"Did you hear about Peridot Facet-1L4D Cut-7RR?"
Peridot opened her mouth to declare that she was far too busy to care about idle chit-chat, then closed it again on account of the fact that it would be a great big fat lie. "What about Facet-1L4D Cut-7RR?" she asked instead.
Peridot Facet-9K5V Cut-4GH grinned widely. "You know she thought she might be part of the Astra mission, right?"
"Yeah?" Peridot replied.
"Well," the other Peridot said with obvious relish, "she didn't get in. And!" she added as Peridot opened her mouth to respond. "She went to Peridot Facet-5Z3P Cut-6YT to argue about it and she said she wasn't ready yet because she wasn't a team player."
"Ooooooh!" Peridot winced.
"And then!" the other Peridot continued, obviously enjoying herself. "She asked why that mattered when you were on a solo mission."
Peridot gasped in outrage. "I knew it! I knew she was jealous!"
"There's more!" She paused, waiting for her audience to fall silent. "Then… she complained about it to Jade Facet-7G6T Cut-4RF!"
"No!" Peridot raised a hand to her mouth in shock.
"Yes! Do you know what this means!?" the other Peridot squeaked.
Peridot thought for a second, running various punishment scenarios through her mind. Gross insubordination of this magnitude would surely call for something a bit harsher than limb shock, but she had to admit that Peridot Facet-1L4D Cut-7RR was too smart to be wasted with recycling, which left… "Retraining?" she guessed in a hushed whisper.
The other Peridot shook her head impatiently. "No! I mean, yeah, but more importantly, it means I get her spot on the mission to Astra! Isn't that great?"
"Oh." Peridot blinked. "Uh. Congratulations?"
"Thanks." Peridot Facet-9K5V Cut-4GH smiled, then narrowed her vision spheres. "So anyway. Talking about your mission… how's that going?"
"I'm sorry, that's classified," Peridot said quickly. "In fact, I'm just on my way to discuss it with Peridot Facet-5Z3P Cut-6YT now, so you'll have to excuse me." She felt herself breaking out into a cold sweat: she didn't really want to talk to anyone about it right now, especially not her direct supervisor, who would no doubt have a lot to say about her recent trip to Earth.
xXxXx
"So. You went to Earth." Peridot Facet-5Z3P Cut-6YT gave her a benign smile. "How did it go?"
Peridot gulped. She knew perfectly well that the other gem had already listened to her report and was waiting for an explanation for her behaviour, but to be completely honest, she had no idea where to start. "W-well," she began nervously, "the flask robonoids arrived safely and were able to repair the warp pad."
She waited for a response. Peridot Facet-5Z3P Cut-6YT just continued to smile blandly at her. "Um, so, I arrived and found one of the robonoids had been damaged." That information hadn't actually been recorded in her log, so Peridot waited for some sort of reaction.
The other gem continued smiling silently.
Don't panic. "I was about to check the domestic warp when I found evidence to suggest that the site had been compromised." She just hoped the other gem wouldn't ask-
"What evidence would that be?"
"Uh." Peridot bit her lip. "Um, well, before the Red Eye was destroyed, I received images of the warp site. But when I visited it, these strange icons had been placed on many of the warp pads. And there was debris that wasn't in the images. It's my belief that some of the, um, humans? Humans had been there and damaged the site."
The other Peridot inhaled slowly and sat back on her hover chair. "Well, that's all very… circumstantial. Do you have any evidence that… hoomans… were actually present on the site during your visit?"
Peridot perked up slightly at this. "Yes! When I tried to return to Earth, the warp pad had been deactivated. The only way that could've happened so quickly is if somebody had been there and destroyed it when I left."
There was a moment of silence. Then the other Peridot frowned. "But you didn't have this evidence until after you'd returned."
"Uh… I thought… I heard something?" Peridot suggested feebly.
Her manager sighed and called up a screen. "So in summary, you have failed. I'll-"
"I have an alternative!" Peridot interrupted desperately. "The Red-"
"Don't interrupt me again," the other gem interrupted coldly.
Peridot snapped her mouth shut so fast, she almost bit her tongue in half.
There was a long moment of awkward and uncomfortable silence before the elder Peridot spoke again. "So far, you have failed."
There was more silence.
"However," she finally continued, "I accept that there were… circumstances, and I would be interested to hear how you intend to fix your mistake."
Peridot hesitated for a moment, and then began to speak again. "The-the Red Eye, um, it sent back images of um, the kindergarten too. It doesn't look very badly damaged at all and I think if I um, sent a plug robonoid down to Earth, I could operate the controls remotely."
Silence.
"Um, and that's about it," she finished weakly.
After what felt like forever, the other Peridot nodded slowly. "I suppose that sounds feasible."
Peridot sagged with relief.
"I mean, if you're sure you're really up to it."
The relief was once again replaced with the more familiar gut-churning apprehension that was the background radiation of her life. "I can do it, I promise!" she said desperately. "I won't let Yellow Diamond down again!"
"Wellllllll…" The elder Peridot dragged out the word, clearly enjoying the power she held over the younger gem. "As you've already put a lot of work into this mission, I suppose it would be more efficient to allow you to continue." She narrowed her vision spheres at the other gem. "But I'm sure I don't need to tell you that there any many other Peridots who would be eager to take over, should they need to. And that as the details of this mission are highly classified…" She trailed off.
Retraining.
