B1, Day 2 [public channel]

[whattaprick]

[ There are a lot of things people need to do right now: help the Prince's servants get resettled, get started on figuring out who can work on a cure for the petrification, deal with the trauma of dying in a hopefully healthy and non-self-destructive way, show the new people the ropes of what the Carnival has to work with.

Instead, in the morning of the second day since the Prince was defeated, anyone on the radio gets this: ]

So, I've been wondering.

[ The Nightrider's voice, for those who recognize it, has definitely been better. It's a low, hoarse rasp, and the pause at the end is not just for effect, but to actually catch his breath. ]

Just how old is everyone here, anyway? Here, I'll start. I'm ... pretty sure I'm almost sixty. [ A beat. ] ... Maybe.

[ Why did anyone let this man have his radio back again? ]

[ ooc; Lambert's flat on his back in the medical tent for this, feel free to bug him in person and threadjack each other at will. ]

Comments

[whattaprick]

Steven's a what?

[ Lets derail this conversation further by having Lambert and Celandine both make slightly squawking noises, though Lambert's has less words. ]

[periphrasing]

A hybrid? It means he's the offspring of two entirely different species-- That is, he's only half-gem. Which was something I previously hadn't known was even possible before I met him. [You can practically hear her squinting uncertainly over this next part:] Didn't I tell you about this?

[Maybe she didn't. They must have just discussed Steven's numerous freaky godmode powers, not his body's weird genetic/gemetic makeup. Whoops.]

[whattaprick]

[ That conversation was just after Portland and got derailed by farming, so it's understandably a little difficult to remember. There's a pause while they try to recall, and Celandine finally says... ]

We know what a hybrid is. We just didn't know what he was a hybrid of. [ They'd meant to ask, but never got around to it. ]

Anyway ... how long can gems last, then?

[periphrasing]

[Probably for the best they don't ask how the heck that hybridization is supposed to work, because Peridot doesn't know. She does have some gross theories though! Gross theories that she would gladly share over the network without much consideration for Steven's privacy or feelings.]

Infinitely, provided our gemstones stay unharmed and we don't get shattered or corrupted. That's why age isn't really a thing for us, it's more about what point at which you started existing, and what events you were or were not alive for.

[whattaprick]

[ Yeah let's not go into the mechanics of a human porking a gem, all right??? This sounds like a route no one wants to go down. ]

What do you do with all that time?

[periphrasing]

[I mean, it WAS a route that Greg and Rose wanted to go down, EYEYEYEYEY]

Uh... You work.

[That's pretty much it.]

[whattaprick]

Work on what?

[ Come on, don't leave him hanging, Peridot. ]

[mirrortide]

Intergalactic conquest. [Pipes the peanut gallary.]

Or you spend 5,000 of those years stuck in a mirror.

[whattaprick]

Wow.

Does that happen a lot?

[mirrortide]

Only if they think you're a war criminal.

[periphrasing]

But it's okay because Steven let her out and now Lapis is living her best life!

[SAYS THE PEANUT GALLERY TO THE PEANUT GALLERY]

[whattaprick]

Compared to that, it sounds like it.

[kingsroads]

And you couldn't have broken that curse and freed yourself earlier?

[ this member of the peanut gallery is bringing up the great magic vs. technology war. stuck in a mirror for 5,000 years puh-lease, he could have gotten himself out sooner than that. ]

[mirrortide]

[BUDDY.]

It wasn't a curse. I was physically put into a mirror. There was no "getting out". I couldn't reform. Not to mention the thousands of years that Pearl had stuck me in her gem for.

[periphrasing]

...Pearl was keeping you in her gem?

[That's a detail she doesn't remember hearing. PEARLS *ARE* FOR HOLDING STUFF, SHE GUESSES, BUT... Keeping a gem with in a gem. Jeez. No wonder Lapis is so salty.]

[mirrortide]

The mirror I was stuck in, yeah. [PERIDOT... HER SALT REGARDING PEARL IS. SO MUCH.]

I guess they just needed somewhere to store a broken, useless gem trapped in a mirror like me.

[periphrasing]

[And Lapis's unofficial handler cuts in on a private frequency. It sounds like she's whispering urgently, cupping her hand over the radio mic:]

Um, Mr. Strange... The mirror thing is kiiiiiinnnd of a sensitive topic for Lapis? I'd try to be sensitive about it, if you can. She basically had her body integrated into a device and was used as an unwilling power source for thousands of years. She has a lot of baggage about it? Understandably, if you ask me.

[kingsroads]

[ Peridot. Buddy. Look at the person you're asking to be sensitive. THIS WILL PROBABLY NOT WORK. ]

I can try, [ he says, with a little sigh. He will fail. ] How amenable do you think she would be to talking about it?

[periphrasing]

Depends on your gem type. If you're a Peridot like me, you fix things, or you work on growing other gems. Or both, in my case. It depended on where I was needed, or where Yellow Diamond ordered me to go.

At least, that's what I used to do before I got stranded on Earth. Now I live in a barn with Lapis and watch Camp Pining Hearts and make meep-morps! Er, when I'm not working here, I mean.

[drrdrrdrr]

Or you're from Earth and you just take a lotta naps.

[periphrasing]

Now now, I think you're selling yourself a little bit short there, Amethyst!
Nyeheheheheh...

[Did she just...]

[drrdrrdrr]

Nahhh, I --

[Wait a minute.]

... Huh, sounds like someone's lookin' for me to come over there and give her a noogie.

[whattaprick]

Meep-morps. [ Lambert drawls. Are those a real thing? They don't sound like a real thing. But since they're talking about work anyway, now like a seems like a good time to bring this up anyway: ]

Can you fix people who turned into rocks? [ He's not holding out much hope here, but Celandine interjects: ]

Strange said you were working on something, before we got brought back. Lambert wants to help. It's better than sitting around.

[periphrasing]

[Right. The cure. Are you sure you wouldn't rather just talk about meep-morps, Lambert? They've made some real good ones.

Peridot kind of. Sucks in a breath through her teeth.]

Working on something, yes. Succeeding at making something...? Nnnnot so much. Before the challenge of the hunt was proposed, I had... vague plans, to try and infiltrate the Prince's fortress with an anti-venom. The idea was to cure everyone and then bust back out, but...

[But then someone came up with a much wittier, much more traumatizing plan.]

Anyway, we never got very far on it. The effect is kind of a mix of magic and venom, and considering two of the idiots who could have been extremely helpful in manufacturing a cure were also two of the idiots that we were trying to break in and save...

[whattaprick]

Well, we're back now. [ Also not really in a state to work for long periods of time, but you know, physical limits are for losers etc. Whatever! He doesn't want to be a rock forever, no offense to the people who are actually rocks. ]

It affects souls, too. [ Celandine chimes in. ] Gon could see it in Sans, and in everyone the Prince poisoned.