Fourth Floor Common Room, Friday Morning

[seeks_truth]

Yesterday, Cassandra had made the terrible mistake of traveling across the causeway to explore the strange world that laid beyond it.

Today, she was paying the price.

She sat down on the floor in the common room, chunks of her armor in hand. She had some sticks and rags and other equipment, and there was determination and frustration visible in her brow. This, indeed, would be a daunting task; her first attempts at it made that clear. She sighed, picked up a small stick, and plunged it into one of the hinges of her armor. She wiggled it, nudged it, and finally produced-- a small sliver of rainbow-colored dirt and plant matter.

"Ugh."

She stared down at the many-colored grains all over her armor. This was going to take a while.

[[ open! ]]

Comments

[crimson_sister]

Before heading to the library for her shift there, Lucille went looking for Cassandra.. Perhaps her friend needed some company to distract herself from the annoying strangeness? Finding her in the common room, she frowned at the state of Cassandra's armor.

"Brightly colored places are more of a nuisance than I thought."

She added:

"Good morning."

[SP?]

[seeks_truth]

"Good morning," Cassandra said wryly. She prodded at a small divot. "You have no idea. I have already had two showers."

All because she'd tripped and fallen. Sigh.

[crimson_sister]

"I hope your armor hasn't suffered irreparably from this," Lucille said, knowing Cassandra cared about keeping it in good shape. "I did not venture out myself. The past week I spent sleeping again, and I felt a need to... stay indoors."

I was a good excuse.

[seeks_truth]

"It will be fine," Cassandra assured her. "It was not dented. It simply wound up... colorful."

Ugh.

"Are you all right? That much sleep cannot be good."

[crimson_sister]

"I am. Although I had the strangest dreams. I was flying through my room, which had turned into a huge hall, as if it had turned into a castle in which I was a prisoner."

It had been disturbing rather than romantic.

[seeks_truth]

Cassandra frowned. "That seems... troubling," she offered.

[crimson_sister]

"It's over now," Lucille replied. "I can only hope that the same can soon be said about this island's moving around. But tell me how life has treated you the past week."

[seeks_truth]

"It has been quiet," Cassandra said. "I have yet to be able to find a way to return home again. Perhaps the island's moving is making this harder. I do not know."

[crimson_sister]

"I am sorry that you can't go home," Lucille said. Even if she selfishly wished Cassandra to stay, she would not burden her friend with that. Perhaps it was also that stab of pain that she hardly wished to acknowledge to herself that made her want to be strong. She would be able to visit, which was more than she could with Thomas.

"Perhaps an evening of tea and poetry would help to get your mind of it?"

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot wasn't exactly procrastinating before going to work this morning, no. It was just, she'd decided to go from common room to common room, to see if any of the views out any of the windows would give her a better idea of the scope of the place that the island had relocated to.

... And to see if she could tell, offhand, if the place had any way to get to Homeworld from there.

She paused when she saw the human poking at what looked to be an exoskeleton of some kind.

"Let me guess," she said to the human as she clanked her way toward the window. "You went to the rainbow place."

[seeks_truth]

"Yes."

Cassandra's voice: dry as the desert.

"It was a mistake, clearly."

She held up the pauldron she had been holding and shook it. Rainbow dust came out.

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot wrinkled her nose at the dust, gave one look at the window, and then shrugged and backtracked to survey the damage.

"It's getting into all of your hinges, huh? What a pain."

Peridot also knew the pain of gummed up hinges, at least. She could sympathize.

[seeks_truth]

"It has made the armor slow. It creaks," Cassandra sighed, "And it leaks colorful dust everywhere. It is a menace."

A terrible, hinge-ruining menace.

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot considered this for a moment, and then made her way back to crouch down and peer at the armor a little more closely.

"I could probably get that out for you, if you want to hold the armor in place while I do so," she offered, finally. "It would be simple enough."

Slow and creaky weren't her favorite ways to be, either.

[seeks_truth]

Cassandra raised a questioning eyebrow.

"You have an easier way to clean armor at your disposal?" she asked, interested.

[era_two_triangle]

"I have technology that allows me to move things without touching them," Peridot explained, holding out her hand and using her limb enhancer's tractor beam to lift the television off its stand, and then set it back down again, carefully. "Some particles of dirt really shouldn't be any trouble at all. Simple."

[seeks_truth]

And now those eyebrows were lowering over narrowed eyes.

"This is technology?" Cassandra checked.

It looked a lot like magic, but it didn't quite feel like it.

[era_two_triangle]

"Of course it is," Peridot replied, tapping one free-floating finger to her forearm. "It's all contained in my limb enhancers. Other Gems do," she waved a hand, "magic... things. But Era Two Peridots are strictly technological."

Because they were made of inferior resources and couldn't use powers the same way as other Gems did, but she was going to gloss over those details, thank you very much.

[crimson_sister]

Now no longer surprised the strange-looking students that the school attracted with frequency, Lucille nodded in greeting, adding: "Good morning."

She would have remembered if they had spoken before, which they hadn't.

[SP?]

[era_two_triangle]

"Good... morning," Peridot replied, looking curiously at the human. She wasn't exactly used to pleasantries like that, even after being on the island for a while, so she tilted her head and asked, "Has it been?"

Had she missed something?

[OOC: Always!]

[crimson_sister]

Lucille looked surprised, as that was a response she hadn't yet experienced, but said: "It is not a statement. I claim to wish you a good morning."

She? He? did seem sincerely confused.

[era_two_triangle]

Technically, Peridot wasn't either, and there wasn't really any concept of gender on Homeworld, either. But female pronouns seemed to be most prevalent there, so she went with those.

"Oh. Then... thank you." She hesitated for a moment, and then offered the same greeting right back. "Good morning."

She was learning! Look at her learn!

[crimson_sister]

Lucille wasn't actually wishing her a good morning, but she wasn't wishing her a bad one either. "My name is Lucille Sharpe. And yours?" Presumably she had one. Lucille assumed she had a gender too, despite Roscoe's lecture on such matters.

[era_two_triangle]

"Peridot," came the reply. And then, because she'd actually had good luck with her full title and one of the island's more human inhabitants yesterday, she added, "Facet 2F5L, Cut 5XG."

Just 'Peridot' would do. It wasn't like there were a wealth of other Gems around that she needed to be distinguished from.

[crimson_sister]

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Peridot shouldn't take that literally, as Lucille didn't care that much, one way or another. "Is that where you are from?" She wasn't going to attempt to repeat whatever Peridot had said, besides her name.