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The cast of Ruby Quest. Not pictured: Daisy, Jay, Tom Nook, Mr. Water Cooler

Characters of the RPG style story Ruby Quest.

Beware of spoilers!

(Could use some character description improvement)


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     Patients 

Ruby / Subject #7

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Piratehooker_35.png
To lighten the mood, Ruby does her best pirate impersonation, complete with the voice.

My mother told me once of when
A young hare ventured from her den
And as she danced in field and glen
The world sang joy about her.
But wicked hateful things abound
And that young hare these evils found.

A female rabbit who wakes up in a box, and main character of the story. The players take control of her for the majority of the game. Develops a third eye allowing her to see a darkened view of the world, where certain things stand out. She is rather clever, somewhat agile, and able to figure out how to work computers and puzzles with relative ease. Her figure is admirably girlish and she can perform most feats an ordinary person could be reasonably expected to do.


  • Action Girl / Action Survivor: Ruby has a mean left hook.
  • A-Cup Angst: One player suggests that Ruby should flash Tom to get him to cooperate with her escape, but Weaver replies with "Oh no! Unfortunately for all parties involved, Ruby is flat as a board! That probably won't work."
  • Ax-Crazy: Just like most characters in the glen, Ruby was extremely violent upon taking the cure. As shown in videos she attacked Red and Tom, possibly giving them mutations (Red's Glassglow Grin and Tom's multiple arms respectively), and in a flashback she pushed Stitches in the fans.
  • Badass Normal: Unlike Tom, she doesn't even make use of her crazy, new mutations in combat. She just uses her fists of concentrated kick-ass. Justified since her third eye is only useful for finding hidden objects, and it may kill her if used for too long.
  • Berserker Tears: Cries when assaulting Filbert.
  • Expressive Ears: They droop when she's shocked or upset.
  • Fanservice: In the April Fool's day gag, the other half of her skirt is missing (and she is apparently not wearing any underwear). And another big one at the end.
  • Flipping the Bird: Does this to Filbert.
  • Genre Savvy: "Ruby throws away the FOOTY SOCK PAJAMA FOOT. Her genre instincts tell her she won't need it."
  • Heroic BSoD: Suffers multiple throughout the story, especially after Bella's death.
  • Improvised Weapon: Ruby has used a longshoreman's hook, a scalpel, a crowbar, a combined cane and shovel head, and a glove wrapped in barbed wire as weapons.
  • MacGyvering: Ruby is very good at using what she has to improvise solutions to puzzles, and she has created several improvised weapons like the Bludgeony Caneshovel and the Prickly Fist (heavy-duty gloves wrapped with barbed wire).
    • Parodied in an early post, after an anon suggested that she try to combine the stuff she had on her in a way that wouldn't destroy any of it. Weaver responds thusly:
    Using one COIN, the RUBBER GLOVES, the TINY CHEST, and a piece of the BUTTON DIAGRAM, Ruby fashions together the JUNKOTRON MISSILE LAUNCHER! This baby could break through a steel wall!

    NO WAIT, THEY DON'T.
    Too bad, I thought you were really on to something there.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She accidentally poisons Tom by feeding him arsenic-contaminated fish.
  • Painful Transformation: When her Third Eye first appears, she gets a horrible headache, and her head starts bleeding.
  • Righteous Rabbit: Is a rabbit (or at least has rabbity Unusual Ears) and is The Hero of Ruby Quest.
  • Running Gag: GIRLISH FIGURE
  • Split Personality: Ruby, mostly by being controlled by the Hive Mind known as Anonymous: Hundreds of people telling her to do things.
  • Talk Like a Pirate: At one point, to cheer up Tom who was not feeling well at the time.
  • Third Eye: Her mutation. It lets her see a darkened view where certain things are emphasized. This is what led to her finding the Group Picture, but it also nearly led her over a railing and hurt her when she tried to look at Cjopaze's symbols.
  • Troubled Backstory Flashback: Poor, poor Stitches...
  • Weirdness Magnet: She usually experiences more of the bizarre occurrences than Tom, mostly due to her third eye/ psychic powers.
  • You Are Subject Seven

Tom / Subject #5 actually #6

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Manlypose_9310.png
Tom receives the CROWBAR!
But the cat stood up and shook his head
And rising from his metal bed
He said "For now, I am not dead,
And I will not die in vain!"...

A male cat who is found in the brig, and Ruby's companion through most of the adventure. The only other character the players take control of. He is not as smart as Ruby, but is significantly stronger. Despite the horror around him, he does not always take his trials as seriously as he ought to.


