☄ the bottom of the sea

I'm Lapis Lazuli, and you can't keep me trapped here anymore!

[deepsleepbeats]

{Here it is, a proper intro post! I’m Tama!! I rp’d in Citta like… six months ago? It’s been a while and needless to say I’m a little rusty, but! I am happy to be back and hopefully I’ll be in for the long run. 

But now for the Real Purpose of this post. In order to mark my glorious return to the RP world, I will be holding a SUMMER ICON GIVEAWAY. Reblog this post for a chance to get an icon drawn by yours truly with a fresh Summer theme!! (examples of previous giveaway icons [x] [x]) We’ll go with nine winners since that’s the most that can fit in an image post lol

Some Rules:

Your blog must be affiliated with Citta Alveare

1 reblog per account (if you have multiple accounts at Citta, you can do one each, but you can only be picked as a winner once; I’m trusting you guys to be honest if I end up picking 2+ of your accounts)

Winners will be randomly chosen at the start of meme day (6/12) and icons will be posted once they’re all done (whenever that is, hopefully within a couple of days of picking the winners. 

[deepsleepbeats]

{Here it is, a proper intro post! I’m Tama!! I rp’d in Citta like… six months ago? It’s been a while and needless to say I’m a little rusty, but! I am happy to be back and hopefully I’ll be in for the long run. 

But now for the Real Purpose of this post. In order to mark my glorious return to the RP world, I will be holding a SUMMER ICON GIVEAWAY. Reblog this post for a chance to get an icon drawn by yours truly with a fresh Summer theme!! (examples of previous giveaway icons [x] [x]) We’ll go with nine winners since that’s the most that can fit in an image post lol

Some Rules:

Your blog must be affiliated with Citta Alveare

1 reblog per account (if you have multiple accounts at Citta, you can do one each, but you can only be picked as a winner once; I’m trusting you guys to be honest if I end up picking 2+ of your accounts)

Winners will be randomly chosen at the start of meme day (6/12) and icons will be posted once they’re all done (whenever that is, hopefully within a couple of days of picking the winners. 

[aequorarchive]

【 where’s waldo? 】

[actuallymuffet]

Muffet wracked her brain, trying to recall if she’d seen someone that fit the description. Unfortunately, she hadn’t seen many children around. There was only one small boy she could recall. The odds of them being the person this girl was looking for was very slim indeed, but… it didn’t help anything to keep it to herself.

“Did this child perhaps have glowing yellow eyes? If not, I’m afraid I haven’t seen them, my dear. Where did you last see them?”

[aequorarchive]

“Glowing yellow eyes...?” There are some odd gems who can do that, and Steven is half gem... but it still strikes her as odd. Besides, isn’t he a rose quartz? The Rose Quartz, even? Even if his eyes were glowing, wouldn’t they be pink? 

“Um. No, I don’t think his eyes glow.” She can’t say she’s not a bit curious as to why this... person would think that, though. “The last time I saw him... jeez, it was too long ago! It doesn’t matter where we were - he could be anywhere by now!”

[aequorarchive]

【 lapis lazuli’s delivery service 】

@tersorium

Ordinarily, she might not have noticed the soft clatter of an item falling from its owners hands. She might not have cared even if she had, or bothered picking it up off the ground. She certainly wouldn’t have bothered running to catch up to whoever it was that had dropped it, but she must admit: she’s a bit curious about this... thing, whatever it is.

She makes her way through a small crowd with muttered “Whoops”es, and “S’cuse me”’s and only a couple incidents of actually pushing people aside, however slightly. When she finally catches up to the girl she swears is the one who dropped it, she’s actually looking a bit accomplished.

“Hey. You dropped this back there.” She looks back, then again to the strange object. “What is it, exactly?”

[aequorarchive]

@ganmaprince

Quite often, accidents like this happen when one party is moving too quickly through the crowd. Perhaps that’s true of the other party, or perhaps it isn’t, but on Lapis Lazuli’s end... truth be told, she simply wasn’t paying attention, which led to a rather forceful

Crash.

