Rose winced. "No, no! We wouldn't ask you to do that, that would be horrible!!" she exclaimed, before realizing she was probably going to scare Melo if she kept shouting. "I-I mean...no. We wouldn't ask you to do that, it's wrong to put another Gem in danger like that. It's just...not okay. We want you to come with us so you'll be safe and stuff."
"Gah! Sorry sorry, if you don't want me to be that that's fine, just tell me what you want me to do, who you want me to be and I'll do it. Danger doesn't really matter, not if you tell me to do it. I'll stop talking if that what you want, I don't want to anger you more." Melo shrunk a bit further back. Who did they want her to be?
"Oh, shards...I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to yell," Rose said apologetically. "We're not going to tell you what to do, is what I mean. You can...be, and do, whatever you want to. That's what being a free Gem means."
"But...this is the first out of character conversation I've had since formation. Labradorite told me what I would do, and maybe reprimanded me a few times, but I've never talked other than when I was a character for a mission." Melo has started to look openly confused, and debates sinking down to the floor, but she has to stand her ground! Right? "I don't have a personality of my own... I think?"
"Well...you can develop one," Rose suggested. "But I think you have a personality of some sort. I mean, from our conversation, you're kind of shy, but you're willing to fight when you have to, and you're brave, or at least you can appear brave--those are the makings of a personality."
"Really?! Well... Okay. Thanks." Melo smiles at Rose, and sinks onto the floor. "I was taking bits and pieces from each character, but I guess I can make my own character, for myself. And.....I......think you are nice." Menlo smiles at her again.
Rose smiled. "That's the spirit." She blushed a bit when Melo called her nice. "W-well, thanks!! I think you seem really nice too. And...I'm glad we met you, even if it was by pure coincidence of stealing Labradorite's ship."
Menlo grinned at Rose. "Thanks! I'm glad I met all of you too." Menlo then realized that she was still holding her weapon, and disincorperated it with a small blush.
Rose looked curiously at the weapon before Melo disincorporated it. "What was that, anyway? I heard it jingling earlier--bells?"
"Oh! It's a bolas, I think that's what they're called." Melo quickly summons it and lays it on the floor in front of her. "Usually they have weights on the end, and you swing it around over your head, and throw it around someone's ankles. The two longer strings curl and twist together on he other side, and the short one is there for you to drag the capture around. The weights weigh them down so they can't get up. I've only used it a few times to trip gems, but since mine doesn't have weights, it doesn't work as well. But it does really draw attention to me when I swing it around over my head."
Citrine's head whipped around when someone spoke, eyes wild and teeth bared. "No, get away from- I mean, I- I-" She clutched her head, staring into nothing. "I'm a monster! WE were a monster! We're horrible! They were- they- were screaming and running away and I'm supposed to PROTECT people not - not- not- I'm horrible! I shouldn't exist, they said so! I- I- I-" She let out a raw gasp, trying not to hyperventilate and failing miserably. "I don't wanna hurt you!"
Rose sat down in front of the bolas, studying it. "Huh. I wonder if you could summon it with the weights...? It might make a more useful weapon then. Not that I expect us to have to fight or anything, but it never hurts to be prepared. But hey, it seems like a pretty cool weapon!"
"O--oh" Lavender said softly, before scooting closer to Citrine and hugging the bigger gem, gently pressing herself to the other's side. "You're not a monster. Iron Pyrite is beautiful, wonderful. You did so well protecting us. Don't feel bad." she whispered.
As Melo watched Rose study her weapon, she felt herself blushing, and....glowing? Gah! Nononono, stop glowing this is embarrassing! "I could try to summon it with weights... Whether or not I can lift it when it has weights is another problem entirely" Melo said, and giggled a little.
Citrine flinched hard, startled, when the Pearl pressed herself into her side, then all but melted, clinging to the smaller gem as though she were drowning on dry land. She kept shaking, and didn't quite seem to be able to speak for the longest time. After a long moment, she said in a very small voice, "...but they were all so scared."
