Steven had been fiddling with his ukulele, the most primitive musical instrument Peridot knew he owned. Preliminary testing with the drill had already been concluded for the day and having grown board of observing one of the many small, flying fauna near the barn Peridot decided not only to return to the beach house with Steven but to join him on the couch as well. She stared from her side of the couch as he strummed aimlessly, knowing that whenever he did that he was usually about to sing. She slumped a bit, the act making her realize how tight her posture had been, when he put the hunk of wood back down.
"Not in the mood?" Steven's gaze darted to her and she tightened up again, not having intended to say anything.
"Oh, you got a request?" He laughed as he picked his ukulele up again and strummed a bit more.
"I just...thought you were going to sing that ballad." He gave her a blank stare. "Th-The one you mentioned in the kindergarten, about the parents?" She was getting more and more familiar with the starry glimmer that brought to his eyes but to her dismay he dropped the instrument again. He scooched over and grabbed one of her hands.
"I just realized something! I can do you one better than that! Come on, Dot!" She would have bit the hand that yanked her from her seat had it belonged to anyone other than Steven. She squinted as he proceeded to lead her outside the house, down the stairs (fashioned from wood and primitive, like everything else on this weird planet) and across the sand. That seemed strange, so strange that she pondered it as he dragged her through the small settlement known as Beach City. Why did she give him such a pass? He was no less annoying than when he'd lied to her via the Kindergarten's control room, than when he'd yanked part of her lower limb enhancer off. No, he was still the same squishy, organic (questionably so but still) energetic little clod she'd always known him to be. Truly a mystery of science, before when he grabbed her enhancer it enraged her, now when he took her hand it made her want to go forward.
"Hey Sadie!" Steven's voice brought her back to the present, he'd brought her inside one of the many human structures in town.
"Steven, what's up?" The pudgy little human behind the counter, only a bit taller and bigger than him, looked quite bored, even Peridot could tell. She brightened at Steven's voice, something that didn't surprise Peridot at all.
"I need to use your VHS player again."
"Sure, no problem. Hey, uh, you're Peridot right?" The green gem started at the unexpected acknowledgement.
"Y-Yes, good to make your acquaintance, I suppose." She barely ground the words from her mouth but Steven smiled at her regardless, she knew it pleased him when she tried to display good behavior. The bigger human led her and Steven into a back room where many boxes were stacked against the walls and there were a couple chairs and a table atop which sat another primitive image cube. Steven clamored atop some of the boxes and retrieved something from a shelf.
"Here we go!" He slid a black, rectangular object into a slot on the-television, Peridot finally remembered the correct word for it.
"Here we go?" Steven sat in one of the chairs and she slid into the one next to it.
"This is a, uh, special log my mom left me."
"Wait, Rose Quartz?!" Peridot stared wide eyed at the screen, currently displaying nothing special, just shots of ocean and beach.
"Yeah!" A silky, matronly voice filtered from the television and Steven looked on transfixed. As a disembodied Rose Quartz blithered on about how unique and wonderful Earth is and blah blah blah Peridot groaned. As Steven's attention remained completely focused and undivided she grew more frustrated. Then Rose's face appeared on the screen and she stared, wide eyed.
"Steven, we can't both exist. I'm going to become half of you." Peridot cringed as a hand went up to her gem. She couldn't wrap her head around how Rose managed to do what she did, or how she had the tenacity to do so. She tenderly probed the rock in her forehead before she looked over at Steven again, whose eyes were still glued to the playing log. It was then that she realized he had begun holding her hand again, their fingers sat intertwined on the table.
"Take care of them Steven." Her eyes widened as his grip on her digits tightened just so. Before she knew it a growl began emanating from her.
"Alright enough!" She shot up from the chair and nearly yanked Steven from his place in doing so. "WHAT. Is the point of this?! This does not at all explain how a human and a gem can procreate!" Her cheeks took on a darker shade of green at the use of the word.
