sith_happened | Office hours, Tuesday, September 13, 2016

"But there's an entire multiverse out there," Peridot replied, looking... somewhere between puzzled and disgusted, really. "What kind of clod actually thinks they know all there possibly is to know?"

And if anybody actually managed to learn it all, could Peridot know their secret?

"You'd be surprised," Anakin said dryly. "There are a lot of clods."

See Peridot. See Peridot look distinctly perturbed by this possibility. For a species that seemed to pride itself on its ability to grow and change, it seemed more than a little counterintuitive for them to decide to stop learning.

"Well... I don't intend to be one," she said, at length. "Not whenever I can help it. What I said in the first class about Pearls bothered you. Why?"

Anakin blew out a long breath. "Perhaps you should sit down. It's rather a long story."

Peridot tilted her head slightly, but pulled up a chair all the same.

"I have all the time in the world," she said. It was funny because for all she knew, the world could blow up at any moment. See? She was getting the hang of Earth comedy. Or at least inside jokes. "Please, explain."

"A long time ago, in another galaxy, when I was a young child, I was..." Anakin haaaated talking about this, but pressed on quickly, "I was someone else's property, and considered of slightly more importance than his shoes, if his species had been able to wear any."

Peridot considered that for a moment, and then ventured, "And it's safe to assume in this scenario that shoes aren't worth much?"

In her species, clothing kind of came permanently fused to one's body. Because it wasn't real. The closest that she had were her limb enhancers, and they were worth more to her than most people she knew. She was making certain she had the analogy straight.

"In this scenario, shoes are completely disposable," Anakin said. "A word that should never apply to a sentient being."

Peridot's mouth opened slightly, kind of hung that way for a few seconds, and then shut again. She'd gotten a similar impression from basically every organic being she'd spoken to on the island, especially the Gratuity and Professor Wiggin, but it was still a concept that she was working on really processing.

"Homeworld tends to think that way of any Gem not fulfilling their primary function," she said, carefully. "We are simply what we're made for. To deviate from that would be rebellion deserving of being harvested, or shattered."

And then, in an effort to kind of put where she stood on the topic into perspective, she added, "My being here, talking about this with you right now, could be taken that way, as well. But as I'm stranded on this planet and unable to fulfill my purpose on Homeworld... I want to understand."

Anakin nodded again. "And that's very brave of you. What does being harvested mean?"

"The destruction of our corporeal body in order to collect our gems for future... recycling, I suppose," Peridot offered, and shuddered. "Gems don't die unless we're shattered, and even then, the shards retain a sort of partial consciousness, just aware enough to know we're broken. But we can have our bodies destroyed and our minds stored away within our gems indefinitely."

It was pretty powerful incentive for doing as they were told.

"Well, that's horrifying," Anakin said flatly. "They recycle sentient beings into a new one?"

"I wouldn't call what comes out the other end 'sentient,'" Peridot replied, flatly.

It had been her job to check on the experiments in forced fusion, and the horrific mishmash of stitched together limbs that emerged from the injection sites were less 'sentient beings' and more... fragments of broken consciousnesses, looking to be whole again. And probably screaming inside the entire time.

"But... more or less. What were your consequences for non-compliance?"

"Being beaten, or sold to another owner," Anakin said. "Or death. Depended on his mood, really."

Peridot wrinkled her nose a little. The man sounded... deplorable. Which was much easier to accept in relation to somebody else's master than to the Gems who did the same thing to low-ranking common Gems like herself.

"And as a result, you take the matter personally."

"As a Jedi, I was taught to distance myself from my feelings, but I was a slave until I was ten. My mother was a slave most of her life. I can't turn my emotions off on this," Anakin agreed.

Peridot gave a faint nod, looking at Anakin thoughtfully.

"Then... I... apologize," she was bad at these, please bear with her, Anakin, "for jarring that memory. It was not my intention to do anything upsetting. I'm still learning."

"That's why you're at a school," Anakin said. "No one's expected to know everything, and even with the best of intentions we make mistakes. It's how you recover from them that forms your character."

Peridot gave Anakin a look that was bordering on a wry smile.

"I'm not supposed to form character," she noted. "I'm supposed to be what I was made to be. A technician of Homeworld. A scientist who builds new Gems and keeps records of Homeworld's experiments. I wasn't anticipating ending up... here. I'm still not completely certain what it is I'm hoping to accomplish by remaining in this place."

"Can you return home?" Anakin asked. "If you wished to, I mean."

Peridot frowned and shook her head.

"I've been trying," she admitted. "All the warps back to Homeworld have been destroyed. The ship was destroyed, my escape pod is beyond the point of being salvageable. Earth communications devices haven't proven to be strong enough to send a signal to Homeworld's galaxy in any reasonable amount of time. And Portalocity is..." She wrinkled her nose. "Useless. They're useless. So, while I'm here, I've been trying to make the best of it."

She fidgeted, which mostly involved her fingers kind of weaving in between one another.

"Mostly I've learned a lot of things that I probably shouldn't take home with me."

"They are resistant to change," Anakin said, nodding.

"It frightens me a little, the way you humans think," Peridot replied, quietly. "The last time a Gem tried to teach notions of individuality and personal choice to other Gems, it started a war that led to countless Gems becoming shattered or corrupted. One of the Diamonds was shattered. Homeworld would never risk something like that happening again."

Anakin nodded again. "Change is chaotic and painful. When did that war end?"

Peridot chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment before replying, "Over 5,000 years ago, when the three remaining Diamonds decided to cut their losses and they unleashed a weapon that destroyed the minds of every Gem left on the Earth. Those who were party to the rebellion, and Homeworld's own fighters."

They clearly weren't too concerned about any Gem that wasn't a Diamond. More Gems could always be made, after all.

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