[h1][color=Gold]Mars[/color][/h1]

[color=Gold]"Well that could've gone better."[/color] Mars muttered as he saw the timid gem make her way off into the distance. He followed at a distance, keeping just out of sight until they made their way into a nearby diner. Mars simply leaned against the wall of the establishment, pressing against the communicator in his ear in order to make contact with Candice. [color=Gold]"Gem's secure and I can verify that she doesn't seem to be a threat for the time being. I also doubt I made a good first impression too. *sigh* If only Zoe was here . . . he always knew what to say in these kinds of situations."[/color]

Thinking back to Zoisite caused Mars normally cheery disposition to fade as he slid down to the ground, his eyes lost in a slight haze as he thought back to that day. Like always, he thought of all the things he could've done-[i]should've done[/i]- in order to save one of his oldest friends. They had been thick as thieves, brothers born from the same rock and soil with a bond forged from many shared experiences during their time in service to the General. [color=Gold]"Do you remember that one time in Afghanistan, when we were escorting those refugees."[/color] He spoke in low, reminscent tones as his mind went back to one of their more recent adventures. [color=Gold]"They were all so terrified about what would happen the next day, and he suddenly launched into a big, dumb heroic speech about how he;d make sure nothing would happen to them, no matter what. He was so over the top with it that they had almost no choice but to smile and laugh, and just like that, everything seemed alright. He always knew how to but people at ease and leave them with a smile on their face.[/color]

As he spoke, small streams of tears would flow down his face as the pain in his chest, something that had haunted him ever since his friends passing . . . and the disaster that followed it. [color=Gold]"I know this isn't the time to talk about this Candice but . . . I really miss him. He'd know how to talk to these new gems, how to deal with this whole situation. . . how to deal with me."[/color] Mars grew deathly quiet as he felt the full weight of his pain bear down on him, his sorrow spilling out once again through the happy mask that he had taken to adopting ever since the incident. [color=Gold]Sometimes, I forget that he's gone, I think he's just out on a solo mission for awhile and that he'll come back as good as new. And then reality hits. . . and with it, the pain.[/color]

Mars couldn't stop the stream of tears that flowed down his face as he ran a hand through his ear, waiting for candice's response in silence while people gave curious passing glances before moving on their way, though a few couldn't help themselves, taking pictures of the giant man in strangely colored military garb with multi-colored hair and tiger stripes crisscrossing his body.

[@GuardianAngelHaruki][@Veiled Angel]
[hr]

[center][h1]Reginald A. Dorvain[/h1][/center]

"Holy Shit! Are those gems down there? Damn, Dad would lose his shit if he knew that their were actualy gems down here. Of course, he'd do the same if he actually knew I had met gems before, but hey, what he doesn't know won't hurt him. But Man-O'-Man did I pick a lucky day to go shifting through Old Gem tech."

The person giving the slightly vulgar commentary of the situation was a rather oily spattered male youth wearing what he referred to as 'common clothes', a long sleeve T-shirt, denim jeans, and sneakers that were purchased from a local clothing store. This individual had short-ish black hair, burning green eyes that were positively beaming with excitement, and a rather pale and soft complexion that spoke of someone who neither got outside much nor did much in the way of hard work. In his hands currently was a pair of binoculars, which he had modified ever-so totally with old gem-tech he had managed to salvage from old sights around the world that his father's company had found. Now, all that  meant was that these binoculars just game with a cool-looking HUD display that told him about the general info of his surroundings(temperature, wind speed, etc.), but that was much better than blowing up in his face, as a few of his previous works had tended to do a short time after activation[s] as in five seconds[/s]. Anyway, he'd been observing the proceedings of the two groups of gems from a cliff that was some distance over the Kindergarten, overlooking it all.

"Okay, so we've got one group close by that seems to be gathering around the tall blue Gem, who seemed to be kinda spaced out right now, and . . . is that a human? Skin color would lead me to saying yes, but from what I saw earlier, the blue one seemed to change her attitude based on something she said. Interesting . . .very interesting." THe individual noted this with a nod before turning his sights on the other group which was a bit farther away and cut off from the others by a few rock formations and cliff faces. "On the other hand, however, we have a group that's headed by that Emo-Punk looking Red Gem, and his two croonies. Geez, someone seems to be going through their rebellious phase or something. For an alien from Outer space, I was expecting something more . . . spacey, not a guy looking like he's about to snatch candy from twenty babies, then light an orphanage on fire."

Reggie(as this individual liked to call himself), having gotten more than an eyeful of the two gem groups, decided to head back to town. Standing up quickly, he thought about all of the questions he had for Eve, when they ever came back from where ever they went a few days ago, about these new gems, as well as some new questions about gem tech and- [i]Why did everything suddenly turn sideways and start shifting to the right?[/i] He pondered momentarily as he turned his head, only to discover the rather simple answer to this strange twist of events. He had, in his haste to leave and absent-minded train of thought, taken a misstep while walking away and was sent tumbling into the chasm below at what was becoming an increasingly worrisome rate. Now, Reggie's father had long beaten it into his head that a Dorvain should be cool and calm under pressure, and Reggie always liked to think he could do that in most instances.

This, however, was most certainly not one of those times.

Any and all conversations that were being had within the chasm would be suddenly interrupted by a rather loud and panicked scream/shriek would reverberated across the cliff walls, alerting everyone to Reggie's current state of distress. Some in Aquamarine's group(who would actually be able to see where he would make his gory impact should he hit the ground) might have thought the scream was a bit too-high pitch to come from the dashing fellow, but since he was about to be dashed against the rocks below, he could be forgiven for his voice rising a few octaves as he plummeted to his demise. As he approached the ground, Reggie covered his face with his arms and closed his eyes, hoping that his end would be swift and painless, before his thoughts turned to Eve and how this would devastate her. [i]First Talc . . . now me. . .I'm sorry for being such a clumsy idiot. . .Dammit.[/i]

Reggie's cry would cease as he waited for the end to come, knowing their was no way he could possible survive a fall from this height.

[@Guardian Angel Haruki][@Akayaofthemoon][@Vocab][@rocketrobie2][@Halting Blooper][@SevenStormStyle][@Spinna][@Kronshi][@2b3heart][@Loony][@EnterTheHero][@Pathfinder][@pyroman][@ianzerp][@BrassOtter]