faderift | all of nature wild & free

When she's human, Ruby doesn't howl. There's all manner of things she can do with her voice, but as a general rule when she's walking in this skin she doesn't add howling to the list - for one it would be weird, and it just wouldn't be as satisfying as when the Wolf howls. That isn't to say that Ruby Lucas is always on the quiet side.

On this day, Ruby started on the quiet side (humming, mostly) and as she's worked her way through a mental checklist of the Immaculate Collection (fudging her way through a couple of songs she never cared about as much) the usual mental checks on maintaining inhibitions and awareness have slipped a little as she's relaxed. It's escalated from humming and quiet singing to getting into it, using a bunch of lavender as an impromptu microphone. There's dancing (good dancing, still... dancing) and she's in her general summer state of not quite Thedas.

It'd be great to be able to blame the booze she's working on, but she's not actually had a drop. In the background there is a copper still, gin-to-be-hopefully steeping. She has a pile of books, a few different lush projects in hand courtesy of the supplies Adelaide ordered, and a scattering of fruit that she bribed various vendors and cooks for with favours already done or promised pick ups next time she's in this or that town.

"When you call my name, it's like a little prayer, I'm down on my knees, I want to take you there--"

Anytime, Adelaide. Anytime would be a good time to stop to dancing.

It is a bit of a walk, hobbling down to the Undercroft where she'd had Ruby's tools and stills and books set up for this particular venture. Proper Gin and liqueurs and all manner of bottled things that are unfamiliar but potent to be produced and while normally she would expect notes and tests simmering away-

finding Ruby like this is not so terrible.

The song unfamiliar, the dance doubly so, but the joy, the energy? That is what she'd hoped for. Something to ground and uplift in ways she with her magic cannot manage. Something for those not of this world, something for those of this world to learn more of them. "Red-"

She calls out, laughter in her voice. "You sent for me?"

Ruby is capable of holding herself remarkably still when she's, oh, frozen in horror. after a moment she glances to Adelaide, one hand settling at her waist like that's what she was very casually always meaning to do.

"Hi." Be calm, be confident. "You know, it's kind of mean to sneak up on a girl. I could havd been doing something embarrassing."

"Then you have my sincere apologies. I did not intend to sneak, though I thought the sound of my hobbling would be enough to alert you to my presence." Not when she is singing and dancing, apparently. Adelaide takes the next few steps down slowly, a thin smile on her lips.

"Is the lavender particularly inspiring?"

"Normally," Ruby agrees. Convenient how her wolf hearing seemed to tune out, sometimes. Maybe an effort to spare herself her own singing, who knows.

A step closer to Adelaide, and she tries to muster a way to look at the lavender that isn't sheepish. "I think it might be contaminated, actually. Clearly I wasn't in control of my actions. Don't worry, though, I'm planning on seeking medical advice."

Help her. "If it weren't weird hallucinogenic lavender I'd be thinking about putting it in the gin." Annnnd she wanders to the desk, setting the bunch down. "Good day?"

"You have-" She starts, grunting a bit as she settles near the desk, leaning against it rather than putting weight on her leg. "A lovely voice."

It feels important to say. Not a compliment, merely a statement of fact. Her voice is lovely and so, too, is the rest of her.

Wait.

Adelaide shakes that thought off in favor of looking over the fruit and the still. "Productive. More paperwork than usual but that is to be expected near the beginning of a new month."

Ruby's expression flickers with a little frown. "Here, hang on." Pulling the lone chair over, a for all that it's got a couple of trays of apples stacked on it - she lifts them off with ease, and nudges it closer to Adelaide with her foot before turning to find a new home for the fruit.

"Flattery will get you everywhere," she jokes, before carefully stepping over a box to another area to pop them down. "I can help with the paperwork, you know."

"It is not flattery if it is true." She sniffs, not quite imperiously but close enough for casual mockery. "And I know you can- and you do. I simply end up with more than I even send to you to handle."

Quite a bit more- though it is a sign of trust that she sends any of it to Ruby at all rather than handling it herself. Delegation is key and this is something she is only just now beginning to grasp.

