Rave Masters
"Come on Peridot," Amethyst urged as she and Steven headed out the door. It was slightly after dark on one of Beach Cities warm summer evenings. Following the successful deactivation of the cluster Peridot had been adjusting to just living and being one of the Crystal Gems.
"Are you sure this is will fun?" Peridot asked nervously as she got up from where she stayed on the couch and joined Steven and Amethyst outside. She had been staying on the couch since they returned from the barn while Garnet worked to create a room for her in the temple and attune the door to open to her gem. "You both said learning how to eat would be fun."
They both giggled a bit at this remembering the horrible incident with Peridot's various internal errors. "Don't worry Peridot you will definitely like this," Steven beamed at her as the three of them headed into town and toward the old abandoned warehouse. "I mean you like music right?"
"I do find audio tones and rhythms arranged in a pattern to be quiet enjoyable at time yes," Peridot explained as she followed them. She wasn't quite sure why they had invited her along with them, accord to Pearl, Amethyst did this sort of thing, whatever it was, from time to time and recently Steven had started doing it as well. Apparently a gathering of a decent number of people in a former industrial building to appropriate music. Sounded simple enough but Peridot couldn't figure out why they had invited her along. Amethyst was always doing this, especially since they had returned to the Temple, inviting Peridot to hang out in her room, introducing her to new entertainment products and watching them with her, just spending time with her in general even more than Steven did now.
"Well this isn't like any music Steven has taught you about," Amethyst said walking backwards so she could face Peridot as they went. "Our friend Sour Cream makes it, using a computer."
"Really?" Peridot asked surprised and intrigued, "this Sour Cream creates music with electronic computing devices?" This really did sound like it might be a much higher level of music more logical and understandable than the small tunes Steven played. Her interest peaked she listened eagerly as Steven explained more about the type of music they were gonna be listening to, which he called electronic dance music.
As they approached the warehouse, the trio heard a whispered call, "Steven, Amethyst, Peridot over here." They turned to see Steven's friend Connie lurking in the shadows.
"You made it," Steven cried out running over to her and giving her a big hug. Connie blushed and giggled nervously, not uncommon biological responses Peridot still didn't fully understand.
"Hehe yeah, it wasn't easy getting out of my house without my parents noticing but Pearl's training is really starting to pay off," she said smiling up at Steven. "So what do you think?" she asked stepping back and letting Steven have a good look at her in her tight black shorts and loose white tank top. Peridot had been studying quite a bit about human appearance enhancers and was already considering which ones to imitate the next time she regenerated and added the star to her outfit.
"Hurry it up you two," Amethyst cry teasingly as Connie and Steven blushed shyly at each other. "If they two of you would rather stay out here and get frisky behind that dumpster feel free me and Pdot are gonna head to the rave." Amethyst took Peridot's hand motioning to walk away, Peridot following staring at the point of contact.
Connie blushed furiously at Amethyst's joke and so did Steven but he calmed back down faster. "We will be right there," he said turning back to Connie. "You look amazing," he whispered as he pulled her close into a tight hug. At first Peridot thought that Connie had started to blush so hard that her face was literally glowing with pink light but the true source wasn't Connie at all but Steven's gem. Pretty soon the glow got brighter and brighter until there was no Steven and no Connie anymore, just a tall older girl where they were before.
Peridot stared dumbfounded. "You can fuse with other humans?" Peridot was shocked and a little embarrassed, she had been embarrassed she had never managed to fuse with Garnet since joining the gems and even asked Pearl for help trying to fuse with her but never managed to do it, but she had felt a little better thinking she wasn't the only Crystal Gem that couldn't fuse.
"Yeah, don't ask me how?" Stevonnie said smiling down at Peridot now much shorter than her. "We don't really understand it, its just something we can do, I can do?" Stevonnie said still confusing her pronouns a bit.
