fandomhigh | Library, Wednesday

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Library, Wednesday

The books were actually behaving themselves today, and so Peridot was making use of any of her spare time in the library by looking up the properties of Earth's metals. She wanted something sturdy, but lightweight, and preferably only faintly magnetic...

... Maybe capable of having an antimatter blaster built into it...

Not that she didn't enjoy being short, but she couldn't find the ladder again, and was having one of her 'I really miss my limb enhancers' days. If she could just figure out adequate replacements, maybe a ladder would be entirely unnecessary anyway.

Maybe. Hopefully.

Probably not.

[OOC: Open!]

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"Humans can be unpredictable if you don't know their culture," Breq said, guessing that Peridot wasn't familiar with any human culture, and also forgetting that she herself was supposed to be one.

"I agree that it's best to ask. It would make things easier if inhabitants accepted some kind of simple implant, but that would probably be asking too much. Many people dislike them if they're not used to them."

"Implant?"

That was enough to make Peridot curious, yes.

"What sort of implant?"

"They might not have those here," Breq said. "They probably don't. It's a technological device that can be used for various things, but in this case I was thinking about one that just tracked the subject. Other uses would be taking detailed readings, such as body temperature, hormone levels and other physical reactions. There are also implants that makes it possible for people to enjoy things like entertainments without having an external device, and to communicate with the AI of a ship or station."

Peridot frowned a little bit more the more Breq spoke, on that one.

"I... don't have a body temperature. Or hormones. And what good would tracking us be? We're already here."

"Yes, but it would make it easier to separate inhabitants from newcomers," Breq clarified. "And there is obviously no need to track those particular things here."

"Some people still wouldn't be able to be implanted," Peridot noted. "Humans, perhaps, but there are at least a few people who come to mind who... aren't that."

Take Peridot, for example.

She was made of light. And a rock.

"I'm sure something could be attached externally," Breq replied, having actually not thought about that. "Can't it? Are there adhesives that would stick to your surface for example?"

"I'm not entirely certain," Peridot replied, frowning thoughtfully. "I've never tried. And I'd have to attach it directly to my gem, or it would get lost if anything were to happen to my body."

She didn't seem terribly keen on that idea, no.

"Can you regrow the rest of your body?" Breq asked. Humans could regrow body parts where she was from, with medical assistance, but not an entire body.

"I think it would be fine to attach it to another part you don't regularly cut off."

There was no facial expression accompanying that joke.

"I don't regularly cut anything off," Peridot replied, mumbling a little. "But when my body sustains enough damage, it vanishes entirely, and my consciousness retreats into my gem. That's the only part of me that is a constant."

So that was really her only option.

"Are you still conscious then?" Breq asked, curious. "When you are only the gem?"

Peridot paused, and then shook her head a little.

"Not really," she replied. "I've only ever had my body damaged to that extent once, but when I re-formed, to me it was as though no time had passed."

She knew it was different for some Gems, but she'd picked up again in the middle of the same sentence she'd been halfway through when she was poofed.

"So you are dependent on your friends if you reach that state," Breq concluded. "Have you considered creating some kind of armour for yourself?"

Peridot tilted her head at Breq curiously at that.

"To prevent that extent of damage in the first place, or to guard my gem after it's happened?"

"Both, but I was thinking more about the first one."

An instant later, she activated her own armour, which immediately covered her body in a metallic shimmer.

That earned a blink.

Okay, it earned two blinks. Peridot hadn't seen that coming.

"Ooooooo."

And she liked it.

"This kind of armour is more or less impenetrable by most weapons. Impact still affects me, but this kind of protection makes the soldiers in my universe feared."

She deactivated her armour. "This is more personal defense than what we were talking about before, but as you are good at building things I thought I'd mention looking into some kind of protection suited to your body."

"I used to have at least some protection," Peridot noted, still kind of looking wistfully at the place where Breq's armor had been. "I lost it when my last body was poofed into a limbless cloud."

She wrinkled her nose.

"It was thrown into the ocean."

She seemed to have a problem with people throwing her things into the water.

Throwing her things in the water wasn't particularly nice.

"Could you replace it?" Breq asked.

"I hope to," Peridot replied. "It would protect my body and be useful in addressing my other... deficiencies... as well."

"What other deficiencies?" Breq asked.

"My size," Peridot sighed. "It's most inconvenient here. And I'm still re-learning how to run."

That was frustrating.

"You are unable to run?" Breq asked. She hadn't expected that.

"Were you able to adjust your size before?"

"No," Peridot sighed. "My size has always been the same. But I had arm and leg attachments that augmented my height and provided me with several tools that I needed in order to do my job back on Homeworld. Being without after wearing them for thousands of years means my coordination has suffered."

A lot.

"Understandable."

It wasn't the same, of course, but Breq knew how it felt when she had had a new segment connected, and how it felt before the body had adjusted.

Library, Wednesday

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