PERIDOT
Peridot had found that, in the past few months she had been more or less satisfied; or happy. If you could call watching your ex-love of your life flitting around romantically with someone who's become your best friend, being happy. She didn't have her own room in the temple to lock herself away in like everyone else, so she basically commandeered the downstairs half of the house as 'her space.' This is where she spent most of her time, playing video games, tinkering with her dead robonoids, or browsing the vast ocean of the internet.
"Hey, Peridork."
Peridot looked up from her tablet and made eye contact with Jasper, who apparently had just come from her temple room, holding all four of her geodes in the crook of her arm.
"Don't call me that."
"Pffft, whatever. I'll call you whatever I want." The larger Gem plopped down on the cushion next to her and leaned back; Peridot had to note that Jasper actually looked really tired.
Well that's what you get for falling into the sleeping habit. She thought to herself.
"So, Lapis said that these things should be hatching soon, and when they do, all they're going to want to do is sleep, eat, sleep, eat, eat, eat... So Lapis and I need to go collect stuff for them to consume so they get nice and strong." Jasper explained, subconsciously rubbing her hand against the orange colored geodes.
"You know how terrible it's going to be, having two little jaspercubs running around right? I mean, you were bad enough, and now there's going to be three of you! You two didn't think this through."
"What, you jealous?" Jasper asked nonchalantly.
"Um, no." Maybe.
"Well anyway, can you watch these for us while we're gone?"
Peridot dropped the tablet onto her lap and gave Jasper the darkest glare she could muster. She was not their personal babysitter, and she really didn't want to do her any favors.
"Come on, they're just rocks. They're not going to do anything but sit next to you on the couch. Surely a tech-head like you can handle that."
"Did someone say they need a geode-sitter?" The Steven asked, coming into the house from outside. "I'll do it! Me and the babies will have so much fun!"
Jasper automatically tightened her grip around the geodes when Steven showed up, and Peridot was thinking this behavior to be very curious.
"Yeah Jasper, the Steven can handle it. You don't need me for this." She smiled, hoping to get back to pwning noobs on 'Call of Duty.'
"Steven, yesterday I caught you trying to juggle them... If Lapis wouldn't have caught them..." Jasper shuddered at the thought.
"Awe come on, I can handle it! We'll just hang out on the beach and make sand castles!" The Steven pleaded, his eyes giving Jasper his puppy dog stare.
"I'll let you do it if Peridot agrees to help you."
Peridot looked from the Steven, to Jasper, then back to the Steven again.
"Ugh, Fine." She whined.
"Hurray!"The Steven shouted, and Peridot massaged her temples; she could feel a headache coming on.
Jasper handed the geodes to the Steven, and he grabbed Peridot's sleeve and drug her out onto the beach with him. He made her sit in the sand, while he sat the geodes down in front of her. She noticed ripples growing in the water behind the small human boy, and watched as Lapis walked up out of the ocean. She shook the water from her body, and strode over to them.
"Oh, there's my little geodie-wodies." She cooed, making baby sounds and kneeling down to rub her face on the egg shaped rocks. Peridot gagged; this gesture was just too sweet and... too much for her.
"What were you doing in the ocean, Lapis?" The Steven asked the blue Gem as he dug holes in the dirt.
"My lil' lapispups and jaspercubs are going to be so precious aren't they? Aren't they?" Lapis said to the geodes, completely ignoring the Steven.
Peridot rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers in front of Lapis' face. Lapis responded by chomping on her finger.
"Hey!" She grabbed her finger from Lapis' mouth and put it back where it belonged, next to her other fingers. Lapis stuck her tongue out at her, then kissed each one of the geodes before standing up and dusting off her skirt.
"I was looking for material for the babies to eat, but I guess all Earth's ocean has to offer is... salty water and fish and stuff. Ew."
"Are you leaving now?" The Steven asked, stopping to look up at her.
"Yes, take care of mama's little..."
"Yuck, would you just go already! The sooner you do, the sooner you can be back to take these rocks back to your room!" Peridot grimaced. "Your gooeyness is gonna make me barf up the contents of my stomach that don't exist."
"Alright! Geez..." Lapis turned quickly, her skirt twirling wildly, and went to join Jasper in the house so they could warp away.
The next few hours were spent letting the Steven dig a giant hole in the sand, making Peridot stand in it, and letting him fill the hole in; effectively burying her neck deep in the gritty tiny rocks on the beach. He seemed to be satisfied when her whole body was covered, being sure to stop when only her head was sticking out of the sand. She just gritted her teeth and put her brain on autopilot; basically shutting down all her thoughts so she wouldn't have to think about how ridiculous this whole situation was.
