I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.

[keephersafe]

Who: R & you
Where: The beach
When: 21/10
Rating: G for now
Summary: Still trying to keep out of the way of the general population as much as he can help it, R takes himself down to the beach.
The Story:

[The wind ruffles at his hair and tugs his clothes, and R closes his eyes to take a deep, unnecessary breath. He can almost feel the way the salty air should sting the inside of his nose, and he can almost feel the chill from the wind, and that almost is so tantalisingly close that he loses a good hour reaching for it.

He sits cross-legged in the sand, oblivious to the way that the position strains the tendons and joints of his knees. His fingers dig gently into the sand, and he watches the way it slides over his hands with an expression that could only be called curious.

His head tilts slightly as he hears steps behind him, and he glances back over his shoulder. The time he's spent here has done absolutely nothing towards making him look any less Dead, but he's finding that he cares less and less about people's reactions to it. If someone's going to shoot him, then... they're going to shoot him, and there's really nothing he can do about that.]

Um... hey.

Comments

[slapfight]

Yellow Diamond. [Like that explains it.] One of the gem matriarchs. She was meant to be the most rational and logical of them all, but it turned out it was all just an act. A real rational leader would have listened to what I had to say, instead of holding onto a petty grudge.

[It's taken her a very long time to get to this point, and she's proud that she can say this honestly now.]

[keephersafe]

[The names don't mean much, but he's interested in the story regardless, not failing to look interested while she speaks.]

Wh-what you had to say?

[Give him a little more, here, Peridot...]

[slapfight]

That Earth deserved to be protected and its life and resources utilized, instead of just destroyed! [She throws her hands up in exasperation- there will never come a day when she isn't mad about this.] Who cares if organic life is somehow subpar? It's still life! And Earth has so much we could learn from.

[keephersafe]

[Peridot is... definitely baffling, but he can't fault her enthusiasm even if he's struggling to follow what she's talking about. It's not for a lack of trying, or a lack of intelligence, but more that she's touching on concepts that he had never really given much consideration to before.

Zombies don't spend that much time contemplating the existence of aliens.]

Th-they wanted t... to destroy us?

[He got that, but why?]

[slapfight]

Oh, that's what gems do. It's nothing personal- Homeworld just needs resources, and other worlds provide those resources.

[a beat] Well, as evidenced by Yellow Diamond's complete lack of decorum, Earth was personal, since there was a whole gem war over it.

[She's incapable of realizing she's talking on a scope that most people don't understand or don't want to understand.]

[keephersafe]

[Yeah, she's lost him entirely, but he's enjoying being spoken to and even if he doesn't understand, it's interesting in its own way.

So he nods, as if to nudge her to go on.]

A-..and then?

[slapfight]

And then Homeworld retreated, leaving Earth with a geo-weapon embedded in the Earth's mantle that would one day destroy the planet from the inside out. [She explains this rather enthusiastically. She's pretty excited to have an active listener.] Until I almost single-handedly destroyed it and saved the Earth.

[keephersafe]

[He might not be understanding it all, but he is definitely listening. Not that many people talk to him so enthusiastically, and the interaction is pleasant.]

That's... impressive.

[And he even sounds sincere. It all comes across as very impressive, really.]