Hey hey! Here's another one. I think this chapter is a tad weak, but hopefully I can clean up for it afterwards, or at least make my next chapter a good one.
Enjoy! Leave a review!
Chapter Twenty
Teaching Gems about humans could be a tricky business sometimes. While we're similar on a psychological level, our physiology is utterly alien from one another. Sure, gems are soft, produce warmth, and so on, but ultimately they are composed of light. For example, you can't pluck a hair off a gem's head. If you "cut" it, it falls away, but then vanishes into nothing.
Despite that, they have mass, weight, and density, and yet follow almost no laws of physics. They can adjust their density to react to gravity, for example. Or rather, they have to. It's not something they can actively change.
Once, I told the class about some of the contradictions with gems and they were all quite puzzled about it, even the more scientifically-minded gems.
"For example, on planets with lighter gravity, gems can adjust its impact on them to make it easy to navigate. But it doesn't appear to have any effect on their mass or density at all." I pointed out. "It's why humans default to describing what gems do as "magic" so much. A lot of what you can do flies in the face of how scientists understand it."
I raised my hand, letting sparks dance between my fingers. "This," I nodded at my hand, feeling perhaps a bit smug with how much better at this I was getting. "Should be impossible. I should be feeling pain at the very least, from the heat produced by this electricity, but it doesn't feel anything, aside from a tingle. It should be damaging my skin cells, or even being conducted by my body. I mean, it is technically, since it comes from the fulgurite that got grafted to my spine, but…"
The point still stood, and the class was puzzled even more.
"So… What's the point of this?"
I had to admit, it was kind of fun seeing Eyeball and Aquamarine actually starting to get curious about my lessons.
"Well, the point is trying to add a little more understanding. Why humans are so confused by gems. It's not so different from the reasons why gems are so puzzled by humans." I explained. "Everything about humans flies in the face of what gems think of organics. From what I understand, we're the first sentient organic beings that gems have ever encountered. Plenty of alien species, but we're the smartest ones Gems have found aside from themselves… Uh. For a given value of "intelligence". I could go on for hours about how smart other animals really are; humans have a bad habit of underestimating them."
I was rambling.
"Point is, I wanted to create another point of connection." I snapped, and the sparks dissipated. "Something we have in common- the fact that we are, scientifically speaking, utterly baffling to one another."
"Huh."
"Huh."
"Huh, indeed." I chuckled. I have to admit, seeing all these gems lost in thought was gratifying. "That's all for today I guess. I know this was a bit more philosophical than informative, but that's how life is sometimes. There's more to the world than objective fact and analysis. Have a good one, everyone."
The gems filtered out, chatting and chirping with one another excitedly. I remained perched on the desk until they were gone, exhaling as I slipped back, flopping off the desk and into the chair.
"Nice class today." Amethyst called, as she idly stood up, stretching her arms up a bit. "You've gotten more confident about this, huh?"
"I mean, I guess?" I shrugged. "I'd like to hope I'm a cool teacher, I had some pretty trash ones." I couldn't help but giggle. "I had one- he was a cool guy but an awful teacher- he would come to class and teach us nothing all day and just let us have free reign for the entire period. I basically used it to do other homework and play around on my handheld."
"Ha." Amethyst chucked. "I mean considering I actually teach gems how to do that , he'd probably be great at that."
I grinned as I spun in my chair. "Fair enough. You're like a weird blend of career counsellor and someone who teaches people how to goof off."
"Goofing off is important!" Amethyst huffed defensively.
I gathered up my things, heading outside. Autumn was getting colder, but Little Homeworld was busy as ever. Peridot's agricultural lessons were taking off, because there were plants everywhere. Pumpkins and gourds and corn… It was a sort of controlled chaos, but it was fun seeing Peridot telling baffled gems that humans actually ate those.
That's right, the harvest was soon! A big ol' pre-winter feast. And Steven was supposed to come around for that... I had to admit, I was looking forward to meeting him.
Spinel was off doing something; she had been acting weirdly coy when I asked her what her plan was for the day, so for now I had given up on getting info out of her. I was sure she'd tell me more later. Instead of letting myself worry about that, I headed for the apartment to pick up my guitar, tugging on a nice warm hoodie and trudging back to the woods. I found a nice spot without too many leaves, laid a towel out on the damp grass and sat down, strumming idly.
Da-de-da-da-de-da… It took me a minute to realize I was strumming the tune to You Give Love a Bad Name .
At least that's a good song. One time I found myself strumming a song so bad that I nearly snapped my own strings out of embarrassment.
I was rusty, and the acoustic sound would obviously be different, but it felt nice to just sit quietly and play, switching from a song I knew to random improvisation.
"Oh. You again."
I glanced up. Jesus, how is Jasper so goddamn stealthy? She's massive .
"Mhm." I shrugged, fingers still flicking up and down. "If I'm bothering you, I can leave."
"Whatever." She grunted, arms crossed. "No runt of a human is enough to bother me."
