Unauthorized Absence (C: Lapis)

[Amethyst]

Earth's azure sky was dotted with bright, cottony clouds, and the sun's light glimmered over the calm sea. The air was filled with the din of midday activity as people lounged on the beach, or gathered at the businesses lining the boardwalk, and a pleasant breeze carried the scent of salt and the sound of water lapping against the shore. 

The amiable atmosphere of the day was juxtaposed to 6UE's dour expression as the wind carried through her thick, spiraling hair. She crouched near a warp, eyes darting around the scene. Humans could be dangerous, she figured that out after a few escapades across the planet's surface, so the huge soldier gem's nerves were set on a precarious edge. There were more things to be afraid of than just these organics; other gems were around here, gems who had broken the laws of their homeworld and lived in hiding. A knot twisted in her midriff as she knelt. 

She wasn't suppose to be here-- her post was abandoned, and her fellow quartz wouldn't take long to notice. 6UE couldn't expect her comrades to not report her missing, after all they were in a war zone; her unit was probably already worried sick. Over and over again she had questioned whether this was the right thing to do, but after the rumors of a strong rebel presence in this sector, the quartz soldier knew she only had one way to find out what it was that she was going to do with the information she had. 

6UE stood, and shifted her uniform to hide the Pink Diamond insignia on her, and to better blend in with the humans. In a flash of lavender light, she changed into a sleeveless jersey with the number 6 on her back, running shorts and sandals. She'd never seen any humans quite as tall or purple as she was, but perhaps this would do something to keep attention off of her as she headed down from the hills, into the human settlement, in search of rebel gems. 

doofy

[doofy]

Lapis sat criss-cross on one of the roofs in Beach City. In her hands she held one of those toy watery squish tubes, which seemed infinitely fascinating to her. She seemed to be trying to figure out how it was actually made—how did the water get in there? She put a hand to the gem on her chest and summoned a blob of water. She shaped it into a tube, then let just the outside of it freeze. She seemed satisfied, but only for a moment, as it shattered when she squeezed it. She sighed and decided to give up on making one of her own.

She resumed playing with the toy, and she spotted someone at a distance. Walking in the opposite direction seemed to be the tallest, purplest human she had ever seen. She blinked and accidentally squeezed the toy, causing it to slip out of her hands. She eep'd and immediately leapt off the roof after it. Luckily, her she was able to save the toy. Equally as lucky, the dumpster she landed in broke her fall. Poking her head out of the dumpster with a banana peel on her head, she decided to hustle over to the purple human. She inspected her from behind, trying to match her stride, tilting her head from one side to the other as she tried to figure out what was with this human.

[Amethyst]

The quartz was on high alert as she took her long strides through town. She'd only been here once before, and had fought Crystal Gems face-to-face. If those same gems arrived and recognized her, she imagined it wouldn't be the most pleasant introduction she would have to the rebel group. Though, it was hard to imagine any sort of introduction to gems who were suppose to be her enemies would be pleasant, and she hoped to avoid conflict today of all days. 

Her deep indigo eyes scanned over the heads of humans who went about their business, and there seemed to be many more people here today than there had been the last time she visited. Most of them seemed indifferent to her presence; perhaps she wasn't as odd looking as she thought, or perhaps it was simply the fact that these humans were more use to a gem presence. She wasn't sure which option made her feel better or worse.

Though, for some time, she'd gotten a strange prickling on her nape, the sort one gets when they're being watched. Perhaps it was the humans, but it was easy to think rebels had an eye on her too, if this was indeed their base of operations. Amethyst knew her nerves were probably messing with her, but as a soldier she knew she had to take her precautions. The huge gem slowed her pace, and let her eyes dart over the roof-tops and distant hills. Her thick brows furrowed, and her burly arms crossed together. She glanced over her shoulder, then did a double take at the blue person leering at her,"Whu!" Amethyst flipped all the way around, wide-eyed as her arms unfurled and she took an instinctively defensive stance,"You!" She uttered, her racing thoughts preventing her from lacing together a coherent sentence,"A-- a gem!"

