o3 . december catchall

[clocktowers]

Who: clocktowers and CR.
What: A catch-all log.
When: December
Where: Trench

Content Warnings: Tagged in subject lines as needed.

Comments

[frogfear]

It's harder to track Ozpin through the crowds on the streets in Cellar Door. She's not sure what she's expecting - maybe he's going to visit one of the businesses here, maybe he's supposed to meet someone, but no. He just seems to be strolling along with the crowds. She feels a little more out of place here and a little more conspicuous, but she tries to keep far enough back that she thinks she's likely to be able to go unnoticed.

It comes as shock when she catches him staring at the Night Walkers.

Oh.

Oh no.

This is why he's been so reclusive? He's lonely?

It has to be some bizarre effect Trench, or the moon, or something is having on him. It certainly wouldn't be the first time any of them had experienced an unusual shift in mood, or behaviour. It hits suddenly that she's caught him staring at their housemates on occasion.

This was a mistake.

[clocktowers]

This, at least, is a safer context in which to prowl the streets and eye strangers with a touch too much intensity. He is too horribly restless to stay in, and perhaps too much a danger, at this rate.

He knows how to heal the limp. He could go to Lumenwood, yes; or he could satisfy the hunger. It is deeply inadvisable, easy as it would be, to call any young person into the quiet of his library. It is deeply inadvisable to call Qrow, who knows too well how to hunt monsters.

In weaker moments, he thinks Qrow would allow him. It's a betrayal he will not commit.

Someone spots him in his lingering, and sweeps forward to speak with him: a civilian of no noteworthy blood. The young man is advertising some musical event. Ozpin makes polite conversation, but his attention plainly isn't in it. Darkbloods are rare among Sleepers, and profoundly rare among Night Walkers, and now that he has caught a scent he is inclined to follow it.

At the first opportunity, he slips away again into the warm darkness of the pleasure district, and resumes his hunt.

[frogfear]

Willow observes him quietly. Part of her wants to turn around and leave, since she's already suspicious about what, exactly, Ozpin is up to, and it's way more than she ever wanted to know about him.

She just stands there in the middle of the sidewalk and stares as he tries to make enough conversation with the young man to try to escape without drawing too much attention to himself. It seems clear to her what's going on here, and where his interest is. She really doesn't need - or want to see anything more.

She turns to go and blunders straight into the legs of a man coming out of a building, and bowls him over. She takes a quick glance around as several other people move to help him up and dashes off.

[clocktowers]

He is not so deep into his curse that he pays no mind to his surroundings. There is a brief commotion from behind and off towards an alleyway, and Ozpin turns. He cannot catch the scent from here, not among so many people and so many shades of blood— but he thinks he catches a familiar flash of movement, a loping shift of movement that feels like something he knows.

Ozpin watches for a long moment after it. Long enough to lose the trail.

It's for the best.

Lingering here shall come to no good. Perhaps it would be better to spend his night pacing among the few shops still open in Willful Machine, wondering at the rumors of bottled Darkblood.

As the crowd calms and resumes its usual flow, Ozpin slips away.