Scene #2719: Gem Disposal, Report Mountain

Owner	Pose
Peridot	The command room was a mess. It had been so neatly organized the time Lapis visited it as a prisoner, but since Peridot had convinced her to come back as a free gem it'd become a tangle of rubble and equipment strewn together in a chaotic mess. By now these oddities for a calm and collected gem like Peridot had become common place. Peridot was in the center, knee deep in the innards of a deconstructed injector. Since Lapis had come back to the ship, the green gem had done nothing but work. She seemed too tired to even be mad, or frustrated with how messy everything had become. It was almost a reflection of her state of mind. She used a tractor beam emitted from her hand to attach one of the injectors large legs to its main body. Her hair looked partially wilted, her skin and clothes smudged with various grease stains. Dark green bags under her eyes. She looked at a few nearby Robonoids. "Fetch me the hydro spanner." She instructed the small machine, which skittered off to some toolbox.
Guest Lapis Lazuli	It's been a few days since Lapis has even been on the ship. She snatched up one of the escape pods and went out scouting, searching for something. Probably that 'The Steven'. Whatever the cause, she managed to bag a gem. That neatly marks the fourth gem encounter had, but the bubble sent back to the ship's containment wasn't Lapis'. It wasn't blue, it was orange. Regardless, it was another mission complete. The door to the bridge beeps and swooshes open when Lapis reaches the door, punctuated by the sound of her bare feet against the ship's cool floors. A yellow hardcover books, sans cover, is in Lapis' hands, closed around her thumb that she's presently using as an impromptu bookmark. The injector gives her a moment's pause as she looks at it, but then just continues on her way to the co-pilot's seat. Upon passing Peridot, Lapis says, "Hello, Peridot." And then she just continues to her destination.
Peridot	Upon hearing Lapis call out her name, Peridot looks up with a sour expression. She rubs her face with her floaty fingers, and makes a weak effort to tame her wild geometric mane. "Lapis." She said back, though her tone wasn't one she would make if she were merely returning a greeting. The simple utterance of her name was pre-loaded with ample amounts of sass. Peridot climbed out of the injector, landing on the floor with a clank. She began brushing herself off, grimacing. "I don't.. care where you've been." She started, calling out after her. "But the Warship is not a.. not uh.. Not your personal garbage bin!" She formed her holopad in front of her, conjuring digital imagery of the gems that had been bubbled and appeared in containment. "What are these other gems?! Where did they come from?" She huffed, her cheeks turning a darker shade of green. Not simply because Lapis had sent them to the ship without permission, but she also felt somewhat embarrassed that Lapis had discovered other gems before she did.
Guest Lapis Lazuli	Lapis reaches the co-pilot's seat and turns it only to discover that -- it's been covered in tools in spare parts. Silently she sighs, plan foiled by excess .. stuff .. in her way. When Peridot jumps down from the injector, she turns her head to look back towards Peridot, the sass getting her attention. The tone in her next statements actually cause her to step back, turn around, and stand behind the pilot's chair to look at Peridot. At first she seems stunned, then she looks a bit indignant. Her eyes move to the projected imagery, and her brows furrow a bit and she frowns. Then she looks back at Peridot, "You don't understand, they were corrupted! We couldn't just leave them there." She pauses, then shouts back at Peridot, "Didn't you tell me to look for other gemkind? Well, I found them!"
Peridot	"Corrupted?" Peridots own brows furrowed for a moment but, more so in thought. She had opted to not tamper with the bubbled gems while Lapis was out, merely because she wasn't sure what she would have been dealing with. The fact they were corrupted confirmed her suspicion that she was wise to not simply de-bubble them. The internal conflict didn't last very long before she rubbed her temples. "That's... well. You aren't wrong exactly, but." She turned the holopad away from Lapis so she could study the corrupted gems herself. Peridot was frustrated, but not with Lapis. "No one can cleanse corrupted gems. These are useless to us. The gem thing to do is just shatter them and put them out of their misery... or barring that, continue the cluster experiments if we actually want to make them of use to us." She considered, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
Guest Lapis Lazuli	"Yeah," Lapis responds. One of her hands grip the back of the co-pilot's seat as she leans in a little bit. "The red one was a giant sandworm, at least half the length of this warship." Definitely a corrupted gem, oddly. "I don't know what it was doing here --" she pauses at the mention of shattering the gem. There's a moment where she seems to hesitate, and a short silence that follows that. After a moment she looks away and replies, "Maybe we could just leave them for now."
