Stark Industries, Friday

[era_two_triangle]

Another day, another... strange human ritual that seemed to be bringing more people to the island. These ones were supposedly 'parents,' if what she'd heard about this weekend was to be trusted, and it was one of those things that apparently had something to do with the human notion of family.

And so, it didn't concern Peridot in the least. She decided to ignore the day and whatever having visiting parents entailed, and set about working on another attempt to build a functional Homeworld communicator out of Earth components. She was on the right track, she was sure, but she was starting to suspect that half the reason it hadn't worked properly was because she needed some manner of signal tower. Perhaps she could borrow the one from the radio station while the squirrels were--

She stopped and looked up quickly at the window. She could have sworn that she'd seen somebody tall with decidedly square-shaped hair walking by just then. But it had to be her imagination. Had to be.

She was going to just tell herself that and get back to work. And maybe she'd be able to continue doing so the next three times it happened, too. Including that one time when the tall somebody with the square hair stopped and leaned forward, looking calmly through the window for a few minutes before moving on.

Yeah.

Yep.

[OOC: Open! With work SP up the wazzoooo.]

Comments

[kingofwakanda.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it helped that T'Challa did not have square shaped hair? He just had a cat shaped head right now. Because it was perfectly normal to have the Black Panther garb on.

Perfectly. Normal.

"Hello," he said, appearing like he was better than the goddamn Batman. Because Stark had a green person working for him. Of course he did.

[era_two_triangle]

It was by some miracle that Peridot hadn't taken to crouching behind the counter, glowering at the window like an ominous triangle by now. The newcomer not being square was reassuring enough that she managed to keep that up.

"Hello," she replied, squinting at him. "Can I help you?"

[kingofwakanda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the suspicion was adorable and amusing. None of which was visible with the mask on. Sorry not sorry.

"I am a guest of Mr. Stark's. Is he in?"

Why tell someone you're visiting when you can just use a diplomatic trip to sneak over like a boss?

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot was nothing if not adorable and amusing! That was probably why people kept her around.

"If he is, he's probably in his lab," she noted, giving a shrug of her shoulders. "Which is... most of the time, generally." She glanced up a little. "JARVIS? Is the Mr. Stark in?"

Somebody would break her of that extra 'the' someday. Eventually.

[kingofwakanda.livejournal.com]

And miss out in ribbing Tony about being The Mr. Stark? Never.

"Mr. Stark is at the social gathering for guests this weekend. A pleasure to see you agan, your majesty."

"Thank you, JARVIS," T'Challa replied before looking back down at Peridot. "And who might you be?"

[era_two_triangle]

"I am Peridot, Facet-2F5L, Cut-5XG," came the little green alien's reply, looking at... his magesty... speculatively. "I work here."

In case that wasn't somehow clear.

Peridot sometimes stated the obvious just because she had no idea what else to say.

[kingofwakanda.livejournal.com]

"I should hope so," he replied dryly. "Otherwise you would be tresspassing."

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot squinted.

Peridot squinted a lot. She was good at that, really. And she was a firm believer of doing what she excelled at. So, squinting it was.

"... Humor?"

She needed to check.

[kingofwakanda.livejournal.com]

"Humor," he agreed. "Where are you from?"

[era_two_triangle]

"The Gem Homeworld," Peridot replied, and then leaned forward a little, conspiratorially. "It isn't in this galaxy."

She was a very well-traveled rock.

[kingofwakanda.livejournal.com]

She was. And it explained so much about why Stark employed her.

"What galaxy might it be in?" T'Challa asked, leaning in to mirror her.

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot made a little scoffing sound.

"Homeworld's Galaxy." Obviously, T'Challa. Obviously. She held out her hand and let her fingers float free, forming her screen. A star-map appeared on it, showing the night sky from their current position on Earth. "I don't know the name you humans have given it, but it's that one, there."

Another free-floating finger wandered over to gesture to the Gem galaxy in particular.

[kingofwakanda.livejournal.com]

"It may be because we have no yet found it," T'Challa said, frowning as he looked at the map. "Or, more likely, it does not exist where Tony and I are from."

[squealerandco.livejournal.com]

Tip and J.Lo were wandering through town while Lucy got them checked into the hotel for the weekend. They were both talking a mile a minute, catching up on everything from the last four months, even though they talked most nights on the phone anyway. When Tip noticed Stark's, she grinned.

"Hey J.Lo." She gestured to the shop with her head. "Wanna come meet someone even less familiar with Earth stuff than you are?"

"I am have become very familiar with Earth things," J.Lo protested. "I haveto been living here for years now!"

"Yeah, but Peridot showed up not knowing what eating was for."

J.Lo thought about this. "Yes. I would muchly like to meets this non-eating being."

