thisavrou_log | (no subject)

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.

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.

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?"

"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.

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.

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."

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."

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.

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..."

"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?"

"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?"

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?"

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."

Edited 2016-01-30 16:24 (UTC)

Peridot stares, and then starts snorting with raucous laughter, leaning forward a bit with both hands on her knees. She beams at him gleefully, like she can't believe his naivete.

"Change? Who needs change? Starflight, the Diamonds rule over a perfect system already! there's no need to change it. I mean-- Yes, gems can get damaged... Scratched, cracked, shattered. But that's why we have kindergartens, so that we can just create more! There's nothing different enough about any given gem that couldn't just simply be replicated with the next generation that's produced. The Diamonds are the only exception."

"'Practicing' being strong?" Peridot sounds just as off-put about the concept as Jasper is. How is that even supposed to work? She stares around, lips scrunching up thoughtfully.

After a moment's consideration she shuffles over to a rack of free weights, eyeballing them warily.

...Yeah no OK she was hoping she'd figure out how this device was supposed to work just by getting a closer look at it but. She's got nothing.

Edited 2016-01-31 01:42 (UTC)

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.

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.

Starflight was silent for a moment, tail flicking from side to side as he thought it over.

"It doesn't sound that perfect if they don't care about protecting their people," he said quietly, looking down with a pensive frown.

Jasper snorts dismissively. "They like to lift those again and again to try to make their arms more powerful," she explains. "It looks incomprehensibly tedious." It's not exactly what she'd call a complete waste of time, since increasing one's strength is obviously a worthy pursuit, but... stars is she glad she doesn't have to spend time on that kind of thing.

Peridot's expression of amusement slips back into something more frustrated looking. "You have misunderstood my explanation, then. Protecting gem-kind, our culture, our way of life is the top priority of the Diamond Authority. But, they are pragmatic enough to understand that maintaining order requires a certain amount of sacrifice."

Her eyes narrow further.

"How are you even supposed to hold and lift something that weirdly shaped?"

Apparently she's under the impression that the entire rack is one piece.

"What...?" Jasper looks faintly confused. She strides over to demonstrate, picking one of the larger weights up in her hand. "Like this. Here." She holds it out.

Peridot blinks in surprise, looking between the rack and the object in Jasper's hand. Oh. So that's how.

She snorts, rolling her eyes and reaching out to grab the offered weight in one hand and tugging it out of Jasper's grip. "Alright, I suppose that makes a little bit more nyAGH--!"

Okay so it's a lot heavier than she expected. She has to latch on with both hands, legs bowing as the weight of it tugs her arms down towards the floor.

Jasper just puts both her hands on her hips and laughs at her.

Wow.

Peridot's eyes flick up to the Quartz's amused expression, and she blushes a harsh blue-green, sweating uncomfortably. Flustered, she loses her grip and drops the weight.

Hopefully it doesn't land on Jasper's foot.

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

CLOSED TO JASPER | Rec center, mid-January

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CLOSED TO STARFLIGHT | Mero 011, Early January

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