The word hung unspoken in the air. Peridot bit her lip again and tried not to think about Peridot Facet-1L4D Cut-7RR. "That won't be necessary. I can do it," she said, sounding far more confident than she felt.
"Very well," the elder gem finally relented.
Relief flooded through her once again.
"However…"
And back to apprehension.
"As your mission will not be taking you off Homeworld, you'll no longer be requiring your advanced limb enhancers, correct?"
"Uh…" She gulped. "Yes, I suppose that's logical." Sensing what was coming, she tried to inch towards the door. "I'll just go to my quarters and-"
"Now." The other gem smiled coldly.
Peridot lowered her head in resignation. "Yes. Of course. I'll hand them over now." Burning with humiliation, she fumbled with release mechanism for her upper limbs. Don't cry, she told herself sternly. It could've been far worse. A little public humiliation was nothing, really. She hadn't even been shocked-
Before the thought had even finished crossing her mind, electricity coursed through her artificial limbs and she fell over with a scream of pain and surprise.
"Oopsie." Peridot Facet-5Z3P Cut-6YT closed her screen and smiled down at her subordinate. "Pressed the wrong button."
They both knew she was lying.
xXxXx
Limb enhancers were a standard tool among many of the smaller gems. They allowed gems access to records and reports stored in the central matrix, made communication quick and simple, and most importantly, created uniformity among the gem workforce. Peridot had never left her quarters without them before, and she felt horribly exposed. Which, she supposed, was the whole point.
Of course, it was just her luck that Peridot Facet-9K5V Cut-4GH was still loitering around outside their manager's office. The other gem's vision spheres lit up at the sight of her and she hurried over, clearly eager to get the details on this new bit of gossip. "Oh my stars, look at you, you're so cute!" she gushed. "Don't you look adorable!"
Peridot gritted her teeth and allowed herself a brief fantasy where the other Peridot's limb enhancers suddenly malfunctioned and forced her to walk repeatedly into a wall. "Excuse me," she muttered, sidestepping past the other gem. "I'm busy."
Peridot Facet-9K5V Cut-4GH ignored the hint and fell into step beside her. "So what happened?" she asked. "Did something go wrong with your mission?"
"It's classified," Peridot snapped. "You know it's classified, stop asking me questions about it or I'll have to report you."
The other Peridot stopped walking. "Fine, be that way," she snapped and turned away. "I was going to offer to walk with you to your quarters, you know," she called over her shoulder. "But now, I just hope you walk into a Jasper platoon!" she finished.
"And I hope you walk into an active volcano!" Peridot shouted after her. "Clod," she added under her breath.
Thankfully, she didn't run into a Jasper platoon. Unfortunately, she ran into a group of Topaz technicians, who all shrieked and gasped with fake moral outrage. She hurried past, trying to ignore the whispers and giggles, until she finally made it back to her quarters.
Once inside, she pulled her old limb enhancers out of central storage and held them close for a moment before putting them on. They might not have the flight and fight capabilities of the new ones, but they were safe and familiar, and in that moment, she vowed she'd never lose them again.
xXxXx
A few planetary rotations later, Peridot sat in a control room, calculating various routes for the plug robonoids. It was complicated work, made all the more difficult by the fact that somebody kept screaming outside. Screams were common on Homeworld and most of the time, Peridot was able to easily ignore them. Occasionally though, there would be that gem who was just a bit more loud and shrill than usual.
"-Estimated landing site of plug robonoid should place it in the vicinity of domestic warp-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Peridot winced and waited for the noise to stop before continuing. "In the vicinity of domestic warp pad 2XH. The warp pad is situa-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Situated in close proximity to-"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Oh for star's sake," she snapped, ending her report and jumping out of the hover chair. "Are they being recycled out there or something?" she grumbled under her breath as she stomped towards the door and peered out warily.
Halfway down the hallway, she spotted an Agate holding a gem destabiliser and standing among a jumble of Topaz and Peridot gems and limb enhancers. She bubbled the gems and then turned, freezing as she spotted the other gem watching her. "What are you looking at, mudbreath?" she snarled.
For a brief moment, Peridot wondered what had happened, then decided she was better off not knowing. "Nothing! Just checking to see if the noise was being dealt with. I'll get back to work now," she said, carefully backing away.
The Agate stared at her for a moment longer, then shrugged, turned away, and began to gather up the discarded limb enhancers. "You do that. It should be all quiet now."
Back inside the control room, Peridot waited a little while just to be sure the screaming had stopped, then opened her screen again. "Situated in close proximity to a human settlement. However, the reason I have chosen this site is because I feel it would be practical to know whether the humans are able to destroy the robonoid as they did the Red Eye." She paused for a moment to consider her phrasing. "Our current records on Earth are outdated. Any additional information we can gather will be of use to Yellow Diamond…"
xXx
AN: 'Tis my headcanon that pretty much any gem in charge of other gems is allowed to dole out all sorts of nasty little punishments whenever they feel like it, and it's just a thing everyone accepts as normal, and the Diamonds like to keep it that way because if their subjects are all scared of each other, they won't think about joining forces with each other. I mean, let's face it, after Earth, there's no way the Diamond's are going to tolerate the slightest hint of insubordination. I mean, Yellow Diamond's first response to being called a clod was to turn the communicator into a bomb. She doesn't know Garnet threw that thing into orbit, she thinks Peridot's dead.