Peridot	Peridot squints a little bit. A corrupted gem half the length of the warship? Lapis appeared so weak, it was easy to forget how strong she could actually be. Peridot didn't know the full extent of the ocean gems power, but it was jarring to be given a reminder of how much raw power she could control, and how much she out-classed Peridot in that regard. For a moment, Peridot was relieved she had the warship on her side. But, it made her regard Lapis for a moment, she had never thought much before about how much she didn't know the blue gem. "Storing them is dangerous." She started sternly. "Normally I would just have them vaporized and be done with it... and, I don't think the cluster experiments will solve the current problem. Best case scenario, it would delay the inevitable." A tiny robonoid appeared at her feet, holding a hydro spanner, which it impatiently tapped against Peridots leg trying to get her attention. It went ignored. "But, our resources are severely limited so I am unwilling to needlessly throw out potential assets without substantial good reason to do so. Therefore I am willing to entertain the notion of storing them long term- provided you can provide me with a possible end-game scenario for doing so. I simply do not currently see a benefit in doing so that out weighs the risk they represent. If one of them breaks free and reforms, especially if they're as big as you say- it would destroy the warship, which is currently our single most valuable asset." She concluded in a cold logical tone.
Guest Lapis Lazuli	"But -- ..." Lapis starts to say after Peridot remarks about the danger of storing them. She falls silent again as Peridot seems to go over the possibilities and thought process of storing them versus other alternatives. It's no secret the emotion the briefly crosses her face when Peridot considers using them gems for forced fusion. It strikes a particular bad note with her after Jasper, and the fighting she did to just try and maintain that. Nothing to say of gems who were once like them being forcefully fused with each other through artificial means. It was gruesome even for her. Lapis knows Peridot, she used to work with her as her informant. There are a lot of warped gems on Earth, dangerous relics that don't serve a purpose. There's no way to save them here. But then there's that promise she made to Sunstone. The thought track Lapis is considering seems to be interrupted when she realizes Peridot is waiting for a response from her. In an unsure voice, she responds with, "Maybe we should destroy them now, you might be right."
Peridot	Peridot folds her arms over her chest, her head dipping down in thought. She wished she could communicate with Yellow Diamond. She would know what to do. Everything Peridot was doing lately was off-script. Non-standard. She hated non-standard. "We should." She agreed. "We absolutely should..." "But, if there was a way to un-corrupt them, we would have more allies in our efforts. If I could dedicate some time... perhaps look into starting a trial of experiments that could theoretically purify them." She ran a hand through her hair. "But, that's never been done. The more likely scenario is them escaping and breaking everything. And, I have so much to do. How will I find the time? And they'll endanger kindergarten." She pauses, coming to no concrete conclusion, looking down in thought, she briefly looks to Lapis again as she thinks.
Guest Lapis Lazuli	Lapis lifts the book in one of her hands and slips her finger out from between the pages. The book is set atop the stuff already on the chair. Almost just letting it flow into the conversation, Lapis says "You're sounding a lot like Rose Quartz." She shifts a bit and walks away from the chair, sort of circling around Peridot before stopping across from the injector. "Don't we have higher priorities than trying to figure out something that she couldn't? And if all these gems are appearing now, maybe there are more out there." There's another pause as a shiver runs up her back, but out of a nauseating fear instead of excitement, "..even Yellow Diamond."
Peridot	"What? Quartz?" Peridot answered suspiciously. "I.. Well. No!" Her lips purse a disgruntled expression. "She killed gems to save humans! Humans of all things!" She waves her hands dramatically. "All I want to do is save gems! I'm nothing like that traitorous clod!" The mention of Yellow Diamond does give her pause, and at the very least derails her train of thought momentarily so she doesn't carry on about Rose any longer. "Very well then, my original stance, as usual, is the correct one." She said bringing up her holopad. With her single finger she begins to draw a small circle around the corrupted gems Lapis had captured. She hesitated. "...I suppose, given the nature of these circumstances. A last rite is in order, as it were." Her finger hovered over a red button without touching it. "On the chance that we may be putting down some of the last few remaining gems on the planet." Her expression changed to one of mild discomfort, as she appeared to search for words. Her brows then knitted as initially, nothing came. But then, she appeared to come up with something. she promptly looked to Lapis. "Say something about them." She instructed sternly.
