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.

"Hey-- Bruce?"

Not so much questioning his identity - they've worked together before - so much as catching his attention and asking if he's free.

"Hi." Ruby waves add best one can when carrying a number of paper bags, which is to day not very well. Her smile, however, is bright. "I've got some new seeds for you."

Ruby's attire is Thedas but not quite, though arguably is it the flowers marking her path and the buttercups and clovers blooming underfoot that are a little more recent and a little more weird.

Bruce glances up from his journal at the voice, taking a moment to place a name to it - as well as the face that greets him.

"Lucas." He's seen her around often enough, usually with Adelaide, which is good because she needs much better company than him or Anders. As much as he can tell she's been good for her, and he certainly hopes that will continue.

He puts down the journal as she moves closer towards him, about to speak when then he notices the trail of... flora following her wherever she walks. That's--certainly new. Huh.

Not wanting to stare too long and be awkward about it, he quickly turns his gaze back up at her and flashes a smile. "You didn't have to, but--thank you. The garden will be better for your help."

"It's no problem. I try and get a whole bunch of cutting whenever I go to a different area. I can't always find seeds, but when I do..." She trails off, and shrugs hopefully. "I'm no gardener, but I tried to get a bunch of Crystal Grace and Arbor Blessing, so hopefully some of them'll take."

She holds out the carefully packaged and labelled seeds, and smiles before nodding to the garden. "It looks so much better than when I got here. Um-- if there's any plants you're ever looking out for, just let me know. Adelaide normally gives me a list of medical ones, but I'm happy to flesh it out with other stuff."

Ivy is growing a wall near them, and the proximity of Ruby and the ring make little orange flowers start peeking through the dark green leaves, which she glances at with a quiet sort of bemusement.

Edited (Damn it self) 2016-07-04 11:25 (UTC)

"Hey," she asks quietly, slowly unrolling a stretch of wire and not really able to glance in the direction of whoever she's talking to, "can I ask you a favour?"

Ruby is sitting at a table in the gardens, enjoying the sun on her back and the bright light for her task, which for now is assembling all the pieces she needs to make an alarming number of ice grenades. "I wouldn't ask," she continues, and her tone is apologetic, "but this wire is super determined to be curly and I need it stretched out for cutting the lengths-- yeah."

Buttercups and daisies and forget-me-knots and little purple and red flowers she doesn't have names for grow thick under her feet, ending a path of them that mark her steps across the garden.

"Even if only a fraction of them last, its better than nothing. We can work with the surviving stock to get more." Between Sina's magic and the other assorted help that was given, the garden truly had flourished in the last few months - it also helped that there hadn't been any more destruction in the area since then. The progress was heartening to see, and his own smile widens a little more as he glances over to the garden as well.

He looks back to Lucas after that, ready to wave off her offer, only to pause at the sudden emergence of flowers poking out from the ivy. Those... certainly weren't there before.

Without much of a choice he finally turns his gaze to the ring of flowers that was surrounding her and pointedly raised an eyebrow. "Is there something I should know?"

Good. That's good. Even though she doesn't need to be relieved, as such, she's glad to have helped, have made even a little difference, and she relaxes a little.
... Right in time for Bruce to ask his question, and she groans, good natured and full of true (not true at all) suffering. Raising er right hand, Ruby turns it so Bruce can better see the rosewood ring on her right hand, grain shifting under the light.

"I found it in some ruins in the Hinterlands," she starts, leaning her shoulder into the wall and watching more flowers start to crawl a little higher up the wall. "It's... Kind of ridiculous, but I'm getting kind of fond of it."

She stands with a basket at the entrance of his tent. For all the warm sunshine and the brightness that comes with blue skies and green leaves and flowers blooming, the atmosphere around Skyhold has been miserable and wintery in some corners. It's only to be expected, really, when people lose someone important to them.

Quietly, she knocks on the nearest surface we can reach that'll provide a satisfactory knock. "Anders, is now an okay time?"

Her voice is gentle, and in her hands she holds a basket with a white cloth dropped over whatever's in it.

Bruce blinks at the sight of the ring, looking at it for several moments before he looks to the still growing array of flora around Lucas for another couple of seconds--then shifts his gaze back to her and frowns.

"...is this all that it does?" Just... making flowers appear? What was the point of it? Bruce was almost half-certain that there had to be more to what was going on.

Having outted herself as Red Riding Hood, Ruby is pretty satisfied that Cosima will be able to pick which one she is in the tavern, what with the crimson brocade cloak resting over the chair next to her.

She's idly making notes, two flagons of beer in front of her, and fiddles with one of five braided leather bracelets that are big enough to slip further along her forearm when she props her elbow on the table.

When Cosima arrives, she's probably no harder to miss, for all that Ruby's never seen her before. She certainly doesn't blend in. (She's idly imagined whether Sarah would try to pass, in her place. Probably, at least a little. Cosima, though, has neither a talent nor a taste for pretending to be anything other than herself.)

She sits down across from Ruby with a grin. "Whatever happened to a rose stuck in Anna Karenina?"

Ruby looks up sharply, and her mouth quirks with a smile, sunny and easy. A fellow misfit - Enchanted Forest native she may be, but she's currently forsaking layers of dresses for leather and loose shirts.

"Well, I tried, but the closest I could get was a copy of the Chant of Light and that seemed sacrilegious."

Flipping shut the notes, Ruby idly shakes out her wrists. "Nice to meet you in person. Weird how you can have like an internet friend here, huh?"

