#grilledwatermelon | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

freezing-kaiju · 7 years ago

Text

Survivors of Shards

Chapter 2

This part focuses on @apollowuzhere‘s character Calcite! Written by me, @apollowuzhere, @irazel, and @grilledwatermelon

SWITCH PERSPECTIVE: Calcite

It was foggy. I wasn’t sure if it was the environment or my mind, but it was foggy. I was floating aimlessly, not sure what to do, or who or where I was. It was orange everywhere; it was bright and dark, clear and clouded. I couldn’t make any sense of it. Then there was the one blotch of purple somewhere in the distance. Even though I didn’t know what it was, it was different. And it was growing.

I saw the shape first, tall, with broad shoulders and a pointed chin. But something was wrong. Its eyes...and body...they were shifting. Melting, almost...and tweaked...twitching. But its eyes were sad, filled not only with tears, but fear and pain. A purple flash from the figure’s center blinded me for a moment as I took it all in.

The figure spoke, but I couldn’t make out the words. It whispered and yelled at the same time, its voice shifting and layered over itself. I didn’t understand, but I could feel a strange sensation running down my cheeks as it became foggier once again.

The next sensation was a warm, tingling one...the feeling of reforming. I was blinded by a bright light as I came back to consciousness. My feet hit a soft surface and, looking around, it was nothing but rubble. Metal shards, craters, and……..gem shards. The glittering colors of my dead colleagues were scattered on the ground around me...although two shimmers came from higher up in my peripheral vision. My head raised to come face to face with an indifferent looking peridot from my ship’s crew. I hadn’t spoken to her much, but we had had passing conversations.

“Ah, you’re up. You’re one of the calcites right?” she asked with little interest.

I said nothing, just giving a slight tilt of my head in agreement. She hummed to herself and went back to organizing whole, functioning gems. They had survived.

The other shine came from a brown-gold gem on the arm of a chubby figure, an Amber. There were not many of them left on homeworld, and I had forgotten she had been on the mission. She was curled in on herself, muttering about her uselessness in this horrific situation, and trembling, her small insect-like wings buzzing with anxiety. I slowly approached the spooked gem, feeling a sense of nostalgia as I got closer.

She lifted her head to meet my eyes, and I stopped in my tracks. I remembered her. She was a bee amber I had planted only a little over a century ago. The sweet little gem was in threat of being shattered when first discovered, so I took it upon myself to plant it. Homeworld and I disagreed on what a waste was. They saw the whole race of ambers as worthless, pathetic gems; even the other calcites refused to plant ambers. I saw the waste in not planting the gem. It can’t be said who that amber could be or what they could do, and they couldn’t do any harm by trying. So when the bee amber was taken away to be shattered, I stood in the way. I took full responsibility for her, which was why she had come with us. Now we were in a wreck, and it was my fault she was here.

I had so many questions. How many others had perished? Were there any other calcites still left? Was this peridot the last one? Who were the ones on the table? Where was Beryl?

Beryl! I rushed over to the peridot and shoved her out of the way, getting a small “hey!” in return. I scanned over the pile of gems: there was a jade, an aventurine, an alabaster, a cuprite, several others, and...there! A beautiful golden gem sparkled in front of me. Yellow Beryl, one of the five who had come on the mission. There had been one beryl for each calcite, and she had been paired with me. She had been one of the only ones I had connected with on the ship. In fact, she had been one of the only ones I had connected with after…….nevermind. I felt the weight of whatever world we were on lift off my shoulders when I held the gem in my hands. Undamaged, not even a hairline fracture.

“Yeah, she’s the only beryl left,” the peridot spoke up, still sounding bitter, probably because I pushed her. “You’re the only calcite too, and I’m the only peridot. Some luck, eh? More than half the crew just...shattered.”

