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Gem was still in shock. Pearl was gone. She was really gone. She wasn’t going to interrupt intros anymore. Gem wasn’t ever going to look for her in the tower ever again. When she had read the message in chat, she had felt a deep sense of hopelessness, followed quickly by an intense rage at Jimmy. She and Grian had set up a funeral. It had been mostly lovely, though Etho had sent some digs to the Villies in his eulogy. Jimmy even had the gall to show his face. When he’d shown up, Gem had felt her hand moving to her sword hilt instinctively, and had had to keep from killing Jimmy on the spot. The funeral was over, and Gem still felt empty. She had come home from the funeral, only to find Pearl’s rose garden destroyed, the flowers crushed under tons of cobble. The only visible signs of it were a few red petals that littered the floor. Pearl broke through the stone shell and headed up the ladder to the top of the tower, passing all of Pearl’s dogs, letting them out. When she reached the top floor, she found a small rose on the edge of the balcony. She carefully picked it up, leaving it in her inventory as a reminder of her lost friend. Then she made her way all the way up, past the top of the lighthouse, out to the cobblestone shell left around the base. Perched on the edge, she sat there to watch the server. The entire server was asleep, and Pearl just watched them, feet dangling over the edge. She watched the wolves running out into the server, each going in its own direction. Each wolf a small memory of Pearl settling into the corners of map. Gem was vaguely aware when Grian sat next to her, but didn’t really care. She just felt numb.
-“How you doing?”
-“Not great. I still can’t believe Pearl’s really gone.”
-“Yeah, I feel that. Jimmy is going to die, and he’s going out by my hand”
-“And I’ll help with that.”
Gem smiled, though it felt unnatural, the smile not meeting her eyes.
They sat quietly for a little longer, legs dangling off the edge of the balcony. For a second, Gem considered letting herself slide off the edge, letting herself plummet and hit the ground, to be able to truly feel nothing ever again. Or maybe, she could see Pearl again. It would be so easy. It took active effort not to slide off the stone that covered their base. But Gem had to stay. She had to win this, to make sure Jimmy didn’t win this. For Pearl’s sake.
Grian noticed Gem looking down at the ground below the tower, tensing and untensing, as though deciding whether or not to move. When he tried to talk to her, she didn’t respond, just continuing to stare off into the distance. He could tell that Pearl’s death had really affected her. She was left in her own world. Grian put his hand on her shoulder, hoping to bring her back. He was relieved when her eyes focused and she turned to look at him.
-“Hey, you ok? You haven’t been responding for a while”
-“I’m… fine. I’m fine.”
-“You sure? Do you want to trash Etho’s room?”
-“I mean, it’s already been wrecked and rebuilt. There’s not much to trash.”
-“Yeah, I guess. Want to go trash Jimmy’s place?”
-“Is that a thing we can do now? Session’s over.”
Grian realized that he didn’t really know what to do with himself. All he knew was that he had to get Gem back on the ground. While he was thinking of things to do, Gem’s voice broke through his thoughts.
-“we could start a new rose garden. Y’know, in her memory”
-“do we have any roses?”
-“I have one, and we can probably find more”
-“so, should we go get more roses?”
-“sure. I only had poppies for her grave, too. If we find roses, I’ll add those to the grave.”
-“that sounds great.”