This follows about 100 years after the corruption in part I. Reading part I is helpful to understand the timeline divergence but not required.
At first she wasn't. Then she was: molten and alive and formless and desperate to take her shape. She was surrounded by hard roughness and terribly compressed, but the rock melted around her as she came to awareness. She curled her… arms? and the rock gave easily as they took shape and solidified. She took one step, and then another and another, and the rock gave way more easily until it opened up to intensely bright colors that made her newly-formed vision swim and waver. And suddenly there wasn't anything below her anymore.
It took her a split second to figure out that she was falling and arrange herself so that she landed on her feet with a thud. Sand puffed up around her from the impact and settled, and she found that she was surrounded by red and orange stone walls with holes of various shapes. Looking back, she saw that her own hole was the biggest, and it pleased her for reasons she didn't understand.
Something pale green and less than half her size scuttled up to her, around her, and settled before her. There was a round, opaque, green-tinted pale gem on the back of the creature's left hand. Wing. Whatever. She stood at attention, as if this creature was inspecting her and she had to meet with her approval. The green creature watched her carefully, and she lifted her chin a little more. Then, to her surprise, others like her scurried into the valley. The creature lifted a clawed wing and the scaled pads of the fingers pressed lightly against her hand. The others like her cheered.
"She says you're good," one of them said. She was the smallest of the group, and her gem was different. It was big and round and set in her left shoulder. Nothing like the sliver that made up Jasper's nose. But why did they have the same coloration? "Hi, I'm Jasper."
She frowned. But she was Jasper, right? "No, I am," she responded, her voice gruff and strong even though she had never used it before. At least it wasn't small like the others.
Another one of her, still small and missing an arm, lifted her hand. "I'm Jasper, too. We all are."
"Except for the carnelians, and the tiger's eyes and citrines." Another jasper, this one slightly taller and lighter in coloration than the squat one she rested an elbow on.
"We're going to have to find some other way to identify ourselves," the tallest and thinnest of the lot said. She looked like she would blow away in the slightest breeze. "And I'd rather not be named by gem placement. We tried that already and it just sounds silly."
"The green one tried to say something, but we can't make anything out." The one-armed jasper, again. "And we can't figure out what she scratches in the dirt."
"The first carnelian said we should wait for all of us to emerge before we start deciding on anything. I'm going to go look to see if anyone else is going to turn up," the smallest one said. She looked up at Jasper and gave the briefest of nods, and left with the green creature.
Jasper didn't know what to say, or do. There should have been someone to follow, but none of the other jaspers looked like leaders. Was she supposed to be the leader? But she couldn't be, because she knew nothing. Yet the other jaspers kept looking at her as if she had some answer and would announce it when it came to her. So she huffed and left to wander.
Her mouth dried out quickly when she tried to taste the air; it was hot and she would come to recognize the smell of sun on sand and limestone. Strewn about were great metal contraptions; some were leaning up against the walls, others stuck in the walls, some had fallen and were picked apart, and one was lying on the ground outside the chasm and had all its inside parts pulled out and replaced with what she assumed were nesting materials. The red stone walls curved into interesting shapes and there were various offshoots from the main valley floor that she wandered into and out of. The chasm either opened to bright blue sky or formed banded red arches over her, and she noticed a difference in the ground. In some places, she could see the remains of a river, and in others there was no sign of one. In one off-shoot was a round, crystalline pad mounted on a carved sandstone platform. The only thing that was too small for her to enter was a little alcove where the sand fell from the cliff onto an abstract stone sculpture. The long-toed footprints in the sand suggested that this was where the green one liked to hide. She moved on. There were groups of others, too. Yellow gems with cloudy stones, a small handful of gems with opaque banded brown-and-yellow stones. The red gems with opaque red stones were the most populous aside from the jaspers, and they held court with a handful of them who looked to be in charge. And there was the smallest jasper again, debating something with the biggest of the red gems.
"The green one seems to have chosen her," the smallest jasper said. The red gems frowned.
"She was late," the shortest of the red gems said. "She won't know anything."
"We don't know anything," another one said. This one's shoulder sloped inwards and downwards, making her appear lopsided. "If the green one chose her, then we should choose her as leader."
