Citrine
For the first time in my third life, I reformed from out of my gem. The nuance of such an ordeal demanded my utmost attention on reconstituting my form back to what I had before, nothing else mattered other than making sure the details of my hard-light body was as exactly as it was before I was poofed by the self destruction of the new type of gems Lapis, Spinel and I went up against.
As my awareness was brought back while I stretched my arms and legs out from the light my reformation caused, I distinctly heard around me cautious murmurs.
"She's already reforming!?"
"Quick! Alert the Jaspers and Carnelians!"
"You stupid clod, that's the commander, who knows what she's capable of!"
"Like that one rumor about her wiping out swathes of rebels in one swipe!?"
"How the Lava-crag was she able to break free from out of her bubble?"
Obviously, wherever I was after I and the other's landed after getting poof, someone confiscated our gems and took us back to their dwelling.
Once I landed back onto my feet after fully forming, I opened my eyes to see before me various gems that did not in fact fit into the mold of what gem society demanded of every gem to be; Granted, there is only so much you can do after emerging since it is out of every gem's hands, but regardless, I could not help but deadpan at the attempt of whatever jail cell or whatever lame shoddy looking bars built from out of recycled metals from an old era and various other tossed scrap that was repurposed to hold prisoners.
I directed my line of sight amongst the various skinny quartz and era 2 looking gems that did not fit the mold of ordinary gems, a few others were spotted as well.
Ahh…The supposed off color gems I've read in passing that removed themselves from gem society, not quite an attempt at a rebellion, but an attempt at hiding beneath the megacity of Homeworld's capital. I honestly thought it was a rather silly idea for off colors to stick around on Homeworld, and not make some sort of gambit attempt of leaving the planet for refuge elsewhere.
But then I thought it would not be that simple, as Homeworld was not that simple to obtain a ship and fly off from.
Looking around at my poorly made cell, it was practically a large sized hole that looked like it was perfectly carved out from the stone wall…
So I'm still in Homeworld's old kindergarten…actually, I should rephrase that, cause when I looked back through the cell door of my captivity holding, at which the instant I did, it cause the gems watching over my to step back in caution while some swallowed down their nervousness.
I narrowed my eyes at them with some annoyance as I crossed my arms and idly tapped my finger against my arm. They weren't doing anything yet, it was practically a standoff…in the loosest of terms, of who'd break eye contact.
Sweeping my gaze at what I can only consider bystanders, gawkers, what have you, I broke eye contact with them to look once more around my cell holding, and noticed neither Lapis's gem nor Spinel's gem was in here with me.
Looking back out from my cell, I zeroed in on the Rutile gem with twin upper torsos. Quite the particular mess the gem twin torso found themselves in, "quite the rarity I've ever seen, if I'm being honest.'" I thought to myself as I gauged the reaction of the Rutile twins wilting under my gaze. "Never seen an off color such as them." I noted inwardly.
The Rutile quartz twins seemingly swallowed down her nerves before making an attempt at glaring back at me while stepping a bit forward, "What." The left twin said, "Can't stand to see." the Right twin followed up saying, before being finished by the left twin, "An off color like me?" She challenged me.
Blinking a few times, I realized I was no doubt going to have to deal with off color gems that dealt with heavy prejudice of gem society, "Ah, no." I shook my head softly, speaking finally and followed up by saying while looking to the side a bit in thought, "I'm just curious to see such a rare kind of off-color." I mused
Looking back to what I can only consider my captors given my situation, the Rutile twins were taken aback before furrowing their brows, "Curious?" "What do you mean" "by that?" The Twins interchanged between their speech.
Shaking my head a bit and held my palm up in denial from my crossed arms, "Answer me this first, How long was I out and where is the Lapis's and Spinel's Gem?" I should still have Pearl stowed away in my gem, so that left Spinel and Lapis on her own somewhere
The spotted era 1 Peridot amongst the small contingent of gems, gave me a nonplussed look and thumbed to the right of her, "They're in their own bubbles elsewhere."
"And the other gems?" I asked with a pointed look, to which the nearby skinny looking Carnelian spoke up with an uncertain look.
"Those shards you mean?" The off-color Carnelian asked, drawing my attention with a swift look, to which she reacted with some measure of nervousness, "We all assumed you shattered them, like the rumors say you do to renegade gems."
Tapping my finger once more against my arm as I stared back at the Carnelian with a focused gaze, I scoffed before answering the gem, "Policy has changed, figures with you all living under the surface, you wouldn't know any better…" I grumbled a bit.
"I'm sorry, what was that!?" The Spotted Peridot questioned, her expression was that of surprise and shock.
Which was understandable, given the fact that policy for anything in gem society hadn't changed on anything before the time of Rose's rebellion. It was only afterwards that the shake up caused quite the number of changes, I tried my best to add in a few changes, but they were suggestions at best that didn't bear fruit until centuries later when Yellow Diamond finally approved a few of the ideas I put forward into practice.
