Preparing for Promotion
Lieutenant General James Ironwood was pacing in his empty office, fiddling with his crimson red tie. The city lights bathed his office in blue, and night sky sparkled with starlight. Ordinarily, James may take a moment to appreciate the view, perhaps even look for his favorite constellations. But tonight, he was feeling stressed, his hands shaking a bit as he tried to make a Windsor knot. The movements of his prosthetic fingers were not as fluid as they normally were
I thought I stopped having these problems with my mechanical parts years ago. This is almost as bad as those first few weeks of recovery.
There was a certain level of irony to this situation. Ironwood could stare down and fight an Ursa Major one on one and not feel any stress, but put him on stage to formally accept his new position as General of the Atlesian Armed Forces and he was practically sweating bullets.
A light knock on his office broke him out of his headspace. Opening the door revealed...
"Hello, James," Ozpin said, leaning heavily on his cane. "May I come in?"
James blinked, and stood aside for the fellow Headmaster, allowing Oz to enter. He was dressed in a black suit with a charcoal vest beneath, completed with a forest green cravat and polished wingtip shoes.
"Of course...I must say I'm suprised you came all the way from Vale, Oz."
"Well, tonight is a special occasion," Ozpin said with a cryptic smile. "You don't mind if I bring along a plus one, do you?"
Before James could reply, a familiar sigh came from the doorway. Blonde hair tied back into a bun, analytical green eyes behind cat eyed glasses, and a stern expression. Yep, it was Headmistress of Beacon Academy, Glynda Goodwitch. She strutted in and closed the office door behind her.
She was wearing a sleek purple strapless dress, and had a small golden necklace around her neck, an old birthday gift from Ironwood.
"Honestly, James, we had to go through so much security just to speak with you," Glynda said with a scowl. "We were stopped four times, on top of going through a full search going through the checkpoint."
"Ah, it's good to see you, Glynda," James said, his shoulders a bit tensed up. "Glad you could make it. My apologies for the greeting, I would have come down to meet you myself if I had known."
Her sour expression softened a bit when she saw the bags under James's eyes, the stress apparent on his face, and how disheveled he appeared.
"You haven't been sleeping lately," she said, snapping her finger and using Telekinesis to fix James's tie and smooth out his hair. "Is it your prosthetics again?"
"I'm fine, it's fine," Ironwood stated, pacing a bit, his breathing becoming more rapid. "It just feels like...like we're being fought at every turn."
The Council is too caught up in pandering and racial politics to see the bigger picture, Jacques is making it exceedingly difficult to purchase Dust for the military, likely because I ordered investigations into misconduct in his mines. I know he's using faunas slave labor in his Mistral operations, but local authorities over there and his cronies here cover up the evidence. The White Fang has begun taking extreme measures, including the assassination of government officials. And then there's the matter of ... her."
As though Ozpin could read Ironwood's mind, he placed a surprisingly firm hand on the much taller Headmaster's shoulder.
"You are being fought, because the actions you are taking are important," Oz said with a wise smile. "You are a good man, James, and you have a conviction to do what's right, even at great sacrifice to yourself. But you need to remember that you're not alone."
"He's right," Glynda said, her hand on James's other shoulder. "You took on these positions because you wanted to protect your kingdom and all of Remnant. There will be protest because you're changing things, but you have more allies than you believe."
A small, grateful smile crossed James's face, and his breathing evened out again. He could carry on with the knowledge that he wasn't alone, that they could protect the world together.
Ozpin reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a silver pocket watch.
"You should probably head over, your promotion ceremony will begin soon," the old headmaster said with a smile.
"Do you have your speech prepared?" Glynda asked as she pushed her cat eyed glasses up, opening the office door with her Semblance.
"Of course I do," James said with a chuckle.
And it turned out to be a wonderful speech...with an extremely awkward outro.
