( closed ) captured this moment inspires us

[eviscerates]

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."

Comments

[fleurdesel]

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."

[eviscerates]

"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.