Aftershocks (closed w. Paddy)

[Paddy]

At their remark, she chuckled and gave a light nod in agreement. Sometimes it was as if humans defied explanation, though she knew there had to be more to this strange behavior.It came as a welcome surprise to see that she had probably brought more than enough of this human currency to get them around without causing issues, especially if she would get more every time she turned one in. 

As she stepped through the turnstile, she scanned the crowd, searching for interesting data as well as hints that would bring her closer to gaining an understanding of this system. In the forefront of her mind, she wondered where to go or what to do, and glanced up toward 7XB as they made their way through. The sapphire lingered close to the taller gem, her hands clasped in front of her. Further back on her mind, she still held onto some anxiety about what had occurred earlier. They were again in a crowded area, as well as the fact that she felt as if something were left unresolved-- she wondered if the quartz felt the same, but they seemed to look at this sort of thing through a different perspective. As much as she wished she could hear and see more of their perspective, especially on that issue, she felt bringing it up again now wasn't an advantageous strategy. 

The grating metal-on-metal shriek that split through the air caused her to jump a little, interrupting her thoughts. Though, it seemed to be a normal occurrence, as no one else seemed as surprised as her at the sound. She made mental note of that, and tried to get a look at the general area where the sound had originated from, but her attention was pulled away as 7XB began to speak.  

Her eyes sparkled as they offered an answer to her question, and she turned to peer up at them. Though many more questions were popping up into her mind, she mulled carefully over which ones to ask. It seemed she had a track record of asking the wrong ones today, but she couldn't help wanting to hear more about this escapade,"Oh?" She smiled as her eyes passed over the scene, then settled back onto the quartz,"Your first dispatch to Earth had you grappling with this sort of thing?" Internally she hoped they'd had an easy go of it, but she knew Earth made most things difficult, especially on one's first visit,"What was the objective?" 

As she spoke, her eyes caught the source of the metallic clamor as it glided into the designated zone up ahead. But all the short gem could really see were the burnished, pewter hued tops of each segment that stood over the heads of the humans gathered here. Her eyes darted around to get an idea for whether this was the right one or not, and her hands fidgeted anxiously. 

[7XB]

Curious as she was, 7XB should have assumed that the response they had given would have triggered an avalanche of questions, but the gentle inquiry was an easier pill to swallow. “Unfortunately, yes,” they began lightly, voice just loud enough to be distinguished from the disorganised noise of the subway platform, “at the time, I was doing much the same thing we are tonight.” Gathering information, that is. Out of habit, they cast a look about the platform, as if any of these humans cared or could possibly understand what they were talking about. “I was still pursuing the same objective, then. The recovery of Homeworld assets. It..isn't as easy as it sounded initially.” There was an edge to their voice, a taint of frustration from what they themselves saw as continuous failure on their part.

None of the gems they had attempted to recover were willing to return without a fight..and as they had been ordered to follow Pink Diamond's edict to avoid escalation of conflict, there was little that could be done. It was agonizing for them to operate this way, constricted so tightly by their own orders. The whole mission almost seemed flawed at this point. What would their Diamond think?..

Even unspoken, the question was rhetorical, as there was no doubt in their mind that this rebellion wouldn't have gotten even this far had it been Yellow Diamond's colony.

As the transportation tube grinded it's way up to the platform, 7XB reached for the Sapphire once again, their considerable size allowing them to cut an easy path threw the hustle and bustle. “These pods run a predetermined route,” they explain lightly, “ and humans often take multiple trips to reach their destination.”

[Paddy]

Getting an answer from them was enough to make the sapphire even more excited, the fidgeting in her hands releasing some of that compounding energy. Just before her mind-mouth filter brewed dozens of questions. She wanted to dive deeper, to hear the play-by-play of events, to hear their thoughts and feelings on what had happened. But as they finished speaking, the shift in their verbal aspect showed her that this was something the quartz probably preferred not to delve further into. Still, she wondered if allowing them to continue avoiding things was the best route.

