Lavender smiled gently and laced her fingers through Gray's and doesn't pull. Just this was enough. "I know what you've been trained for and this was much more difficult than even that. You were amazing."
Citrine was still slightly buried under gems, but it didn't mean she missed what happened. Her first instinct had been to rise and go to Gray, but she realised almost the next moment that her trauma was Quartz-related and having a Quartz coming at her - even if she was a rusty yellow rather than a deep brown-black - would not help matters in the slightest. Instead, she just offered Gray a smile. "If you want, I can teach you how to beat up your Quartz if she comes after you."
Gray met Citrine's eyes, still holding Lavender's hand. She thought about it for a second, holding the yellow Quartz's gaze. She'd fought from a distance when she had fused with Lavender, but she'd never been able to defend herself against Onyx or her friends - as much as they, laughing, had encouraged her to try. "Yes," she said, ignoring the needle of fear that shot down her throat. "Yes, please."
"My style might be better suited to a Pearl than yours, Citrine," Spinel says, coming unattached from the corner where she'd avoided the pile. "I doubt most of them have the potential to use their strength the way a Quartz would, so it will have to be precision and speed instead."
"Yeah, that's true," the Quartz admitted. Then she brightened. "But hey, I'm the ideal sparring partner, right? I know a little about how smaller opponents can use my momentum against me - it was covered in Basic, in case we ran into any organics who were brave enough to frack with us - and I think all of our centres of gravity are the same, no matter what conditions we're in." She sounded surprisingly competent, and seemed to realise it after a moment, blushing orange. "Uh- I mean, I'm just a raw recruit, so I dunno. You're the one with all the combat experience, Spin."
"Wait. I thought you were leaving homeworld, not fighting directly against it. Have plans changed? And.. even if they have, here is not a good place to teach fighting." Melo said sheepishly from the back, hoping no one would get annoyed with her for interrupting.
"They are trying to get away," explained Citrine, glancing to the newcomer. "But some gems don't take easy to having stuff they think of as theirs getting up and leaving. We might get chased - Diamonds know we have been all day now - and when that happens, I reckon it's right for everyone to at least know how to fight their own battles, right?" She softened a little, grinned at her. "Sorry for the weird entrance, Pearl. I'm Citrine. You got a more exact name there?"
"oh. Right, of course. that does make sense." Melo hesitated before smiling slightly back at Citrine. "I'm Melo Pearl."
"Melo, nice. I though I saw you with some bolas earlier?" Citrine asked. Coming into the ship had been a bit of a blur of panic, but her soldier's instincts missed very little even when the owner of said instincts was utterly miserable. Also, there was definitely a part of her curious and amused at a Pearl that was very nearly her own colour - what with Pearls being made to order, it made her wonder if this one's mistress had been a Topaz, or maybe even an older Citrine. As to that last... "Also, I don't wanna push, but what was your owner like? It'd be nice to know if we've earned yet another enemy by absconding with this sweet ride."
"Yeah you did! Although it isnt that great of a weapon since I only know how to summon it with bells, not weights..." Melo noticed Citrine looking her over for details, and she realised that she must look very strange to these practically dressed gems, as well as noticing that she and the big gem shared a colour scheme. "Oh. I wouldnt mind talking about them, but I really dont want to upset the other gems again. We were talking earlier.. and apparently my owner wasn't as okay as i thought she was."
"We all play with the tiles we're dealt," Citrine said, and realised perhaps more of Hematite had remained with her from Pyrite than she had intially thought. She smiled at Melo encouragingly. "It's not your fault, whatever your purpose was. And if you thought it was a good deal and you even enjoyed it, it's no big deal. I enjoy fighting a lot, and that's what I was made for - I just fight for something else than the Diamonds now." "I just wanna know if they're like to come after us for stealing you and this ship." she added, still keeping her voice level. Whatever terrible thing this Pearl was made to do by her owner, she didn't want to scare her.
