WEEK 3

[bathymetric]

Well, the tail end of Week 2 could have gone better. That's the first thing to note.

The second thing is... hang on, should it be Week 3 yet? You've all gone to sleep (or... not, in the case of anyone who doesn't), but when you wake up (and you do all wake up), the calendar and clock on your device informs you that it's Sunday. In-character, all characters explicitly have absolutely no memory of Saturday.

Your sense of time isn't the only thing that's changed - a new branch of the facility has opened and become active overnight, giving you new resources and places to investigate, should you so choose. There's also a new channel on the television, though whether it's an improvement over the last one is questionable.

Otherwise, though, things have mostly settled into normalcy again, or at close to normal as you can find in this place. How long that peace will last, though... that's becoming increasingly uncertain, moving forward.



SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to Week 3! Turn in last week's AC over here, and regains remain over this way! And for the sake of consistency, Angel's office hours remain over yonder! ]

Comments

[nothingcanstop]

...Excuse me, you can float too?

[lovelikeyou]

Well, not forever. I can't fly!

[she says like that would be ridiculous]

I can just change how gravity affects me some.

[nothingcanstop]

[ OH, OF COURSE ]

That's more unique, weird, and also cool!

[lovelikeyou]

Oh! Thank you, I guess. [It's just something she has.] It's not working here, of course.

[nothingcanstop]

Of course. [ The Professor is against all things moral and also cool. ] I don't suppose you could explain how that works, the...specifics of it all?

[lovelikeyou]

No, not really. It's just one of those Gem things. Maybe Pearl could - she's always known a lot more about science and things than I have.

[nothingcanstop]

Hold on. Do you mean all of you can do this? This is like, a normal species thing?

[lovelikeyou]

No, not that. There's some things any Gem can do, like shapeshifting, but every type of Gem has different abilities of their own. It can vary among individuals, but it's mostly the same sort of thing.

[there has to be some kind of explanation homeworld got for why rose quartz very visibly has four billion powers]

[nothingcanstop]

Uh...huh. Okay, sooo...Quartz can these shapeshifty gravity things? Or...Rose Quartz specifically? [ Sheepish look. ] I'm not really up on my geology. Uncle Scrooge was more into that part of the world-traveling business.

[lovelikeyou]

Just Rose Quartz.

[don't need anyone asking Jasper about this stuff]

Jaspers are technically Quartzes too - that's why we're both so big. Quartzes are made to be soldiers.

[nothingcanstop]

[ Convenient!! ]

Oh... [ Well. She's going to be careful about this topic, this time! ] So... Not all Gems are eight-foot-tall kick-ass Amazonians? [ Nailed it! ]

[lovelikeyou]

No. Every Gem type is manufactured for a specific purpose, so their form suits what they're supposed to be. Pearls are pretty and delicate, Rubies are small so they can make more of them. Things like that.

[nothingcanstop]

...Your friends on Earth. Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst. What did they do? There, I mean. Not...any of that whole manufacturing thing.

[lovelikeyou]

Well...Amethyst never knew Diamond rule. She emerged after the war ended. And Garnet...she would have been shattered just for existing on Homeworld. She nearly was, when she first formed. She's a fusion of two other Gems, Ruby and Sapphire, and different types of Gems aren't permitted to fuse there.

[Not that the same type are permitted to fuse simply out of love, either.

not that she's touched on Pearl at all]

[nothingcanstop]

Fusion? ...Is that...what it sounds like, two Gems becoming one? And... And then they become a different, new person?

[ This is not a concept she's used to! ]

[lovelikeyou]

Yeah! That's it!

[got it in one, basically]

Gems can do it for all sorts of reasons. But Ruby and Sapphire are in love. That's why Garnet stays fused all the time, and why they had to run away.

[nothingcanstop]

Huh. Can't say I understand it, but relationships are a little...you know, foreign to me. Do...most Gems in love combine into one?

[lovelikeyou]

I don't know. Gems aren't really allowed to be in love on Homeworld. I'm sure there's some who are, but they should keep it secret.

[She twirls a big curl around her finger for a moment, contemplatively.]

Probably at least sometimes. I've never wanted to be fused permanently, but it's nice.

[nothingcanstop]

I can't even imagine... What's... What does it feel like?

[lovelikeyou]

It's like...

[hm]

You're there, but you also aren't. And you're still you, but you're also someone else. The two of you are just...together.

[nothingcanstop]

[ She tries to understand, she does. ]

I think it might be a bit...beyond me. I wish I could at least...observe something like it, but that's kind of a wash here, isn't it?

[lovelikeyou]

I'm afraid it probably is. Even if I could do it here, I couldn't do it with Jasper.

[nothingcanstop]

...Not compatible?

[ SHE'S KIDDING, SHE FIGURED THAT WASN'T AN OPTION. ]

[lovelikeyou]

[Rose chuckles.]

I don't know how it could ever happen.

[You can fuse for a shared goal even if you don't like each other, but what goal could they ever share? Even here, when their survival could very well be at stake, Rose knows that Jasper would sooner let them both be shattered.]

[nothingcanstop]

Well... Maybe when we get out of here! Oh- if you don't mind, of course. Look at me, asking you to do something that sounds like a...a big relationship thing, sorry.