hear it hurgling

But both Ruby and Mercury are not willing to be vulnerable with them to begin with, and are kind of ready to brush off the concerns Oscar and Emerald bring up. Ruby and Mercury must be pushed further by Oscar and Emerald to open up, asking them the questions no one else has up to that point:

“How do you handle all of this?"

"I mean, there has to be something you want from this, right?"

Essentially they're both trying to understand Ruby and Mercury's motivations and what drives them.

Ruby puts up a cheerful façade because of her need to be everyone's hero, her tendency to worry about everyone else and their problems instead of opening up about her own. While Mercury puts up a tough façade to convince everyone (and himself) that he’s “a big, bad man now just like the others” (in the words of Tyrian) and that he doesn't care about anything or anyone. In reality Ruby isn't handling this as well as she wants everyone to think, and Mercury doesn't actually know what he wants out of all of this. (and he cares more than he lets on, at least where Emerald is concerned). For both Ruby and Mercury they're more overwhelmed than they would ever be willing to admit.

Ruby and Mercury also deflect from Oscar and Emerald's questions by giving a very generalised, non specific answer:

Ruby:

"We all went to Beacon because we wanted to help people. None of us chose this either. We just have to press on-"

Mercury:

"Salem's promised us everything. We win this thing for her, we'll be top dogs in her new world."

They use "we" and "us" so they're not actually talking about themselves as individuals or how they really feel. It isn't an answer either Emerald or Oscar are satisfied with, because they're avoiding actually answering the question and talking about how they really feel.

We see how frustrated they are with this kind of response, and Emerald and Oscar eventually snap back at them. Emerald starts to physically fight Mercury:

whereas Oscar has this outburst:

"How can you be so confident? People have tried to kill you, the world's about to go to war all over again, how are you okay with any of this?!"

The way Mercury and Ruby react to this is interesting to me. Ruby goes quiet, and has an expression of sadness and guilt on her face, and follows up in opening a little about grieving penny and pyrhha, but like you said in your previous post it's very nice and neat, like it's more something she herself needs to believe. She seems subconsciously aware that bottling up her own pain and not being honest about how she feels is bad, but it's something she still struggles with all the same. Mercury on the other hand fights back against Emerald, vents about the abuse he endured from his father, yet at the same time seems to be in outright denial of his own pain in his current position, trying to convince himself he's right where he belongs. So in a sense you could say Ruby is subconsciously aware, while Mercury is completely in denial of his own emotions.

I'm not sure though. It's interesting to think about but until we get to the meat of Ruby's and Mercury's arc (during the Vacuo volumes) I can't really say for certain, so I'm really just spitballing.

I guess on a personal level I'm hoping for the Emercury/Rosegarden foiling to payoff around the same time in Vacuo too. Especially with Emerald and Oscar being friends, I'd enjoy Ruby and Mercury having like. the opposite of whatever Oscar and Emerald have going on. Little part of me hopes Emeralds codependent ride or die loyalty for someone who offered her companionship and belonging to transfer from Cinder to Oscar after switching sides, (since he's the one who makes that offer fully willing to trust her, Cinder offered Emerald food, what she was starving for, Oscar offered her the chance to be part of their group, companionship, without any strings or conditions attached, what she was also starving for) without her initially questioning it because surely This is How Relationships Work Right? and Mercury calling her out on it in letting herself be manipulated and "used" by the other side, while she calls him out on still being stuck in a abusive environment and having even less freedom, and being at risk of turning out like his father, like Tyrian, just another assassin. it would be Juicy.

Oh, that's sooo tough. It's a toss-up between that scene in volume 5 where Oscar gets mad at her for being so positive, or that Vol. 6 scene in the snow, where she tells him he's his "own person" and Qrow says "Don't lie to him."

The look on her face in both scenes is so good. I love how even she doesn't seem to believe what she's saying, but she's refusing to let anyone see her doubts. It's a side of Ruby that we barely get to see again until Vol. 8/9

I thought it was interesting how Oscar prompted both of these moments from her. i love that push-and-pull they have. it's difficult to spot sometimes, because the writing is very clunky, but it's there.

ruby is always trying to stay very positive, and that's nice, but she also pushes her own feelings down and ignores the bad stuff. I like how her worldview gets a little bit challenged when Oscar is around; it's not always made into a big confrontation, but I feel it in the undercurrent.

I've always felt really bad for Ruby. She's gifted, but she thinks in black-and-white (and red and yellow, hahaha…) and she's in deep, deep denial about herself.

I like how Oscar's presence (sometimes) forces her to confront sad or uncomfortable feelings that she's not willing to address: She WANTS to feel like she's already grieved Penny, Pyrrha, and her time at Beacon. she WANTS to believe that her weird-wizard-professor ISN'T slowly killing this boy she just met. she WANTS to believe that her heroes wouldn't let innocent people die.

but... uh oh! Oscar is here!

and he's slowly losing his mind? and ozpin lied to them…a little bit..? and…her friends are dead? and the grown-ups are telling her SHE needs to save the world?

but she can't save the world! she's scared!

where's mom? why can't mom save the world?

i like their little height difference... its cute :)