Jaune Arc wonders what just happened (jaune_d_arc) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-02-19 20:40:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, jaune arc, ozma |
Who: Ozma and Jaune
What: Meeting and bring a street sign to life
When: Last Fall
Where: A bus stop somewhere in OC
Rating/Warnings: Pretty PG, all things considered
Status: Complete!
Ozma knew she should have left the container with the Powder of Life at her apartment instead of carrying it around with her. But you never knew when it could be useful and the box didn’t take up much space in her bag so...She wasn’t planning on using it but if something came up that she thought it could be fun to use on, and wouldn’t hurt anyone, she might bring it to life. The bus bench hadn’t hurt anyone as far as she knew and she was pretty sure that the news would have been all over that. And while her lamp was annoying when it decided to turn itself on and off - it wasn’t hurting her.
She didn’t normally come to this part of town but a client wanted her to meet with the photographer to scout out locations for a shoot, something that would work for her and the product which was different, putting them both in the best light which she liked even if it was different. She was almost to the point of admitting she needed a car, and should probably contact that guy Joe to see if he’d be willing to help her with that, but that could wait a few more weeks. At least until it got too hot for her to go walking around like this.
“The humidity is going to be hell,” she muttered to herself as she turned a corner, leaning against the building for support as she lifted one foot to adjust the straps on her heel, deciding for what felt like the thousandth time that she was going to start carrying flats with her everywhere she went for when she was walking. Her phone beeped and she frowned as she read the message, looking around for a cab or a bus stop or something since the photographer apparently had decided on another area to meet.
She saw a young man not that far away and walked over to him. “Sorry to bother you but you wouldn’t happen to know where the nearest bus stop is to here would you?”
***
"Uh..." Jaune replied, blinking his eyes a few times. The question itself wasn't actually that hard to answer, but he'd been lost inside his own mind for the past ten minutes. People had come and gone in that time, but none of them had spoken to him.
He reached inside his coat pocket and pulled out a pamphlet he'd taken from the transit station, then opened it up to check the map. "So we're... where are we."
Jaune looked up from his map and then around about him, trying to locate a street sign. "I'm kinda new to this area, sorry. I know there's one nearby though, I've seen it while walking. If I can just get my bearings, you know?"
***
“I know what you mean. I’ve gotten a bit turned around myself but I’m blaming the photographer I was supposed to meet. He kept changing location on me.” And if he thought she wasn’t going to report that to her Agency as a reason to possibly not let him pick locations for shoots anymore he was wrong. “I know that the cafe my former professor is a few blocks that way.” She said looking around. “And the only street sign is on the other corner. ...Is today a Monday?”
***
"Is that the Emerald City Cafe? I work there!" Jaune's face brightened a bit at the thought. Lately when his mind wasn't on schooling or working, it was on darker things. Things that he couldn't talk about with anyone at all right now. Especially when there was nothing else to distract him.
He'd been walking around after his shift, and must have walked further in one direction than he'd ever been before. Or at least, he hoped that's what had happened. "I uhm... is it? The days are kind of blending together. It might be? Wait, yeah."
***
“You know Professor Ozpin? ...I really should work on getting out of the habit of calling him Professor since he’s not my teacher anymore probably.” Ozma said, laughing gently at herself. It was going to take a lot of practice for her clearly to get used to the idea of referring to the older man by his name. “I haven’t been around there in a few weeks so I didn’t realize you worked there. It’s the only place I found where I can get cream in my tea without a dirty look.”
“It figures it would be a Monday. Everything always seems to go wrong on Monday’s doesn’t it?”
***
"Oh yeah! Well, I mean... kind of?" Jaune rubbed that hand behind is head again, trying to figure out how best to mention it. The Dreams were an Orange County institution, it seemed, but no one outside of the Network ever realised what was going on. He had no idea if this woman was signed up or not.
And he wasn't sure why anyone would make faces about cream in tea, either. "Is it like... wrong to put cream in tea? Cream in tea is like ... creamier. Than milk, I mean. Though I'm a coffee guy myself. But uhm... I guess Professor Ozpin is like... a guy I could say I knew in another lifetime?"
Hopefully that didn't sound too crazy. But he nodded about Mondays. "Yeah, Mondays. They're always... Monday-like."
