"A "probably, maybe, most likely" post-vol 7 version Oscar time travel fic where he tries to prevent the Fall of Beacon and maximize his future knowledge against Salem by attending Beacon and trying to get past-Ozpin on his side. The trouble is… he doesn’t know the key pieces for how Beacon fell in the first place and time is running out. If you like the concept of Ozdad and slowburn rosegarden, this is probably the fic for you."
— Archiveof Our Own summary
Lost Parallax is a Peggy Sue RWBY fanfic written by Nunonon
, about a time-displaced Oscar trying to prevent the catastrophes of canon.
Can be read at Archive of Our Own here.
Tropes are:
- Abusive Parents: Cardin's father was apparently this, as Cardin reflects on how he "beat the cowardice" out of him and notes that Jaune would "probably cry at the sight of his father's belt buckle".
- Ace Custom: The Long Memory is one of a kind, and easily recognizable to those familiar with Oz. As such Oscar alters his as much as possible superficially to make sure Salem's faction don't.
- This is also partially how he proves the legitimacy of his claims of time travel to Ozpin.
- Adaptational Early Appearance:
- Oscar himself who only joined the cast in volume four appears before canon RWBY even begins, and later attends Beacon.
- Qrow shows up in chapter four, several months before Beacon's term starts when he didn't show up until volume 3 in canon.
- Adults Are Useless: Subverted. They're all shown as fairly competent, even non-combatants like Aunt Em.
- Professor Goodwitch thinks Oscar believes this since he doesn't seem particularly willing to open up to most of the teachers at Beacon, even when directly asked. The truth is more complicated since they're usually asking about things that he can't talk about for one reason or another.
- All of the Other Reindeer: While she's still accepted by her team, and Team RWBY and JNPR, Rook is shunned by some of Beacon's students after her accidental injury of Lacey and Alexander.
- Ambiguous Situation: What happened to the Oscar of the current era? Apparently he went missing without a trace three months before the Oscar from volume 7 arrived in the past, and when the time displaced Oscar shows up it's assumed he is the lost Oscar returned. Considering he possesses the Long Memory and is wearing the combat gear he bought in the future, this is unlikely. For his part Oscar is worried they may have switched places, with himself in the past and his younger self in the future.
- Bad Liar: Oscar freely admits to being this, and the guilt he feels about lying to people that trust him, even by admission, only makes it worse.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Rook's past is heavily implied to not be pleasant, even aside from the typical Fantastic Racism Faunus experience. Ozpin suspects she's killed people with her Semblance before, accidentally or otherwise, because that was her first thought when it made Alexander collapse.
- Death Glare: Rook is prone to giving these when annoyed or angry.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: From his perspective at least, Ozpin's dreams of the events of volume 6 and 7 are this. To Oscar it's more complicated, since they're in the future but are his personal past.
- Oscar later admits that he's starting to remember things from after volume 7, which is when he somehow ended up in the past.
- Ruby starts to dream of Mantle the night after her first run-in with Torchwick and after being exposed to Rook's Fear Semblance begins to dream of her confrontation with Salem at the end of Volume 7.
- Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Downplayed. Rook takes some satisfaction in seeing Oscar's disdain for Cardin, noting that the latter is such a jerk that even someone as nice as Oscar can't stand him.
- Fantastic Racism: The story does not shy away from showing this.
- There is hate group original to the fic known as Animal Control which are made up of humans that want to exterminate the Faunus. Their solo agents are called Zookeepers, and Oscar repeatedly had to deal with one named by Rhys in defense of Umber and Dr. Ed. As far as the Zookeepers are concerned the Faunus are monsters and any human who defends them, cares for them, or loves them is worse, as shown by Rhys' actions towards Dr. Ed and Oscar.
- Cardin and his team are the same as in canon.
- Downplayed with Lacey who is not this, but her thoughtless words and actions can come across this way. She tries to improve on it in later chapters.
- While it hasn't been shown in detail, Rook has experienced this.
- Fighting Fingerprint: Those who are familiar with Ozpin's fighting style notice that Oscar's is nearly identical.
- Friendless Background: Rook reflects at one point that she didn't have any friends she could count on before Oscar.
- Good Parents: Oscar's are implied to have been this when they were still alive, as one of the reasons he's uncomfortable with pretending to be Ozpin's son is he doesn't want to dishonor them.
- Aunt Em is this to Oscar.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Despite seemingly not realizing this himself, Cardin is this towards Jaune. Part of his resentment comes from the fact people like him more than Cardin, even though he's weaker.
- Guile Hero: Oscar is becoming this, though he's not proud of it.
- Keeping Secrets Sucks: Oscar is painfully aware of this, coming from the tail end of Volume 7, where keeping secrets backfired on everyone. He's resigned himself to keeping certain things close to the chest since he doesn't even have Ozpin to back him up anymore, but he feels terribly guilty about it.
- Kid Hero: Oscar at fourteen is the youngest of the first years at Beacon, and several people bring this up.