Tip grinned and led him inside. "Hey, Peridot! This is my friend J.Lo. He's from space, too!"

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot blinked up from where she had been parked behind the counter, trying to remain not too conspicuously out of the sight of the occasional appearance of a certain big maroon square.

"The Gratuity! And--" She blinked at J.Lo. Tilted her head a little. Leaned forward for a better look. It was entirely possible that he was shorter than she was, when she wasn't wearing her limb enhancers. She couldn't be certain. But she'd take it anyway. "The J.Lo." She gave a little, approving nod. "Hello."

[squealerandco.livejournal.com]

Tip could bend over at the waist and rest her arms on J.Lo's head when she was twelve. Dude was short.

J.Lo was turning a very pleased shade at hearing Tip's new alien friend call her "the Gratuity". He could not be usurped as her bestest of best friends if the new alien friend didn't even know she was called Tip.

"Hello," he said, full of smug. "What sort of alien are you to being?"

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot was vaguely aware of that smug, J.Lo. She was aware of it, and didn't trust it one bit.

"I'm a Gem," she explained, raising an eyebrow as though it really ought to be obvious. Which would probably have carried more weight if she'd known was a Boov was before she met Gratuity. "A Peridot, in particular. You aren't familiar with Gems?"

Look, in her universe, they were kind of a big deal.

[squealerandco.livejournal.com]

J.Lo made a show of thinking this over, then shook his head. "I am to knowing of Boov and humans and Gorg and Habadoo and manies other peoples. Boov had explored the galaxies muchly and have not met any gems."

[era_two_triangle]

"Well," Peridot countered, frowning, "Gems haven't heard of Boov or Gorg or Habadoo, but we do have some history with humans. We have warps set up Homeworld to hundreds of galaxies across the universe... I find it unlikely that we would have just missed each other."

Especially if they both had an interest in Earth.

[squealerandco.livejournal.com]

J.Lo smiled. "This is easy to be explained," he said. "Tip hasto said there are humans here who do not know Boov. Boov conquered Earth, so this is impossibles! But not if there are multiple Earths. Boov are to be conquering one Earth, Gems are to be warping? Liketo teleportation? To a different Earth. No crossings over until high school." He clapped his hands together. "Boom. Liketo when I time-traveled. Many J.Los from many futures on one tower normally is impossibles. But with enough power? Anything becomes possibles."

[era_two_triangle]

With enough power, anything becomes possible. Peridot nodded her head a little at that, following along easily enough.

"Warping is... something like teleportation. Not completely instantaneous, but it does cut down on travel time exponentially." And even then, it only took a Gem warship a few weeks to travel from Homeworld to Earth. So. "The multiple Earths theory holds some truth to it, at least. All records of Earth that I've found in the local information repository-" Library, Peridot. "-appear to be missing any results of Gem interaction with the planet."

And they all had Russia.

[squealerandco.livejournal.com]

"See?" Tip was beaming. "I knew you guys would get along." She assumed that was what was happening. They weren't yelling at each other at least. "Peridot, you should show J.Lo your screen. It's pretty sweet."

J.Lo scuttled up to the counter and hoisted himself up, all six legs wobbling around in the air, trying to get a better look at any screens Peridot had about. His 'shoes' had gotten too squished to keep wearing, so at least he wasn't splashing orange juice all over the place. "Yes, do tobe showing the Gem tools! They sound much more advanced than humanthings."

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot looked between the Gratuity and the J.Lo, and then nodded her head a little, finding herself actually smiling a little.

Her limb enhancers were her everything. Tip had picked an excellent topic for show and tell, here.

"Well, so far as Gem technology goes, my screen is fairly commonplace," she said, not so much modest as honest as her touch stumps floated apart and her screen flickered into place. "It sustained some damage when I landed here, but I've managed to repair it as well as can be expected with Earth materials over the past few months. I still can't connect directly to Homeworld's databases, but any information that I've accessed independently is still available to me, and I've scanned a large portion of the local library's non-fiction materials, as well."

Because, really, what good was fiction to her?

Except for that book about the bees, of course. That one just seemed practical.

[squealerandco.livejournal.com]

J.Lo would agree that bees were very useful! Of course, he always thought of the little robots that the Boov used tactically that the humans dubbed 'bees' rather than the insects.

Insects he wasn't clear yet on the usefulness of.

"That is to being sweet," J.Lo said, reaching out a froggy finger and not quite touching the screen. "But what if you want to touch things with yourfingers while you is to using them for the screen?"

[era_two_triangle]

"Then I..." Peridot blinked. "... I have two hands, I suppose."

She held up hand number two and gave those fingers a little wave.

"These touch stumps are still fully functional."