Okay, we learned a lot about Lapis in Same Old World, but two things really stand out.

First off, Lapis was attacked on the battlefield despite being a non-combatant. This is obviously a war crime but it’s pretty clear from what we see that the war zone is NOT an active settlement. So what the hell was Lapis doing there?

Second, Lapis had an extensive knowledge of gem history, and she has the ability to project images on flat, reflective surfaces like her mirror or still water.

In other words, Lapis was on the battlefield because she was supposed to record it. Lapis was a war reporter

This also has implications for Bismuth’s attack on Lapis: Although it’s a war crime, a classic guerrilla war tactic is to target reporters specifically. In the Vietnam war, the People’s Liberation Armed Forces of South Vietnam (PLAF) did just that as a meta-tactic to scare american and european civilians and damage public support for the war.