faderift | ( closed ) captured this moment inspires us

WHO: Adelaide & Ruby.
WHAT: first afternoon out of the dungeon.
WHEN: 16th October-ish
WHERE: Adelaide's room
NOTES: possible reference to themes of past abduction, experimentation, torture and then voluntary time in the dungeons during the missing shardbearers plot and her last open log.

Guardsman Thomas was kind of a good guy. A great guy, actually, if you wanted to be accurate. He made sure a healer got down to see Ruby earlier than would have been the case, and was happy to release her a little early. He had a crooked sort of smile, the kind that seems to happen when people are used to trying to keep them understated, though she didn't know if it was because he was meant to be a very serious guard, or because he likes to mix ridiculous statements in with very serious ones and see how long people would keep on believing him.

Point was, she owed him. The extra few hours mean she has time to move through Skyhold slowly, and the dark cloak that she'd need to return to him later meant that she was not so much a spectacle as she might have otherwise been. The time allows her to grab clothes and sink into the hot springs to scrub clean in a way that the water and soap in a bowl she was afforded in the dungeon did not allow, and for a while she is glad to just soak and let the heat pull away a little of the tension that coiled in her muscles.

Eventually she emerges, and she had other plans but they don't seem important any more. Instead she dries, dresses, makes her way through the keep in clothes that feel a little loose after a month in the dungeons - pants of a softer material than might be practical for a mission, and a white shirt that is far too big, and her hair still very damp. It hangs around her shoulders, making the back and shoulders of her shirt get patches from the water .

Ruby waits at the door for a moment, knocks, and when there is confirmation that Adelaide is inside and available she pushes the door open. It is two hours before she was meant to be released, and she doesn't feel right in her own skin, which maybe makes perfect sense when its only been a month, but isn't acceptable because it's been a month and she'd like to feel right again.

"Hey."

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"Perhaps we should include him in the project to make comfort food for Rifters." The rather underground one she's funding out of her pocket as she hasn't...exactly asked for permission on that front. Ah, well. She'll worry about that later, for now? There's smiling, there's Ruby against her side and they are both looking forward. No darkness, no bars, no too kind guardsman Thomas minding the hall to make certain they aren't disturbed.

Just them and this safe haven they've made.

"Burly, I know, would be happy to help if only for the challenge. He enjoyed our test batches very much."

Her smile turns to one of surprise, and satisfied that there are no crumbs to battle or sauce left on her hand, she looks between grabbing another and leaning against Adelaide again. The latter wins without much debate required.

"Comfort food for Rifters, huh?"

Ruby tries to remember if Adelaide's mentioned this to her already. Her memory is still something she's shaking out a little, when it comes to recalling conversations and some little details. "I already dragged him into the brewing project, kinda. He seemed excited about doing it." Reaching across Adelaide, she plays with Adelaide's hair idly, twirling a little around her fingers before brushing it back. "I was, uh. I was actually thinking of focusing on that, for a while. I'll still do missions if they need me, you know, but I think... I think it'd be another way to make myself useful, you know? And if that gets running, some of the money could be used for comfort food stuff."

"Yes." Whatever else they enjoy- well. It is something that could be made for them provided there are ingredients available that are similar enough to what is required- but that falls to someone else to mind. It isn't her project entirely and between Burly, Ruby, and Church? They can sort something out. For now... she focuses on this. This warmth, this softness. This certainty of having Ruby nuzzled against her shoulder, fingers in her hair. Whole and smiling and content.

"I think- time away from the front would be best for you. Time to recover. There's more to it than bruises fading and bones mending and- you do best with people." Even Adelaide can see that. "Doing well with the brewing and distilling would give you more time and space to talk to people. Be charming at them."

From her place at Adelaide's shoulder, Ruby looks up; her fingers continue to follow the line of Adelaide's jaw, the tip of her middle finger tracing light cobwebs of patterns across her neck. She only looks for a few moments before trying to actually reply.

"Being charming isn't the most I can do to help, though," she finally says, quietly - more seriously. It's not the best she can do, not exactly the high standards that Adelaide sets for herself, and that Ruby has admired for as long as she's realised them. Before, really, but without knowing why Adelaide worked so hard. Maybe there's dread, there, or at least some quiet nervousness. The thought of not doing all she can, of being less than what she should be, or what Adelaide—

Ruby cuts off the thought. "I missed this." Not that they had a huge amount of time for just being like this before, but it made the moments more important. Precious, really.

"No- but it is something that is...easier on you for the time being. After what you endured?" The closest she's come to speaking of the wolf, it's rage, all that pain. "You have earned a break. A real break, where the work you do is as far removed from violence and pain and fighting as possible. To assist with morale and stir people into higher spirits. While it is not the most you have done, it is still vital."

To keep their souls from despairing. To keep people calm and well pleased with the Inquisition and one another. "Think of the walls you broke with the Snow War."

That came from an absurd conversation. "There was a greater ease among members of the Inquisition after that. Is it not worth doing? Is that not an accomplishment in it's own right?"

Ruby feels all too content to just listen to Adelaide speak; the cadence and tone and the way her accent shapes the words. That's pretty nice to listen to all on its own without the kindness or the generosity of the words themselves. She's heard Adelaide talk about before about not having the very gentlest of beside manners, but given the past month and this moment? Ruby would kinda sorta have to dramatically disagree.

A little smile tugs at the corner of her mouth, and she eases up from her resting place of leaning against Adelaide. Her fingers are still playing with Adelaide's hair, but still while Ruby just takes a moment to look at her, to see her in this place, this more comfortable context. No dungeons or guardsmen. And with moment taken, she rests her forehead against Adelaide's, eyes closed. "You always know the right things to say to me."

It is one thing to speak. It is another entirely to be heard, to be held and held accountable- to be understood on so base a level as one would feel it in their bones. Ruby- no matter how absurd or serious, no matter how idle or intent, listens. Hears her. Understands in a way that seems to go beyond the words that Adelaide scrapes together for the moment and sinks through to what she means, surpassing even Adelaide's own ability to place that intent.

It's as much a relief as it is a boon to have someone that understands even when she cannot speak well. Her hand slides up to cradle Ruby's jaw, her own smile small and soft and private. For Ruby and Ruby alone. "You do the same for me."

"With the references that make no sense and the bad jokes?"

The joke doesn't have her usual flair and shift in tone, the audible implication of a ridiculous smile. It's quieter and softer, and undermined by her desire to just stay anchored in this moment, for a while. Instead of let's no be crazy, her voice carries a tone of accepting Adelaide's sentiment, absorbing it.

She tilts her head, only enough to catch Adelaide with a brief kiss, light, though fleeting doesn't seem right when they remain so close and when she gently bumps their noses together in the moment after. And... actually, then she smiles, and exhales a laugh. "Probably I should have decided to be all affectionate before I ate the pizza roll with the garlic. Sorry."

Good tactics, Ruby. Nice work.

( closed ) captured this moment inspires us

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