hfm_logs | [NOW OPEN] Assassination!

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[NOW OPEN] Assassination!

Warnings: Death and blood and violence
Location: The park
Characters: Peridot, Rose Quartz, and Greg Universe
When: Three days after Peridot gets Shadowed.
Summary: A romantic evening walk is interrupted by a violent stalker and it all goes to hell from there.

Peridot had waited long enough. Three days of avoiding the sun, of practicing until she collapsed on the spot, of seething in an anger that was acute even for her with the whispers in her head egging her on, she managed one. A jagged shadow, long and thin and sharp, jutting up out of the concrete. She did it. She made one.

Eventually, she could make a few more. Eventually, she could throw them.

All she needed was one perfect shot, right through the gem. It would be easy enough to get close if Rose was hunting her. If her encounter with her in the shops was any indication, she'd believe anything. Any story would do. Of course it would. The whispers had stopped arguing with her about this. Just this one thing. If she got to do this one thing, then she pay attention to what they wanted.

Helicopter fingers fluttering, she scanned the city for Rose until finally she found her in the park with her pet human. The sun was setting, the shadows would get stronger and stronger in the waning daylight...perfect. She taxied down to the ground behind the couple.

“Well, well, well...Isn't it getting a little late?”

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Dammit! Dammit dammit dammit! She didn't know how quickly she'd be able to form another one! She didn't know how much energy that would require! There was no time for this!

...Except perhaps there was. Rose seemed to have almost forgotten her for the body, and...perhaps she could simply approach her and tear the Gem from her body...

"Hmmm...too bad. Putting down your little human pet wasn't the plan."

Wow, humans had so much blood in them. It didn't vanish the way Gem blood did, soaking the ground, dyeing everything ruby red. It was far more satisfying then the simple POOF of a Gem.

She approached from behind, coating her hand in shadow. Not as risk free as the spear, but Rose seemed so...so...Well, Peridot didn't have any experience with this emotion, but Rose was clearly preoccupied

"Don't fret," she pulled her hand back to drive it through Rose, "it'll be quick for both of you."

Oh. Right. Peridot's there.

Good. Rose needed a way to vent right about now.

The sound of her voice quickly snaps her out of the intense sorrow she's feeling, her emotions quickly turning to anger. Blind, uncontrollable fury, the kind where you're still crying just from how much it burns.

She quickly turns around, and when her foot falls, the ground shakes. Rose moves to grab Peridot, and a spire of stone erupts from beneath her feet to launch her forward. Before Peridot can even react, she's being grabbed by the throat, and Rose is moving with enough force to slam her into the side of a nearby building, smashing the wall to bits behind her.

That wasn't anything to do with her magic. Smashing walls with brute force is easy for a Gem as strong as her. What is magic however, is how the bricks in mortar don't fall, instead staying suspended in midair, before smashing together around Peridot's limbs. If she had just actual hands and feet, they'd doubtless be broken right now. As it is, she can probably hear the metal of her gauntlets and boots straining, as Rose keeps her contained, staring Peridot straight in the eyes with more anger than she thinks she's ever felt before, grip tightening around her throat as tears still stream down her face. "Use your healing magic. Fix him. Now. Or I'll BREAK YOU." There still might be time. Even with all her anger, she wants to believe that there's still a chance to save him.

Peridot's mind swam. Shadows and whispers and dead humans and walls and was she cracked, she must have been cracked, completely cracked. She couldn't move. The shadows had been snuffed out by the force of Rose's retaliation. She didn't need air, but she did need her throat to talk, and her voice was only a faint squeak when she did.

"Traded...traded it...the shadows-"

She was being crushed. And the thought hardly bothered her now. The shadows hissed and panicked in her ears, she couldn't escape, and yet seeing Rose this way...one of the Gem's greatest warriors and Peridot had completely undone her.

"...he was...only a human..."

Through it all, Peridot sneered.

That's it, then. There's no hope of saving Greg. And no point in holding back anymore.

Her grip tightens around Peridot's throat- and the stone compresses around her limbs. And then with one quick twist of her hand, she snaps Peridot's neck- her gemstone falling to the ground.

That's not enough, though. Not nearly enough for what she's done.

Rose raises her arms up, and lifts a boulder up into the air, one bigger than she is- and slams it down, crushing Peridot's gem. And then again. And again, and again, and again, screaming and crying all the while, shaking the earth. And by the time she's done, there's just a massive crater, and a tiny green smear in the center of it, Peridot's gem practically reduced to a fine powder. And now...

Now there's nothing. Nothing for Rose to take her emotions out on, nothing to distract her from the fact that the person she's loved more than anything else was suddenly, painfully ripped away from her.

Nothing to do now but just break down and cry.

Shortcuts through the park are kind of a thing for Bones. Delivery isn't really an option and they'd run out of coffee- again- because between two men, a teenager, and another adult that comes by to visit they can't seem to remember to keep it on the list or keep track of how much is left. It's not that far out of Leonard's way to grab a few bags after working at the clinic so he usually ends up being the one to get what they need.