  • Ascended Extra: According to Weaver, he was not intended to be an important character, and only existed to facilitate a puzzle, before he decided to make him a constant partner.
  • Ax-Crazy: Apparently, his earlier state of being, as stated in one of the medical notes.
  • The Big Guy: The brawn to Ruby's brains.
  • Blood from the Mouth: When suffering arsenic poisoning, he vomited blood.
  • Cat Folk: As close as the Ruby Quest style can get to one, anyway.
  • Character Name Alias: "Rover" in the April Fool's day gag.
  • Covert Pervert: He was very enthused when she asked him for the condom he'd found in his pocket.
  • Crowbar Combatant: He usually wields a crowbar, and often uses it to smash up everything players don't feel like finding the keys for.
  • Cute Little Fangs: It's not usually apparent, but he does have fangs.
  • Damsel out of Distress: In the April Fool's Day gag, he was captured, but engineered his own escape and met up with Ruby.
  • Deuteragonist: To Ruby's protagonist.
  • Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Maybe poking the Dummy in its squishy eye was a bad idea?
  • Dumb Muscle: Downplayed, but Ruby is the one more likely to solve puzzles and Tom's the one more likely to bypass them with his crowbar or the bludgeony caneshovel.
  • Eye Patch Of Power: After losing one of his eyes. He later puts a DO NOT OPEN sticker on it.
  • Facepalm: His frustrated response to /tg/'s "flooding of the thread with pointless comments".
  • The Fool: Probably not considered a true "Fool"; but he is known for thinking more with his crowbar than he does with his head.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted.
  • Large Ham: On occasions.
  • Multi-Armed and Dangerous: He has two small arms on his abdomen. They're usually hidden under his shirt, but he does use them in combat with Filbert. It's possible that he gained them after Ruby attacked him in the past, as shown in a video.
  • Oh, Crap!: Especially after watching Ruby kill him in a video and when Filbert bites his crowbar in half.
  • One-Steve Limit: Subverted, as both he and Tom Nook are patients. Tom Nook therefore tends to be called Subject #6 (Even though he's really #5) or just Nook.
  • Punny Name: On "tomcat".
  • The Quiet One: Ruby does most of the talking.
  • Rage Breaking Point: A huge one near the end.
  • Running Gag: MANLY PHYSIQUE
  • Super-Strength: He's probably the second-strongest being in the Metal Glen, behind Ace. His MANLY PHYSIQUE lets him do a lot of things Ruby can't, like move heavy items, bypass puzzles, rip Filbert's arms and head off...
  • These Hands Have Killed: Subverted. He thinks that killing Filbert by ripping his head off was pretty cool.
  • You Are Subject Five: ...Or should I say, 'Six'?

Stitches / Subject #1

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Stitches_before_7463.png
Stitches in the Group Portrait, before everything went to hell

The bear cried "this is just our lot",
and surrendered to his pain.

A bear, first discovered as a monstrous and bloody mass in a closet. He chases Ruby and ends up decapitated by the Z-hatch. He gets better, although he's still horribly mutated and barely lucid at the best of times.


  • Beary Friendly: Before the Metal Glen went to hell in a handbasket, he was this.
  • Bears Are Bad News: Subverted when he's lucid, as he's actually a pretty nice guy. Played straight most of the time due to his deteriorating mental state.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Tackles Ace, preventing Tom from having to stay in the facility to make sure Ace doesn't follow them out.
  • Body Horror: When he's first discovered, he's a head, a spine, a few organs, and a mass of blood. Even when he gets sewn together, it's pretty bad. His head splits open from top to bottom to reveal a mouth.
  • Get It Over With: After he had been left very badly mutated and barely able to think, he shrieked and cried for death.
    • Averted when they simply tranquilize him and stow him in the locker.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: See Big Damn Heroes. Could never have happened if the players hasn't gone Off the Rails.
  • Innocent Bystander: Hi, Ruby! How's it goi-
  • Knight of Cerebus: Well, not really in that he's evil (he actually saves the heroes at the end), but it was his first appearance that heralded the reveal of the actual genre.
  • No Indoor Voice: He is often known for screeching something horrible when addressing Ruby or Tom in the later parts of the story.
  • Off with His Head!: As the Bear Zombie, he is defeated by being decapitated by the Z-Hatch.
  • Prophetic Names: It seems that his name was "Stitches" even before he was shredded to pieces in a giant fan and sewn back together...
  • Reveal Shot: Woah, who's that? Maybe they'll be friends witOH MY GOD AJJHGFGJ
  • Scary Stitches: Held together by stitches.
  • You Are Subject 1

Daisy / The Hound / Subject #8

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Hound_before_3019.png
Daisy in the Group Portrait

The hound was still
Daisy was found in the Dummy Room, and when Ruby smashed the maintenance room's window in desperation, she attacked, becoming the first true 'boss' of Ruby Quest. She was killed by the combined efforts of acid and being thrown into an electrical panel. The last scene in Ruby Quest is Daisy waking up in a coffin, mirroring the opening.

