CALCULATING

     Lapis stares after Peridot as she leaves. Does Lapis want to follow her? She wonders what the green gem is even up to, needing a warp pad. Probably something sinister, she thinks, but there’s really nothing else for Lapis to do. So she gets up, and follows Peridot out, noticing her running off as a dog.

     She can’t keep up without shapeshifting, Lapis knows, so she shifts into a cat and races on after Peridot. Camouflage is not something she is worried about, so it’s not exactly the best cat transformation. She calls, “Hey, wait up! You’re going too fast!” after Peridot, but the gem does not slow, and so Lapis is forced to do her best to keep up.

     Once they’ve stopped, Lapis shifts back to her human form. “Ship? What ship…?” she asks, turning her gaze to the sky and, seeing what Peridot is talking about, she mumbles, “Oh. I see.” She looks to the other gem again. “So, what do we do?”

     Since the whir, whir of the ship just kept on, giving Peridot a terrible feeling of urgency, she decided to waste no time and creep up the steps of Steven’s house. “Isn’t it obvious?” she asked. “We leave.” She peeked around the corner of the railing and towards the front door. No one stood before it. Warily, Peridot turned the corner. And then, once she was in front of the door, she transformed one of her fingers into a key. “But the plan is still processing. Obviously, the Home World will find us; it’s only a matter of time.” After she stuck her key-finger into the handle, the lock clicked. Out of the corner of her eye, Peridot looked at Lapis. “When that happens, we will have to move again. Of course, you are not required to stay with me. That would be both imbecilic as well as a waste of time.”

     Peridot stepped into the house. She saw the warp pad instantly. “But, if that is what you should choose,” she continued, “then... I have no qualms with it.” She said it idly, as if it held no weight at all. But she knew that something had changed--she knew that if this conversation were to take place before Lapis began her daring quest of friendship, she would have preferred to be alone. In fact, she would have insisted upon it. But, perhaps now, after all this time together, she had gotten used to the other gem’s presence. 

     Peridot’s feet clanked against the warp pad. “Processing,” she said. Her eyes were full of numbers; they zoomed across her vision. “...Destination found.” To Lapis, she said, “The path diverges. You have two options: the first is to stay here, in this wretched human colony. You could carry out the rest of your existence safely, with little worry of being attacked. After all, the Home World is not looking for you; I am their sole target.” Peridot paused. She tapped her finger to her chin. “Or, you could come with me, and fulfill my former plan.

     Nothing snaps him out of his dazes quicker than someone deciding to boss him around. 

      Immediately, his petulant wall of defense flies up, his brows drawing in disdain. ❛ Like hell! You don’t dictate what I do, lady, you’re in need of a reality check. Bad. ❜ Nevermind that she’d done some funky black magic but a few seconds earlier. He WON’T heed her orders like she’s some kind of god.

     Peridot is not a god, but she is an alien. And as such, she is above the pathetic human worm standing before her. “If you won’t comply to my orders, I will be forced to move you.” She raises her weapon. But then, she lowers it. And after that, she stows it away in her gem. 

     Kichiro isn’t worth the arrows. 

     Peridot raises her hands. A giant bubble pops out of them. It encases Kichiro. “Target captured,” she says. “Moving in process...”

     Howl snickers. “I can’t say that I’m not part-human, but I’m definitely not fully human. I’m part-demon, I’d say. But, most humans would call me a wizard, which I am, as well.” He grins devilishly. ‘Part-demon’ sounds good coming off of his tongue. He likes it. He decides that he might use that from now on.  “Now, I must ask; what makes you think you’re so high-and-mighty over the humans? Are they just inferior to you? If that’s the case, I must say, I feel the same way.” 

          ‘ I——– y-yes, I’ll——– I-I’ll be sure to                 remember that. THANK you. ‘

Eudialyte gave an awkward smile, one   that came quick as it left, gripping the  file in question with dubious hands. Eyes  trained ever forward, she wasn’t sure     where else to take the conversation,  though she also felt that cutting it off  abrupt would not bode well.

          ‘ So, you, uh…you work on level THREE,                  right? With——–  with the other tech                 Gems? ‘

Peridot is ready to end this conversation. Eudialyte has already managed to get on her bad side--she had really been looking forward to reporting her, but now that she has an excuse for being here, she can’t. And so, when Eudialyte smiles, Peridot can’t help but scowl.

     Howl grins devilishly as he elicits a flinch from Peridot. He finds it amusing. “Ah, yes. I suppose I am awfully rude, aren’t I?” He snickers to himself. It’s just how he is, after all. It’s not like he’ll disagree. “Gemkind, eh? How interesting. I have to say, though, you called me human, and that is not what I am at all. I find it awfully insulting that you’d take me for one.” 

     Lapis finds herself being shaken, and she wakes up, looking up at Peridot groggily. “Wha…” she mumbles, rubbing her eyes. “What’s the matter…?”

     She can see the fear in Peridot’s eyes, and it wakes her up somewhat. What on Earth could have made Peridot so scared? “Um…nearest warp pad, uh…

     “The nearest warp pad is in the temple on the beach.” She remembers seeing it while she was in the mirror. “But, um, we can’t really get to it. Why do you need a warp pad, Peridot?”

