we used to swim the same moonlight waters [april catch-all, open + closed]

[fromshadows]

who: Blake descendsfromshadows + various
what: Event and non-event happenings, fallout from Rokkenjima, Blake trying to become an Arcane Scholar and also pushing her own boundaries to host a food stall by the celebratory bonfire
when: April
where: The salt lake, the School of Mutter, various

Content warnings: Will be added as necessary





[ ooc: Blake's plotting post is here! closed posts to be posted in comments, and as always, if you have something you want to do with Blake, hit me up at cosmonautdelta! ]

▒▒▒ i. 𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞-𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 (𝐰𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐝 + 𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐨𝐫) [ open ]

[ Blake is beginning to learn to expect anything from Trench, and portals appearing out of nowhere seems about par for the course. She'd seen a few and paid them no mind, until she'd almost walked right past one with some very familiar scenery. Bright blue water, golden sand, green trees swaying in the gentle ocean breeze, and people with animal features bustling to and fro, laughing and working and surviving. Blake had stared for a long time with a lump in her throat, scarcely daring to breathe for fear of making the portal vanish.

She hadn't realized how much she missed home -- and her people, her culture -- until right now.

It started to shrink, and the last thing Blake managed to do was reach through and grab some of the food from the market that had been right in front of the portal. And for a while, she hadn't known what to do with it all, until she'd heard about a celebration down at the salt lake.

So here she is, with a little wooden stall decorated with some purple flowers she'd managed to pick, some spare cooking equipment she'd borrowed from the Clockhouse, and a small firepit burning merrily off to the side, pots and food suspended above it to cook. Offered on the stall are containers of a few different kinds of food: thick noodles and charred vegetables in a spiced sauce, huge fish cooked to crispy perfection and laid out on broad green leaves, big bowls of fluffy rice with fresh vegetables and seaweed and colorful chunks of fish. And while Blake looks totally comfortable cooking -- stirring the pots with chopsticks, rotating fish on the skewers above the fire -- she keeps darting nervous little looks toward anybody who comes close.

She's... look, Blake is proud of the progress she's made in the past year or so. She's become so much more confident and comfortable in her skin. But being thrown into Trench last month has upset her progress a little, pushing her off balance. Having to deal with so many new people is difficult, but Blake's determined to forge connections.

So when someone approaches, looking interested in the food, Blake manages to smile, and though the cat ears on top of her head are angled a little warily, the smile is nonetheless genuine. She's wearing her catsuit underneath her new cloak jacket, but she's illuminated by the fire, looking perfectly at home. ]

Everything's free, though I won't say no to a trade if you insist. I managed to pull some food from my home out of one of those portals, and I... just wanted to share.

Comments

[onekindsoul]

[It feels like it happens so fast. Or maybe it's because it's because her own world had slowed to a creep watching Blake at the stall, wallowing in her own misery about what had happened. She feels the hand take hers and she's pulled along toward the stall with a little gasp.

She whirls as she finds herself let go and her hands move to grip the counter to steady herself. Part of her wants to run, but her legs feel like jelly from the awkwardness of all this. And the guilt slowly eats away at her.]

I- Uh- I-

[She fumbles with what to say here. This is all so kind. Which is exactly what she knows and loves about Blake. But... After everything she just did. She sees the smile on Blake's face and it hurts more than she'd like to admit.]

I-

You didn't have to do that- This-

After what I put you and everyone else through.

[She stares down at the bowl that's been put down at her hands. She doesn't quite feel tears welling up in her eyes yet, but she tries to sniff them away anyways.]

[fromshadows]

I know. But that's what friends do, isn't it?

[ In the end, all that had happened to Blake was getting locked in a room for a bit and having to puzzle her way out with Penny, and she doesn't exactly count that as traumatizing. What had been far worse was watching Ruby with nothing behind her eyes, going through the motions without the normal spark of her energy and personality. Blake had been confident that she, that everyone, would manage to find a way to break Ruby free of her predicament, but she'd still worried. ]

Ruby, [ Blake says gently, ] for me, the scariest thing in that place was my fear for you. Not of you. For you.

I'm just so, so glad to see that you're getting better.

[ A hug will have to come later, what with Ruby having food in her hands that Blake doesn't want to get spilled. And she knows that her words aren't going to magically fix Ruby -- that's going to take a while, because guilt can be the worst kind of festering wound -- but she can only hope that help a little. ]

Besides, if there was any revenge to be had, I might have just gotten it by giving you those noodles. [ So rarely seen, Blake's little smile holds a touch of playfulness. ] We use enough spice on that meat to make any non-Menagerie-native cry.

[onekindsoul]

[There's silence at first. That is what a friend is supposed to do, isn't it? Not to lock them in a room against their will. To hurt them. To take their eyes if they disagree with you. A pang of guilt hits her chest.]

I guess. I guess I haven't been that great of a friend.

[It's easier to wallow in her self pity than to be happy. She tries her best to convince herself it's better that way. But then Blake keeps going and she raises her head up a little.]

I'm sorry I scared you. Either way.

