—i play the heroine, i play to their sympathies.

[appeale]

WHO: rudbeckia de borgia & etc.
WHERE: various locations
WHEN: check subject lines
WHAT: catch-all & overflow log
WARNINGS: will update as needed. see individual threads for specific warnings and mind ruby's character cws

Comments

「 OCTOBER 」STYGIA, THE HARBORS • SAKURA

[appeale]

from here.

[ a couple of hours before noon, Sakura receives a message that says simply: I'm on my way, Dottoressa! (｡･∀･)ﾉﾞ —and shortly after, a petite young lady with a head of golden-blonde hair peeks in through the front flap of the medical tent. even from a quick glance, Rudbeckia seems very much like the princess she introduced herself as: dressed in fine fabrics with a voluminous skirt, decorated in ruffles and bows like a doll, she has the look about her of a girl who has never done anything more strenuous than lift a teacup. even the way she walks is delicate, each step as careful as a dancer's. ]

Hello, Dottoressa? [ she lingers by the entrance, fidgeting nervously with her skirts. ] It's Rudbeckia... I hope I'm not interrupting.

cw: injury/wound care

[craters]

Not at all, come in!

（ she's just finishing up with a neat row of surgical stitches on a boy who cut his arm on jagged metal diving for pearls in the bay. tetanus is a worry here, so she'd done the best she could to pull toxins out of his system with chakra — but it had exhausted her, and left her faced with treating the actual physical wound the old fashioned way. she ties off the last stitch with a complicated knot, cuts it, and she gives the boy a smile as she picks up a dressing and bandage to wrap the wound. ）

See? All done! Now, remember — please keep it dry, and come back to see me in about a week, all right? I'll know whether or not they can come out then.

（ very sternly — ）

I mean it! No swimming! Trust me, I'll know. Now — my friend here is going to watch as I wrap your arm, okay?

（ she gestures rudbeckia forwards, and then proceeds to place the dressing with its absorbent side down, wrapping the bandage — always starting furthest away from the heart and working towards the heart &mdas; to cover it entirely. the issue, she explains as she works, is that if you leave any of the dressing peeking out, it can act as a wick for any blood. ）

[appeale]

[ after the unexpected reaction she'd had when she was witness to Freya's gruesome poisoning, Ruby had been vaguely concerned that she might go through the same thing again, upon seeing the wounded here—but watching Sakura work, there's nothing. no reminders of the past or nightmarish visions; she doesn't even feel nausea. the boy is only injured, not dead, and it makes all the difference to see him sitting there upright.

she observes over Sakura's shoulder and tries to recall the mandatory first aid lessons she sat through in high school to no avail. if she'd known she would ever be in a situation like this, maybe she would have paid more attention. ]

I understand. [ kind of. well, the important thing is just to remember the way she's told to do it. ] It must be hard... Where I was from, injuries could be healed with holy magic. So I never saw anything like this.

「 OCTOBER 」 EVENT THREADS

[appeale]

planning • event log

—THREAD TRACKING.

[appeale]

fujiwara hibiki
fukawa toko
zagreus
set
jonas ward
felix hugo fraldarius
noctis lucis caelum

—KAITO.

[appeale]

[ they've been running for too long. how long isn't at all a relevant question; whether it's been five minutes or fifteen, it's too much time spent in this godforsaken maze that her Shadow walked her into. (and it so rarely rears its head, she had been worrying that perhaps she's been too at ease here, that she needs to stay aware of her surroundings and then all of a sudden she'd thought: so maybe I need a reminder, and her feet had just moved—) she had been relieved, briefly, to come across someone else from their particular group of Restless, except in the end it turns out there isn't much comfort to be had in just having another person running alongside you.

besides, she's dead weight. even now, Kaito has had to stop for her sake, the two of them having found a corner to hide in while Ruby catches her breath. ]

S-Sorry, Signor Kaito...

[ this body has hardly ever been what anyone could call robust, but—she was still in the throes of that damn chronic illness when she died, and it seems like maybe she hasn't quite recovered yet, even though that doesn't make any sense because she's dead. why is she still sick if she's dead? how the hell is that fair? her head swims and every breath burns inside her lungs. shouldn't she just give up? she'll go to the bastard chasing them down and she'll cry and grovel and let him win, and whatever he decides to do with his victory, at least this will be over. he isn't going to kill her. he's just a bully. ]

You don't have to wait for me, it's okay. [ she's still panting, slumped over in a heap of skirts and blonde curls. ] I'll be fine.

i legitimately deluded myself into thinking that i replied to this last week I'M SO SORRY LMAO

[nagano]

[ Despite having picked up the blonde several minutes ago (meaning several minutes of absorbing her stress and anxiety), Kaito's been light on his feet. Unlike most of the other participants in this game of cat and mouse, he had willingly put himself into the position of prey.

