(thanks for being patient! sorry im so slow sometimes lol)
You wake up several hours later with a migraine. You don't even want to open your eyes as you groan silently inside your head. Everything hurts terribly. You lay there for a few moments, and move your arms to massage your temples. The pressure against your skin helps, but you still feel quite a bit of the pressure inside your skull.
You don't even know what time it is. You look around you to realize there's a bit of light. Adjusting yourself slightly, you move your arms in front of you. You.. realize that Spinel is holding your center tightly, and you can't move. You can't even tell if she's sleeping or not, so you lay there quietly for a moment to gauge her breathing. It's.. steady enough, so you're pretty sure she's asleep. You try to move her arms away from you ever so slightly, and she tightens them and clears her throat. You freeze.
"Uhh," You say out loud. "Can you stop touching me now? I kind of need to go to the bathroom."
"..you tryin' to escape me?" She finally says after a few moments. You sigh aggravatedly out loud at her.
"No. How could I even get very far? You're right here." She makes a noncommittal grunt at that, but doesn't make an effort to move. God you can't stand her. You don't think you could even be friends with her under normal circumstances, nonetheless being forced into a friendship with a murderous clown against your will with no chances to escape. The sooner you can find a way off this miserable rock, the better. "I'm not joking. Let me go so I can pee."
"Fine. I'm coming with you, though." She replies, and moves her arms enough so you can fling her limbs off you and sit up. You turn around to see her staring at you, and you wonder if she watched you sleep. You fight off the shiver even though you're a bit creeped out at the prospect.
"Please don't tell me that you're going to watch me." You shoot her a look, and she raises an eyebrow.
"Watch you what?" She asks, and you fight off another groan of frustration. Fuck all of this.
"Nothing." You exhale, and get up to go outside to relieve yourself. Spinel follows you, of course. Cursed gem, this one. Why couldn't you have been taken by a Pearl instead, you think to yourself. This entire ordeal would've been a lot easier to deal with.
It's so bright outside once you actually walk out, you feel like you haven't seen light in forever. It takes a second for your eyes to adjust, but once they actually do you nearly open your mouth in shock at the state of this sun. It's freaking huge, for one. Like, several sizes bigger than the sun you're used to seeing. This one is also red, and something about it doesn't sit right with you.
You really gotta get off this planet.
"You ever see a sun like this?" You turn to face her.
"No. This one's weird." She squints at it. Not very helpful, then.
"Okay well, don't watch. I'm serious." You say, and lean your side against a nearby tree. She turns her head slightly to not face you. Whatever, good enough you guess.
You slip your pants off, but fumble for a second due to an item being in your front pocket. You pull the small object out and your heart drops for a moment. And then it picks back up rapidly. It's blue and bird shaped, and tied to a keyring. It's.. it's the small tracking beacon that you have matching with Steven. You.. you can't believe your luck. You never have this on you anymore.
Many years ago when you started going out on missions with the crystal gems, Steven used to beg and cry about having you not come with. He was so worried constantly, even though you were extremely safe with the gems, so you promised him you'd get something to make him feel better. And you got both yourself and him matching beacon keychains. So if you ever got lost, or something went wrong, you always had a way for him to find you. You stopped carrying yours regularly years ago since Steven started joining in on the gem missions, and mainly had it on your keyring for decoration and sentimental reasons. It must've fell off and into your pocket somehow. Now to just find a high enough hill to place this upon without Spinel noticing..
You realize that you've been quiet for a decent amount of time, and finish up your business before Spinel realizes anything.
Well. You kind of have a tiny smidge of hope now. You walk over to the gem, and she turns to regard you.
"Did that lighten your mood? You look almost cheerful." She says to you, and raises her eyebrow in question. You clear your throat. Fuck, you forgot your face shows everything.
"No, I'm actually extremely hungry and miserable right now." You reply coldly. You hope she's not suspicious of anything. "I'm gonna try and find some food for myself. Since you know, I'm an organic being and I need sustenance to survive." You glare at her, and she's not even paying any attention to you.
