[Oscar watched-- and his eyes went wide with the explosion of stars that came with the video. It was unlike anything Oscar had seen in Trench. And, quickly:]
[The word would be laced with triumph if he spoke it aloud, but the brevity of revelation will have to suffice in this format.]
I discovered a book in the labyrinth that describes the summoning of flame, among other things. It's taken some deciphering, and interpolating of absent references, but I'm making progress, as you can see.
[He did see. But, the mention of it being related to a book put a few pieces into place in his memory...]
That's so cool! But be careful, okay? It might not be the same thing, but there were weird things happening with books in the Dream. I was too busy with my own problems to look into them too much, but they kept popping up and people kept getting in trouble.
...I know I'm telling you to be careful, but I AM interested. It would be nice to be useful like that.
[Especially since the full magic from Remnant was a mere fraction of what it was since they all woke up in Trench. All Oscar could access was his bird transformation-- and only because he had made that his own before the dream finally collapsed.]
I'm being careful. I know that's what someone who wasn't would say, but I am. I'm reading one page at a time and observing any effects it might be having on me with an external record.
If it doesn't have a negative impact on me, I'd be willing to lend it to you. The subject matter isn't always pleasant, I'll warn you, but it seems largely symbolic.
[It's not that Paul is easily prey to flattery; it's that he doesn't think Oscar would say anything like that unless he truly meant it, and that kindles a warm glow of hard won pride in him.]
[It had been a while since he had thought of cursed books, but the reference to them had him recalling a young art teacher with hair that had obviously been dyed too deep of a black to match his pallid complexion. The eye tattoos the man bore on every joint was impossible to forget-- and, even though he has refrained from joining them in Trench, Oscar still wanted to respect the man.
He frowned, fiddling with the safety pin he still wore in his ear.]
Everyone assumes Ozpin is my teacher... But he's not, someone else is.
He didn't come to Trench for his own reasons, but he taught me a lot more than the basics of art. He was magic in his own right, and could know basically anything if he wanted to.
... There was only one thing he was particularly firm about, so I've gotta ask even though he's not here:
The book doesn't say anything about belonging to a Jurgen Leitner, does it?
[Adages about playing with fire abound across all of history. Paul tenses at Oscar's mention of one point he is firm on, apprehension skittering under his nerves like stray sparks - only to be extinguished with a sigh.]
Nothing like that. It's from the Archives here in Trench, according to the label inside the cover. No author attributed.
I didn't assume Ozpin was your teacher at first, you know. I thought he was your father.
[Not Gerard Keay. Not Mr. Keay. Gerry. Oscar smiled nostalgically, missing his absent friend. If there was anyone who understood the importance of having a personal signature as well as anyone from Remnant, it was him.]
He told me to burn the books that belonged to Leitner, Paul. He wasn't vague about it, either. Honestly, I never looked for them. They gave plenty of people I knew enough to be worried about on their own.
[The thoughts about Gerry called other things to mind-- the lessons he had learned in art class, but also the lessons he had learned in the ensuite off of Ozpin's bedroom...]
He helped me pierce my ear. I miss him a lot, but you can't keep everything forever.
Be careful with the book. If you think anything's getting weird, we should probably burn it anyway. But, that might not be smart if it makes fire.
Maybe I can ask Penny to freeze it?
[Things to discuss with the Winter Maiden at a different time.]
Ozpin and I are... kinda like that. You're close, he's become like a father to me. After everything we've been through together... that's important.
If I come across any, I'll let you know, then. I wouldn't want to disappoint Gerry Keay.
[Paul touches his own ear, brushing across the body-warmed studs of bone in it. He knows about markers.]
Penny is part of your household, isn't she? I'd trust her with containment, in that case. Freezing is likely a better solution than fire, if it comes to that.
It is important. For all the animosity between Cobra Kai and your House, I am glad you have that.
Thank you for keeping my best interests in mind. I mean that.
Of course I'm thinking about your best interests. We're friends, right?
