text | un: stanford

[cryptograms]

Stanley's gone back to the sea. I don't think he'll be returning any time soon.

The Murder Hut will be closed until further notice. If you pre-purchased tickets you can take a raincheck, but there's no refunds.

[ It's kind of a joke, see, because if Stan comes back and finds out his family gave money away he'll be so offended he'll probably walk right back into the ocean. ]

If you had any other unfinished business with him, let me know. I'll do what I can to settle it.

Comments

[bolstafir]

if there's a better way than just being around if they need you, i sure don't know it

[Qrow sure did notice how Ford deflected the conversation away from himself, though. It's his own standard move, so it's easy to catch when someone else is doing it. There's a moment where he debates with himself how he wants to go forward, though. It's not as though he and Ford have ever been close. Or like he could really understand, like he hasn't been estranged from his own twin sister for almost twenty years now; it's probably very different to have maintained that connection your whole life and be ripped from it suddenly now.

And yet...he thinks of Tai, shutting down and withdrawing after Summer died. Thinks of himself spiraling deeper into his drinking when they learned the truth of the war and the sacrifices made for it. Perhaps it is nothing but projection to assume that Ford would be similarly struggling in silence while his family was suffering, but Qrow can't help but want to nudge that open door just a little bit wider.]

ruby's mom was the only one of us who was good at that sort of thing, really
making sure people remembered to take care of themselves when things were bad
kinda left her dad and me high and dry when we lost her
heh, too bad she never left instructions like she would for the laundry or oven

[cryptograms]

[ Well, at least he and Qrow are on the same page. That's not actually reassuring, but there is something kind of comforting about it. At least he's not the only one that's lost, you know? ]

Those two were always better at that than Stanley or I ever were.

But just thinking, "At least they can look after themselves" doesn't feel like enough, either.

It feels like there should be more that I can do.

[ It all but literally gives him hives to write that out, but he forces himself to send the message before he can second guess himself. Qrow obviously understands at least a little bit of what Ford is trying to deal with right now. If a little bit of vulnerability will help him help Dipper and Mabel then he'll just have to put up with it. ]

[bolstafir]

[There's a lot of things he could say to that, really, because he does get it. Still measures his value in terms of usefulness to his loved ones, himself. But instead he thinks of Argus, and he thinks of the airship heist, and what Maria had said to him on the way to Atlas.]

you can't fix it for them

[He's long since forgotten how long he spent searching for Summer, back then, living in that denial. That if he could just find her, everything would go back to the way it was. In the decade and change since, he's spent enough nights drinking alone in front of an empty grave to realize what a fool he'd been.

And now that Ford's opened the door Qrow left ajar for him, validated his suspicion that maybe Ford's the type to retreat into his head when these things happen ... Qrow decides to just be direct about it.]

but you don't get to drown in it either
the kids will notice and it'll just make them more miserable about things
if you wanna be able to catch em when they fall, you gotta make sure the ground under your feet's solid first

[cryptograms]

I know that.

[ Of course he knows that. He can't just turtle up around the kids, but he can't let them see how badly this is effecting him, either. Even though he knows that they already know how poorly he's handling it. That's not really the issue though, and Ford probably couldn't pin down the issue if he was talking to anyone else but Qrow.

But, fortunately or not, Qrow is inextricably linked to Ozpin in Ford's thoughts, and thinking about Ozpin in conjunction with Stan's absence means he can clearly remember what he said last time. ]

But there has to be something I can do besides just watch and wait for the fall to come.

[bolstafir]

[Qrow's first thought is there isn't. And truthfully, he's not sure there is, but his second thought is that moment in Argus when he truly believed all hope was lost yet Ruby stood firm. How he'd finally managed to scrape himself off the pavement because the kids weren't ready to surrender to an apocalypse.

So there isn't an answer Qrow can give, not a specific one, because the actual advice he has is much simpler.]

you could ask them
they'll know what they need better than anyone else could hope to guess