You try a different path this time since it's light out and you can actually see. Spinel's clinging to your arm of course, because why not. It's not like you can fly off this planet by yourself. You wander about for nearly twenty minutes before you find a tree with some long cylinder-like fruit? You hope it's a fruit. You pull one down and have to snap it off the tree, which was weirdly difficult. The outside feels strange, like there's a fine film of.. something similar to wax on the outside.
Spinel pulls one down as well, and turns it around in her hands. You bring it up to your face to sniff it, and it seems okay? The surface seems soft enough. You're about to bite into it when Spinel rips the one in her hands in half with a quick snap, and the weirdest looking slime pours out of it in a murky brown color. It's absolutely repugnant smelling.
"I wouldn't eat this." She says, and drops the fruit to the ground. "Doesn't smell great."
"No shit, really?" You reply sarcastically, rolling your eyes. "It looked delicious to me."
"Was just trying to help. I don't want you vomiting again like last time." She regards you with a look that you can't interpret, and this instantly pisses you off. How dare she act like she's doing you any fucking favors.
"I don't need your help." You force out, seething. She looks like she's about to say something, but you storm off in a huff before she can start. You don't care.
You need to find food and water today, otherwise your chances of getting home to Steven alive and in one piece are close to zero. Your body aches, but you keep moving forward. You're determined to stay alive.
Spinel is still following behind you, and she isn't holding your arm this time. You push a bunch of vines out of the way of what looks like an overgrown path elsewhere, and you spoke too soon. Or, thought too soon, because she's wrapped her hand around yours this time. Ugh.
You pass by a lot of different types of bushes with similar berries like the ones from before, but you aren't taking your chances with those. You risk faster dehydration if you vomit any more. Your stomach grumbles at the thought of sustenance, and you feel like you might start chomping on leaves soon. You.. realize something with that train of thought. You've only sought out plant-life as a food source so far, completely ignoring any kind of animal that you could possibly eat.
You realize that you haven't seen any animals at ALL on this planet so far. That's strange. I mean, obviously for a complicated ecosystem like this there has to be creatures of some sort around, right? You've really only been here for a day, so you can't really be sure, but.. you're lost in thought when Spinel tugs your arm, and you nearly trip forward.
"What the fuck?" You say out loud.
"I think there's something edible over here." She says, nodding over to this area through the thick trees. You walk over to where Spinel is standing to see what she's looking at.
You can see trees with different fruit on it this time than the others, and you'll take your chances with this one.
"Let's hope this one doesn't poison me." You say with a shrug, and make your way over to the couple of trees nearest to you.
Looking up, the lowest hanging fruit are close to 15ft off the ground. They're green and yellow colored, and shaped like some kind of eggplant/durian hybrid. You hope it smells better than the other 'foods' you have discovered so far. You walk around the tree with Spinel still holding your hand, trying to find an easy spot to climb. There isn't even a viable foot holding that you can reach with your hands. You look at the other trees nearby, and they're all shaped the same. Tall, with smooth trunks that are completely useless to climbing. Great.
You look around you to see if you can find any rocks or sticks to knock some down with, and see a decent sized branch on a low enough tree to grab. Sweet. You grab it to break it off, and it snaps off the tree pretty easily. When you turn around, Spinel's already got several fruit in her arms, and is grabbing another down. Oh right. You forgot. She can stretch herself at will. Why the fuck didn't she say anything before? You're nearly seething with rage, but decide to push it down to deal with your hunger instead. You walk back over to Spinel, and she hands you a fruit. You turn it around in your hands, gauging it's feel and smell. It seems alright. Better than the others, anyway.
It's soft to the touch, so you tear into it with your hands carefully, ripping the fleshy skin apart easily. It's ripe, and smells nice, and the flesh inside looks good enough to make your mouth water. But you're not a fool, so you pull out a small chunk and place it inside your mouth. It tastes good, actually. Kinda lacks flavor, but you don't really care at this point. It doesn't make you vomit immediately. You wait a minute or two, making sure your stomach isn't going to retch this, and continue eating it slowly to not upset your stomach.