Just because Johnny started the war doesn't mean there's any actual bad blood. Your teacher has been a nuisance-- not an actual danger. We know the difference, even if he doesn't.
I'll bring the book thing up with Penny. She's from Remnant like I am, and she's been great to have around even if her boss had us framed.
She and Ruby have history. That's all that matters to me.
[All this talk of households made little sense to Oscar. On a fundamental level he understood, but his farmlad practicality thought it was dumb. Instead of saying all this, he added: ]
Ruby would go out of her way to help strangers. Gerry has, too-- and he's not a hero or a huntsman or anything.
They're just good people, Paul. I do my best to be like them-- and I already told you that I'd do my best to help you and yours.
Everyone needs a different perspective sometimes. Including you and your boyfriend's.
[It's a title Paul is still getting used to offering up as freely as other people do, but the facts are what they are: he trusted Oscar enough to grant the title of ally, enough to share his developing secret, enough to take his words to heart. What else does he call all of that?]
Sensei Lawrence isn't trying to be a danger. He's looking for respect. I admit he doesn't always go about it delicately, but he means you no real harm.
I'm going to have to ask you to draw a map for me one of these days on how you're all connected.
And believe me, they provide a difference of perspective. It's one of the things I value about them. As I do about you, although not the same way, of course.
[That was the very same way he regarded both Ruby and Dipper, after all. They both helped him gain insight into perspectives that weren't his own, and ground him when he had no idea what to do. Their presence reminded him to be.... himself.
In a different way, Paul was doing the same as well.]
Guess we've both got stories to swap. I can tell you about my teammates on Remnant, and you can tell me more about your spice and your worms. Maybe one day, we'll be able to just relax and enjoy everyone's company, too. There won't be any karate wars, no evil wizards playing weird games...
[Oscar is entitled to get his thoughts about evil wizards and their weird games in. Paul may be devoted, but this is just between them, and there's no one he needs to think about proving his loyalty to.
And Teacher accepts it, and that's the kind of magnanimity Paul should emulate as his disciple. (It might also make him smile, if Paul tells him about it later, and if both motives lead to the same place, does it matter which is the stronger?)]
As long as we only involve Ruby Rose in the eating, and not the baking. Although it can be fun to try to identify poison by effect.
I'll see about finding some uncursed supplies for it. Maybe we can make something from your garden to go with it. I'd like that.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
What was that? How did you do it???
no subject
[The word would be laced with triumph if he spoke it aloud, but the brevity of revelation will have to suffice in this format.]
I discovered a book in the labyrinth that describes the summoning of flame, among other things. It's taken some deciphering, and interpolating of absent references, but I'm making progress, as you can see.
no subject
That's so cool! But be careful, okay? It might not be the same thing, but there were weird things happening with books in the Dream. I was too busy with my own problems to look into them too much, but they kept popping up and people kept getting in trouble.
...I know I'm telling you to be careful, but I AM interested. It would be nice to be useful like that.
[Especially since the full magic from Remnant was a mere fraction of what it was since they all woke up in Trench. All Oscar could access was his bird transformation-- and only because he had made that his own before the dream finally collapsed.]
no subject
If it doesn't have a negative impact on me, I'd be willing to lend it to you. The subject matter isn't always pleasant, I'll warn you, but it seems largely symbolic.
[It's not that Paul is easily prey to flattery; it's that he doesn't think Oscar would say anything like that unless he truly meant it, and that kindles a warm glow of hard won pride in him.]
no subject
He frowned, fiddling with the safety pin he still wore in his ear.]
Everyone assumes Ozpin is my teacher... But he's not, someone else is.
He didn't come to Trench for his own reasons, but he taught me a lot more than the basics of art. He was magic in his own right, and could know basically anything if he wanted to.
... There was only one thing he was particularly firm about, so I've gotta ask even though he's not here:
The book doesn't say anything about belonging to a Jurgen Leitner, does it?
no subject
Nothing like that. It's from the Archives here in Trench, according to the label inside the cover. No author attributed.