"Hey, Steven!"
Peridot looked to the farthest right she could, seeing a strange yellow-haired human walking towards them, holding up his phone and snapping pictures of her. She closed her eyes tightly, the flash still hurt her eyes when it was right in her face.
"Hey Ronaldo! What are you up to?' The Steven said, waving towards the odd human.
"Just doing stuff for my blog of course! Hey, who's the green alien buried in the sand?" Ronaldo asked, bending down to give her a closer look.
"She's not an alien, Ronaldo. She's a Gem! She's the one who made that giant space-hand spaceship!"
"Oh what!? No way! Can I get an exclusive interview?"
The Steven looked at Peridot, smiled, and nodded at the older human. "Yeah, I don't think she's going anywhere."
"Awesome. Ma'am, can you tell me why you came to Beach City? Was it to enslave us? Was it to hollow out the Earth and take us back to your leaders, the Diamond Authority?" Ronaldo asked, his gaze was so intense, it was making Peridot feel uncomfortable.
This human wanted to know why she came to this miserable planet? Also, how did he know about the Diamond Authority? Why would the Steven share such sensitive information with some Clod who obviously knew nothing about what was really going on with his world. Or what had happened to his world. History was everything, and this human was an idiot. Wait, that's right... she had focused so much on wanting to start the kindergarten that one time... She completely forgot about the cluster...
"No." She said simply, blowing at the sand in front of her.
Ronaldo frowned, and happened to notice the geodes lying in the sand. "Oh, what are these?" He asked, picking up one of the blue geodes, and one of the orange ones.
"What, those? Those contain little gemling babies!"
"So this could confirm your pregnancy, Steven? Congratulations! I have to get this on my blog!" Ronaldo talked into his phone; Peridot was assuming he was logging his information so he could use it later.
Peridot pulled herself up out of the sand and looked up towards the house longingly. All she wanted was to hang out alone and do her own thing. All the group activity she's been into has been a bit much, she didn't have anytime to herself today, and it was draining.
"Peridot." The Steven's voice brought her back to reality, and she looked down at him with a frown on her face.
"What are gemlings like?"
"Gemlings are horrible little replicas of their parental units that eat, sleep, destroy stuff, bite you; and did I mention they destroy stuff? I'd start hiding all your toys now if I were you." She said, grinning devilishly at the naivety upon the Steven's face.
"Wha...!? Oh no, not my stuff! Sorry Ronaldo, I gotta go!" Steven yelled before running off into the house. After Ronaldo disappeared, Peridot started to laugh; softly at first, but soon she was full out roaring at the stupidity of the Steven.
That's when she looked down, and saw that two of the geodes were missing.
Holy fucking diamonds I'm fucked. She thought about Jasper beating her face in, and Lapis using her hydrokinesis to imprison her in the bottom of the ocean. She picked the remaining orange and blue geodes up and phased herself a little carrier to stick them in. Like those things humans carry their babies in.. kinda... Where the heck could they have gone, they were literally motionless hunks of rock with absolutely no sentience whatsoever.
Ronaldo. That annoying human with the weird curly yellow hair, and all the prying questions. He must have Gem-napped them, wanting to crack them open and dissect them, maybe he was going to feed them to his nasty human comrades or... She shook the thoughts from her head, and started making her way towards the City. She'd never been there by herself before, and she didn't want to worry the Steven too much right now; she had finally gotten him out of her hair.
"Hey there!" A stout, blonde-haired female human waved at her, and she approached her cautiously. "Hi, you must be one of Steven's... friends. My name is Sadie, are you lost?"
Peridot studied this human, remembering Jasper talking about her before; and saying how genuinely nice this human could be. She came to the conclusion that she wasn't a threat to her. She pulled the geodes from her pouch and held them for her to see.
"Yes, my name is Peridot. I'm looking for a human that stole two geodes from me, and they look just like these."
"Oh, those look like the rocks Ronaldo brought by earlier. He was asking Lars if he had a hammer and chisel to borrow so he could crack them open and see the treasures inside them." Sadie explained.
Peridot screeched loudly.
"No! He can't force them open, they'll hatch when they're ready! If he forces them the gemlings inside could die! Give me the location of this evil human immediately so I can dispose of him and retrieve the geodes!" She was a little surprised at how shaky her own voice was.
"I'm not sure what you mean, but it sounds like they're really important. They're like, eggs then? With little babies inside? Whose babies?" Sadie asked, her eyes fixated on the big orange geode Peridot was holding.