Discontinuity

  • Buffy Speak
  • Deadpan Snarker/ Rage Quit: "Ferget this, I'm going t'eat my spaghetti..."
  • Identity Confused: At first, Daisy goes by "Maddie" and later storms away, coming back wearing a pig masknote , calling herself "Ruby" and that everyone should trust her because of that.
  • No Fourth Wall: In "NotWeaver's" mini-installment, Daisy directly converses with /tg/.
  • Space-Time Fucker-uper: As pointed out by Anonymous.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: "Maddie" had mistaken "Yandere" as French in the fore-mentioned interlude.

"Tom Nook" / Subject #6 actually #5

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Subject6_2843.png
Tom finds the light switch (spoilers): note 

"LUCY?
LUCY IS THAT YOU?
I KNEW YOU'D COME BACK TO ME."

A shriveled, handless, legless, and eyeless raccoon locked in the Upper Lab B. His fleshy growths have taken over his entire room. He is delusional and rather creepy, and seems to believe that Ruby is his girlfriend Lucy. He is highly afraid of Ace. The second-to-last panel of Ruby Quest reveals that he was actually Subject #5, instead of #6 as the players believed. His blindness came from an accident.


  • Affably Evil: Subject 6 is possibly the creepiest character of them all. He's dangerous, violent and apparently delusional, but is also capable of having a nice friendly chat with Ruby without harming her, as well as providing her with an important key.
    • And fans would think this to be true up till the game ended. But one of the ripped notes thrown into the water proves otherwise — that the character they thought to be '6' turned out to be Subject FIVE.
    • Tom was Subject 6. Back before things went to hell, he began acting violent FIRST, thus the "dangerous" description he was given. This also explains why he busted up so much stuff on the player's whims.
  • An Arm and a Leg: His hands and legs are amputated. According to Red's journal, his hands were crippled in an accident involving the Z-hatch.
  • Determinator: He's shown to be very much in love with someone named "Lucy" and has been waiting for her probably as long as he's been without her. He has even become so deluded that he believes Ruby is "Lucy".
  • Eldritch Abomination: Tom finds the light switch.
  • Extra Eyes: If you thought Ruby was bad...
  • Eyeless Face: There's two dark pits where his eyes should be. And no, that's not a contradiction of the above�
  • I Want My Mommy!: When he's afraid that Ace is coming for him.
  • Last Request: Scissors. (Although he wasn't exactly dying)
  • Lovecraftian Superpower: The fleshy growths.
  • Madness Mantra:
    "LUCY? LUCY, WHERE ARE YOU? IS THAT YOU LUCY? ...I LOVE YOU, LUCY...I WILL WAIT FOR YOU, LUCY..."
  • Mistaken Identity: The players believed that he was the Subject #6 referred to in notes. Turns out that he was actually Subject #5, and the other Tom was Subject #6.
  • Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: He's not evil so much as insane and delusional.
  • The Pig-Pen: Having no arms and no legs and being locked into a room does not make for very good hygiene. Upper Lab B smells so bad that Ruby needs to use an oxygen mask to breathe properly.
  • One Tom Limit: His name is coincidentally also Tom, but most people just call him Subject #6 or by his (presumed) last name "Nook" to avoid confusion.
  • The Reveal: Upper Lab B is covered with fleshy growths, all of which are connected to him.
    • and later, at the very end of the quest- He's not Subject 6, he's Subject 5.
  • Spock Speak: In a way, along with his voice being "strange and hollow".
  • Tom the Dark Lord: Quite literally, as his name is Tom.
  • Yandere
  • You Are Subject 6 ... oops, I mean, Subject Five.
  • Younger Than They Look: He calls Ruby "CHILD" even though they are most likely about the same age. Probably justified in that Ruby has been "reset" recently, something that can't be said for #6.

Jay / Subject #4

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Happyemobird_2428.png
Jay in the Group Portrait

And the birds all cried

A bird stuffed in the water filtration system in cold storage, his blood contaminating all the water. Consequentially, his powers consist of being able to astrally project himself into rooms around the glen. His astral projection is seen twice by Ruby and Tom, and they meet him in person in the water filtration in Cold Storage. He asks for them to Mercy Kill him, but Ruby instead frees him, leading to him escaping the Metal Glen along with them.


  • And I Must Scream: You ever wonder why the faucets in the Metal Glen pour blood? It's because Jay was trapped in the water filtration system and bleeding into the water supply.
  • Ascended Extra: He was never supposed to be a major character. He appeared twice as his astral projection, the white-eyed black bird and his only in-person appearance was supposed to end with a Mercy Kill. And then the players went and decided to make him their 11th-Hour Ranger.
  • Casting a Shadow: When Ruby speaks to his astral projection, it ends up plunging the room she's in into darkness.
  • Emo: Although it's rather justified, considering what he's been through.
  • 11th-Hour Ranger: Shows up in the second-to-last thread and joins the party in the last one..
  • Get It Over With: He pleads for a Mercy Kill, but the players defied this and rallied to save him instead.
  • Mercy Kill: What Weaver intended to happen to him. The players had other ideas, and decided to save him. Weaver went with it, so Jay escapes the facility along with Ruby and Tom.
  • Non-Action Guy: No wonder, really, since he's been trapped in the water filtration for who knows how long, and it's done a number on his health.
  • The Quiet One: He has the least amount of dialogue in the entire series.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: 'The birds' in The Metal Glen have passed the Despair Event Horizon, do not join in on the cat and hare's escape attempt, and presumably remain trapped. Jay, on the other hand, ends up as Ruby and Tom's 11th-Hour Ranger and escapes the Metal Glen along with them.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: Spent a long time in pain stuck in the water filtration system, but got rescued by Ruby and Tom and escaped the facility with them.
  • You Are Subject 4

Discontinuity

  • Identity Impersonator: It is revealed at the end of the April Fool's day gag that Jay had apparently been impersonating Ace the whole time.

Lucy / Subject #3

A patient who was in love with Tom Nook and thought to be a pig. Tom Nook mistakes Ruby for her, but she has never actually been seen during the quest, and may have left the Glen before it was locked down.


  • The Ghost: Is mentioned, but never seen. She might be a pig, as that's what her Animal Crossing counterpart is.
  • The Lost Lenore: Tom Nook is very much in love with her, but there's no indication that she's still in the facility.
  • Noodle Incident / Ambiguous Situation: What happened to her? We don't know and, while there's no indication she's still in Metal Glen, there's no indication that she died or escaped, either.
  • Mistaken Identity: Tom Nook mistakes Ruby for her.
  • Satellite Love Interest: On account of being The Ghost. We only know about her from Tom Nook's ramblings, so the only thing we get of her personality was that she was Tom Nook' lover.
  • You Are Subject 3

Maddie / Subject #2

Presumably a dog. She is only mentioned through notes, although for a while /tg/ mistook Daisy/the Hound Zombie for her. The reason she's never seen is because prior to the Metal Glen's lockdown, Filbert euthanized her to test the limits of the cure. Since she had been off the Cure for a while by that time for test purposes, she remained dead.


  • The Ghost: Is mentioned but never seen, because she died and never came back as a result of Filbert experimenting with the treatment on her. She might be a dog (her Animal Crossing counterpart is one), but we don't know.
  • Killed Off for Real: Filbert killed her to test the limits of the Cure. She didn't come back.
  • Mistaken Identity: After her first mention in a note she was thought to be the Hound Zombie (who was really Daisy), but that changed when another note revealed she had died and never came back.
  • Posthumous Character: The reason she only appears in notes is because she died around a year before the game's beginning.
  • You Are Subject 2

     Staff 

Ace

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Grabbyace_2025.png

The birds said naught...

"Ace will get you! He won't listen to his orders anymore — he won't even listen to HER! But he is still obedient. I don't know who, but I know he is still listening to SOMEONE! He will GET you!"
Filbert's warning towards Ruby, paraphrased

A massive, bird-esque creature employed at the facility as an orderly, janitor, and security guard.


  • Ace Of Spades: Ace (whose signature is a single spade symbol) is the main "tangible" antagonist, having completely succumbed to the Eldritch Abomination's control months ago.
  • Almighty Janitor: The janitor is literally the most threatening thing there is at the facility.
  • Badass Pacifist/ Technical Pacifist: Even though he is the most feared creature in the facility, and even being known to charge around the facility with a freakish spear-hook, he is never actually seen harming anyone. More likely, he gets his fearsome reputation by sheer intimidation, which, for him really isn't that hard. Word of God even states that Ace is not to harm (or at least kill) any of the patients or other staff, himself, due to his mind being controlled by the CJOPAZE.
    • Though, in one of Weaver's half-discontinuities, he is seen stunning Ruby with an electric prod.
  • Battle Aura: Near the very end, he is outlined—presumably glowing—with a blood red color.
  • Broken Ace: He's the strongest person in the facility and seems to have been well-trusted. Too bad he was suborned by an Eldritch Abomination.
  • Chest Insignia: Had a Spade symbol on his shirt back when he was a normal order.
    • Lampshaded after the discontinued wearing of his â™  shirt after the facility's transition.
    • And near the end he briefly changes it for what seems the Barbed Wheel.
  • Collector of the Strange: It is revealed that Ace had been collecting the various artifacts from around the facility and hiding them in his personal cold storage room.
  • Cool Mask: At some points, players almost constantly told Weaver that Ruby should take Ace's mask and wear it.
  • The Dragon: Since the discovery of his secret storage room and the contents within, this is most likely.
  • The Dreaded: Almost everyone in the facility, including the staff, fears Ace. Even the deranged Eldritch Abomination "#6" cringes at the thought of him!
  • Eldritch Abomination: Maybe. He's something but it's not really clear if he's this or some version of this, though trying to figure it out will probably screw with your head.
  • Faceless Goons: That's because he is wearing a mask. When it is taken off, it's not pretty.
  • Facial Horror: His face is made of tentacles and this is due to CJOPAZE.
  • The Heavy: While Cjopaze is responsible for the Metal Glen's condition and directs Ace's actions, Ace is the the most direct threat to the heroes.
  • Implacable Man: His being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice just bought Ruby and Tom a brief reprieve from him chasing them.
  • Inexplicably Awesome: Ace. Literally nothing is known about him except that he obeys someone else and is quite possibly The Worm That Walks.
  • Light Is Not Good: He is entirely clothed in white, and is The Dreaded.
  • Meaningful Name: The Ace of Spades is also commonly known as the "death card."
  • My Master, Right or Wrong: One of Filbert's notes says "he has always been loyal, unquestioning". Shame he isn't serving the same master now...
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: See Meaningful Name.
  • No Face Under the Mask: Subverted during the April Fool's day gag, where he is shown to have a normal, anthro bird-man's face.
  • No-One Could Have Survived That
  • Not Himself: Subverted From a Certain Point of View.
  • Super-Strength: He's the strongest thing in the Metal Glen, being powerful enough to straight-up tear the Z-Hatch open.
  • The Reveal: Unfortunately, Ace has already taken his mask.
  • The Speechless: For all the stuff he does, he doesn't talk, actually, he barely makes any sounds

