#lucidia might be the week after next week

[revel-in-art]

2/25/17 i missed the weekly sketch last week so here's this. i wanted to color it all before i remembered how much i hated inking. features yasavi and nora, ocs based off the golden quiche.

[thuskindlyshescatters]

It's been a week too long for that to be completely accurate, but that's the closest I can get to my initial reaction, least everything up to the bombshell (the relationship bits were nice, especially since Lucidia's foreshadowed STRQ's involvement). Man, I can't help but think that whenever someone notices how invested Ozpin is in CHLC, most'll be completely off base as to why (Cutting this short so I can fully elaborate my reasoning in the next ask). -DC

Once again, this kind of turned into an essay, so like, bear with me. If there’s anyone that cares about my OCs out there, this is a test of endurance.

[…] From the Meta perspective, Cora’s assumed, particularly readers pinging to Pyrrha/Jaune/Ruby parallels. From the Dumb Student perspective, conspiracy nerds will decide that this “nepotism” is proof of Lucidia’s true blood relation, while those of the Secret War will “know” it’s about Cerdwin’s Maidenhood. Considering all that, it’s honestly hilarious the main reason’s because he wants to adopt an anxious child who dies too much (Hayward). […] I know you didn’t reply to the hot coco part of the original Hydra-Ask, but you cannot convince me that there isn’t a shadow of Ozma struggling to reach the steering wheel past the fogs of age and loss to wrap a blanket around Hayward’s shoulders, feed her mug after mug of hot coco, and share fairytales until she feels better. Well, maybe you can, I’m a bit loopy from how long I’ve been writing, and I think I forgot some of the reasoning I was pouring into this. Happy Friday-to-Saturday. -DC

And a happy Friday-to-Saturday to you too, Direct Current! 

There is a definite guarantee of some background conspiracy talk and running gags about Ozpin’s weird connection with CHLC, along the lines of what you’ve hypothesized. I’ll draw a side-by-side of Lucidia and my past!Ozpin and let you decide where your bets lie. 

Your envisioning of their relationship is 200% fluffier than the reality, unfortunately. So, thanks to your asks, I’ve been thinking a lot more about Ozpin and Hayward, and I’ve actually been writing a possible “chapter” between Hayward and Ozpin. Essentially, the setup follows thusly:

It is established early on (in a sort of “Chapter One” I’ve drafted, actually) that, as we more or less have confirmation of in canon, Semblances are information personal to the student, and the school is not entitled to information about the specifics of them. In my manipulation of that canon, the school IS entitled to information on one’s Semblance after the student’s first misdemeanor, including, but not limited to: getting in fights with other students on school campus, engaging in Huntsman activities off-campus without supervision by faculty, and other such combat-related activities in which gauging the involvement or culpability of a student’s Semblance may influence the punishment. For example, a student like Qrow might have a completely uncontrollable Semblance that was responsible for the conflict to an extent where punishing the student is not logical. On the other end of the spectrum, Emerald using her Semblance to murder Penny places 100% of the culpability on Emerald and not Pyrrha in that instance, regardless of if Pyrrha’s Semblance had any relevance at all. (And, as always, lying about your Semblance is considered academic dishonesty which can range in severity of punishment from getting a 0 on a test to expulsion.)

In Cerdwin’s case, she’s called to the Headmaster’s office after having an emotional break which activates her *cough* “Semblance” and generally causes mayhem. This counts as a misdemeanor (her first EVER, she’ll have you know), which usually doesn’t send one to the Headmaster, but Ozpin happens to read her Semblance summary after this event, and as soon as he reads “aesthetic flames produced from eyes,” he spits out his entire mug of hot chocolate.

Hayward’s not known to be obedient, and she’s generally just a bad kid – not out of thinking it’s cool to rebel or anything, she just doesn’t have much respect for the adults who’ve surrounded her in the past and has a bad attitude about life. Therefore, her first misdemeanor is much earlier in school, when Hayward has little emotional connection to her team save Cerdwin and to Beacon. Holding true to that idea, when Ozpin meets her as a tired, pessimistic, got-nothing-to-live-for kid who’s been emptied of emotion by a perpetual and meaningless existence, he’s no less than terrified, frankly.

To elaborate, I estimate Ozpin to be ~28 at this point. That puts him at young enough to be considered a prodigy and still a headmaster of a few years by the time of STRQ’s first year. That also puts him at young enough where I estimate that he and Ozma are not 100% combined yet. Ozpin is definitely resolute in fighting for what Ozma is striving towards, but they still have internal disagreements, and occasionally straight-up spoken words with one another. Ozpin at this point has no Glynda, no Qrow, no Ironwood to confide in about this Secret War, as you say, and the Ozma in his head sees Hayward as a perfect confidante to recruit as he has begun to do with Team STRQ. Ozpin strongly disagrees. In this way, your interpretation is correct in that Ozpin is conflicted morally about Hayward and really just wants to extend an arm of comfort to someone who is clearly lost, but he is also – literally – internally conflicted as to how far that arm of comfort should go. After all, what reason does Hayward have to think him different from the other adults in her life? Additionally, Ozpin sees a terrifying future for himself reflected in Hayward. Will he absorb the same tiredness he sees in her from Ozma, who shared some alarmingly similar sentiments? If he ever gives up, will he be doomed to live as she does? And why does a child like her have to be saddled with this power that she never chose? In a way, Hayward’s present is living Ozpin’s future, which he simply refuses to permit to remain true as long as he has anything to say about it.

H: “Professor, if this is some kind of misguided way of showing that you care, I know for a fact that nobody, especially not you, can pretend to know what I’ve been through.”

O: “You would be surprised.”