( open ) like some child possessed, the beast howls in my veins

[eviscerates]

WHO: Ruby Lucas & open.
WHAT: Following the events of the missing shard bearer plot (here) Ruby insists on being taken to the dungeons and held there until she is fully detoxed from lyrium.
WHEN: From a gently timey-wimey point in mid-September to early October, at least. She may be in the dungeons longer, depends a bit.
WHERE: THE DUNGEONS, Skyhold.
NOTES: Rumours page & OOC report details, although the latter is more likely pertinent to people who were on the mission/were told about the mission directly/the advisors than general gossip. Alsi new cr is welcome! Ruby's info sheet is here.
WARNINGS: Horror themes! Reference to the events of the shard bearer plot, which include the Wolf attacking and eating people, forced lyrium ingestion, hallucinations, death, violence, torture.

She’s never forgotten that she’s a monster, that the people of Storybrooke had been ready to take up arms against her. Ruby Lucas wasn’t the sweet girl who remembered your coffee order and fixed you whiskey neat from the top shelf on a bad day. She was a vicious, wild thing. The Big Bad Wolf.

After the mission she told them to kill her or shackle her, and when she arrived back to Skyhold she refused to go to the medical tents. It wasn’t worth the risk - keep her locked up, keep her cloak bound across her throat so she couldn’t pull it away during a delirium. She had to stay in at least a month, she had to try and keep people safe.

The first two weeks she’s still recovering from her injuries and the lyrium is still distorting her memories and thoughts and what she sees, leaves her with a constant thirst and the unhealthy pallor in her skin is obvious. Treating the injuries will be ongoing, but the first week she sleeps almost constantly, and the second she is struggling with memories. If people visit during this time there is ever chance of her mind taking flashes from other people’s memories though she can’t make sense of much of anything.

After that she can be found in different states.

She might sit on the floor with her hands through the bars, putting together the most basic, non-volatile components and mechanisms for traps, setting then all in a box to be taken to the Requisition officer.

She might be standing with rotten fruit sliding down the side of her face and splattered across her clothes, perfectly still. Either the guard just hauled the offending fruit thrower who posed as a visitor out, or they might have been distracted by another job so the produce producers are there to be chased off. Unless your character would throw fruit? But then they might be hauled away.
(Note: probably only two of this one unless we work something particular out, just because I don’t want to undermine the efficiency of the Inquisition’s guards at protecting prisoners, even willing ones.)

Ruby may have stripped down some and be treating her wounds and attempting to change dressings and apply poultices, because healers shouldn’t have to go into her cell, as far as she’s concerned. Vicious puncture wounds dot her skin, perfect circular marks that are mostly uniform, but vary in size here and there. There is a jagged gash over her ribs and a burn across the other side, which make her hiss as she tries to pull the rank dressing away.

Or maybe she’s just sitting or lying down on her side, defeated and curled inward.

Wildcards welcome, pick your own location-limited adventure and give me an idea of timeframe/if you are okay with Ruby picking up memories or not if it’s set during the first couple of weeks.

Comments

tail-end of the two week period, no rush

[gatheringstorm]

Initially, Korrin isn't anywhere near the dungeons after the return from Skyhold. She's singularly focused on Araceli's recovery, nevermind that her love is as terrible a patient as she ever was in the past. During those times when Araceli is stir-crazy and slips away, she simply sets about to getting more medicine from the healing tents and keeping them available. During those moments, if Adelaide is available she'll try to get updates on Ruby's situation. She hasn't forgotten about her, even as there's not much she can do during lyrium withdrawal, anyway. And yes, that one particular wrist is covered up. Ruby doesn't need to see the resulting scar.

At the end of the second week, Korrin has enough spare time and energy to head down below, at least for a brief visit. She descends carefully, bringing with her a carafe of water and some baked goods from the kitchen. They're fresh, so possibly better than what Ruby might have already. Her satchel is also bulging with potions, just in case they're needed. None of them contain lyrium, of course.

