thisavrou_log | [closed]

Snake doesn't particularly like being thrown into a mission with strangers at the last second, but this isn't the sort of situation where he can be picky either. As soon as he'd heard that Link's son had a method to get them off of this planet, he'd immediately elected himself to serve as escort. The last thing they needed was for the Komai to get a hold of him and leave him in the same state as his father.

It's not that Snake trusts this Benjamin guy, not even for a second. But right now he's their key to getting out of here, so he'll need to make sure that he stays alive for at least that long.

Escort missions are not his idea of a good time, but the sooner they get off this rock, the better.

As they prepare to deboard the Moira, Snake dressed in his sneaking suit and with his gun holstered at his waist, he takes a look at one of the other people assigned to this mission. It's hard to miss her with her green skin, and he also recalls that she'd made some kind of announcements over the MIDs. He huffs out a breath and then glances away. "Guess I should have asked for that primer."

His words almost don't register, at first. Peridot's actually pretty nervous and jittery over the idea of going down to the chaotic planet below, standing off to the side with her arms crossed, gnawing her lip and pacing restlessly while the party prepares to depart.

Still, she's not nearly as jittery about actively putting herself in harms way as she is over the thought of what will probably happen if the Emirians manage to keep the ship locked in here. At least the Moira has a destination that will hopefully lead her to home. All she has to look forward to if they get stuck on Emiri is the very real threat of winding up in an alien jail. So, unwilling to leave something so important up to the organics, she volunteered herself. Fearing for ones skin is a very good motivator for cooperation, like that.

When she realizes that Snake is referring to her she glances over, frowning mildly. "Hnn... Have we met before?" she asks blandly. Nothing is particularly hostile or personal in her tone: She just legitimately has difficulty telling humans apart, sometimes.

She has no idea what hit her.

Literally, though. One minute they'd succeeded in unlocking the ship, and then the next, somehow, a small group of the authorities had caught up with them. Peridot felt a vicious strike against her head, and then...

She's so disoriented. The green gem struggles to get back to her feet, panic clutching at her, overwhelmed by whirling sound and color and she's not sure what's wrong with her but something definitely is wrong. Why is she having so much trouble getting her limbs to respond to her? Why does nothing feel solid? She struggles to put a hand to her head, reaching instinctively for her gem, running her fingers over it.

What she finds just about makes her stomach drop out. There's a crack... she's cracked, and she's stuck in the middle of a war zone on a weird planet with no other gems around and that alone is enough to make her lose her head completely.

"Oh no... Oh no oh no no no no no no no no no no--"

She'll just sit there and continue to babble until someone intervenes, too overwhelmed to go on on her own.

In a matter of moments, everything goes from vaguely saving the day to complete failure, at least that's how he sees it. Benjamin values other people, no matter what they offer him personally, or the universe in general, but when Peridot had volunteered to assist him down to the aerospace, that had shown him that she was good people.

She was brave and willing to sacrifice herself to make sure that the crew of the Moira got away from this planet in one piece, and now she was hurt. Ben drops down to his knees beside her, immediately taking her chin in his hands and tipping her head back.

"Looks like you've hit your head pretty hard." Stating the obvious, don't mind him. The others that had accompanied them have taken care of the small group of authorities that had tried to stop them, so that leaves him free to just worry about her. "We need to get you back to the transporter. I'm picking you up."

Ben lifts her into his arms, pressing her firmly against his chest so that she doesn't get jostled anymore than necessary. He doesn't know what it means that the gem is cracked, but he's not going to waste any time asking. As he moves, the others spread out, and he begins to run in the direction of the transporter.

"How do we fix this? I'll have medical waiting."

She winces when he touches her face. In spite of Ben's best intentions, and regardless of the fact that his actions are absolutely necessary, Peridot doesn't take well to being carried. She's not used to being touched, and she's definitely not used to being held. It's one of those things that she would probably at least put up with in most other circumstances, but in this case it's just adding to her panic. She doesn't know or trust him. But, he's also the only chance she has right now...