She sounded so smug saying that, I nearly snorted. Apparently, Jasper had once been incredibly nasty. I'd been warned about her bad temper, though those warnings had been tempered with a "she's not quite as bad" line or two.
Reformed, but untamed.
"Hm, fair enough." I hummed, pausing. I wonder if I could…
I carefully placed my fingers on the strings, allowing the tiniest trickle of lightning to flicker from my fingertips into them, strumming. To my surprise, it made the twang of my guitar sound entirely different. Not better , exactly, but it was a fun experiment.
"...What the-?"
Oh right, Jasper spends so little time in the actual town, she probably has no idea.
"Oh, I have lightning powers now." I shrugged as if it was totally normal. "Got em by accident."
"Hm. Guess you're a step over most humans, then." Jasper sounded contemplative, a look in her eyes that I really didn't like.
"Hey." She growled suddenly. "Hit me with them."
"What?!" I jerked my head up, baffled. "Why the hell would I do that?"
"I want to see how strong it is. Come on. You aren't gonna shatter me with a little zap!" She puffed her chest out. I sighed, setting my guitar down.
"You're gonna follow me around all day if I don't, aren't you?"
"...Maybe." She smirked. "I just need to make sure I haven't gotten weaker. There's been nobody to fight in ages."
"I'm not a fighter." I pointed out wryly.
"Just hit me." She glowered. "I know you humans are squishier than gems, so I'm not here to fight you, just to make sure I can still take a hit."
"Fine, fine." I huffed, standing up, dusting my pants off. "This is a terrible idea and if it goes wrong I will be in deep trouble… Don't say I didn't warn you."
I focused on my back first, where the gem was, letting the tingle rush along from the Fulgurite into my fingers. The tingle rushed from my body, and I spread my hands, sparks dancing from finger to finger. The static electricity in the air began causing my hair to raise; I imagine I probably looked pretty wild like that.
The sparks began to grow and swarm in my palm, and I focused on keeping them maintained, forming a ball of lightning in my hands.
Okay, that… That actually looked really awesome.
Hit her with everything you have.
No, that was a bad idea, I don't even know what "everything I have" constitutes.
It's just a little zap. She's a gem. She'll be fine. She's the one asking you to hit her.
No, brain, now is not the time to be vindictive.
Instead, I launched the ball. With a viciously powerful crack, it extended into a bolt, launching right for Jasper's chest. She crossed her arms, and it slammed into her with a flash.
Jasper stood tall, smoking slightly, but seemingly unharmed.
"Wait, that's it?" She scoffed, brushing some of the singed marks off. "Guess I underestimated you."
"I've never intentionally done that." I admitted wryly. "I could probably do it harder but I don't want to accidentally start a forest fire or something."
"Hm, so you're holding back?" She sneered.
"Also, I think it's making me insane." I added dryly. "The gem itself, not the lighting powers."
"Hit me again." Jasper ordered me, glowering at me harshly. "And stop being such a coward and hit me ."
"Ugh." I groaned. "Piss off ."
Jasper gnashed her teeth, and I felt a momentary worry that maybe she'd lose her temper and attack me. Instead she spent a moment grabbing at a nearby plant and savaging it, before taking a few deep breaths and turning again.
"Hit. Me. Again." She bellowed.
I felt a boil of anger in my chest, and cursed under my breath. First in english, then devolving into a mangle of english and mandarin (blame mom for that, one of the only things I got from her). I felt it then, a rush of lightning pulsing and crackling up my back and into my arms.
Yes yes yes
It didn't matter. I was furious, crackling (literally) and raising my hands above my head, gathering power into them. Honestly it probably only took a few seconds but it felt like a full minute passed.
Lightning was arcing from my body, thankfully only striking the ground, and my hair was even more raised than before.
Hit her.
I did.
The flash blinded me for a second as a massive bolt shot from my fingers, slamming into Jasper.
She didn't poof, at least, which was a good sign. Instead, she was bodily flung backwards into a tree, so hard that the tree cracked and smashed, tumbling down on her.
"Holy shit! " I yelped, jerking my hands back, the electricity dissipating. "How-? How'd I-?!"
Jasper shoved the tree off her, thankfully none the worse for wear, just dazed.
"Wow." She rasped, sitting up, rubbing her head. "Good hit."
"I uh… Still don't know how I did that!" I admitted shakily. Jasper grunted and stood, stumbling but then straightening back up.
"Hm. Bet you'd be half-decent at fighting if you did." She grumbled.
"I really don't feel like that's a good idea." I mumbled, running a hand through my now-disastrous hair. "Besides, I have my own thing aside from fighting."
"I don't care about any of that." Jasper crossed her arms, scowling. "Now hit me again."
"Are you serious ?" I spluttered, shaking my head in disbelief. "Enough is enough, I don't wanna lose my mind again."
"Hmh. Figures." She smirked. "You're afraid of yourself."
I irritably clawed at my back. "This thing is not me! It got grafted into my spine! That's not a good thing ya know?!"
Jasper scoffed at me again. "What, it made you stronger, didn't it?"