I didn't assume Ozpin was your teacher at first, you know. I thought he was your father.
What was your teacher's name?
no subject
[Not Gerard Keay. Not Mr. Keay. Gerry. Oscar smiled nostalgically, missing his absent friend. If there was anyone who understood the importance of having a personal signature as well as anyone from Remnant, it was him.]
He told me to burn the books that belonged to Leitner, Paul. He wasn't vague about it, either. Honestly, I never looked for them. They gave plenty of people I knew enough to be worried about on their own.
[The thoughts about Gerry called other things to mind-- the lessons he had learned in art class, but also the lessons he had learned in the ensuite off of Ozpin's bedroom...]
He helped me pierce my ear. I miss him a lot, but you can't keep everything forever.
Be careful with the book. If you think anything's getting weird, we should probably burn it anyway. But, that might not be smart if it makes fire.
Maybe I can ask Penny to freeze it?
[Things to discuss with the Winter Maiden at a different time.]
Ozpin and I are... kinda like that. You're close, he's become like a father to me. After everything we've been through together... that's important.
no subject
[Paul touches his own ear, brushing across the body-warmed studs of bone in it. He knows about markers.]
Penny is part of your household, isn't she? I'd trust her with containment, in that case. Freezing is likely a better solution than fire, if it comes to that.
It is important. For all the animosity between Cobra Kai and your House, I am glad you have that.
Thank you for keeping my best interests in mind. I mean that.
no subject
Just because Johnny started the war doesn't mean there's any actual bad blood. Your teacher has been a nuisance-- not an actual danger. We know the difference, even if he doesn't.
I'll bring the book thing up with Penny. She's from Remnant like I am, and she's been great to have around even if her boss had us framed.
She and Ruby have history. That's all that matters to me.
[All this talk of households made little sense to Oscar. On a fundamental level he understood, but his farmlad practicality thought it was dumb. Instead of saying all this, he added: ]
Ruby would go out of her way to help strangers. Gerry has, too-- and he's not a hero or a huntsman or anything.
They're just good people, Paul. I do my best to be like them-- and I already told you that I'd do my best to help you and yours.
Everyone needs a different perspective sometimes. Including you and your boyfriend's.
no subject
[It's a title Paul is still getting used to offering up as freely as other people do, but the facts are what they are: he trusted Oscar enough to grant the title of ally, enough to share his developing secret, enough to take his words to heart. What else does he call all of that?]
Sensei Lawrence isn't trying to be a danger. He's looking for respect. I admit he doesn't always go about it delicately, but he means you no real harm.
I'm going to have to ask you to draw a map for me one of these days on how you're all connected.
And believe me, they provide a difference of perspective. It's one of the things I value about them. As I do about you, although not the same way, of course.
no subject
[That was the very same way he regarded both Ruby and Dipper, after all. They both helped him gain insight into perspectives that weren't his own, and ground him when he had no idea what to do. Their presence reminded him to be.... himself.
In a different way, Paul was doing the same as well.]
Guess we've both got stories to swap. I can tell you about my teammates on Remnant, and you can tell me more about your spice and your worms. Maybe one day, we'll be able to just relax and enjoy everyone's company, too. There won't be any karate wars, no evil wizards playing weird games...
We might even have cake. Won't that be fun?
no subject
And Teacher accepts it, and that's the kind of magnanimity Paul should emulate as his disciple. (It might also make him smile, if Paul tells him about it later, and if both motives lead to the same place, does it matter which is the stronger?)]
As long as we only involve Ruby Rose in the eating, and not the baking.
Although it can be fun to try to identify poison by effect.I'll see about finding some uncursed supplies for it. Maybe we can make something from your garden to go with it. I'd like that.
no subject
For now: ]
Strawberries are in season right now. So are raspberries. We can make a good cake with them!
Who knows? Maybe your more picky friends will eat it too!
no subject
[But enough Harrowhark culinary strategy.]
Kaworu and Gideon will like the regular kind.
It looks like we have a plan. Let's reconvene soon.