     Peridot frowns. When she had been in her spaceship, she had seen the temple on the beach. And when she had come out of the ship, she had seen the Crystal Gems standing guard over it. “I’ll explain on the way,” she says. “There’s no time to waste.”

     Without waiting for Lapis, she straightens. And then she bolts out of the warehouse and heads straight for the temple. But before stepping out onto the street, she disguises herself by shape shifting into a dog. It’s the only animal she knows for sure won’t be looked at twice by the humans in Beach City, because she had read in her books about how common they were here on Earth.

     Way up in Earth’s atmosphere, a ship breaches the clouds. Way down on the ground, a gem looks up from her book. Slowly, Peridot stands up. And then she walks over to the door of the warehouse. Poking her head out of it, she looks up at the sky.

     The ship greets her eyes. Her stomach drops into her shoes.

     Okay, but what the hell—-

      ❛ Eh– ❜ Now that isn’t normal. ❛ Really… Really need to see a doctor, lady. ❜

✩ grnnvdr ✩

     Howl’s seen many a strange thing in his day, but Peridot may just be the strangest of them all. He jumps down from the roof he’s taken a perch on, and lands in front of the green gem. 

     “Hmm. What a strange creature you are. If I may ask, what are you?”

A nervous noise leaves the small Gem, and she scrambles to tug her file from her inside pocket, shaky fingers offering it to the taller’s outstretched palm. 

          ‘ T-they should be. I had these redone a                 few days ago, a-ask any recruiter. My                 permits should all be in order, I——–                 I-I CAN’T afford a ticket. ‘

     Lapis hangs her head. Peridot isn’t going to accept her apology, is she? “Okay…I understand. It’s okay if you don’t want to…”

     She finds herself interrupted, and shocked when Peridot interrupts her with ‘apology accepted’. Lapis wouldn’t have, in a million years, imagined that Peridot would actually accept the apology. She had only hoped for the best, for her own sake.

    The creatures combined turn out to be harder to fight than     anticipated – not that Jasper minds. In fact, the discovery     is a delight. It’s not often that Jasper has a true challenge     anymore, after all; a war gem doesn’t have many uses      when there’s not an active war going on, after all, and      these recon missions she’s been reduced to don’t often     have any worthy opponents to speak of. Even in the event     they have a real bounty to hunt down, like today, even the     hardest criminals Home World has to offer are often quick     to crumble when faced with Jasper’s imposing demeanor.

    This creature, though – this fusion of sorts, a fusion of      dozens of very small, weak creatures – turns out to be a     worthy opponent, and it takes Jasper a long time to pummel     it into submission, and even longer to take down the several     that follow. Eventually, though, the creatures back off and     surrender, survivors fleeing into the dense foliage they had     emerged from, leaving Jasper with the short task of peering     a silent apology to the creatures she’d ended up smashing –     honestly mostly accidental, as she’d initially thought that     they’d simply regrow into even smaller beasts if she broke     them apart, but apparently even these things had a smallest     singular form. Pity, honestly; there was something sort of cute     about them, even if they were sort of pathetic. But, well –     their life-spans were too short to truly waste time mourning     over anyway, really.

    Letting her weapon disappear, Jasper turned on her heel      and headed in the direction she’d seen Peridot go, hoping     that the smaller Gem really was being careful. Annoying as     Peridot often was, she was also the only tech gem that     Jasper had successfully managed to work with without said     tech gem becoming a bumbling mess of fear and fluster every     time Jasper so much as pushed them over. It’d be a pity if     Peridot ended up out of commission, especially over someone     so pathetic as a thief like Tanzanite.

    The mansion had been beautiful on the outside; its     cream-colored columns towered over the city and     supported the sculpted roof like the shoulders of     Atlas supported the sky. But now that Peridot has     made her way inside, she finds its interior to be less     than lackluster. Everything is in ruin; couches are     overflowing with stuffing, picture frames are shattered,     and the walls are peeling with paint.

    But the wreckage is new. Peridot can tell from the lack     of dust in the air. Narrowing her eyes, she comes to     the conclusion that Tanzanite had been the cause of     this mess. The thief had probably been looking for the     treasure hidden in this mansion, and had torn the place     up in the process.

    When Peridot walks over to the stairs, her sensors     beep. Tanzanite is up there, they say. Peridot     unsheathes her weapon from her gem and then creeps     up the stairs. She doesn’t know how long it will take     Jasper to deal with the towns people, but she does know     Jasper, and she also knows how much she loves beating      things into submission. Which is just fine and dandy, but      it takes a while. So, jumping the gun, Peridot steps onto     the second floor.

    Tanzanite is waiting for her there. The rogue gem hisses     before throwing a knife at Peridot. Peridot’s eyes widen,     and she ducks to the side. The knife buries itself in the     wall behind her.

    “Surrender now,” Peridot says, “and your punishment     will be minimal!”

         ’ W-wait, I——– I-I SWEAR, ma’am,               I’m on post. I’m on post, I’m suppose               to be here. I-it’s all in my papers, y-you               can check! ‘

     ❛ Riiight. ❜ The sarcasm is strong in this one. ❛ Like I said. Dedicated. ❜

     Peridot scowls. This waste of space is      doubting her heritage; he’s doubting the      Homeworld! With grit teeth, Peridot taps      her gem. It glows on her command, and      out from it comes her weapon.