It was a beautiful cloudless afternoon in the city of Vale, Professor Ozpin mused as he sat drinking coffee with his female assistant Glynda Goodwitch in a nice café by the urban harbor. Last week, the woman had all but insisted they go out to get a cup of the hot beverage stating that she would talk to him about important matters. To his surprise she had shown up in a casual white skirt and a frilly blue blouse looking absolutely gorgeous. What was her game? Was this some kind of trap? Was she playing mind games with him? Was she still mad that he had tranquilized the Neptune boy and was now trying to get her revenge?
Whatever she was planning, Ozpin was forced to concede that she was very cunning about it. First distracting him with caffeine and then making small talk about the latest gossip in the Beacon faculty. Clever girl. Even her choice of dress was strategically chosen. Both the blouse and skirt were fashionably tasteful, showing enough cleavage and leg to arouse yet covering enough to excite the imagination. Any other man would have fallen for her wiles long ago.
But not him! He was Professor Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon, Wizard of Ships, Protector of Yuri and the Master of all….
Ozpin's mental rant trailed off as he sensed something so terrible, so fundamentally wrong that he completely froze for several moments feeling as though he had been stabbed in the chest and was trying to convince himself that it had not actually happened, that it was some cruel joke played by the gods.
"Ozpin, is something wrong?" Glynda asked, breaking him out of his reverie.
"…Glyn… Glynda… its" Ozpin struggled to find his voice, to try to express the wrongness of what he had just felt into words.
Glynda rolled her eyes. "Did you sense a disturbance in the yuri again?"
"No, it's far more serious than that." Ozpin said visibly shaken. "I felt a great disturbance in the Fandom, as if the greatest person ever just passed and millions of voices suddenly cried out in sorrow and started crying. I fear something terrible has happened."
Glynda blinked. To Ozpin, nothing was more important than the yuri. Could this really be that serious? "Is there anything we can do?"
Ozpin shook his head. "No, I fear there is nothing we can do in this Glynda. Everything with a beginning must have an end. Therefore it stands to reason that the time we have in this world and by extension the time we have to spend with others is very limited. Rather than crying over time we never had, it's often better to be grateful for the time we did and spend the time we have left pursuing our passions and those we love."
"That seems rather bleak." Glynda said feeling slightly depressed.
"Perhaps," Ozpin sighed sadly and leaned back into his chair. "however, in these difficult times I remind myself that we humans are like fireworks. That in the grand scheme of the universe we may be nothing more than short flickering lights. But we can shine brighter than anything you would ever expect and awe anyone who takes the time to see it. Monty Oum embodied this idea better than anyone I knew. Rest in Peace, Monty. "
General RTS: When I first heard that Monty Oum had passed away I couldn't believe it. I stared at my screen for several moments in shock before scouring, reddit, twitter, facebook, youtube, the roosterteeth site, all in the vain hope that this wasn't real, that this was some sick joke played by a malicious troll and that eventually I would find a post that would reassure me that Monty Oum was indeed still alive and that he was going to make a full recovery. Sadly it turned out he actually had died yesterday on February first due to a severe allergic reaction during a medical examination. This was difficult news for me because I had already lost a close professor to cancer and a college buddy to a car accident over the past month. Death is often a difficult thing to deal with and I wanted to provide some reassuring thoughts on it. I also wanted to announce that I will probably adding at least one more chapter to this series and I will do my best to make you guys laugh because honestly that is what we need most in times like this.