"You can't!" she moans unhelpfully, shivering violently in his arms and babbling. "I mean-- I don't know how! You can't fix it, no one can!" Peridot's voice has pitched up to a hysterical creak.

Frankly, a good portion of the injury is just psychological... but a cracked gem is still quite serious. Portions of her face and the rest of her body keep flickering and blurring occasionally, like a video feed with weak signal.

There are a hundred different approaches that Ben could take to try and calm Peridot down. Be kind, lie, soothe, a number of things, but there's only one way that sticks out to Ben and that's being firm. He has no idea if it'll work, it could go either way, but it's the most natural for him.

"You have to be calm. You're smart, super smart. Think it through and tell me how to help you."

Ben keeps her held tight. They are strangers, don't know each other, but he means well and he's got to do whatever is necessary to get her to safety. He's fast, too, getting through the city and back to the transporter. It's a bonus to having grown up here.

Well, reminding her to be rational does do the trick, at least a little. Right. She just has to be logical about this... She scrunches her face up, thinking hard for any information she can possibly provide. It's so difficult, though... Every footstep Ben takes sends a shock through her consciousness, like someone banging a drum right in her ears, and every time she feels some remote part of her body flicker or change shape without her directing it to, she's hit by another wave of nausea inducing anxiety.

"Jasper," Peridot says suddenly, voice wavering. "Ask Jasper, or Doc Yewll--" and then just as suddenly her voice is warping, words spilling out of her mouth incomprehensibly fast, like a tape stuck on fast forward. When it stops she groans and squeezes her palms against her temples.

"That's good. That's all I need."

He glances down at the MID on his hand, pausing and pressing up against the wall. A pair of Link'd Inc's security team walk by and Ben holds his breath until they pass. They're far enough from the aerospace now that security is lighter, and when he turns the corner to move again, he can see the transporter tucked back behind a bunch of other crafts.

Ben remains silent until he reaches the transporter, is quiet when they get to it, climb inside, and he gently lays her down on the ground. He lifts his hand, sending out a quick audio message.

"Requesting immediate medical care." The transporter begins to move. "From Jasper or Doc Yewll. One of the crew is injured, Peridot. Someone needs to be waiting in the cargo bay when the transporter reaches the Moira."

Peridot is more quiet from then on, save for the occasional yelp when her body does something weird as her damaged gem struggles to maintain a physical form. The instability certainly doesn't make her any easier to carry.

Once she's set down, she draws her knees up to her chin and stares at Ben while he works, watching with wide, vaguely mistrustful eyes; the shock is starting to set in a bit, but she's still kind of stuck on the fact that he's helping her at all. She can't really see any reason why he should; altruism is a pretty foreign concept to service gems like her.

"Why are you doing this," she rasps after a moment, utterly baffled.

He glances up sharply, eyes narrowed in confusion.

"And why wouldn't I do this?"

Ben draws back, a hand on her shoulder to keep her from moving too much due to the turbulence.

"I don't claim to be perfect, in fact, I know I'm not, but I try to do the right thing. Your crew has done nothing to deserve this, so I'll help, and you have done nothing to warrant getting hurt."

It's a rare case where Peridot is struck speechless by something, but she seriously doesn't know how to respond to him at all. She just grunts and hugs her knees tighter, shuddering now and then with the effort of holding herself together.

At one point her arm flickers, making one of her limb enhancer gauntlets fall to the floor in her hand's momentary absence. She squeaks and scrambles to pick up all the pieces, a new wave of anxiety washing over her.

"Please tell me we're almost there," she whimpers.

Ben takes that grunt as that she's at least heard what he's saying, which is important. A minimal amount of coherency is better than nothing.

"I'll check."

He stands and leaves her for a moment, heading to the front of the transporter. While gone he quickly checks his MID and sends out another message. Satisfied that there will be people waiting, though not wanting to be gone long, he heads back.

