and I'm haunted

[fightingale]

WHO: Hercules & Leliana & Ruby & whoever would like a thread with them 8Db
WHAT: a catch all for February-March;
WHEN: the next monthish :|b
WHERE: Skyhold, Emprise, maybe somewhere else.
NOTES:
1. individual starters in el commentos
2. specific themes and warnings will be dropped into subject lines as necessary.
3. if you are threading with Leliana it would be amazing if you could reply to this post re: information she could know about your character.
4. if we have discussed doing a thread but there isn't a starter here, feel free to just barge in and set one up! otherwise prod me and I can add it asap, I have a to-do list but I am also scatterbrained ;u;
5. I'm not doing open prompts this time for Leliana, but if you would like a thread with Leliana, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me! I am just trying to do custom things because she is in a particular state of mind, at present.
6. I am sorry there are so many notes







apparently I am being pretentious this month

Comments

[eviscerates]

"And there's a lot you don't know about me - about Red, specifically." Her voice is gentle, even if she's persistent. What, like being told no, you're wrong! is going to help anyone? No way. Sometimes the soft approach is better. Several decades with Granny and her bulldozer effect had gotten that well and truly in her skull, alongside the importance of explanations rather than plain, arbitrary seeming instructions.

Now, if there's one thing Red has come to learn over the past several decades, it's that the Charmings cry easily. She's pretty sure Snow and she had cried on each other multiple times within days of knowing each other. David, he was a crier too, it was amazing. Emma was different. She was a Charming through and through, but she'd had to hold herself together so different, had dealt with an entirely different world and set of risks and dangers. The number of times Ruby has seen Emma cry was way below the standard Charming threshold.

And she's not stupid. She can smell the salt of tears before Emma even tries to wrestle with them, and she inches forward. So much for holding her hand, that's just not going to cut it. Not when her friend is hurting and struggling like this, and not when Emma thinks that she's some kind of monster. Red leans forward, one arm catching around Emma's waist and the other around her shoulders as Red leans into the embrace.

"Yeah, you are. And I'm gonna help. I've got your back," Ruby murmurs, squeezing Emma a little as she rests her chin on the blonde's shoulder. "I promise."

[dreamcatcher]

"I guess that's true." She hasn't had the chance to really sit down and talk with Ruby since the curse broke. She knows slim details but they're all from Henry's book, not from the source herself. She'd like to know more, and maybe this is the silver lining in a shitty situation. Emma had thought of Ruby as a friend, before all this. Maybe it's a chance to get closer again. Emma would really, really like to have a friend. She doesn't have much of those, not really.

Emma does cry on occasion, when pushed to the limit. She'd cried when she thought she had lost Henry, not once but twice. She'd cried in the broken shell of her nursery, forced to stare down the fact that Snow had given up just as much as she'd lost. It's happened more and more lately, but if there was ever a reason to be overwhelmed, it had to be this. To be facing down an unbelievable weight of darkness was intimidating for anyone. She didn't regret doing it, not even now. Regina deserved her happy ending, and Emma had taken on the curse to protect all of Storybrooke, she'd never regret that. It was just a lot more of a burden than she'd realized in the heat and fear of the moment.

She's at least a little surprised by the hug. Not many people offered those to her, at least, not outside of her family. She's gotten a hell of a lot better at accepting them than she used to be, though. She curves her arms past Ruby's side to press at her back as her head hits her shoulder. It cements the height the brunette has on her, that the top of her head ends up near her ears instead of looking her right in the eye.

"Okay," she agrees in a watery tone, and that doesn't sound like a hell of a sentimental answer, but it is. Emma isn't good at showing what she feels, most of the time. It means everything that Red wants to be there for her, though, even at her worst.

[eviscerates]

Part of her wonders how much Emma does know, from Henry and his book, from Snow and Charming. She doubted Granny would really talk about it much, when she knows her grandmother has a good deal of her own guilt surrounding Red's discovery of Wolfstime, but sometimes Granny said enough with her silences.

"Okay," Ruby agrees, and probably if they weren't hugging, Emma wouldn't be able to hear her.

Red's content to just stay here and keep on hugging Emma for as long as she needs. Maybe it's as long as she needs, too, because she feels like she's been alone so long, moving in crowds and working in the diner and being part of a community that she didn't belong in, where she didn't fit, and where she could leave, and her absence would be unnoticed. It's hardly been any time at all since she left Storybrooke, but her arms tighten around Emma and she holds onto her tight, and Red honestly couldn't say for whom she was holding on harder; for her own need, or Emma's, for the aches that tormented either or both of them.

