Room 213, Thursday Evening

[era_two_triangle]

Tonight was one of the very rare occasions that Peridot could actually be found in her room. It wasn't that she didn't like having a space of her own (more or less, really, as she did have to share with Ahsoka), it was just that there wasn't much to discover in here when she could be out there, bossing around gremlins and attempting to steal ducks from the pond to disastrous effect.

For science.

But tonight she was a Gem with a mission.

A mission to introduce her toaster duck to her wood shop class duck to see if they got along.

So far, so... so... so-so. The robotic toaster duck and the carved wooden thing weren't exactly programmed with duck recognition in mind, so they kind of just sat there.

"Can one of you at least do something?"

"Quack," said her robotic toaster duck, in Peridot's own recorded voice.

It would have to do.

[OOC: Oooopen.]

Comments

[studyingfear]

There was nothing out of the ordinary about the day. His plans were proceeding apace, Dark Nation was healthy, and Tseng had no idea that Rufus was going to do what he was going to do.

(That he was going to get in shit for it later was understood and deemed an acceptable risk.)

He leaned against Peridot’s door and glanced in her room, cool as a cucumber.

“Do you have plans this weekend?”

Other people might preface that with a greeting but, really, between the two of them that didn’t seem necessary.

Even if he had been… minimizing his conversations with her for a while. The library fiasco hardly counted, given how impossible true talk had been.

(Maybe he had reason to be nervous that she’d say no. But he wasn’t. Honest.)

[era_two_triangle]

"Plans?"

Peridot looked up from her duck socialization experiment (it wasn't going so well) and tilted her head at Rufus curiously. She hadn't seen Rufus in a while, and even if she had, for him, a question like that was somewhat unprecedented.

"None. Why?"

[studyingfear]

He wasn’t even going to ask about the... ducks...

Rufus had expected this question, so it neither fed nor reassured his (non-existent) nervousness.

“Come insult my world’s space program,” he said casually. “It would be entertaining.”

Unsolicited trips out to Rocket Town? Tseng was going to kill him. But Rufus wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t going to bring Peridot to the ShinRa Headquarters.

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot squinted a little, deciding to leave her ducks to their own devices and turning her attention squarely toward Rufus.

"Your world even has a space program?"

That was kind of cute.

[studyingfear]

“They haven’t managed to leave The Planet’s orbit yet,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “But we do have one.”

It had been intriguing before coming here.

Fandom had ruined him for that.

[era_two_triangle]

That was... kind of cute. Peridot actually leaned forward and snickered a little at that.

"You what? How do you even exist?"

Had to crawl before you could run, Peridot.

Unless you were a Gem, granted.

[studyingfear]

Hey, now. They were quite advanced otherwise!

“We don’t need to conquer other planets to subsidize our existence,” he pointed out dryly. “We manage well enough with our home.”

[era_two_triangle]

For the time being, eh, Rufus?

Peridot snorted a little at that.

"Well, if members of your species lived longer than a century or two, you'd probably have to expand to other worlds, too."

... There was no 'or two,' 'Dot.

[studyingfear]

Shhh, don’t tell!

“Just one century,” he corrected mildly. “If we’re lucky. But I concede your point.”

A beat.

“Interested?”

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot squinted in thought for a moment more, and then hopped down from her bed, duck entirely forgotten, now.

"Very," she agreed. "Watching the evolution of a primitive species' space travel technologies in person could prove to be an educational experience."

Or hilarious. One of those.

[studyingfear]

Both. It could be both.

“I thought you’d like it,” Rufus said, pleased with himself.

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot gave a satisfied nod. And then tilted her head to regard Rufus curiously.

"Why are you offering, anyway?"

Not that she was complaining, but it did seem to come up out of relatively nowhere.

[studyingfear]

That was… a surprisingly complicated thing to answer. He hesitated.

Rufus’ motives were tangled up and there were several different benefits he could see to inviting Peridot to this. But if that was all it was, he might have considered seeing if some of his teachers would be interested in advising their space program’s efforts.

(Not Philomena. Though that was hilarious to consider.)

He wouldn’t call Peridot a friend. (He didn’t have friends.) But…

“I wanted to,” he said finally.

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot considered that for a few seconds, and then nodded, seemingly mollified by that simple reply.

"And did you want me to do whatever's possible to assist your space program, or simply observe?"

[studyingfear]

"If it pleases you to assist, then go for it,” Rufus said, feeling a little lighter. “My father is not particularly enthused about the space program and is looking for reasons to cut their funding.”

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot wrinkled her nose at that.

"Well, that's stupid," she decided. "Why limit yourself to just one planet when you could have the capacity to explore all of space? He simply sounds impatient."

She supposed that was one of the other dangers to belonging to a species that only lived... one... century.

She wasn't going to think about how short that really was.

[studyingfear]

"Most likely because our progression into the study of it does not see significant useful progress occurring in his lifetime."

Rufus didn't mind talking about his own mortality, let alone talking about other peoples'.

"And he's busy with a war in any case."

[era_two_triangle]

"Bet he could win the war more easily from space," Peridot muttered, wrinkling her nose. "I was under the impression that the short-lived nature of your species meant that one generation did all they could to ensure the survival of their offspring and subsequent spawn to follow."

Yeah, sure, but the species was also inclined to be selfish and shortsighted, so...

[studyingfear]

"Once he wins his war," and he would win; Wutai didn't have the resources to win against ShinRa, "he will be the dominant power in the entire world. Seen through a certain lens you could say that he was following the imperative of ensuring his line continued."

Survival of the fittest and all. Rufus didn't believe that himself, but it was a valid interpretation of his father's actions.

[era_two_triangle]

"What kind of lens would that be?"

Sorry, Rufus. But even Peridot could tell that was the sort of preface that didn't signal much hope in the rest of the sentence to follow.