Cosima laughs, sitting back a little. "Yeah, it's not something I'd have expected. But it's kind of nice? I mean, for all I know, we could be from the same world. Or at least the little town part, the one that has Bowie and The Nanny, could be the same one as mine."

Maybe less so the Little Red Riding Hood part, but she'll take what she can get.

"Does what we're drinking have a name more specific than 'the ale they serve at this tavern?'"

"It does, as a matter of fact. Summer Ale, it's from a brewery in Denerim aaand it kinda reminds me of an IPA," actually. "But my standard for ale is 'not dwarven' and that's served me pretty well."

Her smile is just a little self deprecating. "Hey, it's possible. I don't know for sure, we kind of can't leave town without maybe losing our memories." Apologetic, sort of. "Not a ringing tourism endorsement for Maine, though. 'Where small towns are made to rob people of happiness.'"

"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?"

The voice is a little bit of a surprise. He's not sure why Ruby would be visiting... but it's not an unwelcome surprise. Anders glances over what he's wearing, makes sure Purrelden hasn't gotten herself tangled in anything, and only then responds.

"Of course. Come on in. Are you all right?" The tent gets a little straightening, small embroidered pillow tossed back on the bed from his little desk as he frowns at the papers he has all over said desk. It's not as orderly as he'd like it, but it's been a rough few weeks.

"I'm fine." Quick, though her voice stays soft. Calm, really, though empathy sneaks in along the edges of it and makes it more than just calm.. Calming, an optimist might say. She just hopes it isn't-- something. Annoying? Condescending?

"I just wanted to check in. I heard about your friend, Hercules," and she pauses, then, a complicated sort of expression on her face. "In my world, sometimes when people lose someone you try to help by bringing food. Like a comfort thing or just so they have one less thing to worry about, you know?"

Ruby glances down at the basket and feels markedly ridiculous. "I brought you this, but um. Mostly I just wondered how you're holding up? And if you need anything."

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?"

He looks up from the desk with a little surprise on his face. Kindness isn't really something he expects from most people he knows well, to get it from someone he's only acquainted with takes him a moment to wrap his head around.

"I... Thank you." Anders gestures at the chair near his desk, taking a seat on the bed. "Did you know him? He deserves to be known. He's... He was a good man. A good leader." And he's a little nervous about how Blackwall doesn't talk when the Wardens are together, doesn't let anyone know what he's thinking. Is Blackwall regretting joining them? If he leaves, then Teren's in charge, and she's... aloof. Anders doesn't know what she's thinking either. They may be in for a difficult transition here, as if his head isn't a mess already.

"He saved my life, you know." And then it clicks that she asked a question. "And I think I need better focus. That would help a great deal."

Before she sits, Ruby takes a step closer to rest the basket down on the bed beside him. There is the thin cheesecloth, but underneath there's a trio of large fruit pies. Blueberry, to the skilled sniff-tician; the benefit of being the field so much is that you get some bartering power when there's a chance for you to pick up this or that weirdly specific thing the cooks want, whether its Orlesian rose liqueur or some truffle that only grows in some ultra remote part of the Hinterlands. Along with the pies there's some cheese and biscuits and apples - nothing amazingly fancy, but nice food. Comfort food, really.

And then she does sit, and her smile is bright and sad at the same time. "We never met. I heard about him from Merrill, once or twice." The pause isn't awkward, but Ruby's trying to weight up her words before she speaks further. "Would it-- help to talk about things, or do you prefer not to?"

Her brow furrows a little, trying to unravel a way to help and finding herself coming up sort.

"Well," somehow just that one word sounds a little strained and awkward, "so... far? I mean, I don't want to jinx it or something. Anders figured it might be like Dalish Keeper magic that makes it do its thing."

She leans forward, slightly conspiratorial. "I can't take it off," Ruby admits. "It's weird. But I'm kind of getting used to it? I mean, fair warning for people to know they're dealing with someone ridiculous, right?"

So far wasn't entirely reassuring. Bruce frowns, not feeling very settled with this piece of information, but it wasn't like enchantment was a thing he did that all often, even back in the Circles.

Before he can voice out any of that though Lucas speaks again, and Bruce frowns even more at her words. "Ridiculous?" What did she mean by that? "You're not ridiculous." At least, as far as he could tell - which he supposed wasn't a lot, but still. If she really was he supposed it would have shone through already.

Sam had noticed the woman sitting in the gardens, bent over her work, and had been curious, but not curious enough to let it overcome his manners and lead him to snoop and pry. He'd gone on with his own duties, weeding and watering and tending the plants, though always aware of the new presence in the familiar gardens.

He pauses, brow furrowing in confusion, at the sight of the new flowers trailing across the garden, even more at a loss when they seem to lead right to her. There are too many, and most are too small, to have been transplanted there - and who would plant a meandering trail of flowers across the neat rows of herbs and vegetables anyhow?

But it's nothing he can explain, and in the end he leaves them there, too softhearted to think of digging them up even if they had needed that space for other things. The royal elfroot'll just have to be planted somewhere else, that's all.

When she calls out quietly, he looks up immediately - not as wholly engrossed in his own thoughts as he'd appeared - and then approaches her, peering with confused interest at the strange assortment of things on her table.

"Of course, Miss," he says, and immediately reaches out, holding the wire taut.

all of nature wild & free

( closed ) Adelaide.

( closed ) Bruce

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( closed ) Samwise.

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( closed ) Anders.

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( closed ) Cosima.

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