Rubella
(#81611630)
HUNGER OF DEBTS
Click or tap to view this dragon in Predict Morphology.
Energy: 50/50
This dragon’s natural inborn element is Plague.
Female Mirror
This dragon is hibernating.
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Personal Style
Apparel
Skin
Scene
Measurements
Length
4.27 m
Wingspan
5.43 m
Weight
697.3 kg
Genetics
Blood
Piebald
Piebald
Maroon
Paint
Paint
Red
Crackle
Crackle
Hatchday
Breed
Eye Type
Level 25 Mirror
Max Level
STR
118
AGI
8
DEF
6
QCK
29
INT
5
VIT
8
MND
5
Biography
ABOUT
She/it
Nickname: Ruby
Ruby's always been a bit too terribly friendly, considering how horrifically contagious and all-around gross'n'nasty she is. Hard to fit in with other plague dragons and their strict your-on-your-own survivorism—it, personally, is here to make friends. Which is why running around with the Contractors is such a delight. So many friends to meet and make, and leave them knowing they'll never forget her.
MAY THE GUILT OF EXISTENCE CHEW OUT YOUR INNARDS
Whenever Ruby got scratched up and hurt as a hatchling, the wound never closed. Blood just continued to drip, drip, drip, making a mess of wherever she sat, lay down, or stood. Not that her condition made for any lack in vitality for Ruby. She'd just carry on, prancing about this way and that! That was a constant source of frustration for its parent, who just wanted something somewhere to be clean once—was that so much to ask? Hm? Was it? Is that so much to ask from you, Rubella? Is it all that much to ask?
So Ruby learned early on just what a burden she was, and how one day, she'd need to make up for that debt of being born and raised.
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE TRADING OF FAVORS
After getting kicked out of the nest, Ruby traded favors to other dragons for food, shelter, education. For wiping chalkboards and scrubbing desks, she could sit in on lessons at a schoolhouse. For treating a pearlcatcher smaller than itself to a fine shiny black eye, she got their nook in an alley during a rainstorm—and later received a knot in her tail from the local gang in return! All part of the economy, baybee!
As she got older and ingrained in deeper depths of society, Ruby learned many more favors available for swapping . . . or piling up into an enormous debt. Thing was, the trade was never equal, one for one, split fifty-fifty. Whenever Ruby did something for someone else, they expected more—since it'd made such a mess on their floor/package/scales, with that dripping blood. She dug herself a deep one, yep. Too many angry, vicious dragons pounding on her nest, demanding repayment for this or that, or in some cases, this AND that! This was not terribly desirable nor fun, not for Ruby.
It got an idea. It'd spin the tables on all those p!ssed-off friends—remind them that they were friends, and should be grateful for that friendship. Shouldn't we all be so THANKFUL for this life we were given? Can't we show some damn gratitude around here? Huh?
To remind her friends of everything they had to be thankful for, Ruby shared a very special gift with them. Something very near and dear to her heart. Its own condition!
After the contagion had entered their bloodstream. After it had ruptured those veins, bursting cells and escaping containment. After their precious lifeforce was spilling down their bruised and broken skin with the passion of waterfalls. Well! Then all their anger was suddenly forgotten! Ruby's friends forgave it all its whoopsies, begging only to live, live. Ruby couldn't argue that! And with the same considerate benevolence of her parent, retracted the punishment from their bodies, and nurtured them back to stunning health, and gently reminded them to never, ever cross her again, alright sweets?
Ruby would schedule a time for drinks afterwards, and got ghosted each time. :( But that wasn't so bad. Now they owed her. A debt they would never forget.
RED MEETS BLACK
Nowadays, Rubella's known as something of a scam artist and cheat. Which, rude. She doesn't scam dragons—that'd be uncivil—she just sometimes forgets to pay her various tabs! Everyone can relate to that, a little forgetfulness now and again. Of course, of course she'll pay it all off one day! Just later, later, she's short on treasure right now. Give it another half-moon more, it'll settle all debts then. Promise ;)
If it forgets and skips town before debts can be collected, well. She'll swing back around sometime!
One IOU Ruby left got up and chased after it, though. A peculiar helmeted mirror who'd come into the tavern asking where she could buy paints. Ruby, eager to make a new friend, perked up immediately, offering to find and purchase the goods itself, if the stranger lent it the treasure.