Having heard from folks near the entrance of the maze that the occasional bout of violence had broken out between hunters and their quarry, he found himself compelled to participate. After the frustrating, hellish mess that had been the hunt for the lantern(s), he really needed to blow off some steam.

Unexpectedly, it was only a few turned corners into his haystack labyrinth foray that he had run into Ruby. And, predictably, his ever-present protective instincts kicked in. ]

No apologizing.

[ It's not his first time telling her this, nor will it be the last. His voice is firm yet gentle all the same, and as she struggles to catch her breath, he slips into view wearing a faint smile and holding out an opened metal flask. ] Have a drink. It's water. At the very least, your hunter isn't very good at tracking us. I'm pretty sure he just took another wrong turn.

[ Sure, he's derailed a fair bit from his personal agenda within the maze, but the braggadocious seeker harassing Ruby fits well enough as a temporary antagonist.

In other words, he'll settle for seeing him tossed on his ass, even if it's not in a fight. Focusing back on his impromptu charge, Kaito locks eyes with her—and a flash of mischief shines in those sharp golds. ]

It'd be quite rude to leave you behind. After all, turnabout is fair play.

[ A beat; he flashes a smirk while letting his words sink in. ] There are no rules against fed-up prey giving their hunters a touch of comeuppance, y'know.

S̸o̸?̵ ̶D̵o̵ ̵y̷o̷u̵ ̸w̷a̷n̴t̴ ̴t̶o̸ ̵f̷l̷i̵p̴ ̵t̴h̷e̸ ̷s̵c̷r̷i̸p̶t̶ ̴o̸n̷ ̶t̸h̷i̶s̷ ̵d̸i̵p̴s̸h̵i̸t̴?̶

—YOO JOONGHYUK. (pre-emptive cw for implied abuse)

[appeale]

[ it's strange: the festival is so loud, and yet Rudbeckia can't hear a thing. she must have been able to hear it earlier, she had been part of the noise herself, talked and laughed and danced, and then she had been walking away from some meaningless conversation with a half-finished drink in her hand and she had seen him standing there and at once all the sound had stopped. he isn't looking at her. he's angled away from her, but she recognises him all the same: a tall, strong figure, the tousled sweep of his hair, his disciplined and confident posture. does everyone else know? have they found out somehow what this means for the poor Lark of Sistine? is that why they all went so quiet?

ah—no, she can still hear it faintly. music and laughter, muffled like she's far, far underwater, a place where she can't breathe or move or speak. wouldn't that be nice? deep down somewhere he won't find her and can't reach her. but the deafening sound of water in her ears is only the rush of her blood. there isn't anywhere she can hide.

no matter what she says, he's going to be angry. the best thing she can do for herself now is mitigate the damage, and that means walking straight into his grasp like a foolish and unafraid little bird. she has to let the viper wrap its coils around her neck without a flinch so that maybe it won't bite. it's alright. this is the thing she knows how to do best. (everyone here has been so confusing, so exhausting. isn't it nice to have a little familiarity? isn't it better?) she knows: you should always just get the painful part out of the way first, and then deal with the rest as it comes. it feels like walking off a ledge, but she approaches him. ]

Cesi, you're here?

[ the words are accompanied by a familiar young lady at Joonghyuk's side, where she curls a hand around the crook of his elbow. the touch is casual and familiar, her smile wide. something is already wrong: even when she sees his face, Ruby doesn't react with any confusion or recognition. in her other hand, her drink is forgotten. ]

I didn't know—I mean, I hadn't seen... I'm really glad to see you, Brother!

[regression]

[ Joonghyuk is participating in the celebration at his own pace and on his own terms... Which is wallflowering and not pecking at any of the treats or drinks, though he holds a glass in his hand. It stays seated in his palm as a tactic to keep others from hassling him about living a little, as ironic as that saying goes, and to occupy his fretful hand. As much as he deplores eating dishes and treats made by others, he was forced by two clowns he plans to bury later in the day.

Glass can't substitute touch, but that starvation is sated when Rudbeckia comes along to loop around his arm. It isn't welcome, not in the slightest, and the heightened restlessness triggers him to react, yet the grablenuts encourage him to accept this display. Overall, his reaction is neutralized, which he can rationalize to himself that he dislikes that.

He shoots her a look, scrutinizing and incredulous. ]

Rudbeckia de Borgia. [ What are you doing? is what he wanted to ask, but... Wait. Huh? ] I'm not your brother.

[ His younger sister has so much more attitude and audacity than Ruby and she's eleven. ]

「 NOVEMBER 」 1ST - 6TH

[appeale]

—THREAD TRACKING.

