fandomhigh | Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part II

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!event: welcome picnic

Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part II

Gosh, the summer picnic was so much nicer--and warmer--than the spring one. There were tables and chairs set up in the sun and the shade, and more than enough food for everyone. Hopefully, everyone was up for socializing for a while!

[OCD is up! This is the picnic post for general mingling. Roommates, fake siblings and teachers are all here. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

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"Guarding," Rufus said promptly. "Searching for lost items, scenting for things that would be harmful to ingest, general combat if necessary. Things along those lines."

And still be an excellent companion.

... Rufus liked his dog better than he liked any person in any universe, why yes.

Peridot gave another satisfied nod. That was a good list, in fact. And it meant that this creature was officially more useful than any Pearl she'd met.

"A warrior's companion," she decided. "Strong and loyal. And... smart?"

Right now it mostly looked like a little black ball of organic tissue with a tentacle. But it was worth checking.

"Very smart," he confirmed. "Though, again, not at his full potential yet."

He was just a puppy, Peridot! You couldn't expect that much out of him yet.

"He'll get there."

Well how was Peridot to know? They popped out of the ground fully-formed, and their potential was already determined for them based on the Gem that they were. There was none of this pesky 'being born' or 'growing up' to deal with for them.

"I'll never get used to the cycles of organic life forms," she sighed, but she seemed to be giving Dark Nation a thoughtful look all the same. "Being born, maturing, reproducing, and then dying. With so much time spent vulnerable, on both ends."

Dark Nation was still peacefully sleeping. Thank the gods. Rufus didn't know what sort of questions he'd wind up answering should he wake up.

He raised one eyebrow slightly.

"Does your species not pass on then?" he asked. "Are you eternal?"

"More or less," Peridot replied, spreading her hands. "Unlike organic beings, we don't age. Gems can exist for thousands and thousands of years without changing."

And why would they want to, right?

... Right?

How should he know?

"Fascinating," he said, since it was. "Can you adapt to different circumstances in that case?"

"Try me."

She was a Gem. They were made for interstellar conquest. Peridot was confident that she could adapt to any situation this human could suggest.

He paused and took a moment to think about what to challenge her with. There were rumours in the ShinRa Headquarters of a conflict being in the works, but nothing settled, and nothing started, aside from whatever it was the scientists were doing.

"It's unlikely," he said, mostly to keep her from protesting it couldn't happen in the first place, "but if a superior force invaded your home," Rufus said thoughtfully. It was more interesting to ask the question from the Wutaian side, wasn't it? "Superior in numbers, weapons, and technology alike, how would you handle such a thing?"

He didn't mention terrain, since he didn't know what sort of planet she was from.

"Easy," Peridot said, simply. "For a start, we keep our weaknesses and our strengths both well-hidden. If an enemy doesn't know how to destroy us, they'll have a more difficult time making their victories count for long. And if they don't know what we'll come up against them with next, they can't prepare for our next offensive. The element of surprise presents us with better chances already. And then there's the matter of what this other race is. Of course they must be aware that they're bringing the fight to us, on our own home turf. Unless they've sent spies ahead, which would be difficult considering just how different Gems look physically from most other life forms we've encountered, how are they to know our strongest, most easily defensible vantage points?"

There was another pause.

"And most organic life requires air and food in order to survive. They wouldn't last long, on Homeworld."

He added those facts to his own little list of things he knew about her. Fascinating. That's what she was.

Rufus liked her, he decided. Not the way other people would like someone, but she was interesting and practical and that made him inclined to talk to her.

"What of your own people?" he asked. "Hypothetically, would any be swayed to work with the enemy? That would give them spies that you would not recognize as being other."

Okay, that one earned a bit of a disgusted sneer from Peridot. No reason.

"Hypothetically, we would leave them on the planet with the species they fell so in love with that they'd turn against their own people. And then we would write that planet off."

Completely. In a way that would destroy that planet and all life on it.

My, but that sounded similar to how his family wrote off their problems. Rufus could understand that just fine.

"Practical," he observed. "And efficient. So long as the planet you're writing off has no redeeming qualities or valuable commodities."

Commodities, Peridot could understand. After all, most of the reason for the Gem expansion through space was their need for resources. When you had an entire species that didn't die, who basically destroyed planets in order to reproduce, you had a race that valued the need for natural resources.

"What qualities do you consider 'redeeming?'"

She had to wonder. What was it that humans put worth in, besides companionship?

"It depends on the nature of the place," Rufus mused, leaning back to think about that question. "But the one that comes to mind first is 'what could I sell it for'? Perhaps another group would want it, if we don't."

"Redeeming qualities calculated based on commercial value?"

Peridot could actually see the logic, there. If a resource didn't hold value to them, personally, maybe there was some other group out there that could draw value on it in exchange for something the Gems themselves couldn't produce.

On the other hand, the Gems rarely came across anything they wanted that they couldn't produce themselves.

"There could be merit to that. It bears investigation, at least. Difficult to manage when working in hypothetical situations."

"That is the problem with hypothetical situations," Rufus agreed, a bit wryly. "I suppose that once we're more familiar with this world, we could run our scenarios based off of this planet."

... Rufus, no.

"It would make for a useful practical exercise," Peridot mused, tapping one free-floating touch stump (finger) against her chin thoughtfully. "To learn more about... whatever planet we're on, and then calculate the worth of the resources available."

So long as they weren't dealing with Earth, Peridot was quite happy to contemplate these things.

If they were on Earth, she'd be far more concerned about getting back off of it again.

Fair enough. Rufus would be less sanguine about selling the entirety of Gaia, were they talking about his world. He could accept some foibles of a similar nature.

"I understand, too, that the island we are on at the moment has been moving from planet to planet," Rufus offered. "So there would be a chance to run several exercises of this nature against different locales."

He should likely be being more careful of what he said, but Peridot was no less interested than he in this topic. Rufus gauged it to be safe enough. Besides, it was only hypothetical.

They couldn't possibly punish them for that.

Hypothetical thinking exercises were still thinking exercises, after all. Perhaps they made no real difference when it came to the way things were, but when it came to understanding how those things worked, they were invaluable.

"Some planets with more worth than others," Peridot mused. "Alongside a study to see how vulnerable the resident species might be to outside attack. An assessment of risk against value."

Her Diamond would be so pleased if Peridot returned to Homeworld after having discovered new planets that would be worth something to their expanding empire!

And Rufus would gain valuable experience and knowledge that he could use to expand ShinRa even further. Why stop at one world? Though, of course, Gaia was the priority for him.

It would also give him a chance to analyze how other species conducted hostile takeovers.

"It would be a worthwhile use of time," Rufus said thoughtfully. "Better than having nothing to do."

"Much better," Peridot agreed, and now she was pacing thoughtfully, making little clank-clank sounds with every step. "If I'm to be stuck on whatever this miserable rock is, it would make sense to catalog everything I can make use of while I'm here..."

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Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part II

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