"Two minutes. I contacted Doc Yewll and they are going to inform Jasper. They'll both try to be there." He hopes at least one will.

Another prolonged groan. Two minutes sounds like an eternity right now, but there isn't really anything either of them can do about it.

She stays silent for the rest of the ride and sits there shaking like a nervous chihuahua, even after they land.

"Alright, we're docking."

Ben sighs, reaching out towards her again.

"It'll be a lot easier if I carry you. Okay?"

That way he can meet the others outside the transporter a lot quicker, and because the practical side of himself wants to be prepared in the situation that no one meets him in the cargo bay.

It'd probably be nice for everyone involved if she'd stop giving him such a suspicious glare, but that's not about to happen any time soon.

She's not in much condition to protest though, either. He can pretty much scoop her up whenever.

Ben had sent messages to both Meh and Jasper, the former promising to contact Jasper as well. One of the two did the trick, because there is someone waiting for them in the cargo bay.

He stops and carefully transfers Peridot from his arms to theirs.

The surliness Jasper's been waiting with drops for a second when she sees that what Ben's carrying is Peridot's physical form, not just her gem.

Then it returns tenfold. Her face is like thunder; she nearly snatches Peridot from him, eyes widening as she lifts her up to look.

"Her gem is cracked," she says to Ben, her voice full of furious accusation.

He's as careful as he can be transferring Peridot to Jasper.

"It is."

Ben raises a brow, hand on his hip.

"I can tell you're angry with me, which you have every right to be, but, she's been sort of flickering in and out. Parts of her have fallen off. Be upset with me later."

"There's nothing we can do for her," Jasper growls. "A cracked gem can't be healed. Unless..." Rose Quartz, she thinks. But – in this form, would she – he – even have that power? They can't rely on it. She shakes her head, eyes narrowed.

"This is the only Peridot we have. She wasn't expendable. She shouldn't have gone anywhere like this without a proper escort."

Peridot's not really keen on being tossed passed around like a sack of potatoes, but she is strangely relieved that Jasper's here now-- at least up until she says that.

So comforting.

The tech growls wordlessly and clutches her detached gauntlet closer to her chest, cutting in suddenly. "Jasper stop it. He didn't ask me to accompany him, I... I volunteered."

In spite of her injury she sounds particularly ferocious about this point. Of course, the gravity of that statement is probably undercut somewhat by her right eye suddenly ballooning to three times its normal size for a second, before she forces it back to normal with a distressed little squeak.

Anything that Ben was going to say to support what Peridot is telling Jasper is cut short by the sudden change in the size of her eye.

"That. Well, that looks pretty serious. Go."

Like find that doctor or at least take her to medical so that she can be looked over. He doesn't know, the talk of gems and everything is beyond him, though feeling guilty and responsible isn't.

"I'll be by to check on you, Peridot." He looks at Jasper when he says it, eyes narrowed. "Take care of her."

Peridot glances at him, her expression unreadable, and acknowledges the sentiment with a half-hearted little grunt.

She's not really feeling very optimistic about her chances. Even less so, now that Jasper has voiced the hard truth out loud like that.

Jasper glowers back at him. "I will."

Despite everything she's said, and her clear anger, she's holding Peridot carefully as she turns and walks away with her.

"Idiot," she mutters. "Shouldn't have volunteered without getting me to go with you."

Edited 2016-02-11 03:29 (UTC)

"I-- There wasn't time," Peridot protests, voice cracking. She's trembling a lot worse now than she was when she was with Ben; getting through the trip back to the ship had been a matter of deriving courage out of her desperation for getting back to Jasper and Doc Yewll, and the hope that they might be able to fix her. Now that she's actually here, though, Jasper's reaction to the whole situation is really driving home just how dire the situation is. Peridot's gem isn't even necessarily that badly cracked... She could still walk on her own, for example. But the precise degree of the damage doesn't really matter in the end. So long as she's like this she's essentially defective. Useless.

