Ruggie and Food (pt1)

Ruggie grew up with food scarcity and talks about foraging for food with other children in his neighborhood, saying that while his grandmother looked after him there was only so much she could do about his going hungry.

Ruggie talks about asking for handouts, fishing in rivers and digging up fields after harvest season for discarded potatoes, saying that they were always hungry and always desperate.

Ruggie tells Trey about a time they managed to find a giant potato that had been somehow left behind after a harvest. He had hoped they’d be able to turn it into flour to ration out over multiple days, but instead his grandmother boiled it, roasted it and made a variety of different dishes to share with the neighborhood children until there was nothing left.

Ruggie says that food was all he ever cared about back then but he may have achieved some peace of mind by now when compared to before, though his wallet is still as empty as ever.

Ruggie has repeatedly said that he will eat anything that isn’t rotten, explaining how hyaena beastpeople have strong jaws and can break through large bones with their teeth, like real hyaenas. 

Jamil says that Ruggie’s tsum is “fixated on food” despite not having a mouth, which may be one of the ways it resembles Ruggie himself: Ruggie says he would hold a grudge forever if he missed out on fancy party food, and “as long as there’s food, you won’t hear any complaints from me.”

Despite his admitted fear of Malleus and Leona’s desire to leave Lilia’s farewell party Ruggie refuses to take the opportunity to return to Savanaclaw before Malleus arrives, as it would mean abandoning an opportunity for free food. Lilia observes, “A soldier who can still eat his fill when standing in an enemy camp is a formidable one indeed.”

Ruggie tells Leona “pride doesn’t fill an empty belly” in a line that he repeats to Jack in Leona’s dream.

Despite the shock of the circumstances of Leona’s dream world, when the rescue team needs a safe location to fall back to Ruggie chooses a restaurant in the city’s most expensive hotel because it is a place where he has always dreamed of eating (due to the famine of the dream world he does not get his wish).