Ruggie’s Home (pt3)

Ruggie talks about doing laundry as a child by putting all his clothes in a big tub and washing them with his feet (“Puttin’ food on the table was hard enough. There wasn’t enough money for special detergents”), which sometimes turned into water fights with other children. He says that he much prefers being able to wash things back to white at NRC, and he’s not sure he’ll be able to go back to how things used to be. 

Ruggie says that he never imagined that taking a shower everyday would become a normal thing for him to do, as having water to pour over yourself is an unthinkable luxury back in his hometown.

It seems that Leona once mistook a picture of Ruggie’s family home for a doghouse.

Ruggie takes home food near its sell-by date from the cafeteria and school store to share with children in his neighborhood during winter break, When Grim expresses surprise that Ruggie would share food with people who aren’t his own family, Jack explains, “Hyaenas believe in sharing spoils equally. I’m sure that’s how Ruggie was raised.”

There are several hints that hyaena beastpeople might be treated poorly in Twisted Wonderland: Leona describes the hyaenas from the tale of the King of Beasts as “a group of pariahs”, which may be related. Ruggie says that people look down on hyaenas (but “(hyaenas) never forget a debt. They never forget a grudge, either”) and we see him refer to himself as “a lowly hyaena” and say “a hyaena like me”. 

In a chat Ruggie refers to the hyaenas from the legend of the King of Beasts as his ancestors, and Azul also comments on Ruggie being descended from hyaenas. There are no hyaenas depicted amongst the animal statues erected around the fountain in the capital city of Ruggie’s home, as it may be a scene from before they began to serve the King of Beasts. Sebek explains, “While the Sunset Savanna as we know it is one vast unified land, different species formed their own territories all across the continent in ages past.”