deercountry | o4 . january catchall

[Willow has been worried for awhile now that Ozpin's been hiding something significant from them. She was not expecting that something was this. It all makes too much sense in retrospect with all his strange behaviour. That he's done his best to keep this from them all in spite of their clear concerns is alarming. That he's been feeding on other Sleepers is worse.

Her voice is quietly shocked when she speaks.]

You fed on Ford? Is he - I mean, he's not...

[In his right head, of course she is confident Ozpin would never intentionally harm Ford, in spite of whatever's happened between them. In his right head, she's confident he wouldn't hurt any of them.

But neither would Angel, and she can't help but think about what happened when he lost his soul. She's sure he absolutely would have fed on Buffy given half a chance, even as he deliberately went after the people close to her, and innocents as well.

Drinking blood, she's sure, is absolutely going to lead to serious corruption, if it hasn't already.]

Shit...

[The real reason he's been visiting Cellar Door at night is suddenly abundantly and horrifyingly clear. She glances around to make sure they're not about to be interrupted before continuing.]

Shit! It's not just Ford, is it? This is why you've been creeping around at night to go visit Night Walkers, isn't it?

[She narrows her eyes. He's really just trying to lie, huh.

There's a lot about this situation she doesn't understand but one thing she does know clearly and plainly is that by and large, you can trust a vampire as far as you can throw him, which in this situation might just be out of the house.

But she's learnt, since the last time she plundged a stake into a human heart and ruined her own life in the process.

She unsheathes her knife from her thigh, holds it steady in front of her, and turns a side glance toward Willow.]

I'll let you make the call, Red.

[ Faith draws her weapon, which helps the situation not at all. Ozpin looks well and truly offended, now. ]

Wh— Stanford is fine.

[ He is not going to escalate this situation by anticipating a blow. He puts both hands on his cane, instead, and frowns at the both of them. ]

And I am not visiting Night Walkers. I've simply been a bit restless at night. [ The correction comes before he can stop it: ] Or, hungry.

[ Hm. Well. ]

I do understand how this looks, Willow, and it's really not so bad as that.

[Willow steps back a little when Faith pulls the same knife she's seen a little too up close and personal for her liking, and her eyes go to Ozpin in concern. She still doesn't want to see him hurt. It takes her a moment to recollect and hesitantly put a hand on Faith's arm.]

No one's getting stabbed.

[Her attention turns back to Ozpin as she tries to process. He's lied to them all repeatedly - hid his condition, even knowing about the vampire situation in Sunnydale. It's abundantly clear he'd be lying to them right now if he could, and that isn't terribly reassuring.

Not only that, but he's been feeding off Sleepers - Ford, and who knows how many Night Walkers he's bitten. That certainly calls for looking into any recent deaths around Cellar Door. She'd like to trust him, but clearly that's currently an impossibility, and who knows what else he's hiding?

Not as bad as it looks, he says.

No, it might be worse. And it might get worse. Sure, he hasn't hurt anyone in the house yet, and she doesn't think he could hold back if Ford wasn't really fine, but that could change. If he's been staring at Ange, then he's tempted, and if he's tempted, there's a chance he could lose control. If he loses control, he could end up hurting one of them, and having to live with that for the rest of his life, which none of them want.

On the other hand, he has been there for her every single time she needed him; he's saved her life more than once, he gave her a place to stay when Maul tore down her home, and accepted her even after knowing what happened in Sunnydale. Ozpin has stood with her time and time again.

It's what makes the decision she knows she has to make nearly an impossible one, but it's just temporary, and it's better than any of the alternatives she can come up with.]

We need to figure this out, but with everything - the lies, the secrecy... Ozpin, I'm really sorry. I don't think it's a good idea for you to be here right now.

[Part of her wants to snap at Willow for apologizing, but she gets it. A bit. She's not sure how she'd react if it was Buffy, or Angel.

Definitely wouldn't stake 'em, that's for sure, even if she was supposed to. So she lowers the knife. She doesn't sheathe it, not yet. If he's going to lash out, this would be the part where he does it.

It doesn't seem like he's completely lacking a soul, though, so maybe it's closer to vampire movies where the vampires are all brooding and grim and needlessly dramatic. Like Angel.

A few comments spring to mind, ranging from smug to intimidating to sneering. But instead, she just nods in response to Willow's words. This isn't about her.]

I have not lied to you, Willow. I— [ But that is too close to patently untrue, and he chokes on it, has to fight his way through: ] I exaggerated my degree of control, yes. I've truly believed it to be a whim of the town. It will pass, as these things do, and I—

[ Have not hurt anyone, he means to say, but he remembers the look on Stanford's face and the taste of his throat and the scream of his Omen. So. Perhaps that would be too much an exaggeration, too. ]

Very well. [ He splays his hands, cane and all, in exasperated defeat. ] House arrest, then? Consider me confined to my room until we reach a more suitable agreement.

[If she could just confine him to his room until they can figure something else out it would make all of this so much easier. She does know of a spell to keep a vampire out of a place they've been invited to. Sadly, none to keep them in somewhere.

