: (004)

[personal profile] terriblepurpose 2022-12-21 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Paul doesn't laugh at Qrow's abbreviated curse. A smile does tug the corners of his mouth, and there's something a little too tempered to his breathing for a moment, but he doesn't laugh. He wouldn't know where to start explaining that, and it seems they have enough on their hands.

But at least Qrow is being practical about the thing. That's always easier to start with. That leaves their situation much more settled - nothing planning to kill them, a mutual understanding of the expectations of this often strange and invasive city.

"Shame about the picnic," he ventures, lightly, looking down at the two girls again, "Maybe we can do both. What do you say?"

He knows that for him, these glimpses at the past are more than ordeals. They're a path home, however temporary and flawed, and a reel of faces he might never see again in the Waking World. He wouldn't deny Qrow that, if he wants it, especially when it comes to this blonde girl like a loosely closed fist.
terriblepurpose: (080)

[personal profile] terriblepurpose 2022-12-28 04:42 am (UTC)(link)
The rapid flow of the memory is a curious experience. Paul's cognition slips into an automatic receptive blankness, imprinting the things that occur too fast for him to understand them in the moment on a register of information he will be able to return to later, but even then, things elude him in their rapidity.

He was mid-bending down to say hello back to Ruby and Yang when it happens. On the other side of it, he blinks at Qrow all of the once, finding himself sitting next to him without a clear sense of how he wound up there.

The sandwich is wordlessly accepted, but not yet eaten. Paul holds it in one hand and half-closes his eyes, flicking back through the images and sounds he caught on the way like pages of a book. He puts together an impression. He nods, eyes sliding back open, and refocuses on the ostensible now.

"Does it get better for them?" He asks, quietly, for the sake of the little girl sleeping on Qrow's lap.
terriblepurpose: (008)

[personal profile] terriblepurpose 2023-01-05 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
The practical details aren't unimportant. Paul knows that as well as he does know how it is, if the way his gaze drops softly on Ruby after Qrow's answer means anything. But the how and the what are sharp-edged knives to ask someone to drag over their tongue for a near-stranger, and Paul also knows that a family is so much more than anyone's blood.

His question wasn't much kinder, but it came from hope, and Paul can only want that to make a difference.

"It changes you." The wind blows a loose strand of Ruby's hair across her face, threatening to tickle her nose. Without pausing to think better of it, Paul leans over to lift it up with the utmost delicacy, tucking it back behind her ear without ever actually touching her skin. She's so small. He doesn't know if he's ever going to get over how small children are.

"People want to blame someone when they lose a person they care about. Especially young people," Paul says, apparently unaware of the irony of those weary words coming from his lips, "It's still difficult to listen to, sometimes. You want to...make them understand that you'd have changed things, if you could, but they don't want to listen. It's too much."
terriblepurpose: (035)

[personal profile] terriblepurpose 2023-01-10 03:57 am (UTC)(link)
So the shape of the family structure begins to emerge. It explains some things that weren't truly questions Paul had, shading in details that he had grasped as sketches instead of fully coloured in parts of the background.

The world of Remnant seems as shattered as their moon and disconnected as their stars, sometimes. Everyone builds their families out of the pieces they find at hand. It's a way of life Paul understands better now.

"If Yang is anything like her sister," Paul says, sitting back and looking up at the sky, "I don't know if trying to stop her would have made a difference. No offense to people from your world, but you tend to be...determined."

It's a diplomatic way of saying 'stubborn', and an even more diplomatic way of saying 'impulsive'. He's coming to understand that better too, though. Life can't be lived at arm's length. Sometimes you have to step onto the board yourself.

"And you lost them too." Paul lets his eyes half-lid. "It's easy to forget that when you're thinking about the things you should have done. You only can see it from the place you are not, not the one you were in then."