[With most of her focus on consoling her sister, the sudden attention on her arm catches her somewhat off-guard. Even to her it sounds like...like Ruby's somehow never seen it before?
But that makes no sense, so she goes for the more logical assumption, hushing out reassuringly.]
It's okay. ...A few tears aren't gonna hurt it.
[Don't be afraid to cry into her just because part of her is metal.]/small>
[ But she can't quite force the word out, suddenly paralyzed by confusion. It's all too much at once - the presence of her sister, the confounding fact that her arm has been replaced. Adam Taurus had run her through the heart. Nothing happened to her arm. So why would she need something like that?
She's afraid to ask it, but she has to know, so she pushes past the block in hear throat and looks up desperately into her sister's eyes. ]
What happened to it? It - it wasn't your arm -
[ It wasn't her arm that had been taken that night. ]
[It's slight but in that instant, Yang's hold on her sister tenses as the feeling that something is wrong becomes too much to ignore. Holding Ruby's gaze, she relinquishes the hug just a little, but keeping her hands on her shoulders.]
What are you talking about? ...I-I lost it the night Beacon was attacked, remember?
[And she's trying so hard not to let the dread into her voice as she asks that.]
[ A sob lodges in Ruby's throat when Yang answers, and she has to immediately draw herself back to look at her sister with wide-eyed dismay. That's not what happened. Maybe she didn't know, just like Penny didn't know what had happened to her, but...no.
That doesn't explain the arm.
All at once, everything feels precipitously off-balance, and Ruby has to work her jaw for a moment to get the words out. ]
B-but - Adam Taurus, he - [ She swallows thickly. ] It wasn't just your arm -
[ She can't get out anything else, and the floor turns to ice beneath her. The memory flashes across her mind, unwelcome and cold and harsh, and since she's thinking of Yang, it's shared with her, unintentionally. Ruby looks down on her broken team outside of Beacon, Blake stammering out apologies as she holds onto Yang's hand. But Yang isn't missing her arm. Instead, there's a clear wound over her chest, crimson and red like roses, and she gives off no signs of life.
[Yang's grip on Ruby's shoulders tightens at the name "Adam Taurus". It's not quite enough to be painful but it's certainly not the comforting touch it was before.
And as the visions set in, her grip gets tighter still. If she had any presence of mind right now, Yang'd recognize immediately what Ruby's experiencing. But she's too caught up in the memories, this horrific pseudo out-of-body experience she's witnessing as she sees her own dead body. As if eager to join in, her own memories start bubbling to the forefront, that white and red mask, a flash of red-
Yang yelps, a sound that might have been a shout of "STOP" but too strangled to be intelligible. She half-releases and half-pushes herself away from Ruby, only just catching her balance on the side of her bunk as she staggers backwards, gasping for air.
Her gaze is briefly un-seeing before she looks back up at her sister, eyes wide with shock.]
That...
[She has to pause to swallow as she fights the feeling of bile rising in her throat, obviously shaken.]
...That wasn't... [Her voice sounds far too small.] ...That didn't happen...
[That didn't happen. That absolutely did not happen. It couldn't have.]
[ Ruby realizes all too late what's happening, that she's sharing the memory instead of just reliving it herself. Her hands fly to cover her mouth as Yang pushes herself away from her, a strangled cry erupting form her throat. No, no, no - she didn't mean to -
Yang didn't know -
Yang didn't know, and Ruby had shown her.
She feels like she's going to be sick, like she she wants to get back in her bed and bury herself in blankets and sleep until she wakes up from this nightmare. But - hah. She's been wanting to wake up from this nightmare for months.
She would never wake up from it. ]
I-I'm sorry, I'm so sorry -
[ This isn't how she should have found out. Of course Yang's denying it. Who wants to believe that they're dead? ]
[This time she gets the word out a lot more clearly. However it also has the misfortune of making her anger just as clear too. It's not directed at Ruby. Not really anyway. She's mostly angry at herself because she still can't seem to get a handle on those stupid flashbacks. At least she seems to realize her mistake a moment later as she takes a deep breath to try to calm herself, speaking in extremely measured sentences.]