"Nnnnnn... What's going to happen to me?" she squeaks faintly, mostly to herself.

Jasper doesn't look down at her.

"I don't know."

She pauses. Peridot's... volatile. Stress will make this worse. Jasper isn't one for unfounded optimism, but...

"...Maybe if you're lucky we can get Rose Quartz to fix you," she says.

At least "volatile" also means that she's bound to bounce back more quickly. Peridot's eyes shoot wide open again in an instant. "Why didn't I think of that!?!" she yelps. She clutches at the collar of Jasper's v-neck with her bare hand, squirming anxiously. "Jasper! Jasper you need to call hi-- I mean her-- She fixed Lazuli, right!? This could be the solution!!"

Jasper leans back a little, startled.

"... That's right. She did." She frowns, reluctant to take this as a definite solution. "But she might refuse to do it for her enemies."

Contrary to that, Peridot is desperate to cling to this option like it's her last hope. Which, really, it probably is. "So what, you're like ten times her size now!" she exclaims, gesturing broadly. As she does her other arm grows super long and starts trailing on the floor, knocking her other gauntlet loose in the process. The fingers go everywhere.

Ah.

Jasper watches the fingers roll across the ground, her mouth twitching in a tight frown.

"Peridot," she says, scooping up the elongated arm with one hand. "Maybe you shouldn't be making any sudden movements."

"Oh sure, let me just switch off the part of my consciousness that's involved with making me completely freak out about this, that should do the trick!" Peridot squawks, making an effort to reel her arm back in again. The momentary high she was enjoying from realizing that there might be hope for her after all seems to be diminishing rapidly.

She grunts in frustration. "Fine," she says. She shifts the smaller gem in her arms a little – if Peridot's not going to hold still, Jasper is willing to hold her still. She's not squeezing or anything, but her grip is extremely firm.

She looks down at her with narrowed eyes. "I'm not going to tell you this is going to be fine," she says, "because it might not be, but I'm going to call Rose Quartz – Steven, whatever – as soon as I've got you somewhere you're not going to fall onto the floor if I let go of you. Alright?"

That firm look in Jasper's fierce yellow eyes quells any protests or snarky comebacks that Peridot might have had brewing. She huddles up closer to the larger gem, looking rather distant and sullen.

"Just grab my other limb enhancer, okay?" she grumbles.

Jasper snorts. "Fine," she says again, and stoops to pick it up.

She wouldn't normally be this concerned about a single Peridot getting damaged, but... well, it's like she said to the human: she's the only one they have. She can't be replaced; she's not expendable. Sure, a predominantly human-staffed spacecraft might not require a tech gem like this in the same way a gem ship would, but – she's a valuable asset nonetheless. And Jasper will definitely need her whenever they get back to Earth.

She deposits the gauntlet and the handful of fingers in Peridot's lap.

Steven Rose Quartz had better be able to fix her.

In this case, there's no reason that she should have any idea who he is, so Snake doesn't miss a beat when she asks that question, shaking his head in response. "No, but you had a broadcast. Something about how tech-savvy you were, and you were complaining that you kept having to explain what you were. A gem, right?" For as unwilling as Snake is to communicate by MID a lot of the time (mainly because he finds most of the messages sent over it to be pretty pointless), he does listen to the majority of them. And he makes mental notes.

With the various different species that populate the ship, it can sometimes be difficult to keep track. All the same, Snake's at least making an effort. He may be out of his depth here in a lot of ways, but purposeful resistance to learning about the other lifeforms wouldn't benefit anyone. Besides, his need to have intelligence about pretty much everything has kept him curious, if withdrawn.

The other interesting note she'd made during that broadcast had been her insistence that she wasn't organic. Snake subtly examines her now, as if trying to figure out what she might be made of instead. But that really isn't his area. He'll make a real assessment of her based on how this mission plays out.

[closed]

Journey to the Aerodrome

The Control Center: Unlocking the Moira

Return to the Moira

For Peridot

no subject

Closed to Ben

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject