NKB Productions present

A story by Lightweight

Peridot Meets Gaming

(A "Steven Universe" fanfic)

(DISCLAIMER NOTE: "Steven Universe" is owned by Cartoon Network. I only own the computer I'm writing this on. Also SPOILER WARNING! If you haven't seen the latest "Steven Universe"episodes as of October 12, 2015, you could be spoiled by the contents in this fic. You have been warned.)

(NOTE #2: The story takes place at the time Peridot is begrudgingly working with the Crystal Gems)

It was a quiet day in Steven's house. The gems were not seen all day, and Lion was being particularly lazy, sleeping outside by the door. On the couch, a small green humanoid rocked back and forth. Her face screamed annoyance, and her fingers drummed about incessantly. She muttered stuff to no one in particular, too quiet for anyone to understand, and spoken more as a way to scare the deafening silence away. The front door was unlocked, but she did not leave, as she felt a prisoner, no matter where she stood.

Truly, this was a bad day for Peridot.

After a while of nearly indescribable solitude, Peridot could hear the unmistakable steps of a certain child running up the wooden stairs leading to the house. "Pearl! Garnet! Amethyst!" The youthful, excited voice shouted from outside. "I'm home, and I brought doughnuts and fry bits!" Then, just as the words died out in Peridot's vicinity, the front door opened and let in a stout, chubby kid with curly hair and a smile that lit up the house in an instant.

Steven took a moment to scan the household only to find none of the usual suspects were around. "Huh… they're not here." He then walked to the counter to leave his purchases when he noticed Peridot sitting on the couch. "Oh, hi, Peridot. What's up?"

"What's… up?" Peridot wondered, looking towards the ceiling with a confused look on her face.

Steven chuckled a little but clarified his statement gently. "I meant to say 'how are you' and 'how have things been here'?" Peridot looked down to where Steven was, his eyes glowing like stars, almost as if expecting something to happen, and she wasn't sure what that something was. "... So?" Steven inquired.

The unnerving silence and unrelenting expectant stare from Steven made Peridot feel incredibly awkward. "I guess' she thought 'he desires an answer from me?' She thought back on what he asked and tried to formulate a coherent answer. "Uh… those clo… I mean, the Crystal Gems have not arrived from their mission yet. Meanwhile, I have been here in your wooden shelter… staring at the walls… with nothing to do."

Steven's smile and eyebrows dropped at the less-than-enticing news. "Oh. I see." He started walking back to the front door when a sudden thought made him stop. "Wait… so you've been here bored all this time?" He turned to Peridot with a beaming smile growing with each step. "Well, that's just perfect! I got the solution for that!" Then without warning, Steven grabbed Peridot's arm, and despite her complaints, dragged her upstairs to his bedroom and sat her on the bed. She didn't even have time to shuffle around uncomfortably before a purple piece of plastic was shoved on her hands.

"What is…"

"My dad got me a new videogame. He said it was a classic, and he played it when he was younger." Steven explained while showing a DVD-like box to Peridot. It showed a woman struggling with a taller pale man.

"Video… game?" Peridot asked just as Steven turned on the TV and game console, making the opening cinematic play. "So, is this what humans use their primitive technology on?"

"Yeah, it's fun! Go on, try it!" Steven urged as he sat on the floor right by Peridot. The green Gem let the game controller hang from the cord as she looked at it quizzically. "Oh, just press start. That's the button in the middle." Peridot fumbled with the controls until she found a way to make it respond. Apparently that green button was the key. She liked that green button. "So now, do you want to be the guy or the girl? I'm always the guy, so I dunno how the girl plays."

"Ok, then I'll pick the girl." Peridot did just that. Then a story sequence started playing. "Ugh. Why did they have to begin talking so much?"

"Oh, you can skip that. It's a bit boring after watching it so many times." Steven said. Peridot pushed the magical green button, which ended the cutscene and displayed some words onscreen.

"Enter the survival… horror?" Peridot read. "Is this trying to scare me? I'll have you know, I've encountered bigger and meaner machines than you!"