Just...listen to me. Wh-whatever that was. Whatever you saw. It...It didn't happen like that, Ruby. ...I-it was just a bad dream.
[It had to be. There was no other explanation for Ruby remembering something that vivid, short of a nightmare.]
[ For a moment, Ruby just stares at her sister, tears choking her throat. She looks like she's just been slapped, eyes wide with dismay. ]
Just...a bad dream? How can you say that?!
[ And now it's Ruby's turn to feel anger bubbling up inside of her, hot and uncomfortable and confusing, because this is somehow the ultimate insult. To have her dead sister show up here and then flat-out deny that she had ever died. Ruby knew what she'd seen that day at Beacon. She remembered the tears that had poured out of her. She remembers, every single day since, the cold, demanding drive for revenge that had driven her across the world to track down the White Fang.
How could Yang tell her that was all just a bad dream? ]
[If Yang were thinking clearly she might have realized what she was actually doing here. She might have stopped a moment to fully consider what Ruby must be feeling right now. But the near panic attack had spooked her, and concern over the fact that her sister seems to have memories that are clearly wrong is making her too eager to try to correct it. To try and prove that's not at all what's happened and that she's fine. Both to Ruby and herself.]
Because... Because it has to be!
[Her tone isn't angry, but she's clearly on the defensive, the accompanying gesture of her arms slightly manic as she tries to put together a reasonable argument.]
I'm not dead! I didn't... If I died then...
[She pauses in the middle of another gesture as her eye catches a reflection of gold.]
Then why would I have this??
[She holds her mechanical right arm up, thrusting it forwards slightly to bring extra attention to it.
That's it. That's gotta be the ultimate proof, right? Proof she was alive. She'd survived. Yang never thought she'd draw attention to her prosthetic quite like this, but it's the only recourse she has.]
[ Ruby stares with wide, fearful eyes as Yang lifts her arm into the air. That was indeed the strangest part about all of this, once she looked past the grief, pain, the shock at finding her sister suddenly alive again. Why would she have an arm like that? Was it some sort of price for having her life returned to her?
Ruby doesn't know. She doesn't know. She doesn't want to know. She just wants to go back to sleep and bury her head in the cold, dark world she came from. The only world she knows anymore. ]
I-I don't know!
[ She shouts, loud enough that the whole household can hear her. The floor beneath her is an absolute ice rink by now, but she still stands up, using the bed - her sister's bed - as leverage to hoist herself upward. She doesn't look up to meet Yang's eyes. Can't, really. The confusion, the fear that she saw there...
It scares her more than anything else. ]
I...I have to go.
[ Her chin tucks down, arms crossing over her heart as she heads for the door. She doesn't even know where she's going. All she knows is that she can't stay here. ]
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-22 02:25 am (UTC)But that makes no sense, so she goes for the more logical assumption, hushing out reassuringly.]
It's okay. ...A few tears aren't gonna hurt it.
[Don't be afraid to cry into her just because part of her is metal.]/small>
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-22 05:08 am (UTC)[ But she can't quite force the word out, suddenly paralyzed by confusion. It's all too much at once - the presence of her sister, the confounding fact that her arm has been replaced. Adam Taurus had run her through the heart. Nothing happened to her arm. So why would she need something like that?
She's afraid to ask it, but she has to know, so she pushes past the block in hear throat and looks up desperately into her sister's eyes. ]
What happened to it? It - it wasn't your arm -
[ It wasn't her arm that had been taken that night. ]
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-22 10:04 am (UTC)What are you talking about? ...I-I lost it the night Beacon was attacked, remember?
[And she's trying so hard not to let the dread into her voice as she asks that.]
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-23 05:26 am (UTC)That doesn't explain the arm.
All at once, everything feels precipitously off-balance, and Ruby has to work her jaw for a moment to get the words out. ]
B-but - Adam Taurus, he - [ She swallows thickly. ] It wasn't just your arm -
[ She can't get out anything else, and the floor turns to ice beneath her. The memory flashes across her mind, unwelcome and cold and harsh, and since she's thinking of Yang, it's shared with her, unintentionally. Ruby looks down on her broken team outside of Beacon, Blake stammering out apologies as she holds onto Yang's hand. But Yang isn't missing her arm. Instead, there's a clear wound over her chest, crimson and red like roses, and she gives off no signs of life.