"Pump the brakes Peridot. I'm...I'm sorry." Her annoyance dissipated immediately at the down turn his voice took. "It's just that, I really don't know much about her, about them. I know what generally must've happened you know, two people get together, they want to be together, they...have sex, then they raise their children...or one of them does." His voice quieted further and Peridot panicked, she had to make this stop. She looked down at their still intertwined hands and gave his a squeeze.
"Thank you for showing me this, Steven. If anything, at least I got to see what she looked like and sounded like." She forced a smile but Steven did not look particularly consoled. Seconds ticked by uncomfortably before an idea came to her gem.
"Steven...When you said you lost my screen and enhancers, where exactly did you lose them to?"
"In some water in the Galaxy Warp..." She nearly jumped at the news.
"Steven! That pool's not some endless pit, they sank to the bottom and I can retrieve them! I might be able to get them to work! Then I could show you something!" He smiled, beginning to match her excitement.
"Really? Something about the cluster? Or Homeworld?"
"Something about me! Let's go!" And the two ran out of the Big Donut, Steven hastily thanking Sadie as they left.
)))
The pillar of light dissipated around them revealing the galaxy warp. Peridot could tell Steven loved coming to this place, she rather liked it as well even though it reminded her how trapped she was on a ticking timebomb planet. Perhaps because it also reminded her of homeworld, everything was broken and in disarray but the warps were still elegant and polished, the room still grand, peaceful and cool. Speaking of which...
"Steven no, I'm going down there myself." She flashed a ray forth from her gem. "I'll be able to see fine, just tell me where they entered the water." She couldn't allow him to go down there, the water would be freezing and then she would have to treat him for hypothermia, a fascinating and terrifying problem humans suffered from when their temperature dropped too far passed a certain point. She followed Steven over to the edge of the stone the warps sat atop.
"Alright, it should be right below here, that's where Amethyst tossed them."
"Amethyst did it? Figures..." She jumped and performed a perfect jackknife just before entering the water. A few moments later Peridot broke the surface again and lifted one of her limb enhancers into the air, helicopter fingers lifting her out of the water. She let out a peal of laughter once she was standing next to Steven again.
"This is great, if this works then my screen definitely works!" She held her enhanced limb out and formed the screen with four of the fingers. She twiddled around a bit with the screen, Steven couldn't understand any of what was being displayed. "Yes, yes! It's all here. Here, watch this." Peridot sat down and patted the ground next to her, to her delight Steven quickly sat as well. The fingers spread out, expanding the screen wide infront of them both as a video began to play.
"Log date...Oh, well I guess this isn't really a proper log."
"Wow..." Peridot grinned as Steven looked on, amazed. What looked like Peridot only larger and more worn down stood before them, they could see from her waist up. She did not sound like Peridot however, she sounded more like Sadie's mom but more tempered and...tired. She had wrinkles in her skin very akin to what elderly humans tended to display. Unlike Peridot and the other gems Steven knew her eyes had a dull opaqueness to them, blurring the edges of her irises. Tiny slivers of the beginnings of cracks tapered at the corners of her gem, placed right atop her brow just like the newly minted Chrystal Gem Peridot.
"Um...This is a bit strange. Up until now I've always made these things for myself, I've never made video logs as part of reports, just audio. But I thought it'd be important to include a visual element for this so..." She cleared her throat. "Peridot, this is for you, however many of you Yellow Diamond deems...sufficient. First, contrary to what any other gem may tell you we are NOT immortal."
Steven gasped and Peridot looked on. She'd watched this video several times so she was only just paying attention to it, much more interested in Steven's reactions.
"But...Pearl said-" His voice was a whisper as if someone else were actually in the room, he hushed again to continue listening.
"It is true, we have extremely long lifespans relative to organic life, but long isn't forever. Our gems, our true bodies, they become worn down over time and eventually collapse on themselves. The sentience harboring alignments and organized structures they are composed of eventually break down. Before that happens however it is possible to use a "living" gem to program an injector body. This process doesn't take nearly as long as the incubation process to create a new fully formed gem but it does still take time."
