We Are Lionhearts

"That's right: I am A PEARL. What you're saying may be true, but it doesn't matter! I'm still gonna kick your butt!!" //indie Pearl RP blog

[doitforhxr]

Btw I'm still alive and all. Just adjusting to my new work schedule that has me waking up at 6am. And buried under a mountain of homework.

[doitforhxr]

@iitsforyourowngood || continued from

“Stop. You know that’s not true… You have to stop ragging on yourself like this, Pearl.”

Pearl tried to hold back the tears welling in her eyes. “Sorry,” she said. She didn’t feel like her earlier words were inaccurate in the slightest, though. “You’re right. I– I shouldn’t have said anything about it.”

Even so, she couldn’t help herself. “I just… sometimes I get scared. I feel like I’m lying to you, and one of these days you’re going to realize it and leave me…” Just like Rose did. She didn’t speak the words, but they hung in the air, heavy, suffocating.

[doitforhxr]

@iitsforyourowngood​ || continued from

“Sorry… I-I just I’m not that used to taking compliments…”

The truth was, Pearl was more than familiar with being unable to accept compliments. Thinking them well-intentioned lies. She was worried that Priyanka might think something like that, ever since hearing that human females tended to dislike the way their appearance changed as they aged. But to her, Priyanka was just as beautiful as she had probably been 30 years ago.

“It’s not about that, just…” She looked into Priyanka’s eyes. “I want you to know that I mean it. I’m not just saying it. You’re the most beautiful human I’ve ever seen.”

[iitsforyourowngood]

“You know Pearl, I usually don’t like to disagree with you, but this time I’m going to have to, only for the fact that Greg has lived through this himself. I mean, you didn’t handle Steven much when he was a baby did you, that was mostly Greg, wasn’t it? I just think Greg would be better suited to teach Steven this…”

[doitforhxr]

"That's different! A constantly screaming and crying tiny fragile Earth creature with nonstop organic needs?! That's very different from a child becoming an adult!" Pearl stopped, calming herself. "But I don't really understand what there is to... well... understand about it. I've seen Steven become an adult already. And I hope I won't see that again, but if you think I might need to know what to expect... And besides, Steven lives with us now. Back then, he lived with Greg. But now he lives with us and we're the ones who teach him everything." Her chest puffed out with pride as she added, "We've even done 'school' a couple of times!"

[shortpurpleandawesome-blog]

Corruption Run - with doitforhxr

[shortpurpleandawesome-blog]

Amethyst laughed, and it was nothing like her usually laugh.  It was a harsh, cruel sound.  “Playing innocent’s gonna get you nowhere.  What do I mean?  Every damn day of my life, you lord it over me how much better you are.  Not like the fusion doesn’t do it too; she’s just quieter.”  

She could see the readiness to fight in Pearl’s posture and snorted.  “Oh, don’t think I can’t take you.”  She pulled her whip, cracking it with a threatening glare.  “I’ve got no problem taking you down if that’s what I gotta do.”  A part of her still screamed no, that this was wrong, but she ignored it and pressed forward.  Rage and irrationality was carrying her forward and there was something of an emotional high to it, not unlike when Sugilite’s personality took over and just dragged Garnet and Amethyst along for the ride.  “Precious little Pearl, thinking you’re so special because you were Rose Quartz’s right hand Gem.”

[doitforhxr]

Pearl would much prefer to talk this out and skip the fighting, but she forced herself to accept that it may have to go the other direction for now.  If it was fight and then talk or attempt to just talk and thus succeed at neither, the former was unfortunately the better option.  She really did not want to have to fight Amethyst... but she was going to have to, and not only that, but she was going to have to win.

She didn’t let Amethyst’s attempts at distracting her succeed; not when it was so important.  Pearl summoned her spear and rushed at Amethyst, intent on stabbing her through the abdomen.  Just enough to force her to regenerate so that they could have a proper conversation.  She didn’t know what it was, but she could sense that something was different about Amethyst.  Not like when they had fought in the Kindergarten -- no, some part of her had known she would be able to get through to her friend then.  But now? That same feeling was telling her no.

