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A peridot made its way to Yellow Diamond to discuss a new colonization. Peridot wanted to discuss another thing too, but it didn't know if it could squeeze it in. Yellow had a very tight schedule. It walked alongside Yellow's pearl. Anxious, they approached Yellow's door. Pearl opened the door. She walked in, saluted Yellow, and said "Peridot has arrived, my diamond." She stepped aside and Peridot walked up.
"Hello, Peridot." She said. Peridot shivered and then saluted. "Hello, my diamond. I am here to discuss the new colony." It said, trying not to stammer. It was nervous.
"Good. You are to fly to this planet and gather information on it for a new colony. It should be an in and out trip. You are to explore for a few days, log the data you found, and come back." She said, looking at a screen in front of her. "I'm sending you with one of my amethysts, one of my jaspers, and an agate to keep them in their place. We don't know how dangerous this planet is and you need the extra muscle. You will meet them outside and they will take you to a ship. That will be all." She was very stern and powerful with all of her words.
Peridot gulped. "My diamond. I have more to discuss." It said, stumbling on their words a bit. Yellow Diamond glared. "What is it? You better be quick. My next appointment is in 10 minutes." She grumbled.
"Well, I've heard of this planet. It's called Earth. And I heard that not everyone there is specifically like us. They aren't all referred to as she and I was wondering if you could start referring to me with other pronouns?" Peridot explained, hoping that it wouldn't get instantly poofed.
"What?" Yellow said, a slight tone of anger in her voice. She stood up. "You are to be who you are made to be. You will not go around asking people to call you something other than what you are. You will not bring this up again, do you hear me?" She shouted. Peridot nodded. "Yes, my diamond. I am very sorry for bringing it up. I won't speak of it again." It was holding back tears. "Good. Now, you have wasted my time. Go on then." She sat back down as her pearl opened the door again.
Pearl brought it to the ship and opened the ship door. She saluted Peridot as they walked in. "Would you like a tour around the ship?" Pearl asked. Peridot shook its head. "No, I'm familiar with these ships." It said, just wanting to be alone until the quartzes and the agate arrived. "Well then. Good luck on your trip!" She chimed and then left. Peridot hung its head down, and began to cry.
—
The door opened and in came an amethyst, a jasper (who had limb enhancers), and a moss agate. Moss agates were the kindest agates. Typically, fire agates were sent on missions to watch quartzes but they must have not had any available at the moment. Moss agates were typically caregivers and took care of the quartzes while the other would keep them in line.
Peridot lifted its head and quickly wiped away its tears. Peridot locked eyes with the amethyst, noticing they had visors similar to its own visors but more square. It had never seen that before. There was a short jasper with limb enhancers like its own limb enhancers but orange. And the moss agate was short and chubby. She looked similar to a holly blue agate in stature, but was way shorter.
The moss agate stepped up. "Hello! I'm the Moss Agate assigned to keep an eye on these two here and help out on the mission." She said with a smile on her face. "This is Amethyst, Facet-5 cut 6XA, and Jasper, Facet-9 cut 4FM." They both waved. Peridot waved back at them.
"I'm sorry we're late. Jasper was having trouble finding her limb enhancers." Moss Agate explained. Peridot shrugged. "It's fine. I have the ship ready for takeoff whenever." It said, unenthusiastically. "Do you want a tour around the ship?"
—
Once they returned to the cockpit and were in the air, Amethyst walked up to Peridot. "Hello!" They said, startling Peridot. "Oh, hi." It said turning to look at Amethyst. It hadn't quite gotten a closer look at them yet. Their gem was placed on their right arm. They had two toned eyes and short hair. 'I've never seen an amethyst with shorter hair.' it thought to itself.
"I've never been on a ship before. At least not like this." Amethyst said. They looked around. "I've been on many ships like this." Peridot said and turned the ship on autopilot.
