Chapter Text
25. “I can’t believe you talked me into this.”
“I can’t believe you talked me into this.” Pearl glared up at the towering piles of junk surrounding her and Amethyst. “Or that you decided to finally clean your room.”
“The only reason I’m doing this is because I lost an artifact of Garnet’s in here. If she finds out, she’ll kill me,” explained Amethyst, crossing her arms. “I need you to find it.”
“You’ll have to help me here,” said Pearl, putting a hand to her chin. “Is there any kind of organizing system? For instance, are things in this junk pile older than the ones in this pile?”
“I dunno,” Amethyst said, shrugging. “I kinda just toss it in here and whatever happens, happens.”
“Uhhhgh,” sounded out Pearl. “All right. Let’s see if we can minimize the time needed here to find this…artifact of yours.”
“It’s Garnet’s.”
Pearl stepped over a small rivulet and began to pick through the nearest pile. “Hmm. Do you know what this artifact looks like?”
“Small. Square-ish. And…blue?”
“That narrows it down to—not much.” Pearl picked up a cubical item and examined it. “Multicolored. No good.”
She gently set the Rubik’s cube back down and moved through the piles. Amethyst trailed behind her, occasionally picking something out of the pile and fiddling with it. Pearl stopped after a few minutes and turned around.
“If you’re going to just follow me around,” she said, “at least be looking, too!”
“I am looking,” insisted Amethyst. She squinted off into the distance suddenly, catching Pearl’s attention.
“What is it?” asked the taller gem.
Amethyst didn’t answer and instead summoned her weapon. With a practiced aim she snapped it right past Pearl’s cheek and to the top of a nearby trash heap. The whip coiled around a small, box-like thing and snaked back. Amethyst caught it in her hand and tossed her whip to one side.
“Is that it?” asked Pearl. “I know there are many more possibilities of it being something else but it’s small, square, and a faint blue color.”
“Nah,” said Amethyst. “This is my box of seaglass.”
“Seaglass?” echoed Pearl.
“Yeah. Steven gives it to me. He finds it on the beach. Says it’s polished glass made pretty by the stone. I keep it around because it looks nice. See?” Amethyst opened the box up. Inside there was a variety of shades of the seaglass.
Pearl frowned. “So it’s not what we’re looking for.”
“Yeah,” said Amethyst, closing the box again. “But, y’know, on a second thought…I think I left it back in the house.”
Pearl’s face was a mixture of exasperation and anger. “Amethyst…you really have to keep track of where you leave your things.”
“Hey, at least I found this seaglass! Steven’s been telling me that he’s found some more to add to the collection. I better go give this to him,” exclaimed the purple gem. She grinned. “Thanks for your help, Pearl!”
“You’re welcome,” said Pearl flatly.
The other gem disappeared into the canyons of junk. As Pearl turned around, she heard, faintly:
“Don’t touch my other stuff!!”
“I won’t,” promised Pearl. She looked at the room around her. “It’d take me years to sort through all of this, anyway.”