Ruby Rose | Team RWBY (eyesofsilver) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-10-03 21:32:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, lena luthor, ruby rose |
Who: Lena Luthor and Ruby Rose
What: First meetings!
When: Late June
Where: Future Industries
Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete
Ruby still couldn’t really believe her luck that she had managed to get an internship at Future Industries, only one of the most famous companies for science and technology and focused on women in STEM. And to think it was because of the award she had gotten at school. Yes, she’d been the youngest recipient but it was still so cool that this had managed to happen. She didn’t even care that she was starting up over summer because she just wanted the experience.
At present, she was sitting outside with her lunch and a book. Yes, she could probably eat in the lunchroom, but it was a nice day outside and so she had decided that this would be her lunch spot for the day.
Without her even realizing it, Lena’s relationship with Asami had gotten complicated fast. They were suddenly spending a lot of time together, and Lena was taking more and more lunch breaks away from her desk. It was strange, and exhilarating all at the same time. She felt a little giddy just thinking about it.
Today, though, their whirlwind… whatever had had to take the backseat to work. Asami had an unexpected meeting, and so when Lena showed up with lunch, she’d had to leave Asami’s at her desk and accept the raincheck. She was a little disappointed, but she understood more than most the importance of work.
Instead of heading back to her desk, though, she decided that she might as well enjoy the perfect weather. She didn’t spend a lot of time outside, after all. She could use the Vitamin D.
Spotting a bench with a woman a little younger than her on it, she approached, hoping that she wouldn’t be intruding. “Is this seat taken?”
Ruby hadn’t expected anyone to approach her. Which admittedly was a bit silly given it wasn’t like she was in some super secret location or anything. And most of the people at Future Industries had been nice and welcoming, but as she was used to always being the youngest in such situations, being alone sometimes came with it. Even so, she looked up from her book and smiled as she shook her head.
“Nope, it’s all yours! I mean, if you want it. Which you asked so I think you do.”
And again she needed to just stop talking because rambling was so not a professional thing to do and even if she was still in school (well summer break but that was beside the point) she was in a professional setting so shouldn’t she try to be a bit more professional.
Ugh. Her head was hurting just trying to make sense of it. But then she blinked.
“I recognize you from the network. Hi!”
Because yes, both her sister and uncle told her to be careful about the people she spoke to on it (after always being like ‘Ruby go make friends’) and let them know if someone was really weird. But she was friendly for all her awkwardness and shyness, so recognizing someone from the network made the teen perk up.
Lena squinted a bit, wishing she had her glasses with her. She had an exceptional memory, but sometimes her terrible eyes failed her. Taking a few steps toward the bench and focusing, her eyes finally widened in recognition. “Oh! Right. Your dad mocked you for your singing, right? I remember you, too.”
Smiling genially, Lena took a seat beside the woman, pulling her carton of food from a paper bag. “I’m Lena. Lena Luthor.”
Had she said something wrong? Ruby wasn’t quite sure what to make of the stepping back initially and shifted some as she rubbed the back of her neck. But then she figured it out as Lena made her comment and nodded.
“That would be me!”
Good she hadn’t made a fool of herself. Always a relief. And at least the singing was over if only because there had been so much to get done with school and the award ceremony. But then the dreams had started (which weird but she couldn’t deny that Yang seemed to know what she had meant) and it was just part of life.
“I’m Ruby Rose, or just Ruby. It’s nice to officially meet you!”
Lena took a bite, taking the time to chew it and swallow it before responding. “Likewise.” It was strange how things were going now since she’d opened herself up to making new friends. Suddenly she had an Asami, and a Match, and a Kara (again). Now, she was even meeting people from the network that she’d only spoken too briefly. It was a strange sort of nice.
After another bite and a moment to think of conversation starters, Lena came up with something to say. “So, you work here at FI?”
Ruby was definitely not used to meeting people. It was why she’d joined the Network since Yang was always bugging her about branching out and talk to people. Okay, so she had met Blake before the Network, but she was on it. And Nora had shown up on it. So now she was meeting people she’d only spoken to on it which was unexpected but she supposed that had been the point, right?