Stopping himself mid-sentence to rephrase, or simply leave the sentence hanging does absolutely not help his case about not lying. Exaggerating. Same thing. Or close enough.

Willow shakes her head and looks at him miserably.]

No, Ozpin. I know under normal circumstances, you wouldn't hurt any of us - ever, but these aren't normal circumstances. With everything that's been happening, I'm worried about your judgement.

[Faith crosses her arms and furrows her brow.]

You're trying to lie right now, man. This is already her giving you the benefit of the doubt. [Which Faith doesn't think has been earned, at least in the context of this confrontation. But if Willow trusts him, then she trusts him. It's her fault if she gets bitten.

Maybe.

What was it that Buffy said before she leaped into the abyss...?]

If there's a cure, [Which is ridiculous but she can play along.] you won't find it just by waiting it out and pretending it's all fine.

My judgment?

[ He looks at the both of them, in mounting incredulity. ]

Waiting it out has served us well enough in the past. Deerington has always been cyclical, and this cycle shall pass.

[ They aren't in Deerington, but he does not acknowledge this aloud. It's the same thing; since the Sleeper Farm, he knows it's all the same thing. ]

That aside, I will remind you whose house this is. Where exactly do you recommend I go?

You've been hiding things - again - like, big things. Drinking blood from Sleepers, giving some of the other people who live here some pretty significant stares to the point where they're noticing and bringing to everyone else's attention. Do you really not get why I'm worried?

[She sighs. She absolutely hates everything about this conversation. She might be convinced that it's entirely the right thing to do under the circumstances, but it still feels like a betrayal.]

This isn't Deerington. You've said that yourself. Yeah, some things here follow the same pattern, but this clearly isn't, and Faith's right - this isn't the kind of thing that you can kind of just wait and see if it gets worse or better. Vampirism getting worse is a whole world of bad, and if you're... tempted... even a little bit by any of the people living in this house? It's not safe for them, or you, for you to be here right now. At least until we figure this out.

[She has no suggestions for where he should go, really, just that he not be here.]

This whole thing's different from what we're used to. Normally we just dust 'em immediately. [There's a glint of something dangerous in her eye. The kind of thing that very much suggests that Ozpin is probably lucky this confrontation and reveal happened with Willow present, because Faith has no emotional connection to this guy, she just sees a monster trying to cover it's tracks. It takes one to know one.]

If you know who Buffy is, then you should know what a Slayer is. This could have gone a whole lot worse for you. [And it still might, if he gets worse.]

[ He does not deny any of it. Cannot deny any of it. This is still ridiculous.

The look he gives Faith is deeply affronted: he is too powerfully offended for fear. She does not know him; she does not belong in his mansion; Willow is taking this all much harder than he finds necessary. ]

I find all this concern for 'my safety' very interesting. [ It is perhaps unhelpful to sound openly bitter, but, well. ] Very well. I will step out for the remainder of the evening, until you can consider our next course of action. Perhaps we can resume this conversation once everyone has had a chance to think carefully.

[Willow's tone rises sharply at Faith's threat.]

Hey! No one's getting dusted!

[She takes a breath, even with the mess of everything, she's about as willing to put up with threats against Ozpin as she would be against any of her friends from home, and of course she's worried for him as well and the road he's on right now.

To Ozpin, she nods. She already has a plan. A little magic to keep him from sneaking back in, warn the others, then hit the Archives to find a solution. Maybe she'll even get lucky and find something helpful right away.]

I think that's a good idea. I don't want see you end up doing something you're going to regret later. You'll hear from me as soon as I have something useful, I promise.

[She shoots Willow a look halfway between confused and irritated. This entire situation goes against pretty much everything her Watcher taught her, and the very miniscule amount that Giles ever bothered to teach her too. But fine, she's new here, she can understand that.

She crosses her arms and shakes her head. She'll have words with Willow later. They can do their weird passive aggressive dance to their hearts content.]

[ The implication that his body would turn to dust, as though he's nothing more than a Grimm, does not help Ozpin's mood. These are the responses of frightened children, thinking they know best from what little they've learned. It will do no one any good to argue with them ad nauseam. He steps forward, telegraphing straight-spined indifference and not a speck of threat, to pass them for the door. ]

Yes, I would hate for anyone to do something they regret. [ He can be forgiven the tone, surely, under the circumstances. ] We'll discuss this later, Willow.

[ He pulls the front door open, and turns in the doorway, to fix Faith with an expression that does not even attempt to be a smile. ]

Welcome to Trench.

[ And he goes. ]

[Ozpin leaves and Willow stares after him silently for a few moments. She can't help but recall a conversation that happened what feels like an eternity ago about how keeping secrets can put them all in danger.

Even under the compulsion of honesty, he still tried to lie to them time and time again, even when the truth was obvious.

There isn't time to process, or even be upset about the weight of all the implications of the confrontation, and what's potentially to come. There's too much to be done, and if she can throw her focus into looking for a way to set things right again, then she can ignore certain painful truths. All she can do is try to hold onto the excuse that this is all the influence of the vampirism that's seized hold of him, and not simply Ozpin being Ozpin. That has to be it.