Given the nature of her body and being, Lapis is on her feet quickly. The same cannot be said of the man she ran into, however, so she reaches a hand out to help.

“Sorry! I, uh... wasn’t really paying attention... sorry.”

[aequorarchive]

【 where’s waldo? 】

@actuallymuffet

“Um, excuse me.” It isn’t like Lapis Lazuli to approach a stranger, much less with any less than somewhat pressing. This could be considered at least sort of pressing, though, and that’s evidently close enough for now. “Have you seen a... young human, about this tall?” She gestures - not a tall child at all. “He’s small and has dark, fluffy hair... I’ve been trying to find him for a while now.”

[aequorarchive]

【 all around me are familiar faces 】

[maarcelline-citta]

“She and I talk about lots of junk, not always how Gems work.” Marceline shrugs. “She’s told me about the different kinds of Gems, and what their jobs usually are, and other stuff… but we haven’t really been talkin’ about that kinda stuff lately.” She looks mildly embarrassed, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Especially recently, I’ve been gettin’ kinda… distracted when she and I are alone, so…”

Marceline blinks, looking down at the flower and back up. “Oh, this? I eat shades of red. And this flower was just sittin’ here lookin’ pretty, so I figured I might as well grab a snack.” With a smile, she sticks the flower into her mass of black hair, resting her hands on her hips after. “So! Water, huh? A good friend of mine can control ice. And a member of your Diamond’s court? Yellow Diamond, or some other primary color?”

[aequorarchive]

Okay, ew. Maybe she’s taking this the wrong way and jumping to conclusions, but ew. She certainly doesn’t want to her from or about someone who has some sort of bizarre, interplanetary crush on one of the worst and most obnoxious gems she’s yet to meet. It may be rude, but Lapis decides to go on ahead and ignore the implications.

“You just... eat them?” It’s a bit bizarre, but aren’t most organic lifeforms? “It looks a lot better than food...” Not that she needs an external energy source, but she can’t deny her own curiosity. Given that gems create their own humanoid forms based on a number of factors, there’s no reason she shouldn’t be able to do the same, right? Curiosity compels her... but she holds back. Curiosity cracked the quartz, after all.

“Oh! Water, yeah. I could probably do ice too, since it’s frozen water, but I’m a lot more comfortable with the way water moves. Ice... doesn’t. It’s too stiff.” Although the mention of a friend leaves her wondering whether this person also knows a sapphire - perhaps even the same sapphire Lapis herself once had the misfortune of meeting.

“Oh, no, my Diamond is Blue Diamond. You were kinda close, at least with the primary color thing. I’ve got a question, though: if you aren’t human... or, are you? I kinda thought, since humans don’t eat colors...”

[gemspectacled-blog]

She doesn’t know how to protect their name anymore; her fountain of theories has run low from throwing them out or just being impossible. Hands curl up into fists at her sides as her eyebrows furrow together, no further thought coming to mind. Why.. Would Garnet do that? If she was here, they might be able to get the answer, but until then, Connie was stuck at a dead end.

She doesn’t even have her thoughts together enough to give a small smile at that like she usually would. That was such a Steven thing to do. “They’re all I’ve got. And first impressions mean everything to me, something they just blew out of the water. I don’t know, Lapis, I’m sorry. I can’t doubt them- not now.”

[aequorarchive]

This is where the sympathy ends. When the girl proclaims her utmost trust in the Crystal Gems, never mind their history or present... when she knows that she truly doesn’t know, by the desire of the very same gems she wishes to defend, yet defends them still... that is where Lapis Lazuli draws the line. If she doesn’t understand now, then she never will.

“What’s the point, then? Why bother listening if you were always going to side with them? Or were you even listening? Don’t you care that they’ve been lying to you!?” Clearly, she doesn’t, or she would have abandoned this farce by now.

