[closed] OK, so we're doing this.

[peridork]

Who: Peridot and Jasper
When: EMBARRASSINGLY HELLA BACK-DATED... Mid-February, the day Peridot wakes up from cryo after her accident on Emiri
Where: The halls outside the medbay
What: Glamrock bodyguard gives green space dorito a lecture about safety, self-preservation, and acting outside protocol.
Warnings: Uhhhh maybe a VERY MILD warn for Jasper being kind of. Aggressive. Otherwise nah.



The doors slide open, and Peridot steps out of medical for the first time in three whole days... A decidedly strange occurrence on its own. Her visits are generally much shorter, since she has never had to check in here as a patient until now. Her presence here in the past was always just in the form of short visits, for working her assigned duty of cryo chamber maintenance, or to see Doc Yewll for a quick chat.

Not this time. This time she'd gotten damaged... Deliberately put herself in harms way and almost wound up shattered as a result. The repercussions and the retained trauma of that would have been more than enough for the little gem to contend with alone, but throw in the troubling visions that she had during her cryo-sleep? It's a concoction for confusion and self-doubt, the kind of emotional turmoil that the logic-driven tech is nowhere near equipped to figure out on her own.

Peridot gives a nasally combination of a grunt and a sigh, absentmindedly adjusting one of her limb enhancers, prodding at her MID as the doors to medical slide shut behind her. She should probably head back to her assigned quarters, check in with her roommates. Her first thought is to call Jasper before anyone else, but with all she has on her mind a the moment...? She pointedly decides that can wait.

Comments

[stompadour]

Too late. Jasper is already there, striding down the hallway outside in a way that looks like she was probably heading for the medbay. She stops, her expression momentarily unreadable – then it settles into a familiar businesslike frown.

"Peridot. Good to see you're finally up and about again."

[peridork]

Oh COME ON.

Peridot seizes up in her surprise, gasping with a jolt as she reluctantly lays eyes on the Quartz. Precisely who she didn't want to see just yet, of course. The tech is visibly thrown by her sudden appearance, a nervous grimace creeping across her face for a moment before she gets it together and settles into just looking exhausted and worried.

"J-Jasper," she replies, staring awkwardly, blinking. She forces herself to sag her shoulders a little. "Yes. It's... Good. T-to be back, I mean."

NAILING IT.

[stompadour]

Jasper raises one of her perfectly sculpted eyebrows.

"You alright?" she says flatly.

[peridork]

"Fine!" Peridot responds, way too loudly. "I mean... I'm fine. I'm just... Ugh. I'm just a little... disoriented," she groans, scrubbing a hand over her face.

[stompadour]

"No kidding," Jasper growls. "You could've gotten yourself shattered. If Rose Quartz – Steven hadn't been on board..." She frowns, straightening up a little, her huge arms folded over her broad chest. "What were you thinking?"

[peridork]

The other gem swallows, taking half a step back. Jasper you're already like three or four feet taller than her, why you gotta loom like that?

"I was thinking that I would be more useful applying my skills to a situation that would get us off of that crummy planet more quickly," she growls defensively, scowling. The fact that Jasper referred to him as Steven isn't lost on her and strikes her as unusual, but she can't really spare that much thought at the moment.

[stompadour]

Looming is just what she does, ok,

"You have an escort for a reason," Jasper reminds her sternly. "I should have been notified and I should have accompanied you."

[peridork]

There's so much that Peridot could say to argue that point; she ran the numbers before she volunteered, considered the risks and the odds of leaving the Moira, and she's confident even now that she made the right decision. She's convinced they would have never gotten off of that planet, if she hadn't offered her assistance.

But...

"There wasn't time," the tech huffs dispiritedly, glancing away. Dismissive. Distracted. Openly disinterested in what Jasper has to say. It's not like her to back down from initiating an overzealous defense of her OBJECTIVELY CORRECT actions, but she's just too confused and preoccupied by what she saw in the cryo chamber to properly rise to the occasion.

[stompadour]

Jasper slams her hand against the wall above Peridot's head in frustration. Fortunately for Peridot this is like a foot above her head, and Jasper would have to stoop awkwardly to slam her hand directly next to her head – unfortunately she's looming over her even more intensely than before.

"And there was time for you to nearly get yourself shattered?"

[peridork]

Peridot squeaks, hunkering down a few inches just on reflex. Rationally she knows Jasper would never hit her, but the other gem is fucking intimidating in size, strength and demeanor.

She doesn't retort right away, but once recovered from the shock she gives Jasper a poisonous look that says clearly enough that she doesn't appreciate being lectured.

"I did what I calculated as necessary for the progression of our mission," hisses Peridot, a growing edge in her voice. She sidles out from under where Jasper's hand is planted against the wall as she speaks.

[stompadour]

Jasper glares back at her.