You don't realize that Spinel has been watching you carefully through all of this, and it's right then that you notice that she probably doesn't know a thing about humans or organic beings at all. With your stomach steadily being filled and you've now got a bit of energy, your anger from earlier returns. She brought you to this planet with the idea of keeping you trapped here but didn't even bother to see if you could even SURVIVE. Your attention is back on her, rage clear in your eyes.
"Did you even think for one single, miserable second about how I was suppose to survive out here?" You say, voice nearly shaking in fury. "Do you even know what a human needs to live?"
Spinel seems taken aback for only a second before her eyebrows furrow.
"What were you going to do if I couldn't find any food and died?" You're walking closer to her. "What if I ate something that poisoned me? What if I touched something and my skin melted off? What if something attacked me and I bled out? What would you have done!? Left my body to rot on this planet, leaving you alone with it?!" Her eyes flicker with emotion that quickly turns to anger, and at this point you're standing in front of the gem, glaring up at her. You jam a finger into her chest, just to the side of her gem. "Steven would never know what happened to me, my family would never get answers. Do you even know a single FUCKING thing about humans!?"
Spinel has the nerve to look down at you with aggravation on her face as she jabs a finger back into your chest, pushing you backwards.
"Listen here, human," Spinel says the last word with a sneer. "I searched through several planets to find you one with adequate shelter and food, because I'm a good friend." She jams her finger into your chest again to make a point. "So if I were you, I would be a little more GRATEFUL."
You scoff at her, placing a hand over where her finger had hit.
"OH! WOW! YOU'RE SO RIGHT!!" You throw your hands into the air dramatically. "Thank you SO MUCH for stranding me on this SHITHOLE planet with a HOMICIDAL MANIAC." You pointedly look to her to emphasize that she's the maniac. "I am so ETERNALLY GRATE-"
Her hand shoots out, slamming your torso against the tree behind you, cutting off your supply of air. Several pieces of fruit fall from the tree above, thunking against the jungle floor around you.
"You know, you're not being a very good friend." She draws out, holding you in place. With the wind knocked out of you and you being pressed into the tree behind you, you can barely gasp an intake of breath.
"Clearly you know nothing about being friends with anyone." You manage to choke out. Her grip on you tightens, your ribs squeezing painfully. You blink, seeing spots in your vision, your heart beating ever so loudly.
"You don't know me. I was MADE to be a friend. I WOULD know what I'm talking about." She spits out at you.
"You were what?" You barely manage to say, and she loosens her grip on you slightly. You take in several gasps of air.
"Nothing. You wouldn't know." She hisses angrily.
"What do you mean, made to be a friend!" You question her, and she drops her hand from your torso.
"I'm not talking about this. We're done here." She retorts, and spins around to storm off. Your jaw drops as you watch her stomp off into a pathway you've never been.
Wow. Very mature.
You pat yourself down for a sec to make sure you're okay, and honestly, your ribs really do hurt. You hope she didn't fracture them, because booooy, that would suck. Your arms feel like they're starting to bruise already. You grab as many fruit your pockets and arms can hold, and set off to the pathway Spinel went through.
What the actual fuck was she talking about back there? Made to be a friend? You can barely manage to walk and carry the fruit in your arms, several keep jumping out already and you have to stop and pick them back up. You took note of where this area was, and you're pretty sure you're still within the vicinity of your shelter.
You don't make it very far when you walk directly into something, spilling your arms contents everywhere. It's.. Spinel.
"Uh.. the hell?" You say out loud and look up to see Spinel staring at something. You follow her line of sight to see a.. cave of some sort on the side of this cliff. "What is that?"
"I don't know." She says in aggravation, and stalks off over to the opening. You follow suit.
It's a large entrance, about 11-12 feet tall if you could guess. The outer edges are weirdly smooth. This cave almost seems man-made in nature, but there's something about it that tells you not so much. You can't place it yet, though. The cave seems to be pretty deep, as well. You can't see much, other than rocks and dirt and some dead leaves.
"Weird. You think the gems that were here did this?" You question out loud, not really expecting an answer.
"...No." She says, almost hesitantly. "I don't know what this is." She looks like she's about to walk into the cave, but second guessed herself and spins around to face you. "Gem stuff is different from this."