The mirror agreed readily enough—ignoring eye rolls from the other tavern patrons accustomed to Ruby's reputation—and passed over the coins. "Get one medium bucket of red," she told Ruby, rather seriously. "You get what's left over. Agreed?"
"Sure!" Ruby chirped, already bounding out the door. "I won't let'cha down!"
But, squabbling with the peddler, Ruby could not believe these atrocious prices. "For a medium?" she said. "That much?"
It would use up all but two of the treasure. :( And that wasn't fair, after all the effort Ruby had put in for a stranger! There were the traveling fees, the finding-a-merchant fees, the transportation fees! Ruby deserved a damn good tip, it did!! Not a measly two treasure!
"A small, then," it decided quickly, a clever scheme building in its head. That gave her sixteen treasure as her due!
She used four of it to secure a bucket of her own, near the same size as the peddler's medium. With some rainwater from a barrel mixed in to reach the needed volume, and a bit of Ruby's own blood to restore the paint from a watery transparency to the original—well, it was more muddy now, but still, arguably, a red hue! Pocketing away the change, smug about her own success, Ruby skipped back to the tavern and proudly presented her delivery.
The mirror had taken off her helmet. She looked at the bucket. Ruby waited for her to take it. The tavern went oddly still. Uncomfortably silent. Stiff, yet buzzing, like a fly trapped under your forefoot yet trying to escape. Ruby swallowed, suddenly very, very uneasy, its stomach twisting itself into knots. She forced herself to look at the mirror, only to find the . . . dragon (right?) . . . already staring at her, all four rectangle-pupiled eyes trained on her. Rubella shrunk back, eyes darting nervously all around as strange shapes danced at the edges of her vision, something horribly edged and pointed and twisted and wrong for reality poking and slicing and writhing—
"This," the mirror hissed, and her voice, something jagged not meant for meat, raked claws down Ruby's ears, "is not the agreement."
Ruby whimpered, turned, and fled. The moment she left the tavern, out of the mirror's sight, the otherworldly sensations shunted away, leaving Ruby gasping and choking on air suddenly available to her lungs, lending her strength to her shaky legs. That, paired with the intense urgency to get as far away as possible, kept it running for a long time.
Neither far nor long enough. She still leaks a blood trail, see.
IOU
"You owe me," the mirror told Ruby, sitting on its tail so it couldn't run any longer.
"I don't, I don't!" Ruby insisted, wiggling to no avail to try and escape. (For such a scrawny beast, there was a weight to the mirror. And a very strong grip of her claws, digging into its skin.)
The mirror growled. "I have no interest in liars. Just spit it out. Do you want to live or not?"
That stunned Ruby to stop struggling, briefly. A liar? Want to live? "I'm not . . . I don't . . ." Ruby chewed on empty air, unable to "spit it out", unable to find the words at all. "I'll pay you back," it stammered out at last. "Look, look, here's your treasure! You have that—I'll buy you new paint! More, buckets and buckets! However much paint you want."
Such begging usually mollified Ruby's creditors, finding her groveling pleasing. But the mirror didn't slacken her hold. "I don't want paint," she said, unimpressed, the same intensity to her voice. "I think I want you."
For a moment, Ruby was flattered. Then she remembered to be panicked. "I'm not for sale!" it yelped, flailing.
Immovable. "But you owe me."
Ruby flopped down, giving up. "Fine! Take me."
The mirror grunted a pleased noise. She stepped back, off Ruby's tail, and sat back on her haunches. Ruby turned, astonished, to find the mirror's teeth bared gleefully. From the chase, and subsequent squashing, Ruby's blood was drenched all down the mirror's front, from jaw and throat to chest to forelegs and claws.
"A contract," the mirror declared, with clear relish. "To pay off your debt."
Ruby felt its stomach drop. It plopped down, defeated, feeling hollow. So this was it.
The mirror tilted her head. "No? You don't wish to pay?"
Ruby looked up, startled. "Of . . . of course not?"
"Ah! Of course not! I get it, I get it now." Excited, the mirror got up and circled around Ruby, once, twice. Ruby sat awkwardly, too nervous to move, as the mirror shoved her nose up close and sniffed. "It's not your debts, but theirs, that makes you alive. Eh? Eh?"
It was thoroughly confused now. "Eh?"
