001.

[eviscerates]

FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: Ruby
RECIPIENT: All
WHAT: sad wolf being sad :c
WHEN: end of Cloudreach
WHERE: sending crystal/Skyhold for action
NOTES: if you'd like to do an action thread instead then Ruby can be found in the barn, on the ramparts or in the tavern.

Hey. Uh-- sorry, this is Ruby. Red. Whichever.

( there's a long pause. )

So, any of the Rifters - or any of the Thedosians, too - have you had people leave, before? The people from other worlds that you knew. I--

( A little exhale, like she tried to laugh at herself for being all sad, but it ultimately fell short. )

I joined the Inquisition with a friend of mine from home, Emma. But, uh... I think she's gone. She is gone. I went to try and track her, and everything, and... she wouldn't go off without saying goodbye, you know?

Anyway, uh, this is just a heads up. Emma Swan is gone, but if you had any business with her or whatever then I'll try settle it up for you.

Comments

[foxsays]

[There's a soft sigh from the other end of the crystal before Araceli replies; she had almost sent out a similar message herself though Marcel hadn't been from her home.]

I am sorry that your friend has gone but...this is not the first time. I arrived with the first group of rifters to come to Thedas and though I didn't speak to them all, I have kept a careful eye on us and I know our number has dwindled though this is the first time someone has said something.

[What do you say though when someone is simply gone, when, just as Hermione had said to her, you don't know if they had truly made it home? Araceli is kind enough not to voice that.]

Is this very recent? Do you know roughly when she disappeared?

[eviscerates]

Yeah. Figures. ( Trying so very hard to sound upbeat, when in reality she is sitting miserably in the barn. ) Emma's kind of a force of nature, figures if anyone was going to get back it was her.

( It's better-- maybe. Ruby had all these thoughts, these ideas that she might be able to help Emma with her curse, that they could figure it out together and that it'd be okay. At the end of the day, though, what does Ruby know about that stuff? She struggled with her own curse enough to know that. )

She has a kid back home, so, it's good. She's with Henry.

( She hopes. God, she hopes so, because if there's some other option, then she has no idea what to do. Normally she'd go and find Snow or maybe try to plead with Regina, but no luck there. )

Uh. ( Her voice sounds dry, for a moment, a little raspy. ) Couple of days. I thought maybe it was something else, you know, but... couple of days, I think.

[foxsays]

Maybe we will all get lucky and as unexpectedly as she disappeared she will return and tell us all how we might get back. [Sometimes it's hard to try to look for the glimmer of promise but isn't that what thieves do? Hope for the very best even if they do prepare for the worst? There's a lot of worst she can think of when it comes to here.]

He must have missed her. I left home five years ago and I still miss my parents each day that I'm here. [At least she can laugh to soften that but it's still hard to be away from everyone that you love, from everyone that loves you. And it still means someone is left behind now too.] Still, that doesn't make it any easier for you, to miss someone from the same place, I'm so sorry, I know that doesn't make it easier.

I see, I thought it might have been longer and you had waited. A friend of mine from another world from myself seems to have gone too, and he would not have left without saying something to me, but that was almost a fortnight now.

[If it had been the same time then maybe it might have meant something. Or maybe she's just clutching at straws and hoping.]

[serannas]

Oh, this is the first I've heard of this happening.

[ She sounds surprised and a little sad. ]

I only spoke with her once, but it was a good conversation. [ And then, tentatively, ] Did you happen to notice her shard acting differently before she disappeared?

[eviscerates]

Really? ( Maybe that's good. Or maybe it's not. Ruby could hardly tell you either way. )

She's the kind of person that leaves an impression, even just the once. ( A pause, then, and Ruby is frowning thoughtfully even if that can't be conveyed over the crystal. Maybe it makes it into her tone, thoughtful and a little concerned. ) Not that I know of. I mean, she didn't say anything about it, but I don't even know for sure when she left.

( Left, not disappeared. 'Left' sounds more like it was in Emma's control, like it's a win and not a loss. )

[serannas]

Hmm, I see. I was just wondering how this could have happened. I want to study the rifts closer, but it's a danger thing that has to be done carefully. Still, if there's a way to better understand the shards and how all of you ended up here, I want to try to help find it.

Maybe looking into it can find the way to send you home after her.

[chainlightning]

Oh, Ruby. I'm sorry.

[ :C come to her sad wolf ]

Is there anything I can do?

[eviscerates]

It's okay. She... has a life back home. Her parents, her son. ( The alarming witch with whom she has said son. ) It's better.

( For her, anyway. )

I don't think Thedas has anything like the ingredients required for a Cosmopolitan, so... How do you feel about rum?

[chainlightning]

Oh! Goodness, I didn't realize she had a child- it's definitely better for her to be with him, yes.

Still- that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't hard for you.

[ There's a hum. ]

I like it! And I have no idea what a Cosmopolitan is, but we may have similar ingredients anyway? Only one way to find out, really.

[nonsibi]

[oh great she's a Rifter too gross. but also now is not the time for that I guess, so.]

You think it's more likely that she went back, through a rift... as opposed to anything else.

Pretty big conclusion to jump to.

[eviscerates]

It's better than the other options, right?

( Because she can't think of another one that she likes. ) I guess... I hope she went home. I hope she's okay.

[nonsibi]

[Is it, because: where there's rifts, there's demons. All the same, Bellamy makes a low noise of acknowledgement.]

She have a lot of people to settle up with?

[hugeinorlais]

[He's sorry about your friend, Red, he really is. Unfortunately, he can't help but sound a little relieved that somebody managed to get out of here.]

You tried to track her? [He even sounds just a touch hopeful that she couldn't be found. He curbs it after a moment and affects a bit more sympathy.]

