o1 . text, un: beacon

[clocktowers]

Welcome, to all arrivals, new and old. My name is Ozpin.

It seems our arrival has fallen on October's doorstep. It was, to put it lightly, a dangerous month in Deerington. Even here in Trench, I would be unsurprised to find that we are entering a season of bloodshed and Beasts.

It would be wise to prepare. Even should that degree of danger fail to arrive, many of us have been newly burdened by powers we have not yet learned to control.

In the world of Remnant - I do not think it right to call it 'home,' in light of our situation - I served as headmaster of a combat academy. I guided young people in learning to harness their powers and hone their abilities, even in the most dire of circumstances.

If you are interested in such training, I am now accepting students for private instruction. It seems our currencies won't be of much use here, so allow me to propose an alternate price: stories. I have always been a scholar of folklore and fairy tales, and I would like to hear what your own worlds have to offer.

[ Ozpin hesitates a long, long beat. Then: ]

I shall even trade you one in return. My favorite, as of late, is about an old hermit and the visitors who changed his life. For those who have heard some of my more recent tales, you may be pleased to know that this one has a happy ending.

Comments

[clocktowers]

It is the story of a bitter old man unwilling to leave his front doorstep. By the efforts of four brave and enthusiastic young people, his heart was changed. He learned to appreciate the world around him.

I would be happy to tell the full tale over tea, some time. Or perhaps a game of Pai Sho.

[arclightning]

Sounds like he really lucked out in the young people department.

[ After all of Ozpin's tales, after everything Mako has managed to figure out about this man—and with so much uncertainty clouding the air like the mists back in May—Mako's actually... pretty happy to hear this. Ozpin sounds happy. Genuinely, actually happy, maybe a little relieved.

Maybe like this is the fresh start he needed. ]

Once you've settled in and Ruby's stopped setting your house on fire, I'll take you up on that. We have a lot to learn about this world if we're stuck here as permanently as it seems like we are.

I have a story for you. Someone I met on the beach. You'd probably like him. Or hate him, actually.

[clocktowers]

I suppose he did.

[ He chuckles at setting your house on fire, which is vastly more accurate than he'd prefer. ]

A story I would be glad to hear. I'm certainly curious about this polarizing stranger of yours.

[arclightning]

He's a lot like you, and he's kind of a legend back home. Cryptic and hard to understand, but really cares.

I never thought I would get to meet him. He's been dead for a while.

[clocktowers]

In this instance, I will take that as a compliment.

[ That's... interesting. Deerington had shown him the dead, but they'd had no true indication that this world would impose the same rules. ]

It seems our new home is as willing as Deerington to offer second chances, odd though they may be.

Did he live up to the legend?

[arclightning]

You know? He kind of did. I know there's this whole thing about never getting to meet your heroes, but it turns out he's exactly what he always said he was.

It's a compliment. Kind of.

Still don't know what to think about the new home thing. Aren't you waiting for the other shoe to drop?

[clocktowers]

[ It's a question Ozpin has always been personally invested in, to a degree no one else may truly understand. He has been the source of a dozen legends, or a hundred; he rarely lives up to any of them. He has often wondered whether it's possible.

It uncoils some tension from him, to hear the Yes. ]

I am.

But Deerington was a dream, and operated with all the unpredictable logic one might expect of a nightmare. It is refreshing to be somewhere more mundanely dangerous.