Not to mention the fact that the red tape of gem bureaucracies were still a bit flaky before Rose's rebellion, but afterwards, a lot has changed over the many centuries, and it was only the beginning from what I've experienced so far.
Looking back at the Spotted Peridot that had hues of yellow mixed into her natural green hard-light body, I spoke back to the gem, "Before I answer anymore of these questions, how long was I out?" I asked.
The off color gems looked amongst themselves, before the Peridot in question answered after looking up from a shoddy looking piece of gem tech from scavenged parts, "Uh…about one day of Homeworld's rotation, give or take an hour or more…" she then tapped on her shoddy piece of tablet, before the numbers fritzed a bit, before working once more. "Right." she looked back up from her supposed device that had some manner of function and reason to exist, "About so, yes."
The Rutile twins furrowed their brows in inquisitiveness, as they spoke between each other again to me, "Why?" "Are you expecting-" "A rescue squad?" they both asked with building fear in their voices.
"Hmm." I mused in idle thought while I ceased tapping my arm with my finger in thought, "While I do not know what you intend to do to me, other than ask questions." I remarked while sweeping my gaze across the cautious off color gems, "If you value any sense of safety, I would recommend you bring forth my gems into my possession, so that I may leave. I see no other reason to remain here."
"Oh, like you wouldn't shatter us off colors the moment you leave this cell!" One of the off colors shouted amongst the group of gems, to which some of her fellow off color colleagues shushed her with worried glances towards me.
"Hmm." They weren't wrong…if this happened many centuries ago, but at the moment, I'd rather leave this place. They are already seemingly content in hiding from gem society to form their own little niche of an off color society; me being here would only attract whatever search party Yellow Diamond would no doubt send after figuring out what had happened.
"It is in your best interest you just release my gems back into my possession." I spoke aloud as I narrowed my eyes at my supposed wardens, who all gave me their best attempts of their brave faces.
After getting no answer for a few seconds, I released an annoyed sigh before stepping forward to the ramshackle bars of my cell and gripped the bars, "Look, if I wanted to shatter any of you…" I began with saying with an equally annoyed look as I used my gem static powers to heat the metal bars up, "I'd have-" with a simple heave of bending the bars to the side, "already done so!" I stated while a few of the off color gems fell over backwards in fear, some scrambled in fright, while the Rutile twins stood nervously still.
As I stepped out of my cell, I stared down a bit at the rutile gem twins, who in turn took a step back. I wasn't sure what the average height of a Rutile quartz was, but now that I was able to gauge every gem around me, something felt a bit off, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
Putting the thought aside for later, I looked around at my surroundings, and found that I was in the midst, or at least, the very bottom of a kindergarten chasm that was sealed off with metal and stone walls.
Looking around, the entire underground kindergarten landscape was repurposed to what looked like a mini city, an undercity if you would with ramshackle walkways made from recycled parts of gem tech and structures.
Already I heard murmurs from above me as I stared up to peer at wandering eyes of various passerby gems; some ranged from the bottom most of gem society, some ranged up to a green Lapis gem. There were even skinny quartz gems that were milling about carrying supplies across the walkways and bridges that lined the crevice that was one of Homeoworld's old kindergartens.
And here I thought I'd have to wait for more skinny quartz gems to miraculously pop out from one of the era 2 kindergartens on the other planets; figures the planet had other skinny quartz gems, only they were in hiding from gem society's old stigma against off colors…I don't blame them either.
But it was only a matter of time until this little niche society of off colors was 'found' and destroyed. Assuming if I was correct, the Diamond's simply didn't bother yet with the gem dwelling underneath the surface of Homeworld; so that essentially meant these gems were living on borrowed time until something was decided for their fate.
"Told you those bars were shoddy!" A gem shouted amongst the peanut gallery that were the gems sounding me with trepid looks.
"Oh shut it!" A snide tone, that was not the familiar sound of a Peridot. "I'd like to see you weld together old parts from the wreckage of ships!"
Clearing my throat to gain the attention of everyone including the Rutile twin gem that stood away from me, "So, are you gonna hand over the Lapis gem? Or are you going to wait until the worst that happens?" I prodded them with the question.
"Worst?" The spotted Peridot asked, who walked back to stand beside Rutile with an unsure expression, "What could be worse than having you here?" she asked.
Are these gems that thick in the skull…okay, wrong analogy for gems, but I supposed only I'd mentally understand what the analogy meant and construed.
Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I level my eyes on the spotted peridot with a flat look, "I am a high ranking gem amongst Yellow Diamond's forces. How long do you think it'd take for her to send down a search party to investigate my situation?" I questioned them all with a pointed look.
"...Oh shards!" A skinny Carnelian spoke out.
As the little ragtag group of various off color gems began to fret and worry, a soft voice spoke aloud. "Excuse me." A soft and polite voice spoke as a Lime Green Pearl made her way through the gathering of off color gems. "Um…oh, hello…I see that you're…already out…" the green pearl noted with a nervous expression.