Going around is an option but- a moment of peace and green to remind him of home? Not all that bad. At least when it is peaceful and green and there isn't the rumble of something going on, a rhythmic thud that curiosity bids him look into.

Rose slamming a rock into the ground isn't what he expected.

Neither is the blood.

"Jesus christ-" Greg. Greg's down, Greg's still in a way that he's intimately familiar with and Rose is- he drops the bag and sprints over. Nothing to be done for Greg, he knows that, he knows but something screams at him to try anyway. To look, to treat but-

Healing magic isn't something he has. "Rose? Rose. What happened?"

It takes a moment to register with Rose that someone else is there, asking her questions. It takes another few moments for her to compose herself enough to respond, and to even think of what to say.

"Peridot. Peridot attacked, and G... Greg said she'd made some kind of deal, and..." And it hurts, to have to examine the events, effectively re-living it so soon after it all happened. But she has to. She's a Crystal Gem, and she needs to be strong. "Peridot used some kind of magic, but Greg got in the way, and he... he took the hit for me." She's trying to hold back her tears as she speaks and is failing, hand over her mouth to muffle her sobbing between words.

There's nothing he can do. There is NOTHING he can do and he's kneeling by Greg anyway, hand over the wound, examining him as calm as he can manage but-

No breath, no pulse, and with all the blood? It looks like it was quick. Part of him is grateful for that. Greg wasn't suited to violence- it isn't-

it wasn't in his nature. "He protected you."

Because that's what Greg did in his own way. Kept everyone settled and sane and safe in all the small ways that people tend to take for granted and it's not fucking FAIR. It's not fucking fair that they're brought here and this shouldn't have happened and he's not-

Leonard takes a slow steadying breath, crams all that down. Turns to Rose and extends his hand to her. "I'm so, so sorry, Rose."

He protected her. Of course he protected her. People always seem to be willing to do that, whether she wants them to or not. "I didn't deserve it."

She joins Bones in taking a deep breath, as well as taking his hand, letting him help her back up onto her feet. She can't just sit here all day, crying. She has to be strong. She can't let this get to her, not when there's still work to do.

She heads down into the crater she made, and starts scooping up all the little green bits, making sure she doesn't leave any behind. "We'll need to keep these somewhere safe. Find some kind of way to keep them from regenerating.

For a moment he's stunned by not only the statement but the green shards. Then it clicks. Peridot did this. Peridot isn't HERE anymore because-

She'd been shattered.

"Or we can grind 'em into a superfine powder and set 'em on fire." That got his vote.

"It would need to be hotter than that, but. Maybe. Until then, though, I don't think anyone wants to deal with mindless limbs crawling around." Her voice is quiet, and emotionless. Right now, Rose just seems very, very drained. And not just from the extreme overkill she pulled on Peridot.

She's also pointedly avoiding turning back around. Rose won't be able to continue keeping it together if she looks back right now.

"Hold a bit up?" If he knows what he's reaching for he can handle it. The whole ordeal is emotionally draining and he's got Greg's blood on his hands but-

He's a doctor. He's handled this before. Rose hasn't. Soon as he knows what he's looking for he starts balling them up in his clean hand, lifting and tugging the shards from the surrounding area with his magic.

She watches him levitate the broken pieces away, before lowering her hand. "Just make sure to keep them somewhere sturdy where they won't have the room to regenerate properly. If they do escape, it should be easy enough to poof them and collect the pieces again."

...Well. That's that taken care of, then. No reason for her to stick around, anymore. "If you'll excuse me, I think it'd be better if I were alone." She says, before starting to walk off. Something Rose was already aware of has been made abundantly clear now: It's dangerous for humans to know her, and be around her.

"If I may, Miz Rose." This isn't something he's got far too much experience with- but it's not a letter of condolence and she ain't a Vulcan. There are social moors at work here he doesn't know how to interpret - all he's got to go on is the statistics that races that live longer feel deeper- and every loss is felt with a depth of grief fit to make any empath weep. This is Greg. Was Greg.

"Everyone grieves different but- I don't know if you should be by yourself? It ain't easy to lose a loved one." Understatement of the fucking century, right there. "Hav'n someone with you can help."

"I appreciate the sentiment. It's very sweet. But I'll be fine on my own." She doesn't face him as she talks, still not looking back.

She'll be fine on her own, after all. Even though the other Gems aren't here, it won't be all that different. She's lived apart from humanity for a very long time, until she met Greg. There's no reason she can't just go back to that, and keep people from getting close to her and getting themselves hurt like this.

"Keep in touch?" He can't make her talk to him no more than he could make her talk to anyone but- isolation is not a healthy way of handling grief. He knew that pretty damn well. "Casey and I'll be here for ya."

Shit.

He needs to tell Casey. And Wash. Jesus christ.

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[NOW OPEN] Assassination!

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