B-side logs: On the topic of human behavior and other observations

Contains Logs 2.0 and 2.1

by

Silver-Eyed Rukia

Rated: T

Pairing: None (so far), Gem friendship

Note: Please ignore any mistakes. Or point them out and correct me, whatever you prefer.

„See you later Peridot", Steven excitedly yelled out the door as he and Amethyst both left the house bouncing like children on Christmas Day, followed by a less excited but just as happy Pearl. "Keep the house safe while we're out."

The green alien mumbled something quietly to herself and only gave a half-aware wave towards the entrance to show that she had heard him, more or less, eyes trained on the book that lay on the counter of the kitchen. Only when a hand ruffled through her triangular-shaped hair did she look up, only twitching slightly at the unexpected contact, to see Garnet smiling down at her.

"You're in charge now Peridot, we will be back in about an hour or two."

"Yes, fine, I get it. You have been mentioning this the past 30 minutes, just go and have fun or whatever it is you clods are planning on doing." The insult had turned from trying to be hurtful to more of an everyday word so even when Peridot said it, no one really felt insulted anymore. Which is why instead of sighing in annoyance Garnet only gave her a thumbs-up before following her friends out the door, leaving the house in silence after the door closed with a satisfying click.

The small gem was sitting on one of the bar stools located next to the kitchen counter, wordlessly enjoying the warm sun shining down on her from the window while she was working her way through a new topic in her textbook. She easily understood formulas and charts, but she still struggled heavily with actual texts and often found herself utterly confused when a formula was accompanied by a load of text.

"Newton's laws of motion are three phy…physil…curses upon this stupid language, why must it be so difficult to read", Peridot grumbled in frustration before throwing the textbook about modern physics along with the pencil on the couch, crossing her arms in annoyance at the fact that she still had trouble reading and writing. Granted, no one had really sat down with her and tried teaching her from the start but she had picked up some things from just observing Steven and the Crystal Gems. Evidently though that wasn't enough. She grabbed her recorder that was also resting atop of the counter and pressed the button, hopping off the stool and stretching her stiff limbs in the process.

"B-side log 2.0: Teaching myself the basics of what Steven refers to as "the English language" in its written form proves to be quite difficult. I have obtained some level of understanding on the matter, yet a huge variety of words still remain a mystery to me. On a side note, both the gems and Steven have left me to guard their main residence. While I appreciate the space I am positively surprised at the amount of trust they seem to have placed in me." She stopped the recording and looked down at the device in her hands, adding a mumbled "I wonder how long it will last" before making her way over to the couch.

Or she would have if it hadn't been for the knock at the door making her twitch from the sudden noise before her eyes darted towards the entrance. She had heard the noise before and she had also learned that it was some sort of announcement that someone was at the door but so far someone else had always gotten it. And now she was alone and admittedly somewhat lost as to what she was supposed to be doing.

"Steven, are you there? I brought the game."

Peridot cautiously made her way over to the entrance, reminding herself that she was supposed to guard the residence before opening the door wide enough to catch a glimpse at the person standing on the other side. A human girl, roughly the same size as her, stared back into her visor-covered eyes, seemingly unfazed at coming face to face with an alien. She had something tucked under her right arm and before she could do as much as react to the sudden appearance of a new stranger, Peridot had already started a conversation. Or more like an interrogation.

"What do you want?"

"Are you Peridot?"

"I asked first."

Connie blinked at the rather rude exchange before realizing just who was standing in front of her. Sure, Steven had assured her that Peridot had turned from evil to being a member of the Crystal Gems but the memories of her appearing on her TV screen and the news about her invasion were still fresh in her mind. And that was enough information for her to treat the green gem with care.

"Uhm, Steven asked me to come over and teach him how to play chess. He sounded really excited when I told him it had kings and queens", the dark-skinned girl answered, awkwardly scratching her cheek while Peridot was still staring at her through the small crack in the door. A green arm came slipping through the crack, pointing at the object beneath Connie's arm with enough distance to retrieve it and close the door if she had to.