"...Ruby?"

[eviscerates]

She's been hearing different voices ever since the lyrium first sung to her. They've woven in and out of reality, come with different strings of clarity, and for a moment she lies there and isn't certain if that's Korrin she's really hearing, or just some ghost of Korrin in her head. Why would Korrin come to see her, after everything that happened?

But she's been seeing and hearing less, has felt more certain of being her and not stuck in the memories before or during the Curse, and she waits a long moment before considering that, perhaps, Korrin is actually here. She looks up from her place, sitting with her back to the wall, knees drawn up with her forehead resting on them, and blinks at Korrin slowly.

"What are you doing here?"

Her voice sounds dry and rough with disuse, and her gaze is uncertain.

Week 2

[motherfucking_ghost]

Some fucked up shit went down. A lot of shardbearers got caught up in shit that Church has been putting small fragments of information together from this person, that snippet of gossip, from people involved in what became a rescue op. A lot of those people he's familiar with. Some of them are god damn friends. Ruby he hasn't talked to too much, but he likes her. They're from a similar enough world to get shit, and she's cool, and people like her or Cosima are a breath of fresh air.

So he's not at all happy, during the first week, when he's more or less not permitted to go down into the dungeon (the fucking dungeons!) lest he rouse her, wake her, put himself in potential danger. He's told she's in a delicate state, a fragile state, that visitors are not encouraged until she's begun to heal.

It's worry, concern, and absolute blood red anger that fuels him. Obi-Wan might be the official voice of the Rifters to the Inquisition leaders, but Church tries to make himself available to them all, tries in his own way to be a face of the Rifters (the past rift opening notwithstanding, was kind of a little bit busy in Orlais and with recovery). So the second she seems to, in a fashion, be getting better, he is going to be there at her cell.

A god damn cell like a criminal. She looks like death that didn't even bother to get warmed over. He wishes he could be surprised, but that seems to be a running theme with the tortured shardbearers. He sits himself as quietly as he can, cross-legged, in front of her cell. He'd been warned not to get too close, not to get within arm's reach. He has resolutely ignored that.

"Hey, Ziggy Stardust, it's me. You awake?" Awake, yeah, probably. Aware seems to be another thing entirely.

[eviscerates]

Despite it all, Ziggy Stardust gets a slow curl of a smile at the corner of her mouth, though it fades soon enough. "I'm awake, but I don't feel like Ziggy Stardust." She has to take a moment, fingers curled around the edge of the bed, to pull herself up. It's slow going, rolling up vertebrae by vertebrae, and she can feel sweat rolling down her back with the exertion and the pain by the time she's upright and facing Church.

"Does that," she starts, having to pause and take a breath, "make you a Spider from Mars?"

She doesn't know what's being said. Doesn't expect it to be much better than that she's a killer, though part of her has som uneasy awareness that it's not going to be that simple, that the others will make it twist around and try to paint her as something better because they're her friends. For a brief moment she looks glad to see Church, and she is, before it's overshadowed. "You shouldn't be here, Church."

fruit throwing :|

[chainlightning]

She had been coming to visit her friend when some jeering reached her ears, and Merrill hadn't hesitated. Instead of walking, she sprints; the sounds are all too familiar, all too dangerous for women and people who are Other. Rounding the corner, she sees Ruby with splattered fruit down her front and a man with a sneer -- and she leaps forward.

"Shemlen bastard, you leave her alone!"

Cue Merrill landing on his back, legs locking around for support, and flailing her little fists as hard as she can at his face. Gus the Venatori hadn't expected it, and Merrill may have to just keep including rushing at people while yelling in her combat repertoire.

[eviscerates]

"Merrill, don't—"

Voice dry and raw and cracking as she moves to the bars, regrets the lunge when her healing back and ribs and everything pull and send spikes of hot pain through her, sending her knuckles white around the bars and sweat rolling down her back.