"Don't be jealous Peri," Amethyst said still holding her hand, "you will get the hang out it soon enough, Rose said it took Pearl 200 years to learn how to fuse with her." Amethyst smiled encouragingly and continued to lead them toward the warehouse, they could hear the music now as they drew near. The deep thump, thump, thump of the bass in one's gem.
As they passed through the threshold Peridot was nearly overwhelmed, the sounds complex, layered, repeating, changing and altering, the lights moving, swirling, flashing, an amazing mix both too light and too dark at the same time. She could only stare in wonder at the amazing display before her attempting to comprehend it. "Its amazing," she whispered in awe.
Amethyst smiled at her broadly hearing her say this. Stevonni had run off rather quickly leaving Amethyst and Peridot together as she joined a group with the local humans from the donut shop that Peridot recognized. "I knew you would love it," Amethyst proclaimed excitedly. "Do you wanna see how it works or do you just wanna get to dancing?"
"Show me how it works!" Peridot almost screamed grabbing Amethyst with almost too much enthusiasm.
"Ok ok" Amethyst put her arm around Peridot's waist and led her over a station with a large amount of electronics at the far end of the room. A tall white hair human, Peridot supposed he was a male, was working the controls wearing a pair of headphones, but when he spotted Amethyst he signaled another similarly dressed fellow to take over the station from him. "Yo Sour Cream, how's it going?"
"Hey Amethyst, good to see you back here again. Wasn't quite the same without you around for the past few months but I figure you were busy what with that spaceship crashing and all. Who's your friend?" the tall white haired teen asked.
"This is Peridot," Amethyst said introducing her and pushing her forward a bit, "she was on that spaceship but she is a Crystal Gem like me and Steven now. She is a big nerd into computers and electronics and stuff you think you could show her how your set up works?"
"Yeah sure no problem," Sour Cream said leading Peridot away from Amethyst and over toward his set up talking excitedly at the small gem. At first Peridot went reluctantly looking back at Amethyst but as Sour Cream talked more and explained more, Peridot understood more and became more interested soon she was excitedly asking questions fascinated by this use of electronic computing devices to make music. Against the wall Amethyst stood waiting for the green gem, at first commonly but as 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes passed she looked more and more dejected and annoyed.
Sour Cream finished answering the last of Peridot's questions and asked, "So are you like Amethyst's date or something? I've never seen her bring anyone else here before."
"Hmmm? Date?" Peridot asked not entirely comprehending the word as she examined the turn tables more closely.
"Oh never mind, that probably is just a human thing isn't it, I mean gem don't get married or anything I don't think why would they date."
This time the word registered properly in Peridot's mind. Date, yes like the campers from Camp Pining Hearts. No, no, no gems didn't date each other. Well they didn't on Homeworld at least, but weren't the Crystal Gems different? Hadn't Garnet defined the relationship between her components as one similar to dating? She had only heard a brief explanation of Steven's existence but it seemed like Rose Quartz had engaged in activities consistent with dating Steven's father before his creation. Maybe they did do that sort of thing here. Peridot started to blush, "did Amethyst take me here as a sort of date?" she tried to glance back at Amethyst and saw her sulking against the wall waiting for her. "Sulking because I'm paying attention to something or someone else too much," Peridot mentally noted thinking of Pining Hearts episodes with larger amounts of subtext. "Could it be she did this as a sort of date for me? What do people do on dates?" Peridot examined the room and saw everyone dancing but now she noticed more than before people paired off in couples dancing together.
"Hey you still there?" Sour Cream asked as Peridot had gone silent a few minutes ago and started looking around strangely.
"Yes sorry," Peridot answered accidentally blushing a bit, "Thanks for showing me all this, maybe next time you do one of these I could put together a set to play myself but I should get back to Amethyst." Peridot beat a hasty retreat not even listening to Sour Cream reply over the loud music before heading back over to join Amethyst. "Hey."
