⇨ THE EPILOGUE

[ringleaders]

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 61
Where: The Carnival
What: After all the rescues team return, it will be matter of tending to the wounded and getting the hell out of dodge. The Ringmaster can handle the fleeing part, but someone will need to look after those in the medical tent. Or, maybe, you just want to show up and ask what the hell happened.
Warnings: Some messed up consequences of faerie fuckery.

IN REPAIR↴ As the minutes tick past, all four rescue groups will eventually return. Everyone in the carnival is encouraged to help out, ensuring that the rescues and victims both are taken care of after the fact. You can tag in here as rescuers taking care of business around the carnival, victims recovering, or other workers checking in to see what's going on. This log is for general aftermath threads, made by anyone.

Comments

[periphrasing]

Jasper you have feet for hands right now. It kind of undercuts your intimidation factor pretty significantly

"I think you mean, 'no one else was doing it' fast enough for your tastes," Peridot snaps, jabbing a claw at her. "I'm the one who had to show up and get BOTH of your sorry butts out of there! I warned you to stay back, and what did you do!? You got impatient and charged in there anyway!"

[stompadour]

"And I was supposed to just trust that a traitor like you was going to get to it eventually?"

I'm using this icon so much in this thread

[periphrasing]

"Um, YEAH!?" Excessive emphasis put on the 'yeah', to make it absolutely clear that she thinks Jasper is a fucking moron. "You think just because I'm a traitor to Homeworld, that means I'd make rescuing Lapis less of a priority!? I was out there in that stupid library looking for her too when I heard that message on the radio! It just wasn't logically sound to attack when you did! You acted like a complete CLOD, you jeopardized the whole entire group, and you could have gotten the whole lot of us KILLED!"

[stompadour]

Jasper straightens up in indignation.

"I said I know that was a mistake," she snaps. "That's not even the point, the point is if you'd betray your own Diamond then how am I supposed to know what your twisted priorities are?"

[periphrasing]

"My priorities are to my friends," she counters, pointing back at herself with a thumb. "Gaaah, I don't understand your logic! Lapis is a traitor to HER diamond too, you know! And you FUSED with her! TWICE now!"

[stompadour]

"I know she's a traitor," spits Jasper incredulously. "Do you think I trust her??"

[periphrasing]

"Enough to fuse with her, apparently, yes," Peridot mutters, glancing away.

[stompadour]

Jasper stares at her for a moment.

Then she just starts laughing.

[periphrasing]

Peridot snaps her attention back to the other gem, bristling indignantly.

"What the hell are you laughing at!?" she snarls, lashing her tail, fists clenched at her sides.

[stompadour]

"I don't know what the Crystal Gems have told you about fusion," Jasper snorts, "but I don't want to fuse with Lapis because I trust her. I told you, she's a monster. She's brutal. The first time we fused, she tortured me for months!" She puffs her chest up a little, as if having been tortured is something to be proud of. "But I'm strong enough to withstand it. That's why we're so powerful together."

[periphrasing]

Wow. Every time Peridot thinks her opinion of Jasper can't get any lower, Jasper proves her wrong. She fixes a positively venomous glare at her.

"Not powerful enough to keep from getting sliced in half by a puny traitorous peridot," she sneers, teeth bared. "Gee, I wonder what your precious Pink Diamond will think when she comes back and finds out that you not only fused with a gem of a different type, but one who betrayed Homeworld to boot!"

[stompadour]

Peridot has touched a nerve; if Jasper slept, this would be the kind of thing that would keep her up at night. In any case, she isn't laughing any more, and the change in her demeanour is abrupt.

"Whatever she decides I deserve, I'll accept it. I'm not a coward."

[periphrasing]

"Whatever," Peridot mutters, and looks away again. She snorts, swishing her tail one more time. "It feels like we're done here."

[stompadour]

Jasper huffs, glaring.

"What did you even want, Peridot?"

[periphrasing]

"I don't know," she exclaims, throwing her hands up briefly. That's honestly the worst thing about this? "You're injured and-- It's not like I WANT to see you shattered! I just thought that, maybe, since we're working on the same team, I could try and have a normal conversation with you or something!"

What she wanted was to comfort herself by comforting someone else who didn't need it or appreciate it, basically.

[stompadour]

Jasper doesn't reply to that immediately, instead just regarding Peridot for a moment or two with narrowed eyes.

"... That's what I don't understand," she says. "You don't want me shattered? It would be easier for you if I was, wouldn't it?"

[periphrasing]

Peridot stares at her blankly for a moment.

"I guess it would be easier, but." Man, how is she supposed to put this? "You're just not someone that I wish death upon, I guess. Sorry if that disappoints you."

[stompadour]

"It doesn't, I just don't get it," says Jasper. "It's the same with Steven; everyone says he'll heal me, but why would he want to? He knows I'm not going to join you."

[periphrasing]

Wow, you keep consistently calling him Steven instead of Rose! Peridot is sort of proud of you, Jasper.

"It's not about whether you 'join us' or not," Peridot sighs, shrugging lightly. "It's about doing the right thing."

[stompadour]

Jasper makes a small, frustrated sound. "What does that even mean to you gems?"

[periphrasing]

"I don't really know how to explain that," Peridot admits, shrugging again. She's a lot more calm all of a sudden, like she's just out of energy for arguing for the moment. "Not killing people just because it's convenient or doesn't suit our needs is definitely a part of it."

[stompadour]

"... There's a difference," says Jasper, who considers killing people just because it's convenient to be kind of gauche for anyone who isn't a Diamond, "between just not killing someone and going out of your way to save them when you don't have to."

[periphrasing]

"Well yeah, but letting someone die just because you don't see how you'll get anything out of it isn't exactly a great thing to do either," she counters. "Ugh. Believe me, I know it doesn't make any logical sense, it's just what feels right, okay?"

[stompadour]

Jasper just stares at her, perplexed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

[periphrasing]

"Which part of what I just said is giving you trouble specifically," Peridot says with the air of an underpaid math teacher dealing with a frequently confused but well-meaning student.