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Library, Wednesday

Peridot was an actual, literal gemstone with a hard-light projection for a body. Whatever was happening on the island this week, she was not only immune by virtue of being an inorganic object, she was also immune by virtue of finding everything involved with organic reproduction to be seriously icky.

Not that she knew what was going on, really. Some dogs had behaved a little too enthusiastically in class today. People were cranky on the radio. And there was a gremlin in the library attempting to convince her to run away with him and live in the sewers and cracks in the walls forever.

She was going to have to take a pass on that, but she appreciated the offer.

[OOC: Open!]

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With a little perspective, Sidon realized that this week wouldn't be nearly so difficult for him if only it were happening back home, with his own people. As it was, he not only felt very confused about everything happening to him, but he felt very much like even if the feelings were similar, no one could really understand because they weren't Zora. He was surrounded by creatures that, while usually not that strange, were suddenly supremely foreign and odd, fascinating in their differences, both wildly alluring and incredibly grotesque.

And he felt confident in his conclusion that none of them had pursued any baffling, embarrassing encounters with a dolphin, either.

The only thing he could think to do, then, was to seek out the person who knew best who also wasn't even remotely human.

"Salutations, Peridot," Sidon smiled a little when he found her in the library, shifting quite a bit, because, even if he wasn't feeling so uncomfortable in his own skin right now, dry land was getting to be particularly difficult as the days went on. Plus, he didn't exactly know how to broach the subject in a more polite fashion, anyway. "Err...um....how are you today?"

"Sidon," Peridot greeted, and then waved a hand, trying to shoo away the flirtatious gremlin who had been coming around the corner with a bouquet of those flowers to present to her in another attempt to woo her. "I'm well enough, I suppose."

She tilted her head at him, letting the gremlin to its sulking at yet another rejection.

"What brings you around today?"

"Oh," said Sidon, grinning after the dejected gremlin, more than happy to seize on something to distract him...or at least delay him...on his course to his original intention in stopping by, "I see you have a bit of a paramour, Peridot."

A decidedly non-human one, which delighted him more than it should have. But, then again, Peridot seemed to be able to do one thing with her gremlin that he hadn't been able to do with his dolphin: actually say no...

"I have no idea what that means," Peridot intoned, glancing at Sidon again. "It wants me to go live underground with it."

Which... wasn't entirely a terrible idea, admittedly. Gems were perfectly comfortable underground, at least.

"I am not well versed in the mind of a gremlin," Sidon admitted, still unable to wipe that grin from his face, "but I do believe that means it may be rather sweet on you. I believe it may be interested in mating."

"In mating?"

Peridot was giving Sidon such a horrified look, now.

"I don't do that!"

"I...rather believe it is unaware of that fact," Sidon noted, his grin now a pleased on as his little attempt to ask about such a thing without actually saying the words had worked. Although now he felt himself grow a little curious about whether the Goron actually mated. Had he ever heard of or seen a female Goron?

He shook his head, hoping to shake away the images of feminine rocks before they became too present, especially since he would rather it didn't start making his conversation with Peridot as awkward as everything else this week.

"The island appears to have entered its mating season," he mused, his smile turning a bit sheepish. "The presence of human pheromones is almost overwhelming me, if I must be truly honest. I was hoping to seek you out to escape it for a while...wondering if it, ahh...might...be...influencing any other...non-humans...too..."

Peridot tilted her head up at Sidon, looking thoughtful.

"Well, it's clearly affecting the gremlins," she noted, looking askance in the direction her admirer had slunk off to. "But I'm a Gem. We aren't made for whatever it is that the island is trying to get people to do."

She paused, and then added, "Well, most of us aren't. Some of us can be. I'm not one of them."

And the small little flutter in his stomach in the brief moment between Some of us and I'm not one of them proved to Sidon that this idea was much more complicated in reality than it had been in his head.

Oh, sweet ocean, calling to him again! He let out a slow breath, which turned into a rather nervous sounding chuckle.

"Then consider me rather envious of your imperviousness to such things!" he declared. "It has been....most peculiar. Say! Do you suppose there might be records on file in this glorious library that might present a hint for how long this season might last? I am afraid if it is too much longer, I'd best be returning to Zora's Domain until it subsides..."

Peridot looked at Sidon thoughtfully, and then slipped down from her seat, going hunting for periodicals.

"I did see something about pollen before," she offered. "I believe it's an annual occurrence, but I'm not sure how long it tends to run. Still, finding out should be pretty easy. We keep excellent records here."

Peridot's thoughtful look was met with one of awkward suspicion, but Sidon assured himself that he was very likely reading too much into things before following her down the stacks. "I would expect nothing less," he said, "a fine establishment such as this! I have yet to be disappointed in any of my searches for things here, and I'm certain this will be no exception!"

Whether or not the information would offer what he was hoping to discover, however, was another matter entirely.

Peridot? Doing something suspicious?

... Well, all the time, granted. But in this case she was just going to rummage for old newspapers, perking up a little when she found one from an appropriate date with a headline about pollen. A few more minutes of rummaging, and there was another one about how it was gone.