"You clearly don't know much about humans… Or anyone aside from you, do you?" I snapped. Jasper bristled. "I don't think you have a particularly good concept of how messed up this is."
"Just beat it." She sneered. "That's all you need."
"Huhn." I crossed my arms, irritably dragging a hand through my hair. "As if it were that easy. Sure, beat an enemy I have no idea how to fight… No, excuse me, beat an enemy I can't fight."
God, she was pissing me off. I still had sparks dancing through my hair. It was actually starting to build more the more irritated I was getting, sparking and dancing wildly.
"Then you're just trying hard enough."
It didn't occur to me at the moment that she was pissing me off intentionally. That was more of a "Oh shit, wait, that's what was happening" thing. The sort of sudden realization you get while staring blankly at a store shelf trying to decide what kind of food you should get.
Instead I just gave a frustrated groan, irritably tugging at a lock of my hair.
"It's not a matter of effort. Gods above you really do not grasp this, do you? Bah. Whatever." I took a few breaths, twisting on my heel. "You're not worth it…"
"Hmph." I could hear the scowl in Jasper's voice, as I struggled to calm down, packing my guitar back into its case, careful not to zap the damn thing.
"Today was so nice too." I grumbled, as I picked it up, storming away from the clearing, somewhat oblivious to the sparks still dancing through me. "But I hear you're real good at ruining nice days."
With that last little snap, I headed for home.
I tossed my things aside (okay, I was gentler with my guitar, that thing was expensive ), and threw myself facedown on my bed with a groan.
A few minutes later I heard the door open, and Spinel's voice and oh god was I relieved to hear her.
"Whoa." I heard her voice, and soft padding footsteps. "You okay, doll? You look uh… Extra-sparky."
"Had a run in with Jasper." I grumbled. "She really is infuriating."
"Ugh, yeah." Spinel huffed. "She doesn't hang out 'round here much… So what happened?"
I recounted the day's events to her, about my little "explosion", and how much power was packed in that gem, and as I did, my anger began to subside, and I began worrying instead.
"I'm… really freaked out, now that I've cooled off." I admitted softly. "I don't think I've been that mad since mom visited me in the hospital. It was… That was awful. "
Spinel carefully examined me for a moment, and, satisfied that I was no longer crackling with static, slowly wrapped an arm around my shoulders.
"Bein' mad really does take it outta ya." She hummed sympathetically, stroking my hair.
"Careful." I cracked a weak, bittersweet smile. "I already blew up a tree today."
"I… trust ya." Spinel replied bluntly.
"I don't know if I trust me." I mumbled softly. "It was like it wasn't me. I just… I just wanted to hurt her." I giggled weakly. "I think I got so mad I wasn't even talking english for a minute."
"Uh…?"
"Oh right, um. Probably the only thing I got from my parents…" I rubbed the back of my head. "Mom was Chinese, and spoke a fair bit of Mandarin, so… I… Did I give a lesson about languages yet?"
"I don't think so?" Spinel screwed up her face, trying to remember. "Um… But I have heard a lil about it. You humans have a lot of different languages right?"
I nodded. "Uh-huh. Dad's family was from France, but he didn't actually speak french. Which isn't really that uncommon here. Mom was from China, so she spoke English and Mandarin."
I exhaled slowly. "Weird. Couldn't bother to teach me how to live, but she could bother to teach me enough of another language to get me started on actually learning it." I scoffed weakly. "...Well, she mostly accidentally taught me how to cuss in another language, though."
Spinel snorted, and I grinned.
If I could still make her laugh today, that probably meant I wasn't in too bad a shape.
"Oh, um, you said you were getting a surprise ready, earlier, right?"
Spinel flustered.
"Well um, I had a lil help, but…" The gem pushed away a little from me, reaching a hand into her gem, fishing around. "I wanted to know other date ideas and stuff. So… I asked around a lil. Steven's dad helped me get these?"
She fished out a little bit of paper, and I examined them, eyebrows shooting up. "Oh! Dinner reservations. Cute." I giggled. "...Woah. This place is, uh… fancy."
"Yeah?" She sheepishly rubbed her arm. "I um, don't really… Know anything about that stuff, but… I wanted to take you somewhere for a change. And… Yeah."
I giggled, shifting up and planting a soft kiss on Spinel's cheek.
"You're sweet." I murmured, shaking my head with a fond smile. "What'd I ever do to deserve you?"
"Uh?" She raised an eyebrow. "That's my line."
"Well in your case it was being cute, being sweet to me, helping me when I needed it, being fun to be around…"
Spinel lightly shoved me with a pillow. "Shush!" She giggled, blushing hotly. "You're makin' me all blushy!"
"That was the plan!" I laughed as she tackled me, tickling my ribs.
And for another few moments, my troubles would fade away as we teased and flirted.
It's not REALLY a Thanksgiving episode next, since y'know *sheepish glance at the calendar* This was supposed to be finished like, two weeks ago...
Uh...
Goodnight everybody!