WHO: Neopolitan & Ruby Rose. WHAT: Waking up on the ship. WHEN: Sunday morning [backdated]. WHERE: Their room on the ship. WARNINGS: Attempted murder but otherwise none. STATUS: Closed | Completed gdoc.
Neo had gone to bed late last night with Stufful sleeping at the foot of the bed. The Pokemon was slowly warming up more to Neo and it even let her pet it - at least for about ten seconds. Any more than that and Stufful would suddenly wave its arms to stop her. Neo didn't mind though, she wasn't that great with affection either.
When she had fallen asleep, she felt the Pokemon against her leg. When she woke up, she felt nothing but empty space. At first she didn't think anything of it, figuring maybe Stufful woke up and left the room. But as she opened her eyes, she found she wasn't in her room. Not only that but there was someone beside her, someone who was too big to be Stufful.
She leaned over slowly to see who it was and when she did, she pulled back, her eyes wide. Ruby? How? Why? What the hell was going on? She was so confused but slowly, as she stared at the sleeping girl, she became angry. Then she got a wicked idea and quietly grabbed her pillow, fully intending on smothering Ruby to death before she woke up.
Following a night shift at the gelato shop, Ruby was exhausted and barely managed to pull on her pyjamas before falling into bed. At least, she’d managed a shower before or she would have been very sticky on top of simply being exhausted. Instead, she cuddled under her sheets and eagerly drifted off.
Until she felt someone moving beside her and Ruby’s eyes slowly flickered open. What was going on? She knew she’d gone to bed alone, but now there was definitely someone next to her. Frowning, Ruby rolled over and immediately bolted upright in bed, eyes wide at the sight of the person beside her.
It was Neo and she was holding a pillow, clearly with the intention of killing Ruby. Part of her wondered if she was still dreaming, but a quick pinch to her arm proved all of this was very real. How did she end up with Neo? Where the hell were they?
“Neo, I know you hate me, but we have to figure out where we are. We’re clearly not in Madison Valley anymore.” Ruby reached out and gently attempted to remove the pillow from the other woman’s hands.
“And I think that’s bigger than you wanting me dead. At least for five minutes, right?”
Being mute, Neo was pretty quiet and this was pretty helpful when she did kill. It made her a good assassin as she was able to sneak behind someone, kill, then sneak away without anyone being the wiser. Smothering Ruby to death would be a piece of cake, if the younger girl hadn't woken up before Neo could put the pillow over her face. Damn!
Still, she didn't bother hiding the fact what her intentions were. Ruby was well aware by now that Neo wanted her dead. She still held onto the pillow, pulling it away when Ruby went to reach for it. She paused for a moment. She could always just kill Ruby, then figure out what was happening. But she could also just kill her after. Either way, Ruby was dead.
Neo threw the pillow in Ruby's face before getting up. First she had to find her phone, then she'd search for some answers.
Ruby caught the pillow before it could hit her in the face. Great. Just great. She was potentially stuck in a room in a strange place with someone who wanted to kill her. Despite knowing this, Ruby still didn’t want to kill Neo. She knew she could just as easily as Neo believed she could kill Ruby, but Ruby didn’t want to. This wasn’t home and they didn’t have to be those same people here. Of course, she just hoped Neo didn’t force her hand either.
Tossing the pillow back on the bed, Ruby shoved aside the blankets and turned on the light. Her eyes searched out her phone and she loaded up the network. Well, it looked like at least Ruby wasn’t trapped alone with Neo. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ruby glanced over at the young woman.
“It looks like we are trapped on a cruise ship bound for Alaska.” Which didn’t sound like much of a cruise to Ruby. Weren’t they supposed to go to places that were warm?
Neo never understood why Ruby wouldn't just kill her, especially knowing that Neo was planning on doing the same. That sort of soft attitude will only get the younger girl killed and Neo was wicked enough to take advantage of that. She could right now but luckily for Ruby, Neo was a bit more awake and wanting to know what was going on than killing her. For the moment, at least.
She found her phone quickly enough, glad it was still with her. It was her only way of communicating so far, so not having it around would've been terrible. She opened up the network and it seemed like they weren't the only ones who ended up on some cruise ship or with random people as roommates.
