The Soul Gem

Socialize

Ermac was sitting at a small table with Amethyst, as they were served a small basket kf French fries. They had headed to Beach City to try and distance Ermac from any Homeworld gems, in hopes that it might lower any chances of internal turmoil within Ermac. Ermac grabbed a fry and stared intently at it, as if examining it and trying to assess what it is.

"Dude. It's just a French fry. You eat it," Amethyst said as she popped the fry into her mouth and ate it. Ermac saw what she did, and tried to replicate it. He tossed the French fry in his hand against his face cover, which simply fell down onto the table.

"This does not work for us," Ermac said, looking at the fry.

"No...you need to...take off your little mask thing first. Then you eat it," Amethyst instructed him. Ermac felt has face, as if now realizing that he had the mask on.  He then made his gem glow, as if activating an ability of sorts. The mask began to glow and crack like a broken piece of glass that had multicolored geometric fractals, then start folding backwards into his body. Now Amethyst could see his face fully. His complexion was pale, he has this...timid and blank look on his face as he stared down at the basket again.

"There. Now go ahead and try again," Amethyst instructed. He grabbed the fry and mirrored Amethyst's action of tossing it into his mouth. He hesitantly chewed the fry and tried to find the purpose behind these...french fries.

"So? What do you think?" Amethyst asked. Ermac timidly looked at her, unsure of how to answer.

"What is...the purpose of this...food?" Ermac asked shyly, though his tone still the same dead speech.

"It's just fun, dude. Fun to eat," Amethyst said as she took her little basket and dumped it into her mouth, eating the whole thing.

"We do not understand the purpose behind this...fun. Could you explain it to us?" Ermac asked her, making Amethyst hit the floor in shock. She had to take a moment to compose herself, as she had to try and reevaluate how to approach this.

"Fun is...hm...how do I try to explain this? Fun is...oh I know. Fun is what you do to fight boredom," Amethyst said. Ermac's eyes perked up a bit when she said fight.

"Fight? Where is boredom and how does one...fight it?" He asked, with a small bit of some energy to his voice.

"There's not a thing called...boredom that you can actually fight. You fight boredom by trying new things. Like you know...making friends?" Amethyst explained.

"Then...should we try some new things?" Ermac asked. Amethyst perked up with a smile, now realizing that she's appealing to the Quarts soldiers laced into Ermac's gem.

"Riiight. You have Quartzes in you. At least some parts of you are part of the Famethyst!" Amethyst said in glee.

"What is...the Famethyst?" Ermac asked.

"We're a bunch of Quartz soldiers that were born on Kindergartens here on Earth! We all get along and have a great time doing whatever we want!" Amethyst explained.

"Could we...meet the Famethyst?" Ermac asked.

"I wish we could. They're on a giant ship that has Zoomans on it. If you met them, you would love them!" Amethyst said.

"Hmm...where has the ship gone?" Ermac asked suddenly. Amethyst was...confused understandably.

"Uh...I guess....they went that way?" Amethyst said, pointing towards the sky over the ocean. Ermac said nothing after that, he simply stood up and walked behind Amethyst. He held his hands out, them glowing with the same energy that he had when they initially fought.

"Wait....wait wait what are you doing?" Amethyst asked, now realizing that Ermac might do something dangerous.

"You wish to see the Famethyst. We wish to meet the Famethyst. We are obliging," Ermac replied as he blasted the same green energy outwards towards the sky. It trailed off, Ermac stationary and Amethyst concerned. Ermac's head peaked upwards and his arms started pulling back. The flow of energy than began to invert, minutes went by and soon Amethyst could see the silouhette of the Zooman ship breaching the clouds. Amethyst could see it was enveloped in the same green energy that Ermac was projecting from his hands.

"Whoa wait what?! Whooooaaaa that's really cool! How are you doing that?!" Amethyst asked with a hyped up look on her face.

"We are able to project, absorb and control energy," Ermac said plainly. He set the the ship down into the ocean, ceasing the energy from his hands and the ship's doors opened. The Famethyst came out, as they were understandably perplexed as to why they had suddenly changed course and were on Earth.

"Famethyst!" Amethyst shouted as she dragged Ermac by the arm to introduce him to them.

"Amethyst! Hey uh...how did we get here?" Skinny Jasper asked her once they got close.

"This lunatic reeled you guys in...I guess. Oh right! Fam, this is the Exponentially...uh....this is Ermac! Ermac has some Quartz in him...I think. So he's technically Famethyst like we are!" Amethyst introduced. Ermac gave another emotionless wave.

"Some...quartz in...him? A male gem? That's possible?" Carnelian asked in rapid succession as she crawled all over Ermac's body, using him like a jungle gym while he just stood there.

"Uh...it's complicated. He's a least part Quartz though. So he can chill with us!" Amethyst said, expecting a happy pile-on to help Ermac make friends. However, the Famethyst were actually more concerned than anything else about Ermac and his nature.

"You said he brought us here? H...how?" 8XG asked with a tinge of fear to her voice.

"So weird energy thing he can do, it's fine though," Amethyst replied.

"You said he's...part Quartz? What does that mean?" 8XL asked now.

"Uh...you know how the Cluster exists? He's just...that...but smaller," Amethyst said, now realizing that this sounds way worst than it is.

"Hello. We are Ermac," Ermac said with his monotone voice. Carnelian jumped off of Ermac and went back to the rest of the Famethyst. Amethyst quickly realizing that this was a deteriorating interaction, tried to calm the Famethyst.

"It's okay though! We're trying to get him to open up!" Amethyst said, trying to ease their concerns.

"I know. It just seems like...he isn't built to feel emotions," Skinny brings up.

"I know. I know....we're all trying to figure out how to iron that out of him," Amethyst said as Ermac stared at the group.

"We apologize if we have inconvenienced you in any sort," Ermac said as the Famethyst got back into the Zooman ship. Ermac and Amethyst watched as the Zooman ship tried to lift off, struggling to do so.

"Should we use our ability to lift it back into the air?" Ermac asked Amethyst.

"Yeah sure," Amethyst confirmed. Ermac's hands glowed green and fired off another stream of the green lightning like energy. The energy snaked around the ship and enveloped it into a green shell. Ermac raised his arms and the ship slowly raised up into the sky, as the ship's engines were getting the water flushed out. Once the water got out, the ship began flying and he let his grip on the Zooman Ship go.

"Well...that could have gone better. Maybe you should go try hanging out with Garnet. Fusions with fusions and all that," Amethyst said while rubbing the back of her head in an awkward fashion.