[Video]

[songbird_slayer]

...Excellent! My Lady, it's ready!

[The interior of a sparsely-decorated room flickers to life over the feed, and it's immediately apparent that the room belonged to one of the newcomers pulled fresh from the Dream Width, and someone is playing some sort of music. But as someone hoists up the slate and swings it to the right, the figure seated in the chair is currently occupied.

Ring-covered fingers are strumming the strings of something guitar-like, and the figure is rather lost in it, singing nothing in particular. This goes on for about ten seconds.]

Ahem... Lady Madhuri?

[The figure sits up a little taller with a start, eyes fluttering open. The music resumed as she continued to strum, but the smile was sheepish as her eyes turned to the screen.]

Oh. Oh! Yes, thank you. I'm sorry, my instruments seem to have been left behind in the last jump. Makes a bard's fingers itchy. This loaner suits me nicely until I pay this world's bard college a visit.

[With a flourish, she raised a hand and wiggled her fingers in greeting.]

Good afternoon. I am Madhuri, a bard and a dancer by trade. I found myself curious, so I had to cut the ribbon on this little network as it were and pose a question:

Where are you from? What's your tale? ...Of what you're comfortable sharing, of course. Perhaps this can grant the opportunity to build a little bit of a... a... ohh, what's the word- rapport! Yes. A rapport.

Tell me tales of adventure, of victories and defeats, of loves won and loves lost! Perhaps I'll create a song out of a few, and it will be a little gift. Free, of course. Unless of course you're willing to tip.

[She pulled her feathered cap from atop her head and gave it a tip.]

That's all from me. Enjoy your day. For those of you still panicking about your situation? Breathe, dear. In and out. It'll be alright. Find friends and hold them dear.

Bye-bye~

Comments

[conniemaheswaran]

"There were... complications. For most of his life, they projected Rose onto him in a variety of ways, unable to accept that he was his own person, at least not entirely. This caused as many mental health problems as you'd expect, especially since it took a very long time to manifest any of his powers.

"Which is why, when the Prism resurfaced, went haywire, and began wreaking havoc again, it was his first high-stakes mission in the field. He and the Gems traveled across the globe, forcing the various aspects of light to return to the weapon before finally finding the Prism itself and confronting it. As it turned out, though, the Prism was just confused, and wanted to be its own person. Steven being Steven, he openly accepted it, and the Prism went on a happy-go-lucky globetrotting mission.

"It didn't end there, however. Years later, after I had met Steven and been trained as a knight, and Steven had discovered how to use his powers; the Prism's original master returned. And Hessonite wanted it back. She abducted the Prism and forced it to unleash it's power upon us, it was only thanks to Steven's friendship that it had he willpower to resist Hessonite enough that we weren't immediately obliterated. We chased Hessonite and her minion all across the world as she slowly but surely asserted her dominance over the Prism, and the constructs it created turned from almost cute to powerful and terrifying.

"After defeating Hessonite's henchgem, a Peridot, we discovered a way to reliably track down Hessonite. We found Hessonite in an ancient, hidden temple that was most likely where the Prism was tested and created. Hessonite was too powerful for us, and we were all defeated within mere moments, separated in a labyrinth of enemies and traps that we just barely managed to escape. That was when we got a taste of the Prism's real power, and when we knew we didn't have much time left before Hessonite regained complete control and conquered the Earth.

"We almost caught up with her at Bismuth's legendary forge, but she slipped from our grasp once again after using the core of the facility to power up the Prism to its final form. With only hours, if not less, to spare before Hessonite could launch her final assault on Earth, we infiltrated her ship using Steven's... familiar, I suppose, and confronted Hessonite at the seat of her power. But this time we were prepared. It was a long and hard fight, both against the Prism and Hessonite, but we brought the Prism to its senses and wore Hessonite down enough that she surrendered. Steven once again carried the day with his empathy, and he convinced Hessonite to rebel against Homeworld and to leave the Prism on Earth, like it wanted. The last we saw of her, she was preparing to wander the galaxy to find herself.

"And that's the end of that particular tale. There are many more relating to the Crystal Gems, but that's the only one that I'm intimately familiar with that's on such a grand scale."

[songbird_slayer]

I see! Thank you so much for your tale, dear. This Steven boy... he sounds like he has a way with words. Proof enough that he is like his mother in ways.

You say you were trained as a knight? Perhaps as a Crystal Gem yourself?

[conniemaheswaran]

Connie blushes, rubbing the back of her neck. "Y-Yeah. Almost a year after I met Steven, two Homeworld Gems paid a visit to Earth, and, uh. Got very close to destroying the town he was living in. After that, I wanted to find a way to help protect the planet myself, so Steven pushed me to talk to Pearl and have her teach me the ways of knighthood."

"She had some... projection issues. That would be a pun if you knew how Gems worked. Anyways, she had this whole self-sacrifice-to-prove-her-devotion problem with Rose, and the problem is that while she can take fatal blows to almost any part of her body and come back fine in a few days, if not hours, I'm, well. Human. She almost drilled that mindset into me permanently, but Steven snapped me out of it, and together we helped her confront her baggage. Some of it, at any rate. There's still a lot left to unpack. I still train with her, but she isn't as intense."

[songbird_slayer]

I see. I suppose that would be the little bump in training with someone beyond your own species; the strengths far differ from one another.

Though... hmm. You sound as if your bond with your instructor isn't in tip-top shape.

[conniemaheswaran]

"No, no! We've gotten a lot better since then, and so has Pearl. She's honestly by second best friend at this point. Apparently she had this whole heartfelt musical number while she was in Empire City with Greg and Steven about finally accepting Rose is gone and she needs to find a way to move on. And she has, for the most part. She's still wishwashing over she wants to call this girl that gave her her number at a rock concert."