Eventually she eases back, and if she happened to blink a few times, it has nothing to do with her maybe being a little watery-eyed, herself. Phew, okay. Keep it together, Lucas.
"You should get some sleep. I'll take first watch." Or she might just watch the whole night and let Emma get some damn rest, because she seems worn down to the very bone. Becoming the Dark One... if anything was going to be draining, Ruby guessed, it was that, and she's packing together some of the hay to make it denser and more springy, all the better to lie on.

[dreamcatcher]

No, nobody has told her terribly much. On one hand, there's not been a lot of time between one disaster and the next. And on the other, Emma would rather hear those stories from Red herself. She knows how it feels to have people focus on her past instead of her present. She doesn't intend to do that to anyone else. If Ruby wants to tell her about what life was like in the Enchanted Forest, she's here to listen. As it is, knowing the person she is now, both Red and Ruby combined, is more than enough to make Emma feel a little better in a moment she'd felt quite thoroughly lost.

She probably shouldn't allow herself to hold on as long as she does. Yet there's a lot of comfort in someone drawing her close when perhaps the sane option would be to push her away. Emma seeps in that trust and belief like it'll keep the darkness of her thoughts and her curse away. Maybe, for a little while? It will.

Considering all they've been up to today, Emma isn't quite as tired as she would expect. It's an emotional tiredness more so than a physical one, but for some reason using magic in this place drains her in a way she's never felt before. She thinks she'll get at least a little bit of sleep, even though she worries that might be limited thanks to her curse. "Thanks, Ruby," she says, and if they both pretend they're not a little misty, clearly it never happened, right?

She doesn't need Ruby to make her bed for her but the insistence on it is rather touching all the same. "I can do that," she reminds, stepping forward to make an awkward bed out of golden hay. She's nearly done before she looks up with a sudden request. "Do you like Red or Ruby better?" It strikes Emma that she's never asked. She should have. So much of Storybrooke were still identified by who the curse told them to be over who they are. Suddenly more than ever, she realizes how important it is to be known as who you wanted to be, instead of who a curse demanded you to be.

[eviscerates]

"Yes, you can." Quiet, a little sheepish, and Red leans back to give Emma room, sitting on her heels.

Might be just as well that Emma's dedicated herself to the task of making her own bed, because there's so many thoughts wheeling around Red's mind that she's not sure what to make of them. Emma's the Dark One, and she's got to figure out the best possible way to be there for her, to help her. That's the only reason she was able to hold it together at all, how she didn't give up and let the mobs have her - she had support. She had friends, and even so, she knows that isn't always enough.

The question snaps her out of her thoughts, startled. "Huh?"
And then realisation, and a silent oh, right, as she pushes her hair out of her face, idly twisting her hands around the dark brown waves to give herself something to do. Which does she prefer? Who is she?
"I like Ruby," she starts, testing it out, "but my friends call me 'Red.' You should call me that, too."

But, okay. Red leans against the wooden wall, keeping an eye on the door, inhaling the smell of hay and Emma and the cold. "I'll wake you up when I need to. Okay? You rest up."

[dreamcatcher]

If it makes Red feel any better, Emma has no idea how to be there for herself, either. Both as the dark one and just as herself, Emma Swan never makes it easy for anyone to get close to her. That's a lesson she was meant to learn when she was younger, and instead of learning to trust she learned that people will always let her down. Walk away when it's too much or there are greener pastures on the other side. Even through all she's learned about trust in Storybrooke, sometimes it's just hard to let people in.

It's nice to not be the one drowned by thoughts for a change. Emma is as patient with it as Ruby has been with her all night. She unpins her cloak as she waits, figuring it'll be good enough as a blanket in the still rather cold barn. At least heat rose, that would help them a little. "Red. I can do that." As much as she's used to Ruby, she can get used to Red, too.

"I won't sleep too long." Whether that's a warning, a promise, or a prediction, it's hard to say. She won't end up being wrong on that, though, no matter what the answer is. It isn't personal that she lays on her side with her back to Red, it's just... Well, it's a little strange to sleep with someone awake not too far away from her. Emma reaches for a necklace to distract herself, fiddle mindlessly, a necklace that isn't there. She closes her eyes and fights the myriad of thoughts that whisper not too far from the surface, and within a few minutes, she does fall into an uneasy sleep.