Frustrated by what feels like defeat, Lapis sighs. “Whatever. I’m done listening to people who won’t listen to me.” So she says, yet unaware that she hadn’t truly been listening herself.

[postumbrarex]

“Better things are strange than attempts at trying to be normal. Such fickle terms, after all.” At least he could be more pleased with that, staring at the campfire. It wasn’t burning too brightly, really more of a small little flame.

“So what, you’d be watching me in the audience while I take all the attention? How odd. How odd indeed. Then again… having all those eyes upon you, staring at you, judging you, I can see how some people can find it uncomfortable. But such things make me feel alive. Feel like I can be on top of the world. Extravagance is always a wonderful thing, after all.”

[aequorarchive]

Extravagance is always a wonderful thing, he says. If not for the always, Lapis might be inclined to agree. As a member of her Diamond’s court, she certainly can’t deny her affinity for some of the nicer things in life, after all. But always... isn’t that stretching it, if only a little?

“I don’t know about always, but it is nice sometimes. There are definitely a few things I wouldn’t turn down right about now...” Nothing she’ll name outright, but those things do exist. “Still, I can kinda get what you mean. It’s nice to be recognized... to know that other people can see you and see what you’re doing. It’s nice... until it isn’t.”

[aequorarchive]

【 scalding 】

[kindergardening-citta]

Peridot only squinted in Lapis’ direction, her chin being only a few centimeters from the water. She… hadn’t taken into account how deep the water was, compared to her height without her robotic attachments. But she played it cool.

“I know enough about your kind, Lazuli, and I’m sure you understood what I meant.” Of course, Peridot had never actually met a Lapis Lazuli outside of the current specimen… but she knew the basics. The theories. She’d read the scant few reports she could find about what to expect, though few (if any) went into detail about combat abilities. They just weren’t meant for it. “I didn’t expect you to have come to a human gathering like this one. The quality of the water has nothing to do with it.”

She groaned unhappily, questioning her decision to stick around. “I’d be fairly happy, to be honest. There would be resources to work with and fewer bad attitudes to contend with my own.”

[aequorarchive]

There’s so much she wants to say and so little room to say it. Now is not the time, not the place, not the perfect opportunity she would want if she were to open the floodgates and let loose all that she’s bottled up over these past few months. Months may be a short time for gems, but it’s all Lapis Lazuli has had since she was freed.

“I could say the same for you, Peridot. I didn’t expect to see you walk into place full of other people.” Given the solitary nature of peridots’ work, it necessarily an insult... except that she intends it to be one. “Why is it so surprising to see me here? I’m not a solitary gem; I’ve made friends.” Which she’s sure is more than Peridot can say no matter how long she’s been here.

She sighs, an expression of everything that’s led to this precise moment in time. “You don’t get it. Sure, you’d like a scrapyard, but not if there was an advanced and expensive lab a few units away. Why shouldn’t it be the same for me? Like I said, this is better than anything else this city has to offer.”

[heliatlus-deactivated20190219]

“I see! Well, ah… I hope everything’s okay.” 

You have no idea what she just described, but it certainly sounds like an adventure. Maybe she bought some kind of funny flower crown, and a friend ran off to fix it…?

“Oh, you want to look around?”

“Well,” you glance at the table next to you, “I’m not sure if I should leave my post just yet… there’s just so much to be done, you know? I-It’s not that I don’t want to, of course, but, if I leave…” You reach out and adjust the pots of peonies on the table’s edge, neatening the row they’re in. “I just don’t want to let my coworkers down. Or risk something going wrong. Or neglect the poor flowers.” Now you’re just fretting over everything in close proximity to you, adjusting corners, picking up fallen petals, fidgeting. It’s silly to watch. “But I do want to hang out with you! I just… worry.”

Stop working? Have fun? These phrases just aren’t in your vocabulary.

