Coming from a family of computer people, this first part of the story makes me immensely happy ;)
Peridot was on a ladder, holding two radio antennae glued to a stick of this random heavy yellowish metal they found lying in a safe above a large spire of parts that was the communicator.
"Steady, steady..." In the day's light, they ever so carefully lowered the piece onto the unfinished communicator, the centipeedle watching with metaphorical bated breath. "Steady, now..."
With the lightest of touches, the duct tape on the bottom of the yellow metal connected to the top of the communicator. An expression of pure concentration fixed on their face, they slowly removed their hands.
"I-it worked. It worked! Ye-es!" Peridot punched the air, and below them the centipeedle began yowling and scratching at the counter in excitement. "I shall see Yellow Diamond herself in a matter of rotations! I'm a genius! This could not possibly fail!"
With those famous last words, the tower began to wobble. Right before their eyes, the thing toppled over into a pile of spare parts.
"What?!" Peridot grabbed their forehead, looking over in horror. "This is- I worked so- no! No-nonononono-"
The ladder they were standing on tilted and catapulted Peridot off the counter. This hardly fazed them, however, and they climbed back up and searched through the parts until they found the yellow metal.
"Ugh, my calculations were off. This thing is too heavy, and now I've got to start all over again! All over again!" In frustration, they chucked the bar away from them. It dented on the counter before splashing on the ground next to the centipeedle. "I was a fool to think this would work. This element 'gold' the humans speak of seems to be highly valuable – I can only think for its use in circuitry - but it is obvious their technology is so primitive I can't even understand how it could possibly work! Why would they put something with such high mass in- what are you doing?"
The centipeedle appeared to be gnawing on the bar of gold, melting it with their magical saliva.
"Nyuh, what do I care? That thing is useless... as it..."That was when the green Gem noticed something very, very important.
The melted gold ran off the surface of the bar into the water, where it let off a little steam as it cooled. The cooled element seemed much thinner than its solid bar counterpart, almost like-
"Wires." Peridot realised. "Ooohhhhhh, I get it! These humans aren't quite as backwards as I originally thought. They melt it down first!"
The answer seemed so obvious now; they felt a little backwards themselves for not getting it immediately. But that was not a thought they would openly admit, so they cleared their throat.
"Ahem. With this new information in mind, I should redesign my blueprints for the communicator. This may enable me to make the device much smaller, which will make it easier to carry to the Communication Hub when I am done. Perhaps-"
From a table placed almost next to the warp pad, a small item wrapped in duct tape began to float in the air. After a few seconds, it seemed to puff up from within before deflating in a rather anticlimactic display, dropping back down to its original position. The centipeedle watched it with one frowning gemstone eye.
Peridot looked over. "That blue Gem again. I wish we could bubble that thing, but I don't know how." With a sigh, they unravelled a piece of only slightly damp paper and began to design the communicator. To give themselves a better light, they switched on the one from their Gem.
That was when a familiar centipeedle noise started up, that distorted mix of animalistic sounds that didn't sound half as threatening as it did before. They looked over to find the creature, a piece of half-melted gold bar sticking out of their mandibles, looking out over the beach from what remained of the front of the house. This day was quite sunny and bright light streamed through the creature's hair, giving them an almost ethereal glow.
"What are you doing?" Peridot was not so much worried about the gold; from what they had seen of the safe, this appeared to be a rather common metal. "You're going to be seen by some nosy human!"
The centipeedle paid no attention and wandered out of the remains of the house, much to their dismay. With an angry groan, they slid off the counter and peeked out from one of the ruined walls.
The beach appeared fairly calm and devoid of human life, the clear blue water and soft sand shining brilliantly in the sun. In this idyllic setting, they saw the centipeedle running around, flecks of gold dripping from their jaws. They stopped when they caught sight of Peridot, and rose up on their hind legs momentarily, letting out an excited yelping sound as they did.
The green Gem had an idea of what they meant by this point. "You want me to go outside? Where we could be easily seen by anybody passing by? No, I will not make such a miscalculation!"
This did not deter the centipeedle, which simply sat there and waited for Peridot to come out. So in a reluctant attempt to compromise, they did spy a piece of rock sitting right up against the bottom of the Temple in the shade.
"Fine. I will test this... strategy." Peridot switched off their light, grabbed their paper and pencil and emerged out of the ruins of the house for the first time in a couple days. They cautiously made their way through the sand, grumbling at the fluid texture.
