#i'm also gonna cry every time i see ruby like. y'all so sweet

[ss-trashboat]

Mahogany, lime, ruby and yellow

For the ask game

Mahogany - let's go on a late night drive together and listen to one of your playlists. Lime - i can't tell if you're serious or what but i am avidly waiting your next post. Ruby - you are such a gem, you deserve so much better <3 Yellow - every time i see you on my dash you're always so happy and it's so lovely!

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR LIME LOL. i promise i am very rarely serious and am here for a good bit ~

colors of the moots ask game ~

[shera-dnd]

So ya girl failed miserably at taking part in the frostbyte week when she promised to, so to compensate I'm joining ROSEBIRD WEEK! And of course I'm starting with the freaking angst, because this little fic is for day 3: Gried/Regret

Hope y'all enjoy it.

Of all her journeys in these past couple of years, Ruby Rose found the trek back to Patch to be the most difficult stretch. Not because she was being hunted, not because the weather was foul, not because she got lost. But because of where she was going, and why.

She was returning to the place where her journey began, that lonely gravestone overlooking the forests below, and for once the journey was peaceful. There had been no accidents, no attacks, only a quiet and all too lonely trek through the woods...just so she could say goodbye to her mom.

So when she stepped out of the treeline, she was surprised to find that she wasn’t the only one there; perched atop her mother’s grave was a single black bird with red eyes. It looked at her curiously, but made no motion to leave.

Ruby was slow and cautious in her approach, not wanting to provoke the bird. Thankfully it did not seem to mind her much, only caring to give the most minimal of glances in her direction once she had stepped close to the gravestone.

“Hey there, little guy,” she tried to greet it, to no response, “are you here to talk to her too?”

The bird cawed at her, but did not move.

“It’s just that...I was expecting to do this alone,” no response. Okay, guess she’s gonna have to do this with some extra company then.

She sighed and slumped to her knees, but tried to keep a positive attitude. A skill that she had more than mastered after these past few years.

“I guess I could use some company,” she commented casually, “so…did you know her?”

The raven looked at her funny, but did not respond.

“I guess not,” Ruby shrugged, “well, she was my mom, and she was the best mom anyone could ask for. She was sweet, and kind, and brave. She would bake us cookies, and then go fight giant monsters,” she couldn’t help but smile as those old memories came back to her, “she was incredible.”

Until other memories came flooding too.

“Even when bad people tried to take her away, even when they tried to make her as bad as them…even then she kept fighting. She fought because she wanted to make the world a safer place,” she could still hear that voice, completely distorted, but still hers, “for me, for Yang...for all of us.”

Fingernails dug into her palms, and her eyes burned with tears she refused to shed. She was just talking about her. She hadn’t even said what she needed to say, she couldn’t start crying now.

She hadn’t realized that the bird was staring at her now, studying her intently as if it could understand every word she had said.

“I…I think you’d like her,” she spoke to the raven, trying to bring back some levity.

The bird seemed to finally have realized it was intruding - or more realistically just grew bored of her - and flew away, cawing a couple of times on its way out. Leaving Ruby alone with her mother.

A hand traced over the engravings on the stone. The symbol of a rose, her mother’s emblem, and also her own. Under it was her name, Summer Rose, and the words “Thus Kindly I Scatter”. Ruby had read those words to exhaustion, ran her hand over those engravings until she worried she might cause them to fade away, she had come to this grave to speak to her mother more times than she could have counted.

She knew her mother hadn’t been buried under that stone, she knew her body had never been recovered, but she could never have dreamed of what had happened to her, even in her worst nightmares. But even though her body wasn’t there, that single stone still brought her comfort, and she still came here for a reason.

“Hey, mom, it’s been a while,” she greeted, voice weak, “a lot happened since we last talked. Been to Mistral, Atlas, Vacuo, even outside space and time for a while,” she forced herself to chuckle at that one, “we met some new people, some good, some bad...most good, and we even made some friends too.”

Her hand shifted and she fidgeted with the hem of her skirt.

“I’m a huntress now, thought you’d like to know that. I also learned about the maidens, and the relics...and Salem. I know you probably didn’t want me to get involved in any of this, but once I knew what was at stake I couldn’t just sit back and let others suffer,” she tried to breathe, tried to center herself and calm down a little, but her breath was shaky, “I guess you would know how that feels...that’s why you kept going on missions, right? You couldn’t just sit back and let it happen.”

“I hope…,” no that wasn’t the right word, “...I think you’d be proud of us, mom.”

She hadn’t noticed when the tears had started, but she could feel them now, rolling down her cheeks and landing on the stone below. She also hadn’t noticed that the bird had returned.

“I know…I know you’re not really here. I know your body is out there, getting toyed with by Salem,” she flinched at the terrible memories that assaulted her, of her mother’s eyes staring from inside a beast’s maw, “but that thing isn’t you. My mom died trying to make the world a better place, she died protecting her family. My mom…” her hands were shaking, her vision was blurry and she sobbed, “my mom isn’t a monster! No matter what Salem does.”

Behind her stood the raven, large and menacing with her red armor, and a sword hanging from her side, though her posture was far from threatening. Tears that she had refused to shed for years now streamed uncontrollably down her face. One hand covered her mouth, trying to muffle any sobs that might try to escape it, and the other reached for the girl before her, quivering barely an inch above her shoulder.

She wanted to comfort her, show her that she wasn’t alone, but she couldn’t, not after all those horrible things she had done.

“I...I have to say goodbye now, mom,” Ruby continued, wiping her tears on the back of her sleeves, “for good. We’re going to fight Salem soon, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to come back, but I promise that no matter what happens…,” trembling hands clenched into fists, and her voice found the strength it had lost, “we won’t let her win! We’ll put your body to rest, and we’ll stop her no matter what! I know how powerful she is, but I also know that we can stop her, that we can make the world a safer place. And then...and then your sacrifice won’t have been in vain!”

The wind blew through her hair, the trees rustled behind her, Ruby sniffled, but there was no response. She knew there wouldn’t be any, but the silence was still heavy on her. It dragged on and on, allowing her fears and anxieties to return, to begin to dig away at what little confidence she had left. But before she was allowed to crumble again, the raven spoke.

“You sound just like her.”

Ruby had heard those words before, spoken by that same voice. Though the first time it had been stained by disdain and mockery, now it shook and trembled under the weight of soul crushing regret.

This time it sounded like grief.

She turned around to see her, to look the raven in the eye, but she was already gone, leaving behind only the silence, and a single black feather, slowly falling to the tear stained ground.