Afghanite

Afghanite came into being completely on accident.

Galena's fingers were a blur on the piano's keys, her playing significantly improved from the first time she had attempted to tap out a song. She hadn't kept track of how many years ago it had been, but it was quite a while ago. Or, maybe it wasn't very long ago at all, in the standards they went by on Homeworld. But it was almost as if, when she came to Earth, the days got longer, even though a day should have been practically a second to a gem.

Richie (she recalled a time when she called him Richterite, not leaving out a single syllable) sat next to her on the bench in front of the piano, clapping along to the fast tune. Galena recalled a note, back when she was memorizing the song--it was usually performed with singing. Though her voice would never win any sort of prize, it wasn't like there was anyone else there. It was just the two of them. And so, hoping that she was remembering the lyrics correctly, Galena began to sing.

The other gem smiled at her excitedly, and Galena tried her very best to keep in tune with the song. She wasn't exactly professional level and stumbled over quite a few notes, but her partner didn't quite seem to care. In fact, though she barely knew when it had begun, the two of them had stood up and started to dance, Galena making at least some sort of attempt to play the piano one-handed at first.

It didn't really work, however, and the two of them simply engaged in a dance led solely by Galena's own voice. It wavered and broke away as she laughed, but they were having fun, and that was the most important part. The dance was completely uncoordinated, the two of them simply twirling around, messing about. Fusion wasn't even on their minds, at least, not Galena's. She had never even fused before, though she knew how it was done. And yet, as she stumbled forward, she could barely register the feeling of her falling towards him before she was standing there, completely alone. And...the ground seemed farther away, somehow.

"R-Richie? G-Gal?" The names spouted out of her--his--their mouth. The world seemed to be moving slowly, as if they were wading in water. Their very thoughts and movements felt strange, an entirely new, confusing experience, their thoughts splitting apart and melding together oddly. "W-What...is..." They slowly brought a deep blue hand up to their face, and simply stared at it for a moment. The other hand on that side slowly glided up and down, feeling the material of their clothing--the other hand? They looked down, two eyes still locked on the hand--wait, they had /three/. One of their hands flew up to their face, realizing that they did have four eyes--the problem was that one of them was a gem. "W-We...fused."

A shaky laugh escaped them without warning, as the entire top set of hands touched their face, the bottom set reaching back to touch their hair. It was long, much longer than would have been expected. They could see from the strands dangling in front of their face that it was light blue, and they could feel that it was tied off at the bottom. A mirror. That was what they needed, a mirror. They took off towards the tunnel, though with their increased size, maybe running wasn't such a good idea. They shrieked as a loud BANG! reverberated through the room. Whirling around, pulsing with anxiety, they discovered that it was simply an instrument that had fallen over.

They remembered the path that connected the two rooms, and though Galena was used to it, they were unnerved by the very thought. The way the scenery wildly changed, from a seaside cave to a wide expanse of nothing at all, to a passage with the same interior as a Homeworld spaceship. That part was their least favorite. Maybe they shouldn't go into the tunnel.

Homeworld. Afghanite remembered Homeworld, though it wasn't them who had walked those paths. They remembered the spaceship crashing mid-flight, the Peridot they were assigned obviously not having done her job correctly, probably fresh out of the ground, so many cracked gems crushed under the blazing ship's weight. Except them. All except them. A them back from a time where they were alone, in more than just one sense.

And Afghanite, unstable, new thing that they were, began to cry in the middle of the room, their shaking sobs the only thing echoing in the silence.