"Merrill, it's fine." Less audible, that, as she leans against the bars to help hold herself up.

A guard, Thomas, comes running in, and he quickly grabs the wrist of the offending miscreant (not Merrill, the dirty shemlen) and twists it behind his back. "I can see to it from here, Mademoiselle."

Almost Immediately Upon Her Return, and Afterwards

[onlyhymns]

Word spreads quickly, especially when you're a secretary. It doesn't take long for Cade to come visit, and though it takes all his courage to descend back into the place where he's already spent far too much time on the other side of the bars, he feels compelled to be there. He hasn't even spoken to Ruby since that night on the precipice, but if ever there was a time to be by her side, it's now.

He's a good companion for the long hours, at least when he's not working. He sits by her cell and reads or does paperwork, waiting for her to wake up. He's there at least once a day, to the point where it almost becomes his second home. Of course, he slinks off wordlessly when other visitors come to call, and he's easily bullied by those who wish her harm, but he always returns. And there he sits, just keeping her company. Because he knows how it feels.

[eviscerates]

When Ruby is finally coherent for long enough stretches, she is still weak. Her injuries, slow to heal and barely hastened by magic, mean that she has to move slow, and though the guard is instructed to bring her water often, she does not ask as much as she should. Dungeons should be a punishment. She should be punished.

Finally her being aware and coherent and Cade's presence align, and she sits up, easing herself up in her cot and looking at him. It takes her a moment to be certain he's real and not imagined, and occurs to her that maybe the other times he really as here, too. Not to taunt her with all her speeches about optimism, but just—

here.

"Hey," she starts, very quietly from her place. "You've been here a while."

Definitely a realisation, that.

Treating her wounds

[fleurdesel]

"What do you think you are doing?" She's come down at least once a day, Remi in hand or upon her shoulder, a basket of food or drink or some manner of treat, a book to read to her-

Something to make this time easier. To make the pain less, to make the imprisonment? Less dreary. Her own wounds are mended even if they continue to ache- but that which remains on Ruby? She tends to when she can. It's slow going for reasons she doesn't quite understand but- leaving Ruby to tend to them on her own? Unthinkable. She had thought she'd made that plain if the crackle of irritation in her voice is anything to go by. "Let me in."

The guard, of course, is reasonably reluctant. Adelaide's glare isn't as motivating as she might hope.

[eviscerates]

The guard is a tall man with dark skin and sharp eyes, whose gaze flits between Ruby and Adelaide. When he speaks, his voice marks him as Orlesian, and not an Orlesian from a fine estate. "She's treating it herself," he starts, though he does look at Ruby with a look of badly, that makes Ruby look away. Her hands are bloody and her back and her sides ache, and maybe she just thought it would be cathartic, or something.

"You don't have to do this, Del. I can do it." Quiet and flat in ways that Ruby didn't sound until after the battle.

Thomas, the guard, is already reaching for his keys, albeit slowly. "If something happens," he starts, looking at Adelaide with a hesitation bourn of concern for her safety, rather than disobedience.

second week 8)

[amygdalae]

It had taken a bit for Bruce to really be able to organize his thoughts and what he could do for Lucas. What happened was... naturally, none of it was her fault, and werewolves weren't really an issue but--he could easily see the correlation there. A thing within her, beyond her control, dragged out forcibly and hurting people because of it... those were feelings he could relate to all too well.

It's that more than anything else that has him coming down here with some stew that he had made himself. He carries that on a tray along with some bread left over from the morning, walking down the last few steps into the dungeons and quietly makes his way towards her. Her condition had been improving, but she still needed all the energy she could get - hopefully, this could be of some use.

[eviscerates]

The smell of stew and the sound of footsteps makes her eyes open. She wasn't sleeping, just sitting with her back against the wall and her head tipped back to rest against it as well. It makes for a particularly pathetic seeming pose, probably, but she can't bring herself to much care. She's better able to move, now, but silver is a vicious thing, and it has taken many efforts on the part of Adelaide and her magic to make the wounds as much progressed as they are.

