sith_happened | Office hours, Tuesday, September 13, 2016

"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.

"Well, that's not exactly the same thing," Anakin said softly. "That sounds more like genocide than societal change."

"That was their point," Peridot replied, looking down at the top of Anakin's desk. "Gem society didn't change. The Diamonds lost Earth, but in exchange, they guaranteed that no Gem would ever dare rise up against them again. It was a calculated loss. The Diamonds are nothing if not logical."

"Heartless, I'd say," Anakin muttered.

That one earned a curious glance from the little green alien, yeah.

"What does heart have to do with ruling an empire?"

"Ruling can't all come from your head," Anakin said, tapping his fingers along the desk. "In order to be a truly just one, you need to listen to your heart as well."

"But emotions cloud judgement," Peridot countered, sounding more confused than argumentative. "There's a difference between 'just' and 'effective,' too."

... She'd been indoctrinated real good.

"My Diamond - Yellow Diamond - is the most rational, logical decision maker of them all. She makes her choices based on what's best for the Gem empire. It's what makes us strong."

And Peridot's mind processed logic much more readily than emotion. That wasn't even a Gem thing, really. That was pure Peri.

"Oh, really?" Anakin said. "Let me have an example of her decisions."

Anakin had worked for a lot of different kinds of ineffective leadership. Plus an actual psychopath.

"Every move that Homeworld's warriors have made for the past five thousand years," Peridot replied, blinking. "The concept and creation of a geoweapon capable of destroying entire worlds?"

...

Peridot, that was a bad thing.

"Why is it always the planet-destroyers?" Anakin groaned. "What possible use could blowing up a planet be for anyone?"

"It's a far more expedient means of extracting resources from an entire planet," Peridot offered, helpfully. "Blow it up from the inside and then harvest the resources from the resulting asteroids, rather than carving it open from the outside heading in."

Anakin, through a supreme act of will, did not beat his head against his desk until he passed out. "Uninhabited planets?"

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