What's a king bowing to a dark god?

[wrathfulkhan]

Characters: Gene, Jackie, Deon, Peridot, and yooouuuu!
Date: Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! And all the other May days aside.
Location: Keeliai and Tavimbi
Situation: The Struggle
Warnings/Rating: Will be added as they arise.

A. [Gene] throughout Keeliai | past the first week of May onwards | open
Gene is continuing to be his political self, gladhanding among the kedan and putting his unique skills of gang interaction to use to put together the nascent police force. But when he thinks nobody's watching, he looks pensive - especially over tea in one of the many teahouses, which he seems to frequent more often of late. Better than alcohol, at least?

B. [Jackie] the Golden Koi | throughout May | open
After the attack last month, Jackie doesn't go anywhere without someone else. The rogue Snakes aren't going to attack him unless he's alone. But at least his bar seems to be doing decent business, even if he's still operating at a loss for now. That part's worrying him. But he tries not to let it show, even to Leo.

C. [Peridot] Keeliai and Tavimbi | throughout May | open
Peridot, meanwhile, is continuing to scavenge. She wants to rebuild her limb enhancers, or something like them, after her talk with Bisi...and maybe something nice for Shay. She's haggling with merchants and, due to her short temper, often getting very annoyed. There's something amusing about a tiny green dorito getting mad at someone twice her size.

D. [Deon] the College | throughout May | open
The College is a safe zone for Deon, who's still wary of working on any pet projects at Stark Industries. Tetravaal had made him too leery of that. He can often be found in one of the labs, working on a design for a robot, or hand-writing some code to make sure he's got it right.

E. [Gene] House Spicy Iron Dragon | late April-first week of May | closed to Tony and Pepper
Gene has decided to live as a bed from now on.

Zhang's arrival had really shaken him up. What he'd done to Zhang had shaken him up more, when he'd had the chance to think about it instead of acting in anger. When he's not living as a bed, he's building a little stone shrine in the back garden where he's buried the extra purple ring and set up the framed photograph of his mother, and when it's done, sitting in front of it, burning incense and thinking.

F. [Jackie] the Dojo | early May | closed to Brigid
Jackie had said he'd wanted to learn Krav Maga from Brigid, and he'd gotten the chance to get some floor time from Valdis, when not too many people would be around to watch her wipe the floor with him.

He smiles at her when she walks in. "You ready?"

G. [Deon] the Hotel | early May | closed to Vincent
There was one thing that Deon had to do to make sure he and Vincent were on the level: namely, return the laptop he had found. It was Vincent's laptop, after all. He knocks on the door, the laptop tucked under his arm. "Vincent?"

Comments

[peridiot]

Peridot crossed her arms. "I was trying to get the Galaxy Warp on Earth repaired when I was ambushed." Well, technically true, from her standpoint. "It took three of them to take me down, including a fusion."

She squints a little at Tektite. "Have you heard of the rogue faction led by Rose Quartz? The so-called Crystal Gems?"

[tektite]

"I see, you are quite formidable." To Tektite's credit, she didn't laugh. She had a feeling there was a lot of "technically"s involved in that situation. A technician with enhancers could do damage, sure, but she doubted they would send a peridot for a combat mission. Especially not to fight against rogue Gems.

That was Tektite's job and she did it well.

"The Crystal Gems? No. I didn't ask much about the various factions of Gems of any world I was sent to. I do not believe I've been on any 'Earth' before." She didn't want to remember the Gems she killed, that never made for fun memories. "Are they who attacked you?"

[peridiot]

Peridot puffed out her narrow chest. Yeah she is!

"Yes. They attacked me when I was trying to get back to Homeworld. They were likely going to shatter me before I ended up here. They're ruthless. They have a pearl who fights," Peridot says, sounding frightened, because that's the worst and scariest thing - a decorative servant turned warrior. That'd turn Homeworld upside down.

[tektite]

Tektite forgot, sometimes, how sheltered the average Homeworld Gem was. How easily frightened they were by something not acting like it should. She regularly forgot how to interact in any normal fashion herself, so she really didn't feel like being judgemental about it. The giant dog-best who was afraid of white tiled flooring was not allowed to pick who was afraid of what!

"Oh there are other pearls that fight?" Tektite asked with mild surprise under all the gravel of her voice. "I know one, a defective one I suppose. She has a knife longer than my claws. I'm not really sure what for but she is quite a force, I've heard. That's the only pearl I've actually met, now I think of it. Mmm, still. A pearl in combat, I imagine that was quite frightening to deal with, how did you cope?"