[appeale]

callisto regulus
top level • felix, heewon, tartaglia, joonghyuk
sylvain jose gautier

「 NOVEMBER 」 7TH - ?? (GALLOWS EVENT)

[appeale]

planning • event log

—THREAD TRACKING.

[appeale]

dimitri alexandre blaiddyd

「 NOVEMBER 」 14TH - 17TH

[appeale]

—THREAD TRACKING.

[appeale]

mo ran
zagreus
shalem
set
kim dokja

「 DECEMBER 」STYGIA, SERENE • FELIX

[appeale]

[ much as she tries to give him a wide berth, and as easy a task as that typically is given the floors of separation between their rooms, it's inevitable that there are times Rudbeckia and Felix cross paths within the Han Sooyoung Corporation apartment complex. she always greets him, and never lingers to chat—not running from him, but operating under the assumption that he'll only be irritated by any attempt at small talk from her. it is, overall, an uneventful acquaintanceship.

that doesn't mean she wanted to run into him tonight, of all people it could have been. a familiar sense of unease had crept up on her a few hours earlier, and she's glad that she had decided at the time to alert Yoo Joonghyuk that she wouldn't be at dinner, because sure enough—soon after, she was curled up in bed and biting through her sheets from the pain. it doesn't make any sense that she's still sick, even here. aren't they supposed to be dead? what, didn't she suffer enough when she was alive?

all she wants is to slip down to the kitchens while everyone else is eating, grab whatever food she thinks she might be able to swallow, and hide in her room until she has to endure it like normal tomorrow. it just so happens that Felix is here. at least, she thinks, in a light-headed daze: at least this is maybe the one person in the building who won't want to spend any time talking. if all goes well, she'll be able to walk right out without any unnecessary complications. ]

Buona serata, Don Fraldarius. [ it's important to stay in character even now, and she's done this enough times that she's certain there shouldn't be anything noticeably off. maybe she's a little pale, her smile more wan. nothing Felix would care about, surely. ] It's good to see you as always.

[ why does it hurts so fucking badly this time. she's gripping the edge of the counter white-knuckled, and it feels like she should be clawing gouges in it with how much pain she's in. her temperature seems to spike, then plummet; every inch of her skin is being stabbed with sharp-tipped needles; her vision swims, her head throbs, her stomach turns.

Ruby's smile does not falter. ]

[boarwitness]

[felix, as it so happens, is here to fix himself a snack of his own. not interested in eating with the """family""", such as it is rapidly becoming, he is scrounging up his own meal, made of leftovers and his own supplementary rations.

when rudbeckia walks in, he glances her way, gives her a compulsory nod. standard niceities, and she'd be off soon enough, he was sure.

except--

he does a double-take, and frowns.]

You're white as a sheet, and you look like you want to tear the counter off.

[he's looking at her properly, now.]

What's wrong with you?

[appeale]

[ damn. ]

There's nothing wrong with me?

[ sometimes, Felix is so dense, utterly incapable of reading the room—and then he's suddenly observant as a dog catching a scent, only ever when she really doesn't want him to be. What are you, my personal torturer or something? but she smiles, waves him off with an airiness that disguises her urgency to leave the room. ]

I'm a little tired, that's all. [ if he's going to pry, then she'll just grab a piece of fruit and go before he can corner her. she plucks the topmost apple from a basket and turns on her heel, headed for the door. ] It's okay, I'm going right back to my room, so—

[ moving away from the counters is a mistake: when the next wave of dizziness hits her, there's nothing to catch herself against. Ruby staggers. the apple hits the floor first, and then she pitches forward, very clearly not going to recover in time to stop herself from collapsing. ]

「 DECEMBER 」EVENT THREADS

[appeale]

planning • event log

—THREAD TRACKING.

[appeale]

fukawa toko
felix hugo fraldarius
nagito kaito
sylvain jose gautier
claude von riegan
uriel
childe
dimitri alexandre blaiddyd
d
jonas ward
zagreus

—SHADOWLANDS.

[appeale]

( SOOYOUNG, CALLISTO, HIBIKI. )

[ you would expect the cold to ease, even if only a little, once you step through Rudbeckia's door and out of the cutting winds currently raging across the Shadowlands. that isn't what happens. standing in the dimly-lit foyer of the Borgia Manor, the chill that comes over you is of a different kind, but one that causes a shiver nonetheless. every noise you make seems too loud to your hearing; shadows flicker in the corners of each room; there is always, always the feeling of being watched, of sharp eyes following your every movement.

perhaps this is just an effect of the Shadowlands' distortion, or else the influence of whatever presence they've come here to investigate. maybe you're imagining things—Ruby doesn't seem to be at all bothered. ]

Ah, I'm not usually the one who greets guests... Welcome to the Borgia estate?

