What girl doesn't need a good axe?

[furypatienceconversation]

WHO: Garnet and anyone who wants to drop by!
WHAT: Weapon shopping.
WHEN: Around midday.
WHERE: The Mid-Summer Festival in the Lost City of Amazonia
NOTES/WARNINGS: Dem thighs always need a warning. /ahem. Nothing as yet.

She had taken her arrival with her usual aplomb. The City of Tomorrow had been interesting, but she saw more things that she might need to take a closer look at when she thought about attending the Festival that everyone was talking about.

So that was where Garnet had gone. It was rather nice to be amongst fellow warrior women - not that she wasn't always, or almost always, but the attitude here was different. Pearl fought because Rose fought. Amethyst fought because, in her words, she was 'scrappy.' Garnet's reasoning was different. She fought because the battle needed to be fought, and she was able to fight it.

The reason she was looking intently at a weapons booth, though, was because...

Well...

Her giant axe looked a little lonely, and this place was, currently, a little closer (and definitely less laden with memory) than the strawberry fields.

Her lips tugged to one side, a hand at her chin, Garnet eyed a particularly well-made polearm. Reach, and a blade. Both of those were positives in her book.

Comments

[furypatienceconversation]

There was no hesitation when Garnet said, "Yep," and rested it on her shoulder. It stayed neatly in place, partly due to friction and partly due to her shoulder puff. She could already see a few futures where this could come in handy against the homeworld gems.

She would have to practice a bit, though. After all, she didn't have direct experience with Pearl's spear.

"The manual labor is nothing."

[story_and_teller]

Loki briefly pulls a face.

"To each her own I guess."

[furypatienceconversation]

For once, she looked directly at her company and considered. She had known gems like that once. Sapphire had, anyway. Ruby... Well, until Sapphire and the Crystal Gems, Ruby had mostly known Rubies.

So there was one thing to say. "You have the bearing of an aristocrat."

[story_and_teller]

"That's because I am one," she says, shrugging a little. "Not that that means much in a place like this." Loki raises her chin, and gives a nod to take in the entirety of the city - maybe even the City.

"Here, what matters is the narrative, the stories we tell, to ourselves and each other. So. Maybe I'm a princess, and maybe I'm a queen, but I'm neither to anyone here."

With one or two exceptions of course, but Ikol hardly counts, in the Storyteller's mind. Not for this sort of thing.

[furypatienceconversation]

"I see."

And she did see. Whether it was common or rare for this woman to be understood, Garnet understood.

"Yours is an interesting position."

[story_and_teller]

"That's one way of putting it," Loki says wryly. "It also happens to be the truth, but eh, who's counting?"

[furypatienceconversation]

"Most aristocrats find themselves lost with no servants to serve them." And this woman had already admitted to a dislike of manual labor. There were other forms, that was true, but Garnet still wondered.

[story_and_teller]

"I'm used to doing without. Though trustworthy servants are nice," she allows.

[furypatienceconversation]

There's something about that that Garnet doesn't like. Mostly because she knows firsthand how a servant feels when suddenly free. So many thousand years and Pearl was still finding herself.

"So long as they're treated like people," she ended up saying. Pearl. Yellow Pearl. So long ago, the Blue Pearl... All of them. Treated as so little.

[story_and_teller]

"'Like people' doesn't mean much," Loki points out. "If someone isn't accustomed to treating people like people. It's a bad habit that so many of the high-and-mighty get into."

There's a thread of bitterness there.

[furypatienceconversation]

"Spoken like someone who has been in the presence of a Diamond." She had keen memories of those Diamonds. All the better to be glad she was no longer around them.

[story_and_teller]

Loki arches an eyebrow.

"Your aristocrats?" she asks.

[furypatienceconversation]

"Not anymore."

Understatement, to say the least.

[story_and_teller]

Loki flashes another grin.

"Good for you."

[furypatienceconversation]

Was the misunderstanding deliberate? Maybe no one would ever know. Bug all the same, Garnet answered, "Yes. It has been very good for us."

[story_and_teller]

"Most people do better when they throw off tyrants, and seek their own paths. It certainly makes for a better story. And better stories make for a richer, and more vibrant tapestry of life."

[furypatienceconversation]

A richer and more vibrant tapestry of life.

She liked that.

As she looked back over the years, she could see so vividly how doing what she'd done, becoming who she was, following who she did, had made her life one worth living instead of letting herself be shattered, or simply acting as a prophet.

Amethyst. Pearl. Steven. None of them would be what they are if it wasn't for the rebellion.

There was the smallest of smiles on her face as she affirmed it with a steady, certain, "Yes."

[story_and_teller]

Loki can feel that, almost see it as the other shuffles back through her history - her story - and her own smile widens.

[furypatienceconversation]

She made a decision. Simple enough, but one she saw could make things either better or worse - in practically even measure.

The future would have to navigate itself for a bit.

She turned to face her companion and said, "Garnet."

[story_and_teller]

"Loki," she replies. "Pleased to meet you, Garnet."

[furypatienceconversation]

"The humans in the far north used to speak your name in curses and in praise," she observed. "Perhaps they mistook you for a Jade. Or a Fucsite." After all, she thought, there were no true gods on Earth. Only old stories about gems.

Or at least, she interrupted herself, not on her Earth.

[story_and_teller]

"They still do that, in some places," Loki comments. "In different times, and different worlds..."

Beat.

"It gets annoying sometimes, but, eh. You get used to it. So, are your people like the gods of your world, then?" she asks. She can put two-and-two together: Diamond, Garnet, Jade, Fucsite...

[furypatienceconversation]

"No."

They were just old. And powerful. Maybe once, they were mistaken for gods. Given the temple, it wouldn't be surprising. But no, not gods.

"We are rebels, refugees, and protectors." In that order.

[story_and_teller]

"None of which means you are not also gods," Loki points out. "But no," she continues, tilting her chin slightly. "You're right; you're not gods. I think that feels too simple. Easy. Not that being a god is simple or easy, but..."

[furypatienceconversation]

"You mean the name is too easy." Not that the words refuting godhood were so simple, but Garnet understood what was meant. Or she thought so, anyway.