Abandoned Crystal System Colony Planet Earth - Friday, Fandom Time

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It had all started with the Crystal Gems taking a break. A break! In building the drill! To save the planet! The work was so tantalizingly close to being done that Peridot had complained to Steven, vehemently. It had involved waving a little power drill in the air for emphasis. Which had, as most things around here seemed to do, inspired Steven to

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Anakin
"No!" Anakin said. "Planet destroying is not a good thing."

And he knew from planet destroying.



Peridot
Peridot made a disgruntled sound of frustration right about the same time Steven made a dive for the crystal in her hand, and since her arm was being held in place, there wasn't exactly anything she could do to stop him.

"Why do I keep sticking my neck out for you? You're never gonna be on our side!" He clutched the thing close, and then made a break for the barn door. "Garnet! Amethyst! Pearl!"

"Steven, no!" Peridot wriggled and squirmed, trying to free herself from Jalian's grip. "Don't get them! Steven! Release me!"



Tip
Tip thought about J.Lo and how mad he got when she always second guessed his plans. Maybe Peridot was onto something? Maybe the diamonds would help? She didn't know Steven as well; she didn't know if he was overreacting or not.

So she ran after him and tackled him, sending the crystal flying.

"Heyyyy!" he cried, and tried to scramble after it again. Tip sat on him.

"Let's at least hear her out, okay?" Tip looked back at Peridot. "What's your actual plan?"



Peridot (et al)
Peridot's plan, apparently, was to pull herself free of Jalian and make a dive for the communicator, clutching it fiercely to her chest and turning to Steven with a hiss.

The overall effect was a bit like that of a mildly irritated kitten, but she figured she got her point across.

The fact that the Crystal Gems were appearing in the barn doorway in response to Steven's cries mostly just served to make Peridot growl again, this time in frustration, and then drop down to all fours to scamper out of the barn, blowing right by them as she went and earning a few confused looks from the trio as she did so.

"Did she have--" A bemused Pearl asked, looking back over her shoulder.

"Yep," Garnet agreed. And then she called her gauntlets to her.

This was going well.



Jalian
Jalian scowled and stepped between the Gems and where Peridot had gone. "No. You won't be hurting her."



Steven
Peridot looked over her shoulder as she ran, giving a delighted little cackle. This was what friends were for, right?

Steven didn't seem quite so thrilled, squirming and writhing under Tip. He probably could have picked her up and thrown her- he did have the partial strength of a Quartz, after all - but there were some things you just didn't do.

"Peridot, I trusted you! I spend all that time bonding and hoping and caring about you!"

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Peridot
Peridot could barely hear, rounding on her heel and holding up the communicator.

"You don't get it either! This is your whole problem! Your emotions rule out reason!" She turned the top half of the crystal so that the yellow facet aligned with the yellow facet on the bottom, and then stepped back with a satisfied smile as the whole device began to glow, and then lifted into the air. "I will do what has to be done!"

... That would be the Gems, ducking quickly into the barn and out of sight as a hologram formed, revealing the somewhat distracted face of a yellow Pearl.

"This is the Yellow Diamond control room," she said, sounding dryly unimpressed. "Who authorized you to make this call?"

"No-one," Peridot replied, looking somewhat chagrined. "B-b-but this is an emergency!"



Tip
Tip noticed the other gems hiding away and did her best to stay out of the crystal's . . . camera? . . . range. While she blatantly listened in on the conversation. As you do.



Yellow Diamond
Peridot still looked as though she was sweating bullets as the Pearl on the other side of the call turned up her nose at her.

"That's no excuse to use the direct Diamond communication channel--"

"Pearl."

The voice that came from offscreen was calm. Poised.

Cold.

"Yes, my Diamond?"

"Why is there someone on the Diamond line?"

"I don't know," the Pearl said, sounding... frightened? Frightened. "I was just about to tell her that-"

"I'll take it from here." A giant hand came into view on the screen, re-angling the crystal on her own end so that it was directed toward her face. She didn't so much as look toward Peridot, however, her expression bored. Inconvenienced.



Peridot
"My diamond!" Peridot struck a pose that could only be a salute, crossing her arms over her chest and bending her hands back so that when her fingertips touched, the overall shape created a diamond. "Peridot, reporting in."

