(no subject)

[stompadour]

Who: Jasper and Others
When: Now
Where: The medbay, and then anywhere on the ship
What: Jasper comes out of cryo, but she Comes Back Wrong
Warnings: Violence, probably

1: REFORMING. Jasper's gem has been suspended in cryo for weeks now. She's completely inert, a slim triangular jewel that, on its own, doesn't really do much to evoke the hulking orange figure that retreated into it before she was placed here, unless you know your quartzes.

Now, though, the gem begins to glow.

It lifts into the air as much as the cryo pod will allow, suffused with orange light -- light that gradually begins to take on a shape of its own. At first the form is a simple, mannequin-like humanoid form, a thick body and featureless limbs... but in less than a second it's twisting into something else. Huge, clawed forepaws and hooved hindquarters; heavy horns and a monstrous mouth full of fangs; a thick mane pouring over the creature's back and covering a short, animal-like tail -- and, as the form solidifies and fully takes shape, spikes, everywhere, jutting out from patches of skin the colour of corroded copper. The colour of Malachite.

Not that Jasper can see what colour they are. This form is sightless, with only two thick green-striped horns protruding from where her eyes ought to be.

The pod shatters as her form settles, as she thrashes and howls. She doesn't know what's happening, or where she is, or who she is. Her claws scrape against the floor as she hauls herself upright, and she lets out an inhuman roar. If someone doesn't try to stop her, the other crewmembers in cryo right now might be in trouble...


2: RAMPAGE. Escaping the confined space of the medbay is something of a relief to Jasper, but she neither calms down nor slows down. The corrupted gem charges down the Moira's corridors in a blind fury, bashing into walls and skidding round corners. Her thoughts are a scattered, feral, instinct-driven mess, beyond even the extent to which her body is. All she knows is that she's hurting and she's angry -- and somewhere underneath that, that she remembers what she's supposed to do is fight.

The fact that every now and then a corridor or doorway won't send her to the space she sensed was on the other side only adds to her disorientation and frustration... but it's probably worse for the people she runs into this way, with no chance of seeing her coming in time. Whether or not they do, though, Jasper has one motivation she can hold on to right now -- and it's to attack anyone she comes across.


3: HUNTING. [FOR PERIDOT] After a while, Jasper's resolve... solidifies. It's not exactly memories that filters back to her, but a collection of impulses -- familiarity, betrayal, anger. This place is not so unfamiliar. She has been here before. And there's someone else here, who hurt her. Who destroyed her.

She slows down a little, although she hardly seems lucid or controlled as she prowls around the ship. The difference is that, where before she was charging about the ship in a blind panic, she's now looking for someone. The only other gem on the ship. Peridot was the one who took her down. She doesn't remember the little gem's designation, or anything, really, about her... but she does remember the pain of the shaft of metal being driven through her body in the midst of the confusion and terror of her transformation, and in her mind the pain and the confusion and fear and anger are all the same thing. The only way she can feel secure is to bring down Peridot first.

Comments

3

[gainedlove]

The shifting spaces on the ship, that Frisk can deal with...to some extent. It's frustrating and stressful, but they've dealt with worse...are dealing with worse. It's not even a matter of getting lost, with how well they know the ship by now. Almost as well as they know the--

Don't think about it don't think about them DON'T THINK ABOUT IT--

What Frisk is a little less prepared for, though, is to open a door and face not only a strange hallway, but a very alien, very angry, very dangerous looking creature (monster? no, not quite right) on the other side. They shout in shock and confusion, stumbling back and producing their Stick out of sheer instinct.

FIGHT? ACT? MERCY? What do they do?

[stompadour]

If she'd come across Frisk earlier, Jasper might well have just mowed them down without stopping -- but now, proceeding with marginally more deliberation, she notices them. Not that that's a good thing, mind you... the human isn't her goal, but she still has every intention of destroying anything else that gets in her way.