Not so long ago, if asked whether a soldier such as this quartz was even capable of emotion, the sapphire might have found the question rather odd. The guards who had lined the Padparadscha 8 Series laboratories had certainly seemed devoid of any feeling, responding only to orders from their handlers. Soldiers had been another piece of architecture back then, she'd hardly noticed them. Suffice to say her perception had been turned on its head ever since she had begun learning about 7XB. But she recognized that she was still out of touch, it was hard to say what the best option would be.
She nodded, acknowledging what they said while she tried to think of a way to respond.

Being taken up by them was always fun, it calmed her anxiousness to know there was little chance she could be separated from her protector, and it seemed they had a good handle on what to do-- much to her relief as they wedged their way through the crowd. It also gave her more mental space to think on the things she had already been stewing about. She flipped open her holoscreen to check the map she'd taken a photo of earlier. "In that case we might have a bit of a debacle to get through. It looks as if this one takes us close to the target destination...or I hope I'm interpreting this correctly,"  

Her mind dwelt elsewhere. She wondered if trying to relate her own experiences to theirs would make them more likely to open up about whatever had them frustrated concerning their objective. Though she could make some assumptions, there was only one way to know. "--and, you know, it isn't my primary objective, but I've had to make some apprehensions," She started, becoming more nervous as she knew she was traipsing closer to a threshold they probably didn't want her to cross,"Certainly isn't easy, especially when the target is confused, or absolutely delusional. The rebel I spoke about earlier was like that...very difficult..." She thought back on some rebels she had tried to bring back around to the right side of things, though now she wondered how she could've let herself get caught up in such an impossible task. Would admitting to her failure help in this pursuit? For now, she simply let 7XB infer what implications they could from her words,"Sometimes there just isn't much that can be done, though I'm sure you were able to extract some valuable data?" She supposed that they would glance off of the question, but she could foresee other reactions, mirroring the one she'd elicited earlier. She prepared herself for whatever response they'd give, giving herself a bit of emotional armor as she anticipated. 


  

[7XB]

It was never their intent to come off as so standoffish, or at least not to Padparadscha, anyway. In any other situation, with any other dignitary, 7XB’s behavior would have been considered on par with what was expected. Not so with Padparadscha, it seemed. It was odd to them even now, that the sapphire was so interested in learning more about them, an altogether disinteresting quartz, hardly different in their mind than any other, though she had stated her own opinion enough times that the Clear Quartz didn't feel that they possessed the fortitude to dispute her.

While they were not above feeling confident and prideful in their abilities and accomplishments, the quartz had never gotten used to talking about themselves. It wasn't how they were grown.

“I'm sure it will bring us close enough,” they said, just bringing the two of them past the threshold of the car before the sliding door draws to a close behind them, much to the chagrin of more than one of the already-elbow-to-elbow occupants. There was a pause, a heavy lock blown away to uncover one of their eyes. “There is some truth to that, I suppose,” they admitted, “ some valuable insights were definitely made..” a certain renegade Howlite was brought to Homeworld's attention, and a fellow Yellow Diamond gem was brought up to speed on the situation..even if they refused to return. In regards to recon, the mission was successful. 

"Though certainly nothing I expected."

[Paddy]

She gave a nod, hoping they were right about where this human transporter would sling them. As they piled into the crowded car, she glanced around to take everything in, or as much as she could from her vantage point. She felt some deja vu, remembering the marred structure she'd allowed herself to be cornered in just days ago. Though, this one was considerably more structurally sound and alive, and now she supposed she had an answer to the question of what these cars looked like when they were in use. It was a strange feeling, but present circumstances allowed her to quickly get her mind off of it. 

The sapphire visibly relaxed as they spoke, tension in her attempt to brace for a shut-down now subsiding. Still, they weren't much for talking, and their suitably vague responses only caused her to be even more intrigued. That felt to be an allegory for her interactions with 7XB; ever since she had first embarked on her quest to unveil the mysteries behind this gem, she had accumulated more questions than she started with. The more answers they gave, the more of those questions she wanted to ask-- but now she was putting a considerable effort into keeping herself toned down. 