[shortpurpleandawesome-blog]

Starter for doitforhxr

[shortpurpleandawesome-blog]

Amethyst nodded, squirming a little uncomfortably with Pearl’s words, but mostly because she wanted to argue the point.  She didn’t feel good enough and it took more than just Pearl’s approval - as wonderful a thing as that was - to get her there.  But Pearl was right.  Hearing it might not have been believing it, but she did have a lot of things on her side.  And, knowing how much Pearl spoke from experience, it helped.  The walls were coming down, reluctantly.  “I’ve always felt like something’s wrong with me.  Why…”  She’d asked Rose this question once and gotten a non-answer, a hug, and reassurances of her team’s love.  It had been enough at the time, but increasingly, it wasn’t.  “Why did they leave me there all by myself?” 

[doitforhxr]

Pearl sucked in a breath, then began to thread her fingers in and out -- far from a reassuring response, given that it was something she only did when anxious.

She considered trying to sugarcoat it.  To say that Amethyst had simply taken a little more time and was special.  But no matter how much sugar was used, she was sure that it would still come across the same way: because she was deemed defective.

“You’re like me,” she finally decided on, hoping that would lessen the pain of the information she seemed not to have any choice but to deliver.  “I’m not quite the same as the other pearls.”  She opted not to elaborate upon that.  Anyway, this was about Amethyst, not her.  “In your case, you just needed a little bit more time than the others.”  Pearl shifted, making a failed effort at hiding her discomfort at talking about the time of the war.  “When you emerged, the others... had already died in the war.”

[freetoexistasme]

Of course… Garnet could bubble the shards, and was more than willing to take Pearl to Rose’s fountain. It was probably better to take her there, anyway. Steven would undoubtedly worry if he saw her with a cracked gem. That could very well have an affect on his ability to heal her. So, at length, Garnet nodded in response to both questions.

“Certainly,” Garnet said at last. “I’ll get it bubbled, and then we’ll get you to Rose’s fountain.” As she said that, Garnet turned her attention to the shards and approached them. It wasn’t long before the fusion was bubbling them and sending the bubble back to the temple. That was one task down, at the very least. Now the only thing left to do was to get Pearl to the fountain. That in and of itself should have been a simple task to accomplish. However, with Pearl’s gem cracked there was no guarantee that things would go over smoothly. Garnet would just have to wait and see what happened.

“All right. We should get movin’ so we can get to where we need to be in a timely fashion,” she said. The silent thought of ‘and before anything else happens’ was added. Garnet motioned for Pearl to follow her lead and started to move forward. She had no idea of what was to come, but that was a given.

The last time she had seen Pearl with a cracked gem had been a long, long time ago, after all.

“Let me know if it seems like it’s gettin’ worse,” Garnet said. She didn’t think it was going to get worse as long as nothing else happened, but there was always a chance.

[doitforhxr]

Pearl tried to offer a small smile of appreciation to Garnet as the Fusion agreed to bubble the shards for her, but she couldn’t bring herself to look up. Her gaze remained instead upon her hands, as she intertwined her fingers together than released them, still feeling horribly guilty about the matter. She had shattered the gem... It was far from innocent, but neither was it evil. It had once belonged to a Gem who had fought nobly in the war, until simply becoming... battle damaged.

To Garnet’s point, however, now was not the time to feel guilty about the death she had caused. As bad as she felt, all wallowing in that emotion would do was put her own life at risk. If one was not careful when her gem was cracked, she could exacerbate it, and then... her life could be at quite severe risk.

“Of course,” she agreed. Right now, she felt mostly normal. Something felt a little strange, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Neither did she see any benefit to dwelling on the matter. The sooner they got a move on and got to Rose’s fountain, the sooner she would be healed and it would no longer matter. Luckily, it was a rather small crack, so it shouldn’t cause too many problems... right?

[doitforhxr]

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT GUESS WHO’S GOING TO JAPAN THIS JUNE?!?!?!?!