"Hey." Her voice is lower than usual, and rougher, and she just sounds exhausted. She feels like her throat is as dry and dusty as the rest of the dungeon.

way later on, traps

[wontforgetyou]

One of Ruby's visitors comes to see her much later on. Between his own lyrium dosing and his injuries, he hasn't been allowed out of the healers tents for quite some time. By the time he's finally released, most of the worst of what he's been through is healed - more or less. There's still some occasional dizziness from his concussion, and his ribs aren't quite back to the point where he able to breathe deeply enough to torment everyone with the bagpipes. But he's mobile, and after pestering enough people to figure out where Ruby's gotten to, he makes his way down to the cell she's in, carrying something with him at his side. Whatever it is is wrapped in cloth, but there's a certain smell to it that only really comes along with fresh-baked cookies. He doesn't make any move to offer her the bundle just yet, letting it stay at his side as he peers into the cell to see what she's up to. What he does offer her is a small smile - if she happens to look up from her work at any point, that is.

"Hey. They've got you working on traps again, I see."

[eviscerates]

Wolf noses, all the better for smelling cookies with. Although she's at the front of the cell, she scoots forward a little more to get a better look at who it is coming down the stairs, and smiles ruefully when she spots Jamie. People have been so— patient, and kind, for the most part, patient and kind in ways she didn't expect and certainly in ways she didn't deserve. She figured - hoped? clung desperately to the idea? - that Jamie wasn't here because he couldn't me, rather than because he wouldn't be. It means that when she sees him, registers it properly, she's both very relieved and filled with a certain amount of dread.

"Even if I'm down here, I can still be useful."

The motions are small, ones that she's done over and over enough by now that she doesn't need to look. More time to practice her Artificer skills, at least. "It's good to see you."

[foxsays]

As soon as Araceli can hobble to the dungeons? She hobbles to the dungeons. Hobbling would really be a rather charitable description of what Araceli is able to do even by the time she sees Ruby, hair pinned messily out of the way (washed by Pel but gathered up since she can't really deal with it herself) with her left arm tucked close.

Lux trots ahead of her, carrying something in his mouth that he sets down in front of Ruby and noses between the bars, wagging his tail.

"Hola." Araceli's voice is hoarse from exhaustion - she doesn't sleep all at once, and she can't get comfy in the healer's tents where they won't let her leave, and she feels trapped - but it's nothing compared to how Ruby must be feeling. "I had to have him carry it, I can't manage--"

What if my leg doesn't let me climb anymore, what if-- She slams a lid on the thoughts, Ruby is locked in and Araceli isn't, the idea of being locked behind bars sends cold fingers down her spine. The smile is too bright, too brittle, not really Araceli. It won't be for a while.

"Stairs," she continues as if she hasn't missed so many beats, "and holding things at the same time. Do you like macarons?"

Lux barks. Noses them again. Hops up so he can poke his paw through the bar in a plaintive plea for Ruby to shake it.

[eviscerates]

It's the pause that kills her. Not just the sight of Araceli, who she's fairly sure has some sort of anti-gravity powers that make being on the ground offensive to her very being, struggling across the stairs and the floor. The pause carries all kinds of possibilities for what could or should have been said.

Ruby looks at Lux, and back to Araceli, and she has no idea what to do or say. Her skin is unhealthy, feels constantly grubby, somehow, and her face has that ache that comes after too long spent crying, even though she hasn't indulged herself in that for a while.

"You shouldn't be here."

Her voice is very flat, gaze dropping from Araceli to Lux to the ground.

[thecookery]

Plonk, plonk.

With her usual level of subtlety, Avery greets Ruby by banging loudly on the cell door with her crutch. You know, the one she has to use because of her leg being all bitten up? And don't forget the sling her other arm is hanging in too.