"Oh really? That's cool." They said with a goofy smile. Peridot reluctantly smiled back. "Are you sure you're an amethyst? You talk like an aquamarine with that accent." It joked. Amethyst giggled. "I get told that my voice sounds weird a lot." They said and shrugged.
"Well, those two sure are chatty." Moss Agate said to Jasper. "Yeah. To be fair, Amethyst is always chatty, though." She said and shrugged.
—
It had been a few hours when all the sudden there was a loud BOOM.
Peridot rushed to the control panel to see that they ran into an asteroid, blowing out their communications. "Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no oh no." Peridot said, beginning to panic. They messed around with the panel trying to get communications back up before it accidentally shut the engine down trying to get the communications back up.
"Oh no." Peridot said. "Everyone to the escape pods! We're going to crash!" It shouted, causing everyone to start rushing to the escape pods. There were only two pods Peridot helped Moss Agate and Jasper in. They didn't fit.
"Jasper, I'm sorry but you're going to have to take your limb enhancers off." It said. Jasper shrugged but then pulled them off and threw them out. Peridot set the coordinates to the nearest planet and sent them off.
Peridot frowned and took its limb enhancers off. It didn't want to but it knew it had to. Amethyst began to climb into the pod. Peridot entered the pod and entered the coordinates. The pod launched itself out.
"So, how long are we going to be cramped in here?" Amethyst asked. "About an hour or so. Give or take. But, good news, the closest planet appears to have a base there so maybe we can send a signal to Yellow." Peridot answered, causing Amethyst to groan. "Ugh! That seems like such a long time to be crammed in here." They said, crossing their arms. "Might as well tell me about yourself while we wait." Peridot said. "Well, you better tell me about yourself too!"
—
After talking about their backstories and where they're from, Peridot asked "Do you know about earthlings?" Amethyst nodded. "A little. Why?" They asked. "Well, I told Yellow about this and she got mad so you have to keep this from her, ok?" It said. Amethyst nodded. "I promise."
"So, they refer to each other as different things like, not just she. And- and I think I don't like she. Like everyone else." Peridot stammered, nervous. "Oh. Me too." Amethyst said softly and reassuringly. "Um, before I got sent back to Homeworld, I met some humans and they thought I was a human man and they called me he. And I really like it but then I realized that can't happen. I will never be a human man y'know? I dunno it's just… hard." They said.
Peridot felt this bubbly feeling wind up in its stomach. Someone else felt this way? "Um. What pronouns do you like?" It asked. "Um… They. And he too. I like them both," he looked at Peridot. "what about you?" They asked. "I know this might sound weird but, it. I like it. It just feels right to me." Peridot said. Amethyst nodded. "Okay. Is it okay if I tell Moss Agate and Jasper? They already know about me and they won't tell the diamonds." They asked. Peridot nodded, feeling strangely comfortable for being so squished in. "Yeah, you can." It said, a warm feeling in its chest
—
Soon, they landed. Peridot opened the pod and stepped out. It held its hand out and helped Amethyst out. The planet was very gray and sandy. The sky was black with a sun basically completely set in the background. Moss Agate and Jasper were already out.
Peridot looked at them, smiled, and waved. It realized that Amethyst already had a close relationship with both of them. He ran over to them and hugged them. Peridot walked up to the three. It wanted to tell Moss Agate and Jasper about the conversation that it and Amethyst had but over thought it and decided that now wasn't a good time. It tensed up thinking about talking about it.
"Oh, hey. Peridot you should tell them about what you told me." Amethyst said with a kind smile, cutting off it's thoughts. "Oh, uh. I don't like feminine pronouns used on me. Please use it." It said quickly, slightly embarrassed and scared. It's face flushed. "Cool." Jasper said with a thumbs up. "Like, I don't care what you call me." Jasper continued to say with a chuckle. Moss Agate nodded in agreement. "I don't mind. I like she but I think it's fine that you don't." She said and smiled.
