faderift | all of nature wild & free

"Shit, dude," Cosima says. "I hate to be a cliche, but I can solidly argue that the West Coast, to my knowledge, doesn't include towns that suck out all your happiness." She thinks, then amends: "...L.A., maybe, but at least the weather's good."

She takes a sip of beer, and looks appreciative at the taste.

"If you ever find a way to get out, though, you should definitely visit California." Assuming either of them left Thedas, of course, which Cosima is aggressively assuming will happen, at least for the time being.

Dude. Ruby grins - it's bizarre the little things you miss, and apparently 'dude' was one of them. "Actually, I have it on good authority that there's a soul eating wizard in L.A., so, y'know."

She manages to deliver it straight for all of two seconds before her own smile betrays her.

"I'd love to, honestly. I've been wanting to see more of the world since forever, but I guess the universe interpreted it as 'more worlds,' go figure."

Ruby leans forward, then, and rests her forearms against the table to prop herself up. "Is that where you're from?"

Edited 2016-07-06 09:29 (UTC)

"Yep, born and raised. Though I was actually in Canada directly before here. Go figure."

It's probably Canada's fault, somehow.

"At least I finally had an opportunity to indulge a love of stylish outerwear. Speaking of," she adds, and nods at the cloak, "did you get that here or bring it with you?"

Ruby just sighs, as if that explains it all. Freaking Canada. "That's what happens when you go to Canada, I guess."

She says, as if she doesn't have some vague feeling that maybe Ruby - Ruby-Ruby, not Ruby-Red - might be Canadian. She remembers being enthusiastic for hockey, at any rate, without really knowing why, and she'd taken that to mean that her curse self was meant to be Canadian, or something.

"That is the original hood of fairy tale fame and it came with me." Her tone is a little ridiculous, self mockery wound into the implied grandeur of the thing. "It probably could use a dry cleaning, honestly." Still, she picks it up and holds it out to Cosima, the brocade catching the light. "Are you looking at branching out into the exciting fashion world of historically confusing fantasy?"

Cosima laughs, almost gently. "Well, I mean, I don't know if you heard, but I found myself in a place where magic's suddenly a thing and I'm drinking beer out of a flagon unironically, so." She shrugs. "Also, I'm probably going to need more than one set of clothes, eventually, if only so I don't have to resort to doing laundry naked."

Though that's one way to make new friends.

She takes the offered cloak, giving it a closer look. "It's pretty. Sort of ren faire but like, expensive ren faire that you can only afford if you work there or if you have way too much disposable income."

"No way? Really?" That's shocking. See her face, it is a shocked face. Still, she quirks a brow a little, lifting up her own flagon. "Come on. Like your hipster self isn't loving the flagon."

Yeah, she said it, hipster. She's calling it. Ruby also would have to admit she is an utter hipster herself, in certain ways. You can pry vinyl records from her cold, dead hands. They do sound better.

Still, a shrug. "Honestly, I don't think naked laundry would shock too many people here. Well. Maybe some nobles, but they sound kind of like they're easily scandalised in general."

A little laugh, mostly silent, and she smiles fondly at the hood. "Granny got it from a wizard. It... wizards don't charge money so much as things you can't put a value on, if that makes sense. All magic comes with a price." More soberly, that, before she silences herself with some beer.

"Wow, that..." She was going to say 'sounds ominous,' but it sounded like it was less of a joke than a lot of what Ruby's said, so she settles on, "sounds intense."

"Also," because Cosima can't let it pass outright, "These glasses are prescription, thank you. I do play obscure European board games, but I don't own any mason jars."

It's an out, if Ruby wants to stay on lighter topics, for now.

"It is," she agrees, very easily, before gladly breezing right on past that. She might save that particular gem for a second talk, or at least... further into this one. Children and memories and so on were potentially sensitive topic areas in the context of their being bartering chips, after all.

"Sure they are." Just because she believes her doesn't mean she has to make it sound like she believes her. "And you don't own any mason jars because you just got here. Give yourself time to restock."

With a smile, so very helpful.

It makes Cosima laugh. "You want to try them on and see?" It's more a measure of trust here than it would be at home - she has no idea where she'd replace them if she had to - but it seems so natural in the moment that the glasses are already in her hand.

