March 18, 201x. Weather: Clear, Sunny.

I just had a bit of a brainwave, as it were. Gems have been well-known for a while, at least in the local area. From what I've heard from Bill, there used to be a fence around the goddess statue. On top of that, a small subset of Gems were apparently residents here before the area was even settled. Having recently watched a recording of an old historical play starring this subset of Gems as characters, I decided to peruse local archives for information on Gems, located either at the town hall or the local library.

Went to town hall, apparently the necessary documents are publicly available at the library.

The library is called Buddy Budwick Library. Seems to be named for the founding captain's first mate. Hopefully, there's some historical documentation.

For the sake of chronological organization, I decided to start from the beginning of all historical documentation.

Firstly, there are a series of legends from various cultures of guidance by legions of goddesses and divine warriors throughout ancient history, approximately 5000 years ago. Most famous are the Epics of Ishtar, a set of tales by the Mesopotamian king, Ashuri Hammurabus, telling of an ancient war fought by his great grandfather and other companions under guidance of Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of Love and War. Many documentaries and conspiracy theories blame these types of occurrences on aliens. As the only known aliens are Gems, it is important to note these occurrences. However, these "divine wars" and other cultural occurrences could very well be product of human violence and zealotry rather than anything influenced by an outside culture. Most damning for these conspiracy theories is the fact that Gems had no documentation after the Ancient era, with an empty millenia-long space up until the city's founding only a few centuries ago.

The town of Beach City was founded during the early Colonial Era, when people were claiming the New World in the name of colonial or just themselves. A Captain William Dewey (wait, Bill had an ancestor here?), operating with a skeleton crew from an old caravel, sailed south of a local colon. A few leagues offshore, the ship was attacked by some manner of ancient leviathan or sea creature before being saved by a team of 4 Gems known as… Crystal Gems (the report spells if really weird though. Old English conventions, am I right?). As a form of aid, these Gems guided the ship into Rehoboth bay, with Dewey claiming to discover the area as well as the city's goddess statue. For a few hundred years, it seems that only this small group of Gems existed on Earth. Only in later documents are large numbers of Gems noted. And by "later" I mean "in the last four years" "later", so something must have happened in the area recently. Though, again, I must point out that nobody spilled the details on why that is, though they did drop hints about "diamond essence". Now, that could just be my generally creepy visage and probable lack of training in anthropological ethics. However, at the same time, these are major and highly impactful historical events that are being completely ignored by the larger academic and political community. There needs to be a point of contact, academic interview, research, ANYTHING, and there is practically nothing. In fact, this is the only historical documentation of Gems in existence, and they have been here for at least 400 years, potentially (and probably) much longer.

That aside, I might have a lead for use with the warp pads, if I can get them working on my own. A journal at the library has provided for me a map of Gem development sites all over the world. Made by the First Mate Buddy Budwick, the journal contains documentation of these Gem sites as well as highly detailed illustrations. Each illustration of these sites seems to have a different cultural inspiration, though most are Mesopotamian… I think that "400 years" thing is a few thousand years off. However, there are two sights that draw my attention. The first is a field of scattered weapons in a field of oversized domestic strawberries. This primarily gives credence to the "divine war" theory covered earlier. The second is… rather more concerning. Budwick describes it as the "Many Hole'd Place": A series of sheer, desolate cliffs containing humanoid holes in their faces. The amethyst that I met earlier seems to have taken a liking to that place, according to the journal. While there are other desolate and off-putting sights in the journal, this location is surprisingly close to Beach City, only about a day's drive away, though it is notably not met by any roads and is considered "cursed" by the local farmers, who have been moving away from the slowly growing area of desolation. Again, concerning, on a frankly eldritch scale.

March 25, 201x. Weather: Clear, Sunny

On the first of April, I will finally be meeting a real researcher: Doctor Priyanka Maheswaran, who was kind enough to share her data on Gem anatomy, under written permission to examine x-rays of the Gem teachers of Little Homeworld (guess they appreciated the help from the last few months, though I've never heard of a school that pays contractors in medical data).

From the information that Nephrite gave me, we should be seeing a large amount of radiation data from the Gems in a roughly humanoid shape, as matter-like light must be so high-frequency or energy as to show on an x-ray diagram as pure white with a gemlike dark spot. For now, that will be the hypothesis.

On top of that, Dr. Maheswaran messaged me that she had little other data, though I would like to speak with her about the Gems' behavior and her experience as well, as she recently testified about a cryptid sighting.

April 1, 201x. Weather: Clear, Sunny

Dr. Maheswaran was mostly booked, though we did speak for a short period online, along with showing basic x-rays of the three Gems she worked with: Amethyst, Garnet, and Pearl, the highest teachers of Little Homeschool. Most notable from patient behavior was the simple fact that the Gems were psychologically indistinguishable from humans, not being confused by any basic question or concepts of pattern recognition.

However, the most interesting and rather baffling finding concerns the Gems' x-rays, in that they have no reading. Like, at all. In fact, the only physical part of a Gem is the gemstone itself, reflecting blankly upon a blank chart. That aside, Amethyst did have various detritus in what is assumed to be some kind of stomach cavity, but other than that, there was no reading, nor was there any sign of internal function. This is weird. Very weird. I noted earlier that these beings had corporeal forms made of pure light, presumably of all wavelengths solid enough to effectively be considered a form of mass, and yet there is nothing. The readings should be a blinding light or, hell, even form an outline of something.

That aside, Dr. Maheswaran did note a cryptid (or rather, in this case, a hostile monster) encounter, which was solved by her daughter and her now boyfriend, someone named Steven (oddly generic name, but I think I can ask around about this "Steven" later). The monster itself was described as a groaning amalgamation of human body parts and sickly colors, hellbent on chasing down anything human-shaped. Sound like something straight out of a horror novel. Like the Hole'd place, this feels rather eldritch. Most notable in the monster's description was the presence of a gemstone very much like those of the Gems back at Little Homeworld, yet much rougher and less clearly defined.

Are these cryptids another of these mineral-based life forms? So far, I only know of two, those being a massive sea monster and now some kind of formless abomination attacking humans.

April 8, 201x. Weather: Clear, Overcast

Returning to the library, I decided to look instead for documented cryptid sightings across history, more specifically those of high detail pertaining to the appearance of the cryptid itself. For the last few centuries, there were accounts across the world describing massive flying sea creatures, living buildings, wolves the size of elephants, hostile shards of firing crystal, and horrors beyond human comprehension and description. One account even described a sentient swarm of insects that would instantly strip the flesh off the bodies of those who climbed to its abode. Many of these encounters with humans also described the presence of a prominent gemstone upon their bodies or nearby, with many explorers pondering their value.

These cryptids are clearly Gems, or at least Gemlike. How many people have they killed during their lifetimes? How did they link to the Gems of Little Homeworld? Were they allies or enemies with these Gems? Are they more like wild animals?

Accounts of these cryptid sightings disappeared over time. However, within the last 40 years, sightings include accounts of people fighting these cryptids, also possessing Gems upon their bodies. Bingo.

April 15, 201x. Weather: Rain, light

With this newfound evidence, I have a new goal: squeeze out as much information as possible at Little Homeworld. Something has been going on for centuries right under humanity's nose, and it seems to pose an immense danger to humans. On top of the growing area of lifeless land west of here, Budwick also notes in his journal that a Pearl warned him about the danger present in Gem-influenced locations. However, the cryptid encounters and deaths caused by those encounters have occurred all over the world, and not just at the Gem sites.

While I'm there, I should probably ask about this "Steven" character. If there are humans intimately involved in Gem affairs, they might also have some insight.