She gave Ruby a confused look when she mentioned Alaska. Alaska? Where was that? There wasn't such a place in Remnant, so it was probably a place only in this world.
If Neo tried to kill Ruby, Ruby would retaliate. However, she wasn’t going to strike the other young woman first. For one, she believed that for all her hatred and malice towards herself, Neo wasn’t irredeemable. Ruby could understand that hatred; she held it for Cinder for what she’d done to Pyrrha, but Madison Valley was supposed to be about second chances. Maybe they could be more than their hatred for one another.
Honestly, Ruby only knew what Alaska was because of being in Madison Valley. Otherwise, she would have been just as clueless as Neo looked. “It’s a place up north. It can be kind of cold sometimes,” Ruby attempted to explain. “Though, it looks like it might not be that bad this time of year actually.” Not tropical like she expected from a cruise, but not the worst. “And it looks like we are not the only unlucky two stuck together for the entire voyage.”
Maybe one day Neo would move on and get past her hatred of Ruby. But today was not that day and it probably wouldn't be that day for a while. At least she was behaving for the time being.
Neo had only been in Madison Valley for a bit over seven months now, so she didn't know everything about this world. Alaska was something she may have heard in passing but didn't think anything of it at the time. Perhaps she should've paid more attention but she hadn't. Oh well. She'd do a little bit of research later. Thankfully she still had her phone and had access to the internet.
She raised an eyebrow. Cold? Weren't cruises supposed to go to warmer places instead? What an odd choice for a destination. But at least they knew where they were.
At the mention of other people on board, she quickly used her Semblance and disguised herself as Qrow before pointing to herself, as if saying, "So your uncle is here too?"
Just because Neo was behaving for the moment did not mean that Ruby relaxed for a second. She knew how fast Neo could be and what her Semblence was capable of. Even without it, Neo was a worthy opponent and Ruby wasn’t sure if Crescent Rose had shown up with her. Maybe this cruise was supposed to be relaxing, but Ruby knew she wouldn’t relax at all during the trip knowing she shared a room with Neo.
Ruby watched as Neo used her Semblance and shifted into Qrow. It took Ruby a moment to figure out what she was attempting to communicate. In any case, it was creepy seeing her as Qrow and Ruby frowned in response.
“If you’re inquiring about my uncle being here, yes, he is. I think everyone from Madison Valley is here. Now stop looking like my uncle. It’s creepy.”
So they weren't the only ones here. Good to know, although Neo was a bit disappointed now. She just had a good chance to kill Ruby with the girl's uncle interfering like last time, but Ruby had woken up before Neo could smother her to death. No doubt now Ruby would go see her uncle and friends now and they'd probably be protective of her, not letting her and Neo alone again during the remainder of the trip.
Neo rolled her eyes but then smirked as she changed her appearance. Now she looked like Ruby herself, only there were X's over her eyes like in those old cartoons when a character was dead. She raised an eyebrow as if asking if this was better.
Ruby was definitely going to see her uncle and her friends after she dressed and cleaned up. As much as she knew she could handle herself around Neo, a little backup was never a bad thing. Though, Ruby already knew Qrow would be overprotective and there was a good chance he’d make sure Ruby didn’t end up alone around Neo for the rest of the trip. Or he’d try to. Ruby refused to believe she needed her uncle’s protection.
Ruby watched in mild horror and then annoyance as Neo shifted into herself…with X’s over the eyes. The dark haired girl walked over and threw the pillow right in her face. “I think this ship can only handle one Ruby Rose, but nice try.”
“I’m going to clean up and then go find my friends. I guess with any luck we won’t be spending a lot of time in this room together.”
Neo silently snickered as she ducked, avoiding being hit by the pillow. By then she returned to her normal appearance and rolled her eyes. As far as she was concerned, the world was better off with no Ruby Rose.
She shrugged as if saying fine with me. Maybe she could ask to change rooms or she could kick Ruby out. The younger girl had her uncle and lots of friends, maybe they could let her stay with them.
Not wanting to spend another moment in the same room with this brat, Neo turned and headed out the door.