[aequorarchive]

The moment he starts stammering, Lapis frowns. It’s not that she’s unhappy; she’s just a bit... disappointed, if only for a moment. She came over here hoping her friend might show her around... and she’s decided that if he wants to as well, as he says, then that’s exactly what they’re going to do.

“But you have coworkers, see? They should be able to take care of everything while you’re gone. It’s not like you’re up and leaving them or anything, and I doubt any of those flowers will wilt without you fussing over them for a few minutes.” So she says, but she admits that it is an endearing quality of his. “Come on, shouldn’t you get to see more of the festival you’re working so hard for?”

[aequorarchive]

【 bony mcskeleton 】

[saturdaynightfemur-blog]

“nah, not human– more ‘human shaped’ than anything.”

Well hello taller than me, dark and blue. He turned at the surprised voice, chuckling a little and rolling up a sleeve, demonstrating the rotation of his ulna and radius for her.

“as for what i am, the technical classification is monster. skeleton monster, more specifically.” He rolls back down his sleeve, and stuffs his hands back into his pockets. “and i agree, i don’t think humans could do this– or this whole waif-y nereid thing you’ve got goin’ on.”

“i’m guessing you’re more ‘human shaped’ than human too?”

[aequorarchive]

It’s an honest and easy mistake. After spending enough time in the company of humans, humans, and more humans, it’s easy to put things into that very context. Were she on Homeworld, she would have been surprised that he wasn’t a gem; here, it’s the same thing, but with humans.

“Right... sorry. Wait, monster? But you seem so... intelligent.” She means it within the context of intelligent and self-aware life, but whatever context he takes it in isn’t likely to be wrong. “The only monsters I’ve ever known are, uh... corrupted. They’re not really self-aware - or I don’t think they are, at least.”

“‘Human-shaped...’” History aside, that isn’t exactly wrong. “I guess so. My... species is a lot older than humans, but we do look alike in these forms. Aside from the blue, mostly.”

[laurelites-blog]

She could feel a pout forming on her lips, rolling her eyes and putting her face in her hands. She didn’t want to explain to this girl why she’s doing this. Not only is she trying to show up a certain someone, but also because she really couldn’t sell these things in the first place.

“It’s a gift, a token? You don’t have to be friends with someone to get anything. Just say thank you and move on.” She replied in a harsh manner and went back to trying up loose stems.

“If you don’t want it, I can take it back you know.”

[aequorarchive]

“I... see.” That directly contradicts what Bubblegum told her, but... she certainly doesn’t want to believe her friend was wrong, much less over some ill-tempered stranger.

“It’s not that, I just... don’t understand, I guess. I thought... I mean, I was told it’s a symbol of friendship, or something like that. The flower crowns, that is.”

[aequorarchive]

sorry i haven’t been very active this past week! i had a long work week and got sick in the middle of it, so i haven’t had the energy to rp at all. but i think i’m finally getting better so i should be back very soon!

[aequorarchive]

【 all around me are familiar faces 】

[maarcelline-citta]

Marceline can’t quite hide her disappointment completely, although she does keep a pleasant expression on her face. “Oh, okay. That kinda sucks, but I can get you.”

Her smile brightens when Lapis responds positively to her compliments. “Wow, I didn’t know that so much thought went into… or, well, I didn’t know that your gem placement responds to your job, or your type… or, well, sort of… heh, I’m having trouble trying to say what I’m thinking. Gem stuff is still pretty new to me, so learning more about you guys is always really cool.”

Marceline plucks a red flower from the bush she and Lapis are standing beside, bringing it to her mouth and draining it of its color as she thinks of what else she can say. “Do you have any powers? Or, I mean… back in your world, what powers did you have? Since the dillweed scientists probs took junk from you.”

[aequorarchive]

For a friend of Peridot’s, she certainly doesn’t seem to know much about gems. Maybe that means they aren’t so close, or maybe... this particular peridot isn’t quite like many of the others she’s known and heard of. Despite the similarities between gems of the same type, each gem is entirely her own person; it’s a bit embarrassing to remember something so obvious after making such an assumption.

