тнє вιg вα∂ ωσℓf (redruby) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-09-14 20:15:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, kenzi malikov, ruby lucas (little red riding hood) |
Who: Ruby & Kenzi
What: Coming to check on Ruby with some Oreos and milk (the ultimate cure-all)
When: A day or two after the full moon
Where: Granny's B&B
Rating/Warnings: Crass language and reference to the Big Bad Wolf eating people
Status: Complete
There was something up with Rubycakes. Something not right, something big. Not that she knew the itty-gritty details but call it a gut feeling - the ‘friends are in emotional turmoil’ senses tingled strongly there, gnawed at her, told her to gogogo and bring something comforting. Her post of the other day was telling even if it held secrecy, and Kenzi wasn’t about to fail her Canadian brethren. Even if it included holding up a lie in Granny’s face, for once - because when she arrived at the quaint n’ cozy Bed & Breakfast (and of course she’d greet the woman, Granny was amazeballs she’d inquired about the supposed ‘sleepover’ the women had the other night. Putting up a believable poker face, she nodded, smiled, and went along with it. Not that her friend needed to really offer an explanation of what she was doing this fabled night where the two of them did each other’s toes and put porestrips on their noses, but that had her curious. Real curious, and real worried. In Kenzi’s possession was a bag - double stuffed oreos, and milk. It wasn’t alcohol but it was something, and she made her presence outside Ruby’s door clear with a knock and wolf whistle. “Yoo-hoo, it’s ya girl here homeslice. I bring cookies and milk.” Ruby was in her room, curled up in bed. She tried messing around on her laptop, tried reading, tried doing some schoolwork - but all she kept hearing was they’re dead, Ruby over and over again. Obsessively, she’d checked the news to see if she could spot an article or a snippet on TV about who she killed - because morbidly enough she was curious, and would have dug into her savings and her piggy banks, even collected all the coins to exchange for bills, to send the families anonymous money if she found out (not that it would help much, but she wanted to do something). However, whomever had cleaned up the scene on the beach had done a really good job because it didn’t look like anything had been discovered. She’d keep checking though. Hearing the knock (though weirdly enough, she heard Kenzi approaching before she was even near the door), Ruby sat up in bed and dropped the stuffed teddy bear she’d been cradling. She wasn’t even wearing cute pajamas, just sweats and a t-shirt. “Hey, come on in,” she said as she went to let her friend into her sanctuary. “Sorry in advance. I’m not the best company right now.” Kenzi wasn’t much in a let’s dress fabulously mood, either. Not since the wedding. It didn’t seem like the kind of visit that involved the two of them going out to party, anyway - her ensemble was ultraviolet tights and a shirt so long it was dress-length. Comfy clothes for a comfy night in if that’s what her friend her needed. “It’s cool, chica,” she smiled a little and entered, twirling around once to survey the digs before she set the bag down. “You sounded down on your post, and Gigi didn’t give me much details besides confirm that there is something wrong with you - and then there’s this supposed sleepover Granny thinks we had, soooo…” Milk and oreos were out, and so were the two red solo cups she’d brought (for proper oreo dunking, duh). “We can talk, or we can gorge ourselves in oreos. And this shirt can handle some mascara on it if you need to cry into my chest puppies for anything.” “I think you have enough to deal with, having died and all,” Ruby replied with a weak smile. After all, wasn’t she the one who offered a bosom to cry on? She felt awful that now she was here, wallowing, and was basically a murderer in hiding. Maybe she should go on the run. Oreos were nice though. And milk. She especially loved dunking them until the milk soaked in and made the cookie basically mush, mmmm. Sitting lotus-style on her bed, she took her first Oreo and poured some milk up to the brim of the red solo. “I mean, the full moon sucked. I was afraid I’d, um, be affected so I told Granny I was spending the night with you and tried to lock myself in the shed but I apparently broke out. And by ‘be affected’ I mean turn into a werewolf. So, surprise, it’s what I am? That’s all it is.” Yeah. That’s all, no big deal. She wasn’t completely wracked by guilt or anything. “Doesn’t mean I still can’t be there for you,” Kenzi reminded, determined. Life was strange all