She does not want Faith to see her upset.

Willow takes a deep breath and tries to bring her focus to the task at hand. She grabs her Omni and taps out a quick message to Tara.

Are you home? Can you come downstairs please? Something bad happened.

She turns her attention back to Faith and lets out a sigh.]

It's not usually like this, I swear.

[Faith watches Ozpin leave with a tightness to her jaw.]

No vampires in Trench, huh. [She raises an eyebrow at Willow.] How long's he been like that, anyway?

[Which could refer to him being a vampire or him being smarmy and dismissive, both are equally problematic in her mind. Faith is still on edge, like she's still expecting more of them to burst out and drag her into the basement or something.

Which is stupid, considering she's the hunter, not the prey.]

Okay, okay, no vampires like at home in Trench. Or at least, I thought there wasn't.

[Willow sighs. Clearly, she's made a mistake in thinking that the absence of reports on the network of Sleepers needing to be staked, and reports of people being found completely drained of blood, with bite marks on their neck meant that there weren't any vampires here.]

He started acting a little weird about a month or so ago. It's been on my radar, but I wasn't expecting this.

You know, you did just kinda dump him onto the rest of Trench. Like, I get it, protect the pack and all, but it wasn't super responsible.

[If she'd encountered him out there, she probably would have gone straight for the kill, not knowing or caring if he had a soul. That's just the way it is. It's hardly like she's been pulling her punches when she kicks around the regular monsters here.]

Not saying it was the wrong choice, though. He's your friend and all. What do you need me to do?

['Something bad happened'. Much like in Sunnydale, that could be a very general statement where something bad always seemed to happen here. More and more, she's come to the conclusion that the Trench is really just Sunnydale sucked into the Hellmouth, but until she can manage to prove that, she's not going to raise the alarm.

That thought process isn't helped when Tara comes down the stairs and see a very familiar energy source. She'd never really seen Faith's face, so much as how her aura and energy read stuffed into Buffy's body. It's a bit of a shock, more so that she has to actually question whether this is who Faith really is or if she's just in another body again?

First assumption is this is the bad thing, right?

Tara tugged at her gloves, opening her palm and grabbing a dagger to spill her blood, ready to cast magic.]

Stand back, Will.

[Faith is right, of course. Willow just didn't consider it in the moment - she was more worried about their immediate circle, especially Ange and Shannon that Ozpin had been caught staring at.

She shouldn't have sent him out there alone.

No one else knows about Ozpin except for Faith, and she's fully expecting breaking the news is going to bring about a thousand questions, and right now, time feels like it's of the essence.]

Can you -

[She's interrupted by Tara's sudden appearance, and her second mistake hits her. She did actually warn Tara Faith was in Trench, even though she had every intention of it. So she quickly steps forward to interrupt and hold up her hands before Tara swipe the dagger across her palm.]

No, no, it's okay! Faith's not the problem. It's Ozpin. Tara, he's a vampire.

[Faith raises her hands in surrender with a grimace. That's Willow's girlfriend, who recognizes her, and is brandishing a knife at her to... cut her own hand?

Magic is fuckin' weird.]

Reformed. Or reforming, whichever.

[She shifts somewhat awkwardly.]

...Nice to finally meet you? Properly, I mean. [She'd offer her hand for a handshake but she's a little unsure how big of a grudge she's dealing with here.]

[Tara draws back, for a moment worried that Willow was about to touch her hand in an effort to stop her. There is a lot of sudden information hitting her all at once. Faith, Ozpin, vampire, etc. It feels like her mind just stalls somewhere between fight and...well, any activity.

She's kind of stuck on the whole "Faith isn't the threat." Being introduced to the subject of Faith, it was that she was a threat. The threat. Now she's here and Willow's just...spending time with her? Using her as backup? What exactly should she make of this?]

I- ['Reformed'.] How do you reform from stealing someone's body?

[Give her a second. She's still at the "angry, protective" stage.]

Oz is a vampire?

It's - it's kind of a long story. She just got here, and she says she's trying to do better - that she wants to help.

[Oh. Huh. That's not actually that long of a story. Willow glances back at Faith. They saw it in Ozpin too, it's near impossible to lie to Palebloods right now, thanks to the current effects of the moon.]

And I believe her.

[She looks back to Tara with a small, apologetic smile.]

I'll explain better later, I promise. But yeah - Oz is a vampire, that's why he's been acting so off lately.

[She's halfway toward bristling, and saying any number of defences. Angel's guilty of worse? Aren't you buddies with Spike now? How do you reform from anything?

And then Willow's saying that she believes her and Faith's... surprised. To say the least. It's a nice feeling, kinda, if a bit confusing.]

...Angel gave me a chance.

I can't take back what I've done, I can just do better in the future. I'm not asking for forgiveness from anyone. Least of all Buffy. But that's not what's important right now.

You've been living with a vampire, apparently, Willow just kicked him out.

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