"None of you are at fault for this. Honest. And Gold, you aren't-useless, you're learning. We all are." She reached forward and squeezed the sobbing Gem's hand.
"But it is! I-if I h-h-hadn't gotten myself p-poofed, th-then she wouldn't have gotten m-mad that Pearls are always in the way, a-and she wouldn't have taken it out on Maggi!" Gold managed through her tears. And shards, now she was making this all about her when Rita was the one who'd lost a friend. She wiped at her eyes in frustration. "Oh, shards...I'm so sorry."
"You couldn't have stopped her!" Rita said. "It isn't your fault. We're all victims here." She really wanted to cry more but, but she couldn't just let this Pearl take blame for something she had no say in. "You're alive. That's amazing. She probably would have crushed all of us given a chance and we're glad you're here." Oh shard it, she could comfort later, right now she needed a good cry. "Just she was like family, you know?" With that she took a seat on the ground and started to cry, a few tears at first but soon full sobs that rocked her entire body. If only it could have been her instead.
Gold sniffled and wiped her eyes again, took a deep breath, and shoved her feelings aside. Rita was more important than her in this moment. Then she sat down on the ground next to Rita and hesitantly rubbed her back. She had no idea if this was all right or not, but she had to try and do something to feel less utterly useless and at fault. Oh, shards....everything was going wrong today!
Smoke wasn't sure how to handle this. Everyone was crying and everything was awful amd Maggi was crushed. She tried to center herself. One step at a time. That was how to deal with this. She sat down beside Rita, and awkwardly put an arm around her shoulders, prepared to yank it back if needed.
Citrine flinched a little at the unexpected touch - no-one had touched her gently since she was mined - then, hestiantly, reached up to cover Carnelian's hand with her own. She remained tense like that, for a moment, then it all left her in a rush of air. "I - guess. Can we at least blame the Authority?" That was said with a sad twist of her mouth, and she reached out slowly to stroke Rita's hair, low lip trembling. Citrine was likely the youngest out of all of them, and yet just then she felt very old.
"T-this is just l-like..." Lavender started, swallowed and wiped her eyes. "L-like the lie they are trying to m-m-make us believe! That w-we are useless and w-when something goes wrong i-it's still our f-fault." She sat down opposite Gold and Rita and Smoke and pulled all three of them into a hug. "T-the A-a-authority wants us to b-blme ourselves, b-but it's their fault! We are t-the victims."
Rita nodded not yet trusting herself to speak. They were the victims, all of them. She had nothing but sympathy for the Pearls who weren't with them because not only were they victims, they were victims that were probably being given crap by their owners just for what other Pearls had done as well. "W-we can stop them." She said shakily nodding. "B-because know we see that." The hug was nice at least. They were here, they were alive, and they could help her. Oh and they cared, she never realized that even other Pearls cared about what happened to one Pearl, but they were crying over someone they hardly knew. "Can I keep crying though?" She asked searching for permission to keep on feeling even though she knew it was stupid.
Citrine slumped down onto the floor, still holding onto Carnelian's hand. She laughed, although there wasn't much humour in it, and after seeing Lavender do the same with the other Pearls, pulled the musician down and wrapped her arms around her."None of us are much good at following orders, huh? We're all clods, in together in our clod pile." Hematite remained standing by the broken window, unwilling to get much closer with so many new people, but at Rita's comment, she repeated, "You are always allowed to have emotions. Grieving is something that is necessary."
Carnelian leaned into the hug gratefully. She hadn't realized how tired she was, but the Quartz was reassuringly solid. "But now we're clods with a-a reason to fight."
Citrine laughed again, this time more gently, and rested her cheek against Carnelian's hair. "Yeah, I guess we are. Hey, Pearls, if you guys ever feel like whaling on something when you're mad, I volunteer, okay? Hematite can't take a lot of it, on account of she can feel what you feel." "I can take enough." Hematite raised her eyebrow, then flashed a brief smile when Citrine threw a grin back at her.
"Depends on if you're letting us 'whale on you' because you're giving us fighting lessons." Smoke smiled, then quietly said, "I'd like to be able to punch Smoky Quartz, too."
"Heh, well, I can give you punching lessons right now, if you want." Citrine reached past Carnelian and to Smoke, palm outwards. "Show me your fist, first. You gotta tuck your thumb in under your fingers, and try and line your knuckles up with the line of your wrist and forearm, okay? Now hit me, hard as you can."
Smoke awkwardly made a fist. It didn't feel natural at all. When she felt it was the correct position, she took a deep, unneccessary breath, and punched Citrine as hard as she could. Which, frankly, wasn't that hard.
Red Topaz stumbled forward, her vision blurring. Shards, but that had been a hard hit. She whirled, blocking with her quarterstaff, finding a remarkably large, dark Gem. "Black Opal!" she shouted, backing up slightly.
"I-i want fighting lessons too!" Lavender smiles up at Citrine. "A-also I should mention I have a few of A-amethyst's weapons in my gem! She has me carry them a-around for convenience. I j-just can't lift t-them... well not on my own..." She sounded hopeful. Maybe she could fuse with someone again, fight together! She wanted to show Amethyst that a Pearls could wield huge battle axes made for Quartzes just as well.