  • Was Once a Bird: He used to be a perfectly normal orderly, but The Corruption hit him the worst (probably because he died the least).
  • White Mask of Doom: Bordering on The Faceless , he's one of the strongest and terrifying characters and the mask doesn't help it. Though, the mask isn't the problem, it's what's underneath that is.
  • The Worm That Walks: The other explanation for what he is.
  • Your Size May Vary: At times, he is seen to be twice as tall as Ruby and the rest of them; other times, he is only slightly taller.

Discontinuity

  • Accidental Pervert: In the April Fool's day gag.
  • Dumb Jock/ Dumb Muscle: Portrayed as such in the April Fool's day gag.
  • I Shall Taunt You: Once, to John from John Quest, though not specifically canon to Ruby Quest.
    • More than likely just a Take That! to the players to constantly suggested "READ NOTE".
  • Large Ham: In the April Fools day gag.
  • Nice Guy: In the April Fool's day gag, Ace is apparently accompanying Ruby to help aid her in finding her missing boyfriend, "Rover".

Red

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Trickstered_1554.png

The fox denied he had been caught...

Chief diagnostician and head of research. He's the second non-horribly mutated person Ruby meets at the facility. He's creepy and doesn't like questions, but he is helpful to Ruby. Before everything in the facility went to hell, he was the one who originally suggested the Cure, as well as the first person to suspect that something was up with it. Red eventually commits suicide by shoving stakes through his head, and then obliterating his remains with a makeshift bomb.


  • Agent Mulder: He is the first one to suspect that something supernatural and bad was up with his medicine.
  • Ambiguous Disorder: There's definitely something wrong with him, but it's hard to say what. It's implied that he didn't always start out this way, either.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: As Word of God says: "You know, from Red's point of view, he won. He never got caught. He never got beaten. He never gave up. And he exited on his own terms. And most of all, he died with a smile on his face."
    • Hero of Another Story: Because saying "The Bad Guy Wins" implies that Ruby's and Tom's success depended on Red's defeat and vice versa. Thankfully for all parties involved, this wasn't the case.
  • Creepy Good: Red's particularly unnerving after the Glen goes to hell, but he's not particularly antagonistic and helps Ruby of his own accord. Turns out, among the Metal Glen's staff, he was also the Token Good Teammate.
  • Berserk Button: Best advice? Do not ask Red too many questions.note 
  • Cane Fu: To Ruby, hard.
  • Dirty Coward: He describes his actions as such in one of his last journal entries.
  • Driven to Suicide: He attempted to commit suicide previously, but the cure just brought him back as Filbert had Ace lace his food with it. He tries again, but this time he makes sure it sticks.
  • Dissonant Laughter: In one scene when he just pulled down the tarp in the room Ruby woke up in the second time, revealing a stitched-up, bloody body pinned to the wall.
  • Evil Laugh: Oh, god...
  • Eyes Always Shut: However, in his case, it's more of squint. Either way, we don't see his eyes fully open.
  • Face–Heel Turn/ Heel–Face Turn: Incredibly hard to truly determine. In one part, he seems to be on the side of the players, dropping little clues to help them and was on one of the better staff members, while on the other end, he did go against the players and even tried to kill a few of them, getting worse overtime, Post-Cure.
  • Glasgow Grin: Ruby gave him one prior to the events of the game. He seems to have healed from it, not that it makes him any more pleasant...
  • Hearing Voices: His notes reveal that he has heard voices at least twice.
  • Hero of Another Story: Before the main quest even started, he re-discovered that the Cure was behind the chaos in the facility and what it did, figured out that enough time without a dose would clear it from his body, and both avoided death and hid from Ace long enough to become clean. The only hints of this the readers got were his journal from before the disaster, the existence of his Room Full of Crazy in the space above the monitor room, and the cereal box inside ( showing that he had been off the Cure long enough to need to eat again). The only part of his plan the audience got to see was the very end, when he used materials scavenged around the facility (including two coins Ruby gave him) to MacGyver up a bomb and killed himself, using the bomb's explosion to obliterate his body beyond possibility of resurrection.
  • Killed Off for Real: And he made sure he was.
  • Laughing Mad: Red begins to laugh. His laughing started as a clue that he was a little "off"
  • Madness Mantra: NEVER CATCH ME NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER
  • MacGyvering: He manages to make a bomb out of materials he scrounged, including two coins he borrowed from Ruby.
  • Mood Dissonance/ Dissonant Serenity: Red is known for this.
  • More Teeth than the Osmond Family: As shown when he laughs.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: When he realized the Cure's side-effects.
  • Non-Action Guy: He is never seen fighting, and while he has a cane, his only use of it as a weapon was when he snuck up on Ruby and killed her, since she had already lost her mind due to the Cure's effects.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He was trying to fix the patients' blindness when he recommended the Treatment, but ended up being the catalyst that plunged the Metal Glen into horror and madness.
  • Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: He was originally one of the better staff members.
  • Resist the Beast: Red had attempted to avoid consumption of the new medication, but Filbert would not have it. He's spent most of his time in the locked-down Metal Glen avoiding getting administered the Cure by hiding from Ace in his secret loft.
  • Riddle Me This:
'I WATCH, I TEAR
I DEVOUR, AND BLEED