The smile faded from my face, and I growled in frustration. Of course I’d be the only one left, I’d always been the odd one out when it came to my sisters. They never cared about the ones they planted, but I did. They thought I was dangerous, getting so close, and they weren’t afraid of sharing it. They believed I would hurt someone in order to keep my gems safe. They were wrong. The only one I had hurt in getting attached was myself.

But Beryl was here, safe and sound, and that’s what mattered most right now.

A warm feeling soothed the palm of my hand. A growing glow coming from Beryl’s gem tinged my sight yellow, and I set her back on the ground to reform. The gem didn’t stay there long, rising into the air to make room for the growing light. A small body formed from the glow, followed by a short skirt and a long braid. As her whole body began to take form, her feet delicately touched ground, like a ballerina landing in slow motion. She opened her glowing blue orbs to look into mine, her expression one of innocent confusion.

“Where are we? Who are you?” she asked, her voice low and trembling slightly.

“Hey, come on, it’s me, the calcite you were partnered up with, remember?” Beryl tilted her head, but showed a little sign of understanding.

The peridot giggled at the situation. “Hey. Sorry to burst your bubble here, but uh...long story short, we crashed, everybody died, and now we’re screwed.”

Beryl put her hand up to her mouth, wrapping the other one tightly around her torso. “I see,” she said shakily, clearly distressed by the situation. In all honesty, who wouldn’t be? I’m just glad the cuprite survived, we’re going to need it.

A sliding sound, metal on metal, on my left caught my attention. A door had opened and a grey-and-black-striped Jasper walked out, cradling a single gem in her hands. “Hey, ‘dot. I found Bismuth!”

The peridot nodded absentmindedly. “Good, we’re gonna need her. Put her on the pile.”

The Jasper walked over and put the Bismuth on the pile, muttering, “stay safe, buddy.”

The pile of gems was both a sign of hope and a significant source of sadness. There were those who had survived, there they were, but thinking about how many there had been, this was only a fraction of the original crew. We had lost hundreds, and saved few. Even those who were alive were stranded because there was no one to fly the ship, and the ship being utterly destroyed didn’t help much either. The feeling of despair was suffocating once we recognized the gravity of the situation.

The pile of gems shifted suddenly and a single white gem rolled out, glowing harshly. It grew outwards in a mass of spikes before landing on its feet with a dull thud. It was the alabaster, and they seemed just as confused as the rest of us.

“What the hell just happened?” Alabaster asked, looking around, not seeming to recognize most of the gems there.

I was curious to see how the alabaster would take knowing their sapphire had been shattered in the accident. I knew it was dark and I shouldn’t be so unempathetic towards the situation or the poor gem, but my morbid curiosity didn’t deture. Their purpose was specific, I wondered if they would stick to it.

The peridot looked at the Alabaster and instantly straightened up. “Finally! Someone with more authority than me, I swear I was gonna shatter under the pressure. So umm...yeah, nearly everyone is dead. The other Peridots...Supervisors Shadow Agate and Purple Sapphire...there’s only one calcite and one beryl left. Mission’s ruined, communications are shot and you’re the highest ranking gem left alive.”

I felt a little annoyed by the peridot’s speech. I never understood why alabasters were so high ranking since they just protected other gems. Being a calcite was confusing; sometimes we were treated like diamonds, sometimes we were treated like dirt. The alabaster registered the peridot’s words.

“Sapphire’s dead? Shadow Agate too?” Alabaster looked like they already had a headache. “Alright. Peridot, can you access the computer files? Figure out what crashed us?”

“Already did that. The engines didn’t explode, but they were shut off suddenly mid-flight. Not a command from Main Engineering, but that reported that they couldn’t turn the engines back on. The information cuts out in the middle of that.”

“Shut off? Does that mean someone from on the ship did it?” Alabaster asked.

Treachery. I had not considered it an option, but it wouldn’t surprise me. I didn’t know all of the gems aboard that ship and I didn’t need to to know many of them weren’t thrilled about this mission. I wasn’t either, at first, but I grew to accept it. If that was the case, who would do it, and were they even still alive?