"Lapis and Jasper's..."
"Jasper? Oh my God, follow me!" Sadie grabbed Peridot's arm and pulled her back towards the temple, but instead of following the beach, they went up the large hill towards what she knew as the lighthouse. Sadie knocked politely on the door.
"Go away! I'm live-streaming for my blog! You can check it out on KBCW!" Ronaldo called through the other side of the door.
"The fuck you are!" Peridot kicked the door in, causing Sadie to squeak a little in terror. Ronaldo was sitting at a table with a hammer in his hand, positioned over a metal chisel. He swung his arm back like he was going to slam it down onto the geode.
Peridot did the first thing she could think of; she propelled her fingers at the human, jabbing him in the side of the head and making him stumble out of his chair.
"Ah! What are you doing?" Ronaldo yelled, rubbing the side of his head.
"What are you doing!? Taking something that's not yours!" Peridot stuffed the orange and blue geode into her pouch with the others, and glared at the teenager. "Do you have any idea how sensitive these are? Ugh, you humans are the biggest clods I have ever seen. You have no respect! No common sense. We told you these contained magical life, and did you even stop to think maybe splitting them open wouldn't be a good thing! If I could I'd..."
Sadie touched her arm and she was startled, stopping her rant and looking at her.
"Let's just go, Peridot. You got them back, so no harm no fowl, right?"
Peridot snatched her fingers up and stomped away. Sadie followed her down to the beach where she sat down in the sand and laid the geodes out neatly. She inspected each one, and was almost relieved, until she saw the Lapis Lazuli geode with a giant crack in it. It was more like the whole circumference of the geode was cracked like it was waiting to be opened. She felt her stomach twisting itself into knots; her heart stopping completely in her chest.
"No..."
"I can't believe he actually was going to do that... Oh, Peridot, is it okay?" Sadie asked, genuine concern could be heard in her voice.
She didn't know. She didn't want to know. She was afraid she was going to open that geode and see a mangled, horridly deformed and under-cooked... monster, and it would be all her fault. She was a little shocked at how emotional she suddenly felt, as water started to trickle out of her eyes, and her hands started to tremble uncontrollably. She carefully opened the ocean blue geode.
Curled up inside was a little lapispup, who was still, with it's eyes closed. She carefully stroked it's cheek with a finger, gaining no response. She choked up, and started to bawl loudly. She shape-shifted her hands to be like regular hands, so she could pick the lil' pup up and hold it. She didn't even care about herself right now; she didn't even think about the potential pain she was going to be in when Lapis and Jasper saw what she couldn't prevent. She couldn't even manage to protect four motionless rocks... She was terrible...
The other geodes all started to glow and crack; they were all hatching now, and their parental units weren't even going to be here to see them. Peridot held the lapispup close to her chest, and continued to cry feverishly.
The two jaspercubs were the first to hatch, tumbling out of their geodes, their hair short and fluffy like little fluff-balls.
"Oh, they're adorable!" Sadie said happily, picking one of the jaspercubs up gently. "Awe, you look just like your mama! I wonder if your sister does. Where's your sister?"
Peridot looked down to see the other jaspercub sitting by her feet, eyes fixated on her cupped hands. She couldn't tell if the cub knew what was in her hands, or if it was just still adjusting to its surroundings.
"Mmmr..." Was the sound the little cub made, grabbing onto Peridot's boot and pulling itself into a standing position. It reached it's little hand out towards Peridot's hands. She just watched it carefully, trying to understand what it wanted.
Even though these jaspercubs were newly hatched, and didn't have a ton of energy to burn, this one was very intrigued by what Peridot was cupping in her hands, the lifeless lapispup in contained between them. She cautiously brought her hands down and opened them in front of the curious cub.
The cub placed her hand against the little lapispup's hand, and made a little 'mmr' sound. The pup didn't move, and this seemed to upset the cub. It climbed up onto Peridot's arm and rubbed it's cheek against the lapispup's cheek. Peridot sobbed at this display; she didn't know how to tell the cub that this one was dead, and it wasn't going to come back. The cub seemed determined nonetheless, snuggling next to the lapispup and wrapping its little arms around it tightly.
"You... you stupid jasperling... That lapispup is d-dead... and she's not c-coming back! Why.." She cried, almost angry that the jaspercub wouldn't understand her. "Why are y-you so stubborn! S-she..."
Then, Peridot noticed the little lapispup's eyes open the tiniest bit, making her cry even harder. It was so weak, so tiny, and her heart was melting. She was acting like such a sap, and she felt like such a loser. The little lapispup sighed softly, before closing its eyes again; and she became beside herself with depression. The jaspercub squeezed the little lapispup even tighter, and their little gems started to glow.