"Which Peridot?"

"F-Facet-2F5L, Cut-5XG." Peridot herself looked as though she was going to just faint at any moment, clearly nervous. "I'm sorry to contact you this way, but all other forms of communications have been destroyed and--"



Yellow Diamond
Yellow Diamond held up a hand, signalling for silence. She was looking at a monitor on her end of the call, frowning in annoyance.

"This says you're behind schedule on your mission to..." A sudden spark of fierce interest flared up in her eyes, and she looked toward Peridot for the first time during the call. "How is... the Earth?"

"It's..." Peridot grimaced a little. "Full of life?"

"Organic life," Yellow Diamond replied, disgust dripping from every drawn out syllable. "And where is the Jasper I assigned you? And why aren't you calling from the ship?"

"The ship was destroyed," Peridot said, wincing.

"By whom?"

The menace in Yellow Diamond's voice was thick and clear. If the ship had been destroyed on a mission to Earth...

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Rufus
So, it turned out, Rufus was only mostly out of fucks to give, because when Peridot clambered out of the barn on all fours--Shiva's tits, she had no dignity at all--and summoned a...

Well.

That was one way to make a phone call.

Rufus weighed the odds of being able to get close enough to hear and remain unnoticed with how long the Diamond was likely to let Peridot talk and, reluctantly, decided it was probably a lost cause.

But he was watching. Peridot's expressions would still tell him something.



Peridot
By whom? Who destroyed the ship? Peridot looked around frantically for a second before replying.

"I-I-I-It was destroyed by..." She stared at the barn for a few seconds. "No one! There was... an accident... while we were...landing?"

Oof. That wasn't terribly convincing. Even Yellow Diamond raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"I'll inform your manager of your incompetence. And what is the status of The Cluster?"

"The Cluster..." Peridot chewed her lip, "will emerge shortly."

"Good." Yellow Diamond's voice sounded pleased for the first time in the conversation. "We'll finally get some use out of that miserable planet... Thank you for your report, Peridot. There'll be a ship heading to your location to take you to your next assignment."

Yellow Diamond reached to terminate the call.

"Wait!" Okay. Okay okay okay, Peridot could do this. "I-I wouldn't have called just to waste your time with a report."

"You already have," Yellow Diamond replied in a tone so dry that Peridot balked and cringed away from the screen.

"No," she managed, "I mean... the reason I called... the real reason is... I believe we should terminate The Cluster."



Yellow Diamond
"... Why?"

"The organic ecosystem creates resources unique to this world," Peridot explained quickly, "we can't sacrifice all that potential just for one geo-weapon! I'd like to tell you some plans I came up with to utilize a planet without disrupting the local-"

"I've heard enough!" And now the Diamond's voice was coldly condescending, her words coming out clipped, pronouncing each syllable carefully. "I don't care about potential and resources."

"What?!"

Peridot was absolutely gobsmacked. With Homeworld as low on resources as it was, a statement like that made no sense at all. It... it was insanity.

"I want my Cluster," Yellow Diamond said, "and I want that planet to die. Just make that happen."

"No!"

The word exploded out of Peridot's mouth almost before she was aware she was going to say it, and the second it had, she looked like she was going to be ill. Which would be a mean feat for a Gem, but special circumstances...

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Jalian
Jalian scowled at the Diamond. She was tempted, very tempted, to march up there and have it out with her. But she couldn't exactly knife her, and Peridot seemed to have words covered for the moment, so...

Jalian grumped and stayed where she was, poised to run out there if anything happened.



Yellow Diamond
Peridot looked faint. The Pearl on the other side of the line gasped. Yellow Diamond... Yellow Diamond looked like she was about to shatter somebody.

"Are you questioning my authority?!"

"I'm... questioning your objectivity!" Peridot fell into another diamond-shaped salute, sweat forming on her face. "My Diamond."

"You," the screen's view shifted as Yellow Diamond stood, her Pearl shrinking out of the way to avoid being crushed underfoot, "are out of line."

"I just think-"

"I'm not interested in the puny thoughts of a Peridot!"