The camera panned and the two of them could see this was being shot on some atmosphere lacking planetoid. Steven could clearly see other planets and stars in the background, no sky, and against it all stood a massive injector like the ones he'd seen at the kindergarten. However this injector was different in one way; the crystalline purple part all the others possessed was not there. Where that should have been there was a pillar of some vaguely organic looking material, Steven recognized it as the part encased within the massive purple crystals.
"This is our injector, Peridot. Tomorrow I shall give all that I have left to my empire and to my diamond." This other Peridot didn't sound particularly excited, she didn't sound scared or upset or anything, just tired. "My gem will be placed within the injector in order to program it, that will allow the casing and body to develop. Once it does the injector will be ready to function and it will be transported to that planet." The camera quickly panned again back towards the stars; a still tiny but large enough to be a planet yellow orb in the distance drifted peacefully. Unsuspectingly. "There some amount between five and ten thousand peridots will be injected and allowed maturation. At Yellow Diamond's behest I calculated that this amount would likely be the minimum required to allow for the likelihood of...another like me to be created." Once again, the camera came back to the elderly Peridot.
"The programming process will consume my gem but since I am so close to expiration anyway I'm not worried about it. I'm actually quite happy at the honor of being so valued that I am to be directly reincarnated. Truly there is no greater form of recognition." Not once did she crack a smile nor did her eyes brighten even the slightest, if this gem truly was happy she had long ago forgotten how to express it. Or at least that was the impression Steven got.
"That's why I want you to know this, Peridot. Life will be difficult for a while...quite often it will be difficult even after you've learned how to cope. Other gems will disrespect you. They will call you "just a peridot" and to me that is the worst part of it. You're not A Peridot, no matter how many times your superiors and even your lessers call you A Peridot remember you are not A. You are you. I am me. And..." She looked about, away from the camera before carefully looking back again. "You will probably be alone. For a long time. And you will be left alone. And even when you're not alone you will feel alone. I want you to remember that even if it's technically not true, I am here with you. You and I are on the same timeline and are of the same makeup. Noone can take me or this message away from you." Peridot noticed Steven cringe, she squeezed his hand again knowing he likely now felt guilty about taking this from her. Finally, FINALLY, this elder gem gave a small smile. "I look forward to being you, Peridot. I hope you have a good and productive existence and I hope you find a way to make it a happy one, I eventually did, you can too. Peridot, Facet 2B0R Cut 9OT."
There was a good long silence after the recording cut off. The room became much darker again around them as the video had been the only source of light. Peridot's eyes adjusted easily and she smiled vacantly at her and Steven's still clasped hands. Even when his started producing icky warm liquid a while ago she still liked the act.
"So that was...your mom." Steven muttered. She felt color going to her cheeks, proud that he'd been so affected by watching the log.
"I've never thought of her as my mom before but yes. She is, was, my progenitor and honestly I think her video was better." Steven grinned at her teasing before bopping her on the head.
"There's just one thing, what did she mean when she said another like me? If an injector was putting thousands of her into the ground, wouldn't they all be like her?" Peridot paled at this, unsure of how to answer immediately. She really didn't want to, if she said nothing would he keep asking or let it go? Or would it work better to lie to him? She didn't want to do that either but...
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She had no idea what the rest of the planet from which she'd emerged looked like. The only part she saw was the sapped, gray brittle parts. She'd been standing with all this rock comfortably encasing her just looking around. She hadn't tried to take a step yet, wasn't even aware of her body when a citrine came along and pulled her out, easily lifting her entirely off the ground. She was referred to as "another one" and carried to some nice looking flat surfaces in the middle of the kindergarten. After speaking with her a bit they gave her things to read, facts to learn, puzzles to solve and devices to program or hack. She did everything they asked her to and wanted more.
