“WHAT THE HECK DUDE!” Enide snapped, shaking her glitching hand until it stabilized, glowering at Radiquose. “You said they were safe to touch- I almost got poofed here!”
Mouth agape, shoulders taut, Rad’s abruptly relaxed, rolling his shoulders easily.
“Yeah I thought you mean like- uh- emotionally touch- like tell it a sad story or somethin’.” Shrugging, he pointed vaguely at the sparking gloop. “Yeah, don’t touch those with your hands.”
Enide’s eye twitched as Kaio glanced uncertainly between them, each hand holding his gem nervously.
-//-
Behold the Backroom incident referenced here.
Summary:
Blue Agate (Mr.Gar) needs them to grab something from the Bodega’s Temple Guardian- Plazamo, but that requires going through the trials to get there.
Radiquoise should have the most experience going through temples from his previous work with the Diamond counsel, thus Blue Agate designated him as leader for this mission.
But, Rad, having never really needed to venture farther than the basic rooms for supplies and his previous training with the Diamond Counsel’s turquoises been interrupted when he bailed to join the Bodega gems, has NO idea what he’s doing.
Enide (suspecting such) wants to go back to go grab the map, but Rad (not wanting to lose face or worse, seem useless) is insistent he knows what he’s doing.
This is way back when Kaio was still Laffy Taffy Kaio (ie Baby Kaio), so he’s just going along. Both Blue Agate and Radiquoise said Rad knows what to do, and so he’s trusting Rad here.
Can we... see the defeat of Boxman Junior in the Let's Be Gems AU?
I'm still working on the details of his final defeat, but I do have a couple of times where he lost in battle.
The second time Boxman Jr. was defeated in battle was a little bit after Ruko and Amko re-fused post-abduction, once the ship crashed. BJ doesn't count it however, because aside from Kaio being a fusion, he used the ships remains in part to beat him.
Bitter at BJ's earlier use of the destabilizer, Kaio poofed him and deliberately cracked his gem so that he would leave them the h*** alone. (shown)
This later proved to be a mistake on his part- one he'd make sure never to repeat again.
Gems didn’t need to eat; they got all they needed from the UV rays local stars emitted. Yet he chose to consume a plate of “hotcakes” every morning with the company of others.
Gems didn’t need to exercise; they broke out of their kindergarten walls as exactly as they needed to be to get and ready for battle. Yet he chose to lift weights with them.
Above all, Gems most certainly did not need sleep to recharge an inefficient, insufficient, organic brain. And yet, here he was, arms tucked behind his head as he rested against the stump she declared her chair, dozing off as his words tumbled together.
Something about cards? A sort of trivial waste of time only humans could invent. Nothing she could possibly be interested in. You wouldn’t, for example, find an enormous collection of such slips of paper stored in her gem- no sir.
Listening to his words trail off, she glanced back from her holo-screen, to observe.
It was curious and, surprisingly, endearing to watch his butterfly-like markings twitch across his cheeks. Amused, Dendydot paused in her typing, a small smile settling in her pointed mouth as she picked up a leaf. Leaning back, she brushed it along the length of his nose.
Nose crinkling at the foreign sensation, it wriggled in an attempted to rid itself of the pesky tickle.
“ermph- you get it- no you-” Kaio mumbled, tones shifting as he stirred, batting away at the leaf.
“Having trouble, Kaio?” She teased, pulling the leaf back as his eyes fluttered open.
“Don’t you know not to poke the bear by now?” He griped, though he smiled. Raising an eyebrow, he leaned his weight on his arm, pushing himself up halfway to look at her. “Seriously Den- I was getting comfy.”
“Ah, yes because a chunk of decaying wood is the best pillow.” Nodding earnestly, she smiled as he chuckled. “Besides, you didn’t finish the explanation from earlier.”
