Okay… so because @pigeontakeover asked… (I’m sure nobody else cares)… but here’s a masterpost of all my Ruby Douglas (original DnD character) dabbles that I’ve written. Will be updated if I write more. I’m sure all of these snippets say something about me but shhhh.
How it started: here (where she first appeared in a one shot but I’ve tweaked her since; as apparently she annoyed people, plus druid never really fit all that well)
How it’s going: she’s now a fighter multi-class for flavour and I kinda love her a lot. She’s rather broken but so fiercely overprotective of her baby sister even (or especially) when that overprotectiveness infuriates said baby sister.
First - she met her wife here (they’re adorable… horny as bunnies, but adorable)
Second - her sister got knocked out cold and nearly drowned while searching a shipwreck
Third - DM asked for a reason other than “her sister would probably die without her” for her leaving her wife to go off searching for answers…
Fourth - again, DM wanted us to have a think about how they’d fair in battle (as she was pretty overbearing in the one shot) so we tried to “Vex and Vax” it… basically I shove characters in a scenario and slowly tweak them to get a more acceptable outcome for everyone… This is how I compromise!!!!
Fifth - continuation of why she kept going… like seriously dude what the fuck is going on here? Number five is alternatively titled “No I Don’t Have Issues With My Mother; Whatever Gave You That Idea?”
Ruby’s head ached and her arm hurt and her vision was still a little blurry. Cass was saying something from the chair beside her bed and she was nodding along, but most of her attention was caught on the bed across the room. The girl sitting beside it almost seemed to 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘸 from within and Ruby was fascinated. The small child in the bed was curled around the older girl and Ruby was too far to make out whatever the child was saying even if the little girl hadn’t been whispering. The child’s face was tear-streaked, but the teenager was gently stroking her hair, seemingly almost maternal. Ruby was fascinated. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d been touched with so much warmth. She wanted to ask the girl if she’d share her light but didn’t know how to get the words out.
“- and I really am sorry Ruby! I didn’t see you, I 𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘳! I was aiming for Flint!”
Ruby blinked and finally looked away, reluctantly dragging her attention back to her teammate. A slightly loopy smile.
“ ‘s fine Cass. ‘S all good. ‘S just a broken arm.”
“And a concussion young lady!”
Ruby pouted. Damnit.
“Right. You need to rest Miss Douglas. Miss Greenhorn, out.”
Cass winced, but nodded shortly, shooting Ruby another apologetic look, which her teammate waved away with a smile that seemed strained at the edges, her gaze drifting back across the room. Cass sighed, and trudged out, feeling like a right bastard. It had truly been an accident!
Ruby barely noticed her teammate departing, gaze riveted, as if by magic, to the teenager across the room. The small girl, and she 𝘩𝘢𝘥 to be a First Year, no other kids were that tiny, had sobbed herself to sleep and the older girl was watching her fondly.
“Hey.”
The teenager startled and looked up, eyes flying across the room to lock with Ruby’s and Ruby 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 to drown in those hazel depths. Oh. Oh, 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵.
“Uhm…” wow Douglas. Smooth. Real smooth.
The other girl smiled and it felt like the sun coming up. Ruby automatically smiled back and then hissed in pain when she accidentally moved her arm. The girl’s smile faded and she stood, gently soothing the First Year back to sleep when the child stirred, and then came over to sit in Cass’ recently vacated chair.
“Are you okay?”
Even her 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦 sounded like music. Ruby sighed, smile turning loopy.
“I am now. You sound like you’re singing.”
The girl’s cheeks flushed and she looked down, seemingly flustered. Ruby immediately missed the warmth of her regard.
“ ‘m Ruby. Douglas. I… we’ve got Charms together I think?”
The other girl glanced back up, cheeks still pink, but smile back in place. Ruby felt like singing.
“Marianne. I think it’s Transfiguration 𝘢𝘯𝘥 that you’ve got a head injury.”
“Head injury smead injury. I still think you’re really pretty.”
The girl’s, 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦'𝘴 cheeks flushed a darker pink and her smile turned shy, but she didn’t drop her gaze that time.
“Do you always flirt with everyone when you’ve been hit in the head? Because if so… I’m pretty good at throwback jinxes.”
It was Ruby’s turn to blush, and start stammering, and Marianne laughed, tone warm and gentle. Ruby immediately wanted to make her do that again. It had felt like being wrapped in a hug. She reached out and then paused, feeling suddenly and unaccountably shy. Marianne saved her and took her hand, lifting it to her lips and pressing a featherlight kiss to her fingertips, after a careful glance around to make sure they weren’t about to be interrupted. Ruby felt her breath catch. Oh. Okay.