ALL THESE FALL,
AS LIQUID, TO FEED.'
  • Slasher Smile: Eep.
  • Thanatos Gambit: He figured out a way to commit suicide so that Ace couldn't possibly bring him back.
  • The Smart Guy
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: It was originally his idea to obtain and administer the new "cure" which had unintentionally caused the unfathomably catastrophic meltdown of the facility.
  • Villain by Default: Besides Tom whom ate the tank fish, Red is the only one in the story blatantly established to be a predator, by nature.
    • Though, he most always seems to be in control of this—lampshaded by the cereal—and this is handwaved after he states that he was "just kidding" after threatening to bite Ruby's throat out.
  • Younger Than They Look: Red is occasionally mistaken to be much older than he actually is; often due to the use of his cane, which was sort of implied as an elderly crippling. Word of God states that he is just as old as Ruby and Tom.

Discontinuity

  • Nice Guy: Apparently, he had been a very nice man—er, fox—before his first suicide. By "Maddie's" account, he even told good jokes and treated the patients nicely.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: Often portrayed as such in fanart. note 

Filbert

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Filbertalk_9941.png
"You're infected. Most everyone here has succumbed to the infection. Except for me."
"I am going to cut the bad out of both of you. Until you are as clean as I am."
Filbert before his first attack on Ruby and Tom, paraphrased.

A male squirrel and the head doctor at the facility. He's more than a little unhinged, and has become obsessed with removing the 'infection'( really the Cure) from the denizens of the Metal Glen. He believes that he is the only one not infected, and will go to drastic measures to keep it that way, such as cutting off his own hand. He persists in this belief even when he's been turned into a incoherent mass of Body Horror.