[doofy]

Seeing the large gem suddenly spin around startled Lapis, to where she hopped off the ground. The banana peel slipped off her head at that point. When she took a step backward, she slipped on the banana peel and fell to her butt. Not understanding in that brief moment that she slipped on a banana peel and that she was not under attack, she quickly scooted backwards on her butt as water slipped out from her gem and began to envelop her arms. Her response came in sporadic bursts. She hadn't interacted with many before, but she assumed she knew how to speak to them based on previous interactions. She began in a Scottish accent."Yes! Hi! Hello human! 'Am a gem! Me name's Lapis! 'Am not attackin' ye, just watchin' walk! Ye walk well, fer some'ne so... purple?" She paused to reflect on what she just said. 

[Amethyst]

Her brows shot up and she grimaced as Lapis took a tumble; if this had been any other situation she might have burst out laughing at the gem's antics, but 6UE realized she'd scared the wits out of the fellow gem, and tried to calm herself down. Now that she knew for certain this was a gem, she had a choice to make; reveal herself now, or wait for another moment. Her nerves were on fire, so much so that a bit of flame actually manifested itself on a patch of her arm. Her eyes slid down and her brows shot back up, she smacked her hand over the small patch of purple fire to snuff it out. An awkward, nervous smile pulled over her lips, and she let her defensive stance relax.  

"Erm...yeah, I guess I do," She gave a light grin, and scratched the back of her head,"Nice to meet you Lapis. I'm, uh..." She tried to think of some alias, looking a bit stumped for a moment,"--I'm Ame. J-just enjoyin' the day you know, soaking up that water and sunlight, maybe mixing up some protein shakes later or doing some rap battling, human stuff you know," 6UE chuckled after over-explaining herself. Her eyes shifted as she did, keeping on the look out for other gems. She was amazed that this one had fallen for her disguise, but if this were a rebel, she'd want to reveal her identity soon, just not right here out in the open,"You alright? Looks like that, uh..." She'd never seen a banana, let alone it's peel,"--organic thing is giving you trouble," The Amethyst lowered, plucked the peel off the ground to inspect it, then tossed it away when she realized it wasn't sentient. Before standing again, she extended a large hand to help Lapis get back up to her feet.

[doofy]

She blinked as she saw the fire suddenly appear on Ame's arm. She glanced up at the sun, considering whether it was hotter outside than she could feel. Perhaps it was simply hotter for humans than gems—as this person was clearly a human after spouting all of those human interests she knew nothing about. She watched Ame pluck the banana peel off the ground, and she tilted her head. "Where did that come from?" She looked around, then allowed herself to be helped up. She no longer had the Scottish accent, as she noted that this must have been a human without one of those. "But thank you. I'm sorry for following you, but I just wanted a better look. Sometimes humans don't like it when I'm trying to get a better look. Sometimes they very loudly don't like it," She said with a squint. "But I think I did enough looking. I guess I'll just head home with my-uh-" She looked down at the water tube toy. "-...very nice thing now."

[Amethyst]

6UE's brow raised when Lapis suddenly changed her manner of speech as she pulled the light gem up to her feet, which was confusing for the Amethyst, but she found herself too perplexed about this situation in general to really question what had happened to the gem's voice. She didn't have an answer for the strange organic matter that had accosted the terraformer gem, but she did have a very direct goal. When Lapis began to give her farewells, the quartz's eyes widened.   