"At the expense of your gem? Peridot–" She stands back, gestures with one hand as if to indicate the entirety of the Moira, "These people aren't worth that."

[peridork]

"What? No, not for them, you idiot! For OUR. MISSION," repeats Peridot, regaining confidence. "The ship was in lock-down, unable to leave the planet! Failing to correct that would have lead to incalculable delays, even capture by hostile forces, which would have greatly hindered our efforts to return to Homeworld!"

Of course, knowing what she knows now, she's not so certain that was the entire motivation behind her actions after all. Maybe she did do it for the crew? At least a little bit?

Ugh.

She inhales deeply, fixing the other gem with a firm glare. "You may be my escort, but you do not out-rank me, nor are you my supervisor, OR my superior. I have every right to make my own decisions if I calculate that they are for the good of the mission!"

[stompadour]

That reminder does seem to put Jasper in her place at least a bit, because she folds her arms and leans back a little instead of continuing to loom. It doesn't shut her up, though.

"That's right, I'm your escort. I have one job," she holds up a finger, "and it's to stop you from getting yourself killed, so how about you let me do it?"

[peridork]

"I never told you to stop doing it in the first place!" she cries, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "You... NNNNNGH!" Peridot stomps her feet, aims a kick at the wall behind her before looking back at Jasper again, seething. "Why are you acting like I deliberately went behind your back about this or something!? It's..."

She pushes a hand through her hair, huffing, staring vaguely down and away from the other gem's face. Contemplative. "It's not like... They covered this precise type of situation in training, or anything like that," she growls, sounding embarrassed, of all things.

[stompadour]

Jasper's tremendous shoulders untense a little, and the furrow of her brow shifts into something a little more... not exactly sympathetic, but perhaps puzzled that Peridot's reacting this way. Her lips purse in a frown.

"... Yeah, I guess not," she concedes. She puts one hand on her hip and huffs under her breath. "Just... come get me next time."

[peridork]

"If there even is a next time," Peridot grumbles, still looking churlish. She seems a bit more relaxed now that Jasper has let up a little, though.

Of course, that just puts her right back in the same position of being at a loss as to where to go or what to do, now that she's out....

[stompadour]

"There better not be," says Jasper, although not very forcefully. She leans down a little, to get a better look at her - or, more specifically, at her gem. "So what, are you okay now?"

[peridork]

She lifts a hand, rubbing the spot on her visor that's over her gem in a self-conscious manner. "Obviously, since I'm not glitching out all over the place anymore," she grunts, a slight blush creeping into her cheeks again.

[stompadour]

Jasper rolls her eyes a little. Just because the worst of it is resolved doesn't mean there might not be lingering imperfections in her gem or something – but peering at it now she can't spot any problems. And Peridot seems alright...

"Hmph. Good." Jasper straightens up again, frowning. "We can't afford to lose you."

[peridork]

Peridot’s actually kind of surprised to hear Jasper admit that. She blinks up at her, obviously thrown.

“Wait… Seriously?”

[stompadour]

Jasper bristles slightly, in the relatively-rarely-seen way that means she's flustered rather than angry. Peridot may recognise it from times in the past she has questioned her about her cats.

"Obviously," she says. "I mean – you're the only Peridot on this ship, you're not expendable–"

[peridork]

"Oh," she says, unable to keep the flat tone out of her words. A very slight blush tinges her cheeks, her shoulders tense as she glances away. "Right. Obviously."

And she realizes all at once that this right here is such a perfect example of what she's just going to have to keep grappling with, knowing what she knows now. Unbidden, Peridot hears Yellow Diamond's disdainful tone echoing in the back of her head: Which peridot?
Recalling that single specific moment, the one where that conversation started to go downhill in a hurry, makes her gut clench up all over again; not with the anger and disappointment of being spoken to by someone she so admired in such a disrespectful manner, but with the shame of having behaved in such an embarrassing, distinctly un-gem-like manner in front of one of the elites.

She has no way of knowing for certain if what she experienced in cryo was actually real or not, but the implications remain ever present in the back of her mind regardless.

Peridot straightens up; clears her throat, jerking her head slightly off to the side. "Well... I've already lost several days to the recovery process. I'll have fallen behind schedule on setting up my new workshop, so... If that will be all, I really should return to my duties."

[stompadour]

"... Right," says Jasper. "Okay. Good to know you can get back to work already."

She feels kind of awkward about this exchange, and she can't put her finger on why. Why is Peridot disappointed? She's not expendable, that's a good thing, right–? Was she expecting something else? What? Why?

She frowns.

"And, hey, I mean it. You let me know if you need me for anything. It's my job."

[peridork]

Peridot responds with a noncommittal grunt and a nod. She looks tired.

"Affirmative. I will... Be in touch."

And so she turns to plod off down the hall, heading for the J deck. She has a lot to think about...