“No, you don’t need to,” Lily shook her head. “I can make it sans carrots. Probably won’t even taste the difference. Thank you, though.” She used a spoon to scoop out a bit of the puree and put it off to the side for her tests. “What do you like in your smoothies? I can make enough for two. Least I can do for coating you in carrot juice.”
Ruth nodded, still feeling bad even if she hadn’t done any wrong in this scenario. “Oh, uh, strawberries, but you don’t have to!” she rushed to say, eyes wide. “It’s totally fine. I did try apples in one once but it didn’t turn out great. Apples are just kinda my thing.”
“Ah, come on then, try it,” Lily held out the fork again. She looked at Ruth and asked, “So is there an occasion, or did you just want to make pie?”
Ruth pursed her lips. “You’re just trying to deflect on me.” she murmured, shaking her head and submitting, taking a bite on the pie while Lily asked if there was a reason for the pie. Holding her hand below her mouth as she swallowed, just in case of crumbs or other such things, she shook her head, speaking when her mouth was empty. “No, I felt like I wanted to try before I had a good reason to, and all... So it isn’t terrible when there’s say, a birthday. It’s good for my first try, even the level of cinnamon, but I’ll admit it might be too much for others.”
He scratched his nose and stepped back, “I am me. Why can’t anyone see that?” The anger kept bubbling up inside him, but at least now he could control his powers when it happened. “I’m both. Isn’t that what Mom and Dad always went on about. We are both. I am Neal. I am The Dark one. Why is that so hard to accept?”
She had messed up, Ruth had messed up big time. He stepped away and she still held her arms up, longing for the hug to be continued. “That’s not what they meant, you know that’s not what they meant.” she whimpered, unable to contain her emotions. “They meant being their Enchanted Forest and cursed selves. This is not what they... What happens when they find out, Neal?”
I wouldn’t. My family is here, my whole life is here. I would have liked to see the Enchanted Forest as my parents knew it, but that’s here already. I’m content.”
a belated introduction to snowing child oc, ruth charming!!!
Ruth was named for her paternal grandmother, David’s mother. Her middle name is Regina, at least the one she puts on everything. Ruth Regina Eva Charming can be a mouthful, but she’s fared better than some. She likes to joke that if you name all of her grandmothers, including step grandmothers, you end up with her full name.
She loves her grandma Regina, who she insists on calling grandma sometimes, even if the step-family relationship isn’t acknowledged as often as it was. She is definitely a confidant.
She is closer to Neal than she is to Emma, perhaps since Emma already had a family of her own when she was born. There’s also a larger age gap between her and Emma than her and Neal, which sits at seven-eight years. Technically, there’s over thirty between her and Emma.
She is a lot like her mother, but much more fragile. Picture Disney movie Snow White, raised by Once Snow, and you get somewhere close to Ruth. She tried to emulate her mother, but isn’t as easy with potential violence. She enjoys archery, but the idea of shooting at people makes her queasy. She is very compassionate however, and prefers to help her causes and the people she loves via comfort and pies.
She is a teaching student. She plans to go into elementary education, perhaps in the younger grades.
I don’t need to do the quizes, she’s a frickin Hufflepuff.
She’s probably afraid of ridiculous things. Rational fears of course, like heights maybe or spiders and snakes, but also like... getting over a fear of butterflies. And the thought of witnessing an allergic reaction is enough to make her kinda wanna pass out.
It was strange, he knew he should feel sad with his sister sobbing like she was. But it was as if his emotions just weren’t there anymore. He wrapped is arms around her and squeezed her, but there was no love in it, it was a gesture formed from habit. “When we find her, we’ll all live happily ever after. And I can protect our family for the rest of eternity.”
That wasn’t the right answer. He knew that wasn’t the right answer, she knew it... She was terrified. He couldn’t be gone, he couldn’t have been consumed by the darkness, it was still her brother. “But in the darkness...” she murmured, muffled by the fact she had buried her face in her brother’s chest. “It’s no way to live, you know how Rumple lived his last days... Promise me you’ll stay you. You’re not the darkness Neal, you’re not.” Maybe it was denial, maybe it wasn’t, she wanted to believe it.
“Please tell me you will one day take me for one of these incredible supreme pizzas?” She looked hopeful, eager to begin her new life in this strange new land until her father could return to her.
“Oh, of course.” she nodded, grinning. “There are so many pizza places around here, I’ll definitely narrow them down. Do you have any allergies? Sensitivities to dairy, gluten? Nuts?” Ruth was not about to let her have an allergic reaction, she was not good with that kind of pressure.
