[IC] We Are the Crystal Gems

[HaltingBlooper]

Emerald caught the cube, and stared at it. Make each side a single color? What does he mean by that? He fumbled it around before he realized how it actually worked, and started trying to figure it out. He then laughed to himself for a second before actually working. Okay, that side's done....now how do I solve this without messing that bit up? "Heh heh. This gets harder one you've completed one side. Now I'll do the rest!" Emerald smiled, and wondered how this actually worked. Maybe I'll find out later. But for now, to solve this. The back of the van suddenly became quiet, without Emerald's complaining or snoring.

[pyroman]

The music was different now, but Sodalite didn't mind. It was still pleasant to her ears, and put a different set of emotions into her mind. Still, she said nothing, and bobbed her head to the new rhythm of the music. It was much nicer now that Emerald was in a better mood, and allowed her to hum quietly in peace. The van was comfy, cozy, and she felt like she could spend another unknown amount of time just sleeping in there like the apparently did in her hole back in the Kindergarten.

[21308]

[Feel free to post stuff taking place before this post at your disgression.]

As she felt the van slow to a stop, Spinel went completely invisible and waited for someone to step out of the van. Of the sensations she'd observed so far, she was sure that peaceful isolation was her favorite, but the anticipation of frightening someone took a close second. Maybe it will actually work this time. Then again, since most of the people in the van knew she could become invisible, maybe not.

[Loony]

Click.

Recording ended.

Taking the video camera off his tripod and placing it on his lap, Gilles began to scroll through his clips, occasionally pausing one to write what were probably either notes, or perhaps edits to his script, on the pad of sticky notes by his side, which he later stuck on his papers. After finishing his scribbling, he would then delete the clip, giving a goofy grin and an awfully cheery "Adieu!" as he did so. It wasn't too often that he took his scenes away from Mohs Town, so doing so meant that this video would be special, and therefore he'd be a bit more picky with what made it into the video and what would not.

His scrolling, however, had come to a sudden stop. Fingers that once hovered over the 'trash' button immediately dropped down. He blinked once. Twice. And then he hit the 'play' button once more, a goofy grin spread on his face. If he had been excited before, as he usually was while recording, then he was ecstatic now, for somehow he had captured something truly unusual.

In the background of one of his recordings, a van seemed to have driven by, drowning out his voice. Under normal circumstances, he'd have probably deleted it for that very reason, but ironically enough, the van was reason behind why he did keep it. Why was that?

Atop on the van was a person.

Except people don't glow like that.

Hello? Mystery!

The video could wait, and Gilles could not. And so he quickly folded his tripod, gathered his papers, turned off his camera, shoved them all into his carrier, slung it on his back, and took off in the direction of the van with his arms made like an airplane, giggling to himself like a sugar-crazed five year old. He had no idea what it was that he had just seen, but he was determined to find out. Besides, if he wasn't mistaken, it wouldn't be too hard; he'd seen that van around town. It shouldn't be too hard to find, right?

[pyroman]

As slowly as it started, the van that Sodalite and the group of gems were in began to slow to a halt. She shifted slightly as they stopped, but did her best to keep her weapons on her without letting them be seen. They were hidden under her dress and arms, which was actually somewhat uncomfortable, but she made it work. None of them were currently stabbing her, or if they did, she couldn't tell, and the Gem began to scramble towards the door.

She fiddled with the door for a good minute, trying to figure out how it worked and how to get out, before she was able to open it and escape back into the outside world. The air was back to normal, and while she had no reason to breathe, Sodalite took a large breath of air, relaxing slightly out in the open. Her arms were still close up against her body, trying to prevent the weapons from falling out, but she could be seen relaxing and getting comfortable back out in the open.

She shuffled slowly away from the van, hoping to get a little more room so her weapons would have an even smaller chance of being seen.

[Kronshi]

--5052 years ago, near the beginning of the Gem rebellion--

"I can't believe this, how could you go against your own kind. I thought we were partners. What makes these humans so special to you? What do they have that I don't?" Bloodstone shook his head and turned around. "Jasper, Bismuth, let's get out of here. This fool and her 'friends' will see what happens to traitors."

[Loony]

Following Sodalite's example, Evenkite got out of the van in quite a hurry, refrainign from flat-out running only out of fear of dropping Amber's gemstone. There wasn't anything particularly bad about being in the van, for the crowded space wasn't much of a bother due to her size, and the other song wasn't quite as harsh on the ears. Nonetheless, she was glad to be out in the open once again. There was a lot to see, and the little gem was eager to take it all in. More than that, however she wanted to be away from the others, even if just by a little.

As she wandered off to get a better look at all the unfamiliar sights, her eyes currently fixed on colourful winged creature which some part of her mind registered as a butterfly, something had occurred to her; she hadn't seen Spinel get off the van, but she didn't remember her still being on top of it, either.

