( 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

[eviscerates]

“It’s awful to say it,” she starts, and there is something so apologetic in her tone, because of what Araceli just said. “But when Regina cast the Dark Curse… when she sent us to another world, took our memories? It was meant to rob us of all our happiness. And for so many people it took them away from the people they loved, and stripped them of the things that defined them, you know? Gave them purpose? But for me… for me the Curse just took away all the things I wanted to forget.” She wonders if that’s what Tranquility feels like to some mages; a chance to absolve themselves. “I wouldn’t never want to put someone else under that Curse, and it hurt so many people.”

And yet for her? And for Whale? And Archie?
There were a few of them who had terrible things that it was a blessing to be free of.

“Point is, I guess, even if you do get lost for a while, you’re still you. It can just take time to remember. I lost who I was for twenty-eight years, but it came back to me. It might just be like navigating unchartered waters for a while. A good sailor can probably set the course right again though, I think. Maybe have an adventure in the process, learn more.” A shake of her head, and she shrugs. “I’m sorry, I’m— I hope that didn’t sound dismissive. I think you’ll hold onto who you are. When you’re leg’s better,” as if it were not Ruby that damaged it, “maybe you can go to the sea. It’s not yours, I know, but when I let the Wolf out in the forest and just run I always feel better. Take some time to reconnect, or something.”

Watching Araceli, Ruby tries to conjure up a smile. “I won’t be here forever, hopefully. And I like the company, but I don’t want anyone else being stuck down here when they don’t have to be.”

[foxsays]

Ruby talks and honestly all Araceli wants is to clap her hands over her ears very tight, to not hear things like this when her head is a mess, when she can't pick through it like she might have been able to before any of this. Salvaging, that's how she's always thought of terrible things, broken systems, taking the bits you can use and stripping out as much as you can but she's talking to Ruby through bars. That makes it difficult.

There are more questions she wants to ask but she's tired. Her leg hurts but she's too proud to ask the guard for something to sit on, and she's equally as mindful of the fact that she's standing in front of Ruby. That just standing up in front of Ruby might even mean something. The healers can give her looks all she wants later when she pretends to be sleeping.

"Some sailors never spend a night away from their ships." She couldn't be like that. Couldn't be that much her father's daughter for all that people would know Felix Bonaventura to the bone if a rift ever dropped him here just from spending time around his daughter. "Maybe," is what she says when she gives herself a shake because she misses him. Misses too many things. Doesn't want to say that there's probably not a good enough reason to go off again anywhere near the sea after Rivain. "You can carry Adelaide, right? For dinner. I might have it on the roof when I'm better. I might not come down again. Just stay up there for good unless I have to leave Skyhold for something. Korrin says she can't climb but I think garlic toasts could persuade her, they're very good."

Lux barks his agreement, loud in the cells until Araceli flicks his ear with her good hand. "If I stay stuck in the tent I'm going to scream, and I don't think they'd fight me in front of guards. Ah, I meant to ask, do you have your sending crystal still?"

[eviscerates]

"I can carry Adelaide," she confirms, a little foggily. Her head still swims, sometimes. "I'm good at climbing trees but I've not done as much scaling buildings. Honestly, it might take a while before I trust my body totally, you know?" Ruby tilts her head to the side, rolls her shoulders in a vaguely uncomfortable way. "I'm still trying to figure out how to be in my own skin. That might take a while. I think I need solid ground."

Annnd then she shakes her head, and rolls her eyes. "Sorry. That got a little bit more metaphorical than I intended, but do you know what I mean? I'm up for dinner on the roof, but I don't know when I'll be ready for it. Are you flexible on the timeframe?"

Ruby leans over, a slow motion that ends with a quiet sound of protest at the stretching of her injuries, a sting she has to still for a moment to let subside, and reaches under the blankets on her cot to grab her crystal. "I haven't really used it. Have it, though."

[foxsays]

"I think if I go up before I'm ready people will have me watched but...I actually don't have solid ground? Not really? Where I live is all islands, lots of islands all connected so little bits are solid but we have our homes and ships and bridges, but most of the bridges are rope and wood to let them move. Solid ground is," she leans in a little closer as if confiding a great and terrible secret, and in a way she is, "terrifying to me. I need to know I can be up there. Watching it all and knowing where everyone is."

Maybe it's silly but when she can feel her body moving again the way it should? She'll be happy. "I think I'll need to wait until I can get some of the ingredients anyway, and to chop things with," it's the slowest slightest bend of her left thumb, just to work it because she doesn't want to keep saying 'yes, I broke my thumb to get out of my bindings and a Venatori kicked me over so I landed on it then another one or maybe the same one stepped on me, and no don't heal me with magic gracias'.

Wincing, Araceli regrets asking at first until she sees it then grins. Ruby doesn't know Araceli well enough to know that it's the smile she aimed at the sending crystal when she was asked if she wanted to come help show people how to seal rifts, but there it is. "Perfect, I sleep at odd hours anyway so if you're awake? We can talk if you want because Josue is going to throttle me with my own hair, or maybe Aintza. Josue will just sigh so much I wish he would throttle me which is worse." Save her from Rivaini healers Ruby, it's such a trial. "And if Korrin finds out she will...I don't know, she will look very sad and I can't throw Lux at her. But if you want something from the kitchen? Especially sweet things? Me and Burly. We are close. I would fight duels for his honour so tell me and I will have it here like that."

She did not know snapping her fingers on her right hand would echo that loud but it's a plan and it's the first sort of plan she's had since coming back that hasn't been just a nebulous 'get better'. This one is little things she can do. Helpful things. Things that will make her feel less useless even if she's just probably being a messenger and trying to escape her healers again. Gotta keep them on their toes.