“Explanation?” Confusion furrowed the fusion’s headband before his eyes lit up in recognition. “Oh! Right! I was telling you about the Back Room Mishap. Right. Uhh, where’d I leave off again?”
Rubbing his neck sheepishly, his fangs flashed in a embarrassed grin. Tipping his head back, he squinted at her screen- unable to read the text behind the little symbols littering the page.
“I believe you were at the point where you and Enide were determining which Radiquose was the real one.”
“Right!” Releasing his neck, Kaio waved his hand in front of him. “So, there we were, trying to determine which gem was the right one...”
Listening to him babble, she adjusted her legs, crossing one over the other to sit more comfortably. There was something soothing to the way he’d recall his mishaps, or adventures as he’d call them. As his head rested against her back, she simply smiled.
-//-
Some soft Gem Kendy today.
It’s funny- I almost forgot to add Kaio’s gem.
This takes place sometime after Dendydot has decidedly become a crystal gem, after their equivalent of Earthlings with Boxman Jr
“Red Zircon.” The Hue Trooper snapped to attention lazily. Sighing, the agate rubbed pinched the bridge of his nose. “We still need to find Radirquoise, can you watch Kaio?”
“Yeah sure Gar, but Mr. Laffy Taffy over there seems to be doing a pretty good job watching himself ” Grinned, she jerked a thumb towards the fusion in question.
Lowering his fingers away from the shades, he watched the fusion in question stumble unsteadily in the waves, enraptured by his latest discovery. Fluffing the red-purple strands of hair covering his face, he oohed texture, running it through his fingers.
Gar’s mustached twitched above a fond smile, before the bitterness of the situation tugged him to reality.
“Just... Keep him away from trouble okay? He deserves at least one of his first experiences to be fun.”
-//-
The Bodega Gems got struck with a Gem rejuvenator, leaving few to pick up the pieces of the reset Gems.
Blue Agate (Mr.Gar), Sterling Silver (Carol), Red Zircon (Red Action), and Dendydot (Dendy) are among the few not hit.
However, no one’s entirely sure how to reverse the effects of such a device. Dendydot’s working on it, but between the excess of clueless quartzes needing direction and the damage done to the Plaza, she can only do so much at a time.
Meanwhile, Red Zircon’s attempts to get Gems (particularly Enide) back to normal make her realize that a LOT of them need Kaio to return to themselves.
Unfortunately, Kaio is currently blissfully ignorant of what’s going on around him.
This is strictly because I got an idea for writing but... Do Dendydot and Kaio have nicknames for one another? Like I get they already have new names to push themselves away from Homeworld, but do they have specific nicknames for their Significant Other?
not really? Kaio’s pretty bad with coming up with names and it takes Dendydot a long while before she warms up to the use of nicknames in a friendly sense (her experience was that you were only called your Gem and maybe your cut/facet unless you were being insulted)
“I wouldn’t do that.” Kaio raised his hands in front of him, Ruby exposed as he couldn’t help but smirk. “I might hurt a little thing like you.”
“You’d like to think that, huh?” Scarlet Sapphire chuckled as he rose his limb enhancers. “Well filthy permafusion-”
Kaio’s smirk fell to a distasteful frown, and he gave a small nod to the Shadow Puppet.
“between Lord Aventurine’s Upgrades and my own, STUPENDOUS future vision,” a smirk stretched across his lips as sparks flew from the spinning fingers. “you don’t stand a cha-”
poof.
Scarlet Sapphire fell with a clatter, quickly joinedn by his limbs and visor. Grimacing, Kaio poked a toe at the supposed upgrades, staring uneasily at the Shadow Puppet.
“Man, Enide needs to reform quickly. You’re creepy as the Kindergarten.” He muttered.
Shadow Puppet Enide simply blinked back.
- //-
Kaio and Enide work together to take out a faulty Scarlet Saphire sent by the Box Gem Hive. This is Kaio’s first time seeing Enide’s shadow puppets in action on their own, and its a little strange.