“I… uh…”
“Miss Faeburn, are you raising my patient’s blood pressure out there!?”
Marianne bit back a smile, eyes dancing with mirth, and gently set Ruby’s hand back down, lifting a finger to her lips.
“No Nurse! I’d never do something like that!” Her tone was pure innocence, but the look she shot Ruby immediately had Ruby’s blood pressure rising again. Was it possible to have blood spurt out of the top of your head? It definitely felt like that was a possibility.
There was a disbelieving “harrump” from the other room, and Marianne leant over and pressed a kiss to the other girl’s cheek, murmuring in her ear. Ruby let out a slightly strangled groan, and Marianne sat back, radiating innocence, and suddenly Madam Pomfrey was there, also shooing her out.
“Prefect or not Miss Faeburn, if you’re disrupting my patients’ rest, you’ll have to leave.”
Marianne let herself be shooed from the Hospital Wing, craning her neck for one last look at the frankly 𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 blushing Gryffindor girl. Okay, she was 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 coming back tomorrow… to check on Cecilia of course… definitely for no other reason whatsoever.
The caravan road was dusty, it was hot, the mules were complaining (but that was nothing new, mules always thought they had it worse than they did) and Ruby was 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘥. With a capital “B”. If it hadn’t been for Pearl along (so boredom was actually a good thing) she might have convinced Altrover to let her scout ahead, simply for something to 𝘥𝘰!
Pearl though… Ruby had been along this route many a time, and could (and probably 𝘩𝘢𝘥) travel it with her eyes shut. It was Pearl’s first time coming along on one of the land routes and Ruby was watching her baby sister, without appearing to be trying to watch her. They’d decided early on, when Mama and Papa had first raised the idea of them earning some extra coin by going along as caravan guards, that Pearl would take the river routes. Ruby got queasy and felt faint even 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 about water any deeper than a rain barrel. So she knew her sister could hold her own in a fight on a boat… but she didn’t know how she’d go in a fight surrounded by dust and shouting and always having to keep one eye out that the bandits didn’t go for the mules… it was different than just repelling someone trying to climb over a barge railing.
So yes. She was glad to be bored, even if she was wishing for a scuffle, just a little one, merely for something to do.
They’d passed part of the time playing cards, but Ruby had given up when Pearl had beaten her three times in a row. Her little sister seemed to have a magical ability to just know what number was coming up next… but maybe they could use it to fleece the other guards around the campfire tonight. A sigh, but she dropped off the back of the end wagon and jerked her thumb into the woods at the side of the road, making eye contact with Byron covering the rear. The watered wine (more water than wine this early in the day) they’d been drinking while playing was catching up to her, and the call of nature was getting… urgent. The other woman jerked her head in acknowledgment and came in closer to cover the gap. Ruby ducked into the trees to find a quiet spot to do her business.
She was heading back, at an angle to meet up with the rest, having had to go further than she’d like to wash her hands in a stream, when the sounds of a pitched battle met her ears. She bolted. Damnit! This stretch of the road was usually so safe a child could ride along it and only be bothered by the occasional bird!
The swirl of dust, the braying of the mules, the yells of the other guards, it reached out to tug her onwards, and she was, almost without realising it, drawing her sword as she ran. She exploded from the tree-line, a little ahead of where the wagons were drawn up in a circle, having misjudged how far they’d travelled before being ambushed.
The bandits didn’t seem like they knew how to fight as a unit, and two of them dropped even as she ran, one with a crossbow bolt through his throat, the other falling to a wild swipe from Harold. The boy looked like he was going to be sick at the sight, and Ruby arrived just in time to engage the man about to swing at the boy’s unprotected back.
And then it was all yelling, and dust and stabbing anything that came near you… she’d lost her round buckler at some point in the fray and was currently holding off a bandit with a cudgel with the the long dagger she rarely had to use, when they suddenly dropped, a bolt in their shoulder, and Ruby raised her gaze to catch her sister’s grim smile. A nod of acknowledgment, as Pearl turned away to continue firing from her position crouched on one of the crates. Ruby stabbed the man at her feet, just in case he was stupid enough to try and come up behind her, and waded back into the fray.
Days, years, later there was finally no-one she didn’t recognise trying to kill her, and she let her sword tip drop, muscles screaming and gasping for air. Someone came up beside her and she almost spun to hack at them, but belatedly recognised Harold by his hair. No-one else had hair that colour. The boy offered her a tight smile and then turned a little green before leaning over to be noisily sick into the dust on the road.