"W-wait!" Amethyst's voice became a bit frantic; she'd just found a lead, and didn't want her to disappear as suddenly as she'd appeared. If this was a Crystal Gem rebel, 6UE would have a lot of questions, and some information to share with her, but she had to be cautious,"Uh-- it's fine, really, I don't mind at all! I'm just here looking around myself. A-are you a...a--" Was it even possible to ask this gem if she was a rebel without causing some sort of scene? The two colorful gems were already getting looks from passer's by,"Uh-- maybe we could like...go do some stuff around town, you know? I hear this place has lots of stuff to do besides looking, and the other stuff I said--" Her brows furrowed when her eyes flicked onto the watery thing Lapis had, and pointed a finger toward it,"--and erm...that is a very nice thing...what does it do?" The quartz was tempted to reach out and poke it, but part of her wondered if it might bite her.    

[doofy]

Lapis furrowed her brow at Ame's initial question and tried to fill it in for her. "Am I a gem? Am I a Lapis Lazuli? Because yes to both of those things. I would like to do things though! There are a lot of things to do in Beach City. We cooullld go to the arcade, or walk on the boards, or yell at birds.... Wait, you probably already know all of that already." She chuckled quietly to herself, waving it off. Then she frowned and looked down at the toy. "This? This is a very... uh... well, I don't know what it is. But they somehow fit water into it, and it's really slippery without being wet." She squeezed one end of it and sprung to catch it before it fell out of her grasp. "But you don't know what it is? It's a human thing, after all."

[Amethyst]

The quartz pursed her lips, having difficulty even coming up with some excuse why she didn't know what this strange watery thing was that Lapis seemed to take a liking to. The object seemed an awful lot like the rest of the organic life on this planet, different watery shapes doing inexplicable things, living on a watery world that had been so easily commandeered by gemkind. 

Amethyst thought back on some of her interaction with humans in the past, and gave a shrug,"Well, not every human knows the same things, some of them--us-- er--...are not the right type to know what that thing is," She gave a gesture toward the inexplicably slippery object,"You know, kinda like how there are different gems for different things," The quartz hoped that would be good enough to cover any of her blunders, at least until she could get this gem to a quieter and less vulnerable place, where she could reveal her identity and as for help to find the Crystal Gem base, which she knew was somewhere in this city. Then, her eyes lit up as an idea hit her. 

"Walking on boards and yelling at birds sounds fun and all, but you know, I've decided human stuff is par for the course. Do you know any gems around here we could, uh, hang out with?" She gave a grin, her eyes trailed down to Lapis's found object,"and, erm...can I try that thing?" Her huge hand reached out timidly.

[doofy]

"I guess that makes sense. You all don't speak the same, and you definitely don't look the same." She nodded and handed over the water toy. "But yes! If you don't want to yell at the birds I know plenty of gems in Beach City! There's... well... uh... there are a lot of rebels here." She paused, then quickly sputtered as to not accidentally incriminate herself. "B-But there's a lot of gems still loyal to Homeworld! I know many of them! Or I could show you back to my apartment, but I don't know how Ruby feels anymore when it comes to me bringing new people over—gem or human." She admitted with a shrug. "Oh but—'Hang out with?' " She repeated, beginning to frown as she recalled the last time someone asked her to 'hang out'. "You mean romantically?" 

[Amethyst]

As the watery thing was handed to her, she took great care to gently grasp it, and looked more closely at the toy as Lapis spoke. First she was shocked by how dry the thing seemed to the touch, yet it was as slippery as described. At mention of rebels, loyalists, and another gem named ruby, Ame came to the realization that Lapis's affiliation was much more complex than had originally been assumed, and one of her brows began to raise. She wasn't quite sure what an apartment was, and she wasn't sure how to ask to see rebels without sounding incredibly suspicious. 

"What?" Both of Amethyst's thick brows shot up at Lapis's last question, and the toy slipped straight out of her grip. Her hand dove with super human speed to snatch it out of the air, but the force used to grab it only caused it to slide again, flinging in the opposite direction. The quartz's eyes locked onto her target and she snapped it out of the air again, preventing it from falling to the ground, but the slippery object continued to defy her. She stared with an unproportionate amount of focus trying to tame the slippery thing before she glanced back up to Lapis,"Uh!" She gave a nervous chuckle, and scratched the back of her head,"No, no, that's not it! I-- uh...you know, finding rebels sounds kind of like a dangerously fun way to spend some time!" 6UE spoke a bit hastily in an attempt to mask her awkwardness,"W-where do you think we could find them?" She handed the toy back to Lapis, a bit nervous that it might try to escape from her again. 