“Well...I’m not sure. They didn’t do it via Main Engineering, which would have been obvious...and whoever did it either stole, destroyed, or dumped all the fuel. They could have done it externally or through some hacking measure.”

“I think that hardly matters right now,” I said, finally speaking up. “We have gems still regenerating and others…….the point is we have more important work to do right now than solve some stupid mystery.”

Before I could continue, a soft glow began emitting from within the gem pile. Beryl noticed as well and, being closer than I was, plucked the gem out of the pile so it could reform properly. I saw the hat before I saw the body, and, once formed, it didn’t even touch the ground.

The hematite did a backflip in the air before touching down, laughing hysterically.

“HOO, what a ride!” she exclaimed, not noticing the state of our current situation. “What happened back there? One minute I was showing a couple beryls a trick and the next, POOF!” She laughed again, as if she believed she had said something funny. Her sense of humor eludes me.

Instead of letting the peridot give the same explanation, I took it upon myself.

“We crashed. There’s a lot of dead and we have no way home,” I deadpanned. I was beginning to adjust to our current position, as dire as it may have been.

Her laughing died down and her smile fell slightly. With a snort, she gave a quick, “What?”

I said nothing, only looking her in the eyes and nodding before turning to the alabaster for any instructions they may have.

“Well, the first step is securing the ship so we aren’t such easy targets in an attack. We’re on a hill, so it’s likely everyone on this side of the planet has seen us crash. We need to be ready if they come to investigate,” Alabaster decided. “Beryl, why don’t you take a look around?”

“Yes alright,” Beryl agreed hesitantly, “but do we know for sure they are hostile towards us?” Fear flashed in her eyes.

“We don’t, but this planet is marked as hostile in all of the reports I’ve read. So, we’ll assume everyone is hostile until proven otherwise.”

This didn’t seem to reassure the small golden gem. I put a hand on her shoulder, but she shook it off, assuring me she would be alright. With that, she took to the sky and disappeared in the grey clouds hanging just above our heads.

I worry too much for her, I know that, but it never stopped me. I didn’t know what I would do with myself if she had gotten hurt and I wasn’t there to protect her. Internally I cursed myself for getting so close. Attachment has caused me nothing but grief in these past centuries, so why do it again? She would be fine.

I turned back to the hematite, her smile long gone and her eyes wide. “I know it seems bad,” I began, “but-”

“Seems bad?!” She cut me off, the smile coming back, but it was more chaotic, and her laugh more….disturbing. “A couple gems left behind seems bad. This is….terrifying! What are we supposed to do?!”

A black spike placed itself on the arm of the hematite, and a thin body made itself around to face her. It stared up at her, solid black eyes glimmering.

“There is no point in getting so worked up,” the obsidian said, her monotone voice not faltering in the slightest. “There is nothing we can do to make it so we didn’t crash. We must move forward.”

Hematite sniffled and began giggling to herself. The obsidian looked somewhat confused.

“Sorry, sorry,” Hematite said, “it’s just I’m surprised how well you’re HANDling the situation!” Hematite lost it, laughing so hard she fell to the ground. Obsidian looked down at her spikes and sighed before walking off. The whole interaction was as strange to watch as it probably was to have.

I felt a chubby hand on my shoulder and Amber’s soft, wavering voice asked, “Uh...is...is there anything I can do, eh? I dunno what to do and...I should be helping...instead of just bein’ useless...”

I wasn’t sure what to say. I didn’t know what to do with myself, let alone what Amber should do. But this was my Amber and I was responsible for her, so I had to come up with something.

“Um, you could…” I searched desperately for a task for her. “You could do a perimeter check. Fly around the hill and see if we have any uninvited guests coming up here.”