The mirror walked around to face her, leaning in close, until all Ruby could see were her eyes. "You don't want to owe others. They must owe you. How's that feel?"
It was the one sensation Ruby could find joy in. The one time she didn't hate continuing. "They—they need to be punished," she choked out. "It's the one thing—to teach—and learn—"
But the mirror was shaking her head, clicking her jaw disapprovingly. "That's not it. That's not it. Not punishment. The debt! The debt!" She nodded encouragingly, trying to get Ruby to see it.
Ruby didn't know if she did. "But when I try to repay them, it's never enough. I'm always the one needing to give more."
"Ah." The mirror's teeth flashed. "But not. If you move first. You do them a favor, and then—"
"Then I leave before repayment," it clicked. Ruby sat back as it all came together. "Then they come to me. Then they never forget me, not after what I did for them! After what they still owe me! They will love me for what I did for them!"
"They will resent you!" the mirror said cheerfully. "They will hate you and curse you and never be able to harm you, because they owe you."
"I've been going all about this wrong," Ruby whispered, amazed and intimidated and rejoicing. "I'm going to become the most insufferable smug b@stard I've always been meant to be all along."
The mirror, Ruby's new boss, hurrahed.
Ruby still needs to get Independent her medium bucket of red paint, though. It'll get around to it eventually.
THE DELIGHTFUL CHAFFING OF CONFLICT
In a sense, Independent's hunger and Rubella's hunger are forever at odds. Independent cannot lie. She will see the deal through, to exactness. Everyone walks away with what they agreed to. She very much enjoys the letter of the law.
But Ruby's hunger is innately about imbalance. She just can't help it, after the Contractors finish a job, to leave their client with just a little something extra. Just one small favor—an integral, pivotal offer they simply cannot refuse, or else nothing else matters. And Ruby will give it to them, offered up freely, with no strings attached. Just a wink, and a leer, and the knowledge that, no matter how they tried, they could never come close to paying Ruby back. Knowledge they both share, which Ruby will not and does not hesitate to lord over them.
"Hey, remember that time when I—"
"Shut UP."
Their resentment, their frustration, at Ruby's ungracious benevolence, is pure, sweet, unadulterated fuel. Now no one can even complain about Ruby dripping all over the floor, the seats, the dishes. It will never feel guilty about it ever again.
-
REACHED LEVEL 25 ON 11/9/2022
She/it
Nickname: Ruby
Ruby's always been a bit too terribly friendly, considering how horrifically contagious and all-around gross'n'nasty she is. Hard to fit in with other plague dragons and their strict your-on-your-own survivorism—it, personally, is here to make friends. Which is why running around with the Contractors is such a delight. So many friends to meet and make, and leave them knowing they'll never forget her.
MAY THE GUILT OF EXISTENCE CHEW OUT YOUR INNARDS
Whenever Ruby got scratched up and hurt as a hatchling, the wound never closed. Blood just continued to drip, drip, drip, making a mess of wherever she sat, lay down, or stood. Not that her condition made for any lack in vitality for Ruby. She'd just carry on, prancing about this way and that! That was a constant source of frustration for its parent, who just wanted something somewhere to be clean once—was that so much to ask? Hm? Was it? Is that so much to ask from you, Rubella? Is it all that much to ask?
So Ruby learned early on just what a burden she was, and how one day, she'd need to make up for that debt of being born and raised.
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE TRADING OF FAVORS
After getting kicked out of the nest, Ruby traded favors to other dragons for food, shelter, education. For wiping chalkboards and scrubbing desks, she could sit in on lessons at a schoolhouse. For treating a pearlcatcher smaller than itself to a fine shiny black eye, she got their nook in an alley during a rainstorm—and later received a knot in her tail from the local gang in return! All part of the economy, baybee!
As she got older and ingrained in deeper depths of society, Ruby learned many more favors available for swapping . . . or piling up into an enormous debt. Thing was, the trade was never equal, one for one, split fifty-fifty. Whenever Ruby did something for someone else, they expected more—since it'd made such a mess on their floor/package/scales, with that dripping blood. She dug herself a deep one, yep. Too many angry, vicious dragons pounding on her nest, demanding repayment for this or that, or in some cases, this AND that! This was not terribly desirable nor fun, not for Ruby.