"Ah!" She beamed at them, unable to totally reel down her excitement. She was on a roll; she'd asked quite a few questions so far without triggering an adverse reaction, and internally she began a cross-analysis of the data she was accumulating from her interaction with them. Soon, perhaps, she would understand a bit more about them holistically, and could feel less anxious about asking them things,"It seems as if Earth has a good amount of data that pops out at us when we least expect. Unexpected data is often the most valued! It could change an entire hypothesis, or point of view, or turn a convention over on its head. I have to admit there is some data that has completely changed my own hypotheses, including things we found out on that expedition that you and I embarked on," Now that her mouth was moving, it was a bit harder for her to stop,"So what were your unexpected findings? Have you dealt with it since, or do you know whether the research is continued? I'm a bit curious as to how you came across trains in this endeavor, what was it like? and-- uh," she caught herself before she fully opened the floodgates. It was her attempt to get closer to what she really wanted-- to hear their story.

There was a long moment where the vehicle remained stationary. Then, slowly at first, it began to glide forward, passing by the faces and movement that occupied the platform that had been left behind. It picked up speed as it lurched into the dimly lit tunnel that surrounded them. 

[7XB]

As the train lurched forward and steadily began to pick up speed, 7XB could not help but to side-eye the small, excitable Sapphire as she only seemed to succeed in getting herself worked up, despite her best efforts to the contrary. “You don't say?” They question with some amusement at the way she seemed unable to really contain herself any longer. Truthfully, she had made the quartz curious with her mention of their previous mission and the shifting of conventions, raising a brow.

“Is that so?” They question seriously, “ and what is this revelation you have arrived at, if I may be so bold as to ask?” The memory of that mission, for more reasons than one, was still chiseled sharply into the forefront of 7XB’s cluttered mind, but none of what they had experienced, short of the ever-present questions about corruptions and their nature, struck the clear gem as particularly thought-provoking. Though again, they were not a cut of gem designed for such things, and Padparadscha's ability to dissect any and everything was actually quite amazing to them. Remembering that she had first posed a question, the soldier offered an answer, if only to coax one from her: “My investigation lead me to the next human settlement..a place called 'Jersey’.”

[Paddy]

"Oh!" She was a bit surprised to have questions being turned around on her, being that she had been slipping into her interrogative mode-- normally those being questioned didn't have much to ask of her. But, she smiled; she enjoyed talking, but talking about observation was extraordinarily compelling for her, and already vocally charged, it was easy for her to continue allowing the words to pour out. "Jersey? I'm not sure whether I've heard of it, I certainly haven't been there," The question of what it was like would be implied by her slightly inflected tone.

"As for my findings, well, there were a lot. The nature of that zone, corruption, historical implications-- and the nature of that experiment. There were many things I initially found very odd about that mission as a whole, but I've since been able to dig up more about it in my cross-analysis of the data I extracted then," She stopped short of going on-- she wouldn't be able to talk about every revelation that she'd made without tying 7XB down for an hours-long lecture, which she was almost positive the quartz would not be up for. She decided to shift her attention to the aspect of that mission that had been most peculiar for her.

Then, she physically shifted, to look more directly at 7XB, "Forgive me but this is a complex thing to talk about, I've never said it out loud. You're more experienced than I am, so perhaps this is simply a thing that has gone over my head," She shrugged, glancing away from them as she mulled over what she was going to say. This was something she'd thought about a lot, perhaps even too much. But, she felt they should hear it while the two of them were going to be co-investigating the phenomenon they'd uncovered. She looked back to them, a more sober expression as she spoke at a measured pace.


"Comradery is something I'd never really thought about until I was sanctioned for field work. I'd selected certain gems to help me in the past, and I considered them comrades. It was a shared ideology that compelled me to think of them as such. But I think I discovered something deeper about comradery on that dispatch, how crucial it can be when you're surrounded by your fears," She paused, eyes flicking to the window where she caught sight of strange iconography painted onto the tunnel. By now, the train had reached its full speed, cruising through the dark toward what Padpara hoped was the bay area. Her eyes went back to 7XB,"Well, I had faced down my greatest fears that night, and I hadn't even realized that it was possible for me to do so, until then. It was you who helped me to realize that," She stopped, and gave a deliberate look to the quartz to let them chew on that for a moment. Would something so important to her be registered by them?   

"I never realized it was possible to feel so...so much for another gem. Is this true comradery? I suppose I can't say," That was a whole lot of honesty, and she glanced away as she hoped 7XB hadn't been overwhelmed by what was said. 

