You'll miss the birds completely. You're traveling so fleetly.

[hark_and_hush]

Who: Ruby and OPEN
Where: Various locations around the edge of town
When: The late evening of day 19
What: Ruby woke up and went exploring instead of playing with the communicator.
Notes: Feel free to intercept her at any point on her journey.


Ruby listened to the voice coming from the little device on her wrist. She listened, but she didn't really accept. She pulled her cloak tightly around herself as she stood, looking around at the sleepy-looking town and the strange little fountain.

She huffed a heavy breath in the cool night air, picked a direction and started to walk. She stopped to eye the pile of rubble that used to be the diner before following the road further towards the forest.

She spied an empty house and pushed the door open gently. "Hello?" It was seeming more and more like this was another curse and she wasn't so sure that she wanted to go in.

Comments

[hark_and_hush]

Ruby nodded for a moment before saying anything. "Yeah--yes." The last time something similar had happened, it had been the curse and she hadn't remembered anything. Maybe she just had to keep looking out for a familiar face.

"What is this place? I mean, I heard the company line, but what is it really? A curse?" She walked into the house a little further, touching a side table warily. The voice hadn't exactly given her much to go on and frightened as she was, she wasn't going to just lay down and accept whatever this place was. Was Granny here, too?

[primogen_vampirate]

"A curse?" Mina repeated, raising a thin eyebrow. "That's quite the declaration. Do you believe in things like curses?"

She asked in a neutral tone of voice, neither skeptical nor believing. The girl had no predator's taint, but something about her, something Mina couldn't quite put her finger on, told her that looks were very deceiving.

And she liked that.

[hark_and_hush]

Ruby had to consider the question. She'd never really left Storybrooke after the curse and before it... well, of course she'd believed in curses then. She had to remind herself that that curse had brought them to a world without magic and maybe this woman was from a world without magic, as well.

She knew this land still had magic, because she could still smell and hear better than she ever could before the curse broke. "Maybe it sounds silly, but I do. You don't?"

[primogen_vampirate]

"Absolutely," Mina replied. "But it isn't every night I meet a like-minded individual."

The girl had more than caught her interest. And it wasn't just because she bore a bit of a resemblance to Jacqueline. Or because of that indescribable 'something' about her.

And when a woman caught a Valkyrie's attention, that was no small matter.

"Doctor Mina Barrett," she said, offering the girl her hand. "Formerly of the Cape Kore clinic."

[hark_and_hush]

Ruby took her hand. Her handshake was soft, but sure.

"Ruby. Hopefully not formerly of Granny's Diner." She smiled. "It's nice to meet you."

She never thought she'd want to get back to that diner quite this much, but the idea of leaving when it wasn't her choice--leaving! How did she remember who she was? If she wasn't in Storybrooke, shouldn't she have forgotten again? She realized that she'd gone quiet in thought and shook her head.

"So what happened to the clinic?"

[primogen_vampirate]

"Oh, nothing," Mina replied, her tone quick and breezy. In spite of the fact that she'd imagined a great many things happening to that clinic lately. All of them involving fire. "It's still there. The current population has simply decided they won't be requiring my services."

She gave a shrug, as if to suggest 'what can you do?' Nothing in her body language conveyed quite how much it was all eating her alive.

Mina liked having power.

[hark_and_hush]

"Sorry." Ruby gave her a small smile and dropped the subject. She wouldn't pry. It didn't seem to be something the other woman wanted to talk about.

"What else is here? Besides the clinic, I mean. I saw a building that had been destroyed, too." She hadn't seen many people yet, though.

[primogen_vampirate]

"Precious little," she droned. "Houses, of course. Lovely, scenic docks. A delightful fountain that may or may not, in some manner, be quite evil. And the forest. I wouldn't recommend going near that, however, unless you fancy being eaten."

Mina wasn't entirely sure who to be more concerned about, the animals out there or Anna. At least being eaten by Anna, she mused, would be a far more pleasant way to die.

She really need to control that girl.

Casting away those thoughts, however, Mina shrugged. "I'm afraid the ultimate dilemma of being a prisoner here is finding ways to chase off the boredom."

[hark_and_hush]

Ruby took in the information with a nod. She wasn't taking the warning about the wood entirely seriously, though. When it came to the woods, she tended to be the monster in the shadows more often than the prey.

She almost laughed at Mina's comment, though. "I'm from a tiny town in Maine. Boredom and I are old friends. If there are cute boys or good friends, I can handle it."

Maybe not the cute boys, though. Her mind just kept going back to Peter and now Billy. She was dangerous.

[primogen_vampirate]

"I've been off the market for awhile," Mina said, sucking in air between her teeth, "I'm afraid I'm not the best judge of what qualifies as 'cute' these days. But there are certainly plenty of men and where there's boredom, there's always one, solid default activity. I suppose. I've been told."

It had been far too long.

She folded her arms, leaning against the wall. "From Maine? I've never been. Farthest north I've been in the States is New York. You'll have to tell me about it sometime. But, of course, there's one pertinent question to ask first. I know where you're from. Now tell me when."

[hark_and_hush]

Oh, that was a loaded and complicated question. It was almost as loaded and complicated as where.

"2012, I guess. Maine's nice. It's a little sleepier than I'd like. At least, it was. It's been getting more interesting lately." For better or for worse. She's not really sure if she was happier without her memories. Some of them are painful, of course, but they're who she is.

She smiled. "When are you from, then, Mina?"