I- I'm glad you're here. And I just- I wish that wasn't one of the first things you had to experience here.

[She does appreciate the sentiment and well- The words would help her out along the way to getting better.

She does shake it a little when Blake describes the spices. Spice wasn't necessarily something she was used to- between her, Yang, and her dad the cooking palette back at home wasn't exactly exquisite by any means.

She manages a faint smile.]

Well- Maybe I'm about to really get what's coming to me.

[Look at her. She managed a joke. Then goes to take in her first mouthful of food. And gosh. Does she try her best to hold her own against the spice as she chews. But her pale face is getting awfully red longer it's in her system.]

[fromshadows]

[ Ruby might have dealt with the corruption, but it's obvious that she's still not okay. Her affect is so flat, her gaze dull; she's lacking her usual energy, and it breaks Blake's heart to see it.

She doesn't know if Ruby's ever experienced something like this -- a time where she was, even if briefly, kind of a villain. Blake's seen Ruby fail and make mistakes, but she always bounced back. She always did something, even if she wasn't sure what the right move was. But her recent bout with corruption and Ange's creation goes beyond a wrong decision made in the moment. It was sustained behavior that hurt others. Has Ruby ever done that before? Not in Blake's memory, but there's still so much she doesn't know about her time in Trench.

Either way, it's clearly affecting her deeply. Striking right into the very core of her and dragging her down with guilt. It's going to be a long road back, but Blake's determined to be there every step of the way.

The joke doesn't quite make Blake smile -- it mostly just makes her look worried, ears flicking down -- but the way Ruby's slowly starting to turn red does make Blake smile. She moves for a moment to get a glass of fruit juice, setting it down near Ruby. ]

I guess spice is a foreign concept on Patch, huh?

[ Her own sense of humor is, as usual, dryly delighted. ]

How is Ange, by the way? Are you two... [ Blake trails off, not quite sure how to word it. It's tough to ask politely if someone is experiencing friction in their marriage because of corruption and magic misuse. Blake's not even sure she should be asking, really. ] How is she feeling?

[onekindsoul]

[The heat has definitely gotten a hold of Ruby at the moment. Briefly taking her mind off her own inner turmoil as an intense burning on her tongue and mouth take hold. She coughs and gags a little until the cup is dropped down in front of her. She picks it up and quickly chugs it down. Only stopping to briefly catch her breath.]

No- Not like this. Yang did most of the cooking- And that mostly involved mac and cheese or dinosaur chicken nuggets.

[They were simple kids.

She kind of glances down at the counter briefly at the next question. And- It was a doozey.]

She's taking it rough... I guess- Well I am too. But she was just trying to help me when I was in trouble.

She didn't hurt anyone- I did.

[fromshadows]

[ Blake's smile is immediate and warm, because she can so easily picture Yang doing that. Puttering around their kitchen in Patch, taking the responsibility of dinosaur chicken nuggets really seriously, entertaining Ruby as they waited. It's... both cute, and sad, to imagine it. They must have been adorable as kids. But the unspoken implication there is that Yang only knew how to cook basic things because she was a child, made to take care of another child.

At Ruby's response, Blake doesn't answer right away. She wants to choose her words carefully, because this is such a thorny, complicated topic, and Blake doesn't want to act like she knows the right way to get through this, because she doesn't. She just wants to help. ]

You were just trying to help people too, Ruby. Remember? You locked me in that room not because you wanted to hurt me, but because you wanted to give me time to realize that Ange's world was a good thing.

I can't say that what you did was entirely harmless, but... you didn't hurt me. You had every opportunity to do so, and you didn't even try.

[ Still. It's not going to be that easy. Because from what Blake hears, there were people that got hurt. But she hopes that at least she can ease Ruby's conscience in this one small incident. ]

[onekindsoul]

[Ruby sees the warm smile from Blake- And well. It does make her feel a little more at ease herself. It was nice to talk about Yang, about her family and the team. She had never forgotten about them obviously, but it felt like so long since she had to talk to them.

But that shifts back to something more serious as they go back to the topic at hand. And while it doesn't exactly make her feel better she can see what Blake is saying- even if she didn't want to accept it right away.]

Yeah... I guess-

I just. Well- It never should have come to that. Locking you away wasn't right either. Or what it ended up escalating into.

Sure we wanted to think it was a good thing, but that's not what it was.

[But there is a pause. And she does hang onto one thing here.]

But I'm glad I didn't hurt you. That's the last thing I'd want.

[fromshadows]

You didn't hurt me.

[ Blake repeats it like it's a comforting mantra, because it's so clear that Ruby's clinging onto that one thing by her fingernails, desperate for one small measure of relief in the face of her guilt.

Done with preparing food for the moment, Blake sits down next to Ruby, sipping at her own drink. The bonfire is crackling and warm, and everybody around them looks to be enjoying themselves -- it must feel incredibly isolating for Ruby. ]

Back there, you mentioned that Ange infused your aura with some of her magic because there was a draining effect on Coldbloods that month. What's happening with that now? Are you still feeling drained?