Ruby patted his back, offering him her own water skin to wash his mouth out with, and murmured comforting words she knew he probably couldn’t hear. She’d 𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 to tell Papa he was too young to come along, but the kid was the son of a friend and had begged his father… eventually the boy finished throwing up everything he’d eaten for the last year, and Ruby helped him stagger back to the wagons.
Caradoc glanced up as they came back, raising an eyebrow and Ruby just nodded. Kid was unhurt, except for his pride. He’d done well though, hadn’t thrown up until after and had stayed at his post, hadn’t run or tried to hide, even if hiding would have been the wiser choice.
“Anyone injured?” So yes, Altrover was the leader of the caravans and technically Byron commanded the guards, and did it well, Ruby would never think to step on her toes in that regard, but Ruby couldn’t help the sense of responsibility she felt to everyone.
“A couple of bruises, some minor sword cuts and Fen wrenched his shoulder pretty badly…. But other than that… glad your sister was along, Rubes. Would have gone a lot worse without her.” Ruby’s chest ached with pride, or… ah shit. Oh. Damn. She hadn’t even noticed. 𝘍𝘶𝘤𝘬 that hurt.
“Ah. Crap. Might need to add broken ribs to that li-“ she pressed a hand to her left side, wincing. Caradoc rolled his eyes, muttering something about stubborn dwarves by adoption, and shooed her over to where he was tending to everyone else’s injuries.
Pearl found her there, jerkin off, struggling not to punch Caradoc as he was winding damp bandages around her ribs. The bruise had been truly impressive once she’d gotten her shirt off and she was mildly surprised it hadn’t hurt more. Adrenaline was a wonderful thing.
“I don’t think they’re broken, just cracked, but nothing strenuous for a week or two, and you know what to do if anything changes-“
“Yes, yes, I know… oh thank god. Pearl! Punch Caradoc for torturing me with advice I already know, please?”
Her sister laughed, and shook her head, even if her gaze was running over Ruby like a searchlight and she didn’t need to see her sister’s face to 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 her worry.
“Promise I’m fine baby sis. Arsehole with a mace barely grazed me. Pretty sure you killed him for me, so I didn’t have to do it.”
“Yeah. Well. You were too slow so…”
Ruby went to swat at her sister, grinning, and then winced as her ribs protested. Caradoc smacked her, lightly, across the back of the head. “What did I say about strenuous exercise?”
“Hitting Pearl isn’t straining myself! I do it all the time.”
“Ha, ha big sis! You gotta be nice to me now.” Pearl stuck her tongue out at Ruby, and Ruby crossed her eyes at her. Caradoc stalked off, muttering about “godsdamned children I have to take care of”. Ruby shrugged back into her shirt, wrinkling her nose at Pearl when her sister moved to help, but letting her do it. It was easier with an extra pair of hands.
“So, anything to report?”
“Sir, no sir!”
“Pearl, I 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 put a frog in your boots while you’re sleeping.”
“Hilarious. No, everything’s fine, I promise. I’m not hurt, and I followed the ones that survived for a while, 𝘺𝘦𝘴 I took someone with me, but I’m surprised you can’t hear them still running. They were expecting easy pickings and, I think they’re reconsidering their career path.”
Ruby laughed, and then winced again, and Pearl bundled her off to bed, cheerfully ignoring her older sister’s darkly muttered threats. “I know I know, I’ll go drown myself in the river for you later, go to 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱, Ruby. We’ve 𝘨𝘰𝘵 this, you don’t have to worry about 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 all the time.”
Sighing, and then wincing once more, Ruby rolled over on to her other side with a grumble, and let Pearl soothe her to sleep. She wasn’t worried anymore about Pearl being able to hold her own… in fact, she was glad her little sister was there. It was comforting to know that someone was watching her back, someone she trusted beyond everyone else to never let her down.
“Hey,” the hand on the back of her neck was warm, familiar, and she leant into the touch automatically before she even realised that someone had spoken. Ruby blinked, and looked up from the invoices she was inputting into the inn’s ledger’s and blinked again, a little woozily, at her wife.
“Oh. Hey,” her lips turned up at the corners. She was glad of the break, columns of figures in her mother-in-law’s increasingly shaky hand still dancing in front of her eyes. It was half the reason she’d taken over the job, Marianne’s mother couldn’t keep up with the demand, and she wanted to feel useful. She stretched, wincing as her spine clicked from behind hunched over for so long, rubbing her eyes, leaving a smear of ink across her cheek without realising it.
Annie smiled down at her, dropping a kiss to the top of her head, chuckling at the smudge. That was kind of cute.
“It’s almost dinner time, thought I’d let you know,” another kiss punctuating the sentence as she rested her chin on Ruby’s shoulder.