"Sure." With a laugh and a shake of her head, before she nods to the hood. "You can try on the hood, if you want."

Although, she peers at the glasses suspiciously, before her gaze flickers back to Cosima. "Just how much are these going to blind me?"

"Ah, see how the skepticism vanishes," Cosima says with a grin. "I'm pretty nearsighted, so. Some?"

She'd look at the hood but, well, it's sort of blurry for now.

"Well, wolves and their eyes. All the better to see you with, that whole schtick." A moment of further consideration, before she pops the glasses on, and--

"Jesus." Removes, very quickly removed, before holding them very carefully towards Cosima. "You'll get your certificate of authentication in the mail. Doesn't mean you aren't a hipster."

"Okay, okay." She takes them back with a grin. "Noted. Though I've always thought nerds make bad hipsters; we're too enthusiastic about our area of interest to be any good at detached cool."

A hum, somewhere between sympathetic and musing. "True, I guess. There weren't enough hipsters in Storybrooke for me to really compare notes with."

Ruby shrugs, sips her beer, and attempts to be reassuring. "Although I don't think any hipster is detached cool when it comes to coffee. They are an enigma of inconsistencies."

Her look is mischievous. "What if I don't drink coffee?"

Ruby looks incredulous.

"You're bullshitting."

Surely. Surely nobody actually doesn't drink coffee. What a terrible concept.

"I'm not," she says, laughing. "Tea. I mean, I've tried coffee, I'm not an alien, but I'm not a regular drinker."

A pause, then, "Man, I don't envy you trying to kick a heavy caffeine habit as soon as you arrived, though."

"Tea has its moments," she agrees, and it is the tone of someone who loves tea, really, but whose blood runs closer to espresso. She groans a little, laughing, and rests her head in her hand.

"You can get it here but it's not the same." A singularly tragic moment, and her smile is self mocking, again. "The world is in turmoil, but what about my coffee?"

Her life is hard, and doesn't she know it.

"Given every coffee drinker I know, I'd say the priorities sound about right. But hey, at least there's alcohol?"

Subpar coffee, no weed, but there's always getting drunk on reasonably potable ale if the new reality gets to be too much!

Ruby laughs, raising her stein to knock it against Cosima's. "Here's to long term liver damage, no matter the poison."

Annnnd a pause. "So, I've done the inter-world rodeo before, at least. You seem extremely chill about... all this."

"Oh."

That's... completely a fair observation.

"...I think I'm kind of in shock, to be totally honest? Not to downplay - everything. But I guess my world's been rocked a few times in the last year," understatement, "and I don't know what to do except move forward."

Cosima pauses, then says frankly, "I want to get home. But I'm in no position to know how to make that happen. I don't know what now."

"Shock is... it's more than fair," Ruby replies, leaning forward and resting against the table. "I mean, it shouldn't be possible. Or real. Ideally this is just a really, really intense tequila delusion." Her smile a shade self deprecating, and she reached out to lightly touch Cosima's wrist.

"We'll get you home. I don't know how, but we will. And there's good people here. It... isn't going to give you a roadmap for what to do next, but knowing you're around decent people is a good start?"

A little apologetic, because this all sounds cliche as well. "You'll be okay, Cosima."

"I thought about the delusion thing," she says, because of course she did, "but it's so internally consistent that it can't be unless I've had a total psychotic break. Those are rare. And even if I have, there's nothing I can do about it from inside if it's this acute, so it sort of comes out the same either way."

A pause, then:

"Not that I'm accusing you of being a hallucination. That's rude."

It's halfway a joke.

"Well," she says, sipping her beer, "I've been called worse."

With a wry smile, tilting her head just a little. "I don't think me assuring you that you're not having a psychotic break is going to mean a whole bunch," Ruby starts, "but if I'm a figment of your hallucination, or whatever, then you need to hallucinate someplace with tequila and Madonna records, stat."

So deadpan, for all of half a second before she smiles - an easy, sympathetic thing.

It makes Cosima laugh, quiet but genuine. "Tequila's not usually my poison, but I wouldn't be picky."

She sits back. "How did you cope? When you first came."

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