"Hm, well.. whatever. It doesn't matter. I still need to find water before dusk, and it's mid afternoon, if I'm going by this sun's position." You say, and wipe your brow. It's humid, and you feel gross. You don't really want to stick around to figure out this planet's mysteries, either.
You walk off, not caring if Spinel follows you or not. She can figure herself out. You've got shit to do, and she's of no use to you other than her ability to stretch like earlier. You keep along the path you've been following, looking around occasionally to find any more food or something helpful. Most of the trees around you are the same type, other plantlife breaking it up here and there. There has to be a water source nearby, because you've been so parched you feel like a raisin. Ugh.
You pass by an area with a lot of rocks off to the side, and you can hear something. The closer you get to it, the more it sounds like running water. Just your luck!! You run over to it, and there's a bit of a drop off, but the view is absolutely amazing.
You spot a small waterfall off to the side, and a decent sized lake in this clearing. The plant life around the edges of the water look nearly ethereal with how the vines and flowers are floating on top of the water. This looks like an oasis. You carefully place all of your fruit down off to the side by a larger rock, and run down the side to get to the water.
You get up to it, and bend down to test it with your finger first. Gotta make sure it ain't acid water, you know? Never know with this place. It feels fine and it isn't burning your skin, so you're taking it as a good sign. You cup some with your hands and bring it up to your face to take a quick sniff before drinking. It smells a bit off, but you're sure it's just because you're on this strange planet.
You take several small gulps, making sure your stomach is okay with it. You sit at the edge of the lake, resting your feet for a second. You feel.. a bit relieved. Okay. You've got food, you've got water, you've got shelter.. and you have a possible way off this planet. Maybe. You still have to find a good place to deposit the tracker. You hope Steven remembers that his matching keychain exists in the back of his bedside drawer. You.. you hope that they're trying to find you. It's been more than a full day, and you logically KNOW that them getting to you would take a bit of time.. but you're worried regardless. You've never been in a situation so hopeless before. You've camped a lot, sure, and you've been on planets not exactly suitable for human life. But not something like this, and not with an unfamiliar, wild, mood-volatile gem.
Speaking of said gem. What she said earlier is still on your mind, and you still know nothing about her other than her name and how weirdly defensive she is about friendship. You don't know about her age, what she was doing, why she was attacking Steven, how she KNOWS Steven.. none of it makes any sense. You'll get your answers eventually, or you'll get off this planet. Without her. She can stay here until that sun goes supernova for all you give a shit.
You're lost in thought when you see ripples across the water, and you look up. There's nothing in the water that you can see.. Ah. Off to the side.
There's a little.. animal, drinking water a good 60 feet away from you. It's hideous. It looks like a crossbreed of a platypus, a duck, and a goose. How unfortunate. You watch it for a few minutes, as it doesn't see you sitting there and you can safely observe it. It doesn't really do anything other than drink water and look around. It seems almost peaceful, with dusk setting in and the sun edging away over the trees. So there are small animals here, after all. Huh. Wonder why you hadn't seen any before.
You're sitting there quietly when something moves behind you, making the strange creature let out a squawk and run to hide in the underbrush.
You see Spinel's feet walk up to your side, and internally sigh. Couldn't even get adequate alone time. You were kinda hoping you could sit here alone to zone out and plan a different way to get off this planet as a backup plan. Well, whatever. You'll plot later.
"We should head back. It's getting dark, and I'd like to gather shit for a possible fire to keep myself warm tonight." You say, and stand up. Ugh, everything hurts, and the heavier gravity is fucking with your knees. You lean down to brush off your clothes from any dirt left on you, and stretch your back. Spinel's watching you quietly.
"Ya didn't leave." She states. You stare at her, a bit dumbfounded.
"Where would I honestly go, Spinel?" You sigh. "Also I'm not stupid enough to wander off right before it gets dark. I don't know what's out there." You turn around to head to your ruins that you call a shelter, and gather your food back up. You'll figure out a way to transport some water later.
Spinel gathers a couple of the fruit in her own arms, like she's trying to be helpful. You glare daggers at the back of her head. You turn around before leaving to take in the scenery again, and burn it into your memory. You'll be back tomorrow.
