[ the offer of gum is turned down, Ruby holding up a hand with a smile—instead, she digs through a pouch at her hip and comes up with a hard mint candy. she winks, and there's a short giggle, sweet and melodic, before she pops it into her mouth. with the mint under her tongue, she speaks around it: ]

Um... I swapped voices with Hibiki for a day; there was a while where everything tasted like ash; I've had my things go missing, and my breath came out as black smoke instead of mist, and I got really, really, really cold...

[ sure, it's been bad enough for her to grind her dignity under heel and kiss just about everybody she knows by now. but at the same time, she's suffered much worse from far more mundane sources. she already knows she can endure. between a rock and a hard place, she'll still choose one or the other.

speaking of her dignity and lack thereof: she puts her hands to her cheeks, a rosy blush colouring her face already tinged pink by the cold. ]

B-But, I mean, it isn't easy for me to just... k-kiss people like that! I thought it would only ever be with my husband! I even had to give my first away...