  • Bad Boss: Even before everything went to hell, he disobeyed Red's wishes to avoid consuming the cure by having Ace slip it into his food. He's now completely insane, making his Bad Boss tendencies even worse.
  • Believing Their Own Lies: It's strongly implied that this is how he can so strongly deny his infection.
  • Berserk Button: Disobeying a direct order is a definite no-no.
  • Body Horror: He keeps mumbling about how he's "clean" even after he turns into a horrific mess of mixed-up body parts.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy
  • Dr. Jerk: He is so paranoid that he believes he is the only one allowed to leave the facility.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: His first appearance is in the Dummy Room while Ruby is trying to figure out the things in the Maintenance Room next to it. This is notably the first instance of a character appearing for a single panel, then scurrying off after the audience notices, but before the main characters do.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: It seems that Filbert will not resort to violence if it does not involve either medical research, or the "cutting of badness" out of others.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Seems nice at first, but the mask covering his true insanity slips pretty quickly.
  • For Science!: He had Subject 2 killed to test the limits of what the treatment can do.
  • He Who Fights Monsters
  • I Reject Your Reality: Believes that he's the only one not infected, despite the fact that he happily took the Cure before its side effects were known. He persists in this belief even after he's been turned into a mass of Body Horror.
  • It's All About Me: "I'M THE ONLY ONE CLEAN! I'M THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN ESCAPE!"
  • Knight Templar: He thinks he's the only clean one and that he's doing the others a favor by cutting their bad out.
  • Lack of Empathy: His only reaction to Maddie's death because of one of his experiments is annoyance.
  • Life-or-Limb Decision: He cuts off his own hand to prevent himself from becoming infected. Downplayed, as it didn't help and never would have, since there was no infection to begin with, just the Cure.
  • Lovecraftian Superpower: After he gets turned into a mass of Body Horror wielding a bonesaw.
  • Mad Doctor: He's the Metal Glen's head doctor and is very unstable.
  • Mad Scientist: has Maddie, and later Daisy, killed to test the limits of the Cure. Daisy comes back. Maddie doesn't.
  • Madness Mantra: Filbert would like you to know he is clean. And he needs to cut the bad out of you.
  • Manipulative Bastard: As seen when Ruby first meets him, he can easily fake sympathy and gain pity without even trying. He can also fool others into thinking he's a competent doctor and most often manipulate them into doing nearly anything he wants.
  • Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Filbert is the Metal Glen's head doctor and wasn't the best of persons even before the "infection"/cure spread and he went insane.
  • Non-Action Guy: He carries a bonesaw, but his only use of it is for surgical operations. He fights physically after being heavily mutated.
  • Note to Self: "Well, this explains a lot."
  • One-Winged Angel: of the Body Horror variety. By the second time Ruby meets Filbert, he's mutated badly.
  • Off with His Head!: Tom kills him by ripping his head off.
  • Only a Flesh Wound: He had been assaulted hard by Ruby's barbed-wire glove, but gives almost no recognition to this injury and continues his attempts to make Ruby acknowledge his commands and wild rantings.
  • Only Sane Man: He believes this, but most of the other tropes here beg to differ.
  • Tom the Dark Lord: Filbert (which is a type of hazelnut) the Mad Doctor.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: He desires to remove the infection from everyone in the facility and to escape, but his madness twists those goals beyond all recognition.

Discontinuity

  • I Have You Now, My Pretty: From "Maddie's" (Daisy's) point of view that the "cure" Filbert was giving the patients had apparently just been him having some sick fun.
  • Stock Phrases: Something very close to "Don't worry, I'm a doctor".

Dr. S

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ttt5t5t5t_9553.png
What is assumed to be Dr.S's remains
Click to see what Weaver planned to be Dr. S:note 

"To whatever staff member or patient fancies himself a prankster: you've had your fun. Some of us have work to do."
—From Dr's S's note

Another doctor at the facility, though not apparent through the course of the adventure. His/ her presence was confirmed by a formal notice of complaint seen by Ruby. It has been speculated that the goat head found in the cabinet belonged to him. It turned out that Weaver had something entirely different in mind for Dr. S, but didn't find a good place to put him in.


Bella

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Bella3_7107.png
"I am not in charge here. I am merely acting on orders my superiors issued before they abandoned the facility. I simply cannot open the surface hatch for you. Those are my orders."
Bella telling Ruby and Tom why she can't let them out, paraphrased.

Bella is a mouse and the receptionist/head systems manager of the Metal Glen. She maintains the facility's lockdown, and surveys the place through monitors.


  • And I Must Scream: She can't move away from her station because of her life support, and for over a year, she's had to watch the facility degenerate and see the outside world just out of her reach. She is the only person in the facility who's completely sane and aware of what's going on, but she can't change anything or escape. No wonder she wants Ruby and Tom to kill her.
  • Big "NO!": When she thinks that Ruby isn't going to Mercy Kill her.
  • Cyborg: Her body is/was so badly damaged that the only way she could stay alive to continue her duty was with immensely heavy life support.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Her face appears on a monitor for one panel directly after Red's suicide.
  • Foil: To Filbert. Bella really is what Filbert claims to be- the only one in the facility untouched by the Cure.
  • Get It Over With After seeing so much madness and living through all of it, she demands that Tom and Ruby wake her up "from this bad dream". She gets enraged and threatens them to comply.
  • I Cannot Self-Terminate: She requests that Ruby and Tom detach her from the life support equipment which has kept her alive in an And I Must Scream situation for over a year, and refuses to allow them to proceed any further until they complies and it's heartbreaking when they comply. This trope was why she was helping them to start with, as she can't leave or deactivate her life support system..
  • Killed Off for Real: Since she wasn't exposed to the "cure".
  • Ironic Name: 'Bella' means 'Beautiful', which she isn't, though she probably was at some point.
  • Loophole Abuse: How she can help Tom and Ruby get through the facility (So that they can reach her and kill her) without going against her orders, which were to keep them inside. She was ordered to keep them from leaving, not avoid keeping them alive.
  • Mercy Kill: The players kill Bella on her demand.
  • Noodle Incident: Exactly what happened to her as to where her body was so badly damaged to the point where she's a cyborg on life support?
  • Only Sane Employee: She's probably the only employee of the Metal Glen with no delusions and/or creepy mannerisms. She's also the only one never exposed to the Cure, which is probably the cause of this.
  • Samus Is a Girl: During her first few appearances, most of the players referred to her as male until her name was revealed.
  • Seen It All: Several times over, in fact. She's been overseeing the cycle of attempted escape for a long time.
  • Undying Loyalty: Bella has been tasked with maintaining the lock-down of the facility and will continue to do so until her death. Her case is a deconstructed version of this because, between being on a life support system and stuck there, she doesn't have a choice.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: Bella is trapped at her station by her life support. To make matters worse, her room is near the surface and there's a window that she faces, so she's always reminded of what she can't have, since she's stuck in the Metal Glen.