It got an idea. It'd spin the tables on all those p!ssed-off friends—remind them that they were friends, and should be grateful for that friendship. Shouldn't we all be so THANKFUL for this life we were given? Can't we show some damn gratitude around here? Huh?
To remind her friends of everything they had to be thankful for, Ruby shared a very special gift with them. Something very near and dear to her heart. Its own condition!
After the contagion had entered their bloodstream. After it had ruptured those veins, bursting cells and escaping containment. After their precious lifeforce was spilling down their bruised and broken skin with the passion of waterfalls. Well! Then all their anger was suddenly forgotten! Ruby's friends forgave it all its whoopsies, begging only to live, live. Ruby couldn't argue that! And with the same considerate benevolence of her parent, retracted the punishment from their bodies, and nurtured them back to stunning health, and gently reminded them to never, ever cross her again, alright sweets?
Ruby would schedule a time for drinks afterwards, and got ghosted each time. :( But that wasn't so bad. Now they owed her. A debt they would never forget.
RED MEETS BLACK
Nowadays, Rubella's known as something of a scam artist and cheat. Which, rude. She doesn't scam dragons—that'd be uncivil—she just sometimes forgets to pay her various tabs! Everyone can relate to that, a little forgetfulness now and again. Of course, of course she'll pay it all off one day! Just later, later, she's short on treasure right now. Give it another half-moon more, it'll settle all debts then. Promise ;)
If it forgets and skips town before debts can be collected, well. She'll swing back around sometime!
One IOU Ruby left got up and chased after it, though. A peculiar helmeted mirror who'd come into the tavern asking where she could buy paints. Ruby, eager to make a new friend, perked up immediately, offering to find and purchase the goods itself, if the stranger lent it the treasure.
The mirror agreed readily enough—ignoring eye rolls from the other tavern patrons accustomed to Ruby's reputation—and passed over the coins. "Get one medium bucket of red," she told Ruby, rather seriously. "You get what's left over. Agreed?"
"Sure!" Ruby chirped, already bounding out the door. "I won't let'cha down!"
But, squabbling with the peddler, Ruby could not believe these atrocious prices. "For a medium?" she said. "That much?"
It would use up all but two of the treasure. :( And that wasn't fair, after all the effort Ruby had put in for a stranger! There were the traveling fees, the finding-a-merchant fees, the transportation fees! Ruby deserved a damn good tip, it did!! Not a measly two treasure!
"A small, then," it decided quickly, a clever scheme building in its head. That gave her sixteen treasure as her due!
She used four of it to secure a bucket of her own, near the same size as the peddler's medium. With some rainwater from a barrel mixed in to reach the needed volume, and a bit of Ruby's own blood to restore the paint from a watery transparency to the original—well, it was more muddy now, but still, arguably, a red hue! Pocketing away the change, smug about her own success, Ruby skipped back to the tavern and proudly presented her delivery.
The mirror had taken off her helmet. She looked at the bucket. Ruby waited for her to take it. The tavern went oddly still. Uncomfortably silent. Stiff, yet buzzing, like a fly trapped under your forefoot yet trying to escape. Ruby swallowed, suddenly very, very uneasy, its stomach twisting itself into knots. She forced herself to look at the mirror, only to find the . . . dragon (right?) . . . already staring at her, all four rectangle-pupiled eyes trained on her. Rubella shrunk back, eyes darting nervously all around as strange shapes danced at the edges of her vision, something horribly edged and pointed and twisted and wrong for reality poking and slicing and writhing—
"This," the mirror hissed, and her voice, something jagged not meant for meat, raked claws down Ruby's ears, "is not the agreement."
Ruby whimpered, turned, and fled. The moment she left the tavern, out of the mirror's sight, the otherworldly sensations shunted away, leaving Ruby gasping and choking on air suddenly available to her lungs, lending her strength to her shaky legs. That, paired with the intense urgency to get as far away as possible, kept it running for a long time.
Neither far nor long enough. She still leaks a blood trail, see.
IOU
"You owe me," the mirror told Ruby, sitting on its tail so it couldn't run any longer.
"I don't, I don't!" Ruby insisted, wiggling to no avail to try and escape. (For such a scrawny beast, there was a weight to the mirror. And a very strong grip of her claws, digging into its skin.)
The mirror growled. "I have no interest in liars. Just spit it out. Do you want to live or not?"
