LOG-080.

  The stars above me were beautiful things.

  Idly, my gaze drifted to stare at a specific set of the astronomically distant lights. One that I knew represented the path to Homeworld.

  ...Homeworld.

  My fists clenched as one, even as my teeth grit against each other before I forced the various emotions back down in favour of calmer ones, turning contemplative.

  There were better things to let occupy my mind. Like myself! Like fusion.

  I...wasn't an expert on the act. Especially not for something as experimental as intercaste fusion seemed to be. Likely due in part to none of my component Gems having all that much actual technical knowledge surrounding the subject, beyond of course, one of my Pearls bearing a distinct proclivity for it.

  As a direct result of that, I had enough information to know that I was an...experience. However, I simply didn't know how to describe just what kind of an experience that actually was. Not without a decent bit of self reflection anyway. Thankfully, I'd had time. And so hours passed, with me just staring at the shifting night sky while thinking about things.

  Shifting slightly from my position lying back against the sand, I let a hand rise to brush a stray lock of multicoloured hair out of my face.

  The first few moments had been...electrical. I'd blushed. Heavily. I'd giggled. I'd laughed. And danced. And sang. Eventually, I'd even drawn power from the Emerald embedded in the chest of my lightform, forming what I knew to be Green Onyx's sword catchers and slashing at a few rocks with them while putting on a one person performance. Clean cuts of course, all the way through, with not a single note in my wordless song missed.

  The part of me that hadn't already experienced the martial abilities Emerald provided to this union had utterly revelled in that power for a good bit, prompting understanding and amusement from her counterparts. Yet the good admiral herself had also been more than a little intrigued by the art of the Pearl. Of performing.

  How very scandalous.

  Regardless, the entertaining martial performance had continued until every last part of me was satisfied with its ending, resulting in more than a few diced apart boulders sitting around the sand.

  Casually tossing the remnants into the waves in front of me had resulted in massive splashes of water, and showering in the consequent spray had been nice, countless droplets (each individual teardrop being one I could make out in perfect detail if I so wished) impacting my body, yet failing to find any true purchase, inevitably sliding off to sink into the sand beneath my feet.

  After that initial euphoric period though...I'd calmed. Excitement and enjoyment of my existence instead transitioning into a deep curiosity. I'd wanted details.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Was I Emerald and Honey Lemon? Or did that component fusion's distinctly happy personality fade away in favour of Viridian and Vermilion taking her place? Was Green Onyx also in here somewhere, acting as a part of me? It hadn't felt like it, yet it also had, somehow.

  So who was I?

  That had taken even more thinking. Settling on a name had been the easiest part, ironically enough, since all three...or four? Five? Regardless, since all of my respective components agreed with the naming scheme Viridian had initially broached, it was simple enough to settle on a suitable designation.

  Jade Onyx. In representation of the...interesting pattern my lightform had taken.

  I still considered myself an Onyx, yes. The combined avatar emitted from all three of my gemstones remained similar enough to that prior fusion. I was still that recognizable shade of mixed green from my...proto-self? From the Onyx composed of Viridan and Emerald. But Vermilion's red undertones had seeped in somewhere along the line of all my separate parts joining together, muddying the metaphorical waters even further. Her visual contribution to the being that was me.

  My eyes were fun. A glance at my reflection in the water had shown that both of them remained that same verdant hue, yet with each individual iris bearing a distinctly crimson ring around it. I'd probably seem terrifying, staring at someone from within the darkness.

  I kind of liked that. Just a little.

  Brushing the stray thought aside and turning my hand around, I stared at the soft waves cresting across the surface of my lightform, like an oil slick on water, almost. Green, green interspersed with red, hints of pure red, more green, and on and on it went in an endless repetition, encompassing my entire body, including the extra frills layered over the not quite armour that made up the foundation of my torso and shoulders.

  It was all Jade in the end, though more specifically the colour, rather than the Gem itself. If an actual Jade had been caught with crimson inclusions in her lightform, the Empire wouldn't even bother to have her Harvested. She'd likely just be shattered and discarded instead, for fear of the potential impurities seeping into new individuals born of that initial recycled material.

  It was fascinating, and enough to make me wonder just what my appearance might eventually settle into, given the potential of additional sessions such as this one. Would my separate hues eventually settle into something more like Vermilion and Viridian's fusion, perhaps?

  Would I be yellow? That might be nice. Maybe Jade wouldn't last long as a moniker. Maybe I'd call myself Gold or something.

  Gold Onyx...now that sounded impressive. Assuming I did end up with such a hue, at least. The small humour found in stealing the moniker of a certain Diamond's top explorator also clicked with multiple parts of me.

  Nonetheless, there was also another key detail my components had rather vocally noted, besides my interesting colouring.

  Namely that they were able to be vocal at all.

  I was still a...personality. An individual. But I somehow felt more...ephemeral than Honey Lemon or Green Onyx had been. Even now, I could all but hear my 'core' components conversing amongst themselves, their own debate reflecting my musings.

  Like little voices living in my head. Yet for all the implications such a thing had...it somehow stabilised my thoughts, rather than the other way around. There were far less tinges of influence from this or that individual, bar the occassional, most minute of notes.

  So once more...just who was I?

  Me, apparently.

  I was just me.

  For now at least.

  My components all agreed, and in turn I agreed with them. My fate was that of a temporary experience, barring the utmost exceptional of circumstances. But I was alright with that. I'd enjoy existence while it lasted.

  Besides, it wasn't like my components couldn't fuse again later on, if they so wished.

  So for now...I'd find something to do besides thinking while stargazing, even as nice as it was. Adding a little variety to that temporary existence of mine couldn't possibly hurt. Perhaps I'd go converse with someone, get some actual use out of my voice besides wordless singing.

  But who?

  ...Ah. That was definitely some level of desire. And the other two didn't seem all too opposed to it either, despite their amusement towards the initiator of the idea.

  Very well then.

  Time to go tease a certain lovebird.