[ He expects questions. He expects to be, in this moment, a new oddity to study.
What he gets instead is a Thank you.
Ozpin sits with that in silence, and does not examine what he is feeling. It is something larger and sharper than he wants to grapple with. This is a conversation he expected, upon returning, but not from Stanford. Stanford has none of the background, none of the context, no way to parse that immortality is at best a burden and at worst an agony that some (that she) would tear down the whole world to escape.
Ozpin has thought a great deal about his death. He does not think it will ever come peacefully. It will come as an act of surrender, or defeat, and the casualties will be beyond imagining. Here in Deerington, that is not strictly true: here it is simply a death, no greater or more significant than any other.
Except that he still needs to return to Remnant. Whether he wants to return is irrelevant; there have been stretches of centuries in which Ozpin has not wanted to carry on his mission. He carries it on regardless. If he does not, every man, woman, and child on the planet will die.
He is ready to rest, but not to see the rest of humanity pulled under.
So, finally, Ozpin texts back. ]
It's alright. I think it is time I told you the story and let you ask your questions.
cw suicidality and talk of death
What he gets instead is a Thank you.
Ozpin sits with that in silence, and does not examine what he is feeling. It is something larger and sharper than he wants to grapple with. This is a conversation he expected, upon returning, but not from Stanford. Stanford has none of the background, none of the context, no way to parse that immortality is at best a burden and at worst an agony that some (that she) would tear down the whole world to escape.
Ozpin has thought a great deal about his death. He does not think it will ever come peacefully. It will come as an act of surrender, or defeat, and the casualties will be beyond imagining. Here in Deerington, that is not strictly true: here it is simply a death, no greater or more significant than any other.
Except that he still needs to return to Remnant. Whether he wants to return is irrelevant; there have been stretches of centuries in which Ozpin has not wanted to carry on his mission. He carries it on regardless. If he does not, every man, woman, and child on the planet will die.
He is ready to rest, but not to see the rest of humanity pulled under.
So, finally, Ozpin texts back. ]
It's alright. I think it is time I told you the story and let you ask your questions.
Tomorrow?