peridork | Thisavrou

Tell me what he told you, first, so that I know what lies to address. It's a complex situation and I need to know where to start.

....no? that not how it works. I want to know what you were doing on Earth, in your own words. It shouldn't matter what Steven said.

Ugh. FINE.

To start with, I'd like to state for the record that I wasn't even supposed to be on that stupid mudball to begin with. I was assigned to check the status of the planet, and several of the gem experiments that were established there thousands of years ago, back when it was still being developed as a gem colony. I could have accomplished this without even setting foot on the planet, by remoting into one of the control centers at the Facet 5 Kindergarten. Instead, the Steven and his little rebel friends continued to smash my equipment, DESTROYED all of the warp pads AND the control center, necessitated me to take further action by reporting the incident to my superiors, which resulted in my being deployed to the planet to deal with the problem personally.

Any questions so far?

[Like, 10,000.]

Okay. Okay. I know this is probably a complicated issue, so just, work with me here. First of all, what exactly are these experiments you went to check on? You said they were thousands of years old?

I'm getting to that, but yes. You are correct. A little over 5000 years ago, Gems came to the planet Earth and began to establish a colony there. From what I understand from the reports, it was a promising site... But rebellion broke out, and eventually the plans to develop the planet had to be abandoned.

So, instead, the Diamonds decided to put the Earth to a different use, and authorized the establishment of several experiments to be left there to develop over the years. Mostly these were comprised of various fusion experiments, which were left to incubate below the Earth's surface.

What's a fusion experiment? [Steven had told him what fusion was, although that description had mostly involved....dancing. It's hard to imagine what kind of experiments could come of that.]

Ugh. I forgot I haven't explained to you what gem fusion is, have I? My apologies.

I'll try to keep it brief: Essentially, it's a method of improving the combat capabilities of certain soldier classes of gems. Since our bodies are merely illusions of hard light, gems of the same type can combine their forms into a much larger, much more powerful gem.
I wish I could provide you with a less ludicrous example, but since you're only familiar with a handful of gem types, it's probably simplest if you just imagine me and several of my fellow peridots combining into a larger peridot, closer to the size of Jasper. Or larger than that, even, if there are enough gems contributing their light to the process.

[God. Peridots. Fusing. How ridiculous!]

"Fusion experiments" refer to trials conducted to test the viability of certain methods of improving the efficiency of the fusion process. In this particular case, they were samples of gem shards melded together and left to incubate in a kindergarten in the manner of a normal gem. Being a certified Kindergartner, it was my job to check up on them and see how their development was progressing.

[Ratchet stares off into the distance, imagining a Peridot the size of Jasper. A cold chill runs down his spine.]

...the process of a normal gem? So is that how you get more gems? You just kinda...grow them?

Correct. That is what kindergartens are: special facilities meant for the mass production of thousands of gems at once.

Mass production? So you just.....grow an entire, what, GENERATION of gems all in one go?

Yes. Like I told you, we aren't an organic species. Our leaders-- the Diamonds-- in their infinite, infallible perfection, approve the production of as many gems of specific function as they are needed. But this takes time, and it takes resources, which is why Homeworld goes to such pains to acquire so many colony planets. It's why LOSING EARTH was such a blow, and it's why, when it was decided that developing a colony on Earth was no longer a viable option, Yellow Diamond decided put the planet to a different use, rather than cut our losses altogether.

Mind you, every bit of gem tech left on that planet was put there well before my time, but the records I memorized prior to departing for my mission are legitimate. Back to the point, THAT'S why I was on Earth. When the Steven and his friends wouldn't cease their MEDDLING with my equipment, my Diamond ordered me to investigate the experiments in person. I was given a ship, I was assigned a capable warrior who was familiar with the planet as my escort, and together along with our informant, we departed Homeworld.

Edited 2016-01-16 18:53 (UTC)

[Red flags at 'infinite, infallible perfection'. No one ever says stuff like that about their leader and it's not a bad sign. It takes him a long while to respond.]

do i even want to ask what this 'different use' was? and better yet, do i want to know why you were tryingto colonize a planet that was obviously already populated?/

Populated? Please. From what I understand, humanity was barely even what you could consider sapient when we discovered the planet. One could argue that humans and gems essentially started walking the Earth at the exact same time.

okay but when you went BACK

Like I said, the colony plans were shut down! I was just there to check on the fusion experiments and the Cluster. The Diamonds wouldn't send just two gems to take an entire planet, that would be moronic!

okay but you're still acting like this was a viable plan, like if they hadn't gotten in your way you could have carried forward with whatever the heck it was your homeworlld wanted to do with the earth!

I'm not ACTING like anything! All I'm telling you is the objective truth, like you asked! It WAS a viable plan, thousands of years ago, but the Earth Colony initiative has been long since abandoned. There's no point in attempting it again NOW.

[She's getting seriously angry now.]

You know this is exactly the problem with you organics? You're getting pointlessly hung up on events that have long since passed simply because your emotions tell you that you should, and you're disregarding the fact that there's absolutely no way that an organic like you or a single peridot like me could out-think the most logical, reasonable, objective decision-maker in the universe!

[Even though he can tell she's getting defensive, it doesn't keep Ratchet from getting any less angry back at her.]

So what? Emotions don't make someone wrong anymore than being logical automatically makes someone right!

I have a hard time believing your perfect leader was making OBJECTIVE decisions about someone else's planet. Or even taking into account what the people living there wanted

[And to think, this all started simply because Steven showed up. Peridot definitely didn't go into this conversation expecting to have her most fundamental believes questioned so aggressively, but here they both are...]

Well fortunately, she doesn't need your faith, because the total absence of that kind of blind, meaningless bluster is exactly what makes her objectively better than the rest of us.

I don't understand what else you want from me, Ratchet. You asked your questions and I answered them to the very best of my ability. If you're just going to use the information I've given you to try and argue with me about nebulous, emotion driven morals, then you're wasting both of our time because I ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT forsake the gem I was created to serve.

okay fine. youre right. you did answer my questions.

thanks.

[Ratchet immediately turns off his MID, not waiting for a response, glad he'd chosen to initiate that conversation in text form or else his response would have had no possibility of being taken as anything other what it was.

He'd worry about how he was going to deal with this later.]

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