Amber smiled and nodded. “Yes! I won't let you down.” She jumped and buzzed off, tiny wings somehow keeping her fat little body aloft, like she didn’t care what was impossible.

I smiled as she left. I knew I had done right with that one.

Beryl touched down next to me and began relaying her observations. Apparently there were three towns nearby. One had two gold sticks and was the closest, another had a few statues, which was farther into the forest of pine trees, and the last had a large water tower and located near the water. Seemed counter intuitive to have a water tower where there’s already so much water, but I don’t know how this planet works.

“What was that town’s name?” the Peridot asked, furiously taking notes.

“The stick one doesn’t have one, but the one in the woods is Gravity Falls...bit of a silly name, and the one by the water is Beach City,” Beryl explained quietly.

The peridot’s mouth dropped open. “Did you...did you say Beach City?”

“As I recall.” Beryl gave a soft smile.

The Peridot threw up her arms in defeat, startling me back a little. “WELL! That’s it then. We’re all dead. We’re good as shattered. Might as well self-destruct the ship if it had enough fuel to do that! Do you know where Beach City is? THAT’S WHERE THE CRYSTAL GEMS LIVE! WE LANDED LESS THAN A MILE FROM THEIR HOME BASE!”

I had heard of the Crystal Gems before, but I never considered them that….evil. They connected with things, like humans, in a way I could relate to. I didn’t say that though. What would they do if they thought I was a rebel? What would Beryl think?

“What’s the big deal?” I asked, a little irritably. “We haven’t done anything to hurt anyone. As far as I know, they only attack if given a reason.”

“WELL THAT’S NOT GONNA STOP ME FROM PANICKING!” she shouted.

“Only attack if given reason? They started a war for this stupid planet. And we’re here to resume plans. We’re exactly the sort of people they attack!” Alabaster said, getting louder with each word. I was pretty sure they were transferring their headache to me. “I’m supposed to protect all of you, but now what? We’re all stuck here with nothing.”

“We have the towns,” Beryl offered.

“Think of this logically,” Obsidian said from her place on top of a rock. I have no idea how she got over there, but I suppose that was her job. “There must be a reason they fought for this planet. We should figure out what it was.”

“We know why they fought for the planet. It’s got resources and they wanted them. Only logical reason to risk fighting the diamonds,” Alabaster said.

“What resources could they possibly use?” I questioned. “If they were going to take over and start their own colony, they would still need resources from homeworld to plant the gems, and they don’t have any calcites with them anyway.”

“How do we know any of that? We thought they had been eradicated until recently. Who knows what sort of gems are with them now?”

“I may not know exactly how many gems are left,” Hematite cut in, “but according to a meeting I was in before I came on this shipwreck was that there were exactly zero calcites on this planet. Well, except you.”

I raised an eyebrow and smiled a little. I felt pretty important being the only calcite here. That feeling didn’t last long, however, because I didn’t even know if I’d end up carrying out what I came here for.

“Then I suppose that this one,” Alabaster nodded toward me, “is currently the most important gem here, in terms of completing the mission.”

“What does that have to do with anything right now?” I asked them. I didn’t get an answer though, as we were all distracted by a noise coming from above our heads.

“GUYS!” Amber’s voice shouted as she buzzed back. “There’s a human driving a vehicle towards us with a fusion and an Amethyst and another peridot in it, and there’s also a Lapis Lazuli flying our way and I think she saw me and there’s also a human riding a really big fluffy pink aminal!”

I hummed in uncertainty and worry. I didn’t know the intentions of these gems, but I couldn’t quite say they were hostile. These had to be the Crystal Gems, there was no other option. I was going to stick by my claims until proven wrong.

I squared my shoulders and turned to Amber. “How long will take for them to arrive at our location?”

“I don’t know. A few minutes?” Amber shrugged. “I want to hug the animal. It looks soft.”

“Yeah. We aren't doing that,” Alabaster said. “Do we have any rooms that we can easily defend?”

