"Let's just get them safe, then worry about getting off-planet," Citrine told her, more curtly than she had meant to. She blew out a harsh sigh, ran a hand through her hair. "Sorry. I was just hoping they'd all get out okay... shards, someone's gonna have to tell Seafoam her friend's gone when she re-corperates. This already sucks dirt..." Her fists clenched around her mace, then she added, "I've never done any concious shifting before."
Spinel sighs slightly. How did she get saddled with the little tech? Hopefully that sprinting Amber hadn't seen her too clearly to make a report... Shards and fractures. "I don't object to travelling discorporated, but you might need my word to get past the Rebellion's defenses. We'll worry about it later." She takes the tech's hand in what, for her, is a fairly gentle gesture, but it's still more of a rough pull than anything. "Come on. And if you get in trouble, remember that most gems don't look up."
Tektite's eyes widened. "Um. Hi?" she whimpered. She didn't like being touched, not by Gems she didn't know. She flinched at the contact, confused. ((OOC: When did the crash into Baroque's home happen? I'm having trouble finding it.))
"I'm not going to hurt you," Spinel says, rather tonelessly. "But we need to get moving. The others will manage to take care of themselves." Hopefully, at any rate. Spinel didn't have any doubts about the Tourmaline, but the Citrine was still very young and who knew how much combat experience the Carnelian had seen. "This way." She tugs Tektite's hand off towards a branching hallway before letting go. If the tech gem doesn't follow, it's her own fault - it's not as though Spinel is going over rooftops.
Carnelian looked at the Tourmaline and Citrine, trying not to show how nervous she was. "To the shipyard?"
Tektite followed, despite Spinel's grip being immensely uncomfortable to her. She found herself incredibly relieved when the other Gem let go, and ran after her. Granted, speed was not one of Tektite's strong suits, and neither was dexterity, but she seemed to be doing okay. Yes. Good. "So you're a Spinel, right?" she asked.
Spinel nods. "Half of us get sorted into the upper crust political gems, these days, but I've been in military operations since I was mined." Talking while she moves at this pace isn't likely to get them away - but they come around a corner and she flings out a hand to stop the tech for a moment. Luckily, the Quartz they nearly ran into - one of the other Citrines from the new batch - barely glances at them before hurrying off down the hall. They still have the protection of not being Pearls, at least for now. "I'm better suited to this kind of situation than most of the other Gems."
The crash, as it happened, sent shockwaves throughout the room--the very room Baroque had been in for so long. It was so forceful, in fact, that it managed to knock her display case right over, shattering it and knocking her over as well. The glass shards weren't quite enough to poof her, of course--even Pearls tend to be made of sterner stuff than that. But they were certainly uncomfortable, and getting up was proving to be...tricky. A lot of things are tricky when you don't have arms.
Citrine nodded to them both, and then they were off. As she had said, the old shipyard was maybe four facets - what on Earth that would have been city blocks - from the great hall, down a disused tunnel, where the air was vital with dust and clumps of crystal weeds pierced the neglected pavement. They were all able to move at a decent clip, but allowance was made for Carnelian's shorter legs. The shipyard itself was a wide, dark cavern where the door was held open by an unnervingly detailed gem statue as tall as two Jaspers, four arms stretched wide to keep the ancient mechanisms from rusting closed, four eyes closed as though in meditation. Citrine glanced up at it, then ducked under one of it's arms, patting the great grey flank as she passed. "C'mon, this way. There's a good place for the Pearls down here." 'Here' proved to be the ancient wreck of a half-torn starliner, almost rendered down to composite rooms. Citrine half-clambered in through one of the broken windows, and beckoned. "Come on!"
Gray's eyes slowly fluttered open. Strange, she thought. She didn't think regeneration would feel like waking up. Onyx had never disincorporated her, but she vaguely remembered - very vaguely - originally creating her physical form, and this...was not like that. She blinked again, and tried to focus on her surroundings. It was very dark, and it smelled...like overheated metal, and dust that hadn't been disturbed in whole orbits, and the odd tang of the liquefied crystal that cooled small shuttles like the one she'd crashed. One more blink and her eyesight cleared. She was still strapped into her pilot's seat, which was still in the shuttle itself: the anti-crash cushioning had deployed, and she was buried under it. Apparently that was enough to save even a Pearl from disincorporation. Onyx had not been wearing any of the safety gear - she never did - but Gray could not see her. She had to move. She had no idea how long she'd been out for, and surely the owner of this house would realize a shuttle had crashed into it. She had to leave, and quickly. She pushed and pulled at the cushioning. It was heavy, but not immovable, and she managed to shift it off without too much trouble. It still covered part of her legs, but it wouldn't stop her from moving. She undid her safety harness and tried to shove at her door, but no luck. It was up against something, and she wasn't strong enough to move it. Plan B. She craned around the back of her chair. The shuttle was at a strange angle, the back tilted sharply up and off to one side. She would essentially have to pull herself up if she went that way. She looked at the opposite side of the front cabin - that might be an option. She pulled herself over to the copilot's seat, slipping her legs up and over the console in between. Upon sitting in the second seat,her feet kicked something - she looked down and saw it was Onyx's gem. She frowned. She hadn't expected the crash to damage her that badly, but she wasn't about to complain. She tried to open the door and it fell open with no problem. That was a lucky break. She stuck her head out and looked around: some sort of display room? Trophy room? It was hard to tell, since it was so dark. Gray swung her legs out and took stock: the passenger side was tilted closer to the ground, so it wasn't a far jump. Before she slipped out, she looked back at Onyx's gem. Should she take it? She wasn't sure. She didn't know how to bubble a gem, and Onyx would be very dangerous if she reformed. But if she left Onyx behind... Gray decided she couldn't take the chance. She scooped up the triangular gem and jumped down into the musty house. The first thing she noticed was that the crash had wreaked havoc on the room. Furniture was everywhere, including a large display case which had turned over completely. And it seemed to be shaking and making noise. Oh dear. Had she trapped the inhabitant of the house? Or some poor servant? Oh no. She thought wildly. If it were a high-ranking Gem, and they were here, they probably weren't at the commissioning, and they wouldn't know about the Pearls. She could say the ship had malfunctioned and her mistress had been disincorporated and she didn't know what to do. They'd buy that. She was only a Pearl, after all. And if it was a low-caste Gem under there, Gray wasn't in any great danger. So with a deep breath, she spoke. "Hello? Is someone under there? Do you need help?"