“Peridot didn’t tell you?” This time there is no room for malice when she says her name - only surprise. “Placement doesn’t really matter; it’s mostly a matter of convenience for soldiers; it’s our types that decide who and what we are. Tough gems like rubies are made to be soldiers... quartz are created to be even stronger soldiers. Commanders of their armies. And me... like I said, I’m rare. I’m a member of my Diamond’s court. My powers...” She sighs. “I can control water. It’s useful, and I’ve learned how to use it in battle if I need to... but I was never supposed to need that.”

All pretense of sadness is lost when the woman before her... ah... Lapis Lazuli isn’t quite sure what she’s done, actually. She holds a flower that was once red, now robbed of all color... but...

“How did you do that? And - why?”

[postumbrarex]

“All new to you? You truly are a strange person. But then again, aren’t we all in the end?” It seemed to be an attempt at humor, though beneath it, Maxwell seemed a bit less than amused. Perhaps he was just finding the fact of any friendly company to be too strange for him to be comfortable with.

“The right kind of people, you say? Well, I’ve not exactly been in wrong company lately. The appreciation of fans is one thing, but to be more than just mere acquaintances? A rarity for sure. Maybe I’m just overthinking things but I just can’t help but wonder exactly what kind of person would willingly do that. Isn’t the allure of the spotlight everyone wishes for?”

[aequorarchive]

At that, Lapis smiles a little brighter. “That’s true,” she laughs. “You’re all so strange to me... but I must be just as strange to all of you.” Blueness aside, even.

“I don’t know, I’ve never really wanted to be in the spotlight myself. I’d do anything to make my Diamond happy, but everyone else? I don’t really want all those eyes on me. I’m not really averse to it, but I could definitely do without it. So I’d be happy handing off the spotlight to you as long as you don’t get blinded by and forget I’m out there in the audience.”

[gemspectacled-blog]

It seems the gem is unwavering on how she feels on the Crystal Gems, and she doesn’t blame her, really- what she’s been doing for ages who knows, but it was definitely not what she wasn’t planning on doing. She bites her lip, heart beating faster and a slight twang of guilt running through her as she continues to listen to Lapis speak. But it also comes with a sense of defensiveness, as if she’s a Crystal Gem herself, but.. Not really. She’s far from being close enough to them, but she still feels almost like a distant fan? She only hears stories from the grapevine, and they rarely like her around if it may hurt her. It’s hard to tell..

“Th-they didn’t tell me. I’ve only heard little bits and pieces from Steven, and sometimes slip-ups from Pearl.” She admits, though a bit adamantly. “Maybe.. Maybe they did, but they were scared of a Homeworld Gem going back and reporting about them. I-I know they’re weary about their status with the Diamonds.”

The tears, however, cause her to waver. A hand reaches out to comfort her, but she retracts it as uncertainty sinks in. Are they friends? After what she’s said, does it feel like an attack? Will it seem insincere? A moment of silence follows while she pauses, eyes looking about her face for a change of expression, any kind. But the word ‘fusion’ catches her attention before any shift happens.

“Garnet did? B-but she always listens to Steven, even if Pearl fusses.” Maybe she doesn’t know them.. As well as she hoped. “I….” She can’t say much more at this point. She doesn’t know them well enough to speak on their behalf, and everything she says always has something to shoot it down.

[aequorarchive]

It’s as she expected: the Crystal Gems didn’t tell her anything. How can she defend them knowing now just how much she doesn’t know? Yet she tries and tries, as if clinging to that very trust... Lapis sympathizes to some small extent, but she cannot let her guard down.

“She wanted to bubble me,” she whispers. “She was ready to lock me away when she knew I was in there. She saw me talking to Steven... she knew.”

“I wouldn’t even be here if not for Steven. He... he saved me. I don’t understand... even if they didn’t want me to return to Homeworld, I don’t understand... I just don’t see how you can defend them when you don’t even know what they’ve done!”