"No, no. It's ok. It's just a game." Steven clarified. "It's meant to be scary, but nothing more. It can't hurt you in any way, shape or form."

Satisfied, Peridot played on. After fiddling with the controls some more, she was getting the hang of controlling the character, using the weapons and navigating through a door back and forth, with Steven cheering on whenever she did something right. She then moved her character to a hallway, and… "Whuh… What is THAT? Is that a fusion gone wrong?"

"Th… That's a zombie!"Steven shouted. "They're the enemies in this game! they want to eat your flesh!"

"What do I do? What do I do?" Peridot screeched as the zombie began approaching her in-game character. The zombie finally grabbed the character and Peridot began mashing all the buttons she could in a panic. Fortunately, that did the trick and the zombie was pushed back. "You dare to grab me?" Peridot shouted as she made her character shoot her gun. "Die! Die! DIE!"

After the barrage, the zombie laid bleeding on the floor, the character's gun was empty, and Peridot was breathing heavily. Steven looked at her agitated state, her bulging eyes and her tight grip on the controller and decided to be careful on his next words. "Are… you ok, Peridot?"

"That…" Peridot said in between ragged breaths. "That… was GREAT! Let's play more of this… video game."

Eventually, Peridot found some stairs and led her character up there and through a door to get to a yellowish room. There, they saw an idle zombie through a mirror. "Okay," Steven began, "you can sneak by this zombie if you're careful. Walk, don't…"

"What are you talking about?" Peridot scoffed. "This zombie will rue the day it blocked my path. Die! Die! Die, you stupid zombie!" Once again, Peridot emptied her gun's clip on the zombie, leaving him face-down on a pool of blood. "Ha! You foolish fool will bow down to my greatness!"

"O… kay…" Steven hesitantly uttered. "How about we calm down and continue on… OOH! SHINY! Go there!" He said as he pointed to a stick with an obvious sparkle on it. "Get that!"

Peridot went and gathered the object that Steven was obsessing about. "Huh, an arrow. How helplessly primitive." She said right before the game posted a message on how to check items. "Oh! You're supposed to check them for more info. Interesting. Now, how do you open the stupid… There!" She then finally found the menu and proceeded to check the arrow.

She then unceremoniously dropped the controller.

Steven quickly turned around wondering what happened. Peridot was frozen in place, except her eyes kept twitching and her mouth was slowly turning into a scowl. "What happened? Are you ok?" He asked. However, no matter what he tried, Peridot would not budge or react. He decided to figure it out himself, so he put on his Serious Steven(™) face and picked up the controller. He made his way to the menu and tried to find the arrow. Instead, he found only the tip of the arrow. He investigated further by reading up on the arrowhead.

"Arrowhead." Steven read. "'The arrowhead is made from peridot, sometimes referred as a poor man's… emerald?' Huh? What an unusual thing to point out about… Oh! ohhhhhhhhh…" He then slowly turned to Peridot, whose expression had deteriorated, with her face contorted in anger and her hands balled up into fists and shaking uncontrollably. "Uh… Peridot? Are you going to be ok?"

"All right! Time to get my favorite son for a fabulous father-son afternoon!"

Greg stopped his van right outside Steven's house, ready to greet his son. As soon as he put a foot on the sand, though, he heard the loud crash of a window breaking. He quickly looked up and saw two large square objects flying straight to him. "WHOA!" With a mighty jump, he vaulted into the van right before the objects crashed where he stood before. When his heart slowed down enough, he looked out to notice the two objects were actually Steven's TV and his game console, complete with all the cables and other stuff plugged in.

"STEVEN!" Greg shouted towards the hole where there once was a window. Steven slowly showed his face and sheepishly faced his father without saying a word. "What's all this?"

"Eh…" Steven looked around nervously trying to come up with an explanation, and all he could find was a still fuming Peridot saying things he could thankfully not understand. "Our game… crashed?"

*THE END*