“Yep! Well, sort of? Ms. Sato,” because professional, “offered me an internship because she’d been at the UC Irvine Engineering Department awards ceremony and I had gotten the award for mechanical engineering and she liked my project. But if I want to, she said I can move onto full time work once I graduate.”
She didn’t see why she wouldn’t, but it was what it was.
“What about you?”
Lena looked at Ruby, surprised. That all sounded very familiar. “Congratulations on the award. You know, I went to UC Irvine and studied mechanical engineering. Class of 2013.” She had also received the very same award, but saw no reason to brag. Yet. “That’s an amazing opportunity. I hope you take her up on it.”
At Ruby’s returned curiosity, she hesitated, not knowing how much Asami wanted known about who they were to each other. “Oh, I actually work at Stark Industries. I just came buy for lunch with Ms. Sato. She and I are friends.” Friend was safe enough, right? They were at least that. “But I guess you could say that I’m part of the competition.”
“Thanks! And really? That’s the year before I started there. How cool.” Or well, Ruby thought it was cool. Maybe Lena wouldn’t have, at which point Ruby would probably want the bench to swallow her whole. “It is, I really don’t see why I wouldn’t.” But sometimes life came at you and things happened and plans changed.
“Friends are good, even if you are in different companies.” So said the teen who didn’t really do the friend thing. Yes she was working on it, but she still wasn’t exactly known for it. “I was going to look at Stark to see if there was an internship but then Ms. Sato offered me the one here so.” Shrugging, Ruby took a bite of her sandwich.
It was strange to think, sometimes, that she’d been out of school for four full years. Sure, she still wasn’t very old, but sometimes she felt it. Finishing school before most of your peers will do that to you. “We just missed each other, then. You’re smart, though, taking an internship before hand. I’d considered it, but I was so focused on my existing project that I forwent it internships all together. It made it a little scary, coming up to graduation and not having any idea where I’d end up.”
“Yes. I do recommend having a friend or two. It keeps the work from becoming so lonely.” She’d been in the same place for four years before she had even made any real friends, and said friends weren’t even her co-workers. She knew most of it had to do with her workaholism, but no matter the reason, it did tend to push one into sort of a rut.
“I can understand that.” Ruby often got caught up in her projects. She had a feeling that it worried her dad even if he didn’t show it. Instead he just supported her just like he did with Yang. “I was looking up suggestions and saw that internships were important.” Because it was just a step in a larger goal in its own way.
“My sister and uncle are always telling me to branch out.” And she was. She still felt that they worried too much and that there was no real reason for her to do so since she had them. But friends were important and if Lena said so, who from this brief conversation clearly understood some of how Ruby was with always tinkering and all, well… she would keep at it. She’d already made some progress on making friends and she never did give up.
“Don’t let yourself get too isolated.” Lena found herself saying. “Friends don’t seem that important when you’re focused on your projects, but you’ll notice the difference once you start making them. It’s like getting glasses for the first time.” And it really was. It had been easy to forget what good friends were like after college, given how busy she was, but getting them again was a good reminder that it was just easier to be a person when there were people in your life.
Lena took another bite, nodding. “Your sister and uncle are right. It’s worth it. Trust me.” If only she’d had someone to tell her that six years ago.
“So, are you from here?”
Ruby chewed her food thoughtfully as Lena verified that yes, friends were important and not to get too isolated. It really was easy to get caught up in projects or just sticking close to her family. But that was why she was on the network, to meet people. Which was definitely easier than through school given being younger than her classmates when it was related to her major.
So she nodded and swallowed. And a question she could answer.
“Yep! I’ve lived in Santa Ana my whole life.”
That raised a question Lena had been curious about. “You haven’t experienced this… weirdness all your life though, have you?” As far as she could tell, the weirdness only started with the network. But how could anyone have lived in the OC their entire life and never have seen the things they seen. Granted, she’d been here for nearly eight years now and never heard of it, but then she was a workaholic that barely noticed when a new president took office. Someone as young as Ruby had to have seen something.