My attention on her brought me to notice the two arms on one side of her right while her left shoulder had no arm…hm…other than the asymmetrical way the pearl was, she didn't seem that different from other pearls. My gaze on her seemed to make her a bit uncomfortable, as she withdrew one of her arms behind her back while leaving one in view.
The Lime green pearl smiled nervously before looking over at the Rutile twin gem, "Um…uh…Fluorite wishes to see the Citrine gem…and give her back the Lapis gem…um…yeah…" she reached up with both her lopsided arms to rub the back of her head in shyness.
Well then…that was convenient, I suppose.
Fluorite
She'd have to reprimand Rutile and Peridot sometime later, but for now, Fluorite was waiting for that Citrine Commander to arrive and take her Lapis Lazuli back and leave the Off color undercity.
With the help of the two Sapphire's, Star Sapphire and Padparadscha, fusing for a bit to use their fullest capabilities of seeing forward for a bit, it was deemed safe to let the Lapis out and reason they only wanted to speak for a bit before letting the Lapis gem free.
Imagine their surprise when the lapis gem cared not what they were, but where commander Citrine was.
It was always telling how a gem leader treated their gems, based on their lower casts gems that operated beneath their service.
That, or the Lapis Gem that stood not far beside them was that sort of gem…but then again, as Fluorite thought to herself, those types of gems were few and far in between…and even then…
"Fluorite!" Lime Pearl hollered as she walked in through the domicile of what every off color treats as their leader…well, she was the most senior of them all…strictly speaking, most of the gems that made up her fusion were from a bygone era, long before era 1.
"Oh." Fluorite noted slowly as the light green pearl made her way in, within the distance, the Citrine Commander was not that far behind her, "You're quite…different than I imagined…."
Citrine
What was that supposed to mean? 'Different than I imagined'. I get rumors spread quite differently between planets of the gem Empire, but surely these off color gems get some sort of reception of some sort to receive some sort of intel to safeguard their safety from the prying eyes of gem society…right.
As I stepped into what I could only associate as some form of the off colors attempt at some sort of city hall governance, that being one person in charge with various misshapen seats for gems to come and voice their concerns to their gem mayor…
Or maybe I'm just assuming things and this is just…whatever fusion that is sitting atop a chiseled stone stump of a circle…she's more than likely an elder to the off color gem society, she already has the grandmother looks…and I am not sure why she ended up with that fusion appearance, other than that fact she had the appearance of a mix between a queen ant and a caterpillar.
She still had motor functions on her legs, but it looked like it would be cumbersome for her to move; the amount of gems I saw that made up her fusions were at least three…no four, the fourth one was on her shoulder.
Stepping not far from the supposed elder of the little ramshackle undercity, I level the fusion with a flat stare, while quickly glancing at a bored Lapis. "Lapis? How long were you released from your bubble?" I asked her.
Sitting with her arms crossed while sitting on a misshapen chair made from bits of gem tech that no doubt no longer had any function other than being used as a spare chair, Lapis shrugged at me, "Eh, 'bout an hour before you came in." she lamely answered, before looking elsewhere, seemingly wanting to be somewhere else other than stick in some boring looking room.
Hm…
I looked back at the fusion, who looked back down at me with kindly eyes, "You have yourselves…quite the little…society here…" I tried saying as a means to break the ice with the fusion.
The fusion smiled a bit more at my attempted compliment, "Oh…we do with what we can…though, I am surprised…you are not that turned off from seeing a mixed fusion." she remarked with some mirth laced into her tone.
Well…
"Commander Citrine has had her soldiers volunteer to try mixed fusions to see the benefits of the application of two different gems fusing into one." A Sapphire spoke abruptly, prompting me to do my best at hiding my surprise at someone calling out one of my hidden activities with my loyal gems.
"Oh…is that true?" the elder fusion asked as she turned to look at one of the Sapphires that sat beside her silently.
I zeroed in on the Star Sapphire looking gem, and was about to try and deny the accusations, as Sapphires were not supposed to be able to see the past, only for the yellow Sapphire beside the Star Sapphire to speak up with surprise on her face.
"Oh My! I sense that the commander Citrine is shocked that Star Sapphire called out her past actions!" The Padparadache remarked in a surprised manner.
…what the hell is going on here!
The fusion elder then looked from the Padparadache and gleamed an amused and warm smile down at me, "And here I thought nothing ever changed with gem society after I retreated to the depths below here." she remarked, and clasped one of her pair of hands together, before gesturing with her upper arms to palm her chest.
"Deary me, some introductions are in order, I suppose. I am this…undercity's elder gem, Fluorite, and these are Padparadache, and Star Sapphire." The Fluorite introduced herself, before gesturing to the two sapphires beside her.
"AH, Fluorite is about to introduce herself to the commander! Hello, I'm Padparadache!" The yellow Sapphire gem greeted herself with some oddity.
The other Sapphire greeted me with a head nod, "Greetings…I'm still shocked you'd do such a thing behind Yellow diamond's back." she remarked with an amused smile after introducing herself.
…And why is Lapis giving me weird looks?! What is even going on here!? Why me!
Wait...where's Spinel for as a matter of fact?