[peridiot]

"Another pearl with a knife like that?" Peridot stole a glance at Tektite's claws and shuddered. "How do you know a Gem like that?"

Peridot frowned. "I tried to fight her off. I did a good job, too, until the fusion got me."

[tektite]

Tektite did laugh that time. "Yes fusions are good for that." Privately, Tektite wasn't very impressed with this group already. They needed three of them, one of them a fusion, to get to a singular Gem? Maybe if Peridot was a big quartz...

"You didn't even want to believe I was a Gem when you saw me," Tektite continued. "There are uses for Gems like me and her. I believe the official reasoning behind her continued existence is that she makes for a good experiment. I wouldn't know the truth, it wasn't supplied to me."

[peridiot]

Peridot frowned. Well, she wasn't averse to a good experiment, clearly. She'd done a fair few forced shard fusions in her time.

"Yes, well," she said, trying to compose herself. "Good experiments have their uses. That's why I was sent to Earth. To check on something top-secret."

[tektite]

Oh really now? Tektite cocked her head to the side, showing more innocent interest than she felt. She was curious, no doubt about that, but was growing more mistrusting as this conversation went on. Not necessarily of Peridot; a low ranking Gem doing what she was told was less her concern than what her orders were. Peridot was hardly a threat to her.

"Indeed they do," said the experiment to the technician. "Well Homeworld is not watching us and no one cares what I do or do not know, so what is this secret? I can even supply some top secret information in return, if you wish."

Not that Tektite hadn't already. Her existence wasn't even supposed to be known to the average Gem, but that was another thing Peridot didn't need to know unless Tektite found it useful for her to know.

[peridiot]

Peridot actually gave that offer some serious consideration. The blind loyalty to her Diamond was warring with her desire to learn more information...to report to Yellow Diamond.

Curiosity won. "Come on," she said, leading Tektite away from the organic beings.

"Have you ever heard of...the Cluster?"

[tektite]

Oh if Peridot only knew who had ordered that fortunate pietersite to be killed... Not that Tektite cared who Peridot reported anything to. If Tektite was to be stuck here she wouldn't be in reach of her master. If Peridot ever made her way back to Homeworld and reported things that would lead back to said master, well, that would be all the better! It wouldn't take much to make Chalcanthite expendable.

Tektite followed without complaint, her head lowered to hear the little Gem better.

"The 'Cluster'? I have not heard of it, no. I am usually not informed of things that happen outside my facility." Or what happened in it, that she heard second hand, but that wasn't the point.

[peridiot]

Peridot smirked a little. "That's why it's a secret. It's a fusion weapon made out of shards of those shattered in the war on Earth, incubating in the planet's core until it bursts out. It's going to be the most powerful weapon the Diamond Authority has ever seen!"

[tektite]

Other than a brief twitch of her muzzle, Tektite managed to contain her reaction. She pushed the horror at the idea aside, she couldn't think about that now. She knew she shouldn't be surprised what terrible lengths Homeworld would go to to contain rebellions or anything that threatened them. Was she not an example of that?

Tektite huffed as if amazed and cocked her head to the side. "I really am kept out of the loop," she said, the gravel devouring whatever emotion had leaked into her voice. "That is quite the dramatic waste of a planet, they have no intentions of claiming it?"

[peridiot]

Peridot sniffed. "I'm not privy to Yellow Diamond's reasoning for it. Perhaps it was too resource-poor to use as a good colony."

A lie - Peridot knew it was due to Rose Quartz's rebellion. Still, she didn't see a reason to share it with Tektite...yet.

[tektite]

"I see, I see." Tektite smelled a lie but didn't care enough to push the matter. She could well be wrong, Peridot wasn't exactly high ranked. "Now what would a peridot care to know about research facilities that just aren't talked about? Or fusion weapons that have existed quite some time before this Cluster you're dealing with?"

[peridiot]

Peridot squinted at Tektite. "First of all, which Diamond is responsible for your research facility?"

Certainly not Yellow Diamond. She was too logical to keep it a secret.

[tektite]

Tektite laughed. That was a smart question to ask.

"Technically Yellow." Oops. "How much of what happens there is reported? I can't be sure. It's not always Yellow Diamond that orders use of my talents."

[peridiot]

Peridot blinked. "...Yellow...Diamond...?"

It was obvious by Peridot's attire that she belonged to Yellow Diamond. This couldn't possibly be!

[tektite]

"Is there some issue with that?" She was deeply amused by Peridot's reaction. Watching the ideas other Gems had about her existence crumble gave her joy.