It was an interesting question and also one that made sense. After all, people in the area clearly should know when things went weird. And yet? For the most part, the strange things passed without comment, or explanations that made sense at the time. They didn’t really seem to make much sense now, as if somehow some sort of fog was lifting from Ruby’s memories….
“Not like this. I mean, there have been things that were really weird but usually they were called promotions for movies, or something in the water, or just weird weather patterns….”
And before that had been enough. Now that she’d been affected by the singing, now that she saw people talk about fantastic dreams (and she’d had her own but wasn’t quite sure what to make of them)... now she wasn’t so sure.
“I mean I guess it’s possible that I never paid that much attention and the things that were said made enough sense I didn’t think about them after the fact…”
Lena paused, the explanation tickling something in her own memories. Wait, hadn’t she heard of some movie promotion that had done a lot of damage a few years back? Hadn’t she thought it was strange at the time? Okay, clearly, something strange was going on here.
“I think it might be more than that.” Lena said, slowly forming a theory. If they were literally experiencing dreams about themselves in another universe, was it so farfetched that they were being gaslighted when it came to what was really happening in the OC? “Something has been going on for awhile now, I’d bet. I think we’re just now starting to see the truth.”
That was the thing, wasn’t it? Before they had joined the network or dreamed, all the ways things were explained made sense. No one really looked much deeped because the explanation worked well enough that there were no more questions. But now? Now with dreams and networks, things weren’t quite so simple. As if….
“Which seems to tie to the network. But why that?”
She definitely wasn’t discrediting Lena’s theory, because while she hadn’t put much thought into why things didn’t add up anymore and just went with it as was her way, she was also able to tell what had caused the change. If it could be called a change. But the underlying cause of people suddenly questioning the things that happened seemed to tie into the network. Just why?
“I have no idea.” She said, glad that they had both come to the same conclusion. Two scientific minds were better than one when dealing with the logically improbable. “But I am curious to find out.”
She took another bite of her meal, quiet as she thought through the possibilities. After a moment, though, she looked up, realizing that she’d forgotten that she and Ruby were still in a conversation. Yep, she was definitely still adjusting to the social thing. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to zone out on you. I just find that really fascinating. I mean, what are the odds that we would find ourselves in what is very possibly the world’s first pocket of interdimensional activity?”
“So am I.” True, Ruby tended to look for ways to help people and she wasn't all that sure where to start looking or what it would even mean. However, it was also like a puzzle, something that needed to be tinkered with to learn how it worked. And that was something she enjoyed doing in general and was one of the first things she had done before moving more into design and building.
As Lena drifted away, Ruby was content to eat in silence. She usually did anyway, well beyond listening to her music. Not to mention the reading picnics with Blake where talking wasn't necessary. So as Lena apologised, Ruby shook her head with a smile.
“You're good! But it really is weird, isn't it. In an interesting way, but still weird.”
Lena nodded heartily, thoroughly in agreement. It was very weird, and if she had the time and the desire remained, she intended to find out the answers to her questions.
“So, switching to a lighter topic,” she said with a smile, valiantly trying to keep the conversation up (she was growing as a person, okay), “what made you decide to be an engineer?”
Ruby knew the struggle of trying to keep a conversation going. If she knew a person, she could get super animated and excited about whatever was being discussed and go one for hours. However, most of the time she found herself tripping over her own words and thoughts because it was usually in a situation where she just met someone.
“My uncle. He would tinker on things when he was watching me while my dad and sister did their fight training and I would pick up on it and I really enjoyed it and then it sort of just….stuck and I found myself always tinkering or building or taking apart things even when he wasn’t around. And it can be used to help people which is super important.”
Ruby was one of those people who, despite her young age, had always known what she had wanted to do. Right before she was about to ask about Lena, Ruby’s alarm went off and her eyes widened.
“I need to get back to work. But it was really nice meeting you! We should talk again later!” With that, Ruby waved, packed up and headed back inside.