"A week," she declared. "It's usually a week-long thing."

And while Peridot rummaged, Sidon shifted his weight almost nervously between his feet, bouncing a little, wondering if he should help, certain that he would just get in Peridot's way, eyes roaming the nearby books and wondering if there were any particularly interesting titles nearby, perhaps involving the curious thing that was human romances, or perhaps some yarn about star-crossed lovers from different worlds, he wondered what there might be in the reference section about dolphi--

"A week!" Really, the news came at just the right time. "Oh, but that's wonderful! Thank goodness! A week isn't that long at all, especially when one considers that some species probably go through mating seasons of a month or two, perhaps even half a year. So...when did this all start? Of course, you probably wouldn't have even noticed, but I do believe feeling quite a bit different upon waking up at the start of the week...yes, that would make sense if it's pollen as you say, because that was when the winter cleared up, and--" He interrupted himself with a pleased, almost excited laugh, "--that was when I took that swim! It had been so long, I suppose I initially thought my mood was due to finally getting into the water again without freezing my very gills off. Everything will likely be back to normal by Monday, then, oh that is such a relief to hear!"

Peridot blinked and tilted her head, staring up... and up... and up at Sidon while he babbled away his excitement.

"This whole thing is really uncomfortable for you, isn't it?"

Look, she'd been led to believe that all of this was somehow fun, but mostly the organic beings around here were just acting desperate and irritable. It made for some conflicting messages, really.

For a fleeting second, Sidon had considered denying it and trying to act like everything was fine, but there were two major points against that idea. One was that he didn't think he could pull off the lie even if he tried, and the second was just the relief that washed over him just being able to admit it. His whole body seemed to melt, wilting with his misery.

"Oh, Peridot," he sighed, "you haven't the slightest idea."

And it was true; she'd said so herself.

"I have never in all my years felt anything like this," he gushed. "Equal parts exhilarating and awful! Every inch of my body seems to be tingling and alive with things I've never felt before, making it seem like some foreign vessel in which I am trapped! Never before have I felt more awkward for its size; there's so much of it! And so much more than anyone else here, Peridot, and I know I'm quite different, but it's never bothered me until this week. If I were back home with fellow Zora, I'm sure this feeling would be quite welcome and exciting, but here I just feel so out of place and confused. It's absolutely terrible, and should it last longer than a week as with previous years, I'm afraid I will go home or else I might drive myself to madness! Here, at this moment, is the most comfortable I've felt all week, and even then, my discomfort is enough that you should notice..."

He sighed, the back of his palm to his head, which he tilted back in a dramatic fashion, leaning on the nearest shelf for support. A shelf which promptly creaked, and he straightened himself up once more.

"I feel slightly better when I go out to the ocean; at least then my body doesn't feel like an abomination to the world around me, but, even then, as soon as I submerge, all I can think about is..." He lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "eggs to fertilize."

Well, that was a whole lot more than Peridot ever really expected to know about how it felt to be a sexually excited organic being, outside of what she'd read in the odd, admittedly confusing romance novel.

"Your body works differently from the humans'," she mused. "They keep their eggs inside, I believe."

That was very helpful, Peridot, thank you.

"I'm afraid I can be of much help beyond finding books," she noted. "I'm not made the same way as the Gems of Era One. They could shapeshift. They could be anything they needed to be. I'm just what I am."

Logically, she could comprehend what it was she was alluding to. Scientifically, she was curious about how it all worked. Unfortunately, that was something that was simply not doable anyway.

"I am sorry that it's so uncomfortable for you," she added.

Rufus had better things to do than care about the pollen. Thankfully, his body agreed with his mind's assessment.

(One day, he'd have to navigate the issue of having an heir when he had zero interest in that sort of thing but... today was not that day.)

"If you're going at the speed of light, does that mean you'd see things that are beside you as you collide with the photons that are moving perpendicular to you?"

Hi, Peridot.

Well, hello, Rufus.

"You very well might," Peridot replied easily, "but at that rate you'd also be taking in the ones that are moving toward you from in front of you, and I don't imagine your mind would be able to process that much information all at once."

She tilted her head a little.

"I'd be more interested in finding out if moving faster than the speed of light means that you can see objects that are behind you as you catch up to the photons that are moving away from them. But that's something I won't ever be physically capable of experiencing, even if we have technology that can move faster than light itself."

He tapped his fingers on the table idly.

"That's an interesting question," he mused, turning it over in his head. "Unfortunately, you cannot experience it and of the two of us you're far more durable. A simulation wouldn't give the same depth of experience, but might answer the base question."

"It might," Peridot agreed. "Do you have technology capable of running a simulation of that sort?"

"Not on hand," Rufus admitted. "Do you?"

"I used to. Amethyst threw it into the ocean."

Which was most vexing, really.

"What an appalling waste of technology," he said, frowning slightly.

"It really is!"

And Rufus' dog used to chew on it.

"I miss it. Earth's technology does the job, but it requires a ludicrous number of workarounds in order to be functional."

Yes, but Dark Nation was a dog and didn't know better.

So there.

"Is there no way of obtaining another?"

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Library, Wednesday

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