[primogen_vampirate]

Oh, this girl had spirit. Either that, or social protocol regarding first names had changed dramatically in the past few decades.

Perhaps even both. Both would be the best.

"Before here? I was in 1932. What I thought was the height of sophistication." She smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling slightly as she glanced over Ruby's interesting attire. "Apparently, I was mistaken."

[hark_and_hush]

"Oh, I don't know." Ruby laughed. "I've seen pictures. It was pretty sophisticated-looking to me." Mina certainly was, too. The way she carried herself was almost regal to Ruby. It reminded her just a little of Snow, when she'd been the queen back before the curse hit.

"My time isn't all it's cracked up to be." Not the least of which because it wasn't really her time at all. Yes, she'd lived there for years and she was just as much Ruby as she was Red, but there was still a feeling that it wasn't quite right, that it lacked so much of their history. It was barely more right than this place was if she thought about it too much.

[primogen_vampirate]

"Well," Mina drawled, "as I understand it, in your time, it's no great anomaly for a woman to be a doctor. I would call that progress, I think. Decidedly an improvement over my world."

Mina always had a hard time reconciling her sex and her gender. Her mother's doing, perhaps. But just as much her own too, she supposed. After all, it was her choice to continue living as Mark after the money ran out.

And yet...it burned her every time she had to sign her name 'Mark Barrett.' She'd chosen to be Mina. It was her identity. And she still couldn't use it to get what she wanted most of the time.

[hark_and_hush]

"It isn't an anomaly, no." Ruby nodded. "I think it just makes the fact that you are one pretty impressive, though. Someone had to go first, right? It must have been hard."

She couldn't entirely wrap her head around it, truth be told. She was still trying to reconcile princesses and schoolteachers. Reconciling the cultural past of both worlds was just a little too much to think of outside of the abstract. It was almost easier to see Mina's time as a different world entirely.

[primogen_vampirate]

"You have no idea," Mina murmured.

She glanced around the house. "I suppose," she murmured, "we should probably scrounge some things for you, as long as we're here. After all, it's so hard to pack for an impromptu kidnapping these days." She clucked her tongue. "And people simply don't have the manners to send you any kind of packing list."

[hark_and_hush]

"I could certainly use a change of clothes, I guess." And a place to keep them. She'd need a place to sleep to sleep, too. She couldn't be the only person from Storybrooke here, right?

She started to take a closer look around the house. There was a thin layer of dust on most of the flat surfaces. "So no one lives in this house?"

[primogen_vampirate]

"Doesn't appear that way," Mina replied, looking around. Although it wouldn't bother her that much if someone did. She had few qualms about scrounging these days. Especially considering the way these people had treated her.

Or rather, the way the Queen felt these people had treated her.

That was a problem she had not yet reconciled. And call it pride or arrogance or even fear, she simply couldn't bring herself to talk to anyone about it. Even Anna. Especially Anna.

Mina smiled through the pain. "I suppose you should stake your claim. Claim the land in the name of Maine, as it were."

[hark_and_hush]

She looked around. It really wouldn't be too bad for a few days, at least. She would figure things out, but it was sounding like she would at least need a place to sleep for now.

"Maybe I will. It could use a good cleaning, but it's not so bad under the dust." She could cook something to make it smell like home, at least, and it was removed enough from others, it seemed.

She noticed a few little animal figures on the mantle and walked towards them, picking one up. It was a tiny wolf. She smiled at it before putting it back in its place. "I think I will stay here."

[primogen_vampirate]

Mina clapped her hands together, her rings flashing in the dim light. "Excellent. I like a person who makes up her mind. Says she has a great deal of character."

She glanced around. "A quick inventory, perhaps? Hmm? If you're missing any essentials, I'll see what I can do about providing them."

[hark_and_hush]

"Oh, I don't need too much." She started to step into the kitchen. "As long as I've got a roof over my head and some food to cook, I can get by. I've had to rough it more than once." Even if there isn't food, she can always hunt if she needs to. She just has to be careful about anyone seeing her.

[primogen_vampirate]

"Food might be a bit of a problem," Mina admitted. She wasn't one to sugarcoat things. And frankly, she thought the girl more than capable of handling the truth. "For awhile, we were being supplied, but that line seems to have dried up."

It wasn't as much of a concern for Mina. At least, she hadn't felt so at first. But being the practical soul that she was, she supposed it was in her best interest to have a healthy, thriving human population. Even if Pendragon was providing for her current dietary needs.

People had a tendency to disappear around here.

[hark_and_hush]

Ruby tried to look more put out than she was. It would be annoying, but as long as there were plants and animals, she would keep herself fed.

"I think I can remember how to set up a few traps. Granny taught me how to catch small animals as a kid. I should be okay." She frowned. "Are other people going hungry? I can try to make enough to share. I work at a diner, so cooking in big portions aren't a problems for me."

[primogen_vampirate]

Mina looked at Ruby in what could only be described as unabashed admiration. "You're a huntress?" she asked. "That's certainly a valuable skill to have."

It was important. Proving oneself valuable to the group. Mina had blown her chance, but she was better able to survive without people than this girl would be.

"You must make that known," she advised her. "You'll be invaluable before you know it."

[hark_and_hush]

"Oh, I don't know if that's a good idea. It's just little traps. I'd be happy to barter for other things, but I'm more of a..." She grinned, almost secretively. "More of a lone wolf, I guess."

She had to play down her abilities. The last thing she wanted was villagers with pitchforks and torches coming after her.