     Inanimate Objects 

The Dummy

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Bloodydummy_3366.png

A leather-bound scarecrow/ dummy found in the same room the Hound Zombie was (which was named the Dummy Room after it). While it isn't as directly hostile as her, it is definitely creepy. It can move on a rotating pivot, and seems to turn to look at the players.


  • Artifact of Doom: As stated from the last of Filbert's notes, the Dummy—along with several other malevolent artifacts—were retrieved from the recently excavated, lost chamber at the bottom of the facility.
  • Beam Me Up, Scotty!: As a sort of an In-Universe Memetic Mutation; Red's schizophrenic, graffiti-messages are often attributed to it.
  • Chekhov's Dummy
  • Demonic Dummy: Literally. The dummy (originally in the room named after it, but later found in Cold Storage) is absolutely, positively evil. It turned to look at them when it was tied to the post, and if that's not creepy enough, later its nature was absolutely confirmed when it grew tentacles on the ceiling of Cold Storage, Ace's room. It was excavated from below the station in the first place. Considering the stuff apparently imprisoned down there, that alone comfirms its evil nature.
  • Eldritch Abomination: In part; lampshaded.
    • Dummy in the dark and FUCKING CJOPAZE!!
  • The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: It isn't staring at the character, it's staring at you.
  • Irony/Fridge Logic: "The Dummy's skin was made of leather" is technically a contradiction, by the definition of leather.
  • The Dummy Behind the Bird
  • Psychic Powers: It is implied that The Dummy, itself, had a sort of special psychic-control over Ace, influencing his actions and causing him to take it from its original place to Ace's hideaway in cold storage.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Only in the dark, though.
  • The Speechless: Well it is just a dummy, or is it?

The Water Cooler

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/s_cool_9072.png
"Mr. Water will go out like the champion of neutrality he is. Judging ever eternally from under the rubble."

A water cooler found in a room that was likely the Metal Glen's cafeteria. Became memetic among Ruby Quest's players due to the position of its taps, which look an unimpressed expression.


  • Affectionate Nickname: "Mr. Water Cooler"
  • Chekhov's Gun: For most of its run, the water cooler was a background object (and meme material). Near the end, it turned out to contain the last piece of a key Ruby needed to enter Cold Storage.
  • Running Gag: He is disappointed in us all.note 
  • The Speechless: Well it's a water cooler and water coolers can't talk
  • The Stoic: Not that he can express anything outside of looking bored.

WARNING: MAJOR, UNMARKED SPOILERS BELOW

    The Barbed Wheel 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Screenshot_4_3702.jpg
The great, ancient, unseen Eldritch Horror responsible for all the reality-bent chaos within the Metal Glen facility.
  • Arc Symbol: The 'Barbed Wheel' seen pretty much everywhere is thought to be its symbol.
  • Berserk Button: It's probably not a coincidence that when Tom and Ruby gave Bella her Mercy Kill Ace flew into a blind, glowing fury.
  • Big Bad: What ever the hell is going on in facility is this thing's fault.
  • The Corruption: The reason why everyone went crazy.
  • Eldritch Abomination: What ever it looks like, it can't be pretty.
  • Mind Rapist: Drove everyone in the facility violently insane.
  • I Want Them Alive!: It is never made clear just why Ace is ordered to resurrect everyone just to have them destroy everyone, but the dark entity seems to need them for some reason other than just For the Evulz.
  • Man Behind the Man: It is very heavily implied to be the one Ace, who serves as the most direct threat Ruby and Tom face, is taking orders from.
  • No Name Given: At least not until the Mushroom Forest special.
    • I Have Many Names: Cjopaze, Perogra, the Bound Watcher, He Who Slumbers in the Buried Dark, and the God of the Green Throne. Cjopaze is the one most commonly used.
  • Red and Black and Evil All Over: If you consider the filmy, red "cure" and the black void relative to it, then it counts.
  • The Speechless: It may or may not talk, but we never hear.
  • Unseen Evil: What it is, we do not know. All we know is that it's from beneath the Metal Glen and is very bad news.
  • Walking Spoiler: You do know why this is kept in a separate folder from the other characters.
  • You Cannot Grasp the True Form: In theory, Ruby quite possibly could have in the cold-storage room if her third eye wasn't hurting so bad (of course, trying to use her super-power to view such an other-worldly force directly would probably leave her in a permanent state of insanity)


And what became of cat and hare?
Did they break free to purer air?
To guess their fate we shouldn't dare
Perhaps their tale closed well...

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