When reading about Ruby, I should note that she is the primary inspiration for the Official Unofficial NeoNeuro Soundtrack. She's my favorite character in this setting, but she's also kind of like its mascot; she's the character on whom I hang the framework of this setting. She's a 1920s gangster, she's a goth, she's a cyberpunk, she lives in outer space.
I've also linked examples throughout this description. Much of the art comes from online stores or guides, but a few of them are links to individual people, each of whom I've previously asked for permission to use their example as a partial likeness for Ruby.
Ruby is a lot of things: gangster, fighter, muscle mommy, lesbian, big sister, pervert, and a defender of her community. She looks like she's very put together, but inside she's a mess. Her deepest need is to be in pain, both physically and emotionally, though she tries to pretend that's not the case (mostly she's trying to convince herself). She seeks opportunities to get hurt, takes jobs that are way beyond her capabilities. She even unconsciously sabotages her own relationships, not because she doesn't want them but because she needs them very much and so the greatest way to cause herself pain is to put those relationships in jeopardy. The only person who sticks around in her life is her girlfriend Min, known professionally as Betty Zero.
As a bit of brief history: Ruby was born in the "down below," far beneath the street levels of Starbase 65. Down there, among large machinery and factories, Ruby's family scrounged for food while fleeing cops and gangs alike. Eventually her parents were killed by meat scavengers, who kill people just to sell their corpses, leaving Ruby and her little brother Kave to fend for themselves. They both survived, eventually earning places in different gangs and finally earning homes up on the street levels. Kave took his own path outside his big sister's care, and Ruby started her career as a gang enforcer. She protects speakeasies, guards contraband shipments, beats up people who haven't paid their debts, and fights other gangs for territories or businesses. She works for a gang called the Crows; a mid-sized gang that controls five levels of a massive starscraper in Shelby, one of the so-called Free Zones ruled by gangs instead of corponations.
Physically, Ruby is well built. She's shorter than the example in that link, standing only 154 centimeters tall; even when wearing heels she only comes up to her girlfriend's shoulder. What she lacks in height, she makes up for in strength: even before she augmented her arms, Ruby was always working out. She's visibly strong: thick thighs, muscled stomach, powerful shoulders. Before her augmentation her arms were also visibly strong, and her new cybernetics are about the same size.
Ruby's arms are among her most notable physical elements: she's had both of them removed at the shoulder and replaced with cybernetics. Her cyber-arms are incredibly powerful, but they're the same size as her original arms. They're shaped like regular human arms but they're visibly cybernetic; made from polished dark purple metal. Her arms are also decorated with patterns and shapes that glow with violet light; they don't cover the entire arm, just in interesting art deco patterns. The arms also have an internal glow to them, lavender in color; whenever the metal of her arms shifts or repositions during intense usage, the glow is more readily visible. Importantly, the hands on her arms are not robotic; they are delicately crafted, capable of the same fine control as a normal hand. Along the fingers, the shiny purple metal is wrapped in a thin transparent coating that gives her fingers the warmth and feel of human skin.
It's important to note that Ruby's style is inspired by the 1920s, somewhere between a mafia gangster and a flapper girl but with a cyberpunk flair.
Her hair is purple, cut short in a sci-fi bob, the front of which is as long as her jawline (framing her face) and the back of which is cut a bit shorter. At the base of her hair, sometimes you can see the black roots of her natural color. Ruby is white, her skin is very pale, but her cheeks have some color and in the cold starbase air her nose and ears are usually at least a little red. Her eyes are dark blue, large, and never still, always alert for danger.
Usually Ruby's makeup is fairly simple. She likes black or purple eyeshadow, some basic eyeliner and mascara, and black or dark purple lipstick. Usually she keeps her eyebrows fairly thin, with a graceful arch. Whenever she needs to dress fancier, she adds a more glittery eyeshadow and some blush.
Ruby loves necklaces. Her daily wear is a black lace choker with a little locket containing a hardcopy pic of her girlfriend Min; she's never without that. She also has a lot of other necklaces that she changes out depending on her mood or outfit. Sometimes it's a collection of industrial-looking chains, other times it's a single slim chain holding a collection of metal feathers, things like that. She enjoys dramatic necklaces, always silver. Her ears are pierced, as is the left side of her nose and her right eyebrow in two places, but she never wears anything dangly because that's dangerous in a fight; always small studs, usually silver or chrome, sometimes with rubies or sapphires in them.
Ruby also loves rings, usually at least one on each finger (if not more), but that's easier said than done with cybernetic hands and getting in lots of fights. So, she wears holoneon rings. "Holoneon" is an in-world term that refers to anything that doesn't physically exist, but the computer in your brain is telling you you're seeing it anyway. In short: Ruby has a computer in her blood stream, and that computer is running a program that says "there are rings on Ruby's fingers," and that program tells Ruby's brain that her eyes are seeing the rings and her fingers are feeling those same rings. Due to the interconnected nature of everyone's computers in this world, Ruby can set her program to Display Mode, meaning that anyone else around her can "see" the rings because the computer in their brains also tells their eyes that's what they're seeing. Most of Ruby's rings look like roses, bats, gargoyles, snakes, that sort of thing; all of which are silver.
One interesting note about holoneon is that, legally, it's supposed to always be identifiable as not being real. It's supposed to have a glow, or look transparent, or have some visible indicator telling the viewer "this thing is not real." Most people ignore that and bypass their app's safety protocols, including Ruby. Not that I imagine that's something that can be depicted in an image, but it's a thing to know.
As mentioned, Ruby's outfit is somewhere between a mafia gangster and a flapper girl. She often wears a black fedora; the band of which glows bright purple. On her torso she often wears a dark purple vest; sometimes there's nothing underneath it, sometimes she wears a white or black 1920s style men's business shirt.
For her waist and legs, Ruby usually wears skirts. Often they're long because she doesn't like her legs getting cold, and they're usually pleated (as in the example link above). On occasion, when she doesn't anticipate going out into the cold, she'll wear shorter skirts. Her long skirts always either have very high side slits to allow for movement in a fight. On her feet, she always wears a pair of black boots made in 1920s fashion, but instead of lacing they're fitted with automatic buckles. When she mentally texts a command to her boots, the heel retracts into a flatspace compartment and the foot arch flattens out, allowing her full movement with her feet when she needs it. Her boots are the single most expensive thing she owns, exceeding both her arms and her guns.
Speaking of her guns, Ruby carries two pistols with her at all times. They're shaped mostly like 1911 Colts, but there's no hammer on the back. Both pistols are shiny black metal with silver inlays. When the pistols are activated, the recessed area at the bottom front of the barrel glows bright cyan blue. The pistol handles are decorated with purple padding that not only makes them more comfortable to hold, but bears Ruby's Initials: RBV.
Whenever she goes outside, Ruby tends to wear her favorite long coat. It's black, except the collar and lapel, as is fashionable on Starbase 65, are made from glowing fabric. Like her fedora, they glow bright purple.
And there we have it! That's the details I have for Ruby at this point. Some ideas for colors are listed below, but I'm not married to any of them:
Hair Dye: 6A0DAD
Hair Roots: 0C0C0C
Eyes: 040273
Arm Material: 34173A
Arm Lighting: 9F00FF
Arm Internal: A689E1
Outfit Lighting: 662D91
Pistol Metal: 000000
Pistol Glow: 00FFFF
Vest: 4E2A84
So there's that! Ruby's description! I love Ruby a lot.