It takes nearly twenty minutes to get back to camp, it's almost completely dark out now, and the cold is setting in. Once you're back, you walk into the ruins to set down your food into a corner. You look to your makeshift bedding from last night, and figure you'll try to grab more leaves once you're done with your fire supply gathering.
You head back outside to see Spinel rummaging around in some bushes, doing who knows what. You roll your eyes, and walk back into the jungle line of trees to find some dry foliage to burn. There's a tree you can see that's half dead, so you peel some of its flaking bark off, as well as any of the dry looking branches. You spot a few branches on the ground as well, and gather those too.
You come back and forth a few times to get enough of a stash going. You don't know how long you'll be on this planet, but you're the type of person that likes to be prepared if possible.
You wipe your hands on your jeans, proud of the pile you've managed to build. Spinel comes into the ruins beside you, with something in her arms.
"Uhh, what's that?" You ask her. She's just holding a pile of twigs and moss.
"Kindling." She says, and raises her eyebrows like it's obvious.
Huh. That's.. helpful of her. You don't know how you feel about this, so you just tell her to put it on the ground next to your pile.
"Thanks, I guess." You say awkwardly. "I'm gonna go find leaves to make my bedding a bit better. I'm not running off, okay?" You head outside again, but not before you take a quick glance at Spinel standing there. Her expression was strange - one you haven't seen her make before. But you have more pressing concerns right now, so you wave that out of your mind.
You can see your breath outside now. This weather is absolutely wild, you can't believe the temperature would just drop so quickly like that. You're shivering, so you work quickly to gather as many leaves as possible. You spot a couple of large ones, and catch yourself getting excited. You scoff out loud at yourself. Getting excited over leaves now? What's next, getting excited when your food doesn't make you vomit? Excited that Spinel hasn't strangled you yet? How low will your standards go?
When you get back inside with your findings, you see Spinel over by your makeshift bed. Except it's piled.. Comfortably high now. Like a foot off the ground, what the hell?
"Is this okay?" She finally speaks up.
"I was gone maybe five minutes, and you did all this?" You ask her, and she nods. The fuck, you're almost touched.
But then you remember she's trapped you here and she doesn't actually care about you at all.
You set down your leaves in the pile, and grab the stuff you brought in to make a fire in the middle of this room. You place a couple rocks in a circle as Spinel watches you, putting sticks around in a cone-like formation. You put in the kindling as well, and grab the sticks you're using to start the fire with.
You've made fires using this method before, but it's been a while, and you're rusty. You feel like you've got performance anxiety with Spinel watching you, but after a few tries (and a few expletives) you succeed in building a small fire. You sigh out loud in relief, and gather a few more sticks to build the fire with, placing them on the pile. It seems to be burning nicely.
You sit by it for a few minutes, watching it to make sure it'll be fine and not fall over, and to also get warm. Spinel sits beside you, much to your annoyance.
You gather your thoughts before succumbing to the heavy pull of sleep. If you can wake up in the middle of the night and sneak away from Spinel somehow, you can place the tracker on a hill nearby. You have a couple places in mind already. And then maybe you'll be rescued, and you'll never have to see this gem ever again, and you can sleep in a real bed. And take a shower. And eat real food. You sigh again, and Spinel glances at you.
She watches you for a considerable amount of time, enough for you to get irritated and get up.
"I'm gonna sleep." You state, and walk over to plop on the bed. You feel like all these leaves don't make any difference, comfort-wise. It isn't as cold as before though.. so that's a plus.
You hear a scuffle behind you, and you hope Spinel is getting up to leave. You feel a presence behind you, and reside to groaning inside your head. Ugh! Whatever! You'll pass out soon anyway, weather she's there or not.
You feel Spinel get in bed behind you, and she wraps her arm around your middle.
"I'm not going to leave. I told you. You can stop touching me." You say to the person behind you. She grunts in response.
"I'm not sure I trust you yet." She mumbles. If you could scream right now, you would.
You lay there for several long moments, letting sleep drift to you.
Your thoughts are heavy with yearning to escape, and your eyes close with the intention of waking up in just a few short hours.