That stunned Ruby to stop struggling, briefly. A liar? Want to live? "I'm not . . . I don't . . ." Ruby chewed on empty air, unable to "spit it out", unable to find the words at all. "I'll pay you back," it stammered out at last. "Look, look, here's your treasure! You have that—I'll buy you new paint! More, buckets and buckets! However much paint you want."
Such begging usually mollified Ruby's creditors, finding her groveling pleasing. But the mirror didn't slacken her hold. "I don't want paint," she said, unimpressed, the same intensity to her voice. "I think I want you."
For a moment, Ruby was flattered. Then she remembered to be panicked. "I'm not for sale!" it yelped, flailing.
Immovable. "But you owe me."
Ruby flopped down, giving up. "Fine! Take me."
The mirror grunted a pleased noise. She stepped back, off Ruby's tail, and sat back on her haunches. Ruby turned, astonished, to find the mirror's teeth bared gleefully. From the chase, and subsequent squashing, Ruby's blood was drenched all down the mirror's front, from jaw and throat to chest to forelegs and claws.
"A contract," the mirror declared, with clear relish. "To pay off your debt."
Ruby felt its stomach drop. It plopped down, defeated, feeling hollow. So this was it.
The mirror tilted her head. "No? You don't wish to pay?"
Ruby looked up, startled. "Of . . . of course not?"
"Ah! Of course not! I get it, I get it now." Excited, the mirror got up and circled around Ruby, once, twice. Ruby sat awkwardly, too nervous to move, as the mirror shoved her nose up close and sniffed. "It's not your debts, but theirs, that makes you alive. Eh? Eh?"
It was thoroughly confused now. "Eh?"
The mirror walked around to face her, leaning in close, until all Ruby could see were her eyes. "You don't want to owe others. They must owe you. How's that feel?"
It was the one sensation Ruby could find joy in. The one time she didn't hate continuing. "They—they need to be punished," she choked out. "It's the one thing—to teach—and learn—"
But the mirror was shaking her head, clicking her jaw disapprovingly. "That's not it. That's not it. Not punishment. The debt! The debt!" She nodded encouragingly, trying to get Ruby to see it.
Ruby didn't know if she did. "But when I try to repay them, it's never enough. I'm always the one needing to give more."
"Ah." The mirror's teeth flashed. "But not. If you move first. You do them a favor, and then—"
"Then I leave before repayment," it clicked. Ruby sat back as it all came together. "Then they come to me. Then they never forget me, not after what I did for them! After what they still owe me! They will love me for what I did for them!"
"They will resent you!" the mirror said cheerfully. "They will hate you and curse you and never be able to harm you, because they owe you."
"I've been going all about this wrong," Ruby whispered, amazed and intimidated and rejoicing. "I'm going to become the most insufferable smug b@stard I've always been meant to be all along."
The mirror, Ruby's new boss, hurrahed.
Ruby still needs to get Independent her medium bucket of red paint, though. It'll get around to it eventually.
THE DELIGHTFUL CHAFFING OF CONFLICT
In a sense, Independent's hunger and Rubella's hunger are forever at odds. Independent cannot lie. She will see the deal through, to exactness. Everyone walks away with what they agreed to. She very much enjoys the letter of the law.
But Ruby's hunger is innately about imbalance. She just can't help it, after the Contractors finish a job, to leave their client with just a little something extra. Just one small favor—an integral, pivotal offer they simply cannot refuse, or else nothing else matters. And Ruby will give it to them, offered up freely, with no strings attached. Just a wink, and a leer, and the knowledge that, no matter how they tried, they could never come close to paying Ruby back. Knowledge they both share, which Ruby will not and does not hesitate to lord over them.
"Hey, remember that time when I—"
"Shut UP."
Their resentment, their frustration, at Ruby's ungracious benevolence, is pure, sweet, unadulterated fuel. Now no one can even complain about Ruby dripping all over the floor, the seats, the dishes. It will never feel guilty about it ever again.
-
REACHED LEVEL 25 ON 11/9/2022
Click or tap a food type to individually feed this dragon only. The other dragons in your lair will not have their energy replenished.
This dragon doesn't eat Insects.
Feed this dragon Meat.
Feed this dragon Seafood.
This dragon doesn't eat Plants.
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Exalting Rubella to the service of the Flamecaller will remove them from your lair forever. They will leave behind a small sum of riches that they have accumulated. This action is irreversible.
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