"Why does the green one get any say? She doesn't even talk," groused the first red gem.
The smallest jasper was quick to defend the green one. "She was there when each of us emerged. There's a reason for it. I think she made us."
The first red gem grunted, but she didn't argue. "Fine. We'll do what she wants. But if this giant jasper fails, I'm in charge."
"We should get our bearings, first," Jasper said at last. None of them looked surprised that she turned up and interrupted. Taking charge felt more natural the further along she went. "If the green one has decided I'm in charge, I want to know what's around us. Collect the other gems and we'll start allotting tasks."
Some of the red gems scattered, others gathered together in some loose semblance of order. Awaiting inspection. Jasper then realized that she was the largest of them all, which made her the natural leader. Of course. She threw back her shoulders as she strode before the company to take inventory.
The largest of the red gems straightened, stepped up, and spoke when Jasper's eyes fell on her. "Carnelian, ma'am. We have thirty-two present in our company, with five more still in the ground."
"Very good. Thank you, Carnelian. Back into position." It was amazing, really, how quickly it all came to her. How fast the vocabulary sprang up in her mind when she needed it. Like she was made for this. The carnelian returned to her post. "At ease."
The company relaxed, though they remained in their positions. The next group arrived, the cloudy yellow gems, and Jasper addressed the largest. "What do I have here?"
"Citrine," the largest said once her small platoon got into position. Her neck was longer than the rest, making her almost as tall as Jasper. "Our company has six gems present, with two still incubating." Jasper nodded and moved on.
The next group arrived, smaller than the last. Three, total. They were the yellow-and-brown banded gems, and they were all on the smaller side. Two of them were rubbing various parts as they got into position. "Tiger's Eye, ma'am," the largest said, and flashed her a quick grin. She barely came up to Jasper's waist. "We had a long drop down from our holes. We think there's one still forming."
Then, finally, there was the long pole of a jasper who had managed to corral the rest of them behind her. Of all the gems, she seemed to be the one closest to Jasper in height. "Thirty-seven jaspers present, four still in the ground."
"Then that's ninety total." Jasper wasn't sure why, but that bothered her somehow. Like there should have been more. "There aren't any other gems?"
Nothing but shrugs and shakes of the head answered her. "Just the green one, if she counts. She has a gem."
Jasper wasn't quite sure the green one should be counted, but that she kept to herself. "All right. I need volunteers. Some to go out and figure out exactly how big this place is. Some to venture out for a few miles and come back with information on what exactly is out there. We don't know what's safe or where we are, and I don't want to risk more of you than necessary. Now, scouts?"
Two hands shot up quickly; one was a carnelian, the other the one-armed jasper. A few more, including two of the citrines and a couple of jaspers, were more reluctant. "One-arm, belly-carnelian, small carnelian, neck-citrine, pale jasper. You go scout. Skinny jasper and tall citrine, I want you up on the highest point of the cliff to keep an eye out. Volunteers for measuring this place?"
The three tiger's eyes raised their hands as one, as did one of the jaspers whose hair spiked like horns. "I want one of you tiger's eyes to stay behind for the late-emerger. You decide which one. Left-hand jasper, go with them. The rest of you are dismissed."
Jasper's selections scattered, though it took a moment for the tiger's eyes to choose who was going to stay behind. Those who stayed behind either broke up into little groups or wandered alone, and in the end she was left with the green creature who drifted cautiously to her side the moment she was alone. She still didn't know what to make of this creature, but it seemed intelligent enough to understand her.
"You'll let me know if I mess up." Jasper didn't expect an answer. What she got was the creature's head butting into her palm. Unsure of what else to do, Jasper ran her hand down the crest of feathers on her head and the ridge down her long neck.
This was a start. Jasper just wished there was something better than flailing around with no idea what to do.
There are five planned chapters for this part, and three to four other parts planned (and perhaps more if people are interested). Beta AU essentially started as a character design experiment I started back in October of last year and exists as an alternative to Stratigraphy. You can see the initial character designs on my tumblr: ajoraverse . tumblr tagged/ SU%3A-Beta-AU/ chrono