(no subject)

[peridork]

Who: Peridot, Jasper, Steven, Starflight, and possibly others to come.
When: Early-mid January
Where: Various locations on the Moira including the rec hall and Mero #011
What: Catch-all for backdated shenanigans that I am not re-posting after deleting the first one, like the Chump that I am
Warnings: CWs, if they are necessary, will be listed in the subjects of the top-levels.

Note: Hit me up on Plurk if you want to plot and add anything to this.

Comments

CLOSED TO STEVEN UNIVERSE | Outside the Mess Hall, mid-January

[peridork]

It's no secret that working the mess hall is Peridot's least favorite job, out of everything that she has to do on the Moira. It's hardly surprising, either; having to dole out fuel for the organics is not her idea of a good time. If she had her way, she would have removed herself from the roster ages ago.

Unfortunately it's mandatory for each and every crew member, and so, every Tuesday Thursday and Saturday evening, like clockwork, she's there. Dishing out organic slop and cleaning up the mess that the rest of the ship leaves in the wake of their necessary routine consumption of nutrients.

When the shift is finally over, she's pretty eager to get the hell out of there and do... well, anything other than this, really. She's not exactly sure yet. She's muttering about her potential choices into an audio log when she leaves the mess hall, totally distracted from her surroundings.

[tigermillionaire]

Steven already did his shift this morning, but it doesn't bother it at all. It's not like cleaning up is fun exactly, but Pearl had instilled a solid work ethic in him from a relatively young edge, and even if he did make messes from time to time he was willing to try and help clean them up too. He catches Peridot towards the very end of her shift, popping over the counter to see the other little green person working away.

"Hi Peridot!" he calls after her, just being social as far as he's concerned. He knows that the basis of their relationship is pretty awkward, but he figured that now that they are working together, if he is just low key friendly at her all the time then maybe she will warm up to him a little.

[peridork]

Ah yes, the old kill her with kindness method. Peridot has no idea what she's in for.

She jerks in surprise at the sound of his voice, glancing over and blinking at the nymph owlishly.

Once she recovers though, she slips right back into her usual hostile narrow-eyed stare.

"Steven," she says unenthusiastically. "Can I... help you with something?"

Please say no.

[tigermillionaire]

"You can help me," he says, cleverly, "by letting me help you."

He gives her the finger guns.

"Do you guys need any help in there! I'm not busy or anything, and then we could hang out!"

[peridork]

She leans back a little from the hand gesture, frowning uncertainly.

"Hang... out...?"

What does that even... Oh whatever.

"Actually we just finished," Peridot snorts, doing her best to look as completely disinterested as possible.

[tigermillionaire]

"Cool!" he says, not missing a beat. He sits on one of the chairs at the counter. "What do you wanna do? You've probably seen more of the ship than me. What do you like doing when you're not building stuff? Do you like..." He tries to think of a good conversation starter. "...books?"

That works.

[peridork]

Oh god this is happening.

"Books are an archaic and inefficient method of storing information," she growls, lifting an eyebrow. "Though I suppose that the contents, are often acceptable."

CLOSED TO JASPER | Rec center, mid-January

[peridork]

As both a technician and an inorganic being that doesn't really require exercise, Peridot generally doesn't ever have much of a reason to visit the rec hall.

Today is different, though. With much of the crew off the ship and exploring Emiri, she fully intends to take advantage of the emptiness by finally getting to investigate the mysterious device known as the UV bed. From what she understands, it's intended function is to help distribute certain vitamins to the humans... but what she's interested in is figuring out how it generates the proper dose of radiation to achieve such means. If she's lucky, she might have time to take one apart and to rebuild it before anyone becomes wise to her activities.

Unfortunately, the rec center isn't completely empty. On the bright side, it's a familiar face that she finds waiting there.

"Jasper... I didn't realize you'd be working," says Peridot, pushing up her visor and looking strangely caught-off guard about this discovery.

[stompadour]

Jasper looks about as surprised to see Peridot; she raises an eyebrow, one hand on her hip, as she turns to look down at her.

"For a given value of working," she says dismissively. It's true there doesn't really seem to be anyone else around for her to instruct. "What are you doing here?"

[peridork]

"Looking for work," she says, with a vaguely sympathetically annoyed air. "Tinkering and investigating, failing that. There were some devices I noticed the last time I was here that piqued my interest."

Granted, that was months ago. But. She has a lengthy memory.

[stompadour]

"Hmh. They really don't give you much to do here, do they." Jasper sounds distinctly disapproving – she is of the firm opinion that it's kind of criminal to leave a Peridot idle like this.

She glances around their immediate vicinity, though, and then back to Peridot with narrowed eyes. "What are you planning on taking apart?"

[peridork]

Reflexively, Peridot leans back a little bit, surprised by the question. She's not quite sure if those narrowed eyes of Jasper's mean that she's curious and interested in accompanying her, or if she's judging.

"Um... Right." She clears her throat. "There's something in here called a UV bed. Humans use it to maintain their feeble health somehow, but I'm interested in seeing what components it is made of." She snorts, gesturing vaguely at some of the free weights and exercise machines tucked around the room. "I mean, there's not much else in here that's of any scientific value... At least at a glance. Do you know what half of these even do?"

[stompadour]

Jasper shrugs. "Humans have to maintain their strength with physical activity. Like practicing at being strong," she scoffs. She practices, but she practices fighting, battle manoeuvres; the strength and endurance that underly her combat abilities are an intrinsic part of her. "Most of this garbage is for that."

CLOSED TO STARFLIGHT | Mero 011, Early January

[peridork]

When Peridot first arrived, she found the Moira to be full of species completely foreign to her. Organics. Non-gems. However, none of them, thus far, have piqued her curiosity quite as much as dragons have.