- Innocently Insensitive: Lacey's tug on Rook's fox ear that led to their fight was this. She'd just been trying to get her attention, but as Oscar and Alexander both point out it was no less disrespectful than Cardin's intentional bullying. Lacey acknowledges emotional intelligence as a problem of hers in her discussion about the incident with Ozpin because while her Semblance gives her the ability to understand what people are thinking and feeling it doesn't help her understand why they feel or think that way.
- Like a Son to Me: After clearing up the misunderstanding that Oscar is his son, Ozpin still sees him as like one.
- Long-Lost Relative: Ozpin comes to believe Oscar may be this when the boy yells at him for leaving him. Oscar is talking about locking himself away in Oscar's future, but the headmaster doesn't have that context.
- Oscar being his long-lost son from a past relationship is also part of the cover they agree to give when it comes time for him to discuss his future knowledge with Ozpin's inner circle.
- The Mentor: Ozpin was this in canon, but particularly relishes the chance to serve as one to Oscar properly this time, noting it's the first time an Oz could guide their successor without merely being a voice in their minds.
- Missing Mom: Umber's mother was killed by Rhys.
- Summer Rose, as in canon.
- O.C. Stand-in: Since so little is known about Oscar's aunt in canon, the portrayal of her here amounts to this.
- Original Character: Several, but the most prominent are Oscar's neighbors and the members of Team NOIR which Oscar joins at Beacon.
- Oscar's neighbors: It's implied Oscar knew some of them casually in the original timeline, but his other self's disappearance and then his rescue of Umber causes them to become closer and more involved in the new one.
- Umber: A young Faunus girl that Oscar saves from Grimm immediately after arriving in the past. She's a deer Faunus, like her mother who was killed by Rhys.
- Dr. Ed: A doctor and Umber's father. He cares for Oscar after he's injured upon his return to the past.
- Marin: A police officer and a snow leopard faunus. She stays on the Pine Farm for a time after Rhys' first attack to act as defense, and also helps Oscar train for Beacon. She's a mother of at least six daughters, and not so subtly implies she wants to set up Oscar with one, much to his embarrassment. She also calls him several variants of Cute lil Hunter which mortifies the poor boy.
- Team NOIR: Oscar's team at Beacon, composed entirely of OCs aside from himself.
- Rook Noir: A fox Faunus and leader of their team. Oscar's partner. Her Semblance induces fear in everyone around her, and unfortunately this includes herself.
- Lacey Iris: A member of a wealthy weapon's manufacturer family. Alexander's partner. Her Semblance is User Interface which allows her to pick up on what people are thinking and feeling, and make connections others can't. She has trouble with emotional intelligence which has led her to be rude without meaning to be.
- Alexander Regent: A son of a family of Atlesian elites, he has a strong since of right and wrong. He's stoic and a bit uptight, but Oscar notes he's not stuck-up like Weiss is at the current time.
- Rhys. An agent of the anti-Faunus hate group Animal Control. He murdered Dr. Ed's wife and so far has tried twice to kill Dr. Ed, Umber, and Oscar.
- Oscar's neighbors: It's implied Oscar knew some of them casually in the original timeline, but his other self's disappearance and then his rescue of Umber causes them to become closer and more involved in the new one.
- Parents as People: Dr. Ed tries to be a good father to Umber, but his fear of losing her caused him to encourage her to hide the fact she's a Faunus, something she's uncomfortable with and is ultimately fruitless since the man who killed their mother hunts them down anyway. He eventually eases off a bit.
- Past-Life Memories: Despite Oz seemingly being gone from his mind, Oscar still has these.
- Power Incontinence: Rook's control of her Semblance is poor. Despite not being perpetually active like Qrow's, it tends to activate whether she intends it to or not. She herself is not immune to it's effects, which can sometimes lead into a feedback loop.
- Precocious Crush: Ed thinks Umber has one on Oscar, and that Oscar's probably aware of it, but it hasn't been discussed much more than that at present.
- So Proud of You: Oscar get this sentiment from his Aunt Em for the efforts he's put into becoming a Huntsman, and his heroics when Rhys attacked.
- And from Ozpin about the effort he's putting in to prevent the future.
- Trauma Button: Rook unintentionally presses Blake's when she lashes out at Lacey and Alexander, because someone attacking their allies reminds her of Adam.
- What Is This Feeling?: Oscar occasionally gets tongue-tied and flustered when talking to Ruby, and reflects that this happened even before his return to the past, though he isn't sure why. It's heavily implied, and the fact this is a Rosegarden story would indicate, he has a crush on her but hasn't realized it yet.
- Would Hurt a Child: Rhys has no compunctions about hurting a child if they're a faunus or a faunus sympathizer.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Oscar has a knack for this.
- After Ruby's talk with Ozpin about whether or not she's qualified to be a leader, he has a conversation with her where she reassures herself of this with some leading questions.
- He reassures Rook he doesn't find her scary after the fight between her and Lacey.
- Jaune has a similar conversation with her earlier in the chapter and they both tell each other this.
- You Are Not Alone: Oscar encourages Ozpin to remember this, as the members of his inner circle do genuinely care for him.