around - lately, it’d been stranger than usual - but she also couldn’t focus on what happened to her every second of every minute of every single day. Things were dealt with time. Ruby’s bed is where she sat too, bending a knee up while her other leg dangled and they indulged in cookies (nom!) and where Kenzi listened, carefully. On the bright side? She didn’t do a spitake at the werewolf bomb, either - it’s not something she really expected to hear from her, but it also wasn’t the most terribly surprising thing (her best friend was a succubus that healed with sex, so). The first oreo met its demise before she made a contribution to the conversation. “So Red Hood is also Big Bad Wolf. Huh. Kind of sexy,” she hummed. Obviously not for Ruby at the moment, but, uh, she was trying to get a little dose of humor in the situation and maybe help her feel like less of a freak. “And you said you got out, so I’m guessing you didn’t just run around and howl at the moon and sniffed another wolf’s butt or anything, did you?” Probs not. That’d be the ideal situation. Sexy would not be the word Ruby found herself choosing when she thought back on her rather unfortunate situation. “It’s more like...something that’s passed on to kids and stuff. A curse,” she spoke thoughtfully, studying the next Oreo cookie just so she could avoid looking at Kenzi. Nothing to do with her, it was simply that Ruby was ashamed of herself. Sure, she knew she couldn’t exactly help what she was but that didn’t mean shit in the scheme of things. “The wolf terrorizing our village, in the Enchanted Forest? That was me. I remembered everything after the curse broke in Storybrooke. Remembered how I ate my boyfriend who I was planning to run away with, and killed a team of hunters.” Peter was the worst memory though - god, she’d really loved him too. The pain was suffocating, and that wasn’t her being emo about it either. “But no, I didn’t howl at the moon. I found a couple people on the beach. Things didn’t go well for them.” Oh. Um. Gulp. There was a pause during the process of oreo-dunking, you see - a pause where she, briefly, stared at Ruby with her pretty blues that went wide quick. Kenzi knew what something like things didn’t go well for them obviously meant. On top of a transformation into something supernatural, there was also the shock of murder. That wasn’t the look of someone who just took a nibble out of an unsuspecting couple and then went off her merry way to dig a hole somewhere. “Rubycakes, I’m -” No, sorry was cheap. Things like hugs and oreos and milk, they wouldn’t fix any of this. Dreaming about how she ate her boyfriend, good god. That was so much to process and for a second, she regretted not bringing the booze with her for this. “You remembered what happened at the beach? Because that’s not you, Ruby, you’re not someone who makes the conscious choice of…” You know. Eating people. Killing them. Both. “I don’t remember,” Ruby said, her voice wobbling. She had some cookie crumbs on her upper lip and she wiped them off, sniffling, feeling about five years old. There was so much she hated about being this person, this monster - that it had all happened so fast and felt like a sledgehammer to the skull was one thing. But also that there was no immediate fix, and she couldn’t simply forget about what she’d done. Or ignore it. She would have to live with that always. Forgiving herself seemed like such a far-off concept. It also made her sick. How could she even begin to do that? “There’s a huge gap between nighttime and the next morning. Geralt found me and told me what happened - he stayed with me the whole night, after knocking me out.” But the damage had already been done. “I don’t know how to handle this,” she confessed, wiping at wet sage green eyes with the back of her hand. “Oh, babycakes,” she whispered and moved everything that could pose as an obstacle between them away - the package of oreos, the milk - so she could reach over and pull Ruby in. A hug wouldn’t fix this, no, but maybe it’d provide some kind of comfort. That’s what Kenzi was here for. “You didn’t make this choice. You didn’t choose to become a werewolf, didn’t choose to hurt people.” She knew it didn’t change anything. She knew this would be eating Red Riding Hood up from the inside for a long time - maybe even forever. Taking someone’s life, even if you didn’t remember doing it, was a hard pill to swallow. “There’s gotta be a way you can control it, right? Like - a way for you to know when you’re a werewolf and make your own decisions?” Ruby didn’t pull away from the hug, even if she maybe should. But beating herself up over it, denying connections - that would