"Alright I think this is the one, hang on..." The worker scanned her body once then her gem twice. "Yep, this is definitely the one, 99% similarity to original. We're all done here."
The next thing she remembered, one of the two clearest memories about her emerging, was all the smoke. Many many puffs of lime green smoke all appearing at once as if there were some emergency. At that point she'd never experienced emergency before, despite that this sight still imparted on her a sense of urgency somehow. One of the citrines led her by her hand towards a ship.
"Come on."
She's not sure why she doesn't remember hearing the sound but when she looked back behind her and saw the once ashen, dry place gleaming and shimmering the most spectacular, verdant green she'd ever seen, she smiled excitedly. It was so beautiful and it was one of her first memories!
She didn't know what she had witnessed until much later. There were plenty of other Peridots to go around, Yellow Diamond had no intention of sharing her exceptional one and as a diamond matriarch was under no obligation to do so.
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"It's just, you kn-Oh, actually no, you don't know. Well Steven, some gems can be reproduced easily, the quartz especially. And some gems are more difficult to reproduce, something about their properties makes the process more likely to...fail."
"Oh I see, that makes sense."
"Yeah. I know it does." Because of the special circumstances of her creation, Peridot was one of the very few gems to know that this was absolute garbage, the most believable sounding and thus believed falsehood among gems, one of the main ideas upholding the caste system. There was no such thing as a rare gem, any gem could be mass produced via injector. But like humans, not all gems were exact copies of their progenitors. If one gem possessed some exceptional trait, Sapphire's future vision or Peridot's intellect, the chances were slim many or even some of their copies would likewise possess this trait. This was why Yellow Diamond had shattered all of her "siblings" she had no interest in more average workers. She wanted to replace her personal genius designer with another and that was it.
And Peridot was indeed alone for quite some time.
Possessing this knowledge made her alone even when she wasn't.
"Steven..." But she wasn't anymore.
"Hm?"
"I wanted to show you that so you could know more about me. And I'm glad you showed me that weird log from your mom, I want to know more about you too. I've been studying animals and human culture extensively, especially familial relations and I...I realized that I sort of think of you as my brother." She smiled wide as Steven lit up at that.
"Really?!"
"My older brother, specifically. I did some number crunching and figured that when you account for how humans and gems age and our respective average life spans you are actually significantly older than me. Did you know I'm less than five thousand years old?" He held up his hand for her to high five.
"I know that now! Cool! Come on!" He dragged her away again and she hadn't been expecting it, nearly dropping her log containing limb enhancer.
)))
It was times like this Peridot wondered WHY she thought she wanted to be closer to Steven.
"Alright, now put your other foot on that one, don't worry I'm not gonna let you tip over."
"Steven really." She shakily put her foot on the other pedal. "You said this thing was a form of transportation isn't it? Then it's pointless for me to use it, I've got one of my limb enhancers back I can fly now!"
"It's good exercise too!"
"I don't consume any calories that need burning, I don't need exercise!"
"But it's fun!"
"Not as fun as flying!"
"Well, okay. But come on, Peridot! You like learning new skills don't you? This can be fun for us to do together but you've got to learn how."
Peridot groaned as she wobbled. She started pedaling and Steven walked with her, keeping her steady.
"There you go, you're doing great! Now you've just got to go faster." She did as she was told until eventually she felt as though she were gliding down the sidewalk. She panicked when she realized Steven was no longer there.
"You clod, where'd you go?!"
"I'm right here!" He pulled up beside her on his blue bike. "You're doing fine, see? This is the ultimate activity siblings do together, besides video games!" She wanted to ask him how he would know such a thing as he had no siblings but kept pedaling instead. In the distance to the left was the glistening blue ocean and to the right was bright green hills. She smiled as they continued down the sidewalk together, happy that she had finally done what her progenitor wanted, she'd found this happiness she'd spoken of, she'd even found beauty that just was what it was.