"But-"

"You," Yellow Diamond snarled, "have disrespected this channel and my time with your presence and you would do well to-"

"But-"

"Shut your mouth!" The sound came forth from the communicator so fiercely that Peridot clamped her mouth shut by reflex, shrinking away from the angry Diamond's reprimand. "You have failed at every stage of this mission. Your only chance to redeem yourself is to obey this simple order. You are to leave the Cluster to grow. It will tear apart the Earth, and I will take immense satisfaction in erasing that hideous rock off of our star maps. Is that clear?!"



Peridot
"I won't do it!" And once again, Peridot was raising her voice, going from an outburst to a full-on screaming tirade, zero to sixty. "I can tell you with certainty that there are things on this planet worth protecting!"

"What," Yellow Diamond yelled back, "do you know about the Earth?"

"Apparently more than YOU! You... CLOD!!"

If looks could kill, the one that Yellow Diamond gave Peridot would have turned her gem into dust. The Crystal Gems clamped hands over their mouths to keep from gasping aloud, and Peridot fell into another hasty salute, eyes wide, before spitting out a quick, "Peridot, out!"

She snatched the communicator, terminated the call, and stared with wide, horrified eyes at the crystal in her hand.

[kenselvren]

Jalian was still scowling at where the Diamond had been when she came out to see Peridot. "Idiot. Her, I mean." She nodded her head toward where the picture had been. "Will it make any difference?"

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Peridot stared at the crystal in mute shock for another few seconds, distantly aware that she was being spoken to. It was Garnet, then, who stepped up to answer Jalian's question while the little green Gem processed what had just gone on.

"Yellow Diamond has a grudge against Earth," she explained, though she was looking pleased at what had just transpired. Look at Peridot, all grown up and telling off the elites. "It marks the site of the first real loss that Homeworld's empire ever experienced. She's made it personal."

"I can't believe I just did that," Peridot lamented, somehow managing to look more green than usual.

[kenselvren]

"Good for you," Jalian said. "She deserved it. So," she said to Garnet, "no difference then. Unless she'll try to stop us?"

[square_mom]

"She'll try," Garnet replied, giving one short nod. "The Cluster is a revenge that she's had in the making for thousands of years. She'll try. She'll have a difficult time of it if she thinks she'll be able to get Homeworld forces here in time to stop us, though."

"I can't believe I just did that," Peridot said again, sounding dazed. Very, very dazed.

[kenselvren]

"Why not?" Jalian asked.

Then, belatedly, "Both of you."

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"Because we've destroyed every means of getting here that isn't direct space travel," Garnet said at the exact same time Peridot groaned again, holding the communicator up in the air.

The other Gems were catching up to them now, Amethyst crowing a victorious, "Yellow D got torn down by the Peri-dactyl!"

"Can one of you take this?" Peridot wasn't even looking at who she was holding the communicator to, just so long as it wasn't in her hand.

[kenselvren]

Jalian took it, then shrugged and looked around, and Pearl took it from her.

"She won't stop us, then," she answered Garnet, then nodded to Peridot. "You stood up to your leader when she wasn't acting for the good of the tribe. It was your duty."

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"Why am I holding this?" Pearl blinked down at the communicator curiously.

"Because it can be detonated remotely," Peridot muttered numbly, and then balled herself up a little bit more, ignoring the Gems' reactions to this news as the communicator started to glow a dangerous red. "... My duty?"

The fact that they were all apparently about to die was taking a back seat to this.

"... You really think so?"

[kenselvren]

"Ken Selvren ways are not Gem ways," Jalian said. "But the leader is supposed to do what's best for the tribe. If she isn't, it is the job of every woman to speak out against her, to ensure the tribe's safety."

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Peridot looked up at Jalian quietly while Pearl and Amethyst threw the communicator-now-bomb back and forth a few times. Steven bubbled it.

Garnet punched the thing into the stratosphere, where it made for a fantastic light show in the distance.

"... Uuuuuuuuuggggghhhhh," Peridot said, because that seemed easier than processing everything that was going on. And then, for good measure, she balled herself up tighter and said it again.

[kenselvren]

Jalian rolled her eyes, picked up Peridot, and set her on her feet. "It's done. No point in worrying after."