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[mothmansplaining]

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"Stanford Pines. Leave a message."

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[mothmansplaining]

[Cheerfully:]

That's a question philosophers have been pondering since the beginning of civilization!

But, if you mean the Barge specifically, I...well.

[Soberly:]

I do have an answer, but I don't know if you're going to like it.

This kind of conversation is better to have in person, behind a cabin's access filter. Would you rather meet in yours or mine?

[supposedtochange]

Yours, please! Where do I find you?

[mothmansplaining]

Level five, cabin six.

[supposedtochange]

Rose doesn't respond, just makes her way to the right cabin door and knocks gently - she's got a very light touch, given her physical dimensions.

[mothmansplaining]

Ford opens the door, and looks -- up.

He was not expecting a giant woman. Not from her mild manner or her light knock. Wow she is tall.

"Rose Quartz, I presume?"

[supposedtochange]

"Ford," she says, with a smile and a nod. "May I come in?"

Always fun to see another human dwelling.

[mothmansplaining]

"Please." He opens the door fully and stands aside. It's the inside of the Mystery Shack -- at least, most of it. There's no show floor for exhibits of the strange and unusual, but there is a kitchen and a cozy living room, stairs leading up, and a gift shop off to the side with merchandise being sold at exorbitant price.

"Make yourself at home. This place actually belongs to my brother -- or it used to, before he passed management on to one of his employees. But it's what the Barge decided was home, so here I am."

He's awkward. Strangers, difficult conversations, you know.

[supposedtochange]

Rose, on the other hand, is positively delighted. Especially by the merchandise, which she drifts over to inspect more closely.

"Oh my gosh. This stuff is adorable!"

[mothmansplaining]

"Stanley used to sell it to tourists in Gravity Falls," Ford says, standing in the doorway. "You can take some of it, if you like," he offers. "Goodness knows I'm not going to sell it."

[supposedtochange]

"Really? Oh -"

She picks up a (plastic) eyeball floating in a(n also plastic) jar. Greg would love this place, she thinks, but lets the thought go.

"Thank you, Ford. Um - how was the last week for you?"

[mothmansplaining]

"Actually, it wasn't so bad," Ford says. "Horrible things happen to people in worlds like that, but most of them seemed to pass me by."

An interesting thing for someone to say who was in a world where Cthulhu rose out of the ocean at the end, causing the apocalypse.

"Did you come out of it okay, or did the extraplanar demons drive you insane?"

[supposedtochange]

"I was fine! I was just a regular human, it was amazing," she gushes. "I had no idea that that's what it's like for you! All those different things happening inside you at the same time..."

[mothmansplaining]

"Do you mind if I ask," Ford says, "what kind of irregular human you are?"

[supposedtochange]

"I'm not a human at all," she says, having grown used to explaining this to fellow passengers. "I'm a Gem. That is - this is what makes me, me."

She gestures to the round jewel where her navel should be.

"My physical body is projected from here. I can make tweaks to it, if I want to consume food or anything like that."

[mothmansplaining]

"Ah, you're one of those hard-light aliens, like Jasper," Ford says with a nod. "She doesn't even know what muscles are. I can imagine experiencing an entire functioning human body would be a strange experience."

Talking human bodily function is a way easier subject than feelings.

Ford gestures to the living room; would she like to take a seat?

[supposedtochange]

She would, and lowers herself down carefully.

"Jasper's a Gem too," Rose agrees. "We're both quartzes. We were created to be soldiers."

[mothmansplaining]

"Created?" Ford repeats, interested. "So Gems are a form of artificial intelligence?"

[supposedtochange]

Rose pulls a face.

"Not exactly? There's nothing creating us that isn't a Gem. We're just not organic life, we don't reproduce like humans do. Homeworld sends injectors to a colony planet, they seed the Gems in rocks on the surface, and eventually we just - bust out."

[mothmansplaining]

"Oh. I see," Ford says, not thinking to ask what happens on colony worlds. "Interesting. I've never seen inorganic life that plants itself before."

But then again, he isn't as well-travelled through the multiverse as he's always felt he is, so it's not that surprising.

[supposedtochange]

"That's good. I don't like to think that there are other universes with a Homeworld like mine," she says, quietly. "What they do is...it's terrible."

[mothmansplaining]

Ford's eyebrows go up.

"What do you mean, 'terrible'?"

This is a request for clarification. There's a wide range of things that might be considered terrible, and finding out what Rose Quartz considers a terrible thing will help him feel out whether she is a potential ally.

[supposedtochange]

"Well - take Earth," she says. "When they first started seeding Gems there, the process started to drain the planet of its organic life. If the process had been completed, there would have been nothing left. No plants, no animals, no humans. Just a...drained husk of a planet. Who knows how may other life forms they'd driven to extinction on other worlds - and the Diamonds didn't even care."

[mothmansplaining]

Ah. They made more of themselves by using organic life like...well, like fertilizer. But it's not the first time Ford's met someone whose hunger destroys planets.

"I have to admit, that is pretty bad," he confirms. "Now, the Diamonds. How are they different from other Gems?"

[supposedtochange]

"They were the first," Rose says, quietly. "And the most powerful. Some Gems are able to terraform planets, but...only the Diamonds have the power to give life to other Gems."

[mothmansplaining]

"Like queens in a hive," Ford says, putting it back into biological terms because he can't seem to help himself.

"All right, I think I have an idea of what your society is like. I presume there was a rebellion against the genocidal diamond regime? Is that how you died?" She said she was a soldier; it adds up.

(He missed her network post.)