Guest Lapis Lazuli	The hesitation in the air isn't just Peridot's. Lapis seems unsure as well. She knows just as well as Peridot what the procedures would be on homeworld. They both came from the same place, the difference being that Lapis spent a few centuries in a mirror. Everything'd change, may she thought things would be different. Or maybe she's still frightened of Yellow Diamond regaining contact. It's a distinct possibility, and one that seems to instill Peridot with a bit more confidence, and Lapis with a bit less. She frowns, feeling the unease grow. When Peridot draws the circle around the gems, she immediately stares at the screen intently, almost magnetised to watch with wide eyes to see if it really happens. ".. We should say something." Lapis agrees, the cadence in her voice slightly off kilter. When sternly asked to say something herself, she gives a sassy, annoyed glance to Peridot, then clears her throat. ".. Things are.." Lapis hesitates, "Our existence.." Another pause, "We didn't know you, who you used to be. It just had to.." She looks at Peridot sternly, "be this way.." The silence hangs in the air, "We can't do this, Peridot. This is wrong." And just at that moment, the tools and components perched on the copilot's chair clatter to the ground in the loudest, most possibly disruptive and destructive way possible. The book having destabilised the stack. Lapis' eyes dart over to the chair and all of the fallen pieces and tools and just bursts out laughing.
Peridot	Peridot tilts her head up, and closes her eyes as sign of respect to a fallen comrade. However she opens a single eye to look at Lapis at the first pause. At the second pause she opens both eyes and looks to her, making a 'get on with it' gesture with her hand. And, at the final pause she opens her mouth to rebuttal only to have the loud clanging of the tools ring shrilly through the air, causing Peridot to nearly jump out of her detachable boots. She merely stared in silence for the first few moments. Her eyes wide. This was a sound that hadn't been heard on her warship in... well, she couldn't think of a time anyone had ever laughed on her ship. She found she appreciated the distraction. It gave her an out. "Well!" She started in mock indignation She waved her hand, dissipating the holopad, leaving the corrupted gems in tact. "I can see you're unwilling to take this seriously." She turned her back to Lapis. "And your speech was terrible, for multiple reasons. We can't send them off like this. It's all just wrong." She began to walk back to her injectors. "I'm getting back to work. We will reconvene at a later date where we will complete the final rites. You are to construct a proper farewell for these gems, at which point we will proceed. Do you understand?"
Guest Lapis Lazuli	Lapis' laughter subsides into giggles, and eventually cuts off when chided by Peridot. The surprise of things crashing derailed the ritual completely, it was just so completely unexpected. Honestly it was for the best, the uneasiness was gnawing at her. No gem likes having to destroy other gemkind, even if they're bubbled and trapped in stasis. It was that final line that really made Lapis realize this was wrong, though. Would she be no different than the Crystal Gems if she made a decision without knowing who the gem was before? Maybe they could be saved. "Yes, Peridot. .. I understand," Lapis frowns a little bit, but doesn't seem to be dejected. "I spoke with the gem that attacked you."
Peridot	"You hh-What!?" Peridot turned and blinked. "You actually talked to that psychopath?" She gripped her fingers into a fist in front of her. "Why didn't you tell me this immediatly!?" She begins pacing furiously in a circle around the injector. "Of all the- She could have killed you! And then me! Or extracted intel from you! Which she would have used against me! All manner of poor outcomes could have very easily arisen from that!"
Peridot	Peridot says, "I can't deal with you right now!" She points. "I'm going to my room, but when I return, I expect a full report of your encounter. "And not only that, I need a report on what you did when the Warship crashed and how you ended up here to begin with. I want details!" She raised her arm, her hand floating into the air above her head by about a foot. "You are going to be up to HERE in report writing. I'm talking Intel Armageddon on Planet Documentation. Theres going to be data fallout for weeks!" She turned continuing her tired rants, seemingly not stopping until she disappears into the barracks, where Lapis can only hear muffled ramblings until the bridge turned silent."