just be a step back. She wanted to seek comfort in friends like Kenzi, wanted to be with Geralt. Running away from that wasn’t going to help anyway. Maybe one day she’d even think she deserved these good things. “I don’t know,” she confessed, with another sniffle. “Regina said one day I do learn to control the wolf. I just...it’s a long way until I get there. I’m scared I might hurt someone again. The red cloak stops me from changing - “ Now she knew why Granny said red kept the wolves away, “...but I don’t have it here and I don’t know if I should rely on it if I do get it.” It could be used in emergencies though, and so could those silver bolts she got with her Granny’s crossbow. The old woman was a crack shot with that thing in the dreams. “My Granny was a werewolf too, but she’s aged out of her transformations. I’ll be a slave to the moon for awhile.” Nope, Ruby was kept by those comfortable chest pillows and if she wanted to ugly cry in them, feel free. They were there for that. “Just take it one month at a time - I mean, that’s all you can do right now,” Kenzi soothed, and played with her hair a little because who didn’t like that, c’mon. “But how are you supposed to even learn control, anyway? Meditate until you reach a higher plane of understanding???” Closest person she ever had to a werewolf was Dyson, who was technically a shifter - with wolfish qualities. He switched at will, though, and he wasn’t really human anyway. Just another different kind of fae, so figuring out how to handle his abilities came with growing up as a fae. “I’ll help, too. Every full moon. Any full moon. If you need anything. You don’t wanna eat me, I’m too skinny and gummy probably.” Ruby snorted a laugh. She would probably still want to eat Kenzi - which was why being around her during the full moon probably wasn’t a good idea. “I have a plan for the next moon, sort of,” she said. “There’s a cave I can be chained up in. It’s best that I have as few people there as possible - until I do learn control.” If she could. If it was even possible. Because really, it wasn’t like she had any idea of how to magically make herself all cuddly during wolfstime as opposed to bloodthirsty and savage. “I’m hoping my dreams reveal some answers.” Sitting back a bit, she went to work on her Oreos again - they were just saltier now, tasting like her tears. Great. “But I probably just need to...get used to it more. Maybe meditate.” Well, it couldn’t hurt, right? At least control was doable. There was a light at the end of the wolfy tunnel, it seemed - and Kenzi had faith in Ruby to reign in that supernatural wildness. Still, the journey to that point was probably going to be a long one, and not without mistakes. Hopefully they’d be less…tragic mistakes. “Soooo…” Kenzi pushed some of that raven hair behind her ears - it was mixed with some purple extensions too, adding streaks of vibrant color to match her tights. “You, tied up in a cave. Gonna assume that there’s going to be a certain Sexy Santa keeping an eye on you? You said he found you and I’m guessing he knew how to tame you, considering he didn’t turn out to be a victim.” “Yeah, Sexy Santa is a Sexy Monster Slayer,” Ruby shared, reaching out to wrap one of those purple extensions of Kenzi’s around her finger and bat at it before letting go. There were occasionally red streaks in Ruby’s hair but she was wanting to get as far away from the color as possible for now. “It was why he cancelled our work date - it was some transition to give him the monster slaying perks. That night, he came by to bring flowers and apologize - and happened to have a sword made of silver. It also happens to be the only thing that stops me.” In fact, she was pretty sure she was going to ensure someone else had access to a silver weapon right now. Sliding off the bed, she went into her closet and retrieved the crossbow with the bag of bolts tied with a drawstring. “Take this just in case,” she told Kenzi. “I’d rather it be with...well, not with me. The silver won’t kill me but it will injure me.” It burned a lot, it hurt the wolf - but that was a small price to pay if it stopped her from doing something terrible. Well, golly gee whillickers - it was a good thing Kenzi had a crossbow of her own before this, and also knew how to wield the thing, otherwise she’d be more likely to shoot herself than the intended target. But hers didn’t come with the silver, and this seemed more built for, y’know, werewolves. She’d take it gladly. “I don’t ever want to use this on you,” she sighed, pulling the weapon into her arms. “Keep that in mind.” It also didn’t mean she wouldn’t if she had to. There’d been times where she had to be