Library, Wednesday

[era_two_triangle]

The books themselves seemed to be fairly well-behaved today in the library. It was the Gem who was acting a bit oddly. One minute she'd be following something around curiously, and then, at the drop of a hat, she'd turn on it and start terrorising it with her teeth.

The books were hiding from her, honestly. Which was an interesting feat in a room that was more book than anything else. But the way she was just hunkering behind the desk come early afternoon, ominously bathed in shadows, was just too much for any one library to deal with today. So the books were noping out on this one and not a single person could blame them.

Give her ten minutes and she'd be up on the desk and singing or something.

[OOC: This event is the event that I have always needed in my heart of hearts. Open, OCD-free, and spamming that random icon button for all it's worth today!]

Comments

[era_two_triangle]

"... And that's a good thing, right?"

Peridot was still getting used to positive comments and such. Homeworld was not really big on asspats.

... And had actively tried to blow her up that one time.

[giveherahand]

Well, who hasn't almost been blown up by the people they work for, really.

"Sure," Mara said. "I'm not really one for accessorizing, myself."

Unless weapons counted?

[era_two_triangle]

"Oh, but accessorizing is great," Peridot enthused. Because weapons absolutely counted. It was just that all of hers were currently at the bottom of the ocean somewhere.

It was basically the worst thing.

"You can modify your appearance! And you don't even have to get poofed into a limbless cloud to do it!"

Humans had it so easy, except for all the being squishy and fragile that they did.

[giveherahand]

"...limbless cloud?" Mara repeated. "That sounds uncomfortable."

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot's eyes narrowed a little and she slowly sank back into the shadows, ducking behind a desk. Mostly.

"It is," she supplied, warily. "Right up until it isn't. But by that point you're already poofed and there's not really anything to be done about it."

[giveherahand]

"You're back under the desk," Mara pointed out.

[era_two_triangle]

"It's safer under here," Peridot replied, a bit testily. "In case of poofing."

She had no intention of being poofed into a limbless cloud today, thanks. The last time that happened, she'd joined a rebellion and gotten herself exiled from Homeworld forever.

[giveherahand]

"Random poofings can just happen?" Mara asked.

Back to being a boy. Siiiigh.

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot hunkered down all the more.

"Not randomly. It happens when something damages a Gem's body too badly for her to be able to recover from it."

So, like when Garnet had crushed her with her bare hands.

Garnet was something of a brute when she had a mind to be. But... she wasn't bad. For a fusion.

[giveherahand]

"Why would they do that?" Mara asked.

[era_two_triangle]

"On Homeworld, they'll do it just because somebody has an opinion," Peridot said, thinking back to the home she couldn't get back to and feeling homesick and a little broken in spite of the subject matter of the conversation. "They'll do even worse if you're flawed."

[giveherahand]

Mara winced. "How flawed?" she asked.

Her galaxy was totally fine! Unless you were a non-human. Or a woman. Or had a different opinion.

Cough.

[era_two_triangle]

"Oh, any sort of flawed," Peridot said, perking right up. "If you're a Gem whose powers don't work right, or who happens to be off-color or malformed to the point that you can't serve your purpose, or if you have an affinity for fusing with Gems of another type, or if you speak up even a little bit against one of the Diamonds!"

She started to laugh a little at that.

... It was perhaps a slightly manic laugh. She was absolutely included in that list, herself.

[giveherahand]

"...that sounds a little like home," Mara admitted, staring down at her navel.

Which was exposed now, apparently.

[era_two_triangle]

"Well," Peridot said, frowning and kind of dangling forward as the library outfitted her with a toddler harness and leashed her to the wall, "we do call it Homeworld."

[giveherahand]

"Where they use harnesses?" Mara asked, arching her eyebrows.

[era_two_triangle]

"No," Peridot muttered as she took a seat on the floor and sulked a bit, "the harness was an Earth thing."

[giveherahand]

"An Earth thing?" Mara snickered. "What for?"

[era_two_triangle]

"As far as I can tell," Peridot said, looking more than a little bit manic as her harness released her, "it's for containing and restraining alien species of diminutive size."

Or children.

[giveherahand]

"Maybe we should get some of those," Mara mused.

Mara, NO.

[era_two_triangle]

And that was about the moment when the Pearl appeared from out of nowhere and punched Peridot in the face.

"WHY??"

Mara was absolutely welcome to put Pearl in a child harness.