She slows, claws clicking on the floor of the corridor as she pads forward, head lowered, fangs bared. And then, as she gets a better measure of the creature in front of her, there's a dawning moment of familiarity. Again, she doesn't remember anything; her recognition of Frisk is just a flash of confused impulses -- but foremost among those is protect.

Jasper stops, drawing her head back with a confused, gruff huffing sound. This is at odds with everything else she has experienced so far. 'Mercy' sure as hell isn't part of her repertoire.

[gainedlove]

Frisk's heart is pounding, but the rush of adrenaline is a focus. Jasper's slow approach gives them enough time to focus, get a closer look--and spot the familiar gem set in the beast's face.

"Jasper?"

They've never known the gem to take a form like this; she's never really taken any other form at all, unless that weird Sonic attack counts. But Frisk knows a bit of how gems work, and there's no one else on the ship that nose could belong to.

They pause for a moment, lowering the Stick. When Jasper draws back, Frisk takes a few steps forward.

"What happened? Are you hurt?"

[stompadour]

Jasper growls, but it's more in confusion than anything else -- this is weird and she doesn't know what to do with it, and what if the human takes the opportunity of her guard being down to hurt her--?

No. She feels that, at least, wouldn't happen. She can't fully understand what Frisk is asking, but she recognises their words as concern.

Warily, she lowers her head again, but it isn't a threat this time.

[gainedlove]

It's harder to read Jasper's posture like this, but she seems to be...calming down? Or at least not ready to fight. They don't...think her name would be yellow quite yet. Swallowing, Frisk takes a few more steps and lifts up one hand to reach out, putting on their very best * Spare.

"Can you not talk? ...do you understand me?" They're pretty close now, no more than a foot away from the hulking quartz.

[peridork]

The tech hasn't even the slightest idea of what's coming for her. Jasper's long stay in cryo stasis has put her memories of their shared dimension far and away ahead of Peridot's, in terms of the timeline. She has no memory of taking her friends to the Beta Kindergarten, or of confronting Jasper with them... Stars, she doesn't even know that she has the power to control metal yet!

It's more than just elapsed time, though; the fact of the matter is that Peridot knows nothing of corruption. She can't even begin to conceive of the hideous mutations it can cause to a Gem's physical form, or of the horrifying way in which it warps a Gem's mind, leaving only a frantic mess of instincts left behind. Gems don't corrupt on Homeworld, at least not as far as she's aware.

She's on the Observation Deck at the moment, blissfully ignorant of Jasper's emergence from cryo and enjoying the rare occurrence of there being no one else present in what is usually a pretty popular place on the ship. Peridot's not usually much for quiet introspection, but the solitude here makes this a prime time for staring grumpily out at the Luminous Sea and losing herself in her own thoughts...

[stompadour]

Of course, she's not alone for long.

Some buried memory prompts the feeling that the place she's tracked her quarry to will probably be busy, that she'll have to go through a few people to get to the gem she's looking for... but as she pads onto the observation deck, she finds there's no one there but Peridot.

Normally, if she'd spent some time hunting down an enemy, she'd take some time to threaten them, to let them know how poor their chances of defeating her are. She doesn't think of showing off now. She just growls, low and animal and otherworldly, and launches herself towards Peridot.

[peridork]

Peridot scarcely has time to even wonder what that weird growling noise is before there's a massive, orange-striped hell-beast bearing down on her. She half-turns, eyes widening... She makes a conscious move to summon out her blaster but it's too late - The Quartz monster's massive forepaws slam into her, bowling her over flat on her back.

[stompadour]

Jasper roars in her face, pinning her to the ground with one heavy paw. Then, without further ado, she leans down to close her horrible teeth over the little gem's head, by all appearances intent on just pulling it off.

[peridork]

Her form would simply dissipate before Jasper could ever succeed at that, but Peridot has no intention of letting her get that far.