Whatever, it's not like she can't handle herself. Besides, you're not responsible for her.

Though she tried to shrug it off, curiosity, as always, got the better of her. Did she care about Spinel? To be honest, probably not. But she was curious as to where she now was nonetheless. Thus Evenkite turned around, gave the butterfly one last glance, and made her way back towards the van, though still keeping her distance as usual.

"Spinel...?" She called out, eyes scanning the area for the faintly glowing gem. It seemed as if the thought of Spinel being invisible had completely slipped her mind.

[21308]

Spinel had been patient enough. Scaring two people wasn't as good as scaring everybody, but her invisibility power wouldn't last forever and beggars couldn't be choosers. She climbed down the side of the van opposite Sodalite and Evenkite as slowly and methodically as possible, so as to not alert them. She tip-toed behind them, standing about 15 feet away. In her best 'ghost' voice, she said "Johnny forgot to strap me to the roof and I fell off, and you left me back in the canyon! Whatever will I dooooooooo?"

[pyroman]

"NO!" Sodalite shouted upon hearing the disembodied voice once more. She was caught completely off guard, and proceeded to unleash every single weapon that she had been concealing, throwing them all in every direction in hopes of keeping herself safe from the ghost of the seemingly dead gem. The weapons dug themselves into whatever came in contact with, rocks, trees, dangerously close to Johnny's van. Her breathing became heavy, her eyes flickered about in hopes of seeing the so-called ghost, and in an instant, she curled into a tight ball.

Unknown to her, Sodalite's gem began to glow, incasing both of her arms in a soft light before forming two large shield-like devices on her arms. It wasn't until she began calming from her rush of adrenaline that she felt the slight weight of the gauntlets. Still, she refused to stand back up or even open her eyes, and kept a large portion of her body protected by her new weapons.

[HaltingBlooper]

Emerald awoke from quite a peaceful slumber (This time he didn't snore) to the sound of the van doors being opened by the smaller Gems. He grabbed his Rubix Cube, fully solved, from the floor, before wiping the sleep from his eyes and pushing the van door open with his arm, pulling himself out....only to remember that he still had statue-legs. Emerald fell ungracefully from the back of the van and stared up awkwardly towards the two other Gems. The stone around his legs began to glow and then fell off with a loud clatter, and Emerald stood up with the Rubix Cube. He then began to run in circles cheerfully. "Finally! I can move my legs! This is great!" He then ran around to the side of the van. "Hey guys! I can finally move my legs!" He then shoved the solved Rubix Cube into Johnny's hands before running in circles around the van for a while.

[21308]

Spinel was internally laughing her head off at Sodalite's reaction to what she'd said. Okay, maybe just one more. She noticed Emerald running around and decided she had a new target. "It wasn't very nice of you all to let me diiiiiiiieee, and now you have to paaaaaaay!" She snuck up behind Emerald. "Since you left me way down in the canyon, it's only fair that one of you give me a ride!" She awkwardly grabbed Emerald's shoulders, thinking that doing so would cause her to slide along with him.

[Loony]

Though she would most likely deny it afterwards, Evenkite had been shocked at first by the voice, and Sodalite's over-the-top reaction didn't help. For a split second, Amber's gemstone had left her protective cradle and found itself in the air, leaving Evenkite desperately grasping at it as it bounced off her hands once, twice, three, and then a fourth time, until she finally caught it, much to her relief. Whether dropping Amber from such a height would do anything bad was unlikely, but she wasn't going to chance it.

For a few moments, the worry on Evenkite's face remained, until it occurred to her that Spinel could turn invisible.

Wow Eve, not only are you nearly useless, but their idiocy has rubbed off you as well. Great job!

She let out a groan and brought her palm to her forehead with an loud slap, purposely covering her cheeks in an attempt to not let her embarrassment show over her annoyance.

"Spinel," she growled through gritted teeth, her grip on Amber's gemstone tightening, "Not funny. Or scary." That last bit was partially a lie, because she had been shocked.

"I know it's you."

And, of course, Emerald was back to his annoying old self. Just fabulous. Whatever feelings of this potentially being a good decision that still remained with her began to fade away.

[LizLegend]

Zircon fell asleep earlier to the music in the same cross-legged position leaned back against the wall. She woke up silently just before the van came to a slow stop. She wiped her face tiredly while following a couple gems out the back of the van. She continues wiping her eye while observing the new environment they are in. Her gaze would wander back to the van and then upwards towards the roof of it. She stops rubbing her eye as she just tiredly stares at that direction. Something seemed different--actually--something seemed missing. Zircon blinks a couple times and it took a few but quite long seconds for it to click in.

What happened to the white gem?

