Just close your eyes [OPEN]

[littlefairytale]

Who: Ruby Rose & You!
What: Memshare mostly
When: March
Where: Memories and around the ship
Warnings: Child soldiery stuff inevitable, death, violence, parentification, others added as needed
Notes: Feel free to flip me to brackets I am comfortable with either style. In most memories, your involvement won't be noted until you actively approach someone or do something to change it, but some you'll be noticed faster than others.


1. Fall asleep to the radio [Yang and Ruby in the woods]

Deep in the woods, there's a five-year-old girl with yellow-blonde pigtails, purple eyes, and a bright red wagon that squeaks with every roll of its wheels. Inside the wagon, tucked in with her own distinctive red cloak, is a three-year-old Ruby Rose, sound asleep despite the noise and the chilly fall evening air.

The older girl's legs are shaking with every step she takes, the exposed skin of her limbs collecting cuts and bruises from tripping and pushing through thicker patches of trees. The winding path ahead is clear, now, but there's no clear sign of a destination coming up. Wherever the girl is taking Ruby, she has a ways to go yet.

And despite her obvious exhaustion, she's not giving up.

2. Strangers pass by [Yang and Ruby look after themselves]

You find yourself inside a homely cabin in the middle of a wooded area, surrounded by a decent sized clearing. The air is fresh and it's pleasantly warm, a nice summer's day with a lot of natural light and breeze filtering in through the windows. Specifically, you find yourself in the family room, currently empty except for an extremely sleepy black corgi that doesn't notice you're there.

You aren't, however, alone. There are voices coming from the cracked door to the kitchen. Assuming you choose to peek inside, you'll find a pair of kids, one who can't be much more than ten and the other around eight. This younger Ruby is sat at the kitchen table—or, more accurately, on the kitchen table—with a workbook in her lap and a half-eaten plate of food next to her.

"—where's dad, anyway?"

Her sister, stood washing dishes at the sink, answers, "He's... having one of his bad days."

Ruby visibly deflates. "Oh."

3. Red, green and gold [Penny dies and the Fall of Beacon begins] (Limit: 2, this one has a lot of moving pieces)

You arrive in the stands of a coliseum in what appears to be the middle of a tournament match between two red-headed teenage girls. It's high energy, competitive, and you have absolutely no reason to think that this is anything but a normal day for Remnant.

That impression will quickly change.

You don't see the mass of blades that Pyrrha Nikos does—that's just an illusion, cast into the poor girl's mind by another young woman on the other side of the coliseum—but you do see the aftermath. The entire stadium worth of people sees that. The blades flying backwards, the wires wrapping around Penny's arm and torso. Her body tearing into pieces, revealing metal and wires instead of blood and flesh.

The entire stadium sees, and the entire stadium is shaken to the core.

And down in the tunnel leading out into the arena, a fifteen-year-old Ruby rose collapses to her knees and bursts into tears.

4. I wonder what they're all waiting for [Ruby and JNR camp whilst crossing Anima]

It's late a night, and four colour-coded teenagers have set up camp in the middle of the forest. The fire is reduced to smouldering embers and the forest is alive with the sound of nocturnal creatures, a good sign that there's no Grimm nearby. The four kids seem to be sleeping peacefully, for now, though their weapons are all well within arm's reach—a big silver war-hammer, a simple sword and shield, a pair of bladed machine pistols, and the folded down rifle form of Crescent Rose.

This world is dangerous. And they've all been trained not to forget it.

But the peace doesn't last forever. Ruby jolts awake, hand reaching out in front of her as if reaching for someone, but she doesn't scream. Eyes wide, breathing quick, she slumps forward to bury her face in her hands and try to calm down.

To those who know her already, she looks just a little younger, but it's still the same girl. And when she raises her head again, something seems to catch her eye—an unexpected silhouette in the treeline, perhaps. Automatically, she reaches for her weapon.

5. Living day to day, weeks become the same [Ruby and Penny training]

[For ease, characters arriving in this memory will specifically be assumed to be Atlas Academy students or teachers also here to train, unless you stand out THAT MUCH or say something that will give you away/make Penny look you up.]

Welcome to Atlas Academy's highly advanced training room, with modular blocks made out of hard-light dust that change to accommodate different training scenarios. It's an odd timeslot, as training timeslots go—but Penny doesn't have a lot of free time, you see, and Ruby was more than happy to adjust her schedule to get in some time training together.

That's them, over there. Penny zipping around on jets of green energy, her Floating Array spread out in a circle behind her as she runs circles around Ruby who remains on the ground, Crescent Rose in her grip. Ruby effortlessly dodges when Penny strikes out with a slash of multiple swords at once, and Penny blocks Ruby's bullets with a rapidly spinning turbine of blades in turn.

There's laughter, and the swish of weapons through the air, and Ruby shouting up at her: "You know I feel like you being able to fly now makes this a little unfair!"

Penny's head tilts, as she flies another loop around Ruby. "Do you not have your gravity dust infused bullets available?"

"What kind of question is that!" There's laughter in Ruby's voice. "When do I ever not have my gravity dust infused bullets?"

"Oh! Well, then I do not understand your complaint."

6. Everything's a blur [serena eterna]

In the real world, Ruby can be found doing all the things she usually does: training up on the training deck with either Crescent Rose or Summer's Thorn; tinkering with or doing maintenance on those same weapons; reading fairy tales in the library; wandering on the decks after nightmares at night...

Anywhere you need to find her, she's there.

7. Just Close Your Eyes [wildcard]

Find me at bluecitrine or at artisticblueteam#5757/in the discord. I'm willing to do other kinds of memories if someone wants a different vibe, but otherwise this is it, go ham.