...Not that there's much conscious intent behind what she does next. Driven by raw panic, Peridot screams and throws her limb enhancers up in front of her face, fingers splayed out. Electricity arcs between the digits, zapping Jasper right in the face as soon as she makes contact.

[imaginary_wife]

☄1: REFORMING
[Doc Yewll is just checking in on the cryo room, as one does when there are patients and some under explicit orders to be left alone. She's dimly aware that people can change inside those cryo tubes, sure, but other than a sense of joy or newly earned worldly cynicism people usually come out relatively the same and cognizant of their surroundings.]

[They don't come smashing out like insane gem golems.]

What the shtak- [She's starting to say when shards of cryo-unit door spatter across the floor. She drops the electronic tablet she was holding to try and cover her ears, unable to hold back another startled shout as she tries to make it for the door and call for help.]

[stompadour]

[Jasper shakes her mane, sending more broken space glass scattering around her, and turns her sightless head towards the source of that shout. She barely hesitates a second: the Doctor is running, and so a moment later so is she, her huge paws eating up the distance in great ravenous bounds.

She collides with Doc Yewll heavily, snarling, ramming her between the door and the horrible spikes all over her enormous shoulder.]

[imaginary_wife]

[Theoretically this beast is Jasper, and while Jasper is strong, dominating, a boisterous personality of demand and determination she is most definitely not this. As far as Doc Yewll knows anyway. Uncontrolled monsters seemed out of Jasper's choice of form...]

[She's not aware of how desperate for success the gem can be.]

[No time to think about it though. Just a thought of horror, of identifying the person this monster is supposed to be, and then of being slammed back against the wall before she can even properly activate her MID. She can even still hear the last of the glass falling out of her hair as her scaled skin is pierced by these new horns.]

[She's bleeding pale pink, another color to add to that motley complexion. Is she screaming for help? No. She's so preoccupied being horrified she forgot about that part.]

[stompadour]

[Despite the strength and power she has in this state, Jasper's still kind of disoriented and confused, and she has to take a moment to scrabble to her feet after slamming Doc Yewll against the closed door. She roars again as she hauls herself up, her mane bristling like an angry cat's fur as if she's indignant that her victim is still conscious, and draws back a massive, clawed forepaw to aim a hefty cuff at the doctor's head.]

[imaginary_wife]

[That's when she remembers how to make noise, a strangled sound of surprise as she attempts to scramble backwards away from Jasper. But she is not quite as large as a horn-eyed lsd trip monster dog and ends up curling up defensively to try and not get smashed by that forepaw.]

[She doesn't get killed, no, which always a minor success. But she blacks out, wondering if that's what's on the way next. Pink blood and some exposed, metallic-looking muscle, and glass shattered all around her. The last observations she has before she drifts out, with the vague concern that she might not make it.]

rampaging

[buttmurdered]

[Leo's preeeeetty fresh on the spaceship. He barely knows his way around and is getting lost at every corner. So, unfortunately for him, but perhaps fortunately for Jasper, he's absolutely in her way as she comes stomping down the corridor.]

[Luckily for Leo, he has plenty of experience nearly getting killed by things that are huge and rampaging, so while he screams as he spots Jasper -- who is, from what he can tell, a giant orange and blue monster with-- a gemstone? What? -- barrelling his way. He just barely throws himself out of the way in time, crashing onto the floor in a particularly undignified and loud fashion]

W-What are you supposed to be?! I just got here, and it's already starting?!

[he's going to die]

[stompadour]

[She almost would have run straight past him if it wasn't for how loudly he throws himself out of the way. But there he is, moving and yelling and impossible for Jasper to ignore. She swerves towards him, horns first, snarling, making to hook her larger set of horns under him and toss him into the air.]

[buttmurdered]

Save me, Mr. Klaus!!