not-so-nice to Bo when things got a little haywire for her, and she knew the important thing was to make sure that Ruby didn’t hurt anyone else - the guilt and regret about what she’d done was already too much. And the mini-pirate would do her best to make sure a next time wouldn’t happen, no matter what. “I’m glad Sexy Santa Slayer’s talking to you, then, but that’s kind of - damn, that’s kind of ironic there, isn’t it? You boning a dude who’s profession is basically kill you?” Ruby wheezed a laugh through her melancholy. Regina had called it poetic, but ‘boning’ worked well too. Same concept, just different ways of expressing it. “I haven’t boned him since...well, we haven’t really talked about it?” she scratched her cheek, thinking. Not since before Geralt changed into an official witcher. Then the full moon happened - and things were just super ‘effed up now, let’s just say. “But he said he’d be there for me. And wouldn’t mind if I spent the night sometimes. Plus he’d be willing to sit by a cave where I’m chained up during the full moon. That must mean he kinda likes me, right?” They should talk about it either way, she knew that. Yeah. Have that talk - always so awkward. ‘Where do you see this going?’ and all that stuff. It would either cement things for them or have him running for the hills, so, that’d be an interesting gamble. Uh-huh. “Sure, kind of,” Kenzi teased, easing the crossbow next to her on the bed. Rubycakes having a crush was expected, but she was beginning to see how deep that crush was. “All good signs in my book - obviously he wants you around more. So you like the dude, then? Like, really like the dude? Has Granny given him a thumbs up of approval? Because granny’s input is important, you know that. Points if she threatens him with a shotgun.” A little boy gossip to distract the newfound werewolf here from how much of a cunt reality was - wouldn’t hurt, right? Maybe the thief here should actually stalk him a little to see what all Sexy Santa was about. She was ready to spray paint ‘THIS IS A METH LAB’ all over his house if he broke her heart at any point, though, Ruby needn’t to say a thing in that scenario. Friendship was beautiful. “Yeah, I really like him,” Red Riding Hood rolled her eyes. She didn’t usually have crushes on people, or at least, not the kind where they did go pretty deep. Where she wanted the other person to actually stick around and date her, the kind of crush where she’d be mortified as all get out if he gave her the ‘you’re great, but let’s just be friends’ speech followed by a couple excuses to boot. “Granny seems to like him too. She didn’t turn him away or, you know, threaten to shoot him when he brought flowers by for me.” Though at some point, Granny was going to embarrass the shit out of her granddaughter - Ruby did know that much. Maybe it might even get Geralt, stoic and rock-hard, to actually chuckle a little. “You’re sweet to be concerned though,” she grinned slightly, nudging Kenzi with her shoulder. Oh, Ruby would be putting cat piss in the air conditioning vents of anyone who hurt her fellow Canadian friend, so. That went both ways. The bonds of maple syrup-mountie-moose sisterdom also ran deep. “Um, duh, I’ll always and forever be concerned for you when there’s a reason to be,” Kenzi informed, draping an arm around her shoulders to pull in - because her boobies were still there to cry into if she needed it, and until then she’d give her friend a tight side-hug. “I know oreos and milk won’t cure anything with all that you’ve been through, but we’re not going to let you go through this alone. And you will get to the point where it’ll be...normal, to deal with being a werewolf. As strange as it sounds.” It took time. Patience. Guilt wasn’t going to disappear overnight and hell, that’d probably never go away - not really. It was very human for it to stay. Dealing with it, and trying to be better for it, was the best thing she could do. “In the meantime it’s also okay to ugly cry into cake or icecream or whatever, because this place really fucks you in the butt without even taking you out to dinner first. I totes get it.” A very eloquent way to put it, yet also true. Ruby hadn’t expected everything to escalate so quickly. It felt like she’d been run over by an eighteen-wheeler, and she wasn’t exactly fond of the situation. “Oreos and milk help,” she gave a quavery smile, leaning against Kenzi and resting her head on the girl’s shoulder. Kind of awkward since Ruby was a bit taller but she made it work. Yeah, oreos and milk helped - so did spending time with friends and having good ones that showed her maybe she wasn’t some irredeemable monster after all. |