As soon as it clicked in Zircon's eyes widened slowly, and it widened in a way of realization, worry, and scared. As she heard the disembodied voice claimed what happened her face remained the same staring in the same direction. At this moment there was only one word that Zircon could get out as she slowly put both hands to her head, "...CrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--" she didn't get to finish her word when she was cut off by Evenkite and hearing say that she knows it is Spinel. Zircon turns to her and responds while having wide eyes still and an awkward smile as of trying to look like she's calm, but it was a little obvious she kind of wasn't. "P-Psh! Well yea it's her! It's her GHOOOOOO- wait a second..." Zircon suddenly put on a straight face as she thought. There was a disembodied voice earlier right? And that voice was revealed to be... But what if this is the real thing? Or what if it's not? It's real. Wait no it's not. Yes it is. Is it?! MAKE UP YOUR MIND ZIRCON.

[HaltingBlooper]

Emerald ran along with the creepy ghost on his back-wait, what? "Aaaahhhh!!!" Emerald said, flailing his arms wildly in the air. "Get off my-wait......is that you, fake ghost?" Emerald stopped running and remembered something. His eyes. A smile spread across his face as he turned to face the Gem who really liked to pretend to be a ghost. Then he turned on his lights and started laughing hysterically.

[21308]

Spinel was a bit dazed from the light, and she let go of Emerald and clumsily sneaked up behind Evenkite this time. She stood about 3 feet behind her and said "Sooo, yoooooou don't think I'm really deeee-eaaad?" Her voice was starting to crack from holding back laughter. "Well, you want to know what I think?" She took another step and tripped over one of Sodalite's thrown weapons. She was in a ball on the ground now and visible, but she was satisfied with herself. "I THINK YOU ALL JUST GOT SPOOKED!" she squeaked, and began laughing uncontrollably.

[pyroman]

Finally, Sodalite looked around once more. Her light glare was focused on Spinel, who was currently a ball on the ground because of the blue gem's reaction. She felt a slight amount of satisfaction at getting back at Spinel, even if it was entirely on accident. It was her fault in the first place for scaring her, and Sodalite considered them even for the time being.

She stood up slowly, examining the large weapons on her arms. They weren't as heavy as one would believe them to be. She gave them a few experimental swings, albeit a little rough and aggressive for just test swings. They would definitely help in carrying more weapons in the future. She was sure about how well they would help in that situation.

[Loony]

"I. Did. Not." The words came out harsh but forced, and it was becoming harder and harder to not laugh herself. The fact that she almost joined in on the laughter was more surprising than Spinel's prank; her mouth twitched slightly as if she was fighting the urge to grin like an idiot. She probably would've cracked if it weren't for the fact that there were more pressing matters, namely Amber's gemstone nearly being dropped, the weapons-

Oh nononono, not good, not good.

Evenkite pondered at what to do, with the weapons everywhere. If Aquamarine saw them, there's be questions for sure. Questions she wasn't looking forward to answering. Questions that shouldn't be asked at all. Surely she could carry a few, but that wasn't going to help if she couldn't hide them.

Not good at all, not good at all. What to do, what to do...

Scrambling over to the van door and giving it a violent shove, she closed the door shut and then pressed her back against it, despite knowing that if Aquamarine did try to open the door, there was little chance she could actually do anything about it.

"Stop that! Hide them!" She hissed to Sodalite, "Quickly!"

[The ghost in black]

Howlite watched the events from the passengers seat in the van wondering how to get back out of the van. "I have an idea" she thought to herself as she placed her lizard friend back on her head and felt it burrow its way into her hair before she picked up the bladed end of the axe and threw it out the window. After hearing it hit the ground with a satisfying clang she followed suit and tucked in as she rolled to a stop on the floor. The trip to wherever they currently were had been uneventful but the sound that had come from the vehicle had made up for it. When Howlite stood up she immediately walked over to her axe and picked it up, quickly putting it back over her shoulders she looked at everyone and chose to sir and watch to see if anything else happened. As she sat there she began to doze off as she relaxed.

[21308]

Spinel got to her feet and started trying to help pick up the weapons Sodalite threw, still laughing a little bit. "Here, I'll help you, it's the least I can do after you were all such good sports." even though they really weren't that great of sports. "I don't know if slamming the door shut was such a good idea, Unfrein- I mean... hm." she decided she'd need a better name for Evenkite too. "That is, level-headed Evenkite, I'm pretty sure everybody is going to know something is going on now. And I'm fairly certain they heard you."

[Kronshi]

--6000 years ago, Home-World--

Bloodstone was hanging around a popular gem hangout with the Gem that he would be seen arguing with in the future. "Isn't it great, Yellow Diamond is promoting me to Commander. I'll be leading the armada in the next invasion, some place called Earth." Bloodstone then smiled, the first time he would ever be seen smiling in his life.