[ she had been reluctant to let her companion past the threshold, and it had taken some dithering before she finally opened the door for you. embarrassment, she'd claimed: after all, she's never had a friend visit her family home even when she was alive, and in the Netherworld, she's only Ruby, not Rudbeckia de Borgia. isn't it only natural that she would feel self-conscious? ]

My tethers are a little spread out, so I'll have to retrieve them all... Um, I'll take you to my room first. Please don't make fun of me when you see it.

[ ugh, she hates this. ]

nyehehehe

[pyojeol]

[Ruby's absolutely valid in her reluctance, because as soon as Sooyoung enters the foyer she immediately drifts away from her vicinity to start nosing around. She keeps her sticky fingers to herself, but does it bode well that she's immediately wandering... She at least doesn't rattle any doorknobs,]

-- Is it really that embarrassing?

[TO MAKE FUN OF RUBY ABOUT???? unfortunately she doesn't sound doubtful, only interested.]

[windsongs]

[ It surprises her that Ruby's Door is so close to hers, quite literally only three or four away. They're practically neighbors, and yet Hibiki can't recall really seeing the other blonde coming and going whenever she does. It could be that they're on different schedules, but it's also possible that Ruby has been avoiding coming back.

The awkwardness of how she introduces the space certainly hints that there is some discomfort, and as Hibiki walks through the threshold, she bows her head gently. ]

Pardon the intrusion...

[ Some habits will never die. It's only the doorway technically, but Hibiki is stunned by the space. Taking a few steps, she suddenly stops before offering an awkward smile. ]

Should I take my shoes off first? I'm not sure what the rules are about this.

[ It's baby's first mansion, please forgive her for not knowing what to do. She doesn't want to track dirt into Ruby's room. ]

crawls in late with starbucks...

[uncourteous]

[ while callisto had developed relatively thick skin over the years and through his own trials and tribulations, he isn't ignorant to the strange sensation he gets in this place. it's an uncomfortable feeling he can't quite put a finger on. which is precisely why his features look genuinely contemplative; his hand rubbing his chin as if the act itself would have breathed some sort of reasoning to situation. to be honest, when he thinks of what her room is like and compares it to how she acts, oddly enough— some things do click.

her fearfulness beneath her practiced smile. no, perhaps, she's smiled enough where it really did feel that genuine. regardless, callisto doesn't doubt that most noble ladies needed to practice at least that much to survive in the cut-throat world of nobility. he presumed a certain princess was no stranger to that, but he decides to focus on ruby right now. ] How do you stay here? [ it's a quick question, and while others may have practiced some degree of caution, callisto decides it was easier to cut to the chase.

was this normal for her? was this strange even in her own perceptions? whatever it was, he wanted to know. ... but, at the same time, he isn't sure what much else he could do but destroy it (why does everything come back to this? webtoom mls). ]

—APARTMENTS.

[appeale]

( DOKJA. )

[ it might be embarrassing beyond words to have to do this, but she's someone who doesn't have any pride left anyway. Ruby isn't going to sit around in her room shivering when there's a perfectly available solution to the problem also sitting around in his room shivering. if she has to guilt trip Dokja by making herself look as miserable and pathetic as possible to get him into the living area with her, then that's what she does.

she's piled them both up with every blanket she could find, including an extra bought just to replace the one Dokja nailed to her door last month. he's got his books and his phone; she has an embroidery hoop and several bundles of silk thread. and Ruby has curled up beside him on the couch, but... ]

... Dokja, you don't look very comfortable.

[ though, she supposes she isn't one to talk when she's sitting just as stiffly as he is. ]

( HEEWON. )

[ with the disastrously cold weather in effect, Ruby has taken to spending her time in the neighbouring suite while Sooyoung and Dokja are out. (it doesn't matter whether Joonghyuk is around or not because she's not risking her life for body heat unless she absolutely has to.) there isn't much to do while you're huddled together like penguins, either, so somehow she and Heewon came up with the idea of charging crystals at the same time.

the problem with that genius idea, it turns out, is that sitting around with only one hand free to do anything is really, really boring. ]

I think I'm going to turn into a cocoon at this rate...

[ it feels like she's done nothing other than sleep lately, but she's half-asleep on Heewon's shoulder again, blinking drowsily. ]

( ROSA. )

You know, this might actually be a more effective bonding activity than the movie night was.

[ although she doesn't know Rosa too well, it seems like there's an agreement amongst most of the apartment residents that the usual social boundaries are just a little more flexible than usual, with the cold encroaching on their homes. besides, she—well, she's several years older than Rosa, but Ruby is close to her in age, and that makes things easier. it's less nerve-wracking, in any case.

as a courtesy gift, Rudbeckia brought tea with her, which she's pouring now while trying to keep from shivering so that her hands don't shake. ]

By the way, is it alright if I call you Rosa, signorina?