"I would've brought food," she announces a second or two later, "but I hear you've had plenty enough people doing that. More than I have actually. What's that about, do you think?"

[eviscerates]

Her smile is flat. "Maybe they're less concerned about what'll happen if you get hungry."

Too exhausted and self-mocking? P...robably. Probably, yes. Forgive her.

"You're looking better."

Second week, okay with memories!

[justice_is_blond]

He knows she has other healers, especially Adelaide, and truth be told, he's tense about being here. Cells aren't something he does well with or in. But she's a friend, and friends don't let friends suffer without at least a visit, especially when they can help.

The jokes from the guards about not letting him back out afterward are not doing anything for his nerves when he comes in, but he pushes that back for now. He has his crystal. He'll be fine.

"Ruby? I've come to see about helping with your injuries some, and I brought water." They have to be providing some, but they might not offer enough. His voice is quiet; if she's sleeping, he doesn't want to disturb what rest she can get.

[eviscerates]

Ruby is very much Ruby when she moves. There's none of the exaggerated gestures and restless motions that belong to Ruby of the Curse, just the tired motions of Ruby of After the Curse, drained from the many things in her life. She feels bone tired and aching, though it has as much to do with horror at herself as it does the silverite sword that pushes through her gut. She harbours no ill will for it being done; silver stops the Wolf, and the Wolf had to be stopped. It is, however, a reminder of what she is, that even after two weeks of Spirit healing being cast over and over the wounds have not healed.

Maybe it's appropriate that she's in this much pain, after all she's done.

"Anders." She pushes up from her cot, and wanders closer to the bars, resting her forehead against them. "Thanks."

She's paler, cheeks hollow and eyes shadowed from everything that has happened, and she doesn't immediately move. "It's not smart to come in here. Can you heal from out there?"

I'm going to DREAM WALK THIS SHIT, two weeks in

[singularwill]

He talks to the guards, first. Though Adelaide had filled him in on the details of the mission, he doesn't know the details about her. And despite being in shackles, he still needs to see her, and her shard.

But he wants to understand exactly how dangerous she is, and why.

And if there is more of a threat here than others may think.

So he doesn't visit her himself - not at first. He considers it, considers simply walking up, taking her hand, and giving the meagre protection against possession that he has. But his curiosity has been brought to bear, and that would give him little information.

So he comes to her in dreams.

After testing it with Thranduil, he knows that the process is possible, even for the rifters. And the fact that he knows exactly where she is in reality makes her dreams easy to find, in the Fade.

He steps into them as if walking through a curtain - feeling the atmosphere shift around him as the Fade itself twists into something more reminiscent of her. Of her world. And the fears she brought with her from there.

"Ruby."

[eviscerates]

Welcome to Granny's .

An echo of a diner, where the Fade distorts it as an echo itself warps and becomes removed from what was originally spoken. It booths with vinyl seats and an immaculately clean floor and all the trappings of a room from a foreign world: coffee machine, liquor bottles, fluorescent lighting. The wallpaper seems less a print of a dark grey forest on a paler grey background, and more a view of a mist-dense forest, branches swaying in a breeze that can't be felt.

Ruby is dressed in a red miniskirt, white shirt and apron, with pristine black eyeliner and red streaks through her hair.

"That's me," she replies, awful chipper. "You after brunch? The apple cinnamon pancakes are killer."

Her hands are bloody and her eyes burn gold, and the fall of the shadow on the wall takes the shape of s Wolf.

No rush, but while I have some momentum

[youwonscience]

Cosima doesn't come right away - not because she doesn't want to, but because lyrium's a bitch and she wasn't going much of anywhere right after they got back. She's still a little pallid, when she does turn up, but she's in one piece. Except the broken arm, which responded to spirit healing just fine, she got off lightly on the physical end.

(Everything else... well.)

That's all tucked away for the moment, though. She remembers the trip back well enough, even though it all has the weird, foggy cast from the altered state she slipped into and out of. Ruby was her first real friend in Thedas, and of course Cosima won't stay away.