"Is that a weapon?"

"What, this?", she smiled, holding the folded chess board up for her opposite to see. "It's not a weapon, it's a chess board. You need it for playing." She paused and held the board out towards the barely open door, smile never faltering when she thought about how Steven would handle a situation like this. 'With kindness and patience.'

A moment of silence passed before Peridot grabbed the board, now fully opening the door and allowing the girl inside. "I know you are Connie, I remember you from Steven's birthday party." Said girl took the open door and the fact that the alien was going back inside as her cue to follow her, so she hurried inside and closed the door, only now realizing that she was alone with her.

"Where is everybody?"

"They ventured to the mall of shopping to retrieve some sort of technical device called "toy". The rough estimation of their return is between one and two earth-hours."

Connie giggled at the alien's speech pattern and followed her to the couch, plopping down on the other half of the corner sofa to put some distance between them. She noticed an open book about physics lying next to the gem and she wondered if Peridot could even read? Maybe she would ask her about it later. Right now she was more interested in watching the small alien fumble around with the chessboard in an attempt to figure out how it worked.

"You have to lift the clip, then you can fold it open." Peridot followed the instruction and let out a small, awestruck "Oh" when the board opened, revealing a number of differently shaped figures. She looked at Connie before turning it at a 180 degree angle, making the brown figures face the dark-skinned girl. "They look the same as you so I assume these must be yours", she said, pulling out one of the white figures and rolling it between her fingers, "and the white ones must be the ones Steven uses."

"The colours actually only indicate who starts first", the Maheswaran offspring corrected and lined up all of the dark pieces on her side, waiting patiently for Peridot to do the same with her light ones before she turned the board around to reveal it's checkered pattern. "White goes first, that's the first basic rule of the game. Here, let me show you how to align the pieces."

The following 15 minutes were spent arranging the figures correctly on the board, with Connie's explanations occasionally being interrupted by the always curious gem asking questions about the abilities and functions of the different looking pieces, from how the pawns could only move rather limitedly to how towers could cross nearly the entire board and how to check and checkmate someone, cornering the king. To the teens amazement it took only one explanation per piece for Peridot to grasp its function, so after another 5 minutes of explaining the names the pair was ready to start their first round.

"Chess is a game that's based on making the right moves at the right times, strategic thinking is very important", Connie explained while watching Peridot make her first move with one of her pawns, free hand resting beneath her chin in a rather cliché thinking position. She followed suit with one of her own pawns, smiling when she found the company of her opposite surprisingly enjoyable.

"How did you manage to convince Steven to participate in a game of knowledge? Judging from my interactions with the hybrid so far he seems more interested in his concept of "fun" rather than logical reasoning."

The teen blinked at the hybrid comment before making another move, humming quietly to herself when this time Peridot made her move much quicker than before. "Well, he thought the horses looked cute."

Silence settled around them as both focused on the game and even though this was the first time the green gem had ever played it, Connie found it increasingly difficult to keep up with her complex movements and piece placements. It was as if with every move she made Peridot learned to counter it with her own next move. They traded pieces back and forth for a while when suddenly Connie saw an opening and smirked, placing her horse on the designated square before voicing a smug "Check" out loud. "Don't be upset, I'm impressed you've made it so far for your first-", she interrupted herself when Peridot appeared completely unfazed by her move and instead moved her queen to corner her king, effectively trapping her in a lose/lose situation.

"Checkmate."

For a good five seconds all Connie could do was stare at the board in utter disbelief, not being able to wrap her head around the fact that she had just been beaten by a first-timer in under 20 minutes in a game she was, for someone her age, really good at. She raised her gaze to look at Peridot before tipping her king over, face threatening to tear due to the splitting grin gracing her features.

"That was amazing! How are you so good at this?"

The newest addition to the Crystal Gems tried to hide her blush with a chuckle but ultimately failed as it was still visible, obviously caused by the praise from the dark-skinned human.