[7XB]

“I’m afraid it isn't much to see, really,” they began to explain quietly,” it seems to simply be a smaller version of this city, with little different. They-” then a muffled human voice crackled over the ceiling-mounted communication system to deliver some sort of message. It was, unfortunately, all but indecipherable to the Quartz, and even a number of humans shook their head at the shoddy quality of the communication. From what they could tell, though this was based solely on their last experience, this indicated that the train would be reaching it's intended destination before too much longer, lingering some time before moving on to the next. At least that was what they assumed and hope.

But the subject shifted, giving 7XB only a moment to dwell on the questions caused by Padparadscha's explanation, their adopted expression rather serious if for no other reason than to show the smaller gem that they were, in fact, listening as she spoke. It was a lot to take in, their heavy brow knitting together more completely; At first, the only response they could give was silence, eyes roving towards the flickering, harsh light that passed by the dim and dirty windows. Their lips puckered together, twisting in thought.

Comradery.

“When we first came out of the Kindergarten..there was a handful of clear quartz gems,” they began quietly, ponderously, “All the same, among the other Quartz.” Each word came a bit slowly, only formulated moments before it was spoken. “We all knew each other, reacted and looked out for each other without thinking, almost.” But they were all essentially the same gem, would anything else be expected? “It was instinct, but this..it was more than just our facet or cut.” A connection, of some kind. Something that faded away as their fellow clears vanished amongst the stars and, inevitably, faded out in pursuit of their duty, as 7XB someday would.

“That's ..it was comradery..this has all of that same feeling. But there's more to it.” something deeper, even.

[Paddy]

The interruption had offended her; it pulled her out of her focus on 7XB's words, and she searched with narrowed eyes to try to find the source of the unpleasant mumbling that had shoved itself into the airspace. She wanted to hear more about this Jersey and why the quartz had been there, though she found herself drawn back around to them as they spoke again. Now, they addressed her concern over comradery, and her attempt to pin down what it was that she had with this quartz.

Her eyes widened; this was more valuable information that she had been hunting after.The sapphire clung onto each word with all of her focus, searching their expression for clues that might speak further volumes. If any gem knew what comradery was, it would be a gem who had fought for their comrades over the course of millennia.They'd revealed to her precious little about their origin before, but now she could get more of a sense for what it was like to come from a place like that. The realm of soldiers was still so strange to her, and the way they interacted with one another was always intriguing, but now she had another facet to her perspective when looking back on her observations.

She thought back on her own connection, or lack thereof, to the sapphires that had been apart of the 8 Series experiment. There was the sense of comradery as she knew it; a shared place, a shared identity and purpose. But, she'd never felt what the quartz described, not with those gems. Though, she recalled the moments when her actions could've been called thoughtless on her dispatch with 7XB. Ultimately, she knew she had acted without thought, but she had acted on something; had it been instinct, as they described? A sense of comradery with them? Their final words gave her pause. 

"More to it?" She echoed, her eyes searching theirs. She brought her hand up to rub her chin. To see why they would have that connection with their fellow soldiers wasn't so difficult, but she failed to use the insight to parallel her experience with 7XB. She couldn't imagine that she could be anything to them like another clear quartz would be, but she still lacked a frame of reference outside of what they had told of. Her lips parted, and hung there for a moment. Of the dozens of questions she had, she could only ask one for the time being. 

"What would you say that is?" She looked intently at them as words came back to her. Padparadscha knew they had trouble articulating their emotions into words, but whatever they said would be an insight she couldn't afford to leave out of her calculations on this subject. 

The train continued down, until the air was again struck by an intrusive grinding of metal on metal as it came closer to its destination. Humans around them braced for the shift in speed. After a moment, a new platform, much like the one that had been left behind, unfurled into view, many standing at the ready to take the place of those who would get off at this stop. 

[7XB]

“It seemed relevant to..what you were saying, is all.” they said, immediately trying to downplay the importance of what they had just said in order to shield themselves from any potential embarrassment that could arise from opening themselves up too much at once, something they had always been fearful of. The sudden lurching forward of the steel pod indicated that it was mere moments away from latching onto the next platform, and the quartz braced themselves in order to keep from barrelling too far forward.