She doesn't falter when she sees Ruby curled up, but she does speak quietly, getting as close as the guards let her. "Hey."

\o/

[eviscerates]

Guardsman Thomas is a decent sort of man. He nods to a stool a little away from the bars, and mentions that getting close seems to be safe enough. (Guardsman Snell is less pleasant, but he's not here, mercifully enough.)

Quietness doesn't exclude Ruby from hearing her, wolf hearing as sharp as ever, and she tilts her head very slightly to acknowledge that she heard, before very slowly starting to ease herself up from having her back to the cell bars. Her shirt, a simple white thing, is messy and crumbled, too big, and has dark patches of blood from issues with the wounds and the dressing, although they have subsided for now. Ruby has to take her time sitting, and there is something markedly gaunt about her as she finally turns to set her feet on the ground and look at Cosima from her cot. The spark isn't gone, but it's diminished.

Her jaw works silently for a second, and her gaze drops. "You must hate me."

For persuading her to go on that mission, for attacking their friends, for— being the Big Bad Wolf.

LATER WEEKS while she's building traps - no rush!!!!

[nonsibi]

In battle, it's easy to be black and white. Prioritize the threat and neutralize it. There's you, there's your allies, and there's your enemies. Everything makes sense in a straightforward way that has always appealed to Bellamy, which is why he excelled at combat and not at diplomacy.

Which is why he avoids Ruby for so long. At best, she's a Rifter. At worst, she's a Rifter. Bellamy isn't sure about that designation, what it means, what he thinks of Ruby and how she came to be in Thedas. The unknown isn't welcome. And the fact that she had, apparently, turned into a great hulking demon-beast in the caves, introduced a whole new threat to the mission--well, that's equally unwelcome.

When he hears she's imprisoned, he puts the thought out of his mind. For a week. And then another week. And all the while he's thinking about lyrium, about the Venatori, He thinks about the conditions that they found the captives in. Thinks about how Ruby asked to be imprisoned, which, even if he doesn't run the risk of turning into a demon, is still a request that he understands, in some dim way, and he puts all of that out of mind as well, goes about his tasks and duties, tries to train his dog, tries to hunt, talks to Clarke, makes fires, trains, whatever.

And then eventually he does go down to the dungeons. Speaks to the guards. Finds Ruby behind bars with a box of-- stuff.

He stops in front of her, on the other side of the hallway that runs along the cells like a backbone. Leans up against the opposite wall and crosses his arms over his chest, like he's settling in.

"At least you're keeping busy."

[eviscerates]

The plus side to visiting her later is that she can move easier. She won't be taking out any jazzercise championships any time soon or playing limbo (or reaching for items on high shelves, or standing up too quickly— ) but at least she can sit and make traps without needing to slouch and lean against the wall or the bars to support her. She doesn't look so grey and feverish, and now she even has a shirt without bloody smears on it from wounds being uncooperative. All in all, she's looking a whole lot better than the mostly unconscious woman in the wagon, and the huddled, gaunt thing she had been the first couple of weeks, but that's a bit like saying that someone looks better than a corpse left out in the sun; it doesn't take much.

It's a surprise to see him. She respects Bellamy, he's helped her before. First when they were all searching for what went wrong during the fever, and then when Emma went missing. He was a voice of reason, even if Ruby had the feeling he was a voice of reason that didn't much care for her. That's not really an issue, because she's pretty used to people not much caring for her outside her capacity to get their orders right and their coffees perfect.

She misses being that Ruby, sometimes. A lot, actually, right now.

The point is that when she sees him her eyebrows raise a little, the registering of surprise, and her mouth opens a second before she actually has any words to offer. "Might as well be useful," she says. And, a moment later: "I thought Templars had better things to do than guard duty."

