(art by kabeone) Ah, Lodestone. The original Ruth/Wynston AU. I didn’t lie about Ruth Means Compassion: in every continuity she starts Light Side, she befriends Wynston, she falls in love with and marries Malavai Quinn, and she parts on bitter terms with a son to remember her husband by. All of these are true in the AU. Only, what if Wynston could sustain a romantic bond?
He can’t and doesn’t in Ruth’s original continuity.
The entire plot of RMC happens in a topsy-turvy way that kicks into high gear when the Emperor begins making a move on the galaxy. Quinn is the voice of the Empire, ecstatic that his and Ruth’s duty can bring them together again. And Wynston? He’s on the run while the Emperor’s compulsion sets Ruth against him.
It was written serially on the SWTOR forums, but I think an edited version is what made it into the PDF download.
Wynston woke up the second Ruth moved. Hold still. Status: half dressed, physically fine. Surroundings, perfect. Less certain than they had ever been, but she had stayed in his arms. Perfect. Her lips brushed his forehead before he admitted to being awake.
As he opened his eyes she smiled dreamily. “That was a very strange conversation we had,” she said.
“We can forget about it,” he drawled, keeping his manner casual. “I thought it might be nice to take your mind off other things temporarily, that’s all.”
“That’s not all. You were serious. You jerk me around all the time, and you think feelings are all cause and effect, and you tease all this sympathy out of me at the same time you’re admitting that you see it all as something useful.” She traced the hollow of his throat with a fingertip. “Also you say you don’t know how to be sincere. But then you’re there when you’re needed. For things you believe in. For me. You do so much good and that’s the one thing you haven’t admitted to yet.”
He didn’t trust his voice for speaking. He squeezed her tighter instead.
She considered his face. “What you said. It was hard for you. If changing to be what I’m supposed to want is too great a risk, you don’t have to do it.”
He suddenly felt very awkward. “That…honestly never occurred to me.” He was too used to morphing into what was desired for the scene, too used to seeking the satisfaction of a pleased partner. He was entirely too used to responding to her.
“The effort is nice. You’re giving me answers like nobody else ever has. I need those.”
He kissed her. She was sweet, and soft in ways that that lean-muscled scar-laced body couldn’t account for.
She backed off a tiny bit. “When did you stop lying to me?” she asked in a tone of nothing harder than curiosity.
“About a week ago,” he admitted. Whether she would buy that, he didn’t know. “I didn’t tell any active lies on Voss but even there I left out a lot of significant context.”
“I guess we didn’t exactly have a lot of heart-to-hearts there, either.”
“True. Your heart was rather decisively elsewhere. Which you had every reason for.”
Her lip twitched in a momentary, bitter sneer. “It was stupid.”
“It was amazing to see. I’ve been from one side of this galaxy to the other and I can tell you that almost every individual I’ve ever met will live and die without ever knowing something like that.” He ran his fingers through her hair, studied her eyes. Once again marveled that anyone who knew her could try to break her. “I’ve been from one side of this galaxy to the other and never met anyone who’d be stupid enough to throw that away once they found it.” “I met one,” she said quietly.
It was written serially on the SWTOR forums, but I think an edited version is what made it into the PDF download.
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