[Screams Leo to no one in particular, since Klaus isn't here, and he's not fast enough to dodge the incoming Jasper, he is, in fact, thrown up into the air like a helpless baby]

[he continues screaming throughout this entire exercise, twisting to try to land on the creature's head]

I'm under attack!

2!

[blastmode]

You know, more than anything else he's seen on the ship so far? The sound of some giant rampaging creature feels a lot more like home to him. Ahhh yes... the soothing sounds of claws scraping against metal, and horns bashing into walls...Music to his ears. He really has missed moments just like these- someone looking to pick a fight.

Beelzemon might not have a chance to prepare for Jasper to show up, but he starts grinning to himself like a maniacal idiot anyway. And just like that, he turns to face the direction that the noises are coming from as fast as he can- readying a shitty one-liner, naturally.

"Well, well...Just what the doctor ordered."

The second the gem crashes into the hallway he's in, Beelzemon stretches out his claws- trying to slow Jasper's advance with his bare hands. He might look like the size of a tall demon-ish man, but he's fought his share of creatures much bigger than himself before, and he wants to test his luck with this too.

[stompadour]

Jasper would be totally enthusiastic about fighting this dude if she was her usual self -- but right now, being faced with someone just standing and waiting for her just makes her angry. She roars as she bears down on him, snapping her heavy, toothy jaws at his reaching hands.

FOR PERIDOT & STARFLIGHT

[stompadour]

Frisk has gone to the bathroom, and Jasper is dissatisfied with this.

She spends a little while scraping her horns mournfully against the door, but when this doesn't yield any results she pads away to pace the corridor outside.

That's when she notices someone familiar rounding a corner, and perhaps it is in fact for the best that Frisk is on the other side of a locked door right now after all, because the last thing Jasper wants to deal with is both them and Peridot in the same space at the same time.

She gives a low, threatening growl, lowers her horns, and charges.

AFTERMATH: Some time after Jasper is healed of her corruption...

[peridork]

It's days later, and Peridot still has no idea what the hell went wrong.

She's in her workshop, as usual, moodily poking at some machinery and trying to do her job. Ultimately she just keeps failing at this, though. Too distracted. There's a lot that she's grappling with, in the aftermath of Jasper's disastrous, monstrous return from cryo; she has no hints, much less answers, as to what made her fellow gem change so dramatically, and she has even less information than that to go on to predict if they'll even be able to change Jasper back to the way she once was.

In the end, Peridot and Starflight were left with no choice but to force the quartz into dissipating her form, and Peridot had no option but to put her back into cold storage until Captain Than could try and fix her. It made her extremely uneasy to leave her in there again, though; what if the cause of the mutation had been that the cryo technology had just interacted strangely with Jasper's gemetic makeup? What if putting Jasper on ice again just makes her condition worse? There's no way to know for sure...

All she can do is wonder, and wait...

[stompadour]

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Jasper doesn't announce her arrival with anything beyond that question -- she just appears in the doorway of Peridot's workshop, one hand braced against the wall. She looks hunched and weary, but she's herself; her eyes, as she stares balefully at the other gem, are tired, but they're actually there. No spikes. No hooves. No horns. The only hint of her corruption is the disruption of the red stripes on her left arm with a speckle of green markings.

She doesn't look pleased, though.

"Why didn't you tell me that would happen?"

[peridork]

Peridot gives a start. The fact that she didn't hear the other, much larger gem's heavy footsteps approaching must speak volumes about how distracted she was just now.

"Jasper!!" she yelps. Elated? Terrified? Definitely shocked. The surprise of seeing the orange gem up and about takes precedence here; Peridot doesn't register the question at all, instead countering with more of her own.

"You're awake! I don't understand, how.... How..."

Now she's suddenly starting to take notice of the displeased expression on Jasper's face....

[stompadour]

"They healed me. Guess the humans in charge of this ship aren't completely worthless after all." Her eyes narrow. "But you knew, didn't you? You knew that would happen to me. And you didn't say anything. Why??"