With great care she slips over to the chair, straightening out her leg. "Thank you, Red."

A quiet laugh,shaking her head. "Now you're just making fun of me." Evading or just being ridiculous - who knows?

With a little smile Ruby drags a crate over and claims it as her own seat, popping down before Adelaide.

"So, what did one snowman say to the otger?"

"Not at all." Not even a little. "LeBlancs do not flatter."

It is unbecoming or- something. She needs to brush up on the old rules as they will be annoyingly relevant once the Inquisition settles in Orlais.

"...I am afraid to ask but, what?" Snowmen, talking?

"Neither do Lucases," she replies, a little dry. Eugenia Lucas was renowned for the opposite, in fact.

Ah, indulgence. Ruby's smile could light up a room. "'Do you smell carrots?'"

"...Do you smell-"

Noses. Common noses for snowmen were.

"Red." She holds a straight face for as long as she could manage (which is not as long as it ought to be) before cracking a smile.

The smile makes a dumb joke entirely worth it.

"LeBlancs don't approve of cheese, either, huh?"

"On the contrary- I think we own part of a creamery? Or at least have invested in the same. At the very least I know we have a hand in some manner of brie made with walnuts and apricots." Her mother sent a sample. It was lovely.

"Really?"

Huh. Go figure. "In my village only a coupla families even owned cows." One of them was the family of a girl who made Red's childhood hell, fun fact.

She leans back on her crate, humming thoughtfully. "Is it legendairy chesse?"

"I wouldn't say 'legendary' but there is a catchy little song that is used to advertise-" Wait.

wait.

Adelaide's mouth snaps shut as she glares, or tries to glare, over a twitch of a smirk. "You think you are being funny, don't you?"

Smoothly ignoring that,

"Anyway, if there is cheese then you might need to revisit the thing about being the only mage in your family. You can't have 'fromages' without 'mages,' after all."

No. Please. Silence her.

She will not laugh. She will not laugh. She will not-

Adelaide covers her face with a hand, supposedly despairing if not for the way her shoulders shake with repressed laughter.

"Uh oh. Cheese forgive me? I was really milking it for all it was worth."

Is it possible for a voice to sound like a wink? Because if it is, that's exactly what just happened.

"Sorry, I'm done. I think."

Not laughing, not laughing- She presses the back of her hand against her mouth, like that will help. "You are terrible. You are terrible, Red, and you ought to feel terrible."

"I feel great, but I'll pretend to feel a little bad, just because you're special."

She's not trying very hard to be convincing, however, given the grin. It's good to make Adelaide laugh, and always is. She's always so tense and hardworking and serious.

"You're kind of encouraging me a little bit. The smile's worth the misguided judgment."

"Not that special." But she'll take the warm, curling thing in her chest and hold onto that for a little while if it is all the same to Ruby.

"I shall endeavor to smile less to prevent such behavior in the future." She'd had a reason for coming down here, she's certain. But right now she cannot for the life of her recall it. "Did you have something you wished to show me? Aside from the dancing and the singing."

"I think that one's for me to decide on, actually." She says Adelaide is special, and she means it... even if she was being a tiny bit obnoxious.

And, hey. Her smile is mortified in a good humoured way as she covers her face with her hands. "Please forget all about that. That shouldn't be anyone's first impression of Madonna." Her hands drop back to her lap. "I was going to show you th team schnapps, actually. For the snow thing?"

"You will have to give me a proper impression some time in the future." It was certainly spirited music, something she could appreciate. Along with the dancing.

"Ah- you have finished them already?" Excellent. "You never did tell me what flavors you had in mind for violet and periwinkle. Apricot and Raspberry are fairly straightforward."

"I was hoping that maybe instead we could never speak of it again, actually." So bright, so hopeful.

Ruby pushes herself up from her seat, and wanders to a cabinet with a broken door. "Not sure if they're perfect, but hopefully they're not toxic."

For the record, she turns to quirk a smile at Adelaide, "Apricot and raspberry were a little too easy. I mixed it up, some."

( closed ) Adelaide.

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