Rose giggled a bit. "Yeah, I guess that might be a bit difficult," she said, glancing up and noticing Melo's gem glow. She blushed a bit as her own gem started to glow in response. Oh, shards! Without saying anything, she ducked her head and went back to studying Melo's weapon. Maybe if she ignored it, it would go away...?
Carnelian thought it might be best to let the two of them bond. She smiled at them and walked over to where Citrine and Lavender were sitting. The big Gem still looked shaken but she seemed to be doing a little better. "For what it's worth, I thought you were incredible."
Today, Gray decided, was one of Those Days. She liked piloting. It was one of the few times she was actually in control of her life, because Onyx had only ever cared about looking good, and getting to her destination in one piece. Anything beyond that was up to Gray. There had been a few times in her life that she'd had to either get Onyx to a battle or get her out of one. Those were less fun - her stunt training was useful, but she would have benefited greatly from having actual military pilot training, and, well, Onyx was good at bribing people, but they'd hit a big stone wall on that one. They'd made it out with usually no more than a few scrapes - nothing some welding and a paint job wouldn't fix, and Gray had been trained in that too (because Onyx was lazy). But usually, Gray only had one Gem to worry about, and usually, every other weapon on the field wasn't trained on her. That was very much not the case today, and her skills were getting a serious workout. Luckily, Iron Pyrite had figured out what was going on, and had jumped onto the ship with Smoke and Rose - and then they'd unfused and gotten in quickly, for which Gray had been eternally thankful. Flying with the equivalent of at least a third of the ship moving around on top of her wasn't fun. At least when everyone was inside, she could compensate better, though the ship was heavy. Unluckily, they were now being followed. She hadn't managed to get the cloaking back up in time, and so she now had several other shuttles of varying weapon capacity on her tail, and apart from the area directly around the Rebels' Square, this was a skyscraper neighbourhood. She'd been keeping her keel level for a couple minutes, swerving through the buildings, but she hadn't been successful in gaining any ground on their pursuers. It wouldn't do to lead them straight to Melon, either, so she was on her own until she could get the cloaking back up. She called up a map of the area on her screens. This thing had crazy security access. She glanced at it, trying to figure out a plan -- there. Turn there, sharp there, loop in through the tunnel and out the other side, then -- yup, that would do it. No time to warn anyone: she slammed on the throttle, shot ahead, turned on her side and slipped between two buildings that should have been too close to slip through, then cut her engines and dropped like a stone for several hundred feet while correcting her turn, modifying it into a corkscrew that leveled out just as she reached the bottom of the dive, where she threw the engines into life again, swooping into the freight tunnel. In the darkness, having put several seconds between her and the other ships, she had just enough time to reboot the thoroughly-exhausted stealth systems, and by the time she shot out of the tunnel entrance on the other side, they were invisible again. She pulled the ship into a slow climb, gaining altitude and putting more distance between her and the homeworld ships. She was going toward the government district - hopefully, they would expect her to go away, and in a minute or two she could be sure she'd lost them, and then she'd loop back around to find Melon. She let herself breathe. Definitely one of Those Days.
As the ship jerked, it sent Rose-Gem still glowing- flying into Melo. And suddenly, there was a much taller and peachy coloured pearl lying where they had been. "AH!! What. Just. Happened!??" She yelled a bit, confused, looking around herself "I'm....bigger.. and not me, but I am me.. I'm us? Me? This is very strange.." She glanced around at the other gems, and asked worriedly. "Is everyone else okay?"
Spinel curls up into a ball as the ship continues to throw everyone inside around, glad her body formation is one that allows her to protect her gem like this. True, Spinels are harder than most gems - indeed, she's probably the hardest gem on this ship, edging out the Hematite and Citrine - but that doesn't mean she wants to accidentally get cracked by being thrown into a wall. When the ship stabilizes, it's with the addition of the rest of their party, and one of the Pearls has fused with the new one. Spinel uncurls, sitting against the wall near Carnelian, and gives the new double-Pearl a funny look. "I suppose that's one way of showing her our perspective," she mutters. These Pearls are going to be the death of her.