Granted they kind of were guards, of a sort, but even so.

traps

[stabsbooks]

Between Martel, the journey back to Orlais for their "holiday" at the spa, and her other duties, it takes some time for Cassandra to find out that Ruby has voluntarily imprisoned herself. Once she hears the news, though, it's not long at all before she marches down to find out for herself just what's going on.

She stands tall before the cell door, watching as a sober, solemn Ruby - nothing like the vivacious young woman who had organized the snow fight - meekly puts together components for traps and places them in a box to be taken away.

"Ruby." She steps forward, shadow blocking the light. "What are you doing here?"

[eviscerates]

The shadow falls across her hands, and while her gaze is sharp, and maybe she could keep going, she is tired. Feels like all parts of her hurt, like the silver that pushed through her gut has poisoned her whole system. The wounds are not healing easily or quickly, even with Spirit Healing, and already she has experienced the lecture of doing too much.

Sitting up and only moving her hands is, apparently, too much. Her body protests sitting up properly, and it protests slouching, but it's better than doing nothing. At least this is useful.

For a moment, Ruby just looks at the little mechanism in her hand, still and exhausted, before looking up at Cassandra. "There aren't any explosive mechanisms. I'm just making individual components to be assembled later, so Scouts have a supply when they're in the field." Her voice sounds very flat, like all the colour was drained out of it, and her throat is raw. "I can stop, if you want."

laterish, maybe coming closer to her release?

[arcaneadvisor]

News of the kidnappings had hardly failed to reach Morrigan but seeing as none she knew so very closely as to call a friend had been afflicted, thus far she had seen fit to keep her distance. Until now. There are many ways into the dungeons of Skyhold if one is of a certain mind, and ravens being so common a sight, who pays them any mind? In one flies from the opposite end, up and over the rushing waters before feathers turn to flesh and fabric with the same purple glow of magic.

Morrigan never settles for any sort of entrance when she approaches the bars, head tipped to the side and a small smile on her face.

"The woods have been quiet of late," she greets, though they both know that to be a lie when there is always game, when there are birds above, small animals darting, fennecs and wolves and perhaps the odd bear lumbering about. But a wolf that meets her eyes sometimes and looks with knowing when she has the urge to change her skin and do the same? No. The woods have been absent that for some time now. "How fare you? I understand twas...vile, to say the least. You have my sympathies, if you wish them." Not everyone has a need of such things or wants them, and Morrigan still isn't quite sure, precisely, of all the proper etiquette for some situations.

[eviscerates]

One day she'll figure out the extent of her feelings on Shapeshifting. It's amazing, she thinks - it must be liberating, the way she knows she feels free, like she's finally doing things she has always been meant to do when she lets the Wolf out. A human can run, but it's nothing like the Wolf, that rush. Flying, changing, it seemed like it could give a person so much.

And yet, in the same moment, to know that a person can pick and choose and never have had their mind be eclipsed by a part of themselves that they have tried to repress. To see people choose to become wolves— it felt wrong.

She likes Morrigan, though. It was very possible to like and admire someone while feeling faintly thrown by part of them, and Morrigan was one of the first people she'd told about the Wolf. It had been good to be met with understanding, even as it hurt when others dismissed her as simply a Shapeshifter.

"I'm doing better than I was. I've also been better than I am, so it's kind of a mixed back." Still, she does conjure up a bit of a smile, and it's not near so strained as others she has offered these past weeks. She even holds up a little square wooden tile with a letter carved into it. "And I've been working on a little project, too. I'm pretty sure I'd still fail a woodshop class, but I can make little squares. How are you?"

mid week two

[ichaer]

For once, Ciri returns to Skyhold without any new orders awaiting her. This month has been long, very long and she is ready to fall into bed and never get back up. Once she is in bed though, she is restless and unable to relax. Her mind is racing with hundreds of issues that do not have an answer in sight. In each of this missions she has learned something but only this last one has borne anything good with it in the form of a little prince.

