⇨ 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

[scientificist]

Fervent note-taking from Herbert now. Gems are the most interesting non-human species in the Carnival, bar none. He's honestly so interested that he's devolved into a sort of notation-style expression of his thoughts as they come to him.

"Are.....gems computers? Hologram-based.... Do you control your appearance? What decides how you look?"

[drrdrrdrr]

Her form glows again as she resumes her usual shape, and she shrugs. "Yeah, I mean, there's some stuff I can't change, like... I'm always gonna be purple, y'know? And I can't hold a different shape for super long or it gets pretty uncomfortable..."

[scientificist]

Presumably related to the gem colour... Amethyst is a lot more helpful than he ever would have assumed, actually. Herbert had been running on the assumption of the small purple woman being fundamentally the least useful of the gems here--but he's having to re-evaluate that assessment. She's incredibly open to question answering.

"What...decided what your light form looked like to begin with--how does the Carnival affect that? Is it...reprogramming your gem?"

[drrdrrdrr]

Amethyst is definitely pretty down to talk about this -- not only is she keen for a distraction from Steven's troubling state, it's also just kind of nice to be answering questions about gem stuff like she's any kind of authority on it? She might not know anything about Homeworld or gem culture or any of that stuff, but she has plenty of experience with shapeshifting and getting cracked and having to regenerate.

She scratches the side of her nose, thinking. "I dunno, I guess? I mean... you come outta your gem one way, like, pretty much all Amethysts are big an' chunky an' purple with long hair, I'm just smaller than usual 'cause I was in the ground for longer... whenever you regenerate you can change it up a little, but like the basic shape's gotta be the same. If you try an' push it it gets messed up. So, like..." She swivels in place and points at her tail. "I wouldn't be able to keep this around all the time if I hadn't gotten it here. I dunno how that works, though, I never really thought about like reprogramming or whatever."

[scientificist]

Computer chips, as far as Herbert is aware (not his field [though apparently he's going to have to make it one]) are constructed of minerals, so perhaps it's feasible that gems are...tiny AIs? With. Holographic projections around their core? It seems a little odd to him, honestly, that if their physical gem is their one vulnerability that they wouldn't surround it with their hard light form like a shell. But possibly that's up to...poor design, rather than strange evolution?

It's too bad the Library became dangerous before he found this out, he could have done with some books on computers. Or gems! Maybe specifically gems! They probably would have been flowery and useless, though.

Actually, hang on. He has to backpedal a bit after writing down more furious notes because something in Amethyst's explanation definitely stands out.

"What do you mean you were in the ground--are you...mined like...non-sentient gemstones?"

[drrdrrdrr]

"Uhh... not exactly," says Amethyst. "It's more like... a buncha stuff gets injected into the ground... an' then when it matures into a gem and the physical form emerges you just pop outta the rock." She shrugs. "It can't be, like, any rock, it's gotta have the right... I guess composition or something? You should ask Peridot about it, that stuff used to be like her whole job."

[scientificist]

His theory is looking more and more likely the more information he gets. Peridot understands programming! Peridot used to be in charge of gem creation! He is definitely on the right track, here.

"I wouldn't have known to ask her about, this specifically without your help," he acknowledges. "I appreciate your explanations, they've been...enlightening. If you have any future questions about Steven, I'll be... Here."

[drrdrrdrr]

"Yeah, uh... thanks, dude." Amethyst hops down from the table and shoots him a couple of finger guns.

[scientificist]

Herbert pauses, shoots her one, stilted finger gun in response, and then goes back to his chemistry set.