When they reached the rock, they hopped up on it and almost immediately set to writing again. The cool surface of the stone felt a little uncomfortable, but the soft roaring of the waves and the more favourable lighting conditions made Peridot think twice about judging this spot so harshly. Perhaps some components of the communicator would be better built out in the sand, away from the damp-
A yelp startled Peridot, and they looked down to see the centipeedle holding a short piece of a wooden plank out to them.
"Yes?" The green Gem frowned. "What do you need?"
They sprung up and plonked the plank on top of Peridot's blueprint, the end sizzling from its contact with the green saliva. Then they stared expectantly at the Gem, their one eye flitting from the plank, back up to the Gem, and back to the plank again.
Peridot carefully picked up the plank, and the centipeedle yelped in excitement. "You want me to use this in my design? I do not need this organic component. Your help is appreciated, but you can leave me alone." They threw the plank a little ways away, and then got back to their design.
It was only a short time later that the plank reappeared on top of their paper, only a little more slathered in saliva. They looked over at the centipeedle in mild annoyance.
"I told you, you clod. I don't need this!" Chucking the piece of wood a little harder, they then returned to drawing out their communicator. The gold wires would come in a lot of handy to transfer electricity from the speakers to the ant-
A very small piece of wood, almost completely dissolved by centipeedle spit, was placed right next to the paper. Peridot glared down at the happy culprit.
"What has caused you to act in this extraordinarily stupid way? I. Don't. Need. This. Nyuh, you Earthlings are so simple you can't even understand a basic instruction most of the time. What do you think this is, a game?"
With the tip of their pencil, they flicked the stub of wood off the stone they were sitting on. To their surprise, they watched the centipeedle catch it before it dropped and spit it back out on the stone again, the remains smoking a bright green.
Peridot raised their eyebrows. "Is this some sort of primitive form of entertainment, where I throw something and you return it to me? Interesting..."
The centipeedle kept their eye fixed on the remaining scrap of wood that had not yet been dissolved. It was too small and too dangerous to be even touched anymore, much less thrown, but the green Gem had a better idea.
"If this will make you leave me alone, then fine. I'll participate in this 'game'." They picked up a fist-sized rock and threw it out towards the sea. It landed somewhere on the beach, and as expected the centipeedle took off after it, saliva trailing behind them as they ran. In approximately twenty four seconds, they returned with the flaky remains of the rock.
With a bemused expression, Peridot retrieved another small rock and threw it a little further, hoping the longer it took to fetch, the longer they had to draw out their blueprints. Indeed, the more times the centipeedle returned the remains of the last stone thrown, the further the green Gem aimed. This continued for a rather long length of time until the rock was flung so far, it landed with a plop into the ocean. The centipeedle didn't appear to mind, however, so Peridot continued drawing until an urgent grunting noise started up near them.
"I fail to see what enjoyment you would get out of this activity." Peridot noted, looking down at the centipeedle. But the green Gem stopped mid speech upon seeing what was in their jaw.
The centipeedle placed its two front feet on the rock and deposited a sort of off-white fossil on top of the blueprints. Peridot had some knowledge from Steven that dead animals left behind certain organic structures of this design, but the pictures they had been shown were in museums, not sitting on a beach.
Curious, they picked the fossil up and examined it. It appeared to be some sort of head, having had three holes where a human or Gem's eyes and nose would usually be. It was about the same size as their own noggin, and they counted twenty teeth in a rather human-like jaw.
And that was when a creeping feeling of dread started in Peridot's metaphorical stomach. This appeared to be a human skull, and from what they could tell it looked nothing like the old bones in the museum; one could only describe this find as... fresh. However primitive human technology may be, they were still the dominant organic species on Earth and anything that could kill one of them was more than a match for Peridot.
They quickly leaped up from the rock and held the skull out to the centipeedle. "Where did you find this? Is it close? Nyah, why can't you talk!"
Before a full-blown wave of terror could set in, a low, rumbling sound started off in the distance, quiet at first but growing louder and closer as it rolled off the waves. As the sound became more powerful, one could begin to distinguish what it was: a laugh. A deep, booming laugh coming from the very heart of the cold ocean.
The centipeedle hissed, their white hair resembling a lion's mane as it stood on end. Peridot was somewhat less confrontational in their reaction; with a terrified squeak they packed up their blueprints and screamed for the centipeedle as their little legs raced as fast as they could back towards the house.