***
Ozma raised one brow when he said he kind of knew the Professor but than he mentioned from another lifetime and it clicked for her - this must be someone who dreamed about the Professor. “Some people think it’s weird but it’s pretty common back home. Or at least it was in my home there. Here though - a lot of people don’t seem to care for it. Or think I’m talking about wanting ice tea when I order a cup.” She swallowed as she tried to think of how to word the question best. “Like from your Dreams you mean? When you say you knew him in another lifetime I mean.”
***
"Where's back home, anyway?" Jaune asked, suddenly curious about where in the world it was that cream was just normal in tea. And possibly also because Ozma seemed completely different from anyone he'd ever met yet.
Then he nodded his head. Jaune gave Ozma a sheepish grin, though he was actually feeling relieved that she seemed to be a dreamer as well. "Well ... uhm... yeah, actually. Hey, you're on the Network or something too? Man, Orange County sure is small. But... yes. I uh. Kind of actually lied and cheated my way into his school. And you know? I kind of think he knew that? But he let me stay anyway."
***
“Home is Australia. Or maybe was is a better way of putting it since I don’t picture myself moving back there anytime soon. If I ever did leave California it would probably be to move back to New York.” Ozma told him openly. There was a different type of insanity to living there but less demons. And by less - none that she’d had to deal with.
“I am. I get to dream about traveling through some country called Oz with a living pumpkinheaded man and a sawhorse which isn’t as creepy as it might sound from how I put it just then.” She told him with a gentle laugh at herself. “That matches up with the man who taught me here. He always seemed to see what you needed if you were one of his students. And when to speak up about something he knew and when not to.”
***
"Oh wow, that's kind of..." Jaune trailed off, blinking his eyes a bit. He'd meant to say that Australia was far away for sure, and was curious why it was she wouldn't be returning there. But instead, he kept blinking through the fact that there was a land called Oz and someone with a pumpkin head and all of that. That sounded like The Wizard of Oz, but no movie he'd ever watched. Maybe a darker, creepier version of it.
"So Oz is a place, but also a person... and there's pumpkin heads and sawhorses. OKay. That's cool."
He nodded, though, at that last bit. "Yeah, even in our dreams he's like that. Pretty complicated guy. You get the sense sometimes that he's not even really physically there, like his mind is off somewhere else even though he's right there giving you a speech, too. I think a lot goes on in his head."
***
“Kind of a bit insane considering one of the nicknames for Australia is the same as the country I’m dreaming about living in?” Ozma said, her mind automatically going to what she heard most from people that heard about her dreams and new she was Australian. And not from New Zealand or even worse England. The accent was different despite what some people clearly thought.
“I can’t help but wonder if the country wasn’t named after the Wizard of Oz who used to rule it before leaving the Scarecrow in charge. Of a multicolored land with talking sawhorses and pumpkinheads. And people like me” She said, thinking mostly outloud. There were also witches and all manner of other creatures but she tried not to think about them too much. The witches at least scared her to think about showing up here. “Wouldn’t it be funny if Professor Ozpin was the same as the Oz that used to rule in my dreams?” She said quietly.
“That was how it felt being his student back at school for me. Like his mind was in two places at once - the lecture he was giving us right then and whatever he had to do later in the day. It always left me in awe because I can’t do that. I can deal with one thing at a time. Maybe two if they’re directly connected.”
***
"Oh I'm really bad at multitasking." Jaune replied, with a nod. Even this conversation with its multiple facets was taking on quite a bit, but he'd grown a lot more capable in the last few months than he was, previously. An EMT had to think on their feet, after all. Classes had been a trial by fire so far. "I'm always jealous of people who can think about three or four different things at once. But hey, we can all get better, right? So... It would be pretty funny actually if they were connected. Professor Ozpin and the Wizard, I mean."
Then his mind went back to some of the things she'd been mumbling aloud before that. "Talking sawhorses and pumpkin heads and... what are you exactly then? People like you, you said. Are you magical like them?"
***
“Supposedly we can but...I don’t know I kind of like only being able to do one or two things at once. Makes me feel a bit like I can pay better attention to what I’m doing than if I was trying to think about thirty things at once. But...as long as it all gets done does it really matter that much if it takes a bit longer?” Ozma asked him with a slight shrug.
“I’m not sure what I am exactly there. I was raised by a witch and I can do a bit of magic myself but...I’m not sure if it’s because of me that I can or just that I have the Powder of Life.” She said, reaching into her bag to pull out the tin and show it to him. “I woke up to this here and I’ve been able to use it but it’s the only magic I can do. So I’m leaning towards - it being where the magic is.”