[doitforhxr]

PSA

If you see someone eating in a way that you consider weird, here’s a marvel fucking idea: how about, don’t make fun of them!!!! or comment on it!!!! especially if they’re a fucking adult!!!! who knows it’s weird and is probably already embarrassed enough by it as it is!!!!!

maybe, just mayyyybe consider: maybe don’t judge them???? because chances are VERY VERY high it’s something they struggle with??????? but like maybe they’re recovering from an eating disorder or have issues with textures or strong tastes or have weird allergies and don’t know what’s safe to eat?????????

(this isn’t anything that’s happened recently. just... general commentary, I guess. I just got thinking about the subject and got really pissed.)

[iitsforyourowngood]

“Listen… just, it’s important, but maybe you should just let Greg handle this…”

[doitforhxr]

“I may not know as much as a human about human biology, but I’m definitely more suited to this than Greg!” ...Or perhaps she was simply balking at the idea that Greg be better at or more suited to handle anything than her.

[shortpurpleandawesome-blog]

Corruption Run - with doitforhxr

[shortpurpleandawesome-blog]

“Maybe I’m just tired of being kicked around!”  Amethyst tossed her hair back over one shoulder, though it lacked the dramatic effect of when her hair was longer in previous regenerations.  She drew closer to Pearl, her jaw set firmly and a dangerous gleam in her eyes.  They were far darker than their usual indigo shade, nearly black now.  As she closed it, it became clear that there was also a cloudy ring around the edge of her gem.  It was thin, but without clearly defined edges, and there was no guarantee it wouldn’t spread.

“Let’s play a little game.”  She laughed, an almost hysterical sort of cackle.  “You leave me alone and maybe I won’t get some of my friends out of the basement and have a little house party.  I’m sure the halfie would love seeing Jade again.  Or, what was it you were calling her…oh, the centipeetle.  Cute.”

[doitforhxr]

Kicked around?  When did they ‘kick her around’??  Trying to stand her ground, Pearl attempted to hide her confusion, although it was about as successful as her attempting to hide her feelings usually went -- which was to say, not very.  For now, she was too focused on racking her brain for a solution to the situation at hand to even spare a glance to Amethyst’s gem, although it would no doubt be an enormous source of panic for her later.

So it was true: it looked like there was no choice but to fight Amethyst again.  Only, this time, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to get through to her before things got out of hand.  She had never seen Amethyst this... Pearl didn’t even know what to call it.  It was possible she would have no choice but to poof her, briefly bubble her, and figure out a way of talking to her while keeping her trapped. ...Causing her to regenerate might make things better, but it could also make things worse, so she wasn’t going to take a chance on it.  “I’m not going to leave you alone until we get to the bottom of this!  Amethyst, what are you talking about, ‘kicked around’?”

[shortpurpleandawesome-blog]

Starter for doitforhxr

[shortpurpleandawesome-blog]

“Really?”  Amethyst relaxed a bit at Pearl’s approach; she was starting to feel a little safer opening up to her.  It still wasn’t easy and she was more inclined to run away and hide for a bit.  But this was a start at least.  “No idea, huh?”  She ran a hand through her fringe of bangs, sighing.  “I know what you said about the Kindergarten and me, how it’s different, but it just doesn’t really feel like it some days.  No matter how hard I try, I’m not good enough.”

[doitforhxr]

Pearl breathed a silent sigh of relief when Amethyst didn’t react unfavorably to her approach.  At the same time, she felt a lot of pressure to get this conversation right, as she knew having Amethyst open up to her about it was a rare opportunity.  She was on the one hand better suited for this conversation than anyone else, and yet on the other, could not have felt less suited for it.  How many times had she and Rose had more or less this exact conversation?  “Trust me, I know how those days feel.  And I know, there’s no easy way to stop feeling like that.  But I also know you.  And I know that even when you don’t feel it, you are good enough.  More than.”

[quartzveiled-a-deactivated20200]

“There’s nothing to be sorry about, these types of things happen.” In a way, Rose could tell Pearl was trying her hardest not to blame herself, but in the end it always turned to that. It wasn’t something Rose cared for. This wasn’t Pearl’s fault, not at all. 

Fusion was a art. Just being able to fuse and stay fused for a short period of time was amazing. Two Gems being able to synchronized to perfectly was beautiful. Rose and Pearl weren’t strangers to the magic of fusion. “Pearl, we’ve fused before without a task to accomplish. It’s not like you’re incapable of fusing with me without a mission.”

