#( verse : v7. ) galaxy brain machine broke.

[itsfarmboi]

@sniperoses​ was found ... somewhere. 

panic was swift, unrelenting, and cruel in how it all broke out. multiple scrolls lighting up in the middle of the movie had only been the start-- oscar could only watch as disaster descended around them, with news of penny killing plastered all over the news--

... 

it’d been difficult to keep worry at bay, even as he’d tried his best to temper the situation with what he could.

... jacques... 

even he could understand the impact of this election.

he’s sure general ironwood would have some course of plan with the dinner invitation in his hand-- and oscar’s sure that ruby may have already heard, but he finds the need to corner her and inform her--

“Ruby. Did you hear the news?”

about the dinner, of course.

[itsfarmboi]

@lepusheart​, you look fine.

a dinner invitation by the schnee family meant many things-- but apparently, it also meant... new clothes. fancy clothes. fancier than the ones he’d gotten in argus, though he’d defend his choices with the fact that he’d been cold and he’d been Growing.

he doesn’t really mean to walk in, perse, but sometimes, a shared dorm room meant just that-- you walked in on your roommates --

and this time, it seems like jaune was trying on his new outfit.

a pause, then,

“ I think you look great...?”

after a while of seeing team jnr in the same outfit over and over, it is a nice change.

[itsfarmboi]

@sniperoses​ ‘s notebook is being put to good use.

“Uhhh, Ruby?”

a boy peeps around the doorway into the room ruby’s in!

“Are you busy?”

[itsfarmboi]

@metalpetals​ was found eating breakfast.

it feels wrong. to be keeping secrets, to be keeping others in the dark, to lie and operate in the shadows-- but this wasn’t his story-- it was ruby’s.this is a fact that he’d realized very early on, when they’d first met and ruby’d told him about the pain she’d been through; even if he was the one with ozma in his head, in the end... ruby was the one that would shape the future.

... ozma wasn’t even here, at the moment.

how much of him is really... him? it’s not a question he can answer out right. he’s working with power and technique that are not his, having used a cheat code to get stronger.

how unfair.

“hot chocolate?”

offering a warm cup-- ruby’s always a morning person-- oscar was lucky enough to not have to wake up early, but he finds himself rising with everyone else, anyway. 

“I thought, uh,  you might want some sweets before you head out for your mission today.”

the dinner is only a couple of days away. he knows ruby might want some kind of pick me up. 

[itsfarmboi]

@lepusheart​: nothing by respect for MY leader.

   “Thanks, Oscar, but we both know that isn’t true.”

   A sigh escapes through chapped laps, both hands risen to card fingers through a mess of blond tresses; nothing but stress and struggle wrought upon the rabbit’s face. His boots begin to click in a pace, body pivoted left, right, and back again until he’s near going in a full circle.

   “I know why they’re putting me on these–these ‘kiddie’ missions, leaving me out of all the planning. They don’t trust me, they don’t think I’m strong enough help. I–I get it, I do, but I’ve been TRYING to do better. I’m really trying.”

jaune-- was a warrior. in many ways. the fall of beacon, to oscar, was a history told in glimpses and packets of information, in ozpin’s memories before he’d locked himself away-- the gruesome details were spared, but oscar held respect for the newly appointed huntsman.

but it seemed like the rabbit faunus didn’t think the same. 

“... I know you are. I’ve seen you train and fight.”

oscar’s in an odd position. a team? was he in one? it was hard to say. he’s only here to be a stand in for ozpin, after all. but he likes to think that maybe, he can prove himself-- but more importantly, he knows how it felt, to be left out -- though the people he was with were slowly growing more to be like family-- if they’d accept his warm thoughts for them.

“And you are getting loads better. I mean it. And I know that the rest of the team knows this too.”

“I just think with everything going on, everyone isn’t sure how much to reveal to who. That doesn’t mean you’re a bad leader. It just means that maybe we just need to have a little patience.... and ask them what’s going on ourselves.”

