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the cats name is Snickerdoodle
#ooc#the cat does show how dated the game looks though#also the facial animations of the player are wildly variable like sometimes the texture and animation looks connected and right#other times its floaty and detached like its projected over the face#its weird
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Era 3, Take 2
For @amedotweek day 2: Limb Enhancers
They’re yours.
You clod.
The note was written in Gem, and signed with a drawn version of the Diamond insignia that was marked with a vertical line beside the leftmost portion. Peridot sighed a little and smiled--despite the curtness of the message, it was a nice relief to read something in her native script. She was getting better at reading and writing Earth languages, and they were fine and dandy, but there was a specific, familiar, beautiful efficiency that could only come through in Gem writing.
“Are you gonna open the thing or what?”
“Just a moment.” Peridot held up a finger to Amethyst, stared at the note for a little bit longer, then let out a peaceful exhale and handed it to her. “Here. Bask in its glory.”
“Heh--aww, she remembers when you called her a clod…”
“My crowning moment,” Peridot said casually. Her attention was now on the large box the note had been attached to--Yellow Diamond seemed to have picked up on the concept of a ‘present’ even faster than Peridot had. It was made to look like it’d been carefully wrapped and everything. Peridot stood beside the box and lifted up the lid.
And loudly gasped. A gasp bordering on a scream.
Amethyst tumbled off the couch.
Quickly, though, she scrambled to her feet and leaped to see inside the box. “What? What is it?”
“New limb enhancers!” Peridot cried. She held up a big yellow-and-green metal tube and raised it high above her head, eyes watering.
Amethyst raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were over those things.”
“Well, sure, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate them.” She slid the arm attachment over her hand and clicked it into place at her elbow. Stars, it fit perfectly--almost better than her old ones. A giggle bubbled up her throat as the fingers floated around her face.
While Peridot put on the rest of the enhancers, Amethyst leaned over and peered into the bottom of the box. There was another note, this one written in more flowy handwriting, signed with a mark to the right of the Diamond symbol and a smiling little self-portrait in the corner--Blue Diamond’s pearl had been the scribe here.
Your poor little amethyst left her attachments on the ground at the ball! We had them collected and decided she deserved them back. She looks so much better with them on, don’t you think? Almost like a real proper quartz!
“Yikes.” Amethyst picked the note up. Sure enough, there was a set of purple limb enhancers underneath it.
She glanced back up at Peridot, who was happily tromping and twirling around at twice her previous height.
“Ooh, I can’t wait til the others get back from their mission! Pearl’s gonna be so jealous!” She gasped again. “I could probably pick up Bismuth and throw her around now!”
Amethyst snorted. Peridot was just too darn cute for there to be any room for annoyance in her core. “Feels weird to be looking up at you again, though.”
“Well, why don’t you put on the other set?” Peridot said, flopping back down on the couch beside Amethyst. “I completely missed out on the very first Era 3 Ball. You’ve gotta make it up to me.”
“Sure, but we gotta dance like regular people,” Amethyst stipulated. “None of that weird Homeworld side-stepping.”
“Deal!” Peridot grinned excitedly, eyes sparkling. Amethyst plucked a leg thingy--at least, she was pretty sure this was a leg thingy--from the box and put it on. Then the other leg thingy, then the arm thingies. Somehow the metal attaching to her light form seemed to connect right to her gem, so all she had to do was point-and-think to control the weird floaty fingers.
“Oh, my stars, you look perfect!” Peridot squealed. She stood and pulled Amethyst up with her, and her face was so delighted and so pure that all Amethyst could do was smile back and let her drag her to the Temple door.
Somewhere in the caverns of Amethyst’s room, there was a round little space where the glassy blue crystals glowed like fireflies all around and above--a perfect miniature ballroom. Peridot held Amethyst’s hand--her fake hand, her weird metal cylinder of hand that couldn’t really feel anything besides pressure--as they reached the area.
“So how how exactly does one ‘dance like regular people’?” Peridot asked, her fingers floating to Amethyst’s waist. “Is it a human thing? Or--”
“Sorta. I mostly learned it from Garnet and Pearl.” Amethyst wobbled a little, and put her big metal wrists on Peridot’s shoulders for support. Sure, she could’ve used the fingers, but the fact that they weren’t really attached gave her doubts about how well they’d hold her up. “Okay, we just stand like this, and then it’s like--I move my foot forward and you move yours back--”
She stepped, and Peridot mirrored her. Peridot landed flawlessly, but Amethyst wobbled again.