Ruby pressed her cheek against her wife’s, the smile on her face widening. “Hmmm, thanks love. Your mother, may all the gods bless her, didn’t have the easiest handwriting to decipher before she developed that tremor…” nothing but affection in her tone for the older woman. She truly adored her mother-in-law. “I think I’m going to go blind if I keep staring at these numbers.”
It had never been the most enjoyable part of being groomed to take over the business, she’d 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 rather go smack something with a sword, but she had been good at it for Papa, and she was… glad… she could bring 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 to this marriage. Most days she felt like a bit of a burden and did occasionally wonder just why Annie had asked. Oh, sure they’d been dating since they were sixteen and she knew her wife loved her… but sometimes she woke in the night, Marianne breathing softly beside her and just… (“brooded” the voice in her head that sounded like her sister offered). “Fretted” Ruby’s own internal voice countered, which, honestly wasn’t much better.
A sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose, trying to stave off the headache she could feel building behind her eyes, and turned her head to press a kiss to her wife’s cheek.
“How much time until dinner?” One hand slid down her wife’s back playfully. Annie chuckled and nudged it back up. “Not that much time, you.” Another gentle peck to soften the blow. “However,” tone sobering, “I do need to talk to you about something.” Ruby tensed and pulled away slightly.
Her wife sighed, deeply, and tugged her back into the hug. “That. That’s what I need to talk to you about. You seem like you’re always… waiting for the other shoe to drop. I love you, you goose! I’m not going to leave, or demand you do more or…” a hand wave, trying to find something else. “I don’t know. This… whatever it is you’ve gotten into your head… that you’re not good enough unless you’re doing something for others is… well… it hurts my heart, Ruby.”
Marianne had her arms tangled around Ruby’s waist so Ruby couldn’t pull away unless she wanted to seriously hurt her and she’d 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 do that. She shifted slightly, face turned away, cheeks flushing with shame or embarrassment or, possibly, both. She didn’t know.
“I…” whatever it was she was going to say was cut off as her wife kissed her, gentle and sweet.
“Hush, and listen for once, dear heart. I miss 𝘮𝘺 Ruby. The one who’d leave for weeks at a time-” Ruby’s heart sank and Annie shook her gently. “𝘕𝘰, not like that. 𝘓𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯. I miss the Ruby that, while she knew she didn’t want to take over her parents’ business, enjoyed being a peripheral part of it, going off into the world and, yeah, usually beating it with a big stick… but you were 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺 doing that. I miss seeing you happy, love. And I worry you’re not happy. And if you stay here, with me, trying to do something you don’t really want to… I worry you’ll start to resent it. Here, this life we’re trying to build… 𝘮𝘦-“ Ruby cut off the rest of that sentence by pressing her lips to her wife’s and kissing her, a trifle desperately. She didn’t want to hear it. If Marianne said it aloud… her wife kissed her back, fingers tangled in her hair, and Ruby was just starting to try and do the math in her head, regarding time until dinner and the relative strength of the rickety desk, when Annie pulled back, breathing uneven but eyes bright, and cradled her cheeks in her hands, pressing a finger across her lips.
“I want you to go out, find something that makes you happy, whether that be a job or a… a calling… or something… and know I’m here, holding down the fort and I’ll be here when you return, to tell me all the tales of all your adventures and I’ll write them down and we’ll sell copies to minstrels and make a ton of money,” a soft laugh, clearly joking, but her expression turned serious again, as she continued, “I love you and I’ll miss you… but you need to do this. Not for me, not for Pearl… for 𝘺𝘰𝘶, my darling. So go out, find your… your 𝘫𝘰𝘺 again, and come home when you’re ready. When you know what you want from life. And yes, if that means you come back here and help me run the inn, I’ll be ecstatic, I really will… but if it means we move, and… oh I don’t know… run away to join the circus… I’d be overjoyed by that too. Because I’d be with you and you’ll be doing something you love.”
“Annie-“ her voice cracked on her wife’s name and she could taste salt on her lips, and Marianne’s hands were gentle on her cheeks, thumbs wiping away the tears.
“Hush my love. I’m not leaving you, I’m not going to 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 you go if you truly don’t want to but… just… think on it, yeah? For me?”
All Ruby could manage was a small nod, feeling a little like the time that bandit had gotten through her guard and broke her ribs, the stabbing pain in her chest was similar. But… even then, pressed as close to her wife as she could, feeling her warmth around her… a tiny spark deep in her belly was yearning for adventure again. Just… just a little.