***
Only when working on a patient did Jaune feel that being able to multitask might be more necessary than not, but he nodded his head at Ozma. Because she was right, and he was really only worried about his own performance. Qrow had tried to get him to be more confident in himself, and he didn't want to seek reassurance from someone else.
Even if they were extremely fascinating, a dreamer just like him, and also holding a magic container of powder in their hands.
He leaned down a bit to squint at it with his eyes. One of his hands flew out to give it a poke, but he thought better of it and stopped his finger just in time. "Oooo, shiny magical powder stuff. What can you do with that?"
***
Ozma opened the tin up as Jaune leaned down so that he could get a closer look at the shimmering powder. “Bring inanimate objects to life. So far I’ve used it on a bus bench when I was bored - one of those heavy iron ones you know? And a few odds and ends around my place. The most interesting was a lamp. Which seemed like a great idea at the time - I could just trust it to turn itself on and off but it proved a lot more willful than I anticipated. Started moving room to room and turning on and off whenever it pleases and I haven’t figured out how to undo it yet.” She admitted a little sheepishly.
***
"I guess it's tough when you just find out you're free to do whatever you want, you know? The lamp's just been sitting there its whole life and suddenly it discovers it can turn itself on and off! I think I'd run around doing it all the time, too." Jaune replied, while peering into the tin at the powder. It looked like a gorgeous galaxy or night sky all a twinkle, and he wanted to touch it.
But that was probably a really bad idea. "It smells like pixie stix. We should bring something to life, just for fun!"
***
Ozma grinned at him. “I get it but at the same time - I’m trying to read and Lampey is just sitting there turning on and off constantly.” She said looking around at his suggestion. “And the things I use it on kind of absorb the smell in a way so it’s fun. I’m just glad they don’t turn glittery.
Although a glittery sawhorse would be fun. “...We could always use it on that street name sign? Since they’re changing out so many of them around here I’m sure it’s on the list. And hopefully won’t cause any accidents since it’s not a stop sign or anything. What do you say?” She said, tilting her head towards the sign right behind them.
***
"Are you sure it can't be made more sparkly?" Was Jaune's only question as he peered at the street name sign. He wondered for a moment why it was he hadn't noticed it there before. This was always just the bus stop he took.
It was funny how awful his real world situational awareness actually was. But that was a thought for another time, today was for turning street signs to life! Jaune nodded and then pointed at the sign. "I hope you're prepared, street sign! Today is the day you get to... talk and stuff!"
Then he glanced at Ozma and clapped his hands together, "Can anyone use the powder or does it only work when you do it?"
***
Ozma grinned at his question. “I haven’t tried to but everything can always be made more sparkly.” She told him. She joked now and then about wanting to bleed glitter but it wouldn’t actually be far from what she expected to happen before the end of her life with how many glittery products she used. She liked to sparkle - always had.
“I haven’t actually tried letting other people use it. We can give it a shot if you don’t mind me teaching you a spell that honestly has a lot of ridiculous movements that go along with it.”
***
"Are they like dance moves? Because I have done all kinds of ridiculous dance moves, in a dress, in public even. Well, my dream self has. I mean, I'm pretty much like him though! I'd definitely do a dance routine in a dress for someone I liked enough, anyway." Jaune bounced on his feet with excitement, and took his coat off.
"Show me what I have to do! This is going to be so cool."
He hoped it worked, though. It would be extra silly if he went through learning a whole long magic spell for nothing.
***
“Now that I think about it...they kind of are.” Ozma said as she led the way over to the street sign, dropping the powder back in her bag as she showed him the moves and led him through them a few times, waiting until she was sure he had it to teach him the words and then pass the Powder over to him.
“Good luck. I’m keeping him as my pet.” She said, stepping back to give him room to work.
***
It was goofy and magical and Jaune memorized the words and the moves after just a few tries. He had to admit he was excited to even be allowed to give this a try, and he was so honored Ozma trusted him with it that he just knew he wouldn't screw it up.
He took the powder with a confident smile and performed the spell, sprinkling a small pinch of it on the street sign at the end.
Jaune didn't know what to expect, but when the street sign came to life, he had to clench his fist around the pepper box to keep himself from dropping it out of shock. He had really done it! He grinned at Ozma and handed her back the powder. "Awesome! Now you've got a new pet and... hopefully we've both got a new friend!"