“Eheh--yeah, like that. And then this foot sideways, and then both feet together.”
“Shouldn’t we have music?”
“You can sing something if you want.” Amethyst stepped back, side, together, leaning a little more heavily on Peridot’s hands at her back. This was dumb--she was supposed to be leading, she was the one teaching the dance, but Peridot was doing a lot better than she was. Sure, yeah, Peridot was more used to walking on flippin’ stilts all the time, but--
Amethyst shook her head a little and forced herself to steady, pushing negative thoughts from her brain. She was dancing with Peridot and Peridot was holding her close and smiling and happy and humming a cute little tune. It was the situation of her dreams. There was no reason for Amethyst to be bitter at all.
“Who needs a ball,” Peridot softly sang, “when we’re here standing tall...you and I?”
Quiet, sparkly waltz music started to swell from Peridot’s gem, and Amethyst’s tension softened a little more. Maybe if she leaned enough on Peridot, focused enough on her, she could forget she was even wearing stupid limb enhancers
“Oh, how I wish...we could stay like this...all the time--”
“What, you wanna keep these things on forever?” Amethyst smirked.
“Well, sure,” Peridot replied, returning to speaking. “Why not?”
“I just--whoa--” Amethyst fell against Peridot’s chest and cringed. “I’m falling down all the time, for one--”
“It just takes time to adjust.” Peridot’s music changed a little, getting faster and higher, and she started spinning them both in place. “And once you do, we’d be unstoppable! Two perfect Gems rising above the crowd, taking Homeworld by storm! The new-and-improved, tall and lovable Peridot, and right by my side the even more new-and-improved tall and lovable--”
“AGH!”
Amethyst stumbled backwards and fell onto her rump. She tore off her arm attachments and flung them away in opposite directions.
Peridot’s face went blue. “Amethyst, what are you doing?!”
“I’m sick of these things!” Amethyst shoved at the leg attachments, struggling to pop them off. “Blue Diamond doesn’t know anything about me!”
“You just need a little more practice getting used to them! I can help you!”
“I don’t wanna get used to ‘em!”
Amethyst’s metallic boot abruptly detached, and the extra momentum sent it flying forward. It hit Peridot right in the chest, right on her star, right with enough force to knock her down.
She flailed, then landed flat on her back. Her music went silent.
Wincing, Peridot pushed herself onto her elbows, sharp aches blooming across her torso. But when she looked up and saw Amethyst’s face, all her own pain evaporated.
“I like myself the way I am,” Amethyst said, voice cracking. “And I worked really hard to get that way. And I always liked you the way you were!” She sniffed and wiped away a welling tear with the heel of her hand. “I just--I just thought you liked me that way, too.”
“Amethyst…”
Peridot slowly sat up, her hands falling between her outstretched legs. Amethyst let out another “agh,” an exasperated scoff at herself for crying. She rubbed the back of her forearm across both eyes and curled her beautiful perfect short legs up to her beautiful perfect round chest.
No way was Peridot going to let her feel bad about herself ever again.
She stood up, pursed her lips and set her brow, effortlessly dropped her arm attachments and jumped down from her leg enhancements. Her brand-new little yellow boots felt more just-right than ever, landing on the ground right now, like she’d subconsciously made them exactly for this moment. She’d made this whole new form solely to use it to run across the room and slide to her knees and throw her arms around Amethyst’s shoulders and bury her face in her hair.
“I don’t like you that way,” she said. “I love you that way.”
Amethyst’s breath caught in her throat. The catch became a cough, and the cough became a laugh.
“Dude! Cheese alert!”
“I’m sorry,” Peridot said, squeezing Amethyst tighter. “You’re right. I guess I’m not as ‘over those things’ as I thought, and...I was just projecting on you.”
“Well, I love you whatever way you wanna be.” Amethyst pulled away to look at Peridot’s face, still keeping her arms around her. “Fun-size P’s the one that stole my heart, but if King-size P's stickin’ around, she can keep it.”
Peridot shook her head. “Fun-size P is yours forever. King-size P might come and go, but just for the sake of messing with Pearl.” She gently brushed Amethyst’s bangs away from her eye. “There’s one thing Blue Diamond got right, though. I like thinking of you as my little Amethyst.”
“Tch,” Amethyst grinned, cupping Peridot’s cheek in one hand. Her fingers wove into her stiff hair, and her thumb snuck just under the edge of her visor. “My little Peridot.”
There wasn’t any possible response to that besides a kiss.
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