[doofy]

Lapis watched in horror as the water toy tried to escape Ame's grip, then sighed with relief when she managed to secure it again. She took it back when offered, nodding her thanks. "Well... sure! I know where the rebels' base is. If we're lucky enough to find the leader, I can point them out too. The only problem is... they never open their door!" She said with widening eyes. "I've gone over there a few times now and tried knocking on the door like humans do, and they never answer! I don't know if it's abandoned or if they never learned what knocking on the door meant, because they must surely recognize me by now." She looked away in thought at that, rubbing her cheek. "Why do you want to see the rebels anyway? They're no danger to humans."

[Amethyst]

Her eyes widened as Lapis told her story; it sounded like rebels were going to be more difficult to get a hold of than she had hoped, though part of her wondered what she expected. As the gem asked her question, Ame's eyes flicked away, and she gave a silent sigh through her nostrils. It was difficult for her to keep lying like this, especially to a gem who seemed so genuine, but it wasn't Lapis she was particularly worried about that this point; rather it was the fact that she knew this area was being scouted by Homeworld. 

"Well...you know, uh--" How was she going to admit the truth, especially after taking the lie so far? Would Lapis even speak to her once she knew the truth? She gave a more registered sigh,"To be honest, it's kind of a secret," She shrugged, lowering her voice as she spoke,"I can tell you the rest once we get out of town," The amethyst glanced down to the ground for a moment, and wondered if this was all a monumentally bad decision on her part. All she could hope for was that Lapis wouldn't do away with her once the truth was revealed-- as far as she knew, that hydrokinesis that the terraformer caste possessed was fearsome, and could douse 6UE's fire-based abilities in seconds, if not toss her to the other side of the watery planet. "Hopefully this time they'll open their door for us, eh?" She gave a little smile, and prepared to follow Lapis to whatever location would be the Crystal Gem base. 

[doofy]

Lapis pursed her lips with mild concern at the mention of this big purple human's secret reasons for seeing the Crystal Gems, though that quickly faded. "Well, we aren't actually going out of town, I think. Since the temple is..." She looked around to inspect their location, then momentarily slipped into a stupor. Her mouth drooped open and her eyes became mirrors. She quickly blinked back to life and pointed in a vague direction towards the beach. "That way!" She began walking in that direction, and shrugged. "I hope so, I've never seen the inside of the temple. I want to some day, because it would be great if they could let us use their warp pad. It would be a lot easier to get around that way if we could, since Ruby doesn't like to fly."

[Amethyst]

6UE listened, then furrowed her brows as Lapis seemed to slip out of consciousness suddenly. Amethyst glanced around, before looking back to the gem. Her brows went up as the terraformer came to again and began walking as if nothing just happened, and the soldier gem scratched the back of her head in mild confusion as she stepped after Lapis. She listened as the gem continued, then nodded her head,"Yeah, it's a bit of a walk to get here. I didn't realize they had their own warp," She rubbed her chin; it seemed dangerous for the rebels to have such a thing inside of their base. After all, what was keeping Homeworld from beaming straight into the rebel headquarters if they were found out?

It was another doubt to throw on top of her pile of doubts, but she kept walking anyway. As she did, she continued in a light tone,"So did you use some kind of ability back there?" She inquired, hoping the gem knew what she was talking about. As the two continued toward the statue looming over the beach, Amethyst kept her eyes on it, searching for signs of more gems or gem activity. She frowned slightly when her eyes passed over damage to the beach in front of the temple, as if there had recently been some manner of skirmish. The closer they came to the temple, the more uneasy she felt.