Truthfully, it was a relief, the distraction, that voice crackling again over the intercommunication system, the word 'Bay’ almost indistinguishable from the rest of the garble, but it was there nonetheless. As the doors glided open behind them, the quartz turned to exit, knowing that the legion of humans from which they were blocking the doors would not be very patient. “Hopefully this is close enough to our destination?” They only remembered that she had said it was near the bay..or something like that.

[Paddy]

As the train came to a halt, the sapphire internally crashed as they put their barrier up at the further questioning. The irritating intercom garble made her more frustrated, distracting her from the things she wanted to say as the transport opened itself up, letting in sounds of the scuffing of shoes against tile, and what seemed like hundreds of voices mingling in the airspace. She floundered for a moment, trying to think of a way to extract more information from the quartz, but before she could, they brought up the more expedient goal the two of them had adopted for the time being.

"Well," She started, a bit short as she tried to think of ways to keep both of her tasks running at once. She tapped her holotech to bring up her screen, and panned through it to find their locations on the map. It was enough to cushion her frustration to see that the train had indeed brought them close to the general area she had wanted to be in, and the more specific locations which had garnered her interest weren't far,"We appear to be closing in on the target destination, it's southwest once we reach the surface level," 

7XB might have gained a false sense of security after she'd been thwarted in her initial attempts to get more information from them, so she tried to be more delicate. But, unlike many sapphires, delicacy was not exactly her strength, "--and, by the way, it is relevant," She insisted,"Like I said, I just don't know about these things like you do. None of the sapphires I was crafted with were..." The sapphire paused, and wondered if that was something she should reveal to them. Part of her wondered how they might react to learning something like that about her, but another part of her wondered if the implications would be so obvious; then, she realized, those implications probably would be. "Well, what's important is that, as I said earlier, I need your experienced opinions, 7XB," She paused, pursing her lips for a moment. Thinking of ways to make this more comfortable for them was difficult.

"We're a team, aren't we? A field research team," Her hands clasped together, and peered up at them from where they held her,"Now you say there is more to it-- I'm inclined to believe you. After all, the two of us are quite disparate," her mind churned over the connection to their comrades that 7XB had mentioned, trying to pull it apart and apply it to this present situation,"Though, it could be said we have our similarities," 

[7XB]

They nodded approvingly as the sapphire was able to confirm that they were, in fact, within striking distance of this mysterious research target that she had laid out for them. At this point, 7XB was tempted to call themselves curious about this nexus of gathered humans, wondering what purpose this seaside location served.

Though they supposed an answer would arise soon.

“Excellent,” they began somewhat absently, trudging through the crowd towards the surface exit, “It shouldn't take very long, now.” Then came the verbal ambush, their pace quickening to some degree as they made their way up the staircase. “I don't know how to describe it,” they admitted with a squint born of their eye’s adjustment to the dimmer surface light, “I just know that it is different.” A team, is that what they were? Hard as they tried, the Quartz had a hard time seeing it as such. They were a quartz and she a sapphire, a soldier and a scientist. They were not accustomed to thinking of such a gem as their equal, nor were they necessarily sure that they wanted to. Whatever this was between the two of them most certainly did not extend to other gems, and it could certainly be disasterous if they were to grow too comfortable.

The air grew saltier, and more lively, as the quartz brought them ever closer to the water, ignorant of the odd looks given to the tiny woman they carried. 

[Paddy]

As they emerged from the subway station, the sapphire peered around at the surroundings to get a sense for the direction, then down at her map to be sure they were on track before she turned to look at 7XB. Paying no mind to the humans, she listened as the quartz spoke. She decided that they were being genuine, and nodded as she got a better idea for what the issue here was. It was less of an outright refusal to give her answers, and more a case of lacking proper language. Neither of them knew quite how to put this into words; the sapphire could certainly think of some words, but none of them were quite right.

"Half the battle of research is to make the subject describable," She noted, thinking back on something said earlier,"So I suppose we could start small, little things that are similar or different. I'll start," Though she'd already said she would, literally the moment after the words left her mouth she wasn't exactly sure where to even start. She thought about the things she'd said before; the two of them were different, that was a start. But it seemed like the things they had in common would be more compelling,"You know, we're both conduits for ionized energy," That had to be something, she decided. Perhaps there was something about a shared mechanism, even if that mechanism were used in different ways. For 7XB it was a powerful weapon, and the conductive aspect of their composition was clear to her after the journey they'd been on, "We're both conductive," She concluded. 