Peridot let out a sigh of relief. "Let's talk about our plan." It looked at the ground and started drawing on the ground and drawing with its finger. "We rest until the sun comes up tomorrow and once it's sunny, we go to the diamond base. We'll try to communicate there and hope we don't get in trouble." Peridot said with an anxious smile.
—
Jasper scooted closer to Moss Agate. "Hey. Hey Mossy. Heyyy." Jasper whispered. Moss Agate looked at Jasper. "Hm?" She hummed. "How much you wanna bet those two will be together by when we get back home?" She asked and giggled. Moss Agate looked at the two who were chatting and giggling. When Amethyst wrapped their arm around Peridot, a small blush spread across its face. "Oh definitely. Well, it depends when we get home."
Jasper's face lit up. "I have a bit of a fucked up idea." She said with a huge smile. "Let's run into the diamond base faster than them, grab the diamond communication line thingy majig and hide it." They said quietly. Moss Agate gasped. "That is so risky. Let's do it." She said and smirked.
—
Soon, the sun rose and they were walking to the base. Moss Agate and Jasper walked faster and ahead of them. "They seem excited. I don't know why." Peridot said with a shrug. "Yeah. I'm pretty excited too though." Amethyst said and looked at their feet.
Soon, they got there and as soon as the door was open, Moss Agate and Jasper dashed indoors and up the stairs. They grabbed the communication line and Moss Agate stuffed it in her gem then proceeded to act super interested in everything else, Jasper following suit.
Once Peridot and Amethyst got up there, Peridot searched for it and then realized it wasn't there. "What? No… No no." It said, searching for it. Amethyst was looking outside from the huge dome and noticed a dropship. "Oh oh! Peridot! There's a dropship down here!" Amethyst exclaimed. "What? Lemme see." Said Peridot.
Peridot looked and noticed it wasn't in bad shape. At least it looked like it wasn't from where they were. Peridot quickly ran down and began to examine the ship.
After a few hours, Peridot ruled out that it could probably repair the ship enough for it to get to Homeworld. Amethyst smiled and wrapped his arms around Peridot and gave it a strong squish.
—
A month or so had passed and Peridot was almost done with the ship. It was late and the other gems were in the moon base. Or so it thought.
Amethyst had dumped his heart out on their feelings for Peridot and had been convinced to go out there and tell it. Moss Agate and Jasper watched from the base while Amethyst walked out to confess. They were extremely anxious.
Peridot heard them approaching and turned around. "Oh. Amethyst. What's up?" It asked. Amethyst gulped and felt their chest tighten. "Um… So, it's been about a month together, stranded and we've been hanging out a lot and…" they looked at Peridot who was very confused. Their face flushed. "And I keep thinking about you and how nice you are and how you're kinda really adorable. And, um." They stammered before walking up to Peridot and kissing it.
Peridot didn't know what to do. It sat there, in shock, frozen. Amethyst pulled away. "Oh god. I'm sorry, I-" they began to say but got cut off with a kiss. Amethyst closed their eyes and kissed back.
Suddenly, they opened their eyes and they were taller. "Woah… Peridot where are…" They started and looked at their 4 arms. They yelped in shock and looked at themself in the reflection of the dropship.
They had 4 arms, one pair thicker than the other. They had 4 eyes and their hair was fluffy yet slightly pointy. Their visor was more opaque than Amethyst's but still square. Their skin was green with purple splotches and so were their gems. Their hair was white with a purple and green stripe through it. "What… are we? I think…" they thought for a moment. "rain flower jade… I think." They said. Soon the realization hit them. "Oh god. This is so not allowed. Oh no, oh no. We fused and…" they said as they broke apart. They stared at each other, before Peridot got up and tackled Amethyst in a hug.
"We should leave. To Earth. I… I don't wanna go to Homeworld again." Amethyst said, out of breath. Peridot nodded in agreement. "Me neither."
