[b]"Hey, I know it's none of my business, but why did you leave the rest of your group? From what I gathered, you guys aren't the most knowledgeable about things here on Earth, so wouldn't it be better to stick together. Strength in numbers and all that."
[/b]

A voice.

A familiar one.

Evenkite didn't count on being followed. She wasn't going to lie, a small -just a small- part of her wished Amber or Sodalite, or better yet, both, might've followed suit, but they already made their stance very clear and she wasn't going to try and persuade them. It was their choice, and just as Evenkite wouldn't want anyone trying to sway her choices, she didn't want to try and sway theirs. Besides, it wasn't really upsetting. She liked those two, yes, but they weren't close or anything. Hardly acquaintances. It would have been nice for them to join her, but not upsetting for them to have not.

However, never did she count that out of all people that would follow, it would be Reggie.

[color=FAFABE][i]Why [u]Reggie?[/u]
[/i][/color]

Evenkite stopped in her tracks, the first time she did so since she departed, and turned around to face the human being. Her eyes, normally wide and bright, were now narrowed, scanning him from top to bottom, and her mouth tugged at the right corner of her lip. After a few moments of silence, her expression softened, and she finally spoke.

[color=FAFABE]"Reggie, sir. I mean no offense, but I would like to respond to your question with a different question: Why are you following me?  Did the others send you here? Because I made my choice very clear."[/color]

The little gem remained silent a little longer, still examining Reggie. She carefully considered whether or not to answer Reggie's question. It was a curious thing, being followed by him, but at the same time, considering that he left the meeting before anyone else had done so, she doubted she was sent by Aquamarine or Bloodstone. True, he was found with him at first, but considering his reactions to his words they didn't seem to be on the same side. And if they were, well, they definitely weren't buddy-buddy. Her head cocked to the side and the faintest trace of a smile formed on her face. Surely if he went through the bother of following her despite this, the least she could do was answer? Besides, it was amusing, really, that he went through all this trouble. Admirable, in a way.

[color=FAFABE]"You are free to continue to follow me, Reggie, sir, whatever your reasons be, but I doubt Kindergarten will be of much interest to you. I will, however, answer your question properly now, if you care to follow me. I doubt you are with the others, and even if you do turn out to be a threat, well...I hope it doesn't come down to that, for both our sakes, but I can handle you."
[/color]

And with that, Evenkite turned around, making her way back towards Kindergarten as she was before. After a few steps, she turned around to face him every now and then as she spoke.

[color=FAFABE]"Well, for starters, there's, simply put, the fact that  I don't want to be part of this nonsense over Homeworld and Earth and betrayals and what have not. This was never my problem and it shouldn't be now. That's one reason. For another, I miss my home. Plus, Green Gem said she'd return eventually as well, so leaving it behind means I might never see her again."[/color]

Evenkite remained silent for a few moments, her gaze vacant and her mind elsewhere.

[color=FAFABE]"Green Gem, Green Gem, I can't remember her name at all. Yes, [i]her[/i], not [i]him,[/i] I don't mean [i]Emerald[/i]," [/color]she said, letting out a small but harsh giggle, her grin displaying her crooked and sharp teeth, something that looked more fit for a beast than a human. Or rather, a humanoid.  [color=FAFABE]"If I never saw Emerald again, I doubt I could be happier. Perhaps you could say that's reason number three."
[/color]

By now they were approaching the Kindergarten, the purple canyon now in clear sight and looming overhead. It wouldn't be long until they got there. Eve couldn't help but smile.[color=FAFABE][i] Peace at last.[/i][/color] Assuming Reggie would leave her be, of course. He seemed like the type to respect her need for peace, but if she were mistaken, hopefully the answers would satisfy him and he'd leave.

[color=fafabe]"As for not being the most knowledgeable gem, this much is true, and I won't claim otherwise. However, rest assured that I know more than the rest of the young gems. After all, [i]they've [/i]hardly been in existence, and though my own hasn't been very long either, it's been much longer than theirs. Besides, Green Gem taught me lots, for the short while she was with me. Otherwise I wouldn't even know that I was called a gem, or even what my name is. Which I suppose I can reveal to you now that Bloodstone isn't around. It's Evenkite, but please call me Eve instead. I'm sorry for my reluctance of sharing it earlier. His hogwash set my guard up and I didn't feel he could be trusted, even with something as simple as a name. Granted, I don't know what he could possibly do with a name, but it felt wrong to give away that information. I'm also sorry for being so chatty, I've just had to hold my tongue back for quite a while."
[/color]

Another small moment of silence as Eve continued to walk, the Kindergarten drawing nearer and nearer. Her step seemed to grow more energetic by the moment, becoming more and more like hops, and her mood lifted quite a bit.