He is one of the few good things here in Skyhold but Ciri's thoughts wonder whenever she glances to her bandaged arm. It is no longer held in a sling but that was mostly out of her own stubbornness than of its continued healing. As she makes her way into the dungeons her arm is held close to her side with the usual leathers of her Grey Warden armor missing from that armor. She steps through the dungeons with only curious looks until she spots a familiar face behind the bars of a dark, dank cell.

The smallest of glances is offered to the guard before she focuses on Ruby with a frown. It is hard to see her like this when the young Warden still remembers her so clearly when they had that snow fight.

"Hey," she says finally, standing near the bars and fights the urge to cross her arms. "I come with a gift from a new friend of mine."

A folded piece of paper is held through the bars. When opened it is clearly a child's drawing of colorful wyverns and baby griffons with a small attempt at spelling out a 'Get Well Soon' message at the bottom though a three-year-old's handwriting is likely hard to make out.

"I told him that I knew someone that wasn't doing so well. He wouldn't let me leave or lay down for a nap until he finished it."

[eviscerates]

Moving takes an embarrassingly long time, still. She recognises Ciri's voice, and with it comes a long moment of dread, so that it takes her a moment to really figure out what it is that's being said to her. Not censure, not disdain, and the lack of it leaves her still for a moment before she finally manages to ease herself up from the cot. Her shirt is excessively huge, and there are dark patches on it where messes from her wounds have not washed out entirely - she is resigned to ruining just one or two, if she can.

For a moment longer she's silent, just a hitch of breath as she tugs an injury as she stands. Finally she conjures a smile, small, tired and cautious, but definitely there. "Thanks. Uh— hi, too. Sorry. My head still feels a little— you know?"
A little accompanied by a vague gesture of her right hand near her head, in what she hopes is somehow an inter-universal code for kind of scrambled.

Unfolding the paper as she speaks means that when she looks down at it, she's entirely surprised. "Your friend has an eye for detail." And she looks back to Ciri just briefly before her gaze drops back down to the drawing. "How've you been?"

later weeks because late

[sheriffing]

Emma isn't a big fan of titles. The savior, the evil queen, the big bad wolf; a label is a burden. She's been a few things in her lifetime, made the switch from an orphan to a daughter, from a thief to a sheriff. Some of those names linger longer than others.

Honestly, it's why Emma isn't surprised at Ruby's extended stay in the dungeons. No one has to tell her that imprisonment came from Ruby's own insistence, not when Emma knows this isn't the first time her friend has done something similar. There's only so much of it that Emma can take. The gossip, the rumors. The way someone she cares about feels forced to isolate herself.

When she comes down to see her, she has a small bundle of food tucked away in her bag. The least she can do is make sure Ruby is eating, hopefully spend some time down here and see how she's doing. Ruby is hard on herself, she's alway hard on herself, but that's something Emma can relate to, isn't it?

She finds her friend lying down, curled into herself with her head turned away from her visitor. If she didn't know better, she'd say she didn't know Emma was there - but she does know better, and she's not going anywhere. "Hey."

A totally normal, this isn't extreme in any way "hey".

[eviscerates]

At least by the time Emma comes down Ruby is no longer moving like an old woman. All the injuries save those caused by silver or silverite had been easily healed... the downside was that most of them were tied to silverite. Magic couldn't do much to heal them, and at this point in the process Ruby was starting to feel clear headed enough that she didn't really want to be healed by magic all that much unless it was Adelaide wielding the magic.

She hears steps that are a little easier for her to pick out than most others in Skyhold - the perks of knowing someone from home, maybe. The red cloak hangs down her back, but it's not until Emma says hey that Ruby actually glances over her shoulder. "Emma."

What else can she say, really? Ruby pushes herself up, and hesitates on the cot for a moment before taking a step closer. "Fancy seeing you here." It's said with a smile that's not quite as bright as it would be normally, nowhere near as playful and just slightly apologetic. "How've you been?"