[itsfarmboi]

@wintersrapier​

silence rings final in his own thoughts, a lost part of a whole that he was supposed to be-- anxious thoughts flit to and fro in his mind, but the presence of ozpin is now no longer there. he feels empty. he feels ... like himself...? using power that he never would have come across otherwise, he wonders what really is himself, in the end.

atlas’s winter wind tousles his hair as he stands on one of the balconies of the academy. he should have brought along a thicker coat-- but the cold is alright. 

was what they were doing... right? it’s hard to say. secrets... don’t sit well with him, and ozma’s lack of input is more damning than ever.

heels clack behind him, and he whips around, hand going to his -- ozpin’s? -- weapon-- just to drop it when he sees who it is.

“Miss Schnee...? Weiss...?”

... they’ve never really talked, have they? both names sound odd in his mouth. he should pick and choose, but even if they’re teammates, he feels an urge to be formal towards them. maybe it’s because ozpin used miss more often than not.

“... uhm, sorry. Congrats on your huntsman license, by the way.”

small talk works. but even that feels non important-- frivolous, in the face of the fate they’d been entrusted with.

[itsfarmboi]

"I understand that you probably like using Long Memory, but in my experience it's never bad to have a back-up weapon if something happens to your own." Ren says, holding out a knife for Oscar, sheathed of course. It has his symbol on the hilt and on the sheath itself and is almost reminiscent of Ren's own dagger.

taking the knife with both hands, mouth parted in slight surprise– it’s … new. it’s not familiar at all. blades are meant for talented huntsmen, not farm boys like him; no matter how he’d grown into the role, familiarized himself with weaponry, he knows all of his talent is ozpin’s.

taking it out from the sheath, he swings it. the blade flashes in the the harsh atlesian sun, glinting as oscar flows into a stabbing motion, away from ren and any spectators.

it’s lighter than long memory, the center of weight far closer to him than the cane.  it slides quietly back into its sheath.

it’s … new. it’s not familiar at all. but it’s a secondary weapon that he can make his…

“…It’s perfect. Thanks, Ren. I love it.”

[itsfarmboi]

"Oscar?" Ruby holds out a present towards him, all wrapped up with an orange bow! "Here! Merry nondescript Winter holiday!" Once opened, it reveals... a notebook and pen. The designs on both feature lots of farm animals. "I don't really know if you're into journaling and stuff, but... I just thought it might be nice?" This way... no matter what happens... maybe it'll help reassure Oscar that he'll never *completely* lose sight of who he is right now. That had been her line of thought, at least.

“Merry nondescript winter holiday.”

Oh. That sure is a lot of animals! turning around the notebook, then pen in his hands, grinning. it does remind him of home… but hadn’t he grown up quite a bit since then…? but the thought is what counts. he’s not quite into journaling– to be honest, every day had been a whirlwind, and all their journeying was too classified ( tm ) to journal, but maybe some doodling could be done.

“Thanks, Ruby.”

… a pause.

“I don’t have… anything. I’ll buy you whatever you want once we’re outside in Atlas…?”

… with his minimal lien, but details.

[itsfarmboi]

Sniff. Sniff sniff. "You smell like a farm."

“…Thanks?”

his shoulders rising in confusion and concern as he sets down the piece of fruit heading to his mouth– his thought process fails to comprehend the reason why the boy in front of him might have started off a conversation like so, and his brain similarly fails to multitask. did he actually smell like a farm?

( he actually has a good idea why, he just wished to assume good faith. )

ah well. the hand that’d put down the piece of hors d'oeuvres rises again to his mouth. he eats, chews, then swallows– considering his reply–

“I mean, I’d hope so, I did grow up on one.”

brilliance, on his end. oh, oscar. 

[itsfarmboi]

"I worry you're not going to freeze on a balcony one of these days," she's lightly teasing, but there's an undercurrent of fussiness to her tone. A medium sized box is given to him. It's a wool based coat in earthy colors.

“A present?”

he finds that his mouth is slightly parted at the box, not quite used to presents of this scale– christmas was usually spent quietly with family, which wasn’t a bad thing… just another scale of coziness that he was slowly on his way to replicating here.

the ribbon is quickly undone with a barely contained eagerness, the wrapping paper ripped apart in excitement. the trash flutters to the ground, where he’ll pick it up soon after. the box follows, as he opens it–

… 

holding the coat up to admire it in all its warmth and coziness, he finds a smile spreading as he lowers the coat to look at weiss’s face.

“… Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

earthy colors, more reminiscent of him than ozpin. it’s… 

it means more to him than he can ever admit.

“I’ll make sure not to freeze anymore.”