The Park, Tuesday Afternoon

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot had a dog!

Well. She had a sort-of-almost dog. Pumpkin acted like a dog. She ran around and barked and rolled in the dirt like a dog. And since Peridot couldn't find any books about training pumpkins, she had a book about how to train a dog, instead.

Which meant that today was 'teaching Pumpkin how to sit' day in the park. Or, at least, that was the intent.

In actuality, it was more, 'trying to get Pumpkin to stop chasing the ducks' day in the park. And Peridot's efforts at that weren't going as well as one might hope.

"No! Come back! What if they eat pumpkins! Pumpkin!!"

It was a work in progress.

[OOC: Open park!]

Comments

[justice_undone]

Breq asked the obvious thing: "What if Pumpkin eats ducks?"

She had followed along to the park as part of their assignment in the Art of War class, and while she enjoyed Peridot's company, she didn't quite share the Gem's enthusiasm about the pumpkin dog. Breq didn't mind the pumpkin dog, she just found her a little boring.

Luckily for everyone, she had spent a lot of her two thousand year life doing very boring things, so she she could be very patient, and this was far from the worst.

[era_two_triangle]

"As far as I can tell, Pumpkin doesn't actually eat anything," Peridot replied, pausing in her chasing the dog to mostly just keep a close eye on her, instead. "Or perhaps she photosynthesizes? Either way, that part has proven to be pretty convenient."

[justice_undone]

"That makes sense, I suppose," Breq said. "And it is practical. Where did you find her?"

[era_two_triangle]

"In the pumpkin patch back in my garden on the other Earth," Peridot explained. "I went back to my own reality for a while, and took up farming with Lapis Lazuli. Corn, as it turns out, is boring."

Which really didn't explain why so many humans went nuts over the stuff.

[justice_undone]

"Why did you take up farming?" Breq asked. Peridot didn't eat after all, although of course she could have wanted to sell food.

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot sighed as she climbed up onto the bench, resigned in the fact that Pumpkin was going to just be Pumpkin, at least until she tired herself out some.

"Because it goes perfectly with the skill set I was made for," she replied. "Put things into the ground, and with time and care, living things come out of it again. I've actually kind of missed that."

She missed knowing what she was doing.

[justice_undone]

Breq sat down next to her. "Were you made to grow things? Not food, I mean."

She understood about missing what you were made to do.

[era_two_triangle]

"I was made to make things," Peridot replied. "Sometimes that meant repairs to ships or any other equipment that had taken damage, but primarily, I worked in the kindergartens."

She paused, and then clarified, "That's where new Gems were made. I was made to make more of us."

[justice_undone]

"Gems are grown in the earth?" Breq said. "I suppose it makes sense. Did you care for young Gems too?"

[era_two_triangle]

"There aren't really 'young Gems,' the same way there are young humans," Peridot said with a shake of her head. "When we come out of the ground, we're fully formed and fully grown, with all the knowledge we need in order to do what we were made for. I didn't care for them, so much as I got out of the way and let them do their jobs."

She paused, and then clarified, "the Gems I made were mostly fully-grown warriors. They didn't have time to spend tripping over a Peridot."

[justice_undone]

"Did you care about them? Or was it your work that was important?" Breq suspected the latter was most likely.

Asking question made it easier not to think about missing what she had been made to do.

[era_two_triangle]

"I took pride in the Gems who turned out well," Peridot replied, "but that isn't quite the same."

She frowned a little.

"My work was everything. It was my entire reason for being. I didn't even imagine that life could be about more than what I was made for until I came to Earth. I'm still getting used to it."

[justice_undone]

Breq looked down. "I understand that. Until recently I didn't question my purpose either."

[intotheout]

Tip was out in the park today too, with her practice sword, practicing forms and blocks and attacks.

Clearly, Kanan was a terrible influence on her.

It was pretty hard to stay focussed, though, when there was a pumpkin running around like a puppy, grinning at everything and trying to catch ducks.

"That -- that is the cutest thing I think I have ever seen."

[era_two_triangle]

Kanan would be so proud that she was trying, though!

"Pumpkin is pretty amazing, isn't she?" Peridot was absolutely cooing over the little gourd, yes. She was utterly in love and quite happy to boast about her... dog? Her new pet, anyway.

[intotheout]

"She is!" Tip agreed, crouching down to offer Pumpkin her hand to sniff. Did Pumpkin have a nose? "Where the hell did you get her?"

She was reasonably certain that the animal shelter didn't usually have anthropomorphic -- dogthropomorphic? -- pumkins for adoption.

[era_two_triangle]

Pumpkin was all too happy to come over for a sniff even without benefit of a nose, her little vine tail waggling happily behind her.

And then she was going to lick the offered hand with a tongue that was made out of pumpkin guts.

"She grew in the garden that Lapis Lazuli and I planted back at the barn," Peridot explained. "We were trying our hand at creating life more suitable to Earth, but... well. Corn was disappointing." She wrinkled her nose. "Pumpkin was Steven's doing. He has a certain way with plants."

Clearly.

[intotheout]

“Lapis —“ Right, clearly another gem. “You were trying to create life, huh? I’ve never been very good at that either.” Gardening or animating the inanimate.

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot nodded enthusiastically.

"It's what I used to do on Homeworld, before coming to Earth," she explained. "Making new Gems. So I figured, gardening? I should be a natural!"

She frowned a little.

"I managed to make a lot of things alive. But as it turns out, most plants are pretty boring."

[intotheout]

“They really are,” Tip agreed. “I guess some people find them peaceful but I never really got into anything smaller than, like, trees.”

Also, their pollen sometimes tried to kill her, so.

[era_two_triangle]

"I managed corn!" Peridot looked momentarily proud of herself. "Corn... is extra boring. I don't understand the human fascination with it at all."

Well, besides eating it, she supposed.

"But Pumpkin is better than corn. She's probably even better than trees."

[intotheout]

"She's definitely more exciting than trees," Tip agreed. "And with corn . . . I think it's mostly just a food thing. And, like, a symbol of the harvest or something."

She didn't get the corn fascination either, no.

[era_two_triangle]

"Someday, human symbolism will make sense to me," Peridot mused.

Someday.

[intotheout]

"I wouldn't worry too much," Tip said. "It doesn't make sense to a lot of humans, either."

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot gave a little smile at that.

"If there's one thing all humans have in common," she noted, "it might just be the fact that none of you make much sense."

The funny thing was, she meant that fondly.