"Which set of appearance modifiers do you think would look better on me, Steven?" Peridot asked, holding up two dresses. "This yellow one, or this one slightly different shade of yellow?"
"They both look great," Steven commented.
"I suppose it was asking too much of you to form an opinion that required you to be negative about something," Peridot said. She looked over her two choices again. "I feel this one complements my color scheme better."
"If you say so."
It was just that morning that Peridot had come back to the temple, having spent an inordinate amount of time gardening, to find Garnet unfused.
"They're going to get married," Steven explained.
Peridot nodded indifferently. "But what exactly prompted this?" she asked.
"It's sort of a long story…"
Steven had barely managed to finish explaining how Pink Diamond had faked her shattering before Peridot interrupted with an annoyed rant.
"Of course! Of course the leader of the rebellion against Pink Diamond would be Pink Diamond herself! And of course she would eventually give up her physical form to give birth to a half-human hybrid! Why wouldn't she? This is Earth, where Pearls can be tacticians, Quartzes can be runts, and every single other thing is topsy-turvy! And now that the permafusion found out that their leader was their enemy and their enemy their leader, they decide to get married! Makes perfect sense!"
"There were a few more steps between those two things…"
"Whatever, I don't care. I've already had my worldview completely shattered like, five times by this point, so I'm just going to not question anything from now on."
Steven didn't press her.
So they started on planning the wedding. Greg took Sapphire and Amethyst to get tuxedos fitted, while Ruby and Peridot opted to buy dresses, with Steven going along to they didn't get into any trouble.
Ruby came out of the dressing room with a white dress on. "You think Sapphire will like this?" she asked.
"I'm sure she'll love anything you wear," Steven said.
"No, she'll love me," Ruby said crossly. "What I need is a dress she'll like even if I weren't the one wearing it." She grabbed another from the rack. "I'd better try more on, just to make sure."
Peridot watched as Ruby went back into the dressing room, then turned to Steven. "I'll be glad when they fuse again," she said. "Seeing them separate like that makes me incredibly uncomfortable."
Steven laughed.
"What? What's so funny?"
"Back when you first started working with us to stop the Cluster, you wanted Garnet to unfuse because you were uncomfortable!"
"Yes, well-" Peridot paused, trying, but failing, to come up with a sensible justification for her shift in behavior. "I've decided on this one," she stated, and began walking out of the store carrying one of the yellow dresses.
"Peridot! Wait!" Steven said, chasing after her. "We have to pay for that!"