A large portion of this is, of course, thanks to the fact that the only representative of the species currently on-board is also her roommate: Starflight, the NightWing. Quite the anomaly: Large, imposing, capable of great feats of strength, able to breath fire... And yet, a coward. Extremely fearful of conflict. It flies in the face of much of what Peridot knows about the universe... but then again, that seems to be a common thread among organics.

Fortunately, Starflight has been receptive (perhaps a bit TOO receptive, even, on occasion) to her occasional inquiries about his kind, In turn, Peridot has been suitably forthcoming about gems. Eventually Peridot saw fit to compile and provide him with a bit more information on the functions of gems, as well as their social structure and hierarchy, while the dragon in turn provided her with... Scrolls.

Not her favorite way of absorbing information by a long shot, but she's curious enough to deal with it.

That's what she's doing right now. Dealing with it. Reading through the materials provided with a curious and critical eye. She's just finished up going over a helpful guide to the different sub-types of dragon, when she closes the tome, sits up, and fixes her roommate with an odd stare from where she's perched on her bed.

"So... Dragons come in different categories like gems do... But you all keep separate from one another?"

She does not see the sense in this.

[petrifiedshadow]

Starflight looked up from where he was stretched out on the floor next to his desk, scratching ink dipped claws across a large sheet of paper where he was taking notes. He'd considered giving some of the pens and other writing utensils he'd been giving a shot, but they were all too small.

He reached up with his other talon and pushed back the pair of magnifying glasses he was wearing away from his face.

"Yes. Don't forget that all the tribes have different cultures and values from each other, not just appearance and abilities. Originally dragons were more solitary until the first queens organized the tribes during The Scorching, and it's been that way ever since."

[peridork]

Peridot frowns, glancing down at the scroll once more. Then she pipes up again after a moment, glancing over at Starflight:

"But surely it would be more efficient and sensible if you were to all just work together, and play to your strengths working towards a common cause," she says, gesturing vaguely with one hand. "That way you wouldn't wind up fighting one another like you all have been with that big war you told me about."

[petrifiedshadow]

Starflight watched her owlishly, a slight frown forming on his face.

"Well, they did, during the Scorching, that's how dragons were able to beat the scave- humans. After that the greatest threat to dragons was other dragons. I think you're right, but things have been this way for a very long time. Even before the War of SandWing Succession. Like the feud between the IceWings and NightWings. It will probably be a long time before anything changes."

He believed it was possible, after all he and his friends were all from different tribes. But he wasn't sure changing all of dragon-kind would be possible without a lot of effort.

[peridork]

She grunts wordlessly, folding her arms and rolling her eyes up and away. "Nehh. I guess it wouldn't make much sense for all species to function as perfectly as we do. But what I also can't believe is that you all dispose of your leaders on a regular basis! I mean, sure, perhaps does make sense in some regards... You are an organic species after all, and your queens must age and wear down eventually, the same as the rest of you, so having them replaced by younger, fitter, more powerful individuals is actually pretty logical..."

[petrifiedshadow]

"Do gems really not age at all? I know you're not organic, but don't your gems get worn down with time? I mean, if the gems are always fighting other species, don't some of them get damaged?"

Starflight suspected gems weren't as amazing as Peridot made them out to be, but so far she had been very cagey about admitting anything to support that theory.

"Also wouldn't having the same leaders all the time make it difficult for things to ever change?"

CLOSED TO MEH YEWLL | Med-Bay, early February

[peridork]

Three days have passed by the time Peridot's finally ready to emerge from cryo. Steven's healing methods did the trick for the damage to her gem, but the psychological strain wasn't so easily dealt with.

Of course, being put under like that has brought about it's own issues. 36 hours drifting in an unconscious state brought on a confusing onslaught of visions... or perhaps memories? Things that are logically only happening in her head, but that she's also so certain are real, they must have happened to her at some point.

Essentially, by the time she's ready to emerge into the waking world once more, she's a little more than disoriented.

[imaginary_wife]

Meh practically lived in the infirmary. She didn't care much for doing anything in her room. In the gardens, maybe. Took regular showers. But other than that? She spent all of her time tending to the ill.

When the stasis tube made a noise, she turned quickly in her chair. Peridot had come to.

She was worried she would just... not come back.

She rushed over, in a hurry to get that pod open and reach in to help her out. "You know if you worry me like this again, you're going to get more than a piece of my mind." She didn't even know if Peridot could register her, she was just babbling in nervous eagerness to tend to her. Doc Yewll didn't make friends often. Like hell was she going to lose one if she could help it.

[peridork]

She doesn't, really; not at first anyway. It's a good thing Meh is there to lend a hand. The little gem is wobbly, and struggles to remain sitting up on her own. Creaking out a confused sounding groan, she lifts both hands press at the sides of her head, eyes squeezed shut.

"Nfff... What's happening?" Peridot asks in a vaguely demanding tone.

[imaginary_wife]

"You were injured out in the field." She's blunt, doctorly, she figures Peridot would appreciate being professional. But that Peridot is so very petite helps her keep her upright with no problem, and she's being as gentle with her than if she were far more fragile than any gem.

Maybe it'll at least get her concern through, help her recover.

"You're disoriented. Lets get you on a table to rest." And out of the cry tube.

[peridork]

Peridot blinks her little eyes open properly, or at least makes an attempt to. She still looks pretty punch-drunk when she gives a wavering nod and works with Meh to get re-situated.

"How long was I in that thing, anyway?"

[imaginary_wife]

"Thirty-six hours, doll. That's a hell of a nap." Once she has her on a table, she goes to get her scanner. "I'm going to see how ship-shape you are. Something wrong with your head?"