And then, two weeks later, Pearl showed up spouting off some wild story about pirates and mother and a conspiracy and “what the 𝘧𝘶𝘤𝘬 Ruby, who 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 they? What 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥?” And… well… she couldn’t let Pearl go off alone and Marianne had given her her blessing and maybe… just maybe, she’d also finally be able to silence that little voice in her head that kept whispering to her about bargains and a debt to be repaid.
The days, (𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘴, 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘴) waiting for her sister to wake felt like they had aged Ruby an eternity. Okay, so “weeks and months” might be an exaggeration, but to Ruby’s heart it had felt like more than just a day or two. She had felt her heart stop when she’d seen her baby sister, so small, so pale and still… it had only been Marianne’s arm around her that had stopped her from crumpling in a heap right there on the floor, and probably needing to be bundled into the adjacent bed.
Pearl in that bed, with less colour to her than she sheets, only the… 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨, 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨… stillness to her; Ruby chose to believe “sleeping” form; for lack of a more comforting alternative, to highlight that she was in fact, still breathing. Chest moving, barely lifting the blanket across her… Ruby thought she’d never get that image out of her head. It haunted her at nights, still, with her sister home and safe; it was most often why she didn’t sleep, staring at her baby sister’s sleeping form, timing her own breaths to the rise and fall of Pearl’s.
When her sister had finally shifted, the light doze (“hmph” the voice that sounded like Marianne in her head huffed) she’d been in had snapped and she’d lifted her head, throat working, not sure if she was going to burst into tears or throw herself at Pearl and hold her so tightly she couldn’t ever travel that far away from her again. In the end, she’d settled for neither, not wanting to worry her sister with the former, or risk injuring her further with the later, and had scolded her instead, voice breaking on each subsequent sentence.
She’d gotten her sister home, settled, being fussed over by Mama and with Papa sitting at her bedside cradling his axe like a security blanket… and had to flee before she broke down. Annie had taken one look at her when she’d walked in, immediately gotten some to take over from her, dragged her upstairs and just held her as she cried herself to sleep. Apparently she’d had nightmares, although she couldn’t recall them when she woke. If she 𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘯'𝘵 had nightmares she would have been far more concerned.
She’d proposed upon waking for the second time (the first she’d been delightfully distracted for an hour or so; life affirming and whatnot)… she’d been carrying the ring around for weeks but had never seemed to find the right time to go “I love you to distraction and want to spend the rest of my life with you”. She’d made Marianne promise to keep it quiet, they could tell people later, once Pearl was better.
She was glad Pearl was under orders to rest and recuperate… otherwise Ruby 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 have tied her to her bed herself. Gods knows if she wasn’t tied down Pearl would probably manage to get into even more trouble. Somehow.
She’d tried asking, a time or two, if her sister had remembered what happened. Nobody knew, and even though Ruby had found her (it turned out Vesper 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 yank her out the window by her hair if Pearl were in trouble) there had been nothing around her sister to indicate how she’d come to be unconscious, bruised and barely breathing on the shore. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 sight featured prominently in her nightmares for years to come. Pearl usually grew exasperated and frustrated at the questions, claiming she didn’t remember, although Ruby couldn’t decide if her sister were lying to spare her feelings or truly didn’t know. Apparently memory loss was common after a traumatic event, even if there hadn’t been a blow to the head, and, since it seemed to distress her sister to keep having to answer the same questions, she’d eventually stopped asking. She still worried at it though, like a dog with a bone.
She’d hovered over her sister for the first few months, not letting Pearl out of her sight. Eventually, Pearl had gotten as fed up by this as with her questions and had told her that she was perfectly fine, wasn’t an invalid and didn’t need her big sister to follow her to the privy and wipe her arse for her, she was old enough to do it herself now. So Ruby had stopped hovering… or well, stopped hovering as obviously. She still hovered, worrying about her sister; she always would. It was her job. She’d been born first, Pearl was her responsibility.
It had been Marianne who had finally gotten her to back off, at least some. She’d pointed out, after Ruby had fretted herself sick about Pearl going off alone, that her sister could quite easily get run over by a cart in the street, as drown in the ocean; and, in fact, Pearl had a better chance of surviving the ocean, as, unlike some other Douglases she might mention, Pearl knew how to swim. Ruby hadn’t spoken to her for a whole 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳 for that jibe, just to prove how mad she was. Annie had simply laughed at her and then made it up to her. Twice.
She still kept a closer eye on her sister than Pearl was probably happy with… but… that was never going to change, no matter how competent she became. She was still Ruby’s baby sister, and Ruby would always be there to catch her if she stumbled, brush her off and set her back on her feet. It was what older sisters did. And Pearl definitely needed 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 to protect her from herself, and Ruby was it.