It was like watching a fusion, but different. The tear-shaped Gem melded with the orange one, creating one green colored gem that became the new gemling's nose. It's chubby body formed, with fluffy short white hair sprouting from its head. It had green skin, sharp little teeth, and it was about the size of a human baby; twice the size of the jaspercub, and when the gemling was done, it dropped into her lap heavily. Two minty green eyes looked up at her, while two chubby little hands reached for her face. She bent down and let the gemling touch her face, now crying tears of joy maybe. The gemlings feet pushed against her stomach. The jaspercub had saved the lapispup by melding with it, becoming what she was going to call a malakitten. Or a baby malachite gemling.
The events that just happened before her very eyes was absolutely beautiful, and it was breaking the ice enveloping Peridot's heart. She hadn't even noticed that the other lapispup had hatched, but Sadie had them both snuggling and sleeping in her lap.
"I better get going, it's getting late." Sadie said, wiping the tears from her own eyes before placing the gemlings gently on the ground. She walked off back towards Beach City.
The malakitten crawled out of Peridot's lap and curled up around her siblings, yawning, and falling asleep. Peridot wiped the tears from her eyes, finally thinking she was done crying. The ground suddenly shook behind her, and she jumped up; she was prepared to fight to the death over the gemlings safety. She was just so jumpy now.
Fusion Malachite had landed behind her, dropping two large geodes full of crystals onto the ground. Probably from Mask Island, where they were generally found. The large fusion wiped her brow, and strode towards Peridot. She gulped.
"Awe, look at you, spending time with... Oh wow, they hatched. Awe, I missed it." Malachite whined, kneeling next to the sleeping gemlings that were like tiny little puppies to her.
"I-I'm so sorry." Peridot sniffled, trying her hardest not to continue to cry.
"Peridot, what's wrong? Oh, I see two of them melded into a Malachite gemling..." Malachite's voice started to split a little. "What happened!? Why are they melded?" It was Lapis' voice.
Peridot dropped down to her knees and stared at her shaking hands. She explained exactly what had happened to the fusion in front of her, who could destroy her gem in mere seconds if she wanted to. Malachite listened intently, never defusing, never talking, and never interrupting her narrative. The fusion Gem gave her a stern look, before striking out and grabbing her arm. She prepared herself for the worst.
"Come here you dork." Malachite held her against her chest in an awkward (for her) embrace. She picked up her gemlings and held them too.
"What, you're not mad at me?"
"You did what you could Peridot, sometimes these things happen... And really, that lapispup lives on inside our little malakitten."
She really wasn't mad... She looked up and met the fusion's gaze, noticing how much more perfect their fusion was becoming. When the fusion spoke, sometimes she couldn't even tell who was speaking anymore and it was... weird.
"I figured you would hate me." She said softly.
Malachite chuckled, making Peridot blush deeply, and feel stupid.
"We could never hate you, we love you Peridot!"
Malachite squeezed Peridot so tight, she thought she was going to poof.
"Okay, put me down now." She said quickly.
Malachite obliged, setting her down on her feet. The fusion glowed white, carefully defusing back into Jasper and Lapis. She was almost sad to see their fusion dissipate.
"Oh, that must have been so terrible for you to go through, Peridot! Let's kill Ronaldo!" Lapis summoned her wings, and took off. Jasper grabbed her ankle and pulled her back down into her arms.
"I can't believe I'm the one saying this but... No, you can't kill Ronaldo. He's a human, and we're not supposed to harm humans. Besides, I really believe that the lapispup would not have been saved if he wouldn't have cracked that geode open. Sounds like it was very... unlucky. Well, we were actually lucky this happened. We have three beautiful little gemlings; healthy gemlings, and I'm okay with that." Jasper said, gazing into Lapis' eyes.
Bleh. Peridot threw her hands in the air and tromped back towards the house. She sat in her corner near the warp pad, and closed her eyes. The day had been long and trying, and she wanted to recharge, so to speak.
She fell asleep quickly; even though she rarely slept. Her dreams were of green oceans, swirling around an array of tones, like paint dancing on the water.
We love you, Peridot.
Obligatory Malaperi (malachitexperidot), because Tumblr has corrupted me. Not saying I'm gonna go heavy on the ship, but it does appeal to me.
And that was how baby Malachite came into this world! Hurray!
Also, now that the gemlings are all hatched, I can work on some more main plot elements with gemling side stories, because I like the adventurey stuff as well.