Amethyst looked up a little sulky at first but brightened as soon as she realized it was Peridot talking to her and not some random guy she didn't know. "Hey," she said trying not to sound overly happy or excited that Peridot came back over to her. "Sour Cream show you everything?"
"Yeah your were so right, I think I'm gonna see if I can put together some of this music myself and show it off next time," Peridot said beaming, "but for now I wanna try dancing to it for a bit." Peridot took Amethyst's hand and pull her out onto the dance floor. At first Amethyst was a bit slow still in a stupor as Peridot pulled her out there and started to dance, but she quickly took the lead, pulling Peridot close, their hips rocking and swaying together to the ever changing rhythms.
"I really want you to have fun hear tonight," Amethyst smiled at Peridot their faces mere inches apart as they danced. "So if dancing isn't your thing just tell me," she blushing a bit her eagerness to be close to Peridot giving way to her desire to see Peridot enjoy herself.
"This was probably the nicest thing anyone ever did for me," Peridot said smiling up at Amethyst. "Thanks." Amethyst smiled back down at Peridot as their eyes met. A soft glow began to surround them. Peridot didn't know what was happening but she just enjoying the moment too much to stop. Amethyst realized what was happening but didn't want to stop it and let it happen. The light grew brighter two bodies pressed together became one.
Her four arms stretched out a bit as people around her watched amazed, first at the light show and then the amazing girl that appeared out of them. Eyes still closed she danced to the music, wild and free but also understanding what it all was, the music, the people, the happiness she felt.
"Wow you two look amazing," came a familiar voice as someone came over and started dancing along side her, although not with her the way she had danced with herself a moment before.
She opened her four eyes and smiled at Stevonnie. And then the nausea hit her, terrible disorientation and finally she split back apart, Amethyst and Peridot being flung to the ground. Stevonnie looked back and forth between them surprised, Peridot accidentally making her body blush while Amethyst quickly burst out laughing.
A little while later, after the rave had rapped up, Peridot had gotten a chance to try out the turn tables, Stevonnie had turned down Lars asking her out and Amethyst out danced every last person on the floor the 4 friends left the warehouse. Steven and Connie unfused and headed off together to make sure Connie got home safe and wasn't caught. Meanwhile Peridot and Amethyst started walking back to the Temple. At first they walked in silence, but it wasn't awkward, Amethyst holding Peridot's hand they were both happy just to be in each others company.
"About tonight," Peridot said wanting to talk about it but unsure how. "I didn't mean to, fuse with you like that. Not that I didn't want to, not that I wanted too, I mean it was nice fusing with you, and then when we unfused, I well I didn't mean to do that, it was an accident I didn't wanna screw it up." Peridot stuttered going faster and faster as she spot stumbling over what she really wanted to say more.
"Hey hey, calm down," Amethyst said putting a hand on Peridot's shoulder. "I was kinda hoping I would get to fuse with you," Amethyst blushed. "Garnet understands fusion but she doesn't understand you well enough to fusion, Pearl isn't really great at fusion to start with especially when its with someone who she sees as an equal. Its much easier for her to fusion with someone she sees as being in charge of her. I figured maybe if I could show you a fun time tonight you would open up to me and we could practice doing it a bit. I didn't really expect you to be ready as quick as this but I'm glad we did it."
"Me too," Peridot replied smiling shyly, "I wish it had lasted longer, but when we, I opened my eyes it was so weird I don't know what happened."
"Its really not that weird actually if you haven't done it before, sometimes gaining the extra body parts especially the extra eyes can be so confusing the first time that you will defuse, but it gets better the more you do it. That is if you wanna try fusing with me again sometime," Amethyst said looking down shyly.
Peridot leaned against Amethyst getting closer and staying closer, "What is our name? When were her?" she asked curious.
"I'm not sure, I wasn't really thinking about what my name was," Amethyst mused. "You wanna fuse again to find out and then go rub it in Pearl's face?" Amethyst asked the idea popping into her head. Peridot thought for a second and then nodded grinning mischievously.