come_sailaway | Do you remember when we learned how to fly? [OPEN]

Who: Ruby Rose & You!
What: Ruby's a bird now??? among other things
When: Pre-Excursion February
Where: Many places on the ship
Warnings: Discussion of child soldiery stuff inevitable, grief, others added as needed
Notes: Feel free to flip me to brackets I am comfortable with either style. Ruby is basically always dressed in gothic lolita unless she's in PJs, she only tones down the frills a little bit for training.

1. We were young and had time on our side [sports deck]

Anyone who noticed Ruby cutting down on her training time before January will also notice that, since January, it's been creeping back up until she's training almost more than she did before she started shifting her priorities. She has three separate things to train, now: Summer's Thorn (sword-spear, with two sword forms and two spear forms), Crescent Rose (six foot tall scythe-rifle), and hand-to-hand. The former and the latter make most of their appearances at fight club, now that it's back up and running thanks to Dimitri, where there are often people to ask to spar with either, whilst Crescent Rose mostly gets brought out when there's less people around to risk getting scythed.

Maybe she's asked you to spar with her, either with swords or polearms or fists. Maybe you're watching the wild, acrobatic flips and twists that are involved with her scythe work—they don't follow most people's laws of physics, frankly. Maybe you've noticed her running herself a little too ragged, today. Maybe you just want to chat during a break.

She's also started offering people a quick training run with petal burst during every fight club, because she wants to train as many people to not throw up if she needs to rescue them with it as possible.

2. You're stuck, on the ground [outside decks, around]

At this point Ruby knows better than to believe sundries gifts that seem just a little too random actually are random, there's been just too many weird gifts recently. So when she gets a box that just contains a feather, she already kind of has a theory.

A theory that, with some experimentation, proves true. She reaches for it the same way she's been trying to teach Erin to reach for her Semblance, seeking out something that didn't used to be there before, and then suddenly...

Ruby is a bird. A slight unnaturally coloured Jackdaw to be precise, at least the first time. Repeat experiments lead to the discovery that she has three bird forms, including an even more unnaturally coloured Steller's Jay and a normal looking hooded crow. She does not have control over which bird she is each time, at least, not right now, but she sure is a bird!

Maybe you catch her out on the decks right after she's figured this out, surrounded by feathers that disappear after a few seconds like her petals do, muttering to herself, "...well of all the new powers to end up with, at least this is kind of familiar...?" or, once she's processed more, "—okay actually why is so much of my family corvids now? That's weird! It's not like it can be genetic!"

Or maybe you catch sight of one of these birds flying around the boat getting used to flying with wings instead of her short bursts from her semblance, resting by perching herself on high places or railings. Maybe she almost flies into your face. Or maybe you just hear a 'Hi!' that comes seemingly from no one until you see the bird.

3. Got lost, can't be found [memorial]

Ruby doesn't have any new names or objects to add, this month. Everyone she knew that vanished recently has already been added. But she does come by, sometimes; she sits in front of the memorial, tinkering with something or reading her favourite fairy tale book from the library.

Here, she does what she used to do at home when she visited her mom's headstone. She talks to the people who are gone as if they can listen. Sometimes she reads aloud, but more often she can be caught talking about what they're missing. Things that have happened lately, big and small. It's all innocent enough; maybe you overhear her talking about something mundane, or about the upcoming excursion, or any of that. Maybe you overhear her reading from the fairy tales. Maybe you find her in a quiet moment.

Or maybe you overhear her in a moment that's probably meant to be more private. "...you'd probably be worried about me, right now. I know we talked about trying to just be normal girls, but I-I— I don't know if I can. I really thought I was going to leave fixing this up to everyone else for once, but I couldn't. I basically promised Darcy and I've talked to Skulduggery and... and I just hope that somehow we can get everyone on the same side and save everyone."

She sounds so tired.

4. Just remember that you're still alive [wildcard]

Find me at

bluecitrine or at artisticblueteam#5757/in the discord. Ruby can also easily be found in the library reading, out on the decks after nightmares at night, dosing off sometimes in random places because girl's not sleeping good, or tinkering with either of her weapons on the sports deck.

Threaded | Flat

Okie found himself on the sports deck, wearing his new jacket, looking for... he wasn't sure. Someplace new to sulk? The ghost made of Steve that would pop up and tell Okie he was there? Something breakable? What he's found, instead, is the memorial, and someone who sounds like she knows a few more people on it than he does.

He speaks up as he approaches, wanting her to still have when he does. "Howdy. Hope I'm not interruptin'."

Erin's back to guided meditation. She's close to something, tantalizingly close, if she could just reach out and -

All unknowing she literally reaches out and touches Ruby. A chain of phantom amaranths appears, connecting the two at the wrist - and filling each with the knowledge of the other's skills.

3

1. Semblance Training