As she wondered to herself, her holotech blipped, and showed her a coded message had finally returned from 6UE. Her brows furrowed as the numbers 106 appeared in the text; what could the guard possibly be tied up with? She hadn't been given many direct orders, and if anything should've been continuing to wander around looking for "items of interest". Had she actually found something? The sapphire stalled for a moment, but she remembered the concerns 7XB had brought up earlier. Should she bring it up? After a moment, she flipped her holoscreen back to the map, and her attention slid back over to the quartz and her surroundings. 

The bay appeared between buildings, and her eyes floated over it. Drifts of white snow carried gently over the ice and water. It seemed like every other thing on Earth reminded her of some unpleasant escapade, and the bay itself was no different. But, soon her eyes wandered over the cubicle she had been looking for, though it was some ways down. Humans stood in the cold, lined up all the way down the block to get into this box with lights hanging off of it. Some of them didn't appear to be prepared for the subzero temperatures, shivering where they stood in line; she wondered why they'd dress that way if they were unable to produce enough radiation to keep themselves warm. She pointed toward the building,"That's one of them," She noted,"I'm not sure how it operates, but I suppose we'll find out,"  

[7XB]

Due perhaps in some part to their less-than-positive outlook on the situation, but in the moments of silence that followed, 7XB’s mind swirled with nothing but differences. Static, unconquerable differences. What could they possibly have in common, the Quartz wondered in relative silence? 'Conductive’..they latched onto that sooner than they would have thought, glancing down the length of the left arm, all but hanging freely as they held the small Sapphire in the crook of their right. Eyes traced along the curvature of their bicep and forearm, all the way down to their gem, an angular cut against their muscle- then to their flipped palm, fingers curling against the flesh.

She was right, in a way; They were both able to channel that white-hot energy through their bodies, rendering it into plasma..even if it was for different reasons. They were both conductive! Something inside each of their gems had to be at least as similar as the effect it rendered, did it not?

It was comforting in a way.

The building indicated did not look all that different than the others they had seen tonight, save for the bright lights wrapped around the building, with a focus over what must have been the entrance. Though they were both unaware of what occurred inside these places, it must have possessed some cultural weight to humans. Some time later they were able to take their place at the rear of the line.

[Paddy]

Comfortable in her spot, and with the progress of these tasks, a small smile floated on the sapphire's lips as 7XB brought her around to the back of the line with them. What she'd said had gotten the quartz thinking, and it did something to spark her thoughts on the matter as well. Would their shared conductiveness explain the empowering energy that their presence gave her? That seemed to be a strong case, and there were other things she could note about the fact that the both of them could harness plasma for their own means. 

However, 7XB had said that this connection was different from their connection to other iterations of clear quartz, who presumably were conductive as well. Not every Padparadscha had been conductive, but those that were never elicited this feeling. Again, it seemed that the single comparison wasn't adequate to explain what was going on. Yet, it was a thing they had in common, something a quartz and a sapphire with many stark differences could connect over; abilities that had also gone into ensuring one another's survival during that dive into the jungle they'd endured. 

The group of humans ahead of them were engaging in a loud conversation about something Padparadscha didn't have the context to understand, but didn't put too much of her focus on trying to suss it out. Instead, she peered at the quartz, smile lingering. She did find the similarities compelling, but after a moment, she decided the differences could be just as much. They participated in a conventional quartz task by protecting her in her unconventional sapphire duties, she wondered if there was something to that. She almost felt like she was made to sit here; not only was she comfortable, but she knew she was utterly safe, 7XB's talents would make sure of that. But she wouldn't be able to go on that subject without explaining herself to them. 

Before she could dive too deeply into internal thought on the nature of her dynamic with this gem, the line shifted forward, and she decided to keep progress on this task moving,"Your turn," She said with a sing-song lilt, then gave them a more pearly smile,"Something we have in common, or don't?"  As she spoke, more people piled up in the line behind the gems. It would be interesting to see what all of these humans were so eager to find inside of this lit-up box, but she found herself more interested in whatever 7XB would say.