Sorry your friend is...somewhere else. Do you need anything now that she's gone?

[eviscerates]

Yeah. I couldn't find anything. Even if there'd been something and the trail had gone cold it'd be something, but... I don't know.

( Ruby is shaking her head a little, before she remembers. )

Um, my traditional coping method is running away and hiding in isolation ( or throwing herself at the mercy of a murderous mob), so I thought I might mix it up a little and try excessive drinking.

[hugeinorlais]

[He's trying not to sound happy about her failure, he really is, so he doesn't comment about it. Instead he moved smoothly to the comment about coping. Coping is a subject he knows well.]

I tried that method recently. Got to say, I don't recommend it.

Sure, it's okay short-term, especially with good company, but the hangovers really start taking a toll after a while.

[wickedchase]

Odd. I've not heard of rifters disappearing before.

I do recall Emma. Charming woman, actually. If I get any news, I shall let you know, of course. And if you'd like company tracking, I'm of course available.

Otherwise, I am excellent at providing distractions.

[eviscerates]

Rifters aren't exactly high priority, though, are they? I mean, people don't really have a reason to give a damn about us, we're just some temporary thing that fell out of the sky and will hopefully go away.

( She doesn't sound bitter or angry, just really, really down. This is a role she's used to playing. This is what she's been ever since she realised she was the Wolf, at best. Ambivalence, however, could be worse than outright antagonism. )

Sorry. Help with tracking would be good, I mean, Bellamy's right. There's no reason to assume she's gone gone, it's just... yeah.

( Wow Ruby, pull yourself together. ) Her dad's nickname is Charming, actually. It's pretty much a family trait.

[wickedchase]

I wish I could say that was different in general. As it is, the majority if people have seen people coming out of the rift as threats, often times. I would like to see it as otherwise.

It's all right, Ruby. You've every reason to be upset. In any case, we'd best look. [And if it turns out Emma is gone-gone, they need to figure out why and warn the other rifters.]

Terribly suitable. Much better than Twisted Fate, hm?

[stabsbooks]

That is not true.

[ HI RUBY if you didn't want your conversation overheard, well...too bad. ]

The Inquisition faces many challenges, but the safety of all of its people is always a priority.

[ Whether that means protecting the rifters or tossing them in prison depends on the individual rifter in question. ]

When you say she is gone, you mean...you believe she has vanished from Thedas entirely?

Action

[gatheringstorm]

Korrin doesn't respond to the sending crystal message. She hears it, of course, ever alert to news around Skyhold and beyond, but some things are just too painful to speak about when everyone can overhear. That doesn't mean she's unsympathetic, though, and when Ruby is spotted heading toward the bar, the Vashoth woman leans over to the bartender. "Whatever she wants, it's on me. At least for a round or two."

[eviscerates]

"Hey." Ruby glances over her shoulder towards Korrin, recognising the voice, even if she hadn't really taken in the fact that Korrin was there when she walked in. She was busy being kind of miserable.

"Rum," she mentions to the bartender with smile that tries, and fails, to be brighter than she feels. Looking over at Korrin, she nods, grateful. "I owe you one."

[dragoon_pride]

Leave? You mean... as in disappear entirely?

[Kain is troubled about this situation. His first thought is to assume the worst, that something unthinkable happened with the shard, or... perhaps a rift opened and... Well. They'd come here in that way. What if those abominations of the Fade did something, pulled her in?]

I've never heard of such a thing before. I'm sorry. [He pauses, not the greatest at this sort of "help people with emotional distress" thing.] Sorry for your friend's disappearance, and that I cannot tell you anything more. There's no chance she may have left for any reason?

[eviscerates]

I mean... I don't know yet, not for sure, but it that's what my gut is telling me, you know? I'm going to look more. Just in case. Maybe get some people together, go out and just... or by myself. I can go faster, that way.

( She's not mentioning the Wolf outright, but Kain's seen it. He can probably put two and two together. )

Emma's not the type to just bail. ( Except when she sort of is. ) It doesn't make sense, we arrived here together, and we always checked in.

( :C )

/sneaks in late with some action

[wontforgetyou]

[It's hard to say what's happened to some of the other rifters - the Inquisition is large enough that it's difficult to keep track of what's happened to them, and even if Jamie's not seen someone for awhile, he usually doesn't think too much about it. Living in the stables does make a few things more noticeable, however. While he doesn't really know Emma, he has seen her in the stables more than once. When Emma suddenly is nowhere to be seen, it does make him wonder - and when Ruby posts her message, he winds up putting two and two together and coming up with a result he doesn't care for at all.

Rather than try and reach Ruby over the crystal, though, he goes for the simpler solution, and a short time later turns up at the spot where she normally sleeps, and plonks himself down next to her without any fanfare. He's tempted to offer a half-hug, but he knows how he'd feel if he were in her shoes, so for the moment he offers an alternative instead - a dark bottle with a label on it that he's pretty sure reads 'whisky' in some language. It doesn't really matter if she can read it or not, though. He knows well enough what it smells like, and figures a bit of it couldn't hurt right about now.]

Here. Think you might need this a bit more that I do right about now.

never late bruh 8Db

[eviscerates]

Thanks.

( Looking to Jamie with a smile, albeit a little weak. The interdimensional language of grief booze was serving her pretty well, it seemed. Just as well - tomorrow she'd have to sharpen up to go look for Emma, but today she'll allow herself her grief. And, in truth, she's not just mourning Emma's absence, but a whole mess of things that's she's not free been able to really be sorry about. )

How are you holding up? Your leg okay?

( Injuries are so much easier to talk about than the emotional pain. Bar tending makes for good listening, but the talking? Yikes. )