"I never minded my job. I thought it was okay, compared to what some pearls have to do. My owner, Labradorite, got me as a reward for performance. She hates being seen as needing help though, so she decided to use me as bait. For her missions. SHe's an assassin. I went in, made a lot f noise, drew out hte target, then hid once target was where Labradorite wanted them. SHe finished up, and came and got me. In between missions I did absolutly nothing. I didnt talk, or interact with anything or anyone. BUt during missions I'd pretend to be other people, it was part of my job, when drawing out the target. Pick someone they'll chase. That's why my bolas-" She draws it out of her gem. "has bells instead of weights. They make a lot of noise, a lot of distraction. Labradorite didnt need me to do her missions, so she probably wont care about me being gone. She probably thinks you smashed me. Thats what she wouldve done. I dont think she'll follow us. SHe does have her main ship to use, since this is her smaller one for less important travel."
"Being used as bait doesn't exactly sound like fun or easy work. Worse than what I had to do at least." Rita said empathetically. "We all had it bad, don't feel bad just because you didn't have it the worst." That made her cringe, sure she'd give that advice and the second she was alone Rita bet she would be crying about how worse her crushed companion had it to her. Oh well, it was still valid advice even if she wouldn't follow it herself. "You're weapon is awesome by the way. Better than mine." Rita pulled out her trident and shifted it in her hands, "Seriously, it isn't as stabby as a sword and it doesn't have the heft of a bat. What the heck am I even suppose to do with it?" Well, other than popping rubies that was. "I'm glad we got a ship with another Pearl." Rita added trying to draw the conversation away from her own uncertainties.
"At least you can summon yours," Rose mumbled, not expecting Rita to even hear her, let alone answer her.
"I mean... I just ran away from stuff. It was nerve-wracking sure, but exciting." Melo's eyes widened when the green one pulled out her weapon. "Are you kidding me! That's so cool! From what the others were saying, we can actually change our weapons a bit, so I'm gonna try to make my bells into weights next time."7 Melo also blushed a bit and smiled when Rita said she was glad to have gotten her. "thanks... but uh, I dont actually know your name yet."
Gray perked up at the talk of the ship, and how Labradorite wasn't likely to need it. Maybe ... maybe Gray could keep it. She immediately started thinking about upgrades and alterations and how she might customize the command consoles... and in so doing, she wandered away from the group, waving her hands over the walls, tracing lines and muttering to herself.
Citrine stood up carefully, tipping whoever was still leaning on her gently onto the floor. She came to Rita and inspected the trident carefully. "I've seen holos of these used, since non of my batch produced them. We had a couple of polearm and spear types, though, and it's a similar style. Spin's right in that she's better off teaching you the details, but here-" She drew out her own mace in a single fluid movement, and held it like a spear, with the heavy point level and hands evenly spaced on the shaft. "Try holding your trident like this, okay? You drive forward with the points, and block with the shaft, like a quarterstaff." She moved through a slightly clumsy series of moves to demonstrate, her heavy mace unsuited to the light movements needed for a polearm user. "See? Try it out!"
"Oh, I'm Rita!" She said as she changed the grip on her trident to follow Citrine's instructions. "It's nice to meet you Melo!" She did her best to repeat the movementws that Citrine preformed and gave a smile as she added a small flourish to the end. "My master had a giant warhammer. She had a habit of crushing her enemies with it." Rita shuttered remembering her first few nights where she was threated with it as she dropped glasses and failed at cleaning, "I'm glad I can just poof with mine."
"Maybe next time you meet her, you can poof her and see how she likes it," Citrine grinned, grimly pleased. She cocked her head, then walked so she was opposite Rita. "Warhammer's a similar style to mace. We can train together so you can kick her ass, yeah?" She didn't raise her mace, and in fact dismissed it so Rita wouldn't think she was being threatened. "Spin can probably tell you the mechanics of it, but I know even someone your size can flip someone like me given training and all that. I figure it must be that, 'cuz not even Quartzes come right out of the ground knowing their butt from their face!"
