Noontime the next day, Lapis is sitting on the beach in front of the temple. The sun is warm and relaxing. The tide washing in on her feet is soothing. Its a perfect day to just let everything soak in, and that's just what Lapis is doing. She's sitting there in silence letting everything from the past couple days just sink in.
"Finances, taxes, property damage, public opinion... How does Dewey deal with all that?" Lapis thinks as she stares out towards the ocean. "I thought he was just an irritating clump. Just driving around all day doing nothing and every so often naming something after himself or talking nonsense. I never knew all of this was part of his job. Or that human life was so complicated. This money stuff really muddies the waters. Can I even do this?... Should I even do this?"
Lapis lets out a sigh and falls back onto the warm sand of the beach. She closes her eyes and lets the warmth of the sun cover her. Minutes go by? Hours? Lapis wasn't sure how much time went by before she heard the sound of feet in the sand. Expecting Peridot or Steven, she smiled and opened her eyes. Her smile quickly faded when she saw it was neither. "Mayor Dewey?" Lapis says with confusion and a tilted head.
"Yes. I was in the neighborhood on important... political... Uhm... " Dewey sighs and lets his false confidence tone drop. He knew she knew why he was here. "Is Pearl home?"
"Sorry." Lapis says with a sigh as she sits upright. "She and Peridot are weapons training at the moment."
Dewey looks confused and sits down next to Lapis. "Weapons practice!?... Isn't that... Dangerous?"
"Well, duh!" Lapis says with a smile. "But Peridot needs to learn how to defend herself from the bad guys, right?"
Dewey looks nervous. "Bad guys? You mean... Those monsters?"
"Yep." Lapis says. "Don't worry though. Pearl's a good teacher. I'm sure Peri's just fine."
Meanwhile, at the ancient sky arena...
"AHHHHHHHH!" Peridot screams as she's running away from a hologram Pearl, its eyes glowing red with evil. She baseball slides past one of the pillars as the hologram Pearl just barely misses her head and stabs its sword into the pillar.
"Stand firm and fight!" Pearl yells angrily at Peridot.
"Are you cracked!" Peridot yells from on top the pillar, almost losing her footing and falling off.
Pearl lets out a sigh of irritation as the hologram Pearl leaps up towards Peridot. Peridot stares in terror as the hologram Pearl swings its sword horizontally for a neck slice.
Back on the beach...
"Yep. Perfectly fine." Lapis says with a smile.
The two of them sit there awkwardly in silence just staring off at the ocean for awhile.
"So... I... Uhm... Saw you talking with the fry vendor the other night and-" Dewey says awkwardly as he continues to stare out at the ocean.
"I don't know how you do it." Lapis cuts him off as she brings her knees into her chest and hugs her legs. Dewey is caught off guard. "There's just so much to being a human..."
"What?" Dewey asks confused.
"There's alot to worry about... Taxes, inflation, construction, education, healthcare... All of these human issues that I barely understand! Its just... I don't even know where to begin!" Lapis grabs at her head and pulls at her hair.
"Its... Uhm... Complicated..." Dewey says weakly. He obviously doesn't know what to say here.
"I mean... Yeah, I get that being a leader means solving issues like this for the benefit of the Homeworld." Lapis says on the verge of freaking out. "But this! Its a fracken mess!"
"Yeah... A mess..." Dewey says as he awkwardly gets up and takes a step away from Lapis. "But... A leader's job is to take the burdens head on." Dewey continues in a hushed tone under his breath. "Or... That's what they're supposed to do..."
Lapis slowly calms down. She looks up at Dewey and smiles. Dewey scooches another step away. "You know." Lapis says with a sigh of relief. "Just letting it all out really helped. I feel alot better now!" She gets up and brushes the sand off of her pants she holds her hand out for a handshake. "Thanks, mayor."
Dewey accepts the handshake and weakly shakes. "Yeah... You're welcome... I'm just... Can you... Tell Pearl that I was here?"
"Sure!" Lapis says, smiling.
Dewey leaves far more uncertain then when he arrived. He gets back into his vehicle and buckles up and turns on the car, but he doesn't go anywhere right away. "Bill..." Dewey talks to himself. "That girls got you beat."
Meanwhile, at the ancient sky arena...
Peridot is standing there, battered and bruised with a sword in her left hand laughing triumphantly at the defeated Hologram Pearl lying at her feet. Her wounds, most of which were self inflicted from running away and falling off the pillar, didn't seem to phase her.
"Aaaahahahahahaha!" Peridot laughs triumphantly. "Better luck next time you Clod!"
Peridot then turns her attention towards Pearl. Peridot just looks up at Pearl beaming with pride and self-satisfaction.
"Very good work, Peridot." Pearl says with a smile as she places a hand on Peridot's shoulder. She didn't have the heart to tell Peridot that she lowered the difficulty of the fight halfway through.
((I wanted to show that while they're all diving head first into the campaign they still didn't forget that they have other responsibilities. I hope that the swordplay really brought my point across. Hehehe...
Anyways. Yeah. Poor Dewey. He's really got alot of stuff to think about... Atleast he helped put Lapis in a better mood! Sometimes you just need somebody to listen to whats bothering you. They don't need to answer. Just listen. Good thing too... Pretty sure if Dewey held a conversation with Lapis (i dont really see this as much of a conversation as much as Dewey talking more to himself than Lapis) it wouldn't end well last time that happened Lapis decided to run for mayor. Who knows what Dewey would accidentally convince her to do this time? Run for president?... Hmmm...))