 From past experience, Rose could tell that the fusion had had some imbalance thrown into the mix. Something wasn’t right, and it seemed to be coming from the other Gem. “Is something troubling you Pearl, something I don’t know?” She asked, getting up and going over the smaller Gem, grabbing her hands, “Please,” It was almost as she was begging, “ If something is the matter, I need to know.”

[doitforhxr]

But there was something to be sorry about. There was, because it was her fault. No matter how Pearl tried to push it away, the thought wouldn’t leave her. Of course it was her fault.

She hung her head as Rose picked up on it, and even when she looked up as Rose held her hands, she couldn’t meet her eyes. She didn’t want to tell her. She couldn’t. She couldn’t bother Rose with her ridiculous, selfish desires. Or with the insecurities that Rose had tried over and over again to combat, and surely must be horribly sick of hearing about by now.

“It’s nothing important,” she mumbled. She wasn’t lying -- in her mind, that truly felt like the case. She was just a pearl. Rose treated her as so much more than that, but in the end, that was what she was. And the feelings of a pearl, of course, were pretty much as irrelevant as those of an ant to a human. They weren’t supposed to bother others with their hurt feelings, if that happened. Their place was to serve.

And she knew. She knew she was more than that to Rose. Part of her even knew that Rose did want to know, and her feelings did matter to her. But asking Rose not to fall in love with humans would definitely be a bother to her, and Pearl didn’t want to do that. Rose was perfect and shouldn’t ever have to change. The problem must then be, as always, the pearl.

[roserparchived]

Rose laughed softly. “Yes, I know she can be.” she grinned. 

When it hit the other once again that she accepted her invitation, she laughed softly to herself. Ah, her Pearl was always the silly one. Seeing her reach out for her hand, she smiled and took it, intertwining their fingers in a way that she knew would make the other’s face flush more. 

The pink gem nodded at the suggestion, having never expected the pale gem would suggest a human activity. She couldn’t say that she wasn’t pleased though. That had to be a sign that the other was getting more accustomed to the human’s lives. “I would like that a lot.” 

[doitforhxr]

Pearl giggled, her cheeks nearly glowing with joy. How was it possible for anybody to be as wonderful as Rose was? Sheer perfection -- that was honestly what Pearl thought of her.

She lit up further at Rose’s acceptance of her suggestion. She had picked something Rose would enjoy! Honestly, Pearl had yet to see a movie, so she didn’t know much about it. She had, however, been researching the topic of ‘dating.’ She wanted to take Rose on a date, but she also wanted it to be perfect for her! So it required research and planning. Luckily, she had done plenty of that.

[freetoexistasme]

“You know what about, Ruby. We need to talk about what you did yesterday in your attempt to protect me.”

Sapphire still didn’t pay much attention to what was happening above them. Her attention was focused firmly, and she wasn’t checking future vision like she should have been. The discussion needed to stay on topic no matter what happened. So, she watched as Ruby looked up from the floor again and fidgeted a bit. It was clear to Sapphire that Ruby didn’t want to talk about it, but they had to. The matter was serious enough to warrant the private conversation.

“I know you wanted to protect me, and I really do appreciate that, but we should have been working together. As Garnet.”

“We were working together, though! A-And you were having such a hard time keeping up with the corrupted Gem! It kept outwitting us and I just… I wanted to make sure you weren’t hurt!” Ruby blurted out. “I didn’t care if that meant I got hurt. I had to make sure you were okay, Sapphire. You were having a hard enough time dealing with that thing evading your future vision.”

“So it was worth it, right? And we both ended up okay in the end,” she said. However, she saw Sapphire shake her head. It hadn’t been worth it? But how could that possibly be?

“It wasn’t worth it because I didn’t want you to be hurt. I appreciate that you wanted to keep me safe, but when we’re Garnet we’re supposed to be working together. You know that. If you had just told me what you were doing, I… I could have kept you from being hurt,” Sapphire said. Her expression softened and she fidgeted with her gloves a little. She knew that it wasn’t her fault, and that Ruby wouldn’t want her to blame herself, but she still felt at least a little guilt for what had happened.