Ruby is screaming. ]
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-23 07:22 am (UTC)And as the visions set in, her grip gets tighter still. If she had any presence of mind right now, Yang'd recognize immediately what Ruby's experiencing. But she's too caught up in the memories, this horrific pseudo out-of-body experience she's witnessing as she sees her own dead body. As if eager to join in, her own memories start bubbling to the forefront, that white and red mask, a flash of red-
Yang yelps, a sound that might have been a shout of "STOP" but too strangled to be intelligible. She half-releases and half-pushes herself away from Ruby, only just catching her balance on the side of her bunk as she staggers backwards, gasping for air.
Her gaze is briefly un-seeing before she looks back up at her sister, eyes wide with shock.]
That...
[She has to pause to swallow as she fights the feeling of bile rising in her throat, obviously shaken.]
...That wasn't... [Her voice sounds far too small.] ...That didn't happen...
[That didn't happen. That absolutely did not happen. It couldn't have.]
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-24 12:15 am (UTC)Yang didn't know -
Yang didn't know, and Ruby had shown her.
She feels like she's going to be sick, like she she wants to get back in her bed and bury herself in blankets and sleep until she wakes up from this nightmare. But - hah. She's been wanting to wake up from this nightmare for months.
She would never wake up from it. ]
I-I'm sorry, I'm so sorry -
[ This isn't how she should have found out. Of course Yang's denying it. Who wants to believe that they're dead? ]
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-26 12:11 pm (UTC)[This time she gets the word out a lot more clearly. However it also has the misfortune of making her anger just as clear too. It's not directed at Ruby. Not really anyway. She's mostly angry at herself because she still can't seem to get a handle on those stupid flashbacks. At least she seems to realize her mistake a moment later as she takes a deep breath to try to calm herself, speaking in extremely measured sentences.]
Just...listen to me. Wh-whatever that was. Whatever you saw. It...It didn't happen like that, Ruby. ...I-it was just a bad dream.
[It had to be. There was no other explanation for Ruby remembering something that vivid, short of a nightmare.]
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-26 05:31 pm (UTC)Just...a bad dream? How can you say that?!
[ And now it's Ruby's turn to feel anger bubbling up inside of her, hot and uncomfortable and confusing, because this is somehow the ultimate insult. To have her dead sister show up here and then flat-out deny that she had ever died. Ruby knew what she'd seen that day at Beacon. She remembered the tears that had poured out of her. She remembers, every single day since, the cold, demanding drive for revenge that had driven her across the world to track down the White Fang.
How could Yang tell her that was all just a bad dream? ]
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-30 11:35 am (UTC)Because... Because it has to be!
[Her tone isn't angry, but she's clearly on the defensive, the accompanying gesture of her arms slightly manic as she tries to put together a reasonable argument.]
I'm not dead! I didn't... If I died then...
[She pauses in the middle of another gesture as her eye catches a reflection of gold.]
Then why would I have this??
[She holds her mechanical right arm up, thrusting it forwards slightly to bring extra attention to it.
That's it. That's gotta be the ultimate proof, right? Proof she was alive. She'd survived. Yang never thought she'd draw attention to her prosthetic quite like this, but it's the only recourse she has.]
(no subject)
Date: 2017-08-31 02:24 am (UTC)Ruby doesn't know. She doesn't know. She doesn't want to know. She just wants to go back to sleep and bury her head in the cold, dark world she came from. The only world she knows anymore. ]
I-I don't know!
[ She shouts, loud enough that the whole household can hear her. The floor beneath her is an absolute ice rink by now, but she still stands up, using the bed - her sister's bed - as leverage to hoist herself upward. She doesn't look up to meet Yang's eyes. Can't, really. The confusion, the fear that she saw there...
It scares her more than anything else. ]
I...I have to go.
[ Her chin tucks down, arms crossing over her heart as she heads for the door. She doesn't even know where she's going. All she knows is that she can't stay here. ]