Baroque turned her head to the sound. "Y...yes?" she forced out, shaky and uncertain. Fuck, she hoped she'd at least said it right. It sounded wrong somehow. Her speaking at all sounded wrong to her somehow.
The seafoam pearl had never been poofed before. She had been hit plenty of times but never hard enough to lose her body, her creators wanted her formed to try and sell her and her master was clever enough to not let her anger get in the way of her servant being able to work. Honestly it was almost relaxing. It was nice and quiet inside her gem and for the first time in her life she wasn't twitching. If it wasn't for the whole running for her very life thing Rita could get used to life within the nice little barriers. Shards, maybe once she was free and safe and Maggi was cared for she'd ask to be poofed again and enjoy life as a hermit not needing to care for anyone or anything. Right now however she had a lot of things to care about and she had a feeling she'd spent long enough poofed for her protectors to get the gems somewhere they could reform. She didn't want to fight but she had to be ready for one so she couldn't have her old outfit. Pants maybe, yeah pants would be useful for the battle. She spent a little while longer figuring out the most practical outfit she could think of and put her energy into reforming. Reforming was the weird part. She didn't feel entirely like herself as she felt her limbs and torso form around her gem. Rita shook her head slightly before she attempted to speak saying, "What's up?"
Carnelian smiled hopefully when she saw the seafoam Pearl beginning to regenerate. She and the others had placed the gems gently on the floor in the abandoned craft, and all they could do was wait for them to reform. Hopefully the others would return soon as well. "We're in a shipyard, waiting for all of you to reform." It was a relief to see the Pearl whole again. "Welcome back."
Gold Pearl began to reform. This was far from the first time she had been poofed, and she was fairly certain it wouldn't be the last. How to do it this time...? After some consideration, she decided to change up her outfit a bit, adding in a short skirt to the dress and giving it a star-shaped opening; she'd always like stars. She didn't change her hair or anything else much, although she made her short gloves see-through. As soon as she reformed, she was shocked to find herself in a brand-new place, with no Amber in sight. "Wha--where are we? What's happened? Where's Amber??" She wasn't sure what to do without her mistress--Amber always told her what to do and how to do it! Oh, shards, what was she supposed to do now, without Amber leading her every movement?? Amber, meanwhile, had been following the Gems carrying the Pearls, determined to help catch them and get a bit of glory--and also get her Pearl back. Stupid the Pearl might be, but she had proved useful on occasion. She was about to head through the door she'd watched the others go through, when she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, the statue moving. What the...?
Smoke hadn't had to reform in ages. She had only been poofed once before, and that time she hadn't changed too much, reforming as fast as possible. Now, she realized, she could actually take her time. Maybe change her outfit into something better. Something less... Smoky Quartz approved. And so she did. When she finally felt as if it was the right time, she pulled herself together. Her skirt was a bit looser, her shirt was a bit shorter, and she'd added a small beaded belt to her skirt, but something felt missing. She'd liked the legwarmers that Lavender had on... There! Perfect! Fully reformed (and fighting the urge to twirl, she really liked this new skirt), she gave a polite nod to the others around, including the new Pearl who'd shown up.
Rita looked around nervously having no clue what was to come next. "Are we still being followed? Are the others reformed yet? What about Maggi?" She fiddled with her hands a little, "And are we suppose to be reforming or do you need to poof me again or what?"
"Who are all of you Gems?" Gold Pearl exclaimed, staring around at the others and then at the gems on the floor. "What--what's going on?? Where is Amber??" She was clearly beginning to panic some.
"Pearls mostly. There was a fusion and things took a turn for the worst." Rita smiled at the new pearl and held out a hand to shake, "I'm Rita. I'm guessing Amber is your master, so we can hope the answer is far away."
She moved closer to the two other Pearls, turning to the gold one, and said, "I'm Smoke Pearl, we're all friends here. You're safe." Switching focus, she tilted towards Rita, adding, "It'll be fine, I think we're the only ones reformed for now. Just wait, once everyone is reformed, we'll know what's happening.