Now Steven and Amethyst were getting to hear everything that had happened.

[doitforhxr]

What she had done yesterday? What were they talking about? Amethyst and Steven listened intently, trying to figure out what had happened. They had gotten hurt? What had happened? Had... had Pearl known about this? Or had Ruby and Sapphire kept it secret?

Amethyst pulled her head from the puddle and crossed her arms. She had half a mind to go ask them what the heck was going on. The team counted on Garnet for stability, so having her be unfused for some unknown reason and... a problem between Ruby and Sapphire?? It had her a little unnerved.

Steven pulled his head up as well. “Amethyst? Do you think they’re okay?”

She uncrossed her arms and put on a smile for him. “Of course they are! No worries, Little Man. Whatever it is, I’m sure they’ve got it covered and Garnet’ll be back to normal soon.”

He looked doubtful, and she was torn between wanting to watch the conversation and wanting to be sure not to worry Steven.

“I’m just gonna watch, ‘cause... I don’t want to interrupt by asking them what happened. But I’m sure everything is fine.”

“Then I’m gonna watch too!”

...She hardly had any place to object. They stuck their heads back in the puddles.

[iitsforyourowngood]

At Pearl’s words Priyanka couldn’t help but blush deeper. She cleared her throat as if to change the focus back to the original topic. “Yes… But I suppose in some ways they’re similar. I mean, both take time to heal. Your regeneration took weeks, while some injuries can take weeks to heal.”

[doitforhxr]

“But if a human dies, they stay dead. Whereas Gems die for a few hours, days, or weeks, and then regenerate,” Pearl pointed out. “Also, your bodies are full of delicate organs.” It unnerved her quite a bit when she thought about that in terms of Steven, although he did seem to be sturdier than a full human. “Whereas for us... Garnet, Amethyst and I have some organs, but we don’t really need them.”

[freetoexistasme]

Okay, so she didn’t know the name of the thing in question. That wasn’t… Too bad, Garnet decided. She could work with that. Of course, it wasn’t long before Pearl was apologizing for that much. Garnet just shook her head a little to confirm that it was all right. They could work with this. If she just said it was an ‘ancient Gem artifact,’ then Steven and Amethyst wouldn’t question it too much. They would go along with that.

“It’s all right, Garnet,” Garnet told her. “I’ll just have to tell Steven and Amethyst that we’re looking for is another ancient Gem artifact. They’re sure to believe that.” Yes… Yes, this would go off without a hitch. The only difficult thing was keeping up the image that she was Pearl. How hard could that have been in the grand scheme of things, though? …Maybe a lot harder than she was giving it credit for. She didn’t really know the answer to that much. Oh well; it was time to put it to the test.

“All right. I suppose we’ll just have to go through with this. If we stay in here any longer, it’s going to make Amethyst and Steven start wondering about where we are,” she said. Not that they wouldn’t think it was odd that the two were coming out of Garnet’s room, but that was something they could explain away. She, as Pearl, could just say that she and Garnet had been discussing the potential outcomes of this mission. It would go over well… She hoped. She wasn’t used to not having future vision, honestly. It did make things a bit more difficult for her to say with any certainty.

“Are you ready?”

[doitforhxr]

It felt... highly strange, to say the least, to be called Garnet. That was something she supposed she would have to get used to, considering... the circumstances. But if Garnet -- the real Garnet -- thought that this should go over okay, she would do her best to actually believe that. She trusted her predictions, even when they were based on no fact or future sight at all. Partly, perhaps, out of necessity.

When it was suggested they leave, however, she couldn’t stop a small squeak as her face flushed. “Wait! They can’t see you coming-- comin’-- out of my room!” That never happened! Nobody ever went into Garnet’s room except Garnet herself. She just knew that if she messed up a lie, she would never hear the end of it from Amethyst when she was back in her own body. Either questions about whether she had yet to learn her lesson about messing with the bubbled shards, or worse.

“You should go back to my room-- your room-- and we’ll head out separately!” Anything to avoid looking even more suspicious than they already did, and to avoid questions that she would have to lie about, because her attempts at lying were definitely suspicious no matter what.