“What would we defend?” Obsidian questioned, now right next to Beryl. She jumped when she heard the static voice next to her. “The ship is in ruins.”

“Bismuth’s still poofed and all the robonoids are offline. Can’t find the activation key,” the peridot responded.

“We’d be protecting ourselves. And those who haven't reformed,” Alabaster stated.

“So keep Jasper by the poofed gems and the rest of us will discuss with our guests.” Obsidian smiled, which was more terrifying than anything else I had seen today.

“And if we're all killed? You expect Jasper to protect against them all?” Alabaster asked.

“We won’t be,” I said with more confidence than I felt. I could see a vehicle on the horizon, so there was no point in hiding now. We were going to see this thing through, for better or worse.

“Fine, but if things go south, it's not my fault. Also, someone else should probably do most of the talking.”

The van and the animal came to a halt next to the rock Obsidian had been sitting on, and the people dismounted their respective modes of transportation. The Lapis Lazuli continued to hover in the air, the soft sound of her beating wings the only noise between the two parties. Beryl grabbed onto my wrist, tight, as Hematite rushed towards the group at full speed.

“Hey there! I see you’ve found our little base. You must be quite the mystery hunters! Does the lion talk too?” She cackled at the top of her lungs, but there was no turning back now. She was already on a roll. “Hey Lapis! WATER you doing up there? Come down and join the conversation!”

“Can I smash her?” the Lapis Lazuli called down, to which the taller human responded “Um...no, Lapis.” Come to think of it...they looked like a human, but there was a Rose Quartz on their navel.

“So...” the probably-rose-quartz spoke up. “Welcome to Earth! I’m Stevonnie, we are the Crystal Gems...and uh...we hope you’re not gonna cause any trouble?”

“I don’t see any reason why we would,” Beryl said, not releasing her grip on my wrist. She refused to make eye contact with anyone, and I could tell she was trying not to get too anxious. It would be unfortunate if she poofed in front of everyone right now.

“Umm...” Amber raised her hand and stepped forwards timidly. “Can I...can I pet the big pink thing? It looks soft.”

“Uh, sure.” Stevonnie nodded. “If he lets you.”

Amber hesitantly moved closer and began petting Lion. He bristled, then relaxed.

“Woow...this is soft...”

“Yeah. Don’t reach too deep though, you’ll get lost in there. Literally.”

Amber nodded. “Ok then. Sorry. I’ll go back now...” She buzzed back off to the ship.

Alabaster looked at the others, then, realizing no one was going to talk, stepped forward. “Look, I don’t know why you’ve come here, but maybe all of you should return to… wherever it is you came from. We aren’t looking for a fight, but we don’t want company either.”

The tall fusion stepped forward, her visor flashing in the obscured sunlight, and said in a calm, unemotional voice, “We understand. You are welcome in Beach City so long as you leave the humans be and don’t brandish any weapons unless attacked.”

“That shouldn’t affect our plans or mission at all, so fine. We will agree to your terms,” Alabaster said, standing straighter so they were nearly as tall as the fusion.

The fusion nodded. “Agreed, then. If you need anything, I am Garnet. We’ll go now.”

They piled back into the car, and were soon on their way back. I swore I felt a sigh of relief emit from the group.

“That went well. We’re not dead!” our peridot declared.

“And I suppose that, as long as we follow their rules, we’ll be left alone to figure out our next plan of action,” Alabaster agreed. “But I don’t trust them. Whatever we’re going to do, it’s best we do it soon.”

“Well...we got nothing to do till Bismuth wakes up...” Peridot shrugged. “And Cuprite...we’re gonna need her...I think everyone here but Jasper needs a therapist. Speaking of, where are the Rubies?”

#survivors of shards #su #steven universe #my fics #apollowuzhere #irazel #grilledwatermelon #my ocs #my friends' ocs #d&d #sos part 1 & 2

10 notes · View notes