"Well, after acquiring all the necessary information all I had to do was apply logic and make use of my basic observant abilities, it was not that hard." She watched how Connie only continued staring in amazement before she cleaned the pieces off the board, mumbling the next words so quietly that the girl nearly missed it. "Thank you for explaining this "chess" game to me."

"You're welcome." Connie looked at the book still lying next to the gem before carefully scooting closer to her, taking the book and opening it at the marked page. "You are interested in physics?"

Peridot closed the board and blinked when she realized how close the human had gotten but somehow it didn't bother her, or at least not as much as she thought it would. Her eyes scanned the girl's expression before she crossed her arms over her chest and nodded in confirmation.

"I have found that by indulging in this planet's natural phenomenon understanding it gets increasingly easier. I admittedly have a certain difficulty with your language which in turn makes the whole learning process much more frustrating."

Connie looked at Peridot as if she had just grown a second head. "You can't read?"

Before the alien had a chance to reply the front door flew open and Steven, who upon seeing Connie jumped off of Garnet's hair that he had been sitting on, excitedly confronted the pair of intellectuals.

"Hey Connie, what are you- Oh. My. God. I totally forgot that you wanted to come over today, I'm sorry!"

Pearl and Amethyst closed the door behind them as they entered, placing the newly bought toy on the counter before they sat down and watched the exchange between the two teens and the green gem, joined by Garnet who just leaned against the counter and also watched, toothless smile directed at them.

"That's okay Steven, Peridot made me feel welcome. She even beat me in chess even though I just taught her how to play it!"

"Yeah, she's smart like that", the boy grinned and gave a thumbs-up, which Peridot returned with her blush still burning brightly on her cheeks. "So, can you teach me too? I really like the horses!"

"I would love to but I have to go home now, you know my mum hates it when I come home late for dinner." She looked at the book in her hand before placing it on the table, giving the gem a reassuring smile and handing the chessboard to her. "Here, I want you to have it, that way you can teach Steven and we can all take turns playing the next time I come over."

"Wow, thanks."

And with that both Steven and Connie left to have a few minutes to themselves before they had to part, leaving Peridot in much quieter company.

"B-side log 2.1: Even though my attempts at broadening my knowledge about English have been short-lived for the day I instead have gathered additional information about one of humanity's favourite ways of spending time, a game called chess. Steven's female associate Connie turned out to be a rather educated individual and I found myself…enjoying her presence. She even gave me her game as a gift which, according to Steven, means that she is my friend." Peridot interrupted her log when she noticed scribbles on her bookmark. She opened the textbook on the same page about Newton's theories as before and couldn't keep the tiniest of smiles from forming on her lips as she scanned over what was drawn on the green post-it. "Engaging in civil conversations is apparently the easiest way to bond with a human, I shall further test this theory once the Connie person returns. She evidently promised to do so after all." The green gem ended her log-entry and closed the book, pressing the cover tightly against her chest.

'Next time I visit I'll teach you how to read this message.' The sentence was underlined with a doodle of Connie and Peridot reading a book together, smiling.

A/N: Before anyone comments on the fact if Peridot can read or not, she obviously can not write properly as shown by her mispelling analysis and other words in Logdate 7 15 2. If she can or can not read hasn't really been established at this point, I think, so it's more or less personal interpretation. She may have a Basic grasp on letters, but she probably doesn't know a lot about written language. I also think Connie and Peridot would bond rather quickly over a shared, intelectual interest so I hope their interaction is not too OOC.

Well, here is the second chapter up. I would place this happening shortly after Logdate 7 15 2 since that's really where Connie could be sure Peridot wouldn't really harm her, since she is now a CG. I have...uh, like another 8 story ideas written down and one nearly finished so I will probably update this when I feel like writing, the ideas are certainly not lacking :) Still, if someone comes up with an idea, feel free to share! I have no particular order in which I write these stories. I go with whatever I feel like writing at the Moment.

Phrase of the Day

In chess one cannot control everything. Sometimes a game takes an unexpected turn, in which beauty begins to emerge. Both players are always instrumental in this.

~Vladimir Kramnik

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