[color=FAFABE]
"As for safety in numbers, that's also a load of hogwash. I was quite fine on my own before, trouble only began to show up once the others did. If anything danger seems drawn to numbers. The only reason I joined at all was because of the orange gem,"[/color] Evenkite seemed to purposely leave his name out, as though she didn't feel it was right to reveal it without his permission, [color=FAFABE]"Because he was in his gem at the time, leaving him both vulnerable and unable to make a decision. My plan was to stay here and hide out any potential danger that followed, but it felt wrong to leave Orange Gem alone with the others in that state, until he could reform and make his own choice. Which he now has. Now I can go back to my original plan. And if hiding doesn't work, I can-Shhhh. Stay down."[/color] The last bit was whispered rather urgently.

Evenkite slipped herself into a gap between some boulders and squinted. She blinked once. Twice. And let out a mental groan. For as she began to enter Kindergarten, she saw that she wasn't going to be along after all. In there was Bloodstone, and two other gems. One of the definitely a newborn, the other, she wasn't so certain of. 

[i][color=fafabe]Don't make eye contact.
Don't make a sound.
Just sneak back into your hole and pretend they aren't even there.
[/color][/i]

And that's what she was intending to do. At first. 

But as she continued to sneak her way by, she couldn't help but feel the need to do something. She was there, after all, to give the newborns the advice of doubting Aquamarine, and here was a newborn, possibly a lone newborn, much like herself that time ago. She remembered how she was at the time, (and maybe a few things were still the same now).

Naive.

Scared.

Confused.

Curious.

Lonely.

All those were easy things to manipulate when trying to sway a choice. Not to mention, she was curious as to how Bloodstone was handling this newborn gem. No spider bots, after all. Was he trying something new? Had there been a misunderstanding? This was weird, too weird, and she was torn between simply letting it be or interfering.

And then it hit her, possibly her dumbest idea yet. She thought of the time she lifted that rock. Could she do it again?

[color=Fafabe][i]Probably, as long as it's not too big.

[u]Perfect.[/u][/i][/color]

[color=fafabe]"Reggie, anything happens to me, go find Orange Gem and Blue Gem,"[/color] she whispered as quietly as she could muster without being downright silent. [color=FAFABE]"Not the older blue gem, the one that accompanied me when we first me."[/color]

Evenkite's vision fixed on a boulder, one perched up on a cliff not too close but not too far Bloodstone and the two gems accompanying him. A large, heavy boulder. A scary, massive thing. She grinned. Her eyes glowed. The boulder was lifted from it's perch for maybe two or three seconds at most, but that alone was enough to get it far enough that it wouldn't land back on its perch. No, the boulder came crashing down, with a monsterous [i][u][b]THUD[/b][/u][/i] and with it Eve's energy. It took a lot more out of her than she had expected -she wasn't going to try that again anytime soon- but she got the effect she wanted. She rushed over the best that she could, trying to hide her exhaustion, and tapped the newborn gem on the back quickly, giving her an urgent look before turning away and acting as if she never done so, hoping it had distracted Bloodstone before he had seen the exchange.

[color=FAFABE]"Oh skies, are you three okay? I'm terribly sorry, Bloodstone, sir, that was my bad, truly it was. I was just trying to figure out how to control my abilities. Troublesome, but I believe I'm getting a hang of it. Seemed to have lost my control with that one, though. You're not harmed, are you? And your companions? "[/color]

[i][color=Fafabe]Eve, what the actual hell are you even doing? You've screwed yourself over with that one, the rest of this isn't going to work if you're that drained. This plan -if you can define "plan" as "a loose sequence of manifestly inadequate observations and conjectures, held together by panic, indecision, and ignorance"- is stupid and it's not going to work. Moron.” Why couldn't you [u][i][b]THINK [/b][/i][/u]for the love of the sky?
[/color][/i]
[@Raijinslayer][@Kronshi][@21308][@Salt Me Senpai]