“Don’t cry,” he let out a little laugh, “It’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna get her back, you can trust me, Ruth.” He squeezed her hand, his own were much colder than hers. “We’ve tried everything else.”
Ruth wanted to believe him. She wanted to have faith in him, she wanted him to hug her and go back for hot chocolate with cinnamon and everything would be better. She wanted it to be okay, but it wasn’t. She shook her head, leaning hear head finally on her brothers chest, letting the sobs engulf her.
Emma had been the dark one. She had turned out okay. Even Rumplestiltskin had been redeemed by the time he died. There had to be a way to save her brother from the darkness. “And what happens when we find her?” she asked in a murmur, afraid of the answer.
“I suppose I will have to try it some time,” she smiled softly, Ruth seemed to be such a pure and genuine person, hopefully someone Grace would be able to be friends with in the long run…she’d never really had any true friends before aside from her mother. “What is your favourite thing to have on the top?”
Ruth’s eyes went wide. “Oh, I don’t know... I don’t know that I’m partial to anything in particular, I do like supreme pizzas where they put all sorts of stuff on top - peppers, mushrooms, onions, beef, sausage, pepperoni - it’s great. but plain cheese is good too.”
“Shh shh shh,” he leaned in close to her and brushed his finger on her cheek, as if to comfort her. “I did it to help save Hope. They told me it would help get her back, and it will.” He smiled at her, his eyes were unhinged, showing how broken his soul now was.
“Neal...” All she could say for a time was his name. She brought her hand up to take his, the first tear falling. “This isn’t you.” she managed finally, small, broken. “There has to be other ways, Neal, please... There has to be...”
“That sounds…well…That sound wonderful!” Talking with people in the town, whoever they may be, was making her feel much better about everything she had done. It would have been easy to mistake her as a villain, but it wasn’t the case. And the longer she spent in the town in the wake of Hope’s disappearance, the more her guilt was beginning to cripple her. “This town is full of so many wonderful things.”
“Well, it’s from Italy originally, I...” Ruth felt she was going to go down into a spiral and soon end up talking about the Columian Exchange, a crashcourse video she had watched a few too many times last semester when trying to write a lesson plan. “But they have some great pizza here, with anything you can imagine on top.”
“You haven’t heard?” Lily shook her head, wide-eyed. “The carrots are all gone. These were the last of them,” she said, nodding towards the near-empty blender. “Nobody knows exactly what happened, but people are saying it’s the revenge of Peter Rabbit.” She blinked earnestly, before breaking with a slight grin. “No, of course there are more carrots.”
Ruth had to admit, she could’ve believed it. In this town, anything was possible, up to and including someone casting a curse that removed carrots from existence. She couldn’t think of a solid, sane reason why, but it was a chance. She was not about to voice said concern, though. “Do you have any, or do you need some? I can run and get some, for the smoothie?”
Ruth stood frozen for a moment, her mouth hanging open. She had tried to help him... Really, she had, and if she couldn’t help him, how could her parents or anyone? “Neal...” she couldn’t say anything else, tears welling up in her eyes, threatening to spill over. “What... Why?”
Grace frowned and tilted her head to the side, her dark waves falling off her shoulder. “What is a pizza? I have never heard of such a thing.”
“Oh, uh...” Ruth was still not used to explaining things to people. “It’s, well... You take dough, and you put tomato sauce on it, and then cheese, and some people like it just like that, and others put things on top, like beef or mushrooms or anchovies, or pineapple which some people think is a terrible idea, it’s up for debate. You bake it, and it’s served hot. The crust can be thin or thick, it’s a preference thing really, and some people use different kinds of sauce or something other than dough for the base - it’s complicated and you should try it.”
Grandma and my mom are the same age, thanks to a curse, my dad is technically centuries old, Regina is Henry’s step-grandma and his adoptive mom……our family tree is bizarre, and complicated.” He replied, though to be fair, Lucy is a few years older than me and its so weird when she calls me uncle so..I get it. “
Ruth shrugged. “It’s true, but that doesn’t make it any less weird.” she said with a grin. “And we all seem to have a thing about cinnamon, I thought it may have been too much, but not for the Charming clan it would seem.”
“About that,” Lily swallowed the tiny bite of pie she had taken from her piece and crinkled her nose. “I need to come clean, Ruth. I don’t really like apple pie in general. There’s too much cinnamon.”
Ruth couldn’t help but pout at that. “Well then.” she murmured, with just a hint of sass. “I may have used too much, it’s kinda a family thing, a love of cinnamon.”
